The Choice To Live

Though modern medicine has helped humanity a big deal, I couldn't help having my own reservations regarding some of the things that modern medicine has acheived. I always wondered why someone who was very close to dying gets to suffer his remaining days of his life instead of dying. I always thought that it was kind of selfish of people to try to keep someone alive just because they're afraid that he might die, but then again, those who care for the sick are those who suffer the most.

Two films, one that I've watched a few days ago and the other is one of my favourites, are related to that theme.

Mar Adentro, which is one of my favourites, relates the life story of Ramon Samperdro, who was paralysed after an accident in the sea and fought for thirty years for his right to euthanasia.

The diving Bell and the Butterfly, tells the story of Baubi, the succesful editor of elle magazine who suddenly suffers from a stroke that results in paralysing his whole body. The only movement that he's capable of is blinking with his eye, which later becomes his sole mean of communicating with others. They read the alphabet aloud for him and he blinks at the letters. to form words and senteces.

As there is an evident difference, since Baubi decided to write a book and resumed to live while Ramon was fighting for the right to die, the similarities were striking. As the overall message sounds different from the outside, since one gives out hope while the other one seemingly advocates defeat one realises that Ramon and Baubi weren't that different.

Ramon still kept his sense of humor and made fun of his case, while Baubi described a nurse lacking sense of humor when she got offended by a joke made by two workers on Baubi's case.
They both clung to their imagination to make them keep their sanity, they created different worlds inside their heads and both of them wrote. Yet both at some point desperatly wanted to die. Ramon fought for that right, and as someone might see that as giving up on life, I think that the ending was quite hopeful. He strived for euthanasia and he did get what he strived for. Legally he still didn't attain the right but his friends made it possible for him because they loved him.

I know that one could say, without modern medicine Baubi wouldn't have been able to write that book of his, one could say they experienced a different side of life, but I won't hold it against someone who can't move the wish for death and in cases like these I would still stand for euthanasia. Maybe if we could make a contract with them, you create a beautiful piece of art and we would let you die then... maybe that could work.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112983926

A Farmer's Market Fit For A First Lady
Scott Horsley reported on Michelle Obama's visit to the farm's markets in a 3:33 long feature. It was interesting, fun and different. It was written in a catchy language and incorporated different soundbytes by different people who were interviewed. I'm not sure how newsworthy it is, but either way it's a light story that gives out a different image of Michelle Obama.
The presenter's voice was not always understandable but it was not monotonous and boring. The nat sounds were well incorporated, one could feel the bustle of the market. The story as a whole was well done and did keep my attention for the whole time. Its length was proper to the nature of the story, if it were to be longer it would've been boring since there is not much that one could add to a story like this.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112961966

Medical Marijuana Arrests; Calif. Isn't Mellow Yet

Tom Fudge's 5:22 min report on the misuse of medical marijuana was an interesting story that is also controversial and debatable. It incoroporated different soundbytes and information that backed up the story. The presenter's voice was clear, but failed to get my attention towards the end.
The nat sound used was the sound of waves to give the feeling of the location but it didn't wasn't the most interesting nat sound to use and not the most discriptive either. The length of the story was fine regarding the issue it was discussing. However, it was more interesting at the beginning than towards the end. It seemed to be repeat some information and drag on.

Audio Essay: the moment

I sit in my air-conditioned car that smells of vanilla car freshener, not aware of the odor of the garbage that’s been piling up in Mohandessin over the past weeks. Of course, there is traffic and Cairo streets are crazy to drive in, so it’s not as comfortable as it seems but at least I’m in a car, which somehow gives me the feeling that I’m sheltered. Then I wait at an intersection and a dusty faced child wearing rags knocks on my window with desperation in his eyes. I get the urge the smile to him but through experience I know that this would only make him hang about my window for a longer time, so I look away and totally ignore him. He knocks again and this time asks for money “just one pound,” he pleads. For me one pound is nothing, I mean, I always gladly dispose of the extra coins in my wallet but I still ignore him and look the other way. But turning away doesn’t make his presence less palpable. I still feel it, like the presence of an invisible ghost in the room. I think to myself, why shouldn’t I give him a pound? I won’t lose anything. But then I’m reminded that they are probably working under a bully who takes all the money from them. But maybe by not giving them money they would be abused even more by the man they’re working under, but something inside me still holds back and I look ahead trying to ignore the pleading eyes. But then when I drive away I always feel guilty and it takes some time to shake off that feeling. Sometimes when I walk down the street I give them chocolates which somehow makes me feel a little bit better, but the guilt still haunts me every time I look away and ignore them. I know there is no perfect way to handle a situation like this, it is not something you could get a manual for. Sometimes I just remind myself that too much comfort can make someone numb and maybe just maybe they experience life more thoroughly, more deeply than I. Through encountering more hardships they could be feeling things I could never imagine of feeling.

A woman's dress or the lack of it

It seems now that women's dress is taking up too much attention, maybe even more than it deserves. The debate on whether a woman should dress conservativly or not has become an issue on its own, rooting itself within religious debates. As much as the stigma around the mohajabat in the so called liberal circles is arrising, another rising extreme, condemns women who do not cover themselves in a tent. The case of the Sudanese Journalist
Lobna al-Hussein is one example of the extent of extremism regarding the control of what women should wear or not. When did it cease being a woman's personal choice and had become another form of authorities' control? Why is a woman's dress stirring all these debates and social division? Why is it that when a girl decides to wear the veil her conservative friends start cheering and when she takes it off the other side of her friend's circle start congratulating her?

In an article in the shorook newspaper Niveen Mosaad raises a very intersting point. Which is why Marwa el Sherbeeny has been called the martyr of hijab while Lobna al-Hussein has been condemned by religious people. The similarity between the two cases is striking. Both women have received been harshly treated, in once case leading to death, because of the way they were dressed. It is strange how over the years the issues regarding the veil and its ban and the veil and its neccesity are growing more and more.

The women have become deprived of their choices. Is it the man's way to dominate in these patriarchial societies because he knows no other way? Or does it go back to what the dress entails i.e. what religious beliefs and cultural beliefs that the woman has and how these difference in belief have caused this social division.

Of course the there are many dimennsions to the problem that at times it ceases to be about the woman wear and more about the connotations that it entails, which touch upon social and political issues.
But it never stops to baffle me how something as simple as what a woman chooses to wear can cause all these tensions.
We live in a mad world indeed.