DB # 15: City of Maquilias

Women a work place. The video in Mexico and Haiti have the same message, in fact it is the the same work condition where Capitalism operates around the world. why factories are not willing to improve work place condition and pay dissent wage for their employees ? The answer is Maximize profit. under capitalism, maximizing profit is the main plat form of operation. in developed countries, labour union and human right organization forced factories to accept conditions such as pay workers living wage, safety at work place, limited numbers of working hour etc... In developing countries, because of their poverty and a their large number of unemployment, they are the target of exploitation by factory owners. Specially women suffer from this in human working condition. women working in in chemical infested work environment while they are pregnant have effect on their pregnancy as well as the fetus. women also suffer the most because of their role in the house hold. Cooking meal, cleaning the house and take care of the children are some of the examples. What is the solution? Workers must organize globally the fight back for their right. advocacy group in developed countries champaign to educate people and lobbying congress to regulate companies who practice child labour, women unsafe working conditions.    

DB # 14 What can Women do to reduce the risk of assult.

The primary strategy to reduce assault is to avoide the risk factor of the assault. Domestic violence, rape and sexual assault is prevalent in low income families and it is also depend on the culture of the society. As individual women can reduce the risk of assault by effective communication with their partners. Date rape and other unwanted sexual advance can be reduced by asserting her desire to her partner. ambiguous communication and not what she want is the invitation of inappropriate behavior and action. In general women can reduce the risk of assault by educating women and men as a whole what is wrong and what is wright  about women's right. some cultures are ignorant about human right as well as women's right. Specially men dominating culture, men advance their desire with out respect of women's right. In today's world women involved in  higher position can mobilize women movement to stand up for their right. Reporting incidents to law enforcement can reduce subsequent assault. Women as individual or as a whole can reduce the risk of assault by participating in community base women empowerment and raising their voice about domestic violence.
seyoum abebe.  

blog # 13 is it better to put drug addicts in jail or to send them to mandatory drug treatment programs

Drug addiction, in any shape or form is a mental disease. There are a variety of reasons why people start using drugs and finally addicted to it. once a person become drug addict, His/Hrs  personality become weaken and their health start deteriorated. These individuals may involve in criminal activity to support their addiction. stealing and possession of drug may be a primary offence to drug addicts. The coast for the court system, law enforcement, jail time and emergency health care and shelter for those that go back to drug use once out of jail. ( Jared, 2009). correcting the underling problem of drug addicts is cost effective rather than send them in jail for extended period of time. Drug addicts are not career criminals like drug dealers, rather, they are the victim of social crisis. Kids from dysfunctional families tend to use drugs to cope with their loss of intact family values. minorities and women are the victim of discrimination, thus they tend to use drug to cope with discrimination. These are few example of social crisis that need to be addressed and find solution.

reference
http://www.treatmentsolutionsnetwork.com/blog/index.php/2009/03/31/301/
 

Blog # 12 Mental Health

Mrs Maria's life is one of a classic example of mental illness which impacts  someone life. Maria is my distance cousin who was diagnosed with schizophrenia.The illness completely change maria's life and makes her dependable on her sister and on other family member. Maria was 28 years old when the disease struck her. There was a lot of theories about her illness. some family members blame her husband and others blamed her for hers soft personality which  she could not cope with the stressful life in this country. despite, all these theories, there is one fact remain that have not been discussed: that is, the history of mental illness in the family. One of maria's brother suffered with mental illness back home in Ethiopia. After separated from her husband, maria stayed with me in Boston until she moved to Indiana to her sister care. While  maria stayed with me and my wife, i saw maria changed her behaviour and personality. She constantly complaining of hearing voice that terrifies her and threaten her to kill her self. Me and my wife arrange our work schedule to stay with her 24/7 to monitor her situation. this is one example, that mentally ill family member are  a burden to their families. Maria was on medication. the side effect of the medication makes her mouth dry and she does not have appetite and refused to eat. When the medication start working her personality become better and she engaged in normal conversion. Maria left to Indiana to her sister care. i spoke with maria and her sister frequently.Maria frustrated from her illness and she refused to take her medication. her situation be come worst and she was admitted to mental institution. Maria,s situation become better and she discharged from mental institution. Despite treatment and family support, Maria's illness become worse and she was not able to control her self. Finally she was sent to Ethiopia to her mother care. I visited maria in 1995 when i went to Ethiopia for vacation. she recognized me and she said she want to go back to america.         

Blog # 11 Chronic Disease

Mr John has been living with Diabetic type 2 for fifteen years. when i spoke with john, about his chronic disease some times he gets emotional. My first question was, if any of his immediate family member has been diagnosed with diabetic. After a brief silence, he said, his father had died with diabetic complication at the age of 65.He said, his father was smoking and drinking while he sick and did not control his chronic disease. John said, he was terrified when he first diagnosed with diabetic.An like his father john determined to live longer for himself and his families. Taking medication every day is the daunting task to be diabetic john said. not to mention watch my diet, being active and doing regular exercise is a burden to my every day life. John seems very anxious about his weight. according to body mass index, john weight is considered obese. despite his effort to control his diabetes, john lives in constant fear about his disease. John believe that he inherit his diabetic from his family: and he is wondering which of his three sons get the disease. John is 56 years old cab driver. The nature of his work, which is sitting in his cab for long hours makes his diabetic worse. John said, Evey opportunity he gets out of the cab and stretched him self. John graduated from high school and did not went to college. John said he want different job, however, with no higher education and family responsibility he stuck to be a cab driver. Finally, john said he is lucky to live in this technology driven age. medical technology and support group in the community prolong my life which my father did not have.      

Heart Disease In my Family Blog # 10

Heart disease is a number one killer in the world. it affects me and my family in great deal. Both of my parents died from heart disease. my father died at the age of 63 with hyper tension and my mother died from stroke at the age of 57. I have five brothers and two sisters. Two of my brother and my self diagnosed with hyper tension and coronary artery disease ( my self) one of my sister diagnosed with congenital heart disease. Who knows what is next?. If six individuals affected in one family, the prevalence of the disease is higher for heart disease. The physical aspect of this of the disease is, of course losing your family members. the consequence of  loosing a father or a mother have a great impact in socio economic of the family and others who are associated with the family. Heart disease is caused, either by building  of cholesterol in arteries or by high blood pressure. The Culture aspect of heart disease in my family is food. we eat food rich in saturated fat and red meat. eating food in saturated fat is a precursors for building cholesterol in the arteries.Education is key to reduce the incidence of heart disease. Educating the public, about regular exercise, healthy diet and other preventive strategies have a great deal of impact in our life.

Eating Disorder blog eight

Eating disorder is clinically and socially significant. In fact eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa is a life threatening event, which individuals starving them selves to death. Action taken by individuals to be bulimics or anorexic exert tremendous pressure to parents and loved ones. Media and western culture, who embrace slim body shape to be fit in society put pressure on young age girls. Different cultures have different perspective about body weight and shape. those culture who have little emphasis on body weight and shape, people do not have eating disorder problem. This seems true in African American culture.
Some study shows different perspective about dissatisfaction of body weight. In the past, people believe that, only young white women were affected by eating disorder. ( 2005 national eating disorder association). Survey conducted by ( kilpatric, Ohannessian, & Bartholomew, 1999) indicate that from 6504 adolescence, Asian, Blacks, Hispanics,and Caucasian youth they attempted to lose weight at similar rate. Why cultures emphasized less about body weight involve with weight dissatisfaction and eating disorder? "It has been hypothesized that as women of colour experience acculturation or assimilation of dominant ideas, they become more susceptible to eating disorder.(2005 NEDA).
eating disorder is a complex issue. Society as whole need to find solution to reduce eating disorder.

refernce
http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/
Seyoum Abebe

Menopause is viewed from different cultural perspective Blog # 8

Menopause is a part of life in women's life span. Women around the world have different perspective and value about menopause. Even through all women went through similar menopausal symptoms, the way they receive it make a difference. in western culture menopause consider a medical condition  and and treated with hormone replacement therapy. In Japanese culture " their way of dealing with the perimenopausal  transition does not involve replacing estrogen or recreating menstrual periods" (Dixie Mills). according to DR. Dixie. Menopause in Japanese culture consider as regeneration or renewal while in united state it is considered as something dreadful that's is going to happen to us.other cultures such as in mayan women and the Cree women in Canada,women be come spiritual leader when they become menopause. This is because they retain their menstrual blood which is considered as " wise women blood". It is obvious that when women become older in western culture they become less important in the society. How ever in Sudan culture when women become older they become powerful and respectful. One interesting aspect of sexuality in menopause women is, in western culture loss of libido is considered as a problem of menopause and doctors write prescription while Bengali women considered her loss of libido as natural and no medical intervention is needed.

Refernce

http://www.womemtowomem.com/menopause/menopauseacrosscultures.aspx

Seyoum abebe
 

Video Sunitha Krishnan Blog#7

After watching a 12 minutes video presentation by sunitha krishnan about commercial sex trafficking and sexually transmitted disease, I ask a question? why this happened. Who are these people committed this horrific crime and still live in the society. The speaker' argument has two components. first to stop sex trafficking and rehabilitation of the survivors. in my opinion this kind of problem is more prevalent in poor countries related with poverty. A father sold his daughter for photography, childrens who does not have parents to care for them, parent died from AIDS and other sexual transmitting diseases and government neglect and corruption contribute this social crisis. Women who does prostitution in those countries primly is to support their families. according to the video after the mother died from AIDS her children become the victim of sex trafficking at the age of four and five years old. Sexually transmitted disease specially HIV created a huge population of orphanage around the world. this situation create a widow of opportunity to sex trafficking. Even though it takes time and require effort to solve the complex nature sex trafficking , poverty and sexual transmitting disease, it is important to recognize and help organizations such as PRAJWALA founded by Sunitha Krishnan.

   Seyoum Abebe.

Refrernce:
http://www.ted.com/talks/sunitha

Prenatal Testing Blog # 6

prenatal testing is important to couples who wants to know their child is healthy or they are expecting a child who have abnormalities when she/he born. It is obvious that couples may face difficult decision to bring birth defect child or decide alternative measures.
screening tests during pregnancy allow parents if the fetus is risk of having birth defects. for example " First-Trimester screening test combine the result special ultrasound tests and blood tests to detect Down syndrome and tiresome 18" This screening identifies chromosomal abnormalities. Other screening test such as Maternal serum screening test that measure maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein. Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis is a genetic procedure to identify genetic defects prior to implantation. through this procedure Defects such as cystic fibrosis( single gene disorder), Hemophilia (recessive sex-linked disorder), Rett syndrome (dominant sex-linked disorder).
These are few examples of birth defects that can be identified through screening and diagnostic procedure. The importance of prenatal testing and the decision couples or single parent make have an impact to family and society as whole. my Job as respiratory therapy in children medical center allowed me to observe the the suffering of children that have birth defects and the stress of their parents.Even though modern science and thechnology support and prolong the life of birth defect childerns, it sad to to see them not to utlize their full potentioal as normal childern in their life span.

seyoum abebe
Refernce

http://www.americanpregnancy.org/

Blog # 5 Contraceptive and Patient Education

Women to avoid unintended pregnancy, they utilize different kinds contraceptive available in the market. The effectiveness of those contraceptives is measured, when they are used according to the instruction. In some case pregnancy occurred with out the proper use of these contraceptives. patient education is vital to use contraceptive properly. According to the article by Mariamne H. and Elissa R. Henken, a women eat contraceptive jelly on toast to to avoid pregnancy is classical example the failure of patient education. Even though the women shared responsibility about her ignorance, the pharmacist failure to educate the women cause the pregnancy.The article mentioned  many examples of unintended pregnancy due to misunderstanding between clients and health care providers. For example the teaching of how to use condom is misleading to the client.the educator use hands instead of models. one thing the educators do not realize is the level of their client's comprehension about the information they provide. The clients use their common sense to relate their action and contraceptive' s intended use. for example to swallow contraceptive that are intended to inset in vagina and to insert birth control pill in vagina that are intended to oral use is a lack of common sense rather than failure in patient education.
Seyoum Abebe

Reference:

Mariamne H. Whatley and Elissa R. Henken
Contemporary Legends, Folklore, and human sexuality.( Page 449-451).
Copy right @ 2000 by New york university Press.

Sex Education Blog # 4

Sex education be thought in the Nations public schools? Yes sex education is essential to curb the growing number of teen pregnancy and transmission of sexual transmit ed infections. the fact is what kind of sex education is effective. Abstinence- only or Abstinence plus contraceptive. i am strongly believe that comprehensive sex education is more effective than abstinence only sex education. Sex education is primly a health issue and social issue. Religion or politics should not influence the kind of sex education that is effective for the society. According to Guttmacher Institute " between 1995-2002 the number of tens aged 15-17 who have ever engaged in sexual intercourse decreased in 10%." This statistic indicate that the number of teenagers active in sexual intercourse have been increased. another statistic indicate that pregnancy rate among U.S women declined steadily from117 pregnancy per 1000 women in 1990 to 75 per 1000 women in 2002 ". 86% of the decline is due to teens contraceptive use. this fact indicates, sex education should be thought abstinence as well as contraceptive.
Despite the important of comprehensive sex education the federal government and 86% of public school districts promote abstinence sex education. Federal government spend 176 million dollar for FY 2006. the influence about abstinence sex education increase while 82% of of adults supports comprehensive sex education.
Despite years of evaluation in this area, there no vidence to date that abstinence only sex education delay teens sexual activity.

Reference:
http://www.guttmacher.org/

Seyoum Abebe
 

Secretary's International Fund for women and girls. Blog #3

even though women participation in over all global activities increased over time in developed countries, women in developing countries still lack access of education, employment and health care. The Secretary's global fund for women and girls is a program that provide funds to non governmental organizations working to meet critical needs of women and girls around the world. It is well under stood that with out the  participation of women the economy of any nations do not grow. even in family and community level women participation is essential. The secretary's international fund for women and girls recognize the potential of these group to our survival. According to the program " Women tend to use increases in house hold income to invest in nutrition, health, and education to their families and communities". Encouraging women in local business by providing education and micro loans is the foundation of success in their community.one of the health issue in developing countries is malnutrition. Investing in nutrition and access to education to girls results in economic growth for the future generation.

Women in developed countries need to engaged through governmental and non governmental institutions to help their counter parts in developing countries.
For information to contact Secretary's international  fund for women and girls
E mail Reeves@secretarysfund.net
phone: (202) 746-7200

Reference
http://www.state.gov/s/gwi
    

Assignment # 2 What are your feeling about the present state of health care in US

In most instances the health care in united states benefit only those who have privileges. in my opinion it is not fair for the rest of the population. in this country the private sector own and operate most of the health care facilities. even though government insure citizens with medicare and medicaid it is not for every body. why is the current health care system do not work.
35% of the population are under insured
15% of the population are un insured.
50% of the population are not benefit from the current system. According to 2009 Harvard study published in American journal of public health 44,800 excess death annually in united states lack of health insurance. Another source World Health Organization indicate that United states rank 72Th over all health among 191 nations. the same source indicate that united state rank 37Th over all performance. Why the richest nation in the world rank this low. because the current system do not work well.
In my opinion Universal health care is the solution to our problem. for most part we are human not commodities. Like other developed countries health care access to all citizens must be granted.

Reference
http://www.wikipedia.com/

Assigment # 1 hs 3133.50

I interviewed two women with different age group but with the same ethnic background. these two women reside about 3000 miles apart. one women lived in developing country and the other women reside in developed country.
Both women have concern about their health. the women lived in developing country is 23 year old have a high school education. the women live in developed country have a college degree and have professional job and she is 45years old. for my first question( what is your concern for you future health?) Both women have concern however MRS X( lived in developed country) concern about cancer. MRS Y(live in developing country) concern about HIV and Childbearing complication. I agree about both women concern, because MRS X enjoy the technology and educational resource to prevent her self from HIV and mortality during child delivery. Cancer such as breast, ovarian, colon are she most concern. she also mentioned these cancers attack across the board of socioeconomic class. Mrs Y concern is HIV. Despite billion dollar investment people live in developing countries have behavioral issue not to comply to the preventing education. MRS Y, explain the uncertainty of the out come while delivering the baby. there is no medical access to most women to check the progress of their pregnancy.
Both MRS X and MRS Y have legitimate concern about their health and health concern for the general population of women.