Sunday, October 26, 2014


News Clips For The Day


EBOLA – THREE ARTICLES


Asia casts a weary eye on Ebola's spread – CBS
AP October 26, 2014, 8:18 AM

SINGAPORE - The longer the Ebola outbreak rages in West Africa, the greater chance a traveler infected with the virus touches down in an Asian city.

How quickly any case is detected - and the measures taken once it is - will determine whether the virus takes hold in a region where billions live in poverty and public health systems are often very weak. Governments are ramping up response plans, stepping up surveillance at airports and considering quarantine measures. Still, health experts in the region's less developed countries fear any outbreak would be deadly and hard to contain.

"This is a non-treatable disease with a very high mortality rate. And even a country like the United States has not been able to completely prevent it," said Yatin Mehta, a critical care specialist at the Medanta Medicity hospital near New Delhi. "The government is trying. They are preparing and they are training, but our record of disaster management has been very poor in the past."

More than 10,000 people have been infected with Ebola and nearly half of them have died, according to the World Health Organization. The Ebola epidemic in West Africa is the largest ever outbreak of the disease with a rapidly rising death toll in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. There have also been cases in three other West African countries, Spain and the United States.

Early symptoms of Ebola include fever, headache, body aches, cough, stomach pain, vomiting, and diarrhea, and patients aren't contagious until those begin. The virus requires close contact with body fluids to spread so health care workers and family members caring for loved ones are most at risk.

Asia, home to 60 percent of the world's population, scores higher than West Africa on most development indexes and includes emerging or developed countries like Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan. But countries like India, China, the Philippines and Indonesia have vast numbers of poor, many of whom live in crowded slums, and underfunded health systems.

The Philippine government estimates there are up to 1,700 Filipino workers in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, plus more than 100 peacekeeping troops in Liberia. The Department of Health is suggesting a 21-day quarantine period before its citizens leave those three countries, but doesn't know how it will pay for that, said spokesman Lyndon Lee Suy.

"The DOH is doing its part, but it is downstream, it is on the receiving end," said Dr. Antony Leachon, president of the Philippine College of Physicians. "What is important is that Ebola shouldn't be able to enter. Since we have 10 million migrant workers, we have problems containing that."

Indonesia has put 100 hospitals that have experience of treating patients suffering from bird flu on standby for Ebola, said Tjandra Yoga Aditama, head of the Health Ministry's research and development board.

The only way of ensuring that the virus doesn't spread into a country is enforced quarantine for people coming from countries with an outbreak or - even more effective - a total travel ban. But those measures would mean that doctors and other experts trying to beat the virus at its source in West Africa would be less willing or unable to help, making the outbreak worse.

Airports in Asia have stepped up their defenses: screening passengers who have traveled from affected countries, taking any with high temperature for observation and trying to keep contact them with for 21 days - the incubation period. Even assuming these measures are carried out effectively, people can and do lie about their travel history, and common drugs like Paracetamol are effective in reducing fever.

Authorities in China say 8,672 people have entered southern Guangdong province from Ebola-ridden areas since Aug. 23.

There are more than 160 direct flights per month from Africa to the region's capital, Guangzhou, a reflection of the booming economic ties between China and Africa. All arrivals are subject to medical observation, which, according to guidelines from the Health Ministry, involves medical staff visiting or calling them morning and evening for 21 days to ask them about their temperature. People whose temperature is above normal should be immediately quarantined for three weeks.

In Hong Kong, around 15 passengers a day arrive from the affected region, chief port health officer Dr. Edwin Tsui Lok-kin said. Prior to the Ebola outbreak, Singapore had an average of about 30 people arriving a month collectively from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the government says.

Dale Fisher, the head of the infectious diseases' division at the Singapore National University Hospital, said governments in the region should be educating health workers about the disease and the need to ask anyone presenting with a fever at a medical facility about their travel history.

"Asia is very diverse in its capacity, and there are some countries with people that travel a lot that may not have the best infrastructure and are at greater risk," said Fisher, who has twice been to Liberia to assist in the WHO's response. "If an index case arrived back in a large Asian city and they were to sit in an open ward vomiting, then you would have a pretty big job on your hands."

He said that an outbreak could be brought under control with quick isolation and effective tracing of anyone who might have been in contact with the patient, citing the example of Nigeria, African's most populous country. It was declared Ebola free after confirming 19 cases, seven of them fatal.

Asian health systems and workers have experience in countering infectious diseases, including severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which first appeared in Hong Kong in 2003, infecting more than 8,000 people and killing about 800. The region grappled a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu around the same time that killed about 800 people in 12 countries, and new strains continue to crop up.

Sujatha Rao, a former Indian health secretary, said India's health system kicked into overdrive when confronted with a health crisis, as was seen during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. "In India we're very good at crisis management, but we are hopeless at routine care," Rao said.

Asked whether the country was prepared for Ebola, she added: "We are not ready. But that said, there is only so much preparation that any country can do."




“The longer the Ebola outbreak rages in West Africa, the greater chance a traveler infected with the virus touches down in an Asian city. How quickly any case is detected - and the measures taken once it is - will determine whether the virus takes hold in a region where billions live in poverty and public health systems are often very weak. Governments are ramping up response plans, stepping up surveillance at airports and considering quarantine measures. Still, health experts in the region's less developed countries fear any outbreak would be deadly and hard to contain.... Asia, home to 60 percent of the world's population, scores higher than West Africa on most development indexes and includes emerging or developed countries like Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan. But countries like India, China, the Philippines and Indonesia have vast numbers of poor, many of whom live in crowded slums, and underfunded health systems.... Even assuming these measures are carried out effectively, people can and do lie about their travel history, and common drugs like Paracetamol are effective in reducing fever.... 'Asia is very diverse in its capacity, and there are some countries with people that travel a lot that may not have the best infrastructure and are at greater risk,' said Fisher.... Sujatha Rao, a former Indian health secretary, said India's health system kicked into overdrive when confronted with a health crisis, as was seen during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. 'In India we're very good at crisis management, but we are hopeless at routine care,' Rao said. Asked whether the country was prepared for Ebola, she added: 'We are not ready. But that said, there is only so much preparation that any country can do.'”

China and India have ramped up their plans to deal with Ebola, with China having over 8,000 people arriving from West Africa since August 23. All are subject to quarantine for three weeks if their temperature is elevated, and monitoring if not. Indonesia has put 100 hospitals on notice which are well experienced with dealing with bird flu for treating Ebola victims. Many of their population are poor and living in crowded slums with a limited health care system, presenting a great risk for an epidemic if Ebola enters. The Filipino government states that 100 of its peacekeeping troops are in Liberia and 1,700 workers are in the three main African nations at the heart of the epidemic. Asia has 60% of the world's population, many of whom are poor and live in areas without a well-developed healthcare system. So far the outbreaks outside Africa have not included Asia, but that luck may be too fragile to last.






NYC doctor in "next phase" of Ebola as fiancée leaves hospital
CBS/AP October 25, 2014, 5:07 PM

NEW YORK -- New York City health officials updated Ebola patient Dr. Craig Spencer's condition Saturday night, saying he is "awake and communicating" and "entering the next phase of his illness, as anticipated with the appearance of gastrointestinal symptoms."

The emergency room doctor was admitted to Bellevue Hospital, a specialized Ebola treatment center, on Thursday and tested positive for the virus. His is the first case of the deadly virus diagnosed in the city.

Spencer is receiving antiviral medication and plasma, according to a statement issued by the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation and the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

"A large CDC team has been actively involved in advising the Bellevue staff and we are very appreciative of the additional guidance," the statement read, adding that doctors are also receiving input from Emory University Hospital and the Nebraska Medical Center, two facilities that successfully treated Ebola patients.

Dr. Craig Spencer

Morgan Dixon, Spencer's fiancée, left Bellevue Saturday night but will remain in quarantine at the Harlem apartment she shares with Spencer.

Two of the couple's friends are also being quarantine as a precaution. The quarantine for Dixon and the two others will be lifted on Nov. 14 after the maximum 21-day Ebola incubation period has passed, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said Saturday.

Spencer arrived in New York on Oct. 17 after treating Ebola patients in Guinea with the aid group Doctors Without Borders.

"The phase ahead will be a tough one. By definition, the days ahead will be tough for Dr. Spencer," de Blasio said. "His situation will become worse before it gets better," he added.

The mayor spoke after eating lunch at a Greenwich Village restaurant where Spencer ate earlier this week. Also Saturday, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams bowled the first frames at the Williamsburg bowling alley Spencer, Dixon and their friends visited a day before he became ill, CBS New York reported.

In his weekly address Saturday, President Obama noted that every American who has been treated for the virus thus far has recovered.

"It's important to remember that of the seven Americans treated so far for Ebola -- the five who contracted it in West Africa, plus the two nurses from Dallas -- all seven have survived," he said.

"Sadly," a Liberian man treated for the virus in the U.S., Thomas Eric Duncan, "did not survive," the president said, "and we continue to keep his family in our prayers."

Neither the U.S. Centers for Disease Control nor Doctors Without Borders ask health care workers returning from the Ebola hot zone to quarantine themselves, but they do recommend that they self-monitor their temperature at least twice a day.

Spencer was complying with that guidance, officials have said. International aid groups have warned that such restrictions could deter health care volunteers from traveling to West Africa.

People who worked with Spencer described him as the kind of globe-trotting do-gooder who could walk into a small village in Africa and, even though he didn't know the language, win people over through hugs alone, according to people who worked with him.

Even before leaving for Guinea this, the 33-year-old had amassed an ordinary man's lifetime worth of world travel, much of which was in the service of the poor.

In the past three years alone, Spencer, an attending physician at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, had been to Rwanda to work on an emergency care teaching curriculum, volunteered at a health clinic in Burundi, helped investigate an infectious parasitic disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo and traveled to 32 villages in Indonesia to do a public health survey.

"He was never afraid of getting his hands dirty or his feet dirty," said Dr. Deogratias Niyizonkiza, founder of Village Health Works, the aid group that brought him to Burundi for four months in 2012.

"He went into this environment, a country that is truly off the mark, without knowing the language and he would make everyone feel so comfortable. It's really a daunting task and yet he helped the people immensely," Niyizonkiza said. "He talked to everyone, including the people working in the lab ... Their language was just to hug each other and smile."

Ebola survivor Ashoka Mukpo, who was successfully treated after contracting the virus while working in Liberia as a freelance cameraman for NBC, said Saturday that Spencer is a hero.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Mukpo took issue with those who would criticize the doctor for going out in public after returning from West Africa and said there's no evidence Spencer exposed anyone in New York to any risk.

"Dr. Spencer risked his life to treat and lend a hand to people who have very little ability to take care of this problem themselves," Mukpo said from his family's home in Rhode Island. "Before we look at what the implications of this case are, I think we need to honor what he did in West Africa and give him the respect he deserves."

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has criticized Spencer, saying he should have stayed home until any danger period for the disease had passed.

"Dr. Spencer is a valued fellow and was a volunteer and did great work, but that was a voluntary quarantine situation for 21 days. He's a doctor and even he didn't follow the voluntary quarantine, let's be honest," Cuomo said.

Experts have repeatedly assured the public that there is little chance that Spencer spread the virus prior to developing symptoms, but his case prompted Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Friday to establish new, stricter guidelines for people returning to the area from Ebola-stricken countries.

A nurse who arrived Friday at Newark Liberty International Airport after recently treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone was quarantined at a New Jersey hospital, the first traveler isolated under the new protocols.

Kaci Hickox tested negative for Ebola in a preliminary screening, state health officials said Saturday, but she remains in isolation at University Hospital in Newark. Like Spencer, Hickox had been working with Doctors Without Borders.

In a first-person account given to the Dallas Morning News on Saturday, Hickox sharply criticized the way her case has been handled.

"This is not a situation I would wish on anyone, and I am scared for those who will follow me," Hickox wrote.

Under the new protocols for travelers, health officials in New York and New Jersey will establish a risk level by considering the countries that people have visited and their level of possible exposure to Ebola.

The patients with the highest level of possible exposure will be automatically quarantined for 21 days at a government-regulated facility. Those with a lower risk will be monitored for temperature and symptoms, Cuomo explained.

The governor of Illinois, Pat Quinn, has implemented similar guidelines. Florida Gov. Rick Scott issued an order Saturday that requires health care workers to self-monitor.



http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/10/26/new-york-doctor-with-ebola-gets-blood-transfusion-from-aid-worker-who-survived/

New York doctor with Ebola gets blood transfusion from aid worker who survived disease
Fox News
October 26, 2014

Doctors treating New York City’s first Ebola patient have given the ailing doctor a transfusion of blood plasma from an aid worker who was infected with the deadly disease in West Africa and survived.

Dr. Craig Spencer received the donated plasma Friday from Nancy Writebol, a health care worker with the Christian organization SIM. Writebol was treated in August at Emory Hospital in Georgia.

“I am praying for Dr. Spencer’s recovery and am happy to be able to donate blood,” Writebol said, according to NBC News, which said SIM confirmed the donation Saturday.

Bellevue Hospital, where Spencer is being treated, said Saturday evening that the 33-year-old physician is “entering the next phase of his illness as anticipated with the appearance of gastrointestinal symptoms.”

The public hospital said in a statement that the patient is “awake and communicating.”

His fiancée was discharged from the hospital Saturday and will remain under quarantine at their home in Harlem, the hospital said.

Blood plasma transfusions from survivors have been used to help treat Ebola patients news cameraman Ashoka Mukpo, Dr. Rick Sacra and nurse Nina Pham. All recovered from the disease.

Spencer was rushed to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan Thursday after showing Ebola symptoms. He recently returned to New York from Guinea where he treated Ebola patients as a Doctors Without Borders volunteer.

Meantime, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo admitted Saturday that the 21-day Ebola quarantine policy for health care workers returning from West Africa could be unenforceable.

The New York Daily News reported that the Democrat acknowledged that several contingencies had not yet been worked out by officials, including what would happen if someone refused to be quarantined or even where they would spend their time during the watch period.

"Could you have a hostile person who doesn’t want to be quarantined?" Cuomo said during a campaign appearance in the New York City borough of Queens Saturday. "I suppose you could. But that hasn’t been the case yet." The governor added that officials had not determined whether those refusing to be quarantined could face arrest or prosecution, saying "It's nothing that we've discussed, no." When asked by the Daily News where the quarantined people would be held, Cuomo even seemed unclear on that point, saying "Some people could be quarantined in a hospital if they wanted to be."

On Friday, Cuomo and his New Jersey counterpart, Chris Christie, imposed a mandatory quarantine of 21 days -- the incubation period of the deadly virus -- on travelers who have had contact with Ebola patients in the countries ravaged by Ebola -- Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. A similar measure was announced in Illinois, where officials say such travelers could be quarantined at home. Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed an order Saturday giving the Florida Department of Health authority to monitor individuals returning from Ebola-stricken countries for 21 days. 

Scott said his administration asked the CDC to identify risk levels of all returning individuals from specific parts of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone but has not received information.

Doctors Without Borders executive director Sophie Delaunay complained Saturday about the "notable lack of clarity" from state officials about the quarantine policies, and an American Civil Liberties Union official in New Jersey said the state must provide more information on how it determined that mandatory quarantines were necessary.

"Coercive measures like mandatory quarantine of people exhibiting no symptoms of Ebola and when not medically necessary raise serious constitutional concerns about the state abusing its powers," said Udi Ofer, executive director of the ACLU of New Jersey.

Meanwhile, Kaci Hickox, the first traveler quarantined under Ebola watches in New Jersey and New York, wrote the first-person account for the Dallas Morning News, which was posted on the paper's website Saturday. Her preliminary tests for Ebola came back negative.

"This is not a situation I would wish on anyone, and I am scared for those who will follow me," Hickox wrote of her quarantine. "I am scared about how health care workers will be treated at airports when they declare that they have been fighting Ebola in West Africa. I am scared that, like me, they will arrive and see a frenzy of disorganization, fear and, most frightening, quarantine"

"One after another, people asked me questions," Hickox continued. "Some introduced themselves, some didn’t. One man who must have been an immigration officer because he was wearing a weapon belt that I could see protruding from his white coveralls barked questions at me as if I was a criminal ... The U.S. must treat returning health care workers with dignity and humanity."

Doctors Without Borders said Hickox has not been issued an order of quarantine specifying how long she must be isolated and is being kept in an unheated tent. It urged the "fair and reasonable treatment" of health workers fighting the Ebola outbreak.

"We are attempting to clarify the details of the protocols with each state's departments of health to gain a full understanding of their requirements and implications," Delaunay said in a statement.

Christie, campaigning Saturday in Iowa for a fellow Republican, said he sympathizes for Hickox but said he has to do what he can to ensure public health safety.

"My heart goes out to her," the governor said, while also noting that state and local health officials would make sure quarantine rules are enforced. He said the New Jersey State Police won't be involved.

The quarantine measures were announced after Spencer was diagnosed with Ebola.

A senior White House official said Saturday that how to treat health care workers returning from the affected West African countries continues to be discussed at meetings on Ebola as the administration continues to take a "careful look" at its policies.




Dr. Craig Spencer was criticized by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for going out in public while the initial symptoms of Ebola occurred, though he had no fever at that time, but news cameraman Ashoka Mukpo described him as a hero. ''Dr. Spencer risked his life to treat and lend a hand to people who have very little ability to take care of this problem themselves,' Mukpo said from his family's home in Rhode Island. 'Before we look at what the implications of this case are, I think we need to honor what he did in West Africa and give him the respect he deserves.'” Fox News today reports that Spencer has received blood plasma from Ebola survivor Nancy Writebol, a health care worker with the Christian organization SIM, so hopefully he is on the road to recovery, as blood plasma has usually saved the patients recently.

In an October 25 CBS article, a nurse who has been quarantined in NJ felt she was treated less than gently by those who questioned her at the airport, and is unhappy about being quarantined. Another nurse said she is “uncomfortable” in the isolation tent, with nothing but paper scrubs to wear and no heating. She was, however, allowed to bring her personal belongings into isolation with her. I feel sorry for her, she was apparently frightened, but the threat of Ebola is sufficiently alarming to me that I think people under mandatory quarantine should relax with the procedure as well as they can and cooperate. NY, NJ and IL have all issued “a mandatory quarantine for travelers who have had contact with Ebola-infected patients in West Africa.” I feel sure there will be more cases of that kind to come, and considering how irrational people can sometimes be when inconvenienced (hiding, lying about their travels or taking aspirin to stop their fever), I think the mandates should perhaps be declared in other states as well.

I personally feel that Dr. Spencer, despite the fact that he had no temperature yet, should have called the hospital as soon as he “felt weak,” because he is after all a doctor and should have known better than to go out on the town. When I have been fighting off a cold virus I have often felt “not quite right” or “weak” on the day before I get the full set of symptoms, including the fever. Waiting for the fever of 104 to develop is not a good idea.





'Ole Miss' Debates Campus Traditions With Confederate Roots – NPR
by SANDRA KNISPEL
October 25, 2014

University of Mississippi football is riding high these days; they're undefeated and one of the top three teams in the nation.

But as Ole Miss fans come together to root for their team, many other traditions are coming under scrutiny. The school's been engaged in a long-running effort to remove potentially divisive, and racially charged symbols, to try and make the campus more "welcoming."

At the corner of Fraternity Row, a short lane that runs past a chapel used to be called "Confederate Drive." Newly painted over, the unassuming white street post now reads "Chapel Lane."

"Obviously the name Confederate Drive can be seen as divisive by some people and could be seen as an effort by the university to embrace an ancient idea," says university spokesman Danny Blanton.

The sign change is part of the latest effort to improve the public image of Mississippi's flagship state school, and with it the ability to recruit and retain more minorities. Last year, freshmen were for the first time required to learn about Mississippi history and race relations.

Next, the school will place signs adding historical context to potentially controversial sites, like a statue of the Confederate soldier in the middle of campus. These changes come after a series of ugly race incidents; one egregious event happened in February, when a noose was hung around the neck of the statue of James Meredith, the first African American to attend the university.

"I did actually have a pretty big emotional breakdown. I came to campus and I, in all honesty, didn't want my feet to even touch the pavement," says Courtney Pearson.

Two years ago, Pearson was voted the university's first black homecoming queen. That's at a university where blacks make up 14 percent of the student population in a state where the overall black population is nearly 40 percent. Many black families remain hesitant about sending their children to the state's flagship university. Despite the noose incident, Pearson stayed.

"What I appreciate is that we didn't allow the actions of three students to take three steps back. We're still moving forward," she says.

Pearson is now a graduate assistant for the newly-created Center for Inclusion and Cross-Cultural Engagement. Still, becoming more inclusive means the university must go head-to-head with groups like the Mississippi Division Sons of Confederate Veterans, an ultraconservative history group that sued the school over the sign change.

Some students, too, are uncomfortable with the changes.

"I'm all about tradition and I think that it should remain Confederate Drive. It's just part of the history of the South," says W.T. Bailey, an accounting and finance student.

One tradition that's not changing is the university's nickname, "Ole Miss." The phrase was how slaves once addressed the mistress of the plantation. It's ubiquitous on campus, on signs, sweatshirts and in the football cheer.

"Ole Miss has been here since I can remember, it needs to stay," says Tommy Lee, a 1982 Ole Miss grad. "That is our slogan: We are Ole Miss."

University chancellor Dan Jones also defends the "Ole Miss" name against its critics, saying that the "vast majority of people associated with the university — that includes our faculty, our staff, our students, our alumni — think that the term 'Ole Miss' is a term of endearment."

And even many black students here say they like the name, and see it as just a name.

"If we are going to be in the football stadium, and the announcer says first down, the first things out of my mouth are going to be 'Ole Miss,' " says Courtney Pearson.

Pearson does admit to having reservations, but she says she supports the administration and whatever changes it deems necessary to make the university a better place.





“But as Ole Miss fans come together to root for their team, many other traditions are coming under scrutiny. The school's been engaged in a long-running effort to remove potentially divisive, and racially charged symbols, to try and make the campus more 'welcoming.' At the corner of Fraternity Row, a short lane that runs past a chapel used to be called 'Confederate Drive.' Newly painted over, the unassuming white street post now reads 'Chapel Lane.'... The sign change is part of the latest effort to improve the public image of Mississippi's flagship state school, and with it the ability to recruit and retain more minorities. Last year, freshmen were for the first time required to learn about Mississippi history and race relations.... Next, the school will place signs adding historical context to potentially controversial sites, like a statue of the Confederate soldier in the middle of campus. These changes come after a series of ugly race incidents; one egregious event happened in February, when a noose was hung around the neck of the statue of James Meredith, the first African American to attend the university.... Two years ago, Pearson was voted the university's first black homecoming queen. That's at a university where blacks make up 14 percent of the student population in a state where the overall black population is nearly 40 percent. Many black families remain hesitant about sending their children to the state's flagship university. Despite the noose incident, Pearson stayed.... Pearson is now a graduate assistant for the newly-created Center for Inclusion and Cross-Cultural Engagement. Still, becoming more inclusive means the university must go head-to-head with groups like the Mississippi Division Sons of Confederate Veterans, an ultraconservative history group that sued the school over the sign change.... One tradition that's not changing is the university's nickname, 'Ole Miss.' The phrase was how slaves once addressed the mistress of the plantation. It's ubiquitous on campus, on signs, sweatshirts and in the football cheer.”

Unless times have changed since I was in college, being elected Homecoming Queen doesn't happen out of hate, so Pearson's experience is a sign that “Ole Miss” is not only making honest efforts to improve, but is having success. It isn't surprising that the veterans organization has sued them. Those who are against “integration” as “N word loving” will not give up easily, but if the educated middle of the road population will pursue a true path to the “New South,” the USA has a chance at becoming my idea of a true democracy. This article shows a much better story than the one several days ago about a high school and their anti-black “celebration” of victory against a mainly black team. That was a high school. The good news in that article was that though the team members didn't have any remorse, their coach was summarily fired by the School Board, so the bad behavior is being punished. That's another kind of progress.






Tracing A Gin-Soaked Trail In London – NPR
by ARI SHAPIRO
October 25, 2014

In Scotland, some long-time whisky makers are switching over to gin. In Germany, people who distill traditional brandies are doing the same. The world is in the middle of a gin distillery boom, and it is coming to America.

One place to find the roots of this boom is London, where 250 distilleries once existed in the city limits alone.

For Charles Maxwell, this story is personal. "My great-great-grandfather was apprenticed in the city of London in the 1680s to learn how to make gin," Maxwell says. "And from that day to this, we've distilled gin in London."

Maxwell is the only man ever to have received the London Gin Guild's lifetime achievement award. He and his ancestors have watched the drink go in and out of fashion many times over the centuries. The high point — or really the low point — was in the mid-1700s.

"Things had got slightly out of hand in England," says Maxwell. "We'd actually got to the point where the consumption per person in England was over four cases of gin a year."
That's 48 bottles of gin each. More if you leave out children, though some kids drank it, too.

In 1751, the artist William Hogarth created his famous print, "Gin Lane," showing chaos as a drunken mother drops her baby in the gin-soaked London streets. (That print was commissioned by the beer brewers.)

London is not returning to the days of Gin Lane. For one, alcohol is now tightly regulated and can no longer be sold out of bathtubs. But we are in the midst of a worldwide gin distillery boom.

At a bar in central London called Graphic, more than 300 gin brands line the shelves. Manager Dom Balfour says the owners didn't set out to create a gin destination — "it's just something that happened over time a few years ago."

"Someone took an interest in gin and started to increase the amount of gins. Before you know it, you've got 100. Then you've got 200. Then you've got 300, and it keeps going."

On this night, an up-and-comer is trying to find a bit of space on the crowded shelves. Nick Tilt is here representing Sloane's gin, a new brand from the Netherlands. He launches into a sales pitch about the flavors of fresh citrus fruits, and vanilla from Madagascar "that creates a full creaminess to the middle of the palate and holds all the other flavors together."

His colleague pulls out little vials of angelica root and coriander seeds. He deploys spray bottles to spritz the aromas. It's quite a production.

There's a simple reason that so many new alcohol producers are making gin instead of vodka or whiskey.

"Gin has a flavor profile. But it doesn't require the lengthy aging process you get with a whiskey or a brandy," says Frank Coleman of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.

So it has more personality than vodka, but it doesn't take the time to produce that brown spirits demand. With gin, you can distill today and sell tomorrow. And Coleman says the big brands are happy to see these new guys pop up on the scene.

"It's sort of like the farm team, you know? In the past, they spent millions of dollars, in some cases, to develop new brands. Now they look at the marketplace and they can just buy a brand if they want to incorporate it into their portfolio."

In the U.S., Coleman says, more than 45 states now have small new distilleries. There is no reliable data on how many of those new distilleries are gin, but Coleman believes the percentage is high, since gin is so easy and quick to produce relative to other alcohols.

One strange quirk of this boom is that people are not, overall, drinking more gin than before. Instead, people are drinking a wider range of gins and paying more for the privilege. That is, the slices of the pie are getting smaller, and each slice is becoming pricier.

On the London gin scene, the wise old man is Beefeater — for decades, the only distiller left in the city limits. Today there are eight. Desmond Payne is the master distiller, tasting the brew every day to make sure the blend is just right.

"Every drop of our 2.6 million cases comes from this distillery," he says, standing in a massive room surrounded by ancient bulbous copper stills. The air smells like juniper and orange peel.

Payne believes part of the new interest in small-batch gins comes from a broader locavore, farm-to-table trend.

"I think people are far more interested in what they eat and drink, and how it's made, and what the ingredients are and where they come from," he says.

It's easy for him to be generous about the newcomers. Small distilleries are still only a tiny fraction of the total gin market. And the big brands have watched many of them come and go over the decades, as fickle drinkers slurp up a trend, then leave it at the bar.

And now, some gin recipes straight from the source.



“For Charles Maxwell, this story is personal. 'My great-great-grandfather was apprenticed in the city of London in the 1680s to learn how to make gin,' Maxwell says. 'And from that day to this, we've distilled gin in London.'... He and his ancestors have watched the drink go in and out of fashion many times over the centuries. The high point — or really the low point — was in the mid-1700s. 'Things had got slightly out of hand in England,' says Maxwell. 'We'd actually got to the point where the consumption per person in England was over four cases of gin a year.' That's 48 bottles of gin each. More if you leave out children, though some kids drank it, too.... But we are in the midst of a worldwide gin distillery boom. At a bar in central London called Graphic, more than 300 gin brands line the shelves. Manager Dom Balfour says the owners didn't set out to create a gin destination — 'it's just something that happened over time a few years ago.'... 'Gin has a flavor profile. But it doesn't require the lengthy aging process you get with a whiskey or a brandy,' says Frank Coleman of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.... In the U.S., Coleman says, more than 45 states now have small new distilleries. There is no reliable data on how many of those new distilleries are gin, but Coleman believes the percentage is high, since gin is so easy and quick to produce relative to other alcohols.... Payne believes part of the new interest in small-batch gins comes from a broader locavore, farm-to-table trend. 'I think people are far more interested in what they eat and drink, and how it's made, and what the ingredients are and where they come from,' he says.”

I will pause to define a word that is new to me: “lo·ca·vore”, noun “a person whose diet consists only or principally of locally grown or produced food.” That is an American trend of the last ten years or so, believed to help the local community by keeping the business among its residents. Local farmers sell their produce at local farmers markets or specialty stores like “Whole Foods.” The first stores of this kind I ever saw were in Chapel Hill in the 1970's as a part of the fresh vegetable trend. What you can find in the store will mainly be seasonal and often “organic.” As a result it will be expensive, but supposedly much better for you than vegetables grown with heavy amounts of fertilizer and chemicals that kill bugs or weeds.

So young people with some money to spend are now trying novel flavors of gin. That's better than just drinking more and more gin. Drinking for taste is the sign of a connoisseur, and hopefully will be part of a rise in a greater interest in art, classical music, etc. among the young people. At this point they too often seem to be crazy over young Hollywood people who can neither act nor even complete an educated sentence. Watching those TV shows like “Extra Extra!” make me switch to another channel or turn off the TV set very fast.

This article on Gin and London did make me think of Charles Dicken's London, though. The painting by Hogarth called “Gin Lane” which accompanied this news article showed a very graphic image of poor people who lived for their next drink of gin, one woman in the foreground accidentally dropping her baby which is shown falling to the street. Life in the 1700's and Victorian period was great for the rich, but very hard on the poor. Just as today, whole families were living on the streets then. The only refuge for the poor were the “workhouses” which Oliver Twist ended up in. That, too me, was the best of Dickens' books that I have read – he was too sentimental for me in many of them – because it was truly tragic and realistic in it's portrayal of life. Very good literature.




In Southeast Turkey, A Long History Of Bloodshed And Worship – NPR
by PETER KENYON
October 24, 2014

The site at Gobekli Tepe, or "Potbelly Hill," on the Urfa plain in southeastern Turkey is believed by some to be the world's first place of worship. This would upend the conventional thought that religion developed as a byproduct of human settlements.

The Urfa plain in southeastern Turkey — not far from where Syrian refugees watch fighters from the so-called Islamic State wage a brutal war in the name of a primitive version of their faith — is one of the most fought-over landscapes in human civilization.

But on the plain — soaked in blood since the days when Sumerian and Assyrian kings ruled Mesopotamia — there's a place that's even older, so old that its denizens hadn't mastered the arts of pottery, writing or making war.

It's called Gobekli Tepe — "Potbelly Hill" — and some archaeologists believe it contains the ruins of the first place of worship.

Thousands of Years Before Stonehenge

In the mid-1990s, a German named Klaus Schmidt began digging at the mound, with its panoramic view of the biblical plain of Harran and northern Syria.

Schmidt unearthed circular enclosures featuring Stonehenge-like limestone T-pillars — except Stonehenge wouldn't exist for another several thousand years. The Gobekli Tepe pillars, decorated with animal reliefs, have been dated as far back as 9500 B.C. Those are the early years of what archaeologists call the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period in the Fertile Crescent.

After Schmidt's death from a heart attack earlier this year, Lee Clare took over work at the site. He says there are still more questions than answers. For instance, how were these stone pillars moved up the hill from the quarry below?

"[The] big ones would've been, you know, 30, 40, 50 tons," he says. "They may have been using rollers, using wooden logs, but we honestly don't know how they were doing it."

Turning Accepted History On Its Head

Finding no evidence of human habitation, Schmidt settled on a radical hypothesis: that these enclosures — at least 20 of them are buried in the hill — were created for ritual purposes, long before organized religion arrived on the scene.

Until now, the accepted theory has been that hunter-gatherers first came together in settlements, and agriculture, domestication of animals and the precursors to organized religion followed. Clare says Gobekli Tepe poses an intriguing question: What if the rituals came first?

"People coming together, communal structures were being built, people erecting these wonderful pillars, carving them, that was a specialist job," Clare says, adding that those specialists had to be fed.

"And one way of doing that and feeding these people was actually domesticating things," he says. "Based on the evidence we have from this site, we tend to think that domestication of animals, of crops actually occurred as a byproduct of what was going on here."

Radical Theory Has Its Critics

Not everyone is convinced by this theory. A few years ago, a Canadian anthropologist argued that Gobekli Tepe could have been built by settlers, not hunter-gatherers.

Clare says he's willing to be convinced, but so far there's no sign of cooking hearths or other evidence of domestic life at the site.

One of the pleasures Clare has working on the cutting edge of archaeology is the freedom to speculate about the hunter-gatherers just before their transition to settlements — a people so focused on daily survival that there was no time, let alone a reason, to wage war. Clare says this period is notable for the lack of evidence pointing to conflict, which may seem surprising.

"But at the same time other scholars have said for the Neolithic to spread as it did, for this knowledge to spread, it would've needed people cooperating and not fighting," he says. "And I think that's a nice thought."

That's an almost utopian thought, considering the millennia of carnage that followed, including the blood still being shed in the 21st century, just across the Syrian border, a mere 20 miles away.




“The site at Gobekli Tepe, or "Potbelly Hill," on the Urfa plain in southeastern Turkey is believed by some to be the world's first place of worship. This would upend the conventional thought that religion developed as a byproduct of human settlements. … But on the plain — soaked in blood since the days when Sumerian and Assyrian kings ruled Mesopotamia — there's a place that's even older, so old that its denizens hadn't mastered the arts of pottery, writing or making war.... Schmidt unearthed circular enclosures featuring Stonehenge-like limestone T-pillars — except Stonehenge wouldn't exist for another several thousand years. The Gobekli Tepe pillars, decorated with animal reliefs, have been dated as far back as 9500 B.C. Those are the early years of what archaeologists call the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period in the Fertile Crescent.... Finding no evidence of human habitation, Schmidt settled on a radical hypothesis: that these enclosures — at least 20 of them are buried in the hill — were created for ritual purposes, long before organized religion arrived on the scene. Until now, the accepted theory has been that hunter-gatherers first came together in settlements, and agriculture, domestication of animals and the precursors to organized religion followed. Clare says Gobekli Tepe poses an intriguing question: What if the rituals came first?... 'People coming together, communal structures were being built, people erecting these wonderful pillars, carving them, that was a specialist job,' Clare says, adding that those specialists had to be fed.... One of the pleasures Clare has working on the cutting edge of archaeology is the freedom to speculate about the hunter-gatherers just before their transition to settlements — a people so focused on daily survival that there was no time, let alone a reason, to wage war.... 'But at the same time other scholars have said for the Neolithic to spread as it did, for this knowledge to spread, it would've needed people cooperating and not fighting,' he says. 'And I think that's a nice thought.'”

The story that is most convincing to me is that in order to do anything as organized as building a proto-Stonehenge, there would have had to be plenty of food to support a sizable population with a central “government” of sorts, rather than the straggling groups of tribal units that probably existed before the Neolithic. Growing grain rather than merely gathering it produced a useful surplus of grain, which could then be stored for the winter, and which amounted to wealth, as it could be traded for something else that the tribe wanted. Trade in stone arrowheads was known early on, as stones from distant locations have been found in caves. That trade undoubtedly included a trading of information as well, such as how to grow grain, thus the Neolithic idea spread widely. Some groups specialized in animals rather than grain. The ancient Jews were a sheep-herding people. To this day, a few tribes such as the Sami are still herders. When the horse was domesticated that was a miraculous discovery, because of their usefulness as beasts of burden and to plow the land, plus the ability to ride on their backs.

The moving of large stones to build something like this stone temple was undoubtedly done by using rollers, and took a large work crew and a government head who could organize the effort. That, to me, required sizable towns. The urge to build such a structure probably was religious – a stone for animal or human sacrifices, a circle in which to do their symbolic dances. The successful harvest, the freedom from diseases, the right amount of rain and sunshine were things to be prayed over, and the tribe wanted to build a beautiful structure to house their rituals. It would also draw visitors who would bring wonderful things such as amber, pearls, soapstone or gold nuggets to trade for. The settlement would become wealthy and a real city would develop. That wouldn't have to be in the immediate vicinity of the religious monument, but rather a special site on their communal territory.

This archaeologist's claim was that no signs of settlements were to be found there, but I wonder how far away from the stone monument they looked. Besides, when a time span of 9,000 years is involved, all traces of the houses which more likely were not made of something durable like stone, but of wood and thatch would be obliterated. The Celtic houses in Britain were made of wicker. All that is left of a house like that is a set of post holes and probably a dugout dirt floor.

As for the origin of religions, I think that started as early as Homo Sapiens himself, as each person speculated on things like what causes thunder and lightning, cold and warm seasons, sunrise and sunset. A South American Indian tribe on a National Geographic documentary I saw had the simple ritual of each telling his dream when they gathered together in the morning. They also had a tune, each his own, that he would hum in a somewhat meditative fashion.

A tribe sized group would have had leaders, let's say a Chief and a Shaman, like some American Indian tribes, and the inevitable Wise Woman who was a tribal elder and healer, highly respected. These people retold stories that they themselves heard as children, and a group mythology or set of beliefs developed. Some localities may have been considered magical or holy – a waterfall, a large rock that resembled a human head, the place where a fierce cave lion was killed by the tribe.

Early Homo Sapiens and even Neanderthal buried their dead, which to me implies a belief in an afterlife or a form of ancestor worship. I think the speculative part of human intelligence gravitates naturally toward meditation, which promotes higher thought, the development of spontaneous insights. This leads to new knowledge. That, to me, is also basically religious.

One thing we know primitive people did early on when they still lived in caves was to make beads or bore holes in animal teeth to be used on a string and worn. They may have been spiritually significant rather than merely a personal adornment. They could also be traded, of course.

Another thing primitive man did was create simple musical instruments and dances that told a story or imitated animals that were considered powerful. To me, that is all in its way, religious. A belief in gods and goddesses may not have started that early. When I took a survey course in anthropology we studied some types of early religion which are still believed by some isolated tribes. One is called “animism” which is the assigning of power to some object such as a tree or a rock. Whenever a theory of magic or power is involved, I consider it to be religious, though to us it may simply be superstition.

Whatever the religious beliefs of the people at Gobekli Tepe, though, I think the key to building a structure like that out of 50 ton stones, had as much to do with the wealth and organization of the civilization that built it – a symbol of their power in the area – as the power of the religious belief. Chartres Cathedral is more about the statement of wealth that it represents than the Catholic religion, for a simple chapel in the woods would do for purposes of worship. For me, such a chapel would allow me to soak up the quietness and find peace. Of course, my religion is very simple indeed.