Wednesday, October 15, 2014


News For The Day


2nd Texas health worker tests positive for Ebola
CBS/AP October 15, 2014, 5:18 AM

A second worker at the Texas hospital where a Liberian man died of Ebola has tested positive for the disease, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said early Wednesday morning.

The agency said the positive result was returned from a preliminary test, and that "confirmation testing at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's laboratory is being done."

The worker was in isolation at a Dallas hospital within 90 minutes of her finding she had an elevated temperature, officials said. They also said she lives alone with no pets.

Crews were also at the health care worker's apartment early Wednesday morning, located in north Dallas, reports CBS Dallas. They began decontaminating the complex's common areas and the space outside of the patient's home. The patient's vehicle and apartment unit will be decontaminated starting early Wednesday afternoon.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said at a news conference Wednesday that the health care provider at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital had been monitoring herself for symptoms of Ebola.

The Texas Department of State Health Services confirmed in a separate statement that the health worker did provide care to Thomas Eric Duncan, whom officials refer to as "the index patient" and is the Liberian national who died at Presbyterian on Oct. 8. Duncan was the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola on U.S. soil, although he is believed to have contracted the disease while still in Liberia.

It was not immediately clear what contact the new case had with Duncan.

The state health agency said the new patient had been interviewed, "to quickly identify any contacts or potential exposures, and those people will be monitored. The type of monitoring depends on the nature of their interactions and the potential they were exposed to the virus."

"We want to remind Dallas County residents not to panic and overreact," said county health director Zach Thompson. "We just want Dallas County residents to stay calm."

Nurse Nina Pham, the first person to contract Ebola on U.S. soil, also got the disease while caring for Duncan. She repeatedly visited his room from the day he was admitted to the intensive care unit until the day before he died, medical records show.

Pham and other health care workers wore protective gear, including gowns, gloves, masks and face shields -- and sometimes full-body suits -- when caring for Duncan, but confirmation of the new case came a day after a national nurses union decried an absence of protocols at the Texas hospital.

Leaders of the National Nurses Union read a statement Tuesday which they said represented concerns from a number of nurses that work at Texas Health Presbyterian in Dallas. The union officials declined to identify the Dallas nurses or say how many were participating in the statement.

But they were vociferous in citing a lack of protocols on the day Duncan was admitted with extreme symptoms of Ebola.

Among the flaws cited by the group included:

insufficient garb worn by the emergency personnel
the fact that Duncan was left "for hours" in a non-quarantined zone
that his lab samples were sent in the same way that normal specimens are sent
hospital official allowed nurses involved with Duncan to take care of other patients
other ways in which the hospital did not immediately react to the situation.

"Were protocols breached?" said union spokeswoman Rose Ann DeMoro, "There were no protocols."

"These nurses are not well protected. They're not prepared to handle Ebola or any other pandemic," said DeMoro. "We are deeply alarmed."

DeMoro said the nurses who had come forward were afraid to reveal their identities "because of a culture of threat in the hospitals."

Tuesday night, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital issued a statement in response to the nurses' charges, saying, "patient and employee safety is our greatest priority and we take compliance very seriously."

The hospital insisted that "numerous measures" were in place "to provide a safe working environment, including mandatory annual training and a 24-7 hotline and other mechanisms that allow for anonymous reporting."

But also on Tuesday, the nation's top disease-fighting agency acknowledged that federal health experts failed to do all they should have done to prevent Ebola from spreading in Dallas when and after Duncan was admitted.

CDC Director Tom Frieden outlined a series of steps designed to stop the spread of the disease in the U.S., including increased training for health care workers and changes at Texas Health Presbyterian to minimize the risk of more infections. He also said the CDC was forming rapid response teams to intervene wherever an Ebola diagnosis presents itself in the U.S. "within hours."

A total of 76 people at the hospital might have had exposure to Duncan, and all of them were being monitored for fever and other symptoms daily, Frieden said. It wasn't immediately confirmed that the new case was one of the 76 people being monitored.




“The worker was in isolation at a Dallas hospital within 90 minutes of her finding she had an elevated temperature, officials said. They also said she lives alone with no pets. Crews were also at the health care worker's apartment early Wednesday morning, located in north Dallas, reports CBS Dallas. They began decontaminating the complex's common areas and the space outside of the patient's home. The patient's vehicle and apartment unit will be decontaminated starting early Wednesday afternoon. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said at a news conference Wednesday that the health care provider at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital had been monitoring herself for symptoms of Ebola. ... but confirmation of the new case came a day after a national nurses union decried an absence of protocols at the Texas hospital. Leaders of the National Nurses Union read a statement Tuesday which they said represented concerns from a number of nurses that work at Texas Health Presbyterian in Dallas.... The hospital insisted that 'numerous measures" were in place '.... CDC Director Tom Frieden outlined a series of steps designed to stop the spread of the disease in the U.S., including increased training for health care workers and changes at Texas Health Presbyterian to minimize the risk of more infections.”

"'These nurses are not well protected. They're not prepared to handle Ebola or any other pandemic,' said DeMoro. 'We are deeply alarmed.' DeMoro said the nurses who had come forward were afraid to reveal their identities 'because of a culture of threat in the hospitals.'” The hospital apparently has reacted defensively with secrecy and “a culture of threat.” This is unfortunately so common when a large and relatively powerful organization is under suspicion. When police officers do it there is a problem, but when health care workers during a potential epidemic do it there is no excuse. Ebola has been in the news every day since the outbreak began in Africa, and there have been numerous articles about the spread to other countries. Yet our health workers have been caught off guard. Duncan presented himself at the hospital on the first day his fever rose, told them he had recently come from West Africa, and they diagnosed him with flu and sent him home. US citizens need to get over the idea that “things like that just don't happen here.” Now we find that the hospital workers didn't always wear the full body protective suit and neither did the emergency personnel, Duncan was not quarantined for hours, that his lab tests were sent as though they weren't a high risk sample, and that a hospital supervisor allowed a nurse to treat other patients after working with Duncan. This looks like more than a lack of training in epidemic situations. They really didn't try to use common sense “protocol” – to heck with how thoroughly trained they were. I think that hospital is going to be sued and maybe sanctioned, and they should be. There must be some government body that oversees hospitals. If there isn't, there should be. It's one more situation in which a lack of regulations is a bad thing.

See the article below on regulations. One of the changes stated in this article concerns infection control. “Eliminate obsolete regulations, including outmoded infection control instructions for ambulatory surgical centers;...” I don't know if this regulation change was applicable to Duncan's being left in an open area for hours before being isolated, and that his nurse was allowed to treat other patients after treating him. If it did, the regs had better be modified again as soon as possible. These changes in regulations were Obama's mistake and not a Republican move. Bad news for the Democrats, but he should answer for it.


http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2012pres/05/20120510a.html

HHS finalizes new rules to cut regulations for hospitals and health care providers, saving more than $5 billion
May 10, 2012

Today, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced significant steps to reduce unnecessary, obsolete, or burdensome regulations on American hospitals and health care providers. These steps will help achieve the key goal of President Obama’s regulatory reform initiative to reduce unnecessary burdens on business and save nearly $1.1 billion across the health care system in the first year and more than $5 billion over five years.

Among other changes, the final rules will: 

Increase flexibility for hospitals by allowing one governing body to oversee multiple hospitals in a single health system; 

Let CAHs partner with other providers so they can be more efficient and ensure the safe and timely delivery of care to their patients; 

Require that all eligible candidates, including advanced practice registered nurses and physician assistants, be reviewed by medical staff for potential appointment to the hospital medical staff and then be granted all of the privileges, rights, and responsibilities accorded to appointed medical staff members; and

Eliminate obsolete regulations, including outmoded infection control instructions for ambulatory surgical centers; outdated Medicaid qualification standards for physical and occupational therapists; and duplicative requirements for governing bodies of organ procurement organizations.

To view the final rules, please visit www.ofr.gov/inspection.aspx.
For additional information on the Hospital and other CoPs, visit http://www.cms.gov/CFCsAndCoPs/01_Overview.asp.





Former hostage recalls Taliban "morality"
CBS NEWS October 15, 2014, 6:53 AM

Being held by the Taliban isn't a tale many survive to tell.

Now two years after his rescue, an American doctor is opening up about the four days he spent with his captors, reports CBS News correspondent Chip Reid.

"The very first thought that went through my mind is, 'crap, I can't believe this is happening,'" Dilip Joseph said.

Joseph made 10 trips to Afghanistan beginning in 2008. As the medical director of Morning Star Development, a non-profit group that trains health care workers in Afghanistan, he spent much of his time in rural villages.

He was well aware of the danger from the Taliban but managed to avoid any direct contact, until his last, horrifying trip.

"There was one from the back, one gunman from the back, and two advancing from directly in front," Joseph recalled. "We were surrounded, right away."

After spending the morning of December 5, 2012 at a remote medical clinic, Joseph, his Afghan interpreter and an Afghan colleague were driving down a road, returning to their base in Kabul, when suddenly a man armed with an AK-47 stepped out from a hiding place.

They were driven to a nearby valley, then forced at gunpoint to hike high into the mountains where captors demanded a ransom of $300,000. Joseph knew that was impossible.

"I knew almost certainly that I was going to die, and so I didn't want to be, excuse the language, pissed off right before I was about to die," he said.

So he decided to take a chance and talk to his Taliban tormentors through his interpreter. Most responded with threats of violence. But a 19-year-old named Wallakah wanted to talk.

"After hearing my life story, he kind of opened up about his own life story," Joseph explained. "He said, 'all I've seen in my life is killing people. This is all that I've seen from my father.'"

The teen named Wallakah treated him with compassion, but at the same time, Joseph described him as a killing machine.

"It was hard to come to grips with that," he said.

Another young fighter cried because he objected to the kidnapping.

Joseph saw another side to these two young men in particular, two men who are members of a Taliban group killing people and kidnapping for ransom.

"Glimmers of morality, and more than that -- I saw a lot of hope where we don't necessarily see hope," Joseph said.

But hopelessness soon returned.

"Something completely unexpected happened," he said. "Soon I am feeling a hand on my shoulder and one person at a time -- three of them -- came up at separate occasions, and wiped my tears"

He was sure they were going to kill him.

"Yeah, I didn't know what to expect by then," he recalled. "Certainly, you still want to grab onto hope, but you wonder whether you are just dreaming."

Joseph recounts the entire story in his recently published book, "Kidnapped by the Taliban" -- including the dramatic ending.

"The first thing I heard was a gunshot," he said. "Then I heard my name, 'is Dilip Joseph here?' and that hit me, 'boy this is a rescue.'"

It was SEAL Team Six, Joseph said, the same unit that killed Osama bin Laden.

But in that mission, success was mixed with tragedy: 28-year-old Petty Officer 1st class Nicolas Checque, a highly decorated SEAL, was killed.

"He died to save my life," he said. "It is hard to live with the idea that somebody died for my sake. The best that you can do is to honor them through your life, and that's exactly what I want to do."

Joseph said he will spend the rest of his life honoring Nicolas Checque by using his talent and his medical training to save lives.



“Joseph made 10 trips to Afghanistan beginning in 2008. As the medical director of Morning Star Development, a non-profit group that trains health care workers in Afghanistan, he spent much of his time in rural villages. He was well aware of the danger from the Taliban but managed to avoid any direct contact, until his last, horrifying trip.... So he decided to take a chance and talk to his Taliban tormentors through his interpreter. Most responded with threats of violence. But a 19-year-old named Wallakah wanted to talk. 'After hearing my life story, he kind of opened up about his own life story,' Joseph explained. 'He said, 'all I've seen in my life is killing people. This is all that I've seen from my father.'.... 'The first thing I heard was a gunshot,' he said. 'Then I heard my name, 'is Dilip Joseph here?' and that hit me, 'boy this is a rescue.' It was SEAL Team Six, Joseph said, the same unit that killed Osama bin Laden. But in that mission, success was mixed with tragedy: 28-year-old Petty Officer 1st class Nicolas Checque, a highly decorated SEAL, was killed.”

The two soft-hearted Taliban fighters were both young, and the one spoke of his father as being a violent man. I read in one news article that the Islamic religion is not the main cause of all this violence, but the hostile and in my opinion primitive tribal cultures that the Taliban and al-Qaeda come from. Things like the genital mutilation of young women, and in some places men, are definitely ancient practices and occur in many places around the world. In my anthropology survey course years ago an American Indian tribe used a similar thing on their men to mark their coming of age into manhood. It is also practiced in African tribes. The key word is “tribal cultures,” as they often retain many old traditional ideas and practices even in the modern world. In 1968 when I took my course a number of tribes were almost untouched by contact with outsiders. That's one of the problems with the Ebola epidemic. The people insist on eating traditional food which includes fruit bats (yum!) and they believe the disease is caused by witchcraft. It's very discouraging.





U.S. accused of hiding chemical weapons exposure to its own troops
CBS NEWS October 15, 2014, 7:37 AM

The U.S. government is accused of withholding knowledge about chemical weapons inside Iraq.

In one of the bitterest ironies of the Iraq War, a New York Times investigation found American soldiers suffered injuries after being exposed to chemical weapons discovered in Iraq.

The chemical weapons are not ones the U.S. went to war over, but old, discarded weapons manufactured during the 1980s with help from western countries, including the U.S., who were aiding Iraq in its war against Iran, CBS News correspondent David Martin reports.

The Pentagon previously acknowledged that some caches of old chemical weapons were found, but the New York Times identified 17 soldiers who were exposed to the weapons.

The weapons consisted of the nerve agent sarin and the burning agent mustard gas

The soldiers were quoted by the Times saying they were told to keep their discovery secret. As a result, they were denied proper medical treatment and the Purple Heart which soldiers receive when wounded on the battlefield.

One former sergeant is quoted by the times as saying "I felt more like a guinea pig than a wounded soldier."

And to add insult to injury, some of the shells were found in areas of Iraq now controlled by the terrorist group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

It is not known whether they could still use those weapons in the current battle for Iraq.




“In one of the bitterest ironies of the Iraq War, a New York Times investigation found American soldiers suffered injuries after being exposed to chemical weapons discovered in Iraq. The chemical weapons are not ones the U.S. went to war over, but old, discarded weapons manufactured during the 1980s with help from western countries, including the U.S., who were aiding Iraq in its war against Iran, CBS News correspondent David Martin reports.... The soldiers were quoted by the Times saying they were told to keep their discovery secret. As a result, they were denied proper medical treatment and the Purple Heart which soldiers receive when wounded on the battlefield.”

A number of years ago there was a news story (which had also been hushed up) of American soldiers being exposed to dangerous gases while incinerating them and having some ill effects, so unless this is a different set of weapons the story is not a new one. Failing to treat the soldiers correctly for the gas and refusing to give them their Purple Hearts is just scandalous. So much of the government secrecy that goes on is a case of CYA. I love my country, but I have sometimes been very much ashamed of what was done in the name of spreading democracy and national defense. I “remember where I was” when I first heard on the radio of the torture and pointless abuse that occurred at Abu Ghraib. This is another one of those stories.





Supreme Court steps in over Texas abortion law -- CBS
AP  October 14, 2014, 8:34 PM

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked key parts of a 2013 law in Texas that had closed all but eight facilities providing abortions in America's second most-populous state.

In an unsigned order, the justices sided with abortion rights advocates and health care providers in suspending an Oct. 2 ruling by a panel of the New Orleans-based U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that Texas could immediately apply a rule making abortion clinics statewide spend millions of dollars on hospital-level upgrades.

The court also put on hold a provision of the law only as it applies to clinics in McAllen and El Paso that requires doctors at the facilities to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. The admitting privileges rule remains in effect elsewhere in Texas.

Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas said they would have ruled against the clinics in all respects.

The 5th Circuit is still considering the overall constitutionality of the sweeping measure overwhelmingly passed by the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Rick Perry last year.

Even as it weighs the merits of the law, the appeals court had said it could be enforced -- opening the door for the emergency appeal to the Supreme Court.

"We're seeing the terrible impact these restrictions have on thousands of Texas women who effectively no longer have access to safe and legal abortion," said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "We're relieved that the court stepped in to stop this, and we hope this dangerous law is ultimately overturned completely."

Abortion opponents predicted they will ultimately prevail.

"This does not protect the health and safety of women who are undergoing abortion," said Joe Pojman, executive director of Texas Alliance for Life. "This is definitely a short-term loss, but not necessarily a long- term loss."

The 5th Circuit decision had blocked an August ruling by Austin-based U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel, who had found that requiring hospital-style upgrades was less about safety than making access to abortion difficult. Yeakel's ruling temporarily suspended the upgrade rules before they could go into effect Sept. 1 - and the order from the Supreme Court means they are on hold again.

Allowing the rules on hospital-level upgrades to be enforced -- including mandatory operating rooms and air filtration systems -- shuttered more than a dozen clinics across Texas.

Until the nation's highest court intervened, only abortion facilities in the Houston, Austin, San Antonio and the Dallas-Fort Worth areas remained open. And none was left along the Texas-Mexico border or outside any of the state's largest urban areas.

Some other clinics had closed even earlier amid enforcement of the rule on admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. That portion has already been upheld twice by the appeals court.

The fight over the Texas law is the latest over tough new abortion restrictions that have been enacted across the country. The office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican who is the favorite in next month's governor's race, is leading the defense of the law.

Democrat Wendy Davis launched her campaign for governor behind the celebrity she achieved through a nearly 13-hour filibuster last summer that temporarily blocked the law's passage. Davis said she was "thankful that women can continue to make their own personal decisions." Abbott's office said he would continue to defend the law.

Attorneys for the state have denied that Texas women would be burdened by fewer abortion facilities, saying nearly 9 in 10 would still live within 150 miles of a provider. The law's opponents note that leaves nearly a million Texas women embarking on drives longer than three hours to get an abortion.

Hilltop Women's Reproductive Services in El Paso has been referring women who want abortions to another clinic it owns in New Mexico. Gloria Martinez, Hilltop's administrative nurse, said she would call state officials Wednesday before deciding whether the clinic will resume performing abortions.




“The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked key parts of a 2013 law in Texas that had closed all but eight facilities providing abortions in America's second most-populous state. In an unsigned order, the justices sided with abortion rights advocates and health care providers in suspending an Oct. 2 ruling by a panel of the New Orleans-based U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that Texas could immediately apply a rule making abortion clinics statewide spend millions of dollars on hospital-level upgrades. The court also put on hold a provision of the law only as it applies to clinics in McAllen and El Paso that requires doctors at the facilities to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. The admitting privileges rule remains in effect elsewhere in Texas.... Democrat Wendy Davis launched her campaign for governor behind the celebrity she achieved through a nearly 13-hour filibuster last summer that temporarily blocked the law's passage. Davis said she was "thankful that women can continue to make their own personal decisions." Abbott's office said he would continue to defend the law.... Gloria Martinez, Hilltop's administrative nurse, said she would call state officials Wednesday before deciding whether the clinic will resume performing abortions.”

More dirty tricks here. This law is not about health, but about politics – the religious right is behind this law, which should be unconstitutional. I am glad that I don't live in Texas. There is a fairly large contingent of conservatives in FL, but not as many as in some other states. We don't have, usually anyway, a problem with police brutality and I see black and white couples fairly often on the street here. I encountered black people daily when I rode the bus to work and received no hostility from them. Our mayor who was elected within the last couple of years is a black Republican. I credit the high number of northerners who come down here to get away from the colder climate in NYC and other places with our more moderate political environment. Cities are better than small towns and rural places about race relations, of course. I am also grateful that there hasn't been a demand for the schools to teach creationism alongside evolution and there is no harassment of Jews and other non-Christian religions. Thank goodness the Supreme Court is acting to stop the Texas law, as it would probably otherwise be used as a precedent for other state laws of the same type. Several times recently the Supreme Court has intervened in a surprisingly “liberal” way. This is good news.





Riot police pepper spray Hong Kong protesters, arrest dozens – CBS
AP October 14, 2014, 10:16 PM

HONG KONG -- Hundreds of police officers moved in early Wednesday to clear pro-democracy protesters out of a tunnel outside the Hong Kong government headquarters, clashing with protesters in the worst violence since the demonstrations began more than two weeks ago.

Officers, many of them in riot gear and wielding pepper spray, pushed back the crowd and tore down barricades and removed concrete slabs the protesters used as road blocks around the underpass.

Reflecting Beijing's increasing impatience over the demonstrations in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory, a front-page editorial Wednesday in the People's Daily, the ruling Communist Party's mouthpiece, condemned the protests and said "they are doomed to fail."

"Facts and history tell us that radical and illegal acts that got their way only result in more severe illegal activities, exacerbating disorder and turmoil," the commentary said, referring to the activists.

"Stability is bliss, and turmoil brings havoc," it said.

The operation came hours after a large group of protesters blockaded the tunnel, expanding their protest zone after being cleared out of some other streets. The protesters outnumbered the police officers, who later returned with reinforcements to clear the area.

Police said they had to disperse the protesters because they were disrupting public order and gathering illegally. They arrested 37 men and 8 women during the clashes, which police said injured four officers. A police spokesman told local television that none of those arrested were hurt.

"I have to stress here that even though protesters raised their hands in their air it does not mean it was a peaceful protest," said the spokesman, Tsui Wai-Hung. He said some protesters kicked the officers and attacked them with their umbrellas.

Local television channel TVB showed footage of around six police officers taking a man aside, placing him on the ground and kicking him. Tsui did not provide details of the incident when questioned by reporters.

Officers took away many protesters, their hands tied with plastic cuffs, and pushing others out to a nearby park.

The student-led protesters are now into their third week of occupying key parts of the city to pressure the Asian financial center's government over curbs recommended by Beijing on democratic reforms.

The protests have been largely peaceful, but turned violent overnight, apparently in response to police stepping up action in the past two days to remove barricades and close in on the main protest zone.

Positions on both sides have been hardening since the government called off negotiations last week, citing the unlikelihood of a constructive outcome given their sharp differences.

The protesters want Hong Kong's deeply unpopular Beijing-backed leader, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, to resign. They also want the Hong Kong government to drop plans for a pro-Beijing committee to screen candidates for the inaugural election to choose his replacement.

Leung has said there is "almost zero chance" that China's government will change its rules for the election, promised for 2017.

The demonstrations have posed an unprecedented challenge to the government. Organizers say as many as 200,000 people thronged the streets for peaceful sit-ins after police used tear gas on Sept. 28 to disperse the unarmed protesters. The numbers have since dwindled.

Police have chipped away at the protest zones in three areas across the city by removing barricades from the edges of the protest zones, signaling growing impatience with activists' occupation of busy streets.

The clearance operation was the latest in a day of tit-for-tat actions between authorities and demonstrators that began Tuesday morning when police used chainsaws and sledgehammers to tear down barricades on a road on the edge of the protest zone.

Activists responded Tuesday evening by barricading the tunnel with tires, metal barricades, water-filled plastic safety barriers and concrete slabs taken from drainage ditches.

They used the slabs to form the shape of an umbrella on the road.

Umbrellas have become a symbol of the protests after demonstrators used them to protect themselves against pepper spray and tear gas used by police in an attempt to disperse them two weeks ago.

Beijing is eager to end the protests to avoid emboldening activists and others on the mainland seen as a threat to the Communist Party's monopoly on power.





“'Facts and history tell us that radical and illegal acts that got their way only result in more severe illegal activities, exacerbating disorder and turmoil,' the commentary said, referring to the activists. 'Stability is bliss, and turmoil brings havoc,' it said.... 'I have to stress here that even though protesters raised their hands in their air it does not mean it was a peaceful protest,' said the spokesman, Tsui Wai-Hung. He said some protesters kicked the officers and attacked them with their umbrellas.... Positions on both sides have been hardening since the government called off negotiations last week, citing the unlikelihood of a constructive outcome given their sharp differences.... The protesters want Hong Kong's deeply unpopular Beijing-backed leader, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, to resign. They also want the Hong Kong government to drop plans for a pro-Beijing committee to screen candidates for the inaugural election to choose his replacement.... They used the slabs to form the shape of an umbrella on the road. Umbrellas have become a symbol of the protests after demonstrators used them to protect themselves against pepper spray and tear gas used by police in an attempt to disperse them two weeks ago.”

These demonstrators have used largely symbolic actions, even including the police charge that they “attacked police with their umbrellas,” as an umbrella is hardly a deadly weapon. It's clearly a peaceful movement based on the Occupy activists in the US and Europe. I loved the government statement “Stability is bliss.” How very Chinese. Sounds like something Confucius would teach. The price for such “stability” is ironfisted control over everything in life. The price of our freedom here is that we have to listen to people whose views we hate, and allow them to say it and we have gridlock in Congress when attempting to improve life in some way. I definitely prefer our kind of problems in the US. There's no central government party here.





China's Nomads Have A Foot In Two Very Different Worlds – NPR
by ANTHONY KUHN
October 14, 2014

Zhaxi Cairang is trying to give his son a choice of two worlds to live in: the traditional, pastoral world of Tibetan nomads, which he has inhabited for most of his 59 years, or the modern urban lifestyle that most Tibetans experience in today's China.

Zhaxi made the transition himself about 15 years ago, when he left the grasslands and moved into the city of Yushu in western China's Qinghai province. Yushu sits on the eastern end of the Tibetan plateau. More than 95 percent of its residents are ethnic Tibetans.

I last visited Yushu in 2010, when a devastating earthquake killed around 3,000 people. Since then, the place has made a striking comeback. It's awash with government investment, new construction and new residents.

Zhaxi's apartment is clean and modern, with wood floors, a large television and a bottle of Jack Daniel's on a bookshelf.

The High Cost Of City Living

But Zhaxi says he plans to leave the apartment next year and go back to herding yaks. He says city life is OK, but he just doesn't have the skills he needs to afford it.

"The housing and subsidies the government gives us are great," he concedes. "We've got bathrooms, heat and running water. But they all cost a lot. On the grasslands, we burn yak dung for fuel, and we drink milk, all for free. It's not as comfortable, but there's less economic pressure on us."

Zhaxi took out a loan to pay for his current apartment. He plans to produce and sell his own yak meat, yak butter and yak yogurt until the loan is paid off.

Speaking of yak, there's also a food angle to Zhaxi's thinking. Unlike urbanites, Tibetan nomads don't grow or eat many vegetables. They mostly eat barley, yak and yak products.

Zhaxi serves me a dollop of unprocessed yogurt of the sort he makes, and I can taste exactly what he's talking about. The thick, creamy and sour stuff makes supermarket yogurt of the sort I'm used to seem insufferably runny, bland and insubstantial.

Maintaining Traditions

Zhaxi further explains that he moved into town so that his children could get an education. Now, he says he's moving out, in a sense, to continue their education.

"I want to show my children who have graduated from college how our ancestors have lived for generations," he says. "I want them to see that education can help them make it, but if they are unable to put the knowledge they've gained to use, they can always return to the grasslands."

Zhaxi's son, Cicheng Randing, who is sitting nearby in a T-shirt and baseball cap, grew up in vastly different circumstances from previous generations.

Unlike his father, he went to college, where he majored in Chinese — the language that any Tibetan who wants to get a good job in China these days needs to learn.

But, he says, that's not all there is to learn: "Now that I've studied other ethnic groups' knowledge and language, I must not forget my own people's culture. I think my dad's idea is great."

As of the end of last year, Qinghai officials say, they've settled just over half of the roughly 500,000 Tibetan nomads in the province.

Human rights groups say the policy is coercive and undermines Tibetans' culture and identity.

For many Tibetans, though, the issue is not so much modernization itself as control over it, and the right to choose which parts they want and don't want.

As a result, Zhaxi and his family and many other Tibetans are hedging. They have a foot in two worlds, one in the towns and another on the grasslands.

Zhaxi says he's just trying to help his children enjoy the benefits of modernization, without forgetting their Tibetan cultural roots.




“Zhaxi made the transition himself about 15 years ago, when he left the grasslands and moved into the city of Yushu in western China's Qinghai province. Yushu sits on the eastern end of the Tibetan plateau. More than 95 percent of its residents are ethnic Tibetans.... Zhaxi's apartment is clean and modern, with wood floors, a large television and a bottle of Jack Daniel's on a bookshelf. But Zhaxi says he plans to leave the apartment next year and go back to herding yaks. He says city life is OK, but he just doesn't have the skills he needs to afford it. 'The housing and subsidies the government gives us are great,' he concedes. 'We've got bathrooms, heat and running water. But they all cost a lot. On the grasslands, we burn yak dung for fuel, and we drink milk, all for free. It's not as comfortable, but there's less economic pressure on us.'Zhaxi took out a loan to pay for his current apartment. He plans to produce and sell his own yak meat, yak butter and yak yogurt until the loan is paid off. ... Zhaxi further explains that he moved into town so that his children could get an education. Now, he says he's moving out, in a sense, to continue their education. 'I want to show my children who have graduated from college how our ancestors have lived for generations,' he says. 'I want them to see that education can help them make it, but if they are unable to put the knowledge they've gained to use, they can always return to the grasslands.'... But, he says, that's not all there is to learn: 'Now that I've studied other ethnic groups' knowledge and language, I must not forget my own people's culture. I think my dad's idea is great.'... Zhaxi says he's just trying to help his children enjoy the benefits of modernization, without forgetting their Tibetan cultural roots....

Roots – anywhere in the world cultural traditions and connections are near to the heart of most people. This could have been a story about any American rather than a man from a strange sounding background and undoubtedly strange beliefs. This tie to past generations is a basic part of human psychology. It tells us at the deepest levels "who we are." I'm glad to see that Zhaxi has educated his children in the modern way, but is now allowing them to experience the traditional so they can make their own choice. I was surprised some years ago when I learned that the Amish of some rural Pennsylvania and Indiana areas do the same thing. They rear their children in a pretty rigid and tightly held manner, but when they reach adulthood they send their children to the city to experience the freedom there so that the kids will have a good basis for making a choice about where and how they want to live. They can stay on the farm and follow the traditions, or stay in the city and take a college degree that will give them a good life there. It is very humane and ultimately very wise, because when kids make a free choice of the Amish life they will stay with it.