UAE Censorship in Private Schools

Our very good friend, the UAE, has seized all history textbooks from an American-operated private school, because it considers that the textbooks "smell of racism."

Just what did the UAE's Ministry of Education find to be offensive and racist? According to the Khaleej Times, the textbooks presented Islam and Muslim countries in the Middle East in a negative light and Israel in a positive light. To wit, "Israel is one of a few democracies in North Africa and the Middle East today. Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Morocco are all kingdoms; the country of Syria has sponsored terrorism by giving aid to radicals in the Palestine Liberation Organisation, known as the PLO."

Further, the article reports that "While there are clamour for change in the Middle East, one has to understand that these are the books coming from the so called 'free world'. This is a typical example of how textbooks are used to manipulate the thoughts of young minds," affirmed [Asst. Under Secretary to Foreign Private Education] Juma.

What's interesting is that the private school had been using the textbook, World Cultures, for a number of years without any problems. But now that the UAE is under closer world scrutiny, this comes up. Kind of makes one wonder just a bit more about the veracity of GW Bush's labelling of the UAE as a "good friend."

Can we now begin to expect that shipments coming into this country through UAE-operated ports will be seized if they are deemed to be offensive to the UAE?

Textbook of American school in capital seized over ‘smell of racism’

Depression and Chronic Pain

This is just an interesting example of how free-form thought on the Internet can produce surprising results. For instance, in my last post, I was trying to find a web site that spoke about suicidal ideation, and I came across this site:

Understanding Chronic Pain

I knew that there was some sort of a relationship between pain and depression. For instance, people who are depressed often experience headaches, back pain, joint pain, and abdominal pain. Of this list, I would say that the major symptom in my case is the back pain that I have -- nothing else can explain it. In fact, one study states

Up to two-thirds of those with unexplained pain meet the criteria for major depression

Now, take what they have to say about chronic pain and depression:

Consider some of the more devastating psychological effects of chronic pain:

1. Loss of mobility. Chronic pain and suicide ideation have been shown to be strongly related. However, recent research shows that chronic pain is usually a secondary cause of suicide ideation. One of the chief intermediary factors is the severe effect that chronic pain has on limiting mobility. Being unable to move around comfortably, constantly being constrained by pain, being unable to enjoy normal sexual relations with one's spouse or carrying one's children without fear of injury leaves a damaging mark on the sufferer's emotions.

2. Depression. Patients with depression are also heightened in their perception of pain, and will very often be reluctant to carry out treatment modules provided to them for fear of encountering more pain. The combination of immobility and depression leads to irritability, nervousness (or anxiety) and an unhealthy desire for isolation. Marital conflicts develop and escalate. As depression sets in, chronic pain patients tend to become more angry, easily frustrated, often moody, and plagued with feelings of hopelessness.

6. Anxiety. Pain may feature in anxiety disorders because of increased muscle tension or spasms. Tension headaches, post-infarct precordial pain and other pain syndromes affecting the musculoskeletal system may occur. Patients injured in motor-vehicle accidents often suffer from flashbacks of the accident, frequent nightmares, fear of driving or crossing the street, and extreme anxiety when returning to the site of the accident.

I was involved in a fatal automobile accident in January 2002. I don't remember anything about the accident, and have only one flashback: waking up and screaming uncontrollably due to the unbearable pain of being pulled out of my car by rescue workers. Apparently, the accident was a head-on collision on the Napeague stretch of Montauk Highway in Amagansett, New York. I was driving a 1999 Oldsmobile Alero, and I collided, head-on, with an Audi. I wound up in the emergency room; the driver of the Audi wound up in the morgue.

I realize that I have a lot of work to do in terms of dealing with this accident, and its outcome. Some people think that I merely fell asleep at the wheel, because the accident occurred around 8:30 at night. But those who knew me at the time would discount this; I worked nights and maintained a night schedule, even when not working. So 8:30pm was, to me, more like 8:30am to most.

My depression pre-dates my accident. Back in 1999, my friend Val, who is a Spiritual Counselor with a New York State Certification in School Psychology, suspected that I was suffering from chronic depression and a generalized anxiety disorder. She suspected that I've had the depression for quite some time -- probably dating back at least to my teenage years. I've been trying to get treatment for the depression ever since then, but without health insurance, it can be quite expensive, and difficult to obtain.

Currently, I'm not in treatment for my mental health issues, but I'm trying to get back into treatment. I know that my depression is a major cause of things not going right in my life. For instance, the reason I didn't finish law school was because I went into a double-depression while I was in law school, and that basically was the cause of my dismissal, although at the time, I didn't even know that I was depressed or had chronic depression.

So I have all of this chronic pain from the car accident, and that interacts with my depression, which makes the pain feel worse to me, which makes the depression worse, and it gets into this really vicious cycle. I used to be in pain management (after the accident, while my insurance was active for a time) but stopped going because of lack of insurance. Most of what they did was put me on painkillers, and let me tell you right now: the only painkiller I miss is the Celebrex. The side-effects of the other painkillers (mostly the opiates) were horrendous, and I really don't ever want to be put back on opiates for any length of time. Besides, the opiates didn't even fully take away the pain.

So, what should I do? Any suggestions for dealing with chronic pain and chronic depression?

More US Hypocrisy: UAE takeover of US shipping ports

Well, the good old George W. Bush-defended UAE has continued its policy of censoring web sites. This time, they've struck out against one of the sites I regularly visit: Boing Boing.

I've recently blogged about United States hypocrisy regarding its chastising of US search engine companies operating in China and adhereing to Chinese local laws governing censorship of the Internet. But now, the UAE, which censors the Internet for its citizens, has been granted control of perhaps the six largest US shipping ports. Where's the public outcry from the administration/government officials here? I certainly can't find any. Can you?

In its article, Boing Boing points out that US President George W. Bush has recently defended a UAE takeover of control and administration of six of the United States's international shipping ports:

"I think it sends a terrible signal to friends around the world that it's OK for a company from one country to manage the port, but not a country that plays by the rules and has got a good track record from another part of the world can't manage the port," Bush said.

There's just one (well, at least one) problem with Bush's rationale, and I recently explained it to my fellow New York State Young Republicans:

[T]here is a major difference between Great Britain and the UAE administering our ports: Great Britain is a NATO ally with whom we have a long-standing treaty governing the mutual defense of our countries; the UAE is not a NATO ally and we have no such treaty with them. I would have a problem with any non-NATO ally having complete control over a portion of our internal infrastructure.

And speaking of allies, is the UAE even any sort of ally to the United States?

By the way, you might be interested to know that the track record of that "country with a good track record from another part of the world" to which Bush refers (the UAE) consists of the following:

• The UAE was one of three countries in the world to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.
• The UAE has been a key transfer point for illegal shipments of nuclear components to Iran, North Korea and Lybia.
• According to the FBI, money was transferred to the 9/11 hijackers through the UAE banking system.
• After 9/11, the Treasury Department reported that the UAE was not cooperating in efforts to track down Osama Bin LadenÂ’s bank accounts.

**UPDATE:** NPR has more information about the UAE's ties to terrorist groups. Even the US Department of Homeland (Stupidity) objected to the UAE takeover. Finally, UPI is reporting that the UAE company will be in control of 21 ports, not the six initially reported.

Police Intimidation / Misconduct

I used to be an ardent support of the police -- those uniformed women and men in blue whose jobs it is to protect our lives. But lately, and especially after some recent interactions I've had with them lately -- including one where a certain Town of Harrison Police Department Detective commanded patrol officers not to render any aid or assistance to me in my request to be taken to a psychiatric hospital because I was feeling suicidal (with the assistance of a patrolman who ignored the detective's orders, I was helped to a psychiatric facility where I was treated for my chronic depression/suicidal ideation on an inpatient basis for approximately two months) -- has both left me with a bitter taste in my mouth, as well as shattered my faith in the police to be fair and honest.

This story is just one of what I'm certain are thousands of incidents that occur aross our country on an all-too-frequent basis.

CBS 4 - South Florida's Source for Breaking News, Weather, and Sports: Officer Takes Action Against CBS4 After Story Airs

Paying for Restrictions on Freedom & the QOTD

True or false: We live in a free society?

Sadly, the answer to that question, in my opinion, is becoming more false than true as time marches on, especially in today's day and age. And now, we're going to have to pay -- out of our own pockets, so to speak -- for some of the restrictions that are increasingly being placed upon us. Thanks to Nelson Minar, a Google employee, for the heads-up on this story:

College campuses in the US are being asked to foot the bill to allow law enforcement to eavesdrop on their students' online conversations.

What's that, you didn't know that law enforcement was eavesdropping on the online activities of the American higher education system? The Electronic Frontier Foundation explains it all.

Additional resources on this or related topics include Wikipedia's article about the current controversy of the United States spying on its citizens;the Foreign Policy In Focus think tank's wonderful article by a retired U.S. Army Colonel covering the subject of domestic spying activities, and Alex Jones's excellent analysis of the United States Patriot Act II, aka the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003. Also be sure to check out the analysis of the Patriot Act II by the ACLU.

With the severe erosion of personal liberties that have been occurring lately, I'm beginning to think that Al Qaeda has won their little war against us. And that reminds me of this famous little pearl of wisdom from Benjamin Franklin:

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | US comedy star Knotts dies at 81

My first entertainment-related post, and it has to be a downer.

The first time I saw Don Knotts on television was as his portrayal of landlord Ralph Furley in the 1980s hit sitcom, Three's Company.

Knotts was a prolific entertainer; he has 113 entries in the Internet Movie Database.

Thanks for all the laughs, Don. I'll certainly be one of those who will miss your slapstick wit.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | US comedy star Knotts dies at 81