Daily Aztec Story: Public health aid in San Ramon

San Ramon is covered in dust. It blows in with the wind and can clog a person's lungs. It is a permanent landmark in the colonia neighborhood inside the city of San Quentin, Mexico. San Diego State students and faculty who spent last weekend there wore hoods and sunglasses to shield themselves from dirt.

There were no complaints from the group who went there to provide humanitarian work and plan to go back in two months, Noe Crespo, an SDSU doctoral student, said.
San Ramon is a community with migrant workers who pick strawberries and cactus crops. The homes are plasterboard houses with minimal sanitation. Poverty is rampant. The population is indigenous and "largely ignored by health services from the Mexican government," Crespo said.

Twenty SDSU students traveled to San Ramon mainly to stress proper family planning. The trip was made possible by the Fred H. Bixby Foundation, which donated $589,000 to SDSU's Graduate School of Public Health. The donation enables SDSU students and faculty to continue humanitarian efforts in San Ramon for the next five years.

The public health project is a joint mission with approximately 140 people from SDSU, the Universidad de Baja California, the University of California San Diego and Rotary clubs from San Diego and other parts of California.

The community's dire situation was first identified by VIIDAI (an international health program for students), which used the first donation to field a survey. The family planning outreach was initiated after the survey found that the age for one-third of all first-time pregnancies was 16.

Teaching family planning is a house-to-house mission for the SDSU students consulting with young mothers. The average family size is five to 12 children, which is a problem for families who may not be able to financially support all the children.

To underscore this message, a group of fourth- and sixth-grade students were given an intensive three-hour course in family planning along with a commitment to educate their peers. Public health professor Stephanie Brodine said it was a necessary step.

"It was critical that we work with those at this young age, since on average, these women are having children in their early teenage years," Brodine said, according to an SDSU press release.

With two trips a year, the SDSU-supported public health programs at San Ramon are works in progress. Other projects include securing safe drinking water and fighting poor nutrition and anemia. A new kitchen was built in the elementary school to serve as operations base for the project.

The mission has its own rewards, project manager Lucy Cunningham said.
"We have medical students who take a break and go out and play soccer with kids," Cunningham said. "We (have) piles of donated toys and we set up one whole classroom on the last day as kind of a toy store and the kids get to pick a toy.

"The kids are beaming because they never get anything new."

Daily Aztec Story: Bahrain Explained

Justin Cooper, Contributor

Nasir bin al-Belooshi, Ph.D., ambassador from the Kingdom of Bahrain to the United States, will be speaking at San Diego State tonight as part of the guest lecture series "In the Name of God: The Role of Religion in Ethnic Conflict, Genocide and Terrorism."
The series, which is co-sponsored by the Charles Hostler Institute on World Affairs and the Fred J. Hansen Institute for World Peace, invites speakers from around the world to talk about the sometimes explosive connections between religion and society.
Al-Belooshi will be speaking on U.S.-Bahrain relations, and afterward, will respond to questions from the audience, Ronald Bee, SDSU professor and director of the Charles Hostler Institute said.
"The Bahraini ambassador will address the political and economic reforms that Bahrain has undertaken since 2004, including a recent free trade agreement that facilitates trade with the United States," Bee said. "Ambassador al-Belooshi visits us as a welcome guest to help us learn about his country and interact with San Diegans."
Al-Belooshi has served as ambassador to the United States since 2005. He previously worked as the executive director of the Central Bank of Bahrain and the executive director of the Arab Monetary Fund, according to Gina Speciale, SDSU media relations specialist.
Far from the bullets and bombs of Baghdad, Bahrain is a peaceful archipelago country that shares friendly ties with the United States. The United States military has long had base on Bahrainz and the U.S Fifth Fleet is stationed there. The oil-rich country is President George W. Bush's vision of a progressive Middle East: democratic and not radical. A constitutional Monarchy, Bahrain recently gave women the right to vote as part of sweeping reforms from the current King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.
It is a moderate Muslim country that is also home to people of the Christian and Hindu faiths.
Chin-Yeh Hostler, wife of former U.S Ambassador to Bahrain, Charles Hostler, said the country is good business for the world.
"More world banks choose Bahrain than any other (country) in the Middle East," she said. "It is a financial hub."
The speech is open to the public. It will be held at 7 p.m. today in Hardy Tower, room 140.

"Into Thin Air"

Note: Originally written for my Comp 301 class, a interesting course on the Computers and Ethics at SDSU. Professor Cynthia Chie hopes you will join next semester.



Photo: Apple CEO Steve Jobs


Newsweek technologist Stephen Levy is missing his MacBook Air. He does not know where it is or how to find it.
The laptop is really small reports Levy "the profile ranging from 0.76 to 0.16 inches." In fact Apple has boasted that the tiny computer can be squeezed into an envelope. This will surely be a source of problems, not pride for those who purchase the MacBook Air since those computers can be so easily laid somewhere, forgotten about, and then lost. To sum up his investigation, Levy theorizes that his wife threw out the Air while it was buried in some newspapers on the coffee table. The Air (with probably the exception of the i-Phone) has been been the trendy item of late for those who desire both power and portability. But maybe they should keep their MacBooks locked away and off the coffee table.

Daily Aztec story: "You can call it Sufi-rock."

Musical event to create new bonds

Pakistani rock star to perform with Indian and Jewish musicians at SDSU

Justin Cooper, Contributor

The Islamic and Jewish traditions are rich cultures with origins tracing back to Abraham, but it often seems the two faiths can agree on little. To help bridge this gap, musician and actor Salman Ahmad is using a tradition just as old - music.
Ahmad, along with world-renowned Tabla player Samir Chatterjee, is bringing his peaceful message to San Diego State for the event "Common Chords." They will be joined by violinist Yale Strom, a current professor and artist-in-residence with the San Diego State Jewish Studies Program.
"Common Chords" is an uncommon musical experience that brings together different viewpoints. Ahmad is a Pakistani of the Sufi Muslim tradition, Samir is Indian and Strom is Jewish.
"It is showing the common musical roots between Muslim, Islamic and Jewish music," Strom said. "(It uses) music as a step, as a basis for dialogue between Jews and Muslims. We have so many similarities culturally."
Strom said the show will serve as a musical workshop and platform for starting an intercultural dialogue.
On their own, the performers are good musicians, but Strom said the real magic comes later in the show when Ahmad, Chatterjee and others merge their talent and style to "jam together."
Ahmad's name may not be widely known in the United States, but he is a popular talent internationally. His band Junoon was dubbed "South Asia's answer to Santana" by the New York Times and has sold 25 million albums worldwide. His style is modern rock canvassing a traditional Sufi core. His lyrics blend poetry from the Qu'ran with the Sufi poets Rumi and Omar Khayyam.
He is also known for his humanitarian work. Ahmad performed at the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony and he has traveled across East Asia speaking about AIDS as a UN Goodwill Ambassador.
While Ahmad elicits rave reviews from his native Pakistan, he receives some criticism from those who find his music offensive to Islam.
"Common Chords" is not about what separates, but about what brings people together, said Ghada Osman, Ph.D. associate professor and director of the Center for Islamic and Arabic studies.
"It brings together two groups that are often thought of as in opposition, and focuses on their commonality and their humanity," Osman said.
The show begins at 7:00 p.m. today in the Smith Recital Hall.

Would Stepping Down be a Step Up?

This is not a rant. Merely a question and an investigation into the things many people hold for granted.

Yesterday my veteran and hoary Professor submitted this question to us on an assignment sheet as part of a much broader Linguistics handout.



"Should Bush resign?"



To the left leaning and those to the right upset by the Bush Administration, this may have an easy and emotionally pleasing answer. "Yes" and "by all means." But I ask who would replace President Bush?"

Why Vice President Dick Cheney of course.

Bush is a Neocon and Cheney is a Neocon's Neocon, known for his shadowy view of the world, notorious for his excesses in hunting, the CIA leak scandal, and his impressive influence in setting the policy of the Bush Administration. His control would be only made stronger by an ascension to the presidency.

And perhaps if both Bush and Cheney were ousted. Who would take the reins then?

Why Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of course.

I motion that the Presidency stays as is.