Dec 20, 2006

Biting Back

There was this detail from a story in the New York Times....

"As soldiers paraded by a grandstand with top American and Iraqi military officials, as well as dozens of tribal leaders, a group of commandos with their faces blackened gathered for a demonstration of their courage. Each man reached into his right pocket, pulled out a frog and bit its head off. They threw the squirming legs to the ground as the group’s leader held aloft a live rabbit. He slit the belly and plunged his mouth into the gash. The carcass was then passed around to the rest of the soldiers, who took their own bites. It was explained later that this practice was especially popular among Saddam Hussein’s feared Fedayeen militia, whose members had done the same thing with live snakes and wolves."

Dec 4, 2006

From northwestern Kenya

yesterday i was in the middle of a meeting when i got a call from kapenguria. there's a 3-year old who's just been raped and they need to put her on ARVs (to prevent transmission of HIV). they can't find any of the clinicians. took us an hour, but finally managed. all the while, the little, 10 kg girl was lying in the wards, her parents mute beside her.