The Power of Social Media

Scrolling through Facebook, I stumbled upon a link shared by an old friend of mine who is currently in the Peace Corps. Her posts always catch my eye, as she is stationed in Senegal and frequently posts pictures of her trip. However, this post caught my eye for a different reason–it discussed the precautions individuals should make when posting pictures from their trips abroad. I immediately saved the link for a future blog post, as it reminded me of our in class discussions and our future collective course statement on medical voluntourism.

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What Is Necessary vs. What is Right

I think that in doing this project as a group, we are illustrating one of the issues that we came across in our readings with Octavia Butler: even though we try to be as inclusive as a democracy as possible, we still reject the ideas of others based on the majority. One group is always left out, or left unpleased with the end result. It illustrates that we ignore others for the sake of the majority. This is supposed to be a justification – the majority wants it, therefore it is fair, and we shall give it to them. But more so, it emphasizes to everyone that we are ok, we are fine, with ignoring the minority who did not want to do this project because we cannot think of a better option right now, in this instance. And it is all for the sake of the group. It is for the sake of our grade. It would seem that doing what is necessary is not always right. That those two words are not as synonymous as we typically take for granted. Although there seems to be multiple layers to doing this group final, it certainly illustrates this struggle on a smaller scale, with a smaller task.

Change as Positivity

To quote Lauren Olamina from Parable of the Sower, another Octavia Butler novel, “God is Change.”

Since change is inevitable—nothing is stagnant forever—it can be troubling to grapple with and can be extremely frightening. On the flip side, however, change can be positive and comforting. This can be seen through the character of Aaor in Imago when it is as close as construct possible to suicide, meaning that it might dissolve completely. Aaor’s physical body is responding to its mental state—with no possibility of finding human mates, Aaor is out of options and opportunity to thrive. It “almost lost itself” and even “suppressed its scent” (Butler 675), which are mental and physical indicators of its state of emergency. Even when Nikanj brings it “almost back to normal,” it has “no control left” and “drifts toward a less complex form” (681).  This can be attributed to not having an opportunity for a change in its life, since it is “deeply, painfully afraid, desperately lonely and hungry for a touch it could not have” (681).

When Aaor meets Jodahs’ mates, laying with them and Jodahs helps bring it back to its original form. Even with the hard work Jodahs, Tomás, and Jesusa do, once they break apart Aaor’s body starts to deteriorate again. Only when Aaor has the possibility of finding human mates does it start to hold its structure and keep itself together. In its narration, Jodahs reveals that it “suspected [Aaor] was surviving now only because of our combined efforts and its new hope of Human mates to bond with” (Butler 691), again showing that the hope for change is positive. Once Aaor finds mates, it “looked better than it had since its first metamorphosis. It looked stable and secure in itself. It looked satisfied” (712), which lends to change as positivity and the opportunity for a better life.

When one lacks the ability to change their situation, that is when desperation sets in. I am very much reminded of this when watching prison documentaries. In high maximum security jail cells, where inmates are locked up for twenty-three hours a day, if they have no opportunity to change their situation or privileges they will act out and often cause themselves physical harm. When given the opportunity to gain back some privileges, the inmates are often kinder to themselves and their mental states seem to be more stable. In extreme environments, the opportunity for change can mean the difference between life and death, or life and suffering.

The Barbie Savior

I find this class really funny. It isn’t because the course material is something to laugh about or even that we crake jokes in class. It is however the fact that you don’t realize the stuff we are talking about in class is a problem until you are told about it. It is like all of a sudden the world is a different place; you suddenly see the problem everywhere you look. And the place that is shocked me the most: medical volunteerism. Professor McCoy talks about it and shows us an article about it and then all of a sudden, I can’t not find ways to connect it. Continue reading “The Barbie Savior”

Identity and Disease

*Disclaimer: this blog post was written prior to the reading of Zone One*

This blog post is inspired by my classmate Emma’s blog post titled “What does it mean to be “human?”. Emma’s blog post got me thinking about the article we read in class about how humans are actually just made up of microbes, the assigned article about how a parasite living fish eyeball controls its behavior and the disease in Clay’s Ark. Upon reading these 3 pieces of literature I am pondering the question, at what point does a disease take our identity? Continue reading “Identity and Disease”

The American Phoenix

After the apocalypse in Zone One by Colson Whitehead, drastic changes have been made in the political structure of the United States. America is now referred to as the American Phoenix, and Buffalo, NY is now the capital city. For those of us native to western New York, this pulls our heartstrings a little bit. It’s endearing and somewhat comical. However, what comes as more of a strange shock is that the bird that once represented our country–the bald eagle–has been dethroned and replaced with a fiery mythological bird Continue reading “The American Phoenix”

Wounds That Never Heal: Regret

Chronic wounds are wounds that take more than three months to heal or years to heal. Sometimes, these wounds never heal. They scab over, open while oozing fluids, exerting pain with external contact. The Family Health Team (2015) assert that “while cancer can sometimes present as a chronic wound, chronic wounds typically fall into three main categories: diabetic ulcers, venous leg ulcers and pressure ulcers”. Diabetic patients with compromised immune systems might require amputations in the cases of chronic wounds and gangrene complications. These injuries might cause infections and even tissue death which can cause life threatening complications.  However, what about wounds that are not physical but hurt all the same or even more?  In his book, Discourse on Colonialism, Aime Cesaire likens gangrene to colonialism. A wound inflicted on Africa causing the death of culture, people and civilisations. The vulnerability is in the ” the nakedness of Africa where the scythe of Death swings wide”. (Aime Cesaire,1939. )The dismantling of heritage and traditions came with the advent of religion and conquest. On one hand,  the colonial masters gave religion and, with the other hand they took the essence of a naive people. Continents brought to their knees amid the throes of vain conquistador ambitions. Albeit separated by the Atlantic sea; the Americas and Africa would never be the same. What-ifs abound and in the midst of it lies regret, pain and longing lurking in the shadows. Colonialism inflicted wounds that would never heal across populations and regret inflicts wounds that would never heal across mindsets.

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Dental Coverage: You Have Options

While  reading “The Painful Truth About Teeth” by Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan, I found myself comparing my dental experiences with other people’s experiences described in the article. I also found myself becoming irritated while I read the article and how quickly some people place their lack of attentive dental care on the president. Continue reading “Dental Coverage: You Have Options”

Mutato Nomine, De Te Fabula Narratur

For those of you that don’t speak Latin (myself included), the title of my blog post reads “With the name changed, the story applies to you.” In class, we’ve read stories that had a tendency of revolving around the topics of racism, medicine, and literature (which is understandable given the course’s title).  Out of the six books and multiple online articles we’ve read this semester, I made a ‘both/and’ connection between Zulus by Percival Everett and Zone One by Colson Whitehead. Even though I’m not a fan of the doomsday genre of literature per se, I’ve realized that they’re inspiring nonetheless. The endings of both books leaves the reader to believe that the main characters follow through with the “forbidden thought” (suicide) like Professor McCoy explained to us. Continue reading “Mutato Nomine, De Te Fabula Narratur”