We are doctors and scientists, who spend our lives developing means to care and protect health and lives. We are also informed people; we teach the ethics of our professions, together with the knowledge and practice of it. We all have worked in and known the situation of Gaza for years.
On the basis of our ethics and practice, we are denouncing what we witness in the aggression of Gaza by Israel.
We ask our colleagues, old and young professionals, to denounce this Israeli aggression. We challenge the perversity of a propaganda that justifies the creation of an emergency to masquerade a massacre, a so-called “defensive aggression”. In reality it is a ruthless assault of unlimited duration, extent, and intensity. We wish to report the facts as we see them and their implications on the...
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At my age I should be in a certain way. Please don’t stop me being the way I am. I don’t want to be old and sick like many others of my age. Please don’t create another old person.
So even when I am rocking on the stage, they are totally hard on me. They demand the musical standard of a classic musician and attack me for the rhythm or some notes which are not precisely in tune. I am not concerned with what my voice is doing. If I was, what you experience would not be. My voice will be dead, once I am concerned about it, in the way you are asking me to. Go to a classical concert, if you want to hear a “trained” voice. What I escaped from when I was very, very young. I created my own niche. If I tried to present you classic music it won’t be what I created. You don’t get that way, with...
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Dear Oprah,
Do you remember when you learned to read, or like me, can you not even remember a time when you didn't know how? I must have learned from having been read to by my family. My sisters and brother, much older, read aloud to keep me from pestering them; my mother read me a story every day, usually a children's classic, and my father read from the four newspapers he got through every evening. Then, of course, it was Uncle Wiggily at bedtime.
So I arrived in the first grade, literate, with a curious cultural assimilation of American history, romance, the Rover Boys, Rapunzel, and The Mobile Press. Early signs of genius? Far from it. Reading was an accomplishment I shared with several local contemporaries. Why this endemic precocity? Because in my hometown, a remote village in...
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To all those who will not reply,
I'm now discussing the ENDEMIC issue of those reaching out and being flatly, and ignorantly, ignored.
This rant, and this will be a rant (or a whinge depending on your opinion) is on behalf of myself, of you, of the young, of the creative, of the hopeful, of the determined, of the failures - Primarily aimed at those reaching out for help, for a hand, for an opportunity - but those reaching out, and receiving nothing in return.
We are steeled from a young age to accept rejection and failure. "Fall down seven times get up eight" - the old saying springs to mind. Rejection is the norm in all aspects of life, as we are not everyone's cup of tea - In love, friendship and career. Rejection is a GIANT positive for it is only by rejection and failure that...
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Dear Ellen,
Yesterday morning, I awoke to discover you spoke to me directly on your nationally syndicated, award-winning talk show. I was stunned and humbled because I believe you are such an incredibly gifted comedian with a God-given gift to entertain and make people feel genuinely valued. You also have a megawatt smile that simply makes people feel happy.
You concluded your remarks to me and the audience by saying, "The only way I'm trying to influence people is to be more kind and compassionate with one another." That's one of my goals as well, and in that same spirit, can I appeal to you to consider some thoughts although we share different worldviews?
Contrary to what many may think having heard some quotes from my article, I approach you not as an angry, mean-spirited "...
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Have you lived, loved and learned, and reached the step where you want your ex, or maybe your ex's new partner, to know about it? Would you like complete strangers to know about it, too? Then the only next step is to publish an open letter to them on the Internet for millions to read detailing your humility. Here's how to go about this great idea: Don't.
But people are doing it anyway, and I'm not sure exactly what tipped the scales toward this trend of open letter writing to old loves. They could just… write the letter to the actual person and accomplish the same thing? I understand the impulse to clear things up or resolve wrongs or apologize after the fact, but publishing these direct, heartfelt, nutso-generous narratives for public consumption is a thing now—HuffPo even recently...
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Dear open letters,
I wasn't going to write this but, after witnessing the week you've just had, it has become apparent that somebody needs to pull you to one side and give you a stern talking-to. I've decided that this person should be me. I've also decided that this talking-to should come in the form that you're most comfortable with, with all the self-righteousness and pretend intimacy and confused intentions that it entails. So this is what I have to say … and it is said in the spirit of transparently opportunistic bandwagon-jumping.
I am increasingly concerned that those around you have led you to believe that it is in any way "cool" to be used as a legitimate response to all public events. While I am aware that you started with the best intentions in the world – good work on...
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Respected Pradhanmantri Narendra Modiji,
With due respect and faith, I am writing this letter because I know you are a justice loving person. In India, it is a crime to be honest, to oppose injustice and to rise for one's rights. Having seen the country, I hope you will agree that self-respect of an employee today is just like a football, only to be kicked and crushed by those in power. But everything has a limit.
My father is an ordinary Indian. He works as Head Commercial Clerk in Raipur (SECR), Indian railways, always overtime and underprivileged. Even in spite of acute staff shortage and suffocating working conditions, it is the handful people like him who have still kept the railways breathing in the ICU. He worked 12 hours a day, but did not complain. He has been waiting for...
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Hi Ryan, it's Sean! It's nice to finally meet you here, since you haven't replied to any of my queries via Twitter. That's understandable, as you must be busy - what with all of the shibe memes to comb through and "Snapchat selfies" to compile. After all, the next big BuzzFeed post doesn't write itself! [It does write itself. - Ed.]
Anyway, you seem like a pleasant enough guy. In a parallel universe, right at this moment, we might find ourselves bellied up to the very same bar, sipping whiskey or beer and talking about our beloved Red Sox. (Which Will Middlebrooks do you think shows up this Spring? The 2012 version or the 2013?)
However, we live in this universe. It's the one in which you painted me as racist in front of a half-million people.
It all started innocently enough....
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At the tender age of just fifteen we think we know everything. We shrug off our loved one’s advice, shake our heads at what our friends say and sod the media’s response. Megan Stammers could be the rule, she could even be the exception in this case. A young girl that has been pictured a victim of a child abduction scenario, yet to me this feels entirely wrong. The term ‘it takes two to tango’ rings a few bells in relation to this, but when one of those is someone under the age of consent, things start to look a bit iffy. And when the other is a man in a position of trust, heads begin to shake and tongues begin to tut.
We could say it is a modern Romeo and Juliet, we could say he’s a pedophile. But what we don’t know is what goes on behind closed doors. Megan Stammers (15) and Jeremy...
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