In the growing electracy visual images will become prevalent. Ulmer posits the “juxtaposition of documents from two domains” will forge “human sensory [to do] its rest.” With the pervasiveness of mediation of images in our society , it is certain to state that the placement of images effects the interpretation. Ulmer later reiterates, “If a correspondence exists, the feeling occurs as an event.” Thus the product of correlated images can enact a sense of realism. Ulmer’s analysis presents an inevitable danger that will occur within electracy. Since we are taught to read words in coherency, we attribute these measures to analyzing images.
Ulmer posits that in electracy we must learn how to re write images, especially events of disaster and commemoration. Through Memorial will take a disaster as a “guide to the egent’s own experience, to reveal in it this ATH already at work.” This alerts and achieves an emergent self-consciousness in a group.
Learning electracy is crucial to the ability to challenge infrans (representation or figuration) and the simulacrum of images that emerge from a transversal message. Ulmer uses the murders of children lend themselves to resoneon (both the sizzle and the stake). Part of the purpose of this “mediation is to consider the modality of de-consulting.” Ulemer later posits that it is our responsibility or “agency” in individuals and collective identities to categorize images.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
IML project
IML 340: Brain Dead Sources
From Jomana KaradshehCNN
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq announced Monday it will let doctors carry firearms, one of several measures aimed at trying to keep medical workers from leaving the war-torn country.
An Iraqi doctor hands out medications at a neighborhood clinic in Baghdad.
More than 2,200 doctors and nurses have been killed and more than 250 kidnapped since 2003, when the U.S.-led invasion was launched, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a March report.
The government also said doctors can't be detained by police without Ministry of Health approval, and security at doctors' offices and hospitals will be bolstered.
The government also is developing advertising campaigns, setting standard rates for checkups at private clinics, working to establish residential compounds and coming up with attractive salaries to entice refugee physicians to return home.
"Of the 34,000 registered doctors in 1990, at least 20,000 have left the country," the Red Cross report said.
"The Iraqi health-care system is now in worse shape than ever," the report said. "Five years after the war began, many Iraqis do not have access to the most basic health care. There is a lack of qualified staff and many hospitals and health-care facilities have not been properly maintained."
A Health Ministry official said 8,000 doctors had left their jobs since 2003, with some fleeing the country but others simply keeping a low profile because they were afraid to go to work.
This year, about 800 doctors have returned to their jobs, the official said. But doctors have told CNN that most of those are not the doctors who have earned superior reputations over the years.
Iraqi medical crisis as doctors flee
By John Leyne BBC News, Amman
For the people of Iraq, it may be the ultimate nightmare.
Iraq's remaining doctors face a lack of basic medical equipment
The ordeal continues for victims of Iraq's violence when they are taken to hospital.
Most of the best medical staff have left after being targeted by insurgents. Many have fled the country just in the last few months.
Drugs and equipment are almost non-existent. The notorious militias target patients inside hospitals, and doctors inside the health ministry.
All this in a country that used to pride itself on the best medical services in the Middle East.
You can reach a hospital easily, but there is no one to deal with you. And if they do deal with you they might come and kill you afterwards
Iraqi doctor in Jordan
Many of the doctors have gone to neighbouring Jordan. There seem to be many thousands here, all with graphic tales of the horrors they have witnessed.
I walked into one Amman hospital, and immediately found four top Iraqi doctors, all British-trained and with world class skills.
They did not want to be named, because they have families in Iraq, but their stories are riveting.
"By the time I left the hospital, there was a great shortage of medicines. Nursing staff was zero," said a professor of neurology.
"In the college where I used to teach, five consultants were killed, assassinated.
"Before I left, I was doing a tour with my resident staff. I looked at the ward, I looked at the beds, and I said in a very loud voice: 'This hospital is not good even for pets. No medicines, no bed linens, the smell is very bad. Sewage is out on the floor.'"
He said that at one point all the operating theatres in his hospital were shut down for three weeks because no oxygen cylinders were available.
Another doctor described what happens to Iraqis who go to hospital for treatment after a bomb attack.
"You can reach a hospital easily, but there is no one to deal with you. And if they do deal with you they [militias] might come and kill you afterwards," he said. "Patients will leave because they are threatened.
"I left my hospital because two of my managers in that hospital were killed inside the hospital."
A third doctor said: "When there is a bomb and patients are coming, services are overwhelmed.
"There are very few skilled people to deal with the patients. So most of the wounded, the seriously wounded, will die."
'Kidnapping risk'
Doctor after doctor described how armed gangs have now infiltrated not just the hospitals, but the health ministry itself.
Another of this group of doctors, a top cardiologist, described how they met the Iraqi health minister in Amman recently.
"He told us that he can't do anything, because he is sitting on one floor. The floor above him belongs to one of the militias, the floor below belongs to another militia. He can see people fighting inside his ministry."
"None of the doctors can go inside the ministry of health because he will be kidnapped," chipped in another of the doctors.
"If they go in, they will not go out."
As for the billions of dollars spent on reconstruction, these doctors say they saw a little of it. But most was wasted on shoddy furniture and poor decorations.
Some money has gone on high-tech machinery. But it is useless, say the doctors, because no one knows how to use it. They believe the equipment was only bought so that officials could siphon off part of the funds.
'Stolen medicines'
As I left the doctors, I met an Iraqi patient waiting for treatment, a pharmacist.
She described going into a filthy maternity ward in Iraq, with rats the size of cats.
Although she was only trained as a pharmacist, she could see one of the expectant mothers needed her blood pressure tested. There was no doctor around, so she tried to help. But there was not even the equipment for that simple test.
As for the other facilities, "there was some medication, but they were stolen by the assistant pharmacist," she said.
"They came back in the night and want to sell me the medication."
Later I met the doctors again. They said that whatever horror stories they had told about the medical situation, however bad it sounded, it was actually worse.
Sheko Mako in Iraq
I flew East,You flew West, Iraq flew over the Cuckoo's nest.
Saturday, 21 July 2007
From the Diary of an Iraqi doctor It is the dream of every middle class Iraqi family to see her son or daughter becoming a doctor, and my family was not an exception. My mother always wished her son to be a doctor one day, not an engineer or a lawyer. I still remember my uncle’s advice “If you become an engineer, prepare yourself to be a taxi driver afterwards”. But what about me? What did I want to be in the future at that time in late 80s? The answer was simply: I do not know. I suddenly found myself achieving high marks in the “Backaloria Exam, which is the equivalent of GCSE in England” that enabled me to register with any college I like. To fulfil my mother’s dream, I decidedly joined the Medical College and finished my studies successfully. However, these years were not easy ones. Everything was changing around me and the socio-political atmosphere was very tense. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the UN sanctions, the defeat of the Iraqi army and its withdrawal from Kuwait, the uprising in the South and North of Iraq which was brutally smashed few weeks later and finally the beginning of the biggest wave of Iraqi exodus. Doctors were always among the first professionals who fled the country in hundreds and may be thousands. As the years went by I’ve realised that I will not be a good doctor. I occasionally attended lectures and clinical sessions and most of my time was divided between playing basketball and chatting with my friends. It was simply a natural continuation to my high school days. I hated wearing suits and ties. Instead, I always wore Jeans trousers, T-Shirts and trainers. I did not go to the graduation ceremony and believe it or not I did not take the Hippocratic Oath traditionally taken by doctors pertaining to practice Medicine all over the world. The post graduation medical training in Iraq was very much disappointing compared to our expectations when we were students. At that time in mid 90s, there was a significant rise of anti-medical sentiments. And we doctors were responsible for curing people in almost completely collapsed medical services due to unfair sanctions. Moreover, we found ourselves, after 6 years of study, getting paid a monthly salary of $2.00 only. As a natural result, many left the profession and entered the world of Business and hundreds fled the country seeking better opportunities elsewhere. Jordan, Yemen, Libya and later on Oman and UAE became compulsory destinations for those who left Iraq because no other country was willing to issue visa to any Iraqi. These were the transit stations in the long exile journey to the West, and specifically UK, the ultimate destination for thousands of doctors from all over the world. Once I arrived to UK, another “internal exile” journey has begun albeit differently. Here you realise that, apart from your primary medical qualifications, all your work experience was meaningless and unworthy and you have to start all over again doing re-qualification exams. I did that successfully, like hundreds of “fresh off the boat” doctors. However; all my efforts were smashed on a solid rock named “The Home Office”. As a failed asylum seeker for four bloody years I was not only prohibited from work, but also from the basic rights of receiving treatment and having a decent place to live in. simply we were unwanted and unwelcome in this country and I became legally known as “illegal immigrant” or “a failed asylum seeker waiting for deportation back to his home country”. And here you will find yourself driven to a new world and a new experience called “the black market”. I still remember my first illegal job here in the UK as an onion picker in a field of many big farms employing hundreds of illegal workers from all over the “hungry” world. And I always tell my friends that Britain should be proud of its “multicultural black market” exactly in the same way we hear repeatedly in the news about the British Society and how they are proud of their diversity. My first “illegal” wages were £9.00 for working from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. I worked for two days only there and then I made a good progress in my second “black, hidden, underground” job. I worked as a labourer with an Iraqi Kurdish carpenter for £25.00 per day. It was a big achievement. I worked three weeks with him and later I moved to London where I worked as a carpet cleaner for one week only. I got £35.00 per day this time and I was climbing the “black market Economy” stairs slowly but steadily. finally came my last, but the longest job which was to some extent “professional” and I used all my English language and communication skills this time properly. It was a receptionist in a youth hostel. Approximately three years of my life were spent behind a reception desk. At that time I believed that I will not come back to the medical profession. It did not bother me very much as I was not keen about it from the beginning but the only thing that kept worrying me was how disappointing to my mother to see her “doctor” son working in cheap jobs rather than his “precious” profession. However; since then the situation has dramatically changed. Unexpectedly the Home Office changed its mind about my status and allowed me to stay legally in this country and I have to stand up to the challenge of building my shattered medical career once again. Twelve years after graduation and I have to start all over again and most likely I will find myself in a specialty other than the one I really want or practiced before and under the supervision of an English or Asian doctor few years younger than me. It was at this time, I have realised that I am not too young anymore. And to make things worse, my registration with the General Medical Council came one day after the news of the failed attempt of Bilal Abdullah, the Iraqi Doctor, who tried to detonate his packed-with-explosive car at Glasgow Airport. But most importantly shall I be able to cope with the restrictions, policies and demands of the medical authorities here. In the “good doctor guide” sent along with my GMC registration license, the words “you must” were mentioned nearly 75 times. And if eighteen years ago I did not know whether I would like to be a doctor or not, now the question that buzzes in my head “do I still have the energy, physically and mentally, to carry on with the profession? The answer is simply again: I don’t know.
Posted by Sheko Mako at Saturday, July 21, 2007
Links to other sources:
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/ArticlesIraq2.htm
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/syria/000585.php
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/03/iraq/main4317562.shtml
http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=106&sid=1453140
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMfTb7ist3A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vyu0-KwJcc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeJlhX6rut8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gb1Y7GnRPghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rytrQucGrXk&feature=related
From Jomana KaradshehCNN
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq announced Monday it will let doctors carry firearms, one of several measures aimed at trying to keep medical workers from leaving the war-torn country.
An Iraqi doctor hands out medications at a neighborhood clinic in Baghdad.
More than 2,200 doctors and nurses have been killed and more than 250 kidnapped since 2003, when the U.S.-led invasion was launched, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a March report.
The government also said doctors can't be detained by police without Ministry of Health approval, and security at doctors' offices and hospitals will be bolstered.
The government also is developing advertising campaigns, setting standard rates for checkups at private clinics, working to establish residential compounds and coming up with attractive salaries to entice refugee physicians to return home.
"Of the 34,000 registered doctors in 1990, at least 20,000 have left the country," the Red Cross report said.
"The Iraqi health-care system is now in worse shape than ever," the report said. "Five years after the war began, many Iraqis do not have access to the most basic health care. There is a lack of qualified staff and many hospitals and health-care facilities have not been properly maintained."
A Health Ministry official said 8,000 doctors had left their jobs since 2003, with some fleeing the country but others simply keeping a low profile because they were afraid to go to work.
This year, about 800 doctors have returned to their jobs, the official said. But doctors have told CNN that most of those are not the doctors who have earned superior reputations over the years.
Iraqi medical crisis as doctors flee
By John Leyne BBC News, Amman
For the people of Iraq, it may be the ultimate nightmare.
Iraq's remaining doctors face a lack of basic medical equipment
The ordeal continues for victims of Iraq's violence when they are taken to hospital.
Most of the best medical staff have left after being targeted by insurgents. Many have fled the country just in the last few months.
Drugs and equipment are almost non-existent. The notorious militias target patients inside hospitals, and doctors inside the health ministry.
All this in a country that used to pride itself on the best medical services in the Middle East.
You can reach a hospital easily, but there is no one to deal with you. And if they do deal with you they might come and kill you afterwards
Iraqi doctor in Jordan
Many of the doctors have gone to neighbouring Jordan. There seem to be many thousands here, all with graphic tales of the horrors they have witnessed.
I walked into one Amman hospital, and immediately found four top Iraqi doctors, all British-trained and with world class skills.
They did not want to be named, because they have families in Iraq, but their stories are riveting.
"By the time I left the hospital, there was a great shortage of medicines. Nursing staff was zero," said a professor of neurology.
"In the college where I used to teach, five consultants were killed, assassinated.
"Before I left, I was doing a tour with my resident staff. I looked at the ward, I looked at the beds, and I said in a very loud voice: 'This hospital is not good even for pets. No medicines, no bed linens, the smell is very bad. Sewage is out on the floor.'"
He said that at one point all the operating theatres in his hospital were shut down for three weeks because no oxygen cylinders were available.
Another doctor described what happens to Iraqis who go to hospital for treatment after a bomb attack.
"You can reach a hospital easily, but there is no one to deal with you. And if they do deal with you they [militias] might come and kill you afterwards," he said. "Patients will leave because they are threatened.
"I left my hospital because two of my managers in that hospital were killed inside the hospital."
A third doctor said: "When there is a bomb and patients are coming, services are overwhelmed.
"There are very few skilled people to deal with the patients. So most of the wounded, the seriously wounded, will die."
'Kidnapping risk'
Doctor after doctor described how armed gangs have now infiltrated not just the hospitals, but the health ministry itself.
Another of this group of doctors, a top cardiologist, described how they met the Iraqi health minister in Amman recently.
"He told us that he can't do anything, because he is sitting on one floor. The floor above him belongs to one of the militias, the floor below belongs to another militia. He can see people fighting inside his ministry."
"None of the doctors can go inside the ministry of health because he will be kidnapped," chipped in another of the doctors.
"If they go in, they will not go out."
As for the billions of dollars spent on reconstruction, these doctors say they saw a little of it. But most was wasted on shoddy furniture and poor decorations.
Some money has gone on high-tech machinery. But it is useless, say the doctors, because no one knows how to use it. They believe the equipment was only bought so that officials could siphon off part of the funds.
'Stolen medicines'
As I left the doctors, I met an Iraqi patient waiting for treatment, a pharmacist.
She described going into a filthy maternity ward in Iraq, with rats the size of cats.
Although she was only trained as a pharmacist, she could see one of the expectant mothers needed her blood pressure tested. There was no doctor around, so she tried to help. But there was not even the equipment for that simple test.
As for the other facilities, "there was some medication, but they were stolen by the assistant pharmacist," she said.
"They came back in the night and want to sell me the medication."
Later I met the doctors again. They said that whatever horror stories they had told about the medical situation, however bad it sounded, it was actually worse.
Sheko Mako in Iraq
I flew East,You flew West, Iraq flew over the Cuckoo's nest.
Saturday, 21 July 2007
From the Diary of an Iraqi doctor It is the dream of every middle class Iraqi family to see her son or daughter becoming a doctor, and my family was not an exception. My mother always wished her son to be a doctor one day, not an engineer or a lawyer. I still remember my uncle’s advice “If you become an engineer, prepare yourself to be a taxi driver afterwards”. But what about me? What did I want to be in the future at that time in late 80s? The answer was simply: I do not know. I suddenly found myself achieving high marks in the “Backaloria Exam, which is the equivalent of GCSE in England” that enabled me to register with any college I like. To fulfil my mother’s dream, I decidedly joined the Medical College and finished my studies successfully. However, these years were not easy ones. Everything was changing around me and the socio-political atmosphere was very tense. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the UN sanctions, the defeat of the Iraqi army and its withdrawal from Kuwait, the uprising in the South and North of Iraq which was brutally smashed few weeks later and finally the beginning of the biggest wave of Iraqi exodus. Doctors were always among the first professionals who fled the country in hundreds and may be thousands. As the years went by I’ve realised that I will not be a good doctor. I occasionally attended lectures and clinical sessions and most of my time was divided between playing basketball and chatting with my friends. It was simply a natural continuation to my high school days. I hated wearing suits and ties. Instead, I always wore Jeans trousers, T-Shirts and trainers. I did not go to the graduation ceremony and believe it or not I did not take the Hippocratic Oath traditionally taken by doctors pertaining to practice Medicine all over the world. The post graduation medical training in Iraq was very much disappointing compared to our expectations when we were students. At that time in mid 90s, there was a significant rise of anti-medical sentiments. And we doctors were responsible for curing people in almost completely collapsed medical services due to unfair sanctions. Moreover, we found ourselves, after 6 years of study, getting paid a monthly salary of $2.00 only. As a natural result, many left the profession and entered the world of Business and hundreds fled the country seeking better opportunities elsewhere. Jordan, Yemen, Libya and later on Oman and UAE became compulsory destinations for those who left Iraq because no other country was willing to issue visa to any Iraqi. These were the transit stations in the long exile journey to the West, and specifically UK, the ultimate destination for thousands of doctors from all over the world. Once I arrived to UK, another “internal exile” journey has begun albeit differently. Here you realise that, apart from your primary medical qualifications, all your work experience was meaningless and unworthy and you have to start all over again doing re-qualification exams. I did that successfully, like hundreds of “fresh off the boat” doctors. However; all my efforts were smashed on a solid rock named “The Home Office”. As a failed asylum seeker for four bloody years I was not only prohibited from work, but also from the basic rights of receiving treatment and having a decent place to live in. simply we were unwanted and unwelcome in this country and I became legally known as “illegal immigrant” or “a failed asylum seeker waiting for deportation back to his home country”. And here you will find yourself driven to a new world and a new experience called “the black market”. I still remember my first illegal job here in the UK as an onion picker in a field of many big farms employing hundreds of illegal workers from all over the “hungry” world. And I always tell my friends that Britain should be proud of its “multicultural black market” exactly in the same way we hear repeatedly in the news about the British Society and how they are proud of their diversity. My first “illegal” wages were £9.00 for working from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. I worked for two days only there and then I made a good progress in my second “black, hidden, underground” job. I worked as a labourer with an Iraqi Kurdish carpenter for £25.00 per day. It was a big achievement. I worked three weeks with him and later I moved to London where I worked as a carpet cleaner for one week only. I got £35.00 per day this time and I was climbing the “black market Economy” stairs slowly but steadily. finally came my last, but the longest job which was to some extent “professional” and I used all my English language and communication skills this time properly. It was a receptionist in a youth hostel. Approximately three years of my life were spent behind a reception desk. At that time I believed that I will not come back to the medical profession. It did not bother me very much as I was not keen about it from the beginning but the only thing that kept worrying me was how disappointing to my mother to see her “doctor” son working in cheap jobs rather than his “precious” profession. However; since then the situation has dramatically changed. Unexpectedly the Home Office changed its mind about my status and allowed me to stay legally in this country and I have to stand up to the challenge of building my shattered medical career once again. Twelve years after graduation and I have to start all over again and most likely I will find myself in a specialty other than the one I really want or practiced before and under the supervision of an English or Asian doctor few years younger than me. It was at this time, I have realised that I am not too young anymore. And to make things worse, my registration with the General Medical Council came one day after the news of the failed attempt of Bilal Abdullah, the Iraqi Doctor, who tried to detonate his packed-with-explosive car at Glasgow Airport. But most importantly shall I be able to cope with the restrictions, policies and demands of the medical authorities here. In the “good doctor guide” sent along with my GMC registration license, the words “you must” were mentioned nearly 75 times. And if eighteen years ago I did not know whether I would like to be a doctor or not, now the question that buzzes in my head “do I still have the energy, physically and mentally, to carry on with the profession? The answer is simply again: I don’t know.
Posted by Sheko Mako at Saturday, July 21, 2007
Links to other sources:
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/ArticlesIraq2.htm
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/syria/000585.php
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/03/iraq/main4317562.shtml
http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=106&sid=1453140
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMfTb7ist3A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vyu0-KwJcc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeJlhX6rut8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gb1Y7GnRPghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rytrQucGrXk&feature=related
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