Demovictory9
Demovictory9's JournalIn a Poor Kenyan Community, Cheap Antibiotics Fuel Deadly Drug-Resistant Infections - 90% use rate
In a Poor Kenyan Community, Cheap Antibiotics Fuel Deadly Drug-Resistant InfectionsOveruse of the medicines is not just a problem in rich countries. Throughout the developing world antibiotics are dispensed with no prescription required.
AIROBI, Kenya — Four days after her toddler’s health took a turn for the worse, his tiny body racked by fever, diarrhea and vomiting, Sharon Mbone decided it was time to try yet another medicine.
With no money to see a doctor, she carried him to the local pharmacy stall, a corrugated shack near her home in Kibera, a sprawling impoverished community here in Nairobi. The shop’s owner, John Otieno, listened as she described her 22-month-old son’s symptoms and rattled off the pharmacological buffet of medicines he had dispensed to her over the previous two weeks. None of them, including four types of antibiotics, were working, she said in despair.
Like most of the small shopkeepers who provide on-the-spot diagnosis and treatment here and across Africa and Asia, Mr. Otieno does not have a pharmacist’s degree or any medical training at all. Still, he confidently reached for two antibiotics that he had yet to sell to Ms. Mbone.
“See if these work,” he said as she handed him 1,500 shillings for both, about $15.
Antibiotics, the miracle drugs credited with saving tens of millions of lives, have never been more accessible to the world’s poor, thanks in large part to the mass production of generics in China and India. Across much of the developing world, it costs just a few dollars to buy drugs like amoxicillin, a first-line antibiotic that can be used against a broad range of infections, from bacterial pneumonia and chlamydia to salmonella, strep throat and Lyme disease.
Kibera residents are prodigious consumers of antibiotics. One study found that 90 percent of households in Kibera had used antibiotics in the previous year, compared with about 17 percent for the typical American family.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/07/health/antibiotic-resistance-kenya-drugs.html
struggling on $300,000 in SF.
How making $300,000 in San Francisco can still mean you're living paycheck-to-paycheck
With their feedback, Dogen broke down the budget of a couple with one to two children in San Francisco, Seattle or New York. He found $300,000 is the income necessary to put something away for retirement, save for your child's education, own a three-bedroom home, take three weeks of vacation a year and retire by a reasonable age.
"It's not an extravagant lifestyle," Dogen says. "It's a middle-class lifestyle if you consider a middle-class person should be able to afford a modest home, have at least one car, have a kid or two. There are no private jets in this budget."
Dogen has put together a detailed blog post where you'll find analysis and explanation on each expense, but here are a few points to note:
The $24,000-a-year childcare expense takes into consideration a babysitting rate of about $20 an hour, the standard charge in a city such as San Francisco. Preschool easily costs $18,000 to $20,000 a year in metro areas.
The mortgage is based on a $1.5 million, 1,750-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home on a 2,500-square-foot lot.
The car expenses are based on a single larger car that accommodates a family.
Entertainment expenses include everything from Netflix to tickets to an occasional ball game to date night, which easily costs $200 in San Francisco when you consider expense for dinner and babysitting.
ALSO: Why a $400,000 income means you still think you're middle class
Dogen adds that at $300,000, a family is still living paycheck-to-paycheck and not saving outside their 401K and 529 plans.
"We're in this perpetual grind in San Francisco, and it's a city for people who are willing to hustle," he says. "At one point in the past, $300,000 was a lot of money. Now at this amount, you're probably always going to end up working a long time and having a constant struggle to keep up."
His recommendation is to make moving out of the region a goal.
"There's a moving truck shortage in places like San Francisco because so many people are moving out of this expensive city and other expensive coastal cities," he writes. "If you live in an expensive metropolitan area, consider relocating to lower your cost of living or at least try and take advantage of the valuation differential by investing in Middle America.
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/middle-class-budget-San-Francisco-300-000-13741570.php
I would say that this 300K couple is getting more nutritious food, better child care and a better standard of living than a 50K "pay check to pay check" couple.
Bloody Monday - Homeland Security Department: Trump 'fires' Secret Service director & 3 more quit
Bloody Monday rocks Homeland Security Department: Trump 'fires' Secret Service director and THREE MORE top officials 'quit' as Stephen Miller grabs U.S. immigration reins after Kirstjen Nielsen's ouster
Trump reportedly ordered acting White House chief of staff to fire Secret Service Director Randolph Alles
Alles insists he wasn't fired but knew about a coming transition two weeks ago
On Sunday Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen got her walking papers after meeting with Trump and sharing her plans for immigration
The second departure came as the agency dodged blame for Chinese malware security breach at Trump's private Florida resort
Agents arrested Yujing Zhang entering Mar-a-Lago with two Chinese passports, a thumb drive with malware, four cellphones, a laptop and a hard drive
Reports of more people in the DHS departure lounge followed Monday
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6900151/Trump-fires-Secret-Service-director-amid-Homeland-Security-bloodbath-ousted-Nielsen.html
Replacing the USSS director signals that immigration hardliner Stephen Miller is gaining more leverage in the White House
Since Kirstjen Nielsen is resigning and Satan already works at the Department of Education, ...
Since Kirstjen Nielsen is resigning and Satan already works at the Department of Education, who the hell can Trump get that’s evil enough to replace Nielsen?
https://twitter.com/KellywiseClown/status/1115005981182889984
This is how to restore order after a zoomie riot
https://twitter.com/Texas_Dexter/status/1114724073735630849Trump's worsening mental condition, rallies temporarily ease "an insatiable emotional need"
Trump’s tweets are some of the best, unfiltered information on his mental state. They are reactions to real-life situations in real time, over an extended span of time. Their growing frequency is an alarming sign, with an astonishing 52 tweets over 34 hours recently. Their content has also become more vitriolic.
Trump’s rallies are also very revealing. They are events he insists on doing, often against advice, and the adulation of crowds seems to ease, at least temporarily, an insatiable emotional need. These, too, have been increasingly more vicious in attacks against Hillary Clinton or John McCain, indicating that neither defeat nor death can satisfy the envy for what he may believe he could never have.
Trump’s rhetoric has been growing more violent. Attacking others seems to be a chief mode of coping for him; his accusation of “Democrats” behind Robert Mueller’s team as being "all killers” and his calling on “the police,” “the military,” and “the Bikers for Trump” to get tougher, appear to indicate that the stress of the presidency is getting to him.
https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-trumps-mental-condition-is-getting-worse-20190405-xzpzzhwbrncfdbbkq3i7d3xdgq-story.html
Shame by a thousand looks: The microaggressions of poverty
https://www.salon.com/2019/04/06/shame-by-a-thousand-looks-the-microaggressions-of-poverty/Shame by a thousand looks: The microaggressions of poverty
Even well meaning, liberal-minded people will betray the slightest mien of disgust when I talk about my childhood
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“Food stamps,” my brother said. His voice as definitive as a door closing.
I fanned the bills out in my hand. The words “FOOD COUPON” were etched in inky capital letters on each one. As I studied the bills, my brother looked down at me—the faint shadow of a mustache beginning to sprout on his upper lip—when I caught his eye, his nose scrunched, his eyes tightened, and his neck recoiled. He eyed the bills, then me. Sweat developed on my forehead; my skin prickled. I wanted to hide. His actions were barely perceptible; his face held this look for only a moment before it vanished. There was a sound from the kitchen. Our mother was up from her chemo nap, rested enough to make us dinner before she’d have to lie down again. My brother snatched the bills, shoved them in the jewelry box, and slammed the lid.
A few days later, I saw the look again. I was at the supermarket with my mother and three brothers. Our cart was more empty than usual. A fact we didn’t discuss as we trekked down each aisle, our mother demanding in a tired voice that we put back boxes of name brand cereal or two liter bottles of soda. At the checkout, I was considering the few items my mother had allowed into our cart, when she produced the FOOD COUPONS from her purse. The cashier spotted the food stamps, and for the briefest moment—we’re talking two seconds max—the middle-aged woman eyed the bills, then my mother, then my three squawking brothers, and as her eyes landed me, her face contorted: nostrils upturned, eyes narrowed, an imperceptible sigh escaped her lips. Then it was gone. She took the bills, bagged the groceries, and we went home.
Over the next two years my mother battled the tumors in her stomach, my father fought unemployment, and we all suffered the flash-bulb looks of disdain as people around us read the signals of our poverty. Looks I endured all the way through college as the wake of my childhood poverty lapped each present moment—looks I still get today when people find out I was raised in a poor household in rural Vermont.
Even well meaning, liberal-minded people will betray the slightest mien of disgust when I tell them my brothers and I used to scrape the black layer off burnt toast, because there wasn’t enough bread to waste in our house.
the complete process of sewing a Haute couture gown
I'm NYPD. I should not have to follow protocols' -- Cop fined for using badge to bully agency clerk
The sergeant, Howard Roth, had received a waiver in 2017 from the board allowing him to work part time as a driver and owner of a for-hire vehicle service owner on the condition that he wouldn’t use his position as a police officer for any kind of advantage.
But just two weeks later when he went to the TLC to renew his vehicle license, he pulled his badge when an agent told him he could only make the payment online.
“I’m NYPD,” Roth said, according a report of the incident. “I should not have to follow protocols.”
When the agent denied Roth’s request, the cop persisted, telling the agent that they “both work for the city and you should take care of this.”
Roth, getting nowhere, stormed off, saying there was “no respect” from the TLC “when dealing with a city agency.”
He threatened to take official action against the TLC employees.
But it was Roth who had to pay — $6,000, for violating the city’s conflict of interest law.
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-coib-police-badge-tlc-20190322-5yqhm5wnd5eufg23ymtp2sm6fq-story.html
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