George is 'Back on the Floor'

Today’s ‘Positive and Optimistic Sunday’. Dancing. I’ve never been able to do it. Talk about two left feet. I have four. But I admire dancing. And people who can dance. Last 24 November I linked [1] to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing to ‘Pick Yourself Up’ [2]. Pure virtuosity, eh. I identify with tap dancing and old-time dancing. Modern dancing I understand less. Though I still appreciate, and admire, the athleticism it requires. And so to a young Haitian man: 28-year-old George. A professional dancer, in the 12 January 2010 earthquake he sustained severe injuries to both his legs. His right leg was amputated. Was his dancing career over? You’d think so. Then George met an Israeli rehabilitation team helping out in post-quake Haiti. The result? Play the video (titled Back on the Floor) [3] and judge for yourself. A year after the earthquake, and following intensive rehabilitation in Israel and Haiti, you’d hardly pick that George is an amputee. How positive and optimistic is that.

H/t Sweetheart Vivienne for bringing George’s inspirational story to my attention.

farmdoc's blog post number 643

Here’s this week’s compendium. This week…

1. the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs issued a list showing as at 20.1.10 – eight days after the Haiti earthquake – the Saudi Arabian and Iranian governments hadn’t contributed even a brass razoo to the relief effort [1]. No comment needed.

2. I saw, and appreciated, this item which points out that the international agencies who condemn Israel for its ‘disproportionate response’ when it’s attacked are not mentioning Israel's disproportionate response to the human suffering in Haiti [2]. Ho hum.

3. A week ago, the BMJ reported that angiotensin receptor blocking drugs are associated with a significant reduction in both the incidence and progression of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia [3]. That’s welcome news indeed.

4. Grammar Girl explained the origin of ‘brouhaha’ [4] What a super word.

5. I saw on the UK Real Bread Campaign’s website a page about ‘Community Supported Baking’ [5]. I’d love to get involved in CSB. Maybe when I stop working.

6. Australia’s main domestic airlines announced they won’t force obese people to pay for two seats despite the adoption of that policy by Air France-KLM [6]. I don’t know it that’s a good or bad thing. Maybe neither.

7. my weekly ‘ostrich award’ goes to General Motors senior executive Bob Lutz who slammed scientists and environmentalists, saying global warming has little to do with humans and more to do with solar flares and sunspots [7]. Self-interest rears its ugly head. Shame on you, sir.

8. family-wise darling Meg celebrated her birthday, and darling Indi joined the blogosphere. Also last weekend Alzheimer’s: a Love Story was reviewed in the Hobart Mercury, and today it’s reviewed in the Age.

Finally, I wish you, dear Farmdoc’s Blog readers, a wonderful week.

farmdoc's blog post number 639

The Republic of Haiti is a former French colony in the Caribbean [1, 2, 3]. In 1804 it became the first Central American country to gain independence. Haiti’s first Jewish resident – Christopher Columbus’s interpreter – settled there in 1492. Its maximum Jewish population was about 300. In 1937 the Haitian government issued passports and visas allowing 100 Eastern European Jews to escape the Nazis. In 1947 Haiti voted for the United Nations partition of Palestine that created the State of Israel. Haiti and Israel maintain full diplomatic relations. [4] Last Tuesday a 7.0 magnitude earthquake devastated Haiti and killed perhaps 1% of its 9M population. To my knowledge Australia’s pledged a few million dollars but no direct material aid [5]. Australia, where the bloody hell are you? Contrast Israel which last Thursday sent on two jumbo jets a 220-person team comprising a 90-bed Home Front Command field hospital (including 40 doctors and 25 nurses), a search and rescue unit (including IDF search dogs), and units from Magen David Adom and the Israel Police [6, 7]. Last Sunday at the Israeli field hospital a Port-au-Prince woman delivered a son [8]. As a token of her appreciation and gratitude, she poignantly named him Israel. Another positive is that arguably the State of Israel could send such a big humanitarian team because in 2009 there were no suicide attacks in Israel [9]. Good news among bad.