Cholera Taking Over Haiti (Online Assignment)

     A multitude of men, women and children are lying on benches and cots in overcrowded hospitals and courtyards doubled over in pain, limp with dehydration and dying daily. These Haitians are suffering from a rampant outbreak of Cholera, which is:

• a very infectious and very often fatal bacterial disease of the small intestine 
• typically contracted from infected water supplies
• and causes severe dehydration, diarrhea and vomiting

This terrible disease as not been seen in Haiti since the 1960's. The New York Times quoted Jean Michael Maximilien, a camp leader at one of the posts in Haiti, saying, "It travels with the speed of lighting, I've heard, and it can kill someone in fours hours. So, of course we're all on edge." So far, the outbreak has caused around 260 deaths and has more than 3,300 confirmed cases as of now. Sadly, many more are expected to die in the near future, before the disease is under control. It is hard to get a handle on the outbreak due to the way it is mainly spread, which is through contaminated and dirty water. Foul, infected, dirty water is the only water that the Haitians are drinking, which is making the spread that much easier.
     Many people in Haiti are extremely nervous for the spread of the disease to hit the capital, Port-au-Prince. Since a horrible earthquake struck he city earlier this year, the rebuilding of the city has been slow. Thousands of people are still living in unsafe conditions and crowded dirty areas where disease could spread like wildfire. The Central or Disease Control or the CDC, put out an advisory during Hurricane Katrina that said: "Diseases like cholera or typhoid are rare in developed countries, and do not typically occur after a natural disaster. Unless a disease is brought into a disaster area from elsewhere, any outbreaks that occur are almost always from diseases that were already in the disaster-affected area before the disaster struck." This just explains that the disease was already laying dormant in Haiti and was basically 'awakened' from the natural disaster of the earthquake. CNN interviewed Dr. Jon Andrus, deputy director of Pan American Health Organization and he said, "We expect these cases to increase and infection to emerge. We had put in an early warning to watch for these consequences, since the earthquake on January 12. So we are prepared f the numbers become more widespread. We are ready to handle this infection." This gives some hope to the people since there has already been some preparation in case of the unfortunate event that the outbreak got out of control in the capitol.
     There has been five cases reported in Port-au-Prince, but the Haitian government recently reported that they think he disease is starting to level off, and hopefully does so fully before the disease takes control of the destroyed, poverty stricken capitol of Haiti. The good news is that the five cases that have been discovered in the capitol, have all seemed to get the disease outside of the city, still they are trying everything they can to control the spread.

Prevention

MSNBC interview with Health Ministry Director Gabriel Timothee said, "It is not difficult to prevent the spread to Port-au-Prince. We can prevent it." This gives hope to the people of Haiti that there are people out there that strongly believe they can stop this killer, before thousands of more people die.

• Tightly limiting movement of patients 
• Careful and proper disposal of the corpses
• Safely importing Food
• Providing a clean, safe water supply 
• Medicine

There are also hundreds of support groups that you can join to help as well, like:

• UNICEF 
• World Vision 
• Doctors Without Borders

  
What can you do to help?

Prostitutes

A private cite, that was dug up, has come up with thousands of artifacts that not too many people in Boston are proud of, or want many people to know about. The world’s oldest profession is prostitution…and many people in Boston want to be discrete about the findings of over three thousand artifacts that lead many archeologists to believe that this was a huge discovery that shouldn’t be covered up. This discovery is evidence that this city’s “prim Victorian” image of itself, is not really all that its cracked up to be. There was a thriving, racy economy that the city tried and is still trying to cover up. Many of the people are even ashamed of what has been discovered. “It’s certainly not what historians and people in charge of the Duck Tours want to be part of what Boston was all about,’’ said Mary Beaudry, a Boston University archeology professor. The findings have not been previously publicized outside any academic or archeological circles. Boston University students have studied many of the items, but limits of funding have forced the items into private storage and only occasional examination by students and other researchers. The research on housing records show that there were over 5,000 prostitutes worked in Boston in the last half of the 19^th Century. Now, this may not seem like a lot for a town like Boston, but you have to recognize that this was in the 19^th Century and there weren’t as many people in Boston as there are now. Many of the prostitutes were farm girls or immigrants. Most of them were under 25 years of age who had moved to Boston to find jobs, and ended up having to sell themselves in order to eat. Sadly, many of these women had to “work” in basement rooms where they became diseased and would meet up with sailors, poor men, and petty criminals. It’s hard to sit here and read that just because people don’t want to be associated with prostitutes, these women who thought that they could do nothing more in order to survive but to sell themselves, their lives should be covered up under the dirt that their belongings were buried under. This is a part of not only Boston’s history but of America’s. Not everything that this country has done is something to be proud of, but that does not mean it should be shoved under the rug.


http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/10/18/north_end_dig_provides_rare_look_into_boston_brothels/?page=1

‘My Name is Jerry’ to be released on DVD



By Lacy Fuller
Of the Ball State Daily News

Critically acclaimed and winner of several film awards, the Ball State produced independent movie, "My Name is Jerry," is being released on DVD today.

The movie is one of few independent films that have been released and distributed nationally.

It's an honor to just have been selected for distribution, Rodger Smith, producer of "My Name is Jerry" and director of the Institution for Digital Education and Entertainment at Ball State, said.

"To be selected for distribution means that "My Name is Jerry" was in the top 5 percent of last year's films," he said.

Production was good

The production of the film gives students a chance to do some hands-on work and not just sit in a classroom and be lectured.

"The production of the film is a demonstration of what this university is all about: Immersive learning," he said. "Ball State is committed to immersive learning."

"This really puts our program on the map," project manager for "My Name is Jerry," Emma Smith said.

Smith is part of an immersive learning class that is executing a marketing plan for the film.

"I signed for this advertising course," she said. "I just figured it would be a read-the-textbook-and-get-lectured course, but when I got to my first class I found out otherwise."

Smith said her class was split into two groups. While one does marketing for Chevrolet, her group is marketing "My Name is Jerry."

The marketing team for the movie has held several activities to promote the DVD release. They handed out stickers and pamphlets during the Homecoming game a couple of weeks ago.

"We are also holding a drawing for the members of the film's fan pages on Facebook and Twitter. The winner will win a gift card to Best Buy," Smith said.

Morgan Mead, director and original script writer for the film, started writing "My Name is Jerry" five years ago with Doug Jones in mind as the main character.
"I took the script to Ball State and it took me about three years to convince the university to help fund this film," Mead said.

Typically, it takes from the time of writing a script to the DVD release date three to four years.

"It didn't take too long to release ‘My Name is Jerry,'" Smith said. "We really wanted to approach the film professionally. Just editing the film took nine months. Every movie is its own industry. It works from the ground up."

"My Name is Jerry" has been recognized and won several awards at national and international film festivals; some include:

• Route 66 Film Festival — Best Feature Comedy 2009
• Accepted in the Tacoma Film Festival
• Accepted in the Grand Rapids Film Festival

Preserving Today's Historic Sites

Pompeii may be the best-conserved Roman city in the world, but many critics are beginning to say that years of neglect and disinterest have turned it into an international embarrassment. The historic site is now covered with graffiti and weeds, and the plaster casts of the Ancient Romans are presented on are sitting on rusty metal legs and dusty cabinets that look like they haven’t been cleaned in months. Corriere Della Sea, a very respected broadsheet, brought this disturbing news to the surface. She ran the story as a front-page news story with the headline “The humiliation of Pompeii”. What does that name say to you? This is obviously something of great importance to the people who revere the site and also to those in the community that benefit from the money that is put into the economy by tourists who come to see Pompeii. If the tourists stop coming then there is less money being pumped into the economy, and the government is turning this issue into a party argument. The government in-charge right now blames the previous party and the previous party is blaming the current for the shamble-like state of Pompeii. This should not be an issue of which government is to blame, but an issue of who is going to do something about it? Pompeii is an historic site that needs to be preserved for all of time. The Berlusconi government has made major financial cuts to the arts and heritage funding. In 2007 alone, the money allowed for maintenance was 30 million Euros, and it fell to 19 million Euros in 2010. Salvatore Settis, a former president of the government’s heritage committee said that the blame for these atrocities could not be pinned on one government or one party alone. Settis said, “Parties on both side have completely marginalized culture and heritage.” It’s time for the government to step up to the plate, and do everything they can to preserve their history for generations to come to enjoy and learn from like they got to.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/8053829/Pompeii-a-symbol-of-Italys-sloppiness.html

This is a test

Southwest Airlines, the nation’s largest low-fare carrier, said on Monday that it had agreed to buy its smaller rival AirTran Airways in a transaction valued at $1.4 billion, expanding its foothold in New York and Boston and allowing it to move into the nation’s largest airport, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson.