News Update: The majority of Mississippi voters disapprove of setting this precendent

I don't think I'm an Anglophile, but I do definitely prefer (if I need to make a choice) reading the BBC's coverage of American Politics than the Washington Post's or The New York Times'. I think there's less goose stepping around the issue when it's an international news source.

Here's a short and sweet update about the Mississippi "personhood"/life begins at conception amendement being defeated by voters in the November 8th election (Yay!). 

Captain America wants you to think twice about suicide

If we're talking Public Health (and happily we are), I generally think of your standard public service announcements (PSAs) as nourishing detritus. For a good part of the 20th century, PSAs dominated small and large health campaigns - through radio, television, and billboard - as a main approach for health communication with the public. In this case, "main approach" should also read as "a method so wildly overused that negative connotations have been rubber cemented to the term and its acronym." Maybe not for all time, but it's quite an industrial adhesive.

ANYHOW, that said, I posit that PSAs have been and are useful; they've provided flotsam and motivation for current social marketing practices, they can be directed towards a specific audience more easily than some other methods of health promotion, and, perhaps more importantly, they've lent a basic design to a whole melting pot of creativity.

Nick Dragotta and Tim Ursiny's "Captain America: A Little Help" is a PSA. Sure, it's internet-based and it features a superhero fighting a robot, but it is trying to highlight a specific health concern: suicide. (Side note: I feel that saying "health issue," "health concern," or anything similar sounds a bit glib if I talk about suicide. Is that just me?) Specifically, the digital issue is trying to "combat" (press release's wording) suicide by presenting 12 pages in the life of a young man, Zack McKenzie, who perceives his life to be at a pressure-cooked end point. He walks up to the roof, closes his eyes, and is stepping off of the building... only to be distracted by Captain America fighting a bunch of underlings on the roof next door. Do we expect Zack to feel differently and gain a different perspective on his life after this encounter with a guy in a red,white, and blue-plastered cat suit? Um... maybe? Definitely yes?

The upsides? First, it's an interesting read for someone who is both a health communications nerd and a comic book enthusiast. It showcases an actual suicide hotline and is free. The dark negative spaces that Dragotta (as penciller) gives are interesting to the eyes.

On the other hand, the concept is, to me, the best thing about the issue. I hope that the PSA and superhero blend will become a trend and, as an accepted design, evolve as any idea should. I wish I liked this attempt better than I do, but"A Little Help" falls into several of comic book clichés that, in such a short issue, distract the viewer away from its overall good intentions.

Zack is a) not white and b) living in a ghetto. Okay, I'll bite or, rather, I'll continue to read despite the fact that I'm a bit tired of African-American characters in superhero stories seeming to only have one option for an origin story.

But then I'm stuck again, and this time it's on a technical point. I press the arrow that, I think, means "next page," but instead the comic viewer screams back up the page I just finished reading. In fact, the Adobe Flash Player feature of this comic means that pressing the comic to go "forward" means that it zooms around art so that you are sure to read every panel. That's a bit annoying to me. I don't really want to release my control on noticing what I want to notice in the comic and, with satisfaction, turning the page.

Lastly, Zack's story is obstructed by the cover art (picture at the beginning of this post). A petty slug, I know, but the cover has nothing to do with Zack... or with suicide... or any mention of depression... or with anything other than Captain America and the flag of the United States of America. The cover is completely disconnected from the rest of the comic in mood, art, and its outward intention of what is to follow.

Now I feel like I've downed this comic enough. As I said before, I think it is interesting. I hope it becomes nourishing detritus for other PSAs.

Also, even though I think it could be done better, this probably will connect with someone in a really good way. I think it has too much potential not to.

The link is here if you're so inclined.

Still posting videos from Chile

Moving Right Along...

Announcing changes to this blog! But first...

Mitchell and I have been doing a lot of that "spending time together" thing recently. We also got married just over two weeks ago. I suppose the two things are related?

Anyway, during the times when we are at home at the same time (which are wonderfully awesome times even if I'm unemployed, he's underemployed, and we both spend too much time stressing out about things we have no control over), we tend to talk. Right now, we're talking about individual endeavors that we'd like to accomplish by the end of the year. We both love fall; we both feel motivated to take on a small part of our perceived world. We both have this want (probably would phrase it more like "need") to write.

So the other day we had a conversation that went something like this:

Me: I'd like to specify my blog a bit more. I've hardly written on it.

Mitchell: Yeah. I've hardly written on mine either. Y'know... from reading authors write about writing and from reading my dad's blog, I've realized what... well, what we both should do. *pointed look* Write. Every. Day. It doesn't matter how long it is. It doesn't matter if it's crap. And yes, I realize it's funny to have me saying this. [Mitchell is, perhaps, more of a perfectionist writer than I am].

Me: No. I think that's great. I would like to write everyday. I've just... I've lost what I'm writing about. I haven't written almost at all since I got back from Chile (I hardly wrote while I was there). My blog title is too general. "Urban Health" and "Pop Culture"? That's too broad; I could write about anything with that subject line, and I keep feeling like I've got to be more complete.

Mitchell: Yeah, you.

A couple of days pass. Then today (over a baked turkey and pesto sandwich):

Me: I want to start writing. Seriously, what should my blog be about? What do you think?
Mitchell paused, thought, laughed, almost choked on his food, and then said,


You could make it about Linda Holmes' worst nightmare... talk about "The Ghost Map" and disease, go see "Contagion", talk about disease in movies and books...


My guy knows what I like. He knows this so well that he started describing something that my knee-jerk reaction was to go find and bookmark/list right away, and then I realized that it didn't exist yet. I needed to start writing it as soon as possible.

Yes, I've been bit by the epidemiology bug. I've also been bit by the film geek bug and the book worm bug. I'm not easily grossed out, but I am easily amazed and inquisitive.

So, my plan is this:

• I'll use this space to write about reading books of the Science Writing genre (writing about science performed, usually, by journalists rather than scientists).
• I'll use this space to talk about diseases (infectious and chronic) according to the movies.
• I'll use this space to discuss recent mainstream articles on epidemiological research, and how research sometimes doesn't translate all that well into a journalistic lexicon.
• I'll use this space to diverge a bit, sometimes, into epidemiological theory, content, and practice outside of the page or screen.
• I'll learn more about all of these things as I go.

Let's see what happens.

Videos 1

Para Claudia y Mile

Por la Sophie, la alfombra limpia es un jugete.

Because I haven't posted recently...

I am home.

I miss Chile, but I am happy to be home. It is a dichotomy that I can live with.

Come quick! You won a prize!!!!!

Publicidad for a good cause

Happy Día Mundal sin Tabaco!

Or rather, let this be a day of health promotion and respect of public spaces and the celebration that a right-wing Chilean government may be actually promoting a good law (a law protecting a few urban public spaces from tobacco smoke, which... let´s call it a rare idea in Chile). However, don´t stigmatize people who do smoke. That accomplishes shit nothing.

Note: "Field Notes Crossover"

I added a summary of my trip so far (sadly, sans photos that may be referenced in the text. A thousand maldiciones on the upload tool and my internet connection, but I don´t have the energy to fight it right now) to the page entitled "Field Notes Crossover." This ramble will also be featured on the IE3 blog... at somepoint in the next few weeks. I have sent it in to be published, at any rate.

Share and enjoy!

Music

 Music is essential to work, and especially to writing work.

I think one of the reasons that this blog has "failed" in my initial expectations of it is that most of my job has been writing, researching, using the computer most of the day... which is both good and bad. I love learning, and I love learning by doing. This is a type of doing. Also, I am taking this experience and applying it to program design projects of my own motivation (a photovoice project with kids? Yes please!). But, by the time I get home... I am computered out and written out. I want a bowl of warm, tasty cazuela and a nice glass of wine (and a cup of tea for later).

But, anyway... music. I have been listening to a lot of music. These are a few links that have gotten stuck in my head.

Maná - Lluvia al corazón
 (Thanks to Santiago Metro for playing this over and over and over... really, thanks.)

Adele-Rolling in the Deep

 Bruce Springsteen - Radio Nowhere
(Really I have been listening to a metric ton of Springsteen)


 Saludos

Updates and preguntas

 What do you know about social determinants of health? Or how they can be highlighted through popular education? No really… I’m curious. I spend a lot of my time these days looking at articles like the one below (and this one is interesting, but fairly rote), and I am wondering how common the ideas are among people I know.

 

 

Speaking of time, how has the time passed oh-so quickly? Sometime in the beginning of last week was my trip’s half-way point (I admit, for several reasons, I didn’t look up the specific date) As of last Sunday, the 15th (that date I do know), I have less than a month left to spend in Chile. How do I feel about that?

• Relieved. Honestly, this trip has been hard for me in a lot of ways, mostly in regards to the solitude. Yes, I have friends here. Yes, I have people I am going to stay in contact with. I work with amazing people and live with wonderful women. I am surrounded by awesome people and I am incredibly grateful for that.  But there is no one in Santiago who has known me for years (obvious from the start), and I miss having people who do know me that well in my day to day life. I miss my family. I miss my friends and my northwestern haunts. I am accustomed now to sharing my living space with my lover, and not having him here to talk to, to coexist with, after work is… well, it is has never stopped being strange. I am constantly reminded by the totality of this strangeness. In general, the majority of people in Santiago de Chile are very focused on family (friends who become family and family who become friends). I miss my family. 
• Sad. Of course sad. I am going to miss Chile and Santiago and my new friends/family. I am going to miss going to EPES everyday (groggily stumbling into the people pile in the 8:15am Metro station at Parque Bustamante and only somewhat less groggily walking out of station La Cisterna almost an hour later). I am going to miss working at EPES. I’ll miss the communal lunches, and the stressedly running about, and the capacitation workshops that breed amazing learning environments. I am going to miss my pieza chiquitita, ferias de las pulgas, churrasco stands, the green spaces near the Centro, the DJs on alternative radio stations… I could go on, but you get the idea. I have so much left to learn here. I need to come back at somepoint.
• Excited. I  have a job as a teaching assistant during the summer (at Portland State University) and another internship in a part of the Multnomah County Health Department (the Community Capacitation Center, which is a small center akin to a Portland version of EPES). I am also looking forward to farmer’s markets, good biking weather, coexisting with friends, public parks, free movies in the park, stacks of library books getting musty-dusty beside my bed, and kisses from Mitchell (won’t lie about that one).
• Scared-excited. Going back means getting ready to leave higher education studies after five years. Yikes. A degree and all. 
• Scared. Shit, I need to search for a job. I am excited by the prospect, but even more so I’m terrified of the idea of not finding or getting anything related to my chosen field. I really want to work at some level of community health or popular education. Really really really. En serio. And in Portland or its surroundings, if you please.
• Content. Have I mentioned that this trip has helped me to focus on what I want in my life? Work, free time, todo?  If I haven’t, my mistake. I think that perhaps this is the clave (key) of this trip, and will remain that way far after I fall asleep in my own bed with mrrring cats.

I leave on the 14^th. Coworkers are already insisting that we need to go out for drinks beforehand. I am concerned by the lack of time to go to ferias before I leave, and the space (or lack thereof) in my luggage for gifts to bring to friends and family. I have my first interview for the nutrition project tomorrow. I am going to propose a website in two weeks. Fast fast fast! Work work work! Closure!

And on a random note: Did you know there is such a thing as a water bear? And that they can  live in space? I did not know that. And… well, now you know.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/12855775

Public Service Announcement

Love your veggies.

 Seriously. You like your body in working condition? You like elasticity in your brain cells? Then love the vegetable matter. Especially since sometimes...

...the veggies are bigger than you. (Or, at the very least, bigger than your skull. That cauliflower made awesome curry.)

Picture storage

It seems to me that with the software/hardware difficulties that I´m encountering, the best way to go with things is to streamline. I still need to try out SmugMug, but for now all of my pictures (including some doubles, which I´ll hopefully get around to deleting in the next few days) are going up on Picasa. (If any person screams "No!" at this idea, please let me know why. With that site I´m going to be designing for the health promoters I may end up using Picasa in terms of user-compatibility and computer-friendliness.)

Better Than the Average Axolotl

Links are fun! So, that´s the main storage site. Pictures will be moving from there to here with titles and stories in tow.

La pieza de monedas

I think the only coin not featured in this post was the 500 pesos coin, which I adore. It has helped to get me coffee or small things many a time. It is the most useful coin I can think of in this monetary system (even more so than the 100), and this is why I do not have one to show you.

Sometimes you can´t have it all...

I have these periods of thinking that my brain has the elasticity of a child, and that my Spanish grows in noticeable leaps and bounds from day to day or from every other day to every other day.

Then I have days like Saturday, where I completely fail at understanding several things, and end up slightly annoying a new friend with a day of denseness. After days like Saturday, I tend to be extremely self-conscious for several days.

I need to keep remembering this: I got myself here, and that native speakers continously comment on how my Spanish is incredibly good for a non-native speaker.

I also need to allow space for introversion. I notice that I tend to think clearer in Spanish when I give myself hours of buffer zones (I tend to think clearer in general, and, as a note, I don´t think all that well in English when I haven´t had the solitary time that I require).

Mis deberes

Many people have asked me (and rightfully so by curiosity´s standards) what I´m actually doing in Chile, in Santiago, at EPES. Am I sitting at a desk most of the day? Am I out saving lives and curing diseases (uh... no... I´m not a superhero or some version of deus ex machina)? Am I out there on the street talking to people all of the time?

Well, you don´t have to wait any longer. I finally have some answers to give on this subject.

Being that this is week 4 of my internship, you might be a bit stunned to realize that I don´t, as of yet, actually have a finalized workplan within my grasp. Hopefully this logistic will be firmed up later today during a meeting of the educational team and I´ll end up making a nice little graphic that shows my tasks and objectives and when they are due, and my small want for something solid in terms of a schedule (and this is why I´m pursuing a life rooted in community health, obviously. Right) will be satisfied. Until then, however, I´m already quite happy. The last few weeks have been spent in the following ways:

• Getting to know my coworkers. In all honestly and seriousness, this job would absolutely blow and give me nothing in return if I didn´t get to know my coworkers. This job underlines a cultural value for interpersonal relationships in the work place (the work day is from about 9 -6:30, but you get around an hour to two hours for lunch and chatting, give or take a few minutes since you are not supposed to and not expected to watch the clock), and I wouldn´t be given important tasks or offered daily emotional and technical support without making an effort to become acquainted with each staff member of EPES. I even get the sense that I´ve made a few long term friends, which, especially in such a short time, is a huge thing for me.


• Starting a literature review on obesity and diabetes in Chile, in Latin America, and reaching even further into an international spectrum while concentrating primarily on social determinants of obesity. I was specifically asked by my supervisor, Sonia, to look at whether and how gender and poverty could influence this type of chronic disease (the answer to the first part of that question is "yes"). So, I have had a desk job for the last few weeks, and I´ve read hundreds of abstracts (not exxagerating) in both Spanish and English (I even glanced over some articles in Portugese and French) and several long reports. I´m in the process of compiling a final bibliography (which I want to be done today, please...) and I´ll hopefully have a short report written up (in Spanish, with correct grammar and proper diction) by Wednesday.


• Participating, first as an observer and then as a semi-member, of a local community network that works to promote safe sex practices and to educate the populace about HIV/AIDS. It´s amazing being able to take part, and to have been invited to take part, in such a longstanding group (they just celebrated their 20th anniversary) with such incredible women.


• Being sick. I was sick last week with some stomach thing and ended up staying away from work for a couple of days. I figured that vomiting in the work place does not really make for a great impression, and that reading and sleeping were better choices for a person who couldn´t even drink orange juice without feeling queasy. Also, it seems that several sicknesses are making the rounds in Santiago ever since the weather started to change from clearly shouting summer to zipping quickly into that midway point between fall and winter.

So, that´s what I have been doing at work. And eating bread. Because I´m in Chile, you should just assume that I´m always eating bread (and drinking at least three cups of ceylon tea per day).

What I will be doing, to the best of my knowledge, is as follows:

• Finish up that liteature review on obesity and the accompanying report. Go to an education team meeting sometime later this week or next week and present my findings, and suggest further steps that can be taken to learn more about this health issue.


• Team up with health workers to start looking at ways of performing interviews within the El Bosque neighborhood to gather views on healthy eating and barriers to buena alimentación. Perhaps also work out a way of community mapping to involve both schools and almacens.


• After getting some information from interviews, start to outline how an educational model could be made to train health workers in promoting healthy nutrition.


• Work on a web page/blog for the community network mentioned above. I´ll be working with one of the members to sketch out content, and then I´ll work up a project proposal. Depending on the suggestions and comments on the proposal, I´ll start working on the page, launch it, and create a training module for running and sustaining the site that I´ll present as a capacitation exercise to the network. (I´m actually also starting that proposal today).


• Attend a capacitation training in May, as well as various events and marches happening during May and early June.


• Work on an inventory for some of the old educational games that EPES produced during the 80s and that the in-house library is trying to catalogue (think 20 years of backstock).


• Enable skype on several computers here.

So yes. That´s the life of Jamie for the next while. A bit of desk work, a bit of walk work, hopefully a lot of interaction with the community (or at least a fair amount).

Ciao!