Questions 4-6

Questions 4-6

Questions 4-6 are based upon the following diagram.

Figure 1: A first generation Asian-American.

Question 4. Actions taken by the organism in Figure 1 are:

A. A denial of culture

B. A perpetuation of a stereotype

C. All of the above.
Easy.

Lead scritch scratches

And the empty whole note C

Becomes filled with charcoal darkness.

I’ve always been good at taking tests

All “my people” are.

Question 5. Racism is:

A. Whites condescending upon blacks.

B. Dead.

C. Still alive,

Tacitly seething

Behind veneers of

#AllLivesMatter

C. It’s always C

But no one seems to see

That behind my narrow eyes

And beneath my yellow skin

All I want is to feel like I

Belong.

I have an idea!

Perhaps identity is not defined

by skin color, diet, or academic achievement

And we should not

Assume

That all people of a certain demographic are the same because of the

Proximity of their eyelids to one another.

Question 6. Is the proposed solution realistic?

C. Asian Americans have small eyes and eat rice for dinner every day.

Repression of Guilt and Memories

Repression of Guilt and Memory

The image of a rusted chain lock on a fence represents Amir’s emotional and psychological state. The chain link fence represents his old memories and experiences in Afghanistan and how he really only remembers the framework of his less important memories from his childhood. The spaces between the links, where the sky is exposed, represent the details he’s forgotten. The rusted chain represents the guilt from the incident with Hassan’s rape, and the ugly memories that resulted from that incident. It is more tightly made and has less spaces within its links, which implies that he has a more vivid memory of this event. The rust symbolizes how time has worn the memories down, but the chain itself will never quite disappear. However, the lock on the chain is unlocked, which symbolizes how the open-endedness of how he deals with guilt. He could either deal with the guilt like Baba, who acted with honor and nobility to try and redeem himself, or he could act in a cowardly fashion let his emotions leak out and wound his relationships with his close friends and family.

The Ethics of Ebola

The Ethics of Ebola

It is a killer that eats people from the inside; a bloody, gruesome, murderer. A murderer unstoppable, who has claimed the lives of over 11,301 African people (“Latest”). It is a skilled assassin, with a 70-90% mortality rate, and its name is Ebola. With the testing of an Ebola treatment, the stopping of this criminal, comes an ethical dilemma, surrounding the randomized placebo-controlled trial (RCT). A RCT is a standard method of conducting scientific trials, where participants are randomly placed in either a control group or an experimental group. The control group is given a placebo, a sugar pill which has no effect on the patient, and no other treatment; the experimental group is given the trial drug. The criteria of the RCT is simple, but the ethics of it are far more complex.

Proponents of the RCT argue that it is the gold standard for testing experimental drugs; Peter J. Hotez of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor asserts that “it’s the only proven path to determine safety and efficacy” (“Ethics of Fighting Ebola”).  The RCT is the main tried-and-true method by which most scientists feel confident in the reliability of their data.

Still, many argue that desperate times call for desperate measures, and unconventional solutions are needed to minimize fatalities from ineffective treatment or an experimental control (“Ethics of Fighting Ebola”). Those who are placed in the control group are guaranteed to not receive any other treatment, which denies them even the possibility of benefit and could possibly be unethical (Gutmann).

People against the RCT propose different methods for testing experimental Ebola treatment, to speed up the process and minimize deaths (Ethical Issues). Supporters of the RCT argue against alternative trial methods, saying that straying from the RCT could yield unreliable or invalid results (Gutmann). Conducting a trial that produces uninterpretable or misleading results could also be considered potentially unethical (Ethical Issues), because the participation of the patients would be futile. Two main routes of alternative trial are proposed: the retrospective control and the adaptive trial. In a retrospective control, there is no control group; instead, the experimental data is compared to accounts of past cases. It is proposed for Ebola because it eliminates the need to put people in a control group and provides all participants a chance at increased survival rates. Opponents argue that the retrospective control is inaccurate because it is impossible to account for unknown and unmeasured conditions, such as differing medical care, stage of illness at diagnosis, and environmental factors (Gutmann). The adaptive trial is a more flexible foundation for experimental testing: the trial is subject to spontaneous change at the discretion of the researcher. If a treatment seems to be effective, more people can be randomly assigned into that group, or if a treatment seems to be harmful, that group can be discontinued. It is effective in life-threatening situations such as that of Ebola at benefitting as many people as possible, quickly. However, this type of trial is extremely subject to the researcher’s bias, and therefore unobjective (Gutmann). The results may be difficult to interpret and coordinate between multiple separate trials (Ethical Issues).

In either case, the debate over the use of a randomized, placebo-controlled trial in experimental Ebola treatment continues to burn like wildfire. Ebola is a murderer not investigated by police, but by biologists, ethicists, and doctors; all three seem to butt heads when it comes to how to catch this criminal. But all this head-butting is tending the fire, and it is slowly but surely spreading its viral ashes across the African population.

Works Cited

Ethical Issues Related to Study Design for Trials of Therapeutics for Ebola Virus Disease. World Health Organization, October 2014. .pdf.

"The Ethics of Fighting Ebola." The New York Times. The New York Times, 01 Dec. 2014. Web. 06 Mar. 2016.

Gutmann, Amy, PhD. Ethics and Ebola: Public Health Planning and Response. Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, Feb. 2015. .pdf.

"Latest Available Situation Summary, March 09, 2016." Ebola Data and Statistics. World Health Organization, 09 Mar. 2016. Web. 10 Mar. 2016.

(Coal)tural Revolution

Cul(charcoal) Revolution

Sijie uses the symbol of the coal mine to imply the message of hope and to convey the attitudes of the people during the Cultural Revolution. The coal mine is often dark and light (hope of escape) is faltering, which represents the flickering hope in the hearts of the youth. They know they are doomed to a harsh life in reeducation, but they cannot help but seek hope whenever they can.

"A pinprick of light quivered in the darkness at the end of a long subterranean passage. The tiny bright dot wavered, fell, rose again, and continued its precarious advance. Now and then, when there was a dip in the floor, the dot disappeared for seconds at a time."

"To tell the truth, we accepted this infernal ordeal, because we were determined to stay in the race at all costs, even though our chances of returning to the city were no more than the infinitesimal three in a thousand."

Tao Poem

Adapt and change

like the wind, like the sprawling sea.

Adapt and change

like the eternal sky, turning rust and rose and blue and periwinkle

until night.

It is but the morning;

he who is stagnant

is forgotten.

Turning rust and rose and blue and periwinkle,

we must adapt

and change.

Is Your Memory Lying to You?

https://infograph.venngage.com/publish/71038f0f-8459-4ec5-942a-886b0f306963