Zanmi Lasante (“Partners In Health” in Haitian Kreyol)

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/01/13/world/20100113-HAITIQUAKE_index.html

A massive and immediate international response is needed to provide food, water, shelter and medical supplies for tens of thousands of people effected by the devastating earthquake in Port-au-Prince.

Earthquakes are acts of nature but extreme vulnerability to a natural disaster is not. Haiti is one of the world’s poorest countries.

For two decades, Partners In Health (PIH)’s has successfully built a sustainable, community-based public health system for the people of Haiti. Dr. Paul Farmer, co-founder of PIH has made it his mission to transform healthcare on a global scale, by focusing on the world’s poorest and sickest.

Partners In Health is a well established effective aid organization working in Haiti. PIH has hospitals and highly trained medical staff in place in Haiti, they’ve already mobilized resources and are preparing plans to bring additional medical assistance and supplies to areas that have been hardest hit.

I urge you to join me in contributing to relief efforts underway in Haiti. Right now the greatest need is financial support. Make a gift today to help the people of Haiti.

DONATE NOW TO PIH's EARTHQUAKE RELIEF FUND

To learn more about public health issues facing Haiti before the earthquake, Partners In Health and my hero Dr. Paul Farmer I highly recommend Tracy Kidder’s book Mountains Beyond Mountains.

Look Who Didn't Make The Cut

When nytimes.com put out a request for reader’s dog photos last month, I enthusiastically found the very best photo of Hank. I submitted my photo and patiently waited to see a picture of Hank Spank SanClements published in the New York Time (online edition but still it’s the NYTimes). I couldn’t wait to show people that my dog was the best and his photo in NYTimes would prove it.

But, when the piece was finally published there was no picture of Hank. I couldn’t believe it. How could this happen? There must have been a mistake?

My dog did not make the cut.

Like Hank so many other dogs do not make the cut, but worse the adoption cut. There are approximately 74.8 million owned dogs in the United States and only 10% of these dogs were adopted from a shelter. Approximately 4 million adoptable dogs & cats are killed each year due mainly to overpopulation.

Shelter pets are the best pets and Hank is proof. When you adopt from a shelter you are not only saving a life; you are making a friend. North Shore Animal league launched a new education campaign to let the general public know that Mutt-i-grees (mixed-breed dogs) make great pets and are the right choice.

Adopting a mutt-i-gree or even a purebred from an overcrowded shelter makes the statement that it is unacceptable and wrong to buy a puppy from a pet store that’s supplied by the cruel purebred puppy mills. So if your thinking of adding a furry friend to your family, make the right choice and contact your local animal shelter. Adopt an animal that needs your help today. You too could have a mutt-i-gree like Hank.

http://www.adoptapet.com/

This is What I Learned at The Exhibit

American Museum of Natural History New York
Climate Change: The Threat to Life and New Energy Future
October 18, 2008 - August 16, 2009

Earth’s climate is changing. The earth is warming and weather patterns are shifting. And, science has proven over and over that its a result of human actions; not natural occurrences.

We’ve already seen major changes like the melting of glaciers, increase in the number of forest fires and the consequences societies are facing due to severe storms and droughts.

What can we do?

We can all make small changes to our daily lives and these small changes will add up to big differences. Better public engagement will make for better policy making. We need the Environmental Protection Agency to get back to working for a cleaner, healthier environment.

EPA Washington DC