facebook and the world

I am presenting a fascinating and visually stunning map which was created by a facebook intern named Paul Butler. He explains how this piece was generated: “I defined weights for each pair of cities as a function of the Euclidean distance between them and the number of friends between them. Then I plotted lines between the pairs by weight, so that pairs of cities with the most friendships between them were drawn on top of the others. “ You can read more on the topic here. The map shows that Russia and China are completely out of FB’s world, so it is most of Africa. In fact, Russia and China use some facebook clones, namely vkontakte.ru and renren, which are character friendly and provide, at least for China, government-friendly censorship of several key terms. Moreover, most of Africa and some parts of the southern American continent are not covered by the internet.

It is impressive that, at least in subsaharan Africa, the map does also illustrate the only countries where an efficient prevention of tumors is available. In fact, the prevention of cancer of the uterine cervix, breast and liver has been started only in South Africa, in Kenya -Tanzania, in Ghana - Nigeria, exactly where facebook lines are present in the map.  It seems fairly obvious that the pattern of diffusion of the internet in Africa (and facebook, as a consequence) reflects a higher level of civilization and a deeper consciousness of social health problems in those countries.

Salgado's afro-pessimism

Sebastiao Salgado is one of the most famous photojournalist in the world. Educated as an economist, he began his photography career in 1973 while traveling for work for the International coffee organization. Working entirely in a black and white format he has been able to construct penetrating images of the dispossessed peoples all over the world. He has a great respect for his subjects and always testifies to the fundamental dignity of all humanity while simultaneously protesting its violation by war, poverty and other injustices. He has published several books. One of them, Africa is an homage to the continent’s people and wildlife. The most impressive photos depict returning refugees, child soldiers, child portraits, rural workers, breathtaking pictures of Rwanda, hospitals, villages, etc. The majority of the pictures focus on what the text describes as “afro-pessimism”.  In fact, most of his pictures make you weep but this is done  with dignity and respect to the subjects in the photographs. Looking at Salgado’s work especially in this book is like being transported to another world, one that in many respects, and unfortunately, still exists. He has the ability to describe so many bad things making something beautiful out of it while, at the same time, not diminishing the suffering or the value of the subjects. Afro-pessimism is probably a feeling one cannot avoid when faced to the poverty, injustices, and human misery which are still so great and prominent sometimes in the life of African people. This blog is probably a little afro-pessimistic too but such a feeling, or attitude, is a positive one; in fact, talking about the problems serves as a stimulus to solve them. As many people as possible in the developed world should be invited to participate, to be part of the discussion, to get to know the real problems, to be truly concerned about what is going on in the underdeveloped world. Even a blog can help.

african american women and breast cancer

According to the Center of Environmental Oncology of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute more African American women die of breast cancer than do white women.  This is probably due in part to racial disparities, higher exposure to environmental carcinogens, different lyfe style, and genetic factors. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that African American women with breast cancer fare worse than white women because they may have not access to quality health care or health insurance, or are often diagnosed with tumors that are more aggressive, or are exposed to toxic chemicals in a greater proportion at workplace. Although 1 in 8 Americans is African American, 1 in 3 houskeepers and blue collar workers, and 1 in 2 workers in sanitation jobs, are African American. The environmental risks of breast cancer include: cigarette smoking (including second-hand smoke); drinking more than two drinks of alcohol every day; obesity and being overweight especially after menopause; diets high in well done, smoked, preserved, fried or barbecued meats or fish, and diets low in fruits and vegetables. 

Relevant exposure to chemicals is found in polluted water and air, exhaust fumes from cars, trucks and buses, combustion products formed from burning wood chips, rubber, and when cooking meat or fish at high temperatures.  Workplace exposure to carcinogen chemicals occurs for dry cleaners, nurses, hairdressers, barbers, trucks/bus drivers. Personal risk factors associated with breast cancer include: family history of breast cancer; age older than 60; and use of hormone replacement therapy for more than a few months. 

What happens instead to African women? The rates of breast cancer seem much lower in most of Africa. Among regions, the age-standardized incidence rate is lowest in Central Africa (16.5/100,000) and highest in North America (99.4/100,000). The 5-year survival, however, is about 73 percent in industrialized countries, and 57 percent overall in developing countries. In summary, in low-income developing countries the incidence of breast cancer is lower than in the USA but the mortality rate is much higher. Accurate screening programmes to diagnose the tumor as early as possible represent the best tool to reduce breast cancer mortality but in most African countries they are still far from being implemented.