I have mentioned this letter three times (here, here and here) and Jeremy Cherfas rightfully complains that he can’t read it. Here is most of it:
Friday marked the deadline to enter The New York Times columnist Nick Kristof’s second annual “Win a Trip with Nick Kristof” contest. Open to students currently enrolled at any American college or university, as well as middle and high school teachers, the contest offers one student and one teacher an all expenses-paid trip through Africa with the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist to gather stories on the impoverished continent. . . The prize includes the chance – more accurately the expectation – to detail the experience on a blog on NYTimes.com.
Because I am currently a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I qualify to enter this competition, and have many reasons to do so. . . . .Yet, I refuse to apply. I think the way Kristof has cast this trip is a disservice to Africa. . . .
Kristof insists on telling the story of a failing Africa when instead he could report on its ability to overcome. On the competition’s webpage Kristof has posted a letter to potential applicants that provides this explanation: “Frankly, I’m hoping that you’ll be changed when you see a boy dying of malaria because his parents couldn’t afford a $5 mosquito net, or when you talk to a smart girl who is at the top of her class but is forced to drop out of school because she can’t afford a school uniform.” . . .
Last year’s student witnessed the death of a woman during childbirth despite the fact that both Kristof and his traveling companion donated blood in an attempt to save her. Though the doctor promised to help the young woman, he apparently ducked out the back door as she died. That was Kristof’s story of Cameroon, a West African nation with tremendous ecological diversity and a per-capita GDP higher than that of most other African countries. . . .
The story of Africa in turmoil is the African narrative that many Americans – and certainly those who read The New York Times – already know. It is virtually the only type of reporting that Western news outlets broadcast about the continent. Every American student who has to listen to National Public Radio in the car when Dad picks her up from soccer practice, or has had to read The Economist for a school assignment, or has read in a church newsletter about a local youth group’s spring break trip to a rural African village knows that people in Africa are hurting. Maybe we haven’t smelled an understaffed health clinic that cares for HIV-positive orphans, or walked through rows of coffee trees with a farmer whose young son was beaten into serving in a youth militia in a civil war between tribal groups whose names we can’t pronounce and whose agendas we can’t keep straight. But we know they are poor, and that Africa will break your American heart if its contaminated water doesn’t kill you first. . . .
Americans don’t need any more stories of a dying Africa. Instead, we should learn of a living one. Kristof and his winners should investigate how it is that Botswana had the highest per-capita growth of any country in the world for the last 30 years of the twenty-first century. Report on the recent completion of the West Africa Gas Pipeline that delivers cheaper, cleaner energy to parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Tell us about investment opportunities in Nigeria’s burgeoning capital markets.
Sadly, it’s impossible to report on Africa’s successes without relaying its tragedies. Virtually every African victory is somehow also a story of malnourishment and malaria, misogyny and malevolence. That’s important because Africa’s horrors are massive and crushing, and demand attention. I agree with Pope John Paul II, who said “a society will be judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members.” Clearly Africa will be the [basis of] judgment of our global community.
Kristof knows this, of course, and I am certain he means well when he writes that his original purpose for the contest was because he thought that “plenty of young people [who] tune out a fuddy-duddy like myself might be more engaged by a fellow-student encountering African poverty for the first time.” But they would also be excited to encounter African hope, something equally unknown to most Americans, students or otherwise.
So I’m asking Kristof to refine his summer travel itinerary to include a tour of a thriving organic farm owned and operated by a local Ethiopian cooperative. And the Ugandan health clinics that are reducing the number of AIDS cases despite a continuing guerilla war. And the wonderful “PlayPumps” scattered throughout the continent that provide safe drinking water via a pump system powered by children as they play on a playground. Brilliant idea. And something many people don’t know about.
Africa needs a lot of things. It needs money and aid workers, vaccines and functioning governments. Some of those things can be provided by outside donors, and other can’t. But universally, Africa needs us to believe in it. And that is something we have to be taught.
I long ago concluded that there is a psychological-emotional split among the population: one group likes challenge and achievement, the other relishes pathos. This is not the place for my theories as to why, or what else it correlates with.
But Kristof demonstrates in what is quoted here, that he gets some kind of neurological kick from pathos, as well as from discomforting other people.
If your the Loren Berlin who published the article in today’s NY times Health section drop me an e-mail and I’ll pass on some information about an MD in NYC doing some alternative stuff and seemingly have some success DPYN3100@Hotmail.com
Thanks, Frank. I have emailed Loren about your comment.
Loren,
I´ve just read your article in today´s NY Times. Great. I share all your feelings. I´m an Spanish diabetic girl, so I´ll have to live with it. There´s no cure, but I hope not to die because of it.
Sorry about my English, I can understand your article, but I can´t express myself very well.
I´ve enjoyed your article because I think people usually don´t know what living with a chronical disease or illnes means.
It´s encouraging for me. I´ve been a diabetic for seventeen years, but sometimes I feel I´m not still used to it. Anyway, hope is a good idea.
Thanks for your article,
Pilar
Sorry, Seth, this isn’t about the letter to Kristof, but like Frank, about other approaches to autoimmune disease. Please pass this on to Loren. I had an autoimmune disorder nearly three years ago. After getting nothing but an “incurable” label from several practitioners of conventional medicine I saw Richard Panico, MD, at the Mind-Body Institute at Athens (GA) Regional Medical Center. Rich is a remarkable mix: highly trained in Western medicine, an excellent diagnostician, expert in nutrition, herbal and other supplementation therapies, a yoga teacher, and the hub of a diverse group of other healers. My point is not that the Mind-Body Institute is your only hope but that a wide range of options are available which are unlikely to be mentioned (other than to be ridiculed) by most MDs today. I hope you can find some effective help, Loren. Best wishes.
I found this article after reading Loren’s “cases” piece in the NYT. a). Is this the Loren who went to Crystalaire as a kid? If so, drop me an email, it has been a long time. b). Regardless of whether or not we actually know each other, this is an incredibly insightful criticism about modern media’s portrayal of Africa. I find it frustrating to continually dispel the myths about how much success there is amidst the significant troubles. The country of Ghana, for example, is incredibly safe and stable with a rapidly growing economy and 50 years of democratic rule. I think that the young people of the world need to spend time in Africa to better differentiate between the failings and successes of the continent. Thanks for republishing this article, Seth. Best wishes to Loren.
Could someone please pass along my contact info to Loren in regards to her piece today in the NYTimes.
I’d really like to talk to her as my experience with UC has been identical – emotionally and physically – but I’ve found a better way to manage the disease: with a combo of less harsh Western meds and over-the-counter products. No, I’m not trying to sell her anything.
Emily
Hi. This is Loren. Anyone who wants to contact me can so at loren230@hotmail.com
Thank you for all your kind words about my piece in the NYT, and yes, I went to Crystalaire. I will try to reply to you individually now.
to Loren Berlin. You are going through an awful lot and causing yourself a lot of anguish. Why don’t you have a colectomy? With the J pouch technique you can have normal bowel function. See a surgeon in your area that specialized in inflammatory bowel disease. You will be surprised at your options.
To Loren,
Please consider looking outside the western medicine model and look into a good a chinese herbalist and acupuncturist. They have very effective and gentle approaches to autoimmune conditions.
Best
I, too, have a message for Loren. I was diagnosed in 1989 (by a doctor at Duke University) with ulcerative colitis at the age of 35 and had to alternately take sulfur drugs and prednisone to control the symtoms (very similar to those described by Loren in her article). I was NOT told to alter my diet or change my lifestyle in any way. In 1992 I stopped eating meat (and fish) and at my next colonoscopy in 1994 my new doctor did not believe that I had had ulcerative colitis. She insisted on getting my records and the videotape from the Duke doctor which confirmed that I HAD had colitis in 1989, but I did NOT have it in 1994. The only difference was that I had stopped eating meat! I hope that if Loren has not made this change in her diet, that she will do so. I wish her all the best. (Please note, Loren may contact me if she wishes.)
Loren,
Just wanted to write to thank you for your article in NYTimes today.
Hi Loren,
I just telephoned you from Stockton, Ca. and left a message, wondering if you
have heard of Edgar Cayce and his remedies…I mentioned on the phone the Castor Oil Pack as a remedy for colitis…I think it would benefit you to at least try it…it is natural and seems to have worked for many.
If you Google “Edgar Cayce Castor Oil Pack” you will have all the info you need.
I wish you a speedy recovery. God Bless.
Sally in Stockton, Ca.
you may reply if you wish.
Hi Loren,
I just telephoned you from California and told you about Edgar Cayce and his Castor Oil Pack for Colitis..Read about your HOPE in the NY times…
If you google “Edgar Cayce Castor Oil Pack” you will have all the info you need.
I and others have used it for many problems and it works.
God Bless,
Sally in Stockton, Ca.