Several major international organizations, both human rights and international health organizations, have joined together to call for the unconditional release of Dr. Arash Alaei from prison in Iran.
Today, July 19, marks the Global Day of Action to call for the immediate and unconditional release of the brother of our DrPH student. As many of you are aware, Kamiar Alaei, a Doctor of Public Health student at our School of Public Health, was arrested along with his older brother, Arash, in June 2008 when he (Kamiar) returned to Iran for a summer internship. They were charged with communicating with an enemy government, ours. Both Kamiar and Arash had been internationally recognized and celebrated for the work they had done in Iran by establishing "triangular clinics," a project documented by WHO/EMRO as a "best practice" in the region, focusing on HIV, STD, and IDU prevention, harm reduction, and combatting stigma and discrimination against people living with AIDS. After a sham trial, they were convicted and Kamiar was sentenced to three years and Arash was sentenced to six years, sentences to be served in the notorious Evan Prison in Tehran.
A campaign to free them (http://www.iranfreethedocs.org/) was begun soon after their arrests and many human rights organizations were very vocal in calling for their release. Late last year, we were filled with joy when Kamiar, who had served well over half of his sentence, was granted a conditional release and able to return to our community and his doctoral studies.
Now Kamiar has completed the full term of his sentence and is able to lead the efforts being undertaken again by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), Amnesty International, and other organizations, to free his brother who has completed half of his sentence and is, under Iranian law, eligible for a conditional release.
PHR has said, "Dr. Arash Alaei has worked tirelessly to address HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and addiction and demonstrated unwavering dedication to helping improve the lives of his countrymen and women by protecting them from disease and death. The Drs. Alaei are global leaders in programs to end discrimination against injection drug users in Iran and helped to develop and implement Iran's progressive policies on needle exchange and AIDS prevention and care inside and outside of prisons.
"Health professinals must be able to implement HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment without fear of reprisals and should not be imprisoned on the basis of their professional work for the prevention of HIV and care of people affected by the disease.
"Ending Dr. Arash Alaei's confinement will benefit public health in Iran and will have a positive impact on the international medical community and the efforts to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS. With his release, Dr. Alaei can continue his life-saving work for the benefit of humanity.
"Please visit http://www.iranfreethedocs.org/ and sign the petition asking the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to release Dr. Arash Alaei immediately so that he can continue his important public health work."
Global Health
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Recent Astonishing Realizations
Has it really been over a month since I last posted an entry? I guess it has been; for most of that intervening time, I have been traveling and, based on my travel experiences, thinking about what I discovered, experienced, and learned. The world is changing rapidly it seems.
Just a couple of days after I returned from our Dominican Republic study tour, I repacked my suitcase for a trip that took me to partner organizations in China, Cambodia, and Vietnam, a trip of just over three weeks. Because there were unique purposes for each country visit, I think I'll discuss my experiences and impressions in three separate entries, one for each country starting with China, the first stop on our journey.
I was joined on this leg of the trip by three fun and sophisticated fellow travelers: Bonnie Nasca, Shao Lin, and Syni-An Hwang. Our primary purpose was to visit Sun Yat-sen University's Medical and Public Health School in Guangzhou (formerly Canton). Sun Yat-sen is one of China's leading universities and the alma mater of Dr. Shao Lin, a faculty member iin the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the UAlbany School of Public Health and a Research Scientist in the Center for Environmental Health at the New York State Department of Health, and her husbamd who is also a Department of Health employee. We have had a partnership agreement with Sun Yat-sen since 2009 but this was the first opportunity to visit their universiy and meet a significant number of their faculty. Shao is taking the lead on this partnership which will stimulate collaborative research on environmental health issues common to both our countries with a focus on those brought about by global climate change.
The last and only time I had previously visited China was about 10 years ago. What a difference a decade can make! We all know what an economic powerhouse China has become (and how much of our debt it owns!) but the pace of development there is mind-boggling. Guangzhou is a city of 20 million (a bit more than the entire population of New York State!) and is spreading outward at a rapid pace with new roads and hundreds, if not thousands, of new high rise apartment buildings going up. What you see from the highways are contruction cranes and new clusters of buildings rising in all directions. Of couse if you are a PBS listener and NY Times reader, you also know of the concerns this is raising among those landowners who have had their homes and lands conficated and leveled to make way for these massive construction projects . . . The new China is shiny and modern; the traditional China is disappearing fast. But what is also remarkable is that things seem to run efficiently. Ten years ago, you saw more bicyclists and small vehicles plus lots of public transportation. Today there are lots of cars--new cars made by every manufacturer from Japanese and Korean to American models. But they have also built the roads and tunnels and bridges to accommodate the traffic and everything flows smoothly; there is no gridlock like you find in Moscow or some of our cities. Another remarkable thing was the number of trees and the beautiful landscaping everywhere. Even in the city, trees have been preserved or newly planted, highways are landscaped with colorful flowers and bushes, and hanging flower baskets adorn every major street. Sometimes the glitz seemed excessive. Guangzhou had recently played host to the Asian Games and may have spruced up their city for that but an evening boat trip along the Pearl River demonstrated the charm and glitz of neon in abmdance: many of the buildings and all the bridges along the River have been turned into light shows! We were wined and dined by colleagues at magnificent banquet houses and taken to a circus that was Cirque de Soliel on steroids. For some reason, everything seemed out-sized and a bit excessive but admirable in terms of ability to "get things done." Maybe dictatorships are bad in many ways but when I see our Congress at an impasse and so little progress being made here on the major issues facing our nation, I can't help but think we'd be better off with a stronger Executive.
In addition to the visit to Sun Yat-sen University, we were able to meet with leaders of the Provincial Centers for Disease Control for Guangdong Provincial. That province alone has a population of 100 million! They are housed in a very modern building in Guangzhou with four floors of laboratory space fully equipped with the latest equipment. However, they were pleased to show us plans for their new, expanded and even better equipped, facility which they will move into soon.
We certainly have a lot to learn from our Chinese colleagues!
Next time I will write about our experience in Siem Reap, Cambodia where we visited an NGO, The Global Child, which was started by people from this area to help street children and orphans stay in school and off the streets.
Just a couple of days after I returned from our Dominican Republic study tour, I repacked my suitcase for a trip that took me to partner organizations in China, Cambodia, and Vietnam, a trip of just over three weeks. Because there were unique purposes for each country visit, I think I'll discuss my experiences and impressions in three separate entries, one for each country starting with China, the first stop on our journey.
I was joined on this leg of the trip by three fun and sophisticated fellow travelers: Bonnie Nasca, Shao Lin, and Syni-An Hwang. Our primary purpose was to visit Sun Yat-sen University's Medical and Public Health School in Guangzhou (formerly Canton). Sun Yat-sen is one of China's leading universities and the alma mater of Dr. Shao Lin, a faculty member iin the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the UAlbany School of Public Health and a Research Scientist in the Center for Environmental Health at the New York State Department of Health, and her husbamd who is also a Department of Health employee. We have had a partnership agreement with Sun Yat-sen since 2009 but this was the first opportunity to visit their universiy and meet a significant number of their faculty. Shao is taking the lead on this partnership which will stimulate collaborative research on environmental health issues common to both our countries with a focus on those brought about by global climate change.
The last and only time I had previously visited China was about 10 years ago. What a difference a decade can make! We all know what an economic powerhouse China has become (and how much of our debt it owns!) but the pace of development there is mind-boggling. Guangzhou is a city of 20 million (a bit more than the entire population of New York State!) and is spreading outward at a rapid pace with new roads and hundreds, if not thousands, of new high rise apartment buildings going up. What you see from the highways are contruction cranes and new clusters of buildings rising in all directions. Of couse if you are a PBS listener and NY Times reader, you also know of the concerns this is raising among those landowners who have had their homes and lands conficated and leveled to make way for these massive construction projects . . . The new China is shiny and modern; the traditional China is disappearing fast. But what is also remarkable is that things seem to run efficiently. Ten years ago, you saw more bicyclists and small vehicles plus lots of public transportation. Today there are lots of cars--new cars made by every manufacturer from Japanese and Korean to American models. But they have also built the roads and tunnels and bridges to accommodate the traffic and everything flows smoothly; there is no gridlock like you find in Moscow or some of our cities. Another remarkable thing was the number of trees and the beautiful landscaping everywhere. Even in the city, trees have been preserved or newly planted, highways are landscaped with colorful flowers and bushes, and hanging flower baskets adorn every major street. Sometimes the glitz seemed excessive. Guangzhou had recently played host to the Asian Games and may have spruced up their city for that but an evening boat trip along the Pearl River demonstrated the charm and glitz of neon in abmdance: many of the buildings and all the bridges along the River have been turned into light shows! We were wined and dined by colleagues at magnificent banquet houses and taken to a circus that was Cirque de Soliel on steroids. For some reason, everything seemed out-sized and a bit excessive but admirable in terms of ability to "get things done." Maybe dictatorships are bad in many ways but when I see our Congress at an impasse and so little progress being made here on the major issues facing our nation, I can't help but think we'd be better off with a stronger Executive.
In addition to the visit to Sun Yat-sen University, we were able to meet with leaders of the Provincial Centers for Disease Control for Guangdong Provincial. That province alone has a population of 100 million! They are housed in a very modern building in Guangzhou with four floors of laboratory space fully equipped with the latest equipment. However, they were pleased to show us plans for their new, expanded and even better equipped, facility which they will move into soon.
We certainly have a lot to learn from our Chinese colleagues!
Next time I will write about our experience in Siem Reap, Cambodia where we visited an NGO, The Global Child, which was started by people from this area to help street children and orphans stay in school and off the streets.
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