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Circumcision-By-Bulk in the Balkans

10.24.08 (4:59 pm) [edit]

This is criminal!

In the southern Balkans, a small Muslim ethnic group maintains its collective identity by means of mass circumcision. Once every five years, villagers gather to ordain their boys. And to party for four straight days.

The southern Balkans region is notorious for its history of vicious ethnic bloodletting. But it's also home to one ethnic group that has traditionally preferred bloodletting of a rather more peaceful sort.

Indeed, when the former communist conglomerate of Yugoslavia crumbled over the course of the 1990s, the Gorani -- a small Muslim ethnic group scattered across present-day Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania -- weren't among the groups clamoring for a nation-state to call their own. They just wanted enough freedom to maintain their cultural traditions. For those living in the mountain villages of Donje and Gornje Ljubinje in southern Kosovo that meant, above all, the quinntenial celebration of Sunet, the festival of mass circumcision.

The modest circumstances of the Kosovar Gorani may not seem to justify celebration: the 3,000 residents are poor, even relative to their Albanian and Serb neighbors. But, the mass circumcision is a tradition that goes back centuries and locals feel it helps differentiate them from the myriad neighboring ethnic groups.

"This is why we are not the same as the others, even when it does not help us," Arif Kurtishi, a member of the Gorani diaspora who returned to Donje Ljubinje last year from Sweden for the festival, told the AFP.

At last year's Sunet, 130 boys from 10 months to five years -- some brought from abroad -- were circumcised by 70 year old Zylfikar Shishko, a barber from the nearby town of Prizren who has been performing the role for the last 45 years. "It has been so long, that I don't even know the number of boys I've circumcised in the Prizren area, maybe 15,000 or 20,000 or more," he said last year while making the rounds from home to home, likewise speaking to the AFP.

No one can recount the origins of the festival, but some speculate it was intended, centuries ago, to serve as a cost-saving measure: wholesale, rather than retail, circumcision. The rates are still reasonable. For his efforts, Shishko charges around €10 for each operation, and he works pro bono for the poorest families.

The procedure itself hasn't changed for centuries. To the sound of Muslim prayers, Shishko brandishes his instruments -- a scalpel, iodine and medical powder -- and applies them to each child. For the sake of tradition, the boys don't receive anesthetic -- Shishko is accompanied by two assistants who hold the boy down -- but they are compensated with presents and attention from the villagers.

The to-be-circumcised are also the guests of honor at the three full days of festivities that precede and follow the incisions. These include a parade through the neighboring villages, oil wrestling, tug-of-war, stone throwing and live music from traditional five-man brass bands. When the festival comes to a close, the villagers return to their day-to-day hardships while the emigrants make their way to their new homes.

In the coming five years, much is bound to change in Kosovo's political situation. But, the Goranis don't much involve themselves in the push-and-pull of governing outside their own villages. "Someone else, stronger and more powerful, will decide over the status of Kosovo," Shishko admits.

Instead, the villagers have already noted the dates of the coming Sunet in 2012, and hope that Shikso stays healthy enough to attend. He has yet to find a successor.

LINK

4 Comments

Yeast Overgrowth and Emotional Cravings

10.18.08 (12:10 pm) [edit]

This is an interesting article. It's talking about the emotions involved in food choices.

Quote of the Day

"Every person with a yeast-related problem has an overgrowth of Candida albicans in the digestive tract. This creates a disturbance in the normal balance of good bacteria, which, in turn, leads to a weakness of the membrane lining the intestinal tract. This is commonly called a "leaky gut." As a result, antigens (or toxic substances) in food are absorbed, and this plays a part in making you sick." -William G. Crook, M.D.

In the News
Written by Dr. Segura
Friday, 03 October 2008 20:15
Some children are quick to accept a bottle of milk, cookies, or crackers as a replacement for physical touch and emotional nurturing when parents are unable to provide them with such care. When a child receives food instead of emotional nurturing, it is quite probable that such a child will make poor food choices in the future. The process of "I need emotional nurturing = I get physical food" leaves them unable to tell the difference between normal emotions, such as anger, sadness or loneliness, and the desire to eat from a very early stage. And thus it happens that food becomes the replacement for emotional nurturing for some children as they learn to feel physical hunger in place of emotional need. When these children grow up, their most intimate friendships are with chocolates, cookies, ice cream, pizza, etc. which eases feelings of loneliness and/or reduces shame or anger. In these cases, diets fail - and with failure comes shame, for which another sweet treat is needed to ease the discomfort. And so it goes, on and on. Now there are other variations to this emotional relation to food, but you get the idea. Here is a relevant study that addresses the importance of emotions in food choices:
Read more...

5 Comments

Plastic Chemical May Interfere With Chemotherapy

10.17.08 (8:56 pm) [edit]

It appears that some of the chemicals that can cause cancer, can also keep cancer treatment from working. Evil begets evil in strange ways, and that's not even including the fact that chemo is evil and causes cancer as well, so that adds another evil, or is that another two evils.

Plastic Chemical May Interfere With Chemotherapy

A chemical widely used in hard plastic drinking bottles and the lining of food cans may reduce the effectiveness of chemotherapy treatment, a new study shows.

The findings, reported in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, adds to the growing list of concerns about bisphenol-a, or BPA, a chemical used to make the hard, clear and nearly unbreakable plastic called polycarbonate. The plastic is also found in the lining of nearly every soft drink and canned food product.

Most of the concern about BPA has focused on children, who are exposed to the chemical when trace amounts leach from polycarbonate baby bottles and the linings of infant formula cans. The worry is based on data from animal studies. Rat pups exposed to BPA, through injection or food, showed changes in mammary and prostate tissue, suggesting a potential cancer risk. In some tests of female mice, exposure appeared to accelerate puberty.

In the latest research, a team from the University of Cincinnati studied human breast cancer cells, subjecting them to low levels of BPA similar to those found in the blood of adults. They found that BPA acts on cancer cells similar to the way estrogen does — by inducing proteins that protect the cells from chemotherapy agents.

“It’s actually acting by protecting existing cancer cells from dying in response to anti-cancer drugs, making chemotherapy significantly less effective,” said Nira Ben-Jonathan, a professor of cancer and cell biology who has studied BPA for more than 10 years.

The research may help explain why chemotherapy appears to be less effective in some patients.

“These data,” study authors write, “provide considerable support to the accumulating evidence that BPA is hazardous to human health.”

The study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

The 2003-4 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found detectable levels of BPA in 93 percent of urine samples collected from more than 2,500 adults and children over 6.

In September, The Journal of the American Medical Association reported that adults with higher levels of BPA in their urine were more likely to have heart disease or diabetes. The Food and Drug Administration has reassured consumers that the chemical appears to be safe, but the National Toxicology Program , which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, has raised concerns.

In September, the American Chemistry Council wrote this response to concerns about BPA.

And to learn more about our exposure to BPA and the chemical’s effects, read my recent Well column, A Hard Plastic Is Raising Hard Questions.

LINK

5 Comments

It's A Sign Of The Times

10.11.08 (8:59 am) [edit]

Oh my.....

Morning Edition, October 9, 2008 · The National Debt Clock has run out of numbers. The giant sign in New York City changes constantly as the federal debt increases. It was put up years ago by a real estate developer horrified that the debt was approaching $3 trillion. Some years ago, the clock stopped when the U.S. started running a surplus. But now it's running again, and when the debt struck $10 trillion recently, the owners had to improvise an extra number one.

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0 Comments

Connecting the Dots: Palin Ascends, Your Savings Plummet, The World Steps Into The Twilight Zone

10.02.08 (2:51 pm) [edit]

SOTT Editors
SOTT.net
Tue, 30 Sep 2008 10:53 UTC

Sleepwalking into disaster, the human race appears to have crossed the point of no return in more than one area:

- The American people are playing with fire by supporting religious extremist and political dunce Sarah Palin - and they will get burned.

- In the process they may also burn a considerable portion of the rest of the world.

- Synchronously, the financial system gets the last, gentle push over the abyss; hungry and poor people will provide lots of excuses for fascism - some will even ask for it.

- The climate is acting up, as it usually does during this time of the year, but the Sun is not behaving according to expected cycles, and together with a few clues here and there, we wonder if something in the cosmic/geophysical system has not changed for good.