KOREA VS KOREA

Most Americans may feel sorry about the possibility of another war but some relief that this one is someone else's business. WRONG! Look at this as a solemn promise made to a friend decades ago -a promise made to defend that friend against menacing and stronger neighbor - a promise that one would gives his life to help that friend in case of an attack - a promise that now needs to be kept. 

America made that promise more than 50 years to South Korea. To prepare in the event of an attack, we stationed thousands of US soldiers in South Korea for this moment but hoping that it never comes. But it may have come...

For most Americans this may be a story from a far away land but for many of us, it's a looming nightmare. We personally know soldiers currently in this hot zone with their spouses and children; and this worst than Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Today, we are closer to mayhem than you think. North Korea is a country with nuclear weapons the capabilities of which are still foreign to western powers, its number one ally is China; it counts Iran among its good friends and it's has been so closed to the rest of world for so long that its internal functioning is still an enigma to many of western analysts.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/11/23/koreas.clash.explainer/index.html

Let's just hope the two Koreas choose peace.



New Anti-McDonald's Ad - Compelling and...

When I first saw this ad in passing last week, I smiled but didn't think much of it. Not until I caught a discussion between Rachel Ray and Joy on the Joy Behar show on CNN Headline News at the gym this morning.

If you haven't seem it. It is from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. It has a dead man laying on a bed in a morgue holding what seems to be a partially eaten McDonald's burger. At the end the golden arch is swooshed onto the screen with the tag line "I was loving it" instead of "I'm loving it".

The ad suggests becoming a vegetarian. That is one solution that will work for some. We need to stop pointing fingers for this now global epidemic of heart diseases caused by our poor alimentation. Anytime we point our index at any one person or one organization, our remaining fingers are pointing right back at us as a society.

We need to work as a society not only to educate our citizens on the dire necessity of choosing healthy food items and preparing our own meals as much as possible, but we also need to work to make healthy and fresh foods available to all in the greatest country on earth regardless of financial or social status.

You may be surprised to know that fresh vegetables and fruits are not available in some low income communities. NPR had a great piece on the subject a few weeks ago and fortunately a company like Walgreens that traditionally doesn't sell groceries, is now providing fresh fruits and vegetables to communities who otherwise would have to travel a great distance for their provisions.

The vast majority of people would chose a healthy life if they had a choice or knew their choices.