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Sunday, December 13, 2009, Bangkok Post Obama: Courage to speak his mind US President Barack Obama chose a unique stage to lay out the main cornerstone of his foreign policy. It took some courage for him to step in front of the committee awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize and explain that "just wars" are necessary because there is no chance for peace in our time. Nearly 11 months into his presidency, the US leader now has articulated what already is being called the Obama Doctrine. It will draw cheers and criticism in coming days, but it now is clear that Mr Obama has cleared away the fog of political campaigning and intends to conduct American diplomacy on the basis of realpolitik. There were no doubt many in the audience at Oslo who were taken aback, even shocked at Mr Obama's speech. The Nobel Peace Prize award ceremonies more often are marked by platitudes and hopes for peace than by forthright discussion of a sometimes messy, nasty world. But credit or blame the Peace Prize award committee for creating scepticism over the 2009 Peace Prize. The choice of Mr Obama was strange indeed, because the new US president, whatever his rhetorical achievements, had not even had the opportunity to create peace when he was nominated last February. Mr Obama thus began his speech humbly, noting correctly that there were more deserving nominees than him. White House aides told the media that the president also felt, given the widespread criticism and incredulity over the award, that he had no choice but to address his own escalation of the Afghanistan war. In the end he decided to lay out his entire foreign policy. Two major points of the Obama Doctrine emerged in only one sentence. The first: "The hard truth (that) we will not eradicate violent conflicts in our lifetimes." This is close to heresy at a Novel Peace Prize ceremony. In deed, it directly contradicts the first US president to win the Prize, Woodrow Wilson, who infamously labelled World War One "the war to end all wars". Mr Obama's second point was equally startling, but more important. "There will be times," he told the audience, that war is "not only necessary but morally justified." He admitted straight up that his own personal heroes, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr, would disagree. Mr Obama also spoke forthrightly to the American people recently, when he announced his decision on a major escalation in the war in Afghanistan. He said he was determined to "finish the job" against the Taliban and alQaeda. To do that, he ordered more than 30,000 US troops to augment the force already in Afghanistan, asked Nato allies for more help, and told the Hamid Karzai government in Kabul that it must prepare to take over its own defence, starting as early as 18 months from now. It seems impossible to promise open-ended support to the Afghanistan government, particularly to the discredited President Karzai. He began with a national unity government after the 1991 invasion by the US and its allies overthrew the Taliban regime and expelled Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Since then, the nation has once become a patchwork of factions. Neither in his election campaign nor since he became president has Mr Obama mentioned that he wants to "win" the war in Afghanistan. Nor did he use that word in his Oslo speech. The promise by Mr Obama to use US force, and to urge other countries to do the same, will disappoint some. The often stirring words of his election speeches, and to overseas audiences from Germany and Cairo, aroused hope of a kinder world. Consider, however, what Mr Obama has seen from his desk in the White House. Iran has refused to come clean on its nuclear ambitions and has, in fact, vowed to be even more secretive. North Korea has detonated nuclear bombs and withdrawn from peace talks. The Taliban has announced it wants to take control in Afghanistan by force, and has forged even closer ties with al-Qaeda. As Mr Obama now has clearly stated, neither non-violence nor negotiations will prevent rogue governments or savage groups from trying to achieve their own ends by violence. Given that starting point, the US president laid out certain principles for opposing uncivilised threats. And these, rather than the threat to go to war, are the actual cornerstones of the Obama Doctrine and US foreign policy. Put briefly, his three-point action plan is to ensure the US holds itself to high principles (no torture, eventual closure of the Guantanamo Bay camp); try to engage rogue governments with tough diplomacy and attempt to bring them back into the world fold; and then to use war only as a last resort. War is necessary, says the Obama Doctrine, when the continuing resistance of foreign threats indicate that war is probably inevitable anyway. The non-violence of Gandhi and King is "not practical or possible in every circumstance". Some will read the Obama Doctrine and see the same old US policy of acting as world policemen. Others will correctly realise that Mr Obama has firmly grasped the reins as president. Good for Mr Obama to use the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony to articulate such a realistic approach to US foreign policy.

The Most Dangerous Place on Earth for Women
Mary Lou Hartman Special to the Washington Post I was just raped. Not just, as in recently, though sometimes it feels like yesterday, but just as in only. I was only raped, not mutilated. I did not have a bottle or stick or gun shoved into my vagina, twisted to inflict maximum injury. Though damaged, I did not have my breasts lopped off, nor did I lose a limb. I was left intact, though far from whole. I did not feel lucky four-and-a-half years ago, when I was raped, but I do feel lucky today as I read about the unfathomable violence that is being unleashed against women and girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I struggle to understand how the word "rape" can describe what happened to me and be used to describe what is happening to them. My mind skitters in a thousand directions when I try to force myself to think about it. Is it shameful to think that I share something with these women? Is it wrong to think that I don't? I do not believe that being raped gives me any moral authority on the subject. I don't pretend to know what other women experience or how they cope or fail to cope. I only know that following my rape, I suffered from depression, a frofound need to be alone, denial, guilt and a distorted desire to prove that I was, in fact, worthless. I suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome, triggered by, among other things, airports, eye doctors and, well, almost anything that brought on a sense of helplessness. Therapy, family, friends, faith, time, distance, medical care and more have helped bring me back from the brink of despair. I am a strong person in my own right, but I am certain that I could not have pushed through without that support. What chance, then, do the girls and women of Congo have, lacking many of these resources? Despite international attention, including visits from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and UN officials, and a recent "60 Minutes" report, Congo remains the most dangerous place on earth for girls and women. Hundreds of thousands of them are victims of unimaginably horrific gender-based violence. In just the first six months of 2009, the United Nations reported close to 7000 victims of sexual violence in Congo, a number that is significantly under-representative. It does not include, for example, the women who do not live to tell their tales of assault, or those who are too ill, to ashamed or too afraid to come forward. In some cases, women and girls, butchered from the inside out, suffer from traumatic gynaecologic fistula. This means that they have been raped so violently, sometimes by as many as 10 men, that the tissue between the vagina and the bladder and/ or rectum is torn, causing them, among other things, to live in a constant state of filth from their own faeces and urine. They reek of it. And then they are ostracised. I know what it is like to feel dirty after a rape. I cannot imagine what is is like to have these agonising psychological scars so physically, publicly manifested, reinforcing the darkest feelings of self-loathing triggered by the rape itself. The UNs' report paints a devastating picture of complicity among the Congolese army, rebel groups and neighbouring forces in Burundi, Uganda and Tanzania. It examines the role that foreign governments and firms, including a Nevada-based company, play in perpetuating the violence, much of it driven by greed for gold and conflict minerals that are used in cellphones, DVD players and video games. Two bills before the US Congress would help to make the conflict-minerals market more transparent and thereby undercut the funding of the groups who are destroying Congolese women. Being raped was for me, as it is for so many women, an intensely private agonyMy afford. Do something, anything, because to do nothing in the face of this evil cannot be an option.

Werewolf
So, what actually is werewolf or lycanthropy? Is it a fact based on concrete evidences? Is it a myth, fabrication of feeble minds? Is it an exaggeration of some other things? Well, all these questions have been puzzling mankind for last 5 centuries. Though many ingenious hypotheses have been suggested as possible explanations, definite conclusion can't be drawn. Some experts have tried to observe it as purely supernatural phenomena while others have relied on scientific observations. Contradictions and debates still persist and will continue till any single theory solves the jigsaw which seems unlikely considering complexity and diversity of the topic.

Mythological Explanation of Werewolf Phenomenon

Some people during middle ages believed that the werewolf was the projection of a demon, which made its victims appear as a wolf in his own eyes and to those around him. For others, the werewolf was a direct manifestation of the Devil. Early seventeenth century French author Henri Bouguet believed, as did a great many people of that day, that Satan would leave the lycanthrope asleep behind a bush, go forth as a wolf, and perform whatever evil might be in that person’s mind. According to Bouguet, the Devil could confuse the sleeper’s imagination to such an extent “that he believes he had really been a wolf and had run about and killed men and beasts.”

Robert Burton, the clergyman and scholar, considered lycanthrope to be a form of madness as mentioned in his book Anatomy of Melancholy in 1621; he blamed every thing from sorcerers and witches to poor diet, bad air, sleeplessness and even lack of exercise for this. The Mysteries of Magic, written by nineteenth century French occultist Éliphas Lévi, postulates the existence of phantom - a body that acts as mediator between a living organism and the soul. “Thus in case of a man whose instinct is savage and sanguinary, his phantom will wander around in lupine form, whilst he sleeps painfully at home, dreaming he is a veritable wolf.” Lévi believed that the wounds so often reported in the cases of werewolves could be attributed to the out-of-body experience. He saw the human body as a subject to magnetic and nervous influences and capable of receiving the wounds suffered by the metamorphosed shape.

Contrary to the popular explanations existed during middle ages, few doctors at that time asserted that it was caused by an excess of melancholy or an imbalance in humors, the liquid or fluid part of the body. Many doctors believed that such melancholy could lead to insanity and delusion. One physician recommended that the lycanthrope should be treated with baths, purging, bleeding, dietary measures and rubbing opium into the nostrils.

Scientific Explanation of Werewolf Phenomenon:

Food contamination

The diet of medieval peasants may have been a source of werewolf delusions. Ergot infection on food grains like wheat and rye was common in Europe during the middle ages. This is actually a fungus which grows in place of grains in wet seasons after very cold winters. Alkaloids of this fungus are chemically related to LSD (LysergicAcid Diethylamide, a strong hallucinogenic psychoactive drug which produces dreamlike changes in mood and thought and alters the perception of time and space. It can create lack of self-control, extreme terror and blurring the feeling between the individual and the environment.) Similar to this modern drug, Ergot poisoning results in hallucinations, mass hysteria and paranoia. Continuous exposure to this contamination through bread or other food items could contribute to either an individual believing he is a werewolf or a whole town believing that they have seen a werewolf. A recorded Ergot poisoning case confirms this hypothesis. Nearly 135 people had to be hospitalized and 6 died poisoning in the French town of Pont St. Esprit in 1951. They ate bread made from Ergot infected rye. The victims had horrible visions of being attacked by tigers and snakes and of turning into beasts.

However, Ergot contamination is not sufficient enough as a single cause to explain lycanthropy; werewolf appearance have been reported from other parts of the world where Ergot infection is rare.

Substance Induced Hallucination

Recorded werewolf cases and contemporary literatures mention rubbing magic ointment on the skin or inhaling vapor from magic potion by the alleged lycanthrope. The main ingredients of the ointment or potion were Belladonna or Nightshade that could produce hallucination and delusions of bodily metamorphose. This might explain how a wicked person make himself believe or act as a werewolf, but still the mystery of werewolf sighting remains ambiguous as it can’t induce same hallucination or delusions on surrounding people who has confirmed werewolf sightings.

werewolf

Physical or Mental Illness

One branch of modern physicians refers lycanthropes as suffering from any of the five conditions; Rabies, Porphyria, Hypertrichosis, Body Image Distortion and psychological illness.

A strain of virus carried by dogs, wolves and other animals including vampire bats causes Rabies. The virus strikes the central nervous system and produces uncontrollable excitement and painful contractions of the throat muscles’ intervention preventing the victim from drinking. Usually the patient dies within three or four days of first symptom.

The second disease, Porphyria is a rare genetic disorder that results in a deficiency of heme, one of the pigments in the oxygen-carrying red blood cells. At the 1985 conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, biochemist David Dolphin suggested that the untreated symptoms of Porphyria match many of the traits associated with the classic lycanthrope. One of them is severe photosensitivity, which makes venturing out into daylight extremely painful and thus dooms the sufferer to a life of shadows and darkness. As the condition advances, the victim’s appearance grows increasingly morbid; discoloration of the skin and an unusual thick growth of facial or body hair occurs. There is a tendency for an abnormal change in skin and formation of sores. Eventually the disease attacks cartilage (the soft bone) and causes a progressive deterioration of the nose, ears, eyelids and fingers. The teeth, as well as the fingernails and the flesh beneath them might turn red or reddish brown because of deposition of Porphyrin, a component of Hemoglobin in the blood. Porphyria is often accompanied by mental disturbance, from mild hysteria to delirium and manic-depressive psychoses.

The third disease Hypertrichosis is also known as "Wolfitis", refers to a condition of excessive body hair growth. In most cases, the term is used to refer to an above-average amount of normal body hair that is unwanted and is an aspect of human variability. The hair growth can be generalized, symmetrically affecting most of the torso and limbs, or localized, affecting a particular area of skin. Though severe Hypertrichosis is quite rare it results in excessive or animal-like hair on face and body.

Defect in the part of the brain known to be involved in representing body shape causes body image distortion. A neuroimaging study of two people diagnosed with clinical lycanthropy showed that these areas display unusual activation, suggesting that when people report their bodies are changing shape, they may be genuinely perceiving those feelings. Body image distortions are not unknown in mental and neurological illness, so this may help explain at least part of the process. One further puzzle is why an affected person doesn't simply report that their body "feels like it is changing in odd ways", rather than presenting with a delusional belief that they are changing into a specific animal. There is much evidence that psychosis is more than just odd perceptual experiences so perhaps lycanthropy is the result of these unusual bodily experiences being understood by an already confused mind, perhaps filtered through the lens of cultural traditions and ideas.

Psychologists have concluded that lycanthropes are actually patient of psychiatric syndrome that involves a delusional belief that the affected person is, or has, transformed into an animal. It has been linked with the altered states of mind that accompany psychosis (the reality-bending mental state that typically involves delusions and hallucinations) with the transformation only seeming to happen in the mind and behavior of the affected person.

A study on lycanthropy from the McLean Hospital in New York reported on a series of cases and proposed some diagnostic criteria by which lycanthropy could be classified:

A patient reports in a moment of clarity or looking back he sometimes feels as an animal or has felt like one.

A patient behaves in a manner that resembles animal behavior, for example crying, grumbling or creeping.

According to these criteria, either a delusional belief in current or past transformation, or behavior that suggests a person thinks of themselves as transformed, is considered evidence of clinical lycanthropy. The authors go on to note that although the condition seems to be an expression of psychosis there is no specific diagnosis of mental or neurological illness associated with its behavioral consequences.