April 23, 2015

INDIAN-AMERICAN VIVEK MURTHY IS US'S YOUNGEST SURGEON-GENERAL, TAKES OATH ON GITA

[Indeed, Murthy has been running even before his swearing in, shooting a promotional film with the Sesame Street character Elmo last week to promote vaccination. On Wednesday, he put forth an expansive agenda for America, befitting the nation's "TopDoc" as he was called on Twitter, including promoting healthy living, raising awareness of mental illness, tackling childhood vaccinations, and curbing drug abuse.]


By Chidanand Rajghatta



US surgeon general Vivek Murthy (left) shakes hands with vice president
Joe Biden (right) after he is ceremonially sworn-in in Conmy Hall at Fort Myer,
on Wednesday. (AP photo)
WASHINGTON: At about the same time the death of a farmer in New Delhi brought the capital's attention on farm suicides, a young Indian-American was invoking with gratitude the Indian roots of his success in the United States: his agriculturist grandfather's resilience and sacrifice that led his parents emigration and his own remarkable achievement in this country.



"By any reasonable measure, I shouldn't be standing here. My father is the son of a farmer in rural India. He was supposed to have been a farmer, as was I," Vivek Murthy recalled to a gaggle of supporters gathered at a military base in Fort Myer after he was administered oath (on a Bhagavad Gita) on Wednesday by vice president Joe Biden as the 19th surgeon general of the United States, America's doctor-in-chief.



Clearly unaware of the tumult in India over the farmer suicide, Murthy then added, "But for my grandfather's insistence that his son get an education, even if that meant going into debt, we might have never left that village (Hallegere in Karnataka's Mandya district) to go out in the world and - as my grandfather also insisted - start fixing what needed fixing."

"We were not supposed to have become Americans. My parents stopped in three other countries - including a brutal dictatorship - on their journey to get here. They saved up money and scrounged for information about job opportunities, always knowing that America was the destination," Murthy continued, outlining what has now become a familiar Indian-American template for success.

He then thanked everyone who helped him, at 37, become America's youngest surgeon-general, and the first Indian-American to occupy an office that carries with it a three-star military designation - vice admiral Vivek Murthy - saying, "I am who I am because of my grandmother's faith, my father's strength, my mother's love, my sister's support, and my fiancee's unyielding belief in me. I am blessed to have all of them here with me today. I will always be grateful to them for the sacrifices they have made."

Encomiums came in thick and fast for the remarkable man for whom President Barack Obama, who nominated him for the position, battled through Republican opposition for more than a year to secure a confirmation for what will be a four-year tenure.

"I applaud the Senate for confirming Vivek Murthy," the President said following the confirmation. "As 'America's Doctor,' Vivek will hit the ground running to make sure every American has the information they need to keep themselves and their families safe. He'll bring his lifetime of experience promoting public health to bear on priorities ranging from stopping new diseases to helping our kids grow up healthy and strong."

Indeed, Murthy has been running even before his swearing in, shooting a promotional film with the Sesame Street character Elmo last week to promote vaccination. On Wednesday, he put forth an expansive agenda for America, befitting the nation's "TopDoc" as he was called on Twitter, including promoting healthy living, raising awareness of mental illness, tackling childhood vaccinations, and curbing drug abuse.

"Today, we face a rising tide of diabetes, heart disease and cancer. We will lose nearly half a million lives this year to tobacco-related disease. Forty-two million people in our country struggle with mental illness," he said of a country which spends more per capita on health than any other nation but yet has poor outcomes. "Heroin and prescription drug abuse ravage towns across America, and vaccine-preventable diseases we thought we had contained have come back with a vengeance because of fear and misinformation."


Ministry of culture said it will work with police to prevent people from hiring erotic entertainment meant to celebrate the deceased and attract mourners


A woman performs at a funeral in Hebei, China. In some parts of east Asian culture,
performers are hired for funerals as a celebratory sendoff to the deceased.
Photograph: Internet
China is cracking down on funeral strippers after controversy over “obscene” performances in the east of the country.

In China, the bereaved often put on elaborate entertainment to send the departed off in style and draw more mourners to the ceremony – but recent funeral shows in Jiangsu and Handan have led the ministry of culture to announce it will work with the police to eliminate such performances.

Pictures of a dancer removing her bra in front of parents and children in Handan last month were circulated online, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Some funeral strippers performed with snakes, the WSJ reported.

The ministry’s crackdown will “focus on the commercial performance market”, it said in a press release, “and further strengthen rural cultural market regulation and law enforcement, and joint authorities will crack down on ‘stripping’ and other acts of illegal business performance market”.

Citing “pornographic performances”, the ministry fined the Red Rose Dance Ensemble about $11,300 for a two-and-a-half-hour performance on 15 February at the funeral of an elderly Handan city resident and arrested three others at a similar show on 27 February.

In parts of east Asian culture, the funeral is a sendoff party for late family members – a last chance for the family and the community to ensure that the deceased travels well into the afterlife. And a big funeral crowd is also a class marker, much like a big wedding might be. Stripping at funeral is widespread in Taiwan and is a regular feature on YouTube.

Everett Zhang, assistant professor of east Asian studies at Princeton University, has studied Chinese funeral rites and said the practice of hiring performers for lavish shows was expected when the deceased had lived a long life.

“In China, when the person who dies is very old and has lived a long life, this kind of occasion becomes purely a celebration,” he said.

It’s also a time when the community shows its gratitude to the dead by giving gifts to the family, so there’s pressure to show attendees a good time. “Everyone who comes to the funeral will present a sum of money to the host – a funeral is a time to collect money and hopefully cover the cost of the service,” Zhang said.

Zhang said he had not witnessed this specific form of funereal entertainment before, but he said he was surprised that authorities intervened.

“Local people would not be happy about the arrests,” he said. “That would be really intrusive and offensive.”