Saw "Fog of War" this evening with Micah, Dan, and Wilson. The four of us walked out with surprisingly different impressions of the movie. I think it was less a history lesson than a portrait of a man. The irony lies in that the "lessons" learned of this very uncommon man were oddly common sense, but still very insightful. He is at the very least an incredibly sharp guy.

Ethics. Philip J. Ivanhoe. He's a Chinese philosophy professor that once taught at Stanford and Umich. Albert says that somewhere in his work he highlights the fact that there is no "always" in ethics, that somehow sticking to any absolute can be very wrong in some situation. So just exactly HOW did I fall in to an ethical debate with my advisor (not really a good situation to be in, I'll have you know. It's just a little awkward.)?

This comes up in reference to the GSCF because the "third" leg of the survey is a one to two county eyeglass intervention for all school children who need glasses. I personally find it a little bit too idealistic to be true, but I'm holding out and putting my faith in Albert on this one. He really believes in it and I can see at least the beneficial value this adds to the project. Jason Carr, from the School of Public Health, who is also working on the health part of the project, has made a point that a limited intervention in the context of the entire survey is not entirely ethical from a clinical research point of view since we would be "selecting" a sample out of the entire cohort of 20 counties to receive the intervention, which we know for certain has a beneficial impact on the recipients. I see his point, but my view is that the county level intervention is separate from the rest of the survey in many ways and may be considered an almost entirely separate survey in of itself, in which all those who need the intervention receive it.

This is relevant to maternal-fetal HIV transmission prevention clinical trials in Africa. Here's a quick sum up from pubmed of the significance a paper on exactly this question by G. J. Annas and M. A. Grodin, published in the American Journal of Public Health (Apr 1998):

"The human rights issues raised by the conduct of maternal-fetal human immunodeficiency virus transmission trials in Africa are not unique to either acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or Africa, but public discussion of these trials presents an opportunity for the United States and other wealthy nations to take the rights and welfare of impoverished populations seriously. The central issue at stake when developed countries perform research on subjects in developing countries is exploitation. The only way to prevent exploitation of a research population is to insist not only that informed consent be obtained but also that, should an intervention be proven beneficial, the intervention will be delivered to the impoverished population. Human rights are universal and cannot be compromised solely on the basis of beliefs or practices of any one country or group. The challenge to the developed countries is to implement programs to improve the health of the people in developing countries both by improving public health infrastructure and by delivering effective drugs and vaccines to the people."

Rather than purely an issue of ethics, they argue that this infringes on human rights? What's the difference between ethics and human rights? Anyone? I'm wading into foreign territory here... More thoughts later. I'm going to go feed myself.

Okay, I'm not going to complain about the weather for once. Today started with Lieberthal's Asia Security Issues Seminar with CIA China Issues Manager, Dennis Wilder, as a guest. Nice to have an "insider" view on the credibility of the CIA, just as Bush announces his panel for investigating intelligence's role in presenting info to policy makers in washington. Right at noon, I attended a talk by the Singapore Ambassador to the UN, Kishore Mahbubani, who emphasized golf as a relevant link to the peace between member of ASEAN. Then I had Chinese class and once again arrived a couple minutes late because of the talk. Chen Laoshi definitely gave me that disapproving 'look' that language teachers in my life seem to have mastered so well. At 2pm, I rushed back over to the social work building for another talk by Dennis Wilder, which essentially echoed the sentiments about the CIA that he had expressed earlier in the seminar. He and Likairu certainly come off as great buddies.

Then I took a break and ate Sun tofu chigae with Elissa and Micah. Had a good time just chillaxing with my CCS crew and lamented online shopping woes. Great way to unwind after a day of asian security issue overload.

Then printed out a few copies of my resume in hopes of procuring a johnson and johnson internship from the Asian Business Conference career fair. It was clear that they weren't interested in the likes of me. Too community minded for them--not to mention I don't have an MBA. Did notice that the MBA types dress a lot better than the rest of the students I see on campus. Nice threads, but it's just clothes. I do expect that most MBAs will make more money than I can imagine. I just hope they have the big picture in mind and don't forget about the externalities of what they're doing. After the disappointing showing at the career fair (BUT I DID get a free pen and a lancer evo promo booklet. It was ALL worth it.), I headed over to the breakout session with the secretary of ASEAN and Mr. Mahbubani. Reminded of what dad said about the global labor market. I'm not just competing with ppl at stanford or umich or the U.S., but everyone on planet earth. I better start studying harder. Gotta make myself indispensable somehow. I don't want to be a waste of space and oxygen.... ;P Hahah. Well, in my own personal universe, all i can really compete against is myself... At least this way, I can never lose, right? ;)

ARRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHH! I somehow contracted cabin fever the other day. But maybe I at least deserve a little bit of credit for getting all the way past Groundhog's day before going crazy. I need to box. I need to run. I need to see the sun. I need to get awaaaaaaaay. I want my car. I want fresh fruit. I want yummy veggies. I hate my kitchen. My room is closing on me. It's minus three degrees outside (minus ten considering windchill). Sigh. I need to go, but I feel so lethargic. I can't get anything done. I can't seem to motivate myself to do ANY thing. There are so many things going in the world and I'm stuck wallowing in my room! Jebus, that's just depressing.

Things will get better though. Because I know for a fact the days are getting longer. There will be fun times ahead. I will see my friends soon. I can go to the gym.

Life goes on, even in cold weather.