Community Campus Partnership

Today, I was at a meeting with participants from a community health center and academic institutions to make a partnership and improve the health status of an urban area. I was actually very impressed with the range of the services the community health center branches were providing. They were doing community outreach with several outdoor services and collaborating with other academic and community institutions at different levels. I expressed my enthusiasm for being part of such a wonderful team and added that I am surprised how, with all these assets, we are still unable to have significant impacts on people's lives in terms of helping them not only to improve their health status but also to stand up on their own feet. I then remember the famous statement of Institute of Medicine (IOM) that public health system is in the state of disarray.

I believe it's time now to think about health problems in a broader sense of systematically sharing different information with different agencies, and designing a system for effective followup and outreach unless we make sure that any individuals receive their needed services and they are ready for being healthy, happy, and productive citizens.

Our Pretty Blue Planet

The Power of Freedom

"Individual liberty is individual power, and as the power of a community is a mass compounded of individual powers, the nation which enjoys the most freedom must necessarily be in proportion to its numbers the most powerful nation".

--John Quincy Adams

With special thanks to Dr. A. Gray Bullard: http://doctormental.blogspot.com/

Faith, Science & Social Justice

I think since there are questions about God and the origin of human being which is addressed mainly by religion, not science, so actually people need faith to find a logical explanation for these kind of questions. However, at the community level faith based believes may divide people and cause troubles, since different people may think differently and believe on their truthfullness based on their faith. I think, at the community level social justice can be ensured through the implementation of the best practices that should come out of scientific experimentation of the evidence.

Natural Art

This is the picture of a rock formation in a Birmanian Lake. Its only possible to take it on only a special day of the year, due to the way the sun shines its light on it. Turn your head onto your left shoulder and you’ll see what’s so spectacular about it…

Kurdistan

Many of my Iranian and also non-Iranian friends always ask me questions about Kurdistan. They want to know where Kurdistan is and many other things. I want to discuss this issue in different occasions and for now I just want to say that Kurdistan means the land of Kurds who are one of the most ancient Arian ethnic groups and as you see in the picture they now are located in different countries. You can also see many beautiful historical and cultural pictures about Kurds and Kurdistan here.

A nice advertisement by postal office of Australia

Authority Figures: How Do They Go Beyond Questions?

Authority figures are defined as real or projected individuals in the position of power and we all know that power sometimes make it unnecessary to answer questions

What is power?

Any position or status that gives an individual the advantage of making decisions about a situation.

For example:

1. Physicians have power to make decisions about treatment plans and interventions
2. Spiritual leaders have power of evaluating personal performances based on the religious commands
3. Police officers have power to arrest criminals

How can authority figures go beyond questions? why?

1. If we don't know. Because they can simply do what they want and say it was right.
2. When we let them do all the thinkings. Then we have to wait for them to tell us what is right or wrong, and there would be no need for any questions.
3. When there is no place to go if something bad happen.

However, if we know and think independently, we can build structures to make authority figures responsible.

One Glass of Coffee + One Drop of Milk and a High Speed Camera

With Special thanks to Dr Ramin Shafieian for sending this photo.