Sort by: Relevance | Most Recent | Most Active | Highest Rated

We found 10 result(s) that match your search "poverty":

I used to wonder why I frequently saw people buying enormous amounts of hamburger at the grocery store. There were so many theories I had, but really just couldn't for the life of me figure out what the big deal was with ground beef. There were so many better-tasting dishes to be made with chicken and pork, I thought.
And then I found myself unemployed for a year--and needing to take care of my family. Debt piled up and I had to find new ways to cut corners and spending. Becoming a comparison shopper made me finally see what the big deal was at the grocery store. You can get four skinless, boneless chicken breasts and feed your family of four one meal, or you can get 4 lb. of ground beef and feed your family of four almost all week. And for the same price. Oh, and you'll likely shell out more dough for leaner meat. Ah, it had become so clear. It wasn't about taste, it was clearly money. (READ MORE)

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (0)

---

Towards the start of the Passover seder, three cakes loaves completely-formed pieces of matzoh are raised with the incantation,

 

"Lo, this is the bread of affliction [poor bread, lakhma ani] that our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. Let all who are hungry come and eat..."

Traditionally, we consider this bread "afflicted" or "poor" because it was made hastily, without having had time to rise. It was "poorly" made, and "afflicted" by a lack of the airy texture we associate with bread.

 

(READ MORE)

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (2)

---

With a new year come new ideas, new resolutions, new solutions to old problems, and of course new problems needing solutions.

 

Among the last is, once again, need for a full-time job. Cell phone sales were not high enough to keep me on until Christmas, so I am once again navigating the waters of unemployment and job-search.

 

For now, enough of that. The meme going around the Diabetes Online Community has been that of "spreading the word" -- both telling people with diabetes of the online resources available to us, and bringing our online activism out to the world in which we live, visit our doctors, purchase our food and medications, and educate our children. While most of us talk about outreach in terms of getting our real-life neighbors to hook up with our online resources, I see a different reality.

 

(READ MORE)

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (0)

---

I say it, but I don't believe it.

 

(READ MORE)

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (0)

---

Sometimes, what I know, and what I believe, isn't politic to proselytize.

 

I don't mean religion in it's Deity-centric sense, or partisan politics the way it is played out in our system of Federal, state, and local governments. I'm talking about diabetes politics.

 

I tend to turn the "more insulin, more strips" outcry on its ears, because when I look at the issue I don't see it as a public health issue or an access-to-healthcare issue, but as issues of crime, infrastructure, and -- at it's most basic level -- poverty. While I understand the "Type 1 versus Type 2" issues of proportion, confusion, alarmist publicity, and palliation-versus-remediation, I'd much rather us present a united front to those we approach for funds to prescreen, arrest, remediate, and (eventually) cure all types of diabetes than get caught up in internicine squabbles that would turn our benefactors away.

 

(READ MORE)

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (0)

---

Last week's #dsma (Diabetes Social Media Advocacy) twitter chat topic was the delivery of diabetes education, medication, supplies, and support to others -- both in the US (and other "First World" nations) and emerging ("Third World") nations. I've blogged before about the logistical and political issues organizations such as the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and Doctors Without Borders (MSF -- Médecins Sans Frontières) have in delivering medical care and medications to those in need. But while we often talk as if everyone in the United States had fingertip access to smartphones (with unlimited data plans), cable TV, and the Internet, that certainly is not the case.

  (READ MORE)

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (0)

---

In the rainbows-and-unicorns world of diabetes activism, it is often said that one of the most egregious oversights in international politics is the lack of available medical insulin in economically-depressed areas and emerging nations. Our standard-bearers act as if all we need to do is ship tons of strips, gallons of insulin, and forests-worth of needles to the middle of the African bush and every person with diabetes will live forever in the world of Blood Sugar Nirvana and No Complications.

 

The truth of the matter is much more complex.

 

(READ MORE)

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (3)

---

In the past month, I have spent quite a bit of money on medical bills. $296 for a dental nightguard to save my teeth. $50 for my endo appointment, another $50 for my eye exam. $45 for my birth control. $412 for 6 months of contacts and a new pair of glasses (this was even on sale). And so many other odds and ends like a blood pressure cuff, miscellaneous prescriptions, and vitamins. Not to mention the $50 per visit copays to a new therapist.

 

I can't afford this. Right now, I'm making decent money for my field and my insurance is free of charge. But I still struggle when prescriptions come due or miscellaneous expenses come around. It becomes burdensome to order insulin, strips, and other diabetes supplies. It becomes outrageous to buy these extra necessities like glasses, dental issues, or therapy.

 

(READ MORE)

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (3)

---

One of the issues that many of my Type 1 compatriots are often confronted with is the idea that "juvenile diabetes" is restricted to, well, juveniles. That once you turn 18 -- or 21, in some jurisdictions -- your diabetes automatically transmogrifies into Type 2 and you can be cured by exercising three hours a day, losing 10 pounds, and avoiding any food that isn't pure protein. And maybe, taking a cinnamon pill, a bitter melon pill, or whatever the herbal cure du jour might be.

As we all know, that popular myth has about as much truth to it as, umm, the belief that Princess Anastasia is still alive and well and living in the same body she had in 1917. Let me rephrase. The probability that Rasputin is alive and well and living in the same body he had in 1917.

(READ MORE)

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (0)

---