A 26-year-old Iranian doctor that was a whistleblower and exposed the torture of jailed protesters, died last month of "poisoning by drugs". He ate a delivery salad that was laced with an overdose of blood pressure medication. Investigators are still trying to determine whether his death was a suicide or murder. The opposition fears he was killed because of what he knew.
Ramin Pourandarjani was a doctor that testified to a parliamentary committee that a young protester he treated died from severe physical torture at Kahrizak, a prison on the outskirts of Tehran where hundreds of opposition protesters were taken. He then reported that security officials forced him to list the cause of death as meningitis. According to an opposition website, Pourandarjani said that, "officials in Kahrizak threatened that if I disclosed the causes of the wounds of the injured at Kahrizak, I would not be able to live."
Last week, Iran's top police commander insisted the death was a suicide. He said Pourandarjani faced criminal charges over failure to fulfill his duties to treat detainees and killed himself in despair. (Full Story)
Interesting article on the effect of someone's race on the job hunt and the hiring process. "There is ample evidence that racial inequities remain when it comes to employment. Black joblessness has long far outstripped that of whites. And strikingly, the disparity for the first 10 months of this year, as the recession has dragged on, has been even more pronounced for those with college degrees, compared with those without." According to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for black male college graduates 25 and older in 2009 is nearly twice the rate for white male college graduates -- 8.4% compared to 4.4%. Furthermore, an academic study published several years ago in The American Economic Review found that job applicants with black-sounding names received 50% fewer callbacks than those with white-sounding names (the article is entitled, "Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?"). Another study published this year in The Journal of Labor Economics found that white, Asian, and Hispanic managers tended to hire more whites and fewer blacks than black managers did. Another recent study published in the academic journal Social Problems found that white males receive substantially more job leads for high-level supervisory positions than women or other minorities. Many higher-level jobs are usually not posted and depend on word-of-mouth and informal networks, which can leave minorities at a disadvantage. "Discrimination in many cases may not even be intentional, some job seekers pointed out, but simply a matter of people gravitating toward similar people, casting about for the right "cultural fit," a buzzword often heard in corporate circles." (Full Story)
South Africa already runs the largest anti-retroviral program, but analysts say that about one million people still go without treatment. Currently, treatment is only available in South Africa for those whose immunity levels have been significantly reduced by HIV. Zuma announced that the drugs would be more widely available to children and pregnant women. This change of policy is being applauded and called "the new spirit of activism" on HIV.
Each year in South Africa 59,000 babies are born with HIV. South Africa has the highest number of people living with HIV -- there are 5.2 million people infected. South African charities warned that 5.7 million children -- a third of all the country's children -- could lose one or both parents to AIDS by 2015. There are currently 1.4 million South African children that are orphans because of AIDS. (Full Story)
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