It's a woman's world...

Yesterday, March 8, 2007 was International Women's Day- I accepted best wishes, albeit in a somewhat befuddled manner, from a friend and a cousin. I was completely unaware of the existence of such a day, and I am still very amused about it. According to the timeline on their website, this day has been observed since the beginning of the 20th century! I salute the women of that era right up to the present, who have fought racism, sexism and disenfranchisement with unshakable conviction, and who are the reason we as a society can take so many rights for granted. If it were not for the likes of Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, I, like my granddaddy once told me he did, would have had to walk out of my way to the 'colored' diner to be served my morning coffee and donut. If not for the strong women who marched out in protest to demand that we be recognized as thinking citizens with an equal right to direct the future of a nation, women like Margaret Thatcher would not be able to rise to positions of power. If not for the feminist bra-burners of the 60s, women in the workplace would still be subject to humiliation and second-rate pay and status, and we would have never seen the day that name-brand corporations like eBay and Xerox are led by women, as they are today.

At the same time, my appreciation for and gratitude to those visionaries was dimmed by the knowledge that in 2007 there is still need for an International Women's Day. Today there is an anti-feminist movement that threatens to relegate women to their former inferior position in society. It's depressing to know, for instance, that in the US, which country I should have expected to be a beacon of progressiveness, women are still paid 80c on the dollar for the same work as men. Many countries, even in Europe, do not have supportive pregnancy and maternity laws, forcing many women to quit employment or accept less work responsibility. The US has yet to appoint a woman as president. In so many other countries, women are denied fundamental rights like voting, education, access to healthcare and justice. All over the world women's bodies serve as a battleground for men's honor (Ref: Mukhtar Mai). This is unacceptable- is it going to take another 100 years for a woman to be treated as and valued for the amazing individual she is? We have instituted so many holidays...Mother's Day, Secretary's Day, even Grandmother's Day, to get men to appreciate the women in their lives for a minute. Do you really think all that suffering can be wiped out with a spa gift certificate?? If life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are inalienable rights, then it's time we stopped taking those rights for granted, and spoke up to ensure that those rights remain so and can never be denied to our daughters. Women of the world, unite!

Viva La Vie Boheme!

I went to see this musical day before yesterday, and absolutely loved it!! It's a story about living with AIDS amidst a culture of poverty and rampant drug use in the West Village of NYC ca. the early 90s. At that time the stigma attached to AIDS was tremendous- in fact, it's well-documented that in the Reagan-era, insufficient to no funding was provided for research into a cure because it was classified as a disease of the "depraved" (i.e., gay men primarily). Today I work in an NIH-funded lab whose main thrust is malignancies associated with AIDS...

This week we have a visiting postdoctoral fellow ('postdoc' to the science lingo-wise!) from Brazil, from whom I learned that the goverment of Brazil has mandated that all AIDS patients should receive the clinical standard three-drug cocktail of antiretroviral drugs free of charge. Their goverment has worked out a deal with the American Pharmas that hold the patents to these drugs, so that their people may benefit. The results are remarkable- they have cut their rate of infection significantly and have actually achieved a decrease in prevalence! I wonder why more world goverments do not take a cue from their example. AIDS awareness is an important and necessary step, but it cannot be the be-all and end-all of governmental-led initiatives. My home country of India provides 1 drug (out of the 3 considered standard) free of cost to pregnant women to prevent disease spread via this route. But as any scientist can tell you, treating a virus as highly mutagenic as HIV with only 1 drug will lead in time tothe development of drug-resistant mutants, which will pose an even bigger problem later on. I fail to see why a problem so fundamentally individual in nature is privy to the whims of global economics and politics. I won't even get started on those that oppose awareness initiatives because they would like to turn a blind eye to what is going on in their country, and would rather condemn their nation's poor while spouting moralistic maxims as justification for their deliberate and calculated misanthropy. Meanwhile, in Africa, global donations to provide relief to the poor diseased masses fatten the pockets of the powerful...

Back to the musical..."Rent", written and scored by Jonathan Larson, won the Pulitzer Prize for Best Drama in 1996. Its message is simple yet powerful. The author's choice of music as his vehicle adds to its power, since there is no language more universal. Sample these lyrics from "Seasons of love"(my favorite song of the night):

525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear.

525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee.

In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.

In 525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year in the life? How about love? How about love? How about love? Measure in love. Seasons of love.

525,600 minutes! 525,000 journeys to plan. 525,600 minutes - how can you measure the life of a woman or man?

In truths that she learned, or in times that he cried. In bridges he burned, or the way that she died.

It’s time now to sing out, though the story never ends let's celebrate remember a year in the life of friends. Remember the love! Remember the love! Remember the love! Measure in love. Seasons of love! Seasons of love!

Not very profound, I admit, but therein lies the beauty...

I know this musical is not very "musical-ish"- there are no can-can dancers, grand dance numbers, a Punch-and-Judy-ish duo, or sparkly sequined costumes. There is a love story though- three, in fact. In many ways, this is the anti-musical musical (if you've seen it, you'll know what I'm talking about), and that's probably no mistake. "Rent" was actually an Off-Broadway production that was brought to Broadway. Its subject matter would still be considered very risque and inappropriate to some...but it's a testament to human nature that in a sea of hypocrisy there can be born enough genuine love and acceptance for this show to become an accepted part of mainstream culture. For this, I am grateful...

Famous last words: "The opposite of war is not peace, it's creation".

The blogging bandwagon

So it goes...I've officially succumbed and jumped headfirst into the blogosphere. Now I'm no writer, and being a student of science has drained my right brain capabilities, but I hold out hope that someone somewhere may be, dare I say it, entertained by this manifestation of the inner workings of my head. In the worst case scenario, of course, I will serve as a poster-girl of doom to those bright-eyed hopefuls for whom the word 'Science' holds so much fascination. In either case, I will have served my purpose, and so it goes...

To begin with, I recently discovered a political philosophy that coincides almost perfectly with my worldview. The inevitable disappointment that accompanied the discovery that I, alas, am not unique, was overshadowed by my excitement at my inclusion in a club counting Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand among its membership. I am a libertarian.

Libertarianism maintains that "every person is the absolute owner of their own life and should be free to do whatever they wish with their person or property, as long as they allow others the same liberty". This statement is so beautifully self-evident, it would only detract from it if I tried to explain it. So I will abstain now, and hope only that you are intrigued enough to go look it up in an encyclopedia or on the web.

Fear not, I have motivations that are non-political too, but more on those in the days to come...