Obesity is Serious Threat to Children’s Health
Rapid development accompanied by decreasing levels of physical activity, increased caloric consumption
Cesar Chelala
51 Articles
Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, is an international public health consultant who has conducted health-related missions in over 50 countries worldwide. He is also a winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.
Latest by Cesar Chelala
Honouring the Enemy
“I dreamed that one had died in a strange place, near no accustomed hand”: William Butler Yeats
US policy towards immigrant children is not Policy, it is cruelty
Immigrants come to the U.S. from Mexico and Central America try to escape abject poverty and food insecurity in their own countries
Afghan morass: how Afghan government controls 56% of country, Taliban controls rest of it
More than 2,200 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan, and the US has spent more than $840bn fighting the Taliban and paying for relief and reconstruction
Memories of 9/11
That day, about an hour before the attack on the Twin Towers, he had finished his shift
Life devoted to searching for her abducted granddaughter
On 20 August 2018, María Isabel Chorobik de Mariani (“Chicha”) died in La Plata, Buenos Aires Province. She was 94-years-old and for 42 years had been searching for her granddaughter Clara Anahí. On 24 November 1976, Clara Anahí had been abducted by the military when they took away her parents and later killed them. Since …
Argentina at a crossroads
Seeds were there, spreading in basement, rotting structures, preparing final collapse
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An insatiable salesman
Unexpectedly, a casual incident brightened my life. It was one of the most interesting meetings I had during a recent trip to my native province, Tucumán, located in the north of Argentina. There I met Roberto Espeche, a local notary with a fascinating life history. I met Roberto when I was in a restaurant with …
A small example of peaceful coexistence
Growing up in Tucumán, a town in the north of Argentina, I had the opportunity to see a small example of peaceful coexistence and collaboration between Arabs and Jews. I was reminded of that experience after reading an article by Uri Avnery, one of the leading peace activists in Israel, on the need for a …
The Iraq war fuelled the destruction of the Middle East
Fifteen years after it started, the Iraq war has nearly destroyed the country, one of the most prosperous in the Middle East, and destabilised the whole region by intensifying internecine and religious conflicts and giving rise to new and violent groups. And the human and material costs of the war keep mounting. In addition to …
Saving the environment, empowering women
Vickie Frémont, a French woman born in Cameroon, is a modern day heroine. For the past several years she has been conducting workshops around the world, using a hands-on approach for the transformation of rejects or trash into useful everyday objects. Included in her workshops—which take place in schools, community centres, universities, and even in …
How to lower your risk of Alzheimer’s disease
New York, NY—In 1901, when Dr Alois Alzheimer started talking to his patient Mrs Auguste Deter, a 50-year-old patient, he immediately realised that there was something wrong with her. Her responses to his questions were not only repetitive and wrong, but she quickly seemed to forget them. Sadly, she seemed to be aware of her …
The biography that Trump could not stop
New York, NY—Rarely was there so much expectation for the appearance of a book as is the case of Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House of the North American journalist Michael Wolff. And never before were so many copies sold so quickly. Before its appearance, the book and its e-book version had reached …
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The wisdom of idiots: a brief morality tale
Idries Shah was a teacher in the Sufi tradition whose seminal work was The Sufis. He presented Sufism as a universal form of wisdom that predated Islam. In his writings, he frequently used teaching stories and humour to transmit this philosophy. His stories contained multiple layers of meaning and were written with the idea that …
A word I shouldn’t use
New York—Growing up in Argentina, I had an English teacher named Sarah, a kind and knowledgeable woman. Reading one of my papers, in which I called a character in the story “a despicable man,” she admonished me: “you shouldn’t use that word, César, it is too strong.” Now, decades later, I find that perhaps that …
The Afghan Quagmire
New York –It is impossible to win a war that you cannot define. That seems to be the main lesson to be drawn from Afghanistan, where a so-called victory seems ever more unreachable. It is also the conclusion of several experts on the region, who fear US forces would be mired forever in that unjustly …
Afghanistan’s dismal health situation
New York – As the war in Afghanistan shows no signs of abating, the health of the people in the country continues to be cause for concern. Afghanistan’s health care system is considered one of the worst in the world, and decades of war and international neglect have contributed to its deterioration. An estimated 6 million …
Gazans are the victims of their own and Israel’s leadership
The curtailing of electricity to Gaza conducted by the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah in connivance with Israeli authorities seriously hurts the people of that region. They have become the victims of the political fighting between the PA, ruled by Fatah, and the Palestinian leadership in Gaza, ruled by Hamas. The PA pays Israel for …
Gazans are the victims of their own and Israel’s leadership
The curtailing of electricity to Gaza conducted by the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah in connivance with Israeli authorities seriously hurts the people of that region. They have become the victims of the political fighting between the Palestinian Authority (PA) ruled by Fatah, and the Palestinian leadership in Gaza ruled by Hamas. The PA pays Israel …
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Solving Donald Trump’s Mystery
Recently, as I picked up a book from my bookcase, I realised that one word in its title had the answer to a problem that had been bothering me for months. The book is “The Voice Imitator” by Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard. And the word that solved the mystery, you may already have guessed it, …
A Story of Courage, Creativity and Survival
In 1939, the relentless Nazi bombardment of Warsaw destroyed the city’s zoo. What the Nazis didn’t know, however, is that what they had destroyed was not an ordinary zoo, but the extraordinary creation of an unusual Christian Polish couple, Jan and Antonina Zabinski. Thanks to them and their son Ryszard’s efforts, approximately 300 Jewish women, …
Two historical moments in Syria
The photograph is the image of desolation. In a room that seems to have been devastated by a hurricane, shattered windows and furniture, debris everywhere, and a few torn and winding curtains that remain as mute witnesses to the disaster, a man sitting on his bedroom bed smokes a pipe while listening to a record. …
The best way to aid Africa
New York—Drought in Somalia threatens the lives of almost half the population, according to Somalia’s prime minister Hassan Ali Khaire. Over a two-day span, at least 110 people died of hunger in just a single region in the country. This highlights the tremendous needs Somalia and other African countries have for immediate help. In the …
Questioning the rigid application of the Goldwater Rule
In 1964, the magazine Fact published the article “The Unconscious of a Conservative: A Special Issue on the Mind of Barry Goldwater.” The article included the results of a poll among psychiatrists questioning them if then senator Barry Goldwater was fit to be president. Of the 2,147 who responded, 657 said that he was fit and 1,189 …
A Psychological Portrait of President Trump
Last October, before Donald Trump was elected as the US president, I, among others, put forward the hypothesis that Mr. Trump is a narcissist. I based my interpretation on the fact that he fulfilled practically all the criteria included in the classification of narcissism established by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). …
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Donald Trump v the arts
Among the victims of president Donald Trump’s ban on refugees and immigrants from seven Middle Eastern countries is Kinan Azmeh, a noted Syrian clarinettist and composer. Presently, Azmeh is stuck in Beirut, even though he has an EB-1 “alien with extraordinary abilities” visa and has lived in New York for the past 16 years. The US government’s prohibition for Azmeh …
Donald Trump’s concerning views on torture
US president Donald Trump has repeatedly stated his belief in the usefulness of torture and waterboarding, raising concern among human rights advocates. When asked if the US should use waterboarding to extract confessions from prisoners, Trump said: “I like it a lot. I don’t think it’s tough enough.” It was a worrisome statement by the new US …
US abstention on Israeli settlement resolution too little, too late
The United States’ abstention from voting on the UN security council’s anti-settlement resolution is a serious blow to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy of annexation in the West Bank. The bureau of Israel’s prime minister said that “Israel rejects the contemptible, anti-Israel UN resolution and will not subordinate itself to it.” The decision to abstain from voting is the …
Poverty: the dark side of the American empire
If we have learned anything from this last presidential election, it is that poverty continues to be a concept ignored by president-elect Donald Trump and by United States politicians. Although both avoid using the word like a naked man avoids a poisonous snake, poverty is integral to the current reality of the US socio-political landscape. …
Meeting Fidel
As a young medical student in Argentina, I had been fascinated by Fidel Castro and his rebel combatants. I followed with interest their advance from the mountains to the plains to the capital city of Havana. I longed to visit the island but the US blockade made it extremely difficult to travel to Cuba. Then, …