United States Policy on Immigrant Children Violates the CRC
Children have been separated from their parents and kept in steel cages–a brutal aggression against those most vulnerable.
Cesar Chelala
60 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
Policy on Cuba is an embarrassment for United States
In repeated public health-related visits to Cuba I got a first-hand sense of the problems besieging Cuban society: the need for foreign money, the oppressive nature of the regime, and the dissatisfaction of the country’s youth
Why Dancing Is Good For Your Health
It has been known for a long time that physical activity–including dancing and exercise–can have several positive effects on people’s bodies and minds, leading to better cardiovascular health, fewer migraine headaches, and a sharper brain. The Einstein Aging Study carried out in the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, found that dancing helps …
The widespread impact of domestic violence
María Salguero knows how to leverage her background as a geophysical engineer on behalf of women. Since 2016, she has been tracking cases of femicide (also known as feminicide) all over Mexico. Femicide is the deliberate killing of a woman or girl because of their gender. Every year, there are tens of thousands of missing …
Edward Said: remembering a Palestinian patriot
The 2019 Memorial Lecture honouring Edward W. Said, “Out of Place: Refugees, Immigrants, and Storytelling” couldn’t have come at a more appropriate moment. And the main speaker for that event, Viet Thanh Nguyen, was the right person for the job. Viet Thanh Nguyen, the author of the novel The Sympathizer, shares with Said two qualities: …
Gideon Levy: A Voice of Sanity from Israel
I first learned of Gideon Levy many years ago, during a casual conversation with my friend Edy Kaufman, an Israeli human rights activist. He told me that he had asked Levy why was he such a serious critic of Israel’s government and its policies with the Palestinians. Levy, whose own father was a German Jewish …
President Donald Trump’s ‘Magical Realism’
It is possible that President Donald Trump never suspected this, but among his many, yet never-acknowledged, talents is that of being a novelist. A novelist in the Latin American tradition of magic, or ‘magical realism.’ Magical realism is a style of fiction writing that combines a realistic view of the modern world while also adding …
Is there an end to tragic fate of Syrian refugees in Lebanon?
The influx of Syrian refugees into Lebanon which started in 2011 following the outbreak of the Syrian civil war has created a serious problem not only for Lebanon but for the refugees themselves. Lebanon currently has the largest number of refugees per capita in the world, with one refugee per four Lebanese. The stress on …
A simple lesson of peace
As a writer on human rights issues, I do not lack reasons for concern. Nowadays, in many countries, human rights are abused, and violence strikes in one of its multiple forms. Although writing topics are plentiful, this situation is especially upsetting for anybody who yearns to live in a peaceful world. At such moments, when …
Obesity is Serious Threat to Children’s Health
Rapid development accompanied by decreasing levels of physical activity, increased caloric consumption
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
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 …
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 …
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, …