January, 2010

For each of you, from your confreres worldwide:
a necklace of tears -- blue beads of compassion,
resignation, hope -- blue beads and soft blue feathers.

Under the Staircase by Kimia Ferdowsi  - "Conflict and strife are hardly rarities in this writhing world of ours. Within every border and beneath every roof an afflicted humanity cowers. How do we begin to categorize the burden we all directly or indirectly share? The gauge that distinguishes these crises from each other, it seems, could derive from the victims’ response to oppression. It’s easy to love thy brother. Is it possible to love thine enemy? [Short Documentary Film "Under the Staircase" is available below the story]

January 27, 2010, Haiti - Isabelle Jeanson has worked in communications with Doctors without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) since 2003. She has spent time with MSF missions in Colombia, Russia, Nigeria, and Papua New Guinea, and she served as an emergency press officer in Sri Lanka following the 2004 tsunami. She joined the emergency team in Haiti 48 hours after the January 12 earthquake struck, and filed this report on January 26: In any tragedy there are miraculous moments. Today I learned of one of those moments and was witness to another.