This isn’t a new phenomenon. As language progresses, words become obsolete, terms become old, or are replaced by newer words. A cull takes place. Some words make it, some don’t.

In the past, great swathes of the English language were replaced or eradicated, words falling as Britain was invaded again and again. English in its first form came with the Saxon invaders of Britain. The words we retain from this Old English are few. While we still know what a sweord (sword) is, and we recognize the monarch as a cyning (king), we no longer eat spic (bacon) for dægmete (breakfast). “Spic” and “dægmete” were usurped alongside the Saxon king by the Norman “bacon” and “disner”. It is thusly that the English language was flooded with words from nearly every locality apart from England, words such as “their” (Norse) and “cook” (Latin). Words even infiltrated English from the colonies, providing us with terms including “juggernaut” (Sanskrit) and “chocolate” (Nahuatl). Some of these words had no counterpart in the English language, and thus the language grew. But many words replaced others. And so words die.

In recent years, the loss of words can often be measured in their removal from the Oxford Concise Dictionary (Concise being a relative term; the OCD’s 1,700 odd pages is indeed concise compared to the Oxford English Dictionary’s 21,000). Casualties of the latest edition have included “growlery” (a sort of den, with a man-cavesque connotation) and “cassette tape”. Words that have, by contrast, made the cut include “mankini”, “sexting” and “retweet”.  It is easy, perhaps, to be disheartened by the loss of words as interesting as growlery, or as nostalgic as cassette tape. Indeed, many individuals have vigorously protested the removal of cassette tape, believing that its time is not yet through. However, it’s important to remember that our old words were once somebody’s new words. For all we know, 70 years down the line, our grandchildren may be mourning the removal of “mankini” from the dictionary.

Tash McCarroll is a New Zealand born woman who has lived across the world in her adult life. On her facebook page she describes herself as a, “Philanthropist – Lens clicker – Professional nomad.” Recently, Tash won a UN competition with one of her photographs.

As a teenager living in India, what I think is one of the most important issues, in relation to India’s relationship with the outside world, is the perception of India through the lens of those who haven’t experienced it. Before I moved to India, I shared the common view that India was a poor country filled with poor people and the handful that were rich were just getting richer. I pitied India and the people of India and the people that I saw in photographs of India. But now that I’m here I have realised that pity is the last thing that the people of India need. I brought this up with Tash, asked her how she made her subjects empowered and not pitied.

Tash very wisely said, “It is important to show the true person and not just their situation. For it is the situation that most people pity rather than the person who often has so much more in them that what people see from a glance or a snapshot. As a photographer it is my duty to tell their story and represent them honestly and truly. It is important however to provoke emotion, thought and discussion in people who view the image… you can’t always determine what they will feel and sometimes people pity out of guilt that maybe they have too much, don’t do enough or maybe have just indulged in something that is a want rather than a necessity. Whatever people feel doesn’t matter so much its the fact that they do feel, or are inspired or do stop and think. Pity serves no purpose.”

Tash McCarroll Photography

Tash’s images have been criticized for glazing over the facts and covering them with a smiling, sugary coating. This is due to the fact that in many of Tash’s photographs the subjects are laughing or grinning broadly. But ironically this was more of a complement to Tash as it merely highlighted Tash’s idea that people living in a slum or on the streets on India are still vivacious, full of life and positivity. The following is Tash’s response to one of these accusations, “if you walk the streets of India and spend some time here, yes you will see a LOT of poverty there is no denying that but you will also be meet with more smiling faces, welcoming hearts and open homes than anywhere else in the world. I may walk a 6 hour day shooting photos and I would be asked to come into more homes than hours in the day, offered more drink and food than I could consume in a week. There is a genuine quality of community and friendless that we have lost in the west! So yes I want to show the smiling faces, the colourful lives and beautiful women because behind every dark story in the news there is hope/life and dreams !”

The first amendment clearly states that and law that takes away any person’s freedom of speech in any way should not be passed. According to the ACLU in 2010 the Supreme Court nullified some previously made changes to campaign finance legislation as they believed that it infringed on the political freedom of speech of some independent companies and also violating their rights as stated in the first amendment. Limits could be placed on not only the candidates running for office themselves but also political parties, independent political groups, individuals wishing to act as advocates of said parties or candidates and even the media. To expand on the restrictions placed on political parties, some legislation (especially those that would reduce their funding) would make it very hard for the parties to make ‘get-out-the-vote’ efforts, hold voter registration drives, educate voters or even recruit candidates. Following on from this, these reforms could prohibit unions, corporations and/or issue organizations from educating the public on the candidates running for office. Furthermore the media may be forced into a broadcasting blackout about candidates, 60 days before federal election or 30 days before a primary. But isn’t this the prime time that voters pay attention to what is being said about the candidates in the media?

Heads up! The mayor of Boston wants a new system of student assignment for Public Elementary and Middle schools.  The goal: to keep kids closer to home.

This kind of change is particularly sensitive in Boston where there is a history of conflict around efforts to address racial disparities in access to quality schools.  In the 1974, a federal judge ordered the city to bus kids city-wide as a way to integrate public schools.

We are two Boston Public School students.  Our very different experiences with school assignment illustrate some of the problems with the current system.

My name is Tayler Fernandez Nunez and I remember in elementary school I had to travel an hour to a school across town because my mother believed that it was better than any nearby. And while mami might kill me for telling you this, we used my aunt’s address in that neighborhood to get in.  Thanks to that school, I got into an exam school for high school.

My name is Omar Armando Gomez and when my family returned to Boston – from living in Puerto Rico for a few years – my parents had no idea how the school system worked. I was assigned to the closest public school – one that I don’t think is very good and doesn’t offer the kinds of music or arts programs I’d love to take.

During the past year, an External Advisory Committee appointed by Mayor Menino has looked at alternative models for school assignment.  One of the reasons the mayor wants to keep kids closer to home is financial.  A recent New York Times article states that bus transportation in Boston costs the city 80.4 million dollars a year – about 9.4 percent of the school system’s budget and almost twice the national average.

Carol Johnson, superintendent of Boston Public Schools, says all three models being considered by the EAC reflect the priorities of parents as well.

“They’re more predictable, they allow families to go closer to home, they guarantee more access to quality and in some families want to be next door to other families that go to the same school so they could have a more community feel,” says Johnson.

One of the models has defined boundaries like we have today – except there are 10 zones as opposed to three. The other two proposals are home based models, which offer all students the choice between a certain number of  “quality schools” – as measured by MCAS scores – near their home.

Kim Janey, Senior Project Director for Mass Advocates for Children says quality has to be the focus.

“Student assignment is not going to create quality student assignment. It’s going to determine who gets access to quality and who doesn’t get access to quality.  But what we need to be focused on is improving the overall quality of schools throughout the district but particularly in neighborhoods where there isn’t enough,” says Janey.

In our neighborhood of East Boston, for example, out of the many middle and elementary schools, only two are listed as Tier 1 – meaning in the top 25 percent of Boston Public Schools.

Rahn Dorsey Is a member of the External Advisory Committee. He’s not sure the proposed models for school assignment will bring the change people want.

“We don’t just want incremental change I think we want something that we think is gonna be transformative it seems for the students who might have the most challenges to access there’s a little bit of improvement but is that improvement significant um the jury’s out for me on that,” says Dorsey.

Since beginning this story the External Advisory Committee has held meetings with families and members of the community. The EAC recently recommended the Home Based A Model to Mayor Menino. Changes to the school assignment process would be made in the fall of 2014.

We think people should pay attention to this important decision because it will have a big impact on future generations of kids in Boston, especially low income and minority kids.

This story was created by Omar Armando Gomez and Tayler Fernandez Nunez for Zumix Radio in Boston.

The suicide rate among veterans is immensely higher than that of active-duty troops. Twenty percent of the 30,000 annual US suicides are veterans, though only 1 percent of Americans have served in the military.

An article on Yahoo News showed that there are several causes of suicides amongst veterans with post traumatic stress disorder being the most common, closely followed by depression, alcoholism and substance abuse. Whilst the main causes of suicides amongst those not deployed are problems with relationships, often due to loss of self esteem, finance, mainly due to inability to obtain a job, or the law, due to violent behavior. Studies show that soldiers returning from battle find it difficult to fit back into society. Unsurprisingly, the most common suicide method used amongst military personnel is gunshot. However, most guns were personal property as opposed to military-issued.

With military suicides hitting record levels, the Secretary of the Army John McHugh ordered a complete analysis of how returning soldiers are being treated and if their mental health needs are being met. He said that improving the health care system for returning veterans was a top priority.

Suicide and suicide awareness is an issue that is emphasized to us teens frequently.  We are told that it is not an answer to our problems and that we should seek help in case we feel suicidal. I therefore find it extremely shocking that the brave soldiers who deal with tough situations in real life, resort to suicide on such a mass scale. We need to have a better understanding of the trauma they go through. I strongly feel that the efforts put on by army to address this problem are too little. The army needs to put in a lot more resources and efforts to save the lives of these soldiers. After all it’s thanks to them that we can sleep peacefully in our beds every night.

I think that the society should be more understanding and accepting of veterans who have been through very stressful time and need to find an easy return back to society, giving them better healthcare and job opportunities will go a long way in assimilating these veterans back into our daily lives.

Priscilla Oppenheimer, 72, is one of the first woman to have been named an executive in baseball, for the San Diego Padres. She is the first to set up testing for steroids in baseball, and she was the first woman chosen by Topps to be executive woman of the year. But, she said, “It was a struggle to get to the top.”

Oppenheimer started at the Padres in 1983, as a part-time secretary working 6 or possibly even 7 days a week. She moved up to the position of Player Development Secretary, where her boss asked her to type up a description for a new position they were creating. “He asked me what I thought of it, and I said that the position should be mine. He said, ‘it is.’”

But just because she got the job did not mean that Oppenheimer was treated as an equal to her male counterparts. “I made less money than the men. Say I made 80 thousand, they made 95 thousand,” she said, explaining that the men were paid more because they ‘had families’. “But I would just say, ‘I’m paid less because I’m a woman and that is the only reason.’”

Sexual harassment is another one of the hardships Oppenheimer endured. “It was very intense,” said Oppenheimer. “I was at a meeting and the men were saying, “Did she work her way here or sleep her way here?” I called [my son] Damon … and he said, “I’m gonna give you the best advice anyone’s gonna give you: Get tough or get out, because they’re not gonna change.” And that was the best advice I ever got.”

Oppenheimer’s approach to gain respect was to be “tough, tough, tough, but also kind and forgiving.”  In a 1990 article in the San Diego Union Oppenheimer was described as someone, “who does not back down from anyone, but there’s also a softer side to her.”

It is this combination of being tough and having a soft side that made Oppenheimer a mother figure to her players. Mother of three children – Damon, Melissa, and Garth – she knew how to handle the players, and, in an interview with the Santa Maria Times, she confessed that, “A lot of them call me Mom.”

The players spawned Oppenheimer’s favorite memory from working at the Padres. For one, she respected them and most of them respected her and said that she was the person they trusted most in the organization. “After they were out of the game they kept in contact with me, and told me what a difference I’d made in their lives,” she recalled.

Despite the respect she gained from her players, though, it was a struggle to be respected by her co-workers in the office. Padres’ director of player development Tom Romenesko remembered in an interview with the San Diego Union that people kept asking, “Where are you going to get this guy? How much are you going to pay this guy?” When it turned out that he did not, in fact, hire a guy, “men would jump in my face,” said Oppenheimer. “They’d say, ‘I don’t need any women telling me how to do baseball paperwork.” In the Santa Maria Times, it was said that to some, she represented “an unwelcome intrusion into baseball’s male-dominated world.”

Oppenheimer would deal regularly with men who would say they wished to speak to other men, after which she would say, “if you want a man, the janitor’s down the hall.” When she took players to Taiwan for an all-star game, “the men only wanted to talk to men, so I said, ‘I’m the one with the money, so if you won’t talk to me, I probably won’t be paying you.’”

Everything, according to Oppenheimer, was linked to the same stereotype. “The image was that if you weren’t born a man, you couldn’t know anything about baseball. There’s not a gene in your body that says ‘baseball’. It’s something you have to learn,” she said. “And I learned it.”

Oppenheimer’s work earned her a spot as one of the top female baseball executives of the year who were chosen by Baseball America and female executive of the year, which was chosen by Topps. But, despite the accolades she received from her players and the awards she earned, she doesn’t feel as if she opened a way for women in baseball. “I’m sorry about that,” she said. “There’s been some very qualified women, especially Kim Ng, who have been up to be the general manager …  But she’s never been selected. One of the teams that was interviewing her said, “Well, we’re only interviewing her to appease the major leagues, ‘cause they say we have to be diverse, but there’s no way we’re gonna let a woman tell us how to run baseball.’”

Since Oppenheimer’s work, however, women have been coming forward to take on large responsibilities in the world of baseball. Kim Ng is the highest ranking woman executive ever in baseball, having been Assistant General Manager of the Yankees and then the Dodgers. Justine Siegal, the first woman to coach a professional baseball team: the Brockton Rox of Brockton, Massachusetts, was the first woman to throw an MLB batting practice.

“Things are changing, but it’s definitely slow,” said Siegal in an interview with online blog FanGraphs. In the same article, Ng was quoted as saying, “I’m a little surprised that we haven’t seen more women come up in entry-level positions through the ranks … My only hope is that women do get recognized, and that we can put some programs in place to really at least get women into the system.”

Oppenheimer agrees. She encouraged women in baseball to “take care of themselves and value themselves … Stand up for yourself and be proud of who you are and what you become.” Of the men who tried to discourage her, she said, “It was a real battle, but the battle didn’t outweigh the enjoyment and the pleasure and the rewards that I got, so it was worth every minute of it. I had a great, great job.”

“Up to 90 percent of teenagers diet regularly, and up to 50 percent of younger kids have tried a diet at some point.”

photo credit: http://dietpillsguide.net/

According to the Canadian Paediatric Society’s Adolescent Health Committee, more than one in three girls try to diet. Teens often feel like they are overweight, and are not content with their appearance. In fact, the biggest reason for teen’s diet is because they feel bad about themselves. “Teens that go on diets are more likely to feel ‘fat’ when they’re not, more likely to have low self-esteem, less likely to feel connections to their schools and families and less likely to feel control over their lives”, as the Committee reports. Furthermore, when they go on a diet, due to lack of informations or consciousness, teens often decides to take diet pills in order to get an effective results in short terms. Researchers at the University of Minnesota conducted a study that demonstrated the trend toward diet pill use among teen girls. They found out that teen diet pill usage had rose from 7.5 percent of teen girls in 2006 surveyed to 14.2 percent in 2011. Only in five year, the use of diet pills had almost doubled up, and is still increasing.

In some occasions, using diet pill is proven to be appropriate, but this only applies for individuals who have body mass index over 27. For others, it might not have a significant outcome, or worse, one can become vulnerable to heart diseases. According to Jason Ladock at http://www.healthguidance.org, and WebMD weight loss clinic, the two types of diet pills that are most frequently used by teenagers are Xenical and Meridia. Xenical, usually called as ‘fat blocker’, prevents fat to be completely absorbed in gastrointestinal tract. In result, consumer loses weight instantly. However, there is high probability of side effects. For instance, one might suffer from oily discharge, fatty stools, gas, or inability to control bowel movements. Furthermore, Xenical also have the potential to block nutrients other than fats, meaning that one might not be able to obtain the appropriate amount and variety of nutrients. The second pill, Meridia, reduces hunger by controlling appetite center in the brain that makes one to feel full. This pill is prescribed to patients only if there are low risk for heart diseases. In other words, if a teenager with high risk takes the pill, there can be a danger of getting heart disease. As provided by livestrong.com, Other diet pills might contain a variety of chemicals such as ephedrine or phenylpropanolamine, which can cause harmful effect on teens’ health, are often addictive, and can lead to other serious consequences such as a problem with high blood pressure or even death if the teen uses the pills incorrectly over a long period of time.

Then what would be alternative, healthy way to lose weight? In order to answer that question, one must first understand that teenagers are supposed to be getting enough nutrients needed for body growth. If one fails to control the body growth, it can never be solved later when they become adults. Teenage girls needs 1,800 to 2,200 calories a day, and boys need between 2,200 and 2,700 calories in average. In other words, they should never decide to eat less in their meals. Moreover, it might sound obvious, but the most healthy way to lose weight is by cutting unhealthy snacks, fizzy drinks, and most of all, by exercising. “Teenagers need 60 minutes of physical activity everyday to help maintain a healthy weight, while only 8 percent of them include enough physical activity in a day”. Walking, jogging, and other simple cardio exercise are the most effective ways to burn calories.  If one is at the healthy weight, one should not be feeling as if they are overweight and should not decide to go on a diet, due to health issues.

My grandmother, Zoila, suffers from mental illness. By telling Zoila’s story I hope to raise awareness about the intensity of mental illness and the impact it can have on a family.

Marine in Okinawa. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Erik S. Brooks Jr.

America these days probably has no more important ally than Japan. The US is counting on Japan to help prevent China from dominating and controlling the world’s fastest-growing region.  On the surface, the US-Japan relationship seems strong. We share common political and economic values, as the two leading free-market democracies in the Asia-Pacific, and we have a security treaty that goes back more than half a century. But the strength of the relationship rests on a weak foundation: Japan’s southern island chain of Okinawa.

The alliance relies on Japan allowing America to maintain 32 bases with tens of thousands of troops on Okinawa. Okinawa is geographically so vital to America’s defense thinking that America dubs the island chain the “Keystone of the Pacific.”

While the US and Japanese governments are both happy with that arrangement, however, the people of Okinawa aren’t. They regard the bases as a lingering colonization of their land. Their lives are regularly disrupted by the loud roar of jet engines, by accidents, and by crimes committed by military personnel.  It stands to reason that the bases’ presence would produce ongoing friction between Okinawa and the US.

What is less obvious, however, is that this discord is aggravated by longstanding tensions between Okinawa and the rest of Japan, tensions that are, if anything, greater than those between Okinawa and the US.  Okinawa may be a strategic “Keystone” for America, but it is risky to establish our “Keystone” where we are at the mercy of relationships over which we have little direct control.

Three years ago, Japanese voters elected a new government and ousted the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which had been in power for about as long as the US-Japan security treaty had been in effect. The new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, challenged certain aspects of the longstanding treaty as too onerous, and especially, promised Okinawa that he’d remove some American bases. The US, however, did not agree and pressured him to break his promises to Okinawa. As a sign of just how powerful the US-Japan relationship is, America prevailed despite Hatoyama’s reservations and despite Okinawa’s outrage.  Hatoyama was forced to resign after just nine months, in penance for failing to keep his word.

One can see why the Okinawans are upset. Nearly two-thirds of the American troops stationed in Japan are placed on that one island.That means that Okinawa bears a disproportionate burden of Japan’s defense and of Japan’s contribution to America’s military reach, and also that, for example, Okinawa is disproportionately subject to the dangers posed by the presence of the bases. Many bases are in residential neighborhoods, regularly flying planes in and out – as if an airport were placed right in the middle of a suburb. At least three US military planes have crashed in Okinawan civilian districts. In the most famous incident, in 2004, a Marine Sea Stallion crashed into a university located just 330 yards from the southern part of its air base.Several explosions and a fire resulted, depositing debris from the helicopter. Incredibly, no civilians were killed or injured, because the crash took place during summer break.

The Okinawans feel disenfranchised in other ways, too.  Part of what made the townspeople so mad in the Sea Stallion incident was the secrecy.  Initially, local TV stations weren’t allowed to film the crash site, and Okinawans were barred from approaching.  People wondered why — it was, after all, their own civilian district, their own town, their own country.

Okinawan civilians have also borne assaults by US military personnel.  The most infamous took place in 1995, when three US marines raped a young Okinawan girl. This was not the first or last sexual assault by military personnel there, but the girl was only 12, which provoked special outrage and seemed an all-too-obvious symbol of the power imbalance between the American military and the people of Okinawa.

But Okinawa-Japan relations aren’t quite rosy either. The bases occupy a huge portion of Okinawa but not a huge portion of Japan, by any means.  Many Okinawans suspect that this is an extension of the colonial treatment they endured at the hands of the Japanese in the past.

Okinawa was for centuries the independent Ryukyu kingdom.  In the 1600s, Japan’s southernmost domain took over the territory, though allowing the Ryukyu monarchy to remain. That complex historical precedent justified both Japan’s annexing the Ryukyus in 1879, and Okinawa’s retaining a distinct identity.  Still, the Ryukyus became an indispensable part of Japan’s military defense and ultimately, the only civilian territory in Japan to suffer Allied invasion in World War II.

After its surrender in 1945, Japan was occupied by the US But even after Japan regained its independence in 1951, Okinawa remained under US military control.  That is, Okinawa was the one part of Japan that was ceded to a foreign power.  Okinawans drove on the right side of the road, American style (the rest of Japan drives on the left).  They even needed passports to travel to Japan.

The Japanese government had been willing to leave Okinawa in US control in exchange for mainland Japan’s independence.  Okinawans, and sympathizers in mainland Japan, agitated for Okinawa’s return to Japan.  But even when that was at last accomplished in 1972, Japan still needed some a place for the US bases.  Okinawa, at a remove, geographically and culturally, from the rest of Japan, was the perfect place.

Okinawans still feel like second-class citizens, and Japan still seems to treat them as a semi-colony because they don’t feel the Okinanawans are quite Japanese.  They eat different food, listen to different music, and even speak  different dialects. Meanwhile, they live different lives, because of the bases.

The presence of the bases means that Okinawans’ resentments of America compound their resentments of Japan, and vice versa, complicating US-Japan treaty relations. Okinawan protests have for years blocked US-Japan plans to move a marine base, and last year, caused a delay in the deployment of a new marine helicopter.  Another big incident – a crash, a rape – could trigger another wave of mass protests, forcing the reduction, or even full removal of US troops.  That would be a big setback for both the US and Japan. But the two powers are leaving themselves highly vulnerable by relying so heavily on Okinawa, while allowing its resentments, against both of them, to fester.

So what does this mean for prospective parents and Russian Orphans?

60,000 Russian children have been adopted by Americans since 1991.These children have been greatly loved by their adoptive parents and have often been adopted in poor health; for many, the adoptions was essential to their survival.

As of now, 500 American families were mid-process of adopting children from various Russian orphanages.These prospective parents have departed on various visits to Russia to visit their soon-to-be adopted son or daughter, have had to file mountains of paperwork, have met with various officials to be approved parents, and some have even paid up to 50,000 dollars—and as of now might not even be able to adopt their child. 45 families are eagerly awaiting Russian court hearings to see if their adoption can still be finalized. These prospective parents are distressed and extremely saddened at the failure of their adoptions due to the recent Russian legislation; they had grown attached to their children via their multiple visits and pictures of the child growing up.

But what makes matters worse are many of these Americans agreed to adopt children with chronic health disorders—some in desperate need of a liver transplant, some who are blind or deaf, some who are paralyzed, some who have AIDS or Down Syndrome, and the list goes on. With this new ban on adoption, these children can no longer have their much-needed surgeries nor can they be cared for in an environment essential for their health situation.

The orphanages these children (ranging from infants to seventeen-year-olds) are poorly equipped, over populated, and understaffed. Many of these children who spend their adolescence in these orphanages develop psychological disorders and many resort to drugs and self harm to ease the pain.

The Kremlin asserts they are doing this in the best interest of the children, sitting 19 murders of adopted Russian children in the US. However, many Russian bureaucrats disagree with President Putin’s decision on the ban and have publicly stated their doubts.

The issue has brought distress and waves of praise and fury from all over the political spectrum. Although the decision for future adoptions is now finalized, one can only hope that the American Families mid process will be able to hold their newly adopted Russian infant in their arms.

by: Lazare de Montille and Lily Rivkin