Government programs that serve clients have to follow Equal Opportunity policies and ethical policies regarding confidentiality of service.
An article directed towards psychiatrists and psychologists provides guidance that would also pertain to working in a government agency that serves clients. The author nicely summarizes ethical concerns regarding counseling relationships. The topic of multiple relationships and avoiding overlap between personal and professional contacts is reviewed as an initial pitfall to avoid. If business encounters are unavoidable due to limited availability of the type of business then some overlap of professional contacts might be more advisable than avoiding the professional relationship. It is always the standard recommendation to avoid mixing personal relationships with a patient who is in counseling relationship. Documentation and other ethical considerations are also discussed with examples provided.
These topics are also recommended and covered in the ethical guidelines of dietetic counseling as well as in the provision of U.S. government equal opportunity programs. Reviewing policies with all staff working in the program was an annual requirement in the agency where I worked and managed staff.
10 things I think are important:
10 ways practitioners can avoid frequent ethical pitfalls, by Deborah Smith, American Psychological Association, January 2003, Vol 34, No. 1, http://www.apa.org/monitor/jan03/10ways.aspx
/Disclosure: This information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes./
During the Blitzkreig bombing of the United Kingdom between 1940-1941 over 30000 tons of explosives were dropped on sixteen cities from German airplanes. The bombs included chemicals designed to increase risk of long burning fires. Over 40000 people lost their lives and many buildings were destroyed.
Our current and previous administration in the United States have been responsible for drone bombing in seven countries. In just the first seven months of 2017 the current administration has increased the amount of drone bombing from the previous years.
Airwaves is an independent group that has been tracking the number of bombs dropped by the US and the number they provide is a larger number than the official count released by the U.S.. Almost 11000 in the first three months of 2017 with an increased percentage of civilian deaths. The number of deaths is lower than during the Blitzkreig however we aren’t officially at war either. http://www.mintpressnews.com/us-coalition-dropped-nearly-11000-munition-on-iraq-syria-last-month/226995/
My concern for history and the future is linked because if we don’t learn from the past we are more likely to repeat mistakes and bombing civilians and countries that we aren’t even at war with is a big one, and costly. The Department of Defense has misplaced where $6.5 trillion was spent in the Army budget alone over the last couple of decades. Other money was spent to produce top-secret fake Al Queda propaganda and fake news stories designed to seem like Arabic television to make the group seem more negative than it was – at the time. Between 2006 and 2011 $660 million was paid to a publicity firm in the U.K. to produce the top-secret film footage. Fake atrocities – paid for by U.S. taxpayers to scare U.S. taxpayers and the rest of the world – just who are the terrorists in that story?
Eight other news stories that didn’t get much press attention are highlighted in an end of year summary by an organization that fights censorship by looking for the stories that were suppressed. Free speech isn’t just about what journalists are allowed to say but also about what they aren’t allowed to say. The Nazi’s burned books and controlled the media. I’ve been following alternative news sources and was aware there was suspicion that news was being faked about atrocities. I was not aware of the lack of audits in the military or missing $6.5 trillion from the Army budget. The other eight stories I was familiar with though – pay attention online and it is amazing what you can learn.
A synopsis:
Lead is poisoning children in Flint but is also an infrastructure and soil contaminant in many many urban areas.
The missing $6.5 Trillion from the Army budget and lack of audit, or expectation that the military be audited in the same way that other government agencies are expected (been there, done that – inventories are an annual task.)
The fake news about Al Queda and fake Arabic TV for $660 million.
Voter suppression during the 2016 election occurred in many places by making it more difficult for people to register to vote or to have been taken off the list of registered voters.\
Micro-targeting of voters during the 2016 election was performed for the Trump campaign with the help of modern social media advertising techniques, with assistance from social media staff. News of this has surfaced only recently.
Antibiotic resistant bacteria are gaining ground on human’s ability to create new more effective antibiotics – we may be unable to cure pneumonia or other diseases as easily as we were over the last few decades. Microbes evolve quickly. We have only been using antibiotics since the 1928 (Fleming, penicillin).
The U.S. Navy is killing or injuring large numbers of marine wildlife due to torpedoes, Sonar testing and other underwater devices and air to surface missiles.
The U.S. is the only developed nation in the world with an increasing rate of maternal mortality – more women are dying from childbirth or pregnancy than in previous years. Inadequate rural care and an increased rate of African American women dying is thought to be driving the increase. African American women are 3 to 4 times more likely to die from pregnancy related causes than white women. (Pre-eclampsia isn’t mentioned but it can be life threatening and is more of a risk for African American women than for other racial or ethnic groups. Differences in the average shape of the pelvis bone and less intra-abdominal space within an African American woman may be involved. Magnesium foods may help reduce the risk and spending time daily during the last few months in a knee-chest position that helps relieve intra-abdominal pressure may help reduce risk. Treating people individually instead of as a total group average might help – if individualizing health care based on individual differences seems racist then I don’t understand the word. Why would anyone want health care recommendations that were developed to help someone with a completely different body structure or different type of metabolism from their own? The best health recommendations for one person might not help another or might harm them. The kidneys of African Americans seems to be better at conserving calcium, which also wastes more magnesium. Magnesium deficiency can increase risk of hypertension and diabetes and pre-eclampsia and many other conditions.)
The DNC political party was sued regarding apparent rigging of the primaries in favor of one candidate and the lawyers representing the DNC argued that neutrality is not required by the charter. The group could feasibly just pick a candidate and not have a primary at all according to the legal argument.
The internet was shutdown due to hacking or political intervention more in 2016 than ever before. Internet slowdowns were found to be associated with atrocities and political events as possibly a national attempt to quell protest or limit communication during sensitive times.
Knowledge is painful but being uninformed may be life threatening.
Palestine lost World War II and the rest of the world is losing this current non-war. Every bomb is adding to global pollution and adding to the risk of birth defects in humans and animals. In some areas of the Middle East the rate of birth defects at some places and at some points of time reached 50%. Is that something the Nazi’s did to the United Kingdom with the Blitzkreig bombs? No. Whatever chemicals that were used to promote more fire risk didn’t add a nuclear radiation signature to the soil and air quality.
U.S. bombing is going to kill in slower ways than the Blitzkreig bombs, and likely will affect birth defect rates for a long time. My suggestion was help clean up and repair the soil and people with healing plants.
I’ve written about Zionism and the difference from anti-Zionism and have been called a Nazi for it, but Albert Einstein was a Jew at a time when Palestine was still a free country and he was an anti-Zionist. I am happy to stand with Albert Einstein. My children are 1/4 Jewish, I have nothing against Jewish individuals or groups. However I am very much against segregation and apartheid like laws. Diversity is beautiful and natural and Zionism isn’t diverse – it is about special treatment for one group at the expense of many other groups. The Middle East and Europe are disrupted and terror groups have been increasing in the Philippines and Bangladesh.
When will enough land for one group of people be enough?
Many people were anti-Zionists at the time preceding and during WWII. Taking another nation to give to a different group of people is not fair to the people who farmed the land for a thousand years – in some cases. If the European Jews had lived in the area of Palestine it had been over 1000 years prior, not in recent history.
Being for fair treatment of all groups is not racist or anti-Semitic. The current and past treatment of Arabs, Christians and Semitic Jews (non-European Jews who were living in the area of Palestine) has not been very equal compared to the way the European Jews were and are treated in modern day Israel.
It was wrong to treat black South Africans differently than white South Africans and it is wrong for Israel to be 90% segregated – that may be the wrong word but if 90% of the citizens are all the same religion or ethnicity than it seems applicable.
Persecution and humiliation tactics are commonly used against minorities or groups that are in a minority in that area. The technique may promote a feeling of pleasure in those participating as it may increase levels of dopamine but so would gratitude and friendliness. The humiliation tactic may increase risk of retaliation though in observers of the persecution of someone who they may feel similar to.
Other research supports the premise that humiliation tactics may increase violence if not against the oppressor than possibly it may take the form of increased domestic violence or violence against some other person who is in vulnerable position compared to the oppressor or the persecuted person: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233332514_Humiliation_Self-Esteem_and_Violence
Even worse than laws that segregate or give limited supplies of water or energy to some areas are the unspoken policies by the U.S. and Israel to support radical groups sometimes on both opposing sides in the hopes that the two forces would keep each other in check. Arming two opposing radical groups leaves civilians unprotected in the middle.
And a more recent overview of the U.S. and Israeli involvement in the buildup of terrorist groups and actions; includes many links to other articles, and a graphic by Occupy London showing the number of countries Iran has attacked since WWII, zero, and those attacked in some manner by US/Israeli forces – 36 nations, plus I know of at least one more since the last date on the image (Yemen – 2016, see list at the end of this post). Will attacking 37 countries in 72 years ever be considered a problem? Ten of the countries were attacked multiple times over the timespan. See: https://politicalvelcraft.org/2017/08/16/americas-cia-israels-mossad-created-al-qaeda-and-the-isis-terror-group/ – The short answer, from the overview article, for ending terrorism would be to support wind and solar power and help get the U.S. out of the oil business altogether, and the long answer would be to stop funding the military-industrial bomb and gun and missile sales business. We supply the world with things like Hellfire missiles. Wouldn’t it be nice to make windmills and solar panels instead?
A first hand account of what Zionists believe today is available in the form an a journalist’s interview of average Israeli citizens or visitors – the theme revealed by the interviews was disturbing to the reporter and to me – ethnic cleansing.
What would you think if Albert Einstein was quoted as saying carpet bombing the Middle East would be okay because he had a spiritual link to the ancient history of the land and he wanted to move in once the dust settled?
In my opinion Jewish people should be able to marry an Arab person if they both want to – and carpet bombing civilians is never okay – nor is random violence. Suggesting that violence against civilians is okay by some people but not others is discrimination, in addition to being violence, and we have seen increasing violence and increasing numbers of displaced people as a result of tension in the Middle East. Apartheid was wrong in South Africa and is wrong in Israel too. Persecution of others can lead to an increased risk of retaliation rather than supporting a goal of peace or communication.
Peace has to start somewhere and accepting and valuing each other’s differences may be the place to start. Not dropping over 20000 bombs is also probably a good place to start or threatening a country that has offered to negotiate if peace was being offered.
That number is enormous and is an escalation from 2016 but the number of bombs dropped in 2016 was also large: 26,171 bombs dropped over seven countries according to some record keepers. Even as an estimate that number makes me want to cry, and beg forgiveness, or to start planting sunflowers. (https://twitter.com/TravisRuger/status/917214035585781760) *Update, July 2018, U.S. averaging 121 bombs dropped per day. (see the Newsclick link)
We could also be planting sunflowers in low income urban areas where soil is contaminated with lead. Any areas that had a lot of automobile or other lead gasoline vehicles in the decades prior to its ban are likely to have soil that is dangerous for children to play. The recommendation for contaminated soil is to remove and replace it with uncontaminated soil or to cover over the area with some type of surface that would prevent the lead containing dust from getting in the air or on hands where it can then get into children’s mouths. Old damaged lead paint is best to paint over without dry sanding because dust in the air then may carry the lead elsewhere. Lead remediation specialists use a wet sanding method if they need to more thoroughly prepare a surface that had lead paint in some of the layers.
So as a citizen and former tax payer of the United States which just bombed seven countries with over 20,650 bombs in six months – if you want to call me a Nazi – I’m a citizen of the U.S. – it may be the word to describe us all, until we stop bombing the world in the name of peace or a so-called War on Terror. I’m terrified, please can we stop yet?
Disclaimer: Opinions are my own and the information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes.
My transcribing of the graphic condenses the information to single entries for each country, rather than the consecutive time line used in the graphic and I may have transcribed a few dates inaccurately or the graphic may have contained errors – consider it an estimate that could be verified if desired.
“Of the seven countries expected to be named in Trump’s executive order [travel ban], the US is currently bombing five of them: Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen. In 2016 alone, the country dropped an estimated 26,172 bombs in seven countries, (including Pakistan and Afghanistan), according to the Council of Foreign Relations. This estimate is thought to be on the low-end as each single “strike” can involve multiple bombs, according to the Pentagon’s definition. In Barack Obama’s last year in office, the US dropped 3,028 more bombs than in 2015.” https://qz.com/895516/which-countries-is-the-us-currently-bombing/
If you wait for someone else or for your government to hand you a survival kit, then you may be waiting a while and sometimes people are already too sick to be able to wait much longer. For some hard to understand reason a life saving tool was taken away from the U.S. public that had been available for a long time.
We in the U.S. used to have life saving information available to us which was removed – if that happened in North Korea would we be concerned? Food sources of iodine were included in the USDA Food Composition Database in 2010 and 2011 and now the information is no longer included even though many, many other chemicals are included that aren’t even considered essential vitamins or minerals. Iodine is a trace mineral that is considered essential and it helps prevent neurological deficits in children, may have to do with risk of autism, obesity and apathy. (ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/nutrients/index)
The current nutrient guideline for iodine is based on a goal to prevent goiter which is a physical symptom of very severe iodine deficiency. Patients who are treated with a short term loading dose of extra iodine, a dose that would be too much if continued long term, report on average a significant reduction in symptoms including pain from Fibrocystic Breast Disease, migraines and fibromyalgia. http://www.jpands.org/vol11no4/millerd.pdf Fibrocystic Breast Disease – painful breasts that may cycle with the monthly hormonal changes, used to be very uncommon for U.S. women and is now very common:
“The incidence of fibrocystic breast disease in American women
was 3 percent in the 1920s. Today, 90 percent of women have this
disorder…” http://www.jpands.org/vol11no4/millerd.pdf
I am familiar with the condition, it hurt, taking a high dose iodine supplement did help relieve me of the cyclic breast pain and coincidentally also may have helped resolve a severe migraine problem that I had and undiagnosed fibromyalgia type pain – the insurance requirements for a diagnosis of fibromyalgia are very specific and my set of muscle knots didn’t match the criteria at the time I was having pain. A gluten free diet seemed to help me feel better so I just followed that on my own initiative. I have since learned that chemically the gluten molecule is quite similar to the thyroid hormone and for some people an autoimmune reaction may be causing the body to become over-sensitized to both gluten and the thyroid hormone. Strictly avoiding the dietary allergen (gluten in this example) can help the body to become less over-reactive to the body’s natural chemicals (thyroid hormone in this example). Molecular mimicry is the term used to describe this phenomenon if interested in reading more about it.
A randomized clinical trial with patients reporting breast pain also termed Benign Breast Disease or cyclic mastalglia or Fibrocystic Breast Disease found that pain was reduced for patients treated with double the current RDA of iodine or greater but that relief was not provided for the group who received a dose equal to the current U.S. nutrient guideline. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15239792
Benign Breast Disease or Fibrocystic Breast Disease has not generally been found to be directly a risk for later breast cancer however for some patients (~ 5%-20%) it may be an early indicator of later risk. Abstract available, full text paywall, so I’m not sure of the details regarding the results: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25970956
PTSD outbursts is about a domino pattern of behavior that is triggered by the first domino being bumped. Being offended is something that has nothing to do with PTSD. A few tips for helping reduce symptoms of PTSD, a physical brain issue involving overactive fear response, is available here: https://www.organicfacts.net/post-traumatic-stress.html
Prenatal care is important to think about once the infant is conceived but it can be even better to think about before trying to conceive. An evaluation for iodine level and thyroid antibodies can be a good idea for anyone but may also be helpful for a future infant’s brain development.
This image has nothing to do with being offended or being triggered – it is about potentially health and life saving information being withheld from the U.S. population. Why withhold it? What is the USDA goal in removing a large amount of data from a health professional’s and individual’s toolkit for providing accurate preventative health education? Why take away information from a toolkit when it had been available?
Where’s the iodine?
Iodine food sources include:
anything made with iodized salt,
many types of seaweed including kelp and nori, (used in sushi rolls),
coconut and any other produce that is grown very near to ocean waters (Iodine is released into the air by coastal water microbes – so killing coral reeves may affect our nutrient supply – that is also how we get selenium.)
It is good to have adequate selenium when increasing intake of iodine as occasionally the body can overreact and start over producing thyroid hormone and selenium is necessary for the enzyme that is needed to breakdown excess amounts of thyroid hormone. It is involved in metabolism and too little can cause depression and feeling cold and too much can cause a racing heart and feeling jittery and manic.
Two hundred micrograms per day is the recommended amount and is generally available in a one-a-day type supplement, otherwise approximately two Brazil nuts per day is a good natural source – there aren’t many natural sources because it is released into the atmosphere by coastal ocean water microbes and the rainforest Brazil nut trees seem to be good at collecting the mineral – we live in a miracle – we should treat it like a miracle – I like to call the miracle Mother Earth – she birthed us all.
Disclaimer: Opinions are my own and the information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes.
Audrey Hepburn, the actress, also worked in humanitarian roles with the UNICEF non-profit organization that helps refugees and other children and people in need around the world. (UNICEF emergency relief hurricane fund)
A magazine article in People from August 28, 2017 shares more detail about the actresses early childhood experiences where she survived Nazi occupation in the Netherlands by hiding in a basement. She became very thin and survived on whatever she could find that was edible – including “nettles and tulip bulbs” (People)- when in the Netherlands remember that tulip bulbs are similar to onions – note to self. Caution with the stinging nettles – but they are a superfood with health benefits for the respiratory system and other systems of the body. The herb can be purchased in prepared capsules – avoiding the stinging nettle part of the nettles. (Stinging nettle)
An excerpt:
“She often quoted a humanitarian worker who asked a child, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” and the child said, “Alive.”
– “per Robert Wolders her partner from 1980 to her death.” People magazine, page 46, Aug. 28, 2017 (People)
Audrey Hepburn survived and Anne Frank, who was the same age didn’t – the article mentions that Audrey Hepburn was very aware of that fact and that it impacted her life as she felt some sense of survivor guilt – why did she Audrey survive when Anne didn’t, a girl who was the same age as Audrey at the time but who happened to have been Jewish.
We all have blessings that we may not realize others are lacking.
What do most children want to be when they grow up? a doctor, a lawyer, or an football star? or alive?
Regarding survivor’s guilt – tips suggest remembering that it is a common reaction for anyone surviving a traumatic event. Not worrying too much about “Why” or asking “Why did I survive, when so-and-so didn’t” is recommended and embracing life is recommended instead in an article on the website whatsyourgrief.com. (Understanding Survivor Guilt)
Keeping a gratitude journal with entries about the big or little things that make your life a more wonderful experience, can help with depression and other mood issues. (Benefits of a Gratitude Journal)
Disclaimer: Opinions are my own and the information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes.
