A documentary starts by showing a small caravan of six camels and four men walking across the hot sands of Mauritania in West Africa. The hooves of the camels and sandals of men displace the dry sand with every step, leaving a long trail stretched to the horizon, dramatically revealed by the slow rise of the camera for an aerial view.  Suddenly the camels are alarmed, as a faint rumbling sound is heard far away.  The men stop and watch amazed as the whistle of a train is heard in the distance.  Soon several locomotives come into view pulling a long train of hoppers carrying iron ore. Men and beast watch as twenty first century interrupts their ancient way of life.
 
The film reminded me of another documentary across equally desolate and isolated yet incredibly cold Siberia. Where temperatures dip bellow -70C.  There too, people have their primitive lives disrupted by modern transportation systems. New man comes with trains, trucks, machinery and remove the iron, copper, lumber, etc from their backyard and leave destruction and waste to their land and often sicken them in the process. As the journalist traveling the cold of the arctic said "a country is not a place on a map at all, but a story full of people you meet and places you visit." Interestingly, while these places and thousands of others like them are exposed to fresh realities, the healthcare system is not one of them.
 
There are thousands of nationalities worldwide. It might be difficult to understand other lifestyles and traditions, but they do exist and have needs that are disrupted by modern life. The information technology/internet is reaching them faster than the amenities it portrays, adding to the disparities they see and feel.  Among them and perhaps the most needed is healthcare.  These people see this as a new way of slavery.  It is time this is changed and they receive their share of prosperity.  The absurdity of it is that it cost so relatively little to provide healthcare to every corner of the world.  Programs such as Project Echo can educate and supervise people in these areas to care for themselves. We have the means, even the money, it just takes a little caring.

Reza Ghadimi
July 2022

Expectations of summer
Hot days, green pastures
Lazy afternoons
Firefly evenings
Dreams of cold winter nights.
 
Now the blue skies and
Gathering clouds
Awaken a primal sense of
All that is sacred to the cycle of life
The ripened fruits by the murmuring brook.
 
Overhead, the call of a hawk
To its mate, tells of families
Old and waiting anew to grow.
The young meeting in the brush, tree or hilltop
With promises for a future, as the old snooze.
 
Deep in the abyss, mother nature
Stews nature's goodness in ocean's cauldron
Healing plants and living fish
Enough to feed man and beast
For this blessing, thanks are given.
 
Thanks to the winds of the north
Thanks to the rising sun of the east
Thanks to the rains of the south
Thanks to the night of the west. Oh great creator,
Give us wisdom to live on this earth in peace.

Reza Ghadimi
July 2022

There is a question
Unanswered for centuries and millennia
That has left us bewildered.
Scholars and prophets have asked
All for naught
And left it to be taken as faith
A divine cause.
 
Gypsies and dervishes dance to it, puzzled
Some look to the cosmos for clues
Others into a drop of water.
There are those, silently sitting
By the shore or mountain top
Pondering a metaphysical sign.
 
As to who are we?
Why are we here?
Why is here, here?
 
We answer as we grapple
With the end result
Not the root cause!
And that may be the reason for
The emergence of iniquities everywhere.
 
 
Reza Ghadimi
July 7, 2022