[Indeed,
Murthy has been running even before his swearing in, shooting a promotional
film with the Sesame Street character Elmo last week to promote vaccination. On Wednesday, he put
forth an expansive agenda for America, befitting the nation's
"TopDoc" as he was called on Twitter, including promoting healthy living,
raising awareness of mental illness, tackling childhood vaccinations, and
curbing drug abuse.]
By Chidanand Rajghatta
 |
|
US surgeon general Vivek Murthy
(left) shakes hands with vice president
Joe Biden (right) after he is
ceremonially sworn-in in Conmy Hall at Fort Myer,
on Wednesday. (AP photo)
|
WASHINGTON: At about the same time the death of a farmer
in New Delhi brought the capital's attention on farm suicides, a young
Indian-American was invoking with gratitude the Indian roots of his success in
the United States: his agriculturist grandfather's resilience and sacrifice
that led his parents emigration and his own remarkable achievement in this
country.
"By any reasonable measure, I shouldn't be
standing here. My father is the son of a farmer in rural India. He was supposed
to have been a farmer, as was I," Vivek Murthy recalled to a gaggle of
supporters gathered at a military base in Fort Myer after he was administered
oath (on a Bhagavad Gita) on Wednesday by vice president Joe Biden as the 19th
surgeon general of the United States, America's doctor-in-chief.
Clearly unaware of the tumult in India over the
farmer suicide, Murthy then added, "But for my grandfather's insistence
that his son get an education, even if that meant going into debt, we might
have never left that village (Hallegere in Karnataka's Mandya district) to go
out in the world and - as my grandfather also insisted - start fixing what
needed fixing."
"We were not supposed to have become
Americans. My parents stopped in three other countries - including a brutal
dictatorship - on their journey to get here. They saved up money and scrounged
for information about job opportunities, always knowing that America was the
destination," Murthy continued, outlining what has now become a familiar
Indian-American template for success.
He then thanked everyone who helped him, at 37,
become America's youngest surgeon-general, and the first Indian-American to
occupy an office that carries with it a three-star military designation - vice
admiral Vivek Murthy - saying, "I am who I am because of my grandmother's faith,
my father's strength, my mother's love, my sister's support, and my fiancee's
unyielding belief in me. I am blessed to have all of them here with me today. I
will always be grateful to them for the sacrifices they have made."
Encomiums came in thick and fast for the
remarkable man for whom President Barack Obama, who nominated him for the
position, battled through Republican opposition for more than a year to secure
a confirmation for what will be a four-year tenure.
"I applaud the Senate for confirming Vivek
Murthy," the President said following the confirmation. "As
'America's Doctor,' Vivek will hit the ground running to make sure every
American has the information they need to keep themselves and their families
safe. He'll bring his lifetime of experience promoting public health to bear on
priorities ranging from stopping new diseases to helping our kids grow up
healthy and strong."
Indeed, Murthy has been running even before his
swearing in, shooting a promotional film with the Sesame Street character Elmo
last week to promote vaccination. On Wednesday, he put
forth an expansive agenda for America, befitting the nation's
"TopDoc" as he was called on Twitter, including promoting healthy living,
raising awareness of mental illness, tackling childhood vaccinations, and
curbing drug abuse.
"Today, we face a rising tide of diabetes,
heart disease and cancer. We will lose nearly half a million lives this year to
tobacco-related disease. Forty-two million people in our country struggle with
mental illness," he said of a country which spends more per capita on
health than any other nation but yet has poor outcomes. "Heroin and
prescription drug abuse ravage towns across America, and vaccine-preventable
diseases we thought we had contained have come back with a vengeance because of
fear and misinformation."
Ministry of culture said
it will work with police to prevent people from hiring erotic entertainment
meant to celebrate the deceased and attract mourners
By Sam
Thielman
 |
|
A woman
performs at a funeral in Hebei, China. In some parts of east Asian culture,
performers
are hired for funerals as a celebratory sendoff to the deceased.
Photograph:
Internet
|
China is cracking down on funeral
strippers after controversy over “obscene” performances in the east of the
country.
In China, the bereaved often put on elaborate entertainment to
send the departed off in style and draw more mourners to the ceremony – but
recent funeral shows in Jiangsu and Handan have led the ministry of culture to
announce it will work with the police to eliminate such performances.
Pictures of a dancer removing her bra in front of parents and
children in Handan last month were circulated online, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Some funeral strippers performed with snakes, the WSJ reported.
The ministry’s crackdown will “focus on the commercial
performance market”, it said in a press release, “and further strengthen rural
cultural market regulation and law enforcement, and joint authorities will
crack down on ‘stripping’ and other acts of illegal business performance
market”.
Citing “pornographic performances”, the ministry fined the Red
Rose Dance Ensemble about $11,300 for a two-and-a-half-hour performance on 15
February at the funeral of an elderly Handan city resident and arrested three
others at a similar show on 27 February.
In parts of east Asian culture, the funeral is a sendoff party
for late family members – a last chance for the family and the community to
ensure that the deceased travels well into the afterlife. And a big funeral
crowd is also a class marker, much like a big wedding might be. Stripping at
funeral is widespread in Taiwan and is a regular
feature on YouTube.
Everett Zhang, assistant professor of east Asian studies at
Princeton University, has studied Chinese funeral rites and said the practice
of hiring performers for lavish shows was expected when the deceased had lived
a long life.
“In China, when the person who dies is very old and has lived a
long life, this kind of occasion becomes purely a celebration,” he said.
It’s also a time when the community shows its gratitude to the
dead by giving gifts to the family, so there’s pressure to show attendees a
good time. “Everyone who comes to the funeral will present a sum of money to
the host – a funeral is a time to collect money and hopefully cover the cost of
the service,” Zhang said.
Zhang said he had not witnessed this specific form of funereal entertainment
before, but he said he was surprised that authorities intervened.
“Local people would not be happy about the arrests,” he said.
“That would be really intrusive and offensive.”
