They're Finally Going To Close Rikers Island, America's Monument To Jail Cruelty

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Rikers Island, the gigantic island of incarceration in New York City that serves as an embarrassing emblem of violence, cruelty and neglect in the American jail system, is finally on its way to shutting down for good.

Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed Friday that a plan was in place to shutter the complex ― the nation’s second largest ― within the next 10 years. Many of the details are yet unclear, but at least part of the plan includes moving inmates to new, smaller jails scattered across the boroughs, according to The New York Times. Building those jails could cost around $10.6 billion.

An independent commission, created by City Council and headed by New York state chief judge Jonathan Lippman, reportedly plans to release more details on Sunday.

“New York City has always been better than Rikers Island,” de Blasio said in a press release. “[Its closure] will require that our state government, and each component of our criminal justice system, contribute to the reform efforts critical to reducing our jail population and improving re-entry services and educational programming.”

A draft of the Lippman’s report recommends reducing the Rikers population from 10,000 now to less than 5,000 in the near future, according to the New York Post.

“From 1991 to 2016, the daily jail population declined from more than 21,000 to 10,000,” the report states. “The recent history of New York City clearly demonstrates that crime and incarceration can be driven down simultaneously. Contrary to what many people believe, more jail does not mean more public safety.

If it takes 10 years to close the facility completely, it may take a lifetime to shake off Rikers’ reputation.

Several federal reports over the years have found overwhelming evidence of systemic violence, excessive force and neglect at the facility. HuffPost’s Chris Mathias reports that solitary confinement is doled out like candy on Halloween. Assaults on inmates are a dime a dozen, and they’re often covered up. There are nearly 500 inmates between the ages of 16 to 18 there on any given day. It’s been called a revolving door for people of color and the poor.

Rikers also houses a disproportionate number of mentally ill inmates ― at one point, it had more mentally ill inmates than all of the state’s 24 psychiatric hospitals combined ― and critics have long said there’s not nearly enough treatment.

For many, its closure can’t come too soon.

“For too long, New Yorkers ― especially poor people of color ― have languished in this grist mill, where human rights abuses are routine,” Glenn E. Martin, president and founder of JustLeadershipUSA, said Friday. “Countless failed attempts at incremental reform have proven that the only viable solution is to close Rikers. I am grateful that Mayor de Blasio has joined the progressive majority.”

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Here's An Old Hollywood Movie You Should Watch If You Loved 'Get Out'

By now, you’re probably aware that Jordan Peele considers his movie “Get Out” to be a “social thriller” ― a genre he coined himself. 

The film has been both a box-office and critical success, earning over $150 million in ticket sales and settling at a 99 percent Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes (with only one negative review).

During a long media cycle for the movie, Jordan Peele appeared on numerous podcasts, including “Fresh Air” and “Nerdist,” and showed up in print publications, such as GQ and The New York Times. The Huffington Post suggested that “Get Out” is the type of movie the Oscars should pay attention to, and praised the ending as “a reason to go to the movies.”

If you’re reading this, you are probably, like us, already craving another great “social thriller” to watch ASAP. 

Although it may be a while before a new movie comes out, it’s already possible to discover an older film that may be brand new to you. During numerous interviews, Peele referenced “The Stepford Wives” as a good choice.

But in any case, it was a welcome surprise when streaming movie service Warner Archive reached out about a new curation by old Hollywood podcast host extraordinaire Karina Longworth, the creator of the popular “You Must Remember This.”

The curated list, which mostly focuses on movies from the mid-1900s, including “West Point” (1928), “Bombshell” (1933), “The Star” (1952) and “The Prince and the Showgirl” (1957), features a flick that might just interest “Get Out” fans.

Here’s Longworth talking to the Warner Archive about the 1942 movie “Cat People.”

I think the most essential film on the list is “Cat People.” It’s definitely something I would recommend for people who think they don’t like horror movies. It’s a masterclass in filmmaking with budgetary limitations, and its political allegory (critiquing the idea of American security as being synonymous with homogeneity, and the fear of the other) couldn’t be more timely. 

HuffPost sent a few follow-up questions Longworth’s way to get a further explanation of “Cat People” and its role in culture. Her responses are below.

You said “Cat People” is the most essential film on this list in your mind, due to its ability to create a successful political allegory on a low budget. Could you talk a bit more in length about the message the movie was trying to present and your understanding of how it was received?

Longworth: There’s a part in the “YMRT” episode I did on “Cat People’s” producer Val Lewton, in which Lewton is in a meeting at RKO and an executive says to him, “Remember, we don’t want any ‘messages’ in our movies.” Lewton responded, “Sorry, but my movies do have messages. The message is, death is good.” 

That deliberate antagonism of his bosses aside, all of Lewton’s films intentionally used the horror/thriller genre as an excuse to make movies about social and psychological life in the post-war world. In “Cat People,” Lewton depicts a cheerful, peace time America that equates a secure society with a homogenous one.

The “monster” is the foreign other who has infiltrated the American family by marrying a boring American man, and in a foreshadowing of the 1950s’ totally mixed-up ideas about women and sex, this exotic creature has to remain chaste in order to keep the monster locked up inside her.

If I had to explain what Lewton meant by the idea that his “message” is that “death is good,” I’d point to the fact that the harbinger of death in “Cat People” is also the film’s most sympathetic character, and is absolutely a victim of social circumstance. “Cat People” was a massive hit, probably because all of these ideas were subliminal rather than overt. 

Do you see parallels between “Cat People” and Jordan Peele’s recent stated goal to make social commentary horror (such as “Get Out”)? Do you think “Cat People” can be considered a urtext for that genre (if not necessarily for Peele specifically)?

I think the genre of horror (or, supernatural fiction) has been frequently used as a vehicle for social commentary and criticism. I wouldn’t call “Cat People” the single urtext, because it’s not part of the first or second wave of socially conscious supernatural films.

Certainly it is a classic, but it was actually probably more innovative in its visual style than in its social content. In terms of looking for other foundational films, prior to “Cat People,” a lot of the monster movies of the 1930s, including “King Kong” and “Frankenstein,” and two of my favorites, “Mad Love” and “The Walking Dead,” use the stories of monsters, and the idea of a porous line between life and death, to critique society.

If there is one single urtext, maybe it’s Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.” 

Watch the trailer for “Cat People” below.

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Activist Glenn Martin 'Grateful' #CLOSErikers Campaign Was A Success

Mayor De Blasio announced a 10 year plan to close the notoriously violent New York prison facility Rikers Island on Friday afternoon. The decision comes after a year of aggressive crusading to shut down the prison from the #CLOSErikers campaign, which was founded by activist and former Rikers prisoner Glenn E. Martin.

In a statement sent to The Huffington Post, Martin said that he’s “grateful” the mayor has realized that the only solution to the prison’s problematic nature is to close it.

“For too long, New Yorkers – especially poor people of color – have languished in this grist mill, where human rights abuses are routine,” Martin said. “Countless failed attempts at incremental reform have proven that the only viable solution is to close Rikers.”

The campaign, which Martin founded in 2016, has done everything from follow the mayor to Florida to ensure he hears their concerns surrounding the prison to create a commercial calling the mayor out on his inaction around Rikers.

Martin, who was imprisoned at Rikers twice and currently has a brother in the prison, said the mayor’s announcement was “especially meaningful” to him.

“Mayor de Blasio has finally heard the demands of the #CLOSErikers campaign, and we thank him for recognizing that the problem with Rikers is Rikers,” he continued.

Martin is also a member of the Lippman Commission which, in a 97 page report provided to the mayor, outlined ways to successfully go about closure of the prison.  

Aside from his intent to close the island and open other jails in its place, the mayor’s full plan has not yet been released. But is expected to include some of the suggestions from the commission’s report.

You can read more about the mayor’s announcement here

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Three Women Are Trying To Close The Orgasm Gap By Giving Away Free Sex Toys

Three software developers from Indianapolis are giving away free sex toys to support a truly feminist cause: closing the orgasm gap.

Jannet, Lexi and Shirin had been giving away sex toys, lube and condoms for years; offering free toys at health clinics, feminist gatherings, and even protests. But it wasn’t until January that they decided to launch their very own website called Sexy Liberation(Last names have been withheld for privacy reasons.)

“So far it’s been wildly successful,” Jannet told The Huffington Post. And it’s no surprise why. 

On the Sexy Liberation website, shoppers can purchase a lipstick bullet vibrator, a silicone butt plug and a vibrating cock ring all for free. Yep, for free.

“Our mission is to provide free sex toys to those who are less fortunate, curious, or both,” the Sexy Liberation tagline reads.

Sexy Liberation does charge for some items ― such as a pink rabbit vibrator, kegel balls and a flogger, among other toys. While these products cost money, most items are sold at a discounted price. Jannet told HuffPost that they use the profits from these paid products to subsidize the free ones. 

Jannet explained that sexual exploration is “absolutely” a feminist issue and that’s exactly why the trio is offering this service to everyone, but women specifically. 

“This orgasm gap is not local to one region on this fine planet,” she said. “Our goal is a globally-oriented response to the ingrained societal messages that create barriers to people’s sexual enjoyment ― especially women’s. Women across the globe receive cultural messages that encourage them to put others’ needs before their own. Women’s sexual enjoyment and wellbeing matter. That’s why we do what we do. “

According to the website’s FAQ page, Sexy Liberation is open to suggestions for which free products they offer on the site. If shoppers have a product suggestion they can submit requests by email. 

Sexy Liberation’s main goal is to help women understand their bodies and enable them to embrace their own sources of pleasure.

“A woman who knows herself sexually will feel more confident talking honestly with her partner about her needs and desires,” the website reads. “If you are woman in a relationship that is having trouble getting off, we are here for you.”

Head over to Sexy Liberation to pick up a free or discounted sex toy.  

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Aunt Viv Of 'Fresh Prince' Calls Co-Star A 'Media Hoe' After Reunion Photo

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This sitcom feud just got refreshed.

The day after a photo emerged of the cast of “The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air” reuniting at the beach, one left-out actress lashed out big-time.

Janet Hubert, who played Aunt Vivian for three seasons before tensions led to her departure, wrote a scathing message Tuesday on Facebook in which she called Carlton Banks actor Alfonso Ribeiro a “media hoe” and an “ass wipe” for star Will Smith. She also pledged to up her efforts to pitch a memoir about the “behind the scenes story” of the show. 

Here’s a screenshot of a portion of the post:

There is no love lost between Hubert and Smith and Co. She was replaced on “French Prince” by Daphne Maxwell Reid in 1993. Reid appeared in this week’s viral picture of the beaming cast. 

Always amazing to spend an afternoon with my Fresh Prince family. Wishing that James Avery was still with us to make this complete.

A post shared by Alfonso Ribeiro (@therealalfonsoribeiro) on Mar 27, 2017 at 5:27pm PDT

Smith told an Atlanta radio station in 1993 that Hubert “wanted the show to be ‘The Aunt Viv of Bel-Air Show’ because I know she is going to dog me in the press.”

The snipes have erupted from time to time over the years. In 2016, Hubert even slammed Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, for urging a boycott of the Oscars to protest the lack of nominations for people of color.

H/T Us Weekly

Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Mahershala Ali, Amy Poehler and a whole host of other stars are teaming up for Stand for Rights: A Benefit for the ACLUJoin us at 7 p.m. Eastern on Friday, March 31, on Facebook Live.

You can support the ACLU right away. Text POWER to 20222 to give $10 to theACLU. The ACLU will call you to explain other actions you can take to help. Visit www.hmgf.org/t for terms. #StandForRights2017

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Please Stop Asking Morgan Freeman To Record Your Voicemail Messages

No, Morgan Freeman doesn’t want to record your damn voicemail message.

On Wednesday’s “Late Night,” the Hollywood actor revealed “it gets exhausting” when fans approach him for a customized answerphone greeting.

“You know, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said, ‘Hello, this is so and so… is not willing to come to the phone right now,’” he told host Seth Meyers.

Nowadays, Freeman said he’ll only record a message if he’s lost “a big bet,” such as the one he forfeited to Zach Braff, who directed “Going in Style” ― in which he stars alongside Michael Caine.

Freeman later turned down Meyers’ offer to record a greeting for him, claiming he already had the “absolute perfect telephone answerer” — the guy who installed his phone system in the first place.

“So the one place you can’t hear an outgoing voicemail from Morgan Freeman is on Morgan Freeman’s phone,” Meyers quipped. Touché.

Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Mahershala Ali, Amy Poehler and a whole host of other stars are teaming up for Stand for Rights: A Benefit for the ACLU. Join us at 7 p.m. Eastern on Friday, March 31, on Facebook Live.

You can support the ACLU right away. Text POWER to 20222 to give $10 to the ACLU. The ACLU will call you to explain other actions you can take to help. Visit www.hmgf.org/t for terms. #StandForRights2017

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The Anti-Trump Movement In North Carolina Has The Potential To Flip The South

DURHAM, N.C. ― North Carolina has been in an almost constant state of protest for the last year.   

It started in March 2016, when former Gov. Pat McCrory (R) signed HB 2, a measure preventing local governments from passing anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people, into law. Thousands of protesters responded by storming the state Capitol. In late September, six consecutive nights of protest rocked Charlotte after a police officer fatally shot 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott. In October, the state chapter of the NAACP sued several counties over an alleged voter suppression attempt. Protesters again swarmed the capital, Raleigh, in December to stand against GOP-backed measures to limit the powers of the newly elected Gov. Roy Cooper (D). 

Now many activists are coalescing around another shared concern: President Donald Trump.

Progressives see North Carolina as a breeding ground of possibility, as recent liberal activism has begun to show what’s possible when organizers take aim at a common threat. This is especially true in the Triangle area of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, where more than 20 colleges and universities house plenty of aggravated liberals. Liberal Tar Heels want to use their energy to turn the state solidly blue by 2020, when a number of key political offices will be up for grabs.

Avid Trump supporter Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who has been very critical of the current wave of protests, will be up for re-election in 2020. So will Cooper. And Democrats are aiming to take control of the state legislature ― Republicans currently hold 74 state House seats, compared to Democrats’ 46, and 35 state Senate seats, compared to Democrats’ 15.

Although these activists will have to contend with the state’s racial gerrymandering ― the general assembly drew new district lines in 2014 and 2016 that put a high number of voters of color into certain districts in order to dilute their voting power ― North Carolina’s status as a purple state makes progressives optimistic.

Many people assume North Carolina is a Republican state, but the state Senate was under Democratic control from 1992 to 2011. Democrats also controlled the state House from 1992 to 1994, and again from 1999 to 2010. Only three Republican governors have led the state in the last 50 years, and North Carolina went blue for former President Barack Obama in 2008. But that was the first time since 1976 that the state had voted for a Democratic presidential nominee, and it went for Republicans Mitt Romney in 2012 and Trump in 2016. Last year’s election was very close, however: Trump beat Hillary Clinton by just 3.6 percent.

Activists say they hope flipping North Carolina can cause a ripple effect across the 14 states that constitute the South. Republicans below the Mason-Dixon Line currently control 24 Senate seats, 110 House seats and 180 Electoral College votes (167 of which went to Trump in November).

“If you fundamentally shift any of those states ― and they begin to vote in more progressive ways ― then you fundamentally change the American democracy and the landscape,” Rev. William Barber, the president of North Carolina’s NAACP, told reporters last year.

North Carolina has a strong, influential history of political protest. On Feb. 1, 1960, four black students at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University refused to move from a lunch counter in downtown Greensboro after being denied service. By Feb. 5, the Greensboro sit-ins had grown to include approximately 300 students.

Extensive television media coverage of the sit-ins helped the anti-segregation movement circulate through southern and northern college towns; students began peacefully protesting segregated libraries, beaches, hotels and other businesses. By the end of March, protests were underway in at least 55 cities in 13 states. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a youth organization that played an integral role in the civil rights movement, was founded a month later at Shaw University.  

Real policy change followed: Eateries throughout the South began integrating by the end of that summer.

That fight was similar to the current battle against Trump, said Marcus Bass, an organizing member of Charlotte-based activist group The Tribe.

“North Carolina’s civil rights history has been embedded in this political fight ― so much so that it makes sense for us to have a lot of this mobility around organizing,” he said.

In addition to fighting police violence, which has garnered a significant amount of media attention, black activities have been deeply involved in advocating for LGBTQ, immigrant and women’s rights in North Carolina. They are also key figures in the Moral Mondays protests, a movement launched in April 2013 to object against Republican legislative policies. Moral Monday protesters began meeting every Monday at the state Capitol to protest the actions McCrory and the Republican legislature had taken against voting and abortion rights, the environment and racial justice. Like the Greensboro sit-ins, the movement ignited activists in other states, including Georgia, South Carolina, New Mexico, Illinois and Massachusetts.  

“It’s provided a catalyst on a state level and on a local level for folks to begin to get engaged,” Bass said of Moral Mondays.  

An estimated 80,000 people participated in the 11th annual Forward Together Moral March on Feb. 11, which Barber led. This year’s march focused on the duty of participants to stand against the Trump administration and its policies ― such as repealing the Affordable Care Act ― as well as race-based gerrymandering and HB 2.

“We march not as a spontaneous action but as a movement that stands upon deep foundations of organizing that have gone on for years, setting the groundwork for times such as this,” Barber said to the crowd at the march. “Four years later we realize we have been preparing all along for such a time as this.”

Moral Mondays also laid the groundwork for other protests ― nearly 17,000 people participated in Raleigh’s Women’s March the day after Trump’s inauguration. And more than 1,500 protesters flooded the state’s airports after Trump issued the first version of his executive order banning immigrants from a group of predominantly Muslim countries on Jan. 27.

There was a strong protest movement in North Carolina before Trump, but his candidacy and election also worked to galvanize new activists. His election inspired Kelly Garvy, a 29-year-old graduate student at Duke University, to start the activist group Protecting Progress in Durham. Most of the group’s members weren’t involved in politics prior to the election.

“Many people feel a moral duty to get more involved,” Garvy said. “Trump has scared a lot of people.” 

Many people feel a moral duty to get more involved. Trump has scared a lot of people.
Kelly Garvy, Protecting Progress in Durham founder

 longChristopher Butler, 36, started out phone banking for the N.C. Democratic Party last fall and housing people who were working for Clinton’s campaign ― something he said he never would have done before Trump. Catherine Caprio, 50, became chair of Durham’s 25th Precinct after volunteering on Clinton’s campaign and registering voters in rural parts of the county. Cherry Foreman, a 42-year-old Democrat, said she started going door to door and helping people register to vote last fall.

These activists ― new and seasoned alike ― are laying groundwork they say can help elect more Democrats in 2018 and 2020.

Mandy Carter, a 69-year-old activist involved in several local and national organizations, is identifying rallying causes, such as education, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights and the environment. She’s also paying attention to demographic changes and watching individual precincts for opportunities to elect progressives.

“All politics is local,” she said. “On Nov. 9, when I woke up that morning, besides being traumatized, nothing changed for me. My city council and my county commissioners have more control of my day-to-day life than what happens in D.C.”

Alyssa Canty, a member of the Raleigh Police Accountability Task Force, is working to institutionalize voting at North Carolina’s historically black colleges and universities and increase turnout among millennial voters, while also supporting and raising money for black candidates.

Protecting Progress in Durham is focusing its efforts on rectifying voting laws that disproportionately hurt black voters, like vague voter registration forms and limited early voting opportunities, and getting the state’s gerrymandered district lines redrawn more fairly. The group is also working to boost grassroots organizing in rural areas in order to win back the nine counties that voted for Obama in 2008 but went to Trump in November.

“North Carolina goes blue, it changes the game in a lot of different ways,” Garvy said. “The work that we’re doing here can’t be understated.”

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When Bullets Fly, These Medics Grab Their Packs And Treat Patients On The Run

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This article is part of HuffPost’s Project Zero campaign, a yearlong series on neglected tropical diseases and efforts to fight them.

Everyone takes work home with them sometimes. But in civil war-torn South Sudan, some health workers take theirs on the run.

In areas where armed groups have stormed into hospitals and shot people dead in their beds, or gutted and burned clinics, staff for the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) at times has had to run with patients and hide in the bush to continue treatment.

Last year, a group of MSF health workers in the particularly hard-hit town of Leer, in Unity State, took things one step further. Instead of fleeing from and returning to their hospital again and again, they stuffed backpacks full of stethoscopes, disinfectant and medicine, and began setting up mobile clinics anywhere they could find a safe spot. 

Aided by community volunteers, these health teams treat people taking refuge in hard-to-reach places ― like the islands of the Sudd, Africa’s largest marshland ― and can escape with their equipment if attackers catch up.

Bodies have littered the streets of Leer, a once-bustling market center, several times since fighting broke out in 2013. There were four attacks on MSF’s hospital in the town before the group stopped rebuilding and restocking it. The facility was leaving the group’s workers, patients and supplies open to violence and robbery.

In July 2016, just under 200 local health workers fled the hospital for the final time. Sixty-seven of them decided they couldn’t abandon their patients in the wilderness. Most of those patients had already lost their cattle and crops and had been displaced from their homes many times. The MSF workers in Leer were local community members themselves, many with no formal education, who had been trained to treat common illnesses.

This mobile clinic experiment, while extremely challenging and limited in scope, is one of the few ways to provide life-saving health services to people in dangerous, remote areas of a war-ravaged country plagued by famine and disease.

Reaching people stripped of everything and scattered across the countryside can involve paddling a canoe for over 18 hours, explained Nicolas Peissel, an MSF project coordinator in South Sudan. People are “living in the bush, hiding in the swamps,” where they are “forced to drink swamp water and to forage for food,” he said.

Civil war has added to the already immense logistical challenges of health care in the world’s youngest country, which was forged in 2011 after five decades of war with Sudan, its neighbor to the north. Substandard health systems and almost nonexistent infrastructure meant treatment delivery to those in need was already tough; the war made circumstances much more deadly. 

In addition, more than 3 million people across South Sudan have fled their homes because of the fighting.

“With very few functioning health care facilities across the country, it is impossible to provide any reliable statistical data about the health situation,” explained Bart de Poorter, health coordinator in South Sudan for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

ICRC, which also provides emergency frontline medical care in some of South Sudan’s hardest-hit areas, sees people having to walk for many hours or days to reach the nearest health facilities, many of which closed their doors because of the ongoing violence.

“In this situation, curable and preventable diseases can become fatal,” de Poorter said.

Tens of thousands of people from around the Leer area were forced to hide in swamps and survive on water lily roots, wild fruits and filthy water. Life-threatening outbreaks of diarrhea and cholera were rife. Others battled the many neglected tropical diseases prevalent in South Sudan ― like kala azar, the second largest parasitic killer in the world after malaria.

Far from remaining health services, often reachable only by crossing frequently shifting battle lines, these displaced people are now at the epicenter of a famine.

“After three years of fighting, people are just worn down ― they have no resources to help them cope,” said Peissel.

By using backpacking medics, MSF could truly follow their patients’ treatment, despite the challenges of keeping their bags full. The health workers would have to paddle or walk, sometimes through the night, to collect fresh packs flown hundreds of miles in small, light aircraft from South Sudan’s capital, Juba, to a number of remote locations in Leer and neighboring Mayendit county.

In these places, an MSF “clinic” today looks like an informal outdoor gathering attended by between four and eight medics sitting under a tree with their packs.

“It’s very low profile because at any time there can be an attack. Anything that will call attention to yourself will likely make you a target,” said Peissel.

Humanitarians across South Sudan face threats to their lives as they carry out their work. On March 25, six aid workers from a Unicef partner were killed in an ambush as they traveled to a town in the eastern part of the country. At least 79 aid workers have been killed in South Sudan since 2013, according to the United Nations. 

“Our health workers are living with these populations and are just as at risk as the civilians,” said Peissel of MSF’s mobile teams.

To ensure these makeshift clinics are working well, international MSF staff from Juba visit every month to do training and assessment. They have found that the dozen mobile clinics embedded within displaced communities receive double the patients that the Leer hospital once did.

In February, an attack by armed men on the swamp island of Loth in Leer County put MSF’s mobile tactics to the test, as patients and staff fled further into the swamp, along with medics and their moveable clinics.

“Small amounts of medication were destroyed,” Peissel said. “Within 24 hours we had resupplied our team and they were running a new clinic.”

Even when the bullets aren’t flying, lack of access is one of the biggest barriers to providing emergency health care. And South Sudan isn’t alone in facing these challenges. In the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, teams of doctors and nurses have to trek for days through steep, water-logged land to give people life-saving vaccinations. In northern Kenya, mobile clinics come on four legs ― in the form of camels ― to reach semi-nomadic communities living on arid plains.

Having to seek safety from violence with tens of thousands of people in squalid camps dramatically increases the risk of disease. The World Health Organization considers South Sudan’s overcrowded camps ― home to 1.9 million people ― to be more dangerous breeding grounds than the cities or swamplands for highly infectious diseases like cholera.

“Conflict takes a major toll on health,” said Peissel.

South Sudan is also one of the few countries that is home to almost all 18 illnesses designated by the World Health Organization as neglected tropical diseases.

In 2015, South Sudan’s government launched an ambitious plan to eliminate these diseases by 2020. But before the civil war broke out, disease experts such as Peter Hotez had warned that conflict would spell a public health tragedy.

“The renewed hostilities in South Sudan could portend a public health crisis from neglected tropical diseases,” he wrote.

Mobile medical teams may be one of South Sudan’s best chances of battling these illnesses, as well as expected spikes in malaria, diarrheal disease and respiratory infections, in the country’s most deprived areas.

This series is supported, in part, by funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. All content is editorially independent, with no influence or input from the foundation.

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

Trevor Noah: 'Trump May Destroy The World, But God Damn He's Cute'

Trevor Noah has been one of Donald Trump’s harshest critics, but it seems he can’t help but have a soft spot for the president.

On Wednesday’s episode of “The Daily Show,” Noah spoke about Trump’s promise to save the U.S. coal industry as well as his campaign-style rallies in swing states where it is big.

While airing footage of a rally in West Virginia, where Trump wore a hard hat and sort of swung his body to the right in a macho golf swing sort of way, Noah couldn’t help but join in.

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At that point, Noah said, ‘Trump may destroy the world, but, god damn, he’s cute.

He then pointed to Trump’s recent photo op in a Mack truck.

Moments like these reminded Noah that Trump really enjoys being president, he just doesn’t like the work.

“You realize, that’s all Trump ever wanted was to play president,” Noah said. “We should have just given him a Fisher-Price set.”

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Source: HuffPost Black Voices

Angela Rye Slams Former Rep. Joe Walsh: 'That's What Makes You A Bigot!'

CNN commentator Angela Rye had no patience for former Congressman Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) when he said the bar was lowered for President Barack Obama because of his race. 

“I’m not talking to bigots,” Rye said during a CNN segment Wednesday

Rye and Walsh were invited on air to discuss what started as a Twitter fight. In response to Rye saying that Obama “had to be the next best thing to Jesus” during his presidency, Walsh argued that the president was held to a lower standard during his two terms because he is black.

Rye criticized CNN for bringing Walsh on the air.

“I am not interested in trying to convince and change the mind of a bigot, someone who will openly troll me and say things that are offensive that he knows are not true,” Rye told host Brooke Baldwin.

When Walsh repeatedly defended his comment, Rye succinctly responded, “That’s what makes you a bigot!”

She added, “I’m not interested in having a dialogue with someone like Joe, who has demonstrated a propensity towards bigotry, and he did that on Twitter yesterday, in 140 characters or less.”

Watch the fiery exchange in the video above.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Source: HuffPost Black Voices