The Nahmias Cipher Report archived articles from 2009 - 2020.
Reinfried Marass is an Austrian, professional photographer, born 1960 in Vienna. He started photography at age of 18 after his graduation as mechanical engineer. His work is internationally acknowledged and awarded at some of the world’s most prestigious photographic contests. Reinfried's photographs have been published in numerous international magazines and books - primarily covers, full pages, double-spreads or centerfolds.
Read MoreFifteen of the Chilean miners trapped in the San Jose mine have now been rescued, 18 still to make it to the surface. The 33 miners have been trapped since 5 August 2010. When the miners were determined to be alive in late August, it was said that it could take up to four months to get them all out alive. The ninth man to arrive on the surface in the specially-made capsule was Mr. Mario Gomez. At 63 years old, he is the oldest of the group and has been a miner for over 50 years. He kneeled and offered thanks to God for his survival.
Read MoreI long ago abandoned the notion of a life without storms, or a world without dry and killing seasons. Life is too complicated, too constantly changing, to be anything but what it is. And I am, by nature, too mercurial to be anything but deeply wary of the grave unnaturalness involved in any attempt to exert too much control over essentially uncontrollable forces. There will always be propelling, disturbing elements, and they will be there until, as Lowell put it, the watch is taken from the wrist. It is, at the end of the day, the individual moments of restlessness, of bleakness, of strong persuasions and maddened enthusiasms, that inform one's life, change the nature and direction of one's work, and give final meaning and color to one's loves and friendships. ~ Kay Redfield Jamison
Read MoreRabble.ca provides interesting insight into the phenomena of online dating in the West African country of Cameroon. They state that "the Africa culture generally frowns against women exposing their naked bodies in public. But as technological development is shrinking the world into a global village, local cultures are finding it harder to control the way people express themselves or interact with others the world over. The internet for example has made it possible for hither to timid girls to come out of their closets and have their physical and emotional needs met in a manner that was unthinkable barely few decades ago. This episode of the African Pulse is dedicated to discussing African women's involvement in the global online dating phenomenon." Listen and decide.
Read MoreAnd therefore as a stranger give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." ~ Hamlet Act 1, scene 5, 159–167 Popular American culture is replete with UFO sightings and conspiracy theories. Now it would appear that the phenomenon has spread to China. Just a week after an unidentified flying object (UFO) shut down the Xiashan Airport in Hangzhou, China, another one was spotted Thursday in the city of Chongqing.
As a fan of astrophysics, astronomy and the universe, I often ponder the possibility of extraterrestrial life, if not in a humanoid form, then at least primitive oceanic life forms. I eagerly await the new mission to Jupiter's icy moons, the Europa Jupiter System Mission (EJSM), is proposed for a launch in 2020. Who knows what more we will learn?
"To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational," Hawking says in a new Discovery Channel series called Stephen Hawking's Universe. "The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like."
Read MoreYesterday we posted a piece which lauded a potential life saving break-through in the development of a HIV vaccination which could save millions of lives. Today, this news is tempered by a recent announcement by PlusNews a Global HIV/AIDS news and analysis publication which reports that HIV infection rates are on the increase among the intravenous drug user (IDU) populations of many African countries. Health officials in Tanzania are worried about rising HIV-prevalence levels among IDUs, who often use a dangerous cash-saving technique known as "flash blood", in which a user injects heroin or another illegal drug, and then draws a syringe full of blood for a second user to inject.
Read MoreAn extraordinary breakthrough in the fights against AIDS was announced last week. U.S. scientists have reported that they have isolated three powerful antibodies for HIV — one of which neutralizes 91% of HIV strains. This could be the basis for an eventual vaccine for AIDS. The antibodies were discovered in the cells of a 60-year-old African-American gay man, known only as “Donor 45.”
Read MoreFinally, there may be a modicum of justice for rape victims. No longer will a woman have to prove that she did not ask to be raped because of her manner of dress, circumstances or any other arbitrary means of casting aspersions on the victim. South African Dr. Sonnet Ehlers has finally released to the market forty years later Rape-aXe, a latex condom that a woman inserts like a tampon. Jagged rows of teeth-like hooks line its inside and attach on a man's penis during penetration, Ehlers said.
Once it lodges, only a doctor can remove it -- a procedure Ehlers hopes will be done with authorities on standby to make an arrest.
"It hurts, he cannot pee and walk when it's on," she said. "If he tries to remove it, it will clasp even tighter... however, it doesn't break the skin, and there's no danger of fluid exposure."
Read MoreWomen of all ethnic backgrounds, experiences, physiognomy and sexual preference are a wonder to behold. This video pulls you into the eternal flow of the mysteries that lie beneath the mysterious facades with sagacious eyes. Best said by Isak Dinesen, "the entire being of a woman is a secret that should be kept." We shall never know the secrets these women held, but we can ponder or project, as women, as children, as husbands and lovers our temporal secrets onto these women of amaranthine loveliness.
Read MoreAbandonment is the worst sort of betrayal to recover from because as with the death of a suicide or murderer, the perpetrators are permanently absent from the healing process. Thus, the victims are forced into the unenviable position of trying to answer the unanswerable and suffer through the litany of unvoiced recriminations that can take root and blossom into bitterness. Like many people, I have suffered great and small tragedies throughout my life, but have come to place in my journey as a writer where I can share my experiences openly without shame. When my husband abandoned me when I was eight months pregnant with our son, it took several years of mourning, spiritual awakening and cognitive therapy, but I finally realized that the power to change my existence lay firmly in my grasp.
As an equestrian, who practices the discipline of dressage, and as an avid horse lover; the imagery evoked by the phrase 'back in the saddle' is rich and picturesque. Literally, it can imply one who has been thrown by a horse, and who must immediately get back up on the horse or risk becoming paralyzed by fear and thus unable to ride again; or one who has encountered some great personal tragedy in life, but must find away to move beyond this event and re-engage with life.
Read MoreFamed Lena Horne died yesterday at age 92. An iconic figure in Hollywood and on stage, Lena Horne was a pioneer who forced the film industry to evaluate casting African-American women in roles other than stereotypically safe and culturally preferred maids and 'mammies'. Blazing the trail in presegregration America, Ms. Horne used her intellect, talent and ambition to forge a career that spanned six-decades. Ms. Horne was an extremely talented and accomplished vocalist, and one of the first African-American actresses to sign a significant contract with a major studio. She continued to break barriers through her marriage to a Jewish conductor and bandleader Lennie Hayton in 1947. This was a bold move at a time when miscegenation laws were on the books in 30 states. "In the United States, the various state laws prohibited the marriage of whites and blacks, and in many states also the intermarriage of whites with Native Americans or Asians. In the U.S., such laws were known as anti-miscegenation laws. From 1913 until 1948, 30 out of the then 48 states enforced such laws. Miscegenation was finally ruled unconstitutional 12 June 1967 through the case Loving vs. the State of Virginia effectively ending legal enforcement of this practice nationwide.
Read More“I’m going to smile and make you think I’m happy, I’m going to laugh, so you don’t see me cry, and even if it kills me - I’m going to smile." ~ Anonymous Child pageants are as revolting and damaging to female children as the other heinous practices which have been highlighted in this blog. From Leblouh to Female Circumcision, the pain inflicted upon daughters by mothers who willingly participate in their physical and psychological abuse will haunt them for the remainder of their lives. These mothers are not bad people, they just want the best for their daughters when they try to physically mold and conform them to dangerous and idealized standards of beauty.
Ultimately, the problem with child beauty pageants is the sexualization of girls as young as 2 and 3 years old. There is no justification for this aspect of the industry. A child's confidence lies not in how closely she can approximate a grown woman through the artifice of make-up, but in how we as parents help her to develop her innate gifts and abilities so that her external beauty compliments her personality and talent instead of dominating her existence.
Read MoreAyanna Nahmias, Editor-in-ChiefLast Modified: 16:35 p.m. EDT, 19 April 2010
AFRICA - The practice of female genital mutilation entails the partial or total cutting away of external female genitalia. Traditional healers, birth attendants, or elderly woman usually carry out the procedure, usually in septic environments.
The clitoris is excised with crude instruments such as knives, razor blades and broken glass without anesthesia. During post surgical healing the girls are at greatest risk of infection, and the agony they suffer is exacerbated by the lack of access to pain medication. In lieu of this herbal solutions or poultices are applied to check the bleeding and lessen the pain.
This crude and hazardous procedure is grounded in and surrounded by various myths, misconceptions, and superstition nonsense. For instance, the ritual is performed as a rite of passage to prepare young girls for womanhood and marriage. The belief that it prevents a woman from giving birth to a stillborn child is also quite prevalent. In some parts of western Nigeria it is regarded as a taboo for the head of a child to touch the mother's clitoris during delivery. Some of the proverbs that support and underscore these mythical postulations include:
Even though these beliefs predate the coming and spread of Islam, traditional African practices have subsequently become closely related and allied with radical Islamic teachings, traditions, and customs. Africa is a deeply patriarchal society. Men dominate the socioeconomic and political machinery and organizations. Men are regarded as natural leaders who are superior and born to rule over women.
Women are considered weaker vessels who are merely extensions of men and secondary human beings. The pride and dignity that women feel in these societies is derived from and dependent upon men. Hence, African societies attach more value and importance to a male child than to a female child. Ten daughters are not worth a son. No woman is regarded as complete or real until she gives birth to a male. Delivering a son gives a woman pride and a place at her husband's home.
It is said that every married woman stands with one leg in her husband's house until she gives birth to a male child. Like the many traditional societies in China, India and the Middle East, the traditional African value system is fundamentally biased against women and is gender insensitive. Thus, in many parts of Africa, girls as young as seven are married to men old enough to be their fathers, and in some cases their grandfathers. Parents often marry their daughters off before they are old enough to decide for themselves. When the issue of dowry comes into play, the girls are literally treated as chattel that can bought and sold, thereby becoming the property of the purchaser who can then use her as he deems fit. This usually culminates in rape, physical abuse, abandonment, or murder.
Women are further diminished through the practice of Polygamy which is another traditional custom that prevails in Africa. Men are licensed to marry as many women as "they can afford" to support. Therefore, theoretically the number of wives a man has can infer his level of wealth or business acumen. However, as with any "status" symbol, many women are acquired as wives by men who are ill-equipped to care for them or the offspring that are borne to him. As part of this tradition, upon the death of a woman's husband, the eldest man in the family inherits the woman and she is evicted from her husband's house while her children and property are confiscated. Source: Excerpted from text written by Leo Igwe. Mr. Igwe is director of the Centre for Inquiry in Nigeria. He can be reached at nskepticleo@yahoo.com.
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Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-Chief
Last Modified: 02:18 a.m. EDT, 11 April 2010
MAURITANIA, West Africa - Thousands of young girls in the West African country Mauritania, continue to be subjected to the cruel practice of gavage or force-feeding to make them more desirable for marriage.
Every year girls as young as five are routinely forced to undergo the traditional practice of Leblouh so they will be fat enough to secure a larger dowry for their families.
This inhuman practice of force feeding girls, often until they vomit, is as reprehensible as another predominant cultural practice of genital mutilation. Both practices seek to enrich the family through dowries because the girls have been physiologically altered to inflate their marketability to perspective husbands.
Even more traumatic and heart-breaking, is the fact that the perpetrator of these indignities are not strangers, but the mothers and other female members of the girls' immediate and extended family. It is a vicious cycle that becomes a twisted rite of passage wherein the victim becomes the victimizer.
Although the Mauritanian government denies that the practice continues while clerics assert that it is contrary to Islamic law; it is a country with over 50% unemployment and vast rural areas populated by nomadic people who live in abject poverty.
It is within this context that obesity among children and the plague of poor body image among women has recently captured international attention. Historically, woman have struggled against fickle standards of beauty established by male perceptions and desires, and promulgated through various mediums and industries.
Currently, in the West an inverse standard of beauty exists as 'waifs' adorn our advertisements and daily assault us through film and video. Thinness has become synonymous with status and wealth, and is yet another way for people in America to discriminate.
In Mauritania and other parts of the world where fast food is not readily available, it is very difficult to gain weight. However, in America poorer women and their children are most susceptible to the accessibility, ease of obtainment, and low-cost of fast food and other non-nutritious food products.
Based upon my experience, the cost of eating healthy, buying organic, and supporting local producers and farmers comprises an astounding 30% of my monthly income. For most people in this country, especially in these challenging economic times, this type of expenditure is impossible.
Thus, when the effects of unhealthy diet manifests in obesity and the attendant physical and health challenges, becomes yet another identifier in class distinction. More about this subject of food in America can be explored by watching the movie "Fast Food Nation," by Eric Schlosser.
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Published: 11 April 2010
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This was not always the case as attested to by the paintings of Rubens and other 17th Century master painters. Ruben often painted 'Zaftig' women, thus the term Rubenesque was coined to describe women with voluptuous curves that connoted fertility and fecundity.
In the traditional, nomadic Mauritanian society, full figured women imply the ability to bear many healthy children. Her ability to procreate makes her body exceedingly valuable since children are the wealth of many non-technology based economies.
There are no clear-cut reasons why the preference in the West for Zaftig women has declined so precipitously, which has led to the emergence of anorexia as the predominant standard of beauty.
In both instances, women are not in control of their bodies and are therefore subjected to increased psychological damage from poor body image, physiological trauma from eating disorders, and low self-esteem from unsuccessfully trying to conform to the vagaries of external determinations of standards of beauty and worth.
As a woman living in a advertising rich culture, I also struggle with body image, however; the pressures that I experience are primarily self-induced versus the cruel reality these young women experience. Forced to drink milk laced with butter, millet, and couscous, and to drink lots of water they are veritably fatted like ducks being cultivated for Foie Gras.
These girls endure the indignity of being fed from morning to evening, at least three times a day, to make them gain between 130 lbs (59 kg) to 220 lbs (99.7 kg) rapidly which results in lots of layers of fat. Even when they vomit, they are forced to continue to eat and drink so that they can replace any amount that has been expelled from their bodies.
The video sadly depicts the mothers of these girls seemingly inured to harm they are causing their daughters as they beat them and crush their toes between two sticks to inflict pain to distract them to the horror of the process.
One mother expressed privately that "it's not cruel to make girls fat!" she said. "I have to make my daughter fat and attractive so that she will get a good husband. Even though she is only seven, I have to start now so that she can be ready to marry soon. People think that skinny girls have AIDS so I have to show that she is healthy and can gain weight.
The combination of Leblouh plus the arranged marriages of these child brides has prompted international human rights groups to intervene in and pressure the Mauritanian government to impose strict sanctions against this practice.
However religious and cultural traditions are difficult to uproot particularly in matters of sex and sexuality. A woman who helps parents fatten their daughters said, "I've seen 10-year old girls give birth. I tell you, 10 years old! Once they are fat and beautiful they can be married and sexually serve their men well."
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Globally 33 million people have HIV, researchers suspect that 1 in 300 people are probably "elite controllers." One of the earliest known cases in the United States of an "elite controller" is a man named Rod Fichter who was first diagnosed in 1986 but has been living symptom free for over 20 years. Both he and a friend tested positive, however his friend succumbed to complications from the disease shortly thereafter. Much to Rod's surprise not only did he survive, he never developed any symptoms and remained healthy without ever taking medication.
Read MoreIt is a little disappointing to learn the truth of King Tutankhamun's death, because like so many others, I reveled in speculations of palace intrigue, royal malfeasance, murder and usurpation. Today the world learned that King Tut was merely a boy, one who had access to and buried with the riches of ages, but a frail boy nonetheless who died from a very treatable infection. Watch the video here.
Read MoreAyanna Nahmias, Editor-in-ChiefLast Modified: 23:57 PM EDT, 20 January 2010
When I first saw the video by Mary J. Blige titled, “Take Me As I Am,” I was recovering from a life long addiction to personal and work relationships in which I allowed myself and my talents to be undervalued and unappreciated. It is said that with age comes wisdom, and in my case this is true, though I know a lot of old fools. Now, as a mature woman, I recognize my power and worth and because of this I have regained my self-respect.
Though the "The Breakthrough" album was released nearly five years ago, the track "Take Me As I Am" is a song that captures the anguish of abuse that is a consequence of disrespect. This post was inspired by this song which I play often because it speaks to me, and by the quote “if you want to be respected by others the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.” ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Every woman or man alive has at one time been in a place where they have compromised their internal truth for some external gain. Sometimes this occurs during great hardship and tragedy where one’s very survival depends upon setting aside morality and self-respect to preserve one’s life or the lives of loved ones.
However, in mundane circumstances the potential to compromise self-respect most often occurs within the context of intimate relationships. Human interactions serve as a mirror that affords each of us the opportunity to either honestly regard ourselves and our actions, or to peer into its dark depths like Narcissus, and fall in love with false personae that we are all capable of projecting.
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Each of us is susceptible to Narcissus' fate, for though we do not literally drown in an attempt to unite with our reflections, each of us can conjure at will an unrealistic image of our perfect mate. When we engage in a relationship with a person that most closely approximates this vision we will often do anything to keep them.
It is true that an equal number of people have disrespected themselves for inanimate objects such as drugs, money, or material possessions, but it is easy to disguise our lack of self-respect in pursuit of these items because our debasement often occurs in privacy of our minds. It is more difficult to disguise a lack of self-respect within the context of interpersonal relationships.
Intimate relationships most often provide the fertile soil in which self-abasement can take root. In the beginning, the inequity between partners is easily sublimated by the heady euphoria of lust and unfamiliarity. Then, as the adage goes, “familiarity breeds contempt” and because of this, many men and women have suffered the indignities attributed to loving someone who does not reciprocate the feeling.
A healthy sense of self-worth can strengthen a person's resolve to wait for the right situation, the right partner, at the right time. One of the greatest values of self-respect is empowerment. When we rely on external validation, whether through the fawning public and media, as in the case of famous people, or through significant relationships, as in the case of every human being, life becomes a series of rapturous highs and devastating lows. Essentially, we transfer control of our self-worth into the hands of an unworthy judge. Reclaiming one's power and control is the message conveyed by this song which is an anthem for anyone struggling to rediscover their worth.
Self-respect is a tool by which human beings can realize their highest potential and greatest good. It is only after one has learn to value oneself that you can value another person, even one who has rejected you. Self-respect frees an individual to honestly assess personal interactions to determine if someone is a good fit for an intimate relationship or even friendship. Concomitantly this realization should not imply that the individual is defective, because self-respect requires us to recognize the rights and feelings of people who may not fit within our world view. Thus, we become free to be ourselves and to allow others to do likewise if we honestly and openly proclaim to the world "this is who I am."
Happy New Year!! Wishing you increased prosperity, health, peace and happiness for 2010.
Read MoreSalvador Dalí's paintings and art are some of the most recognizable of the Surrealist movement. In large part, he achieved this through a rare combination of creative genius and marketing savvy. Anyone who has read the biography of great artists, or watched movies about their lives, will undoubtedly note that these artists rarely achieved fame or monetary success during their lifetimes.
Read MoreWhen a person has no roots, they cannot weather the storms of life. When a person doesn't know who they are, they will try to be anyone. When a person stands for nothing, they will fall for anything. Platitudes spoken throughout the ages, yet ever true even with repetition.
Read MoreThe Report seeks to challenge readers to move beyond the accepted standard fare purveyed by most media, often demonizing and convicting an entire society and citizenry. Rather, The Report asks readers to recognize themselves in the “other” and assign blame to the miscreants who truly are the culprits of many of the atrocities that negatively impact us all.
