from Rohen/Yokuchi Color Atlas of Anatomy

experienced chiropractor in San Francisco. She offers us a review of anatomy and the chiropractic perspective on TMJ disorders. Professor Charles McNeill informs us from the dentist’s point of view. We discover that the first stages of sleep are crucial to preventing sleep bruxism and that daytime bruxism may be more important than sleep bruxism.  Surprisingly the newer antidepressants, the SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), can increase jaw muscle tension. Of course dental occlusive splints, or night guards are helpful in preventing tooth damage, but they don’t prevent actual jaw clenching.  Most surgical interventions for TMJ have a very high failure rate but new advances in stem cell research show some promise for re-building damaged temporomandibular joints. Exciting stuff.  A good friend and former roommate, Sarah Covert tells us about how she is managing her orofacial pain and another friend Pooja Gupta relates her experiences with jaw pain.  If you have TMJ pain feel free to share your experience, including what has and hasn’t worked well for you. Feel free to comment here or on our facebook page.  I’d be delighted to hear your story. Also, if you are looking for more resources you can go visit The TMJ Association, Ltd. 

too much jaw

not enough laud

too much effort

not enough reward

too much money

not enough honey

too much chow

not enough food

too much communication

not enough relation

too much work

not enough employment

too much fun

not enough enjoyment

too much cry

not enough weep

too much bed

not enough sleep

too much touch

not enough love

yep, too much jaw

not enough drawl

-jaysi 2013

Paul Craig Roberts recently commented upon and shared an article written by an anonymous author in Counterpunch. Roberts is a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. The article, OBAMACARE: THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS, thoroughly outlines many of the shocking particulars of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. After reading this article I say the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a misnomer. It neither protects patients, nor does it ensure that illness care is affordable. In fact I refuse to refer to it under its formal name. It’s a marketing whitewash.

The act does absolutely nothing to control the costs of illness care. Everything, including office visits, hospitalizations, diagnostic tests, pharmaceuticals, surgical procedures, rehabilitation services, mental health care will all still be overpriced. Furthermore, there is nothing in the act that prohibits insurance companies from raising their rates or from charging differential rates based on age. Because the insurance policies being offered are tiered according to income, the (Un)Affordable Care Act effectively rations access to medical care.

A single payer government run insurance scheme that covered everyone regardless of income or age is the only fair, just, and equitable solution to the medical care crisis in America. Medicare for everyone is the only way that all people would be treated as equal human beings in our health care system.

The levels of insurance coverage being offered under the (Un)Affordable Care Act even have names that smack of classism: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. The article mentioned above outlines the current estimates for the costs of each of these tiers:

“Bronze: cheapest and dry as dust with 60/40 coverage – a win-win for insurers
a) annual deductible of $4,375 for an individual (double for a family) with 20 percent coinsurance, b) annual deductible of $3,475 for an individual (double for a family) with 40 percent coinsurance

Silver: next cheapest – offers an illusion of coverage at 70/30
a) annual deductible of $2,050 for an individual (double for a family) with 20 percent coinsurance, b) annual deductible of $650 for an individual (double for a family) with 40 percent coinsurance

Gold: expensive – 80/20 – better coverage

Platinum: most expensive – 90/10 – most comprehensive coverage”

Are these schemers serious? They expect us to believe that people who are earning between 140%-400% of the Federal Poverty Limit are going to be able to afford such large deductibles and 20-40% of the bill after the deductible is fulfilled! This is NOT Affordable Care.

The anonymous author of the detailed article also offers a couple examples that elucidate the un-affordability of just paying the premiums for the insurance plans. Using the 2012 Federal Poverty Limit Guidelines and estimates for the costs of the Silver plan, since actual costs are not yet available and are likely to be higher than the current estimates by 2014 when the Act comes into full effect, the calculations are as follows:

“a) You are 35 years old and the price of the second lowest-cost Silver plan for an individual in the area where you live is $4,750 with no tax credit. If your MAGI (Modified Adjusted Gross Income) is $33,510 ($2,792.50 per month) putting you at 300 percent of the FPL (Federal Poverty Level), your share for that Silver plan…would be 9.5 percent of your MAGI which comes to $3,183 ($265.25 per month). Your tax credit would be $1,567 which is the difference between the unsubsidized cost of that Silver plan and your share.

b) You are 35 years old and your MAGI is $27,925 ($2,327 per month) putting you at 250 percent FPL, so, your share of that Silver plan would be 8.05 percent of your MAGI which comes to $2,247.96 ($187.33 per month) and your tax credit would be $2,502.

If the second lowest-cost Silver plan is too expensive, you can apply your tax credit to a Bronze plan which will be cheaper but less comprehensive. If you want a better plan than the Silver, you will have to pay the full difference in the premium.”

In the audiocast on this post I talk with Dr. Andrew Brandeis about how the (Un)Affordable Care Act also impacts physicians and quality of care. Clinicians are bound to get overloaded and overworked by the additional numbers of people seeking care. Quality of care is sure to worsen. Dr. Brandeis who doesn’t buy the concept of illness care insurance for routine medical care doesn’t purchase medical insurance for himself either. He’s waiting to discover what the tax penalty is for not complying with the requirement to buy personal medical insurance.  If it is significant he’ll belly up, bite the bullet, and “make lemonade” by investing in a Health Savings Account which offers more flexibility in the types of health care services in which one chooses to invest. If the tax penalty isn’t huge, he’ll skip the insurance.

These insurance options being offered by the Health Insurance Exchange are not attractive, nor affordable.  If your income changes at any point so will your share of the premium. God forbid you actually have any extra take home pay if your income increases. The Health Insurance Exchange is currently setting up systems to track you, your insurance status, and your income, to make sure you are enrolled and paying your premiums according to your income level. Big Brother is here to make sure you have medical insurance you can’t afford. Once you dive into the details the (Un)Affordable Care Act seems diabolical.

The violent death of Jyoti Singh Pandey after a horrific gang rape in Delhi ignited our hearts and the world is now On Fire!  The winds have shifted and this blaze will burn forth until misogyny exhales its final breath. The manner in which men and women are coming together to change the mindset is unprecedented: six hundred men and women singing John Lennon songs in the hills of Darjeeling to stop the violence; the New Year’s Eve concert of hot shot rap artist Honey Singh cancelled on the day of the show due to public outrage over his misogynistic lyrics; Anoushka Shankar going public with her story of childhood sexual abuse; Robert Redford joining Eve Ensler; and now the whole world dancing on fire on Valentine’s Day, like Shiva’s Tandava Nritya! It is no longer a women’s issue. It is a global heart opening. It is no longer about marches, protests, slogans, and banners held only by angry women. We are on the brink of a massive cultural sea change originating within our hearts. People everywhere are coming forward with their stories, and their solutions. We each have our stories. And our answers. The oppression and violence is not far removed from any of us. It is not simply the heart wrenching stories of the one billion females on the planet who have been or will be raped or assaulted. (We’re not including the oppressed and diminished.) It is also the stories of the rapists and the beaters and their own tortuous misguided souls. That makes at least two billion. And let’s not forget their families and friends who do not escape unscathed either. Even if we only count the parents of the victims and the perpetrators we’re now up to four billion. If we pull in a sibling and a friend of each, we’re now tallying about eight billion. That’s more than the planet’s human population. At a minimum. That’s why everyone’s standing up and saying, “Enough is enough.” Indeed. It is for all of us that we rise up and dance to stop the madness, to heal, to live in peace together. As a physician, a dancer, a musician, a poet, a yogini, a meditator, and a woman I am beyond thrilled we are moving our bodies to dance in the peace we deserve. We send our heart’s wishes pulsing through our feet to the center of our Mother Earth. Nourish us! We sing our soul’s desires forth through our upraised arms to the vastness of our Father Sky. Protect us! Eight billion hearts rising to celebrate love, real love as peace. It truly is a Happy Valentine’s Day!

Vaccinations expose us to a less potent form of a disease causing infectious agents or a portion of the microscopic organism. The injection is like an introduction to the infection so that if we encounter the more potent form or the full microbe we can mount an immune response more quickly and thus defend our body from the disease. As a side note, however, most vaccines have never been tested under randomized double blind controlled trials to see if they actually prevent morbidity and mortality (disability or death) from the disease they are intended to prevent. Most vaccines today are approved based on the assumption that if the body is able to increase antibody production to a portion of the virus or bacteria then probably it will prevent disability or death. This is a rational biologically plausible assumption. And experience has shown us that the polio vaccine, the small pox vaccine, the measles vaccine have indeed been effective in decreasing the population burden of these terrible illnesses. Yet, in the age of evidence based medicine it must be stated there is no strong evidence that many of our routine vaccinations prevent illness, disability, or death even if they do increase antibody production. Since we don’t know if they are effective we also cannot say whether they are cost effective. Many of the diseases that vaccination intends to avert in individuals could be prevented in larger groups of people through clean water and sanitation, changes in work and school policies, safe sex and drug use practices, screening of blood supplies, and other public health, political, economic, and cultural changes. We’d likely get more bang for our buck through these actions versus the immense effort required to vaccinate every individual on the planet. Stay tuned for a Nei Jing Now episode or short clip on the subject of vaccinations.

Dietary supplements are an intervention very often used as a means of intermediary prevention. As we know lots of money is spent on dietary supplements in the hopes of preventing disease and death, to the tune of 25 billion dollars a year in the USA alone. Most of these supplements have also not been proven effective in randomized double blind controlled trials and many come replete with their own cadre of side effects, some of which can be serious and severe. In Europe dietary supplements must be shown to be safe, though not necessarily effective, prior to marketing with health and nutrition claims. In the USA, dietary supplements are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration as food products, not as medicines. Again, they must be shown to be safe, but not necessarily effective. In fact, claims about preventing, treating, or mitigating disease are not allowed on supplements in the USA. In Asia, anything goes. The deteriorating quality of our food due to the industrialization of agricultural practice, the depreciation of our soil quality, the pollution of our water sources may indeed be factors to consider in our need to supplement our diets. Yet, we currently do not have sufficient scientific knowledge to replicate nature’s subtlety in regards to dosage and the dynamic complex interactions with other elements at play. Restoring the nutritional value of our food supply and revising our culinary cultural practices is likely to have a greater impact in preventing disease than dietary supplements for all.

Some dietary supplements are meant to be therapeutic, in which case they are classified as tertiary prevention interventions. (I’ll describe tertiary prevention more thoroughly in another post. In a nutshell it is the attempt to prevent death and disability by treating a disease after it has already become symptomatic.) Deficiencies of iron, vitamin D, vitamin B12, and others are treated with supplementation. This is not considered a preventive measure, but rather a therapy. Many therapeutic interventions from Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, Naturopathy, and Homeopathy are labeled as dietary supplements.  These should be considered medicines and should only be taken under the advice of a trained or licensed practitioner. Their effectiveness and toxicities can be similar to Allopathic medicines. I would not classify these remedies under the intermediary prevention category since they are intended to treat diseases not prevent them.

The Office of Dietary Supplements at the National Institute of Health has accurate, up to date,
scientific information on many supplements that can help you make an informed decision about dietary supplement use. Stay tuned for a future Nei Jing Now series on the subject of dietary supplements.

The use of personal protective equipment is an example of an intervention that increases one’s capacity to resist the exposure to a toxic substance, infectious disease, chemical, fume, gas, chainsaw, hammer, or bullet. It doesn’t, however, decrease the presence of the injurious element. Most forms of contraception do not decrease engagement in the behavior that increases the risk of pregnancy. However, contraception is an intervention that does decrease the chances of pregnancy by either acting as a piece of personal protective equipment or decreasing the probability of fertilization. Vasectomy might be considered a primary prevention measure as it would decrease exposure to sperm, though not the risky behavior. Terminations would have to be considered secondary prevention of an unwanted pregnancy.

These are just examples of intermediary prevention.  There are many more. Strategically, intermediary prevention is more foresighted than secondary prevention and requires more expense and effort than primary prevention.  All tiers of the prevention pyramid are important. Currently we place much more importance and invest many more resources into secondary and tertiary prevention. If we emphasize primary prevention and devote more energy and attention in the lowest tier of the pyramid we could save ourselves a lot of effort, expense, and suffering in the long run. Nei Jing Now!

Star Trek in Havana; Have Enterprise, Will Travel! Coming soon to an island near you! Cuba, Opening January 14, 2013. Cuba not only opens its borders to its own people on January 14 but is also now allowing its citizens to engage in privately owned businesses. It seems a brave new world is emerging from every corner of the globe.  Misogyny is dying in India, the Great Patriarchy is passing in Cuba, or may have already passed.

Viena Garcia, a computer programmer was traveling through California to attend a conference, and told me about the new and exciting changes happening on the island off the coast of Florida.  Previously Cubans were not allowed to travel outside of their own country without an invitation from someone who would sponsor their travel expenses, and without permission from the government to exit the country.  Starting tomorrow these requirements are evaporating.  People now can stay outside of Cuba for 2 years without consequence.  In addition, people who previously had defected from Cuba are now free to come back to their homeland.  These people had left at a time when to leave without permission meant you could never return.  You had to leave all your belongings that you could not carry with you.  Your property became property of the government.  This new freedom is a huge step towards relieving the oppression so many of the people have felt. The previous restrictions were likely in place because the government invests a lot in the education of the people. The country doesn’t want to see the “brain drain” occur in Cuba that has occurred in other places, like India.  Also, since previously private enterprise was not allowed, disposable income to travel was not available, and thus a letter of invitation from a sponsor ensuring that the Cuban traveler would be well hosted seemed like a reasonable thing for a caring and protective father to require. Yet, it seems like the shift from patriarchy is starting now everywhere all over the world! Cubans are going to love their new freedoms and are likely to continue celebrating everything for any reason at all. Bring on the salsa!

Photo by Wojtek Kawalek

The clock has struck. The demise of an innocent 23 year old woman from horrific injuries sustained in a brutal gang rape by six men on a bus in Delhi has rung the death knell of misogyny. Let it toll not only in India, but everywhere on Planet Earth. Men rape women every day in every part of the world, yet this particular incidence in India has set off an alarm. It is as if India, and the Indian diaspora, has abruptly awoken to the fact that men rape women, that rape is brutally violent, that rape is never deserved, and that justice is rarely served. It is not that this rape was more notable than any other. It is not that this woman was more special than any other. It is not that she is the first to be hospitalized, or have sustained life threatening injuries, or to have died after an assault. It is not because she was from a specific class, caste, race, religion, or any other demographic category. It is not that the perpetrators were crueler than any other. It is because the time has come; misogyny’s expiration date has arrived. The worldwide war on women must now cease and decease.

This war has been waged daily, for centuries.  Rape is only one crime in a series of crimes the world commits against females. The varieties of violence include, but are not limited to, prenatal gender selection, female infanticide, genital mutilation, withholding education from girl children, child marriages, dowry demands, bride burnings, widow immolations, sexual harassment, cat calling, eve teasing, domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual slavery, and incest. Today we even have cyber stalking to add to the list. The domination occurs by any means possible. The cruelty manifests also in unhealthy, unrealistic standards of beauty; unnecessary medical interventions such as injections of the most acutely potent neurotoxin known to mankind (Botox) and all manners of plastic surgery; uncomfortable, impractical, disabling clothing ranging from various gradations of undress to polyester burkas, each in their respective inappropriate climates; and dating etiquette that suggests women present themselves diminutively in order to be attractive, and less threatening to men. Each of these violations is dehumanizing and obstructs girls and women from achieving and expressing their full human creative potential.

Yes, each individual man is responsible for his own behavior. Indeed, it is imperative that justice be served in every offense. The form that societal justice takes is collectively decided, hopefully rationally, objectively, equitably, impartially, compassionately, and legitimately. Even when it is not, each man has to live with his own conscience. The grotesque nature of many of these crimes indicates the pathetic states of mind these men inhabit.  Even as I mourn for every woman, child, or for that matter man, who has ever faced, and who will face, violence in any form, I also mourn for the sick mentalities and deranged hearts of the perpetrators as well. It is a pitiful fate to be trapped in such wretched twistedness. Much is being discussed in the public forum about stricter laws, prompt investigation, police accountability, and death penalties for perpetrators. Yet when a rape is being committed every minute all over the world, even if our legal systems worked, we’d be overloaded with offenders. Given that most rapists are known to the victim or survivor, we’d have friends, colleagues, husbands, boyfriends, uncles, fathers, brothers, cousins, and sons hanging from every tree, as long as we have trees. The death penalty is not the answer.  Primary prevention needs to be our priority.

Just as fair punishment shall be served from a communal judgment, the actual offense is also a public responsibility. The mindset that tolerates the pervasive dehumanization of girls and women stems from a collective attitude. It is created by the ready participation of men and women in misogyny. Sexism is so deeply embedded in every society and culture that we can barely recognize it as misogyny. We think of it as normal. We nursed on it, we ate it, we grew up on it, we have become it, we believe it, and it is destroying us. All of us. Boys are raised to think their own value lies in dominating others. Furthermore, domination over others earns males the praise and approval of their peers. This social component rewards males for increasingly brazen and abusive behavior as if they were achievements. And so it escalates. And too often explodes as gang rape and war. Even without overtly manifesting as violence, the need to maintain the unquestioned male privileges they were raised to believe are their birthright doesn’t allow males to embody the full range of their humanity. Men are given free reign over everything except the ability to just be authentically themselves. This is a crime against boys and men. It robs them of truly knowing themselves. Girls are raised as second class citizens in fear of men. Their value, and safety, is based on how pleasing they are to men. Females are not allowed to know or express their own value, lest they threaten a male. Ultimately females end up needing to be protected from the males who can’t control themselves because nobody knows who they are anymore. The best placard I saw from the protests in Delhi said, “Don’t tell your daughters not to go out. Teach your sons how to behave themselves.” We are all responsible for participating in this paradigm that cheats everyone of the freedom to walk as fearless, unique human beings on the earth which is equally our rightful inheritance.

The roots of this rotten inferno run deep and wide, as if stemming from the center of the earth reaching to every corner of the globe. The problem is not just in Delhi, or India, or Asia, or “developing” nations.  This war on humanity is being waged worldwide. Agreed, the situation is much worse in certain parts of the world. Yet even in the United States a man rapes a girl or woman over the age of 12 every 2 minutes according to statistics from the US Department of Justice, National Crime Victimization Survey.  Those statistics are based on reported rapes. Estimates indicate that only 35-40 percent of rapes in the USA are reported to the police. The situation is surely significantly worse in regions of the world where the gender gap is wider. The World Economic Forum’s 2012 Gender Gap Report ranked countries using 14 indicators to measure the gap between men and women in four key areas: health and survival, educational attainment, political empowerment, economic participation and opportunity.  India ranked 105^th out of 135 countries, while the United States ranked 22nd. There’s no walk in the park anywhere. Especially at night. Particularly alone. If we take a transnational perspective, we have the blood of a global holocaust on our collective hands.

The media coverage of this particular gang rape in Delhi has been extensive. The family of the female victim has been respectfully spared intrusive interviews. The family of the male companion of the female victim has also been excused by the media. Granted he was not raped but he was also severely beaten. It is worth noting that while journalists may be behaving reverently at this time, the media bears a massive responsibility in fostering sexist attitudes towards women. The constant bombardment with images of gratuitous semi-nude women; the incessant sexual objectification of women; the daily reports of terror that keep women living in fear; the almost exclusive depiction of women as valuable only in their youth, only for their sexual appeal and function; the misrepresentation of images that have been doctored by Photoshop; the practically universal casting and portrayal of stereotyped and oppressive roles. The violations are ubiquitous. The media is equally culpable. And we, as men and women, are guilty for our support of and indulgence in such media.

As a physician I care for the insidious and inescapable impact of misogyny daily. The sexism has become so internalized it is warping our perception of who we are to the extent we are becoming violent towards our own selves. When a beautiful, witty, and brilliant university professor spends 4 hours a day examining her face and doesn’t want to live anymore because of a barely perceptible “flaw,” this is also a crime against humanity and our collective loss and responsibility. When a highly accomplished adolescent at the top of her class weighs 90 pounds (40 kilograms), thinks she is fat, refuses to eat, exercises constantly, and eventually dies, this is also a crime against humanity and our collective loss and responsibility.  When a young man who was conceived in a gang rape discovers this fact, he spends more than ten years in severe self-hatred and drug abuse to cope with the knowledge. His greatest fear is he may have inherited the qualities that enabled his father to participate in such a corruption. This too is a crime against humanity and our collective loss and responsibility.  When we start perceiving the impact of our socially accepted attitudes and beliefs we see the endless string of crimes we are committing against each and every one of us every day.

The outpouring of public sentiment all over India in reaction to this particular instance of rape is heartening. The spineless responses of Indian officials are disheartening. Yet, it is encouraging that, in contrast to protests against rape in the past that were primarily populated by women and girls, the current outrage over the violence against women is being sincerely shared by men as well. The overwhelming support this particular incident garnered from such a large cross-section of society that includes the public expression of solidarity by our male friends, colleagues, husbands, boyfriends, uncles, fathers, brothers, cousins, and sons is a manifestation of a massive cultural shift looming on the horizon. Men and women are fed up with misogyny and are speaking up about change. This woman who was so horrendously raped and murdered by six men died in vain. There was no sense or purpose to her death. May we all be forgiven. May she rest in peace. Let our outrage and heartbreak not be otiose and futile. The time has come for boys and girls, women and men to walk together side by side unconditionally free from fear. The countdown is on. Misogyny’s days are numbered now. May all our sisters and brothers live in peace together.

1. Nei Jing Now has been taken on by UCSF as one of the pilot projects for their Indiegogo crowd source funding campaign. I look forward to participating and am grateful for all your support. I am looking for a few co-campaigners to spread the world and garner enthusiasm and support to make the campaign a great success.
2. I am planning the first annual Nei Jing Now conference to further the dialogue around how we are to transform ourselves so that our individual and collective well-being becomes our top priority. The first conference will center on the subject of sleep as the foundation for a healthy and happy day and life. I am looking for an experienced event planner to work with me on this.
3. Nei Jing Now plans to launch its Primary Prevention Ambulance service in Berkeley this year. The concept is not only to promote the concepts around primary prevention, but also to offer employment training to select individuals, with particular attention to low-income neighborhoods. For this program, I am looking for a grant writer.
4. I am planning a one or two day Nei Jing Now film festival focusing on films that inspire us to prioritize our health, happiness, and well-being. Anyone interested in being on the team to bring this to fruition will be more than very welcome
5. Finally, Nei Jing Now announces the launch of consultation services through Beyond Holistic Healing Arts and Medicine. This will include yoga classes, ashiatsu sessions, family consultations, neighborhood consultations, workplace consultations, improvising happiness workshops, and gender empowerment and etiquette trainings. Stay tuned for further information forthcoming through the website

Anyone interested in participating in any of these adventures, feel free to contact me. I look forward to hearing from you.

I thank you once again for your continued support for Nei Jing Now! Your financial contributions are necessary to continue bringing you high quality independent information with an interdisciplinary, integrative, and international approach to health, happiness, and well-being. Please give generously. It will make you feel really good!

All contributions are fully tax deductible through our fiscal sponsor, SHAMA, Inc, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that supports programs to empower, educate, and employ women and girls living in poverty in India. Ten percent of your donation to Nei Jing Now will also support the work of SHAMA, Inc.

Many thanks.

I wish each of you a very happy home stretch of the 2012 Gregorian calendar year and a beautiful beginning to 2013. I wish you plenty of relaxed time to refresh connections with family and friends, to share feasts from the fruits the year’s efforts, and to rejuvenate yourselves to begin the new Gregorian calendar year rested, refreshed, and ready for whatever lies ahead. May we each continue to cultivate happiness, health, prosperity, joy, and love within and around us. May we generously share our good fortunes with each other.  May our laughter be abundant, lighthearted, wholehearted, and true. May Peace Prevail in All our Worlds.

I also thank you for your continued support for Nei Jing Now! Your financial contributions are necessary to continue bringing you high quality independent information with an interdisciplinary, integrative, and international approach to health, happiness, and well-being. Please give generously. It will make you feel really good!

All contributions are fully tax deductible through our fiscal sponsor, SHAMA, Inc, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that supports programs to empower, educate, and employ women and girls living in poverty in India. Ten percent of your donation to Nei Jing Now will also support the work of SHAMA, Inc.

I warmly wish each of you all the very best of everything.

Warmly,

Jayshree

The Fiscal Cliff:  Will we fall off it? If we do, how far down is the fall? How hard is the landing? Will we wonder how we got to the edge in the first place? Will we consider another way of thinking? Will we prioritize our humanity in economic recovery and growth? Will we flourish? Or will we perish?

We need to envision the recovery and re-development of our economy through new eyes. The fundamental priorities need to be revamped and the path recast with what makes life worth living in mind. I spoke with Professor Brad Mapes-Martin shortly after the 2012 presidential elections in the United States. He urges us to take into account what it means to be human, to value our personal characteristics, and our common grounds in order to flourish as individuals and as societies. Professor Mapes-Martin explains the relevance to our economic recovery of the principles outlined in the Human Development Index created by Professor Amartya Sen and Professor Martha Nussbaum. He also suggests that in order to move forward we must de-politicize our national conversation so that we can actually communicate across political identities. Climate change also must urgently take center stage in the international dialogue about how to recover the struggling economies of the world.