7/20/2025
A National Geography documentary starts by showing a small caravan of four camels and four men walking across the hot sands of Mauritania in West Africa. The hooves of the camels and sandals of men displace the dry sand with every step, leaving a long trail to the horizon, dramatically revealed by the slow rise of the camera for an aerial view. Suddenly the camels are alarmed, as a faint rumbling sound is heard far away. The men stop and watch amazed as the whistle of a train is heard in the distance. Soon several locomotives come into view pulling a long train of hoppers carrying iron ore. Men and beast watch as twenty first century interrupts their ancient way of life.
The film reminded me of another documentary across equally desolate and isolated yet incredibly cold Siberia. Where temperatures dip below -70C. There too, people have their primitive lives disrupted by modern transportation systems. New man comes with trains, trucks, machinery and remove the iron, copper, lumber, etc. from their backyard and leave destruction and waste to their land and often sicken them in the process. As a journalist traveling the cold of the arctic said "a country is not a place on a map at all, but a story full of people you meet and places you visit." Interestingly, while these places and thousands of others like them are exposed to fresh realities, the healthcare system is not one of them.
There are thousands of nationalities worldwide. It might be difficult for us to understand other lifestyles and traditions, but they do exist and have needs that are disrupted by modern life. The information technology/internet is reaching them faster than the amenities it portrays, adding to the disparities they see and feel. Among them and perhaps the most necessary is healthcare. These people see this as a new way of slavery. It is time this is changed and they receive their share of prosperity. The absurdity of it is that it cost so relatively little to provide healthcare to every corner of the world. Telehealth and telemedicine can educate and supervise people in these areas to care for themselves. We have the means, even the money, it just takes a little caring.
Reza Ghadimi
7/11/2025
There is a question
Unanswered for centuries and millennia
That has left us bewildered.
Scholars and prophets have asked
All for naught
And left it to be taken as faith
A divine cause.
Gypsies and dervishes dance to it, puzzled
Some look to the cosmos for clues
Others into a drop of water.
There are those, silently sitting
By the shore or mountain top
Pondering a metaphysical resolve.
As to who are we?
Why are we here?
Why is here, here?
As we grapple with the elusive answer
The root question gets forgotten!
And that may be the reason for
The emergence of iniquities everywhere.
Reza Ghadimi
1/31/2025
It snowed last night in the city and again today
I felt that after a long hiatus, I would welcome it
But my feet were wet through soaking shoes.
It is a new year and I expected the excitement of its celebration
Would last longer than the cold month of January
But the contradictory news surrounding my humanity
Seem to have drawn the joy out of its pleasure and
Drove us into its burst of fury.
I never thought to live this far into the twenty-first
With its fantastic communication tools
That tell lies more often than setting us aright.
Yet here I am, dodging the homeless
Sheltering under plastic sheets
Covering their cardboard abode
Ashamed, I notice there are more of them now.
Against the darkening sky, busy people
Hastily rush home, cowering under umbrellas
And wet collars pulled halfway up the head.
Buses and taxis splash through puddles
Liquor store’s overhead sign flashes open
As people going in and out
Prepare for a cold night with a loved one or alone.
Back in the cheap motel room
I hang my wet socks by the bed and pull a blanket over me.
It’s still snowing.
Reza Ghadimi
Practicing From the Heart
© 1978 - 2025 - TH Pulse/ PA Pulse LLC - PFH - All rights reserved
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.