Washington Archive

Washington, Nov 3 – Holding on to hope may not make patients happier as they deal with chronic illness, according to a new study.

‘Hope is an important part of happiness,’ said Peter A. Ubel, M.D. and director of the University of Michigan (U-M) Centre for Behavioural and Decision Sciences in Medicine and one of the authors of the happily hopeless study, ‘but there’s a dark side of hope. Sometimes, if hope makes people put off getting on with their life, it can get in the way of happiness.’

The results showed that people do not adapt well to situations if they are believed to be short-term. Ubel and his co-authors — both from U-M and Carnegie Mellon University — studied patients who had new colostomies: their colons were removed and they had to have bowel movements in a pouch that lies outside their body.

At the time they received their colostomy, some patients were told that the colostomy was reversible — that they would undergo a second operation to reconnect their bowels after several months. Others were told that the colostomy was permanent and that they would never have normal bowel function again. The second group — the one without hope — reported being happier over the next six months than those with reversible colostomies, the website Science Daily reported.

‘We think they were happier because they got on with their lives. They realized the cards they were dealt, and recognized that they had no choice but to play with those cards,’ says Ubel.

‘The other group was waiting for their colostomy to be reversed,’ he added. ‘They contrasted their current life with the life they hoped to lead, and didn’t make the best of their current situation.’

These results may also explain why people who lose a spouse to death often recover better emotionally over time than those who get divorced. ‘If your husband or wife dies, you have closure. There aren’t any lingering possibilities for reconciliation,’ he said.

‘Hopeful messages may not be in the best interests of the patient and may interfere with the patient’s emotional adaptation,’ Ubel says. ‘I don’t think we should take hope away. But I think we have to be careful about building up people’s hope so much that they put off living their lives.’

The research was published in the November edition of Health Psychology.

Washington, Nov 3 (DPA) There were tears of joy and a real sense of history in the making. For many African-Americans, Barack Obama’s election in November 2008 as president of the US was an undeniable landmark in race relations. One year on, it is not clear just how Obama’s unlikely journey to the White House has changed the underlying dynamics between white and black Americans.

Obama entered office facing a torrent of crises – an economy in deep recession, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and a series of major domestic priorities including health-care reform and tackling climate change.

African-Americans are hard-pressed to find policies specifically tailored to their needs. Obama has governed much as he ran his election campaign: he represents the country, not one minority.

‘I personally don’t expect (Obama) is going to do anything special to help African-Americans on the economy that he wouldn’t do in terms of trying to solve the economic problems in general,’ says Sam Fulwood, a senior fellow with the Centre for American Progress. ‘I think it is unfair and unreasonable to think otherwise.’

This can still help close the gap. For example, African-Americans will reap more benefits from Obama’s push for universal health care: blacks are more likely than whites to lack health insurance.

But Fulwood believes the larger impact for African-Americans lies in what he calls ‘the atmospherics’. There is a broader dialogue about race, and Obama’s election instilled a sense of ‘pride’ that gives African-Americans a stronger belief in their own potential.

A USA Today survey this month found that 41 percent of Americans believe race relations have improved since the election, compared to 22 percent who say they have worsened.

A majority of African-Americans – 53 percent – said things have improved since last November. But 72 percent also found racism remained widespread in the US. For some, racism lies just below the surface in a fierce argument over the direction that Obama’s administration is taking the country.

At a local diner in Culpepper, a mostly conservative town in Virginia, servers and customers are reluctant to discuss politics. But when one waitress believed she was out of earshot, she whispered: ‘After Obama was elected, we got scared.’

Former president Jimmy Carter is the highest-profile politician to have suggested that race lies behind some of the most vicious political attacks and fears of Obama.

‘I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man,’ Carter told NBC in September.

Conservatives firmly reject the notion of any racial undertones in their attacks. Some lament that Obama’s race has had the opposite effect: honest disagreement with the president is now taken as a sign of prejudice.

‘I couldn’t care less what his skin colour is,’ says Dan White, a shop owner in Culpeper. ‘If a conservative was black, I would have voted for him.’

Obama has mostly stayed out of the discussion. He has rejected the notion that attacks on him have been racially motivated. Throughout the year, he held very few events or speeches on race relations.

‘His reluctance to talk openly, really, about it throughout the campaign, throughout the year, I think is a dismay to some,’ says Charlton McIlwain, an associate professor of media and culture at New York University.

But McIlwain adds that there are understandable political motivations for Obama’s relative silence: ‘He’s been doing exactly what he has to do to survive.’

There were some exceptions: the arrest of Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates, an African-American, for breaking into his own home in Massachusetts sparked what Obama famously called a ‘teachable moment’.

Obama was quick to chastise police for their handling of the situation. McIlwain says Obama showed African-Americans that he was ‘willing to step up to the plate’ for their cause, but it also gave him a ‘reality check’ about the delicacies of such racially charged incidents.

McIlwain says Obama’s biggest impact on race relations may come in a second term, or even once he leaves the presidency, when he will be less inhibited by political considerations.

‘I certainly see as the next couple of years go by that you’ll increasingly see him talking about and engaging in the issue of race,’ McIlwain said.

Washington, Nov 3 (DPA) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has sold $6.7-billion worth of gold to India, the crisis-lender said Monday, completing about half of a sale that was authorized in September.

The IMF said it sold 200 tonnes of gold to India’s central bank over a two-week period from October 19-30. Its executive board has agreed to sell a total of 403.3 tonnes, or about one eighth of the IMF’s gold reserves.

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the sale marked an ‘important step’ in the lender’s efforts to secure its finances and step up lending programmes for poorer countries.

The IMF said the sale was made at prevailing daily market prices. The lender is looking toward other central banks to complete the remaining gold sale but has said it will consider selling the cache in the open market.

Washington, Nov 3 (DPA) US President Barack Obama called on Afghan President Hamid Karzai Monday to being a ‘new chapter’ for his country by initiating reforms and cracking down on corruption.

Obama telephoned Karzai after he was declared the winner in the presidential election to offer congratulations but also to urge him to get serious about improving the government, fighting corruption and speeding up the training of Afghan security forces.

‘The proof is not going to be in words, it’s going to be in deeds,’ Obama said at a meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.

Afghan elections officials on Monday named Karzai the winner after his challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, dropped out of the run-off election scheduled for this weekend, alleging the outcome would not be fair.

Karzai’s re-election was hampered by allegations of fraud in the first round of voting Aug 20. Karzai had initially captured more than 50 percent of the vote for an outright victory. But he fell below that threshold after fraudulent ballots were tossed out, forcing him – under US pressure – to agree to a run-off against Abdullah.

The White House said that Karzai’s victory was legitimate even though the election process was ridden with problems.

‘Although the process was messy, I am pleased to say the final outcome was determined in accordance with Afghan law, which I think is very important,’ Obama said.

The problematic electoral process has raised questions about Karzai’s legitimacy at a time when Obama is reviewing the administration’s policy in Afghanistan and needs credible leadership in Kabul. Earlier this year there were reports that Karzai had fallen into disfavour within the Obama administration because of the widespread corruption in his government.

‘President Karzai has been declared the winner of the Afghan election and will head the next government of Afghanistan,’ White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. ‘So, obviously, he’s the legitimate leader of the country.’

The Obama administration was concerned about an alliance with a government headed by someone viewed by the Afghan people as an illegitimate leader. Obama is weighing whether to send up to 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to step up the fight against the Taliban.

Washington, Nov 3 (DPA) The US views Afghan President Hamid Karzai as the legitimate leader of the country following the decision by his challenger to drop out of the run-off election that was scheduled for this weekend.

‘President Karzai has been declared the winner of the Afghan election and will head the next government of Afghanistan,’ White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. ‘So, obviously, he’s the legitimate leader of the country.’

Former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah announced Sunday that he was dropping out of the race before the second round of voting on Saturday. He said he did not believe the outcome would be fair. With Karzai as the lone candidate, Afghan election officials declared on Monday that he was the winner.

Gibbs said President Barack Obama planned to telephone Karzai later Monday to offer his support to the re-elected Karzai. The first round of voting took place in August but the polling was plagued with fraud and ballots were tossed out.

The problematic electoral process has raised questions about Karzai’s legitimacy at a time when Obama was reviewing the administration’s policy in Afghanistan and needs credible leadership in Kabul.

Karzai was forced into a run-off with Abdullah after ballots were tossed out that originally handed him an outright victory in the Aug 20 election. Under pressure from Washington, Karzai agreed to accept the run-off.

The Obama administration was concerned about an alliance with a government headed by someone viewed by the Afghan people as an illegitimate leader.

Obama is weighing whether to send 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to step up the fight against the Taliban.

Washington, Oct 29 – US President Barack Obama has signed a $680 billion defence appropriations bill with one provision giving commanders the ability to pay Taliban members to switch sides, but some experts feel the programme may buy only temporary loyalty.

The payments to Taliban would be made under a Taliban reintegration provision under the Commander’s Emergency Response Programme (CERP), which is now receiving $1.3 billion in the bill pay for military operations in the 2010 fiscal year, signed by Obama Wednesday.

CERP funding is also intended for humanitarian relief and reconstruction projects at commanders’ discretion.

The buyout idea, according to Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is to separate local Taliban from their leaders, replicating a programme used to neutralise the insurgency against Americans in Iraq.

‘Afghan leaders and our military say that local Taliban fighters are motivated largely by the need for a job or loyalty to the local leader who pays them and not by ideology or religious zeal,’ Levin said in a Senate floor speech Sep 11.

‘They believe an effort to attract these fighters to the government’s side could succeed, if they are offered security for themselves and their families, and if there is no penalty for previous activity against us.’

The top commander in Afghanistan has backed the plan for the Taliban. ‘Most of the fighters we see in Afghanistan are Afghans, some with (a) foreign cadre with them,’ said Gen. Stanley McChrystal in a July 28 Los Angeles Times interview.

Most are not ideologically or even politically motivated, he said in the interview.

‘Most are operating for pay; some are under a commanders charismatic leadership; some are frustrated with local leaders.’

But Nicholas Schmidle, an expert on the Afghanistan-Pakistan region for the non-partisan New America Foundation, cited by CNN said that while the plan has a ‘reasonable chance for some success’, the old Afghan saying – ‘You can rent an Afghan, but you can’t buy him’ – will eventually be borne out.

‘So long as the Americans are keenly aware of this, you’re buying a very, very, very temporary allegiance,’ he said. ‘If that’s the foundation for moving forward, it’s a shaky foundation.’

CNN security analyst Peter Bergen said the idea of paying off Taliban members to quit is nothing new. ‘There’s been an amnesty programme for low-level Taliban in place for many years now and thousands of people have taken advantage of it,’ he said.

Washington, Oct 29 – The US and India must agree on three vital security issues to ensure that their relations continue to deepen – terrorism, Kashmir, and the balance of power in Asia – a leading US South Asia expert has suggested.

‘Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s forthcoming state visit to Washington offers the Obama administration a splendid opportunity to engage on these issues,’ writes Ashley J. Tellis, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

President Barack Obama could ‘also focus on the US priorities of climate change, non-proliferation, and economic and defence cooperation’, writes Tellis in a policy brief in the run up to Manmohan Singh’s first upcoming state visit Nov 24.

‘The success and durability of the partnership between India and the US will depend on it,’ he said, noting that ‘US-India relations are off to a strong start under President Obama following an unprecedented strengthening during the Bush administration’.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton scored high points on her visit to India in July, emphasising economic and social development, and making a number of symbolic gestures to reaffirm India’s importance to the Obama administration, he noted.

‘But relations can only advance so far unless India is assured of US support on its major security challenges,’ said Tellis, who was intimately involved in negotiating the civil nuclear agreement with India as an advisor to the Bush administration.

The US must cooperate with India in addressing the challenge of terrorism, and redouble its efforts to ensure the cooperation of the Pakistani military, Tellis stated.

Noting that ‘Pakistan uses US counter-terrorism aid to combat terrorists who threaten mainly its own security, ignoring those who target Afghanistan and India’, he said: ‘India – and the Indian public, especially – is increasingly frustrated that Washington’s policy has failed to show results.’

On Kashmir, the Bush administration’s hands-off approach was critical to bringing both sides to the negotiating table with realistic expectations, Tellis said, cautioning that ‘talk of intervention by the Obama administration could deepen Pakistani recalcitrance, disrupt US-India relations, and set back the peace process’.

The regional balance of power, he said, is critical to sustaining India’s current nuclear posture and deterrent capabilities. ‘A private, high-level dialogue between India and the United States would assure New Delhi that Washington values a balanced regional approach.’

It will also assure India ‘that US financial dependence on China will not unduly limit the necessity for preserving the appropriate strategic balance in Asia’, Tellis said.

Washington, Oct 29 (DPA) US President Barack Obama signed legislation Wednesday that extends existing hate crimes laws to attacks motivated by gender, sexual orientation or disabilities.

The legislation, which had stalled in Congress for years, marks the first major victory for the gay rights community since Obama came into office in January. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr Hate Crimes bill was approved by US lawmakers earlier this month.

Shepard was a gay college student who was brutally killed in 1998 in Wyoming. Byrd was an African-American man chained and dragged to death that same year on the back of a pickup truck by three white men in Texas.

‘After more than a decade of opposition and delay, we’ve passed inclusive hate crimes legislation to help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray, or who they are,’ Obama said.

Members of Shepard and Byrd’s family were at the White House signing ceremony and Obama planned a separate reception later Wednesday.

The law allows prosecutors to tack on additional punishment for crimes they believe are motivated by hatred of a certain group. Hate crime laws already exist for race, colour, religion or national origin.

The bill was approved as part of the defence department’s annual budget for the fiscal year 2010.

Washington, Oct 29 (DPA) A giant next generation space rocket Wednesday shot off its launchpad at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida in the US for its very first test flight.

The 100-metre tall Ares I-X rocket sped into the sky over the Florida coast trailing a plume of flames and steam in a trial that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) hoped would provide crucial information about technology that is to replace the ageing space shuttle fleet.

It carried a simulated crew module that separated from the rocket at about 40 km above the Atlantic Ocean before falling back to earth on a parachute.

The rocket continued soaring to 46 km high into the atmosphere on its 369-second flight, touching down some 240 km away on a recovery parachute outfitted with sensors which will also help scientists collect data about its performance.

The Ares I is the first of two new rockets planned by NASA for its Constellation programme with the eventual goal of returning humans to the moon and travelling to Mars.

It will carry the crew on top of the rocket in a configuration that mirrors the Apollo moon missions and which engineers say is safer than the space shuttle design following the explosion of the Columbia in 2003.

‘We completely met our success criteria, in fact we blew them away,’ said mission manager Robert Ess.

Wednesday’s effort was the first of three test flights for the new space programme, with the next set for 2014.

The test came after several weather delays that had pushed back the launch from its initial schedule Tuesday. The main concern for NASA was cloud cover over the launchpad that could have caused what scientists dub triboelectrification – essentially potential static generated by flying through clouds that could have caused communication devices on the craft to malfunction.

Ares I would be used to carry astronauts to low-Earth orbit, including to the International Space Station, aboard the next-generation Orion crew capsule. A later, more powerful Ares V rocket is to be developed to carry astronauts to the moon and beyond.

NASA put hundreds of sensors on the rocket to gather information during the $445-million test flight about how safe and effective the rocket is. The test simulated the path that an Ares rocket carrying an Orion crew capsule would take and reached up to four-times the speed of sound. In addition to the mock-up of the Orion capsule, it carried an extra rocket booster to simulate as closely as possible actual conditions.

All the sensors to gather data worked correctly and NASA was to begin looking at the information, Ess said.

Engineers will use the test to assess the flight control system and to control for roll torque, the force that causes a rocket to rotate as it flies. NASA will also be looking closely at the separation of the rocket and the recovery system.

But the programme itself and Ares could be in jeopardy as US President Barack Obama reviews the US space programme. An independent review commission said earlier this month that NASA would not be ready to send astronauts aloft with the rockets until at least 2017, two years after schedule.

That widens the gap between the retirement of the shuttle next year and implementation of the new vehicle, leaving astronauts dependent on Russian spacecraft to reach the International Space Station.

The review panel also suggested that policy makers should consider using commercial vehicles to carry humans to low-Earth orbit rather than Ares I, allowing NASA to focus its attention on longer trips. But NASA scientists said regardless of the policy decision, the Ares test would allow them to gather valuable data applicable to any high- powered rocket to move the space programme forward.

NASA officials said they were still evaluating the report and its potential impact on the Ares development.