Managing the International Health Crisis
Much of today’s media coverage of global health issues
is misleading. News stories tend to focus on the controversies
surrounding AIDS drug pricing or the amount of funding necessary
to combat the epidemic successfully. Though these issues
are important, they contribute to a myth that HIV/AIDS is
the only looming catastrophe in international health and
that cheaper drugs or a dramatic infusion of money could
soon turn the tide.
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The Quest for What Sustains Us
Food brings us together and—when survival instincts
or clashing mores or cultures dictate—food can come
between us. What we consume is closely allied to identity
as well as health: You are what you eat, the adage goes.
Traditional Chinese consider food in terms
of yin and yang. From tomb-paintings, we know that ancient
Egyptians prized figs, fish and cucumbers. During the Roman
Empire, the senatorial class ate elaborate meals, in a reclining
position and using their hands, washing the meal down with
wine. Food, as much as love, is an ancient and international
language, spoken with many accents.
For some, the quest for food purity rivals
the highest levels of religious fervor. For others, food
represents good taste or certain values. Some seek food
only to stave off hunger. For these Milton graduates, food
and its frequent companion, wine, are more than the source
of energy and vitality; they are what sustains us.
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Planning for Disaster Response
Certainly the attacks of September 11, 2001, thrust Elizabeth
Davis’s focal concern into American living rooms:
we could not and cannot escape the need to plan for disasters.
We started thinking explicitly about the vulnerability of
our workplaces, hospitals, schools and transportation networks
as well as our homes. We asked pointed questions about who
would spring into organized action to help us in the case
of an “incident,” implementing a plan we assumed
would be well-designed and fully resourced. Then Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Tom Ridge told us that
we owned responsibility for a prepared response, at least
at the family level. Since then the issue has only gained
momentum as we witness events, natural and manmade, that
affect thousands every day.
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Moving Iraq Toward a Market Economy
As deputy general counsel of the Coalition Provisional Authority
for Commercial Law Reform, Derek Gilman ’79 mobilized
and directed a team of attorneys in developing a body of
law, 39 statutes, to undergird a new Iraqi economy. He and
his team worked closely with policy makers and economists
in undertaking this project. The vision entrusted to him
and his team was to set the framework for transitioning
Iraq from a managed economy to a market economy.
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Jean Valentine '52 Wins 2004 National Book Award for Poetry
"Letter” is a poem by Jean Valentine ’52
that I found among the new poems of her most recent collection,
Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems 1965–
2003, the winner of the 2004 National Book Award for Poetry.
The poem is unassuming in the space it takes up, quiet in
image, in its movement and thought—easy, even, to
overlook. But the longer I spend with it, the more I appreciate
the work of Jean Valentine.
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Fiction That Captures National Prominence: A Sleeping Protagonist Makes It Happen
Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum ’90 looks much like she did
in 1990, and her manner seems about the same, too. She has
a sweet round face, a mess of curls in her hair, and eyes
that are quick to come alive. Her voice is strikingly high
and small and even childlike, but her big gestures and her
quick and animated patterns of speech suggest a decidedly
adult intensity. In conversation with her, you can’t
help but think that there’s a lot going on behind
her eyes.
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Producing Maximum Performance from Technology: The Dymaxion Man
Last summer, the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp commemorating
the life of R. Buckminster Fuller ’13. Foregrounded
by platonic solids and a lozenge-shaped, three-wheeled automobile,
Fuller’s giant head is perched atop a ball-and-socket
truss amid gaping onlookers. Spidering across the great
dome of his forehead are the signature lines of triangles
and hexagons that constitute his geodesic geometry. In the
background, more geodesic domes lie on the Euclidean plane
punctuated by what appear to be oversized power transformers
and a helicopter pulling yet another dome along the invisible
vectors of optimum design. Not your typical somber portrait
of an elder statesman or groundbreaking scientist, this
millennial take on a ’50s sci-fi aesthetic is, despite
its winks and overall mood of loopiness, telling of both
Fuller’s life and reputation.
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Mathematics
Conglomerate is Nimble, Responsive, Maintains a "Just in
Time" Inventory
Over the last 10 years, mathematics faculty at Milton have
collaborated on an in-house suite of “products”
that take “what’s best for the consumer”
seriously. Focusing on the math experiences of their consumers—Upper
and Middle School students—mathematics department
faculty teach, in large measure, with materials they have
developed themselves, in lieu of standard texts.
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Championing a Worthy Ideal: No Retreat From Teaching Grammar at Milton
If a student can master the qualities of effective composition—clarity,
unity, coherence, concision, correctness and energy—then
clear, informative, perhaps even entertaining, communication
is the happy, inevitable result. While many schools have
retreated from the rigorous consideration of grammar, Milton’s
English faculty is still devoted to the pursuit of excellent
usage.
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