Dr Rajiv Desai
An Educational Blog
TORTURE
TORTURE: _ _ Mohammed C., a Chadian born in Saudi Arabia, was just 14 when arrested in Pakistan in October 2001. After three weeks he was handed to US officials. He says he was hooded, shackled, beaten and threatened with death. In January 2002 he was transferred to Guantánamo Bay, where he says he was beaten, deprived of sleep, racially abused and burned with a cigarette. In September 2005 Mohammed, by now an adult, was still being held without charge in Guantánamo Bay. Torture is one of the most extreme forms of human violence, resulting in both physical and psychological consequences. Torture has been used for thousands of years, and is still widespread, occurring throughout much of the world (Amnesty International, 2009). Research has shown that torture can have enduring negative effects on both survivors and perpetrators, and is ineffective for obtaining reliable information in interrogation. Survivors of torture […]
SEX TRAFFICKING
SEX TRAFFICKING: _ _ Prologue: Anna was a pretty blond, 25 year old Russian woman who had trained to be an exhibition ballroom dancer in her native town. . . She was recruited to be a dancer in Germany by answering an ad in a Russian newspaper. She was transported to Germany through Poland by a bus where she was taken to an apartment, locked in a room and told that she would be working as a prostitute. There was another Russian girl in the apartment who had been horribly beaten for having resisted forced prostitution. Anna was terrified and she initially agreed to work for the German pimps—but after being repeatedly raped by over 20 male “clients” during her first day, she refused to cooperate any further. She was beaten with a metal pipe for resisting. Both of her arms were broken before she was systematically raped by the […]
THE SCIENCE OF CRIME
THE SCIENCE OF CRIME: _ _ Prologue: I was facing litigation from my estranged wife. I was in Saudi Arabia and she was in India. My monthly salary was 6500 Saudi riyals as a doctor and my estranged wife had a document supporting my salary of 6500 riyals because I left India with her full support and knowledge. However, as the marriage broke down, she alleged in court of law that I ran away from India without her knowledge after committing cruelty on her, and to extract money from me legally, she forged the document containing my salary statement by putting 1 before 6500 so that my salary became 16,500 riyals and she submitted forged document in the court of law. The estranged wife became a criminal. The greed for money was responsible for the transformation. Crime has often been considered, especially in ages of deep religious feeling, to be […]
THE ANGER
THE ANGER: _ Prologue: Back in the 1700’s there was a Scottish surgeon called John Hunter regarded as one of the most distinguished scientists and surgeons of his day. He had a very bad temper and, not surprisingly, suffered from angina pectoris. He used to say: “My life is at the mercy of any scoundrel who chooses to put me in a passion”. This was prophetic. At a meeting of the board of St. Georges Hospital, he became involved in a heated argument, walked out, and dropped dead. The government of India wrote to UN that my personality is not good and I have to improve. They were referring to my alleged angry nature. I am using the word ‘alleged’ because the government had no contact with me and based their judgment on mere ‘hearsay’. Indian TV channel was investigating my performance in government hospital secretly and found that I […]
THE DEATH
THE DEATH Prologue: As a student of medicine, since I joined medical college in the year 1978, I have been a witness to death either in the form of dissecting a dead body or declaring someone dead. The dissecting cadaver (corpse) is a critical component of every medical education. Without the anatomical understanding of the human body that is afforded by dissection, much of modern medicine would simply not exist. I also remember a very difficult task of informing a crying mother that her only son died of poisoning. Hundreds of patients have died before me in my experience as a doctor. Many times my junior doctors have expressed apprehension of declaring someone dead because they were afraid that patient may still be alive and I used to teach them signs of death like unconsciousness, no response to any stimulus, no breathing, no pulse and no heart beat on […]
