Perhaps you weren’t shocked by the college applications scandal that recently broke in the United States? I must confess, I was deeply upset because it reveals a low tide mark in our society’s ethics today and underlines the absence of integrity in so many people’s lives. But I’m also saddened because “Operation Varsity Blues” has wider implications for our colleges and our communities. Fresh Dialogues host, Alison van Diggelen reports for the BBC World Service.
(Photo credit above: Daniel Gaines Photography via Breakthrough Silicon Valley)
The stories of college applications doctored with photo-shopped pictures of athletes; blatant bribery and cheating on SAT scores made my blood boil. So I was delighted to have the opportunity to share my views on the BBC World Service.
These rich elites – venture capitalists, actors and prominent business people – confused their privilege for merit; and by cheating they crushed the hopes and dreams of the least fortunate and most deserving students in our communities.
The BBC’s Fergus Nicoll asked me about the reputation damage to schools and I shared an interview I did recently with former President of Stanford University, John Hennessy. At the time, he was outraged at colleges “debasing themselves” and forgetting their values in the pursuit of athletes over academics. Watch the video (@3:00): Hennessy is known for his tact, but here, his anger is palpable.
Previous commentators on the BBC program, including Stephanie Studer of the Economist in China, and Kay Hymowitz of the City Journal in New York, talked about the destruction of meritocracy. That’s definitely under threat, both here and around the world. But who’ll suffer most from this scandal?
The hard working students and families from less advantaged communities. Like the inspiring students at Breakthrough Silicon Valley, a nonprofit here in California, that works to mentor and nurture first generation immigrants to achieve their college dreams. For them, it’s a double whammy: First: The opportunity cost. For every rich kid who got into college through a side door, there’s a student who worked like a Trojan to get the scores necessary to win a place, and lost out. But it’s more than that: What will this scandal do to the aspirations of these students and families who feel that the playing fieldjust got even steeper? And more broadly, how will our communities suffer if these well deserving youth lose out on taking their shot at a better future? The opportunity cost is both acute and enduring, both personal and wide ranging.
Is it too much to hope that colleges and communities can return to decent values and bring ethics back from its long holiday?
We should all be outraged when such revered institutions fail our society by creating shortcuts for those with wealth and privilege when they could be a powerful force for equity in our society.
Certainly, the staff and students of Breakthrough Silicon Valley are frustrated. As Diana, a high school junior, put it, “I’m sad but not shocked. I’ve always known that there are people who play the system, it just hurts to have this out there when I’m working so hard to get my shot.”
For the past five years, my team has cheered Diana on as she works incredibly hard to get to college. She grew up in a family that grapples with the constant stress of financial instability. They got home internet access just last month, and few in her community have gone to college, but Diana is blazing an impressive path. She has a 4.29 GPA while enrolled in the most rigorous courses her district offers. She founded a community service club and helps facilitate Breakthrough’s after-school program for 7th graders. She is proud of her community service, her persistence, and her identity as a strong Mexican-American woman. Diana is not just “qualified” to attend college, she is ready to lead when she gets there.
When colleges reinforce class divisions through legacy admissions and bend to the will of deep pockets, they miss out on students like Diana. Read more here. (NB: Names have been changed to protect student privacy)
The Paradise Camp Fire is the deadliest wildfire in California history. Why is that?
To date 79 people have died and almost 700 are still missing as the fire still rages on. Here in Silicon Valley, we’re processing the tragic devastation and choking in a blanket of smoke and misleading statements from our president, who blames forest mismanagement for the tragedy. Head of the California Professional Firefighters organization called the president’s claim “inane, ill-informed, ill-timed and demeaning to victims and to our firefighters on the front lines.”
I was invited to share my perspective on the BBC World Service and it felt good to call a lie a lie. NPR has explained its policy of not calling out Trump’s lies. I think it’s a complete cop out and agree with the listener who wrote: “To fail to identify a lie as a lie is a gross failure of journalism.”
“Donald Trump’s tweet at the weekend said, “There’s no reason for these massive fires…except forest management.” It’s over-simplification and it’s a downright lie. His aim is to distract and undermine the widely accepted role of climate change in these mega fires…the big picture is: climate change is causing longer droughts, hotter air, drier soil, faster winds and is creating these mega fires. So, thinning the forest is one thing, but the longer term thing is: we need to do more for climate change. We need to reduce our carbon footprint, and we need to encourage more clean energy.” Alison van Diggelen
Photo credit: Cpl. Dylan Chagnon, U.S. Marine Corps.
The BBC’s Fergus Nicoll is co-host of the program, Business Matters.
Here’s a transcript of our conversation (edited for length and clarity):
Fergus Nicoll: You’d think you were at a safe distance, Alison, but I guess there’s got to be knock-on effects weather-wise, smoke-wise, almost across the whole state?
Alison van Diggelen: It feels like California is on fire. Paradise (the town at the epicenter of the fire) is an ironic metaphor for California. The state is paradise for many but is rapidly becoming a hellish inferno. I’m 200 miles south-west of the Camp Fire and the air quality is terrible. We’re being advised to stay indoors and not exercise outside. It’s affecting almost every person in the Golden State.
Fergus Nicoll: Governor Jerry Brown said over the weekend, “Managing all the forests everywhere doesn’t stop climate change. Those that deny climate change are contributing to the tragedy.” He said, “The chickens are coming home to roost.” Is that what everybody’s talking about behind these headlines?
Alison van Diggelen: Absolutely.Donald Trump’s tweet at the weekend said, “There’s no reason for these massive fires…except forest management.” It’s over-simplification and it’s a downright lie. His aim is to distract and undermine the widely accepted role of climate change in these mega fires. There is a short-term solution in mitigation: doing some controlled thinning of forests and relaxing the logging rules, which the state law makers have done this summer. But the big picture is: climate change is causing longer droughts, hotter air, drier soil, faster winds and is creating these mega fires. So, thinning the forest is one thing, but the longer term thing is: we need to do more for climate change. We need to reduce our carbon footprint, and we need to encourage more clean energy.
Fergus Nicoll: I know these are issues you talk about on Fresh Dialogues. What about water? What about the shortages that California has had? Is it a problem fighting fire because there’s insufficient water?
Alison van Diggelen: That again is Donald Trump’s oversimplifications and a distraction. Water shortages (for fire fighting) aren’t a problem. Oroville Dam is very close to where the Camp Fire is burning and in Malibu, you’re right next to the ocean. So there’s really no issue about water shortages for putting out the fires. That is not the issue. Again it’s distracting…it’s point over there when we should be addressing the real issue of climate change.
And one other issue that a lot of people don’t know about is that nights in California have warmed nearly three times as fast as days during the fire season, so lower night time humidity means that the fires are growing and blazing overnight. That didn’t used to happen. So again, the finger points to climate change.
Fergus Nicoll: Alison, thanks for that. This is Business Matters, we’re live on the BBC.
Over 100 Americans die every day from opioid overdose, that’s about 40,000 a year. What can be done to reverse the recent spike in fatalities? In San Francisco, a team of public health workers is focused on treating the most vulnerable: homeless people on the city’s streets. My latest report for the BBC explores how this special ops “Street Team” is finding and convincing people to get the latest medical treatment, wherever they are.
It’s a timely issue as next month, San Francisco voters will decide if the city’s largest businesses, many of them tech companies, should pay a special tax to help fund more homeless shelters and addiction centers like the one I visited. The debate is dividing the tech community. Marc Benioff of Salesforce says “homelessness is everyone’s problem” and backs the special tax, but others like Twitter’s Jack Dorsey say it’s “unfair.” Love it or loathe it, the ballot measure proposes more funding and action to tackle homelessness and drug addiction in our most vulnerable population. These are complex and deep rooted problems with no quick fixes, but I applaud Marc Benioff and others like him for taking a stand.
Several medical workers and a heroin addict shared their ‘dream’ solutions to homelessness and addiction in the city. Their answers may surprise you.
If I had a magic wand, I’d just flash over the Twitter building, the Google building and say: hey guys, how about some compassion for folks, some kindness? When somebody talks to you in the street, look them in they eye. Planting that little seed of compassion and kindness goes a long way and I think that’s how the larger change in our city would happen. There’s a lot of hostility, a lot of misinformation. So if I had a magic wand, I’d just like flash it and say: compassion, compassion, compassion…kindness and a safe injection site! Ana Cuevas, health worker at the Tom Waddell Health Center, SF Public Health [Pictured above]
Here’s a transcript of my full report. A shorter version aired on the BBC World Service on October 24, 2018.
Atmos: San Francisco city street sounds: bus, cars, fans, people…
Alison van Diggelen: I’m here at City Hall in the center of San Francisco. Within yards of the building’s gleaming dome, there are clusters of homeless people, huddled in doorways, sprawled on pavements, or slowly pacing the streets.
Every week, Dr Barry Zevin and his team walk the city streets to build rapport with homeless people with addiction problems and offer on-the-spot treatment. Once trust is established, they encourage patients to visit the city’s public health clinic. Today, there’s a steady stream of homeless people…
Alison van Diggelen: Inside this clinic, known as the Tom Waddell Health Center, I meet James (not his real name) a former medic in the United States army, who recently started treatment for heroin addiction.
James: Right now I got a prescription refilled, and the doctor was like: do you need a shelter bed for tonight? Are there other things I can do for you? I’m very impressed with how kind and helpful they are…going above and beyond to find what else they can do for me.
Alison van Diggelen: James, who’s 30, has been prescribed buprenorphine to help wean him off his opioid addiction. Buprenorphine is a daily pill that reduces opioid cravings and the extreme physical pain of withdrawal. Despite being an addict for over ten years, James sincerely wants to change.
James: This medication allows me to do a detox less painfully and I no longer will have intense cravings for the substance of abuse. It’s definitely more comfortable than cold turkey…
Alison van Diggelen: James has been homeless in SF for about five months, after moving from Seattle. Being on the streets compounds his challenges as he faces fear and loneliness, as well as drug dealers.
James: I moved to this city not knowing a whole lot about it, so the areas I go, I’ve only operated in them under addiction scenarios. So being on something that blocks the receptors…I’m not so prone to go back to using it and therefore I can operate in these areas where there’s a lot of environmental triggers without having to…feel the same feelings of craving, to want to use.
Alison van Diggelen: Sarah Strieff is a registered nurse with the SF Public Health’s “Street team”. They regularly walk the city streets to identify vulnerable patients in need of healthcare and detox. As they pound the pavements, how does she and her team convince homeless people like James to start treatment?
Nurse Sarah Strieff [pictured above]:There’s two ways we identify people: our own outreach and street presence; and through other agencies in the city that bring people to our attention.
Alison van Diggelen: Sarah, who wears ripped jeans and a T-shirt explains how being inconspicuous, non-threatening is key to their outreach.
Sarah Strieff: It’s casual, we dress down, we don’t wear uniforms.
Alison van Diggelen:No lab coats?
Sarah Strieff: No lab coats. No! We talk to people where they’re at…We’ll go to Golden Gate Park, the Haight, Bay View…I do see a lot of people hanging out in the Tenderloin.
Alison van Diggelen: The clinic serves between 10 and 20 homeless people during its daily 4-hour clinic. No appointments are necessary and you don’t need insurance. Ana Cuevas works with Sarah on the “Street Team.”
Ana Cuevas: We try to build a relationship first and check in with folks. That’s the reason why our program is so successful. Everyone who works here sees people first, then patients. Check in and ask what they need and try to deliver, not impose my own agenda on them.
Alison van Diggelen: The clinic delivers a comprehensive health care treatment plan, prescriptions for detox medications and even helps patients find a roof for the night.
Starting conversations about drug use is a sensitive process, and it takes weeks, months, even years for the Street Team to build trust with people on the street and at needle exchange facilities. For that reason, I wasn’t allowed to go on their rounds with them.
Ana Cuevas:It’s not hello: what’s your social security number, what’s your medical history? No, it’s like: who are you? How can we help you? We just listen… we just go with the flow.
Alison van Diggelen: Ana Cuevas describes the process as “Motivational interviewing” which involves a lot of listening, and no judgment.
Ana Cuevas:If someone comes in and says: Hey Ana, I’ve been using a lot. I’m not going to say: you shouldn’t do that! (instead): what are your thoughts around that? What’s happened with that? And then just kinda carry that conversation like that. One of the biggest problems with health care is that there’s often not enough time to listen. That’s the root of motivational interviewing: being present, listening and then figuring out solutions together.
Alison van Diggelen: Dr Barry Zevin is the Medical Director of Street Medicine and his team treats about 500 homeless patients a year, many of whom are addicted to opioids.
Dr Barry Zevin:When we treat them with buprenorphine or methadone – long acting, continuous stimulation of these receptors in the brain, without the sudden highs and sudden withdrawals that come with a short acting drug – these longer acting medications can really change and repair what the dysfunction of the brain is and all of the physiological stress responses people have. The physiology of someone using street opioids has really gone wrong, and that causes depression, anxiety, stress, physical disease, decreases in the immune system…a whole cascade of things go wrong that can go right when we replace that with long-acting, high affinity to the opioid receptor in the brain medication.
Alison van Diggelen: The health worker, Ana Cuevas, recalls a twenty year-old woman the team was able to help and within a week she was reunited with her family and on the road to recovery.
But Dr Zevin admits such cases are outliers.
Dr Barry Zevin:We’re in era of fentanyl contaminated drugs. It’s found its way into the drugs…They’re super potent…The risk of overdose is much higher now than it was 5 years ago. I’m talking with people every day and any day they’re at risk from having an overdose or fatal overdose bc of this new trend in drug supply.
Alison van Diggelen: The clinic treats a small percentage of the estimated 20,000 intravenous drug users in San Francisco, but Dr Zevin insists it has ripple effects. By targeting the most vulnerable people and achieving results, he’s convinced it inspires others to get treatment. He considers it a remarkable success that about one third of his patients are still in touch with the team and on treatment after a year.
Dr Barry Zevin: I always describe our model as effective but not very efficient.…We see them a lot. Once a week is not enough for some patients. With the level of instability, the level of things that can happen to people..If people are in a street or a park or a shelter, it’s a lot easier to bring the medical care to them, than wait in an office for them to finally make it to an appointment.
Alison van Diggelen: This SF program is just one of several similar schemes across the United States in Boston and in Texas. They’re often run in conjunction with needle exchanges and low barrier shelters, so that addicts can get the full support they need. Is the solution policy changes, more shelters and more funding? Healthcare worker, Ana Cuevas offers a more profound insight.
Ana Cuevas:Honestly, the most challenging part is changing the way our larger community views our population. Our folks, a lot of their humanity has been taken away…
If I had a magic wand, I’d just flash over the Twitter building, the Google building and say: hey guys, how about some compassion for folks, some kindness? When somebody talks to you in the street, look them in they eye. Planting that little seed of compassion and kindness goes a long way and I think that’s how the larger change in our city would happen. There’s a lot of hostility, a lot of misinformation.
So if I had a magic wand, I’d just like flash it and say: compassion, compassion, compassion…kindness and a safe injection site!
Alison van Diggelen: This viewpoint is echoed by James, the drug addict who recently started treatment.
James:It’s a matter of empathy I think. I would ask anybody in charge of policy…people might not seem kind or deserving of help, but they’re all people who may be in different stages of grief or suffering and to realize that it takes kindness to bring it out.
Alison van Diggelen: What are his hopes for the future?
James:I’m trained as a chef, I worked as a medic in the military. There’s things in both these fields I’d like to be doing…
What makes Madonna the ultimate female bad-ass role model? On the eve of Madonna’s 60th birthday, I was invited to join the BBC’s Roger Hearing in London and Bloomberg’s Enda Curran in Hong Kong to discuss the queen of pop’s controversial life and legacy. How has she redefined what it means to be a woman in her 60’s?
“In the realms of entertainment, whether you’re an actor or a musician, as a woman you’re supposed to fade away in a dignified manner when menopause kicks in. Madonna hasn’t done that and I think that’s a great, great thing. Why should women have to make this dignified exit because no one is asking men to do that?” Fiona Sturges, Culture critic at the Guardian, Financial Times.
Here is some of our conversation: Roger Hearing: Now Alison, you’re a fan, aren’t you?
Alison van Diggelen: I am a fan. How I’d describe Madonna is: She’s the ultimate bad-ass female role model. She’s fearless, creative, unpredictable and that makes her super compelling. I also have to praise her for her Billboard Music Awards speech in 2016. This was before #MeToo and she talked out misogyny, the double standards for men and woman. She appealed to women to reach out to other strong women, to learn, to collaborate and to be inspired. That’s a message that we cannot get tired of hearing.
Roger Hearing: But what makes her a role model?She’s been pretty controversial in lots of ways that many people thought was not appropriate, and wasn’t a good role model for anyone…
Alison van Diggelen: She’s a pioneer. She doesn’t accept the norms and conventions and I think that what she’s doing as a 60 year-old is: she’s going to reinvent what we think of a 60 year-old woman. I say: good on her! She makes some crazy choices in what she wears and what she does, but she’s always pushing the envelope, making us question what is “OK”? I think that qualifies her as a role model, even if you don’t like 100% of her choices.
Have you ever considered the benefits of fasting, but feared the challenges? Here in Silicon Valley, Sumaya Kazi is the poster child for intermittent fasting, a new trend in weight control that’s popular among the tech set. Intermittent fasting involves abstaining from food anywhere from sixteen hours to several days – with “normal” eating resumed in between. Enthusiasts say the health benefits extend far beyond weight loss. The BBC’s Health Check team sent Alison van Diggelen to explore the evidence.
“The effects were almost immediate for me: the weight started melting off really early on… I lost about 50 lbs over the first 7 1/2 months.” Sumaya Kazi
Here’s a transcript of my report (edited for length and clarity):
Alison van Diggelen: When 36-year old Sumaya Kazi launched her tech startup in 2010, the long hours, constant traveling and too much eating-out made her pack on the pounds. At over 200 lbs (90 kg), she tried to lose weight by exercising compulsively, trying weightloss groups, and doing weekly meal planning.
Sumaya Kazi: None of them stuck with me or showed me enough progress to stick with it. None of them felt like a lifestyle. When I found IF, it absolutely did for me.
Alison van Diggelen: For Kazi, fasting offered quick results:
Sumaya Kazi: The effects were almost immediate for me: the weight started melting off really early on, to my surprise, because I wasn’t working out at the time. I lost about 50 lbs over the first 7 1/2 months.
Alison van Diggelen: It was a BBC television documentary about fasting that convinced her to give it a try. Research from Johns Hopkins University in animals and humans suggested that fasting could enhance brain function and might evenhelp protect against cancer, strokes and degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Fasting advocates claim it can reduce weight, improve blood sugar,can “re-set” the metabolism, boosts the immunesystem andcan even slow down aging. So what was Kazi’s personal experience?
Sumaya Kazi: I no longer had issues with high blood pressure. I was pre-diabetic early on and no longer have those issues. I no longer have issues of sleep apnea. Also I have more energy, I’m more productive, I feel more focused, I feel food tastes better.
Alison van Diggelen: So what does it involve? Kazi points out that the most popular form of intermittent fasting – or IF – is called “16-8.” That’s 16 hours of fasting followed by 8 hours of eating. Simply cutting out breakfast and eating an early dinner can accomplish that.
But Kazi prefers “alternate day” fasting. For her, Monday, Wednesday and Friday are fast days. The other days she calls “feast days.” This being Silicon Valley, she frames it in binary terms:
Sumaya Kazi:It’s almost like an on-off switch: I know when I should be eating, I know when I should be feasting. It keeps it simple for me. IF isn’t a magic pill. It works when you put it to work. It’s not a diet, it’s not about WHAT you eat, it’s about WHEN you eat. …
Alison van Diggelen: But how does it compare to other weight loss regimens? And are its claims backed up by research?
A professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago recently completed a fasting study with 28 obese patients and found that – like traditional diets – the 16-8 fast could offer an effective method for losing weight – but cautioned that longer-term, large-scale controlled trials are needed.
Santa Clara University Prof Heidi Lidtke, Nutritionist explains fasting for the BBC. Photo by Alison van Diggelen, Fresh Dialogues
I went to a coffee shop in a local bookstore to chat with a nutrition expert, Professor Heidi Lidtke.
Alison van Diggelen: Heidi and I assess the vast array of diet books on the bookstore walls. It’s quite overwhelming.
Heidi Lidtke: What I tell my students is: we should eat real food, mostly plants, not too much and we should enjoy what we eat.
Heidi is an adjunct professor at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley.
Heidi Lidtke: The most exciting research has been done in yeast and it shows that cancer in yeast can be totally stopped…the yeast cells are healthy and the cancer cells die after chemo and fasting. But it’s yeast and humans are NOT yeast. I don’t know how we can translate single cell organisms (yeast) to multi cell organisms – humans.
Alison van Diggelen:So it would be a stretch to say IF can cure cancer?
Heidi Lidtke:There are a lot of studies in rats and mice…It has cured and totally reversed diabetes in rats, not humans…But it’s not totally transferable, right?
Alison van Diggelen: What about studies on humans and diabetes?
Heidi Lidtke: There have been some studies on some of precursors, sugar levels and insulin levels – those can go down in the first couple of months of IF. But all human studies have been small – 35 people….it’s hard to say 35 Turkish people are the same as 35 Americans… It’s hard to extrapolate from the research.
Alison van Diggelen:What would be required to convince scientists, to show this causal connection?
Heidi Lidtke: There would need to be multiple studies in multiple population groups…We’re in the process of doing that, but it takes time.
Alison van Diggelen: But Lidtke remains skeptical, especially about the cancer claimswhich could influence people when they’re feeling vulnerable.
Heidi Lidtke: My initial reaction? Interesting…I have concerns for some people at risk…people are forgoing scientifically validated treatment…that people are going to fast instead of getting chemo…I have concerns.
Alison van Diggelen: Lidtke also points out that fasting is not for everyone – and could be dangerous for those with eating disorders (like anorexia or bulimia). And she recommends discussing it witha doctor before trying it.
Heidi Lidtke: For someone who’s got disordered eating it just feeds into that and gives them a framework.
Alison van Diggelen: So how does IF compare to other diets?
Heidi Lidtke: The research on IF is really slim and then research comparisons are even slimmer. It’s hard to do comparisons. The diet that works is the one you stick to. If you’re able to stick and keep the weight off, then that’s the one that works.
Alison van Diggelen: Lidtke emphasizes that there’s no diet that works for everyone and scientific research is limited, but she does single out the “DASH” diet which has been studied by the National Institutes of Health and is recommended by the US Dept of Agriculture in its nutrition guidelines. It’s rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy foods; and limited in sweetened foods and drinks, red meat, and fatsand has been proven to reduce blood pressure and hypertension, even without weight loss.
So, after hearing all the caveats, foranyone still keen to try fasting, Sumaya Kazi has three top tips….
Sumaya Kazi:
Look at IF as an experiment – It’s really better to approach it as something that you’re trying on for size…Feel free to experiment with the different schedules.
Give it some time. The first couple of days, you’ll likely be hangry, mad about starting. It’s about getting into the habit. Give it a fighting chance, push through and understand why you’re feeling what you’re feeling. After 2 weeks it’s going to start feeling like something you can actually do.
Sparkling water will be your best friend…carbonated water can help you feel full on fast days.
Alison van Diggelen: A small study in the US recently showed that fasting caused some people to experience lower blood pressure and improvements in processing sugar. But downsides like headaches, drowsiness and increased thirst were also reported. The bottom line is this: Despite Sumaya Kazi’s impressive transformation, to say that intermittent fasting is an enduring answer for everyone’s weight loss and general health: larger, longer-term studies are needed.
James: Right now I got a prescription refilled, and the doctor was like: do you need a shelter bed for tonight? Are there other things I can do for you? I’m very impressed with how kind and helpful they are…going above and beyond to find what else they can do for me.
Alison van Diggelen: The clinic delivers a comprehensive health care treatment plan, prescriptions for detox medications and even helps patients find a roof for the night.
