Cutting for Stone Powerpoint Presentation Notes

Cutting for Stone Powerpoint Presentation Notes

•“I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this art.”

--Hippocratic Oath

Cutting for stone refers to cutting to remove kidney stones, gall stones, etc. When doctors graduate, they promise the above as part of the Hippocratic oath. They will not perform surgeries that they are not capable of doing well, thereby protecting the patient and themselves. Additionally, the title plays on his father’s name, and his own name. He became a surgeon because he loves it, but also because of the influence of both of his fathers. He is cutting for Stone.

•He was born to Indian parents in Ethiopia in 1955

•His family is originally from Kerala, India

•Both his parents were school teachers

They were a part of the many teachers that came from India to teach in Ethiopia at this time period.

He grew up and began medical school, but was forced to flee in ’73 when the revolutions were occurring. He ended up in New Jersey with his family, who had emigrated a few years before. He eventually was encouraged by his aunt to finish medical school, so he returned to Madras, India.

He began his work at East Ten. University because he wanted to avoid the sorts of hospitals where Marion ends up in the novel. He wanted to be a doctor that did not get stuck at the low level treatment centers, and that never ended up getting to work at “Mecca.” He eventually got his wish, working both at Boston University and Stanford, and establishing a medical ethics center at Texas Tech.

His primary focus in medicine has been on how bedside manner can improve a patients experience and recovery. He refused to go into research because he wanted to do more than just look at tests day in and day out. He wanted to do something different and teaching allowed him to do that.

He has written two other books, My Own Country and Tennis Partner. My Own Country focuses on his relationship to the AIDS epidemic and how it was experienced in the small towns of Ten. Where he worked. Tennis Partner explores the relationship that doctors have with substance abuse, particularly focusing on his own story of his good friend, a doctor, dying of an overdose.

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Sister Mary Joseph Praise was a “…Malayali from Cochin, in the state of Kerala” (P. 15)

Malayali (also spelled Malayalee; Malayalam:മലയാളി, Malayāḷi?; plural: Malayalikal) is the term used to refer to the native speakers of Malayalam, originating from the Indian state of Kerala. The Malayali identity is primarily linguistic, although in recent times the definition has been broadened to include emigrants of Malayali descent who partly maintain Malayali cultural traditions, even if they do not regularly speak the language. While the origins of the Malayali people are in the state of Kerala, significant populations also exist in other parts of India, the Middle East, Europe and North America. According to the Indian census of 2001, there were 30,803,747 speakers of Malayalam in Kerala,[6] making up 96.7% of the total population of that state. Hence the word Keralite is often used in the same context, though a proper definition is ambiguous.

An Anglo-Indian culture arised as Europeans and Malayalis intermarried

P. 15 – “It was 1947, and the British were finally leaving India; the Quit India Movement had made the impossible come about.”

1939 - India and Britain went to war against Germany and Ghandi started the Quit Movement in 1942 to gain independence of India

• While the Congress in India was also opposed to fascism, it was hard to choose between Nazis Germany and the colonialism of Britain. Since this was not India’s war, congress expected a withdrawal from India in exchange for their support. In an effort to persuade Britain to negotiate, Ghandi launched his Quit Movement in 1942 and issued a large meeting in Bombay, the famous call to ‘do or die’. Indians would undergo one final attempt to achieve independence or die doing so. Ghandi was held responsible for large-scale acts of violence and sabotage. While the Muslim League supported Britain yet failed to gain support among Muslim voters before the war, Muslims showed their support in the elections in 1946. Quit Movement was thus seen as controversial. This was all a part of the India Independence Movement. The Indian Independence Act was an Act of Parliament issued by the United Kingdom on July 18th, 1947 and the two new countries appeared in August.
• p. 15 “…Indians carrying Christ’s love to darkest Africa…”
• “My mother, Sister Mary Josheph Praise, was a Malayali from Cochin, in the state of Kerala. Malayali Christians traced their faith back to St. Thomas’s arrival in India from Damascus in A.D. 52.” (P. 15)
• Thomas was considered an important apostle of Christ. According to the Passing of Mary text, he was the only witness of the Assumption of Mary into heaven.

"It was to a land of dark people he was sent, to clothe them by Baptism in white robes. His grateful dawn dispelled India's painful darkness. It was his mission to espouse India to the One-Begotten. The merchant is blessed for having so great a treasure. Edessa thus became the blessed city by possessing the greatest pearl India could yield. Thomas works miracles in India, and at Edessa Thomas is destined to baptize peoples perverse and steeped in darkness, and that in the land of India." – Hymns of St. Ephraem, edited by Lamy (Ephr. Hymni et Sermones, IV).

St. Thomas was thought to arrive in India in in 52AD to spread the Christian faith to the Jewish diaspora in Kerala. Here he established "Seven and Half Churches". These churches are at Kodungallur, Kollam, Niranam (Niranam St.Marys Orthodox Church, Nilackal (Chayal), Kokkamangalam, Kottakkayal (Paravoor), Palayoor (Chattukulangara) and Thiruvithancode Arappally – the half church. He also spread the Christian faith in Palayoor, which was the Hindu priestly community at that time. A long public tradition in the church at Edessa honoring Thomas as the Apostle of India resulted in several surviving hymns that are attributed to Ephrem, copied in codices of the 8th and 9th centuries. References in the hymns preserve the tradition that Thomas' bones were brought from India to Edessa by a merchant, and that the relics worked miracles both in India and at Edessa.

According to The Passing of Mary, a text attributed to Joseph of Arimathaea,[11] Thomas was the only witness of the Assumption of Mary into heaven. The other apostles were miraculously transported to Jerusalem to witness her death. Thomas was left in India, but after her first burial he was transported to her tomb, where he witnessed her bodily assumption into heaven, from which she dropped her girdle. In an inversion of the story of Thomas' doubts, the other apostles are skeptical of Thomas' story until they see the empty tomb and the girdle.[12] Thomas' receipt of the girdle is commonly depicted in medieval and pre-Tridentine Renaissance art,[13][14], the apostle's infamous doubting reduced to a metaphorical knot in the Bavarian baroque Mary Untier of Knots.

• P. 27- “….Stone, risen like Lazarus, then brought his entire being into understanding the fever.”

St. Thomas was present when Lazarus was raised from the dead. This connects to the fact that Sister Mary Joseph Praise, who was on a Christian missionary trip like St. Thomas, was the one who nursed Stone back to life.

• p. 16 – “….my mother became a Carmelite nun, abandoning the ancient Syrian Christian tradition of St. Thomas to embrace…this Johnny-come-lately, pope-worshiping sect. They couldn’t have been more disappointed had she become a Muslim or a Hindu. It was a good thing her parents didn’t know that she was also a nurse, which to them would mean that she soiled her hands like an untouchable.”
• The arrival of Europeans and the Portuguese in the 15th century formed Catholic and Orthodox communities

On his second voyage, Vasco da Gama inflicted acts of cruelty upon competing traders and local inhabitants, which sealed his notoriety in India.[27][28] During his second voyage to Calicut, da Gama intercepted a ship of Muslim pilgrims at Madayi travelling from Calicut to Mecca. Described in detail by eyewitness Thomé Lopes and chronicler Gaspar Correia as one that is unequalled in cold-blooded cruelty, da Gama looted the ship with over 400 pilgrims on board including 50 women, locked in the passengers, the owner and an ambassador from Egypt and burnt them to death. They offered their wealth which 'could ransom all the Christian slaves in the Kingdom of Fez and much more' but were not spared. Da Gama looked on through the porthole and saw the women bringing up their gold and jewels and holding up their babies to beg for mercy.'[29]

He demanded the expulsion of Muslims and Hindus

• P. 14 – “Her two young nuns would cross the ocean, and then the Madras Discalced Carmelite Mission to Africa would begin.”

Carmelite Missions have become a part of the Catholic tradition. Mother Theresa inspired these missions. As a young child, she would save pennies for the children in China. Later when she fell ill with Tuberculosis at the age of 24, she told her Sisters not to save money for her burial, but for the missions in China and in Africa.

Ethiopian Cultures/Languages

“Rosina’s Amharic makes Almaz and Bebrew laugh because her guttural, throat-clearing syllable don’t really exist in Amharic…Italinya comes easily to her, and strangely its meaning is clear, even though no one else speaks it, such is the nature of that language. When she speaks to herself, or sings, it is in her Eritrean tongue – Tigrinya – and then her voice is unlocked, the words pouring out.” (p. 224)

The Ethiopian population is very diverse (over 80 ethnic groups). . Most people in Ethiopia speak Afro-Asiatic languages, mainly of the Semitic or Cushitic branches. The latter include the Oromo, Amhara, Tigray and Somali, who together make up three-quarters of the population. According to the Ethiopian national census of 2007, the Oromo are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, at 34.49% of the nation's population. The Amhara represent 26.89% of the country's inhabitants, while the Somali and Tigray represent 6.20% and 6.07% of the population, respectively.

It is typical in multiethnic countries that a single tongue comes to dominate as the nation's written language. In Ethiopia, this language is Amharic, a Semitic tongue.

The Afro-Asiatic (Hamo Semitic) language group, which includes the Semitic and Cushitic languages of Ethiopia, developed during the eighth millennium BC (BCE). Amharic has long been the dominant language, but Ethiopia itself was always a conglomeration of peoples. Today, Ethiopia's principle ethnic groups are Oromo (about 40 percent), Amhara and Tigrea (32 percent), and Sidamo (9 percent). Tigrinya and Orominga are widely spoken.

Ethiopian History

• Early colonization in Ethiopia (e.g. Italy) categorized the natives as dark Caucasians. However, the majority of the population is black.
• Some Ethiopian peoples, such as the Surma, were clearly tribal and semi-nomadic, while others were more reliant on agriculture. It's difficult to generalize about such a complex ethnic mix of peoples.
• Ethiopia has cultural ties to the Mediterranean

Egyptians believe that their ancestors were Ethiopian and that an Ethiopian dynasty was set up in Egypt in 720 BC (BCE). Historical inscriptions indicate the early Egyptians knew of Ethiopia’s existence.

• Biblical connections to Ethiopia

According to the tradition, Etiopik, the great-grandson of Noah founded the Ethiopian nation. Queen Makeda of Sabea (Sheba) was a part of this Ethiopian dynasty. She visited Jerusalem and had a son with King Solomon named Menelik (son of king). He started the “Solomonic Dynasty” in Ethiopia, which lasted until 1974 (therefore Emperor Selassie is a part of this dynasty). It is believed that King Menelik visited King Solomon, learned the Mosaic Law, and returned to Ethiopia with the Ark of the Covenant. Therefore, there is a strong Christian influence in Ethiopia.

• Ancient Greeks and Romans knew of Ethiopia and also traded with them

Greek King Ezana was famous for Christianizing Axum in Ethiopia (northern Tigray region near Adwa). Axum traded with Arabia, India, Rome and Persia. The Axumites spoke a language called Ge'ez, written with the Sabaean alphabet. With the support of the Patriarch of Alexandria, the Axumite emperor Caleb fought a war against Jewish traders and colonists in Yemen in AD 523 (523 CE) in response to the persecution of Christians there, imposing Ethiopian administration for a time.

Reign of Haile Selassie November 2nd, 1930 – September 12th, 1974

• With British backing, Haile Selassie returned to defeat the Italian army

The Emperor's speech to the League of Nations denouncing the Italian invasion is remembered more than the aggression itself. It prompted essentially ineffectual international trade sanctions against a European nation but, like the Battle of Adwa four decades earlier (1896 battle fought between Ethiopia and Italy. Italy was defeated and lost its hope in being the representative of Ethiopia in foreign affairs), represented in a tangible way one of the few occasions in the modern era that an African nation defied the arrogance of a European one.

He destroyed the military and political power of the feudal aristocracy. He integrated Ethiopia into a capitalist system and as a result, the ruling class gained a lot of resources. For example, in Addis Ababa, over 80% of the land was owned by the 20 noble families and the Orthodox Church.

1960 Attempted Coup

• Coup d’etat staged in Ethiopia in order to overthrow Haile Selassie. While he was away on a state visit to Brazil, Germame Neway and his older brother Brigadier General Mengistu Neway commanded Kebur Zabangna (the Imperial Bodygurad) to take hostage of ministers and other important people. Then after taking control of most of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, they declared the regime of Haile Selassie had been deposed and announced the beginning of a new, more progressive government under the rule of Haile Selassie's eldest son, Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen that would address the numerous economic and social problems Ethiopia faced. Haile Selassie University students supported this effort. However, other military units remained loyal and worked together to crush the coup. By 17 December, loyalists had regained control of Addis Ababa and the conspirators were either dead or had fled the capital.

Germame Neway was seen as the motivator of the coup. He was a progressive and activist governor who was frustrated with the current way of living. He encouraged the Oromo inhabitants of Wellamu to build roads, bridges, and schools. Since the landlords were agitated with his demands, he was re-assigned to Jijiga, where he confronted the poverty and underdevelopment of this region. Germame convinced his brother, Mengistu, that they needed a military coup. Mengistu and his brother joined with Chief of Security Colonel Warqenah Gabayahu, and Police Commissioner Brigadier General Tsege Dibu. After capturing ministers, gaining control of Addis Ababa, and reading the proclamation of a new government under the new Crown Prince, and gaining the support of the University students, the loyalists informed the Emperor of this coup and secured the Ethiopian Air Force. As the fighting broke out, many of the inhabitants gave their support to the loyalists. General Tsege was killed in the fighting; Colonel Warqenah committed suicide.[11] Mengistu and Germame evaded capture until 24 December 1960 when they were surrounded by the army near Mojo. Rather than face capture, Germame committed suicide; Mengistu surrendered. He was hanged a few months later.

Ethiopian Student Movement in the Struggle Against Imperialism 1960-1974

• Increase in national diversity and students influenced the support for a radical critique of the old social system
• Support for the 1960 attempted coup
• September 1961 – Etrinean Liberation Front (ELF) operated against the government
• Haile Selassie provided 27 scholarships for non-Ethiopia African students to attend the Haile Selassie University.

These students came from more from highly politicized societies.

• Goal of movement was to sharpen relations between dictatorship of Selassie and those being exploited (peasants).
• In 1974 an Ethiopian student leader argued against such gradualism:
• "We are supposed to prepare the people for change, but they are ready for change. Peasants have started shooting their landlords. They know that landlords are the cause of most of their hardships [...] We want the establishment of [a] provisional people’s republic, the grant of all democratic rights, and a fundamental change of the socio-economic structure of society."
• Majority of Ethiopian students from lower social strata (rural)

They were predominantly the children of merchants, clerks, soldiers, junior civil servants, and peasants. Three quarters of the students in a survey of university freshmen conducted in the 1960s received no financial support from their families. Only a third lived at home with their parents. The fathers of 82 percent of these students had received only traditional church education, or none at all.