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SEPTEMBER 2004 |
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Publisher's Note
Stephen Hawking is a celebrated titan in theoretical physics and one of the few scientists whose popularity extends beyond the esoteric field of astronomy and quantum physics. In 1975, he gave broad shape to the theory of “black holes,” those mysterious bodies in space that result from the gravitational collapse of massive stars and, according to his theory, destroy everything that falls into them, preventing even light or information to escape. That was the theory. But even brilliant scientists can make mistakes, and Mumbai-based theoretical physicist Abhas Mitra took on the international celebrity, questioning the existence of black holes in a paper four years ago. The result was brutal: his colleagues deserted him, and his employing institution transferred him. But Mitra persevered, and recently Hawking himself has admitted a flaw in his theory of black holes. Our cover story offers details on this fascinating story about cutting-edge theoretical physics. MAIN FEATURE  You're Wrong, Stephen Hawking!The Triumph of Abhas Mitra Deepak Goyal World-famous Cambridge University astrophysicist Stephen Hawking is used to having the last word in his field. For over 30 years Hawking and his followers promoted the theory that black holes — resulting from gravitational collapse of massive stars — destroy everything that falls into them preventing even light or information to escape. Four years ago, BARC physicist Abhas Mitra dared to question Hawking in a paper, and became a pariah. Now Hawking says his theory was flawed, and Mitra is vindicated. Deepak Goyal reports. Stephen Hawking, the world-famous Cambridge University astrophysicist who wrote the bestselling “A Brief History of Time,” is used to having the last word in his field. For over 30 years, Hawking, regarded by many as the modern-day Einstein, has promoted the theory, backed by his countless followers, that black holes—resulting from gravitational collapse of massive stars—destroy everything that falls into them preventing even light or information to escape. Now Hawking is revising his 1975 ideas that are regarded as the most astonishing breakthrough in black hole studies. At a packed lecture hall at the 17th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation in Dublin recently, he presented his new views in a presentation entitled “The Information Paradox for Black Holes.”
He now believes that black holes may allow information to get out. His new research could even help solve the “black hole information paradox,” a crucial puzzle for modern physics. The intriguing thing about all this is that an Indian scientist said his theory was flawed four years ago, but nobody listened. Abhas Mitra, a physicist with the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai, could well be the only scientist who had the guts to openly challenge Hawking on this. Four years ago, in a paper in the journal Foundations of Physics Letters, Mitra showed that Hawking’s theory was flawed. He proved black holes couldn’t exist because their formation and existence flouted Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Pretty much the overwhelming majority of mainstream scientists dismissed Mitra’s conclusions. Mitra invited several notable black hole theorists including Hawking and Jayant Narlikar of India to criticize his work but no one replied. The only Indian who praised Mitra’s work was relativist Pankaj Joshi of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai. Too “embarrassed” to be associated with a man who challenged Hawking, even Mitra’s close colleagues avoided him. BARC authorities removed Mitra from the theoretical physics division on a flimsy pretext. This is not the first time an Indian scientist has been pooh-poohed, only to be proved right years later. In the 1930s when Subramanian Chandrasekhar’s work on the upper mass limit of white dwarfs was considered incorrect by celebrated astrophysicists like Sir Arthur Eddington even though no one could precisely point out any error in Chandra’s work. “The ironic element in this whole exercise,” Mitra told PTI, “is that the person who actually dared to show that there cannot be any black holes was completely ignored both by the academicians and the media.” Yet Hawking’s own admission two weeks ago in Dublin is that there isn’t a black hole “in the absolute sense.” In essence, Hawking’s “new” black holes never quite become the kind that gobble up everything. Instead, they keep emitting radiation for a long time—exactly what Mitra showed in his paper. A black hole is characterized by an imaginary boundary called the “event horizon” that shuts everything within. But in 1976 Hawking introduced quantum mechanics into the problem and claimed that black holes do radiate energy—although at a low rate—and ultimately vanish into nothingness. The vanishing act, however, destroys all the trapped information as well—directly conflicting with the laws of quantum physics that say that information can never be completely wiped out. This is the “information loss paradox” associated with black holes that, in a way, was created by Hawking’s own work. One logical resolution of this paradox would have been to realize that black holes did not exist. But Mitra says that such sweeping, yet logical thinking “was never undertaken by either party involved in this prolonged debate and they kept on debating effectively to make the paradox more popular and perpetuating.” It was then that Mitra published his seminal paper showing that gravitational collapse of massive star can at best produce an “eternally collapsing object” but not an “event horizon” or a black hole in the strict sense. “Since no event horizon is formed, there is no paradox at all in the first place,” Mitra argued. Mitra’s work inspired American physicists Stanley Robertson and Darryl Leiter who confirmed in 2002 that Black Hole Candidates suggested earlier by Mitra have intense magnetic fields as predicted by Mitra and therefore are not real black holes, which cannot have magnetic fields. His own colleagues sidelined Mitra after his first paper, but several physicists around the world supported him. Italian relativist Salvatore Antocia, a noted relativist, wrote: “Let me express to you my great joy in seeing your much-disputed paper eventually accepted for publication by Foundations of Physics Letters. Convincing the community of relativists about the mythical nature of black holes will remain a tremendous task, but it is a little less desperate, thanks to your success.” British physicist Peder Norberg and U.S. relativist Stanley Robertson backed him as well. Robertson wrote: “On first becoming acquainted with your work, I was dubious, thinking it unlikely that something as profound as belief in the existence of black holes could become erroneously established in the literature. In the meanwhile, I have found no errors in your work. It is fascinating.” - Deepak Goyal is a freelance writer. He lives in Kolkata, India. |TOP|
INFOTECH INDIA  Not My Job! ... 2,000th iWay Cyber Café ... Fairfax County Beckons ... TCS Shares Are Hot ... Supercomputer Kalpana ... AIDS Drugs Withdrawn ... Teletracking at Bus Terminal ... Optical Solutions for Huawei ... New IT destinations ... Menlo Eyes India ... Flexitronics Acquires Future Software — Here is the latest on information technology from India Not My Job! While 85 percent of U.S. workers believe offshoring has a negative impact on the American economy, less than 10 percent of workers are strongly concerned that their own jobs are in danger of being sent overseas, according to a new survey. Workers in non-supervisory professional and technical roles are more likely than those in either management or hourly and clerical positions to feel strongly that their jobs may be at risk, according to the survey by Watson Wyatt, a leading human capital consulting firm. “Although American workers, in general, are very concerned about the impact of offshoring on the economy, they apparently have little concern offshoring will affect them personally,” said Bruce Pfau, national practice director for organization effectiveness at Watson Wyatt. “Nevertheless, the degree of this confidence seems to vary somewhat by employee job role.” The recent WorkUSA Pulse survey, the second in an ongoing series, reveals that only eight percent of all respondents are strongly concerned that their own job is at risk, while 22 percent are concerned to some or a small extent and 69 percent are not at all concerned. The 2,000th iWay cyber cafe was inaugurated on the 60th birth anniversary of the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, by union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Jaipal Reddy at the capital city, a company release said. While Sify owns 34 iWays out of the total 2,000, the remaining 1,966 are owned and managed by franchisees. The 2,000 iWays are spread in 64 locations across the country. Sify iWays provide a variety of services that include broadband Internet access, net telephony to over 150 countries and video conferencing, the release said. The county, situated in the Greater Washington area, has similar offices in Tel Aviv, London, Tokyo and Frankfurt. Nine Indian companies are already operating in Fairfax, says the county’s Economic Development Authority. The companies include Guru Infotech, HCL Technologies America, Indotronix, Indus and Megasoft. “More and more Indian firms are expressing interest in opening a U.S. office, and we want to be in place to assist in their location decisions,” said Gerald L. Gordon, president of the authority. Fairfax promotes its proximity to Washington and Dulles International Airport and its booming high-tech industries. Of the 4,400 information technology companies in the United States, 245 are foreign-owned, the county says. The scrip of the country’s largest IT company generally traded Aug. 25 at prices in excess of Rs. 1,000 per share. The first trade on BSE was struck at Rs. 1,076 for 50 shares while on the NSE TCS stock opened at Rs. 1,198.70, which was also the day’s highest, according to data available with the exchanges. The total number of shares traded on BSE stood at 6.536 million for a turnover value of Rs. 6.56 billion while on NSE the volume of traded shares was more than double at 17.1 million shares valued at Rs. 17.26 billion. The scrip touched a high of Rs. 1,080 on the BSE while it hit a low of Rs. 979. In the case of NSE, it peaked to Rs. 1,198.70 and fell to a low of Rs. 979. Analysts said the difference of Rs. 200 between the listing and the issue price on NSE was one of the largest ever in recent times. Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata and managing director S. Ramadorai were present at NSE when the scrip made its debut at the electronic exchange. Incidentally, the software at NSE has been developed and implemented by TCS. DSP Merrill Lynch chairman Hemendra Kothari said the listing propels TCS to become the third largest company by market cap in the country. Naming the new supercomputer “Kalpana” follows a long tradition at NASA’s Ames Research Centre of calling its new supercomputers after pioneers in the supercomputer industry or individuals who have significantly contributed to research at the aircraft research laboratory. “It is indeed an honor to name NASA’s new SGI Altix 3000 supercomputer after Kalpana Chawla,” said Ames Centre director G. Scott Hubbard. “She was not only a member of the NASA family, but also a special member of our own Ames family. We all miss her and her many contributions to the agency.” At Ames, Chawla had the challenging task of computing the airflow surrounding a jet-supported, delta-wing aircraft during landing. During an interview in 1995, Chawla predicted that her exposure to a wide variety of computer systems at Ames would be especially useful to her as an astronaut. Of the dozens of experiments successfully conducted by the Columbia crew, Chawla’s favorite was the Israeli Mediterranean dust experiment, which involved pointing a camera at earth to study the effects of dust on weather and the environment. This follows a similar action by WHO last May on two AIDS drugs manufactured by Cipla. A WHO press release issued in Geneva said that the three antiretrovirals will be removed from the list until such time as Ranbaxy can submit data of new studies providing unequivocal evidence of the products bioequivalence with the originator medicines. WHO said it “is committed to ensuring that the medicines it prequalifies for procurement in developing countries are of the highest standard.” The antiretrovirals in question are the triple fixed-dose combination pill containing lamivudine, stavudine and nevirapine in two different strengths and a lamivudine plus zidovudine tablet. While the three Ranbaxy products meet quality specifications, proof of bioequivalence is missing in view of non-compliance with good clinical and laboratory practices as well as data handling requirements found in the contracted laboratory, WHO said. This effectively means that the medicines may or may not offer the same therapeutic benefits as the originals on which they are based. Ranbaxy has undertaken to resubmit the products in question to a different laboratory for proof of bioequivalence. The project is funded by the union Ministry of Heavy Industries and will be implemented in a year’s time, P. Srinivasa Raghavan of Harita Infoserve told reporters here. He said an investment of Rs. 30 million has been estimated for the project. “The project, once implemented, will help in tracking the buses coming in and out of the terminal,” Raghavan said. There are about 100 buses plying from the Koyambedu bus terminal to various parts of the state. “The teletracking facility will indicate to passengers in advance the arrival of vehicles to the terminal. This will also help in scheduling the buses at the bus terminal,” he said. IBM, which had taken a lead in setting up a similar project in Korea, is expected to assist Harita Infoserve in its Chennai initiative. The Bangalore R&D centre, employing 700 high end software professionals, has built the core platform for the intelligent network and the next generation telecom switches for the Chinese firm’s global customers. “Our Indian professionals are working on the next generation products in 3G mobile and optical network and their software becomes the core platform,” Huawei Technologies India chief operating officer James Yuan told PTI here. Huawei, which has invested $80 million since setting up its India R&D centre in 1999 here, home to telecom professionals, last year said it would spend an additional $100 million by 2006. The firm is finalizing plans to build a new campus over 40 acres of land to house 2,000 professionals, he said. “We have become aggressive on campus hiring and are looking at freshers who can be trained in the telecom domain,” James said, adding, the firm intends to ramp up its workforce to 2,000 by 2006. “We are planning to showcase the secondary cities in the state as IT destinations,” Karnataka IT, Biotechnology and Science and Technology secretary M.K. Shankaralinge Gowda told PTI in Bangalore. The state’s capital Bangalore is already a major IT hub and widely regarded as India’s Silicon Valley. Hubli and Belgaum are other cities that would be promoted, he said, adding, the state would also seek increased investment by foreign companies in IT firms in these localities. At present, Karnataka employs around 2,10000 staff in various segment including BPO, IT and ITeS segments, while Infosys Technologies Ltd alone had earlier announced a recruitment of over 5,000 this year. The company has identified India as one of the key markets along with China, Mexico and England, and will grow its human resource base from the current 200 to meet demands from the fast expanding business, Menlo (UK, West South Asia) managing director Stuart Richardson told reporters in Mumbai Aug. 26. The company will open four new offices in the Indian cities, Jaipur, Agra, Pune and Chandigarh, taking its sales and operations offices to 13, he said. The firm, which operates in India through its wholly-owned subsidiary Menlo Worldwide Forwarding India Pvt Ltd, will pump additional capital in new projects, he added. On using India as an outsourcing base for the company’s global operations, he said Menlo is in the process of moving a part of its accounting section from U.K. to India by next month. “We would like to leverage cost-competitive and high quality talent in India. However, any expansion in back office operations will be done after giving due considerations to the labor market conditions in England,” he added. According to the deal, Flexitronics will buy the entire shares of Future Software and make the latter its fully-owned subsidiary, K.V. Ramani, chairman and managing director of Future Software, told reporters. “The management and all the 600 employees of Future Software will now be part of Flexitronics,” Ramani said. Flexitronics, he said, would buy the 55 percent stake held by Ramani. The stakes held by Intel (13 percent), IL&FS (13 percent) and the employees (12 percent) will also be bought by Flexitronics. The remaining stake held by former employees would also be bought by Flexitronics. He, however, refused to divulge the size of the deal. “The amount involved will be announced only after Flexitronics get the final approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board and the RBI,” Ramani said. He said the acquisition was part of Flexitronics’ larger plan to make India its base for embedded software space. Future Software, which has offices in Chennai, the U.S. and Europe, had revenues of $25 million in the year ended March 2004. Recently, Flexitronics bought 55 percent stake in telecom software firm Hughes Software Systems. It also made $10 million investment in Silica, a semiconductor design firm based in Bangalore.
SOCIETY
 The Trouble with English: India's Love-hate Ties - By Siddharth Srivastava English is still a political hot potato in India, despite the fact that the language has changed India, and Indians are now changing the language, writes Siddharth Srivastava. Although a sizeable population speaks English in India , the language is not just a medium of communication. Its peculiar socio-political context makes it a potent political tool and few demagogues or politicians are averse to exploiting the language issue. The language itself is claiming millions of adherents because savvy folks have taken note of the fact that the success of Indian information technology, business process and outsourcing industry is pegged to knowledge of English. This is hardly a uniquely Indian phenomenon — around the world, the Chinese and even the Germans are starting off their kids with an English curriculum. However, the fact is the language is a divide between India’s haves and have-nots, as there is a connection between economic progress and English speaking. So English is a useful political tool to curry favor with the vast masses who, ironically, do not even have access to basic education in the local language. Take the case of K.S. Sudershan, the chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, the right-wing ideological arm of the sangh parivar that also comprises the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. He recently said that English education exposes children to — I kid you not — lesbianism and free sex. Sudershan’s rant against the “alien tongue” included assertions that English simply cannot rival the rich vocabulary and emotional texture of India’s regional languages that should be used to the research level. To those more clued into the Indian political scene, Sudershan’s attack was aimed more against the Christian missionaries who work with the poor and impart the English language, as the sangh parivar is wedded to Hindutva, a philosophy that promotes majority Hindu rule. Socialists, who include prominent regional political chieftains such as Mulayam Singh Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) and Lalu Prasad Yadav (Bihar), publicly espouse an anti-English stance to appeal to parochial and regional sentiments. Hindi-medium schools are encouraged in the two states, while the children of both the leaders have studied in expensive English private schools and abroad. The likes of Lalu, Mulayam and Sudarshan realize that given the state of mass poverty with little or no hope of social mobility, it is appeals based on religion, caste and language that coalesce a vote base. Lalu once famously said that computers are anti-poor, (one of his sons-in-law works for Infosys, India’s software giant). The professed love for the vernacular of the elite sometimes can draw an unexpected backlash. Commentator Dileep Padgaonkar wrote in a recent article: “At a public meeting a famous Marathi poet held forth on the scant interest that Maharashtrian youth took in their language. He cited the example of his granddaughter. She lived and studied in America. Over the years she had forgotten her Marathi. Cut off from her roots, the poet said, she was an Indian only in name. “Echoing Martin Luther King, the poet then turned lyrical: ‘I have a dream. I’m walking through the forest adjoining my native village. Suddenly I hear a haunting melody. I approach a clearing where I find a young girl tending half a dozen goats. It was her voice that I had heard. And she was singing one of my very own poems. At that instant I knew that if Marathi survives at all it will be thanks to people like that shepherdess. “The audience was moved to tears. Just then a man seated at the far end of the hall asked for the floor. This is what he had to say to the poet: ‘I belong to the shepherd community. I would want my daughter to live in a comfortable house in America and study to become a doctor. I would not mind if she forgets her Marathi. Let your grand-daughter live in a hut in my village, tend goats all day and sing your poems to her heart’s content. Is that a deal?’ The audience sat dumbfounded while the poet wore a sheepish look.” Meanwhile, Indianisms go beyond politics as the language undergoes more and more inclusive twists and turns due to the large number of Indian English-speaking users. Indians have added their share of Indianisms that further enrich today’s global lingua franca. The newest edition of the 93-year-old Concise Oxford Dictionary — considered the world’s favorite word repository — has turned eclectic, incorporating several Indianisms like adda (local joint), langar (community eatery) and dicky (car storage space) which are now part of the Queen’s English, however clueless Her Majesty may be about the newest entrants to her language. Catherine Soanes, co-editor of the dictionary, says that the dictionary is simply doing its job in telling people the meanings of words they hear every day on the streets of cities anywhere in the world. “Language change is happening very fast, and we are very selective, I can assure you,” said Soanes, “But the Indianisms were a simple need. The 50 more new Indian entries in this 11th edition of the COD merely reflect the wider influence and growing prominence of Indian English in the world. Like Australian English, with its easy, sundowner spirit of ‘barbies’ (or barbecues) and other TV soap opera staples, Indian English is literally infecting the way the world speaks.” As the COD carefully explains, it’s all about giving free rein to the living language so long as it is correctly spelt. It is on the Internet that one finds the true free-spirited expressions. India’s Silicon Valley, Bangalore, has become the second modern city in the world to be turned into a verb after “Shanghaied” — “Bangalored” broadly means being moved forcibly, thanks to outsourcing, as in: “I am a software developer who is about to be Bangalored. Fine. I am not going to pout about it.” This is what a participant in the online forum Technewsworld has written. Although there have been other geographical places that have been turned into words (called toponyms for example, Frankfurter, Balkanization, Finlandized), few cities have taken a verb form. Meanwhile Americans, as is their wont, can turn every controversy into a few extra bucks. An online anti-outsourcing Web site is marketing a T-shirt sporting “Don’t Get Bangalored,” suggesting the loss of one’s job to outsourcing. The T-shirts, available in two designs, are priced at $15.99. A Web site of American infotech professionals sells an even pricier T-shirt ($19.99) that reads, “My Job Went To India And All I Got Was A Stupid T-Shirt.” - Siddharth Srivastava is a journalist. He lives in New Delhi. |TOP| HEALTH  Web Surfer Beware:Gauging Health Advice By Kate Christensen, MD. The Internet is a marvelous tool for information on health, but blind faith is risky, writes Kate Christensen, M.D. As a physician, I’m pleased when patients become active participants in their own health matters, but I’m increasingly concerned about the abundance of questionable health information online. When consulting the Internet, all health information seekers need to be skeptical and carefully scrutinize health-related Web sites. While many sites appear and “feel” legitimate, this is clearly a case of “Web surfers beware.” Only about one-quarter of “health seekers” thoroughly check the source and timeliness of health information they find on the Web. Half of all health seekers check health Web sites’ credibility “only sometimes,” “hardly ever,” or “never.” Here are a few suggestions: Consider the source. Who is providing the information? Who is the author of the Web site health information? Does the author have medical training? Is this a credible source that provides information you can rely on? Health information providers who take their role seriously should furnish you with this information. Look for the URAC seal — this independent association only accredits health Web sites that meet its rigorous standards, including the criteria just mentioned. Consider the purpose. What is the Web site trying to do? Who developed the Web site and why? Who sponsors the Web site? Is the organization in question trying to sell you something? Or is their purpose to inform and educate? Is the health information surrounded by ads? What motive would they have for providing access to this particular information? Consider the date. Is the information current? Current information is especially important when addressing health topics. Web sites offering medical advice and information should provide you with publication dates of all health information and any relevant medical and/or pharmaceutical studies. If the information is more than a few years old, it may be out of date. In some cases, just a few months can make a big difference. Get a second, third or fourth opinion. Give yourself a chance to compare notes by visiting several Web sites offering related information. Use the same selection criteria mentioned above to make sure you’re comparing information between credible health information providers. Mix it up — look at informational Web sites, your medical provider’s site (if available) and Web sites from relevant associations, non-profit organizations like the American Heart Association and national health agencies, like healthfinder.gov.
Wise health consumers should see the Internet for what it is: a great source of information that can help people become more knowledgeable participants in managing their health. It is a resource, not the resource. - Dr. Kate Christensen, M.D., is medical director of |TOP| INNOVATION  Mass Computing:Raj Reddy's PCTVt A Siliconeer Report Everybody talks about the digital divide. Robotics expert and Carnegie Mellon professor Raj Reddy is going to do something about it. A Siliconeer report. The digital divide is something we talk about, but what actually is being done about it? The actual accomplishments of trying to bring the fruits of information technology to the masses is quite negligible compared to the pious protestations and hot air the debate has generated. Some interesting pioneering work has indeed been done: farmers emailing in Tamil Nadu or distance education elsewhere in India are fledgling, noble efforts, but this hardly begins to scratch the surface of the problem. The fact is that the problem is really, really daunting. The millions of impoverished masses in developing countries (and substantial number of poor in inner cities of Western developed countries, if truth be told) remain culturally, economically far removed from the affluent world of hi-tech gadgetry: They simply do not have the basic skills necessary to be comfortable with IT technology. Yet there is absolutely no hope of even the ghost of an equitable society in the future unless this divide is bridged in some way. Enter an internationally acclaimed pioneering researcher in artificial intelligence with a $250 gizmo that does a whole bunch of things: It’s a computer, it’s a TV, it’s a DVD player, it’s a videophone—it’s a PCTVt. ‘‘I kept asking myself, ‘What would the device have to do for someone on the other side of the digital divide, to be desirable?’ ’’ wondered Raj Reddy, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. The answer, he decided, was a simple device that would offer entertainment. This November, Reddy hopes to begin installing the first 100 prototypes of the PCTVt in India and possibly several other countries. Reddy is hoping his project — with backing from Microsoft and TriGem, the Korean computer maker, and in partnership with the Indian Institute of Science, the Indian Institute of Information Technology and researchers at the University of California, Berkeley — can prove that it is possible to bring IT to impoverished communities without depending on philanthropy. Because his low-cost computer doubles as a TV and a DVD player, Reddy believes that he will be able to use it as a vehicle to take computing to populations that until now have been excluded. N. Balakrishnan, a professor with the Supercomputer Education and Research Center, IISc, says, “In India, entertainment is a key driver. Because of this, the number of TVs is more than the number of phones. For progress to happen on the connectivity front, the number of Internet connections should equal the number of TVs and telephones. One cannot expect the number of users to go up unless the cost of PCs come down.” ‘‘We needed three decades,’’ Reddy said, for those technologies to help developing nations. Reddy’s team is also working with social scientists to determine the effect that access to this technology has on communities. ETHNIC ISSUES  Mr. Wong's Dilemma Healthcare and Language - By Dr. Alice Chen For some immigrants a visit to the hospital can be complicated by poor language skills. Ask for an interpreter, advises Dr. Alice Chen. Mr. Wong went to the Emergency Room because he had been throwing up for about three hours. By the time he got to the hospital, he was exhausted and had lost his voice. The doctors gave him some medication to stop the nausea, as well as fluids through an IV. They also did lab tests and X-rays, which showed that he was a little dehydrated, but found nothing serious. By the end of his evaluation, he felt fine. But that wasn’t the end of his ordeal. Somehow the doctors had gotten the impression he had been throwing up for five days. Because he speaks very little English, and they didn’t speak Chinese, they didn’t feel safe sending him home, and admitted him to the hospital. By the time I saw Mr. Wong almost eight hours later, he had napped, eaten, and was bored. He wanted to go home. Since it was already late in the evening, I told him he should stay overnight and if everything was still fine he could go home in the morning. The next morning, Mr. Wong went home, with a hospital bill of more than $2,000. If the doctors in the Emergency Room had been able to communicate with Mr. Wong, they would have been able to take a more accurate history. They would have discovered that he was feeling back to normal and that he had a regular doctor who he could see for follow-up the next day instead of spending the night in the hospital. All in all, Mr. Wong was lucky. When doctors and patients can’t communicate, particularly in the Emergency Department, patients can experience unnecessary pain, suffering, misdiagnoses and disability. Two years ago, the Bay Area group Mujeres Unidas interviewed more than 100 Latino immigrants who used Alameda County Medical Center’s clinics and hospitals. They found that almost 50 percent of people had to wait more than two hours for an interpreter, with some waiting more than eight hours. They also found that a professional interpreter was used less than 50 percent of the time, although some of the bilingual staff were able to provide good quality interpreting. One of the Spanish-speaking patients Mujeres Unidas interviewed described her experience in the emergency department when she broke her leg: “They did some tests on me, but the main problem was that there were no interpreters available. I hadn’t eaten since the night before and I told them I was hungry, but they just said ‘No Spanish. Wait a minute please.’ They gave me just one pill all day long for the pain in my leg. I finally left at 9:30 [15 hours after her arrival at the hospital] with my leg swollen and in a lot of physical pain.” As bad as that sounds, Alameda County Medical Center is known for having one of the best hospital interpreter services in the state. It turns out that most hospitals don’t have any professional interpreters at all. Patients who speak limited English are often between a rock and a hard place, having to decide between going to a hospital where they have a chance of getting a professional interpreter after a long wait, or going to a hospital where it’s likely they won’t be able to communicate with the doctor at all.
Next time you go to the hospital, if you need an interpreter, ask for one. If you don’t get one on that visit, don’t give up. Make a suggestion, fill out a satisfaction survey, file a complaint, or, like Mujeres Unidas, work with other members of your community to make sure your voice is heard. After all, it’s your health. - Dr. Alice Chen is Soros advocacy physician fellow with the |TOP| REPORT:
Sizzling Political Mix A Siliconeer Report The Indian American and Chinese American communities are getting together in California’s Central Valley to project a unified voice in politics. A Siliconeer report. Add Desi masala to Chinese noodles and what do you have? Desi Chinese. A hot delectable combo that most South Asians would find hard to resist. Maybe Desi Chinese could add the same zing to American politics? Folks in California’s Central Valley certainly think so. The Chinese American and Indian American community is joining hands to host a free public event in Sacramento Oct. 3 to educate Asian and Pacific Islander voters. The event is the Third Annual API Voters and Candidate Education Forum. (Details at the end of article.) Central Valley entrepreneur C.C. Yin, founder of the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association, told Siliconeer that for the first time in U.S. history, Asian immigrants from different countries such as China and India will speak in a united voice when they choose their representatives to protect the interest of the minorities at the U.S. Senate.
Yin says Asians as a minority have the fastest growth and will eventually play a decisive role when it comes to leadership. They will become a strong force that no political candidate can ignore, he said. “There was a time when we were ignorant,” he added. “We would look at politicians for our personal interests. The community leaders did fundraisers for political candidates who were either Democrats or Republicans, irrespective of whether these candidates would really do any good to serve the general interest of the immigrant community as a whole. They would merely do so for personal gain or to build ties with potential leaders.” That is about to change. Now Asian Americans want a candidate who understands the c |
