Hasta La Gadget!

Warning: Spoilers to follow! (See how easy that was, AMC?)

This past Sunday, a major character on “The Walking Dead” was killed off and fans were outraged (mostly because they hadn’t had a chance to see it yet).

Shortly after the midseason finale aired on the East Coast, “The Walking Dead” Facebook page reportedly posted an image of Daryl carrying the lifeless body of Beth along with the caption, “RIP Beth.” Since the episode had yet to air on the West Coast, fans proceeded to completely freak out. In order to quell the outrage, which was spreading faster than a zombie outbreak, the show posted a formal apology, promising to put an end to the spoiler plague:

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AMC’s use of humor in the apology seems pretty appropriate since many fans responded in the same way, posting memes and screen shots from the show in the Facebook comments, including a still of the “You’ll Burn For This” message from the side of Father Gabriel’s church.

Despite AMC’s spoiler gaffe, a lot remains unknown about the second half of Season 5. Now that the group has reunited and Eugene’s secret is out, they don’t necessarily have any set place to go. And how will the return of fan favorite Morgan factor in the mix?

The show was tight-lipped on spoilers heading into this season, so we can probably expect that to go into overdrive after this recent move, but if you can’t wait any longer for more “Walking Dead,” check out the second-half teaser:

“The Walking Dead” returns Sunday, Feb. 8, 2015, on AMC.

During my first few months in medical school, I noticed that religion was rarely discussed. As a Theology minor in college at Georgetown University, I knew that religion was an important part of life for many Americans; indeed, nearly nine in 10 Americans report a belief in some divine or spiritual power, and several studies have shown that organized faith communities can play important roles in promoting healthy behaviors. Topics related to spirituality and religious beliefs arose during a course on Healthcare Disparities, but the discussions were only tangential. I had a feeling that students felt uncomfortable discussing such personal topics in the academic setting.

For this reason, I proposed a new student organization for the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago: the Spirituality and Medicine Interest Group. This group aims to create a safe space for discussion of how spirituality/religion affect healthcare. I thought that this idea fit in perfectly with Pritzker’s commitment to all forms of diversity. Last month, the interest group was approved for university funding, and I was awarded Germanacos Fellowship, a $5000 grant to develop a medical discussion series focused on the intersections between spirituality/religion and medicine. These seminars will be partially based on a well-known religious literacy curriculum for healthcare workers developed by the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding. The Germanacos Fellowship was awarded by the Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based nonprofit that aims to make interfaith cooperation a social norm in the United States by promoting inter-religious dialogue and community service.

I am interested in the intersections between spirituality and healthcare because my own religious beliefs inform my choice of career. My passion for medicine stems from a declaration in Islam and various other traditions that saving one person’s life is equivalent to saving all of mankind. Through my work with the Interfaith Youth Core during my undergraduate years at Georgetown University and as an Ambassador for the Parliament of the World’s Religions, I have come to realize that religious communities — like all social structures — can be divisive or, when harnessed correctly, can be powerful catalysts for social improvement. Fortunately, the medical field is especially conducive to interfaith engagement because the concepts of service and human dignity are always implicit. In addition, physicians are one of the most religiously-diverse populations in the United States, and providers are increasingly recognizing the importance of religious literacy in medical education.

Over the next several months, I hope to introduce other students to religious diversity in the healthcare world, and to provide opportunities for my classmates to reflect on their personal motivations and values (whether or not those they come from a religious background) for pursuing medicine. I also look forward to finding connections between existing student organizations and facilitating dialogues on important topics such as mental health, reproductive health, and organ donation.

The Spirituality and Medicine Interest Group is especially open to students who do not identify with a faith background. The religiously-unaffiliated are a growing population in the United States (especially among Millennials), and as a result, it is vital to include nonreligious perspectives in any conversation around religion/spirituality. In addition, given the religiosity of the United States, I believe it is helpful for all medical students (regardless of their own background) to have some familiarity with conversations related to spirituality in order to better connect with many patients.

While becoming a physician, I also want to be at the forefront of the interfaith movement’s expansion into the healthcare world. I intend to demonstrate that religion and science can work together rather than in opposition. I am guided by one of my favorite verses from the Quran: “Had God willed, He would have made mankind as a single religion [or community], but [He intended] to test you in what He has given you; so strive with each other for virtue (5:48).

A version of this article originally appeared on the blog for the Parliament of the World’s Religions.

Nurses worked everyday throughout the Thanksgiving holiday. That is the expectation of their job; that is the expectation of their calling.

That will hold for the rest of the holidays when most of us are looking for down time and when international travel will be at one of the highest peaks of the year. That increase in travel poses additional risks to the ones on the front lines in health care. It should go without saying that those caregivers should have maximum protection from harmful viruses or other disease agents that can impose themselves as care is provided.

Ebola, surging again in Sierra Leone, has now infected some 16,000 people with a fatality rate of about 60 percent in the most intense transmission countries according to the World Health Organization.

Though Ebola media coverage has now receded in the U.S., this pandemic, the worst Ebola outbreak in history, is far from over. International travel is a reminder of our interconnected global community, and a disease that has already leaped a very large ocean.

Scientific consensus on possible modes of Ebola transmission is not yet concluded. But there is consensus that health workers are at particular risk of exposure, have been infected in what the WHO calls unprecedented numbers, and if we can not stop contagion in our hospitals where the danger of infection is greatest, all of the public is at heightened risk.

Yet, to attempt to achieve safety standards, nurses have had to rally, speak out, strike, and engage in other forms of protest for safety measures in the workplace. Their concerns were heard and addressed only in California where state regulations mandating optimal safety at all hospitals were quickly put in place by the seasoned and intelligent Governor Brown.

California hospitals are now required to have the highest level of personal protective equipment and training procedures for the express purpose of ensuring that hospitals and health care workers “take the proper steps to safely provide care for suspected or confirmed Ebola patients,” as the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration stated.

But in 49 other states, safety remains optional for hospitals to include in their protocols. And, as a Washington Post report noted November 28, U.S. officials are “running into resistance” in trying to set up a network of hospitals to care for Ebola patients due primarily to factors of cost, which increasingly is a higher priority for profit-focused hospitals than caring.

We have to ask ourselves as a nation what do our values actually mean. Nurses rank the highest year after year in polls on public trust. Yet when it comes to their own safety nurses have to wage battle in most parts of the nation.

Bellevue Hospital in New York was one exception when it came to caring for an Ebola patient, because it is part of a public health system. Most other hospitals could have been Texas Health Presbyterian in Dallas. The death of one patient after apparently lax standards and the exposure of two nurses sent fear and chills through most nurses who know how profoundly their hospitals are underprepared for epidemics in a fragmented health care industry with little public oversight.

The California standards have created a national benchmark for not just Ebola, but for all infectious diseases in a time where epidemics are increasing as a result of global travel, mutating viruses, antibiotic resistant super bugs, and the effects of the climate crisis.

While we enjoy the holidays, nurses at Bellevue and nurses in California receive care in exchange for caring. The rest of the nation’s nurses may well be working unguarded, unprotected and one patient away from whatever walks into the door.

We can do better as a nation. Federal OSHA has the power to follow the lead of Governor Brown’s California mandate. Nothing short of that should be acceptable to any policy maker in this nation.

Mohamed is a young Iraqi boy. Since August, he has lived in a camp for internally displaced persons near Erbil, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. He arrived there after fleeing from Mosul just before the onslaught of radical extremists. This is where I met him last month, as I discussed with his father the school that UNESCO is building for Mohamed and his friends.
The camp is home today to over 600 families, mostly Sunnis, Shabak, Shiites and Kaka’i. Their story reflects the existential threat now facing Iraq. This is a threat to the millennial history of the country and its unique cultural and religious wealth. Iraq is experiencing a deep humanitarian crisis – it is also suffering from cultural cleansing, an attempt to erase the diversity which is the DNA of its society.
We need to understand clearly the struggle underway in Iraq. The violence of radical extremists testifies to a deliberate strategy to destroy everything that can sustain diversity, critical thinking and freedom of opinion — schools, teachers, journalists, along with cultural minorities and heritage. Whatever doesn’t fit their sectarian vision of the world is targeted for destruction.
This is the definition of totalitarianism, and we know its terrible signs from Europe’s history. Today, in Mosul, the homes of ‘enemy others’ are being singled out, one by one. This cultural cleansing is undertaken by radical extremists who wield absolute contempt for human rights and inflict appalling violence against those in their way – bent on destroying the rich diversity of Iraqi heritage and society.
In areas under their control, minority populations are being systematically persecuted and their identities denied. We see such persecution and attacks against vulnerable Christian, Turkmen and Yazidi, and other communities, and their cultural and religious heritage, including churches, shrines, Jewish heritage and monuments. Irreplaceable landmarks are intentionally destroyed, reducing thousands of years of history to rubble. Ancient archaeological sites are being looted, to fuel the underground market for illicit goods and finance further extremism. In this context, protecting cultural heritage is more than a cultural emergency – it is a political and security imperative.
In Baghdad, speaking with the Iraqi President, Fuad Masum, and Prime Minister, Haider Al-Abadi, I said this struggle cannot be won by weapons alone. Both the President and the Prime Minister stressed the need for Iraqis to learn to live together again.
To counter extremism and prepare the ground for reconciliation in the future, we must also safeguard Iraq’s heritage of diversity and tolerance. We cannot let this be destroyed, because it will perpetuate a cycle of hatred and violence and weaken the ground for reconciliation. This why new peacebuilding strategies are needed, to respond to new threats of persecution based on identity or religion, intentional attacks against cultural heritage and sectarian indoctrination.
Saving culture is part of the answer. We need to protect our past to build a better future. This is why UNESCO is helping Iraqi authorities to safeguard sites and protect cultural diversity, training conservation experts, monitoring damage and ringing alarm bells about illicit trafficking. This is why we meet regularly with heritage experts, government bodies, customs authorities, law enforcement agencies, museums and auction houses, and why we are mobilizing civil society and the media. Indeed, on Wednesday this week, we gathered the international community at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris to take stock of the situation and look at what we can do together to halt the destruction, in both Iraq and Syria.
This matters for all of us, because cultural cleansing is an attack against the humanity we all share.
After meeting Mohamed in the IDP camp, I drove to the Erbil Citadel. This fortified settlement dates back 6000 years and is situated on an imposing hill above the city, created by countless generations of women and men, living and rebuilding on the same spot.
This year, the Citadel was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and I was there to present in person the inscription certificate to the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Nechirvan Barzani.
I went to Erbil, to stand with the people of Iraq, to defend their unique heritage and diversity and to say that this matters – not just for Iraq’s future but for all women and men. We must defend the idea of a shared humanity wherever it is challenged. This is our struggle.

CBS News Foreign Correspondent Holly Williams was granted rare access into one of the most closed kingdoms in the world. In the piece below, Williams describes the remarkable transformation that’s underway in Saudi Arabia in regards to women’s education and a glimmer of potential ahead.

At Effat University’s inner-city campus, students sprawl in the hallways, sip on take-away cappuccinos and wear the universal attire of college students — jeans, Converse sneakers and t-shirts.

Effat is an all-women’s institution that in just 15 years has transformed from a tiny teachers’ college to an internationally recognized university that attracts faculty from around the world, teaches nearly 3,000 students and is graduating female engineers, architects and filmmakers.

On a recent trip to Effat, while on assignment for CBS News, one civil engineering major told me that she and her classmates intend to “invade the workplace” when they graduate in June.

“The future is open to them,” the dean of graduate studies told me. “They think they can reach to the skies.”

It would be an inspiring story pretty much anywhere in the world. What makes it surprising is that Effat is in Saudi Arabia, a country that still bans women from driving, and requires them to have a male relative’s permission to work, go to university and travel overseas.

When the Western media look at Saudi Arabian women, they tend to focus on the problems, the restrictions and the abuses. That’s hardly surprising. The ultra-conservative kingdom’s male guardianship system means that Saudi women are never treated as full citizens of their own country. It’s a state of affairs that elicits a mixture of disgust and sympathy from many in the West.

But what’s being overlooked is a stunning transformation. Behind closed doors, in schools and on university campuses, there’s a breakneck, education-led revolution unfolding that could define the country’s future.

Saudi women are now graduating from university in higher numbers than men, and their government is actively encouraging them to join the workforce.

It would be premature to suggest that educational success has delivered political change. Outside the classroom, reform is still glacial. The male guardianship system has led to terrible injustices, including child marriage. The ban on driving is particularly restrictive for poorer Saudi women, who can’t afford the chauffeur-driven private cars used by the middle class and the rich. And women still struggle to find employment, in part because of harsh regulations requiring sex segregation in the workplace.

But even the women who are pressing for change acknowledge the giant leaps that are taking place, and the possibilities they might open up.

Madeha Al-Ajroush has been taking part in women’s driving protests since 1990. She’s the star of countless YouTube videos showing her driving — illegally, and often joyfully — on the streets of the Saudi capital. “The car,” she explained, “has become the symbol of wanting our voices to be heard, and our needs to be met.”

Al-Ajroush is an American-educated psychotherapist who happily appeared on camera unveiled. But over cardamom-flavored coffee and sticky dates at her Riyadh home, she told me — with tears in her eyes — that her mother was illiterate. It’s far from being an unusual story. In 1970 just 2 percent of Saudi women could read and write. Now the figure is around 80 percent, and women’s education is widely regarded as a very good thing.

In a small town near Saudi Arabia’s border with Iraq, I met Mousa Abdullah — a Bedouin goat farmer who also works as a policeman. As we drove through the desert to see his family’s traditional camp, he proudly told me that he wants his three daughters to go to university. “Progress”, he said with a grin, “is nice.” That’s a sentiment that would have been utterly alien to his father.

The push to educate women and girls is being bankrolled in large part by Saudi Arabia’s all-powerful King Abdullah. At Effat University, anyone in financial need who meets the academic standards — which one professor described to me as “very low” — gets a free ride, courtesy of the monarchy. Women are also winning a good chunk of the country’s King Abdullah Scholarships, a multi-billion dollar program that’s sent hundreds of thousands of Saudis to study overseas since 2005.

What is the king trying to achieve? As an absolute monarch, he doesn’t have to explain himself, so we can only guess. But he must know that education can be transformative. And — assuming he’s the reformer that nearly everyone takes him for — that’s something that can help him.

The king and his family depend on the support of Saudi Arabia’s ultra-conservative Islamic establishment to stay in power. Top down change has tended to be met with a backlash from hardline Muslims clerics and their supporters. When girls’ schools were first opened in the 50s and 60s, religious conservatives led street protests.

But if change comes from within society — is demanded by society — a backlash is less likely, and the clerics will have little ground to stand on. It’s difficult to imagine the women I met at Effat University accepting the restrictions imposed on their mothers. It’s improbable that the hundreds of thousands of Saudis currently studying overseas — both men and women — will be content with the status quo.

“Patience” was the mantra of nearly everyone I spoke to in the Saudi government during a recent two-week trip to the kingdom.

“People need to be ready for reform,” said Hoda Abdulrahman Al-Helaissi, a female member of the Shura Council, the body that advises the king. “We cannot push change if we want it to succeed, and if we want it to be for the long term.”

Many in Saudi Arabia agree. They are wary of the clerics and willing to bide their time. But for others, change can’t come soon enough.

“It’s been 24 years,” said Madeha Al-Ajroush, the veteran driving protestor. “They will change the law, but when is the question.”

WIlliams’ reporting will be broadcast on the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley and CBS This Morning this week.