I recently had an opportunity to speak with a group of eight disabled musicians from Zimbabwe who were touring the U.S. Their group is called Liyana, which means ‘it’s raining.’ Click here to listen to the podcast of the interview, as well as to some of their music.

And at Liyana’s Website, you can watch a trailer for an  HBO documentary that’s currently being made about Liyana and the challenges they’ve faced. The lead singer and songwriter Prudence, for example, was abandoned by her mother—whose mother had recommended she simply starve Prudence to death instead.  On their U.S. tour, Liyana performed on stages including Los Angeles’ House of Blues and New York’s Apollo Theater. They were celebrated for their courage and incredible talent, for their determination and hard work in chasing their vision.

Seeing Liyana provoked me to wonder: if they can do this, against such odds, what should the rest of us be able to do? (Though of course, we don’t all have such remarkable musical talent!) […]

More than 100 nurses gathered on the steps of the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center today to protest what they say are unsafe practices in the handling of swine flu patients. (Read more.)

The protesting nurses pointed to understaffing as a potential contributor to the unsafe practices.

And Nursing Times has this, regarding new research on the use of Tamiflu (oseltamivir) in children:  “Risk from Swine Flu Drugs Outweighs Benefits in Children”