‘My donation felt like a rejection of the day’s politics’

‘Want to make a difference? Donate your kidney.’

German Lopez at The New York Times

“You should consider donating your kidney,” says German Lopez. In a “time that feels increasingly chaotic and out of control, helping people, directly and materially, remains one of the few actions we can take to immediately make the world better.” The “problem is that living donors are fairly rare and donors to strangers are even rarer.” Most “people don’t want to donate an organ or don’t know they can. Each of us can, and should, work to change that.”

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‘Punishing WHO, blinding ourselves: The high cost of a cheap exit’

Y. Tony Yang at The Hill

The “formal withdrawal of the U.S. from the World Health Organization last month marks the end of a 77-year partnership that fundamentally built the modern global health architecture,” says Y. Tony Yang. As the “dust settles in Geneva, Washington is waking up to a stark reality: We have not just left a treaty; we have voluntarily blinded our own national security apparatus.” The U.S. has “created a dangerous accountability paradox that undermines our soft power far beyond the realm of health.”

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‘Iranian progress cannot be stopped’

Shahrnush Parsipur at Time

Iran “resembles a half-lifeless body collapsed on the ground, yet still possessing powerful arms,” says Shahrnush Parsipur. The government has “attacked the people of Iran and, through widespread killings, has delivered a brutal blow to the popular uprising.” This is “only a temporary success,” as the “republic is already dead morally, economically, and socially.” But the “protesters have not capitulated. This uprising is momentous and will have profound consequences.” It “began in a way that ensures its continuation.”

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‘Albertan separatists don’t understand how Canada really feels about their province’

Janice Kennedy at the Toronto Star

Everyone “still wants to go out to Alberta,” and “that’s why this separatist chatter feels so confounding,” says Janice Kennedy. Most Canadians “cannot conceive of this country without that province.” Pause “for a moment to imagine a Canada without the contributions of the athletes, artists, politicians and visionaries born or raised in Alberta.” Canada’s “heart beats with the spirit of Alberta. Alberta’s heart beats with the spirit of Canada,” and many “suspect the vast majority of Albertans feel the same.”

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