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Thomas Beatie isn’t the first man to carry a child. I’ve been trying to find links to back up my position that he is not, in fact, blazing the trail of male pregnancy alone, but with limited success. Matt Rice (Patrick Califia’s partner) gave birth in 1999. Then there’s the movie TransParent, made in 2005, about 19 men in the US who gave birth (most of the men profiled are white). There are others, but I can’t find links.
Hat tip FSU!.
For many Americans with health insurance, prescriptions cost a fixed amount: $10, $20, $30. This strategy is going out the window for more expensive drugs: for cancer treatments, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and so on. Daily Kos pointed out the obvious: charging the sickest people the most money defeats the supposed purpose of health insurance, which is to more evenly distribute the cost of health interventions among people who are insured.
Note: this isn’t just middle-class folks we’re talking about. Tier 4 began as a strategy implemented by Medicare: the US state-supported health coverage for people who are elderly and/or who have certain disabilities.
When people have to pay medical bills that are two and three times their income, when they have to choose between food to stay alive and medication to stay alive, when the so-called “right to life” is completely disregarded once a person is born, well…something is rotten, and not in the state of Denmark. In America.
From the New York Times:
…[T]he new system sticks seriously ill people with huge bills, said James Robinson, a health economist at the University of California, Berkeley. “It is very unfortunate social policy,” Dr. Robinson said. “The more the sick person pays, the less the healthy person pays.”Traditionally, the idea of insurance was to spread the costs of paying for the sick.
“This is an erosion of the traditional concept of insurance,” Mr. Mendelson said. “Those beneficiaries who bear the burden of illness are also bearing the burden of cost.”
And often, patients say, they had no idea that they would be faced with such a situation.
From Daily Kos:
Just Pay Your Taxes–and shut-up:Not to digress, but it’s April 14th, I just mailed my taxes. Did you? Everyone I know is talking about their taxes. You know what they’re saying and asking? I’ll tell you. They’re wondering what do we get for our tax dollars? Everyone knows that we’re the only Western nation where healthcare is a privilege, not a right. Stupid us.
In every other civilized nation, taxes fund single-payer healthcare–but not here. But we just keep paying, stupid us. Don’t forget as you wait on a long slow line at the post office, that your money is paying for heavily taxpayer subsidized Congressional health benefits. That’s right, healthcare for them, but not for us. Stupid us.
In the United States we find all the money we need to occupy and destroy a sovereign nation, but providing basic healthcare to all our citizens is an expense we just can’t afford. Stupid us.
Hopefully, the dire state of health care in the United States–a situation that is increasingly affecting even the better-off, not just the poor, disabled, of color, and otherwise “undeserving”–is serving as a wake-up call, an impetus for meaningful change.
Link credit .
Wheelchair Dancer’s post, “Activism, Difference, Encounters, and the Encounter of Difference” really, really struck a chord with me.
OH MY GOD.
I am having multiple orgasms here.
I don’t see myself as the kind of person who would buy a new car. Even a used car has, thus far, been outside the realm of possibility.
However. For $29,000 (vs. $75,000 for a Prius), the Aptera is extremely sexxxy. “Multiple orgasms just from looking at a photo on the internet” sexy.
Is it a plane? A car? A bird? A motorcycle? All of the above?
All I know is that I am drooling. This is why is my LJ friend. Seriously.
Bilingual Trainer/Health Educator
Reports to: Training Department Manager
Schedule: 40 hours
Salary: 1.0 FTE (40 hours/week), $36,000
Application Deadline: Open Until Filled
Start date: NegotiablePara esta posición, es mandatorio hablar y escribir español e inglés.
Position Summary
Under the general supervision of the Training Department Manager, the Bilingual Trainer /Health Educator’s primary responsibility will be facilitating Spanish and English language health workshops for youth and adult providers. She or he will also translate and develop curricula for youth and providers who work with youth and ensure evaluation of presentations.
About HIFY
HIFY is a multicultural organization whose mission is to improve the health and well-being of under-served young people through innovative youth leadership, popular education and advocacy in pursuit of multi-level social change. We believe in providing complete, accurate health information to young people and supporting them in making their own decisions. Our work is grounded in harm reduction, positive sexuality, youth development and anti-oppression principles.HIFY does not require specific degrees for its positions. Experience requirements can be met through educational, professional and/or life experience.
Job Duties
- Prepare for and present health workshops in English and Spanish on health topics including substance use, HIV, hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections, safer sex, body image, anti-homophobia, healthy-relationships and self-esteem to a variety of youth communities.
- Conduct curriculum development and trainings for adults who provide services to youth on a variety of topics (HIV, Positive Sexuality, Working with LGBTQIQ Youth, Substance Use, Latinas/os, Health & Youth Development).
- Develop and update new curricula and materials in English and Spanish as needed.
- Provide Spanish translation of HIFY materials and products into youth friendly language.
- Develop and implement outreach strategies for Spanish language programming.
- Ensure collection, entry and analysis of evaluation data from participants and provide periodic summary reports for grants and evaluation.
- Participate in relevant community collaborations and respond to requests for information from community members and peers.
- Participate in HIFY project teams related to agency initiatives and the agency strategic plan.
- Participate in program planning and evaluation process.
- Contribute written information and research to printed materials.
- Other duties as necessary.
Qualifications
Candidate must:
- Be fully bilingual in English and Spanish.
- Have at least two years experience in adult education, health, youth development, and/or related field.
- Have at least 2 years experience facilitating workshops, trainings, and/or community meetings.
- Have experience working with diverse groups of youth and adults.
- Be committed to raising the visibility and impact of HIFYs Spanish language programming.
- Embrace HIFY’s mission and the services we provide.
- Be able to work in a small, close-knit team environment.
To Apply, SEND RESUME AND COVER LETTER to:
Attn: Bilingual Health Educator Position
Health Initiatives for Youth
235 Montgomery Street Suite 430, San Francisco, CA 94104
Fax: 415.274.1976
Email: clemenziallen@hify.orgFor more information about HIFY check out www.hify.org
No phone calls please.
HIFY is an equal opportunity employer.
We encourage transgender people, people of color, youth and LGBQI people to apply.
Image Description: Students walk down a two-lane highway, completely filling a full lane of traffic, carrying signs proclaiming their university affiliations and statements such as “It’s 2008. We WILL vote.”
Early voting starts today in Texas. In Waller County, a primarily rural county about 60 miles outside Houston, the county made the decision to offer only one early voting location: at the County Courthouse in Hempstead, TX, the county seat.
Prairie View A&M students organized to protest the decision, because they felt it hindered their ability to vote. For background, Prairie View A&M is one of Texas’ historically Black universities. It has a very different demographic feel than the rest of the county. There has been a long history of dispute over what the students feel is disenfranchisement. There was a lot of outrage in 2006, when students felt they were unfairly denied the right to vote when their registrations somehow did not get processed.
According to an article in today’s Houston Chronicle:
Waller County has faced numerous lawsuits involving voting rights in the past 30 years and remains under investigation by the Texas Attorney General’s Office based on complaints by local black leaders. Those allegations, concerning the November 2006 general election, related to voting machine failures, inadequate staffing and long delays for voting results.
The article adds,
“I was angry after registering to vote in the 2006 election only to be turned away at the voting booth,” said sophomore Dee Dee Williams.
So what are the students doing?
1000 students, along with an additional 1000 friends and supporters, are this morning walking the 7.3 miles between Prairie View and Hempstead in order to vote today. According to the piece I saw on the news (there’s no video up, so I can’t link to it), the students plan to all vote today. There are only 2 machines available at the courthouse for early voting, so they hope to tie them up all day and into the night.
I love stories like this. In the face of an obvious ploy to suppress the vote, these young people stood up for their rights and showed that they will not be cowed. Republicans should be worried, because this is a committed electorate.
From here, via . How truly excellent.
Also, I am really excited that Obama won our caucus with 28,347 votes (8,835 to Hillary & 65 uncommitted).
Internet history and laptop files searched at airports.
Shirin Sinnar, a staff attorney with the Asian Law Caucus, said that by scrutinizing the Web sites people search and the phone numbers they’ve stored on their cellphones, “the government is going well beyond its traditional role of looking for contraband and really is looking into the content of people’s thoughts and ideas and their lawful political activities.”
Click above to read more. Courtesy of unusualmusic.
Take a stand against violence in your community!Multilingual/Multicultural Volunteers needed!
*Peer Counseling
*Hotline Counseling
*Medical Advocacy
*Community OutreachCheck us out! http://www.sfwar.org/volunteers.html 415/861-2024 ext. 319.
$150 Stipend paid upon completion of MLAM training
+ $18-20/hr for services in languages other than English.Women of color, youth, transgender, immigrant, elderly, queer, working
class, and differently-abled individuals are encouraged to apply to
volunteer.Next training April 2-May 10:
Mondays and Wednesdays 5:30-9pm and Saturdays 9:30am – 5:30pm.Applications Due: February 27, 2008
Had my absentee ballot ever arrived, I woulda cast mine for Obama. I don’t identify as a democrat, but I register as one so I can vote in the primaries. Before Obama came on the scene, I didn’t believe any democrat would or could actually make positive change and lead us into a world where our basic human rights were safeguarded. Dems have seemed barely able to hold steady against the onslaught from the conservatives, moving farther and farther right in policy and ideals.
I have some litmus tests & the words “no legal process” are a huge red flag for me. Although Obama is wielding his multiracial identity with great skill to win votes on both sides, as it were, I don’t feel like he’s sacrificing us along the way. I’m ready for the rights that got trampled by GWB to be restored and enhanced, not further destroyed in an attempt to prove that Clinton isn’t soft. No president is perfect (look at the history), but some can offer something we’re in desperate need of: hope. We’re at a crucial moment–in this election, I feel like moderates and even some conservatives could move left for a change.
Things have felt so bleak since I was of voting age that I didn’t feel like voting would change anything: the candidates were Bad and Worse. Remember johnkerryisadouchebagbutimvotingforhimanyway.com? That’s how I felt about everyone. Maybe it doesn’t have to be like that.
Rwanda, April-July 1994: 1,000,000 people were murdered in 100 days. I was 12.
Just as they could not rely on the international community to intervene when 1 million Tutsi men, women, and children were massacred, the Rwandese people now look to one another for justice through the use of a traditional method for resolving conflict called gacaca. In gacaca, village elders gather everyone involved in a crime–both the victim and accused as well as bystanders–to determine what happened and mediate a solution e.g. an apology or restitution. Official contemporary gacaca courts address murder, injury, and property damage during and related to the 1994 genocide. (Rape, sexual torture, assassination, and leading & organizing genocide are prosecuted as crimes against the state–similar to the US justice system–in crimminal courts.)
The foundation of ethnic conflict in Rwanda was created and intensified by racist colonizers–first Germany and then Belgium–who stripped the Hutu of their limited local power and brought the independent Hutu kingdoms under centralized Tutsi control. They also reinforced divisions between the Hutu and Tutsi–who had a common language, history, religion, and culture; frequently intermarried; and shared power prior to colonization–by instituting ethnic designations on identification cards and separate educational systems for Hutu and Tutsi. The history of ethnic violence in Burundi–Rwanda’s southern neighbor, also colonized by Germany and Belgium–offers insight into the tensions that led to such a significant genocidal revolt. For example, after a Hutu rebellion in 1972, the Tutsi upper class minority slaughtered at least 100,000 educated Hutu elite and moderate Tutsi to ensure Tutsi hegemony in Burundi.
Roughly 120,000 alleged génocidaires were incarcerated to await trial after the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Because the trials are so time-intensive, approximately 50,000 suspects have been released and 8000 more will be released shortly. To speed up the process, in 2005 the Rwandese government–supposedly with the input of community members–instituted a gacaca court system to “eradicate the culture of impunity” that has developed during more than thirty years of sectarianism and ethnic violence. In addition to speeding up the trials, the government’s hope is that the approximately 11,000 gacaca courts will reconcile Rwandese people and reinforce their unity and help rebuild Rwandese society through trials & reparations in keeping with Rwandese customs. Because the portion of the population that participated in genocide is so large, reconciliation, reintegration, and healing are essential. Government leaders acknowledge the role that colonization played and encourage Rwandese to come together in the struggle against common enemies: imperialism, poverty, hunger, and health conditions like HIV and malaria.
Gacaca courts offer an opportunity for defendants to confess their crimes in front of the community and for plaintiffs and witnesses to participate in the court proceeding to collectively determine a path to healing. About 90% of the community attends these open-air proceedings. Contemporary inyangamugayo–judges–have the power to offer any sentence up to life imprisonment. A typical sentence might involve some jail time followed by several years of community service. The penalties are designed to integrate the guilty person into society and enable them to participate with others in the reconstruction of the country.
Human Rights Watch points out in their 2004 report, Barriers to Justice for Rape Victims in Rwanda, that there are insufficient counselors to meet the needs of victims and witnesses and that gacaca may reopen old wounds and make survivors vulnerable to further violence. Dozens of survivors and witnesses have been killed, including a 2006 killing of one survivor and the subsequent reprisal killing of 8 others in the same community, as well as the killing of a gacaca judge and the subsequent reprisal killing of 3 people in police custody. These 13 killings are cause for concern, but to put it into perspective, 13 people have been killed in Los Angeles county to date this year. Los Angeles county (USA) has a population of 10 million; Rwanda’s is 9 million. Amnesty International outlines human rights abuses and failings of the gacaca system succinctly.
Despite these failings, it gives me hope that a modern government would integrate such high ideals into their policy. The fact that the Rwandese people can even contemplate a path of peace is a testament to their strength. That it is not perfect or easy doesn’t detract from the magnitude of this choice. By focusing on commonalities, acknowledging the atrocities and giving perpetrators a way to retain their humanity despite their crimes, community integrity can eventually be restored. If a system like this could succeed–without arbitrary arrests, corruption, or threats against survivors–it has the potential to change the world. Amnesty International described it as “an ambitious, groundbreaking attempt to restore the Rwandese social fabric.”
Forgiveness and transformation don’t happen overnight. I’m amazed that people still have the courage to believe it’s possible at all.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
In the Tall Grass – a dramatic documentary that focuses on one woman who lost her family during the genocide, raising questions about whether gacaca is an effective strategy for justice when killers live side-by-side with those whose families they murdered.
Gacaca: Living Again in Rwanda – a documentary about the first phase of implementing gacaca tribunals in Rwanda: a series of hearings to release innocent detainees from prison and educate Rwandese about the gacaca trials to come.
In Rwanda we say…The family that does not speak dies – a documentary about the release and reintegration of 16,000 suspects into their communities. It focuses on one man’s return and the “liberating power of speech” as community members begin to talk about what happened.
Rwanda Still Searching for Justice – a 2004 BBC article after the first gacaca hearings
Sometimes In April – an HBO movie about the genocide told from the perspective of two brothers.
Ghosts of Rwanda – a PBS documentary about how the United States and Europe chose not to intervene.
For a brief enumeration of international policy decisions that contributed to the event, see Rwanda ten years after the genocide: Some reminders of the international response to the crisis
