Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Health Insurance Companies Win
There is hope yet. If the reconciliation between the House and Senate bill goes well, it can fix most, if not all, of the problems in the Senate bill.
Reconciliation of those two bills will be our final chance to change the bill. Then there is a final vote in congress, and then finally, if that vote passes, the President gets to sign or veto.
Please Congress, please fix this mess before it gets to the President. If you can't, VOTE THE BILL DEAD! Do that or expect calls from my end every day until it's overturned.
What became of Romania's neglected orphans?
What became of Romania's neglected orphans?
| By Chris Rogers BBC News, Romania |
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BBC secret filming of the conditions in Romanian institutions
A BBC investigation has uncovered appalling conditions and abuse in adult institutions in Romania, 20 years after the fall of Nicolai Ceausescu exposed conditions in the country's orphanages.
As the care worker unlocked the door and pushed it open, a musty stench of body odour and urine filled the air. There were 10 people crammed into the room, bed-bound on rotting mattresses and lying in their own faeces, some two to a bed.
Among the dirty, scarred faces peering above the duvets were the orphans whose plight roused the international community when Romanian orphanages opened their doors to Western journalists in 1990.
Staff at the Recovery and Rehabilitation Centre in Carpenis had no idea how old the latest arrivals from a children's orphanage were - they guessed 18 but they looked much younger.
The three boys cowered under their dirty duvets, escaping from the wrinkled faces of the disturbed men and women they shared a bed with.
 The overthrow of Ceausescu shone a light on the plight of the orphans |
One of the boys was desperately thin. A worker explained that they didn't know anything about him. He couldn't talk and they suspected he has hepatitis, but they had no means of finding out for sure.
Another new arrival had deep cuts to her head. Like others who have been institutionalised since birth, she exhibits self-harming behaviour, including violent rocking backwards and forwards. She repeatedly banged her head against the wall, and wore a makeshift helmet to cushion the impact.
Notorious institutions
There were dozens of rooms, packed with 160 adults aged up to 80. It was difficult to tell the men and women apart, but they all shared a confined existence. They are all unwanted human beings, abandoned by their impoverished parents at birth and neglected into adulthood by the state.
 |   We came across several institutions where there were cases of human rights abuses  Georgiana Pascu, Romanian human rights campaigner |
The Romanian government had promised it had dealt with its notorious institutions as part of its conditions for joining the European Union. The only way we could witness the reality of conditions in adult institutions was to pose as charity workers, and secretly film our findings.
The Carpenis institution is just 32km (20 miles) from the capital Bucharest, the heartbeat of the country's growing economy. In the main squares, neon lights advertise the biggest Western brands; shopping centres are bursting with families spending new money on Christmas gifts. It is a measure of how far Romania has come since the fall of its dictator Nicolai Ceausescu who bankrupted the country. But not everyone has seen change in the last 20 years.
In Bolintin, another village close to the capital, a lone nurse and six helpers take care of more than 100 patients - they are not sure exactly how many. They were wrapped in blankets and thermal jackets to escape the freezing cold.
 Signs of gangrene were evident at one institution in Bolintin |
In a wooden cabin, separate from the main building, we found 15 severely disabled people slumped on uncomfortable chairs. The nurse insisted they were at least 20 years old, but their tiny faces and bodies suggested they were much younger.
Unlike the able-bodied in the main building, they had nothing to escape the cold. Their clothes were thin and tatty and their bare feet produced an odour of rotting flesh. A closer look revealed signs of gangrene.
Low standards
Georgiana Pascu of the Romanian human rights group the Centre for Legal Resources has visited nearly every one of Romania's 150 adult institutions. She says adults in state care face a long list of problems.
 Nicolai Ceausescu was executed with his wife Elena on Christmas Day 1989 |
"There is overcrowding, lack of access to adequate medical treatment, lack of access to psychologists and social workers. We came across several institutions where there were cases of human rights abuses during our visits this year. With a little help, most of them could live in a community environment."
But that help has never come. Again, posing as charity workers, we witnessed some pitiful scenes at the Ganesti Social Medical Unit in eastern Romania.
Staff there told us that there was one carer to 40 residents, and that there were 160 people sharing 140 beds.
Most staff at the institutions we visited were caring and compassionate, but with ratios like this it is little wonder that standards are so low. It was mid-afternoon, and we found most patients still in bed, many showing signs of heavy sedation.
One girl was restrained in her bed by her jumper which acted as a straight jacket.
Human rights activist Eric Rosenthal gives his views on the BBC's secret footage
We showed the findings of our investigation to Eric Rosenthal, who campaigns to protect the human rights of institutionalised people and is an adviser to the US government.
"I cannot say I'm surprised given Romania's record, but I am horrified," he said. "My organisation Mental Disability Rights International documented this abuse in great detail. We talked to government officials, and we brought it to the European Union. They promised they would end these abuses and they have failed on that promise.
"These conditions are exactly what we saw five years ago, 10 years ago. They did what they needed to do to get into the EU, but the abuses are still going on".
Well-cared for
Some institutions, however, have been turned around. The orphanage in Cighid, north-west Romania was one of the institutions that achieved notoriety in 1990.
 A young man from the orphanage in Cighid, an institution that has been turned around |
At least 137 children died in the space of two years, most of them were no older than three. Foreign aid and the efforts of a new director, Dr Pavel Oarcea, who has now retired, led to many improvements.
Cighid - now an adult institution - was the only facility we got permission to visit as journalists. Around 60 of the children have remained there into adulthood, and they appeared well-cared for.
They had musical instruments, crayons and colouring books. But many have only ever known life in an institution. The disabilities they were either born with or developed as a result of previous neglect in the orphanage meant they were always unlikely to be adopted.
Dr Oarcea defied orders by the local authority not to speak to us. He told us the 15 years he spent in Cighid were the most rewarding of his life, but that he still has regrets.
"A disabled child who's lived with a family his whole life doesn't rock backwards and forwards. What the Cighid children have missed out on is family life, the love that only a family can give," he said.
"Twenty years ago I believed the Romanian government would have made much greater progress in protecting their unwanted children and adults."
Since 1990, Romania has received 100m euros (£89m, $144m) from the EU to improve its institutions.
In response to our investigation, the Romanian government said the conditions we found were not representative of care in the country.
"The Romanian authorities continue the reform and the protection of the disabled with social risk by implementing proactive policies and good practices," it said in a statement.
It added that two of the institutions we visited were scheduled for closure in the next three years.
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Commentary
When a country neglects it's orphans to the point that the international community notices and gives it 100 million euros to change the situation... and still the country neglects its orphans as before; such a country is worth nothing.
If I was Romanian, I wouldn't sleep until every orphanage within a 50 mile radius was safe and secure and investigated by my own eyes. This is atrocious, abominable, and unjust to say the least.
If your hearts feel an ounce of pain Romania, Do something, now.
Friday, December 18, 2009
New Zardari Corruption Charges: Bad News for U.S.
New Zardari Corruption Charges: Bad News for U.S.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari addresses a meeting in Islamabad
AFP / Getty
There was more bad news for Washington out of Islamabad late Wednesday, Dec. 16, this time from Pakistan's Supreme Court. The court overruled an amnesty on corruption charges that had been granted to President Asif Ali Zardari and other senior figures, spurring efforts by political opponents to force America's top ally in Pakistan to step down. The move follows a week in which top U.S. military commanders struggled to persuade their Pakistani counterparts to go after Afghan Taliban groups based in Pakistan, while U.S. diplomats complained, through the media, of increasing harassment by Pakistani authorities, which was seen as a symptom of simmering resentment toward American involvement in Pakistan's affairs. (Read "Corruption Charges Loom for Pakistan's Pro-U.S. President.")
The full 17-member Supreme Court bench declared that the amnesty protecting Zardari from prosecution was illegal, reviving old corruption charges and raising the prospect that senior members of the government could be dragged into court. On Thursday evening, Dec. 17, the National Accountability Bureau, a government-corruption watchdog, began the process of issuing arrest warrants, freezing accounts and barring some of the accused from leaving the country, local media reported. (See pictures of a Pakistani lawyers' movement celebrating the reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.)
The highest-profile names that could be immediately affected by the amnesty's cancellation include Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar and top presidential aide Salman Farooqi. "These are the people most loyal to the President," said a Zardari aide. Prospects are increasingly uncertain for the survival of the already unpopular government. Leading legal experts argue that Zardari, who could face eight corruption cases in Pakistan, currently remains protected by presidential immunity. But his political opponents, building pressure on him to resign, now appear poised to mount fresh challenges to his eligibility as a candidate for the presidency in the 2008 election. (See pictures of Pakistan at odds with itself.)
"Mr. Zardari has lost all moral grounds to continue ruling as head of state," says Marvi Memon of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Q, founded by former President Pervez Musharraf. "For the sake of his party's future and the people of Pakistan, he should do the right thing and step down immediately, failing which, he will go down in history in words he will never be able to recover from politically." (Read "Pakistan's Activist Judges Target Musharraf.")
The President's office has come out fighting. "There is no question of President Zardari resigning," said presidential spokeswoman Farahnaz Ispahani. "The only constitutional way to remove [the President] is impeachment by both houses of Parliament with a two-thirds majority." Members of the ruling Pakistan People's Party say their leader is the object of a vicious media campaign intent on ousting him because of his pro-U.S. stance. Zardari spent more than 11 years behind bars under previous regimes on charges that he denies and maintains are politically motivated.
The presidential amnesty struck down by the court was issued by Musharraf in October 2007 as part of a power-sharing agreement brokered by Washington and London to pave the way for Zardari's slain wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, to return to Pakistan. After her assassination, Zardari returned from exile, led her party to victory in the elections and stepped into the office of President after Musharraf's resignation.
The legal setback for Zardari comes at a moment of low approval ratings and widespread allegations of fecklessness, along with mounting pressure on him to shed the executive powers claimed for the presidency by Musharraf and revert to its traditional, largely ceremonial role. Even within the government there is a slow, grinding power struggle between the President and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who stands to benefit if Zardari recedes into the political background.
In contrast to Zardari, who is widely seen as being close to Washington — not a popular position in Pakistan — Gilani is viewed by analysts as being more vulnerable to pressures from the powerful army chiefs. The Prime Minister has also faced criticism from within his party for being too friendly with the political opposition. The potential shift in power away from Zardari is unlikely to help Washington's efforts to press Pakistan to join its war against the Afghan Taliban.
During the court hearing on the amnesty, the judges took particular interest in money-laundering charges brought against Zardari and Bhutto in Switzerland in 2006. Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, the independent and widely popular activist judge sacked by Musharraf and restored by Zardari under pressure from massive street demonstrations, summoned all relevant documents and demanded explanations as to why the cases had been closed by the Swiss authorities at the request of Pakistan's attorney general at the time. Those cases have now been reopened, but leading attorney Aitzaz Ahsan — who led the lawyers' movement that had Chaudhry reinstated — insists that Zardari enjoys "sovereign immunity" and cannot be tried in Switzerland.
If that immunity is lifted, Zardari is unlikely to go quietly. His aides stress that he will face any charges brought against him. But since assuming the presidency, Zardari has been repeatedly drawn into political fights in which he has been forced to retreat under pressure from the opposition, the media and the military establishment. Some observers believe he can brave the gathering storm if he moves quickly to relinquish the executive powers of the presidency and overhaul his much criticized Cabinet. But unless he makes those concessions, analysts say, Zardari could find himself locked in a bitter battle for political survival that will consume most of his attention and distract from the wider challenges facing Pakistan.
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Commentary
Do we stand with Democracy? What is it with America and propping up corrupt Muslim governments?
Afghanistan is one of the most corrupt governments according to Transparency international.
Do you know what the top 5 most corrupt governments are?
- 1) Somalia
- 2) Iraq ~~~~~ We Created
- 3) Myanmar
- 4) Haiti ~~ In our own backyard and we leave them stranded without help.
- 5) Afghanistan ~~~ We created
Now we're propping up another corrupt government? What happened to the previous Pakistani government ruled by a Military commander, WHO WAS NEVER ELECTED, and his nuclear weapons falling into terrorist hands?
We were told if General Pervez Massharaf left office his country would have been torn apart. I believed that nonsense for a while too. Yet here it stands, more democratic than it was before, yet rather than helping to make it better we're complacent.
It makes sense why the Muslims of the world might be angry. We created the fairest democratic process the middle east had ever seen, in Gaza, and they voted.
What did we do with their vote? We tore it to shreds. We refuse to even speak with Hamas... after all they are terrorists.
If you don't do diplomacy with your enemies who is diplomacy for? Diplomacy is the strongest tool invented for changing the face of the planet. War gives us current day Iraq and Afghanistan.
Yet we refuse anything but war when it comes to Muslim "regimes".
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Btw who else are we propping up in the Muslim world that happens to be corrupt. The following 2 kings that hold countries of great important to the Muslim world:
- 1) Saudi Arabia
- 2) Egypt
Can we stand with the Muslims for once, instead of against them? Lets just try it, for laughs and giggles. Maybe a change in an archaic policy would do the world some good. After all wasn't the reason 9/11 occurred, according the 9/11 report, the war in Israel and Palestine?
Lets stop that war, support good governments in: Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia , and let's stand with the Muslim people for once. They are just like everyone else, the difference is their voice seems weak in a world filled with tyrants that bind them.
When their voice becomes powerful and protests take place, let's have been on their side rather than have been against them.
Barack Obama Is A Liar
I told you so, I told you so, I told you so.
There's a reason why i voted third party and why I plan on almost always voting third party, Because i don't want my vote to be useless.
If you have conservative leanings, you have only 1 vote they say, the republicans, sounds like a monarchy.
If you have liberal leanings, you have only 1 vote they say, the dems, sounds like a monarchy.
But if you vote your will, and you vote with someone who agrees with you, and you vote third party, you get exactly what you paid for.
Enough people realize that, we get real success stories.
Third party is throwing your vote away? Please, it's obvious who threw their vote away, and that's for whoever supports the beasts of Dem and Rep.
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