Interview on Cuba and Health Care

9 Feb
2010

Republicans called on the Obama Administration Friday to cancel migration talks with Cuba, currently set for Feb. 19. Though the arrest of an American contractor in Cuba sounds minor, the GOP continues to pounce on the specter of Cuban socialism as a means of inciting fear. Some facets of Cuban life, such as health care, offer a glimpse of something positive.

As the health care reform debate in the United States is ground into dust, one has to wonder what alternatives are out there. Michael Moore’s documentary, Sicko, was a withering indictment of U.S. health care profiteering and the efforts by Big Pharma, insurance companies and politicians to thwart Americans from getting basic health care. Contrast the situation with Cuba’s nationalized system, which assumes the financial and administrative burden from its populace.

I conducted the following Pacifica Radio interview with Dr. James Thompson, who recently traveled to Cuba as a health care professional, about what he saw in the Latin American country. Thompson penned an opinion article on Cuba and its health care system and offers many fascinating views on the embargo.

Interview on Cuba’s Health Care System

Cuba’s leader, Fidel Castro, recently condemned the United States for sending military forces to earthquake-ravaged Haiti, while Cuba dispatched scores of medical helpers for struggling Haitians.

Local Dialogue on Immigration Reform

8 Feb
2010

Charles Foster and Stephen Klineberg, two of Houston’s premier authorities on immigration and the changing face of Houston, will present a Dialogue on Immigration Reform. The dialogue will be at 6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 28, at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 5501 Main at Binz/Bissonnet.

Klineberg will provide demographic information. Foster will address current law, facts and myths, and reform possibilities. The dialogue will be moderated by the Rev. Dr. L. James (Jim) Bankston, St. Paul’s senior minister, who also will present religious considerations of immigration reform. An opportunity will be provided for questions from the audience.

Klineberg is Director of the Urban Research Center of Houston at Rice University.
Since 1982 he has conducted the annual Houston Area Survey that tracks changes in demographic patterns, life experience, attitudes, and beliefs of area residents.

Foster is a past national president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and recipient of numerous recognitions within his profession and beyond for his work in immigration

St. Paul’s was host in January to an interfaith conference on immigration reform that was led by a coalition of top religious leaders, including bishops from the Roman Catholic, United Methodist, Episcopal, and Lutheran churches.

St. Paul’s UMC is located at 5501 Main Street at Binz/Bissonnet, across from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Free parking is available across Fannin Street from the church, and the Museum District MetroRail stops are within walking distance of the church.

Beheading the Conspiracy Monster

7 Feb
2010

Though most of the media is still buzzing about last night’s Sarah Palin speech at the tea party event (CNN and Fox carried it live), passing without much notice was one of the best refutations of a particularly ghastly tea party/Alex Jones conspiracy theory.

Mother Jones dismantled the Obama police-state conspiracy theory this past week in an incisive analysis. The magazine pointed out allegations of President Barack Obama is leading a secret police force, preparing to round up political enemies and declare martial law to be a “thriving narrative on the right about the current administration’s nefarious intentions.”

Visions of the Obama Administration sending tanks down Main Street make for great theater. A cottage industry of books, DVDs and products offer the paranoid a chance to protect themselves, stockpile weapons and defend themselves from the mythical federal assault on freedom. One blogger offers a tea party movement critique for such nonsense. “I will not sit idly by while these tea party fools moan on and on about supposed attacks on their ‘liberty’ when the real beast that threatens us is an out of control private health insurance market and not the federal government.”

By the way, Palin’s speech comes shortly after Alaska documents surfaced talking about Todd Palin’s power in state affairs.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-07

7 Feb
2010

Activist Workshop Today

6 Feb
2010

Today, Environment Texas is teaming up with the Public Interest Network to help build train local volunteers and activists on basic organizing skills, such as recruiting volunteers, working with the media, and building strong coalitions. This training is applicable to people who want to make a difference on a wide range of issues, from health care reform and environmental protection to education reform and immigrant rights.

The event is free and open to the public.

The Activist Workshop in Houston takes place Saturday, Feb. 6, between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. at the Texas Southern University campus, Sterling Student Center, room 207.

Census Push by LULAC, Voto Latino

5 Feb
2010

The League of United Latin American Citizens, the largest and oldest Latino membership organization in the country, is partnering with Latino youth civic engagement organization Voto Latino for the “Be Counted, Represent!” campaign.

The campaign is intended to promote the Census to millennials, who are historically undercounted.

In the United States, census data affects everything from the allocation of federal budgets for education, health care and transportation to the drawing of Congressional districts. This year’s 2010 census is of critical importance to all Americans because it allocates $400 billion in federal funds and determines congressional representation.

Voto Latino (VL) will be organizing on-the-ground events and census outreach operations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Upstate New York, Long Island and San Francisco.

The campaign will be using everything from text messaging to online PSAs to free iTunes downloads from major artists across a wide range of musical genres, who have donated their tracks to the campaign.

“What we’ve found through our work is that Latino youth are pivotal household influencers,” said LULAC National President Rosa Rosales. “They’re familiar with government processes, they are English-speakers and consume mainstream media, and they influence their households with everything from politics to household purchases. Empowering them to take the census is at the core of our strategy.”

Houston Event on Nepal Revolution

4 Feb
2010

Two bits on the revolution in South Asia, one in Houston, another farther away.

Eric Ribellarsi of the FIRE Collective speaks on the revolution in Nepal to the Houston Peace Forum on Thursday, Feb. 11, at 7:15 p.m. at the First Unitarian Universalist Church, Room 302.

The church’s address is 5200 Fannin at Southmore. Parking is available directly behind the church or on surrounding streets. The event is open to the public and free of charge.

Refreshments served at 7:15, followed by program at 7:30. Discussion following.

Having spoken before the Peace Forum myself some time ago, I found the experience enjoyable. Pat Nichols, who coordinates the event, does a great job. The Houston Peace Forum is worth your time.

Also, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization issued a statement on Nepal today. It reads in part:

Several important lessons can be extracted from the experience of the Nepalese revolutionaries. The first and foremost of these is that a creative and flexible approach to class struggle which combines the lessons of past movements with concrete conditions, and that dynamically combined electoral mass action with protracted armed struggle, can achieve great victories.

Secondly, the Nepalese have demonstrated that a genuine revolutionary movement must be rooted in a democratic practice in order to mobilize large sections of the masses and hold themselves to the accountability of those masses and promote the agency of those masses in motion that are advancing the struggle.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, while there are important lessons from 20th Century Socialism, there exist today no pre-formulated methods for solving the problems that uniquely face every revolution – especially that of Nepalese Revolution. Revolutionaries in this country should take note and promote this struggle, all while working towards our own revolutionary movement.

FSRO is one of two groups with the same name following a split some years ago.

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