Health Reform That Works for Every American…. and some information about RAM
by Sen. Sherrod Brown and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse
source HufPost
“This morning, millions of people all over this country woke up hoping today isn’t the day they get sick. Millions of Americans went to work wondering whether today would be the last day they get paid in a while. And millions sat up late last night at the kitchen table, to try to balance the family budget as health care bills piled higher and higher.
Access to secure, affordable health care is one of the brightest lines dividing our country. When the system works, it’s at worst inconvenient. When it doesn’t – and too often, it doesn’t – it can leave families, businesses, whole communities devastated.
There has to be a better way. We have to do better than 47 million uninsured, and millions more teetering on the brink. We have to do better than 100,000 people dying each year from avoidable medical errors. America can do better than this.
That’s why for the past several weeks, Senate Democrats have worked hard to craft a sensible, comprehensive health care reform that will begin to reduce costs for families, businesses, and our government; protect people’s choice of doctors, hospitals and insurance plans; and offer affordable, high-quality health care for every American.
Our reform upholds President Obama’s promise: if you like the health care you have, you can keep it. But for the many Americans who want different choices – or don’t have health insurance at all – we also offer a new, public health insurance option. The Community Health Insurance Option will be a national plan, administered by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and available in every state and territory. It will offer benefits that are as good as those available through private insurance plans – or better. The Secretary will negotiate provider payment rates to encourage doctors and hospitals to participate, and individuals who need financial help purchasing coverage will receive it. Local advisory councils will assure the plan receives community input.
Overwhelmingly, Americans agree that healthy competition and a broad range of choices will help keep costs down and insurance plans honest. Our Community Health Insurance Option will be a clear, affordable alternative to for-profit insurance companies.
Your health insurer should be your advocate – not your adversary. The Community Health Insurance Option will invest in prevention, so that when you’re healthy you stay that way. It will invest in care management and coordination, when you have a chronic condition. And it will fight for you, not with you, to get you get the best possible care with the least possible hassle.
Some people will try to scare you into thinking that having a public option will drive all private health insurers out of the market. But we all know the truth: the only place the public option will drive private health insurers is back onto the straight and narrow. Your health insurer should never deny you coverage because you’ve had a heart condition. Your insurer should never carve out your diabetes from your coverage. Your insurer should never deny payment for the MRI they didn’t pre-authorize because in the haze of your breast cancer diagnosis, you hadn’t read the fine print.
They’ll also try to scare you into thinking that our plan will put the government between you and your doctor, and ration your care. The truth is just the opposite. Private insurance rations care by ability to pay – and puts insurance company bureaucrats between you and your doctor. Our plan rejects this failed system – because every American deserves the very best care, no matter what.
The HELP Committee’s plan is the right path for our country as we work to reform our health care system – and we look forward to the day when it’s available to millions of Americans desperately in need of comprehensive, low-cost, high-quality coverage. This should have happened long ago.
The writers are Democratic U.S. Senators representing Ohio and Rhode Island, respectively. They are members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee.“
————————————————————
This reminded me of a documentary I’ve seen a year ago on one of our TV channels about the volunteer organisation “Remote Area Medical” (RAM) that once started it’s roots in the Amazon and was founded in 1985 to provide medical care to some of the poorest and most remote areas of the world.
Stan Brock, the founder of this organization, dedicated his life to providing health care to remote regions on this planet after he spent over fifteen years in the Amazon rain forest witnessing tribes without modern day health care.
Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corps is a non-profit, volunteer relief corps that provides free dental, eye and veterinary care to the underserved of the world. Volunteers collect supplies, medicine, facilities, and more. They travel as far as the Amazon jungles to assist those in need.
Right now RAM operates solely on the generosity of the American people and has no corporate sponsors. In fact, last year the organization survived on only $250,000 but treated 70,000 people in rural areas in the United States. Many of these areas have under-insured and impoverished people who were unable to obtain health care otherwise.
Most people (me included) find it a shock to see that conditions we would expect only in the darkest forests on the other side of the planet are in fact occurring every day in the United States. In fact, 60% of their services are provided in the United States.
For more information you can visit their website ….
http://www.ramusa.org/
http://www.ramusa.org/projects/ruralamerica.htm
The majority of those who come to the clinics have jobs, they simply cannot afford health care and although they work hard (sometimes more than 2 jobs) but rising medical costs and limited local dental and eye care force them to look to services such as RAM.
On a typical RAM expedition, health care specialists make a weekend trip to a specified area- usually setting up in a high school or other local venue. Upon arriving, the RAM team sets up dental care stations and eye exam stations, and sometimes provides routine medical tests such as pap smears and mammograms.
(this is not in Africa or South America, this is in the United States)
The clinics open early in the morning, patients get a ticket and are seen on a first-come, first-served basis. Those tickets are the only hope some people have of seeing a health clinician. Some have suffered multiple heart attacks but cannot afford follow-up visits to a doctor. Breast cancer survivors come to RAM clinics for mammograms that they can’t pay for. Some people arrive barely able to see until they receive a new pair of glasses, free thanks to RAM.
Long lines of people are waiting to see the doctors, nurses, and dentists but RAM usually cannot attend to everyone who comes to their mobile clinics…
Here are some videos…
and…. click on the picture below or go to
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/interactives/healingfields/
to watch the videos….
IT IS shocking to see that IS the current situation in the United States. In Germany we have universal health care and everyone (nearly everyone) is covered.
We don’t have the best health care system, it is getting more expensive for everyone but it works and the costs are by far not so high (we have nearly the half costs) than the costs in the US right now.
I would never want to miss it.
It saved my life and saved me from bancrupty. My sons had nearly 15 surgeries (broken legs, knee surgeries, sport accidents etc.) during the last 10 years and I could have never paid for it by myself.
Health care for all is a human right and I hope that Obama is able to make it work, so that these people in the videos above (and all the other 5 million Americans who are without health care) don’t have to “sit up late last night at the kitchen table, to try to balance the family budget as health care bills piled higher and higher.” (to quote Brown and Whitehouse) just because Big Pharma wants to make their money.
This is a repost from another blog!
A while ago one of my friends gave a party and I cannot remember when I ever had so much fun!
One reason was that some Americans and some people from Britain and Spain were there and one of them gave a really funny birthday speech about “Germans – through the eyes of foreigners” and I have to say that this made us all roll on the floor.
I never heard before that we are seen in this way and if this is right, I don’t have to wonder why there are so many misunderstandings 
So I tried to find some “facts” about Germany.
Well, I start with some general differences… but maybe I should mention first, that whenever you should come to Germany – please, never think that we are uninterested, cold or selfish people if no one looks your way, or doesn’t talk to you…
I learned on that birthday party, that we are just very, very, very shy people who just cannot bring ourselves to talk to strangers… so whatever happens, don’t despair – once we know you better, we can be nice and remember the following “facts”… 
In German restaurants, asking for free water with your food is frowned upon and uncommon. There are very few water fountains in public buildings… here you have to pay for your water
When you have eaten in a restaurant, taking the leftovers with you is typically frowned upon, they are thrown away…
US restaurants usually stop serving food at 10pm, some already at 9pm (except junk food joints). In Germany you can eat till midnight.
In the US, when you enter a restaurant, you have to wait for a waiter to seat you, generally you cannot freely choose your table. Here, you just sit down wherever you want.
Bottles with crown caps in the US can always be opened without a bottle opener, by simply turning the cap. In Germany, you need a bottle opener.
Here, there are almost no motels, and there are very few cheap ways to spend a night, especially close to the highways.
German dog owners almost never collect their dog’s feces. (That’s not true – I always do it) but however – take care
Btw. I heard, that Americans have a strange obsession with the points of the compass. Frequently inside a building you find signs like “This elevator is out of order. Please use the one on the North side of the building.
Seriously, how am I supposed to know where North is?
But by contrast, German highway signs are unusable for foreigners (and many Germans – including me) since they eschew points of the compass completely. In order to navigate on German Autobahnen, you need to know the relative locations of all cities in Germany. The signs won’t say “B1 East” and “B1 West”, but instead “B1 Richtung Bochum” and “B1 Richtung Unna” and you are supposed to know that Unna is East of Bochum (just an example). But we also have maps, yep… we really have!
Worse, highway intersections in Germany use an utterly braindead and dangerous layout where the cars that are slowing down and leaving a highway have to share a stretch of road with those speeding up and joining the highway.
It is said that everything is bigger in the US than it is in Germany: people, meal portions, coffee cups, cars, houses, cell phones, beds, refrigerators, squirrels… hmm everything?
To call a cell phone in Germany, you pay a high per-minute fee and the callee pays nothing (unless they’re abroad) …
Credit cards suck the full balance out of your bank account at the end of every month. German bank accounts come with a standard credit line… you can simply overdraw them – this seems to be comparatively rare in the US.
Germans think that natural yellow egg yolk looks “unhealthy” and pale and prefer their egg yolk orange, which is why German farmers feed their chickens organge pigments.
What is called “erste Etage” (first floor) in Germany is called “second floor” in the US. So… don’t confuse that
Graffiti shall be more colorful in Germany, where it is sometimes viewed as approaching an art form…
Soccer is seen as a men’s sport in Germany and as a women’s sport in the US.
In Germany, people wouldn’t consider themselves patriots. Actually, if you would say “I’m proud to be German”, you’d be considered a neo-Nazi. In Germany, the only time to hold up a German flag in public, without looking like a Nazi, is during football games or sport events.
Germans love to organize public life, and make up rules, whether these rules are needed often, rarely, or never…
But here are some regulations which limit personal everyday freedoms:
- freight trucks cannot be driven on weekends
- men have to do at least one year of mandatory military or social service
- your current address has to be registered with the authorities at all times, even if you are a German living outside of Germany
- you must take classes and obtain a license in order to be allowed to fish or hunt
- you cannot create noise by cutting grass on Sundays
- you cannot wear a mask when participating in a demonstration (the ”Vermummungsverbot” police want to be able to identify you on their video tapes)
Older people dress a lot more conservatively in Germany than in the US. It’s not uncommon to see a seventy-year-old American in shorts, sneakers, t-shirt and base ball cap – yep, this is unthinkable in Germany.
While it is legal in the US to display hard core pornography on Internet web sites open to all (not sure if this is right) this is not allowed in Germany. Similarly, sex magazines that can be bought at regular newsstands are harder in the US than in Germany – in the US, satellite hard core porn channels can be ordered and this is not possible in Germany.
Prostitution, anal sex, and zoophily are not illegal in Germany but are illegal in many US states (not sure if this is right, I just heard it)
In Germany, all murderers can be and often are paroled after 15 years in prison (except for terrorists and the psychologically abnormal). Children under 14 cannot be punished at all, and juveniles under 18 cannot be sentenced as adults. People under 21 can be treated as juveniles if the court finds them to be immature.
Americans are generally much more hard working than Germans. For example, many Americans told me that it is not unusual to meet people who work two 40-hours-a-week jobs, or who work full time while also taking a full time course load at a college. Both are completely non-existent in Germany (there are rules against working too much, intended to protect workers, two full-time jobs are not allowed). Many Germans work only 35 hours a week, others 37.5, all take long vacations, and I estimate that over the whole year, the average German with a job works about two thirds the hours of the average working American.
Clearly, unions are much more powerful in Germany than in the US. They are huge, and they don’t bother to bargain with individual employers – they talk directly to the employer’s associations in the different fields.
You do not get your driver’s licence until you are 18 years old…
n Europe, an entree is usually the first course of a meal (the same as an American appetizer). The main course is called “the main course”. American’s like to have a salad course, but this is almost never seen in Europe as salad (if it is being served) will usually be presented alongside the main course.
While Americans and Europeans (excluding the British) drive on the same side of the road, there are still many different rules. The most obvious is the American rule allowing cars to turn on a red light. This is not allowed here – exception: police, fire and rescue service.
But in general most of the street signs use the same international symbols.
Power sockets in the United Kingdom differ from the rest of Europe, and both are different from American (and Japanese) sockets. European plugs generally have two circular pins for inserting in to the socket (though there are variations in almost all of the nations in Europe)
while British and Irish plugs have three thick rectangular pins. Also, European lights switch off in the opposite direction to American lights….
In Germany we have garbage separation. More than 80 % of paper and glass is recycled.
e have about 1280 breweries offering more than 5000 different beer brands today – from dark brown to pale gold, from bitter to smooth. 53 per cent of all German breweries are located in Bavaria, by the way. The average beer consumption per person is 115 ltrs of beer per year.
When the perfume brand “Irish Mist” was introduced to the German market, it had to be renamed because in German language “Mist” means nothing else but “Bullshit”. Because nobody wanted to buy bullshit to spread it over his face, now it is called “Irisch Moos” = moss
Germany is the only European country that has no overall speed limit on the highways, the so-called Autobahn. Currently, there is a political debate about whether or not to introduce one, but the call for a speed limit will probably be again rejected by the political majorities. You should think about choosing a sports car when you come here and need a rental!
There is no Target, GAP, Old Navy or Urban Outfitters in Germany and Starbucks just started 3 years ago. However, we have ALDI, Tchibo and H&M. And Wal Mart 
The German language at this moment is undergoing a drastic change towards Americanization – that is, more and more English makes its way into the German language. This includes vocabulary, spacing, rules for using comma, and apostrophes.
One could argue West Germany in the last 50 or so years was brought up to serve as American colony. (Certainly better than starting yet another war.) Germans adore everything coming from “across the ocean”, and are quick to adopt fashion, food, drinks, language, movie, and music styles if they originate in the USA.
At least in this respect, however, Germany’s not on a lonely stand. American movies, music, fashion and everything are also by now the de facto way of life for many other countries.
So if you come to Europe or to Germany you are not out of civilization – you still can see McDonald’s and there may still be Coca-Cola – let’s face it, you didn’t leave the planet and we are also not so bad
Cheers!
Have a great weekend!
And “Happy Birthday” America!
Professional journalists and what they should do….
Preamble
Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues. Conscientious journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty. Professional integrity is the cornerstone of a journalist’s credibility. Members of the Society share a dedication to ethical behavior and adopt this code to declare the Society’s principles and standards of practice.
Seek Truth and Report It
Journalists should be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.
Journalists should:
— Test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error. Deliberate distortion is never permissible.
— Diligently seek out subjects of news stories to give them the opportunity to respond to allegations of wrongdoing.
— Identify sources whenever feasible. The public is entitled to as much information as possible on sources’ reliability.
— Always question sources’ motives before promising anonymity. Clarify conditions attached to any promise made in exchange for information. Keep promises.
— Make certain that headlines, news teases and promotional material, photos, video, audio, graphics, sound bites and quotations do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context.
— Never distort the content of news photos or video. Image enhancement for technical clarity is always permissible. Label montages and photo illustrations.
— Avoid misleading re-enactments or staged news events. If re-enactment is necessary to tell a story, label it.
— Avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information except when traditional open methods will not yield information vital to the public. Use of such methods should be explained as part of the story
— Never plagiarize.
— Tell the story of the diversity and magnitude of the human experience boldly, even when it is unpopular to do so.
— Examine their own cultural values and avoid imposing those values on others.
— Avoid stereotyping by race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, geography, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance or social status.
— Support the open exchange of views, even views they find repugnant.
— Give voice to the voiceless; official and unofficial sources of information can be equally valid.
— Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context.
— Distinguish news from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines between the two.
— Recognize a special obligation to ensure that the public’s business is conducted in the open and that government records are open to inspection.
Society of professional journalists
The full code of ethics…
The media has the power to affect and manipulate minds in many ways – responsible is the way of reporting!
But a free and independent media, traditionally has the power to act as a watchdog over governments.
With the trauma that spread around much of the world in the wake of the events of September 11, 2001, a particular silence developed in much of the world press with regard to the U.S. government…
Today, the press is far away from beeing this watchdog… the privatization of the news business is one important part.
And the ethics of journalism seem to be forgotten.
But in our times we can use online sources, we can search for information, backgrounds, different voices and views – everything what is not available in the mainstream media – exactly that’s what I do, what I did in the past and what I will continue to do…
Like Kofi Annan I believe that “Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.”
And I will try to post different voices and views… too much things are going on in this world, most often ignored by the mainstream media.
By Fatma Aykut – Spiegel-Online
In his film “Fitna,” right-wing Dutch populist Geert Wilders condemns Islam, the Koran and practicing Muslims. Fatma Aykut, a Muslim journalist living in Germany, describes the impact the film had on her — and why it failed to shock.
Footage of a hijacked airplane slamming into the World Trade Center on 9/11. Hate-mongering mullahs calling Muslims to a holy war. Images of the mangled corpses of victims in the 2004 Madrid train bombings. These are the tools by which right-wing Dutch populist Geert Wilders tries to “shock” his audience.
But it doesn’t work.
First, these images lost their impact long ago. We’ve seen them in the news a thousand times, much like images of Hamas supporters in Gaza, waving machine guns in the air and bellowing anti-Semitic slogans at the camera. It may sound macabre, but they are worn out — we were desensitized long ago to these inflammatory television images.
A desire to shock also compelled Wilders to include footage from the beheading of a hostage, uncensored and uncut. The camera fixes on the severed head as the scene fades out. The only problem is that the news value of this footage is absolutely zero. The viewer finds herself wondering: “When is Wilders actually going to shock me?”
Moderate Muslims are as appalled by these horrific images as non-Muslims — both groups turn away with equal disgust. Islamic extremists, meanwhile, judge these pictures callously. “Perfect,” they are surely saying, “the Dutchman has portrayed us just right.” Such extremists won’t be shocked. Just the opposite: Al-Qaida could post Wilder’s work as a promotional video on their Web site.
Europe ’s Muslims as Christian-haters and homophobes
Wilders’ accompanies these “shocking images” with quotations from the Koran, an effort to expose Islam’s holiest text as a well-spring of hate. That makes it difficult for me, a totally average Muslim, to defend Islam as a peaceful religion. These quotations are not made up — they can actually be found in the Koran. Passages from the holy book that rail hatefully against Jews have, unfortunately, long been misused as propaganda. That is tragic, as it is tragic that similar anti-Semitic passages are just as common in the Bible.
The film’s title, “Fitna,” can be translated as “chaos,” and that describes the first 10 minutes of the film. An endless stream of fear-mongering images promotes the cliché of Muslims as savages — a horde of bearded, dark-skinned men in long white robes. The viewer finds herself asking, “What is this film trying to achieve? What does the film maker want?”
Then, after the 10th minute, Wilders’ goal becomes crystal clear. He doesn’t have his sights set on Muslims in Afghanistan, Pakistan or Iraq, but rather on Muslims in Europe. It’s not about differences between moderate and militant Muslims. In Wilders’ film, every Muslim in Europe is a threat. Every Muslim supports honor killings, opposes Christianity and is homophobic. “Stop the Islamification of Europe,” “Take a Stand against Muslims” — these are tired slogans that can be found tied to right-wing extremists in any local, state or federal election in Germany. They are familiar, and they have long since ceased to be “shocking.”
Wilders’ film offers a prophecy for “Holland’s future”: bloodied children will cower before their abusive mothers, gays will be hanged and young girls will be subjected to genital mutilation.
If the topic of Muslim integration in Europe weren’t so important, it would be tempting to treat the film as a caricature of itself and smirk at it a little. Wilders portrays his subject so mercilessly that it’s impossible to take him or his film seriously. It’s hardly politically correct to admit, but “Fitna” does have a certain explosive power. On the other hand, is it even possible today to make a film critical of Islam without fear of assassination, protests and violence? I ask this question as a Muslim woman.
I am sure that many people in Holland, and here in Germany, share Wilders’ beliefs. Personally, I’d like to know what Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has to say on the matter.
The tricky thing about the film is that Wilder’s does manage to show one facet of the Muslim experience in Europe. Annoyingly, it’s even in documentary format. It would be downright foolish to be against the film “on principle.” Wilders portrays a mindset that undoubtedly exists in Amsterdam, in Paris and in Berlin.
But he chooses to ignore certain realities of Muslim life in Europe: The high rate of unemployment among immigrants, the slim chances of receiving a good education, the daily encounters with racism and the countless immigrant children — particularly boys — who are abandoned.
So which came first — the chicken or the egg?
As a believing but non-practicing Muslim, the film in no way offends my religious convictions. Neither Allah or the Prophet Muhammad are a direct target. Wilders also avoids the mistake Theo van Gogh made by connecting the Koran and sexuality. Van Gogh was murdered in 2004 by a Muslim extremist after directing “Submission,” a film that juxtaposed passages from the Koran with stories of men abusing women in Islamic culture and images of a partially-clothed female narrator.
I had no problem with Van Gogh’s film, but the explosive violence perpetrated by less tolerant Muslims around the world raised the chances of a violent reaction to Wilders’ film.
To that end, “Fitna” surprised me. One can argue that it is overhyped — Wilders shows nothing but facts, even if they are somewhat one-sided.
“Fitna” was an attempt — a cheap, transparent attempt — to lump together every Muslim immigrant in Europe as potential terrorists, as threats to hard-won democracies, as beasts driven by base instinct.
If politicians hadn’t warned people so incessantly of the film’s potential consequences and drawn constant comparison to the unrest caused by the Danish cartoon controversy in 2005, Wilders’ “Fitna” project wouldn’t have been nearly as successful as an exercise in self-promotion. But shock us he did not. And that’s a lucky thing.
More responses…
The Dakar-Declaration — Last week, 10,000 Muslim clerics conferenced in Deoband, India, the 2nd seat of Islamic learning in the world after Al-Azhar University in Cairo. That declaration was called the Deoband declaration.
World Muslim leaders on Friday condemned extremism and terrorism as incompatible with Islam and proposed a high-level international meeting to promote a “dialogue of civilizations” with Christians.
Leaders of the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference, which represents 1.5 billion Muslims across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, made the “Dakar Declaration” after a two-day summit in Senegal.
“We continue to strongly condemn all forms of extremism and dogmatism which are incompatible with Islam, a religion of moderation and peaceful coexistence,” the declaration said.
The Muslim body condemned acts of terrorism committed in the name of Islam….
Well, while reading lots of blogs in the Web in regard to the Fitna film, I recognized that many, many people are concerned about the fact that we in Europe are going to lose more and more of our freedom… freedom of speech and the freedom to express ourselves… which made me think what “freedom of speech” really means in our societies.
Free speech means to have the right to express any opinion in public without censorship or restraint by the government…
I would say the part “… by the government” is important to notice, because in the West, freedom of speech means you can say practically anthing you want and the government will not haul you away and put you in jail.
There are some exceptions like the obscenity laws associated with radio and TV
But freedom of speech does not mean you can say whatever you want without impunity.
So the Dixie Chicks for example made a political statement in America and angered their demographic a few years ago. They have suffered the consequences of their behavior, but not have been censored by the government.
You can say whatever you want, but you will have to suffer the consequences. Just like you are free to rob a bank but if you’re caught you’ll have to suffer the consequences…
In America you can safely express yourself by waving an American flag, but not by burning one.
Most people would not publicly express desire for a member of the same sex, and many who support the legality of abortion no longer care to say so.
Society is a web of relationships which work together to keep each of us average in the most banal sense of the word.
Before expressing a strong opinion on anything, most of us carry out a practical inventory of possible results: how will the professor, the boss or some other authority figure react? What will the neighbors think? Will we still be accepted by our friends? Social obligations and needs, like financial debt, keep most of us from taking any risks.
Most of us feel that it would take a lot more than any given provocation to make it worth sticking our neck out.
Our fear to express any idea outside of an approved range does not raise a legal issue where there is no threat of government intervention. But it does raise a moral one. There appears to be a grievous difference between the rulebook and the game.
I could go on, but I think I made my point clear… we will not use our right of free speech at full volume, most often because of moral or “selfish” reasons.
The same applies to politicians… politicians are interest warriors, they will not use their right of free speech for the same reasons – just look to China right now and if so – in case of Wilders – they will have very good reasons to do so.
So Wilders film was not censored by the Dutch government… the TV stations in the Netherlands refused to broadcast this film and it was a moral decision and had nothing to do with censorship. The same applies to LiveLeak com. – they decided to remove this film… yes, they did it because of threats, but it was not the Dutch government that was behind the threats. They censored themselves…
You still can say whatever you want without beeing punished by the government, but you will have to suffer the consequences… We can live our freedom to a certain limit and in regard to free speech every single one of us, no matter if we are private persons, if we speak about TV stations or politicians, manager or whatever… we all have different limits… this right should also be accepted as a part of our freedom, our right of free speech and our right to express ourselves…
When you come to the Olympic Games in Beijing, you will see skyscrapers, spacious streets, modern stadiums and enthusiastic people. You will see the truth, but not the whole truth, just as you see only the tip of an iceberg. You may not know that the flowers, smiles, harmony and prosperity are built on a base of grievances, tears, imprisonment, torture and blood….
Channel 4 News (2 min.)
The above words are written by two of China’s most celebrated human rights activists, Teng Biao and Hu Jia, who issued the open letter translated below, calling for the international community to look beyond the veneer of munificence and normality put up in Beijing for the Olympics, and to seriously examine to what extent China had fulfilled the promises it made to improve human rights ahead of the Games.
Three months after the publication of this letter, on December 27, Hu Jia was brutally arrested at his home, where he had been held under house arrest for the better part of two years. He is accused of “incitement to subvert state power,” a charge regularly
leveled against activists and dissidents….
his open letter is here available
He wrote:
We are going to tell you the truth about China. We believe that for anyone who wishes to avoid a disgraceful Olympics, knowing the truth is the first step.
To clear space for Olympic-related construction, thousands of civilian houses have been destroyed without their former owners being properly compensated.
It has been reported that over 1.25 million people have been forced to move because of Olympic construction; it was estimated that the figure would reach 1.5 million by the end of 2007. No formal resettlement scheme is in place for the over 400,000 migrants who have had their dwelling places demolished. Twenty percent of the demolished households are expected to experience poverty or extreme poverty. In Qingdao, the Olympic sailing city, hundreds of households have been demolished and many human rights activists as well as “civilians” have been imprisoned. Similar stories come from other Olympic cities such as Shenyang, Shanghai and Qinhuangdao….
This video should give an insight
Sky News (5 min.)
China has consistently persecuted human rights activists, political dissidents and freelance writers and journalists and still practices literary inquisition, holding the world record for detaining journalists and writers, as many as several hundred since 1989 according to incomplete statistics.
Websites are closed, blogs deleted, sensitive words filtered. Many websites hosted abroad are blocked. Overseas radio and
television programs are interfered with or strictly prohibited. Although the Chinese government has promised media freedom for foreign journalists for 22 months, before, during, and after the Beijing Olympics, and ending on October 17, 2008, an FCCC
(Foreign Correspondents Club in China) survey showed that 40 percent of foreign correspondents have experienc
harassment, detention or an official warning during news gathering in Beijing and other areas. Some reporters have complained about repeated violent police interference at the time they were speaking with interviewees….
Torture is very common in China’s detention centers, labor camps and prisons. Torture methods include electric shock, burning, use of electric needles, beating and hanging, sleep deprivation, forced chemical injection causing nerve damage, and piercing the fingers with needles. Every year, there are reported cases of Chinese citizens being disabled or killed by police torture.
Labor camps are still retained as a convenient Chinese system which allows the police to lock up citizens without trial for up to four years. The detention system is another practice that the police favors, freeing them to detain citizens for six months to two years….
China has the world’s largest secret police system, the Ministry of National Security (guo an) and the Internal Security Bureau (guo bao) of the Ministry of Public Security, which exercise power beyond the law. They can easily tap telephones, follow citizens, place them under house arrest, detain them and impose torture….
Thousands of 8-13 year-old trafficked children had been forced to labor in illegal kilns, almost all with local government connections. Many of the children were beaten, tortured and even buried alive….
In one of the last paragraph of his letter he writes:
Please be aware that the Olympic Games will be held in a country where there are no elections, no freedom of religion, no independent courts, no independent trade unions; where demonstrations and strikes are prohibited; where torture and
discrimination are supported by a sophisticated system of secret police; where the government encourages the violation of human rights and dignity, and is not willing to undertake any of its international obligations…
Please read the full letter above and watch the videos…
I would like to add this video about Organ Harvesting in China….(6 min.) It shows the connection between the rise in organ transplant surgeries and the imprisonment of Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese Communist Party starting in 1999. Hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been detained–but where are they? The number of organ transplants surgeries in China mysteriously began to rise in 1999–but where do all the organs come from?
The footage from the ISHR (International Society for Human Rights) press conference at Presseclub Concordia, Vienna, with Canadian MP Mr. David Kilgour about his and Mr. David Matas research on the CCP’s organ harvesting of persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in China you can find here on youtube, if you are interested. The first 2:40 min. are in German, the rest is in English.
And last but not least I want to post this video about dogs (2 min.)… in China exists no animal protection laws so restaurants serving also dog met… these restaurants have been ordered to close for fear of upsetting thousands of western tourists arriving for the Olympics.
But Investigation agency Ecostorm secretly gained access to China’s dog-meat industry and secured pictures of dogs being brutally killed with clubs and knives.
It brought me to tears….
This country will host the Olympic Games and I didn’t mention what is going on in Tibet.
I for one will continue to “boycott” Chinese goods and I will also boycott the Games – I will not watch it on TV!
I hope you spread the word… copy this blog and post it too, send it forward, protest…. but do something…!
To understand the problems in Tibet, you should watch the movie below …
I know it is long
I will also repost the article which quotes Peter Firstbrook, producer of BBC Four series “A Year in Tibet”…
“The recent protests mark the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising of 1959 when anti-Chinese and anti-communist demonstrations erupted on the streets of Lhasa, and were put down by force.
Tibet is China’s Gaza Strip in some way… so China’s crackdown on monk-led rallies in Lhasa is part of a long history of state control of monasteries…
Buddhist monasteries are among the few institutions in China which have the potential to organise resistance and opposition to the government – so the Chinese Communist Party constantly worries about them.
Are some monks secret supporters of the Dalai Lama? Could they be working towards Tibetan independence? Beijing’s fear is so great that being found with just a photograph of the Dalai Lama in your possession could land you in jail.
Government regulation of the monasteries started almost as soon as the People’s Liberation Army marched into Tibet in 1950.
Lhasa’s three major monasteries – the Sera, Drepung and Ganden, were seriously damaged by shelling. The Dalai Lama was forced to flee into exile and the Tibetan government-in-exile estimates that 86,000 Tibetans died.
Less than a decade later, Mao’s Cultural Revolution wrought havoc in the region and the Red Guards destroyed more than 6,000 monasteries and convents – just a handful survived.
Along with the buildings, hundreds and thousands of priceless and irreplaceable statues, tapestries and manuscripts were destroyed.
“At that time all the monasteries were destroyed. The whole country was changing during the revolution. The wave of change was unstoppable,” says Dondrup, a 77-year-old monk at the Pel Kor Monastery in Gyantse.
Since the 1980s the Chinese government has begun to rebuild some of the monasteries and they has also granted greater religious freedom – although it is still limited.
But almost every aspect of the lives of Buddhist monks and nuns is monitored and controlled by the government.
Every monastery and nunnery in Tibet is visited at least once every few weeks by a Communist Party official, who checks that the government rules and regulation are being correctly applied.
Butri, a Tibetan Communist Party cadre, explains: “I visit these temples once or twice a month. I tell them what to do and what not to do. They all listen and say nothing.”
The government is also very careful whom it allows to become a monk. All novices have to go through a detailed vetting procedure which takes years to complete. Even their families are checked for any subversive background.
The Chinese government also restricts the number of monks and nuns. In fact, monasteries can no longer perform many of their rituals correctly because of a shortage of monks.
Tsultrim, the deputy head lama of the Pel Kor monastery in Gyantse, said at its peak the monastery was home to 1,500 monks. Today the Chinese government restricts numbers to no more than 80.
“Although we can’t have that many lamas now, we can still absorb new lamas under the current regulations and policies,” he said.
“Of course, we need to check up on them, to see if they’re the right people for us.”
The recent conflict on the streets of Lhasa mirrors events almost 20 years ago – the last time there were major protests – when frustration among the monks and ordinary Tibetans finally reached boiling point in 1989.
But today, there is one important difference: technology. Practically every Tibetan monk I have met has a mobile phone. They even have special pockets sewn inside their robes to carry them.
In the past it has been notoriously difficult to communicate across the vast expanse of Tibet. Today, everybody is just a text away.”
————————————————————————————-
Another confusion about Tibet is it’s “definition” – and there is a difference what the Chinese government and the Tibetans consider as Tibet…
BBC wrote an article about that
The areas of historic Tibet that are outside the so-called “Tibetan Autonomous Region” are incorporated into the provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Gansu. That’s why some news reports are describing Tibetan protests far outside of “Tibet.” They’re not outside of Tibet at all, just what the Chinese government considers Tibet!
The borders of the Tibetan Autonomous Region are defined by the Chinese government, with Lhasa as its provincial capital and only this region is considered as “Tibet” by Beejing.
But currently about half of Tibetans are estimated to live outside the TAR – many of them in nearby Chinese provinces or surrounding countries like Nepal and India.
A term often used is Greater Tibet, which covers the TAR, the whole of Qinghai province, western parts of Sichuan, areas of Yunnan and a corner of Gansu.
When the Chinese invaded Tibet in 1951, they set up the “Tibetan Autonomous Region” in 1965 so that the majority of Tibetans have to live outside of this region
This graphic may explain it a little bit better…
The reason…China was worried that Tibet could break free, Tibet had a fully functioning government and army and a surrender treaty and to prevent such a “break-out” the Chinese broke apart Tibet into 5 parts…
That’s the real tragedy for the most Tibetans…
A chronology of Tibet’s history you can find here on PBS
This is the headline of German political magazines or newspapers…
“Spiegel International” writes:
“German Chancellor Angela Merkel wins praise for her diplomacy and caution during her visit to Israel. But some German commentators warn that by ignoring the Palestinians in her speech and providing support exclusively to the Israelis, Merkel made Berlin’s approach in the Middle East appear dangerously one-sided. The article above has some comments of German newspapers…”
Besides that it is obvious that Germany will always face up to Nazi past, we are watched in whatever we do…
This article shows the realitiy very well….
“A handful of members of Israel’s Knesset are opposed to visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressing the Israel assembly in German, the language in which millions of Jews were tortured and ordered killed. This is entirely understandable especially to the writer who as a child born in England when German bombs rained down on London remembers the anti-German sentiment after the Second World War. As a rule, English Jews would not buy anything made in Germany and were biased against Germans for all the grief they had caused both the Jews and the English. As a young boy, the writer even had an aversion to learning Yiddish as he thought it sounded too much like German. That was his prevailing attitude at the time which many shared.
But the same German culture and language that created a despicable Hitler and Nazis also created former Chancellor Conrad Adenauer, the man who groomed Angela Merkel to become the first woman chancellor in German history and a most deserving one. Sometimes in the aftermath and shadow of evil, persons of outstanding character and very high integrity arise to address the imbalance.”
Youtube video – sadly no code available
Well, no comment!
But Merkel adressed her first words in Hebrew and continued adressing her speech in German.
So Merkel said Germans were still “filled with shame” about the Holocaust, during which 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis. She said that Germany would always stand by Israel, and promised to take the country’s side against any threat, particularly from Iran.
Ok, I don’t agree with her on this and I also disagree in regard to the Palestinians…
With her strong support for Israel she risked appearing biased in the Middle East conflict. But on the other hand… what possibilities does she really have?
Some politicians here say, she should speak straight also about the Israeli attacks in Gaza in early March as over 120 Palestinians died… “The chancellor should make it clear to our Israeli partners that their settlement policy is a violation of the Annapolis agreements.” This agreement reached by Israelis and Palestinians last autumn that they would avoid provocations.”
But she said nothing!
The reaction coming from the Palestinian side was consequently full of critics… according to Israel Insider
“An unnamed official was quoted in The Jerusalem Post as saying she had done everything to provoke the Palestinians during her visit.
The list of complaints against Merkel was a long one.
She had reportedly inquired into the well-being of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit, but refused to similarly demand that Israel tell her how incarcerated Palestinians were faring.
According to the official, Merkel focused on the importance of releasing kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit and met with the families of missing IDF soldiers while in Jerusalem, but she refused to meet with families of Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
The official said that Merkel ignored a question about Palestinian prisoners during the press conference with Abbas and, according to The Jerusalem Post, said, “She appeared to be obsessed with the case of Gilad Schalit.” He added that, “she refused to even acknowledge the fact that we have more than 10,000 prisoners in Israel.”
“This woman is trying to be more Israeli than the Israelis,” the official said. “During her talks with President Abbas, she totally ignored major issues related to the peace process and chose to focus on the case of Gilad Schalit.
She had denied the Palestinians the opportunity to teach her how bad Israel is by declining to take a tour of Bethlehem, where the PA wanted her to see, and denounce, the security barrier.
“We were hoping to show her the wall that Israel built around Bethlehem, but she refused to go there,” another PA official said.
That had been a blow to PA chairman Mahmoud “Abbas was hoping to draw parallels between Israel’s wall and the Berlin Wall. He wanted to remind Merkel of the days when she lived in East Berlin.”
I just can say it again and again… politics is dirty, especially when shame and the feeling of guilt make right what is wrong.
In the end it will never solve the real problems but cause much more of them…
I disagree with Merkel’s policy in regard to Palestine and with me the majority of Germans…
Well, after reading this article with the silliest Bush comment I’ve ever heard, I just can say :” Gee, it makes me want to vomit” – Reuters
I hope everyone will feel the same after reading this article, here some parts of it….
In a videoconference, Bush heard from U.S. military and civilian personnel about the challenges ranging from fighting local government and police corruption to persuading farmers to abandon a lucrative poppy drug trade for other crops.
Bush heard tales of all-night tea drinking sessions to coax local residents into cooperating, and of tribesmen crossing mountains to attend government meetings seen as building blocks for the country’s democracy-in-the-making.
“I must say, I’m a little envious,” Bush said. “If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed.”
“It must be exciting for you … in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You’re really making history, and thanks,” Bush said.
“It must be exciting for you … in some ways romantic
Hey, we are speaking not about any Tom, Dick or Harry, we are talking about the President of the United States…
Yes, the commander in chief said this…
The above quote is one of the most enlightening statement he ever made.
He is always just himself, but this should give everyone an insight into his tiny little mind…
I would guess he watched too many John Wayne movies with happy ends.
I would also suggest, that a lot of soldiers with PTDSD can tell him about their romantic and exciting experiences in a war and the families who have lost a loved one can tell him about their romantic feelings.
The men and women dying and suffering in foreign lands are actually having a great time, in Bush’s world. And we should remember that he could have had his romantic moment in Vietnam. He could have seen the romanticism of hand grenades and dead Vietcong and dead fellow soldiers. But he chose to watch the romance from the exciting ranks of his daddy’s influence. The romance was so much, he couldn’t even show up for his National Guard movements.
Well, in the end this article shows that I was always right with my speculations. Mr. Bush sleeps well at night… dreaming of fantastic experiences to be on the front lines… making history!
Gee, sorry I couldn’t resist to post it…
After 5 years of war in Iraq without an end in sight, I felt the great “desire” to post what led to this war in 2003.
I am very glad that I found this website and this 72-minute film called “Leading to war”.
This film is available online for free on this website
It shows the evolution of the US government’s case for military action against Saddam Hussein’s regime… I guess, it is very ironically to see today how the US government did lead its people to war and how did it communicate to it’s own citizen and the world…
And with the knowledge of today, we know that everything was a great big lie… all the rhetorics, all the spin!
LEADING TO WAR is comprised entirely of archival news footage – without commentary, without voiceover – presented chronologically from President Bush’s State of the Union address in January, 2002 (the “axis of evil” speech), and continuing up to the announcement of formal U.S. military action in Iraq on March 19, 2003.
Covering these 14 months, the film presents selected interviews, speeches, and press conferences given by President Bush and his administration, including Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, as well as by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and others.
This compressed, chronological view offers a unique opportunity to examine the media record from a historical perspective, allowing the material to speak for itself. Footage was licensed from major news sources, including ABC, AP, BBC, CNN, ITN, and NBC.
LEADING TO WAR is also intended as a historical record for future generations, who will not have had firsthand experience of the precise, incremental steps taken by the government in presenting its case for war.
I will start with some great declarations:
The good and the evil
The connection between Saddam and the war on terror
The ties to Al Quaeda
Campaign against inspections – sounds familar?
and it goes on and on and on…
It is a great page because it shows only facts and exactly the path to war in Iraq – what was said, how many lies were told and how easy it is to fool the world….
It happened with Iraq and it can happen again – maybe with Iran?
Iraq’s nuclear program ended in 1991 following the first Gulf War, and was never reconstituted. Iraq destroyed its chemical weapons stockpile in 1991. Its biological weapons were destroyed in 1991 and 1992. Through 1998, U.N. weapons inspectors repeatedly checked suspected facilities, and had installed cameras to monitor activity at these sites, all the claims were not true…
But today we know all of that!!!
Nevertheless…. while having the costs of this war in mind, especially the human costs, we should remember what happened 5 years ago.
People have a short memory!!!
