Monday, November 23, 2009

Raising the age for mammograms and the maginalization of self examinations.

In a recent decision, a government medical taskforce suggests that women have mammograms after the age of fifty and not before and marginalizes self examination. The idea is that the tests are unnecessary and in fact lead to more stress and complications for the general public. This is a view arguably that seeks to find what is best for the masses and not the individual. For many individuals early testing and self examinations have helped prevent disease. Some argue that it is meant to help insurance companies who can now choose not to cover such services since many local doctors and health organizations in practice promote the idea of early examinations. Others argue that this is the politics of rationing care that parallels what has been done in Europe.

If all politics is local, many health issues can be considered to be of a personal and individual nature. This seems to be a subversion of the oath doctors take to do their patients no harm. Doctors treat individual patients and not an anonymous public. People should be encouraged to take preventative measures and the means of doing so should be improved.

Pyramid schemes in South Florida

Destroying a pyramid scheme is ultimately a bittersweet victory for those looking for justice because the people who expose them know that the people who are invested in them will suffer in order to keep future victims from being hurt. One of the troubling aspects of many pyramid schemes in south Florida is the fact that not only so many people fall prey to them but that ultimately it takes a skeptical person often with some knowledge to discern the problem and expose it. While many victims of pyramid schemes should have known better, some may have turned a blind eye in order to get out of it with a reward. The problem is that the pyramids destroy everyone in it when they collapse and the good can not be separated from the bad. Furthermore, many others are affected by the collapse such as the organizations that receive donations based on the money earned in pyramids.

The problem in south Florida is that everyone in the community has to take a stand and expose the pyramid immediately no matter what size it is before it grows. The problem is not just that pyramids exists but that many people know or suspect that they exist and do nothing about it. A bad decision made by the creator of the pyramid is in fact supported like a wave by the community when it is allowed to exist and grow. If the first person who encountered the pyramid had shown the same skepticism as the last person who encountered who is often the person who exposed it, the ultimate damage would have been lessened or avoided.

The city and its problems.

The charging and prosecution of local political officials is sometimes delayed so as to not affect or be affected by an election or another political event. The timing of the latest problems in the Miami City Commission seem to suggest that thought was put into the timing of justice since two commissioners were put in the hot seat publicly right after the election. There was also a careful balancing act as both the governor and other officials decided not to fill these positions but instead put it up to another election. Ultimately, citizens of the county are now faced with another costly election that they may wonder could perhaps have possibly been incorporated into the last one. The citizens are in a sense hurt again by the troubles of their local leaders. There may not be another choice but perhaps a larger discussion of what has happened is warranted, since this situation only further erodes the trust the citizens have for their local leaders.