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.
Monday, November 23, 2009
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 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.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
THE SPECTACLE OF TRAGEDY
The spectacle of tragedy has become a part of resolving the problems of our community. A missing child, an unsolved crime, a plea for help, and many others all may go into anonymity and become an unknown drama to the mass public, if the living victims, the seekers of justice, those who try to speak for those who can’t speak do not find a way around a media and a public that has a very distorted lens. It is an electronic public eye that only wants a certain performance that can sustain itself for much too long while others remain offstage.
It is often unwise to attract the media and it creates unnecessary long term issues and concerned people should do so after consulting with lawyers or other experts but it is often the only hope in extreme situations.
Sadly, most tragedies as bad as they are, often do not have the elements to be enticing to a media whose attention can often help resolve the matter through the various resources they can bring to bear including attention and public pressure. People are forgotten. Crimes go unsolved. Perpetrators go unpunished.
The performance the media strives for is flawed. The spectacle they often sustain often has an element of the racist. The wrong skin color can lead to less airtime. The victim on television people are searching for sometimes through no intervention of their own play into an old narrative of innocent Americana. People do not want a real life Norman Rockwell painting interrupted, sullied and bloodied. They become icons in the spectacle of tragedy while other victims become a silent majority.
People in this unenviable position must come up with various strategies to work the media. Their story has to be made understandable. It has to be supported with other events such as vigils and demonstrations. The victim’s family may have to decide who is going to be doing the speaking if they themselves can’t. It becomes a campaign that has to go beyond the immediate goal to larger aims. The best chance to promote something that may not have the legs to draw attention on a permanent routine may be to seek a larger more permanent solution. The case must be linked to the changing of a law or a larger social issue.
Everyone has slowly entered the world of life as spectacle to some degree or another but when time is of the essence the importance of having the establishment media on people’s side is still valuable. It puts a stamp of legitimacy and urgency to a situation. It creates consensus quickly from the top down. Contrary to the myth of a bottom up internet culture where things suddenly rise up to national attention is the millions of messages in the information highway that do not go all that far.
The issue is that it is hard to think in this way when the tragedy is raw. People must be prepared for the worst while hoping for the best. So it is important for everyone to develop the skills, dispositions, and habits that promote social justice in these situations long before these situations occur to them even if hopefully it never occurs to them. After all, it can happen to someone they know personally or from afar in the community. When that moment occurs they can step up and help out.
This is not to say that there are not already organizations and institutions and leaders who are not available. Thankfully over time, the networks of people who can help in these matters have grown. The media is also not a callous two-dimensional monster but are often concerned men and women who do want to help but need to be helped in turn so that the story that they seek develops in a way conducive to their work and concern. The authorities have been criticized a lot in many instances for failures and mistakes sometimes unfairly and sometimes fairly but they are still some of the best equipped to handle these kinds of situation. They too need cooperation. What the common person who one day was minding their own business and the next day were thrust into this situations needs is to quickly understand what they can do and be helped in doing so.
After the case is solved either in a beautiful way or an unfortunate way, those who fought the fight often recede into the background and go back to their lives. It is understandable especially after such turmoil and long lasting pain. They may have personal rituals they continue to commemorate the moment or a memory. This is where they must become aware of a responsibility they have to continue the fight this time not for their own interests but for the next person put in such a situation.
There can be legacies created and missions set up as structures that can go into the future and affect lives for the better long after an initial tragedy. All contributions help no matter how large or small. Before a governor’s stroke of pen makes these structures into law for example, several hands must scribble their signatures on a petition sheet.
So it is important for everyone in our community whether fortunate or not, hurt or unscathed to briefly set aside time away from the repetitious viewing of one spectacle to do what they can for in whatever way for the injustices that are not as documented. It is time to join a march. It is time to light another candle for a vigil. It is time to make a poster. It is time to say what must be said.
Eddie Hernandez
It is often unwise to attract the media and it creates unnecessary long term issues and concerned people should do so after consulting with lawyers or other experts but it is often the only hope in extreme situations.
Sadly, most tragedies as bad as they are, often do not have the elements to be enticing to a media whose attention can often help resolve the matter through the various resources they can bring to bear including attention and public pressure. People are forgotten. Crimes go unsolved. Perpetrators go unpunished.
The performance the media strives for is flawed. The spectacle they often sustain often has an element of the racist. The wrong skin color can lead to less airtime. The victim on television people are searching for sometimes through no intervention of their own play into an old narrative of innocent Americana. People do not want a real life Norman Rockwell painting interrupted, sullied and bloodied. They become icons in the spectacle of tragedy while other victims become a silent majority.
People in this unenviable position must come up with various strategies to work the media. Their story has to be made understandable. It has to be supported with other events such as vigils and demonstrations. The victim’s family may have to decide who is going to be doing the speaking if they themselves can’t. It becomes a campaign that has to go beyond the immediate goal to larger aims. The best chance to promote something that may not have the legs to draw attention on a permanent routine may be to seek a larger more permanent solution. The case must be linked to the changing of a law or a larger social issue.
Everyone has slowly entered the world of life as spectacle to some degree or another but when time is of the essence the importance of having the establishment media on people’s side is still valuable. It puts a stamp of legitimacy and urgency to a situation. It creates consensus quickly from the top down. Contrary to the myth of a bottom up internet culture where things suddenly rise up to national attention is the millions of messages in the information highway that do not go all that far.
The issue is that it is hard to think in this way when the tragedy is raw. People must be prepared for the worst while hoping for the best. So it is important for everyone to develop the skills, dispositions, and habits that promote social justice in these situations long before these situations occur to them even if hopefully it never occurs to them. After all, it can happen to someone they know personally or from afar in the community. When that moment occurs they can step up and help out.
This is not to say that there are not already organizations and institutions and leaders who are not available. Thankfully over time, the networks of people who can help in these matters have grown. The media is also not a callous two-dimensional monster but are often concerned men and women who do want to help but need to be helped in turn so that the story that they seek develops in a way conducive to their work and concern. The authorities have been criticized a lot in many instances for failures and mistakes sometimes unfairly and sometimes fairly but they are still some of the best equipped to handle these kinds of situation. They too need cooperation. What the common person who one day was minding their own business and the next day were thrust into this situations needs is to quickly understand what they can do and be helped in doing so.
After the case is solved either in a beautiful way or an unfortunate way, those who fought the fight often recede into the background and go back to their lives. It is understandable especially after such turmoil and long lasting pain. They may have personal rituals they continue to commemorate the moment or a memory. This is where they must become aware of a responsibility they have to continue the fight this time not for their own interests but for the next person put in such a situation.
There can be legacies created and missions set up as structures that can go into the future and affect lives for the better long after an initial tragedy. All contributions help no matter how large or small. Before a governor’s stroke of pen makes these structures into law for example, several hands must scribble their signatures on a petition sheet.
So it is important for everyone in our community whether fortunate or not, hurt or unscathed to briefly set aside time away from the repetitious viewing of one spectacle to do what they can for in whatever way for the injustices that are not as documented. It is time to join a march. It is time to light another candle for a vigil. It is time to make a poster. It is time to say what must be said.
Eddie Hernandez
COMPLICATED WOMEN
Women are complicated and biologically different than men but our society, the medical and insurance industry and the institutions that they support are effecting a penalty on women and those who care for them for simply being female. Lost in the debate for many people on the value of national, local, public, and private healthcare is just how gendered health care is.
Much of this industry has the vestiges of centuries old modernization schemes where women were inspected, probed, and legitimated by a health care profession advocating sanitation but also putting the weight on them while men enjoyed broader freedoms and the larger manifestations of the state were reinforced.
In the recent era, advancements in medicine and the importance of early screening are promoted, but there is an onus put on women to be a tempest of medical industrial activity for a litany of lesser issues. Women are used as springboard to spread the messages of this industry to all around them and often they help perpetuate their conditions and entrapment in the web of this industry as they simply try to survive and make the lives of those around them better.
What could be done much more efficiently is drawn out. Attention that could be given is narrowed. A culture of fear is promoted next to a culture of well being. Furthermore, life which is both a basic right and a basic foundation for rights is simply much more expensive for them.
Women can be an anchor for a family or a community but these circumstances make them an albatross than can sink them and those around them. Men and women stay in jobs they hate to support them. People make different plans for their lives because of what could happen. Boys and girls grow up differently with expectations about themselves and their own care that can be distorted and troubling. Relationships are based, twisted, or destroyed by these concerns.
Before the skin is punctured by a needle or a bandage is put on a wound, people should ask what is the true damage being done to women and our society and why do we allow it to happen?
Eddie Hernandez
Much of this industry has the vestiges of centuries old modernization schemes where women were inspected, probed, and legitimated by a health care profession advocating sanitation but also putting the weight on them while men enjoyed broader freedoms and the larger manifestations of the state were reinforced.
In the recent era, advancements in medicine and the importance of early screening are promoted, but there is an onus put on women to be a tempest of medical industrial activity for a litany of lesser issues. Women are used as springboard to spread the messages of this industry to all around them and often they help perpetuate their conditions and entrapment in the web of this industry as they simply try to survive and make the lives of those around them better.
What could be done much more efficiently is drawn out. Attention that could be given is narrowed. A culture of fear is promoted next to a culture of well being. Furthermore, life which is both a basic right and a basic foundation for rights is simply much more expensive for them.
Women can be an anchor for a family or a community but these circumstances make them an albatross than can sink them and those around them. Men and women stay in jobs they hate to support them. People make different plans for their lives because of what could happen. Boys and girls grow up differently with expectations about themselves and their own care that can be distorted and troubling. Relationships are based, twisted, or destroyed by these concerns.
Before the skin is punctured by a needle or a bandage is put on a wound, people should ask what is the true damage being done to women and our society and why do we allow it to happen?
Eddie Hernandez
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