Author: Danielle Levy

We all encounter death and many of us interface with hospitals, hospices or others who handle end of life matters. Here we are in the throes of loosing someone we love and faced with a system that makes one question whether it is more profit than people friendly. My sister is now on hospice. It is not the first time I deal with such an organization, or would it be more accurate to say business. There was the hospice which was there when my father died and the dealings I have had with the hospice of friends’ parents. Each time I’ve been so aware of confronting a well oiled machinery. They come very quickly and set things in place very fast. And if one has ever seen the bills Medicare pays for these services, one is astounded, for they easily are several thousands dollars a month. Some of the services are needed, some less so. A cardiologist was ordered for my father when none was called for, a dietician was called in for my sister when to me his services were not necessary. And along with the grief of losing someone and the heartache of making sure they have everything they need that their passing will be as painless and fearless as possible, there is the realization that hospice services are now an industry, money making businesses throughout the country. I may be sad because of my impending loss, but I’m still aware of greater issues, that there are those still concerned about the role of government in healthcare. I, for one, am concerned about private concerns placing profits first and driving up costs for everyone. And to think that what I am witnessing is a very small piece of a large pie scares me.

In Sialkot, Pakistan, the largest employers are from the sporting goods industry. It is where they manufacture some of the best hand made footballs which will be used in Europe and the United States. Because of pressure from these Western nations no child labor is involved. Some children, however, do work and may be a primary or important bread winner for their family. Since they cannot be employed by the sporting goods industry, they end up in bricks factories, a harder and more dangerous work. Some wonder if in order to assuage the conscience of well off Westerners, some children are paying the price. It’s an old argument. The fact remains that whether in the carpet industry, with harvesting coffee or cocoa fair trade practices are now in place making sure that the products where no child labor was involved can be easily identified. It’s unfair and immoral that children should have to work, it’s wrong that parents feel the need to push their children to work, it’s even worse that some have to work in dangerous and difficult conditions. But our adding our complicity to these practices won’t change the reality. The fight against child labor looks like it will not only be long and arduous, it will likely be won industry by industry, country by country, if need be individual employer by individual employer. Our relenting on our values and our goal will only delay the end of child labor practices. The answer lies in tackling the brick and other dangerous industries and establishing mechanism for those children to go to school and learn a trade. A tall order, but a necessary one.

Google is standing up to China, more specifically its censorship policies and what they mean for freedom and democracy. Rather than accede to its demands to filter its search engines, it moved to more neutral Hong Kong, at some cost to itself. Soon after GoDaddy, a rather large concern itself announced it would no longer issue domain names in China. For years American and other large companies have humored China just so they could have a foothold in the large market it represents. Now that Google is taking a stand and that GoDaddy has followed, will others be similarly inclined? Many believe Google’s action signals that other Western corporations are ready to change their approach in their dealings with China. May they be right.
P.S. This blog is hosted by Google. They are in the process of altering how it is brought to publication and to this effect initiated a migration tool. Having no choice but to use it, I did, only to find out it far from error free. In Google fashion there was no one to talk to or communicate with, leaving me with the feeling Google didn’t really care about people like me. While I do believe this is more a fact than a feeling, I must admit that standing up to China is ultimately more important.

Why be afraid of the word democratic? The Texas State Board of Education has recently temporarily accepted new standards in social studies, history and economics. Although the final vote will be in May few doubt they will formally be accepted. These standards, which many have called far-right, will be taught to millions of students for at least the next decade. Since this far-right faction within the board has long had an agenda, the standards are meant to serve their purpose, to teach for example the Judeo-Christian influence of the nation’s Founding Fathers, but not to go into the philosophical reasons for the separation of church and state. Another example states that the U.S. government will be described as a “constitutional republic” rather than as being “democratic.” One suspects that the small d word is too close to the party of that name. One assumes they must feel that if one pushes democratic values, a cornerstone of American politics and culture, that in turn students will join the Democratic party and end up liberals and thus continue to weaken the decline of our culture. But isn’t bending facts, censoring knowledge, brainwashing young minds, misstating intent, omitting knowledge, far more dangerous than whatever it is liberals do, or more accurately are said to be doing? The faction is using democratic principles to inject non-democratic practices. Perhaps that’s the real danger.