Yes He Can! Obama and Health Care

by Diane Wilson

This week President Obama stood before the American people and made his case for health care. As The Economist reports, reforming health care is perhaps the biggest challenge facing the President. Whether it is or it isn't, this is something that needs doing, as close to 50 million Americans are currently uninsured -- this in a land that is called the wealthiest nation on earth.

In this can-do country that others only seek to emulate, exorbitant health insurance premiums cripple the middle class, and insurance is routinely denied to people with pre-existing conditions. Careers are planned around health benefits. Contract workers lose their jobs, their homes and their health insurance. President Obama pointed out, "If we do not act, 14,000 Americans will continue to lose their health insurance every single day.”

There is one single question that most disturbs opponents of the Obama plan: Who will pay for it? In this what's in it for me moment, the government would be hard pressed to proceed with any initiative that betters life for the citizens. Transportation. Public Buildings. The whole purpose of government is to provide services and protect the public good.

Perhaps the issue has been framed so wrong for so long that people just see red at the mention of public health care. It is possible that people just cannot grasp that we are not talking about some vague issue but rather the health of of their fellow countrymen. America depends on its productivity. That said, productivity and health run hand in hand.

President Obama has said that his health care plan will not add to the deficit and that two-thirds of the program could be paid for by trimming the fat on existing programs. But it is the taxation component that has people riled. It will fall on those most able pay -- the wealthiest -- to shoulder the burden of health care through taxes. This horrific information is offset by the fact that Obama is eager to drive costs down. Given that burgeoning American health care costs are not sustainable, Obama's desire to trim costs should appeal to everybody.

Obama's health care plan will not be popular. His opponents will continue to run ads depicting shoddy medical treatment in Canada. The fear factor will not work because Obama currently has people on his side. He needs to grab the legislators and make health care happen now, or he will miss the opportunity to keep American people -- all American people -- well.

Toronto: A City in Peril

Garbage and Pandemic Planning

by Diane Wilson

Toronto's month long civic workers strike that has crippled garbage collection has its tentacles in more services than you know. It even affects pandemic planning. In today's The Toronto Star, renowned microbiologist Allison McGeer warns that Toronto may suffer more H1N1 deaths because of the civic workers' strike. I will say that again: Toronto may suffer more H1N1 deaths because of the civic workers strike. McGeer is head of infection control at Mount Sinai Hospital and a noted authority on pandemic planning. She was also the voice of reason during the SARS outbreak.

Apparently, there are about 1,800 unionized employees from the Toronto Public Health Unit on strike. These individuals were supposed to be spending the summer planning for the second wave of the H1N1 virus, which is scheduled to hit North America in September. During the summer, pandemic management advice should have been going out to institutions and plans for vaccination clinics should have been made.

McGeer's comments are in line with the thinking of the World Health Organization, which has declared a level 6 pandemic -- news that should not have been taken lightly. We are told to wash our hands and all that to prevent the spread of germs. But wouldn't our city be cleaner if we took away these towering hills of aging garbage? I worry about the spread of disease through vermin when you have so much uncollected garbage sitting for weeks on end in our neighbourhoods.

Okay, health's not your thing. How about a sagging economy? When the world is sputtering in a global recession and travel dollars are being squeezed like never before, isn't it a crying shame that Toronto has turned off the lights? The ferries to the island are on strike, leaving places like Centreville closed. Public pools are closed. Builders have been unable to collect building permits and have had to lay off employees. Day camps are closed.

Toronto is a city of contradictions. Torontonians are paying five cents a bag at all stores. The idea was that we would use our cloth sacks to bring home the goods and then we would compost and recycle. We are a noble lot of foolish people! We go to all this trouble and expense and now the strike has us throwing all our waste -- compost and not -- into monstrously large green plastic garbage bags, which are tossed next to our neighbours to rot for weeks on end.

Few of us fully understand the reasons these city workers went out on strike, although I bet some of the reasons are very good. Unfortunately, nothing can top the urgency and importance of a global pandemic and a global recession. We have precious few days to get down to serious planning and confront a future in which sick days will be so consumed that prized sick banks will vanish. This strike has run its course. It is time for the mayor and the premier to lead.

Smart: The 2009 Word that Defines Obama's Call to Action

by Diane Wilson

Earlier this year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for the use of smart power, which she said included "the full range of tools at our disposal -- diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal, and cultural... With smart power, diplomacy will be the vanguard of foreign policy," as recorded by ABC News. Not surprisingly, foreign affairs is framed this way.

According to China View, Obama has "displayed his advocacy of the so-called 'smart diplomacy' ever since he took office in January. He has extended an olive branch to Cuba and Venezuela in Latin America, and softened tones on Iran and Syria."

Then there's smart grid investment, which is about to soar as a result of the stimus package. Intelligent grid technologies are projected to top $70 billion by 2013.

President Obama has ushered in a new tone of smart responsiblity, knowledge and language, and it is having an effect. Rapper Jim Jones told The Daily Beast that Obama inspired him to clean up the language of his music. Gone is the word "nigga." The word is now replaced with Obama, as in "Yo, did you see them Obamas last night?”or “Now that’s a real Obama.”

Talk about smart power. From rappers to corporate titans. Look at IBM's latest ads that ask us to buy into smart power Apparently, "smart work is transforming our organizations to take advantage of the capabilities of a smarter planet."

Smart is clearly the word that best defines our response to the urgent needs of 2009 and it is a more than gentle reminder of the dearth of smartness in the preceding eight. The Times reminds of a time when life was much less smart in a recitation of President Bush's top 20 gaffes. While it's nice to finally go in the right direction -- smart, that is -- Bush warms the heart with his downright nuttiness. Then we remember Iraq and all that is ugly about dumb politics, and we thank our lucky stars for the smart, new White House.

Another Republican Hopeful Bites the Dust: AWOL Sanford Confesses

by Diane Wilson

The Republicans always wade knee deep in talk of God and family values at their Convention. Nobody knows more about this type of thing than South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, who went missing for seven days to visit his mistress, as reported in The Huffington Post. Sanford heads the Republican Governors Association and was said to have been a presidential candidate for 2012.

While he was initially rumoured to have gone hiking, Sanford secretly flew to Argentina for a visit with his honey, and then came home and had a lot of explaining and apologizing to do to his wife and four sons and the country. In a fascinating press conference, Sanford danced around, talking about his love of the Appalachians and his need for faith. He spoke of his wonderful family, none of whom were in attendance. (Mrs. Spitzer showed up for Eliot's mea culpa.)

Sanford is resigning as head of the Governors Association. But Sanford's role these past few months has been particularly noteworthy in his refusal to accept recovery funds for his state, according to the The Washington Times. President Obama actually brought a lovely young girl from South Carolina to the State of the Union to help sell educational funding, but Sanford wanted to use the money to pay down debt.

It was a minor miracle when Sanford joined the other 49 governors in taking federal money to create or save about 3.5 million jobs. But at least we now know why this guy's thinking was so messed up. He had been good to great friends with the lady in Argentina for eight years and then it got romantic, and his wife got wind of it five months ago -- roughly the time frame of the Obama presidency. This guy had other stuff on his mind, and it sure wasn't education.

The Painful Death of Paper Newpapers and Plastic Garbage Bags

by Diane Wilson

This month, Ontario stores started charging five cents per shopping bag, which sounds like no big deal. The shopping bag brouhaha has been happening at the same time as financially challenged newspapers are being faced into oblivion or into cyberspace. Back in March The New York Times showed the sorry faces of the folks at The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which has become an Internet-only news source -- the largest American newspaper to do so. The paper version was completely ditched.

Don't get me wrong -- I don't want plastic bags in rivers and streams. No! And I am hardly afraid of the Internet. I love The Huffington Post and other online sources. But, the physical read of a good newspaper is different from surfing -- it is reading.

But why couldn't they use recyclable paper that won't be going to newspapers for store bags? As it currently stands, you see foolish looking consumers leaving shops arms full of naked groceries: Mr. Clean, meat, lettuce and a chocolate cake. One shopkeeper tells me that shoplifting is on the rise. We have all purchased the necessary linen sacks to carry our loads, but they will get dirty, and I do not find them ergonomically friendly. And then, if you want to line your compost bin with a plastic bag, you now have to fork out a few dollars for a bunch of plastic bags. That is downright nuts.

Clearly, we are going to have to think longer and harder about what we take away from our way of living and the implications. First, in a time challenged world, we are spending too much of it on weird garbage related matters. And second, newspapers have always been a way of life, a culture. We always knew that if they were good for nothing else, they were good for wrapping food and waste. And so we have come to a new point in time. Should you wish to wrap a piece of fish, simply stick it between the keyboard and the screen and close the laptop.

The Day the Music Died: Musings on GM and America

by Diane Wilson

Many years ago, I listened incessantly to a song called American Pie, and the words stick in my mind, "Drove my chevy to the levee, But the levee was dry. And them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye, Singin, this'll be the day that I die, this'll be the day that I die." Yesterday, June 1, 2009, I felt the music really did die as GM went under, as contained in The Huffington Post.

Alright, let's consider American Pie another way: "Drove my Corolla to the levee, But the levee was dry." Or, if we really want to go 2009, "Drove my Prius to the wind turbine, but the blades were rubbing, while top math and science students were drinking lattes, saying I need more credentials." Where's the magic?

I still think the fates of GM and America are intertwined. A quick look at the history of the Dow components provides a fascinating glimpse of the movement of the economy from America to points beyond. Who today has even heard of Dow components American Beet Sugar and American Can and American Car and Foundry and American Locomotive? Today, a good investment manager will weigh AT & T(T) and China Mobile (CHL) and decide the latter has greater prospects for growth. Similarly, as the world tilts towards Asia, Chinese carmakers are aggressively eyeing Hummer and all of the other American leftovers, savouring the tasty treats, according to The Financial Times. Make a note of a company called Geely -- it is looking at Volvo, according to reports.

Clearly the American management of the big carmakers did a terrible job for many years and abandoned defense. While they were up to I don't know what, Toyota and Honda and others scored goal after goal on an open net. Then the housing and credit crises hit and the music really did die. Exit Chrysler. Exit GM. But not until most of the American banks had been rearranged in one way or another. Lehman Brothers -- you do remember that investment bank? How about Bear Stearns? We could go on.

So, now we have Obama in net, which cynics could laugh at, given that his knowledge of the game ranks lower than bowling. However, I think Obama has put in a floor for American industry and said, "Enough. These are our businesses and we are not letting them go. Even if the government must own them, we are keeping them alive."

Which means it might be cooler in the future to drive your Chevy to the place where they make solar panels, and pick up arugula on the way home. You will not want to miss how President Obama puts the economy and businesses back together again. This is fascinating stuff, worthy only of someone with a mind like an Obama or a Geithner. And, I believe this Administration would dearly love to put the word America back into the many companies it now oversees.

Miss California: Check this out!

Apparently, the oldest depiction of a woman has been described today by archaeologists in southwestern Germany, according to The Globe and Mail. The little figurine, which was carved from the tusk of a mammoth 35,000 years ago, is X-rated and lacks a head.

According to archaeologists from the University of Tubingen, the figure is quite sexually explicit. The dishy little figurine joins an important group of finds from southern Germany, including mammoths, horses, cave lions and two creatures that are half-man, half-animal.