Let's not be fooled...Re: [NetworkAztlan_News] Not good time for imm. reform: BIDEN

3-31-2009 @8:48 PM - PST

Gracias ~ Remember to try to put the websource link on the top in your post or somewhere on your post! I think this was posted earlier... anyways....

I think it would be good if those of us who are more knowledgeable about the main issues related to immigration reform and immigration legislation wrote up position papers that we could agree on and attempt to lobby to the Powers that Be and explain these position papers to our own gente.

I am not an expert in this area, that is, how to draft and propose immigration legislation, but I believe that with all the people that we have in this Group and the Network Aztlan Matrix that we could come up with something solvent we could agree on and propose for just, fair and humane immigration legislation, proposed legislation that is clear, concrete and comprehensive.

I myself believe in a General Amnesty for those who are already here inside the United States with an emphasis on families either here or in Mexico. Yes, those who are of Indigenous Native Ancestry should have an automatic General Amnesty.

It is a cruel joke of history that the descendants of a people who were originally foreign invaders of these lands and stole these lands from us ~ stole Aztlan! ~ have the Power of Decision as to who goes and who stays through their elected representatives when we of La Raza Cosmica are not even consulted as to our opinions on these matter because we are not on the main Governing Board enough to have a heavy immediate impact under the Obama Administration!!! AND I DON'T MEAN TOKENS WITH SPANISH-SURNAMES!

In the long range, the whole immigration rights issue is related to established international law and its bearing on U.S. jurisprudence. Does the U.S.A. feel bounded legally and morally by the accepted norms of international law?

Hell, the government of the U.S.A. did not even go by established international laws and standards of the Geneva Convention when its military forces and mercenary personnel engaged in torture in Iraq, committed renditions (kidnappings) and got away with other high crimes. We do not even know all that still goes on in the darkness!

ICE has been operating as a fascist goon squad for the government and though its fangs may be hidden and withdrawn for now they are still there sharp and poised. Even the term 'ICE' was meant to instill fear and paranoia in its targets. Our People!

A true humane legislation may not even be possible under the present power structure! Are we ever going to get rid of all national borders and really work together for the general peace and properity of all peoples of Mother Earth?!?!?

I will stop here. I am not the expert nor pretend to be. I know I am ignorant of all that I do not know. Those who have the real comprehensive answers and solutions to these critical immigration issues need to come up with them, share them with us at the website, establish a common agenda together with all of us and let us be able to point to a basic Plan of Action which we can work on together to educate the people, raise consciousness and seek to propose for immigration legislation to the Powers-that-Be!!!

If laws are unjust and unfair, at what point will we reconcile ourselves with being outlaws in relation to unjust anti-humane laws and repressive public policies?!?! Where are our sacred sanctuaries!!!???

 

Education for Liberation! Join Up!
Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-NEWS/

http://www.NetworkAztlan.com

---

From: "tlacayaotzin@aol.com" <tlacayaotzin@aol.com>
To: networkaztlan_news@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 7:27:52 PM
Subject: [NetworkAztlan_News] Not good time for imm. reform: BIDEN

from reuters yesterday... . ... so lets not be fooled.
************ *****

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) - The economic slump and soaring
unemployment in the United States mean this is not a good time to push
immigration reform, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told Central American
leaders on Monday.

"It's difficult to tell a constituency while unemployment is rising,
they're losing their jobs and their homes, that what we should do is in
fact legalize (illegal immigrants) and stop all deportation, " Biden
told a news conference in the Costa Rican capital.

President Barack Obama said during his election campaign that he
supported comprehensive immigration reform, as countries like Mexico
have been urging for years.

Some 12 million illegal immigrants live in the United States, many from
Mexico and Central America. The economic crisis has made many U.S.
workers more hostile to legalizing those without papers.

"We believe, the president and I, that this problem can only be solved
in the context of an overall immigration reform," Biden said, asked
about the chances of extending temporary migrant protection programs.

"We need some forbearance as we try to put together a comprehensive
approach to deal with this."

Biden was in Costa Rica to meet Central American leaders at an informal
regional summit.

A comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws -- including plans for a
guest worker program -- was killed off by Republicans in the U.S.
Senate in 2007, although many Central Americans have been able to stay
in the United States under the Temporary Protected Status, or TPS,
system.

(Reporting by John McPhaul; Editing by Eric Beech)

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Live blog: Countdown to Conficker: by Elinor Mills ~ News.cnet.com

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10208722-83.html

March 31, 2009 3:57 PM PDT

Live blog: Countdown to Conficker

by Elinor Mills

This post will be updated continually to track activity on the Conficker worm, the latest variant of which had been expected to hit the Internet on April 1. Click here or read below for background on Conficker.

4:00 p.m. PDT: The Conficker worm is stirring on some infected computers in Asia where it's April 1, but so far the activity is very tame, security researchers say.

"We've seen activity in honeypot machines in Asia...They're generating the 50,000 list of (potential) domains to contact," said Paul Ferguson, an advanced threats researcher for Trend Micro.

The latest variant of the worm, Conficker.C, was set to activate on April 1, which for some of the infected machines will happen at local time and for others it will be GMT, depending on whether the machines are turned on and connected to the Internet, he said.

The process seems to be starting slowly, with infected machines starting to generate the list of domains and then picking one domain and trying to contact it and waiting before continuing on through 500 of those 50,000 domains, according to Ferguson.

The owners of the infected computers likely won't notice anything, unless they can't access the Web sites of security vendors and then they will know they are infected, he said. Trend Micro has figured out a way to unblock the computer from the sites that the worm has blocked using a Microsoft networking service, he said. More details are on the Trend Micro site.

"Nothing at this point; we're running updates every half hour or so," Dave Marcus, director of security research for McAfee Avert Labs, said when asked to report what he was seeing. "They're supposed to connect to one of a variety of Web sites and download a piece of code. What that code is supposed to do is up in the air."

IBM ISS's X-Force group also reported that things were quiet, at least for the moment, in Asia where most of the infections are. Nearly 45 percent are in Asia, followed by Europe at about 30 percent, according to the Frequency X blog.

IBM ISS also said it had found a way for ISPs to detect infected computers on a network by monitoring the peer-to-peer communications the worm makes between infected PCs.

Experts say the worm could be used to steal passwords or other sensitive data from infected computers, or turn them into a botnet that sends out spam.

The worm exploits a vulnerability in Windows that Microsoft patched in October and spreads through weakly protected network shares and via removable storage devices, like USB drives.

Conficker.C also shuts down security services, blocks computers from connecting to security Web sites, and downloads a Trojan. It reaches out to other infected computers via peer-to-peer networking, in addition to being programmed to reach out to 500 domains to receive updated copies or other malware instead of just 250 domains as earlier versions did.

Click here for an FAQ about the worm.

This graphic shows what Conficker.C is programmed to do on April 1.

(Credit: Trend Micro)

Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press. E-mail Elinor.

Topics:

Vulnerabilities & attacks

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botnet

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Have fun on April 1st Day and do not be anyone's fool! Common senses is often a rare element among humans. If you do not who is the sender you are probably better off not opening the Email, at least for awhile.

 

Education for Liberation! Join Up!
Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/

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http://www.NetworkAztlan.com

Blame for Downturn Not Fixed on Obama: Wash Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/30/AR2009033003415.html?hpid=topnews

Blame for Downturn Not Fixed on Obama
6 in 10 Back His Handling of Economy

By Jon Cohen and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, March 31, 2009; A01

The number of Americans who believe that the nation is headed in the right direction has roughly tripled since Barack Obama's election, and the public overwhelmingly blames the excesses of the financial industry, rather than the new president, for turmoil in the economy, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

At this early stage in his presidency, Obama continues to benefit from a broadly held perception that others should bear the bulk of responsibility for the severe economic problems that confront his administration. Americans see plenty of offenders, but only about a quarter blame the president and his team for an economy that's in the ditch.

Despite the increasing optimism about the future, the nation's overall mood remains gloomy, and doubts are rising about some of the administration's prescriptions for the economic woes. Independents are less solidly behind Obama than they have been, fewer Americans now express confidence that his economic programs will work, barely half of the country approves of how the president is dealing with the federal budget deficit, and the political climate is once again highly polarized.

The percentage of Americans in the new poll who said the country is on the right track still stands at just 42 percent, but that is the highest percentage saying so in five years and marks a sharp turnabout from last fall, when as many as nine in 10 said the country was heading in the wrong direction. Fifty-seven percent now consider the nation as moving on the wrong track.

Overall perceptions about the country parallel a rapid increase in the percentage of Americans who say the economy is improving. For the first time since late 2004, the gap between the numbers saying the economy is getting better and those saying it's getting worse is in the single digits (27 percent to 36 percent).

Two-thirds of Americans approve of the way Obama is handling the country's top job, and six in 10 give him good marks on issue No. 1, the flagging economy. Those figures are little changed from last month. But he receives lower marks for dealing with the federal budget deficit after submitting a plan that would see continued huge deficits over the next decade. Fifty-two percent back Obama on his approach to the deficit, with the public split about evenly over whether belt-tightening or big increases in spending should be used to try to improve the economy.

There is now a pronounced divergence between Democratic and Republican perceptions of the economy, a bigger partisan divide than the one that occurred 16 years ago after Bill Clinton took office. In early 1993, people in both parties were about equally likely to see the economy as improving, but now the number of Republicans who say it is souring is more than double that of Democrats.

A sharp rise in optimism has occurred among Democrats, who are about three times as likely to approve of the country's course as they were just before Obama's inauguration. Independents, too, are more optimistic, with twice as many feeling positive as in mid-January. Among Republicans, there has not been significant movement in either direction.

Obama's overall approval rating among independents has dipped six points, to 61 percent, and fewer than half, 45 percent, said he is doing a good job of handling the deficit. His approval rating among Republicans has dropped seven points, to 30 percent.

Overall, almost two in three Americans, 64 percent, said they have confidence that Obama's economic policies will improve the economy, but that number has dropped since he took office and began to implement his ideas. Before his inauguration, 72 percent were confident that his economic agenda would lead to a recovery. Now, after two months of vigorous debate about his stimulus package and ambitious budget blueprint, confidence has decreased by 13 points among independents and by a similar amount among Republicans.

At the same time, 62 percent see Obama as a "new-style," fiscally responsible Democrat; fewer, about a third, label him an "old-style" Democrat oriented toward taxing and spending. Fifty-seven percent of independents consider Obama part of a new breed, the same percentage that said so of Clinton at the start of his first term.

The findings suggest that the public continues to give Obama considerable latitude as he attempts to jump-start the economy, but public patience may be limited. The coming debate over his budget, where he faces both Democratic and Republican resistance to some of his major priorities, should produce a more definitive first-year judgment on his economic program and his presidency. Clinton's ratings fell his first summer in office as he pushed through a budget and economic plan over solid Republican opposition.

The telephone poll of 1,000 randomly selected adults was conducted from Thursday through Sunday. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.

When it comes to assessing responsibility for the nation's economic plight, 80 percent said they put a "great deal" or a "good amount" of blame on banks and other financial institutions for taking unnecessary risks. The same percentage said they blame large corporations for poor management decisions. About seven in 10 blame consumers for overextending themselves with debt and the Bush administration for not vigorously regulating the financial industry.

Criticism of the banks, large corporations and consumers is roughly comparable across the political spectrum. But there is clear disagreement over whether Obama bears any of the blame, with Republicans far more likely to say yes than are Democrats or independents. Republicans, however, were as apt to blame the Bush administration for lax regulation as they were to target Obama for not doing enough to fix the problems.

Obama maintains a strong hand in his dealings with congressional Republicans. The public prefers his approach to that of the Republicans by more than two to one. But the percentage of independents siding with Obama has dropped 12 points, to 50 percent. Many of those independents in the new poll said neither has the upper hand in the economic debate. About a quarter of independents align with the Republicans on this question.

At the same time, Republicans are somewhat splintered. One in five self-identified Republicans in the poll said neither Obama nor their party's congressional leadership has the edge on dealing with the economic situation.

One way the administration has sought to increase confidence in Obama's economic plans and campaign pledge of transparency was to launch Recovery.gov to allow people to track federal money spent on economic stimulus; 6 percent of Americans said they have visited the Web site.

Polling analyst Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.

During an open town hall meeting at the White House about the economy, President Obama listens to a question posed via Web camera by students identified as Alex, Kristin and Mallory, all sophomores at Kent State in Ohio, who asked about college loans and national service. (By Bill O'leary -- The Washington Post)

 

Education for Liberation! Join Up!
Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-NEWS/

http://www.NetworkAztlan.com

New diabetes pill passes FDA heart test

http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/articles/2009/03/31/new_diabetes_pill_passes_fda_heart_test/?page=full

By Bloomberg News | March 31, 2009

WASHINGTON - A new diabetes pill from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and AstraZeneca PLC did not increase the risk of heart attack or stroke in a US review, boosting shares in New York and London as investors bet the drug will be approved.

The medicine, saxagliptin, meets new guidelines for cardiovascular safety, according to a staff report posted yesterday on the Food and Drug Administration's website. Outside advisers to the FDA will consider the findings when they meet tomorrow to discuss whether the companies should be allowed to sell the drug in the United States under the name Onglyza.

Drug makers are striving to introduce new treatments for the 24 million Americans with diabetes, as some older therapies pose heart risks and fail to control blood sugar. Bristol-Myers and AstraZeneca need new products to revive sales and replace drugs facing generic competition, and analysts have been worried that safety concerns at the FDA may preclude saxagliptin's approval.

Saxagliptin is a DPP-4 inhibitor similar to Januvia, a Merck & Co. pill that treats Type 2 diabetes by spurring the pancreas to make more insulin and the liver to produce less glucose, or blood sugar. Januvia had $1.4 billion in 2008 sales.

AstraZeneca agreed in January 2007 to pay Bristol-Myers as much as $1.35 billion for rights to develop and market saxagliptin and another diabetes drug called dapagliflozin.

AstraZeneca's share of annual sales may reach $578 million in 2015 and $893 million by 2018, according to Deutsche Bank AG analyst Brian Bourdot.

An FDA panel will also consider liraglutide, an experimental shot for diabetes made by Novo Nordisk A/S. The agency usually follows the recommendations of its advisers.

Health is the Greatest Wealth, Treasure Your Health!

Education for Liberation! Join Up!
Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-NEWS/

http://www.NetworkAztlan.com

'Superpill' may cut heart disease: study

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iljmKJx_sI1zQwHoBaG9tgj0vbcg

'Superpill' may cut heart disease: study

3 hours ago

ORLANDO, Florida (AFP) — Healthy people could cut their risk of heart disease in half with a new "super pill" that combines low doses of aspirin and drugs that lower blood pressure and cholesterol, a study says.

"We believe that the polypill probably has the potential to reduce heart disease by 60 percent and stroke by 50 percent," lead investigator Salim Yusuf told reporters at the American College of Cardiology's annual meeting, where the study was presented.

"The thought that people might be able to take a single pill to reduce multiple cardiovascular risk factors has generated a lot of excitement. It could revolutionize heart disease prevention as we know it," Yusuf said.

In the three-month study cardiologists compared the impact on blood pressure, cholesterol and heart rate of the combination "polypill" and the medications that make it up, taken individually or together.

The study involved 2,053 patients, recruited from heart centers around India between March 2007 and August 2008.

The polypill contains low doses of three medications against high blood pressure; simvastatin, which lowers LDL -- or bad cholesterol -- and aspirin, a known blood-thinner.

"Before this study, there were no data about whether it was even possible to put five active ingredients into a single pill," the study said.

"We found that it works," the researchers said.

Participants in the study were divided into groups and given either the polypill or aspirin, the cholesterol-lowering medication, or one of the three blood pressure medications on their own; different combinations of blood pressure medications, or all three blood pressure treatments with or without aspirin.

The researchers found that blood pressure in participants in the polypill group was lowered as much as in the group taking the three blood pressure medications together, with or without aspirin.

Those blood pressure reductions "could theoretically lead to about a 24-percent risk reduction in congestive heart disease and 33 percent risk reduction in strokes in those with average blood pressure levels," the study said.

The polypill reduced LDL cholesterol significantly more than in all other groups except the one in which simvastatin was taken alone. The simvastatin group's LDL levels fell only slightly more than the polypill group, the study found.Heart rates in the polypill group and the group taking one of the blood-pressure medications, atenolol, fell by seven beats a minute -- significantly more than in the other study groups.Side-effects in patients taking the polypill were the same as when taking one or two medications, the study found.

The study was "a critical first step to inform the design of larger, more definitive studies, as well as further development of appropriate combinations of blood-pressure lowering drugs with statins and aspirin," said Yusuf.

Dr Christopher Cannon, a cardiologist from Harvard University, said the polypill took the medical world a step closer to beating heart disease, a leading cause of death worldwide.

Some 80 percent of heart disease cases are thought to occur in developing countries.

"The concept is simple. Several different drugs are available (generically and thus inexpensively) to treat many of the cardiac risk factors. So, combining them in one pill could reduce heart disease by 80 percent," Cannon said in a comment piece in The Lancet, in which the results of the study were published.

"This approach has obvious appeal and vast implications for global health, because heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide," he wrote.

Still, some said the pill was unlikely to provide panacea for all heart patients.

Dr. Robert Bonow, a former president of the American Heart Association and co-director of the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute at Northwestern University in Chicago, told ABC News that while the pill might be better than nothing for many who would otherwise receive no care, a one-size-fits-all approach makes individualized treatment difficult.

"This is not a tailored treatment, and it's low doses," he told the television network.

"So maybe in people with high blood pressure, it is not enough to lower their blood pressure. Or in people with high cholesterol, it is not enough to get them to the target cholesterol levels that their physicians would like to see."

Comment: Health is the greatest wealth. Treasure your good health if you are blessed to enjoy good health!

 

Education for Liberation! Join Up!
Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-NEWS/

http://www.NetworkAztlan.com

Welcome New THIRD-WORLD-NEWS member + Statement from Group Manager: Peta-de-Aztlan!

3-30-2009 @8:07 PM / PST
Welcome Companero / Comrade / Brother!!!

If you please feel free to share a brief introduction of yourself. This is a simple Yahoo Group that anyone with an Internet connection is free to join without worry about getting Messages censored at all. Unless, someone gets stuck on stupid. I am the Manager for a few other Yahoo Groups but this is one of my favorites because it is close to my heart. We see that the Third World is largely neglected by corporate-controlled Western media powers, though this is changing ever so slowly for the better.

As our Group's Home Page declares, the majority of the world's peoples live in the Third World, that is, Latin America, Africa and Asia. I watch CNN a lot and it is one of the best, despite its own prejudices and subtle political stances that fortify an unjust order. I wish I could get Al-Jazeera News on TV here in Sacramento, California.

I strongly believe that it is important for us to have a wide diversity of News Sources. I am thankful that the Internet helps us to do just that and that we have little obvious censorship, though sometimes Google Maps has some strange omissons in certain Hotspots ~ I am with a small Dell Laptop here at my 'casa' ~ home in English and I do not have Vista on this one, though I do at my regular work site.

I believe we need to help others get computers, repair computers and get more and more people on the Internet so they can have access to the unlimited wealth of information that is one the Internet.

Sometimes some Yahoo Groups are 'Moderated' by control freaks who must approve all postings before they are allowed to post or they are limited at first until the New Group Member is trusted by the subjective opinion of the Moderator.

My main Yahoo Group is the Humane-Rights-Agenda, which has a related Blog. Plus go to the Third-World-News Yahoo Group and you can spy a connect to its Third-World-News Blog.
Sometimes having an Open Policy can result in a new Group Member posting some silly stuff about joining a motorcycle club or a sex-page link up, but these events are so rare that it is not worth the censorship to limited a Group's Settings.

Then some Groups have a kind of politically correct policy that is not always spelled out and clarified for Group Members. Even if someone posts a reactionary off-the-wall vulgar post it does give us an indication of the kind of insane folks who are crusing the Internet (not to even go into child perverts and other Evil Ones). Nevertheless, it is always important for us to keep in mind our basic humane rights, including the right to freedom of speech, though that freedom comes with its inherent accountability and responsibility for the one who exercises that FREEDOM OF SPEECH and FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION!

I am my Personal Computer set up so that when I post this Email I can also simultaneously post onto the related Blog. If you do not always, you may try to experiment with creating your own blog.

If and when you post please be sure to include the related website at the top of the given post so that there can be some verification of the content of the given post related to Third World News.
 
I am almost always busy doing one kind of activity or another so my  welcoming a New Group Member is kind of a rarity. I just feel in the mood and spirit to do so.

If you need to do so you can contact me privately. My nickname is Peta, so you can put Private Peta on the Subject line in the hope that it will catch my eye. I have a regular job, to to college part-time and am involved in other local community activities, including helping homeless addicts get involved in what I term progressive recovery. Plus, I try to keep a balance in my life and take time  for my own prayers, meditations and studies. So I am usually online posting, offlne writing or inline with what is happening in my personal private life.

I strongly believe in the Power of the Internet for expressing ourselves, for sharing information and for raising consciousness. I encourage you to do the same.

Education for Liberation! Join Up!
Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-NEWS/

http://www.NetworkAztlan.com

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Video: I: Homeless Refugees in Sacramento: by Peta-de-Aztlan

Help the Homeless Help Themselves!

A short video clip ~ I hope you have a good connection!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4b3v5-roNY

Education for Liberation! Join Up!
Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

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http://www.NetworkAztlan.com

FYI: South Sudan: Urgent Action Needed to Avert Collapse

Education for Liberation! Join Up!
Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-NEWS/

http://www.NetworkAztlan.com

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Refugees International <RefugeesInternational@mail.democracyinaction.org>
To: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com
Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2009 10:47:15 PM
Subject: South Sudan: Urgent Action Needed to Avert Collapse

A POWERFUL VOICE FOR LIFESAVING ACTION March 26, 2009 Contacts: Andrea Lari and Melanie Teff Download a PDF of this report SOUTH SUDAN: Urgent Action Needed to Avert Collapse View the entire report at www.refugeesinternational.org. International engagement is urgently needed to rescue south Sudan from the brink of an unfolding crisis. The perilous situation is being ignored amid the focus on the indictment of President Al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court. Approximately two million people have returned to south Sudan since 2005 to extreme poverty. Social services and livelihood opportunities for communities remain minimal while tribal tensions and localized conflicts are on the rise. South Sudan is also facing an economic crisis due to the drop in oil prices, creating the potential for new insecurity. If these threats are not addressed, the implosion of the south will shatter any realistic prospect for peace in Sudan as a whole, including the Darfur region. Policy Recomendations The U.S. Government should urge the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) to devise and fund a reintegration strategy that addresses needs for basic social services and livelihoods. The U.S. and other donor governments should increase funding for reintegration and maintain existing humanitarian funding levels. UNMIS and UNHCR should shift their focus from assisting returns to supporting reintegration activities and protection of returnees. They should also draft and implement a clear protection strategy to make the GoSS more capable of protecting its own people. The U.S. Government should lead the international effort to identify an appropriate emergency package to address the current budget shortfall of the GoSS to avoid security consequences. International NGOs should dedicate resources to women's programs in south Sudan and the Three Areas. Donor countries should support GoSS Ministry of Gender initiatives to protect women's rights and increase funding to the United Nations Population Fund. Melanie Teff, Andrea Lari, and members of Refugees International's Board of Directors assessed the humanitarian situation in south Sudan in February 2009. View the entire report at www.refugeesinternational.org.

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Homeless and Heading to the Hospital

http://homelessness.change.org/blog/view/homeless_and_heading_to_the_hospital

Homeless and Heading to the Hospital

by Steven Samra

Published March 26, 2009 @ 09:52PM PST

Around the country, if you're homeless, you're probably also wandering the streets without any type of healthcare coverage, unless you're one of the lucky few who receive Social Security Disability (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Insurance (SSI) ("lucky," is a matter of perspective here, but at least they have a small income and government sponsored healthcare).

Insurance is one of those things that, for many of the poor and homeless, we know exist but we've rarely been fortunate enough to actually have for any length of time in our lives. 

Most of the time, it doesn't matter, but when it's needed, it's usually needed very badly.

"Mike" was salvaging aluminum gutters from a home that had recently burned, trying to earn a few bucks to get him by.  Mike is a roofer by trade but was recently laid off due to a lack of work; a common occurrence in today's economic environment.

Mike lost his balance pulling on the gutters and fell over and he belly-flopped the 28 feet, bouncing off lower roof in the process, and by the time he hit the ground, he'd broke both his arms and crushed two lumbar disks (L1, L2) in his back. 

Mike spent 13 days in the hospital and underwent two surgeries (he's scheduled for a third in a few days... and there will be additional surgeries after that, he's been told).  The first surgery occurred on one of his broken arms shortly after he arrived.   Approximately six days later he was told that he would need a place to go soonbecause when they completed the second surgery they would be discharging him, since he had no insurance.  A social worker had visited Mike the second day he was in the hospital and filed for food stamps for him.  No discussion of housing, respite care or other arrangements occurred during that visit, and that was the last Mike saw of the social worker during his stay. 

As he lay broken and battered in his hospital bed, the staff told Mike he had two choices after they completed the second surgery; he could go to the local Mission or they could discharge him to the only respite care provider for the homeless available here in Nashville.  Mike was absolutely adamant that he wasn't going to go to the Mission because he had "no way to protect myself with two broken arms.  I'd be a sitting duck."  The respite site, while providing an outstanding service to many homeless individuals in Nashville, was also out of the question, since Mike would have to lay on a mat on the floor for the duration of his stay; a difficult proposition for a man with a broken back and two broken arms (because this agency deals with intoxicated individuals on a routine basis, they use floor mats rather than beds in order to protect individuals from falling out of bed while sleeping). 

So Mike was about to undergo his second surgery and upon its completion was also facing the daunting prospect of having nowhere to go, no money to purchase any prescriptions, no transportation to take him anywhere, and no answers from the hospital, or anyone else, for that matter, about who might be able to assist him in his time of dire need.

Mike had the second surgery 11 days into his stay and was discharged two days later.  By this time, he was able to connect with local outreach staff, who ultimately delivered him to the local "Tent City." Mike is recovering there today, courtesy of several concerned members of the camp who took him in and are helping him with everything from dressing in the morning to preparing meals to staying warm, dry and comfortable during the still chilly evenings here in Middle Tennessee. 

Mike's story is a common one among the homeless.  Most of us know that health care options for the uninsured are lean; for the homeless, it brings a whole new meaning to FUBAR and the problems usually start as soon as the person tells the hospital intake staff they are both homeless and have no insurance. 

It's no secret that only the critically essential services will be done to stabilize an individual who fits this description and those of us without insurance know we'll be getting the "bare bones" model of health care treatment; just enough to make sure we are able to walk, roll or be pushed out the door as soon as legally possible.  But most of us without insurance usually at least have a home to go to, and someone who cares enough about us to ensure we won't have to walk to that home when we're discharged, either. 

For the majority of folks on the street however, there will be no such luxuries. 

Mike's own situation was grim but he was at least taken to the ER via an ambulance.   For a large number of homeless individuals facing discharge here in Nashville (and you can almost certainly insert the name of your favorite city in place of Nashville, I doubt seriously it would be much different), the options for leaving and rehabilitation are sparse.  Contacting an outreach worker to lend a hand is a possibility, but the ratio of outreach workers to homeless individuals in Nashville is currently about 2,200:1 and just reaching one at any point in a given day is often a herculean task.  If it's before 8am or after 5pm, our sick or injured individual might as well try to bribe the hospital security officer, (although with what I haven't a clue), in order to sit in the lobby because they've got a long wait. 

And that wait may just stretch into a few days if the one or two outreach workers available for this kind of "general" street outreach are busy - and they almost always are.  Although Nashville's recent shift to utilizing the Vulnerability Index as a tool for triaging and prioritizing outreach to the most vulnerable of the homeless population was an important advancement in outreach, its implementation has severely curtailed the outreach available to those individuals who are simply "homeless" but without life-threatening illnesses or health conditions.  

The fact is, transportation away from the hospital is probably going to be by the most common method known to the homeless around the world, "pavement pounding."   Please imagine for a moment the discouraging task facing someone who is sick and/or injured enough that they must go to the hospital in the first place, but then must leave the hospital on crutches, with a walker, or in a wheelchair, knowing all along that wherever they're going to end up, it's going to be a damned hard trip to make.   Imagine too the utter despair that must accompany the realization that you've got no place to go once you've left the hospital property.  Toss in a little rain, perhaps a few snowflakes, and the situation becomes downright desperate, indeed.  Sadly, such homeless discharges are quite common, not just here in Nashville, but in cities across the country.   

In Mike's case, he had a definite stroke of luck, but only insofar as it took him from the hospital to a campsite.  If our homeless hospital dischargee is, like Mike, unfortunate enough to have to fill a prescription for damned near anything and isn't able to reach one of the outreach workers in this city, he/she has a quest ahead of them that would drive Indiana Jones to leave adventuring forever and drown himself in a bottomless bottle of cheap Scotch.

There are two primary methods of getting a script filled in Nashville; neither is very quick.  Incidentally, if you're hoping to fill a pain pill, forget it.  No one will fill Codeine or Hydrocodone (Vicodin, Lortab, etc), but if you've received a script for something stronger, it's in your best interest not to tell anyone anyway, since people have been robbed, assaulted and even killed for scripts of Oxycodone, morphine, Diluadid other potent analgesics.  Most folks I work with know all too well the hassles involved in getting pain pill prescriptions filled and don't even bother asking for them anymore.  Many simply attempt to scrounge up enough money to buy some alcohol and drink themselves into a pain-free zone.  Not the most efficient way of handling the problem but certainly one of the very few viable options available to them.

The first method in obtaining a prescription involves walking (or rolling, or hopping, or crawling) to the local supermarket to get a printout of the medication and the price for the number of pills in the prescription.  But not just any old supermarket will do; It has to come from a specific store, located near downtown Nashville, and getting to it from the "homeless" hospital means a 2 mile walk through one tough neighborhood. Once the necessary paperwork for the prescription has been procured from the store's pharmacy, the individual must strike out again, this time to a local agency, which is approximately six very large city blocks away.  Once at the agency, if funds are available - and this is a very big "if" indeed - a check is cut to the store for the amount of the prescription. 

The individual must then turn around and walk back to the store in order to pay for and pick up the prescription.  Sounds relatively straightforward, until you discover that A. the agency only fills prescriptions on certain days and B., funds are limited, to say the least.  To say the most they are usually nonexistent after about the 10^th of each month.  Furthermore, most people don't know they must stop into this particular store first, so they end up having to make the walk twice, rather than once, which under the best of circumstances is difficult when one is sick, hurting or both.  If they happen to show up on a day when the agency isn't cutting checks for prescriptions, they get to do it all over again on another day. 

The other method involves engaging a friendly pastor or church and praying, no pun intended, that they will be able to fill the script for you.  This method typically involves considerably more walking, since the individual must be able to find a church both with the funds available and the willingness to provide the service; a rare combination for non-members of most churches. 

To be sure, Nashville's faith-based community is a Godsend (again, no pun intended) to the homeless population, since they provide the majority of meals, clothing and supplies necessary for life on the streets, but most don't advertise the services they offer so for the typical homeless individual, he/she is usually stuck walking from one church to the next, pleading with a pastor, deacon or priest for help.  Complaints of favoritism, forced prayer before services are rendered and other assorted "demands" by the churches are common among the homeless population but in defense of the faith-based agencies here, they see a lot of volume and hear a lot of stories.  Their overarching mission is saving souls and to that end, they use the tools available to them; prescription services, food, clothing, lodging, etc., to get people into the door in order to hear the "more important" message of salvation. 

Finally, there is also a donated prescription medicine plan available to some in the Nashville area but few homeless individuals are able to take advantage of it, primarily because they have no idea how. 

One bright spot in Nashville is the recent acquisition and current expansion of neighborhood health clinics specifically established to assist the poor and homeless in the community.  The homeless population is already reporting decreased wait times, better overall service, additional services such as expanded dental and vision, and a better chance at actually receiving meds directly from the agency itself, rather than obtaining a prescription.  A few have even received pain medication! 

Individuals who are homeless and suffering an illness or injury that requires medical attention often find themselves in an untenable situation, to be sure.  When one couples their personal misery with the costs incurred by society (read that: anyone who pays the exorbitant premiums on their healthcare insurance, not to mention general taxpayers who must bear the brunt of uninsured emergency responses) as a result of whatever their affliction may be, one thing is crystal clear; dramatic change is needed, and it is needed yesterday.

Help the Homeless Help Themselves!

Education for Liberation! Join Up!
Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-NEWS/

http://www.NetworkAztlan.com

Meth Bust Leaves Homeless Shelterless

http://www.news25.us/dsp_story.cfm?storyid=11890&RequestTimeout=500

Meth Bust Leaves Homeless Shelterless   story by: Corey Allan   OWENSBORO, KY - Being homeless is a challenge all on its own. But what if you were asked to move from your shelter early? Where do you turn to? That's the question residents of St. Benedict's Homeless Shelter asked themselves last Friday morning. Their home became a hazmat decontamination area, after police say they caught resident Stephen Myers cooking meth inside. "It was completely out of the blue. I mean nothing had ever happened like that in the three years we've been opened," said Coordinating Director for the shelter Kim Jagoe. The seasonal shelter was scheduled to close at the end of the month. Now it sits a crime scene. Bring orange warning signs posted on the front door warning of the dangers still inside. The residents had to be moved. One to the Pitino Shelter, four others to the Boulware Center. "The rest are either on the street, there is a camp where they live on the river, or they're at a hotel waiting. We have them there till Sunday," said Jagoe. After check out, then where? A worker I spoke with at Boulware says they take as many people in as they can after they pass a screening. At Pitino's, a worker there told me they see a huge increase after St. Benedict closes for the summer. Some will even break the law just to find a place to sleep. "[One] was actually living in an apartment during the day where the individual was working. And he was sneaking into this apartment and living there. And the man didn't even know it," said Jagoe. So is there a solution to this problem? Jagoe says a 24 hour walk-in shelter in Owensboro could. She went on to say St. Benedict would stay open as a walk-in shelter year round, but due to a lack of funding, donations and volunteers they only go from the first of November till the end of March.

 

Education for Liberation! Join Up!
Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-NEWS/

http://www.NetworkAztlan.com