Tag: health care

Days of sadness …

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, Peter's Log

But not only – looking forward from here, should also make us looking back

A movie theatre with a marquee reading “Thanks Fidel” as the late Fidel Castro’s ashes are driven through the country in a caravan, in Santa Clara, Cuba

reminding us what is important, essential:

“I think the rest of the world can learn from the way the system is designed in Cuba,” said WHO regional adviser Sonja Caffe.

As Cuba mourns its epochal, revolutionary former leader Fidel Castro, on World AIDS Day 2016, the country still stands in the top ranks for working to combat the disease — owed greatly in part to Fidel’s socialized system of universal healthcare. …

….

And in times where the rest of there world moves the other way …- this will be maintained … that is what Isabelle replied to me from Havana the other day:

… Be sure the country will  keep his legacy. Is an incommensurable lost. My gratitude for your condolence. …

 

So Slow ….

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, general
A recent press release from the Irish Minister for Justice states
Dáil to debate Bill to provide free access to health services for Magdalen survivors
• Government is committed to full implementation of the Quirke Report
• Bill provides for an enhanced medical card for Magdalen survivors
• To date a decision has been made in 87% of cases. 495 applicants have received payments totalling €18 million.

22nd January, 2015 Frances Fitzgerald, T.D., Minister for Justice and Equality, today stated that the Dáil is scheduled next week to commence consideration of the Bill (the Redress for Women Resident in Certain Institutions Bill 2014) to provide free access to health services for Magdalen survivors. …

Nothing wrong with such a law. Still, there is something about speed.
Sure, the one side is
Fai di fretta e male – act fast, without thinking and do not worry about bad results.
– this seems to be too often the rule under which we live, the rat race in which we are caught. But there is another side, where the lack of speed is a bit worrying:
The Catholic Church needed until 1992 to fully acknowledge that they had been wrong in the case of Galileo Galilei – though even in 1990 the then still Cardinal Ratzinger actually condemned him when speaking at La Sapienza, the university in Rome.
And it took a long time for the Irish government not only to rebuke morally what happened but to provide a committed answer — even worse: to think about it with the debate on the bill.
And there is still a further dimension to it:
The Irish government — and all other governments — should finally acknowledge that free and qualitatively appropriate health care is a fundamental human right. This is what we may call the required rule of the day, instead of continued austerity policies in Europe and elsewhere.
And there is surely urgency in this!!!
I just finalized two papers,
  • Developing a Social Quality Perspective in relation to the Debates on Ethical Economy and De-Growth (elaborated in connection with a recent event in collaboration with the Angelicum, EURISPES and the European Academy of Science and Arts
and
  • Employment Crisis or Crisis of Employment, notes in preparation of a conference next month in Moscow.

Both documents can be obtained on request.