politics

In North America and to a lesser degree in Europe, when you call customer service, more often then not, your being patched directly through to an Indian call center to handle your requests. Taxes with companies such as H&R Block are also subcontracted to India including a lot of manufacturing, resource allocation and even strategic development. If you have some money and don’t have time to become pregnant yourself, it only makes sense to outsource that to India as well!

Pregnancy

It’s no secret that the entire process of pregnancy takes a number of the woman, that, till now, was simply a birthright, there where no other alternatives. The hormonal, psychological and physical toll or pregnancy stay with her the rest of her life along with the stretch marks. Pregnancy isn’t without it’s risks but as women push their child bearing years into their mid to late 30s, infertility becomes a growing issue as well. India serves an unlimited number of young, economically disadvantaged women who are willing, if the price is right, to become a surrogate. The process occurs through in-vitro fertilization (sorry guys) using the man’s sperm and the woman’s eggs, they are then implanted into the surrogate. The end result? Your child in every sense of the word, sharing no genetic material with the surrogate and your wife or girlfriend gets to keep her amazing body, having a child without ever taking a day off work nor pain associated with giving birth.

Womb for Rent

Now, this surrogate isn’t getting pregnant with your child for the fun of it, she expects to be financially compensated. In India, a woman can expect around $4 500 for the entire process, not a lot by First World standards but this is 15 years of wages for the average maid! She gets pregnant and wins essentially a lottery that sets her up on a better path in the future. She wins as she gets out of relative poverty, the family wins as they get a child out of the transaction. Both winners right?

Self-Induced problem

It’s no secret that one of the major factors causing infertility is age, the longer people wait before starting a family, the harder it will be. A woman as at her peak reproductively in her 20s, out in nature, this isn’t a problem but in the real world, that is right before university, after high school! It seems nature hasn’t adapted fast enough to our ever changing world and now, couples the world over, are paying dearly for it. A woman having a child in her 20s, unless within a very secure relationship, has a higher chance of being marginalized the rest of her life. I wrote a few months back about my experiences working in Canada and Australia at minimum wage jobs, what I may not have mentioned is that the vast majority of the women that where there, you guessed it, started their family in their early 20s if not younger. They where mostly divorced or never got married to begin with, most of them hated their jobs as much as their lot in life. For men, although we can have children all our lives, our peak is in our mid 20s. It isn’t just infertility rates that increase with age by the way, genetic defects rise as well such as Autism, Down Syndrome and a host of other conditions that a family would want to avoid at all costs.

Moral Issues

This isn’t just happening in India, it’s happening around the world, even in the industrialized world so I am not picking on India specifically. The biggest question you need to ask in these circumstances is that if the woman was economically advantaged, would she want to become a surrogate for a family she has no relationship with? Although there are exceptions, I bet 95% of the time the answer will be “Hell No”. So, the question must be asked, is renting a strangers womb for 9 months a moral act? I know that on the streets of Bangkok (Thailand), you can rent a young woman for $20US for a 24 hour period (use your imagination) so is this much different? How much different is renting a woman for 9 months compared to a 24 hour period, or even buying a liver for that matter? These are poor women, who have no real choice, selling the only thing they have to try to better themselves. Alternatively, most people rent their brains and bodies 8 hours a day, so how is even this act different? I am not here to preach, but just think about this and feel free to share your comments.

The Bottom Line

There is no way around this, renting a person, now matter how well intentioned, is still renting a person.

Buzvia: Giving birth becomes the latest job outsourced to India

Sudan is Africa’s largest country but has been strife with war for decades as has much of Africa. Muslims use to live side by side with their Arabian friends for centuries within the Darfur region but when great oil wealth was discovered this all changed for the worse. Sadly, Darfur has been characterized as a Rwanda going in slow motion and still, even to this day, little has been done to stem the tide of death and rape.

Background

Sadly, our colonial raping of the continent of Africa continues to this day but slavery has been replaced by something far worse, indifference. We are all responsible for what is occurring as the precious commodity that sparked this tragedy is what goes into your gas tank, is molded into your Barbie Dolls and what powers much of the worlds machinery… we are talking about OIL. So far in the 21st century, from Nigeria to Iraq, OIL has been the catalyst to cause so much misery and death.

Summary

I believe this is worth watching but if you don’t have time, here is a summary of the key points outlined in the documentary:

• Darfur is the first genocide of the 21st century and has gone on pretty much unimpeded over the past 4 years
• camps in Chad (neighboring country where many refuges head to for safety) have a 3 week waiting period
• 200 000 dead, 2.5 million forced to move
• the motto of the UN was “Never Again” after what occurred during the Holocaust but the it has been bogged down by political semantics
• Mia Farrow has given thousands of interviews to push Darfur into he forefront of the worlds consciousness, using her celebrity to spread the word
• Mia has traveled to Darfur (Sudan) 7 times so far
• sudanreeves.org is an influential site to bare witness to the genocide within Darfur
• most attacks begin with an uncoordinated areal attack with a retrofitted cargo plane dropping barrels of explosives onto a village to cause panic followed by the Jajaweed coming into the village by camel, killing the men and raping the woman before moving onto the next village
• in 2003, the security council got together to discuss reports about mass killings happening within Darfur, a province of Sudan
• China partnered with Sudan after oil was discovered in the 21st century and has becoming one of their biggest offshore suppliers
• when oil wealth came into being due to historic agreements in China, the ruling military elite became extremely wealthy as they kept this wealth to themselves with little making its way into the region of Darfur
• Darfur region was comprised of 6 million Muslims use to share scarce water resources with nomadic Arabian herdsmen
• rebel groups formed to claim a share of the countries new found wealth from the ruling elite but instead of sharing, the ruling elite decided to wage war against the rebels by arming militias to do the dirty work, the Janjaweed
• Janjaweed translates to “devil on horseback”
• government arms the Arabs to kill off the Muslims, no more sharing of resources
• government used the Arabs because its a cheap way to wage war, they loot instead of receiving a salary and they reposes land by force
• in 2004 the Muslims thought the UN was coming to rescue them from systematic annihilation but now they have realized that the UN doesn’t care about them
• by 2007, camps in Eastern Chad and Western Sudan comprise of most of the settlements within that region
• the UN provides aid but fails to do anything to prevent the problems causing refuges needing the camps to begin with
• by the end of 2003, 700 000 people in Darfur where forced from their homes
• by 2004, areal photographs showed villages burning to the ground followed by a number of alarming reports
• 200 000 to 500 000 people so far are estimated to have been killed during the conflict so far
• in the book A Problem from Hell – America and the Age of Genocide, Samantha Power shows that world governments have a history of being shy to intervening when genocide is occurring even when faced with overwhelming proof, they want it stopped but don’t want to take risks
• the UN sat idly by as Bosnia and Rwanda occurred, when Sudan began to occur, the lessons learned from past failures regarding genocide where not practiced
• the United Nations security council is the most powerful council within the UN but sadly, it’s also where most of the politics of inaction towards Sudan took place
• Russia couldn’t condemn Sudan because it was doing the same thing in Chechnya, United States wanted action but it lost status due to its carelessness within Iraq, China didn’t want to do anything that would affect its relationship with the Sudanese government providing it with much needed oil
• Sudan ignored security council resolutions and suffered NO REPROCUSIONS
• on September 9th, 2004, Colin Powell told the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee that genocide had occurred within Sudan and the Sudanese government along with the Janjaweed bear responsibility for what was occurring
• war crimes and crimes against humanity where discovered within Darfur by the UN after extensive investigations but still nothing has happened
• woman living in camps within Chad and Sudan risk rape daily simply because they need to leave the camps to gather firewood to feed their family
• Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem, the Sudanese Ambassador to the UN, said much of the genocide occuring is blown out of proportion and made up, they say bad things happen during war and that is basically the way life goes
• in 2005, the UN continued to talk about what is happening within Sudan and the government didn’t do anything while the Security Council was in a stalemate
• the UN doesn’t have the ability to enter a country against the governments wishes
• it took 5 years of Canadian advocacy before the UN passed a resolution allowing it to enter sovereign states without their permission during the world summit in 2005, it now had the authority to enter a country and protect its citizens from their own government
• in 2006, 8 resolutions happened against Sudan (7 in 2005, 4 in 2004) and they where systematically ignored like the previous ones by the Sudanese government
• one of the resolutions allowed the UN to enter by force to protect the populations within Darfur but China added a demand that it must be done with the approval by Sudan, which Sudan then declined
• the problems within Darfur has now spread into Chad, turning the border between the two country into a new killing field
• Chad is the 5th poorest country in the world but now they have the Janjaweed to worry about in addition to abject poverty and malnutrition
• on the United States Mall, in Washington, The worlds largest antigenocide rally occurred in May 2006 with many celebrities trying to highlight the cause including George Clooney
• in 2007, the Janjaweed and Sudanese leader where indited by the International Criminal Court (world court) for crimes against humanity but the Sudanese government said it would not hand over these two criminals
• Olympic Games in China called by some the “Genocide Olympics” to make China personally responsible for the Genocide occurring in Sudan due to its direct investments in Sudanese Oil which was the cause of this genocide to begin with
• on July 31st, 2007, there is an agreement within the UN Security Council to send 26 000 troops to Darfur by the end of the year but there is no mandate to protect the citizens nor disarming the Janjaweed

What can YOU do?

There are a number of websites dedicated towards making genocide a thing of the past, here are a few of the more well known ones.

http://www.darfurgenocide.org

http://www.genocideintervention.net

http://www.sudanreeves.org

The Bottom Line

Todays oil is tomorrow water, hopefully we become more civilized before this transition takes place.

Watch the documentary at:
http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/darfur/video.html

“This week with George Stephanopoulos” podcast for September 23rd, 2007 had a very interesting interview with Hillary Clinton regarding her scheme to provide affordable health insurance to all Americans.

Health Care Debate

What I find most interesting is that the United States, the worlds richest country, is still debating this while far poorer nations around the world have been providing universal, relatively free health insurance for all their citizens for decades! France has been offering this for a very long time, at relatively no cost to its citizens, same with the United Kingdom and most European Nations… even Cuba, considerably poorer then the United States offers free, basic health care for all its citizens! Their closest neighbor, Canada, has been offering this for decades and you wonder what the hold-up is with the United States in joining the modern world.

Interview Highlights

Politicians aren’t the most interesting during an interview so I will save your ears by listing key points about her proposal, you can pay me back by telling your friends about myfoodcount.com. Starts off good but then goes to shit once direct questions are asked.

• In 1994, her husband tried and failed to pass a universal health care plan in congress
• quality and affordable health care for everybody is an economic necessity for Americans
• believes she must work with congress in order to produce a plan that can pass legislative hurdles
• name of her plan is the “American Health Choices Plan”
• Americans can keep their current plan or migrate to one that better suits their needs and the poor can migrate into a federal plan for their health care needs
• small business tax credits to provide more affordable plans to their employees
• modernizing the health care system with electronic health records
• she believes the country is more receptive now then in 1994 for a universal health care plan
• she never loss her commitment to be smart economically and morally correct in providing health care, she just learned a lot from the 1994 experience which she applied towards this plan
• individuals must buy health insurance under her plan in order to get a job, she believes in shared responsibility between people and their employers
• doesn’t seem sure about how to implement her plan, saying there is a lot of discussions yet to happen to hammer down the details (presumably this will happen after she is elected into office)
• she answers many of George’s direct questions about her plan with basically a “lots of things in the air at the moment, we will see what drops first when I get elected” type vagueness
• oddly enough, she believes the “just say no” answers by the Republicans is unacceptable yet her “let’s talk about it” approach is, as the results from either approach is the same (so far)
• illegal immigrants are not covered under her plan but she will keep working for a basic safety net

My problems with these answers

Firstly, what is it with this vagueness? I would have thought that something that is so dear to her heart (and her husbands), 13 years after the initial failure of passing American National Health Care reforms that the point would be detailed to the max. Answering direct questions with “discussions need to happen” not only regarding implementation but how much can get through congress isn’t very ensuring.

Secondly, universal health care is just that, universal. Forcing the people who cannot afford health insurance on a federal plan while those of means, onto private plans doesn’t scream of universality.

The Bottom Line

Free, universal health care should be a human right, not a battle ground between the private and public sector.

No matter your personal views on how bodybuilders achieve their astonishing physiques, you can’t help but be amazed at how they are able to continually push the outer limits of the human body.

Better Living Through Chemistry

Bodybuilding is one of those few sports where experimentation in drug compounds is a requirement, suffice it to say that you need to take more then your daily multi-vitamin to even touch the top ranks of the sport No matter how hard Joe Weider has tried through the years to turn bodybuilding into an Olympic event, the use of drugs ensure it will never happen. I still consider bodybuilding among the toughest and most grueling physically, mentally and socially sports out there – from the exact nutrient timing to hours spent in the gym – bodybuilding is not a sport but a lifestyle that very few can adhere to, much less excel in.

What can we learn from bodybuilders?

Quite a lot actually, for instance, take a look at 50 year old Vince Taylor who has been living the bodybuilding lifestyle and competing for over two decades (http://www.vincetaylor.com). His skin looks free of wrinkles, the muscle mass and definition are not only beyond belief but put into question the entire concept that we “depreciate” with age. His external physical attributes put most of the young bodybuilders half his age to shame – he also competed directly against 31 year old Jay Cutler (http://www.jaycutler.com/) for the Mr. Universe title on September 30th 2006. The internal imagery we all have of getting older doesn’t need to happen – with an active and closely watched lifestyle you CAN make a very large difference in how you age.

Bodybuilders influence on sport development

I find this the most difficult aspect of bodybuilding, in the past few decades, as sport and chemical knowledge have increased, so has the level of athleticism in just about every sport. Are you a swimmer? A tennis player or even a basketball player – the push of bodybuilders into physique development has played a role in the evolution of your sport (and just about all the others). They are responsible for turning what use to be frown upon such as muscle development with high intensity training and diet into something not only mainstream but a requirement to compete at the higher levels. Just about any sport nowadays where the difference between a medal is sometimes only milliseconds has benefited greatly from their sacrifices.

When to draw the line

I do believe that bodybuilders are beyond the cutting edge at the moment though, they achieve phenomenal results but oddly enough, at the cost of their own health. The human body just isn’t engineered for constant, balls-out punishment year after year, decade after decade… no matter how good the nutrition or training, adaptation is a slow process that requires breaks. Yes, bodybuilders have passed the natural plateau but they pay a very high price for this achievement that won’t begin to be seen later in life. When you consider the heart of a 150lbs teenage boy is the same heart as the one found in a 300+ pound bodybuilder, you begin to realize how much our bodies are able to cope with stress, but like anything, cracks will appear.

Double Standards: Bodybuilders vs Couch Potatoes

What is worse for your body, being a bodybuilder or a couch potato? Well, if you go the drug free (or moderate) route, bodybuilding is fantastic for your body but like anything… you need to go slow and build on past success. What I have yet to understand is why governments around the world are hell bent on keeping steroid use underground (by banning them) and barring certain beneficial supplements (ei: creatine, ephedrine… ) yet have no problem with people smoking, drinking and purchasing incredibly unhealthy fast foods. Banning potentially beneficial products but keeping blatantly detrimental ones legal. This is a double standard which I believe is completely unfair. What bodybuilders are showing us is the potential for a true fountain of youth, if studied further by the scientific community.

Closing Thoughts

Overall, I am a great fan of bodybuilding because it’s the extreme opposite of how most North Americans live their lives – don’t get me wrong – you wouldn’t want to be “in” neither of these bodies for any extended period of time – but they are great examples of how little we know about our own body… and how much we can learn if we allow the politics behind our very own health not get in the way. I believe a life of moderation, tough physical activities with proper diet BUT with adequate breaks to allow the body to fully recover is the best route to a long, healthy life.

The Bottom Line

Bodybuilders have a lot to teach all of us… if we allow our biases to pass.

I read an article from Forbes about the problems @ Pfizer for their new anti-heart-attack drug called Torcetrapib and it got me thinking… why are these companies spending BILLIONS of dollars annually to solve problems that are mostly preventable? Wouldn’t that money be better spent on prevention and education?

What’s in it for the big pharma

Profits, the sole focus of a corporation is to generate profits, the more, the better… the most efficient way for big pharma to generate profits is to create drugs that must be taken for the rest of the patients life – mortality is the ultimate motivator. Remember, their focus is on profits, not the health of the individual. I repeat, if its more profitable to treat a condition then to prevent it… the big pharma will focus on treatment. They ARE NOT in the business of altruism no matter how much marketing they do portraying otherwise. I acknowledge their efforts and applaud them – I am not anti-pharmaceutical, they have their place.

What’s is in it for the government

The role of government is to make sure we are all on an equal footing and can enjoy life in a stable environment. In my world, the easiest way to achieve this is through perfect health, rich or poor – if everybody was in the best shape of their lives throughout all their lives, the world would be a far better place. When people can focus on their dreams instead of finding money for a gym membership or even fixing a root canal – you have created an environment of not only stability but exuberantly positive self-esteem, curing many social ills and diseases that plague us today. If you choose to be unhappy in this environment, then it’s the governments role to ship you to a remote island to be with others of your unhappy kind.

Drugs aren’t the answer

Let’s see, obesity 99% of the time is directly related to poor diet and exercise habits. It’s no secret that the diabetes epidemic is directly related to the obesity epidemic that is spreading throughout the world. What is big pharma doing to solve the problem, they are pouring billions of dollars into anti-obesity, anti-cancer, anti-diabetes etc. drugs that as their patient get sick, they can generate revenues to extend their lives. Again, I am fine with that, but where is the government in all this? NOWHERE! I see more self-congratulatory public service announcements during non-election season about how good the party you didn’t vote is doing then I do about how to prevent obesity, diabetes, cancer etc… what do I take from this? The government doesn’t care – and if they don’t care about me, then I don’t care about them. No wonder they are increasing irrelevant.

Drugs have BAD side effects – habits do not

If something works, it generally has both positive and negative effects. All drugs, by their nature have side effects. Drugs are made public when their positive effects are perceived to exceed their negative ones. Good habits on the other hand, don’t generally have bad side effects when correctly performed – if you choose not to brush your teeth, you get cavities, if you don’t have money, then you pop pills to dull the pain but if you brushed your teeth correctly to begin with, the need for drugs would have been eliminated. The same goes with many other diseases that plague western culture.

Drugs cost money, habits save money

Using the above example, if you invested in a good toothpaste and toothbrush and spent TIME correctly cleaning your teeth, you wouldn’t need to spend money going to a dentist to fix your cavities, nor would you need to spend money on pain pills NOR would you suffer from the side-effects that poor oral hygene bring into your life – social, economic, health and opportunities lost.

Drugs have their place

I think drugs have their place, when I got my appendix removed, I was happy a pharmaceutical company developed Demerol to keep me unconscious during the proceeding days to heal properly – but when it comes to treating preventable conditions, the focus of government should not be on ignorance.

The Bottom Line

If you are looking for a magic pill to cure what you have done to yourself on purpose through a lifetime of poor habits – you are fooling yourself into an early grave.

Important Links:
http://www.forbes.com/home/business/2006/12/02/pfizer-cholesterol-fda_cz_mh_1202torcetrapib.html
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Endocrinology/Diabetes/dh/3135

I was watching a very interesting documentary about electric vehicles on the Discovery channel that really opened my eyes. It helped me understand a few of the fundamentals about why our “leaders” seem so out of touch with the people they are suppose to fight for.

Electric Vehicles Background

Electric vehicle (zero emissions) where actually around before the internal combustion engine, they where cheap to run, required little maintenance and best of all, produced no pollution (sound or exhaust). The reason why internal combustion won out back in the late 1800s is because people where trying to get rid of gas, it was a waste by-product that nobody knew what to do with and was essentially being burned and dumped all over the place. Henry Ford built all of his vehicles using internal combustion engines even though his wife had an electric vehicle because he saw more profits to come from the complexities involved with internal combustion engines.

Why everybody wants them…

As mentioned earlier, electric vehicles are incredibly cheap to run for various reasons. The main one is the engine only has one moving part, have a problem with the vehicle, you don’t need to be a mechanic to figure out where it is coming from They produce no exhaust, sure nuclear and coal plants produce waste but with alternative energy coming online, this will start to hopefully be replaced with cleaner energy. They also produce little sound, imagine being able to walk next to a busy road and actually be able to have an intelligent conversation with your friend without having to yell. Electric vehicles are also very cheap to produce and mileage is equivalent to that of internal combustion (up to 300 miles range per charge). Electricity is also cheaper then gas.

Why we can’t get them…

Simply put, money. You see, because an electric vehicle has only one moving part, a very large part of an automakers business (replacement parts) would quickly dry out. All the “regular maintenance” that is needed for an internal combustion engine wouldn’t be needed, you have no fluids to replenishment, no highly corrosive agents nor any “engineered obsolete parts” that need replacing. Service departments would become huge empty rooms. This is just the tip of the ice berg, imagine all those third party distributors, manufacturers and investors who would be shut down over night. Politics and money are huge influences on government policy… JOBS!

But we got “hybrids”?

We got hybrids don’t we? You bet we do, but what are they actually buying? Automakers are selling the problems (profits) that come from an internal combustion engine without giving consumers the true benefits of electric vehicles. It is a very reluctant, half-assed “give-in” to customer demand without going all the way. They do this to protect their profits and the “combustion engine” industry. Have you ever looked at how complex those hybrids are? They need full time computers figuring out what mixture of electric vs gas is needed, the engineering is incredibly complex and the number of highly specialized parts needed to keep it all together is mind blowing. They could get rid of all this with a simple electric only engine but of course, there is no money to be made in simplicity.

Electric cars are not as good as internal combustion engine… BS!

Hate to say this but this is completely untrue, you have been brainwashed! Take for instance the GM EV1 that was introduced in California, it did 0-60 mpg in about 9 seconds, had a range of about 300 miles and GM took it off the road as soon as laws where changed. There is “The Maya” by Electrovaya which is a SUV with a range of 230 miles (top regulated speed of 80 mph) and a host of other vehicles on the road RIGHT NOW but unavailable to consumers.

Why do I not have a choice?

The technology is there, the demand is over flowing and yet, governments are unable to see the writing on the wall, we do not need this Internal Combustion —> hybrid —> electric/hydrogen transition! We want full electrics NOW.

What does this have to do with HEALTH?

Everything and anything… we have an epidemic of cancer in our society which is mostly caused by environmental factors, an epidemic of asthmas in children due to breathing polluted air, an epidemic of diabetes caused by inactivity and unhealthy habits. Tobacco products are still being sold even though it is a known carcinogen, internal combustion vehicles are still being sold although their exhaust is also a known carcinogen and we keep being forced to waste so many resources within our garbage that we are always searching for new landfills.

The Bottom Line

We need to change our mentality from one fearing change to one that welcomes the challenges that come with demographic shifts. If I had only one wish, it would be to make the word “stability” the new four letter word of the 21st century.

May 29, 2006 Update
Finally somebody made a movie about the GM fiasco in California!
http://www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com/

As the effects of tobacco use in North America are leading to a slow but steady decline in their use, the opposite is true throughout the rest of the world. The big tobacco companies really don’t care too much about all the lawsuits etc in a shrinking market, they are already well ahead of the game in places like China and India - although the profits are not as high, having a strangle hold over more then half of the worlds population without having to worry about regulations more then offsets this.

Prohibition doesn’t work

Prohibition leads to increased value of banned products so here are some of my ideas that I think would play a significant role in reducing tobacco (and their related products) by being used globally.

Let us begin with tobacco

I also believe the above should also be adopted for beverages that contain over 30% alcohol to start as they also provide no benefit to society. If you govern a population where a moderate percentage needs to get drunk to get through another week - there is something wrong.

Long term effects of a healthy population

Study have outlined how a healthy people becomes less of a burden on health care, are more productive and generally see things in a brighter light. Getting rid of products that are counter to improving health should be strictly regulated. I doubt very much this will happen in my lifetime, there is simply too much pressure to keep things at their current status quo - but I can share my dream of a healthier society.

The Bottom Line

I think if the above was implemented and enforced, the leading causes of preventable death in this world today could be stamped out in a generation.