Politics Political Articles

Most people who oppose socialized medicine do so on the grounds that it is moral and well-intentioned, but impractical; i.e., it is a noble idea — which just somehow does not work. I do not agree that socialized medicine is moral and well-intentioned, but impractical. Of course, it is impractical — it does not work — but I hold that it is impractical because it is immoral. This is not a case of noble in theory but a failure in practice; it is a case of vicious in theory and therefore a disaster in practice. So I’m going to leave it to other speakers to concentrate on the practical flaws in the Clinton health plan. I want to focus on the moral issue at stake. So long as people believe that socialized medicine is a noble plan, there is no way to fight it. You cannot stop a noble plan — not if it really is noble. The only way you can defeat it is to unmask it — to show that it is the very opposite of noble. Then at least you have a fighting chance.

Read more: Is Health Care A Right

On 28 August 2009 the Minister of Economic Development, Mr Ebrahim Patel, informed the Portfolio Committee on Economic Development on South Africa’s response to the global economic crisis. He explained how the crisis came about and how it has affected South Africa as well as the global economy. He said that the full impact on South Africa was only reflected in the economic data from May. Economic growth slowed down dramatically and the manufacturing sector shrank by 20%. There were big job losses and credit became more difficult to obtain. The biggest losses occurred in the manufacturing sector. A Framework for South Africa’s response was developed and agreed to and certain measures announced to deal with the crisis. These include a “training layoff” scheme, IDC support for certain vulnerable sectors, addressing customs fraud, debt management and measures to address the issue of food prices and anti-competitive practices. Minister Patel said that there was a lot of scope for well-thought through and well-run cooperatives in the economy. He said that government has decided on a public investment programme as one of the major measures for addressing the crisis. Government will spend R787 billion on improving public infrastructure. He said that there were tentative signs of economic recovery at the moment, but it was yet to be seen whether this could be sustained. Minister Patel also stated that agriculture and rural development were of critical importance for the government. Read this and other parliamentary reports on the South African Agricultural Business Chamber’s website.

On 26 August 2009 the Department of Trade and Industry’s International Trade and Economic Development Division made a submission to the Portfolio Committee on Trade and industry on opportunities and challenges facing South Africa within the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha Developmental Agenda. Key issues addressed by the Doha Round included negotiations around industrial tariffs, agricultural tariffs and support measures, anti-dumping, countervailing measures, liberalisation of services, intellectual property rights, the environment, and trade facilitation. Mr Xavier Carim, Deputy Director General, Department of Trade and Industry’s International Trade and Economic Development Division, stated that there was some room for South Africa to improve agriculture’s contribution to the economy. There was also a presentation and discussions on the issue of regional economic integration in Southern Africa. This and other parliamentary reports are available on the South African Agricutural Business Chamber’s website.

The Director-General of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform on 25 August 2009 made a submission to the Portfolio Committee on Rural Development and Land Reform on the comprehensive rural development programme and specifically the pilot projects in Giyani and at Riemvasmaak. Mr Gwanya explained that a detailed needs analysis was done at the pilot sites, which were identified in co-operation with the Premiers of the Northern Cape and Limpopo. Needs included things like access roads, housing, water, infrastructure, food security, agriculture, education, employment, health and community facilities. He explained that different government departments would now take responsibility for the different needs with the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform playing a co-ordinating role. View the Agricultural Business Chambers’ reports on the on their website.

On 25 and 26 August 2009 the Portfolio Committee on Labour held public hearings on labour brokering. Various organisations including COSATU, FEDUSA, Women on Farms, Solidariteit, Association of Personnel Service Organisations, Confederation of Associations in the Private Employment Sector (CAPES), BUSA and others. There was a lot of focus on the negative aspects of labour brokering and examples were given of exploitative practices, also in the farming community. There were calls from particularly the trade unions to ban the practice of labour brokering altogether. Some presenters likened labour brokering to human trafficking. Organisations representing labour brokers emphasized the advantages of and the need for labour brokering. They pointed out that most of the labour broker organisations acted responsibly, exercised self-regulation and complied with requirements for skills training amongst other things. ANC parliamentarians in particular repeatedly asked why employers did not rather employ workers directly and seemed to grapple with who the employer was in a labour broking situation. Women on Farms stated that people employed by labour brokers for farm labour did not receive the minimum wage and were subject to abuse. CAPES proposed a public-private partnership to register labour brokers and regulate the industry. FEDUSA proposed that the industry should be better regulated rather than banned. BUSA made the point that; temporary employment services provided services that businesses could not provide themselves and employers did not have the capabilities to manage workforces themselves. BUSA also stated that organised business had grave concerns about the Department of Labour’s discussion document presented at NEDLAC. They felt that existing laws were sufficient to address abuses and that better enforcement of laws and co-regulation of the industry would provide solutions to the problems in the sector. View other parliamentary reports on the South African Agricultural Business Chamber website

On 19 August 2009 the new Department of Human Settlements briefed the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements on the new Housing Code that is currently being drafted by that Department as well as the Farm residence-housing programme. The Farm residence programme makes provision for models of ownership as well as rental options. View the parliamentary briefing report on the South African Agricultural Business Chamber website

With the coolest new catwalk designers for Autumn 2009 arriving from around the world each day on the designer clothing website and in the store, there’s loads of fantastic new pieces to desire. Let designer fashion store Matches introduce our hottest new high fashion designers and our new favourite bags and shoes of the A/W 2009 season, here is the designers to know right now. There’s an incredible buzz all around jewellery designer Alex Monroe’s pieces, not least because they are the most beautiful necklaces around but because the necklaces are embellished with yellow and black bumble bees and beautiful birds. London’s famous designer Christopher Kane has yet again designed the most sensational piece of the Winter 2009 season. This time it’s his gorilla print t-shirt for boys and girls that has designer fashion store Matches wanting one. Also, fashion store Matches have the amazing Clements Ribero back, fashion store Matches were first in line to stock their Spring Summer collection of deliciously soft knitted tops with super lush embellishments.

Designer store Matches are currently stocking the brand new and uncommonly unique jewellery by fabulous designer Hannah Martin. Jewels that are a little bit dark, a little bit decadent and unbelievably sexy. Fashion store Matches bring you direct from an airy loft flat in New York City- Haute Hippy, the name explains it all. The very best of both worlds combine for an amazingly vintage inspired, amazingly made pieces that are amazing, sexy and exceedingly cool. And now for the two J males, Julian David and the fashion forward Julien McDonald. With decidedly soft, feather-light scarves in a mix of colours Julian David is the designer to watch and get all set to party in Julien MacDonald’s va va voom dresses. Browse the latest fashion designs and products currently on sale by Diane Von Furstenberg.

Be stunned by the most current designer collection to hit the boutique fashion stores, it is London based brand Loha Vete by Max Zubari. These designer items are love-worn t-shirts accented with Zubari’s own personal slogans about life, love and anything in between. Wear your heart on your sleeve and make normal clothing a fashion statement.

Be sure to browse the Matches online site for further information about these cool new clothing designers, the very latest must haves and the inside scoop about all things fashion and designer on fashion store Matches daily blog.

The Obama education speech scheduled for Tue, Sep 8th, 2009 is one that needs to be said and heard by our nation’s young and old alike. Education is one of the areas where the U.S. has lost significant leadership to many other countries worldwide. In fact, it’s embarrassing that the “richest” country in the world puts so little emphasis on education. As stated by researcher Gary Phillips of the American Institutes for Research (AIR) in 2007, “We’re kind of in the middle of the pack [with the rest of the world]. Being in the middle of the pack is really a mediocre place to be.” read the rest of this entry http://davidkchan.com/

Through the best portion of July Sterling lost some of it’s current standing against the single European Currency as mediocre United Kingdom numbers persuaded the vast majority of analysts that the Bank of England should be required to enlarge its policy of Quantitative Easing (ordering the production of currency) in a stunted effort to lessen credit circumstances and further arouse the country. As a rule QE has a harmful result on the currency involved and on previous times the UK Stirling has sacrificed substantial quantities of standing and this probability was pushing down on the UK pound. Though, somewhat more positive information recently has meant the deliberation over whether or not the Bank of England might actually do anything helpful to broaden the one hundred and twenty five billion pound asset purchasing agenda on the Thursday continues. Adam Cole, a currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets is of the opinion that they won’t “While the committee is expected to vote to use the remaining twenty five billion pounds of QE headroom, a slowing in the pace of bond purchases … and no suggestion that the 150 billion pound ceiling will be increased, effectively signals the imminent end of QE.” Instability during this 7 days is thus, certainly to be expected as further supposition concerning the pronouncement this Thursday continues, and also, with the ECB (European Central Bank) monetary policy choice on the very same time, whether you are pondering acquiring or perhaps selling your Euros it would be beneficial to be willing to pounce really rapidly! Buying foreign currency should be considered at lengths when market conditions are turbulent.

Pounds in addition enjoyed big league gains next to the Australian, Kiwi, & Canadian Dollar, despite the reality that each and every one of the the aforementioned currencies were benefitting from higher goods price tags as a result of the large amounts of unprocessed materials the aforementioned countries yield. The act was a transparent signal of Pounds potency as it surpassed the other currencies even though they certainly in turn were gaining ground on the American Dollar. In truth the funnily named Loonie (Canadian Dollar) was also at a ten month high versus its United States counterpart. the previously noted Australian Dollar has additionally been helped out by its comparably attractive interest rates as investors seek higher returns the noted RBA was forcast to keep rates on hold again this morning but a rise in the very near future has certainly not been ruled out.

The Obama education speech scheduled for Tue, Sep 8th, 2009 is one that needs to be said and heard by our nation’s young and old alike. Education is one of the areas where the U.S. has lost significant leadership to many other countries worldwide. In fact, it’s embarrassing that the “richest” country in the world puts so little emphasis on education. As stated by researcher Gary Phillips of the American Institutes for Research (AIR) in 2007, “We’re kind of in the middle of the pack [with the rest of the world]. Being in the middle of the pack is really a mediocre place to be.”

The debate about the message of the Obama education speech is the wrong place to spend one’s energy. I find it hard to believe that any politician can be accused of “spreading their political agenda” through a topic on ensuring that our children stay in school and taking responsibility for their success.

Let’s evaluate the opposite approach taken by some people who oppose President Obama’s speech. They are recommending that parents keep their children home and not listen to the President’s speech. What kind of message does that send to our children, “that education is not important or that our nation’s leader is one not to be trusted?”

Learn more about this great article at http://www.davidkchan.com.