Healthcare relief for many

According to the New York Times, the new healthcare law that was signed 6 months ago and that is now in use , is expected to bring hope to thousands of Americans who were excluded because of preexisting conditions. The White House said this will enable 72,000 uninsured to gain coverage and insurers also will be prohibited from imposing lifetime limits on benefits or drop customers it requires that they offer coverage to children under 26 on their parents’ policies.

“The amount of vulnerability that was out there was horrendous,” Mr. Obama on Wednesday told a gathering of people chosen to illustrate the law’s new provisions. He said he concluded that “we’ve just got to give people some basic peace of mind.”

I think this is really important because now people will not have to deal with that kind of
issues that much. Everyone is supposed to get healthcare whenever they need it. It is disturbing to see how the U.S is one of the most powerful countries in many ways but in other aspects such as healthcare we are behind compared to many other countries around the world.

World’s coral reefs in danger

According to this New York Times article many coral reefs around the world are in danger because this year’s extreme heat is putting the world’s coral reefs under such severe stress that scientists fear widespread die-offs, endangering not only the richest ecosystems in the ocean but also fisheries that feed millions of people. 

Scientists are holding out hope that this year will not be as bad, over all, as 1998, the hottest year in the historical record, when an estimated 16 percent of the world’s shallow-water reefs died. But in some places, including Thailand, the situation is looking worse than in 1998.

It is pretty clear that we need to decrease pollution to stop climate change because the destruction of coral reefs affects the whole ecosystem and our lives.

Discrimination at Work

It is sad to see that some people are victims of discrimination in the 21st century. According to this New York Times article there is a record number of Muslim workers complaining about employment discrimination. I think this is cruel and inhuman because these people are just trying to make a living without harming anyone and all they get is prejudice. This article also mentions:

Such complaints were increasing even before frictions erupted over the planned Islamic center in Lower Manhattan

This shows that the increase discrimination has gotten worse not only because of the planned Islamic center in NYC but also because people feel hate towards this people after 9/11. I really think we need to think twice before discriminating innocent people because we would not like to be in that situation.

Most Americans object to Mosque near Ground Zero

According to this article by the Washington Post, most Americans are agains the creation of the Islamic center near to Ground Zero.

Two-thirds of those polled object to the prospective Cordoba House complex near the site of the former twin towers, including a slim majority who express strongly negative views. Eighty-two percent of those who oppose the construction say it's because of the location, although 14 percent (9 percent of all Americans) say they would oppose such building anywhere in the country.

I understand that 9/11 was a tragedy, but is it necessary to punish the Muslim world for something they did not have control of? We must understand that if one is a Muslim does not mean one is a terrorist. I believe it is unfair that people reject Muslims this way because it seems to me like we are forgetting they have the same rights as any other American citizen.

Crowded World

This is an excerpt from "Hot, Flat and Crowded" :

So if you think the world feels crowded now, just wait a few decades. In 1800, London was the largest city in the world with 1 million people. By 1960, there were 111 cities with more than 1 million people. By 1995 there were 280,and today there are over 300. The number of megacities in the world has climbed from 5 in 1975 to 14 in 1995 and is expected to reach 26 by 2015, according to the UN. Needless to say,  these exploding populations are rapidly overwhelming infrastructure in this megacities, 19 million people in Mumbai alone, as well as driving loss of arable land, deforestation, overfishing, water shortages, and pollution.

This is very alarming considering that the population increase is supposed to take place mostly in poor countries which means there will be more people starving, diseases and probably war/conflicts.  Overpopulation is definitely not easy to deal with for any government, but at least we can try to keep the world in "good shape" so that when the future generations can have a decent life,etc.

Green Energy

Thomas L. Friedman compares Denmark's and the United States' oil dependence in his book "Hot, Flat and Crowded":

"We decided we had to become less dependent on oil," Connie Hedegaard, Denmark's minister for climate and energy, explained to me. "We had a huge debate on nuclear, but in 1985 we decided against it. We decided to go instead for energy efficiency and renewable energy. We decided to use taxation, so energy was made relatively expensive and [therefore] people had an incentive to save and do things in their homes to make them more efficient... It was a result of political will."

"In 1973 we got 99 percent of our energy from the Middle East," said Hedegaard. "Today it is zero." I know: Denmark's a small country and it is a lot easier to make change there than across a huge economy like ours. Nevertheless, it's hard to look at Denmark and not see the road not taken.

 Here we can see how some countries like Denmark have the initiative to at least try to become less dependent on oil by using other resources and taxing CO2 producers, leading to a decrease in CO2 emissions. I was also very surprised when I read about how Denmark handled to keep flat the energy consumption after 1981 and the economy has grown 70% since then. This shows that we don't really need the "fuels from hell" to be a succesful country. I think it is kind of ridiculous that with all the technology we have nowadays we haven't find a way to stop using fossil fuels for good. I just hope that day comes soon.

Subprime Nation

In the book "Hot,Flat and Crowded" by Thomas L. Friedman, he has some interesting insights about the housing crisis in the U.S :

"In some ways, the subprime mortgage mess and  housing crisis are metaphors for what has come over America in recent years: A certain connection between hard work, achievement, and accountability has been broken. We've become a subprime nation that thinks it can borrow its way to prosperity; putting nothing down and making no payments for two years. Subprime lenders told us that we could have the American dream; a home of our own without the discipline or sacrifice that homeownership requires." 

This really struck me because it made me realize that people really thought they could have whatever they wanted without thinking that something could actually go wrong. Some people with the intention of making a profit ended up losing everything, I think this was their fault for not being aware of what they were doing, and the banks should have known that it was just a matter of time before everything collapsed. This shows that the American dream is not a matter of having everything you want even if you cannot afford it, because you will have to pay off eventually. The American dream is about having what you want because you have worked to be able to attain it and therefore you deserve it.

        

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