Are Americans Just Too Chronically Ill?

Are Americans simply too healthy to be sick than any other people in other countries in the world, or they simply have more access to a better health care system? If they are just too healthy, then why are there so many health insurance companies in the US, perhaps some of the largest health insurance companies than any other health insurance companies in the world? Or if the American people are just as sick as other people in the world, then do they just have access to a better healthcare system? What class of American people is sicker than the other; men or women, young or old?

These are some of many questions we can keep asking ourselves, and we may never have or find answers to them. On November 18, 2008, The New York Times published an article titled, The Wrong Place to Be Chronically Ill. It reports the finding of 7,500 patients surveyed in several countries such as Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Britain and the United States, who suffered from at least one of seven chronic conditions: hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, lung problems, cancer or depression.

The article states; “the shameful findings on the patients in the United States the health care they received, that more than half of the American patients went without care because of high out-of-pocket costs. They did not visit a doctor when sick, skipped a recommended test or treatment or failed to fill a prescription. The uninsured suffered most, but even 43 percent of those who had insurance all year skipped care because of costs”.

The article further states that the surveyed American patients also were likely to report wasting time because their care was so poorly organized. About a third reported that medical records and test results were not available when needed or that tests were duplicated unnecessarily. A third experienced a medical error, such as being given the wrong medication or test results. Some 40 percent found it very difficult to get after-hours care without going to an emergency room.

Another article titled “Women Buying Health Policies Pay a Penalty”, which was published in The New York Times on October 30, 2008, reports “a widespread gap in the cost of health insurance, as women pay much more than men of the same age for individual insurance policies providing identical coverage, according to new data from insurance companies and online brokers.” The article gives an example of a Columbus, Ohio 30-year old woman pays 49 percent more than a man of the same age for Anthem’s Blue Access Economy plan. “The woman’s monthly premium is $92.87, while a man pays $62.30″. The article further states that; in general, insurers say, they charge women more than men of the same age, because claims experience shows that women use more health care services. They are more likely to visit doctors, to get regular checkups, to take prescription medications and to have certain chronic illness.

In summary, I may agree with the second stated article, about women paying more in the cost of health insurance than men of the same age. I agree to this claim for the reason as stated above. From a man perspective, compare to my wife and daughter, my wife tends to visit a doctor for her regular checkup than me, anytime during the year. As the article states, women, so as my wife, tend to visit a doctor for her feminine health checkup, including constant checkup for signs of chronic illness such as cancer, diabetes, etc. Whilst, for me, I rarely go to the doctor.

I however, cannot generalize that all men, based on my health, for the simple reason that I may not visit my doctor as often as my wife does for the fact that I don’t really like medical places, nor do I like seeing a doctor examining me. It’s not that I am afraid of a doctor, I just don’t like having the feeling of being sick or feel like I am sick, and being in the presence of a doctor gives me that eerie feeling. The smell of medicine in hospitals makes me sicker. Thus, I only go to my doctor, when I feel that I am really sick, which is not as often as my wife’s regular checkup. I understand that I too need to have a regular doctor checkup for the same chronic illness. My daughter also gets regular doctor visit for her checkup, but unlike my male cousin of the same age, who also rarely goes to the doctor.

Thus, I definitely understand why the insurance companies may charge women more in health insurance premium than they do for men. If they would charge men more than women, then the story would be similar. The only suggestion I may propose is for all the employers to pay women wages equal to that of their male counterparts for equal work completed. Doing so would allow families to best plan, balance, and pay for their health care costs without putting a burden on the women alone.

However, I disagree with the first article for a simple reason that, statistically, the article has an error. It states that a survey of 7,500 patients from different countries was observed, but it failed to state whether that proportion was randomly selected or not. And what was the exact number of American patients were among the surveyed patients? I fail to believe that this number was an exact representation of all the American patients. Even though it generally and fairly estimates how most patients are treated in America, I feel like those who conducted this survey could have used more representative variables, such as the exact number of each patient surveyed from each country, their gender and age category.

Based on the data provided, I am not fairly convinced that America is the sickest nation, nor can I conclude that other nations as stated may have a better health care system. Also, those who have conducted the survey might have failed to state that some of the nation’s health care systems mentioned have universal health care coverage, where patients are not required to pay for health checkup and medical treatment. In countries such as Britain, France, and Canada, health care is free and open to any of their citizens. But comparatively, America may have the best health care facilities and medical doctors more than any other countries surveyed or in the world. Let us not forget to mention that life expectancy in America is almost the same or may be even high than the countries surveyed.

I however believe that the cost of health care, generally, in America is too high. Over 11 million American have no health insurance coverage, and most families are failing to pay for the cost of their hospital visits, let alone, their medicines. Hopefully the new administration would do as promised, to help bring the cost of health insurance down, not only for women, but for men and children, as well, for just about every American.

Filed under: article, blog this, business, culture, economics, education, health, insurance, living, news, politics, sickness, simon kapenda , arthritis, cancer, depression, diabetes, health insurance, heart disease, hypertension, illness, lung problems, men, sick, women, young

The State of South Africa’s Apartheid, the Root of All Evil

What is it actually like to live your life according to how someone else dictates it for you? You go to bed and wake up at the time given to you. You cannot leave your house at anytime before 7:00 in the morning or only when the sun has risen. And if you are somewhere, no matter where, and the sun sets, you stop moving, you make your bed right where you are at that very moment, and sleep there until the sun rises in the morning. You are only allowed to move around and go to certain areas, even if you are in your own country, in which you were born and raised. If you decide that you will take a chance and try to get moving after 7:00 p.m. or after the sun set, then they shoot you to death and ask questions later.

If you are a man, age 15 years or older, then you are required to carry a State Identification Card (Kop Kard) at all times, and if you happen to not have it on you upon demand at any time, then you are subjected to harsh police brutal beating, atrocious harassment, arrested and prosecuted, and if you resist in any way, you may never return home again, and your family may never get to see you ever, again, because if they kill you due to their brutality, they simply throw your body away, and the dogs and wild beast may feed upon your flesh. Your family and relatives have no right to question them where they have taken you or what they did with you. And, if you get to come back home with all the parts of your body intact, then you are simply lucky. Because, they could have cut your ears off or your nipples, breasts (if you’re a woman), or even cut your penis off, and no one has the right to question them.

Someone can simply break down your house door and enter your house at any time without knocking or you letting him in. He can simply come in at any time of the day or night, search around your house, harass you with questions, asking you where they are and where did you hide them. He can throw away your belongings, break down any of your things, and you are not allowed to ask any questions of what he wants or looking for or why he is in your house without your permission. And if you persist to ask what he wants, then he can even beat you down to the floor, cut your ears off with his knife, or even shoot you to death and he won’t even be held responsible by any court of law. And if you survive this horrendous ordeal of what you may refer to as a house invasion, you cannot call the police. What police, he is the policeman, he is the military man, and he is the law. He can take anything he wants out of your house, whether it is your food, belonging, or whatever else he wants, and you are not allowed to ask any question of any kind. He can even take his powerful and scary Kaspir (military truck), and drive it through your house, leaving you homeless.

You have no right whatsoever, you have no one to call and no law enforcement to report this to, you simply get yourself together. If he had beaten you up or physically hurt you, but still able to get up, you simply get yourself up, have your family home-care for you. They cannot take you to the hospital, because he is the hospital, he has the right to refuse to medically treat you. You simply stay at home, let your wounds eventually heal and hope that you will eventually recover soon, or someday.

This was the State of South Africa’s Apartheid, the mother root of all evil. Several authors and different writers around the world have written everything about the apartheid system in South Africa. Some of the authors might or may not have lived it, to personally witness it, feel it, taste it, drink it, and experience it. Some might have simply read about it from other discourses and or oral stories from those who have witnessed and lived it. Yes, some have said that slavery in America South was the worst, horrendously inhumane, the worst brutality inflicted upon any human being, the worst of any kind any where. We may agree to that effect or agree to say that apartheid was the worst of the worst. In the former South Africa’s white minority regime, apartheid was the harshest, brutal, atrocious, and inhumane, than any form of political or ideological governing.

What is actually apartheid? How did it come to exist, not anywhere else but only in South Africa and its former mandate province, Namibia? Why didn’t apartheid exist anywhere else? Who caused it and why South Africa? There are several questions we may ask ourselves, which some of them we may have answers or may never be able to find relevant explanations to reason with them.

Obviously, South Africa is a country located on the tip end of southern Africa. Its earliest inhabitants were the Sans and Khoi (Khoisans), who were traditionally hunters and gathers, lived off of game and fruits of the Savannas. Later, the Bantu speakers arrived in from the north. The Zulus, Khosas, Sothos, Tswanas, and Ngunis lived alongside the Khoisans in South Africa, prior to the arrival of the Portuguese at the Cape in 1488, followed by Jan van Riebeeck of the Dutch East India Company, who eventually transformed Table Bay (today Cape Town) into an enterprise, a resting place for ships and explores from Europe en route to South East Asia (India). The company intended the settlement simply as a staging post for India-bound ships, but Jan van Riebeeck needed cattle to supply the ships with meat, and this brought the Dutch into inevitable conflict with the San and with Khoi, who possessed large herds of cattle and resisted Dutch intrusion in their lands.  More and more Boers (Dutch word for Farmers) arrived and settled at Table Bay, turning it into a Dutch colony.

The Huguenots from France and other explorers from Europe also arrived at the Cape and joined the Boers, hence the diversity at the Cape. All settlers took up Dutch language, culture and religion. Agriculture and farming became their main mode of food production. In doing so, they had to initially quell off the Khoisan, who resisted their occupation. However as the Boers subdued the Khoisans through murder and displacement, they finally agreed to trade and exchange with them. The Boers started to acquire more lands and livestock from the Khoisans, but when the Khoisans disagreed, the Boers simply killed them and stole their livestock.

As France extended its colonial Empire in Africa, so did the British. With the discovery of gold and diamond at Kimberly, the British annexed the Cape Colony in 1806, and introduced sheep production, development of trade with the Africans and the Dutch. As the British moved into the Cape, the Boers started moving away from the Cape into the interior of the country, forming new and independent free states such as Free Orange State and Transvaal.

About 4,000 Boers, accompanied by about the same number of ’servants’ entered Natal through the Drakensberg Mountains. Some others went north, but at this state the greatest part of the Voortrekkers (a group of Boers who first left Cape Colony) went into Natal. According to Collins and Burns, after 1910, as Settlers have completely occupied the Southern Africa area, they divided up the communities, differentiated them by culture, ethnicity, and race. The prosperous privileged white minority dominated the area.

In 1910, the Union Constitution and the origins of Development of Racial inequality emerged after the Anglo-Boer War, between the British and the Boers. The South African Native National Congress, modern day ANC, was formed in 1912 to help repel the Boers’ racial segregation. However, it failed to achieve its goal because its objectives were simply to enforce equal rights for all civilized men, blacks or whites, but not to overthrow white rule.

By 1919, there was a massive protest, The Rand Strike, an armed uprising of Afrikaans and English-speaking white miners in Witwatersrand. This uprising was caused by economic challenges of post World War I, due to the declining of wages, and poor working condition. This resulted in mine owners (whites) enforcing and strengthened segregation in mining.

Minority whites felt threatened and did not want to compete with the British and their influence, thus they started to create their own society. As a result, Broederbond, a secret society to protect their interests was formed. By 1934, Daniel Malan created the National Party, a white-only political party poised to govern South Africa, which sympathized with Hitler’s Nazi Germany. By 1948, the National Party won the national election, amid that no blacks were allowed to vote. The National Party instituted the Apartheid platform as the governing law. They segregated rural and urban areas, education, land, and public serves. All non-whites were required to carry personal identification cards and were only allowed to work, live, and move about according to how the Boers wanted them. And for the next decades, blacks in South Africa and Namibia lived under the hot rod of the cruel South African apartheid.

Those who opposed it were subjected to arrests and or murders. Some powerful politicians and activities emerged, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Desmund Tutu, Sam Nuyoma, and others alike. Some were imprisoned, and many went into exile, took up arms and fought for freedom, freedom for the people of Namibia and South Africa.

By 1989, under pressure, South Africa agreed to sign the United Nations Resolution 435 which led to Namibia gaining independence from South Africa in March 1990 with Sam Nuyoma democratically elected as the first black president of Namibia, while South Africa gained independence in 1994, with Nelson Mandela democratically elected as the first black president of South Africa.

How is the history of South Africa’s Apartheid going to be written in the next hundred years? Who is forever going to wipe away the tears of pain and sorrow from the cheeks of those who lived under the apartheid?

Both Namibia and South Africa have included in their Constitutions the Policy of National Reconciliation. That means, whatever had happened to anyone during the apartheid era, you just have to forgive, no matter who did what to whom, just forgive and forget, or may be never forget, but just forgive.

The next chapter is for the equality of socioeconomic development for all the people of Namibia and South Africa, so that the next generation can happily live their lives, to the fullest, without being judged and or subjected to the ideology of separation because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, and national origin, color of skin, creed, ethnicity or religion.

Endnotes

Racism and Apartheid in Southern Africa, South Africa and Namibia. Paris: The Unesco Press, 1974

Robert Collins and James Burns. A History of Sub-Saharan Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007

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Modern Day Slavery the Mother Root of All Socioeconomic Oppression

In today’s mainstream pop culture, the word “slavery” is mostly synonymous with America, not because it has a better connotation or that it was invented in America, but simply because it is the country which has been mostly publicized where the African slaves were treated the worse, brutal, and horrendous, than anywhere else on earth. But is slavery an American made? Did slavery begin in America? Is America the only country that has had a slave economy? How does slavery fit in an African perspective? If slavery also existed in Africa, then how was it different from the rest of the world? These are some of the questions we are going to explore in this document.

Slavery economy is not an American made, but let us not deny acknowledging the fact that slavery has or perhaps was the sole source of developing the America South’s agricultural economy. However, slavery has a long history of existence in many parts of the world from the very beginning of life to as recent as a few centuries ago. Biblically, we read about certain slaves in the Jewish Bible, (Torah), the Old Testament, about the infamous slave of Sarah, the wife of Abraham, who had offered her slave woman to sleep with her husband, Abraham, in order to bear her a child, because Sarah believed that she was barren and was never going to have any children. Abraham obliged to the offer and had a baby boy with the slave woman, whom he named Ishmael.

In our modern world, slavery is an ancient institution that traces its origin to the Greek and Roman Feudalism Economy, where slaves acted as serfs to their lords. Even though under this practice, the serfs were simply enforced to work on the fields of the landowners in lieu of them not having to pay rents to their landowners in any kind, but simply to work on the fields as an exchange of paying their rents and also for protection from all forms of external pressures and forces. The serfs were not subjected to the systematic exploitation of harsh labor and brutal working conditions including capital punishment as the case of the slavery.

In ancient Greek and the Roman Republic and Empire, their economy thrived off of slavery. It is fair to note that the slaves in the Roman Republic and the Empire helped build large constructions, palaces, ships, bridges, aqueducts, and worked in agricultural farms which produced large massive of agricultural produce. They were partly responsible for the cause of the rise of the Roman Empire in terms of output production, which helped the Roman Empire to expand its influences and conquer its neighboring states.

In Africa, the ancient Egypt thrived under the slavery economy in the Nile Valley and Nubia.  In fact, it might come with a surprise that slavery might have originated in Africa. And there are several sources by many scholars who decry that slave trade was the basis of African economic development. Hugh Thomas in The Slave Trade states that: “Slavery was a major institution in antiquity. Prehistoric graves in Lower Egypt suggest that a Libyan people of about 8000 BCE enslaved a Bushmen or Negrito tribe. The Egyptians later made frequent raids on principalities to the south and, during the Eighteenth Dynasty, also launched attacks by sea, to steal slaves from what is now Somaliland. Slaves helped to build the innovations of the world’s first agricultural revolution: the hydraulic system of China and the pyramids of Egypt” (Hugh, 25).

Before we continue to analyze what effects caused Slavery in Africa, it suffices to understand what slavery actually means without going out of our context. War and Slavery in Sudan by Jok Madut Jok defines slavery in the Sudanese contexts as: “The status of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised. Slave means a person in the condition or status of being owned. Slave trade is defined as all acts involved in the capture and acquisition of a person with the intent to sell, exchange, or dispose of him or her” (Jok, 3). Wherever slaves were enslaved, they worked in many different capacities from serving as chattels to fighting in battle zones as war soldiers.

Sudan, one of the earliest and oldest countries in Africa may posses the richest history of the origin of slavery in Africa. However, mapping the precise location of the origin of slavery in Africa might still be a myth to solve. “The history of slavery in this distant past is complex and more intricate than the map of the current wave of slavery” (Jok, 54). What caused the high demand for African slaves might have been the rise and expansion of Islam in North Africa, and the need for labor at fair market value. As slave owners was not subjected to paying wages for the slave labor, thus the demand for the slave labor had increased to most parts of the world, including the America South. Where the need for quality labor to work in plantations instituted an urgency of acquiring more cheap laborers, and thus the high rise demand of slaves in America South.

In Africa, slave trade was a thriving economy, with each slave traded equal the value of his or her physical appearance, age and gender. The stronger and healthier the male slave appeared, the higher the price he fetched. Female and children slaves were more valuable than male counterparts, simply because women would reproduce, and in doing so, would cause to raise the slave stock of the slave owner. The slaves that remained in Africa served in various capacities from benign to brutal conditions. Some slaves worked in fields of their masters, other worked in village households where they were treated more as part of the family members. “Those who worked in large labor camps such as plantations, mines, and heavy duty labors in West Africa were treated as chattels” (Collins and Burns).

“Most slaves farmed. Slaves also wove. Cotton textile production was probably the most important industry in the Sudan, but unlike smithing and leather, it was not confined to a castle” (Klein, 7). Not all slaves were confined to brutal conditions of farm and cotton weaving labor. Some slaves worked inside the household of their masters. Some served as drivers, fishers, ship pilots, and concierges of their owners. “There were also elite slaves. Wherever slavery existed, some slaves were powerful and privileged. In Societies where slavery did not evolve into a mode of production, slavery was primarily a means to recruit people who served the elite: eunuchs, concubines, servants, soldiers” (Klein, 7).

Slavery in Africa did not only base in West and North Africa, but it also extended as far as South Africa’s Dutch Cape Colony. “The Cape slave system possessed some unusual features. The small scale of most slaveholding units and the extremely diverse ethnic origin of slaves from a range of Africans and Asian societies, together with the limited development of a locally born slave population, meant that the potential for a clearly identifiable slave culture or unity was restricted, especially in the rural areas” (Worden, 7).

In Dutch Cape Colony, because the minority Dutch settlers were outnumbered by the slaves on a ratio of one-to-one, in order to best control their slave holdings, and for the fear of slave rebellion against the owners, slave owners resorted to draconian measures, a brutal and harsh form of capital punishment, worse than anywhere else. Here the slaves were more stationed in arable lands, than in urban centers. Slavery in the Cape was not abolished as in other parts of the world, but transformed into a more rigid and brutal racial discrimination, the apartheid, a philosophy that constitutes that each race has its own unique destiny and should be allowed to develop independently.

There are numerous numbers of discourses, either herein quoted, or not mentioned, which have their own interpretations on the development of slavery either in Africa or elsewhere. Whatever it is, slavery is the worst economic institution ever instituted in the history of mankind. Although slavery has now become part of our past, its past voices and cries in the darkness and the deserts of many nations in the world, still cry out loud to us beyond their graves, crying out loud, with one solemn ensemble, urging us, the people, everywhere on earth, to come together, as one peoples, and stop any form of inhumane treatment, anywhere, either it is in Congo, Darfur, or Afghanistan. Yes, slavery trade has been abolished, but still pawning of children still exist in many parts of the world, such as in Afghanistan.

Modern day slavery still exists everywhere, in Africa, USA, or the South America’s Amazon jungle or the mountains of India and Afghanistan. This modern day slavery, the mother root of all modern day atrociously socioeconomic oppression, is not based on harsh and brutal forced labor as its predecessor, but the ignorance of denying ones any opportunity to live in peace and harmony. Such as the case of Darfur, Congo, or even Zimbabwe, where economic and healthcare difficulties have plagued the people. I cannot disagree less to the subjugation of any form of inhumane, socio-economic oppression, and brutality, either it is the cause of slavery or socioeconomic disparity.

Bibliography

Thomas, Hugh. “The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1440-1870″. The Slave Trade. Simon and Schuster, 1999.
The Slave Trade is alive with villains and heroes and illuminated by eyewitness accounts.  Hugh Thomas’s achievement is not only to present a compelling history of the time but to  answer as well such controversial questions as whom the traders were, the extent of the  profits, and why so many African rulers and peoples willingly collaborated. Thomas also  movingly describes such accounts as are available from the slaves themselves.

Modut, Jok. “War and Slavery in Sudan”. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001.
War and Slavery in Sudan exposes the enslavement of black peoples in Sudan which has  been exacerbated, if not caused, by the circumstance of war. As a black southerner and a  member of the Dinka, a group targeted by Arab slave traders, Jok brings an insider’s  perspective to this highly volatile subject matter. He describes the various methods of  capture, explores the heinous experience of captivity, and examines the efforts of slaves  to escape.

Collins, R. Burns, J. “A History of Sub-Saharan Africa”. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
This book is the work of two historians who, between them, have been teaching Africa’s  history to American undergraduates for the better part of four decades. As any honest  professor of history will ruefully admit, those lecture notes become yellowed with age  when not continually revised to incorporate new information and interpretations. This is  particularly the case for the dynamic historiography of Africa.

Klein, Martin A. “Slavery and Colonial Rule in French West Africa”. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998
This book warrants close attention and will open up new debates. It represents a major  and no doubt lasting contribution to slave studies and to African history in general. The  author begins with an overview of slavery in the Western Sudan as well as the now  familiar debates over the interpretation of slavery in Africa, although his discussion is  rather cursory and one-sided. Klein argues that slaves were property, produced by an act  of violence, and takes the discussion to 1960, the year of independence for Senegal, Mali  and Guinea.

Worden, Nigel. “Slavery in Dutch South Africa”. African Studies Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
This first comprehensive analysis of slavery in early colonial South Africa, based on  research in Britain, the Netherlands and South Africa, examines the nature of Cape  slavery with reference to the literature on other slave societies. Dr Worden shows how  the slave economy developed in town and countryside, and discusses the dynamics of the  slave market, the growth of land concentration, the harsh life on the farm, and the  developing polarization of rural race relations.

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Nominate RentersQ for the Crunchies 2008

Please help, with your only click of the mouse, please nominate my web application, RentersQ, for the Crunchies 2008.

Click the button below to nominate RentersQ now.

Nominate RentersQ

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The Fed to Take a Vacation on Interest Rates Cutting

Today, the Dow Jones closed below the 7,000 points, for the first time in 5 years.

So, until January 20, 2009, what is President Bush doing to help ease the market? Will playing the blame game with the Congress help ease the market?

According to the Press Release of October 8, 2008 by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Open Market Committee has decided to lower its target for the federal funds rate 50 basis points to 1.5 percent. The Committee took this action in light of evidence pointing to a weakening of economic activity and a reduction in inflationary pressures.

However, just a few weeks later, because of the collapse of some of the US financial institutions, on October 29; “the Fed further cut the interest rates to 1%, hoping to offset the sharp recent tightening in credit conditions that threatens to plunge a weakening US economy into a recession”.

The Press Release further states that the Fed Committee will monitor economic and financial developments carefully and will act as needed to promote sustainable economic growth and price stability.

Looking back, on May 16, 2000, the interest rates was at its peak high at 6.50%, only lower than the July 13, 1990, when it was at 8.00%, but since 2000, the Fed has been on a rampage, cutting down the interest rates, hoping to leverage the market.

As the Fed meets on December 16, 2008, I expect them to leave the interest rates at its current rate, 1%, but as the market starts to absorb the recently passed bailout money, I expect the Fed to again leave the interest rate at its current rate when they meet again on January 27-28, 2009.

As Obama settles in, and the financial market starts to stabilize as a direct result of the bailout rescue and the reassurance by the new Administration, when the Fed meets again on March 17, 2009, I expect them to raise the interest rate by a quarter of a point to 1.25%, in order to balance out the ripple effect of the bailout system.

However, as of today, at 3:30 pm, the major indices fall to session lows as financials (-8.9%) get clipped. The S&P 500, at 823.98, the NASDAQ at 1418.63, and the Dow at 8166.85, are poised to close at their lowest levels since 2003. The S&P 500 is only a few points above its 5-year intraday low of 818.69.

Thus the question remains, that between now and “then”, can we able to survive this financial turmoil, and what this all means for your wallet or business?

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So You Can, Stupid, Just Try!

Hey you, stupid, if you ever wanted something in your life, whatever it is, and you haven’t gotten it yet, it’s because you simply don’t want it. But if you really want it, then go get it. No what it is, no matter how long it takes, just go do it, don’t quit and don’t give up on what you really want.

Anything is possible, but only if you strongly believe, only if you try, don’t just say you want it, you have to get up and go get it, no matter what it takes, just get up, and go get it, don’t hold back, don’t be shy, and don’t worry about what anybody else is saying. It’s your life, you have to do what you want in your life, you have to do it for you, for yourself, may be for your family, for your community, or for your country.

Just know this; nobody is going to do it for you. Don’t expect anyone to do it for you, and even if you ask or pay someone to do it for you, they will never do it for you exactly the way you want it. You’ve got to be involved, you’ve got to be a participant, you’ve got to be there, it’s how you want it, the way you want it. So go get it. You are just a second away from getting there, just keep on trying.

Remember, a winner is just a big loser who never gave up. You can have it all, you can do it all, you can do anything, but only if you try harder, but smart. And, while you are trying to do it, don’t forget to say a prayer, to ask for help from the Mighty; it works, always, and it will work for you as well, just believe and go out there and do it, now.

Just remember, haste makes waste, so don’t get demoralized if it’s not working out the first time, just keep on trying, it’s already yours, just go out there, claim it, and get it.

Don’t give up, stop being stupid, go out there and get it!

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Brenda Fassie’s My Black President Classic

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Oprah Winfrey’s Top Cabinet Level Appointment by Obama

To reinvent the much damaged American image around the world would require a new and fresh face with strong ideas of unity and world peace. Yes, Obama is the fresh face, but US Secretary of State is the front image, the face that precedes the US presidency in foreign affairs.

US Secretary of State is the face of the United States government among foreign leaders around the world, who is responsible for handling foreign affair and managing the core issues of the US State Department. It’s highest-ranking cabinet level position, in terms of in line of succession to the presidency and order of precedence.

Thus, I had been thinking that Obama would select someone with a more favorable public relations front, and I had been thinking that Oprah is the perfect fit for the US Secretary of State job. She’s the most loved, admired, and respected around the world, mostly by almost everyone, not as a politician, but as a journalist, entertainer, and philanthropist. She’s agile, tough, and smart.

However this week, Obama met with Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson to discuss the possible job appointment for the US Secretary of State.

I had thought about Hillary Clinton for the job, she’s tough, resilient, and well respected around the world, as a politician and first lady, and she would make an excellent Secretary of State. But I was thinking more on Obama’s theme of change in Washington, and Hillary Clinton is one of Washington insiders. Bill Richardson will also make a great Secretary of State; he too has foreign experience, him being a former US ambassador to the UN, also a Washington outsider, and is also respected by foreign leaders around the world.

I had also considered Obama appointing General Collin Powell as Defense Secretary, but that won’t make a good racial fit, having Winfrey and Powell, both in the top cabinet level position. Obama has to equalize the racial borderline and bipartisanship, even though when a person’s experience should precede racial status or political party affiliation, racial and bipartisanship equalization should precedents all else, anywhere. Therefore, for Obama to consider McCain as Defense Secretary would make a perfect appointment and shorten confirmation by the Congress and Senate.

For the economy, I urge Obama to replace Treasury Secretary, Paulson, on the day of his inauguration, same as for Fed Chairman Bernanke. Even though this post of Federal Reserve Chairmanship may be a lifetime appointment, Bernanke and Paulson need to go in order to quickly stabilize the market. Just look at Paulson’s misappropriation of the bailout money.

All $250 billion of the $700 billion bailout money have already been misgiven to banking institutions and now they are changing their initial market rescue plan to pump the rest of the bail out money to credit card and student loan companies, instead of spending this money in what is really economically needed and mostly relevant, cleaning up the housing market.

Warren Buffett would make a good Treasury Secretary; the only thing I am worried about him is his age. If appointed, how long can he serve as Treasury Secretary? But then the economy only needs about 18 months to turn around and he can definitely serve those months and may be a few more years. Except that, there’s a talk that former Treasury Secretary, Summers, is also one of the people in the short list, being considered for the Treasury Secretary Job. But Buffett may get the job since he’s proved as one of the world’s best money managers, and not to say that he’s more closer to Obama as one of his presidential economics advisers.

My question is – why would a billionaire, like Oprah and or Warren, give up his day, money making, job to serve as Treasury Secretary or US State Secretary?

Filed under: Barack, Clinton, Hillary, McCain, Obama, Wall Street, blog this, economics, economy, election, financial, foreclosures, politics, president, simon kapenda, war , bailout, Collin Powell, Fed, Obama, Oprah Winfrey, president, President Obama, secretary of state

Wrisen, a New Facebook App to Help Users Remember Their Loved Ones

Within just a few days, I am going to launch my new social application on Facebook.

Wrisen is designed to enable social networking users to create, share, and browse profiles for all their passed loved ones, both humans and pets.

Users will post their loved ones’ photos and videos, personal and work history, talents and accomplishments, as well as eulogies, condolences, and memorial gifts to honor, remember, celebrate, and cherish their lives and memories, forever.

The version for MySpace, Hi5, Bebo, and Friendster will follow after I launch Wrisen on Facebook. See the Wrisen demo at Facebook now at this temporary link at http://apps.facebook.com/wrisenbook. When it’s launched, the permanent link will be announced on this blog.

Filed under: AIDS, HIV, Tools, Web 2.0, adsense, advertising, animals, article, blog this, business, culture, design, economics, education, entertainment, entrepreneur, environment, happy, life, living, men, networking, news, politics, promotion, sex, simon kapenda, social, startup, technology, women , condolences, deceased, eulogies, facebook application, loved ones, remembering, social application

Tiktaalik, the Fish, Sheds New Clues on the Origin of Life and Land Mammals

For decades, scientists around the world have been on the relentless quest to ultimately research and solve the greatest mystery surrounding the origin of life. They have built, developed, and simulated many different experiments and hypotheses detailing and explaining the origin of life and the evolution of land mammals.

Some hypotheses have been useless and meaningless, but some have proven to be of little credible, such as the Stanley L. Miller’s experiment, known as the Miller–Urey experiment, on which he simulated and generated five amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, which are critical to life. Also, for centuries, humans have wondered the origin of land mammals and their evolutionary process. Where they have come from, how they were formed and their transformation to being land animals.

On October 16 and 17, 2008, The New York Times published two articles, respectively, titled; ‘Fish Fossil Yields Anatomical Clues on How Animals of the Sea Made It to Land’ and ‘From Old Vials, New Hints on Origin of Life’. In these two articles, the authors have detailed new evidences and discoveries that exemplify Stanley L. Miller’s experiment and the evolutionary transformation of water fishes to land mammals. The articles explore the fundamental factors that caused life to appear on earth, the origin of life, and the origin of land animals and mammals.

I am not sure whether I agree with the findings or the content of these articles, and I don’t want to contradict myself due my Christian belief, my belief in Creationism, but I will approach these two issues with an open mind, from a scientific point of view.

The 16th century British playwright, Ben Jonson, has been credited for inventing the old proverb, “curiosity killed the cat”, in his 1598 play, Every Man in His Humor, performed first by British playwright William Shakespeare. “This proverb is used to warn against being too inquisitive lest one comes to harm. A less frequent rejoinder to ‘curiosity killed the cat’ is ’satisfaction brought it back” (Wikipedia.org).

Given the science-discovery rush, like any other industry, where every person wants to be noticed and recognized for his or her ingenuity. However, even if my belief dictates otherwise, the ultimate question remains about where we stop with our curiosity. Obviously, there will never be an answer to that question, but, what if we continue to explore and discover, what will we discover next? Will our next scientific discovery about the origin of life harm us or help us? How far can we go? As the proverb says, curiosity killed the cat, can we possibly one day harm ourselves with these kind of experiments?

Stanley Miller, in his experiment, he claim to have discovered five amino acids, not 20 amino acids, which are needed to make life, but he did discovered five of them at that time. But as the article states that, because of the old redundant and primitive technique and technology he used at the time, he was unable to discover the remaining eighteen amino acids, which were discovered years later by Dr. Banda. “Dr. Jeffrey L. Bada of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, who had been one of Dr. Miller’s graduate students, discovered cardboard boxes containing hundreds of vials of dried residues collected from the experiments conducted in 1953 and 1954″, states the article..

The total amino acids simulated by Stanley Miller came to be 22, surpassing the total 20, which are needed to make life. But, as the article states, the question still remains whether ecological and temperature, then and or now, was adequate enough to completely simulate or generate actual amino acids as needed to create life, or was life originated from outer space, as the article states? “The discovery of amino acids in meteorites suggested that the building blocks of life came from space, eliminating the need for finding chemical processes that could produce them on Earth.”

Tiktaalik

The second article examines the new findings of the fish fossil that lived 375 million years ago. The fossil revealed new findings, such as the body structure of the fish, from head to its fins. How the fish, known as Tiktaalik (pronounced tic-TAH-lick), evolved from being a water fish to becoming a land animal. “There was much more to the complex transition than fins evolving into sturdy limbs. The head and braincase were changing, a mobile neck was emerging and a bone associated with underwater feeding and gill respiration was diminishing in size, a beginning of the bone’s adaptation for an eventual role in hearing for land animals”, states the article.

My conclusion is that The New York Times found these articles credible enough that they decided to publish them in their most revered newspaper, but not just in their paper, but in the A section of the newspaper. The articles seem relevant, because they state new discoveries in the quest of explaining how life came to be and the evolution of mammals on earth.

For me, I take these explanations as they are, but not actually believe everything as written in them, especially the simulation for the origin of life. I believe that God is the creator of life; the Bible does not actually detail any scientific theory of how God created life. But I believe as it’s written in the Bible without questioning its motive.

As a Web developer, I can create a social networking platform using different technologies, such as .PHP, HTML, MySQL, etc., which I then upload onto the server, and allow web users to register with the system, allowing them to create and build their own web pages, using any style and different methods to decorate their pages on the same platform. Each web user builds his or her own web page from that one platform, and can regenerate into millions of web pages, based on the number of users building pages on the platform.

Just as a Web developer, I believe that God created the world and everything in it, as a massive platform, and we simply regenerate by way of reproduction and our socioeconomic development further develops the platform, our planet. Building upon the platform God has given us and we simply multiply and build massive of many things, with no limitation, but all are based on that one platform, earth.

For a web site, there is a webmaster, someone who occasionally maintains the site, observes its operation and updates whatever is required. In this case, God is the master of our planet and our existence. That’s my belief. And, until scientists discover where someone goes after he or she dies, the world beyond, the afterlife, then I can surely without any doubt believe in scientific proof of the origin of life on earth and the afterlife.

Filed under: article, biology, blog this, culture, education, living, news , biological evolution, creationism, Darwanism, evolution, fossil, natural selection, origin of life, Tiktaalik