Sri Lanka’s government says they have cornered in the Tamil Tiger fighters in a 300 sq km stretch of land of northeastern coast. Al Jazeera’s Tony Birtley reports on the heavy violence that has been intensifying inside the jungle bases where LTTE rebels have been hiding. Still, civilians remain trapped in the region as the Tamils retreat in the face of the army’s advance.
Joseph Kony leads Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army and, as Al Jazeera’s Yvonne Ndege reports, he and his movement have sent thousands of civilians on the run in the Sudan, the CAR, the DR Congo and Uganda.
In the race for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe has released a new ad, a 30 second spot entitled Jobs.
Since last summer’s invasion of Georgia, Russia has suffered a series of financial setbacks because of plunging oil prices. The Russians have expressed alarm about some former allies joining NATO and about the proposed U.S. missile shield in eastern Europe. But some believe the dispute about Irans nuclear program could be an area of cooperation between the U.S. and Russia.
Angela Stent, the director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European studies at Georgetown University, joins Martin Savidge to discuss how President Barack Obama might deal with Russian leaders and his approach to the proposed missile shield and Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
The current economic crisis in the US began in the housing sector. Banks have foreclosed on millions of houses throughout the country, and many now lie vacant. But one group of activists in Miami says the banks, which received billions in bailouts, must let the community use the homes. They are taking the law into their own hands and moving homeless families into empty properties.
Al Jazeera’s Nick Spicer reports from Miami.
Thousands of angry citizens have joined noisy weekly protests against the government’s handling of the economy, clattering pots and kitchen utensils in what some commentators called the “Saucepan Revolution.”
A cacerolazo in Reykjavik? Not surprising given the depths to which Iceland has been plunged. Iceland has been mired in crisis since late September, when the country’s three largest banks collapsed under the weight of debts (more on ‘securitization’ below the fold) amassed during years of rapid expansion. The value of the country’s krona currency has plummeted over 30%, hitting many Icelanders who took out special loans denoted in foreign currencies for new homes and cars during the boom years. In addition, Iceland must repay billions of dollars to Dutch and British citizens who held accounts with subsidiaries of collapsed Icelandic banks. Prime Minister Geir Haarde’s government attempted to combat the crisis by nationalizing the banks and negotiating about $10 billion in bailout loans from the International Monetary Fund and from a number of countries, including other Nordics, Russia and the United Kingdom. Still, economists expect the Icelandic economy to contract 9.6%. Life for an Icelander may yet again be just “salted fish”. The above clip is from the second day of the biggest protests against the government in Iceland since 1949 when people protested against Iceland joining NATO.
A cacerolazo (cacerola is Spanish for pot) is a form of popular street protest and demonstrations in Latin America which consists in a group of people creating noise by banging pots, pans and other utensils in order to call attention to political and social grievances. Cacerolazos date back to Salvador Allende’s Chile when housewives took the streets of Santiago and other major Chilean cities to protest stagflation and severe shortages in 1970-1973. The empty pots weren’t good for anything else. The practice remains fairly common in Latin America and has spread elsewhere. There were last seen last Spring when Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner attempted to raise export tariffs on a variety of agricultural commodities setting off six months worth of social unrest in the South American country. Now cacerolazos have come to Reykjavik.
Political fundraising has often been viewed as a corrupting influence in politics. Now it’s increasingly being seen by politicians as a roadblock to doing their jobs well. Republican Senator George Voinovich has had enough. For him to raise the sufficient amount of funds to run for office would have require him raising $50,000 per week for the next two years. Will stories like his breathe new life into the reform movement for public financing of political campaigns?
Wan Smolbag (One Small Bag) is a theatre company on the Vanuatu Island. Tourists see only a tropical paradise but on the other hand it gives a totally different picture. Many of the Islanders live in slums. They face the unemployment, alcohol drug abuses, HIV infection rates, and domestic violence.
From their website:
Wan Smolbag Theatre is a non-government organisation based in Vanuatu but operating all over the South Pacific. We started as a group of 15 voluntary actors in 1989, then 5 paid actors, and we’re now approaching our 20th anniversary with a staff of around 100 full- and part-time staff and over 200 volunteers.
Coupled with structured workshops facilitated by actors, the organisation uses drama to inform, raise awareness and encourage public discussion on a range of contemporary health, lifestyle, environment and governance issues.
In Brazil, health care is free — by law, everyone has a right to treatment, from organ transplants to sex-change operations. The Constitution of 1988 and the Organic Health Law (Lei Orgânica de Saúde) of 1990 universalized access to medical care, unified the public health system supported by the Ministry of Health and the National Institute for Medical Assistance and Social Security (Instituto Nacional de Assistência Médica da Previdência Social–INAMPS), and decentralized the management and organization of health services from the federal to the state and, especially, municipal level.
While the public domain oversees basic and preventive health care, the private nonprofit and for-profit health care sector delivers the bulk of medical services, including government-subsidized inpatient care. No one benefits more than the poor, and physicians are given incentives and paid up to three times more to work in the poorest areas of Brazil. As a result, infant mortality is down and life expectancy is up, but there are drawbacks. Offering so much has put a strain on the health system. Most of Brazils hospitals are considered substandard, with long waits for procedures.
Still the Brazilian health care system may be divided into two subsystems. The first, the Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS, unified health system), incorporates a host of public providers and comprises hospitals and primary health centres that belong to federal, state, and local governments. It also includes private profit and nonprofit providers under contract to the public system. About 70% of Brazilians receive their health care via this system.
The second system is known in Brazil as the “supplementary medical system.” It includes the private plans with voluntary affiliation as well as prepaid health plans and insurance companies.
Worldfocus correspondent Edie Magnus and producer Megan Thomspon report from Brazil on the highs and lows of universal health care.
More on the Brazilian Health Care System.