I was, as is my usual tool, surfing the interweb. Checking out sites and links until I ended up somewhere I had never been before. Jacquline Mackie Paisley, who I take it, is or was a prolific blogger who is now taking a break or not blogging us much - now to what matters to my post right here. That is the content of here latest blog, posted 29 May 2007.
Which relates to Health Insurance and her struggle to find the right policy for herself. What brings my attention to this is the apparent lack in interest in the fact that she HAS to get health insurance in order to plan for any future medical assistance.
The post reads as if she has lost all thought that her Government has some responsibility to her well being and health. I suppose I am looking at this from the perspective that here in Australia we have a partially Government sponsored Health system. That is if we need emergency health care - aside from the Ambulance trip, which is another story - we have things covered in the sense that the hospital will heal you, operate etc. It is not completely covered but you will get medical care in emergencies and in selective surgery you will, eventually, get in to the hospital and get say a knee reconstruction or hip replacement.
From what I understand in the USA if you have no health insurance you will not get any medical care at a hospital. I understand that there are 'free' clinics and such but I do not understand the general apathy that intelligent people, like JMP seems to be, have towards Health Insurance. Why does she pay taxes if not for the Government to take care of her well being.
I realise that I am picking on JMP a lot and I do not mean to single her out, I mean this to the general public of the USA and as a warning to people in Australia. Are we turning into America, will we one day turn people back form medical care because they do not have Health Insurance? What will that mean to us as a country if or when that happens?
I am happy to be in a Country that cares for those on lower incomes, that cares for the battlers and those unable to work in a higher paying job. I also am happy for when I earn more money to use things like Private Health providers instead of the strained public system. What I am not prepared nor willing to do is sit back and let it all turn into a terrible and horrid system like they have in the USA and like the UK is going/gone.
Public Health and Public Education ( I'll leave that for another rant) SHOULD be and always SHOULD be the major mandate of any Government. After all it is he Tax payer moneys that fund Governments and not the other way around.
There is my rant for the day.
Thoughts? Theories? Go right ahead maybe we can get a debate happening here.
Showing posts with label Questions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Questions. Show all posts
Thursday, 31 May 2007
Wednesday, 30 May 2007
What do you think? Is it really your own thoughts...
Religion.
Ask anyone about it and you get a different answer. Sure some may be based on the same general idea, or have the same name, but the real answer wil be something different. That is beacuse religion is something personal and it means different things to different people.
Our beliefs are defined by family, friends, experience and interests. These differ from person to person and across nationalities and socio-economic barriers. Yet our religion and our beliefs always get put in hole or pocketed away to become this all encompassing tag we carry around forever. Whether we are Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist or other, we are defined by what other people think about that tag. These thought feeling and indeed beliefs about other religions come from experiences (good and bad) and though interactions and the real evil in this world The Media.
Look at any news show, paper, magazine or website and you will see someone or something telling what to believe - and yes even this is doing that. We as free thinking human beings have to take, what they tell us and really examine it, think about it and decide to take on that idea, dismiss it or otherwise. I want to know can we truly dismiss it completely? Or does that idea, good, bad or indifferent really leave us.
For example, the Cronulla riots in 2005, had ideas about white supremacy and the hatred of Musliums. The amjor theme was that Middle Eastern or Southern European youths had conducted assults or intimidated people in the Cronulla area. A force of white supremacist then went and attacked people of Middle Eastern appearance, which then resulted in pay back assults.
Do those ideas and the fever from thoes days stay with people? Even thoes that dismissed them as racist? Or have thoes ideas taken a hold in the minds of people to fester and grow so that one day when say something else happens these previously dismissed beliefs come back to haunt them.
Say for example Sam, a person of mainly pale skin background, who would be thought of as coming from a mainly Christian heritage was walking home one night from work. He takes a train from the City to an outter suburb and walks the 4 blocks home to his flat he shares with other people of a similar background. He saw the riots on television in 2005 and was shocked at the blatant racisim toward Middle Eastern people. He dismissed the idea that Middle Eastern people are evil or bad and went on with his life. On this night is attacked and mugged for his wallet ($40, Credit Card and incovience), the attckers (there where two) where of Middle Eastern appearance. Now since the riots there has been many images in the media about attackes and violence all with hints (some more obvious) that Middle Eastern people where bad and always at fault.
So does the previously dismissed ideas come back to haunt Sam, maybe even turn his opinion and make him believe that what was said is the truth now he has experienced this attack. Or can his reason, in a clear and thought through way make him see this attack as a separate incident to the issue?
What I am trying to say here is - even though we dismiss ideas that are evil because of what they make us feel and how we know we should be as free thinkers. Do these same ideas infect us with fear and anger even as we reject them?
I suppose this all comes from watching to much crap "current affairs" shows on TV. Shows like Today Tonight and A Current Affair which seems to promote nothing but fear and anger at people, races, business, governement and individuals. I wonder if maybe even though I can look at the "stories" with an objective view am I really safe from being lured under there spell. Am I safe from being able to hold true to my beliefs and not be turned to think like they seem to want me?
Religion.
It used to be the answer to your belief. I am a Christian, I am a Jew... Now you have to ask whether or not you believe what the TV tells you, or the internet or the guy at the water fountain. It used to be that you could avoid being brain washed by avoiding the Church or public speakers. This open and continued bombardment from the Media means that you are constantly attacked, your person beliefs questioned and opposing views thrust at you. How can one stay true to oneself when everything you believe is constantly attacked?
What do you believe?
Who do you believe?
Trust no one.
Ask anyone about it and you get a different answer. Sure some may be based on the same general idea, or have the same name, but the real answer wil be something different. That is beacuse religion is something personal and it means different things to different people.
Our beliefs are defined by family, friends, experience and interests. These differ from person to person and across nationalities and socio-economic barriers. Yet our religion and our beliefs always get put in hole or pocketed away to become this all encompassing tag we carry around forever. Whether we are Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist or other, we are defined by what other people think about that tag. These thought feeling and indeed beliefs about other religions come from experiences (good and bad) and though interactions and the real evil in this world The Media.
Look at any news show, paper, magazine or website and you will see someone or something telling what to believe - and yes even this is doing that. We as free thinking human beings have to take, what they tell us and really examine it, think about it and decide to take on that idea, dismiss it or otherwise. I want to know can we truly dismiss it completely? Or does that idea, good, bad or indifferent really leave us.
For example, the Cronulla riots in 2005, had ideas about white supremacy and the hatred of Musliums. The amjor theme was that Middle Eastern or Southern European youths had conducted assults or intimidated people in the Cronulla area. A force of white supremacist then went and attacked people of Middle Eastern appearance, which then resulted in pay back assults.
Do those ideas and the fever from thoes days stay with people? Even thoes that dismissed them as racist? Or have thoes ideas taken a hold in the minds of people to fester and grow so that one day when say something else happens these previously dismissed beliefs come back to haunt them.
Say for example Sam, a person of mainly pale skin background, who would be thought of as coming from a mainly Christian heritage was walking home one night from work. He takes a train from the City to an outter suburb and walks the 4 blocks home to his flat he shares with other people of a similar background. He saw the riots on television in 2005 and was shocked at the blatant racisim toward Middle Eastern people. He dismissed the idea that Middle Eastern people are evil or bad and went on with his life. On this night is attacked and mugged for his wallet ($40, Credit Card and incovience), the attckers (there where two) where of Middle Eastern appearance. Now since the riots there has been many images in the media about attackes and violence all with hints (some more obvious) that Middle Eastern people where bad and always at fault.
So does the previously dismissed ideas come back to haunt Sam, maybe even turn his opinion and make him believe that what was said is the truth now he has experienced this attack. Or can his reason, in a clear and thought through way make him see this attack as a separate incident to the issue?
What I am trying to say here is - even though we dismiss ideas that are evil because of what they make us feel and how we know we should be as free thinkers. Do these same ideas infect us with fear and anger even as we reject them?
I suppose this all comes from watching to much crap "current affairs" shows on TV. Shows like Today Tonight and A Current Affair which seems to promote nothing but fear and anger at people, races, business, governement and individuals. I wonder if maybe even though I can look at the "stories" with an objective view am I really safe from being lured under there spell. Am I safe from being able to hold true to my beliefs and not be turned to think like they seem to want me?
Religion.
It used to be the answer to your belief. I am a Christian, I am a Jew... Now you have to ask whether or not you believe what the TV tells you, or the internet or the guy at the water fountain. It used to be that you could avoid being brain washed by avoiding the Church or public speakers. This open and continued bombardment from the Media means that you are constantly attacked, your person beliefs questioned and opposing views thrust at you. How can one stay true to oneself when everything you believe is constantly attacked?
What do you believe?
Who do you believe?
Trust no one.
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