At a time when we plainly see the negative effects of politics and greed in the life of nations, it is important to remember Pablo Neruda, a Chilean writer whom Gabriel Garcia Marquez called "the greatest poet of the 20th century — in any language." He was an artist who knew very well how to blend politics and poetry in his life.

Neruda was born Ricardo Eliecer Neftali Reyes Basoalto in 1904 and died in 1973. When he was 16, he changed his name to Pablo Neruda, probably after the Czech writer Jan Neruda. He started writing poetry at 10.

I started reading him when I was a medical student in the 1960s, and haven't stopped. How could I? Two of his books — "Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair" (written when he was only 20) and "The Captain's Verses" — are intertwined with my first sentimental adventures. Like millions in Latin America — and across the world — once I read Neruda, he became part of my life.

Neruda's political beliefs were behind some of his most powerful poems. For me, he represents the very ideal of the writer as a political man. When he was only 23, the Chilean government made him honorary consul in Burma, Ceylon, Java, Singapore and later Argentina, and the Spanish cities of Barcelona and Madrid. The Spanish Civil War, during which his friend, the great Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, was murdered, had a profound influence on his writing and his political activities.

He joined the Republican movement, first in Spain and then in France. In 1939, he was appointed Chilean consul in Paris, and from there, he coordinated the emigration to Chile of as many as 2,000 Spanish Republicans who had first escaped to France.

In 1943 he returned to Chile, then joined the protest against President Gabriel Gonzalez Videla's repressive actions against striking miners. In 1945, he became a senator and joined the Communist Party. The government soon expelled him, and from 1947 to 1949 he lived in hiding.

In January 1948, Neruda delivered one of the most passionate speeches on Chile's political history: He read out the names of 628 people being detained at Pisagua concentration camp without having been interrogated or formally charged. That speech became known as "Yo Acuso (I accuse)," after French novelist Emile Zola's 1898 denunciation of the French government's treatment of Alfred Dreyfus. In 1949, he fled to Europe.

Neruda's greatest poetic achievements were fueled by his political beliefs. In his epic work "Canto General (General Song)," published in 1950, Neruda celebrates the richness and beauty of Latin America, and the people's struggle for peace and social justice. Part of the work is the poem "Alturas of Macchu Picchu (Heights of Macchu Picchu)," a celebration of pre-Columbian civilization.

He lived in Europe for three years and returned to Chile in 1952, whence he continued traveling extensively overseas. He visited the United States in 1966 and in 1971 was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature, which he received after being stricken with cancer.

When Salvador Allende was elected president of Chile in 1970, he appointed Neruda as Chile's ambassador to France, where he lived from 1970 to 1972. In 1973, he returned to Chile, but in September of that year, Augusto Pinochet, with help from the CIA, overthrew Allende's government.

Neruda's life, I firmly believe, was shattered by Pinochet's coup and Allende's suicide. Neruda died only 12 days later. Shortly before his death, his house was ransacked by a military unit. When he saw the commander of the unit, weapon in hand in his bedroom, Neruda, who could hardly speak, told him, "There is only one dangerous thing for you in this house — poetry."

Officially, Neruda died of leukemia. Most probably, though, this man, the saddest of men after the death of his friend Salvador Allende and the defeat of democracy in Chile, died of a broken heart.

Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant for several United Nations agencies and co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

"I come from another state where 'open carry' is legal, but no one does it, so the police don't really know about it and they harass people, arrest people falsely…I think that people need to get out and do it more so that they get kind of conditioned to it." Such were the words of wisdom expressed to CNN affiliate KNVX (http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/17/obama.protest.rifle/index.html)by an unidentified man who protested outside Barack Obama's speech last week in Phoenix with an assault rifle.

The man’s decision to show up at the event with a loaded weapon was legal, but far from controversial. Is an unrestricted freedom to carry any type of gun to any place at any time truly what the founders had in mind? Do we really want to become "conditioned" to the sight of vigilante citizens walking down the sidewalks with loaded rifles? Strangely and disturbingly, the increasingly expansive interpretation of gun rights has been matched by the whittling away of other critical freedoms. Particularly since the Bush era, the protection from unreasonable search and seizure, freedom of speech, the right to a fair and speedy jury trial, and the right to due process seem to have become passé.

Several chilling examples immediately come to mind. Bush-era wiretaps on our fellow citizens still remain on the books due to the Obama administration’s approval - (http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/01/obama-sides-wit/) despite objections that such spying violates that Constitution and widespread acknowledgment that the program has yielded little of value in the so-called War on Terror. (http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/12/bush.wiretap/index.html).

Lap-tops and other digital devices can be seized (or impounded, in Homeland Security lingo) at airports without explanation (http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/national/2008/06/24/seizing-laptops-and-cameras-without-cause.html, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/06/AR2008020604763.html). Government observation of my personal life and seizure of my personal effects are serious threats to both our democracy and individual liberty, yet such concerns seem to be perpetually under the radar.

“Free Speech Zones” have popped up at controversial events such as political conventions and WTO conferences. The idea is that by corralling protesters into caged areas away from the media and delegates, citizens can vocalize their opinions without all of that messiness that general, non-caged free-speech can cause. Under the Bush administration, the secret service would select the “zones” in advance – perhaps this is one reason that relatively little real protest was ever recorded at his public engagements. Yet the Democrats have been no better: at the 2008 Convention last November, protesters were again restricted to a caged zone far from earshot of the participants. While the First Amendment doesn’t specifically allow you access to powerful people, I doubt the spirit of this particular right was merely legal permission to mutter your ideas from an isolated, off-site cage.

Certainly not last but equally troubling is the marked lack of transparency and due process accorded the detainees at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere in this never-ending War. The emotional response that “terrorists didn’t show the victims of September 11, 2001 any due process” strikes a chord, it is still no way to run a country if we intend to be a rational, law-abiding, democratic nation. There is also a startling and frighteningly pervasive belief that if these alleged criminals are granted a normal trial – the kind that we use for psychopaths, murderers, the mafia, and the like- that they will somehow “get off easy.” While they are not protected under our Bill of Rights, we should ask what defects our system has that render it incapable of dealing with these prisoners, and correct them, rather than simply operating outside the law. How can Americans sleep at night knowing that shadowy tribunals with laws unto themselves are taking place in our name – with evidence withheld and defense attorneys hamstrung all in the name of national security?

But then, it seems that Americans have already acquiesced and have grown accustomed to all manner of indignations. Maybe the 2nd Amendment is just the last one that we’re clinging to, because it is tangible and emotionally compelling. Yet it still doesn’t make a lot of sense. As one woman wrote in her letter to the editor of the Arizona Republic, it is truly bizarre that we are forced to limit the size of our hand lotion and other liquids to less than 4 oz for carry-on luggage on an airplane, but a man can carry a loaded weapon to a presidential appearance. American society must be fascinating to observe from the outside. From the inside, it can be positively frightening.

If we were to write a literary critique of the August town halls, one of the first elements to discuss would be the pervasive irony. As each senator and representative tours their home state, they are confronted by the same phenomenon: crowds of senior citizens opposing health care reform. More specifically, opposing a single-payer, universal system. Just like the popular Medicare program they currently participate in.

It simply defies logic. Today during John McCain’s town hall, citizens booed and cheered like an audience at a vaudeville melodrama whenever reform and “leaving health care alone” were mentioned, respectively. One charismatic elderly woman took the floor from the Senator for a good five minutes as she riled up the crowd with bumper-sticker slogans like, “it’s either good enough for the politicians’ families or it ain’t good enough for our families!” and “keep the government out of my health care decisions!” Perhaps she momentarily forgot that she's on that government-managed health care plan?

Just before CNN dropped its coverage of the event, there was a small clear voice from the back of the room. Holding the microphone nervously, the woman made a number of atypical statements. She said that she was tired of hearing about the two-year waiting period in Britain for MS treatment when her own daughter had waited for twenty years in the US because no insurance plan would accept her “pre-existing condition.” By the time she qualified for Medicaid, she was completely disabled. She also said that she didn’t understand why everyone in the room – who she said she guessed to be on Medicare- were so vociferously opposed to expanding that coverage to the rest of the country. At this point, the crowd predictably booed again-yet when she asked if any of them wanted to give up their coverage and go back to a private plan, they booed even louder. She pointed out to the Senator that he’d been on government plans his entire life, and asked what was so terrible about them. He didn’t answer her question.

Which brings us to the second element: tragedy. The truth is that for many senior citizens this debate isn’t really about health insurance. Underlying the shouting and fist-shaking is a disquieting trend: the abandonment of America's youngest generation by its oldest.

Today’s oldest senior citizens grew up in a time when America was rural, mostly white, and otherwise segregated. Where getting “work” was relatively easy: you either stayed on the farm, opened a small town store, or walked up to a factory and asked whether they could use any extra hands on the line. This is life the way my grandfather’s generation (born in 1926) knew it.

As the first or second generation to have fully-funded public school through high school and then the GI bill to cover university tuition and housing, those now aged 65 and older were given the best that this country could offer. From the bread lines during the Depression to Social Security today, they have truly been supported from cradle to grave. Such investment in a generation during its youth was unprecedented – and with such support, they propelled America to heights never before imagined: the best living standards in the world, with cutting-edge technology and enviable democratic principles.

Yet curiously, as they approach their own sunset years, they see their manifold successes not as a product of public policy but of their own elbow grease and bootstraps. Certainly, a strong work ethic gave them the fortitude to take advantage of the opportunities given to them – but the key is that those opportunities existed to begin with. The tragedy of our nation is that, upon attaining such previously unimaginable success, this generation turned its back on society and announced that government was the problem.

Alienated from the hip-hop and hipster Millenial generation with its large minority population, peculiar fashion and music sensibilities, and more tolerant and global outlook, it seems the self-anointed “Greatest Generation” has decided that we are all somehow lesser citizens. They don’t like us – they find us weak, lazy and un-American- and they’ve got a lot of time on their hands to attend such town halls. Surrounded by like-minded seniors, they confirm their own world-view and ensure that the needs of their demographic get heard the loudest.

Nobody my age has time to attend. We’re busy working 50-hour weeks with no overtime at non-union jobs with poor health insurance, no pensions and fifteen-minute lunch breaks. Attending a noon get-together with our senators is not only impractical but also, apparently, pointless. Bitingly called the “entitlement generation” by the one that deems itself to have been the “greatest”, we’re actually entitled to very little.

I've just learned about a very important training offered by The Center for Partnership Studies. This exciting program directly relates to The WIP’s goal of helping to build a more just and sustainable world. The REAL WEALTH COMMUNITY PRESENTERS PROGRAM is a free training for volunteers who want to create the major grassroots "mind shift" urgently needed at this critical time.

Drawing from The WIP’s Advisory Board member Riane Eisler's groundbreaking book, The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics, the training is modeled directly on the highly successful design used in Al Gore's Climate Change Project. The goal is to have an enthusiastic, well informed cadre of presenters who will engage their various communities in lively discussion about an economic system that gives real visibility and value to the work of caring for people -- the work stereotypically done by women for little or no pay -- and the work of caring for nature.

The Center for Partnership Studies is a 501(c)3 organization founded by Riane Eisler, and was developed by Alene Moris, nationally recognized trainer and consultant, and Cheryn Weiser and Sara Saltee from Strategic Learning Resources. The training will take place in Seattle, Washington from the evening of November 6th through midday November 8th, 2009.

This is a chance to make a difference -- and engage others to do the same! Space is limited to the first 100 applicants accepted. For more information and to access the application, click here.

Please apply now as the deadline is September 15th.

“Using children in conflict is a heinous crime and destroys the very fabric of society,” the American actress Angelina Jolie declared in The Hague at the trial of Thomas Lubanga. Lubanga is a Congolese militia leader accused of using children, both boys and girls, during the five-year civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

One of the tragic consequences of war is the forced participation of girls as soldiers. In Sudan, as well as in many other conflicts throughout the world, girls (sometimes as young as 13) are unwilling warriors or soldiers' sexual partners. It has been estimated that between 1990 and 2003, girls have been part of military and paramilitary groups in 55 countries and have participated in armed conflict in 38 of those countries. Presently, more than 120,000 girls are participating in armed conflicts worldwide.

“In war, these little soldiers work by killing and above all by dying. They make up half the victims of recent African wars,” says Eduardo Galeano, the Uruguayan political writer talking about child soldiers. If the fate of both boys and girls is tragic, girl soldiers suffer additional indignities, an issue that remains to be solved.

Jasmine, a 16 year-old young woman with a four month old baby explains the process of incorporating girls into armed groups in the DRC. In a testimony to Amnesty International she declared, “When the mayi-mayi (community-based militia groups in the DRC) attacked my village, we all ran away. In our flight, the soldiers captured all the girls, even the very young. Once with the soldiers, you were forced to marry one of the soldiers. Whether he was as old as your father or young, bad or nice, you had to accept. If you refused, they would kill you. This happened to one of my friends. They would slaughter people like chickens. They wouldn’t even bury the bodies they slaughtered – they would even feed on their flesh. I even saw a girl who refused to be ‘married’ being tortured.”

Although in some cases girls voluntarily become soldiers, in most cases they are abducted and obliged to participate in combat operations, forced into sexual relations with commanders or fellow soldiers or required to perform other duties off the front lines, but equally as abusive, such as planting landmines, acting as spies or carrying heavy loads. As a result of rape and other forms of sexual abuse, they may acquire sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, which are particularly frequent among men from both government forces and rebel groups.

A study by the Canadian human rights organization Rights and Democracy found that 30 percent of the girls in three countries studied (Mozambique, Northern Uganda and Sierra Leone) became pregnant during their stay in the armed forces. Many among them were stigmatized because they had been raped and later had serious difficulties in trying to reintegrate into their communities and care for their babies – often unwanted – born of rape.

Why do some girls voluntarily become soldiers in spite of the obvious dangers involved? They may do it because of lack of other options for survival or for the perceived benefit it might provide to them – protection from ill treatment, to escape situations of domestic abuse or in search of food and clothing. Former girl soldiers who have escaped or been released have explained that the lack of opportunities in their future, such as access to education or means of earning a livelihood led them to join without knowing the harsh consequences it would entail. Other girls may do it to seek revenge against armed forces or groups which have attacked their families and communities or to gain a sense of power. In some cases, girls who became "wives" of commanders are sometimes in charge of organizing raids or spying missions on enemy forces.

Sexual violence is a major concern in Darfur, where children as young as six-years-old are raped by soldiers which witnesses identify as belonging to government forces, according to the United Nations. In addition, high incidence of rapes and sexual violence against children continues in Burundi, Central African Republic, Cote D'Ivoire, DRC, Haiti, Chad, Darfur, Uganda and other situations of concern.

Forced recruitment of children and sexual violence against them is not limited to Africa. Children have suffered similar fates in armed conflicts in Nepal, Burma, Colombia, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. For example, in Sri Lanka, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) recruited thousands of boys and girls into their ranks during the course of past two decades.

Beginning in the mid 2000’s the TMVP, a breakaway faction of the LTTE, also increased its recruitment of children with the alleged complicity of certain elements of the Government Security Forces. Although the LTTE reduced its recruitment of children in 2008, according to UNICEF, during the hostilities in northern Sri Lanka in the first part of 2009, reports of LTTE recruitment of boys and girls resurfaced. Today, top UN officials are calling for an inquiry into atrocities committed by both sides during the 2009 fighting; this must include the use and recruitment of children.

Girls don't have the choice of freely leaving the groups with whom they are associated. Those who try to leave may be recaptured and punished. They thus have to deal with a double threat: recrimination and punishment from the armed group or discrimination and ostracism from the community if they do manage to return home. Some girls who return home pregnant or with a child are made to feel that they bring "dishonor" to the family.

Reintegration into society can be more difficult for girls than for boys, as they generally carry the stigma of having been sexually abused. In addition, girls may be left with some other consequences aside from sexually transmitted infections, such as chronic physical and mental disabilities or the need to look after babies conceived during forced service. The stigma is not limited to the child mothers but also extends to their children who frequently experience the same kind of rejection as their young mothers.

Because the participation of girls in conflict has been largely ignored, there are few programs that address their unique needs related to their demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration back into society. In many cases, shunned by their families and communities, they end up working as prostitutes or doing menial work when conflicts end. Girl soldiers, despite the disadvantages of having participated in war, in many cases are extremely resilient and have develop special skills that could be used in post-conflict settings for their re-integration into society. When provided the right opportunities, many of these girls have proven themselves to be productive and capable people who can ultimately contribute to pulling their societies out of the cycle of war.

The practice of using girls as soldiers continues unabated. Because of women's perceived role in society, after their participation in armed conflicts they have more limited options than boys, both in terms of marriage and work prospects. Frequently, former girl soldiers state that they want to receive education once they return home so they can become productive members of society. As Julia Freedson, Director of Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, an organization working to end violations against children told me in New York, “When provided the right opportunities, many of these girls have proven themselves to be productive and capable people who can ultimately contribute to pulling their societies out of the cycle of war.”

It is important to strengthen monitoring and reporting of forced participation of girls as soldiers, as well as other violations against them. This is needed in order to hold perpetrators accountable and to work towards release of children from fighting forces. Preventive measures are also important to eliminate abuse of girls, such as massive education campaigns calling attention to the phenomenon and its serious consequences. In addition, it is necessary to increase the number of and quality of rehabilitation and reintegration programs that specifically respond to former girl soldiers' needs. These are costly enterprises, but ones that will allow girls to become the framers of their own future.

César Chelala, an international public health consultant, is the author of the Pan American Health Organization publication "Adolescents’ health in the Americas."

As if rigged elections were not enough, the new Iranian government has compounded its breach of the law by the systematic abuse of Iranians taken prisoner after the June 12 presidential election. Nobody in Iran is immune to the government’s brutality. Only a strict following of the law, the punishment of those guilty and the release of those whose only crime was to protest the recent election results will bring the government the international respect it so desperately seeks.

The accounts of prisoners’ abuse by their relatives and on opposition websites have provoked outrage not only among Mr. Mousavi (the opposition candidate) supporters but even among some prominent conservative clerics, some of whom have relatives who have been brutally tortured by the Iranian police.

Recently, the government released 140 prisoners, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged the judiciary to show “Islamic mercy” to the detainees, and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, personally intervened and ordered the closing of a notorious detention center. The government actions can only be described as “cosmetic” gestures aimed more to appease the growing opposition to its tactics than to restore a respect for the law since abuse continues in an unending dragnet of brutality.

The critical point that galvanized and widened the opposition was the case of Mohsen Ruholamini, son of an adviser to the conservative presidential candidate Mohsen Rezai. Mr Ruholamini died in prison after being severely beaten by the Iranian police. His death comes shortly after the death of Neda Agha-Soltan , whose death during a demonstration against the government sparked protests around the globe and made of her an iconic figure in Iran.

Mr. Mousavvi reacted with predictable anger at these abuses. “They cannot turn this nation into a prison of 70 million people,” he said. Senior clerics have joined in the protests, indicating that if the government continues to tolerate such abuses, the future of Iran’s theocracy was in danger.

Torture to prisoners is not new to Iran’s government. In 2007 alone, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, sent 24 joint communications and one urgent appeal describing human rights abuses. The Iranian authorities denied any allegations of torture and responded that fair trials had been conducted in all cases.

Despite the government denials, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has verified several reports of systematic torture and abuse of opponents after the recent presidential elections. There are also allegations of the rape of prisoners, which are particular serious abuses in a traditional society such as Iran, aimed at humiliating and dehumanizing prisoners. According to this organization, the widespread, planned and systematic nature of these crimes since the June 12 elections could be raising to the level of crimes against humanity under international law.

On August 9, 2009, Gen. Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, Iran’s police chief, acknowledged that protesters were beaten by their jailers at Kahrizak detention center, but blamed an outbreak of disease for their deaths. The police chief’s explanation was flatly denied by several conservative clerics. In addition, Iran’s Prosecutor General Ghorban Ali Dorri Najafabadi, called that those responsible for mistreating prisoners be tried and punished.

There have been reports of family members finding “hundreds of corpses” in a Tehran morgue. The police denied them to retrieve the bodies of their relatives unless they certified that the deaths were due to natural causes.

Iranian lawyer and Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi urged Iran’s government to release those citizens accused of involvement in the country’s post-election unrest, and so did other Nobel laureates such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mairead Maguire and Jody Williams.

If the Iranian government continues to ignore these calls to justice and freedom for those unjustly detained, it will justify the role of “pariah” government among civilized nations that they so strenuously reject.

Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award, is the foreign correspondent for the Middle East Times International (Australia).

Today our friends at The Women's Media Center sent out a press release about the petition circulating in support of Lubna al-Hussein...

Lubna al-Hussein is a Sudanese journalist and U.N. press officer. She was arrested on July 3, 2009 at a party in Khartoum with 12 other women. Their crime was wearing pants, which carries a penalty of 40 lashes under the 1991 indecency law, part of the sharia law which governs Northern Sudan. Ten of the women have already been fined and flogged, but al-Hussein will not plead guilty and has resigned her U.N. post in order to avoid immunity.

Al-Hussein is fighting the indecency law because she believes it to be unconsitutional and not in keeping with Islam. As she told the Associated Press: "Flogging is an insult to human dignity. If the (rulers) claim this is based on Islamic Shariah (law), can anyone show me a verse in the Quran or in the prophet's teachings that speak of flogging women because of their dress code?"

"I am not afraid of flogging. ... It's about changing the law." Hussein said, adding that she is ready "to receive (even) 40,000 lashes" if that what it takes to abolish the law.

The Washington Post reported today that Sudan is restricting al-Hussein's ability to travel.

We urge you to sign the Arab Women's Connection petition in support of Lubna al-Hussein.

I was recently watching the news about the debt crisis in America. We all love nice things which cost money. They featured a family with $60,000 worth of credit card debt. They owed some money, couldn't keep up and then the fees and penalties made it worse.

What made this family stand out was how much they owed. Even in America $60,000 is a lot for credit card debt. If the amount owed was due to a medical illness, school loans or a mortgage no one would have flinched an inch. However, what they owed was substantial because the average family owes credit card debt of $10,000 and to top it off 6.5% of American families are more than 30 days past due, thanks to the recession.

I really can't blame these people as credit card companies have a way of targeting and seducing both old and young people to apply for the cards regardless of if they can need or can manage having a credit card. Credit card companies are now feeling the pinch as settlements of up to 70% off what is owed are now being offered and accepted by credit card companies from their debtors.

The family with the $60,000 debt paid $16,000 to end their debt nightmare. They were able to do this because some credit cards companies are willing to get something now instead of nothing later.

However, I believe debt is undesirable when not absolutely necessary. Debt should be a last resort because it is a form of slavery. The creditor has a hold over the debtor. In the Bible, Proverbs 22:7 “The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender” this shows debt is a negative that should be avoided if possible.

The way America is structured; student loans, mortgage loans and car loans are often necessary and using credit cards to pay for health care expenses is acceptable. However, using credit cards to keep up with the Joneses is ridiculous especially when the number one cause of divorce and relationship problems is financial.

Last month, the story of the Liberian girl raped by a group of young boys in Phoenix made international headlines. It's the type of story that sells papers, with its eye-catching themes of immigration, sex, tribalism, war and poverty. Especially in Arizona, where the largest minority population is from Mexico, this crime harkened a foray into uncharted territory. Given the state's proclivity for intolerance and racial profiling, I braced myself for an onslaught of anti-Liberian sentiment and misinformed stereotyping. Imagine my surprise to instead witness an outpouring of support by the general public – both for the victim and for her community.

At first, it seemed I would have positive news to report. Last week, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office met with the deputy Liberian Ambassador to the United States, Edward Sele. Sent directly by the Liberian president, Sele expressed empathy for the victim and the involved families while proclaiming his outrage over the crime committed. He took a firm stand on the issue of rape, declaring it to be absolutely unacceptable in his own country.

A public relations victory for the Liberian government has not, however, produced greater justice for the nation’s former compatriots. The defendants – those boys aged 9 to 14 who are charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, and in the case of the eldest, sexually assaulting a minor - apparently voluntarily waived their rights to having their parents or legal guardians present during their interrogation.

One wonders how that voluntary waver played out – and how it can even hold water in court. As one Phoenix defense attorney has pointed out, “the only thing a 9-year old can wave is his hand.” Police insist that the boys were read their Miranda rights, but what could this possibly mean in a 9-year old boy’s mind? Phoenix police Sgt. Andy Hill claims that young suspects “generally prefer that their parents not be present,” – which one has to seriously doubt. Under what possible circumstances would any child prefer to talk to the police on their own? I have a ten year old cousin who until recently was too shy to even place her own order at a restaurant, much less testify in a jail cell. A human rights expert with extensive experience in Africa also notes the intense fear that a Liberian refugee in particular would likely have of the police force. Even if they had understood that they legally had rights, would they have assumed it was dangerous to press for them? And especially in a culture known for its emphasis on respecting one’s elders, what child would arrogantly insist on their right to an attorney?

Perhaps the process was made easier by the fact that the boys appear to lack parents or legal guardians. The two youngest are second cousins who live with an aunt as their parents are still in Africa. She is not their legal guardian. Another lives with an aunt and uncle – family members to whom the Department of Child Protective Services may refuse to return the boy because the couple does not have any other children.

Another human rights advocate who works with local Liberian leaders points out that the oldest boy’s English level is far too poor to comprehend legalese. The exact age of the boys is also under question due to conflicting documents. Further muddying the waters, it has emerged that the girl claims she was raped by only one of the boys.

Yet despite such irregularities, the wheels of our justice system roll swiftly on. The Arizona Republic reported that, “The two youngest boys went to court Wednesday morning looking like elementary-school children - except for the handcuffs and leg irons. One of the boys shrugged and cried when the judge noted an award he'd been given for schoolwork in jail…The other was so tiny that his head barely showed above his chair at the defense table. He nearly tripped on his chains as a deputy led him from the courtroom.”

The oldest is already going to be tried as an adult; prosecutors are pushing for the second eldest to be tried as an adult also. If convicted, they will spend the rest of their lives in prison.

The outrage in Phoenix has slipped from anger over the victim’s father’s initial reaction of shunning her to one of anger over the obvious misappropriation of justice. How do we truly know what happened in that shed? How can a 9 year old boy truly rape a 9 year old girl? How do we know that the boys weren’t play-acting, recreating horrific scenes of violence that they may have often witnessed in their home country? Is this act legally, physically and psychologically similar to acts of rape committed by adults? Certainly, there needs to be a punishment, but to try a child as an adult and throw his life away exhibits a lack of proportionality, a lack of reason, and a startling lack of justice.

To prove a point about the defense of women, the prosecutor’s office has forgotten an equally important mission: to defend the rights of an abused or traumatized child. Sadly, having fled one land of insanity, it seems the Liberian community simply jumped into another.

As the health care discussion has gathered momentum in the U.S., there is increasing evidence of the role played by corporations and politicians to hinder provision of adequate health care to the majority of Americans. The result is that the U.S. has one of the worst health care systems among industrialized nations.

Studies carried out by the World Health Organization and the Commonwealth Fund in New York show that the U.S. health care system overall performance ranked 37th among the countries included in their analysis.

The Commonwealth Fund study, released in 2007, entitled “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: An International Update on the Comparative Performance of American Health Care,” found that not only is the U.S. health care system the most expensive in the world, but comes in dead last in almost any measure of performance.

The Commonwealth study compared the health system in the U.S. and that of Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Although the most evident way in which the United States differs from the other countries is in the absence of universal coverage, the U.S. is also last in terms of access, patient safety, efficiency and equity.

Compared to the other countries studied, the U.S. lags behind in the adoption of information technology and other national policies that promote quality improvement. In countries such as New Zealand, Germany and the United Kingdom, up-to-date information systems enhance physicians’ ability to monitor chronic conditions and medication use. At the same time, the U.S. pays a higher percentage of health dollars for administration than any other nation.

The U.S. is behind all industrialized nations in terms of health coverage. Almost 47 million Americans lack health insurance coverage, which represents more people than the entire population of Canada. As pointed out by Wendell Potter, a former health insurance executive, if this number includes all those that are underinsured, that represents more people than those living in the United Kingdom. According to the Children’s Health Fund, 9 million children are uninsured in the U.S., while another 23.7 million –nearly 30 percent of the nation’s children- lack regular access to health care.

There are several ways corporations pressure politicians not to support health care plans that benefit the majority of the population. As Wendell Potter stated during an interview with Bill Moyers, “By running ads, commercials in your home district when you are running for reelection, not contributing to your campaigns again, or contributing to your competitor...”

In addition, Potter described how a Republican strategist suggested the use of phrases such as “government takeover,” “delayed care is denied care,” “consequences of rationing,” “bureaucrats, not doctors prescribing medicine,” which despite being evidently untruthful were faithfully parroted by politicians opposing health care for all.

Through several mechanisms insurance companies deny coverage to people so as to increase their profits. As Potter explained in a testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation last June, among those mechanisms are ‘rescission’ and ‘dumping’. If a sick policy holder omits a minor illness or a pre-existing condition when applying for coverage the insurance company use this as a justification to cancel (rescind) the policy.

In addition, insurance companies dump those businesses whose employees’ medical claims exceed what insurance underwriters estimated. What makes the situation particularly serious is that once an insurer dumps a business, that business has no other viable options because of widespread industry consolidation.

Lack of coverage seriously affects the health of the uninsured because they receive less preventive care, are diagnosed at a later disease stage, tend to receive less quality care and have higher mortality rates than those insured.

This is a crucial moment to solve one of the most savage inequities conspiring against people’s health and well being in America. Both individuals and businesses, particularly small businesses, are at the mercy of powerful corporations’ interests. Unless those interests are curbed, people’s health will continue to be a victim of corporations’ predatory appetite.

Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, is a public health consultant for several international agencies.

I’m excited to report that the following films I’ve reviewed for The WIP are coming to (or already at) a theatre near you!

- Adam - Currently playing in limited release
- Afghan Star - 8/21
- The Cove - 8/7 (you can also check out The Cove team on Fresh Air)
- No Impact Man - 9/4
- Earth Days - 9/11
- Over the Hills and Far Away (now called Horse Boy) - 10/16
- Handmade Nation – Currently playing in select cities and the DVD will soon be available at BuyOlympia.com