Cultural Pluralism

Chelsea Sessoms

Cultural Pluralism is a very abstract and difficult topic to study. According to international standards, all people have the right to cultural expression. In other words, all groups, including minority groups, have the right to protect, promote, and practice their cultural traditions and beliefs. This is where things get a little tricky. Unlike many other international human rights topics, there is not really a way to legally mandate the right to cultural expression because it is such a broad and abstract idea. In order to promote this ideal of cultural pluralism in Chapel Hill and Carborro, acceptance and respect for other cultures must be instilled in citizens’ consciousness. Because people tend to fear what they do not understand, I think the best way to do this is through cultural education and awareness. Having events such as cultural festivals in the community or culture awareness days in schools could be very beneficial. By exposing people to other cultures, it will promote understanding and the ideal of cultural pluralism. For example, a local group, The Cultural Arts Group, organized a dinner to promote cultural diversity in art around Orange County. This event allowed people to come together and learn about other cultures. In order to truly be successful in promoting cultural awareness, we would need to ensure that the local population is represented. The best way to measure the success or failure of the spread of cultural awareness would be to note the levels of cultural discrimination. In short, cultural pluralism can be achieved in the Chapel Hill and Carborro areas. By spreading education and cultural awareness, the citizens will be more understanding and respectful of other cultures.

Cultural Diversity and Pluralism

Reine Duffy

UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity was adopted in 2001, which set out to “ensure respect for cultural identities with the participation of all peoples in a democratic framework” and “contribute to the emergence of a favorable climate for the creativity of all, thereby making culture a factor of development.” As the world becomes more and more integrated and connected, cultural pluralism and diversity have become an international concern. The United Nations has acknowledged the right to enjoy and develop cultural life and identity. In our own country, African Americans have historically been segregated and their cultural expressions stifled. Today, we still see a suppression of cultural identity within the American South, where there is a dominant religion and race, and certain accepted views. Nonetheless, progress has to start within our own communities, and Chapel Hill and Carrboro are excellent places to begin.

Chapel Hill and Carrboro are very diverse communities and some efforts have been made to highlight their diversity. For example, the towns hold an annual Community Dinner, with dishes from numerous restaurants in the area, with the purpose of celebrating “our respective cultural bounties and differences and to demonstrate our mutual respect for one another.” Another effort is through the schools, where teachers must take cultural diversity classes. Nonetheless, I think that a good new approach would be to hold a large cultural festival for both Carrboro and Chapel Hill that would raise awareness. Other approaches are through the media.

Discrimination

Hameka Canady

On December 14, 1960, the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization resolved that “discrimination includes any distinction, exclusion, limitation or preference which, being based on race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, economic condition or birth, has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing equality of treatment in education and in particular.” Article 1 is specifically relevant for my topic. It emphasized the importance of all children having equal as well as fair educational rights.

I was fortunate to meet with Patricia Parker, an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies here at the university. She is also the founder of a program entitled Still Lifting, Still Climbing: Young Women of Color Leadership through Community Activism, a program designed for high school-aged women in Trinity Court and Pritchard Park, which are both predominately black, low- income communities in the Orange County area. As of June 2007, the program has assisted ten young females from ninth to twelve grades in identifying problems in their community and possible ways to resolve the issues. Throughout the program, the students learned various skills through workshops on personal, organizational, and community leadership. I will continue to work with her in conjunction with Sociology 290.

Healthcare

Patricia Alessi

According to the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to “a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control” (“Universal Declaration of Human Rights”). Moreover, the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man states shat everyone has the right to “preservation of his health through sanitary and social measures relating to food, clothing, housing and medical care, to the extent permitted by public and community resources.”

It was mentioned in class that the Steering Committee was looking for suggestions on how to address human rights. The following are some ideas about how to approach the issue of health and healthcare.

1. Passing legislation making healthcare universal in both cities. Passing legislation at the local level is a first step in getting universal healthcare coverage passed and supported at the state and federal levels.

2. Providing healthcare to all in both Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

3. Providing transportation to those who do not have transportation to healthcare facilities. This may include making public transportation available on Saturdays and Sundays, having more extensive routes, having transportation available longer hours, and more.

4. Sending letters to state and federal governments demanding that universal healthcare is made available for all—and that it is funded for all.

5. Reading the “Orange County Community Health Assessment, December 2007”. What I have discussed is only scratching the surface of what the health assessment has uncovered. Reading and discussing with those who have put together the assessment would be a great start in changing Chapel Hill and Carrboro and how the two cities deal with healthcare.

6. Making residents in both cities aware of the healthcare issue.

7. Making residents aware of current resources available to those who qualify. Anything from sending flyers to each house to posting it in the local newspapers would be helpful.

8. Working with university-led student groups that are raising awareness about healthcare issues in Orange County. They may have some fantastic ideas about how to combat this issue!

9. Widening the limits placed on existing healthcare programs to include those who are currently “falling through the cracks.”

10. Having people in healthcare programs being able to have continuity of care—with a primary care provider, emergency care to maintenance care, etc.

11. Making sure that adequate housing exists for all—housing that allows and encourages the health of its inhabitants.

12. Making sure that all have access to nutritious food.

13. Checking work environments to make sure that they meet health standards.

14. Educating children and adults about health, healthcare, healthy habits, etc. to encourage and maintain health in Orange County residents.

15. Making sure that physical activity is available and allowed in schools as well as healthy options and ideas given to adults.

Housing

Beau Delapouyade, Lizzy Adkisson, Clark Woodard

The States Parties to Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights: recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The Chapel Hill/Carrboro coalition to end homelessness in 10 years is a nonprofit organization focusing on the problem of chronic homelessness in the community. In order to reduce and ultimately end the problem of chronic homelessness the coalition has addressed the following (although in class we raise questions about the rationale for a ten-year plan)

Year 1

Strategy 1.1:

Establish an assertive street outreach program that targets unsheltered homeless people at natural gathering places throughout Orange County.

• Focus on relationship building between merchants, law enforcement and assertive outreach staff with those who are homeless

• Focus on simply engaging clients in relationship building before enrolling in services and define success in very small terms

• Ensure that there is flexibility in how this is accomplished.

• Make sure that this consists of at least two outreach staff

• Outreach and engagement activities should not be time limited by funding mechanisms

• Utilize formerly homeless/peers to engage in relationship building for those that are hard to reach

• Ensure that services are in place at the very moment the client is ready for services

Strategy 1.2:

Establish an outreach system in Northern Orange County that uses the congregate feeding programs as a place to begin identifying those who are chronically homeless in the rural part of the county.

Strategy 1.5:

Identify strategies designed to address the needs for shelter and services for individuals with complex behaviors that result in being banned from kitchen/shelter services.

Strategy 1.7:

40 units will be rehabbed/rented/built to provide permanent supportive housing (including the use of Assertive Community Treatment Teams) for the chronic homeless in Orange County within the first 3-5 years of the plan.

Strategy 1.8:

Ensure that nonprofit developers have the organizational and financial capacity to create new housing units within the community for the chronically homeless.

Strategy 1.9:

Identify a wide variety of sites for housing the chronically homeless throughout the county in the most fair and effective places within the county by

• Requesting the planning departments of all municipalities and Orange County compile a list of all available publicly owned housing/land that can be used for development.

• Encouraging local political leaders to provide publicly owned land/housing to those developing permanent supportive housing

• Identifying all available rental properties that can be bought by supportive housing developers.

Strategy 1.10:

Establish a rigorous evaluation mechanism that measures the cost of individuals who are chronically homeless before and after they are receiving housing and support services.

Year 2-4

Strategy 1.3:

Create an Assertive Community Treatment Team that targets those who are chronically homeless and integrates the team with the above outreach efforts.

Strategy 1.4:

Ensure that both inpatient and outpatient substance abuse treatment is made available to those chronically homeless individuals who desire that service. If inpatient treatment is necessary, make sure that permanent housing is not lost during the inpatient stay.

(Again, we raised serious questions about the 10 year period of implementation and will provide international examples of success within a shorter period of time.)

Rights of Refugees

Tessa Bialek

The 1951 United Nations Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees enumerates the rights guaranteed to refugees. Noteworthy guarantees are: a commitment to family reunification, freedom from discrimination, the right to wage-earning employment, the right to housing, and the right to education. These are valuable and essential standards to which all places with refugee populations should commit themselves.

Refugees are people who have lost their country. They are refugees from a conflict that endangers them or a government that persecutes them, people needing safety, resources, or a place to call home. The UNHCR – United Nations Refugee Agency - describes this “world of the stateless – people who do not have the right to own a passport of any particular state, who do not have a country to call their own and who often have minimal, if any, access to the kind of basic political and social rights that most citizens take for granted” (Questions and Answers, 4). Without a state to protect them, refugees are dependent upon the international community and people around the world to ensure their rights.

According to the North Carolina Division of Social Services, in 2006 more than 1500 refugees to the United States were resettled to North Carolina. Many of the refugees come to the triangle area. In my research, I found a blurb on the website of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants website that I thought I would share with you all tonight: “Some of the most welcoming and best-suited places in the United States for the refugees and immigrants who settle here are the smaller cities and towns beyond the main urban centers in which those newly arrived have traditionally concentrated. These smaller communities can offer services and opportunities not available or affordable in big cities. These communities are eager to welcome, support and integrate a diversity of foreign-born new residents” (“Preferred Communities Program”).

Every Wednesday morning, I help in a local ESL class. Currently, the class consists almost exclusively of refugees from Burma. Through my weekly interactions with these wonderful people, I have learned about many of the services (including the free ESL class) offered to local refugees. And, I have to say, I'm impressed. There are language classes, community-member sponsorship programs, job findings services, and more. I would like to think that Chapel Hill and Carrboro are prime examples of the aforementioned "most welcoming and best-suited places" for refugees.

However, it is vitally important to include a continued commitment to refugees when making Chapel Hill and Carrboro human rights cities. Though there are wonderful services offered to the refugees I work with, there are also serious deficiencies. The ESL program doesn't have the funding for new books, dictionaries, or enough teachers. In my class, the most beginning level, it is not unusual for there to be more than 30 students and only one or two teachers. Often, my students quit coming to class after only a few weeks because they must begin working. The students who do have work do not have it easy. Two students clean buildings on campus from midnight to 8am, coming to English class after 8 hours of work. Another student, supporting a wife and three children, has to work two jobs because he was only given 35 hours of work each week at his primary job - 40 hours would have required that he be given benefits. As you can see, there is room for improvement. I hope that the local refugee community and international refugee rights standards are important considerations as the steering committee begins the Human Rights Cities process. Thank you.

Resources:

www.Unhcr.org

http://www.refugees.org/home.aspx

http://www.dhhs.state.nc.us/dss/refugee/

The Rights of the Child

Shaconda Johnson

Declaration of Rights of Children 1959

Principle 7

The child is entitled to receive education, which shall be free and compulsory, at least in the elementary stages. He shall be given an education which will promote his general culture and enable him, on a basis of equal opportunity, to develop his abilities, his individual judgment, and his sense of moral and social responsibility, and to become a useful member of society.

The best interests of the child shall be the guiding principle of those responsible for his education and guidance; that responsibility lies in the first place with his parents.

The child shall have full opportunity for play and recreation, which should be directed to the same purposes as education; society and the public authorities shall endeavor to promote the enjoyment of this right.

Convention on the Rights of Children 1989

Article 28

1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to education and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, they shall, in particular:

(a) Make primary education compulsory and available free to all;

(b) Encourage the development of different forms of secondary education, including general and vocational education, make them available and accessible to every child, and take appropriate measures such as the introduction of free education and offering financial assistance in case of need;

(c) Make higher education accessible to all on the basis of capacity by every appropriate means;

(d) Make educational and vocational information and guidance available and accessible to all children;

(e) Take measures to encourage regular attendance at schools and the reduction of drop-out rates.

My Plans

To explore and enhance how Chapel Hill/Carrboro addresses the education rights of children I plan to volunteer with school age children. One specific way I plan on researching the education rights of the child is to examine the access that children have to recreation/recreational activities, a fundamental aspect of education. I will examine the locations of parks, etc (What types of neighborhoods are they near?).

The Right to Food

Amy Shaffer

The interdependency of human rights issues, such as the connection between assuring an adequate standard of living, food security, labor rights, and a right to health, explicitly demonstrate the need for connectivity among the community and its organizations as well. Chapel Hill and Carrboro need to understand the dynamic of this interconnectivity and strive to transform this area into a Human Rights City. CH-Carrboro should start by following the precedents of international laws.

Several international laws acknowledge and define the right to food for everyone. It is important to utilize these international frameworks and tailor them at a local level.

A. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognizes that everyone has a right to an adequate standard of living, including the right to food, clothing and housing; it is the job of the community/state to ensure these rights are realized. It is a fundamental right that everyone is free of hunger—it is through cooperation and other programs that people obtain efficient food production methods, disperse knowledge about nutrition, and ensure adequate distribution of food based on need.

It states in Article 11 that:

“1. The states Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The States Parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of international co-operation based on free consent.”

“2. The States Parties to the present Covenant, recognizing the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger, shall take, individually and through international cooperation, the measures, including specific programmes, which are needed:

B. The Convention on the Rights of the Child states in Article 24 that disease and malnutrition be combated through the provision of adequate, nutritious food.

C. The Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International and Non-International Armed Conflicts prohibits the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in Article 54.

D. According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights notes in Article 25 that “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing…”

E. Many more international laws (listed on back page of “Circle of Friends” packet)

1. Food Security in Chapel Hill/ Carrboro

Food security is looked at as a charity in our community, especially from for-profits and local businesses. People in the community have donated items to the local food banks, companies aimed to get favorable media attention by launching food donations, and local restaurants allowed a percentage of profits to help fight hunger during a 1-day community-wide campaign. But, this is charity work—not rights. While the community also seems to recognize the importance of food security, it sometimes leans more towards its international commitments than local goals.

There are two main programs currently in the CH-Carrboro area: The Carrboro Emergency Food Panty, 110 W. Main Street, Carrboro, and The Community Kitchen, 100 W. Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill.

A. Taking a Glance at some of Chapel Hill/Carrboro’s Past and Current Efforts

1) CROP WALK: The Inter-Faith Council for Social Service and Church World Service, hosts, Sunday, April 13^th, the 22nd Annual Chapel Hill/Carrboro CROP Walk. According to the IFC website, the Crop Walk (Crop=Community Reaching Out to People) is a four-mile walk through the streets of Carrboro, Chapel Hill and the UNC Campus aiming to link families and communities together to raise money to provide food and other resources for people locally and around the world. Church World Service, established in 1946, distributes 75% of the money to global hunger education, refugees, disaster relief, and self-help projects in more than 80 countries. The remaining 25% stays in the Carrboro-Chapel Hill area to support the IFC's hunger-relief programs. Last year, 350 walkers participated to raise almost $48,000. About $12,000 went to support the IFC's hunger-relief programs.

2) FUNDRAISERS W/ LOCAL BUSINESSES: In April of 2007, A Southern Season and Rotary District 7710 combined efforts for a day-long fundraiser in which 5 percent of all retail sales in the store and Weathervane went to the Rotarians Against Hunger program—mostly to provide for school lunch programs in developing countries.

3) COMMUNITY/BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP: The IFC’s “Help Out, by Eating Out Day” campaign focused on right to food from a local perspective. It also remained an interactive way to get community involved to participate democratically.

4) CELEBRITY APPROACH: Coach Kay Yow and the “Hoops for Hunger” event aim to get colleges and communities excited about helping to ensure food security in the community. The event is sponsored by Food Bank of Central/Eastern N.C.

I found much evidence that food is treated as a charity, which demeans people and does not allow them their dignity or their equality.

Women's Rights

Shilpa Hedge and Kaila Ramsey

International law dictates many rights and freedoms for all women.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women calls for complete equality on all levels- including political, social, economic, cultural, and civic aspects for women. In order to ensure this equality is maintained the convention calls for legislative measures and sanctions, modification of existing doctrines that may violate this, and more protection for these rights. Promotion of the rights of women would include the right to vote in all elections and public referenda or stand for election, to participate in all levels of government, and equal representation in non-governmental organizations as well. The convention also advocates protecting women from being forced to take on the status of a spouse during marriage particularly in terms in terms of nationality. In terms of education, women should be granted access to the same level of education as men including the same opportunities for scholarships and study grants and participation in athletic activities. In the area of employment, women must be given the same opportunities as men and have the right to equal remuneration, benefits, treatment, and respect as their male counterparts.

Their rights to social security, job security, and paid leave for incapacity to work must be ensured. Women must also be protected in terms of having safe and healthy work conditions. To ensure there is no discrimination on the basis of marriage or maternity, women must be protected from being fired because of pregnancy or discrimination because of it. They must receive paid maternity leave and not have to sacrifice job seniority or benefits because of this leave. Workplaces must also support women by providing childcare and necessary social services. Women must have equal benefits on the grounds of economic rights (bank loans and other forms of financial credit.) It is also important to ensure they are granted equal access to health care services. In the area of matrimony, women must be allowed the same rights and responsibilities during marriage as their spouse including the ability to freely choose a partner.

The towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro are in many ways already on track to promoting the ideas of women’s rights and what that entails from a global viewpoint, on a local level here in Chapel Hill. The town and the University both have a standing Women’s Center complete with staff running conferences, doing seminars, classes, and support services. Also, many if not all of the town council members are sympathetic to ‘women’s causes’ (more like human causes) and thus the idea of making the implementation of international human rights law a reality is very exciting indeed! We are so excited to be able to take part in the motion that is already stirring here in this area, and see how international women’s human rights can become a reality!!

Meeting with Anita Earls at the Law School

On February 1, 2008, about 5 students were fortunate to meet with Anita Earls at the Law School. Anita Earls has practiced law with an emphasis on civil rights for over twenty years. After graduating from Yale University, her law career lead her to a firm in Charlotte where she worked with a prominent lawyer who was assigned to such benchmark civil rights cases as Plessey v Ferguson. Earls eventually began to see the law system reverting back and some of the civil rights cases losing ground. Growing up in a multi-cultural family, Earls was compelled to find a context in which to fight for the rights of all people. Eventually, she left work in private sector and is currently a public defender in Durham. It has been her work in the recent months that is vital to our work within Human Rights Cities. Earls believes that civil rights should be viewed through the lens of human rights. She has formed the Southern Coalition for Social Justice (http://www.southerncoalition.org/). The Southern Coalition for Social Justice focuses on using community organization and mobilization in order to enact change. She sees her organization spreading across the South with support from people within communities ranging for lawyers to media experts to people who specialize in community organization.

Here are links to some of her suggested resources:

Carolina Women’s Center

http://womenscenter.unc.edu/

North Carolina Chapter NAACP

http://www.unc.edu/student/orgs/naacp/

North Carolina Chapter of ACLU

http://www.acluofnorthcarolina.org/

Teach-in at Carolina

Recently, I had the opportunity to go to a Teach-in sponsored by Student Action with Workers, Hear Our Public Employees Coalition, UE 150, SEANC District 25, Progressive Faculty Network, Students for a democratic Society, and SURGE. With all of these organizations put together, they were able to create a panel discussion that included experts in the field of collective bargaining and North Carolina's lack thereof. In listening to Dr. David Zonderman, Ashaki Binta, Steve Hutton, and Rukiya Dillahunt, I was able to learn the history of collective bargaining in NC as well as the movement to try and bring this right not only to Chapel Hill, but to the state as a whole.

History:

Dr. David Zonderman was the first to present and he not only defined the terms of what collective bargaining was, but also gave history as to why NC lacked the right. First, it is important to note that collective bargaining does not mean that people do not have the right to create unions in NC--workers have every right to create a union, its just that nothing that the union does is binding and therefore often moot. North Carolina and Virginia are the only two states that limit people from uniting and bargaining with they employers. That is why these scholars are calling for collective bargaining. This basic process allows workers to pick an association (more often unions than not), and to bargain with administrators or employers in order to improve working conditions.

The limit on collective bargaining began when a rumor was started that an influential group of truckers (known as the teamsters) were going to organize the police for their benefit. This got the government of North Carolina worried and they came up with a statute that stopped them known as NC 95-98. This came out as a ban of unions with the police, firefighters, emergency health providers, etc. This was overturned, and everyone can organize into unions, yet they still cannot bargain.

As of now, there is a bill that is trying to be pushed through the NC legislative system that would allow public bargaining. It is called House Bill 1583. This bill simply says that people have the RIGHT to participate in bargaining if they want to.

The Present:
As of now, however, the bill has yet to pass, and therefore employees are subjected to the will of the employers. Ashaki Binta spoke candidly about this situation and discussed how employers ignore rules and rights of people when it is best for them. In addition, the grievance procedure in this state is not effective. Therefore, people have been unjustly fired and because people cannot bargain to simply put to the table their complaints, problems with decisions, there continues to be discrimination within the workplace.

These discriminations have to do with the fact that women do not get paid as much as men. In addition there is race discrimination where there is a higher rate of discipline and firing of African American men than any other group. White collar jobs are more often than not are full of white people, which is another indication of racial discrimination.

Therefore, it is essential that we try to remove 95-98 from this state. Binta argues that the best way to do this is to build a movement from the bottom up to change the tides. Using lobbyists or big business will not get anything changed because they really do not want to see change. If they can group together workers and force the hand of employers, than the idea of collective bargaining might be more appealing to all than it is now.

North Carolina as a State:
As a state, North Carolina has been faulted by the International Commision for Labor Rights as being guilty of breaking labor rights after they had a hearing full of international lawyers.

In addition, there has been a complaint filed under ILO where North Carolina has been found in violation of international law.

Finally, Mexico filed a complaint about Mexican workers rights' in North Carolina under NAFTA because there is of free trade, there should have the right to bargaining.

To Help:
The best way for students to get involved in this issue is to write your legislator, get signatures on the H.O.P.E. petition and to attend Student Action for Workers on Mondays at 6:00.

Different links to help you do these things are:
http://www.hkonj.com/
http://www.nchope.org/
http://www.uncsolidarity.org

Visiting the Carrboro Human Relations Month Kick-Off Celebration: Health Care Inequities

On January 27, 2008, the Carrboro Century Center hosted the Human Relations Month Kick-Off Celebration. The stated focus of this meeting was “health care inequities,” with Shannon Fleg and Anthony Fleg as its guest speakers. The meeting began with an interactive, Ghana-inspired performance by Chuck Davis’ African American Dance Ensemble (AADE). Indeed, the ensemble engaged the whole meeting in joining them in performing an African-inspired dance that fostered acceptance and a feeling of openness. After the AADE finished, Mr. William Hencdrickson, the Chair of the Organe County Human Relations Commission, officially welcomed the meeting. Then, Mr. Barry Jacobs, the Chair of the Board of Orange County Commissioners, offered the meeting greetings and a proclamation. Finally, Ms. Vivette Jeffries-Logan, the Vice-Chair of the Orange County Human Relations Commission, introduced the guest speakers. The Flegs offered a presentation in which they discussed and encouraged those in the audience to discuss “false statements,” which are statements that would be true in a perfect society but in today’s society are not (ex: Everyone has healthcare), offered the audience several statistics about healthcare in North Carolina, and then opened the floor up to questions which they audience might have had. The meeting finished with some remarks by Ms. Shoshannah Smith, the Director of the Office of Human Rights and Relations.

All in all, it has become quite apparent that health care is a "hot" issue. Indeed, for a country that is so "advanced," the United States is still struggling on how to effectively provide healthcare for its citizens.

There are many informative and interesting websites out there. If you want more information on this issue, some of the following websites are good places to start.


The United Nations' World Health Organization: http://www.who.int/en/

A Wikipedia encyclopedia article, "Health care in the United States" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_United_States

An article from the Guardian, a UK newspaper, found on GuardianUnlimited: http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2167865,00.html

An About.com article, "What is Universal Health Care?" by Bobbie Sage: http://personalinsure.about.com/cs/healthinsurance1/a/aa060903a.htm


The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services website: http://www.hhs.gov/

An action.org press packet has some good information as well: http://www.action.org/website/article.asp?id=839


The Connecticut Coalition for Universal Health Care has posted under its The Case for Universal Health Care in the United States webpage "The Case For Single Payer, Universal Health Care For The United States Outline of Talk Given To The Association of State Green Parties, Moodus, Connecticut on June 4, 1999" By John R. Battista, M.D. and Justine McCabe, Ph.D. : http://cthealth.server101.com/the_case_for_universal_health_care_in_the_united_states.htm

The Commonwealth Fund's publications page lists books that can be ordered from UNC-Chapel Hill that deal with health care: http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=221238

In general, the Commonwealth Fund discusses and provides important information regarding the U.S. and its healthcare, as well as discussing the presidential candidates and how they "would" affect healthcare in the U.S. : http://www.commonwealthfund.org/

Thanks to books.google.com, you can read
Healthcare Infostructures: The Development of Information-Based Infrastructures for the Healthcare Industry by Information-Based Infrastructure Project, Diebold: http://books.google.com/books?id=joIMwwnevcEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=united+states%2B+healthcare#PPR6,M1

The Kaiser Family Foundation posted "Health Care Spending in the United States and OECD Countries, January 2007" on its website, with some great graphs and charts if you are a visual person: http://www.kff.org/insurance/snapshot/chcm010307oth.cfm

Basically, if you do a google.com search, you will find that there is a plethora of information available out there! Enjoy and go human rights!