US Health Care Reform, Iran Nuclear Deal, Chinese Imperialism, Women's Rights and More

The big story in US politics over the last few weeks has been the problems with the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act (so-called "Obamacare). This topic has been beaten to death by pundits and commentators, so I'll just briefly summarize my views on it. Yes, the administration screwed up by failing to do a better job with the website. Also, President Obama should have known better than to make statements promising that everyone could keep their insurance policies if they wanted to without qualifying them (it seems he did qualify such statements in early speeches on the topic, but when the debate over the reforms got heated, he dropped the qualifying remarks). But from what I've seen, the website is improving and people are finally starting to enroll. Also, many of those who had their insurance cancelled originally had junk insurance that would have been practically worthless if they'd actually gotten sick. Also, some of the sticker shock came from insurance companies scamming people. They cancelled their old policies (which were junk policies that didn't meet the minimum requirements under the law – and of course there should be some minimum standards, just as there are for automobiles and all sorts of other things) and offered them overpriced new ones, without bothering to mention that they could shop for a better deal on the health care exchanges. It does seem that some people are still going to have to pay a lot more, but overall much of the criticism seems overblown. At this point, the Affordable Care Act may still be a disaster in many people's minds, but it isn't so in reality. Of course a public option or a single payer system would be a lot simpler and better for everyone (except perhaps the very wealthy and those with a stake in the old system).

Another big news story is the short-term agreement reached between Iran and the US, Britain, France, etc. offering Iran some limited relief from sanctions in return for suspending its nuclear activities and taking certain other steps. Of course this deal has been criticized by Israel and American right-wingers, who apparently insist on a full dismantling of Iran's nuclear program. Some in Congress still seem intent on torpedoing this deal and any future ones by increasing sanctions. These opponents of the deal claim that the current deal is in Iran's favor, whereas if prior sanctions forced Iran to negotiate, then more sanctions will force them to capitulate completely. I am not certain that this deal is the absolute best that the US and other Western powers could have gotten, but the implication by opponents that it amounts to Munich-like appeasement (the usual charge) is ridiculous. Their own attitude brings to mind a more appropriate but far less cited analogy from the same period of European history, namely the Treaty of Versailles ending World War I. By forcing Germany to accept all the responsibility for the war and pay them heavy reparations, the Allied powers (particularly Britain and France) created great hardship and resentment in Germany, setting the stage for the rise of the Nazis and World War II. Likewise, attempting to impose punishing sanctions on Iran at this point will only ensure that the Iranian hardliners will gain the upper hand, all attempts by Iran to reach some accommodation with the West will be abandoned, and the country will pursue nuclear weapons at full speed. If Iran is back into a corner, the end result will be either war or a nuclear Iran, or even both. On the other hand, negotiation means both sides have to compromise. If the West and Israel want Iran to stop pursuing nuclear weapons in a verifiable manner, they have to give Iran something in return. So while it may not be perfect, this deal is a step in the right direction, and is certainly better than the alternative offered by the US and Israeli hardliners.

Another big international story lately is China's aggressive move to claim the airspace over the ocean to its east, which has stirred a strong negative reaction, not only from Japan, but from the US, South Korea, Australia, the Philippines, and Taiwan (though Taiwan's response has been relatively wimpy, not surprisingly considering the current weak-kneed government). The US sent bombers through China's new air defense zone, and South Korea says its own planes have ignored the zone. China continues to spout strong rhetoric, but it appears to have largely shot itself in the foot, not least because it has now stirred up its own rabid nationalists, who seem to want it to go to war rather than back down again. Also, if it really tried to enforce the zone, some believe it would be a big strain on its military resources. But while China's relatively small scale imperialistic moves in the east have angered its neighbors, its continued repression in its imperial possessions of Tibet and East Turkestan continues with very little international outcry.

Speaking of oppression, a landmark resolution on women's rights defenders was passed by the United Nations General Assembly. Unfortunately it was watered down by the usual subjects using predictable but still disgusting arguments, with backward patriarchies insisting on respect for traditional customs and traditions (i.e., those that repress women) and countries like China and Russia insisting the women's right defenders follow "national laws" (i.e., those used to repress dissent). Regrettably, these reactionary forces were able to force deletion of a paragraph that really should have been in the resolution, saying that countries should "strongly condemn all forms of violence against women and women human rights defenders and refrain from invoking any customs, traditions or religious consideration to avoid their obligations." Still, the passage of the resolution is a small step towards greater respect for women's rights – and it also brought the opposition out into the open.

We should also remember that the Philippines is still recovering from the disastrous Typhoon Haiyan, though at least agencies have found ways to rebuild and help the survivors simultaneously, by paying them to help with the work. But even the Philippines is still getting more media attention than some other places where people are also suffering greatly. Though you might not know it from the headlines, DR Congo is still mired in misery, and the Central African Republic is facing an extremely tense situation that has the potential to erupt into genocidal massacres. Those with the wherewithal to help in these places should do so, and the rest of us should help keep at least some attention focused on these crises.

Learning to Live on the Earth (with Links to Various Interesting Stuff)

I talk a lot about the environment on this blog, because in some ways it is more important than any other issue. After all, if humanity can't find a way to live on the Earth without catastrophically disrupting the environment, it won't matter much whether we can solve our other problems or not (though I support colonizing space, that can only involve a tiny fraction of humanity for the foreseeable future). The terrible tragedy in the Philippines is just one example of how destructive the environment can be, and while this particular typhoon may not have been directly caused by global warming, if we continue to heat up the planet, we can expect more of this and other kinds of environmental disasters. The following are some links to various interesting things on the Internet related to humanity's relationship to the environment and the Earth.

First, there are a couple of news stories here and here about how carbon dioxide levels have reached highs not seen for nearly a million years, that is, since well before modern humans evolved. What's more, these records will soon be broken, even if we take immediate action to drastically reduce carbon emissions – and there is little sign of that happening. Unfortunately, in the world's largest economy, the United States, there is still a large contingent of stubborn ignoramuses who insist that there isn't even a problem, and enough of them are in Congress to block most substantial action. Even on the other side of the political divide, while President Obama has done quite a few good things on the environment where he has had the power to act without going through Congress, his environmental record still has a few serious black marks, such as his administration's continued promotion of corn-based ethanol. As for other countries, though Europe has been more proactive in fighting climate change, even they could do better, and most other nations are doing no better than the US or even worse (though there is less excuse for failing to act when you are a wealthy nation like the US).

Then there's this fascinating map simulating births and deaths around the world in real time (for a larger and more detailed version, click here). Of course the map isn't capable of tracking actual births and deaths, but with sufficient statistical information on birth and death rates around the world, it can simulate them fairly closely (as a side note, I should point out one serious flaw on the map: Taiwan is labeled as a "Province of China", an absurd label that crops up on some websites from time to time apparently due to use of country codes from the UN [which of course goes along with Chinese propaganda with respect to Taiwan], though Taiwan's current flag also appears and it is in effect treated as what it is, a separate country). The most fascinating – and disturbing – aspect of the simulation is the contrast between the birth and death rates. In only four minutes, a thousand new babies have been born, but in the same space of time, fewer than five hundred people have died. In other words, in only four minutes, the world's population has increased by over five hundred. In ten minutes, it has increased by almost 1,500. At that rate, it only takes five days to add a million people to the world's population. This rapidly increasing population only increases the environmental problems we face, including climate change. It is no surprise that it has been suggested that one of the best short term ways to fight climate change is contraception, or at least radically reducing the birth rate. I wholeheartedly agree.

But to conclude on a more pleasant note, NASA recently published a new image compiled from pictures taken by the spacecraft Cassini while in orbit around Saturn. The pictures were taken while Cassini was on the dark side of the planet and so Saturn was eclipsing the Sun, allowing the much fainter inner planets to be seen (normally the glare of the Sun drowns them out). So in this picture, in addition to an incredible back-lit view of Saturn's rings and a few of its satellites, we can see a small red dot, a slightly bigger white dot, and a similarly-sized blue dot (with a faint grey dot attached). These are, respectively, Mars, Venus, and the Earth itself (plus the Moon). This is, more or less, how our planet looks from Saturn, at a distance of over a billion kilometers. A picture like this helps put humanity's problems into perspective, but it's also a reminder of how small the Earth really is on an astronomical scale. If we can learn to treat the Earth's resources as the limited, precious things they are, perhaps humanity can survive for a long time into the future and find ways to solve all its other problems.