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Welcome to The Positive Voices for June 2010, dedicated to promoting social justice, civility, debate and honest dialogue. This month's edition features articles, among other topics, on the positive roles government and organized labor can play in our society.
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Sunday, August 1, 2010
Indian National Overseas Congress launches its Michigan chapter
by Dr. Ashok Kumar
The evening of June 19th, 2010 saw a significant event come to fruition in Grand Rapids, Michigan that is poised to strengthen the social, cultural, and economic bonds between the world’s largest and the oldest democracies: India and the USA. The Michigan chapter of the Indian National Overseas Congress (INOC) was launched amidst great fanfare, flourish and a resolve of purpose. Mr. Paramvir Singh “Sunny” Dhoorh was appointed as the inaugural President of INOCMI.
Mr. Dhoorh’s appointment was consummated by Mr. Surinder Malhotra, President of INOC-USA and INOC-NY as he wrapped the eventcustomized scarf bearing the Indian flag insignia around Sunny’s neck and showered him with accolades for his distinguished public service that encompassed both Indian and American communities in the USA.
For Mr. Dhoorh, the honor of the new assignment was one more feather in his selfless community service cap and a significant extension of his on-going service in the capacity as Vice President of INOC-USA.
In his inaugural address as President of INOC-MI, Mr. Dhoorh said that he does not believe in dirty politics and works his “heart and soul” to accomplish whatever he believes to be a worthy cause for the people. He emphasized the role of values, self-discipline, and pursuance of the right causes he inherited from his parents that have guided him every step of the way in his journey of public service. He said that he began this journey in his formative years while in College as President of the Students Union. He said he was blessed by God and supported by his family and friends, in serving the social and human causes that impact the Indo-American communities in Grand Rapids and Michigan at large. Arguing a case for inclusivity, he drew a humorous response from audience when he said, “My name is Sunny Khan Singh”.
The last lap of his address included a declaration of the slate of the INOC-MI Office Bearers which spilled across the state, and an Advisory Committee headed by Neeraj Saini.
The office bearers were called upon and recognized as follows: Manjinder Singh (VP from Walker), Pargat Singh Garewal (VP, Detroit), Rani Mahal (General Secretary, Canton), Manjeet Singh (General Secretary, Lansing), Dr.
Ashok Kumar (Secretary, Grand Rapids), Gernail Singh (Secretary, Kalamazoo), Bob Khera (Secretary, Detroit), and Resham Singh Saini (Press Secretary, Detroit). In addition, an Advisory Committee was announced that included Neeraj Saini, Chair; Dr. Vajendra Desai, Dilip Saxena, Dimple Singh (Jackson), and Kuldip Singh (Lansing). Notably, Dr. Kumar and Saxena are also currently serving as India Link Board member, former as VP.
Many readers may wonder what INOC stands for beyond the expansion of its acronym.
INOC was constituted in India in 1977 with a view to promote the time-enduring values of democracy, secularism and pluralism that help governance of a country in non-authoritative fashion, consistent with humane values of compassion and non-violence. Recent impressive electoral win of the Indian National Congress in India that allowed the continuity of INC as ruling party has imparted a renewed momentum to harnessing and nurturing the affluence of Indian Diaspora overseas (popularly called NRIs or Non-Resident Indians) to promote and foster India’s core values of democracy, pluralism, and secularism enshrined in her Constitution.
These efforts, it is stipulated, must be made within the overarching ambience of harmony and amity with the local and domestic people of the country they belong to. While the charter of objectives and strategic goals of the INOC-MI are being chalked out even as this news article is being inked, some of the goals of the umbrella organization (INOC-USA) and other chapters (e.g., INOC-UK, and INOCCanada) will undoubtedly serve as compelling backdrops. These are: (1) to promote and propogate secular, pluralistic, and democratic principles enshrined in the Constitution of India. (2) To encourage and support NRIs residing in the USA at large and in Michigan in particular to engage with Indian social and political leaders on an on-going basis to obtain greater exchanges in trade, economics, and business, as well as foster stronger cultural, and democratic ties between the two countries. (3) To have an on-going dialogue with Indian Congress leadership on policy matters especially the ones that impact the NRIs (4) To serve as the Resource Center of choice for the Indians residing in Michigan and USA at large to improve relationships and trade between the two countries; and the last but not the least, (5) To create and avail opportunities that would improve understanding and enrich the quality of life of the democratic societies of India and the USA consistent with the harmonious principles of commonwealth societies.
The salience of the event was evidenced by the presence of several distinguished community leaders, political leaders, business owners and executives, academicians and distinguished members of the society from all over the state. Some of the dignitaries who graced the event included Honorable State Speaker Pro Temp, Michael Sak; State Representative Robert Dean; State Representative Roy Schmidt; President of India Link Satpal Singh Makkar, Vice Chair of Michigan Democratic Party, Lupe Ramos-Montigny; County Commissioners Pete Hickey, Jim Talen, Brandon Dillon, and numerous others.
It may be worth a mention that Sunny Dhoorh’s (http://www.PCSmichigan.org) public service record is both commendable and voluminous. He has dedicated his life; indeed, since his college days, to improve the quality of life of countless individuals and groups both from Indian subcontinent as well as from United States. His accomplishments stem from his service in many leadership positions in social, religious and political organizations.
Among the notable positions, he was the Founder and President of Punjabi Cultural Society, Vice Chair of the Democratic caucus of Michigan, Board Member of India Link, Vice President of INOC, USA, and the latest one – President of the INOC – MI. His exemplary service is reflected in numerous awards and recognitions that have been bestowed upon him by the State of Michigan: Man of the year (2006, 7, 8 - three times), Amazing Asian Award (2006-7), Asian Image Award (2008), and Humanitarian Award (2009). He was also awarded the prestigious Amazing Asian Award by the Asian Center – all in just past three years.
The icing on the cake for the grand festivities and the strategic goalfocused progress of the evening was the sumptuous gala dinner that sent people – certainly those that love Indian cuisine – licking their fingers and ask for more. The economically-worded and thoughtful management of the podium by Harjinder Khera accentuated the overall organizational effectiveness of the evening. Plush red carpet, splendid décor, and opulence of the Banquet Hall of Crown Plaza Hotel created an ambience that delighted the distinguished audience on one hand and created an aura that appeared to encourage everyone to serve the causes of democracy and pluralism espoused by INOC with even greater dedication and commitment.
News Article Contributor: Dr. Ashok Kumar, Secretary, INOC-MI. reprinted courtesy of http://www.sadapunjab.com/
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Misguided U.S. economic policies drive many Mexicans to come here
by Manuel Pérez-Rocha
President Barack Obama did the right thing by supporting comprehensive immigration reform that would place millions of undocumented workers on the path to citizenship.
Obama even went a step further, suing the state of Arizona for its unconstitutional and racially profiling immigration law. That law would punish and divide families, many of whose members have worked years for this country.
However, the U.S. immigration debate tends to ignore a fundamental question: Why do so many people migrate here from Mexico and other countries in Central America? The answer is that they need to look for jobs because there aren’t enough jobs at home. Several years of the wrong economic policies have destroyed millions of jobs, both in the countryside and in cities. These economic policies tend to concentrate wealth. They’re based on what’s often called the “Washington consensus” because they’re designed and dictated from institutions based in the U.S. capital like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
During the last 30 years, Mexico and other countries that have followed these policies have eliminated support mechanisms to local producers, while with trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) they have allowed big transnational companies to import cheaper products into their countries. That’s meant, for example, the arrival of cheap corn and other basic food staples, which crowded out local production and ultimately forced millions of small farmers off their land. Another result of NAFTA is that tens of thousands of small and medium companies, which provide 90 percent of Mexico’s jobs, have wound up bankrupt due to a lack of financial support.
Also in accordance with the “Washington consensus,” Mexico has scrapped millions of government and state-owned company jobs.
An example of this is the 2009 dismantling of a state-run power company in the Mexico City area, which axed 44,000 jobs. Although the Mexican government says it did this to remove an “inefficient company,” the real reason was to get rid of a vibrant union that was hindering efforts to privatize it. Today, unionized electricity workers continue their struggle with an almost three-month-long hunger strike. Sadly, the mainstream U.S. media is ignoring this story. I bet there’d be plenty of reports on this hunger strike had it happened in Cuba, Venezuela or Bolivia instead.
Mexico’s official unemployment rate of 5 percent is a joke. Only 14 million workers have a formal job with full benefits, while the other approximately 40 million in the country’s economically active population are counted as “employed” even if they just sell chewing gum on street corners. There are around 7 million young people without access to higher education or a job. They see little option but to migrate.
Although some people in the United States might think that Mexican immigrants opt to come here because they’re lured by the American way of life, mostly it’s because they’re desperate for a job to send money back and help their families. Most immigrants would prefer to stay at home with their families and live their own culture, eat their own food, and listen to their own music. The lack of opportunities to live a decent life and even feed their children sends them north.
Therefore, any serious discussion about immigration must address the reasons why people are obliged to emigrate. It’s time, as Obama had pledged during his campaign, to rethink NAFTA and make trade and investment between our countries work for working families and help them stay at home.
Every summer, several financial firms competing to get the banking business of the world’s mega millionaires release what amounts to scorecards on global wealth. These data-packed reports tally the current number of our international rich and superrich, by nation and region.
World Wealth Report 2010 is the most comprehensive of these scorecards. It’s got some fascinating details about the planet’s wealthiest of the wealthy, those households worth at least $30 million--that’s not counting their primary residence and “collectibles.” These “ultra-high-net worth” households make up less than 1 percent of the global millionaire total, yet in 2009 and 2008 they held more than a third of combined global millionaire wealth. In other words, the global financial crash that mega-millionaire speculation triggered has ended up concentrating even more wealth in mega millionaire pockets.
The Merrill Lynch and Capgemini researchers who prepared this report also offer some lusciously revealing information about what they call “passion investing,” the vast sums the rich plow into everything from country club memberships and yachts to jewelry and fine art.
Global millionaires, they say, “returned to passion investments in 2009,” but the overall volume of these passion investments still hasn’t rebounded all the way back to pre-financial crash levels.
That complete rebound, the report adds, may come shortly, since “auction houses, luxury goods makers, and high-end service providers all reported signs of renewed demand toward the end of 2009.” One sign of that increased demand: Late last year, an antique penny--a 1795 one-cent piece--went at auction for $1.3 million. That marked the first time a penny had ever gone for over $1 million.
This resurgence in “passion investment” illustrates the latest World Wealth Report’s overall theme: The global millionaire “segment regained ground despite weakness in the world economy.” We have that weakness because average consumers still don’t have the buying capacity to get national economies going again. And those average consumers don’t have that buying capacity because income and wealth are getting even more concentrated at the top. An antique penny, thanks to that concentration, can now fetch more than a million dollars.
But imagine if our wealth were more equally shared. Imagine that the $1.3 million that went for a 1795 penny had been sitting instead in the pockets of average consumers. Over 1,500 of those consumers could have bought brandnew energy-efficient refrigerators with that $1.3 million.
And what do you suppose would do our economy--and our world--more good, one deep pocket spending $1.3 million on a penny or 1,500 households buying new energy-efficient refrigerators? The good folks at Merrill Lynch and Capgemini will most likely never ask that question.
We should.
Perhaps the greatest freedom in a democracy is freedom of speech. Throughout our nation’s history, people have died fighting not only for our right to speak, but for our right to be heard.
The Internet is the greatest communications network ever created because it allows us to speak for ourselves without first asking permission from corporate gatekeepers. The Internet’s importance as a forum for speech is the result of the principle called net neutrality, which prevents the phone and cable companies that provide Internet service from discriminating against content online or interfering with the free flow of Internet traffic.
But net neutrality and the open Internet may be in serious trouble. Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has been holding closeddoor meetings with Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, and Google that could pave the way for a corporate takeover of the Internet. The big phone and cable companies want to kill net neutrality so they can control and manipulate the content you can access on the Internet. Those who can pay will have their websites sped up; those who can’t may have their sites slowed down or even blocked.
Guess who’ll be able to pay that extra cost? The big corporations. Meanwhile, the small or startup business or the new nonprofit organization will be pushed to the digital margins.
The FCC, our nation’s communications watchdog agency, is currently trying to modernize its Internet policy framework. Unless it succeeds, the phone and cable companies will be free to censor us online, block the websites we want to see, and track the websites we visit without disclosing their practices. The agency is under immense pressure from the lobbyists to take control of the Internet away from Internet users and turn it over to corporations.
The Center for Responsive Politics reports that these companies spent more than $20 million lobbying the federal government during the first quarter of 2010 alone. Many of these lobbyists enjoy a direct line to decision-makers in Congress and at the FCC. Glance at a list of the top staffers working on telecommunications just a few years ago, and you’ll find name after name now representing industry, unconcerned about advocating for positions they used to oppose.
The Sunlight Foundation reported that 72 percent of the lobbyists hired by AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, and the U.S. Telecom Association--the leading opponents of net neutrality--have previous government experience. This figure includes 18 former lawmakers and 48 former Hill staffers who worked for the House and Senate commerce committees that provide congressional oversight of the FCC.
The FCC has the power to do the right thing.
What the American people want is someone to stand up and fight for them against corporate corruption--whether from BP, AIG or Comcast.
It needs to protect the Internet from a corporate takeover.
Here’s some free advice: Never buy shares in a goldmine from a guy operating out of a house trailer.
Likewise, never buy a story from the Pentagon about an incredible discovery of gold in Afghanistan.
From out of nowhere, a recent news report excitedly tells us that a Pentagon taskforce has discovered an astonishing trillion dollars’ worth of untapped mineral deposits in that war-ravaged, impoverished country. Gold! Copper! Iron! And more! “An economic boon is seen,” declares a newspaper headline.
“There is stunning potential here,” exclaimed General David Petraeus, the top commander of America’s war operations in Afghanistan.
Hmmm... not so fast, Slick. Isn’t it at least curious that this “discovery” comes when the war is going so badly for us and both the public and Congress are questioning why we’re there? Suddenly, the Pentagon gives us a trillion reasons to keep spending American lives and tax dollars: There’s money in them thar hills.
Unmentioned in the Pentagon’s economic assessment is the fact that Afghans have known about these mineral deposits for centuries and have long been mining many of them, albeit on a small scale. The Soviets even mapped the extensive deposits in the 1980s during their occupation of Afghanistan, and our own geologists have known about the mining potential at least since 2004.
Still, even if the Pentagon has hyped up this story to prolong America’s commitment to the war, it actually could have the opposite effect. We’ve been told again and again how poor that nation is, with a total GDP of only $12 billion and its chief product being opium, so our commitment of 90,000 troops is essential to help impoverished Afghans building a modern economy and a stable government. But if they’re now a fabulously wealthy nation, they don’t need us. So...let’s leave.
Deficit hawks are on the fly in Washington, madly screeching that America can no longer afford...well, the American people.
Having slashed taxes for the wealthiest 1 percent of our society, having lavished gabillions of dollars on unnecessary wars that enrich politically connected government contractors, having laid out trillions of dollars to bail out Wall Street’s casino banksters who crashed our real economy--Washington’s brave fighters for extending more of our nation’s wealth to the already-rich have suddenly turned into born-again budget whackers.
Are they cutting back on any of the above elites, you ask? What a joker you are! No, no--it’s regular folks who must pay the price for the decade of excess that these politicos lavished on the rich.
In recent weeks, for example, Republican senators have repeatedly blocked an extension of jobless benefits for America’s hardest-hit families. They’ve also denied aid that would keep states and cities from firing hundreds of thousands of teachers, police officers, and other essential public employees. “Can’t afford it,” bellow these newly minted spendthrifts, even as their failure to act is intentionally increasing unemployment and economic pain across our land.
Governors are also running the same sort of budget scams on their people. Minnesota Gov.
Tim Pawlenty, for example, recently dealt with his state’s deficit by slashing spending for public health, higher education, the elderly, and the disabled. He then vetoed an income tax on his state’s richest people, declaring that this effort to balance the budget and share the pain was “nonsensical.” Likewise, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is terminating state workers while vetoing a tax hike on millionaires, calling the wealth tax “irresponsible.” So, students, the lesson here is that public spending is only sensible if it goes to the moneyed elites, and budget cuts are only good when applied to the rest of us.
BP’s catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico demonstrates how risky oil and gas drilling really is. For the 11 crew members killed in the Deepwater Horizon explosion, Gulf communities, ocean water and wildlife, the impacts were immediate.
The long-term repercussions will also be devastating.
Stopping the leak, cleaning up the mess, and restoring the economic viability to the Gulf’s many industries that rely on clean, healthy water is going to be an enormous challenge.
The multi-billion-dollar question is: How are we going to pay for it? The answer should be easy. BP is responsible for this disaster. BP should pay for everything-- the cleanup and damages. On the surface, it may seem like BP agrees. In congressional testimony and a series of expensive ads, BP has assured us its efforts in the Gulf will “not come at any cost to the taxpayers.” But the facts are murkier. Taxpayers already underwrite billions of dollars in generous subsidies for oil and gas companies. We’ve been padding their bottom line for years, essentially pre-funding the clean-up.
In the last four years, BP has recorded $83 billion in profits. Its first-quarter profits this year averaged $66 million a day. At the same time, it has enjoyed tax breaks and other giveaways from the federal government. If we don’t start whacking these tax breaks and subsidies, taxpayers stand to lose roughly $53 billion in royalty revenue on late-1990s Gulf leases, and $36 billion by 2020 on just a handful of the subsidies oil companies receive.
And when it comes to the BP oil disaster, taxpayers could also be shelling out billions in damage liabilities.
Existing law requires BP to cover the costs of cleanup, but only requires the company to cover damages up to $75 million. This disaster is already larger than the Exxon Valdez fiasco, and damages are expected to total tens of billions.
Not surprisingly, protecting its subsidies and lax regulations is a top priority for BP. Like other oil companies, BP fields an impressive team of lobbyists in Washington, having spent $41.2 million on lobbying since 2005, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The list includes former staff from the White House, Office of Management & Budget, Federal Trade Commission, House Energy & Commerce Committee, Senate Commerce, Science, & Transportation Committee, and the Employment Standards Administration. BP spent about $3.5 million on lobbying during the first three months of 2010, working on bills such as the Oil Pollution Prevention and Response Act of 2009, the Oil Spill Prevention Act of 2009, and the Clean Water Restoration Act. Topping BP’s list of legislative priorities, however, is the so-called climate bill, American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009.
BP, like other energy companies, funnels most of its campaign contributions to members of the committees with jurisdiction in Congress, such as the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has received $90,500 from BP over the last three election cycles.
Other big recipients include members of the House Resources Committee, which received $69,000 during the same period, and members of the Senate Government Affairs Committee, who got $114,251.
BP’s claim that taxpayers will pay nothing is likely to be little more than doublespeak.
There’s no evidence that protecting taxpayers, the environment, or affected communities have ever been their concern.
Instead of taking BP’s word for it, Congress must take action. It’s time lawmakers wake up and stop kowtowing to oil and gas interests.
The gravy train must end. Big Oil must be held accountable and BP must pay.
President Obama’s Fiscal Commission-- a group of lawmakers, former officials, and other experts charged with developing a bipartisan plan to stabilize our soaring national debt--is primarily holding closed-door hearings. The commission’s cochairman Alan Simpson, a former Republican senator from Wyoming, recently became an instant YouTube star with his rant against seniors as he exited one of the panel’s sessions. That put Social Security defenders on high alert about what’s going on in these meetings.
Simpson, who is nearly 80, has maintained that the founders of the program never expected anyone to actually live to 65 and collect. “People just died,” he has said. “Social Security was never [for] retirement.” The program has always been an easy target for deficit hawks and budget cutters because it’s so big-- the government’s largest expenditure, just ahead of the Pentagon. But setting up a target isn’t as easy as actually hitting it. George W. Bush found that out when he proposed privatizing the system so we could all invest in the likes of Enron, Lehman Brothers, General Motors, and Goldman Sachs. Thanks to a massive campaign by progressive interest groups, that proposal was shot down. But like Freddy Krueger in Nightmare on Elm Street, the nightmare of cutting Social Security never dies --it just returns in a new form every few years. Tea partiers, egged on by Sarah Palin, were fond of claiming during the health-care debate last summer that government “death panels” were going to off our grannies, even though it was an outright lie. Now that we have a much more serious and credible threat to the well-being of our elderly poor (the majority of whom are female) in possible cuts to Social Security, Palin and company are strangely silent.
Not so the progressive groups that want to preserve the program. Ashley Carson, Executive Director of the Older Women’s League (http://www.owl-national.org) and member of the Social Security Works coalition, points out that those same grannies the tea party has apparently forgotten about are the ones who will suffer the most if the program is cut.
Heidi Hartmann, president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in Washington, agrees. “Raising the retirement age and other ways of cutting benefits would all have a devastating effect on older women, many of whom live alone and depend mainly or entirely on Social Security,” she says.
The numbers bear this out. Women depend on Social Security more than men, and without it, close to 60 percent of elderly women would live in poverty. One reason is that women are far less likely than men to have a company-provided pension, and when they do get one it’s most often based on a lifetime of lower earnings. So much for Simpson’s “greedy geezers.” Even younger women would suffer if the program is cut, since they are the majority of caretakers when a spouse dies and leaves young children, who draw Social Security until they’re 18.
Simpson may have embarrassed some of less flamboyant members of the Fiscal Commission with his outburst, but it remains to be seen whether in their hearts they believe he’s right. And whether granny is really in the crosshairs this time.
Martha Burk is a political psychologist, women’s issues expert, and director of the Corporate Accountability Project for the National Council of Women’s Organizations (NCWO). www.otherwords.org
Nothing happens in Cuba unless preceded by careful calculation by the regime. A small group of prisoners of conscience in Cuba, mostly ill, will be “liberated” by giving them the following options: “Go into forced exile, or remain in prison.” To some this piece of news is “a sign of improvement” in the human rights situation. But this looks like just another calculated move.
Never mind that they shouldn’t have been incarcerated to begin with, now they must suffer another violation to their human rights, ostracism, and forced exile.
Why now? Cuba is in dire straits. The government has admitted that the system can’t operate anymore as its producer, manager and provider. The economy needs transition urgently.
But how can it when contrary to other former socialist countries the government never planned for a transition? How could they have done that when the government is basically a family owned business? Past speculations by analysts that Cuba could be contemplating transformation via a Chinese or Vietnamese model have remained just speculations.
What we have seen since the new presidency is the consolidation of a gerontocracy. The most likely scenario is a transition Russian style. The Cuban apparatchiks are doing everything they can to legitimize a transfer of state property into their hands. They cannot allow any opposition, whether in jail or speaking freely in Cuba. All they need is time and for the rest of the world to look the other way as they have largely done for over 50 years.
The transfer, making official what is already reality, needs legitimacy. It needs the concert of nations, from Spain and the European Union, to the United States and the “progressive” governments in Latin America. This cannot happen while prisoners and dissidents are dying in hunger strikes. Many of the state industries from tourism to communications are already in the hands of a few generals.
The European Union with countries which not long ago where under regimes just like the one still in Cuba is an obstacle to what is building to be the second (after Russia) greatest national robbery in history. Why Spain’s intercession? “Socialist” Spain has business interests in Cuba. It can hardly afford any tinkering with its finances at this moment at all. But Spain is also feeling pressure from those countries in the European Union whose past under real socialism is still a recent memory.
Ostracism is no act of generosity but another kind of death, social death, and another tool of social control. It is exclusion without bars.
It says to its victim “you don’t belong here”. It is no wonder then that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights includes deportation from one’s homeland for political reasons a violation.
Ostracism as state punishment is just a political version of “the silent treatment.” It is a cruel form of de-personification of a human being. Ostracism does not recognize another’s existence. The political form of this non-existence is the lack of recognition by the regime that there is an opposition, a non-violent civil rights movement. The regime doesn’t even deal with them; instead it has mediated its concession through external parties like Spain and the Church. But what the regime has not been able to avoid after all, not matter its calculations, is the admission now that Cuba holds its citizens in prison for expressing their dissent.
Why release only a few now and not the rest until a few months later (another 52 will be liberated in a few months)? The regime cannot afford a group photo of famished prisoners and the tacit admission of political prisoners. It wouldn’t play well in certain countries in Europe.
Unfortunately for many, hearing loss may prevent them from participating in activities they once enjoyed or may isolate them from family and friends. This doesn’t have to be the case; there are many resources to reduce the effects of hearing loss.
Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services (DHHS) in Kent County can provide equipment to help those experiencing hearing loss. Most people just think about hearing aids, which are often rather expensive and may not be an option financially. Staff at DHHS can meet with an individual to help determine what hearing changes they have and how to adapt to them.
Equipment is available at little to no cost, depending on income.
“Technology has come a long way to assist those with hearing loss,” says Katie Prins, Executive Director at Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services. “There are many low cost equipment options that help individuals become independent or maintain independence in their own homes.” Often the devices help with tasks many individuals don’t realize are based on auditory ability, such as doorbell flashers or smoke alarms equipped with lights. Other equipment includes amplifiers for phones, televisions and even pocket amplifiers, which are less costly than hearing aids.
Many older adults who experience hearing loss do not want to admit that their ability to hear clearly is unreliable. Since it can be a gradual process the extent of hearing change may not be realized initially.
“It can be difficult to admit having trouble hearing, even though there are many ways to address this loss,” says Prins. “Sensitivity to the complexities that follow hearing differences is essential when working toward solutions and helping individuals to adjust to the changes they are experiencing.” DHHS offers other services including education and support groups.
The Kent County Senior Millage provides funding for the equipment program. There may be a cost-share, depending on income. Donations are always accepted and are used to help more people access the services.
The Kent County Senior Millage is administered by the Area Agency on Aging of Western Michigan. For more information on older adult services, contact AAAWM at (616) 456-5664, visit us on the web at www.aaawm.org or become a fan on Facebook.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
"Eat Your Veggies!"
by Catherine's Health Center & Calvin College Nursing Students
We can all feel like Michigan summers are just too short—right as we adjust to the heat and long days it seems that autumn is upon us—but wait! There is still time to enjoy all that summer has to offer, including the fresh vegetables that local Michigan farmers have been working all year to produce.
The importance of vegetables has been reinforced in us since we were children. Most of us have been told, “Eat your vegetables and you will grow up to be strong and healthy!” But, how do we know that vegetables are good for us? What do vegetables really do for our health? Vegetables provide vital nutrients for the health and maintenance of our bodies.
According to the Mayo Clinic, a diet which includes vegetables reduces the risks of developing chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and coronary heart disease. Not only that, vegetables may also reduce the risk of developing kidney stones and are also linked to a decrease in bone loss. A diet rich in vegetables may also protect against certain cancers such as those of the mouth and stomach and colorectal cancer.
How do vegetables do all this? Vegetables are packed full of nutrients that allow the body to work at its fullest potential. For example:
Potassium assists the body in maintaining a healthy blood pressure
Dietary fiber aids in reducing blood cholesterol levels and may lower the risk of heart disease
Folate (folic acid) helps the body form red blood cells
Vitamin A is known to keep eyes and skin healthy and also helps protect against infections
Vitamin C aids in healing wounds, keeps teeth and gums healthy, and helps in iron absorption
Vitamin E protects vitamin A and essentialfatty acids
If that is not enough, vegetables are naturally low in fat and calories and do not have cholesterol! So, how can we fit more vegetables into our diets? Here are some quick tips: Add veggies you almost like to dishes you already love; plan a dinner around a vegetable based main dish; try veggies in soup; include a salad with your dinner every night and add other vegetables to it; eat veggies raw or with light dip; add veggies to your spaghetti or order a pizza with vegetable toppings; drink your vegetables in a beverage like V8 or in a smoothie; and last but not least, don’t forget to enjoy kabobs on the grill loaded with veggies like peppers, onions, tomatoes, and mushrooms.
As summer continues to slip away, remember that late summer and fall are prime time for vegetables! Head to your local farmers market where you can select from recent Michigan harvests and purchase quality from the hands of farmers to yours. Follow this link to find your local farmers market: http:// www.foodshed.net/. For more information on vegetables a nd your health, including growing seasons, more tips and recipe ideas can be found on the Links page at www.catherineshc.org.
Catherine’s Health Center encourages the use of fresh vegetables through their WISEWOMEN program which provides access to coupons for qualified patients to buy from their local farmers market. Patients are provided with information about the importance of vegetables and tips on using them in their diets.
Brought to you by Catherine’s Health Center (CHC), working to build healthier communities. CHC is a free clinic practicing family medicine, offering screening, treatment and health education, CHC is a part of the solution to the problem of access to health care in Grand Rapids. Check out www.catherineshc.org
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