Jul 30, 2008
Jul 29, 2008
Jul 25, 2008
Waiting Doom
Last month, Esmin Green, a 49-year-old mother of six, tumbled off her chair and onto the floor of the Kings County psychiatric E.R. waiting room in New York City. Members of the hospital staff saw her lying there but did nothing for about an hour. When Green was finally brought into the E.R., she was dead. An autopsy revealed that she died from a pulmonary embolism, which occurs when a blood clot forms in the leg, breaks off, and travels to one or both lungs. This can also kill long-haul airplane passengers who sit in one spot for hours: The blood sits stagnant in their legs for so long that it clots. You could say that Green, too, had been on a plane ride of sorts. She'd waited for a psychiatric-unit bed to open up for more than 24 hours, roughly the same time as a trip from New York to Tanzania.
The surveillance video of Green collapsing and lying untended, as hospital staff at Kings County fail to respond to her collapse, is inexcusable by any stretch. And so Nancy Grace, for one, focused on the negligence. But what's largely missing from this story is the likely cause of Green's pulmonary embolism. The answer lies in a far more systematic and widespread danger in hospital care: E.R. waits. Why was Green sitting and waiting while blood pooled in her legs? Despite increasing evidence that crowded E.R.s can be hazardous to your health, hospitals have incentives to keep their E.R. patients waiting. As a result, there has been an explosion in E.R. wait times over the past few years, even for those who are the sickest.
A major cause for E.R. crowding is the hospital practice of boarding inpatients in emergency departments. This happens when patients who come to the E.R. need to be admitted overnight. If there are no inpatient beds in the hospital (or no extra inpatient nurses on duty that day) then the patient stays in the E.R. long past the completion of the initial emergency work. This is what happened to Green, and it has become widespread and common. The problem is that boarding shifts E.R. resources away from the new patients in the waiting room. While E.R. patients wait for inpatient beds, new patients wait longer to see a doctor. As more new patients come, the waits grow. And an E.R. filled with boarding patients and a full waiting room is an unhappy E.R.: The atmosphere is at once static and chaotic. If you or a loved one has waited for hours in an E.R., you know what we mean. The environment can be unsafe and even deadly. A recent study found that critically ill patients who board for more than six hours in the E.R. are 4 percent more likely to die.
What hospital would promote such a practice? Potentially, those that profit more from boarding, particularly in poorer communities with high numbers of uninsured and Medicaid patients. Imagine you run a hospital. There are two competing sources for inpatient beds. The first source is patients who come in through direct and transfer admissions. They are more likely to come with private insurance and need procedural care, both of which maximize profits. The second source is E.R. patients, who are more likely to be uninsured or have pittance-paying Medicaid and less likely to need high-margin procedures. Do the math: If you fill your hospital with the direct and transfer admissions and maroon the E.R. patients for long periods, you make more money.
In effect, then, E.R. boarding allows hospitals to insulate themselves from the burgeoning needs of the poor. E.R.s are safety nets: By law, we who work in them see any and all patients, regardless of their ability to pay. But as more E.R. beds are devoted to boarders, the E.R. has less space for new patients, which keeps a lid on the number of un- and underinsured. So unless you are having a heart attack and can jump the line, your emergency—though it may still be serious—may wait for so long that you give up and go home. Bad for you, good for the hospital's bottom line. E.R. boarding also tamps down nursing costs, again not to your benefit. Hospitals generally maintain strict patient-to-nurse ratios for inpatients. But many hospitals don't apply the same rules to the E.R. because they can't control the number of patients who come in that way. Sometimes the nursing ratio in the E.R. can be as high as 8-to-1. That's unacceptable in inpatient units, but just stack 'em in the E.R. hallways and suddenly it's OK.
What about the staff upstairs, who take care of the admitted patients once they leave the E.R.? Their incentives are misaligned, too. Put yourself in an inpatient nurse's shoes. You are overworked, and your current patients need attention. You get a call from the E.R., saying that a patient like Green is ready to come upstairs. The bed is clean and ready. But you have 20 more things to do before your shift ends in two hours, and you won't get paid an extra cent if you accept Green to the empty bed. Can't she wait just a bit more in the E.R.? When the next nurse comes on fresh, you tell yourself, she can admit the new patient. You won't get in trouble for stalling because no one really measures how long patients stay in the E.R.. So you tell the E.R. nurse that the bed isn't ready yet. This practice of "bed-hiding" is more common than you think.
What can be done about all this? We think the answer is that hospitals should have to disclose and take responsibility for how long E.R. patients—that is, you—wait for beds. But, not surprisingly, hospitals have lobbied hard to not be held accountable for E.R. crowding and boarding. If they won't measure and eliminate E.R. boarding on their own, then the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which pays many hospital patients' bills, or the Joint Commission, which accredits hospitals, should take this on.
And let's also hold congressional hearings on E.R. boarding. In England, the National Health System now has a rule that 98 percent of patients have to spend less than four hours in the E.R.. Apparently, the son of a member of parliament spent too long in an E.R., we've heard. Esmin Green wasn't well-connected. But her death should serve as a similar prompt to fix the problem of endless waiting.
Meanwhile, if you have to go the E.R., you can vote with your feet. When you are really sick, of course, go to the closest E.R. or call an ambulance. But if you can wait long enough to choose, go to the E.R. where they don't make patients wait or board for long periods. Yes, we know—since hospitals don't publicize E.R. waits or boarding, you'll have to go by word of mouth. If, despite your efforts, you or your grandmother is forced to lie in the E.R. all night, complain directly to the hospital administrators who actually have the power to fix the problem. But don't count on any major changes. As long as hospitals profit more from boarding and aren't forced to admit to doing it, your trip to the E.R. will be as long as a flight to Africa—but without the in-flight movie and far more risky.
Jul 22, 2008
Beijing to ban blacks ???
The nation of China has been preparing for years to receive the world in the 2008 Olympic Summer Games. The expected infrastructure improvements have taken place, as well as less obvious measures like ad campaigns to stop citizens from constantly hocking loogies on the street. Now there's buzz that a new set of preparations may discrimate against certain people during games festivities.
According to Huffingtonpost. com, Hong Kong's English newspaper The South China Morning Post reported Friday that Chinese authorities have issued a secret ban on blacks, Mongolians and other "social undesirables" from Beijing's bars during the Olympics.
The Chinese news source's online site is for subscribers only, but a blog called Bejing Boyce reposted the following from the article:
Beijing authorities are secretly planning to ban black people and others it considers social undesirables from entering the city's bars during the Olympic Games, a move that would contradict the official slogan, "One World, One Dream".
Bar owners near the Workers' Stadium in central Beijing say they have been forced by Public Security Bureau officials to sign pledges agreeing not to let black people enter their premises....
Security officials are targeting Sanlitun, which Olympic organisers expect to be a key destination for foreign tourists looking for a party during the Games.
The pledges that Sanlitun bar owners had been instructed to sign agreed to stop a variety of activities in their establishments, including dancing and serving customers with black skin, they said.
The Summer games are scheduled to begin August 8.
Jul 20, 2008
Jul 16, 2008
Jul 12, 2008
Jul 7, 2008
The Ankh
The Ankh is defined as: The symbolic representation of both Physical and Eternal life. It is known as the original cross, which is a powerful symbol that was first created by Africans in Ancient Egypt.
The Ankh is commonly known to mean life in the language of Ancient Kemet (land of the Blacks) renamed Egypt by the Greeks. It is also a symbol for the power to give and sustain life, the Ankh is typically associated with material things such as water (which was believed by Egyptians to regenerate life), air, sun, as well as with the Gods, who are frequently pictured carrying an Ankh.
The Egyptian king is often associated with the Ankh also, either in possession of an Ankh (providing life to his people) or being given an Ankh (or stream of Ankhs) by the Gods. There are numerous examples that have been found that were made from metal, clay and wood. It is usually worn as an amulet to extent the life of living and placed on the mummy to energize the resurrected spirit.
The Gods and the Kings are often shown carrying the Ankh to distinguish them from mere mortals. The Ankh symbolized eternal life and bestowed immortality on anyone who possessed it. It is believed that life energy emanating from the Ankh can be absorbed by anyone within certain proximity. An Ankh serves as an antenna or conduit for the divine power of life that permeates the universe. The amulet is a powerful talisman that provides the wearer with protection from the evil forces of decay and degeneration.
The loop of the Ankh is held by the Gods. It is associated with Isis and Osiris in the Early Dynastic Period. The Loop of the Ankh also represents the feminine discipline or the (Womb), while the elongated section represents the masculine discipline or the (Penis). These two sacred units then come together and form life.
Because of its powerful appeal, the Ankh was used in various religious and cultural rituals involving royalty. In the Treasures of Tutankhumun, the Ankh was a major artifact found in the tomb. The circle symbolizes eternal life and the cross below it represents the material plane. The Ankh is called the "Crux Ansata," it is of Egyptian origin and can be traced to the Early Dynastic Period, appearing frequently in artwork of various material and in relief, depicting the Gods.
It is usually held to the nose of the deceased king by the Gods to represent the breath of life given in the after-world. The Ankh also resembles a key and is considered the key to eternal life after death. Its influence was felt in every dynastic period and survives as an icon possessing mystical power throughout the Coptic Christian era.
The Ankh possessed by each God had power associated with that God. The Ankh of the God is related to the protection of the dead, that of Sekmet, War, Hapi related to the living waters of the Nile and Amen, the spirit God, the breath of life.
Jul 5, 2008
Afrocentricity vs. Homosexuality
Effeminization as Oppression
A major tool of those who subscribe to white supremacy, according to Welsing, is the perpetuation of Black male passivity through encouraging effeminization, bisexuality, and homosexuality. Welsing believes this is "a problem of epidemic proportions am ongst Black people in the US."
Homophobia in communities of color is rampant...to the tenth power of the white mainstream. Why? Because the struggle for human rights against white supremacy has been disproportionately explained as the need to achieve "manhood" rights, from the perio d of the slave trade to the present.
Welsing believes homosexual patterns of behavior are simply expressions of male self-submission to other males in the area of "sex," as well as in other areas—economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, and war. Oppression is d efined as forced submission, homosexuality as a sign of weakness.
Welsing defines "primary effeminacy" and "secondary effeminacy" to distinguish white causes of homosexuality from Black ones. "Primary effeminacy" is a self-derived response by whites to their genetic insufficiency, causing a negation of self-reproduct ion due to disgust with their own genetic weaknesses.
"Secondary effeminacy" (Black male homosexuality) is consciously imposed on the Black man by the white man for the purpose of destroying the Black family. Welsing attempts to propagate a patriarchal concept of the Black family, which is curious, since it is afrocentric conventional wisdom that there was no patriarchy in traditional African societies.
Welsing does have a concept of gender roles being environmentally conditioned. However, a continuum would not represent qualities such as aggression and nurturing as universal that all humans can embody. Rather, the author clearly believes that in the process of the Black man taking on homosexual tendencies, he is acting like a woman. She is firmly against this as illustrated by the following examples.
From her work with incarcerated Black males, Welsing concludes that, as they have been broken by the system and forced to submit to an authoritarian environment, prison is the epitome of white supremacy. Black males are "feminized in jail" in the follo wing ways: They are given orders by men to whom they must submit; they wait passively to be fed three meals a day by men; and finally, they have sexual intercourse with men.
Welsing, in an attack on cross dressers of the "Flip Wilson/Geraldine" variety, implies that a real Black man wouldn't wear earrings or bracelets. How can an African-centered critique of white supremacy discount the earring and bracelet wearing Masai w arriors or the "Mau Mau," just two of many examples of "manhood" in resistance?
The author, angry with the American Psychological Association's relatively recent repeal of their former opinion that homosexuality constitutes poor mental health, prescribes a distinct position for Black people. Black psychiatrists must understand tha t whites may condone homosexuality for themselves, but we as Blacks must see it as a strategy for destroying Black people. Welsing argues that homosexuals or bisexuals should neither be condemned nor degraded, as they did not decide that they would be so programmed in childhood. The racist system should be held responsible. Welsing believes the task of professionals who concur with her should be proactive treatment and prevention of homosexuality among Black people.
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