Healthcare Reform, Reforming Judaism, and Independent Thinking

Do you know who you are deep down inside? Or do you conform to others' expectations, riding lock step with the herd, lacking independence? While in the process of passing historic health care legislation, it would appear that most of the members of Congress in the House opted to stay with the herd and not stick their necks out. The legislation passed largely along party lines, and mostly along the lines of liberal versus conservative. One Republican from Louisiana was brave enough to lend his support, and one has to give some credit to Representative Joseph Cao for showing independence. It would be nice if Democrats and Republicans alike had mixed it up, with the bill passing with equal support.

When given the chance to do something, Cao chose to be his own self, and put people above party. There will always be costs to most things that need to be done, whether one is trying to improve health care for Americans, or invade Iraq to improve life for Iraqis. Sometimes when Republicans make their choices, cost is only a concern when it comes to big issues they don't really want to back due to some ideological calculation that does not factually pan out.

Should the Senate do its part, and with a final version of legislation passed, years from now we will look hard to find all of those who were against this legislation. Nearly everyone who is against it has benefited from government action in the healthcare sphere, whether they admit it or not. Reminds us of one of our teacher friends who is viciously against this change, wearing the t-shirt that he loves urging Obama to keep the change. Meanwhile, he works for the taxpayers, who supply his monthly wage and healthcare coverage.

There are only 57 Democrats and two independents in the Senate. Two Republicans have signalled they could approve a compromise health bill.

If it is passed, lawmakers from both houses will try to reconcile the two versions before the programme can be signed into law by the president.

In Saturday's vote, the bill was supported by 219 Democrats and one Republican - Joseph Cao from New Orleans. Opposed were 176 Republicans and 39 Democrats.

(B.B.C.)

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Meanwhile, back in the winter wonderland that is Iceland (in our imagination anyway, reality be darned), the krona has begun to stabilize. The government moved interest rates down a point to 11%, which is a sure sign of some strength in the currency, and a drop from the 18% rates in March. Since Iceland was basically the truck that overturned on the economic disaster highway, with other cars passing with less damage (South Korea, China), its recovery is due special significance. They may be without McDonald's, now that company opting to pull out the country (no doubt boosting Icelandic healthcare in one swoop), but they can take their Big Mac money and save it with some confidence. If America is the bull in the china shop and suffering through rampaging unemployment, Iceland is a canary in the coal mine, so we watch it.

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We also watch home builders, the canary in the American economic mine. The news thus far has improved, sort of. One the one hand, losses continue. On the other hand, new orders are up from lows. On the one hand, buyers in certain markets like Arizona are buying foreclosed homes instead. On the other hand, the company is paring debt and increasing cash to $2 billion. If we count on our toes, we can throw in the Senate's move to extend and expand credits for new home buyers ($8k) and existing owners ($6500). So, overall, good news, yes?

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When the cat is away trying to keep people employed, solve impossible Mid-East problems, and reform healthcare, the mouse gets the chance to eat the cheese. In this case, African cheese (which, if you didn't know, is made out of oil and minerals).

Besides the financial assistance, Mr. Wen also promised to form a partnership to address climate change in Africa, including the building of 100 clean-energy projects across the continent. Beijing will also remove tariffs on most exports to China from the least-developed African nations that do not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, and sponsor an array of other programs in health, education, culture and agriculture.

The gestures are likely to further cement China’s good relations with many African nations, and may help address rising concern in some quarters that China is merely replacing Europe as a colonial power.

China’s focus on extracting oil and minerals from Africa has drawn some criticism from African scholars, and labor and safety conditions at some Chinese-run mines and smelters have set off outcries by African workers. Some critics say that the flood of low-cost Chinese goods into African cities has displaced products once made by local workers.

(N.Y. Times)

This is kind of mind blowing for this American mind. One always imagines that the United States should be doing this. Maybe not actually giving away $10 billion and fostering goodwill (and grabbing construction opportunities), but at least having the means to do it. Up is down. Left is right.

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Who are we anymore?  Such questions abound, and especially in the Jewish community. British authorities have taken it upon themselves to temporarily and situationally resolve the issue. Orthodox Jews are not pleased with the interference, but it brings to mind many interesting questions that extend beyond the self-identity of the Jewish population.

The case began when a 12-year-old boy, an observant Jew whose father is Jewish and whose mother is a Jewish convert, applied to the school, JFS. Founded in 1732 as the Jews’ Free School, it is a centerpiece of North London’s Jewish community. It has around 1,900 students, but it gets far more applicants than it accepts.

(N.Y. Times)

The problem is that the school follows the standard Orthodox definition of Jewishness as laid out by the chief rabbi of the commonwealth. "You are not a Jew", went the rejection.

In appeals, the court eventually ruled that deciding "Jewishness" based on ethnicity is discriminatory. One wonders if this could be extended to the building of a modern state as well. Can Israel be, and remain, truly Jewish without actually discriminating against others? To the extent you grow lax in that self definition of what it means to be Jewish, do you not lose the essence of what you are trying to preserve?

Of course members of the Jewish community are hugely divided on the issue:

Lauren Lesin-Davis, chairman of the board of governors at King David, a Jewish school in Liverpool, told the BBC that the ruling violated more than 5,000 years of Jewish tradition.

“You cannot come in and start telling people how their whole lives should change, that the whole essence of their life and their religion is completely wrong,” she said.

But others are in complete sympathy with M.

“How dare they question our beliefs and our Jewishness?” David Lightman, an observant Jewish father whose daughter was also denied a place at the school because it did not recognize her mother’s conversion, told reporters recently. “I find it offensive and very upsetting.”

(N.Y. Times)

If you are Jewish, is it because you are biologically Jewish (via father and/or mom), or specifically biologically Jewish on your mother's side? Does the practice of Jewish tradition and law, being observant, make you Jewish? One rabbi, likely in some jest, states "that having a ham sandwich on the afternoon of Yom Kippur does not make you less Jewish", thus sticking to a specifically biological determination. If that is the case, what does that say for Israel and its future development? How are those identity questions resolved in a land filled with different types of Jews, topped with a mix of Arabs and others?

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Often it is hard to know what identity to establish and how to find our true selves. Is a Christian even a Christian who is one that self identifies or is the Christian the one who quietly follows the words and lead of Christ? Is a baker the one who wears the baker outfit with poofy hat but never touches an oven, or the man who produces delightful sweets and breads sans uniform? Are you identified by your fruit in the same way you are what you eat?

This weekend at least, Representative Cao of Louisiana knows he is his own person, one Republican on a lonely path in pursuit of change.