Jan 30

Dear Pope Francis: Saving the World Requires Contraception

Posted in: Today's Chili

Don’t get me wrong, Francis. You seem like a sincere, congenial man, and I admire you for bringing the world’s attention to the need to address poverty, fight climate change, and eliminate inequality. But, sadly, your unwillingness to accept access to the full range of contraceptives as a necessary and moral good is completely incompatible with your efforts to make the world a better place.

You see, modern contraceptive methods–like the birth control pill, condom, and intrauterine device–do much more than provide people with a healthy sex life. Contraception saves lives, especially those of women and girls living in the developing world, who often don’t have access to antenatal services. Mothers and babies die when women aren’t able to delay, space, or avoid pregnancies. And young children whose mothers die in pregnancy or childbirth are more likely to die themselves.

Incredibly, if all women in the developing world who want to avoid pregnancy used modern contraception, the number of unintended pregnancies would drop by 70 percent and unsafe abortions would fall by 74 percent. The ability to plan one’s family provides women and girls with more educational and job opportunities. And many economies would get a much-needed boost.

There is no doubt that universal access to contraception would bring us closer to achieving economic and gender equality in one fell swoop. Imagine that!

But, Francis, providing people with access to the full range of contraceptives is also crucial to combatting climate change. If you’re serious about engaging in this work, you simply must end your proscription of modern birth control.

Though the population-climate link is based on science, it’s not rocket science. And your defense of the Church’s ban on modern contraception–less than a week after you stated that “the majority” of climate change is caused by humans and after years of calling for climate action–is mind-boggling.

Modern-day contraceptives are extremely effective at preventing pregnancy when used correctly. And preventing unintended pregnancy helps to slow population growth–one of the leading causes of climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions.

According to a 2010 study, leveling the world population at 8 billion, instead of the projected 9 billion, by 2050 could provide 16 to 29 percent of the emissions reductions required to prevent dangerous climate change. It would have a much greater impact than if global deforestation were completely eliminated.

And while most of the world’s climate pollution is being emitted from industrialized nations–namely, the United States–the fastest population growth is happening in developing countries–some of which, like Mexico and the Philippines, have a majority Catholic population. In fact, roughly 16 percent of the world population practices Catholicism, and the religion is growing fastest in Africa–the continent with the most rapid population growth.

Francis, that means nearly one-sixth (and growing) of the world population acknowledges your teachings. Nearly a sixth of the people on Earth have been told, by you, that it is a sin to use modern contraception. And all of them will contribute to and be affected by climate change.

Therefore, you have a responsibility to ensure that your followers have all the tools they need–including contraception–to reduce their carbon output and strengthen their resilience to the inevitable effects of climate change.

For many people around the world–especially women and girls living in poverty-stricken countries–having the ability to prevent unwanted pregnancies means they have a better chance at coping with extreme weather events. That’s because families who are able to plan the birth of their children are likely to have more resources and, as a result, are more able to respond to changes in their environment.

Surely some of the families that you visited during your recent trip to the Philippines would have been better equipped to withstand the effects of super-typhoon Haiyan if they had access to contraceptives. It is largely due to the influence of the country’s Catholic Bishops that 90 percent of the unintended pregnancies–half of all pregnancies there–are the result of a lack of modern contraception.

Planning and preventing pregnancy is not only a personal choice; it’s a human right that saves lives, combats poverty, and helps to close the inequality gap. But more than that it’s a crucial requirement for slowing population growth and, in turn, saving the planet from its greatest threat–climate change.

The world is depending on you, Francis.

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Jan 30

NYPD Unveils Anti-Terrorism Unit To Deal With Protesters

Posted in: Today's Chili

The New York Police Department is developing a new anti-terrorism unit that will be deployed, in part, to contend with protestors.

The “Strategic Response Group,” a unit of approximately 350 officers, will handle “disorder control and counterterrorism protection capabilities, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton announced Thursday, according to CBS New York.

The NYPD plans for the SRF to be outfitted with “the extra heavy protective gear, with the long rifles and the machine guns that are unfortunately sometimes necessary in these ­instances,” Bratton said, according to the New York Post.

He also noted that the unit “is designed for dealing with events like our recent protests, or incidents like Mumbai or what just happened in Paris.”

New York’s “recent protests,” include demonstrations in response to a grand jury’s decision to not bring charges in the death of Eric Garner, who died after being placed in a chokehold by an NYPD officer. The same month, thousands of people marched through New York City to honor Garner and others who have lost their lives at the hands of police officers nationwide.

Civil rights activists were outraged by Bratton lumping in these kinds of demonstrations with terrorist attacks.

“Thousands have marched in a massive civil rights movement demanding police reform, and the NYPD has decided to respond to the community instead by arming the police with machine guns,” Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, said in a statement.

In a statement by Communities United for Police Reform, organizing director Priscilla Gonzalez said that Bratton’s plan for a “more militarized police force” is “the opposite of progress.”

The NYPD plans for the unit to be up and running by the summer.

The department did not immediately responded to a request for comment from The Huffington Post.

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Jan 30

Are British Actors Superiorly Talented and More Desirable, Than American Actors?

Posted in: Today's Chili

It took watching a recent Academy Award nominated film to put forth the following question. Are British actors superior in both talent and desirability, in most cases, than American actors? And it is such a question, which certainly is not the first time it’s ever been asked.

A June 27, 2013 BBC America blog at website Anglophenia, both founded and superbly written by Kevin Wicks, asks a somewhat similar question, titled, “Are British Actors Better Trained Than Their American Counterparts?” Within the web-article, Mr. Wicks interviews Edward Kemp, the artistic director of Britain’s very sought after and prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). The first question put forth to Mr. Kemp, is when Mr. Wicks begins in saying the following, “Many U.S. casting directors believe that British actors are better trained than their American counterparts, use their bodies and voices more effectively, have more facility with accents and are more skilled at comedy. How much do you agree with this?”

Mr. Edward Kemp’s response to such a question reveals his professionalism, depth of insight, as well as by no means to demean American actors. Because his answer is primarily based on the response he receives from auditioning potential American students desiring to study at RADA. For according to such feedback from those potential U.S. students, they see the studio based training upon which much of American entertainment is based, both film and TV, as woefully unsatisfying. Yet those same potential U.S. auditioning students see RADA as liberating, in that it offers broader based training, and a superb foundational launch pad to propel one’s career into many genre’s and different media, which of course does include theatre as well as film and TV.

Perhaps this is why a certain gentleman named Benedict Cumberbatch, who, although in his case, studied acting for theatre at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) according to IMDb, has been in both theatre, TV, film and radio. This also explains why, he can go from playing a villain in the second Star Trek film reboot, Star Trek Into Darkness, to the first slave owner of Solomon Northup in the film 12 Years a Slave, to also playing mathematician Alan Turing in his current Academy Award nominated role in the film The Imitation Game.

Furthermore later into the Kevin Wick’s Anglophenia discussion with Edward Kemp, the artistic director says that RADA students, obviously primarily British, get lots of vocal training on accents. So much so, that it is also facilitated and augmented by weekly individual singing lessons. Such training on accents he says, “…develops both their ear and vocal flexibility.”

Now, to dispense with the suspense. I’ve mentioned The Imitation Game, which I have seen. Yet it’s not the most recent Academy Award nominated film I have seen. That is referring earlier to the very first sentence, followed by the question, are British actors superior in both talent and desirability, in most cases, than American actors? For the film that birthed that question within myself that I had seen recently, was Birdman.

“Okay now look Darryl, there are no British actors in Birdman,” one may say. Well actually there are two, actress Naomi Watts, whose maternal grandmother was Australian, and actress Andrea Riseborough. Only in this particular case it’s not also so much the nationality of any actor in Birdman, but more so a terrific scene in the spectacular film. Now a spoiler is definitely ahead. For the scene involves Scottish actress Lindsay Duncan, and recently Academy Award nominated actor Michael Keaton, for which he’s already been awarded three Critics Choice Awards (including ensemble), a SAG Award (ensemble) and a Golden Globe all from the film.

Birdman is a dark comedy, as Michael Keaton plays Riggan Thomson, a well-known Hollywood actor who had starred in three blockbuster superhero Birdman films. Yet currently to refresh himself as an actor, he’s currently directing and acting in his own drama play during preview nights, before his plays opening night on Broadway. Whereas Lindsay Duncan plays the well-respected, no-nonsense, soft spoken New York Times Theater critic Tabitha Dickinson.

Thomson spots Ms. Dickinson while both are in a bar as she’s writing notes. He then joins her to attempt small talk, hopefully to get a decent review from her. Yet she abruptly informs him that she’s going to destroy his play, after opening night, even before seeing it. This now mystifies Riggan Thomson. Then she explains why.

She basically tells him that she hates him, for he represents all who came before him. For she sees him as just another creation from the Hollywood factory, producing spoiled and selfish children, all untrained in real art, who all measure their talent only by how well their film does on opening weekends. It’s as if Tabitha Dickinson sees herself as a gatekeeper to the theater world. Like a roman praetorian guard, she will protect the sanctity of the theater from the likes of him. All of that angers Riggan Thomson, who tells her that he has risked everything for his play.

A week ago a woman and I discussed Birdman. The woman liked the film, as she saw a relationship theme between Riggan Thomson and his daughter Sam, played by Emma Stone. Whereas I, thought that was only a subplot. For the overall theme the unfolded before me while watching the film, was seeing an actor’s attempt to jettison the unwanted label of being typecast.

So this begs another question. Are American actors therefore more susceptible to typecasting, than British actors? For actor Matthew McConaughey speaks of un-branding himself in the November 2014 issue of MAXIM, written by David Swanson, saying on pg. 86, “I put the memo out to my agent, and that was that. It took about a year for the industry to stop sending me any more of the things I’d been doing, and then there was nothing. Bone dry. Nothing.” Similarly he tells of un-branding from acting in five romantic comedies in a November 2014 issue of GQ. Yet later, came the $5 million budgeted film Dallas Buyers Club. And we know the rest of that story.

Now we have British actor David Oyelowo, who like Benedict Cumberbatch, he also studied at LAMDA, and plays Martin Luther King Jr. in the current Academy Award nominated film Selma. But before that, he plays an elementary school principal in the sci-fi film Interstellar, also starring Matthew McConaughey. Before that, he was in Lincoln. And before that, there was his role as a P-51 Mustang fighter pilot in the World War II film Red Tails, by George Lucas as executive producer who spent almost $100 million of his own money on the film. He is such an actor, who has been appearing all over the place.

Perhaps also, there’s the aspect of one’s culture, spoken of by the second commenter to the BBC Anglophenia web article by Kevin Wicks. For the second commenter Andrea says, “…in the UK, acting is taken very seriously and considered as an honored profession.” Indeed, we know of two British actresses, Judi Dench and Helen Mirren, whom both had been awarded the male equivalent of Knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II, as Dame Commanders. And we must include Daniel Day Lewis, as the only actor to have won three Best Actor Academy Awards. Having seen him in nine films, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, My Left Foot, The Last of the Mohicans, In the Name of the Father, The Crucible, The Boxer, Gangs of New York, There Will Be Blood and of course Lincoln. He is not just an actor. He is also a Talent Titan.

So again, are British actors superior in most cases than American actors? One gauge of answering such a question, is the voting dollars, euro or whatever, of the public audience.

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Jan 30

The Biggest Challenges In Loretta Lynch's Quest To Be Confirmed As Attorney General

Posted in: Today's Chili

Loretta Lynch endured her attorney general confirmation hearing on Wednesday, fielding questions from Senate Republicans about immigration, marijuana and even polygamy. While Lynch waits to be confirmed, HuffPost Live discussed her qualifications and the significance of her possible confirmation.

“It’s such a historical moment. I’m so excited about it. Being an African American woman myself, to see a woman like that in that type of position is really powerful,” said HuffPost fashion and beauty editor Julee Wilson.

Freelance writer Janel Martinez praised Lynch’s tough stance on issues of police brutality and looked to her work in United States v. Volpe, during which she helped convict several NYPD officers involved in the 1997 assault of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima. Louima received a historic $8.7 million settlement, the most ever paid to a victim of police brutality.

“At the end of the day, we know that she’s going to get the job done,” Martinez said. “She has an amazing track record — in particular, her handling of the Abner Louima case and the officer involved getting 30 years in that.”

Jill Filipovic, senior political writer at Cosmopolitan.com, also lauded Lynch’s undeniable qualifications, but she warned that critics would likely use her race and gender against her.

“She, being the first African American woman in this position, it is kind of the typical story of someone who has to be better than everyone else,” she told host Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani. “I do hope that she takes on civil rights issues as Eric Holder has. It will be tough for her occupying this position. I think when she does take on those issues, you’re going to see some backlash.”

Filipovic added that skeptics may question Lynch’s motives if civil rights issues become a focus of her tenure.

“You know, ‘Is she prioritizing this because she is African American? Is she race-baiting?’ It’s the kind of thing you always see tossed at politicians, attorneys, whatever of color that take on these issues. I hope that she looks past that and pushes through,” Filipovic said.

Watch the full conversation about this week’s biggest women’s issues here.

Sign up here for Live Today, HuffPost Live’s new morning email that will let you know the newsmakers, celebrities and politicians joining us that day and give you the best clips from the day before!

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Jan 30

McDonald's Will Soon Accept Hugs As Payment

Posted in: Today's Chili

McDonald’s is taking love as legal tender.

As part of a promotional offer from Feb. 2 through Valentine’s Day, the fast-food behemoth will be accepting expressions of affection as payment for food. Winners will be randomly selected at pre-designated times at participating McDonald’s locations, and a McDonald’s employee will instruct them to perform a “random act of Lovin’.”

The company will announce the “Pay with Lovin’” campaign in a commercial slated to air Sunday during Super Bowl XLIX.

The ad, which hit YouTube on Friday, features peppy McDonald’s cashiers surprising incredulous customers by requesting they pay for their food by dancing, hugging their companions or calling their mothers to say “I love you.”

Terri Hickey, a McDonald’s spokeswoman, said the company expects about 1 million customers to benefit from the giveaway. Each participating restaurant will have 100 such deals, 55 of which are divided between the first two days of the campaign, according to the official rules.

This promotion comes at a rocky time for McDonald’s, which saw the abrupt departure of its chief executive this week amid slumping sales.

Super Bowl ad slots, which cost $4.5 million for 30 seconds, can be powerful tools for spurring sales. A study released this month by professors from Stanford University and Humboldt University Berlin found that advertisers’ return on the investment can be as high as 258 percent.

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Jan 30

Altar Server Scandal Is Reminder Of How Far The Catholic Church Has To Go With Women

Posted in: Today's Chili

While Pope Francis has been widely hailed as a champion of social progress, when it comes to elevating women’s roles, critics say the Catholic Church still has a long way to go.

The 1.2 billion-member church’s attitude toward women came under extra scrutiny last week when Father Joseph Illo, the pastor at Star of the Sea Church in San Francisco, declared that girls would be phased out as parish altar servers, a job usually fulfilled by older children in the church who then assist the clergy during mass.

In explaining the decision, Illo stated “boys usually end up losing interest, because girls generally do a better job.” In addition, he said, girls may be distractions to male altar servers, and, ultimately, the position is training for a priesthood girls will never qualify for because of their gender.

While Star of the Sea can make this change with San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s blessing, the church’s canon law authorized female altar servers about 20 years ago, the San Francisco Chronicle noted, and just a few parishes and archdioceses across the nation have instituted boys-only programs.

The decision sparked outrage among parishioners, with some, Illo admitted, leaving to join other parishes. “Those who can or cannot serve based on gender, that is discriminatory,” Dunstan Alabanza told CBS San Francisco.

“My initial reaction was one of disbelief. I’m having a hard time understanding why the presence of girls on the altar is all of a sudden unacceptable,” Grace Cooley, who acted as an altar server at Star of the Sea in the early 2000s, told The Huffington Post. “It was fascinating to see the inner workings of a mass, and I hate the thought of other girls missing out on that experience … I definitely think this is a huge step backward.”

Illo did not return HuffPost’s request for comment.

For advocates of increasing women’s presence in the Catholic Church, this decision is symptomatic of a much larger problem.

“Not allowing women to be priests leads to decisions like not allowing girls to be altar servers,” Jennifer O’Malley, a spokeswoman for Roman Catholic Womenpriests, told HuffPost.

Her organization is one of several that disagree with the church’s stance against ordaining women, and like the rest of its female members that have ordained themselves and practiced outside traditional parishes, O’Malley has been excommunicated.

While women can serve as nuns and in a variety of administrative roles in the church, those positions don’t inch anywhere near the powers of the pope, the nearly 200 cardinals beneath him, archbishops of metropolitan dioceses, bishops and priests — all of whose authorities range from deciding whether girls may be altar servers to interpreting the Bible and enforcing it as canon law.

That’s a dangerous dynamic, O’Malley warns.

“I think the church has a loud voice within society as whole. I mean, it has a seat at the UN. When the church denies women as being complete and having full access, it’s easier for society to oppress women in general,” she told HuffPost.

Cooley worries decisions like Illo’s could trigger that thinking at a young age.

“The age when a student becomes eligible for altar serving is also around the same age that girls start to lose their confidence,” she said. “I hate to see my alma mater contribute to those feelings of unworthiness by banning their service.”

While Pope Francis has hinted at wanting to expand the role of women in the church, he has maintained a strong stance that the “door is closed” on ever considering ordaining women. Critics have argued that he rarely speaks of women’s importance outside of their fertility and that he has repeatedly used the image of older, infertile women to illustrate lack of vibrancy in the church.

Candida Moss, University of Notre Dame professor of New Testament and early Christianity, and Joel Baden, professor of Hebrew Bible at Yale University, touched on the topic in a Los Angeles Times op-ed.

“Even when ostensibly elevating women, Francis reveals a highly patriarchal view of where their value lies,” they wrote. “Repeatedly, Francis has come back to extolling the role of women specifically as mothers, noting that ‘the presence of women in a domestic setting’ is crucial to ‘the very transmission of the faith.’”

Just how close are challengers to disrupting that thinking? O’Malley says she doesn’t expect to see female ordination in her lifetime.

“The people are having the conversation,” she said, “but the hierarchy is not having the conversation, and until they’re willing to dialogue with us, I think it’s a way’s off.”

Editor’s note: the author of this story is an alumna of Star of the Sea School, the K-8 school associated with the parish mentioned in this story.

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Jan 30

Deflation Experiments Show Patriots May Have a Point After All

Posted in: Today's Chili

Thomas Healy does not have tickets to the Super Bowl, but he plans to fly to Phoenix with something that is even harder to come by than seats at Sunday’s game: the first detailed, experimental data on how atmospheric conditions might have reduced the air pressure in footballs used by the New England Patriots in their victory over the Indianapolis Colts nearly two weeks ago.

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Jan 30

Week to Week News Quiz for 1/30/15

Posted in: Today's Chili

There’s more to this week than preparing for a big football game, as our latest Week to Week news quiz shows.

Here are some random but real hints: In or out; not lovin’ it; take a victory lap; and so does 100 percent of wildlife. Answers are below the quiz.

1. Why is Secretary of State John Kerry in trouble with the law?
a. He has failed to report private income on his taxes for the past three years
b. He once shot a man just to watch him die
c. He got into an altercation with a protestor during lunch at Washington, D.C.’s posh Makoto Restaurant
d. He was fined for failing to shovel snow outside his house

2. What did former Massachusetts governor and two-time presidential candidate Mitt Romney tell supporters on Friday?
a. He is running for Massachusetts governor in 2018
b. He is running for president in 2016
c. He is not running for president in 2016
d. He is endorsing Hillary Clinton in 2016

3. Who is Don Thompson and what did he just do?
a. He’s the CEO of McDonald’s Corp. who just resigned
b. He’s President Obama’s nominee to be attorney general who was caught in an FBI corruption sting
c. He was slated to direct the first direct-to-video Star Wars sequel but gave it up following threats from ISIS
d. He is the new U.S. ambassador to Japan

4. What immigration change has been approved by Portugal’s government?
a. It has limited immigration to people who already speak fluent Portuguese
b. It is granting citizenship to descendants of Jews expelled from the country in the 15th century
c. No one can become a citizen unless they can name the years the country won the World Cup
d. It will not allow more than 500 Germans to become Portuguese citizens each year

5. A gas truck exploded outside of a maternity hospital where?
a. Moscow
b. Mexico City
c. Dubai
d. Tel Aviv

6. Who will get “added security” this Sunday?
a. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will be attending Super Bowl XLIX
b. Rev. Franklin Graham, who will be leading a March for Prayer through New York City
c. The Super Bowl footballs
d. Newly released former ISIS hostage Bernadette Corliadge, who returns to her Pentagon post this weekend

7. What advice did Vice President Joe Biden have for his fellow Democrats?
a. They should take credit for the strengthening economy
b. Head for the hills
c. Stop Hillary
d. Don’t talk about Obamacare to constituents

8. Stock prices of Greek banks lost about half of their value this week following what event?
a. The election victory by the left-wing Syriza Party
b. Greece’s parliament voted to nationalize its financial system
c. Russian President Vladimir Putin made a deal for Greece to switch from the European Union to the Eurasian Union
d. Greece pulled out of the eurozone

9. Who claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in Egypt that killed at least 27 people?
a. Muslim Brotherhood
b. Iran
c. Hezbollah
d. ISIS

10. In a new poll, what did two-thirds of Americans support?
a. Fighting climate change
b. Banning same-sex marriage
c. War with Iran
d. Taking away the NFL’s tax-exempt status

BONUS. What got a Boynton Beach, Florida, man arrested?
a. He tried to sell cocaine to the city’s mayor at a public event
b. He refused to paint his lawn ornaments the required colors
c. He refused to stop blogging about the crimes of city officials in his Boynton Beach Bums blog
d. He entered a police station and said to an officer, “Hey, let me use your gun” so he could “take care of” someone who robbed him; he then demanded the gun of a second officer

Want the live news quiz experience? Join us Tuesday, February 17 in downtown San Francisco for our next live Week to Week political roundtable with a news quiz and a social hour at The Commonwealth Club of California. Panelists include Carla Marinucci, Debra J. Saunders, and Bill Whalen.

ANSWERS:
1) d.
2) c.
3) a.
4) b.
5) b.
6) c.
7) a.
8) a.
9) d.
10) a.
BONUS) d.

Explanations of the hints: In or out: Romney finally brought to an end his flirtation with another presidential campaign; not lovin’ it: McDonald’s got itself a new CEO; take a victory lap: after at least one Republican leader claimed responsibility for his party for the economic uptick, Biden says his party deserves the credit; and so does 100 percent of wildlife: the majority supports action on climate change.

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Jan 30

Thanks to Community Outreach, Obamacare Is Working for Diverse Groups

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We are well into the second open enrollment period, and the numbers are telling: nearly 7.3 million people have enrolled in coverage in the federal health insurance marketplace. Ten million people have gained coverage since the first open enrollment period, including hundreds of thousands of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (AAs and NHPIs). Thanks to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) coverage gains, the nation’s uninsured rate is now at near record lows.

Much of this work has been due to the tireless efforts of community groups and enrollment assisters who are providing on-the-ground support to get eligible people enrolled. As a strong supporter of the ACA, my organization banded together with other dedicated national groups and over 70 community organizations and federal health centers to form Action for Health Justice (AHJ). AHJ is dedicated to reaching out to the nation’s fastest growing groups — Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders — to ensure they know about their coverage options and are able to enroll. It is because of the tireless efforts of groups like AHJ that AAs and NHPIs are realizing the dream of healthier futures and getting covered.

Without dedicated outreach, AAs and NHPIs and other hard-to-reach communities would be left in the dark. AAs and NHPIs span more than 50 different ethnic groups and speak more than 100 different languages. As a result, their insurance needs and knowledge about their coverage options are just as varied and diverse. Coupled with that, language barriers have created major challenges for many non-English speakers trying to enroll.

One in three Asian Americans either do not speak English at all or not very well. Language barriers are known to impede both access to health insurance and health care. My organization, the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, worked with 14 community-based organizations covering 16 states during the first enrollment period. When we surveyed over 6,700 clients who sought enrollment services at these community-based organizations, one thing stuck out: language barriers and being uninsured go hand in hand.

Among those who were uninsured, 87 percent of the individuals surveyed spoke a language other than English. Not surprisingly then, being able to get information that was easy to understand and in a person’s primary spoken language was one of the deciding factors in getting covered.

Three quarters of the people we surveyed got help filling out the marketplace application. For example, one group in Illinois relied on their bilingual staff to develop educational materials about the Marketplace in Bosnian, Hindi and Urdu. Others like SEAMAAC in Philadelphia are building on their 30 years of experience working with immigrant and refugee communities and using their uniquely trained staff, many of whom are members of the communities they work with, to spread the word about the ACA.

This work has paid off. Victoria Nguyen, a Vietnamese American from Phoenix, Arizona had been driving all the way to Orange Grove, California to access prenatal care before Asian Pacific Community in Action (APCA) stepped in. Since Victoria was uninsured, this was the only care she could afford. APCA walked Victoria through the Marketplace application and provided one-on-one assistance in Vietnamese until she got covered. Without APCA, Victoria might still be making the long drives for essential care.

Victoria is just one of the many others who would never have gotten covered, let alone known about the ACA, were it not for the dedicated efforts of community partners and enrollment assisters. As we celebrate National Asian American and Pacific Islander Enrollment Week, let’s give thanks to the groups working around the country to make health care a reality.

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Jan 30

Nigeria's Time of Uncertainty

Posted in: Today's Chili

With the presidential election looming on February 14, Nigeria is at a crossroads.

The outcome of the election will have serious implications both for the country itself and for how it is viewed around the world. This election is taking place at a very difficult time, when after almost 14 years of rule by the country’s dominant party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Nigeria faces frightening challenges on many fronts: the recent precipitous decline in oil revenue, the growing lack of confidence by the general public, and the ongoing menace of the militant Islamist group Boko Haram.

Once a local terrorist group, Boko Haram has assumed a larger regional and even national presence. Almost a year ago, the group kidnapped some 200 school girls from Chibok in northeastern Nigeria, and the country’s authorities have yet to account for these abducted girls. Since the kidnapping, Boko Haram has carried out several terrorist attacks and have kidnapped many more women and children.

The onslaught of Boko Haram against the masses of poor Nigerians, both Christians and Muslims, has exposed the gross ineptitude of the Nigerian authorities. Many observers agree that the massive corruption among senior state officials has rendered the military inept. The ability of Boko Haram to challenge the territorial integrity of Nigeria, especially in the northeastern states of Bornu, Adamawa, and Yobe, as a sovereign nation-state, has clearly revealed the extent of the crisis of the state.

Although it is wrong to call Nigeria a failing state, there are significant signs of decay and destruction unprecedented in its history. Nigeria is a nation of about 180 million people–the largest population of Black Africa. Its wealth and natural resources, not to mention its human resources, are unparalleled on the continent. Yet Nigeria remains economically one of the most disadvantaged countries worldwide. According to the United Nations Human Development Index, it ranks 152 out of 187 countries in terms of economic and social development. In addition to the uncertainty about its future, particularly due to terrorism, it faces unprecedented corruption and violence in all sectors, resulting in a serious decline in infrastructure, education, employment training, health systems, and quality of life.

Those familiar with Nigeria, however, are amazed by the resilience of its people and their capacity to endure and to hope for a better future. One of the cardinal factors that give its people hope is the vibrancy of its faith traditions, which have accrued unparalleled influence in national life as well as in the individual and collective psyche.

Nigeria’s religious triple heritage–Islam, Christianity, and traditional religion–fascinates outsiders and even Nigerians themselves. The vibrancy of its evangelical, Pentecostal, and charismatic churches, its gorgeous, imposing mosques and its colorful, festive religious ceremonies are central to Africa’s identity.

But in addition to expressing the cultural richness of the Nigerian peoples, religion is also largely responsible for their divisiveness.

That religion has entered into politics and governance is not new; it is as old as the history of the nation itself. What is new in the current dispensation is the extent to which religion dominates national life. The myth of the secular Nigerian state that purports to separate the institutions of religion from those of the government has failed to translate into reality. Indeed, there is evidence to show that Nigeria’s troublesome religious conflict, especially in the northeastern and Middle Belt states, will negatively affect the election next month.

Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the oil rich Niger Delta region, is the incumbent presidential candidate for the PDP. During his pilgrimage to Israel months ago, he stated that it was necessary to “seek the face of God in Jerusalem” to prepare for the looming combat between him and his opponents.

General Mohammadu Buhari, the nominee of the recently formed opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), is a Northern Muslim who briefly ruled as a military head of state in the early 1980s. He has promised to put a stop to the uncontrollable corruption, address the serious security threat of Boko Haram’s insurgency, curb the country’s economic decline, and curtail religious conflict in Northern and Middle Belt states.

Although Buhari initially expressed interest in a Muslim running mate for the presidential election in February, strong opposition from Christians around the country forced APC leaders to chose Yemi Osinbajo, a distinguished law professor, Pentecostal pastor, and highly respected former state attorney general as the party’s vice presidential candidate.

It is certain that in the forthcoming election, religion will play a dominant role. As a result, there is increasing speculation as to the allegiance of evangelical and Pentecostal leaders. Will they galvanize a Christian vote to support Goodluck Jonathan, who has declared that he had gone to “Israel to seek the face of God,” or will they support Buhari, who–though a Muslim from the north–has been courting southern and Middle Belt Christians? And would Buhari enjoy the overwhelming support of his stronghold in the Muslim north where Jonathan’s PDP continue to dominate in state houses, state legislatures, and the federal legislature? It may be too soon to know where the dye will be cast.

The dynamics of the Nigerian election defies current political theories that claim that ethnicity trumps religion in politics. What we see here is how religion may be competing with ethnic affiliation to determine the future of Nigeria through the electoral vote. One thing that is clear is that Nigeria deserves a change for the better and that the religious affiliation of the voters will be central in an unpredictable way to what happens on February 14 and after.

Boko Haram’s insurgency has led to the displacement of thousands of eligible voters in the predominantly Muslim northeast states of Bornu, Adamawa, and Yobe. One cannot help but ponder what the implications might be if a Northern Muslim with a strong base in the core Muslim north loses the presidential election to an increasingly problematic Southern Christian incumbent next month.

Although it is uncertain what the election will bring, one has every reason to be optimistic that the change that Nigeria deserves may begin to appear after the election, but there are no quick fixes, and the deeply embedded corruption and the menace of Boko Haram will not suddenly disappear after February 14.

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