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Iraq Allies Accused of Failing to Investigate Civilian Deaths

Experts in public health from six countries, including the UK, today castigate the British and American governments for failing to investigate the deaths of civilians caught up in the conflict in Iraq.

Twenty-four experts from the UK, the US, Australia, Canada, Spain and Italy say the attitude of the governments is “wholly irresponsible”. They say the UK government’s reliance on “extremely limited data” from the Iraqi ministry of health is “unacceptable” because it is likely to seriously underestimate the casualties.

Their hard-hitting statement, published online by the British Medical Journal, comes nearly five months after the Lancet published a household survey of civilian deaths in Iraq which estimated that about 100,000 civilians had died – most of them women and children.

The study caused controversy and was dismissed by the British government as unreliable, partly because the authors admitted that, under the difficult circumstances, it could not be precise.

The experts lambast the government for criticising the data without conducting inquiries of its own. “The obvious answer to removing uncertainties that remain is to commission a larger study with full official support and assistance, but scientific independence,” they say.

“Counting casualties can help to save lives both now and in the future by helping us to understand the burden of death, and residual burden of injury, disease and trauma across the entire population,” the experts say. “We have waited too long for this information.”

The Iraqi ministry of health data is not complete. Among the reasons for this are that only violence-related deaths reported through the health system are counted and deaths in the first 12 months of the conflict are not included.

Among the 10 experts from the UK who have signed the statement are Klim McPherson, visiting professor of public health epidemiology at Oxford University, David Hunter, chair of the UK Public Health Association, and Sian Griffiths, immediate past-president of the faculty of public health at the Royal College of Physicians.

There are seven eminent physicians from the US, three from Australia, two from Spain and one each from Canada and Italy.

“Monitoring casualties is a humanitarian imperative,” they say. “Understanding the causes of death is a core public health responsibility, nationally and internationally. Yet neither the public, nor we as public health professionals, are able to obtain validated, reliable information about the extent of mortality and morbidity since the invasion of Iraq.”

In a commentary in the BMJ, Professor McPherson says that public access to reliable figures is important. “The policy being assessed – the allied invasion of Iraq – was justified largely on grounds of democratic supremacy. Voters in the countries that initiated the war and others – not least in Iraq itself – are denied a reliable evaluation of a key indicator of the success of that policy. This is unacceptable.”

Understanding the burden of death, disease, injury and trauma aids the proper planning of war and health and will help governments assess the humanitarian implications of conflict, he says.

“The plain fact is that an estimate of 100,000 excess deaths attributable to the invasion of Iraq is alarming. That is already half the death toll of Hiroshima. Apart from the practical arguments, the principled ones stand and will always stand. Have we not learnt any lessons from the history of sweeping alarming numbers of deaths under the carpet? This is not something about which there can be any political discretion 60 years after Auschwitz.”

The Foreign Office said yesterday it believed the figures from the Iraqi ministry of health were the most reliable because they were based on head counts not extrapolation.

Tags: Accused, Allies, Civilian, Deaths, Failing, Investigate, Iraq

Michigan Schools Shore Up a Failing School System

While other states and school districts are searching for progressive and innovative methods to improve student achievement and graduation rates, the Michigan Schools continue to shore up the current failing system, according to The Detroit News. Rather than improving the current system, teachers’ unions act as oversight bullies, the Michigan schools appear to follow their dictates, and legislators just keep pouring money into the Michigan schools, while complaining that funds are limited.

First, money is not the issue. While inflation has risen at a rate of 21 percent, funding for the Michigan schools has risen by of 71 percent. The state legislature funds the Michigan schools annually at the tune of $13 billion, and Michigan schools teachers are among the highest paid educators in the United States.

The problem with the Michigan schools current system is that they are not working hard enough to improve it for the children. They have some excellent educators that work hard for their schools, putting every effort into helping students excel under the current policies and resources. The community should be very grateful for their dedication. Yet, the Michigan schools are still operating under old standards — pump more money into teacher benefits (for which teachers’ unions also benefit), rather than the students.

The state recently approved an increase in the per student funding rate that should be going toward improving student achievement. Yet almost the entire $216 per student rate is underwriting healthcare and retirement costs for Michigan schools employees, according to the newspaper.

With a statewide dropout rate of nearly 25 percent (some districts in Metro Detroit are as high as 60 percent), Michigan schools administrators need to do some serious housecleaning on the current system. When the newspaper surveyed students and their parents, it found that only 30 percent of parents insist their children remain in school. Only 12 percent of students found coursework challenging; 83 percent believe that their coursework is not relevant.

Teachers who speak up or attempt to effect change in the current Michigan schools system are shutdown by the strong, organized and vocal teachers’ unions and administrators of the Michigan schools. They both seem to like things as they are.

Some progressive teachers have publicly recommended that school grade levels be reorganized; the current pay system for teachers be replaced with pay-for-performance measures; and parents be allowed to send their children to the schools of their choice (charter, public, private or home school) — as is done in many states. The teachers’ unions quickly silenced these progressives.

The teachers’ unions give no particular evidence as to why these recommendations should not be considered, nor do they offer any solutions, except for their recent proposal — guaranteed yearly pay raises for teachers. They are aggressively pushing for the state legislature to write an amendment into the state constitution that guarantees funding for annual teacher pay raises. Where is the accountability?

With all the problems of student achievement, it is time the Michigan schools stop catering to the teachers’ unions and focus on improving student achievement.

For more information on Michigan schools http://www.schoolsk-12.com/Michigan/index.html

Tags: Failing, Michigan, School, Schools, Shore, System

Basic bank accounts failing the basic needs of consumers

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The lists of bank and savings accounts that are available to most people are bewildering. A quick look at a comparison site like Moneynet (http://www.moneynet.co.uk) or Moneyfacts will reveal thousands of different products. Unfortunately many of these accounts are not accessible for anyone with either a poor or even no credit history.

Research carried out for the National Consumer Council (NCC) (http://www.ncc.org.uk/moneymatters/basic%20banking.pdf) reveals “that the poor pay more, or get less, for essential goods and services… having a bank account can be a gateway to other products and services, such as affordable credit and insurance”. To help counteract this problem of financial exclusion, the government has tried to initiate the introduction of basic bank accounts for the least well off. The NCC has however warned that, “the current model of basic bank accounts, introduced by government in 2000 in an attempt to enable all low-income consumers to access banking services, is not delivering.”

The new basic bank accounts were introduced as part of a wider push towards ‘universal banking’ and corresponded with the introduction of direct payment of social security benefits to bank accounts as well as the Post Office Card Account (POCA). The plan was that these accounts would also help their users by letting them set up direct debits to pay their utility bills, and so keep better track of their finances from week to week.

The accounts were originally designed to let people save and withdraw money, but in an effort to prevent extending any existing debts and stopping the accounts from becoming overdrawn, they don’t offer check books, overdrafts or other credit facilities. The accounts were intended for those with no credit history who might not meet the banks’ criteria for opening a standard current account. The accounts features typically include the ability for payments, for example pensions and benefits, to be credited direct to the account, withdrawals by plastic card through cash machines and the facility to pay bills by direct debit.

The problems experienced seem to be partly because the accounts do not always help those with a small weekly income to deal with the unpredictable gaps which can occur in wages, benefits or spending. Automated monthly direct debit payments for goods and services can prove of little use to many on low weekly based incomes. Those paid on a week by week basis, expressed a preference for weekly cash based, rather than monthly direct debit, budgeting options and felt that bank accounts with direct debit facilities would not provide them any advantages. By using cash instead of a bank account, they found they could juggle payments easier, and avoid punitive additional bank charges if they did not have the funds to hand, to cover an outgoing debit payment.

Another problem experienced was that the holders of these basic accounts are also liable to be those on low incomes, with low (if any) savings and are more likely to be in arrears paying their household bills than those without them. This vulnerable group are less likely than most to be able to deal with unexpected additional expenditure, such as an unforeseen bill for home repairs, but without recourse to any credit facilities, they may be forced into resorting to high interest loans to cover temporary setbacks.

The NCC found that “people on low incomes who use accounts to manage their money are more likely to be in arrears with household bills. They are also more likely to have outstanding credit commitments, partly because they have wider access to credit”, than those without accounts.

The government has set a target of halving the number of households which do not have access to a bank account by 2006. The banks state that they currently face a lack of demand, however more than two million applications, in excess of the government’s expected take-up, for the POCAs have been made. The banks are claiming that reaching the targets will be difficult, as they are being impeded by various barriers to opening basic bank accounts, such as the identification requirements in money laundering rules. Some of those on low incomes may not possess either a full driving license or full passport, and so find difficulties setting up new financial accounts. The banking industry has also been widely criticized for failing to actively promote basic bank accounts and, sometimes, for actually discouraging people from opening them.

The NCC proposed that basic bank accounts need to be more flexible. Suggestions to make the bank accounts meet the needs of consumers included offering weekly, rather than monthly, direct debit facilities where payments are only triggered if the money is available in the account, occasional payment holidays, and small free ‘buffer zone’ overdrafts.

Whether the lack of interest is due to the banks, the government, or the product itself, something needs to be done if there is to be an increase in the take-up rates. Half of those surveyed by the NCC felt they do not really need an account. An even more damning indictment of the current basic bank accounts was that a similar proportion of account holders preferred to withdraw all their income, rather than leave it in the account, and then manage it as cash. An inclusion policy may be a laudable idea, but it is no use if people do not want to be included, and it should not disadvantage those it is meant to help.

Richard lives in Edinburgh, occasionally writing for the personal finance blog Cashzilla (http://cashzilla.blogspot.com/), and reciting Vogon poetry.

Tags: Accounts, Bank, Basic, Consumers, Failing, Needs

In a Failing Government Structure the Incumbents Always Lose

After years of the majority of Americans being dissatisfied with the Bush administration and its policies, both foreign and domestic, the historic election of Barack Obama in November 2008 seemed like a breath of fresh air to many Americans. Certainly, with such a major shift away from the standard presidential candidate, we expected to see and feel positive change in the way the federal government operates. Yet nearly two full years into Obama’s first term and with a Democratic majority in the House and Senate, things seem increasingly unsettled and just as many Americans seem upset about the Obama administration as the previous one.

It doesn’t take a savvy political analyst to understand that the problem is not with the Obama administration or the Bush administration. The problem is with the structure and machinations of the U.S. government as a whole. Rest assured, the core values and original vision of the U.S. government as constructed by the Founding Fathers are sufficient to serve as the foundation for successful governance, with some obvious exceptions.

But as that original structure has grown, morphed and expanded its reach into every aspect of our lives, it’s becoming more and more clear that the system itself is what is in need of change. And politicians, in their current form, are unable to effect real change in government. The reasons for that are complex in some ways, but to simplify them is to say that changing the current system means taking away the vast majority of the advantages of the politicians required to make the change in the first place. In short, in order for real change to occur, politicians will have to vote against themselves and their own personal prosperity – and it’s unreasonable for us to expect that to happen.

Government in the United States – at the local, state and federal levels – is stagnant. The policies and the programs that are in place are generally wasteful and poorly managed. It has become accepted and even expected practice for government agencies to bloat and become wholly inefficient. For the general public, dealing with government agencies is always difficult and unnecessarily illogical, yet the vast majority of us simply accept that as being the way things are.

Because few political offices hold term limits – and term limits are practically non-existent at the legislative level – our government is fraught with career politicians. When the structure of the U.S. government was initially designed and debated, it was done so without a true understanding of what could happen when lawmakers are allowed to hold office for the majority of their lives. Even though legislative positions at all levels do not hold the prestige and recognition of executive level positions in government, the power that comes with them is at least as functional, if not more so. As a result, career politicians at the federal legislative level end up creating relationships with organizations, groups and individuals who are trying to advance specific pieces of legislation or who are opposed to other specific pieces of legislation. In exchange for their support, lawmakers are often rewarded financially in the form of campaign contributions and other perks, which help to ensure that they will remain in office after the following term’s elections.

In recent decades, we’ve seen the government become much more self-serving and the vortex that has been created by the endless cycle of government growth funded by American taxpayers and incalculable foreign debt must be fed in order to survive. The term “too big to fail” is essentially the perfect description of the U.S. government, although it is likely that something is going to fundamentally break down within the next decade that will force change in a way that does not involve operating within the current government structure.

Tags: Always, Failing, Government, Incumbents, Lose, Structure

EPO Test Flaws May Be Failing Athletes

Fresh scientific doubts about the effectiveness of the test for erythropoietin (EPO) may impact on high-profile cases such as Lance Armstrong’s.

Allegations that the American used banned performance-enhancing drugs during the first of his seven consecutive victories in the Tour de France in 1999 have thrust EPO back into the headlines.

When a test to detect it was developed in 2000 it was hailed as a breakthrough in the fight against doping, after the drug came to prominence in 1998 when it nearly wrecked the Tour de France. But now the cases of Armstrong and three triathletes, who have had bans lifted or who avoided punishment after testing positive for EPO, have caused some experts to question the test’s reliability.

Moreover the Olympic 1500 metres silver medallist Bernard Lagat is threatening to sue the International Association of Athletics Federations for $500,000 (£277,000) after he was alleged to have tested positive for EPO in 2003. He was cleared when a second urine sample tested negative.

The blood-boosting substance, originally developed to treat kidney patients, has earned a reputation as a wonder drug which increases endurance, and its widespread use has affected the credibility of sports such as cycling and distance running.

Dick Pound, the chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency, has insisted the test, originally developed in France, is as close to reliable as is possible but the case of the Belgian triathlete Rutger Beke gives rise to doubt. He was banned for 18 months after testing positive for EPO but his suspension was lifted last month when researchers at the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium, said he had been found to “naturally excrete proteins that would yield a positive test”.

During the research several athletes gave false positives for EPO after strenuous exercise.

“EPO is a protein,” Beke said. “Everybody has it in their body. The main problem is when I do high physical activity, especially anaerobic, I produce a lot of proteins. The problem is that with everybody else there is a filter in the kidneys that stops your proteins from ending up in your urine. When I do anaerobic exercise the filter doesn’t work properly and all these proteins end up in my urine.

“Now the big problem is that the anti-doping agencies don’t see that the EPO proteins I produce are the same as synthetic. So I had to prove that mine are natural. Unfortunately it took 10 months.”

Then last week the Spanish triathletes Virginia Berasategui Luna and Iban Rodríguez Martínez were also cleared because of doubts about how EPO came to be in their bodies.

“We are not concerned about the viability of the test – the test is quite reliable,” said Pound. “What we have to follow is whether there are exercise-induced circumstances that might occur.”

Wada is now advising all its accredited laboratories to check with scientists in Paris or Lausanne, where the EPO test was largely developed, when there is any doubt about a positive test. The problem may not be with the test but those analysing the results.

“I knew nothing about it before but now I’m a big expert,” said Beke. “The EPO tests are little bars. The bars for synthetic protein and my natural protein – the same protein that shows up in everyone’s body – show up in the same size and same place. The bars for natural EPO are in another place in these tests – except my proteins are in the same place as synthetics.

“They don’t see the difference. They look at the test and see and say, ‘Oh, it’s EPO.’ But the problem is the test is one-dimensional.

“The director from the Flemish doping lab for nine months has been saying, ‘It’s impossible to have an exception, the test is 100% sure.’ Now, three weeks ago, he wrote a letter to the Flemish commission to say they’re not so sure any more. They say it is possible to have a phenomenon, that they are looking into new testing and will have results at the end of September.”

Lagat commissioned his own research in 2003 after the allegation that he had tested positive for EPO. Dr Hans Heid of the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg criticised the basis on which the test had been constructed, particularly the lack of consideration given to possible influences of different nutritional, ethnic or physiological backgrounds.

Dr Martial Saugy, head of the Wada-accredited laboratory in Lausanne, agrees that, unlike most banned drugs, it is not simply a matter of looking at what is in the sample and declaring whether an athlete is guilty. “You are looking at numbers and signals but in the end what is most important here is the experience of the eyes of an expert,” he said. “It’s the ‘now we see it – this looks like someone who has injected EPO’.”

Though publicly backing the EPO test, Wada is also funding research to develop a more clear-cut method of detection. “This is not like a pregnancy test, where you are either pregnant or you’re not,” said Nicolle Packer, an executive vice president at Proteome Systems in Sydney, which has received one of the research grants. “It has to be prepared carefully and interpreted by an expert, who can mostly call it, I believe. But it is definitely skill-based, and that is why Wada is looking for a more clear-cut test.”

Until that is developed, it seems premature to condemn Armstrong and others as cheats.

The negative positives

Bernard Lagat (middle-distance runner)

Kenya’s Olympic 1500m silver medallist is threatening to sue the IAAF for suspending him briefly in 2003 after an EPO test; he was cleared when the B sample proved negative. Commissioned his own scientific research which questioned the credibility of the current EPO test.

Virginia Berasategui Luna (triathlete)

The Spaniard tested positive for EPO after winning the Lanzarote Ironman in May. She angrily denied EPO use and claimed there were a number of
procedural errors in how the test was administered. Last week it was announced that no further action would be taken against her or Iban Rodríguez Martínez, another Spanish triathlete who allegedly tested positive for EPO in the same event.

Rutger Beke (triathlete)

The Belgian, who finished second in the 2003 Hawaii Ironman, was banned last year for 18 months after a positive test. After seeking help from the
Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium, he proved that his body was capable of producing EPO naturally, so leading to a false positive.

Tags: Athletes, Failing, Flaws, Test

Students Failing With Their Future Finances

Recent research that has been carried out shows that the young teenagers of today are greatly underestimating the amount of debt that they will find themselves in after graduating from university.

A survey that was carried out on 8500 students showed a very worrying result that many of them do not realise the financial troubles that they may find themselves in some time in the near future.

Over a quarter of those students surveyed believe that they will never get into debt in their lives, and over a half of those surveyed believe that if they do get into any debt then they will have started to pay it back by the time they come to graduate from university.

On average, the students that were surveyed believe that by the time they are 25 they will be earning a salary of around £31,000 and will own their own home. In contrast to this, figures show that in reality most 22-29 year olds are only earning on average around £18,000 a year and still have a student debt of around £12,500.

The results from the survey also show that the student’s future aspirations are affected by their parents’ salaries. Those students who come from higher earning families are expecting to earn more money and have less debt in the future compared to those who come from lower earning families.

From the research being carried out there is a clear indication that the students of today are not leaving school with the right amount of education concerning their future finances than they should be.

As a result of not being educated and making poor financial decisions, Britain today is estimated to be in one trillion pounds sterling of debt (£1,000,000,000,000) and this figure does not seem to be falling any time soon.

Tags: Failing, finances, Future, Students, their