Oppenheim Arts & Letters

Referral - Stillwell on Denial and Mumbai

The Mumbai Atrocities: Where is the Outrage? by Cinnamon Stillwell SFGate.com December 17, 2008 http://www.meforum.org/article/2038

Islam - Prophet's Biography - Fundamental Work

'Abadullah bin Mas'ud once said: If you are willing to follow a good example, then you can have a recourse in the tradition of the deceased, because the living are likely to fall an easy victim to oppression (so they might waver in faith). Follow the steps of Muhammad's Companions. They were the best in this nation, the most pious, the most learned and the least pretentious. Allah chose them to accompany the Prophet and establish His religion. Therefore, it is imperative to get to know their grace, follow their righteous way and adhere as much as you can to their manners and assimilate their biography. They were always on the orthodox path. There is then the great Messenger of Allah whose moral visible attributes, aspects of perfection, talents, virtues, noble manners and praiseworthy deeds, entitle him to occupy the innermost cells of our hearts, and become the dearest target that the self yearns for. Hardly did he utter a word when his Companions would race to assimilate it and work in its light.

Those were the attributes and qualities on whose basis the Prophet wanted to build a new society, the most wonderful and the most honourable ever known in history. On these grounds, he strove to resolve the longstanding problems, and later gave mankind the chance to breath a sigh of relief after a long wearying journey in dark and gloomy avenues. Such lofty morale lay at the very basis of creating a new society with integrated components immune to all fluctuations of time, and powerful enough to change the whole course of humanity. [1]

Source of quotation: al-Mubarakpuri, Safi-ur-Rahman. Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum (The Sealed Nectar): Biography of the Noble Prophet. P. 196. Saudi Arabia, UK, USA, Pakistan: Maktaba Dar-us-Salam, 1995.

It would be hard to argue that Safi-ur-Rahman's book, a mixture of observed history and belief (Gabriel and a posse of angels make cameo appearances as real as any living relative, associate, or enemy), would not be representative of Islam as the Saudi kingdom might have it: awarded First Prize by the Muslim World League "at world-wide competition on the biography of the Prophet held at Makkah Al-Mukarramah in 1399 H / 1979", it covers the period prior to Mohammad's birth and ends with the end and praise: "No one can ever give this man, the top of perfection, his due descrpition" [p. 503; STET).

To grasp the basis for the characteristics of the "long war" pursued by Al Qaeda and its affiliates, I would call this book seminal, an absolute must-read for grasping Mohammad's mission, the change in attitude toward Jews--the page opposite the one quoted at the start of this piece features the provisions of "A Cooperation and Non-Aggression Pact with the Jews", to wit the first provision: "The Jews of Bani 'Awf are one community with the believers. The Jews will profess their religion and the Muslims theirs" (p. 197); toward the end, the rounding up and beheading of 700 Jewish men from an ethnic enclave spells the relationship let to stand--and the defensive and xenophobic stance that produces aggressive violence in various of the world's corners today.

Having mentioned The Sealed Nectar recently in the context of responding to a chat thread at modelmayhem.com, I want to reinforce my support for the value of this book to anyone engaged in Islamic studies.

The Sealed Nectar is published by Maktaba Dar-us-Salam -- http://www.dar-us-salam.com/ -- and it is available through them as well as Amazon and its resellers.

Cited Reference

Al-Mubarakpuri, Safi-ur-Rahman. Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum (The Sealed Nectar): Biography of the Noble Prophet. P. 196. Saudi Arabia, UK, USA, Pakistan: Maktaba Dar-us-Salam, 1995.

Other Reference

Wikipedia. "Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Raheeq_Al-Makhtum

Wikipedia. "Muslim World League": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_World_League

Wikipedia. "Safi-ur-Rahman Al-Mubarakpuri": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safi-ur-Rahman_Al-Mubarakpuri

# # #

Somalia - Negative Idolatry Courtesy Shabaab

"Al-Shabab, an armed group fighting transitional government and Ethiopian forces in Somalia, is desecrating religious shrines in the south of the country, Al Jazeera has learned.

The ancient graves of clerics and other prominent people are among holy sites being targeted by the armed group in the port city of Kismayo."

Source: Al Jazeera. "Somali fighters destroying shrines." December 20, 2008: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2008/12/2008122055527212230.html

The Shabaab have gone so far as to attack graveyards in an effort to stem the paying of homage to the dead.

I'm not much for ancestor worship either, but the respectful burial of the dead, among other ancient practices, and the visiting of graves for comfort and courage, for memory and sentiment would seem among the most universal of human traditions.

Never mind all that.

"We are a chosen lot by Allah to try and correct the mystics of the people and guide them," Hassan Yaqub, a spokesman for the Kismayo administration, told Al Jazeera.

"We have a responsibility to the people to guard the people against all evil deeds."

# # #

Somalia - Roggio's Backgrounder

"In a nutshell, Yglesias argues that the United States pushed Ethiopia to invade Somalia to dislodge the Islamic Courts from power, and as a result the U.S. "is breeding a new generation of anti-American jihadists." This is wildly wrong for several reasons, just a few are listed below."

For those not yet subscribed to Bill Roggio's The Long War Journal (or catching up on work published elsewhere on the web), I thought I'd pass this one along:

Roggio, Bill.  "Failing to Understand Somalia."  The Blog.  The Weekly Standard, December 19, 2008: http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2008/12/failing_to_understand_somalia_1.asp

Roggio, Bill.  The Long War Journal: http://www.longwarjournal.org/

# # #

Africa Cries -- Somalia and Zimbabwe

From an ICRC release:

"Toilets, blankets and clothing are being sprayed with a chlorine-based disinfectant.

"We are spraying the homes to break the transmission cycle of cholera bacteria.

We want to make sure that the disease does not threaten those who are not infected," said Benjamin Jombe from Beatrice Infectious Diseases Hospital. [1]

This is from a UNHCR release:

"GENEVA – UNHCR is seeking $92 million to ease the plight of nearly 250,000 Somalis in one of the world's oldest, largest and most congested refugee sites amid growing fears of even more arrivals as the situation in Somalia deteriorates . . .

"With the continuing conflict in their homeland showing no sign of abating, more than 60,000 Somalis have crossed into Kenya so far in 2008. Most come from Mogadishu and the Lower Juba regions of Kismayo, Jamame and Afmadow." [2]

Where the UNHCR piece notes the environmental challenges associated with flight from Somalia ("severe drought conditions, food insecurity, and periodic heavy flooding"), I've edited to emphasize the political basis for desparation in both Zimbabwe and Somalia.

There should be no question: whatever the natural conditions, the political ones have proven thousands of times more horrifying.

Robert Mugabe has secured himself a place in history as a monster.

Having long ago sought to return Rhodesia to black control and produce a black socialist state, Mugabe has in its place produced a familiar medieval kingdom: immune to the racist cast in the basis of his state, no depth of suffering, black or white, moves him; unconcerned with money--whatever he's using, it's not based in the local currency--his government has proven unresponsive to the financial despair of his subjects; with cholera reestablished in the state and spreading--the ICRC release cites "18,500 cases recorded since August"--he's had the grace only to accept humanitarian charity and the most rudimentary solutions to the national health crisis--chlorine bleach and a few water pumps, testing equipment, and spare parts for the water-treatment plant serving Harare.

Who is that disgraced emperor leading? What manner of people follow in his ignominious wake?

Shift to that other now captive audience--the Somali population south of Mogadishu, which today lives either in divine peace with the ruling Shabaab military force or in despair of it. You decide: is 60,000 bound-for-Kenya refugees in 2008 a sign of political success or failure? Is it a large number or a small one?

This is how The Economist describes the situation:

"Money and arms from Eritrea, which wants to use Somalia to hurt Ethiopia, as well as from some Arab countries, enabled it to recruit. Several thousand have signed up in the past year. They attend large training camps in southern Somalia where one of the instructors is said to be a white American mujahideen. They are expected to disavow music, videos, cigarettes and qat, the leaf Somali men chew most afternoons to get mildly high. Thus resolved, they wrap their faces in scarves and seek to fight the infidel. In return, they get $100 a month, are fed, and can expect medical treatment and payments if they are wounded, as well as burial costs and cash for their families if they are killed." [3]

A little farther on in the same piece: “Before, we knew who killed our relatives,” says a Kismayo merchant. “Now we don’t even know that.”

Stranger still:

"In Rajab of the fifth year of Prophethood, a group of twelve men and four women left for Abyssinia (Ethiopia). Among the emigrants were "Uthman bin "Affan and his wife Ruqaiyah (the daughter of the Prophet. "With respect to these two emigrants, the Prophet said:

"They are the first people to migrate in the cause of Allah after Abraham and Lot."

According to Safi-ur-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, Mohammad's daughter and her husband were provided secure haven in Ethiopia under the direct aegis of its king, who was later to say upon hearing Surah Maryam, "It seems as if these words and those where were revealed to Jesus are the rays of the light which have radiated from the same source."[4]

Be that historical footnote as it may . . . .

Today in Zimbabwe: cholera, hunger, insolvency; in Somalia: conflict, displacement, fear, and hunger: are the powerful so for conveniently overlooking the immediate needs of their people or for leading them to or exacerbating their despair?

For upside-down Somalia and Zimbabwe both, answer yes.

Cited Reference

1. Waudo, Robin and Anna Schaaf. "Zimbabwe: Disinfecting homes to counter cholera." International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) - Switzerland, via Thomson Reuters Foundation AlertNet, December 19, 2008: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/220224/f8d6e7978351dfd2c134d3484cfd5474.htm

2. UNHCR News. "UNHCR appeals for $92 million to assist Somali refugees in Kenya." Via AlertNet, December 19, 2008: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/UNHCR/cfad0630380acf0c09983eb4249bacb7.htm

3. The Economist. "Somalia's Islamists: The rise of the Shabab." December 18, 2008: http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=12815670

4. Al-Mubarakpuri, Safi-ur-Rahman. Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum (The Sealed Nectar): Biography of the Noble Prophet. P. 101, 103. Saudi Arabia, UK, USA, Pakistan: Maktaba Dar-us-Salam, 1995.

# # #

Islam - A 13-Year-Old Curtain Raiser

A peer at modelmayhem wrote, "we owe our national debt to our war endevears, those american companies that profitered off of our soldiers backs have NO pride."

My response:

I'm sure a look over the contractor books will lift some eyebrows, but the phrase "our war endevears" [STET] masks the stimulus. However we may gird up, as it were, those who would do us harm are real, not confined to Islam although that portion gets its share of attention, and they're working with intimidation and violence, the usual tools, largely off the field.

Now we've wrestled with this for a while, and states recognized "thugocracy", organized crime, privately waged wars, and the general domain that comprises the organization of violence beneath the conventional warfare radar.

I'm off into another aspect, which is the motivating literary and scholarly culture that filters, informs, instructs, and shapes militant enterprise.

That's a little terror incognita all it's own, and I'm just barely a toddler in it.

So for Americans, Canadians, Europeans, and Chinamen--really most men in most countries across the planet--let's please dismiss that ownership-implying phrase, "our war endeavors."

Who here has also read The Sealed Nectar: Biography of the Noble Prophet by Safi-ur-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri?

Why not?

Never heard of it?

Not available to you?

From the title page: "This Book was awarded First Prize by the Muslim World League at world-wide competition on the biography of the Prophet held at Makkah Al-Mukarramah in 1399 H / 1979."

One might think a book possessing a greatness relevant to more than one billion people would have a little cachet in the world at large.

It's published by Maktaba Dar-us-Salam -- http://www.dar-us-salam.com/ -- and it is available through them as well as Amazon and its resellers.

Have you -- anyone here - read it?

Curious about it?

"Our war endeavors . . . ." Funny how that works.

Here's a paragraph from the biography, and it comes up late, page 320 for the First Edition which runs to 503 pages:

"The battle of the Trench took place in the fifth year Hijri. The siege of Madinah started in Shawwal and ended in Dhul Qa'dah, i.e., it lasted for over a month. It was in fact a battle of nerves rather than of losses. No bitter fighting was recorded; nevertheless, it was one of the most decisive battles in the early history of Islam and proved beyond a shadow of doubt that no forces, however huge, could ever exterminate the nascent Islamic power growing steadily in Madinah. When Allah obliged the Confederates to evacuate, His Messenger was in a position to confidently declare that thenceforth he would take the initiative in war and would not wait for the land of Islam to be invaded."

I'd like to tell you that's highly selective cherry-picking for a quotation on my part, but it's not. From the past come echoes of the present in every chapter.

I'll leave the thread to return to its discussion of war in general, but the way some twist the language to fault the victims of aggression strikes me as shameful.

America and much of the rest of the world has been forced to spend in this area of defense, but probably, we're not doing so wisely, and that partly out of habit, out of ignorance, and then in response to an altered and much enlarged and potent threat preserved in a portion of the globalized literary experience and adopted as a literal script in some quarters.

Cited Reference

Al-Mubarakpuri, Safi-ur-Rahman. Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum (The Sealed Nectar): Biography of the Noble Prophet. P. 196. Saudi Arabia, UK, USA, Pakistan: Maktaba Dar-us-Salam, 1995.

Other Reference

Wikipedia. "Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Raheeq_Al-Makhtum

Wikipedia. "Safi-ur-Rahman Al-Mubarakpuri": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safi-ur-Rahman_Al-Mubarakpuri

# # #

Zimbabwe--The Whole World is Not Watching

Gibbon might be horrified.

For once, a dictator whose rule has been so brutal, heinous, and incompetent that his people, by the tens of thousands, have braved, among other things, crocodiles in their flight into neighboring labor pools has not suffered invasion and imposed administration by those same neighbors.

Zimbabwe has turned at least comprehensible history on its head.

Given fertile lands and plenty of water, a dose of English Positivism and associated agricultural can-do, plus busy and cooperating populations, and that whatever their issues, Zimbabwe had for a while become the green jewel of Africa.

Then: lightly attended warfare and revolution, the coming of the War Vets, a young ideologue for a politician--nothing like a bomb, more something like the mob: the slow development of a thugocracy, crude but adept at pursuing programs--or simply supporting compulsions and habits--having to do with intimidation, racism, and theft, farm by farm, business after business, a key family or personality here, another there.

This is how Reuters feels about the article whose content I'm going to copy and you may go on to read here: "Unlike some other content on this website, the written content in this article may be republished or redistributed by any means free of charge." (reference URL: http://www.alertnet.org/db/crisisprofiles/ZW_CRI.htm) .

Duly noted, this is the Zimbabwe created by Robert Mugabe:

Last reviewed: 05-12-2008

AGRICULTURAL COLLAPSE RUINS ECONOMY

Hit by drought, HIV/AIDS and economic meltdown, Zimbabwe is in the grip of its worst humanitarian crisis since independence.

Female life expectancy 43 years

Agriculture devastated

World's highest inflation

Twenty years ago the country was hailed as an African success story and dubbed the "breadbasket" of southern Africa. Now it has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world, and a large proportion of the population is dependent on food aid.

Farming is the backbone of Zimbabwe's economy, but agriculture has been crippled by the combined effects of drought, HIV/AIDS and controversial government land reforms.

Unemployment is sky-high and galloping inflation has made basic foodstuffs, fuel, health and school unaffordable for many. Millions of Zimbabweans have fled to neighbouring countries.

Zimbabwe's crisis has escalated since efforts to forge a power-sharing government - following disputed presidential elections in March 2008 - ended in deadlock.

Key facts

Estimated life expectancy in 2006 43 years (women), 44 years (men) ( WHO 2008)

Percentage of population malnourished 45 percent ( WFP)

No. displaced More than 880,000 (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 2007)

No. who lost incomes/homes in 2005 state crackdown on shantytowns 700,000 (United Nations)

Percentage of people living on less than $2 a day 83 percent (U.N. Human Development Report 2007/2008)

About those "contoversial land reforms"--click the buy-it-now button at Amazon for Peter Godwin's great book, When A Crocodile Eats The Sun.

That sleepy old Alertnet report would seem now about two weeks old (12/5/2008), so let's come up to about the hour with some fast Googling: Nelson Banya, writing for Reuters, reports "Death toll tops 1,100 from Zimbabwe cholera": http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnJOE4BH0FW.html

Banya quickly notes, "South African ruling African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma ruled out military intervention and backed a diplomatic push as the way to end political deadlock and prevent a total collapse of the once relatively prosperous nation."

Gosh, who wants to save people?

Let's try the United States.

This commentary comes from a Voice of America piece by Zulu Blessing, September 17, 2008: "On Wednesday U.S. Ambassador James McGee articulated more specific criteria by which Washington will measure the success of the agreement, calling for a “ratcheting up” towards adherence to key principles including the restoration of the rule of law, respect for human rights, a crackdown on corruption, and the restoration of a market economy." (http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-09/2008-09-17-voa64.cfm?CFID=80205122&CFTOKEN=88687003).

Nothing, of course, has "ratcheted up" in Zimbabwe for quite a while.

Overlooking a grievous insult to U.S. Assistant Secretary Jendayi Frazer--earlier this year, Mugabe likened her to a globe trotting prostitute (http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/05/26/zimbabwe.mugabe/index.html)--the United States has nonetheless provided "6.2 million U.S. dollars to help combat the cholera outbreak" in addition to $4.6 million already dispensed for providing "emergency water, sanitation, and hygiene programs" (source: http://www.state.gov/p/af/). 

U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Henrietta Fore leveled this charge: " want to make one thing clear: This cholera outbreak did not happen overnight. Over the years, Zimbabwe's healthcare system has deteriorated and infrastructure has collapsed. Poor water and sanitation systems, coupled with increasingly inaccessible health and other services, have caused the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe. This outbreak is a breakdown of the Zimbabwe's Government services, pure and simple."

Video source, December 11, 2008 (embedded at the end of this piece): http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1857622883/bctid4564390001 .

Transcript from same: http://www.state.gov/f/releases/113150.htm .

Rumors, allegedly launched by Mugabe, that Botswana has provided training grounds or services to opposition forces seem to remain rumors. (Reference: Butty, James. "Botswana Rejects Zimbabwe's Accusations as Lies." Voice of America, December 16, 2008: http://voanews.com/english/Africa/2008-12-16-voa1.cfm .

Who who would want to be the force majeur to interrupt the destruction by neglect that is leveling Zimbabwe?

The humanitarain and political interests in the world are "monitoring" Zimbabwe, which means we care, I suppose, but we don't care enough to intervene with other than multi-million dollar bandaids, the headaches attending stronger intervention proving more fearful than the spectacle of children eating rats and thousands dying of cholera.

Humanity--we are not there yet!

More frightful and diabolical and fully comparable to the miseries attending the Islamic Small Wars: whether motivated by vanity, nationalism, or religious zealotry, the world's rag-tag armies of organized brutes may both destroy and capture whole countries without bringing as much as a farm, factory, school, or health care system to them--and no one can stop them.

In the post-conventional war scenarios, the real business isn't public, paper trails (and magnetic ones too) may be flung everywhere, and the courtesy shot across the bow is a note on the door telling someone to leave.

# # #

Almost Homeless - About that Ghostly Post

Last week, with cooperation from the subject, I ran a post about a woman, her fiance, and children facing imminent homelessness.  Cash shortages, health issues, job loss--the usual stew was in the works. 

I thought I'd have a survival story I could tap for months or years. 

A day or two after posting, I got the request to change the names. I had used only first names, albeit with reference to my real person's modeling web page, but such was part of the point of making a private story public.

If I tell you that I'm telling you the truth, I would also be telling you I don't want to write with pseudonyms.  The pseudonym, a once-useful device, perhaps, but one also associated with "composites", which, however, truthful, needs must be fictions nonetheless.

What happened: the subject got a small inheritance, enough to keep the family in its apartment through the holidays.  Even though the precipitating issues and structures remain, the few weeks reprieve took the edge off desparation, making publicity less useful.

That too won't pass.

With the genesis of the coming disaster located in America's board rooms, the demonizing of the coming homeless population may be cut short by better knowing those about to float along on the tide and addressing their capabilities and potential as well as their needs.

It may leave me with nothing to write on this topic, but I'm not going to run composites under the guise of journalism; I'm equally reluctant and probably will not follow any "true story" beneath the caveat "only the names have been changed"--to protect who, I should have to ask, from what?

If there's a story to tell about the inexorable working of things, I will either tell it truthfully or both acknowledge and publish it as fiction.

Also, having retracted last week's story, I'm disinclined to do so ever again.

# # #

Kaiser Permanente's Surprise Billing

Time was (like last year), if I needed to see a doctor through my HMO, Kaiser Permanente, I'd make an appointment, show up, produce a co-payment, and I would see a doctor, and the doctor would provide me with a well deserved scolding (just kidding) and treatment.

As a matter of fact, through Kaiser, a few years ago I had a general practitioner who would take care of minor problems on the spot--EEG, frozen nitrogen to spray off a cancerous growth: no problem.  Done. 

"I'll see you again in a couple of years," said good Dr. Bremmer.

That was then.

This week, without clarification in the election of the premium plan--or sufficiently readable for my tired eyes--also sans warning at the physician's level, or desk notification at the time of visit, and without precedent in earlier years, just look at what Santa has brought me:

There is a second page.

It looks like I'm paying 80 percent of lab fees, a cost set by the insurer and formerly covered by the premium pool.  In Orwellian New Healthcare Speak, this is about the insured health care consumer sharing the cost of treatment (through other than premium payments and co-pay tolls, of course).

This strikes me as similar to airlines charging first-bag fees, unannounced, on top of their ticket price, the ticket no longer fully representing the price of air travel.

Lab work performed on my behalf, this time: routine blood diagnostics (one visit).

I don't have the key to the "procedure codes" (of course not), but will now imagine that each represents a slice of separable diagnostics of the one blood draw.  This makes a single visit to the lab for a blood workup $144.00 plus the co-pay, which, I think was $30 (total: $174 for a short visit with a doctor, a blood draw, and related lab work).

One may well ask what the charges might be for other lab work: how much will Kaiser charge for urinalysis? 

How about something more exotic, like a spinal tap or an MRI?

Would there be a ceiling on those prices? 

Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Chairman and CEO George Halvorson would seem no stranger to, at minimum, questionable practices in the social concern aspect of the medical business.

In Y2000, Mike Hatch of the Office of Minnesota Attorney General stated "Based on the information provided by HealthPartners, there is a question as to whether the compensation paid to certain executives is consistent with state and federal law."

http://kaiserpapers.info/minnesota/executivecompensation.html

(I'm going to provide reference as I go along in this blog, just so you can see how the impression develops).

Just a few years later, 2005, blogger Justen Deal had this hearsay from Mike Hatch to offer: ". . . the Attorney General said there was a complete “lack of accountability and proper stewardship.” He even alluded to Mr. Halvorson being a part of a group of “bad [executives]…who personally profit at the expense of…charitable organization[s] and [their] mission[s].”

http://justendeal.com/blog/2007/12/05/halvorson-lying-to-the-irs/

Justen Deal's source for his statement: STATEMENT OF MINNESOTA ATTORNEY GENERAL MIKE
HATCH BEFORE THE SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE, APRIL 5, 2005: http://justendeal.com/HatchTestimony.pdf

At the time of Mike Hatch's interest, George Halvorson was President and CEO of "HealthPartners".  This comes directly from then (1999 - 2007) Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch through the aforementioned URL:

"After completing the compliance review of Allina in 2001, we commenced a compliance review of HealthPartners, another large nonprofit HMO and hospital system in Minnesota.  HealthPartners was registered with our office as a charitable trust. It has over $1 billion in revenue and operates over nineteen nonprofit and for-profit subsidiaries. The HealthPartners compliance review also took about a year and a half to complete. As with Allina, the compliance review documented a lack of accountability and proper stewardship.

"HealthPartners paid for over 100 flights to over 30 international destinations, including every continent but Antarctica. It paid over $17,000 for its CEO's "trade mission retreats" to Brazil, Chile, and Ireland, though the organization only operates in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. It paid $9,000 for its CEO to travel to Australia to find out: "Are we pricing consumers out of health care?"

"HealthPartners paid over $30,000 per year for its CEO and board members to travel to four-star Florida resorts, where they golfed, dined, and entertained themselves at the nonprofit's expense. HealthPartners paid almost $250,000 for its executives' membership
in and use of country and golf clubs. It paid over $50,000 for its CEO's season tickets to the Minnesota Vikings.

"HealthPartners paid for executives and board members to give each other expensive gifts, including golf clubs, kayaks, crystal, and spa services. It paid for its CEO's living expenses, which it attempted to conceal in expense reports. For instance, a Garrison Keillor satire and book on Harley Davidson motorcycles were billed as "business strategies research."

"Items such as the CEO's lean cuisine dinners were billed as "supplies."  Executives received generous savings and retirement plans, such as "split dollar" life insurance plans, retention bonuses, mutual fund option purchase plans, capital accumulation plans, and supplemental executive retirement plans. HealthPartners took steps to conceal the payments by mislabeling them, and it improperly omitted executives'deferred compensation from the IRS Form 990.

"After HealthPartners began to pay for massages at board meeting, masseuses were implored to "bring more oil" to the next meeting. Ironically, the HMO refused to cover massage therapy for victims of Parkinson's Disease.

Once again, the HealthPartners board of directors not only failed to prevent these abuses, but actively participated in them."

This comes from the Kaiser Permanente web site, March 7, 2002:

"Oakland, CA — George C. Halvorson, president and CEO of HealthPartners in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has been selected chairman and CEO of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals. Halvorson will step into his new role May 1.

"I have always looked to Kaiser Permanente for ideas and inspiration as a key leader in providing not-for-profit, integrated health care," Halvorson said. "The next several years will present some challenges as well as some great opportunities to model quality health care for the world. No one is better positioned than Kaiser Permanente to achieve that goal."

Source: Marshall, Laura H.  "Kaiser Permanente names new health plan and hospitals chairman and CEO."  Press Release.  Kaiser Permanente News Center, March 7, 2002: http://xnet.kp.org/newscenter/pressreleases/nat/nat_020307_halvorson.html

Every day at Oppenheim Arts & Letters, I work a little bit on Islamic thought, Islamic conflict-related events, and the Jihadi whose actions combine straightforward warfare--like this week's fiery sabotage of a coalition transportation depot in Pakistan--with much impersonal mayhem and murder worldwide.

Every now and then, as in my previous post, I enjoy the distraction provided by such as a Robert Mugabe whose sense of privilege has led an entire and once-productive nation into the most thorough and miserable impoverishment and self-destruction imaginable.

Seldom, however -- in fact never across about 400 posts -- have I had the privilege of discovering a board room suit that so well combines visible public service with questionable accounting practices and social ethics.  While at the helm of a mighty healthcare ship, probably on course, but no one really knows, Halvorson would seem intent on  collecting a few more bucks from me ($174 for a 15 minute visit with a doctor and related routine lab work) on top of premium payments while treating himself and his peers like royalty, free to tax his subjects without limit, and able to conceal or mislabel expenses, ploys that plainly belie guilt or worry over the impression executive behavior would make if such expenses were plainly stated and publically acknowledged. 

Mr. Halvorson has a very good defense, of course: he hasn't been indicted by any government, state or Federal, for doing anything wrong.

There's no crime in being a fat cat, and I wouldn't want to make it one, but there would seem something amiss with a health care aristocracy getting its hands ever more deeply into consumer pockets while remaining generally unresponsive to their financial positions and related complaints.

At the personal level--what's another $144 for health care?  It's a discouragement, for sure, when it comes to using the health care system, but it's a small one. 

What happens when a major medical condition comes up, God forbid, I don't know, but the bill received last week has dampened my trust in Kaiser, and trust, perhaps far more than anything else, is what helps one make an appointment to see a doctor in the first place.

Also, this must be mentioned, my girlfriend recently got a similarly unexpected bill from Blue Cross / Blue Shield. 

After struggling to make premiums into the several hundreds of dollars a month, Blue Cross has charged her to recover for itself a high percentage of the cost of a simple prescribed course of physical therapy.

One wonders if there's a relationship between administrative entropy throughout the health care system and the recovery of cost through additional consumer billings: the more we pay, the more the system cares to consume with less and less regard for health care delivery across its insurance-subscribed populations.

From Mike Hatch's description, we well know where some premium payments may be going, but what percentage of them, for how long--and how bad is this racket going to get?

How complicated are insurance premium program descriptions going to become?

How much are consumers going to pay, personally, for how long, and for how much less service?

Here's a little more reading about George Halvorson, a journalist long before he became a health care executive:

CDC.  "Health Care Reform Now! A Prescription for Change."  Book review., 5:4, October 2008: http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2008/Oct/07_0258.htm?s_cid=pcd54a137_x

Halvorson, George.  "Chairman and CEO George Halvorson Testifies Before U.S. Senate Committee."  Kaiser Permanente News Center, July 17, 2008: http://xnet.kp.org/newscenter/stories/nat/2008-07-17.html

HIStalk.  "Internal E-Mail Criticizing Kaiser's Health Connect Lands Employee in Hot Water; CIO Quits."  November 7, 2006: http://histalk.blog-city.com/internal_email_criticizing_kaisers_healthconnect_lands_emplo.htm

McCue, Michael T.  "More Strong Medicine: A look back at HealthPartners CEO George Halvorson's 1993 book shows healthcare is still suffering."  Managed Healthcare Executive, September 1, 2001: http://managedhealthcareexecutive.modernmedicine.com/mhe/Executive+Profile/More-Strong-Medicine/ArticleDouble/Article/detail/6743

Plas, Joe Vanden.  "Epic responds to critics of electronic record installation."  Wisconsin Technology Network, November 15, 2006: http://wistechnology.com/articles/3491/

The primary ranting site for Kaiser Permanente would seem to be http://www.kaiserthrive.org/.

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Zimbabwe: Cholera, Dictatorship, Ignorance

Start with the Reuters' video covering the outbreak of cholera in Zimbabwe: Legg, Sonia.  "Zimbabwe's Cholera Epidemic Spreads."  Reuters, December 7, 2008: http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=95063&videoChannel=1

What next--cannibalism?

Would even that come to pass, count on hearing the familiar African Union line: "Only dialogue between the Zimbabwean parties, supported by the AU and other regional actors, can restore peace and stability to that country."  (Salva Rweyemamu, spokesman for AU chairman Jakaya Kikwete [1]). 

According to IRIN, between 1993 and 1998, the World Health Organization produced no reports of cholera in Zimbabwe, but recorded in 1998 some 335 cases and 12 fatalities [2]. 

Merely ten years later and practically to the date:

"2008 - December - The Limpopo River, which delineates the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe before flowing through Mozambique to the Indian Ocean, tests positive for cholera. The UN says there have been 12,546 cases and 565 deaths since August, although civil society says cholera deaths could be in excess of 1,000." [2]

This is cholera as observed with the aid of a scanning electron microscope[3]:

According to Wikipedia [4]:

"Writer Susan Sontag wrote that cholera was more feared than some other deadly diseases because it dehumanized the victim. Diarrhea and dehydration were so severe that the victim could literally shrink into a wizened caricature of his or her former self before death.[5] Other symptoms include rapid dehydration, nosebleed, rapid pulse, dry skin, tiredness, abdominal cramps, nausea, leg cramps, and vomiting."

Also from Wiki: "The success of treatment is greatly impacted by the speed and method of treatment. If treated quickly and properly, the mortality rate is less than 1%, however, untreated the mortality rate rises to 50–60%."

Although crude water filtration--even cloth will help--may provide Zimbabweans with at least one partial preventive measure, the more effective strategy would seem water filtration and treatment--i.e., modern sanitation, a benefit of good, responsible, and working governance.

The world has witnessed Zimbabwe's decline over decades, from African bread basket to the poster child for want, and here is the end: an old man with a young one's dreams witnessing in his final days the spectacle of his people dying of a once nationally eradicated disease for want of nothing more or less than the compassionate and wise leadership he failed to provide across the course of some 28 years in power.

With Mugabe's government bankrupt and its money worthless, with his citizens fleeing for work in neighboring states, with the children of his state eating rats and inedible tubors, and with hundreds, possibly soon to be thousands dying of a once easily defeated disease, one might think Mugabe's own people would retire him, but in such straits and in the way of contemporary tragedies, suffering no longer ends with coup, suicide, or retirement: it simply continues until there is nothing left for saving, and the culture and land that has supported so much suffering have been burned over, symbolically at least, for renewal.

About six hours ago, according to Agency France Presse, Robert Mugabe "rejected pressure for him to resign, even as his health minister called for more international aid to battle a deadly cholera epidemic." [5]

OA&L Reference

Oppenheim, James S.  "Zimbabwe is Burning."  OA&L, July 8, 2008: http://commart.typepad.com/oppenheim_arts_letters/2008/07/zimbabwe-is-burning.html

Oppenheim, James S. "Zimbabwe: Peter Godwin's Book & How a Country Deconstructs."  OA&L, February 19, 2008: http://commart.typepad.com/oppenheim_arts_letters/2008/02/zimbabwe-peter.html

Oppenheim, James S. "Zimbabwe: Robert Mugabe's Birthday."  OA&L, March 14, 2008: http://commart.typepad.com/oppenheim_arts_letters/2008/03/zimbabwe-robert.html

Oppenheim, James S. "Zimbabwe: The Polite Video."  OA&L, July 2, 2008: http://commart.typepad.com/oppenheim_arts_letters/2008/07/zimbabwe-the-polite-video.html

Oppenheim, James S.  "Zimbabwe: Unimaginable."  OA&L, September 25, 2008: http://commart.typepad.com/oppenheim_arts_letters/2008/09/zimbabwe-unimaginable.html

Cited Reference

1. Banya, Nelson.  "Zimbabwe cholera death toll near 600 - UN."  Reuters Africa, December 9, 2008: http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL9499401.html

2. IRIN.  "Zimbabwe: Cholera timeline": http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81845

3. T.J. Kirn, M.J. Lafferty, C.M.P Sandoe and R.K. Taylor, 2000, "Delineation of pilin domains required for bacterial association into microcolonies and intestinal colonization", Molecular Microbiology, Vol. 35(4):896-910 . Scanning electron microscope image of Vibrio cholerae bacteria, which infect the digestive system. Zeiss DSM 962 SEM Ronald Taylor, Tom Kirn, Louisa Howard Source: http://remf.dartmouth.edu/images/bacteriaSEM/source/1.html

4. Wikipedia: "Cholera": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholera

5. AFP. "Mugabe rejects Western pressure to quit." December 9, 2008: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iPgE6aqyf7QKMTlnVJPFXJ9SV60A

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