African American Political Pundit writes:
“The discussion on healthcare in America is a critical one. The proposed official AfroSpear/AfroSphere position statement on national universal health care is equally important.
I respect the hard work of Francis Holland and other AfroSpear/AfroSphere members regarding the drafting of the proposed official AfroSpear position statement. I’m however concerned that the AfroSphere is under 100 members and we should wait to build the membership up and run it through the expanded membership for consensus. I’ve always been concerned for national groups and organizations that don’t have significant constituencies speaking for larger groups of people. We should not place ourselves in a position of saying we represent a blogging constituency base, when at this point we are growing. Taking positions is great, but we should take postions once we have a larger constituency. Then our position will have more meaning, more backbone, more authority. My thought is a position statement can be drafted however, a national conference would be the best way for our position on major issues to be approved by the larger group and communicated to the public. At some point we should have a national conference.
Thoughts?”
My inital thought to AAPP statement and question is to ask: “Who/what is the AfroSphere/AfroSpear?” As far as I envisioned it, the short answer would be any Black/African blogger. I would therefore guess-timate that we are looking at, if not millions of bloggers of African descent, then at least hundred of thousands. If that is the case, then how could anyone claim to speak for, or represent the position of this AfroSphere, on any issue! We are international. We are comprised from different cultures, countries and societies. We have a variety of political, religious, philosophical and social beliefs/values/opinions. We have our own personal, as well as communal motivations, interests, agendas, visions and ambitions. Even if we break the AfroSphere down to “our” minute community of AfroSphere/AfroSpear, which is less than 100, all this would still hold true. AND as we grow, as more bloggers of African descent decide to join us, then it will be less likely that we will have consensus and/or agreement on most, if not all issues.
But isn’t that the point? It’s about listening to different voices and perspectives so we can learn. I go back to a section of “our” Mission Statement for this page, so eloquently crafted by Sylvia:
“This space is an area to gather our thoughts — thoughts that we do not or should not expect to mesh into a single river of black unity. Thoughts that we do not write to bolster our Afro-credibility. Thoughts that may seem contradictory at times. We come together to share what we think works best for us as people who have had our fates forcibly woven together. As human beings, however, this weaving can read as a blessing or a curse. These writings, presented by a variety of different perspectives of those cut from the African cloth, intend to explore the mountains and the valleys of the landscape of being a person of African descent.”
There have been a number of different perspectives taken on topics of discussion on this page. Issues that I even felt where there would be absolute consensus, like Darfur, I have found there to be differing opinions. One is even that it is primarily an American/Western created crisis. Now I may not agree but I respect and value the commentators position and critical analysis.
Like AAPP, I also “respect the hard work of Francis Holland and other AfroSpear and AfroSphere members” on their various efforts. However, working to draft positions papers which claim to represent the “AfroSphere/AfroSpear” although noble, I believe is counterproductive. I am in Canada. I am a part of the AfroSphere/AfroSpear. Now although I do follow American politics, I don’t and would never endorse any U.S. presidential candidate. Although I support adequate and affordable health for everyone, I am not in a position to endorse any specific national health care plan for African-Americans. There are other bloggers in the AfroSphere/AfroSpear in the U.S., who may consider themselves conservative and/or republicans, who I am sure support another field of candidates for president and who have their own opinions on national health care plans for AAs. Therefore, announcing this ultimatum in regards to the so-called: “The Proposed Official AfroSpear Position Statement on Universal National Health Care”, that:
“Those who do not express a view will be presumed to be in support of this Position Statement in the absence of a statement to the contrary and, once adopted, the Position Statement will be deemed formally adopted unanimously by the member blogs of the AfroSpear, subject to change only by a process similar to the one which resulted in this statement or another formal process subsequently accepted by our AfroSpear group.” …. well…. is not a position I support. I would suggest that in drafting any plan or statement, the membership of our AfroSphere/AfroSpear can be utilized to garner their “individual” support to these initiatives. This support could be recorded via a petition process, and then presented to “whomever” as the position of the signatures and not of the AfroSphere/AfroSpear per se. This is more acceptable (to me at least).
I finally want to make a comment on this exchange:
”And so what happens if we just build up a huge body of non-motivated people? That’s all she wrote?”
mark bey: Pretty much. Freedom comes with a price and responsiblity. The responsibility is the fact that all who are concious are obligated to work towards change, the price is the sweat and inconvience of working, writing researching when no one else appears to be showing the same committment. Freedom and better lives will not come on thier own.
Not everyone within the AfroSphere/Afrospear have the same motivation(s). We all may be personally motivated by political, social, religious, cultural, artistic, economic issues or any combination of these issues. There are those who may be “non-motivated” beyond just blogging for the fun of it. All are a part of the AfroSphere. All are welcome to the AfroSpear. All are valuable to me.
These are my thoughts.
Asabagna
I’m not feeling very well this weekend and I knew that was a strong paragraph above (“presumed to be in support”), even as I wrote it. I’m sorry for being overly pushy with that, but I’d rather be pushy then find myself in a position to be saying that something is the position of the AfroSpear when a lot of others among us don’t even know that we’ve taken a position.
So, because health care EVERYWHERE is over great importance to me, I’m hoping that we can state here in the AfroSpear, at least in a general way, that improving health care for Black people is one of the reasons that we have come together and chosen to advocate together.
I don’t live in Iraq, but I have some clear feelings about what’s going on there, and I don’t think I have to be Iraqi to express an opinion about what’s going on there. I don’t think people who live outside of the Unhereby announces its support and advocacy for programs of national universal health care worldwideited States are precluded from expressing an opinion about the fact that the US infant mortality rate for Blacks in the South is three times that of US whites and
three times of of Latinos and Blacks in Cuba. That’s an international embarrassment!
During the Civil Rights Movement, when Blacks in the US were herded with water hoses, we often said “The Whole World IS Watching.” We counted on international outrage at US abuses to bring the sort of embarrassment that could turns things around. Then, the international involvement of TransAfrica was essential in ending Apartheid, even though some of the most diligent anti-apartheid activists did not live in South Africa. (I brought the issue to the city council of my Massachusetts community, thousands of miles and another continent away from South Africa, because justice is no longer an local issue in an increasingly global world.)
It makes sense that the international AfroSpear should call for national health care in the United States, since the United States is one of the few (if any) industrialized nations that doesn’t have national health care. We are focusing on the United States, because that’s where the biggest discrepancy exists between the vast wealth of the country and the number of people who have little or no access to health care.
Take a look at the Wikipedia article on national health care which, in turn, has copious useful references:
“In most developed countries and many developing countries health care is provided to everyone regardless of their ability to pay. The National Health Service in the United Kingdom was the world’s first universal health care system provided by government. It was established in 1948 by Clement Atlee’s Labour government. Alternatively, compulsory government funded health insurance with nominal fees can be provided, as in France which has the best health system in the world, or Italy which has the second best according to the World Health Organisation.[2] Other examples are Medicare in Australia, established in the 1970s by the Labour government, and by the same name Medicare in Canada, established between 1966 and 1984. Universal health care contrasts to the systems like health care in the United States or South Africa, though South Africa is one of the many countries attempting health care reform.”
The proposed Position Statement says the AfroSpear, “hereby announces its support and advocacy for programs of national universal health care worldwide . . .” But, if we can’t get ourselves together to support health care for people in individual countries, then what good is it that we support is as a general principle?
So, here’s my e-mail response, with great respect to all of the AfroSpear participants who have participated in thinking about what we can do to promote affordable accessible health care for Blacks:
AAPP:
I think that if we announce that one purpose of the AfroSpear is advocating for affordable and accessible health care, then that will help us in our recruiting efforts, because it will show that, in spite of being professionals and intellectuals, we are grounded in the issues that are most important to all Black people in the US and elsewhere. A strong position statement on health care will establish what kind of group we are politically and encourage people who see things as we do to come and join in with us.
Why should anyone want to join a political group that doesn’t have any political positions? As more members come in and as we research the health care issue, we can make successive documents. But if anyone is AGAINST affordable and universal health care, then maybe they should be looking for a different group to join.
(I’m in a very bad mood over the last few days. I struggle a lot with depression and sometimes wish I were not alive at all. At times like this, I understand how important it is to have access to competent doctors and psychopharmaceuticals. I had this access in France, and we have access to medicines in Brazil at 25% of what they would cost in the US, but if I were in the United States, I’d really be stuck. Perhaps this is part of why this issue seems so urgent to me, and to a lot of others. I cannot afford to live in the United States again until the health care situation improves, among other things.)
Here’s what I proposed as a position statement, in the 4th Draft, after shopping it around to all of the group members whose e-mail addresses I have. Like everybody else who contributed to it and reviewed it, we are less concerned with the individual words than we are with announcing the principle that the AfroSpear believes in accessible, afforable health care all – something that, unfortunately, is more likely to be available in Canada, France and even Brazil (where I live now) than in the United States of America:
Mở đề tàiPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 4:46 pm Post subject: 4th Draft: AfroSpear National Health Care Position Statement Reply with quote Edit/Delete this post Delete this post
4th Draft: The Proposed Official AfroSpear Position Statement on National Universal Health Care
The AfroSpear, a new movement of Black bloggers from throughout the United States and the world, hereby announces its support and advocacy for programs of national universal health care worldwide, and particularly for the implementation a program of national universal health care in the United States of America. We support strong federally-sponsored programs that will provide affordable, accessible and universal care for everyone in America.
It should be recognized that the political landscape is, indeed, steep. Yet, there is a movement growing throughout the country. That movement is shaped by real world effects of the broken American health care system: young black men in Harlem who have no doctor, small business owners in Deklab County, Georgia who are overburdened with the costs of providing their employees with health insurance, and the woman who is denied health insurance because of her history of high blood pressure. We call on candidates of both parties, to offer their plans to end this moral atrocity and national disgrace. Jared Roebuck at the AfroSpear: “Action on Health Care”
The United States spends twice as much money per capita on health care as other developed nations and still has 43 million uninsured. In spite of spending so much on so few, the US has poorer health care outcomes than countries that spend much less. http://www.kff.org/insurance/snapshot/chcm010307oth.cfm The AfroSpear Needs a Proposal for National Universal Health Care
The time has come for fundamental change. America’s universal health care system should have a large element of rationality. It should not pay for elective and non-reconstructive cosmetic surgeries or other procedures that are not medically necessary. On the other hand, we can no longer afford to have medical care doled as it it were a commodity like cocoa beans or pork bellies.
We live in a growing and complex industrialized society of nearly 300 million people, however our current methods of health care delivery remain irrationally market driven and unsystematic. Planning for and devising national and universal health care delivery systems with an eye to financial markets instead of medical needs will simply replicate the chaos and dysfunction of the current system.
Like fire departments and police departments, universal health care is not a matter of markets and the microeconomic theories of supply and demand. National health care reflects the responsibility of our government to provide for public safety. We expect the government’s fire and safety to be carried out efficiently and with a minimum of waste, but the balance sheet these departments exhibit is what they have done to contribute to our safety, not the profits they deliver to outside investors and entrepreneurs.
The health of American society and civilization must be paramount. Just as we do not demand that responding to a fire or saving a life in a snowstorm be profitable, we ought not demand or expect that saving a life in the operating room or the doctor’s office will be profitable. We pay for these services through our taxes because they are essential to us, not because they are profitable to others.
Every industrialized nation and many developing nations already have implemented national health care programs, to improve the health and longevity of their peoples. Our AfroSpear members from Canada, the European Union and Brazil attest to the efficacy of programs of national health care for increasing efficiency and reducing costs to improve access to health care.
But, because the United States has failed to implement such a program, the United States is number forty in worldwide infant mortality, and has an infant mortality rate higher than Cuba’s. In fact , the infant mortality rate for southern Blacks ( 17.7%) is almost three times the rate for the largely Latino and Black population of Cuba ( 6.6%). The AfroSpear believes that medically necessary health care should become a statutory right of everyone present within the United States and its territories.
About 30% of American adults have not seen a dentist in the last year and nearly 30% of American third graders have at least one untreated cavity. Like the response to the flooding of New Orleans, the lack of a national program of government-sponsored health care has become an international embarrassment for the United States of America.
Fast Facts on the Nation’s Health Care
Responding to Jared Roebuck on Health Care, Anger and Disgust at White Male Leadership Fuel Candidacies of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama
Yesterday, I wrote a piece called THE GENESIS OF THE AFROSPEAR POSITION STATEMENT ON NATIONAL UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE
I hope what I just submitted about this got posted correctly, but I’m going to write a bit more, just in case. In the year 2000, after searching unsuccessfully for the affordable medical care I needed in the United States, I decided to move to France. There, I got a level of care that would have been unimaginable in the United States with the money I had, living off student loans and other pittances. Unlike the US Government, the French Government recognized my need for medical care and covered the medicines that were prescribed 100%. I could see the doctor without first fighting with an insurance company. I payed just $700.00 per year TOTAL for tuition AND insurance in the French National Health Plan.
But, partly because Bush’s war in Iraq depressed the value of the dollar until I could no longer afford to eat in France, I had to move to Brazil.
Again, the medical care that is available here in Brazil to poor people is, in many ways, much better than is available to the poor and the middle class in the United States. For example, the anti-depressant medicines that cost me 10% per month of my lawyer’s salary in the US are available here at 10% to 25% of what they cost in the United States, at government-run pharmacies. Even at privately run pharmacies, medicines here cost 25% of what they do in the United States.
When I had an infection in my foot here in Brazil, I went to the hospital and they treated me with no money requested, no application process and no need to prove that I was “eligible” to have the parasite removed that was eating away my flesh. But, when I was in the United States last, I was told that I was ineligible for Government-assisted medical care, even when I was unemployed and was living from a tiny pension. The reason we need to focus on the medical care in the United States, is because that’s one of the places where the problem is the worst for people who cannot afford medical care.
So, do you want to know why the AfroSpear should get involved RIGHT NOW in the fight for American Blacks to have access to affordable health care? It’s because American Blacks have less access to health care than Blacks in France, Cuba and Brazil. It’s because the United States has less equal distribution of health care resources than any other industrialized country and many so-called “Third World” countries. Many of us literally have a better chance of receiving affordable health care in Thailand or São Paulo than we do in Boston or San Francisco. The infant mortality rate is three times higher in the Black South of the US (17.9%) than in Cuba (6.6%).
You want to wait a while before we declare that something needs to be done about this? Like Bush waited while people drowned in New Orleans? With all of the presidential candidates already in favor of universal health care, why would anyone join a group that can’t approve a position that at least supports the position of the Democratic candidates?
Now, I’m calling on the AfroSpear as a Black person who needs help: If we cannot agree that people in the United States have the same need for health care that people have in the rest of the world, then what can we agree upon?
This is not an intellectual exercise for me. I need health care, and I cannot afford to wait. It’s a life and death emergency issue!
Here’s a link to the Proposed Health care statement. I had wanted us to work it out in private and then announce it in public, but everyone should be able to see what we’re discussing:
4th Draft: AfroSpear National Health Care Position Statement
The AfroSpear, a new movement of Black bloggers from throughout the United States and the world, hereby announces its support and advocacy for programs of national universal health care worldwide, and particularly for the implementation a program of national universal health care in the United States of America. We support strong federally-sponsored programs that will provide affordable, accessible and universal care for everyone in America.
It should be recognized that the political landscape is, indeed, steep. Yet, there is a movement growing throughout the country. That movement is shaped by real world effects of the broken American health care system: young black men in Harlem who have no doctor, small business owners in Deklab County, Georgia who are overburdened with the costs of providing their employees with health insurance, and the woman who is denied health insurance because of her history of high blood pressure. We call on candidates of both parties, to offer their plans to end this moral atrocity and national disgrace. Jared Roebuck at the AfroSpear: “Action on Health Care”
The United States spends twice as much money per capita on health care as other developed nations and still has 43 million uninsured. In spite of spending so much on so few, the US has poorer health care outcomes than countries that spend much less. http://www.kff.org/insurance/snapshot/chcm010307oth.cfm The AfroSpear Needs a Proposal for National Universal Health Care
The time has come for fundamental change. America’s universal health care system should have a large element of rationality. It should not pay for elective and non-reconstructive cosmetic surgeries or other procedures that are not medically necessary. On the other hand, we can no longer afford to have medical care doled as it it were a commodity like cocoa beans or pork bellies.
We live in a growing and complex industrialized society of nearly 300 million people, however our current methods of health care delivery remain irrationally market driven and unsystematic. Planning for and devising national and universal health care delivery systems with an eye to financial markets instead of medical needs will simply replicate the chaos and dysfunction of the current system.
Like fire departments and police departments, universal health care is not a matter of markets and the microeconomic theories of supply and demand. National health care reflects the responsibility of our government to provide for public safety. We expect the government’s fire and safety to be carried out efficiently and with a minimum of waste, but the balance sheet these departments exhibit is what they have done to contribute to our safety, not the profits they deliver to outside investors and entrepreneurs.
The health of American society and civilization must be paramount. Just as we do not demand that responding to a fire or saving a life in a snowstorm be profitable, we ought not demand or expect that saving a life in the operating room or the doctor’s office will be profitable. We pay for these services through our taxes because they are essential to us, not because they are profitable to others.
Every industrialized nation and many developing nations already have implemented national health care programs, to improve the health and longevity of their peoples. Our AfroSpear members from Canada, the European Union and Brazil attest to the efficacy of programs of national health care for increasing efficiency and reducing costs to improve access to health care.
But, because the United States has failed to implement such a program, the United States is number forty in worldwide infant mortality, and has an infant mortality rate higher than Cuba’s. In fact , the infant mortality rate for southern Blacks ( 17.7%) is almost three times the rate for the largely Latino and Black population of Cuba ( 6.6%). The AfroSpear believes that medically necessary health care should become a statutory right of everyone present within the United States and its territories.
About 30% of American adults have not seen a dentist in the last year and nearly 30% of American third graders have at least one untreated cavity. Like the response to the flooding of New Orleans, the lack of a national program of government-sponsored health care has become an international embarrassment for the United States of America.
Fast Facts on the Nation’s Health Care
Responding to Jared Roebuck on Health Care, Anger and Disgust at White Male Leadership Fuel Candidacies of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama
Asa what I was specifically talking about in the qoute is the people over at the forum who have posted statements suggesting needs and ideas.
Those needs will have to be taken care of by the individuals who are using the forum regularly.
I was not talking about anyone in this Afrospear circle. Also I am no one to suggest how any particular person other than myself expresses thier activism.
My comments were expressed solely towards anyone who has posted on the Forum that Bronze put for us. Thier are a lot of ideas floating around waiting to be developed.
I hope that claryfies what I meant in that quote I hope all is going well with you Asa. Peace
Greetings Asabagna, AAPP, Francis, and Exodus:
Grace and Peace to you and all of the AfroSpear!
I’ve been tracking this conversation here and also on our forum and I have a few thoughts to share. I’ll post on our forum as well.
Concerns
1. The genesis of the AfroSpear, the genesis of all ‘movements’, is/are the most crucial moments in their development. We are laying a foundation here and our future growth depends upon us doing this right.
2. The point has been made, but I’ll restate again, our diaspora is diverse. It is multilingual. It is international. It is multicultural. Understanding this precludes our attempts to formulate one single consensus position. Particularly when it comes to political causes.
3. Having said that, there is no question that a “think tank” that does not lead to policy advocacy is like building a car and then never driving it!
Solutions
The AfroSpear proper should always remain true to it’s original intent. And that is to be a gathering place, a sounding board, a spring board for momentum to action.
I think a saw Bronze Trinity first suggest it, so I’ll borrow a page from her lead. Though we’ve come together and organized ourselves for greater efficacy, none of us should abdicate our individuality for the group. Individual thought will ensure integrity in our discussions and challenge all of us. (Iron sharpens Iron. — Proverbs 27:17)
Finally, I’d like to propose that within AfroSpear there should be room for sub-groups, or at least sub-movements to exist. Bloggers should advocate for the causes that represent their passions and call for action from those of the same mind. This is the natural result of blogging!
I am excited. I confess to being new to the blogosphere in general and to AfroSphere in particular. However, I have been active in community involvement for sometime and I have to say that what we are doing here is special.
My prayer is that we will look back at these times in days to come and wonder if we really understood just how far this was going to go!
G&P,
B
Yo Mark! How you been keepin’ bruh?
I didn’t imply you were talking about anyone in particular, much less anyone in the AfroSpear Circle. However, thanks for the clarification, although I didn’t see the need for one.
Much Love
Asa
Belizebound,
I concur wholeheartedly with your sentiments. Thanks for bringing more clarity.
Asa
Yo ASA I am great I hope everything is great on your end. I read all of the post over here but I dont comment all the time because I am trying to learn.
Francis Holland said something to me very interesting one time and that was that individual afrospear bloggers could orginize and unite around similar passions and interest.
Which Francis has done in conjuction with eddie griffin to get justice for black folks unfairly sentenced within the criminal justice system. He is working with eddie griffin in fact I think francis probably created that blog I know he is a contributor. The energy and love that Francis blogs with will attract powerful people who have a passion for what he and eddie griffin are doing. Once that happens look out.
I said all of that to say that it is important to network in order to start comming up with some ideas on the best way to move forward. Once again when bloggers with similar passions link up very power things can go down very quickly. Thier is some low hanging fruit (issues of concer) causing black folks either inconvience or straight agony that can be dealth with by activism that can be practiced by average black citizens.
Asabagna,
Hear, Hear from UK to your post.
People gather here for a variety of reasons.
winslie
Greetings all afro-spherians, i’ve checked out several of your blogs – but still am not moved to join because it seems there a requirement/commitment that i’m not ready to take.
Asabanga states that anyone of African Descent who merely blogs it welcomed, however another comment was made above that makes me hesitate:
“The AfroSpear proper should always remain true to it’s original intent. And that is to be a gathering place, a sounding board, a spring board for momentum to action.”
What type of action exactly is the Afro-sphere leaning towards?
Personally, I simply blog to share my ideas and thoughts – some are on the subject of my heritage, some are not. From what I understand about my history – it was these types of inconsistencies which dismantled many of the parties during the Civil Rights movement.
thanks for the clarity,
CAP – just trying to understand….
Hey CAP… welcome. In regards to your concerns, there really is no inconsistency (not as I see it anyway). Refer to our “About” and “Mission Statement” pages on this site to know what we are all about. There is no requirement/commitment to join us other than to be respectful and not sow any discord… which is all explained when you refer to the pages above.
If engaging with us inspires or causes you to become involved in a project or a specific “action” … good. If not… that’s good too. There are some members who have been inspired to become involved in different projects. Some individual. Some as a group. We are supportive of all efforts. If you blog simply to share your ideas and thoughts, you are welcome here. Your perspective and experience is valuable to the AfroSphere/AfroSpear.
I hope this brings more clarity.
Asa
Thanx, Asa – that helped greatly.