Global Issues: August 2009 Archives

One of the first signs that Obama's healthcare reform efforts were headed southward was the backdoor deal the White House struck with the pharmaceutical industry earlier this summer. Big Pharma's promise to help “save” Americans $80 billion under the reformed healthcare system sounds generous, but more likely reflects how much companies felt like giving in exchange for maintaining their stranglehold on the market.

And now we learn that drug manufacturers are exporting this lust for profits to our 'trading partners' abroad. While poor Americans are crippled by high drug costs, folks in Guatemala don't get a public option, a town hall, or even a vote. Thanks to U.S. trade policies, they just get a bill for brand-name drugs that could cost as much as 850 percent more than a local generic version.

According to a study on the Central American Free Trade Agreement and Guatemala's prescription drug market, intellectual property regulations have drastically limited access to critical drugs like insulin and HIV/AIDS treatments. Center for Policy Analysis on Trade and Health (CPATH) analyzed Guatemala's pharmaceuticals market under CAFTA and found that drug companies have capitalized heavily on “data exclusivity” and patent rules that restrict the availability of generic medicines.

Written by: Deepa Iyer, Executive Director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT)

The Shah Rukh Khan incident at Newark International Airport over the weekend has elicited a range of viewpoints and opinions. Shah Rukh Khan, a famous Bollywood actor, was detained for over an hour, and interrogated by U.S. Customs and Borders Protection (CBP) authorities at Newark International Airport where he had landed. Mr. Khan believes that he was detained and interrogated because of his last name and his religious affiliation. The CBP (a part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security) claims that officials were following standard protocol.

Mr. Khan’s incident might be gaining international attention because he is a celebrity, but the truth is that ordinary American citizens and immigrants here in the United States grapple with racial and religious profiling routinely at airports. Especially since September 11th, 2001, South Asian, Arab American, Muslim and Sikh travelers have been subjected to arbitrary secondary inspections, detentions, and interrogations while traveling.

Right now, two women in Afghanistan are running for president. That's two more female candidates than America's political mainstream could claim last Fall. But these ladies are up against some horrific odds: in seeking public office, they expose themselves to culturally ingrained hostilities, oppressive laws, and the routine threats of military and gender-based violence.

So who will “save” Afghanistan's women? Surely only a military superpower can drive out the Taliban, free women from their burqas, and enable them to learn to read and write and maybe even run a beauty salon... right?

This seems to be the rationale of some leading American feminists who back the war on Afghanistan in the name of women's rights. The Feminist Majority Foundation's announcement of its campaign to defend Afghan women and girls features a (vaguely qualified) endorsement by Dr. Sima Samar, chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission:

Laura Ling and Euna Lee have been pardoned! That’s right the two Current TV reporters who were captured in North Korea in March and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor were officially released and pardoned this afternoon after a meeting between former President Bill Clinton and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. The two reporters where working in neighboring China when they were captured on the border between the two countries. Clinton, who was sent on a "private humanitarian mission", is the highest American visitor to North Korea since Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright in 2000.

RaceWire wishes the Laura and Euna journalists a safe trip home to their awaiting families.