Comments on: Something to dream of?

By: phdinparenting

phdinparenting — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 16:30:54 +0000

hedda:

Oh good, I’m glad to see that you didn’t object to me generalizing as a follow-up to your generalizations.

In seriousness though, the fact that the context is different in Cuba than it is in the United States does not mean that there is nothing the United States can learn from Cuba. Personally, I live in Canada, which sits somewhere in between the two. I wouldn’t opt to raise my children in Cuba, I wouldn’t opt to raise them in the United States, and even though I have opted to raise them in Canada, I think there are still things we could do better here.

By: hedda

hedda — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 15:47:58 +0000

By all means lets both obliterate context and then follow up by generalising that while all Cuban doctors are noble, selfless healers who are completely disinterested in money, all one million plus doctors in the US are obsessed with money, which causes them to actively seek opportunities to commit patient assault and malpractice.

By: phdinparenting

phdinparenting — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:00:06 +0000

hedda:

If we are going to take it in context then, we could muse that perhaps in the United States doctors are so obsessed with making money that they don’t care about health outcomes and are just looking to perform the procedures that will make them the most money.

By: Nina

Nina — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 09:26:38 +0000

Maybe some people would think the US maternity leave system, and the fact that the majority in the US is 6 weeks away from loosing their home is oppression

It’s all a matter of point of view.

By: hedda

hedda — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 07:42:11 +0000

Well, you see I wasn’t talking about statistics at all. I was talking about the difference between freedom and oppression. Any statistic taken in isolation from the context can be used to justify a predetermined point of view.

By: Nina

Nina — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 22:24:57 +0000

This thread is about maternety leave, not about marketing strategies, wages or educations. Any number of statitics that are under par cannot cancel out the good ones, nor hide the good ones. Better statistics in the areas mentioned by hedda cannot hide the value of the good ones presented by Cuba either. We should all try to learn from Cubas good statistics in maternerity leave rather than trying to hide this by pointing out the areas where they do not score as well.

By: hedda

hedda — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 05:23:04 +0000

Dear PhD, my fervent wish for you in the New Year is that your dream will come true and you will be able to experience the bliss of being a mom in Cuba (though I hope your children are spared). You and any children you bear will indeed enjoy long life. You will earn $8 a month and your husband may be a doctor in the admirable social healthcare system, but it would be better if he were a waiter as he would then earn 10 times as much and you might be able to afford a car. You would receive rations of basic foods and household goods like oil, flour and paraffin to cook with, but you would not be able to afford much else. Your children would receive a free indoctrination, er, education. Do not try to escape to the US – it is a horrible place where Nestle forces mothers to feed their children breastmilk substitutes. Unfortunately we will not be able to share your dream come true as you would not able to blog (home PCs, guffaw) or indeed allowed to blog or criticise institutions of society. Your reading matter and that of your children would be severely restricted too, so this might be our last communique. Solidarite!

By: Christie

Christie — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 17:29:19 +0000

I find this so very sad. I’ve known for a long while that there are countries in the world that provide this type of amazing infrastructure to support families, but seeing it laid out like this is heart breaking. I really don’t understand how the US has ended up here. Why are the people not rising up and fighting for what they deserve? If Cuba can do this, then ANYONE can! All it takes is people to have some vision, and to FIGHT. I hate feeling like the situation is so hopeless, and it will never change. Deep down I really hope that one day we see a revolution.

C’mon people – start demanding what you deserve from your government and from your society. Nothing worth fighting for comes easy!

By: Nina

Nina — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 16:36:08 +0000

Rachael, maternity leave is a luxure norwegian self employed women don’t see either. I’m thinking this is because they are not classed as employed, and all the welfare arrangments are for the employed. You don’t get a pension from being self employed either, this is the primary reason why we founded a company that is an entity by itself, and we’re employed by it. The reason I wanted to comment again was to show a study conducted in regards of the effect of maternity leave here in Norway. I’m guessing it would be applicable over the western world.

Here’s a Google translation: http://translate.google.no/translate?hl=no&sl=no&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.forskning.no%2Fartikler%2F2010%2Fjanuar%2F239298

Hope this is useful

By: Rachael

Rachael — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:46:27 +0000

This summer I attended a reading and (very animated) discussion with The War on Moms author Sharon Lerner, and she said that the fight for decent maternity/paternity leave here in the U.S. has to happen state by state by state. If I recall correctly, a couple or three states offer paid leave — sort of. The employer is required to provide it; the state does not. On the one hand, I don’t see a policy like this one going federal — wouldn’t small businesses want exemptions, and so on? And what about independent workers like me — where would my maternity leave come from? On the other hand, I don’t see the federal government stepping up to pay right now. (Extend unemployment insurance? No way! Extend tax cuts for the rich? Sure thing! Ugh.) Too many Americans just don’t see the benefit to the community or wider public of taking good care of the next generation. They think that those of us who have children should just suck it up.