Apropriate Development

Peace Corps Week is here again! This year, the Peace Corps is celebrating 47 years of teaching skills abroad, sharing American culture and good will abroad, and bringing the world back home to teach Americans about other cultures. Many people say they have thought about going into the Peace Corps, but this or that came up. Well, take a look again, go to www.peacecorps.gov and consider it! It's the best way to really experience another culture because you are taken care of very well by the US government. And the experiences last a life time.

Rhode Island RPCVs can celebrate tonight, Tuesday, March 4th, at the Brown "Ratty" (dining hall) on Thayer and George from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. We will celebrate new invitees and enjoy the company of RPCVs in the area!

I have seen Michael Moore's Sicko twice now, and each time I feel more slighted by the US government. I am a lucky individual in that I worked for a company that paid for our Blue Cross Blue Shield Health Care. Now I am covered under my husband's Blue Cross plan and we pay a little over $700 a month for the two of us and our daughter. His business is part of the small business association which is able to get a plan together that allows for the price to be "reduced" - yikes. We would normally be paying over a thousand dollars otherwise.

Now here's the worst part. Since I was born in England, I could return there and have free health care, and I mean FREE - everything taken care of. My brothers, both American citizens living abroad, have full health care coverage, one in Hong Kong and the other in England. My father too, an American citizen, but resident of the UK has full coverage too.

And last night on 60 Minutes there was a story about Rural Area Medical (RAM), an organization dedicated to providing free medical care to people in remote areas of the US and the world. According to the 60 Minutes story, it wasn't started to help Americans but with the health care crisis they are doing more and more expeditions in the US.

RAM is a great organization, but Americans deserve more than this.

Today I participated in a breastfeeding worldwide wave. We breastfed our babies for one minute at 10 a.m. as did others throughout the world in an effort to promote breastfeeding because of it's benefit to both babies and moms. I strongly support the grassroots efforts of mothers throughout the world doing this event. It got me thinking about the many issues poor mothers face that moms who are not working and have time to participate in this event do not face and are not aware of. For instance, mothers throughout the world are faced with having to return to work immediately after having their children. Many women work long days and are not able to feed their children, don't have the resources to pump, or the ability or allowance of their employers to pump or express and store milk for their babies.

I plan on writing a longer post about this later, but my husband and I watched a documentary on the TED Prize and Conference last night. It's a conference that is invite-only with many speakers and presenters and three awardees that are given a prize of $100,000 for their world changing project. The winners are also asked to make a wish that they present at the conference. Presenting to an audience filled with famous and not so famous but all brilliant minds puts the idea into motion. One of these ideas began the One.org project. The audience pays a hefty fee to be at the conference, but they are surrounded by motivated people who want to better the world, and by being with these other people, they are able to network and probably make a good amount of money for their corporation, or project, or support for their ideas.

I have to admit that I am a secret addict of reality shows - not all of them, just a few of them, but I do enjoy watching them over watching other shows. I just saw the first few minutes and a few commercials about Shaquille O'Neil's reality tv show where overweight kids are put on a training program with him. I think it's a great idea and a good investment by a big name star. There appear to be very good intentions behind this program, and I think it's good that there is attention being drawn to the obesity problem among children in the US. There are a few foundations that are also working on this problem. I believe the Clinton Foundation is trying to make schools healthier. Good luck to all involved. The program is on Tuesday evenings at 9 p.m.