The Kensington Review

16 May 2007

Latest Commentary: Volume VI, Number 59
Commonwealth Fund Report Exposes Failings in US Healthcare System -- The Commonwealth Fund says it is “a private foundation that aims to promote a high performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society's most vulnerable, including low-income people, the uninsured, minority Americans, young children, and elderly adults.” So it may have a vested interest in telling residents of the USA that their healthcare system is underachieving. Nevertheless, a report from the CF out yesterday said the US healthcare system compares most unfavorably with Germany, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Indeed, statistics show America’s system gets results similar to Costa Rica’s, at many times the cost.

Fatah and Hamas Fight It out in Gaza -- The Palestinian Authority, Fatah and Hamas brought a new meaning to the term “unity government” this week. Apparently, it now can mean a government composed of factions that are busy murdering one another. At least 17 people have been killed in Gaza since Sunday, and President Mahmoud Abbas appears to be unable to rein in the violence. The only man to come out of this with anything like integrity is former Interior Minister Hani Qawasmi, who resigned in protest and in political impotence.

World Bank Report Says Wolfowitz Violated Rules -- When Paul Wolfowitz left the Pentagon to be World Bank President, one had hoped that the man would finally be unable to screw up the world any further. After all, heading with World Bank offers one far less scope for committing war crimes than being an enabler of Field Marshal Donald von Rumsfeld and President George “LBJ” Bush. Be that as it may, an official investigation into pay increases for his romantic partner determined that he broke the rules. His position has pitted Europe against America, and it has completely undermined any credibility the Bank has in cutting corruption in the developing world. On the upside, this doesn’t rise to the level of the Nuremberg crimes he committed while at the Pentagon.

Gormley’s “Blind Light” Opens at the Haywood Gallery -- For the last 25 years, Antony Gormley has made a name for himself in the British Art World by making casts of his own body and displaying them. It was amusing for a bit but not now. Unless he was to be the successor to the rather tedious Dame Elisabeth Frink, he needed to do something new. With “Blinding Light” which opens officially on Friday at the Haywood Gallery, he may have found a new path to continued popularity.



© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.









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