On 19 Oct, 2007, at 21:20 PM, joanna wrote:
> "The exception is Kerala, where Dr. Rajagopal practices and about 80
> percent of India's palliative care is delivered. A small slice of the
> southwest coast, it is sort of India's Massachusetts: it has a mere 3
> percent of the population, but high literacy rates, responsive local
> leadership and a bent for bucking central government."
>
> Why is it an exception? Because the socialists are running it.
>
> Thus, it is not at all like Massachussetts, which requires
> compulsory health insurance, but like Cuba or many Western nations,
> which provide health care.
>
Joanna, you forgot to leave a blank space for the obligatory: Oh yeah, well they run the whole state on migrant worker deposits from Dubai. If not, it would all fail!
Carl, while reading about India's experiment, keep in mind that the 1980s (and then the 90s) were a break from the past for India, bringing everything from [the triumph og] neo-liberalism to Hindu fundamentalism. Therefore, the history is not 1947 to now, as one continuous development.
Which reminds me: you asked me a question about what to make of Morarji Desai. He was indeed a shrewd politician but what is more important in the context of the victory of the Janata Party in 1977 (dates from memory) was that the party (represented as much, more in fact, by someone of the stature of Jayaprakash Narayan) a revolt against the horror of Indira Gandhi, through a return to the older (independence and immediately after) style of Indian politics and ideology (it should be unsurprising to non-Western leftists that JP was a socialist, and at times even a Marxist, while also a proponent of Sarvodaya and such). While Desai's role and power in a coalition government in a parliamentary system was limited (and hence his personal character and politics not crucial), the smearing of him by Hersh at a crucial moment in Indian politics had the effect of casting a shadow (if not a large one) on this political renaissance. While Iran may or may not be undergoing a political renaissance, the current liberal obsession with Ahmedinijad and Iranian internal politics is a rough equivalent, it seems to me, of that same sort of idle speculation elevated to the level of truth-seeking.
--ravi