Category Archives: Old Westbury

Old Westbury

Making a case for national health care

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Martha Livingston has been able to list many excellent reasons for a national health care in America since she started working toward the goal almost 20 years ago.

Livingston, a UUP delegate from SUNY Old Westbury, has succeeded in putting 10 of those reasons in print. She co-edited and 10 Excellent Reasons for National Health Care, a book that makes a compelling case for creating a U.S. single-payer health system. She also wrote the book’s first chapter.

“It’s a series of essays on why national health care is so important, but told from many different perspectives,” said Livingston, an associate professor of health and society at Old Westbury. “There’s a labor perspective, we’ve got the health and economic arguments and, finally, the moral argument. This is a matter of simple humanity.”

The 158-page paperback was published in September 2008 by The New Press, an independent, not-for-profit publisher with titles on women’s issues, human rights, social issues, labor and education reform. The book is in its third printing.

Reasons came about after The New Press publisher Ellen Adler approached Livingston and Dr. Mary O’Brien— who co-edited the book with Livingston— at a national health workshop in 2007. Livingston and O’Brien are on the board of directors of the New York Metro Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program. They finished in early 2008.

“We want Americans to understand this issue and that’s why we did this book,” Livingston said. “We wanted to demystify the issue and we want to get people involved.”

The book’s Forward is written by U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan), who introduced The United States National Health Insurance Act (H.R. 676). The American Federation of Teachers endorsed the bill last year.

Livingston’s chapter is titled “It’s good for our health.” It deals with the importance of having accessible health care available when it’s needed—and how that’s not the case for millions of Americans every day.

“How can it be that we spend more on health care in the U.S. than anywhere on the planet and we deny health care to people who need it?,” said Livingston. “We can’t afford not to do this now.”

10 Excellent Reasons for National Health Care is available for purchase online through The New Press, at www.thenewpress.com.

— Michael Lisi

Old Westbury professor testifies on democracy in Bangladesh

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Democracy can take hold in Bangladesh, but only by opening government to Hindus, indigenous tribal residents and other non-Muslim religious groups, repealing discriminatory laws against minorities and cracking down on terrorists.

UUP member Sachi Dastidar made these statements to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom at a Dec. 4 public hearing on the probability of a free, fair and peaceful national election in Bangladesh. The election—the country’s first since its violence-riddled election in October 2001—was held Dec. 29 and went off peacefully, according to CNN.com.

Dastidar, a distinguished service professor at SUNY Old Westbury who has written extensively on Bangladesh’s culture and history, was invited by the commission to speak at the public hearing. Held in Washington, D.C., the hearing included testimony from U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh James F. Moriarty; Asif Saleh, founder and director of Drishtipat, a Bangladeshi human rights group; and National University of Singapore professor Shapan Adnan.

The speakers also considered the possibility of a stable democracy in Bangladesh, as well as religious extremism and its threat to democracy there, and methods the U.S. government might use to promote democracy and respect for human rights.

In his testimony, Dastidar, who has taught at Old Westbury since 1977, described the daily persecution faced by the Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, women and indigenous Bangladeshis at the hands of the country’s Islamist majority. This fundamental change must occur for democracy to work in Bangladesh, he said.

“Almost on a daily basis, I receive information from home about rape, forced conversion, murder, temple desecration or destruction, confiscation of properties and denial of jobs … but no one is prosecuted,” Dastidar said in his testimony, a copy of which is available at www.uscirf.gov. “These, I bet, are a fraction of intolerant acts that take place on a daily basis.”

Dastidar also listed changes necessary to ensure a democratic election—and the future of democracy in Bangladesh. They include developing a protocol to protect minorities; eliciting pledges from all political parties to nominate minorities and women as candidates; adding equal rights for all religions to the Constitution; compensating victims of violence in past elections; and punishing perpetrators of violence in past and future elections.

“I believe that political parties pledging these points will receive support from all Bangladeshis, including Hindu and other minorities,” Dastidar said. “These pledges will usher in a pluralistic, tolerant, prosperous, democratic nation, a symbol of success in the developing world among Muslim minority nations, and a leader in the Indian subcontinent.”

Created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, the commission monitors the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief. It provides policy recommendations to the president, the secretary of state and Congress.

— Michael Lisi