| Professional associations and trade unions reject constitutional reform
Twenty-nine Venezuelan professional associations and trade unions called upon Venezuelans to cast their ballots next December 2 to reject the constitutional reform advanced by President Hugo Chávez, branding the proposed changes as "illegal" and "anti-democratic." In the headquarters of the Venezuelan Doctor's Federation, its chairman Douglas León Natera read a communiqué where workers and professionals rebutted the 69 items comprising the constitutional reform. "The reform does not ensure personal security and integrity, it will not lower prices, it will not improve hospitals, and it will not stop illnesses such as dengue, measles, malaria, tuberculosis, and others from continuing to spread. It does not mitigate food shortage, it does not prevent low birth weight or growth or development disorders resulting from the lack of milk consumption during pregnancy, it does not ensure plans for road maintenance, it does not provide for credit plans of plans to build houses, it will not lower inflation," they claimed.
The right sugar fix
Nine-year-old Parth Verma is just like any other kid down the block - fun-loving and extremely bright. He makes no bones about hiding his passion for computers and cricket. A Class III student in Ryan International School, Noida, his life changed six years ago when he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Parth hardly understood what had happened - why suddenly the visits to "Dr Uncle" became more frequent. He understands it better now. Like computers and cricket, the Medtronic Paradigm 715 insulin pump has become a part of his life now. He has become adept at administering insulin himself. Thanks to the pump, at least he doesn't have to calculate his insulin dose daily. Parth is one of the 42 million people in India suffering from diabetes. If the World Health Organisation's estimates stand correct, the same figure will shoot to 80 million by 2030! In short, one case is being diagnosed every 20 seconds.
Corzine's a turkey to state workers used to Friday off
Governor Corzine, you are the blackguard who ruined Black Friday. You are a political Scrooge who ordered thousands of us underappreciated (and slightly hung over) Bob Cratchits back to work tomorrow just to score some points with voters. It's anti-family. It's anti-shopping. It's anti-American. These sentiments seethe through a sampling of the 2,500 e-mails from New Jersey government state workers sent to the governor, protesting his refusal to declare the Friday after Thanksgiving a paid day off. Corzine's decision bucks a decades-old tradition that has morphed into a de facto entitlement. The excerpts, provided by Corzine's office at the request of The Record, reverberate with shock, disbelief and a sense of betrayal that a pro-labor, liberal Democrat -- their guy, for goodness' sake -- would stoop so low.
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