Nursing Rules Not Ready Yet
<http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-000103233dec30.story>
Daren Briscoe, Los Angeles Times, December 30, 2001
Columns
Finding the right nurse-to-patient ratio for California hospitals is proving harder than expected, delaying the release of new state-mandated staffing guidelines.
The state has yet to finish developing the regulations, which were supposed to take effect by Tuesday. They may not be ready for several months, according to officials.
"We're not going to meet the Jan. 1 deadline," said Lea Brooks, spokeswoman for the state Department of Health Services, the agency charged with setting the ratios. "It's a very complex, very time-consuming process and we're still analyzing the data we gathered." Gov. Gray Davis signed a bill in 1999 requiring minimum staffing levels in hospital units, making California the first state to do so. Such requirements already existed for some hospital areas, including intensive care units and operating rooms.
Nurses unions support requiring levels as high one nurse for every three patients, saying more nurses would ease excessive workloads, improve patient care and make the job more attractive amid a shortage.
The hospital industry has proposed levels as low as one nurse for every 10 patients, saying that there aren't enough nurses available for blanket increases, that hospitals should have discretion on staffing levels and that there is no proof that more nurses equal better care.
Both sides have spent months waiting for the new guidelines.
Jan Emerson, a spokeswoman for the California Healthcare Assn., said the hospital industry group is "philosophically opposed" to mandatory staffing levels, but would wait until the new rules are out before taking a position. "Let's see what the regulations are and what the plan is," she said.
Jill Furillo, director of government relations for the California Nurses Assn. union, was equally diplomatic about the delay.
"I understand that [the state] is working really hard on them," she said. "We need them, but we also want to make sure that whatever they do, they do it right."
The rules were supposed to take effect last January, but lacking an agreed-upon "magic number" of the optimal nurse-to-patient ratio, the state postponed implementation for a year to develop guidelines.
The Department of Health Services took proposals from the hospital and nurses associations, commissioned staffing-ratio studies by the University of California and made unannounced visits to 80 acute-care hospitals throughout the state to observe the quality of care at different staffing levels and different times of day, according to Brooks. She said a public-comment period of at least 45 days will follow issuance of the draft regulations.
"We're committed to holding meetings at sites throughout the state in recognition of the high interest in this issue," she said.
Gov. Davis cited the "erosion in the quality of patient care" when he signed the bill, at a time when managed-care cost pressures led many hospitals to reduce nursing staff.
California ranked next-to-last in a March 2000 federal survey measuring states' ratio of nurses per 100,000 residents, with 544. The national average was 782.
1. Massachusetts: 1,194
2. South Dakota: 1,128
3. Rhode Island: 1,101
4. North Dakota: 1,096
5. Iowa: 1,060
46. Oklahoma: 635
47. Arizona: 628
48. Texas: 606
49. California: 544
50. Nevada: 520
National average: 782
Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times
Cases Reveal Lapses in Kaiser Emergency Care
The Kaiser Permanente doctor who examined Harun Antwine had worked at least 10 hours that day, seeing 25 patients in his office and 15 more that evening at the HMO's Fontana urgent care center. The swamped physician didn't spot Antwine's serious bacterial infection, and the 29-year-old patient left urgent care without antibiotics, Antwine's family lawyer says. The father of three young children died two days later. ...
The Intensive Care Unit at the Cranbrook Regional Hospital will reopen early in the new year
<http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=70F263D8-4691-4AB0-AFD6-C692BE2424D1>
Canadian Press, December 27, 2001
Cranbrook (CP) - The Intensive Care Unit at the Cranbrook Regional Hospital will reopen early in the new year after five local nurses upgraded their skills to staff the unit. The ICU will be open on a full-time basis starting Jan. 2, 2002. The unit has been open only on a partial basis since last summer because of a shortage of critical-care nurses. Most intensive-care patients had been transferred to Foothills Hospital in Calgary. ...
Tough labour negotiations ahead for nurses, government
<http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=2A481331-395C-4411-8EBE-312BC0237B68>
Canadian Press, December 31, 2001
Winnipeg -- Manitoba nurses will find out how much of a raise the province is offering when contract talks resume next week. The nurses are demanding a 31 per cent raise over two years to make their salaries competitive with those offered in BC, Ontario and Alberta. Union president Maureen Hancharyk says this contract is crucial to keeping nurses in the province. The current contract expires at the end of March. ...
Nurses stretch health system
<http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=DD4CCE90-69A7-4C8E-B349-2653B245ACC2>
Peace River Block Daily News, January 1, 2002
Victoria (CP) - Double-digit pay demands will continue to be the rallying cry for nurses no matter how vigorously politicians complain pay hikes stretch thin health budgets, says the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions. A global nursing shortage leaves governments little choice but to offer richer contracts to keep their nurses from moving to another province or leaving the country, federation president Kathleen Connors says. ...
Better Hours for Nurses
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49717-2002Jan1.html>
Caren Benson-Mucha, RN, Vienna, in The Washington Post, January 2, 2002
Regarding the Dec. 22 news story "Congress Acts to Stem National Nursing Shortage": The government's solution to the nursing shortage is not pointed to where the true problems lie -- keeping qualified nurses in our hospitals. There are already many ways for potential students to pay for school, including scholarships. I graduated from George Mason University in May and enjoyed my journey through nursing school. The disillusionment began when I went to work. A new graduate makes $18.50 per hour for the day shift -- hardly the kind of salary that will attract many qualified nurses who can expect to be confronted with a nearly unmanageable patient load. ...
French doctors begin strike action
<http://europe.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/12/29/france.doctors/index.html>
Associated Press, December 29, 2001
Paris (AP) -- Doctors in France have gone on strike to demand higher wages prompting fears of an overburdened New Year's period in hospital emergency rooms. The strike started on Friday evening and is due to last until Wednesday morning. A four-day strike around the Christmas holiday clogged emergency rooms across the country. Two unions representing general practitioners want a 14-percent increase in the amount the government allows public-sector doctors to charge for office visits. They are calling for a 46-percent rise in the fee for home visits. ...
Health and safety rules updated
<http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2001/1228/hom3.htm>
Caroline O'Doherty, The Irish Times, December 28, 2001
Updated rules governing the health and safety of employees are to be introduced in the new year, the Minister for Labour, Trade and Consumer Affairs, Mr Tom Kitt said yesterday. Mr Kitt is planning a series of amendments to the existing Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act which was enacted in 1989. He said the new legislation would provide employers with a revised blueprint for work-place health and safety which would "serve to vitalise and underpin the health and safety message for the next decade and the next generation of workers". ...
Green party candidate presses gubernatorial bid
<http://www.bangornews.com/editorialnews/article.html?id=48372>
Associated Press, January 4, 2002
Augusta (AP) ‹ Green Independent Party gubernatorial candidate Steven Farsaci kicked off his campaign Friday, saying he hopes to use the post of Maine's chief executive to promote ³greater democracy, greater freedom and greater vitality in our communities.² A minister from Farmington, the 46-year-old Farsaci (pronounced FAR-sosh) faces a contest for the Green gubernatorial nomination with Jonathan Carter of North New Portland, a 1994 candidate for governor. Farsaci, who described himself as a Navy veteran who became a conscientious objector, moved to Maine 14 years ago to attend Bangor Theological Seminary. He told reporters Friday he plans to campaign full time. Both Farsaci and Carter plan to rely on public financing for their campaigns. To qualify, each must collect 2,500 contributions of $5 from registered voters.
©2001 Bangor Daily News. All rights reserved.
Stretched to the limit
<http://www.telegram.com/extra/terror/html/disaster.html>
Lisa Eckelbecker, Worcester (Massachusetts) Telegram & Gazette, December 16, 2001
Worcester -- When terrorists struck the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, hospitals across Massachusetts cleared their emergency rooms, canceled elective surgeries, opened up 1,200 beds and marshaled ambulances to convey patients from Manhattan. As it turned out, none of it was needed. Few caught in the collapsing office towers survived. Massachusetts health care officials took pride in the state's willingness to respond to the catastrophe. But the events in New York also raised a question: After years of cutbacks and worker shortages, just how well could our hospitals respond if a disaster occurred here? ...
Catholics hold vigil at Mass in Boston in support of nonviolence
Associated Press, 12/30/2001
Boston (AP) Several dozen Roman Catholic supporters of nonviolence held a vigil on Sunday outside Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston to urge Cardinal Bernard Law to oppose violence in Afghanistan.
Members of the group called ''A Catholic Call to Peacemaking'' urged Law to end the Catholic Church's endorsement of the war in Afghanistan, as well as all other armed conflicts.
''The cycle of violence can only be broken by nonviolent action. We're calling on (Law) to reconnect with the nonviolent traditions of Christianity and the words of Jesus Christ,'' said John Paul Marosy, a parishioner at St. George's Parish in Worcester.
The group received a mixed reaction to their vigil of prayer and fasting outside the Cathedral, where Law held the Feast of the Holy Family. While some members of the Cathedral congregation nodded and smiled, other expressed their opposition to the group's message, Marosy said.
The group had earlier presented Law's office with an anti-war petition signed by about 1,000 people.
A call placed to Law's office Sunday was not immediately returned.
© Copyright 2001 Boston Globe Electronic Publishing Inc.
Hospital trains more nurses for emergency care
<http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/local_regional/hospital12312001.htm>
Michelle Hillman, MetroWest Daily News, December 31, 2001
Faced with a shortage of critical care nurses and record numbers of patients visiting the emergency room, MetroWest Medical Center is using a new tack for recruiting nurses to work on the front lines. The hospital is training and educating its own - and it's working. The Medical Center has a waiting list of nurses wanting to take an emergency department course it began offering this year. "The hardest group to recruit is intensive and emergency room nurses so we're growing our own," said Ruth Walton. "If you're waiting to find nurses who have experience you'll be waiting forever." ...
Pembroke Hospital RNs call for union clout
<http://www.townonline.com/south/pembroke/33396791.htm>
Paula Woodhull, Pembroke Mariner, January 2, 2002
Registered nurses at Pembroke Hospital are seeking union representation by the Massachusetts Nurses Association. Some 80 percent of the nurses at the psychiatric facility have signed authorization cards asking for a union voice to improve what they say are poor staffing and unsafe working conditions. The nurses have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for the union representation, and pending authorization of the petition by the NLRB, the next step would be an agreement between the MNA and Pembroke Hospital Management on the scope of the proposed collective bargaining unit. An election for union representation could take place within the next four to eight weeks. The Massachusetts Nurses Association began spearheading a drive for union representation at Pembroke Hospital in November. The psychiatric hospital is owned by Universal Health Services, one of the nation¹s largest for-profit hospital groups. Universal acquired the hospital about a year ago. It was previously owned by Charter Behavioral Health System of Atlanta, which filed for bankruptcy protection. The MNA represents more than 18,000 nurses working in more than 80 health care facilities in the state. The union has a place at the bargaining table in most South Shore area hospitals, but not privately-owned Pembroke Hospital. The MNA is represented at Brockton Hospital, where a nurses strike was settled last fall, Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, Quincy Medical Center and Jordan Hospital in Plymouth. ...
Hospitals get help easing traffic jams of patients
<http://www.pioneerplanet.com/seven-days/mon/news/docs/213002.htm>
Tom Majeski, Pioneer Press, December 31, 2001
In many respects, it's like directing an approaching jetliner to another airport after a snowstorm shuts down the destination airport. Only in this scenario, the jetliners are ambulances, the passengers are patients, the snowstorm is excess demand and the airports are hospitals across the Twin Cities. When demand exceeds capacity, hospitals are forced to send patients to other hospitals. They are called hospital diverts. It's a serious problem, both in Minnesota and the nation. During the first 11 months of 2001, Twin Cities hospitals had to close their doors 1,082 times. More than half of those diverts -- 634 -- occurred in the east metro. "It became a pretty hot item here about four years ago,'' explained David Miller, vice president of operations at St. Paul's United Hospital and an expert on hospital diverts. "The emergency rooms were jammed, and we couldn't take another patient. We couldn't move them out of the ER to other rooms because we just didn't have the qualified nursing staff.'' ...
Governor signs bill barring forced overtime for nurses, health care workers
<http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--nurseovertime0102jan02.story>
Associated Press, January 2, 2002
Trenton, NJ -- Legislation that would ban forced overtime for nurses and other health care workers was signed Wednesday by Acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco. The legislation, strongly supported by health care unions, bars hospitals and other health care facilities from imposing mandatory overtime on nurses and other licensed health workers to cover for staff shortages. An exception is allowed for clearly defined emergencies. A similar bill previously passed both houses of the New Jersey Legislature, but it was conditionally vetoed last year by then-Gov. Christie Whitman. The bill was then reintroduced by Sens. John Bennett, R-Monmouth, and Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, and passed the Senate in June. The Assembly approved the bill in the fall. Ann Twomey, president of Health Professionals and Allied Employees, a union representing 8,500 nurses and other health workers, called the new law "a critical step in addressing our health care worker shortage." ...
New ban on forced overtime for health workers may help fight shortages
<http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--nurseovertime0105jan05.story>
Linda A. Johnson, Associated Press, January 5
Trenton, NJ -- A new state law banning forced overtime for nurses and many other health workers will make patients safer and slow the tide of overworked, burned-out medical workers leaving their profession, advocates say. Nearly four years after nurses and health unions began lobbying to stop health-care facilities from using mandatory overtime to deal with chronic staffing shortages, Acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco last week signed into law a bill barring the practice except in emergencies. ...
NUMC workers find pink slips in mail
<http://www.news12.com/CDA/Articles/View/0,2049,5-5-30006-20,00.html>
Rita Nissan, News12.com, January 2, 2002
East Meadow - No celebrating the New Year for hundreds of Nassau University Medical Center workers. Their pink slips are arriving in the mail. ...
Medical Center Lays Off 295
Evelyn Brown and Nhung Argota, the only two midwives at Nassau University Medical Center, arrived at work yesterday to learn that they would be among the nearly 300 workers being laid off at the East Meadow hospital this week. Though layoffs have been threatened for months as the hospital struggles to close a gaping budget hole, the reality came as a shock to many yesterday who did not know whether their jobs had been targeted. "You feel like you've been dumped on," said Brown, who had been at the medical center for a decade. The two women, who previously had worked together in Brooklyn for many years, saw prenatal patients at the hospital and its clinics and delivered many of the babies born there, Brown said. ...
Staffing struggle expected to continue in 2002
Allied health, imaging seen as growth fields; nurses still in demand
<http://www.dallasnews.com/business/stories/STORY.eb117398cd.b0.af.0.a4.8b276.html>
Victor Godinez, The Dallas Morning News, December 30, 2001
Health care hiring managers say their jobs will be no easier in 2002: They'll have countless skilled positions to fill and not enough candidates to fill them. And the imbalance is likely to last for years. "It can be intimidating because you're just not seeing a lot of people out there," said Danilio Davila, employment manager for Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. The competition for health workers will continue to intensify. ...
Violent patients may be refused care
Health ministers last night warned violent, drunk and abusive patients that they would be refused treatment over the New Year holiday if they persisted in threatening the safety of NHS nurses and doctors. John Hutton, the health minister, released figures showing one in six attending accident and emergency departments had alcohol-related injuries or problems. This rose to eight out of 10 patients at peak times on weekends and holidays when the pubs closed or football matches finished. ...
Up to a fifth of emergency nursing jobs unfilled
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4328277,00.html>
Press Association, Guardian, January 3, 2002
Up to a fifth of nursing posts in accident and emergency departments are vacant, a survey of 20 hospital trusts revealed yesterday. An investigation by the journal Nursing Times found hospitals in London and the south-east labouring under severe recruitment problems at the busiest time of the year. The A&E department at the Chelsea and Westminster NHS trust has a 19% nurse vacancy rate, with the percentage of agency staff on a typical shift as high as 28%, the survey found. ...
RCN says shortage of nursing staff in A&E is cause for serious concern
<http://www.rcn.org.uk/latest_developments/rcn_says_shortage.html>
Royal College of Nursing, January, 2002
Retreat, union labor dispute draws legislators' attention
by Tom Marshall, Brattleboro Reformer, December 11, 2001
Brattleboro -- They haven't chosen sides yet. But Windham County legislators are paying close attention to an ongoing labor dispute at the Brattleboro Retreat.
"Obviously the employees feel aggrieved here," said Rep. Donald Webster, D-Brattleboro. "I'd like to hear what the Retreat has to say about all this."
More than half the county delegation attended a Friday gathering by representatives of the United Nurses and Allied Professionals Local 5086, which has become embroiled in a dispute with Retreat Healthcare currently before the National Labor Relations Board in Boston. Several said they hope to meet soon with the board of trustees at Retreat Healthcare to clarify the issues.
"We've heard from (the union) and we're anxious to have a forum where employees get to say what their issues are and the board gets to say what its issues are," said Sen. Nancy Chard, D-Windham.
Since March, the 120-member union has been working to organize more than 200 non-union employees at the psychiatric hospital, including mental health workers and support staff. Non-union employees have said they need a union to provide job security and due process protection, as the hospital moves to cut costs.
That organizing drive blossomed into open conflict with Retreat Healthcare in November, 12 days after the union filed with the NLRB to hold a secret election, when the Retreat filed a motion questioning the right of so-called "charge nurses" to remain in the union.
That filing amounted to a brazen attempt to destroy the union, said organizer Jack Callaci.
"We know that the Retreat's strategy is to avoid an election," he said. "They send their hired guns up there with one goal -- to make sure folks who want an election don't get an election."
Union president Danielle Perry said the Retreat had claimed even substitute charge nurses were supervisors, and were thus ineligible to organize along with the rank-and-file. If that were true, half the current union membership would be excluded.
Retreat spokesman David Petrie said the Retreat had no problem with a union election.
"We don't have a problem with a secret election being held," he said. "We hope that our employees realize that they could have -- and they do -- communicate with management without having the union in between."
He added that the Retreat had filed its "unit clarification" question before the NLRB in light of a recent Supreme Court decision, NLRB v. Kentucky River Community Care. In that case, a narrow 5-4 majority held that nurses who perform even basic supervisory functions are ineligible to join unions.
"The NLRB has not rewritten any of its policies, procedures, and guidelines since Kentucky River was handed down," Petrie said. "We've presented to the NLRB that they needed to answer this question."
But union officials termed Kentucky River a "smokescreen issue" obscuring the Retreat's true intent -- to break the union. "It is the red herring," said Registered Nurse Beth Kiendl.
Callaci said the Retreat has recognized the existence of the present union for a decade, working hand-in-hand with representatives on contract and grievance issues. At the same time, he said, the institution tells federal mediators the union is dominated by supervisors and doesn't deserve to exist.
Registered Nurse Sue Mello said understaffing can quickly become a matter of safety for both mental health workers and patients, particularly with psychiatric patients. "We are working every day with people who are very dangerous, not just for us but for other people as well."
In a recent letter to chief executive officer Rick Palmisano, 50 unionized nurses objected to allegations that charge nurses "tainted" the organizing drive, and asked for an immediate response.
"We respectfully request that you immediately cease any and all attempts at removing us from our union," the letter read. "We request a meeting with you to further discuss our concerns and ways we can reconcile our differences, without taking us out of our union."
And if it turns out the Retreat is engaged in union-busting, said Rep. Patricia O'Donnell, R-Vernon, they will hear from their legislators.
"You always have to hear both sides," she said. "If the employees are right and the Retreat is just trying to stop them from unionizing, that's not right."
Hail George, Conqueror of Evildoers!
Dear George W. Bush:
Hats off to you, sir, for a job well done! The Soviets tried for ten years to do what it took you only two months to accomplish in Afghanistan. How did you do that? It's funny how a couple months ago there were all these Taliban, and now -- there aren't any! You must be some kind of super magician -- almost as good at disappearing acts as ol' Osama (or, as they say on the Fox Nuisance Channel, "Usama" -- I like their spelling better, like "We put the 'USA' in USAma!"). He did exist, didn't he? I would hate to have gotten myself all worked up over the wrong evildoer! I loved that last tape of his, the home video of his sleepover with that sheik. What a party animal, that guy!
And how 'bout that Northern Alliance! Thanks to them, my weekly supply of heroin will finally be reinstated. Whoo-hoo -- and just in time for New Year's Rockin' Eve! Those Taliban simply did NOT have the best delivery system for the stuff, kinda like why you never see Beaman's gum anymore -- poor distribution and shelf placement. According to the New York Times, the Northern Alliance has put all the poppy farmers back to work, and they are promising a "bumper crop" by spring.
But Mr. Bush, I am most impressed with how you have used those who died on September 11th to justify your lining the pockets of your rich friends and campaign contributors. Your "Economic Stimulus Bill" -- pure genius! You actually got the House of Representatives to pass a bill eliminating the law that said corporations have to pay at least a token minimum tax every year.
See, most people forget that back in your daddy's day (when he was VP) thousands of companies were able to lawyer their way out of paying any taxes at all! Then a law was passed to stop that. Now you got the House to agree to give all these corporations back ALL the minimum taxes they have paid since 1986!! That's $140 billion of givebacks ($1.4 billion to IBM, a billion to Ford, $800 million to GM, etc.). And you got this passed, all under the guise of "September 11th!" How do you get away with this without the American public whoopin' your behind? Man, you are THE MAN!
Hey, and tell your top sheriff, Big John Ashcroft, that his refusal to let the FBI look at the files of gun background checks that the Justice Department keeps -- to see if any of the terrorists or suspected terrorists have purchased weapons in the past two years -- took some balls! Even though checking those files might turn up information that could protect us in possible future attacks, Ashcroft was more concerned with not upsetting the NRA than in helping his own FBI catch the bad guys. Now that's what I call getting your priorities straight. Big John may have lost his Senate seat last year to a dead guy, but he sure as heck ain't gonna lose me as a huge admirer!
Well, I better go before someone from the Office of Homeland Security mistakes me for someone who needs to be "interviewed!" Rest assured I'm doing my part for the country by shopping my sorry ass off in this week before Christmas. Buy! Buy! Buy! Tora! Tora! Tora! Bora! Whoo-hoo, Prince O' Peace!! Fight Team Fight! Go get 'em, George, Jr. -- we're counting on you to kill all evildoers!
Yours,
Michael Moore
Third in Line to the King of Afghanistan
www.michaelmoore.com <http://www.michaelmoore.com/>
mmflint@aol.com
P.S. You'll beat that Enron rap, just like you beat your other raps! Chin up! Who needs "energy traders" anyway? I never saw that job on the list from my high school counselor!!
US Catholics denounce Afghan war
<http://www.pakobserver.com/december/28/front/fnews19.shtml>
Pakistan Observer, Shawal 12, 1422 AH, December 28, 2001
Washington ‹ A group of Catholic activists has dissociated itself from the Catholic Church¹s endorsement of the present US war on terrorism as a just war, arguing that modern warfare is inherently unjust.
Bishops and all Catholics must rethink the framework for making judgments on war and peace in order to highlight the serious restrictions which Catholic moral teaching has placed on warlike actions in practice ruling out modern warfare, a statement signed by 68 Catholic organisations and individuals said here. It called on American bishops to denounce the war in Afghanistan because of collateral damage caused by the US-led bombing that was a violation of Catholic teaching on the inadmissibility of indiscriminate attacks on innocent people.
The group also said that the global campaign to end terrorism will not succeed through the use of military power, but by eliminating the injustices and root causes that create the fertile soil in which disinherited and disillusioned people are recruited to terrorism.
We find the military response to the acts of September 11 violates Catholic teaching,² Dave Robinson, one of the signatories to the statement told the Washington Times newspaper. He said 3,700 innocent civilians were killed in Afghanistan. They had nothing to do with the al Qaeda network. This is a violation of Catholic teaching on a just war. ‹APP
Mandela reconsiders view
<http://www.telegram.com/news/inside/mandela.html>
Henri E. Cauvin, The New York Times, January 3, 2002
Cape Town, South Africa -- Nelson Mandela, who was criticized in some quarters here for coming out strongly in support of the US-led campaign against terrorism, said yesterday he may have ³overstated² his backing for the war and that his earlier comments may have unintentionally suggested he was ignoring the conflict's toll on ordinary people. ³Our view may have been one-sided and overstated,² said Mandela, a Nobel peace laureate as well as South African's first post-apartheid president. He added that ³such unreserved support for the war in Afghanistan gives the impression that we are insensitive to and uncaring about the suffering inflicted upon the Afghan people and country.² Now South Africa's elder statesman, Mandela has been a bridge to Muslim communities not only in his own country but throughout the Muslim world. Rarely has he been the target of the sort of anger that followed his remarks on the war in November, during a trip to the United States. While South Africa is a predominantly Christian country, it is sympathetic to many Muslim causes, such as a Palestinian state, and has an influential Muslim minority of about 2 million people, many of them in and around Cape Town. ...