Hal Austin
Introduction:
As I sat down to write this week’s BU contribution on a pressing financial economic matter, I came across the break out of serious antibiotic-resistant bacteria problems at our only hospital. Those of us familiar with the various infections that plague British hospitals would not be surprised that Klebsiella bacteria has now arrived at the QEH. I must admit, it did not come as a shock to me, since a friend and I have only recently been discussing the rat-infested, rubbish-strewn, health and safety hazard that is the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. But it was the compulsive, arrogant, obstinate greed of the doctors behind their objections to alternative medicine that tipped me over in to widening the debate on the future of the health service and long-term care. It is not a concern about patient care, nor about the general welfare of ordinary Barbadians, but rather a determine attempt to co-opt the attorney general in their little game of protecting their money-making interests. To put it in simple terms, we are in a deep cesspit of our own making, typified by the abandoning of the elderly, so-called granny dumping, for which the entire nation should be ashamed, yet all these expensively educated people could think about is their own bank accounts.
Analysis:
There are issues of more pressing concern that doctors should be involved in, such as the mortality rate at the hospital, the high costs of X-rays and MRI examinations, of overall poor patient care by doctors, who attend surgeries as and when they like. Few Barbadian doctors, aware that their profession is about public health and not just money-making, have raised their heads from the trough that is taxpayers’ money to battle for improvements in the state of public health. But, typically, they are more concerned about the continuing rise of unregulated medical practice – so-called complementary medicine – not in the interest of the public, but because this medical practice main block one of their most lucrative income streams.
Doctors are the most expensively trained people in Barbados, whether they are educated at the University of the West Indies or go ‘overseas’ to receive their training. They also have an awful record of picking their fights: against ordinary people who had the good fortune to be trained in Cuba, one of the best medical set ups in the world, while prepared to turn a blind eye to the rise of so-called Chinese medicine, one of the biggest unregulated scams to hit the Western world. But, long-term health care will be the biggest burden on the national economy in the years to come and unless we – that means all of us, including doctors – do something now to control this massive spend, the already-creaking economy will not be able to stand the strain.
Public Health as Policy:
Public health policy is in need of emergency treatment, from the epidemic of obesity, HIV/Aids infectivity, and overall nutritional shortages, to the $800m cost of the proposed new hospital. However, by far one of the most brutal, uncivilised and savage symptoms of this paucity of policy and funding to be played out in public space is that of granny dumping – leaving elderly relatives stuck in hospitals and other public institutions until they are removed at public expense. Apart from the fact that this anti-social act should be made a criminal offence, anyone dumping an elderly (disabled or mentally ill) relative in any public institution should also be automatically disinherited.
We cannot be a society in which inhumane relatives can relieve themselves of any social responsibility for sick and elderly relatives then hope to inherit family assets. More than that, this reversal of sociological history is to retreat in to barbarism: historically there has always been a trade off between generations; parents have children to whom they are obliged to provide care and protection until they reach adulthood; then, as adults, they go off and raise their own families. As their children grow, the older generation, now also grand parents, continue to enjoy their early old age until such time that they cannot look after themselves. Part of our social compact is that their children then perform a dual role; looking after their parents while also keeping a watchful eye on their own children, who by now would be in their late teens or early adulthood. This is the generational trade off that is part of human culture and which is now mainly practised in Asia – the so-called Confucian principle – and to a certain extent in India, although here is it more something talked about then practised. It is only in Western culture that care of the elderly is palmed off to privatised institutions – so-called long-term care – in which their children and grandchildren believe that a weekly or monthly visit usually on Sundays for an hour or so, fulfils that generational obligation. What is compounding this post-Independence brutalism is that with advances in medical science and lifestyle changes have combined to change the structure of the family. Instead of the three-generation extended family (children, parents and grand parents) many young people are now living long enough to get to know their great grand parents, many of whom now live to their late eighties, nineties and over 100. This development will not only re-configure the shape of the family, but will re-write our social obligations to each generation, over and above any impact it will have on the economics of health care.
Preventative Medicine:
The first lesson in good health care, as we have all now learned, is that prevention is better than cure. Good diet, regular exercise, proper rest, cutting down on salt, sugar, unsaturated fats are the ingredients of sound health, and they are the very lesson that the chief medical officer, the ministry of health and individual doctors should be pumping out every day. To reinforce this, government should have a basket of fresh fruit and vegetables, virgin olive oil, fresh fish, well sourced chicken and minimum red meat, should be zero-rated for Value Added Taxation. Policymakers should accept that the short-term loss of taxation could provide incredible long-term dividends in terms of a healthy nation. To this end, it will be cheaper in the long-term for the state to establish a number of leisure centres, complete with gyms, than to focus our health spend on the hospital and medical emergencies.
Science V Tradition:
Part of the mis-education of a former colonised people is that the victor writes the rules. Part of this cultural dominance is the promotion of Western medicine over that of traditional communities, who, through trial and error (the traditional equivalent of the Kuhnian revolution) have worked out which plants are best for which disease. Western science over-ruled this for over a century, but now even this is in reverse as the Big Pharma companies trawl the world looking for fauna and flora, and even the DNA of some people, in which to develop new medicines. In fact, not so long ago the government and medical establishment in Barbados allowed an American biotech company to come to Barbados and take the DNA of one of our ,many centenarians to order to get their lab technicians to develop a medicine to prolong life.
We can be sure that, apart from what they have already received, neither the family nor the nation will benefit from that intellectual property right when it comes on stream. That, I suggest, is the price of ignorance and is something that senior doctors and politicians should have protested loud and hard about at the time. Instead they remained silent, a silence enforced through their collective, embarrassing ignorance. But Western-based medical science versus traditional medicines will continue to occupy health scientists, health economists and social policy experts.
Big Pharma, Big Money:
Doctors all over the Western world are in the hands of the global pharmaceutical companies. It is in their commercial interest to medicalise ordinary aches and pains, develop a medicine for them, then charge the world. It is how they make their billions and little states like Barbados must push back against this dishonesty, now allow our self-interested doctors to encourage us to spend more. If you want to really read about this US$800bn Leviathan, see Marcia Angell’s The Truth About the Drug Companies, Merrill Goozner’s The $800M Pill, Jerome Kassirer’s On the Take. They also provide good background information on why the entire pharmaceutical industry, so-called Big Pharma, is up in arms against Obamacare.
Analysis and Conclusion:
Barbadian doctors have a lot of questions to answer: we want to know doctors’ death rates, their failed operations, when they are late for appointments, their continuing professional development – in short, if they are professionally fit for purpose. This is information that should be made publicly available, especially to people undergoing surgery. Worldwide, doctors routinely botch operations on unfortunate patients which only come to light by word of mouth or if one is related to a victim. Either in Barbados we have the best doctors in the world or a number of patients are botched, even killed, without as much as an inquest. With no proper patients’ representation, no political enthusiasm for taking up constituents’ issues and the historic deference Barbadians have for so-called professionals, being a doctor in Barbados is almost a licence to murder. But doctors have a greater social responsibility beyond their clinical presence, such as for example when middle aged women have to undergo a hysterectomy or any other serious and life-threatening operation only to be discharged from the hospital within hours because insurance companies do not want to spend the money on their care or there is a shortage of beds. This is an ethical issue, and not one of finance, and doctors should intervene to warn insurance companies that they are putting their patients at risk. But do they? There are areas of medicine and health that we should be actively involved in, if not leading the world: sickle cell, prostate cancer, type-two diabetes, etc, which have a high ethnic and cultural correlation. But their greed has confirmed the urgency of the need for health care reforms, restricting the business and private practice of contracted health service doctors and imposing a strict demarcation line between the expertise of doctors and the care and welfare responsibilities of nurses.
I will get to health policy when I am ready
You may not know it but I was able to affect health policy in Barbados in 1985, and I had the joy of seeing things that I advocated here on BU in 2008 being implemented in St Lucia last year.
Re Few Barbadian doctors, aware that their profession is about public health and not just money-making, have raised their heads from the trough that is taxpayers’ money to battle for improvements in the state of public health.
What METHANE! PUBLIC HEALTH IS A SPECIALTY! Because of the efforts of Sir Maurice Byer and many others we have a very good public health system. Individual doctors support the same by reporting the required information to the authorities.
How can a Dr battle for improvements in the state of public health, when a death ear is presented by the authorities. Even GP (who David and ASSTIN thinks is a moron) has battled on BU from overseas for the same. In the last 5-6 years, has it not been the stupid GP that has sought to enlighten BU readers about all things medicine?
Now today I hear David with his for heavens sake telling me what to discuss. I will discuss what I want when I am ready? I dont see him try to control the bulls shit drips that is the daily fare on BU
@GP
The Medical Council is supported in law to ensure doctors refresh. If they want their license they have to adhere to the law. It is what it is.
BU puts licks in people who can hold them. God knows you have held your fair share n BU over the years. Why do you think this be the case GP? Remember you are in the BU and not some crusty online university forum…lol.
@ GP
I do not think you are a moron. Rather, I think you are an intelligent doctor. And I admire you influence on public health policy.
All I am asking you to do is to debate some of the policy issues I have raised, instead of stropping.
We all make contributions to our professional areas, I am in this blog because I want to contribute to the development of policy in Barbados.
I have spent a lifetime contributing to policy in Britain and many people have appreciated it, but I owe it to Barbados – to the people of the Ivy, to those poorly paid teachers at Belmont, St Giles and Combermere, to the people who make me still feel welcome when I drive through the Ivy.
I am not doing it for an ego thing. I am too old and I am not one of those who want to work until they die.
I do not know of many people that the Chinese have invited over to teach their young people. There must be something they had seen and like.
So cool down and out of our discussion may come one or two ideas that the ministry may take on board. That is the purpose of debates.
By the way, all my God children have followed me in to journalism – now that is something to be proud of.
And GP if you want BU to start a topic with a one sentence introduction (nothing for you to dissect) – ‘Healthcare Barbados Style’ just say so.
@Hal Austin “It does not matter if an absent father did not look after you when you were small, in a Christian society we must larn to forgive. It is what makes us humans.”
Theological nonsense.
Before forgiveness come repentance.
It is amazing how many people want to be forgiven, but nobody, nobody wants to repent.
I say again fathers and (mothers) who have abandoned their children DESERVE to be ignored in their old age.
@Hal “70 per cent of the children born in Barbados are from one parent”
No child is ever born from one parent.
In the whole of human history it has NEVER happened.
If 70% of Bajan fathers choose to bugger off, then when they become old they DESERVE to be abandoned.
@Hal “I would give an arm and a leg now to have my maternal grandmother cook for me”
But would you give an arm and a leg to change you maternal grandmother’s diapers, for two or three years until she dies? Would you give an arm and a leg to wipe her shit off the floor and walls, and furniture, and to wash it our of her hair and yours?
Every grandson loves their granny when when can cook for them, and wash their dirty dishes afterwards. But how many love her when they have to clean her shit.
Tha is what we ae talking about here. If yu do not understand the difficulty of caring for the very old and teh verysick, than how can yu presume to advise on policy?
Elder care is not about having granny cook for us.
Caring for the very sick elderly is ALWAYS about cleaning shit and piss.
The Medical Council is supported in law to ensure doctors refresh. If they want their license they have to adhere to the law. It is what it is.
I WILL BET YOU A FORTUNE THAT THIS NEW MOVE BY THE COUNCIL IS AIMED AT THE COMPLIMENTARY PRACTICIONERS
I TRY TO SHARE WITH YOU THE FACTS
IF CME’S ARE NOT INFORMATIVE THEY ARE USELESS
IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES SOME DRS ATTEND CME’S REGISTER AND GO SHOPPING OR PLAY GOLF OR RUN AROUND WITH THIER OUTSIDE WOMEN. THEY GET THE CME CREDITS FOR JUST SIGNING IN NOT PARTICIPATING.
@Doc GP
You are probably correct but this new regulation was put in by Minister Inniss before he was demoted and replaced with Boyce. Is it reasonable to conclude Inniss implemented with the support of Waldrond and company?
@David the blogmaster “We need to protect our aged, they are are not dogs.”
But David some of our aged are dogs.
LOL!!!!!!!
They were dogs when the were young, and they are still dogs now.
I have more than one friend/relative in more than one country who tell me that they have to shift the old men who try to feel up their bubbies as they go about their work bathing, and feeding these old men.
You tink some old men easy?
You and Hal need to talk to some real, real people who have to provide care for some real, real very, very difficult old men.
Just because an old man never try to feel you up it does not mean that they do not try to feel up the women providing care for them
@Bush Tea “Bushie is saying that IT DOES MATTER that too many parents are neglecting their children in pursuit of wealth, selfish sexual satisfaction, laziness, and plain wutlessness……AND AS AS RESULT we are seeing a high level of abandonment of these parents when the get old”
I agree 100%
@ GP
Don’t be deterred. At least you have an eager audience of two! Me and Hants.
@Bush Tea and Simple Simon
I agree with both of you re the irresponsible fathers. I would like to see the day when my son’s father who is now going blind and wants to see him gets any help from my off spring. He never once did anything for the child. My son does not even know the dog.
If there was no care, nurturing, love or bonding, why expect a child to have any feelings for, or look after the old fools? The Christian thing would have been for these men to acknowledge and live up to their responsibilities. I pat myself on the back for not brain washing my son with any religious nonsense.
@Pat
One should never be guided by the actions or behaviour of another but by YOU based on a value system which guides YOU as to what is right or wrong.
Dear Dr. GP:
Yesterday I asked you to take on Hal Austin, and you have, and I thank you.
Thanks Pat
Simple Simon, I just tried to comment on most of his paragraphs and point out any errors I perceived or/and give useful information to the BU readership.
I tried to deal with what was presented rather than picking out afew points and dealing with those.
In Barbados, health policy is set by the politicians and their close allies. Doctors dont have a say unless it is for political expediency. The fellas only listened to me in 85 because they had not then yet implemented the NHS that they had promised in 1976 before they got into office.
Its now 17 years since I spoke to David Simmonds about breath analysers……….and I can go on.
Similarly doctors cant go against the medical maguffies. Sloshberg was correct in 1989 with his findings………..but he was villified because he didnt keep quiet and say what the chief guru said he should say. We all might remember the bad behavior displayed by our top doctors on tv then.
Information given to the public by certain doctors is given when they want to force the governments hands. So we are not to get too emotional.
All this registration stuff is about the profession closing ranks against the complimentary fellas. Go figure
@David,
First of all thanks for obtaining a copy of The Royal Palms are Dying. I hope you enjoyed it and will obtain a copy of The Wind Also Listens which is better, and when Yeshua A.K.A. Jesus The Nazarene is published (shortly) you will obtain a copy because that is better than the other two, although I am sure it will cause some controversy. With regard to your request to “move on”, like Georgie Porgie I cannot let Hal get away with some of the nonsence he is postulating. He still wants to attribute the presence of antibiotic resistant bacteria to unsanitary conditions in the QEH, or as he puts it “unhygenic conditions”. Nosocomials can become established simply by being brought into the environment from outside. An individual with MRSA in his/her nose can come into the hospital (not as a patient) and by not observing the rules and reegulations; such as hand washing etc. can establish the organism. Then the authorities have the difficult job of getting rid of it..
@ Hal: “Even if you absent father did not give your mother a cent to support you as a kid, on reaching maturity you have a moral obligation to treat him with decency and fairness, without reference to how he treated you as a kid” What moral obligaton> and Why? We are born alone into the world and we will go alone. It is up to the individual…Morality????
@Georgie Porgie, hang in there. Your contributions are respected and valued. Don’t leave us. Even if one new person learns something from what you contribute it is worth it because many people say thngs and have negative attitudes out of ignorance.
@ Hal
********
“Even if you absent father did not give your mother a cent to support you as a kid, on reaching maturity you have a moral obligation to treat him with decency and fairness, without reference to how he treated you as a kid”
********
Nobody disputes the above.
Not a fellow here has been disputing the question of treating fathers with “”decency and fairness”… That is surely a red herring….!
The point under discussion is whether such children have a RESPONSIBILITY to assume financial and administrative responsibility for such parents ….and if the LAW should be used to enforce such responsibility.
The only sane persons who could possibly support such nonsense are those with compromised consciences…. Not even a wutless father would reasonably expect such.
….and David, you can’t pass laws to make persons love someone. If you FORCED reluctant children to “look after” their unwanted parents you may be unwittingly inflicting more punishment in their old backsides than even the most wutless ones deserve…..
Simple Simon is right
If society feels that something needs to be done about the situation then the answer lies in providing STATE facilities, paid for by taxpayers ….
…of course the BEST answer is for parents to love and care for their children as best they can and be assured that the children will return the favour OUT OF LOVE AND APPRECIATION when the time comes….
Your basic point about the situation with medicine in Barbados is sound, and is one dear to Bushie’s heart, but by introducing clearly illogical points in your discussion, you open yourself to easy attack…. Especially when GP and Simple S are in town 🙂 …
@ Bushie
We already have such moral and legal duties for our children. I am suggesting this can easily be extended to the other generation, It is already in some Asian cultures.
boy i like how some think finding a solution to societal problems is as easy as one ! two! three! Suggesting that taxpayers pay for the health care for” Wutless fathers in their old age! isn;t it enough that taxpayers might have paid in the financial aid of raising these “wutless” father children.? If by chance these people need care and family is not willing to assist! then the govt should by law if necessary be granted rights to withhold all or partial amounts from these “wutless fathers” NIS payments and putting these funds towards their health care in what would be a fair and just solution
as it is now some of the elders are mistreated at the hands of family members who get access to these funds and used them at their own discretion which only is of benefit to themselves.
“It is already in some Asian cultures.”
*************
So is dog soup….
Do you ever concede that you may have erred…?
The OBVIOUS moral and legal responsibility that parents have for the children that THEY brought into this world cannot be logically inverted.
Even 9 year olds will tell you that they did not choose their parents, but the other way around.
You would do yourself a great literary service by admitting that ….
1 – resistant bacteria is not a natural consequence of cleanliness, and may in fact occur in the best of hospitals
2 – your rant about granny dumping was an emotional over- reaction exaggerated by your imminent candidature for such a situation.
🙂
….. Bushie too…
But if you had adopted a bush diet you would have found yourself in the enviable position of being needed by the great-great-great grandchildren for your vitality, knowledge and charm… Lol
Hal
Go and google Ivan Illich, and may be this discussion shall get a bit more interesting. Remember also that policy development is not done in isolation; you need all the critical partners at the table.
David
If the QEH go to where their liquid waste is disposed and isolate some bateriophages then the area could be treated. Whether the bacteria are drug resistant or not the phages shall destroy them. Hal check the russian research.
Hal
If you believe your stronghold in the area of health policy put up a piece; if it is in the area of health economics put up a piece. But do not continue to spout the old lectures on philosophy, as if there is no such thing a health philosophy. You should also put up a piece on those great thinkers at Cawmere. Do not cite bumpy Moore, and you can not find another one.
Thanks Lemuel
Saturday mornings for those who have been around awhile is when we pound the impossible and far fetch theories, even the conspiracy ones. Only person missing was MME. We still manage to provoke the wrath of GP which means all is well…lol.
GP
I support your contentions; however, at time I think that doctors in Bim are too timid. Yes there is the old boys club, which is now being populated by the old boys sons and daughter, but like Bushie says sometimes you have to suffer for a principle and I have discovered that too few of you take up that challenge. I too have had my rounds with Prof Walrond and his crowd but that crowd needs to be engaged firmly not tip toed around. That crowd has finally been able to get Sparman isolated ; he can not register as a specialist. I would be a bit careful with the alternative medicine folk in Bim; some or mostly medical hacks.
As to one Bushie who always quoting scrpiture this is for thee ” VENGANCE IS MIND SAITH THE LORD!
Simple Simon ,Pat and Bushie …wunna got Hal trussed up for the oven LOLL.
Onions
Where yuh hiding Miller?
As I have said before, Hal means well but too often he lacks context and evidence.
1. David | April 7, 2013 at 8:59 AM |
We still manage to provoke the wrath of GP which means all is well…lol.
PLEASE KINDLY NOTE THAT I HAVE NOT BECOME ANNOYED
Lemuel | April 7, 2013 at 9:21 AM |
RE GP
YOU DEFINITELY HAVE A GRASP OF WHAT IS GOING ON RE THE DRS IN BARBADOS
Enuff | April 7, 2013 at 3:34 PM |
I AGREE WITH YOU
@ac “Suggesting that taxpayers pay for the health care for” Wutless fathers in their old age! isn;t it enough that taxpayers might have paid in the financial aid of raising these “wutless” father children.? If by chance these people need care and family is not willing to assist! then the govt should by law if necessary be granted rights to withhold all or partial amounts from these “wutless fathers” NIS payments and putting these funds towards their health care in what would be a fair and just solution”
I agree with you, except if the final illness is long and complex the $2562 NIS maximum payment will not enough to provide good care.
I am disappointed, but not surprised, that a twisted and bitter morality should accompany a discussion about treating an absent father with decency and sympathy in his old age. In fact, this should be our attitude to any Barbadian who has fallen on his/her luck in old age. Buy it is the Barbadian way, and one reason why in Britain national charities are among the best supported organisation in the UK.
I am always pleasantly surprised when multi-million lottery winners are asked how they are going to spend their money and one of the first things they say is a donation to charity. As a nation maybe one of the things we have to revisit is our Christian charity.
On the broader issues, is health care a legitimate subject fdor wider public discussion?
Should this include alternatives to the medicalisation of conditions such as depression or finding alternative ways of returning them to good health?
Should any health care debate go beyond one about the QEH, or the epidemiology and causation of diseases?
Should it include reform of the health service, how taxpayers’ money is spent, and even the need for a new economic model?
Do we think there is a need for widespread education in critical thinking in order to improve public discourse?
And Hal the Estimates 2013/14 does not have a line item for a new hospital. Obviously former MoH was flying a kite when he posted on BU.
@Hal Austin
I am always pleasantly surprised when multi-million lottery winners are asked how they are going to spend their money and one of the first things they say is a donation to charity.
***************
All boiler plate, has any one ever done a follow up to see how many actually donate to charity? These statements are the same rehearsed ones that beauty contestants repeat when they admit that they are for world peace or eradication of childhood poverty or disease; who isn’t for these things?
Debates on health care must surely go beyond discussion of issues about the QEH, but please kindly note that epidemiology and causation of diseases are important planks when discussing matters of Public Health.
Debates on health care must surely include reform of the health service, and the relevant associated economics. But who is interested? The Bajan public and the BU crew are only interested in Heath matters when there is an apparent crisis. Attempts to enlighten the BU audience on aspects of health are supported by only a few comments. And the powers that be do not care, or do not have the intellectual capacity. I was only able to influence policy in 85 because it was expedient. At that time the Government was facing an election in 86 and had failed in 9 years in office to usher in the NHS promised in their 76 manifesto.
Re
Do we think there is a need for widespread education in critical thinking in order to improve public discourse?
That is a pipe dream. Most Bajans are regurgitators. Folk who attempt to think or who are advanced in their thinking are marginalized inter alia
@GP
There is hope, Ministerof Health John Boyce was on TV tonight urging Bajans to walk in order to lead more active lifestyles to stall the lifestyle diseases we know so well. Of course nobody touches the fast food restaurants and the lack of urgency to have menus display ingredients etc. We are in a mess. People don’t discuss health because we are all guilty of not doing the correct things.
@Hal Austin April 7, 2013 at 6:09 PM “we [bAJANS] are in a deep cesspit of our own making, typified by the abandoning of the elderly, so-called granny dumping, for which the entire nation should be ashamed… I am disappointed, but not surprised, that a twisted and bitter morality should accompany a discussion about treating an absent father with decency and sympathy in his old age…. But it is the Barbadian way… in Britain national charities are among the best supported organisation in the UK…. As a nation maybe one of the things we [Bajans] have to revisit is our Christian charity.
I read Hal’s writing where he accused Bajans of being in a deep cesspit, of being twisted, bitter, immoral,lacking in sympathy and decency and un-Christian.
And today I read in multiple newspapers that Margaret Thatcher has died and that her only children live outside of the U.K. Her unmarried and childless daughter Carol has lived in Australia since 1977 and her son Mark who pleaded guilty in January 2005 to breaking anti-mercenary legislation in South Africa and who been refused a residence visa to live in the United States has lived in South Africa since the 1980’s
Are these people daughters of one of the most eminent Britons of the 20th century also in a deep cesspit, twisted, bitter, immoral,lacking in sympathy and decency and un-Christian. Did they dump granny Thatcher?
Or are Bajans the only twisted, bitter, immoral,lacking in sympathy and decency and un-Christian people in the world?
Or is it that Hal is buried deep, deep, deep in self hate and loathing?
CORRECTION: Are these people the son and daughter…
@ Georgie Porgie
I disagree that our leaders do not have the intellectual competence to deal with these issues. I think you are right that they do not care, because they look after themselves and their family.
But it is our duty to bring these issues to the attention of ordinary people, even if at first they resist.
By debating the issues in this room you are still making a contribution to public education.
Our politicians are now talking about lifestyles; let them also talk about the food we eat: genetically modified, imported chicken which is not properly sourced, not matter what the bills of laden say.
What is the long term impact of GM food?
@ Simon
I was under the impression that Mark Thatcher lived in Barbados. Looking after your elderly parents does not mean you have to live with them every day..
So what as your problem then with the thing you called granny dumping?
I believe the elders for care in the QEH receive excellent care while waiting for long term care. “Looking after your elderly parents does not mean you have to live with them every day.”
But Hal somebody has to be available to the elders every day.
Somebody has to wash every day
Somebody has to clean every day
Somebody has to feed every day.
Somebody has to comb the hair.
Somebody has t take to the toilet.several times a day
Somebody has to clean the behinds.several times a day
Next thing you will tell me is that in order to look after his children a father does not have to live with them everyday. And then such fathers why they are ignored in their old age.
I think that you are making excuses for the rich and taking liberties by cursing the poor.
All of the care giving tasks noted above are carried out everyday in every country of the worlds by poor women. And yet you have the nerve to curse poor care giving women.
When it is actually the poor who look after their own elders, AND the elders of the rich and the famous. As has always been the case.
@ Simon
This does not mean you may abdicate your respinsibiklities as a child. Children have obligations to their elderly parents, just as much as to their own children.
We must agree to disagree on this interpretation of family obligations.
On a wider note, if you cannot (do not) care for your elderly parents then I believe it raises questions about your ability to care for anyone.
Parents, good or bad, as children we must be forgiving.
@ Hal
I am not sure whether you get The Nation, but this article by Lowdown Hoad is for your edification. Getting old, even here in Bim is not as dire and dread as you widh us to imagine.:Original
Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think
By Richard Hoad | Fri, April 05, 2013 – 12:01 AM
THAT cat-that-swallowed-the-canary look. Radiating bonhomie. But why should the ineffable Doug Hoyte look his most ineff when entertaining those two carrot juice, anti-salt, anti-sugar babes on Morning Barbados? Maybe it’s because Doug, like Bajan husbands everywhere, is rejoicing in the knowledge that, thank God in Heaven, he isn’t married to either of them. He doesn’t have to drink that stuff.
Of course, I may be misjudging Doug. And I’m being over-harsh on the well-meaning ladies, given the unhealthy eating habits of today’s Bajans and consequent problems. I just want us to look at the big picture and put things in perspective.
By the way, I have a friend who went overboard on carrot juice. Guzzled it. Even when his extremities started turning yellow. Until one morning his wife glanced at his most favoured extremity and sang : “Yellow bird, you look kinda strange to me; yellow bird, should I call you ‘Can-a-ry’?” Fortunately, the name didn’t stick and the carrot-juice addiction didn’t last so all’s well.
My point here is, however, that many of us are living to ripe, and, over-ripe, old ages, enjoying health and life in general without resorting to carrot juice and cucumber water and pretending they’re fit for human consumption. So what will those strict, unpalatable, masochistic diets achieve?
The hard reality is that old age is a brute. True, my friend Melville Williams, master saddler, is 102 and looking to start new business. Another fit friend who checks deliveries at Northern Lumber Company is pushing 88. The mother-in-law, who still gardens, sews and cooks (and eats anything), hit 89 last Monday. And a gent was in the NATION recently forking at 100. Power to them all.
But for most of us life starts to wind down in the 70s through no fault of our own. My wife, for instance, used to play “Gear-stick” every night in bed – “Voom, first gear, voom voom, back in two, voom, three and four, voom, back a third!” I went to sleep a happy man. Now I can’t even get her to shove it into “Park” before keeling over to snore.
Some fortunate old people get to live out their days with their children. But most young adults nowadays don’t have time for oldsters. They have plasmas to watch, cruises to take. And the option often comes down to living by yourself in terrible loneliness. Or facing the three most dreaded words in our language . . . “Looking into homes”.
Sure there are homes where they try their best to fit you in with an assortment of strangers. But many are glorified prisons. Up at 4 am to bathe with a nurse watching so you can’t even play with Dooley.
I see happy old people. But I see too many old people who beg the Lord every night to let them die. I see them cry every time they reflect on having had to leave their home and all their cherished possessions.
And for this I should drink carrot juice and cucumber water? No, my friends, life is now. Enjoy it to the fullest. Don’t overeat. Cut down on the fast foods. But, be damn, don’t pass up on the occasional bread and two, ham cutter or pudding and souse. Food is about the only pleasure we oldsters have left. Let us therefore eat, drink and be merry.
Which is what we did at Ridley Greene’s birthday bash at the Bush Bar last Sunday night. Lord have mercy, when I thought no more could hold, two bus loads of miscellaneous females arrived. The ladies all share the same view of Ridley: “No hard feelings”, one told me, “that about sums him up. Take it whichever way you like!”
Music sweet, Kaymar Jordan looking good, Roy P Byer holding forth, a Combermerian named Lester describing my writing in vivid sexual terminology. Women I don’t know lap dancing and working up on me while everyone enjoyed my discomfiture.
The food was great and I was hungry. But after seeing Andy Ingrahm’s plate with the breadfruit barely scotching on top a mountain of fried pork, souse, lamb stew and God knows what else, I had to hold back lest the visitors there think all we Bajan white people are gormandizers. The dietitians would’ve been pleased.
• Richard Hoad is a farmer and social commentator. Email porkhoad@gmail.com.
@ David | April 7, 2013 at 9:00 PM |
Hi David,
Just touching base to let the BU household know the old miller has not retired from the “Waiting for God” brigade to join Baroness Thatcher (yet).
Based on some of the most unchristian views expressed so far on the “curse” of old age the miller wants to take back his earlier proposal of a tax on fast food outlets. Let the people eat themselves to a quick fat death then the young will not have to worry about old granny and perverted old men like piece of de rock, Sarge, Bushie, BAF and the king pervert the miller himself.
The bacteria problem at the QEH started long time ago. It was in need of a serious general cleaning starting with the outside. How can a hospital be seen as “hygienic” when its management can’t even keep its surroundings immediate outside surroundings like the car park and the A&E free of litter built up over months and constant complaining about the state of unhealthy affairs with total indifference by the authorities?
@Miller
Noted that you are alive and trying to key. To the other part of your comment, sitting on the lips.
Yes, David?
Nice to hear from you too, Blog Master!
Still here in the land of the quick ready to pay a visit to the land of Valhalla while still alive.
Will try to keep in touch with developments in my beloved country for which prays to the gods are daily sent requesting beams of enlightenment to fall like manna from heaven to fill our people with the understanding of what is being played out in this big bad World especially in Europe.
Hope Bim survives the unfair “tax haven” onslaught from our former friends Canada.
In a ‘dog-eat-dog’ world don’t be surprised if there is a concerted effort afoot to weaken the offshore and international business sector in Barbados. The OECD is not an instrument to be dismissed. It can be the handmaiden of the rating agencies and the IMF to bring errant States like Bim back into line.
@David
This is directed at Hal primarily but it is also applicable to all those in need of information on antibiotic resistance. I am attaching a copy of a report that is the subject of discussion in the microbiological community, ongoing on a site Linkedin.
Antibiotic resistance: a “ticking time bomb”
The issue of growing resistance to antibiotics is a major global problem and should be ranked alongside threat of terrorism, according to the chief medical officer for England.
Antimicrobial resistance describes the ability of a microorganism to resist the action of antimicrobial drugs. This is important as it can make the treatment of infections more difficult and increase hospital costs, according to the U.K. Department of Health.
Antibiotic resistance is a serious and growing concern, with more microorganisms becoming resistant (the so-called ‘superbugs’ like MRSA) and fewer effective antibiotics being available, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). As an example, the WHO indicates that 150,000 deaths a year are caused by multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.
One of the main causes, the U.S. Center for Disease Control notes, has been down to overuse of antibiotics, often in cases where none were needed, leading to the adaptation of microorganisms to become resistant.
To highlight this concern Professor Dame Sally Davies, the U.K. government’s chief medical officer for England has said, according to the BBC: “If we don’t take action, then we may all be back in an almost 19th Century environment where infections kill us as a result of routine operations. We won’t be able to do a lot of our cancer treatments or organ transplants.”
She went on to make a point about the lack of new drug development on the part of pharmaceutical companies: “We haven’t had a new class of antibiotics since the late 80s and there are very few antibiotics in the pipeline of the big pharmaceutical companies that develop and make drugs.
“We haven’t as a society globally incentivised making antibiotics. It’s quite simple – if they make something to treat high blood pressure or diabetes and it works, we will use it on our patients everyday. Whereas antibiotics will only be used for a week or two when they’re needed, and then they have a limited life span because of resistance developing anyway.”
Professor Davies has expanded upon these issues in her annual report to the U.K. government.
A number of global bodies are attempting to work with ‘big pharma’ to develop new antibiotics, such as the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) in Europe, which is a public-private initiative aiming to speed up the development of better and safer medicines for patients; as well as initiatives by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
What remains of concern is that as bacterial antibiotic resistance continues to exhaust the supply of effective antibiotics, a global public health disaster could arise within the next decade. It is therefore a serious matter for governments, the medical profession, the pharmaceutical industry and individuals.
I will download some of the discussion comments a little later, but this is just for information at the moment
Posted
@ Alvin
Thanks for this. I have seen the report. Note that the reason given for the growth of anti-resistant is abuse or over-prescription. If you re-read the thread you will note I have said this on a number of occasions.
Also note Alvin that the chief medical officer makes an annual report to parliament. It is a different and more open form of democracy.
Two important things about health policy: patients must come first and the public must be informed.
As we are on this subject, here is a report that 25% of nurses in Canada wouldn’t recommend their hospital
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/ratemyhospital/story/2013/04/05/hospitals-nurses-survey.html
Even as some of us continue to intellectualise the issue of this bacteria in the QEH and why it took 18 month to confide in taxpayers – peole continue to die and or get very sick. This is a fact!
Here is an essay on health care that @Fraudulent Georgie Porgie would not understand. The graduated, bitter, twisted, redundant nurse, put out to grass at an age (his mid 60s) when he should be at the top of his game, passing on his knowledge to the next generation. When I was your age I was working 12 hour shifts, rather than getting drunk everyday, you pounce.
RE When I was your age I was working 12 hour shifts,
THATS BECAUSE AFTER ALL THEM YEARS IN THE UK YOU WERE STILL LIVING HAND TO MOUTH
Even as some of us continue to intellectualise the issue of this bacteria in the QEH and why it took 18 month to confide in taxpayers – peole continue to die and or get very sick.
HOSPITALS ARE A PLACE WHERE YOU EXPECT THERE TO BE BACTERIA
AS EXPLAINED BECAUSE OF DRUG RESISTANCE BACTERIAL CONTROL WILL CONTINUE TO DECREASE
WHAT EXACTLY WILL HAPPEN WHEN THE TAXPAYERS KNOW ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS IN THE HOSPITAL EXCEPT PANIC
WHAT WILL TAXPAYERS DO WHEN TOLD THAT THERE IS KLEBSIELLA IN THE HOSPITAL. CALL IN THE BDF &RBPF TO SHOOT THEM?
OR WILL YOU BRING IN MUSCLE BRAIN TO EAT THEM UP LIKE PACMAN?
@March 26, 20197:56 PM “pounce”
CORRECTION: ponce=effeminate man.
MUSCLE BRAIN, HAL ASSTIN THE MAN WITH THE PORCINE FACIES WHO SPEWS PORCINE FAECES FERVENTLY FURTIVELY
YOU CALL ME graduated, bitter, twisted, redundant nurse, put out to grass at an age (his mid 60s) when he should be at the top of his game, passing on his knowledge to the next generation
A DRUNK AND A “pounce.”
ALL FALSE A SOURCE OF MIRTH AND HILARITY BECAUSE
NO ONE WHO KNOWS ME WILL CORROBORATE YOUR ALLEGATIONS
BUT HAL YOUR BRAIN HAS OBVIOUSLY UNDERGONE DYPLASTIC CHANGE TO SMOOTH MUSCLE FIBRES
ergo