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‘Scrambling’ for answers

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The grim news coming from health officials this week is that heart disease among Barbadians is on the rise in Barbados. There has been a lot of noise historically associated with diabetes and hypertension, let us add cardiovascular disease to the list. What has been described as a health crisis is acerbated by a lack of capacity at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) to adequately administer timely treatment.

The blogmaster does not mean to be insensitive about individuals in need of urgent care, BUT, the observation must be made – our lifestyle choices have increased the risk factors contributing to a rise in Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in Barbados. We criticise the healthcare system for its poor service and neglect to self blame given our lifestyle choices feeding the ‘health crisis’. The current situation is a reminder of the popular saying ‘pouring water in the sea’. In real terms, we have developed behaviours that guarantee a high demand on the healthcare system. A system that has to be funded with tax dollars given successive governments commitment to provide ‘free’ health care to citizens.

We must improve the delivery of healthcare all agree, BUT, unless we address the demand on the health system linked to lifestyle choices of Barbadians, taxpayers money will continue to disappear down a black hole. Why do Barbadians seem committed to adopting lifestyle behaviour and choices that increase risk factors feeding the rise in NCDs?

Another issue which caught the attention this week was the eleventh hour decision by Minister of Agriculture Indar Weir to persuade Chickmont Foods management to ‘pause’ a decision to increase the price of an egg by 8 cents . While the decision to pause the increase is appreciated, especially at this time of year, a curious blogmaster must ask – why would a private sector company forgo revenue because the CEO of Chickmont received a call from a minister? Common sense suggests there has to be a backstory.

Here is wishing the ministry of agriculture with a bevy of PhDs and higher learning public servants get the forecasting of egg inventory right in the future. After all, forecasting is a routine process used by successful enterprises.

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54 responses to “‘Scrambling’ for answers”

  1. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    I can’t say yet that it is working for me since I am only in my early 70’s, but years ago I made a decision to eat and move and live as much as possible like my parents and grandparents did. Ground food, lots of walking, no smoking anything, very little alcohol. And maybe I “chose” my parents right, since they both lived past the age of 85.

    Many of us have perhaps fallen in love with “insta food” we love the easy way, alas “insta food” is not in love with us.

    For breakfast this morning, an orange, an apple, half of a very large avocado pear, sweet potato “pickings’ stewed in their own skin, 4 fishcakes with plenty of home grown chives. And a cup of coffee. Nobody can separate me from my morning coffee, lol!

    A good day to everyone. Working outside today, so may not be back here until night.

  2. Tim Ward Avatar
    Tim Ward

    We lost our way,grew up in 60/70 mom never buy eggs we had chickens never bought milk dad had cows reef fish was plentiful and rearly went to supermarket de kitchen garden was the supermarket with chemical free grown vegetables we had lots of native fruit trees which we see very few now, we had the most people that lived to 100 today ya lucky if ya make it to 50, we win the gold in Miami every year with our chef’s cooking yet the lines at the parish clinics and the QEH is overwhelmed with citizens with NCD de math just don’t add up what are we eating

  3. The OG Avatar
    The OG

    Hi David
    Please note the price increase stated in the article is not correct. I have seen it states as 8 cents (0.08) elsewhere.

  4. The OG Avatar
    The OG

    Allow me to tie an unrelated story to this one.
    There was a story about increasing number of bees being found at schools. Surprisingly, the answer to this new problem appears to be (1) Placing lids on trash bins and (2) properly disposing of wrappers for sweets and putting the remains of sweet/sugary stuff in bins.

    The person also pointed out that bees were foraging at schools because of a scarcity of flowers (a lack of pollen and nectar). Could this lack of flowers be due to land being converted for different uses?

    Many of the ills facing the country can be lessened with ‘appropriate’ behavior and the use of common sense

  5. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    People don’t know they have a health problem until they have a health problem.
    They should take steps to prevent health problems before they manifest.
    Learn about exercise and do it as a long term life plan.
    It takes 4 years of constant daily effort to see and feel the benefits.
    Mix it up with easy relaxing breathing meditation qigong exercises
    to more difficult exercises like walking tai chi
    and even more difficult exercise like yoga pilates aerobic running HIIT.
    30 days of one exercise will rewire the brain subconscious mind body connection.

  6. David Avatar
    David

    It seems a reasonable diet and being active is a good way to go. It does not guarantee that ailments will not come our way but it seems to give a human a better chance than does who do the opposite.

  7. David Avatar
    David

    @OG

    Thanks, you are correct. Chickmont advised that the landed price per egg is 80 cents but the increase added to existing price was to be 8 cents per egg.

  8. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    I don’t know what these guys ate for breakfast this morning, and how much physical work they have done for the day, but I would bet anything that they did not eat better than me, and have likely done less physical movement than I have for the day. The thing is once we have li’l money we feel that we have to each “rich” eat “sophisticated” eat “high end” ie is eat food that is high in fat sugar, salt, highly processed and way and too high in protein, because now we can afford to buy a whole lotta meat.
    Elon Musk
    Jeff Bezos
    Mark Zuckerberg
    Larry Ellison
    Bernard Arnault
    Bill Gates
    Larry Page
    Sergey Brin
    Warren Buffett
    Steve Ballmer
    In the 1960’s and before protein/calorie malnutrition was a real-real problem in Barbados. Nowadays the problem for many people is over nutrition and it is sickening us and killing us.

  9. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    Coming out soon my book:

    “How to eat better than a billionaire: your grandma’s guide to healthy, quick, tasty eating”

  10. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    Honestly the egg shortage is not bothering me because I don’t like eggs much. I eat about 2 or 3 per month. Every time I go to eat an egg I wonder about the first human who saw something coming out of a bird’s botsy and said “I’ll eat that”

    So nope I don’t really fancy eggs.

    However I am wild enough to bake with yard fowl eggs, and a friend who doesn’t eat them have provided me with 15 so far which are enough to bake some pudding and black cake for a family feast, so I good. If I put enough rum in the black cake maybe I’ll forget where eggs really come from.

  11. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Yes indeed! We have lost our way. But not all of us.

  12. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    “I eat like a 6-year-old,” the CEO famously told Fortune in 2015, describing his love for Utz potato sticks and daily intake of five 12-ounce Coca-Colas. “If I eat 2,700 calories a day, a quarter of that is Coca-Cola. I do it every day.”

    https://fortune.com/well/article/warren-buffett-birthday-longevity-habits/

  13. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Bullen’s Agricultural Station

  14. angela cox Avatar
    angela cox

    Other opinions suggest that the jab help to accelerate underline health conditions in many people like heart attacks
    Also many are pointing to unprecedented heart attacks that have occurred in mostly the youth preceding the jab
    I also would say that the stress level in Barbados society has led to suicides and the ongoing murder rate which can be pointed to many of the harsh draconian policies which govt have undertaken to place on the backs of the barbadian households who are saddled with debt coming from both sides of the economy

  15. John Avatar
    John

    Anybody looking at vaccines?

  16. John Avatar
    John

    The other side.

  17. John Avatar
    John

    Then there is this.

  18. John Avatar
    John

    It doesn’t sound like eggs have anything to do with this!!

  19. John Avatar
    John

    I glad as shite I used a little common sense and decided to adopt a wait and see posture on the vaccine.

  20. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Agreed!
    However, there are plenty of links between all three diseases mentioned – hbp, diabetes and heart disease.

    They are all metabolic syndrome disorders and have causation within the shite Bajans love to eat, with regularity, from behind the mountain so piled, the indoctrinating culture built around food and who are well known braggarts about eating so much, so many times, constantly.

    There should be law against such abuse of food and bans against edible substances.

  21. David Avatar
    David

    @ac

    How do you respond to the fact Barbados had a high incidence of NCDs long before Covid?

  22. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Therapeutically speaking.

  23. angela cox Avatar
    angela cox

    November 27, 2024 at 4:24 pm
    Rate This

    @ac

    How do you respond to the fact Barbados had a high incidence of NCDs long before Covid?
    Xxxx
    Please note that within my comment I stated that the jab could have accelerated underlying problems
    Also before Covid as stated Barbados had high risk of NCDs but not to an extent where govt said that the QEH was over whelmed with the daily increases of hear6 attacks
    One must also take into consideration that not all body types are alike and some might be prone to different degrees of negative results from any type of medicine

  24. angela cox Avatar
    angela cox

    It would also be of interest to know the age range in male and female categories that are being affected

  25. David Avatar
    David

    The simple point ac is that we have to stay focused on the root causes of our problems.

  26. angela cox Avatar
    angela cox

    David well.maybe a new problem might be coexisting within the human body after Covid which in my mind gives a real need of concern

  27. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Blogmaster David:

    (Quote):
    We must improve the delivery of healthcare all agree, BUT, unless we address the demand on the health system linked to lifestyle choices of Barbadians, taxpayers money will continue to disappear down a black hole. Why do Barbadians seem committed to adopting lifestyle behaviour and choices that increase risk factors feeding the rise in NCDs?
    (Unquote).
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Dear Blogmaster, it seems you have finally come around to accepting the long-touted proposal of imposing a special tax aka “FAT TAX” on all fast-food outlets currently falling within the VAT net.

    This special tax should be used to help fund the pending health-care crisis.
    An inevitable crisis that would make the challenges that were faced during the Covid-19 pandemic look similar to school children engaging in the game of “Playing Doctor”.

    This proposed Special Tax would fit squarely into that well-established taxation principle of the ‘Polluter Must Pay’.

    As Pacha has argued so convincingly, Bajans are abusing and polluting their bodies by overeating especially through the consumption of nutrition-deficient imported processed food.

    So let them pay upfront for their inevitable health-care costs.

  28. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    You maybe onto something because the horse had left the stable regarding attempt to influence choices individuals make about healthy living.

  29. John Avatar
    John

    David
    November 27, 2024 at 6:11 pm
    Rate This

    The simple point ac is that we have to stay focused on the root causes of our problems.

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    We have been “focused” on NCD’s seems like forever.

    Suddenly there is a problem.

    … well, not really suddenly, we’ve seen excess deaths rising after COVID.

    By all means continue to be “focused” on the NCD’s but clearly there is more in the mortar than the pestle and it is probably the vaccine.

    All we are seeing is the unexplained excess deaths before they happen.

  30. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    Well Well Well!!
    Bushie wonders what could POSSIBLY be the cause of increased deaths (not to mention sickness and incapacity) since 2021, in some cases with up to 40% increases in excess deaths (above and beyond what had neen normal)…

    A bushman would have thought that, after COVID had done its damage and killed off the most vulnerable among us, those more robust remaining should have experienced LOWER excess death numbers, and better overall health statistics.

    A bushman would have expected no changes in death statistics among YOUNG people – and certainly not that large numbers of apparently healthy youths would be dying suddenly from heart and stroke conditions…

    …and this phenomenon is GLOBAL in nature….!!! and seems to correlate with the dispensation of the so-called ‘COVID vaccines’ – the experimental MRNA concoction that the albino centric world had been refining for years now – in anticipation of the opportunity for global uptake…
    Anyway… one thing that Trump and Kennedy will do shortly, is to rub all this in wunna faces.

    Steupsss!!!
    From the very start Bushie tell wunna that the whole covid plan smelled…
    Wunna too hard ears…!!

    The next lotta shiite (on an even BIGGER scale) is the global warming / climate change nonsense being propagated among the unenlightened who have not yet fallen to the MRNA attack…

    What a time to be around…
    The WHOLE WORLD shall be deceived…
    Cuh Shiite!!!
    IF IT WAS POSSIBLE, even the very elect would also be deceived…

    Things will be so bad that, if left to us brass bowls (led by our boss Satan and his albino-centric army), THERE WOULD BE NOTHING LEFT ALIVE ON THIS EARTH…
    But for the sake of the elect, it will be ended!!!

    Like it or not!! the Bible has the FULL story….

  31. John Avatar
    John

    Have the GOB and others unleashed a ticking timebomb on Barbadians with their vaccine mandates to add to the epidemic of NCD’s Bajans have inflicted on themselves?

  32. John Avatar
    John

    The vaccine seems to also have driven peeps mad and unable to think for themselves.

    There is obviously an unknown although not unknowable cause of the excess deaths and the symptomatic overwhelming of health services in Barbados.

    It’s like the frog in boiling water.

    Jump out of the pot!!

  33. John Avatar
    John

    https://barbadostoday.bb/2024/11/27/government-lawmaker-says-corporate-registry-not-fit-for-business/

  34. angela cox Avatar
    angela cox

    But look again at the older generation in this society who.have reached a century
    Many of them had a similar life style of diet
    However I would say that the stress which modern day society has to endure at present is more evident than past years
    When asked of diet many of the older generation would speak of a spiritual and moral foundation to having a life of longevity

  35. angela cox Avatar
    angela cox

    In a heightened race to stop or contain the rapid pace of death and infections
    The medical profession along with the science provided made a calculated rush of judgement to provide as humanely possible a solution
    The deficit in making such a judgment lies in the lack of sufficient data brought about by thorough analysis of testing of people of all races ages and genders before the vaccine was administered
    A one fit all solution was part of the vaccine mandate solution in order to save lives
    However the downside from not knowing the side effects cannot be overlooked as evidence of young and old who took the vaccine give a clearer view of what possibles effects outside of saving lives the vaccine might have caused in a negative manner to people body

  36. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    @Bush Tea November 28, 2024 at 6:45 am “…since 2021, in some cases with up to 40% increases in excess deaths (above and beyond what had been normal)…”

    Where did you get your data that there had been up 60 40% excess deaths? Please provide us with the source. Thanks.

  37. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    @Bush Tea November 28, 2024 at 6:45 am “A bushman would have thought that, after COVID had done its damage and killed off the most vulnerable among us, those more robust remaining should have experienced LOWER excess death numbers…”

    No sir. That is NOT how it works. Even though any pandemic can kill off the most vulnerable, that does not mean that all is well with those who survive the viral assault. In fact some of those who survived the viral assault now have bodies that have been compromised by that terrible disease, and they are now vulnerable to other illnesses.

  38. John Avatar
    John

    The problem resides with those who rushed and took multiple doses of the “vaccine”.

    Since that is the majority of the population, then the majority of the population got real trouble.

    Those who left well enough alone and eschewed the vaccines and were either unaffected by or survived a bout and got natural immunity (no vaccines) are cool.

    Unfortunately, that is a minority of the population.

    That’s how it works.

  39. John Avatar
    John

    Genes seem to play a part as well.

  40. John Avatar
    John

    As a member of the minority population of those who survived and did not take the vaccine, I will of course make my body available after my death to medical science for study.

  41. John Avatar
    John

    ….. must remember to put that in my will!!

  42. GreenMonkey Avatar
    GreenMonkey

    Nine things about vaccines that you should know but that no one else will tell you

    The following is taken from Vernon Coleman’s long-term No. 1 bestselling book Anyone who tells you vaccines are safe and effective is lying: Here’s the Proof. Dr. Coleman has for decades been the world’s leading medically qualified critic of vaccination programmes.

    1) The principle behind vaccination is superficially convincing. The theory is that when an individual is given a vaccine – which consists of a weakened or dead version of the disease against which protection is required – his or her body will be tricked into developing antibodies to the disease in exactly the same way that a body develops antibodies when it is exposed to the disease itself.

    But in reality, things aren’t quite so simple. How long do the antibodies last? Do they always work? What about those individuals who don’t produce antibodies at all? Vaccination, like so much of medicine, is a far more inexact science than doctors (and drug companies) would like us to think.

    SNIP

    Bone, brain, liver and lung cancers have all been linked to the monkey kidney virus SV40 and something like 17 million people who were given the polio vaccine in the 1950s and 1960s are probably now at risk (me included). Moreover, there now seems to be evidence that the virus may be passed on to the children of those who were given the contaminated vaccine. The SV40 virus from the polio vaccine has already been found in cancers which have developed both in individuals who were given the vaccine as protection against polio and in the children of individuals who were given the vaccine. It seems inconceivable that the virus could have got into the tumours other than through the polio vaccine.

    The American Government was warned of this danger back in 1956 but the doctor who made the discovery was ignored and her laboratory was closed down. Surprise, surprise. It was five years after this discovery before drug companies started screening out the virus. And even then, Britain had millions of doses of the infected polio vaccine in stock. There is no evidence that the Government withdrew the vaccine and so it was almost certainly just used until it had all gone. No one can be sure about this because in Britain the official records which would have identified those who had received the contaminated vaccine were all destroyed by the Department of Health in 1987. Oddly enough the destruction of those documents means that no one who develops cancer as a result of a vaccine they were given (and which was recommended to their parents by the Government) can take legal action against the Government. Gosh. The world is so full of surprises. My only remaining question is a simple one: How do these bastards sleep at night?

    More:
    https://expose-news.com/2024/11/15/nine-things-about-vaccines-that-you-should-know/

  43. GreenMonkey Avatar
    GreenMonkey

    NEWS: Top Researchers in Ireland Sound Alarm Over Heart Damage Surge in COVID-19 mRNA Vaccinated Children

    Dr. William Makis MD

    A team of leading emergency pediatric medicine researchers is sounding the alarm over surging cases of heart damage in children who received Covid mRNA “vaccines.”

    During a major study, the eminent Irish researchers analyzed the cases of dozens of children who had been hospitalized with heart-related problems.

    Alarmingly, every single one of the children had been given at least one dose of a Covid mRNA vaccine before they were admitted to hospital.

    The researchers were unable to find any such reports of heart damage among unvaccinated children.

    The study was conducted over an 11-month period at the Department of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Tallaght Hospital in Dublin, Ireland.

    The findings were published in the Official Journal of the Irish Medical Organization (IMJ)

    More, with link to the IMJ paper:
    https://makismd.substack.com/p/news-top-researchers-in-ireland-sound

  44. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    3 weeks ago I got the Moderna spikevax kp2 and a Fluzone shot for the over 65 years old. I am 72.

  45. The OG Avatar
    The OG

    Commander Hants
    I cannot give you any advice on taking these COVID vaccines. I do not know who is right or wrong, but when one became two and two became three and three began to hint of yearly, I stopped taking the COVID vaccines.

    At this stage, I think we, experts and all, are guessing. Hoping I guessed correctly.

  46. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ The OG,

    I hope I guessed right too but at my age it is an acceptable risk for me.

    Wishing you continued good health.

  47. angela cox Avatar
    angela cox

    Those having concerns about the vaccine which are many world wide
    They all can’t be making up stories or just being masters regurgitators of modern time
    I would bet that out of the concerns one out of every ten people might know of some one who took the jab and have encountered some health issues
    Govt can pretend as much as they can but sooner rather than later a whistle blower in the medical field will blow the cover off of this ongoing issue
    An issue that will never die down as more people becomes ill after taking the vaccine

  48. John Avatar
    John

    I know of two, one is dead, and the family attributes the death to the vaccine, and the other went through severe health issues, loss of hearing, balance and weakness.

    Second sounds to be recovering last time I saw him.

    It was the heart for the first person.

  49. John Avatar
    John

    People do foolishness with their bodies.

  50. John Avatar
    John

    Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies make billions.

    Same principle with the vaccine.

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