Stress

Interesting National Geographical documentary : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7K_1XTvUz0&feature=player_embedded#at=2295 about Stress.
Going to the biochemical level, when the dopamine in the brain in the brain increases, the stress levels go down-- researchers found high levels in the dominant alpha males of the Baboon tribe; interestingly they were 'passing' on stress down the line so those at the bottom of the rank were the most stressed/bullied.   A compensatory mechanism might be to boost your dopamine levels artificially - maybe why the lower socio-economic groups are more vulnerable to substance abuse (cocaine increases the amount of the dopamine in the synapse for example)?
(Thinking of the Guyana situation) A poorly managed society where those at the top of the Pile grab all the resources and pass the stress down the line will result in all the Social ills we are currently experiencing- the alarmingly rising levels of domestic abuse meted out to women and children by the Males in their lives are simply the  natural trend of 'passing it on' to the end of the line. I know people will point out that Domestic Violence is also in homes of the "big ones" but in fact Guyana doesn't have a clearly defined Upper/Middle class as Nouveau Riche stands apart and really I think the gap has narrowed between the classes.
I was amused that the study in Africa had the Dominant males of the baboon troupe inadvertently wiping themselves out by grabbing all the poisoned meat from the dustbin of some Humans and dying off-- leaving the 'new Baboon/new man' who adopted a more conciliatory approach to the females and thereby promoted less stress hormones down the line!
Guyana, with it's small population could be a great place to stage a countrywide experiment!  Round up those   destructive dominant males, feed them poisoned meat and Bob's your uncle! If it's successful - we could pioneer a worldwide thing-- starting with the French who didn't see anything wrong their potential Presidential candidate sexually abusing a woman of lower social rank!  Ok - I'm not being serious here-- just musing!

Feminition and other scunt

In a word-- pathetic!
I had in mind a mini-Guyexpo but in fact it was limited to about 20 small businesses, free promotion for other established businesses and two large tents from the Ministries of Agriculture and Health.   In fact, it was small enough to be located on part of the foreground of the Stadium and consisted of  tents and white plastic tables covered with white cloths-- how the Rass THAT translated to 15 million I don't know. I met another hopeful from my Old School who went looking for six things the first three being:
" Bearing in mind the current urgent survival needs of Guyanese women, I anticipate seeing booths with the following information. 

1. Models of legislation to drastically reduce alcohol intake, e.g. Kenya,
Cuba
2. Highlighted copies of the Constitution and the Labour Act outlining
workers' rights and detailing the steps to report and seek redress in situations
where these rights are abused. This would include extended working hours, sexual
abuse, tasks outside of their job description, etc.
3. Timeline on how the Ministry of Human Services is tackling infractions on
women's rights by other Ministries. For example, the Ministry of Education
determined that the majority of schools do not need secretaries or any office
staff. The Principal is expected to fill that role, while being lambasted by
these same functionaries for inadequately supervising teachers. I wrote the
Minister of Education suggesting that everyone should have clear job
descriptions. I remain stunned that Principal's are so disempowered that they
have accepted this untenable situation. "

I didn't see none of the above but did see one of the aforementioned covered Plastic tables with a bored looking woman sitting in the Domestic Violence section of the Health tent-- one of the largest tents.

While on the subject of cost I saw a woman from the Region1/9 booth where I bought a small bottle of Crab Oil and a tub of local Peanut Butter filling out a transportation voucher for $2000 but at the most there were 50 people manning the booths, not counting the government/other larger business establishments and really the out-of-town people maybe numbered 25-30 and that's a very generous estimate!  To be honest it looked like the Ministry brought a couple of street vendors off the street and gave them 'booths'- a covered white plastic table in part of a tent.  The older Guyanese woman who was with me and pretty much has seen it all said-- 'that's disgusting' when I commented how on earth could 'they' could spend 15 million; her other comment was this country is headed in the downwards direction after we exited the booth manned by one of the many unqualified persons who have bloomed going into a profession for which they hadn't bothered with the qualifications  and which was given the limited publicity of the Show- I note that the arrogant junior Minister of Health considers this particular section his personal piece de resistance-- the current University program  headed for problems when the volunteer  untrained 'lecturers' leave in July leaving the students up shit creek without a paddle.  This is the same Ministry which has refused to censure the burgeoning illegal businesses ten years ago.. In fact, one of the early people who openly flaunted the rules when Jeffery was Minister of Health (who's a disgruntled anti-government spokesperson now that he has been kicked off the Gravy Train) has been awarded a Medal of Service according to today's papers which basically lists people who have sucked up to Jagdeo and the current administration thereby totally spoiling it for the few people who genuinely seem to deserve the awards. 

I really wish they had listed why those particular persons were given awards - like what service exactly did they perform for Guyana that was not self-serving? 

Sadly for Guyana, the political alternatives would not perform any better - doesn't exactly make me want to invest time or money here!

Myopic politic-ing

Well, nothing new under the sun; one of the Bookclub folk said that there were really only 9 major themes and so it was inevitable that there would be repetition of ideas. So with the same ole, same ole for this season's elections it is hard for the jaded politicians to come up with something to excite the cynical Public. Gone are the days when people would exuberantly volunteer their time and vehicles to carry others to vote. Since last election, the Georgetown-based politicians, having long abandoned their out-of-town flock apart from tossing the odd freebie, campaigned/depended heavily on TV Ads ad-nauseum. All parties can be guilty of sponging off the public Purse and achieving squat in Parliament and after identifying that the youth are rudderless - doing nothing and headed nowhere and having no sane Plan on development apart from currying favours on behalf of 'paying friends' - really no different from that in the US or other countries!

In the cynical tradition of give 'em ' Bread and Circus', I believe the spineless yes-woman of the Cabinet (but aren't they all really?)  was prevailed upon to 'put-on' a Show. It is coming to light that the show's apparent cost is Gy$15 million. Now it is a ridiculous amount and one wonders whether proper accounts will be submitted and whether the people will be fooled by a last-minute, reactionary, hare-brained scheme when better programs could have been set up which would have been more effective but less 'sexy' - like a country-wide reading program.
I don't have to wander far to have the stupidity on all sides impinge on me:
The myopic approach includes one Bookclub member doing actual cervical-screening on-site -- well yes, it just shows the 'eye-pass' for Guyanese women by those in authority that they think the best way to educate and empower a woman is to get her to take off her panties and spread-em on a night-out! Where's the well-run community program I wonder? If proper Data-bases were established then they might actually have some idea of numbers-- how hard can it be with of population of less than a million? Mind you, we do tend to be quite mobile and secretive!
Then there's another rabid anti-government occasional-member who actually travelled into the Rupununi to set up a woman's co-operative and got the product to market but not going to advertise her product at this thing cos-- cos, um, she got this far without them! I would have thought the three-day thing would have been exactly for people like her?
The skies have obligingly opened to give their blessings and wonder if it'll still be running by the time I get back to Georgetown!

Blogging

Thanks to a fellow Blogger who got me blogging, I can now put my rants on-line  (relatively) anonymously. This is a bit cathartic and doesn't seem to be harming anyone as there is relatively limited publicity. I think three of my six followers are the same person and I am sure half the number of recorded 'hits' are my own compulsive viewing to edit and correct grammatical mistakes or simply gloat over a fine turn of phrase! Thanks to the other regulars for viewing-- it's an encouragement to further writing- though you people are strange-- why do you want to read a review on/about Dear Future- it's in the Top Ten?

Teenage pregnancy

The increasing numbers of teenage pregnancies has been a worrying Worldwide problem for the past 15yrs. In spite of acknowledging the problem and several strategies adopted by different countries, the problem continues to grow.
Poor education, lack of parental control, promotion of sex in mainstream media all contribute to the problem.

 After the struggle in Guyana in the 50's and 60's for free education for all, no-one catered for the parents and children opting to leave school by third form in secondary school (13-15 yrs)-and even earlier! This is particularly rampant in Berbice, complicated I'm reliably informed, by a fairly high incidence of Drug-taking. It boggles the mind that 12 and 13yr old are regularly ending up pregnant. But even more alarming that the system is letting them fall through the cracks. It should be standard procedure for a Social Worker/Nurse to advise on Birth Control after delivery and each case investigated and statistics collected, instead these unfortunate girls are simply let back into society at a greater disadvantage. Apparently an Education Officer in charge of Berbice objected to compulsory Blood Testing of all children in the 'Common Entrance' or SSEE ( Secondary School Entrance Examinations) for their HIV-status, although that would have been an effective re-enforcement of what they are taught in the Sex Education section of the Social Science exam. Considering the maximum age for that class is now 12 (used to be 11 in my day) and some children are sexually active, whether by choice or not, then it would establish a basic Data Base and also be giving the children a tool with which they can start taking responsibility for their future lives- I really cannot see how knowing your HIV status can be a bad thing-- it would not be unreasonable to expect  figures in the high 90's percentage-wise, and if the HPV and Rubella vaccines are going to be introduced to the girls within a matter of months then they need the tools to deal with that aspect of adult life, along with Prevention of pregnancy advice. Sadly this is yet another task that Society has to do which ought to be done by parents.

Small (Un)Friendly Societies

So the basic problem of human co-operation to achieve the larger goal which each individual would be hard-pressed to gain by themselves can be seen  by looking at the way the small friendly societies and organisations are run.
The Guyana situation has ego-driven people bullying the rest and throwing their hands up in martyrdom complaining that they 'have to do all the work' simply because they are convinced of their own superiority, and/or treating the rest of the organisation as their serfs. But maybe I'm being harsh on Guyana as I was reading John Simpson's book "A Mad World, My Masters" wherein he noted that the Red Cross is notorious for Red Tape, inflexibility and mismanagement (my words), so if the efficient Swiss can't get it right, what hope for bumbling, little us? As an aside, if the Americans had read THAT book then maybe they wouldn't have wasted 10yrs in Afghanistan looking for bin Laden as it was reported the he, bin Laden loathed and mistrusted the Pastuns/Taliban!

So my little organisation, ten years too late after I told them it needed to be formed because the rest arrogantly didn't think events could affect THEM, encountered a few snags recently. I strongly suspect as the odd man out there'll be a forcible ejection but seeing at we JUST got enough members to form a society maybe I'll survive to Blog about it in the future! The choice seems to be -- be President and have little or no support from the rest OR be dictated at, shut up and put up! Sigh-- where's the middle ground??

Progress?

A letter-writer in KN stated that " Today, people can go to the bank and use their homes as collateral to secure a loan to purchase a car."  And that was an indication of progress.


Well  that must be progress indeed as in an earlier Blog  (http://gtobserver.blogspot.com/2011/03/advertising-needs-and-wants)  a friend had noted that people were getting cars before accommodation; but really have cars and designer goods replaced the trinkets of beads and baubles given to the 'ignorant' natives of the past?  Burnham must be right when he quoted the 19th century's French critic's observation "  "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose " (the more that changes, the more it's the same thing).

I don't think I can better the reply of the person who brought it to my attention and apologize for copying -   
'you're a blithering idiot. Fancy cars on the road as a sign of progress? What about less crime, corruption, drugs, poverty, violence, and more empowerment, self sufficiency, jobs, education, healthcare, running water, electricity, etc? Have some higher expectations, people!' 


I give credit- there has been more running water, housing schemes, even more electrification than say five years ago, about the rest of the issues I don't feel qualified to give an opinion because yes, you have more 'doctors' in the system but I feel they're less qualified, but really with lowering the standards - like entering to do medical-based courses with  CSE's - maybe the wrong people are doing the courses. A Mid-wife said to me that she thought better screening of medical students were necessary and that before entry they should know what being a doctor entails and perhaps trail a Medic/Registrar for a week to revise their expectations.  Though to give credit, the few local students I know who went overseas to do further degrees appeared to cope with the work and did quite well! Lack of readily-available statistics means it's hard to make a judgement on how well the policies are working.


Quick addition:   I have noted, also my friend who helps people to start their small businesses, that a big hurdle is POOR ENGLISH - yes-- people are both unable to enunciate their needs and to express it - therefore a lot of time and effort is wasted by bad communication, thereby stressing out the principal who is forced to Micro-manage and check that the minions have carried out the instructions properly. The annoying thing in Guyana is that they are so well-dressed and spoken that one is fooled that they actually understand what they are doing-- a master-act in Camouflage!

Open Letter to Hillary

Dear Mrs Clinton,

We, the poor coloured people of a country that has never recovered from the Attention, Concern and Conviction-that-your-country-knows-what's-best-for-us, feel concerned enough about the recent Reuters statement which has started to use more conciliatory language reporting the recent case of the IMF chief sexually assaulting the coloured, migrant and possibly Muslim maid, to write to you.  Sorry about the complicated sentence!
We know that you would feel the utter disgust that we do about men in power who don't consider Oral Sex sex, and would agreed that the immediate response would be to choke him with his own testicles and not set a bad example for the rest of Men with Oversized Egos. As we speak, the man's lawyers have got him released on bail to live in a Luxury Flat in Manhattan with his wife and daughter who don't see anything wrong with his behaviour.
We have lots of people such as these in our country who make daily living such a misery for the rest of us. Ironically the Statue of Liberty  represents both parties in this case- the gift of France to the United States as an expression of the friendly feeling existing between the two republics is associated with this popular quote:  "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.  Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me;" --- both the IMF (ex) chief and the maid!

The rest of the World is watching how this particular story unfolds - now-- NOW is the time to show whether the most famous part of your Founding Fathers Declaration still has relevance in today's USA - "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

In our country the rich pay the poor and the enforcers of the system to avoid the weak arm of the Law but I'm hoping that your Prosecutors will proceed with the case even if the poor woman is 'paid off'.
Please see that your Country does 'the right thing' because as you said in your book ' The undeniable fact is that our children's future is shaped both by the values of their parents and the policies of our nation'.

Post script - case was dropped by the American prosecuters as the woman would have been shredded by the defenders as an unreliable witness. However others came forward to publicly renounce him and his wealthy wife finally left him when he got involved in some sort of prostitiution ring involving a hotel back in France! I believe the maid was offered a substantial sum of money to drop any further Court action- in a bizarre way, justice has been served. 21-Jan-2013
20-Apr-2018:  wow I must have been totally off my rocker....

Chinese Triads and Brazilians..

... thanks to the 'miracle' of Globalisation, one of the Local newspapers reports that there has been a gradual spread of the former's influence the past ten years in the Caribbean.  Our nearest Caribbean neighbour has conditions that sound alarmingly like ours- an influx of Chinese labourers, the springing-up of restaurants, supermarkets and hotels (but we have less 'intelligence'!), but so as to not be accused of Xenophobia, umm sinophobia- one can substitute Brazilian in lots of cases.   T&T who experience possibly more horrific crimes, had one of their Parliamentarians report that :  “Clearly many of these (new) businesses have no clear source of funding and even more importantly, they do not have a sustainable business model,”   

Mmm, while THAT description could apply to many of the 'new' businesses that have sprung up here the last few years, I feel quite pessimistic that while the Politicians continue to take Pot-shots off each other and make extravagant promises to their rapidly-impoverished (both mentally and physically) and fast-becoming-desperate followers; maybe sooner than we think Guyana will be lost to businessmen who “can’t speak the language, ... haven’t even mastered the basics of the societies that they are operating in and have a million-dollar business."

Is it any different to be exploited by your 'own' or the 'other'?
-- all the while, Guyanese scheme to get as much training as possible and leave-- and can ya blame them really?

Entrapment or Arrogance?

So if you had a Jet-setting job and were about to leave your U$3000-a-night suite for your First Class seat on a Trans-Atlantic flight, and NEEDED a quickie Blow-job, but time was too short to call your regular High-Class Escort agency, would you chase the nearest convenient woman around the Suite or wave a wad of notes under her nose? Presumably it's something your TV-visible wife, busy with your 4 children wouldn't bother with- a la Hugh Grant/Elizabeth Hurley? Fascinating to speculate on the unsavoury details, no pun intended.
Good that the US hotel people and police didn't try to cover it up but then again maybe they didn't like the guy**-- maybe he was going to insist the US pay back the IMF so it can bail out the rest of Europe before the Chinese foreclose?  Joking aside -- if the woman is innocent * then the full force of the US Law should fall on his head- good that they have shielded her from the Media, thus far. And besides, what's so great about being President of France anyhow, hope he becomes someone's bitch in Prison - now THAT would be true justice!

* Turns out it's more likely that he's at fault as the maid is a quiet Ghanian woman who's worked at that location for the past 3/4 years, and his French God-daughter is also accusing him of sexual abuse 9yrs ago. Of course, his (male) biographer is of the opinion that women can't help themselves and proposition him all the time!!
** From someone else's blog 'In the recent Oscar-winning documentary, "Inside Job," Mr. Strauss-Kahn, in his capacity as Chair of the IMF, speaks with refreshing clarity of the systemic fraud, corruption and outright thievery on Wall Street and in Washington that led to the worldwide financial collapse and that continued with the transparency-and-accountability-barren bailouts of the same institutions.

Funny, just like Julian Assange of Wikileaks and Elliot Spitzer, sexually-scandalous allegations emerge to smear and discredit a man whose public pronouncements challenge and threaten the prevailing Politico-Financial Establishment.'

Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid

It was interesting to see the reactions of the bookclub on this book, Lina liked it as it used the protagonist's experimentation of sex without attachment as a way of expressing her freedom from her mother's influence and discovering herself. I adopted a more Old-Fashioned attitude, finding it unlikely for a girl brought up in that era and even going so far as to muse whether the the author was pandering to her publisher's fantasy of a young woman's exploration of her sexuality.  It was interesting that the protagonist viewed sex in an unromantic fashion and in fact, derived 'the upper-hand' by not getting attached to the men-- but then I just wondered why she 'did it' as she was so mentally 'screwed-up' she didn't seem to enjoy the 'screwing-up'- should be interesting to compare with one of next month's books- where another woman has/enjoys sex without the sentimentality attached -The Reader.
As with the previous book written by the same author- My Brother- I wonder if this is a kind of therapy as I found it very hard to empathise with her-- she seemed to be angry with everyone and displayed a level of cynicism quite alarming for someone so young and for no apparent reason other than that she was born into a family without the means to send her for further education-- get over it Babe-- many students will be finding themselves in THAT position in the years to come!
The book was suggested to the Bookclub as a post-colonial read but it was a very self-centred read and apart from mocking Mariah's comfortable middle-classed values and assumptions that her way was 'right' - the character showed her mercenary side by abandoning Mariah when she most needed the emotional support-- yes I can just see why the US would deport all these whiners as soon as they can-- so screwed up they are unable to contribute to any society they would be in!

Penalities

There has been a spate of importation of vehicles way too big or with the capacity to be too heavily-laden for the roads of Guyana.
The brainless people clinging to out-dated traffic rules actually had lowered duties for the importation of Titans and Tundras - those oversized Gas-Guzzlers that North America is trying to get rid of from their streets following the spike in the cost of Petrol a couple of years ago. If the argument was that it was to encourage travel into the Interior then very high, deterrent fines should have been introduced at the same time as the vehicles are too big for the regular roads in City Centres of Guyana, or restricted to the main roads-- it is sad to see how the minuscule brain of the man (usually) driving these vehicles power their vehicle through roads barely large enough to accommodate one of that size merely to avoid a traffic light at a Major Road.
Today's newspaper reports that the people of a South Rupununi area are now facing higher food costs  (it's a whole separate blog about how they have moved away from their traditional foods to packaged less nutritious ones) as a heavily-laden truck managed to damage the main bridge a few weeks ago and they don't have the money to fix it--- ??? -- and why should the irresponsible driver not be liable? Likewise it irks me that the boy-racers who damage property and people get off with a maximum fine of Gy$90,000 roughly U$450 and are not liable for the damage caused.  I feel this is all adds to the irresponsible/slave attitude that it's someone else's problem. In a poor country, I feel if you have the money to be racing cars and lading your vehicle so as to damage the roads then you should be liable for the damage-- this would also inculcate a more responsible attitude in the citizens-- included should be the administrative costs to see that it is enforced-- that'll teach 'em!
Maybe it can be extended to a Work Program for thieves-- they have to earn a day's pay while incarcerated, which should cover the costs of keeping them there and reimbursing their victims-- included the White Collared ones, and not be freed until they have paid back their dues to both society and their victims-- Arbeits Macht Frei !

Abuse of Technology

Thanks to bin Laden, the rest of us have to suffer Big Brother looking over our shoulders-- electronically reading our mails and recording telephone conversations:  some half-wit presuming to judge us while saddled with their own prejudices--transfer to paranoiac Third World leaders and topsy-turvy Guyana and you have a recipe for abuse.

Bear in mind this is the country when telephones were introduced in a certain area, the residents all gleefully rang up their neighbours and 'cussed them out' so that Caller's ID became mandatory. Not quite on par with helping to nab a Drug Baron or two! In fact, a few years ago, it was one of the Druggies who had sophisticated listening equipment and recorded the then Police Commissioner making a dodgy deal!

The Government's blog, justifies publishing the photos of a person and his house on the grounds that he and a colleague are authors on the Propanganda Press which promotes racist and inflammatory stuff.   As far as I know --the anti-government blogsite accepts any anti-governemnt 'stuff' from anyone with an axe to grind.  So it may be erroneous to say they are the authors-- surely they are looking for the Websites managers who are apparently based in the US.  Damm US again!  The problem of poor English and lack of precision on what they want,  may lead to the wrong people being targeted!  The person in question/targeted says that he would not write anything anonymously and I have no reason not to believe him as he is is surprisingly frank on quite a few issues like his Mental State!  So the justification of publishing, albeit online, the person's name, picture and house is due to 'intelligence operations undertaken'.  Government blog-people are congratulating themselves on tracing his IP address to his house-- duh-- so??   Did I miss something? I missed that they traced 'stuff' on the Propangada Press  to the IP address-- they have NOT said that!

Environmental Message missed entirely!

So was appalled at the use of no less than seven containers per take-out lunch yesterday.  They were mainly the white polystyrene boxes - multiply that by say 70-100 lunches and the mind boggles at the mountain of waste AND the Rubbish Collectors of Georgetown are dragging their feet over the usual Late Payment again.
As per usual, those in charge of environmental issues like to zoom all over the world, pontificating while the message is totally missed locally-- perhaps if a realistic environmental tax on all plastic containers like 300% was lashed on the imports-- my friend in GRA assures me that it is a very lucrative market; then the locals could be 'persuaded' to think of local,environmentally- friendly containers. Recently a FB friend noted that the Rasta take-out has abandoned using Calabashes and moved to the above-mentioned polystyrene containers-- whatever happened to the Local Cardboard recycling (would you trust them?) plant? Also, the Food and Safety people moved in and banned the calabashes, which the Rastas were having difficulty obtaining anyway.

It is worrying about the disconnect between knowing what's right and actually doing it. A South African friend said that they also had the same problem and the Government there created a Character and motto- rather like the unsustained  'Lash It in de Bin' for the Cricket World Cup in 2007- and did an big drive within schools, I suppose as the parents were lost causes? Anyway-- the point is-- it seemed to work. The Government here did raise fines but then the usual racial discrimination of harassing  people by the unprofessional Police for Bribes to overlook incidents meant it died a quiet death! The lack of respect for others and oneself is quite sad-- and I am now thinking of the West Demerara incident of Noise Pollution whereby the Police did the right thing by requesting that the impromptu music be turned down as the Local Sai Baba Centre were holding a all night vigil for the death of their leader-- the music was turned back up when the Police left, and when they returned they had objects and verbal abuse hurled at them-- they responded by firing pellets-- the interesting thing is that one of the people injured was from New York-- he certainly would respect the NYC police-- then why come here and behave bad??  If he was just an innocent bystander, which I don't think he was, then he ought to have voted with his feet and moved away when the Music people persisted with their loud music- it's alarming how one swings to the Right in the face of seemingly belligerent Ignorance promoted by the Left-Wingers!

Silly Season...

... name given to the period leading up to a general election.
Very apt for Guyana. Given the high stakes-- a chance of milking the bankrupt National Treasury for four years at least-- sensitivities are quite high. A FB friend posted that she was accepting any detrimental stories about the Ruling Party and was rewarded with her picture being posted on both a Government-run Website and an anti-Government website along with the picture of another friend, who although anti-Government a bit more discreet!
It may be co-incidental that they are both vocal against sexual discrimination but given the amount of ignorant people out there -- think the US Senator who got shot after her picture was 'targeted'-- it is a bit worrying to say the least.  Guyanese have yet to lose their 'small-mindedness' and while happy to bitch in a corner they seem to take a pleasure in dragging their feet to obstruct those people who want to achieve something.
In the meantime- anecdotally- racial attacks against people of Indian descent seem to have gone up. Lots not being reported-- in fact -- worryingly two men in dark clothes like Police but not wearing ID, stopped two youths getting off a bus and hauled them to the Outpost, where they 'took' one of the boy's Blackberry and then made him withdraw $15,000 of the $20,000 he had in his bank account! This is not as unlikely as it seems as I have another friend who regularly sees the same type of Police 'patrolling' on the street outside her house, stopping drivers for a 'shake-down' fee. So vigilante justice is emerging whereby one of the boy's family is trying to find out which two police and go after them! Sigh-- how can we ever correct all this?

End of The World and Nuthead Americans

So, in the midst of little Guyana's downward spiral, Kaieteur News- our sensationalist daily- reported a group of americans calling themselves the E-Bible fellowship descending on the hapless area of New Amsterdam to inform the residents that the world will come to an end on the 21st of this month, but ya wouldn't get this information from the regular churches cos Satan has taken them over. Based on the beatification of the last Pope  last week, who presided over the Cover-up of the Abuse on (mainly) boys by sicko priests this may not be as far-fetched as one might imagine!
Personally I blame the economy-- if people were gainfully employed then they wouldn't have time for such 'chupidness'. Strange how you don't find the pragmatic Chinese doing all dis-- trying the justify their place in the world-- they just move in, pander to your egos while achieving what they want which don't have you in mind! We really need to break that slave mentality where we assume everyone else knows what's best for us!

Medical Mysteries

So how the heck can someone die after a Cataract operation?

Examining the problem itself presents a problem as even things that should be public are so shrouded in secrecy that trying to work out a strategy/protocol becomes a most difficult thing..
Traditionally patients at Public Facilities, where all treatments are meant to be 'free', would 'pay' to get in the list for operations, supplementing the Doctor's public servant's pay- this became so entrenched  that those refusing were pushed down or off the 'list' - but it's not a good idea to antagonise someone about to embark on cutting up a part of your/your loved-one's body before the operation- so most people cough up and hope for the best!  This means that the patients are colluding in doing something illegal so if something goes wrong they usually don't feel empowered to challenge the doctor as bizarrely they feel he was acting in their best interest!  This may have changed a bit, but someone was recounting to me the recent horror of his wife being diagnosed with uterine cancer and being admitted for surgery and the nurse being abusive and insinuating that they 'jumped' the queue ahead of others!

That's not to say that the docs themselves are  not usually working in less than ideal conditions, at one point they were having to wheel their own patients in (during a strike years ago- one of the strikers now a Minister of Government, nice to see none of the personal vendetta that the current Administration is usually accused of!)-- but here's the problem when there's no Cost Recovery- if you're going for generic stuff -- like the gel for the Cataract surgery- it may not be as good as the Branded stuff-- or so they tell me. The problem also with accepting handouts and personnel with varying standards is just that-- the patient who had a hysterectomy then found out it wasn't cancerous, had a older type of surgery involving a vertical suture instead of the more modern bikini cut which promotes faster healing and less trauma by an Chinese-sounding doctor. But what was sad, was the abusive manner in which he was dealt with when he tried to ask about his wife's surgery from the 28yr old female Guyanese doctor who launched into a personal attack on the man in a manner most unfitting for a Doctor as we used to know it-- at the risk of sounding elitist, the continual lowering of standards means that people without a certain level of education will be put in situations in which they are unable to deal with for a variety of reasons -just look at the amount of clowns driving with a cellphone stuck to their ears!
I feel Guyana is moving backwards in this respect-- instead of empowering the patients to make good decisions about their health ( and the patients themselves getting more ignorant and aggressive) we are moving towards the defensive 'because-I-said-so' attitude of 'doctors' and blaming the victim mode. The whole thing is too ridiculous for words.

So the problem here is that the Government would not want to tarnish the reputation of their flagship purpose-built Ophthalmology Hospital and would never allow an independent enquiry, the Opposition only willing to lash out and drag down anything promoted by the Government without providing anything postive, means that the problem will fester and get worse-- instead of looking at the problem dispassionately and providing solutions so that they do not recur. Actually it boggles the mind that sensible things would not be in place in the event of a problem -- like having Oxygen at hand for emergencies. So much for the Hippocreatic oath-- first do no harm!

Scared by Technology!

Well, further revelations say that the break the CIA got was when the courier talked on a cell phone with another person being monitered, this led to him eventually being traced and then followed to the house in which bin Laden was eventually assassinated.
Wow! Then I'm reading about people with no access to food  but who have cell phones in Africa, so Aid Agencies are using the cell phones to contact the starving people in Africa-- sort of boggles the mind!
Maybe the ten-digit number mentioned in Revelations must be ya cell phone ID number?

Osama and the ex-Pope

In spite of the non-stop coverage about the assassination of Osama bin Laden- (hat's off to the soldiers carrying out that mission-- well done as only the female shield got killed as collateral damage.. I thought they did well to not bother about wasting time to put him on trial, shot to the head seemed humane, but maybe they should have incinerated him as a nod to the victims burnt up in the Twin Towers and as it is forbidden in Muslim culture) the story in the News that got my attention was the ridiculous one of turning the last Pope into a saint!! What century are we living in??
Mmm, now which local situation does this remind you of--- you owe your unlikely position to your predecessor so try to convince the rest of the world  the man is a saint?  But I digress, I found it hard to believe people would spend time and money on this foolishness, but when I heard that Robert Mugabe was present and not arrested and sent to the Hague to be put before the International Courts, I was convinced White People have several loose screws and thank goodness we are now in a position to think for ourselves and not believe/participate in their self-delusion!