The Lion and the dentist

So thanks to better mass communication, global outrage over White Privilege in the form of an American dentist paying an average US household income to shoot a Lion in Africa.  It must be saying something about the mentality of a person to have a skill and use it for hunting large predators who are not attacking him in any way but merely trying to eke a survival in an increasingly difficult environment of encroaching human side effects.

Several good things for me has emerged from this case... it would appear that the majority of the American people themselves condemn this action and have effectively used their communication skills to far exceed the petition numbers required to get the White House to pay attention-- yaay democracy and the American people! Better communication has also enabled the new 'chattering classes'- the literate with access to the Internet - to also weigh in and lend support to put pressure so that the story just doesn't die down.  I am amused that media damage control brought out other injustices to throw the internet hunters off scent and chide them for making a 'big thing' over a mere lion while there were other injustices to go after (the killing of black American women taken into Police custody over minor infractions in the US and the immigrants waiting to get into the country and abuse the Social Service system in the UK....the rest of the World don't really count!) and the past few days the media have been reassuring anyone who cares to read that no, Cecil's lion cubs would not be killed and in fact be protected by his brother-- sort of merging Disney with real life-- my most likely failure in Anthropology in a recent class isn't helping my cynical outlook on all this!

This incident has also been good for Robert Mugabe, the aging racist dictator of Zimbabwe, that the white-ies are the clear baddies in this case. I was pleased to read that the Land Owner would also be held culpable as he would be held responsible for allowing poaching on his Land-- well ..Well Done to whoever dreamed up that rule, but again I hope it isn't racially-motivated if and only because the Land-Owner is white.
I think the most heinous thing about the whole incident is that White Privilege could not be arsed to actually do the hunting ... which can involve many hours looking for a target (many Guyanese hunters return empty-handed after spending the better part of the night looking for prey) using tracking skills but in fact with the infantile American attitude of instant gratification.. just wanted to shoot the damm thing and get over with it--- so money buys luring a protected animal out of a sanctuary and making it suffer for 40 hours just so you can be able to say that you enjoy the great Outdoors!  Totally throw the book and everything else you got at him - if only to deter the nouveau-riche wannabes from countries transitioning up the scale like the BRICs.

More to come...?

So keep pondering about the Tennessee young shooter...young, eager to join the workforce and unemployable due to no fault of his own... how many times will this story be repeated?  Add the ready access to guns and you have a rise in criminal activity due to the frustration to 'get on' with life. It is sad that the ones he killed were also struggling to make a living like him --and a shame he couldn't/didn't target his frustrations on those to whom these lives-- both killer and victim mean so little.
Here is little Guyana, it is sort of the same story repeated... but with a suspected racial twist. Youths with little means of earning a salary that they think they deserve turn up their noses at the jobs that are available - usually involving manual labour and are tempted into doing unsavoury things with no regard to morality.  The astounding result being both Chinese manual and skilled workers being imported, while unemployment rises and less money circulates.
On another note, a 'gang-for-hire' was picked up but unless the Police get to the root--- who is actually ordering the hit/s we will get exactly nowhere but down.
 

Aspiring to bourgeoisie-ness

As I get older I begin to appreciate God's actions as read about in the standard Bible ('So by my woes to be nearer, my God, to Thee,  Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee!) ....the most available book when I was growing up... I was always puzzled as a child that He was reported as a loving and merciful Father to everyone and everything and yet periodically swooped down and wiped out virtually everyone in fits of pique, apart from a few favourites who were left to breed up the next generations of humans (as if he didn't KNOW that they were going to screw up yet again!).
On reading today's SN I freely confess to feeling the same way --- wipe out everyone and start with a new slate. The jokey-ness continues but is far from funny. So the new and apparently clueless government -apart from witch-hunting the previous office-holders- sent the accountant who okayed the monthly cheques to the then Guyanese ambassador to India, to India, in order to audit the accounts - the said diplomat had a monthly allowance of U$8500 in addition to his GY$1 million salary but get this (if correct as SN has a habit of exaggerated reporting as regards the previous administration and ignoring the 'beam in the eye' regarding their government of choice's mistakes) there was apparently an allowance for his children's tertiary education.. now to give credit where it was due.. his daughter topped several National Exams and made it to one of the better universities in England-- then got married and stayed there!  How on earth does THAT benefit Guyana--- these were the same people who were appalled on assuming office to discover that Cedric Grant had written his contract for U$10,000 a month back in the early '80s and mouthing on about how the then entitled middle-classes awarded their children scholarships to the ABC countries who never bothered to come back to serve their country.
Amusingly, the never-made-it-to-university, well-connected close relative of a well-placed person in the previous administration, who managed the feat of being fired as a messenger-boy would always manage to make a snide remark about 'you bourgeoise' (well aware of my barely breaking-even position due to unenforced regulations) to me, has gone far and beyond what any reasonable middle-classed person would do- not being in a position to produce anything..like the majority of Guyana...reduced to selling National Assets!  So now, with 'full pockets' and young children the family needs a 'safe' country-- at this point I would like the hypocritical ABC countries to enforce all their stringent Laws and walk the walk instead of talking the talk, but then it looks like prejudice when they haven't done so for the other lot!   All monies being brought into their countries MUST have a paper trail and due taxes..  Work needs to be done on how under-valued National Assets sold below the going value would be assessed and what method to use to work out what is due to the country and whether it can be regained.
Whatever poor syntax occurs above is due to the steam coming out of my ears, totally fogging up my brain!

A wing and a prayer ain't cutting it

Now enjoying the temporary respite from exams, left wondering how on earth to apply what I've learnt to the Guyana situation.
Absolute tragedy in the making ... a mother of six, ages ranging from 26 to 7yrs is dying.  This being Guyana she/they haven't even been given the courtesy of a diagnosis of what is wrong-- or maybe they are not saying. I can only surmise that perhaps she got gestational diabetes from the last one which developed into the full-blown disease and with the characteristic lack of information attended the local rural clinic on a regular basis for 7yrs and ended up with damaged kidneys.  The rural clinic referred her to the district hospital where she languished for a couple of weeks and where they thought she had cancer but as she was experiencing abdominal swelling and the consultant from the Capital City  never turned up, she was transferred to the main Public Hospital in the said Capital city, having to make her own way down.  Appallingly, she was made to sit in a waiting room chair of the Emergency Room for over 36 hrs (unbelievable!) then they were unable to diagnose the condition, cancer being the main suspect.  She finally got some form of relief when they drained the fluid from her cavity wall, then the family was told they had to pay for a scan-- which they were unable to afford.
After a day or so, it was discovered that because she was from an indigenous tribe they would waive the fees. In the meantime, the two daughters were kept on their toes getting foods that she was used to as the hospital food was not to her liking.  Distressing for me to hear was that the woman's simple request for a cup of hot water was a problem for the nurses who had both a kettle AND a microwave at their nurses' station at the end of the Ward... how inhumane.. I can't imagine that being such a problem-- and being that this is Guyana .. the assumption for this unfriendly behaviour was rooted in racial terms.. but in fact, it was an institutional idea handed down from the early 20th Century-- that patients follow rules convenient to the staff and not rooted in any clinical reason.  The nurses offered the patients a hot cup of tea when it was convenient to them-- our patient made her daughters get her a flask so she could have her tea when she wanted-- the nurses were a bit annoyed to provide the said hot water so it meant one daughter lugging in a flask of hot water every evening after work so as to 'not bother the nurses'!   Likewise, (and I am in agreement with our patient) she didn't like eating cold food, but apparently the simple request to warm the food brought in by the daughters in the nurses' station's microwave was not met with approval.
 So feeling better having the fluid drained and apparently not finding anything on the scan, the woman was discharged! With instructions to attend the local clinic if the swelling occurred again as there was nothing else the Public Hospital could do.  She went back home and got accumulation of fluid after about a week-- the presumably inexperienced doctor (one of the many Cuban-trained ones) was wary about doing the procedure and only did a partial drainage meaning that she had to disrupt the family's routine to revisit the clinic more often.   I wondered about the communication and transfer of patient files and whether the Georgetown specialist had given any advice to the doctor in the rural clinic?
As I write, she has not eaten for two days as she is finding it hard to swallow down anything and has lost a lot of weight... stomach cancer? failing kidneys?  I don't think we will ever know but the human tragedy of the loss of a mother is one being repeated many times with its ripples of expanding unhappiness.

Dis is Guyana!

Was reading the sad story of the shock of a US-based doctor coming to Guyana to find three relatives dying from sepsis - an preventable condition if sufficient care is taken- Good grief, 'they' discovered ways of prevention since the 18th Century.

http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2015/06/24/overseas-based-doctor-worried-about-sepsis-related-deaths-at-gphc/

So this is the bind the hospital administration/government is in... to criticise the staff would be adding to the demoralisation and knocking those who genuinely care and make huge efforts w ith whatever resources they have... however to ignore the problem-- such as basic hygiene due to laziness-- such as inserting a needle without cleaning the site and not ensuring cross-infection is setting yourself up for further slackness. I know GPHC have a quality-control department but wonder if it is allowed to function-- we hear so many of these stories.  I also hear of the older nurses complaining of the attitude of the younger ones and poor training. At the end of the day, no matter how well the docs have performed..poor nursing care will result in speeding up the ultimate end.

The concept of targeting the causal organism also seems beyond the reach of common medicine here and woe betide you if you have something uncommon!  It sounds like a given that the machine would be broken-- would the way ahead be some form of cost-recovery for tests needed to be carried out? I am sure people would not mind a lower fee rather than the hassle of having to get a private Lab at an exorbitant rate or not at all--- there must be a middle ground between all or nothing!

Americanah by Chimamanda Adichie

A book that would resonate with any Third World person who had to eke out an existence in a 'first-world' country.
Her views on US society were interesting: 'In America, tribalism is alive and well. There are four kinds—class, ideology, region, and race. First, class. Pretty easy. Rich folk and poor folk'. 'Second, ideology. Liberals and conservatives. They don’t merely disagree on political issues, each side believes the other is evil' ' Third, region. The North and the South. The two sides fought a civil war and tough stains from that war remain. The North looks down on the South while the South resents the North. Finally, race. There’s a ladder of racial hierarchy in America. White is always on top, specifically White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, otherwise known as WASP, and American Black is always on the bottom'
The bottom-line is a love story that seems a perfect blend of personalities and intelligence, but Life happens and they go their separate ways..the reason that they do seems a bit contrived.. but towards the end of the book one of his friends makes this sage observation: '....many of us didn't marry the woman we truly loved. We married the woman that was around when we were ready to marry.'
It got me musing about the whole 'love' thing..both protagonists get on with their lives and have sex and relationships with other people but one rather got the idea they were 'settling' and I wonder really.. do most people just 'settle'.
Some ideas and characters were not so well formed but it was a fairly longish novel whose main purpose, it seemed was to explain Nigerian ambivalence about traditional roots and modern Western culture.

Carbon Conversations

So remembered about the lecture about 20minutes late and decided to go check it out. Didn't have anything new to say.. apart from warning Guyanese to use the revenues to invest in education and sustainable policies-- mmm-- like if anyone in the room would have ANY say in that!? A couple of 'new' ministers were sitting and still awake at the end of the talk, but seeing as the rumours that the allegedly previous holder of Natural Resources was happy to leave, I wondered if this new lot were going to follow in his very lucrative footsteps, allegedly.

Drilling for oil was assumed to be a given, and I guess as the lecture was sponsored by one of the exploratory oil companies, he didn't mention that China has done a great job on 'cleaner' alternatives: 'installed 5.04 GW of new solar capacity in the first quarter of 2015' and that the G7 nations recently agreed to phase out fossil fuel dependence by the end of the Century (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/08/g7-leaders-agree-phase-out-fossil-fuel-use-end-of-century).  Mind you he did mention that the world, as we know it, would not be able to shake its dependence on fossil fuels anytime soon.

He touched on the difficulties of finding new sources of silver and other metals required for electronics and that Guyana had potential as the world was now at a desperate level of recycling and recovering.. to the extent of scraping the walls of buildings for platinum deposits from catalytic converters.

Attendance was good but I left before the free food.

PS Nothing was said of any Health, Environment or Social Impact Assessment and afterwards I wondered if this exercise counted as a scoping exercise... limited to the few who had to means and inclination to attend the exercise at 7pm in the evening.