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.

Indo-Guyanese fears post 2015 elections

On the eve of the 49th anniversary of Guyana's Independence the PPP, who in fact were the original political party of Unity, should contemplate their descent into ignominy and refusal to acknowledge the writing on the Wall since 2011 with the growing disillusionment of their supporters. Which is not to say that they had an easy ride with a resentful and unco-operative Civil service whose rules meant that it was difficult to fire and hire at will. I give them credit for managing to achieve when they did - the biggest impact on most Guyanese being the access to land to build a house, in my opinion.

Growing up under the PNC regime, although sheltered by parents who managed to keep their heads above water...when I reflect I remember the way the presence of over 50% of the population was effectively 'erased' - their presence and concerns not being reflected in the National media, and even papers for printing alternate news views being made difficult to obtain. It remains to be seen how new forms of communication and a hopefully better educated populace will respond ... apart from voting with their feet and migrating... here is what I 'lifted' from FB with minor editing for grammatical corrections:

"the PPP acted like an ass and get the jackass treatment. Blame you all self for being dotish. Several things could have prevented this tragedy from happening.
 
1. No need to fire DR. Bheri prior to elections. It showed signs of weakness.
2. For 23 long years yet PPP was not in control of police and army. Should have had more Indians in both army and police.
3. All the state jobs were in APNU people control. Every Government department were flooded with black APNU people.
4. Why was it so hard to find a minister of tourism? Irfan Ally had two minister jobs, minister of housing and acting tourism minister.
5. Why neglected Indian dominated areas where most of the PPP voters are living? At the end of the day, those same people votes PPP needed.
6. Why not being humble and visited all the villages frequently and find out the supporters problems and issues?( I would add --not only PPP supported villages!!) People felt abandoned and lost connection with PPP. Maybe COHESION would have be a good idea. Instead the ministers and hierarchy were like invincible supreme untouchables.
7. Why not put in place mechanism to control a proper process for elections? Including a pro PPP instead of pro APNU Gecom? How stupid is it to rule a country and let the opposition control the elections.
8. Why back bite and backstabbing each other in the PPP
9. Why listen to US when you knew their intentions. I KNEW!!!
10. Finally. I honestly don't see PPP getting back in power in the next 30 years. Be prepared to punish without power for a long time to come. May God help us all. The future under APNU will be strict and disciplinary and all the indians mouths will be zip shut.
We have no one to blame but ourselves. And we have to live with it for a long time because APNU will rig ever future elections from now on." end of copy/quote

I feel a bit gloomy about Guyana's future and hope some of the ten points above don't come to pass.

Coolie Woman by Gaiutra Bahadur

O....M...G ....... totally shocked by the revelations of Chapter 5 and had to take a break half-way through.  While there is intellectual understanding that single women traveling alone may be predated on-- the sheer scale alluded to by the Ship's surgeons' reports shocked me. NOW I understand the timorous hint that delicate Mr Tumbridge gave in his talk on The First Crossing - saying that it was the first sighting/contact between the two major races:   http://gtobserver.blogspot.com/2012/05/perspectives-on-first-crossing-by.html   but this chapter just blasts that remark out of the orbit...

I was left with more respect for the courage of my grandmothers to take that drastic step of emigrating without their husbands, and as the author observes-- the terrible conditions in Northern Indian at the end of the 19th Century contributed to the 'push' factor. I had become interested in my family's genealogy back in 1978 after reading Alex Haley's roots and being a strange child I took myself to the Archives across the road and located our family's emigration certificates as I knew the year and ship that my great grandmothers arrived in.

Ch 6 +7 alludes to the various ways the Indians sought to demonstrate their agency but in a World which was tightly controlled, there were limited ways and apparently many took refuge in suicide, as even wife-beating may have resulted in your wife been taken away and/or you being transferred away as the British deliberately skewed the sex ratio. I was surprised to learn than the British also tried to screen out the sepoys as they might have been potential trouble-makers and give the Planters 'lip'.
It is fascinating to me to read how the Indians were deliberately denied paths of rebellion and a voice and my contempt of their passive-aggressive nature subdued somewhat and my admiration for them  clinging to their religion and strong family ties increased.  I felt the author did good research to dig out folk-tales and songs to indicate that there were pockets of rebellion and when I consider Dr Jagan's book.. The West on Trial.. I begin to see a broader picture with him being part of the fight for all exploited people, race being irrelevant, in Guyana.  A recent lecture indicated that the trouble between the races began as a class struggle.. when the rural Indians didn't 'keep' their place in the countryside but began to compete for White-collar jobs... maybe just a continuation of the struggle  for a/their place in the world?

Reading this book comes at a particularly appropriate time as there are Elections in Guyana, which the Opposition, whose base is primarily from the descendents of Africa, have a good chance of winning fairly (which is a first for them) as the incumbents have tainted themselves with  blatant examples of corruption and nepotism and many of their base, primarily descendents of India are pissed off enough to vote against them.  In an effort the win over sufficient incumbent numbers and win, the incumbent supporters are being accused of being racist if they vote for their perceived Party with all its flaws, never mind that the Opposition has made little effort to show that there would not be discrimination as happened in the Past.... apart from saying so!   An interesting exchange has arisen in the SN between Indians who have documented post-Election violence directed against those of Indian origin perceived as voting for the incumbents, and those who claim that the incumbent Party has been stoking ethnic fears.... issues and focussing on the future falling by the wayside.

Nominations

I always remember my brother's comment that the only people left in Guyana are the losers when I find myself asking myself ...why am I here?

Yesterday there was a delay getting to work as the Police had, in their wisdom, decided to start blocking off the roads around the Courts and Town Hall during the morning rush-hour for the presentation of the Candidates at 2pm!! The Opposition Party who is always unpleasantly surprised to not be voted in at each Election turned up with the usual suspects--- the same old tired faces and ideas: purely out for what they can benefit for them and their families. Post-script-- apparently while claiming 'it's time' for a change they forgot to check that their List reached the requirement of 1/3 women and had to re-submit after being corrected-- yeah: these are people who can be trusted with following the rules?

The Ruling Party in order to present new faces opted for children of the old crowd as one disgruntled person with political ambitions himself stated:

'Rabin Chandarpal - son of Navin and Indra.
Rima Rohee - ogreish racist daughter of the goatman himself.
Ranvir Gajraj - son of Phantom Gang Ambassador, Ronald Gajraj.
Colleen Khan - daughter of Gail 'Rwanda' Teixeira
Thandi Luncheon - daughter of Chief House Slave, Uncle Ruckus Luncheon.
Shyam Nokta - son of Harripersaud Ten Percent Nokta.
Alexei Ramotar - son of the duck and fibre optic cable fucker upper.
Charles Ramson - vacuous but ambitious spawn of vacuous namesakent new faces/ideas'

A bit cruel but apart from the first person on the List who I know to be pretty decent, keeping a low profile in a government office, the rest are distinguished for not doing anything or even worse-- screwing up big time!
Unfortunately the Ruling Party also distinguishes itself by having people on their List who had brought the Party into disrepute and really need to be in the background where they can't do much harm.

It all looks even worse than before-- which of the bad lot to vote for?  The pragmatic coconut-water seller said better keep the old lot as they have already filled their pockets and it will cost us more to be dealing with new people hell-bent on the same.