Angel-martyrs or useless ingrates?

Well okay, more probably somewhere between the two than either (aren't we all?) but an article in this week's Observer questions the received wisdom that nurses are always right no matter what their complaint or demand is.

In a follow up on the severe dressing down health minister Patricia Hewitt met with at the Royal College of Nursing conference last week, as reported in British Nursing News, it tries to compare the angry hecklers' claims with what goes on in their workplaces.

The resulting picture is one reminiscent of the episode of Yes Minister in which Jim Hacker tours a hospital held up as an example of efficiency and cleanliness, largely due to the fact that it has absolutely no patients to 'spoil' things.

Nursing is increasingly about an insistence on professional rights, rather than an insistence on a duty of care. Older nurses I speak to regularly tell me they are worried by the attitudes of younger nurses coming in who cannot do some of the basic tasks they were trained to do, but don't particularly want to learn.

One nurse in her fifties told me: 'Some of them don't even know how to spot a pressure sore. It's such a basic task, but they haven't been taught it. What I find hard to stomach is that quite a few have inflated opinions of themselves and see it as their job to challenge the doctors in everything they do.'"

Highly unlikely to be anything like the whole truth with regard to what may or may not be wrong with the UK's health care system, but a potentially useful source of perspective nonetheless...

A nurse's ideal place of work?

Image by Russell Weller via stock.xchng.

Ha Ha Ha America

Found this short film, from this year's Sundance Film Festival, rather funny in a slightly scary kind of way. It's written and directed by Jon Daniel Ligon and contains a very roughly translated Chinese rant against the US set against contemporary images and clips from the People's Republic.

China not laughing
with you;
China laughing
at you."

As read about on k3mist via EastSouthWestNorth.

Because it's there

What George Leigh Mallory told a New York Times reporter when asked why he wanted to climb Sagarmatha/Everest?

Well yes, but also the answer given by the chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) when asked why magic mushrooms were in the same category as heroin and crack - Class A - in the system defined by UK drug laws, according to The Guardian yesterday.

The ACMD says drugs currently classified too high up the scale shouldn't be moved down because this would encourage their use, and those classified too low down shouldn't be moved up either... because this would encourage their use.

So the answer is to keep everything exactly as it is, because it all works so well.

(The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 categorises controlled substances by class - A, B and C - according to how dangerous they are perceived to be, and by schedule - 1 to 5 - which sets out how you can legally use them. A drug's class defines the maximum penalties for its illegal use).

Renew for freedom

NO2ID are calling for everyone with a UK passport to renew it during the month of May to send a message in protest against compulsory inclusion of our personal data on the National Identity Register - expected to become a condition of getting a new passport in a year or two's time.

For more information click on the button below.

As seen on Doogiespace.

Plan 9 from Outer Space

One of the most wonderfully awful films ever made is among those now in the public domain and available to view online via Google Video:



In the introductory words of the narrator:

Greetings, my friend. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future. You are interested in the unknown... the mysterious. The unexplainable. That is why you are here. And now, for the first time, we are bringing to you, the full story of what happened on that fateful day. We are bringing you all the evidence, based only on the secret testimony, of the miserable souls, who survived this terrifying ordeal. The incidents, the places. My friend, we cannot keep this a secret any longer. Let us punish the guilty. Let us reward the innocent. My friend, can your heart stand the shocking facts of grave robbers from outer space?"

Does the eloquence and flawless logic sound familiar? Think presidents of the USA...

A tyrant's rationale

Tony Blair is endeavouring to engage in debate with critics of his invasion of our liberties in The Observer today, exposing himself even further as an intellectually and morally defunct despot.

Among readers' responses to the interchange, Gavin Bullock says:

There are two things which concern me about Tony Blair's views on civil liberties. First, his thinking seems to be getting increasingly extreme - even hysterical. His reaction to opposition is not to reconsider his position and ask if the other voices could be right. It seems to reinforce the certainty in his own infallability to the point of abnormality. This worries me a lot.

"Secondly, he lacks rigour in his thinking. He is the past-master of the false dichotomy. It is crack down on crime and protect the victims. Who would disagree with that? But that position appears to lead to a view that suspected criminals should lose their protections (right to silence, juries, revelation of past criminal convictions at trials, abolition of double jeopardy). Now wrongly convicted and imprisoned people are to have their compensation capped. He seems to think people are guilty until proved innocent. If proved innocent after a bit of porridge, tough. So he will do all for victims but disadvantage anyone who has been collared by the police even if their arrest was erroneous.

"My own view is that the intelligent thing to do is to protect society from crime and also make absolutely sure the justice system is fair. British justice (the best in the world, my dad would tell me) has a pretty bad record in locking up innocents and then deducts board and lodgings from the compensation.

"The governments view on civil liberties is shown clearly in the new bill that was drafted to 'tidy up' unnecessary business regulation but could be used to pass virtually any law by decree of the executive. The minister responsible could not even understand what the fuss is all about, yet, as it stood (it has been amended) is virtually did away with the need for parliament. This reveals a deeply malign government. Just ask yourself why they did it.

"Blair seems disinclined, or is perhaps unable, to debate in a rational way. He 'argues' solely by assertion. He never demolishes arguments point by point. It is just, 'I passionately believe what I say. Let history be my judge.' His intellectual bankcrupcy is strange in a former barrister but it is, combined with his messianic certainty, one of the greatest threats to our democracy since the WW2."

The sooner Blair is a part of our history, the better.

Happy St. George's day

April 23 - a day to remember the half Turkish, half Palestinian soldier of Imperial Rome who, according to early Christian legend, was tortured and beheaded for refusing to persecute fellow Christians but who was canonised by Pope Gelasius I for acts "known only to god" and later associated with dragon-slaying and princess-saving; who is now patron saint of Aragon, Canada, Cappadocia, Catalonia, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Malta, Palestine, Portugal, Amersfoort, Beirut, Ferrara, Genoa, Gozo, Haldern, Heide, Istanbul, Limburg, Modica, Moscow, Ptuj and Venice, as well as of butchers, soldiers, Boy Scouts, archers, armourers, cavalry and chivalry, farmers and field workers, riders and saddlers, helper of those suffering from leprosy, plague and syphilis, and revered by some Muslims as al-Khadr.

An appropriate patron saint for England if ever there was.

An Ethiopian Orthodox priest displaying an antique bible with a depiction of St. George on horseback slaying a dragon (sacredsites.com)

Information from Wikipedia, the BBC and Catholic Community Forum.

Reform at least

Yesterday, BBC News said the Dutch government has received a report from the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) contradicting the perception that Islam necessarily conflicts with human rights or 'Western values,' an idea that has gained increasing currency there since the brutal murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004.

Though an English translation of Dynamism In Islamic Activism is not yet available, an executive summary is. From that:

In the past, the EU, in its advocacy of democratization and the improvement of human rights in neighboring Muslim countries, primarily put its hopes on non-religious movements and parties, even if these groups had little political support within the local population. It becomes increasingly apparent, however, that ignoring the political and juridical agendas of religious activism offers no solution and may even be counterproductive. Not only does such a stance discourage Islamic groups with substantial followings who are prepared to pursue gradual political liberalization from within the existing system, but it also fuels the widely-held view amongst ordinary citizens in the Muslim world that secularism and (Western) democracy, by definition, serve anti-religious interests. This will only fan the demand for Islamization, either because radicals will receive more support from the population for their religious views, or because political rulers themselves will play the conservative ‘Islamization card’ in order to maintain political legitimacy."

Another recent WRR publication, produced within the framework of the same research, is also worth a read: Reformation of Islamic Thought (pdf 1.1Mb). It gives a useful historical perspective absent from many discussions of Islam, and begins:

The rise of Islamic activism since the 1970s and, more recently, Muslim terrorist attacks in the West, have pushed Islamic exclusivism and (violent) fundamentalism once again squarely into the public limelight. As a result, for many non-Muslims across the world, Islamic culture and religion are now closely associated with authoritarian rule, cruel traditions and human suffering. Sadly, these non-Muslims actually share Muslim fundamentalists’ convictions that the ‘real Islam’ is simply incompatible with modernity, democracy and respect for human rights."

I suppose that, if religionists of whatever flavour find themselves unable to get over their delusions, it would be nice if they could at least reform themselves into less anti-humanistic forms.

Jack Straw "approved torture"

On EU Observer yesterday:

A British former envoy to Uzbekistan has revealed that western secret services obtained intelligence secured under torture from foreign detainees...

"'There is a plenty of evidence about torture carried out in Uzbekistan and I know that foreign minister Jack Straw officially approved using the information obtained through torture,' Mr Murray said, citing a secret report from a meeting held on 3 March 2003.

"The German secret service was also cooperating very closely with its Uzbek counterpart, he added, while Britain and the US had taken a policy decision to obtain intelligence under torture in other countries as well."

Medical research using animals

If you agree with the following three statements, you may consider signing an online petition:

• Medical research is essential for developing safe and effective medical and veterinary treatments, requiring some studies using animals;
• Where there is no alternative available, medical research using animals should continue in the UK; and
• People involved in medical research using animals have a right to work and live without fear of intimidation or attack.

From the site:

The People's Petition gives a voice to the silent majority of people in Britain who want to show their support for medical research using animals in the UK.

"It's a campaign for people who believe that this research, carried out under stringent animal welfare standards, is essential to the health and quality of life of humans and animals."

It was set up by the Coalition for Medical Progress, an alliance of research charities, drug companies and medical, veterinary and scientific organisations.

As reported today by BBC News, and in this Guardian article.

Lobby ≠ cabal

An article by Juan Cole on Salon.com today, accessed via GlobalEcho.org, discusses the reaction to a paper by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt in the last but one issue of the London Review of Books describing what it calls The Israel Lobby in the US.

From the Salon.com posting:

In "The Israel Lobby," Mearsheimer and Walt argue that U.S. policy toward the Middle East has been dangerously skewed by a powerful pro-Israel lobby, which inhibits free discussion of the issues and has made the pro-Israeli position a political sacred cow. Congress, they point out, virtually never criticizes Israel: It is an untouchable subject. And this taboo has had enormous consequences, which are themselves off limits for discussion. Because America's blank-check support for Israel arouses enormous Arab and Muslim rage, Israel is a strategic liability, not an asset."

The conclusion of the original paper at least contains some optimism:

There is a ray of hope, however. Although the Lobby remains a powerful force, the adverse effects of its influence are increasingly difficult to hide. Powerful states can maintain flawed policies for quite some time, but reality cannot be ignored for ever. What is needed is a candid discussion of the Lobby’s influence and a more open debate about US interests in this vital region. Israel’s well-being is one of those interests, but its continued occupation of the West Bank and its broader regional agenda are not. Open debate will expose the limits of the strategic and moral case for one-sided US support and could move the US to a position more consistent with its own national interest, with the interests of the other states in the region, and with Israel’s long-term interests as well."

There does seem to be a repeated, and surely often deliberate, confusion between taking a stance against the government of Israel and the continued fallout from Zionist movements, and actually being anti-Semitic.

An article by John Bunzl in the current Palestine-Israel Journal examines the nature and sources of this obfuscation.

The journal describes itself as "the only independent, non-profit quarterly publication co-published and produced by Israelis and Palestinians, as an explicitly joint venture promoting dialogue, in the search for peaceful relations."

Four interesting blogs

Deficient Brain
Sinosplice
The Scientific Activist
God is for Suckers!

The Easter Rising/Éirí Amach na Cásca

Today is the 90th anniversary of the Easter Rising, which took place largely in Dublin but that also involved smaller but similarly-spirited actions elsewhere in Ireland.

One of my grandfathers took part in one of these, armed only with farm implements, and was imprisoned for a time by the British because of it. A shipment of arms arranged from Germany through the US organisation Clan na Gael had been intercepted by the Royal Navy, though it may have been inadequate for the rising anyway.

One of my grandfather's own grandfathers in turn was English, as of course am I - such is the way of these islands.

The Easter Rising is one of the key events in the history of the British and Irish Isles, and a commemorative military parade has taken place in Dublin for the first time in 35 years, reported today by RTÉ News.

BBC Northern Ireland also has an article on observances there and in the Irish capital.

For more details about the original event, see the Irish Times' anniversary supplement and the BBC's history feature.

Singing career breaks

Further to Wednesday's post on the Eurovision Song Contest, BBC News reports today how gravely the competition is taken in the Balkans: not only has Serbia-Montenegro had to withdraw after the controversial reselection of last year's Montenegrin-flag wavers No Name, but Kosovan bands continue to attempt to enter on behalf of neighbouring Albania.

Contrary to the prediction quoted in this week's New Scientist - that Bosnia-Herzegovina's entry from a singer with prewar, pan-Yugoslavian appeal was most likely to win - an April 4 press release from William Hill said Greece was ahead of the rest at 2 to 1... but they did also put the UK down as second favourite.

The Register, in an article last month on the Serbia-Montenegro debacle, reported that Lithuania has already declared themselves the victors with their entry We Are The Winners. Classy.

Something else for the whole continent to consider when voting this year (isn't there enough already?) is that winning artistes may end up representing their people in rather more profound ways.

According to a Yahoo News-cached Kyiv Post article from last week, Ukraine's 2004-winning performer Ruslana has entered Rada - no, not the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art but her country's national parliament - along with other successful celebrity candidates.

She's quoted saying: “I may even consider a break in my singing career.”

Opium to the people

See this article in today's Guardian for a Communists sell opium to the Chinese shock.

Something the British haven't done for a while ...

Cleveland Street scandal

I found out about this late 19th century sensation for the first time from a knowledgeable friend in Edinburgh last weekend, and was intrigued as it all took place a short walk from my home.

As first reported in the North London Press in September 1889, the police uncovered a male brothel on Cleveland Street in the West End in which telegraph boys had been recruited to have sex for money with aristocrats and other well-connected men.

The then second in line to the throne, Prince Eddy, was among those implicated, and there were rumours (some confirmed in ensuing court cases) that certain individuals had been allowed to leave the country so as not to expose those higher up the Victorian pecking order.

It's considered to have been one of the factors behind the moral backlash that ultimately led to the conviction of Oscar Wilde for 'gross indecency' in 1895, at the height of the naughty nineties.

Bosnie-Herzégovine... douze points!

An article in this week's New Scientist reports on an analysis of historical voting results in the Eurovision Song Contest.

According to Derek Gatherer's research, and perhaps not too surprisingly for anyone who has sat through the televised event, blocs of nations voting for each other's entries produce clear patterns of winners and losers.

For the record, the New Scientist article says Derek's prediction for the winner of this year's contest in Athens on May 18 & 20 is Bosnia and Herzegovina. The lyrics of their entry, called Layla and sung by the curiously-named Hari Mata Hari, can be read here in both Bosnian and English.

Brokeback Bollywood

An amusing Brokeback Mountain takeoff with a serious message can be downloaded here (~22Mb mpeg).

Buddhism is really very silly too

Reading the BBC's Time to end Sri Lanka time split today reminded me that, though in the West it is often portrayed as quite a sensible philosophy (sometimes even 'scientific'!), Buddhism is just as ridiculous as any other religion or set of superstitions.

The Venerable Gnanawimala says the change [of Sri Lanka's time zone in 1996] moved the country to a spiritual plane 500 miles east of where it should be.

"'After this change I feel that many troubles have been caused to Sri Lanka. Tsunamis and other natural disasters have been taking place,' he says."

This remains the case no matter how much Tenzin Gyatso smiles patronisingly at the rest of us.

...

The Musical of Musicals

I'm glad I went to the press night of The Musical of Musicals at Sound Theatre last Friday. Despite definitely NOT being a fan of stage musicals, I thought I'd go to support my friend, the show's producer (think Max Bialystock crossed with a Scottish Kenneth Williams).

I was incredibly relieved not to have to pretend to have enjoyed myself, so often the burden of the comp ticket junkie, as the whole thing was terribly clever and absolutely hilarious.

I think I only got around half the references (it affectionately parodies 5 musical writers, including Rodgers & Hammerstein, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim) but it was so skillfully done it didn't seem to make a difference.

It's only on until April 22, so with unashamed bias I thoroughly recommend getting tickets as soon as possible!!