What do you do about North Korea?

The North Korean government has admitted responsibility for sinking a South Korean navy ship, killing its crew and has launched an artillery strike against a South Korean island, killing at least four people, all the while claiming self-defence. The world seems powerless to do anything about the aggression – apart from various political leaders condemning the attacks and then hoping another such attack does not happen. Global impotency at its best.

Of course, we need to remember that North Korea may in some ways be a pressure release valve for China and Russia. Both are allies of North Korea and both sit on the feeble UN Security Council (as Rex Murphy describes it, "the world’s most useless transnational organization") where it is reasonably expected they would veto any Security Council resolution aimed at condemning North Korea. After all, they are communist brothers-in-arms and it’s a “family thing” you know. What’s going on in North Korea at the moment is no different than what happened in China under Mao Tse-tung or in Russia under Stalin. Thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands starved to death while the military and political establishments (are they separable?) built up enormous wealth and resources.

The other dynamic is that the North Korean leadership is changing and the new leader-to-be may be trying to flex some of his military pecs to show everyone who’s in charge and who’s not afraid. Certainly, reports on the North Korean state TV channel praise the leadership’s bravery while playing military tunes in the background. (Too bad most North Koreans can’t see it because there’s no electricity.) The sabre rattling is as much for a domestic audience as it is for the rest of us. The only question is how far are WE prepared to let the sabre rattling go? Are another two hundred deaths an acceptable limit? Maybe a thousand? Maybe three thousand? Where’s our breaking point if indeed we have one or are we too scared of China?

Plus ça change

It was almost a year ago that the January 12th earthquake devastated Haiti and left thousands and thousands of people homeless, without clean water, no electricity, no infrastructure and for many, no hope. It is no surprise that the situation remains the same, despite massive donations from people across Canada and around the world.

The corruption that was a trademark of Haiti under the Duvalier’s has not changed in the least. If there’s a buck to be siphoned off somehow, then there is a government official in Haiti who will do it. The stories have been coming out of there for the last year about supplies being held up in storage and huge sums being charged for that storage. There are more stories about government officials rebuilding their homes with foreign aid dollars while their people suffer in the so-called temporary tent cities.

I remember when I saw the early pictures of those tent cities – all I could think was “settle in folks – these will be your homes for a long time”. There are thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, crammed into these so-called makeshift emergency communities. Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars donated by citizens of the world, very little is reaching the suffering people on the ground.

Both the Globe & Mail and the CBC have presented stories this week dealing with the lack of progress in dealing with the aftermath of the crisis in Haiti.

In so many ways, it seems to be a typical third world story … the west donates huge amounts of money to help with disaster relief and too much of it ends up being spent on administration in the aid agencies offices while too much of the rest of it goes to the senior officials in government who enjoy largesse beyond our imagination. Think of the hundreds of millions of dollars that Robert Mugabe has stored away in various Swiss bank accounts.

We were criticized by the Pakistanis for not offering more support when massive flooding hit their country in July of this year. Is it perhaps because we have seen so much corruption that we realize that none of our money may ever reach the people who need it? Consider the confirmed reports that say senior Pakistani officials, including police and military leaders had levees diverted away from their sumptuous estates so that the flood waters would spare them and destroy poverty-stricken villages. It is these same officials who later said the west was not doing enough to help their country.

For me and so many others, it’s a case of charity fatigue. The well is only so deep and despite our concern for the people in those countries, we have only so much to give in terms of resources and emotions. When the corruption becomes as blatant as it is in Haiti now, then the well runs dry.  My choice is to give directly to where I know my donation will make a difference - my choice is Hands Across the Sea.

One would hope that with the elections presently underway in Haiti, there might be some change in administration, but the reality is that it won’t. The corruption will continue uninterrupted as it has for the last century.

A moment of care

On Thursday November 11th, we were asked to set aside a few minutes and pay a silent tribute to those who gave their lives for our freedom. It is a fitting tribute to those who give so much for so many. Today, on this Sabbath day for many of us, it is appropriate to take a moment to think of those who give their lives in service for others. I’m thinking especially today of Karen Huxter, the Newfoundlander who established the Hands Across The Sea orphanage in Haiti. Take a moment to visit Karen’s blog/website and send some positive energy (and cash if you can afford it) her way: http://hatshaiti.blogspot.com/

Thanks.

Stop the media circus

It’s time for Newfoundland doctors and the government to get back to the bargaining table and stop negotiating through news conferences and contrived situations to show support for one side or the other.

The spectacle of more than 20 pediatricians and their residents standing in a conference room telling us their tale of woe yesterday is designed only to make us pawns in this dispute in the hopes that we will call our local MHA and ask that the government resume negotiations. Do these well-paid doctors have so little respect for us that they think nothing of using us as pawns? Doctors are used to snapping their fingers and having things happen and it’s as true in St. John’s as it is in Halifax or Vancouver.

I’m sorry if Debbie Reid has to work long hours in order to take care of very sick children but frankly Scarlett, she chose her profession and knew what she was getting into. I put in long hours at my job too for not even close to a quarter of what Debbie Reid makes and there are many days when the stress level is just as high.

There is a reason why doctors in St. John’s joke about the Janeway being “six kids hospital” rather than “sick kids”. It’s because of the relatively small number of patients.

You want to know something else? I find it interesting that there are more pediatricians resigning than doctors in other fields? They’re targeting the most vulnerable of the population and I’m sorry but withdrawing your services IS targeting the most vulnerable, regardless of what semantical or economic arguments you want to offer.

What we’re seeing now is a carefully organized media plan unfolding that one day has a medical student doing an “anonymous” interview on CBC to lament the departure of the doctors and another day a family doctor from St. John’s calling CBC to leave a long message talking about the potential impact on her work or the head of the medical school talking about worries about the future of medical education. Meantime, many people you talk to in the health care field say it’s a bluff.

I’m tired of being exploited for the financial gain of these doctors and it’s time to stop the media circus.

LEST WE FORGET ...

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae, Canadian Soldier WWI

Doctor dear doctor, you too can be replaced

It seems that the fight between the doctors and the government is getting meaner and meaner. As a cab driver said the other day, “it’s starting to get dirty”. No question about that.

I was at St. Clare’s yesterday visiting a sick friend and got talking to some of the hospital staff. They seem to think the doctors’ resignations backfired on them because they didn’t expect the government to call their bluff. The staff I talked to said they think the majority of the MDs will not leave and instead will come to a “last minute” agreement with the government to allow them to save face and keep on earning those multi hundred-thousand dollar salaries.

Kudos to Jerome Kennedy for letting us know how much some of these doctors earn. As a matter of fact, I’d like to see all of the salaries reported out because after all, they do come from the public purse. Apparently, we can learn the information through a request for access to information – would be nice to see the Telegram or NTV or CBC do that.

It was interesting to hear the President of the Newfoundland Medical Association Dr. Pat O’Shea talk in terms of money, “"I think the Minister is trying to play the money game, and we knew this was going to happen," O'Shea told reporters. "He is trying to persuade the public that doctors are greedy, that they are getting tons of money."

Gee, I may be wrong here, but isn’t that exactly what the doctors are doing as well? Something about the pot and the kettle comes to mind.

It’s also important to realize that the MDs make considerably more than their base salary. Many of them have additional appointments within the health region for which they work and also to the medical school. As Kennedy said, “Dr. Julia Trahey receives a $95,000 stipend in addition to her salary as a result of her clinical duties at Eastern Health.” One has to wonder precisely what extra work the good doctor does to earn that $95,000.

Patients are caught as the pawns in this battle of wills between the MDs and the government. As the doctors talk about doomsday scenarios they are clearly trying to swing public opinion in their direction. Now that government is indeed calling their bluff, they need to exercise caution as to how far they play that card. Bottom line is that it may take some time, but doctor dear doctor, you too can be replaced.

Reality check

Lee Rankin needs to give his head a shake. He’s the lawyer representing an Asian man who put on the disguise of an old man and boarded an Air Canada flight in Hong Kong.

Rankin says Canadian officials are “playing dirty” with the Asian guy by publicizing his case. He’s especially concerned that the CNN cable news outlet in the USA obtained a copy of the pictures.

So, let me get this straight. A guy gets on a plane in Hong Kong coming to Canada. He’s wearing an elaborate disguise and has a fake boarding pass. No one knows his intentions. Any chance he might be wearing potentially exploding shoes or underwear? Might he have a weapon of some sort concealed somewhere? (If he got through security wearing a heavy silicone mask, who knows what else he might have on or in his body?) And this lawyer is worried about the guy’s privacy??? I think he gave up that right when he put on the mask.

Rankin, by the way, downplays the mask: “said that while the elaborate silicone mask the man donned before boarding Flight AC018 on Oct. 29 is unique, it's not much of a departure from the dyed hair, wigs, fake passports and other false means that thousands of people use to enter Canada illegally every year.” He went on to say that this guy is probably somehow connected to one of the Chinese gangs.

Maybe I’m missing something here, but shouldn’t we be focusing on the fact that this guy got on a commercial passenger plane wearing a disguise and carrying fake ID? I’ve flown a couple of times in the last few weeks and I certainly would not want to be thirty thousand feet in the air with someone who is clearly hiding something. The guy should be put back on a plane, without a disguise, and sent back to wherever he came from. I just hope it’s not my hard earned taxpayer dollars paying for Rankin’s rants.

The new pretend-soldier

I had great respect for Ernie Coombs and Fred Rogers – two actors who achieved professional perfection in creating a fantasy world for children. Better known as Mr. Dressup and Mr. Rogers, Coombs and Rogers would dress up in costumes to help children enter into a fantasy of fun. They knew the costumes were only costumes and didn’t try to make believe they were really the character the costume represented.

That’s a lesson Canada’s new pseudo-royal David Johnston needs to learn. Last week Johnston and his entourage went to Afghanistan to visit the Canadian troops there and his feet barely hit the dirt before he was decked out in combat fatigues taking and giving various salutes. This, from a man with no military background. In an interview with the CBC around the time of his installation as the new pseudo-royal, he suggested that unlike his predecessor, he wouldn't don the uniform. "If I had a military background I would’ve put on the uniform with great pride," he said at the time.

One has to wonder what happened in the interim. It’s something like Bill Elliot trying to pretend that he’s a Mountie. He is not and never will be a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer. He’s a civilian given a job by the Harperites, the same as Johnston’s appointment to Rideau Hall. I had hoped that with the departure of Michaëlle Jean from Rideau Hall, it would mean the end of civilians running around in military uniforms.

Guess not.

When is enough, enough?

That question occurred to me this afternoon when I read that thirteen medical specialists have said they are resigning from their jobs in Newfoundland because the provincial government will not pay them what they feel they are worth. Two other specialists announced earlier that they are leaving as well, so that brings the total number to fifteen specialists packing their bags and heading off to more profitable shores.

The doctors are playing hardball. Some of them are quoted in today’s press as saying that their departure means children will have to be flown out of the province for specialized tests they now receive at home. They’re trying to make government feel guilty about not giving them more money. The government already has offered them a THIRTY ONE PERCENT increase in pay but they want the same 40% deal that the government gave oncologists and pathologists. They probably also want the special bonus deals the oncologists got which means that if most of them are out of town on a weekend, the covering oncologist gets bonus pay that probably would equal most of our weekly pay checks.

My point about “enough is enough” is based, in part, on the online story at the CBC website which said, “The government offered 97 per cent pay parity with doctors in Atlantic Canada — phased in over four years from 2009 to 2013. The province's more than 1,000 doctors would receive 40 per cent of the pay increase in the first year of the contract and 20 per cent in each of the next three years.”

Ten of those doctors who are leaving Newfoundland got their Medical Doctor degree from Memorial University as follows:

• Bridger, pediatric endocrinologist, director Janeway Lifestyles Clinic & program director of pediatrics Janeway (1986)
• Fernandez, medical geneticist, Eastern Health (1994)
• Fontaine, anatomical pathology (1998)
• Luscombe, developmental pediatrician and child protection at the Janeway (1995)
• Newhook, pediatrician at Janeway and diabetic researcher (1993)
• Penney, adult psychiatry, Eastern Health (1993)
• Reid, pediatric intensivist at the Janeway (1980)
• Scott, neurologist, Corner Brook (1991)
• Trahey, internal medicine and clinical chief of quality assurance with Eastern Health (1986)
• Vivian, pediatrician at the Janeway (2004)

For anyone who’s interested, you can find this information at the website for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Newfoundland and Labrador.

In most cases, they have long service to Newfoundland & Labrador with the exception of Laura Vivian who graduated with her MD in 2004 and then would have completed her residency after that. The College of Physicians and Surgeons website does not show where they did their residency training in their specific field nor does it show how many are native Newfoundlanders.

An article by Daphne Bramham in the Vancouver Sun a few years ago put all of this in perspective. “The Canadian medical profession is the largest sheltered workshop in the country. From the time doctors enter medical school until they retire, they are among the most pampered and protected groups in our society. Medical students pay the smallest proportion of the true cost of their education compared to students in all other programs, including other professional programs. Interns get paid to work while they do their training. Engineers don't. Dentists don't. Teachers don't.”

The bottom line is that none of us are paid what we are worth or what we *think* we’re worth. If we were, then some would be enormously happy while others would be profoundly sad. Remember: paid what we are WORTH.

Doctors in this province make a VERY good living and there are many other professionals with similar length of training who make much less, so please don’t give me the old story about how many years they spend in school. It no longer holds water. They are professionals; they are not gods. A radiation oncologist is no more important to my life than a civil engineer who designs the bridge I’m going to drive over.

Perhaps it’s time we take a serious look at the pedestals the doctors have built for themselves.

Splish, splash - I was taking a bath ...

Have you noticed a slight pungent odour off the person sitting next to you lately? Could be that she or he has decided to join “the great unwashed”. No joke. An article in the New York Times says that more and more people are opting to shower only once or twice a week, sometimes even less than that. In part, it’s because they’re concerned about skin care products such as deodorants and soaps; in part, it’s because they just don’t think it’s important. Katherine Ashenburg who wrote “The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History” says that since we moved away from hard physical labour “we have never needed to wash less, and we have never done it more.”

It would appear that the urge rests in the olfactory senses – we don’t want to smell too ripe. Heck, even some of those 500,000 music fans who converged on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York back in 1969 jumped into Filippini Pond in an attempt to get rid of some of the stinky. For most of us, having a sense of being clean is important, but for some, that appears to be changing. Just don’t put them next to me in the cinema!

I remember my parents talking about the once-a-week bath routine on Saturday nights. Now, the only time I skip a daily shower is if I’m going to be puttering around the house on Saturdays or taking a few days of solo vacation which I did recently. Having that shower not only makes me feel clean but it invigorates me. How about you? Are you a one-a-dayer or a once-a-weeker?

Time to go. My shower awaits.