newsonaut
Turning inner space into outer space
Wednesday, October 28, 2020
This pandemic is like the bleak, never-ending Barrens
There is almost no mention at all of the Spanish Flu in popular culture.
People of that era looking for entertainment likely found it in celebrations of the end of the First World War. They wouldn't have had the stomach for yet more misery in the form of portrayals of a devastating pandemic.
Also, it would have been just plain difficult to describe the worldwide calamity created by the Spanish Flu. Millions of people died, almost every community was affected. How do you weave something of that scale in to the plot of a book or movie?
If I were to try to describe to future generations what the COVID-19 pandemic is like, I would compare it to a bleak landscape extending to all horizons. It's a terrain you have to cross, and even though everyone else is in the same situation, you mostly have to do it in isolation.
It makes me think of Farley Mowat's description in People of the North of the Barrens — that massive section of the Canadian arctic inhabited by few and explored by fewer. He quotes a letter from a former RCMP constable who had gone into the Barrens to pursue a murder suspect. He barely made it out alive.
I guess it was the emptiness that bothered me most. That damn and bloody space — it just goes on and on until it makes you want to cry, or scream — or cut your own damn throat!
It's not just the coronavirus that's taking its toll. The fear, despair and isolation have eroded many people's mental health.
For some this is a fatigue that refuses to go away. For others it is anger at the world or even the year itself, knowing all the while that it is irrational. Some say to hell with the isolation, go out and party, and get sick — they just don't care any more. Others despair that these times will ever end, that even with a vaccine ready in record time, things will never be the same again. We may forever be trapped in the Barrens.
And so I predict there will be precious little mention of COVID-19 in the popular culture of these times. We want to be entertained, not depressed.
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Tuesday, October 6, 2020
Tai chi is on again
After 90 minutes of tai chi, I feel warm, a little sweaty and kind of achy in those muscles that normally don’t get much movement. A lot of people don’t think tai chi is much of an exercise, but I’m feeling it.
We’re starting over from the beginning of the form, with newcomers taking their first awkward steps and old-timers refining the ones they know. I’ve been doing tai chi off and on for decades, and learning never ends.
My habit tracker has been a big help in recent weeks, keeping me on track to practise tai chi twice a day — once in the morning and once in the late afternoon. Habits really are an amazing thing if you harness them for good.
After all that practice, I thought I was doing pretty good, and that I would wow my classmates by whipping through the form. But the learning does indeed never end. I now have a much better idea of how to position my feet in those opening moves. In fact, it’s embarrassing that I hadn’t thought about it before.
My on-again-off-again relationship is definitely on again — and this time I aim to keep it on permanently.
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Friday, April 10, 2020
A chart for the times
I made a chart that shows COVID-19 data for the Interior Health region of British Columbia, where I live. It looks encouraging, but no one should be complacent. Every death is a tragedy for family and friends left behind.
Update: The BC Centre for Disease Control has surpassed me with its COVID-19 Dashboard.
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Monday, November 7, 2011
Federal review on medical marijuana law needs more public input
When asked for comment about the recent police raid on the Canadian Safe Cannabis Society storefront, MP Cathy McLeod told The Daily News that a federal review of the medical marijuana law is now taking place.
That may have come as a surprise to many people, because so far the review has been keeping a low profile. It began closed-door talks on Sept. 28 in Ottawa. This news article from the CBC covers many of the concerns surrounding the law, but fails to mention the point of contention in Kamloops — the ability to legally buy it locally.
Much of the discussion instead revolves around the reluctance of doctors to get involved. They are being asked to play the role of gatekeepers. They decide whether someone receives authorization to use marijuana for medical purposes.
The doctors feel this puts them in a tough position, because they say there is a lack of clinical evidence to support the notion that marijuana has medicinal value. In fact, they say, there is plenty of evidence to show that it’s bad for you. Decades of studies demonstrate, for example, that smoking of any kind is bad for your lungs.
It’s to be expected that their concerns would be heard since the Canadian Medical Association is a well-funded lobby group with an influential membership.
What’s not being heard are questions about how people with permission to use marijuana are supposed to legally obtain it. In larger centres, so-called compassion clubs are numerous and for the most part police have left them alone. If Kamloops police were to succeed in shutting down the store owned by Carl Anderson, it would make life harder for a lot of people.
I don’t know how many people in Kamloops have permission to use marijuana, but it’s safe to say the number is growing. The CBC was able to obtain information from Health Canada indicating that as of Sept. 25, 2011, there are “12,264 individuals who hold a valid authorization to possess marijuana for medical purposes.”
Apparently, the department originally believed the number of people seeking permission would number in the hundreds, not the thousands. At the Health Canada website, people submitting applications are being told that the process has been streamlined to the point where a wait of eight to 10 weeks can be expected. Obviously, they have been dealing with backlogs.
What it all adds up to is an ever-increasing number of people with permission to use marijuana. And the laws of economics dictate that where there is demand — in this case legal demand — there must be supply. That means a big question the federal review will have to answer is the one of dispensation.
Who will be allowed to sell the drug and how? Will it be left to the private sector? Or will the government (with tax dollars) create a network of infrastructure in towns and cities across Canada? Can it possibly be covered with mail order?
The answers to these questions could have major implications as we decide just how tightly to regulate the use of marijuana. After all, if doctors are now deciding that marijuana can be good for you — despite a paucity of clinical evidence to support this — then the next step might be the freedom to decide for ourselves. And that, of course, would require legalization.
I would like to see the federal government give its review better publicity and make it more open to the public. Citizens should be given ample means to have their say.
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Wednesday, August 3, 2011
It's a big world, and Kamloops is part of it
When I first read The Daily News story about Kamloops doctors and nurses going to the West African country of Gambia to help with surgeries, an alarm bell went off in my mind. And sure enough I was right: some people are angry that medical personnel are going overseas instead staying put to help the sick at home.
Kamloops is part of the great, wide world, and there are people here who see themselves as residents of that world. They are going to Gambia because there is a dire need — much greater than we can imagine here. These volunteers will come back better people from their experience, and the entire community will be a better place for it. I just hope they ignore negative comments and forge ahead with doing what they know is right.
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Sunday, June 19, 2011
Pneumonia
From PubMed Health:
Pneumonia is a respiratory condition in which there is infection of the lung.The most common symptoms of pneumonia are:
» Cough (with some pneumonias you may cough up greenish or yellow mucus, or even bloody mucus)
» Fever, which may be mild or high
» Shaking chills
» Shortness of breath (may only occur when you climb stairs)Additional symptoms include:
» Confusion, especially in older people
» Excessive sweating and clammy skin
» Headache
» Loss of appetite, low energy, and fatigue
» Sharp or stabbing chest pain that gets worse when you breathe deeply or cough
If you suspect you have pneumonia, get to a doctor as soon as possible. If they don’t suggest it, be sure to ask for an X-ray. This is the quickest way to determine whether there is an infection in your lungs.
The next step is antibiotics and a recovery that can take weeks.
(This public health bulletin on pneumonia is brought to you by someone who wishes he didn’t have it.)
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Friday, May 20, 2011
CareCard security comes with big price tag
The good news is that new B.C. CareCards will cut down on fraud. Here’s part of the report from the Victoria Times Colonist:
The new card will “offer more security benefits than a current driver’s license,” including anti-forgery features, identity proofing, a security chip and recent photograph, the government said in a press release.
B.C. residents will have to re-enrol in the province’s health care system to receive the new card — with the exception of people under 19 and certain seniors’ groups — and then renew their CareCards every five years to stay eligible for health-care benefits. If for some reason they don’t do so, they’ll be ineligible for publicly paid health care services, but will still be given care in emergency situations, according to the news release.
The bad news, then, is that we’ll also get a ballooning bureaucracy. Times Colonist reporter Rob Shaw tweeted: “B.C.‘s new high-tech CareCards will cost gov’t $125-150 million over 5 years. Minister originally said $10 mil. Big difference.”
I’m betting most of that money will go toward paying salaries. We’ll be standing in lineups to get these cards and we’ll likely get dinged $20 for the privilege. Where else is the money going to come from?
The only comfort here is the possibility that fraud is costing taxpayers even more. With twice as many CareCards in circulation as there are people in B.C. (9.1 million vs. 4.5 million), the potential is certainly there.
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Friday, May 13, 2011
Glad to have a gluten-free demo
A story about a gluten-free cooking demonstration on the weekend is one of the best-read articles over at The Daily News website. I was surprised, but I shouldn’t have been — one in 22 people have celiac disease.
Those who have it can’t eat a number of foods that most people take for granted. A gluten-free diet excludes, for example, any food that contains flours or grains of wheat, rye, barley and oats.
Just think of all the things that affects — breakfast cereals, lunch sandwiches, birthday cakes, a beer after work. It’s no wonder that tips on gluten-free cooking are popular.
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Monday, April 18, 2011
Dix as NDP leader may be 'healthy' for Kamloops
The new leader of the NDP, Adrian Dix, is practically a household name for regular readers of The Daily News. His name has appeared in dozens of articles in recent years, mainly with barbs aimed at the Interior Health Authority.
But perhaps the most bizarre episode involving Dix came in mid-January when Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Kevin Krueger was forced to apologize for saying: “If there ever was a guy that shouldn’t put his head up to get it shot off, as the soldiers refer to it, it’s Adrian Dix.”
Krueger made the comment just after an American politician had been shot in Arizona. It was bad timing, to say the least.
But it is on the subject of health care where Dix has had the most to say. Whether you agree with him or not, he appears to have put some real effort into researching the topic. Here are excerpts from a few articles going back to 2009:
• New Democrat leadership hopeful Adrian Dix pledged Tuesday to fix what he called a top-heavy Interior Health Authority administration that directs too much attention and spending on Kelowna.
• New Democrat health critic Adrian Dix called the rate hike a cash grab. In a press release, he said the $54-million revenue grab will leave many patients struggling to pay for their basic needs.
• NDP Health Critic Adrian Dix used the delay to make political hay Thursday, noting the latest news of a delay for the sterilization unit upgrades is just one in a long line that goes back three years.
• Adrian Dix said waits for MRI scans for non-urgent elective procedures take up to 10 months. “What we’re seeing everywhere in B.C. and in Kamloops is dramatic increases in MRi wait times.”
• By holding its hip and knee surgeries to 2008/09 budgeted levels, Interior Health is actually cutting the number of procedures by 14 per cent, says the NDP’s health critic. Adrian Dix said Thursday he came to that calculation based on information from IHA chief executive officer Murray Ramsden, who told him the surgeries would be held at those budgeted levels.
• NDP health critic Adrian Dix predicts longer surgery waits, fewer services for patients and staff layoffs within Interior Health. The problems are the result of a growing deficit he says was hidden from the public.
Dix is apparently well versed in what for many people is a major issue — health care. Whether creating policy as premier or holding the government’s feet to the fire in opposition, Kamloops will benefit from his knowledge.
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Tuesday, February 8, 2011
The quest for marijuana legitimacy
I can’t shake the feeling that advocates of medicinal marijuana have much in common with the Church of the Universe. Both seek to take marijuana use mainstream by associating it with things that already have legitimacy: medicine and religion.
On Monday, an Ontario judge ruled against a bid by the Church of the Universe for an exemption from Canada’s pot laws on the grounds that the group uses the drug as a sacrament. It would be funny if it weren’t such a waste of the court’s time and taxpayers’ money.
I haven’t received much in the way of comments on this blog yet, but I did manage to elicit a couple when I described how marijuana is bad for you. There may indeed be chemical compounds in it that can be used to relieve pain, but until researchers find a way of extracting them and administering them to patients in a safe manner, marijuana is best avoided by people who value their health.
Supporters of medicinal marijuana and, to some extent, the Church of the Universe have to be given credit for making some headway in convincing Canadians that marijuana isn’t so bad after all. It seems we’ve reached a pointed where saying “marijuana is bad for you” in polite company can actually provoke gasps of disbelief.
How times have changed.
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