Ostriches and Population Migration

In 2013 there were 232 million people living outside their country of origin. That was 3.2% of the world population. It isn't a lot.

Homo Erectus left Africa for the first time 1.8 million years ago. Homo Sapiens left 125,000 years ago, but returned. They left again 75,000 ago. Humans have always migrated. We were nomads with no borders other than physical ones of landscape for a very long time. We moved to better hunting grounds & better pastures. We settled. We became tribes.

The geographical country borders we now recognise are relatively recent, artificial, political constructs. Many are arbitrary lines drawn on maps, often after conflict. Numerous borders have changed many times over the years. It is therefore arguable that our rights pertaining to our national borders are tenuous at best. We do not own our country of origin, or have exclusive rights to it. We are custodians of land. We actually don't own anything in the sense that we can't take anything with us when we die.

People leave their homeland for a variety of reasons. They look for better economic & social opportunities. Many are fleeing crises - conflict, violence, persecution & natural disasters for example. They undertake extremely dangerous journeys to escape & find something better. What would we have them do? Stay put in misery and danger and die?

Almost half of all migrants are women. Many are of child bearing age. Many are the victims of human traffiking. Are we going to deny them sanctuary?

This is a global problem & it will need international planning to resolve the many complex issues. Most of the causal factors are "man" made. The seeds of the problems were sown by politics and religion. The vast majority of politicians are men. They need to stop posturing & really start to tackle this growing 21st century migration. There seems to be a worrying shortage of empathy & compassion in today's political leaders. They are too concerned about the effect on their next election.

Not one single human being worth the name can wash their hands of this situation. We all have to have the will to help people far less fortunate than we are. We can't put our heads in the sand or we will reap the consequences.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_human_migrations

http://www.unfpa.org/migration

Palace of Westminster - The Mother of all Parliaments.

A report says major restoration of the Houses of Parliament without moving MPs and peers out would cost £5.7bn and take 32 years. If MP and peers were moved out for six years, the cost would drop to £3.5bn.

The 150-year-old Grade I listed building is partly sinking, contains asbestos and has outdated cabling. A 2012 report warned the building could suffer "major, irreversible damage" without significant restoration work.

I have a simple solution! Move Parliament out of London to somewhere central & accessible to the whole of the UK. Make Parliament relevant to all of us not just politicians, journalists & the chattering classes. Build a wonderful, purpose built, 21st century building for future generations. The Scots & the Welsh have done it very successfully. Look at parliament buildings in other countries too. Then do the work on the Palace of Westminster & open it to tourists & functions. It would pay for itself in no time.

Get rid of the adversarial benches so pathetic, juvenile, MP's can't embarrass us all by shouting and braying at eachother across the aisles. Build a debating chamber in the round & let MP's sit wherever they like. Get rid of the building and the arcane practices that go with it.

Sometimes history has a death grip on progress. Democracy & parliament is more important than this one historic building.

Time Wasters

The one thing I know with complete certinty is that I have a finite amount of time. On the micro level to get things done & on the macro level to live. Thus it seems increasingly important to use my time wisely & to do things I really want to / need to do.

I don't want to be completely selfish you understand, I just don't want to waste my most precious resource. As everything in my life has to be done by me alone, just the  process of everyday living takes up a lot of my time.

My problem is with people who don't seem to understand that I may not wish to listen to the minutiae of their lives for hours, (literally!) I don't want to know details about their family, friends & colleagues who I have never even met. I don't want to know all the problems of people I hardly know. Yes, that sounds harsh, but I actually have more than enough problems of my own at the moment.

There are a couple of people who are very recent acquaintances who seem incapable of stopping the flow. They don't seem to pick up my body language & signals of frustration & glazing over. One comes to my door at the most inappropriate times, eg mealtimes, & will stand for hours oblivious to the fact that I am really not engaging with the conversation. The fact that I don't invite this person in doesn't seem to impinge on their consciousness.

I don't know what to do, short of being really blunt & rude. It goes against the grain though.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Cold Turkey - Episode 2

I took the last pain killer on Tuesday. It really didn't cross my mind that the withdrawl symptoms would come back. I thought I was over all of that.

On Wednesday I didn't feel too good, but I could function. I didn't get much sleep on Wednesday night though. By Thursday I felt rough enough to lie down all afternoon, but managed to go out to the theatre in the evening. (Distraction Technique always works well for me. I have had enough practice).

Yesterday I simply didn't know what to do with myself. I woke with a dreadful migraine type headache. I kept the tight band of head pain all day. I felt nauseous all the time & could only eat fruit & drink water. My stomach felt very uncomfortably bloated. I veered manically between sweating profusely & not being able to get warm at all. Unsurprisingly I stayed in bed most of the day.

The thing is it has made me realise, in some small part, that I had no idea what drug addiction is like. I certainly hadn't a clue how difficult it is to come off drugs.

I have always thought drugs should be supplied to addicts by medical professionals to monitor & control the addiction. Also to pull the rug out from under the feet of the criminal suppliers & remove all their profits & stop criminalising the users.

I now feel more sympathetic to the addicts. It would have been only too easy to end all the awful withdrawl symptoms by just taking a pill. No wonder they are trapped in a cycle of abuse. We all tend to judge addicts. Not me. Not now.

A Diagnosis - Ankylosing Spondilitis

It's only taken 50 years!

I'm so upset & angry that it had to get to the point that I fianally couldn't stand the pain and incapacity any longer & had to pay to see a Rheumatologist privately. Dr  C works for the Royal Berks Hospital but also Spire Healthcare. I saw him twice last week. I've had two lots of X rays & two lots of bloods. I'm now waiting for a scan appointment.

His conclusion is that I have Ankolysing Spondilitis on top of everything else. He says I have had it since my 20's. The bones are fused plus the osteophytes, (bony outgrowths), have joined up because I wasn't diagnosed & treated much earlier. I can't understand why no one picked this up. I've had the symptoms & have been under 4 different surgeries in that time. You would think that someone would have joined up the dots - or sent me to someone who could.

Anyway, once he has all the results in he will decide on treatment & seems optimistic the pain & stiffness will improve. In the meantime I can take the max dose of Co Codamol, which my GP wouldn't let me take. I'm now off all of the different med's I had been given, which weren't working.

I have been in so much pain & had such disturbed sleep I've really struggled to function for a while now. I have just about managed to continue swimming & doing the aerobic exercises at the gym. (Dr C said definitely no weight lifting exercises at all & I've been trying to do them for months after referral by the GP!) I've also managed to do Chi Gong. To be honest that has all required massive will power. I am supposed to be doing exercises at home too, but there is only so much I can cope with at once!

I knew something had worsened drastically, but I am really shocked that this could all have been avoided - years ago. Dr C was quite open about the fact that GP's fail patients. They don't pick up on symptoms & they don't refer people to Rheumatologists. It's really not good & has blighted my life for years. I just have to accept that it is what it is & be glad that I was proactive & didn't just accept that the doctors knew what they were doing. They don't.

If I can get back to a relatively pain free & fatigue free life I will be hugely relieved, but the personal cost to me has been enormous.

Private Healthcare v the NHS

My mum and dad were "working class". My dad did hard & sometimes dangerous physical work all his life. My mum did a sucession of unskilled menial jobs. There wasn't much money however "careful" my mum was controlling the purse strings. My dad was a lifelong Socialist & union man.

I grew up a liberal Socialist. I doubt I will change my core beliefs about fairness & equality of opportunity now.

I have just paid to have private healthcare. I got to the point where I simply couldn't tolerate the pain, lack of mobility & fatigue any more. I have put my needs before someone else's. I have jumped the queue. However I look at it, it is unfair. I have achieved benefit because I can afford to pay. The majority of others can't.

I contacted the private provider last week. I had an appointment with a consultant yesterday. All the tests were carried out. I will see the consultant again on Friday & he will have all the test results & decide on treatment. 

I accept that patients with multiple chronic conditions like me may be hard to treat. But my experience leaves me with a lot of questions about the state of the NHS in the 21st century.

• Why do the wheels grind so slowly? Why are there such long waiting times to see a clinician in either primary or secondary care?
• Is there a fundamental lack of money or clinicians to meet the needs of the population?
• If a GP doesn't know what the problem is why don't they refer patients to a specialist who does ASAP? Is this a cost or consultant availability issue?
• Why do patients have to tolerate pain & incapacity? In my case 24 /7.

Even after one private consultation it would appear that what is wrong with me is a) diagnosable & b) treatable effectively. I am being cautious about that because as yet nothing has changed. But if it does prove to be true, the NHS system has tolerated my deteriorating condition for 18 months. It has paid for my drugs & my regular GP appointments, which were ineffective. It could have saved money by speedier, effective, intervention.

I am well informed & organised. I communicate with medics effectively & see the relationship as a partnership. If I can't get the message across about the unacceptable levels of my symptoms, no one can.

I had to give up & go Private. Why? What happens to people who don't have the money?