Bailout: The premise that stinking shit becomes durable gold

Our duty of care betrayed

I have agonised in private and silently wept with tears streaming down my eyes as I read and heard of how the vulnerable had been betrayed.

Harsh as it may sound, babies by reason of our humanity and bond of parental love do not have to expect because they do not know, that we owe them a duty of care.

We as highly developed social animals just know that our babies’ needs are to be met and sometimes at great cost. We tend to believe that our governments have accepted and engaged in the duty of ensuring that health and safety rules and regulations are strictly adhered to, enforced without laxity and infringements punished severely.

In no place is this need for confidence expected, required and implicitly demanded than in food safety – except in places where a government has malevolently decided to commit genocide by allowing poisons and harmful substances to be ingested as food, it should be a given that our food is safe.

Profiteering on the lives of the helpless

Not being a parent, even I had a pain in my heart and it ached so painfully when I read that the protein content of baby formula had been boosted by adding a false-positive indicator – melamine [1].

I had to read up on that stuff and found it could be used in fabrics, plastics and fire retardants – it was definitely not, I repeat, definitely NOT for food or consumption even though it was partly soluble in water.

Some smart guy must have deduced that the test for protein content was poorly constructed since it only tested for the presence of nitrogen; so diluting the milk and adding melamine was a sure way to boost assumed protein content and make great profits no matter whose ox was gored [2].

They killed the babies

Sadly, it has been 4 dead babies and 54,000 infants sick, babies developing kidney stones some resulting in renal failure and parents literally helpless with desperate anxiety seeking respite for their child as well as being unsure of what now to feed their baby.

This is in China where the one-child policy [3] is still in force and this is not to say that the loss of one child can be assuaged by the presence of another – one cannot begin to understand the unspeakable torture and pain the babies and the parents are going through.

Fundamentally, this episode of deliberate poisoning of food for profits is more far reaching than the localities in which the outrageously malevolent middle-men of the dairy market plied their devilish trade.

To my mind, hell is too cold to receive their evil and wicked souls – it is no doubt the best place to send them to, but before they are sent off, they have a price to pay and none of them have enough in money, means or their own very lives to pay for their heinous unforgivable crimes.

Confidence, trust, integrity and reputation

As far out as Asia, Europe and Africa [4], food products from China are undergoing stringent scrutiny to outright bans [5] and worse is yet to come because we now have a collapse in confidence that standards not are being adhered to, such that we do not trust those products to be harmless, since there is clearly no integrity in their standards and this has completely sullied the reputation of doing business in China; it will no doubt adversely affect all other products from China.

The highlighted words in the previous paragraph cannot be quantified in any measure but they are the basis on which any transaction can be comfortably conducted in our world.

The loss of any of these is priceless; there is probably nothing that can done to regain them without a very costly expenditure, a great act of contrition, meaningful restitution, a sense of justice meted out to offenders and the long passage of time.

It applies to all people, their activities, businesses, organisations, companies, governments and life – it allows relationships to be built and partnerships to thrive; the absence of any would lead to strife and possibly the loss of lives.

The bailout is just as bad

In the same vein we see the $700 billion bailout [6] of banks in the United States where the Treasury is seeking funding to buy toxic assets off banks so that they can return to the business of banking and ease the credit crunch.

Much as we have heard so much about the lack of confidence; the fact is, the problems were brought on by untrustworthy practices in granting sub-prime mortgages where the debts were given ratings of integrity when in fact they were borne of disreputable transactions.

It is now clear that the banks were engaged in practices that would put the ordinary man behind bars for years, but as banks they are about to be absolved of their misdeeds by having the public buy off their toxic assets.

Stinking shit becomes gold

The US Treasury would have us believe that these toxic assets have short half-lives and in time they would appreciate in value and can be sold off for profit offering a net gain to the tax payer.

At the risk of sounding crude, the bailout is supposed to turn horribly stinking shit into durable gold, over time – I would like to see the alchemist that would conduct that experiment. The assets have become irradiated with the toxicity of dishonest, disreputable provenance, they cannot be treated with a bailout to give them respectability - who is buying this shit?

You cannot afford to lose it

I have this much to say, when confidence is lost and people have no trust in each other such that they cannot vouch for the integrity of the other and stake anything on the reputation of another – there is no price that can buy back trust, restore confidence, confer integrity and enhance reputations as much as not losing it in the first place.

With hindsight, it is just too obvious that nobody can afford to lose the confidence of others, create an atmosphere of distrust, convey a lack of integrity and become disreputable – the price is just too high.

What is clear to all is the price of these losses is looking like $700 billion and that is a hefty price to pay for millions of little white lies that secured paltry mortgages around America encouraging the world to think they could invest in the reputation of liars and their accomplices (the banks) as a worthwhile business venture.

Address trust or pay more still

I would contend that the price to regain trust would be a lot higher than $700 billion and if those people who instigated, tolerated, condoned, encouraged and abetted the lying are still in position to play with money, we have another gaping black hole of lies to swallow up more money without restoring confidence and buying back the foundation of good business dealings – trust.

Unfortunately, no one is addressing that simple fact, it is the loss of simple old-fashioned virtues that has created this big problem and until that clear truth is spelt out and the criminals are made to pay for their lies and dishonest activities – we might well prepare for a depression because I see $7 trillion going into this bailout and things getting no better.

Sources

[1] Melamine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[2] Melamine use "rampant" in China feed business - Yahoo! News

[3] One-child policy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[4] FACTBOX: Africa, Asia, Europe: bans and recalls on China milk | International | Reuters

[5] Medical News Today News Article - Europe Bans Chinese Baby Foods Containing Milk

[6] Financial crisis: Good points and bad points of US bail-out - Telegraph

Save the children - From their parents?

Burnt child

First in Austria, one cannot begin to imagine that Josef Fritzl probably conducted a few abortions on his daughter before he decided the products of their incestuous liaisons should come to term as children.

It is sickening that on the death of one of the children, rather than dignify the child with either a proper burial or a cremation, he dumped the child in an incinerator and that was the end of the matter.

Stabbed children

And so in Scotland we read of the discovery of two dead boys in a car near a beauty spot just north of Glasgow. It transpired that the boys aged 2 and 6 were stabbed, apparently by their father estranged from their mother and seemingly had not been successful in killing himself.

It really beggars belief that a relationship which at one time was the joy of all involved that it lead to the birth of those beautiful people could have soured so much as to damage all involved to this extent.

A lot must be to blame for this event, the father, the mother and their inability to keep the relationship going for whatever reasons and the system that accords rights of custody and visitation with scant regard for the emotional strain it can place on parties involved.

The children who were supposed to be at the centre of the matter of care and concern who supposedly would have received the best result of a separation have now become the unfortunate victims of a situation I naively cannot properly understand.

Frozen babies

Then in Germany, a teenage son goes down into the cellar to see if he can find a pizza in the freezer and ends up finding 3 bodies of babies in the freezer that could date back 20 years.

You begin to wonder if those were his brothers and why he decided a pizza would be in that freezer of all the other freezers that might have been on that house from which he might have retrieved a pizza before. The tale reveals all.

His mother seems to be the culprit, this is all looking insane.

Neglected children

Portugal must have had its share of being the place not to take your children on holiday after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann just over a year ago.

But I could not believe my ears when I read that a couple – parents with young children age 1, 2 and 6 – had drunk themselves to a holiday stupor that they collapsed with the result of their children being put into care for a night.

If we have to save the children from their parents, what safety do children have in this world? I do wonder.

Time to learn to feel our pain

Early out and doing well

As I have said before, I have always wondered if enough research is being done about how early-term and premature babies grow up and thrive as adults.

I know a few years ago, the BBC showcased a number of babies who were born in 1995 at less than 25 weeks to see how they got on in their tenth year.

The results were almost depressing when it transpired that only one of that group had fully matured to expected development as would be observed in full-term births.

In my case, being born at 26 weeks 40 years ago in the West Midlands, I sometimes consider it a miracle that I not only survived but thrived. In 40 years of study and analysis it is considered that below 24 weeks it is difficult to offer any hope of thriving to births still within the second trimester.

Learning recently that an astigmatic condition could have been corrected in childhood is one of those things, but there is more to life than a lazy eye.

However, this topic reared its head when I commented on the topic of abortion on Naijablog and the writer opined about the feelings of foetuses and their ability to feel pain.

A commenting contributor suggested based on some study highlighted on the BBC web site that foetuses do not feel pain till at least the 29th week of gestation.

Naturally, I rubbished that report, bunkum!, I said; not because I could remember the circumstances and my feelings at birth, but because the medical personnel then took the duty of care to handle me with such fragility as I was transferred from Manor Maternity Home in Walsall to Marston Green Hospital in Birmingham for 2 months of incubation.

Feel my pain

If I had no feelings of pain or emotion at the time of birth, I could as well have been considered dead. Well, that was hardly two days ago.

Then this morning, I heard on the news that scientists now think foetuses can feel pain from about 24 weeks if not earlier. If only they could ask those emerging bundles of joy how they felt.

It might change the whole debate on abortion and the destruction of life in the womb, but that is not crux of my blog today.

Rather, it is about applying better study and research techniques to understanding how we are formed in the womb and why it is that some do come rather early and others very late.

Once again, the unnecessary dilemma might also be the question of passage of time. Does a pre-term baby have a shorter biorhythm cycle that a full term or fuller term baby?

I am still looking for reasons why an occupational therapist suggested I was suffering the classic symptoms of a mid-life crisis at 33. I am way past that now and enjoying the new things I am doing.

I do not know if this area of study is the bailiwick of obstetrics, paediatrics or some other branch of medicine or mechanics, for all I care, the claustrophobia of the womb is hard enough, find out about our pain better before you try those nasty tools on us.

I speak for all of us who came in early for one reason or the other.

Abort all black babies

Abort all black babies

Hold it! Before you go for my neck with a vengeance, this is just a hypothetical proposition from a passing comment in a simple radio talk-show exchange.

"If you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose; you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." [1] [2]

My interest in this subject is hardly significant; I was once a black baby born at 26 weeks - probably, if I was disposed of then, I would not be here making comments about this issue.

More so, a term of 26 weeks gestation was just barely viable 40 years ago, it must be a matter of good fortune that I was conceived and born in the UK, not America when the civil rights movement was on the boil or the Netherlands now where the question of viability is more clinical than empathetic. [3]

For instance, if one were to make that arrival in America where there would have been probably too few doctors to cater for the black race; someone might have considered, I might become a Martin Luther King, so extinguish him now before his first breath.

No, one cannot countenance that thought, it is evil; well, really how evil? Probably to the extent of the experiments that were conducted at the Tuskegee Institute where black men suffering from syphilis were given the impression they were being treated when in fact the activity could just have rivalled that of the Nazi Dr Mengele. [5] [6]

Hypothesis of the hypothetical

Am I dissolving into untrammelled histrionics? Watch me...

"I was putting forward a hypothetical proposition. Put that forward. Examined it. And then said about it that it's morally reprehensible. To recommend abortion of an entire group of people in order to lower your crime rate is morally reprehensible. But this is what happens when you argue that the ends can justify the means" he told CNN. [2]

If my science was taught me right, I do remember that the process of any scientific idea becoming fundamental flows from thought to hypothesis to theory and then law. Maybe, we are just halfway there.

The proposition gains more import when you realise that this commentator was once the Education Secretary during the government of the "Great Communicator" who I think was Ronald Reagan. [7] [8]

Having once been the "drug czar" one might contend without prejudice that this was some drug-induced diatribe but that would be a little far-fetched.

Inappropriate inappropriateness

Once again, I am utterly perturbed and driven to distraction by the inappropriateness of the response of the White House to such comments. [9]

After Hurricane Katrina, the question of race and deprivation loomed large in the American landscape.

Inappropriate must be a euphemism for something I still seeking knowledge of, in the hope that it is a lot stronger than the expression and far from diplomatic bullshit.

The events are just too vivid to countenance an insensitive arrangement of words and thoughts from someone of no particular significance as Pat Robertson of the "Take out Hugo Chavez fame".

I beg to differ; these commentators are part of the unacknowledged opinion elite whose commentary is pushing the "Freedom of Speech" envelope beyond the limits of acceptable discourse.

Everyone can have an opinion but all opinions should be expressed with responsibility, sensitivity and consideration - this means some opinions regardless of the freedoms we so cherish just cannot be expressed for the good of community and society. There must be a valid point somewhere in the preceding statement.

A failed Education Secretary

That said, what is most interesting is the frenzied prognostication that suggests that a black child is already labelled a criminal before he has had the opportunity to realise if his country would participate in providing opportunities that would make that prophecy a false statement worthy of grovelling contrition, penance and apology.

Without doubt, all those past years after he was Education Secretary he has declared himself an utter failure, he laid no foundations to prevent the ascendancy of that thought in the first place and would we have to wait for another few years to find out that it was really a policy in the Reagan years?

May the souls of those black babies rest in peace. Amen!

References

[1] Abort all black babies and cut crime, says Republican

[2] Bennett under fire for remarks on blacks, crime

[3] Premature birth

[4] Robertson apologizes for assassination call

[5] Tuskegee Syphilis Study

[6] Josef Mengele

[7] William Bennett

[8] Ronald Reagan – “Great Communicator”

[9] White House: Bill Bennett's Comments Inappropriate

Hypothesis

Theory

Law (disambiguation)

Abort all black babies

Abort all black babies

Hold it! Before you go for my neck with a vengeance, this is just a hypothetical proposition from a passing comment in a simple radio talk-show exchange.

"If you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose; you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." [1] [2]

My interest in this subject is hardly significant; I was once a black baby born at 26 weeks - probably, if I was disposed of then, I would not be here making comments about this issue.

More so, a term of 26 weeks gestation was just barely viable 40 years ago, it must be a matter of good fortune that I was conceived and born in the UK, not America when the civil rights movement was on the boil or the Netherlands now where the question of viability is more clinical than empathetic. [3]

For instance, if one were to make that arrival in America where there would have been probably too few doctors to cater for the black race; someone might have considered, I might become a Martin Luther King, so extinguish him now before his first breath.

No, one cannot countenance that thought, it is evil; well, really how evil? Probably to the extent of the experiments that were conducted at the Tuskegee Institute where black men suffering from syphilis were given the impression they were being treated when in fact the activity could just have rivalled that of the Nazi Dr Mengele. [5] [6]

Hypothesis of the hypothetical

Am I dissolving into untrammelled histrionics? Watch me...

"I was putting forward a hypothetical proposition. Put that forward. Examined it. And then said about it that it's morally reprehensible. To recommend abortion of an entire group of people in order to lower your crime rate is morally reprehensible. But this is what happens when you argue that the ends can justify the means" he told CNN. [2]

If my science was taught me right, I do remember that the process of any scientific idea becoming fundamental flows from thought to hypothesis to theory and then law. Maybe, we are just halfway there.

The proposition gains more import when you realise that this commentator was once the Education Secretary during the government of the "Great Communicator" who I think was Ronald Reagan. [7] [8]

Having once been the "drug czar" one might contend without prejudice that this was some drug-induced diatribe but that would be a little far-fetched.

Inappropriate inappropriateness

Once again, I am utterly perturbed and driven to distraction by the inappropriateness of the response of the White House to such comments. [9]

After Hurricane Katrina, the question of race and deprivation loomed large in the American landscape.

Inappropriate must be a euphemism for something I still seeking knowledge of, in the hope that it is a lot stronger than the expression and far from diplomatic bullshit.

The events are just too vivid to countenance an insensitive arrangement of words and thoughts from someone of no particular significance as Pat Robertson of the "Take out Hugo Chavez fame".

I beg to differ; these commentators are part of the unacknowledged opinion elite whose commentary is pushing the "Freedom of Speech" envelope beyond the limits of acceptable discourse.

Everyone can have an opinion but all opinions should be expressed with responsibility, sensitivity and consideration - this means some opinions regardless of the freedoms we so cherish just cannot be expressed for the good of community and society. There must be a valid point somewhere in the preceding statement.

A failed Education Secretary

That said, what is most interesting is the frenzied prognostication that suggests that a black child is already labelled a criminal before he has had the opportunity to realise if his country would participate in providing opportunities that would make that prophecy a false statement worthy of grovelling contrition, penance and apology.

Without doubt, all those past years after he was Education Secretary he has declared himself an utter failure, he laid no foundations to prevent the ascendancy of that thought in the first place and would we have to wait for another few years to find out that it was really a policy in the Reagan years?

May the souls of those black babies rest in peace. Amen!

References

[1] Abort all black babies and cut crime, says Republican

[2] Bennett under fire for remarks on blacks, crime

[3] Premature birth

[4] Robertson apologizes for assassination call

[5] Tuskegee Syphilis Study

[6] Josef Mengele

[7] William Bennett

[8] Ronald Reagan – “Great Communicator”

[9] White House: Bill Bennett's Comments Inappropriate

Hypothesis

Theory

Law (disambiguation)

Birthdays - A lot more people were involved

Escape the Claustrophobia

So many things make the day one was born rather unique and very interesting. Christmas came very early for one's parents but one did not spend Christmas with either of them.

As students in England then, mother had arrived to join her spouse just six and a half months before; the rest is history. One is no master of suspense, so here goes.

One was born at about 27 weeks, after a Caesarean Section, one was told. [Google, yes one did mean Caesarean Section and have never meant to search for Caesarean Section].

In 1965, 27 weeks was considered rather precarious and the borderline of viability, well one is now 38.

One's take on premature birth

• No birth is premature, especially if you are no more a foetus but a baby
• For some babies, 40 weeks is just over-indulgent [Absurd suggestions that gestation human gestation periods should be 21 months]; I will say, I was claustrophobic and wanted out
• OK, one only just fitted in one hand, but many saw the sense in making sure one realised one's intentions of living
• No further research is done on early babies once they begin to thrive
• It is possible the year-cycle of early birth babies is shorter than that of full term babies

Going on the last assumption, in full-term years, one would is 38 however on one's terms, one might really be rather sprightly 56 years and 3 months. The birthdates being a movable feast of recurring intervals.

Apart from the birth throes of mother, one was in incubation for another 2 months until February the 19th when one was allowed home.

One medical allusion to that day was when at eight the optometrist [compare with optician and ophthalmologist] in spite of the large amount of light shone in one's eyes at birth; one's sight should improve with age. One only found out about that kind of improvement 2 days ago.

One might not have been a bouncing baby boy, but one was still a bundle of joy tinged with anxiety, which prayerfully gave way to the life one has now lived.

Names

It is no surprise one's given name connotes heroism the gift of one's paternal grandpa. Eventually, one ended up with about 20 names. The Yoruba culture of Western Nigeria gives their children meaningful names based around the circumstances of birth.

The Yoruba given names supposedly have a psychological influence on the bearer; at times, certain observers have suggested people can exhibit characteristics of their names. The extensions to names are encouraging works of literary value recited by grandparents called Oriki.

On further research, it is interesting to see that quite a number of Japanese names look and sound very much like Yoruba names, considering we have no known historical or cultural links.

Aki in Japanese means autumn or Autumnal prefixes names like Akinobu, Akinori, Akiyuki and so on. There is a possibility that one possesses some the characteristics of the Turkish variant of Akin.

On a visit to Hungary a few years ago, the chauffeur from the airport had one's name card expecting to see a Japanese tourist, imagine his shock and surprise.

This presents an opportunity to thank the staff of Manor Maternity Home, Walsall [Vandalised by the Tory Health Deforms of the 1990s] and the Brooklands Hospital Marston Green, Birmingham for their hard work of love and care on that beautiful day in December 1965.

One will have a happy birthday.

The Dutch Experience

One is impelled to revisit an issue that came up earlier about stores and customer service. Having just spent nigh on €1,000 on equipment, which included the Dyson DCO8 Allergy+Carpetpro, one required the simple assistance calling a taxi and moving the goods to taxi rank.

In the typical nonchalant Dutch attitude, one was informed no such service existed and one had to do it all alone. Guess what happened when one asked for one's money back?

When one purchases to the tune of a €1,000 from a large electronics store like Media Markt, it should come with an implicit customer service and help offer; you never have to ask in the UK.

Postscript

Yoruba

Here are a number of websites pertaining to Yoruba names and culture.

Nigerian names and origins

Orisa Yoruba Names ISBN 0964424754

Learn Yoruba Names

Without Prejudice - The Manor Hospital

Rebuilt and renamed Manor Hospital as part of the first tranche of National Health Service reforms in 1991. Some of the stories are hardly what the people of Walsall were accustomed to in the 1960s.

The introduction does not include the history of a pre-existing hospital on the site.

Hospital from hell

The Guardian - The facts behind the figures that damn Walsall