Thought Picnic: Between fight and plight

In the flight of fight

I have always been ambivalent about the idea of battling cancer, especially when it is said that someone lost their battle to cancer as if they were not fighting enough to defeat the enemy that has both violated and invaded their bodies.

On completing my treatment course of radiotherapy yesterday, I received many congratulations, and this is not because I have passed a test or navigated some difficult terrain to emerge the winner of some prize, I was taking treatment that seemed harmless, but the side effects are quite unpleasant.

Thinking back to fifteen years ago when the consultant offered the prospect of just five weeks to live or thrive if I could tolerate the treatment, I learnt something about dealing with infirmity and cancer, in particular.

All contribute to it

Advances in medical science learnt by experts taught to students, and with patients in the centre of the whole situation have contributed to the body of knowledge that informs how cancer is treated. Both those who survived and those who died in the record of their experiences redound to this compendium of knowledge that is delivered as expertise when we consult with medical experts.

In my view, there are no winners or losers, no soldiers or deserters, some like me, who have been fortunate, others not as much, and that is a sad story in the human narrative. Advances in science seek to reduce the number of the less fortunate and everything we can do to eradicate all forms of cancer by prevention or treatment must have us all in that endeavour.

I take the congratulations with gratitude because they are wishing me well. Sometimes, the fight with cancer is more one of a mindset about it, rather than of some pugilistic fight to exhaustion without rules to the bout.

Just as being fortunate

The greater fighting chance we have with cancer is to have caught it early and be presented with a menu of options for treatment leading to good outcomes without too much pain, suffering, or discomfort.

Having encountered cancer twice and been given the best medical science can offer to treat it is indeed fortunate, in the Netherlands fifteen years ago and in the United Kingdom now. Our model of social medicine which is free and accessible to everyone at the point of need, is the epitome of human civilisation that could pass for a human right.

I am fortunate to be European because anywhere else would have cost a fortune to diagnose and treat cancer, some running out of money before anything effective could be done. Sometimes, we do not realise how precious health is until it is touched by infirmity, there but for the grace of God go I.

Photons on the Prostate - IV

Unhealthy and unwealthy

Visiting the hospital, I wondered if we are not a sick nation even an unhealthy one, too, contributing by choice and inaction to whatever ails us.

I suggested appointments were indicative and that's what I have experienced for my appointments this week. A late call running an hour behind schedule, and then two calls that had me treated before the scheduled time.

How it really works

My fascination with radiotherapy gained pleasure when I found a YouTube video demonstrating how the linear accelerator works. My respect for the engineering behind the linac just left me in glee.

Linear Accelerators (LINAC) | Biomedical Engineers TV

Not me being a nerd, in the nerdish pursuit of understanding the science of radiotherapy. I should not bore you with much apart from something I witnessed twice in five minutes.

At the main waiting area of the radiotherapy department, there is a clanger bell, you are asked to ring it thrice at the end of your treatment course.

Ring my bell

I have been longing for when I could ring that bell, and I am only 20% into my treatment regime. I heard the bell ring for the first time in all my visits, and everyone heartily clapped.

It was a bell of hope and expectation to us, the sound of enduring survival of the human spirit, and the herald of the beginning of the rest of the ringers' lives, free of cancer and thriving after cancer.

The gruelling treatment would eventually end and the opportunity to go out and live in the extravagant celebration of life beckons.

Why we were there

Then I heard my name; I was called into the suite, set up on the automatic gurney and ready for my fifth radiotherapy session.

I knew exactly what was happening, probably a horror tease of science fiction getting irradiated on the prostate as Chaka Khan belted out "I'm every woman," on the radio. I checked at the end, and I'm very much still a man.

Thinking about it, I have never asked for a sick note in a working life of 36 years, I might need to get one now, to fulfil all righteousness. It is at 25% now, each session adds 5% to the tally.

Tomorrow, we are doing the morning shift barely after the sun rises, much help is provided, and all support is appreciated. Shalom!

Blog - Photons on the Prostate - V

Blog - Photons on the Prostate - III

Blog - Men's things

Self-Isolation - VII

Testing for science

I was invited on Thursday for an International Entrant Test for the purposes of ascertaining if on my return from South Africa I had contacted the CoVID-19 virus and if I had, it needed genetic analysis to gain some knowledge of the strain. By law, I was supposed to self-isolated for 10 full days without the option of a privately resourced Early Release Test after 5 days of self-isolation.

Much as I can, I have endured many days of being indoors without stepping out to check my mailbox. On Thursday at 6:00 PM, I was at the nearest testing centre where I was instructed on how to swab my tonsils and far up my nostril before the sample was packaged and sent off post paste to London for analysis.

A result, a reprieve

This morning at 6:50 AM, the result was posted to me by SMS text message and by email informing me that at the time of the test, I did not have the virus. This in addition to the test I have taken in South Africa the Thursday before was proof that I had not contracted the virus at any time. My concerns heightened by travelling for almost 11 hours on a busy flight, the lounge in Paris brimming at capacity and the transit bus to the flight to Manchester packing us in like sardines.

The message also indicated I only had to self-isolate if I had symptoms, I was soon going into hospital, someone I lived with tested positive, or I had been traced as having been in contact with someone who had tested positive. Knowing that none of the aforesaid applied, I was free to exit the regulatory self-isolation requirement.

Out walking again

Spending most of the morning in bed, I eventually got on my walking gear, dressed for the cold which was barely above zero and set out on the usual walking route that takes in a few stretches of the River Irwell in the City of Salford, getting in just over 11 kilometres in just over 100 minutes, with some time for a bit of shopping.

The return to form salutes a form of normalcy with a sense of regret that I am not far away in Cape Town with Brian. I do miss him very much, but we know we would soon be together again barring any of the unfortunate circumstances of 2020. On the scales, there is some work to do, I gained some and need to lose much. When it is just walking, it indeed is working.

The science of sleep and walking

On the levels of sleep and slumber

My Honor Band 5 tracker has been a revelation of knowledge and science that I hope I will find useful as I find out to utilise the features paired with the Huawei Health app on my phone.

This morning I got a good idea of how I sleep, something I need to study more, but I seemed to have a lot of REM sleep, which explains my usually vivid dreams, just about enough light sleep and definitely not enough deep sleep. The graphical illustration of my kind of night sleep at least put paid to the idea that I am a one-hour sleeper, according to Brian.

There is still much more to learn on the science of sleep, and I cannot draw any conclusions on just one day of data. I will observe the trends and with that hopefully look for ways to improve my quality of sleep. That I was able to get just over 6 hours of sleep with waking up once overnight was quite a surprise.

Every kilometre a sign

Today, I was able to set out my workout plan, or rather document it properly, working with my band, I could chart the route with announcements every kilometre of how long it took and what my heart rate was, mostly in the aerobic and the fat-burning ranges. I was able to get in 16.52 km of walking in 3:17:40 hours and an average of 105 steps per minute for 20,941 steps.

For the day, I got in 22,348 steps and that was just before a trapped nerve signalled its presence in the groin. I did not know that sleep under 3 hours is called a nap. I need to choose a day for complete rest, and I hope I begin to see changes in weight and girth soon too. I could do with a deep sleep tonight and a lie-in for Saturday. On the whole, I am happy, I can do this.

Ease yourself out of false propaganda of safety

What a hot day

We had a sizzling sweltering day today, the heat entering every nook and corner around the house without as much as a breeze outside. Yet, there was no better way than to shave with cold water from scalp to facial hair and then go a long walk in the shade.

Out towards Castlefield again I went, another route to see something else, sit by the wharf festooned with narrowboats, people out on the grass like a good summer’s day, maybe a picnic but not barbecues, it was like nothing was on their minds that has been on our minds for about 4 months.

Can’t trust this government

The government gives us an upbeat message about easing the lockdown and that things should open up and we can go back to the way things were. The truth is the government has no idea of what the virus is doing because they are not testing enough, there is no effective track and trace, the scientists are not singing from that hymn sheet and we had better be hearing the right tune.

We must exercise the abundance of caution, be wise and instinctive, what does not need to be done does not have to be done. Whilst we should not be paranoid, we must keep informed seeking out the smarter heads a long way away from the propaganda machinery of Downing Street.

You face a Coronavirus pandemic as this, not with the hubris, bluster and bombast of Boris Johnson, the braggadocio and swagger with which his government handled this virus has left 43,000 people dead. Individuals with names, families, friends, colleagues and connections to our world of significance beyond the statistics. Keep that in mind and keep safe.

Suffocated by ultracrepidarians

The wisdom of madding crowds

Never have we needed a surfeit of expertise in these trying times, people who have not just an idea of what they are talking about, but are ready, willing and patient enough to take the time to inform and educate to the point that others begin to understand and grasp the basic knowledge of things.

It’s been difficult to navigate the deafening cacophony of those in captivity of the Dunning-Kruger effect, those who have not even conspired to dilettantism that enter the fray to pontificate and postulate as authorities in subjects where they have no schooling but are so opinionated to the point that experts are relegated to the inconsequential or forced into the feigned balance of pitching their vocations against novices. Ultracrepidarianism is rife.

Conspiring conspiracies

With the Coronavirus pandemic, the person we probably need most to shut is President Donald Trump, he needs to get out of the way and let the experts take control. He speaks like an idiot, spewing a multitude of jumbled words redolent of someone who has done nothing in a long time to improve his faculties. [Jolted by Her Own Illness, Pandemics Scholar Gains Insight into Botched COVID-19 Response - Scientific American]

Excerpted from Scientific American

Hitching a ride on the Coronavirus bandwagon, 5G technology has now branched out into a deluge of conspiracy theories promoted by every useful idiot from religious leaders through politicians to celebrities.

I cannot begin to repeat or perpetuate much of what I have read or heard, only that the ignorant and illiterate have become willing hosts of propagating the contagion of pseudo-science, fables and incredulous stupidity with property at risk of destruction and possible loss of life and livelihood. They have become the personification of a virus. [The Coronavirus Collection: Conspiracy Theories – Snopes] [5G Conspiracy – Snopes]

The church online

I guess the only respite I had was in the celebration of Palm Sunday, we have reached the end of Lenten season and entered the Holy Week. Quite inauspiciously, we have now completed 2 weeks of the intended 3-week lockdown to expire on Easter Monday. There is a likelihood it would be extended. [Palm Sunday - Wikipedia]

The etymology of quarantine is Venetian of the 14^th to 15^th Century spoken in the northeast of present-day Italy, quarantena meaning 40 days anglicised to quarantine of which the Lenten period is also 40 days. [Quarantine – Wikipedia]

Yet, what a relief it was that I would able to attend the online Palm Sunday eucharistic season of the Manchester Cathedral, streamed life on Facebook from the homes of the clergy presided over by the Dean of the cathedral. There is a daily morning (09:00) and evening (16:30) prayer service streamed live too. [Manchester Cathedral – Facebook]

Experts of mercy

In a week suffused with the excess of illusory superiority, hubris, and cognitive dissonance almost presenting as schizophrenia, here were people not given to the eschatological incomprehensibility of those of another creed, but with humility, patience, service and love for their congregation led us in worship, adoration, and celebration of the day.

Was I glad to see so many clerical collars? We must be thankful for small mercies. In other news, I joined the Labour Party on the 19^th of January, the day before the close of eligibility to elect a new leader. That contest is over, and Sir Keir Starmer was elected, my choice for deputy leader came second. It is my hope that the Labour Party that I have voted for since 1992 now has the opportunity of becoming a party of government after 4 straight electoral losses. I wish Sir Keir, every success. [BBC News]

Opinion: Where addiction and tragedy can confuse issues

It is a sad story

I just read an article posted on LinkedIn titled, Opioids, My Mom's Death, and Why People Trust Science Less and the human side of the story is very sad, however, the additional narrative is opinion, conjecture, suspect and unfortunate.

There is a conflation of issues along with unresolved conflicts that need to be separated before this article tagged as an Editor’s Pick, Healthcare and Pharmaceutical are taken in without questioning or review.

Separate the issues

Walking back the issues, there is grief at a mother’s death, addiction to pain-killers that came as a result of prophylaxis for osteoporosis, estrangement, and then the machinations of the pharmaceutical industrial complex, known as Big-Pharma.

There is no doubt that Big-Pharma, Big-Tobacco, Big-Oil, Big-Manufacturing, Big-Agriculture and Big-Anything have a lot to answer for about their products and the effects of the production and use of those products on people, on the environment, and everything that makes for the wellbeing of our common humanity, but that is addressing the symptom.

The fundamentals would always be down to the individual, their personality and their experiences in how persuadable they are and this is not to castigate the strength of character of anyone, but missing that point would allow for drawing the wrong conclusions.

Scientific advancement has done wonders

For instance, it is thanks to the contributions of scientific research and medicine that I am alive today, having at one time been at death’s door with a prognosis of 5 weeks to live if my physiology could not tolerate and respond to the regimen of therapy I was being prescribed.

At the lowest point, I was in such unbearable pain that if not for the need to monitor my vitals, I would have been anaesthetised to manage the stress of it. Before I was admitted to the hospital, I was on Tramadol, then on the day I was admitted, I was given a morphine skin patch that had to be taken off after two days because I could not keep my food down and from then on, I was put on Oxycontin and Paracetamol with Codeine.

Whilst it appeared to manage the pain, when a deep biopsy was done on the fungating tumours under the sole of my left foot, 7 shots of local anaesthetic did very little to deaden to the pain. I simply bit on a think piece of a folded napkin as they prodded the anger in my foot.

Managing pain alone

On leaving the hospital, I was prescribed a list of pain and nausea management drugs that I was concerned about the cumulative soporific effects of the drugs. In addition to the earlier prescribed drugs, I was given a Fentanyl patch and that dosage was doubled when I reported that I was still in very much pain. That was when the equilibrium for my pain management was reached, I was not as pre-occupied with the pain as I took in 7 sessions of chemotherapy and the cancer lesions healed.

Whilst the lesions had gone and all the necrotised skin had been removed to reveal fresh skin, I was still in pain into the 4^th month of my diagnosis, then the pain began to subside. One Sunday, the patch fell off my skin, I did not know until then that a patch retainer film could be worn to keep the patch in place. Until the effects of the new patch kicked in, I was in such pain I began to laugh almost into delirium, but that produced endorphins to ease the pain. My friend thought I was going crazy, but I knew what I was doing.

Coming off pain killers

The pain of cancer is in another realm, it cannot be explained, the therapy for chronic pain has addictive qualities too. When the pain had gone, I could not just take off the patch, I had to wean myself off it, this is where the mind and the will come to play. Addiction has much of its roots in the psyche first than in its palliative effects. The palliative which is in itself a kind of comfort has to be consciously managed.

In my case, it took another 2 months to come completely off the patch and other pain medication. With the patch, I cut it in half and left it on for longer, each patch dosage halved and left on for much longer until my body could do without the drug.

Then, we all have innate tendencies to addiction and some people might be able to avoid addiction. There was another instance where a change in drug regimen meant I could not sleep, the first suggestion was to put me on sleeping medication, however, I thought of working a plan to take my pills at a certain time and avoid completely drug-induced sleep. I could see the dangers of becoming dependent on sleeping pills.

Addiction is first personal

Going back to the purpose of writing this blog, addiction has social, emotional, economic, relationship and physical consequences. In my view, addiction is not just to drugs or the abuse of drugs, alcohol, it could be sex, it could be religion or any other activity. The person and people around that person suffer, and that is very sad.

Regardless of what brought on the addiction, it is always first a personal struggle, what other factors contribute to it does not take away from how the person might have succumbed to addiction. Whether we fail to be better informed of the debilitating side-effects of a drug does not take away from the balance between efficacy and damage.

Apportion rightly

The science would suggest a drug can do something, most drugs have to recoup research and development costs and it unfortunate that some people put the profit motive well and above the welfare of patients and customers – that is commerce, we cannot avoid it.

It is, however, a long stretch to conflate personal tragedy, addiction, the science and the commerce into one clickable title of Opioids, My Mom's Death, and Why People Trust Science Less and draw the conclusions in the piece without properly assuming personal responsibility on the one hand and understanding that every individual has a unique physiology that adapts to medication in different ways which could influence the mind too.

I recall my doctor saying they could treat my condition but it depended on my physiology to tolerate the medical regimen. I lost a friend to a similar condition because his physiology did not have the capacity to tolerate the regimen of chemotherapy.

The responsibility of addiction remains a personal thing, the responsibility for being properly informed lies within the person, their medical support, the pharmaceutical companies and the science that balances efficacy with possible side-effects, with the hope that efficacy outweighs side-effects.

I am sorry, the writer lost his mother to addiction, but if we are to trust science less because of the conflicts of interest between treatment and commerce, we would all die sooner in more misery and pain with respite or comfort. That is why these issues need to be treated completely separately even if they are linked in a personal tragedy.

Thought Picnic: #HiddenFigures - Telling uplifting stories

Telling the untold stories

We all have stories, some so ordinary within which are some even quite extraordinary but never gets told. Sometimes, we get to tell our own stories or others honour us with the gift of telling our stories in words better than we can find to tell them.

Watching Hidden Figures at a late night cinema visit yesterday, I got to learn of remarkable women whose contribution to the advancement of space research and science could have been lost, the recognition of which might have been late for those who have already passed on, but there remains one with whom to celebrate.

The lives of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson and Katherine Goble Johnson would have much resonance with everyone in its uplifting message and achievement.

Give them a foundation

Without making this into a review of the film, there are many strains that one could relate to or take away from the story being told. The fact that in the time of seriously anti-black Jim Crow laws and segregation, parents chose to send their smart female children to school all the way through university to obtain mathematics and engineering degree without them being held back by the need to fulfil traditional role is at least visionary.

In the face of these limitations, the authorities began to realise that the talent pool of Americans extended well beyond the dominant white ruling class and over time created environments for African-Americans to deploy their expertise to the advancement of research, science and technology of their country was the other story that was not as widely reported as the civil rights movement.

Invariably, we cannot all be activists, some have to join the protests and others in their own little way by what they know and what they do are busily pulling down walls and breaking through ceilings out of the recognition of the talents they have that cannot be denied.

When opportunity came

These African-American ladies with mathematics degrees teaching in racially segregated schools from the 1940s gained employment at a number of agencies that predated and morphed into NASA. At the West Area Computers, an all-African-American group of female mathematicians, Dorothy Vaughan became supervisor and with the advent of electronic computers ready to replaced them in their jobs, Dorothy Vaughan pre-empted obsolescence by teaching herself and her staff how to program in FORTRAN and took her team to become the operators of the new IBM computer acquired by NASA. [Dorothy Vaughan – NASA]

This to me was a classic case of someone refused to resign to the onslaught of the machine, but having the foresight to retrain and reskill to take advantage of changes in technology and opportunities.

Mary Jackson went from being a mathematician to being an aeronautical engineer, discovered early for her aptitude, she was co-opted to work with Kazimierz Czarnecki on wind tunnel dynamics and analysis, important for the design of space-going vehicles. To gain an engineering qualification she took her case to court and in a one-on-one conversation with the judge at the bench she made a discussion of firsts to earn the opportunity to attend evening classes and in 1958 became NASA’s first black female engineer. [Mary Jackson – NASA]

When recognition came

Katherine Goble Johnson would have been the main focus of Hidden Figures, but she was not only going to take the glory for herself and ensured that recognition was made of other trailblazers like her who were instrumental to the Americans eventually winning the space race.

She was known as the “Human Computer” whose computational analysis of celestial navigation was of the standard that for the first manned flight into space by John Glenn, he asked for her by name to go over the computer calculations and verify them before taking the flight. He placed his confidence and ultimately the anticipated success of the mission in her.

She suffered bereavement early in her career, with her first husband dying from a brain tumour and leaving her to raise three children. She faced discrimination and belittlement from race and gender perspectives which through the sheer force of both her personality and ability she overcame to the point that she could only be revered and respected.

In recognition of her pioneering work and 33 years of service at the Langley Research Centre, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 from President Barack Obama at the age of 97 and in 2016 the NASA new computer research laboratory was named Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility.

The little events that presage great change

In the film, that lack of coloured toilet facilities in the block where she worked meant she had to take 40-minute toilet breaks to use the segregated toilet over half-a-mile away, the realisation of this situation led to the complete desegregation of the NASA facilities. It became evident that the customs of barring coloureds and women from certain crucial meetings to do with the space race was untenable if progress was to be made. [Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson – NASA]

Margot Lee Shetterly, wrote the book, Hidden Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race (2016), whilst she was writing the book, she secured rights for making the book into a film and the film was released just a few months after the book was published to rave reviews.

Like I wrote at the beginning of this blog, these are stories that need to be told about ability, opportunity, life, challenges, successes, recognition and posterity. Telling these stories show us that in the face of great opposition in the social, cultural and traditional space, there is amazing human ingenuity to rise above all obstacles and thrive.

It takes the preparation of the individual through experience, education and belief to seize the opportunity when it comes, great self-esteem when contemned and the support of the certain powerful individuals to bring about lasting change. When those elements connect, history is made.

Hidden Figures is history that needs to be heralded everywhere and I am glad for the opportunity to witness this uplifting tale of triumph amid what for many is the impossible.

Nigeria: Let us include the rite of the autopsy in the burying of the dead

Speculation was rife

The apparently sudden death of Prince Abubakar Audu who was more or less on the cusp of a gubernatorial victory has elicited much commentary on social media.

When the news of his death as we were awaiting the announcement of the electoral results first emerged, I was persuaded to overlook the breaking news and curb my curiosity for the frenzy to dissipate enough for the facts and the truth to emerge.

The only truth that has emerged from this tragic tale is that he is deceased and has been interred according to Islamic rites, everything else with regards to manner of death, cause of death and other extenuating factors has been a matter of accusation, supposition, speculation, conjecture, suggestion, rumour, innuendo and fable. This list is hardly exhaustive.

Nothing really was known

I cannot attribute anything, but in all the reports I have read, there has been mention of cardiac arrest, stroke, poisoning, paranormal activity, voodoo and all sorts of silliness. None of this helps the matter at all.

For all the enlightenment we have acquired, we tend to heighten our superstitious predilections at times of birth, at marriages and at death, even if our general lives are hardly lived in any recognised adherence to faith or religion and the tenets the books require us to espouse to be model examples of our belief systems to our common humanity.

Now, I have no medical training, but the most recent pictures of the man depicted an unhealthy pallor, very much like that of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua when he ailed with nephrological complications that led to his demise.

Besides looking overweight and other deleterious conditions that might evolve from that, it is very likely that there is a clear-cut medical condition that resulted in the man’s death.

Bound to ages gone

Yet, as we live in the 21^st Century, our lives and livelihoods are majorly trumped by belief systems, traditions and cultures that have not evolved for many quincentenaries, that we fail to benefit from the knowledge, logic, reason and developments that have brought humanity to the amazing modernity and comforts of the present times.

One such area we fail to deploy at death is medical examination and autopsies, the advances in modern medicine can in most cases determine the cause of death, not only to put beyond doubt the rife speculations that surround a sudden death, but such knowledge in either a minor or major way can also help the living.

Knowledge from deaths

In cases of cancer, it might cause survivors to check if they might be susceptible to the same  type of cancer especially if there is a genetic predisposition to it. It might aid medical science in know what to look for if anyone presents symptoms that might lead to complications. This is a valuable knowledge that goes beyond the individual and the present tragedy to the greater good of humanity.

Part of what has given medicine the tools to treat many ailments has come from the study of the dead and much as it has from observation of the living. It is sad that one only has to leaf through the pages of a Nigerian newspaper to read obituaries of many of died of a brief illness. The brief illness is a catch-all term that covers everything from a fatal asthma attack, through epileptic fits to cancer discovered so late that nothing could be done beyond providing palliative hospice care.

Bringing reason to belief

Whilst there is nothing wrong with being religious, we allow religiosity to becloud both judgement and reason. In the absence of a modicum of reasonableness compounded by grief and loss, we accentuate a fanatical tendency to fatalism, providence and destiny allowing the burning questions to remain unanswered in submission to the primordial where ignorance becomes the cradle of bliss and succour.

Whether, there is a soul or not, once the force that animates and enlivens the body is gone, we have just a body in the process of decay and disintegration. We must respect the memory of the person departed and treat the body of the said departed with dignity, but there is no rule created in anticipation of the modern times that prevents gaining knowledge from an autopsy.

The rite of the autopsy

In times past, there were probably no means of preserving the dead, the Egyptians of old used mummification and embalmment for their pharaohs, other cultures found burial, cremation or some other means of disposing of their dead. Yet, we attach ourselves to age-old customs at our convenience when at other times we desperately avail ourselves of the benefits of medical science.

We need to rethink this clash of options and the time has come to include the autopsy in the burial rites and have civil law demand that where cause of death is inconclusive or death is sudden, internment will not proceed before medical examination, else the body will be exhumed for final determination.

Nigeria: Advice to the Second Nigerian Astronaut

Rattling the wrong cages

I have been amused by the news of Nigeria planning to put the first man in space in 2015 with the help of the British government.

As it transpired the village-rag right-wing tabloid press represented by the Daily Wail, or rather the Daily Mail has jumbled truth with raw sentiment to beat up both the British Coalition Government and corrupt Nigerians with the idea that development aid fuels the lavish lifestyles of the unaudited sources of wealth of Nigerians who have bought up pricey real estate in London and around the globe jetting around on their private aeroplanes.

The Guardian also addressed the matter of UK immigration policy as it affects innocent Nigerians compared to corrupt but rich Nigerians who have access to all areas where money can talk in the United Kingdom before the writer lost the plot – it is becoming too hard to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Choosing the right person

Others have addressed the errors of those flagrantly false opinions that have allowed sensationalism to get in the way of decent informative journalism. Hey! They need the circulation figures and the advertisement revenue.

In any case, I wonder if the first Nigerian to enjoy the selection for space travel is gender neutral, there is no reason why the first person of Nigerian birth and probably training should not be a female scientist who could be as equal in ability, knowledge, prowess and opportunity as any other male – a first Nigerian can be either and it does not have to be a man.

However, as we debate amongst ourselves about who should be the first to be launched into space and that programme should begin soon if we are to make that 2015 date, I have it on good authority that Nigerian talent has reached out to global knowledge that one of us has already been to space many decades before.

Our first astronaut

In fact, he has been twice, first in 1979 on a secret Soviet mission and then in 1989 on a second mission before the Soviet Union disintegrated and this led to drastic cuts in the Russian space programme. [Nigerian Astronaut – Lost in space]

Nigerian Astronaut, Air Force Major Abacha Tunde is apparently the first Nigerian to go into orbit and unfortunately, since 1989 he remains in orbit and the only reason why we know about him is because his cousin, Dr. Bakare Tunde has been soliciting the help of foreigners to filch away the emoluments and entitlements of his marooned cousin drifting around the earth, still alive and well in orbital distress.

Setting things right

In this age of whistle-blowers, who would have thought that the supposed first Nigerian to be sent to space is in fact the second Nigerian? And we have not had the heart all this while to retrieve our dear heroic countryman from space.

It begs the question whether the next person to be sent into space will not be abandoned there too like Major Abacha Tunde.

My advice to the next Nigerian astronaut is to set up a trust that properly bequeaths all entitlements and insurance pay-outs if required to the beneficiaries they intend so no rotten heartless cousin has the temerity to corruptly enrich themselves at their expense.

More importantly, we must as a matter of urgency bring Major Abacha Tunde back home, dead or alive, and accord him full national honours for doing our great Nigeria proud.

Review: Wole Soyinka on The Sexual Minority and Legislative Zealotry

The Nobel Laureate

Now, Professor Wole Soyinka is not really the easiest literary genius to read even though I did have some of his texts in my secondary school curriculum.

He has for a long time been a prolific intellectual who has spoken and written about oppression, misgovernment, corruption and the lack of accountability in leadership in Nigeria.

At 78, the man has not diminished in his critique of events and ideas whilst still retaining a considered voice of reason and deep analysis of issues especially in Nigeria.

26 years after being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, I still find his writings difficult to access but full of meaning and objective discourse.

Consenting adults, the crux

This time the professor sketched his piece on the matter of homosexuality in Nigeria with an article titled – The Sexual Minority and Legislative Zealotry.

Wole Soyinka lays the groundwork for his thinking by stating that the legislation on sexual conduct between consenting adults is interference.

Then he posits that whilst foreign commentary on the activities of the Nigerian legislature in this regard is hysterical, hypocritical and disproportionate that foreign criticism should not deflect from the fact that as rational beings and particularly rational Nigerians this issue should primarily be about “the right to private choices of the free, adult citizen in any land.”

He suggests that the legislative fervour that has accompanied this matter is a distractive ploy to obscure actions of the government when out of their depth because of the economic crises or to inject unpopular policies that might catch the public unawares.

Conflated issues

Taking no prisoners, he addressed the legislators to attend to the numerous and urgent businesses for which they were elected and take their noses out of sexual practices of consenting adults whilst warning that the said bill is redolent of legislative fascism which has no place in a democracy.

The bill in his view conflates two separate issues, the first being homosexual practice and the other being same-sex marriage, something he considers deliberate.

Throughout the article, it appears the professor is stridently against the encroachment of the law on the private practices and choices of consenting adults whilst acknowledging that the law does protect minors from abuse and adults from harassment.

Biology trumps faith

Attempting a broad definition of sexuality, he pitches tent in the nature rather than nurture camp of sexual preference by suggesting some people are born with an imprecise gender definition even if the said people do have sexual organs that suggest they are either male or female.

This is probably one of the more archaic arguments for sexuality definition but it is in a language that the more sententious of Nigerians might understand.

Tackling the morality views that are used to promote support for such legislation, having averred the issue of biological truth he is categorical in saying articles of faith are no substitute for scientific truths.

Democracy or theocracy

The democracy we have in Nigeria is being tested, in that we must “choose either to create a society that is based on secular principles, or else surrender ourselves to the authority of – no matter whose – theocratic claims.”

A theocracy should go the whole hog with all beliefs and doctrines adopted and enforced regardless of whether the other person is of similar or different faiths, the idea that where scriptures agree is compulsory and where they do not is optional is a recipe for chaos.

“The national train must run either on secular rails or derail at multiple theocratic switches. No theology can be privileged over another in the running of society.  This means, theology and its derivates cannot be privileged over material reality and its derivatives.”

A law against nothing

On the issue of same-sex marriage, the professor says there is no evidence of anyone attempting to legally enter in such contracts requiring the state to honour such liaisons at a court registry nor has any religious organisation or the clergy been compelled to perform such a ceremony.

People have of their own free will the right to privately ostracise or embrace such relationships but the state overreaches itself in attempting to criminalise such liaisons.

Moralists are advised to have a sense of proportion and embrace objectivity, that being the preponderance of biological fact over moral sentiment, avoiding the tendency to incite to mass hysteria and manipulation.

The debate

This is in my view that first time a highly respected and globally renowned Nigerian figure has addressed the matter of homosexuality and same-sex marriage with an open mind, if not objectively.

The issue is one of rights, it is about sexual conduct between consenting adults, that our democracy should be superior to the tendency to be swayed by disparate belief systems that do not essential agree on all elements of doctrine to be adopted as a constitutional reference point, that the state should not interfere and that our legislators should get on with the job they were elected to perform.

Nigerians are asked to be more objective, less moralistic, adopt empirical evidence of science over sentiment and even if they have private animus, it remain their prerogative but to support the legislation of moral laws will have more far-reaching consequences beyond the supposed targets to be used as instruments of persecution, blackmail or even worse, present a licence for jungle justice and mob lynching.

The debate is beginning and the reality cannot be obfuscated with legislative distractions; there are homosexuals in Nigeria and no legislation will exterminate one of the many enduring representations of humanity.

Please read the article in its entirety, there is much sense in The Sexual Minority and Legislative Zealotry.

Thank you.

The Cerebral Nature of Sexual Orientation

Preamble: Unusually in this blog I have directly linked to my references within the text rather than provide separate source material. The rights of the publishers of the information reference are fully acknowledged and respected.

Sexuality and Beliefs

The matter of sexuality and sexual orientation causes all sorts of discourse from intelligent and understanding to prejudiced and bigoted.

Different religions find all sorts of political advantage in being able to trot out some verse, creed, rule, law or doctrine that galvanises their supposedly just and holy right to castigate and condemn, effectively excluding others from their following.

It is interesting however to see how advances in knowledge, science and medicine have remedied heretofore abominable and somewhat incurable conditions which called for separation, ostracism or even judgement by reason of the fact that those things were not understood to any objective detail at those times.

Knowledge debunking fallacies

The clash of the ancient and modern still persists as ancient morals are used to constrain modern thinking even as science helps explain in quantifiable, qualitative and empirical research, those things that the ancients killed outliers for and just a few centuries ago religious leaders excommunicated thinkers for logically challenging the basis of long-held beliefs bordering on fallacy that engendered the preponderance of corrupt ruling classes.

Anengiyefa on his Things I feel strong about blog references one such study, following the links and references gets us to an article in Medical News Today titled Homo Or Hetero? The Neurobiological Dimension Of Sexual Orientation.

Dr. Jerome Goldstein at 21st Meeting of the European Neurological Society (ENS) in Lisbon states, “Sexual orientation is not a matter of choice, it is primarily neurobiological at birth, there are undeniable links. We want to make them visible to the eye.”

Difference in the brains

He goes on to say, “Using volumetric studies, there have been findings of significant cerebral amygdala size differences between homosexual and heterosexual subjects. Sex dimorphic connections were found among homosexual participants in these studies.”

The last paragraph is almost inscrutable but it suggests that the parts of the brain have a primary role in the processing and memory of emotional reactions.

From a medical perspective Dr. Goldstein refers to a 2008 work of Dr. Ivanka Savic-Berglund and Dr. Per Lindström of the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden where using MRI and PET scans they found differences in cerebral asymmetry and functional connectivity between homo- and heterosexual subjects. [Abstract][Full PDF]

It is nature not nurture

However, science has an uphill task against religion and preconceptions where many believe sexual orientation is determined by nurture and not by nature, but then there was a time when the earth was considered flat until someone dared to circumnavigate the world.

Interestingly, these kinds of studies of neurological differences go back as far as 1992 in one titled, Sexual orientation and the size of the anterior commissure in the human brain [Full PDF] where the findings suggested The midsagittal plane (a vertical plane through the midline of the body; divides the body into right and left halves) of the anterior commissure (a bundle of nerve fibres – white matter; connecting the two cerebral hemispheres across the midline, and placed in front of the columns of the fornix) in homosexual men was 18% larger than in heterosexual women and 34% larger than in heterosexual men.

Religious cranial surgery?

Considering these significant differences it becomes rather interesting when aversion therapies and ex-gay movements are portending to change the structure of the brain as science now makes evident such that their stated intent is to change homosexuals into heterosexuals on the premise that homosexuals have made a lifestyle choice is false, atrocious and mendacious at best.

I’ll rather trust a neurosurgeon with a scalpel to my head than have some religionist attempt to surgically rearrange my white and grey matter through suspect methods completely ignorant and oblivious of the physical structure and workings of the brain. We might well call in the brain whisperer.

Neuroscience or difficult conformity

Unfortunately, societal mores buttressed by fundamentalist religious attitudes fuels homophobic propaganda and whilst it is probably easier in certain societies to naturally espouse your sexuality and identity, it remains troublesome in other seemingly conservative and impressionably strident societies that people will rather conform to a double-life of public heterosexuality and secret satisfaction of the natural homosexual trait.

Dr. Goldstein concludes, “Neuroscience has much to offer in the area of understanding the origins of all variations of sexual orientation. The neurobiology of sexual orientation and the gay brain, matched with other hormonal, genetic, and structural studies, has far-reaching consequences beyond sexual orientation.”

Milking udder nonsense from cows with names

Roaming free with eggs

There isn’t a moment of indecision when one walks down the supermarket aisle looking for eggs and taking the free range variety.

Obviously, free range could be taken to mean the eggs would not sit in the egg-box when opened, but presumably we have been cajoled into thinking the eggs were laid by hens that roam free rather than those in battery cages.

Giving a cow a name

What would surprise me after recent studies is to find that my choices of milk have moved from the basic whole, semi-skimmed or skimmed to some more bizarre description like this was milked from cows with names [1].

Apparently, beyond the context of the holy cow, sme dairy cows have developed a personal relationship with their owners that they have been given names allowing them to produce more milk than would nameless bastard cows.

Cowed by silly names

Typically, the cow is given a name like Daisy in the UK, or Clara with a number in the Netherlands,they might even get names Milka, Crema or Skima to play on the context of names. But then, just imagine people who share their names with cows being called cow for the sake of being unfunny.

However, if a dairy farm has to name its cows, would the cows than have to take on surnames and would surnames denote ownership as was the case with human slaves rather than kinship depicting the brood of the bovine matriarch or the farm bull?

Stressing out on a name

And just as double-barrelled names depict illegitimate liaisons long forgotten what additional stress can be placed on a cow that realises that its name is borne of bad provenance rather than the consummate love of its owner and its healthy progeny?

Would it then be a stretch that named bulls would produce better beef or would the realisation that name-calling is healthy preparation for the abattoir be a weight loss regime on the part of the bull?

For instance, the sheep called Woollies might produce more wool and the crocodile called Snappy might produce more skin – Errr!

Udder nonsense

It goes without saying that there is a lot of useless science expended in stupid discoveries because I would not be surprised if commercial diary farms implement sound systems that whisper sweet nothings to the cows just for the sake of the milk.

At least, one can hope that those in China would call the cow Chin-Milk and completely kill that despicable act of adding melamine to milk to boost its protein content.

I could just hear someone say this is udder nonsense when in fact it is udderly true.

Source

[1] Cows with names produce more milk, scientists say - Telegraph