I’d been so busy the week before Beirut that I’d quite forgotten to book anywhere to stay.  A couple of days before I was due to leave, I fired off a quick email to the marathon organising team to see if it was still possible to get a place in the official marathon hotel.   Quick as a flash, the reply comes to say they’d be able to sort something out, and they’d send someone to meet me at the airport.

I wasn’t entirely convinced, and was pretty much expecting to have to sort somewhere out when I arrived.

Customs and immigration were a  breeze. They’re more interested in searching your passport for an Israeli stamp than anything else. I get the impression one could walk through customs with a haul of AK47s just as long as your passport is clean

To my surprise there’s a friendly guy from the Marathon Association holding a card with my name on it.

He’s also waiting for a Zimbabwean guy coming off the same London flight who’s doing the handcycle marathon.  His kit looks pretty advanced. He says his personal best is something like 1h06. I’m no expert in the handcycle race, but that seems pretty fast (only later do I see him on the podium taking second place)

The flight arrived the wrong side of midnight. Yet it was still warm, but pouring with rain. Outside, with the chaotic traffic and honking of horns, the place had an almost tropical feel. The route into town takes us over flooded dual carriageways.  And there were more hills than I was expecting.  In the dark and driving rain, it feels a little like arriving into Hong Kong late at night.

Beirut by night initially strikes me as a mix of provincial Turkish city, with a bit of Bangkok, and a little Hong Kong thrown in for good measure. Despite the late hour, the city is still buzzing.

When I check in to the hotel, the desk clerk excitedly tells me he’s running too.  He looks like he’ll be fast.

The Le Commodore hotel has a faded old world charm about it. The staff are quite incompetent but the sympathetically restored bar and dated, but solid feeling rooms make this a change from flash-in-the-pan “design” hotels that are springing up everywhere.

The Commodore was the place where Western journalists hunkered down and made their home during the civil war. Now it hosts press conferences for the Beirut Marathon Association.  That seems a fitting tribute to how far Lebanon has come since the war.

Now that the Commodore is the official marathon hotel, it’s full with an eclectic mix of international athletes, and me.   A lot of wheelchair and handcycle racers are staying at the hotel. Their kit fills the lobby and corridors.  Then there are runners from Ethiopia, Kenya and Iraq, all wearing national colours.

If the Le Commodore is one of Beirut’s iconic hotels, the other is perhaps the Holiday Inn.  Finished shortly before the war, its prominent location and elevation quickly made it a perfect hideout for snipers. Consequently the hotel building attracted huge return firepower, blasting and pot marking the concrete. It remains derelict in its bullet-ridden state.  Even so it’s still significantly nicer than some Holiday Inns I’ve stayed in before.   Maybe those snipers had nothing to do with the civil war, I thought, perhaps they were just tourists driven to take up arms by the Holiday Inn’s lurid colour scheme and poor room service.

The remains of the Holiday Inn stand right next to the recently renovated InterContinetial Phoenicia, which was itself blown to bits in 2005 by the bomb that killed former Prime Minister Rafik Harri.  Hotels in Beirut have had a tough time.  Most of the larger properties are now surrounded some of the most pointless security I’ve ever seen  (and folks, I’ve dealt with the jobsworth security guys at Manchester Airport).  Concrete blocks keep cars at bay until they’ve been “screened” for explosives.

As best I can tell, this involves a hapless security guard walking around the car with a metal aerial attached to a bit of plastic. If you’ve paid attention during airport screening you’ll know that a mass spectrometer, or trained sniffer dogs, are the only way of detecting explosives.  Yet these guards are using the equivalent of divining sticks and homeothopathy for protection.  It’s worse than useless.  It makes me pleased I’m staying somewhere a bit lower key.

The other big hotel news in Beirut is the opening of the new Four Seasons Hotel on the Corniche – it opens in January 2010. Without the concrete blocks it looks like a particularly vulnerable target.  If the troubles break out again, it’s certainly somewhere to avoid staying.

I spend the few days before the race exploring some of the more interesting parts of the city.  The ruins of downtown have been revived in a Dubai-esque shopping mall.  Around the Place d’Etoile the gorgeous stone buildings have been tastefully restored and look resplendent in the evening sun, but the shops are all bland luxury chain stores. Wherever I go I find the prevalence of H&M and Zara deeply depressing.  I’m drawn to the backstreets of Gemmayzeh, Ashrafieh and Hamra, poking around down small alleyways and side streets.  Two full days hoofing it around town are probably not the best way to prepare for a race, but my desire to explore trumps my desire for a decent time.

On Saturday evening there’s another torrential downpour that reminds me of the best the tropics can deliver. Thunder and lightening pound the hills surrounding the city.

I wake about 4:45 on Sunday and can hear the first call to prayer echoing from a nearby mosque.   Cosy in my bed, my prayer is that it’s not raining.

Runners start gathering in the hotel lobby about 5:15. A few rickety minibuses have been rounded up to take us to the start, a little way out of town.  I end up on a bus with the some of the elite Ethiopian athletes.  There’s no better way to make yourself feel slothful and frumpy than to share a small bus with top-flight marathon runners.

It’s a relatively small field – 545 registered for the full 42km.  There are more “men with guns” than I’ve seen at any other marathon start. I later find out that a good portion of the runners are UNIFIL – United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon – troops.

The marathon starts late.  We run through a real mix of areas. The route first takes us south though the outskirts of Dahieh, one of the pro-Hezbollah shia suburbs.

This is pretty noticeable because all the lampposts have rather dodgy looking photos of “martyred” soldiers on them. Like the rest of the city, soldiers stand on each street corner, but out here they look more humourless. In fact they just look wet and cold. The housing stock is pretty grim too.  It’s a real contrast to Ashrafieh. It doesn’t look like a fun place to live.

It’s cold, wet and everything gets covered in mud from all the building work.  Maybe it looks better in the sun but it’s not an area I’d particularly like to walk through alone.  Keep running, I think to myself, keep running.

Perhaps it’s just the contrast with the runners, but the solders who stand idly around didn’t look particularly athletic, and the tanks look considerably less able than the Hummers parked around the flash hotels in downtown. I briefly wonder about mounting my own coup. I could take these soldiers, me and a few runners….

The support crowds are thin, more morose soldiers than anyone else. There are a few kids about, hanging off balconies and whooping, and they give a good response when you wave back. And rather more Red Cross personnel than would seem strictly necessary for such a small field.

In a couple of places the scouts were out in force – or maybe they were just rookie soldiers – and a noticeable number of very welcome German supporters, complete with flags and balloons.

After about 15 minutes, the heavens open and it starts to rain, and rain, and rain.   The uneven road quickly fills with muddy puddles and my shoes become waterlogged.

After leaving some of the Shia areas, the route gets less interesting, particularly from about halfway when the course heads north out of the city. The route follows along the side of a busy six-lane road, though an oil refinery and several building sites.  And still it rains.  Some of the organisers ride quad bikes and keep buzzing past the runners. The quad bikes belch out a noxious choking mix of exhaust fumes.  By this stage the runners are moderately spread out, but I find two French guys going about my pace, and manage to use them as a bit of shelter from the wind and rain.

On the return into town around 36km, we cross into the central reservation of a busy road, much to the annoyance of a long line of traffic that’s built up.  I pass a couple of wheelchair racers who seem to be having difficulty with the uneven surface.   To say it’s unpleasant running with lanes of cars on either side of you would be an understatement.  These cars are not sleek catalytic-converter-fitted machines, they’re old, smog-belching wrecks.  I could taste the smoke at the back of my throat.  This is quite different from my last race through the pure Alpine air, I remember thinking.

My ability to do any maths in my head always start fade as I get tired towards the end of a long run. At one point though I start to think I’m on for a personal best, until I realise that my watch is actually on dual time and showing the time in Brussels rather than Beirut.  It requires counting on my fingers to work out my timing. I’m not going to get personal best, or a degree in mental arithmetic.

I didn’t exactly hit the wall but did fade a bit over the last few kilometres. About 500 metres from the finish I was passed by a woman putting on a particularly strong finish, whom I later discover is the British Ambassador the Lebanon. And I though Her Majesty’s Ambassadors were all elderly, overweight men.  How the Foreign Office is changing!

I receive my medal, have my chip removed, and take shelter under one of those foil blankets.

It takes me a few minutes to realise that I’ve no idea of my finishing time.  With the help of my fingers again, I work out that it’s something like 3 hours 37 minutes - a good 11 minutes slower than my best time.

I tracked down my kit bag, which much to my surprise hadn’t gone missing, and once I’d changed into some warm clothes, I  felt much better.

I walk back slowly through town to the Commodore, watching the 10km race as I go.  The 10km is more of a carnival than a run but it does have impressive participation.  The full marathon, and the associated 10km and 5km fun runs, takeover and involve the whole town.  With somewhere over 30,000 participants for all the races, it’s an event that brings together the city.

With participants from all of Beirut’s mixed backgrounds, and runners from countries in a far worse state then Lebanon, this is one run that really unites a once divided city.

Wilma made a memorable cameo in my short film APE which screened at the Baltimore Museum of Art on December 4th and 11th. It was a loose interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe’s Murders in the Rue Morgue.

Now that I’ve turned on the cameras again after over 15 years, I’m excited to start making more movies with Wilma!

APE film still

APE film still

APE film still

ME!!! After weeks of my friends, family and fans voting for me and promoting myself and grinding extremely hard for the last year, I won the Boston Music Award for R&B act of the year. I had really tough competition including my brother Louie and I was honestly just excited to be amongst him and the other nominees like Lee Wilson, Jesse Dee and Masspike Miles. Right now I am filled with so many intense emotions about this it is pretty overwhelming. My dad gave up the opportunity to tour the world when my mother became pregnant with my brother many years ago and if he could go back he would still make the same choice, to stay with my mom. Because of this, he looks to us to fulfill his unfinished dream and I see myself doing that for him in the near future which is unbelievable. I have so many people to thank and you know who you are but most importantly my friends and family and fans and especially my street team……We have only just begun

Brandmeldeanlage / BMA

Brandmelder

a)manuelle Druckknopfmelder
Ein Handfeuermelder (Druckknopfmelder) ist ein nicht-automatischer Brandmelder.
Dieser ist durch eine Glasscheibe geschützt, die eingeschlagen werden muss, um einen Alarm auszulösen. Der Alarm wir bei der Brandmeldezentrale ausgelöst.
Nach Benutzung des Handfeuermelders kann diesen nur ein zugelassener Techniker oder die Feuerwehr entsichern. Feuermelder, sind durch ein spezielles Piktogramm gekennzeichnet.

Roter Handfeuermelder:
Lösen Alarm in der Brandmeldezentrale aus und automatisch an den Einsatzleitstand, Polizei oder Feuerwehr.

Blauer Handfeuermelder oder ohne Aufschrift Feuerwehr:
Lösen nur Alarm im Objekt aus (Hausalarm). Geht nicht bei der Feuerwehr oder Polizei ein.

Gelbe, graue, weiße Handfeuermelder:
Lösen eine Rauchabzugsanlage aus oder manuelle Brandbekämpfungseinrichtung
( z.B. CO2 Löschanlage). Zusätzliche Möglichkeiten sind manuelle Abschaltung von Klimaanlagen, Lüftungen, Auslösung von Türschließung.

b)automatische Brandmelder
Automatische Brandmelder sind ein Bestandteil der Brandmeldeanlage und werden über ein abgeschirmtes Anschlusskabel an die Brandmelderzentrale angeschlossen und können in einzelne Meldergruppen eingeteilt werden. Innerhalb der Brandmeldeanlage können durch den ausgelösten Brandmelder gezielt andere Komponenten, wie z.B. Relais oder optische Anzeigen angesteuert werden.
Automatische Brandmelder können Brände oder deren Entstehung somit weit früher erkennen, als dies mit den menschlichen Sinnesorganen möglich ist und daher die Gefahr einer Ausbreitung wesentlich minimieren.
Ein frühzeitiger, effektiver Alarm durch einen automatischen Brandmelder ist insbesondere in schwer zu evakuierenden Gebäuden – wie zum Beispiel in Einfamilienhäusern mit vielen Kindern, Seniorenheimen etc. – von großer Bedeutung

Optischer Rauchmelder:

Funktion:
Zur Zeit sind die gängigsten Brandmelder (stand 2004) sind die optischen bzw. photoelektrischen Rauchmelder. Sie arbeiten nach dem Streuverfahren (Tyndall-Effekt).
Klare Lust reflektiert praktisch kein Licht. Sobald aber Rauchpartikel in der Luft sind und somit in der optischen Kammer des Rauchmelders, wir dein von einer Infrarot-Leuchtdiode ausgesandter Prüf-Lichtstrahl an den Rauchpartikeln gestreut.
Ein Teil des Streulichts fällt dann auf einen lichtempfindlichen Sensor, der nicht direkt vom Lichtstrahl beleuchtet wird, und der Rauchmelder spricht an.
Ohne (Rauch-) Partikel in der Luft kann der Prüf-Lichtstrahl die Fotodiode nicht erreichen, die Beleuchtung des Sensors durch von den Gehäusewänden reflektiertes Licht der Leuchtdiode, oder von außen eindringendes Fremdlicht wird durch das Labyrinth aus schwarzem, nicht reflektierendem Material verhindert. Optische Rauchmelder werden bevorzugt angewendet, wenn mit vorwiegend kaltem Rauch bei Brandausbruch (Schwelbrand) zu rechnen ist.
Bei einem Lasermelder wird statt einer einfachen Leuchtdiode (LED) mit einer sehr hellen Laserdiode gearbeitet. Dieses System erkennt schon geringste Partikel-Einstreuungen.

Vorteile:
Mit dem optischem Brandmelder sind Brände sehr früh zu erkennen, da er bei den kleinsten chemischen Verbindungen in der Luft anschlägt. Somit kann ein evtl. Brand schnell bekämpft werden.

Nachteile:
Der optische Brandmelder ist sehr Kostenintensiv und es kann sein, dass er anschlägt, wenn keine wirkliche Gefahr droht, wie z.B. bei Bauarbeiten (Staubentwicklung), Zigarettenqualm etc.

Wärmemelder:

Funktion:
Wärmemelder lösen bei Erreichen oder Überschreiten einer Maximaltemperatur (Maximalprinzip) oder bei schnellem Temperaturanstieg (Minimalprinzip) aus.
Beim Differenzial-Maximalprinzip löst der Melder bei einer schnellen Temperaturerhöhung einen Alarm aus. Dazu wird ein Meßheißleiter mit einem Vergleichsheißleiter verglichen.
Zusätzlich wird ein Maximalauslöseelement zur Alarmauslösung bei einer Maximaltemperatur eingesetzt.
Laut VdS werden diese Melder in 3 Klassen eingeteilt:

Klasse1 – Einsatz bis zu einer Raumhöhe von 7,5 m.
Klasse2 – Einsatz bis zu einer Raumhöhe von 6,0 m.
Klasse3 – Einsatz bis zu einer Raumhöhe von 4,5 m.

Nachteile:
Kann nur in Räumen eingesetzt werden, wo Temperaturerhöhung ausschließlich durch Brand erwartet werden kann. Somit nicht z.B. in Küchen geeignet.

Vorteile:
Diese Melder sind relativ Kostengünstig im Gegensatz zu anderen Meldern.
Sie können in Räumen eingesetzt werden, in denen Rauchaktivitäten sind, aber die Temperatur normal. Dort würden Rauchmelder versagen.

Flammenmelder:

Funktion:
Dieser Melder nutzt die charakteristischen modulierten Emissionen einer Flamme im Spektrum Infrarot bis Ultraviolett zur Detektion einer Flamme. Meistens werden mehrere Sensoren im Gehäuse vereint, damit Fehlalarme z.B. durch Fotoblitz ausgeschlossen werden können.

Vorteil ist, dass man diesen anwendet, wenn bei schnellem Ausbruch von Flammen zu rechnen ist. Diese werden dann schnell erkannt.

Multikriterienmelder:

Funktion:
So genannte Multikriterien-Melder sind Brandmelder, die mit mehreren Sensoren arbeiten. Zur Erkennung kann ein Melder beispielsweise das Erkennungssystem eines optischen Rauchmelders und das Erkennungssystem eines thermischen Melders in einem Gerät vereinen. Mit Hilfe einer Elektronik werden die Ereignisse dann ausgewertet. Durch diese Kombination ist ein solcher Melder unempfindlicher gegenüber Falsch- und Täuschungsalarmen.

Vorteile:
Mehrere Sensoren im selben Gehäuse bieten äußerste Sicherheit im Bereich der Melder.

Übliche Kombinationen:

Kombinationen von Brandmeldern sind sehr Hilfreich, wie auch bei „Multikriterienmelder“ beschrieben (s.o.).
Sinnvolle Kombinationen wären z.B.:
Flammenmelder + Wärmemelder
Optischer Rauchmelder + Wärmemelder
Optischer Rauchmelder + Flammenmelder

The Witch Doctor finds it remarkable that she was so busy getting through the days that she was oblivious to the clever footwork that seemed to be going on at the BMA annual conference in 2005 when a spurious vote was taken which effectively moved the pendulum from “Against” to “Neutral” regarding the BMA’s position on assisted suicide.

Yes “neutral.”

The “D’oh!” moment!

Doctor’s have no view on whether they should help kill or not!

I suppose The Witch Doctor was not alone in having her head in the sand at that time.

Some of the medical profession were awake, however.

Below is an open letter that was sent later that year to MP’s and Peers regarding these activities.

Note particularly para 3 where it is alleged there was some attempt to persuade medical students and young doctors to drop their opposition to euthanasia.

“Open Letter to MPs and Peers about the BMA ARM
Open Letter to MPs and Peers about what happened at the BMA ARM in June 2005

“Just before the summer recess parliamentarians were sent a statement from Ms Sue Marks, Head of the Parliamentary Unit of the British Medical Association, regarding the Association’s change in policy, making it now neutral on physician-assisted suicide.

As two BMA members present at the Annual Representatives’ Meeting where this took place we consider Ms Marks’ description of the event to be highly misleading. It is vital that parliamentarians understand that the whole process was highly questionable and the pro-euthanasia group achieved their vote – by a small majority of only 93 for and 82 against – through clever manipulation of procedure.

In the year 2000 it became clear at a BMA Consensus Conference on Physician Assisted Suicide that, contrary to the majority opinion of grass roots BMA members, a significant number of BMA Ethics Committee Members – including chairman Dr Michael Wilks – determinedly supported both euthanasia and physician assisted suicide. Their campaign has been strengthened by the input of ‘expert’ members co-opted (not elected) to the Committee from the political and academic liberal elite, three of whom gave evidence to the Lords’ Select Committee on behalf of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society last autumn. Dr Michael Wilks, has made a number of attempts to change the Association’s policy and in particular earlier this year used his position to try to persuade the Students’ and Young Doctors’ Divisions to drop their opposition to euthanasia – a move which was singularly unsuccessful.

This summer, however, things were different. As well as being chairman of the Ethics Committee providing ‘expert input’, Dr Wilks was made Chairman of the Annual Representatives’ Meeting which was to consider the issue of euthanasia, and was also appointed Chairman of the Agenda Committee (which ultimately became responsible for framing motions to be considered). At the start of the Representative meeting, Dr Wilks used his position as chairman to introduce a new procedure for deciding the issue. In a departure from past protocol none of the motions submitted by BMA divisions were to be voted on. Instead, on the Tuesday there was a debate for half an hour on draft motions submitted to the conference by councils and divisions from around the country. The Agenda Committee was then deputed to submit a Motion based on the debate in which a majority of speakers (six of eleven) were strongly opposed to any change in BMA policy: the motion would be voted upon two days after the original debate at the end of the Conference! However, instead of one Motion based on the debate, the Agenda Committee submitted three Motions. The first opposed euthanasia and assisted suicide; the second supported a neutral stand on physician-assisted suicide; and the third Motion supported the adoption of a policy in favour of the legalisation of euthanasia and physician assisted suicide. These were not voted upon until one hour before the end of the meeting when more than half of the delegates had left. Furthermore, delegates were not given written copies of the motions until just before the vote – so many delegates did not even see the Motions which – furthermore – had never been discussed by grass roots members and divisions.

The manipulations did not end there. As Chairman of the Conference Dr Wilks sought permission for the order of voting on the Motions to be reversed – so that the motion in favour of legalised euthanasia came first with the motion in favour of the BMA taking a neutral stand on physician assisted suicide second and the motion in favour of retaining the current policy third. In the event, the last motion was never voted on because the second motion won a majority. Thus 93 delegates were enabled to reach a decision for 133,000 grass roots members on a Motion the latter had never seen – let alone discussed. Such anti-democratic procedures to force through a Bill in Parliament would cause a public uproar and we urge you to take these matters into account if the BMA’s new position is used in debate to support any attempts to legalise euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.”

Peter Saunders, General Secretary, Christian Medical Fellowship
Tony Cole, Chairman, Medical Ethics Alliance”

a red apple ……………………

The Witch Doctor – Link to a random page

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LINK TO UK MISSING KIDS WEBSITE

LINK TO MISSING PERSONS WEBSITE

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© Dlundin | Dreamstime.com

NHS campaigns have a habit of catching people’s attention by creating harrowing scenes, using powerful imagery or landing a shocking message. But while browsing the Manchester Evening News’ website I came across this piece of advertising from a coalition of Greater Manchester PCTs that caught my eye.

The NHS flash ad on the MEN website (left turns into right)

The advert is promoting the supposed benefit of introducing a minimum price on a unit of alcohol and links to this website (which bizarrely has no mention on minimum alcohol pricing). This is a strange piece of NHS advertising as it’s political. Should the NHS be advertising to try to promote a change in the law? They have strayed into political advertising and this is not the kind of stuff we usually see from them. Their advertising is normally limited to public health advertising and the occasional recruitment campaign. 

I suppose it grabbed my attention after the all the commotion the British Medical Association created last month by calling for a blanket ban on alcohol advertising in the UK. The BMA want two things – marketing alcohol to be banned and a minimum price per unit of alcohol.  

It is fair enough for the BMA have their say on the issue of binge drinking as they are a pressure group, but the NHS is a government organisation and you would think they would be only allowed to advertise government policy or messages the government wants to promote.

The BMJ group has a number of blogs relating to individual journals.

Two bloggers were very quick off their mark to comment on the Kerry Wooltorton case.

The first was a lawyer, Professor Sheila McLean who is a distinguished academic with a particular expertise in medical law. She provided a summary in the BMJ blog of the legal situation regarding the outcome of the inquiry but did not enter into any discussion in the comments that followed the post.

According to the books and papers she has written it appears that Professor McLean is not only a distinguished member of The Humanist Society and also appears to be strongly in favour of voluntary euthanasia becoming legalised.

Dr McLean is a member of the ethics committee of the BMA.

The second to put pen to paper on the BMJ Group Blogs was Dr Iain Brassington. His post was in the Journal of Medical Ethics. There is quite a discussion in the comments section, some of it in the foreign language of philosophy.

If you scroll down the comments section to October 12, you reach a very short comment that seemed rather odd to The Witch Doctor.

“Forgive the intervention – I’m delighted to see Iain finding support in case law and statute.

John Coggon”

More recently the name John Coggon appears again, in a post of his own, this time in the BMJ blogs.

CAN A CONSCIENCE DICTATE?

Here is the opening gambit of his post:

“If I asked a physiologist to show me where her conscience is, I’m fairly sure she’d not be able to.  Yet, it seems, a great many doctors appeal directly to their consciences, or at least wish to be free to do so.  This is a little strange. If a patient says “God makes me do it” suspicions arise.  So why should a doctor be at liberty to appeal to something beyond the empirically demonstrable?”

Now, The Witch Doctor has no idea who John Coggon is, but she was quite taken by his smiling face, so in order to say “Hi” the way we witches do, she placed a little comment at the end of his blog.

She saw it in print, but it indicated it was waiting for moderation:

There it sat, and sat, and sat………

Waiting, waiting, waiting……….

Then……

It vanished. Just like that!!!

My Black Cat and I fear the moderators didn’t like it!!!

Perhaps John Coggon didn’t like it?

So, it seems the BMJ does not allow witches to express themselves freely in the comments section of their blogs.

The Philosphical Folk – yes.

The Ethical Folk – yes.

The Witches – no.

No free speech for witches.!

Probably everyone reading this is now worried sick about what The Witch Doctor could possibly have said to cause such offence.

Well, the witch just gave a little twitch.

That’s all.

Surely they could have published a little twitch?

From a witch……..

N.B. If the comment has not appeared on the BMJ blog by Halloween, then The Witch Doctor will let you know exactly what she said as a little trick and treat before she flies off to The Big Party on the All Hallows’ Eve Holiday.

a red apple ……………………

The Witch Doctor – Link to a random page

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LINK TO UK MISSING KIDS WEBSITE

LINK TO MISSING PERSONS WEBSITE

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© Dlundin | Dreamstime.com

So, 2005 was the year that it has been said there was some kind of rigging of a vote at the annual meeting of the British Medical Association.

The vote did not concern a trivial matter.  There is a view that it was the most significant vote in the history of the BMA.

“A 30-minute open debate on euthanasia took place on Tuesday, June 28. Most of the speakers opposed euthanasia. But in a striking departure from past procedures, no vote was taken. This was not the only departure: Liberal Democrat Evan Harris — also a member of the ethics committee — was allowed to speak, even though he was not a delegate. But the tenor of the debate confirmed what everyone knew: that British doctors are opposed to euthanasia by a margin of about 2 to 1.

Based on the issues raised in the debate, the apparatchiks of the agenda committee drafted three motions. These were voted on two days later, on Thursday, only minutes before the end of the four-day meeting. Most of the nearly 450 delegates had already left. Only 174 actually voted.

Critics of the BMA’s decision claim that there had been a gentleman’s agreement to vote first on whether the status quo should be preserved. This would almost surely have passed. Instead, the first motion put to the meeting was whether the BMA should support euthanasia. Unsurprisingly, this failed by 101 to 73. Next came a vote on whether the BMA should withdraw its long-standing opposition. This carried by a vote of 92 to 82. Whether British doctors should uphold the status quo was never voted upon at all.

In short, a rigged vote by a fraction of delegates to the annual representative meeting made what is probably the most significant decision in the BMA’s history.

Doctors who oppose euthanasia have every right to feel outraged and to demand a referendum of all members on this vital issue. Controlling an agenda, breaking unwritten agreements and manipulating a quorum have been standard fare in shady trade union ballots. But it beggars belief that professors of ethics should use these Leninist tactics to engineer a change in the BMA’s euthanasia policy and very soon, perhaps, a change in the law. It is a chilling start to Britain’s debate on Lord Joffe’s Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill.”

Now, those who do not attend national medical meetings may not be aware that the audience dwindles substantially on the last hours of the last day of any meeting. Always. This is because delegates have come from far and wide and have planes and trains to catch or a long drive ahead of them. Every delegate knows this, every speaker knows this and every organiser knows this.

Everyone knows.

So, this vote was taken at a time that it was known there would have been many vacant seats.

a red apple ……………………

The Witch Doctor – Link to a random page

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LINK TO UK MISSING KIDS WEBSITE

LINK TO MISSING PERSONS WEBSITE

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© Dlundin | Dreamstime.com

Having great ideas for how to help your business is one thing, but without being able to demonstrate certain success, it’s difficult to convince others that your marketing strategy is worth implementing. To address this key issue, the Minnesota chapter of the Business Marketing Association (BMA-Minnesota) will host “Building a Better Business Case for Marketing” on November 17, 2009.

Sponsored by Online Marketing Connect and led by Pat LaPointe, managing partner at MarketingNPV, the session will explore how to build a solid business case for marketing programs and enhance the credibility of your recommendations.

“As marketers, it is easy for us to understand the inherent value of our efforts, but expressing that value to decision-makers can be a challenge when dollars and cents are the primary measurement,” said Heidi Wight, vice president of programming for BMA-Minnesota. “Translating the benefits of a marketing communications strategy so that all stakeholders understand is crucial for credibility.”

Also presenting is Aaron Kahlow, chairman and founder of the Online Marketing Summit and its related educational arm, the Online Marketing Institute. Considered one of the leading educators in online marketing, Kahlow has a unique ability to translate online marketing technology jargon into simple and easy to understand marketing and business terms.

Together LaPointe and Kahlow will address the universal questions:

• How can I define the benefits of proposed actions in a more financially astute manner?
• How can I credibly assess risks and uncertain paybacks when I have so little data or history to work with?
• How do I build a business case that gets respect for its thoughtfulness and discipline, even if it doesn’t get funded?
• Where does online marketing like search, email, social and website fit into the mix?
• How are world-class brands taking an integrated planning approach in order to obtain budget?
• Why must business-to-business companies consider social media components for 2010?

The event will be held on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at the Metropolitan Ballroom in Wayzata , Minn. and will run from 8:00 to 10:15 a.m. Registration and breakfast will begin at 7:30 a.m. The cost of the event is $30 for BMA members and $45 for non-members. Attendees can register online at www.bmaminnesota.org through November 12, 2009. There will be a limited number of walk-up registrations also are available.

There’s only one sensible way for locums to get their H1N1 jab, and that’s as soon as possible in one of their upcoming sessions at their next GP surgery. The BMA’s forthcoming advice on this will be quite clear:

Locums should seek vaccination at the practice at which they are registered in the first instance. However, if it is more practical for their vaccination to be administered at the practice at which they are working, they should ensure that the practice with which they are registered are informed that this vaccination has taken place.

The General Practitioners Committee of the BMA has been working on this in order that we can get our vaccines done and just get on with treating our patients. Experience is showing that practices are being really supportive and open-minded about this, and always remember that when it comes showing appreciation a packet of Hobnobs for the staff always goes down well.

There will be a tiny number of intransigent and short-sighted practices, so we’ve prepared some rebuffs for you:

• “We can vaccinate you, but it’ll cost you £5”
  • Politely refuse to pay, stating that the BMA has issued strict guidance on this that locums are not to be charged, and locums are considered as part of the practices own occupational health policy. If this doesn’t throw them off then suggest they contact their LMC first!
• “It’s against good practice to vaccinate locums”
  • No its not, and the BMA has obtained specific advice from the medical defense organisations stating that GPs are ‘covered’ to vaccinate their employees with this vaccine.
  • The BMA has advised to make sure your own GP is notified of you having had the vaccination, in line with the policy that if you treat family/friends always make sure their GP is given a record of what you’ve done.
• “You’ll have to go to your own GP because we’re so busy/haven’t got enough for our own staff etc”
  • GP locums are front-line staff and sending them to their own GP just moves the problem elsewhere. And deploying this logic means that the practice will have to vaccinate its own “GP locum-patient” so still have not solved any problems, only created them.

Linked to in the latest BMA newsletter (19th October 2009) is the BMJ medical ethics forum on the doc2doc website. A little discussion so far on assisted suicide. I’ll be adding the RSS feed for the medical ethics forum to my RSS reader.

It could be argued that when an individual grabs a gun and shoots himself (usually himself) then the intention was to commit suicide.

It could be argued that when an individual hangs himself or herself by the neck, then the intention was to commit suicide.

When the deeds are done, these people are usually not in a position to withhold consent for treatment. They have chosen a Fast Death. This is much easier than a Slow Death where onlookers have the opportunity to debate whether the conscious individual really means what they say they mean, followed by another debate on whether it is legally or morally correct to try to save a life, taking into account the right of self determination.

This decision-making lack of decision-making must be painful for those watching The Slow Death.

The Law in England assumes that capacity is present until proven otherwise, that a depressed person is not necessarily lacking in capacity, and that the right to self-determination in the individual who has capacity is paramount.

So, in England, if you see a conscious person pointing a loaded gun to their head with their finger on the trigger, the default position is that they have capacity and since they are also holding the trump card of self-determination in one hand and a gun in the other, then let them shoot.

Keep it simple.

Keep within the law.

Let them shoot!

As long as you can be sure that they are only going to shoot themselves of course.

So maybe that’s a bit of a conundrum.

Not a good example.

Anyway, ignoring the conundrum, the paternalistic ones of the human race may shout, “Don’t shoot! Come and talk with me and I will help you!”

i.e. you will intervene to try to change that person’s will using the technique of persuasion.

Paternalism, although not yet illegal, is frowned upon in England.

Father figures are not welcome.

However, persuasion is OK. Think of the adverts on billboards and everywhere you look. Think junk mail.  Think sales talk. Think alternative medicine. Think bottled water……

Persuasion is hallowed in England.

It has to be.

We have a nation of people employed one way or another in the tactics of persuasion.

So don’t call your intervention “Paternalism.” Call it “Persuasion.”

For goodness sake!

Here is another example with less of a conundrum.

In England, if you see a young woman with a noose around her neck and she is about to jump down into a stairwell, then if you are paternalistic, by all means shout a fatherly “Don’t jump!” You could even talk in a gentle hypnotic voice to her as you climb the stair to be beside her.

Remember, you might be criticised because you are intervening with her right to self-determination, but in England it is still within the law to be paternalistic.

Paternalism is bad, though. Very bad. But at the moment you can safely assume you won’t go to jail for it. But you can conceal the fact you are using paternalism by calling it persuasion. Then you won’t be an outcast.

The law, however, seems to be on your side if you just stand by and watch.

But don’t shout, “Go on – Jump.”

Because then you would be aiding and abetting.

Mark you, if you shouted very loudly “don’t jump” then that might give her a terrible fright and she might lose her balance.

Maybe somebody would then accuse you of aiding and abetting.

No.  The intention was to prevent rather than facilitate.

But who can prove that?

Perhaps you just chose your aiding and abetting words carefully. It was the volume you used to shout them that had the desired effect of suicide facilitation.

Aiding and abetting in the context of suicide is bad. It is illegal and carries with it a prison sentence.

Watching and allowing is good.

Three words: “Go on – Jump” make you a criminal.

Two words “Don’t jump” might make you criminal too, but you probably won’t get caught because everyone will believe the words, not the scary way you used the words.

But the outcome for the individual with the noose around her neck is the same.

Death.

In suicide, The Outcome is not important.

But The Pathway is.

So they say………

By doing nothing you have acknowledged the prime and noble positions legally and morally of “capacity by default” and “self-determination” in a conscious patient.

You have not aided and abetted.

But you have allowed.

This play upon words means that at night you can sleep the sleep of the righteous with The Book of Law under your pillow.

While you cuddle into your pacifier blanket enchantingly embroidered with the nursery rhyme called :  “The Alternative Moral Code of the State”

a red apple ……………………

The Witch Doctor – Link to a random page

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LINK TO UK MISSING KIDS WEBSITE

LINK TO MISSING PERSONS WEBSITE

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© Dlundin | Dreamstime.com

Chapter expands engagement opportunities with innovative networking sessions and professional and interactive blog

While other associations are losing members at a disturbing rate, the newly-formed Minnesota chapter of the Business Marketing Association (BMA) is celebrating the completion of its inaugural year this month with over one hundred and ten new members. BMA-Minnesota is the only organization in the state focused exclusively to help business-to-business marketers network and stay current on the latest trends, products and strategies.