The expirence at the Geriatric's ward

One month after starting working at the Geriatric's ward, there are several things I would like to share. It is not new that the population demographics are changing very fast and the different fields of the economy are struggling to ensure fair systems to senior people.

This ward accept senior people over 80-85 years of age. As a part of the department of Internal Medicine and Metabolic disorders of a public hospital it is fully supported by the Czech government. However, as I understood later, the purpose of this ward is not to be used as a social dump for dependent senior people, but as a diagnostic centre. In a few words and in practice, this is what happens: senior people come to the Emergency department with their particular complains, through the General Practitioner or through the Paramedic services. Then, after a quick stabilization they are sent to the Geriatrics ward. Here we have the function of assessing the social situation of the patient and the prognosis, keeping in mind that old people are more fragile, and amenable to subtle changes with much greater consequences when compared to the 70kg, 35 years old male model.

We have a goal of a hospital staying of no longer than 1-2 weeks because the lying in bed and all the inactivity results in muscle atrophy without the possibility to walk again (you can really see the muscles getting atrophied). According to the particular comorbities of each patient, we have the chance to discharge them to their homes without additional care (ideal); with some Home Care service that will bring them food and do minor hygienic procedures; to discharge to long-term care hospitals (LDNs - léčebna dlouhodobě nemocných) in case of a high-degree of dependency (dementia, complicated diabetes mellitus, long-term catheterized people, chronic infectious diseases); to senior houses (DD - domov důchodců) in cases of loneness despite good health; and to hospices in case of terminal stage diseases. So, Geriatrics is thrilling because of the fast changes occurring in the bodies that lived already 80, 90, 100 years and, at the same time, demands knowledge about the best social service to provide to the individual patient.

"Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul." Samuel Ullman

Let the banks to fall!

We achieve a point where the consumer (the client) no more knows which taxes/fees he is paying. Economists have their own language and people are unable to learn it because they are busy earning some money to eat and a big slice for bank fees. We no longer have access to our own money (bank account) without paying to see it! Paying money to see our money! Curious...

This letter was addressed to a Portuguese bank and reflects well this absurdity:

Dear Sirs,

I would like to know if you would accept to pay a small monthly fee for the existence of this bakery, located near your bank; or for the existence of the petrol station or the pharmacy or the kiosk, all indispensable for our daily routine.

It would work in this way: all clients would pay a small fee to maintain these services (bakery, pharmacy, kiosk, mechanic, grocery store). A fee that would not guarantee any extra right to the client. It would be used only in the maintenance of a high quality service and to amortize investments. What do you think?

Well, yesterday I got out of your bank sure that you Sirs would agree with such fees. For a reason of equity and honesty. My certainty derives from a simple chain of thoughts.

Let us imagine the following situation: I go to this bakery to buy some bread. The baker complies with kindness, sells me the bread and charges me a fee to pack the bread. Besides he imposes fees for "accessing the bread", "storing the bread", and even a fee for "having the bakery opened". Everything fulfilled with cordiality and professionalism, of course.(...)

Do you want some enlightenment?

- fee to open credit = fee to access the bread
- fee to open bank account = fee to open the bakery store
- fee to see your bank account = fee to the existence of the bakery store
- fee to maintain a special limit of funding (every trimester, no advantages) = fee to keep the bread warm
- fee in any account money transfer = should I pay to breath the air of your facilities?!

(...)After I payed all the taxes maybe you would answer, always with such cordiality and professionalism, that a bank service is quite different from a bakery store. That your responsibility is much bigger, that there are many legal requirements, that the business risk is huge, etc, etc. That besides being profoundly sorry about this situation, you cannot do anything, because you are not inflicting the law. I know that. I also know that you are covered by some special legal advantages that protect your business from any disturbance. I presume a bakery store does not have as much risk and also that does not count with the influence power that you Sirs have.

I know that everything you do is within the law, but I also know that it is immoral.

Imagine now that you do not just laugh with this adapted letter, but that we really do it. That we start fighting for special benefits (introduction of stupid fees) in every single private branch. Companies from which people depend on their daily activities... On the other hand, should we all go to jail for trying to rise up some morality and mutual help between people of this crazy world? Examples of success, of what is accepted as right in this society are corrupting the basic human principles and if we do not do something, these legal fees might become a reality.

As a wise man said once, save your money under the mattress!

Fuck The System

The Human being is a social being, more precisely, its nature and interactions are based on the biopsychosocial model, first theorized by the psychiatrist George L. Engel in 1977. An individual cannot develop without social interaction. In fact we would not fit in this world without the surrounding social environment, so important for the development of language, values, religious views, and, ultimately, of crucial importance for the perpetuance of our species once we still do not know how to reproduce asexually. This social interaction begins at the time we have not seen a light beam, when our development is influenced by our mothers’ mood, stresses, personal problems, cuddling over the tiny piece of skin that separates us from the outside world. Then, we are fully dependent on the touch we receive from the caregivers (mother, father, others). If we are not held on the arms of our caregivers we simply die, we do not acquire the notion of self-esteem, self-confidence; we do not develop our ‘self’.

Being so dependent on the environment for our correct development, one might ask, what is the best environment to raise a human being? The answer is so obvious that does not even deserve discussion. What is of extreme importance is that the role of the closest persons in our lives is being lost to the big scramble of information, politics, propaganda, wars, crimes, lists of death people, educational programmes, etc, etc. Every single person knows the power of the media in the transmission of information, nowadays so easy with the development of our technology, the creation of social networks, online newspapers, and wide range of TV channels. It is so widespread and it does its work (transmission of information and entertainment) so well that its control is desired by the most evil people living on Earth.

This ‘social’ interaction is killing our species.

Nowadays we simply accept the options that were first given to us. We live in a capitalist system and if you do not share this common sense notion, you are called anti-capitalist; if you believe that the government can have some power over private companies you are called fascist; if you defend a more patriotic and nationalist approach, you are called nazist; if you think everyone should have some social support from the government, you are called communist! All these words are so negatively-charged that people are suppressed by them when trying to make a point that has no similarities with any of the true definition of these terms. More, when arguments fail, people with new ideas are simply ignored or, even worse, called anarchists simply because they do not feel as a part of the system the world has to offer.

Contas Feitas

John Cory, from Reader Supported News, does some simple maths about the war between the east and the west:

One man decided to set the world on fire. It didn't take much.

It took 19 men to kill 3,000 people on September 11, 2001.

It took a small lie to invade Afghanistan and one big lie to invade Iraq.

7 and 9 are the numbers of years of war.

6, 806 is the number of soldiers (US and NATO) killed in this endless war.

40,000 is the number of wounded soldiers.

320,000 plus is the estimated number of US troops suffering from PTSD and TBI.

1.3 million is the estimated number of Iraqi civilians who have died. No one knows the real number, but studies point to an average of 200,000 Iraqi deaths per year of war.

10,000 is the best estimate of Afghan civilians killed, so far.

Civilian wounded or maimed numbers are not really tracked, but carry high numeric guesswork, just like the estimated 4 million Iraqi and Afghan refugees who have sought escape from their homelands.

There are invisible and secret numbers before 9/11 and after 9/11 and the harm and sadness of those numbers will never be known in our lifetime, nor admitted to by those who refuse to believe anything prior to 9/11. It is a zero sum argument.

In 2001, I was in Saudi Arabia. My Arab friends were shocked and stunned into disbelief at the events of September 11th. From my Jordanian, Syrian, Egyptian and Saudi workmates and friends came condolences and heartfelt sympathy and empathy at the horror of that day. This was not Islam. This was not right or holy, they told me. And after a suitable period of mourning, we all sat down over tea and dates to discuss those secret invisible numbers that had piled up and then exploded on that September day.

In 2006, I was in Afghanistan when riots erupted from Kandahar to Kabul to Kunduz over the publication of a Danish cartoon disrespectful of the Prophet Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him. Hundreds of people protested. Scores were injured, with fires and bullets everywhere in the streets.

But it was not only Afghanistan, it was also Somalia, Yemen, Thailand, Indonesia, Syria, Iran and other places.

One cartoon - a dozen countries - thousands upon thousands of protesting Muslims, and hundreds of injuries and deaths were the result.

50 people at the piously named Dove World Outreach Center intend to burn the sacred scriptures of 1.5 billion people and label them "evil" and despised by God.

What new numbers will be generated on the calculator of death and destruction by burning the Qu'ran?

9/11 is a number - A sacred number for us, and them, and the world of war.

One man and then another set the world on fire and millions continue to burn.

One or fifty - it wouldn't take much for -

-PEACE-

Ainda sobre Sarkozy

Não posso estar mais de acordo com este post.

O Estado Social está a tornar-se insustentável e a França foi, de facto, o primeiro país a aperceber-se de tal situação e a implementar medidas, ainda que xenófobas. É certo que grande parte dos Portugueses não hesitaria em tomar partido de medidas semelhantes. Medidas essas que são indispensáveis para prevenir o colapso do Estado Social.

A fatia de população que depende de apoios sociais é grande. Muitas não têm qualquer alternativa, outras vivem 'bem' à custa de outros contribuintes e, sendo latinos de coração, estão bem assim. Falta motivação, falta uma política impulsionadora que chame os cidadãos a uma sociedade em movimento. Porque não o trabalho comunitário? Não se teria, assim, evitado que em 2010, 5 anos depois de grandes incêndios terem devastado o país, ardesse parte do único Parque Nacional do país?

Será impossível encontrar-se um equilíbrio entre trabalhadores da Função Pública e cidadãos sem emprego e a viver em dificuldades?

Nestes tempos em que somos obrigados a questionar as medidas sociais, falta, sobretudo, o exemplo de toda uma classe política que insiste na extravagância, no luxo, no snobismo político, na dicotomia nós e os outros, os contribuintes.

Casa Pia: Setembro 2002 - Setembro 2010

Chegou ao fim o demoroso e longo julgamento do processo Casa Pia.
As sentenças são:

- Carlos Cruz - 7 anos de prisão efectiva, provado que abusou de 3 menores;
- Carlos Silvino - 18 anos de prisão efectiva, principal suspeito e confessor;
- Hugo Marçal - 6 anos e dois meses de prisão efectiva, 2 menores;
- Manuel Abrantes - 5 anos e nove meses de prisão efectiva, 4 menores;
- Ferreira Diniz - 7 anos de prisão efectiva, 3 menores abusados;
- Jorge Ritto - 6 anos e oito meses de prisão efectiva;
- Gertrudes Nunes - absolvida, provado que recebeu dinheiro para que a sua casa de Elvas, fosse usada para os encontros com os menores.

Foram precisos 8 anos para dar como culpados 6 dos 7 arguidos. As penas são leves e tanta salganhada nos processos judiciais portugueses leva, invariavelmente, à perpetuação de crimes desta ideologia.

A Justiça está estagnada e corrompida. Basta dar uma vista de olhos no número de processos graves a serem analisados actualmente, muitos deles envolvendo o próprio primeiro-ministro. Basta ver o número de recursos apresentados por arguidos dados como culpados e que, uma vez mais, contribuem para esta lentidão inadmissível.

A expulsão de Ciganos

Em consequência das recentes medidas anunciadas por Sarkozy, iniciou-se o repatriamento voluntário de ciganos (sobretudo Romenos e Búlgaros). A estas pessoas, em situação ilegal, foi dada uma ajuda de €300 mais €100 por criança, para que possam iniciar uma nova vida nos seus países de origem.

Nazismo? Estalinismo? Sim e não!

Sim, pelas razões invocadas pelo presidente francês. Ao atribuir, exclusivamente, a culpa de actos de violência e desordem pública a grupos minoritários (apesar de as estatísticas apontarem um maior número de pessoas destas nacionalidades), Sarkozy estigmatiza e discrimina um grupo étnico.

Não, porque, apesar da Roménia e da Bulgária serem estados-membros da UE, estes cidadãos encontram-se em situação ilegal, não estão inseridos em programas de integração na sociedade e não fazem parte do sistema jurídico e financeiro do país acolhedor.

Sendo duro, esta situação é o resultado de imigração livre, sem perspectivas, recursos, horizontes ou futuro. Em vez de se criarem instituições e organizações que promovam movimentos migratórios orientados, com objectivos, que preencham lacunas e empregos negados por cidadãos dos países acolhedores, enfim, que orientem a vida e dêem uma nova oportunidade a pessoas sem nada; vemos intermediários sem escrúpulos a enriquecer, fazendo entrar milhares de escravos em camionetas sem ar e barcos sobrelotados. Sanções ainda mais severas deveriam ser aplicadas a estes "libertadores", por prometerem uma vida utópica, por estarem directamente envolvidos na morte de muitas pessoas que padecem durante estas viagens angustiantes.

Em vez de se promover uma imigração consciente, em que os próprios países envolvidos, pudessem colaborar, trocar informações; vemos grandes centros urbanos serem invadidos por pedintes, delinquentes, sem-abrigo, crianças perdidas, sendo isto fruto de uma "esquerda" irresponsável que, ao promover tão aberta circulação de pessoas, não é capaz de lhes assegurar um emprego e vida condignos.

Muitas vezes, estes mesmos imigrantes, não tiveram outra opção. Fugiram de conflitos, de situações instáveis, de catástrofes naturais. Mas estes não devem ser considerados imigrantes. São refugiados que merecem toda a ajuda necessária, pelo menos até estarem reunidas as condições necessárias ao seu regresso.

Agora também, há que ser moderado. Cada caso é um caso. Não podem ser feitas generalizações. Não são os Romenos, ou os Búlgaros, ou os ciganos. Muitos deles fazem parte da sociedade em que se inseriram e não podem, em qualquer altura, ser discriminados, nem tratados de forma menos igual do que os seus concidadãos.

As coisas complicam-se quando os países envolvidos pertencem a uma União, dita, de livre circulação de pessoas e bens, e quando o lema da França inclui as palavras Liberdade, Igualdade e Fraternidade.