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Posts Tagged ‘news’

Left or Right?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on April 25, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I saw this post on Instagram recently, posted by a French philosophy site. I’ll translate it for you.

“To be on the Left, is to, first of all, think about the world, then your country, then those close to you, and then yourself. To be on the Right, it’s the inverse”

Deleuze is one of my favourite, and most fascinating French philosophers. He seemed to have the ability to get you to see something in a completely new light. This is one of his more political sayings, and, it strikes me, it’s as true today as it was when he said it. In fact, it’s even more true.

Every populist Right wing autocrat we’ve witnessed in the world appears to put themselves first, then their close contacts, then their country, and, finally, if at all, the world. Whether we’re thinking of Trump, of Boris Johnston, of Orban, Putin, Farage, or Milei, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that they speak and act in their own interests first, some of them to the point of pathological narcissism.

And yet, everywhere, the Left seems to have lost its way. We’re going through a phase where “Left” has become a pejorative term (frequently paired with “hard” or “extreme”) and we see one Right wing populist group after another achieving power, with little effective opposition.

Can we turn this around and embrace Deleuze’s priorities instead? Think first of the world, the planet we are desecrating, polluting and over-heating? Can we think of ourselves as a species, with ALL human beings our fellow citizens? Can we put that before thinking of countries, and seek to build, not destroy alliances and truly “integrative” , genuinely mutually beneficial relationships between countries? Can we then campaign for societies which serve the interests and needs of neighbours, our friends, colleagues and families, over the interests of billionaires and corporations? Can we then think how each of us can contribute to making this a better world for us all to live in?

Does that sound radical to you?

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The Great Dictator Speech

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on February 1, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Now feels a good time to share this old clip from Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” movie.

We want to live by each other’s happiness – not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.

This is such a positive view of humanity. Quite different from the one we are fed daily in the media. We have lost our way (maybe we were never on it?), but we can find our way now. The reality is that this is one small shared planet. Everything we do is dependent on contributions from others, past, present and future. Everything we do affects others. We are not separate, self-standing, “units”, surviving only by being stronger and more violent than anyone else.

You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts! You don’t hate! Only the unloved hate – the unloved and the unnatural!

We are not machines. We are not machine-like. The organisations we create to educate and care for each other are not factories. They shouldn’t be run on the principles of industrial capitalism. But rather on the basis of humanity, compassion, and even, yes, even that old idea of professionalism and a “calling”.

Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people! Now let us fight to fulfil that promise! Let us fight to free the world – to do away with national barriers – to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Soldiers! in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

Dictators, and, I’ll add, “Strong men leaders”, “free themselves but they enslave the people”.

Ultimately this is a positive, hopeful rallying call to live our lives differently, and to create the political and social structures which will counter greed, hate and intolerance, structures which will promote happiness, compassion and beauty.

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Where’s the money?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on December 5, 2024| Leave a Comment »

The economist, Thomas Picketty, recently wrote this on his blog – “In France, the combined wealth of the 500 largest fortunes has grown by €1 trillion since 2010, rising from €200 billion to €1.2 trillion.”

What he’s highlighted here is the massive increase in the wealth of the already wealthiest in the world over the last decade or so. There are lots and lots of other figures you can find if you go searching for them, but they are all examples of exactly this phenomenon – while there is great child poverty, millions of people suffering from a “cost of living crisis” and a decline in Public Services in European countries, some people……those who already hoard the most…..have been absolutely coining it in. This is despite such “crises” as the pandemic and the war between Russia and the Ukraine.

At the same time, politician after politician complains about “the National Debt” and how “we can’t afford” to give people decent lives, decent houses and decent jobs.

There have also been a number of articles in recent times about what has been coined the rise of the “inheritocracy” – increasingly, this large shift in wealth away from the general public into to hands of a tiny minority, is leading to more and more younger adults becoming wealthy because they happened to choose the right parents. This isn’t a meritocracy. And it isn’t about rewarding those who work the hardest and contribute the most. There’s a trend underway, and Picketty highlighted that trend in his best seller, “Capital” – that capital is growing faster than the economy, so inequality will continue to increase.

It strikes me there’s something seriously wrong with this system. But let me just pull another issue into this, because these are the things rattling around my brain this morning – the other thing we hear politician after politician go on about is “growth”. “Growth” – the answer the Life, the Universe and Everything! In the UK Labour have built an entire set of policies on this premise – get “growth” and all the good things will follow – better family incomes, better Public Services, less hardship. But, don’t you ever stop to wonder – “growth of what?” I do. Not least because it’s clearer than it’s ever been that we live together on one, finite, massively interconnected planet. We cannot keep growing the global temperature. We cannot keep growing the oceans of plastic waste. We cannot keep consuming more (just consuming more, it apparently doesn’t matter what) every single year. At some point, we’re going to hit the buffers. Aren’t we?

Look, I don’t have all the answers. It’s just that these are a couple of the issues which trouble me these days – both issues, which, along with Climate Change, pollution and species loss – lead me to conclude – there is something deeply wrong with this current world economic/political system.

What do you think?

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General Practice

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on November 12, 2024| Leave a Comment »

A wide ranging review of General Practice in the UK has just been published in the British Journal of General Practice. It makes for disturbing reading. Here’s one of their conclusions –

Overall, these findings reveal a system that is approaching — or, in some cases, beyond — breaking point. Staff members are stressed, demoralised, and leaving; clinical care appears to be compromised; and many patients are dissatisfied, frustrated, and unable or less willing to seek care. We believe there are significant risks to patient safety and to the future survival of traditional general practice in UK.

Here’s another –

Quality efforts in UK general practice occur in the context of cumulative impacts of financial austerity, loss of resilience, increasingly complex patterns of illness and need, a diverse and fragmented workforce, material and digital infrastructure that is unfit for purpose, and physically distant and asynchronous ways of working. Providing the human elements of traditional general practice (such as relationship-based care, compassion, and support) is difficult and sometimes even impossible. Systems designed to increase efficiency have introduced new forms of inefficiency and have compromised other quality domains such as accessibility, patient-centredness, and equity. Long-term condition management varies in quality. Measures to mitigate digital exclusion (such as digital navigators) are welcome but do not compensate for extremes of structural disadvantage. Many staff are stressed and demoralised.

I first expressed the desire to be a doctor when I was three years old. The role model I had was the family doctor who attended the home birth of my younger sister. I was trained according to the dominant values of the time (which are referred to within this study) – “relationship-based, holistic, compassionate care, and ongoing support to patients and families”. The authors of this study find that it is increasingly difficult, and in many cases, impossible, to practice according to these values, even though, GPs still hold them. This results in stress, frustration, and burn-out which impacts adversely on both recruitment and retention of doctors in Primary Care.

So, what’s going on? How did we get here? This paper outlines several factors, not least financial austerity, underfunding, increasing inequality, increasing complexity of illness and an ageing population. But it also highlights a problems which arise from a particular management philosophy – the authors don’t actually use that term – where on the grounds of so-called greater efficiency, health care teams have become more diverse, digital and both algorithmic and protocol-driven services delivered by less qualified staff have increased, and the whole service is disintegrating. The efficiency actually goes down, the dangers increase, and dissatisfaction mounts (in both patients and staff).

The authors don’t give any quick and easy solutions but they shine a bright clear light on the problems, and put their finger on at least one issue at the heart of the problem – the loss of continuity of relationship-focused care delivered by holistically and compassionately.

They do use the word “dehumanised”, and that’s long been my experience. We need to get back to those traditional values and stop doing what impairs them. We need to get back to a health service which puts patients and their GPs at the heart of the system, and stop thinking we can use new technologies and industrial management practices to make things better.

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What’s the problem? Immigration or integration?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on May 26, 2024| 1 Comment »

I find it pretty depressing how immigration is presented as a problem in so many countries. It seems every far right political group on the planet wants to build walls around their own country and keep any foreigners out. Why? Because people who aren’t born in the country where they now live are a problem to be solved?

Personally, as an immigrant myself, I think everyone who live in the same street, the same village, town, or city, the same country even, should be treated equally. I’m not a problem because of my genealogy or my genes. We are all inhabitants, we who live together, sharing the same roads, the same shops, the same activities. I prefer the concept of “inhabitant” or “resident” over that of “citizen” if, by the latter term, we mean people who have passed whatever administrative and/or economic rules a country applies to people who weren’t born in that particular part of the world.

In fact, more than anything geographical, I feel I am a member of the human race, and a unique expression of Life, just like all the other human beings who I share this planet with, just like all the other astonishing forms of life I share this planet with.

I don’t think immigration is a problem to be solved. The problem to be solved is “integration”. Here’s the definition of integration I work with – “the creation of mutually beneficial bonds between diverse and well differentiated parts”. In other words, how do I live with my fellow “residents”, fellow “inhabitants”, fellow “citizens” in the part of the planet which I call home?

When we don’t create healthy, positive, creative, and caring bonds between each other, we all suffer. We humans have always moved around the Earth, and we always will. Yet, most people who live in a particular part of the world would prefer to stay there – it’s war, violence, and utter poverty that drives out those who would rather stay.

I think we should put our energies and our resources into living well together – that would include treating people in the same place equally no matter where they were born, actively helping immigrants to integrate by teaching them the language, customs and laws of the country, and encouraging their full participation in society. And we need to develop mutually beneficial, caring, creative relationships between countries, instead of hostility, hatred, fear, competition and violence.

We humans are superbly adaptive creatures and we’ve evolved to be able to inhabit almost every corner of this little planet. But we’re going to have to adapt better if we all want to survive….or at least, if we want our grandchildren and their grandchildren to survive. We’ll do that through integration – by the creation of mutually beneficial bonds between ourselves and others.

So, I reject the dominant narrative that immigration is a problem, and I say, loud and clear, that what we should address and “solve” rather, is integration – integration in our streets, our villages, our cities, our countries, and our planet.

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