I LIKE Immigrants! (But not all of them)

One of my regular tasks is carrying out medical examinations on prospective immigrants to the great land of Oz, and a very searching medical examination it is too. The contrast between what the Australians are looking for in their immigrants, and what we require from those coming in this direction could hardly be wider. In fact, as far as I can tell, we don't actually require anything of them. As long as they can see lightning and hear thunder, they're in. Right - that's the hand grenade thrown into the fishpond, because where immigration is concerned, it seems almost impossible to pass any comment on it for fear of being set upon by the politically correct, or those belonging to the discrimination industry, but as an issue, it is one that grabs the attention of people in this country more than any other. And yet, people very often don't even dare to mention it because they are afraid to do so. To me, allowing people to come and live in your country is the same as letting people come to live in your house, but on a larger scale. You don't need those who are going to give you problems, and you don't want too many of them. Some basic ground rules should be necessary before allowing them in, but at present seem to be almost completely lacking. The wish to move from one country to another is a perfectly natural aspiration for anyone, but it is surely prudent to run some checks to see whether your prospective new neighbours might be more of a burden to the community rather than an asset. The big gripe of most people is not that they object to people coming to live and work here, but the whole current system (if you can call it that) seems to be an absolute shambles, and some are being allowed in who, whether for health reasons or their disruptive nature would be better excluded. A hefty dose of plain, common sense is long overdue in this most controversial of government policies.

Swine 'Flu and other Fairy Stories

We haven't heard much about Swine 'Flu recently, have we? This, you will recall, was going to be the worldwide pandemic last year that was going to wipe us all out, or at least, most of us. In fact the media hype and government hysteria that went with it was remarkably similar to the same sort of furore that surrounded Bird (Avian)'Flu a couple of years back. That one also fizzled out. As a doctor, I felt that there was something about Swine 'Flu from the word Go that didn't quite ring true. I speak as one who survived the Asian 'Flu pandemic in the late '50s when people were literally dropping with it right, left and centre, and I can say from personal experience that it was a very nasty illness indeed. From that point of view, it was quite understandable for governments and the WHO to be concerned that they might have a problem on their hands, but their reaction to it this time was ludicrously inappropriate. The biggest mistake was to take diagnosis and treatment out of the hands of GPs, and set up telephonic helplines manned by young, inexperienced non-doctors or nurses who had only the vaguest idea about what they were supposed to be doing. If you phoned them up and told them that you weren't feeling well and had a headache or a sore throat, you would be told that you probably had swine 'flu, and were given a course of Tamiflu to take, while they ticked the clipboard and notched up another case of swine 'flu for the official statistics. In the meantime, doctors' surgeries were half empty for much of the time as the public had been told that they shouldn't go there.
However, what really grabbed my attention was a video on You Tube (actually 6 of them) called "Bell Tolling for Swine 'Flu". It's still there. Have a look at it. It is presented by a Catalonian Benedictine Nun called Teresa Forcades who also happens to be a Specialist Physician as well as having a PhD in Public Health. Benedictine Nuns are not given to overstatement, so it's a reasonable assumption that she knows what she is talking about. She also had grave reservations about the story behind the Swine 'Flu scare, and came to the scary conclusion that far from being designed to immunise against swine 'flu, the vaccines were actually designed to spread it. Now, this is almost unbelievable, but if there is any truth in it, we move out of the arena of official incompetence into that of criminal conspiracy.
At present, the Chief Medical Officer of the Council of Europe has also expressed his doubts about the whole handling of the Swine 'Flu scare by the WHO and others, and has launched an official investigation into it. I shall be very interested in the outcome. If it ever sees the light of day that is...

O for a Muse of Fire!

This is an unusual situation, rather like being sat in the left hand seat of a Boeing 747 Flight Deck and being told "It's all yours!" I am used to writing, but my writing is usually targeted at a particular individual, and not the world in general. However, I dare say that I'll get used to it. So, greetings, fellow Earthlings! I am happy to be joining the great fraternity of bloggers, and will use this blog to comment, provoke, and do anything else that comes to mind. As the urge to do this occurred in the late evening, I am going to content myself with this greeting, and will start blogging in earnest tomorrow. In the meantime - good night!