Don’t take ‘Taboo !!’ for an answer!see
The demographic ‘disentrapment’ of Middle Africa
Maurice H King, Honorary Research Fellow University of LeedsComments welcomed! m.h.king@leeds.ac.uk
Partly adapted for those for whom English is a second language.
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CONTENTS1. Demographic entrapment summarized
2. The Hardinian taboo
3. DÕB delivers the first ‘Crunch message’see [reduce your fertility or starve]
4. ‘The Little Red Book’ from Kisumu delivers the second ‘Crunch Message’
5. Hubris pride
6. Emesis being sick
7. The sensible thing to do...
This is the key figure in 'disentrapment' and in the demography of Middle Africa.
Path A or Path B? The blue panel shows what should happen if Africa is to follow Europe' It describes what happens to births, deaths, and population after the start of 'modernization'. In Europe this was the industrial revolution [1800-1850]. In Africa it was the coming of the Europeans [1900-1950]. The population of any country depends on the difference between births and deaths [and migration, people coming in or going out].
The demographic transition [change] is a change: FROM high fertility [many burths] and high mortality [many deaths] and therefore a steady population: TO low fertility [few births] and low mortality [few deaths], and therefore again a steady population, but at a much higher level: THROUGH a middle stage when there are many more births than deaths, so that the population rises-- but hopefully not too much!!.
Africa is unusual, because at the start of 'modernization' [the coming of the Europeans] fertility rose [more births]. So, because it grew, it has now to fall very fast indeed, if it is going to match the death rate so that the population stabilizes.[remains steady]
Ideally, a community should compete its demographic transition as shown in the blue panel. If it fails to do this, it has two choices. It can either undergo 'a crash demographic transition' [a very rapid fall in fertility, very few babies] in response to ‘the crunch message’ see and follow PATH A. THIS IS WHAT THIS WEBSITE TEACHES VERY URGENTLY - to avoid yet more poverty, starvation, and violence!!
Or its population can increase until it exceeds the carrying capacity of its ecosystem [too many people for the land to support], it reaches its Malthusian ceiling [the land won't support any more people], and it has a population crash, as in PATH B.[many people die]
Demographic entrapment summarized
I once asked Africa’s most eminent [famous] demographer (Jack Caldwell). “How much of [Middle] Africa do you think is demographically trapped?” “Most of it is...” he replied and did not want to be quoted. [I have our correspondence]
This shows that demographic entrapment is (i) real, (2) massive [very severe], and (3) tightly taboo [forbidden from discussion]. It is taboo to both demography [population science], and to development economics [the science of development], which have therefore to be declared 'corrupt' see. . As a result, entrapment is also taboo to the UN agencies and NGOs. Since entrapment is also taboo to the editors and reviewers of the major journals, and in the case of The Lancet also to its ombudsman (Charles Warlow), see it could be impossible to lift. Entrapment is also taboo to entire institutions, notably the Centre for Population Studies in the London School of Hygiene.
Because entrapment is taboo it has no official definition. I use this one:
A subsistence community is demographically trapped if its population (a), exceeds: (b) the 'carrying capacity' see of its local ecosystem (too many people for the land to support), AND (c) their ability to migrate to new land, AND (d) the ability of their economy to produce goods and services, which they can exchange for food and other essentials. The outcome of entrapment is the severest poverty, stunting, starvation, and commonly violence.
Entrapment has a definitive [complete] stage when there already is starvation and/or violence, and a warning stage when these can be confidently expected, because the population is increasing fast.
DEMOGRAPHIC ENTRAPMENT - much simplified! Here we use bananas in Uganda instead of maize. A, the land can be any piece of land. B, photons of light energy fall on a banana tree. If there are only a few people, there is plenty to eat. C, problems arise when there are too many people for the bananas. D, if people are fortunate, they can migrate, or they can make exports which they can exchange for imports, especially food. E, for this to happen, there has to be an economy with factories, etc. to make the exports. F, what happens if the community has exceeded the carrying capacity of its land (not enough bananas), AND there is nowhere to migrate to, AND there are not enough exports, therefore not enough imports, especially food? People either stunt and starve, or they fight one another.
Since the population of Middle Africa is expected to triple [increase three times] by 2050 [quite soon], with Uganda expected to quadruple [increase four times!], the massive warning stage is the important one for starvation and violence.
Although ‘disentrapment’ would theoretically be possible by altering any of the four factors [(a), (b), (c) or (d)] that determine ['cause'] entrapment, the critically neglected one is (a) population, because mothers in the region commonly have 5-6 children.
One of our serious weaknesses as humans is that we do not adjust the size of populations to the carrying capacities of our ecosystems -- with the exception of the Chinese. Although it might have been expected that demography and development economics would have got to grips with 'carrying capacity' [be. discussing it] by now, it remains totally outside the thinking of both of them - their way of not thinking about entrapment! The result is that there is a logical void [emptyness] underneath both disciplines - and all that depends on .on them.
Although the calculation of carrying capacities presents major problems in respect of the world, see of countries, and even of towns, it is a brutal fact of life in African villages. Severely trapped Malawi, for example, typically produces one ton maize to the hectare. 250 kilos of maize will feed a person for a year, so the carrying capacity of Malawii is therefore four people to the hectare.
The conventional wisdom [what most people think] is that, ‘in the natural process of development’, birth rates will fall to equal death rates, so that populations will eventually stabilize.
Thus a recent family planning meeting in Kampala congratulated itself on its objective of ‘population stabilization’, irrespective of where that might be in relation to the carrying capacities of the land where the communities lived. This is only to be expected because, once carrying capacity is mentioned, it is necessary to consider what happens when it is exceeded? This is in effect entrapment. Carrying capacity is therefore almost as taboo as is demographic entrapment.
Needless to say, reality is more complex than the dotted line suggests, so see and see This graph excludes excludes food aid.
Since carrying capacity has already been exceeded in some cases, in that food aid is required increasingly often [Ethiopia, Malawi] and can be expected in many others, the critical question is: “Can anything else be done to speed fertility reduction and promote a crash demographic transition to low fertility?” The answer is that most fortunately it can.
It can for the simple reason that demographic entrapment is not taboo in Africa, where trapped communities seem to know what ‘the writing on the wall’ see is anyway, and are delighted to discuss it. Indeed the ‘Crunch Message’ “Reduce your fertility or starve” was so well taken in western Kenya, which is close to the edge of its carrying capacity, if not beyond it, that the meeting in which it was discussed signed up to have it published in their name -- see below in ‘The Little Red Book from Kisumu’.
This and other evidence shows that demographic entrapment is far from being hopeless, in that nothing can be done. It is in fact much more hopeful than might ever have been expected - if only the taboo on demographic entrapment can be lifted!.
The absolute priority in all trapped communities is therefore to get the Crunch Message “Reduce your fertility or starve“ to everybody by every possible means. See below: “DÕb delivers the first ‘Crunch Message”’
To the argument that, although a crash demographic to low fertility was possible in China. is not possible in Africa, because Africa has no strong governments, I reply is that it has to be done at community level. If it works, even in some places, it works. If it doesn’t, too bad, but the attempt at a crash demographic transition will at least have been made. Not to make it is certain disaster. The dialogue on one-child families can at least open Where it will get to is for the future to decide.
The remark in ‘The Little Red Book’ by Daniel Mifikukyu, Medical Officer of Health of Nairobi, and he should know, “Keep it up Prof. King”, is therefore most encouraging and requires that the taboo be lifted and disentrapment pursued with the greatest possible vigor, as a work of mercy without equal. The Crunch Message must therefor get to everybody in Middle Africa by every possible means with the greatest urgency.
Dõb delivers the first ‘Crunch message’
David Oouma Balikowa, the Editor of the Uganda Monitor in the 1990s, was always known as ‘Dõb’ to his staff. I sent him a paper called “Will Uganda follow Rwanda?” On December 6, 1996 Dõb published it, but in doing so he took away my title without asking me, and replaced it with his own: “ Go for one-kid per family, or the [population] “bomb” will hit Uganda”. His was the first ‘Crunch message’ anywhere. It was delivered by an African editor, in Africa.
‘The Little Red Book from Kisumu’ delivers the second ‘Crunch Message’.
At a large meeting at GLUK, (The Great Lakes University of Kenya) where many of the audience where primary health care workers, I delivered the following ‘Crunch Message’:
“Should I or should I not, say to you my friends in Africa, that if you don’t reduce your fertility, if necessary to one child only, you can expect the direst poverty, starvation and violence, if indeed you are not experiencing it already. I argue that I have to, and that not to do so is the gravest dereliction of duty in public health. If you want to lynch me, you are welcome, I trust that I will proceed to my martyrdom with a good courage.”
The meeting voted to have the message published in their name, and signed their names to it in the ‘Little Red Book’, as shown by the page below. In its shortened form it is ‘Reduce your fertility or starve’.
The Hardinin taboo
A 'taboo' is something which nobody talks about, even though there are no written rules not to. The taboo on demographic entrapment needs a name. Paul Demeny named it after the US ecologist Garrett Hardin. Tropical medicine therefore has a new disease agent Taboo hardiniae,see the Hardinian taboo, which is invisible, undiagnosed, endemic ['common'] and deadly. Although the poverty, starvation and violence that it causes are not yet recognized as ‘tropical diseases’, it is time that they were.
Paradoxically for a tropical pathogen, Taboo hardiniae is not present in Africa, since demographic entrapment is not taboo here. It is therefore a tragic cultural creation of the North. Most taboos are useful. This one is also useful, but only to the North, in that it conveniently puts out of our minds the massive starvation and violence that are in prospect for the demographically trapped in Middle Africa.
The Hardinian taboo is a curious, sinister and unwritten social convention that demographic entrapment shall not be discussed, without any overt [obvious] reasons for this ever being given, or anybody ruling that it should be outlawed. It is a forbidden ‘no go’ area that flaunts assaults [goes against] scientific conventions, and makes entrapment impossible to lift if these are to be strictly applied. It is an ‘event horizon’ , a ‘black hole’, in the social sciences from which nothing escapes.
This taboo is not a ‘scientific problem’ because it lies outside 'science' as it is is presently practised. It is only partly rational, and it is the irrational, unscientific, ‘spooky’, evil part that mostly holds it in place. Although the taboos of other cultures can be studied scientifically, this is more difficult for a taboo that involves ourselves, and especially when it needs removing.
'Demons'.Although no overt [spoken] reasons for the Hardinian taboo are ever given, it must have some hidden ones. So what should the pieces of evil that hold it place be called? They are best called the ‘Demons’of the Hardinian taboo. A Demon is anything which prevents the taboo lifting. Even physics has its Demons (Maxwell’s Demon), so why not demography also?
There seem to be more than 50 Demons, which have been numbered as they appeared. Although they could be further analysed, we leave them as they are, because the relief of entrapment cannot wait.
An obvious Demon is Demon 6, the many problems of one-child families. Are they better or worse than the starvation and violence which results from not having them? The Chinese thought they were better. If they had no problems, there would probably be no taboo.
It is not easy to know which Demons are bugging who[working in which person], and how strongly. There are however two which may be particularly important. One of them is Demon 24, Garrett Hardin’s lifeboat. This is the fear that, if Africa finds that it is demographically trapped, there will be massive migration northwards, which will overwhelm the EU. Not only is this migration probably about as much as it can be already, but the North [it is a Northern taboo] has no right to keep the taboo in place and thus remove the stimulus for the crash demographic transition that the South so badly needs.
Another is Demon 2, the fear of ‘aggro’, or vigorous argument. I have never met this in Africa, and when it does occur it is readily controlled and has to be faced. This is Sir Richard Jolly’s “Playing with fire” argument, to which I reply that not to lift the taboo is to let the fire of starvation and violence burn without putting it out.
'Carrying capacity' itself is Demon, 40. This is only to be expected because, once it is mentioned, it is necessary to consider what happens when it is exceeded, which is in effect entrapment. Carrying capacity is therefore almost as taboo as is demographic entrapment itself.
Each Demon ties the Hardinian taboo into some aspect of society, in that if it is going to lift, that aspect will be stressed and need to change. For example, if the taboo lifts, and one-child families are seen to be necessary, Demon 6, is going to have to weaken and dissolve. Similarly, for the other Demons. Although many of them are likely to slip away unnoticed, others will incite heated argument. Theoretically, all the more powerful Demons holding down the taboo need to be articulated and publicly discussed, before it can be exorcised [removed], hence the attention given to Demon 24 above, and the importance of naming and personalising the Demons.
'Roll back the carpet of evil'
The philosopher, John Gray, has declared population to be the ‘predominant evil’.[very bad] If so, the demographic entrapment of most of Middle Africa is that evil in a particularly intense form. ‘Evil’ has therefore to be our concern. The task is to roll it back sufficiently to disentrap Middle Africa. Disentrapment is therefore a spiritual endeavour.
William Blake is said to have argued that good has to be done ‘by minute particulars’, that is in little bits, and that to try to improve ‘the general good’ by attacking ‘the general evil’ is the work of a scoundrel, besides being futile. In other words, is one justified in trying to attack 'mega-evil' in the hope of achieving 'mega-good'?
If so, is trying to lift the Hardinian taboo merely rather large ‘minute particular’, or is it a scoundrelly and futile attack on ‘the general evil’? This is a scientifically testable question. I suspect that, that if only the Hardinian taboo can be dissected, and it’s teeming Demons exposed to public discussion, it will eventually vanish. If so, it will come to be looked at with hindsight, as having been merely a curious aberration [mistake] If so, it will have been only rather a large ‘minute particular.
Putting pincers on the taboo
[taking hold of it, grasping it, picking it up]
Hardin said that taboos have to be carefully stalked [hunted] until the time is right for the kill. I have been stalking this one for 21 years, and sense that the time for the kill has indeed arrived.
So how then is this evil taboo to be lifted? Despite the fact that it appears to be unliftable, it is probably more fragile than you might think. Indeed, if any one influential figure of integrity, see were to say “Come what may, we must lift this taboo”, it would probably crumble in pieces around his ears.I sense that, in the language of golf, I have teed up the taboo, and that, in the language of cricket, all it now needs is for it to be be it for six -- by somebody else! 'Whack!!!'. Lifting the taboo is of course not quite as simple as that. Although it will linger on, it will have been mortally wounded..
'Evil' is nasty stuff. It is all around us but is difficult to grasp. It is therefore necessary to find influential institutions in which it is particularly prevalent, and try to attack it there.
I have been attacking two such institutions, The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and The Lancet. My hope is to somehow pinch the taboo between the two of them.Although it would be possible to publish papers in many other journals, only The Lancet has sufficient impact [power, influence] to even dent the taboo.
Meanwhile at Leeds, my own university where I am now supposedly retired, Prof. John Walley says that he discusses entrapmentwith his students, but without mentioning the terms 'Hardinian', 'taboo', 'disentrapment', 'Demons', or 'crunch message'. So what is left? Only this figure see John Guillebaud who gives the population lectures at the London school of Hygiene is apparently much the same.
The university which gets absolutely full marks is GLUK The Great Lakes University of Kenya, where there is no taboo, and which is attacking demographic entrapment with great commitment.
The London School of Hygiene. The Hardinian taboo is so tight that I have at times been thrown out by the neck
Most Wednesdays for several years, I had been coming down to London from Leeds by overnight bus and calling on the Professor of Demography John Cleland. Sometimes he was in, and sometimes he was out. We maintained civilized if limited contact. Occasionally I learnt something useful. To begin with I was allowed to attend the departmental tea party that afternoon.There I sensed the taboo acutely, and felt that I was a spectre [an unwelcome ghost]. Latterly, I was politely advised not to attend. As Hardin said, those who try to lift a taboo collect its odium [hate] and become taboo themselves -- the mud sticks!
I have been asked "Why doesn't John Cleland come clean and admit the existence of demographic entrapment?" I reply "There are too many Demons!" Seemingly, too many Demons for an insider [a demographer, especially an eminent one] to break clear of them, and lift the taboo in his own discipline. the taboo has therefore to be lifted by an outsider like myself [a non-demographer].
The last time I met him he said. "We had a wonderful conferenceinc in Kampala, you would have loved it".see Why did he never tell me that there was a conference, as he had done on three other occasions? At a previous conference a demographer from Africa had come up to me and said that he thought that the Path A Path B diagram summarized Africa's demographic predicament beautifully.see so at least one demographer thinks that it is highly relevant to the demography of Africa.
I have written to the chairman of the Court of Governance DS Jolliffe CB FRCP, see to the effect that, since both John Cleland, and Sir Andy Haines, the Director, are stepping down down this year, he had better see that the School as a whole and the Center for Population Studies in particular, 'discorrupts' itself by lifting the taboo on the demographic entrapment of Middle Africa. see In my letter I quoted John Cleland as admitting -- to his great credit -- that his discipline is corrupt. Was I correct in doing this?
So what should the new Director on the School and the new Professor of Demography do? They should say "We have heard strange things of Maurice King. Let's call him to a meeting of the School and hear what he has to say, the integrity of the School is at stake....
THE INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL INTEGRITY OF THE LONDON SCHOOL OF HYGIENE IS AT STAKE
The Lancet. Now for the other arm of the pincers see The Lancet. I have had a complex relationship with The Lancet over many years. sis himee
I have, on several occasions, paraded the following argument on a large poster outside the offices of The Lancet. The editor, Richard Horrton, has seen it at the least twice..
THE EDITORIAL INTEGRITY KNOCKOUT ARGUMENT.
If a grave dilemma, and there could hardly be a graver one than this, reaches an editor’s desk, he has an absolute duty to put it to his readers from the pen of one author or another, or if he wishes in an editorial of his own. Not to do so, in a manner that befits its gravity and urgency, and the impact of his journal, is to decide it himself by default, without letting his readers know that it exists, or giving them an opportunity to debate it. This is a grave breach of editorial integrity, a lapse into editorial corruption, and an abuse of editorial power. It also disables the world in the proper conduct of its affairs. Great editors make great decisions. In the Day of Judgement editors are in much greater danger from what they didn’t publish, than from what they did.The dilemma is whether to lift the Hardinian taboo, to denounce demography and development economics for being intellectually corrupt, to break up the population policy lockstep and to prepare the world for the disentrapment of Middle Africa. Or whether to say nothing and let starvation and violence take all?
Richard Horton wrote in the series "Off-line"... Dear editors, I love you The Lancet, Volume 375, Issue 709, Page 106, 9 January 2010.
"How should editors respond to polite but firm lobbying? The Lancet has an author—a highly respected clinician—who occasionally stands outside our offices in London with a billboard, handing out leaflets gently denouncing us to bemused passers by. His campaign is based on the fact that it has now been several years since we have published one of his papers. We have tried. We sent one of his articles for review only last year. Sadly, it did not make it. His Christmas card to us expressed love for the editors (and, very kindly, love to me in particular). SEE!! But having harshly and unfairly described himself a Demon, he also declared me a Demon too. My guilt is based on “the preventable starvation and violence” I could help assuage if we published his paper. This gentlemanly stand off has been going on for some years now. I do not know what to do next. But I do know that one cold morning he will return to our offices, and deservedly have the last word—namely, that “Elsevier must install an editor of The Lancet who has the integrity and moral courage to debate the dilemmas of the world, because if he doesn’t, it cannot manage them.” That is a fair challenge to all of us. Almost [my bold italics]a New Year’s resolution.”
Although not named in the Editor's piece, I was recognized by Martin McKee of the London School of Hygiene, so I asked for a written reply in The Lancet.
I was given 250 words and here they are.
“... Almost a New Year's resolution” - but not quite. Exactly! Almost is the word that gives you away -- to you it is not a New Year's resolution to debate the dilemmas of the world, however tough. You reserve to yourself the right not to debate them. You have to. You do NOT have the right to decide that the taboo on the entrapment of most of Middle Africa, shall remain without letting your readers having an opportunity to debate and lift it . You have now had absolute editorial power at The Lancet for 17 years. Power corrupts. It has corrupted you!
Your arguments entirely miss the point, which is to see that the Hardinian taboo on the demographic entrapment of most of Middle Africa is lifted, since it is a huge determinant of its health, a powerful factor in the cause of starvation and violence, and the great crisis in tropical public health.
The most powerful argument for lifting it is however that the trapped themselves would like to have it lifted. (2)
Maurice King m.h.king@leeds.ac.uk Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Obstetrics, St James Hospital, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT (1) Dear editors, I love you Lancet , (2010); 375, 106. (2) [This website]
This letter was rejected - not perhaps surprisingly!
I am told, by a colleague at the London School of Hygiene, John Lloyd, that the Editor will NEVER publish a paper which lifts the Hardinian taboo and declares the relevant disciplines corrupt. If so where is the evil, and what is it? I argue that it is not the man himself who is evil, but the evil which is resident in him. As to what that evil is, I suspect that it is a deliberate abuse of editorial power in the face of the editorial integrity knockout argument. It is the sense of power that it gives him - not to lift the taboo,when there are so many reasons for doing so.
Or is he bugged by Demon 24, see the fear that, if Middle Africa finds itself demographically trapped, there will be massive migration northwards, which will overwhelm the EU? Does he feel that he must at all costs defend "" civilization""? I so, it will be an extremely difficult Demon to shift!
Maybe, one day, he will tell me what his Demons are? Meanwhile, let's see if we cannot get him to vomit them up. I do not want to have to pass a stomach tube!
Emesis being sick see
This will nauseate Richard Horton, Editor of The Lancet. ! Its aim, love notwithstanding, is to get him to vomit up his Demons [reasons for maintaining the taboo] in one convulsive puke [vomit] - to the immense benefit of Middle Africa. ‘Kill or Cure !!’see
If this medicine doesn't work, it will be necessary to resort to 'The Blessed Vincent act'.
'The Blessed Vincent Act'
A vigil to the death on the front steps of The Lancet with the aim of lifting the taboo on the demographic entrapment of Middle Africa. This is the most practical place to spend the night, however during the day, I intend to visit the London School of Hygiene, and the Institute for Global Health, both of which maintain the taboo tightly.would
I am going to seek 'spiritual counsel' about this see
The participants at the GLUK conference in Kisimu in Kenya at the end of April 2010 are to be asked to vote as to whether or not I should mount a vigil to the death on The Lancet's front steps.
When Blessed Vincent was put to torture, with eager countenance, and strengthened by the presence of God, he cried: “This it is which I have always desired, and for which in all my prayers I have made request” see
Fifty years ago these words made a deep impression. Little did I know that one day I would find them rather useful. We are in combat with overpowering evil! Think of it, much of a continent is demographically trapped, and nobody breathes a word! [says anything]
For many years, I have prayed for the trapped and for almost nobody else. The labour of my old age is to try to lift the Hardinian taboo on the demographic entrapment of Middle Africa. It is so deeply entrenched [stuck], and so tightly defended by the Devil and more than 50 Demons, not to speak of two corrupt disciplines, that The Lancet is about the only journal that could even dent it -- if it chose to do so!
Despite the fact that the current paper see is signed by 68 stalwarts [brave people] from Africa who greatly hope to see the taboo on their own entrapment raised, the Editor shows no sign of even thinking about doing so!
If absolutely necessary, I will therefore put the editorial integrity knockout argument on a poster, and station myself on The Lancet’s front steps. I will remain at my post until either the taboo lifts, or I am called before my maker. Only bums sleep on the pavement, Fellows of the College of Physicians have earned a camp bed.
There are practical problems. We elderly [I'm 84!] adjust our fluid balance at night. How does one do this in the small hours of a wet February morning without getting out of camp bed, and without using bottles or tubes? Wait and see. Problem sorted!
They incarcerated ‘the Blessed Vincent’ in a cell with a floor of pot shards. ‘Just to test his constancy’ they moved him to a feather bed - whereupon he died. I will dream of that feather bed.
I will make tea for passers-by by combusting copies of The Lancet in my camp kettle and selling them for 50p, towards the Editor’s pension fund.
But how will I pass my time? Over days, or months, or years? I will put notices on the student notice boards to say that I will go through their dissertations, in any subject, word by word. I am told that they will be queueing up all down Jamestown Road.
It was all Saints Day at St Michael’s.see It was my duty to read from St Seraphim of Sarov, a Russian Orthodox Saint. When I got to the bit about the true aim of the Christian life being to acquire the Holy Spirit of God, I was overcome by tears, whether at the immanence of the Almighty, whether at the awesomeness of my present task, or whether because of the emotional lability of old age, I don’t know. Anyway, the choir boys didn’t think it was any too cool!
I can already hear this evil taboo quietly dissolving in a phial of The Holy Spirit of God, with a gentle fizz and the scent of the Garden of Eden.
As so often, it is mostly a matter of having the right tools and reagents. Who was it who said that evil was soluble in laughter?John Cleland once told me that my religious [spiritual] instincts would not do my cause any good. To which I reply that, if one is in combat with the Devil, and 50 of his Demons, not to mention two corrupt disciplines, one of which is his own, help is most welcome.
What a cause to die for. What a privileged way to go - in ecstasy - lets hope! ‘Must at least try to live up to ‘The Blessed Vincent’ - - there’s hubris for you! My son, who is a reporter/producer for Channel 4 News, has said that he will send in the TV cameras, but only when Dad is in extremis [nearly dead]-- it would make better television! What curious things 'the care of the sick' does demand of us doctors!.
The sensible thing to do...
..is to publish a paper in which everybody takes a hand. so see:
