Everyday Foibles and Extraordinary Heroism

I've just finished readng Vincent Lam's Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize winner. It's a remarkable first book, a series of short stories about a group of doctors, taking us through "how to get admitted to medical school," to how doctors deal with not only the tedium of everyday life but the ethical dilemmas and moments of life or death drama. I think that what makes the book so interesting is that Lam is an emergency room physician, and it's not often that we find doctors who have an avocation as creative writers. Thus, although it's a work of fiction, we can't help but think of it as an insider's glimpse into the world of medicine. The picture is not altogether a pretty one: the doctors we meet are no more and no less human than the rest of us. There are moments of altruism, of heroics, as when Chen breaks the glass to insert Fitz's IV line when both are isolated SARS patients thus saving a nurse from having to contact a SARS patient in a very risky manner. Then there are the other moments when we know the medical staff have been less than stellar in their patient care and attention because of tiredness or distraction. The stories are also about personal relationships - friendships that last and those that go sour; falling in, and out of, love; what makes people tick. I think I read that the book is being made into a TV drama. It would make a good show.

CCP

An argument as to why the CCP cannot be defended in principle.

An Intriguing Title

"Saving Fish From Drowning" is the intriguing title of the book by Amy Tan that I've just finished reading. It's based on a little story told of some fishermen who are taking fish out of the water and placing them gently on the grass where of course they succumb to a natural death. But the fishermen insist that they are not killing the fish, simply saving them from drowning. So do the intentions of the fishermen make all the difference? The point Amy Tan is making is that intentions, however well-meant, will have consequences, and the consequences may be not so good for the recipients! Immediately, some thoughts from world situations come to mind: for example, one country's interference in the affairs of another can backfire when there is no understanding of the culture, traditions and current political climate. Intentions: wanting to bring "democracy" to a country may be easier said than done (Iraq???) In America, freedom of speech is a given; in Burma, NOT!! The tourists in the book find that out in a hurry!

Another major theme in Tan's book is that "evil in the world almost always comes out of ignorance, " and this I would say is nowhere more in evidence than in ignorance of religious beliefs and practices. In Burma (the book's setting) there is a very strong animism which sees spirits in the natural world. These "Nats" may be dismissed as simply beliefs in magic and superstition but when one learns that appeasing the Nats with offerings is a rite, a form of "prayer," perhaps, it is a way of obtaining "merit," of, in some way, making a connection with the spiritual "Merit was better than food. Merit was hope." This made me think of the Catholic doctrine (I think it's a doctrine anyway, or, at least, a traditional practice) that one can earn or amass merit through "indulgences" earned by the saying of certain prayers. For the literal minded, indulgences are expressed in "years" and the years would be deleted from one's expected time in "purgatory," perfecting oneself for entry into heaven. Sort of like earning time off for good behaviour - in advance. (Of course, this became a real problem at one point when people got carried away and took the practice to extremes of buying and selling; we all know this was the final straw for Martin Luther and led to the Reformation!!)

But wouldn't it be a better world if we all looked for the similarities in religious practices rather than the differences?

An Answer to One Question

Thinking about one of the questions in my last post "what would be the problem with a CO2 increase anyway since that is what plants need for growth?" I happened to find one answer in the gardening column "On the Vine" by Carla Allen in my local newspaper The Advertiser. Just a small point perhaps but one that I have been missing in many of the discussions I have been reading: that is that certain kinds of weeds like poison ivy and ragweed are flourishing and thus making life more miserable for allergy sufferers. She says that ragweed produces 10 times the amount of pollen in CO2 enhanced conditions. Interesting. Allen's article continued to speculate on other problems gardeners might face in a warmer climate.

Trying to Sort it Out

Lately one of my "obsessions" has been reading online commentary on global warming / climate change. Trying to be fair and balanced I have looked at a number of different sites especially with a view to being more informed as our politiicians ramp up the environment as the issue in Canada at the moment. Secondly, with all the rather freakish weather we have been having this winter "global warming" as a cause has been on everyone's lips, rightly or wrongly.

What have I learned? What conclusions have I come to? Well, for starters, the question is not whether there is global warming or not. There is. The question(s) are to what extent? is it rapidly changing the planet as we know it and all for the worse? how much of it is caused by human activity such as emissions from coal fired plants and the burning of other fossil fuels? if we are causing it can we then alter the pace by curbing our energy consumption or is it too late? what can one country do acting alone if the issue is global? have there been other periods when the earth was this warm and is, then, warming and cooling simply the way our universe evolves (think of geological ages when dinosaurs walked through swamps later to be followed by ice ages)? are there other factors besides human activity that are causing global warming (some climatologists cite changes in the sun's activity, earth tilt, and so on)? if global warming is going to happen anyway without human activity, perhaps the question should be are we ready to adapt to this changing world? what plan do we have? why is CO2 considered such a 'bad' emission when even the most elementary science tells us that green plants need CO2? Some people might say "so what if we have a warmer greener world? isn't that better than a colder one?"

Now, trying to sort out and find answers to these questions and other related ones is not so easy. I think to a great extent the issues get mixed up in people's minds. Certainly we need to work on reducing pollution of all kinds in our country: we all want to know that we are breathing clean air and that the water we drink is pure. We aren't happy here in the Annapolis Valley when we get an air inversion in the summer and smog drifts into our area to the extent that we get the dubious distinction of being called "the tailpipe of North America." I'm concerned when I read reports of contaminated rivers and when I hear of the extent of pollution in the Great Lakes.

Personally, we have been reusing and recycling and working on saving energy for years and we want to continue to do so. We need to promote alternate energy sources - solar, wind, geothermal, biofuels and so on. I hope the farmers in my agricultural area get excited about the production of biofuels; I don't personally know much about this but from what I have read it sounds exciting and a good use of less productive land. An easy way for most of us to cut our energy consumption is to switch to the new fluroescent light bulbs; we have made the switch to those in many of our light fixtures and find they work well.

New Year, New Books

Where does the time go? Here it is almost the middle of January and I haven't posted anything for the new year. Well, for those who may stop by once in awhile to see if I've added anything new, "Happy New Year, one and all!" I must say for me that the time after a holiday period when one gets back to the routine is generally satisfying. Is that how it is for you?

This month I have already met my writing group and next week my book discussion group will meet. We are reading Amy Tan's Saving Fish From Drowning, the story of a group of American tourists in modern-day Burma, or rather, Myanmar. Customs, superstitions, prejudices, ignorance, trigger happy guards, the "ugly American," the do-gooder, they are all there in a hilarious mix where adventure or mis-adventure is just around the corner. I'm enjoying the book, one of those that makes you occasionally laugh out loud! And I love Amy Tan's writing - similies and metaphors are woven so intricately into her work. One image comes to mind: describing a night sky she says 'above them was a colander of stars.' I really love that image, it seems so perfect!

The book I read just prior to this was A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews. It's the story of a the life of a teenage girl in a small Mennonite community. Nomi is questioning the values and beliefs of the community at a point where her mother and older sister have been ex-communicated. Part of the story involves her search for answers, for trying to make sense of things. I found it somewhat "over the top" in it's recounting of Nomi's rebelliousness - her running around, defiant behaviour at school, experiments with drugs; it got a bit boring as it was just one incident piled on another all the time. It was not always easy to remain sympathetic to her as a searching individual. And I know a number of Mennonites and girls from such communities - I'm not sure all would have such an unflattering and unfair view of things.

For Christmas, a book I received was Giller prize winner Vincent Lam's Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures. It's a book of inter-connected stories about the medical world - a sort of insider's view. I'm looking forward to reading it.