Save lives or your skin?

Courtesy: Zee News

Stemmed a mob in Kolkatta cracked the skull of a 
doctor when his 76-year-old patient with myocardial
ischemia and arrhythmia succumbed to his ailment. 
Incidentally, the victim is from a minority group. 
That makes it difficult for politicians to make the 
'correct' decision.

There was a time when it was noble to treat the sick and downtrodden. People who had 'failed' in life, i.e., failed to live up to the expectations beset by the society, would find solace is serving the infirm. It was considered virtuous to live amongst and care for sick. Father Damien cared for lepers, contracted leprosy and was canonised. Florence Nightingale spent sleepless nights holding vigil in her ward to minimise morbidity. Mother Teresa left the comforts of her hometown to answer her call among the poor of Calcutta.  

In public life, many non-religious individuals sacrificed time and energy to establish medical services in many newly independent countries of the East. More often than not, personnel in the medical profession do not work 9 to 5 but start early and finish late, not anticipating remuneration but the thankful nod and warm handshake from grateful patients (mind you, not clients!)

The turn of the century saw a change in lay people's expectations and outlook of the medical fraternity. They were no longer held up on a pedestal but treated as another spoke in the cogwheel of machinery that kept the civilisation going. In other words, they were looked upon as technicians to perform specific tasks. There was nothing divine in their calling. The roll call is the jingling of the cash-machine, they say, Ka-ching!!! 

With the spread of anecdotal reports of cures and treatment modalities, the perception is that immortality is real and achievable in this lifetime. With the increasing litigation risk and corresponding growing medical costs, both care providers and recipients look at each other with much scorn. The doctor views every patient as a potential liability and a possible litigant. Hence, he practices defensive medicine, taking care of all differential diagnoses are not overlooked. He must ensure that if God forbid, any unforeseen malady should strike, he must have a watertight case to keep the swarm of prancing sharks in robes at bay.

The patient views their care providers as money-faced mercenaries out to make a kill on others' miseries. They jump at the term of medical negligence at the first instance any medical intervention go south or as uncharted.

In jumps the businessmen who envisage a future in this distrust. They portray the image of a fair middleman who would promote fair trade. In reality, he is just a wolf in sheep's clothing tasked to guard the chicken coop.  His eyes are squarely on the chicken and the pearly white eggs as well. Like appointing Colonel Saunders to act as the spokesperson for the 'Society Against Cruelty to Chicken'!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

With claw, cleaver or cleavage, they clamour...

They are no more the weaker sex, the fair one, the one who plays second fiddle, the subservient one, the one to be seen but not heard. Sometimes, their presence was not even made aware as veils hide either their enclosures or their faces.

Nanthini

The world realised that second-classing half of the population was counterproductive. With the demand for extra pairs of hands in meeting the requirement of the times, the members all sexes were pulled in. 

For the first time, women realised that they too could walk shoulder to shoulder with men. With generations of oppression and suppression, their DNA must have understood there was dire need to evolve to stay relevant. Now more and more of them came out their cocoons, demanding equal rights. The powers that be had to relent.

By then, everyone realised that it was the way to go. The cake was big; there was plenty for everyone.

Somewhere along that path, something went astray. Socio-economic rights were confused with biological differences. Even though both sexes had been intrinsically made with differing roles and liberty, ladies insist that they want the exact leeway that was provided to their other opposing half. Rather than looking at their position as like that of two eyes working in synchrony to provide stereoscopic vision, now each eye liked to think that one is superior to the other.

Lately, the gender with the extra X chromosome had realised that they had a secret weapon. Liberation of sexes saw more than tunics that became scantier. The less the people hid, the more people wanted to see. Ladies have mastered the art of showing too little too much; giving little to the imagination but stirring the curiosity, nevertheless. Raising the hemline and lowering of the cleavage were sure ways to raise eyebrows or capture a roving eye.

Once the attention is of the intended is grasped, they moved in. Absorbing the knowledge denied to them thus all this while, they demanded more. They cried foul when their opportunities were denied. They wailed and drew crowds.

The coup de grâce must surely lie in the skilful exposure of the mammary glands. Enticing of the intended unassuming victim to ogle may knock him off his rockers. Even though the subsequent course of events may have been mutually entertaining and beneficial, or even educational, it is the self-proclaimed 'weaker sex' that decry injustice. They have no qualms in washing dirty linen in public and is equally at ease at invoking secretions from the lacrimal glands for good measure. Mission accomplished, and they would soon scale greater heights.

What is the point of all these; to prove that they are more powerful and resilient? Biology has already shown that their kind is already strong. After enduring aeons of hardship, their survival skills and ability to combat adversaries are proven. Their strength must have come from their task of carrying, caring and protecting their young from the womb. Now, if they wilfully decline that role, are they going to lose that quality in time to come?

A scene from 'Young Frankenstein'
Remember the line?

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Are we truly empowered?

Funny, this thing called empowerment. The person who holds the strings to power stays in the background and remains incognito. He does not want to be seen to be powerful. He looks simple enough and abhors to be under the spotlight. He scorns attention. He is happy to be the invisible play-maker.

http://clipart-library.com/

On the contrary, the powerless naively tries to exert his authority through the pompous display of his thoughts. He yearns to be in the limelight and wants to make his stand clear, loud and succinct his viewpoint. Even though his two-cents' thought is not cared for much by anyone, he feels contended. He had stood for his rights like it would change the course of the celestial bodies! Feeling contented that he has done the right thing, his life is blissful. He knows he would be rewarded handsomely one fine day.

The puppet-master and the wise ones remain in the background, smiling to themselves, watching the drama unfold and probably chomping on their popcorn.

Take women empowerment, for example. A person who earns her living through the flesh business would insist that it is her prerogative to do whatever job she so wishes. It is her right. A lady donning the hijab or purdah would insist that nobody can tell her what to wear. Conversely, her counterpart who does not believe that she should cover her bare essentials to show her piety would utter the same. That it is her right to don what she wants. Nobody could curb her freedom or her fashion sense. See how both parties use the same right to prove their point. A third person would just snigger, trying his best not to tell them that they are both being used.

The poor would say it is their right to have McDonald in their backyard. They should not be denied of modernity. When the effects and diseases of modernity affect them, they would insist that it is only human rights to be treated for diseases that they would not have got in the place, if they were contented with their old way of living.

We are just sheep, following the herd marching willing and religiously to the slaughter without realising our folly but convinced that it is the best and only thing to do.

All lives matter?

*Terms and conditions apply!

The newest battle cry screams 'Black Lives Matter'. Of course, it is the only politically correct thing to say, that all lives are precious, irrespective of race, colour and class.

Nice on paper, nice to hear but not in practice. It is an undeniable fact that some lives matter more than others. Rather than thinking that race, colour and creed are determining factors on who should live and who should just bite the bullet and disappear, I would like to think that money is the common denominator that saves everybody's skin in the end.

In this time and age, the dictum 'Health is Wealth' no longer holds water. It should be rewritten as ' Wealth assures good Health'. As the cost of medical services snowballs by leaps and bounds, governments and health providers are running to cut cost. Even though the world has the technological know-how or at least have access to some experimental techniques to treat some potentially fatal illnesses, the cost may be a limiting factor. How many times have we heard of doors to expensive modalities of treatment being shut for non-affordability? With the wave of stacks of the greenback, even cadavers would open their gap to volunteer organ donation! True, entitlement to basic health care is a human right. That is how it is going to be for the (m)asses, basic with bare necessity. Looking at the way medical services have evolved over the years, it appears like it is only affordable to the demigods. The rest of the mortals can only live their lives on a prayer or just go to hell.


Even God could not help you if you walked on the wild side to cross the wrong aspect of the law, especially if you are born or happen to live on the wrong side of town. How quickly a false arrest, misunderstanding or just being in the wrong place wrong time can develop into something unbailable. Legal representation for the barrel scraper is at the liberty of the unskilled novice defender of justice. With affluence, with the best representation that money can buy, Lady Justice would gladly tilt the scales in your favour. Echoes of wrongful arrests, technicalities, loss of cold chain, incompetencies of the force may be heard loud and clear.

It is 'Animal Farm' all over again where some animals are 'more equal' than others. Some lives matter more than others.