The UN's De Schutte: an academic or ill-informed (but not both without contradiction)

In 1966 Senator Robert Kennedy visited South Africa at the invitation of the then National Union of South African Students (NUSAS.) When Senator Kennedy was criticized in the government- controlled media for daring to comment on South Africa's problems when he had only been in the country a short time, Alan Paton responded with a parable where he compared South Africa to "a room full of people with all the doors and windows closed, and all the people smoking and drinking and talking. And a stranger from outside opens the door and exclaims- Phew What a fug in here ! And they shout at him: How do you know ? You only just came in." (In: Peter Alexander. Alan Paton: A Biography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 343.) - quoted in http://www.rfksafilm.org/html/back.php
Of course, the apartheid regime in South Africa (and their lackey media supporters) was not the first government in the world to get prickly in response to criticism from *outsiders*, nor the only one. Hitler didn't like it either. George Bush hardly welcomed outside criticism and more recently one thinks immediately of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Gaddafi in Libya, and the governments of China, Cuba, North Korea, Egypt, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan.
Sadly, the present Canadian Government in the persons of Immigration Minister Jason (the UN is out of line) Kenney and Health Minister Leona (He's an ill-informed and patronizing academic) Aglukkaq has shown itself to be just as prickly toward the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter who recently blasted Canada for tolerating inequality and lack of access to nutritious diets among its poor and First Nation citizens.
Olivier De Schutter, whose damning report is based on an 11-day visit to Canada, says the country's rate of food insecurity is "unacceptable" and called on the federal government to adopt a national right-to-food strategy.
"What I've seen in Canada is a system that presents barriers for the poor to access nutritious diets and that tolerates increased inequalities between rich and poor, and aboriginal and non-aboriginal peoples," De Schutter told reporters in Ottawa Wednesday.
See CTV News:: http://m.ctv.ca/winnipeg/20120516/UN-Right-to-Food-monitor-De-Schutter-120516.html
The funny thing about truth is that it stands on its own through the shifting sands of time even though some powerful people think it can be decreed or established (or not) by majority vote. The judgement of history has never been kind to such as these.
I cannot help thinking that De Schutter is about as ill-informed about the subject of his speciality as was Bobby Kennedy or as the scientists whose jobs have been cut by a government finding its ideology at odds with the evidence from their research.
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A Bad Catheter Day Gets Worse

Be warned. The catheter doesn't make for a good story even considering the nice flexible hoses that they use today compared to the bronze artifacts of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks & Romans. Through culpable carelessness I managed to make a bad day worse than it threatened to be.

It started last night, actually. I managed to aggravate something while trying to be diligent about the twice daily catheter hygiene that the nurse had given me strict and detailed instructions about. My poor thing became quite swollen. Thank the Lord for painkillers which enabled me to sleep most of the night. It wasn't as bad this morning but I still felt like I had gone *backward* a few days and was not up to walking around outside as I had done the previous day, really enjoying the glorious weather even with a catheter bag strapped to my calf.

After lunch the serviceman came from Rogers Cable to fix our Internet which has been out of action the last three days. After nearly two hours he worked out that the whole street was out and it won't be fixed until the day after tomorrow. By the time that he left I needed to do a bit of *tending* to myself which involved standing in the bath. As I stepped out of the bath with catheter bag still strapped to one leg I managed to snare the other foot in the tubing while stepping down... As my son, Stephen, pointed out when I told him, I now have a new baseline for 10 on my personal pain scale. Fortunately the worst of the pain was fleeting and the catheter is still draining the bladder with no obvious evidence of bleeding. ...and thank goodness for pain killers.

So, if you are coming up for prostate surgery, be sure to put this high on your list of no-no's to avoid at all costs.
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In grateful memory of the first catheter patients

Sometime in your day after reading this blog please observe a minute's silence in grateful memory of those first patients who constituted the human trials for the first catheters. Suddenly the catheter occupies more of my attention than anything else in my day. I read that the Egyptions documented the use of catheters 3000 BC(E). I am grateful to be living in a First World country in 2012.
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First Pictures of Caitlyn Grace

We have a name: Caitlyn Grace McCann Boothroyd

Mother and daughter

Oma, Caitlyn, Miriam

Her Royal Cuteness

Miriam, Alan (Geoff's dad)

A Warm Welcome to Baby Boothroyd

Please join with Miriam, Geoff and Claire in welcoming Baby Girl Boothroyd into the world of their family. Born 30 April 2012 at 22:45; weight 7.5 lbs, 3.4 kg. In the end it took 3 good pushes from Miriam. Mother and daughter are both fine. Baby Boothroyd has a fine voice (I heard it over the phone) and is latching and suckling very nicely.

Baby Boothroyd

WOO-HOO !!!

We now know why Miriam and Geoff were keeping the name a secret. They didn't have one !!! For now she's Baby Boothroyd. Claire's been calling her Baby all along.