How doth Bush hate us? Let us count the ways

Here is a list of the treaties that Bush and/or other American administrations have undermined:

1 Refusal to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)
2 Opposed to strengthening the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC)
3 Withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
4 Criticism of the anti-personell land mines treaty
5 Criticism of UNs proposal on the control of light arms
6 Opposition to the International Criminal Court
7 Reluctance to co-operate on conventions on terrorism
and finally, of course,
8 Rejection of the Kyoto Accords.

Is there perhaps some kind of pattern emerging here?
Is Dubya trying to tell us something?

Such as, "International agreements come out of the bomb-bay of a B-52".
Or possibly "Why should I need to sit round a boring table? Bombing people is much more fun".

TRYPTICH

1 Clearing Out


Burdened by books
he is a spring
compressed between
the single root of all this fine reality
and tablets of wooden thought
that made him what he thinks he is

work out the weight of all these fetishes
not good enough to use
not bad enough to be destroyed



2 Advertisement

that flawless leg
sheathed in fine-spun fibre
will fade, grow veins
grow weak and rot away:
the plastic will outlast the leg



3 Power Comes In Many Forms

invisible detritus
the stable substance
that leaves an unseen cloud
weaving its way
among the sky blue air
so that the first wave of the web
breaks down

who cares? we are the Man
no-one can prove I killed your child
your father mother friend
prove it in court of law

reeling back
caught in the fork between
necessity and reason

go die for your beloved frogs
you child

Sclerosis is a form of power

Is willingness to try new paths another?



(c) Richard Lawson
Autumn 2004

Day Ruined by Wonks

My day entirely ruined by going to a GP meeting with the new CEO of the PCT and Chair of the Strategic Health Authority. I knew I shouldn't have gone. 90 minutes of unadulterated manager speak. The only use would have been to have set up a game of Jargon Bingo, when you cross off phrases like "aspirational targets" "patient oriented" and "communication". Only we didn't get it together to set up the Bingo cards. We did (I say we - a handful of GPs and an armful of practice managers) set up some questions, but the SHA chair filibustered on them. Total waste of time. When they went it got worse, as we had a presentation on Choose and Book, where we offer patients 4 - 5 different places to go to when we refer them. This is a total waste of time as we do not have any meaningful availability of Outpatient places.

The most interesting part was a sotto voce discussion with a neighbour as to whether the detachment from reality represented by this kind of managerial tinkering is better characterised as psychotic or dissociative.

It must have been a bit like this during the Cultural Revolution in China.

Then came back to a staff meeting to discuss what would happen if, as seems likely, we cannot get anyone to take over the practice. Cannot say I blame them. Who would want to take over a practice in the New NHS, implementing stupid initiatives dreamed up by Bliar and the policy wonks in the NHS think tanks?

The B'stard Syndrome

Stress at work costs economy £100bn a year, says Mind and they go on to do the stuff about symptoms and personality factors.

What they missed out is what I call the "Bastard Syndrome".

Faced with work stress, I ask first "Are you doing two peoples' work?" , to which he patient replies either "Yes, how did you know that?" or, "No, three people's work."

And if the answer is "No", I ask where the Bastard is. This gives them the opportunity to sound off about the boss or the office bully.

Bastards can be identified because they have lots of people in their office going off sick.

But because they are bastards they will see to it that they do not get identified.