Doctors, medical students, journalists and the Bloem

A post of a similar nature had been on my mind for quite some time now, but unfortunately owing to the lack of time, textbooks to study and a lot of personal grief had not allowed me to get the job done!

Anyways , the incident at the BLoem a few days back finally made me sit down in front my computer and start typing this post.

Having been a journalist first and a medical student second and hopefully( provided that I pass the innumerable exams) a doctor third, I was initially inclined to believe that the fault lay with the Med Students that attacked the photographers. Later I found out through media reports and first hand anecdotes of the experience from my frnds that the Daily Mirror report had been erroneous ... not surprising they were never a stickler for the truth!
Having worked as a journalist for about 6 or 7 months and been in situations such a the Rupavahinigate incident I learned that a journalists best friend is his PRESS ID. Flash it and your in.. doors that were closed before magically open, the people that weren't willing to talk earlier suddenly become very talkative (provided that you don't reveal their identity.)

A fundamental mistake made the two or three LD journalists was that they refused to identify themselves. Having been in the industry I know personally that having a notepad and pen or a camera in hand does wonders for your ego.. but makes you feel like you are a class above the rest.. after all we are the fourth pillar of democracy.

In any case in this day and age a guy that goes around photographing people or places without identifying themselves is rather suspicious and elicits a certain amount of attention. True. hammering the buggers might have been a ad bit too drastic but then again these Med Students are at the end of their tether with studying until their eyeballs fall out, hectic clinicals and a lot of pent up youthful energy.

Another reason that inspired me to write this post were the comments on the DM web portal, they were discriminative if not abusive towards doctors, but since many doctors don't have the time to log on to the web page let alone glance through the headlines I doubt they cared anyway!

The case is this, a Sri Lankan doctor who comes out through a government university( mind you there are a good many that come from China,Russia, INdia etc.) has literally sacrificed his entire entire young life towards the art(or Science) of Medicine. HAd these individuals chosen another path MAnagement, Accountancy or MArketing they would have completed their degrees in half the time it takes to earn an MBBS.

The average starting salary for a doctor is a paltry 17,000, mind you that is with 6 years of higher education... I earned close to that amount working as a part time creative writer at an ad agency! Ten years , a masters degree and a fellowship later they are rewarded with a salary of 50,000... Factor in the enormous job responsibilities, irregular work hours and extrmely poor working conditions....

In places like the US a doctor earns close to 1 million starting, in the UK a consultant earns more than 2 million even in Malaysia where my dad was rcently offered a post as a lecturer in a Medical Faculty; he was offered close to 700,000.

True, doctors earn a bit of dough with their private practice, but honestly speaking with the current rte of inflation is it possible for a doctor for whom a car, a mobile and fuel are essentials ( not luxuries) to live on 50,000 bucks a month. Then again PP takes place after their regular work hours( if they can ever be termed regular), I mean you wouldn't make a big deal of a peon plucking a few coconuts after his work hours to earn a couple of bucks right?? So whats the big deal about doctors doing private work.. I mean its not as if they are rolling in cash.. a staff officer at HSBC makes more cash than a consultant surgeon!

A common complaint among the public is that doctor who are educated from public funds venture abroad in search of jobs.. I don't blame them! Given the attitude of the authorities in SL I am surprised that any actually stay!

I remember n incident once when a neurosurgeon asked the Hon.Health Minister to order a drill ( bear in mind that this is a basic requirement) the minister asked why? to drill your head??

Everyone in this country be it Nimal Siripala, Mahinda or MErvyn are educated out of public funds, the accountants, the managers all of them are educated in public schools.. don't they go abroad.. whats the big deal about doctors going abroad.

A couple of weeks ago in Uni, we were asked why we chose medicine, someone answered because of the gratitude the patients show towards the doctor when they get better...
We were told don't expect gratitude u'l never get it!

Truer Words have never been spoken...

We can all make a difference!

Sometime ago I challenged the claim as to whether one man could really make a difference. In that argument I stated that it would be impossible for a single man to make great changes, especially without the support of a large group. Every great historical figure who made change, did not do so on his or her own.

But now I want to talk about a slightly different angle. What I am saying is that we can all make a difference, but just not on such a large scale. The reason I say this is wherever you are, whatever you're doing no matter how insignificant you're having some kind of impact on your environment and those who are around you.

At they very least, you're disturbing the air and other particles around you. But beyond that the things you say to other people and the things you do do matter. You might not be able to move a mountain, but several small actions can add up to big changes.

There was an interesting idea I read once, I can't remember where exactly but it said that sometimes an organization might have an employee who isn't the most productive, but his or her impact plays a part with other employees. The example that they cited was that there might be an office clown who makes everybody laugh but does little work themselves. From a management perspective firing that employee makes the most sense, but once done, a much larger unforeseen negative effect may result as a whole.

This is really the same old idea that you can't see the impact of something until its suddenly no longer there anymore. In a similar manner we can never truly know what kind of impact we're making, if we weren't there the people around us may all be very different.

Since we know we make some kind of difference, shouldn't we then make an effort to leave as much positive impact behind us? It is my belief that we all influence each other to quite a large degree, and its quite frankly unavoidable. This is even evident in certain words being adopted amongst a group that may have originally originated from only one individual.

I spoke to someone once who was in a home of sorts for those with mental issues. This guy had overworked his brain with studying and had basically in a nutshell overdone it. The details of that are for another post, but this guy told me some of his theories, which were pretty interesting.

The one I'm going to mention is one regarding positive influences. He said that wherever we are, we should attempt to reduce negative externalities. The example he gave me was that if you're mother calls you and you're studying, you're response might be one of annoyance, because quite frankly you're in the middle of something. That negative energy will get transferred to your mother putting her in a bad mood, and then she might channel this negative energy elsewhere.

His solution, be mindful of your actions. A positive response there, would disperse positive energy in to another person which would hopefully pass onward. It's a simple cause and effect chain really.

So to wrap up... you might not be able to change the World on your own, but your smallest actions can have a sizable impact on your environment and those around you, especially in the long run. What you do... matters.

Procrastination... the worst thing to do!

How many times have you sat there, thinking, waiting, planning that perfect thing you were gonna do? It's got to be perfect, examine all the variables, 1+1=2.5 etc etc. But in the end, the moment passes and the final result... you achieved nothing.

We're all looking for perfection in so many areas, but is there ever anything in life that is completely perfect? I don't think so. Then why do things have to be perfect, or just right? Why do we plan them in such a way since it's never going to happen? Who knows? Probably because we really want to pull off everything just right.

In reality nothing is perfect, no inanimate object, no person. Nothing. In fact if things were perfect life would be pretty boring and maybe it's the very imperfections that make life interesting. Without the failures and imperfections, how would we ever know to celebrate the events and successes that go close to perfection?

For that very reason imperfection itself is needed, it's a necessary 'evil' if you will. A good friend of mine recently told me that the advice I'd given him was very good. What was the advice? Well if you're going to write something, just write a piece of crap first, then refine it. Otherwise if you try to write a Picasso from the start you're never getting anywhere.

And it's this same attitude that works with a lot of things. The first mobile phones have nothing on the ones we use today. Did they try and make the ultimate phone on the first day? Hell no! They slowly bit by bit improved the technology until we ended up with what we have today. Everything has got to start somewhere, and if you're going to do something momentous, it's a long long, long, long, slow road ahead.

I'm not going to be one of those (what I like to call) 'false prophets' who tell you that you can get up tomorrow and change your entire life in a day. That's a load of bullcrap and that 'high' feeling is only going to last so long before it evaporates right back in to the nothingness it came from. What you can do is be aware of something, and then take your time to achieve it. It doesn't come overnight like some wonder drug.

I'm going to round off with this: If you're going to wait for the perfect moment, or to unleash that perfect thing, chances are... you'll be waiting forever!

Real Women? What Rubbish

I recently came across this article on the webportal of the daily mirror newspaper, though i guess it would be more appropriate to call it a press release or an advertorial...

Anyways it gives one the impression that women are told what to wear by society etc. I wonder who exactly formulates these so called boundaries or standards of society. Minoli and Shyamalee both of them being editors of hip and trendy magazines are am sure quite influential in formulating these so called 'norms of society' as far as they concern woman's attire..

I mean lets be honest, Hi!! Magazine is not going put a shabbily dressed woman with no makeup etc. on it front cover right? Neither is Adoh (if it could be called a magazine, it's nothing more than a worthless tabloid made up of stuff downloaded off the internet!)

And the worst... Anithra- now that's a first.. an ex-fashion model telling us that women are bound by the shackles of society when it comes to dress!!
Reality Check: whatever shackles there maybe you had a hand in creating them!

As far as am concerned, this whole Real Women balderash is nothing more than a marketing gimmick aimed at those middle aged women who want to be told that they are at the cutting edge of fashion...

From a purely business perspective I really think that Cotton Collection has got it wrong.. firstly if you are an upmarket clothing store you really don't want to tell your customers that it's ok to dress down or as they say to be a real woman.

Secondly, they are alienating a whole market segment.. the young, with the whole 'real" thing.. the young want to be glamorous and trendy.. reality can wait!

Thirdly, i find it quite offensive to be told that these three well to do women are 'real' women. Frankly speaking 'real' women in this country do not attend hosh posh cocktails or shop at CC.

But just in case anyone wants to try out this whole 'Real Woman" thing I suggest you sign up our Golden Girl Sussie as the brand ambassador. Now thats a real woman for u!

We all make mistakes

"We all make mistakes: some are small, some are large" those are the opening words spoken by Princess Kaileena in the hit video game, The Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones.

Those words are very true. It's a completely unavoidable part of life, we all make mistakes. That's a consequence of doing anything. Some people may want to try and avoid making mistakes, but that's an impossibility.

You can try and play it safe and not make any major life changing mistakes, but then at the same time you'll never make any positive life changing actions either because that takes risk, which could lead to failure, and thereby a perceived mistake.

Not taking action to avoid making mistakes is in my opinion a mistake in itself. There's nobody on the planet who isn't afraid of making a mistake, after all who wants to make one? But it happens... time after time.

Maybe we should just accept that mistakes are a part of life and that a key part of a mistake is that its not intentional. As a person who didn't make the mistake, maybe we shouldn't be so hard on those who did.

Then there's always people who say 'If only I had done this', or 'if only I had done that... then my life would be different!' My answer to that... yet another good quote.

"There are no choices. Nothing but a straight line. The illusion comes afterwards, when you ask 'Why me?' and 'What if?'. When you look back and see the branches, like a pruned bonsai tree, or forked lightning. If you had done something differently, it wouldn't be you. It would be someone else looking back, asking a different set of questions."

Max Payne in Max Payne 2

Now you may be saying... 'tsk tsk, this guy is crazy... getting quotes from videogames? Get real!' But then that too might be a mistake. To me it doesn't really matter where the inspiration comes from or in what medium, good stuff is good stuff. There are only good ideas and bad ideas, it doesn't matter where they come from.

To sound off... I'm gonna say... you're going to make mistakes. Face it, accept it. It's inevitable. What's more important is what you do after you've made a mistake. Are you going to clam up and pretend it never happened, go in to a rage, or maybe, just maybe... you might turn it in to something constructive. Who knows... sometimes a mistake might put you in an even better place than you ever imagined.

Elvis; the King and the Reality TV

They say that he’s the king of rock and roll. A master craftsman, the way I like to put it, in singing as well as in shrewd performance. He surely changed the whole concept of American pop culture and will be in the hearts of millions in years to come.

But my question is can we see another Elvis in future? Whether you agree or not my immediate answer will be a big “NO”. Why is this? The main reason is today’s growing reality TV trends. America started the big commercialization of the subject and it went on like a plague through out the world.

It’s true that the programs like “American Idol” paved they way for hidden talents and a lot of people got a chance to showcase their talent (or misery) for millions of viewers around the world. But the thing is that as the season changes you tend to loose track of previous guys and then focus on the new breed. Nowadays artists are like commodities; Commodities which are sold in your local supermarket. As the days go by, when the season changes people tend to look for the newer products.

The new generation of artists are more dependent because of their heavy marketing campaigns, PR gimmicks and heavily paid record deals and they can’t see out of this system. So it’s doubted that whether they can stay in the hearts of people for ages like their retro counterparts.

Defining the Undefinable

“Love is a many splendoured thing…” so goes the words in that timeless love song. To venture into the task of even trying to define ‘Love’, is close to impossible, because ‘Love’, in my opinion, does not have one definition. It means different things to different people; passion, romance, understanding, friendship, caring, lust, etc. To me, ‘Love’ is “an experience of a lifetime, where you want to spend your whole lifetime with that person to whom you can give your whole lifetime”.

The most unbelievable thing about ‘Love’ is that you seem to know everything about it before you experience it, but once you’ve had a taste of true ‘Love’, you discover that you don’t know a thing about it. When you’re out of ‘Love’, you’re a professional in it, but when you’re ‘in Love’, you’re a mere novice. Before ‘falling in Love’ you’ve no doubt had plans about your first date, first kiss and even your first child’s name. Yet once you’re ‘in Love’, you find yourself as weak as a dried up leaf caught in a whirlwind.

Why is ‘Love’ always an ad hoc thing? Why do all our plans of ‘Love’ just fly off the window when we’re actually ‘in Love’? Why do things almost always ‘accidentally happen’ when you’re in ‘Love’? Is it because good things take time but great things happen all at once? Hmmm…

Most of us spend countless time planning our love lives with someone who (in most cases) never loves us back. Yet, when we do actually find the true ‘Love’ of our lives, it’s a person who loves us back, and it mostly seems like an “accident”. So instead of trying desperately to implement our ‘well planned’ love life with that ‘dream’ person, we find ourselves following a ‘real’ well designed plan customized just for us by our ‘real’ true ‘Love’

Often we look for roses with thorns while not seeing the soothing lilies blossoming right before us. We seek for the fictitious diamond while foregoing the ruby we see on the way. We are often blinded by fantasy ‘Love’, that we don’t see true ‘Love’ just waiting patiently for us to discover it.

In my opinion, ‘Love’ is not about seeking the mythical pot of leprechaun gold, it is about walking the rainbow which transports us from gloomy clouds into colourful skies.