Happy Birthday Ann :-)

“Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.”

Health Minister Ann Keen turns 61 today, so, Happy Birthday Ann and many happy returns of the day ... and you're looking absolutely gooooorgeous! I mean come on, look at her! 20, 30, 40, 50 year olds ... eat your heart out! :-)

Then again, Ann was born a good looking woman anyway and have always looked good. But, not so long ago she was a bit over weight and fat does make you look older ...


But she was very attractive still ... look at that smile! And as I said, being overweight does eventually take it's toll, especially with age and so, here is a close up of how she used to look like until recently .. assuming this picture below was taken at the same time as she is wearing the same brown suit and accessories too

Then again, part of why Ann has always been beautiful is this optimism indicated by her drive to achieve as well as that smile ... for her 'age is just a man made number' ... I like that because it is what it really is, a ficticious number! .. and she smiles everywhere she goes too, whether working or not ... Nice! :-)

But then Ann decided she was going to lose the extra weight, improve the way she looked and promote her own health ... with this absolutely amaazing result above and below ... and she looks rrravishing for it too! I sincerely mean that :-)

That's the way! Ann is my type of girl .. a woman who wants to live life to the full at any age, she is assertive, energetic, fully charged and ready for whatever life throws at her .. and for a bright future ahead ... good for you Ann :-)

... and I was thinking, with this new drive to promote health and well being among NHS staff, success stories like Ann's should be promoted to act as a role model, maybe on the High Quality Care for All site too. After all, Ann has always worked in health herself .. and what better impact can that have on motivating NHS staff? ... to do the same and care for their own health and well being as Ann did. So, forget about celebrities ... it would be more effective if Ann let everybody know how she did it .. perhaps give a step by step instruction on how and what she did to achieve this beautiful new her ...which diet and describe in detail what she had to eat, and if she had to follow a special regime of exercise to go alongside her dieting and what that entailed ... etc, etc ... Let everybody learn from her experience ..

... and I am not NHS staff, but I am thinking, I would be over the moon if I too can manage to look that good now, let alone when I am 61! Especially now that I have put on lots of unwanted weight after quitting smoking, I need to lose it too but it is not easy as I am still very hungry all the time still :-) Soooo, I too want to know how she done it too .. and I will be the first one to follow ...

.. and .. as the saying goes, “That man never grows old who keeps a child in his heart” .. I think Ann has one and I hope it stays .. always ... no ageing population here, eh? :-)

Happy Birthday Ann ... and good for you ... and isn't that ensemble below chic! ... and those accessories tooo ...

.. and it's time for my daily dose of Tom and Jerry ... sooo bye for now ... :-)


“We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”























“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”

Now you see me, now you don't!

"it was just an illusion caused by the temporary absence of reality.”

Here is what happens when you force young people into doings what they are not up for:

University accused of £36m student scam

"The body which funds English universities has taken the unprecedented step of calling for the mass resignation of governors at a university accused of misusing public money ... It follows two damning reports which revealed that the university falsely claimed funding for thousands of students. As a result it has been ordered to repay an unprecedented £36m in funding – which is expected to lead to hundreds of job losses among academic staff.

The reports, one from Sir David Melville, former vice-chancellor of Kent and Middlesex universities, and the other from Deloitte, the accountancy firm, found that London Metropolitan failed to keep track of students at the university or ensure they sat exams at the end of the year ... As a result it continued claiming funding from the Government on the basis of an artificially low drop-out rate, getting funding for far more students than were attending the university. Its failure to keep track of the students meant that many would not get the kind of help they needed to stay on their courses.

The case highlights a lack of care towards students from some of the most disadvantaged backgrounds in higher education. Inner-city universities such as London Metropolitan take far more youngsters whose families have no history of entering university than the average – just the kind of people the Government is trying to attract into staying on in education.

Sir David Melville's report laid much of the blame at the door of the former vice-chancellor, Professor Brian Roper, who resigned this year. But it suggested that the problems were endemic. Sir David wrote: "I received over 50 such submissions, from a wide range of staff, predominantly academics but also including some from support staff. They attest to problems of student data quality over many years and provide many detailed examples of the difficulty of removing students from the record whom they know to have left or who never ever appeared.

"[There was] a strongly held view amongst staff and students that student academic potential is not being realised by a laissez-faire attitude ... and a failure to provide much-needed extra support for the many students admitted with modest educational backgrounds."

There you go! Blame it on the academics! Not on the flawed policy that is obssessed with forcing those who are not prepared .. or even interested .. into university.

Young people from deprived backgrounds have a history of working hard when they are really motivated to gain a university degree and have always succeeded in getting into the best educational establishments who were always keen to get them. But then the government decided to 'widen the access', then promoted the idea that a degree was the thing to go for whether you have the academic inclination or not! After all, we're going to help you do it!

Only it doesn't work this way, that's why students enrol and either drop out or never show up to begin with! Young people have their own minds and mostly know what they are capable of doing themselves ... and not everybody is suitable for university ... and not every degree is worth the paper it is written on either ... judging by this above alone!

Why doesn't the government give it a rest and let those young people choose for themselves what they themselves want to do?!

.. and, why turn a compassionate vocation into an intellectual obligation?!

Could this above be the future of that forced degree in Nursing too?
Interesting comments on that article too ... ;-)

[24 Nov 2009 - Article on the same subject in The Guardian]

“We must select the illusion which appeals to our temperament and embrace it with passion"

Dada!

"Dada was not art, it was "anti-art." For everything that art stood for, Dada was to represent the opposite. Where art was concerned with traditional aesthetics, Dada ignored aesthetics. If art was to appeal to sensibilities, Dada was intended to offend."

The blogosphere is awash with Lord Darzi talk today, although one must add that this has been the case ever since he left office! Again, never has a minister generate so much interest while in office or, indeed, months and months after he left office! ... Do they all miss'em?! ... it seems so, don't it?!

And ... what is being said at the moment sounds sooo Dada to me!

Dada ... Or the 'anti' movement of art and culture of the early 20th century, where artists rebelled against anything, good And bad, just for the sake of rebellion! .. and, as you can see, the result was this always busy 'cut or copy and paste' or 'anything to stick'm together' neo type of art! The beauty about Dada was more emphasised when one Dada artist finished one piece of work only for another to come, or even the same artist, and rebel against it with another piece!

... and where is Lord Darzi while all this is happening?! He's here ... somewhere ... if you can find him ....

... and no comment ... cos I'm just recording history this time ...


... I like Dada ... it must be that sort of engineered, yet rebellious and liberating feel, I think... I even have a go at it myself ... sometimes ... ) ;-



“He's a serial entrepreneur. Somebody stop him before he makes a killing again.”






















Paintings by Hannah Hoch ... and ...

Hopping mad!

Il est des parfums frais comme des chairs d'enfants,
Doux comme les hautbois, verts comme les prairies,
— Et d'autres, corrompus, riches et triomphants,

(There are perfumes that are fresh like children's flesh,
sweet like oboes, green like meadows
— And others, corrupt, rich, and triumphant)

How do you expect a business to function effectively when it's managers average stay in post is 18 months?! I understand this is the average time an NHS manager spends in post before s/he hops along to another more lucrative post! .. and still within the NHS too regardless of the trail of incompetence a manager leaves behind!

"Ms Young was allowed to spend up to £5,000 each time without permission from her board, but she did not follow instructions and her actions were only found out when she left the job in September 2008.

As a result of the overspend, the cancer network was forced to shelve and postpone some projects, including a training scheme to make doctors communicate better with the parents of dying children.

A confidential report seen by the BBC showed that between 2007 and 2008, Ms Young had overspends of £63,000 on printing, £107,000 on advertising, £108,000 on hardware and £539,000 on consultancy ... "

... then she ran away! But was she never found so that she can be held to account for this mess?!

"She has since moved to a new job as a senior commissioner for that PCT."

Oh no! She is STILL working for the NHS! ... and STILL responsible for SPENDING NHS money! ... and .. she declined to comment saying she preferred her 'New' employer did so instead!

Management in the NHS is a lucrative job for life! .. and the managers do make sure no one from outside the NHS will ever be allowed into their gravy train to this day as management job ads always ensure there is something in the detail to stop anyone from outside the NHS applying! Like; having a number of years NHS experience, a number of years in a large organisation, knowledge of specific NHS software, procedures .. etc .. etc Look on the NHS jobs site!! ... and so, the circuit is definitely closed .. and electrifies anyone else who dares come near it, egardless whether they can do the job better! .. and, of course, if you are an NHS manager, you have your guaranteed job for life .. and ... you can also get away with murder when you hop along from one NHS employer to another 'New' NHS employer!

... Meanwhile, there is not enough money to train Health Care professionals, the DoH is suggesting raiding the doctors in training wage fund to pay for same! ... and what do you do with those doctors! SACK THEM ... and give their jobs to the nurses!

This whole thing makes sense, doesn't it? ... so long as the managers are happy! ... who cares about doctors?!

Introduce competition to those managers; make it illegal to advetise NHS jobs asking for NHS specific criteria to open up all those NHS management posts to outside talent to flood in - if only for the sake of saving all this wasted money as well ass effeciency!

! And if doctors will need to be revalidated in the future, why don't 'all' NHS manager's get revalidated too?! Meaning, each manager within the whole of the NHS be made to undergo thorough performance evaluation then get to hold a license to show and prove how 'fit for purpose' they are before they are allowed to hop along and be accepted for a 'New' job by a 'New' employer still within the NHS! ... and if, like those money squandering managers above, if a manager fouls up then runs away from post before they are found out, once they are, their licence would be revoked and a sack becomes due regardless of who employs them so long as they are still within the NHS ... and before more harm is done!

Show me 'your licence' Mr or Ms manager! ...

No valid licence .. No 'New' job in the NHS!


Je suis l'Empire à la fin de la Décadence,
Qui regarde passer les grands Barbares blancs
En composant des acrostiches indolents
D'un style d'or où la langueur du soleil danse.

("I am the Empire at the end of the decadence,
who watches the large, white barbarians passing,
while composing lazy acrostic poems in a gilded style
in which the languor of the sun dances.")













Paintings by James Ensor

Silly idea! :-)

“An idea is salvation by imagination.”

The NHS needs to make 'savings' of 20 Billion in the next few years. But why concentrate only on making 'savings'?! Why not try to make money as well?! :-)

If operating theatres are becoming as sophisticated as aeroplanes' cockpits, then why not give hospital grounds the same treatment as in an airport?

When you go to airport, you expect to find somewhere to have a 'nice' cup of coffee, eat a decent sandwich or meal .. buy a bar of soap .. a toothbrush or even a game or a camera .. or a nice bottle of perfum ... get a book to read on the plane, buy a new nightie or even gifts to take to those you're visiting ... or for your own use on that holiday ..

Why not be able to get the same treatment from a hospital?!

Hospitals have vast grounds that are not efficiently used at the moment and apart from treating disease, they do not provide the 'retail' services that their 'customers' expect of such large establishments despite the 'guaranteed' influx of people going through their doors everyday!

At the moment, a patient, relatives and friends, would be lucky to find a coffee and tea vending machine or a small no-seats or very limited coffee shop inside a hospital. And if a hospital has a shop, that will usually be the drap looking 'sell it all' from a newspaper to a stale pie that has been in that hot server for hours and only other meagre products like a bag of crisps, Mars bars and maybe a few apples and the odd looking sandwich or salad if you're lucky! Very off putting and inadequate as well as pathetic to look at too. Not 'Fit for purpose' IMHO.

I think hospitals should have a parade of 'proper specialist shops' to cater for the needs of it's clientele. If only because there is a need for those; patients needing toiletries or a night gown and some books and magazines for their in-hospital stay, for example ... or visitors and relatives needing a cup of 'drinkable' coffee or juice will seated in a proper facility .. a simple meal perhaps? Or even buy a proper 'get well card' or a nice present for the loved one they are visiting.

The solution is a proper parade of shops inside hospitals that have enough space to have them .. and hospitals need not bother with the admin or the running of these shops if they just make the space available then rent them out to private businesses that would want to open and run such shops for profit ...

Modern hospital .. Modern services .. sophisticated ... like in an airport!

A proper 'Starbucks' inside The Hammersmith Hospital perhaps? ... and a drug store ... a card shop .. a Pizza Hut ... a salad counter ... a gift shop ... baby clothes ... pyjamas? ...

I wonder how much money would hospitals make from the substantial income in the form of rents made from otherwise unused space? And since these shops will be inside hospitals, they will also provide an opportunity to promote well being and healthy living too ... if you choose your 'trade' right. Nice elegant shops wherever possible .. as well as providing a much needed and currently ignored services to patients, visitors and staff, it also changes the image of hospitals only providing a 'sick service' ... to providing prevention and well-being service too ... :-)


Modern hospital, modern outlook ... much like in an airport ... good for the 'patients' experience' ... and makes lots of money too!

There, that's called 'thinking out of the box' ... During a downturn, you don't just think of ways to 'save money', you also think of ways to 'make money' too ...

Will I now get the chance to start my own chain of drug stores .. and gift shops ... inside all those beauuuutiful hospitals soon? ... Yummmmm! ;-)

Hospitals given the airport treatment! Silly, silly idea! .. But ... does it have the potential to take off?


“Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.”

I've got the power! :-)

"The right is not created in the exercise of power, but if the right does not have the power to become established, then power will rule of itself."

Here is the 'Health' POWER list for 2009

And this one for 2008

Even those top 50 power wielders of 2007

... and I am wondering, what is the purpose of that list exactly? And what is the definition of power here? And, is there similar lists for other government departments? The 50 most powerful in defence for example? Or for The Home Office? Education perhaps? Or is it that this counting and celebrating of power is exclusive only to Health?! ... an irony!

I also wonder about the ethics of the celebrations of power that follows especially now because of the projected financial turbulence ahead!

And how do you hold people to account when you embed in them the very notion of possessing power in this way?! No wonder the list contains 'some' who badly need to present their accounts here!

And no wonder Professor Darzi did not attend the extravagant partying made in honour of these celebrations of power of 2008, despite being named as The most powerful in health! ... then again, he always said he 'does not do power'! ... no wonder he appears second in this years list despite resigning office!

And no wonder, there are so very few doctors mentioned in this quest for power! Funny that, since we are talking about health! .. and of course, there is that turbulence!

Now that needs to change sooo ... all you lucky powerful folk, repeat after me:

Clinical leadership ... clinical leadership ... clinical leadership ...

That's where the 'real' power to save the NHS is .. to stir it away from the turbulence .. and safe to shore!




“The attempt to combine wisdom and power has only rarely been successful and then only for a short while”

Dors! ... is .... Sleep!

Ecoute-moi, mon ami. Aimes-tu la liberté ? Voudrais-tu t'enfuir d'ici ? Aimerais-tu t'évader ? Veux-tu revivre à la vie, Marcher sans chaînes à tes pieds ? Oh, réponds-moi, mon ami, Aimerais-tu t'évader ?

Je sais comment... Comment scier tous ces barreaux Qui sont là en guise de rideaux. Je sais comment... Comment faire sauter les verrous Entre la liberté et nous.

Je sais comment... Comment faire tomber en poussière Ce mur énorme d'énormes pierres. Je sais commment... Comment de sortir de ce cachot Fermé comme l'est un tombeau.

Je sais comment
revoir les fleurs Sous un ciel bleu. Je sais comment avoir le cœur Libre et heureux...
Tu ne dis rien, mon ami, Mais tu as au fond des yeux Plus de rêves que d'envie Pour voir ce coin de ciel bleu.

Tu crois que je t'ai menti, Que je n'ai pas de secret. Pourtant, tes yeux l'ont compris C'est eux qui sont dans le vrai...
Je sais comment... Comment faire tourner sur ses gonds

La porte en fer de la prison.
Je sais comment...

Comment faire voler en éclats Les boulets qui gênent nos pas. Je sais comment... Comment briser de nos mains nues Toutes ses entraves sans être vus. Je sais comment... Comment sortir de ce cachot Sans risquer d'y laisser la peau. Je sais comment revoir les fleurs Sous un ciel bleu. Je sais comment avoir le cœur Libre et heureux...

Dors !...

Paintings: Henri Rousseau

NHS ... we're on The Frontline! :-(

“Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an allusion of philosophers and fools.”

"A major shake-up of the way trainee doctors are funded could see hospitals cut training posts for junior doctors and swap their posts for nurses"

"A briefing document by NHS Employers, seen by HSJ, outlines Department of Health proposals to cut central funding given to hospitals to cover the base salaries of junior doctors ... Funding to cover the salaries of junior doctors in their specialty training years would be drastically cut from 100 per cent for years three and four to 40 per cent and 25 per cent respectively ... The changes are being made to free up funding to better fund training places for nurses, midwives and all other healthcare professionals."

And who will be in charge of carrying out this masacre of all hopes? ... Medical Education for England! The 'body' that we thought was recently established to 'ring fence training monies for doctors in training'! ... Following the MMC/MTAS Battle Star Galactica Wars of 2007, when The Dept of Hellth raided 110,000,000 pounds of the juniors' training monies then rolled out the looney MTAS monster on mission 'Chop Chop' unvalidated and untested! ... The aftermath of the maiden MTAS vicious battle saw the so called 'Lost tribe', or a huge cohort of some of the best middle grade doctors in this country fleeing for their lives and their livelihoods! ... and lost to this country forever!

And instead of trying to entice the escapees back because of the shortages in middle grade doctors currently rife in English hospitals thus jeopardising patient safety, The Dept of Hellth also refused to challenge the EWTD, which restricts the number of hours of doctors to 48 hours at the most, thus 'ensuring' patient safety is affected! And you think, with all this new talk about patient safety, are they a crazy bunch on the loose up there or 'something' ?! Don't they realise that if they want to pass the fiscal turbulence ahead, they need to provide some stability to enable staff to operate at their best as well as innovate to keep he NHS ship afloat?! ... then you hear about this nurse for doctor stuff ... and you wonder no more ...

But then they also say that surveys show that staff satisfaction is currently 'very high'! A bit baffling, isn't it?! For how can 'satisfaction' be high when staff are threatened from every direction like that?! And the only explanation is; if you held some people in captivity, then told those people that some of them 'maybe' will be terminated in the near future - then asked them if they were happy, would anyone dare say no?!

And I was talking to one of my cousins who is a KPMG partner abroad the other day ... I was wondering how can a consultancy firm be paid hundreds of millions of pounds only to come back recommending 10% staff cuts! That's 137,000 jobs to go, to include doctors and nurses! Then politicians coming out straight after that report was published saying no, we won't follow this advice after all?! ... But there is an election round the corner!! It is really not that much to pay consultancy companies a 0.03% of a firm's income if the advice you get can improve your performance resulting in gains that would out way this initial expenditure by far. And .. When the McKinsies were employed to advise, didn't anyone brief them on what they were after as an end result?! Were they just told to go figure out a way of cutting costs, full stop! Didn't the top NHS executives sit with the reputable consultancy firm and tell them that reducing the work force was a no go area if that's what they had in mind; to protect the staff?! .. If those top executives didn't, then why are those incompetent fools sitting at the top of the tree squandering tax pays money on failed endeavours like this?! I find it really strange that you employ a huge and extremely expensive consultancy firm only to get such an obvious result out of it at the end! Of course, if you sack all the staff, you will save ALL the money spent on hiring them .. it then follows that if you sack 10%, you'll save 10% of that pay too! Why couldn't the heavy NHS executives figure that simple arithmetic out for themselves and save all this money they spent on consultancy firms?!

But now I wonder no more! For now I understand, from my cousin, that consultancy firms can also be employed to to give legitimacy to a pre-decided outcome, so that when it happens, those who took the pre-decision can say "Not me gov" .. then get away with murder!

Then you read this article in the link above and the last parts of the jigsaw fall into place! .. Those up there ... they are not crazy! .. It's much, much worse than that! ... It's Star Wars Galectica Part II, The Battle for Survival!

... and the comments on the same article gives a taster of the future of things to come ... if things are allowed to continue .. on the route to Destruction!

It's the creep!

Patients! ... for your own safety ... VACATE the grounds ...

And ... Let the battles begin! ...



“There is no glory in battle worth the blood it costs”

Going public?

“There are more things to alarm us than to harm us, and we suffer more often in apprehension than reality.”

I never just follow public opinion and just agree with the crowd when Ifeel I shouldn't. Because I think this is a very negative thing to do if what you believe to be right is different to public opinion. How else is the world going to advance otherwise?! Most of the times I will even voice my opinion despite the chance that I maybe resented for that ... it bothers me not .. I can also be more vocal with those I care most about because by voicing an opposite opinion which I believe to be true, I feel that this gives all parties the chance to think, to consider and then to weigh up the argument, before they arrive to a decision based their own moral compass .. without being affected by anything else except their inner self and the unbiased knowledge that helps make a sound decision, hopefully ... never always.

Unbiased thought leads to logic and logic leads to wisdom ... me thinks :-)

I have lately been following the row over Professor Nutt's advisory role as a scientist advising government on drugs. Professor Nutt made public his views, which he says, are based on scientific evidence; that alcohol and cigarettes were more harmful than Ecstasy and cannabis and that riding horses kills more people than cannabis ... or something to that effect. Hearing that the eminent scientist went public with a view that contradicts government policy, Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary asked Prof Nutt to resign ... and the row began ...

Then, Dr Grumble, who has been covering the whole Nutt affair, wrote in a comment here

"The public are not on Nutt's side."

And, as a none scientist, I think this may well be true. Because I believe Professor Nutt made a mistake by going public with his views! I am not on Professor Nutt's side despite firmly believing that he is an able and above board scientist. He wouldn't be a professor at Imperial College or an adviser to the government otherwise. And thanks to Dr Aust's comment here, I now understand why many members of the science community are angered by professor Nutt's sacking. But it seems the objection stems from 'technical' points of view re the relationship between science and the government and the Independence or lack of those advisers ... and whether politicians are to be considered dishonest if they do not follow scientific advice as given when making policy and .. whether a politician can sack an independent adviser to begin with .. etc

To me, those technical points are irrelevant! It is up to the government and it's advisers and helpers to regulate how they work together and that has nothing to do with me. Let alone that the public would understand how this relationship works or even want or care to understand . . What is more important to the public is the end result of this collaboration. In this case, I think the Professor was wrong to give information, in a public lecture, that may persuade an impressionable teenager, for example, to take this drug ecstasy with alcohol thinking it was ok, then end up dead! After all, science says it's more harmful to fall off a horse than to take Ecstasy, doesn't it!

To the wrong crowd, this is the wrong message ... and the consequences can be dire!

Two wrongs don't make a right! If cigarettes and/or alcohol kill more people than ecstasy, then do something about them ... not go ahead and promote/legalise ecstasy or other addictive drugs as well, especially when you are trying to control the first two! ... And I believe the home secretary must always have the upper hand when it comes to protecting the public from harm resulting from matters like this. Or indeed the alarm such views like Professor Nutts can generate when those are made public without government vetting and agreeing them first. That's what politicians are for!

I therefore believe Alan Johnson was right to do something about Prof Nutt going public with his contradictory to policy views. Especially because I read somewhere this was not the first time Prof Nutt did something similar either. I think it is such a shame a Professor of the standing and calibre of professor Nutt made such a mistake with a result that wasn't very nice for him. As apart from contradicting policy, this looks like a bit of 'arm bending' to force the government to oblige .. or so that looks like to an outsider like me. Hence, Alan Johnson's reaction, which now also has the approval of the conservatives! That said, humans make mistakes and do get held accountable for them too and that goes for scientists and doctors too. So, whether professor Nutt is paid for his advisory role or not, he has a 'moral' obligation that must go hand in hand with his jobs as an academic and a government adviser. This is an obligation like a doctor's obligation to 'put the patient first' .. only for an adviser on sensitive issues that will affect many lives and the public at large, this should read 'put the public first'! ... Everything else, including what to do with a piece of advice and/or how that science/government relationship should look like is secondary and ... should be done behind closed doors.

And in the public intrest and for the sake of justice; everyone, regardless of who they are, should be held accountable for what they say or do and for the effects of their action on the public ... Whether the punishment, if deemed necessary, should be a caution or a sacking? I don't know ... I leave that up to the politicians we elect to decide ... In this case, it is Alan Johnson .. an able politician I trust.


“The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.”

Shame on you! ... Cambridge?!

“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

Apparently, Cambridge university, no less, is going to allow Burkhas in it's graduation ceremonies!

"certain items of national dress, military uniform and religious garments – including the burkha – were allowed.

A spokesman confirmed burkhas could be worn under mortar boards but no one yet asked to do so.

He said: ''Religious dress and cultural observations are allowed at graduation. 'If a student has a religious or cultural obligation to wear something then we absolutely respect that."

But burkhas are not a religious garment nor a national dress! As for culture, that's one piece of culture that needs to be confined to the dustbin of history because it symbolises the oppression of women! That is what a Burkha stands for ... Opression!

There is no requirement in Islam for a woman to wear a burkha! Indeed, women would not be allowed to do Haj [pilgrimage to Mecca - Saudia] if they covered their faces! As it is a requirement for Haj that a woman abides by the diktat of the religion, which clearly states that women are to show their face and hands. This is to facilitate a woman's ability to get on with her daily life, as well as protect her from the health dangers of wearing a burkha, as many women go on to develop respiratory problems because of the obstruction to proper breathing as a direct result of wearing this nasty piece of cloth! ... think about cleanliness as well!

Burkhas are garments that were designed by some vindictive and oppressive MEN and imposed on women in order to control and suppress their voices! Those MEN were able, long time ago, to convince vulnerable women that covering their faces was a religious requirement when they knew for fact they were lying to suit their own purpose! Because it was, and still is in some parts of the world, much easier for those men to govern if half of all voices in their societies were/are silenenced!! To this day, women's 'Human rights' are being abused on a daily basis in places that still force women to wear burkhas! In such places, women are even beaten in the streets by MEN whose sole jobs is to walk those streets looking at women, closely watching their faces and their bodies! A proper irony! Those men are then allowed to hit, or in effect, assault, a woman with a stick if they deem it wanting to do so! Either because these women are not wearing the burkha in a way that covers their faces properly, or indeed for any other reason that does not suit the perverted opinion of those men! ... like wearing the 'abaya' or the black 'cover all' too close to the body, for example!

In those places, women are not allowed to do lots of thing; not to drive for example, Not even to drop her own children to school! But ... it is allowed that a single woman be driven by a strange man who will then be alone with her in a car ! Another proper irony! ... and there has been stories of women being sexually abused as a result! .. Again, we hear, as I have never been because I refuse to go on principal .. that women shops, including lingerie departments are served by men! Humiliation of the highest order! And a third proper irony that only serves to oppress and control women! ... etc ... etc, not forgetting women's legal rights and lack of social fairness either!

It is therefore very disappointing that a prestigious educational institution as dipped in a tradition based on human rights, principals and values as Cambridge, no less ... is allowing the burkha on their premises. Let alone allowing it to be worn together with the honourable robes of such a world class prestigious educational institution! Then again, doesn't being an educational establishment in itself puts a duty of Cambridge to educate those young women under their charge?! I was hoping to hear that Cambridge, using logic as well as reason, was able to convince the few that still want to continue with wearing this horrible piece of cloth to give it up! if only to protect their health as well as their human rights, let alone also because covering your face also covers your identity, which is something only hardened criminals would want to do!

And ... Cambridge students are role models for the rest of their generation, they need to be well balanced ... because they have a duty to act like ambassadors to the rest of their generation! ... The burkha is a hinderance to doing just that!

Not forgetting it's own 'academic' reputation as well as when it comes to the application of human rights, shame Cambridge did not do any research to ascertain the validity of the Burkha before it allowed it 'under it's mortar board! before it allowed this notorius simbol of opression on it's premises, let alone be representative of what it really is in it's graduation ceramonies! Result?! Women graduating 'Cambridge' to the belief that oppression is allowed and is OK! ..

Women graduating to self imposed Imprisonment ... for life!

Shame on you Cambridge!

Ban the Burkha ... worldwide!

Some Muslim countries are already trying to do just that ... and good luck to them ... for they do need it!

“To those who despair of everything reason cannot provide a faith, but only passion, and in this case it must be the same passion that lay at the root of the despair, namely humiliation and hatred.”