Has the WHO really come down against homeopathy use?

I was intrigued to see this news article on the BBC website this morning: WHO warns against homeopathy use.

 

Quickly, throw open the door of your medicine cabinet and eject all those little white homeopathic tabs; the World Health Organization after careful consideration reflecting its singular position of authority has clearly at last come down firmly on the side of homeopath sceptics.

 

Except that is not really what the article says.

 

Firstly the article is not talking about homeopathy in general but is instead focused on the problem of homeopathic remedies being promoted as primary medication for developing world sufferers of TB, infant diarrhoea, influenza, malaria and HIV. Not even the Royal Homeopathic Hospital in London agrees with reliance on homeopathic remedies for such conditions, according to a comment by Dr Robert Hagan - a St Andrews University researcher quoted in the BBC article.

I am not particularly convinced that homeopathy works, and so I agree with the assertion that people with HIV, TB and the like should not RELY on homeopathy at the expense of readily available conventional medicine.

Even so, I detect more than the passing hand of the pharmaceutical industry behind this article.

The letter to the WHO by the young doctors concerned reliance on homeopathy at the expense of conventional medicine, but the headline suggests that the WHO has come out completely against the use of homeopathic treatments, full stop. The headline is sensationalist and incorrect in the breadth of its assertion.

 

Secondly, the article ignores the problem of access to conventional medicine even though it is focused on the developing world where the problem of the prohibitive cost of drugs is well documented. Homeopathy may be little more than a placebo for all I know, but better that in desperate situations where the patient has little hope of being able to get something that actually works.

The primary source for the story is Sense About Science which, a small amount of googling reveals, is a pharmaceutical industry-funded astroturfing unit whose main aim would indeed have been to get a headline suggesting incorrectly that the WHO has come down firmly against treatments competing with pharmaceutical drugs.

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US Healthcare reform, by Paul Simon

Paranoia strikes deep in the heartland
But I think it's all overdone
Exaggerating this and exaggerating that
They don't have no fun

 

Paul Simon, "Have a good time"

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Zero emission cars at affordable prices by 2012

The Japanese car manufacturer Nissan aims to mass produce electric cars by 2012 with an emphasis on affordability.

 

It will be releasing its first electric car in Japen later this summer, and in the USA in 2010. The target date for global mass production is 2012.

 

Nissan is Japan's third biggest car maker. Their EV prototype is discussed in more detail here.

 

The race is clearly on to produce fully electric cars for the mass market, with Tesla, Toyota and China's Dongfeng Motor Corp all pushing ahead with plans.

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No wonder we can't stop eating 'em...

It would appear that the food industry knows precisely how to undermine even the most self-aware person's impulse control, by manufacturing food that contains exactly the right combination of sugar, fat, and salt to hit a preset "bliss point" in our brains.  So says Dr. David A. Kessler, in his new book "The End of Overeating." The former head of the FDA spent years fighting the tobacco industry, accusing it of deliberately manipulating nicotine levels in cigarettes to make them more addictive.  Now Kessler has turned his attention to the food industry:

 

"In “The End of Overeating,” Dr. Kessler finds some similarities [to tobacco] in the food industry, which has combined and created foods in a way that taps into our brain circuitry and stimulates our desire for more.

 

When it comes to stimulating our brains, Dr. Kessler noted, individual ingredients aren’t particularly potent. But by combining fats, sugar and salt in innumerable ways, food makers have essentially tapped into the brain’s reward system, creating a feedback loop that stimulates our desire to eat and leaves us wanting more and more even when we’re full."

 

This explains a number of things for me, for instance, why so many processed foods contain sugar, even where you'd never expect to find it.  It also explains why it's so much easier not to buy the Doritos in the first place than it is to buy them, bring them home, and not pig out on them. 

 

I don't think there's any way to regulate this aspect of the food industry--how do you tell an industry they're not allowed to make their product as appealing as possible?  Tobacco is a little different; it has been demonstrated to have extreme health risks with zero benefits.  But food, well, even if the food in question is unmitigated crap, it's hard to seriously argue for some sort of food police who will determine which foods are nutritionally acceptable.  So it appears that the only way to counter the chemically-engineered assault of the food industry is through consumer education about salt, fat, sugar, and neurobiology.

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Climate change legislation would cost average $175 p.a.

The Congressional Budget Office review of the cost to consumers of proposed climate change legislation shows a cost much lower than GOP talking points.

 

Republicans including GOP House leader John Boehner have quoted an increase in annual energy costs per householdas high as $3,128 by 2015, and the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation took the bidding up as high as $4,300 per annum.

 

The CBO - a non-partisan office - arrived at the figure of $175 for an average household by 2020.

 

Republicans insist the CBO figure does not attach enough weight to the export of jobs abroad to countries that do not cap their emissions.

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Radioactive metals found in many everyday objects

From kitchen utensils to reclining chairs, a Scripps Howard News Service investigation has identified thousands of contaminated consumer products.

 

The actual quantity of products affected is unknown due to what the news service terms "haphazard screening, an absence of oversight and substantial disincentives for businesses to report contamination".

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Books: Arthur Frommer's Manifesto

Arthur Frommer isn't happy with the press his latest book has been getting.  Reviews, though positive, seem to have left out the most important points.  "Ask Arthur Frommer: & Travel Better, Cheaper, Smarter," is, according to the author, a survey of his political and ethical views of what travel should be, as well as a practical guide to travel savvy.  So he's written an essay, an unabashed self-review, outlining what all the book reviewers have missed.

 

Here are Frommer's top 10, very good arguments:

 

(1) The urgent need for longer American vacations, guaranteed by law. We are the only prosperous country to lack such humane requirements, and the book pleads with the public to support congressional action to mandate at least - at least - three weeks per year of paid leave for every person.

 

(2) The right to travel, in peacetime, to wherever we wish. The book argues that travel is a First Amendment right, a learning activity; that the federal government has no more right to prohibit travel to a particular country than it has to stop us from attending a lecture or reading a book.

 

(3) The right of a travel writer to criticize travel establishments without being sued for libel. Several disquieting court actions in other countries are frightening examples of what could happen here.

 

(4) The immense expansion of Amtrak. To reduce our dependence on foreign oil, to improve our quality of life, we need a broad network of speedy trains. The recent allotments of economic-stimulus monies to high-speed rail is a start that must be duplicated by still more appropriations in the years to come.

 

(5) Greatly increased support for our National Parks, which are now suffering from inadequate financing in previous years. Fierce opposition to commercialization of the parks (Coca-Cola signs at the entrance to Yellowstone?).

 

(6) A limitation on the unnecessary operation of corporate jets, placing burdens on our already-overcrowded skies.

 

(7) An Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights, preventing airlines from stranding passengers on the tarmac for four hours and more.

 

(8) A start on assisting travel and tourism for the poor, including low-income-based reductions of the cost of Amtrak tickets and admission to public museums.

 

(9) An end to the mistreatment of foreign tourists to the United States, eliminating thoughtless and unnecessary barriers to incoming travel and discourteous treatment of such visitors by our customs officials.

 

(10) Correcting the failure by the Department of Transportation to devote adequate resources to dealing with deceptive advertising of travel (omission of key expenses and fees) by airlines, tour operators and others.

 

 

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Locavore Network: online database of small farms

A very good new site, Locavore Network, is building a national US database of local food producers to aid consumers in their growing quest for fresh, seasonal, local food, and to aid small farmers in promoting their produce in 21st Century style. 

 

It's not just about vegetables: the database includes producers of wine and meat, too.    The site also features user forums, classified ads, and blogs, and is actively soliciting correspondants and information about local food growers from around the country.   

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How To Offer A Great Volunteer Experience (5 of 6)

Demote Your Staff To Create Limitless Potential.

 

Massive change is sweeping through the business world. Corporate Social Responsibility is precipitating thousands of new Employer-Sponsored Volunteer Programs. But can non-profit organizations handle the huge increase of volunteers coming their way? Maybe not. If non-profits do not reinvent their current volunteer management model, they threaten to suffocate these brilliant new efforts and disenfranchise the volunteers who come through their programs.

Non-profits and community organizations are due for a change: they must understand that volunteers are the key to achieving their mission. Unfortunately, this new understanding will require NPO’s to demote their entire staff.

Less is More
When it comes to working with volunteers, the less you do, the more you will get done. By focusing on the few things required to create a great volunteer experience, you will be able to maximize the efforts of dozens - maybe even thousands. The alternative approach utilizes volunteers to maximize the efforts of a handful of staff. This option is run by the “genius with a thousand helpers” and will consistently bottleneck the organization. It also squashes all ingenuity and energy outside the parameters of the "genius'" own comfort.

If you are the type of leader who is able to facilitate the efforts and individual contributions of others, then there is little limiting your potential. They key is found in how you perceive yourself, and what you understand your role to be.

the rest of the article

Some Conditions Apply
The instructions are simple: Don’t do the work yourself. Instead, your job is to make it possible for others to do the work. For that to happen, there are Four Conditions that need to be met:

Motivation. Volunteers need the right motivation. You need to take into account the three Horizons of Meaning that we have touched on previously; a) What do you hope to accomplish through the opportunities offered? b) What does the work require? c) What is the volunteer looking for from this opportunity?

Movement. Volunteers need to be invited into a participative role in the mission. We’ll talk more about this in the weeks to come, but the key to doing more through volunteers is becoming a missional organization. Mobilizing great numbers of volunteers (whatever that may look like for you) to take up the cause and achieve the mission has to become the foundational strategy of your organization.

Structure. Volunteers need you to be organized. This means understandable strategies, clear communication, a stated mission, vision and values, good metrics, etc. This is the basic stuff that enables people to function together and gain that sense of movement - precisely because we are able to move in the same direction.

Space. Volunteers need to be met at their highest level of contribution. Treating everyone the same is exactly the wrong thing to do. Instead, we must provide the right kind of space for people to interact with us, our community and our cause based on whether they are investigating, beginning to invest, or fully invested.

Carry Milk
Ok, so the job is to mobilize volunteers to achieve the goal. Assuming this is the case, we are willing to take steps to ensure that the Four Conditions are met. From here on it’s easy, right? Well, yes and no. I’ve found that the real problem staff have with this approach is not the hard work it takes to get the organization ready, nor is it a simple change in mindset. Nope, the real hang-ups come with the face-to-face stuff.

I remember working with a colleague at a community meal a few years back. He was a phenomenal guy, lots of talent and mad skills when it came to interacting with men and women off the street. Volunteers loved him. He was funny, charismatic and competent. Problem was, he was doing too much. The volunteers were waiting for their chance to help him out, but he was busy doing the work himself. Consequently, many of our volunteers stood around feeling a bit un-needed. The problem wasn’t our set up. It wasn’t our directions or communication. The problem was my friend. He was too helpful, too willing, too able. He was doing too much himself.

So I took him aside to discuss how we could involve the volunteers. He was eager to listen and understand - like I said, a phenomenal guy. He absolutely believed in allowing volunteers to play a key role in what we were doing. He had helped ensure that the Four Conditions were a part of our organization. Turns out he simply felt bad asking people to do what he could easily do himself. He figured they might wonder why he would ask them to do something simple when they could both see that he could accomplish it in the same amount of time it was taking to pass it off. Made sense actually. People hate being humored. I hate being humored. Busy work feels trivial. And yet when people are investigating, this is exactly the kind of work they need and want. These seemingly trivial tasks offer a sense of belonging, purpose and achievement. (As long as the task really is necessary and not concocted.) So, I made a suggestion...

“Carry milk,” I said.

“....What?”

“Grab a pitcher of milk in one hand, some cups in the other, and carry them with you as you tell the volunteers how they can help,” I replied.

He sighed. “Why?” He was looking at me like I had incurred a brain injury since we had last spoken.

“Cause,” I said slowly, like I was giving the answer to a clever pun. “If people see that you are busy with a task, they won’t mind doing what you ask.”

He looked at me, grinned, and grabbed the milk.

From that day on, we adopted the “carry milk” philosophy. It became a metaphor for dealing with the awkwardness that can accompany the assigning and accepting of tasks in a volunteer setting. The milk, or broom or rake - whatever - became the tool that allowed us to play the role our volunteers needed.


Demote the Staff
Your priority is your volunteer - they are your ticket to achieve the organization’s mission. Remember this as you demote your staff from “more” (do it yourself) to “less” (facilitate the ‘doing’ to everyone else). The switch has it’s perks, but it’s still a demotion, which doesn’t exactly feel good. Most of the time, staff interact with the community they are serving like a surgeon with a patient and they view volunteers as support staff - nurses handing over a scalpel during surgery. Lots of acclaim and recognition for the surgeon, with an “I couldn’t do it without all this help” for the nurses. “Demote the Staff” suggests that the doctor become the nurse, support staff, janitor - anything to make it possible for the volunteer to play the primary role. This flip is often difficult for staff, especially when they initially took the job with the organization to play the front-line role.

Another difficult aspect of the demotion is that “facilitator” is a new job description and with it must come a change in philosophy. The former description consisted of managing people and their tasks, but the facilitator will primarily manage the processes that make the ‘realized worth’ approach possible. The Four Conditions are now the main work of the staff. If the conditions are right, then the space is mostly automated, and there is little management required of the volunteers. The object of “carry milk” is to ensure that the space is right for volunteers, rather than managing the way people work in that space.


Making it Happen
Here are 6 steps to tapping into the unlimited potential of your volunteer program:

Review your organization to ensure you have the key structures and systems in place. For a comprehensive list of areas to consider and even some free online courses, click here.

Make sure you understand what you want out of the project or enterprise you have undertaken. You probably already know what the work demands, but take the time to consider what your volunteers want out of the experience (probably not a plaque or t-shirt). Then, create events that allow all three of these horizons to converge.

Meet people at their highest level of contribution by giving them meaningful work to do. By meaningful, I mean appropriate to the “stage” in which they find themselves. A first-time visitor should never be given significant responsibility, because it is meaningless to them. They are only investigating. Similarly, failing to involve long-time volunteers who are seriously invested in your work in the significant decision making, is virtually the same as telling them they are unnecessary.

Sit down with your staff and explain the potential in making room for volunteers to become the primary drivers of your efforts. Guide them into understanding their role as facilitators and the managers of process, not people. Marcus Buckingham’s book ‘First Break All the Rules’ provides a great overview of this approach, albeit in a for-profit setting.

Give your staff the tools, whether that be milk, brooms or clipboards, to comfortably function in these new understandings. This simple piece of the puzzle may in fact be the most necessary to executing the idea from the staffs perspective.

Keep reading this blog. We’ll cover the final piece of this 6-part discussion next week and. The discussion will underscore why it is so important to view and utilize volunteers this way - it’s the difference between getting your job done, or changing the world.

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Prof. Warren's brainchild: consumer credit protection

Good piece on the NY Times' Economix blog, laying out Elizabeth Warren's idea for a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, quoting from a piece Warren wrote for Democracy in 2007:

 

"Consumers can enter the market to buy physical products confident that they won’t be tricked into buying exploding toasters and other unreasonably dangerous products.

They can concentrate their shopping efforts in other directions, helping to drive a competitive market that keeps costs low and encourages innovation in convenience, durability, and style. Consumers entering the market to buy financial products should enjoy the same protection. Just as the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) protects buyers of goods and supports a competitive market, we need the same for consumers of financial products — a new regulatory regime, and even a new regulatory body, to protect consumers who use credit cards, home mortgages, car loans, and a host of other products. The time has come to put scaremongering to rest and to recognize that regulation can often support and advance efficient and more dynamic markets."

 

The whole blog is worth a read, as it lays out Warren's argument in a clear, easy-to-follow way.

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