RESUSCITATION
As people live ever longer and eventually move into care institutions, the issue arises of what to do about resuscitation. As the law currently stands in Denmark, care personnel are obliged to try and resuscitate elderly patients who have a heart attack, even in cases where the person concerned has previously expressed a clear desire not be treated in such a situation. Normally that would involve first aid and heart massage until such time as an ambulance arrives. However, more and more care homes have now installed heart starters, which will increase the chances of a patient's surviving a heart attack.
What is problematic is that the legal position is different from that in a hospital, where patients have clearly defined rights, including the right not to be treated in certain circumstances. The somewhat paradoxical result is that the less the personnel are medically trained, the more they have a legal responsibility to try and prolong life.
This is not in anybody's interest, least of all the individual's. As with many other things in a modern and complicated welfare state, there needs to be a review of the law in order to bring it into line with reality.
Walter Blotscher
Thursday, 26 September 2013
Tuesday, 24 September 2013
BRIDGE (9)
After our debacle of last month, I am pleased to say that my partner and I have started the new bridge season well, and have won the warm-up tournament that finished this evening. We couldn't do much against opponents who bid and made 6 and 7 no trumps when nobody else in the room did. On the other hand, we won a succession of small part scores by getting that vital extra trick that makes all the difference when you are playing duplicate.
Nothing fancy, just sticking to the system and solid play.
Walter Blotscher
After our debacle of last month, I am pleased to say that my partner and I have started the new bridge season well, and have won the warm-up tournament that finished this evening. We couldn't do much against opponents who bid and made 6 and 7 no trumps when nobody else in the room did. On the other hand, we won a succession of small part scores by getting that vital extra trick that makes all the difference when you are playing duplicate.
Nothing fancy, just sticking to the system and solid play.
Walter Blotscher
Monday, 23 September 2013
NAIROBI (2)
Three weeks ago, I was in Nariobi on business. It was a peaceful, bustling, slightly chaotic city. Today, part of it is a bloodbath, as terrorists linked to Al-Qaeda have shot and killed a lot of people in a busy shopping centre. The stand-off with security forces is not yet over.
What is different about violence in the world today from (say) when I was gowing up is that it is so random. Innocents are killed, and are meant to be killed. Whether you as an innocent are caught up in that violence is purely a matter of luck. That is scary.
Walter Blotscher
Three weeks ago, I was in Nariobi on business. It was a peaceful, bustling, slightly chaotic city. Today, part of it is a bloodbath, as terrorists linked to Al-Qaeda have shot and killed a lot of people in a busy shopping centre. The stand-off with security forces is not yet over.
What is different about violence in the world today from (say) when I was gowing up is that it is so random. Innocents are killed, and are meant to be killed. Whether you as an innocent are caught up in that violence is purely a matter of luck. That is scary.
Walter Blotscher
Sunday, 22 September 2013
DANISH POLITICS (4)
Six months on from their worst ever polling result, the Social Democrats, the party of Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, are still languishing in the polls at 17.5%. However, whereas in March the main beneficiaries of that unpopularity were the very left-wing Enhedslisten, today it is the very right-wing Danish People's Party. For the first time ever, they are polling higher than the Social Democrats, at 20.2%, up from 12.3% at the last election.
Voters seem to have worked out that while Enhedslisten has absolutely no chance of being in Government either before or after the next election, it is quite possible that the DPP will be part of the expected right-of-centre coalition. That would not be a particularly fun prospect, in my view; but would nevertheless be a remarkable advance in a Scandinavian country for a political movement founded on being against taxes and immigrants.
Walter Blotscher
Six months on from their worst ever polling result, the Social Democrats, the party of Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, are still languishing in the polls at 17.5%. However, whereas in March the main beneficiaries of that unpopularity were the very left-wing Enhedslisten, today it is the very right-wing Danish People's Party. For the first time ever, they are polling higher than the Social Democrats, at 20.2%, up from 12.3% at the last election.
Voters seem to have worked out that while Enhedslisten has absolutely no chance of being in Government either before or after the next election, it is quite possible that the DPP will be part of the expected right-of-centre coalition. That would not be a particularly fun prospect, in my view; but would nevertheless be a remarkable advance in a Scandinavian country for a political movement founded on being against taxes and immigrants.
Walter Blotscher
Friday, 20 September 2013
POTENTIAL MELTDOWN (7)
Two years ago, the U.S. avoided a potential financial meltdown (albeit at the cost of its losing its AAA rating for the first time in history) by agreeing an eleventh hour deal to raise the federal debt ceiling. However, one of the prices of budget deficits since then is that that new ceiling is about to be breached, probably some time in October. Which means in turn that a new potential meltdown looms.
As in 2011, the battle lines have been drawn. The Republicans say that they will not agree to a raising of the debt ceiling unless the President and other Democrats agree a major concession such as the abolition of Obamacare. Since the House of Representatives has already voted 40 times to abolish Obamacare, without those votes getting anywhere in the Senate (let alone through a Presidential veto), agreement looks unlikely. In which case, as in 1996, the Federal Government will start to shut down sometime next month.
The U.S. constitution is carefully written in order to ensure that no part of the political process lords it over another. The upside of this is that there are many checks and balances; the downside is that if there is deadlock in Congress or between Congress and the President, then there is real deadlock. You would think that allowing the country to pay its bills would be something that every national politician could and should be able to sign up to. Unfortunately, there are more than a few American politicians who would rather be "ideologically pure" than sensible. It's going to be a tricky couple of months.
Walter Blotscher
Two years ago, the U.S. avoided a potential financial meltdown (albeit at the cost of its losing its AAA rating for the first time in history) by agreeing an eleventh hour deal to raise the federal debt ceiling. However, one of the prices of budget deficits since then is that that new ceiling is about to be breached, probably some time in October. Which means in turn that a new potential meltdown looms.
As in 2011, the battle lines have been drawn. The Republicans say that they will not agree to a raising of the debt ceiling unless the President and other Democrats agree a major concession such as the abolition of Obamacare. Since the House of Representatives has already voted 40 times to abolish Obamacare, without those votes getting anywhere in the Senate (let alone through a Presidential veto), agreement looks unlikely. In which case, as in 1996, the Federal Government will start to shut down sometime next month.
The U.S. constitution is carefully written in order to ensure that no part of the political process lords it over another. The upside of this is that there are many checks and balances; the downside is that if there is deadlock in Congress or between Congress and the President, then there is real deadlock. You would think that allowing the country to pay its bills would be something that every national politician could and should be able to sign up to. Unfortunately, there are more than a few American politicians who would rather be "ideologically pure" than sensible. It's going to be a tricky couple of months.
Walter Blotscher
Thursday, 19 September 2013
AN UNEXPECTED NO
Last November I wondered whether other Danish companies would try and do the same as SAS, and try and cut workers' pay, probably the ultimate taboo in Danish labour relations. SAS managed to push the changes through because the alternative would have been bankruptcy. Nevertheless, a precedent had been set; and once a door has been opened, it's possible that others will attempt the same.
Another Danish industry suffering from high wage costs and cheaper competition is the slaughtering of pigs. Pigs are one of the great success stories of Denmark, but in recent years it has become more profitable to send pigs to be fattened and/or slaughtered in Germany and elsewhere. Exports of live pigs have soared from 1.4 million in 2000 to a projected 10.2 million this year. At the same time, although slaughterings rose from 20.9 million in 2000 to 22.6 million in 2004, they have since fallen to a projected 19.0 million this year. Even worse, everyone believes they will continue to fall over the next 10 years.
Danish Crown, the dominant player in the market, has a turnover of some Dkr.56 billion and employs more people today than it did in 2000. But that is only because it has taken on labour abroad. In Denmark, the number of workers has fallen from more than 15,000 to under 9,000; abroad, it has gone the other way, from a couple of thousand to almost 15,000.
Against that depressing background, the company put forward an unusual plan. The workforce would take a cut in wages, leading to savings of roughly kr.600 million over four years. However, instead of those savings staying within the company, they would be geared up with loans to kr.3 billion and invested in extra production facilities here in Denmark. The key point, of course, is that that extra production would be "captive", and slaughtered in Danish Crown's own abbatoirs, instead of being sent abroad. In order to concentrate the minds, the company said that if nothing happened, then further redundancies in Denmark would probably follow.
Backed by the unions, the consensus was that the idea would be approved by the workforce. So it came as something of a shock this week that the workers overwhelmingly voted against it. Some thought that it was because although they would be providing the equity for the new investment, they wouldn't have reaped the benefits in the form of dividends. Others because although there would be more investment in the sector in Denmark, there was no gurantee that there wouldn't be redundancies anyhow.
The proposal is not completely dead, it may return in a modified form. What it probably shows more than anything is that the average Dane is sceptical of anything that smacks of financial engineering. Which is fair enough.
Walter Blotscher
Last November I wondered whether other Danish companies would try and do the same as SAS, and try and cut workers' pay, probably the ultimate taboo in Danish labour relations. SAS managed to push the changes through because the alternative would have been bankruptcy. Nevertheless, a precedent had been set; and once a door has been opened, it's possible that others will attempt the same.
Another Danish industry suffering from high wage costs and cheaper competition is the slaughtering of pigs. Pigs are one of the great success stories of Denmark, but in recent years it has become more profitable to send pigs to be fattened and/or slaughtered in Germany and elsewhere. Exports of live pigs have soared from 1.4 million in 2000 to a projected 10.2 million this year. At the same time, although slaughterings rose from 20.9 million in 2000 to 22.6 million in 2004, they have since fallen to a projected 19.0 million this year. Even worse, everyone believes they will continue to fall over the next 10 years.
Danish Crown, the dominant player in the market, has a turnover of some Dkr.56 billion and employs more people today than it did in 2000. But that is only because it has taken on labour abroad. In Denmark, the number of workers has fallen from more than 15,000 to under 9,000; abroad, it has gone the other way, from a couple of thousand to almost 15,000.
Against that depressing background, the company put forward an unusual plan. The workforce would take a cut in wages, leading to savings of roughly kr.600 million over four years. However, instead of those savings staying within the company, they would be geared up with loans to kr.3 billion and invested in extra production facilities here in Denmark. The key point, of course, is that that extra production would be "captive", and slaughtered in Danish Crown's own abbatoirs, instead of being sent abroad. In order to concentrate the minds, the company said that if nothing happened, then further redundancies in Denmark would probably follow.
Backed by the unions, the consensus was that the idea would be approved by the workforce. So it came as something of a shock this week that the workers overwhelmingly voted against it. Some thought that it was because although they would be providing the equity for the new investment, they wouldn't have reaped the benefits in the form of dividends. Others because although there would be more investment in the sector in Denmark, there was no gurantee that there wouldn't be redundancies anyhow.
The proposal is not completely dead, it may return in a modified form. What it probably shows more than anything is that the average Dane is sceptical of anything that smacks of financial engineering. Which is fair enough.
Walter Blotscher
Wednesday, 18 September 2013
DEAD MAN WALKING
My English students are currently doing a theme of crime and punishment, of which the death penalty forms a part. So it was an obvious idea to show them the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. A very good film, it was directed by Tim Robbins and stars Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. Both were nominated for Oscars; Sarandon won the one for best actress.
Anybody who believes that the death penalty is fair and just should watch this film.Taking the long view, the continuous reduction in the amount and reach of state-sanctioned murder is one of the few undoubtedly positive developments in history. It's just a pity that the U.S. (notably) and other countries haven't yet got to that point.
Walter Blotscher
My English students are currently doing a theme of crime and punishment, of which the death penalty forms a part. So it was an obvious idea to show them the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. A very good film, it was directed by Tim Robbins and stars Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. Both were nominated for Oscars; Sarandon won the one for best actress.
Anybody who believes that the death penalty is fair and just should watch this film.Taking the long view, the continuous reduction in the amount and reach of state-sanctioned murder is one of the few undoubtedly positive developments in history. It's just a pity that the U.S. (notably) and other countries haven't yet got to that point.
Walter Blotscher
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