Today at Tocumwal, NSW there is a rally in support of their local doctor.
Doctor Rao has been the only doctor there for may years. He was the main instigator for buiding the hospital there.
In rural Australia,it can be very hard to attract good doctors: Most doctors perfer to stay in the city.
Now it seems there have been some allegations against Dr Rao about his treatment of an elderly patient, and he has been banned from working and is under investigation by the homicide squad. This is depite the fact that many eldely locals have been treated at this hospital, and have died as is natural. A local told me that the general feeling of people is very positive towards this doctor and his practices.
That is why today there is a rally in support of him, meeting at the town hall.
Doctor Rao is from India, and 20 years ago it would have been unthinkable that the town would support someone foreign-born like this. But it shows that the town has accepted him (and others) into their life. A resident of tocumwal said that she hoped this would be an example to nearby towns which have large immigrant populations.
Tocumwal will probably have difficulty replacing their doctor if he is not allowed to resume work, and if they do it wont be a doctor they have known for so long. Without turning this into a debate about euthanasia, Doctors should always have the interests of patients at heart, and they might treat and elderly patient different from a younger one, in terms of the levels of painkillers they are willing to perscribe. There is nothing wrong with this: People who are old and sick deserve to live in dignity.
If all the locals are in support of this doctor, why is there so much interferance from state authorities? Why does the government what to meddle and enforce the law down to the smallest point. People have forgotton what it means to turn a blind eye and get on with life.
Paul
February 25, 2007
Work
For the past month i have been working 2 jobs. One full time and physical and the other part time and more brain work (computer programming). Because of this I’ve been tired pretty much all the time and haven’t had much free time.
Tomorrow is the last day of the full time job so from next week I will be working from home and sleeping in…and maybe I will be able to relax for once and do something other than work eat and sleep.
I pray to god each night when i sleep and ask him to bless my sleep and give me proper rest, even though i am getting way less sleep than I should. I think it helps otherwise i would not even be able to get out of bed in the mornings (my alarm is set for 5am). But a few times at work people have said things like “Paul you look really bad” and I think “ok thanks…”. I dont mind that though. Its satisfying to do work whether its moving boxes or programming. The only things that break my routine and annoy me is when someone talks at me without saying hello or good morning first. Or when my boss critcises my work all day and doesnt give a single compliment. I think he has learnt now that i work much better if he gives good and bad feedback though. Yeah im fussy hehe. But i dont HAVE to work there im only doing it as a favour to someone else so he could go on a holiday. Im definetly not staying there because I think my back would be ruined forever within about 6 months. Its already sore and I had to take 2 days off last week because I couldnt move from the pain.
Maybe god was answering my prayers for rest by forcing me to slow down a bit.
Everything else is fine at work, Except yesterday some smart person decided to jam my finger in a door and its gone purple now…
Rabbits
The poor bunnies are getting a bit neglected because I am so busy but I try to be nice to them and look after them. Well they are only neglected compared to what they are used to I guess. I bring one of them inside last night and he just sat under my chair and glared at me the whole time. I guess he was just reflecting my own mood back at me. Tonight I gave him and the other one each a short run around the backyard at twilight. While they ran i lay down and prayed but then i started feeling very itchy and realised that mosquitos were attacking me. There were heaps of them. I came inside and jumped in the shower because i was itchy all over. I count 9 bits on my back, and i was lying ON my back! and dozens of bits elsewhere. Oh well its alright now…
Prayer Plan
The bible says to be constant in prayer.
I used to try to say one pray each day as a minimum but I missed some days. And I find that if I dont pray often things dont go as well and I dont feel that good. Feeling good is not the main reason I want to pray more often though. I think its good to talk to my heavenly father often. It is just strange not to because god is all around us but somehow I am too stubborn to even say hello sometimes!
So I made a plan a few days ago, To pray at least once an hour, and to keep it simple, on the hour. Of course plans like these dont usually work for long. This one worked for about 48 hours with me only forgetting a couple of times. Now i am used to praying a bit more often and i pray as often as I need to but I dont aim for every hour because i know i cant keep it up and be that consistent.
If you are like me (a procrastinator) Dont put praying off.If you feel like you want to say something to god then just pray it can even be only a couple of words long. But hopefully after those couple of words god will motivate you to say more.
Bible reading plan
I have procrastination problems here too…
This month i am going along with Diana’s and Sharla’s reading of proverbs.Proverbs 1 on 1 feb, 2 on 2 feb etc.
Junk
Here a wrote a post last october talking about thowing out a lot of useless things i have held on to for no particular reason. I think its building up again, and my housemate just moved back into his room, so i have to move all my junk back out of his room into mine. Its going to be squishy…hehe. I want to sell or chuck out a lot of stuff as soon as im not so busy.
Public Transport
Just when they reopen my train line, all the trains get brake problems and service goes down to the level of a 3rd world country here in Melbourne. I am so glad i bought a car at the end of last year. I feel sorry for everyone stuck using the trains though. I used to hate driving and be anxious about it and spend hours getting around every day for what would take 30 mins in a car. Now i love driving. Theres something about having your own car and having everything inside it just how you want and knowing where your wheels are. And of course not having the fear of crashing the parents’ car.
So yep public transport is officially a nightmare situation for lots of people and I feel very relieved to have a car.
Maybe this is the new phase of government in Australia. If it had a slogan it would be ‘Dont count on us for nothing look after yourselves - but pay us tax and tax on tax’
yep. Cant really complain though just a whinge.
-Paul
February 1, 2007
