YET ANOTHER sad death from opiates that are legal and were legally supplied. What can be done to prevent this from reoccurring on what seems a very regular basis?
There are many other legally-available materials that can kill, with the most commonly thought of examples being alcohol and tobacco, both of which are fairly easy for any adult to obtain. They, however, usually take longer to kill their users.
There are some attempts to manage their supply by linking medical and pharmaceutical databases to monitor their consumption. If an individual is purchasing too much from probably too many doctors, then their access can be managed and hopefully restricted.
There will always be people who oppose the collection of personal data and the use of linked databases but this time it is a matter of life and death. The monitoring of doctors who over prescribe and pharmacists who donât manage supply carefully should lead to warnings, fines and if need be, deregistration.
Pain should be managed but that management should not be deadly.
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A citizenship question
A recent article about a citizenship test seemed amusing but the process comes with a long history of problems including racism.
An Italian man was applying for Swiss citizenship but failed because he didnât know enough about the local zoo animals and it was decided he wasnât âsocially and culturally integrated enoughâ.
Fortunately this was reversed in court. There seemed to be no concerns about his character or behavior or that of his family.
The process of deciding who should be given citizenship should be rigorous although knowledge and languages do not guarantee a good citizen.
In Australia there was a âWhite Australianâ policy basically designed to keep non-European people out. Part of the test was a simple 50-word dictation test although it could be conducted in English and even if they passed, they could be retested in another European language and eventually any language.
How many of us know English, the almost extinct Manx language, Japanese, or any of the Cyrillic languages including Tajik or Turkmen? Sorry, no citizenship for you then.
The updated test involved a set of 20 multiple choice questions drawn randomly from a collection of 200 questions.
The questions are based on an online booklet with 84 pages of information. This originally included a question about Don Bradmanâs cricket batting average which of course we all know was 99.94.
Now itâs just a big, beautiful wall that will keep people out, if President Trump eventually gets his wall built.
The right to citizenship should consider what you bring in terms of skills and work attitude and what you have to offer the country.
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Donât answer the question, Baby
Australia had great hope for its tennis champion Ash Barty, the world No. 1, to win the Australian Womenâs Open but it didnât happen.
She went to the post match interview not as a cry-baby like so many losing players but with a real baby, her niece, and this lead to some controversy.
She commented that family was the really important part of life and this may be the most important message of the tournament.
Some of the media criticized this as a way of blocking interviewers from asking difficult questions. It is unlikely this would be an effective shield.
If a baby could stop reporters from asking difficult questions, then every politician would stop kissing babies and start bringing them to every event. This is an interesting contrast to the Parliament itself where until recently breastfeeding babies were banned from attending sessions.
Babies are noisy, messy and demanding just like most politicians and reporters so when they behave they can ask their questions. (dfitzger@melbpc.org.au/PN)
