From Bath to Cork with Baby Grace

Today I came across a blog post that shook me so much I cut & paste it for you…

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 Drug industry writers behind some articles purportedly written by doctors [in USA]

There is an extraordinary conflict going on.  Between a guy in UCD who’s a Professor of Psychiatry (Dinan) and a maverick Irish psychiatrist (Corry).

Dinan has accused Corry of being unfit to practice.  You can find background & other comments here. And here from Orla O’Donovan University College Cork, department of applied social studies.

This is what I wrote this evening as my contribution to that campaign… 

  "I’d like to add my voice to those of you who are doing your best for us. I’m vulnerable to severe depression and have had many bouts since 1992. I’ve been well since September 2008. I have experience of being treated by health professionals in UK & Ireland. I say this in order to put my comments in context. Everything I say is the result of my experience, and I don’t claim to speak for anyone else.

I’ve never heard of Timothy Dinan in UCC. Nor do I know Michael Corry. (I’ve read some of his writings.)

It’s good that this has happened. Good that there is a clear difference between those who support Dinan’s view and Corry’s. It is time we had this out in the open and drew the wider public in.

Bless the psychiatrists.

They try. They use the drugs as their crutch, their treatment of choice. Occasionally they make the time to explore what’s the matter. For the most part they follow a formula, a routine, a habit. They checked I was alive. Said a perfunctory few words which seemed to suggest they were interested on how I was getting on. And then confined their attention to whether I was sleeping, eating and having suicidal urges (or thoughts). This meeting included the experience of being asked whether I was still taking my ‘meds’.

Their level of sophistication, subtlety, attention was disgracefully and transparently inept.

I once presented my psychiatrist with my "relapse prevention plan". Prepared carefully in discussions with my psychiatric nurse. He nodded thanks, put it in my file and stuck to his formula. He ignored me without realising that I could see exactly what he was doing. He displayed no embarrassment. He hadn’t a clue how to do a good job on me.

I’m up against a deadline:  600 words expected today

Michael O’Leary won the Lisbon Referendum?  He deserves most of the credit the political change? Whatever your view on Lisbon, perhaps the most striking aspect of the last few weeks in Irish politics is the role of business.

Declan Ganley, a businessman, seized leadership of the NO campaign. For me the most memorable confrontation on TV  was between the RyanAir Ceo and Mr Ganley.

This time business mattered.  Business leaders came out in force to influence the result. 

The CEO of INtell made a huge contribution early on.  He took sides.  Put his company’s reputation on the line.

Traditionally, business lobbies behind the scenes.  Hires lobbyists to influence legislation at the earliest possible stage.  Business leaders keep quiet about national politics. They often back both horses in order to be able to influence overall political thinking.

This time, business got organised.  For example, Cork Chamber of Commerce put up huge posters calling for a Yes vote. There was a co-ordinated campaign by business to influence the referendum result.

The question now is: was this a one-off? Are business leaders going to keep it up over the next year? Or are they going to retire to the back benches?

Business people want to do business. They don’t particularly want to be attending to the political context.  However, there are times when it would be unwise to ignore the politics of the situation.

If the Lisbon vote had been No, would that have helped or hindered your business?

You can apply the same logic to the future…

What do you think of the McCarthy Report (July 2009)  That’s next on the political agenda. Have you got a copy? Have you assessed how it might affect your business prospects?

I’d like to argue  that

If you are a supplier to any section of government, local or national, you have an interest in the next budget

if your business prospects are going to be at stake, you have an interest in influencing the public debate

The traditional recicent of business may not serve business well.  Business leaders have a number of stakeholders to consider

shareholders

employees supplier customers wider society

Leaders need to think on all fronts, simultaneously.   

Will the business community take advantage of the practice it gained during the Lisbon Referendum?  Will it continue to engage in public debate of McCarthy before the budget in November? 

The voice of SMEs matters.  SMEs drive the national economy.  The enterprise behind SMEs is an essential part of the Irish  economy.  But it’s more important that that. SME enterprise influences the atmosphere in society, the sense of hope, the level of confidence. 

If you want to influence the political debate on your company’s half, this is what you can do:

Contact other business leaders in your network

and talk about the political debate and how it connects with business

Expand you network of contacts to spread the discussion among business leaders

build your reputation for being on the ball as a "thought leader"

contact and lobby the existing business organisations like chamber of commerce and ISME

write to your local newspapers

phone your local radio station

contribute to internet discussions on forums like david mcwilliams, irish politics, irish economy

see this as an opportunity to hone your political skills

Leading a business isn’t simply about customer service, price & value.  It’s about influencing the context within which business is carried on.

If you are seen to be actively improving the quality of debate about public issues your reputation grows and people will be more keen to do business with you.

If you leave it to others you run the risk of being reduced to complaining about what’s happened.

Seth Godin’s "Tribes - we need you to lead us" is a good book to read.  It’s short, easy to read and pointed.  If you fancy your leadership skills, try it.

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They’re yesterday’s raw notes - the first draft, unedited.  All came out in a splurge.  Please don’t hold me to any of the content.  I’ll edit it for publication over on Goodbiz.ie newsletter 

I’ve begun "Doctoring The Mind - why psychiatric treatments fail".

It’ll take me a while to work my way through its 349 pages in hardback.  But I have the advantage of "Madness Explained - psychosis and human nature" in front of me.  [Benthall’s earlier book] 

Richard Benthall is important…

because he’s a clinical psychologist, not a psychiatrist.  He thinks about the issues and does his best to engage with psychiatrists.

I love it.  Grace, I love it.

You were old enough to stuff two ballot papers in the box downtheroad.  

In full view of the sleeping officials, you put your mother’s vote, and mine, in the box.  I’m sure that was contrary to Sub-Section 3.4 of Section 7.25 of the 2nd amendment to Section 8 of the 1995 Act as amended by Section 2 of the Amended Treaty…

The first crime of a four year old girl

- obviously brought up by negligent or subversive parents.

The Irish National Service Users Executive (NSUE) is alive and kicking.

It’s stretched to bits organising elections to the executive.  So far, there have been elections in 1/4 of the country.  

Today I met Elizabeth O’Donovan, development officer of NSUE.  She told me the plan to complete all the elections by Xmas 2009 has been changed - to what I think is much more realistic target of mid 2010.

It’s an enormous job organising elections from scratch.  Building an electorate, keeping track of who’s eligible to vote and making sure there is plenty of encouragement for potential candidates. I know a bit about it because the first tranche of  elections was in this area (HSE -South).

Would you believe the electoral area that Liz is working on now (HSE - West) stretches from Limerick to Donegal?  I joke you not.

NSUE, as far as I know, has two paid employees: John Redican, chief executive, and Liz O’Donovan.  Jenny Kelly, Chair of NSUE, is working her socks off I bet.  But travelling up and down the west coast of Ireland, without a train service is no funny business. 

In case you want to plan your visit to the southern part of Kerry, John O’Donoghue territory

Photograph of Office of Public Works (OPW) map on site… 

Yesterday afternoon, NAMA stripped off.  She opened up her dress, revealed herself naked and offered to spend years in bed with me. Her private parts were all mine.  She offered all I’d ever dreamed.  Stopped her titilating, teasing ways and gave herself to me.

Excited would be understatement.  I came.  I came right into her and everything I’d ever loved before faded.  NAMA & I were one explosion.  Completely & utterly seduced, this was my fulfillment, my most thorough coming of age. 

Could I satisfy her, insatiable wench?  Could I hold her whole body close to me for ever? Could I become her other self, as she was already mine?

Yesterday we coupled.  The pimp had done his work, earned his fee. What did I care how we’d come together? What did I care about anything else?  

and how she kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well her as another and then I asked her with my eyes to ask again yes and then she asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around her yes and drew her down to me so I could feel her breasts all perfume yes and my heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.

NAMA…  NAMA……….  NAMA.