Monday, September 29, 2014
Jeter & Humility
Sunday, September 28, 2014
BBG: Last of the Summer Flowers.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden©2014 Am Ang Zhang
Book I recently read: A Real Superhero!
Chris Hadfield: An
Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth
You can visualize success all you
want, but when things go wrong you won’t be prepared. Far from being cynical,
visualizing failure is pragmatic — it might save your life in space, but it
might help you attain your own goals right here on Earth.
A unique picture book consisting of 20 beautiful 9 x7 in. full bleed photos by the author of: corals, turtles, anhinga, blue tang, file fish, butterfly fish, cleaner shrimp, pompano, barracuda, flounder, star fish, and sting ray. A first of the kind tale of aquatic creatures in child-speak. A good introduction of nature to a young child, especially good as a follow-up to a visit to the aquarium; plus two pages of detailed companion
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
NHS:Your Money in their Pocket!
Gerhard Schröder:Germany
He is currently the chairman of the board of Nord Stream AG.
I think there is something fundamentally scary about our democracy…. Because I think people have a sense that the system is rigged, and it’s hard to argue that it isn’t.
Michael Lewis: The Big Short
Michael Lewis: The Big Short
Andrew Lansley
Jeremy Hunt:
So there’s Jeremy newly installed as Health Secretary after just seven short years as an MP. This is a summary of his meteoric rise:
He made a fortune at the taxpayers’ expense as monopoly supplier to a notorious quango where, by happy coincidence, his cousin sat on the Board. He became MP for SW Surrey where, by happy coincidence, his cousin had been MP previously. He became Minister in charge of Media & Culture where, by happy coincidence, he wound up steering his pals at Newscorp in the right direction. And he became Health Secretary partly because, by happy coincidence, his cousin is a lobbyist for the private health sector.
Virginia Bottomley: Secretary of State for Health 1992-95 now with BUPA. Cousin of Jeremy Hunt.
David Miliband
Like his mentors Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson, Mr Miliband is one of that unappetising breed of modern politician that has chosen to profiteer out of public service. It is a pity that the BBC did not ask him whether his sudden decision to abandon his constituents was not informed by a desire to keep his huge earnings out of the public eye.
During his short, undistinguished career, Mr Miliband has done grave damage to British politics. He is part of the new governing elite which is sucking the heart out of our representative democracy while enriching itself in the process. He may be mourned in the BBC and in north London, but the rest of us are entitled to form a more realistic view. David Miliband has belittled our politics and he will not be missed.
Money? Really?
The House of Commons register reveals that he has earned an incredible sum – nearly £1 million – from outside interests since losing the party leadership to his brother, including £125,000 for 15 days’ work as a director of Sunderland, a constituency-based football club owned by a super-rich businessman with interests in private equity. Approximately £60,000 has come his way from the UAE, a gulf state with an unappetising human rights record, and another hefty chunk from St James’s Place, a company that advises very rich people how to invest their money.
It looks as though these people are everywhere! The Shadow Elite.
Are you ready to read it?
Why?
It is scary!!!
Why?
It is scary!!!
"The new breed of players," writes Wedel, "who operate at the nexus of official and private power, cannot only co-opt public policy agendas, crafting policy with their own purposes in mind. They test the time-honored principles of both the canons of accountability of the modern state and the codes of competition of the free market. In so doing, they reorganize relations between bureaucracy and business to their advantage, and challenge the walls erected to separate them. As these walls erode, players are better able to use official power and resources without public oversight."
"That's a spot-on description of what happened with health care -- as well as a spot-on description of the totally-lacking-in-transparency bailout of the financial system. Remember how the bailout was supposed to take care of not just Wall Street but Main Street
Perhaps the decade!
Perhaps the decade!
"We Are Wall Street Main Street America
: "We eat what we kill, and when the only thing left to eat is on your dinner plates, we'll eat that."
The 21st century power brokers -- less stable, less visible, more peripatetic, and more global in reach than their elite forebears -- are potentially more insidious and dangerous to democracy. Their manoeuvrings are largely beyond the reach of traditional monitors. Unlike the rest of us, these players are virtually immune to accountability to voters or government or corporate overseers, because the full range of their activities and their true agendas are more difficult to detect.
Janinie R. Wedel
“Interestingly, former health ministers have done particularly well. The ex-health secretary Patricia Hewitt earns more than £100,000 as a consultant for Alliance Boots and Cinven, a private equity group that bought 25 private hospitals from Bupa. After leaving the department, her predecessor, Alan Milburn, worked for Bridgepoint Capital, which successfully bid for NHS contracts, and now boasts a striking portfolio of jobs with private health companies.”
Alan Milburn
Following his resignation as Secretary of State for Health (to spend more time with his family, his partner is a hospital doctor), Milburn took a post for £30,000 a year as an advisor to Bridgepoint Capital, a venture capital firm heavily involved in financing private health care firms moving into the NHS, including Alliance Medical, Match Group, Medica and the Robinia Care Group. He has been Member of Advisory Board of Pepsico since April 2007. Wikipedia
Patricia Hewitt
In January 2008, it was announced that Hewitt had been appointed "special consultant" to the world's largest chemists, Alliance Boots. Such an appointment was controversial given Hewitt's former role as Health Minister, resulting in objections to her appointment by members of a Parliamentary committee. Hewitt will also become the "special adviser" to private equity company Cinven, which paid £1.4 billion for Bupa's UK
In March 2008, it was announced that Hewitt will join the BT Group board as a non-executive director.[40] She joined the group on 24 March 2008. In July 2009, Patricia Hewitt joined the UK India Business Council as its Chair.
In May 2009 The Daily Telegraph reported that Hewitt claimed £920 in legal fees when she moved out of a flat in her constituency, stayed in hotels and then rented another flat inLeicester . Claimed for furniture including £194 for blinds delivered to her London
David Bennett is the current head of Monitor (a sort of health FSA!) He is not a medical doctor.
David was a Director at McKinsey & Co. In his 18 years with McKinsey he served a wide range of companies in most industry sectors, but with a particular focus on regulated, technology-intensive industries.
Health:
Ex-Blair: Patricia Hewitt: now with Cinven (Bupa Hospitals)
Simon Stevens: now with UnitedHealth
NHS & Monitor: Eggs & Enron.
FSA:
Councils blamed over Iceland savings
Sunday, September 21, 2014
NHS: Enjoying the work!
Just back from some nice snorkelling. It reminds me: one must enjoy ones hobby. What if work is your hobby too?
NHS: The Way We Were! Free!
FREE eBook: Just drop me a line with your email.
Email: cockroachcatcher (at) gmail (dot) com.
©2014 Am Ang Zhang
Fool or no fool, one needs to enjoy one’s work, even in the NHS.
This perhaps is one thing that the government has conveniently forgotten. Many of us do what we do because we enjoy it. Otherwise why should anyone want to teach in universities when they can earn ten or twenty times more in industry? We may also decide to dedicate more time to work for personal pride and satisfaction. During the few years I worked at the inpatient units I spent in excess of a hundred hours a week there, one man doing the job of at least two. In addition to that, I was still looking after two outpatient clinics.
With increased capacity, we were ready to take on transfers. At that time the Health Authorities still had decent managers not yet blinded by directives and performance targets. For a start these managers did not interfere with clinical matters. For our part we were free to exercise our clinical judgment. Unfortunately many consultants abuse this privilege of clinical independence, often making excessive demands for treatments and investigations, and managers have learnt to ignore them. Worse the government set up this organisation called NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) to try to deal with such behaviour.
FROM :
FREE eBook: Just drop me a line with your email.
Email: cockroachcatcher (at) gmail (dot) com.
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