Wednesday, November 17, 2004

ENGLAND — UK Health Secretary John Reid has proposed widespread legislative and health care changes in a new white paper on public health released Tuesday. Titled “Choosing Health”, the paper details government plans to restrict smoking in public places, limit ‘junk food‘ advertisements to children, make available “lifestyle trainers”, campaign against sexually transmitted diseases and tobacco, and improve food labelling.

The white paper comes after extensive public comment that involved 150,000 people.

Smoking would be restricted in enclosed public spaces, restaurants, workplaces, and some pubs. The ban would be enacted gradually, affecting government and NHS buildings in 2006, enclosed public places in 2007, and private property in 2008. Permanent exemption would be granted to pubs that do not serve prepared food — though not at the bar — as well as private clubs, a decision that has provoked some to call the measure incomplete. Up to 90% of pubs are expected to be affected. The Scottish executive proposed a complete ban on smoking in enclosed public places last week, and Ireland has already banned smoking in pubs and restaurants.

Food advertisements targeted to children would be banned until 9pm, under the White Paper’s proposals. The restriction is a measure to tackle rising rates of childhood obesity. The government also intends to develop voluntary standards on food and drink advertisements to children with industry, only threatening legislation if an acceptable standard is not reached by 2007. Additionally, low income families would receive vouchers for fresh fruit, vegetables, milk, and infant formula. School lunches would also be held to stricter nutritional standards. Reid has warned that unless childhood obesity is tackled, “we face the prospect of children having shorter life expectancy than their parents”.

Food labelling would also be improved, with a “traffic light” system implemented. Packaged food would be evaluated based on its fat, sugar, and salt content.

The paper is unusual for suggesting a more holistic approach to health care, offering for the first time “lifestyle trainers.” The National Health Service would be funding with an additional £1bn to make people’s overall lives healthier, which is expected to save £30bn in preventable illness.

The paper additionally makes mention of reducing accidents, which affected 2.7m people last year and is a leading cause of child death, curb binge drinking, and reduce substance abuse among youths.

The paper has been criticized by many parties. The Tory Shadow Health Secretary has criticized the Labour government’s comprehensiveness and creation of a “new nanny state approach”. He has additionally described it as “gimmicks”. The Liberal Democrats have accused the government of not being comprehensive enough. It has also been criticized by the British Medical Association as being implemented too slowly, saying “When lives need saving, doctors act immediately”.

Mr. Reid has argued against the nanny state label, saying “In a free society, men and women ultimately have the right within the law to choose their own lifestyle, even when it may damage their own health. But people do not have the right to damage the health of others, or to impose an intolerable degree of inconvenience or nuisance on others … This is a sensible solution which balances the protection of the majority with the personal freedom of the minority in England”.

The full white paper “Choosing Health” can be read here.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

A man shot a faculty physician as well as his own mother before killing himself at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. The shooting occurred on the eighth floor of the Nelson Building, the hospital’s main building. Baltimore police found the suspected shooter, who had been barricaded inside his mother’s hospital room for several hours before killing himself and his mother.

At around 11:15 a.m. EDT (1515 UTC), an unnamed doctor was shot in the chest at a patient area of the Nelson Building’s thoracic center. All major hospital facilities were placed under a lockdown, and some medical personnel were evacuated from the Nelson Building. The doctor was sent to surgery at the hospital, and police spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said that the doctor will likely survive the incident. He was not aware of any connections between the suspect and the doctor, who was in critical condition.

A nurse at the hospital told The Baltimore Sun that the shooter was dissatisfied with how his mother had been treated and even said that he was going to jump out of a window. The nurse said that, upon hearing gunshots, she ran.

Earlier, Baltimore area police said that they were “in the process of a tactical operation” to capture the gunman, who was holed up on the eighth floor. A spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said that it had been assisting local police in the incident. A Johns Hopkins spokesperson had previously said that authorities had taken the shooter into custody, but police said that the report was incorrect.

The suspect, who had not taken any hostages, was described as a black man in his thirties. After a standoff lasting for three hours, law enforcement officers moved into his mother’s hospital room, and found both him and his mother dead from gunshot wounds to their heads. The suspect was first identified as 50-year-old Warren Davis, and his mother as Jean Davis. Police later said that “Warren Davis” was an alias and that his real name was not known.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld, who said that the department is “treating this case as a murder-suicide,” said that no officers reported hearing the shots that killed the two. Police had previously said that the gunman had been shot and killed by police, but police later said that that report was incorrect.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Former member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) Tommy Sheridan and his wife are to be tried for perjury.

The charges stem from Tommy and Gail Sheridan’s successful £200,000 defamation suit against British tabloid newspaper The News of the World in 2006, during which the judge said that conflicting evidence meant some witnesses were perjuring themselves. This led to an investigation by Lothian and Borders Police. The newspaper had accused Tommy Sheridan of having an affair.

Sheridan established the Scottish Socialist Alliance in 1996, which became the Scottish Socialist Party and stood in the 1999 elections to the newly re-established Scottish Parliament. Sheridan was elected as MSP for Glasgow. He was re-elected in 2003 but the party split in 2006 — with some members giving evidence against Sheridan in his court case — and Sheridan and another MSP, Rosemary Byrne, formed a new party, Solidarity. However, this party — and the remaining Scottish Socialists — lost all their seats in the 2007 election.

After leaving Holyrood, Sheridan hosted a chat show at the Edinburgh fringe and had a talk radio show before joining the latest series of Channel 4’s Celebrity Big Brother. He is now studying law at the University of Strathclyde.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Ghana’s electoral commission announced on Wednesday that a run-off election must be held for the Ghanaian presidency. The commission said that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo won 49.13% of the vote, slightly more than the other main candidate, John Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), who obtained 47.92%. However, neither candidate reached the 50% mark needed to declare an outright winner.

Six other candidates were also present on the ballot, stealing enough votes to prevent either candidate from winning half of the vote. The third-party candidate receiving the most votes was businessman Paa Kwesi Nduom representing the Convention People’s Party (CPP), who took 1.3% of the vote.

Out of some 8.6 million votes cast, more than 200,000, or 2.4% of the full total, were rejected, which also may have helped prevent either candidate from reaching 50%. Overall voter turnout in the election was 69.52%.

The presidential candidates are vying to replace the incumbent president John Kufuor, who will be stepping down in January of next year after serving a maximum of two terms.

The electoral commission did not announce results of the simultaneous parliamentary elections, but preliminary results suggest that the NDC obtained no less than 115 seats, out of a total of 230 in the parliament. It is probable that the NPP will lose the large parliamentary majority it had enjoyed.

The run-off election is scheduled for the 28th of December.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

The Saskatoon Health Region in Saskatchewan, Canada recently discovered a fax machine problem which had not relayed almost 1,500 X-rays, Computed tomography (CT) and Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, ultrasounds, and other medical imaging test results to doctors.

The fax machine is part of the automated Radiology Information System. An audit revealed that medical diagnostic tests involving results dating back a decade have been affected by the broken fax machine.

On May 6, a doctor called the health region officials seeking follow up on a patient’s report. Staff who delved into it, found that the report was not sent from the system.

Now, two weeks later, this same patient has still not been contacted by the health region.

“It has taken some time to work with the patient’s physician. That was important — to get more information and more detail because we want that patient’s physician to be involved in the discussion with the patient,” Dr. David Poulin, vice-president of medical affairs for The Saskatoon Health Region, said. “This is a system error and that’s just what it was — an error. This doesn’t reflect in any way on the quality of work regional staff have done and continue to do.”

An internal review revealed that, of 2.2 million diagnostic tests performed, at least 1,380 had not been sent out by the malfunctioning fax machine.

The health region will embark on contacting each of the 1,380 patients and their physicians to make sure that the results have been received and if any health care was compromised.

Patients can also contact the health region via a newly set up hotline to make enquiries.

“We think it would actually be good practice if physician offices could have a system to check whether they have received important reports,” said Poulin, “The common practice appears to be in many doctors’ offices, particularly family physician offices, that they don’t respond to the report until it arrives. So, they basically are waiting for the report to arrive in their office by fax and it’s at that point that they look at it and decide what action to take.”

City Hospital, St. Paul’s Hospital and Royal University Hospital were the three city hospitals affected. Saskatoon has a population of roughly 233,923, and the hospitals also serve the surrounding rural areas.

Ironically the faulty fax machine was discovered the same week that provincial medical officials began to review approximately 70,000 radiology tests conducted in Yorkton. Officials there doubt the competence of the physician who first interpreted the radiology results.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Residents of a Leeds, England neighbourhood have requested help from a council because their neighbourhood is plagued by crime, overcrowding, and community tensions.

Leeds City Council received a request for help from residents of Hyde Park, who said they were worried about the increasing level of anti-social behavior and worsening community relations. A report will be unveiled on Wednesday by a council delegation, highlighting the problems in the area. “The people living in Hyde Park come from widely different population groups… these groups have very different customs, needs and living styles and this can provoke high levels of tension in the area,” the delegation said.

The council claims that because of the 28 per cent ethnic minority population and the 40,000 students living in the neighbourhood, there are tensions between residents. They added, however, that they are actively encouraging people to work together, citing a multi-faith forum, a cricket competition and activities which bring old and young together.

The report says that the council are trying to build relationships between Muslims and police, something which they said is “particularly important after the area’s connection to the London bombings on 7th July 2005.” A local newspaper reported that “the Shebab project introduces young Muslims to role models from sport and culture and also runs scholars’ talks to counter extremist ideologies.”

Crime has increased by 7% in the past year in Hyde Park, and residents noted that anti-social behaviour was getting worse. The council said that an anti-burglary task force had helped to reduce the number of thefts from homes. Residents complained that there was a lack of pride in the area, and at the end of the academic year in the summer, large piles of rubbish were left in streets, yards and alleyways. The report adds that the council operates a recycling scheme aimed towards teenagers, and that rubbish collections have increased.

The Guardian reported on Wednesday that campaigners are attempting to “take control of a derelict school building and transform it into a community hub are appealing for sponsors and partners in a bid to turn their dreams into reality.” They say that the unused building, owned by the council, could be used for meetings and events. A volunteer group of residents have been working on a business plan, and have gained support from local businesses to create “a vision of an open, accessible and valuable resource for all.”

A member of the commitee, however, said he was “frustrated” with the council’s attitude towards the plans. “The RPCC is slightly frustrated with certain communication issues that we’ve had with the council, but we’re working with them and hoping to gain further assistance going forward,” he said. “It’s a shame that certain setbacks could have been avoided.”

The deputation added that “a major factor in Hyde Park’s suffering is its high level of population density”, which they conceded is something they are unable to change. The council responded to complaints that streets are “cheap and unhealthy takeaways, letting agents and boarded-up shop fronts,” by saying that Hyde Park Corner and Headingley are, according to the Yorkshire Post, “thriving shopping areas and work had taken place to ensure a good mix of outlets.”

The report concludes: “The council acknowledges that because of the very particular circumstances which exist in the neighbourhood, Hyde Park faces difficult challenges which affect the quality of life of residents and that ‘normal’ service levels may not be sufficient to tackle some of these. The council will do more to enable local people to influence how services work and how local problems are tackled. Local community and voluntary groups will be invited to play an active role.”

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Buenos Aires, Argentina —Wikinews interviewed the Wikimedia Foundation’s Asaf Bartov, the Head of Wikimedia Grants Program and Global South Partnerships, at the Fourth Ibercoop — Ibero-American Wikimedia Summit; where, hosted by Wikimedia Argentina, a cooperative group of wiki contributors and supporters from Spain, Portugal, and Latin America met to foster collaboration and experience sharing related to the Wikimedia Foundation movement in these countries. The Wikimedia Foundation is a US non-profit and charitable organization, that encourage Wikipedia readers to become contributors and editors of the Internet encyclopedia that ranks in the top-ten most-visited websites worldwide,

((Wikinews)) Besides your assistance as a representative of the Wikimedia Foundation, in what other ways does the Foundation support Iberoconf?

Asaf Bartov: So, the Wikimedia Foundation supports Iberoconf because we see value in having Wikimedians with a shared culture, mostly shared language, get together and be able to share experiences and form collaborative plans in their own language. This is something very unique to Iberoconf in terms of the size. There are very few groups other than the Ibero-American group that share a language and ability to communicate in that way. That’s why we support it. The ways we support it is, well, we fund it, we provide the funding for having this meeting, the travel, […] etcetera, and we support it by being here, by taking the time to attend the conference and be available to have conversations, both group conversations and one-on-one conversations with the delegates, many of whom do not have other opportunities to speak to us face-to-face. So this is the opportunity. Even though we live in the 21st century, the world is digital and technological, and theoretically we could do a lot of communication on video-calls, etc., and we can, the truth of the matter is that a lot of people feel distant from the Foundation, hesitant to approach, even though we are very welcoming and friendly I hope, a lot of people need to see us and talk to us, and have dinner with us, before they feel comfortable approaching us with issues and problems and things, and so there is value just in the social aspect which is being here, and being accessible, and being human. But in addition to that, we are here to also share our knowledge, our expertise, our suggestions, in the more formal part of the program. This particular year I am here with two colleagues of mine. […] Both of them also speak Spanish so they can contribute more freely and have delivered presentations on their topics of expertise. This is support that Iberocoop gets and all other Wikimedians can get. So I think it’s a valuable opportunity.

((WN)) Which positive aspects of Wikimedia Argentina do you value at this Iberoconf?

Asaf Bartov: First of all, they have done a great job organizing the event. Everything is running smoothly as far as I can tell. The venue is really good. The program is running according to schedule more or less. So that’s good; and they did this in a fairly short schedule after there was some uncertainty about who would host the conference. So that was good. More generally, I really appreciate their successful transition with the new Executive Director, who has been able to assume all of the responsibilities, including, crucially, their submission to the FDC [Funds Dissemination Committee] process like their proposal which was good as we have just learned this weekend when the FDC published its recommendations which are granting Wikimedia Argentina practically the budget that they requested. Which is a very strong positive signal from the FDC that Wikimedia Argentina is on the right track, its programmatic approach is good and its planning is solid. This is all very high praise, this is all hard to achieve; it’s is not as easy as it seems. Most specifically, I would say Wikimedia Argentina has some interesting partnerships, these educational partnerships that we have heard about yesterday are promising. I like that they are working… they are not just doing, you know, the Wikipedia education program — going to classrooms, having students write articles — but they are collaborating with other external non-Wikimedia organizations towards free culture and free knowledge. That is a very powerful mechanism for growth of impact. So that they are not bound only by the volunteers you have but they also leverage the external part.

((WN)) I am from Costa Rica, and Costa Rica is the smallest of the groups represented during this Iberoconf. What should Costa Rica learn from Iberocoop to reach the same degrees of success that have reached the rest of the chapters?

Asaf Bartov: That’s a good question. I would say, if I were in your shoes, one interesting question I would ask of everyone here is, when did you feel, what do you feel was the inflection point, the turning point, in the growth of the community in your country — like, was there an event, or was there a — like, not necessarily even a Wikimedia event, like maybe it was, you know, the National Elections of 2008 — was there something that you feel triggered a lot of growth, was there a moment where you feel, yeah there was all of the history up to that point, and then there was growth. It would be interesting to learn from all our colleagues here what that moment was for them, if they can think of one, and then see if some of those stories may be relevant for Costa Rica. Maybe there is something you can do, maybe something you can think about. Other than that, there’s just the general solutions for all in our movement: trying to have regular meet-ups, trying to collaborate with allies groups like free software groups. These are more generally solutions, but specifically to learn from Iberocoop I would ask people to think about their early stages and see if they can offer you some advice.

((WN)) The Wikimedia Foundation funded the assistance in Iberoconf of two persons per group. Is it possible in the future for the Foundation to fund the assistance of more than just two?

Asaf Bartov: The answer is, maybe. [chuckles] The reason we stick to two is to keep to the total size of the event manageable. Not just in terms of how much it costs, although that’s also a consideration, but also in terms of keeping the sessions effective. Think about the session we’ve just had […] — that was a complex conversation to have with no preparation, this wasn’t discussed for a lot of weeks in advance or something, and even the size we already have now was too big; we were broken into groups, to come out with something and then try and mash it together, which was an effective way to do it. But that shows you that very large groups is not very effective for discussion and so the balance between not having just a single point of view from each country represented and between having just an unmanageable two-hundred-people conference — because that becomes like a happening, like Wikimania, instead of a working conference. They’re different types of events. And so two is a good balance between them, with at least two people, there are two tracks they can go to, have parallel sessions and bring the most value back to their community. The one exception I can think of is for chapters that have staff to also include one staff member; so, next year wherever we hold it, if it’s not in Argentina for example, I think it would make sense for two board members of Wikimedia Argentina to come and [one staff].

((WN)) Thank you!