THE CONNECTEDNESS OF THINGS

WHAT REALLY BOTHERS ME is judging how best to react to a crisis like the great BP Oil Spill. This is a US located disaster and quite a few of the readers of this Blog live far away. Even here in Painted Post, in Upper New York State, it is hard to grasp the gigantic effects of this disaster on the life and ecology this is having and will continue to have. On the other hand, it is hard indeed not to feel some sense of connection to it. Why are BP and similar companies drilling for oil off-shore in the Gulf of Mexico? There some 50,000 drilling sites abound, over half of them capped, abandoned, and un-monitored; only some 600 are related to BP activity. We hardly need to be told this is a risky business in terms of human lives; when I fill up at the local service station it is hard not to think of eleven lives vanished at Deepwater Horizon. In terms of financial risk oil drilling cost billions and only relatively few exploration holes become productive. The per barrel extraction costs keep rising and the amount of oil reserves found keep falling. Yet still we drill for drill we must; and the reason we must is that the demand for petroleum products will continue to rise as more internal combustion vehicles come on the world increasing number of highways.

What can we do? One possible response is outlined in an NY Times OpEd article, This Time It Is Different (June 12, 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/opinion/13friedman.html) in which Thomas Friedman quotes a letter to the editor written by a friend to his local paper. In part, his friend says, "Here's the bottom line: if we want to end our oil addiction, we, as citizens, need to pony up: bike to work, plant a garden, do something. So again, the oil spill is my fault. I'm sorry. I have not done my part." However true this may be, it is far too simple a 'mea culpa'. A large proportion of the working population have been seduced into living far from their work place and must rely on owning and using a car to get to and from from work. The construction of modern suburbs prevents students from walking or riding bikes to and from school and recreation. It is far cheaper to buy a tomato at the supermarket that to grow one at home, even including the cost of driving. Besides, what I do or don't do is a drop in the bucket compared with what others don't do and do.

Maybe a growing consciousness about the cost of things is needed. Perhaps I should think about the eleven dead at Deepwater Horizon when I gas up my car, or the 29 coal miners dead in Pennsylvania when I turn on the light. Or the 35 to 47 $Billion the oil industry receives each year so that I can have relatively cheap gasoline that makes it possible for me to make four trips downtown a week instead of three, or two.

Today I saw a documentary ('Blood, Sweat, and T-Shirts') in which six young Brits went to India to work in the clothing industry that supplies Europe's fashion shops, living and working in the same conditions as Indian workers. It was a trying and testing experience in which they discovered the harsh discipline workers must endure, that the 'bargain' costing 15 Pounds at home resulted in 33 Rupees (about US$0.45) to the worker who assembled it and who must make 16 garments a day to scape together enough for the necessities of life. In the globalization made possible by cheap oil, garments purchased on 'the cheap' in the developed world, worn once or twice before being discarded, mean a cheap life for those who make them.

Discovering the world beyond what is under our nose can be a shocking experience. Caught up in the web of our own existence, we struggle to understand how things might be different for others if we changed our own behavior. Things might be worse, not better...how can we know?

A couple of things stand out for me. We need to be a lot smarter about how the world of economics and politics 'works' and those of us who are finding out more need to spread the word so as to influence our 'masters and betters'.

Just now, in Australia, in last weekend's election, the governing party may have lost power because it dropped the ball on action to combat global warming. Here in the US, we face the awful consequences of an oil disaster that could have been prevented by better regulation and administration of the industry. Perhaps we are beginning to realize that, for democracy to appear, citizens need to be well versed over issues, to take time from Fox news and 'reality TV' and get busy 'googling'. Maybe we need a Church of the Environment, a religion of the Internet to rescue us from ageing political slogans, and...who knows what?

KNEE #2 UPDATE

TWELVE DAYS ON...

Yippee! I am due to have my staples removed today. I mean those metal-like external stitches used to close up the outermost layer of skin. The incision has been healing nicely, and not quite so long as the one on the left knee. The county Home Care folk have a nurse looking after this and also provide a Physical Therapist to make sure I get going on the tasks of flexing and stretching the knee and recovering a proper walk.

This time around I had to stay overnight after the operation (instead of coming home the same day as I did previously). My health insurer had authorized a stay of up to three days but I was surely glad to be discharged the next day and to be heading off for Painted Post. Each location has its own procedures and this time I had to attend for a pre-surgical screening whereas the out-patient surgery location accepted my local doctor's screening. I still had to go to the local doctor however so the second workup was more complicated and involved travelling up to Rochester for the screening. This, plus the overnight stay, puts an extra load on one's carer.

The inpatient stay seemed more automated; for example, there was less choice about anesthesia. This time it was a spinal block as well as the regional block and an IV infusion to control consciousness. I have a recall of being briefly aware of some hammering and drilling at one point in the procedure (as if to someone else, far away). Cathedrization was non-optional so there was the business of removal and getting the 'water works' going. I suppose one could categorize these as the downsides.

The upsides included special care via pneumatic cuffs on the feet to ensure circulation in the lower limbs, immediate use of ice therapy to manage swelling, more physical therapy and occupational therapy attention, more people with whom to interact, and quite good meals. Also, on the plus side, I got to bring home the ice treatment machine. Apart from the time component, there is much less pressure on one's carer. Being in hospital for an extra day means that day is spent with lots of support.

All in all, what one loses on the swings, one picks up on the merry-go-rounds, as the saying goes.

Having trod this path (forgive the metaphor, if you can) once before, I find I tend to be impatient with progress and maybe a little more irritable on this account. To be fair, however, my impression is that recovery is a little faster this time around. The surgeon reported that the operation was less complex for this knee. I am certainly experiencing a lot less bruising of the lower leg, so he must have had to do less work on getting everything aligned properly.

So here I am, using my walking stick still but able to walk about unaided for short distances and looking forward to the sutures going. I can sit long enough to peck away at this blog and email so expect to hear a little more from me.