#recognising the rot in the system and just having to really come to terms with how far it goes | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

suometar · 3 years

Text

Indeed, we all have faced the issue of non-functional links. It's inconvenient in daily life, but it has more significant concequences than we ever thought of.

This article made me really understand for the first time how valuable printed information actually is and WHY we should get back into printing books as soon as possible.

Because as a ton of information is stored only online and no more in printed format, it is easy to get rid of it just by breaking the link that used to work. This happens in most cases simply by accident. But not always.

Views on this post are based on my experience as a professional web designer since early 2000's.

HOW THIS HAPPENS

URL structures are renewed (and thus broken) usually when a website is renewed or updated to meet modern standards. It is very destructive especially when the whole content management system (CMS) is changed. Usually it means that the whole way the system handles the content changes and with it the url structure.

For example that the old url domain.com/articles might after the update be domain.com/blog instead. When this happens - poof - all your old urls are all gone - even though the content might still exist.

WHY IT IS BAD

What makes url changes bad is that the old urls are still linked to from other websites. Thus all references from outside the website get broken and the information is no longer accessible from outside the website itself. This is unless the website owner makes sure the old urls are redirected to the new ones (when you type domain.com/articles to your browser you're redirected automatically to domain.com/blog)

In most cases the url change is an uninteted consequence the organisation doesn't recognise during the renewal process.

It can also be deliberate. This however isn't always just url changes but something far more malicious.

ONLINE CONTENT AND REMOVAL REQUESTS

The most vunerable content of all is the information that keeps our societies together, allows its development and last but not least allows freedom of thought and speech. These would be for example legal documentation and scientific research and access to information that you can use to educate you and allows you to make educated conclusions of the world.

All of this is mostly influenced by the way we nowadays find it. Come in Google.

Google is deliberately using algorithms that chooses the content you find. In most cases it actually offers you the information that is current and fits your search terms.

Unless the search terms are somehow controversial. Suddenly the given results on the first pages at least are no longer impartial but instead the kind of content Google WANTS you to see. This is directly affected by Google being a business instead of impartial search engine devoted to sharing and finding the information you in fact are looking for.

That is one thing.

But another is that Google is deliberately removing information from its search index (the database they use to crawl and quickly retrieve online content to respond to the search terms). Yes, in most cases this is information that is right to be removed, such as child porn. Unfortunately they also remove content, such as legal and controversial scientific content, based on court orders.

WHY REMOVING INFORMATION BASED ON ANY ORDERS IS BAD

And as we all know, everything that is online can be very easily forged. This opinion post on Washington Post tells about a case where court ordered an online service (Yelp) to remove a business review by a client. Unfortunately the lawsuit was apparently made by someone else than the business itself (though in their name).

While that case is not directly related to Google the Lumen project (which is dedicated in listing of online removal requests) lists several similar requests made directly to Google and to other online services. In 2016 a researcher found out that in fact a large number of the requests were outright Photoshop forgeries.

The online services have a hard time in knowing what is in fact real order and what is not. And THIS is what makes the removal based on requests problematic.

It gives the opportunity to forge a removal order to basically anyone who thinks some information should be removed for ANY reason. Google or Bing don't ask the court directly if the documentation is correct but instead they trust the filer of the request to be honest in their request.

WHY WE SHOULDN'T TRUST SEARCH ENGINES BLINDLY ANYMORE

We trust search engines to give us the correct information. That is basic trust people have developed towards search engines - because they USED TO BE trustworthy. They weren't maximazing profits but instead actually interested in helping information sharing.

Free and unlimited information sharing is the core on which the whole internet was built on.

If anyone can say that this or that content is solely in my opinion bad or unwanted and I want it removed from search engine, this severely disrupts information being freely available to those who seek it.

Thus it crumbles the whole basis of the internet.

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO FIND THE INFORMATION YOU ACTUALLY ARE LOOKING FOR

With outdated and broken links:

Most likely the place where the broken link is covers a certain topic. Use the topic and any references you have on that place to the broken link source and search it with a search engine. Most likely the information IS still online - the old links to it just aren't working anymore.

Yes, it takes time and effort. But nothing worth doing is EASY. We just have unfortunately forgotten that.

To find the information you need a trustworthy search engine:

To do the research the most effective thing you can do is to either

Change your primary search engine to an independent and open sourced one - such as DuckDuckGo.com that doesn't decide for you what information you should find, OR

Start comparing the results of both Google AND of an independed search engine, - such as before mentioned - then read the results, and make up your mind about the subject.

As mentioned, none of this ia EASY to do. But we need to take responsibility on how we view the world AND that we stay educated.

WHY WE SHOULD GET BACK TO PRINTING BOOKS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE

Printed books have been the way to preserve and relay information throughout generations for thousands of years. The format is superior: as long as it's stored in a dry and cool place and printed/written on proper paper it is usable even after a very long time. To use it doesn't require anything else but the ablity to read the characters and some light to be able to see the text - or images.

But the books aren't valuable as itself unless you find the ones you're seeking for. You need a library system and caretakers for the information - librarians.

Both of these combined you have an equivalent to a search engine - but in physical format. In the format that information has been stored and shared until this day.

When the information is solely online it is constantly vulnerable to significant threats:

losing electricity

losing the links to the content

curation of information flow based on profit calculations

the whims of someone who thinks it's wrong information and shouldn't be available.

Simply a worldwide electricity disruption - caused for example by a powerful emp or a solar flare - can make finding information online impossible and at worst, destroy it.

Yes, printed books can be burned. But when enough books are distributed worldwide the information remains physically somewhere.

And that is where printed books are far superior to anything that is stored online.

The search for the information might be far more difficult with printed books but at least it's always somewhere and at least some of it remains. It is not undestructable but you can always copy them.

Saving the information and stories in physical format has been done since humans developed the skill to relay information by drawing and later by writing. A lot of it all is still available today.

If online sources are destroyed or made impossible to find we have nothing.

#internet #information technology #computers #books #google #thoughts from the crypt #long post

43 notes · View notes

mnemememory · 5 years

Text

The Life and Times of the Creature Known as Frumpkin, Cat

Frumpkin-the-cat and Nott-the-not-a-cat have come to an Understanding.

link to ao3 in profile

Part 2: NOTT

Frumpkin and Nott-sharp-teeth have come to an Understanding.

The Understanding is this – Nott-sharp-teeth will not try to eat Frumpkin unless it is absolutely necessary, and Frumpkin will not mess around with Nott-sharp-teeth’s shiny, shiny vials. It is an effort not to knock them over whenever Nott-sharp-teeth pulls them out to play, but Frumpkin is a cat, and therefore a master of self-control.

Also, every time he tries, he ends up being sent back There, and Caleb-warm-master sometimes takes a while to summon him back. Not unpleasant, though the hissing that Nott-sharp-teeth gives Frumpkin when it happens it almost as good as that of a disgruntled cat. Not perfect, but close. Nott-sharp-teeth has the – well, she has the teeth for it. There are very few things that Nott-sharp-teeth is capable od doing better than Caleb-warm-master (a list which includes such lofty activities as scritches behind the ears and belly rubs), but hissing is one of them.

At the moment, however –

Nott-sharp-teeth should know better than to just. Leave all of her things out on the floor. All of her shiny, shiny things. Frumpkin paces back and forth in front of them, reaching out to tap a paw on one of the empty glass vials. It gives a satisfying tink as it rolls into another vial.

Frumpkin visibly twitches.

Caleb-warm-master is downstairs, eating dinner. This is good. Dinner is important. Though dinner has apparently become so important that Caleb-warm-master is now insisting that Frumpkin participate, which hadn’t been part of the initial objective. Frumpkin has begun to play dead whenever Jester-blue-healer comes to drag them all downstairs. Caleb-warm-master seems to recognise the performance for what it is, but hasn’t done anything about it. Yet.

Today is similar, in that Frumpkin had lain out against the windowsill and gone boneless when Caleb-warm-master had called, “Frumpkin. Frumpkin.”

“Let him sleep, Caleb,” Jester-blue-healer says cheerfully, which is why Jester-blue-healer is Frumpkin’s favourite. Well, second favourite. It’s a rotating system. Though “favourite” isn’t exactly a fair term, given that Caleb-warm-master wins out in every category, every time. Frumpkin wonders sometimes if he’s taking this “familiar” thing too far, but no one has contradicted him so far, and. And besides. Caleb-warm-master needs him. And Frumpkin loves Caleb-warm-master.

Which does absolutely nothing in Frumpkin’s current predicament, which consists of a lot of unoccupied and unobserved glass vials just sitting there, begging to be knocked over.

Nott-sharp-teeth had been sitting on the ground by Caleb-warm-master’s bed, talking to herself as she unscrewed different jars and poured foul-smelling liquid from one thing to another. One vial has a set of buttons stacked at the bottom, fizzing away. Another has a clear liquid that pulsates in a way that isn’t quite colour, but gives the suggestion of. It smells absolutely terrible.

Slowly, very slowly, Frumpkin goes to check the door.

Caleb-warm-master is still downstairs. Frumpkin can feel him, a glow of warmth that spread sup through Frumpkin’s paws. Frumpkin can infer, therefore, that Nott-sharp-teeth is also downstairs. Largely because Nott-sharp-teeth is not very good at being subtle while drunk. And Nott-sharp-teeth is always drunk.

Assured of a clear hallway, Frumpkin goes back to the rows of glass vials, studying each for the biggest potential gratification. The buttons are tempting. The buttons are very tempting. Just a little bit of pressure –

Someone walks in.

Frumpkin freezes in place, paw half a distance away from the glass.

Caduceus-tea-rot ambles in, half-smile stretched out across his soft features. Frumpkin approves of Caduceus-tea-rot, as much as Frumpkin approves of anyone other than Caleb-warm-master (and sometimes, whoever is on his sliding scale of favouritism). Caduceus-tea-rot is very good at giving scritches.

Caduceus-tea-rot walks right past Frumpkin and goes to Caleb-warm-master’s bedside table. Just as Frumpkin is about to abandon his thin veil of subterfuge and growl a warning, Caduceus-tea-rot moves on, leaving behind a few sweet-smelling sachets. He does the same for Nott-sharp-teeth’s side of the room, and then calmly walks back to the door.

“I don’t care what you’re up to, just so you know,” Caduceus-tea-rot says. Frumpkin does not jump, because Frumpkin is (currently) a cat-creature with excellent reflexes and a chronic inability to actually be startled, but the thing-Frumpkin-is-when-he-is-not-a-cat comes awfully close. “Just make sure that you keep it contained. We’re all very tired, you know.”

Frumpkin knows. Frumpkin would be tired, too, if Frumpkin was human-like-Caleb-warm-master, if Frumpkin was creature-like-Nott-sharp-teeth. Frumpkin looks like a cat. For all intents and purposes, Frumpkin is as close to a cat as something that is not actually a cat is ever going to be. Frumpkin does not need to eat, or sleep, or breathe (not really); there are certain necessities for this body, but they are easily overcome with the correct preparations. And Caleb-warm-master always makes the correct preparations.

(Frumpkin is tired of watching Caleb-warm-master claw, angry and hot and bloody, across a battlefield with no end. Frumpkin is tired of watching Nott-sharp-teeth flinch away from sudden noises. Frumpkin is tired of watching his human’s chosen companions, people who can give almost a good a belly-rub as Caleb-warm-master, frightened and defeated and scared. So scared).

(But Frumpkin is just a cat. The best he can do is curl up alongside Caleb-warm-master and purr).

Caduceus-tea-rot leaves. With a deliberate kind of defiance, Frumpkin leans forward and knocks over the vial of buttons.

“I’M GOING TO EAT YOU!”

On some level, Frumpkin was aware that this series of events was inevitable. Nott-sharp-teeth is a predator. Frumpkin is a thing-to-be-eaten.

This seems a bit extreme, however.

“Be careful of the –” Caleb-warm-master starts to say, just as Frumpkin zig-sags around the curtains and Nott-sharp-teeth (who has no peripheral vision to speak of) slams into the window. Frumpkin would have laughed, if he weren’t a cat, but cats were better than that.

“GET BACK HERE YOU STUPID CAT!” Nott-sharp-teeth howls.

Frumpkin is offended. If anyone is stupid here, it is definitely Nott-sharp-teeth, who just left her chemistry set out in the open. What was Frumpkin supposed to do, not knock it over?

This might be a little more than Frumpkin can handle, though. There are only so many places in this room that Frumpkin can hide, and Nott-sharp-teeth is small enough to take advantage of the fact. The door is closed. Nott-sharp-teeth is fast, and strong, and also has very sharp teeth. Incredibly sharp teeth. Frumpkin has never quite forgotten the fact, but right now he can’t quite seem to stop focusing on them. Lots and lots of teeth.

Almost as Frumpkin resigns himself to being eaten again, the indignity, Caleb-warm-master snaps his fingers and Frumpkin is in his hands and away from Nott-sharp-teeth’s very sharp teeth.

It takes a few seconds for Frumpkin to realise that he is safe, during which he huddles closer to Caleb-warm-master and does his best limpet impression. Frumpkin has never been a limpet. He’s been many things, but he likes being a cat the best.

“You just ate downstairs,” Caleb-warm-master says. Caleb-warm-master is Frumpkin’s favourite everything. “You do not need to eat my cat.”

“That mangy, flea-bitten mongrel burned a hole in the floor! Using my good acid! I was cleaning my buttons with that!”

“I will buy you some new buttons later,” Caleb-warm-master says, petting Frumpkin. Frumpkin cuddles close and doesn’t-quite-give-a-smile at Nott-sharp-teeth.

Nott-sharp-teeth gives an incredibly cat-like hiss and lunges.

#critical role #critical role campaign 2 #nott the brave #frumpkin #caleb widogast #caduceus clay #crack #i think i'm funny #fanfic #my writing #the life and times of the creature known as frumpkin

51 notes · View notes

hydrus · 3 years

Text

Version 447

youtube

windows

zip

exe

macOS

app

linux

tar.gz

I had a great week. The database should be a bit faster when doing file work, and I have fixed several annoying bugs. It will take your client a few seconds to update this week, maybe a minute or two if you have millions of files.

multi column lists

I gave the weird column widths another go. Some users had this fun but quite annoying situation where a dialog with a list could grow magically wider before their eyes, maybe 20 pixels four times a second, until it reached their monitor width. Other users (me included) had a handful of lists still growing or shrinking a few pixels on every reopen.

So I drilled down into the logic again and improved things. Some calculations are now more accurate, some are more precise, and I think I fixed the runaway growth situation. Let me know how you get on, and sorry for the trouble!

performance improvements

Thanks to profile feedback from users, I discovered some file routines that were working inefficiently, particularly on very large clients. Mostly unusual jobs like 'get all the trashed files that are due for deletion' or 'get the repository update files I still need to process'. It was mostly when you were looking at a small domain when a very large 'my files' domain was right next door, getting in the way of the query. Having done lots of similar improvement work for tags, I updated how files are stored this week. Several big tables are now split into many smaller pieces that do not interfere with each other. This was actually a long overdue job, so I am happy it is done.

There isn't much to say beyond 'your client should be a bit faster with files now', but let me know how you get on anyway. Mostly you should have fewer lag spikes as background jobs go about their work, but you may notice the duplicates system going a bit faster and general file searches working better too.

Some users with very large sessions have also reported CPU lag with the new session saving system. Thanks again to some user profiles, I was able to speed up session save, particularly for pages with tens or hundreds of thousands of thumbails. The next step will be optimising downloader page save, so if you have a lot of heavy downloaders, I would be interested in some profiles.

In that vein, I significantly improved the profile mode (help->debug->profile mode) this week. All the modes are now merged into one, and all the popup spam is gone. It now makes a new log file every time you turn it on, and only the most useful information is logged. I will keep working here to get more and more information profiled so we can nail down and eliminate slow code.

I have altered core components of the database this week, and it unfortunately caused some bit rot in older update routines. 447 cannot update databases older than 411, and it may have trouble updating before 436. If either of these apply to you, the client will error out or warn you before continuing. I'd like to know what happens to you if you are v411-435 so I can refine these messages.

And while I have tested this all back and forth, there may be a typo bug in some of the more unusual queries. I am sorry ahead of time if you run into any of these--send me the traceback and I'll fix them up.

full list

misc:

fixed drag and dropping multiple newline separated urls onto the client when those urls come from a generic text source

pages now cache their 'ordered' file id list. this speeds up several little jobs, but most importantly should reduce session save time for sessions with tens of thousands of files

common file resolutions such as 1920x1080 are now replaced in labels with '1080p' strings as already used in the duplicate system. also added 'vertical' variants of 720p, 1080p, and 4k

when a page preview viewer gets a call to clear its current media when it is not currently the page in view, it now recognises that properly. this was happening (a 'sticky' preview) on drag and drops that navigated and terminated on other pages

the various 'retry ignored' commands on downloaders now give an interstitial dialog where you can choose to retry 'all', '404s', or 'blacklisted' files only

manage tag siblings/parents now disables its import button until its data is loaded. imports that were clicked through before loading were being forgotten due to tangled logic, so for now I'll just disable the button!

reduced some more spiky database I/O overhead from the UI's perspective (now savepoints are performed after a result is returned, just like I recently did with transaction commit)

duplicate potentials search will now update the y in its x/y progress display if many files have been imported since the search was started and x becomes larger than y (due to y secretly growing)

fixed the default 'gelbooru md5' file lookup script. if you have a lookup script with this name, it will be updated to my new default automatically. I don't really like fixing this old system, but I am not sure when I will fit in my big rewrite that will merge it with the normal downloader system, so this is a quick fix for the meantime

if you are one of the users who had weird unfixable 404 update file problems with the PTR, please try unpausing and doing a metadata resync one more time this week. fingers crossed, this is fixed. please let me know how you get on too, fixed or not, and also if you have had 'malformed' database problems in the past

multi column lists:

improved the precision of longer text pixel_width->text and text->pixel_width calculations, which are particularly used in the multi-column list state saving system. another multi-column size calculation bug, where lists could grow by 1 character's width on >~60 character width columns on every dialog reopen, is now fixed

multi-column lists should now calculate last column width more precisely and accurately regardless of vertical scrollbar presence or recent show/hide

the snapping system that locks last column size to 5-character multiples can now snap up or down, increasing error tolerance

I added a hack to stop the bug some people had of multi-column lists suddenly growing wide, up to screen width, in a resize loop. I think it works, but as I cannot reproduce this error, please let me know how you get on. resizing the options->external programs panel seems to initiate it reliably for those users affected

profile mode:

all debug profile modes (callto, db, server, menu, pubsub, and ui) are now merged into one mode under help->debug

this new mode no longer spams popups, and it only prints 'slow' jobs to the profile log

it also makes a new profile log every time it is turned on, using mode start timestamp rather than client boot timestamp, and when profile mode is turned off, there is a popup summary of how many fast and slow jobs passed through during the log time

touched up profile code, timing thresholds, summary statements, and the help

special update rule this week:

due to the big file storage rework this week, there's some bit rot in older update routines. 447 cannot update databases older than 411, and it _may_ have trouble updating before 436. if this applies to you, the client will error out or warn you before continuing. I'd like to know what happens to you if you are v411-435 so I can refine these messages

boring database refactoring:

the primary current, deleted, pending, and petitioned files tables are now split according to service, much as I have done with mapping tables in the past. this saves a little space and accelerates many file calculations on large clients. if you have a client database script or patch that inspects 'current_files' or 'deleted_files', you'll now be looking at client_files_x etc.., where x is the service_id, and they obviously no longer have a service_id column

a new file storage database module manages these tables, and also some misc file deletion metadata

refactored all raw file storage updates, filters, and searches to the new module

the mappings and new file storage database modules are now responsible for various 'num files/mappings' metadata calculations

most file operations on smaller domains, typically trash or repository update files, will be significantly faster (since the much larger 'my files' table data isn't fattening the relevant indices, and worst case query planning is so much better)

cleaned up a ton of file domain filtering code as a result of all this

physical file deletion is now much faster when the client has many pending file uploads to a file repository or IPFS service

complicated duplicate file operations of many sorts should be a _little_ faster now, particularly on large clients

searching files with 'file import time' sort should be a little faster in many situations

tag repositories no longer bother going down to the database level to to see if they have any thumbnails to sync with

everyone also gets a local file id cache regen this week, it may take a few seconds on update

next week

Next week is a cleanup week. I would like to continue my long term database refactoring job, breaking the code into neater and saner pieces that will also support some neat future maintenance jobs. I also want to bring back the vacuum maintenance command with some new UI.

#release

0 notes

icechuksblog · 4 years

Quote

In the light of the increasing spread and casualties arising from the coronavirus disease, the Nigerian Medical Association, the National Association of Resident Doctors and the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives have again called on the government to immediately put in place life insurance policy for their members across the country.This, they said, would further motivate their members on the front line of tackling the raging disease, given the hazards they are exposed to on duty.In Nigeria, as of Saturday, a doctor had died as a result of the disease, two doctors in Edo State had also tested positive for the virus, while about 25 doctors, comprising house officers, resident doctors and a consultant had been in self-isolation after coming in contact with COVID-19 patients. Similarly, in Lagos, the Chief Medical Director, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Prof Adetokunbo Fabamwo, told News Agency of Nigeria on Saturday that four nurses in the hospital had been placed in isolation after they had contact with a patient who died of the virus. He, however, said all the doctors took precaution when attending to the patient.He added, “When the woman (patient) was about to die, and was gasping for breath, the nurses rushed to her and tried to do pulmonary resuscitation on her.“They moved more closely to her. Though they were protected, we felt that because of that closeness, we should isolate them so that they won’t go home and be a risk to their families.”Also, the number of confirmed cases in the country rose to 318, following 13 new cases detected on Saturday.The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control via its Twitter handle, @NCDCgov, tweeted, “13 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported; 11 in Lagos, one in Delta and one in Kano.“As of 9:30pm 11th April there are 318 confirmed cases of COVID19 reported in Nigeria. 70 have been discharged with 10 deaths. There are 19 states with confirmed cases in Nigeria.”Across the world, 1,761,286 cases had been recorded, out of which 107,659 persons had died and 395,665 had recovered.Meanwhile, the heads of the three medical associations, who spoke on behalf of their members, told newsmen on Friday that even though the Federal Government had consistently muted the idea of life insurance for health workers, the implementation was belated. They noted however that there was no better time to put the policy in place than now.The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, said in Abuja on Thursday that government “would be engaging with the insurance industry to package special health care insurance, which is life insurance, for health workers.”She added, “The Federal Government recognises the patriotism and sacrifice of our front line health care workers, whose critical roles in combating the COVID-19 pandemic place their health and lives at risk.”Prior to this, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Mr Boss Mustapha, said on April 3 that government was making efforts to provide medical and life insurance cover for the health workers battling the virus.He had said, “In recognition of the danger to which our front line health workers are exposed, the government is working with other stakeholders to structure medical and life insurance cover for their protection. I, therefore, wish to assure them of our commitment and urge them to put in their utmost best as they battle to save us from this ravaging disease.”The task force had further emphasised the need to see to the welfare of the health workers when it said on Wednesday that it did not want to lose the confidence of the health workers, noting that if that happened, they (government) would lose the response in containing the virus. The Director-General, NCDC, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, said at the briefing, “We acknowledge the roles the health workers are playing particularly during this pandemic. No one is more at risk than those who have the closest contact with our patients and those really are the health care workers, particularly our nurses.“Health care workers are our absolute priority, if we lose their confidence, we will lose the response. So, whatever we are doing, we focus on making sure that our health care workers feel comfortably supported.”Even though health is not the exclusive responsibility of the Federal Government – states and local governments also have responsibilities at different levels in terms of infrastructure and welfare of personnel – the NCDC, a federal agency, has been coordinating the response to the virus.While the Federal Government had made promises, states have largely kept mute on the issue of life insurance for the health workers.Speaking on this, the President of the NMA, Dr Francis Faduyile, stated that life insurance for workers was belated. He added that the country needed motivated workers who knew that their dependants would be catered for if anything happened to them in the course of discharging their duties.He said, “I don’t think it’s now that they should be talking about this. I think it’s belated. If we have been facing COVID-19 for seven weeks and you are talking of insurance now, that is gross injustice and it shows the nonchalant attitude that the government has.“It also shows their disdain for health workers. I heard the chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and SGF saying he was surprised with the state of our health sector, when we have been talking about the rot over the years. It is really unfortunate. How then would they know that it is urgent to have better insurance for health workers?”Meanwhile, despite the promises by the Federal Government on account of the raging virus, the associations said apart from the fact that the life insurance was overdue for their members, the government was also bound by law to have instituted the insurance for them.They cited the Pension Reform Act 2014 as mandating employers of labour to put in place life insurance for all workers to the tune of three times their annual emoluments.Section 8(1) of the Act, which was signed into law by former President Goodluck Jonathan, reads, “Where an employee dies, his entitlements under the life insurance policy maintained under Section 4(5) of this Act shall be paid by an underwriter to the named beneficiary in line with Section 57 of the Insurance Act.”The Section 4(5) that was referenced, however, reads, “In addition to the rates specified in subsection 1 of this section, every employer shall maintain a Group Life Insurance Policy in favour of each employee for a minimum of three times the annual total emolument of the employee and premium shall be paid not later than the date of commencement of the cover.”Faduyile added, “It is an Act that has become law and so they (government) don’t need anybody to tell them it should be activated. Besides, we are in a war situation and it is unfortunate that the Federal Government had not quickly come up with a comprehensive insurance for our health workers. We have a lot of ineptitude and I hope we would be able to get out of it.“We need motivated workers who know that nothing bad would happen if something happens to them in the course of discharging their duties. That is very important. It (life insurance) is one of those things that would spur people to give their best.”Also, the President of NARD, Dr Aliyu Sokomba, said the government should not wait for the health workers to shut down the system before realising the urgency of having life insurance in place for health workers.He said, “Actually, the best time to do it was yesterday but the next best time to do it is now. This is the time to get all health care workers insured. Life insurance for health care workers is something that should be taken with utmost seriousness.“That provision (Pension Reform Act 2014) was made by the government itself and we didn’t even advocate for it. The law maintained that life insurance should be procured for all workers, not just health workers, but that has not seen the light of day. Therefore, if the government really wants to do it, that was something we had proposed in the past and that is a good place to start.”Meanwhile, the President, NANNM, Abdulrafiu Adeniji, said life insurance for health workers was long overdue.He said, “It’s better late than never and if not that the government is insensitive, this could not have been the best time. I’m aware that the NANNM has made several requests to the government to institute life insurance for its members, thus we would say it’s much desired that we commence it without further delay.“We shouldn’t need to call for this before it is done because this is not something that should be treated with levity. I think it’s even belated to start now because we have started having a negative impact of that on the people that are working and the impact is beyond death; the motivation, morale and interest you need to face this situation akin to war is lacking.“We have to praise the efforts of health professionals in this country because the situation is so appalling. In Ghana, their president has rolled out incentives, including tax exemption for their health workers. It will be better for the Nigerian government to do something fast.”Speaking on the provisions of the Act, Adeniji said, “One problem with the Nigerian government is that there is no continuity. That Act was signed into law by the then President and successive governments are bound by it unless they review it.“Another problem is that people in leadership positions are so overwhelmed by personal interests such that once their emoluments and benefits are taken care of, they don’t care what happens to the people. We have the laws but people are not willing to implement them. The President and other political office holders swore to uphold the constitution and the laws of this country but are they abiding with the tenets of the oath they have taken?”

http://icechuks2.blogspot.com/2020/04/nigerian-doctors-nurses-treating.html

#http://icechuks2.blogspot.com/2020/04/nigerian-doctors-nurses-treating.html Nigerian Doctors #nurses

0 notes

encouragechange · 5 years

Link

Having just finished the last of the christmas cake, a project upon which I have been working devotedly and unaided for a full week, I finally settle down to writing again, considering it marginally preferable to the physical exercise I ought to be contemplating if I’m ever to get into anything with the word skinny in the title again.

This blog used to practically write itself, my ire erupting volcanically at weekly intervals. In the beginning every story from the slammer was so implausible and fascinatingly horrid that words rained down onto the page like molten lava. Fiery red. Burnt orange. My pen used to be inked by tears, but I am rarely moved to pick it up now. Hot rage has become cold with the time and prison time is time like no other. Those who have never served it do not understand. Tattoo artists the world over depict its unique torture perfectly as a clock with no hands.

The love is still there. I feel it occasionally in fractional thaws that surge like meltwater when we hold each other tightly at the end of a visit, but even when the officers hang back kindly as they clear the hall, heads bowed to give some scant privacy to our last desperate moments together, time is never on our side and soon I am leaving again, waiting by the grey perimeter fence, then back to the car and the dark motorway home. They don’t call it the chiller for nothing. We are human deep freezers now, trying to preserve the lovers we used to be and dream we’ll be again.

Nothing flows anymore in this arctic emotional landscape. Blogging has begun to feel curiously like childbirth and Mary Mother of Jesus herself (plus any other mother who has gone into labour over Christmas) will attest that this is an inadvisable pursuit during the festive season, hence no December blog this year.

It’s not that there is nothing to write about: in November Prisonbag won the Longford Prize for outstanding achievement making it’s mum proud as punch. There’s precious little dignity in prisonwifery and this was a small moment of unexpected triumph, plus I got to wear heals, read aloud in Westminster and kiss Jon Snow (the broadcaster not the Game of Thrones hottie, but still…). I was invited onto Woman’s hour again too for a special New Year’s Day edition, which pretty much means I’ve arrived at the pinnacle of my ambition and can die happy, and yet still the page stays blank.

On the last day of the year comes the inevitable fall. Rob is refused his long awaited move to Dcat (open prison) on the basis that there is an unsatisfied confiscation order against him. This is not actually grounds for refusing a person’s passage through the prison system, but that is slightly beside the point here as no such order has even been issued against Rob anyway.

This is prison all over. They get it wrong. You say “Rubbish, show me some evidence, like say, the confiscation order…?”, they say “chocolate starfish cardboard” or something equally senile, and that is the end of it. They always win because they hold the power and the keys to your cell. We’ll appeal. We’ll wait. But it’s hard to keep faith with the injustice system.

And why would you keep a (hitherto) non-violent man who is no flight risk under constant guard in any case? Are we made of money in “Great” Britain? Don’t we need the cash to turn the M20 into a car park for Brexit or something? Rob’s immaculate behaviour whilst in prison is mentioned on the refusal letter but counts for nothing, else it wouldn’t have been a refusal letter…

This man has been bankrupted, all of his businesses have been dissolved, his pension has been taken and he is serving a nine year jail term. The family world he left will not be the one he will one day rejoin. The girls are almost unrecognisable from the children they were when he left. His mum, fully compos mentis prior to his conviction will probably never see him again or recognise him if she does due to the onset of full-blown dementia - “chocolate starfish cardboard” is a line I borrowed from her… He has nothing at all in the world except for his great spirit and a kindness and intelligence which make it possible to keep on loving him from all the way across the universe in the free world. He has us, but it takes every iota of strength we can muster to counteract the best efforts of the system to prise us apart.

When will the pound of flesh be had I wonder? After some really committed gluttony this year, aided and abetted by the efforts of my youngest who has been making sinfully good salted caramel in large batches, ostensibly as Christmas gifts but mostly for family consumption, I have several extra pounds to donate to the MOJ, but it is a hungry beast…

What will it take to change the prison system for one that works? It is a question I am asked daily in emails from despairing folk with loved ones held in British prisons. Seventy percent of the 61,500 people imprisoned in 2018 were sentenced for non violent offences. We lock up more of our population than any other European country and more of our prison population are now serving life sentences even than in the US and yet the national audit office confirms that there is no correlation between prison population and levels of crime. I.e prison doesn’t work. The public just think it does.

I see no sense of urgency in the corridors of power however. My friend and neighbour Jacob Tas, head of our biggest non governmental prison reform organisation NACRO (who also throws a mean New Year’s Eve party btw) is so utterly demoralised by the constant changing of ministers and the lack of bravery and action vis a vis prison reform in Westminster that he is leaving the job to work on the Dutch Lifeboats. He has given up and I am hard on his heels.

I used to think that telling our story might help, but I don’t think that anyone in power is listening. Perhaps we need more than words? Should we prison families begin sending in weekly tupperwares of rotting flesh and viscera to the Ministry of Justice as a symbolic representation of what their system is doing to our families and children whilst also failing to make our streets safer or reduce crime or reoffending? Is 2019 the year for action? My midriff certainly hopes so!

0 notes