The evidence from all OECD countries shows that the private sector is far more bureaucratic and much less efficient than the public sector when it comes to providing health care.
Ten Health Care Myths
Gentlemen from Hooker - and many other places - are quite literally pouring these and many other poisons into your coffee and your kids’ juice. They just do it in a more indirect, anonymous, and apparently socially acceptable way.
150 Years of Dirty Water
Letter to the Editor, The Globe and Mail
It would be difficult to imagine advice for children and parents more damaging than that offered by psychotherapist Darlene Hall (Asking kids about a touchy subject, 23 July).
According to Ms Hall, "enlightened parents" who want to reduce "childhood victimization" should stop hugging or touching their children unless they have first asked for and received permission to do so from the child. The offer of a parental hug or touch "should be given and articulated to the child in a clear and direct manner by the adult." If touching the child is unavoidable, as in bathing or giving medicine, then the parent is to explain "why they need to touch the child, and they should continue to talk to the child as the activity unfolds."
What a perfect recipe for raising children to be self-conscious
and uncomfortable about their bodies, about
touching, and about being touched! In Ms Hall's emotionally constipated
vision of family life, there appears to be no room for spontaneous
physical expressions of affection. Touching one's own child is an
inherently suspect activity, never to be engaged in without prior
discussion.
Someone needs to explain to Ms Hall that spontaneous touching and hugging are natural behaviour all over the world among people who like or love each other. They play a crucial role in developing a child's sense of being loved and secure. Normal parents don't ask a crying toddler "Would it be all right with you if I were to pick you up and comfort you?"
The best that can be said for Ms Hall’s advice is that it would
be sure to generate plenty of additional business for "experts"
on family problems like herself.
Labels:
Affection,
Children,
Intimacy,
Parenting,
Touching.
Ulli Diemer
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