The self flagellation approved no doubt by whomever wrote yesterdays editorial in the Irish Times.

(Original and really interesting article on the new found love of the arts from the Political classes and business tycoons here. )

]]> http://www.mamanpoulet.com/dermot-desmonds-cultural-odyssey/feed/ 2 http://www.mamanpoulet.com/guest-cluck-irish-premature-babies/ http://www.mamanpoulet.com/guest-cluck-irish-premature-babies/#comments Mon, 14 Nov 2011 02:19:37 +0000 Maman Poulet http://www.mamanpoulet.com/?p=7241 Elbha  O’Sullivan writes about the publication this week of Tiny Footprints and the work of  Irish Premature Babies and her own experience of premature birth.

In October 2010 I was 6 months pregnant, just at that stage where I was beginning to daydream about buggies, nursery colours and all the cuddles I’d have with my baby when she or he was born in January. I’d had a niggling pain for a couple of weeks and on October 4th, at 26+4 weeks gestation, I went to my GP. Within a few hours I was admitted to hospital on complete bed rest and advised I would have my baby within 3 days. I was suffering from pre-eclampsia, a serious illness of the placenta which affects the mother’s organs and the baby’s growth. The hospital prepared my husband and me for the imminent arrival of a very small, sick baby by showing us the neonatal ward in which the baby would be cared for after birth. We also met with a neonatologist, who explained everything to us – from how our baby would likely need to be ventilated after birth, to the mortality rates for our baby. We were lucky and I managed to stay well until 29+6 weeks gestation. I then developed HELLP syndrome and my daughter had to be delivered by emergency caesarean section. Éadaoin was born weighing 2lbs 6oz / 1.07kg and rushed off to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit). My husband went to see her a few hours later; it was 24 hours before I saw her for the first time and 10 days before I held her.

Then began a journey I could not have imagined a few short weeks earlier. Éadaoin was in an incubator, as she was too small to keep herself warm. Too young to have a suck, she was fed by a tube, first through her navel and later through her nose and then mouth. Each morning we met with her doctors, who explained the issues affecting her and her chances of survival. Displaying the fighting spirit for which premature babies are renowned, Éadaoin grew strong, gained weight and fought infections. She spent 6 weeks in NICU and 2 weeks in SCBU (special care baby unit), before we finally brought her home just 5 days before Christmas – at 37 weeks gestation, weighing about 5.5lbs.

Although for us, the worst of her medical issues were over, there were still many steps left on the journey of having a premature baby. Feeding is difficult, they develop differently to term babies, you need to shield them from infection and everybody seems to stare at your tiny, precious child. I realised I did not know anyone who had been through something like this. It was difficult for friends and family to offer help or advice, as this was all new to them too. While researching online during a night feed, I came across the charity Irish Premature Babies.

Premature birth is defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a birth that occurs at less than 37 weeks gestation. 6% of all live births in Ireland in 2009 were premature, affecting over 4,000 babies and their families per year. Allison Molloy had her first premature baby in 2006 and her second in 2009. She found little in the way of information or support for parents when they have a premature baby in Ireland. Allison decided to address these issues by founding a support group, which she called Irish Premature Babies.

The initial concept of Irish Premature Babies was to facilitate a focal point for parents to connect with each other on social network sites like Facebook and Twitter so they would not feel so alone or isolated. Another important aim was to create a website that would provide relevant information for parents living in Ireland on topics such as rights and entitlements, where to buy premature baby clothing, feeding issues, where to get support in the community etc. This aim was achieved in 2010 by the setting up of the website www.irishprematurebabies.com.

A key feature offered by the charity, is access to support. Irish Premature Babies operate a 24 hour helpline and a “Buddy System” which provides one to one support for families. All the volunteers offer support to families new to the premature experience via email, telephone, texting or face to face chats. Evidence from a study in Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto has shown that parents who were supported by a buddy or NICU veteran suffered less stress, anxiety and depression. Personally I found the support of Irish Premature Babies, and the parents who post on their forums, invaluable during those early months.

Irish Premature Babies has recently launched a project called “Keep parents and babies together”. This project is to provide funding for accommodation for parents whose babies are transferred from all over Ireland to Dublin. Unlike in children’s hospitals like Temple Street or Crumlin Hospital, there is no parental accommodation for parents with children in neonatal intensive care units. Parents must either find their own accommodation or stay at home. Neither scenario is fair for the parents or the baby, especially if one considers that a baby can spend months in hospital. It is also a financial hardship for many parents.

In order to help raise funding for this project, Irish Premature Babies will be launching their first book called “Tiny Footprints” later this year. It will be launched on World Prematurity Day on the 17th of November. This book tells the stories of 80 babies born prematurely in Ireland. If you would like to help Irish Premature Babies raise much needed funds to keep parents with their sick babies, you can buy a copy of the book online at http://irishprematurebabies.com

Contact details:
Website: www.irishprematurebabies.com
Email: info@irishprematurebabies.com
Queries 087-9459350
Buddy helpline 086-3458931
Twitter: @irishprems
YouTube: irishprembabies
Facebook: irish premature babies

Today I will be attempting to Liveblog from the Claiming Our Future event in the Millenium Hall in Cork City Hall. Today's event is themed 'An Economy for Society'.

Claiming Our Future is a progressive movement for an equal, sustainable and thriving Ireland.

There will be over 250 people present from throughout the country to discuss their visions for society.

A livestream of the event is available here. The tag for the event is #cofideas

If you have questions about what is going on just shout and I will attempt to answer them!

A few weeks ago I was at a comedy show in Dublin. At least what was advertised as a comedy show, though the reality was sadly distinct from what it said on the tin. Of course, the Godwin’s Law of any dodgy Dublin comedy night is that at some point someone, desperately flailing for a laugh, will start to talk about fake tan. That night was no exception and, after a few requisite oompa-loompa references, the performer came to that hilarious dichotomy; while Irish women are painting on the fake tan, in Asia there’s a craze for skin-whitening. Let’s all have a giggle at self-loathing.

Now, I know that skin-whitening in Asia is a commonly discussed issue. I know the somewhat trite cultural analysis – poor people worked in the sun so white skin is a sign of prestige. I remember that Disney’s Mulan painted her face white to go to the matchmaker. I’ve heard the horror stories at the extremes of this issue, from skin products with highly dangerous mercury levels, to backstreet skin bleaching leaving women disfigured.

During my first few days here, I walked through the cosmetics section of a local supermarket and realised that Nivea’s flagship range in China is “Sparkling White.” It jolted me. It brought the issue in from the shocking fringe stories to the mundane, the everyday, to all those women walking around with statements of inadequacy in their shopping trolleys. Since then, I’ve been extra-attuned to the real manifestations of this complex. To all of the advertisements for all kinds of products that feature “sparkling white” models and to how much women I’ve met hate to go out in the sun.

The most frequent reminder of the white-bias is that I get told I’m beautiful. All the time. When I buy my bread in the morning, when I get in taxi, when my work is being assessed. My intention isn’t to brag (though over here I do sometimes have to force my ego back into its box.) My western female colleagues get the same attention. Being a white woman makes life very easy in China. Accordingly, everyday life must be that bit more difficult for the huge majority of non-Caucasian women. In my mind, this was an issue at the extremes, one that didn’t really affect ordinary women in any serious way. Sure, they’d like their skin to be a bit lighter, but aren’t there things we all wish we could change about ourselves?

Yes, there are. And companies like Nivea go out of their way to hijack those insecurities and use them as massively effective marketing tools. Of course, all advertising eats and breathes insecurity. Sometimes it’s dressed up as aspiration, but really our media culture drills us with reminders of our imperfections, and then sells us an unattainable ideal. To maximise profit it makes sense to bolster our hatred of things we can never fully change; skin colour, age, body- shape. Once you’re locked into negative self-perception it’s very difficult to find your way back out. So you keep trying to buy your way out.

One of the advantages of an unfamiliar culture is getting a fresh view of the cruelties you’ve grown used to in your own. It seems bizarre and wrong to me that Chinese women are told by skincare corporations that they’re less attractive because of their skin colour. Yet I accept that at home women over fifty, women over forty are constantly devalued because of their age and appearance. Whether old or young, we’re reminded to remain vigilantly anti-ageing. What does that even mean? Incidentally, this is another issue on which I’ve heard far more comedy than commentary.

There’s something particularly insidious about the way skincare products contribute to our little self-hatreds. Nivea don’t make products for occasional use. You probably use your Nivea product every day, while you’re standing in front of a mirror. A product that right there on the label says what it wants to change about you. So every day you look at yourself and are reminded that you’re flawed. You put on the cream and strain your eyes to see if your skin is whiter yet, or your wrinkles are disappearing yet. That’s not a small problem.

I recently read “Unbearable Lightness,” Portia de Rossi’s memoir of her battle with anorexia and bulimia. With the book, she hoped to help women suffering from severe eating disorders. But she also wrote for all of the perpetual dieters, the (many) people whose lives are made silently but significantly worse by counting calories and food-guilt and misery on the weighing scales, “every woman influenced by a society that values thinness over substance.” That society affects us all, whether it undermines our weight, our age, our dress-sense or our skin colour. The Chinese women I’ve met are beautiful, and we really should question the institutions and corporations that so consistently tell them otherwise.

Clap all of yourselves on the back there – we all paid for it.  Thanks to the chicken for the donation.  Other scoops welcome to tips@mamanpoulet.com

The facts of the current crisis in East Africa are startling and incomprehensible.

FEWS Net (Famine Early Warning Systems Network) established after the 1985 famine, has said that this is the worst drought in 60 years. The UN estimates that over 12.39 million people are in need of food assistance in the East Africa, out of which 4.8 million people are in Ethiopia – that’s the same as the entire population of Ireland.  In the case of neighbouring Somalia (where over 2.8 million people need immediate life-saving support), famine was declared in July, eight months after the first FEWS Net forecast. The UN’s first appeal came after that. By which time, it was already at tipping point.

It’s one thing trying to get your head round the statistics and quite another facing the tragic personal stories.

David Dalton in a feeding centre in Ethiopia this week

Earlier this week in Shebedino, southern Ethiopia, I met a mother of five children, Meselech. She was breastfeeding her four-month-old baby Abraham, or rather, desperately trying to. It was very distressing to witness.

For families who are struggling to find one meal a day, what is the difference between a declared famine and an ‘unofficial’ famine? What is the difference between severely malnourished and ‘just’ malnourished? The answer is, not much. Nutrition and food can be technical subjects, but for mothers like Meselech who are struggling to feed their children, hunger is simple. It means their children can’t walk, play or even sleep.

The UN says it needs €1.4 billion for the Horn of Africa. So far donors have pledged half of what is needed. The sad thing is, this means half the people in need will go hungry. Recent reports have indicated that people in Ireland have so far been generous in their support with figures released by NGO umbrella organisation Dochas showing that donations to Irish aid agencies are exceeding €7 million. However, this crisis is not going away soon. There is still a great need for people in Ireland and around the world to be more generous and act now.

I sit here writing this, finding it hard to convey the ongoing urgency of the situation. Statistics and emotive stories aren’t enough. ‘Famine fatigue’ is setting in and there is a huge disconnect for many people who are reading this at home or at work. Given the scale of the crisis, is it possible to make any difference at all?

The answer is yes, it is possible. But to make a real difference, we need sustainable long-term solutions to stop this happening time and time again.

This will involve better food and nutrition security, better public health systems, disaster risk reduction measures, better agricultural and live stock practices, better trade policies etc. And most importantly, it is necessary to place children at the heart of any discussion on ‘drought’ or food crisis.

In a crisis like this, children are the most vulnerable.  They are always the worst affected and often their voices are not heard. In addition to concerns over immediate welfare and malnutrition, there are worries over child protection with families being separated, children having to travel far from home to earn money for food, and fears of increased child labour, school dropout and even child marriage.

To give children any hope for the future, the effect of the crisis must be minimised as much as possible. Plan believes it is vital that children have a sense of normality in a situation which is anything but normal.

Plan Ireland is a children’s charity currently operating in Ethiopia, Kenya and South Sudan to support children and their families who are in need of urgent food relief, clean water and emergency health assistance. In addition to immediate aid, Plan is focusing on child protection and longer term livelihood programmes to reduce the risk of food shortages in the future. 

To make a donation to fund this vital work in East Africa or to sponsor a child, visit www.plan.ie or freefone 1800 829 829.

Guest of honour (they even had a welcoming reception/courtesy call especially for him) Bertie advised the Chinese about cleaning up dirty industry.  Tony Blair only made a video appearance.  

China Daily has two reports of his valued (no idea how much) inputs. Firstly Ahern spoke about that dirty industy issue.

“We should work together and make a better and safer society for the next generation,” said former Ireland Prime Minister Bertie Ahern.

He told China Daily it is our responsibility to create a better position for the next generation. He said 20 years ago, there were also some dirty industries in Ireland. “They didn’t come to clean over night,” he said. “It will take time, but you are doing the right job here.”

In this morning’s edition of the paper we are told that Mr. Ahern spoke about eco innovation

Also at the forum, Bertie Ahern, former prime minister of the Republic of Ireland, said eco-innovation is the key to achieving a sustainable world.

Ahern on Saturday urged countries to turn more ideas into economic growth through products that reduce impact on the environment.

Climate change remains an ever-pressing global issue, he said, citing International Energy Agency data that suggests carbon emissions were at their highest in 2010 after a brief dip in 2009 due to the global financial crisis.

The Green Party will be so proud of him!  There were other Irish participants at the conference from the Dublin Institute of Technology speaking about the Eco City of Clonburris.  Yes I wondered where that was myself.

The Office of Bertie Ahern tells us that Mr. Ahern has recently spoken to the Basque people about creating a lasting peace.  This being one of his stock speeches as advised by his agents in the Washington Speakers Bureau who sort the Bertie Earners. 

I hear that the press gallery will also be suitably attired. If you would like to donate you can do so here. And yes I have.