Advocating

Being an Alternative-health paradigm advocate is a very difficult road to follow. Rarely is there anything nice to say about one’s perceived Standard-health enemy but there is plenty of ridicule to spread about, and even if the enemy did decide to extend a complementary hand of friendship it would most likely have to be refused. I noted with sad content that the Ecology Action Centre (EAC) had to remove itself from an offshore petroleum exploration consortium’s advisory board which oversees offshore safety, health, and environmental regulations. The EAC found that the dual efforts of working within the industry and of encouraging the industry to ever greater responsibility are opposing efforts -- a clear conflict of interest. How can one exhort oneself to greater goals and still administer programs approved by majority vote of board members?

I have obtained a relatively high first aid certification in Canada which, along with seven years of formal medical education and several years of clinical practice, bears easy qualification to perform several Standard medical occupations: general practitioner, nurse practitioner, paramedic, etc. But I can’t in good conscience actually do any of them -- yes, because Standards only recognize Standards (it is a highly protected labour guild) but also because of the counter-cultural responsibilities involved within each position. Doctors must do what the drug companies state is the “norm”, nurses must perform doctor-dictated directives, and paramedics must feed people into the Standard system’s monopoly.

One practice of being a paramedic is that they must deliver to the hospital for “testing” any placenta that they obtain from supporting a mother in the birth of her child. The placenta is of course valued by the hospital for its lucrative treasure of cells, natural substances, and bodily excretions that enables medical experimentations of heinous description. By contrast, in natural health the placenta is treated according to tradition. One of our historical customs has been to bury the placenta in the backyard for luck and fertility. No paramedic can allow that option to be exercised. Alternative-health respects customs which preserve our culturally humanity.

Many provinces have developed fancy-shmancy state-of-the-art computer systems designed to “better meet the health needs” of citizens. Well, not once have I nor any member of my family, nor any of my neigbours ever received a nice statement from the department of health detailing a health-account. The information flow is upward not downward to the patient. The patient is the very last person to know anything about their health. Patient files are still incredibly difficult to obtain, and it is made painfully obvious the inconvenience it is to the medicos if one should dare to request a bit of information from the file. Arguments of privacy always erect their little heads but I don’t seem to have any trouble getting detailed phone bills, credit card statements, or even bank statements (through the internet no less) -- and we all know that money records are considered the pinnacle of “private” in our money-oriented society. In the Standard system, your health is not, and never has been, your business.

The Standard medico system is extremely paternal in orientation. No democratization of the medical system exists -- or is planned to exist. We as peoples of a developed nation have tossed out forever dictators and benevolent, single-party systems of government; oppression of women by the much wiser male classes; and rule by any single, true and inflexible church.

Our health rights have never been recognized as being fundamental to the individual other than in the Standard system’s paternally dogmatic declarations. The medical system is out of control, inflexible, unreasonable, and by far and away, the most dangerous threat to human health in the world (medicine being responsible for two of the top four causes of death or, put another way, both of the top two causes of unnecessary death) and people / citizens / patients have absolutely no say in how health services are delivered and what health services should be offered.

They (being the Standards) do not understand health care at all. When the Government of Nova Scotia held hearings throughout the province on the relative merits of introducing local Community Health Boards (CHBs), a prominent member of the existing Yarmouth Hospital Board (HB) stood up and uttered for all to hear that there was no need of CHBs. He stated that the most contentious issue ever to face the HB was whether to buy the slightly more expensive locally-produced milk, or not! Now that’s a health board that knows how to improve health care in the community. It is a fine example of how people are conditioned to be totally subservient to the system.

Here in Calgary there is a health link (943-LINK or www.informcalgary.ca) funded in large part by public dollars. The purpose of the link is to provide “detailed information on health, wellness, and medical topics.” No Alternative-health information is available here. In fact, it is not allowed. No amount of searching the link will get you information on, for example, Arcady Holistic Clinic. Censorship rules.

Consider sunlight, air, and water ... the fundamental elements necessary to the evolution and maintenance of life on earth. Yet our water is polluted with cancer causing agents such as polychlorinated compounds. Our air is carrying increased toxin loads such that rates of breathing complaints are sky-rocketing. And sunlight, how can we possibly pollute sunlight? In the United States it has been strongly recommended that sunlight be added to the list of cancer-causing agents. Our bodies are so chocked full of oxidants (toxins) that exposure to sunlight actually corrodes us into a cancerous state! [But don’t rush out to put on that sunscreen because it is made from synthetic substances which are absorbed through the skin and actually hasten the onset of cancer! Those unpolluted people who practice natural health will always be able to enjoy the sun.] No wonder cancer may soon be the leading cause of non-iatrogenic death.

A. Alan Borovoy, one of Canada’s leading civil rights authorities, writes in his book, Uncivil Obedience, “... the prerequisite for social change is the willingness to make a fuss ... quiet persuasion will usually produce one result: quiet inaction.”

I am a natural health advocate.
Amicus humani generis (friend of humanity).

Healer J. Mark Taylor, Medical Herbalist

5, 1922 - 9 Avenue SE.

Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2G 0V2