Mosque in America Part III by Jamil Shawwa

The real story of Islam with America did not take place until 1979 and the start of the cleric’s revolution in Iran. Before that, America looked at Islam from the lens of looking at the Arab countries and the Arab world as a whole. The Arabs in America started to come and immigrated to the new world, the United States, in the late 19th and early 20th century and the majority of them in the beginning were Christians and Jewish residents and citizens of the Arab countries who fled to America from the oppressing and suppressing ottoman empire and the local governments there. America since then and until the last quarter of the 20th century looked at the Arabs as part of the overall majority of the population, that they are not different, but like the Italians, East Europeans, some French and the Greeks- the residents of the Mediterranean- darker than the so-called majority but part of the majority. In the mid 50s and 60s America started to look at Islam from a second lens, when many African Americans in the height of the struggle to gain civil rights and equal opportunities, looked around and from their perspective and from their point of view found in Islam, a religion that believes in equality, that it contains in it’s verses clear verbiages that there is no difference between an Arab and a non Arab except in the strength of their belief and faith. There were Malcolm X and the creation of the Nation of Islam, and then came the biggest effect and internal exposure, which is the rise and conversion of Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali and to Islam. I think that was a turning point in the relation between Islam and America, no one in my opinion has exposed Islam at that time to America like Muhammad Ali. The whole world loved this boxer and he was to the contrary of Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam, on more peaceful side of the message and maybe closer to the Arab original Islam than the previous one; Nation of Islam, run right now by Farrakhan. It is though must be said that America looked at that part of Islam as not the regular Islam, the Arab Islam, but as part of the struggle for civil liberties and looked at the African Americans Muslims as not part of the overall so called regular Muslims. As a matter of fact, there is truth to that overview which is the Islam preached by groups in the US such as the Nation of Islam is not the version used in other countries and not in the Arab World; in the US, African American Islamic style is more closer to the evangelical Christianity in type and style as the heads of these Islamic organizations calling themselves ministers instead of Imams and have sermons and such. Muhammad Ali still drew the attention and very cleverly- intentionally or not- toured the Arab and Muslim countries and established a connection and bondage; Malcolm X did the same before him but Malcolm was portrayed as very radical and even violent. In 1975, following the fourth Arab Israeli war, Saudi Arabia lead the oil boycott to the Western world and that was a turning point as well in the relations with Islam but still the focus was on the Arab as a whole and not necessarily Islam. The media started after that to connect Islam and the Arabs and started to mix between the belief and the politics, looking at the religion as the reason for the problem rather than looking at the politics and the people. In 1979, following the fall of the Shah, which is a by itself a story, because the US decided that it was time for him and the imperial regime to go, the Iranian clerics revolution started, won, captured Iran and then the hostages of the American Embassy and the longest ordeal for Americans. That episode was a huge humiliation for America and the former president Carter did not handle or did not want to handle. America decided again to let that version of Islam, the Shiite Islam to win and thrive and in the package came the rise of a different Islam, not the core Sunni Islam as the majority of Muslims believe but what I like to call the Iranian Islam. The radical political system that for the first time in modern history- mid 18th century maybe- used the religion with all of its' magnetic power to portray and create a struggle between the divine religions. The regular/average person in the street did not see anything else but radicals calling themselves Muslims hijacking, kidnapping and killings, as in the same period the series of kidnapping American and Westerners in Beirut Lebanon. Everything was working to elevate Islam to world prominence but in a radical and not friendly way. The whole world started to fear the Arabs and Muslims not because they were competitive but because of the oil and because of that portrayed Islam, that is the radical version, not necessarily only the Iranian version but other versions that are more radical and more deadly. In the 90s, we witnessed the rise of the so called the Mujahedeen, those mainly Arabs and Asians, Pakistanis and Afghani fighters who fought with America, Europe, and the Sunni Arab countries, the soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Those groups proved the deadliest, the most fanatic and from that point we started to see the rise of a third or fourth version of Islam, run mainly by Sunni Arabs from Saudi Arabia and Egypt, from wealthy families and from highly educated classes. The message, this version, used later on to portray Islam as not a religion, lest to say a divine religions, but a tool to destroy civilizations and ways of life and liberties. That version of Islam, contrary to the Iranian Islam which mainly is a media propaganda more than action, lived up to it’s reputation and expectations and it started the terror stream with the 1993 first attempt at the world trade center in New York City and then the ultimate terror attack on America, the 9/11/2001 destruction of the twin towers in New York City, the attack on the pentagon and the explosion of a hijacked plane in Pennsylvania. From that point on although America started to draw the distinction between the evil powers of AL-Qaeda, Taliban and other terrorists, radicals and fanatics, the average person already established a foundation that the evil is not in the person but in the religion. The average person in America in the process were helped or actually was mouth fed hatred through organizations and religious groups that in the name of the divine Christian religion portrayed Islam as whole and in parts as an evil tool and that is not American and it is not "one of us". It also did not help that the new Pope of the Catholics called in a conference in Europe, Islam as a religion of violence. In America, Catholicism is very strong, but the message was among certain Protestants and Catholics. Still the majorities of Americans are smart, pragmatic, practical and like to learn, if there is a country in the world that like to be better, to learn more, to seek justice, it is America. The great example right now is in the debate going on, in the Mayor of the city that was attacked on 09/11 and his support to the mosque to be built where it is now. The exposure I think will benefit Islam; will show America that it is- as Muslims believe- a divine religion as Judaism and Christianity, followed by almost two billions of people, that in Islam the teachings are clear, it identifies Moses and Jesus as prophets of God as Muhammad and the majority of Muslims like any faith are normal, peace loving people. America is also watching and seeing incidents and terror attacks from those that call themselves Christians trying in the name of the divine religion to harm Muslims just because of their religion. The most recent example is the attack by a fanatic in New York City just few days ago, on a Taxi driver after that fanatic asked him about his religion and the Taxi driver answered by that he was a Muslim.

Mosque In America...Part II by Jamil Shawwa

Before I get to the bottom line here, I heard in the news that the Imam-the head of the proposed mosque- went on a trip to Arab and Islamic countries to get guidance on how to deal with the mosque issues in New York City. If it is the case, then we have a problem. First, the Islamic and Arab countries are the last on earth to give a comprehensive advice regarding their own affairs and their dealing with their own people, they have no credibility in and out, lest to say to give an advice on an American issue first and foremost. The mosque is not an Islamic world or Arab world issue, it is an American issue, and the mosque is an American mosque. It is an American problem. Second: this Imam, if the story is true, would have made a mistake in transforming again an American issue to the outside world, what next, go to Iran, the masters of deception, hypocrisy and demagoguery to get an advice. This Imam would, if it were the case, put an end to what it looks like a decent and normal request to build a place of faith that got all the necessary licenses. The issue right now is not Muslim, mosque, or ground zero buildings, the issue goes deep into what we believe in as Americans, do we believe in our constituation or do we believe in the constitution if it fits certain criteria and certain people or certain beliefs. Do we believe that Islam is part of the American recognized package of faiths or not, and I will go further, do we believe that Islam is an American religion as Judaism and Christianity or not. Everyone who is standing for everything that is American is being tarnished and distorted and on top of the list is the president of the Untied States who is getting accused of everything that there is to be accused of because he acted as any president should act and protects the rights granted in the US constitution to all Americans. There is a campaign to terrorize anyone that stands for the constitution and this must be stopped, not because it is right or wrong, or because people are asking other people to be kind or nice, far from it. It must be stopped because it is unconstitutional and must be fought using all the legal means.    The conversation right now is getting even more dangerous in my opinion. Those that are opposing the idea of the mosque altogether are expressing it freely and directly which is healthy. The problem in my opinion resides with those that are not opposing the mosque creation and building, but is with those that are opposing the location and the signals of having it next to ground zero in New York City. These voices ranging from Sara Palin, to Karen Hughes, George W. Bush's press secretary, to others in the media, asking Muslims to understand the feelings and to appreciate the emotions of those that lost loved ones during the 9/11 terrorists’ attacks. Those voices are the dangerous ones, they are asking the Muslims to go to a corner, to be isolated, to have certain areas that they can build their mosques on and that they cannot, they are asking the Muslims to be treated like the Japanese during World War II, isolate them to protect them. Today is New York City ground zero, tomorrow is a mosque location in Tennessee, next week who knows. Maybe we will start hearing voices asking to expel Muslims from the United States because we care about them and we do not want to hurt them. We are hearing all kinds of things that are to say the least against everything this Republic called America was built on. We are hearing people asking to repel the 14th amendment to the constitution that grant US citizenship to any one that is born in the US, we are having demagogues running the State of Arizona and creating a law that would create in that desert state on the border of Mexico a police state; the federal government right now is fighting this law rightly so as unconstitutional. The stories goes on and on. In the news today, a woman claims that she did not get a job at Disney because she wears the Hijab, head cover. Muslims are afraid to say what they are and what they believe in, stories of people all over the US afraid of going to Friday prayers, the weekly prayers for Muslims, equivalent to Saturday for the Jewish faith and Sunday for the Christian faith, fearing that they will be exposed. Where are we now and where are we heading; all this must be stopped, all these none-American fear campaigns, though it is fine to express freely, must not go beyond expression. If we allow few tens of people amongst over 308 million Americans, the US population according to the 2010 Census bureau, to terrorize the media and the politicians and dictate a life style that to say the least truly very dangerous, but deny legitimate entities, by legitimate American citizens form expressing their legitimate and constitutional right to build and practice their religion anywhere in America, then, in my opinion, this would be a catastrophic constitutional breach that should be fought using all the legal and the constitutional means. For God's sake, we allow anyone to build anything in America as long as they have the necessary licenses. As silly as it might seems and sounds, I like this Right to continue.

Mosque in America....by Jamil Shawwa

I compiled this piece from comments, among other notes, that I wrote so far about the Mosque debate that is going on in New York City and in America right now. Islam has never been exposed in the United States the way it is right now, and I just love the exposure. Exposure creates on the long run understanding, debates and deliberations create acceptance to facts or opinions or at least they create an opportunity for inclusion rather than exclusion. This -so far- peaceful fight about building a mosque and an Islamic community center in New York City is healthy; it is bringing America more closer to religious tolerance, it is making the words of freedom of religion and freedom of speech not only mere words but actions. The Mosque issue is getting political; is it not every issue, it is also bringing up Obama’s background again, people are connecting Obama’s heritage from his father's side to his stance on the mosque. The president's family from his father side is Muslims- as he said- but he is not. Again, the debate is in part political and people from both sides of the isles will jump on this Mosque business and try to score some points, settle some accords, and satisfy the few that have this point or that. November and the midterm elections are coming, so let us watch and see. But regardless, we need to start looking at people not from the very narrow lens of whether they are like us or not but from the wide spectrum of who they are, what they stand for and what are their actions and behaviors. America needs to see Islam from the window of that it has more than one billion and a half billion followers who believe that Islam is a divine religion as Judaism and Christianity. America showed its' greatness and its' ability to evolve and be smart when it elected Obama as president. I think the Mosque issue is giving the Americans a fantastic opportunity to look closer at the relationship between religions and people. Religions, all of them, especially the divine ones, as believers believe, are words of God. Actions and interpretations of the religions or a religion are completely different from the religion itself. You have good and bad, criminals and decent, terrorists and those who believe in change through peaceful means, among all three divine religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. But America is embracing Islam and it is evolving. We will continue to have people who love and hate, like and dislike, so let it be, it is part of human life, but at the end- in America- practicality and pragmatism will prevail as a general rule when it comes with dealing with events and people regardless of their background. The interesting part of all this debate is not the mosque or the building or the people, but the location. The project to be completed would be in a building very close to the grounds of the 9/11 terrorists attacks. From the president, to Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City rejecting the calls against building a Muslim community center near ground zero. Bloomberg also criticized Sara Palin for her tweet few weeks ago asking "peace-loving Muslims to reject the mosque". This Palin does not seize an opportunity to prove everyday to all of us as to why we prefer Jennies' to some human beings. The regular person in the street, everyone is getting into the mix and voicing an opinion. I like it! I like it when people talk and debate and discuss; it is so civilized. At the end of the day, America must stand by its' original principles of freedom of religion, and freedom of speech. Once we surrender this right, then we would be surrendering every right in the Bill of Rights that was written by the founding fathers, and we surrender our constitution and our liberties. The building of the Mosque in New York City got the needed approval. I mean, this is America; it is for all faiths and believes. Same position I would have taken if it was for a church or a synagogue or any place of worship. I would have used the same words and the same sentences if this happened to a synagogue or a church. As for some behaviors from some people calling the Mosque or the people who are running it as terrorists just because of their belief, it is unfortunately human and you find it in every country and every nation on earth. Different concepts and issues but same behavior. It is a free country and people can have and share different opinions.

Doctors and Plumbers...Part V....by Jamil Shawwa

The doctor with a title of assistant professor kept calling, he wants to do more exams and said that he wanted to make sure, because he was surprised from the results of the previous exams. He said that he cared and maybe he did, but again he was the same doctor that kept saying it is nothing else but Cancer, and kept going on and on how to cope with this disease. The patient decided to go along; I mean that doctor was like a used cars salesman trying to convince the poor buyer that this is the deal of century. He suggested another full Ct Scan, called the Pet Scan which covers the whole body and this of course has to have appetizers with it or before taking it; liquids and such that makes the patient afterward wants to live in the bathroom to get rid of all these liquids. The exam was done and the professor was amazed again, it seems that this doctor keeps getting amazed every time he conducts or orders an exam as a first year medical student. This is the same doctor that asked me in previous articles If I were in the medical field when I questioned the necessity of all these exams and I said no and that I belong to another "distinguished" profession; Law. Maybe they got scared when I mentioned Law and decided to do all the necessary and the unnecessary exams just in case, they thought maybe that this person might be trouble. The necessity has always been for patients to have a PCP-Primary Care Physician- that would act like the straw in a drink, or like the hub and the point of contact and would act on behalf of the patients to coordinate all types of exams and then address with eh patient. If you do not have a PCP or a qualified PCP then you might be in trouble because of the contradictions sometimes in the diagnosis and the contradiction in providing the information or channeling it accurately to the patient. Another important job for the PCP in my opinion is to provide a history of the patient and include the emotional part of the treatment. Sickness sometimes might look like a serious disease but it might turn to be something that the patient was born with or something that looks like a serious disease I am concerned about millions of people who go away victims to medical malpractice, ignorance, and doctors/students experiments. I think medical institutions should have like some restaurants a quality control department that would check the food and the dishes before delivering to their customers. The PCP can act in this capacity but in the same time, the hospital must do the same. Prevention in everything is paramount, meaning to try to predict things before happening and put the necessary measures to prevent and then act swiftly once they happen, because you would have a process in place. Prevention, predictability like any business in the name of the game, I say business because medicine is a multi billion dollars business in the USA and you cannot ignore this fact, but it is the business of life, and therefore the measure must be elevated to the highest level of transparency, competency, prevention, predictability, accuracy, and thoroughness. Might cost at the front end, but when it comes to the bottom line it will save tremendous amount of money but most importantly, it will save lives, even if it saves one human being.

Doctors and Plumbers…..Part IV by Jamil Shawwa

The biopsies are finely here, and the doctors are cheering but not necessarily the results but the process. See, right now in the hospitals, specially the educational ones, those that are connected and part of the colleges of medicine, professors, who are in the same time treating doctors, take an opportunity to experiment their mental and medical strength. Who else would be genipigs on their experiments than the patients. The medical apparatus has to go through the process, the checklist, the procedures, what the book says, and what the lab reports indicate. In the midst of all this, the patient is last to be concerned about. As long as all in place, so supposedly, the patient will be fine, the patient is the last concern, he or she is that invisible annoying creature that doctors feel would probably destroy their mental heaven of living in an unreal world of book theories. They hate it when the theories collide with reality; they hate it when they are wrong. Some prefer that the patient would just disappear than for them to be proven wrong. The biopsies are here, and the doctors this time after the cheers above are in shook. The theory again collided with reality, what they have learned have proven to be wrong for now, but still wrong, but they will not admit. all the reports. All the so called examinations, all their fake degrees and robes and their tags with the title doctor on them, maybe by mistake instead of putting, plumber, they put doctor, proven again to be wrong. These doctors are like those psychiatrists that become themselves the residents of mental institutions because what they have Learned in many cases crash on top of the real thing, that the human is unique and no amount of study, lab reports, biopsies, would substitute from the need to dig deep and treat each human as the unique creature, that they are. The biopsies are here, and the results are negative, I can hear the cries all over the hospital, not the cries of joy but the cries of shame and embarrassment, they are, the geniuses, so called doctors and plumbers, are proven wrong again. They look at their degrees and they start to question everything, the theory, the seven years for medical school, their professors. See, they were taught that the theory is never wrong, that if the theory and reality collide, then reality must be wrong, then the patient must be wrong, then the patient is not responding to the theory, see how dangerous this mental analysis is, the patient is the last of the concern, they-the patients-are just annoying creatures that doctors must attend to them, to prove their theories, nothing more, nothing less. The biopsies are in, and the doctors are scrambling to see what they can do, what went wrong, not with them, but with the patient, the results are in, and now it is time for the war room at the hospital to come up with a genius answer to their mistakes, to their negligence, to their arrogance, to their elitist look at anything and anyone that is called human, the book, in their book, is more important than the human, the human is the genipigs, nothing, no one, the book is everything, the book that got them their degrees and not the human. They must adhere to their professors, books and theory no matter what and in that course, the human is irrelevant. The biopsies are in and the plumbers/doctors are still in the war room, with the red light on, the doors closed, studying not what went wrong with them, their theories, their diagnosis, all that is irrelevant, what is relevant to them is how they can save face, that is it what all about, saving face and behind and not saving life, saving life can wait, but the theory cannot. The biopsies are in and the war room is still in and everyone is waiting for the big one to decide, and the decision is here from the big one, of course you need to inform the patient of the results but then you must follow that or doing that, with straight face, with a disappearing smile, with a serious demeanor and you must tell the patient that you care about them, that it is all about the patient and that, it is all about saving life and not saving budgets, and not expanding the hospital and not about buying another managed care, or taking over another investment, and it is not about the stock prices and the shareholders, and that it is all about you, the genipigs, the nobody, the annoying creature, that is called a human being. The biopsies are in and the resolution is; more tests, more Scans. The biopsies are in, but the reassuring result that all doctors were waiting for is not in, all the doctors/plumbers wanted really is for the theory to be proven right, is for the theory to match the results. But it did not, it did not, and the only solution is to order more of the same, more torture to the patient, more running around different labs to satisfied the craziness in those that were for seven years been tortured by the medical apparatus, and now, that they have themselves become part of that apparatus, it is their time to practice the same thing, it is time for them to enjoy the joy of showing how the theory is paramount to anything else; the problem is in you, the human being.

The Druze Leader, Walid Jumblatt, El-Beik, ( البيك, وليد جنبلاط‎) Analysis by Jamil Shawwa

*El-Beik Switches positions and switches alliances faster and more frequent than a baby in a candy store- I love to keep using this analogy. He learned the lesson early on and mastered the deadly political game in Lebanon.

A deadly game for those that do not know how to play it or do not want to play it, but not for the Beik.

In 1976, at the height of the Lebanese civil war, his father the former and late leader of the Druze in Lebanon and the leader of the Socialist Progressive Party, was assassinated by the usual suspect in Lebanon, Syria, El-Beik knows that and the whole world knows that-could be others but Syria for years carried that 'honor'; the honor of being known as the killer and the assassin and the murderer in Lebanon.

His father, Kamal Jumblatt, was not like the son, probably he would have wished to be as clever as the son, maybe he would have been here and the son still in **El-Mukhtara being the playboy he is and leaving the politics and baby-sitting Syria to his old man.

***The Druze, a tribe, a religion, a way of life, exists in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Israel. There is a whole mountain area in Syria named after them, the Druze Mountain, in Arabic, Jabal El-Druze. The most prominent Druze families have been Jumblatt, Arslan and Al-Atrash in Syria, Jumblatt is the strongest now and he has been for years, Arslan succumbed to this fact. Still, the two families are relatives; I think Walid’s mother is from the Arslan family, Mai Arslan. Walid Jumblatt is also considered the supreme leader of the Druze all over the world.

He managed to gather them from all countries where they exist, in two conferences so far, the first was in Amman- Jordan few years ago and the second was in Lebanon just few weeks ago; every leader came including the Druze leaders in Israel. In Israel, the Druze live well, they are loyal citizens of the State of Israel and they serve as soldiers and officers in the Israeli military.

In Lebanon, they maybe have the most say; they make and break things as every clan or religious group in Lebanon. In addition, Walid Jumblatt in Lebanon plays the role of the Arab Nationalist who he is not and the Arab nationalism itself is an idea and an illusion that never really flew or got traction anywhere, it was a romantic concept that never been explained, identified or materialized and probably never will unless new thoughtful inclusive leaders come along and recognize all ethnic groups that make up the Middle East now.

Walid runs and leads the Democratic Progressive party and claims to be the savior of the poor and he is one of the largest landlords in the area. In Lebanon, the tribe, the group, the family is more important than the country, in Lebanon, there is no country, but a land that is divided by old families and deep-rooted hatreds.

Alliances change and leaders who do not keep up are assassinated. Walid Beik mastered all this. In 2005, the Sunni leader and former prime minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated, the whole world condemned, and the United States ordered Syria to leave Lebanon, Syria has been in Lebanon since 1976 as a peacekeeping turned occupying force and did not leave until after 2005 and the assassination of El-Hariri.

Jumblatt at the time accused Syria directly of assassinating Hariri and called the Syrian president Bashar El-Assad, retarded and criminal. He stayed on that position until recently, it was time again to switch sides, there is an international criminal court waiting to indict the suspects in Syria and Lebanon for the assassination of the Lebanese leader El Hariri.

Now, few days ago, Elbeik paid a visit to his on and off enemy, Syria and Bashar El Assad, and declared from there that Syria is a "true" ally of Lebanon and that he made a mistake by condemning Syria.

Actually, he apologized for being honest, he knows honesty is a not a word the Lebanese political politburo likes to hear, it is not a word the Lebanese or the Syrian regimes understand or believe in or appreciate. In politics anyway, it is not easy to be honest and maybe you do not have to or you cannot be honest all the time but some can master the game more than others.

El-Beik so far has done it.


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* Old, original Turkish- from the day of the Ottoman Empire- title of respect. The rank used to start with Afandi, then Beik or Bek, then the top, Pasha. Now in the Middle East, these titles are used but not officially, they are not titles given by the state any more.



** The residence of the Jumblatt family and the symbol of the Druze power and presence.



*** "Theologically, Druze consider themselves "an Islamic Unist, reformatory sect". The Druze call themselves Ahl al-Tawhid "People of Unitarianism or Monotheism" or al-Muwaḥḥidūn "Unitarians, Monotheists." source and qoute from Wikipedia.

Doctors and Plumbers... Part III... by Jamil Shawwa

The issues persist when tests do not give a clear picture and doctors scramble to either assume the worst, speculate or improvise to show that they know what they are talking about. Patients now are like customers in fast food outlets, fixed menus, same ingredients; most doctors do not have either the knowledge, training or the time to dig deep. They admitted it, that they cannot dig deep, software and machines do the job and prescribe. They do a biopsy and they say that it will take few weeks, then they call the following day and say, tests results are ready but it is inconclusive and that they need to do another biopsy. Another thing that is big these days, which is being frank with the patient and straightforward about their condition, which sometimes can come across as obnoxious especially if the same doctor repeats the same thing. the conversation was as follow- I just want to tell you that it is cancer, I mean that is it, it is cancer,  but we do not know how serious it is and how big, and where and how and if and but. Imagine how such nonsense would help a patient who is supposedly with a serious disease. You signal to the doctor to be discreet but then they ask you- Sir, are you in the medical field, and you answer, no I am a lawyer by education, conversation ends. Right now, there are many players in the medical field, insurance companies, pharmaceuticals experimenting medicines, labs, specialists, malpractice and lawyers ready to jump on medical mistakes; the fear of being sued for wrongful diagnosis, I mean the doctor also performs with fear of being sued for either negligence, stupidity or just bad luck. Therefore, we have also to understand that doctors perform under tremendous pressure, I am not going to be so hard on them, it is not easy, I fully understand. Insurance companies decide as well, on the type of treatment covered, unless a doctor overrides them and usually it is not easy or that common. In order for you to get a custom tailored treatment, you have either to be a millionaire, top executive in companies, top government official, or work for institutions that have excellent coverage. Still, there is one factor that could make a difference which is the power of your perseverance, insisting to get the exams, being proactive on your condition, if you can, and just keep trying. It is tough to be sick, and may God bless you and have mercy on you if you have one of those plumbers/doctors.

Doctors and Plumbers ..Part II by Jamil Shawwa

The story gets complicated, that is the relation between the treating doctor and the patient, when the sickness is not related to one area in the body and it needs different departments and doctors to be involved. So, now you have few things going on, and each doctor has an interpretation from the angle of his or her field only. Here is the problem, you get an exam that would clear that very narrow area from anything bad and then you find out the next-door neighbor, and in this case, another adjacent organ is not well. The question is why that doctor could not see the big picture or even the full picture. The questions keep going, is it possible that they saw it but because it is not their specialty they either ignore or refer to someone else. Do doctors have the time with all this volume to give each patient the time they deserve. I really do not think so. Once there is a picture or there is clarity, you start looking for that doctor, if you find one, which can connect the dots together and provide an analysis to what needs to be done. I do not think it happens efficiently. The other day a doctor came to the patient and asked her if she knew what the next step would be and what kind of an examination is next. I am astonished to say the least. A treating doctor would ask the patient such a stupid question. Then after that or before that you have another layer of doctors who somehow related to that sickness coming and asking the same questions that other doctors asked. The patient is in dilemma here, to keep answering or show an attitude. Either way is painful. The answer I have is that those badly trained medical providers are going based on what the management company of the hospitals are asking them to do, a routine that does not make sense, that rob the profession from it’s glorious mission of saving lives or at least trying to save lives. So the patient typically with an interdepartmental sickness would be in a limbo of what is the next step, the doctors, each talking on his own, from his angle and then maybe at some point coordinate. Here is what it should be done from a management point of view. Once an example of that magnitude- the condition- arises, the hospital or someone or group should assign a point of contact, hub, a doctor of course, that would coordinate all activities and all information would be channeled through him or her and then to the patient. One voice for the many. It can be done, and hospitals should not talk budget too much otherwise they need to get out of this profession of saving lives and get into a similar profession or position and save toilets and pipes, and be plumbers.

Doctors and Plumbers...by Jamil Shawwa

Professions intertwine in a very interesting way when you stop, or you do not, but look or notice the similarities. Probably all human professions from the Garbage collector or the sewage worker, that is if we agree that these professions are maybe the lowest or at the bottom of the rank, to the head of state, president, queen, king, emperor, or as in the case of *Kim Jung IL, the most prominent and talented leader, whom has the title of the supreme leader, have something to do with essential human functions**. I am now and for the purpose of this article have for some time intrigued by the unbelievable and uncanny similarities between plumbers and Medical Doctors. They both deal with life function that without it no human can live or at least, cannot live for long. Plumbers maintain the functionality of the toilets, bidets, faucets, water pipes, gas pipes and then making sure that these pipes function for it's or in the direction of it's ultimate purpose. I mean I do not have to be graphic here, but you know, the restroom and the bathroom routine, I mean what if it's clogged, you bring the plumber, and this plumber would use many tools to ensure the smooth flow of the business in the toilets or the bathtub where it should ultimately reside; which is the sewage and from there we have another human function and another story. Doctors are the same, the have a body that is already there, and their job, if they do it right, is to ensure that all these pipes and all these organs function normally. Their job, the doctors or the talented ones at least, is to detect and prevent. Detect signs of certain things that might come your way and prevent those things or other expected things from developing into potential malicious objects, of course as much as they can do, sometimes no one can do anything. The magic word here I think is try, Doctors these days, generally speaking, do not try. Humans to them are numbers, objects, annoyance that they have to deal with. Technology have advanced so far that some doctors put their patients on a computer that will run a cycle of their symptoms and then prescribe the suitable medicine from the point view of the software, and at the end, the doctor, in this case, actually, the Jackass, would come, put a smile on his or her face and shake the hands and wish you well. See, doctors have become like greeters in Malls or shopping centers, their job is to greet you at the entrance and then wish you well when you leave. In between, you really deal with scores of nurses, lab technicians, and more nurses. Plumbers in a way are the same, except that they do the job themselves, they usually come to your home when a pipe is broken, a toilet is clogged, and similar things. The good ones, fix, detect possible signs of future or down the road problems and plan a prevention roadmap. See what I just wrote, it could be a mantra for anything in life. Again, fix, detect and prevent. The majority of the plumbers and the medical doctors are no longer do the things, I just mentioned. They fix, temporarily until it breaks again, and then they fix again and the cycle continues. Countries and among them the richest as the United States spend billions every year either in government funds or charities on research to prevent diseases, to fight epidemics, in advertisement on how do this and that but they do not invest, or invest enough in the most important aspect of this process or prevention in my opinion; the medical doctor, the student, the graduate, the resident. Universities- where it all should develop- are even worse; I have met many so-called resident doctors that I had to tell them what to do, what to check, what to detect, how to treat each human as a unique person that he or she is and not just a case. It is a shame the state of medicine not only here in the United States but all over the world. Go to the Middle East, and your heart will be broken. Invest in the human being and your investment will quadruple, and will multiply in a magical way, one investment, could save at least one life. To me this is the ultimate investment.


*Read: The Iraqi Donkeys Association: http://arabamericanwire.blogspot.com/2010/07/iraqi-donkey-associationby-jamil-shawwa.html
**Read: Garbage: http://arabamericanwire.blogspot.com/2010/03/concepts-and-cultures-part-ii-garbage.html