Thursday, February 26, 2009

Trick or Treatment?

Written by a respected science journalist Simon Singh, and Britain's first professor of complementary medicine, Edzard Ernst, Trick or Treatment: Alternative Medicine on Trial claims to be "the definitive book on alternative medicine... honest, hard-hitting and impartial." I had high hopes.

The book has six chapters, the first of which has a discussion of the scientific method, clinical trials, and evidence-based medicine. This is important to set up the arguments of the next four chapters, each of which looks at the evidence for the efficacy of four branches of alternative medicine: acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropratice, and herbal medicine. Each of these chapters discusses the history of each therapy, how it is administered, and any clinical studies or other evidence of its effectiveness in treating certain conditions. Acupuncture and homeopathy get scathing reviews as being little more than placebos. Chiropractice scores on a few illnesses/conditions, and herbal medicine gets a conditional pass.

The final chapter tries to answer the question does it matter if alternative medicine is effective or ineffective, and then lists the "top ten culprits in the promotion of unproven and disproven medicine": celebrities, medical researchers, universities, alternative gurus, the media (twice), doctors, alternative medicine societies, government and regulators, and the World Health Organisation. There is also a substantial appendix with a short evaluation for each of a long list of alternative therapies (some of which I'd never heard of, which is quite an achievement for someone who lived in Glebe for seven years).

Three of the four therapies chosen for in-depth analysis, according to the authors, have little evidence to show that they are effective (compared to some for which there is more substantial evidence and are only given a short analysis in the appendix). The authors claim they have chosen the four therapies listed above because these are the most widespread - this is probably true in Britain, where homeopathy has been part of the establishment for hundreds of years and is available on the NHS, but probably not true in other countries where the book has been published.

The authors make some good points in the book about the lack of evidence for some alternative medical practice, beyond the placebo; and they also expose how many practitioners have been shown to be unethical in not operating on principles of informed consent, and in failing to keep records of how their patients have been treated, why, and any subsequent ill-effects. Another point they make very strongly is that alternative medicine is a financial rip-off. Again, this is probably more true in the UK, where conventional medicine is free, perhaps not so much in Australia or the US where alternative medicine can be a comparable price or covered by insurance.

I was a bit disappointed by this book. I found the language somewhat sensationalist and biased (in contradiction of its claim to being impartial and honest). The book is preaching to the choir to some extent, and is unlikely to win across any alternative medicine 'believers' to the authors' side. If they want to do that, they need to tone down the rhetoric.

To me, the more interesting question which the book scarcely touched, is not "what" alternative medicine is, but "why". We've never been healthier or lived longer, we've never had a more educated population, yet we are still yearning, it seems, for miracle cures and magic. Maybe that's a question for another book, best answered by a different set of authors.

Trick or Treatment: Alternative Medicine on Trial
Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst
Bantam Press

Cross posted at reading|reading|reading

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Event: book launch and discussion

Sarah is a friend of a friend of mine and her work is thoughtful and contemporary. Recommend this event, the launch of her new book.

- - -

Sarah Maddison
Black Politics: Inside the complexity of Aboriginal Political Culture
Published by: Allen & Unwin
In conversation with Tom Calma

Thursday, March 12, 2009 / 6.30 for 7pm
Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe
Cost: $10/$7 conc. gleeclub welcome

Drawing on extensive interviews with activists and politicians, Black
Politics explains the dynamics of Aboriginal politics. It reveals the
challenges and tensions that have shaped community, regional and
national relations over the past 25 years.

Why do Aboriginal communities struggle so hard to be heard in
mainstream politics? How do remote and urban communities respond to
frequent dramatic shifts in federal and state Aboriginal policies?

Since the early 1990s Aboriginal Australia has experienced profound
political changes with very real and lasting implications, from the
Mabo land rights case in 1992, to the abolition of the Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) in 2005, to more recent
attempts to reduce the autonomy of remote communities. Sarah Maddison
identifies the tensions that lie at the heart of all Aboriginal
politics, arguing that until Australian governments come to grips with
this complexity they will continue to make bad policy with disastrous
consequences for Aboriginal people.

Based on original interviews with influential Aboriginal leaders
including Mick Dodson, Tom Calma, Alison Anderson, Jackie Huggins,
Warren Mundine and Larissa Behrendt, Black Politics seeks to
understand why Aboriginal communities find it so difficult to be
heard, get support, and organise internally. It also offers some
suggestions for the future, based on the collective wisdom of
political players at all levels of Aboriginal politics.

'Sarah Maddison has brought together a formidable range of Indigenous
voices and sources and placed their narratives within an analysis to
show the depth and complexity of Indigenous cultural and political
expression.' - From the foreword by Pat Dodson

Sarah Maddison is Senior Associate Dean in the Faculty of Arts and
Social Sciences at the University of NSW. She is coeditor of Silencing
Dissent and coauthor of Activist Wisdom.

Mr Tom Calma is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
Commissioner and Race Discrimination Commissioner

Mr Calma is an Aboriginal elder from the Kungarakan tribal group and a
member of the Iwaidja tribal group whose traditional lands are south
west of Darwin and on the Coburg Peninsula in Northern Territory,
respectively. He has been involved in Indigenous affairs at a local,
community, state, national and international level and worked in the
public sector for over 35 years.

Mr Calma has broad experience in public administration, particularly
in Indigenous education programs and in developing employment and
training programs for Indigenous people from both a national policy
and program perspective.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Creative Capitalism – A Conversation with Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and other Economic Leaders
Edited by Michael Kinsley

Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2008, Bill Gates urged business leaders to find new ways to help the world’s most disadvantaged by implementing what he called ‘creative capitalism’. In this book around forty contributors – primarily academics and business journalists – offer various points of view on what exactly creative capitalism might mean and how it might (or might not) work.

Described by editor Michael Kinsley as a “literary experiment”, Creative Capitalism is the product of an online discussion forum (creativecapitalism.typepad.com). Readers need not be discouraged by Kinsley’s introductory remarks about online prose’s dubious reputation for quality. Given the high calibre of the contributors, it is no surprise that the writing is of an excellent standard.

In fact, the blog-to-book experiment works well in more ways than one. Wide-ranging insights are presented in clear, concise contributions averaging just a few pages each. At times there is a lack of cohesion as contributors digress into areas of philosophical and legal principle of special interest. Far more effective are the moments of direct back-and-forth discussion between participants where ideas are developed or refuted in apparent real time.

Readers interested in the issue of corporate social responsibility will find an excellent range of views here but may also be frustrated by the amount of time spent trying to nail down what Gates’s anointed term, ‘creative capitalism’, actually means. Economics commentator Clive Crook highlights the nebulous character of the discussion when he says, “The most frustrating thing about the debate Bill Gates has started is that the term ‘creative capitalism’ is so vague.”

Creative Capitalism’s strength lies in its analysis of the underlying principles and theoretical consequences of corporate social responsibility. To complement this theoretical aspect, more needs to be heard from business people about their real-life successes and failures in the field.

Books of the interior

On Mystic Medusa's blog, there has recently been quite a funny conversation about whether or not one should hide one's more sexually explicit and or self help and or slightly wacko sounding books in the interests of getting a shag. All inspired by MM's experience of reading a profile on a dating site that said something lie “if you are a woman sitting alone in a house with three cats and a pile of self-development books move right along, I am not for you.”

I find the whole thing amusing for several reasons - firstly, I assumed every heterosexual non-wiccan non-RSPCA volunteering non-alternative therapy trained man probably thought something along those lines. I assumed that saying you were reading books on chakra cleansing was the dating equivalent of saying that you live with your elderly parents and sleep in a single bed with fairy print bed linen with your china doll collection, prefer wear elastic waisted skirts pulled up high and like to cut out kitten pictures from women's magazines (no offense to anyone who does those things). Ie slightly batty and very very unsexy. But what would I know. (Note - I do read books on chakra cleansing so I'm not actually passing judgement).

Secondly I think it's funny that there must be heaps of people out there censoring their book collections and trying to figure out what is 'public viewing' material and what gets snuck away in the bedside table. And who says what is embarrassing enough to be hidden away anyway?

On the topic of steamy books - I once had someone comment on the raunchier tomes on my bookshelves at the end of the night as a clunky kind of 'how 'bout it love?', which I thought was disingenuous.

Books as foreplay?
Books as signals of sexual preference and proclivities?
Books as social repellent?
Books as beacons of incompatibility for the internet dater?

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Reading Trees

I'm on a list about literature and the environment, and someone recently put out a call for recommendations of texts (books and film) about trees. The following list is compiled from people's responses, and includes photographic works, poetry, prose fiction and essay.

Anderson, William (1990). Green Man : The Archetype of our Oneness with the Earth.

Burroughs, John “Maple Sugar Days” Chap 9 and “Flowering Plants” Chap 10 in John Burroughs’ America.

Calvino, Italo (1957). Le Baron Perché. (The Baron in The Trees) (Il Barone Rampante)

Dean, Barbara (1992). “Hunting a Christmas Tree”. In “Orion” reprinted in Finding
Home.

Ehrenfeld, David (1997). “The Gingko and the Stump” & “Death of the Plastic Palm” (1998), in “Orion” and also collected in (2002). Swimming Lessons : Keeping Afloat in the Age of Technology.

Fowles, John & Frank Horvat (1979) The Tree.

Geisel, Theodor Seuss (1971). The Lorax

Giono, Jean (circa 1953). L’homme qui plantait des arbres. (The Man Who Planted Trees). Also in a 1987 NFB animated film by Frédéric Back.

Harrison, Robert (1992). Forêts : Essai sur l’imaginaire occidental.

Leopold, Aldo (1949). “Good Oak”, in A Sand County Almanac.

Livingston, John (1986). “Some Reflections on Integrated Wildlife and Forest Management”, The Trumpeter, 3(3)

Nolley, Lance & Berman, Ted (1958). Paul Bunyan. Disney short animated film.

Pyle, Robert Michael (1993). The Thunder Tree.

Rogers, Patiann (1999). “Places within Places” in The Dream of the Marsh Wren.

Sanders, Scott Russell (1993). “Earth’s Body” in Staying Put : Making a Home in a Restless World.

Sanders, Scott Russell (2000). “Heartwood” and “Wood Work” in The Force of Moving
Spirit.

Savard, Rémi (2004). La forêt vive: Récits fondateurs du peuple innu.

Stone, Christopher (1972). Should Trees Have Standing : Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects.

Terpstra, John (1990) Naked Trees.

Yahgulanass, Michael Nicoll (). The Flight of the Hummingbird.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Book swaps with strangers

Just a quick little reflection on the quirky and cute phenomenon of casual bookswaps in public places.

I'd actually kind of forgotten, but the suburb I'm staying in at the moment house sitting has a train station waiting room in which there is a humble little pile of best sellers that people pick up and read and drop back / replenish with their speedily thumbed adventuresome light Christmas reading.

And at a cafe a few towns away there is another very humble couple of shelves on an unassuming bookshelf that says - feel free to take and read or leave books here. What I extra extra love is the complete weird mix of titles in this one - from self help books to drab little house and garden related non fiction to airport novels to hard cover classics. I also extra extra love that the store of books remains constant - that at least in this part of the world, in these shelves, people give as much as they take. Which makes me muse that maybe this is actually the case on average everywhere but we just forget the half full bit sometimes, and we also forget that people are generous and community minded and don't always need strict rules of give and take for things to work well.

And yes - I have taken and read two this week - a story of a woman's family upheaval and reformation (sweet, a bit too true life tales for my taste but bearable) and a sassy funny chick lit 'detective novel' (of sorts - actually she's a lawyer but the template and characters are the same style). So yes, it's not adding much in the way of fibre and nutrients for my reading diet - but sometimes junk food is called for. And no I haven't actually made a deposit yet, because I'm housesitting and don't have old novels with me - but thought I'd return each of the books to the other book swap location, at least to keep things circulating freshly.

Anyone got one of these near where they live?