Last night I was having a little trouble drifting off to sleep and it occurred to me that I do not know how mobile ‘phones work….
The first thing that came mind was that they must have analogue to digital converters (ADC). These must change voice into digital and digital into sound. Then I wondered if the carrier frequency of the ‘phone signal is amplitude or frequency modulated. Which means that there must be demodulators.
The precision or resolution in terms of bit per volt need not be overly high for sound given that the loudspeakers or headphones are not audiophile quality. High resolution at 32 or 64 bit would make for big files and large data.
But the business IS data. People want to flog you ever more data so whilst there is a speed – dollar trade off, they must be pushing towards more data throughput – more dollars.
The big bucks are in images and video which need giga-dollars to send and vast increases in the global carbon budget to store.
Who needs more selfies, vacuous influencer posts and cat videos?
The purveyors of data…you can find one on each street corner {man}.
I learned today that some ‘phones have microphones to sample background noise for noise cancelling…
If it is possible to receive a mobile phone call or SMS message it must be possible to intercept it. There is no copper or fibre optic. The message floats freely. It must be possible to clone a ‘phone. Two ‘phones receiving the same signal do not weaken it. How can you detect an intercept. You probably can’t from the intercept alone; subsequent actions might give a hint…
So how does a ‘phone uniquely identify itself as the recipient of a message / call? Has it a unique identity? In principle yes, but these must also not be clone proof…If you can set up digital identity on one ‘phone its should be possible to copy it.
When a call comes does it open a gate which allows the ‘phone company to allow the message to flow? There must be some “switch” flicked.
“Hey, I am ready for your call..”
People talk of end to end encryption? How does that work? Is there a sender’s key and a receiver’s key. How easily copied are these keys?
Which caused the ancillary question how does this encryption work?
I suspect that calls and data fly around willy nilly without people worrying about intercepts.
As an aside we have recently watched a number of “spy” dramas in which people are using their mobile ‘phones to chat, text and take pictures of evidence. It seems markedly non clandestine to me. Is this real life or transference of ‘phone junkie thinking into drama? Surely you would not take a traceable device into a sneaky meeting with your favourite mole on a Berlin bridge?
———–
“Quantum communication has seen some big announcements in 2024, with smartphone markets and data centers turning to the technology for secure and robust data security that can be trusted. IDTechEx’s report, “Quantum Communication Market 2024-2034: Technology, Trends, Players, Forecasts”, details the many national and international benefits and uses for quantum communication alongside some of the main challenges of implementation.
Safer smartphone security
Smartphones today contain an abundance of personal data, including passwords to banking and email accounts and online purchase histories. 2024 saw the announcement of the Galaxy Quantum 5, with Samsung literally alluding to the smartphone’s quantum capabilities with its name. The smallest quantum random number generator available has been installed within the device to provide users with the highest levels of authentication and encryption, ensuring that communications and authentication features are safe and can be trusted. As smartphones today are relied upon as small computers that can access and store any information, quantum technology will enable them to do their job reliably and securely.
It kind of suggests that ownership of the quantum key is the route to secure call and answer communication. The pitfall of any QKD has to be trust. If you do not trust the locksmith… who assures you that the key is unique – you are buggered. That is unless you yourself supply the key. {possible idea here?}
One could imagine a quantum spam blocker…
Basically the best assurance against being spied upon is introversion. If you don’t say anything it can’t be heard.
Maybe I need to get a “Mobile ‘Phone Communications for Dummies” book…
Clearly I don’t know how the devil spawned devices work…
I have been peripherally linked to two major scandals in modern science “Cold Fusion” and “Room Temperature Superconductivity”. A man for whom I was a post doc was linked to Martin Fleischmann who was his supervisor. I had a few conversations with an ex-student about the more recent room temperature superconductivity controversy. It was mooted that I might join the start-up.
If you are an accepted “bishop” like Fleischmann it is easier to survive than if you are a mere curate like Ranga Dias.
“Science” tends to permanently excommunicate those found guilty of breaking the “rules”. It can have harsher penalties than for a priest sodomizing choir boys. If you do not toe the line you are perhaps contumacious. If there in not enough cap doffing…
The pressure to publish and get good publication metric data is immense, perhaps stupidly so. I have yet to hear of criminal prosecutions for falsifying data. Though it is clearly criminally fraudulent to obtain research funding based on lies and “making shit up”. The temptation is there. Grant income bestows kudos and ensures “tenure”, if such a thing still exists. People find it hard not to blag and hype.
Today I have had a look on the internet for Ranga Dias. Since he left University of Rochester he has disappeared into the aether. There is a great deal of “pile on” for him and there is even glee-full hand rubbing at his fate. I do wonder if the pile on would have been less if he was a white establishment figure.
I suspect he may struggle to get high status employment in the West ever again.
–
–
All “religions”, “parties” and “cults” have a form of shunning and excommunication whether that excommunication be occult or otherwise…
You don’t have to wear weird or groovy clothes.
Group mind uses excommunication to punish errancy and divergence…it demands compliance.
The Catholic Church claims that the penalty of excommunication is biblical and that both Paul of Tarsus and John the Apostle make reference to the practice of cutting people off from the community, in order to hasten their repentance. The Catholic Encyclopedia states that from the earliest days of Christianity, excommunication was the chief (if not the only) ecclesiastical penalty for laymen; for guilty clerics the first punishment was deposition from their office, i.e. reduction to the ranks of the laity. The Catholic Encyclopedia adds that during the first centuries of Christianity, excommunication was not regarded as a simple external measure, but also as one which touched the soul and the conscience. It was not merely the severing of the outward bond which holds individual to their place in the Church; it severed also the internal bond, and the sentence pronounced on earth was understood to be ratified in heaven.
During the Middle Ages, excommunication was analogous to the secular imperial ban or “outlawry” under common law. The individual was separated to some degree from the communion of the faithful. Formal acts of public excommunication were sometimes accompanied by a ceremony wherein a bell was tolled (as for the dead), the Book of the Gospels was closed, and a candle snuffed out—hence the idiom “to condemn with bell, book, and candle.”
Those under excommunication were to be shunned. Pope Gregory VII was the first to mitigate the proscription against communicating with an excommunicated person. At a council in Rome in 1079, he made exceptions for members of the immediate family, servants, and occasions of necessity or utility. In the mid-12th century, Pope Eugene III held a synod in order to deal with the large number of heretical groups. Mass excommunication was used as a convenient tool to squelch heretics who belonged to groups which professed beliefs radically different than those taught by the Catholic Church.
……
Types of excommunication
The terminology used to qualify the modalities of excommunication may vary depending on the author.
The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia distinguishes excommunication from the refusal of ecclesiastical communion, in which one bishop refuses to worship in common with another.
Anathema is a sort of aggravated excommunication, from which, however, it does not differ essentially, but simply in the matter of special solemnities and outward display.
A jure and ab homine
Excommunication is either a jure (by law) or ab homine (by judicial act of man, i.e. by a judge). The first is provided by the law itself, which declares that whosoever shall have been guilty of a definite crime will incur the penalty of excommunication. The second is inflicted by an ecclesiastical prelate, either when he issues a serious order under pain of excommunication or imposes this penalty by judicial sentence and after a criminal trial.
Latæ sententiæ and ferendæ sententiæ
Excommunication is either latæ sententiæ or ferendæ sententiæ.
Latae sententiae excommunication is incurred as soon as the offence is committed and by reason of the offence itself (eo ipso) without intervention of any ecclesiastical judge; it is recognized in the terms used by the legislator, for instance: “the culprit will be excommunicated at once, by the fact itself [statim, ipso facto]”.
Ferendae sententiae excommunication is considered by the law as a penalty and is inflicted on the culprit only by a judicial sentence; in other words, the delinquent is rather threatened than visited with the penalty, and incurs it only when the judge has summoned him before his tribunal, declared him guilty, and punished him according to the terms of the law. It is recognized when the law contains these or similar words: “under pain of excommunication”; “the culprit will be excommunicated”.
Public and occult
Excommunication ferendæ sententiæ can be public only, as it must be the object of a declaratory sentence pronounced by a judge; but excommunication latæ sententiæ may be either public or occult.
An excommunication is public through the publicity of the law when it is imposed and published by ecclesiastical authority; it is public through notoriety of fact when the offence that has incurred it is known to the majority in the locality, as in the case of those who have publicly done violence to clerics, or of the purchasers of church property. This excommunication is valid in the forum externum and consequently in the forum internum.
Excommunication is occult when the offence entailing it is known to no one or almost no one. This excommunication is valid in the forum internum only.
The practical difference of validities in the forums is very important:
He who has incurred occult excommunication should treat himself as excommunicated and be absolved as soon as possible, submitting to whatever conditions will be imposed upon him, but this only in the tribunal of conscience; he is not obliged to denounce himself to a judge nor to abstain from external acts connected with the exercise of jurisdiction, and he may ask absolution without making himself known either in confession or to the Sacred Penitentiaria. According to the teaching of Benedict XIV, “a sentence declaratory of the offence is always necessary in the forum externum, since in this tribunal no one is presumed to be excommunicated unless convicted of a crime that entails such a penalty”.
Public excommunication, on the other hand, is removed only by a public absolution; when it is question of simple publicity of fact (see above), the absolution, while not judicial, is nevertheless public, inasmuch as it is given to a known person and appears as an act of the forum externum.
In a case of occult excommunication the culprit has the right to judge himself and to be judged by his confessor according to the exact truth, whereas, in the forum externum the judge decides according to presumptions and proofs. Consequently, in the tribunal of conscience he who is reasonably persuaded of his innocence cannot be compelled to treat himself as excommunicated and to seek absolution; this conviction, however, must be prudently established.
—————
Latae sententiae
The 1983 Code of Canon Law attaches the penalty of latae sententiae (automatic) excommunication to the following actions:
Apostates, heretics, and schismatics (can. 1364)
Desecration of the Eucharist (can. 1367)
A person who physically attacks the pope (can. 1370)
A priest who in confession absolves a partner with whom they have violated the sixth commandment [offenses against chastity] (can. 977, can. 1384)
A person who attempts to confer a holy order on a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive it (can. 1379)
A bishop who consecrates another bishop without papal mandate (can. 1382)
A priest who violates the seal of the confessional (can. 1388)
A person who procures an abortion (can. 1398)
Accomplices who were needed to commit an action that has an automatic excommunication penalty (can. 1329)
——————-
Those who can excommunicate
Excommunication is either a jure (by law) or ab homine (by judicial act of man, i.e. by a judge). The first is provided by the law itself, which declares that whosoever shall have been guilty of a definite crime will incur the penalty of excommunication. The second is inflicted by an ecclesiastical prelate, either when he issues a serious order under pain of excommunication or imposes this penalty by judicial sentence and after a trial.
Excommunication is an act of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, the rules of which it follows. Hence the general principle: whoever has proper jurisdiction can excommunicate, but only his own subjects. Therefore, whether excommunications be a jure (by the law) or ab homine (under form of sentence or precept), they may come from the pope, from the bishop for his diocese; and from regular prelates for religious orders. But a parish priest cannot inflict this penalty. The subjects of these various authorities are those who come under their jurisdiction chiefly on account of domicile or quasi-domicile in their territory; then by reason of the offense committed while on such territory; and finally by reason of personal right, as in the case of regulars. As to excommunications ab homine, absolution from them is reserved by law to the ordinary who has imposed them.
Those who can be excommunicated
No one can be subject to ecclesiastical censure unless they be baptized, delinquent, and contumacious. Baptism confers initial jurisdiction, delinquency refers to having committed a wrong, and contumacious indicates the person’s willfull persistence in such conduct. Since excommunication is the forfeiture of the spiritual privileges of ecclesiastical society, all those, but those only, can be excommunicated who, by any right whatsoever, belong to this society. Consequently, excommunication can be inflicted only on baptized and living Catholics. It does not pertain to pagans, Muslims, Jews, and other non-Catholics.
No one is automatically excommunicated for any offense if, without any fault of his own, he was unaware that he was violating a law (1983 CIC 1323 n. 2) or that a penalty was attached to the law (1983 CIC 1324 §1 n. 9). The same applies if one was a minor, had the imperfect use of reason, was forced through grave or relatively grave fear, was forced through serious inconvenience, or in certain other circumstances (1983 CIC 1324).
When we attempt to communicate the message we actually send may be much different from what we think we meant. How people receive and perceive what we say may differ markedly.
There is a tendency to try to force others to comply with our view of the world. If they do not we can ostracise them, shame them and “punish” them for not behaving as we think they ought to. Excommunication and shunning are methods employed. There can be a perception that the shunned person wishes back into the fold and will do anything to make amends. This can be a miscalculation.
–
–
Once we have shunned someone it can be impossible to re-build a relationship. A bridge burned is not easily reconstructed. The punished may no longer want anything to do with the emotive “punishers”.
We might imagine a temporary message when it is perceived as permanent. If you put someone on the naughty step they may be very happy to be out of the maelstrom where they can meditate and gain perspective.
They can boogie in peace.
It can be difficult to understand that if you bomb someone they are very unlikely to be bosom buddies again in the near future.
Ill will has long longevity, good will can evaporate in a flash and is very difficult to rebuild.
We may not think about what messages we are actually sending especially when we are in the heat of the moment or ranting and raving. We can deliver and receive entirely the wrong message…
——
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
Doing a brief search on this today I came upon the notion for reverse impostor syndrome. Which does not seem to be greatly overestimating your abilities and bullshitting rather it is having a realistic high assessment which is not yet matched by the perceptions of others. There is bias against the lack of overt pushy presentation and showing off. The book must be shiny and well branded. The highly strategic global vision introvert may not be so highly rated as the “gobshite” blagger snake oil salesman. There is apparently an issue in VC circles where surface performance is funded more readily than in depth potential. It is not the best investment on occasion. Founders can have reverse impostor syndrome; they know their ideas are good but everybody else has yet to catch up.
–
–
Imposter syndrome is other people thinking you’re good, but you still don’t believe it for yourself on the inside.
Reverse imposter syndrome is knowing you are good, but others don’t believe it (as much as you know it tobe true).
Wes Kao
VC-backed founder turned coach. Writing for 80,000+ operators on executive communication and influence at {newsletter.weskao.com}
It raises a philosophical idea.
If you think you know what you are talking about and this has significance are you on an attention seeking ego trip or is your assessment simply premature?
If the world at large is not interested or does not notice, who is mistaken them or you?
Who is kidding who?
If you don’t appreciate someone who know things well because they differ with your own views, exactly who is on an ego trip?
Can people use telekinesis to stop the penny from dropping, if so, for how long?
It is very easy when one is on an ego trip to point the finger at someone else and assert that it is they in fact who are on an ego trip…
Who defines, who is the expert, on what is and what is not an ego trip?
The dream opens in a kind of school assembly hall with a stage and parquet flooring. The stage has theatre stye floor to ceiling curtains. In the main body of the hall are several people milling around. It is a kind of “spiritual” gathering. Marshalling them is a young man who is tall with a white granddad collarless shirt buttoned at the neck. He has long shiny jet black hair and is of a slightly tanned complexion. Each person is sharing their story of how they came to be upon a spiritual journey. I am talking with a young man about his start and it was via martial arts. I explain to him that I first started Zen meditation is karate class sat in seiza.
The man with the hair says, “what shall we call this gathering and that which is to follow?”
I say the Bagvaan {phonetically} Institute. In the dream I know that the spelling has an H also and is Bhag-van. I know that it is a term used in some Buddhist texts.
He thinks that the term refers to us and the society / institutions to follow. I know in the dream that Bhagavān refers to me. The reason that people will come is for me. He does not yet understand that it is I who will organise and bring life.
In the audience / gathering is a younger woman perhaps early forties. She is expensively dressed with dark hair and her bare stocking feet look incongruous against her business suit. She comes over to me and says, “I am so pleased to have finally found you.” She starts to tear up. I reach out to hug her. She withdraws. I explain that I wish to protect her because that is what we elephants do. She lets me hug her and she sobs into my shoulder. The sobs are considerable. She calms. She reminds me of an Australian Southerly Stalker I once knew.
The scene changes and we are in her car driving into North London. The gathering has been in the home counties. We have given another member of the gathering, a man, a lift and will drop him off at a tube station, Wembley Central. On the radio there is a talk programme in which I am mentioned in connection with the growing Bhagavān Institute(s) popping up all over. This is followed by a song in which Bhagavān is the theme.
We get to the tube station and I go in with the man to ensure he knows how to use the ticket machines. He is not British. I show him how to use the machine by putting some coins in and pressing a button. Out of the ticket hole a series of introduction / business cards starts to rapidly pile up like cards in a casino card dispenser shoe. They come out of the machine to make a deck of business cards with my name on and Bhagavān Instituteaddress details. The song from the car is playing over the tube station loudspeaker address system.
The dream ends.
I am unsure as to whether to publish the dream or to keep it back. In the end I decide to publish it to go with the flow and see what might happen. I am aware of possible consequences. Where did that come from? Out of the blue.
———————————————————————
Bhagavān, nominative singular of the adjective Bhagavat, literally means “fortunate”, “blessed” (from the noun bhaga, meaning “fortune”, “wealth”), and hence “illustrious”, “divine”, “venerable”, “holy”, etc. Bhagavān is related to the root Bhaj (भज्, “to revere”, “adore”), and implies someone “glorious”, “illustrious”, “revered”, “venerable”, “divine”, “holy” (an epithet applied to gods, holy or respectable personages). The root Bhaj also means “share with”, “partake of”, “aportion”.
The Vishnu Purana defines Bhagavān as follows,
He who understands the creation and dissolution, the appearance and disappearance of beings, the wisdom and ignorance, should be called Bhagavān.
When a door closes for me I am rarely upset. It just means that one out of many trajectories is no longer possible. I have over the last few months had various suggestions suggested to me in dreams. Things like dreaming courses, a Tibetan vibe, stuff to do with quantum and venture capital, a bit of old school alchemy and the odd hint of Toltec. There is no obvious way forward in any of these for me so I have concluded fairly strongly that these avenues are no-go, dead-ends. There is no point in trying to push on a closed door. Dreaming can hint at possibilities in the web of life, there is a big gap between a vague dreamy possibility and a viable probability.
I have a working hypothesis that the level of interest in what I may know is very low and that only a very few people have any. This does not come as a big surprise to me.
–
–
So we have been kicking around a “what to do next”. The basic starting point is that we need to move to a house / apartment which is smaller with less maintenance and lower heating costs, coupled to a garden significantly smaller than 2 acres. We want some outside space.
The biggest fly in the appointment is the financial uncertainty caused by Benjamin Nosferatu et al. bombing the fuck out of other countries. It may have a negative impact on our ability to sell this house.
Where have we gotten to?
It seems that rental accommodation around here and in South or West Wales is scarce. If you are prepared to live in isolated rural Carmarthenshire or Pembrokeshire you can get good value for money. The poor transport lowers the asking price. There is a trade-off.
We could just about afford to buy something near Carmarthen or Haverfordwest. Carmarthen has a Caffè Nero.
We have looked at Strasbourg, Besançon and Grenoble. Not sure we could handle a big metropolis. Grenoble should be fairly multi-cultural like Strasbourg. They are a bit pricey. Mountains might be nice as would a UNESCO downtown.
The theme of a different living experience remains to the fore. A town centre flat, a town house or even a houseboat would be new to us both.
We are still going with the idea of a shortish journey time to a decent sized hospital, say around 45 minutes by road.
We could go and speak with estate agents and Notaires. I have no idea if we could easily sell this house nor for how much. That would scale the size of what is possible.
It is looking like sell and rent before buy. The rental could be France or UK. It rains too much in Ireland.
We do not have to move. We could afford another year here.
There is a problem that when I say to people that I do not negotiate they think that this is a negotiation strategy. It is hard to forewarn people in a way which they understand and take on board.
« Je n’ai aucun besoin de discuter (vers la fin du monde). »
Seems unbelievable to many.
We have a very open geographical search area. There is a problem with non-attachment and that is lack of fixation or ambition. When one does not covet how does one decide?
In the past the universe has helped us out with decisions. Often at the last moment. Whilst we can note this observable trend it would be unwise to rely on it.
If we chose the UK I could probably guarantee some “A” level science tutoring January to June each year. This means we could pay a little more for a UK house than a French one.
At the moment we are embedded in the French system, which makes everything straightforward. Like many things here, it is difficult to get started, but once up and running it goes along just fine. Effort at the beginning pays off. France has both momentum and inertia, which makes sense. Get it started and then it is difficult to stop. France is very rhythmic in the way the year pans out.
The “what to do” question seems to be pointing at more of the same, scaled down. I have been playing with my chain saw today, strimmer frenzy tomorrow.
It will be nice to have a new location to explore and scout when we move.
There are some properties for sale in Barnard Castle…
It is all a bit open, we shall see what the dreaming suggests and act thereupon.
“What is different about Iran? It is the only state that has legalised the sale of kidneys.”
Since the bombardment of Iran by Israel and the USA has begun it seems likely that the international trade in spare part human kidneys will be impacted. In a supply and demand world removal of a major supplier is likely to have knock on impacts on the global price of a transplant kidney.
When the first bombs started falling I doubt they considered the impact on the price of an accelerated bespoke kidney transplant for the discerning and well-heeled consumer. There will be an embargo on Iran sponsored kidney transplants for the short term. Air space will be closed. Given large scale destruction by ordnance the kidney transplant industry may be set back many years.
“We do not want Iran to have a kidney transplant industry..” said an Israeli with knowledge of the matter and on strict grounds of anonymity.
This means that I might be able to get more for one of my kidneys…
————————-
Kidney International Volume 69, Issue 6 , p960-962 March 02, 2006
Continuous growth of the end stage renal disease population treated by dialysis, outpaces deceased donor kidneys available, lengthens the waiting time for a deceased donor transplant. As estimated by the United States Department of Health & Human Services: ‘17 people die each day waiting for transplants that can’t take place because of the shortage of donated organs.’ Strategies to expand the donor pool – public relations campaigns and Drivers’ license designation – have been mainly unsuccessful. Although illegal in most nations, and viewed as unethical by professional medical organizations, the voluntary sale of purchased donor kidneys now accounts for thousands of black market transplants. The case for legalizing kidney purchase hinges on the key premise that individuals are entitled to control of their body parts even to the point of inducing risk of life. One approach to expanding the pool of kidney donors is to legalize payment of a fair market price of about $40 000 to donors. Establishing a federal agency to manage marketing and purchase of donor kidneys in collaboration with the United Network for Organ Sharing might be financially self-sustaining as reduction in costs of dialysis balances the expense of payment to donors.
—————————————
Should we sell our kidneys? The Guardian
Right now, about 7,000 people are awaiting a kidney transplant in the UK. According to NHS figures, in 2024/25 only 3,302 adult kidney transplants were performed. The charity Kidney Research UK states that “just 32% of patients receive a transplant within a year of joining the waiting list and six people die every week while waiting.”
People who experience kidney failure need either lifelong dialysis or a transplant to survive. Yet even for those lucky enough to get a transplant, that is by no means the end of the story. Kidneys from deceased donors last an average of 10 to 15 years, those from a living person 20 to 25. If (or rather, when) a transplant fails, the affected patient once again needs dialysis or a donated organ.
The UK is not unusual in having far more people who need kidneys than there are kidneys available. Every country in the world has this problem. With one exception: Iran.
What is different about Iran? It is the only state that has legalised the sale of kidneys. This began in 1988, and means the country has no waiting lists. You can expect to pay about $5,000 for a new kidney, subject to a price cap adjusted for inflation and enforced by the government. (By contrast, a kidney bought on the black market elsewhere can cost up to $120,000.) The proceeds go to the donor, who can be a friend or family relative, or just somebody who needs the money and happens to be a biological match. Indeed, in Iran most people who donate kidneys have no direct relation to the person receiving the organ. They are just doing it for the cash.
Two high-profile stories in US newspapers this year have prompted the media to ask whether the illegal sale of human organs in the US is more common than previously thought. In the first case, a New York City resident was arrested for trying to orchestrate the sale of a human kidney to an undercover FBI agent for US$160,000. The second story was of an Israeli man who flew to New York to donate his kidney in exchange for $20,000. These stories underscore the desperation of patients in need of a donor organ and the need to reduce the number of patients on transplant waiting lists. The methods to achieve this goal are severalfold and include increasing the number of live kidney donors, increasing deceased donation, and preventing the development of renal failure in the first instance.
Each day in the US, 17 people die waiting for a transplant. Although in the majority of countries, the selling of an organ is illegal, according to the WHO, 5–10% of all transplanted kidneys are purchased. The shortage of transplantable organs undoubtedly fuels the demand for illegally sourced organs. Critics of legislation in the US and most other countries argue that the legalization of kidney sales could increase donation and survival rates for patients on waiting lists. Several models of such regulation have been proposed—typically they involve the payment of a fixed sum to the donor, long-term follow-up and life insurance benefits. However, although a regulated system of organ sales could, in theory, enable follow-up and provision of adequate health care for kidney donors, this notion is at odds with the social and medical capabilities of many developing countries.
——————————————————-
Black Market Kidneys, $160,000 a Pop
By Edecio Martinez CBS News
July 27, 2009 / 8:15 AM EDT / CBS News
NEWARK, New Jersey (AP)
Levy Izhak Rosenbaum of Brooklyn called himself a “matchmaker,” but his business wasn’t romance.
Instead, authorities say, he brokered the sale of black-market kidneys, buying organs from vulnerable people from Israel for $10,000 and selling them to desperate patients in the United States for as much as $160,000.
The alleged decade-long scheme, exposed last week by an FBI sting, rocked the nation’s transplant industry. If true, it would be the first documented case of organ trafficking in the U.S., transplant experts said Friday.
“There’s certainly cross-national activity, but it hasn’t touched the United States or we haven’t known about it until now,” said University of Pennsylvania medical ethicist Arthur Caplan, who is co-directing a U.N. task force on international organ trafficking.
Rosenbaum was arrested Thursday, 10 days after meeting in his basement with a government informant and an FBI agent posing as the informant’s secretary. The agent claimed to be searching for a kidney for a sick uncle on dialysis who was on a transplant list at a Philadelphia hospital.
“I am what you call a matchmaker,” Rosenbaum said in a secretly recorded conversation. “I bring a guy what I believe, he’s suitable for your uncle.” Asked how many organs he had brokered, he said: “Quite a lot,” the most recent two weeks earlier.
As part of the scheme, the organ donors were brought from Israel to this country, where they underwent surgery to remove the kidneys, authorities said. Prosecutors did not identify which hospitals in the U.S. received the donors and their kidneys.
“The allegations about an organ trafficking ring in the United States are appalling,” said John Davis, CEO of the National Kidney Foundation.
——————————
Australian transplant waiting list contributes to human organ black market, committee says
By political reporter Stephanie Dalzell
Mon 3 Dec 2018 ABC News
The criminal masterminds behind the illegal trade of human body parts raked in $2.3 billion around the globe last year.
About 12,000 organs were sold on the black market, and while the majority of those exchanges involved kidneys, 654 hearts and 2,615 livers were sold for up to $394,000 each.
That illegal trade will continue to grow if the Australian Government does not do more to deter human organ trafficking, according to a unanimous report handed down by a parliamentary committee.
About 1,400 Australians are currently waiting for an organ transplant, while a further 11,000 are on kidney dialysis, and the committee found if the government failed to address the gap between the number of people requiring organ transplants and the limited supply of freely donated organs, the black market would keep flourishing.
Commercial organ market
Organ
Global illicit transplants(per annum)
Price range(AUD)
Kidney
7,995
$68,000 – $163,000
Liver
2,615
$134,000 – $197,000
Heart
654
$176,000 – $394,000
Lung
469
$203,000 – $394,000
Pancreas
233
$149,000 – $190,000
The chairman of the Human Rights Sub-Committee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, Liberal MP Kevin Andrews, told Parliament the average waiting time for a kidney in Australia was three years.
“Desperate people often facing certain death without a transplant may travel far from their own countries to places such as Egypt, the Philippines or Pakistan, paying tens of thousands of dollars or more, for an organ transplant, where the donor is most likely in dire financial straits, possibly exploited, and unable to give free and informed consent to donation,” Mr Andrews said.
Cutting down demand
The committee’s report recommended the Australian Government pursue a range of measures to strengthen its involvement in international efforts to combat human organ trafficking, collect data on Australians involved in illegal organ trafficking overseas and also tighten criminal laws around organ harvesting.
It also concluded the Government should seek to improve organ-donation rates through ongoing funding of programs, education awareness campaigns, and the investigation of other international programs — such as opt-out organ donation.
Mr Andrews said the committee heard from many people who argued protections against the practice needed to be strengthened.
“Their evidence was consistent, organ trafficking is a violation of the rights and dignity of people and Australia must do more to stop people in our community traveling overseas to support it,”
Here is last night’s dream it seems to point at a change in the direction of the wind.
The dream opens abord a small catamaran sailing vessel equipped with an outboard motor. The main hull would accommodate maybe four people sleeping. It is well looked after, all ship shape and Bristol fashion. The tarpaulins out to the rider sub-hulls are deep blue and stretched taught. We are moving under motor into a small marina where there are leisure craft of varying size and expense. It is a bright sunny day and we are pulling in under the guidance of one of the port team who has come abord to pilot. She is dressed in smart “sailing” fashion and has long chestnut brown hair which is shiny. She is young. As we approach the pontoon I jump off and tie off. The pilot leaves us and waves. The wife disembarks. We are working our way along the South Wales coast to Carmarthen and Laugharne. We have now been cleared to use the port by the harbour captain. We make our way along the pontoons towards the town. We are met by a chocolate brown athletic labrador retriever, thinner than your normal labrador and very enthusiastic. I know she is called Holly.
The scene changes and we are again entering the same port. The weather is less sunny. As we disembark and go towards town we see Holly waiting for us. She has been in the water and is dripping wet. Something has happened to Holly she does not look quite so well and vibrant. She is nevertheless enthusiastic in her greeting. I must get something out of the water. I throw in a fishing hand line and pull out a metre long thin eel like fish. It is very unusual like a Chinese dragon with long whiskers and a beard. It is not a dragon; it is a fish. I hold it up in my right hand and it curls itself around my arm. It is like a loosely coiled spring. Crossing between pontoons I can see a small “red” kangaroo. It is hopping on one leg the left one and holding the other one over its shoulder with its arms. I can see multiple surgery stiches along the inside length of the leg and up into the groin. The kangaroo seems completely unbothered by carrying its leg. We proceed into town. We know that this port is only a stepping stone as we are heading towards Carmarthen and Laugharne, maybe even further into Pembrokeshire.
The scene changes and we are in a car approaching a city centre car park. As we get nearer the way is partially blocked by a very large old style Range Rover. It won’t let us into the the lane for the main car park entrance. I note a smaller lane for the car park ground floor. I squeeze the right hand drive UK car past the Range Rover. When we approach the barrier I get out and press a red “stop-like” button which protrudes. An attendant comes out and gives me a key on the end of a yellow stretchy coiled lanyard. The lanyard has the consistency of electric cable but is stretchy and spring-like. The lanyard is about 50 cm long. I go to the control panel for then barrier and open it with the key. I put the key in my pocket. The barrier rises and we enter the car park. The barrier closes behind us. The Range Rover driver watches mildly pissed off.
We get out of the car and try to leave the car park via the ground floor Ladies toilets. Outside the cubicles there are two men, they are security services types. I go to try the door where I know the door to be. The door is locked shut and has been wall-papered over. I cannot find the handle nor the lock. I know that the door is there behind the wall paper which the security men have covered it with. They find it very funny that I cannot open the door. I look to the side of the door to the normal toilet entrance door which appears also to be locked. I see the vague outline of a door in the wall and press upon it with my fingers and the secret door swings open directly into a main corridor of a swish shopping mall. We go through the door and it closes behind us.
In the dream I think that closed doors always simplify things.
Dreamyoga 