Burzynski Clinic

A young guy called Rhys Morgan is being threatened by lawyers for publishing a blog questioning the effectiveness of the treatments at the Burzynski Clinic in Houston, Texas. He is still at school, yet he has constructed a really well thought out critique of the clinic and has then responded to some fairly daunting legal threats.


You can read his blog and see the responses to it here - Rhys Morgan on the Burzynski Clinic


It is a really inspiring read.


Update - There is another post on the same subject here - another Burzynski blogger receives legal threats. Hopefully the increased activity and interest in this will mean that people become more aware of what the facts are. It is horrible that desperate people who are impacted by the terminal illness of a loved one are putting huge amounts of money into paying for treatments that are not proven to to have any effectiveness. 

Youth Unemployment

Figures published today show that unemployment in the 16 - 24 year old age bracket hit a record high of over one million.


Whilst I am sure that there are lots of people out there who are trying quite hard to get jobs, I am also sure that attitudes have changed meaning that this is not a top priority for some despite what may be said.


I live with someone in that age category who does not work. Do they spend every hour of the day looking for a job? No. Do they look at job search web sites before looking at Facebook? No. Do they  look at job search sites at all? No. Do they still manage to eat out, smoke, drink and go out with his mates? Yes. I know this isn't a popular view, but life without a job is too easy and there is no driver to actually get a job. 


If you go to a hotel in the UK then the chances are that a fair number of the employees will be Eastern European. Is this because the jobs in hotels are seen as being too demeaning for a local young adult to do? Maybe the thought process is that I can get food, lodging and money from my parents and the state (i.e. tax payer) so why would I want to get up early each day and clean hotel bathrooms? How many builders and labourers are from Eastern Europe also? Again, could this be that getting up early and doing some hard, physical graft in the cold and wet is less appealing that the alternative of not working?


We really need to change attitudes. By supporting a young adult who does not work you are simply not providing the impetus to get a job. Only by making getting a job (any job) more palatable than sitting at home pissing about on Facebook will things start to change.