The Dark Side of a Once Respected Organization: WHO’s Guidelines on Sex Education in Europe Pose a Genuine Threat to Children

Many people are increasingly mistrustful of local or national government over abuses regarding free speech, excessive spending, corruption, or other misdeeds, and may naturally be even more skeptical of global agencies seeking to influence or control multiple nations, especially when those agencies seem to be aligned with forces or nations that oppose the principles of freedom enshrined in the US Constitution. But how can any of us maintain any trust in the once-respected World Health Organization in light of what they are pushing regarding sex education for our children? Their new standards seem to undermine parent-child relationship and urge adult educators to indoctrinate children in their earliest years (0 to 4) with teachings about the childhood masturbation, gender identity, and sexual rights that may be completely counter to the desires of marginalized parents.

The WHO Collaborating Centre for Sexual and Reproductive Health on their page, “Standards for Sexuality Education,” has links to their new PDF document in multiple languages on sex education guidelines for Europe. The link to the English PDF is at https://www.bzga-whocc.de/fileadmin/user_upload/BZgA_Standards_English.pdf.

Here is some explanation from “Standards for Sexuality Education“:

The framework Standards for Sexuality Education in Europe (Standards) presents the concept for holistic sexuality education and includes information on the themes relevant for children and adolescents in the various age groups.

The Standards provide practical guidance for preparing proper curricula. They can also be used to support arguments for introducing holistic sexuality education in the European countries of the WHO Region.

Target groups: political stakeholders, healthcare authorities, and professionals working in the fields of education and healthcare.

Parents are not listed among the target groups, possibly because most parents would be shocked to see what the elites behind this document think is appropriate for young children.  While may be some good ideas in these standards, there are dangerous elements that may be harmful for children. Let’s look at the “matrix” provided for the youngest age group, zero to four years.  The portion of the “matrix” on sexuality for ages zero to four years comes from page 40 of the English PDF document, “Standards for Sexuality Education in Europe“:

I’ll also show three more sections from pages 40-41, again for the very youngest group of children:


Here is a table with three of these sections in case the image is hard to read (emphasis mine):

0-4 [Years]

Information
Give information about

Skills
Enable children to

Attitudes
Help children to develop
Sexuality
  • enjoyment and pleasure when touching one’s own body, early childhood masturbation
  • discovery of own body and own genitals
  • the fact that enjoyment of physical closeness is a normal part of everyone’s life
  • tenderness and physical closeness as an expression of love and affection
  • gain an awareness of gender identity
  • talk about (un)pleasurable feelings in one’s own body
  • express own needs, wishes and boundaries, for example in the context of “playing doctor”
  • a positive attitude towards one’s body with all its functions = positive body-image
  • respect for others
  • curiosity regarding own and others’ bodies
Sexuality, health and well-being
  • good and bad experiences of your body/what feels good? (listen to your body)
  • if the experience/feeling is not good, you do not always have to comply
  • trust their instincts
  • apply the three-step model (say no, go away, talk to somebody you trust)
  • achieve feelings of well-being
  • an appreciation of their body
  • the awareness that it is ok to ask for help
Sexuality and rights
  • the right to be safe and protected
  • the responsibility of adults for the safety of children
  • the right to ask questions about sexuality
  • the right to explore gender identities
  • the right to explore nakedness and the body, to be curious
  • say “yes” and “no”
  • develop communication skills
  • express needs and wishes
  • differentiate between “good” and “bad” secrets
  • an awareness of their rights which leads to self-confidence
  • the attitude “My body belongs to me”
  • the feeling that they can make their own decisions

 

Notice how many times parents are mentioned in these guidelines. Noticed how many times educators are encouraged to tell children to turn to their parents for guidance and help.

So the WHO wants various strangers in schools and perhaps other institutions talking to toddlers about masturbation? And their “right” to explore various gender identities? Do we want random adults to teach our kids that the standard for what is good or bad is what feels good? That’s how you tell right from wrong and decide when to say yes or no? Do we want these adults telling little kids that “physical closeness” from someone else (say, a coach, teacher, or other authority figure) is just a healthy expression of love and affection? And that they “do not always have to comply” IF it doesn’t feel good?

When I quoted a couple of these items to an alert mother I trust, her immediate response was, “They’re groomers!” She was outraged. And that’s when it hit me: these guidelines are hard to fathom as just accidental foolishness from over-educated elites who don’t understand the threats our children face, which was how I was tempted to view it initially. Rather, the guidelines make more sense if they are coming from people who are disconnected from the challenges and joys of family life and parenthood, who think the State needs to take over the role of parents to transform and reprogram children, unaware of the harm to children that such an approach can bring. It’s also possible some of the people behind this effort may sense some kind of benefit from corrupting children, whether they are groomers, profiteers, Marxist radicals seeking to destroy religion and middle-class opposition, or just bitter sociopaths. These are not the things that normal healthy people with a respect for the institution of the family would push onto children. Something is very wrong here.

One of the things that is wrong is downplaying the role of parents, if not overriding the duty of parents to shape and guide their children. On page 40, the document recognizes the “informal role” of parents in sex education and also note their general inability in Europe to opt out of sex education for their kids, which is fine for parents, we are told, because they aren’t comfortable doing it themselves. The existence of parents is acknowledged in several places, mostly to indicate their need to be supportive, but the “matrix” of guidelines for various age groups essentially ignores their fundamental role and rights in sex education. It’s obvious that this document is all about other adults, all tools of the State, shaping the views and behavior of children in all aspects of sexuality from their earliest days into adulthood. Of course, this is already happening in many parts of the world and in the US. Do parents understand that adequately? Do they understand what can go wrong?

One of the key tools for actual groomers and pedophiles is to encourage children to keep secrets from their parents and to trust other adults rather than mom and dad. Here we have guidelines that totally leave parents out and will obviously go against the wishes of many parents. The instructors are being told to help kids know that there are “good secrets” that they can have with respect to sexuality — no need to tell parents about any of this, right? They are told to turn to “somebody” that they trust when they have questions or concerns, say some non-parental authority figure, perhaps? After all, it’s their body and they can make their own decisions at ages 3 or 4 (like deciding if one is a girl or boy — again, no recognition of parents having any role in such vital decisions). They tell children that masturbation and physical closeness with others (adults other than parents?) is normal and pleasurable and that the standard to follow is not any form of absolute morality, rules from parents, or principles from one’s faith, but whether something feels good or not. But no need to worry about groomers, for the kids will also be told that if something doesn’t feel good, they don’t always have to comply. Not always! So there’s that safety valve.

Parents are right to wonder what a molester or groomer could do with these guidelines. But even if the schools only hire moral, decent teachers and coaches, if they follow these guidelines, great harm can still done through what is taught and how it’s taught. Having kids at age three or four learn about masturbation is sick. Having them get used to talking to random adults other than mom or dad about sexuality is wrong. The guidelines read like a handbook for groomers. Is there a more charitable but accurate way to put it?

No, I am not saying anything about any alleged conspiracies of pedophiles, but there is such a thing as pedophiles, and there is such a thing as danger to children, and when what is being taught to children undermines the protective principles that wise parents want to teach, then something very ugly is taking place. I am also not saying that any of the motivation for the WHO to support the push to have young children question their gender has anything to do with powerful companies that make huge profits by convincing young people that they need drugs or surgery for the lengthy and expensive process of transitioning, though that is probably something worth exploring. I don’t know the motives behind the guidelines — that may be the field of wild conspiracy theorists — but I can see what the guidelines are and can recognize that there is great evil and danger in what they are doing. No conspiracy theories about vile secret societies are needed. The public actions of this vile public organization are enough for all of us to object.

Perhaps some corruption and greed or perversion is behind these guidelines and some of the movements that all seem aligned along a common deviant direction. Perhaps we need to explore the funding of the WHO and who influences it. But just because, say, a rich billionaire with some ties to, say, Jeffrey Epstein or other perverts could theoretically be a WHO influencer and major funder absolutely does not mean that some secret shenanigans were at play. Nor does the involvement of people associated with the abortion industry such as the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), who provided some of the sexual “rights” alluded to in the document, mean that the interests of that industry are being served. But there may be fruitful data somewhere to help us understand why such troubling agendas are being pushed from so many angles.

Many parents in schools across the country have become alarmed at the content their children are being exposed to, whether it’s from once-trusted entertainment sources, “family friendly” activities with gyrating drag queens, classroom and media indoctrination regarding sexuality, encouragement for little kids to identify as the opposite gender without letting parents know, and teaching such blatantly unscientific doctrines as “doctors just guess your gender at birth.” It seems like many aspects of our society, from the schools to movie makers to the US government are suddenly supporting radical doctrines on sexuality that can have harmful effects on young people. Now we see WHO coming out to push nations to accelerate the efforts to change the mindset of children in ways that will make parents less influential in the crucial area of preparing children for their roles in life. For those villains who genuinely delight in corrupting children, these standards may play into their desires or lusts. There is genuine cause for concern.

But wait — this document is for Europe. This kind of thing, woke sexual ideology being pushed on kids without the ability for parents to opt out, that isn’t about to happen in the US, right? Tell that to the parents of, for example, Montgomery County, Maryland, where Muslim and Christian parents, including Latter-day Saints, found that the school district rescinded the right to opt out when too many parents objected to the pro-LGBTQ ideology was being pushed on very young children. A broad coalition of parents sued, claiming that their freedom of religion and parental rights were being threatened, but a Federal judge didn’t see any problem and upheld the power of the school district to trample parental rights. It’s a telling example of the use of the power of the State to compel objectionable ideology being imposed on children against the wishes of patents. It’s going to get worse if you remain silent and inattentive. Why has this become such a huge movement in the West? Is this just a random fluctuation in social norms, or is something deeper going on? That’s a topic for further research and study, but it’s not a healthy sign.

One step for today is to prepare your children for the indoctrination they will face. Make sure they understand the importance of families, the sanctity of life, the divine gift of sexuality that God has given us, and the sorrows and loss that sexual immorality brings. Give them the tools to resist the teachings of the world and to understand the importance of morality, of turning to parents rather than strangers to get answers about some of the most vital and sensitive issues in life. Talk to your children about the unscientific lies and distortions they will hear in years to come and give them knowledge and faith to resist. For those of you who share my faith as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, teach them frequently from the inspired principles in “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.”

Being involved in your community can also make a difference. Speaking out, teaching, and sharing information can help.

Let’s not despair and do more to support that which is good and resist that which is evil. But wow, I never thought I’d see such vile material coming from the once-respected WHO. Who’s running the show over there?

By |2023-09-02T17:04:53-07:00September 2nd, 2023|Categories: Education, LDS, Relationships, Religion, Safety, Scams, Society, Surviving|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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Accepting a Job in China? Some Questions to Ask (and an Exercise for English Teachers)

After nearly 8 years in China, I’ve met a lot of foreigners and heard many surprising stories of some of the challenges they face in their jobs, especially when working for Asian companies. In most cases, the employee made assumptions about their job and their employer based on their experience with Western companies. Others didn’t fully understand what was expected of them and what they would have to do. This can lead to pain, frustration, embarrassment, and financial loss. Please don’t make lots of assumptions and assume that everything will be like it is back home.

You need to ask a lot of questions! If you find yourself saying, “I’m sure it will be OK” or “I trust it will be fine,” you may have a problem. In a very foreign culture with different laws and different levels of compliance with those laws, it’s much better to be asking, “What could go wrong?” Some of the questions you might want to ask may seem a bit bizarre, such as “Do I need to bring my own mop?” It’s a fair question, though tongue-in-cheek in most cases, as explained below.

Here are some suggested questions to ask:

  • Can I see the contract(s) you want me to sign before I resign my current job and show up for work in China? Sometimes the “standard” contract your company will give you when you show up for work will be a shocker. You may find the salary you agreed upon is not what is in your contract, that the benefits that were promised are not in the contract, and that troubling provisions are in the contract, such as a rejection of many of the normal employee rights provided by China’s generous labor laws, and even a requirement that portion of your income will be withheld for some period of time and perhaps only given to you if certain goals are achieved that you may not be able to control and achieve on your own. When you ask about the benefits or other terms you have negotiated, the response may be, “Of course! But that’s just verbal. Trust us.” Realize that the HR person saying that may be totally sincere, but several years or weeks later he or she may be gone (HR turnover is intense in China) and the new person will not believe you when you bring up the verbal agreement that supposedly was made. Contracts may not always mean a lot in China, but verbal agreements with people who are no longer around mean even less.
  • Can you put that in writing? Don’t assume that any of the benefits and other terms you have negotiated will be put into writing in your contract. Be prepared for that, which is usually something that we gullible foreigners have not even imagined as a possible risk. I suggest that you insist that everything is in writing. At a minimum, have emails confirming the terms before you accept an offer and keep copies, copy other witnesses, etc., to create a paper trail, and have dated and signed printouts of those terms witnessed and notarized as a defense (get them notarized in China also, if you can, or at least signed by Chinese witnesses), but also realize that the paper trail may not do all that much for you if you don’t get those terms in the contract.
  • Will there be more than one contract to sign with potentially inconsistent, conflicting, or generally problematic terms? This is likely if you end up with a split income, as described below, or if you are a high-end employee subject to a non-compete agreement or other special terms in addition to a standard employee contract. The additional contract(s) may have terms that undermine or exacerbate portions of your basic contract, or that create serious problems in other ways. Be ready for careful analysis and outside legal guidance and recognize that you can propose alterations. The worse thing to do is say, “Well, I trust that it will be OK.” Remember, the key question is, “What could possibly go wrong?”
  • Will I have a legitimate work permit and a work visa? Sadly, many companies bring people here on a tourist visa and have them work illegally. This can get you detained, fined, and deported. If the company is not actively working to get documents needed for a visa long before you come to China, they may be planning to rely on your tourist visa, even if they promise they will get you a visa once here. Sadly, I know too many English teachers who get into awkward situations when some of the companies that bring them here don’t properly provide work visas for them. Sometimes the company tries their best but the Chinese side (a company or school) takes short cuts and put the teachers at risk. Ask lots of questions. If there is uncertainty, be sure to try out the bonus exercise I give at the end!
  • How will the taxes due to China be paid? Ex-pats are typically told that the company will handle all Chinese taxes. Make sure this is in writing. Also make sure the company will pay taxes on your full income, which leads to the next question:
  • Are you going to split my income to evade taxes? Sadly, some companies use a practice of splitting a foreign employee’s pay, with part of the salary being paid to a Chinese bank account, and another part being paid to a bank in the employee’s home country, typically using some foreign (non-Chinese) agency to wire money to the home country. That system is convenient for getting money to your home bank account, but the problem is that the employer typically doesn’t report the foreign income to China and only withholds Chinese taxes for the China income. Ex-pats generally don’t understand that taxes aren’t being paid on the foreign income when this happens, and it can be a devastating shocker to eventually learn what might have been going on and how much risk and gargantuan penalties you potentially face. There are cases where an employee in China may do genuine work for oversees entities that may justify offshore income, but you should check carefully into this matter and get legal advice before accepting split income arrangements. Do not risk getting into trouble in China, and do all you can to respect Chinese law. If you find your company is not respecting Chinese tax laws, it’s time to resign. For some good guidance, see these articles by Dan Harris at the China Law Blog: “China Expat Pay: Splitting with Hong Kong is 100% Illegal and 200% Dangerous (Part 1)” and Part 2.
  • Will you respect Chinese Labor Law or will my work contract say I have essentially no rights (e.g., no severance pay, etc.)? Some contracts say that there will be no benefits or rights except for what is mandatory under China’s labor laws. That means no severance pay, for example, and other potential disappointments.
  • When I leave, how much notice do you require? If you are asking me to give, say, three months of notice, will you respond to my resignation notice by exercising your right to terminate me with 30 days’ notice with no severance pay? Yes, this absolutely can and does happen, even for employees who have seemingly been loyal and valuable workers for many years. It’s an ugly way to treat an employee, but there are often incentives for some people in the company to lay off a certain number of people, so they might jump at the chance to turn a voluntary resignation into a lay-off that gets them credit for their own KPIs, so I’ve been told by a China expert. The employer will always retain the right to fire you with 30 days notice (some will give less and dare you to sue), so if you are asked to give more notice than that, point out that this is unfair and either change the contract to require 30 days or consider a provision that gives you compensation if they refuse to respect your advance notice and respond by giving you 30 days notice in return.
  • How much cash will I need to bring to get started with housing and everything else in China? Many people don’t understand that the company is not going to help you with housing at all or that at most they will provide some monthly stipend toward housing, but only after you have found your apartment and paid the huge fees and deposits required to get started, and then present your company with an official receipt for your first month’s rent. If you are renting, say, a 15,000 RMB/month apartment, you may have out-of-pocket expenses from paying your first month’s rent plus a deposit of two-months’ rent, plus a rental agent fee of 35% of a month’s rent, adding up to a little over 50,000 RMB, or nearly $7,400 in cash before you receive your first paycheck and long before you’ll get your first housing stipend for some portion of your monthly rent. It’s expensive to start working in China. Are you ready?
  • Will housing benefits and other benefits begin as soon as I start, or is there some minimum term of service required before they begin? Which ones actually begin on day one? And can you put that into writing? One friend relied on the promised housing stipend in selecting a nice apartment, more expensive than he might want if paying for it on his own, but only later found out that the significant housing benefit would only begin after several years of service. Ouch.
  • To begin my job in China, will you bring me through China customs in the normal legal way, or will I be smuggled in by, say, crossing a mountain along the Vietnam border? If your employer turns you over to a smuggling team and requires you to march through the jungle or scramble over a mountainous border to sneak into China, or even if you come through a legal port but are just whisked into China through a “special lane” without your documents being checked and entered into China’s system, you are entering illegally and will have a world of trouble to face, especially if your employer takes away your passport, making you almost like a slave. This usually doesn’t apply to people coming here to work for higher-end jobs that require college degrees, but often applies to those coming to be maids or “ayis,” as is the case for many women from the Philippines. They are often taken advantage of in many ways due to their lack of legal status and their fear of seeking legal protection when they are cheated or abused. Don’t enter China illegally!
  • Will my health insurance actually help if I need surgery? And will it help my family or just me? Health care is fairly inexpensive in China, unless you want care provided by Western-style clinics or hospitals. Even if you rely on less expensive local hospitals (I love Shanghai East and it’s inexpensive VIP clinic, for example), you may be disappointed with how little your corporate health insurance covers. And insurance packages usually just apply to the employee, but may offer an option to purchase a plan for your spouse or children. Learn early what you are getting, if anything.
  • Will I be required to work on Saturday and Sundays? Can you put it into writing that I will have my weekends free? Sometimes corporate leaders launch campaigns to increase productivity, or the appearance of productivity, by requiring employees to start coming in on Saturdays or weekends. That’s really hard on ex-pats who come here hoping to experience China. Hard to experience it when you are trapped in an office all week long. Those coming here to teach also often find that there are school shows and performances held on weekends that they are required to be at. Unexpected duties tend to crop up with little notice, after people have purchased plane or train tickets, or even during holidays. Keep your weekends free and try to get something in writing to that effect. Even then, you will see that big national holidays often involve turning a Saturday or Sunday into work days to add more vacation days to a holiday. This can be frustrating.
  • Will critical corporate announcements all be in Chinese? Will there be any translation help for me? Even large multinational companies will tend to have at least some important email and documents sent to employees in Chinese only, and many won’t take any pains to provide translation. If you are not a Chinese speaker, this can make life difficult. Learn Chinese, make friends with Chinese speakers who can help you, and find ways to cope.
  • What documents do I need to bring to get my work permit? The rules have evolved on this critical issue, but have long been surprising. For example, when I came in 2011, I learned that I needed to bring my ORIGINAL diploma from BYU. In the US, people often don’t care about the diploma. It’s just a pretty document that we don’t really care about, but it’s a big deal here. You may need to contact your school to get a notarized physical copy of your diploma to work in China. And there may be a number of other original documents you need: your wedding license, your birth certificate, a letter from your former employer, etc. One friend of mine is unable to get the promotion he has long deserved because the small college that issued his diploma long ago has failed and is no longer, making it impossible to get a physical diploma now. A disaster for him, I’m afraid.
  • Jeff Lindsay holding two mops

    Reporting for duty!

    Do I need to bring my own mop or broom? OK, joking, of course, but there’s a point here: sometimes wonderful sounding jobs with lofty titles turn out to be painful and rather menial. You might think you are in charge of something major, and find out that in reality you are just mopping up after someone else. The best way to prepare is to talk to people in the company or who once worked for the company to understand what the job is really likely to involve. I talked with several former and current employees before making my decision, and that was really helpful, though I still had some surprises. But many pleasant surprises as well. I’ve had a wonderful 8 years here without too much mopping, and a lot of excitement that has swept me away at times.

No matter how much you try to pin things down, understand that things tend to change rapidly in China, so be prepared to be flexible. (Also be prepared to walk away if things turn out to be really shady.) In my case, for example, I was supposed to work here for one year, and then I would be brought back to the US to be part of a US expansion team. That sounded perfect. About one year later, as I wondered why I wasn’t hearing anything about the US expansion team, I asked around and learned through the grapevine that the U.S. expansion team had been fired and no longer existed, and all plans for my return to the US had been dropped. It was a surprise, but a very fortunate one in my case because one year would not have been long enough. Whew! I’m so grateful for that unexpected change. But in Asian companies, as many ex-pats have found, you may have to ask and inquire persistently to learn of these big changes or upcoming problems because communication to employees might not be a strong point of your particular company, nor will it be one of the KPIs for HR.

“What Foreigner?” An Exercise Useful for Some English Teachers

Now, for those coming here as English teachers, one of the jobs with a relatively high risk of trouble, here’s a physical exercise that may prepare you for your day-to-day work, especially if your company is not going to arrange for a legal work visa for you before you arrive. (If they tell you that all you need is a “student visa” and that you will be a student just doing “volunteer work” as a teachers, you might need this exercise, especially if you are being paid anything and especially if you are in a more developed city like Shanghai.) It’s a fun exercise, even a game, called “What Foreigner?” It’s something you should play a lot to be prepared so when you play it here for real, you’ll be ready. It takes 3 people to play, but you can get by with only two players if one does double duty.

You are the foreigner, and you need to begin by standing in a room in your home, school, church, or other facility with multiple rooms. We’ll call that facility “the school.” That room will be “the classroom.” You will hold a textbook or other objects that help you feel like you are in the middle of teaching a class. Act like you are teaching.

Have Friend #1 and Friend #2 go to the front door of the building. Friend #1 will step outside the door and pretend to be the police while Friend #2 will stay inside and pretend to be a school administrator. Have them wait a few minutes. When Friend #1 feels ready, he or she knocks on the door. Friend #2 looks through a window, peephole, or crack to see who it is, then turns and shouts toward you, “Police!” Friend #1 comes in and then begins walking to the classroom. As soon as you hear the shout, your job is to drop everything and escape out a back door or side door before you are spotted, and then to run as fast as you can until you are far from “the school.” Meanwhile, when Friend #1 arrives in the “classroom,” he or she asks, “Where is the foreigner?” Friend #2 then tries very hard not to laugh and says, with a sense of indignation, “What foreigner?”

Did you get out in time? Whew! Congratulations! Now do it again. Best to practice now so you’ll be ready. And yes, for those who don’t get US-style humor, I am making a joke here. I do not support violation of law in China, and recommend that you do not accept illegal work in China! Those who end up teaching in questionable English programs, working illegally as teachers, end up in lots of difficult situations where they have to run or pretend to be students. If you are teaching a class for pay, you are working and need a work visa. China is increasingly rooting out these illegal operations. I suggest you don’t take risks and strive to diligently adhere to Chinese law.

Even if you do all you can to be legal and everything looks good, you may find that your company or agency has done something illegal that may affect you. For example, a couple of teachers we knew thought they were completely legal, teaching for pay with a legal work permit in Shanghai, but it turns out that a local agency had falsified their application for a work permit in order to meet Shanghai’s strict requirements and claimed that they had advanced degrees and more years of experience than they really had, which is a serious crime that can get you deported. When the US company that brought them here as teachers learned of this, they realized that the couple was in grave danger and had to rush them out of the country without even a chance to say good-bye to their students. If you can, look at the documents being submitted for your work permit and visa and make sure that nothing has been falsified.

If you are coming to China, congratulations! It’s the most exciting and wonderful place I’ve ever been. Working here has been the most exciting (though occasionally the most painful and frustrating) part of my career so far. But ask lots of questions and do all you can to be legal and to respect China’s laws.

By |2019-11-09T17:46:48-07:00April 13th, 2019|Categories: Business, Career, China, Education, Housing, Safety, Society, Surviving, Travel tips|Tags: , , , , , , , |Comments Off on Accepting a Job in China? Some Questions to Ask (and an Exercise for English Teachers)
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Coping with Suicidal Thoughts in Shanghai? Local English- and Chinese-Speaking Resources Can Help

Foreigners living in China can sometimes feel very isolated, which might make depression or other mental health challenges even worse. It’s important to know that if your or a loved one is struggling with suicidal thoughts or the trauma of someone else’s suicide, there are resources to help. One resource is located right here in Shanghai for English speakers: Lifeline Shanghai (China; English only), phone: (021) 62798990. If calling from outside China, use the country code of +86. For Chinese speakers, a resource is HopeLine: 4001619995 (Chinese speakers; 24/7 toll-free access within China).

According to the Lifeline Shanghai website (http://www.lifeline-shanghai.com/):

Lifeline Shanghai serves the English-speaking community with free, confidential, and anonymous emotional support via telephone 10AM to 10PM, 365 days a year. Our helpline offers an emotional support service that respects everyone’s right to be heard, understood, and cared for. Lifeline Shanghai helpline assistants are ready to listen and support, helping you to gain another perspective and connecting you with other support services as needed. Trained volunteers offer emotional support and assist you to clarify options and choices that are right for you. ​

This service is for those with a wide variety of difficulties, not just suicidal thoughts. Appears to be a valuable addition to Shanghai’s expat resources.

Since many of my friends and some of my readers in Shanghai are part of my LDS religious community (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints),  will also mention the excellent resources and list of external resources provided at the Church’s official page, “Suicide Prevention and Ministering Understanding and Healing from the Pain of Suicide” (https://www.lds.org/get-help/suicide/?lang=eng).

Although Shanghai is a prosperous and wonderful place, the problem of suicide is serious. Suicide rates are painfully high and is even a serious problem among children, perhaps due to the high pressure they face in school. See “Child suicides high in Shanghai” at the Christian Science Monitor (an old 2004 article). But suicide rates have been increasing in many parts of the world, including the US. Rates among young girls have actually tripled in recent years, a terrible development. See “Suicide rate triples among young girls: How can we stem the ‘silent epidemic’?,” also from the Christian Science Monitor.

If someone you know is showing signs of suicidal thoughts, take it seriously and lovingly work to support them and get help. Turning to outside expert help may be vitally important.

By |2018-08-17T17:53:13-07:00August 17th, 2018|Categories: Education, Health, Relationships, Religion, Safety, Shanghai, Society, Surviving|Tags: , , , |Comments Off on Coping with Suicidal Thoughts in Shanghai? Local English- and Chinese-Speaking Resources Can Help
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A Grieving Mom in Shanghai Learns Her Son May Not Have Pancreatic Cancer After All: Misuse of the CA-19-9 Antigen Test

A few days ago a grieving mom in Shanghai, a good friend of ours, shared some tragic news with me: her teenage son had pancreatic cancer, one of the worst cancers. Her son was likely to die soon, if the doctor was correct. Only about 20% of pancreatic cancer patients live past 5 years. She was almost overcome with grief and had been crying for a couple of days. But even though she had gone to an expensive hospital that caters to foreign clients, she wasn’t sure she should trust the doctor. The mother called me to see if I knew where she could turn for help. She didn’t know that one of my sons happens to be a doctor treating cancer at a leading US clinic.

I received a photo of the lab report for the boy and sent it to my son. The physical results reported that a scan of internal organs showed no unusual problems indicative of cancer. There were no other symptoms, just a slightly elevated CA-19-9 antigen level, 45 instead of a desired maximum of 37.

My son was greatly disappointed that the doctor would create such needless panic by telling the mom that her son probably had pancreatic cancer. My son explained that the CA-19-9 test is not supposed to be used for diagnosing cancer on its own. Absent other symptoms of cancer, its predictive power for cancer is less than 1%, he said, and when he learned that the son was just a teenager, he said it’s even less likely to be pancreatic cancer because that disease is almost unheard of in young people. The mother’s grief was turned to relief.

I later found scientific publications confirming what my son had said. For example, see K. Umashankar et al., “The clinical utility of serum CA 19-9 in the diagnosis, prognosis and management of pancreatic adenocarcinoma: An evidence based appraisal,” Journal of Gastrointestinal Oncology, 2012 Jun; 3(2): 105–119; doi: 10.3978/j.issn.2078-6891.2011.021:

CA 19-9 serum levels have a sensitivity and specificity of 79-81% and 82-90% respectively for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in symptomatic patients; but are not useful as a screening marker because of low positive predictive value (0.5-0.9%).

Other articles indicate that diabetics, such as this young man, can have inflated CA-19-9 values (this applies at least for Type 2 diabetes–I’m not sure if CA-19-9 artifacts from Type 1 diabetes has been investigated), one of many possible alternative causes of elevated CA-19-9 values. Alternative causes for the elevated test result do not appear to have been  considered by the doctor who terrified a mom by declaring that it was probably pancreatic cancer. Again, the test can be useful in tracking the progress of treatment of a known cancer, but should not be used to diagnose cancer in the absence of other evidence, as in this case.




Keep this in mind when you have your physical in China. Don’t panic if a doctor reports that you might have pancreatic cancer based on a blood test result alone. Get a second opinion and understand why that value may be high, but don’t panic. Physical testing here can often include too many unnecessary tests in search of phantom problems that may be listed in your report by people who aren’t necessarily qualified to make such proclamations.

The family still needs to be cautious and follow up on the possible causes of the inflated test result, but it was only slightly elevated unlike the much higher scores that I’ve seen reported in patients who actually do have pancreatic cancer.

I am so grateful that my son was able to help bring peace to a mother who had been crying for a couple of days over the “fake news” she received from a generally good hospital. I suggest that here or anywhere else you should be open to the possibility that some doctors don’t know what they are talking about. And of course, that can apply to what I’ve said here. Do your homework, ask questions, and be cautious about what others declare.

 

By |2018-07-05T22:10:03-07:00June 17th, 2018|Categories: China, Consumers, Education, Health, Safety, Surviving|Tags: , |Comments Off on A Grieving Mom in Shanghai Learns Her Son May Not Have Pancreatic Cancer After All: Misuse of the CA-19-9 Antigen Test
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More Trouble: Challenges of Teaching English in China

Met today with someone who had come to China with a major program to teach English. Heard some pretty troubling stories. Heard that administrators of the program have not been to the majority of the schools where they place teachers, so they don’t really know if the housing is adequate, if the conditions are safe, if there is any heating, or if the food provided is edible. Teachers can be subject to grueling conditions in remote and difficult places, much longer teaching hours than promised, with random changes in schedules that wipe out personal plans.

If your program won’t tell you where you will be placed until you are here and can’t provide you references from people who have been to same place, be very worried. The numerous problems that young people face when they come to teach English in China are quite discouraging. Don’t come here without knowing what it will be like. Don’t go with a program that will put you in a remote situation without support, help, and structure.

By |2016-10-24T05:57:54-07:00October 8th, 2014|Categories: Education, Travel tips|Tags: |Comments Off on More Trouble: Challenges of Teaching English in China
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Insanity in Seattle

I received email from a parent in Seattle about the battle many parents have been fighting with the school district there. These parents have pulled together a lot of information showing that the block schedule system in Seattle has fared poorly and needs to be changed. “The group is at an in pass with the Teachers and the District over the schedule which has been in place for 13 years. No
matter what facts we bring to the table – internal and external – they do not listen.”

Here’s my response:
Seattle? Isn’t that the school district that issued a crazy definition of racism that included “future orientation” and individualism? If so, you’re dealing with insane people that aren’t going to be persuaded by facts. But they are likely to respond to politics, so organize and get parents coming in to talk and pressure them. Get a big group to show up at a Board meeting. Write letters to them, publish letters to the editor, etc. I think the key will be getting parents to care and be involve and make their voices heard. Ditto for contacting state legislators.
Insane people don’t listen to facts. Very sorry about that!!
Jeff Lindsay
By |2016-10-24T05:58:02-07:00May 31st, 2007|Categories: Education|Comments Off on Insanity in Seattle
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Thinking of a Career? Consider Geology

Surprising fact: there is a shortage of geologists for companies that do exploration and mining of natural resources like gold, silver, and oil. According to precious metals expert Jim Willie CB:

Don Lindsay, CEO of Teck Cominco, paints a bleak labor picture… Lindsay traced the origins of the labor shortage back to 1997. According to him, the feeder systems were disrupted by the Bre-X scandal, the Asian Meltdown, and the commodity bear market. He expects demand to remain robust from China. Keep in mind that over two thirds of geologists in the world hail from Canadian schools. So if professional shortages exist in Canada, we have a very large problem indeed. Mirroring the crude oil roughneck labor shortage is the mining labor shortage. Another parallel exists. Lindsay points out that within a decade, 60% of all Canadian scientists working the geosciences will be at least 65 years of age. The overall impact is surely that new mine deposits will take longer to find, longer to produce, and cost more.

This is great news if you’re willing to pursue a career in geology. Many of the leaders of mining and exploration companies had their start as a geologist. If you love the outdoors and believe in work that really creates wealth, consider geology.

For investing, the shortage in skilled labor for mining means lower production in the future, and that means that prices of commodities are going to face even more pressure to go up. This is a great time to be heavily invested in gold and silver bullion, energy stocks, precious metals stocks, and uranium stocks like Dennison Mines (DNN) or my favorite, Abaddon Consolidated Resources (ABNAF.pk or ABN on the Vancouver exchange).

By |2007-05-04T17:19:34-07:00May 4th, 2007|Categories: Education, Investing, Uncategorized|Comments Off on Thinking of a Career? Consider Geology
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Review of Brent Maxfield’s Engineering with Mathcad

Review of Engineering with Mathcad

Jeff Lindsay
Senior Scientist
Kimberly-Clark Corporation
2100 Winchester Road
Neenah, WI 54956

Title: Engineering with Mathcad: Using Mathcad to Create and Organize your Engineering Calculations
Author: Brent Maxfield, P.E.
Publisher: Elsevier, © 2006
ISBN-13: 978-0-7506-6702-9
ISBN-10: 0-7506-6702-8
Number of Pages: 494

Brent Maxfield’s Engineering with Mathcad is a valuable contribution to the engineering community that may do much to help those in engineering and the sciences in general jumpstart their efforts to learn and apply Mathcad, or to help long-time users strengthen their skills. The book is accessible, engaging, and written from the perspective of one who has dealt the practical aspects of Mathcad for many years. It comes with a useful CD having a handbook and all the examples in the text, allowing the users to easily follow along and work with the material being discussed. The CD also can be used to install Mathcad 13 for PC or Mac with a 120-day academic license.

The book covers a broad scope of material effectively, and should provide useful new insights even for power users. However, the book is not intended to provide a comprehensive guide to the functions and plotting features of Mathcad. For example, there is no significant discussion of solving differential equations. Indeed, many of the engineering applications covered are relatively basic, with the emphasis being more on how to use Mathcad effectively rather than how to tackle complex engineering problems. Given the burgeoning scope of Mathcad’s tool and the many powerful features it has that experienced users may have been missing, Maxfield’s approach represents a reasonable editorial decision to cover Mathcad broadly rather than to teach engineering mathematics or dive into the complexities of any of the numerous areas of interest in engineering.

The book may be especially valuable for those who are relatively new at Mathcad or who, like myself, have Mathcad experience but may not have used it for some time and need a refresher. But a carefully selected swathe of sophisticated aspects of Mathcad are treated that may be helpful to longtime Mathcad users who simply had no idea about some of the tools and capabilities they were overlooking.

With his years of Mathcad experience, Maxfield offers many tips, sometimes subtle, to guide users in creating worksheets, preventing errors, maintaining readability, selecting useful variable names, and so forth.

While the companion CD is useful and highly appreciated, advanced engineering students who are facing challenges with differential equations or other common topics would clearly benefit from additional more advanced sample worksheets. I think future editions of the book would do well to add additional workfiles on the companion CD. When I saw the entries on the CD for chapter 24, hinting at pages on seismic loads, beams and joists, etc., I though such examples might be there, but they are just placeholder pages for demonstrating the use of hyperlinks in a table of contents.

Indeed, for the future, not only would I recommend a more extensive set of examples on the CD, but also the addition of a Website where registered owners of the book or others could contribute solutions, discuss the text, and look at more detailed and complex examples, or receive additional tips from the author.

In general, I recommend Maxfield’s book as an easy-to-read, well organized guide to help a wide range of Mathcad users learn techniques useful for engineering and many other fields as well.

A few minor quibbles: The chapters entitled “Useful Information” could use more descriptive titles, or be added as sidebars or summary sections elsewhere. I think they create a confusing table of contents.

For engineering calculations, the precision of computations may be important. I did not notice a description of Mathcad’s limitation of 15 digits. “Precision” is not an entry in the table of contents (though the term is a paragraph header on page. 98). Pp. 102-103 would have been one good place to discuss this.

Some discussion of differential equations would be helpful.

Organizationally, I also think the first chapter might well contain a rapid-fire overview of some of the features of Mathcad to give those new to Mathcad but with advanced engineering and scientific skills a strong flavor of the power of this sophisticated tool.

And perhaps a list of additional online resources would be good – most preferably a reference to a Website prepared by or for the author that can be updated with the best online resources, additional worksheet examples, corrections of any weaknesses in the text, etc.

In general, I congratulate the author for an excellent book that I think will be helpful to numerous Mathcad users.

By |2017-12-25T06:01:28-07:00January 21st, 2007|Categories: Education, Products|Comments Off on Review of Brent Maxfield’s Engineering with Mathcad
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