Organised Organisations

I like to follow a blog by Dmitry Orlov. He has an interesting viewpoint, a very direct manner, is not afraid to say what he thinks and has a wicked sense of humour. Sometimes he likes to rant, but mostly there is a moral to his blogs.

 

On the 5^th February his blog contained an extract from his latest book, entitled “The problem of Excessive Scale” and can be read at http://cluborlov.blogspot.co.uk/. He discusses how things can become too big to function efficiently and there is an optimum size. Smaller groups or states function better because they are still small enough for people to see the full picture. This blog relates very well to my experiences recently.
 

On the one hand I have been trying to get a prescription for my son. A specialist diagnosed him needing medication and wrote to our Doctor. The Doctor refused to write a prescription because they said it is too specialist, and they have insufficient experience with it. The Doctor then wrote to the psychiatrist who had recommended the specialist. The psychiatrist also claimed he could not prescribe said medication because he was not the person who recommended it. The initial specialist then said they could only prescribe said medication if they received a letter of recommendation from the Doctor. The Doctor wouldn't write a recommendation for treatment that he had not diagnosed.....I hope you can see that I am really getting nowhere after 5 weeks of going round in circles. And these are supposed to be well-educated intelligent people! (Dare I say that I could just buy the medication over the counter in the US!)
 

This is just a small example of how inefficient it is dealing with the large National Health Service in the UK, and I am still left chasing to get the medication.
 

On the other hand I am part of our local Transition Town. On the 15th December 2012, a few of us met at a local allotment site where there were some vacant plots and thought it would be great to get a community allotment started. Already we have created an official group, leased the allotment, laid sheeting over the weeds, obtained concrete slabs, been given a slightly damaged but new shed from the local DIY store, and collected a greenhouse that has been 'freecycled'. A seed swap has been organised in the town library and volunteers have started to dig the plot over.
 

Not bad going really for a small bunch of non-experts, just a group of generous, positive people helping each other out. This is the power of small communities. This is resilience. This is hope for the future.
 

Judy