Yesterday (5/6/13) the UK announced it will pay compensation to members of the Kikuyu dominated Mau Mau group who suffered torture and other inhumane treatment at the hands of the British Army in Kenya during the 1952 - 1960 Mau Mau rebellion. For reasons that are best accepted rather than questioned I have long used the term "Mau Mau" as a coded way to refer to any female homosexual or lesbian. Therefore this announcement is intended to promote discussion about what level of compensation I will receive for my recent treatment.
Sadly I'm yet to be convinced that the UK is having this negotiation in good faith because as far as I can tell they have not yet accepted that in my case people will have to serve long prison sentences. For example given the law on attempted murder and Grievous Bodily Harm (GBH) I cannot envisage a scenario in which the doctor who prescribed my grandmother Buprenorphine and continued to prescribe it despite repeated warnings of the effect it was having will ever leave prison.
As for the level of compensation though. I've effectively had 10 years of my life stolen. In that time I've been subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment including at least one attempt to kill. I've witnessed close friends and family being subjected to similar treatment including one who died as a result of that treatment. I have suffered irreversible physical and psychological damage. So you tell me what an acceptable figure is?
Fortunately it goes without saying that both the Notting Hill Housing Trust (NHHT) and the Whitgift Foundation will have to forfeit their assets as the proceeds of crime so the compensation pool will be very large. The minimum acceptable will be the honouring of my fees schedule for acting in both Croydon Magistrates Court and the Court of Protection. After all I'm sure certain people will find it easier to accept the limits of their pay grade if mine was adjusted to better reflect the reality of the situation.
10:40 on 6/6/13.
Edited at around 09:10 on 7/6/13 to add;
The essence of a good code is that it doesn't make much sense to an outsider. Therefore I honestly can't explain how "Mau Mau" came to mean "Lesbian." However I think it started life as a stoned joke about someone being a pussy master and someone who named their cat "Chairman Miaow" in honour of famed Chinese Communist leader Chairman Mao. Anyway the point of why we use a code word is that although my friends and I couldn't be more relaxed about homosexuality we accept that there are people who do not share our views. So if we're trying to differentiate between two people of the same name - one gay, one straight - we would use the code word to identify the gay one without letting everyone else in the room know they are gay. Therefore it's very much a term of endearment.
Also yesterday UK Prince Phillip was admitted to hospital for exploratory surgery on his abdomen. At this point I very much doubt anything Buckingham Palace claim is happening is actually happening. However as it is claimed the Prince will undergo surgery under general anaesthetic this has prompted much talk about the dangers of general anaesthetic. When a doctor says that he will "Put you to sleep for your surgery" he is telling a little white lie. What he will actually do is slow your body to the point of death and then hold you there for the duration of the surgery. Obviously this is not without risk and those risks increase with the age of the patient. However as with pretty much everything else in medicine it is a risk/benefit judgement.
This risk of general anaesthetic was one of the reasons my grandmother was denied hip-replacement surgery in the two years ending in 2008. This of course forced her to spend two years walking around on a broken and dislocated hip the physical pain of which should have killed her. As my grandmother went on to live for another four years following that surgery it is reasonable to conclude that the person who decided it was too risky got that judgement call very much wrong. You will also note that there were no such concerns when it came to prescribing my grandmother Buprenorphine which is similar in strength to a surgical anaesthetic.
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