Paying for things!

I have heard it said that a really good salesman could sell sand to Arabs. Well, I caught the tail end of a programme, or possibly just a news report, about an Australian company that does just that; they export vast amounts of sand to Saudi Arabia. The programme went on to show a nice little graphic with arrows flying all around the world. Loads of sand is exported from one country to another all the time!

I suppose it depends on what the sand is required for. After all, not all sand is intended for beaches, although places like Paris must import sand from somewhere to create their inner-city beaches, which are rather like those pop-up shops that appear for a while and then are gone again. And there are different types and even colours of sand. So if you are using it for building purposes I imagine you might want black volcanic sand for some things and white sand for others. And if you can transport of stone - we know someone whose family exports Galician granite - then why not sand as well. 

Anything can be sold. Some things probably should not be for sale. There was a report recently about women donating their eggs. Fertility treatment is very costly if you don't qualify to receive it via the NHS. It seems that some places offer either a reduction or even a waiving of fees if the women concerned agree to donate their surplus eggs which are harvested and then not used. In this way women who for whatever reason cannot produce their own eggs can still undergo treatment. Many women agree to donate their eggs anyway. Understandably so as they have personal experience of the heartbreak of wanting a baby and not being able to conceive. This has, of course, provoked a lot of debate about whether receiving treatment in return for donating amounts to women "selling" their eggs. How ethical is it to sell eggs?

And then there is organ-donating; films have been made about this one.

There was a discussion on the radio about people who undergo dialysis and are waiting for a suitable kidney donor to turn up. Because we all have two kidneys it is possible for a living donor to offer their services. Nowadays people are putting their stories on social media in an appeal to find a donor. And donors offer their services. Of course, not everyone is equally successful. It all depends how appealing you are. Children inevitably attract a lot of attention. And unfortunately not everyone who offers is a perfect match.

Now, to my mind, it would seem logical that if you have offered to donate a kidney to someone and then find that you don't match genetically, the logical thing would be for your data to be put in a database so they could match you to some other recipient. For some would-be donors this works fine. However, some people only want to donate to the person they have chosen from social media. How odd! Naturally the medical people are concerned that this is leading to a kind of renal failure beauty contest and they are rather worried about it. In America there is a company that matches donors to recipients, for a fee, but in the UK the ethics people are worried about that as well.

I must say that the prospect of a company making money out of the misfortunes of ill people does leave a nasty taste in the mouth. But I am pretty sure it would not be the first time. Don't big pharmaceutical companies work that way already?

Other things going on:

We now have a Labour Party mayor of Greater Manchester. Will life here be radically different as a result? We wait to find out.

Local council elections have taken place in various parts of the country, but not here, and we have seen UKIP losing hand over fist. Unfortunately their places have gone mostly to the Conservatives and Labour has also lost a large number of places.

Some say this is the price Labour pays for having Mr Corbyn as leader.
I am not entirely convinced!