It’s still raining! But that’s okay because we have been involved in a whole lot of indoor tasks. The small people arrived midmorning so that their parents could go Christmas shopping. Schools here only finished for Christmas holidays yesterday. My daughter is a primary school teacher. She has spent the last few weeks organising Christmas activities for her class and now at the last minute needs to organise her own children’s stuff. And we have played games, made jelly, had snacks, painted cay models and the usual sort of stuff.
I’ve never been a great fan of Céline Dion - technically perfect but lacking magic for me - but I wouldn’t wish her ill. Now I read that she has been diagnosed with something called Stiff Person Syndrome. So what is it?
“What is stiff person syndrome?
Stiff person syndrome (SPS) is a rare autoimmune neurological disorder that can cause progressive muscle stiffness and painful spasms in the lower back, legs and torso. Stiffness often fluctuates, getting worse and then improving temporarily. People affected by SPS can suffer from chronic pain, falls, and loss of mobility over “
So she’s been reluctantly cancelling concerts. This illness sounds nasty but typically it has had to change its name:
“It is a very rare condition, affecting an estimated one to two people in a million. It most commonly occurs in people aged 40-50, but in rare cases affects children. The disorder was originally known as stiff man syndrome, but like most autoimmune conditions it is more common in women.”
You see, originally “stiff MAN syndrome”. So many things were either named or researched with men in mind. The big example is car seat belts, designed originally for the male shape and tested on crash dummies which were all man-shaped! That’s how it goes.
Over in Gaza, things continue as ever:
“This is exactly what Israel is doing, has been doing and will carry on doing, as no instant ceasefire has been agreed:
“What we are dealing with is an attempt at the destruction of our people and their displacement forever from their land. This is Israel’s goal, its true objective,” said Palestine’s ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour.
“Israel is targetting not only the past and the present of our people, but indeed the future,” Mansour said in his emotional address.
“That is why it kills our doctors. engineers, pilots, academics, artists… This is why it is destroying our cities and towns, our universities and cultural institutions,” he added."
“In the words of Israel’s closest allies, its indiscriminate bombing, its killing rage needs to stop,” Mansour said.
“Gaza is like a patient whose wounds you are trying to treat while the killer keeps shooting at them. You will need to stop the killer or you will never be able to save the patient,” he added.
(from: Guardian update)”
And now I hear that Belgium is adding to the problem. It seems they have decreed that children born of Palestinian parents in that country, until now granted Belgian citizenship automatically have had that citizenship withdrawn. Now they are technically stateless. And parents who have been receiving various childcare benefits have been asked to refund them. They say this measure was voted through before the conflict in Gaza began, as a measure to deal with immigration problems but surely in the current circumstances they might have at the very least postponed it.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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