There is an adage that ‘you are what you eat’ but whilst the food we eat does mirror some aspects of our interior world, it certainly goes nowhere near the complexity of what is each of us.  Nevertheless, we cannot live a healthy life without giving some consideration to what we put into our bodies.  There is the very serious added factor that whilst individuals who are mature ‘eat in order to live’ there are many individuals who ‘live in order to eat’.  These latter persons have cleverly found a substitute for the unconditional love they did not receive in the past and are not currently receiving.  Food fills the void, the emptiness within.  However, because food is a substitute – there is nothing compared to the real thing – its filling effects are temporary and the compulsion to eat quickly re-emerges in order to keep trying to fill what is, in effect, a bottomless pit. Nevertheless, without the substitute, living would be intolerable.

The Tallaght hospital’s neglect of service users – 58,000 unread x-rays and a present figure of 3,500 unopened GP referral letters – brought on a tide of Government opposition demands for the resignation of the Minister for Health and the CEO of the HSE, Professor Drumm. Opposition party politicians do themselves no good when they use health scandals to target their in-government peers.  They would be better served in providing solutions for the very serious delays experienced by the public and by General Practitioners.

One of the most important developments over the last two decades has been the opportunity for life-long adult education.  However, one of my concerns is that education has been more geared towards career development or having something to do during the dark winter evenings rather than the pursuit of personal maturity.  All education –no matter what the subject area – needs to address the in-formation of students and not just provide information.  The reality is that education is no index of maturity and that is been so evident in the social, health, religious, economic and political crises that are currently being experienced, not just in Ireland but worldwide.  Bullying too has emerged as a frequent experience in many workplaces and that includes universities.  When the Dail is in session the aggressive behaviour of our political leaders leaves a lot to be desired and one needs to ask the question what educational process has led these elected individuals to behave in ways that any teacher in a primary or second-level classroom would challenge firmly?  It appears to be that whilst the educational opportunities that are widely available are to be lauded the intentions underlying these courses require examination.   When delivering a course I consider my own interiority and to what degree what I’m teaching reflects my own beliefs, understanding of myself and how I want to be in this world.  | am particularly focussed on the inner course of students because I know that  their responses to what I teach will be totally determined by the present state of their inner terrain and level of personal and interpersonal maturity.  It is by encouraging and noticing their responses to the material that I gain insight into their inner worlds and they into the unconscious processes that are guiding their responses and that together we can maximise what they can gain from the particular course they are attending.  Whether or not lecturers see it, each of their students has a different teacher and each student responds to what the lecturer says in a different way –no matter what the subject.  All education needs to be geared to the individual and it is the mature teacher that knows that you cannot address a group; a group has no head or heart!

The Tallaght hospital’s neglect of service users – 58,000 unread x-rays and a present figure of 3,500 unopened GP referral letters – brought on a tide of Government opposition demands for the resignation of the Minister for Health and the CEO of the HSE, Professor Drumm. Opposition party politicians do themselves no good when they use health scandals to target their in-government peers. I would look much more favourably on them were they to target the individual medical consultants who were responsible for such appalling unprofessional conduct. However, no news of these consultants have been forthcoming. My concerns are: are these consultants still practicing and what course of action can be taken by the thousands of people who experienced their neglect? And what about the General Practitioners whose referral letters remained unopened – what comeback do they have?

On a recent reading of the business section of one of Ireland’s national newspapers I came across a column titled: ‘why insensitivity is a vital managerial trait!’ I hesitated before reading the article and checked to see whether the date was April 1st! After all, given the shocking betrayals revealed about heads within the Church, the banks, other financial institutions, Government bodies, the Gardai, it seems quite perverse of any writer to be in praise of insensitivity. Not only have the leaders and managers of the various institutions mentioned lost the trust of their heretofore followers, but there is a boiling anger and even rage brewing about their heartless conduct. The major problem with the management of our leading economic, social, political and religious organisations has been a depersonalisation of individuals, an avarice, a greed, a superiority, an arrogance and, as yet, a refusal to take responsibility for their inhumanity to man.