Up Close and Personal
The monthly commentary from CTM founder, Phillip Day

Dear All,

Happy 2007, wherever this finds you! And a warm welcome to all our new CTM subscribers. The New Year's here and we're being blown around a bit in Kent but we'll survive. And welcome back to a world every bit as barking mad as you left it.

I've not written up the Dundee Paradise clone story yet as it came in 'after press' but I do have a few words to say. It appears science has been busy over 'Winterval'. There's cloned meat now and they're calling it progress. Also take DNA of goat and mix with golden orb-weaving spider to make goat's milk producing silk five times stronger than steel. They're calling that progress. Or make bloated chickens without feathers to cut the cost of slaughtering. Progress. Or monster-milk-yielding cows barely able to stand for their impossible weight. Progress.

Now the media's in on it. Is organic food really good for you? Can meat be eaten from a godless animal? 'But we're a nation of animal-lovers!' the tabloids bleat. 'How can we do that to them?' There's Outrage - The Jeremy Vine Show - Sausage for Breakfast - Expert Testimony - Glazed Acceptance. Then a piece in the Times about how we're a nation of animal-lovers. Three months later, munch, munch, slurp.

My point? Science goes into a clear lead over Ethics and Conscience in a Brave New World (Pass the cockatrice, Valerie, that one with the horns on it). In this month's EClub, a little girl with cancer almost dies of her treatment. Her parents call a halt to the chemo at their daughter's insistence. Now the doctors say they are bad parents who are harming their child's right to live. Will the child be forcefully medicated to preserve her human rights even if it kills her? All the more sinister for being done with the best of intentions. 'My Child Has a Right to Die!' protest the parents. Wrong argument. How about 'Let's Try Something Sensible to Help Leah-Beth Live'. Shades of the Laura Boomsma case in Queensland, which the parents and Laura won.

And that's why we're here and why you're reading this. You're fed up with how things are going and want to make a difference, or maybe just help others. CTM is a citizen's movement dedicated to restoring common sense and accountability, that what we do matters, that being 'human' is supposed to mean something. That of the millions of things experts could be doing to improve our lives, making übercows and Schwarzeneggar sheep isn't one of them. But who dares stop 'progress'? Bah! Pof! The red button no longer works. Faster than a tyrant through a trapdoor, scientific minds set themselves to work on the next challenge. What will it be this time? A phone mast in your living room? Half-human centaurs to cure cancer? Semtex for cynics?

THINGS I HAVE LEARNED: That the mechanism between our outrage and what we can do about it is always connected. That the citizen is still in charge, since where he/she spends the pounds all other forces must follow. That we don't have to eat Frankenfoods if we don't want to (choose real food and choose it wisely). That no-one makes a product that doesn't sell (no ching! ching! no more Godzilla). That they can now take away your children and call it mercy, the question is, what are you going to do about it?

There are several articles this month on ethics involving wrong turns. A piece on root-canals, another on cancer treatments. The Alliance for Natural Health reports on the attack on alternative health from within - by our old bête noire, Professor Edzard Ernst (a clone, I believe, of two indeterminate species). Many of you might be indulging in a New Year's Resolution or two, so my new book, Simple Changes, is now out to entice. Imagine that. Your 100 Ways to a Happier, Healthier Life!

The brand new talk is The Life Map, coming to a hotel near you soon in the UK and Ireland. 'You vill luff it!' as my old gym trainer from Bremen would say. Each decade of your life, the problems, some solutions. My mother-in-law came up with the idea, so she's brilliant. From cradle to grave, all the phases of your life. Who gets in the way, what happens when you press this, what law you're breaking when you say that. The early days; teenage rebellion; how to solve your problems without Polonium-210,; a kind of Life Management 101 without the gay sex education or Ofsted. Or Ken Livingstone even being aware of it. It'll be fun, fascinating, mind-blowing and heartwarming! And bring along those old skeptics, I've got some new jokes.

Right, let's get on with it. My New Year's message is this: Spend where your heart is! Bend all forces to your will! Invade North Korea! Avoid sheep! Get Involved in a Better Tomorrow. What's good and what's not is what's discussed in these pages. This week's health tip is Start Complaining. Cut loose from the Mothership. Not all outrage is negative. If something's not right, get on your high horse about it. What the heck happened to service? Let off some steam and make sure you breathe deeply and evenly. There's a piece on Bill Gates saving the world, or is he really? And, wait for it, doctors are still not waking up to the idea that food may be good for you.

Which brings me neatly around to my supper.

At least, it looks like my supper.

Happy January!
Phillip

PS: Didn't mention the EU, you almost got away with it. German premier Angela Merkel is beavering away at the new EU constitution (good luck, Angela). Scotland wants her 'independence' from the UK (your new subsidies are even now being prepared in Brussels, chaps). And according to CBS, one in three in the US now believes their own government blew up the World Trade Center.

Only one in three?