Eideard

A shortage of Adderall, which is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, shows little sign of easing as manufacturers struggle to get enough active ingredient to make the drug and demand climbs.

Adderall, a stimulant, is a controlled substance, meaning it is addictive and has the potential to be abused. The Drug Enforcement Administration tightly regulates how much of the drug’s active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) can be distributed to manufacturers each year…

Increasingly that estimate is coming into conflict with what companies themselves say they need to meet demand for the drug, which is reaching all-time highs. In 2010, more than 18 million prescriptions were written for Adderall, up 13.4 percent from 2009, according to IMS Health, which tracks prescription data…

‘All-time highs” – A deliberate choice of words?

ADHD is one of the most common childhood disorders. An average of 9 percent of children between the ages of five and 17 are diagnosed with ADHD per year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms include difficulty staying focused, hyperactivity and difficulty controlling behavior. If they are not properly medicated, children with ADHD may act out and be held back in class; adolescents might engage in impulsive, risky behavior; adults are at greater risk of being fired from their jobs…

And living in a nation that chooses symptomatic treatment over any other, we are all required to nod our bobbleheads and worry about a shortage of drugs for the next generation of junkies.

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Roof still leaking after 3 years

Homeowners affected by the hurricane and dissatisfied with rebuilding efforts filled a Houston City Council meeting last month on the storm’s anniversary.

But the damage was done three years ago, in September 2008, when Hurricane Ike devastated a wide stretch of Texas with 110 m.p.h. winds, killing dozens of people and causing more than $12 billion in damage in what is considered to be the costliest storm in state history.

The storm was the first insult, delivered suddenly by nature. The second, greater insult…is all man-made, delivered over these many months by a state bureaucracy that has paid out roughly 10 percent of the $3.1 billion in federal aid that it has received…

The $3.1 billion allocated for Texas in three rounds by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development was intended to repair and reconstruct single-family homes for poor and moderate-income families, among other projects. Chambers County, where Anahuac is the county seat, and other jurisdictions agreed to rebuild or repair 3,537 hurricane-damaged homes using the first round of money. Of those, only 712 have been completed, with an additional 766 under construction.

State officials originally expected to have the $3.1 billion spent by 2013, but they have now pushed that date to December 2015…

State officials repeatedly changed the rules and guidelines that cities and counties had to follow after the local agencies had already processed applications, forcing residents to redo their applications and the cities and counties to reprocess them…

In addition, those federal officials expressed concerns about the two state agencies that had overseen the program — the Department of Housing and Community Affairs and the Department of Rural Affairs. In a June report, federal officials found that the state housing agency had not developed written procedures for processing the applications it received from local jurisdictions. The report also found that the rural affairs agency had spent more money on administrative expenses than on actual work projects, spending 98 percent of its administrative money from the first round — $12.3 million — but only 17 percent of the money designated for projects.

RTFA. Between incompetent state officialdom, corrupt local and county government, bigots and footdraggers at every level, ordinary working people – especially those who are non-white – have received about 10% of the aid dedicated to that purpose by the federal government, ultimately American taxpayers.

How’s that Republican mantra about states rights doing folks in Texas?

Not exactly new in town – photo from Fiji KFC in 1984

The fried-chicken restaurant chain KFC has halted operations in Fiji, amid a row over imports of the ingredients to make its flavoured crumb coating.

The multinational said Fiji’s military government had stopped it from importing herbs, milk and eggs. Fijian officials said two cartons of eggs and milk had been delayed because KFC needed to provide documentation…

“The onus is on KFC to provide us with a simple veterinary certificate, that is all we ask,” he said…

The firm, which has three restaurants in Fiji, said the import problems coupled with rising food prices had made it impossible to make a profit…

“We have been waiting for the veterinary certificate since early May [2011]. When this is provided, we’ll be able to release the cartons.”

What? Do they need certification for which bird laid the eggs?

Who holds the keys to the Treasury?

The Greek Orthodox Church owns more land than anyone except the state, employs thousands on the public payroll, has a stake in the nation’s biggest bank, but campaigners say its tax payments are derisory.

The Church vehemently denies accusations it is one of Greece’s biggest tax dodgers and says it is playing a vital social, economic and spiritual role in this time of hardship…

The Greek Orthodox Church has long enjoyed a privileged, some would say cozy, status when it comes to taxes in a country where it is responsible for the sole official religion, with one critic calling its complex finances at best opaque.

But the sovereign debt crisis that has rocked the Greek state, thrown hundreds of thousands of people out of work, and forced painful cuts in salaries, pensions and benefits, has raised fresh questions about the Church’s tax position.

More than 100,000 people have joined a Greek Facebook page “Tax The Church,” and 29,000 have so far signed an online petition urging the state to harness “the huge fortune of churches” to reduce Greece’s crushing budget deficit.

“The Church must pay its share of the tax burden,” said former finance minister Yannos Papantoniou. “It is totally unreasonable in this situation that they contribute so little…”

Church finances, lands and other concerns are so labyrinthine they are hard to penetrate, analysts said. The Church’s total tax payment is not made public, and Father Timotheos said churches are responsible for their own taxes…

The state at the moment pays the salaries of about 9,000 black-robed priests, including about 100 metropolitans who run the Church, as well as the pensions of retired clergy…

“It’s the third rail of Greek politics. If you touch it, you die,” the adviser to Papandreou said, comparing the issue to the high voltage electrified rail on some train tracks.

RTFA. Detailed in what history it presents. The Orthodox Church executives have always been smart enough to behave like a modern-day mafia. Keep up sufficient charitable works to maintain public political indebtedness.

Given the corruption of Greece’s political institutions, nepotism, cronyism – which is more public than identical DNA in the Orthodox Church – it hasn’t been especially difficult to appear as a force at least as capable as the government at providing assistance. Although the sum of taxes which never makes it to good works is certainly greater than a single delivery system would ever require.

Thailand’s community of “ladyboys” have complained…they were being marginalized in next week’s general election because their ID card pictures were too confusing for polling officials.

It is the latest in a series of gripes among members of the Trans-Female Association of Thailand which groups transgenders and transsexuals known collectively as “katoeys” or “ladyboys.”

“We have a big problem when we use our identity cards in banks, schools, hospitals and now when we vote,” said Yollada Suanyoc, president of the 2,500-strong organization.

“The picture may show a woman but it says ‘mister’ on the card. Or the picture may show a teenage boy and the person now looks like a woman.”

Everyone in Thailand has to carry a national ID card with them at all times from the age of 15. It is renewed every seven years.

Transgenders and transsexuals are accepted in Thailand more readily than in most other countries, with one new airline hiring only ladyboys as cabin crew. They are especially common in cosmetics shops and health stores and in bars in some of Bangkok’s racier entertainment districts.

“The government says if they change our title and sex, it’s going to make society confused,” she said. “The government worries that they won’t know about our past.”

As usual, it’s the stodgy bureaucrats in government who are confused at best, as likely to be stuck in the treacle of their own ignorance and misunderstanding.

Imagine if you had to pay a bribe to see your newborn baby, get your water supply connected or obtain your driving licence. It’s an everyday fact of life in India – but campaigners are now using people power and the internet to fight back.

“Uncover the market price of corruption,” proclaims the banner on the homepage of ipaidabribe.com.

It invites people to share their experiences of bribery, what a bribe was for, where it took place and how much was involved.

Launched in August, the site gives Indians a chance to vent their frustrations and shine a spotlight on the impact of corruption on everyday life.

“I did the driving test correctly but still the official said I was driving too slow, I realised his intention so gave him 200 Rupees and got the thing done,” is a typical example of a posting…

The website was the brainwave of Ramesh and Swati Ramanathan, founders of a not-for-profit organisation in Bangalore called Janaagraha which literally means “people power”.

“Bribery is routinely expected in interactions with government officials”, Swati Ramanathan told me, “to register your house, to get your driving licence, domestic water connection, even a death certificate.”

Having lived in the US and the UK for several years, they were dismayed on their return to see how widespread corruption had become and decided to do something about it…

The website has evolved into a consumer comparison site where people can also get information and advice in different languages on how to avoid paying bribes…

So far, nearly 10,000 bribe experiences have been reported across 347 cities and 19 government departments…

Twenty senior officers have been cautioned, and technology is now being introduced to minimise the opportunities for bribe-taking.

Bravo! One of the best uses of enforced transparency in government.

You can’t count on politicians to volunteer transparency; but, you certainly can give it to them – whether they want it or not.

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel prize-winning development economist, appears to have lost his bitter battle with the Bangladeshi government for control of the pioneering microlender Grameen Bank, which he founded nearly three decades ago.

Bangladesh’s chief justice, ABM Khairul Haque, ruled out an appeal by Yunus against a decision last month by the central bank to ban him from continuing as a managing director, a post he has held since 2000…

Yunus, 70, did not appear in court but his legal team said they were surprised by the decision…

Despite the apparently final nature of the ruling against Yunus, his team told the Guardian they still hoped to find a legal avenue to continue the fight.

The decision was the climax of a long battle between the Grameen Bank’s founder and the Bangladeshi government which has triggered statements of concern from diplomats and a range of international personalities including Mary Robinson, the former Irish president, and the American senator John Kerry.

Supporters claim the respected economist, who founded the Grameen Bank in 1983 after witnessing the suffering of rural people in a series of famines, is the victim of a political vendetta.

An outspoken government critic, Yunus has long had frosty relations with the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina. Reportedly angered by Yunus’s attempt in 2007 to form his own political party, Hasina has accused Grameen Bank and other microfinance institutions of charging high interest rates and “sucking blood from the poor borrowers”…

Small-minded politicians, bureaucrats, seem to devote most of their energies to guaranteeing the people of their nation remain a “little people” – while they profit as much as possible themselves.

Bangladesh appears to be no different from so many of their peers – from Sudan to Iran.

If I only had a heart…

General Electric, the nation’s largest corporation, had a very good year in 2010.

The company reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1 billion of the total came from its operations in the United States.

Its American tax bill? None. In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.

That may be hard to fathom for the millions of American business owners and households now preparing their own returns, but low taxes are nothing new for G.E. The company has been cutting the percentage of its American profits paid to the Internal Revenue Service for years, resulting in a far lower rate than at most multinational companies.

Its extraordinary success is based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore. G.E.’s giant tax department, led by a bow-tied former Treasury official named John Samuels, is often referred to as the world’s best tax law firm. Indeed, the company’s slogan “Imagination at Work” fits this department well. The team includes former officials not just from the Treasury, but also from the I.R.S. and virtually all the tax-writing committees in Congress.

While General Electric is one of the most skilled at reducing its tax burden, many other companies have become better at this as well. Although the top corporate tax rate in the United States is 35 percent, one of the highest in the world, companies have been increasingly using a maze of shelters, tax credits and subsidies to pay far less.

In a regulatory filing just a week before the Japanese disaster put a spotlight on the company’s nuclear reactor business, G.E. reported that its tax burden was 7.4 percent of its American profits, about a third of the average reported by other American multinationals. Even those figures are overstated, because they include taxes that will be paid only if the company brings its overseas profits back to the United States. With those profits still offshore, G.E. is effectively getting money back.

RTFA. Long, detailed, persuasive.

The other half of the equation is populated with former bureaucrats, members of Congress and similarly crime-inclined citizens with the connections to help bend, break and otherwise aid our corporate barons avoid any responsibility for funding this nation. Yup. It’s still just up to us.

Ila with her parents – in November

A nine-year-old East Timorese girl, Ila Amaral, has died because no Australian hospital would give her a life-saving operation.

For more than 12 months Dan Murphy, a doctor who runs a clinic for the poor in Dili, tried to convince Australian hospitals to accept her for surgery to correct her defective mitral heart valve.

“I blame myself first – I was unable to find the words to make things move for her,” Dr Murphy told the Herald by telephone from the Bairo Pite Clinic, where Ila died last week.

A Victorian cardiologist, Noel Bayley, examined Ila in Dili in November. He said she needed open heart surgery. A cardiac team from Sydney had offered to travel to East Timor to perform the operation but permission to use local facilities was refused by Timorese authorities.

Dr Murphy appealed to the US Navy to be allowed to use one of the 12 operating rooms on the hospital ship USN Mercy when it was in Dili late last year but that was also refused.

“The navy people didn’t want to allow the operation … because of the negative publicity if it didn’t go well and she died,” he said.

After failing to get a hospital in Australia to accept Ila, Dr Murphy appealed to others in the US and then a small cardiac hospital that is opening in Vietnam.

“All in all. a massive effort for something ridiculously simple as correcting a small girl’s problem failed,” he said…

Thousands of Australians donated to a fund to pay for the surgery; but, no hospital in Oz could – or would – shortcut the red tape standing in the way of her operation. The government was no help. Hospital administrators were no help.

Ila Amarai has died.

Found in Colorado

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is missing key information on who owns one-third of the 357,000 private and commercial aircraft in the US, a gap the agency says could be exploited by terrorists and drug traffickers.

The records are in such disarray that the FAA says it is worried that criminals could buy planes without the government’s knowledge, or use the registration numbers of other aircraft to evade new computer systems designed to track suspicious flights.

Next year the FAA will begin canceling the registration certificates of all 357,000 aircraft and require owners to register anew, the Associated Press news agency cited them as saying on Friday.

About 119,000 of the aircraft on the US registry have “questionable registration” because of missing forms, invalid addresses, unreported sales or other paperwork problems, according to the FAA.

In many cases, the FAA cannot say who owns a plane or even whether it is still flying or is no longer functional…

The amount of missing or invalid paperwork has been building for decades, the FAA says. Up to now, owners had to register their planes only once, at the time of purchase.

The FAA sent out notices every three years asking owners to update their contact information if needed, but there was no punishment for not doing so.

RTFA. It’s worth a chuckle over a truly incompetent bureaucracy.

It doesn’t require a great deal of smarts to be a criminal, anyway. But, it surely aids the heavy hitters when the context of day-by-day operations of a federal regulatory agency are about as thorough as Mexican border controls.