An Interesting visit to Southern Ethiopia.

One is interested in tribal customs. Some seem excellent, some queer, but these days we are discouraged from questioning things as everybody is considered to their opinions being as legitimate as anyone else’s. Unlike these days, in my time there were very few doctors to cover the increasing population and many of the doctors tended to stay in the bigger cities with more facilities and more money! The population were mainly rural.

The mission with which I had a close association ran several nurse clinics which were very useful but obviously limited in their capabilities. One such clinic was near the Kenyan border where the tribe had a, to us, different custom. Before a young man was permitted to get married he had, as shown in the picture, to run back and forth, naked, over 20 cattle tied transversely. By their custom boys were not circumcised as babies (the Orthodox, Muslims and some other groups are circumcised near birth or as puberty approaches). As uncircumcised penises in adulthood, unless erect, are a bit dangly and lengthy, it was their custom to be circumcised around this time. The technique was to hold the foreskin slightly stretched out over a rock and cut it off with a swift sword swipe. Not every sword wielder was accurate with some disadvantageous results.

The tribal elders came to the lady nurse who was in charge of the clinic and asked if she could arrange for someone (eventually me) to train a young Ethiopian male dresser who worked with her to perform circumcisions. It was agreed that I would come down for a couple of days and perform 40 such procedures. Interestingly there was in the area an American Army squad vaccinating goats and their young doctor asked if he could join the process and be also taught. (The dresser was the more capable student!) Very little had been prepared and I guess it was my fault as I had expected an American nurse to realize what was necessary if I wasn’t to only use a sharpened sword! So the first evening was used making sheets to be sterilized, hunting up syringes and local anaesthetics, suture material and enough tools to do the job professionally. The next morning I met the line up, had them bathe themselves and set about with a couple of demonstrations, self performed on them, teaching them to use local anaesthetics, making sure how much you wanted to remove etc. I then guided the two trainees through the process. We did the forty finishing late in the afternoon. We stopped for a lunch of ‘Injerra b wot’. When the local anaesthetic wore off I bet there were some unhappy chappies but at least still with all the necessary bits there!

There is a very different side to that trip at that time which I might tell at some other time.

Dominic Cartier

A 5 minute experience stretched over 3 weeks!

For the sake of a brother-in-law and anyone else who doesn’t like medical pictures I promise than there are none. And neither will there be any detailed descriptions of the pathology! I have just come across a picture in association with an album of hymns to which I was listening’, and here it is.

The picture reminded me of two things. Firstly of all the anti-Trump news about his attitude to abortion. He may have been lying (an art perfected by politicians) but I heard him say (unless it was doctored by media experts) that he was against the generalization of Roe v Wade but that he felt that the people in each state should be able to vote on it. He claimed that he personally believed that there were 3 legitimate reasons for abortion – rape, incest and if the mother’s physical life was in danger. A very different view from what his opposition presents him as holding!

But what has that to do with the title of my article? Nothing! But the picture reminded me of the hundreds of cases of ruptured uteri that I have operated upon in countryside Ethiopia where in the late 1960s our small hospital was the only hospital for millions of people and we were so busy that we could not operate things like antenatal clinics – to which people wouldn’t have come because of custom, distance, lack of roads and means of travel. We served with 1-2 doctors, 5 trained nurses and a good group of Ethiopian helpers (a few of them trained elsewhere as dressers) as the only hospital area for more than a million people!

So I have seen many babies who have died before they were born. The picture above is one suggestion as to where they end up. But this is not a theological discussion.

One day, when I was the only doctor in the hospital I was faced with three ladies with ruptured uteri arriving within 5 minutes of one another. Our ‘operating suite’ had 2 operating rooms, one of them large enough to have 2 operating tables. So I had 3 tables for the 3 women. I had a nurse who was capable of watching an anaesthetic (she was v good) after I had induced the patient. We called for help from the ward and so ended up with the sickest, having been resuscitated, asleep and me operating on her. Behind a sheet for visual protection a second lady was being resuscitated as was the third lady in the smaller OR.

It was a long morning but all were eventually taken into the ward on appropriate IV, pain and antibiotic therapy. All three babies were dead (and hence the picture above). Two ladies progressed very well and were able to go home in 7-10 days. No matter what we did the third lady did not do well. She ran a high fever and using all our available antibiotics, changing to new ones as appropriate and doing an X-ray to make sure that we hadn’t accidentally left a pack or an instrument inside we eventually had to conclude that we would probably see her depart in a box.

Sadly, I believe that much of what is called ‘faith’ healing is sham. But I do believe in God and I think that He can do wonderful things. While I was operating on that same evening on which we had come to the above conclusion, the nurses and a few of the families of workers on our mission station spent the night in prayer specifically for the healing of this lady. In spite of all our failed treatment, the lady’s temperature the next day was down considerably, she felt much better and was discharged ‘well’ about 5 days later!

Dominic Cartier

Can a non-scholar be a Christian?

I was, and greatly enjoyed being, a surgeon! Shortly after obtaining my higher degree in surgery I joined a Christian Mission to go to Ethiopia as a missionary surgeon in one of their hospitals. I was expected to and very willingly underwent an assessment of my beliefs as a Christian. Obviously and logically the mission had standards and desired a certain degree of theological unity among its members. Having satisfied them that I was okay and could be accepted as a member I went to Ethiopia, where I worked up to 80 hours a week as the only surgeon covering a population of more than a million, but I also had a vital relationship with the ‘spiritual’ side of mission life. Later on after the communist takeover was overturned I was in government hospitals on their Academic staff.

In one area that I worked in the early 2000’s the population was very largely Muslim. But there was a University with a student body of about 40,000. This student body was made up from candidates accepted from all over the country. A significant percentage of these students were ‘Protestant’ Christians. The Protestant Kale Hiwot church was small in the University town but was the central organizational base for the churches which were scattered over that region of the country which made up one of 13 regions in the whole country. The church eldership was basically made up of mature Christians who had some but not a great theological nor secular education. They were great people but the younger University students were much greater in number. An average attendance at the church which the University students attended would have been nearly a thousand. That was great but the young people kept referring to and using Paul’s phrase ‘we are not under law but under grace’ (Romans 6 v 14) to underpin the thought that, as they were no longer under law, they could act as they wanted and God would turn a blind eye. This sounds, and was, wrong. The kids were basically good kids but some of their actions were not acceptable by the elders! Well the problem was magnified because the majority of the University students, whether they were Protestant or Orthodox or Islamic, in the freedom of their situation and of modern thinking seemed to live on the same basis. The student population came from all over the country and lived in University housing without parental advice or control!

There were 500 recorded terminations among students by an American subsidised clinic in the last 6 months that I was there. There were a number of other places willing to perform abortions whose activity I have not included. Drugs were a problem. I remember an instance where I had to operate late at night on a senior member of our University staff who, when drinking and ‘drugging’ with a younger member of his own unit, was severely stabbed in his abdomen which caused a critical situation. Neither of them were members of the Protestant church to which I referred earlier but both claimed to be Orthodox Christians. So the problem of lack of morals was society wide!

The morals of our Western countries aren’t any better! It is not a theological issue in most people’s eyes. There is a broad sense of personal rights to freedom and consequently a loss of moral standards.

So how does that take me back to the Pauline teaching that ‘we are not under law but under grace’? In the context of his whole book of Romans, where he writes this phrase, Paul has said in the early part that all mankind is guilty under the law as sinners alienated to God. BUT the Grace of God in Jesus and the Easter Event gives us the opportunity to be forgiven! And that in a sense is the core of the Christian message, now God has given us the opportunity to be forgiven by His Grace and not be judged by our law breaking. There is, however, more to the law than the law relating to Justice.

In the Jewish religion the law had different aspects – sacrificial, dietary, health and moral for example. When we think about it, we also think of the law in different ways. Jesus said that He had not come to destroy the law. Most certainly he didn’t come to destroy the moral law. We have a good summary of God’s moral requirements in the ten commandments! (Exodus ch 20). Christianity is not legalism in that we have to obey certain rules to earn our way in God’s acceptance, but it is certainly a call to a high understanding of what God has laid down as moral. I find that so releasing. Most see the commandments as negative and they do have a prohibitive aspect but equally they are there to be a guide and encouragement to a wonderfully rich and peaceful life.

To follow on….from Kids beware!

From the PAST – How many presumably intelligent politicians couldn’t see that the vote on same sex marriages was not primarily about the right for people to be married (they already lived together and had many legal protections!). One would have expected ‘Shepherds’ to look deeply and thoroughly! There is a good reason in law why people are requested to ‘tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.’ The government certainly did not apply this standard to themselves in informing the public about why they wanted the same-sex marriage passed. Rather, on a broader scale of ‘perverted ideas’, there were powerful elements in both government, educational facilities and percentage wise smaller groups in society who passionately wanted to make it possible to bring into the educational system and society an acceptance at all levels of the ‘normalcy’ of homosexuality. There were and are many who consider this as legally allowing the tainting of normal healthy minds at an age when they are most impressionable and unable to discern truth from pressure! And this is planned to begin even from infancy? How long did it take between the law passing and pushes to change educational standards in primary schools. Anecdotal reports claim that the route in had already been planned! Most certainly they had begun pre-plebiscite to teach it in Universities!

From the PRESENT – In what war has the attacking army been supposed to feed and protect the enemy who have committed filthy actions to bring war upon themselves? What is called the ‘Fourth Geneva Convention’ has many excellent provisions to protect civilian normal life when their country is being attacked; – noting particularly medical, educational and daily living (shopping etc) facilities. Very clearly this Convention puts onto the shoulders of the attacked people to not use these facilities to cover and/or protect war time actions! So although it sounds good in theory, actually the ‘so called Government of Gaza’ negates all these reasons as they place warheads under the cover of every such institution which the IDF has entered! Many proofs have been clearly shown to the whole world – the majority of whom prefer to believe the proven Gazan (Hamas) lie.

From HISTORY – The now anglicized word ‘Palestine’ has a history. It was a region of Egypt where its people were Egyptians. It was a Roman term introduced after the 70 AD massacre of many Jews as a substitute name for Israel, Judea and Samaria – the population were almost 100% Jews; and an area of the Ottoman (Muslim) Empire called by the British and verified by the World Nations at the end of WWII as the Palestine Protectorate as a home for the Jews! Politically (and remember the Law is often an ass!) they said that it was to be separately governed as a homeland for the Jews and the Arabs, both of which groups lived there! They were not officially called Palestinians. Since then the Arab portion of the population have refused to see the 2 state division unless it included annihilation of all Jews. (intifada)

UNIMAGINABLE – How many honest nations leaders can vote for a country which has a terrorist government to become a member of the UN? The honest answer is none! In the recent UN vote the applicant Palestine had refused on several occasions to accept a land for themselves. Offers have been made several times by Israel before and refused unless, accepting that land, meant the eradication and genocide of its enemy, Israel? Australia showed its lack of honesty and integrity by voting ‘YES’. Shame upon all our heads. Of course you could deny the label ‘terrorist’, but I can’t imagine much more terrorizing things than they have done!

Dominic Cartier

Cycl-optic or Bi-optic? In my defence.

During a sensible and healthy discussion this week, I was ‘accused’ of being one-eyed. The person then went on to say that probably all of us are one-eyed, I think acknowledging that they were themselves. It got me to thinking about the issue. Where does sitting on the fence come into the argument? Sitting on the fence for too long gives one a severe pain in the area of pressure, particularly if the top strand is barbed wire! You must make decisions in life. But there are at least three varieties of one-eyedness. There are people who jump onto one side of the fence (or sometimes are born in that paddock) without ever seriously looking at what is on the other side of the fence – truly cycloptic. There are those who think hard and long, make a choice, get off the fence, and become almost hysterically committed not only to one side of the situation but are vitriolic against those in the other paddock – another form of cycloptic. Then there are those who get off the fence, standing on one side of it, but are honest enough to see the strengths of the other side of the argument – after all that is what we are really talking about! In other words, they know what side of the fence they want to be but seek to build a style over the fence so that there can be useful contact – bi-optic!

In the Israeli Gaza war there are many issues to cause disagreement but there are as far as I can root out several true facts. No doubt can you can list a few more.

Philistines lived in an area very similar to Gaza. Israel and the Philistines were frequently in war as Israel occupied the portion of Cana which the Bible indicates that God had promised Abraham. The Palestinians are not a continuation of the Philistine tribes, who are thought to be completely ended. As I understand it, Palestine (Syria Palestina) was named after the Philistines by the Romans (Hadrian) about 135AD. They changed it from Judea to rub it in the nose of the Jews who actually lived there and who were a thorn in the Romans’ side. The Philistines were already not in existence.
There has been continuing rumbling war between Israel and Gaza for years, but this war was started by, what is called by all honest people, a terrorist attack.
There is no doubt that billions of dollars given to Gaza, meant to help the people of Gaza, have been used to prepare for a war against Israel. Much of this money has been by the UN and Iran.
People are still called refugees whilst many are in their fourth generation in Gaza. The population of Gaza has grown from about half to seven and a half million in the past 70 years.
There is no doubt that Hamas has illegally involved both schools and medical facilities as a cover for war activities. As there is no doubt that Hamas has used, on a large-scale, humans as shields to stop Israel continuing its retaliatory war. This is a criminal act.
What country is ever expected to feed the country against which it is warring?
The war could stop in an instant if Hamas released the hostages (holding them is an illegal act) and surrendered.
There would still be many things to be sorted out.
The UN is horribly and in its daily acts anti-Israel. Look at UNWA’s history and the number of anti-Israel decisions which the UN makes compared to what it makes against the rest of the world! In 2023 the UN condemned Israel 14 times compared to the rest of the world 7 times. For instance, there was one against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine!
Organizations like Medicine without Frontiers have continued to work in government knowing that they are covering illegal Hamas activities.
The media is biased heavily against Israel.

You can see that in the fence between Hamas and Israel I have come down on the Israeli side. But note, and I don’t think that I am kidding myself, provided I didn’t have to work where Hamas were involved, I would be there helping the wounded Gazans. There is plenty of room for organizations like MSF to set up army style hospitals. Though I suspect that Hamas wouldn’t agree to it. I am not Jewish though I will confess that my wife has 12% DNA suggesting that she is; both of us are Christians by birth and by choice, and have worked amongst Muslim people medically.