Blessed Eid

Our Muslim friends will celebrate Eid ul-Fitr. This Muslim holiday marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. Eid in Arabic means “festivity” and Fitr means “breaking (the fast)”. This day celebrates the conclusion of 30days of dawn-to-sunset fasting. 

Muslims are commanded by God in the Qur’an to complete their fast until the last day of Ramadan. 

Eid ul-Fitr has to do with the communal aspects of the fast, which express many of the basic values of the Muslim community like empathy for the poor, charity, worship, steadfastness, patience, love, etc. 

This annual rich tradition from our muslim friends (community) is something all religions can/should adopt. 


To all Muslim friends again a Blessed Eid 

Tetralogy of Fallot Facts

• Tetralogy of Fallot is a condition that is characterized by several congenital heart defects, occurring at once. They include: ventricular septal defect, displaced aorta, narrowed pulmonary valve and thickened right ventricle wall. 
• Each defect acts in combination with the others to create a malfunction of the heart. 
• The problem starts very early in the uterus with a narrowed pulmonary valve and a hole between the ventricles. This is not particularly a problem for a fetus because hardly any blood flows through the lungs until birth.
• It is only after birth that the defects pose a problem.
• Because of the opening between ventricles, much of the blood that comes back to the heart needing oxygen is sent out without being properly oxygenated.
• The baby turns blue because of the deoxygenated blood that bypasses the lungs and the right side of the heart gets more muscular.
• The low oxygen causes the blood to get thicker and clot more easily.
• Other symptoms include a heart murmur which may range from almost imperceptible to very loud, difficulty in feeding, failure to gain weight, retarded growth and physical development, dyspnea on exertion, clubbing of the fingers and toes, and polycythemia.
  
• Children with ToF may develop "tet spells." Tet spells are characterized by a sudden, marked increase in cyanosis followed by syncope, and may result in hypoxic brain injury and death.
• Its cause is thought to be due to environmental or genetic factors or a combination. It is associated with chromosome 22 deletions and DiGeorge syndrome.
• The condition was initially thought untreatable until surgeon Alfred Blalock, cardiologist Helen B. Taussig, and lab assistant Vivien Thomas at Johns Hopkins University developed a palliative surgical procedure, which involved forming a side to end anastomosis between the subclavian artery and the pulmonary artery.
• This first surgery was depicted in the film Something the Lord Made.
• The first Blalock-Thomas-Taussig shunt surgery was performed on 15-month old Eileen Saxon on November 29, 1944 with dramatic results.
• The first total repair of Tetralogy of Fallot was done by a team led by C. Walton Lillehei at the University of Minnesota in 1954 on an 11-year-old boy.
• Total repair on infants has had success from 1981.
• Tetralogy of Fallot occurs in approximately 400 per million live births.
• Researchers estimate that tetralogy of Fallot occurs in approximately one in every 2000 births.
• Boys are slightly more likely to have this malformation than girls.
• Babies with Tetralogy of Fallot are blue at birth or cyanotic.
• Infants with mild forms can have surgery postponed until they are older. Infants with more severe symptoms often have attacks of worsened cyanosis.
• During attacks, ToF-babies turn very blue, have shortness of breath, and can faint.
• ToF babies are also referred to as Warriors, for their fighting spirit.
• There is no known prevention for Tetralogy of Fallot.
• ToF-babies can have a fairly normal childhood.
• Those born with Tetralogy of Fallot can when all grown-up also have healthy children one day.

I was born with Tetralogy of Fallot 30 years ago (in November) and had four operations 

Tetralogy of Fallot video

Metrorail's Unanswered Questions

On Tuesday June 24th, 2014 at 09:38 am, I wrote an email with concerns and complaints to Metrorail Western Cape's Regional Manager, Richard Walker and his whole management. This email follows the morning's chaos and Metrorail's lack of effective communication with commuters. 
Ironically two days before this I wrote Why Communication is important for Metrorail.

After 8 hours of no response, I forwarded forwarding the email again to the whole management, saying how disappointed I am that I have not even received an acknowledgment that they received my complaint and if this is the type of service commuters get.
After more than 13 hours, Richard Walker responded that he was in a meeting - but failed to say why his Customer Services team could not acknowledge they received my mail. Walker's reply to my questions (which is below) was:
"I requested that management investigate the lack of operational information this morning. The Head of CMOCC has advised that it was human error and that appropriate remedial action has been taken against the responsible party. He has also in conjunction with the marketing & communications team revised response protocol to prevent a recurrence."

Walker and/or his Customer Services or Communication Managers have failed to answer my questions, instead raised more. This led to the following unanswered questions, which Walker and his whole management team have meanwhile decided to ignore (yet I am expected to pay for my ticket, but not allowed to raise any questions)!

1) Why were no Metrorail staff visible at stations, especially Bellville (where you reportedly building your new operational center) with all the chaos?

2) Why were there no announcements at stations about the delays. First announcement on Brackenfell was at 07:16 only saying next train will arrive in 5 minutes and this after I sent out two tweets that no announcements are made.

3) Why did it take @CapeTownTrains more than an hour to confirm Wellington Trains are delay? Could the manager in CMOCC not call Wellington/Huguenot stations to confirm if trains left on time or are you only depending on signals (whose faulty most of the time).

4) Why could buses not be used. Clearly CMOCC was aware of the chaos/delays at 7am, unless you tell me that Metrorail does not now where their trains are!

5) Who needs to authorize the buses and is there no way that you can send that person on a delay train to experience the frustration commuters experience?

6) What is the time-frame in which management should respond to complaints?

7) Hundreds of commuters will be signing warning letters or get fired (not paid) for arriving late at work. Will you publicly apologise and send out a statement regarding this (in my view your Communications Manager should have done this at 7am this morning)

8) Will you publicly accept responsibility that Metrorail failed commuters this morning and apologize to commuters? (again your Communications Manager should have done this at 7am).

9) Is your Communications Manager, Acting CMOCC Manager and Customer Service Manager willing to travel by train for a week to understand commuter frustration. Esp your Customer Service and Communication Managers should travel by train atleast three times a week - or don't they have confidence in the rail operator where they work!

10) Why are train doors not closed as promised by Prasa GCEO, Transport minister and former Regional Manager when they took a train in April?

11) No announcements were made at Vasco station and you requested the station manager to make contact with me. Is there a station manager as no one has made contact with me?

12) Changes were made to the schedule... Why or when was the website updated with the changed schedule?

13) The Worcester train was delayed at Gouda and according to @CapeTownTrains you could not inform commuters as Gouda is not Metrorail's jurisdiction. To say that is unacceptable. Commuters pay Metrorail when buying a ticket and expect a reliable service from Metrorail and that includes communication when their train is delayed. Because stations beyong Stikland belongs to Transnet is not what a commuter wants to hear and is irresponsible from Metrorail to use as an excuse not to know the train is delay. We live in the 21st Century, where children as young as 5/6 have access to a cellphone, surely someone in CMOCC has a cellphone to call the driver and ask why has the train not passed Stikland at 07:15 - this is the time it more or less passes this station and when CMOCC can start seeing trains on their system. I also find it strange that no one in Metrorail has ever thought of this, or someone did and someone else ignored it... 

Metrorail has failed to respond to the above, I have meanwhile answered my own questions and forwarded the answers to Metrorail - who've also ignored that.