The Value of a Life

   The Canadian Perinatal Surveillance System has just announced a very sad little statistic. It is their estimate that an approximate 200 newborns a year go unregistered in Ontario, the only province that allows municipalities to set a fee for the registration of a birth. The current cost in Toronto to have your baby's arrival officially documented is $27.50, although that amount will rise to $35.00 on July 1st.
   While the fee may be nothing to many parents, for those who struggle financially, it may be more than the family budget can handle. Should one of the unregistered babies die, their death would also go unregistered, and then, officially, the little one would never have existed.
   How can such a state of affairs be allowed to continue in Ontario, in a developed country, where the government claims a charter of rights applies to each and every citizen dwelling under its jurisdiction? Shouldn't the registration of a birth be a right? Is this not the same as declaring some to be intrinsically more valuable than others? You have to wonder what criteria the government are using here to judge the value of a life.


   Dying is not an activity that comes cheap, either. Ontario's official forms are a little less expensive for this one - $15.00 if you want a basic form, or $22.00 if you want a certified form. Neither of those should break the bank, so to speak, unless we are talking again about people on limited incomes. No, the money needed for dying that got me this past weekend was the amount charged by the attending cleric. You see, my father passed away and we requested a priest from my mother's parish to conduct a service at the funeral home. No problem. Mr. Cleric-Collar was glad to come and intone the appropriate words. Just before he left however, he did extend his hand to take his "honorarium". He charged $200.00. Of course, we paid it, but I was left standing there with a taste in my mouth like stale puke.
    Again, what of the economically underprivileged? While I am sure there are members of the clergy who would waive the fee, I am equally sure that there are those who would not. It disgusts me. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think that the holy writings of most religions are devoid of stories recounting their deity's gettind involved onlly with those who anted up first. Are the clergy there to offer words of comfort, or to remind us that everything comes with a price tag?
   Bono declares in one of his recordings, "the god I believe in isn't short of cash". If the clergy need to pay their mortgage, they could perhaps charge set yearly fees for congregation membership, and gear them directly to income. Real believers should have no problem with the system, since tithing is not a new idea. Those who do bitch and whine about it could maybe get the latest DIY edition of "Religious Rites for Dummies" and go it on their own. People who look to a representative of a formal religion for guidance and comfort at such a time should receive it without being asked for cash. God wouldn't mind.

Brangelina Bunkum

   I was away from the world for a while, so to speak, while we had the funeral for my father. I came back to it to find the media circus over the "Brangelina baby" in full swing. After fighting the urge to puke over it all, I did a search for synonyms for 'idiocy' and found over 100 of them. That might be just a few more than you'd want to read here, but every single one of them fits the ridiculous situation. It's all bullshit.
   If the baby is healthy, that's a wonderful thing, but stop the carrying on, for christ sake. It is just another baby, after all, and no more deserving of all the hype than the babies born to poverty today in Mumbai, or anywhere else, for that matter. Until each one of those other little ones gets a chance at the same kind of life as Jolie's baby will have simply by accident of birth, spare us the sappy details about this incredibly pampered and unjustly favoured couple and their offspring.

Deja Vu

   Didn't this just happen a couple of nights ago?
    The Oilers beat Anaheim's Quacks tonight 3-1, both nights with the last goal being scored on an empty net! The "Pond" was so quiet. I wonder why? I was happily cheering.

   My father died this morning.
   In a way, he was already gone, long before today, because he had fallen prey to Alzheimer's more than a decade ago. Today was finally his setting free.
   I had gone to pick up my Mother and take her to see him. He had been steadily declining for the past several days. She wanted to stop at the church on the way there and ask a priest to come there too. My father was raised a Presbyterian buy my mother is a steadfast Catholic, so the priest was much more for her than for him.
   When we got to the nursing home, we were greeted by a cluster of staff members who told us we had missed his passing by "just ten minutes". We went in. The priest did his thing. My mother spent some time by the bedside, crying and praying. When she was ready to leave, she walked out of the room but I stayed back. I opened my copy of "Seth Parker's Hymnal" and turned to "Shall We Gather by the River?". It had been a favourite of my father's and over the last several days, the only time he had seemed to respond to anything was when I sang some hymns to him. Last night I had practised and practised to be sure I could sing that one really well for him this morning. I didn't get a last chance to sing it to him, so I stood by his bedside and sang it instead as a last goodbye to my father, while he made his way to the river that flows by the throne of god.

   I just got back in from a day spent with my mother. She is 89 years old and still able to get around with the use of a walker, but her balance is not good. I had taken her to a restaurant she likes in a local mall, and we were ready to head back home after the meal. My daughter was with her while I went to get the car and bring it right up in front of her at the curb. She took the small step down and somehow just kept going. I got out of the car right away and went to her, so there we were, the three of us down on the sidewalk, my mother, my daughter and I. We ascertained quickly that she was not seriously hurt and then began encouraging her to move to all fours and lean on us to begin rising to a standing position again.
   During the time that she was down on the ground, four different men walked past us, and the emphasis is on "past". Not one of them was too old or frail themselves to have offered help, but not one of them did. Not one asked if we were OK, or if there was something they could do. Although none of them had anything to say, each one of them stared at us.
   Would it be wrong of me to hope that some day each one of them finds themselves in a similar situation, and experiences the same count of people passing by, gawking, but offering no help at all?

Mange Merde, San Jose!

   So the San Jose fans booed their way through the Canadian anthem at the last game? Well, tonight, the Oilers' fans cheered their way through the American anthem, happily sang their way through their own, and them settled back to watch their team make shark fin soup out of the opposition, with a final score of 2-0. Yes, Virginia, there really is a God, and tonight she was humming the Canadian anthem to herself and wearing an Oilers' jersey.

Snack Bar Caveats

   Like going to the ballpark? Do you head to the snack bar while you're there? If you're a snack bar nosher, you might find the following interesting.
    A single-serving tray of nachos with cheese sauce - common ball park fare - packs an average 600 calories and 30 grams of fat. Its 1,500 milligrams of sodium will also give you the total of your daily recommended intake, so if you have any popcorn later, you'd better ask the snack counter attendant to skip the salt!
   On the topic of that popcorn, every cup of buttered popcorn contains approximately 90 calories and six grams of fat. A "jumbo" size serving can have you consuming up to 20 cups of the snack. You do the math.

    Just a little "food for thought".

Tofu on the Grill

   Although I am a more-than-not vegetarian, I am surrounded by friends who are all enthusiastic meat-eaters. Some of them are also barbecue aficionados who sometimes feel obliged to offer apologies for their lack of appropriate offerings for me in the outdoor meal season. I ask them why they don't just toss a little tofu on the grill. They look at me like I'm a couple of cards short of a full deck and then the topic is shelved again until next year. I have, however, just come across the following recipe which I intend to make available to all my grillin' friends, to see if they'll take up the gauntlet this recipe tosses at them. If your taste buds are intrigued, read on.

Barbecued Tofu

1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp sesame oil
1 pkg extra firm tofu

Combine first four ingredients in a casserole dish.
Slice tofu into "steaks" or 1/2 inch slices.
Add tofu to marinade and turn to coat evenly.
Cover and refrigerate overnight to let tofu absorb the flavour.

Oil and heat barbecue to medium-high. Slap those steaks onto the grill and sizzle, uncovered, for 2 or 3 minutes. Turn and barbecue for 2 to 3 minutes more, or until those grill marks are showing. Slice the tofu into strips to top a salad or serve in one hunk!
If you're an indoor griller, preheat your grill to medium-high, place tofu on the grill and cook with the lid closed for 3 minutes, or until the tofu sports grill marks proclaiming your mastery of grill cooking!

An Easy Fix!

   This recipe is a new take on an old standby. It offers less fat, and more heart healthy dining, but it's still nice and easy to get to the dinner table. Since we never eat anything that gets about on four legs, this gives us the chance to enjoy sloppy joes, and do it our way.

Sloppy Toms

1 lb ground turkey - be sure the label says "extra lean" or it could legally contain skin ground in with the meat
1 onion, chopped
1 pepper - red, yellow and orange all have higher vitamin content than does green
1 tsp chili powder, or just 1/2, if you're a little timid
2 cups medium salsa
1/4 cup V8 juice
6 rolls or 6 tortillas, whole grain of course!

Brown the turkey over medium-high heat, stirring for about 5 minutes, until there's no pink left.
Add the next three ingredients and cook over medium heat stirring often, about 5 minutes or until onion is "tender".
Stir in salsa and juice and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer another 5 minutes.
Slice and toast rolls, if you prefer them with some character. Spoon on mixture and cover with top half of rolls, or spoon mix into tortilla and roll 'em up! Serve these "toms" with a glass of the V8 juice, and a green salad and you've got one very healthy dinner, with fewer calories and less fat than you get from "joes" made with beef. Serve them on whole grain rolls or tortillas and you're adding in some fibre.

Who Did You Say Cares?

   "Day or night, when you need us...we'll be there." So says the page that explains the key elements of the supposed "We Care Advantage".
   My father is in institutionalized care, suffering from Alzheimer's. This week he was taken ill with a respiratory problem. Low grade fever, a nagging cough and a throat he can't seem to clear - these were all making him miserable. Since x-rays showed his lungs to be clear, there was not deemed to be a need to move him to a hospital. He is so far gone with the Alzheimer's, however, that this infection was simply adding insult to injury as far as him finding any possible comfort level. Compound the whole problem with the fact that the staff there don't always seem to be overly involved in their jobs, and so we thought to help him through this by hiring someone from "wecare" to be there 24/7 for him. The idea was for them to offer him fluids on a regular basis and shift his position in bed regularly to avoid pressure sores, to be there with him and for him since the regular staff can't offer him the extra care he needs right now as he battles this infection.
   Today that someone was absent from his bedside for over three and a half hours. How do we know? There were family members there by his bedside that whole time, and the "caregiver" was conspicuous by her absence that whole time. A call to the agency's office has resulted in the removal of that someone from my father's case, and a new someone being brought on board. The question we would all like to have answered is - where the hell was that first supposed caregiver for all that time?
    Does she do this with others in her care? Is she so lacking in a work ethic, in a conscience, that she leaves elderly patients all alone even though she has assumed the responsibility of taking care of them in return for a paycheque? I wonder how many paycheques she has taken on such a false basis before today? I wonder just how many others she has duped into thinking their family member was safe with her?
    I wonder if there will come a day when she will truly reap what she has sown? I hope so.

Savoury Snippets

   Did you know? May 16 to 22 is International Pickle Week? Just to hep you be the life of the party at your local celebration, here' some pickle trivia.
   One of the first persons we have written description of as being "in a pickle" was a character in Shakespeare's play "The Tempest".
   The average dill pickle contains approximately 12 calories. The composer Charles L. Johnson wrote the "Dill Pickles Rag" which featured a crisp xylophone solo.
    Here's a dilly - one tablespoon of dill seeds (the ingredient that gives dill pickles their moniker) has as much calcium as a glass of milk!
   Archaeologists believe that the ancient Mesopotamians were practising the fine art of pickling by as early as 2400 BCE.
   Cleopatra believed that a steady intake of pickles contributed to her famous good looks.
   If you're dying to know more, follow this link.


   If you want a tip on how you can be part of the eco-friendly, try "Green Shopping". A friend told me that following the 'five N's" at the grocery store is a good way to practise environmental consciousness. Keep this list in mind:

   Natural: read labels to check for freedom from chemical and additive content
   N. A. K. : minimal packaging, or none at all
   Nutritious: Canada's new label laws make it easier to check this
   Near: shop as much as possible for locally grown produce
   Now: to reduce the environmental price tag of transportation, buy items in season



   I was in a local food emporium today and found a product worth a gastronomical giggle. I'm sure they weren't intended as humourous, but the spouse and I both laughed when we saw jars of "Sherni's" curry sauces. The labels proudly declared the jars to be holding "Vegetarian Chicken Curry Sauce" and "Vegetarian Lamb Curry Sauce". We both wondered if that meant the sauces could be used only on lambs and chickens that had been strict vegetarians before they became dinner, or did it mean that vegetarians would find the sauces the best topping for the next meat dishes they decided to ingest? You decide.

100 Quadrillion?

   In contrast to the new product discussed below comes this new front-loading washer from Samsung Electronics. As well as saving on energy, the washer also precludes the need for bleach.
   Organochlorines, a byproduct of the chlorine in laundry bleach, make their way into waterways as part of effluent, or wastewater. Many are carcinogenic. All are toxic. Organochlorines are persistent in the environment, so not releasing them at all is much further ahead than trying to clean them away after the fact. Enter SilverCare.
   For those who already forego the use of chlorine bleaches, kudos to you. Did you know, however, that scientific testing shows your laundry can still be sporting significant microbial contamination, even after the last rinse cycle? To foil those dastardly microbes in their bid to lurk undetected in your PJ's and your soccer socks, the SilverCare Washer injects metallic silver atoms, electrolytically stripped of an electron, during the wash and rinse cycles, "allowing over 100 quadrillion silver ions to penetrate deep into the fabric to sanitize clothing without the need for hot water or bleach." Samsung boasts that their process "removed or killed 99.9%" of the contamination.
   If you're in the market for a new washer, and you're good with the $1,300.00 price tag, check this one out. No more organochlorines, or smelly socks for you!

In Excess

   This product I just found out about fits right in with the excesses of the rich and pampered "developed" countries. I'm talking about the Motorized Pool Lounger available from the good folks at Excalibur Electronics, Inc. They proudly claim "The Motorized Pool Lounger may be the most advanced pool lounger in the world." (emphasis my own) Excuse me, but did I miss something? I had no idea humankind was desperately searching for advances to be made in this area.
   "Excalibur Electronics: We Make You Think" is the slogan you'll see if you watch the product video. Huh? Go and read the details of the product and you'll find such wonders as "built-in cup holder" and "two separate motor/propeller subassemblies" as well as "requires twelve x 1.5 volt D-cell batteries (not included)". Latest estimates place the U.S. number of batteries used and thrown away each year at approximately 3 billion. That's over 125,000 tons of battery-garbage. Maybe their "thinking" slogan refers to the fun you can have while you float around the pool, using a calculator to determine how much you too can contribute to the garbage, based on things like how many batteries you can use each summer, or the total that you and your friends could use if you really give it your all, collectively. Of course, you could also enjoy the mental challenge of calculating how much weight you could gain each year until your pool lounger can no longer support your bulk, since it can only support "up to 250 pounds!" Not to leave out the too-heavy sloths poolside, they could calculate how many pounds they need to lose until they could climb on board without going glub! glub! straight to the bottom. The only thing to keep in mind is not to spoil the whole fun atmosphere by using solar-powered calculators. Why not see if you can find one that requires D-cell batteries to run? Think of the figgerin' you could do on one of them there suckers!
    Is it just me or does anyone else see this as yet another example of the gluttonous excess with which the pampered are consuming the resources of the world? They are stripping it bare, without any thought for those who struggle to survive.
A BizRate Shopping Search tells me that a current best price for D-cell batteries is $7.99 for a two-pack of Energizer's Rechargeables. Do the math. If you need twelve batteries, that means 6 x $7.99, or $47. 94 total. If you took that money instead to Canadian Food for the Hungry International, or to The Samaritan's Purse, you could, for instance, buy a goat for a family in a third world country. You might have to use a little elbow grease to propel yourself around the pool, but while you're doing that, you'd be smiling the whole time, feeling good about the life-saving difference your thoughtfulness had made. Some people, I am sure, would dismiss me as a curmudgeon bent on spoiling innocent fun, but my sincere hope is for the ripple effect to result from this entry. If even just one reader were to see this and rethink a previous attitude or two, I would have accomplished something worthwhile.

FYI

I just came across this so I thought I'd share it with you, especially after the entry or two that I've written about the obesity epidemic. Of course, for those of us who do not eat anything that has a face, we can just smile and ignore this completely.

Comparing Hamburgers

Standard Choice
regular ground beef patty, pan fried with regular white bun, 2 tsp "dressing", 1 tbsp relish or ketchup and 1 slice processed cheese
- 56% calories from fat

Healthier Choice
lean ground beef patty, grilled or broiled with a whole grain bun, 1 slice tomato, 1 leaf lettuce any type, chopped onion, and 1 tbsp relish
- 34% calories from fat

Moussaoui Verdict

   After 41 hours of deliberation spread out over seven days the jury has delivered its verdict in the trial of the Sept. 11 conspirator, Zacarias Moussaoui. The 12 jury members were not unanimously in favour of a death sentence, meaning that Moussaoui will automatically get a life sentence without possibility of parole. The formal sentencing will take place on Thursday, but the judge can not alter the sentence recommended by the jury.
   As he was escorted from the courtroom, Moussaoui clapped his hands and yelled, "America, you lost. I won!" Where's a Jack Ruby type when you really need one?

More Guluwalk

   

Let me share this with you in continuation of my support of the Guluwalk.

KASSIM THE DREAM OUMA TO FIGHT FOR GULUWALK IN LAS VEGAS,

UGANDAN TO WEAR GULUWALK INTO THE RING ON DE LA HOYA CARD

Former child soldier Kassim The Dream Ouma will be stepping into the ring not just for his country on Saturday, May 6 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, he will also be entering the squared circle for GuluWalk and the children of northern Uganda.
'The Dream', a former world champion and the official number one contender for the World Junior Middleweight title, will have the GuluWalk logo emblazoned on both his robe and his trunks when he enters the ring in front of a worldwide audience on HBO. Ouma's bout will be featured as the main undercard for the much anticipated return to the ring of 'The Golden Boy', Oscar De La Hoya.
In 1984, Ouma was kidnapped by the rebel National Resistance Army at the tender age of five, along with his entire primary school class. He was forced to fight in unspeakable conditions and spent five years with the NRA, which was led by current Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni, before being reunited with his family 1989.
"I was a child soldier in Uganda and I know what war can do to child. It's time for the world to stand up and say enough is enough," said Ouma, who is from the village of Busia, which is on the Kenyan border in southeastern Uganda. "GuluWalk is listening to these kids and being their voice, and I'm proud to go into the ring for children who have suffered enough."
GuluWalk is a Canadian-led event that started as a way to better understand the ordeal of the night commuters of northern Uganda. It has now grown into an urgent, impassioned worldwide movement for peace. GuluWalk will go global once again in October of 2006 and will continue to raise awareness and money to support children's programs in northern Uganda.
"To have Kassim step forward and take a stand for the children of the north is an important statement," said GuluWalk co-founder Adrian Bradbury. "This sends a clear message to all Ugandans and the entire international community that we are all responsible. Every child is indeed precious and what's happening in the north today deserves our immediate attention."

World Fair Trade Day

   Saturday May 13th is World Fair Trade Day, a day to honour the achievements made in strengthening international development by fair trade organizations. The "Ten Thousand Villages" stores across Canada will be marking the day with special activities across the country from B.C. to New Brunswick. One of the 'specials' will be 25% off everything in the store (excluding rugs) for those who correctly answer the question. Others include free samples, draws for prizes, a drumming circle - the list goes on and on. To find the store nearest you, follow this link.
   Why the fuss, would be a reasonable question to ask about now, and I have an answer. As their website declares, "Ten Thousand Villages provides vital, fair income to Third World people by marketing their handicrafts and telling their stories in North America." Since World Fair Trade Day is the day before Mother's Day, the timing couldn't be better. A shopping trip to your local store would result in a great deal more than a beautiful and original present for your Mom. It would also help to increase "economic opportunities for women artisans in developing countries, empowering them to bring about change in their lives and their communities."
   Again, you would be entitled to ask, why should I? There are an endless queue of causes waiting for me to open my wallet. You'd be right, so maybe you could look at it this way - Who hasn't got a Mother? Retailers in North America love Mother's Day because it's one of their biggest profit makers after Christmas. Sales of roses for Mother's Day often equal or surpass those for Valentine's Day. We have the money to spend and if we're going to spend it anyway, why not do so in a store that will help you to help someone else's Mom at the same time, with no extra effort required on your part?
    Keep a few facts in mind when you're making up your mind. Women still account for 70% of the 1.3 billion people making less than $1 a day. It is these women who work 60 to 90 hours a week to help provide for their families. Your purchase could do more than you might imagine. For 60 years now, Ten Thousand Villages has worked toward the goal of fair trade. They have found strengthening women's economic security to be critical to poverty reduction efforts, and so about 70% of the artisans from whom they buy are women.
   You couldn't get a more original gift than Tuareg silver jewellery for you Mother. If you bought it, or any of the other wonderful pieces at a Ten Thousand Villages shop, both you and she could feel extra good when she opens her present.

Tod Aus Luft

   This year, Yom Hashoah saw the annual March of the Living take place at "The Death Factory". It made its way along the 3.2 kilometre trek from Auschwitz to Birkenau. This year's event was led by Shimon Peres, former Israeli Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Laureate. They made their March of the Living in silence, to mark the passing of the six million slaughtered by the Nazis. The March ends at Birkenau, at the site of the death complex's gas chambers that killed 1.1 million before the camp was liberated on January 27, 1945, by Soviet troops.
   There is a horrible irony inextricably woven into the history of the gas chambers at Birkenau, one I am sure that takes on a life of its own each year as the marchers crowd into the camp area. It surely must become a crushing cloud that lurks in every corner, much as the poison gas did. Tod Aus Luft - death from the air. The very earth at Birkenau must shiver in memory of the murderous miasma.
   Birkenau was one of many extermination camps run by the Nazis, at first, but by the period of March 1944 to November 1944, when the use of all the other death camps had ceased, it continued its grisly function and surpassed all previous records set for mass murder. The gas chambers there measured a total of 2,255 square meters, and each delivered to its victims a lethal dose of Zyklon B; a hydrogen cyanide-based gas researched by one Fritz Haber during the closing days of the First World War. If it is indeed the word to use, the horrible irony is that Haber was a German Jew.
   Haber is hailed by many who look back at him as a brilliant chemist. At first glance, the opinion of the day seemed to be much the same. In 1918, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, ostensibly for his work to reliably combine hydrogen and nitrogen in order to produce ammonia. In tandem with the industrial metallurgical engineer Carl Bosch, Haber perfected and patented a process to effect the production of ammonia. Synthetic ammonia is used in the manufacture of fertilizers such as ammonia nitrate. Production of cheap synthetic fertilizers using the Haber-Bosch process allowed for a seven-fold increase in the world's food supply during the 20th century and a resultant fourfold increase in the population. For this process, Haber earned the honorifics of "genius" and "saviour of mankind".
   Although it didn't seem to be any cause for concern to the Nobel Committee, they were giving the award to a man who had been named on the Allies' list of war criminals. Haber had not just been busily trying to feed the hungry. During the war, he was also enthusiastically involved in the pursuit of ever more efficient means of killing. His work during the First World War centred around poison gases - chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas - work that has since earned him another title. "Father of chemical warfare" he is called. The Nobel Committee named this man as a recipient just months after the end of the Great War, and conveniently omitted any mention of his work for the German war effort.
   Haber thought of gas warfare as an intellectual challenge, telling the industrialist Carl Duisberg that "gas weapons and gas defence turn warfare into chess". The Nobel committee awarded their prize to a man who thought of killing as a game. They took the avowed purpose of Alfred Nobel to reward "those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind." They perverted it with their prize giving that year.
   Alfred Nobel, at heart a pacifist, was an inventor who worked during the mid-1800's when nitroglycerine was the explosive most commonly used in mining and in blasting rock. It was incredibly unstable and so Nobel gave his energies to the development of an explosive that could be more safely handled. Upon his invention of dynamite, Nobel thought that he had perhaps invented the means to world peace, since he was sure that all civilized nations would "recoil from war" with such a weapon of destruction. Upon learning that people thought of him as a merchant of death, Nobel established the prizes in attempted counterbalance of this image.
   Haber, untroubled by concern for his fellow man, once told a co-worker that his goal was to perfect something that would "put people permanently out of action". He described mustard gas as "a fabulous success". His effort for the German military was a source of great disappointment to his onetime friend, Albert Einstein, who felt that Haber's work was the same as putting "an axe in the hand of a pathological criminal". Being German and a member of the German war effort was, however, everything to Haber. During his days of glory, he said of himself that he felt "100% German" and "no longer felt any ties to the Jewish religion".
   A huge shock was waiting for Haber when the Nazis began their ascent to power. It became apparent that he wasn't really regarded as a German after all and that his war efforts meant nothing to the vaterland. In April 1933, Hitler declared the tenure of all Jews at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute and in university posts to be kaput, except for those who had served in the Great War. They demanded immediate dismissals and Haber was urged by colleagues at the Institute to fire junior staff quickly in order to protect them and himself. Haber instead fired two senior scientists, one of whom was a Hungarian Jew. Such a mensch, Haber was!
   Haber soon retired from his post and began to look for clemency among colleagues and former friends. He contacted Chaim Weizmann, the Zionist leader, to enquire about the possibility of moving to Palestine. Weizmann said of the meetings, "I could scarcely look him in the eye. I was ashamed for myself..." in dealing with him. To Einstein Haber declared, "I have never felt so Jewish as now." Einstein was unsympathetic in his response to this turncoat. Haber had had himself baptized and always identified himself as Protestant in order to be accepted by the Prussian establishment. When they turned on him, he wanted comfort. He had denied his own people to serve a monster that would soon rise up and engulf those same people in untold horrors. He wanted comfort. Einstein wrote only that he was happy Haber's "earlier love for the blond beast has cooled off a bit."
   Haber even wrote to his former colleague, Carl Bosch, asking for help. Bosch did not reply. In January 1934, Haber had the decency to die. He succumbed to heart disease too soon to see what his beloved Germany did with the Zyklon B. He did not know the numbers of his own people who died inhaling the gas he worked on for the advancement of Germany. He died, perhaps, before the Germans had the chance to use it on him.
   There must have been relatives of his who breathed their last in gas chambers fuelled by his invention. Do you think his ghost stood by, watching, and declaring his work still to be a fabulous success, or do you think his shade wrung its spectral hands in horror at what he had done? If his soul wanders the chambers at Birkenau, I am sure the dust motes have no objection, but I think that those who know about Herr Fritz Haber must hate the very thought of his presence at the March of the Living. If ever there was a man upon whom eternal torment should be visited, surely it is Fritz Haber.