February 24, 2003

Peter Jackson on organ donations

Peter Jackson, director of you know what, is finding out some things about his homeland that were apparently an unwelcome surprise. For on thing, there were only 37 organ donators in New Zealand last year. Here's a Middle-Earth parallel that is not so cute:

“There is something Hobbit-like in the ‘she’ll be right’ complacency among most New Zealanders,” said Jackson. “ I was shocked to discover the low level of organ donation in this country as we are all in the position of potentially needing the replacement of a vital organ. This little girl will die, as will others like her, unless we all make an active effort to address this problem.”

And that's not all:

Mr Jackson also urges the Ministry of Health to buy a ‘liver bypass’ machine.

“End-stage liver patients have died, only to have a suitable organ become available shortly afterwards. A bypass machine would buy such patients a bit of extra time.”

He said he was dismayed to learn that New Zealand does not own one of these machines, which, at a cost of $25,000, should be within the Health Ministry’s budget.

“Liver bypass machines are standard health care in every other part of the world, China recently bought 60 of them.”

Hey, here's an idea: you've just directed a couple of movies that has earned you zillions of dollars. Why not check out how much a downpayment for one of those things will be, and donate one to the "Ministry of Health" yourself? Just a thought. Perhaps, now that the scales have seemingly fallen from his eyes, he'll realize that you don't have to wait for the "Ministry of Health" or any other government body to do things, not when you have money. (Though I wonder just how much of his earnings is taken out in taxes.)

Posted by Andrea Harris at February 24, 2003 01:19 AM
Comments

Thank you! I've also a few more suggestions for Mr. Jackson --

1) Donate the equivalent of the US union wages you would have had to pay to the soliders supplied by the Army as (unpaid) extras.

2) Convince AOL Time Warner (who owns New Line)to return the nice fat tax-break they got.

Posted by: Craig Ranapia at February 24, 2003 at 01:53 AM

A final suggestion for Pete: lose some weight and reduce the chance you will ever require an organ transplant.

Posted by: Craig Ranapia at February 24, 2003 at 01:55 AM

If you go down in the streets to-day bay-bee you betta--you betta open your eyes--oh woo oh oh oh! (dig the misty mtn. hop and zeppelin rules!) keep up the fine work.

Posted by: peat at February 24, 2003 at 01:20 PM