ALTA GRACIA. THANKS FOR THE FEELINGS OF LOVE

Every Monday morning, the music streaming service, selects algorithmically based on my past listening habits, songs which are new to me and it is a pleasure to discover International Singers old and new and today this song just hit me at the right spot in my heart.

Remember the days we used to share

Remember the time when I was there I believed every single word you said Just like a child I lost my head I didn't care if it was day or night I just wanted to have you by my side The moon went up, the sun went down But you were still around Alta gracia, my love Alta gracia, my love Alta gracia, my love Alta gracia, my love Remember how we spent the night How we kissed and held each other tight Everything was like a beautiful dream You were the sweetest woman I've ever seen How could I know our love wouldn't stand a chance? I had to go and end this wonderful romance Now I'm so sad and blue, here without you, what can I do? I used to love her from the bottom of my heart Didn't realize that time was slippin' by Now we're living oh so far apart I give grace for the days that I held her by my side By my side

The name of the singer 

Oscar Harris 

Never heard this name before

he had a slight accent in his songs

Imagine my surprise when I found out that 

he is SURINAMESE who was popular in Holland in 1970s and 1980s.

The mind begins to racy and scans the emotional landscape, where was that? when was that? who was that? and the song Willie Nelson sang when we were junior doctors in Melbourne? I wonder who is kissing her now ..

It is not nostalgia but a wonderful feeling rising up in your heart. 

saudade? No i have not lost anything. In fact I have so much to look forward to in the coming months when my wanderers heart meu coracao vagabundo would be on the road again ..

and?

QUEEN ESTHER OF IRAN AND OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE

https://www.nli.org.il/en/manuscripts/NNL_ALEPH002593515/NLI?_gl=1*e980uo*_ga*MTkxMTgzODc3LjE2MTM5ODY2NDM.*_ga_8P5PPG5E6Z*MTYxMzk4NjY0MS4xLjEuMTYxMzk4NzU5OC40OA..&_ga=2.221434904.1839173943.1613986646-191183877.1613986643#$FL160821220

The remembrance, the festival of PURIM is upon us.

to me, the age old connection between Israel and the people of Israel and the Jews and IRAN

to be remembered

Queen Esther

A tomb of Esther and Mordechai is at Hamadan, within a mausoleum believed to have been built in the 1600s and is first attested in the 11th century. Benjamin of Tudela visited the city, in which he reckoned there were 50,000 Jewish inhabitants, and described the tomb as in front of the synagogue. Shahin Shirazi, in his 14th century Ardashir-nāmah, was the first known Persian Jew to write of the dreams of Esther and Mordechai and of a journey they made to Hamadan, stating they died in the synagogue and within an hour of each other. The narrative of Shirazi may derive from earlier Judaeo-Persian sources, now vanished

So it was good to hear that a New York Philanthropist had donated a Megillat Ester.. scroll of Esther written in Iberian peninsula in 1465 CE ie 550 years ago.. it has already been made available on line.

so for me personally it is good to remember what people in Iran are going through, with its long history of wicked kings ..

May they see yet another Queen Esther of their own to bring them liberty. 

I think each and every one of my Iranian friends, past and present and wish them all well.

THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL: COVID 19 INCIDENCE AND PREVALENCE FALLING ALL OVER THE DEMOCRATIC WORLD IN THE AMERICAS

 

TODAY IS FEBRUARY 21, 2021

There has been a Dramatic drop in the number of cases of Covid 19 infections being diagnosed in the USA.

Medical Scientists would give one explanation and the Anthropologists, add to the explanation adding the societal element.

Medical: Both New York Times and Wall Street Journal had good articles about the fall in Corona Virus incidence. 

They credit Herd Immunity from undetected infections (a little stretched as it is not possible that up to 50% of the population has been infected with the Virus without knowing about it ?), improved compliance with the Chief Doctor's recommendations. 

But the high positivity rate of tests, in Miami , one in ten tests are positive, which shows that far fewer people are being tested. Oye, this is not Cuba where there is an excellent Public Health Service in place, I think Americans have an inherent dislike to the word Public, I feel which they associate with Socialism: like Public Health in Miami is non existent in its presence (in poor Cuba , made poorer by the last four years of suffocation by the Giant of the North, a visitor is checked three times in the first five days of his stay and there is constant vigilance by brigades of students and nurses and doctors, with door to door checking). As we now see in Texas, one of the more conservative states, Public Infrastructure also in shambles. In general, in places where you have a government which truly CARES for the public wherever they belong in the rainbow spectrum, you get better results.

Those interested in this matter, please read how ISRAEL is dealing with the virus despite reluctance from a minority of dissidents and has already vaccinated about 60 per cent of its populace (USA before January 20th was negligible but now stands at 13%)

If you are interested in looking at our friends Japan or South Korea or Taiwan or New Zealand or Australia, you can see what went wrong in the USA with regard to the care of the population.

But look at the graph again. Trump lost his election on November 4th and finally and reluctantly gave up his seat on January 20th, during which time he instigated very nearly a civil insurrection and the rate of Covid virus infections jumped. Jut watch the graph.

November 4th to January 20th, USA had the highest rate of infections in a while.

and if you look at the rate after January 20th, it started plummeting.

When you have a president who reconciles than divides, when you have a leader who is level headed rather than fiery, when you have a leader who puts out a fire rather than start one, one who wears a mask, in fact two masks which makes over 90 percent secure that Virus does not enter, then the general population, whether descendants of the pilgrims in Massachusetts or the nabobs of negativity of banana republic of Miami or the millions of Mexicans, Hondurans, Guatemalans will feel a sense of relief..

to any one it is obvious that the general ambiance of the country and the anxiety level at individual levels all have improved dramatically.. The virus survived in a caustic atmosphere whereas a sensible population, calm and obedient to the scientists rather than hypocritical, false messiahs of chloroquine and other purveyors of snake oil remedies.

At this rate, with 1.7 million vaccines being given per day and pharmacies (but avoid Publix Pharmacies for their owners contributions to NRA and Jan 6 insurgency) and Walmarts now joining in can easily vaccinate the entire nation and by the end of April, we can sigh collectively....

Now, is the time for the people of Nuestra America as Marti said to see this gentle example of the Giant of the North: kick out oligarchs and fascists and welcome caring people to lead you with a little bit of financial and vaccine help from the North.

Just today, scientists have realized that for those people who had Covid infections symptoms or no, need only one shot to boost their antibody production by a thousand fold and thus saving millions of doses which can be donated to the brothers and sisters in the Caribbean and also Central and South America.

Soon, you will see me heading to Miami International Airport heading to places where I can look after the PUBLIC ..May Madre Selva bless me ..!

I HAVE RECEIVED MY VACCINE.. SO THAT MY PATIENTS ARE SAFE..

 

I work for a special community and they were prioritized to receive vaccines for all the Health Care workers as well as all the members of the community. The Health Care providers were jabbed first.

Four weeks later I got my second jab and that was more than one month ago. Still protecting our patients, we are obliged to do Covid 19 tests every two weeks and my test number 28 from this week came back negative.

I urge all people who do not have serious allergies to take the vaccine. Studies from Israel show that Vaccine protects you from infection, hospitalization and death from this virus close to 100 per cent. No vaccine guarantees 100 per cent and the Covid vaccine is one the highest in the upper 90 percentile that I have ever seen..

I tell my colleagues, based again on other Israeli studies, my chance of infecting another person is very small, and if that person is vaccinated the chance of infecting that person is close to zero.

Please get your vaccine.. 

This means that my long isolation from TRAVEL is coming to an end. I would book tickets using my usual tricks and get upgraded to seats which are more spacious and not many people around, wear masks and face shields and carry oodles of hand sanitizers and not go to places where there are lots of people. I would miss going to restos but I am sure there are enough outdoor restos.. in this world ..

Today marks the first anniversary when my world of travel fell apart..

I began year 2020 in Cochin, Kerala, spent a few days in Muscat and had at least 3 visits to Cuba..

In 2021, the emphasis is on Brasil. Cuba. France. Qatar. Israel. India. Malaysia. Cambodia ..Omaha and Kickapoo tribes..

Oh Lets see..

I AM A COVID REFUGEE

 Despite having Passports of two First World Countries, which allows me entry into most countries in this world,

I am a Covid Refugee.

I have an occupation

I have a job

But i have no projects 

I have a place to stay 

More on the offer 

But I am homeless

My fear is not an expulsion of an Illegal

Rejection of Asylum

But the fear of nowhere foreign to go 

In short, nothing material is missing

I am not an economic refugee 

I am a covid refugee..

SAUDADE SODADE marooned in Miami

 

It is 4 pm in the afternoon

The sun is fading in the horizon

leaving that tender touch on your skin 

A medical student in London is making tea 

A street called Pont Street, historically there might have been a bridge there 

across from Beauchamp place where there used to be a Lebanese Restaurant

A london radio station playing World Music, a place to buy music called Steins

That was the introduction to the song Sodade and Cabo Verdian music 

Mornas and Coladeras 

Fado strains of longings 

African beat from Angola and Guinea

and Cesaria Evora 

Such simple words

loaded with emotions 

departures departures 

for Lisboa for Boston 

Oh Mar Oh Mar 

a barrier and a hope 

Brasil is so far away 

That sense of saudade, the sense of having lost something that you never had or even had a chance to enjoy, is always present. Others with their words bring it back to me or it arises in me on a day like this in Miami where paradoxically an isolation has brought on the boredom of comfort .

While literature from Spanish America brought Magical Realism into life, it was Brasilian movies that brought back the same sensation. 

I had been introduced to Orfeo Negro which had become a cult movie and was shown on weekends in Australia. When I first arrived in USA at an University town, the student cinema showed a variety of movies from around the world.

one stands out in my memory:

It was sheer magic for me.

But I could not create that magic in my multiple visits to Brasil. Magical realism grows out of the harsh reality on the ground, I was to learn later.

Many other moments remain in memory, that come to haunt, Nacib played by Marcello Mastroianni, filmed in Paraty, which itself is a dream like location, Dona Flor...

but none other made an impression on me like 

Central do Brasil 

Fernanda Montenegro

No dia que você quiser lembrar de mim, dá uma olhada no retratinho que a gente tirou junto.

Eu digo isso porque tenho medo que um dia você também me esqueça.

Tenho saudade do meu pai, tenho saudade de tudo

Tenho Saudade de tudo

with tears in my heart full of saudade, dedicated to M in Bauru, Sao Paolo, Brasil.

THE THREE STAGES OF WESTERN INTELLECTUAL THOUGHT.. my short summary

 Western Intellectual thought does not denote thoughts of the Western people, but a strain of philosophy which was born and nurtured in the Western world, adopted as their own by multitudes of people all over the world. Just as Yogic Philosophy, condensed in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras is eagerly adopted by people from Uruguay to Reykjavik!

The intellectual influences whether you grow up in Melbourne Australia or Bruxelles Belgium or Sao Paolo Brasil can be traced historically to an epoch of transformation in the Western mind. I was fortunate to be surrounded by jewish people who had left Europe fearing persecution. I could date our collective thinking to Renaissance.

What has Dr. Lopez who is a Cuban physician practising in Hialeah, Miami to do with Descartes, the French Philosopher.

The good doctor separates the mind from the body and attends to the signs and symptoms forgetting that an individual actually lives in that body. This mind-body dichotomy goes back and has greatly influenced the Western thought and is attributed to none other than our friend, the philosopher Rene Descartes.

 I think, therefore I am 

Descartes was the one who could, in the sixteenth century, separate mind and the body, the church, state and the individual. He also did away with the soul, ascribing it to the pineal gland in the body. We have to thank Descartes for putting an end to the Church hierarchy interfering in the affairs of the society, forcibly, sometimes by burning and execution, in the belief of the people (The Inquisition for example). This was also the birth of Individualism 

Thank you Descartes..

He was a devout catholic and somehow manage to balance his forays into philosophy (doubting every one of his senses but believing in his own existence) and fear of persecution by the church. Paradoxically he was called an Atheist by the Dutch Protestants.

The second stage was Le Penseur.. The Thinker.

Abstract thinking, innovative thinking, prodded on by what one saw in life at home and abroad 

I enjoyed this period in my life (continue to do so) when there was sheer pleasure of thinking, abstract thinking. Medical education does not allow you to indulge in abstract thinking: the pain in the abdomen has 120 different causes and the patient has one of them.

Fortunately Anthropology saved me.. Applying  Anthropology to Health and Illness, allowed you to deviate from What of Medical enquiry to Why of anthropological enquiry.

Education in Medical Anthropology has strongly influenced in my dedication to the Indigenous people.

the Third stage is Meditative..

Until a a decade ago, I was totally (and blissfully?) ignorant of Yoga, Yogic philosophy of Patanjali and teachings of the Buddha. It may have coincided with my increased frequency of travel to Asia but also meeting MYC who was to become my best friend in Asia. Buddha certainly arrived with the Shwedagon Pagoda to my mind and heart..My teacher, Cecil Helman, the Medical Anthropologist had mentioned Meditation and I had known people who had gone to India to do 10 days of Vipassana Meditation. Since i did not notice any great change in their ways of thinking after this experience, I did not pay much attention. 

A friend from Dali City, Yunnan kindled the desire for meditation along with study of Jiddu Krishnamurty. Sadhguru became universally popular. But it was not until I began reading Harari that I became interested in meditation.

Perhaps my admiration for Harari and my appreciation of his clear thinking has an effect on my meditative practices which are in its infancy.

I have become a bit more aware of the Reality and realize that it is my reaction to what is happening around, now what actually is happening.

I look forward to this. and to understand the isolation from places and people during this year of isolation. Now that I am fully vaccinated, I am making plans to travel but the practical matter is that few places that i wish to visit are safe enough to visit. Flights to Leticia from Bogota are cancelled for the fear of the Brasilian strain and that would have been one of my first destination.

ah well..

BESAME MUCHO. THE ETERNAL BLISSFUL SONG... THE MOST POPULAR MEXICAN SONG EVER RECORDED.. EVEN THOUGH CUBANS CLAIM IT .. FOR SENTIMENTAL REASONS

BESAME MUCHO

CONSUELO VELASQUEZ.    MEXICO 1940

This has to be one of the most popular Latin American Song ever written, recorded by numerous people over the course of decades.

Bésame, bésame mucho,

Embrasse-moi, mon amour,

Que je puisse oublier.

Bésame, bésame mucho,

Tous les regrets d'un amour

Fait de tant de baisers...

 

Oui, je sais bien

Qu'un beau jour on revient,

Mais j'hésite, ce jour est si loin...

N'y croyons pas,

Disons-nous, toi et moi,

Qu'on se voit pour la dernière fois...

 

Bésame, bésame mucho,

Embrasse-moi, mon amour,

Que je puisse oublier

Le temps en fuite

Et ma chanson n'aura plus

Qu'un seul mot : aimer...

~ ~ ~

Oui, je sais bien

Qu'un beau jour on revient,

Mais j'hésite, ce jour est si loin...

N'y croyons pas,

Disons-nous, toi et moi,

Qu'on se voit pour la dernière fois...

 

Bésame, bésame mucho,

Embrasse-moi, mon amour,

Que je puisse oublier

Le temps en fuite

Et mon amour n'aura plus

Qu'un seul mot : aimer...

Cette chanson n'aura plus

Qu'un seul mot : aimer...

All of us can remember, some diva or other belting out this song. My own favourite is by Cesaria Evora, recorded in la Habana, Cuba. She sings in Spanish, even though most of her original songs are in Cabo Verdian Creole.

I was able to dig up a TV clip from 1962 of an Israeli singer, Carmela Corren singing the song, it is interesting to observe the decor and choreography. She sings the song in both Spanish and English.

Reading about the history of this song, the most popular Mexican song ever (even though Cubans like to claim this as their own!), there is a consensus that a recording by

Gigliola Cinquetti with Trio Los Panchos is one of the best..

While I was searching for this blog, I was also reading Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari and incidentally the page was on the physical sensations of Happiness.

To me, there many songs, new and old, of various genres, that give a nice sensation in the body and the mind. some immediately bring to mind, a strong association, a particular time in my life, Manha da Carnival in Melbourne; Sodade in London among others ..I associate so many cities with music that is close to my heart ..

Buenos Aires. Sur. Roberto Goyeneche 

Salvador do Bahia. Alcione. Sampa Caetano Veloso. Porto Alegre Elis Regina 

Paris London Bruxelles the list goes on and on ..

OH POBRE MYANMAR/BIRMANIA... TAN LEJOS DE BUDDHA Y TAN CIRCA DE CHINA

 The month had begun with convulsions in Myanmar/Burma, where the Military seeing their popularity and power slip, overthrew the popularly elected government of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

During a period of 15 years, I had travelled a lot to Myanmar and within Myanmar and absolutely felt one with the people, regardless of their ethnicity. I enjoyed the Buddhism as practised in every day life in Burma .. Many many memories

A good bye at the Rangoon Airport , Ko Ko the driver had taken us all the way down to Mawlemayne on a memorable trip. My Burmese niece Eithwe Aung and her friend Yin Yin Mar. 

On my first visit to Yangon, I had discovered this store where Aung Kyaw Kyaw would hang out and on each of my subsequent visits I would stop by occasionally sharing a Le Paye (Burmese tea)

The Malaysians are very proud of their Durians, so are the Burmese..It was nice to see Durians in season during one visit

the Doctor and the novice Monks

I took a few Burmese language lessons and I could walk to her house from my hotel. She was a rakhine.

I would walk one km from my hotel to this open air tea shop where this boy who was from the provinces lived and worked. On one such visit, the owner informed me that he had gone back to his village. He was, I think, a Karin.

Religious and cultural syncretism at its best. On my second visit I met this family who has a corner store on the pavement along the Anwharata Road and over the year we became friends. U Tun Tun, the father is as Burmese as they come but his grandfather had migrated from Tamil Nadu, Doraisamy was his name. U Tun Tun married a Bamar Muslim and now the children are all Muslim. They have both Burmese and Muslim names. The son inherited the fathers sewing machine on the pavement and the little girl attends university now.

I could palpably feel the air of happiness and joy in Rangoon when The Lady was released from Insein maximum security prison. A mixture of modern and the past, began to be combined. The change in people, in their dress, their confidence was very obvious when Aung San Suu Kyi became the leader of the country.

She remains immensely popular. So many many memories..

I have a wonderful story about this group of about 12 people from the village of Chaungtha decided to take a bus ride of 6 hours to the largest city of Yangon none of them knew, just hoping that I would be spending that week there.

I wrote about them in With Love from Myanmar, an article: The Hat sellers of Chaungtha

Chauntha Beach and Kala Island nearby. 

Thank you PaPa Win, E To, Tin Tin Aye..

You can read their adventure and my joy of seeing them :

https://medicoanthropologist.blogspot.com/2009/05/to-myanmar-with-love-indeed.html

I think and pray for all my friends in Myanmar/Birmanie. I had been there when General Tan Shwe held sway and I remember clearly the atmosphere of the country and the joy and jubilation under Aung San Suu Kyi..

As soon as it is safe to travel, I plan to go to Yangon, to show solidarity with my Burmese friends ...and try my best to go to Chaungtha..

This was the group that I was part of. Once I wanted to surprise them. I told only Eithwe and Yin Yin that I would be in Yangon on such and such day. They invited the rest of them for dinner at a restaurant and while they were gathering for dinner, came to pick me up at the airport . They had a Burmese Longyi (traditional wear of men) for me, and I entered the restaurant wearing my longyi much to the delight of every one. 

TO FAST OR NOT TO FAST.. A GOURMETS DILEMMA

September 28, 2020

Effects of Time-Restricted Eating on Weight Loss and Other Metabolic Parameters in Women and Men With Overweight and Obesity

JAMA Intern Med. Published online September 28, 2020. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.4153

Question  What is the effect of time-restricted eating on weight loss and metabolic health in patients with overweight and obesity?

Findings  In this prospective randomized clinical trial that included 116 adults with overweight or obesity, time-restricted eating was associated with a modest decrease (1.17%) in weight that was not significantly different from the decrease in the control group (0.75%).

Meaning  Time-restricted eating did not confer weight loss or cardiometabolic benefits in this study.

Abstract

Importance  The efficacy and safety of time-restricted eating have not been explored in large randomized clinical trials.

Objective  To determine the effect of 16:8-hour time-restricted eating on weight loss and metabolic risk markers.

Interventions  Participants were randomized such that the consistent meal timing (CMT) group was instructed to eat 3 structured meals per day, and the time-restricted eating (TRE) group was instructed to eat ad libitum from 12:00 pm until 8:00 pm and completely abstain from caloric intake from 8:00 pm until 12:00 pm the following day.

Design, Setting, and Participants  This 12-week randomized clinical trial including men and women aged 18 to 64 years with a body mass index (BMI, calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared) of 27 to 43 was conducted on a custom mobile study application. Participants received a Bluetooth scale. Participants lived anywhere in the United States, with a subset of 50 participants living near San Francisco, California, who underwent in-person testing.

Main Outcomes and Measures  The primary outcome was weight loss. Secondary outcomes from the in-person cohort included changes in weight, fat mass, lean mass, fasting insulin, fasting glucose, hemoglobin A_1c levels, estimated energy intake, total energy expenditure, and resting energy expenditure.

Results  Overall, 116 participants (mean [SD] age, 46.5 [10.5] years; 70 [60.3%] men) were included in the study. There was a significant decrease in weight in the TRE (−0.94 kg; 95% CI, −1.68 to −0.20; P = .01), but no significant change in the CMT group (−0.68 kg; 95% CI, -1.41 to 0.05, P = .07) or between groups (−0.26 kg; 95% CI, −1.30 to 0.78; P = .63). In the in-person cohort (n = 25 TRE, n = 25 CMT), there was a significant within-group decrease in weight in the TRE group (−1.70 kg; 95% CI, −2.56 to −0.83; P < .001). There was also a significant difference in appendicular lean mass index between groups (−0.16 kg/m²; 95% CI, −0.27 to −0.05; P = .005). There were no significant changes in any of the other secondary outcomes within or between groups. There were no differences in estimated energy intake between groups.

Conclusions and Relevance  Time-restricted eating, in the absence of other interventions, is not more effective in weight loss than eating throughout the day.

The Internet is full of experts, I wonder where they got their expertise from? Most of them are not fully fledged experts on any one subject but seem to have gathered their facts rather than knowledge from here and there.

Until the above study came about, FASTING including an extreme fasting of eating only one hour a day, was popular in the USA. They touted the benefits of loss of weight the Americans adding each year to the weight of the planet. 

Always remember if you eat less and especially if you eat less FOOD rather than less fabricated food or industrial food , you would lose weight. But like all the other diets, the weight would return.

I have been trying to see how many hours during the day that my digestive mechanism is at relative rest.. it was a nice experiment to tabulate and I found that I was fasting about 14/15 hours each day, effectively reducing my daily intake of food in two instalments, and completely avoiding snacks (I would like to know about this SNACKS , its history, who introduced it and I am certain it is an introduced cultural phenomenon. In France there is a rigid practice of GOUTER around 4 pm for children which is religiously observed.

As many philosopher/nutrition counsellors have suggested: Eat Food, Eat when you are hungry, Eat mainly plant based food, Avoid Fast Food and definitely all Ultra Processed food!

Bon apetite..