WHEN THEY CANT HANDLE A SOCIAL CRISIS WELL, MALE LEADERS HAND OVER LEADERSHIP TO WOMEN

The Covid 19 pandemic has revealed many wrongful aspects of our societies. We tend to concentrate on the disparity of wealth, social order and race relations.

One positive aspect that stands out is the emergence of women leaders at the National and Provincial levels.

Forbes had an article 

What Do Countries With The Best Coronavirus Responses Have In Common? Women Leaders

The best PUBLIC HEALTH officials around the world also have been women, whether at a provincial level like Dr Bonnie Henry in British Columbia or national level like Dr Tam in Canada. The tendency is world wide, the best results in India with its catastrophic Covid 19 pandemic, has been from Kerala, where a woman leads the Health Department.

I have always believed that women has the character best suited for health care providers, the caring nature being one of them 

Here is a summary of an article about Dr Bonnie Henry, the Chief Public Health officer i BC Canada.

A former Navy physician, Dr. Henry has been lauded for her intelligence and strength, but also for her classically female leadership traits — humility, collaboration, empathy and emotion. In perhaps her most celebrated press briefing, she teared up after announcing the virus had broken out in long-term care homes.

“This is our time to be kind,” she said in her slow and low-pitched voice that many call comforting, “to be calm and to be safe.”

It was while working for the World Health Organization tracing Ebola outbreaks in Uganda that Dr. Henry developed her ideas about how best to respond to public health emergencies. The keys to an effective quarantine, she came to understand, were communication and support, like food and medical follow-up, not punitive measures.

(Murals of Dr TAM and Dr Henry in Vancouver, BC, Canada)

“If you tell people what they need to do and why, and give them the means to do it, most people will do what you need,” she said.

 I clearly remember a meeting of the leaders of American Indian health in Phoenix, Arizona. The Epidemiologists, the troubadours of tragedy had announced the impending gloom of Diabetes on native population. 

A leader from Lakota nation, Ms John, I think her name was, got up and said :

We are sick and tired of you telling us how sick we are, it would be helpful if you could give us  means to fight this epidemic. and in my reservation, she continued, giving us JOB opportunities we would begin to cut down on this epidemic of Diabetes.

To echo that sentiment, I have noted that financially independent tribal nations have fared well during the current covid 19 epidemic in the USA.

Hats off to the world leaders who have saved millions of their fellow citizens and the hundreds of women public health leaders who think of the welfare of their fellow citizens.

I admire each and every one of you and particularly admire Jacinda from our  part of the world, Australasia. I fondly pay respects to Golda Meier, Israel ; Mrs Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka, Indira Gandhi of India, Ms Bhutto of Pakistan, Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Park Gyen-Hye of South Korea, Julia Guillard of Australia, Violeta Chamorro of NIcaragua, Michelle Bachelet of Chile, Teresa May of UK among many of the beneficial leaders.

MS Shailaja, Communist Party of Kerala

The coronavirus slayer! How Kerala's rock star health minister helped save it from Covid-19

In contrast, both populist presidents, Trump of USA and Bolsanaro of Brazil with very bad Covid 19 management credentials have appointed MILITARY men to oversee the Corona Virus epidemics in their countries.

Castigation does not work, the populists including Boris Johnson of UK and Poutin of Russia (both not doing too well with the Pandemic) should take note from Dr  Bonnie Henry of BC:

“If you tell people what they need to do and why, and give them the means to do it, most people will do what you need,”

M

INDIGENOUS SURVIVAL IN LATIN AMERICA. PABLO ALBARENGA OF URUGUAY THE PHOTOGRAPHER

The winners of the professional category of the 2020 Sony World Photography Awards have been announced, with Pablo Albarenga named as Photographer of the Year for his work on indigenous communities in Latin America.

Pablo Albarenga, a documentary photographer from Uruguay, is this year's Photographer of the Year for his series Seeds of Resistance, which highlights the plight of indigenous communities in Latin America, who are fighting to preserve their territories from agri-business and deforestation.

Albarenga's work pairs aerial images of some of the locations in danger with portraits of the activists fighting to conserve them.

when you cut down a tree you not only destroy the tree but also all life forms that depend upon it: vines, insects, plants ...

WHAT IS YOUR RISK OF DYING FROM COVID IN AMERICA. BE WHITE LIVE IN A LEAFY SUBURB GET YOUR FOOD DELIVERED AND DONT FORGET THE WINE

WHO IS DYING FROM COVID 19

WHICH COUNTRY ARE YOU IN ?  CUBA OR INDONESIA , VIETNAM OR BANGLADESH

IN THE USA, WHAT IS YOUR INCOME? WHAT IS YOUR COLOUR? WHICH PART OF TOWN DO YOU LIVE IN ?

IN BRASIL, ARE YOU POOR?

Where are people dying?

The data, which shows death rates in each of the city’s ZIP codes, underscores the deep disparities already unearthed by the outbreak. While the majority of the deaths across the city have been older residents, race and income have proven to be the largest factors in determining who lives and who dies.

Neighborhoods with high concentrations of black and Latino people, as well as low-income residents, suffered the highest death rates, while some wealthier areas — primarily in Manhattan — saw almost no deaths, according to the new data, which was published by the New York City Health Department.  FROM NEW YORK TIMES

Risk groups

o   Older age, especially > 65 yrs. and people with comorbidities appear more likely to develop an infection and severe symptoms and be at risk for death.

§  Males are more affected, especially with critical illness COVID-19.

o   Younger adults are also being hospitalized in the U.S.

§  Adults 20–44 account for 20% of hospitalizations, 12% of ICU admissions.

o   In the U.S.:

§  Obesity appears to be emerging as a risk factor, BMI ≥ 30, in nearly half of hospitalized patients.

§  Blacks appear to be hospitalized at a greater than expected frequency than expected on a population basis.

MOST OF THE ELDERLY LIVED IN NURSING HOMES, MEN IN JAILS OR WORKED IN ABATTOIRS.

THE DEATHS WERE RELATED TO THE AMOUNT OF INFECTION AND ITS FREQUENCY.  USA

In Dade County, where Miami is situated, if you look at the Zip Code, the highest rates of infections were in BLACK, POOR or IMMIGRANT neighbourhoods. The difference in incidence between a largely WHITE neighbourhood like Coral Gables  with a Black neighbourhood or a largely immigrant neighbourhood such as Hialeah is more than 8-fold.

The survival of Covid19 patients also depended upon your race in America. Proportionately more Black people have died than their numbers in the population.

Nearly 20 per cent of the people admitted to the ICU has been under the age of 50..

So in THE MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN (Covid shows how GREAT it has been for BLACK people)

If you are white, do not live in a nursing home, the chances of you being in jail is small (One million Blacks in Jail) or do not work in an abattoir (majority of the workers are immigrants) and get your food delivered by Instacart and wine from Total Wine (delivered)

And live in a leafy suburb or gated community, you have nothing to fear from this COVID 19. All others beware..

Read this story of courage from a young Brasilian doctor and what she observed in her country, led by a Trumpist, right wing politician, Jair Bolsanaro.

RIO DE JANEIRO — When the coronavirus first came to Brazil and a call went out for volunteers to work the critical care wards, Isabella Rêllo analyzed the risks. She was 28. She lived alone. She didn't have preexisting conditions.

So while older physicians stepped back from the front lines of the coronavirus response, Rêllo stepped up.

Soon Rêllo, a pediatrician, was treating dozens of coronavirus patients. But they weren’t who she’d expected. This patient was only 30 years old. That one was 32. Nearly half the people she was seeing were young, she said, and many were dying. The narrative seared into the global consciousness in the early months of the pandemic — that the virus spared the young and ravaged the elderly — was not what she was watching unfold in Brazil.

The young were at risk. She was at risk.

Isabella Rêllo, 28, thought her youth made her safe from the coronavirus. She was shocked to see how many younger people are dying.

“One patient was young, apparently healthy,” she said. “He was so sick, with so many complications. I thought, ‘This could be me. He could be my friend.’ The quickness that this kills people, including the young, has been a shock.”

As the coronavirus escalates its assault on the developing world, the victim profile is beginning to change. The young are dying of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, at rates unseen in wealthier countries — a development that further illustrates the unpredictable nature of the disease as it pushes into new cultural and geographic landscapes.

In Brazil, 15 percent of deaths have been people under 50 — a rate more than 10 times greater than in Italy or Spain. In Mexico, the trend is even more stark: Nearly one-fourth of the dead have been between 25 and 49. In India, officials reported this month that nearly half of the dead were younger than 60. In Rio de Janeiro state, more than two-thirds of hospitalizations are for people younger than 49!

From Washington Post

All of it has left Rêllo, the 28-year-old pediatrician who volunteered to treat coronavirus patients, terrified. But she kept working — until earlier this week, when she started to feel ill.

A dry cough. Sneezing. Body aches. A test soon confirmed her fears: She’d caught the virus. She doesn’t know what it will do to her. She’s young, but she says she no longer believes that’s enough.

She says she thinks of others whom she treated. She knows what they looked like.

“Like me,” she said.

MOON OVER THE AMAZON

Puerto Narino in the Colombian Amazonia is a planned village.The town was founded on 1961 August 18 by a doctor named Jose Humberto Espejo Hernandez. It is an ecological municipality in that it is completely pedestrian, no cars, no motorcycles and predominantly indigenous, Ticuna tribe being the main tribe living with other tribes in the region.

i have been fortunate enough to visit Puerto Narino at least twice. On my first trip on the fast boat from Leticia, a two hour journey, a french tourist guide informed me that a professor of Music lived there part time and was from Cuba! 
There was also a Cuban doctor who had been sent there by the Cuban government, who has since gone back.
I had the proper introduction on my next visit when I accompanied a Ticuna friend.
While Leticia has been ravaged by the Covid19 virus, Puerto Narino has been largely spared. Last night my Cuban friend sent me the picture of Full Moon over the Amazon..

I wish the residents of Puerto Narino well and that you come out of this pandemic healthy in the body and spirit and that I can come again to visit you ..

Beware of NUTRITION scams on the Social Media

It usually begins with a man and occasionally a woman, well dressed and well kempt, wearing surgical scrubs or a white coat with something like. DR…. embroidered on to it.

The first clue it is false in that they have a stethoscope which costs 5 dollars on ebay or has only one diaphragm and not the usual two.

The second clue, they always refer themselves as, I am Dr.. so and so.

Stop the video right there, and check them on google and to see what are their qualifications

Doctor of Chiropractic

Doctor of Oriental Medicine

Doctor of Naturopathy

Or rarely a MD, like a Dr Rodriguez, graduate of U of Miami, has a practice in Beverly Hills but NO PATIENTS..

You do not see real doctors flogging supplements or attach “knowledge” to credit card requests. Can you imagine Anthony Fauci selling Anti Allergy supplements? After all he is the Director for the past few decades of National Institute of Allergy?

Or the CNN correspondent Dr Sanjay Gupta who is of Indian origin selling Turmeric powder or Curry powder saying they build up your Immune system?

Another clue the charlatan disguise is that, they say: before I talk to you about the miracle drug that you cannot live without, they would either

Tell you their personal story of years of suffering from gastric petulance, pun intended or paint a infernal pictures of destroyed knee joints and burned out sports enthusiasts and then they would show their maternal aunt who at 97 just finished her third marathon for the year!  Yes, you guessed it, she is on that miracle pill.

Why is that we condemn Pharmaceutical companies and do not condemn these pill peddlers whose Neuriva etc sells folic acid for 100 times inflated prices? Successful peddlers who buy 3.6 million-dollar homes move from you tube to main line TV advertising alongside the Pharamaceutical companies.

Covid 19 has been a great boon for these troubadours of turmeric powder and such. Every one wants to improve their immunity.

How to improve your IMMUNITY? The charlatans have on their side the eagerness of the people to correct the situation with a pill rather than make substantial lifestyle changes.

Just look at the mortality from the current pandemic.

There is one risk factor which is not correctable, your age (unless you lie about it to the virus?0

The other risk factors are

OBESITY

DIABETES

HYPERTENSION

HEART DISEASE

All four things have things in common which are modifiable

ALL ARE RELATED TO DECREASED IMMUNE STATUS

With the fantastic array of medications available to us, a major proportion of the people are

OBESE HYPERTENSIVE DIABETIC and have Cardiovascular dysfunction  

Control of any of these four things would improve your immunity.

Do you want to improve your Immunity?

Find yourself a Dietician

Not a Chiropractor, Not a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Not a Naturopath

And begin to eat FOOD

And you would soon find how wrong has your eating habits and contents have been ..

The distribution of women classified as healthy, prevalent diseased, incident diseased, disabled, and died was 19%, 15%, 23%, 18%, and 25%, respectively. Compared to normal-weight women, underweight and obese women were more likely to die before age 85 years. Overweight and obese women had higher risks of incident disease and mobility disability. Disability risks were striking. Relative to normal-weight women, adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) of mobility disability was 1.6 (1.5–1.8) for overweight women and 3.2 (2.9–3.6), 6.6 (5.4–8.1), and 6.7 (4.8–9.2), for class I, II, and III obesity, respectively. Waist circumference >88 centimeters was also associated with higher risk of earlier death, incident disease, and mobility disability.

Obesity and Survival to Age 85 Years without Major Disease or Disability in Older Women. JAMA 2014

You live longer if you are not Overweight. No amount of Turmeric, CoQ-10, Pro-biotic is going to help you..

90 per cent of the people who have Type 2 Diabetes are overweight or Obese 

There is a relationship between Overweight and Hypertension and Heart Disease , in fact you can say these are all interconnected....to be corrected by your LIFESTYLE.

A SWEET STORY FROM VIETNAM, A SHORT FILM

The days have now established their own rhythm; each day is something new, unexpected words and messages arrive and mind and heart is always ready to help.
This morning my mind was thinking about Vietnam, after last nights Brasil adventure in music.
A day without learning something new is a day wasted.
 Um dia sem aprender algo, é um dia perdido.

I decided to look for a vietnamese movie, knowing that i cannot dedicate a full two hours but a short movie, and I found the above movie. 
A short and sweet movie.
Universal theme of poverty, social prejudices, innocent love and sacrifice and ultimate death. 
The young actresses are very earnest in their expressions, face is the mirror here, and good use of silence as in Japanese movies.

It is only 22 minutes long and it did bring me solace during the day which had begin with tumult about counselling others 

REDISCOVERING BRASILIAN MUSIC

 BRASIL has always been in my mind’s horizon. I have been lucky to see a small part of this immensely diverse country, from the Argentina border at Foz do Iguassu to Venezuelan border near Boa Vista, from where you can cross into Guyana as well, at Leatham.

Certainly, music was the first introduction, as Bossa Nova was raging around the world, followed by MPB, Popular Brasilian Music. Some musical stars became household names even in faraway Australia: Antonio Carlos Jobim, Astrud and later Bebel Gilberto, Elis Regina and later her daughter Maria Rita, and some cultural icons such as Jorge Ben, Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa, Simone.

I wrote to my friend Camila in Rio de Janeiro for a list of songs. I realized that I was listening to icons of an era past and that there has been many new singers and genres of Brasilian music. She mentioned a very popular soft rock band with influences from Jamaica called SKANK, which had recently broken up after 25 years together. Pleasant listening. She wanted me to listen to TANTO..

Later she sent me a list of Brasilian songs, promising to send more

- W/ Brasil ( Jorge Ben Jor)

- Darwin ( Titãs)

- Grand  Hotel ( Kid Abelha)

-Amor pra Recomeçar ( Frejat)

- Segredos ( Frejat)

-Por Você ( Frejat)

- Amor Meu Grande Amor ( Frejat)

- Na Estrada ( Marisa Monte)

- Beija Eu ( Marisa Monte )

- Vilarejo ( Marisa Monte)

- Maria de Verdade ( Marisa Monte )

- Gentileza ( Marisa Monte)

Amor I Love You ( Maria Monte)

- Uma Brasileira ( Paralamas do Sucesso )

-Aonde Quer Que Eu Vá ( Paralamas do Sucesso)

-Vital e Sua Moto (Paralamas do Sucesso)

- Metal Contra as Nuvens ( Legião Urbana)

-Quase sem Querer (Legião Urbana)

- Teatro dos Vampiros  (Legião Urbana)

- Eduardo e Mônica ( Legião Urbana)

- Faroeste Caboclo (Legião Urbana)

She had mentioned Marisa Monte, a name familiar to me and I was enchanted with the very first song I heard, written by a sambista, Paulinho da Viola.

Loneliness is lava that covers everything

Bitterness, when in my mouth,

Smiles with its teeth of lead

Loneliness, a word stuck in the heart

resigned and silent

Under a bar of disappointment

Disillusionment, disillusionment

I dance, you dance

in the dance of loneliness

Camellia became widowed, Joan fell in love,

Maria tried to suicide because of her lover

My father always told me,"My son, be careful…

...When I think of the future, I do not forget my

past"

Disillusionment, disillusionment

I dance, you dance

in the dance of loneliness

When the early morning comes, my mind wanders

I run my fingers on the guitar, contemplating the full moon

However, there exists a source of pure water

Whoever drinks this water won't feel sorrow anymore

When the night arrives in Miami, the tropics . Wasn’t it Anais Nin (French-cuban writer) who once said : Tropics are like hammocks for lovers

The tranquility is enhanced by the lack of traffic, the night is starry and loved ones are far away . Plumeria blooms at my window, Ponciana colours the darkness.

With Brasilian music, such emotions are lighted up in my heart. Saudade nao solidao, Longing but not Loneliness .. solitude yes. I think it is time for a nice glass of Malbec.

So to all my friends and lovers, tonight especially to Camila in Rio de Janeiro, for filling up my heart with such tenderness. This euphoria is my wealth. Muito Obrigado.

Maria Rita is the daughter of that illustrious singer daughter of Porto Alegre in the South. A well beloved voice silenced far too soon. Here Maria Rita is singing, with such tenderness, the great Cuban Classic, Dos Gardenias. There is not a single Cuban in the Island who does not know this song!

Here is Marisa Monte singing. Amor I love you ..

As I was finishing up this blog, this note arrived from Rio.

Conhoece Tim Maia? Maravilhoso

Now I have a new singer to listen and add to my repertoire of saudade por tudo..

this is Tim Maia, who I am told is well loved by many Brasilians.

 From Wiki:

Tim Maia (Brazilian Portuguese: [tʃĩ ˈmajɐ], born Sebastião Rodrigues Maia; September 28, 1942 – March 15, 1998) was a Brazilian musician, songwriter and businessman known for his iconoclastic, ironic, outspoken, and humorous musical style. Maia contributed to Brazilian music within a wide variety of musical genres, including soul, funk, bossa nova, disco, romantic ballads, pop, rock, jazz, baião and MPB. He introduced the soul style on the Brazilian musical scene. Along with Jorge Ben, Maia pioneered MPB's samba rock genre, combining samba, soul, and funk. He is internationally recognized as one of the biggest icons of the Brazilian music 

Marisa Monte here singing with Paulinho da viola, danca da solidao, the english lyrics were quoted above.

Muito Obrigado, Camila.

My musical world usually in languages that are not mine. Each day I listen to songs in Iranian, French, Spanish and Portugese, almost never in English.. a bit strange ? but my brain responds with tenderness when it hears the languages I love. The English language, which is my first language, is the one I adore for its beauty, analytic diversity and usefulness, but I rather listen to music in another language.

Today is the wedding anniversary of my closest friends in Miami, Dr M and Mrs G W. I love them but unable to spend the evening with our dinner plus shmooze .. I opened a Finca Flichman Malbec from Argentina, toasted 

Muito Obrigado a C

Feliz aniversario a M/G

 Como Siempre Cuba esta en mi corazon.. thinking of N in Cologne, K in Linz, H in Dalian City, P in Sri Racha, M in KL, Cochin, Haifa and Siem Reap, Doha and its usual culprits and toi la bacsi I would say to H in Hanoi.