People of the Cape (qʷidiččaʔa·tx̌)….An Elder Visits

I am associated with the North American Indians, and over the course of time, have met some excellent Nurses.. MS and LL at Hocank, CP at Yankton and DG at Yakima. I have to say that the excellence of the Indian Health Service rests on the hardwork of these nurses and other non MD professionals within the system. It can be truly said that the system wont run this smoothly without them.

Received an email from DG at Yakama, asking my opinion about gifts given to her in the past by an Elder of the Makah tribe who has since passed over to the other world. She wanted to know whether it is appropriate to return them to a custodian within the tribe.

 

She had been seconded to the Makah Days celebrations in 1999 where the ceremonial hunt of the whale was rumoured to become confrontational between the Indians and the Non Indians who opposed to the whale hunting. Makah historically had killed one whale within the context of their ceremonies and celebrations. The ceremony passed without incidence and during the Makah days she met a Makah elder . He like many Indians of his generation was jovial, friendly, hospitable and willing to share the culture. Over the years they became friends, DG used to drive the day long trip over the weekend to spend time with her good, compassionate and wise friend from the Makah Tribe. As is the custom among the Indians, the elder gave my friend Makah handcrafts,  facsimiles of their famous canoe, leather jacket with makah motive sewn into it, and also a regular correspondence with news exchanged between the two. Ten years ago, the elder passed away and my friend guarded the gifts. She wanted to return to the tribe the gifts, in case it would be of some use. But who to write to ? She wrote to a sister of the Elder, who did not reply. A mutual friend informed her of the existence of a MAKAH museum and gave the name of the person who could be contacted.

They are also known as the People of the Rock Shelf and Sea Gulls .

 

Any one who have visited them and one of their villages at Neah Bay would immediately know how appropriate is the name for them, in this piece of land where they have lived from time immemorial.

From their strategic position at the entrance of the Straits of Juan de Fuca, they had watched outsiders come and go. Their museum contains the remains of their ancestral village at ozette which was buried in a landslide 500 years ago. Inn 1970, a tidal erosion exposed a group of these 500 year old homes and thousands of artifacts that helped re create the Makah life long before Europeans set foot on this continent. It is well worth a visit.

On arrival at Neah Bay, a four hour drive from the ferry that deposits you in Kingston, after a short driver from Seattle, one is confronted with a pristine port, full of fishing villages but without the trappings of modern day tourism.  Unlike many other ports this is entirely within an Indian reservation and thus subject to the laws of the tribe. The nature reigns here without much interruption. At the height of summer the temperature did not rise above 70 F and there was always this reminder that the mighty pacific ocean is just around the corner.

We soon found out why the letter to the sister had gone unanswered, she too had passed away and the lone surviving brother was in a hospital in Seattle. After consulting with him, it was decided to go and see the lady in charge of the museum, whose name had already been given to us.

After hearing our story, she shared her own recollection of her uncle, who this elder turned out to be and she was glad to receive memorabilia pertaining to him. We felt that they belonged there and were glad that they had returned home. These were gifts to my friend but as she explained, if she was not around, others would have thrown them out of ignorance

They celebrate Makah days towards the last weekend of August each year and they expect visitors at that time. The rest of the year, apart from intrepid travelers, the area is not on the radar of tourists, and as such there are no developed tourist facilities or dining establishments. For those who area  little adventurous, Neah Bay and the land of the Makah people would reward you with pristine scenery and some of the friendliest people in all of America

LIFE WITHOUT LONGINGS OR REGRETS..FERTILE GROUND FOR HAPPINESS

Life should be without Longings and Regrets

Once when I was a Junior Doctor at a hospital in Brisbane, Australia, I remember leaning on the wall to support myself, to relieve my mind of the intense  nostalgia of my life in Melbourne, especially some special friends.

I have never again experienced that depth of Nostalgia; anoransa in Spanish and even better, Saudade in Portugese.

Being fond of Mornas and Coladeras from Cabo Verde, a group of islands full of nostalgia and sodade, I learned to convert my nostalgia to fondness: the country I love most, Cuba remains in my heart, not as a weeping wound but a flower with an eternal perfume.

The countries which provided me with so much joy for the past few years: Myanmar, Malaysia and Indonesia, all are blanketed with a tenderness, that extends to its people, its scenery and its food.

I am grateful and I look forward to the next encounter.

Whether in Bali with a Japanese friend involved in saving the Jungles of Borneo or in Miami with  two delightful new friends from Aarhus in Denmark, to them I say, quoting my favourite poet Pablo Neruda: I have lived so much that I want to go on living

The other side of Saudade: missing something or someone even before you have experienced their departure is Regrets.  Songs and Poetry all express it elegantly.

I am sure you can think of one or two popular songs with lyrics that include Regrets…

It was the anthropologist, Margaret Mead who scorned at the idea that Regrets should be relegated to older age and hope to an younger age..

It is utterly false and cruelly arbitrary to put all the play and learning into childhood, all the work into middle age, and all the regrets into old age.

Each encounter in life, for me, is full of possibilities and one should explore it, but neither regrets nor longings would arise if there are no attachments.

Here the Buddhist, Yogic philosophy converge, and this would resonate with those people who follow the words of Krishnamurti.

We are the things we possess, we are that to which we are attached. Attachment has no nobility. Attachment to knowledge is not different from any other gratifying addiction. Attachment is self-absorption, whether at the lowest or at the highest level. Attachment is self-deception, it is an escape from the hollowness of the self. The things to which we are attached, property, people, ideas, become all-important, for without the many things which fill its emptiness, the self is not.

Decrease your desires. I was taught. Be grateful for what you have and don’t be unhappy with that which you do not have, said my Indian teachers.

Attachment makes the soil of your heart and soul infertile for happiness.

Here I must thank YMC, my dear friend from KL, who made me aware of the Kleishas, the structural defects of the mind, who acts as a gatekeeper for my kleishas whenever they rise  up in my heart.

Among the Indians, nothing happens without the basis of a Relationship, in the social context. So life has become one long series of experiences of intensely savouring the experiences of others while offering to exchange your own to listen and learn from the others.

It is when you wish to hang on to those sweet moments or further indulge in them, that nostalgia and regrets arise. This particular friend who gave me that intense feeling of Nostalgia at a Brisbane hospital, explained it very clearly: We love each other so much, that we must never see each other again, in this way we will always have each other..

Written in Miami, on this day the skies are a misty gray, with expectant clouds with thunder and rain, after meeting two delightful friends from Denmark, and think of a recent encounter in Bali

CULTURAL COMPETENCY ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH: THE CASE OF MONTREAL YUL AIRPORT

CULTURAL COMPETENCY IS NOT ENOUGH

THE CASE OF MONTREAL AIRPORT

Each of the person I met today –in the context of the interactions of capitalist culture of travel- was culturally competent. They had been born into families speaking Bembera or Farsi, had to adjust themselves to French or English Language. Most importantly they had to adjust ot the transient, individualistic, north American mentality of a present without a past.

What we need is Efficiency-whether they wear a burqah or turban or speaking accented English or French..

Remember, the Chinese are waiting.. to gobble you up. Don't worry, the Indians and the Brazilians are not interested in you.

You see cultural competency being translated into commercial efficiency:

At Louis Vuitton stores in Paris, there are Japanese speaking Attendants

At Gallerie Lafayette in Paris, there is a separate section for Mandarin Speakers.

At the Security at Montreal Airport, I asked the agent, what languages he speaks.. he answered.. French and English, a little bit of Spanish.. and then he added,

I am learning Chinese.

You will need it, I added.

All western nations are courting the Chinese tourists, regardless of the crude nature of the behaviour of some of them, but Yuan makes the vultures forget the crassness…

When I arrived at the Montreal International Airport, the shabbiness of the airport was a throwback to lesser sophisticated times-it reminded me of the old Bogota Airport (as Mortiz Thomsen would say where the drug lords were displaying their trophy wives)..

The inefficiency of the operations were immediately evident. The Border Control agent a long time to let me go to the Transit areas, only after a telephone call. But no one was at the door of the transit lounge, had to wait more than 15 minutes, standing there by myself, bringing the matter to the attention of the Security personnel. As it is common, in the western world, the service personnel (ticketing agents, boarding service personnel, café waiters, cleaners at the Maple Leaf Lounge etc) were all foreigners, most of them just proficient in one of the two official languages. Where are the native Canadians, now that most manufacturing has flown off to China? Swiss Air which I was flying today, the agents at the counter were anything but Swiss in their efficiency.

I could name it the Montreal Malaise. To get a boarding pass reissued needed the assistance of one Asian, one African and one Irani…

Do you remember the old jokes about JAP.. jewish American princesses?  How many Japs does it take to change a Light Bulb?

While the Westerners are worried about

Cultural Competence

Cultural Sensitivity

Diversity

And teaching to respect these values, which cannot be taught anyway. ( look at the rise of the fascist, anti immigration political scene in Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary and Greece)

Do you think it is relevant to put up highway signs in Arizona to say

We Love Mexicans

Or advertise what the French say:

On a billboard in Toulouse..

There are no Arabs of Moslems in France, only French.

The Asians are running further and further away and ahead. In the capitalist system, social coherence, empathy is not what is stressed, but money, profit. (whereas as an average WALMART employee does not get liveable wages or medical benefits, the CEO is proud of his 22 million dollar Salary!)

Don't continue to blame the Chinese for human rights abuses (but don't forget it either)

NIKE, ZARAH and multitude of others who made use of Cheap Labour and unhealthy practices as in Bangladesh (remember the recent collapse of a clothing factory where more than 1000 people died!)

Is it also not a form of abuse of human rights?

It looks like there is only one currency

Money, Profit, Stockholders, Stocks, Shares..

Amidst all these, falling European living standards, rising Asian living standards, lack of human rights and ethics on a global scale.. sit the immigrants, 200 million of them

Eritreans in Australia

Turks in Germany

Sri Lankans in Norway

Sudanese in North Dakota

Afghanis in Britain

Bangladeshis in Malaysia

Indonesians in Singapore

Burmese in Dubai

Filipinos anywhere they can go

Moroccans, Algerians, Nigerians, West Africans, East Africans, South Africans..

Lucky are the people who do not have to emigrate because the pleasure of living in ones own country, in a state of contentment, is a cornerstone of a house of happiness.

When I was an adolescent, some one  gave me a key chain with the following words

"Never mind, it is good to die for our country" (En davar,  tov lamut be'ad artzenu                       

ארצנו בעד  למות טוב,דבר אין I am unable to write the Hebrew characters in the correct order! here the characters are from left to right, which is not the case with Hebrew..

I am grateful that I have lived in 10 different countries without being a Immigrant, in my eyes and in the eyes of the locals, in any one of them!

THE END OF WESTERN HEGEMONY AS WE KNOW IT

On a recent visit to South East Asia, to Malaysia and Indonesia, discussions with my friends made one realize that in a very short period of time, there has been a shift in the minds of the Asians. There was a blind adoration of all things western which was normal as the countries were coming out of colonialism. Now Asians, like many Asian descendants in the West, are no longer ashamed of being Asians and dont have to make an apology.
During a nice evening under the stars in Gotong Jaya, my good friend C, had introduced me a person MF, who now exemplifies the new world order. Intellectually on par with anyone if not surpassing a westerner, but at the same time maintaining certain good aspects of being Asian, such as the strong family ties.
The Western Hegemony is over, said my friend C. That does not mean we think of ourselves as superior or not listen to the westerners but go back to the age old wisdom of the American Indians: We are all related, we are connected more than ever. Only a fool now would say, East is better than the West or vice versa, but it is good to find the place where there is a good fit with your cultural/intellectual leanings and aspirations. or in some cases, oscillate between the magnets that attracts you.
It is always important in this everchanging and fluctuant world of interconnectivity and knowledge transfer, that you know WHO you are.. What you are is becoming less and less important, even more your passport and national identification, apart from some deep values.
It was so good to watch a talk given by Paddy Ashdown on TED brussels.



I highly recommend any one interested in this rapidly changing world to give it a listen...you and the world would be better off for it ...

LIFESTYLE CAUSING INFLAMMATION OF THE BODY: OBESITY, DIABETES, HYPERTENSION, HYPERCHOLESTEROLEMIA AND CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES

INFLAMMATION AS THE COMMON PATHWAY TO CHRONIC DISEASES

IN  2002, I was wandering around the streets of Johor Bahru, Malaysia when I came across books being sold at a Hindu temple (not just religious books). Here is where I was introduced to the excellent work of Mr Mohammed Idris and the Consumer Association of Penang. I began reading many of their little books all of which contained wisdom that the west took years to recognize, one good example being BPA and its relationship to Ill health.

Malaysia like the countries in the west was and is suffering from a plethora of chronic non-communicable diseases, and I began to feel that it is INFLAMMATION felt by the body that leads to:

Obesity

Diabetes

Hypertension

Hypercholesterolemia

Cardiovascular disease

So it is possible that both obesity and diabetes are caused by the same mechanism rather than obesity alone leading a person to have diabetes.

30 per cent of the American population is OBESE but not all of them are diabetic

During my travels I wondered at the huge size of Tongans, Fijians and Samoans…Diabetes was not mentioned, even though their less heavy indofijian compatriots in Fiji were Diabetes Prone.

''You've gained weight'' is a traditional compliment in Fiji

Native Fijians are twice as often overweight or obese compared to their Indo-Fijian counterparts but have only half the Diabetes rates

One thing was certain, when these gentle giants migrated to Aotearoa, they did develop diabetes disproportionately.

Inflammation and Immigration

I have lived in

Australia;

Sweden, France, Belgium, England in Europe;

Four different cities in the USA;

Two countries in the Caribbean, but had not migrated to any of those.

With the current mood against immigrants, there is a sensation of Xenophobia that does not distinguish between immigrants and foreigners, visitors or temporary residents.

My father, Olav ha shalom, had reminded me a saying from his favourite Chinese politician, Zhou En Lai: If we have to advance all of us must advance together. Only when we have advanced would the western people would respect us.

From being Coolies, they have gone to become the biggest buyers of Louis Vuitton and French Perfumes

My hope is that, with the influx of the Chinese now like a flood that cannot be stopped, the Europeans will learn to respect the Asians once more, and not look at them as Immigrants.

Why this discussion  about Chinese tourists to this introduction on Inflammation and Immigration?

Those people, who have been only tourists and have never lived in another country or never have been immigrants to another country, cannot understand the constant irritation and anxiety of being an immigrant.

This partially explains the increase in

Obesity (the Cuban migrant to Miami, puts on 12 lbs. in the first month there, A Guatemalan migrant to the USA puts on 25 lbs. in the first year)

Diabetes (Indians living in Punjab or Bengal have much less Diabetes than Punjabis and Bengalis living in England; Khmer in Australia, Vietnamese in USA all have higher rates of Diabetes than their fellow nationals in their countries of origin)

SAD identifies insulin resistance, subclinical inflammation or raised serum lipids in a Swedish population with a large proportion of immigrant women from the Middle East. If these results could be confirmed in a larger population, SAD could be a more clinically useful risk marker than other anthropometric measures in women at high risk of cardiovascular disease.

Sagittal abdominal diameter as a marker of inflammation and insulin resistance among immigrant women from the Middle East and native Swedish women: a cross-sectional study

Helena Petersson, Achraf Daryani and Ulf Risérus^*

http://www.cardiab.com/content/6/1/10

What causes inflammation in the body of the Individual?

Chronic inflammation role in the obesity-diabetes association: a case-cohort

study

Diabetology & Metabolic Syndrome 2013, 5:31 doi:10.1186/1758-5996-5-31

Bench research supports these results. Endoplasmatic reticulum (ER) is a major site for

intracellular protein, lipid and sterol synthesis. In balancing intracellular supply and demand in the process of constructing new molecules, the ER has now been shown to be also a major generator of metabolic and inflammatory signals. ER stress is an early consequence of nutrient excess and a cause for the development of inflammation and insulin resistance. ER stress, besides inducing the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, is also a source of reactive oxygen species, which stimulates pro-inflammatory mediators . Additionally, excess energy supply to mitochondria leads to oxidative stress by uncoupling of the electron chain with release of superoxide , a pro-inflammatory event producing an adverse metabolic outcome not only in terms of insulin resistance, but perhaps also in terms of beta cells function

. The pattern of high NEFA, high triglyceride with low HDL is characteristic of inflammation, and

May be another manifestation of chronic low-grade inflammation.

Almost all American Indians living in the reservations have Low HDL and High Triglycerides. Most drugs experimented to elevated HDL in humans have been total failures. (You cannot correct a Mistake with another Mistake, as ancient oriental philosophers might say)

I have maintained that among the American Indians, Insulin Sensitivity converts itself into Insulin Resistance when there is enough Inflammation, coming to the body:

With a change in lifestyle since 1862.

Processed Food. Incl cheap cooking oil high in Omega6

Stress of being Oppressed/de Culturalized/forced to assimilate into the majority culture.

I have noticed that among the immigrants, whether to France or to the UK or the USA or Australia, there is a reluctance to acknowledge ones cultural origins (as if they are inferior), but that does cause chronically mild anxiety. As American Indians would say, accepting what you are (Indian, non Indian) would cause less anxiety.

In the end, advice for good healthy living would be the same

Whether you are a westerner,

Or an Asian.

Buddhist or Hindu or Christian/

In the words of the American Indians,

Try to bring your life into more of a balance

WORK

FAMILY

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

SPIRITUALITY

To me this is the advice for a NON INFLAMMATORY LIFESTYLE

After seeing so many young men and women, burdened by the current corporate culture and spending most of their time with work related activities, I have to strongly advice that Work has its Place, make it pleasurable, do it the best way you can but never take your work home.

Family, of course and for the Indians, that includes Clan, Tribe, the Earth, the trees and animals and the Birds.

Study after study shows that people who live longer have good family support, the happier people are, longer they live, they usually are the ones with family.

Spirituality is your connection with the world, seen and unseen, around you. It is also culturally constructed, but the Spiritual world is one and the same for all.  For the American Indians, spirituality is their role in their universe where their winged brothers, one-legged brothers and four legged brothers share the earth and the air with them. Apart from saying that Religion and Spirituality are not the same, each person must find out for himself or herself how to enter the world of Spirituality for himself or herself. Spirituality has also be separated from Rituals, such as Yoga, is much more a philosophy rather than repeated actions of the body, even though it is in some ways connected to the Social Responsibility.

What is Social Responsibility? To me, this is a definite path to happiness and contentment in your life, which of course leads to less inflammation in your body as well.

It is to share what you have, more than what you have with others. Be there for them in their sorrow, partaking in their joys and do what you can, for others. I have noticed that all my good friends scattered around the world have emic understanding of this concept: social responsibility.

This was brought to my attention more than once but one image that stands out is the following.

When Ethiopian Jews were airlifted into Israel during the conflict in Sudan and Ethiopia, they were secretly loaded into a large aircraft and taken to Israel. Many of them had never flown in an aircraft, never been outside the country. A massive organization of volunteers was waiting. An Israeli soldier was carrying a woman unable to walk. Someone asked him: is she too heavy to carry? And the Israeli soldier said: She is not heavy because she is my sister.

You can change your diet from the current every day INFLAMMATORY diet to anti Inflammatory one. There are lots of advice out there, here I reproduce one by Dr Andrew Weil.

For my Malaysian and Indonesian friends, I would recommend that you get copies of booklets published by Consumer Association of Penang, since they have dissected many of the easily available food in the Peninsula. 

CAP, 10 Jalan Masjid Negeri, 11600 Pulau Penang

04-8299511

http://consumer.org.my/