DEATH AND THE MAIDEN
Dr. Lester CN Simon
Everyone who carries a knife, a gun, or other implements of violence should take a course in human anatomy. They should know the precise location of the heart; that it is on the left side of the chest and so close to the chest wall they can feel the beating hearts of their victims if they embrace them. They should know that a knife with a long blade is not necessary because to get to the heart you simply have to pierce the skin, the fat beneath the skin and then the muscle, including the muscle covering the space between neighboring ribs.
Those who walk with knives should know that the heart and the beginning of one of its major blood vessels, the aorta, are surrounded by a protective membrane called the pericardium. The space between the pericardium and the underlying heart is called the pericardial sac. They should know that a wound to the heart or to the invested root of the aorta can cause profuse bleeding into the pericardial sac. This blood can seal off or plug the wound to the pericardium so that the blood leaking out of the beating heart does not escape from the sac.
However, as the pierced heart continues to beat, blood escaping from the heart is trapped inside the pericardial sac. The end result of this is that the bleeding heart is crushed to death by the weight of the blood. This plug of blood which was intended to plug a leak and ended up squeezing the heart to death is called a cardiac tamponade. In some ways, it acts as a tampon. A cardiac tamponade must be a metaphor for craziness when it occurs in a young female who has just started to acquire experience in the use of tampons for menstruation.
We know all the causes of violence. We can rattle off the solutions as well. In all this clatter we still fail to make a serious dent in the problem. Maybe we should rethink our strategy. Putting the blame on the parents is right and proper but there are two types of parents in this regard. Some parents will circle the wagons around their children and the children of their extended family and friends. Other parents and their children will be locked outside like a posse of wild West Indians. Mentoring is part of the solution but who will set this up so that the mentor can be a mentor and not an organizer of the mentoring programme? And how will we really know what lies in the dark minds of some mentors. Moreover, those most in need of mentoring will be left out.
Regardless of what we do at home, it is at school that children come together. But we have a problem here as well. We need well trained teachers who can teach their subjects well and who can make teaching fun and exciting and teach the children outside the classroom. Everyone recalls their schooldays and talks glowingly of the things they did and did not do. Do not listen to those liars, except for one fact: Remember the days when teacher was absent from class and how the rudest, most misbehaving child commanded the class (even better than the teacher)?
Children must be given exciting things to do. They are bored stiff and if we do not rectify this they will be bored stiff (if you pardon the pun). We have to arrange the school day and the time spent in the community so that children can take charge of some of their activities, with parents acting as linesmen (not as referees) as in a football match.
Children know that the economy of violence acts dictates that they do not kill two birds with two stones when one stone will do. As they gain experience and perfect the art and science of violence they know that it is uneconomical to kill two birds with one stone when they can set the birds upon each other. Children will always challenge each other for all sorts of reasons. We did it; they are doing it and it will always happen. We must prepare and present the environment in which they live and learn and play so that they can challenge each other in exciting but non-fatal ways.
Monday, October 2, 2006
Thursday, September 21, 2006
How You Could Drive So?
THE HUMAN RACE
Dr. Lester CN Simon
Interesting conversations and revelations can surface in the most unusual places. While conducting a post mortem examination some time ago in England, an English pathologist remarked that on a visit to India, he was saddened by the ease with which a vehicular accident occurred on the back roads in some parts of the Indian countryside. He thought it was a senseless loss of many young lives. Although I have never been to India, I nodded in agreement and waited for a reply from my Indian pathologist colleague nearby. He waited until the Englishman had gone and quietly but vexingly asked me my opinion of the numbers of senseless road deaths on the highways in England every day.
An accident is defined as an event that is unexpected and is without apparent cause. Road safety in no accident. Everyone knows that speeding is the major cause of deaths from motor vehicle accidents. Everyone knows that speeding is an addiction and that drivers get high on speed. Everyone knows all the details about road deaths. The Magazine of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement reports that more than 3,200 people die in road crashes every day. This is the equivalent of eight jumbo jets crashing and killing all the passengers. Or if you prefer, put half of the 3,200 people in buildings like the World Trade Center and fly 4 jumbo jets into them every day. Are terrorists better at statistics?
The elements involved in a motor vehicle accident can be classified under vehicle, driver, road, environment including the weather and pedestrian. Everyone knows all the measures that have been implemented to reduce motor vehicle accidents. These include sleeping policemen (speed bumps), real policemen with and without radar guns, speed cameras, driver and pedestrian education and a host of safety procedures and devices. Some of the latter include anti-skid brakes, adaptive cruise control, air bags, and external smart sensors that can tell the difference between a tree and a pedestrian.
The science is so fantastic, we can install undetectable microphones in street signs or hide them by the roadside to indicate the speed of a passing car, filter out background noise and transmit the data to sophisticated computers. We can then relay the information to you or anyone else via various media including a cellular phone, which you must not use while driving. For extra measure, this technological setup can even measure the weight of your vehicle and catch overweight trucks. What’s next? Maybe, finally, we will be able to see and hear what really goes on in every vehicle at every location (including at the beach) in vivid colour and stereophonic sound (quadraphonic too), day or night. Finally too, we will be able to offer a technological black box from fatal vehicle crashes to relatives and friends. They can then replay the dying moments of their love ones, in their living rooms. It is time to exchange the old lunatics in the asylum for the new ones outside.
What is the maximum speed limit in this country? Surprisingly, many drivers will get the answer right by saying 40 miles per hour. Unfortunately, many of these drivers do not realize that the maximum speed limit does not apply to all areas of the country. Take a look at your speedometer. What is the maximum speed at which you can drive, or, I should say, your vehicle can be driven? It is at least twice the maximum speed limit. Why? Are you a policeman? Do you drive a fire truck or an ambulance. Are you a thief trying to flee the scene of a crime? Where on God’s earth are you going?
No matter how much driver and pedestrian education we do; how we apply safety measures such as airbags and install warning systems in the vehicle; set up devices to catch the speedster; attend to the road and the environment, etc.; some people will always speed. An article in the New Scientist of 20 July 2005 referred to a technology called speed limiters, in which the accelerator vibrates or sounds an alarm when the driver exceeds the speed limit, as measured by global positioning system (GPS). Some drivers will just love the vibration or the sound of the alarm.
We have to prevent the vehicle from accelerating beyond the maximum speed limit unless you drive an official, bone fide emergency vehicle. According to an Economist magazine article of 21 June 2001, this accelerating prevention technology is called intelligent speed adaptation (ISA). It reported that “studies have shown that ISA could reduce the number of accidents by as much as 40%, and the number of fatal accidents by nearly 60%...improve fuel efficiency and reduce the cost of insurance”.
Cars already in use can be retro-fitted with an ISA device. But guess who are expected to resist this intelligent speed adaptation? The resistance is expected from drivers and some motor manufactures. Well hear this: It is time to tell the speeding drivers where to go, even though some of them will go there with no telling. It is time to tell the motor manufactures what we want to buy. It is time to start a campaign for the installation of intelligent speed adaptation devices. It is time to become a part of the human race.
Dr. Lester CN Simon
Interesting conversations and revelations can surface in the most unusual places. While conducting a post mortem examination some time ago in England, an English pathologist remarked that on a visit to India, he was saddened by the ease with which a vehicular accident occurred on the back roads in some parts of the Indian countryside. He thought it was a senseless loss of many young lives. Although I have never been to India, I nodded in agreement and waited for a reply from my Indian pathologist colleague nearby. He waited until the Englishman had gone and quietly but vexingly asked me my opinion of the numbers of senseless road deaths on the highways in England every day.
An accident is defined as an event that is unexpected and is without apparent cause. Road safety in no accident. Everyone knows that speeding is the major cause of deaths from motor vehicle accidents. Everyone knows that speeding is an addiction and that drivers get high on speed. Everyone knows all the details about road deaths. The Magazine of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement reports that more than 3,200 people die in road crashes every day. This is the equivalent of eight jumbo jets crashing and killing all the passengers. Or if you prefer, put half of the 3,200 people in buildings like the World Trade Center and fly 4 jumbo jets into them every day. Are terrorists better at statistics?
The elements involved in a motor vehicle accident can be classified under vehicle, driver, road, environment including the weather and pedestrian. Everyone knows all the measures that have been implemented to reduce motor vehicle accidents. These include sleeping policemen (speed bumps), real policemen with and without radar guns, speed cameras, driver and pedestrian education and a host of safety procedures and devices. Some of the latter include anti-skid brakes, adaptive cruise control, air bags, and external smart sensors that can tell the difference between a tree and a pedestrian.
The science is so fantastic, we can install undetectable microphones in street signs or hide them by the roadside to indicate the speed of a passing car, filter out background noise and transmit the data to sophisticated computers. We can then relay the information to you or anyone else via various media including a cellular phone, which you must not use while driving. For extra measure, this technological setup can even measure the weight of your vehicle and catch overweight trucks. What’s next? Maybe, finally, we will be able to see and hear what really goes on in every vehicle at every location (including at the beach) in vivid colour and stereophonic sound (quadraphonic too), day or night. Finally too, we will be able to offer a technological black box from fatal vehicle crashes to relatives and friends. They can then replay the dying moments of their love ones, in their living rooms. It is time to exchange the old lunatics in the asylum for the new ones outside.
What is the maximum speed limit in this country? Surprisingly, many drivers will get the answer right by saying 40 miles per hour. Unfortunately, many of these drivers do not realize that the maximum speed limit does not apply to all areas of the country. Take a look at your speedometer. What is the maximum speed at which you can drive, or, I should say, your vehicle can be driven? It is at least twice the maximum speed limit. Why? Are you a policeman? Do you drive a fire truck or an ambulance. Are you a thief trying to flee the scene of a crime? Where on God’s earth are you going?
No matter how much driver and pedestrian education we do; how we apply safety measures such as airbags and install warning systems in the vehicle; set up devices to catch the speedster; attend to the road and the environment, etc.; some people will always speed. An article in the New Scientist of 20 July 2005 referred to a technology called speed limiters, in which the accelerator vibrates or sounds an alarm when the driver exceeds the speed limit, as measured by global positioning system (GPS). Some drivers will just love the vibration or the sound of the alarm.
We have to prevent the vehicle from accelerating beyond the maximum speed limit unless you drive an official, bone fide emergency vehicle. According to an Economist magazine article of 21 June 2001, this accelerating prevention technology is called intelligent speed adaptation (ISA). It reported that “studies have shown that ISA could reduce the number of accidents by as much as 40%, and the number of fatal accidents by nearly 60%...improve fuel efficiency and reduce the cost of insurance”.
Cars already in use can be retro-fitted with an ISA device. But guess who are expected to resist this intelligent speed adaptation? The resistance is expected from drivers and some motor manufactures. Well hear this: It is time to tell the speeding drivers where to go, even though some of them will go there with no telling. It is time to tell the motor manufactures what we want to buy. It is time to start a campaign for the installation of intelligent speed adaptation devices. It is time to become a part of the human race.
Heads Up. Heads Down.
USE YOUR HEAD
Dr. Lester CN Simon
Sometimes, when, to your embarrassment and dismay, you cannot use the big stick, you have to bow to pragmatism and use your head. It is almost always difficult to talk honestly and frankly about prostitution because commercial sex is a very hot and emotive issue. In such discussions we tend to discard our common sense in the heat of the argument as eagerly as some clients try to discard or plead for the discarding of a condom during sexual intercourse with a prostitute; and we all know the consequences of that. Why waste time debating if we should decriminalize or legalize prostitution in Antigua and Barbuda? As we say here, “Arwe dun do um aready”.
The next time you see someone soliciting a prostitute, ask them to ask her what is her wildest, most outlandish fantasy. As you excitedly await the response with your racing heartbeat, sweating palms and bulging eyeballs, you might be deflated to discover that all she fantasizes about when she closes her eyes is a cozy house and a family.
When we discuss prostitution, we have to regard the international reports as well as the local circumstances. The United Nations 2006 report on the global AIDS epidemic (hereafter called The Report) is compulsory, sobering reading. One of its chapters addresses four key populations that are at risk and are neglected. One such population is the commercial sex worker. The confusion and double standard that abound locally are probably reflections of the international muddle and ambiguity. Many years ago, the term prostitute was replaced by commercial sex worker. In May 2006, the UN advised that the term commercial sex worker is a tautology, which means saying the same thing twice over in different words; e.g. “cold ice water”, “pellucidly clear”, or “piping hot and sizzling sex” with your “wife or girlfriend” that makes her say, “tear off me clothes, rip off me clothes”. The politically and grammatically correct term for prostitute is now simply, sex worker. Since real sex is work, very hard work indeed, one day we will probably recognize the final tautology, remove the word worker from sex worker and end up calling a prostitute a “sexer”.
The nomenclature is important because it shapes our response to prostitution. The Report says that the term prostitute is considered judgmental while the term sex worker focuses on the conditions under which sexual services are sold. It gets more interesting albeit instructive. The Report notes that sex workers have the same human rights as everyone else (of course, they do), particularly “rights to education, information, the highest attainable standard of health”, etc. Here is The Report’s contradiction or oxymoron: sex worker on one hand and the highest attainable standard of health on the other hand. This contradiction is implicit in The Report, which argues that the strategies of successful HIV programmes must be accompanied by programmes to prevent entry into sex work.
We must respectfully disagree with one aspect of The Report in that we have to be judgmental regarding its definitions. Although it is referred to as the oldest profession, prostitution can only be controlled and reduced to a minimum when we accept the judgment of the fact that prostitution is inherently unsafe and unhealthy. By the bye, we will not use the argument a guest used on Observer Radio, in reference to a political matter, that it is wrong because it is not right.
So how do we address prostitution in Antigua and Barbuda? The right to all the human rights that prostitutes justly claim, including education, must include the right to be a significant part of the educational onslaught on HIV and AIDS leading to the exit from or diminution of prostitution. This engagement calls for much more action by the medical profession and others. The irony here is that large amounts of monies are available for work, research and various programmes on HIV and AIDS involving prostitutes. The Report correctly counsels that the work with prostitutes requires their active involvement in all phases of the project, from development to evaluation. In Antigua and Barbuda, the local circumstances dictate that the big stick of official criminalization must remain in place whilst we use our head as a carrot in professional and thorough programmes to reduce or remove this societal ill. To our peril, we are very far from addressing this adequately and yet we are no strangers to ambivalence. The advantage of this twin approach of holding the big stick and using our head should be clear to everyone, especially prostitutes.
The preventative strategy in The Report dictates an urgent and thorough change in the immigration policy and department in Antigua and Barbuda. For the Cricket World Cup, protectionism for the local prostitutes from ambush marketing is the logical extension of proper, local condom usage. The guesstimate is that there are enough prostitutes here for them to realize the realistic part of their wildest, most outlandish fantasy and, with so many balls per over per match, exit the system thereafter.
With all the attention directed at prostitutes we must not take our eyes off a less visible population that is also at risk and neglected: men who have sex with men. The Report employs the term, “men who have sex with men” because, (wait for it) “many men who have sex with men do not regard themselves as homosexual…and many of the men involved are married to women”. This is the bulldozer. Actually, this is the bulldozer, backhoe, roller and lawnmower rolled into one. The dreaded, male “buy”-sexual. If this sounds mind-boggling, consider the sexual orientation of some of the ex-prisoners and inmates of Her Majesty’s prison, where plastic bags are used for condoms, as reported in The Daily Observer. Consider too, the words of the Russian author, Dostoevsky, who said that the degree of civilization in society can be judged by entering the prison. In Antigua and Barbuda, we do not have to lock them up to see the degree of civilization in our society regarding sex; the condom is no condiment, we eating them raw.
Dr. Lester CN Simon
Sometimes, when, to your embarrassment and dismay, you cannot use the big stick, you have to bow to pragmatism and use your head. It is almost always difficult to talk honestly and frankly about prostitution because commercial sex is a very hot and emotive issue. In such discussions we tend to discard our common sense in the heat of the argument as eagerly as some clients try to discard or plead for the discarding of a condom during sexual intercourse with a prostitute; and we all know the consequences of that. Why waste time debating if we should decriminalize or legalize prostitution in Antigua and Barbuda? As we say here, “Arwe dun do um aready”.
The next time you see someone soliciting a prostitute, ask them to ask her what is her wildest, most outlandish fantasy. As you excitedly await the response with your racing heartbeat, sweating palms and bulging eyeballs, you might be deflated to discover that all she fantasizes about when she closes her eyes is a cozy house and a family.
When we discuss prostitution, we have to regard the international reports as well as the local circumstances. The United Nations 2006 report on the global AIDS epidemic (hereafter called The Report) is compulsory, sobering reading. One of its chapters addresses four key populations that are at risk and are neglected. One such population is the commercial sex worker. The confusion and double standard that abound locally are probably reflections of the international muddle and ambiguity. Many years ago, the term prostitute was replaced by commercial sex worker. In May 2006, the UN advised that the term commercial sex worker is a tautology, which means saying the same thing twice over in different words; e.g. “cold ice water”, “pellucidly clear”, or “piping hot and sizzling sex” with your “wife or girlfriend” that makes her say, “tear off me clothes, rip off me clothes”. The politically and grammatically correct term for prostitute is now simply, sex worker. Since real sex is work, very hard work indeed, one day we will probably recognize the final tautology, remove the word worker from sex worker and end up calling a prostitute a “sexer”.
The nomenclature is important because it shapes our response to prostitution. The Report says that the term prostitute is considered judgmental while the term sex worker focuses on the conditions under which sexual services are sold. It gets more interesting albeit instructive. The Report notes that sex workers have the same human rights as everyone else (of course, they do), particularly “rights to education, information, the highest attainable standard of health”, etc. Here is The Report’s contradiction or oxymoron: sex worker on one hand and the highest attainable standard of health on the other hand. This contradiction is implicit in The Report, which argues that the strategies of successful HIV programmes must be accompanied by programmes to prevent entry into sex work.
We must respectfully disagree with one aspect of The Report in that we have to be judgmental regarding its definitions. Although it is referred to as the oldest profession, prostitution can only be controlled and reduced to a minimum when we accept the judgment of the fact that prostitution is inherently unsafe and unhealthy. By the bye, we will not use the argument a guest used on Observer Radio, in reference to a political matter, that it is wrong because it is not right.
So how do we address prostitution in Antigua and Barbuda? The right to all the human rights that prostitutes justly claim, including education, must include the right to be a significant part of the educational onslaught on HIV and AIDS leading to the exit from or diminution of prostitution. This engagement calls for much more action by the medical profession and others. The irony here is that large amounts of monies are available for work, research and various programmes on HIV and AIDS involving prostitutes. The Report correctly counsels that the work with prostitutes requires their active involvement in all phases of the project, from development to evaluation. In Antigua and Barbuda, the local circumstances dictate that the big stick of official criminalization must remain in place whilst we use our head as a carrot in professional and thorough programmes to reduce or remove this societal ill. To our peril, we are very far from addressing this adequately and yet we are no strangers to ambivalence. The advantage of this twin approach of holding the big stick and using our head should be clear to everyone, especially prostitutes.
The preventative strategy in The Report dictates an urgent and thorough change in the immigration policy and department in Antigua and Barbuda. For the Cricket World Cup, protectionism for the local prostitutes from ambush marketing is the logical extension of proper, local condom usage. The guesstimate is that there are enough prostitutes here for them to realize the realistic part of their wildest, most outlandish fantasy and, with so many balls per over per match, exit the system thereafter.
With all the attention directed at prostitutes we must not take our eyes off a less visible population that is also at risk and neglected: men who have sex with men. The Report employs the term, “men who have sex with men” because, (wait for it) “many men who have sex with men do not regard themselves as homosexual…and many of the men involved are married to women”. This is the bulldozer. Actually, this is the bulldozer, backhoe, roller and lawnmower rolled into one. The dreaded, male “buy”-sexual. If this sounds mind-boggling, consider the sexual orientation of some of the ex-prisoners and inmates of Her Majesty’s prison, where plastic bags are used for condoms, as reported in The Daily Observer. Consider too, the words of the Russian author, Dostoevsky, who said that the degree of civilization in society can be judged by entering the prison. In Antigua and Barbuda, we do not have to lock them up to see the degree of civilization in our society regarding sex; the condom is no condiment, we eating them raw.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Poop and Circunstance
THE WIND BENEATH OUR WINGS
Dr. Lester CN Simon
With the advent of the School Meals Program and the approach of 25 years of independence, I got to thinking about what Antigua and Barbuda means to me. I was also prompted to reflect on whether my days in school prepared me to take on the world, or, I should say, to know if and when to take on the world, and to always strive to be an independent thinker. Independent thought can initially be frightening because it takes on a life of its own and it pulls you seemingly un-independently along its unseeing path. You have to be confident in the process of thinking and know when to stop. So why can’t I stop thinking about the Nonfat Dry Milk they used to serve us children in primary school, and all the big loads of stinking poops we used to let go after eating or drinking it?
The study of flatus is a worthy and noble vocation if for no other reason than it affords us the acquired ability to differentiate between an authentic poop and its covert, non-gaseous, occasional companion, the doo-doo. A comprehensive study can also inform us of the type of flatus that is forthcoming: Will it be loud and explosive or will it be soft and whistling or inaudible and malodorous? This is vital and enviable information that many highly respectable members of a congregation would swap their collection money for in church, on a beautiful Sunday morning. Sitting in the middle of the pew on the windward side of the aisle enjoying the effervescent, tropical breeze; the holy sacrament of communion is about to begin; the priest says, “This is my body and my…….”....oooops! Everyone looks at everyone else in their minds’ eyes and in that fleeting, deprecatory moment it seems that we all must have read the same flatus inspired script, Waiting To Inhale.
The New Scientist journal reported in 2001 that Dr. Michael Levitt, a gastroenterologist (who else?), had been studying flatus for over 30 years. He discovered that although some women tend to produce less flatulent emissions, there was no significant difference between males and females in the frequency of passing wind. He also analyzed and correctly identified the bouquet of gases in large numbers of poops and thus paved the way for a new type of purgative to clean the gut before performing surgical operations on the bowel. Previously, the purgatives that were used preoperatively enhanced the production of some gases that were combustible and hitherto there were cases of real fireworks and explosions during surgical operations on the bowel!
The drinking of milk or suckling by newborns is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. Lactose is the dominant carbohydrate in virtually all mammalian milk. It is digested in the intestines by an enzyme called lactase. Lactase, the enzyme, breaks down lactose, the sugar in milk. Many Black school children of the Nonfat Dry Milk era grew up to learn that we lacked the enzyme lactase and so we could not adequately digest lactose and hence we could not drink large volumes of milk. We came to understand the reason for passing all the milk inspired flatus and we were made to feel that we were abnormal; that lactose intolerance was a disease at worse or a disorder at best. After all, one must not go pooping, pooping all over the place after drinking a tall glass of milk. The effects of drinking milk must be seen, not heard.
Studies reported in The Journal of the American College of Nutrition in 2000 by Dr. V S Tuula et al show that there is a reduction in lactase activity in the intestines soon after weaning in almost all animals and in many humans. Lactase deficiency is a normal physiological process. Remarkable! The prevalence of lactose intolerance is about 50% in South America, Africa, and Asia, reaching almost 100% in some Asians countries. In the United States, the prevalence of lactose intolerance is about 15% among whites, 53% among Mexican-Americans and 80% in the Black population. In Europe it ranges along a rising gradient from about 2% in northern areas like Scandinavia to about 70% in Sicily in the south. Did the Nonfat Dry milk school program extend throughout the entire world? Thankfully, Black people do not have a monopoly on passing flatus after copious milk ingestion. Black brothers and sisters arise. Wipe out those pooping lies!
History will “absorb” us. “Viva Poopa!”
Calcium has earned the title of “super nutrient”. It is an essential nutrient for critical biological functions. It can be obtained in high quantities from dairy foods, Chinese cabbage, Chinese mustard greens and bok choy, from calcium-fortified foods and beverages and supplements. The New Scientist reported in 2002 that scientific studies support the theory that all humans were once lactose intolerant, and that lactose tolerance evolved only after people domesticated animals and began drinking their milk. What do you think will happen if you give cow’s milk to an adult cow? Black populations like the Fulani of Western Africa that rely extensively on milk in their diet are highly tolerant to milk. Lactose intolerance is not a disease or a disorder. With varying degrees of intolerance, about two thirds of the world’s adult population is lactose intolerant.
It only goes to show that when you are called abnormal and different, do not accept the label. Do the hard, investigative work to understand the world around you and how you fit into the wider picture, even if, with the appropriate silent apologies in church on Sunday, you have to study an irreverent but essential subject such as Farting on the Nonfat Dry Milk.
Dr. Lester CN Simon
With the advent of the School Meals Program and the approach of 25 years of independence, I got to thinking about what Antigua and Barbuda means to me. I was also prompted to reflect on whether my days in school prepared me to take on the world, or, I should say, to know if and when to take on the world, and to always strive to be an independent thinker. Independent thought can initially be frightening because it takes on a life of its own and it pulls you seemingly un-independently along its unseeing path. You have to be confident in the process of thinking and know when to stop. So why can’t I stop thinking about the Nonfat Dry Milk they used to serve us children in primary school, and all the big loads of stinking poops we used to let go after eating or drinking it?
The study of flatus is a worthy and noble vocation if for no other reason than it affords us the acquired ability to differentiate between an authentic poop and its covert, non-gaseous, occasional companion, the doo-doo. A comprehensive study can also inform us of the type of flatus that is forthcoming: Will it be loud and explosive or will it be soft and whistling or inaudible and malodorous? This is vital and enviable information that many highly respectable members of a congregation would swap their collection money for in church, on a beautiful Sunday morning. Sitting in the middle of the pew on the windward side of the aisle enjoying the effervescent, tropical breeze; the holy sacrament of communion is about to begin; the priest says, “This is my body and my…….”....oooops! Everyone looks at everyone else in their minds’ eyes and in that fleeting, deprecatory moment it seems that we all must have read the same flatus inspired script, Waiting To Inhale.
The New Scientist journal reported in 2001 that Dr. Michael Levitt, a gastroenterologist (who else?), had been studying flatus for over 30 years. He discovered that although some women tend to produce less flatulent emissions, there was no significant difference between males and females in the frequency of passing wind. He also analyzed and correctly identified the bouquet of gases in large numbers of poops and thus paved the way for a new type of purgative to clean the gut before performing surgical operations on the bowel. Previously, the purgatives that were used preoperatively enhanced the production of some gases that were combustible and hitherto there were cases of real fireworks and explosions during surgical operations on the bowel!
The drinking of milk or suckling by newborns is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. Lactose is the dominant carbohydrate in virtually all mammalian milk. It is digested in the intestines by an enzyme called lactase. Lactase, the enzyme, breaks down lactose, the sugar in milk. Many Black school children of the Nonfat Dry Milk era grew up to learn that we lacked the enzyme lactase and so we could not adequately digest lactose and hence we could not drink large volumes of milk. We came to understand the reason for passing all the milk inspired flatus and we were made to feel that we were abnormal; that lactose intolerance was a disease at worse or a disorder at best. After all, one must not go pooping, pooping all over the place after drinking a tall glass of milk. The effects of drinking milk must be seen, not heard.
Studies reported in The Journal of the American College of Nutrition in 2000 by Dr. V S Tuula et al show that there is a reduction in lactase activity in the intestines soon after weaning in almost all animals and in many humans. Lactase deficiency is a normal physiological process. Remarkable! The prevalence of lactose intolerance is about 50% in South America, Africa, and Asia, reaching almost 100% in some Asians countries. In the United States, the prevalence of lactose intolerance is about 15% among whites, 53% among Mexican-Americans and 80% in the Black population. In Europe it ranges along a rising gradient from about 2% in northern areas like Scandinavia to about 70% in Sicily in the south. Did the Nonfat Dry milk school program extend throughout the entire world? Thankfully, Black people do not have a monopoly on passing flatus after copious milk ingestion. Black brothers and sisters arise. Wipe out those pooping lies!
History will “absorb” us. “Viva Poopa!”
Calcium has earned the title of “super nutrient”. It is an essential nutrient for critical biological functions. It can be obtained in high quantities from dairy foods, Chinese cabbage, Chinese mustard greens and bok choy, from calcium-fortified foods and beverages and supplements. The New Scientist reported in 2002 that scientific studies support the theory that all humans were once lactose intolerant, and that lactose tolerance evolved only after people domesticated animals and began drinking their milk. What do you think will happen if you give cow’s milk to an adult cow? Black populations like the Fulani of Western Africa that rely extensively on milk in their diet are highly tolerant to milk. Lactose intolerance is not a disease or a disorder. With varying degrees of intolerance, about two thirds of the world’s adult population is lactose intolerant.
It only goes to show that when you are called abnormal and different, do not accept the label. Do the hard, investigative work to understand the world around you and how you fit into the wider picture, even if, with the appropriate silent apologies in church on Sunday, you have to study an irreverent but essential subject such as Farting on the Nonfat Dry Milk.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
The Alternative Medicine
THE BABY AND THE BATH WATER
Dr. Lester CN Simon
I write in reference to the article, “Antiguan Naturopath Cures HTLV-I” submitted by Mr. Ted Emanuel and published in the Antigua Sun on Wednesday July 26, 2006. I telephoned Mr. Emanuel in Jamaica and suggested to him that his article did not contain sufficient information to conclude that the he cured the patient of HTLV-I.
HTLV-I means Human T cell Lymphotropic Virus type I. Like all viruses, HTLV-I needs a living cell to reproduce because it does not have the full reproduction machinery for this vital function. Viruses may show a particular affinity or tropism for certain types of cells. The members of the group of viruses called HTLV derive their group name from their affinities or tropism for human T lymphocytes, which are types of white blood cells.
HTLV-I is the first member of a distinct group of viruses. Other members of the group include HTLV-II, which cases a blood cancer, and the HIV viruses that cause AIDS. HTLV-I does not cause AIDS. HTLV-I is associated with some types of cancer, a nerve disorder, skin problems and other abnormalities. The major routes of transmission of all these viruses include sexual activity, blood transfusion and mother-to-child.
Many tests for viruses, including HTLV-I, are actually tests for the substances called antibodies that the body makes in response to infection by the virus. A person may be virus positive and antibody negative because the antibodies are in very low, immeasurable quantities. Hence the article by the Antiguan naturopath should have stated whether the test on the patient was a test for the antibodies or a test for the virus. Additionally, the sensitivity and specificity of any test should be included and referenced to a gold standard, which is a test that detects extremely small amounts of the tested material. Everyone is familiar with the fact that the inability to detect something does not necessarily mean that it is absent.
In the absence of pertinent scientific data, the article submitted by Mr. Ted Emanuel falls short of basic scientific principles. In this regard, I wish to note that there is a place for naturopathic medicine in the healing process but that place must be earned and maintain by proper attention to scientific principles in medicine, statistics and logic.
I am a medical doctor and I have no hesitation at all in saying that we must acknowledge the shortcomings of orthodox medicine and attend to them. But we must not discard the baby with the bathwater. Reverting solely to natural medicine without attention to orthodox medicine, science, statistics and logic would be akin to discarding the baby, the bathwater, the basin and the entire bathroom.
Dr. Lester CN Simon
I write in reference to the article, “Antiguan Naturopath Cures HTLV-I” submitted by Mr. Ted Emanuel and published in the Antigua Sun on Wednesday July 26, 2006. I telephoned Mr. Emanuel in Jamaica and suggested to him that his article did not contain sufficient information to conclude that the he cured the patient of HTLV-I.
HTLV-I means Human T cell Lymphotropic Virus type I. Like all viruses, HTLV-I needs a living cell to reproduce because it does not have the full reproduction machinery for this vital function. Viruses may show a particular affinity or tropism for certain types of cells. The members of the group of viruses called HTLV derive their group name from their affinities or tropism for human T lymphocytes, which are types of white blood cells.
HTLV-I is the first member of a distinct group of viruses. Other members of the group include HTLV-II, which cases a blood cancer, and the HIV viruses that cause AIDS. HTLV-I does not cause AIDS. HTLV-I is associated with some types of cancer, a nerve disorder, skin problems and other abnormalities. The major routes of transmission of all these viruses include sexual activity, blood transfusion and mother-to-child.
Many tests for viruses, including HTLV-I, are actually tests for the substances called antibodies that the body makes in response to infection by the virus. A person may be virus positive and antibody negative because the antibodies are in very low, immeasurable quantities. Hence the article by the Antiguan naturopath should have stated whether the test on the patient was a test for the antibodies or a test for the virus. Additionally, the sensitivity and specificity of any test should be included and referenced to a gold standard, which is a test that detects extremely small amounts of the tested material. Everyone is familiar with the fact that the inability to detect something does not necessarily mean that it is absent.
In the absence of pertinent scientific data, the article submitted by Mr. Ted Emanuel falls short of basic scientific principles. In this regard, I wish to note that there is a place for naturopathic medicine in the healing process but that place must be earned and maintain by proper attention to scientific principles in medicine, statistics and logic.
I am a medical doctor and I have no hesitation at all in saying that we must acknowledge the shortcomings of orthodox medicine and attend to them. But we must not discard the baby with the bathwater. Reverting solely to natural medicine without attention to orthodox medicine, science, statistics and logic would be akin to discarding the baby, the bathwater, the basin and the entire bathroom.
Monday, August 21, 2006
The Music Gone To The Pigs
PIG TAIL AND PIG MOUTH
Dr. Lester CN Simon
Quite a lot has been said and written about the way we dance at Carnival time; how the wining is too rude and vulgar and is nothing short of adulterated, orgiastic sex. The good news is that you are right; the bad news is that we do not examine why and suggest how we should dance. Maybe it is our refusal to take on fundamental issues and move from banal observation to analytical discourse that makes us pig tail and pig mouth people. We don’t want no reason. We don’t want no cause. We don’t want no basis. We don’t want no sense. Everybody shout out: All we want is pig tail and pig mouth; pig tail and pig mouth!
Dance is a form of social intercourse, with emphasis on social. We dance to music. The contribution of Africa to Caribbean and world music is so emphatic that we make the mistake of thinking that only black people got rhythm. Well, all God’s children got rhythm but one man’s rhythm may be another man’s confusion.
Examine a few of the dance forms in the Caribbean and Latin America and take a hard look at two of them. Argentina developed the Tango and Martinique and Guadeloupe developed the Beguine. How do you dance to Calypso? Is there a specific and recognizable Calypso dance? Dorbrene O’Marde says that King Obstinate says there is no such thing as a Calypso dance. And Obsti should know. Could it be that the dances we develop or fail to develop in the Caribbean and Latina America are reflections of the social intercourse between the colonial Europeans and the transplanted Africans?
A recent article called Contrasting Empires by J. H. Elliott in the August 2006 edition of History Today compared Spanish and English colonialism and concluded that the Spaniards were more accommodating to their colonies. The late, Lord Bold Face must be blue vexed (with people trying to ambush market his name). I guess it’s like saying that all colonialisms are unequal but some are more or less unequal than others.
The Tango is a stylized, extremely sensual, adulterated, almost artificial form of what we are accused of doing at Carnival time. Yet it is very popular internationally and it attracts highly sophisticated people. I have never been to Argentina but I suspect you can find there a more vulgar form of Tango that will make the international, provocative Tango look like a May pole dance at a Sunday school picnic. I hear that the Beguine dance is one in which there are loads of waist movement (rolling hips, like rolling hills for crying out loud) but the upper body is stiff, stiff, stiff. Again, a more stylized, adulterated form of what we do at Carnival time. The French West Indian inventor of the Beguine must have had the good sense of humour that only a West Indian can muster.
What was it about English colonialism that differed from French and Spanish colonialism regarding social interaction between whites and natives? Is the absence of a calypso dance an indictment of the English speaking West Indian, reflecting our failure to weave a stylized, ornate, artificial dance that represents the conjoining of the two cultures? Is this one of the reasons why Calypso is not so popular internationally? Surely a music with a distinctive, accommodating dance will go further than a music to which you just do what comes naturally. Why has the English speaking West Indian middle class (the same ones rightfully crying out against the overt wining at Carnival) failed to find a dance between the staid ballroom dancing of the Europeans and the earthy “Sylvie Breakaway” of the Carnival wining dancers, especially when the literature of calypso is uniquely chock full of humour and mockery?
A word of caution is in order for those who may be thinking that African dancing is all about wining and vulgar simulation of sex. I have seen African dancers on stage with bare breasted women wining much more than the slackers you see at Carnival time. The female African dancers I saw were moving all over the stage and despite of (or because of) the naked breasts and the gyrating, the theme and purpose of the dance attracted more attention. In fact (wait for it) they reminded me of ballerinas. It may surprise you to learn that if you observe ballerinas carefully you will discover that when they move, especially when dancing on pointe their entire body is shaking. It has to do that for proper balance. The ballerinas are really wining but they are wining to a different rhythm.
So if you want the vulgar, adulterated sexual wining to stop, let us choreograph a dance in which the wining comes second and the entire dance and theme and story come first and we end up with a new, stylized, hybrid dance form. But this will require that we desire more, much more (mucho más) than just the succulent pig tail and pig mouth.
Dr. Lester CN Simon
Quite a lot has been said and written about the way we dance at Carnival time; how the wining is too rude and vulgar and is nothing short of adulterated, orgiastic sex. The good news is that you are right; the bad news is that we do not examine why and suggest how we should dance. Maybe it is our refusal to take on fundamental issues and move from banal observation to analytical discourse that makes us pig tail and pig mouth people. We don’t want no reason. We don’t want no cause. We don’t want no basis. We don’t want no sense. Everybody shout out: All we want is pig tail and pig mouth; pig tail and pig mouth!
Dance is a form of social intercourse, with emphasis on social. We dance to music. The contribution of Africa to Caribbean and world music is so emphatic that we make the mistake of thinking that only black people got rhythm. Well, all God’s children got rhythm but one man’s rhythm may be another man’s confusion.
Examine a few of the dance forms in the Caribbean and Latin America and take a hard look at two of them. Argentina developed the Tango and Martinique and Guadeloupe developed the Beguine. How do you dance to Calypso? Is there a specific and recognizable Calypso dance? Dorbrene O’Marde says that King Obstinate says there is no such thing as a Calypso dance. And Obsti should know. Could it be that the dances we develop or fail to develop in the Caribbean and Latina America are reflections of the social intercourse between the colonial Europeans and the transplanted Africans?
A recent article called Contrasting Empires by J. H. Elliott in the August 2006 edition of History Today compared Spanish and English colonialism and concluded that the Spaniards were more accommodating to their colonies. The late, Lord Bold Face must be blue vexed (with people trying to ambush market his name). I guess it’s like saying that all colonialisms are unequal but some are more or less unequal than others.
The Tango is a stylized, extremely sensual, adulterated, almost artificial form of what we are accused of doing at Carnival time. Yet it is very popular internationally and it attracts highly sophisticated people. I have never been to Argentina but I suspect you can find there a more vulgar form of Tango that will make the international, provocative Tango look like a May pole dance at a Sunday school picnic. I hear that the Beguine dance is one in which there are loads of waist movement (rolling hips, like rolling hills for crying out loud) but the upper body is stiff, stiff, stiff. Again, a more stylized, adulterated form of what we do at Carnival time. The French West Indian inventor of the Beguine must have had the good sense of humour that only a West Indian can muster.
What was it about English colonialism that differed from French and Spanish colonialism regarding social interaction between whites and natives? Is the absence of a calypso dance an indictment of the English speaking West Indian, reflecting our failure to weave a stylized, ornate, artificial dance that represents the conjoining of the two cultures? Is this one of the reasons why Calypso is not so popular internationally? Surely a music with a distinctive, accommodating dance will go further than a music to which you just do what comes naturally. Why has the English speaking West Indian middle class (the same ones rightfully crying out against the overt wining at Carnival) failed to find a dance between the staid ballroom dancing of the Europeans and the earthy “Sylvie Breakaway” of the Carnival wining dancers, especially when the literature of calypso is uniquely chock full of humour and mockery?
A word of caution is in order for those who may be thinking that African dancing is all about wining and vulgar simulation of sex. I have seen African dancers on stage with bare breasted women wining much more than the slackers you see at Carnival time. The female African dancers I saw were moving all over the stage and despite of (or because of) the naked breasts and the gyrating, the theme and purpose of the dance attracted more attention. In fact (wait for it) they reminded me of ballerinas. It may surprise you to learn that if you observe ballerinas carefully you will discover that when they move, especially when dancing on pointe their entire body is shaking. It has to do that for proper balance. The ballerinas are really wining but they are wining to a different rhythm.
So if you want the vulgar, adulterated sexual wining to stop, let us choreograph a dance in which the wining comes second and the entire dance and theme and story come first and we end up with a new, stylized, hybrid dance form. But this will require that we desire more, much more (mucho más) than just the succulent pig tail and pig mouth.
Tuesday, July 4, 2006
Crocodile Tears
THE CROCODILES ARE CRYING AGAIN
Dr. Lester CN Simon
Have you ever felt that everyone else is going to heaven and you alone are going to hell? This is how I feel with all the cries for prayer in the wake of the most recent murder. Since everyone is praying and prayer moves mountains, I too have a prayer, so let us pray.
I pray that God will close all the doors of all the churches in Antigua and Barbuda for a while. And for those of us who are still found inside a church, I pray that Jesus will take a whip (the local, bovine version) and bang them, bang them, bang them, and tell them not to come back to church until we do the following things.
1. Build a modern, national library and foster a library culture.
2. Make it compulsory for all school children to join one of the youth clubs as part of national service otherwise they will not graduate from school.
3. The communities that have effective neighbourhood watch groups will pay less property tax. This will include neighbours keeping their dogs inside their own yards with properly built fences.
4. Disband the defence force and create a national security force with enough men and women to contribute to regional security and, more importantly, patrol the streets of Antigua and Barbuda.
Anything else is just crocodiles crying again and devils like me asking God for help when we already know the answers. The Lord help those who help themselves.
Dr. Lester CN Simon
Have you ever felt that everyone else is going to heaven and you alone are going to hell? This is how I feel with all the cries for prayer in the wake of the most recent murder. Since everyone is praying and prayer moves mountains, I too have a prayer, so let us pray.
I pray that God will close all the doors of all the churches in Antigua and Barbuda for a while. And for those of us who are still found inside a church, I pray that Jesus will take a whip (the local, bovine version) and bang them, bang them, bang them, and tell them not to come back to church until we do the following things.
1. Build a modern, national library and foster a library culture.
2. Make it compulsory for all school children to join one of the youth clubs as part of national service otherwise they will not graduate from school.
3. The communities that have effective neighbourhood watch groups will pay less property tax. This will include neighbours keeping their dogs inside their own yards with properly built fences.
4. Disband the defence force and create a national security force with enough men and women to contribute to regional security and, more importantly, patrol the streets of Antigua and Barbuda.
Anything else is just crocodiles crying again and devils like me asking God for help when we already know the answers. The Lord help those who help themselves.
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