In the impoverished South American country of Paraguay, there is a slum called Cateura outside the capital of Asuncion. This poorest of shantytowns is built on a landfill where the city’s 1,500 tons of garbage and waste is dumped each day.

Despite the filth and the stench and contamination it breeds, about 2,500 families live in Cateura, making their only hand-to-mouth living by sifting through the trash and selling anything that’s recyclable. 24 hours a day there are people going through the most decrepit waste of others, cashing in on 10 cents for a pound of plastic and 5 cents for a pound of cardboard. 
 
The barefoot children don’t go to school, can’t read or write, and have no medical care, forced to sift through the trash from a young age, just like their mothers and fathers. There is no hope for escape to a better life in the landfill community, as joining a gang, becoming a criminal, and doing drugs are usually the only other options. The inhabitants don’t usually have electricity or plumbing and their drinking water is dangerously contaminated with pollution. That was the only life they know in Cateura…until the music started.
 
When environmental technician Favio Chavez visited the landfill community years back, he had an idea for a music school to help lift the children out of their wretched conditions. He quickly realized that new instruments or even buying used ones was not an option. "A violin is worth more than a house here," Chavez.

1. While the western world celebrates New Years on December 31 at midnight and considers January 1 the first day of the year, the rite of passage of the changing of the year is done differently in Thailand, and most of Asia for that matter.

2. Thailand’s New Year is called “Songkran” and celebrated in mid April, the hottest time of the year in the southeast Asian country.

3. But it’s not just a one-night affair, as the Thai New Year observation goes on for three full days. While it used to be a floating hotel with dates that changed slightly depending on the year, Songkran is now set for the 13th to the 15th of April.

4. Songkran is quite possibly the most unique New Year in the world, celebrated with a national water festival that’s grown to legendary proportions. Not only do all Thais take part, but also tens of thousands of farang (foreigners) visit the country every year to join in the wet and wild festivities.

5. For those three days, the streets basically become a massive water fight, with every man, woman, and child (but especially teens, young adults, and now, tourists) throwing water on each other unmercilessly.

6. It’s also the longest holiday in Thailand, running three full days, day and night. However, in some parts of the country that are vacation spots or cater to tourists, etc. the water fights sometimes go on for a full week!

7. For weeks ahead of the New Year, you’ll see giant water pistols and crazy, colorful Hawaiian-style shirts sold on the side of the road in anticipation of the antics. Thais will also resort to garbage pails full of water, hoses, and buckets – whatever it takes to soak their fellow man or woman.

8. In cities, you’ll even see big tanker trucks driving around delivering water (or soaking people themselves) and delivery trucks also deliver blocks of ice, deposited in the trash pails so the soaking will be frigid as well.

9. Everyone is fair game to get doused with a bucket of water when they are walking around during Songkran. Tourists who wish “not to participate” better stay in their hotel rooms for those three days or not come to Thailand!

​The average lifespan in America is now around 75.5 years old, though that’s expected to rise in the future thanks to modern medicine and technology. But that’s still nowhere near the life expectancy of people in some cultures around the world.
 
Called “Blue Zones” for the astounding average lifespans, they are defined as areas where people have three times the chance of reaching 100 than we do in the U.S. 

In fact, the island inhabitants of Okinawa in Japan, the Titicaca Indians in mountainous Peru, the Abkhasia in the Caucasus Mountains in Southern Russia and other areas, super centenarians are common (those who live to 110 years or more) and there are plenty of documented cases of people living to 120 or even 140!

While there is no secret fountain of youth for these cultures, scientists and doctors have studied them intensively and identified several health, diet, and lifestyle factors that they all have in common. The current consensus among among medical science is that only 25% of your longevity is determined by your genetics, with the other 75% a factor of how and where you live. 

In this blog, we’ll introduce you to the people and cultures in the earth’s Blue Zones, and then summarize those practices that keep them happy and healthy well past 100 years old!

The islanders of Okinawa in Japan
This small south Pacific island in Japan holds the honor for the longest disability-free life expectancy in the world. Known as the “land of immortals,” Okinawa has an incredible 900 people over 100 years old, the highest number of centenarians in the world despite having only 1.385 million people. How is that possible? Researchers noticed that the people there eat most of their food lightly steamed, eat more tofu and soya than anyone in the world, drink green tea, and eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, especially the dark green leafy kind. Unlike some of their vegetarian counterparts in other Blue Zones, the people of Okinawa do eat meat, though interestingly they usually only eat fish and it is often raw. They are always physically active even in advanced years, elders are greatly respected, and their “island attitude” results in a largely stress-free and communal life.

Southern Italian and other Mediterranean cultures
The island of Sardinia in southern Italy in the Mediterranean Sea holds the highest rate of male centenarians in the world. It’s estimated that the benefits of the Mediterranean Diet, also common in Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, parts of Spain, etc. help account for such long and healthy lives. That includes daily consumption of olive oil, called liquid gold for its health benefits, along with plenty of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and low consumption of meat and dairy. Don’t forget the glass of wine with every meal, a great source of flavonoids. Elderly people in this region also get plenty of exercise, sunshine, fresh air, and stay active in their homes, families, and communities. 

The Abkhasia of Southern Russia
This unforgiving environment in the Caucasus Mountains, located between Europe and Asia, was once referred to as the “longevity capital of the world.” In fact, the longest-living man in the world, Shirali Muslimov, who lived to the ripe old age of 168, was from Azerbaijan in that region. The people there mostly eat freshly picked nuts and whole grains, and locally grown fruits and vegetables. They only rarely eat meat, and with the fat removed, but drink a special fermented beverage for vitality called matzoni, made from goat’s milk. They are constantly walking up and doing hilly paths and mountainous terrain, so every person is trim and fit no matter what age. Just like in Okinawa, elders are revered and respected in their society.

The Hunza of North Pakistan
High up in the inhospitable mountains in Pakistan, the Hunza tribes have lived for many centuries, isolated from the rest of the world but enjoying very long, healthy lives. Due to the mountainous conditions the Hunza have to walk almost everywhere, and farming the soil is a full time job that keeps them physically fit. They subsist on a diet of fresh fruit most of the year and keep dried fruit to get them through the winters. In summer months, their diet also includes beans, corn, roots, tubers, squash, and sprouts, all extremely healthy. Most of the time their food is eaten raw because even cooking fires can be hard to come by. Eating meat or dairy is an extreme rarity, as the mountains don’t even allow for grazing of animals. Incredibly, they are virtually disease free during their lives, despite the harsh terrain and their hard lives.

The Vicalbamba Indians of the Andes Mountains
In high-altitude valley in the peaks of southern Ecuador, the Vicalbamba people commonly live to 110 years old or more. Of course they stay active and physically fit, walking and hiking and cultivating the land, but like many of these people with extraordinary long lives, they also enjoy a strong sense of community, a stress-free life full of laughter and the warmth of extended family, and a sense of purpose long into live, as elders are looked up to. The Vicalbamba also share an almost-vegan diet, eating some cooked whole grains and lots of vegetables, nuts, and fruits all harvested with their own hands from their lands, with very little animal products.

Other Blue Zones around the world:
On the Greek island of Ikaria, there are an alarming number of centenarians and chronic disease and dementia are almost non-existant. Costa Rica spends only 15% of what America does on healthcare, yet their residents have a far longer life expectancy than almost all developing nations - and even many wealthier societies.  The Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica is one such Blue Zone, renowned for having elders live well into their 90s and 100s. 

There are even Blue Zones evolving within the United States which proves that it's not just environment or hereditary factors that determine longevity. In Loma Linda, California, emerging data reveals that residents live at least ten years longer than the national average due to their lifestyle, health, and diets. Alaska contains another Blue Zone. 

So what do they all have in common?
So if you want to live to 140 years old, too, should you just move to one of these places? I don’t think it quite works like that, but the good news is that you can replicate many conditions of their lifestyle to improve your health, even back in the United States.

Researchers who collected extensive data from these regions came up with several striking similarities between cultures in the Blue Zones:​

• Diets that consist mostly of vegan, and/or vegetarian and organic food.
• They typically ate only 1,700-1,800 calories a day at most, even with physical activity filling their daily lives.
•  That caloric intake was between 69-73% carbohydrates, 15-18% from fat and 10-13% from protein.
• Food was grown and harvested local, without any chemicals, pesticides, fertilizers, additives, GMOs, coloring or preservatives.
• A good portion of food was eaten raw.
• Vegetables, legumes, and fruits made up a large portion of their diet.
• They ate little or no sweets, no processed sugars, and no salt except possibly sea salts.
• They ate little or no animal products (0-10% of their diet, depending on the culture), and if they did it was lean and low fat.
• The fats they did eat were extremely healthy, coming from fish, eggs, olive oil, etc.
• They stayed lean and physically fit by walking, working, and staying active. No one had an exercise routine per se, but the activity in their lives dictated that there was zero obesity in their cultures.
• People in all of their cultures had low levels of stress in their daily lives.
• They used natural remedies and plants and herbs to heal ailments, not synthetic or chemical pharmaceuticals.
• They all laughed, interacted with family and friends, and enjoyed a sense of community with all of those around them.
• They believe in something greater than themselves; a purpose to their daily lives whether that be religion, spirituality, or just community.
• As they grew older they still had a sense of purpose, as elderly people are all greatly revered and respected in their cultures.

-Norm :-)

I originally wrote a version of this blog for Dr. Lance Casazza at Casazza Chiropractic in Sacramento, California.

​His legacy is still gold-plated in the Kingdom of Siam, where condoms are still sometimes referred to as “mechais,” a tribute to the first name of “Mr. Condom.” More importantly, even as HIV and AIDs spread rampantly in many developing countries around the world in the 1980s and 90s, reaching epidemic proportions in many African and other Southeast Asian countries, Thailand reacted quickly thanks to the tireless work and social progress Viravaidya. Not only were HIV and AIDS levels normalized, but the average number of children in Thai families decreased from 3.7 to 1.5 during his tenure – a testament to education, family planning, and the societal acceptance of condoms.
 
In 2007, Mechai Viravaidya was honored with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Gates Award – including a $1,000,000 check - in recognition of his life’s work of family planning, HIV and AIDS awareness, women’s health, and advocacy for the poor.
 
That explained why there were photos of Viravaidya posing alongside Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Warren Buffet, and other philanthropists, celebrities, and heads of states adorning the restaurant walls; not at all what you’d expect from a restaurant with the slogan, “Our food is guaranteed not to cause pregnancy.”
 

March 8 is International Women's Day, a day to honor women and girls around the world and reflect upon the progress that's been made thanks to brave and extraordinary pioneers along the way.
 
"But this is no time to stop and rest," says Tiffani Sharp, Founder & Executive Director of Willow Tree Roots, a non-profit that works to empower women in the developing world through social entrepreneurship. "Now more than ever, we also have to bring awareness to critical female human rights issues and strongly advocate for change."
 
Born from the labor movements in North America and Europe around the turn of the twentieth century, the first National Women's Day was observed in the United States in 1909. Since then, the plight of women has seen great strides in some areas, but is still sorely lagging in others.
 
Therefore, the theme for International Women's Day in 2016 is "Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality". This year's agenda outlines the goals of free and equitable education, early childhood care, and an end to discrimination, violence, sexual exploitation, trafficking, forced marriage and female genital mutilation by 2030.
 
So in honor of those 2030 goals, here are 30 reasons why International Women's Day is the most important day of the year:
 
Sexual violence
1.  Around the world, approximately one in three women will be raped or beaten in her lifetime. (UN)
 
2.  Worldwide, women between the ages of 15-44 are more at risk from rape or domestic violence than cancer, car accidents, war, and malaria. (UN)
 
3.  About 120 million girls around the world -- or 1 in 10 will experience sexual violence. (UNWomen) 
 
Domestic violence
4.  About 30 percent of all women report being in a relationship where their partner inflicted physical or sexual abuse. (World Health Organization)
 
5.  Several studies reveal that about half of all women who die from homicide are murdered by their current or former husbands or dating partners. (UN)
 
6.  603 million women are living in countries where domestic violence is not a crime.  In fact, out of almost 200 countries in the world, only 76 have laws that specifically mention domestic violence - and only 57 countries have laws that address sexual abuse. Ten countries in the world legally obligate women to obey their husbands. (The Independent)
 
Child brides and legal servitude
7. It's estimated that around 15 million girls - some of them as young as 8 or less - were forced into marriage in 2015. (The Independent)
 
8. More than 700 million women in the world today were married before the age of 18, and 250 million were married before 15. (UNICEF)
 
Trafficking, slavery, and displacement
9.  There are 20 to 30 million slaves in the world today and 600,000 - 800,000 human beings are trafficked across international borders every year. (DoSomething)
 
10.  4 out of 5 victims of human trafficking are female and 50 percent of them are minors. (Trafficking.org)
 
11.  At least 20.9 million people are victims of forced work or labor slavery. (ILO)
 
12.  In fact, women and girls make up 98 percent of all victims of forced sexual exploitation in the world. (Mashable)
 
13.  Every year, around 14,500 to 17,500 women and girls are trafficked into the U.S. (Do Something)
 
14.  Of the 42 million refugees worldwide who have fled their homes because of war, 80 percent are women, girls, or young children. They are often the targets of systematic rape, violence, and terror by military and political parties, not just individual perpetrators. (Women's Refugee Commission)
 
15.  It's estimated that up to 5,000 women and girls every year are murdered by their own relatives in so-called "Honor killings", mostly because they are rape victims, thought to have engaged in premarital sex, or accused of adultery. (UN)
 
Education 
16.  About 584 women worldwide are completely illiterate. (UN)
 
17.  62 Million girls are denied an education every year worldwide. (Makers)
 
18.  About 25 percent of young women (15-24) in developing nations - about 116 million total - never finished even primary school. (eGirlPower)
 
Work and income 
19. Around the world, women are paid only 60-75 percent of what men earn on average. (PBS)
 
20.  70 percent of the 1.5 billion people in the world living in desperate poverty (less than $1.00 a day) are women. (Do Something)
 
21.  155 countries have at least one law that limits women's economic opportunities, 100 countries have laws restricting the types of jobs that women can do. (The Guardian)
 
22.  In 18 countries around the world, men can prevent their wives from accepting employment. (The Guardian)
 
Childbirth, reproductive rights, and genital mutilation
23.  Every minute, a woman dies in pregnancy or childbirth somewhere in the world, adding up 1,400 per day or 529,000 each year. 50 percent of pregnant woman in developing countries lack proper maternal care, so many of them die from very preventable diseases or complications. (UN)
 
24.  About 1 in 4 women experience physical or sexual violence while they are pregnant. (UN)
 
25.  About 200 million women and girls in the world have suffered forced genital mutilation in just 30 countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The vast majority of these were done without painkillers, medicines to stave off infection, or under supervision of a doctor.(World Health Organization)
 
The plight of women and girls in the U.S.
Sometimes people in the United States or western nations think that these issues are only confined to the developing world. But shockingly, these problems exist in the United States, too. According to the latest annual report by Maria Shriver, co-sponsored by the Center for American Progress:
 
26.  42 U.S. million (about 1 in 3) and 28 million children now live in poverty or on the brink of poverty.
 
27.  In the U.S., almost two-thirds of all minimum wage workers are women, yet an equal two-thirds of women are the primary or co-wage earners for their families.
 
28.  The average U.S. woman is paid 77 cents for every dollar their male counterpart earns. The statistics are even more disproportionate for minorities, as African American women earn 64 cents on the dollar every white man makes and Hispanic women earn only 55 cents for every dollar.
 
29.  In 2014, the Nation Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline in the U.S. received multiple reports of human trafficking from every state and the District of Columbia. (Mashable) 
 
30. American servicewomen are more likely to be raped by a fellow serviceman than killed by the enemy in combat. (Truth Out)
 
***
Despite these grim statistics, there is hope for change. In fact, there are certain initiatives that have been proven to empower women, improve their lives, and strengthen societies as a whole, generation after generation.

Email me at [email protected] if you'd like a one-page brief on those initiatives.
 
If you'd like to read a first-hand account of how poverty, societal norms and even government corruption affect disenfranchised women in Southeast Asia, check out the book, The Queens of Dragon Town.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a blog with the FUNNIEST sh*t you'll see in Southeast Asia and shared it with you. The response was so great that I decided to follow up with a new two-part blog with the CRAZIEST sh*t you'll see in Southeast Asia!

From Cambodia to Laos, Vietnam to Myanmar, and Thailand to the Philippines, there's definitely NO place on earth that will make you sure in amazement and scratch your head like in Southeast Asia, where the wild, hilarious, and downright bizarre are a daily occurrence. 

So enjoy, and look for part 2 of this blog coming soon! 

If you want to read more about life in Southeast Asia, read my new book, The Queens of Dragon Town.

-Norm   :-)