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10 Things to feel ridiculously, gleefully, unabashedly hopeful about

4/17/2020

11 Comments

 
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Whoa. 
 
That’s the feeling we get every time we turn on the news or check social media these days, as things seem to keep getting worse.
 
It’s hard NOT to feel down, depressed, and despondent during these unprecedented times, with millions of people sick, thousands dying, and the whole economy shut down. 
 
There seems to be no quick solution or even solid answers, and it sure feels like the average person has been left to his or her own devices.
 
It’s all too much.
 
Then again, in those rare occasions that I'm able to throw the covers off and actually get out of bed, put down my third bowl of Peanut Butter Captain Crunch (note: I highly recommend it), or stop walking in circles around the house like a zombie, I realize that maybe things aren’t completely hopeless.
 
In fact, the sun is shining. I’m blessed to still have a roof over my head and food on the table, and the ability to control my own destiny, no matter how difficult that task may seem.
 
As usual, things may not be quite as bad as they seem. 
 
I can hit you with rosy platitudes like “It’s always darkest before the dawn,” or even start singing “Don’t worry; be happy,” but I’m not going to minimize what we’re up against (and you don’t want to hear my singing!).
 
Furthermore, intangibles and Trumpian double-speak do us no good at this point. We need some real and substantial cornerstones that make us feel optimistic about coming days.
 
So, here are 10 things to feel ridiculously, gleefully, unabashedly hopeful about:

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1.  Animal shelters are emptying That's great news if you're a pet lover, as people are adopting and rescuing dogs, cats, and other lovable critters at a record rate. In fact, some dog shelters have posted videos lately, showing that they're completely empty! It turns out, we all want a lovable four-legged friend at home to keep us company.

​(My dog, Pupperoni, is patiently waiting for me to return to the Philippines or I'd adopt five more here in Connecticut!)


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2.  The words ‘neighbor’ and ‘community’ mean something again
During good times, we were all a little guilty of fortifying ourselves in our McMansions and going about our own business.

​But now, people are more interested in helping, supporting, and just getting to know those around them again. We're sitting on our front porches and saying hi, making meals for seniors, and giving away things we used to try to sell. Young people, especially, are stepping up and showing character.


Isn’t it ironic that we’re more isolated than ever but feel a new sense of communal and civic pride?

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3.  Mom-n-Pop businesses are getting love
I don’t know about you, but I’m loving the rejuvenated relationship we have with local restaurants, Mom-n-Pop stores, and neighborhood businesses that are still operating. It seems like we appreciate them more than ever, and we’re actively supporting them with our dollars, (our stomachs), and by spreading the word. 
 
Think about when this is over; will you head to Chilis or Bed, Bath, and Beyond?! No! You’ll run to a local or Mom-n-Pop business to eat, drink, and shop to your heart’s content!

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4.  In some ways, we're becoming more human
As we traverse this storm of suffering with no relief in sight, I've noticed that people are becoming more human again. I liken it to the days after 9/11, when everyone waved and said hello, held the door open for each other, and generally remembered that we share the planet with others.

In fact, charity donations and volunteerism have skyrocketed already during this crisis, a heartwarming trend I expect to continue. 

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5.  We have time again​
Are we finally stopping to smell the roses? Looks like it, as we finally have a moment to pause, breathe, and not be rushed every minute of every day.

​Sure, we're bored, but our family dinners have become longer, we're talking to friends and family more than ever (even if it's virtually), and we're dusting off long-forgotten hobbies and passions. We're taking bike rides, doing yoga, learning (online) and reading, and taking walks with our kids every sunset. There may not be too many silver linings to these challenging times, but the fact that we can hit pause on the world for a moment is a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.

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6.  People are getting their priorities straight
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Although what’s to come will be extremely painful, we also are recalibrating our priorities, which will have a positive effect for the rest of our lives. All of a sudden, we are filled with appreciation just to have a hot meal, the chance to talk to an old friend, or when we get to hug our family safely every night. And just being healthy for another day feels like an enormous blessing.
 
Maybe we needed a little wake-up call? 

Well, this is it, and many of us are already listening, focusing on simplifying our lives and living with newfound gratitude.

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7.    Nature is our saving grace!
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My anxiety (ok, abject panic!) often rises to a boiling point when I stay inside to work, watch the news, or scroll through social media. Then, I step outside, and everything feels better. 

Even a few minutes out in my backyard or at the local park reminds me that some of the best things in life are the fresh air (allergy season notwithstanding), blue skies, blooming flowers, and wild animals. 
 
Many of us are lucky enough to experience nature in one way or another, and the planet even seems to be healing itself a little with less pollution and more space for wildlife to roam again.

A lot of people around the world (more US people will start doing this if they're smart) are even starting to plant home gardens and grow their own food. Clean energy may even become more sustainable through all this. Hell, maybe there is just a spark of hope for the planet? 

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8.  We have a new appreciation for the little people (who, it turns out, were never little at all!)
We'll look back at these dark days and remember the heroes, new leaders, and regular people who exhibited remarkable courage and sacrifice. We all have a new appreciation for teachers, police officers, first responders, doctors and nurses, bus drivers, grocery store workers, social workers, and all sorts of other extraordinary humans that sometimes go unappreciated. 
 
I'm sure you've seen the videos of New Yorkers applauding and cheering their local healthcare workers during the nightly 7 pm shift change. I propose that we keep that tradition alive after this is all over – and expand it to show love and respect for a whole lot more "little people" who are huge in our lives.

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9.  Change is coming
Just a few weeks ago, the world we live in now would be inconceivable.

(Would you ever imagine that you're required to wear a mask when walking into a bank?!)

Absolutely everything has changed, and we're still trying to wrap our collective psyche around that. 

There will be pain and suffering to come; there's no avoiding it. But this grandest of transformations will also bring a chance to reinvent just about every aspect of our society - and even the human experience.  We are blessed and cursed with the responsibility of rebuilding our world, and no one knows exactly what that look like except that it will be new.

Change is inevitable as it is imminent. It's now the age of rebirth for activists, artists, healers, designers, dreamers, teachers, empaths, environmentalists, inventors, underdogs, outcasts,  leaders, and, especially the youth, as we've turned this world into a fuster cluck and it's time to let the next 

The meek may just inherit the earth, after all...and I'm hopeful that they'll take far better care of it than we ever did.

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10.  People are ready to start living again 
Psychologists outline a process that we go through whenever we suffer a grave loss or tragedy, with stages from shock to denial, anger, bargaining, depression, reconciliation, and then, acceptance. 
 
I don't know about you, but I think they're missing a couple of stages like, "Wearing the same sweatpants for 72 hours" and "Drinking wine at 10 am while holding a full conversation with the mailbox."
 
But there will be an eighth stage at the end of all this: Ready.
 
People will be ready:
Ready to work.
Ready to rebuild.
Ready to experience.
Ready to learn.

Ready to heal.
Ready to give.
Ready to connect.
Ready to love without censor or fear.
 
Very soon, we’ll be ready to LIVE again!
 
That alone is something to feel incredibly hopeful about, and I think it’s coming sooner than we may realize.
 
Trust me when I tell you; You’ll want to be around for the dancing in the streets after these dark days are over!

-Norm  :-)

PS If you found this helpful or uplifting at all, can you please do me a favor and share it on social media? Thanks a billion!

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Your June 2019 Postcard from Norm: A look at our world in 2050.

6/8/2019

3 Comments

 
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Welcome to 2050 - wanna look around?

2050 sounds SO far away; THE FUTURE.


But life comes at ya fast. Remember when you felt like 2020 was so far in the future, it was hard to envision? Or, for you old-schoolers like me, 2000 used to be the FUTURE personified when we looked ahead. (Remember the big Y2K scare?)

Since we’re squarely in the middle of 2019, that means we have “only” 30 years and 6 months until 2050.
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To give you an eye-opening parallel, 30 years and 6 months ago was June of 1988 (when I was a sophomore in high school!).
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We know that 2050 will be here sooner than later…but what will it look like?

In this ongoing blog series, I’m going to take a close look at what life will most likely look like by mid-century, from demographic changes to (lots) of environmental issues, technology and medical advances that may be our only salvation, SMART cities and yes, flying cars (that are self-driving, of course). 

As far back as the Jetsons we thought we had a handle on what the future would look like, but the human stain and the Law of Unintended Consequences always seem to lead us far astray from a Utopian world. 

To come up with these bullet points from the future, I did a bunch of research written by a bunch of wicked smart people at MIT, Harvard, the United Nations, Milken Institute, the Smithsonian Foundation, Rockefeller University, Oxford University, Time, World Bank, Popular Science, the World Wildlife Fund, and many more. I also applied some informed conjecture as to which trends, movements, or phenomenon will emerge and continue.

So, if someone uncovers this blog in 2050 and my textual time capsule is spot on, I’ll take all the credit. But if these predictions are far off, don’t blame it on me but the eggheads at Harvard.
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Enough chatter already (the English language will be truncated by 20% within 30 years, by the way, with far more emojis and emoticons). Let’s take a look at our world in 2050:

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A whole lot more of us
By 2050, the world's population is forecast to reach 9,725,147,000 – or just about 2 billion people more than we have now. For those of you keeping count at home, that's like adding another India and China to our current population.
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The slightly good news is that our population growth rates will somewhat level off in the next few decades. 
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But the bad news is that there will be major consequences to adding an additional 2 out of every 10 people to our already resource-depleted planet.


​Urbanization
One of the most significant shifts we've seen over the last fifty years that will continue is urbanization. By 2050, 6.3 billion people will live in cities, or nearly two-thirds of the entire human population, putting the nail in the coffin on the agrarian period of human history.

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And we all need to be fed 
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization ran the numbers on what it will take to feed more than 9 billion people and determined that we’ll need to increase our current food production levels by 60% by 2050.

That’s a tall order (and we haven’t even talked about usable water yet). For instance, wheat and rice production across the world has only increased at a rate of less than 1% over the past 20 years.
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However, the task isn’t insurmountable. We already have the technology and know-how to fill about 80% of that need for increased food production by 2050 – it's just a matter of implementing it (and getting away from huge private corporations feeding us).

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​We’re getting really old
In 2050, the world’s population will look much older than it does today. By that year, it’s expected that one out of every six people on earth will be 65 years or older.

​This is due to several factors, but more prominently advances in health and medical care (and less major wars) that are allowing us to live longer, and as well as decreases in fertility rates.
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By 2050, some industrialized nations like Germany, Japan, Canada, and, yes, the United States, will have public health campaigns and economic incentives in place that encourage its citizens to have more babies!

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If you think traffic is bad now, wait until 2050!
By 2050, there will be 2.5 billion cars and automobiles on the roads (or in the air!), a 150% increase over the one billion vehicles we have now.
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Let’s do the math: An extra 2 billion people+ 65% of the world living in cities + 1.5 billion more cars = a lot of traffic jams.

The good news is that self-driving cars and semi-private shuttle vehicles will free us up to use that time wisely, with virtual offices, sleeping pods, entertainment centers, and even mini-fridges and coffee makers all standard features in self-driving cars by 2050! Well, maybe not the coffee makers (read below).


Hot earth
Scientists predict that the world’s temperature will increase significantly by 2050. In fact, our world’s average temperature will be 1.89 C to 2.5 C hotter than it is now, with far-reaching and drastic effects.

We’re going to talk about climate change and the environmental Armageddon facing our world 
ad infinitum over this series of blogs looking at 2050, as it is THE most pressing issue for the human race right now. 

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Coffee and climate change
Here’s one example of how climate change can hit close to home.

By 2050, coffee will be a high-priced luxury item, not an everyday staple. Due to shifting weather patterns, rainfall levels, temperatures, soil conditions and more, growing coffee will be far more difficult and possible in fewer locations around the world, leading to a run on prices.

Forget your $2 Dunkin Donuts coffee, your $3 Starbucks, or making coffee for even less at home - the average cup of coffee in 2050 may cost about $12 in 2019 prices! 


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​A world without vino?
The same can be said for wine, which will be far harder to grow. The change in micro-climates also means that Napa Valley and other areas where conditions are perfect – albeit fragile – for growing grapes right now will be barren of vineyards. Our beloved vino will be extremely rare and the price will shoot up exponentially.

A world without coffee or wine?!

​Hell no! We won’t go!

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We’ll all use Bitcoin 
It hasn’t earned mainstream appeal as anything more than a speculative investment…yet…but many of the world’s top economists think that the rise of e-currencies is inevitable. In fact, they anticipate that Bitcoin will finally break out and take over FIAT currencies as soon as the next global economic crisis (which may be only a couple of years away).
Even if it takes a decade or two for Bitcoin to become the preferred method of payment, savings, and investment, by 2050, we’ll think of traditional banks as an archaic token of a bygone era. 

Other e-currencies will come and go, but they’re anticipated to make up only about 10% of total use compared to Bitcoin’s domination.

Late in 2018, the United Nation’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) announced that we’ve reached a notable milestone where 50% of the world has Internet access. 

They anticipate meteoric growth in the coming decade, most of it on mobile devices. But, the ITU also projects that we won’t reach the high-water mark of Universal Access – defined as Internet access for 90% of the world population – until 2050 – or later. ​

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We finally have Universal Internet access 
By mid-century, 97.5% of the entire world will be online, or 8 billion people. However, reaching the last 20% (from 70-90%) will prove to be the most challenging jump since the vast majority of internet access (78%) is now in wealthy nations, as opposed to only 32% in developing countries.
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This vast disparity in Internet access mirrors a phenomenon called the Great Cognitive Divide, with literacy levels, education levels, job opportunities, modernization, and much more following that same chasm.

The Pope will be black
This may seem like a random event, but a black pope in 2050 is both a sign of demographic shifts and of huge socio-political significance. For two thousand years (as long as there have been Popes!), the euro-centric Catholic church has tapped their own as Popes. Sure, a few of the early 266 Popes throughout history were from the middle east or Northern Africa, but not African or black in the sense we think of today.
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But within 30 years, Africa will hold one of the highest populations of Catholics thanks to Nigeria and other growing countries, spawning the naming of a Pope of color from that continent and a seminal event for inclusion and religious leadership. It might even signal the official end of a post-Colonial era! ​
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The U.S. is a true melting pot
In 2000, the United States census allowed people to select more than one category under "Race" for the first time ever. That year, 6.8 million Americans checked more than one box, claiming multi-racialism. 

By the 2010 census, that number had increased 30% to 9 million Americans who registered as multiracial.That demographic and racial shift is expected to increase exponentially, jumping 176% between 2018 and 2060. 

In fact, by the year 2045, Caucasians will become a minority in the United States for the first time, comprising only 49.7% of the population.

One out of three people under thirty years old will be multi-racial, which will (hopefully) provide an inevitable salve for some of the wounds and racial divides in our nation. But those divides don’t just disappear, as classism will be the new racism.

So…will we have flying cars in 2050?
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Of course! That’s like so 2040!

I hope you enjoyed this look at the not-so-distant future and look forward to more analysis of 2050 in future blogs. Until then, have a great month and thanks for sharing!

-Norm 2050   :-)
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According to computer aging projections, this is how I'll look in 2050. The scary part is that's exactly how I look in the mornings now! 

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My charity BUGraiser in Cambodia (Yes, I really ate all of these crazy insects!)

4/4/2016

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You've seen a lot of fundraisers before, but have you ever experienced a BUGraiser?

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Watch me eat these beetles, crickets, roaches, frogs, larvae, and a bunch of unidentifiable critters from a street stall in Phnom Penh, Cambodia - all for a good cause to raise money for several amazing charities! 

If you got a kick out of this video PLEASE consider donating $100, $25, or even $10 to the charities I introduce below, Connecting Hands, Willow Tree Roots, and the Children's Improvement Organization. These are all charities I personally help out and see first hand the work they do to better a lot of lives.

Thanks - and get ready to be grossed out!


-Norm  :-)


To donate, just click on the PayPal link below and tell me which charity you'd like to help.
​It's quick, easy, safe, and I'll make sure the money gets to the appropriate charity and you get a receipt.
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Want to live to 120 years old? Take these health lessons from the longest-living cultures on earth. 

3/19/2016

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​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!

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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!

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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.


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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. 

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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.


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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.


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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. 

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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:
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  • 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.
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Cabbages & condoms? A perfect pairing for a great cause at this Thailand restaurant

3/15/2016

1 Comment

 
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​If you’ve spent enough time in Thailand, very little will shock you, and yet I had to do a double take when I saw the sign across the street from my hotel in the Hu-Gwang Bay area right outside of Pattaya: “Cabbages and Condoms.”
 
I was not mistaken; nor was I hallucinating – that was really the name of the restaurant (that adorned the Birds and Bees Resort, appropriately.)
 
Amid all the idyllic white-sand beaches, tropical islands, Buddhist Pagodas shrouded in incense smoke, spicy street dishes, local Thais warm smiles and plenty of Muay Thai camps where they are trained to knock out someone’s warm smile (I was there for something like the latter – a karate training camp) lies the bacchanalian madness of Pattaya. 

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​In fact, Pattaya is like the Las Vegas of Thailand; and consider that Thailand is like the Las Vegas of the world; that actually makes Las Vegas the Pattaya Super Light of the United States.
 
But if you scrape beneath the cliché tourist facade you’ll actually discover fragments of a fascinating and meaningful culture, and that was the case when our karate Shihan (instructor/master) and longtime Thailand resident, Judd Reid, brought us to Cabbages and Condoms for our celebratory last meal of the training camp.
 
It definitely defied easy definitions when we first walked in. A path led us into the jungle like explorers of yesteryear wielding machetes to cut back the bush on their way to an epic discovery. As we meandered deeper into the grounds (which is also a resort with great villas and a beautiful infinity pool) we passed tropical gardens, flower beds, bamboo foot bridges about streams with tropical fish, and saw chickens and even rabbits running free on well-manicured lawns.

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​As we walked along the footpath under rustic bamboo hanging lanterns, I stopped short more than a tuk-tuk in Bangkok traffic, intent on snapping a photo of almost every sign along the way. Some of them listed self-help mantras, anti-government rhetoric, famous poems, quotes by notable human rights activists, and even prompted us to make philosophical and political choices depending on which way we walked.
 
Once we reached the restaurant there were even mannequins dressed in garments pieced together with hundred of condoms (sans wrapper) – a bizarre fashion show with prophylactics the wardrobe.
 
I barely had time to process it all as we arrived at the restaurant and ended up at a series on outdoor decks that staggered down the hill and jutted over the ocean, with a view of locals joyfully playing in the waves on the sliver of private beach below. 

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​The only thing better than the view as the flaming sunset slipped behind the horizon was the food - which far surpassed expectations.

What on earth is this place, I thought – both one of the most beautiful and paradoxical settings I’d ever witnessed.

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In fact, Cabbages & Condoms is not just one restaurant but a chain, with establishments in Chang Rai, Khao Yai, Krabi, Bangkok and Pattaya in Thailand, as well as two locations in the UK.  (Note: Although the Bangkok restaurant is the original, I had friends eat ether and said the food was subpar.)

​It was originally the brainchild of one man named Mechai Viravaidya, a half-Thai, half-Scottish national who grew up and was educated in Scotland and Australia with a focus on family planning and social advocacy. In 1965, Viravaidya returned to Thailand, where he began working to curb the substandard medical care for women, ignorance as to proper family planning strategies, and traditional norms that were prevalent in the country.

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At that time, condoms were still very much taboo and not at all popular (and expensive), and so locals rarely used them. Socially transmitted diseases - and later HIV and AIDS - spread unchecked throughout the population, and family planning and modern women’s health was almost nonexistent among the poor, uneducated, and those living in remote rural communities.

​Noting that you could buy cabbages in any market, shop or restaurant, Viravaidya declared that getting condoms should at least be that easy.
 
“You can go to any shop around Thailand and you will always find cabbages,” he explained years later. “Condoms should be like cabbages which are ubiquitous and accessible to everyone.”
 
Hence, the origin for the name of his restaurant, Cabbages & Condoms, was born.

But this restaurant wasn’t just a novelty. Cabbages and Condoms was actually the keystone initiative of a non-profit service organization called the Population and Community Development Association (PDA), which aimed to better the lives of the country’s poor. Viravaidya left his civil service job in 1973 to found the organization (called the ‘PDA’) and enlisted some creative measures to popularize condoms and remove their stigma, including condom blowing contests for school kids and gave condoms to taxi drivers to disseminate (pun intended!) to their customers.


All of the profits from the newly formed restaurant, Cabbages & Condoms, went to support PDA programs focusing on primary health, birth control, education, HIV/AIDS, environment, poverty eradication and water resource development, eventually becoming one of the biggest NGOs (charities) in Thailand with more than 600 employees and 12,000 volunteers.
 

Viravaidya gained admiration and respect for his efforts and went on to serve as the deputy minister of industry, minister of tourism, information, and AIDS, and even on the Thai senate in 2004.
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​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.”

 


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The faces of child poverty in Asia.

6/6/2015

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As I travel around the world, I see so much poverty that it can become routine, a kaleidoscope of suffering always spinning in the background. But when I stop for a second and talk to these children, the beggars and hustlers and vendors on the streets who approach you for change or try and sell you a bracelet or bubblegum, I see their big, eager smiles, the glint of hope that hasn’t been burned out of their eyes quite yet. And when I chat with them you realize they’re just as funny, imaginative, and bursting with energy as our children here in the United States.

So I’ve compiled a few photos of poor street children from my recent stint living in Cambodia and the Philippines, two of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia. This is just a very small sample of the children I’ve encountered and happened to shoot photos of. Every time I do so I ask permission, and/or give some money or food to them. Most of the time they’re thrilled, and want to look at their own photo in my phone or camera. I focus on helping children because they haven’t done anything to warrant their circumstances - they're not guilty of making bad choices. Instead, they’re born into the curse of poverty, and can’t fight for themselves. 

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There are far too many children in the world who eat like this - rooting through the trash to try and discover a few edible scraps that aren't too rotten, fighting off the rats and insects and sometimes, other people, for their supper. 

In fact, more than 1 billion children are living in poverty, according to UNICEF. 1 in 5 children around the world don’t even have clean drinking water, and around 1 in 4, enough food to eat. An alarming number of children don’t get the proper immunizations and die of easily preventable diseases like malaria, measles, and diarrhea – the three biggest killers of children that end about 500,000 young lives each year.

The statistics go on and on, but if we only quantify child poverty by numbers and statistics, our perceptions tend to slip from compassion to calculation, and we start defining them as problems, not people. So let’s focus on a different statistic: one. The number one is the only way to define each of these children. Each as their own person, their own mind and spirit, just like you or me.

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90% of the children affected by food insecurity end up suffering the effects of malnourishment, on both their bodies and minds. So some of these kids look like they’re 8 years old and then I’m shocked to hear they are 13, or something similar. They are lucky if they get one meal a day, usually a ball of rice or some mango or enough scraps to fill themselves up with 1,000 calories or so, and a sit down dinner with utensils and plates might be a very rare and special event.

I try not to give out out money to street kids. Too often, they’re sent out by gangs or even their own parents. The kids are forced to walk the streets to sell things or beg all day and night, only to turn over the money. Handing over money to kids who are sent out by adults only perpetuates the cycle.

So I ask if they are hungry and offer to buy them some food. Usually they agree happily, and point out the closest food vendor on the street or corner store. But I even have to be careful buying food, as the kids will try to run game on me. Inside the store, they ask if they can buy these big cans of condensed milk formula. At first I thought they wanted it because it was so nourishing, but I found out that bring the cans of milk back to the store later on for a refund, walking away with the cash after all.

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When I go in a corner store or mart with these kids, I make sure they buy food that they’re actually going to eat. I usually tell them they can get one thing only, because if you buy more than one thing for one, all the rest want the same . The most popular choice is a big bowl of instant noodles, followed by ice cream. Kids all over the world love ice cream, no matter where they are. They always try to sneak a can of Coca Cola or Red Bull up onto the counter for me to pay, but I make them buy a big bottle watered or milk to drink, instead. 

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It goes without saying that these kids are homeless, sleeping in public parks, bus stop benches, or right on the concrete of the sidewalk. They have no blankets or pillows, only a piece of cardboard, a sweatshirt, or the curb to rest their head. They wash in the sprinklers at the park, in an unused hose at a store, or in putrid water from an irrigation line. They own one pair of clothes and bathe and make their toilet right on the street; there is no modesty in poverty. 

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The little things that you and I take for granted are unimaginable luxuries to these kids. These little street girls in in Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia, were amazed to see their own reflection in a car mirror, and giggled embarrassingly at their own vanity when I snapped a photo of them.

In poor countries, there are no government programs to help; no social security, food stamps, welfare, free medical care, or anything else for the poor. So these kids don't get the simple vaccines and immunizations that our kids enjoy. They are rife with worms and malaria and infections.
 
They hope for the charity of NGOs, orphanages, schools, or community centers that receive foreign aid or are set up by great, caring individuals. But corruption is also rampant among international NGOs, and even the good ones can only help a few.


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They live in the trash, some in communities that are built right on the city’s garbage dumps. There they walk barefoot, climbing piles of garbage and human waste, picking out metal or glass or things they can recycle for a few coins – or food to eat. Every year, tens of thousands of children around the world die in these dumps.

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Drug abuse is rampant. Too poor to buy proper drugs or alcohol, these kids starting sniffing glue, gasoline, paint thinner or other cheap toxic substances. It gives them a quick high and suppresses the hungry ache in their bellies, and is probably the only thing that gives them a break from the suffering in their lives. I see kids huffing rags or out of Baggies all the time, sometimes with their mothers doing it right next to them. Often times the kids are working the bar streets where tourists party, so they’ll drink the alcohol left in discarded beer cans. Eventually they graduate to Yabba, or ice, a cheap and deadly combination or meth, speed, and other horrible shit.

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They’re also starving for affection from parental figures, as most of them are raising themselves or their parents are off working all day and night. 

This little gangsta of love on the right is a homeless toddler who followed me about 4 blocks on my way walking to the riverfront to exercise, pestering me to pick him up and carried him the whole way. I thought we were looking for his mom but he brought me to the soda vendor because he wanted a drink. He then hung around through my workout and terrorized me afterward, whacking me on the head with a water bottle until I lifted him onto the jungle gyms repeatedly. I don't think you adopt kids in southeast Asia - they adopt you! 

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Too often, I see 6-year old children carrying around and raising their baby and toddler brothers and sisters, still expected to beg for money in traffic on the hot, polluted, and dangerous streets. 

If you happen to be up at 3am in any of southeast Asia's cities, you'll probably see more little street kids out hustling and working than you would at 3 in the afternoon.
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There is no shortage of schwag with these kids, as they try to emulate popular culture, or even their favorite hip hop fashions. These girls in the Philippines were doing their own impersonation of Tupac, complete with tongue rings (I scolded them and told them to take them out but of course they won’t) though they just looked like little kids again when I bought them ice creams.

They give each other nicknames like my little homie, Michael Jackson, in the Philippines and talk about “their style” when they see foreigner’s clothes and haircuts and glimpse the occasional YouTube video on someone else’s phone.



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They wear whatever they can salvage from the trash or what they find discarded, often with hilarious, comical, or in the case of the little girl to the left, beautiful results. 

Little kids often don't have any clothes at all and just run around naked and dirty, and most kids go barefoot unless they're lucky enough to find a pair of old flip flops.
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They’re amazing salespeople, striking up a conversation, pitching their product, handling objections, closing, and gaining commitment with the acumen of a 50-year old used car salesman. Whether they’re selling little hand woven bracelets or chewing gum, they’re real goal is to get a customer to buy something but also tip them generously, so they know how to look cute and make you laugh. I really think Fortune 500 companies from the U.S. should send their salespeople over to the streets of southeast Asia to observe how these kids do it.

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One consistent thing is their humor. Just because they are poor, these kids are no shrinking violets. Quite the opposite, they are bursting with personality and spirit. More often than not, they have me laughing like crazy at their wild antics and hilarity. They love it when you joke around with them, just like any youngsters.
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These street kids are vulnerable to some really bad shit: violent gangs, sexual exploitation by adults who force or sell them in prostitution from young ages. So most of the time, the kids don’t walk around and beg or dig in the trash  by themselves, but work the streets with other kids in little hungry packs. So when they one kid finds food or gets a donation from a tourist, they all can eat. There’s also safety in packs and frankly, being among other kids is more fun for them than being alone all day and night. 

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They are smart, yet they don’t go to school. Most of them haven’t spent even one day inside a classroom, but their school is the streets, and they are apt pupils. Quick witted, razor fast and perceptive, I encounter little kids all the time who speak three or four languages conversationally, just so they can try to engage foreign tourists and fill their bellies. In developing countries, even public schools aren’t free. You have to buy a uniform, schoolbooks, transportation, food at school, and bribe the teacher, who is paid miserable wages, to show up. It’s actually quite a costly affair, a luxury just for the rich and small middle class, so poor children are raised working the family job right alongside with adults – or in the streets.
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Poor little girls, especially, are kept out of school and put to work, picking mangos in the field, farming rice in the hot sun, or helping out with domestic tasks. Whether out of necessity to help feed their families or out of greed by an exploitative adult, these kids are sent out in the most dangerous and unhealthy of conditions: to sell flowers in busy traffic, shoeless on the hot pavement, to pickpocket drunk foreigners, chew up razor blades and juggle fire for the tourists, and walk the streets late at night going through the trash for empty beer cans. 

They even engage in scams, distracting a bar patron so another kid could steal his iPhone off the table, or sending a fall guy to get caught trying to steal a drunk tourist’s watch so others can rifle through his pocket.

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Indigenous people get the raw deal, no matter where you go in the world. Whether these Ati children in the Philippines, Aborigines in Australia, or Native Americans in our own U.S.A., the most ancient cultures in the world are abused and thrown away like garbage. In southeast Asia, like many parts of the world, there is also extreme prejudice based on skin color. Darker skinned people are considered lower class because they have more indigenous blood and might be dark from the sun from doing manual labor outdoors. A beautiful woman is called ugly and teased because no man will ever want to marry her just because she has brown skin. Asia’s terrible obsession with skin tone is big business, as you can barely find a skin crème, after shave, or lotion that advertises skin-whitening benefits.

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Once you treat them like any other kid – having fun and joking around but also laying down clear boundaries - I’ve found them to be incredibly polite, appreciative, and respectful. They want to eat, but they want to be your friend, too. Once I help them, they see me coming way down the street and run to say hi as if I was Santa Claus, high living and recounting the details of our meeting with surprising accuracy. Of course they want me to buy them food again, and of course I don't say "no." But they also want someone to look at them like human beings, not dismiss them as gutter trash.  Just like any mischievous, fun-loving kid in the U.S., they think they’re little superstars, just waiting to be discovered.

I tend to agree with them.


-Norm   :-)


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My reunion with Jenny, Jenna, and Cambodia's CIO orphanage after one year.

3/21/2015

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I actually felt butterflies as my tuk tuk wound through the outskirts of Siem Reap, past local markets, dusty roads, and a wedding tent that took up the whole road and made us detour. It had been a year since I’d seen our beloved Jenny and Jenna and the rest of the children at the Children’s Improvement Organization here in Cambodia. When we pulled into their compound, I was greeted by dozens of little smiling faces and a big hug from Sitha, a wonderful, caring man who founded CIO along with his wife, who everyone calls “Mama.” 
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Of course Jenny and Jenna were there to greet me with big smiles. Jenny, the younger sister, still had that wonderful smile on her face that lit up the world. And Jenna, more serious and stoic, was had grown a head taller and had turned into quite a strong soccer player. Sitha assured me that the girls had fit in and adjusted wonderfully in the year since they’d been placed in the orphanage and I last visited. They were catching up in school slowly but surely after never attending much before, and always were kind to the other children and extremely helpful. In the mornings, when it was a scramble to wake, feed, and ready 37 children for school, Sitha often didn’t have time to eat as well. But Jenna often came up to him with a plate of rice, reminding him to take care of himself and looking out for her new papa. Jenny and Jenna were still thrilled to see me and hugged me warmly but didn’t cling to my shirt, afraid and nervous to let go, like they did when we first brought them there. That was a great sign to see them so happy but also so strong, confident, and independent. 

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Sitha brought me into the shade and sat me down on a red plastic chair that one of the children pulled up and we caught up on the year. Things were going well and the children were doing fine, but of course there was nonstop financial pressure. CIO, though one of the best orphanages you’ll find anywhere in the world, isn’t linked to big corporate donors or rich patrons, so each month, they sacrifice and count every penny (or Cambodian Reil) in order to pay their rent and buy food for the children. When prodded, he explained that the lease on the land we stood on was set for renewal in April one month away, and that meant they had to come up with a whopping $1,200 – three months’ rent – all at once. It was hard enough just to pay the rent every month, but $1,200 was truly troubling.
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But despite the odds that are stacked against CIO and the children, Sitha and Mama never give up and never exude anything but positivity. Of course they have 35 little reminders why it’s all worth it, from 3 to 19 years old, with them at all times. The afternoon was cooling so Sitha walked me around and gave me a tour of the compound, like I’d received the previous year. But there were definitely improvements; the school room looked great, the colorful library and study center, complete with a few donated computers, was new, and they even had a spirited Khmer (Cambodian) college student, an orphan herself, living with them and teaching the kids English every day as she continued her own studies. There was even a small 1980s television, but the always-thoughtful Sitha explained that the kids were only allowed one hour of television a week on Saturdays. The boys wanted to watch U.S. wrestling, of course, but the girls wanted cartoons, so cartoons it was.

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Little girls helped Mama in the kitchen where she prepared about 100 meals a day outdoors on wood and charcoal fires, a task that got her up at 5:30am and off work well past dark.

The soccer field was in full operation, a new volleyball court marked off in the sand, and the separate building with bathrooms was high class for rural Cambodia. There was a whole room with bicycles so the middle and high schoolers could peddle to the school 10 kilometers away every day, as there was no bus. The elementary school kids had an easy 5-minute walk in their blue uniforms and white shirts. The school day was spilt into morning and afternoon sessions in Cambodia with children attending one or the other, so kids were spilling as Sitha and I talked. Each child as they came home walked up to us, bowed and put their hands to their foreheads as is the custom of respect, and said hello and reported they just returned from school in English. Respect, manners, and discipline are integral to the lessons Sitha teaches them, and English is also vital if they hope to get good jobs above manual labor, like working in a hotel or restaurant with tourists for $150 a month or so if they’re lucky. 

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As Mama cooked and Sitha supervised the children coming home, I wandered over to the garden, a new addition in the year I’d been gone. As they were designing the flowerbeds, the children had a cool idea to build it in the shape of CIO – the orphanage’s initials. The water pump was also near the garden, an old-school red metal handle the children took turns working to get water to wash dishes, do laundry, and also bathe. I was saying hi to the kids there when I felt a biting pain in my foot. Then another one, and more on my other foot, ankles and legs. I looked down to see I was standing right in a nest of fire ants. Those little sons-of-ants (I gotta keep the language clean when writing a blog about kids!) hurt like wasp stings. I brushed and kicked and danced until they were off me, the children laughing with hilarity at my painful antics.

When dinner was ready, the children took out metal folding tables and plastic chairs and set them up on the concrete deck under the main pavilion. Some of them set the tables while others poured drinks into little plastic cups or took out metal cafeteria trays. Mama scooped the food onto each tray. There was white rice, green beans with chopped pork, and Lok Lak, a Khmer treat of beef in sauce, tomato and onion, and egg. I realized it was a feast to celebrate my visit; they couldn’t always eat that well, and many people here lack meat in their daily meals. 

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Before we dug in, some children were assigned to wave the flies away from the tables. Unfortunately, the orphanage grounds sits near a chicken farm and a crocodile farm if I heard correctly, both attracting swarms of flies that migrate over to their dinner tables. The children sang an adorable song of gratitude and blessings before the meal, which I asked them to repeat so I could video it.

We ate among the sounds of children’s’ laughter, but at the adult table Sitha gave me a sketch on the history and culture of Cambodia. He explained that Siem Reap province, despite being the top tourist destination in the country, was the poorest province in Cambodia (which is saying a lot). In fact, the home to Angkor Watt – one of the wonders of the world and an UNESCO world heritage site – brought in a ton of revenue, but the regular people never saw a penny of it. All of the hotels, bars, and restaurants were owned by rich foreigners or a small number of elite Khmer families and the rights to profit from Angkor Watt had been sold to a Vietnamese tycoon in 2004, in one of the most glaring cases of political corruption for profit I can fathom.

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I hugged him and mama, then shook their hands, and then hugged them again. There weren’t words to express enough gratitude for what they were doing for these children.

“You don’t say goodbye, only ‘see you later’” Sitha called out, reminding me of what I wrote about the orphanage in my blog a year earlier.

“Here you go Sitha, this will help,” I said, handing him a stack of crisp $100 bills, enough money to pay the upcoming 3-month lease that was hanging over them. I explained that I wasn’t the generous one; most of it came from donations from sweet, caring friends in the United States who had never even been to Cambodia or seen the kids.

As I left, the children lined up and waved, running behind the tuk tuk. I hoped to visit one more time before I left Cambodia, or maybe it would be another year before I got to see them all again, but I was heartened knowing they were all  safe and happy and in great hands. 

-Norm   :-)


P.S. Drop me an email if you'd like to help the children of C.I.O. 

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15 things I learned by eating vegetarian for a month.

2/1/2015

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I recently tried out a strict vegetarian diet for a month as I was traveling through India, the country with the highest rate of non-meat diets in the world. Here are some personal observations, not facts, and I welcome all feedback and comments that will help educate me further on the subject. (I have no doubt I'll be humbled many times over by what I don't know.) So here are 15 things I learned during my month with a vegetarian diet:

1. Your body releases strange and horrible things as you detox from decades of eating meat and purge with only fruits, vegetables, nuts, dairy, and grains.

2. While it may seem like a gastronomical torture to avoid meat (it did for me in the past) gaining success as a vegetarian is all about surrounding yourself with good food choices so you don’t even feel you’re missing out. I cheated by going “veggie” while in India for a month, where they have so many curries, stews, and vegetarian rice dishes that I wouldn’t have even noticed meat in there. (And cows are sacred and not eaten.)

3. Substitute the words “animal flesh” for “meat” every time you think about dinner and you’ll see it differently.

4. While it’s undeniable that there are huge benefits to eating vegetarian, that diet doesn’t necessarily equal healthy. For instance, breads, pizza, ice cream, junk food, and soda are all technically vegetarian. So I think you should clarify if you just want to eat healthier or actually be vegetarian for another reason.

5. One of the knocks against a vegetarian diet is that it doesn’t provide enough protein, which animal meat has in abundance. I’m a 210-lbs. (at the time) athletic carnivore, and believe me, that’s not a problem at all. Nuts, avocados, yogurt, eggs, peanut butter, and many other natural foods offer more than enough protein.

The other good news is that these days, there are plenty of healthy and natural vegan protein supplements or powders, like these here.

6. The biggest difference I felt was my energy level. It was more consistent and I didn’t have wide swings of feeling drained and tired and then bursts of energy. I felt consistently alert and active and more calm and relaxed when I was fatigued, not just tired or sleepy. It was like I didn’t burn out and had plenty of energy in reserve always.

7. My skin was clear, my eyes whiter, a nagging toothache from an old tooth filling went away, My anxiety was down, my moods better, I slept better, and I felt lighter, not just in weight but in spirit. However, I don’t know what part of this was because I was near the beach and swimming in the ocean part of the time (but only about a third of my time in India) and what was due to my new diet.

8. Since food was so good and so cheap in India, I ate at least three huge meals every day, with plenty of fruit shakes and iced coffees and snacks in between, and still lost a lot of weight. While I’ve lost weight before as I travel, I did notice it was different this time because it felt more like bod fat I was losing.

9. I didn’t have any cravings to eat meat, but if I did they were mental – not physical. I’d walk by a restaurant that was offering hamburgers or see an ad for fried chicken and think, “I should want that.” But in reality, I just wanted to taste and eat good food – not necessarily that.

10. The first couple days you may feel a little hungry, but after that you feel way more full with less as your stomach and digestive system heals and becomes more efficient. Missing a meal because of travel or whatever wasn’t a big deal at all, where I would have had the shakes and felt panicked before when I ate so much meat.

11. Thank God for eggs.

12. After only a few days, my taste buds changed and I was more in tune with subtle flavors, textures, and tastes. While a veggie sandwich or a dish of veggies over rice would seem extremely bland to me before, I now really enjoyed and appreciated it.

13. I haven’t done much research on the subject, but it’s apparent there are two reasons for going vegetarian: health, and/or cruelty to animals because they are living beings.

I have a good new Australian friend (hi Rana!) who passionately advocates for vegetarianism because it’s cruel for us to kill and eat animals (among other reasons). I respect and appreciate her stance, and that the unspeakable conditions and treatment of animals in slaughterhouses, poultry farms, and generally feeding the modern machine of Western meat consumption are so cruel it’s disgusting.

However, I don’t necessarily believe that means we shouldn’t eat meat. I just think we should try to change conditions so animals are raised, treated, and slaughtered in a more humane and natural way. How can killing something not be cruel?

I realized that if I was placed in the wild with no defenses, I would become some other animal’s food, probably a bear or a mountain line. Or a shark in the ocean. Is that cruel? I don’t see it as so. I look to the Native Americans and their practices of revering and honoring what animals they killed, and made it a point to not waste anything from the kill. When it comes to being in tune with the cycles and circles of nature, I’ll trust the Native Americans.

And purely to play the devil’s advocate, if someone is at a pro-vegetarian protest and a mosquito lands on his or her arm and they swat it, is that cruelty? Do we know definitively that trees and plants and all organisms don’t feel something? If they were out in the wild and it was the option of starve or kill and eat animal flesh, what would they do? Again – I understand and agree with the argument, but I don’t think it’s a completely shut door.

In my newly evolved opinion, becoming a proponent of vegetarianism only because you think killing other animals for food is cruel is slightly misguided. I think everyone should rally for better, more humane conditions and treatment of animals and less waste, but they are not 100% mutually exclusive.

14. Meat looks barbaric and dirty and just gross if you haven’t eaten it in a while. It’s as much portion and digestion as anything. I look at a 6 or 8 oz. piece of steak now and can’t believe that looked tiny to me in the past. That solid piece of flesh has to sit in my stomach until it’s broken down and digested naturally. So when I gorged myself on a 20 oz. steak or a huge cheeseburger or whatever, I realize how long that food was just stuck in my gut, half digested.

15. My month of being a vegetarian is up and I’ve moved on from India to beautiful, wild Sri Lanka. I wanted to try transition easily back to trying a little bit of meat, so I ordered rice, salad, and barbecue chicken last night. The chicken seemed sort of…odd to me. There was so little meat and so much bones, carcass, and membrane to pick around. I did eat a few pieces and it didn’t taste too bad, just like the sauce and the rice that was with it. I fed the rest to the dog who was begging by putting his head on my leg.

Going forward, will I be a devout vegetarian? No, I doubt it. (And I don’t think I’d ever give up some fish or seafood!) But I certainly do think this month of eating only plants has given me a new appreciation and even consciousness of what’s on my plate. I definitely have enjoyed the health benefits, and will adapt my new diet so that I maximize those, while sill enjoying a good quality cut of meat every once and a while.

When I do decide to eat higher on the food chain, it will be a choice – not a default – and will come with the reverence that I am accountable for extinguishing some living thing’s spirit because of what I’ consuming. I will endeavor to stop indulging, wasting, and eating mindlessly. My feet will tread lighter and my grasp on all living things will be a little more gentle. I’ll try to educate myself about how to eat healthier and more humanely, reducing my negative impact on this earth and honoring what I use.

-Norm   :-)




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Should you be worried about Ebola in the U.S.A?  Learn the facts behind the fear.

8/3/2014

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The last few days, more people have expressed concern over the decision to bring two aid workers who are inflicted with the Ebola virus back to the U.S. for treatment.  Around the water cooler, there are whispers about the virus spreading here on U.S. soil.  On Facebook, people offer their opinion that we shouldn’t bring the infected man and woman back into our borders for fear of an epidemic.  There are even people prophesizing that this is the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, channeling their fear into misguided humor. 

It is scary.  This outbreak is the worst in history, killing a reported 729 people and infecting a couple thousand at last count, with no sings of slowing down.  The outbreak has gotten so bad in West African countries like Sierra Leone that the government has quarantined affected communities, saying they’ll send the police or military to enforce the medical segregation if necessary.  But like any medical outbreak or disaster, rumors and half-truths only perpetuate our fear and sometimes make the situation worse.  

So for the sake of sharing accurate information and putting your mind at ease, here are the facts about the Ebola Virus:

About the Ebola Virus.
The Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a severe, often fatal illness in humans.  It used to be called Ebola haemorrhagic fever.

It was first discovered in 1976 when two outbreaks occurred at the same time in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The village where the outbreak occurred in Congo was near the Ebola River, where the name for the disease comes from.

EVD outbreaks have a case fatality rate of up to 90%.

There are actually 5 strains of the Ebola virus.  The strain that’s causing the current outbreak is Zaire Ebolavirus, the deadliest one.  The Ebola virus doesn’t change significantly from year to year like other viruses.  That’s the case with certain flus and SARS, which make them so much harder to identify and treat – and easier to spread. 

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How many people have been sick and how many have died?
Since it first showed up in 1976, there have been more than 3,270 reported cases and more than 2,000 deaths from Ebola, according to the World Health Organization.

In this current outbreak in Africa, roughly 2,000 people have been infected and about 729 died, though the numbers are climbing daily.

What’s the survival rate?
It’s important to note that although media reports the mortality rate from Ebola cases as “up to 90%” (or a 10% survival rate,) that does not characterize the actual death toll.  Since Ebola was discovered in 1976, there has been a survival rate of roughly 30%.  The current Ebola outbreak has had a survival rate of about 40 percent, per the latest numbers from the World Health Organization.

Why is the death toll so high?
Mortality rates are so high largely because Ebola outbreaks occur in desperately poor countries and communities where there’s a lack of public health education, sanitation, and medical care.  The countries where this current outbreak took hold, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, are among the poorest in the world, with GDP’s per capita less than Haiti.  There is almost no healthcare infrastructure for most of the people there.  Due to this, almost all the medical care for the outbreak has been provided by international Non Governmental Organizations like Doctors Without Borders, who are completely overwhelmed and lack the resources and manpower to address it.

A lack of literacy and education about disease control, cultural norms, and a mistrust of foreign aid workers have exacerbated the problem.

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Where does Ebola originate?
Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are thought to be the natural host of the Ebola virus.  From there, it infects animals and eventually humans. Outbreaks most often start in remote West African villages near tropical rainforests.

It’s documented that humans have been infected by Ebola by handling of infected chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, and other animals found ill or dead or in the rainforest.

Where are Ebola outbreaks reported?
Since its inception in 1976, Ebola outbreaks have mostly occurred in poor Western African countries like Uganda, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire,) and Sudan.

It also has shown up in the Philippines and China though no deaths have been reported in those places.

How does it spread among humans?
Ebola spreads through human-to-human transmission by direct contact with bodily fluids.  Being exposed to blood, sweat, vomit, feces, semen, mucous, organs, or other bodily fluids can spread the infection.  Healthcare workers frequently have been infected because of their proximity to Ebola patients, especially in un-sterile field conditions in African villages without proper facilities or resources. 

The virus can be transmitted by even touching the bodily fluids of an Ebola patient. If an animal or patient dies, the virus stays alive on a surface for a few days, so even touching bedding, cleaning up waste, or eating infected food or drinking infected water is a danger.  In Africa, some cultures call for burial ceremonies in which mourners have direct contact with the body of the dead person, which also play a role in the transmission of Ebola.


How soon would they be sick and infectious?
Typically, symptoms appear 8-10 days after exposure to the virus, but the incubation period can span two to 21 days.  People usually aren’t infectious until the symptoms of their sickness emerge. 

What are the symptoms?
People usually start with a high fever, aches, acute weakness, headache, rashes, and sore throat.  It proceeds to vomiting, diarrhea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in sometimes, both internal and external bleeding.

The problem with diagnosis is that the first symptoms also occur in ailments common to the region so before it can be confirmed as Ebola, malaria, typhoid fever, shigellosis, cholera, leptospirosis, plague, rickettsiosis, relapsing fever, meningitis, hepatitis and other viral haemorrhagic fevers have to be ruled out.

Can it be treated? 
There is no vaccine for the Ebola virus.  Several vaccines are in the testing phase but none are approved for clinical use. The only thing that can be done is to treat the symptoms Ebola causes, which include sever dehydration. 

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What happened with this current Ebola outbreak?
The current deadly outbreak is in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia, the first time big Ebola cases have hit those areas.

The numbers are growing daily, but as of July 28, 2014:

In Guinea - 460 cases, 339 deaths
Liberia - 329, 156 deaths
Nigeria - one case, one death
Sierra Leone - 533 cases, 233 deaths
There has been an approximate 40% survival rate.

To respond to the medical crisis, aid workers from Doctors Without Borders, containing volunteers from all over the world, entered infected areas to treat victims and help contain the disease.

Earlier in July, Patrick Sawyer, a government official in the Liberian Ministry of Finance, died at a Nigerian hospital. He was the first American to die in what health officials refer to as “the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history."

Shortly after, Nancy Writebol, an American aid worker in Liberia, tested positive for Ebola she contracted while treating infected patients.

On July 26, Kent Brantly, medical director for Samaritan Purse's Ebola Consolidated Case Management Center in Liberia, was infected with the virus while treating patients.

On July 29, Dr. Sheik Humarr Kahn, in charge of Ebola treatment at Kenema Government Hospital in Sierra Leone, died from complications of the disease.  The next day, The Peace Corps announced their decision to remove all volunteers from Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. 

July 31, 2014 The Center for Disease Control went to Warning Level 3, advising all U.S. residents not to travel to Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia unless absolutely necessary.

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What are the chances of a serious Ebola outbreak in the United States?
That is almost certain not to happen. Awareness, medical treatment, and medical technology are so far ahead of conditions in African outbreak areas that any cases are sure to isolated and safely contained.  Epidemiologists would quickly track down people who exposed to the infection and make sure it can’t spread.

To cite an example, in May, the population of the Middle East was inflicted with hundreds of cases of the MERS virus.  Two infected people brought the virus to the United States but it never spread further.


Epidemiologist, doctors, and international medical professionals characterize the chance of even a small U.S. outbreak at “extremely unlikely.”

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