International Tea Day

Posted on May 21, 2021 by memoriesandsuch

Did you know there’s a day dedicated to a beverage much loved across the world which is drunk in many different forms?

The International Tea Day aims to raise awareness of the long history and the deep cultural and economic significance of tea around the world. The goal of the day is to promote and foster collective actions to implement activities in favour of the sustainable production and consumption of tea and raise awareness of its importance in fighting hunger and poverty. In many tea growing countries like India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Uganda and Tanzania, the day has been celebrated as December 22 since 2005, but the May 21 date was decided by the United Nations. The first International Tea Day was celebrated in New Delhi in 2005 and later in Sri Lanka in 2006 and 2008 before the UN resolution adopting the day in 2019 when the Indian government proposed to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation to expand International Tea Day across the world which then was decided to be commemorated on 21 May. So why this date? It’s because the tea production season begins in May in most of the tea producing countries.

Tea is a beverage made from the Camellia sinesis plant and after water, the world’s most consumed drink. It is believed that tea originated in northeast India, north Myanmar and southwest China, but the exact place where the plant first grew is not known. Tea has been with us for a long time with evidence that tea was consumed in China 5,000 years ago. It was popularised as a recreational drink during the Chinese Tang dynasty, and tea drinking spread to other East Asian countries. Portuguese priests and merchants introduced it to Europe during the 16th century and during the 17th century, drinking tea became fashionable among the English, who started to plant tea on a large scale in India. There are many different types of tea; some, like Chinese greens and Darjeeling, have a cooling, slightly bitter, and astringent flavour, while others have vastly different profiles that include sweet, nutty, floral, or grassy notes. Tea has a stimulating effect in humans primarily due to its caffeine content.

The tea industry is a main source of income and export revenues for some of the poorest countries and, as a labour-intensive sector, provides jobs, especially in remote and economically disadvantaged areas. Thus, tea plays a significant role in rural development, poverty reduction and food security in developing countries, being one of the most important cash crops.

Tea production is highly sensitive to changes in growing conditions. Tea can only be produced in narrowly defined agro-ecological conditions and, hence, in a very limited number of countries, many of which will be heavily impacted by climate change. Changes in temperature and rainfall patterns, with more floods and droughts, are already affecting yields, tea product quality and prices, lowering incomes and threatening rural livelihoods. These climate changes are expected to intensify, calling for urgent adaptation measures. In parallel, there is a growing recognition of the need to contribute to climate change mitigation, by reducing carbon emissions from tea production and processing. Therefore, tea-producing countries should integrate climate change challenges, both on the adaptation and mitigation front, into their national tea development strategies.

Tea has cultural significance in many societies and consumption of tea can bring health benefits and wellness due to the beverage’s anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and weight loss effects. Numerous studies have shown that a variety of teas may boost your immune system, fight off inflammation, and even ward off cancer and heart disease. White tea, the least processed variety is most effective tea in fighting various forms of cancer thanks to its high level of antioxidants.

Herbal teas, sometimes called tisanes, are very similar to white teas, but they contain a blend of herbs, spices, fruits or other plants in addition to tea leaves. Herbal teas don’t contain caffeine, which is why they’re known for their calming properties. Herbal teas like chamomile helps to reduce menstrual pain and muscle spasms, improves sleep and relaxation, and reduces stress, rooibos improves blood pressure and circulation, boosts good cholesterol while lowering bad cholesterol, keeps hair strong and skin healthy, and provides relief from allergies, peppermint contains menthol which can soothe an upset stomach and serve as a cure for constipation, irritable bowel syndrome and motion sickness as well as help with tension headaches and migraines. Ginger helps to fight against morning sickness, can be used to treat chronic indigestion and helps to relieve joint pain caused by osteoarthritis while hibiscus lowers blood pressure and fat levels, improves overall liver health, can starve off cravings for unhealthy sweets, and may prevent the formation of kidney stones.

Green tea is exceptionally high in flavonoids that can help boost heart health by lowering bad cholesterol and reducing blood clotting and studies show this tea can also help lower blood pressure, triglycerides and total cholesterol. Matcha, a form of green tea which is a very fine, high-quality green tea powder made from the entire leaves of tea bushes grown in the shade contains even more antioxidants that regular green tea with some suggesting that one cup of matcha is the equivalent to 10 cups of regular green tea. Black tea is caffeinated unlike the other varieties, but contains flavonoids that combat inflammation and support healthy immune function. Oolong tea is a traditional Chinese tea made from the same plant used to make green and black teas which is partially oxidised which is responsible for it’s colour and characteristic taste. Oolong tea is notable for containing l-theanine, an amino acid that reduces anxiety and increases alertness and attention and scientists have found that l-theanine can help prevent cognitive diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. It is also high in polyphenols, which are linked to lowering inflammation, preventing the growth of cancers and decreasing type 2 diabetes risk.

For many people across cultures, tea is not just a beverage, but a lifestyle. There’s a tea for every occasion and there’s no occasion for a cup of tea. So grab a cup of tea and enjoy the International Day of Tea.

World Bee Day

Posted on May 19, 2021 by memoriesandsuch

In order to be able to feed the world’s growing population, we need ever more food, which must be diverse, balanced and of good quality to ensure the progress and well-being of humankind.

Honey bees are amazing insects that have a lot of impact on humans. They are hardworking creatures that underpin the sustenance of life in this planet earth. However, people have increasingly predisposed them to unfavorable environments, leading to massive deaths. Bees are renowned for their role in providing high-quality food like honey, royal jelly and pollen and other products used in healthcare and other sectors like beeswax, propolis and honey bee venom. The greatest contribution of bees and other pollinators is the pollination of nearly three quarters of the plants that produce 90% of the world’s food. A third of the world’s food production depends on bees, i.e. every third spoonful of food depends on pollination. In addition to being one of the major pollinators, thus ensuring food and food security, sustainable agriculture and biodiversity, bees significantly contribute to the mitigation of climate change and environmental conservation. In the long-term, the protection of bees and the beekeeping sector can help reduce poverty and hunger, as well as preserve a healthy environment and biodiversity. Scientific studies have proven that bees have become increasingly endangered and it is only through joint efforts that we can ensure the protection of bees and their habitats.

If all of the world’s bees died off, there would be major rippling effects throughout ecosystems. A number of plants, such as many of the bee orchids, are pollinated exclusively by specific bees, and they would die off without human intervention. This would alter the composition of their habitats and affect the food webs they are part of and would likely trigger additional extinctions or declines of dependent organisms. Other plants may utilize a variety of pollinators, but many are most successfully pollinated by bees. Without bees, they would set fewer seeds and would have lower reproductive success. This too would alter ecosystems. Beyond plants, many animals, such as the beautiful bee-eater birds, would lose their prey in the event of a die-off, and this would also impact natural systems and food webs.

Celebrated every year on 20 May since 2017, the World Bee Day was proposed by Slovenia, which is the birth anniversary of Anton Janša, a Slovenian beekeeper and the pioneer of modern beekeeping, who was born on this day in 1734. Also in May, the northern hemisphere sees bees and nature develop profusely, while the southern hemisphere enters autumn, when hive products are harvested and the season of honey and honey-based products begins.

This day has become increasingly important in recent times. Bees have become increasingly endangered of late. The 2015 IUCN report, which contains the first comprehensive assessment of the European bee species, states that nearly 10% of bees are facing extinction, and around 5% of them are probably endangered, while no data is available for nearly 57% of species. The number of pollinators is in decline around the world, while the need for pollination is on the rise, especially in developing countries. In some parts, this situation has become known as the pollinator crisis. According to researchers, the main reasons for the mortality of bees include diseases specific to bees, the mass use of products intended to protect plants in modern farming and their potential impact on pollinators, especially plant protection products whose harmful effect on bees has been documented, new pests which spread faster due to globalisation, urbanisation, which is shrinking the agricultural space, climate change and the global trade in low-quality honey, which impacts the beekeeping economy. A study published in the journal Lancet predicts that smaller consumption of fruit and vegetables due to climate change which also affects pollinators, will cause twice as many deaths by 2050 than hunger and malnutrition.

We need to act now. Present species extinction rates are 100 to 1,000 times higher than normal due to human impact. Close to 35 percent of invertebrate pollinators, particularly bees and butterflies, and about 17 percent of vertebrate pollinators, such as bats, face extinction globally. If this trend continues, nutritious crops, such as fruits, nuts and many vegetable crops will be substituted increasingly by staple crops like rice, corn and potatoes, eventually resulting in an imbalanced diet. Intensive farming practices, land-use change, mono-cropping, pesticides and higher temperatures associated with climate change all pose problems for bee populations and, by extension, the quality of food we grow.

So what can we as individuals do? We can plant a diverse set of native plants, which flower at different times of the year, buy raw honey from local farmers, buy products from sustainable agricultural practices, avoid pesticides, fungicides or herbicides in gardens, protect wild bee colonies when possible, sponsor a hive, make a bee water fountain by leaving a water bowl outside, help sustain forest ecosystems and raise awareness by sharing information within our communities and networks. Remember, the decline of bees affects us all!

World Book and Copyright Day

Posted on April 23, 2021 by memoriesandsuch

Today is the World Book and Copyright Day also known as World Book Day. I have written previously about this day, so hop there to know more about the history of why this day has been celebrated.

The World Book and Copyright Day is a celebration to promote the enjoyment of books and reading. Each year, on 23 April, celebrations take place all over the world to recognise the scope of books, a link between the past and the future, a bridge between generations and across cultures. On this occasion, UNESCO and the international organizations representing the three major sectors of the book industry – publishers, booksellers and libraries, select the World Book Capital for a year to maintain, through its own initiatives, the impetus of the Day’s celebrations.

The original idea of this day was from the Spanish writer Vicente Clavel Andrés as a way to honour the author Miguel de Cervantes, first on 7 October, his birth anniversary, then on 23 April, his death anniversary. In 1995 at UNESCO’s General Conference held in Paris, it was decided that the World Book and Copyright Day would be celebrated on 23 April, as the date is symbolic in world literature as it is also the anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes, William Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, as well as that of the birth or death of several other prominent authors.

This year, when many schools and institutes of learning have been shut because of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, reading has become an essential habit, more than ever. As more people spend time at home and limit social gatherings, the power of books should and can be leveraged to combat isolation, reinforce ties between people, expand our horizons, while stimulating our minds and creativity. Books have the unique ability both to entertain and to teach. They are at once a means of exploring realms beyond our personal experience through exposure to different authors, universes and cultures, and a means of accessing the deepest recesses of our inner selves.

Not just during the month of April, but all year round, it is critical to take the time to read on your own or with your children, if they are too young to read on their own. It is a time to celebrate the importance of reading, foster children’s growth as readers and promote a lifelong love of literature and integration into the world of work. Through reading and the celebration of World Book and Copyright Day, we can open ourselves to others despite distances, and we can travel thanks to our imagination, even though leisure travel has stopped more or less across the world.

The 2021 World Book Capital is Tbilisi, Georgia. Cities designated as UNESCO World Book Capital undertake to carry out activities with the aim of encouraging a culture of reading and diffusing its values in all ages and population groups in and out of the national borders. The cities commit to promoting books and fostering reading during a 12 months period between one World Book and Copyright Day and the next.

So please read today if you don’t otherwise read often. If you are a parent with a child too young to read, sit down with them with a favourite book and spend time reading and inculcating the love and joy that comes when you read a good book. For parents with older children, be a good role model and lead by example and show to your children how important reading is. I am going to spend most of today and the weekend with a good book, some nice hot tea or coffee and just read. What about you?

World Health Day

Posted on April 7, 2021 by memoriesandsuch

Today is World Health Day, a day dedicated to creating awareness of a specific health theme to highlight a priority area of concern for the World Health Organisation or WHO. This day has, over the past 50 years, from its inception in 1948

April 7 of each year marks the celebration of World Health Day. From its inception at the First Health Assembly in 1948 and since taking effect in 1950, the celebration has aimed to create awareness of a specific health theme to highlight a priority area of concern for the World Health Organization.

The World Health Day has a large number of wide-reaching aims and priorities including to improve understanding of universal health coverage and the importance of primary health care as its foundation, to spur action from individuals, policy-makers and health-care workers to make universal health care a reality for everyone, everyone should have the information and services they need to take care of their own health and the health of their families and to have skilled health workers providing quality, people-centred care; and policy-makers committed to investing in primary health care.

The theme for the 2021 World Heath Day is to build a fairer, healthier world. Why is this so? Because this world is an unequal world. As COVID-19 has highlighted, some people are able to live healthier lives and have better access to health services than others and this is entirely due to the conditions in which they are born, grow, live, work and age. All over the world, some groups struggle to make ends meet with little daily income, have poorer housing conditions and education, fewer employment opportunities, experience greater gender inequality, and have little or no access to safe environments, clean water and air, food security and health services. This leads to unnecessary suffering, avoidable illness, and premature death. And it harms our societies and economies. Not only is this unfair, it is preventable. That’s why world leaders are being called upon to ensure that everyone has living and working conditions that are conducive to good health as well as to monitor health inequities, and to ensure that all people are able to access quality health services when and where they need them.

2021 has also been designated as the International Year of Health and Care Workers (YHCW) in appreciation and gratitude for their unwavering dedication in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the theme of Protect, Invest and Together, a year-long campaign which highlights the urgent need to invest in health workers for shared dividends in health, jobs, economic opportunity and equity, has been launched by the WHO. The campaign’s objectives is to ensure the world’s health and care workers are prioritised for the COVID-19 vaccine in the first 100 days of 2021, recognise and commemorate all health and care workers who have lost their lives during the pandemic, mobilise commitments from countries, international financing Institutions and bilateral and philanthropic partners to protect and invest in health and care workers, engage countries and all relevant stakeholders in dialogue on a care compact to protect health and care workers’ rights, decent work and practice environments and bring together communities, influencers, political and social support in solidarity, advocacy and care for health and care workers.

This year, please support to ensure that our health and care workforces are supported, protected, motivated and equipped to deliver safe health care at all times, not only during COVID-19. The pandemic of COVID-19 has hit all countries hard, but its impact has been harshest on those communities which were already vulnerable, who are more exposed to the disease, less likely to have access to quality health care services and more likely to experience adverse consequences as a result of measures implemented to contain the pandemic.

Therefore it is more than important to have a healthier world, one where everyone has access to the healthcare they need.

World Water Day

Posted on March 22, 2021 by memoriesandsuch

Leonardo Da Vinci once said, water is the driving force of nature which is so true. Without water, humanity would probably not exist and all our searching for new planets to inhabit all hinges on the possibility of finding water in the new planet.

Water means different things to different people. Water important to our home and family life, our livelihood, our cultural practices, wellbeing and local environment. In households, schools and workplaces, water can mean health, hygiene, dignity and productivity. In cultural, religious and spiritual places, water can mean a connection with creation, community and oneself. In natural spaces, water can mean peace, harmony and preservation.

Today, water is under extreme threat from a growing population, increasing demands of agriculture and industry, and the worsening impacts of climate change. The World Water Day celebrates water and raises awareness of the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water. It is a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. The day is about taking action to tackle the global water crisis and achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030. The first World Water Day was celebrated in 1993 and is an annual United Nations Observance focusing on the importance of freshwater, coordinated by UN-Water. This Day is an opportunity to learn more about water related issues, be inspired to tell others and take action to make a difference. Water is an essential building block of life. It is more than just essential to quench thirst or protect health; water is vital for creating jobs and supporting economic, social, and human development.

A new World Water Development Report is released each year on or near World Water Day, to provide decision-makers with tools to formulate and implement sustainable water policies. This report is coordinated by UNESCO’s World Water Development Programme (WWAP) on behalf of UN-Water. The annual theme for World Water Day is aligned with the focus of the report.

The theme of World Water Day 2021 is valuing water. Beyond the issues of pricing, this topic includes the environmental, social and cultural value people place on water. Economic development and a growing global population means agriculture and industry are getting thirstier and water-intensive energy generation is rising to meet demand. Climate change is making water more erratic and contributing to pollution. As societies balance the demands on water resources, many people’s interests are not being taken into account. How we value water determines how water is managed and shared. The value of water is about much more than its price – water has enormous and complex value for our households, culture, health, education, economics and the integrity of our natural environment. If we overlook any of these values, we risk mismanaging this finite, irreplaceable resource.

Under the theme of valuing water, there is a digital campaign this year about generating a global, public conversation on social media about how people value water for all its uses. The aim is to create a more comprehensive understanding of how water is valued by different people in different contexts so we can safeguard this precious resource for everyone. Taking place on social media, from now until the end of December, a digital campaign aims to generate conversations – to gather opinions and comments from people around the world about water and what it means to them. The aim is to understand how people value water – whether it is economically, socially, culturally or in other ways – how it plays a role in their lives.

The Sustainable Development Goal number 6 is to ensure water and sanitation for all. Without a comprehensive understanding of water’s true, multidimensional value, we will be unable to safeguard this critical resource for the benefit of everyone.

There are five different perspectives on valuing water:

Valuing water sources – natural water resources and ecosystems: All water is generated by ecosystems. And all the water we abstract for human use eventually returns to the environment, along with any contaminants we have added. The water cycle is our most important ‘ecosystem service’. Higher value must be given to protecting the environment to ensure a good quality water supply and build resilience to shocks such as flood and drought.
Valuing water infrastructure – storage, treatment and supply: Water infrastructure stores and moves water to where it is most needed, and helps clean and return it to nature after human use. Where this infrastructure is inadequate, socio-economic development is undermined and ecosystems endangered. Typical valuations of water infrastructure tend to underestimate or not include costs, particularly social and environmental costs. It is difficult to recover all costs from tariffs (known as full cost recovery). In many countries, only part or all of the operational costs are recovered, and capital investments are covered by public funds.
Valuing water services – drinking water, sanitation and health services: The role of water in households, schools, workplaces and health care facilities is critical. Furthermore, WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) services also adds value in the form of greater health, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. WASH services are often subsidized, even in highincome countries. However, untargeted subsidies can benefit people with existing water connections, rather than improving the situation for poor and underserved communities.
Valuing water as an input to production and socio-economic activity – food and agriculture,
energy and industry, business and employment: Agriculture places the biggest demand on global freshwater resources and is a major contributor to environmental degradation. Despite being fundamental to food security, water in food production is generally given a low value when assessed purely through the economic lens of value produced in relation to water used. Many of the wider benefits include improving nutrition, generating income, adapting to climate change and reducing migration which are often not reflected in the cost of water. For the energy, industry and business (EIB) sector, water-related threats such as water scarcity, flooding and climate change can push up costs and disrupt supply chains. Corporate mismanagement of water can damage ecosystems and harm reputations and affect sales. Traditionally, the EIB sector has valued water by the volume used, plus the costs of wastewater treatment and disposal. More organisations are adopting integrated water resource management (IWRM) planning approaches as they improve their sustainability.
Valuing socio-cultural aspects of water – recreational, cultural and spiritual attributes: Water can connect us with notions of creation, religion and community. And water in natural spaces can help us feel at peace. Water is an intrinsic part of every culture but the values we attribute to these functions are difficult to quantify or articulate. Economics often considers water to be a resource for practical human usage and pays little or no attention to its socio-cultural, or environmental, value. There is a need to fully understand cultural values around water by involving a more diverse group of stakeholders in water resources management.

We owe this to our children and grandchildren that we bestow upon them a world that is inhabitable, fertile and prosperous, all of which need water. There is a saying attributed to Ismail Serageldin, founding director of Bibliotheca Alexandria who forecasted in 1995 that wars of the 21st century will be fought over water. And when we see the geopolitics of our world, we see this becoming increasingly true. A water crisis is a global crisis. Without sustainable access to water, we will be unable to achieve quality education or the development of more prosperous, fairer societies.Without water, it is possible that humanity will eventually die off and we, as a generation can’t and should not allow this to happen. History has shown that majoe civilizations of the world, including the Indus Valley, the Yangtze, the Nile and the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are testament to this fact. So let’s conserve and save water so we leave a better world to the future generations.

Memories and Such

Memories of a very ordinary life

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