World Sleep Day

Posted on March 18, 2022 by memoriesandsuch

I have written about the importance of sleep and how the lack of sleep impacts our physical and mental health. Sleep allows the mind and body to recharge, allows the body to repair itself and having a healthy sleep schedule means the body is fit and free from disease. . Without enough sleep, the brain cannot function properly and getting adequate rest may help prevent excess weight gain, heart disease, and increased illness duration which can impair the ability to concentrate, think clearly, and process memories. A basic human need, much like eating and drinking, sleep is crucial to our overall health and well-being with research showing we spend up to a third of our lives sleeping. Sleep, like exercise and nutrition, is essential for metabolic regulation in children and there is evidence for a link between sleep duration and childhood obesity with the findings more apparent in girls than boys.

But this is not the case these days. Electronics, social media and other distractions make sure that we do not get the recommended seven to eight hours of sleep that healthy adults need. It is estimated that sleep deprivation costs the US over $400 billion a year with Japan losing $138 billion, Germany $60 billion, the UK $50 billion, and Canada $21 billion. According to some evidence, the proportion of people sleeping less than the recommended hours of sleep is rising and associated with lifestyle factors related to a modern 24/7 society, such as psychosocial stress, alcohol consumption, smoking, lack of physical activity and excessive electronic media use, among others.

This is alarming as insufficient sleep is associated with a range of negative health and social outcomes, including success at school and in the labour market. Over the last few decades, for example, there has been growing evidence suggesting a strong association between short sleep duration and elevated mortality risks. Insufficient sleep duration has been linked with seven of the fifteen leading causes of death in the United States, including cardiovascular disease, malignant neoplasm, cerebrovascular disease, accidents, diabetes, septicaemia and hypertension and besides impairing health and wellbeing, existing evidence suggests that sleep plays an important part in determining cognitive performance and workplace productivity, with a lack of sleep leading to more traffic accidents, industrial accidents, medical errors and loss of work productivity. Sleep loss and sleep-related disorders have been linked to many accidents and catastrophes including the Chernobyl nuclear explosion, the Three Mile Island nuclear incident, the Exxon Valdez spill and the Space Shuttle Challenger tragedy

And to put a spotlight on the importance of sleep, every year an annual event, the World Sleep Day is organised by the World Sleep Day Committee of the World Sleep Society which aims to lessen the burden of sleep problems on society through better prevention and management of sleep disorders. The World Sleep Day is an annual event, intended to be a celebration of sleep and a call to action on important issues related to sleep, including medicine, education, social aspects and driving.

Held annually since 2008, World Sleep Day is held on the Friday before the Spring Vernal Equinox of each year. This year the Spring Vernal Equinox falls on Sunday 20 March and so today is celebrated as World Sleep Day with more than 88 countries around the world participating.

Every year, World Sleep Day has a different theme with the theme for 2022 being “Quality Sleep, Sound Mind, Happy World”. The theme highlights the various components which make up quality sleep as opposed to just sleeping, how sleep affects mental health, mood, and decision-making and sleep in the context of global health.

Lack of sleep or poor quality sleep is known to have a significant negative impact on our health in the long and short term. Next day effects of poor quality sleep include a negative impact on our attention span, memory recall and learning. Longer-term effects are being studied, but poor quality sleep or sleep deprivation has been associated with significant health problems, such as obesity, diabetes, weakened immune systems and even some cancers. The lack of sleep is related to many psychological conditions such as depression, anxiety and psychosis and so quality sleep is crucial to ensure good health and quality of life.

For more information about sleep and resources that one can use, go to www.worldsleepday.org. Become aware of the importance of sleep and take charge of your own and your family’s sleeping habits. It’s not easy giving up habits like using the phone before bedtime, but with time, you should be able to get a good night’s sleep!

Technology Then and Now

Posted on March 11, 2022 by memoriesandsuch

The other day, I was talking with GG & BB and we were talking about technology specifically. In the last twenty odd years, technology has completely changed our lives and the last few years have shown us how indispensable technology is to our daily lives. Our lives are almost entirely dependent on technology, and as much as we can say technology has enslaved us, we can’t deny that it’s made life a lot simpler.

More than twenty years back, when I first moved to Singapore as a new bride, the phone was the only means of communication with my parents and extended family. And phone calls were not cheap, with only using the international calling option on your landline as the means to make the call. So I used to call my parents every Sunday for between 10-30 minutes each time and each phone call was very treasured. Any calls outside that timing on Sunday was strictly for emergencies or special occasions and if either side made other calls, it was scary until we heard the news.

And today, phone calls are just a touch away. I can speak to my parents, extended family and friends and the only thing I need to worry about is the time difference between us. Applications like Zoom, Whatsapp and other calling services have shrunk the world and distances seem so minuscule now.

And speaking of phones, in the late 90s and early 2000s, cell phone usage was very minimal, especially in India. I remember when a friend and colleague got the first phone I had seen, the cost of incoming and outgoing calls used to be very expensive with each call costing something like INR 8-10 per call. People used to not call others using their mobiles and the phones used to be used sparingly. And even as late as the late 2000s, I remember data being very expensive. While writing this, a memory comes to mind of me waiting outside one of the children’s classes. I was scrolling on my phone and used the internet for less than 5 minutes and when the bill came in, I had to pay something like $1 for each minute I was online. Today, I pay less than $30 for more than 60 GB of data and this amount includes talk time and messages.

I remember when BB & GG were young and I used to sometimes do work from home, it used to be on a desktop computer with a dial-up connection. This meant that anytime we got a phone call, the line would disconnect and we’d have to dial up again later. Internet speeds were a joke compared to today’s speeds and even after we got a broadband connection, the desktop stayed and speeds were abysmally low.

A big reason for this jump in the amount of data we all can access is the improvement in broadband speeds across the world. While less than 7% of the world was online in 2000, today over half the global population has access to the internet. And this can also be seen in mobile phone usage. At the start of the 2000s, there were 740 million cell phone subscriptions worldwide. Two decades later, that number has surpassed 8 billion, meaning there are now more cellphones in the world than people. Singapore’s mobile phone penetration rate in 2020 was 148.2% which means each resident has 1.5 mobile phones to their name and the smartphone usage is about 88%. Over in India, the penetration rate of smartphones in India reached 54% in 2020 and was estimated to reach 96% in 2040. This figure has more than doubled from 2016 when only 22% of mobile phone subscribers were using smartphones.

Smartphones changed the world as we all knew it. I remember the first time a friend brought an iPod. I was amazed that she could use the internet on the go. This was before smartphones became popular and the thought that we could surf the internet on the go was too much for my mind to take in. Today, there is hardly anyone around us who does not use a smartphone. All around me, I see people of all ages who are using these devices, from toddlers to the elderly and each one uses these devices differently.

I am a big reader and every time I leave the house, I used to carry a couple of books to read on the road which added to the weight of my bags. Today, all I need to do is load the books in my e-reader and I am good to go. I can have multiple books waiting for me to read and depending on my mood, I have access to plenty of books at the press of a button. This was one technology change I was thrilled to adopt. And because I tend to borrow books more than I buy them, my library e-reader is an app on my smartphone and that is a device that rarely leaves my hands or pocket. I am reading more and can read even in pockets of five minutes when I am waiting in a line and never get bored.

And how can we forget mobile phone cameras? Previously, we had to carry a bulky or even sleek camera with us whenever we wanted to take photos. And that used to be something very special. Today, with cameras part of one’s phones, it’s so easy to take photographs and document our lives. No moment go undocumented and every gorgeous sunrise, sunset or scenery is captured for posterity.

And we just can’t deny how useful this has been in our daily lives. The COVD-19 pandemic has shown us just how important technology has been in our lives. During the pandemic, I was able to virtually attend the wedding of someone in the extended family, albeit streamed over YouTube and so not as interactive as I would have liked it, but we still got to attend. I was also able to pay my last respects to my maternal grandmother who passed away a couple of months back when travel was impossible for us cousins spread across the globe. And in work, we all have been working from home in the past two-plus years, all using various video streaming apps.

For those of us who do not live with or close to our parents and loved ones, mobile phones and the technology it works with allows us to be a part of their lives through cheap and almost free phone and video calls. I am seldom without my phone and I can truly call my phone an extension of me. What will the next years and decades bring us? I don’t know, but I am super happy to find out and excited to be a part of it.

International Women’s Day

Posted on March 7, 2022 by memoriesandsuch

Regular readers will know that I am a huge supporter of women’s rights and so International Women’s Day which falls tomorrow is a topic I never fail to write about.

International Women’s Day is celebrated in many countries around the world. It is a day when all women are recognised for their achievements. International Women’s Day was first born out of labour movements at the turn of the twentieth century in North America and across Europe. Since those early days, International Women’s Day has grown in prominence and reach, touching women in every corner of the world. The growing international women’s movement has helped make International Women’s Day a central point for action, to build support for women’s rights and their full participation in the economy, politics, community and everyday life.

In 1910, Clara Zetkin, the leader of the Women’s Office for the Social Democratic Party in Germany tabled the idea of an International Women’s Day at the second International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen. The proposal received unanimous support from over one hundred women representing 17 countries. The very first International Women’s Day was held the following year on March 19th. Meetings and protests were held across Europe, with the largest street demonstration attracting 30,000 women. In 1913, IWD was moved to March 8th and has been held on this day ever since.

International Women’s Day or IWD, celebrated on March 08 is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality. The IWD has occurred for well over a century, with the first IWD gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people. Today, International Women’s Day belongs to all groups collectively everywhere and is not country, group or organization specific.

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day from the IWD organisation is Break the Bias. Let’s imagine a gender-equal world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination, a world that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive and a world where difference is valued and celebrated. Let us all forge women’s equality and collectively we can all Break the Bias. Individually, we’re all responsible for our thoughts and actions – all day, every day and we can break the biases in our communities, our workplaces, our schools, colleges and universities and together, we can all break the bias – on International Women’s Day and beyond. Purple, green and white are the colours of International Women’s Day with purple signifying justice and dignity, green symbolising hope and white representing purity, albeit a controversial concept. The colours originated from the Women’s Social and Political Union or WSPU in the UK in 1908.

The United Nations celebrated International Women’s Day with a separate theme. Women and girls face greater vulnerability and exposure to disasters, and conflicts, and yet they remain largely ignored in developing solutions and their capabilities are often under-utilised. As the most impacted, women are also a critical part of the solution. The theme this year is Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world. Women stand at the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis, as health care workers, caregivers, innovators, community organizers and as some of the most exemplary and effective national leaders in combating the pandemic. The crisis has highlighted both the centrality of their contributions and the disproportionate burdens that women carry. This year’s theme celebrates the tremendous efforts made by women and girls around the world in shaping a more equal future and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

International Women’s Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women, who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities. The world has made unprecedented advances, but no country has achieved gender equality. Fifty years ago, we landed on the moon; in the last decade, we discovered new human ancestors and photographed a black hole for the first time. In the meantime, legal restrictions have kept 2.7 billion women from accessing the same choice of jobs as men. Less than 25 per cent of parliamentarians were women, as of 2019 and even today one in three women experiences gender-based violence.

Because sometimes we need to remember we’re not alone. Happy International Women’s Day to all the lovely women and the men who support and motivate their women!

Poem: Farewell Mumbai

Posted on March 4, 2022 by memoriesandsuch

As you all are aware by now, my parents have moved away from Mumbai to live in a retirement home. I was in Mumbai last month to help them make the move and as we took off from Mumbai, I scribbled the first version of this poem on the plane.

Farewell Mumbai

As the plane takes off, I peer out of the window
Unbidden, my eyes fill up and soon the tears start to flow
The city of my birth gradually became smaller
I watch intently until it is but a speck, a blur

I bid goodbye to my childhood and adulthood home
As I see it disappear from high above the aerodrome
Instead of luggage, I take with me so many memories
Of a lifetime spent here, of multitude journies

I don’t know when I will be back, will it be months or years or even decades?
And when I am back, will the memories be still as strong or would they have faded?
And if and when I am back, will it still be home or just another place?
I would hate for this to happen though to my birthplace

Farewell dear Mumbai, the city of dreams
A city within which reside, people of two extremes,
A place where dreams are made and sometimes broken
But the city has space for all because here is all the action

I will return one day, that is certain
But it will be as a visitor, not a resident
Mumbai is in my heart, tomorrow, today and yesterday
And you can’t take a Mumbaikar out of Mumbai

World Wildlife Day

Posted on March 2, 2022 by memoriesandsuch

Humans share our planet with other species who coexist with us. The term wildlife traditionally refers to undomesticated animal species but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife can be found in all ecosystems – deserts, forests, rainforests, plains, grasslands, and other areas, including the most developed urban areas, all have distinct forms of wildlife. While the term in popular culture usually refers to animals that are untouched by human factors, most scientists agree that much wildlife is affected by human activities with many wild animals, even the dangerous ones, have value to human beings which may be economic, educational, or emotional. Humans have historically tended to separate civilization from wildlife in many ways, including the legal, social, and moral senses. Global wildlife populations have decreased by 68% since 1970 as a result of human activity, particularly overconsumption, population growth and intensive farming, according to a 2020 World Wildlife Fund’s Living Planet Report and the Zoological Society of London’s Living Planet Index measure, which is further evidence that humans have unleashed a sixth mass extinction event. According to CITES, it has been estimated that annually the international wildlife trade amounts to billions of dollars and it affects hundreds of millions of animal and plant specimens.

According to data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, over 8,400 species of wild fauna and flora are critically endangered, while close to 30,000 more are understood to be endangered or vulnerable. In 2019, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services‘ Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services found that a quarter of species on Earth already face the threat of extinction and that global ecosystems had declined by an average of nearly half, relative to their earliest estimated states. Continued loss of species, habitats and ecosystems also threaten all life on Earth, including us. People everywhere rely on wildlife and biodiversity-based resources to meet all our needs, from food to fuel, medicines, housing, and clothing. Millions of people also rely on nature as the source of their livelihoods and economic opportunities.

Between 200 and 350 million people live within or adjacent to forested areas around the world, relying on the various ecosystem services provided by forest and forest species for their livelihoods and to cover their most basic needs, including food, shelter, energy and medicines. Roughly 28% of the world’s land surface is currently managed by indigenous peoples, including some of the most ecologically intact forests on the planet. These spaces are not only central to their economic and personal well-being but also their cultural identities.

On 20 December 2013, at its 68th session, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) proclaimed 3 March – the day of signature of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1973 – as UN World Wildlife Day to celebrate and raise awareness of the world’s wild animals and plants. The UNGA resolution also designated the CITES Secretariat as the facilitator for the global observance of this special day for wildlife on the UN calendar. World Wildlife Day has now become the most important global annual event dedicated to wildlife. This day was proposed by Thailand to celebrate and raise awareness of the world’s wild fauna and flora and member countries reaffirmed the intrinsic value of wildlife and its various contributions, including ecological, genetic, social, economic, scientific, educational, cultural, recreational and aesthetic, to sustainable development and human well-being.

World Wildlife Day will celebrate forest-based livelihoods and seek to promote forest and forest wildlife management practices that accommodate both human well-being and the long-term conservation of forests and promote the value of traditional practices that contribute to establishing a more sustainable relationship with these crucial natural systems. The animals and plants that live in the wild have an intrinsic value and contribute to the ecological, genetic, social, economic, scientific, educational, cultural, recreational and aesthetic aspects of human well-being and to sustainable development.

The planet’s forests are home to some 80 per cent of all terrestrial wild species. They help regulate the climate and support the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people and some 90 per cent of the world’s poorest people are dependent in some way on forest resources, particularly the indigenous communities that live in or near forests.

Some 28 per cent of the world’s land is managed by indigenous communities, including some of the most intact forests on the planet which provide livelihoods and cultural identity. The unsustainable exploitation of forests harms these communities and contributes to biodiversity loss and climate disruption. Every year, the world loses 4.7 million hectares of forests, an area larger than Denmark and the major cause is unsustainable agriculture as well as global timber trafficking, which accounts for up to 90 per cent of tropical deforestation in some countries and also attracts the world’s biggest organised crime groups. The illegal trade in wild animal species is another threat, increasing the risks of zoonotic diseases, such as Ebola and COVID-19.

World Wildlife Day has a different theme every year and in 2022 will be celebrated under the theme “Safeguarding key species for ecosystem restoration” with the celebrations seeking to draw attention to the conservation status of some of the most critically endangered species of wild fauna and flora, and to drive discussions towards imagining and implementing solutions to conserve them. The day will therefore drive the debate towards the imperative need to reverse the fate of the most critically endangered species, to support the restoration of their habitats and ecosystems and to promote their sustainable use by humanity.

World Wildlife Day is an opportunity to celebrate the many beautiful and varied forms of wild fauna and flora and to raise awareness of the multitude of benefits that their conservation provides to people. At the same time, the Day reminds us of the urgent need to step up the fight against wildlife crime and human-induced reduction of species, which have wide-ranging economic, environmental and social impacts. Given these various negative effects, Sustainable Development Goal 15 focuses on halting biodiversity loss.

Forests, forests species and the livelihoods that depend on them currently find themselves at the crossroads of the multiple planetary crises we currently face, from climate change to biodiversity loss and the health, social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

So on this day, pledge to protect the forests and the flora and fauna which live in them. We deserve to leave this planet a better place than when we started using it.

Memories and Such

Memories of a very ordinary life

Tag Archives: Writing