African American aviation pioneer, John Robinson, who constructed his first airplane out of spare automobile parts in the 1930s, found opportunity in Africa when he went to the aid of embattled Emperor Haile Selassie in Ethiopia before World War II. Today Mr. Robinson is known as one of the founders of Africa's most reliable premier Ethiopian Airways.
Like Haile Selassie, in 2017 Neema Mushi, founder of Licious Adventure in Tanzania, was eager to make a U.S. connection. She was looking for U.S. companies willing to carry the African textiles and other items her shop sells to the tourists her company's guides lead up Mount Kilimanjaro and to the beaches of Zanzibar. Now, however, not U.S. companies but Chinese ones, such as Anningtex, Buwanas, Hitarget, and Sanne, fill Ms. Mushi's shelves with mass produced, Chinese-made "African" textiles, called kitenge. Locally-owned African textile producers in Nigeria and Ghana, unable to compete with lower-cost Chinese goods, have gone out of business.
The point is: if you are an importer; photo journalist or documentary filmmaker looking for a story; someone interested in trying out a new teaching or low-cost home construction technique; a miner or an adventurer seeking opportunities of any kind, Africa welcomes you.
Two essential ingredients help you get started: money and contacts. With a nest egg, car to sell, or Sugar Daddy, you can plunk down $1000-plus for an airplane ticket and head for Africa immediately. Although a crowdfunding appeal, saving from a job, or persuading a media outlet to fund your project, will delay your take off, keep an eye on the prize.i Also consider submitting a Scholar Registration to Birthright AFRICA at birthrightafrica.org. This new non-profit in New York City is the brainchild of Walla Elsheikh, an immigrant from Sudan who began his career in finance at Goldman Sachs. His vision is to send young African-Americans on free trips to Africa to explore and connect with their cultural roots. On these trips, young adults also have an unique opportunity to discover ways they could begin their careers in Africa.
Economic officers in foreign Embassies and consulates should be able to provide helpful local contacts in Africa, but don't neglect seeking assistance from missionary communities. Religious orders in your home country can put you in touch with their superiors in African host countries. For example, in Namibia, Africa, China built a container terminal and nearby oil storage installation at Walvis Bay, and South Africa's De Beers Group extracted 1.4 million carats from the offshore coastal waters. I also saw Sister Patricia Crowley, at the St. Scholastica Monastery in Chicago, was about to leave for Windhoer, Namibia, to serve as spiritual director on a one year assignment at a Benedictine missionary community there. An appointment with Sister Patricia in Chicago could lead to a letter introducing your purpose and background to those who could help you in Namibia.
Likewise, visiting communities of Dominican nuns in a home country could provide contacts with the nuns who teach girls to make a living by sewing and using a computer in Bukoba, Tanzania, and the nuns who teach farmers to plant hybrid tomato crops that withstand heat and insect infestations in Nairobi, Kenya.
On their outposts in Lagos, Nigeria, and Nairobi, the Jesuit order can provide inspiration and information for those investigating Africa careers. While assigned to the Jesuit Refugee Service in East Africa, Father James Martin, author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything, helped set up tailoring shops, several small restaurants, a bakery, a little chicken farm, and the Mikono Centre that sells African handicrafts. By following in the path of African-inspired Picasso and a Mozambican wood carver who sold a three-foot-tall ebony sculpture at the Mikono Centre, artists from around the world may find fulfillment working in Africa.
In Hia, Ghana, Bishop Afoakwah would appreciate a visit from a journalist willing to investigate the complicated land ownership rights, deeds held by chiefs, and government's incomplete database of mining concessions. Although the bishop thought the church held a legal deed to land a chief donated for a clinic and nursing school, Chinese miners began digging "Mr. Kumar's" gold mine on the property.
Ghana is not the only African country in need of land use planners, legal assistance, doctors, teachers and others willing to discover career opportunities in Africa.
Monday, March 2, 2020
Wednesday, February 12, 2020
Artificial Skies
Look up on a clear night and you might see the moon, stars, an airplane, a Pentagon observation balloon, police drone, one of Elon Musk's Starlink communication satellites, or a Loon balloon from Google's Alphabet fleet that can provide wireless internet access to rural and remote areas.
Shortly after a Starlink rocket launch, a satellite is almost as bright as the North Star, a magnitude 2. When it reaches its orbiting height 342 miles above Earth, unless sunlight hits just the right angle, the satellite dims to magnitude 5 to 7. Beginning three to four hours after sunset in a summer, satellites can be visible to the naked eye all night.
With U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval, Musk's SpaceX program is in the process of launching 12,000 satellites in a Starlink network designed to facilitate high-speed, global broadband internet access. Sometime in June, 2020, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is expected to launch the eighth batch of satellites, about 60 more, for the broadband network. His artificial satellite constellation raises concerns about space safety and the impact on ground-based telescopes exploring deep space.
At different heights above Earth, the orbits of satellites pose different problems. At about 300 miles or less, atmospheric drag downs and vaporizes satellites. Starlink system satellites designed to orbit 700 miles above Earth are too high for a quick and disintegrating re-entry. If satellites carry fuel, working ones can be maneuvered back to higher levels, and high-level ones that no longer work can be lowered and subjected to disintegration. Of course, the presence of fuel in a satellite increases the chance of an explosion.
Whether working or out-of-service, at any level above Earth satellites can collide and break apart into "space junk." Fragments of debris go into their own separate orbits ready to cause additional collisions and, therefore, even more space junk. That is what happened when the Chinese sent a missile to hit a satellite no longer in use. Resulting shrapnel fanned out into numerous orbits of space junk. Potentially, damaged debris could necessitate avoiding whole regions of space.
Besides the danger of collisions, bright satellites that compete with the stars are a problem for astronomers who have been exploring deep space for centuries. Since photographing objects light years away can require exposing an image for hours, satellites orbiting the Earth already spoil the view. Those who use radio telescopes to study the universe expect interference from satellite transmissions that use frequencies close to the radio waves from distant objects.
Loon's internet balloons fly at 10 to 15 miles above Earth. With five to 10 balloons, Loon is especially useful in providing temporary service to an area in need of communication after a disaster. Service is now provided in Puerto Rico, Peru's rainforest, and Kenya.
Problems associated with space, including satellites, balloons, spacecrafts, and military applications, are expected to worsen. In addition to the approximately 5000 satellites already orbiting Earth and 12,000 launched by SpaceX, the OneWeb company plans to add 650 and Amazon's broadband project would deploy 3200. Along with the satellites powering the U.S. GPS, other navigation systems: Russia's GLONASS, China's BeiDou, the EU's Galileo and OneWeb, now owned by the UK and India's Bharti Global, also have launched satellites. Unless atmospheric drag is allowed to remove space junk and satellites no longer in use, the likelihood of collisions and interference with deep space research will increase unchecked.
At present, no international agreements govern the safe use of space, observes Dr. Lisa Ruth Rand, a research associate at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and post doctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin. To date, the use of space seems to rely on the ambitions of Elon Musk, individual countries and companies, and aliens exploring new frontiers. Urgent international negotiations are needed, at least by Earthlings.
Shortly after a Starlink rocket launch, a satellite is almost as bright as the North Star, a magnitude 2. When it reaches its orbiting height 342 miles above Earth, unless sunlight hits just the right angle, the satellite dims to magnitude 5 to 7. Beginning three to four hours after sunset in a summer, satellites can be visible to the naked eye all night.
With U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval, Musk's SpaceX program is in the process of launching 12,000 satellites in a Starlink network designed to facilitate high-speed, global broadband internet access. Sometime in June, 2020, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is expected to launch the eighth batch of satellites, about 60 more, for the broadband network. His artificial satellite constellation raises concerns about space safety and the impact on ground-based telescopes exploring deep space.
At different heights above Earth, the orbits of satellites pose different problems. At about 300 miles or less, atmospheric drag downs and vaporizes satellites. Starlink system satellites designed to orbit 700 miles above Earth are too high for a quick and disintegrating re-entry. If satellites carry fuel, working ones can be maneuvered back to higher levels, and high-level ones that no longer work can be lowered and subjected to disintegration. Of course, the presence of fuel in a satellite increases the chance of an explosion.
Whether working or out-of-service, at any level above Earth satellites can collide and break apart into "space junk." Fragments of debris go into their own separate orbits ready to cause additional collisions and, therefore, even more space junk. That is what happened when the Chinese sent a missile to hit a satellite no longer in use. Resulting shrapnel fanned out into numerous orbits of space junk. Potentially, damaged debris could necessitate avoiding whole regions of space.
Besides the danger of collisions, bright satellites that compete with the stars are a problem for astronomers who have been exploring deep space for centuries. Since photographing objects light years away can require exposing an image for hours, satellites orbiting the Earth already spoil the view. Those who use radio telescopes to study the universe expect interference from satellite transmissions that use frequencies close to the radio waves from distant objects.
Loon's internet balloons fly at 10 to 15 miles above Earth. With five to 10 balloons, Loon is especially useful in providing temporary service to an area in need of communication after a disaster. Service is now provided in Puerto Rico, Peru's rainforest, and Kenya.
Problems associated with space, including satellites, balloons, spacecrafts, and military applications, are expected to worsen. In addition to the approximately 5000 satellites already orbiting Earth and 12,000 launched by SpaceX, the OneWeb company plans to add 650 and Amazon's broadband project would deploy 3200. Along with the satellites powering the U.S. GPS, other navigation systems: Russia's GLONASS, China's BeiDou, the EU's Galileo and OneWeb, now owned by the UK and India's Bharti Global, also have launched satellites. Unless atmospheric drag is allowed to remove space junk and satellites no longer in use, the likelihood of collisions and interference with deep space research will increase unchecked.
At present, no international agreements govern the safe use of space, observes Dr. Lisa Ruth Rand, a research associate at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and post doctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin. To date, the use of space seems to rely on the ambitions of Elon Musk, individual countries and companies, and aliens exploring new frontiers. Urgent international negotiations are needed, at least by Earthlings.
Monday, February 10, 2020
What North Korea Can Learn from the Oscars
Censorship destroys creativity.
At the Academy Awards ceremony in the United States on February 9, 2020, South Korea's film, Parasite, won Best Picture of 2019. Filmed in black and white with sub-titles U.S. movie audiences had to read as they watched the movie. Yet Parasite bested eight English-speaking films in color. The film also won Best Original Screenplay. Bong Joon Ho, who was one of the screenplay's writers, also won Best Director. Although the wife of North Korea's Kim Jong Un is a singer, she was never considered as one of the possible voices chosen to sing, in her native tongue, the nominated song from Frozen at the Academy Awards.
Nor can China brag about any international film accolades. In 2016 China's wealthy Danan Wanda Group constructed an $8 billion complex to attract international movie-makers to the coastal city of Qingdao. Despite offering generous financial incentives, the project is not a success. Censorship by China's State Administration of Press Publications, Radio, Film and Television proved to be incompatible with the creative process.
South Korea offers North Korea a way to escape the Chinese film censorship trap. Missiles and nuclear weapons attract international attention, but so does a blockbuster film. North Korea is lucky to have a prize-winning movie-making community of educators available next door. Those trouble-making North Koreans locked away in the country's concentration camps may be just the creative talent that could net Kim Jong Un and his wife tickets to an Academy Awards celebration and positive international attention for North Korea.
At the Academy Awards ceremony in the United States on February 9, 2020, South Korea's film, Parasite, won Best Picture of 2019. Filmed in black and white with sub-titles U.S. movie audiences had to read as they watched the movie. Yet Parasite bested eight English-speaking films in color. The film also won Best Original Screenplay. Bong Joon Ho, who was one of the screenplay's writers, also won Best Director. Although the wife of North Korea's Kim Jong Un is a singer, she was never considered as one of the possible voices chosen to sing, in her native tongue, the nominated song from Frozen at the Academy Awards.
Nor can China brag about any international film accolades. In 2016 China's wealthy Danan Wanda Group constructed an $8 billion complex to attract international movie-makers to the coastal city of Qingdao. Despite offering generous financial incentives, the project is not a success. Censorship by China's State Administration of Press Publications, Radio, Film and Television proved to be incompatible with the creative process.
South Korea offers North Korea a way to escape the Chinese film censorship trap. Missiles and nuclear weapons attract international attention, but so does a blockbuster film. North Korea is lucky to have a prize-winning movie-making community of educators available next door. Those trouble-making North Koreans locked away in the country's concentration camps may be just the creative talent that could net Kim Jong Un and his wife tickets to an Academy Awards celebration and positive international attention for North Korea.
Tuesday, February 4, 2020
Ode to a Normal Boy's Life
Males are being asked to adjust to a new worldview. Working wives and mothers expect them to help with cooking and childcare, not just take out the garbage. Athletes still have to hide their sexual preferences in locker rooms and frat houses. And, as Marvel comic hero, Luke Cage, observed, young black men have guns and no fathers.
After Keanon Lowe, the football and track coach at Portland's Parkrose High School, wrestled a legally-purchased shotgun out of a male student's hand and hugged him, TIME magazine (Dec. 23-30, 2019) recognized Mr. Lowe as one of 2019's heroes. Lowe told the 19-year-old who he hugged that he cared about him. "You do?" he responded. Prosecutors learned the shotgun had only one round. It had failed to fire, when the young man attempted to commit suicide outside a bathroom. Mental health treatment was part of his three-year sentence to probation.
A boy's surprise that someone cared for him and the term, "toxic masculinity," suggest a need to nurture males differently. Between the ages of four and six, research finds boys begin to match their behavior to the expectations of others who tell them not to cry, show fear, or make mistakes. When they develop a strong bond with someone, that relationship has a major influence on how they see themselves. Boys are close observers of the way teachers relate to them, for example. Instead of positive encouragement, if boys have trouble with a subject, negative reactions undercut their confidence. To avoid the vulnerability of looking stupid and to maintain the sense of male superiority someone close to him expects, boys probably act out and get suspended.
Maybe female students are more willing to try to resolve conflicts with women teachers, but it seems boys are naturally inclined not to try. Faced with a problem involving a teacher, parent, police officer, or other authority figure, boys have a natural tendency to quit and run away. Adults need to listen to boys, understand their problems, and brain storm ways to cope. My mother loved teenagers. When she taught remedial math to high school students in Chicago, she used to come home and tell us how she had found out about the strange, incorrect ways her students had decided to add a column of numbers. She also allowed no laughing at others in her classes.
Boys looking for good relationships and listeners are susceptible to the approaches of predatory priests, coaches, boy scout leaders, and girl friends. When these relationships betray them, even making them victims of sexual abuse, the results are as devastating to boys who opened themselves to those they trusted as is the effect of a total lack of relationships on other boys . Such boys conclude no one cares about them. They might as well use a gun to show they don't care about anyone, including themselves.
Equally troubling is the tendency the educational system has of assuming poverty, broken homes, and other traumas justify grouping all boys with such backgrounds in remedial classes rather than making an effort to separate out those who are gifted, nurtured in stable homes, or blessed with the genes and spiritual fortitude to overcome a less than perfect upbringing.
What it comes down to is: boys want a relationship with someone who wants them to be themselves.
After Keanon Lowe, the football and track coach at Portland's Parkrose High School, wrestled a legally-purchased shotgun out of a male student's hand and hugged him, TIME magazine (Dec. 23-30, 2019) recognized Mr. Lowe as one of 2019's heroes. Lowe told the 19-year-old who he hugged that he cared about him. "You do?" he responded. Prosecutors learned the shotgun had only one round. It had failed to fire, when the young man attempted to commit suicide outside a bathroom. Mental health treatment was part of his three-year sentence to probation.
A boy's surprise that someone cared for him and the term, "toxic masculinity," suggest a need to nurture males differently. Between the ages of four and six, research finds boys begin to match their behavior to the expectations of others who tell them not to cry, show fear, or make mistakes. When they develop a strong bond with someone, that relationship has a major influence on how they see themselves. Boys are close observers of the way teachers relate to them, for example. Instead of positive encouragement, if boys have trouble with a subject, negative reactions undercut their confidence. To avoid the vulnerability of looking stupid and to maintain the sense of male superiority someone close to him expects, boys probably act out and get suspended.
Maybe female students are more willing to try to resolve conflicts with women teachers, but it seems boys are naturally inclined not to try. Faced with a problem involving a teacher, parent, police officer, or other authority figure, boys have a natural tendency to quit and run away. Adults need to listen to boys, understand their problems, and brain storm ways to cope. My mother loved teenagers. When she taught remedial math to high school students in Chicago, she used to come home and tell us how she had found out about the strange, incorrect ways her students had decided to add a column of numbers. She also allowed no laughing at others in her classes.
Boys looking for good relationships and listeners are susceptible to the approaches of predatory priests, coaches, boy scout leaders, and girl friends. When these relationships betray them, even making them victims of sexual abuse, the results are as devastating to boys who opened themselves to those they trusted as is the effect of a total lack of relationships on other boys . Such boys conclude no one cares about them. They might as well use a gun to show they don't care about anyone, including themselves.
Equally troubling is the tendency the educational system has of assuming poverty, broken homes, and other traumas justify grouping all boys with such backgrounds in remedial classes rather than making an effort to separate out those who are gifted, nurtured in stable homes, or blessed with the genes and spiritual fortitude to overcome a less than perfect upbringing.
What it comes down to is: boys want a relationship with someone who wants them to be themselves.
Thursday, January 30, 2020
Can Democracy Be Exported?
Before accepting as an article of faith the glib notion that Russia, Iraq, and other countries with traditions of authoritarian regimes cannot change, consider the observations of Nabeel Khoury, a retired US foreign service officer with extensive experience in the Middle East. Interviewed by Thomas L. Friedman, on c-span's "Book TV" January 15, 2020, Dr. Khoury questioned this assumption. Basically, he said the freedoms in the First Amendment of the US Constitution have universal appeal.
During President Trump's impeachment trial, Congressional representatives often mentioned the wisdom of the small group who collaborated on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. In essence, Dr. Khoury recommends a transition to democracy requires similar components: a small cadre of smart influencers and a plan. I was reminded of the intellectuals who gathered at Kavarna Slavia, Prague's Art Deco cafe, to plot Czechoslovakia's "Velvet Revolution."
That is not to say, democratic changes are free of bloody combat, When Hong Kong's democracy activists first protested China's attempt to void the 1997 Sino-British agreement designed to govern for fifty years after London handed its colony over to Chinese rule, many assumed Beijing quickly would crush resistance. That was eight months ago. In that time, clashes with police and injuries have occurred, but Hong Kong's determination seems to have helped strengthen the determination of nearby Taiwan, another island governed by China, to re-elect a pro-democracy government on January 11, 2020.
Just as violence can be expected to accompany a transition to democracy, factions within democratic movements also are likely. Authoritarian governments fail to satisfy not only the employment opportunities sought by educated young people in the Middle East and elsewhere, but in Russia, for example, they can fail to accommodate the needs of pensioners who resist increasing the age when they can draw benefits. Some seek freedom from corrupt officials who rob national economies, and others emphasize the desire for personal freedom to express their opinions and to live and work in humane conditions. The earlier marches Alexei Navalny led in Russia sought democratic reform, but he found protests against corruption had more appeal.
If teachers guided students through the process of writing a Classroom Constitution, their students would see for themselves how factions would emerge to complicate the process. Students would come to appreciate how difficult it is to define the powers and responsibilities Articles would assign to a teacher, students, and administrators, as well as to create mechanisms for resolving disputes.
Democracy brings with it a battle of ideas, once waged in pamphlets; now in social media. The highly-educated citizens China depends on for technological military and commercial advances value more leisure and call for shorter hours and fewer work days. They also value internet access free of censorship and figure out how to use Western sites both for technological tips and as a means to escape government oversight. On the other hand, new rural arrivals in China's metropolitan areas seek to fulfill basic needs for education, health care, and housing.
In order to fashion a democratic structure agreeable to all, masterful leaders need to study political theory and constitutional compromises. The US founders did not share the same objectives. Some owned slaves and others were abolitionists. Some preferred a strong central government; others clung to states' rights. When a rash of countries achieved independence from colonial powers after World War II, Dr. Lorna Hahn envisioned a way global experts could help satisfy the needs of newly independent countries. For 20 years, she sponsored forums and personal contacts that brought together a variety of scholars, such as attorneys experienced in writing constitutions, and leaders from developing countries at an Association on Third World Affairs.
For more echoes of Dr. Khoury's belief in the persistent universal quest for freedom that democratic systems of government provide, check out the earlier posts: "Why Do They Love Us?" and "Don't Give Up On Us."
During President Trump's impeachment trial, Congressional representatives often mentioned the wisdom of the small group who collaborated on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. In essence, Dr. Khoury recommends a transition to democracy requires similar components: a small cadre of smart influencers and a plan. I was reminded of the intellectuals who gathered at Kavarna Slavia, Prague's Art Deco cafe, to plot Czechoslovakia's "Velvet Revolution."
That is not to say, democratic changes are free of bloody combat, When Hong Kong's democracy activists first protested China's attempt to void the 1997 Sino-British agreement designed to govern for fifty years after London handed its colony over to Chinese rule, many assumed Beijing quickly would crush resistance. That was eight months ago. In that time, clashes with police and injuries have occurred, but Hong Kong's determination seems to have helped strengthen the determination of nearby Taiwan, another island governed by China, to re-elect a pro-democracy government on January 11, 2020.
Just as violence can be expected to accompany a transition to democracy, factions within democratic movements also are likely. Authoritarian governments fail to satisfy not only the employment opportunities sought by educated young people in the Middle East and elsewhere, but in Russia, for example, they can fail to accommodate the needs of pensioners who resist increasing the age when they can draw benefits. Some seek freedom from corrupt officials who rob national economies, and others emphasize the desire for personal freedom to express their opinions and to live and work in humane conditions. The earlier marches Alexei Navalny led in Russia sought democratic reform, but he found protests against corruption had more appeal.
If teachers guided students through the process of writing a Classroom Constitution, their students would see for themselves how factions would emerge to complicate the process. Students would come to appreciate how difficult it is to define the powers and responsibilities Articles would assign to a teacher, students, and administrators, as well as to create mechanisms for resolving disputes.
Democracy brings with it a battle of ideas, once waged in pamphlets; now in social media. The highly-educated citizens China depends on for technological military and commercial advances value more leisure and call for shorter hours and fewer work days. They also value internet access free of censorship and figure out how to use Western sites both for technological tips and as a means to escape government oversight. On the other hand, new rural arrivals in China's metropolitan areas seek to fulfill basic needs for education, health care, and housing.
In order to fashion a democratic structure agreeable to all, masterful leaders need to study political theory and constitutional compromises. The US founders did not share the same objectives. Some owned slaves and others were abolitionists. Some preferred a strong central government; others clung to states' rights. When a rash of countries achieved independence from colonial powers after World War II, Dr. Lorna Hahn envisioned a way global experts could help satisfy the needs of newly independent countries. For 20 years, she sponsored forums and personal contacts that brought together a variety of scholars, such as attorneys experienced in writing constitutions, and leaders from developing countries at an Association on Third World Affairs.
For more echoes of Dr. Khoury's belief in the persistent universal quest for freedom that democratic systems of government provide, check out the earlier posts: "Why Do They Love Us?" and "Don't Give Up On Us."
Thursday, January 16, 2020
Ring In the Chinese New Year
Just as tacos and spaghetti add flavor to menu options outside Mexico and Italy, foreign holidays and customs can introduce the world's children to interesting new activities.
Unfortunately, in January, 2020, the Chinese New Year introduced the world to COVID-19. Millions of people traveling for the lunar new year began carrying the new virus around the world.
With what the Chinese call the Year of the Pig about to give way to the beginning of the Chinese New Year of the Metal Rat on January 25, 2020, children could have been urging adults to try making some Feng Shui modifications said to attract good luck. But by opening doors and windows for 10 minutes on the eve of the Chinese New Year, this year they let the old year out and a new virus in.
Since the Chinese associate rats with storing up food, some customs in the Year of the Rat involve saving money. Placing a glass or ceramic bowl at the front door serves as a reminder to deposit and save all loose change there every time anyone enters all year. On the other hand, all are cautioned; lending anyone money on New Year's Eve can cause a loss of money all year long.
To start the new year with abundance, the Chinese prepare a tray with eight kinds of snacks, including round fruits like grapes that symbolize prosperity, orange slices for gold, olives, pecans, almonds and various round candies and cookies. To foster optimism and energy, the Chinese start the new year wearing the warm colors of red, orange, and yellow.
You'll also want to clean your home before the new year begins, because using brooms, brushes, and dust rags might clear away good fortune. Also, avoid using knives and scissors that can cut off good luck.
Instead of trying to keep New Year's resolutions, everyone might try the Chinese method of writing nine new year's wishes on rectangular pieces of paper and hanging them on a tree where the wind can blow them into the sky for fast fulfillment.
New Yorkers counted down the beginning of 2020 while watching a crystal ball drop in Times Square and blowing horns. Instead, some Chinese will ring in the new year with a Tibetan bell.
Children born in the Year of the Metal Rat are expected to be able to turn unlucky events into fortunes. All children around the world will be able to begin the Chinese New Year with a small fortune, if adults adopt the Chinese custom of giving them coins in red envelopes.
Unfortunately, in January, 2020, the Chinese New Year introduced the world to COVID-19. Millions of people traveling for the lunar new year began carrying the new virus around the world.
With what the Chinese call the Year of the Pig about to give way to the beginning of the Chinese New Year of the Metal Rat on January 25, 2020, children could have been urging adults to try making some Feng Shui modifications said to attract good luck. But by opening doors and windows for 10 minutes on the eve of the Chinese New Year, this year they let the old year out and a new virus in.
Since the Chinese associate rats with storing up food, some customs in the Year of the Rat involve saving money. Placing a glass or ceramic bowl at the front door serves as a reminder to deposit and save all loose change there every time anyone enters all year. On the other hand, all are cautioned; lending anyone money on New Year's Eve can cause a loss of money all year long.
To start the new year with abundance, the Chinese prepare a tray with eight kinds of snacks, including round fruits like grapes that symbolize prosperity, orange slices for gold, olives, pecans, almonds and various round candies and cookies. To foster optimism and energy, the Chinese start the new year wearing the warm colors of red, orange, and yellow.
You'll also want to clean your home before the new year begins, because using brooms, brushes, and dust rags might clear away good fortune. Also, avoid using knives and scissors that can cut off good luck.
Instead of trying to keep New Year's resolutions, everyone might try the Chinese method of writing nine new year's wishes on rectangular pieces of paper and hanging them on a tree where the wind can blow them into the sky for fast fulfillment.
New Yorkers counted down the beginning of 2020 while watching a crystal ball drop in Times Square and blowing horns. Instead, some Chinese will ring in the new year with a Tibetan bell.
Children born in the Year of the Metal Rat are expected to be able to turn unlucky events into fortunes. All children around the world will be able to begin the Chinese New Year with a small fortune, if adults adopt the Chinese custom of giving them coins in red envelopes.
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Wash Away Dangerous Germs
Nurses wearing gloves sprinkled them with glow-in-the-dark powder and went about their work. In the dark, they could see the powder ended up everywhere, including on their faces, the same way germs spread.
As the number of world travelers increases, so does the opportunity for diseases to travel from people and hospitals in one country to another. Superbugs with super names, like methlcillin-resistant Straphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), are most dangerous. They resist the antibiotics that usually can cure bacterial infections in wounds, blood, and the gut, for example.
Using antibiotics to cure a virus, such as coronavirus, known as COVID-19, is actually harmful. Not only are they ineffective against viruses, but they also help build up resistance to the best drugs for fighting bacterial infections.
Viruses are extremely tiny. They consist of a packet of DNA or RNA messengers within a protein and fatty-like envelope that does not dissolve in water. Some viruses, such as COVID-19, include spikes able to fasten themselves to living human, animal, and plant cells. Although viruses cannot exist outside a living host cell, once their chemical compounds penetrate and infect a cell, they compromise the cell's immune system. Unless an antiviral drug stops them, virus-infected cells can each reproduce a million copies ready to infect more hosts.
It is all too easy for children (and adults) to transfer germs that can remain harmless on skin and around nostrils into their noses and mouths where they cause disease. Prevention can be relatively easy, if hand sanitizers are accessible in handy locations. Children who are around animals especially need to wash their hands, and even doctors need to be reminded of the need to wash their hands between routine patient contacts.
Earlier posts stress the importance of reducing resistance to antibiotics by using these drugs sparingly. See "Global Search for New Antibiotics" and "Diseases and Cures Travel the Globe."
As the number of world travelers increases, so does the opportunity for diseases to travel from people and hospitals in one country to another. Superbugs with super names, like methlcillin-resistant Straphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), are most dangerous. They resist the antibiotics that usually can cure bacterial infections in wounds, blood, and the gut, for example.
Using antibiotics to cure a virus, such as coronavirus, known as COVID-19, is actually harmful. Not only are they ineffective against viruses, but they also help build up resistance to the best drugs for fighting bacterial infections.
Viruses are extremely tiny. They consist of a packet of DNA or RNA messengers within a protein and fatty-like envelope that does not dissolve in water. Some viruses, such as COVID-19, include spikes able to fasten themselves to living human, animal, and plant cells. Although viruses cannot exist outside a living host cell, once their chemical compounds penetrate and infect a cell, they compromise the cell's immune system. Unless an antiviral drug stops them, virus-infected cells can each reproduce a million copies ready to infect more hosts.
It is all too easy for children (and adults) to transfer germs that can remain harmless on skin and around nostrils into their noses and mouths where they cause disease. Prevention can be relatively easy, if hand sanitizers are accessible in handy locations. Children who are around animals especially need to wash their hands, and even doctors need to be reminded of the need to wash their hands between routine patient contacts.
Earlier posts stress the importance of reducing resistance to antibiotics by using these drugs sparingly. See "Global Search for New Antibiotics" and "Diseases and Cures Travel the Globe."
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