Newsworthy or Not!
(On Request: Last year's posts on Earth hour can
be found here
and here!)
Last year, we switched off the lights for Earth Hour and played scrabble in the dark, which was a lot of fun and also the only way Tapi could beat me at the game! Will a billion really go dark this year? Will Earth Hour galvanize support for the fight against global warming? I wonder what happened from the time I turned off the light for an hour last year until now. My life continues to be the same. People continue to pull my leg about my pseudo environmentalism! I stay awake all night almost every day, when in fact I could be sleeping and saving power by turning off the lights! It is now 4 AM and I haven't slept! But, the issue was more than just put on the political agenda... an environmental revolution is taking shape in many parts of the world, and a radical alteration in our mindsets is happening in a big way!
I remember asking mom to turn off the lights for an hour last year and she said "I will, when the lights come back on after the power cut!" My mom is a horrible audience for my harangues on going green! I can't ask her not to buy liquid soap because she never does! I can't ask her to take her own bag to the grocery store, because she always has! She recycles newspapers, and donates clothes! Indians take the whole fun out of being eco-friendly! They seem to do all the right things without meaning to!
We also missed out on Ugadi, the Telugu New Year's Festival, which also happens to be Dad's birthday according to the Hindu Lunar Calendar! What I miss about Ugadi is the show hosted by Dharmavarapu Subramanyam, where they play different comedy scenes from movies. He's a very entertaining host. His humor makes you laugh and want to tear your hair out at the same time!
Speaking of environmentalism, and the news about Earth Hour, I wonder what makes some kinds of stories newsworthy over others. With Earth Hour it is quite obvious why! But, sitting in my office everyday, I read tons of news reports on bone health that I find quite fascinating and noteworthy even: like how space travel offers insight on improving bone health; how hibernating bears hold the key to keeping our bones healthier; or how beer and wine can be good for your bones because they increase bone density (although binge drinking can cause bone disease among other things! and that's not good!)
Beyond that, the environmental news I read on obscure websites everyday are quite sensational as well, like how we have finally saved the ozone layer (!), or that water production is the next big green tech innovation (!!), or even that the next step in space tourism is the development of space hotels, which is happening right now (no kidding!!! I first need to learn to dance before I can "moon walk" and set up camp!)
But going back to health, last week I read about how scientists at Johns Hopkins University found the key to stopping malaria (by silencing a gene called caspar). Now, given that malaria kills nearly a million people every year, isn't this finding newsworthy? One million deaths a year is a lot more than all the reported casualties of Iraq war in over five years! If we were to look at malaria as an economic issue, where people spend close to half their annual income on treating this ailment in countries like Malawi, notwithstanding the exorbitant costs of healthcare, decreased productivity at work and eventual unemployment, I wonder why this new discovery that can possibly revivify people and economies isn't being celebrated on the front page of all big newspapers! To say that malaria seriously hinders economic development would be an understatement!
In our many hundreds of years of progress we have come close to completely eradicating only a handful of diseases - plague, small pox and leprosy come to mind! We have fought many more wars than eradicated diseases, which as I pointed out, kills many more people!! Moreover war is an example of a horrible human transgression, finding a cure to a disease is an example of a great human triumph. Now, why do we "entertainment" and "maximum utility" seeking people want to do and hear more of the former and less of the latter? Why is it that when we hear that a disease has been eradicated, it seems less exciting than the news that the "I am a PC" ad was staged!
This baffles me especially given how small our world is now owing to globalization. People, goods and capital flow across geographical boundaries at such vast numbers, that it is hard to estimate their effect on global environment or human health, except to say that it is not entirely positive! Some of the deadliest diseases known to humans have spread over continents switfly killing thousands at a time, including malaria! They spread from one to another in all five transmission modes - air, water, blood, contact and germs!
If you think the Bubonic plague of the 30s that manifested in china and raged through europe or Leprosy that began in India and spread all over the world through crusaders, spanish conquistadors, arabs, american slave traders, etc.. think of how much more faster diseases spread in this era and the impact they have on our health and the environment! (HIV (AIDS) being the newest deadly disease entry!)
Now going back to space travel, shouldn't the giant cruiser ships we are developing, or the different space tourism options that are being made available, make it to the front page as well? Who would have thought, that we will have travelled to the moon even a few decades ago and now we speak of not just walking on it but vacationing!! This has got to be more exciting than political news which seems to be the only thing reported significantly in newspapers everyday!
I have reams and reams of thoughts waiting to explode on why development news never gets reported as much as it needs to be even though some of them can topple the economies of their countries simply by being unreported by the media. I understand the line of reasoning for doing this, even though I don't quite agree with it. At the same time, I think it is deplorable that only very bleak and gloomy news about developing countries gets reported internationally. But news about breakthroughs in research that can eradicate diseases is not third-world news!! It should interest anyone globally, and especially self-important people, like me who want to live longer and disease free! It is a life-altering human victory... a feat of defeat... that ought to be celebrated!
Happy Earth Hour! and
Happy Birthday Appa!! :)
Last year, we switched off the lights for Earth Hour and played scrabble in the dark, which was a lot of fun and also the only way Tapi could beat me at the game! Will a billion really go dark this year? Will Earth Hour galvanize support for the fight against global warming? I wonder what happened from the time I turned off the light for an hour last year until now. My life continues to be the same. People continue to pull my leg about my pseudo environmentalism! I stay awake all night almost every day, when in fact I could be sleeping and saving power by turning off the lights! It is now 4 AM and I haven't slept! But, the issue was more than just put on the political agenda... an environmental revolution is taking shape in many parts of the world, and a radical alteration in our mindsets is happening in a big way!
I remember asking mom to turn off the lights for an hour last year and she said "I will, when the lights come back on after the power cut!" My mom is a horrible audience for my harangues on going green! I can't ask her not to buy liquid soap because she never does! I can't ask her to take her own bag to the grocery store, because she always has! She recycles newspapers, and donates clothes! Indians take the whole fun out of being eco-friendly! They seem to do all the right things without meaning to!
We also missed out on Ugadi, the Telugu New Year's Festival, which also happens to be Dad's birthday according to the Hindu Lunar Calendar! What I miss about Ugadi is the show hosted by Dharmavarapu Subramanyam, where they play different comedy scenes from movies. He's a very entertaining host. His humor makes you laugh and want to tear your hair out at the same time!
Speaking of environmentalism, and the news about Earth Hour, I wonder what makes some kinds of stories newsworthy over others. With Earth Hour it is quite obvious why! But, sitting in my office everyday, I read tons of news reports on bone health that I find quite fascinating and noteworthy even: like how space travel offers insight on improving bone health; how hibernating bears hold the key to keeping our bones healthier; or how beer and wine can be good for your bones because they increase bone density (although binge drinking can cause bone disease among other things! and that's not good!)
Beyond that, the environmental news I read on obscure websites everyday are quite sensational as well, like how we have finally saved the ozone layer (!), or that water production is the next big green tech innovation (!!), or even that the next step in space tourism is the development of space hotels, which is happening right now (no kidding!!! I first need to learn to dance before I can "moon walk" and set up camp!)
But going back to health, last week I read about how scientists at Johns Hopkins University found the key to stopping malaria (by silencing a gene called caspar). Now, given that malaria kills nearly a million people every year, isn't this finding newsworthy? One million deaths a year is a lot more than all the reported casualties of Iraq war in over five years! If we were to look at malaria as an economic issue, where people spend close to half their annual income on treating this ailment in countries like Malawi, notwithstanding the exorbitant costs of healthcare, decreased productivity at work and eventual unemployment, I wonder why this new discovery that can possibly revivify people and economies isn't being celebrated on the front page of all big newspapers! To say that malaria seriously hinders economic development would be an understatement!
In our many hundreds of years of progress we have come close to completely eradicating only a handful of diseases - plague, small pox and leprosy come to mind! We have fought many more wars than eradicated diseases, which as I pointed out, kills many more people!! Moreover war is an example of a horrible human transgression, finding a cure to a disease is an example of a great human triumph. Now, why do we "entertainment" and "maximum utility" seeking people want to do and hear more of the former and less of the latter? Why is it that when we hear that a disease has been eradicated, it seems less exciting than the news that the "I am a PC" ad was staged!
This baffles me especially given how small our world is now owing to globalization. People, goods and capital flow across geographical boundaries at such vast numbers, that it is hard to estimate their effect on global environment or human health, except to say that it is not entirely positive! Some of the deadliest diseases known to humans have spread over continents switfly killing thousands at a time, including malaria! They spread from one to another in all five transmission modes - air, water, blood, contact and germs!
If you think the Bubonic plague of the 30s that manifested in china and raged through europe or Leprosy that began in India and spread all over the world through crusaders, spanish conquistadors, arabs, american slave traders, etc.. think of how much more faster diseases spread in this era and the impact they have on our health and the environment! (HIV (AIDS) being the newest deadly disease entry!)
Now going back to space travel, shouldn't the giant cruiser ships we are developing, or the different space tourism options that are being made available, make it to the front page as well? Who would have thought, that we will have travelled to the moon even a few decades ago and now we speak of not just walking on it but vacationing!! This has got to be more exciting than political news which seems to be the only thing reported significantly in newspapers everyday!
I have reams and reams of thoughts waiting to explode on why development news never gets reported as much as it needs to be even though some of them can topple the economies of their countries simply by being unreported by the media. I understand the line of reasoning for doing this, even though I don't quite agree with it. At the same time, I think it is deplorable that only very bleak and gloomy news about developing countries gets reported internationally. But news about breakthroughs in research that can eradicate diseases is not third-world news!! It should interest anyone globally, and especially self-important people, like me who want to live longer and disease free! It is a life-altering human victory... a feat of defeat... that ought to be celebrated!
Happy Earth Hour! and
Happy Birthday Appa!! :)
