FEAST OR FAMINE

Inventing the Enemy and Other Occasional Writings (2012) by the author of The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco, is an exceptionally eclectic collection of previously published or presented essays written in a variety of styles, from scholastic to wistful, and dense to delightful.   Just as I was in a café reading the first essay, “Inventing the Enemy” a young man with a Planet EnemyT-shirt walked by. In Eco’s piece, from a lecture at Bologna University on May 15, 2008, he explores the notion of the enemy – who we, collectively and individually, regard as our historical enemies, but also our cultural enemies, whether real or perceived or invented. For example, he cites ancient to contemporary texts to illustrate his point, from Marcus Cicero’s 63BC Orations against Catiline to Jean-Paul Satre’s No Exit (1944) to George Orwell’s Nineteen Eight-Four (1949), as well as historical events (global conflicts). He writes of people’s intolerance of other races, lower class...

Kinder children were happier and more accepted in their peer groups, says a study reported by the BBC (29 December, 2012, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20851434 ). Researchers at the University of California revealed that pre-teen children who performed deliberate acts of kindness were more popular with their peers. Researchers assigned children three acts of kindness each week for four weeks. Four hundred (400) children aged between 9 and 11 years from 19 classrooms in Vancouver participated in the study. Researchers worked with whole classes of school children to perform three kind acts per week and also with a control class of students who visited three places per week (anywhere they wished such as their grandparents’ place or the mall designed to be “mildly pleasant”). Consent was first sought from parents and teachers. The kind acts were not necessarily directed at their classmates. They included hugging parents, performing chores at home, or sharing t...

The “Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the Moulin Rouge” art exhibition is on display at Canberra’s National Gallery of Australia (NGA) until April 2, 2013, attracting a large contingent of local, interstate, and international visitors. With 111 exhibitions, it is a large and impressive collection ranging from Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s oils on cardboard, brush and spatter lithographs, chalk drawings, and crayon lithographs. Chronologically housed in six rooms in the NGA, the collection is separated into sections: Room 1 – his early works; Room 2 – portraits and boulevardiers (young men about town); Room 3 – the private lives of brothel workers (the houses of tolerance); Room 4 – the cabaret; Room 5 - posters as art; and Room 6 – cabaret and the final years. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was born in Albi, France, in 1864, although lived most of his life in Paris. Born with a rare congenital disease and having broken his legs in childhood he spent his bedridden childhood painting and...

For the first time, being overweight is a larger global problem than the lack of nutrition maintains the Global Burden of Disease report (New Scientist, 22/29 December 2012). The Global Burden of Disease report is the largest study on the state of world health. It involved 500 scientists in 50 countries. It assessed the prevalence of diseases and causes of deaths across the globe in 2010 and compared the data with 1970 and 1990 data. The report states that many childhood diseases (such as infections, diarrhea and birth problems) are being reduced, but adults are spending more of their lives in poor health. The rate of death in under-5 year old children has decreased by 60% since 1990. In 1990 under-nutrition was the leading cause of disease – in 2010 it dropped to 8 th place. Obesity was ranked the 10 th highest cause of disease in 1990 – in 2010 it has risen to 6 th place. Stroke and heart disease caused by high blood pressure brought on by obesity are responsible for 2...

Males and females across the world are dying at different rates from risk factors, says a study report in New Scientist (December 22/29, 2012). Globally, 66% of the population are dying from non-infectious diseases, reports New Scientist, citing a study in The Lancet (December, 2012). These include cancer, heart disease, and stroke. However, there is a difference between males and females. The most common cause of death amongst females in the world is due to AIDS (14.4% of women) with cardiovascular diseases second (10.7% of female deaths). Injuries and pregnancy-related conditions are responsible for 7.5% and 7.3% of female deaths respectively. Among the lowest cause of female deaths is car accident (0.5% of all deaths). T he most significant cause of death in men is cardiovascular disease (12.8% of deaths), with AIDS and car accidents equal second at 10.7% of all male deaths globally. Violence causes 5.2% of all male deaths. So the message for males is to reduce car acci...

Sierra Leone has recruited its first disabled officers, reports the BBC (December 20, 2012). Four men were recruited into the police services, a move praised by human rights campaigners. I n Sierra Leone, about two-thirds of disabled people are unemployed, and a 2009 survey in urban areas found that 69% of disabled people had no access to income. Of the 2.7% of the population disabled (2004 census), 50% of women and 34% of men have never been to school, maintains the Leonard Cheshire Foundation in Sierra Leone. The Disability Act was passed in Sierra Leone in 2011, and the recruitment puts this act into practice. The police services in Sierra Leone commented on the workplace equality in terms of its benefit for the general public: “When you see a disabled officer you don’t have a perception of any immediate threat,” said police chief Inspector-General Francis Aliou Munu. “It’s about building trust,” he added. “We are telling Sierra Leonean society that it does...

  Below the impressive, raised circular mound of the ancient citadel (Qala’t) is the city centre of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Featured in the heart of the city is Shar Garden Park, often referred to a Shar Square. The square is actually a large rectangular. Looking at the citadel, Kirkuk Road is to the left, with the Russian bank and a maze of stalls in the Qaysari Bazaar. To the right is a mosque and another bazaar. Constructed two to three years ago, the park is part of the city’s beautification plan. Right in the middle of Shar Garden Park is a large fountain and many benches for people to sit and enjoy the sites of the fountain, citadel, clock tower, lively bazaars, tea shops, or the many people who congregate there. The park is active and energetic with shoppers, yet simultaneously the fountain creates a soothing atmosphere. Raised boardwalks and benches, with a smaller water display, and patches of lawn, add interesting features to the pa...

  Life in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government, an autonomous region of northern Iraq, goes on just as in any other city. The population of a million and a half citizens is seeing a residential and commercial boom with newly constructed buildings and even new or expanding suburbs. Shops and businesses are opening to cater for its residents as well as the boom in tourism and foreign investment. The number of hotels is increasing, and so are shopping malls, and entertainment parks. The city is undergoing beautification with the installation of fountains, statues, park benches, city gardens, and ornamental flower beds. And so, traffic police monitor vehicles with speed cameras; people take their cart to the market; hotel personnel roll out the red carpet; the young cycle in the rain; marketers sell their fruit and vegetables; everyone checks their mobile phones, children go to school, young girls make public speeches, and I attend school presentations. ...

The citadel (Qala’t) in the Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government is an ancient elliptical-shaped ruins of a former city perched on a 30 metre high ridge. Renovation projects are in place to restore some of the 500 courtyard houses inside the high perimeter wall. In 2007 the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) established a High Commission for Erbil Citadel Revitalization (HCECR).The HCECR has undertaken the reconstruction of the Grand Gate and citadel based on old photographs and the memories of former inhabitants. The reconstruction is in cooperation with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Recently the citadel has been included as one of the 100 most endangered cultural sites in the world by the World Monument Fund in New York. Efforts are being made to have it included as one of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites. Inside the Main Gate, to the left are a number of houses undergoing renovation, including the R...

What was named first: the lizard or the island? The Komodo dragon, the largest lizard on earth, was named after the Komodo Island in the Republic of Indonesia in Southeast Asia. Stretching westward from the province of Aceh alongside southern Thailand and Malaysia across the top of Australia to the eastern province of Papua next to Papua New Guinea, Indonesia is an archipelago with 17,508 islands. Although only about 6,000 islands are populated, it has over 238 million people making it the world’s fourth most populous country. Almost at its southernmost part, between the island of Sumbawa and Flores, part of the Lesser Sunda chain, is the island of Komodo in the province of East Nusa Tenggara. Komodo Island has an area of only 390 square kilometers – 150 square miles. That’s the same size as Lough Neagh, the largest lake in Northern Ireland; or the size of Malta’s largest island; or less than half the size of Hong Kong or Dallas, Texas; or less than a quarter the size of Sydney. On...