FEAST OR FAMINE

Over the past 30 years women have been electing to have babies later in life, despite the fact that fertility begins to decrease after the age of 28 (Destiny, September 2014). According to Professor Igno Siebert, reproductive medicine specialist at the Vincent Pallotti Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, 60% of women at fertility clinics around the world are over 36 years. He says they come to the clinic to increase their chances of conceiving as they are running out of biological time. He says most of the women are fit and healthy. So what is the issue? It’s their eggs, he says. “Age plays a major role in egg quality and the increase in chromosomal abnormalities … as do lifestyle factors, such as smoking, drinking, and being overweight.” Egg quality starts to deteriorate between the ages of 28-30, with a major drop at 40-41. By the age of 43, the live birth rate is less than 7% - and therefore donor eggs are considered when wanting to conceive. Freezing eggs is also a poss...

Today marks a year since the four-day attack on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall where 67 people were killed and many wounded. The attack began on September 21, World Peace Day. The commemorations will include a memorial stone, wreath-laying at a garden in the forest where 67 tree seedlings were planted last year, and a candlelight vigil at Nairobi’s National Museum of Kenya on Monday September 22 after a memorial concert.There will be evenings of reflection from September 21-24. The National Museum is also holding a two-month memorial exhibition called “Our Nairobi: A Westgate Memorial Exhibition” from 15 September to 15 November 2014 (with the official opening on September 22).   It includes video testimonials from survivors, first responders, diplomats, and family members who tell of their experience. Each video (on a computer situated on a stand) which the audience can listen to through headphones, is accompanied by a large black and white photograph of the spe...

A Man Called Ove (2014) began as a blog and developed into a novel. It is about 59-year-old Swedish Ove, a grumpy Saab owner.   He likes things “the same as usual.” He is a man of rules, regulations, and routines. Why don’t other people follow the rules? Why don’t people know how to brew proper coffee any more? Why does The Pregnant One, his neighbour Parvaneh, who’s learning to drive, try to park her Japanese car where she’s not allowed? There’s a sign! Ove has been a grumpy old man since he started junior school. He never gives anyone a compliment. He doesn’t like anything or anyone and finds it easy to comment about everything – always in the negative. He fights the whole world. He fights with hospital personnel and he fights with specialists and chief physicians. He fights with men in white shirts. It’s hard to like someone like Ove. Or is it? No-one can understand why Sonja married him. But Ove is never grumpy when he mentions his wife. Readers know w...

United Nations has released their “Levels and Trends in Child Mortality 2014” report which reveals the child death rate of countries, with statistics to 2013. Global progress has been made in reducing child deaths since 1990, the report indicated (Gulf Today, September 17, 2014). Worldwide the number of deaths of children under the age of five years has declined from 12.7 million in 1990 to 6.3 million in 2013. About 2.8 million babies died globally within the first month of birth, which represents about 44% of all under-five deaths. About half of all under-five deaths occur in five countries (in order from highest deaths): India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and China. India (at 21%) and Nigeria (13%) combined accounted for 34% (a third) of all under-five deaths in the world. Around 66% of neo-natal deaths (babies dying in their first month) occur in 10 countries. The report also found that in 2013 the children under five years died mainly fr...