Desicritics Author: in search of sanity

Stale Wine With Mouldy Cheese - The 'French' Experience

in search of sanity — Sun, 8 Jun 2008 00:49:33 EDT

Sinead, my friend from work, gushes about the French. They have such great taste in everything, their fashion sense is superior, their food is superior, their culture is better, their architecture awesome. In fact they are better at every conceivable thing you happen to mention. As I was up to my eyeballs in veneration for the French, we decided to take a weekend break there finally.

The French embassy in Edinburgh is about an hour and a half’s drive away. After a couple of days of researching, we found we needed – Originals and copies of our passports, resident visas, application form, employment confirmation, bank statements for three months, payslips for three months, return flight booking, hotel booking, travel insurance, marriage certificate, passport size photos where your face was no more than 30mm etc etc…You get the gist - taking into account both our papers, this was a tree worth of paperwork!

Looking at the Embassy website, it seemed they were open 2 hours five days a week, so after juggling a few things at work, we managed to get away precisely in between those hours.

On sound advice, we actually arrived there an hour and a half before opening time and found a queue of people already assembled.

Anyway, a gentleman in a pink shirt came out and gruffly demanded everybody’s passport. So far so good. He then instructed the guard on the door to make sure the elderly gentleman in the front, who at this point looked decidedly unsure of what was being said in strange accents, ‘stayed behind the line’. I should have known. If a man does not have the decency to make a polite request to an older man, and instead chooses to flex his muscles, his sensibility and intelligence is definitely in question, as far as I am concerned.

Anyway, we went in. Another gentleman checked our papers, asked us if this was the first time we’d come to apply, and then at the very next paper, nodded his head in disapproval. ‘This should be on a covering letter’, he said, pointing to my job contract. ‘But your website said to bring proof of employment and this is standard proof of employment I’ve always used, for every other country’s visa’ – this is me, thinking my smooth, cultivated voice always works. Not here – ‘you need a covering letter.’ End of conversation. The moment I tried to explain further why he was making such a big mistake, and why my document with the official seal and full contract of employment, was in fact more authentic than what he was asking for, pink shirt appeared again. Now, he said, ‘you don’t call the shots here, I do. So, you have to leave’. ‘But you should at least look at what I have’ – me again, voice neither suave nor cultured this time. ‘Okay’ – he glances at my document for one and a half nanoseconds and drops it with a flourish – ‘I can’t accept this, now you have to go’. The next time I try to open my mouth, the guard is called for. The poor chap, looking frankly embarrassed and flustered , looks from me to the pink shirted demigod.

On the way home, the conversation in the car is cryptic. I’m still seething and raging while hubby, ever the shining beacon for the dejected soul, takes a more pragmatic view. ‘I’ve been told by friends, nobody gets a visa the first time from the French Embassy…one of the guys in that queue was there for the fourth time.’ Does that make this episode acceptable? I can’t understand how that man could be so rude? Afterall, we were there for a tourist visa, weren’t we? France's economy thrives on tourism, doesn’t it?

‘Hmm. Did you look around you? Every person in that queue was from a so called ‘third world’ country. European Union citizens don’t need a visa to travel to France. The embassy staff are used to being arrogant and behaving badly.’ He recounts more stories from friends/colleagues who’ve been similarly mistreated. People forced to travel umpteen times to the Embassy from distant cities and towns after applications being rejected on flimsy premises. Very rarely does one get a visa first time. So, it’s the fact that I was born in the wrong post code, a la god man, that I have to be treated in a certain manner?

We both rushed back to our respective workplaces. But something at the back of my mind kept nagging. Does my Indian passport make it easier for people to be rude to me? Is an assumption (right or wrong) of a person’s respectability on the basis of his/her nationality a ‘done’ thing?

It’s a wider issue. People, (usually uninformed empty-headed morons) taking for granted their superiority over anyone from the ‘non developed’ world.

I’m immensely proud of my Indian heritage, always have been. I’ve always considered myself fortunate for being born in a land which gives me deep seated roots, anchors me, at the same time instilling in me a strong sense of awareness and jest to achieve whatever the world has to offer.

What do you do though with snotty nosed bureaucratic officials who do not deign to talk in the first place, assuming you have nothing useful to say?

The delightful aroma of fine French wine has certainly turned acrid for me. While I figure how and where to complain about the man’s obnoxious behaviour, my husband has obviously moved on and is in the process of organising a ‘custom made’ letter to the French Embassy. Having considered dropping the whole plan, I have conceded we need to go, more in order not to waste the hundreds of pounds already spent on hotel and flight bookings….But this does leave a bad taste in the mouth.

Movie Review: Sex And The City

in search of sanity — Sat, 31 May 2008 12:02:35 EDT

Sex And The City, the movie that follows that cult TV series which brought the lives of four New York career women into our living rooms and also shaped up the attitudes, lifestyle and relationships of hundreds of working women across the globe is here.

Somehow the rest of the world has moved on in the meantime and it fails to add anything substantial to the previous plethora of ideas and issues raised. The chief message emanating from this movie is that it IS possible to get married wearing a dress ‘made by nobody’ and also without a bird perched on your head!

The ‘girls’ go through a series of problems. Miranda has to deal with that ‘single isolated act of indiscretion’ on the part of her husband and refuses to forgive him. Although given the fact that he was treated like an unwanted Christmas present poodle, that you cuddled maybe once in a while but didn’t care enough to spend time with or bond with, the act actually seems like vindication for him and totally fails to bring out any sympathy for the ‘wronged wife’.

Samantha finds she cant get enough sex from her toy boy anymore, as he is busy trying to shape his career. Just to get this in to perspective, this is the same man from the TV series who sticks by her through her chemotherapy months. So, he obviously has to get booted off now. Somehow the same mantra of ‘live for yourself’ that came across as fresh and novel in the TV series, that asked women to put themselves first and enjoy life to the fullest without waiting for a man to make their life worthwhile seems jaded and overused here.

Obviously a lot of cocktails flow under the Brooklyn bridge and hundreds of ridiculously expensive shoes, bags and dresses later, each one comes to terms with the issue in her life. Carrie realizes that a few tonnes of satin and silk fluffed up round your ankles do not guarantee a bloke.

One of the most annoying things about the movie for me was the attempt to make light of anti-fur protests and actually try and portray them in a comic way. The upshot of that scene where Samantha gets brightly coloured fluid splashed onto her colossal fur coat seems to be to be ‘fashion triumphs’. Really? Surely there has to be more to life beyond dresses, shoes and a succession of one night stands in a row.

I may be clueless to the life of high glitterati in New York, but to imagine that every freelance columnist writing about her life, potters around the streets of NY in Versace frocks and Manolo blahniks, is stretching the imagination a bit. And again, which career woman, trying to earn a salary to afford this lifestyle, sashays round in an off shoulder dress with an enormous daisy growing out of it? Miranda’s trouser suits and slightly severe skirts are far more realistic. I doubt if very many independent career oriented women will identify with the ethos of the movie.

Good way to spend two hours though, as long as you do not pitch your hopes too high. There are the inevitable light-hearted conversations, funny moments and attempts to scandalize that some of us may enjoy. Its a colourful movie with potential to make up an evening if its relaxation with nothing too taxing for the brain that you are after.

UK Indian Couple Abandon IVF Twins - "The Wrong Sex"

in search of sanity — Thu, 29 May 2008 15:18:00 EDT

For some time now, I have been in the habit of skimming through the online UK newspapers along with my bowl of muesli every morning, looking for either the latest on India’s economic triumphs in the world arena or stories of achievements in education, science, technology and the likes. Nothing like the ‘feel good’ factor to kick start your endorphins before work. This morning’s version failed to lift my spirits.

This is the story of an Indian Couple living in Birmingham who abandoned their newly born twins at a UK hospital as they were the ‘wrong sex.’ Apparently the couple wanted a son to carry their name forward and when they discovered that they had in fact just had two daughters, they decided to give them up. Even more poignant is the fact that they had Infertility treatment in India to conceive these babies and rather bizarrely, the couple are 59 and 72 years of age. [Ed: The hospital denies these reports and that any babies were abandoned]

While we are all basking in the glory of the Indian Diaspora’s various achievements over the past few years, this headline comes as a rude shock and almost jolts you out of your euphoric state. Something doesn’t quite make sense. While I’d be naïve to assume that the recent spate of sparkly achievements of the Indian Economy has completely wiped off years of prejudice and social stigmas, it is still slightly discomfiting to find that a well educated middle class couple from Birmingham will be involved in such a heinous act.

There are a few other issues here that merit discussion. Its painful to hear about the lax and slightly callous attitude in the private health sector in India where this couple was allegedly given infertility treatment. Aside from the fact that the lady (59 yrs old) would be deemed high risk for having any such intervention performed in several other countries, it seems no attention was paid to the potential for sex selection in this case. Any couple wishing infertility treatment in India or any other country should be aware that sex selection, except in the case of certain genetically inherited disorders which are specific to the male foetus, is illegal. Thorough counselling to adjudge the suitability for parenthood should accompany any treatment, which seems to have been completely missed. Its not just ethically and morally wrong to provide IVF treatment (which seems to be the case) where the couple have even the slightest chance of maltreating or not taking proper care of the child, it borders on the criminal.

There is need for widespread debate into why this treatment was provided to this couple despite several reasons not to. The ethics of having an expensive treatment for which there is considerable waiting time and which a lot of deserving couples are denied everyday due to one reason or another, only to abandon the babies conceived as a result of it, is shameful in itself.

Beauty And The Beast Within - The Ugly Truth of Cosmetic Surgery

in search of sanity — Wed, 7 May 2008 01:31:37 EDT

In my parents day and age, the chief worries in life were job security, having a home of your own, and good education for your children. Fast forward 30 years on and I have a neighbour whose only worry in life is those two extra lines on her face and the secretary at my workplace has just booked herself in to have a nose job in a bid to enhance her self-esteem.

According to latest figures, the total UK cosmetic surgery industry was worth an estimated £528.9m, showing a 53% rise in 2006 alone. On average, British women spend anywhere between £5,000 to £10,000 on cosmetic surgery/ non-surgical procedures yearly.

The cosmetic surgery market is being driven by an astonishing speed of technological advancements, particularly in non-surgical procedures. Combined treatments involving the use of a number of different types of non-surgical treatment — laser, injectables and peels, as well as the use of cosmeceuticals — is an increasing feature of the market. In terms of surgical procedures, facial surgery is now offered with minimally invasive techniques, encouraging a trend of "lunch-time lifts" where the woman can often be back at work shortly after a fairly major procedure!

While I fully appreciate that cosmetic surgery in certain situations, especially with victims of accidents and disfigurement, is not only desirable but also essential, it’s the "worried well" section of our population that seems to be the predominant user. In other words, there is nothing wrong with these women.

Men, too, get cosmetic surgery. In 2005 about 11% of all procedures were performed on men.

There is a mad rush to get the latest tummy tuck, the plumpest lips and the biggest bust around. It's getting difficult day by day to find a person who isn’t planning or hasn’t already had some form of cosmetic makeover done. It’s as if self-esteem was just discovered yesterday, because without cosmetic surgery you have no personality, no presence and nobody loves you.

If you are 50, then you have to look 20 and if you happen to be 20, then you have to get the perfectly shaped bottom. Your glass is always half empty.

Poor Narcissus was just kidding himself, wasn’t he? He had no idea what being beauty conscious meant, he was quite content to just stare at his spectacularly imperfect face and had no hope of finding the dashing, dynamic surgeon with the magical touch to lift him out of his ‘meaningless’ existence.

In an ideal world, people would accept themselves as they are, accept that flaws can be attractive, and growing old is natural and not necessarily bad.

I am not deluded enough to think that looks would suddenly cease to be important to people one fine day. Caring about how you look is an inherent human instinct that has to find the right way of expression. But it's not too much to expect that as intelligent, sensible human beings we’d find better ways of feeling good about ourselves rather than changing external appearances to the point of destruction.

I am not even going to go down the route of suggesting that people use these megabucks they’ve saved up for cosmetic surgery to help some of their less-privileged earthlings, but it may just solve the purpose, you know. It may just make you feel as good if not better about yourself and there is just a chance that this feeling will last slightly longer than it takes an artificial tan to wear off.

A cosmetic surgeon in Florida has even gone on to publish <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/id/132240">a picture guide</A> to help young kids understand the exact process involved in making their mummies beautiful. For after all, as a kid aged five or six, that is your biggest concern in life – having a mummy with a jelly belly or a crooked nose would just be a catastrophe!

As an amused and at times frankly miffed bystander to this trend, I’ve struggled to explain this fixation with looks that is now part of our everyday life.

Aside from the fact that it costs the earth, it's also totally useless if it's friends or love you’re after. A cosmetic makeover will not win you friends, or happiness, only dig a huge hole in your pocket. While looking good has been important since time immemorial, the recent trend where it supercedes all else in life is decidedly unhealthy. In some households, a substantial chunk of the family income is now spent on beauty makeovers.

Alarmingly, big corporate sharks have jumped onto the bandwagon and are offering easier access to borrowing for this purpose!

The amount of column space dedicated in women’s magazines to discussion of which celebrity has cellulite and which other one has piled on a few millimeters on their abdomen, is another story altogether.

Besides, before luring a 30-something, mother of two towards the operation table, how many of these clinics actually care to fully explain the implications? The ugly truth behind these panacea procedures is that if anything goes wrong, you run the risk of being horribly disfigured and in the worst-case scenario, die from sepsis or anesthetic complications. Cases have been reported but they are few and far between to have made any significant impression on the minds of would be wannabes.

It's all just another example of how too much of a good thing can actually be a bad thing. The quest for happiness and success has many different connotations. Some find happiness altering their bodies, some find it in the smile of another human being. And the endless quest for beauty does get very ugly sometimes.

The Greatest Nation On Earth Goes To The Polls

in search of sanity — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:23:25 EDT

For any of us who have been following the US primaries, the circus is becoming a little unbearable.

I guess it’s the extreme gullibility and ignorance combined with dangerous arrogance and short sightedness on the part of the American electorate that never ceases to surprise me. Or at least the interpretation of the American electorate in exactly these terms by the people who seek to govern them!

Yes, I’ve had to pinch myself several times to make sure I’m not just in an extremely kitschy and crass TV drama where the director has now lost the plot. So, a serious discussion is launched over the similarity of one of the candidates’ names to a well known terrorist. Pure pain for anybody who still believes that these elections are about selecting the candidate with the best credentials to rule this vast country. I think the only other time I was confronted with such a stupid idea as this was while trying to garner support of my classmates for class prefect in primary school, obviously I dismissed it as too kiddish!

America’s hegemony over the world ensures that people all over the world are affected by who sits in the oval office and delivers earth shattering sermons from the sterile security of the white house. So, is it then, too much to hope that a nation that controls one third of the world’s wealth and presides over which nationality should be wiped off the face of the earth next, should have a mature electorate, that’s the backbone of any functioning democracy? Its sickening to see starkly cynical and exploitative games and political nitpicking by the Clinton camp repeatedly in the quest for power.

The recent Pennsylvania episode where Barack Obama almost had his head bitten off for saying, what to me or any other human being with an ounce of grey matter inside his skull, appears to be honest and forthright opinion of a certain segment of the American socio-political fabric, only demonstrates that the average US voter certainly hasn’t lost appetite for utterly demeaning, patronizing and cliched bullshit that Senator Clinton has been so religiously dishing out.

Days later, the Obama/Clinton debate happens, with a former Clinton aide as moderator, and Obama gets questioned for not wearing a badge to show his patriotism. Utterly worrying, if this is the level of political savvy that the American voter will take to this election. Yes dear, it IS possible to be patriotic to your country without carrying a banner saying ‘I love America and the American people that live in America’…. as I’m sure the honourable Republican candidate will soon be seen doing.

A country deserves the Government it gets. A democratic setup ensures people exercise choice in who formulates policies that affect their day to day life. But this concept is for the ideal world......where people actually know what they want. In the present era where politicos hire the most cunning and unscrupulous brains in the business to scour every word of every sentence that comes out of their opponents mouth and then twist it in a hundred and twenty different ways to mislead the general public, choice seems to have vanished from the scene. False rhetoric swinging elections is the order of the day. So, Hillary Cliton hinting that she absolutely adores the working class 'common' white man, has people drooling over her deep understanding of the grassroot level problems in America, such as, ahem, the necessity of owning guns and hunting down animals, I suppose. Hmmm, surely all of us should be compassionate about this.

Call me biased, but Madame Clinton's phoney smile has started to get on my nerves of late. Despite best efforts to shake this off, I keep getting transported to the childhood tale of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ who gets swallowed by the sweet talking wolf. Maybe it’s the wolfish smile, maybe the ability to change colour faster than you or me can blink. Only someone as determined to usurp power as Hillary Clinton, can get away by saying ‘screw em’ to the same working class white southerners (Benjamin Barber: The Truth of Power: Intellectual Affairs in the Clinton White House) that she now runs to hug in the streets.

I would like to think that people of this once great nation would have the insight to see through silly games and pure political gambits. I would like to think that people have had enough of a mentally stunted individual in power to try and put in a smarter version of Bush in the White House. For, mercifully GWB happened to be stupid - Mrs Clinton is anything but.

Of Lilliputians and the Brain Dead

in search of sanity — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:10:30 EDT

I still remember the story as told by Jonathan Swift….Gulliver’s travels…part of my school curriculum in class 4, or was it 5? I remember it not because I found it inspirational, hugely entertaining, or a tremendous work of satirical writing……the brain of a nine year old is not mature enough to comprehend any of these. But I remember it because my nine year old brain had perceived it to be utterly atrocious…..how can someone be so shockingly ignorant as to kill for as inane an issue as which side would you break your egg from and indeed give rise to civil strife and social unrest on this issue? Little did I realise that not only is this atrocious behaviour perfectly feasible but I actually live in a society that may have been picked out of Gulliver’s travels - that people actually kill for a lot less, that the divides actually are founded on a far more flimsy ground than how to shell an egg…..

As a teenager I learned to be suspicious of one religious group, to distance myself from a particular community, not because we ever had such a discussion at home but because as soon as I stepped out of home I looked into the eyes of diffidence, distrust and difference. The media would be rife with talk of religious riots breaking out in one place or members of one caste stoning to death someone from another caste. And it didn’t matter that I still did not understand how any issue, or difference of opinion, or a difference in lifestyle could ever overtake the sanctity of life. My impressionable brain had to learn to quickly adjust to the information being fed in. This was almost always viewpoints of someone on television talking too loudly or in the newspapers, pouring vitriolic about how one particular section of society had been victimised. I still meant to ask – what about the other side?….are they as bitter and angry about their loss as you are about yours’? Are they grieving for the dead too? Are they homeless and abandoned too?

But obviously the world is governed by men who do not think these questions are Important. Whats important at that time is to flame the fires of religious hatred, and work people’s emotions to your advantage…..has happened for centuries..still continues to happen and will keep happening until we can stand up and say we’ve had enough. Naïve, simple minded men have always been a pawn in the game for power hungry, greedy politicians who cant be bothered about the consequences of their dangerous actions.

Once any two groups of people start to fight, to kill and maime men, women and children from the opposite side there is often no going back. We’ve seen generations of people trapped in the quagmire of hatred and bitterness. Often, the initial reason for the strife completely forgotten. Because hatred begets hatred. It’s a vicious cycle.

I've always believed there are only two kinds of people in this world- good and bad. There are good people amongst the Muslims, good people amongst the Jews, the Christians, the Hindus, the whites, the blacks, the ‘browns’, the rich and the poor. The rest are all artificial divides - nothing that cannot be surmounted with effort and will. My best friend will be someone I can share thoughts and experiences with, have a rapport with, share common ground with. He/she doesn’t have to go to the same place of worship as me, eat the same kind of food or even speak the same language that I do.

Based on the premise that all men (and women!) have the same origin - be it Adam and Eve or be it Manu. Is it not beyond ridiculous that we’ve taken to killing each other over petty differences. And I’m not being blasé in calling these differences petty. If you look at the history of mankind, all war has been perpetrated to gain dominance over that other man that does not look like you, does not dress like you and prays to a different god.

A bit like, you don’t shell your egg like me - so I must kill you, isn’t it?

So there are 6 inch men that fight over trivia and then there are the ones amongst us with wood between our ears who've resisted the voice of reason for so long, its now second nature.

Corporate Killings : How Selling Poison To The Naive And Gullible Goes Under The Garb Of Freedom Of Choice

in search of sanity — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 00:01:57 EDT

‘Your dog mess - you bin it." We have all come across this sign posted at public places. For a society that wrinkles its nose in collective disgust at something as innocuous as dog turds adorning its streets, are we not supra tolerant towards another more vicious aggression on our senses and sensibilities? Dog turds might be un- aesthetic but they don’t give you cancer!

The argument is that every individual has a right to decide what is best for him/her. And so if I stare at the 17 yr old blowing smoke into my face at the bus stop, she stares doubly hard at me...but honey, your freedom ends where my nose begins. You are welcome to your noxious fumes but you have no right to pollute the air I breathe.

Second hand smoke is a toxic cocktail consisting of poisons and carcinogens. There are over 4000 chemical compounds in second hand smoke; 200 of which are known to be poisonous, and upwards of 60 have been identified as carcinogens. When a cigarette is smoked, about half of the smoke is inhaled / exhaled by the smoker and the other half floats around in the air, called side stream smoke. It is this side stream smoke that almost all of us inhale on a daily basis, through no choice of ours. Where is my ‘freedom of choice’ in all this?

My pet hate is seeing that 20 something, clad in torn low slung jeans or the most micro of minis, pushing a pram along the walkway, trying to balance a can of coke and a cigarette in her other hand while her ‘better’ half, 20 chains round his emaciated neck, utters expletives all the way.

Whether it should be illegal for idiots to have children is debatable, but dare I ask where is the ‘freedom of choice’ for this toddler? The trail of ill health for him/her begins even before birth as second hand smoke causes:

Low birthweight for gestational age. So chances are this little baby’s fate was sealed long before he gulped his first lungful of oxygen. He’s doomed to a life of low physical and mental aptitude, even if he escapes parental influence and does not end up a smoker himself.
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)- children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy have an increased risk of SIDS.
The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) estimates that passive smoking is responsible for between 150,000 and 300,000 of infections in children under 18 months annually
Asthma - According to the EPA, between 200,000 and 1,000,000 kids with asthma have their condition worsened by secondhand smoke every year. Also, passive smoking may also be responsible for thousands of new cases of asthma every year
Chronic respiratory symptoms such as cough and wheezing may be attributed to secondhand smoke.
Children who breathe in secondhand smoke are more likely to suffer from dental cavities, eye and nose irritation, and irritability
Middle ear infections - exposure to ETS causes buildup of fluid in the middle ear, resulting in 700,000 to 1.6 million physician office visits yearly

In adults, Cigarette smoke is linked directly or indirectly to Lung Cancer, Bladder Cancer, Cervical Cancer and Breast Cancer.

Its difficult to comprehend, how mass genocide of this sort has become not just permissible but at different times, fashion statement, trendy, sign of intellectualism etc. The mega zillion cigarettte industry has for decades fed lies to the eaily impressionable public at large. Governments elected by the people have of course looked out for their own vested interests.

I’d like to make a suggestion....just for the time being while we are still debating the feasibility of a complete ban on smoking, why not get smokers to ‘bin their own mess’ as it were. Every smoker in my opinion should take around a bag to exhale in, to absorb smoke. Of course we'll have to come up with a suitable contraption but that's a thought for the world's enterprising lot.

In fact, why not get the multi-million dollar cigarette industry to ‘cough up’ a few millions towards this end?

The Ethics, Morality And Politics Of Obesity

in search of sanity — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 10:56:35 EDT

As I stood by looking at this 190 kilo woman who'd come to give birth, I was filled not just with a sense of dread, obviously because she’d be at a high risk of several complications during her labour and delivery, but also a deep sense of haunting poignancy.

As a medical student in India at one of the large Government hospitals, I’d seen these emaciated, starved, malnourished adults and children who’d come in suffering from the effects of malnutrition. They had no means to feed themselves and their families better.

This woman had a similar problem, only one of plenty rather than scarcity. She’d stuffed herself with too much food over the years and was basically as unhealthy as someone suffering from undernutrition. The dictionary definition of a malnourished person is one who is “weak and in bad health because of a lack of food or because of a lack of the types of food necessary for good health”. By this token, about a quarter of the men and just under a fifth of the women in the UK are malnourished as these people are suffering from obesity. Indeed obesity rates in the UK are thought to have tripled since the early 80’s.

This is now an epidemic. The burden on the health services is immense as these people are at increased risk of arthritis, heart disease, diabetes, strokes and certain cancers. The implications in terms of resource allocation and budgeting of the health care facilities can only be imagined. More concerning perhaps is the fact that this has percolated to the younger generation and indeed according to current statistics, more than a third of 12 year olds are overweight in Scotland alone. Furthermore, twenty percent of three and a half year olds are overweight and about nine percent are frankly obese!

It is a sad irony and a true paradox of modern times that in another corner of this world, millions struggle to find two square meals a day. Children spend most of their childhood in the struggle to survive. Not all do. About 25,000 people worldwide die every day of hunger or hunger related causes. This is one person every three and a half seconds. (United Nations figures). Unfortunately it is children and minors that bear the brunt of horrendous poverty as they are the ones maximally exposed to its ill effects and are also more likely to succumb in the battle for survival.

But then everything I’ve said here is part of daily newspaper headlines. There is this mammoth army of nameless, faceless adults and children in some obsolete corner of the world, that we are all aware of, but choose to ignore. For, like everything else in the newspapers, it is but another news item, struggling for print space with that all important item about Paris Hilton’s jail trauma.

In some way we are all suffering from ‘sympathy fatigue’ - from an emotional numbness arising from far too many issues vying for attention. Bob Geldof, who has tirelessly crusaded to alleviate poverty in Africa through the Band Aid and Live 8 fundraising concerts, recently reacted to the apathy faced by his campaign “I don't know how to describe 5 million starving children any more”

This is the stark truth of our times.