Day #20: Sugar and Language...
8th April 2020: The news this evening is full of speculation that the 'lock down' may be extended partially or fully by the Government of India and everyone is starting to reconcile to the possibility of another 15 days or more at home. The question arises, "when is it safe to start life as before?" or "is it safe for life to be as before?" or maybe even more precisely, "which aspects of our erstwhile life is safe and need be sustained?"
While discussing the news that unfolded today across the globe this evening in the online broadcast, we stumbled upon this question, "what is the future of sugar?" My ayurvedic doctor had advised that people stay away from sweets during this time, "stop kapha inducing food, they are not good for this season and will cause imbalance." And by the ayurvedic logic, when the body constitution goes into imbalance, then it becomes easy prey for all kinds of illnesses. I also found an allopathic doctor advising people to stay away from sugar in a video that was widely circulated with his own reasoning. World over, data seems to be indicating that people with diabetes have a higher chance of being infected by this virus. And like we know this is much to do with dietary patterns that build immunity. We need to particularly worry because after China, we have the world's largest concentration of diabetes patients.
Many of the fatalities due to this virus have been because of people who already had poor immunity system due to their dietary and life style habits. Much of the dietary habits are to do with the modern obsession with sugar. The amount of sugar that goes into a soft drink or a packaged food is mindless and enough has been written about it for me to not repeat the same here. What is the point of being 'locked down' for health, if all that we do is come out of it and inflict poor health on ourselves with poor dietary habits?
Governments in the last couple of weeks have proved that international treaties, trade commitments, economic interests, etc., can all be secondary if safety of lives of people is at stake. The obsessive promotion and usage of white sugar is one of the biggest factors that has contributed to unsafe lives of millions world over. Will governments extend their current moral position and also ban all those products that are primarily ill-health promoting?
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Several terms in English are being added to many languages world over and it is good to acknowledge our linguistic development during the time of lockdown
--- "social distancing" repeated the Prime Minister many times in each one of his hindi public talks since the pandemic started, and every minister has said it since then, i don't think there is an equivalent expression in any Indian language. Even the term, "hand wash" entered many Indian languages in english though it could have been easier to translate. The other term that have entered Indian languages (and homes) is "sanitizer" which came along with Corona
--- "we need to flatten the curve", the American President kept showing with his hand, flattening the curve in a graph, this has become the global aspiration for governments all over the world - "flattening the curve" sans the current context, this term is a contradiction, if it is flat, you don't call it a curve. But, this has been reported by every head of government.
--- "social distancing" repeated the Prime Minister many times in each one of his hindi public talks since the pandemic started, and every minister has said it since then, i don't think there is an equivalent expression in any Indian language. Even the term, "hand wash" entered many Indian languages in english though it could have been easier to translate. The other term that have entered Indian languages (and homes) is "sanitizer" which came along with Corona
--- "we need to flatten the curve", the American President kept showing with his hand, flattening the curve in a graph, this has become the global aspiration for governments all over the world - "flattening the curve" sans the current context, this term is a contradiction, if it is flat, you don't call it a curve. But, this has been reported by every head of government.
--- The medical terms - PPE, N95 mask, ventilators, hydroxychloroquine, the endless terms that all of us have been exposed to in the past month of unending education that we have all got
--- our own unique contribution to the evolving terms has perhaps been "janata curfew" which maybe defined as citizens voluntary adherence to a curfew with active encouragement and participation by the government
--- our other contribution has been the anthem of Corona that is unique to India, "Corona-go-go-carona", the chanting of our union minister has been reproduced a million times already and should count as a global contribution by India
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Thanks for enthusiastic registration for the my webinar on "Future Institutions" tomorrow - 9th April 2020 8.00p.m. IST. The organizers had to close the registration as it went past 140 participants. But, it will be live streamed in a few platforms, so, I will keep you all posted on the same.
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This blog is available here - https://covid-19-daily-journal.blogspot.com/
Now I also have a daily news digest on FB live every evening at 9.30 p.m. IST here- https://www.facebook.com/sequoiasamanvaya
The impact on the livelihoods in Tamilnadu due to Corona are available as a series of Podcasts here - https://anchor.fm/ramble2020
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Data graph shown above sourced from the web
All graphics in this blog series are designed using Canva
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