Dr Rajiv Desai
An Educational Blog
Economic Development vis-à-vis Environment:
Economic Development vis-à-vis Environment: _ _ Prologue: “When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten, and the last stream poisoned, you will realize that you cannot eat money,” Native American saying. A quote by Richard Wilkinson describes economic development as a development of more intensive ways to exploit the natural environment. We hurt the environment in more ways than you could possibly imagine. Misguided construction, irrigation and mining can deface the natural landscape and disrupt important ecological processes. Aggressive fishing and hunting can deplete entire stocks of species. Human migration can introduce alien competitors to native food chains. Greed can lead to catastrophic accidents and laziness to environmentally destructive practices. Will our children and grandchildren live in a better world, or will economic and social conditions decline? Every culture has worried over this question—often for good reason. One would think that modern man, living amid ever-rising material comforts […]
OBESITY
OBESITY: _ _ Prologue: It only needs a daily excess of energy of 100 kilocalories (the equivalent of a small chocolate bar) to lead to an increase of around 5Kg of fat over 12 months or 50 Kg over 10 years. For thousands of years obesity was rarely seen. Obesity is a modern problem – statistics for it did not even exist 50 years ago. The increase of convenience foods, labor-saving devices, motorized transport and more sedentary jobs means people are getting fatter. It was not until the 20th century that it became common, so much so that in 1997 the World Health Organization (WHO) formally recognized obesity as a global epidemic. The WHO describes the “escalating global epidemic” of obesity as “one of today’s most blatantly visible — yet most neglected — public health problems”. Obesity is a bigger health crisis globally than hunger, and the leading cause of […]
GREED
_ GREED: _ ____ Prologue: Some years ago, they asked convicted bank robber Willie Sutton why he robbed banks. He answered simply, “Because that is where the money is!” I believe that in all too many cases; if you examined the motivation of many of the politicians for seeking public office, the answer might well be: “Because that is where the money is!” The IPL betting and spot-fixing scandal has put India’s cricket establishment in the dock and left fans wondering whether the sport will ever regain its lost image as a gentleman’s game. Many international cricketers have gone to jail for match/spot fixing and anything on cricket field can be orchestrated by bookies for whom the smell of money and more & more money is more fragrant than all the legendary scents. Robert and Edward Skidelsky, in their book, ‘How much is enough?’ hold the view that wealth is […]
TERRORISM
TERRORISM: _ The image above shows victim of terrorism. _ Prologue: The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of some people who are evil, but because of good people who don’t do anything about evil people. In human history, terrorism is widely recognized as the world’s most famous enemy of mankind. As history itself will admit that terrorism is annihilation with far-reaching and destructive effects, it is also the cruelest of crimes against humanity. Its remains have turned neighbors into enemies and have made our societies and the whole world unsafe for living. Its aims and applications are global and uncompromising. Neither terrorism nor perpetrators are new. Even though it has been used since the beginning of recorded time, not history itself can keep, with precision, the number of lives and properties lost to terrorism. Terrorism has been most succinctly defined as “the intentional use of, or […]
ALLERGY
ALLERGY: ______ ______ Prologue: Medical representatives of pharmaceutical industry frequently visit doctors to promote their products and shower doctors with drug samples, gifts and tours. One medical representative gifted me a perfume to promote his new product. I do not use perfumes. However, human mind is curious and when a perfume was given to me as a gift, I thought why not use it. Two weeks after using perfume, I developed itching skin rash over my body known as ‘Urticaria’ and dermatologist diagnosed it as allergy to perfume. The priciest perfumes and skin care products can cause allergic reactions because of the chemicals that give them their scent. In one fragrance, there may be as many as 26 allergens. The figure above shows urticarial skin rash in another patient. Allergy is not a disease but a mechanism which may play a role in a number of disorders. You can be allergic to anything […]
