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Around The World:
Animals to the rescue of human diseases
“There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your
face”. This observation is attributed to Mark Twain but the real author
is William Bern. Whoever said it the truth of this observation is being
realised in the case of little Indian children, incapacitated or
inarticulate.
A report in the Times of India the other day refers to 7 year old
Promodini an autistic child who has been able to speak her first word
after playing with a dog.
She had been attending several therapy sessions with her
psychoanalyst previously without any improvement. Then she met Bruno, a
Golden Retriever, who offered its paw to her on her first meeting as its
greeting.
That may have set off something in her mind and after playing ball
with Bruno for about ten sessions the therapists were able to make her
speak her first word ‘ball.’
Indian social psychoanalysts who have been working on this problem
have noted that ‘Animals do have the healing touch for those who like
them.
A stroll with a dog in tow can, at times, help patients with
depression to connect back with the big bad world. Be it patients
suffering from cancer or with few emotional skills, pets can help them
get along in life.
Patients for our animal assisted therapy lessons range from 18 month
olds to 96 year olds, says Rohini Fernandez a clinical psychologist who
is among a few pet assisted trainers in therapy.
Therapist Fernandez and Radhika Nair who form the Animal Angels
Foundation are assisted by a band of 20 dogs who are known as ‘therapets’.
UN’s promises for 2008
The year just arrived is a special year for the UN. It has lined up
quite a few subjects ranging from Rockets to Frogs with the Potato given
special mention en passant. To take the potato first the UN has taken it
up on a request made by Peru, in order to highlight its importance “as a
measure to relieve world poverty.”
It’s a very popular food in Sri Lanka and has remained so from the
day it was introduced to Ceylon by the Dutch soon after it came to
Europe and was introduced to us as ‘arthapal’ - meaning ‘ground fruit’
or apple.
Although it first thrived in the Nuwara Eliya District it is a hardy
plant that can be grown even in Colombo. So Peru’s claim that the potato
“produces more nutritious food more quickly in less land, and in harsher
climates than any other major crop” has been seriously taken up by the
Food and Agricultural Organisation of the UN.
But why frogs? readers may ask seeing that the UN is bent on
safeguarding these animals. Well, there are 500 species on the danger
list and they are a kind of barometre measuring the decline of our
environment.
The decimation of the Amazon and other forests in the world has
virtually led to the extinction of the species. Since their food is
based on creepy, crawly things which are harmful to our vegetation,
farmers need their unpaid services.
Besides, there are hundreds of people in the US and other countries
who bring up frogs from tadpoles to toads as domestic pets.
Spaceships or rockets is the other subject catching the attention of
the UN for this year. It is not that space travel is any nearer than it
was. UN intelligence has been pricking up its ears and hearing sounds in
the business quarters signing up people for space travel.
The discovery that the human figure seen on Mars is only a rock might
be a temporary setback to the signing up campaign. Anyway who would want
to be so adventurous as to leave this beautiful planet of ours just to
see how barren the universe is.
This year, however, a task that began in 1997 is to continue the
study of our playful and almost human dolphins is to be carried over
into this year. This year is also known as the Polar Year. Although
there is no specific mention of the kind of work to be done on Polar
bears it is possible that this animal’s habitat is the one to be
studied.
Smoking ban and cafe life
On reading The International Herald Tribune’s account on the smoking
ban imposed on cafe society it looks as if a minor bombshell has been
dropped on a traditional way of living out a Parisian evening. The ban
imposed about a year ago is nation-wide and will extend this year
beginning Jan 1 to bars, hotels, restaurants, night clubs and cafes.
The last is what is agonising to some. For those who spent their
evening in cafes exchanging opinions and drinking wine until dinner time
feel completely lost. As one 65 year old male told the Tribune, “I don’t
know what I’ll do, probably drink quickly and then go home to smoke.” It
is not only the customers who are protesting, there are also the cafe
owners.
They say the whole style of life is in danger of disappearing.
Without cigarettes, says one owner to occupy the customers, smokers will
not be ready to wait a long time for their food and drinks. And what
will happen next says the owner, is that this will impose a new burden
on his cooks and waiters who will have to work faster.
That fast style of service will bring about a typically
un-French-like pattern of cooking and serving, which will break up the
long-established Parisian cafe style - “long dinners with several
bottles of wine and lots of discussion are going to be difficult. The
ambience will be totally different.”
And what is the ambience of the Parisian life-style: “Paris’s
ubiquitous cafes have brimmed with people lingering for hours on end
with cigarettes over coffee or drinks; over platters of cheese or bowls
of onion soup; over newspapers, novels or textbooks; over gossips,
break-ups or political debate.
Sartre and Beauvoir philosophising at the Cafe de Flora with spirals
of cigarette smoke floating above their heads, helped create a smoking
persona that to some extent still exists.”
- The Roving Eye |
