Advanced publicity for The World is Round: A Year of Living Off the Land and Off the Grid, by M. Chowdhury

The heroic and humorous account of one Bengali family’s year long attempt to go without the fruits of the world economy. After stumbling across a LiveEarth brochure at a local recycled-goods pile, the Chowdhury family decide to take a principled stand against the worst excesses of global capitalism – environmental degradation, human rights abuses, unfair trade practices – and devote one year to simplifying their lives and lessening their contribution to these problems. Gone are the basic necessities – no automobiles, no consumer products made from China or the United States. Instead of buying groceries, the Chowdhury’s limit themselves to food grown by themselves or within a 10-mile radius. Instead of purchasing consumer goods, they reuse what they have or recycle discards from a local recycled-goods pile. Laugh along as they try to cope with less in a world of so much!

The World is Round is a enchantingly unconventional memoir which chronicles the trials and tribulations of M. Chowdhury, a subsistence farmer and renowned local storyteller in Patuakhali, Bangladesh, as he chooses to live with his family of 6 on a one-half hectare plot of land! Readers will be as amazed – as the Chowdhury’s surely were – when they learn about all the small things the family would be giving up: from microwaves to M&Ms, from Cadillacs to cashmere sweaters. Come along as they navigate the mysteries of rice cultivation! Snicker as they chase down their own ornery sheep to slaughter! Marvel as they battle monsoon-force winds to repair the roof of their swaying hut! Admire their pluck and fortitude as they reduce their daily caloric intake by half during seasonal flooding! Then rejoice with them as they end their year in self-imposed exile and rejoin the world of the typical Bengali family!

“Timely, funny, and powerful… M. Chowdhury is a model for us all. An eye-opener about how we can re-connect to what’s around us by… do[ing] without [for awhile].”
- Titus Applewhite, author of Cleansing the Colon: A Year without Subtitles

“The Chowdhury family’s exploits put a human face on the desire to do good in the world, despite all the temptations otherwise. This book will make you think about whether you really need that larger capacity dryer.”
- Susan Deitsmeiterschwin, author of Forsaking the ‘Spear’: A Year in Search of the Perfect Mojito

“A story of how one family chose to interconnect their land, the lives, and their desires. …A must-read book.”
- Herman Wellsmight, author of Irony is Dead: The Year after Everything Changed

“If only more people were like [the Chowdhury’s]!”
- J. Ellen Kerlinge, The Dallas Evening Times

The Einstenian Hillbilly Theory of Marriage: It’s all relative.

Fermat’s First Theorem: The one he made in pre-school that showed why bullies are idiots.

The High School Uncertainty Principle: You can never simultaneously tell how fast you should be moving in a relationship or at what position you are currently in.

Central Limit Theorem as Applied To Dancing: In large populations, the drunkest people tend to congregate in the middle of the dance floor.

Law of Large Numbers as Applied to Nerds: Just because that girl will go out on a date with you doesn’t mean you got skills. That’s called luck.

Ohm’s Law as Applied to Relationships: You are currently in a relationship if you are getting a lot of action and not a lot of resistance.

Plank’s Constant: What pirates believe in.

Creationist theory is moot.
Nature chose an alternative route / root.
You’ve seen Darwin’s chart.
You know me by heart–
I’m the white guy up front in a suit.

Unfounded beliefs and defiance,
In obedience more than compliance.
Here’s hoping (in vain?)
That good faith will soon gain
A greater alliance with science.

AGE-OLD QUESTIONS

In various legends and labels,
Lies are the true term for “fables.”
The egg or the hen:
Which was first? Tell me WHEN,
And did navels precede Cain and Abel’s?

The “modern” human is the product of evolution, a natural process that operates on scales ranging from millions, to hundreds-of-thousands, to tens-of-thousands of years. The average individual of today is little changed from the average individual 30,000 years ago. We are literally prehistoric when we are born.

Culture, our ability to pass information, artifacts, and other non-genetic material from one generation to the next, operates on much smaller time scales: millennia, centuries, even decades. The larger cultural landscape consists of religion, language, governments, laws, etc. and many of these change so quickly that they have only been in their present form for hundreds or (in a few cases) thousands of years. It is the blinding speed of culture that has allowed humans to break free of the ecological niche evolution alone would have forced upon them.

One of the subsets of culture is technology, which allows us greater control and understanding of our environment and provides us with new or expanded senses. Technological change occurs on the scale of years to months and is currently outpacing culture at large. The current fad in new technologies is to make these available to a large percentage of the population (literacy, vaccines, video recorders, telephones, etc.) and suddenly many people have the ability to do things for which we have no cultural “rules”.

Sexting is a grand example of the intersection of evolution, culture, and technology. Our prehistoric bodies evolved the desire (possibly need in a normal healthy person) to have sex from puberty on and not just for procreation but for recreation as well [1] (this is why sex is more fun than, say, wearing matching socks). The American sexual culture [2], heavily based on Iron Age religions (which tend to demonize sex, especially for women) and the Victorian era “Body Taboo,” has produced a culture that equates nudity with sex (our laws only barely distinguish between the two). The near instantaneous onset of the cell phone camera represents a technology that allows the “biological human” to do something that the “cultural human” abhors. The best examples come from minors sexting semi-nude photos of themselves to friends and later being charged as child pornographers.

This disjunct between rates of evolution, culture, and technology isn’t new. History shows us that our bodies are very bad at evolving to act the way culture tells us; circumcision and homosexuality being grand examples. But the modern drive to make technology available to the masses means that when human desires run counter to cultural rules (“values”, “morals”, laws, etc.) there will be a larger pressure placed on culture to change. Sexting was first reported in the mid 2000s and by 2009 laws were introduced to allow consensual sexting among minors. Presumably faster technological changes will drive faster and faster cultural changes until, someday, some aspects of our culture will be so futuristic they’ll be prehistoric.

1. See Why is Sex Fun? by Jared Diamond and The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris

2. See Sex, Society and History by Vern L. Bullough

Is it acceptable for mothers to die of preventable causes during pregnancy because they are poor? Sadly, this is the pattern revealed by the United Nations (UN) statistics which show that dying of preventable causes is still a reality for half a million women every year [1]. These women live in the world’s poorest countries and surprisingly, the numbers of preventable maternal deaths in these regions have not improved significantly over the last decade [1,2,3]. But the picture is much different for women in developed nations where maternal deaths are 400 times less frequent [2]. Addressing these inequalities should be a focus of all governments since the consequences of social inequity and increased numbers of orphaned children in any society are grave. Unfortunately, based on the recent UN update on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), universal access to reproductive health is still an elusive target after fifteen years of “commitment” to improving accessibility, and remains totally unreachable for the millions of women that are most in need of care [1].

Maternal health refers to the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth and the period after delivering a child. Pregnancy can be a rewarding experience once adequate healthcare is available, however; pregnancy for many women is associated with suffering and often death. Efforts toward improving maternal health began a long time ago at a conference in Kenya, where attention was drawn to the poor maternal health in many developing countries, and the need for countries to address the high rate of maternal-associated deaths [4,5]. These efforts, arising from the launch of the Safe Motherhood Initiative in 1987, were met with grand support by governments and NGOs, and were somewhat successful. Yet maternal death rates did not decline as anticipated [4]. Efforts toward improving maternal health were strengthened again in 2000 when world leaders of 189 member states of the UN made a commitment, through the development of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), to use stronger efforts to defend the vulnerable. The MDG consist of eight specific, measurable, time-bound goals which should result in a better, more equitable world once achieved [4,5]. There has been significant progress in many of the MDGs but nine years after their generation, and five years prior to the deadline, there has been virtually no progress in the critically important goal improving maternal health.

The grim picture painted in the recent MDG update released in December 2009 points to the existence of inequity that belies the social development and innovation that is so characteristic of this information age. That 536,000 women and girls die as a result of preventable complications during pregnancy, childbirth, or the six weeks following delivery every year is appalling [1]. Half of these deaths (265,000) occur in sub-Saharan Africa and another third (187,000) in Southern Asia, together accounting for 85 % of all maternal deaths [1,2,5]. Incidentally, the main direct causes of death in these regions are described by the UN as “preventable” [1]. More specifically, 34 % of deaths in sub-Saharan Africa result from hemorrhage, with infections, high blood pressure, and prolonged or obstructed labor accounting for the remainder of deaths. Anaemia, which is made worse by the prevalence of malaria, HIV and other conditions, greatly increases the risk of maternal death from haemorrhage [1].

If these deaths are preventable, why then has there not been a decline in the number of maternal deaths in these regions over the past decade? Upon further analysis, the key message being sent by the UN statistics clearly demonstrates that access to reproductive health is a privilege of the rich. That access to reproductive healthcare is directly related to economic status can be seen both between and within countries. This is especially clear when considering the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, or maternal mortality ratio (MMR) between countries. Sub-Saharan Africa for example, suffers from the highest MMR at 920 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, followed by South Asia, with an MMR of 500. This compares with an average MMR of 8 in industrialized countries [3]. More specifically, in Ireland, women have a 1 in 47,600 lifetime risk of dying during pregnancy or from a birth-related cause; while in Niger 1 in 7 women face lifetime risk [1]. With respect to within country disparities, the same pattern is evident [1,3]. In the United States of America (USA), there a link between economic status and racial background that impacts maternal health care access. For example, despite the fact that black women represent only 32 percent of women, they make up 51 percent of women that are less likely to have access to adequate maternal health care services [6]. They are more likely to die in pregnancy, childbirth, and in high-risk pregnancies than the rest of the population.

There is now “intensified” commitment to improving access to reproductive health. But how will the NGOs, governments, policy makers, and health care providers ensure that this problem is given the required political and financial attention that is necessary to reduce maternal mortality? How will they ensure that the failures of the past no longer haunt future progress? First, policy makers must tackle at least three key factors when addressing maternal health in these regions; accessibility of resources, equity, and financial commitment. According to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation, pregnant women should have a minimum of four antenatal visits [1]. These visits provide women with access to important services, such as tetanus vaccinations and screening and treatment for infections, as well as potentially life-saving information on warning signs during pregnancy. The statistics indicate that basic care is still unavailable to many. In Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, more than half of all births still take place without the assistance of trained personnel, demonstrating that this need is unmet [1].

Secondly, global and local leaders, and governments must promote interest in these issues. Improvement of women’s heath is a basic human right, and is absolutely necessary for promoting development. In fact, addressing the issues plaguing pregnant women and their newborns is at the helm of such advancement. Indeed, I would argue that Millennium Development Goal number 5 “Improve maternal health”, should be used as the gauge for measuring overall progress and governments’ commitment to safe, equitable countries with growing economies.

Thirdly, and most importantly, there must be improved and sustained investment in this cause. Since an infant’s risk of dying in his or her first year of life is 60 per cent higher when the mother is under the age of 18 than when the mother is older, educational programs geared to young women can have a significant benefit which may lead to reductions in death [1]. Of utmost importance to improving maternal health in developing countries is high level commitment and sustained funding toward education and family planning. Given that pregnancy early in life contributes to an estimated 70,000 maternal deaths among girls aged 15 to 19; governments in affected countries should commit to family planning and education as the foundation of any successful maternal health program [1]. Interestingly, instead of increasing support in these areas over the past decade, the UN MDG update indicates that there has been diversion of resources from family planning and sex-education, citing funding gaps as the major obstacle accounting for the failure towards progress in this area. Specifically, there has been a greater than 50 percentage reduction in donor assistance for family planning programs per woman aged 15 to 49 between 1996 and 20061. Where the monies are being shifted to is not clear. What is clear is the low concern for women’s health in these societies, and the lack of commitment to improving maternal health.

Targeting these three areas would undoubtedly improve access to reproductive health. Therefore, failure to make progress in all of these areas over a nine year period points to many short-comings, most notably, a lack of political will. This is especially obvious in the Sub Saharan region, where the death toll has remained unchanged over the decades [2]. Granted, many of these countries rely on international aid programs which, when diminished or reneged, result in the closure of relevant programs. Nevertheless, given that most deaths are preventable (over 90%) small measures taken in affected areas are bound to have significant positive effects, which will ultimately lead to a significant decrease in the number of deaths. The lack of political will is also evident internationally, primarily when countries renege on their pledges, or when financial support for maternal programs is absent. This lack of will is at the crux of the battle for improved maternal health. Thus, substantial change will result only when foreign governments and agencies are held accountable and demanded to pay the monies they pledged, and when local governments in affected countries place maternal health at the top of their public health agendas. This will ensure that preventable death is not the outcome for giving life.

There are a few key questions that must be answered before MDG 5 gets off the ground. Firstly, how exactly does political will become strengthened? More importantly, who determines the political will of a government? There are likely many ways to increase political will. But the most remarkable change occurs when issues like universal access to maternal health are considered to be of common interest by “everyday people”. When people are interested they raise their voices, demand accountability, and engage their political leaders, teachers, and press. We must demand vigilance from our press. How often does maternal health appear in the headlines? Yet, every minute of every day, a woman will die because of poor care during or immediately after pregnancy. And for every woman who dies, approximately 20 more suffer injuries, infection and disabilities.

We must also demand vigilance from our educational institutions. What efforts do “world-renowned” institutions make towards addressing such issues? How is the scientific innovation generated at universities translated to influence policy and treatment for women? When relevant drugs are discovered, are they available to the neediest? We live the era of innovation, antibiotics, specific vaccines, pediatric intensive care, biotechnology, and globalization, but these new developments have had very little impact on maternal health, in developing countries. Instead, developed nations have efficiently reduced already low numbers of maternal associated deaths, while the numbers in developing nations remain largely unaltered. How do we disrupt this vicious cycle?

In MDG 5 countries have made commitments to improving maternal health and reduce the global maternal mortality ratio by three quarters between 1990 and 2015. However, very little progress has been made and the maternal mortality ratio declined by only 5% to date. Reaching this goal now requires accelerating progress. Developing countries have many challenges to overcome before their healthcare systems will directly mirror that of developed countries. However, since early pregnancy, insufficient prenatal care, and the unavailability of medicines are three important contributors to death, sustainable intervention on a country-to-country basis must include education, improved access to essential health care and medicines, and development of health care infrastructure. Most importantly, these efforts must be sustained to bear fruit. Science and innovation can improve access to relevant materials but researchers and educators in developed countries and at leading research institutions must commit strongly and entirely to knowledge translation and international development. This will enable policy makers in developing countries to develop more sustainable approaches to improving access to life-saving services. This will also ensure that governments of developing countries maximize their limited resources by focusing on the most efficient medicines and technology. Most significantly, the general public must be stimulated to act on behalf of the vulnerable. Increasing public interest in maternal health may have a strong effect and can ultimately result in faster improvements in reproductive health for all women.

References

1. The United Nations. The Millennium Development Goals Report 2009. Pages 26-32.
Accessed on: 11/12/2009. Last Updated: June 2009
Url: link

2. Lieve Fransen. 2003. The impact of inequality on the health of mothers. Midwifery, 19: (2), 79-81.

3. UNICEF. Child info: Monitoring the Situation of Children and Women.
Accessed on: 28th March, 2010. Last Updated: September 2008
Url: http://www.childinfo.org/maternal_mortality.html

4. Hill K, Thomas K, AbouZahr C, Walker N, Say L, Inoue M, Suzuki E; Maternal Mortality Working Group. 2007. Estimates of maternal mortality worldwide between 1990 and 2005: an assessment of available data. Lancet, 370(9595):1311-9.

5. O’Heir, J. 2004. Pregnancy and Childbirth Care Following Conflict and Displacement: Care for Refugee Women in Low-Resource Settings. Journal of Midwifery Womens Health,
49(4 Supplement 1):14-18.

6. Amnesty International. 2010. Deadly delivery, The Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA: Summary. Accessed on: 28th March, 2010. Last Updated: 12th March, 2010
Url: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/019/2010/en

7. Levine MM, Robins-Browne R. 2009. Vaccines, global health and social equity. Immunol Cell Biol. 87(4):274-8.

People look at me, and all they see is the most powerful set of carnivorous jaws in the animal kingdom. But there’s more to me than that. I’ve also got a big heart, a heart that weighs close to two hundred pounds. And it’s broken.

Caleb dumped me last week. He said that if I want to have someone in my life, I can’t get all territorial about him poaching from the Iguanodon herds down by the river bend. He said I need to figure out what it is I want. He said that being together wasn’t worth the stress, that there was no point in dragging something out that was making both of us unhappy, and that he couldn’t maintain his feeding patterns and our relationship simultaneously. He said it wasn’t anybody’s fault; there is simply insufficient herbivore biomass to keep us together.

In a way, I understand. A warm-blooded carnivore the size of a school bus needs to consume massive amounts of animal protein to preserve its body mass. Nobody appreciates that more than me. I’m forty feet long and weigh nearly eight tons. Maybe Caleb left me because he thinks I’m too fat. Well, that’s his issue, not mine. I’m a healthy girl, and I am comfortable with my body.

At first he seemed like he was different. He put a lot of effort into his mating display, and I was impressed. But, in the end, he turned out just like all the others. I thought he loved me for me, but he was just driven by a primal Darwinian urge to propagate the species. So I’m alone again. You’d think I’d be used to it by now. God, what a bastard.

I tried to talk to my mother about how I’ve been feeling, and she was completely unsympathetic, as usual. She reminded me, of course, that I’m almost thirty. Like I’d forgotten. I try to explain to her that my feeding range can only support one apex predator, but it’s like she doesn’t hear what I’m saying. What does she know anyway? It’s not like Dad stuck around.

She laid her usual guilt trip on me. She said that, despite all she sacrificed on my behalf, I’ll probably end up raising a baby alone just like she did. And she’s probably right, but that outcome is essentially dictated by the structural constraints of the ecosystem. But just try telling that to my mom.

She was all: “I don’t understand why you can’t attract a decent guy.” And maybe she has a point. The antorbital fenestrae in the skull of a male Tyrannosaur are enormous, which indicates a powerful olfactory mechanism. They can smell my pheromones from miles and miles away.

So, attracting them isn’t really the problem. I wiggle my tail, and the boys come running. But, as soon as they’re done with their business, they start sniffing around for the nearest Parasaurolophus carcass, and they lose all interest. It’s like nobody in the late Cretaceous has ever heard of cuddling.

I mean, what’s wrong with these guys. Don’t they care at all about my needs? I’m beginning to get into it, and he’s already finished and ready to go off scavenging carrion. I’m just frustrated. And it’s not like I can do anything about it at that point; I can’t even reach my cloacal vent with these tiny vestigial arms.

(Two pieces written on April 26th, 2010. Everyone in the class had a chance to explore the microbial world with microscopes.)

It was a rainy day at the marsh and a new difflugia microbe just formed. It looked like a piece of candy – the sound it made was a “crunch” and it smelled very bitter and dusty. Its goal was to build a big strong shell.

The marsh it lived in was very muddy so it didn’t really have room to work on its shell. All of a sudden, it sees a rock floating by. So it jumps on it! Finally, it has time to work on its shell. Then the rock starts to shake: it’s a water beetle and it’s really hungry!

The difflugia got away with three legs not four. It is happy that it managed to escape alive. From behind a bush, a frog jumps out and scoops it by its massive tongue. While being digested, the difflugia knows it’s because of karma. It didn’t want to work hard in its natural environment and it tried to make it easy by climbing onto a rock and then ended up being eaten by a frog.

~ Andrew Hutanu

Holly Hydrodictyon was the nicest microbe who ever lived. Her smile was brighter than her body, which looked like a bright blue tube net. The only goal Holly had was to make friends with Victoria Vorticella, the meanest microbe EVER!

All of Holly’s friends told her to give up, but Holly refused to stop trying to make friends with Victoria. Holly tried giving Victoria gifts and being super nice but that just made Victoria more snobby!

Finally, Holly tried to treat Victoria the way that she had been treating them (all the microbes), and surprisingly, it worked! Victoria “the mean” became Victoria “the nice!”

Holly was very happy. Victoria was her friend and she accomplished her goal. She even learned a lesson in there too. I know what it is, do you?

~ Emma Sové