By Zubeida Mustafa
A 
YOUNG mother recounted to me her harrowing experience of her daughter’s schooling in Lahore. The child was asked by her teacher to report on her classmates who spoke a language other than English in school.
When I heard this I was saddened but not shocked. Many parents have had a similar experience. Worse still, many believe that this is the only way to learn English. Continue reading Why English?
World Diabetes Day, 14 November, is a day to create awareness on diabetes, a metabolic disorder with a fast rising incidence. The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and World Health Organization launched the WDD in 1991. This date was selected to pay homage to the co-discoverer of Insulin, Dr Frederick Banting whose birthday fell on that day. Every year a new theme is selected for the WDD. Most countries of the world observe the day by organizing programmes participated by the general public, health care providers and policy makers. It is a day to raise awareness among all, old and young to fight against the disorder.
By Dr Fatema Jawad
Mr X’s eyes have been giving him trouble of late. He goes to the doctor. After an examination and some laboratory tests he is informed that he has diabetes. The news comes as a shock to him.
But not to his doctor. It is now known that diabetes is a fast growing metabolic disorder. There are 415 million adults with diabetes worldwide. Simply put, 10.7 percent of the global adult population is living with it. IDF has estimated that by the year 2040 this figure will rise to 642 million or 11.2 percent.. This means one in ten adults has diabetes. About 80 percent of the people with diabetes live in the middle and low income countries and a majority are between 40 and 59 years of age, the most productive years of life. (International Diabetes Federation Diabetes Atlas, 2015) Continue reading Eyes on diabetes
By Rifaat Hamid Ghani
Pakistan’s democracy is an evolutionary process in which representative legislation derived from the popular electoral mandate moves in the direction of better governance. The electorate and the elected learn politically and self-correct. The mandates conferred in 2008 and 2013 may be viewed in that light: Government at the federal centre changed hands each time, and provincial mandates mutated. Tahirul Qadri’s PAT established an irrelevance within the electoral process; while Imran Khan’s PTI registered a significant though scattered national rise, and formed the government in KP. Given the PPP’s decline, Imran’s party emerged as a vibrant third force in the national parliamentary configuration. But the overall electoral outcome left Punjab in the grip of the PML(N) – where Imran tirelessly alleges massive rigging – and denied the PTI a high profile in urban Sindh.
Setting aside what the party may or may not have established about its ability to govern by the standards it demands in others; what example has its oppositional mode offered in terms of federal politics – which — as Pakistan is a federal republic – has acute relevance for each one of its citizens. Continue reading Remember remember ? November
By Zubeida Mustafa
KARACHI has been abundantly endowed with one of nature’s riches — wind. Located on the Arabian Sea coast, the city cannot complain of being stifled by desultory stillness. Before the city’s horizon changed drastically with the emergence of high-rise buildings, Karachiites had always enjoyed the luxury of cool breezes during summer evenings. The breeze is still there, but has been trapped by concrete and steel structures. Now the breeze has been left only in poetic idiom to give us solace. Faiz Ahmed Faiz captured its beauty in this line, “Jaise seheraon mein haule se chale baad-i-naseem…” (Like the morning breeze in the desert) Continue reading Miracle of the wind
TEN days ago I started feeling a peculiar pain in the scapular region of my back. It was localised at one point and was constant. It didn’t seem to be the routine muscular pain that I get after vigorous home chores. I took an analgesic but it didn’t go away. I was perplexed as to what it could be.
The mystery was solved after four days when some papular rashes appeared in a line at the same site. I made my diagnosis. It was Herpes Zoster which is termed Shingles in popular parlance. Yet I went to the skin ward of the Karachi Civil Hospital to confirm my diagnosis. And the doctors there endorsed it and put me on antiviral acyclovir tablets five times a day.
I am not going to college where I teach. Neither do I attend my clinics at the hospital where I work. Continue reading Days with Herpes Zoster (shingles)