After living in Goa for twenty five years I am now back in the home and native land. There is some 'culture shock'. When I filled out the form for my 'Nova Scotia Health Card' I found an earnest invitation for 'comment'. Some of my 'culture shock' is couched in and between the lines: I am a bit of an 'old Teacher/Preacher', so am a little conscious of ending on a preachy note. Must try to stop my dear friends and family 'from goin' t' h--- in a handbasket':
*NS MSI COMMENTS---APP # 0013 258 520* Since point is made that ‘comments are welcome’ I feel that my somewhat unique situation may call for a few lines of elaboration: I am Canadian Citizen, and have been recipient of Canadian Medicare services from their inception up until 1984, when as spouse of an Indian National I became non-resident Canadian with domicile in Goa-India---repatriating (after my wife’s demise) to Canada only as of March 21, 2012. More than twenty-five years of living in India was occasion for quite a lot of variety (at several levels of personal, social and cultural experience), but I try to confine myself to observations relating to Health and Medical. Needless to say, ‘Canadian Medicare’ is a ‘badge of honor’ for Canadians living abroad. · I’m experiencing some degree of ‘culture shock’ in relation to conditions of health and fitness, insofar as I am able to judge from the first two months of observation here. The amount of obesity (particularly in women); the amount of packaged, processed, ‘convenience’ food being brought into homes; the amount of sugar and sodium laced ‘snacky’ food being consumed by children; the amount of ‘pain relief aids’ being consumed; the number of ‘fast food/coffee’ outlets and the lineups for placing orders with same. Everything has to be ‘YUMMY’; it simply amazes me. · Television and radio advertising for ‘health & fitness related products’ has me dumbfounded. Last Sunday morning I switched on a bedside radio to hear introduced a one-hour ‘Purity Products *paid* commercial program’ (disclaimer with rapid-fire delivery) touting ‘food supplements’. Out of curiosity I continued listening, and feel that this kind of programming (and the plethora of food supplement retail outlets in shopping malls) should be brought under more restrictive regulation. · Obsession with pets and pet-food consumption may be marginal to human health concerns, but it could be included in the purview of those monitoring the full spectrum. Families who cannot afford to properly feed their own children, spending huge amounts for feeding and grooming of dogs and cats. Children adopting (as pets) amphibians whose natural habitat is in tropical spaces. I loved and cherished them, but on the walls of my living room, where they consumed house flies, rather than crickets or ‘meal-worms’ stored in a refrigerator. · One could go on and on. Suffice it to say that my childhood was spent in a rural setting, where breakfast was oatmeal porridge and very wholesome bacon & eggs. Leftovers were eagerly consumed by our (quite healthy) pets. · I rather surmise that much concern is experienced by Health Canada in respect to ‘all-of-the-above’, and it is likely that consideration is continually given to ‘redoubling the effort’. My own professional background is in the ambit of teaching, and my influences are rather confined to the ‘philosophical’; but I can assure that my Asian experience has made of me ‘a universalist’, with no particular philosophical or cultural axe to grind. · It strikes me that the roots, of problems underscored above, may go deeper than ‘Lifestyle’. Hearing the one-hour commercial for ‘food supplements’ on Sunday Morning radio, suggested for me the hypothesis that this may be the media upgrade for the ‘old fashioned church-service’. Now several generations removed from ‘pre-Darwin’ intuitions gleaned from five-thousand year heritage of religious culture, our predominantly ‘Christian’ populations have simply opted out of any vision prompted by scholarship that goes beyond material welfare shaped by science and technology. · If I may be so bold I would suggest a ‘BROADENING’ in addition to ‘REDOUBLING’ of the effort. Without pedantry, may I recommend some reading to those entrusted with the task of monitoring ‘lifestyle trends’ for purpose of enhancing physical and mental health, while wishing more Power to them: For the Metaphysical (‘beyond physics’) aspects I would suggest study of the French Scientist/Philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (*The Future of Man; The Divine Milieu*); and for updated perceptions of traditional ‘People of the Book’ religious culture (Christian, Hebrew, Islamic), the works of Tom Harpur (*Water into Wine*).
