Wednesday 24 December 2014

The Seventh-Day Adventists of Loma Linda

 
 -Faith & Fast Food
By Solomon Mensah
The Aged of Loma Linda Excercising
Looking through the rear window of my room somewhere in Accra, the self-angered sea lies billowing furiously. Its billowing sound, like that of a thunder, uncomfortably forces me to get up from my slumber and prepare for school every weekend. Ouch!
But today, 7th December, 2014, while the sea roared, I fluttered left and right on my bed and shuddered under the thick yards of ‘Efie-abosea’- a cloth we used back in Sunyani Secondary School. No school today! So … I can sleep.  But I would listen to the BBC, almost all day, when I finally wake up as I always do on Sundays whenever I have the time to.
The BBC Report
On their (BBC’s) ‘Heart and Soul’ this morning, Peter Bowes takes his listeners all the way from London to Loma Linda, a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States of America.
Loma Linda, which translates as Beautiful Hill, has a population of about 23, 261, according to its 2010 census. Out of this, a large proportion of the city’s residents are Seventh-Day Adventists who, by practice, are vegetarians.
“I’m Peter Bowes and I have come to Loma Linda to learn more about the Seventh-Day Adventists, who make up about half of the population here. What is it about the way of life of this evangelical Christian denomination that helps its followers live to a ripe old age; up to a decade longer than the average American?’ the story rolled.
In the report titled “Living Longer in Lovely Hill,” Bowes visits a retirement home where a daily ritual of an exercise class for the elderly was ongoing. They sat straight up on chairs holding sizeable metal bars.
What!? “Up, down, up, down,” the teacher instructed while they (elderly) lifted and lowered their arms pointing to the ceiling and the floor of the classroom, respectively.
“What is the average age, roughly, of this class?’ the awed Bowes asked the teacher. “Maybe around 93 or something but our eldest was 101 [years].”
Loma Linda- the Mecca of longevity
Here, at the Californian City, the Seventh-Day Adventists say they live basically on the teachings of the Bible and on the principles of their church. They practice vegetarianism and do more of exercises even at old age.
This lifestyle of the Seventh-Day Adventists makes them grow older and older. Dan Buettner is an American researcher. He labels Loma Linda as a blue zone; a concept used to identify a demographic and/or geographic area of the world where people live measurably longer lives.
The City including Okinawa (Japan), Sardinia (Italy) and Nicoya (Costa Rica) are all marked by researchers as blue zones. In Peter Bowes’ words, Loma Linda is the Mecca of longevity. 
Faith & Fast food
Somewhere in 2012, a great debate ensued in Loma Linda; the debate as to whether the City should allow the influx of fast food eateries such as that of McDonald’s.
“Without a single liquor store, and legally smoke-free for nearly three decades, the tiny hillside town of Loma Linda brims with pride about its devotion to health and spiritual well-being.
So... news that McDonald's was coming to town, with its special-sauce-slathered Big Macs and 500-calorie sheaves of large fries, has triggered enough political reflux to put City Hall on the defensive,” writes Phil Willon, Los Angeles Times.
In ABC News’ item uploaded on YouTube, January 24, 2012, titled ‘Faith Matters,’ the debate got much more intensified. McDonald’s said to the ABC News that “Our line of premium salads can be ordered without meat. We also have other offerings including apple slices and oatmeal. We believe the new restaurant will help fuel economic growth.”
Reacting to matters, Dr. Wayne Dysinger, head of preventive medicine at the Loma Linda University Medical Center said: “McDonald’s does not fit the Loma Linda brand of health and wellness. Compare it to smoking laws: There’s no question that smoking is harmful to people’s health. Exposing people to fast food also is harmful to their health.
Cutting a long story short, McDonald’s after the legal tussle with Loma Linda has established its restaurant in the City. But for the ardent vegetarians of the Loma Linda who prefer living longer to enjoying fleeting and transient pleasures, they have adopted the fish-in-the-salty-sea principle of not letting itself taste salty.
“You may not believe this … I have never touched tobacco in any form. I have never touched alcohol, never touched coffee,” Henry Nelson, 91, said.
Any lesson to the Ghanaian?
Indeed, there are lessons the Ghanaian could learn from the Adventists of Loma Linda. Here, in Ghana, food poses a great threat to a number of people. Many are those who are digging their graves with their teeth.
Like the spillage of the Bagri Dam, fast food eateries, that which Dr. Dysinger deems dangerous to one’s health, flood almost every corner of our country. We buy it, and hold it firmly on the tips of our fingers like the terminal report card in the hand of a pupil. Show off!
This aside, many of us buying food from chop bars would shoot a finger directing the chop bar operator the sort of meat she should serve us. Ironically, we brand the taxi/trotro driver as the meat addict who points to the soup with his car key to tell the meat he would prefer. We hardly exercise after these food intake and the list is endless.
But all is not lost. Inasmuch as we breathe, we have the chance to critically consider what we consume. Perhaps, for those of us who have never physically seen a 'flying-coffin' on the tarmac of an airport, except for those that fly above our heads, Loma Linda and its healthy principles might seem far away and impossible to learn from. Very!
However, the Valley View University (VVU), Oyibi-Accra, presents to us an epitome of Loma Linda’s example. The Adventist University pays particular attention to what its students eat. “Meat is not served at the campus’ cafeteria. They produce their own drinking water and yogurt, bake their own bread, cultivate vegetables … I mean the school promotes a healthy lifestyle,” Kyereh-Yeboah Victor, an immediate past student of the School told me in an interview.
He says if he had his way, he would always eat from the VVU campus. But that should not be the case. Wherever we find ourselves, whatever faith we profess (Adventism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Islamic and what have you), we must take a cue from the healthy lifestyle of the citizens of Loma Linda and try practicing.
I do not in any way suggest to you to refrain from eating meat or fast food. I eat it myself. However, I think it is about time we ate it in moderation. Christmas is here and in our various homes meat, alcohol and others will ‘flow.’ While we wine and dine, remember that somewhere in America where happiness abound, citizens there eat with their minds.
 
The writer is a freelance journalist.
Twitter: @Aniwaba
 
 
 
 
 

Tuesday 16 December 2014

News Commentary


NEWS COMMENTARY LOOKS AT KENYAS STRIPPING OF WOMEN IN MINISKIRTS, THE MY DRESS, MY CHOICE CAMPAIGN AND THE LESSONS THE GHANAIAN WOMAN COULD LEARN FROM IT.

BY SOLOMON MENSAH, A FREELANCE JOURNALIST.

Her attackers stopped her, harassed her, and tossed her around like the dice on the slippery surface of a ludu as they ably yelled in Swahili Toa which translates into the English language as take it off. Indeed, the miniskirt-attackers took off an unknown Nairobi womans miniskirt giving room for the hungry eyes of the sea of people around to feast upon her nakedness.

This is, but, a description of the YouTube video which went viral on social media few days ago. The video which could be termed as a gruesome display of lawlessness by some Kenyan men who, in the said video, reduced the Nairobi woman's dignity into rags. The womans crime was simple and straightforward; she had worn a skirt which her attackers described as only a little bigger than a handkerchief; a dress code the group of therowdy young men disapproved; calling it provocative to onlookers.

The 1 minute 27 second- long video again showed the woman being beaten and paraded heartlessly along the streets. This shameful act by these rowdy folks must be condemned by any discerning mind irrespective of being a citizen of Kenya or not. It is, therefore, not surprising that most Kenyans shortly after seeing the video took to Twitter with the hashtag My dress, my choice to send a message to the attackers that women, like men, must be respected in the society.

Women have suffered all forms of abuses from some unscrupulous men in our societiesfor far too long. More often than not, men are left off the hook to go about their activities without being apprehended in any way. Are the attackers saying they have not sighted some men who pull their trousers below their waist to expose their filthy boxer shorts; a dress code referred to in Ghana as Otto Pfister? Has any of the Otto-Pfister-men been stripped naked in public before? So why must it be done to women?

On the 16th of November, 2014, majority of women in Kenya supported by well-reasoning men hit the streets to protest against this act of stripping skirts. They as well adopted the slogan my dress, my choice chanting women must be allowed to wear what theywant. Sadly, before the protestors could take respite from their long walk for freedom, another Nairobi woman was, again, stripped of her skirt and the other cloth on her totally removed by another crazy bunch of lawless men. From this YouTube video, too, the second woman suffered much more brutality from these men.

This stripping of miniskirts in Kenya did not start today. Somewhere in February, 2013, another Nairobi woman was equally deprived of her skirt in public. It took the intervention of a local politician Daniel Kachori who whisked her away into a room. Mr. Kachori later described the attack as shameful. But... a year and over after the incident, this shameful act still goes on.

The director of Kenyas public prosecution has ordered the Criminal Investigation Department to probe the incident. But before the law takes its cause on the attackers, we must not forget to ask ourselves some questions. Can any member of the society determine what one can and cannot wear? Who, as a member of the society, is given the right as the moral police to arrest and strip women of their miniskirts because such dress is seen as indecent? Is it not true that the attackers victims could be your mother, sister, wife, or even girlfriend?

If this abominable practice is allowed to gain roots, then the law as the guiding principleof the society becomes useless.

This happened elsewhere. Far away in Kenya. That notwithstanding, the Ghanaian woman must learn her lessons from it. Apparently, you may freely walk about in town in your skimpy dress regardless of the law prohibiting indecent dressing. However, one does not know when such a bunch of these lawless men will spring up here to pounce on you when you least expected and strip you of your dignity.

For the attackers, they must for now realize that enough is enough. Our elders say, thatwhen a handshake goes beyond the elbow, it ceases to be a friendly gesture. Inasmuch as most people and for that matter the society abhors indecent dressing does not mean that women must be subjected to public humiliation for what they wear.

It is about time the Kenyan law enforcement agencies rose to the occasion to ensure that the rule of law worked without interferences.