EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE

By SHAGORIKA EASWAR

Many years ago we’d decided not to fly to Delhi in winter after being stranded in London for three days because flights couldn’t land in Delhi in the thick smog and then again, in Delhi, for a day because flights couldn’t take off.

It is surreal. The capital of the country that sent a mission to Mars – Mangalyaan – looks very Martian as it lies under a choking red haze in what has become an annual occurrence.

 I see the news coverage and am horrified at the visuals and the reported levels of particulate matter in the air. According to a report in India Today, the Air Quality Index (AQI) on the day after Diwali was 999. Because that’s the highest the meters could go, they weren’t calibrated for higher reading. When the acceptable AQI limit is 60, who would have imagined  pollution levels could hit nearly 1000?

I was happy to note the number of girls on two-wheelers on the city streets on a previous visit to India. But also surprised to see most of them all wrapped up in voluminous dupattas or scarves with only their eyes visible. Some even wore gloves. In summer.

That was to prevent getting tanned, someone enlightened me.

People on the same streets now wear face masks. It’s as though a health emergency has been declared like the kind we saw when SARS hit Toronto in 2003.

And so it has. It’s an emergency that leaves the citizens of Delhi gasping for air.

A thick, poisonous blanket of smoke from burning stubble in neighbouring states, from angeethis (clay ovens) that people light to stay warm, from fumes from vehicles that ply the city streets and from industrial emissions, settles over the city for much of winter.

“We used to sit in the sun in winter, now for months, we don’t see the sun,” says a gentleman. “Can you believe that? My wife and I both work in Delhi, our children go to school here, we can’t even escape to a place with cleaner air except for a day or two once in a while.”

Grant’s Desi Achiever Dr Mohini Sain is a recognized authority in nano biocomposites.

Long bus rides to his college – St Xavier’s in Kolkata – were responsible for sparking his interest in the field, he had told Desi News in 2007.

“I’d inhale thick smoke spewing out from the bus in front of ours all the way to college and then again, all the way back.”

His mother would say that he was covered in soot. But more than that, he’d also feel fatigued. He realized that people breathing in the polluted air weren’t even aware of how it was affecting their health and productivity.

Fast forward 10 years to 2017.

Dr Gita Sinha, MD, MPH, is a physician and educator in clinical medicine and public health who has lived and worked in New Delhi, Toronto and the United States. She has collaborated with partners in northern India to design and lead  capacity-building and education projects in clinical medicine and public health. In 2017, she wrote a piece for Desi News highlighting the dangers of air pollution in north Indian cities and directed readers to citizen action groups such as My Right To Breathe (#myrighttobreathe) advocating for clean air.

Two years on, I have this strange sense of deja vu as I watch news on the Indian channels and follow media reports on the air quality – or lack thereof.

It’s a depressing case of same-old, same old, with politicians and local authorities playing the blame game.

 Professor Guy Marks from the University of Sydney was in India recently for the World Lung Health Conference of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.

He had this to say:

“I have witnessed, first-hand, the dreadful air pollution event affecting Delhi at the moment. Air pollution is the greatest environmental threat to human health. It is estimated that there were 4.9 million deaths globally that were attributed to air pollution in 2017, 1.24 million of these deaths were in India. It is a global emergency that we need to tackle. It causes illness and death due to heart attacks, strokes, pneumonia, asthma and other lung disease, and, in the longer term, cancer. The solution requires multi-sectoral approaches involving governments, the private sector and individuals.

“The causes of air pollution are complex. Some people are saying that the current crisis in Delhi is due to agricultural burning of crop residues in a neighbouring state. However, industrial pollution, traffic (motor vehicle), and domestic burning for cooking and incineration also play a role. In other settings, such as Indonesia and Brazil, burning for land clearing is a major cause of air pollution. In each setting, we need research to better identify the main causes or sources of air pollution and then we need policy and enforcement to mitigate those sources. Without action, the global emergency will continue unabated.”

“Delhi, and India more broadly, are at the crossroads of a major industrial transition where industry without regard for environmental control continues to pollute and at the same time traditional farming practices continue and these combined create the exceedingly high air pollution,” said associate professor Camille Raynes-Greenow, a maternal and child health expert at the University of Sydney School of Public Health. 

“Pregnant women and children are also extremely vulnerable to the poor air quality in Delhi. The acute respiratory and eye symptoms that many people will experience are only just the tip of the iceberg that will also impact the developing fetus and small children...we need multi-sectoral approaches that consider both industrial and traditional practices that impact air pollution, and these solutions also need to be multinational.”

NDTV anchor Sanket Upadhyay conducted a show on the topic outside the parliament. The brightly-lit stately buildings were visible behind him through the haze as citizens debated different ways to solve the crisis.

Elsewhere, safe in their pollution-free rooms equipped with air-filters one presumes, two political bigwigs had these gems to offer:

Consuming carrots helps with reducing the effects of pollution.

Starting one’s day listening to good music also helps.

While one hopes and prays good sense will prevail, I for one, am not holding my breath for change any time soon.

Youth lawsuit draws attention to climate crisis

By DAVID SUZUKI

Children and teens are at a disadvantage. They can’t vote and have little say in many plans and policies that will determine their futures. The political decisions made today will affect their lives profoundly.

Scientists worldwide have warned we only have a decade to get emissions down substantially or face the well-known consequences of rapidly accelerating global heating.

The costly effects are already being felt – from contaminated air and water to increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather events to melting permafrost and species extinction.

With no real say in the political process, children and youth are taking to the streets worldwide, demanding that those in power do more to address this very real crisis.

The message appears to be getting through. Climate disruption and plans to deal with it became a key issue in the recent Canadian election.

But instead of doing everything possible to ensure these young people have a secure, healthy future, governments here and elsewhere continue to expand fossil fuel infrastructure, arguing – as they have for decades – that we can’t get off fossil fuels overnight. It’s kind of like an addict who really isn’t ready to quit.

A group of young people has decided marching isn’t enough.

The 15 youth, ranging in age from seven to 19, and hailing from Vancouver Island to the Northwest Territories to Nova Scotia, are taking the federal government to court “to protect their charter and public trust rights from climate change harms,” claiming the federal government’s failure to take actions consistent with the scientific evidence violates their rights to life, liberty and security of the person under section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and for failing to protect essential public trust resources.

Since climate change disproportionately affects youth, they’re also alleging that government’s conduct violates their right to equality under section 15 of the charter.

The youth are supported by the David Suzuki Foundation, Pacific Centre for Environmental Law and Litigation and Our Children’s Trust and represented by law firms Arvay Finlay LLP and Tollefson Law Corporation.

They aren’t seeking money. Rather, they’re asking for a federal court order requiring Canada’s government to prepare a plan to redress charter and public trust doctrine violations by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and making a sufficient contribution to preventing, mitigating and redressing dangerous climate change.

As 13-year-old Sáj Starcevich from Saskatchewan says, “The planet is dying. The animals are dying. We will all die if we don’t act. As an Indigenous vegan, I fight for Earth and her inhabitants. The youth have to step up because no one else has. We need you to join us to end this climate crisis.”

A gradual transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy and energy efficiency and conservation would have been possible had we taken the climate crisis seriously even in the 1980s, when scientists including NASA’s James Hansen were sounding the alarm.

But, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change points out, we’ve now pumped so many greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere that we’ve locked in many inevitable consequences.

Carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for a long time, while gases like methane remain for less time but have a greater effect on rising global temperatures.

Everything we pump into the air now will remain for decades, causing the planet to continue heating for years.

To prevent runaway impacts, we have to cut emissions immediately and protect and restore forests, wetlands and other natural systems, including oceans, that sequester carbon.

As adults, we’ve helped create this mess through rampant consumerism and lack of attention to the problems our pollution is causing.

We owe it to the children to help clean it up, to push for the kinds of changes the scientific evidence calls for. We can’t leave it to the youth, because by the time they grow up, Earth could well have reached the tipping point for climate catastrophe.

Children shouldn’t have to march in the streets or take their own governments to court.

But in times of crisis – which this surely is – people have to do what they can to get the many available and emerging solutions implemented.

Let’s listen to the kids and leave them a brighter future!

 • With contributions from David Suzuki Foundation’s senior editor/writer Ian Hanington. More at davidsuzuki.org.

Newcomers bring so much more to Canada

By DR VICKI BISMILLA

When a colourful sports commentator insulted immigrants by calling us “those people”, accusing us of not wearing poppies, he was dead wrong.

And when his comments caused a furor and he tried to backtrack by saying that he did not mean immigrants, he lied.

If you actually heard his comments and looked at the text in which he ranted against and “othered” us he very definitely meant us:

“You people that come here... whatever it is, you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you could pay a couple of bucks for a poppy.”

And let’s not forget that, astoundingly, his co-host gave him a thumbs-up! True bigotry has a way of coming out.

This bombastic sports announcer needs to go into a school on Remembrance Day and look into the eyes of children of immigrants wearing poppies and passionately participating in Remembrance Day ceremonies.

And he needs to dig deep into his heart and find some shred of dignity to face the immigrant parents who wear their poppies solemnly to honour the sacrifices of soldiers who defended our democracy and made Canada the beautiful country that it is.

There are many ordinary, Canadian-born minority citizens as well as new Canadians who have contributed significantly to Canada.

Dozens of these selfless and dedicated people have been acknowledged and honoured on these pages by Desi News and Grant’s scotch whisky through the Grant’s Desi Achiever Awards program. Their accomplishments, service, research, discoveries, volunteerism and community service quietly shine brightly above the din of nonsensical blabber from loudmouths who yell insults into media microphones. 

We all remember our beloved Dr Sheela Basrur who served as Chief Medical Officer of Health during the awful SARS outbreak in Toronto in 2003.

A tiny, but powerful person, she worked tirelessly to serve and protect our population against a dreaded disease.

And from our history lessons, who can forget Dr. Emily Stowe (May 1, 1831 – April 30, 1903) who was black and the first female physician to practise in Canada.

As a suffragette, she worked tirelessly for women’s rights and to achieve our country’s first medical college for women in the early twentieth century.

William Hall (April 28, 1827- August 27, 1904), son of Black slaves in Nova Scotia, won the Victoria Cross for bravery while serving in the Royal Canadian Navy.

Dr David Suzuki is a Japanese Canadian and a passionate environmentalist who has dedicated his life to saving Canada’s ecosystem without which the very existence of human life as we know it is threatened.

Raymond Chang, a Jamaican-Canadian philanthropist contributes volunteer hours and significant donations to arts, culture and healthcare in Canada.

Chinese Canadian scientists are contributing to Canada in significant ways.

Take Dr. Thomas Chang who invented the first artificial cell to carry haemoglobin to correct blood disorders; or the pioneering work of Dr. Tak Wah Mak in cancer treatment; or astronomer Bill Yeung’s pursuit and discovery of asteroids. Syrian Canadians have contributed to Canada in many ways.

Rene Angelil ushered Canada’s international star Celine Dion into world fame; Paul Anka is Canada’s darling singer/songwriter; or a very recent Syrian refugee, Ahmad Abed, who was helped by the large-hearted Canadian philanthropist Jim Estill to open his own shop and is now starting to help other people in need – a work in progress yet a work of hope and positivity.

That message of hope is what we need to nurture.

Raging against immigrants from a podium of privilege is both cowardly and unpatriotic.

Canada is a country of immigrants, first built by indigenous people and then by millions of immigrants from all over the world.

This is our collective Canada, an intricate quilt of unique tapestries, threaded together stitch by stitch from thousands of years ago to the present day.

• Dr Vicki Bismilla is a retired Superintendent of Schools and retired college Vice-President, Academic, and Chief Learning Officer. She has authored two books.

 DEAR DIDI,  the girl my brother wants to
marry is not right for our family 

By KULBINDER SARAN CALDWELL

Dear Didi,

My brother wants to marry a girl who is not desi and does not follow our religion. He loves her and my parents don’t seem to have any issues with the idea, but I do. I worry about what might lie ahead when the “honeymoon” period is over. I’ve seen these differences become major points of conflict and don’t want to see that happening in our close-knit family. She’s sweet, but I don’t think she’s right for the family. How do I convey that without becoming the bad guy? – I’m not the bad guy here

Sorry to break it to you but you will be the bad guy and I think rightly so.

Many times we think that we know what’s best for others; however, we are not living their life and walking in their shoes.

What makes you so sure that you know what is going to happen?

And that it won’t work out?

Sometimes all we see are the differences rather than the similarities.

As you know, I’m married to a non-desi who does follow my religion (he actually wasn’t religious).

We have been married for over 11 years now.

From the outside looking in, we would have looked very much like a mismatch to my close-knit family; however, mine knew that I was the best person to determine who was the right life partner for me.

I also found a lot of the same qualities in my husband that my beloved father had.

The values were there, the respect for family, the kindness and patience needed to try to figure out how to fit within an unfamiliar culture.

All of this was combined with my older sister leading the way by welcoming my new husband into the fold.

If your brother wants to marry a girl who is sweet and makes him happy, then help them by extending a warm welcome on behalf of everyone.

Look for the things you two have in common and how she will take care of your brother and eventually your parents, too, when they are older because they have formed this wonderful bond with one another.

This isn’t all about the here and now, but what is to come for your family in the future.

If you think there will be major points of conflict because she’s not desi, it will come true if you make it a self-fulfilling prophecy but you don’t have to.

Instead, you can become the good guy and help the transition of opening your close-knit family to a new family member.

And that will be the right thing for everyone. 

I may be able to help! Is there something that you wish you could talk to someone about? Email me at Kul@DearDidi.com or follow me on Twitter and Facebook at @DearDidi_KSC. Want more Dear Didi? Listen to my pod-cast – Generation Immigrant – on all major platforms. Listen, rate, review, repeat. Hope to hear from you soon!