More African countries closed their borders Thursday as the coronavirus’ local spread threatened to turn the continent of 1.3 billion people into an alarming new front for the pandemic. Africa is seeing an “extremely rapid evolution,” the World Health Organization’s regional chief, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, told reporters. Thirty-six of Africa’s 54 countries now have cases, with the total over 720. Chad and Niger announced their first cases Thursday. The first case in sub-Saharan Africa was announced Feb. 28, less than three weeks ago. Moeti said she did not believe that large numbers of infected people are going undetected but acknowledged a shortage of testing kits. Forty-three countries have testing capability, up from two when the outbreak began. By Monday, countries will have 60,000 testing kits. The WHO regional chief also expressed concern about travel restrictions and their impact on the ability to deliver needed resources. The WHO is considering humanitarian corridors, Moeti said. But many African nations were taking their cue from China and other countries by sharply restricting travel.
The happiest and unhappiest countries in the world
At a time like this—when the coronavirus pandemic is sweeping the globe and has killed over 10,000 people—we need some happy news. The annual World Happiness Report has just been released, timed to the UN’s annual International Day of Happiness on March 20. For the third year in a row, Finland has placed at the top of the list as the happiest country in the world, with Denmark coming in second, followed by Switzerland, which pushed Norway out of the top three this year.
And while it seems like a strange time to be evaluating happiness, the editors of the report point out that challenging times can actually increase happiness. “The global pandemic poses great risks for some of the main supports for well-being, most especially health and income,” the editors explain. “As revealed by earlier studies of earthquakes, floods, storms, tsunamis and even economic crises, a high trust society quite naturally looks for and finds co-operative ways to work together to repair the damage and rebuild better lives. This has led sometimes to surprising increases in happiness in the wake of what might otherwise seem to be unmitigated disasters.”
The reason that people get happier in the fact of disasters, they say? “People are pleasantly surprised by the willingness of their neighbors and their institutions to work in harness to help each other. This delivers a heightened sense of belonging, and pride in what they have been able to achieve by way of mitigation. These gains are sometimes great enough to compensate for the material losses.”
The World Happiness Report is an annual survey by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations. It looks at the state of global happiness in 156 countries, ranking countries using the Gallup World Poll and six factors: levels of GDP, life expectancy, generosity, social support, freedom and corruption income. The World Happiness Report was originally launched in 2012.
This year, things have improved slightly for the United States. The U.S. ranked number 18—a slight uptick from last year when it ranked 19, although it’s still far below its 11th place ranking in the first World Happiness Report. Last year’s report explained it: “The years since 2010 have not been good ones for happiness and well-being among Americans.”
So where did other major countries fall on the list? The United Kingdom was at number 13 (up two spots from 2019), Germany was again at 17, Japan was at 62 (down four spots from 2019), Russia was at 73 (down five spots) and China was at 94 (down one spot).
Besides the happiest countries, the World Happiness Report also looked at the places where people are the unhappiest. This year, Afghanistan was named the unhappiest place in the world, followed by South Sudan and Zimbabwe.
For the first time, the 2020 report also ranked the happiest cities around the world. The top 10 is dominated by Scandinavian cities, with Finland’s capital of Helsinki ranking as the happiest city in the world.
On the other end of the spectrum, the unhappiest cities have some common themes. Most are located in underdeveloped countries and have experienced war (Kabul in Afghanistan, Sanaa in Yemen), armed conflict (Gaza in Palestine), civil war (Juba in South Sudan, Bangui in the Central African Republic), political instability (Cairo in Egypt) or devastating natural catastrophes (Port-au-Prince in Haiti).
The editors of the report say their ranking is different from other city lists in that their report doesn’t just rely on factors that researchers consider relevant. “Our ranking relies on city residents’ self-reports of how they themselves evaluate the quality of their lives,” say the editors. “Arguably, this bottom-up approach gives a direct voice to the population as opposed to the more top-down approach of deciding ex-ante what ought to matter for the well-being of city residents.”
Read on for the top 20 happiest countries in the world, as well as the 10 unhappiest places, the 10 happiest cities and the 10 unhappiest cities. And wherever you are, try to stay happy, despite it all.
World’s 20 Happiest Countries
Finland
Denmark
Switzerland
Iceland
Norway
Netherlands
Sweden
New Zealand
Austria
Luxembourg
Canada
Australia
United Kingdom
Israel
Costa Rica
Ireland
Germany
United States
Czech Republic
Belgium
World’s Unhappiest Countries
Afghanistan
South Sudan
Zimbabwe
Rwanda
Central African Republic
Tanzania
Botswana
Yemen
Malawi
India
World’s Happiest Cities
Helsinki, Finland
Aarhus, Denmark
Wellington, New Zealand
Zurich, Switzerland
Copenhagen, Denmark
Bergen, Norway
Oslo, Norway
Tel Aviv, Israel
Stockholm, Sweden
Brisbane, Australia
World’s Unhappiest Cities
Kabul, Afghanistan
Sanaa, Yemen
Gaza, Palestine
Port-a-Prince, Haiti
Juba, South Sudan
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Delhi, India
Maseru, Lesotho
Bangui, Central African Republic
Cairo, Egypt
Muscles are the main actors of movement
By Elias Abichacra (Phd)
Muscles represent, depending on gender, from 32 to 45 % of our bodyweight at full adulthood. Our body has nearly 650 muscles. Most of them are located identically on the right and left side of our body. While having the same number of muscles, there is a sharp difference between women and men only in size and production of force. There are three types of muscles which are the smooth, cardiac and skeleton muscles, but only the last two are directly influenced by physical activity. Muscles have different shapes and sizes. Our eyes and mouth have a circular shaped muscles, our hands have short muscles. On the front side as well as the rear side of our torso, muscles are large and flat like the chest and abdominal muscles in the front as well as the nape of the neck and the dorsal muscles on the back. Midway between our head and feet, on the back of our body, buttocks/gluteus compose the most voluminous muscles. Long muscles are located on our upper limbs around the arm and forearm as well as our lower limbs. Our biceps and triceps are the long muscles of our upper limbs while the thigh muscles (quadriceps) and hamstrings as well as our calf muscles are the major muscles of our lower limbs. Most of the muscles can be seen because they appear at the surface of the body under our skin and are classified as superficial muscles, but few are deep and can’t be observed visually and can be discovered only after dissection.
When we talk about muscles, two methods describe them: the first is the superficial visual observation called descriptive anatomy and the second is microscopic observation that scrutinizes the internal structure of the muscle. The former observation helps us locate each muscle, its size and shape and finally its action. The latter helps determine the types of muscle fibers, which form the basic structure of all muscles, and their respective proportions in each muscle.
The main role of muscles is to produce force that creates movement. For that, they need the participation of bones and nerves. Bones are useful because they serve as fixing points where muscles are attached by their tendons. Muscles have to crossover a joint and must be attached at the other end to produce movement. Nerves are crucial because they transmit the order given by the brain and command the muscle to contract. This biological synergy is a good example of interaction between different organs in the human body. Bones need muscles to keep the body stand erect, muscles need bones and joints to be attached and produce movement and finally nerves need muscles and vice versa to create diverse types of physical action.
Muscle, observed through microscope, shows many subdivisions. At the base, we find the muscle fibers which are muscle cells that represent the structural base of each muscle. There are three types of muscle fibers which are the Slow, the Fast Intermediate and the Fast fibers. Every human being possesses all of them and scientific observation shows us that there is a difference of muscle fiber distribution between different muscles of one same individual. For example the eye muscles are exclusively composed of Fast fibers whereas the third muscle of the calf muscle, called Soleus, is composed exclusively by Slow fibers. Most of the other muscles have a relative equal distribution of Slow and Fast fibers. But the muscle fiber distribution also varies from one individual to another. The thigh muscles of a sprinter are completely different of that of a marathon runner. When you observe Athletics events, they range from short distances to the marathon race and include different Jumping as well as Throwing events. A close observation shows us that the athletes participating at these different sport activities haven’t the same body size. Sprinters as well as Jumpers are clearly muscular and in their majority long-limbed, long distance runners are slim and finally Throwers have a heavy physical appearance and look stout. The difference in corpulence is essentially due to the fiber distribution.
Let us see the difference between each fiber type. Slow fibers are red in color due to the presence of many blood vessels, thin in size, producing a little amount of force-only 2 grams per fiber unit- and can resist fatigue for a long period of time. The Fast intermediate fibers are pink in color because they have fewer blood vessels than the former, are relatively thick in size, produce 10 grams of force per fiber unit, but can’t resist fatigue for a long period of time. Finally Fast fibers are white in color because very few blood vessels irrigate them, are very thick in size and can produce 50 grams of force per fiber unit, but are immediately fatigable. A simple observation shows us that muscle force depends on size but the appearance of fatigue depends on the density of blood vessels. The more a muscle receives oxygen through the blood vessels, the lately fatigue appears. The distribution of muscle fibers is the main criteria to orient a person to a sport event where he/she can best perform. Field as well as laboratory tests of different types exist to determine the fiber distribution in one person. Field tests, called indirect tests, are simple, cheap and can reach an 80 to 90 % precision by helping classify and orient a person. Laboratory tests, called direct tests, have an absolute precision, but are expensive and need qualified personnel and must be conducted in a healthy environment. As I said in a former article, you will never find an athlete fast as well as enduring. An athlete is either a sprinter or a marathon runner but never both at the same time. You will never find a person called Haile Bolt or Usain Gebreselassie; you will surely meet Haile Gebreseassie and Husain Bolt separately.
Remember Health is Wealth
You can contact the writer on this e-mail
address: elias.abichacra@yahoo.com
HEALING HEARTS MINDS AND ATTITUDES
“though lives are being lost daily by the pandemic, hearts are growing and acts of kindness are everywhere.”
It appears there is nothing in the world we can talk about these days without the topic being somehow connected to the corona virus. I have been unpacking some of my observations and experiences, logging a range of reactions – good and bad – of this scourge that has spread over the earth in a matter of a few short months. I start with myself. I travel a lot and for decades I have been that curious looking passenger with face covered sanitizing around my seat including table and all ‘touchibles’ upon boarding. I am also the one that opens doors with tissue, wipes down groceries before packing them away, keeps hand sanitizer in my bag and offers fist-bumps or bows with hand over heart, for as long as I can remember. Feel free to judge me – while you wash your hands – please. Now don’t get me wrong, I am a hugger and love to greet kith and kin with genuine warmth but I have worked and lived on the Continent, visited numerous countries and raised 10 healthy children by being conscious of hygiene and healthy eating. So I confess, I am happy everyone is now on board. I am proud that Ethiopia has a ring tone about hand-washing. I am elated that public and private sector leaders from President Sahle Work to Dr. Eleni GebreMedhin are reinforcing what mama taught you growing up – wash your hands!
Inadvertently, has this horrible virus caused us to hit the re-set button on society’s attitude on something as simple as clean hands and proper hygiene, one of the best ways to thwart certain illnesses? This is crucial for Africa, as we have not felt the full brunt of the mysterious virus wreaking havoc on the world. Are we also resetting attitudes on either side of the social spectrum in regards to human relations? Recently, this country known for its hospitality towards foreigners has seen an increase in harassment, assaults and even denial of services to non-Ethiopians, right here in Addis Abeba based on virus instilled fear, suspicion and/or good ole mean spiritedness. On the other hand Ethiopian cordiality has been expressed by some advocating for a group of Italian tourists who reportedly refused to return to Italy based on reports of more illness and deaths than even China to date. I hold a different position, but I won’t judge, instead I washed my hands of the topic leaving it for others to debate…need I say excuse the pun? But seriously do your part and wash your hands.
Finally, though lives are being lost daily by the pandemic, hearts are growing and acts of kindness are everywhere and we need to focus and promote the positive while acknowledging and healing the negative. Scenes of self quarantined balcony singers serenading health workers every evening in Italy and Spain are moving. Free online platforms and tutorials are popping up for the nearly one billion students being homeschooled due to closures. Home based chefs in the USA, are now receiving a host of online options to keep them afloat by Chefthanded, one of the fast growing online solutions, supporting a large industry sequestered at home. And some good Samaritans are even offering free meals and groceries to the most vulnerable. But in what I consider a sweet surprise close to home was when I saw my sister friend, Yvette Noel-Schure’s instagram (IG) post. One of the busiest women in the music and entertainment industry, Yvette took time out of her busy day to talk to small children about the changes in their world due to the virus. Using her calm cool Caribbean aunty voice, she read a book to children, showing them some of the colorful illustrations as she explained culture and the locale of the author in Africa, Ethiopia specifically. According to award winning Jamaican journalist Vinette Pryce for Caribbean Life, the “Grenadian trailblazing publicist Yvette Noel-Schure is now Executive Producer at Tempo Network, the premiere Caribbean broadcast media domain that disseminates noteworthy lifestyles and cultural achievements from and about the region.” Yvette, CEO of Schure Media Group, is also known for accepting Roc Nation’s offer to “re-energize” the career of Jamaican dancehall artist, Buju Banton. All of this and more, the born in the 60’s dynamo cared enough to stop for a moment to help mom’s “run to the kitchen for a sandwich” while she read to the wee ones. It speaks volumes. We are not boasting here, but we are toasting which encourages even more good deeds. At this very daunting time, we all can and should help fill gaps in humanity noting the special role of art, books, music and more. Speaking of books Yvette was reading I LOVE LOCKS, written by me and she is best known as “Keeper of the Bey-Hive” the trusted publicist of Beyonce’. If she can find considerable time for acts of kindness, I challenge us to do the same, it’s healing.
Dr. Desta Meghoo is a Jamaican born
Creative Consultant, Curator and cultural promoter based in Ethiopia since 2005. She also serves as Liaison to the AU for the Ghana based, Diaspora African Forum.
