Dance to Change the World

How did a dance get Nehru to investigate dowry deaths?

How can a dance convince villagers to make their own clean water when governments fail?

To find the answers to these two questions, you'll have to watch the dance video posted below by Mallika Sarabhai, a dancer/actor/politician, who tells a transformative story through dance and argues that the arts may be the most powerful way to effect change, whether political, social or personal. As her website states: "When asked what I like to be introduced as - dancer, choreographer, publisher, activist, writer, actor – I tend to say that I am a communicator. And that all the others are the different languages in which I communicate. There are many things that concern me, and that I think concern many many people around the world. The web is a great place to [communicate] as you know."

Watch her in full effect at her TED India talk below:

His Dataset Will Change Your Mindset

Hans Rosling, global health expert and data visionary, has dozens of eye-opening talks available at Gap Minder. Watch them and let his dataset change your mindset.

His most recent presentation in Nov. 2009 at TED India talks about Asia's Rise. Watch the video here:

In the summer of 2009 he spoke at the US State Department showing the overall global trends in health and income over the last 200 years, the development of the HIV/AIDS-epidemic, and how China is catching up on the richest countries.
Enjoy this video below.


TED writes that "Even the most worldly and well-traveled among us will have their perspectives shifted by Hans Rosling. A professor of global health at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, his current work focuses on dispelling common myths about the so-called developing world, which (he points out) is no longer worlds away from the west. In fact, most of the third world is on the same trajectory toward health and prosperity, and many countries are moving twice as fast as the west did.

What sets Rosling apart isn't just his apt observations of broad social and economic trends, but the stunning way he presents them. Guaranteed: You've never seen data presented like this. By any logic, a presentation that tracks global health and poverty trends should be, in a word: boring. But in Rosling's hands, data sings. Trends come to life. And the big picture — usually hazy at best — snaps into sharp focus.

Rosling's presentations are grounded in solid statistics (often drawn from United Nations data), illustrated by the visualization software he developed. The animations transform development statistics into moving bubbles and flowing curves that make global trends clear, intuitive and even playful. During his legendary presentations, Rosling takes this one step farther, narrating the animations with a sportscaster's flair.

Rosling developed the breakthrough software behind his visualizations through his nonprofit Gapminder, founded with his son and daughter-in-law. The free software — which can be loaded with any data — was purchased by Google in March 2007."

Ideas Worth Spreading at TED India

"We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we're building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other."

TED (Technology Entertainment Design) hosted their first-ever gathering in India at the Infosys campus in Mysore on November 4-7th, 2009. It offered a fast-paced, highly curated three-day stage program featuring the famous 18-minute TED talks. These talks will open your eyes and drop your jaw in mind-expanding ways. Below I highlight some of my favorite TED India talks. You can access most of the TED India talks here.

*Pranav Mistry, MIT grad student prodigy and inventor of the SixthSense technology, shows his wearable device that enables new interactions between the real world and the world of data. Watch him showcase this technology in the talk below.

If you want to see another video about applications of Sixthsense Technology see this video.

*Ryan Lobo, Indian filmmaker and photographer, speaks about "compassionate storytelling" sharing photographs that tell stories of unusual human lives. In this talk, he reframes controversial subjects with empathy, so that we see the pain of a Liberian war criminal, the quiet strength of Indian UN women peacekeepers stationed in Liberia, and the perseverance of Delhi's underappreciated firefighters. See more of his photography at his blog. Watch the video of his moving TED talk below.



*Hans Rosling, global health expert and data visionary, talks about Asia's Rise with a mind boggling data presentation. Watch the video here: 

"I like my Women like my Laptops-Light and Slim"

White Skin and Size Zero Sells in India

How often do you find an Indian with lighter skin tone than a Japanese? When it comes to product marketing and the Indian media, more often than is statistically likely.

                                                          Image from Getty Images.

Bollywood Actress Kareena Kapoor (right) and Managing Director of Sony India Masaru Tamagawa  (left) pose with Sony's lightest weight and ultra slim VAIO X notebook after the launch in New Delhi on November 3, 2009. This notebook is a half-inch thin and 655 grams and is being marketed as a size Zero.

“I am proud to be India’s size Zero.” News4u-Entertainment Desk reports Kareena saying “I only lend my name to a brand that is suitable to my personality type. Vaio X is slim, stylish and sexy, something that I easily relate with.”

     “I think in India, size zero means being slim. Every girl wants to be really slim and I think I am quite slim. India’s size zero is associated with me and I am proud of that,” said Kareena who has often denied being the size zero according to international standards. The 27-year-old actress hit headlines when she lost eight kilograms to acquire a bikini body for the 2007 film ‘Tashan’. Though the film flopped at the box office, Kareena’s thin figure became the talk of the country, sparking a size zero trend in India.

     If Indian men aren’t already telling their friends the following, such media is only likely to encourage it: “I like my women like my laptops-light and slim.”

I’ve always been frustrated seeing Billboards in developing countries where the women are absurdly thinner and whiter than the actual local population. This soft cultural hegemony infiltrates the minds of the young and old redefining beauty and in some instances leading to pathologically low self-esteem and eating disorders. When I scan the Indian newspaper matrimonial sections (not for myself, for cultural research purposes I swear!), I frequently find “fair-skinned” as mandatory inclusion criteria.  

If we conducted a study were we used a photospectrometer or some melanin detection device to quantify the lightness of a person’s skin, we would see that the stars who grace the magazine covers and Bollywood films are several standard deviations away from the average Indian. India’s largest cultural export, Bollywood films, is a gross misrepresentation of the average Indian, but perhaps the same can be said of many industries.  Tobacco companies have long used "light and slim" in association with women to market cigarettes. For some reason, living in Tamil Nadu where people are dark skinned, and seeing “India” exported through film, advertising, and beauty pageants I struggle with how this country “sells” its beauty and skin color. Having lived in Latin America, I am used to people being typecasted into “blanca” “morena” or “negra” based on minute differences in skin tone. However, the exported image of India seems more out of touch with the reality of India.

"100 million limbs are at risk of amputation!"

Diabetes in India: A Sandal Scandal

"India will have 50 million diabetics by 2010. Close to 20% of all diabetics have some form of amputation and surveys indicate that 60% of these amputations are because of wrong or no footwear" said Mr. Vijay Viswanathan, Managing Director of the MV Hospital for Diabetes. Although he was referring to unpublished data which was likely somewhat exaggerated, India is becoming the diabetes capital of the world.

During the first week of November when Diastep was launched, a new Indian sandal for low-risk diabetics to prevent foot ulcers and ultimately amputations, I happened to spend a morning at a rural diabetic foot clinic with a physical therapist.

In 150 minutes, we examined 47 patients with diabetes for cracks, callouses, corns, bunions, ulcers, tingling, burning, loss of sensation, and other risk factors for nerve damage, infection, and amputation. The only thing that slowed us down was when the electricity went off and we had to use the light from our cell phones to examine people's feet. That morning I saw the rigor of village life emblazoned on the feet of dozens of farmers, coolies, animal herders, and other rural folk. All the patients had their pre-breakfast glucose checked and they were surprisingly high across the board. My colleague commented on the "post-Diwali glucose surge" (Diwali is the Indian festival of lights where people eat copious sweets with friends and family).

That same afternoon while making a home visit to a patient with HIV/AIDS, we passed a man on the street who the hospital had distributed a tricycle to after he lost his leg from diabetes.  I asked him if I could take his picture and use it to educate others about what can happen in late stages of poorly managed diabetes and he obliged. Mr Subramaniam of NK Pallayam village, featured in the photo below, stated "It started out as a blister on my foot, before I knew it I had to get a below the knee amputation. I didn't take my medicines so things got worse and I had to have an above the knee amputation." His message to other diabetics is "I suffer so you better take care of your diabetes so you don't suffer too. This happened to me because I was careless."

In an attempt to meet the needs of (and profit from) the millions of diabetics in India, Diastep was launched through a collaboration between the MV Hospital for Diabetes, its research wing the Diabetes Research Center, the Novo Nordisk Education Foundation, and the Central Leather Research Institute.

Its special design features address issues such as pressure distribution on the foot, grip, traction, comfort and durability to prevent foot ulcers and infection. “We have the best medical technology in the world but very poor access. Affordability and access are the primary concerns which have to be addressed,” said T. Ramasami, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, IIT-Chennai. Although such important issues were discussed at the launch, they have yet to be addressed.

At a starting price of 1,350 rupees a pair ($35 USD) who can afford Diastep? None of the 57 villagers I saw that morning at the diabetic foot clinic, most of whom earn less than $2 dollars a day, could afford Diastep.  Mr. Subramaniam, featured above, couldn't even afford a Diastep for his remaining left leg. He lamented to me, his inability to pay for his insulin injections which totaled less than 500 rupees per month.

Diastep should have hired a cultural anthropologist to assist in marketing and distribution because amputations and special sandals have a long history in India.  I learned that earlier models of the MCR Chappals marketed for diabetics faced resistance from some local people since they were worn by people with leprosy in the past who had peripheral nerve damage and amputations. Perhaps more important than the stigma of special footwear, is the need for gradated pricing and social marketing to the lower socioeconomic classes. My colleagues who work with diabetics told me the on-the-ground reality: many elderly aren't used to wearing shoes, farmers don't like to wear them when they're wading through their fields, and most models are too costly.

Although the multidisciplinary research collaboration to create Diastep was exciting and impressive, is it simply another example of an Indian innovation that will never reach the average Indian? Time will tell if it is really a technological "feet" or a sandal scandal.

Watch a video of the launch of Diastep below set to classical music:

Nanosensors Warn of Impending Heart Attacks?

India-Japan Medical Nanotech Collaboration

"India has ideas and manpower and Japan has experience," said Mr. Hiroshi Iwai of the Tokyo Institute of Technology speaking about developing real-time tomographic diagrams of the human body and the promise of medical nanotechnology. 

He spoke at the November 2009 Workshop held by Electron Device Society of Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineering (EDS IEEE) at SKP Engineering College in Thiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu. The session on nanotechnology described how nano chips would improve computer performance to assist in real-time diagnosis and potentially facilitate automation of surgeries. The Chairman of the session described biosensors, which could potentially warn of impending heart attacks, being developed at Indian Institute of Technology IIT-Mumbai . A staff reporter at The Hindu writes that the session ended with a call for more Memorandums of Understanding and formal collaboration between the technology institutes of India and Japan.

PM safe but CM dead

     A common man died on November 3rd due to the traffic restrictions in place for the visit of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh. Security restrictions during the movement of VVIP’s are notorious for causing inconveniences to the public, but unfortunately this time the delay was fatal.

     The 32-year-old now widow of the patient received a letter from Singh stating “I am writing to you to express my profound sense of sadness at the death of your husband Shri Sumit Verma yesterday. I understand that he could not get access to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, in time because of the restrictions in place for my visit there. This is something I regret deeply. I have issued instructions, so that in future the authorities are more sensitive to the concerns of the common man, while imposing such restrictions for reasons of security.”

     What changes will actually take place? In a country of 1.1 billion people is this a “collateral damage” or “necessary loss” that is to be expected? My cousin said, “This is India. If 1 person dies like this nobody pays attention. People die every day from tragic accidents. That’s life.” Being a public health practitioner, I’m befuddled by how many of these deaths can be prevented by structural changes.