MOSAIC: Weather, Aboriginal style
WHEN the bearded dragon lizard sits upright and points its head to the sky, it is going to rain the next day. If a flock of currawongs flies overhead you’ve only got four hours to get the washing off the line. If the queen wattle blooms heavily; bull ants abandon their tree nests for mounds of dirt; or meat ants cover nests with tiny, heat-reflecting quartz stones, then bushfires are coming.
Sounds like mumbo-jumbo? Not to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, which hopes to tap into the tens of thousands of years of Aboriginal weather knowledge to help it expand its understanding of the island continent’s harsh climate.
Aboriginal ideas about the weather can be starkly different. Unlike the conventional European notion of four seasons — summer, autumn, winter, and spring — Aborigines in different parts of Australia, count as little as two or as many as six, each intimately linked to subtle changes in the local environment.
The Bureau of Meteorology has launched an indigenous weather web site, mapping Aboriginal weather knowledge, and plans to keep on updating it as it documents new indigenous weather calendars.
Aboriginal culture is dominated by a creation time called the Dreaming, which links past and present in a continuum. In it, the weather, land, plants, animals, people, previous generations and supernatural forces are all interrelated.
Frances Bodkin, a descendant of Sydney’s D’harawal Aborigines, said indigenous weather patterns were sign-posted by plants, animals, and the stars, and were as accurate as any modern-day meteorological forecast.
“Present-day scientists do their studies by measurements and experiments. Aboriginal people are just as good scientists, but they use observation and experience,” said Bodkin, a botanist.
The bushfires which burned through Sydney in the past two “European summers” came as no surprise to Aborigines, as Sydney’s queen wattle trees bloomed heavily for the past two years, a sign bushfires were coming, said Bodkin.
Sydney’s six-season Aboriginal calendar is based on the flowering of various native plants.
The weather phenomenon El Niqo has been blamed for Australia’s worst drought in 100 years — a dry spell which has seen bushfires blaze along the eastern seaboard, ringing Sydney and razing hundreds of homes in the national capital, Canberra.
But according to the D’harawal Aborigines, El Niqo is not to blame but the rare meteorological convergence of three ancient climate cycles.— Samina Iqbal
Painting with a computer
RECENTLY an exhibition of artist Manzoor Ahmed’s works was held at the Arts Council in Karachi. However, instead of the regular works of paintbrush Manzoor’s work is entirely computer-generated. He paints with the help of computers.
Nature is Manzoor’s biggest inspiration. His collection of 39 works of art have focused on glaciers, sunset and sunrises.
It took Ahmed five years to complete his collection. One painting takes five to six days to complete. “Computer painting is a new concept and this type of work needs mass awareness and acceptance. I am trying to contribute in my humble way to this effort,” he said.
A cheap drug for heart-attack
THE results of a meta-analysis done by researchers in UK, have provided a strategy to reduce cardiovascular disease by more than 80 per cent, states a recent issue of the British Medical Journal.
A single pill containing aspirin, a statin, three blood pressure reducing agents in half dose, and folic acid if provided to people with vascular disease and those over 55 years age, would reduce the risk for a heart attack or stroke by 80 per cent.
All the components except folic acid have proved their benefits. Trials with folic acid are ongoing. It is convincingly argued that three blood pressure lowering agents at half the standard dose achieve larger reductions in blood pressure. The side-effects are remarkably low.
Routine use of this Polypill requires further debate among the health professionals, because treating risk rather than risk factors is a new strategy. A wider debate is needed across society about extensive use of preventive medications, especially in people without symptomatic disease. Widespread integration into the population for this strategy would be required along with the root causes of smoking, obesity and high cholesterol levels.
It should be ensured that these interventions reach the people of developing countries, who receive little or no preventive care. The cost should be low as patent components would be inexpensive. This claim of the Polypill could be justified. Large reductions in smoking or other risk factors could achieve many health gains. But this potential should be a major goal for the developing countries.—Dr Fatema Jawad
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