literacy

When systems don’t work…daily hassles and political mishaps

Long lines and standing for hours, elderly people fainting, headaches, confusion of what and how a new system works for a new electronic train ticket-card system, even the most literate of us can’t figure out the process….the current Greek Transport Minister unjustifiably focusing on blaming a businessman of “cheating the government” who started a company amidst the Greek crisis in 2011 (Taxibeat) the latter it turns out has paid legal fees as his company headquarters are in U.K. Yet, the aforementioned Minister tries to offset the REAL issues of the transport procedural mess. What a political mishap!

Post getting the transport cards what about thinking of saving trees 🌲 and not having so many plastic bags as you see from the trash of papers in or should I say outside the seemingly useless rubbish bins?!

Daily hassles and constant policy and legal changes add to burden of mental and physical health of populations. If Holmes and Rahe who created the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) in 1967 indicating that our increased levels of stress due to multitudes of hassles can cause serious illness,  wanted a real-world lab they would have great field research! As a matter of fact the Greek people could write the book of “The Hassles of Our Everyday Lives!” But why? Why can’t governments teach their own the PDSA cycles — Plan, Do, Study, Act? Adequate hassle-less procedures to easier access are part of building our community’s health literacy. We can pilot test the system, fix the kinks and run again, to ensure a more flawless implementation…. and not to constantly reinvent the wheel, too logical? I know…

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Survive the heat wave!

This last week seems many major cities, in several countries have been having unbearable heat waves. One can take some advantage of vacation/ holiday time and spend your day next to the actual beach waves, lakes, ponds, rivers, trying to gather as much moisture, drinking much water and steering clear from most alcohol (see last post), all the while minding your sun intake and wearing sunscreen under an umbrella with preferably a scarf or hat. Stop by a trendy or well-known ice cream parlor in the popular range of Haagen Daz or Ben and Jerry’s to area local business like Cape Cod Creamery — support local economies. I particularly like the CCC’s Truro Turtle, their classic French vanilla, and the Dennis Double Chocolate ice cream (enjoyed separately with mindfulness eating of course). I then played some mini golf and did some extra walking to burn those extra yet amazingly tasting calories!

Typical advice. Stay cool, protect, replenish.

Listening to favorite tunes? Into reading? We are visual creatures of fantasy so many of you can think of great summer tunes to take you to that “Isla Bonita” as you imagine drinking that non-alcoholic pina colada right? My latest was to read a novel part of a book series called “Deep Blue” by Jennifer Donnelly (soon to be made into a Disney film I’m sure as we haven’t had any mermaid sequels since Ariel!). Even though this book was in the category of “Young Adult Reader” the cover was enough to draw me in to forgotten worlds like Atlantis, while introducing language including English, Romanian, Greek, and Gaelic. Adventure books may lead some to sweat but it had enough “cool” water scenes to keep me refreshed, and I learned something to increase my own literacy!

Anyone denying we have climate change and it is getting both hotter and colder? Hmm. Well then Mr. U.S. President we beg to differ…..when you have power outages due to overuse of air conditioning and cannot access clean beaches since the plastics and various garbage has affected large ecosystems let’s chat again shall we?