A Nation, stumped

08/04/2018 0 Comments read Cricket & Sports

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 08.04.2018 (The Week): Australians are livid. Sport is paramount in their psyche. Cameron Bancroft’s brazen and premeditated attempt to tamper the ball, at the behest of captain Steve Smith and vice captain David Warner, has shocked and horrified Australians. These are people who espouse the tenets of ‘Advance Australia Fair’, which is enshrined in their national anthem sung with pride before every game.

Ishaan Oak and his classmates at Glenunga International High School in Adelaide were crestfallen to see the ball-tampering news unfold. “We were surprised, angry and saddened because all of us looked up to Steve Smith as the captain of the baggy green,” said Ishaan, 13, who had started playing cricket at the age of four, with his father in their suburban backyard.

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Robyn Norton: Closing the data gap is essential for reaching gender equity in health

11/11/2017 0 Comments read Gender, Health & Science

Professor Robyn Norton and Australian High Commissioner in India, Harinder Sidhu, at the launch of the 10th anniversary of The George Institute for Global Health in India book written by Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Professor Robyn Norton grew up observing her parents’ commitment to equity and social justice in improving people’s lives in Christchurch, gateway to New Zealand’s South Island. It left an enduring impression on her young mind. The women’s movement was reaching its peak during her high school years. She got drawn into thinking about addressing women’s health issues and moved to Sydney, Australia, and enrolled in a Master’s degree in Public Health.

Fast forward to late 1990s. She says, “The global burden of disease was changing, particularly in lower and middle-income countries where Non-Communicable Diseases [NCDs] and injuries were emerging as a leading cause of death and disability. The expertise to manage the emerging epidemic of NCDs and injuries was not available in these countries. Most of the global collaborations between the high income and low-income countries were still focused on maternal and child health and under nutrition”.

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Bruce Neal: Changing the way the world makes, markets and eats food

11/11/2017 0 Comments read Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Bruce Neal had been working on his doctorate on cardiovascular disease with the George Institute’s co-founder, Stephen MacMahon, in Auckland. It was 1999, Stephen and Robyn Norton were contemplating setting up an Institute focusing on the health consequences of chronic diseases in low and middle-income countries, and invited him to join.

“It was a novel idea to set up an Institute to address cardiovascular diseases and injuries in low-middle income settings. Until that time almost all the big international research institutes working in low- and middle-income countries focused on maternal and child health. So, I seized the opportunity and moved to Sydney”, says Professor Neal, who was born in the port city of Aden in Yemen. He studied medicine at Bristol University in England and worked for four years in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service before moving to New Zealand to begin a research career.

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