Bay Watching in a Burqini

0 Comments read Cricket & Sports, Gender
Nevine Houri, Mecca Laalaa and Malaak Mourad at a multicultural festival in Darling Harbour, Sydney. Photo Credit: © Lakemba Sport and Recreation Club

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 31.03.2007 (WFS): As a child, Nevine Houri was petrified of water, a phobia developed after a near-drowning incident while growing up in the suburbs of western Sydney, far from the country’s beautiful beaches. Today, she is one of the three Muslim women who have seized the opportunity to join a small, all-women group of surf lifesavers in Australia.

These women were trained under Surf Life Saving Australia‘s (SLSA) $600,000 national programme – On the Same Wave – funded by the Australian government to directly bring Muslim and other culturally and linguistically diverse communities to the fore.

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Dr Jacquelin Perry, pioneer of Gait, who aided polio survivors

0 Comments read Disability, Gender, Health & Science, Poliomyelitis
Photo Credit: © Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

St Louis (Missouri, USA): For the growing number of polio survivors facing new challenges with the onset of post polio syndrome, world renowned polio specialist Dr. Jacquelin Perry says, “Listen to your body. Feel the aches and pains. Don’t Push. Control your destiny”.

Infantile paralysis or polio epidemics struck America from the 1920s to late 1950s afflicting 1.8 million children. The disease killed some and disabled others.

“The effects were like spatter paint. If you had a lot of paint, you had a lot of damage, while others were just touched lightly. Polio is a nerve disease that damages or kills anterior horn cells. The survivors were left with a damaged neuro-muscular system”, explains Dr Perry.

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Cryonics, will science fiction become fact?

0 Comments read Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 02.10.2006 (DNAIndia): Some people love life too much to ever let go. Australian biologist Philip Rhoades is one of hundreds of people, who believe in Cryonics. It is the practice of suspending normal decay processes in people, who have been declared legally dead, by storing them at low temperatures in the hope of future medical re-animation.

As a boy, growing up in the western suburbs of Sydney, Rhoades’ favourite pastime was reading science fiction. He was particularly drawn towards John Wyndham’s `logical fantasy’ novels.

“I liked The Chrysalids most and I had assumed that by the time I would grow old; science, medicine and technology would evolve a way to keep us alive forever”, says 54-year-old Rhoades, who is establishing Australia’s first Cryonic Centre.

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