#5SmartReads - January 6, 2023

Hitha on India's rise, American coups, and manifesting

January 06, 2023

My mom loves to tell folks about my fifth grade history report about Indira Gandhi, specifically the last line. According to her, I wrote “One day, the golden eagle of the East [India] will fly again.”

It may have taken 28 years, but it looks like India is doing just that on the economic front (they surpassed Great Britain in terms of the world’s largest economies), we have leaders of Indian descent leading countries and companies and in entertainment, and now in population.

Now, there’s plenty of policy decisions that India’s leaders have made that I vehemently disagree with. But that’s another topic for another day.

On the topic of India’s population boom, one thing is clear. The future for India is female.

“Compared to previous generations, these newborn Indians are more likely to be born in a hospital than at home; more likely to survive to adulthood; more likely to become literate, educated and multilingual; and more likely to migrate within their lifetime, to different parts of their own country or the rest of the world…

Women and girls are the big beneficiaries of India's population boom, and they're changing the country in profound and unexpected ways, demographers say. The story of Vehant's mother — and the choices she's made — reflect the way that this new generation will grow up with far different prospects than past generations and will change the country itself.”

That’s not to say that this future is without its problems, as this article unpacks. But it reminds me of the incredible work of the Desai Foundation and She’s The First, who are actively working to opportunities for Indian girls and women (especially in rural areas) and build a more equitable society.

I am a bit of a woo woo girl.

Okay, not a bit. I’m pretty woo - especially when it comes to manifestation.

I read The Secret shortly after my 25th birthday and decided I wanted to manifest my husband. I met Sri a month after finalizing my “husband list” (that whole story is in this video).

I picked that book back up a few months back, and had a hard time connecting to it the way I did when I was 25. I found what I was looking for in Roxie Nafousi’s Manifest and subsequently purchased the trifecta (the physical book, Kindle version, and audiobook).

The Secret came out before social media gained its foothold in our everyday life. I read it when I was still taking my digital camera to the clubs and uploading Facebook albums. With the rise of social media platforms - and the influencer industry - came a significant rise in envy. And addressing envy head on is a big part of Manifest and a powerful lesson I took from the book.

If you pick up this book for the section on envy alone, it’ll be worth it. This interview with Nafousi is a nice preview to this topic.

If you thought January 6, 2021 was the first time in American history that a fair election attempted to be overthrown, here’s a history lesson for you.

FDR faced his own attempted coup during his presidency - and a better organized and financed one at that.

“Roosevelt’s bold New Deal experiments inflamed the upper class, provoking a backlash from the nation’s most powerful bankers, industrialists and Wall Street brokers, who thought the policy was not only radical but revolutionary. Worried about losing their personal fortunes to runaway government spending, this fertile field of loathing led to the “traitor to his class” epithet for FDR. “What that fellow Roosevelt needs is a 38-caliber revolver right at the back of his head,” a respectable citizen said at a Washington dinner party.

In a climate of conspiracies and intrigues, and against the backdrop of charismatic dictators in the world such as Hitler and Mussolini, the sparks of anti-Rooseveltism ignited into full-fledged hatred. Many American intellectuals and business leaders saw nazism and fascism as viable models for the US.”

That this coup did not succeed is a testament to a defector and swift action from J. Edgar Hoover at the FBI.

I think a lot about the impact social media has on our society, both the good and the bad. We talk a lot about the negative impacts - the rise of echo chambers so powerful that they all but brainwash people into believing misinformation and acting on it, the never-ending barrage of content. But one of the rare specks of light in this cesspool is that we do have access to information and a clear record in a way we didn’t in the past.

My love for Lyre’s nonalcoholic spirits has been going for a couple of years now, and these spirits (not the OG alcohol-based ones) have gotten me quite into mixology.

The story behind the brand - and how they make their spirits - is a fascinating one, and gives me a greater appreciation for my Lyre’s bar at home.

“It’s still early days for the category. One of the challenges is – take whisky for example – about 40 percent of it is pure ethanol. Ethanol is a very high gravity product. It feels heavy and substantial on the palate. When you’re taking the same flavours and putting them into a water base, it feels lighter. So the number one thing that we need to deal with is gravity in the beverage.”

“The second thing we need to deal with is alcohol behaves physiologically with the body very differently to how water does. It inflames the tongue and the cheeks and the palate. There is blood rushing to the mouth because there’s a solvent and it’s damaging the lining. So inadvertently it increases the intensity of flavour.”

I didn’t quite appreciate the science and chemistry that’s gone into developing Lyre’s spirits and ready-to-drink sips, and I have a deeper appreciation for them and this emerging non-alcoholic beverage industry.

Now let’s get them in more restaurants, please! Especially the Contessa Negroni:

This is the best application for telemedicine I’ve seen - and one of the most humane.

Sexual assault examinations are extremely labor and time-intensive, and requires additional training beyond the already high nursing education.

That a SANE (sexual assault nurse examiner) can log into a call with a patient and remote nurse, with the help of a video camera and magnifying device, to perform these exams at an urgent care? It’s a really big deal.

Especially in rural communities, where getting to the nearest hospital with a SANE could take hours.

“Research shows SANE programs encourage psychological healing, provide comprehensive health care, allow for professional evidence collection, and improve the chance of a successful prosecution.

Jennifer Pierce-Weeks is CEO of the International Association of Forensic Nurses, which created the national standards and certification programs for sexual assault nurse examiners. She said every sexual assault survivor faces health consequences. Assaults can cause physical injuries, sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies, and mental health conditions that can lead to suicide attempts and drug and alcohol misuse.

“If they are cared for on the front end, all of the risks of those things can be reduced dramatically with the right intervention,” Pierce-Weeks said.”

Now how do we get these examinations reviewed and logged with law enforcement expeditiously?

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