A report in the New York Times yesterday suggests that there is now evidence of Covid-19 transmitting faster in cold, dry climates and slower in warm, humid climates. Warmer Weather May Slow, but Not Halt Coronavirus by Knvul Sheikh and Ernesto Londono, dated March 22, 2020, discusses a study conducted by researchers at Massachusetts Institute … More Age of Uncertainty
The nation’s leader earns less than $1,000 per month. Yet he has a helipad on the roof of his city home, multiple luxury vehicles, travels frequently by private helicopter shielded by two military helicopters leading and following, travels overseas frequently, and his family have homes in New Zealand, Australia, Europe and beyond. When you have … More A Viral Escalation
A global epidemic is currently rocking humanity’s sanity. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2, shortened to SARS-CoV-2, is the official name for the virus that causes the disease known as Covid19. The virus is genetically related to two previous Coronavirus outbreaks. SARS first caused global panic in 2003. That outbreak lasted from November 2002 until July … More An Epidemic of Panic
Over recent weeks I have listened on to Hollywood celebrities and social media stars calling for donations to the bush fire cause in Australia, as friends in Europe and US have asked me where I recommend their bushfire donations be directed. My response has been “give it to people in countries who need it and … More Listen to the people who cannot speak
This is a World Health Organisation growth chart for a child from birth to six months old. The Y axis follows weight in kilograms, while the X axis follows the age in weeks to 12 weeks, then in months to six months. The coloured curves traveling from the left to the right of the chart … More TB? Or Not TB?
Sadly I’m returning to Australia after four very fast months in Cambodia. The last few days have been busy tidying up loose ends. Yesterday I had a final child health meeting in a Phnom Penh neighbourhood of busy alleyways encircling a very large pagoda. Tuk tuk rooftop scraped past truck walls, moto handlebars knocked my … More Pre-Departure Refurbishments
Both of these young women are Cambodian. One is 23yo from current day peasant roots and the other, now a generation or two removed from her peasant roots, 17yo from an established ruling class family. Juxtaposed, these photographs demonstrate my point that poverty is not necessarily a visible thing. So often I have encountered elegant … More A Collision of Two Lives
Cambodia is in the throes of “the Hot season”, better known in tropical Australia as “the Build-Up”. It is hot and extremely humid, with clouds building up in the sky but very little rain, so that the humidity just builds and builds. Even the locals are suffering. Tonight, leaving my apartment, our security guard was … More Cool Fires
The Kingdom of Wonder is a very flat land. Consequently, any small hill is well known and often named as a “mountain”. One of the first places I visited in Cambodia was perhaps the most well known mountain in Kampong Cham province, where I cycled with colleagues at the end of 2013. During that visit, … More Kingdom of Wonders
Kung Future is a tiny NGO working in Phnom Penh off the smell of an oily rag, with landless Cham people who live on their boats at the conflux of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers. This week Kung Future reported the death of a two year old boy who fell off the boat he … More Every Time I Go On A Plane
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