“Oh? Why should we do that?”

“We have to take care of the earth. The earth is sick,” he announced in between bites of his cake which he helped to bake earlier in the day.

He had just returned from the kindergarten, after spending three and half hours in the afternoon on a daily basis. I knew the kindy teachers must have talked to their students about Earth Hour (March 28^th, 8.30pm).

My son is rather shy in school and not particularly very participative in the movement and dance activities. During the first few weeks in the new term (In January), I had often stayed on to accompany him during the daily assemblies at the school hall where 200 children aged three and six years gathered for group exercise and “current affairs education”. My boy would usually stand observing everyone in action; quite rarely he would attempt to join in. However, he is completely different at home. He has performed for me all the songs he learnt in school. Most of the time whenever I ask how the day has been for him, he would reply, “wonderful’ or “fun” or even “amazing”…probably picked up the word from his favourite story book titled, “The Gruffalo”. So, it is indeed a pleasant surprise that he could remind me to switch off the essential lights for Earth Hour on Saturday, 28^th March.

This kindergarten, operated by the Soka Gakkai Cultural Group, has never failed to enlighten me about education and its purpose. In January, during one of the assemblies, the school supervisor presented a slide show of birds flying in the sky and then followed by an aeroplane. Then she narrated about the courageous pilot who did an emergency landing on the frozen Hudson River, in the United States, thus saving over a hundred lives. She explained that some birds were sucked into one of the plane’s engines which caused its failure. As she spoke in dual languages (English and Mandarin), photographs of the rescue mission on the Hudson River were shown on the big screen for the children. Then she told the children that no one was injured because “everyone listened, lined up one-by-one and followed instructions to safety”. She emphasized the importance of such instructions during emergency. The school was, at this time, educating the children about fire drills. My son, like many others, was also learning about being in a queue for the first time. Before she concluded the session, a portrait of Mr Barrack Obama came onto the screen. “Children, do you know this man? He is a very important man and tomorrow he will be making history in the United States of America and the world. Let me tell you all about it tomorrow.”

With such a teaser, even I wouldn’t miss it for the world. So, I found myself at the hall again the next afternoon. I wondered what the school’s message for the children might be? The supervisor prepared her material well. Without getting into the complexity of the serious affair, she highlighted Mr Barrack Obama’s key message in his inauguration speech as the 44^th President of the United States of America: be friendly to our neighbours and everyone in the world. Through tolerance and understanding, we can achieve peace and harmony together. What a lovely way to present it!

My two older children (now aged 11 and 9) had also benefited from this school’s philosophy. When the Iraq war broke out, the teachers revised a huge part of the curriculum to concentrate on educating the children about atrocities of war and the importance of peace and harmony through creative approaches. Similarly when the tsunami came and changed the lives of millions, the school proactively educated the children about generosity, kindness and love. All the their lessons were done at the level of the children’s development.

School like this is a rare breed. So far, I have yet to come across another kindergarten which would go to such lengths to instill good virtues in their students. Kindergartens in my area are more concerned about making a child write and count and recite the ABCs. They are given homework (writing pages of the alphabet and memorizing words for spelling tests) and examinations. I once protested about examinations and homework to a kindergarten teacher who operates a mere 50 metres from my home. I was told that they requested by parents. Parents, apparently would worry if their children cannot read or write at age 5 or 6.

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, un-forgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

We all have had experienced powerful emotions such as anger that feels hot in the stomach and grief/sadness that pains the heart. My friend’s mentor was a social activist who worked tirelessly and selflessly within a male-dominated society. Prior to her diagnosis, she went through a bitter divorce from a 15-year marriage. I comforted my friend by telling her that her mentor’s untimely death was not in vain. We could all learn from her experiences and live a happy and spiritual life.

Cancer Updates from John Hopkins Hospital
===========================

After years of telling people chemotherapy is the only way to try (try the key word) and eliminate cancer, John Hopkins is finally starting to tell you there is AN ALTERNATIVE WAY.

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person’s lifetime

3. When the person’s immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.

4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.

7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.

11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.

CANCER CELLS FEED ON:
a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in color. Better alternative is Bragg’s amino or sea salt.

b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soya milk cancer cells are being starved.

c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.

d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains,, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts)and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).

e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines becomes putrified and leads to more toxic buildup.

13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body’s killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.

14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body’s own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body’s normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, un-forgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.

(PLEASE FORWARD IT TO PEOPLE YOU CARE ABOUT) CANCER UPDATE FROM JOHN HOPKINS HOSPITAL, U.S. A.
PLEASE READ
1. No plastic containers in micro.
2. No water bottles in freezer.
3. No plastic wrap in microwave.

Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in its newsletters. This information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well. Dioxin chemicals cause cancer, especially breast cancer.Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies. Don’t freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases
dioxins from the plastic. Recently, Dr. Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital , was on a TV program to explain this health hazard. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us.. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers.This especially applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Instead, he recommends using glass, such as Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food. You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else. Paper isn’t bad but you don’t know what is in the paper. It’s just  safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc. He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead.

Driving home one late evening with the radio blaring on, I heard American psychologist Dr James Dobson (of Focus On The Family) spoke about building a child’s self image.

He narrated a story of how a nursery teacher had greeted a pair of twin girls with superlative compliments in a packed room of other preschoolers and their parents. He said while it was clear that the compliment had boosted the two girls’ confidence, he couldn’t be as certain about the rest of the children in the class. What he felt certain was the foremost question going through those young minds: “What about me?”

Dr Dobson further said a recent research had concluded that children begun acquiring some form of perceived self-image as young as three years old and therefore parents and teachers ought to be more cautious with their compliments and criticisms to young children.

Dr Dobson’s comment reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend whose daughters were nine and 13 years old. At a recent supermarket trip, Leo and his eldest daughter met some acquaintances. While Leo exchanged pleasantries with the man, he noticed his daughter didn’t have much to talk to her classmate. Apparently the two girls had been very good friends just a few years ago.

When Leo brought it up later, his daughter replied nonchalantly, “Pa, she belongs to the ‘Beautiful Club’ and she has three boyfriends! We don’t have much to talk about anymore.” At that moment, Leo was relieved that his daughter had more important things on her mind than looking beautiful and keeping up with three boyfriends.

He strongly believes that the input we give to our daughters when they are young has a great impact on their adolescence years. “My other daughter is very different. She has always been praised for her beauty from young and I can see how much emphasis she puts on her appearance. Winnie may be nine but she takes a long time to get dressed for a short trip to the shopping mall. If we hurry her or if she is not satisfied with her hairdo or appearance, she would rather stay home. I am bracing myself for some difficult times with her in the coming years,” he said.

From Leo’s sharing, I have learnt that the more important values we want to teach our offspring are kindness, generosity, confidence and love. And to do it best is through our very own actions and speech.