Panderia

There's no question that there is a very real threat of a swine flu pandemic (p.s it's officially a pandemic now) and it might kill a large number of people. One of the biggest killers, in fact, the second biggest killer of under 5's in Africa, is diarrohea. This is because ordinary people do not understand that washing hands after going to the toilet and changing a baby's nappy, or sterilising water can prevent it. Mostly they don't even have access to safe drinking water, let alone tissues.
Tuberculosis, complicated by HIV, is another infectious disease brought about by overcrowding, poor hygeine and lack of knowledge about how droplet infection can spread disease.It usually occurs in poor uneducated people.
Despite these being massive killers that no flu epidemic could ever match, the message of hygiene has still not been impressed upon people.
I heard a BBC World service interview the other day- a doctor was saying that it was vital that governments prepared people for the eventuality of swine flu. People must be told how to prevent person to person infection by washing hands regularly, avoiding overcrowded places, using tissues and disposing of them correctly. This all involves the principles of infection control. It also requires a safe supply of drinking water

If it takes swine 'flu hysteria (panderia) to impress upon people about hygenic practices that prevent infection of any sort then it is a positive thing- perhaps it will help to reduce diarrohoea, malaria, TB and HIV too. Perhaps people will get into the habit of washing their hands and it will have a knock on effect.Sadly, swine flu is much more sexy and there is lots of money to be made out of vaccines, so I doubt we will have time to see it.

Every Cloud has a Silver Lining

Recipe for Paneer (Indian cottage cheese a la Floyd)


3 Litres full cream milk
90ml lemon juice or vinegar.


Put milk in a saucepan and heat it. Just before it boils add vinegar or lemon juice which will curdle the milk. Turn off the heat, place a muslin cloth over a suitable sized vessel and strain curds and whey through the muslin. Once curds are totally drained, squeeze them into a ball in the muslin and place under a heavy weight for 3 hours to turn it into a block that can then be cut into cubes. Then refrigerate and use for your favourite indian dish such as tandoori paneer or sag paneer (with spinach- see Floyd)


or........ Go to the shop where you always win in Blantyre. Buy a few boxes of Parmalat full cream milk. Open one to pour over your cereal in the morning and notice the whey trickling on to your cocoa pops. Smell the milk. It's not sour, so get a pair of scissors and cut the box open. Voila! beautiful fresh paneer- ready made. No need for muslin and suitable vessels nor heavy weights. Give some to the dog to check it's not poisonous. Looking forward to my sag paneer.

Question is, what agent caused the milk to curdle inside the box?

Who am I to play small?

In the words of Nelson Mandela

'We ask ourselves: Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone.'