The World Health Organization (WHO) historically considered a C-section rate of 10–15% as an approximate threshold. Over the past three decades, however, the global prevalence of Caesarean deliveries has risen sharply, tripling from about 7% in the early 1990s to roughly 20–21% today. A number of countries stand out as clear outliers: Turkey reports rates … Continue reading The C-Section Boom
If there’s one unmistakable feature of our society today, it should be the falling birth rates. Unlike the generation of our parents, its quite common today to come across couples who have voluntarily decided to not have kids. Having a first baby in your 30s is common. And anyone having more than two children are … Continue reading Fertility Rates, Gender Equality and the Math of Human Extinction
Soon after finishing ‘Twelfth Night’, I watched the 1996 movie adaptation by Trevor Nunn and was better able to appreciate the play. Four hundred years before gender, queerness and homoerotic love became a fad, we have the Bard tackling all these themes in a comedy without breaking a sweat. That said, I found the plot … Continue reading Twelfth Night
During this era Singapore Airlines, a government company, ran a centerfold advertisement that featured an Asian woman of somewhat vague ethnicity. She could have been Chinese, Indian, or Malay. She stood in a misty, impressionistic setting, looking out at the reader demurely, holding a single water lily. There was no information about the airline’s fare … Continue reading Bananas, Beaches and Bases
