Musings on Community

Last week I met a Canadian living in Adelaide with her husband and son for 5 years.  They are  gainfully employed but their son, now 18, has struggled. She told me how difficult it’s been for him to meet kids, and that he fell in with the wrong ‘mob’. She said that she and her husband haven’t made friends outside of their work colleagues. She called Adelaide ‘clicky’. Others say the same. 

Her negativity caused me to reflect on my situation.  I came here with names of local people, one I’d met, two were friends of friends. Although I reached out to them they never reciprocated. However my landlady, who has lived in Adelaide most of her adult life has included me in her social life. 

As you’ve seen on the blog my friends are other students and transplanted colleagues. People a long way from home who find community with others in the same situation.  Maybe it’s because as Caucasians we fit easily into the culture here and don’t feel the need to gather.

Adelaide is full of foreign students from East Timor, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philipines, India, China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. When I speak with them I find  they have formed their own communities which host celebrations for religious and other festivals where they sell food and local handicrafts. In fact, some of them complain that their community has too many activities going on when they need to study.

Students from developing countries look up to western cultures and think that we have it all.  But we don’t. We’ve lost community. We no longer go to church or get together in our neighbourhoods. We are an individualistic culture.  Social capital is about the networks you are involved with and is seen as a determinant of health. I see such support and the strong sense of community and kinship in these countries having a positive influence on health and wellbeing.  

So I enjoy socializing with students from these countries, as in these recent photos. 

 

Surfin' Moey

Did you know I've had a secret desire to be a surfer chick, or 'chook' as they say here?  More like hen!  My youth was spent body surfing on the Maine Coast.  But I'd never 'hung ten'.  A fellow student and her husband took me out on the weekend to Moana - a surfer's paradise.

Unlike skis, you wax the TOP of the board. And yes, a helmet!

Rode waves right up on the sand!

Waiting for the right wave - timing is a skill

With Darryl's help I got up...

and down...

and up with a 'friend'!

Alive and elated! 

Kate (the photogapher) and Darryl - a great couple who gave me a great gift to remember!

My neighbourhood is blooming

Walking in the hills

 Hiked today in warm, but breezy 27C temperatures, where there was snow last week. 

Met a woman, who when finding out where I was from, mentioned a former Canadian colleague at the University of Queensland. I know her!  People in Adelaide say there's only 2 degrees of separation here and I'm beginning to believe it. In the last month I've met 3 people who know Edmontonians.

 

  

More sleepy koalas, perched precariously on the boughs of the gum trees. 

,

Snow!

Snow at Hallet

So you're thinking, as Canada is getting colder, Australia is getting warmer and Cynthia must be enjoying nice temperatures. Well you're wrong. The Antarctic winds are cold and strong. It snowed in the hills near here Thursday morning. I watched the horizontal rain from school. 

You can imagine the news. It was one of the top headlines across the country!

October is known for its temperature changes, from the high teens for a day or two to 28C for a couple of days.  In fact, I'll be up in those hills hiking on Sunday and the forecast is sunny and 27C.


But snow!?  It hadn't fallen in October here in over 100 years!

How I became a reflexive health promoter

Ever since high school I wanted to promote health and well-being. I saw myself as someone who could help people live healthy, happy lives, disease and illness free.  It seemed simple to me, you just had to eat healthy, be physically active and reduce the stress in your life. Coming from a middle class upbringing I didn’t understand it was not easy for everyone.  

I held positions promoting physical activity in various capacities, in the health and active living sectors, and then moved into research and policy. In 2004 I started teaching the course Strategies in Health Promotion Practice in the Masters of Public Health at the University of Alberta.  I knew about and advocated for the social determinants of health and the principles of equity and inclusion. I grew and changed and became disillusioned with policy and practice in Alberta. I read Wilkinson and Pickett’s book The Spirit Level and understood that inequality, the gap between rich and poor, is hurting some more than others, but affects us all.

So, on the invitation of a colleague I came to Australia, to a University known for its social democratic focus and a department lead by Fran Baum and her philosophy of health promotion and ‘the new public health’ to undertake the Doctorate in Public Health, a program not offered in Canada.  My goals  were to focus on equity, health promotion, chronic disease prevention, primary health care – areas I knew; pick a topic that was doable while I was here for 10 months: join an existing research team; and learn about the Australian health experience. I brought ideas for dissertation topics. In fact, I had been offered work on an Alberta research team that could form my dissertation. 

A faculty member approached me to work with her on obesity.  Seeking advice, my colleague said, “You’ve been there already”. I resisted but she persisted. It was a hot topic and there was an existing research team to welcome me.  My goals could be achieved, so I agreed. Hence I started my journey of the past 7 months.

Here’s what I know.   The rates of obesity started to rise in the 1980s in the US.  I lived in Britain then and people were slim but when I returned to Canada I noticed the difference. We had all gotten fatter. Ironically, despite the fact that we are all larger, the stigma of being overweight and obese in all aspects of society persists.  Adiposity is inversely related to social economic status. Telling poor people to join a gym or buy pomegranates doesn’t work. Despite what is portrayed on the TV show America’s (and Australia’s) Biggest Loser, overweight people can only sustain a weight loss of 10% or less.  And, despite our knowledge, research and evidence about inequity, poverty, and vulnerable groups, programs and policies are still enforced and focused on healthy eating and physical activity, targeted at the middle class, and big surprise, they’re not working.

I realised that I had believed in obesity reduction strategies focused on lifestyle and personal responsibility my whole career. Furthermore, I had been a strong advocate for tobacco reduction efforts that further marginalized the poor, mentally ill and others. I had blamed parents for their fat kids and had, despite knowing the addictive qualities of tobacco, felt that those who wanted to lose weight just had to put their minds to it. On a personal level I also recognized that I was sizest. 

I now know different, much different. I am appalled at photos of headless fat people in the media and on researcher’s PowerPoint presentations. I am appalled at the money that continues to be poured into researching active living and healthy eating programs that fail repeatedly, all the while stigmatizing people who, although they are fat, are often healthy and no more prone to chronic diseases than a person who is thin. Some programs purposefully stigmatize smokers and obese people to “help” them deal with their issue, in the name of public health!

So I am continuing to learn, address my biases and prejudices in areas broader than just obesity.  My research includes interviewing diabetic clients in a primary health care clinic to get their perspectives, which is rare in the literature.

My supervisor is a fan of the artist Escher whose drawings show images that cause the viewer to take a second look and see a different perspective. This is not an Escher, but it represents how I see myself.    

and recreating yourself!