One of the things you want to do when you are in Paris is to schedule a visit to Louvre Museum and have a glimpse of “Mona Lisa”, the world’s most famous painting. Once you enter the museum, you get disconnected from the present, and the time machine rolls back, and you witness the era the world has gone through. Observation of International Museum Day” started in 1977. Established due to the initiative of “The International Council of Museums (ICOM)”. The observation is to enhance awareness of the role museums plays in the development of society. The theme for this year, “The Future of Museums: Recover and Reimagine”, encourages the identification of new practices of creation, business models and innovative solutions. The ancient heritage of a country, its civilization, art not only matters of that country but to the entire world. It gives the experience of an old era. It is a huge responsibility to protect and take care of them all. International Museum Day 2021 will focus on rethinking the museum of the future to meet the challenges of the present.
Human beings have an uncontrolled urge to communicate. There was a record of people using birds for delivering the messages, many of them well trained for the purpose. With time things have changed. The last 150 years has changed the way the world communicates. The advancements in the field of telecommunication, people are able to connect. In the beginning, when the technologies were emerging, affordability and availability have been the issue. With the emergence of the Internet, access to information has become a lot easier. We are justified to state that we are all living in the information era. The financial transactions are practically at the tip of your finger. Of course, there are issues relating to the rapid developments -information overload, privacy and bullying on the net, etc. “World Telecommunication and Information Society Day” is being celebrated every year on 17 May. The day marks the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) founding and signing the first International Telegraph Convention in 1865. There is a lot more to telecommunications than talking on the phones. There is an Indian connection to this development. Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose was the person who first demonstrated the science behind capturing radio waves. The world is gaga about 5G due to greater bandwidth, reduce latency and faster communication with cloud platforms. Another technological revolution in the making is Quantum communication. India’s telecommunication network is the second-largest in the world and one of the lowest call-tariffs in the world. The developments in telecommunication have helped initiatives like E-governance, deliver mass education programmes.
“Can somebody throw some light” one ponders when you do not understand something? Yes, light plays a crucial role in the existence of the Universe. Light has always fascinated humanity. Recall the excitement of focussing the sunlight using a lens on a paper and seeing it get heated up? “The International Day of Light” being observed since 2017 on May 16. On this day, the laser was successfully operated for the first time in 1960 by physicist and engineer Theodore Maiman. Technologies based on light play an important role in improving agriculture and farming. Vegetables and fruits can be grown indoors with the help of appropriate lighting outside of their regular season, opening possibilities for year-round crop cultivation, even in inhospitable regions. Optical technologies play a crucial role in medicine, from simple diagnostics and monitoring to advanced treatment options and research. Light is an inspiring subject in many disciplines and is the perfect catalyst to promote science education among young people. It acts as a lever to encourage careers in science and engineering, as well as stimulating entrepreneurship. Light is present everywhere. You can find it sometimes without any effort. Needs to focus on it realise the crucial role it plays in the lives of human being and survival of the planet.
The family is the smallest and most crucial building block of society. “The International Day of Families” is an opportunity to promote awareness of families’ issues and increase the knowledge of the social, economic, and demographic processes affecting families. The 2021 observance of the International Day of Families focuses on the effects of new technologies on the well-being of families. A crisis is a time when you look to your family and bank on their support. In pursuit of achieving materialistic benefits, many spend disproportionate time at work. Early burnouts, becoming directionless at a very young age, increase lifestyle-based diseases challenging the health care systems are all being experienced by societies. An increasing number of families with working parents is changing the contours of the family. Newer support systems are being sought and emerging. With many people pursuing their careers in far off places searching for greener pastures, a new dimension the societies need to put in place a support system for elderly care. It is time to introspect about what family means and how to get close to the people you love. After all, no matter what, in the journey of one’s life, a family is family. Family Who are in your lives Who want you in theirs Who accept you for who you are Who love you no matter what
International Nurses Day is celebrated every year from 1974 on May 12 to acknowledge the yeoman service the nursing community renders and to commemorate the birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale, “The Lady with the Lamp”, and the founder of modern nursing. This COVID pandemic has brought to the fore the critical role of the nurses in providing health care. The lessons learnt in handling the Pandemic would pave the way for arriving at robust mechanisms in health care. Nursing is a profession that requires both patience and knowledge. Putting their lives at risk and with determination for the sake of saving lives, they perform their duties. Nurses are two-thirds of the health workforce in India. India has 1.7 nurses per 1,000 population, which is 43% less than the WHO norm. The worrying factor is that the availability of nurses is not uniform across India. Alarmingly 73 districts had no nurses with a medical qualification. The roles of nurses are evolving and changing. Home care is increasingly becoming a domain where governments must pay attention and adding a different dimension to health care. Nurses are going to play a crucial role in meeting this growing demand. When you are not well and needs health care, it is the nurse who attends to you. These are all the people with lamps in their hands, administering hope and spreading the light of hope. Rarely you may remember these selfless health care professionals. For a patient and family members, not being well is for a limited time of suffering to endure. But people in the nursing profession, day in and day out, attend to those who are not well. The world cannot achieve universal health coverage or Sustainable Development Goals without them.
National Technology Day is celebrated to commemorate the quest for scientific inquiry, technological creativity and translating them into meeting the needs of society. The successful conduct of “Smiling Buddha” (May 1974), “Shakti” and making India part of the elite club of countries with nuclear capability in May 1998. The month of May that year has also seen the first indigenous two-seater aircraft, Hansa-3, developed by the NAL (a CSIR lab), being flown in Bangalore and DRDO completing the final test-fire of the “Trishul” missile, leading to its induction into the services. The celebration is much more than a historical event as the technology itself is the gateway to the future. It highlights the importance of science in daily life and encourages the younger generation to consider pursuing science as a career option. Celebrations like this are also to enthuse, encourage, and inspire children to opt for science to study and pursue it as a career. The recent announcement of a drug developed by DRDO to treat the COVID patients is heartening and relieving development. When the country is struggling to cope with the COVID, celebrations like these are reassuring to the people that we could do in the past and can and will do it now. Let us celebrate and look through the prism of these successes with the hope to conquer the COVID pandemic.
There are many varieties of illnesses that can be unfolded, and Thalassemia Illness is one of them. Every year 8th May is observed as World Thalassemia Day. Thalassemia is a kind of blood dysfunction and the international observation on this day is to learn about this dysfunction, treatment, and preventive measures. The human body has so many systems, and mechanisms and nature have the strength to keep them going. When the body does these functions efficiently day in and day out, humans take them for granted and burden them with worries in the name of achieving success and enhancing the quality of life. One experience’s best quality of life is to ensure the body functions in the best possible way, and when it is doing, recognise, acknowledge, and celebrate and add satisfaction. Conditions like Thalassemia remind humanity about so many unfinished jobs the tremendous and dedicated human minds must achieve and minimise the suffering if not eliminate them. Historically, the defective gene originated from near the Mediterranean region, hence the name “thalas”, meaning sea. Worldwide, there are 270 million suffering from Thalassemia, with thirty to forty thousand babies born annually. 90% of those births are in low- and middle-income countries. One in eight thalassemia carriers in India is described as the Thalassemia capital of the world. Close to 1 lakh patients lose their life to the disease before they turn 20. There are many who are suffering from Thalassemia, and they need our help. Stepping out to donate blood is a way of extending a helping hand. You are lucky that your body can replenish what you have donated within a short time. Celebrate the gift of your body’s capability to replenish by donating whenever you can readily.
Making fire to generate heat and light made it possible for people to cook food. The ability to control fire was a dramatic change in the habits of early humans. Would you risk your own life for saving someone and that whom you do not know? Firefighters are that breed who does it when needed and have chosen it to be their profession. International Firefighters’ Day is observed on May 4 every year is all about them. “Fireman” considered to be an ancient profession, tracing back to ancient Egypt and China. Germans were credited as the first lawmakers in the fire safety reported to be in the 17th century. Fire prevention and the need for more intensive and thorough training are among the main aspects of International Firefighters’ Day. Accidental fires caused 6% of all unnatural deaths in India, the third highest after car accidents at 53%, and drowning at 9%. Fire accidents kill 54 people daily in India. The data indicates a steady year-on-year decline in the number of fire accidents reported in the country. India is very poorly equipped to handle them and with most of them in government hospitals. Fire is one of the five elements (Pancha Bhutas) and is the basis of all cosmic creation. All rituals have fire associated with them due to the belief that Agni was responsible for carrying the offerings of human beings to the gods. Do not play with fire, one says, but that is the noble people’s profession.
Every year, 3 May is observed as World Press Freedom Day to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom, defend the media from attacks on their independence and pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives while being on duty. Newspapers have always been the primary medium of journalists since the 18th century. It was Radio and television in the 20th century and the Internet in the 21st century. The changing technology saw a steady increase in the scope of news available to us and the speed with which it is transmitted. “Yomiuri Shimbun” from Japan has the highest circulation globally, followed by Indian Newspaper “Dainik Jagaran”. One would be alarmed to know that Journalism is restricted in well over two-thirds of the countries across the globe. There are 162 million readers of daily newspapers in India. Every year around 100 journalists are killed and 250 imprisoned. Over the years, Turkey and China have consistently vied for the unenviable title as the world’s worst jailer of journalists. The health crisis arising out of the COVID pandemic has created new challenges to the safety of journalists in addition to the ones they face regularly. Next time you pick up the newspaper to read or browse the Internet to get the information, think of those who work relentlessly to provide it for you. Freedom of expression is paramount. Equally important is the realisation that the Public Good is at the centre of this freedom.
International Workers Day, also known as International Labour Day, falls on May 1 every year. May 1 was selected to be International Workers’ Day to honour the 1886 Haymarket undertaking in Chicago. The workforce world over owes to the people who lost their lives at Haymarket Riot for the eight-hour workday. Moscow’s Red Square parade reflects the might of the workforce world around. However, large scale celebrations declined with the disintegration of communist regiomes in the late 20th century. WLO estimate puts the number of people employed at 3 billion, and the unemployed population is around 5.8%. The most worrying factors are that there are more than 200 million child labourers, and many of them working in hazardous conditions, with one-third of them below ten years old. In India, May Day was first celebrated in 1923, with the Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan leading the celebration in Madras and led by Singaravelu. Mayday is an emergency procedure word used as a distress signal and used to signal a life-threatening emergency. Convention requires the word be repeated three times in a row during the initial emergency declaration (“Mayday mayday mayday”). The world is crying “Mayday mayday mayday” to protect itself from the onslaught of the COVID pandemic. The pandemic has caused so many hardships to them. The observation of international workers day becomes more significant and needs to find ways to protect the population segment and reduce their misery.
