It is NEVER ENOUGH.......

In my next life I would like to come back as a dentist or dental hygienist. Why??? So I can tell people how miserably they've failed (in spite of multi-daily brushing, flossing, even using periodontal brushes) and tell them they need to take better care of their teeth. Let's face it - if modern dentistry really "worked" (I know my husband and I have ALWAYS flossed, brushed, used periodontal brushes) then none of us would have dental problems if we "followed orders" - and most of us do. Modern dentistry is a complete failure. There is no "miraculous way" to keep teeth from building up tartar or from having to get a root canal procedure. At best, modern dentistry is just a "warning sign" on a highway....doesn't mean you won't have an accident - it's just to warn you that you probably WILL have an accident. It's also the only "medical" field where one (as a dentist) can sit back and judge people (instead of admitting they really don't have a cure for dental decay) "oh, you didn't floss enough!" "oh, you didn't brush enough!" "oh, you didn't use those periodontal insert brushes enough!" - it's the only "medical" profession where the patient is ALWAYS to blame....even if they stringently follow every rule the dentist gives them....it is always "never enough" and consequently - the patient either gets a decay or an infection and then the dentist can go back and say that the patient wasn't trying hard enough. It's a very self-righteous profession and judgmental one. In spite of the hundreds of years passing since dentistry became a medical profession - there isn't one single "break-thru" cure to keep teeth from decaying. I have a family member whose entire upper teeth were covered in porcelain years ago - she is FANATICAL about brushing, flossing, using periodontal brushes in-between teeth. In a period of 24 hrs. I have seen her floss or brush maybe 50% of that time in a day. YET - she told me she had to go for a root canal. WHY??? How much more could she have CLEANED her own teeth?? She was a fanatic and still is about cleaning her teeth. But dentists will never tell you "in spite of all I tell you to do - there is NO CURE for decay in teeth, so you're eventually going to either have a root canal or tooth extraction or both!" One of our friends TOLD the dental hygienist "Really, so if I do ALL the things you tell me I must do: brush 3 times daily, floss 3 times daily, use periodontal brushes in-between teeth 3 times daily, then my teeth will never have problems?" "Well, er, no that doesn't they'll never have problems, just that they will be less likely to have problems". "Really? So then why come to you at all?" "Because we help keep your teeth clean!" "Any you are admitting then that no matter how hard I try to clean my teeth I cannot CLEAN them properly, so that's why I come to you?" It is the one medical profession whose first words start (blaming the patient, always) as "You DIDN'T......." or "You SHOULD HAVE....." Why don't dentists just admit that there is no cure for tooth decay. Cleaning helps, but only postpones the inevitable. We humans weren't meant to live beyond age 40 in olden times - and now we have 60, 70, even 80-year old teeth and they (dentists) don't have a clue how to help us.

WHY Maldives (Maldive Islands) have such a heroin problem.....

Why would a nation like the Maldives have a HEROIN problem amid its residents? Why do you think??? This nation USED to be a FISHING nation - whereby grandfathers, fathers & sons (and wives helped to clean the fish) were FISHERMEN. Sometime in the early 1970's Maldives developed "paradise islands" whereby tourists from Europe and all over the world could come - relax, swim, get massages and ENJOY an idyllic tourist life for weeks. VERY few Maldivians were invited to work in this new TOURIST business. MONEY (from tourism) FLOWED into the capital Malé at unbelievable rates - suddenly - with the sharing of tourist funds, EVERYONE was RICH - but BORED - fishing came to a halt - why should anyone FISH for a living when they received tourist money for doing nothing? I visited the Maldives in 1971 - there were NO HOTELS at that time - everyone was engaged in fishing business and very modest (as a Muslim nation) in attire. There were no fancy restaurants/hotels at all - the people were quite "simple" and I mean that in a very GOOD way. NOW??? They (Maldivians) have plenty of money, and nothing at all to do, so they have turned to "brown sugar" (heroin) which comes in by the tons from Sri Lanka and India. There are so FEW rehab places - thus, heroin HITS Maldives, but locals have nowhere to turn to QUIT the habit. It is hard to know WHOM to blame - was it the Prime Minister who developed outer islands for TOURISM? Was it the TOURISTS themselves?? I don't know the answer, but I do know that is EXTREMELY sad to watch what was once an innocent fishing nation turn into a country of heroin addicts who have little or none rehab places: Looking down from the airplane window, the island nation off the coast of India looks idyllic. But don’t let the pristine beaches and turquoise sea fool you. The Maldives have a dark side to them that not many visiting honeymooners get to see. Most of the tourists that arrive at Ibrahim Nasir International airport take a direct boat or private plane to their resort. But to see the other side of the Maldives, all they need to do is take a ten minute boat trip to the country's capital, Male. If the heat allows, you can take a walk around the island in less than an hour. However most locals prefer to use a scooter to get round the island, which is packed with high-rise buildings. Cars only worsen the congestion. Tourists understandably opt for the luxurious resorts for a relaxing holiday. Male has very little to offer them. Brown sugar Even for the locals, the Maldivian capital has few recreational activities to offer. Out of sheer boredom a lot of them resort to drugs. Heroin, or brown sugar as it’s referred to locally, is their drug of choice. According to a UN report, 40 percent of people under the age of 30 use heroin. Once addicted, the tightly-knit community and scarce rehabilitation facilities make it very difficult to beat the addiction. Although cannabis has been around for centuries, heroin was first introduced to the Maldives in the 1970s, when it was imported by Sri Lankan labourers. People knew nothing of the drug and its effects. So when dealers looking for steady customers started handing it out for free, Maldivians got hooked easily. There are now an estimated 30,000 addicts in the Maldives. In densely-populated Male there is an addict in almost every family. Heroin, like the water and idyllic beaches, can be found anywhere in the archipelago. Staying clean Until recently Shiuna Khaleel was a heroin addict “I couldn’t do anything without drugs. I couldn’t wake up, couldn’t have breakfast without vomiting. I had to get high first, that’s how it controlled me” It was her boyfriend that first introduced her to drugs. Against her parents' wishes she married him a few years later. Their relationship revolved around getting high. “My life would have turned out very differently if I had known about the effects of heroin. But the knowledge wasn’t there in the community at that time,” Says Shiuna now. The lack of knowledge is still the main reason why so many youngsters get addicted in the Maldives. Parents live in denial or don’t know how to recognize the signs of addiction. “Recently we are seeing that very young kids, as young as 12 or 13, are peddling heroin in the streets,” says Azmy Achmed. He is the programme coordinator of Journey, an NGO founded by former addicts to reach out to other recovering or active users. Though the group of under aged users is growing, they're hard to reach for Achmed’s NGO. According to the country's strict Islamic laws, children under 18 can’t receive education on sexual health issues or drug use. “Religious scholars don’t believe we should talk to them about these issues, their minds are closed. That’s why we have to adapt our strategies and reach out to the parents instead,” says Azmy Achmed. Rehabilitation and relapse Despite the large number of addicts on the islands, there is only one rehab facility in the Maldives. And like many things here, it has its own island. After a gruelling rehab programme, ex-addicts are sent back to Male without any aftercare. Back home it’s almost impossible to stay away from friends and creditors from their time as an addict. This makes staying clean extremely difficult. “I myself have relapsed eight times,” says Azmy with a faint smile. And he is no exception. “If you just go out to get groceries you’ll bump into an old friend who will offer you drugs. You have to be very strong to stay clean here” After ending her marriage to her addicted husband, Shiuna too went through the painful cycle of rehabilitation and relapse. It took her ten attempts, but now she’s successfully taking part in Journey’s methadone programme. “I was 33 years old, had no husband and couldn’t take care of my own two children. I was done with feeling like a failure,” she says.

How could I possibly have forgotten these photos of Azores???

There were TOO many "cool" things we saw in Azores - one was a statue to a dog (the Azorean cattle dog) - this was in Vila Franca do Campo - forgot to take photo ourselves so sorry if we stole another photo:

Also we didn't take a "decent" photo of a local flower called "roca de velha" which is indigenous to the islands:

AND how could we forget a photo of GRILLED octopus (mmmmmmmm! can still taste it!!!)

AND - even more FLORA:

THEN - there were the tiles over the houses - so special - each house had a display of tiles over it's door to represent a particular "saint" or patron - it was so, so beautiful, really:

And then there is the "GHOST HOTEL" - a hotel built about 3 decades ago but the builders did not realize the hotel would be perpetually "in the clouds" and thus it would RAIN every single day. They went bankrupt and it is so, so EERY to pass by this ghost hotel in Sao Miguel:

How pleasant....a place relatively untouched by time......

Sure there is the natural beauty - hills and valleys so green they look almost "painted", the beautiful coastline visible almost from any drive....there is such beauty in the Azores. And there is also beauty in seeing row upon row of hydrangeas blooming everywhere. But one of the most pleasant surprises is being able to "step back in time" almost 50 years. Yes, they all have smartphones, Internet, TV, etc.....but in the evenings Azoreans come out to chit-chat with their neighbours, sometimes for hours. Families also go to parks to take in the evening air or chat. It is so common to see families picnicking for their evening meal even on weeknights......picnic spots are plentiful, clean and USED often. Their music is beautiful - some folkloric, some "fado" style (a very unique Portuguese style of "telling a story", usually a sad tale, in song) and even their modern music is delightfully cheery like old Beatles songs, only more romantic. The absence of LOCKS also painted a picture of the honesty of the people. So many greenhouses of pineapples had no locks and there didn't seem to be much crime. We saw the police (a man and woman in one car) come out only ONCE in the "big city" of Ponta Delgada.....whatever the "crime" was, it wasn't very serious as they wrote something in a notebook and left a few minutes later. There is a FEELING one has there that is difficult to describe. Firstly, you realize that you are in the middle of the HUGE Atlantic Ocean and even Sao Miguel's closest island (Santa Maria) cannot be seen unless one goes out to sea about 10-15 kilometers. You realize you are just THERE and that the REST of the WORLD is far, far away.....you don't hear about any wars, terrorism, drug cartels - you are just THERE on this beautiful island where people make time to enjoy their families. You forget all about politics, greed, and other feelings....you are just THERE in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. You cannot leave except by plane, and you don't want to leave anyway....you could stay there in that peaceful place forever, with only the sound of waves splashing on the rocks to disturb the peace, or at night the cry of a tern that sounds almost like a human baby crying. But in the morning comes the sweet, melodic singing of a songbird and it is a sweet way to start a day. You feel that you have stepped in the past by about 50 years and it's a very GOOD feeling. Schools all look like.....schools.....they are not surrounded by huge fences like prisons and the kids all walk to school. They look happy. We FORGET that 50 years ago our schools were happy places.....certainly not places where a crazed gunman would attack. What strikes one most is that poverty doesn't seem to exist. Oh, I'm sure some have more than others, but we didn't see a single homeless person, nor any beggar - why this is so, we're not sure. There are other small islands in the world where people are dying of starvation, so we don't think it's because it's a small island. Could it be that there is an absence of greed? People have smiles on their faces. The airport at Ponta Delgada reminds me of "aerodromes" when I was a kid.....open, very few "guards" - an openness and friendliness that few airports have nowadays. We pass a cafe in Ponta Delgada where there is a television showing "news of the world" - a fire in Venezuela, a car accident in Colombia.....all these places seem too far away and "unreal". Because we are not THERE. We are HERE....here in the middle of the HUGE Atlantic Ocean surrounded by sea, waves, whales, dolphins. Even the sharks, we were told by a marine biologist, are relatively harmless....why WOULDN'T they be??? After all, this is the Azores.