Friday, February 1, 2019

Delete your account: leaving Facebook can make you happier, study finds

New study from Stanford and NYU finds logging off causes ‘small but significant improvements in wellbeing’

Some of the users who went without Facebook were able to maintain their abstinence after the study concluded. Photograph: Chesnot/Getty Images

Luke O'Neil @lukeoneil47-Fri 1 Feb 2019

Despite all the scandals of the past year, here we are, still on Facebook, a couple of billion of us spending about an hour a day in its iron grip. Now a new study suggests it’s making us feel bad.

That’s in part because we may be addicted. Want to feel better? Delete Facebook. As some experts have said, the system of rewards set up by Facebook and other social media platforms is akin to gambling or substance abuse cravings. Sean Parker, an early Facebook executive, explained that the thought process behind driving user engagement is akin to delivering “a little dopamine hit”.

As with any habitual behavior, you might reasonably expect that abstaining would lead to an improved mood and an overall sense of wellbeing. A new study goes a long way toward suggesting the benefits of cutting Facebook out of our lives altogether.

The study, titled The Welfare Effects of Social Media, from researchers at Stanford and NYU, is being praised as one of the most rigorous to look at what happens to people when they log off. Logging off seems to be as positive as you probably expect it would be, leading to increased subjective wellbeing, less political drama and attention span agitation, and increased time spent with friends and family. On the other hand, it also led to a decrease in awareness of the news. Although, to be honest, that sounds pretty nice too.

To track social media’s effects, the researchers recruited 2,844 Facebook users, then randomly assigned half of them the task of temporarily deactivating their accounts for a month. To ensure compliance, subjects were paid for their efforts, and their accounts were monitored to make sure they weren’t scrolling their timeline on the sly. The authors checked in with them regularly via text to see how they were feeling during the cleanse.

“Deactivation caused small but significant improvements in wellbeing, and in particular on self-reported happiness, life satisfaction, depression, and anxiety,” they concluded. “Effects on subjective wellbeing as measured by responses to brief daily text messages are positive but not significant.”
Furthermore, some of the users who went without Facebook were able to maintain their abstinence after the study concluded.

The study acknowledges there are, clearly, benefits to Facebook and social media at large. Facebook is still, for all its faults, an important means for people to stay connected to friends and family and as a source of information, community, and entertainment, particularly for those who are otherwise socially isolated.

But, they conclude: “Our results also make clear that the downsides are real.

“We find that four weeks without Facebook improves subjective wellbeing and substantially reduces post-experiment demand, suggesting that forces such as addiction and projection bias may cause people to use Facebook more than they otherwise would.”

Exclusive: Interview with the ‘gay conversion’ therapist who came out as gay

By Minnie Stephenson-31 Jan 2019

David Matheson said he regrets perpetuating the idea that being gay is a disorder. “It is horrifying to think that I was part of a system that held people like me down,” he said.

One of the leading figures of the controversial ‘gay cure’ therapy movement in America made headlines all around the world last week when he publicly came out as gay.

In an exclusive interview with Channel 4 News, David Matheson, 57, admitted the practise which nearly 700,000 Americans have undergone, is not only built on a harmful philosophy, but should be banned.

For decades, the Mormon conversion therapist ran retreats which offered therapy to suppress or manage their sexuality, with the intention to help them live lives as straight men rather than gay men.

“I regret my part in perpetuating those ideas,” he said. “Perpetuating the idea that being gay is a pathology, a disorder. Perpetuating the idea that God is not okay with people being gay. That, I regret. I mean, it held me back and it held lot of other people back.”

Asked if he was sorry for the hurt and damage that he caused, he said: “Are you kidding? I mean it is horrifying to think that I was part of a system that held people like me down and I’ve had some conversations with other people who have been harmed by it. It creates a lot of sorrow.”

Matheson wasn’t just part of the system; some of his most influential work was as the architect of retreats offering conversion-therapy, with a dossier of techniques for men, designed to suppress sexual attraction to other men. And he’d claimed these therapies had worked for him too.

“I will say I repudiate the idea that therapy can and should be used to change a person’s sexual orientation because it just can’t. I do regret my part in propagating that view because I was in a sense kind of an agent of a repressive culture and that makes me really uncomfortable.”

Channel 4 News has spoken to one person who had been on one of the gay conversion retreats Matheson co-founded. He told the programme he attended the camp on a number of occasions and was subjected to traumatic psychological drama techniques and homophobic scenarios were recreated which left him feeling suicidal years later.

The retreat denies this and claims these therapies were designed to heal and remove painful memories and that many people benefited.

Matheson said: “Some of the stuff that you’re saying was stuff that I was involved in co-creating. I mean some of that stuff came out of my mind. And we were well intended but what we didn’t think about at the time, was okay it may be helpful to these five, but these two or three or four or five or ten over here could get really messed up by that.

“If those retreats are doing that sort of stuff they need to stop.”

Asked if gay cure therapy should be banned in America, he said: “Any therapy that is based on the idea that being gay is a psychological disorder, which it’s not – that believes that being gay is wrong or bad, which it’s not, and that it can be changed and ought to be changed. Any therapy based on that idea has a great potential to harming people, and that kind of therapy should be stopped.”

Matheson acknowledges his part in the hurt and harm that was caused, saying: “I can think of things that I created that I put into these weekends and I think back on them and honesty I want to crawl into myself because there’s this sense of, there’s this cringe, there this sense of ‘oh my gosh I used to think that was a good idea’.

“It was very much motivated particularly in the beginning by the idea that I need to believe I can change and so I need to try my hardest to help you change.”

He also said that, as a former ‘gay cure therapist’, he is surprised by his own homophobia: “One of the really uncomfortable things that I’ve been discovering, is my own homophobia. And as I look back I see that I clearly had lots of homophobia. I will still have these stigmas about gay people. I will learn someone is gay and I will still have this thought, this homophobic thought – and I’m like ‘Dave that’s you too’.”

Gaza gets new center for treating children with cancer

Gaza’s al-Rantisi Hospital will soon have a new department for treating children with cancer.

Mahmoud AjjourAPA images

Rami Almeghari The Electronic Intifada 1 February 2019

Suhaib al-Aneizi was playing in kindergarten when he suddenly fell to the floor.

After a medical examination, he was initially diagnosed with anemia. But when Suhaib had another episode, doctors in Gaza referred him to the Augusta Victoria Hospital in occupied East Jerusalem. The results of tests undertaken there showed that the 5-year-old had cancer.

Since he returned to Gaza last year, Suhaib has been treated at al-Rantisi Hospital, which specializes in pediatric care.

The staff at al-Rantisi have limited facilities at their disposal. “Sometimes, patients have to receive chemotherapy while sitting on chairs,” said Radwan Abu Warda, a nurse who attends to Suheib’s needs. “We do not have enough beds.”

The situation should improve later this month, when a new department will open at the hospital.

Costing $3.5 million, the new department has been built on the initiative of the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF), a US-based charity.

It has been named after Musa and Suhaila Nasir, co-founders of the PCRF.

Blocked from treatment

Cancer is a leading cause of death – for both adults and children – in Gaza.

Children with serious illnesses, including cancer, frequently have to leave Gaza for medical treatment. In many cases, they have been blocked from traveling by Israel.

The World Health Organization has reported that five child patients were denied permits to cross Erez, the military checkpoint separating Gaza and Israel, during December 2018 alone. A total of 130 children were delayed from traveling through Erez in time for a hospital appointment outside Gaza during that month.

A key objective of the new hospital department is to provide vital care within Gaza.

“We are going to start providing all medical care needed for those children, as best as we can,” said Steve Sosebee, the PCRF’s president.

The play area in the new department at al-Rantisi Hospital. (Palestine Children’s Relief Fund)

Plans for the 2,500 square meter department were originally drawn up in 2014. Yet completing the work has been hampered by the Israeli blockade on Gaza.

The construction material and medical technology required for the department had to be imported. In many cases, securing the necessary equipment proved an ordeal as Israel has placed stringent restrictions on the entry of goods.

Some items needed by the department have still not arrived in Gaza, Sosebee confirmed. The PCRF should nonetheless be able to go ahead with the opening this month.

According to Sosebee, Israel’s restrictions presented a “real obstacle” which the charity had to clear. “Certain items could enter Gaza within a short space of time,” he said. “For other items, it would take weeks or months.”

Rapid diagnosis

Drug and electricity shortages are among the other problems facing Gaza’s hospitals. In October, the Central Drug Store in Gaza stated that medicines were at a critically low level.

Approximately 44 percent of medicines were completely depleted at that point. Throughout Gaza, an estimated 65,000 child patients were affected by the inadequate supply of energy to hospitals in 2018.

The shortages caused the cancellation of some operations in Gaza’s hospitals. The situation only started to improve after Qatari-funded fuel was imported into Gaza during October.

That fuel is likely to run out in the near future.

Although the new department in al-Rantisi is privately funded, it will operate within a public hospital.

The staff in the new department will be paid by the Palestinian Authority yet the PCRF will oversee their training. That will include arranging for staff to travel so they can gain experience in hospitals outside Gaza.

The PCRF also plans to work with facilities in Jordan for the purposes of conducting tests on children, with a view to diagnosing cancer at an early stage.

By liaising with the World Health Organization, the PCRF hopes to be able to provide the results of cancer checks within 24 hours. Doing so will be conditional, however, on WHO staff being allowed to enter and leave Gaza without delays.

“We will continue to run the new department as long as Gaza needs us,” said Sosebee. “At some point in the future – we do not know when – the Palestinian health ministry could start taking care of the whole matter from A to Z.”

Rami Almeghari is a journalist and university lecturer based in Gaza.

More over-75s should take statins, experts say

1 February 2019

More people over the age of 75 should be taking statins, scientists have said, following a review of research.

There had been a lack of evidence about how much the cholesterol-lowering drugs benefit this age group.

But the review found they cut the risk of major cardiovascular disease in all ages studied, including the over-75s.

Researchers said thousands of lives could be saved each year if more than the estimated third of UK over-75s who do take statins, were given them.

They also said it could improve quality of life for many people.

Cardiovascular disease kills about 150,000 people in the UK each year, with two-thirds of these occurring in people over the age of 75.

Statins reduce the build-up of fatty plaques that lead to blockages in blood vessels, though reported side effects and the extent of how often they are prescribed has attracted controversy.

Side effects 'massively outweighed'

The review, which looked at 28 randomised controlled trials - often called the "gold standard" of studies - involving nearly 190,000 patients, found statins lowered the risk of major cardiovascular disease in the ages studied, from under-55s to over-75s.

There were similar reductions in risk for stroke and for coronary stenting or bypass surgery.

Authors of the paper said there had until now been an "evidence gap" around how effective the drugs are for the elderly.

They estimate that about a third of the 5.5 million people in the UK over 75 take a statin, when the "vast majority" of these would meet the medicine regulator's guidelines for being prescribed the drug.

Prof Colin Baigent, one of the authors of the paper, said: "One of the issues we have is that very often doctors are unwilling to consider statin therapy for elderly people simply because they're old, and that, I think, is an attitude that is preventing us from making use of the tools we have available to us."

Researchers said statins may help people avoid disability caused by cardiovascular disease

Image copyright

The benefits were strongest in people who have already had vascular disease. There wasn't enough data in people over the age of 75 who haven't had it to show a benefit. Experts have called for more data to guide prescription for these people.

However, the authors said even a smaller reduction in risk was significant because the elderly have a higher baseline risk for cardiovascular disease in the first place.

The more people reduced their low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad" cholesterol, the more the risk of cardiovascular disease was lowered, the study found.

A 1.0 mmol/L reduction in LDL cholesterol lowered the risk of major vascular events by about a fifth and a major coronary event by a quarter, when results from all age groups were combined.

To put this into perspective, about 2.5% of 63-year-olds with no history of vascular disease would be expected to have their first major vascular event per year, compared with 4% of 78-year-olds.

Reducing those risks by a fifth would prevent first major vascular events from occurring each year in 50 people aged 63 and 80 people aged 78 per 10,000 people treated.

Prof Baigent said there was an argument for giving statins to people over the age of 75 who have a "normal" level of LDL cholesterol.

He said: "In many circumstances, the person may be very healthy, they may be able to avoid having a stroke or having a heart attack simply by taking a cheap and safe tablet every day.

"That may be a choice they're willing to take. At the moment I feel we're not taking the opportunity to offer that."

'Reassuring'

There has been controversy about statin side effects and how often they are prescribed, especially in otherwise healthy people.

Common side effects include muscle pain, increased risk of type 2 diabetes and digestive problems.

It is possible to lower cholesterol levels without drugs by making lifestyle changes, such as by cutting down on saturated fat and eating more fruit, vegetables and fibre.

Prof Baigent said side effects were "massively outweighed, both in middle age and the elderly, by the benefits of statin therapy that we already know about".

And he also said he was not calling for people to pick statins over exercise and lifestyle changes.

"I think it's not an either/or," he added.

The Royal College of GPs welcomed the research and said it was "particularly reassuring" to see evidence of the benefit of statins in over-75s.

Prof Martin Marshall, vice-chairman of the college, said some patients would not want to be on long-term medication.

"But GPs are highly trained to prescribe and will only recommend the drugs if they think they will genuinely help the person sitting in front of them, based on their individual circumstances - and after a frank conversation about the potential risks and benefits."

Vavuniya families of disappeared urge UN refer Sri Lanka to ICC

190130 Vavuniya FOD protest NA 1.jpg

Families of the disappeared in Vavuniya today urged the United Nations to ensure Sri Lanka was referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) over its genocide of Tamils.

30 January 2019

Holding a demonstration in Vavuniya calling for justice and for answers over the tens of thousands of Tamils enforcibly disappeared, families expressed anger and a feeling of betrayal over the current government's failure to fulfil its pledges.

Stooging in the name of democracy

2019-02-01

n Tuesday last, when the Cabinet of Ministers met, President Sirisena had submitted a paper requesting Cabinet Approval to hold Provincial Council Elections to the dissolved councils before the end of May 2019.By end May, there would be eight PCs dissolved, with only Uva Province left till mid-September.
The Cabinet, consisting of only UNP Ministers, deferred President’s request till the next Cabinet Meeting and it would then be the subject of Minister Vajira Abeywardne as Local Government and Provincial Councils Minister.
If the President stopped with the request to hold elections before 31 May, it would have been good and right. BUT with his proposal to have 25 per cent women representation, wittingly or unwittingly he allows space for further delay.

That cannot be done unless there is yet again an amendment to the PC Elections Law. What does all this mean? Do they really want to hold PC Elections?
On Friday last, Parliament was to discuss PC Elections as moved by JO strongman MP Dullas Alahapperuma.
It was reported the discussion was stalled thrice during the day due to lack of quorum, until Parliament was finally adjourned for lack of a quorum, till February 5.
In this Parliament of 225 MPs, the quorum is just 20 MPs.
With Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed Leader of the Opposition counting all 95 UPFA MPs, the JO that wanted the discussion could not even have the 20 MPs required for the quorum for their own request. But they claim to stand with the People (sic).
How much do they cost the People? On an RTI application sent to the Secretary-General of Parliament by PAFFREL, it was revealed that the cost of Parliament sitting for a single day is Rs.25 million.

It simply means each of these MPs wastes Rs.1,11,111 (One lakh, eleven thousand, one hundred and eleven) at every Parliamentary sitting.
That does not reduce significantly even if the Parliament is adjourned due to lack of 20 MPs attending to the day’s business.

Last Friday was not the first such day the Parliament could not meet due to lack of a quorum of 20 MPs. It happened on September 6, 2018 when there were only 16 MPs.
It had happened many times before. No party leader takes it seriously and has never accepted it as a serious fault, a letdown and as insulting the voter who elected them.

This absenteeism, no doubt is the political decision of the party leadership in avoiding PC elections.
This includes the JVP too. They are accused of not taking their seats when the bell is rung by the Speaker calling for a quorum while being
in Parliament.
Apart from all the thuggery and vulgar behaviour of Parliamentarians the people endured during the Presidential tantrums beginning October 26, it was this irresponsible bunch of 225 MPs those FR petitioners wanted to continue with as Parliament to save democracy.
It was this Parliament, the Elections Commission memberRathnajeevan Hoole told the SC, his Fundamental Rights would be violated, if dissolved to hold elections on January 05 (2019).

He now stands proudly having saved democracy with this Parliament that does not allow for PC elections that include the North, where he is a voter.
It is not only political party leaders but also, the MPs and the university academic Hoole, who now stand badly exposed with their hollow statements on democracy and rights.
Those urban middle class rights activists accepted as civil society by the Western Diplomatic Corps and donor funders, who took to the Colombo Streets shouting Not Ranil, but democracy have also been exposed, no sooner than Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in for the second time as PM.
They stand exposed more after they stormed into preselected media houses taking over PM Wickremesinghe’s lashing of media as black media.
They are further exposed as Government Stooges with their piercing silence on the PC
elections issue.

Where do they stand on PC elections? Elections left on hold for over one year in the Eastern, Sabaragamuwa and the North Central Provinces and for over three months in the Wayamba, Central and the Northern Provinces have nothing to do with their democracy.
Indefinite postponement of those elections does not mean any violation of sovereign rights of the people, for them to come on the Colombo streets as they did three months ago.
This Colombo middle class lot who were very vociferous then were not there with the Maduluwave Sobhitha Thera’s movement for a Just and Fair Society.
For that change Sobhitha Thera thought could be brought with the abolition of the Presidency.
These urbanites came for the 2015 January election to defeat Rajapaksa and not for any change of politics.
With Rajapaksa out, rest is fine for them.

They’ve therefore given campaigning for democracy a new synonym; stooging.
The biggest stooge among the lot was exposed last Monday (28 January) at the media briefing held by the Elections Commission (EC). None expected Chairman of the EC to demean himself saying, he would resign from the Chairmanship and not from the EC, if PC elections were not held before November 2019. Why till November?
Why not before end May as the President has proposed? And why only from the Chairmanship and not from the EC? Does he expect he would be appointed Chairman again?
His primitive efforts in bluffing through the media briefing apart, he and the two members were wholly silent on why the EC cannot hold PC elections under the prevailing law, PC Elections Act No.02 of 1988. On 19 January I wrote to Chairman EC a letter captioned “Illegally postponing elections for dissolved Provincial Councils” that was also sent to all media.

In that, I said the PC Elections Amendment Act No.17 of 2017 though passed in Parliament is still not law, as the Review Committee headed by PM has not handed its report to the President within the required two months period for the bill to be Gazetted as law.
Where a new law or an amendment is yet to be made operative, the Interpretation Ordinance quite clearly says in Section 6(2) “Whenever any written law repeals in whole or part a former written law and substitutes therefore some new provision, such repeal shall not take effect until such substituted provision comes into operation.”
Thus, it is clear and with no ambiguity, the new law would come into operation someday the Government believed it could face an election and till then the former written law is not repealed.

EC can legally hold PC elections under the previous Act

What is not told is that the PC elections law is still operative

The cost of Parliament sitting for a single day is Rs.25 million

Now to quote from the English version of the Sinhala letter, I wrote to the EC Chairman, “Therefore, the PC Election (Amendment) Act No.17 of 2017 still remains ineffective and inoperative as law. It is common knowledge that PC elections, therefore, cannot be held under that new Act.
What is not told by you is that the previous Act No.02 of 1988 still remains operative, as this new Act is yet to be validated after completing its due process.
The EC can therefore legally hold PC elections under the previous Act which is still in operation. It is clear the EC does not need any further approval from anywhere else to have elections to dissolved PCs.
The EC and its members have no legitimate and moral right to deny the People their right to elect PCs till some such day the PC Election (Amendment) Act No.17 of 2017 is made operative.

I thus accuse you and the EC as compromising with the government in denying PC elections to the People.”
On the third working day after I sent my letter, the Chairman EC sent me a very short response via email that in English would read as, “While a public reply will be given at the media briefing on 28 January 2019 to the issue you raised, the relevant reply will be sent to you via email. Appreciate your interest in holding elections in due time”.
Three whole working days are gone after the media briefing, until last morning, I have not received the reply he said he would send.
The big bluff he is, he did not in any way respond to the issue I raised in my letter and said he would publicly respond to.
Therefore my accusation the EC with its Chairman and the other two members are stooging for the Government, in allowing indefinite postponement of PC Elections stands firm and tall.

The EC should hold elections immediately under the existing law, PC Elections Act No.02 of 1988, but they don’t.
They are also with the Colombo middle class, blowing hot or cold as the UNP wants.
The EC is not an IndependentCommission and is not there to safeguard the rights of the people.
The members of the EC too like the funded Colombo civil society believe politicalstooging is part of democracy.
Sadly for all of them, they don’t seem to know the story of the king who walked the streets naked, thinking he was wearing the best attire in the world.
The elections for the PCs thus depend on how Wigneswaran and his TPA would see them as important for their own identity.
In how the SLPP and Rajapaksa would see it as important for their politics in months to come.
All others would wait for an opportunity to file FR petitions seeking stay orders against any election before November, in the name of democracy.

MiG Deal & The Heavy Price I Paid In The Name Of Investigative Journalism

By Iqbal Athas –JANUARY 30, 2019

Iqbal Athas

I am proud to be associated with today’s inauguration of the Sri Lanka Centre for Investigative Journalism. I thank your Board of Governors for honouring me by inviting me to deliver the keynote address.

I take delight for many reasons. I am the only Sri Lanka member of the Washington based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The membership is peer recommended. They are the first global organisation to use the cyber space to collaborate in investigative projects. You will recall one of the widely publicised recent projects known as Panama Papers.

Years earlier, as a member from their beginning I colloborated in their project titled “The Business of War.” Now in the form of a book, it deals with mercenary groups and how some of them gained legitimacy in battle zones. It included a part on Sri Lanka.

Your parent organisation in Washington DC, the Global Investigative Journalists Network (GIJN) is an offshoot of the ICIJ. I count as a good friend David Kaplan, the Executive Director. He held the same position earlier with the ICIJ.

Like a good recipe for a particular dish, there are different definitions about investigative journalism. To use his own words, Kaplan says there is – In-depth reporting, enterprise reporting or project reporting. “All these,” he says, “are loosely grouped under investigative journalism.” He identifies five different characteristics:

1. Systematic Inquiry. This means you are taking your time and going in a systematic way to analyse what is going on. The work you are doing is original and in-depth. Original reporting is investigative journalism.

2. Forming a hypothesis about what is going on. To form a theory, find the facts that will support it. If it does not, you have to abandon it.

3. Using public records and public data. Investigative Reporting is following people, money, paper and data trails, collect public records, documents leaked and analyse them.

4. Making public matters that are secrets that remain hidden. Investigative Reporters are often dealing with secret information. The people in power does not want it brought out. It is embarrassing for them.

5. Focus on social justice and accountability.

I am not a teacher in investigative journalism. I will not, therefore, deal with the different technical aspects. Instead, I believe, it may be useful for those of you, who want to pursue investigative journalism, if I share some of my personal experience in this field.

Before I do that, please permit me to strike a personal note. Fifty years ago, straight out of school, I walked into the office of now-defunct SUN / WEEKEND in Hulftsdorp. It was then one of the largest groups. I did not realise it was going to be the turning point in my life.

I was offered a job as a Reporter and requested to work the very next day. I asked for time. I had to wind up a course in Sales Management. A week later, when I joined to cover Tamil political parties due to my fluency in Sinhala and Tamil languages.