Features

By Hind Yousef,
Clinical Health Psychologist
Grappling with emotions

When a child is diagnosed with cancer, parents are plunged into a world of medical complexity and uncertainty. This sudden shift can trigger a spectrum of psychological responses, from denial and shock to intense anxiety and fear, as they grapple with the reality of their child’s illness. And thus, parents experience a rollercoaster of emotions.

Constant worry about treatment outcomes, the wellbeing of their child and the disruption of family life can lead to chronic stress and anxiety. Many parents struggle with feelings of guilt, anger and helplessness, impacting their overall mental health.

Coping mechanisms

Coping mechanisms vary, with some finding solace in support groups, therapy, or immersing themselves in their child’s care.

The strength of support systems is crucial; emotional support from healthcare professionals, fellow parents in similar situations and close family and friends becomes a lifeline. Mental health professionals play a critical role, offering counselling and strategies to manage the psychological toll.

Managing daily life while caring for a child with cancer

is a daunting task. The stress of frequent hospital visits, treating side-effects and maintaining normalcy for other family members can be overwhelming. This has parents often neglecting their own health and well-being, leading to burn-out and depression.

Another layer of stress

Additionally, the financial burden of childhood cancer treatment adds an extra layer of stress if not covered by insurance or if they have to take their child to a private treatment facility. The costs of care, potential loss of income and the need to focus on the child’s health, can create significant financial strain, exacerbating mental health challenges.

Hope and resilience 

However, there is hope and resilience amidst struggle.

Despite these hardships, many parents find resilience in hope. They draw strength from their child’s courage, their belief in God’s guidance, the support of their family and friends and small moments of joy.

Did you know?

International Childhood Cancer Day is a global collaborative campaign to raise awareness about childhood cancer and to express support for children and adolescents with cancer, the survivors and their families (World Health Organisation - WHO).

Focusing on hope and positive outcomes helps in maintaining mental and emotional balance.

Engaging in advocacy and awareness can be therapeutic for some parents. Thus, it’s important for health facilities to provide awareness sessions to parents. This provides a sense of purpose and helps in channelling their experiences into positive action, thus contributing to their emotional healing and the broader childhood cancer journey.

Navigating a spectrum of emotions The mental health journey of parents with a child fighting cancer is complex and multifaceted. It involves navigating a spectrum of emotions, from deep despair to resilient hope. This journey highlights the importance of acknowledging and addressing the mental health needs of parents, ensuring they receive the support and care needed to be the pillars of strength for their child.

Their story is one of love, resilience and the enduring human spirit in the face of adversity.

The global aspect

According to the Pan American Health Organisation / (WHO)

worldwide, about 300,000 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer each year. Cancer is one of the leading causes of death among children and adolescents worldwide; approximately 280,000 children aged 0 - 19 are diagnosed with cancer each year

In high-income countries, more than 80 per cent of children with cancer are cured, but in many low and middle-income countries, the recovery rate is about 20 per cent. 

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

NEW YORK — Fans and critics alike are lavishing praise on “Cowboy Carter,” Beyonce’s rhinestone-studded, history-rich honky tonk of an album that’s rising in the charts after Friday’s hotly anticipated release.

A rowdy, wide-ranging homage to her southern heritage, the 27-track second act to her “Renaissance” trilogy is a genre-bending triumph that vaunts Black country culture.

“No one will mistake this sprawling set for ever following a straight path, or having a remotely dull moment,” wrote the critic at entertainment trade publication Variety.

“It’s almost as if Beyonce was watching some of the evolutionary leaps and hiccups country has been experiencing as it redefines its boundaries — as the music always has — and said, ‘Hold my Armand de Brignac. I’ve got this.’”

“But it’s not just a matter of what Beyonce can do for country music; it’s what her concept of country can do for her, in expanding her musical empire and even her already well-honed sense of self. It’s a lot.”

It’s too early to say where “Cowboy Carter” and its voluminous tracklist will land on the charts, but streaming service Spotify said that as of Friday evening it was the platform’s “most-streamed album in a single day in 2024 so far”.

The Houston-born 42-year-old pioneered and mastered the surprise online album drop, but for the first two “Renaissance” acts, she turned to a more traditional marketing strategy, with calculated promos and deluxe physical editions for purchase.

Her ode to dance “Renaissance” soared to Billboard’s number one spot when it was released in 2022, and “Cowboy Carter” appears primed for a repeat.

Add in another blockbuster tour like she did for Act I — the “Beyonce bump” literally was blamed for raising Sweden’s inflation rate, and bolstered local economies wherever it rolled into town — and Queen Bey will do-si-do straight to the bank.

Hoedown throwdown 

“Cowboy Carter” is a full-colour display of just how rich music can grow outside dusty strictures of genre.

Beyonce deftly skewers the critics — Nashville’s gatekeepers have long tried to promote a rigid view of country music that’s overwhelmingly white and male — lyrically and sonically.

She ushers listeners through country’s evolution from African American spirituals and fiddle tunes to its pioneering women, like collaborator Linda Martell, and a vision of its future.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who is Black and South Asian, lauded Beyonce for “reminding us to never feel confined to other people’s perspective of what our lane is. You have redefined a genre and reclaimed country music’s Black roots”.

But while it delivers a history lesson, “Cowboy Carter” is at its core a party.

Amid the hoopla, Beyonce offers touching portraits of motherhood, celebrations of sex and love, and even a murder revenge fantasy.

She also drafted a mix of youthful stars — Miley Cyrus, Post Malone and Tanner Adell included — and old guard icons for her revue, including none other than Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton.

“My admiration runs so much deeper now that I’ve created along side of her,” Cyrus said on social media.

The elders appear on the album in the form of radio hosts of a fictional broadcast, with Nelson telling listeners: “Now for this next tune, I want y’all to sit back, inhale and go to the good place your mind likes to wander off to.”

And Parton introduces the album’s take on “Jolene”, drawing parallels between her own original tale of a lover fearing betrayal with Beyonce’s personalised version that calls back to her 2016 track “Sorry” about her husband Jay-Z’s infidelity.

“Hey, Miss Honey B, it’s Dolly P,” croons Parton in her interlude. “You know, that hussy with the good hair you sang about reminded me of someone I knew back when. Except she has flaming locks of auburn hair. Bless her heart.”

“Just a hair of a different colour, but it hurts just the same.”

Then there’s “Ya Ya,” a boisterous, psychedelic soul dance mash-up that manages to sample both Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’” and The Beach Boys.

And “Sweet Honey Buckiin’” — which incorporates hip-hop and house with strums on loop — is among the songs that hat-tip to the first act of “Renaissance”, which celebrated electronica’s Black origins and evolution.

In a nutshell, the album is epic, fresh and, potentially, door-opening.

“With this endlessly entertaining project, she gets to be a warrior of female and Black pride and a sweetheart of the radio,” wrote Variety.

“Because being Beyonce means never having to pretend to be just one thing.”

NEW YORK — He was the face of cryptocurrency, and a young one at that — a media darling seemingly destined to unite the sector.

But the stunning rise of Sam Bankman-Fried and his FTX platform would be matched by an equally spectacular fall when it was revealed that billions of dollars of clients’ funds had been moved and spent without their consent.

After a jury in 2023 found him guilty of seven counts, a federal judge in New York sentenced Bankman-Fried on Thursday to 25 years for leading the fraudulent scheme.

Before it all came crashing down, the native Californian had amassed a fortune at one point estimated to be worth $26 billion. “Save for Mark Zuckerberg, no one in history has ever gotten so rich so young,” read a headline in Forbes, which put Bankman-Fried on its cover in October 2021.

In the span of a few months, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate with a degree in physics had taken the startup he co-founded in 2019 and built it up into the world’s second largest crypto exchange platform.

He quickly became more than just a young entrepreneur, fashioning himself as an ambassador of crypto and making his first appearance in Congress in December 2021, testifying before lawmakers on the then-novel form of currency.

The public would come to know a seemingly oddball whiz kid with a mop of curly dark hair who, when not suited up for appearances on Capitol Hill, wore shorts and a T-shirt.

Centre of crypto world

The son of two Stanford University professors, Bankman-Fried ventured outside the world of cryptocurrencies, making donations to US politicians and persuading celebrities like American football star Tom Brady or basketball player Stephen Curry to pitch FTX — endorsements for which they were richly rewarded.

The young man known as SBF would charm US lawmakers with his straight talk and vision of crypto’s future, including recommendations for an extensive regulatory regime — a position at odds with many in the sector.

He devised project after project, from a platform for people to make donations in cryptocurrency to Ukraine to a market for financial derivative products that stepped on the toes of Wall Street.

A vegan, Bankman-Fried said he believed in the concept of effective altruism -- finding the best way to help other people, in particular by donating all or part of one’s wealth to charity rather than, say, volunteering at a soup kitchen.

When the cryptocurrency world lurched into crisis in the spring of 2022, Bankman-Fried billed himself as a savior, buying the troubled platform BlockFi, and shares in another company that was in trouble, Voyager.

“We take our duty seriously to protect the digital asset ecosystem and its customers,” he tweeted at the time, as some people were comparing him — barely 30 years old then — to the legendary investing guru Warren Buffett.

Financial high wire

But behind his reassurances, Bankman-Fried was walking a financial high wire, as revealed later in court documents and testimony.

Without their knowledge, Bankman-Fried’s team used the money of FTX customers to cover risky operations by an affiliated trading company called Alameda Research, as well as to buy posh real estate and to make political donations.

In November 2022, the crypto news outlet CoinDesk revealed that Alameda had converted a large part of its assets into FTT, a crypto token created by FTX. The news caused that currency to plummet.

Hours later Changpeng Zhao, the head of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange platform, announced it was selling all the FTT tokens it held, causing it to lose 90 percent of its value in a matter of days and taking the Bankman-Fried empire with it.

His fortune having vanished overnight, Bankman-Fried was extradited from the Bahamas, where FTX had its headquarters. In December 2022 he was indicted on charges of fraud and racketeering.

After five weeks of trial, the jury quickly reached a guilty verdict on all seven counts, which carry a potential maximum sentence of 110 years behind bars.

In closing arguments, the defence said their client had acted in “good faith” and was overtaken by circumstances and the financial ineptitude of close associates who testified against him to gain leniency from prosecutors.

Prosecutors portrayed the defendant as an extremely smart man consumed by greed who knew what he was doing when FTX funds were secretly funneled to his personal hedge fund.

According to prosecutors, at the time of the bankruptcy of FTX, just over $8 billion belonging to customers had vanished into bad investments at Alameda.

“Who had control? That’s the question. It was one person: the defendant,” the lead prosecutor concluded.

LOS ANGELES — Homes belonging to Sean “Diddy” Combs were raided by federal agents on Monday, with the US hip hop mogul at the centre of sex trafficking claims and sex assault lawsuits.

Armed agents from the Department of Homeland Security entered luxury properties on both East and West Coasts of the United States, with video footage showing helicopters circling overhead and a huge law enforcement presence on the ground.

“Earlier today, Homeland Security Investigations [HIS] New York executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation, with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami and our local law enforcement partners,” the agency said.

A source confirmed to AFP that Combs was the target of the raids.

Media in Los Angeles carried aerial footage of a massive presence at a swanky Holmby Hills residence associated with Combs — an artist and producer also known as Puff Daddy.

Heavily armed agents could be seen all around the sprawling property, with footage showing unidentified individuals being detained at the scene.

Entertainment title TMZ said pictures appeared to show the rapper’s sons Justin and King Combs in handcuffs.

The outlet said it also had footage of a raid on a luxury waterside property in Miami connected to Combs.

There was no immediate official confirmation about what precipitated the raids, but the involvement of Homeland Security in large, coordinated raids in two locations suggests serious allegations.

The development comes with legal pressure increasing on the rapper, who has faced at least four lawsuits from people who say he sexually abused them, with allegations dating back decades.

 Last year Combs was sued by former girlfriend Casandra Ventura, who performed under the stage name Cassie and was signed to his Bad Boy label.

The suit alleged he had forced her to perform sexual acts with multiple men over a number of years in cities across the United States.

The suit said that as a result of stops in these different locations, which necessitated crossing state lines, Ventura was the victim of sex trafficking, a federal offence.

That suit was settled, but was followed by others, including one in December by a woman who accused Combs of sexual assault when he was 17.

Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer who represents two of the women who have accused Combs of abuse, told AFP on Monday: “We will always support law enforcement when it seeks to prosecute those that have violated the law.

“Hopefully, this is the beginning of a process that will hold Mr. Combs responsible for his depraved conduct.”

Combs has vehemently denied all accusations against him.

Combs, 54, founded the Bad Boy record label in 1993, and was a major figure in hip-hop’s commercialisation over the decades that followed. His proteges included the late Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J. Blige.

He is among the industry’s billionaires, not least due to his ventures in the liquor industry.

But contrary to a public image of suave businessman, lawsuits describe Combs as a violent man who used his celebrity to prey on and intimidate women.

PARIS — Catherine, Princess of Wales, announced on Friday that she is undergoing preventative chemotherapy to treat cancer discovered after she had abdominal surgery.

While the exact situation is difficult to determine because the 42-year-old princess did not disclose the nature of the cancer, here is an explanation of preventative chemo.

What is chemotherapy? 

Chemotherapy is the use of powerful drugs to stop cancerous cells from growing, dividing and creating more cells. There are a large number of kinds of chemotherapy, depending on the cancer, how far it has spread and the treatment regime.

Because these treatments cannot distinguish between different cells, they end up killing some cells that do good, such as white blood cells, causing some side effects.

Why preventative? 

Preventative chemotherapy is often used after surgery to “decrease the likelihood” that cancer will return, Kimmie Ng, an oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the United States told AFP.

Even after successful surgery, “microscopic cancer cells can remain lurking in the body and can’t be detected by current tests”, said Lawrence Young, molecular oncology professor at the University of Warwick.

It is “a bit like mopping a floor with bleach when you’ve spilt something on it”, Andrew Beggs, a cancer surgeon at the University of Birmingham, told the Science Media Centre.

Side effects? 

How chemo affects people can vary depending on the particular cancer, treatment and person.

But common side effects include fatigue, nausea, diarrhoea, loss of appetite and an increased risk of getting an infection.

Some rarer, more severe side effects can include sepsis and damage to vital organs.

How long?

Treatment schedules again can vary widely, but a traditional chemo regime would be delivered in four to six blocks, said Bob Phillips, paediatric oncology professor at the University of York.

A cycle may last 21 days and “consists of a day or few days of chemo, then time for the body to recover from it”, Phillips said.

Regimes of preventative chemo tend to last between three to six months.

It can take people weeks or months to recover from the treatment.

Beggs emphasised that “young onset cancer is by no means rare”.

“I run a clinic for early-onset cancer in adults and we are seeing more and more people in their 40s with cancer,” he said.

Shivan Sivakumar, an oncology expert at the University of Birmingham said “there is an epidemic currently” of people under 50 getting cancer.

“It is unknown the cause of this, but we are seeing more patients getting abdominal cancers,” he said.

Ng pointed out that research from the American Cancer Society released this year showed that younger adults were the only age group in which cancer increased between 1995 and 2020.

“There is an urgent need for research into the causes of this uptick,” Ng said.

Research published in the BMJ journal last week said that cancer cases among people aged 35-69 in Britain also rose over the last quarter of a century.

But deaths from cancer fell by a significant margin.

“The younger you are, the more likely you are to tolerate chemotherapy well,” Sivakumar said.

Younger people also more likely to survive cancer.

A combination of early diagnosis and better treatments has led to “survival rates doubling in the last 50 years”, Young said.

“An incidental finding of cancer during surgery for other conditions is often associated with the tumour being detected at an early stage when subsequent chemotherapy is much more effective,” he added.

Check yourself? 

Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said that such high-profile cancers can serve as a reminder for people to think about their own health.

“If people spot something that’s not normal for them or isn’t going away, they should check with their GP,” she said.

“It probably won’t be cancer. But if it is, spotting it at an early stage means treatment is more likely to be successful.”

ROME, Italy — Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini, a virtuoso of Chopin and Beethoven who enjoyed a decades-long collaboration with La Scala, died Saturday age 82, the Milan opera house announced.

He had been in poor health in recent years and obliged to cancel some concerts.

La Scala called the pianist “one of the great musicians of our time and a fundamental reference in the artistic life of the theatre for over 50 years”.

From 1958 to his last recital in February 2023, Pollini played La Scala 168 times, it said, not including countless workshops with students and conferences.

“Pollini was an interpreter capable of revolutionising the perception of composers such as Chopin, Debussy and Beethoven himself, and of promoting ... listening to the historical avant-gardes, above all Schönberg, and the music of today,” said La Scala.

Born January 5, 1942 in Milan into a family of artists, Pollini stormed the classical music scene in 1960 where, aged 18 and the youngest person in the contest, he won the Warsaw Chopin Competition.

Arthur Rubinstein, president of the jury, was famously to have said that the young prodigy “already plays better than any of us”.

Half a century later Pollini corrected Rubinstein’s quote, saying “I played ‘technically’ better than any member of the jury.”

“I always thought he said that to make fun of the colleagues on the jury. Someone doctored that statement by removing the ‘technically’ and it became an exaggerated compliment,” Pollini said in a 2014 documentary.

Instead of embarking straight onto the concert scene, Pollini put his career on hold to study, explaining that performing right away would have been “a little premature for me”.

In the late 60s, Pollini participated in improvised concerts in factories and student programmes for students and workers at La Scala, conducted by his friend Claudio Abbado.

Pollini made his first American tour in 1968.

From the 1970s to the 90s, he made a string of recordings with the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label, while maturing into an acclaimed interpreter of Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert and Johannes Brahms.

Pollini’s albums earned numerous awards, including a Grammy in 2007 for best instrumental soloist performance (without orchestra) for Chopin: Nocturnes.

He is survived by his son and wife Marilisa.

By Dr Tareq Rasheed,

International Consultant and Trainer

Self-awareness and discovery

We are born twice; at birth we are born with an identity (ID) issued to every new born baby, showing the name, date and place of birth, nationality and mother’s name.

In such an ID, we do not have any choice in any of its entries; this is a body ID.

But, the authentic birth ID starts with self-discovery and awareness, when you start to know your mind, heart and soul. Some may live without knowing about this second ID. They will live with a lack of awareness reflected as routine, no appreciation of self and, in some cases, depression and burn out.

Defining your uniqueness

To create your own unique ID, the following seven questions should be answered, if you wish to succeed in life. Once you can answer the seven questions about self-awareness, you will start your journey in life with trust, confidence and the ability to achieve and proceed — your ID is thus created.

1. What are the major skills that you master?

2. What is the talent that you were born with which represents your passion in life?

3. What are the major values that you believe in and are reflected in your decisions and attitude?

4. What are your major points of strength?

5. What are your major weaknesses that you should bridge in order to proceed in life?

6. What are the inner motivators and desires that energise you from within?

7. What are the true fears that may be an obstacle towards your progress in life?

To be able to answer these questions, think of the following pillars:

Skills are based on four building blocks: knowledge, practice, gaining and developing and professionalism.

You master the skill once you are professional in using this skill. For professionalism, make sure to get the professional certificates related to the field of industry you are working in.

There are four types of skills: technical, interpersonal or soft skills, languages and technology-related skills.

Talents represent competencies we are born with; analytical and mathematical, social, environmental, physical, geographical, emotional, linguistic and vocal or musical.

You can identify your talents by reviewing your competencies when you were a child. People who invest in their talents effectively, achieve a high level of performance. These persons are passionate and energetic — this is uniqueness.

Values represent principles you believe in, are reflected in your decisions and appear in your attitudes and behaviours. Decide on the most important values to you, like honesty, credibility, creativity, development, commitment, etc…

Strengths define the major strengths of your personality that will help you proceed in life in all your relations.

Weaknesses: Perfection is attributed only to God.

Define the major weaknesses that may be obstacles towards achieving your goals in life, and try harder to bridge them.

Desires and Motivators: Define all issues and things that make you highly motivated - are they money, achievements, or what?

Fears: Define things you fear that may threaten your success. Be reasonable in defining them, and set an action plan to face them.

Once you define all these terms, you can create your ID.

Define your goals and set an action plan that fulfils your dreams in life and use your ID as a passport to success.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

HAVANA — For ten years, the privately-funded Cuban Art Factory in Havana has provided a space for local talent to exhibit their creations in what was once a train station.

The FAC, as it is known, has become internationally renowned as a gallery and nightclub — a place for expression in a country where saying what you think can land you in jail.

Every week, from Thursday to Sunday, hundreds of visitors pay the equivalent of $4 to attend music concerts, see plays, dance, or simply to stroll, Mojito in hand, through its corridors replete with modern art.

Everything is on offer here: Nights of techno music, exhibits of plastic works, photography, fashion and just plain fun.

“Here, you can see things you couldn’t even imagine,” Olivia Rodriguez, a 30-year-old musician, told AFP as she waited for renowned Cuban salsa singer Issac Delgado to come on stage.

He performed as part of the FAC’s 10th anniversary celebrations.

“Since we opened here, this [venture] has been carried by artists, always focusing on the work and the message,” X Alfonso, founder and leader of the avant-garde project, told AFP.

The provocative and light-hearted contributions of some artists have sometimes caused problems, admits Alfonso, but he does not want to dwell on the subject.

Hundreds of Cubans, including artists, are in jail for daring to speak out against the communist state or demonstrating against poverty amid the communist island’s worst economic crisis in 30 years, marked by shortages of fuel, medicines and food.

Countless others have fled into exile.

“We make art, those who want to turn it into politics can, that’s their problem,” said Alfonso, a composer and performer who won the 2022 Latin Grammy for best folk album with the group Sintesis, formed by his parents.

“It’s like a fuel station for the soul,” he added.

‘Owe nothing to anyone’ 

Like the city that harbours it, the FAC enjoyed prosperous years with the easing of ties between Cuba and the United States in 2015 under the presidency of Barack Obama (2009-2017).

American cruise ships landed full of tourists eager to drive in an old convertible and discover the nightlife of Havana. The economy of the city flourished.

Celebrities such as Quincy Jones, Michelle Obama and Jon Bon Jovi visited the FAC premises in the affluent district of Vedado, and Mick Jagger performed at a concert in Ciudad Deportiva, another cultural venue.

And in 2019, Time Magazine included the FAC in its list of the World’s 100 Greatest Places.

But the good times did not last, with Donald Trump reversing most of his predecessor’s overtures. Sanctions were toughened after a crackdown on protests in July 2021.

The Covid pandemic did not help, starving the island of much-needed tourism.

Today, Cuba battles recurring power outages, and running the FAC has become a daily struggle.

In October, it was threatened with closure by authorities seeking to reduce electricity consumption. But it did not come to pass.

Providing some 300 direct and indirect jobs, the FAC is a “union of private companies”, self-financing and without sponsors, said Alfonso, proud to “owe nothing to anyone”.

“The most important thing is that the factory is a living organism, living in Cuba, with all the needs and problems that exist. But it is still alive and still trying... to survive,” he said.