Age is Just a Number #ageapartheid

Age...

What on earth is age? A measure of how many times the earth has rotated around the sun since one has been alive?

I mean, sure, it is a convenient measure of quantifying time. But why have we chosen to standardise our laws, and interactions, based on this grouping of 365 times the earth rotates around its axis before completing one revolution around the splendid sun?

Speak English, Francis

So marriage age; driving age; legal age for drinking; age before which one can be prosecuted. These are immensely important, and yet we choose an arbitrary number as if this has the same effect on everyone.

What about age groupings? People are entered into various educational levels depending on how long they have lived. This must follow the assumption that one’s biological brain development is largely proportional to the time one has been alive. Is it convenient? Sure it is, but I don’t understand how practical, accurate or effective it is. In fact, in the context of education, I think this is remarkably problematic.

Different minds work well with different things. In school, I would finish our assigned Maths problems within minutes of the class, and wait around doing nothing until the class ended; whereas, remembering dates and events in History class would take me far longer than the average student. I was dumbed down by not being upgraded in Science classes, whilst the humanities students were dumbed down waiting for me. But surely we had to be in the same class; we were the same age! It is even more problematic that so much research has been done showing the harms of ‘age grading’ and yet it continues to be the standard in education.

I was a 10 year old who towered over my contemporaries vertically and horizontally. I grew a mustache before many (Pakistani genes: awkward pubescent phase hits right at birth). Many girls developed breasts, and went through puberty at very different times, leading to so many self esteem problems, and unnecessary psychological issues; yet, they were the same age; surely they must all Have developed at the same time. Why did the fact that we had lived the same number of bundles of 365 days, qualify us for the same treatment in the eyes of the law, educational system, and society?

Nurture most definitely plays a grand part in one’s personal development. Whether we use a fluffy term like ‘emotional maturity’, or something more concrete like ‘experience’, a 6 year old in Dagenham will be of a very different age to a 6 year old in the tribal areas of Waziristan. We all know 30 year olds who act like they are 12, and vice versa. We even know that one’s biological age can be very different to one's ‘actual’ age. Depending on one’s diet and extra-cirricular habits, one’s body can be much older than the age. A 40 year old boxer will be younger than a 20 year old smoking, drinking, obese person.

So produce thy scientific rationale for taking age as thy weapon of choice for how you judge me, and I shall produce mine. Let us see who comes out on top.

For anyone feeling down because their ‘birthday’ means they are a ‘year older’, let us think carefully about the most effective ways of measuring people’s wisdom, maturity and effectiveness in society. I assure you, age has very little to do with it.

20 days a vegetarian, this journey has just begun

So I have gone many years without missing a day of meat.

In fact, for most of my life, I probably ate meat twice a day for as long as I can remember, and the days I didn’t were considered days I hadn’t eaten properly.

Things did change in uni…however, providing that background, here is my 20 day reflection of not touching meat or fish to raise money for Syria.

I have not raised much money since I started. In fact, I have not been transparent with my journey whatsoever. I have been waiting for my Huffington Post worthy moment of revelation where I exclaim to the world that I feel the pain of those who can’t afford meat, or how I entered a state of deep reflection about our over-consumptive habits, and that this journey of a lifetime has created a changed man, and isn’t that just touching enough to get some donations for a ridiculously important cause – nope, I’m pretty much ok.

I wanted this to be something it wasn’t. I’m not climbing Everest, or jumping out of a plane. I’m making an ordinary lifestyle choice for a temporary amount of time – it’s kinda mundane, to be honest.

This reflection won’t be all melancholy rainbows and butterflies though, so here’s where the garam masala comes in: I realized that I can be a vegetarian. I can give up meat if I wanted. I found it surprisingly more difficult to give up fish, but heck, I can do that too. In fact, when it comes to MY choices, I can do whatever I darn well please – but I choose to emphasise that point because more often than not, we enter our psychological blocks that hinder us from progressing beyond a certain point – whether it is an aspect of one’s personality, a dietary style, an addiction, an emotion; we have control of our own bodies and lifestyles.

It’s not always a breeze – sometimes it’s the hardest thing in the world – but it is possible.

So with this statement of the obvious, I was smacked with the realization of my shortcomings. Don’t get me wrong, it was a very welcome slap in the face, because the pain of humility is sweeter than the anguish of ignorance – but I was able to realize how my problems are my fault, and they can be changed by actions, or at the very least, my mindset. I get frustrated by the mentality of blaming the world for everything, and so this reminder from my 20 vegetarian days has been of great use.

Second, I feel better. I feel healthier, and for some odd reason, I’m eating less. I have often felt that eating meat leads me to eating more generally, as if it inhibits some appetite regulating hormone (ghrelin #knewgcsebiowouldcomeinhandy). Even when I started going to the gym again, I found that I had plenty of energy, and to my knowledge, I had sufficient protein for muscle recovery.

Third, I genuinely do feel that a majority vegetarian diet is healthier and more ethical to the planet. I would love to get to the stage where meat is an absolute delicacy in my life, and perhaps this challenge has brought me a step closer.

Lastly, this has all been for a sole cause. Syria. She is bleeding. Syria is in flames, and the only way to extinguish this inferno is for us to bring as many buckets of water as we can fathom. I am not even 10 percent of the way to the 5000 I have pledged.

Help me get there, and help them in any way you can. Syria