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BOOMER CORNER The Benefits of Cultivating Gratitude BOOMER CORNER Mind Changes - When to Worry BOOMER CORNER Welcome To My Paradise BOOMER CORNER Planning for the End of Your Life BOOMER CORNER Heart Health In Bali health initiative in order to meet that need. Thanks to Sue and Ray’s effort and some financial support from RCBUS, Bali Sehat currently provides healthcare to villagers, many of whom live on less than $100 a year, in the poorest regions of East Bali. Thanks to Sue and Ray’s excellent His newest entrepreneurial endeavor is Lotus House Guest House, located on Keramas Beach. Kadek studied food and beverage management at STP Nusa Dua in 1999 and worked for Holland America Line ROTARY NEWS BOOMER CORNER The End of The Sixties And The Most Important Revolution of The Twentieth Century Rice paddies stretch out from our house. Flooded now, they reflect the sky with puff-ball clouds that turn pink then orange, gliding to shades of white as the morning sun rises. Chickens and white herons peruse the paddies foraging for insects and tiny critters that come with the flooding. Occasionally a heron flies right towards me as I sit on the veranda writing. It glides up over the roof at the last minute, its gray feet tucked neatly against its white body. How rare - a closeup view of the underside of a kokokan. I count all of these as blessings. Gratitude arises filling my chest with warmth. My eyes smile. Gratitude is a Reset Button In our everyday lives, it’s easy to get caught up in the drama of the news, the challenges facing us and our families, dealing with anxiety, and concerns about our aging bodies. Gratitude can seem hidden. And yet gratitude is a safety zone and a respite from our hectic world. It’s a way to take a deep breath and just be for the sake of being. When I was caring for my husband who had Alzheimer’s and life seemed bleak, some event would pull me back to gratitude and the light. It might have been as simple as a dragonfly landing on my hand or seeing a rainbow in a dewdrop caught on a banana leaf. Gratitude brings us back to the present moment where fear and anxiety don’t exist. It acts like a reset button to pull us out of despair. Cultivate Gratitude If gratitude doesn’t come spontaneously, you can cultivate it. Choose a time that works for you – maybe first thing upon waking, over dinner, or just before you go to bed, and think about what in your day you have to be thankful for. Choose one thing and if more come along give thanks for those too. It can be as simple as a hug from a friend, a compliment on your hair, or a beautiful view. The important thing here is to do it every day. This doesn’t take time. It’s easy and science is showing that positive emotions create lasting effects. The Benefits of Positive Emotions Negative emotions such as fear or anger are a natural part of our instinctual survival techniques. We see a snake, a car coming at us, or a large coconut over our heads, and fear focuses our energy to avoid the threat and save ourselves. We have a disagreement with a friend and our anger consumes us well after we’ve had the confrontation. This is the problem with our habitual experience with negative emotions. They stay with us, clouding what is happening in our present moment experience. While we can’t avoid these emotions, because they are a natural part of us to ensure our survival, we can cultivate positive emotions, which have a lasting effect on our brains and our everyday lives. Research done at the University of North Carolina has found that positive emotions such as joy, contentment, gratitude, and love open our minds to more possibilities in our lives. Negative emotions narrow that field to a thin focus. One of the things I’m most grateful for is that gratitude comes easily for me. It has been with me most of my life even in the hard times - although admittedly, less frequently. But not everyone finds this feeling easy and this is where a technique comes in handy. Gratitude Techniques Robert Emmons, the world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude, has studied gratitude for over a decade and written extensively about it. He suggests that for people challenged in feeling gratitude that they practice grateful emotions that include smiling, saying thank you, and writing letters of gratitude. The mere practice will cultivate real feelings. He also suggests nine other ways to cultivate gratitude including keeping a gratitude journal where you write down daily what you’re thankful for. I came across one I’d started The Boomer Corner is a column dedicated to people over 60 living in Bali. Its mandate is to cover topics, practicalities, activities, issues, concerns and events related to senior life in Bali. We welcome suggestions from readers. E-mail us at : Baliboomers@gmail.com Copyright © 2020 Boomer Corner You can read all past articles of Boomer Corner at www.BaliAdvertiser.biz By Susan Tereba several years ago and just reading my entries brought that warmth to my heart again. Those positive feelings had endured and created new ones. This morning I’m grateful for not just the herons in the rice paddies but also for being a contributor to Boomer Corner and being a part of the Bali ex-pat community. For more on gratitude go here: https://emmons.faculty. ucdavis.edu If Alzheimer’s is in your life, check out Susan’s book - Piece by Piece: Love in the Land of Alzheimer’s, available at Ganesha Bookstore, Ubud, or on Amazon. The Boomer Corner is a column dedicated to people over 60 living in Bali. Its mandate is to cover topics, practicalities, activities, issues, concerns and events related to senior life in Bali. We welcome suggestions from readers. E-mail us at : Baliboomers@gmail.com Copyright © 2019 Boomer Corner You can read all past articles of Boomer Corner at www.BaliAdvertiser.biz By Shari How often do you walk into a room and wonder why you’re there? You focus hard, grit your teeth, and try to remember, but come up blank. You retrace your steps and somewhere on that journey back, it dawns on you why you wanted to go to the room in first place. A niggling thought knocks on the inside of your head, “I hope I’m not losing my memory”. You start to notice that words escape you - words or names that you know you know. Try as you might, you can’t dredge them up. Then sometime later, or in the wee hours of the morning, the elusive word pops into your head unannounced, completely spontaneously. Relief floods you. ‘Nope, I’m definitely not getting dementia.’ You’ve just been using an object, like your favorite pen, your glasses, or keys, when your attention springs to something else and when it snaps back, you can’t for the life of you find the darned thing. You look high and low and then you look high and low again. Sometime during the day, you stumble across it, right where you’d laid it down, and wonder if you’re getting Alzheimer’s. If it isn’t enough that we doubt our own brain function, we hear or read more and more stories about memory loss. And there’s a good reason for that. There are nearly 45 million people worldwide with Alzheimer’s and related dementias, and unless a cure is found, that number could easily triple by 2050. What’s the Difference Between Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease? Dementia is a general term for a decline in mental ability - a decline severe enough to interfere with the functioning of daily life. Dementia is not a disease, but rather a symptom, much like a fever is not a disease but a symptom of illness. Some diseases with dementia as a symptom, such as thyroid problems, vitamin deficiencies, and depression can be reversed if diagnosed early enough. But dementia is most commonly associated with Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s is an incurable terminal disease that damages the brain, breaking down the physical connections that are necessary to store new information, retrieve old information, feel compassion, be able to reason, and to problem solve. It progresses relentlessly, until finally, if something else doesn’t get the person, they die of starvation because the brain can no longer communicate to the body the need to swallow. By now you’re probably squirming in your seat wondering what the symptoms of Alzheimer’s are? This is perfectly normal. Studies show that people are more afraid of getting Alzheimer’s than cancer. At least you have a chance with cancer. Ten Warning Signs According to the American Alzheimer’s Organization, there are 10 warning signs of possible Alzheimer’s Disease. All of these characteristics may not be present. It takes only one to suggest a trip to a geriatric neurologist. 1. Memory Loss that Disrupts Daily Life - not being able to remember new information, forgetting important dates or events, asking the same questions over and over. In contrast, a typical age-related change would be forgetting names or appointments but remembering them later. In other words, you know that you’ve forgotten. 2. Challenges in Planning or Problem Solving – losing the ability to do simple math, solving problems, organizing things, keeping track of recipes or monthly bills. Some people may experience changes in their ability to develop and follow a plan or work with numbers. In contrast, a typical age-related change would be making occasional errors when balancing a checkbook or adding up numbers. 3. Difficulty Completing Familiar Tasks - sometimes people have trouble driving a familiar route or forgetting the rules of a game. My husband, Bob, was in year five of Alzheimer’s when he went out to do grocery shopping and didn’t come home for four hours. He was so scared when he found me again, he was shaking. The car was strewn with open maps he couldn’t make heads or tails of. A natural age-related change would be missing a street or freeway exit, but knowing you have. Or you may occasionally need tech help with your computer. 4. Confusion with Time or Place – people with Alzheimer’s can lose track of dates, places or seasons. Sometimes they forget where they are or how they got there. One night, Bob and I were in bed. He started to get up. “Where are you going,” I asked? I have to go home to my wife, he said. “I am your wife.” He sheepishly replied, “Oh” and crawled back into bed. A natural age-related change might be forgetting someone’s birthday but figuring it out later. 5. Trouble Understanding Visual Images and Spatial Relationships - for some people, having vision problems is a sign of Alzheimer’s. They may have difficulty reading, judging distance and determining color or contrast, which may cause problems with driving. A natural age-related change could be visual changes due to cataracts or other eye problems. 6. Problems with Words in Speaking or Writing - people with Alzheimer’s may have difficulty following a conversation. They stop in the middle and are not be sure how to continue. The may struggle with words, forgetting the names of things. I started to notice that Bob used the word ‘thing’ a lot instead of the object’s name. He would say, “Pass me that thing to stir this stuff with,” when what he wanted was a spoon to stir his iced tea. A natural agerelated change would be sometimes not finding the right word or temporarily forgetting a word. 7. Misplacing Things and Losing the Ability to Retrace Steps - a person with Alzheimer’s might put things in strange places. They may lose things and not be able to find them. They may accuse others of stealing from them. This was a biggie for us. I would find towels rolled up with things from the bathroom I’d searched for. In his mind, Bob was packing to be ready to travel because traveling was such a big part of our life together. A natural age-related change would be occasionally misplacing something but being able to retrace steps to find it. 8. Decreased or Poor Judgment – people with Alzheimer’s might experience changes in judgment or decision-making. They may be duped into giving money to telemarketers or pay less attention to grooming or keeping themselves clean. A natural age-related change might be making a bad decision from time to time, like buying something you didn’t need. 9. Withdrawal from Work or Social Activities - a person with Alzheimer’s may start to remove themselves from hobbies, social activities, work projects or sports. They may have trouble following TV programs. A natural agerelated change might be sometimes tiring of work, family and social situations and needing more alone time. 10. Changes in Mood and Personality – sometimes people with Alzheimer’s become confused, suspicious, depressed, fearful, or anxious. They may be easily upset with others when they are out of their comfort zone. A normal age-related change might come from developing specific ways of doing things and becoming irritable when that routine is disrupted. When to Get Help The Alzheimer’s Organization suggests that if you or a loved one has any of these characteristics to get it checked out, sooner rather than later. It’s important to find a specialist who understands the elder brain. Bob and I were given misinformation by a psychiatrist and neurologist because they didn’t know much about dementia. Both said they hoped their brain would be in as good a shape as Bob’s when they were his age. This plunged us back into denial and kept us from getting help early on. *** The next time you go into a room and forget why you’re there, or a good friends’ name escapes you, or you misplace your glasses for the umpteenth time in a day, just chalk it up to natural age-related changes unless you can’t retrace your steps, the friend’s name not only doesn’t come back but the person looks unfamiliar, and you’re sure someone stole those missing glasses. Susan’s book Piece by Piece: Love in the Land of Alzheimer’s is available at Ubud’s Ganesha Book Store, Threads of Life, or on Amazon. The Boomer Corner is a column dedicated to people over 60 living in Bali. Its mandate is to cover topics, practicalities, activities, issues, concerns and events related to senior life in Bali. We welcome suggestions from readers. E-mail us at : Baliboomers@gmail.com Copyright © 2019 Boomer Corner You can read all past articles of Boomer Corner at www.BaliAdvertiser.biz By Susan Tereba Thousands of foreigners come to Bali on holiday the first time and fall in love with the magical “island of the gods” and return, often many times. The wheels in your head begin to spin “what can I do to live here?” Many older people want to retire here or others look at Bali as an investment. The thought of owning property here becomes a dream. I wanted to know how to make this dream possible so I went to Ray While property office and consulted with Bayu. I explained what information I wanted. He looked baffled and then blowing out a long breath, he said, “That’s a very long answer.” The bottom line is a foreigner isn’t allowed to own property in Indonesia. However since 1996 it is allowed for foreigners to lease properties for periods of 25 or 30 years with extensions for another 25 or 30 years, (depending on what the conditions are in the lease contract). But there are other legal ways to obtain property. OPTION 1 – FREEHOLD Many foreigners have been led to believe that Freehold means they own the property. Not true. You must have an Indonesian citizen as a nominee. The nominee should be someone that you trust. The land title is in their name. This can work well but if there’s a falling out with your nominee you could lose everything. A legal contract must be drawn up by a notary between the parties. So first you have to choose in what way you want to purchase a property, lease or freehold. Many times however, this choice is already made for you by the way the seller is offering his property on the market. Sellers can offer their properties with a freehold title or with a lease contract. This means that if you want to purchase a property with a freehold title that you will need an Indonesian citizen as a so called “nominee”. In the land certificate, this Indonesian citizen will be mentioned as the legal owner. To protect your interests as a buyer you will have to make an agreement with this nominee at a notary’s office. If you are interested to buy a property with a freehold title it is recommended that you already have a relationship with your Indonesian nominee, although in many cases the nominee of the seller can also be your nominee if this person agrees to act as your nominee. But again in all cases the agreement should to be settled with the notary to make it a binding official agreement. The notary can be chosen by the buyer and the notary fee may vary from 1% up to 2% of the sales price, and is negotiable in some cases. The sales and purchase agreement is to be drawn up by the notary in Indonesian language, or else it is not binding. One of the duties of the notary is to conduct a “due diligence”. The notary makes sure that the property is accessible, free of mortgage and most important the property is provided with a land certificate, building license and proof of payments of several taxes. Between the buyer and the Indonesian nominee will have to be an agreement called the security documents, to protect you and also the nominee. The buyer declares that he/she gives the nominee a loan (mortgage) with the objective to buy the mentioned property; this loan is exclusively made to buy this particular property. The nominee declares that he receives this amount of money to buy this particular property. Also a power of attorney (surat kuasa) is drawn up, so you as a buyer, have the full right to do with the property what you like; for example selling or renting it out. Also there will be conditions that you are free to renovate/improve the house without needing to ask permission to the nominee. Option 2 – LEASE HOLD The lease contract has to be drawn up officially by a notary to protect the interests of the lessee (you) and the lessor (landlord). In this lease contract the period has to be defined and the sum of money to be paid by the lessee to the lessor for this period. As soon as the period has expired the property falls back in the hands of the landlord/owner of the property. It is recommended that one of the conditions in the lease contract is about the extension possibilities, and the price of the extension. If the lease contract has been drawn up by a notary, this agreement is legal . To obtain full legal protection it is recommended that the lease contract is drawn up in the official Indonesian language (to be legally binding) and another one in English to help prevent misunderstandings between parties. OPTION 3 - HAK PAKAI….”THE RIGHT OF USE” The Indonesian government realized that many foreign investors weren’t very comfortable with freehold and lease hold options of investing in property. They came up a way for foreigners to legally protect their property and interests in Indonesia. Thus the creation of “Hak Pakai” meaning “the right of use.” The Boomer Corner is a column dedicated to people over 60 living in Bali. Its mandate is to cover topics, practicalities, activities, issues, concerns and events related to senior life in Bali. We welcome suggestions from readers. E-mail us at : Baliboomers@gmail.com Copyright © 2020 Boomer Corner You can read all past articles of Boomer Corner at www.BaliAdvertiser.biz By Shari Hartman This is similar in many ways to lease hold, with the difference being there is no landlord/landowner anymore with the title of ownership set by the government with the buyer making an agreement with the government. This is all arranged by the notary with many foreigners seeing this as the only legal and safe way to protect their property and investments. The Hak Pakai will be 25 years with guaranteed extensions up to the maximum of 90 years. You must have a KITAS to be eligible. You don’t need a nominee. The property is yours. You are allowed to pass the property down to your children. However, whoever inherits the property must live in Indonesia. If not, the property must be sold or the government takes it. BUILDING YOUR OWN VILLA/HOUSE IN BALI: If you buy land to build your own villa, again some matters have to be taken care of, in which you need the legal help of a notary. If the objective is to build a villa on this plot of land the notary has to check at the land office (Kantor Pertanahan) if this is allowed. In other words if the land applies correctly to the zoning law. The land has to have the aspect of “residential” so an application for a building permit is possible. This is part of the Due Diligence is critical and you may need to make this clear to the notary. You are of course free to use the land as agriculture land in that case the land can stay with the zoning title “pertanian”. If the land is zoned “greenbelt” ( jalur hijau) then you are not allowed to build on that land. If the land meets up to all the legal conditions for building, you can apply for a building permit, called an “IMB”. This can be a lengthy process. Who will end up with your books and your tchotskes, your gadgets and your garden tools when you change your cosmic address at the end of your life? It’s probably the easiest and least onerous part of your estate planning to make a list of all your possessions and decide who will get the stuff you have accumulated all these years. Will Junior get your porno movie collection? Your daughter might like some jewellery or family heirlooms; maybe your best friend would appreciate your gadgets or garden tools. You have made your Last Will and Testament? Good. That takes care of your estate, your possessions and financial accounts and settles your preferences. Or does it? Estate Planning Planning for the dissolution and distribution of your estate is not that cumbersome but you need to take a few things into account, especially if you have property or a foot in two countries. Besides the bequests and provisions your last will and testament should appoint an executor who will take care of administrative and financial matters such as liquidating bank and investment accounts, your pension or retirement accounts, ensuring your assets go to the proper beneficiaries, paying any debts or taxes. It could also include selling your home or terminating your lease. And with foreign property rights restricted in Indonesia, be sure you don’t leave behind a can of worms your executor will have to deal with. Even if you have little in the way of assets or possessions, you should have a simple will because if you die intestate the legal system in your location will decide who gets your assets, no matter how massive or meager. Things are more complicated if you are the parent or guardian of a minor child, have an informally adopted or sponsored child and there’s no document stating what you want to bequeath them or who will care for them after your demise. By the same token, are you making some provisions for your faithful staff who may lose their jobs and probably have no retirement or financial cushion to fall back on? Another thing to consider is to make sure that your will does not contradict the account beneficiaries named on your retirement accounts, life insurance policies and the like. The person listed as the beneficiary on each of those policies will get the money even if your will says otherwise. Make sure your beneficiary designations are up to date and sync with any other legal provisions you have made. It pays to review the beneficiaries on all your accounts. You may not be ready to die and in fact may yet have a long bout of life ahead of you but remember that things change, people come and go in your life and situations alter. Be sure these changes are updated in your will. Including your will, make a list of critical documents that the will’s executor will need to settle your estate like your insurance policies, bank and investment account statements, credit and debit cards, pension and tax documents and pertinent information like your Social Security or National Insurance numbers and make sure you tell your family or carers where to find them. This includes passwords so your online accounts can be accessed. Other practical directives should address the paying of any taxes due, utility bills, recurring payments or donations. Any time a major change occurs in your life, make sure your will and last directives reflect it. End-of-life preferences Now that the estate portion of your bounty is settled, have you given a thought to the other end-of-life decisions you need to make while still, as they say, of sound and competent mind? What about drawing up a Living Will that will instruct your nearest and dearest how you want to be cared for when you are no longer in a position to verbalise coherent thoughts? Remember there are very important instructions in regards to your end of life preferences that simply do not belong in a Last Will and Testament since that document will not be read until after your death. The western way to do that is to draw up an Advance Directive, a legal and binding document that outlines your wishes if you become incapacitated due to illness or injury. It sets forth the specific life- supporting or prolonging measures you would like applied -or not- like resuscitation or CPR, or whether to end all life-saving measures. Your wishes should be written down and the document given to the people most likely to be close at the time of your demise. You should not leave these agonizing decisions to others. These instructions should include the type of care you wish to have, the medical team and the hospital you want to end up in. If you wish to be an organ donor here in Indonesia you can register with Komite Transplantasi National (the National Transplant Committee) or the Eye Bank (Bank Mata Indonesia) ahead of time and stipulate that in your directive. The Boomer Corner is a column dedicated to people over 60 living in Bali. Its mandate is to cover topics, practicalities, activities, issues, concerns and events related to senior life in Bali. We welcome suggestions from readers. E-mail us at : Baliboomers@gmail.com Copyright © 2020 Boomer Corner You can read all past articles of Boomer Corner at www.BaliAdvertiser.biz By Ines Wynn Your instructions should also indicate your wishes for preferred last rites, burial, cremation or repatriation preferences, appoint a funeral service and a trusted relative or friend who agrees to take care of all that. Also don’t forget to leave behind a list of family and friends you want notified. ‘Next of kin’ may not be near if you have family in another country. Indonesian Immigration and your consulate also need to be informed. And now for the big caveat: Remember that every country has its own norms and regulations when it comes to durable health care and appointing a health care proxy. If you plan to die in Indonesia you are well advised to inform yourself of the practices here. In fact, a quick survey among a few Bali lawyers reveals that unfortunately, the Indonesian law system does not recognise a Living Will. However, you can draw up a private statement letter regarding your medical directives and wishes on how medical personnel should treat you in case of a lethal condition. This statement letter only indicates your wishes and does not have the strong enforcement capacity like a will. It behoves you to discuss these matters with your private physician now and see where you stand. In the end it doesn’t really matter - or does it to you? Statistics claim that nearly half of people age 55 and older don’t have a will. I bet the percentage is even higher for not having a Living Will. Yet it is important to document your end-of-life preferences and communicate those to your family and/or the people that are likely to be near you at that crucial time. Putting a plan in place for things like medical care and funeral arrangements helps ensure that upon your death, your wishes are carried out and that family squabbles are avoided over your dead body. In terms of funeral arrangements, you can leave the arrangements to a competent service like Antara Bangsa Funeral Services. Expats in Bali concur they are very good and take care of the details. Don’t wait to put your affairs in order. Now, while you are still hale and healthy and still have control of your belongings and the execution of your last wishes, is the best time to put some order in your end of life preferences. Don’t wait until life’s inevitable loops throw you a curve and beat you to it. As the candles on our birthday cakes multiply to alarming numbers, we wonder from time to time how our hearts are doing. We can’t see what’s going on in there and it’s a bit of a worry. Cardiologist Dr Putra Antara of Ubud Care Clinic recently gave an excellent presentation on heart disease, followed by an intense hour of Q&A. Here are the highlights. By the age of 70, our heart will have logged about 2 billion beats. That’s a lot of wear and tear. Just think about how often we have to replace our pond pumps. But records between 1900 and 2010 show that coronary artery disease (CAD) in the west peaked in the 1960s and 1970s then decreased because of improved medical care and education. People from high income countries are more likely to die of cancer these days, and those from middle and low income countries of CAD. In Indonesia, about half of the cost of the national health care plan BPJS is paid out for heart issues. Risk factors include high cholesterol/blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, family history and obesity. In Indonesia smoking is the highest risk factor; Dr Putra recently treated a 22 year old heavy smoker for a heart attack. Prevention of CAD should start in our thirties. We all know the rules of a healthy heart: stay active, have a good diet, lose weight, control cholesterol and blood pressure, reduce blood sugar and stop smoking. But no matter how virtuous our lifestyle, the build-up of plaque in the coronary arteries is inevitable; almost everyone will experience it over time. Plaque eventually narrows the arteries, limiting blood flow. The progression, over many years, is the gradual narrowing of the coronary arteries due to plaque. This can lead to angina, the pain caused by narrowed arteries which is usually triggered by stress or exertion. Typically angina pain occurs in a larger area of the chest and is relieved with nitroglycerin or rest. (By the way, gentlemen, don’t take nitroglycerin with Viagra; they both open the blood vessels and may cause a blackout due to a dangerous drop in blood pressure.) “A heart attack occurs when a coronary artery gets completely blocked; stress or physical exertion may trigger a rupture of the plaque that leads to a sudden blockage,” explains Dr Putra. “An electrocardiogram during an attack is the basic diagnostic tool. Treatment includes immediate oxygen and blood thinners, and nitroglycerin to reduce any artery spasm. One or more stents may be inserted to keep the blocked artery open. In cases of severe blockage, a coronary bypass (open heart surgery) literally bypasses the blockage with a grafted vein or redirected artery. Meanwhile, in those with only narrowing of the arteries, stents generally won’t prolong life, but may improve quality of life by reducing angina.” It shouldn’t surprise us that all the old heart attack trials were done on Caucasian males. Only recently has it been recognized that women, Asians and Africans may have different symptoms from the ‘norm’ of chest pain radiating to the left arm. A classic heart attack is harder to diagnose in women, especially if they are over 65 and/or diabetic. Heart attack symptoms in women can be any combination of the following, bearing in mind that symptoms may be more vague and atypical: - Chest pain (the pain may be dull, hard to pinpoint the exact location, it may be in the back or may radiate to the left/centre of chest) that generally goes on for more than a few minutes - Nausea, vomiting - Anxiety - Stomach pain - Pain in arm/leg/jaw - Shortness of breath - Sudden cold sweat - Feeling light headed or dizzy - Sudden exhaustion - Palpitations In the United States, women coming to an Emergency Room with heart attack symptoms are much more likely to be dismissed than men. Dr Putra suggests that anyone experiencing a possible heart attack should immediately tell the doctor they have never felt anything like this before, which should be a red flag. Heart attacks are somewhat more common in the small hours of the night. For this reason, Dr Putra suggests that blood pressure and blood thinning medications should be taken at night, while beta blockers be taken in the morning. What about the demon cholesterol? High cholesterol alone does not necessarily turn into plaque, in fact about half of all heart attack victims don’t have high cholesterol. Around 20The Boomer Corner is a column dedicated to people over 60 living in Bali. Its mandate is to cover topics, practicalities, activities, issues, concerns and events related to senior life in Bali. We welcome suggestions from readers. E-mail us at : Baliboomers@gmail.com Copyright © 2020 Boomer Corner You can read all past articles of Boomer Corner at www.BaliAdvertiser.biz By Ibu Kat 30% of our total cholesterol level is determined by diet, the balance is genetic. Science now sees the obesity epidemic, fueled by sugar, salt, and refined flour, as a more serious threat to heart health than ‘fat’ or cholesterol. I’ve always had high cholesterol, and a few years ago during a check up in Bangkok asked to have a CT coronary angiogram which was the only test I was aware of to visualize coronary plaque. Dr Putra explained that there were risks associated with this test, and it was also expensive. In Bali we can get a Coronary Calcium Scoring CT Scan at Siloam, Kasih Ibu and other hospitals which costs only Rp 700,000 to Rp 1,500,000. Even if we have no symptoms, it might be a good idea to see what’s going on in there and give us a baseline. By the way, although I’ve always had high cholesterol including the ‘bad’ or LDL cholesterol, I had no evidence of significant arterial plaque. That’s the tradeoff to the lifestyle we’ve chosen. So we need to take more responsibility. If you think you may be having a heart attack and are not already on blood thinners, Dr Putra suggests immediately chewing 160-320 mg of aspirin/aspilet (in a pinch, it’s fine to take a full tablet of 500 mg) and 180 mg ticagrelol or 300 mg clopidogrel with a full glass of water. I had to order both of these through the clinic as they don’t seem to be available in pharmacies in Ubud. Have someone drive you to Siloam, Kasih Ibu or Sanglah. Sanglah has a special cardiac unit called ‘Ruang Emergency PJT’ (be sure to use this one and not the ordinary emergency entrance) and, because it’s a teaching hospital, always has a cardiology resident on duty. The next best option would be the Siloam Hospital Emergency as they have the most cardiologists of the private hospitals. Bear in mind that Sanglah can be slow and bureaucratic. Ubud Care Clinic in Teges has an emergency ward where heart attacks can be stabilized before the journey to hospital in their ambulance. According to Dr Putra, forced coughing is used only for certain heart rhythm problems, but definitely not for heart attacks (chest pain). It could even make things worse and trigger a blackout. This hasn’t been a very cheerful read, but forewarned is forearmed. I don’t know about you, but I’ll be preparing a small container with aspirin and ticagrelol to carry at all times. I personally believe than being happy and positive is a big part of mental and physical health, so take a big dose of that too. All bright blessings for 2020. Living in Bali, it’s important to be educated and informed. We can’t just call 911 to summon a fully equipped ambulance with highly trained paramedics to our door in a few minutes. leadership and management skills, the foundation conducts four to five ”pop-up” clinics a year. They involve volunteer doctors, nurses, dentists, and pharmacists, among others who travel to remote areas in the region and administer medicine, medical advice, dental care and even sometimes perform minor operations during these day long ”pop-up” clinics. Typically, they see between 200 to 400 local villagers. Some patients walk hours to these “pop-up” clinics to access the health care. RCBUS helps to fund these clinics. Today, thanks to Sue and Ray’s tireless efforts, Bali Sehat is constructing and equipping a large medical clinic to better serve the medical needs of the people in the Karangasem Region. This new space will be able to serve more patients with equipment, a maternity section, dental services, an emergency department, separate male and female wards, and the ability to get patients to a major hospital. They hope to open the clinic early in 2021. Sue and Ray are also involved in other RCBUS projects. Ray helped provide running water to three rural villages in the Kedampal area, and Sue helped secure funding to make that happen. Sue donated yarn and fabric to RCBUS’ Sewing for Living Project. Ray has worked tirelessly to secure raffle prizes for fundraising events and the raffles held at RCBUS meetings. Over the course of their membership, Sue and Ray have been involved in over three dozen other projects. If you would like to join this dynamic group of people who love Bali and work to help the people who live here, information to do so can be found at http:// rotarybaliubudsunset.org/how-to-become-an-rcbusmember/. [cruises] as a dining room steward. He is married and the father of three children, but still makes it a priority to find time to serve others. Kadek has helped to secure and distribute food to those Balinese in need food in Keramas Village, Tojan Village, Siut Village, Tampaksiring Village and Serongga Village. He also works with Bali Sehat to distribute food to those in need. Kadek is an enthusiastic new member of RCBUS. A member since August of 2020, he has helped the Club bring running water to eighty-seven families in three rural villages in the Kedampal area of the Kargangasem region of Bali. He has also helped to install two temporary sinks outside of two different temples in Gianyar, enabling people to comply with governmental mandates in efforts to slow the spread of Covid-19. He also donates meeting space to RCBUS where we can properly socially distance and included our members who cannot come to the meeting via Zoom. SUE and RAY BISHOP, Secretary and Fundraising Chair, have been members of RCBUS for 10years. They, too, are people of action. Ray grew up in Adelaide, Australia where he played for the Australian Football League before he moved to Canada where he met Sue. Sue was born in England and moved to Canada when she was a child. As an adult, she had an active career in sales and marketing. They married and moved back to Australia in the early 1990’s where Sue pursued her career and Ray owned and operated a hardware store. In 2011, they retired to Keramas, Bali. Between them, they share four children and six grandchildren on two continents. Sue and Ray fell in love with the Balinese people, particularly those in the Karangasem Region, and recognized their dire need for better local health resources. They founded Bali Sehat [Healthy Bali] http://www.balisehat.org, a nonprofit Who are the people who are members of Rotary Club Bali Ubud Sunset [RCBUS]? We are people of action, people who want to be impactful in our communities, people who want to create sustainable, positive change around the world, in our community and in ourselves. Over the next few months, we would like to introduce you to these people who make a substantial difference in Bali. This is an introduction to our President, President Elect, Secretary and Fundraising Chair. KARTIKA or “TIKA” DEWI is the President of RCBUS and definitely a woman of action. Tika is from Bedulu and continues to live there with her husband and three children. She became interested in Rotary by first joining Rotaract, the division of Rotary International’s program for young adults designed to support members who want to hone their leadership skills and give back to their communities. She joined RCBUS because she recognized it as a place “where her voice can be heard.” Tika owns a local convenience store which sells items which her neighbors need on a daily basis. Despite being a merchant and a busy mother, Tika is involved in all RCBUS projects and ably runs each meeting including those that occur via Zoom. She is the mastermind behind the Sewing for Living project which teaches local Balinese women to use sewing machines and to crochet, enabling them to earn money and independence by working out of their homes. Tika recruited teachers, sewing machines, supplies and students for this amazingly successful project. Whether a project is happening in Kedampal, Taro, Karangasem, Ubud or Keramas, Tika is there and involved. KADEK EREWAN, President Elect, is a new member of RCBUS and a person of action. Born in Keramas Village, he is a successful entrepreneur who owns and operates the world-renowned eating and meeting place, Warung Legong, located in Keramas. You can check it out at http:// www.tripadvisor.com.au/Restaurant_Reviewd4274987?m=19905 Kadek also owns and operates a convenience store across the street from Warung Legong. Copyright © 2020 Rotary News You can read all past articles of Rotary News at www.BaliAdvertiser.biz Rotary Club Bali Ubud Sunset – People of Action When you read this article, it is exactly fifty years ago that the sixties had come to an end. Few paid any attention and it took another two decades before the era evoked any serious nostalgia. Remember the sixties? Those were the days when the original baby boomers were teenagers. Following the Second World War there was a temporary marked increase in the birth rate, both in Europe and the United States of America. The first recorded use of the term “baby boomer” is in a January 1963 article in the American publication Daily Press, describing a massive surge of college enrollments approaching as the oldest boomers were coming of age. Yet the Oxford English Dictionary dates the modern meaning of the term to a January 23, 1970, article in The Washington Post and nowadays the accepted definition is that anyone born between 1946 and 1964 is a boomer. The Wikipedia entry for baby boomers splits the generation in two as follows: The ‘leading-edge baby boomers’ are individuals born between 1946 and 1955, those who came of age during the Vietnam war era.The other half of the generation, called the ‘late boomers’, was born between 1956 and 1964.While this second batch of boomers may remember watching the first men walking on the moon, they are unlikely to have any memories of the Cuban missile crisis. It was in fact the era of the cold war between the capitalist countries of the western world and the communist states in the east. The Cuban crisis had brought the world to the brink of nuclear war in October 1962 and in August 1964 the United States had entered the Vietnam War. In the US it was the epoch of both the anti-war movement and the civil rights movement. So, what was the later nostalgia all about? During the sixties a divide in worldview developed between the old and the young that seemed greater than ever before and there was a growing distrust of authority among many who came of age during those years.There was talk of a ‘generation gap’ and this was most evident in rapidly evolving fashion and hairstyle trends that were readily adopted by the young and ridiculed by the old. Young men were sporting long hair and young women started wearing revealing clothing in public. For the older generations the sixties were most certainly a very difficult time. The old were alarmed that the young took an interest in recreational drugs. The young countered that they were exploring a widened area of consciousness. The young openly proclaimed that peace, love and sexual experimentation were more worthy pursuits than entering the rat race. Parents found out their kids had ‘dropped out’ and moved into a commune somewhere far away from the urban centers. The role of women as full-time homemakers in industrial society was challenged in 1963, when Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique. Other influential books of the sixties included Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb. Many counterculture boomers were early adopters of practices like recycling and organic farming long before these became mainstream. In Western Europe the sixties counterculture movement was strongest in urban centers like London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, West Berlin, Paris, Rome and Milan. While many young men in the USA were trying to figure out how they could best dodge the draft, across the Atlantic the reality of the cold war was totally different. There was a state of perfect peace all the way between Europe and the Far East. The one country to be avoided was Vietnam but between western Europe and Thailand there were nowhere people busy killing others. There were no bullets whizzing through the air. There were no grenades thrown anywhere nor bombs being detonated. You could travel overland without having to fear for your life. Perhaps I should disclose that I was born in those post-war years and I consider it a privilege that I grew up in an age that the natural environment was not yet contaminated by pollution. Most importantly, I was part of the first generation that had the opportunity to go travel the world. I had read Jack Kerouac and in 1967 I used the thumb of my right-hand to travel overland all the way from Amsterdam to Kathmandu. It took more than a year before I made my way back but during that time on the hippie trail, I learned much more than could possibly have been crammed into four years of University. Traveling overland, or for that matter crossing the ocean on a boat, you become totally aware of the distance that you must cover. On the roof rack of a truck it was a very The Boomer Corner is a column dedicated to people over 60 living in Bali. Its mandate is to cover topics, practicalities, activities, issues, concerns and events related to senior life in Bali. We welcome suggestions from readers. E-mail us at : Baliboomers@gmail.com Copyright © 2019 Boomer Corner You can read all past articles of Boomer Corner at www.BaliAdvertiser.biz By Willem Loots long way from Tabriz to Mashhad and the Persian desert tracks were full of holes. This brings me to the most important technological revolution of the twentieth century. When you ask people from the X generation or millennials what they believe to be the greatest advance brought to mankind in the past century, they usually reply it must have been the development of the computer and the mobile phone. I disagree. I do not dare to call it the biggest step forward but the greatest change in our lives came when Boeing brought out the seven-four-seven in 1969. Let me clarify this with a personal anecdote. At one point when I was in New Delhi in early 1968, I walked into the office of KLM Royal Dutch airlines. In my pocket there was very little left of the 250 dollars that I had budgeted for the entire voyage but out of sheer curiosity I wanted to see how much it would cost to fly back home. I found out that the price of a one-way ticket from New Delhi to Amsterdam was six thousand Dutch guilders which at the time was about the price of a Volkswagen Beetle. The reality was very simply that back in those days only the wealthy could afford to fly. With an overall length of just over 70 meters and a wingspan of 59, Boeing’s 747 was the first plane to be dubbed a Jumbo Jet and it could fly more people further than any plane before. It could carry up to 550 passengers, nearly four times as many as the 707 from the previous generation.Of course, it took quite a few years before airports all over the world had lengthened their runways and built bigger passenger terminals that could handle the increased numbers of passenger but eventually it led to a revolution in the way the whole world travels and air freightis shipped. My own airline of preference Air Asia proclaims that ‘Now Everyone Can Fly’ and each Sunday Skyscanner sends me a list of suggestions for low cost trips from Denpasar. I just checked. One-way tickets are relatively expensive but Delhi-Amsterdam mid-January would cost USD 385. The price of a very basic Volkswagen Polo in the Netherlands is 17,751 Euro. People who fly around the world have little idea of the distances they cover but I marvel about how my sons use both their thumbs to type a text on their mobile phone at an incredible speed. Welcome to the twenty-twenties.