and her dog help cushion the blow

Rinaldo S. Brutoco is the Founding President and CEO of the Santa Barbara-based World Business Academy and a co-founder of JUST Capital. He’s a serial entrepreneur, executive, author, radio host, and futurist who’s published on the role of business in relation to pressing moral, environmental, and social concerns for over 35 years Premature Births Plummeted During Coronavirus Lockdowns Let Them Eat Cake Enriching society with humanity and compassion for others D octors in many countries, including Ireland, Denmark, and the US, are recording record low numbers of premature births, especially in the earliest and most high-risk categories. Dr. Roy Philip, a neonatologist at the University Maternity Hospital, Limerick, in Ireland, first observed the trend when he noticed that supplies of breast milk-based fortifier fed to preemies were not diminishing.

QWhen looking at birth weights, a primary indicator of premature births, Dr. ueen Marie Antoinette famousruns the Foodbank of Santa Barbara Philip calculated that the hospital had recorded a quarter of the number of babies ly quipped “Let them eat cake” County, we have already experienced under 3.3 pounds, classified as very low birth weight, than they normally see. when she and Louis XVI were food demand doubling in the past few Hospitals around the world are reporting similar phenomena. Although confronted by the Women’s March months as a result of the pandemic. there have been no official studies on the relationship between shutdowns on Versailles demanding bread for And, he believes it will go far higher and maternal health, many health experts are linking the higher rate of fulltheir hungry families in October 1789. in the weeks just ahead. Ok, that’s the term pregnancies to less stress from work and commuting, more sleep, avoidHer remark, and the forced return to problem. What’s the solution? ed minor illnesses, and even a drop in air pollution. Paris by the royal couple, marked the beginning of the end of the French It Can Be Done, Again The causes of pre-term births have largely eluded researchers, but these unprecedented lockdowns could hold the key to healthier pregnancies. While Monarchy, which continued to unravel Remarkably, it isn’t that hard to figmany doctors expected the stress of the pandemic to induce more preemie until the king was executed on January ure out and not much more difficult births, it seems that shutdowns have caused the opposite. This new evi21, 1793. The women were complainto implement. As noted previously in dence could be instrumental in more effective maternal health strategies in ing that they had no bread to feed their this column, the economy cannot be the future. When the lockdowns are through, we look forward to seeing the starving families. How callous could a repaired or “re-opened” before getresearch from doctors to help us explain this unexpected boost in fetal health. devastatingly rich woman be to sneer at them that they should “eat cake” ting the pandemic under control. From looking at every other major industrial Returning Home when they couldn’t even afford bread? country around the world, we know In 1770, the people of the Esselen Tribe of northern California were forcibly What was that all about? exactly what they did and we can removed from their lands and brought to Spanish missions. But now, after

Clearly, Marie Antoinette is the copy it to bring the virus under control more than 250 years, the Esselen tribe is landless no more. poster child for wealthy individuals here. It starts with everyone wearRecently, the Esselen tribe finalized the purchase of a 1,200-acre ranch near Big who have no sense of obligation to ing a mask everywhere outside the Sur along California’s north-central coast as part of a $4.5 million acquisition that their fellow humans. She was aristohome – even the beach – as they do in involved the state and an Oregon-based environmental group. The deal signifies cratically blind to their hunger. She Europe. Everyone wearing a mask, and a return to their ancestral homelands. It is also a big win for environmentalists as was so entranced by her own extraorobserving social distancing guidelines the tribe will conserve old-growth redwoods and endangered wildlife such as the dinary wealth that she couldn’t begin together with observing good personal California condor and red-legged frog, as well as protect the Little Sur River, an to see the pain of those less fortunate hygiene, will dramatically “flatten the important spawning stream for the imperiled steelhead trout. than herself. And, we don’t need to be curve.” Once the curve is flattened, “We’re the original stewards of the land. Now we’re returned,” Tom Little as rich as the Queen of France in the we can contact trace and use testing to Bear Nason, chairman of the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County, told the Santa late 1700s to see all around us today a bring the pandemic firmly under conCruz Sentinel. “We are going to conserve it and pass it on to our children and certain callous disregard for the plight trol. Then we can begin to thoughtfulgrandchildren and beyond.” •MJ of the less fortunate in our land. ly re-open. That doesn’t include bars,

My friend Abby Disney has been concerts, or other large gatherings. But vocal as the great niece of Walt himself. it does include being able to get your at home. These were big sacrifices. the opportunity to see ourselves as She is upset with the amount Disney hair cut or a pedicure if you’d like. It We went without the convenience of members of a community which takes corporation pays its executives while also means being able to go to work being able to buy what we wanted care of its own has never been more leaving many of their employees below without fear of contracting a deadly when we wanted. There were huge real for our personal growth. a livable wage. In 2019 she famously disease. Yes, once we can go back to restrictions on everything from butter Many of us are blessed with jobs asked CEO Bob Iger to distribute half work we can rebuild our economy. to nylons, all for the war effort. where we can telecommute. Many of of his $139 million-plus paycheck to the And every day we delay means further Those sacrifices were far more diffius have incomes still intact. We’re the struggling employees of Disney’s theme structural damage is being done to the cult than having to wear a mask. We 70 percent of our community that can parks who make pitifully low wages. economy which will make it that much made common sacrifice in the spirafford to help the other 30 percent Abby believes, as I do, that “pay equity” more challenging to climb out. We it of working for the common good. find the bread they need to survive, is top of the list for improving the way just sustained the largest one quarter Every citizen mattered. Everything we or help them make it. No one can corporations meet their responsibilities decline of GDP ever – about 39 percent did really mattered as we battled the do everything in a crisis this large. to their employees, rather than solely on an annualized basis. And, current Nazi’s Third Reich. Well, we did it But everyone can do something. Let’s enriching executives, shareowners, and unemployment statistics are dramatbefore. We can do it again? We have to. commit to leave no one behind. Let’s investors. Abby, born a wealthy heiress, ically worse than anything Roosevelt As we wage this twin battle against commit that there will no longer be retained a deep concern for the less fordealt with in the 1930s. the pandemic and the economic colfood insecurity on our Central Coast. tunate. No mere affectation, it is a core We have a problem of significant lapse it has created, we cannot fail to Let us see the plight of our neighbors belief that those of us with resources food insecurity for more than 30 milcare for our neighbors. We need to help as our challenge, not something “they” have an absolute duty to share the richlion Americans. Will we, like Marie them find bread. We need to help them have to fix. The truth is that “they” es of our society with everyone – parAntoinette, mock the hungry with stay in their homes even as eviction is can’t possibly fix what is broken in ticularly those struggling to afford their taunts of “let them eat cake” or will threatening. This is not a time to be caltheir lives without the active support “daily bread.” Abby is the opposite we, like Abby Disney, take it upon lous. This is a time to exhibit a renewed of us who are fortunate enough to of Marie Antoinette, and as such, is a ourselves to argue for a more humane sense of commitment to our commustill have our health and our jobs. No, model for us all. distribution of society’s wealth? nity and to each other. It is time to act. Marie Antoinette, we don’t want to

Yes, food insecurity is a major chalEveryone had to all pull together to We can help out at the local foodbank, arrogantly taunt those who hunger. We lenge in the USA today, and it’s getting fight World War II. Not only the solor volunteer at the local homeless shelwant to recall and live by those immorworse. Watch what happens now that diers who sacrificed their lives on ter, or put a little extra change in the tal words of the poet John Dunn: “No the $600 weekly Federal supplement the battlefield, but all the women like Sunday collection plate at our favorite man is an island unto himself alone for unemployment benefits has run Rosie the Riveter who had to take up church. The number of folks who need and complete… do not ask for whom out. According to Erik Talkin, who their place with sacrifices made here real help is too great. And, most of all, the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.” •MJ 22 MONTECITO JOURNAL “I quit therapy because my analyst was trying to help me behind my back.” – Richard Lewis 6 – 13 August 2020