What Is Female Genital Mutilation? Why Does It Occur? What Are Its Health And Wellbeing Impacts?

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a horrific act, agreed by all the major global humanitarian and legal organisations, and by many nations, to be a gross violation of human rights.  But still it continues, perpetrated often on small girls and young women under barbaric conditions.   What follows is an attempt to describe and ‘explain’ this act.   Possible consequences for those who have it are also listed.
NB: The ** material below is very distressing to read**, but knowledge of #FGM is essential to eradicating the practice.

Why does FGM happen?

FGM may be an early marker of belonging to a particular group, perhaps carried out when the child is only a few days or weeks old. (Similarly, ex-pat groups may adopt it as a way of indicating difference from their host community.)

In some communities FGM is seen as a rite of passage, an initiation to adulthood, occurring as the girl approaches puberty and ‘becomes a woman’.

FGM is sometimes required to ‘preserve’ family ‘honour’.

It may be done in order to ‘cleanse’ a girl, in the belief that it is more hygienic and will stop unpleasant genital secretions and odours as the child develops to maturity.
FGM may be deemed a beautifying procedure, to remove ‘masculine’ aspects of a girl’s or woman’s body.

Some communities believe men’s sexual pleasure will be enhanced by FGM.
Excision of the clitoris may be believed to ensure women will not be like men in regard to sexual appetite or aggression.

Fear of the clitoris may be a factor, with the belief that it must be excised because otherwise it will grow into a ‘third leg’ (c.f. a penis, only perhaps longer), and / or will cause the girl discomfort when she becomes a woman.

Fear of the clitoris, and its consequent excision, is also a rationale in communities which believe a man – or baby – will die if they come into contact with it during intercourse or birth.
Excision of the clitoris is believed to reduce a woman’s sexual pleasure or desire, thus reducing the likelihood that she will become sexually active with anyone other than her husband.

And, often in addition to any or all of these convictions, FGM is a way to ensure that a girl or woman is ‘pure’; she may be sewn up almost completely as she approaches puberty, when she reaches marriageable age, or even after each birth, so that sexual intimacy is almost impossible unless on her husband’s say-so.
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Types of female genital mutilation


Type I:

~ partial or total removal of the clitoris and/or the prepuce (clitoridectomy).

Subgroups:

type Ia – removal of the clitoral hood or prepuce only;

type Ib – removal of the clitoris with the prepuce.

Type II:

~ partial or total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora, with or without excision of the labia majora (excision).

Subgroups:

type IIa – removal of the labia minora only;

type IIb – partial or total removal of the clitoris and labia minora;

type IIc - partial or total removal of the clitoris, labia minora and labia majora.

Type III:

~ narrowing of the vaginal orifice with creation of a covering seal by cutting and appositioning the labia minora and/or the labia majora, with or without excision of the clitoris (infibulation).

Subgroups:

type IIIa - removal and apposition of the labia minora;

type IIIb - removal and apposition of the labia majora.

Reinfibulation is covered under this definition. This is a procedure to recreate an infibulation, for example after childbirth when defibulation is necessary.

Type IV:

~ unclassified – all other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for nonmedical

purposes, for example, pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterization.

Source:   Global strategy to stop health-care providers from performing female genital mutilation, World Health Organisation  (2010)

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Related : ISIS likely to make FGM mandatory for girls from 11 - 46 age
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What health and well-being impacts does FGM have?

Impacts of FGM on physical health: immediate (up to 10 days)

Severe pain
Haemorrhage
Shock (sometimes death)
Infection of the wound
Acute urinary retention (with pain and burning)
Urinary track infection
Abscesses and ulcers
Fever
Septicaemia
Tetanus
Gangrene

Impacts of FGM on physical health: medium and longer-term (after 10 days)

Delay in wound healing due to infection, malnutrition and anaemia
Anaemia (and failure to thrive if malnourished child)
Chronic pelvic infection
Fibrosis (scarring at site of cutting)
Cheloids (abnormal growth of scar tissue)
Synechia (abnormal fusion of labia)
Tissue rotation (abnormal scarring and retraction of anatomical zones)
Chronic back and pelvic pain
Urinary problems / incontinence / kidney failure
Bladder calculus / stone formation
Hypersensitivity of entire genital area, including neuroma on the dorsal nerve of the clitoris
Dysmenorrhoea / menstrual problems
Haematocolpos (accumulation internally of menstrual blood)
Pain at sexual intercourse
Recto/vaginal fistulae (?and subsequent ostracization by the community)
Unwillingness to seek general medical advice, in case FGM becomes evident
Hepatitis and other infections (because of poorly healed wounds)

Impacts of FGM on sexual health

Dysparenuia / discomfort / spasm / pain during intercourse
Anxiety resulting in vaginal dryness
Less sexual satisfaction / difficult to reach orgasm
Less (reported) sexual desire / lack of arousal
Shame or embarrassment about intimacy
Greater risk of HIV (because of cuts which bleed)
Medical checks (e.g. smear tests) difficult, and may be avoided, so early prognoses of ill-health are missed
Morbidity due to anal intercourse, where vaginal access is difficult
Infertility

Impacts of FGM on psychological health (girls &  women – specifics may depend on age)

Psychological vulnerability
Anger
Fear
Anxiety
Depression
Confusion
Lack of trust
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Psychosexual problems
Hyper-arousal
Hyper-vigilance
Psychological disturbance
Behavioural problems
Relationship difficulties or disorders
Emotional distance
Sense of helplessness
Somatization
Phobia
Sleep disorders
Low self-esteem and / or sense of self-entitlement
Social isolation / dependent on group disconnected from the mainstream
Flashbacks
Cognitive dissonance (where norms of FGM are not shared)
Rejection by others (e.g. not allowed to handle food or water, not permitted adult status – or even acknowledged as a mother)
Stigma

Impacts of FGM obstetrically: maternal

Difficulties in performing good pelvic examination during labour (resulting in inadequate management of delivery)
Prolongation of second stage of labour
Tearing and recourse to episiotomy
Caesarian section (sometimes unnecessary because obstetrician unprepared)
Perineal lacerations
Torn uterus
Post-partum haemorrhage
Perineal wound infections
Post-partum sepsis
Repeated pregnancies because of infant mortality (presumably?)
Impacts of FGM obstetrically: paediatric

Stillbirth
Need for resuscitation
Neonatal distress and / or mortality
Failure to thrive
Cerebral palsy / brain damage
Death or serious incapacity of mother, so high risk also to child
Source:  Hilary Burrage’s blog for NoFGM

How To Get Enough Sleep And Wake Up Feeling Refreshed

The tech industry is a sleep-deprived bunch that seems to worship insomnia. There's Marissa Mayer admitting to 130-hour work weeks at Google,

iamtheo via flickr

pulling at least one-all nighter a week and sleeping under her desk when she had to.

There's Twitter and Square co-founder Jack Dorsey who worked 16-20-hour days in 2009, 8-10 hours a day at each company, shrugging it off with a "I don’t sleep much, but it’s enough."

The "nap room" and the "nap pod" have become normal features in a tech company's office space.

I don’t sleep much, but it’s enough.

And it's not just tech executives. A 2013 Gallup poll found that Americans sleep on average about 6.8 hours a night, not 8. We're using those extra hours we spend awake to work from home on our smartphones and tablets.

But sleep deprivation has consequences. After reading our article on how stressed out computers programmers are, pressured to work 24-7, and how they suffer from "imposter syndrome," Dr. Bob Albers of the New Mexico Center for Sleep Medicine emailed us.

That's when you're  sure that all the other coders you work with are smarter and more skilled than you are and you fear being found out as a fake.
Albers suggested that a lack of sleep might actually cause "imposter syndrome."
He told us,"Inadequate sleep impairs positive emotional memories, yet retains most of the negative emotional memories (we may view ourselves as imposter)."

He also said people need more sleep than they think they do.
"Sleep is primary for the restoration of the brain, yet many promote myths of needing little sleep. Inadequate sleep is rarely mentioned, when writing about the stress of work. Articles may suggest adequate sleep (which young people think means 5-6 hours per day), but never discusses research supporting 7-8 hours. I would suggest that a programmer would be more productive and accurate with 8-9 hours of sleep, daily, not just the catch-up on off days."

So how can you tell if you are getting enough sleep?
These two viral videos posted by YouTube channel In59Seconds can help.
This first one is a sleep deprivation test.

 The second is a trick to help you wake up feeling refreshed called "the 90-minute rule."
By the way, there is an app for that, the Sleep Cycle alarm clock. Put it on your bed while you sleep and it determines when you are in the light sleep cycle, the best time to wake you.
It has an 4.5-star rating out of 5, from 67,000+ reviewers.

That's the kind of happiness that only a good night's sleep can bring.

Source: Business Insider

Britain Has More Billionaires Per Capita Than Any Other Country

This sounds like remarkably good news, that the Old Country has more #billionaires per capita of the population than any other country. It must mean that the folks at home are managing to do something right. Sadly, that something isn’t creating the world’s most dynamic economy which then produces more billionaires than anywhere else. Nor, thankfully, is it that Britain is the sort of plutocracy where the multitudes have nothing but scraps while the billionaires swim in their pools of currency, a la Scrooge McDuck. No, rather it’s because the place is a beacon of civilised society, and a place with reasonable tax laws to boot. The #UK has thus become the destination of choice for those who have been able to make their money in rougher climes.

Of course, The Guardian isn’t happy about all this:

The super-rich want to live in Britain because of “culture, financial services, nice tax regime, good education for their kids and a nice lifestyle where they meet their friends”, Philip Beresford, the study’s author, told the BBC. London has more billionaires than any other city in the world with 72 – far ahead of its nearest rival, Moscow, which has 48.

Quite: and a country that can offer those things is likely to be a pretty good place for everyone else to live in too. But this being a Guardian report there must be something wrong with the situation:

Many of the list’s members pay little or no income tax because they are not domiciled here.

Which leads us into a little diversion around the British tax system. People do not pay or not pay income tax because of their domicile, the situation is more complex than that. We have two points that determine whether tax is payable in the UK, residence and domicile. If you are resident in the UK then you pay UK income tax on income arising in the UK. This is as it should be, if you live in a country then it seems logical enough that you contribute to the costs of running that country from the money you earn there. If you are UK domiciled and also UK resident then you pay UK income tax on your worldwide income, minus any amount that you might have got stung for elsewhere. The quartet of possibilities repeats itself on the other side as well. If you are UK domiciled but non-resident (say, born and bred in the UK but working or living somewhere else) then certain of your UK income is UK taxable but everything else is taxable in wherever it is that you are resident. However, if you are UK resident but non-domiciled then it is only your UK income which is UK taxable. If you have foreign income, income which you do not then bring into the UK, then that is free of UK tax.

And if we’re honest that seems like a very fair tax system. It’s difficult to see why the UK taxman should have a claim on the income of a foreigner, who earns it in a foreign country, and it stays outside the UK in foreign places. Just like it is difficult to see why the UK should have a claim on the income of a Briton who does not live there.

Yes, I’m aware that the US does it differently but it is only the US that does it in that different manner, taxing all US citizens wherever they live.

That little diversion through the details aside, the fact that so many foreigners wish to come and live in Britain is rather an advertisement for the place to my mind. There must be something to it if so many people who could live absolutely anywhere at all decide they want to be there, don’t you think?
Source: Forbes News

4 Behaviors You Never Want to See in a Leader

We all have our own perceptions of what “#effective” leadership looks like, so trying to define what is right to hundreds or thousands of people would be an effort in futility -- like asking your boss for a raise after making fun of his new haircut.
A Google search of #leadership yields 159,000,000 results. Try boiling that down into a shared definition of what leadership means and your life, as you know it, will be over.
But if we flip this construct on its head, I am willing to bet that there are non-desirable leadership behaviors we could all agree on; behaviors that simply do not create value for people.
Try this exercise. Make a list of eight leadership behaviors that you would not want to see, and then compare your top four to mine below:

1. Complaining. 

Not cool. I remember something one of my SEAL team leaders said that was so simple and impactful it has stuck with me to this day: “Complaints go up, not down.” Criticizing another leader in the company of followers does two things, neither of which is a great way to make friends:
It undermines leadership efforts. One of the many challenges an organizational leader faces is buy-in from his people. What he doesn’t need is one of his appointed deputies barking insults behind his back, because doing so only erodes the trust that was built.
It establishes your reputation as a gossip hound. Authenticity is about dealing with conflict as it happens rather than waiting for the leader to leave the room. When people know where you stand, they also know what you stand for.

2. Emotional volatility. 

Not to be confused with expressing emotion. Leaders are expected to comport themselves professionally, and that means having the self- and social-awareness to know when to put up, shut up or blow up. It also requires understanding different personalities, because some people learn easier after having a heart-to-heart conversation while others need a more direct -- strategically placed -- kick in the buttocks. Adapting one’s style to match the setting and people takes patience and acute observation if you don’t want to be the “fun sponge.”

3. Playing “nice.” 

Making friends with employees is not priority number one on a leader’s radar because decisions must be made that, well, won’t please everybody. Remember this: People need a leader, not a friend. Friends help you out with your business; leaders help you fit in according to the business. Leaders seek to understand and align your values and goals with the company’s vision and strategy.

4. Minding other people’s matters (micromanagement).

 Starting out as an entrepreneur, you have to wear all the hats, but as your company grows, so should you. The invoicing and logistics that you once ran no longer warrant your direct involvement because you’re now focused on higher-level planning. It’s not easy removing the tactical, operational and strategic hats that an entrepreneur initially wears and then scaling back to just one. But awareness is half the battle. If you want your company to grow then you must focus on what only you can affect -- and let your people do the same.
As a leader there are certain expectations that others have of you, such as acting the part and delivering a message, service or product of value.
What are your expectations? I would love to hear the list you came up with (you did it, right?) in the comments section below. This will help all readers -- including myself -- better understand the myriad perceptions we use to qualify leadership effectiveness.
Source: Entrepreneur