Health Is Wealth

and The Wonder of Pu-erh Tea.

THIS POST WAS WRITTEN ORIGINALLY DATED 6th JANUARY 2008.
As a community service, also for a GOoD buddy, I am leaving this article at TOP OF PAGE for some time:)

For the new year 2008, I have resolved to review my manner of writing and after much Rumination, decided to restore

DESIDERATA.ENGLISH,

a column on Sundays which I wrote regularly unless sicknesss or extraneous factors prevented me from doing so. Those articles were totally Da Desi Code-free as it was one of three principal objectives I had told my Esteemed Readers would occupy a then freshly-minted Blogger's journey to enjoy.

Today I am energised to doing what I believe is a Community Service, giving my ER (this is an abbreviation for Esteemed Readers, and is therefore not DDC, which is also a short for Da Desi Code, I guess this explanation approximates to an insult to my readers' intelligence, so I cease here).

Reprising a relevant section from the Ides of March 2006 just for context:

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Wednesday, March 15, 2006
MY BLUE HEAVEN


When Whippoor-whills call
And evening is nigh
I hurry to
My Blue Heaven

A turn to the right
a little white light
will lead you to
My Blue Heaven

You'll see a smiling face, a fireplace a cozy room
A little nest that's nestled where the roses bloom

Just Mollie and me and baby makes three
we're happy in
My Blue Heaven

1923 George Whiting / Walter Donaldson


Ever since Man left the Garden of Eden, he -- and his Mate2, She ? -- has been trying very hard to get back to that elusive garden on earth. Desiderata calls this search THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS, which had been well expounded by writers and philosophers through the ages.

When I started this Blog exactly a year ago, my intention was to first expand my own writing horizon. But I am always one proud to go about the things I do the Scientific Method. Hence, I often tell my Y&A visitors to give Da Rationale, mousey-one also can! :)

I approach my Posts like an everyday experiment on glimpses of LIFE, zeroed in via my three broad objectives of:
* Desiderata.Civil Society
* Desiderata.Truth
* Desiderata.English.


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The highlight of the past year 2007 saw my maiden book self-published, "Midnight Voices and Other Poems" by Desiderata-YL Chong, which saw a soft launch at yet another initiative I am mighty proud of -- BUM 2007, mainly inspired by a Blogger then based in the UK, who writes at howsy.blogspot.com,and just a little own (not Donald's!) trumpeting now, witness a comprehensive coverage of that event at bum2007.wordpress.com.

In one life's journey, an American President (I forgot his name, please help Desi out on this!) summed up that one would be truly "blessed" if at the end of the travel, he/she could count as the number of friends numbering the five fingers on one's one hand. He/she would be doubly blessed if the number graduated to both hands' fingers.

Forget about counting the toes, my GOoD friend, shortened to mGf (This is not counted as DDC, for YL Chong (as a Journalist-wordsmith) writes thus to remind each living human being that there is the GOD in being good, lest VVe forget in the hustle-bustle of chasing the almighty dollar!)

In reviving Desiderata.English as my Sunday column, I intend to do away with using DDC so that the chief goal of promoting EXQUISITE ENGLISH is not compromised. I may sometimes resort to using Poetic Licence, being a Shakespearean disciple, in the tradition of Da Bard using "the most unkindest cut of all" when describing Brutus' dagger stabbing his best friend Julius Caesar, who in dying surprise murmured "Et tu, Brute?"

For those who know Desi well, there is one department/deportment where I am not "modest" about, and this is in my excellence in mastery of the Colonial Masters' language. I am proud of it, and there is no need to apologise for it. An individual can strive to be master of many languages, and I have tried, and continue to try, but believe me, except for some blessed few, don't swallow wholesale anyone claiming to be a linguist in several languages. He/she is likely to be "excellent" in one-and-only ONE, and maybe just competent in others. That's the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help him/her God in not being too boastful. (IF Desi were to resort to DDC, the previous sentence would read "That's da truth, the 'hole tooth and knothin' butt the hurtin'tooth, so help him/her/it Gawd, in being daringly boastfool", but I cease and desist from now on.)

So back to my first Rumination on this blessed Sunday, I wish to stress to my ER that you may have all the riches of the world, but lacking good health, what then is there to ENJOY?
And the Journey of Life -- including via a cyber-journey that's Blogging -- is to be ENJOYED.

Man's temporal journey on the Good Earth is to maximise the Enjoyment of Life which demands a constant effort, as nothing precious is gained with no effort, though some lucky Malaysians are endowd with an advantage at the starting blocks -- they have wealthy parents who have the money to give them a good headstart. But money is not the start-all and end-all. At the end of the day, take a guidepost from my most esteemed poet-tutor, Max Ehrmann, who reminds in the closing lines of his Desiderata, to which I owe this Blog's name (Thanks a million!):

"With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy."

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE LAST POINT reads "Strive to be
happy" and NOT "Be happy". There's a huge
difference.

"Strive" means "make effort, try, or work towards",
and hence it implies it's not something easily achieved.

Back to my point about the purusit of happiness, there's wisdom in another English saying:

HEALTH IS WEALTH.

This was a teaching motto engraved along a grassy patch in the Seremban Lake Gardens one-upon-a-time. Some nincompoops removed it after a few million-dollar upgrade and didn't realise that little act of removal was a betrayal of what maintaining a green lung in a bustling city centre is all about!


So for thisy ear, I unashamedly would urge my ER to cultivate something new. The habit of drinking Pu-erh Tea. I declare this advice is not compleatly (yes, that's an accepted spelling!:) altruistic. mGf Saudara Choo Nyet Ching has been lavishly investing in Desi's health by treating me thus far to "five rounds" of tasting his best Puerh tea, each session at which I had brought along a few buddies, spread over the past few months.

I just reprise here my own writing on one aspect of his newly developed WEBSITE still a work-in-progress, but now you can surf to bluechippuerhtea.com
for a peep:

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Health Benefits of Drinking Green Tea

Several studies have shown a wide range of health benefits arising from drinking green tea, including lowering the risk of certain cancers and heart disease as well as weight loss and protection against Alzheimer’s. The result of growing scientific studies revealing details of the tea’s health benefits, combined with an appreciation of its ancient heritage, it that of more people being motivated to acquire the tea drinking habit. Teas’ antioxidant properties appear to lower cholesterol levels, improve cardiovascular health and help guard against some cancers. And some experts believe its flavenoids may inhibit the growth of plaque on teeth.

For years, studies in China and Japan have shown that the folklore about tea does contain some truth – it does promote longer life. Japanese smokers have only half the lung cancer rate as American smokers. In areas of Japan where the most tea is drunk, the rate of stomach cancer is the lowest. In a study of 6,000 Japanese women, those who drank 5 cups or more of green tea per day cut their risk of strokes by 50 percent. Drinking tea with meals in Japan and China, according to a cancer research at the University of British Columbia, was thought to be a major reason for low cancer rates in these countries."

Tea also helps prevent tooth decay in several ways. It contains a solid dose of fluoride and works better than the antibiotic tetracycline. According to researchers at the Tokyo Dental College, it fights the kinds of bacteria in the mouth that cause gum disease and the eventual loss of the teeth.

The Wonder of Pu-erh Tea

Generations of Chinese have drunk Pu-erh tea after hearty meals to "wash out the grease". In the 1970's Chinese doctors in Kunming reported clinical experiments in which drinking Pu-erh was shown to lower cholesterol levels in the blood stream. French researchers at St. Antoine Hospital in Paris duplicated these results and found that three cups of Pu-erh a day for a month brought lipids down 25 percent in 20 hyperlipidemia patients, while those on other teas showed no change.


Indeed, Pu-erh tea is well known for its unique ability to undergo a post fermentation process designed for further aging. Like classic wines this aging process allows these fine teas to develop added complexity to its character. The active microbes living within the tea have led Pu-erh tea to be known as the "Living Tea". This evolution is very exciting for collectors of Pu-erh and many believe that it is from these active microbes that Pu-erh tea gets its many health benefits.

*******


Dear Esteemed Readers, I posed a TEAser yesterday so that a lucky Answerer can win an INVITE to join Desi and the generous host (no,not hoRst today!) Sdr Choo at Taman Sungei Long for a taste of the Nan Zhao Pu-erh, one sessionwhich would translate in greater value than the cost of a meal, which would precede the tea-drinking in a come-and-gosSIPping afternon, or evening in a country-home enivroment.

Ah, adapting from WH Davies LEISURE ~~~~~~~

What's this life if full of care
We have no time to stand and stare
:
:
No time to enjoy the riches we've gathered
When one's life on earth is sooner snuffed out before time
'cos one's health we were not much bothered?
And what's it worth all the piles of gold and shining dime?


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For next Sunday's Rumination, I give thee a hint:

Two eye-opening extracts from Raja Petra Kamarudin's latest post:


THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Warlords and heavyweights: two peas in a pod
Posted by Raja Petra
Saturday, 05 January 2008

Actually, the attitude of the opposition is no different from that of the ruling coalition. The only small difference is that the opposition is not in power, yet. It makes one wonder whether if the opposition comes to power things would be different. From the way they are conducting themselves now this does not appear to be so. The opposition heavyweights are as selfish as the Umno warlords. .

:
:
:


"Many Chinese feel that the 1969 election result can be repeated without the repeat of the 1969 election aftermath. The Malays of today are not the Malays of 40 years ago, as is also true of the Chinese. Even the Indians of today are not like the Indians of 40 years ago as the recent HINDRAF episode has proven. The Malays, Chinese and Indians are ready to unite, united against the ruling coalition. The BERSIH and HINDRAF events of November 2007 have proven this. As much as the government tried to stoke the anti-Indian fire and get the Malays to rise in anger against the Indians, it did not happen. Many Malays, in fact, support HINDRAF, as do many Chinese support BERSIH.

This is what worries the government.