Sigh. Don't tell me all this "I like it..." business is in aid of breast cancer again.
First there were posts giving information on underwear colour, now this? Firstly, I don't know how it helps raise awareness about breast cancer, piles, genital warts, supernumerary nipple syndrome or whatever anyone is raising awareness about. That is the point,how is being cryptic helping to get the message across? Also, why does breast cancer receive so much footage, not like getting leukemia or lung cancer is any better, is this like an advertising drive? Don't get any of those cancers, those are strictly for the serfs, die like a toff, get XYZ cancer instead.
But seriously, look at the statistics from the WHO website
* lung (1.3 million deaths/year)
* stomach (803 000 deaths)
* colorectal (639 000 deaths)
* liver (610 000 deaths)
* breast (519 000 deaths)
So why do the other cancers not have people running for them, selling pink ribbons, wrist bands and bumper stickers and so on?
Well one could argue , that a large number of Lung cancer cases are preventable, don't smoke -or live in the vicinity of the Panjagutta circle.
Eating more veggies, they say, could reduce incidence of colorectal cancer,
Liver, well nothing much you can do about that I'm thinking, don't sleep with Pamela Anderson for one and don't catch pesky Hepatitis or HPV infections.
More research is required (by me, I mean) but it's probably because breast cancer is easier to detect, and if caught early has high survival rates, in fact 5 year survival rates for people with breast cancer is over 80% among all age groups. However when looking at 10 year survival rates, it depends a lot on the stage it was detected in and so on, but doesn't look too good.
True, breast cancer is no laughing matter, but I still wonder, if updating your facebook status, leads to anything except frustu boys getting cheap thrills.
4 comments:
Totally agree with you on this. Well, the reason why breast cancer is getting talked about a lot is because compared to all the others, this can be detected by ourselves early if we see the signs. Whereas other cancers are not so obvious to the layman. Another cancer that we ourselves can watch out for and take measures in the early stages is skin cancer.
I really dont think these cryptic messages are doing anything for breast cancer awareness. If anything, it gives the idiots who put up these messages a feeling of having done something good whereas they havent done anything at all.
@Gomes: yes I know, see the end of my rant., actually, that was my previous rant, thanks to the "colours" business.
As I was telling someone earlier, man people post one status messae and think they are medha patkar.
correct re. full waste it is. first sign of budding activism, introspect deeply and shut up.
Nice post!
One of the main reasons breast cancer gets so much awareness is that it is detectable early, has earl onset ( 25-35 years) and is extremely aggressive.
However facebook status messages with colours of underwear and where someone keeps their bag upon entering a room are hardly intelligent ways to tackle this health issue or create any useful awareness..all that this can achieve is information overload and a the creation of a new generation of lecherous folk..
Perhaps posting about the benefit of a yearly mammogram or BSE is not page-three/tweeter worthy!
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