KNOW YOUR ONIONS

This very interesting and highly useful piece landed in my email box the other day. I am putting it on my blog for in public interest.

In 1919 when the flu killed 40 million people there was this doctor who visited the many farmers to see if he could help them combat the flu.
Many of the farmers and their family had contracted the flu and many died.
The doctor came upon this one farmer’s family, and to his surprise, everyone was very healthy. When the doctor asked what the farmer was doing that was different, the wife replied that she had placed an unpeeled onion in a dish in the rooms of the home (probably only two rooms back then).
The doctor couldn't believe it and asked if he could have one of the onions and place it under the microscope. She gave him one and when he did this, he did find the flu virus in the onion. It obviously absorbed the bacteria, therefore, keeping the family healthy.
Now, I heard this story from my hairdresser in NZ. She said that several years ago many of her employees were coming down with the flu and so were many of her customers. The next year she placed several bowls with onions around in her shop. To her surprise, none of her staff got sick. It must work. (And no, she is not in the onion business.)
The moral of the story is, buy some onions and place them in bowls around your home. If you work at a desk, place one or two in your office or under your desk or even on top somewhere. Try it and see what happens. We did it last year and we never got the flu.
If this helps you and your loved ones from getting sick, all the better. If you do get the flu, it just might be a mild case. Whatever - what have you to lose? Just a few bucks on Onions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now there is a P. S. to this, for, I sent it to a friend in Oregon who regularly contributes material to me on health issues. She replied with this most interesting experience about Onions:
“Thanks for the reminder. I don't know about the farmers story...but, I do know that I contacted pneumonia and needless to say I was very ill...I came across an article that said to cut both ends off an onion, put one end on a fork and then place the forked end into an empty jar...placing the jar next to the sick patient at night. It said the onion would be black in the morning from the germs... sure enough it happened just like that...the onion was a mess and I began to feel better.
Another thing I read in the article was that onions and garlic placed around the room saved many from the black plague years ago. They have powerful antibacterial, antiseptic properties. But here is the other important side to remember.
LEFT OVER ONIONS ARE POISONOUS
I have used an onion which has been left in the fridge, and sometimes I don't use a whole one at one time, so save the other half for later.
Now with this info, I have changed my mind.....will buy smaller onions in the future.
I had the wonderful privilege of touring Mullins Food Products, makers of mayonnaise. Mullins is huge, and is owned by 11 brothers and sisters in the Mullins family. My friend, Jeanne, is the CEO.
Questions about food poisoning came up, and I wanted to share what I learned from a chemist. The guy who gave us our tour is named Ed.
Ed is a chemistry expert and is involved in developing most of the sauce formula. He's even developed sauce formula for McDonald's.
Keep in mind that Ed is a food chemistry whiz, someone asked during the tour if we really needed to worry about mayonnaise. People are always worried that mayonnaise will spoil. Ed's answer will surprise you. Ed said that all commercially made Mayo is completely safe.
"It doesn't even have to be refrigerated. No harm in refrigerating it, but it's not really necessary." He explained that the pH in mayonnaise is set at a point that bacteria could not survive in that environment. He then talked about the quaint essential picnic, with the bowl of potato salad sitting on the table and how everyone blames the mayonnaise when someone gets sick.
Ed says that when food poisoning is reported, the first thing the officials look for is when the 'victim' last ate ONIONS and where those onions came from (in the potato salad?). Ed says it's not the mayonnaise (as long as it's not homemade Mayo) that spoils in the outdoors. It's probably the onions, and if not the onions, it's the POTATOES.
He explained, onions are a huge magnet for bacteria, especially uncooked ones. You should never plan to keep a portion of a sliced onion. He says it's not even safe if you put it in a zip-lock bag and put it in your refrigerator.
It's already contaminated enough just by being cut open and out for a bit, that it can be a danger to you (and doubly watch out for those onions you put in your hotdogs at the baseball park!)
Ed says if you take the left over onion and cook it like crazy you'll probably be okay, but if you slice that left-over onion and put on your sandwich, you're asking for trouble. Both the onions and the moist potato in a potato salad, will attract and grow bacteria faster than any commercial mayonnaise will even begin to break down.
So, how's that for news? Take it for what you will. I (the author) am going to be very careful about my onions from now on. For some reason, I see a lot of credibility coming from a chemist and a company that produces millions of pounds of mayonnaise every year.'
Also, dogs should never eat onions. Their stomachs cannot metabolize Onions..............
Please remember it is dangerous to cut onions and try to use it to cook the next day. It becomes highly poisonous for even a single night and creates toxic bacteria which may cause adverse stomach infections because of excess Bile secretions and even food poisoning.”

Andhra Pradesh heads to the INFO-AGE

Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: From a SMART (Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsive and Transparent) administration, Andhra Pradesh will soon transform into an Info-age (Inclusive, Networked, Fast, Open, Accountable, Globally-benchmarked and Efficient) government.
While the then government headed by N Chandrababu Naidu adopted the SMART theory in the mid-1990s, the current Rosaiah government is now setting into the “Info-age”, with Information and Communications Technology (ICT) being the guiding principle for the two approaches.
The government wants to leverage ICT to achieve an Info-age government. Its goal is to transform the state into a knowledge society and make available the benefits of ICT to all citizens, especially those in rural areas and living in poverty.
Andhra Pradesh has been a pioneer in e-governance initiatives, under a tech-savvy Chandrababu Naidu between 1995 and 2004, while the state emerged as a leading IT destination in the country. The state’s IT exports that were just Rs 284 crore in 1997-98, shot up to Rs 32,509 crore in 2008-09.
On one hand the government has embarked on implementation of various e-governance initiatives to help citizens gain one-stop access to information and government services while on the other thrust was placed on attracting huge investments into the ICT sector in the state. It is now leveraging ICT tools to provide better, efficient, transparent and responsive services to the citizens.
The most popular and successful e-governance initiative has been the e-Seva, which is a one-stop shop for citizens to access a host of services through Integrated Citizen Service Centres apart from the Internet.
Now, under the National E-governance Plan, the state government is setting up 4,687 ICT-enabled Citizen Services Centres covering all the 23 districts and 1088 mandals under the Public-Private Partnership initiative. The objective of this is to provide all government and other value-added services to rural citizens in an integrated manner at one’s doorstep and at an affordable price.
Also as part of the Info-age initiative, the state government is building a State Data Centre (SDC) in a 9,000 sq ft area in the AP Financial District at Manikonda near Hyderabad. The SDC will consolidate the major services and e-governance applications of various departments of the state government.
Apart from the communication infrastructure, the SDC will also have separate infrastructure for network, management, security, storage and a disaster recovery set up.
The government's larger objective is to see that the benefit of ICT percolates to the last mile of the state and delivers services in a secure way to all citizens.

Bad governance leaves bureaucrats dispirited in Andhra Pradesh

DESARAJU SURYA
HYDERABAD: Disillusioned, dispirited, disgusted, disenchanted, dismayed, disoriented, demoralized, dejected…… these adjectives sum up the current state of bureaucracy in Andhra Pradesh.
For six years now, bureaucrats in the state have been in disarray. Not all of them, of course, but the majority who are committed to work and service of people are certainly feeling the discomfiture.
Deprived of suitable postings where they could function more effectively and deliver better, most of the bureaucrats – particularly the younger lot – are left distressed.
Obviously, this state of despondency among the cream of civil servants – a result of abysmal cadre management – has left a telling impact on the administration in the state.
Administration had, literally, gone to dogs during the regime of (late) Y S Rajasekhara Reddy between 2004 and 2009. And, the rot seems to be continuing even under his successor K Rosaiah.
When S V Prasad, the 1975-batch Indian Administrative Service officer, became the Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh on December 31, 2009, bureaucrats saw a ray of hope in him. Most of the IAS officers, especially the “juniors”, sincerely hoped things would change under the guidance of S V Prasad as he was perceived to be an able officer who had a better understanding of the “cadre.”
Alas, all such hopes seemed to have dashed.
Reading the latest list of transfers (of IAS officers) affected on April 2, one would be left with a sore feeling.
Here’s a classic example: N Nageswara Rao, an IAS officer of the 1992 batch, has been appointed Collector and District Magistrate of Khammam district. He would now be the senior-most officer among the district Collectors in the entire state. That’s, however, not the news. Nageswara Rao practically has 363 days of service left before he superannuates on March 31 next year.
Now, what’s the sense in appointing such an officer to an important post as a district Collector?
Another officer M Purushottam Reddy of the 1996 batch, who has been appointed as Collector of Mahbubnagar district, is just two years away from retirement.
Of the 23 districts in the state, 11 districts now have promotee IAS officers as Collector and District Magistrate. Exclude the state capital Hyderabad district, it become 50:50 for regular recruits and promotees. This is something that hasn’t happened in the past.
Also, why did the government develop a sudden love for such officers and land them in prime posts? Nageswara Rao and another IAS officer P Venkateswarlu (1994), posted to Adilabad district as Collector, have already risen to the rank of ‘Secretary to Government’ and should ideally be relegated to suitable postings in the Secretariat or other departments.
There are many young and deserving IAS officers, that too regular recruits, eagerly waiting to be posted to the coveted job of a district Collector. These are the ones who actually need to be posted in the districts so that they can move around with agility, work with more vigor and produce better results. But certainly not the ones who are on the verge of retirement.
Consider another ridiculous thing: Natarajan Gulzar has been appointed Collector and District Magistrate of Hyderabad. He is an IAS officer (regular recruit) of the 1999 batch. Now, he will boss-over a promotee officer V Durga Das (Joint Collector), who technically is one year senior to him in the IAS.
This isn’t the first instance where such postings were given. During YSR’s regime, a similar thing happened in West Godavari where Lav Agarwal (1996 batch) was the Collector and B Ramanjaneyulu (1995) was the Joint Collector.
The Chief Minister might be unaware of such technicalities but what were the top bureaucrats, who were supposed to guide him in such matters, doing? Was the Chief Secretary unaware of these lapses? Was also the Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary Jannat Husain ignorant about it?
Such goof-ups will not only show them in poor light but also threaten to damage the system as such.