Ask the Sexpert (audio)

Maya, CC Liu, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Ameen Kader, Ashley Byrne (PRI.org)

Should I be touching my own breasts?

A retired doctor has become a popular figure in India after answering hundreds of questions a week about sex.

Dr. Mahinder Watsa, 90, gives males and females of all ages the chance to get answers to personal questions with his column in a popular Indian tabloid newspaper.
 
He practiced for many years as a gynaecologist and trained as a sex therapist in the United States. He first became an advice columnist for an Indian women’s magazine and then in 2005 began writing for Bombay's Mumbai Mirror.

 

Since then he’s answered tens of thousands of questions.

He doesn't need to know, and he'll still be happy

"People ask me, 'Are you making up the questions?' because some of them are really weird," says Dr. Watsa. "And I said, 'No, I don't. What comes in, I answer" [which is mostly about masturbation, rumors, naive ponderings, embarrassment, and unknown consequences].
 
The things people ask about range from questions around the practicalities of sex to issues around sexuality as well as relationships and physical looks.
 

Wait, Indians masturbate to my pornos?

It has caused some controversy in a country that still struggles with prudish attitudes towards sex, but Dr. Watsa’s no-nonsense approach and sense of humor have garnered him quite a following among readers of the paper and online.
 
"The column I think is popular because there are very few people who really attend to this area of their physiology or of their bodies," he adds.

He often finds himself dealing with myths and old wives tales about sex as well as questions relating specifically to the Indian way of life around things like arranged marriages [and the need for virginity or the appearance of it].
 
Dr. Watsa says people are becoming more open about sex, but the dissemination of information in India can be a barrier.

"Unfortunately, sex became a very political subject about four or five years ago, and suddenly there was a lot of hubbub about it, as a result of which sex education was banned in the schools, almost in all states in the country," says Dr. Watsa.

• AUDIO: LISTEN NOW (pri.org)

Don't think about sex, don't think about sex

At one time most of the questions that came in were from men, but more and more women are now writing to him.
 
"They talk about their breasts being small or big, or one recently thought her buttocks were very large," he says.
 
Many women get worried that their husband looking at porn means they’re not interested in sex with them.
 

Prefer the "good ol' days" of colonialism?

"The women are becoming more open and asking how to deal with these problems," he adds. India’s own "Dr. Ruth" answers questions that come in daily. And even though he’s just turned 90 he shows no sign of retiring.
 
"I tell people my head and feet are working and all the other parts are in order, so I suppose I will go on," he says. More

 

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Shambhala (virtual online catalogue)

Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; Shambhala.com (CATALOGUE)

The Shambhala catalogue is available online. Browse through a virtual version of it here. Shambhala Publications offers books and material on Buddhism and:

• Mindful Living
• Philosophy & Religion
• Health & Well-Being
• Psychology & Personal Growth
• Arts, Literature & Culture
• Creativity, Crafts & Family

in a variety of formats including eBooks, Audiobooks, and DVDs.

India declares DOLPHINS "non-human persons"

Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; TheMindUnleashed.com (facebook.com)

Dolphins can sleep with half their brain and can therefore stay awake for at least two weeks (S.D. McCulloch/earthsky.org)

Dolphins (Jesslee Cuizon/earthsky.org)

India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests has decided to forbid the keeping of captive dolphins for public entertainment anywhere in the country.

 

In a policy statement released Friday, the ministry advised state governments to reject any proposal to establish a dolphinarium “by any person / persons, organizations, government agencies, private or public enterprises that involves import, capture of cetacean species to establish for commercial entertainment, private or public exhibition and interaction purposes whatsoever.” Why?

Social dolphins (cutepictures.co)

“Whereas cetaceans in general are highly intelligent and sensitive, and various scientists who have researched dolphin behavior have suggested that the unusually high intelligence; as compared to other animals means that dolphins should be seen as ‘non-human persons’ and as such should have their own specific rights and is morally unacceptable to keep them captive for entertainment purpose,” the ministry said....

India and landlocked Nepal have an indigenous freshwater Ganges river dolphin.

 

(Jessa Gamble/lastwordonnothing.com)

[This] happened back in May and somehow escaped worldwide attention and the 24-hour media hoopla. The effort to re-categorize cetaceans (dolphins, whales, porpoises) as non-human persons has been gathering steam since a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2011, when a group of philosophers, conservationists, and animal behaviorists attempted to gather wide support for a Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans from the scientific community.

 

The Declaration for Dolphins

1. 

   The cetacea, evolving family (wiki)

   Every individual cetacean has the right to life.
2. No cetacean should be held in captivity or servitude; be subject to cruel treatment; or be removed from their natural environment.
3. All cetaceans have the right to freedom of movement and residence within their natural environment.
4. No cetacean is the property of any state, corporation, human group, or individual.
5. Cetaceans have the right to the protection of their natural environment.
6. Cetaceans have the right not to be subject to the disruption of their cultures.
7. The rights, freedoms, and norms set forth in this Declaration should be protected under international and domestic law.

And what does it mean to say an animal has “rights”? More