[p]So I suppose its official – I have entered the second phase of culture shock because I am feeling a little sad…and blue. Thankfully, I appear to have skipped the angry phase (though my husband might disagree) and am acutely aware that whilst feeling blue is a normal part of the settling in process, it is also the colour of Winter. As this season ‘coincidentally’ approaches towards the end of the year (it is not taken for granted if you spent time in the southern hemisphere), I realise that I may not [i]be[/i] sad, but [i]have ‘[/i]S.A.D.’ - Seasonal Affective Disorder. I am not making this up to justify a long and well-deserved holiday in the tropics. Google-doctor always knows best and my self-diagnosis was via the very reputable Mayo Clinic. The clinic says that ‘SAD’ begins and ends at about the same times every year, symptoms start in the fall (autumn) and continue into the winter months sapping energy and making one feel moody. Bingo! Aside from phototherapy (hello, tropics), the Mayo Clinic recommends treating ‘SAD’ via psychotherapy and medications. (I think I might have to change search engines and double-check this diagnosis).[/p][p]That doesn’t mean there is no such thing as the Shanghai Blues! They appear to be quite real and I don’t mean an evening perched at the Cotton Club plotting your next speakeasy. The blues here apparently escalate in Winter with levels of pollution. I was told this by veteran ‘Shanghailanders’ (as they claim to be) and after further deep and meaningful research (people talk [i]a lot[/i] after a few drinks) it was affirmed that the top three complaints of living here are (surprise surprise), pollution, food, and water safety. Essentially the very things key to survival – air, water and food.[/p][p]Checking the Air Quality Index every morning has recently become a tradition in our family (if you can call anything conducted in our three month stay thus far a ‘tradition’). We are highly competitive against Beijing with whom there appears to be an inverse relationship. When Shanghai is ‘green’ for a clear day, high fives resound as Beijing is ‘red’. Beijing in our experience has never been green, but when its yellow and Shanghai is red, sad faces abound as we know what this means - no outdoor play, air filters on at high blast and wearing masks. Does this, coupled with watching where your produce comes from, having to buy drinking water in barrels and dodging traffic like a gaming character on speed justify the blues?[/p][p]To put it into perspective (given my ‘real’ research), 783 million people in the world don’t have access to clean water. Some even live in France as a 2009 study revealed that some sources don’t meet the World Health Organisations (‘WHO’) standards. This makes me feel better about not being able to drink from my tap [i]oui[/i]? Regarding pollution, 93% of Europe’s cities fail the WHO indexes and only 33% of American cities pass. I’m not sure now ‘who’ should be having the blues! On food, 842 million people suffer from undernourishment and Asia has 295 million. I am grateful to be able to wash my beans in filtered water.[/p][p]Sure, I get that its not the ‘ideal’ compared to what most of us are used to, but ‘most’ is in fact a very small number of the privileged looking at global statistics. At the end of the day, as someone reminded me, living in Shanghai is a choice and if you don’t like it, then [i]‘make like an autumn tree and leaf’[/i] (leave). Ok, I admit that person was 10-years-old and had lived here for seven, but I got the point. I have now decided that instead of singing the blues, I will make it a point to enjoy the autumn trees, and soon contact the Mayo Clinic for my winter medications.[/p][p] [/p][p]Shirani Alfreds[/p][p] [/p]
