We are in the midst of Ramadan.....the Muslim month where fasting is required (18 June to 17 July). Normally, I wouldn't notice the effects or the behavior of folks involved in this. However, I'm taking a class and there are a couple of Muslims within the group. This being Germany.....it's a bit interesting.
For the first week of the event....I didn't notice too many odd things.....but as the heat spell arrived around the first of July.....you start to notice dehydration episodes. Shorter attention spans.....more frustrations.....quiet behavior over the period prior to this.....and a slight temper. From my Arizona period.....I ended up with various training episodes where you were supposed to recognize when people need water. Well....in this case....this individual that I'm around....really NEEDS water. And you can't say much because this is all his religious stuff.
If this was November, and we only had eight brief hours of sunshine per day.....I guess a guy could slide by and make it with the cooler temperature. Naturally.....a guy with low blood sugar would be a problem still.....and it's just not that great of a thing for your kidneys. Right now....there's fourteen hours of sunshine, and the temperature has been up around 35C (95F).
The issue I see is that as years go by, and each Ramadan comes up in Germany.....it gets tougher on folks to perform this ritual, and they began to take each one as a big negative with their German associates who are sipping water throughout the day and eating as they desire. In the old country.....peer pressure and religious police would have been around to enforce things, and that's just not the method here in Germany. I would anticipate more resentment of Germans or some people questioning the necessity of the fasting business.....as each year goes by.
No one in the 700 AD era knew enough about the body or medicinal practices.....to stand up to Muhammad and just say this is unhealthy to avoid water and dehydrate yourself.
I read up this morning on the typical practice of most Muslim guys (in the Middle East). They usually stay up at night and try to sleep in the daytime....in a cool place. If they were going to cheat (drink water).....it'll be some small reserve bottle that they keep hidden and it probably only gives them the barest of relief during the day. Active guys working throughout the day? That's something that doesn't happen much in Ramadan. I read over comments of one guy who said instructors and professors don't put much effort out in the Ramadan period.....being too tired.
This morning, I noted that Iran had come out and arrested roughly a hundred university age folks for checking in hotels and pretending to be travelers (one of the waivers you'd get to drink water and eat food). Apparently the religious cops came.....asked questions and detained these folks. Flogging might occur unless someone figures out an alternate deal.
I sat and looked at one picture from a week ago....A Pakistani guy called the ambulance for his buddy, who'd fallen down on the street from heat exhaustion. The ambulance arrived but they couldn't get the older guy to accept an IV-solution (liquid rule from fasting), and he wouldn't drink water. All they could do was pour water over the head of the old guy and tote him off to the hospital. No one said anything over if he survived or not. From the picture.....he didn't look too good.
Looking over this deal....it's hard to say how Muslims intend to fit long-term into the German atmosphere. I think the older guys who came into Germany in the 1950s and 1960s.....just avoided Ramadan and eased into German culture. Today, with so many Muslims around.....there's more peer pressure and stress put on guys to perform by the rules. But you'd have to ask yourself.....if you hired some 30-year old guy to do physical work around the warehouse, and in mid-July.....we'd be in Ramadan and this guy isn't sipping water through the water.....just how responsible are you the boss for his safety or his safety around others? I personally couldn't allow some guy to get so dehydrated that he'd die on my work-floor. I'm sorry.....but I'd be too preoccupied with safety and ensuring this guy lived.....to agree with his religious rules.
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