scars, suggests a new study.

Study co-author Linda Waite, the Lucy Flower Professor of Sociology and director of the Center on Aging at the University of Chicago, along with colleagues, examined the link between marriage and health.

They observed that divorce or widowhood could take its toll on the health of middle-aged and older people.

Waite found that remarriage appeared to lessen the impact caused by a broken marriage, and those who chose to stay single after the wedlock displayed consistently worse health than those who tied the knot again.

She said: “We argue that losing a marriage through divorce or widowhood is extremely stressful and that a high-stress period takes a toll on health. Think of health as money in the bank. Think of a marriage as a mechanism for ’saving’ or adding to health. Think of divorce as a period of very high expenditures.”

The research took four key aspects of midlife health into consideration, namely chronic conditions, mobility limitations, self-rated health and depressive symptoms.

The experts, after looking at data from the Health and Retirement Study, found that marital instability, caused by factors like divorce or spousal loss, often left detrimental impact on health affecting all four areas.

Stress-management specialist Debbie Mandel said: “While the saying goes, ‘Better to have loved and lost,’ multiple divorces create multiple prolonged stressful conditions and undermine personal empowerment – far worse than never marrying. A good marriage is like making deposits in your health savings account for midlife and the golden years.”

The study will be published in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

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previous relationships – and smoking.

That’s the conclusion of a new study, which was conducted by researchers at the Australian National University.

To reach the conclusion, boffins spent six years monitoring 2,500 couples who were married or living together, reports The Daily Express.

The study found that money played a major factor in deciding whether a couple stand the test of time.

The study, entitled “What’s Love Got to Do With It”, showed that a quarter of partnerships and marriages will end within six years and half will be over within 25 years.

It also found that a husband who is nine or more years older than his wife is twice as likely to get divorced, as are husbands who get married before they turn 25.

Couples were twice as likely to split if the wife had a much stronger preference for children or for more of them. Smoking and drinking rates also contributed to relationship breakdown, the study found.

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“The changing role of women is the main reason for their infertility,” the New Straits-Times quoted him as saying.

“They are getting married late now as they have to build a career alongside men to become equal breadwinners,” he added.

He said so while reacting to a recent United Nations Children’s Fund report that Malaysians were having fewer babies these days, compared with the situation in 1990.

According to him, the intake of junk food—which mostly contained additives and meats injected with hormones—has increased among career-oriented women

He says that such women also have multiple sex partners, and that they sometimes even indulge in casual sex, which results in sexually transmitted diseases.

“Venereal diseases such as gonorrhoea and syphilis combined with previous abortions and smoking, which has gradually become increasingly common among women, can prevent conception and sometimes cause miscarriages,” he said.

He said of the 30 couples he saw on the average daily, most of the men and women were aged between 30 and 40 seeking to have their first child.

Jeyabalan pointed out that wearing tight pants and the presence of petrol fumes and chemicals around their workplaces generally reduce fertility among men.

He called on the Government to get insurance companies to pay the bills of those seeking fertility treatment.

“In Western countries, because fertility treatments are expensive, the cost is either subsidised by the government or it can be claimed against a patient’s medical policy. But in Malaysia, those who suffer from childlessness can do neither,” he said.

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“The changing role of women is the main reason for their infertility,” the New Straits-Times quoted him as saying.

“They are getting married late now as they have to build a career alongside men to become equal breadwinners,” he added.

He said so while reacting to a recent United Nations Children’s Fund report that Malaysians were having fewer babies these days, compared with the situation in 1990.

According to him, the intake of junk food—which mostly contained additives and meats injected with hormones—has increased among career-oriented women

He says that such women also have multiple sex partners, and that they sometimes even indulge in casual sex, which results in sexually transmitted diseases.

“Venereal diseases such as gonorrhoea and syphilis combined with previous abortions and smoking, which has gradually become increasingly common among women, can prevent conception and sometimes cause miscarriages,” he said.

He said of the 30 couples he saw on the average daily, most of the men and women were aged between 30 and 40 seeking to have their first child.

Jeyabalan pointed out that wearing tight pants and the presence of petrol fumes and chemicals around their workplaces generally reduce fertility among men.

He called on the Government to get insurance companies to pay the bills of those seeking fertility treatment.

“In Western countries, because fertility treatments are expensive, the cost is either subsidised by the government or it can be claimed against a patient’s medical policy. But in Malaysia, those who suffer from childlessness can do neither,” he said.

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Under proposals put forward by a Tory think tank, couples would be required by law to undergo a “cooling off” period.

The compulsory delay would allow estranged husbands and wives to reflect on their marriage and explore the possibility of reconciliation before making their split permanent, the Centre for Social Justice report – published tomorrow – says.

The document, Every Family Matters, proposes a series of measures to radically overhaul family law and “save saveable marriages”.

They include backing a tax break to promote marriage and reversing Labour proposals to give new rights to unmarried couples who live together.

Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, who set up the Centre for Social Justice, said: “Instead of giving cohabitees similar legal rights as married couples, which would only undermine marriage, we have to do more to warn people that they can only secure the legal protection of marriage by getting married.

‘The cooling off period and the requirement for estranged couples to receive information about the implications of divorce will help to save some worthwhile marriages.’

Another recommendation, based on an Australian scheme, would involve sending warring couples to relationship counselling centres.

The Government should also give “strong encouragement” to people embarking on marriage to attend classes, although the report stops short of making this compulsory.

‘Before any proceedings in family law can be commenced, with certain exceptions (such as domestic violence), the applicant must have obtained, received, attended at or in other ways have had the opportunity to consider certain information,’ the report states.

‘This would include reconciliation opportunities and resources, alternative dispute resolution (settlements reached out of court), impact on children, costs and court procedures.

‘We propose a three-month period of reflection and consideration before the divorce petition goes ahead.’

The authors, led by David Hodson of London-based The International Family Law Group, argue that marriage benefits society and remains a popular institution.
A YouGov poll included in the report reveals that 57% of people believe the law should promote marriage while 85% back a tax break.

Despite a rise in cohabitation, 75% of couples who live together say they want to get married, the survey found.

Research also shows around half of cohabiting couples with children break up by the time the child is five, compared with 1 in 12 married couples, the authors claim.

Calling on the Government to do more to promote marriage and help couples, the report says: ‘A government that wants to prevent family breakdown and benefit society cannot ignore these statistical differences and research evidence any longer, but must do all it can to deal with this issue.

‘It is clear that marriage is good for society and yet research indicates that while aspirations are high for marriage, and married couples prize their relationships, there is a sense that sections of society do not place a high enough value on or truly recognise the benefits of marriage.

‘Marriage is of paramount importance to individuals, children, communities and our nation.’

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Under proposals put forward by a Tory think tank, couples would be required by law to undergo a “cooling off” period.

The compulsory delay would allow estranged husbands and wives to reflect on their marriage and explore the possibility of reconciliation before making their split permanent, the Centre for Social Justice report – published tomorrow – says.

The document, Every Family Matters, proposes a series of measures to radically overhaul family law and “save saveable marriages”.

They include backing a tax break to promote marriage and reversing Labour proposals to give new rights to unmarried couples who live together.

Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, who set up the Centre for Social Justice, said: “Instead of giving cohabitees similar legal rights as married couples, which would only undermine marriage, we have to do more to warn people that they can only secure the legal protection of marriage by getting married.

‘The cooling off period and the requirement for estranged couples to receive information about the implications of divorce will help to save some worthwhile marriages.’

Another recommendation, based on an Australian scheme, would involve sending warring couples to relationship counselling centres.

The Government should also give “strong encouragement” to people embarking on marriage to attend classes, although the report stops short of making this compulsory.

‘Before any proceedings in family law can be commenced, with certain exceptions (such as domestic violence), the applicant must have obtained, received, attended at or in other ways have had the opportunity to consider certain information,’ the report states.

‘This would include reconciliation opportunities and resources, alternative dispute resolution (settlements reached out of court), impact on children, costs and court procedures.

‘We propose a three-month period of reflection and consideration before the divorce petition goes ahead.’

The authors, led by David Hodson of London-based The International Family Law Group, argue that marriage benefits society and remains a popular institution.
A YouGov poll included in the report reveals that 57% of people believe the law should promote marriage while 85% back a tax break.

Despite a rise in cohabitation, 75% of couples who live together say they want to get married, the survey found.

Research also shows around half of cohabiting couples with children break up by the time the child is five, compared with 1 in 12 married couples, the authors claim.

Calling on the Government to do more to promote marriage and help couples, the report says: ‘A government that wants to prevent family breakdown and benefit society cannot ignore these statistical differences and research evidence any longer, but must do all it can to deal with this issue.

‘It is clear that marriage is good for society and yet research indicates that while aspirations are high for marriage, and married couples prize their relationships, there is a sense that sections of society do not place a high enough value on or truly recognise the benefits of marriage.

‘Marriage is of paramount importance to individuals, children, communities and our nation.’

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Men are not monogamous. A man can take more than one wife, if he can afford it.  Widow remarriage is allowed.  A woman, after her husband’s death, gives up wearing ornaments and colourful clothes.  Divorce is permitted in certain situations.

Inheritance among the Chakmas is only through the male line.  In the absence of sons, daughters inherit.

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As the majority of the Mizos are now Christians, marriages are solemnized in Church. Both bride and the bridegroom wear wedding dresses in the latest Western Style But sometimes the bride is also decked in puanchei, a traditional Mizo costume, and white blouse.

The bride bring along to her husband a traditional rug called Puandum in which his body is to be wrapped during burial. This is an integral part of the Mizo marriage and failure to bring the cloth entails punishment leading to a reduction in the bride price.

There are other types of marriage as well. In the Makpa chhungkhung type of wedding the bridegroom does not pay bride price but goes to his wife’s house to live her. This type of marriage happens in families where there are no male heirs. Consequently, it becomes the duty of the son-in-law to care for his wife’s parents.

Another type of Mizo marriage, as Luhkhung, is performed without a social ceremony. If a girl becomes pregnant, she start living quietly with the boy responsible for her condition in his house. However, the marriage of a pregnant girl is sometimes performed in the Vestry instead of the main Hall of a Church. Tlandun is yet another kind of marriage in which a couple runs away from home to get married.

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On a hot and sticky morning in a village near Garut, 26-year-old Cucu carries a sapling to give to his bride. The young tree is not exactly a unique gift; it’s part of a government initiative to bring back the Garut province’s devastated forests.

Newly married couples must plant 10 trees under the program. If they divorce, they must plant 50 others.

Cucu and his bride, Yati Supriyatna — both dressed in all white — headed to a mosque in the foothills of West Java’s mountains, where they carefully planted two saplings, a symbolic gesture.

The young couple met in school three years ago and began dating last year. Watch as Indonesia tackles deforestation »

“We’re just meant to be,” said 18-year-old Yati, giggling in her white flower-adorned veil.

They will plant the other saplings — eucalyptus, avocado and mahogany — at the sleepy village about an hour outside Garut where they plan to settle, for now.

Indonesia’s landscape has been devastated by massive deforestation. Though not a heavily industrialized nation, Indonesia is behind China and the United States as the world’s third largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions.

That is largely the result of the removal of its trees, which cut down the absorption of carbon dioxide.

While Garut province is not the country’s worst offender, a Garut forestry official said he can no longer ignore the damage.

“Most people here work in agriculture which is of course highly dependent on the fertility of the soil,” said Eddy Muharam of Garut’s forestry department. “The fertility is decreasing now because of deforestation and intensive use of soil.”

Forestry officials have identified “critical land” in Garut, which has been overfarmed and needs to be reforested. The overfarming leads to erosion, which can cause major flooding.

Environmental officials estimate that 50 million trees are needed in Garut alone to reverse the harm done by overfarming.

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The parents of the man (would-be-bridegroom) send an envoy to the parents of the woman (would-be-bride), proposing that their son is willing to marry their daughter. Nowadays, for practical reasons, the parents of both sides can talk directly. The parents of the couple have to approve the marriage.

Usually, the parents of the would-be-bride have a greater say, as they are the ones who will organise the ceremonies (a big wedding will require a Paés Agung (kings make-up), a small one will require a Paés Kesatrian (knight’s make-up)). They are responsible for the wedding ceremonies that will be followed, such as Siraman (bathing ceremony), Midodareni (ceremony on the eve before the wedding), Peningsetan (traditional engagement ceremony), Ijab (religious marriage consecration) and other Javanese ceremonies following the wedding celebration. They will also organise the wedding reception to give family and friends the opportunity to send their blessings to the newly wed couple.

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