Apr 24, 2006

death of medicine

"I no longer believe in Modern Medicine. I believe that despite all the super technology and elite bedside manner… the greatest danger to your health is the doctor who practices Modern Medicine. I believe that Modern Medicine’s treatments for disease are seldom effective, and that they’re often more dangerous than the disease they’re designed to treat. I believe more than 90% of Modern Medicine could disappear from the face of the earth—doctors, hospitals, drugs and equipment—and the effect on our health would be immediate & beneficial… Modern Medicine can’t survive without our faith, because Modern Medicine is neither an art nor a science. It’s a religion." more
~ Dr Robert Mendelsohn MD (Confessions of a Medical Heretic)
• head of the Illinois State Medical Licensing Board,
• taught for 12 years at Northwestern University Medical School,
• served for 12 years as Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Preventative Medicine and Community Health at the Illinois State University.

"It is typical that the man who conducted the first heart transplant in the world, the South African physician Christian Barnard, points to Thomas Crapper as one of humanity’s greatest benefactors. Crapper was a British plumber who invented the flush toilet….

"That last characteristic is essential because dying is not failing. Dying is a natural process that no one can avoid. Modern medicine digs its heels in against death, but in so doing robs people of the meaning of life…more

As i read through several articles above, it dawned on me that Modern Medicine may not be that modern at all. It could be a killer by itself. Maybe it is the failure to grasp the true meaning of being in the field of medicine.

What Dr. Barnard said was indeed true. Mr. Crapper should be given a better recognition. In my old learning hospital, a wise Cardiologist who once taught me in my 6 week introduction to medicine, our so-called preclinical grace period once told me: lots of people came in to UMMC with appendicitis and goes dead with septicaemia (germ infection). And he goes to demonstrate the "hygienic" nature of hospital staff (including medical students) by pointing at my coursemate who at that time was rubbing her moderately runny nose.

Speaking about recognition. Usually it comes from the society itself. People tend to give more respect to you in the account of how many lives you’d actually saved in the actual scene itself. We don’t see the people over at Social Preventive Medicine saving any life, but do they actually did something for the society? Does the ‘Mr. Barnard’ in our society recognize the ‘Mr. Crapper’?

Sadly, it is sort of a vicious circle. Preventive Medicine hardly can stand by the whole principle that it builds itself on. They can publicised how much they had done, all the statistics and so on and so forth, but the difference is not in the numbers. We can see the growing population of patients who came in to hospital due to improper nutrition (obesity, alcoholism) or lifestyle (smoking). I’m sure some of the great people in Preventive Medicine are part of this population. Walk the talk, please !!

I was lucky enough to have known a bit about toilet and bla bla bla in my Klang year, but somehow they are all just words to me, and the whole CRP is just another holiday break. The society or the public are the one who needs to know more about Mr. Crapper. They must be made to realize that Mr. Barnard aint gonna help them if they continue to go back to

  • high cholesterol diet after triple bypass surgery.
  • unhygienic foot care after ray amputation.
  • smoking after any bloody tumor resection from the body.

Hopefully, once in a while, the busy doctors around us will find some little tiny bit of time to inject an adequate dose of Mr. Crapper into the patient’s understanding.

baca jika rakyat malaysia

bacalah (ini yang ori)

for english summary

BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA BACA

Apr 23, 2006

wave to the waves

totally great but tired after the long drive back from Surfers’ Paradise, Gold Coast. Yep, thanks to the big old Ford for not breaking down, the good o’ mint to keep my mind alert and Mariah Carey’s One Sweet Day to keep me entertained in the 1 hour ride home. Not lost anymore. Qi started to make sense out of the maps. Who says women can’t read maps?

Surfers’ Paradise a truly paradise. beaches made in heaven. took loads of photos.. with me and my dearest posing like almost everything from being muscle man/beauty queen to koala bear or tiger. Pretty stupid, but what the heck, not like anyone knows me at down under.

Great big waves, almost washed my little yellow butt down to the ocean. really got frightened for few minutes. Reaching home, heard about news about someone drown somewhere down the same long stretch of beach. No wonder we heard an ambulance passing through while we are happily enjoying the evening view.

"Better beach than Tioman!" qi’s said.

Had a reflection down at the beach…. too tired to share it here. really tired. zzz

Apr 18, 2006

thrilled

day 10 in aus. rest day.

two tired days had passed, more to come.

day 8 travelled far by bus to lone pine koala sanctuary. got up close and personal (hug, pat, feed, play) with koalas, kangaroos, wombats, lorikeets, birds, bats and etc etc. had an ugly but candid photo taken with Nessy. She’s very cuddly.

Which animal I liked most? Surprisingly, it’s the bats. Yes, simply love the authentic and mysterious aura about bats. Looking at them moving around and stretching themselves or just simply hanging around really made me wanna keep them as a pet.

Anyway, back in penang, my house did have a frequent night visitor that kept spitting down seeds of fruits down to my dad’s car. It was the bat. But I didn’t really see it in its face. It always flew off whenever it felt disturbed.

Another disturbing thought about bats would be on my previous Baktisiswa program at Sarawak, thanks to Lau Pan aka Stephen, I had the opportunities to chow down some bat’s meat (i think it is kind of illegal) served with black chilli soy sauce. I can still remember how the bat’s wings were there on the plate with its meat chopped up in pieces. It did taste a bit like chicken but much firmer and less juicy. not going to try that again.

day 9 trip to Dreamworld, Gold Coast. It was a stressful drive on qi’s cousin brother’s big Ford down to Gold Coast, but aussies are very well-mannered driver on the road. The trip there was practically 1 and 1/2 hours - 1 hour getting there and 1/2 lost.

And I thought Easter hols were over. That day was Pupils’ Day. Only the teachers had to go to school for training or some sort of orientation and so, the whole theme parks were infested by lots and lots of youngster. Even the very young barely 120cm (minimum height for high thrill rides) queued up for the major thrill rides. Lines for rides for games were long everywhere.

Tickets wasn’t cheap, but well worth it. Came out wet after the Log Ride with hug splashes all around.

Nailed 4 out 5 of its Big 5 Thrill Rides.

  1. Wipe Out (twice) - feeling of being carried by tsunami
  2. The Claw - similar concept of pirate ship, except you’re hung up by the claw (no boat)
  3. Tower of Terror - fastest, tallest ride on Earth (guinness record), mind blowing experience.
  4. Cyclone - roller coaster, disappointing - only one 360 degrees loop. I was expecting more
  5. Giant Drop - long queue, operating slower on that day, skipped this one.

The tigers there were also amazingly cute.

Something I picked up on the Aussie TV on Day 8:

"Doctors are having greater problems as compared to people of other professions. They had greater chances of falling into depression, alcoholism or drug abuse. It is reported that being doctors, men have 2 times more liable to health problems as mentioned above while the ladies have 6 times higher."

and the reporter interviewed an Aussie GP about this.

"Well, it is indeed true. But I kept myself far by having a daily dose of natural antidepressant - cycling through the park"

I guessed it is time I figure out my own personal natural antidepressant and chip it in into my future working schedule. meditation would be the best bet.

Apr 15, 2006

penangites 'guhh'

discussion with my fellow traveller aka my dearest revealed that somehow or in someway, the mandarin phrases spoken by penangites, especially yours truly seems to have added an extra ‘gohh’. I seems to be in a dark about this while this had been perhaps widely discussed over at the fully chinese literate circle of friends (no result concrete result so far).

for ie

‘ba si hai me dao GOHH’ - bus haven’t arrived yet

‘hai you shi jian GOHH’ - still have some time left

I tried to establish the rules or patterns of its usage, but I still could not make out how it got infiltrated into our everyday’s Mandarin. I picked them up from my mom and dad and sis and relatives and friends and anyone else within the state of Penang or somewhere north Peninsula.

Being someone who is semi literate (able to listen and speak, minimal in read and write) in Mandarin, I wonder what’s the chinese character for ‘GOHH’?

I could not also figure out where it came from. We can blame point to Malay language for our "lar/lah" or "kut" (kedahan used it often), but where in the hell or heaven does "GOHH" comes from?

anyone who read this please help me out - ask around OR ask any language/cultural expert around.

a run off to other topic, our little friend from health ministry datuk LKC promised us frightening pics about the horrible complications of smoking on cigarette packs soon (idea copied from our neighbouring country - thai and singapore). See when will this all turn up, this year or before the next election? loooooooooooooook out for it!!

Apr 10, 2006

myKad, your card, who cares!!

still in australia

having a great time here. absolutely lovely and romantic night at the riverbanks and on the bridge.

i used to read a book about the great characteristics of every race. I had forgotten what its title. But basically, it regards the malays as the lepak people, describing them as a bunch of pakcik sitting near the coffee shop by the sea side enjoying a cup of teh tarik while describing the chinese as the usual business savvy and stingy taukeh or traders. Anyway, 2 days here in aus really made me realize that australians are pretty lepak people. Everything is slow in a wonderful way. They are slow but efficient. The public buses here is wonderfully timed down to plus minus 2 minutes. The bus drivers issue the ticket themselves, and they take their own sweet time to do it, say ‘hi’ to passengers, answer any questions no matter how stupid they are, and once i witness, the bus driver actually waited for a girl (about 3mins) as she need to get something from the nearby petrol station before she boarded the bus as her bf stopped the bus earlier.

The government planned parks around the offices and the workers could just have a power nap at the parks or simply have a nice stress-busting stroll down that refreshing place

i understand now that lepak doesn’t necessary be inefficient. Of course, in malaysia it is a different story altogether.

still pretty annoyed by malaysian events and news.

from The Star, MyKad loss totals RM75mil

Thanks to the lackadaisical attitude of many Malaysians, the Government has lost a whopping RM75mil through the loss of MyKad.

(never forget that all the people in the government are mostly malaysian. do malaysian really need a Mykad. For what? regular check-up and update on our details esp our religion?)

Deputy Home Minister Datuk Tan Chai Ho said: “The MyKad should be treated as if it is money and should be kept as safe as how you keep your money.”

Some two million MyKads have been reported lost since 2001 and for those who got MyKad free, the Government had to shoulder the cost of producing each card at RM38.

(is it really RM 38? or it’s RM 3.50 + red-tape masuk poket sendiri taxes RM 34.50?)

Although some of that money was regained through the fines and fees levied (between RM10 and RM100), it was not enough, Tan said.

He said that aside from proposing higher fines for those who lose their MyKad, the ministry would also consider penalising “repeat offenders” – those who have lost their MyKad three times or more.

(now only you consider?!? it takes an idiot to plan this, and a bigger idiot not to anticipate this to happen)

“We will not give them a new MyKad for three to six months, just to teach them a lesson and also to properly investigate why they lose it so many times,” he said.

(grow up please!!)

“Now, they only have to wait seven to 14 days before getting a new MyKad, so they take things easy and are not bothered if they lose it.”

Lamenting the “could-not-be-bothered” attitude of Malaysians when it comes to taking care of the MyKad, Tan said there were far too many cases of carelessness.

“We have found that some people have lost their MyKad four times since first receiving it. This is very careless.”

He expressed worry that certain quarters would get their hands on the lost MyKads, alter them and pass them off as their own for illegal activities.

Although he stressed that the chip could not be forged, he noted that not everyone carried a MyKad reader to scan what was in the chip.

“This is why Malaysians must keep their MyKad properly. It is a sophisticated and valuable document that will soon be used for travelling to other countries. You must keep it properly,” he added.

On when the old ID card would be phased out, Tan said a date had yet to be fixed as there were still some 800,000 Malaysians who had not received their MyKad.

“We cannot set a date until a large majority of these people have received their MyKad,” he said.

Several groups have expressed shock that so many MyKads have been lost in so short a time, involving such a huge amount of money.

Cuepacs president Datuk Nordin Abdul Hamid said those who lost the cards due to negligence should be made to pay the full sum in replacement costs.

“For those who lost their MyKad due to unwanted incidents such as snatch thefts or robberies, it is all right for the Government to impose a minimal fine or not at all.

“If it is proven that they lost the cards due to negligence or carelessness, it only shows that they have an attitude problem.”

Fomca secretary-general Muhammad Shaanie Abdullah said the public should realise the consequences of losing MyKad as it could be misused.

(yes, cakap cakap cakap cakap sahaja, macamlah orang akan dengar…)

MTUC president Syed Shahrir Mohamud said: “Two million losses in five years is a huge number. The question is how can it happen? What is the percentage compared to existing cardholders?”

He said MTUC also wanted to know the actual cost of production and how much the Government had to bear due to the losses.

“We want clarification on the costs involved. We cannot simply propose an increase in penalty as it may burden the public,” he said.

(bullshit!! you lose something you pay fully for the second piece, what’s wrong with paying the full sum? you already got the first one at discounted price!)

Apr 9, 2006

day 1: touch down

the space of seats in economy class is small, and with an idiot fella sitting behind me kept asking me to keep my seat upright, it’s getting pretty annoying. couldn’t sleep well and stayed up watching some of the blockbusters on the plane ie ‘memoirs of the geisha’, ‘fun with dick and jane’…

the food served on plane (supper, breakfast) - awesome + too much(yes, this is the first time i ever complaint about too much food).

the airport is a busy place. full with the poster ‘declare or beware’! there’s plenty of stuff that you can’t bring in. even instant noodle had to be declared.

then, there’s this cute guarantee dog going around sniffing for food in everyone’s luggage. that dog, is so darn cute!!

everyone in oz is very very friendly, and they can chat just about anything in this world.

me and qi (yes, that’s the code name for my dearest, to be used with discretion) were brought by her aunt’s to palmetto place - aunt’s house.

along the way, her aunt got carried away with talking to us and got caught by traffic police for speeding, but she got away with it scot free.

P: hi, madam, you’re speeding, license, please.

A: oh, officer, my name is ABC, it’s so embarassing. I have guests today and this is my first time being caught speeding. I thought the speed limit was 80.

P: oh no madam, it was 60. my boss told me to catch ABC today. (laugh)

A: oh officer, tell your boss to give me a chance please, tell him, i’m his ex-gf. (laugh)

(the police officer went to back of the car and came back)

P: you’re a very lucky person today, madam.

Indeed, she was.

Violating traffic offense here equals to getting monetary fines and cut down on demerit points. Once all points are gone, you’ll just have to be suspended for a period of time.

Enjoyed the healthy lunch of curry puff and headed down to southbank and city central with bus together with aunt, just for walk around. Familiarize myself with the bus system. Rather easy, i guess. A$5 - offpeak saver, unlimited trip whole day.

Getting very tired after it. Jetlag perhaps.

zzz.

Apr 8, 2006

leaving on jetplane

currently in real time, blogging from changi international airport, singapore

this airport - beautiful, amazing, awesome

beats KLIA anytime

going to brisbane in 0005 hour

enjoying the free 15 mins of internet here

more cheerful comments once i got to the land of oz

tata, mates!!

Apr 1, 2006

the move

finally, i’m moving back to penang.

in holiday now. extremely free? of course not. darn busy.

planning to go oz. checking up flight plans and the travelling option on nets. re-furnishing my bedroom and my reading table. also gone to do all sorts of stuff with my family.

i guess i am the last person to move out from college. reason being, i need to follow my mom to kl on my sister’s Waja last wed to send the indon maid back on the Air Asia plane. We went down to KL on tue. Hmmm..I had the chance to take a look at the new LCCT. sounds canggih eh? nothing much. looks like a market place. so crowded, so caplang, so rojak. i wasn’t expecting a grand design, but then again, Mr. Fernandes, i believe you could do better than this.

*LCCT is low cost carrier terminal

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I called this pile of treasure of 5years in UM - the Everest (PC not included).

Gotta move all this and also my big pc and monitor on wed after returning from the tiring trip to LCCT. To make matter worse, it was raining heavily with loud thunder, so heavy that it looks like a battle scene from Lord of the Ring. No choice have to move all things because I ain’t going to stay overnight again. None of my stuff was soaked wet. I covered them with The Star before I moved them. Got some help from my favorite floormate, a junior named Puru.

"Every disaster is an adventure"

I felt it was purely bad luck in the beginning, but then, it somehow turn out to be some sort of adventure, going through the drizzling rain.

for some of my interior design creation that i could not take back to penang, i’m sharing them here.

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wall art cum reminder. yes, i am an ardent phlebotomist.

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my great sifu on the ceiling. hopefully my room will fall into hands of another buddhist.

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spoon and fork holder. don’t worry it’s safe. I lapik paper in the hole.

then here’s some photos of LCCT… oops sorry, pasar LCCT

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bustling with people. sorry, didn’t have footage of people squatting around behind me.

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my mom in yellow (near), her maid in blue (far away at counter)

anyway, both tue and wed is two darn tired day. each day 4hours in PLUS.

Friday was a much delightful day.

I joined the AdWave Advertising Workshop and learnt quite a lot from the expert.

One of the speaker, Mr. Gaurav, actually shown us all a series of advertising clips, very successful ones. I found 1 of them not just successful, but touching as well. It was an advertising strategy to the orthodox (yes, big words!) aka kolot society ofJews.. read this No. 7

". Soaking In the Culture Some companies are taking niche marketing to a new level by playing to a specific culture.

Take Procter & Gamble, which last year relaunched its Biomat laundry detergent in Israel. In its marketing, the consumer-products company targeted Orthodox Jews, who represent about 15% of the population. It was a tough assignment, since many Orthodox Jews don’t own traditional media like television sets.

So, P&G’s ad agency devised a plan that tapped into the Orthodox Jews’ belief that they should aid those who are less fortunate. A Biomat truck equipped with giant washing machines traveled around towns. People would donate their clothing, and Biomat would wash it and distribute it to the needy.

Biomat’s share in the Orthodox sector has grown by almost 50% since the activity began, says Jim Stengel, P&G’s global chief marketing officer."

strategy apart, it is really about helping out others. If only other companies would jump into this bandwagon, i guess lots would benefit from it. There’s still plenty of people around the world without food, without clothes.

I learnt about the brand, the brand spirit, and how our malaysian mentality is still way behind in appreciation of this brand mentality. It is not about putting the nice logo on the company, it is about living it.

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After the enlightening workshop, I felt so ‘tired’ of sitting the whole day. So, i took a hike at the Youth Park.

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As you can see, the jungle trekking was just a stamina-builder not a calory-cruncher (though i do realize I am getting fatter by the day), because i just could not resist the nice char bee hoon at one of it’s rest station. Best in Penang (4 stars)

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the rest station

As for today, it’s the All Soul’s Day or Cheng Beng (in hokkien). In the morning, I had to go visit my grandmother (my maternal grandma still alive and kicking) and grandfathers’ grave. It was crowded over the cemetery region around tanjung tokong. Today is also the first day the new bus routes will be tested out. Suddenly it striked me that Dr. Teng perhaps could allocate the big parking lots nearby for all the cars and provide feeder bus charging RM 0.50 per person to the respective area of cemetery. The whole cemetery is a long stretch of areas along the trunk road.

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my maternal granddad

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my paternal grandmom and granddad

Before coming into this CC, I travelled ‘far’ to USM to attend a forum with Mr. Kenny Lee and Ms. Yasmin Ahmad (yes, that’s her in person!!) titled "Malaysian Brand in Domestic Market"

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*some of her work

She made few very interesting points about brand.

According to her, the success of a brand depends on only two things

1 God’s will (first line of Rukun negara)

2 How the person on top embodied the brand

and that nothing great can be achieved by a committee.

and all brands should be in simple terms.

to illustrate simple terms, she gave away 3 Gubra posters for anyone who can answer the following questions:

what city would you think of - romantic, fashion?

what city would you think of - clean, disciplined?

what cigarette would you associate with tough, adventurous?

3 lucky winners got all the answers correct - Paris, Singapore, Malboro.

Listening more to the discussion, the reality of things, branding is a failure in Malaysia, in comparison with our neighbouring country, Singapore and Bangkok. Looking at this fact, Ms Yasmin rebuted by saying that it is a good thing as branding will only add to the cost of the item. But in my opinion, branding is very necessary for business as it can portray how the attitude (assuming it is good) of people on top (the boss) being projected onto the company and be a stiffer competition to the foreign companies.

Thinking down the line, malaysian brand may not be ahead. But looking at Malaysia as a brand. For some of us who are not familiar about our Malaysian brand, it is ‘Truly Asia’. You can see it in any advertisement about travelling to malaysia. Somehow truly asia is joke, as it simply meant rojak. Or perhaps malaysia in the world market is not successful as compare to our neighbouring countries because

1 God’s will

2 the big man on top (Pak Lah, you gotta work harder!!)

One good joke that yasmin had mentioned was people from advertising industry should be sitting and chatting around mamat, not drinking coffee at elegant Mr. Bean’s shop. (some little giggle from the crowd, majority don’t get it)

By the way, I am the one who answered ‘Paris’. I won the poster with her signature and took 1 photo with her.

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I’m going to Down Under soon for 1 month. Bought the ticket d. Gotta make extensive research on option of places to visit there to keep all cost under my little budget.

the aussie language