Odysseys of George

I have always wanted to watch a stage show – a theater, a musical etc. Recently, I managed and I was left in awe of the show – so much so that it still seem like it was just yesterday I watched it. Maybe, I could relate to it at many levels – and thus this musical really did touch my heart and I found myself crying. This show that I speak of is non other than our very own, “Adam, the Musical” .

The show started on the 12th May 2010 and will be the first ever to run for over a month and ending on the 20th June. The show written by Mark Beau De Silva and directed by Joe Hasham, is based on issues pertaining to HIV/AIDS. The crew was excellent and delivered the musical so very well. The music was good and I especially liked the song,” Here, Here’s a Lollipop” and “I dont need a wheelchair anymore”. The actors and actresses was all very very good with the likes of Dato Faridah Merican, Malik Taufiq, Tabitha Kong and also who could forget the role played by Tria Aziz.

This musical brought many thoughts to my mind. As a doctor, I have come across many HIV/AIDS patients and have taken time to listen and care for them.I have also seen how the community and also the medical institution treated these group of patients. Many would say, “They deserve what they get for the way they behaved!” I never agreed with these remarks as I feel nobody deserves to be sick of any disease what ever your character or conduct is like. Furthermore, who am I to judge them, as I myself have my own shortcomings. Then again how would that remark above fit for those born of mothers of HIV/AIDS or those who got it from blood transfusion. It made me remember of this one particular patient I took care of in my early years of service. A young Chinese man diagnosed with AIDS and then at that time AIDS was new to the world. His family deserted him. He had no visitors. He understood why but was feeling very alone without anyone to confide in. He had many things to say but to no one. Nobody was interested enough to listen. He did not want advice, he did not want empathy but just a ear to hear him. I was that ear ………. and he as my patient has somehow become my unofficial teacher and thought me that my duties as a doctor had a wider definition. For that, I owe him for being who I am today. I watched him deteriorate every day and breathing his final breathe, brought tears welling in my eyes then… I still remember his face.

The other part of this musical that touched me was the emotional dynamics that was going on between the couple and their respective family. The musical depicts the lady, Sylvia and her sister and the gentleman, Adam and his Auntie, who took care of him as her own after the death of Adam’s mother. It also touches a little on the fact that both are of differing religion. It also the addresses the emotional and realistic issue of loving a person who has AIDS/HIV from birth. What or how would you react if your spouse or loved one was found to have HIV/AIDS? I had recently had a friend who was diagnosed to have HIV and he expressed to me his fear of telling his girlfriend of his condition. We had the same discussion over tea a few times and despite my medical advice which I have given him, I understand the fear and worry he harbors.

Watch it before it finishes, I assure you, you would not be disappointed.

I actually blogged about this a few days ago only to realise that the page went missing 48 hours later! So here it is again!

Manta rays next on restaurant menus as shark populations plummet

Conservationists fear a falling shark population is prompting Asian chefs to look for manta and devil rays to help meet the voracious demand for shark fin soup.

Found in coastal waters throughout the world, rays present an easy target as they swim slowly near the surface with their huge wings. So far, they have escaped commercial exploitation and have been hunted only by small numbers of subsistence fishermen, who traditionally catch them using harpoons.

But the growing demand for the manta ray (Manta birostris) and its close cousin the devil ray (of the Mobula genus) is turning ray fishing into an export operation. In the eastern Indonesian port of Lamakera, catches of manta have rocketed from a few hundred to about 1,500 a year.

“Mantas and mobulas are being used as shark fin soup filler,” said Tim Clark, a marine biologist at the University of Hawaii. He said the cartilage was being mixed with low-grade shark fins in cheap versions of the soup. “The life history of manta rays makes them highly susceptible to overfishing,” he added.

With a life span thought to be well over 50 years, the fish reach sexual maturity only in their teens, at which time they produce one pup every one to three years.

While the rays, which are distantly related to sharks, are ending up in Hong Kong’s restaurants, their gills are also being used in traditional Chinese medicines. “The big market is for the gill elements,” Mr Clark added. “They are dried, ground to a powder and used in traditional Asian medicines.”

Reaching sizes of up to 7m (23ft) from wing tip to wing tip, the manta’s branchial gill plates, which filter plankton from seawater, constitute a tiny portion of a body that can weigh up to 2½ tonnes. The plates can fetch up to £200 on the street in China. Practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine claim that gill rakers — called peng yu sai — reduce toxins in the body by purifying the blood.

Eli Michael, of the Manta Pacific Research Foundation, said Hawaii is poised to outlaw catching or killing mantas. Until now, getting caught in nets intended for other fish has been the biggest threat to rays, listed as “near threatened” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

Overfishing is also a problem in Britain and Europe. Ali Hood, of the Shark Trust, said: “In European waters, particularly the Mediterranean, the giant devil ray is classified by the IUCN Red List as ‘endangered’. The large skate, found in UK waters, has been exploited for decades, leading to alarming declines, and species such as the common skate are now critically endangered.”

The market for shark fin soup is growing at about 5 per cent a year, while shark populations are crashing: 80 per cent of Atlantic sharks have been lost in the past 15 years, according to the trust. Britain is one of only five EU member states that still allows the removal of shark fins at sea. More than 80 tonnes of fins are landed in Britain every year.

So, where do we go from here? Not only is our fight against shark fin has yet to see its effects, now they go for those lovely Manta’s! Greed will lead to fall of mankind!

Also to read:
Controversial Delicacy!

Is this really necessary?

If you had to choose to let go of a particular sense, which would it be?

It all started when a friend of mine related a true story. There was this girl who was having problems with her nose — so much so that there was no relieve despite anything or any treatment she took. So, eventually the ENT surgeon told her of a particular procedure that may settle her problem at the cost of her losing her sense of smell. She agreed. The procedure was a success but she is now unable to smell anything.

My friend was sad to hear this story and it got me thinking. We have five sense – smell, sight, taste, touch and hearing. Medically, sight is probably the most developed sense in humans, followed closely by hearing. We use these senses without giving a thought of its individual importance until we lose them. But if you were asked to which of these sense was most important to you and which is the least or willing to give up, what would it be?

For me, I would put them in these order — sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell, with sight being the most valuable. What would yours be?

I am so pissed off. It all started with a cheque I received. It was a Maybank cheque and thinking that it would clear faster than me crediting it into my CIMB account, I credited it to my Maybank account via the cheque deposit machine.

After 2 days, as I was busy with work I thought I would get the bank to help me check if the cheque has been cleared. So I called the customer service number and a lady with an irritating tone took the line. My question was, can you please help check if my cheque has been credited into my account? Sounds relative easy question to answer isn’t it! No the lady decided to break the bad news that in Maybank it takes three days to clear — and that if I wanted to find out I can check the ATM machine the coming morning! STUPID!!!
I told her that if I had the convenience to check the ATM I would not bother calling an idiot like her to help me.

Next day, I, trying to help my mom, I came to realize that Maybank 2U only allows transactions to a maximum of RM5000 per day! So fine I take a walk to the Maybank and realized that I could not do a thing without a cheque book. To transfer money, I need to issue a cheque because the bank cannot do that transaction over the counter even with me in their presence!! I somehow managed to do the transfer using ATM machine.

Next, I wanted to make a bank draft and even for that I needed a cheque to get a bank draft. Otherwise, I need to withdraw cash from the ATM and give them the cash to give me a bank draft. How silly is that!!
I am in the bank and I am the account holder but yet I cannot get a bank draft because ….. it takes a cheque to withdraw money!!!!!!!!

Stupid and so useless. In these day and age, work process like this should be made easy and without hassle. I am so pissed!

I came across this while surfing through MMR blogpost. Even before reading it, I had sensed that this would be something that would move me.

As I read the first paragraph of the post, I immediately realized that this was something long due and very appropriate – A tribute to the late Tan Sri T.J.Danaraj, the founder of the medical faculty University Malaya. A visionary man who had managed to have an impact on me even though he never thought me.

We stand on the shoulders of Giants is a teaching blog dedicated to the late Emeritus Professor T J Danaraj, the foundation Dean of the University of Malaya Medical Centre. The blog is moderated by Dr. Wong Yin Onn.

I remember presenting about this great man, during my batch Deepavali Festival as a tribute to him. We felt that little was done to honour this man, so much so that many present UMMC medical students hardly even know him.

I end this with a letter he once wrote which I copied from that very blog. An encouraging note to all……….

Dear …….,

T.J. Danaraj

TJ Danaraj

I received an sms from a fond patient of mine wishing me Happy Vishu greetings. Little did I know about it because it is not as famous as the Onam celebrations the Malayalees have. So I decided to check it out and gathered some information to share with all.

The festival of Vishu is celebrated with joy and mirth on the first day of Malayalese month of Medam. Vishu is celebrated on the astronomical New Year’s Day and Malayalis believe that the fortunes for the year depend on the kind of the object one sees first in the morning of Vishu Day. The previous day goes in preparing the auspicious articles for the next morning. Some raw rice is put in a circular metal vessel and a new washed piece of cloth is folded over the rice. A gold-coloured cucumber, betel leaves, betel nuts, a metal mirror, yellow flowers of the Konna tree, a book of palm leaves and a few gold coins are then placed over the cloth in the vessel. Two coconut halves containing oil with lighted wicks are placed in the vessel. A metal lamp with coconut oil is kept burning by the side of the big vessel. Early in the morning on Vishu day, one of the elderly female members of the house, wakes up and takes a look at the auspicious objects. She then wakes up the other members of the house to take a look. Special care is taken to see that they do not look at anything else.This is called ‘Kani Kanal’, the literal translation of this is ‘first sight’ ,where there is a prescribed list of items, which a person must see first thing on a Vishu morning to bring good luck.Children are brought blind folded from their rooms to see Kani Kanal, the first thing in the morning.There is also a tradition to give small amounts of cash to children of the family. This tradition is called Vishu Kaineetam. People believe that this custom will ensure prosperity for their children in future.After everyone has had a look, the vessel is even taken to the cattle for them to have a look too.

After the rituals are completed, the family members have a bath and take a trip to temples to offer prayers. Once the worship is complete, everyone sits down for a feast, which is not as lavish as the one for Onam but nevertheless elegant.

A grand sadya (feast) is prepared by women of the house and the whole family sits together at lunch to relish it. Dishes are usually prepared from jackfruits, mangoes, pumpkins, and gourds besides other vegetables and fruits, which are in plenty at that time of the season. People also wear kodi vastram (new clothes) on this day. Patassu (fire crackers) are burst in the midst of dancing and merry to mark the day.

A group of young men and women dress up as ‘chozhi’ , wearing a skirt of dried banana leaves and masks on their faces and go from house to house in the village dancing and collecting small amounts of money. On Vishu, these entertainers get good rewards for their performances. The money is spent on the Vishuwela (the New Year Fair).

Vishu occupies a unique position in more than one respect. It has none of the pomp and show that most other Hindu religious festivals have. In addition, Vishu has nothing to do with religion although its observance is as solemn as any religious occasion.