Odysseys of George

I saw this in a good friend’s notes on facebook….. i thought of sharing as i believe in it…… Enjoy!

I thought I should put this in as I agree totally with him. The public should take up a more proactive role to ensure that Malaysia stays alive. The government and media continue to paint a different story afraid of losing popularity and votes.

JUNE 10 – What financial crisis?’

Readers following the great national debate initiated by Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jala in the Prime Minister’s Department on the possibility of the country going bankrupt must be thoroughly confused with the mixed messages from government. On the one hand, we are told that the country is more prosperous than ever before and that absolute poverty in the country, for example, is almost completely eradicated. We are also told that the country’s economy is in good hands and that the finances of the country are well-managed.

Every few days or so, we are reminded of how fortunate we are to be living in Malaysia and how much foreign investors love us. Just a short while ago, it was trumpeted that our competitiveness had shot up this past year so that we are now ranked number 10 in the world — ahead of many advanced economies.

We regularly receive a barrage of statistics and data on not only how well the economy is performing but also how, thanks to the outstanding economic management of the government, we will soon reach dizzier heights of prosperity and affluence.

The New Economic Model, it is claimed, will transform the Malaysian economy to become one with a high income and high quality growth.

Presently, per capita annual income in Malaysia stands at RM23,100; under the NEM plan, that figure would more than double to RM49,500 by the year 2020.

Lucky Malaysians — according to the government’s plan — to be able to live in a land of milk and honey with fistfuls of ringgit to throw around and to be standing side by side with the developed countries in the foreseeable future.

We have been fed with this optimistic and glowing picture of the country’s economic prospects for so long that many of us can be forgiven for believing that we stand on the threshold of unprecedented economic prosperity if not greatness. Never mind that doubt — in the way of the impoverished in our slums, squatter and ulu areas — is often just around the corner, many Malaysians prefer to close their eyes to this reality.

Idris Jala’s wake-up call

Fortunately or unfortunately, thanks to Minister Idris, we have now received a dose of reality that our economic situation is more complicated and a lot worse than what earlier leaders and the government-controlled media would like us to believe.

Although a few recalcitrant leaders are still living in denial and claiming that the minister has misled Malaysians on the true state of the country’s financial health, a closer look at Idris’s speech during the open house on ‘subsidy reduction’ shows that his concern and warning on the country becoming bankrupt (in the same way as Greece is) was absolutely correct and spot on.

Idris’s warning is based on a number of economic projections including:

* the country’s GDP would grow at 3 per cent annually

* government debt continues to grow at 12 per cent annually

Both assumptions are not unreasonable.

Average GDP growth has been slowing down in the past two decades. Prior to the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98, the country’s growth rate averaged 9 per cent from 1990-1997. Between 2000 and 2008, growth rates fell to an average of 5.5 per cent. If the trend of slowing growth continues, then the assumption of 3 per cent GDP annual growth for 2011-2020 may well prove correct.

If there is no quick recovery in the global economy and we have a prolonged double-dip recession which seems more likely now following the ongoing financial crisis in the Euro zone, then even 3 per cent annual growth in the GDP may seem optimistic.

As for the country’s debt, government debt in 1997 was RM90 billion. This has grown at a rate of 12 per cent per annum to RM362 billion today. Based on a similar annual increase of 12 per cent over the next nine years, the country’s debt will balloon to RM1.16 trillion by 2019.

The government’s own Performance Management and Delivery Unit’s calculations show that by the year 2019, the following economic scenario will be faced by the Malaysian government:

* The country’s projected debt will be 103 per cent of GDP

* The fiscal deficit will reach RM449 billion or 38 per cent of GDP

At that point, what will happen is that government revenue will not be enough to service its debt and to operate the hospitals, schools and other government services. In other words, the country will go into sovereign debt crisis, which is a polite way of saying that the country will become bankrupt.

The bigger subsidies are …

Where Idris went wrong is not in his assumptions and projections but in his focus on subsidies as the main culprit in the country’s perilous financial state. Addressing a public audience and as a member of the Barisan Nasional government, however, he was not in a position to finger the colossal wastage, inefficiency and corruption that has characterised Barisan rule and economic management of the country.

Yes, subsidies are part of the cause of our potential financial downfall but it is not subsidies to the poor that are to be blamed — in fact, the entire food subsidy bill in 2009 was only RM3.4 billion or less than the cost of the two recently purchased low-quality diesel submarines that cannot even dive properly! What is being spent on tolls, sugar, flour, cooking oil, school books, etc. is only a tiny fraction of what goes into the country’s black hole of defence expenditure.

Instead of being fixated on subsidies to the poor, let us open the books on the subsidies that have gone to the ruling political elite and its business allies — the cronies, middlemen, consultants, and agents that are key to the massive binge of irresponsible government procurement in all sectors, especially defence.

Finally, it is also the subsidy of a huge, bloated and unsustainable civil service that is swallowing much of public revenue and helping to pile up our debt. Subsidies that have kept the cost of living down for the average Malaysian are only a small part of the larger subsidy equation.

Consequences of mismanagement

So what happens when the country becomes bankrupt?

When ordinary citizens or businesses become bankrupt, they can hide behind a court order and return to some kind of normal life thereafter. Those who have borrowed from Ah Longs, of course, cannot throw themselves at the mercy of the courts. They are more likely to be forced to rely on family members or friends to help them reach some kind of settlement or have to flee their aggressive creditors by changing their residence or even identity.

Countries that are in default do not have the luxury of changing their identity or getting a court to provide some measure of protection. In Argentina which defaulted on sovereign borrowings and debt repayment in 2001, the consequences were horrendous. The country experienced a brutal spiral of inflation followed by hyperinflation, soaring unemployment soared and a collapse in the currency.

The economy imploded, shrinking by 13 per cent in a year and the government was forced to cut public sector wages, slash the state pension and other social benefits. Unable to pay for goods with cash and with banks rationing withdrawals, citizens had to resort to bartering. Imported goods became unattainable.

Economic shock was followed by social trauma and political crisis. The quality of life of the average Argentinian was lowered drastically and many businesses closed or went bankrupt. Argentinian society has still to recover fully from the mismanagement of the country’s economy during the late 90s.

Let us pray – but prayer is not enough — let us make sure that the government never mismanages the Malaysian economy to the stage when we have to go through what the people of Argentina have had to suffer. — cpiasia.net

* Dr Lim Teck Ghee is Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Initiatives.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or the newspaper.

Today in the newspaper, the Director General of Health spoke on a few issues namely:
1. The exorbitant fees in private practice
2. The failure of medical curriculum
3. The loss of human touch
4. Mushrooming of medical schools
5. Quality of Housemans

Lets look at the issues which actually has been around for ages and yet the typical Malaysian attitude prevails that is to make noise and then forget about it as fast as it was brought up.

The issue of exorbitant private fees have been brought many times but what most of us fail to understand is that while the doctors charges are regulated by the MMA, the private hospital charges aren’t. Well, then again there are many aspects that this matter can be looked at. The doctors who do their job and charges according to the MMA schedule, well I guess that should not be an issue. However, there will always be the ugly ducking, where charges are made unethically, though bounding to the schedule – that is to say there are abusers of the schedule — people who will make multiple charges for a 10 minute procedure for instance. From the hospitals standpoint, medications, technology and utility charges are rising and therefore the need to increase the charges gradually but saying this some hospital managements are equal to that of hotels. I suppose that it is difficult to regulate the hospitals as many sitting on the top of these hospital managements are linked politically or another and thus are indispensable. So the best way – squeeze the doctors!

The failure of the medical curriculum and the mushrooming of medical faculties are issues that have been voiced for many years. The problem is that those who now enter universities are not mentally prepared to undertake the real university education which for the failure of our secondary education, the tertiary education has been modified. Many lectures and professors have been heard saying that students that enter universities nowadays are not mentally matured as what it was before. The students are less resilient and the need to “hold hand and guide” is so high that if the past system maintains there would be many more failures and mental breakdowns. This I believe is the failure of the primary and secondary education. Then we have the major migration of brains to overseas especially to our neighboring Singapore. Then we have so many medical schools that blooms faster than mushrooms that dilutes the brains further. This has caused many major medical faculties to fall to the support of younger inexperienced staff to teach. Many of these new medical faculties do not have enough staff to teach their medical students and are dependent on the support of government specialist to assist the teaching of their students. The remunerations in pay and the acknowledgment of the work of those who did this country proud has been forgotten and left unattended to the extent frustration would be the natural response. Now, in government service everybody is sitting on the same scale as long as you are a specialist regardless of seniority and experience which is paramount in medical fraternity. I regress. The curriculum has been modified over time to make medical education more fun and attractive at the price of the quality of education. The so called US-based system is adopted without taking into consideration the local health system. There are more assignments and projects which has overtaken the need of medical students to spend time with patients. So, one wonders why the loss of human touch? Medical students nowadays hardly spend anytime with patients unlike my time. I have seen this happening in UMMC,UITM and also USIM. I am sure it is across the board.

Then we have the new houseman. As it is with students entering universities, we now have fresh doctors who are not ready to work and fail to realize that they are in a job that deals with life. Our government has spent billions to send some “brains” to many ambiguous medical universities overseas where the curriculum is worse than that of our very own — where they hardly have exams and that these fresh doctors hardly know what the thyroid gland is or what hernia is all about. It irritates me that the DG says that the onus are on the specialist to train these fresh graduates when at the same moment protects these bunch of fresh doctors with various rules and regulations. These new doctors are so not ready for the job that in recent years, as the DG says, “There have been many instances where housemen experienced mental anguish, depression, anxiety, stress and suicidal tendencies while undergoing training and this is no laughing matter.” But the truth to the matter is not to then blame the specialist but to then go back to the crux of the issue – stop sending these students to such places. As a patient, would you be happy to be treated by somebody who know not where the thyroid gland is or know not how to ascertain your diagnosis because he has no clue what your complaint is about? Is it fair for the public to be treated by these generation of fresh doctors even though there are specialist supposedly overlooking their work? There are people you can train and teach and there are the ones you just can’t! To make things worse, the DG decides to enforce a promotion exercise where part of the assessment is from the housemen– “As such, he advocated a two-way assessment system where not only the specialist and doctors provide feedback, but the houseman would also be given an opportunity to provide feedback on their trainers. On the criteria for promotion of public service doctors, Ismail said it was based on five main aspects, namely service, training, research, one’s standing in the eyes of peers and the 360 degree perception” — ridiculous — it only encourages the system to get worse then any better as now those specialist who really care and are strict would be judged badly and those who have no regards for the future of the medical system would be promoted quickly – Bullocks!

This is just part of the matter but I have said enough for now!

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?