2007 has been a dramatic year. At least in the political scene, quite a number of major political figures have been changed or elected officially. Here are some that I know:
16th May 2007 - Nicolas Sarkozy succeeded Jacques Chirac as the 23rd President of French Republic and assumed office on the said date.
20th May 2007 - Jose Ramos Horta succeeded Xanana Gusmao (current Prime Minister) as the 2nd President of East Timor.
15th June 2007 - Salam Fayyad was appointed the 6th Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority, succeeding Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.
27th June 2007 - James Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair (Anthony Charles Lynton Blair) as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as well as Leader of the Labour Party (on 24th June 2007).
15th July 2007 - Shimon Peres succeeded Moshe Katsav as the 9th President of the State of Israel.
8th August 2007 - Xanana Gusmao succeeded Estanislau da Silva as the 4th Prime Minister of East Timor.
14th September 2007 - Viktor Zubkov succeeded Mikhail Fradkov as the Prime Minister of Russia.
26th September 2007 - The 90th Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe resigned abruptly on 12th September 2007 after less than one year in office. He was then replaced by Yasuo Fukuda.
16th November 2007 - Muhammad Mian Soomro succeeded Shaukat Aziz as the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
25th November 2007 - Nader al-Dahabi succeeded Marouf al-Bakhit as the Prime Minister of Jordan.
3rd December 2007 - Kevin Rudd succeeded John Howard as the 26th Prime Minister of Australia in the 2007 Federal Election on 24th Nov 2007.
10th December 2007 - Cristina Fernández de Kirchner succeeded her former-president husband Néstor Carlos Kirchner Ostoić in the October 2007 General Election in Argentina.
20 December 2007 - Lee Myung-Bak was elected as the President of South Korea, succeeding Roh Moo-Hyun and will assume office on 25th Feb 2008.
In the mean time, Pakistan will hold their election in January 2008 and we can expect Vladmir Putin’s second term as President of Russian Federation will expire in May 2008. Also, US Presidential Election of 2008 will be held on 4 Nov 2008.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Genetically modified wine - Unleash the war on terroir
An oenological wish-list for the drinking season
FOR the beleaguered winemakers of France, threats come in many guises. One French grower complained that each bottle of New World wine that lands in Europe is a “bomb targeted at the heart of our rich European culture”. But few things agitate French winemakers more than other winemakers' unspeakable irreverence towards the terroir, the mix of soil and climate found in the place where a vine is grown. The strength of feeling is so great that the country even has its own breed of, er, terroiristes. A group of masked, militant French winemakers has attacked foreign tankers of wine, bricked up a public building and caused small explosions at supermarkets.
Now France's balaclava-clad winemakers have a new horror to see off: transgenic wine. Scientists have unpicked the genetic secrets of pinot noir, the grape that produces some of the world's finest wines and also contributes to some blends of champagne (see article). It turns out to be the offspring of two very different parent varieties—they have less genetic material in common, in fact, than humans do with chimpanzees. The researchers' findings, which cast light on the origins of pinot noir's subtle flavours, will make it easier to engineer new varieties that can grow in places where cultivation is impractical today. Efforts to create transgenic grapevines are well advanced, and transgenic wine yeasts are already starting to appear in American winemaking.
Alas, those working on transgenic vines have failed to heed the lessons of earlier GM-food fiascos. They are creating what the producers want (disease-resistant grapevines) rather than making tweaks that also appeal to consumers.
What sort of traits might consumers want, you ask? More reliable flavours for one thing. No longer need you doubt whether a wine truly does possess flavours of exotic coffee, chocolate, Asian spice, roast duck and blackberry and prune liqueur. Genes from those very animals and plants could be spliced straight into the grape's genome. Forget hours spent swilling, swirling, sniffing, gurgling and spitting—it will all be there in black and white, in the sequence data.
From Saint-Amour to Viagra
Why should sauvignon blanc be stuck with boring old gooseberry and cabernet sauvignon with cassis? Genomics could beget some novel wine flavours and combinations to ensure the wine really does go with the food: pinot noir with cranberries, pork, and sage and onion stuffing, perhaps.
And why stop there? It would surely be wise to boost the levels of wine's beneficial ingredients and add a few more for good measure. Consistent amounts of resveratrol, quercetin and ellagic acid will help improve cardiovascular health and may even confirm what the French have known all along—that drinking red wine is good for you.
A gene for producing acetylsalicylic acid, better known as aspirin, would help to prevent heart attacks and blood clots. You could get your doctor to supply your daily half-bottle by prescription. The aspirin's analgesic effect would head off hangovers before they even started. Caffeine could be added to keep drinkers awake during boring dinner parties. And it may even be possible to insert a gene to produce sildenafil citrate, the active ingredient in Viagra. For many men that would help to prevent the ultimate wine-induced humiliation.
The possibilities are endless—all that is needed is a little imagination. Too bad if all this leads to an outbreak of militant shrugging among the good vintners of Burgundy. Times have changed. Scientists have a clear duty. Following the lead of many world leaders, they must make it clear that they are not willing to negotiate with anyone who supports terroirisme.
FOR the beleaguered winemakers of France, threats come in many guises. One French grower complained that each bottle of New World wine that lands in Europe is a “bomb targeted at the heart of our rich European culture”. But few things agitate French winemakers more than other winemakers' unspeakable irreverence towards the terroir, the mix of soil and climate found in the place where a vine is grown. The strength of feeling is so great that the country even has its own breed of, er, terroiristes. A group of masked, militant French winemakers has attacked foreign tankers of wine, bricked up a public building and caused small explosions at supermarkets.
Now France's balaclava-clad winemakers have a new horror to see off: transgenic wine. Scientists have unpicked the genetic secrets of pinot noir, the grape that produces some of the world's finest wines and also contributes to some blends of champagne (see article). It turns out to be the offspring of two very different parent varieties—they have less genetic material in common, in fact, than humans do with chimpanzees. The researchers' findings, which cast light on the origins of pinot noir's subtle flavours, will make it easier to engineer new varieties that can grow in places where cultivation is impractical today. Efforts to create transgenic grapevines are well advanced, and transgenic wine yeasts are already starting to appear in American winemaking.
Alas, those working on transgenic vines have failed to heed the lessons of earlier GM-food fiascos. They are creating what the producers want (disease-resistant grapevines) rather than making tweaks that also appeal to consumers.
What sort of traits might consumers want, you ask? More reliable flavours for one thing. No longer need you doubt whether a wine truly does possess flavours of exotic coffee, chocolate, Asian spice, roast duck and blackberry and prune liqueur. Genes from those very animals and plants could be spliced straight into the grape's genome. Forget hours spent swilling, swirling, sniffing, gurgling and spitting—it will all be there in black and white, in the sequence data.
From Saint-Amour to Viagra
Why should sauvignon blanc be stuck with boring old gooseberry and cabernet sauvignon with cassis? Genomics could beget some novel wine flavours and combinations to ensure the wine really does go with the food: pinot noir with cranberries, pork, and sage and onion stuffing, perhaps.
And why stop there? It would surely be wise to boost the levels of wine's beneficial ingredients and add a few more for good measure. Consistent amounts of resveratrol, quercetin and ellagic acid will help improve cardiovascular health and may even confirm what the French have known all along—that drinking red wine is good for you.
A gene for producing acetylsalicylic acid, better known as aspirin, would help to prevent heart attacks and blood clots. You could get your doctor to supply your daily half-bottle by prescription. The aspirin's analgesic effect would head off hangovers before they even started. Caffeine could be added to keep drinkers awake during boring dinner parties. And it may even be possible to insert a gene to produce sildenafil citrate, the active ingredient in Viagra. For many men that would help to prevent the ultimate wine-induced humiliation.
The possibilities are endless—all that is needed is a little imagination. Too bad if all this leads to an outbreak of militant shrugging among the good vintners of Burgundy. Times have changed. Scientists have a clear duty. Following the lead of many world leaders, they must make it clear that they are not willing to negotiate with anyone who supports terroirisme.
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The Economist
19th Dec 2007
Europe's car industry - Collision course
New emission rules hit German carmakers
IF BALI failed to produce much besides cop-outs and compromises, at least the European Commission showed that it means business when it comes to tackling carbon emissions. Transport-related CO2 emissions in the European Union grew by one-third between 1990 and 2005 and now constitute 27% of the EU total. Of these, the commission reckons, cars and vans are responsible for about half.
On Wednesday December 19th the commission published its final proposals for cleaning up Europe’s cars. Although it will be at least a year before they become law and there is still scope for some of the details to change there is now little doubt that in only a few years’ time European carmakers will have to meet the world’s strictest CO2-emission standards
At present Europe’s cars emit an average of about 160 grams of CO2 per kilometre (g/km). There has been some reduction since carmakers were last threatened with legislation a decade ago, but progress has been painfully slow—about 1.5% a year rather than the 3% needed to meet the voluntary target of 140g/km by 2008 that the industry agreed to a few years ago. The commission is therefore insisting that by 2012, the fleet-average emissions from new cars sold in the EU must not exceed 130g/km, with another 10g/km reduction coming from other sources, such as low rolling-resistance tyres, more efficient air-conditioning and greater use of biofuels.
The proposals have split Europe’s car industry down the middle. The French and the Italians, represented by PSA Peugeot Citroën, Renault and Fiat, have so far been fairly sanguine. In 2006 their fleets, heavily biased towards fuel-efficient small cars, averaged 142-147g/km. It will not be easy for them to meet the new rules without increasing the cost of their cheap, low-margin cars, but they are close enough to be confident that they can get there.
For the Germans it is a different matter. Volkswagen makes plenty of small cars but its fleet-average emissions have actually been rising slightly because of the recent success of its Audi brand. But it is Mercedes-Benz and BMW that feel most threatened by the commission’s plans. Their brands are synonymous with big, powerful cars that promise luxury and high performance. Mercedes props up the 2006 emissions league table with a fleet average of 188g/km, and BMW is next from bottom with 184g/km.
BMW has at least been making an effort to burnish its environmental credentials. As well as reducing the weight of its cars, it is now extending across its range a package of fuel-saving tricks called “Efficient Dynamics”. This brings together the latest engine technologies with energy-saving auxiliary units, automatic start-stop and regenerative braking.
By contrast, Mercedes still seems to be in a state of denial. It has heavily promoted its BlueTec technology, but that is primarily designed to deal with clean-air regulations in America (which have limited the sales of diesel cars), not to meet European CO2 rules. Along with BMW, General Motors and Chrysler, it has developed a new hybrid system called Two-Mode. But this is an expensive option that is likely to find its way only slowly into the firm’s sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) and bigger saloons.
Meanwhile, both BMW and Mercedes continue to build cars that are bigger than the ones they replace and have ever more powerful engines. Both firms insist that as long as customers want such cars, they will build them, particularly as they are highly profitable and popular in export markets such as America, Russia and China. They also point out, correctly, that removing their high-end models entirely from the European market would have only a minimal impact on carbon emissions, because they are a tiny proportion of the overall fleet. They argue that the makers of small cars, which sell so many more vehicles, should have to do more to reduce emissions—perhaps by reducing their fleet averages well below the EU’s proposed 130g/km limit.
Intensive lobbying by BMW and Mercedes, with support from the EU’s industry commissioner, Günter Verheugen (who happens to be German), and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has had some effect. To the fury of green campaigners, the commission has agreed to a “weight dispensation” that will allow makers of heavier cars (ie, the Germans) to produce higher fleet-average emissions.
The commission is determined not to let the premium carmakers off the hook, however, so much will depend on the slope of the weight/CO2 graph. The most grossly polluting vehicles may not be numerous, but if they do not attract stiff penalties the emission rules will lose all credibility. The commission would like to impose fines of €95 ($137) per car per gram on emissions exceeding 130g/km. Without any weight allowance, the existing Mercedes fleet would attract a penalty of about €5,500 a vehicle. In practice the final figure will be lower. But the commission is adamant that although it does not want to destroy the German carmakers’ business, they must be under real financial pressure to develop and implement radical fuel-saving technologies.
Even though it is clear what new technologies will be needed (smaller engines, more efficient automatic transmissions, various kinds of hybrid and greater use of biofuels) the Germans will struggle. Given that a new car takes five to seven years to develop, new technologies cannot be incorporated straight away, they argue. A further problem, according to Ricardo, an automotive consultancy, is that there are not enough engineering resources to go round. As things stand, the Germans have no hope of avoiding substantial fines unless they are given longer to comply and are prepared to change their mix of models. Neither looks likely.
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The Economist
20th Dec 2007
Thailand's election
“WE'RE not selling fish sauce, this is an election rally,” jokes Sombat Ratano as he walks alongside his campaign truck with a microphone, hailing the voters of a rural village in Ubon Ratchathani province. In Isaan, Thailand's poor and populous north-east region, support is still strong for Thaksin Shinawatra, the prime minister deposed by a military coup in September 2006. Mr Sombat is a candidate in the December 23rd general election. He is standing for the People's Power Party (PPP), a reincarnation of Mr Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai (TRT), which was disbanded after the coup. As he tours the village, he drops Mr Thaksin's name at every opportunity, promising to revive the policies—from cheap health care to farming loans—that made the former prime minister popular.
Pakistan is not the only Asian country where a dodgy military regime is running a general election under dubious electoral rules in the hope of keeping out a similarly dodgy civilian whom it overthrew. The difference is that unlike Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, the exiled Mr Thaksin is not being allowed to take part in the vote himself, and there may be slightly more hope that things will come out right in the end.
Middle-class Bangkokians, who are as snooty about their country cousins as any metropolitan elite anywhere, often say that “uneducated” rural voters such as those in Isaan were bribed and tricked into voting for Mr Thaksin. But rural voters were quite rational in handing him landslide victories in 2001 and 2005. He was Thailand's first party leader to promise and deliver a comprehensive set of policies aimed at the mass of voters. The allegations of corruption, conflicts of interest and vote-buying that surround him are serious but hardly unusual: such practices are endemic in Thai politics.
The gravest allegation against Mr Thaksin is that in a “war on drugs” in 2003 he seemed to be encouraging extra-judicial killings of suspected drug-dealers by police. An investigation into this, started after the coup, remains incomplete—perhaps because the policy, however brutal, was also popular. Amid signs of resurgent amphetamine abuse, the PPP unashamedly talks of reviving it.
On his shirt Mr Sombat bears the logo of King Bhumibol's 80th birthday celebrations, held earlier in December. This is a subtle riposte to the military junta's accusation that Mr Thaksin and his party do not respect the country's revered monarch, whose portrait is as omnipresent in the Isaan countryside as it is around Bangkok's royal palaces. The PPP has also hired Samak Sundaravej, an arch-royalist, as stand-in leader while Mr Thaksin remains abroad. Though close to the palace, Mr Samak is a foe of General Prem Tinsulanonda, the king's chief adviser and, Thaksinites allege, mastermind of the coup.
Many parties, old and new, are contesting the election. Some have brought military men on board, hoping for army backing. Niran Pitakwatchara, a local doctor standing in Ubon Ratchathani for Matchimathipataya, one of the new parties, reckons voters have started to see the flaws in Mr Thaksin's policies. But all the other parties, including Mr Niran's, have adopted copycat versions of them—making them awkward to attack.
The generals who staged the coup claimed to be saving Thai democracy from Mr Thaksin's abuses. Their dictatorship has been a pretty mild one and they are keeping their promise to hold the election by the end of 2007. But they presumably hoped the former leader would be forgotten by now. He has not been. Though Thailand's quirky opinion polls must be treated with caution, most predict that the PPP will win comfortably more seats than its nearest rival, the Democrats, although not a majority. The widespread assumption is that the Democrats will nevertheless form a ramshackle coalition. The problem is that Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Democrats' leader, though young and handsome, may not command enough respect to lead a fractious government.
Until the coup, Thailand seemed to be escaping its historic cycle of alternating military dictatorships and weak civilian rule. By the late 1990s it had become a beacon of multi-party democracy in Asia. Whether that beacon will shine again is unclear. If a Democrat-led coalition takes office, the PPP seems likely to make its life difficult and short-lived. If the PPP leads the next government, a peace pact with the generals is possible but the military men are bound to be nervous. The PPP promises to rescind a political ban that a tribunal created by the junta imposed on Mr Thaksin and 110 allies. If he returns, he would be able to scrap the amnesty that the coupmakers granted themselves—and put them in the dock.
General Anupong Paojinda, a new army chief who took over in October, insists there will be no coup even if the Thaksinites win. Then again, General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, his predecessor, repeatedly made the same promise right up to the moment he overthrew Mr Thaksin.
The generals, courtiers and bureaucrats who have been in charge for the past 15 months have ruled dismally. Thailand's economy is now one of the slowest-growing in booming Asia. The army-appointed interim government has become ever more invisible as its popularity has sunk. General Sonthi, presumably fearing humiliation, quietly dropped plans to stand in the election. But it is unclear whether the army and its civilian backers have learned the old lesson that coups and extra-constitutional excursions tend to make political crises worse and do not produce good government.
Thailand's judicial and regulatory institutions are on trial in the election. For example, a new Election Commission, appointed with little dissent in the turmoil shortly before the coup, faces accusations of partiality. It absolved the military junta of plotting to subvert the election by undermining the PPP, despite the discovery of army documents detailing the plot. But the commission is now threatening to disqualify the PPP over the less serious matter of a video clip in which Mr Thaksin breaches his ban on politicking and urges support for his party.
The commission and courts will have lots of complaints to handle after the polls close. If they enforce the rules impartially and promptly, they could set Thailand back on the road to democracy. If they are arbitrary, biased or dilatory, they may doom it to more years of instability—especially if they leave the impression that the people have voted for Thaksinism, only to have their will subverted.
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The Economist
19th Dec 2007
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Climate of fear hangs over Myanmar
For many in Myanmar life is daily struggle simply to get enough food to survive.In a narrow street in central Yangon, people push their way through a frenzied crowd to get a free plate food.
Many stuff their pockets with rice and vegetables to save for later. Barefoot children throw lollipops and soft drinks into plastic bags, to be shared out later with others whose only home is the street.
It's hard to believe that just 60 years ago Myanmar was one of the richest countries in the region, supplying most of Asia with rice.
Nowadays, despite the country's abundant natural resources, it can barely feed it's own people.
Just four months ago, unannounced fuel price hikes pushed food costs up threefold, triggering street protests that were led by monks and ended with the army turning its guns on the demonstrators.
Today, to talk about food is to criticise the government. So no matter how much the people suffer, few are brave enough to open up.
I asked one woman why food was so expensive. Even with her identity hidden she wouldn't respond, such is the state of fear in Myanmar today.
Yangon's Shwedagon pagoda is one of the country's most important religious shrines and became one of the centres of the protests in September.
Now, in the streets around the pagoda, everything looks normal. Kids sell flowers or offer to wash the hair of worshippers to earn extra money for their families.
Hopes for the future
Inside the 2,000 year old monument, devotees light candles and touch their heads to the marbled ground.
Elderly monks collect alms and give out blessings, as though encouraging the faithful to keep their hopes up for the future.
Along the streets leading up to the Sule Paya Pagoda where troops fired on unarmed civilians, pavements are a riot of colours with stalls hawking goods such as tomatoes, multi-patterned longyis, cameras, gems and watches.
Everyone seems happy, everything seems calm. But of course appearances can be deceptive.
Many of the monestaries which were shut in the wake of the crackdown are still closed.
Dissident monks are banned from returning to their sanctuaries and the dreaded undercover police are everywhere, watching for any signs of agitation that could lead to more protests.
The United Nations estimates that at least 4,000 people were detained following the protests.
Up to a thousand remain in detention or have disappeared. Many activists have gone underground and even those who sympathise with them live in fear of being arrested in the middle of the night.
I found one man willing to talk, but we had to walk through the streets for an hour before he found a place he felt safe enough to talk.
Desperate
The situation in Myanmar, he said, had become desperate.
"The business is very slow so the people are suffering. We also feel depressed. Our spirits are a little down."
He told me that the generals had put forward a series of economic initiatives based on its "Roadmap to Democracy".
More encouraging though was their engagement with the opposition, the National League of Democracy, and its leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi.
But he said the way forward wouldn't be easy.
"Within this period we will have so many struggles and sometime it may be bloody".
For now the primary concern for most in Myanmar is how to stay alive.
These days a bowl of noodles costs the equivalent of 80 cents - an enormous amount for a people who, on average, live off just one dollar a day.
While spirits are low, people in Yangon say they still have hope, if not for democracy then at least for a government that does not starve them to death.
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Al Jazeera English
19th Dec 2007
US Congress raises auto fuel standards, boosts biofuels
The US Congress overwhelmingly approved Tuesday a bill raising fuel efficiency standards for the first time since 1975 and offering massive support for biofuels, in an effort to slash US dependence on foreign oil.
The bill requires the auto industry to reduce fuel consumption in most cars and light trucks by 40 percent, raising the fuel efficiency standard to 35 miles per gallon (15 kilometers per liter) by 2020.
The current Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard is around 27.5 miles per gallon for cars and just over 22 miles per gallon for light trucks.
The bill also calls for a sixfold increase in the use of ethanol, a biofuel, to 136 billion liters per year by 2022. The provision is a boon to US farmers as the United States uses corn to produce ethanol.
In addition, the legislation sets new energy efficiency standards requiring the use of more electricity-efficient light bulbs and appliances.
Pressure for action on energy policy has been mounting as Americans become increasingly frustrated at rising gasoline prices amid warnings that the United States must wean itself of foreign oil from the unstable Middle East.
The bill requires the auto industry to reduce fuel consumption in most cars and light trucks by 40 percent, raising the fuel efficiency standard to 35 miles per gallon (15 kilometers per liter) by 2020.
The current Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard is around 27.5 miles per gallon for cars and just over 22 miles per gallon for light trucks.
The bill also calls for a sixfold increase in the use of ethanol, a biofuel, to 136 billion liters per year by 2022. The provision is a boon to US farmers as the United States uses corn to produce ethanol.
In addition, the legislation sets new energy efficiency standards requiring the use of more electricity-efficient light bulbs and appliances.
Pressure for action on energy policy has been mounting as Americans become increasingly frustrated at rising gasoline prices amid warnings that the United States must wean itself of foreign oil from the unstable Middle East.
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NST 19 Dec 2007
Back from Guantanamo
Adil Hassan Hamad can scarcely believe he is back with his family in Sudan, because only days ago he was still in the US's Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba."I am very, very happy and not believing this," Adil tells Al Jazeera, "That I am here with my family - even now I feel this could all be taken away at any moment."
In 2002, Adil and another man, Salim Mahmoud Adam, were picked up from their homes in Peshawar, Pakistan, by Pakistani troops and were later handed over to the US.
Most of his children were babies when their father, who was then working as the director of a hospital in Afghanistan, was taken to Guantanamo.
His daughter, Rahma, now six, was only a few months old when he was taken and now her father seems like a stranger.
"She knows I am her father," says Adil, balancing Rahma on his knee and holding her close. "But she's not used to me."
"Like a cage"
Since his release from Guantanamo, family, friends and neighbours have come to Adil's home in Khartoum to greet a man many thought they might never see again.
Adil recounts stories of torture, interrogation and solitary confinement when speaks of his time in the prison.
"The cell was all made of iron on iron. You don't see anyone or hear anything," he says.
"It was a boring and miserable life... psychologically very tiresome. It was like a cage ... like an animal living in a cage."
Among those present to celebrate Adil's return is Assim al-Haj, brother of Sami al-Haj, the Al Jazeera cameraman imprisoned in Guantanamo six years ago.
He listens to Adil's story of his release from the prison, but knows that his brother's health is deteriorating in captivity.
"Injustice and abuse"
More than 750 people have been held in Guantanamo since January 2002 and only three have been formally charged.
Even with the recent releases, over 270 detainees remain in Guantanamo Bay.
The US supreme court has reviewed the legal status of Guantanamo prisoners on several occasions and found in favour of the inmates - that they should be allowed to have the legality of their detention examined by US courts.
The US administration, which argues that since the base is outside the country rights under the US constitution do not apply, has avoided following this judgment.
Amnesty International, the UK-based human rights group, has called Guantanamo "a symbol of injustice and abuse" and called on the US government to close the down the prison "in a transparent manner which fully respects the human rights of those detained and brings to fair trial all those who are accused of recognisable crimes".
But though the US has drawn international criticism for holding foreign nationals captive in Guantanamo, there are few signs that the US has any plans to close the prison.
Adil and Salim were two of 15 people, the rest Afghan, recently released by the US. Neither have ever been told why they were imprisoned.
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Al Jazeera English
18th Dec 2007
The debate: THW grant detainees in Guantanamo Bay fair trials.
Japan tests interceptor missile
The Japanese military has successfully test-fired an interceptor missile from a ship at sea, destroying a mid-range ballistic missile in space.Monday's $55m test off Hawaii was the first time a US ally had shot down a ballistic missile from a ship at sea.
The Japanese navy and the US missile defence agency called the test "a major milestone in the growing co-operation between Japan and the US".
But it may deepen Chinese concerns that Tokyo could use the technology to help the US defend Taiwan if conflict erupted across the straits.
The interceptor fired by the JS Kongo knocked out the target warhead about 160km above the Pacific Ocean, said the US agency, which carried out the test together with the Japanese and US navies.
The JS Kongo is the first of four Japanese destroyers due to be outfitted to counter missiles that could carry chemical, biological or nuclear warheads.
North Korean threatExperts say the test target resembled the Rodong missile owned by North Korea, which has a shorter range than the Taepodong missile North Korea sent over Japan nearly a decade ago.
But North Korea is believed to have an arsenal of about 200 Rodongs, and Japanese defence experts say it represents the greatest threat to Japanese security.
Riki Ellison, a prominent missile-defence advocate who monitored the test, said that by intercepting a missile similar in speed and size to those in North Korea's arsenal "Japan has proven its capability to defend and protect their country from North Korean missiles".
Tokyo has invested heavily in missile defence since North Korea test-fired a long-range missile over northern Japan in 1998.
Tokyo has invested heavily in missile defence since North Korea test-fired a long-range missile over northern Japan in 1998.
Shigeru Ishiba, Japan's defence minister, described the successful test as "extremely significant".
"We will continue to strive to increase the system's credibility," he said, insisting the missile shield was worth the high cost.
"We can't talk about how much money should be spent when human lives are at stake."
Japan plans to have spent a total of $11.2bn on missile defence over the four years to March 2008 using the US-developed Aegis combat system, according to the defence ministry.
China offered a muted reaction to Japan's anti-missile test, saying only that it hoped Tokyo's actions would be positive for peace and trust in Asia.
"We hope that the actions of Japan are beneficial to the peac and stability of the region and conducive to mutual trust of the countries in the region," Qin Gang, China's foreign ministry spokesman, said.
Palestinians win $7.4bn aid pledge
A follow up article about Palestinian aid pledge.
International donors have pledged $7.4bn in aid at a one-day conference in Paris aimed at helping improve the Palestinian economy and underpin the Middle East peace talks.
Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, said on Monday that the Palestinians would receive the money over the next three years.
"Our goal had been for $5.6 billion. Now we have $7.4 billion," he said at the end of the conference.
The Palestinian government had asked the more than 90 assembled donors for $5.6bn to finance an ambitious development plan to stem the economic decline in the West Bank and Gaza.
"Without the continuation of this aid and without the liquidity needed for the Palestinian budget, we will have a catastrophe in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank," Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said.
Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, also spoke of the need to secure the funding, calling the conference the Palestinian government's "last hope" to avoid bankruptcy.
Major donors
The European Union pledged $650m over the next year, while France and Kuwait promised $300m over the next three years.
Most of the $555m promised by the US had been previously announced, but is yet to be confirmed by congress.
Britain and Germany pledged a combined $1.08bn by 2010.
However, the World Bank says the situation will improve only if Israel eases restrictions on the movement of Palestinian people and goods.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, said: "The Paris conference must provide immediate support for all the Palestinian territories. "Our financial support will also be used for the population of Gaza. Its prolonged isolation carries great political, economic and security risks.
"The entry points must be reopened to let the economy breath. A full and immediate freeze of settlement activity is a priority."Peace negotiations
Monday's donor conference came after last month's talks in the US city of Annapolis, the first peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians in seven years.
The renewed peace talks are aimed at achieving an agreement on Palestinian statehood by the end of 2008.
But at the conference, Abbas ruled out talks with the Hamas movement which seized total control of Gaza in June.
He said that Israel must freeze Jewish settlements "without excuses" if it wants to be seen as a serious peace partner."If we want to launch serious talks to end the conflict as we and the world have decided to do, then how can a key party pursue settlement activity and expansion?" he said.
Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister, did not directly address the settlement issue, but welcomed the Palestinian plans "as a serious effort to build the basis for a responsible Palestinian state".
Rice said the settlement dispute was "ever more reason that it's time to get an agreement" and appealed to both sides not to "consider every bump in the road to be a barrier".
"There is an assumption here that there is not going to be turbulence in this process. There is. I don't care how much you talk to people before, I don't care how much work you do. There will be turbulence."
Political support
The success of the gathering will be measured in more than financial terms. Pledges are also being seen as political support for Abbas.
Of the $5.6bn the Palestinian Authority hoped to secure, 70 per cent would have gone to reducing the government's deficit.
The remainder would have been used for development projects.
Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Paris, said: "What we've been hearing from people attending the conference has been the mixture of opportunity and also risk.
"The opportunity now to cease the political momentum started at Annapolis, the good relations and the willingness to engage between the Israeli prime minister and the Palestinian president.
"But at the same time, really quite stark warnings of what is at stake if in fact this money does not come through and the international mission to rebuild the Palestinian economy and build the foundations of a state are not successful.
"Clearly the subtext of this conference is to boost the authority, popularity and credibility of the authorities of President Abbas, at the expense of Hamas."
Gaza 'collapse'
In a report coinciding with the talks, the UN warned that Israel's restrictions on the Gaza Strip had pushed the local economy to the brink of collapse, reducing production to 11 per cent of capacity.
The UN Development Programme report said: "The private sector in the Gaza Strip is on the verge of collapse with no scope for recovery unless the strict imposed closure regime on the strip is lifted."
Israel has so far balked at removing checkpoints scattered across the occupied West Bank, citing security concerns.
It has also tightened its military and economic cordon around Gaza since Hamas gained control in June following factional fighting with Abbas's Fatah movement.
Familiar sound
Al Jazeera's David Chater in Gaza said: "There is a very familiar sound coming out of the conference in Paris from the donors, the diplomats and the politicians.
"The [recent] UN report [shows] that there is a huge dislocation between the fine words and the promises we're hearing in Paris and the situation that we are hearing on the ground.
"Nothing has changed, it's getting worse."
On the ground, Israel killed at least five Islamic Jihad fighters in the Gaza Strip on Monday, including a senior commander and a leading rocket maker, prompting the group to threaten suicide bombings in revenge.
------------------------------
International donors have pledged $7.4bn in aid at a one-day conference in Paris aimed at helping improve the Palestinian economy and underpin the Middle East peace talks.
Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, said on Monday that the Palestinians would receive the money over the next three years.
"Our goal had been for $5.6 billion. Now we have $7.4 billion," he said at the end of the conference.
The Palestinian government had asked the more than 90 assembled donors for $5.6bn to finance an ambitious development plan to stem the economic decline in the West Bank and Gaza.
"Without the continuation of this aid and without the liquidity needed for the Palestinian budget, we will have a catastrophe in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank," Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said.
Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, also spoke of the need to secure the funding, calling the conference the Palestinian government's "last hope" to avoid bankruptcy.
Major donors
The European Union pledged $650m over the next year, while France and Kuwait promised $300m over the next three years.
Most of the $555m promised by the US had been previously announced, but is yet to be confirmed by congress.
Britain and Germany pledged a combined $1.08bn by 2010.
However, the World Bank says the situation will improve only if Israel eases restrictions on the movement of Palestinian people and goods.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, said: "The Paris conference must provide immediate support for all the Palestinian territories. "Our financial support will also be used for the population of Gaza. Its prolonged isolation carries great political, economic and security risks.
"The entry points must be reopened to let the economy breath. A full and immediate freeze of settlement activity is a priority."Peace negotiations
Monday's donor conference came after last month's talks in the US city of Annapolis, the first peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians in seven years.
The renewed peace talks are aimed at achieving an agreement on Palestinian statehood by the end of 2008.
But at the conference, Abbas ruled out talks with the Hamas movement which seized total control of Gaza in June.
He said that Israel must freeze Jewish settlements "without excuses" if it wants to be seen as a serious peace partner."If we want to launch serious talks to end the conflict as we and the world have decided to do, then how can a key party pursue settlement activity and expansion?" he said.
Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister, did not directly address the settlement issue, but welcomed the Palestinian plans "as a serious effort to build the basis for a responsible Palestinian state".
Rice said the settlement dispute was "ever more reason that it's time to get an agreement" and appealed to both sides not to "consider every bump in the road to be a barrier".
"There is an assumption here that there is not going to be turbulence in this process. There is. I don't care how much you talk to people before, I don't care how much work you do. There will be turbulence."
Political support
The success of the gathering will be measured in more than financial terms. Pledges are also being seen as political support for Abbas.
Of the $5.6bn the Palestinian Authority hoped to secure, 70 per cent would have gone to reducing the government's deficit.
The remainder would have been used for development projects.
Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Paris, said: "What we've been hearing from people attending the conference has been the mixture of opportunity and also risk.
"The opportunity now to cease the political momentum started at Annapolis, the good relations and the willingness to engage between the Israeli prime minister and the Palestinian president.
"But at the same time, really quite stark warnings of what is at stake if in fact this money does not come through and the international mission to rebuild the Palestinian economy and build the foundations of a state are not successful.
"Clearly the subtext of this conference is to boost the authority, popularity and credibility of the authorities of President Abbas, at the expense of Hamas."
Gaza 'collapse'
In a report coinciding with the talks, the UN warned that Israel's restrictions on the Gaza Strip had pushed the local economy to the brink of collapse, reducing production to 11 per cent of capacity.
The UN Development Programme report said: "The private sector in the Gaza Strip is on the verge of collapse with no scope for recovery unless the strict imposed closure regime on the strip is lifted."
Israel has so far balked at removing checkpoints scattered across the occupied West Bank, citing security concerns.
It has also tightened its military and economic cordon around Gaza since Hamas gained control in June following factional fighting with Abbas's Fatah movement.
Familiar sound
Al Jazeera's David Chater in Gaza said: "There is a very familiar sound coming out of the conference in Paris from the donors, the diplomats and the politicians.
"The [recent] UN report [shows] that there is a huge dislocation between the fine words and the promises we're hearing in Paris and the situation that we are hearing on the ground.
"Nothing has changed, it's getting worse."
On the ground, Israel killed at least five Islamic Jihad fighters in the Gaza Strip on Monday, including a senior commander and a leading rocket maker, prompting the group to threaten suicide bombings in revenge.
--------------------------------
Al Jazeera English
18th Dec 2007
Monday, December 17, 2007
World powers gather in Paris to bankroll Palestinian state
I find this Conference of Donors for a Palestinian State a new move to help establish a better condition for the Palestinians. It sounded like the same old relief and developmental aids but this time they believe the brand new PM Salam Fayyad will manage the funding and hence the development of state well.
Major powers and key donors gathered Sunday in Paris for a conference aimed at raising billions of dollars to help the emergence of a viable Palestinian state and give political impetus to the newly-relaunched peace process with Israel.
Ninety international delegations are expected at Monday's Conference of Donors for a Palestinian State, the biggest of its kind since 1996, which aims to shore up the process jumpstarted in the US city of Annapolis last month.
President Mahmud Abbas is seeking 5.6 billion dollars (3.85 billion euros) spread over 2008 to 2010 for an ambitious development plan to underwrite a promised state and tackle economic hardship in the Palestinian territories.
The amount the Palestinians needed for 2008 was "around 1.6 to 1.7 billion," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told journalists accompanying her on the plane to Paris.
Sources in her delegation said the United States was prepared to shoulder one third of the financial burden in 2008 by forking up 550 million dollars. The German government, meanwhile, promised 200 million dollars by 2010.
"This is an historically large figure. I think this is the largest assistance package that we have ever done for the Palestinians," a senior US official told journalists on condition of anonymity.
Delegates gathering for the occasion include UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Rice and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair, peace envoy for the Middle East quartet -- the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- is co-chair of the event along with host country France, peace-broker Norway and the European Commission.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will represent Israel, which is under pressure to lift restrictions on freedom of movement in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to allow the Palestinian Authority's plan to take shape.
Livni and Abbas held a meeting in a Paris hotel Sunday afternoon after which the Palestinian leader highlighted French President Nicolas Sarkozy's diplomatic credentials.
"He maintains close links with all the parties, Israel and the Arabs, which allows him to play an important role," Abbas said of his host.
Sarkozy will open the proceedings, at Abbas' side, with a speech at 9:30 am (0830 GMT) on Monday, before handing over to French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner for the rest of the day.
At the US-sponsored meeting in Annapolis, Maryland last month, Israel and the Palestinians pledged to seek a peace deal by the end of next year, relaunching negotiations frozen for seven years.
Abbas has said he is confident Paris will clinch the necessary aid -- 70 percent in budget support and 30 percent for development projects -- sending a powerful signal of backing for the peace process.
"It is urgent to stabilise the Palestinian economy and implement measures on the ground that will improve the daily lives of Palestinians," said Sarkozy's spokesman David Martinon.
The Palestinian development plan has been drawn up by the West Bank-based government of the economist Salam Fayyad, whom Abbas appointed prime minister when the Hamas radical Islamist group seized armed control of the Gaza Strip.
In an interview with AFP, Fayyad said his government had undertaken important economic reforms which should reassure donors that their money will not be wasted.
"The reforms are not abstract slogans but concrete actions which he have taken. I can say with certainty that Palestinian financial management is no longer a cause for concern," he said.
Aside from budget support, the Palestinians say the largest chunk of development aid would go to projects in education, health and women's emancipation.
Between 30 and 40 percent of projects would be in the Gaza Strip -- with guarantees to ensure funds do not reach the Hamas militants in control of the territory, according to French and Palestinian sources.
The United States praised Abbas's government before the opening of the conference.
"You have the best Palestinian government since Oslo. This is not only the best Palestinian government, it is also the most moderate in the Arab world," said the senior US official.
Conference members are expected to urge Israel -- which operates 550 checkpoints in the West Bank -- to gradually lift restrictions on movement between Palestinian towns and villages, while asking the Palestinians for a big push to improve security conditions.
"The two have to move forwards in tandem," said a French diplomat, though he said the funds would not be strictly tied to either condition.
The senior US official said Rice may also publicly push Israel to halt construction of new Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
"We may say something publicly. ... Settlement activity is one of the central concerns everybody has."
The Middle East quartet is expected to meet on the sidelines of the conference, while several high-profile participants -- including Ban, Fayyad, Livni and Blair -- held an informal dinner with Kouchner on Sunday evening.
Rice will have a bilateral meeting with Sarkozy on Monday afternoon, his office said.
----------------------------
Major powers and key donors gathered Sunday in Paris for a conference aimed at raising billions of dollars to help the emergence of a viable Palestinian state and give political impetus to the newly-relaunched peace process with Israel.Ninety international delegations are expected at Monday's Conference of Donors for a Palestinian State, the biggest of its kind since 1996, which aims to shore up the process jumpstarted in the US city of Annapolis last month.
President Mahmud Abbas is seeking 5.6 billion dollars (3.85 billion euros) spread over 2008 to 2010 for an ambitious development plan to underwrite a promised state and tackle economic hardship in the Palestinian territories.
The amount the Palestinians needed for 2008 was "around 1.6 to 1.7 billion," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told journalists accompanying her on the plane to Paris.
Sources in her delegation said the United States was prepared to shoulder one third of the financial burden in 2008 by forking up 550 million dollars. The German government, meanwhile, promised 200 million dollars by 2010.
"This is an historically large figure. I think this is the largest assistance package that we have ever done for the Palestinians," a senior US official told journalists on condition of anonymity.
Delegates gathering for the occasion include UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Rice and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair, peace envoy for the Middle East quartet -- the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- is co-chair of the event along with host country France, peace-broker Norway and the European Commission.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will represent Israel, which is under pressure to lift restrictions on freedom of movement in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to allow the Palestinian Authority's plan to take shape.
Livni and Abbas held a meeting in a Paris hotel Sunday afternoon after which the Palestinian leader highlighted French President Nicolas Sarkozy's diplomatic credentials.
"He maintains close links with all the parties, Israel and the Arabs, which allows him to play an important role," Abbas said of his host.
Sarkozy will open the proceedings, at Abbas' side, with a speech at 9:30 am (0830 GMT) on Monday, before handing over to French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner for the rest of the day.
At the US-sponsored meeting in Annapolis, Maryland last month, Israel and the Palestinians pledged to seek a peace deal by the end of next year, relaunching negotiations frozen for seven years.
Abbas has said he is confident Paris will clinch the necessary aid -- 70 percent in budget support and 30 percent for development projects -- sending a powerful signal of backing for the peace process.
"It is urgent to stabilise the Palestinian economy and implement measures on the ground that will improve the daily lives of Palestinians," said Sarkozy's spokesman David Martinon.
The Palestinian development plan has been drawn up by the West Bank-based government of the economist Salam Fayyad, whom Abbas appointed prime minister when the Hamas radical Islamist group seized armed control of the Gaza Strip.
In an interview with AFP, Fayyad said his government had undertaken important economic reforms which should reassure donors that their money will not be wasted.
"The reforms are not abstract slogans but concrete actions which he have taken. I can say with certainty that Palestinian financial management is no longer a cause for concern," he said.
Aside from budget support, the Palestinians say the largest chunk of development aid would go to projects in education, health and women's emancipation.
Between 30 and 40 percent of projects would be in the Gaza Strip -- with guarantees to ensure funds do not reach the Hamas militants in control of the territory, according to French and Palestinian sources.
The United States praised Abbas's government before the opening of the conference.
"You have the best Palestinian government since Oslo. This is not only the best Palestinian government, it is also the most moderate in the Arab world," said the senior US official.
Conference members are expected to urge Israel -- which operates 550 checkpoints in the West Bank -- to gradually lift restrictions on movement between Palestinian towns and villages, while asking the Palestinians for a big push to improve security conditions.
"The two have to move forwards in tandem," said a French diplomat, though he said the funds would not be strictly tied to either condition.
The senior US official said Rice may also publicly push Israel to halt construction of new Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
"We may say something publicly. ... Settlement activity is one of the central concerns everybody has."
The Middle East quartet is expected to meet on the sidelines of the conference, while several high-profile participants -- including Ban, Fayyad, Livni and Blair -- held an informal dinner with Kouchner on Sunday evening.
Rice will have a bilateral meeting with Sarkozy on Monday afternoon, his office said.
----------------------------------
From NST 17th Dec 2007
CLinn
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Murder and terror blackout
Media craze comes in seasons. Probably because one high-profile case (often shocking, tragic and sudden) often leads to the reporting of cases similar to it. News-worthy, they call it. Just like suicide cases after a financial crisis; gun laws after random massacres by depressed and neglected (mental illness activists are crying out for more funding to treat more patients) murder and terror has hogged the headlines. Face it, do you want to know more about LIMA or the notorious congregation of people? :)
Terrorist, some call them. Then they were "linked to terrorists". Mainstream and alternative media are at loggerheads at what is the actual situation. People who are on the ground tells a different story. Like the problems facing one of the many structures of our motherland, one of the people I met asked, why is the shutdown scantily reported? What ensued was various speculations and views on what happened. And when we report the (actual?) situation, will it fuel the cause of the perpetrators? like the gun massacre in Virginia High, Finland and the case of Robert Hawkins of late?
The debate is: is lack of information actually fueling the sentiment or diffusing the situation? =)
If this story does not sound familiar, it is because it was barely covered in the news media. Considering how "terrorist aware" the news has become, why did this story not merit coverage?
It is because this terrorist bombing took place, not in the Middle East, but in Columbia.
I found this story while on the CNN Web site. I watch the news regularly, so I was surprised a terrorist attack killing a government official was not reported.
Click here to read more...
Debatabase has this to say: Terrorism, should not be allowed publicity
Cheers, and till we meet, have a great training!
PS: the debate research and ppt slides can be summarized and uploaded here for the benefit for those unable to attend the training.
Terrorist, some call them. Then they were "linked to terrorists". Mainstream and alternative media are at loggerheads at what is the actual situation. People who are on the ground tells a different story. Like the problems facing one of the many structures of our motherland, one of the people I met asked, why is the shutdown scantily reported? What ensued was various speculations and views on what happened. And when we report the (actual?) situation, will it fuel the cause of the perpetrators? like the gun massacre in Virginia High, Finland and the case of Robert Hawkins of late?
The debate is: is lack of information actually fueling the sentiment or diffusing the situation? =)
I WANT TO BE FAMOUS - SHOULD THE MEDIA STOP HELPING?
Robert Hawkins predicted in his suicide note that he’d be famous once he carried out his plan, and he was right. Yesterday, he killed eight people and himself in a Nebraska shopping mall and today his face and name is featured on thousands of TV stations, websites and newspapers.Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people at Virginia Tech in April. He too was confident the media would play its part. Between his two attacks he sent a video to a major US network and days later we all watched him.
Is it time the media took a collective decision to report such massacres with only the bare facts? No pictures, no suicide note, no videos, in the public domain. No live reports from the scene and no blanket coverage? Could it work? Should it be done?
TERRORIST RAGE: NOT JUST MIDDLE EASTERN PROBLEM
Alicia Crall
In a terrorist attack last Tuesday, one congressman and one civilian were killed and several local councilmen and radio journalists were injured in a bombing in an upscale cafe'.If this story does not sound familiar, it is because it was barely covered in the news media. Considering how "terrorist aware" the news has become, why did this story not merit coverage?
It is because this terrorist bombing took place, not in the Middle East, but in Columbia.
I found this story while on the CNN Web site. I watch the news regularly, so I was surprised a terrorist attack killing a government official was not reported.
Click here to read more...
Debatabase has this to say: Terrorism, should not be allowed publicity
Cheers, and till we meet, have a great training!
PS: the debate research and ppt slides can be summarized and uploaded here for the benefit for those unable to attend the training.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Sesame street unsafe for kids
Sweeping the Clouds Away
Sunny days! The earliest episodes of “Sesame Street” are available on digital video! Break out some Keebler products, fire up the DVD player and prepare for the exquisite pleasure-pain of top-shelf nostalgia.
Just don’t bring the children. According to an earnest warning on Volumes 1 and 2, “Sesame Street: Old School” is adults-only: “These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.”
Say what? At a recent all-ages home screening, a hush fell over the room. “What did they do to us?” asked one Gen-X mother of two, finally. The show rolled, and the sweet trauma came flooding back. What they did to us was hard-core. Man, was that scene rough. The masonry on the dingy brownstone at 123 Sesame Street, where the closeted Ernie and Bert shared a dismal basement apartment, was deteriorating. Cookie Monster was on a fast track to diabetes. Oscar’s depression was untreated. Prozacky Elmo didn’t exist.
Nothing in the children’s entertainment of today, candy-colored animation hopped up on computer tricks, can prepare young or old for this frightening glimpse of simpler times. Back then — as on the very first episode, which aired on PBS Nov. 10, 1969 — a pretty, lonely girl like Sally might find herself befriended by an older male stranger who held her hand and took her home. Granted, Gordon just wanted Sally to meet his wife and have some milk and cookies, but . . . well, he could have wanted anything. As it was, he fed her milk and cookies. The milk looks dangerously whole.
Live-action cows also charge the 1969 screen — cows eating common grass, not grain improved with hormones. Cows are milked by plain old farmers, who use their unsanitary hands and fill one bucket at a time. Elsewhere, two brothers risk concussion while whaling on each other with allergenic feather pillows. Overweight layabouts, lacking touch-screen iPods and headphones, jockey for airtime with their deafening transistor radios. And one of those radios plays a late-’60s news report — something about a “senior American official” and “two billion in credit over the next five years” — that conjures a bleak economic climate, with war debt and stagflation in the offing.
The old “Sesame Street” is not for the faint of heart, and certainly not for softies born since 1998, when the chipper “Elmo’s World” started. Anyone who considers bull markets normal, extracurricular activities sacrosanct and New York a tidy, governable place — well, the original “Sesame Street” might hurt your feelings.
I asked Carol-Lynn Parente, the executive producer of “Sesame Street,” how exactly the first episodes were unsuitable for toddlers in 2007. She told me about Alistair Cookie and the parody “Monsterpiece Theater.” Alistair Cookie, played by Cookie Monster, used to appear with a pipe, which he later gobbled. According to Parente, “That modeled the wrong behavior” — smoking, eating pipes — “so we reshot those scenes without the pipe, and then we dropped the parody altogether.”
Which brought Parente to a feature of “Sesame Street” that had not been reconstructed: the chronically mood-disordered Oscar the Grouch. On the first episode, Oscar seems irredeemably miserable — hypersensitive, sarcastic, misanthropic. (Bert, too, is described as grouchy; none of the characters, in fact, is especially sunshiney except maybe Ernie, who also seems slow.) “We might not be able to create a character like Oscar now,” she said.
Snuffleupagus is visible only to Big Bird; since 1985, all the characters can see him, as Big Bird’s old protestations that he was not hallucinating came to seem a little creepy, not to mention somewhat strained. As for Cookie Monster, he can be seen in the old-school episodes in his former inglorious incarnation: a blue, googly-eyed cookievore with a signature gobble (“om nom nom nom”). Originally designed by Jim Henson for use in commercials for General Foods International and Frito-Lay, Cookie Monster was never a righteous figure. His controversial conversion to a more diverse diet wouldn’t come until 2005, and in the early seasons he comes across a Child’s First Addict.
The biggest surprise of the early episodes is the rural — agrarian, even — sequences. Episode 1 spends a stoned time warp in the company of backlighted cows, while they mill around and chew cud. This pastoral scene rolls to an industrial voiceover explaining dairy farms, and the sleepy chords of Joe Raposo’s aimless masterpiece, “Hey Cow, I See You Now.” Chewing the grass so green/Making the milk/Waiting for milking time/Waiting for giving time/Mmmmm.
Oh, what’s that? Right, the trance of early “Sesame Street” and its country-time sequences. In spite of the show’s devotion to its “target child,” the “4-year-old inner-city black youngster” (as The New York Times explained in 1979), the first episodes join kids cavorting in amber waves of grain — black children, mostly, who must be pressed into service as the face of America’s farms uniquely on “Sesame Street.”
In East Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant in 1978, 95 percent of households with kids ages 2 to 5 watched “Sesame Street.” The figure was even higher in Washington. Nationwide, though, the number wasn’t much lower, and was largely determined by the whims of the PBS affiliates: 80 percent in houses with young children. The so-called inner city became anywhere that “Sesame Street” played, because the Children’s Television Workshop declared the inner city not a grim sociological reality but a full-color fantasy — an eccentric scene, framed by a box and far removed from real farmland and city streets alike.
The concept of the “inner city” — or “slums,” as The Times bluntly put it in its first review of “Sesame Street” — was therefore transformed into a kind of Xanadu on the show: a bright, no-clouds, clear-air place where people bopped around with monsters and didn’t worry too much about money, cleanliness or projecting false cheer. The Upper West Side, hardly a burned-out ghetto, was said to be the model.
People on “Sesame Street” had limited possibilities and fixed identities, and (the best part) you weren’t expected to change much. The harshness of existence was a given, and no one was proposing that numbers and letters would lead you “out” of your inner city to Elysian suburbs. Instead, “Sesame Street” suggested that learning might merely make our days more bearable, more interesting, funnier. It encouraged us, above all, to be nice to our neighbors and to cultivate the safer pleasures that take the edge off — taking baths, eating cookies, reading. Don’t tell the kids.
Points of Entry
Caveat teletor: Volumes 1 and 2 of “Sesame Street: Old School” are available on DVD, which you can sample and buy on Sesameworkshop.org. With a few episodes, extras and celebrity appearances by the likes of Richard Pryor and Lou Rawls, “Old School” sounds harmless enough. But are you ready to mainline this much ’70s nostalgia?
The Way Old: YouTube is great for performance art. If 1969 is not far back enough for you, how’s 1935? The Oscar-winning short film “How to Sleep,” by the Algonquin Round-Tabler Robert Benchley, can be found here in sumptuous black-and-white; search for his name and the film’s title on YouTube.
Come of Age: Marshall Herskovitz and
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Freedom of speech in democracy - peaceful protests
In view of recent happenings in Kuala Lumpur, I believe all of us have a stand or another about the large number of people taking it to the streets with slogans and petitions in hand. While causing massive congestions and the possibility of creating "chaos" and "violence" were the reasons cited by the authorities against these "illegal" rallies, we do wonder whether peaceful demonstrations (as claimed by the protesters themselves) are shows of democracy or detrimental to the peace of a country.
1. Protests in a liberal democracy
Brian Martin writes here about Protests in a liberal democracy. Ok... This is a good article that gives a fair description of the values behind a protest, what it is, what it represents and how the society, be it the government, media or public. =) Enjoy!
Some of the excerpts:
'Nonviolence' refers to actions which do not by themselves cause physical harm to humans, whereas 'violence' refers to those which do. If police attack and harm nonresisting demonstrators, it is the police who are violent, not the demonstrators. Whether violence to property counts as 'violence' is an issue that has often been debated.
'Civil disobedience' can be defined as nonviolent direct action that breaks a law. Theorists of liberal democracy usually consider political actions to fall into the category of legitimate civil disobedience if they are deliberate, nonviolent, non-revolutionary, done in public and done mainly to educate or persuade the majority (Zashin, 1972:110)."
2. Gun Control vs Gun Rights
The debate over gun control and the right to protection (gun) has been debated since time immemorial. See the arguments on a few sides of the table (lawmakers, gun manufacturers, economists, and the congress) in US here.
Other news on gun laws and their repercussions: latest news in Finland.
:) WW
1. Protests in a liberal democracy
Brian Martin writes here about Protests in a liberal democracy. Ok... This is a good article that gives a fair description of the values behind a protest, what it is, what it represents and how the society, be it the government, media or public. =) Enjoy!
Some of the excerpts:
"Challenging the status quo is a difficult business. Dominant groups have various ways to limit the effectiveness of challengers, including promoting a narrow conception of 'acceptable protest,' channelling dissent into appeals to the government and, if necessary, using repression. The very idea of 'protest' should be considered suspect because it diverts attention away from the routine activities of powerful groups."
"At this stage it may be useful to define a few terms. The 'normal channels' of political action in a liberal democracy are those associated with the electoral system: voting, participating in political parties, lobbying and writing letters to politicians. All these methods involve trying to get someone else--usually the government--to take action on an issue. 'Direct action,' by contrast, is political action which does not act through some other group as intermediary. Examples are sit-ins, strikes and boycotts. Many actions aim both to achieve immediate aims and to influence the government, such as rallies and hunger strikes.'Nonviolence' refers to actions which do not by themselves cause physical harm to humans, whereas 'violence' refers to those which do. If police attack and harm nonresisting demonstrators, it is the police who are violent, not the demonstrators. Whether violence to property counts as 'violence' is an issue that has often been debated.
'Civil disobedience' can be defined as nonviolent direct action that breaks a law. Theorists of liberal democracy usually consider political actions to fall into the category of legitimate civil disobedience if they are deliberate, nonviolent, non-revolutionary, done in public and done mainly to educate or persuade the majority (Zashin, 1972:110)."
2. Gun Control vs Gun Rights
The debate over gun control and the right to protection (gun) has been debated since time immemorial. See the arguments on a few sides of the table (lawmakers, gun manufacturers, economists, and the congress) in US here.
Other news on gun laws and their repercussions: latest news in Finland.
:) WW
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Announcement board spamming
I have to delete the Shout Box due to spamming... will update this blog soon :)
Saturday, November 3, 2007
On corruption and transparency
After the angkasawan successfully 'lift-off', sadly his brother and Uncle Lim has passed on. As usual, the happy moments only last that long. Prices are hiking (please save, people!), top brass is spewing out baffling statements and La-Nina is hitting east coast this monsoon season.So... this week's highlights:
1. Link: Dealing with climate change - regulations versus market methods
(Cher Linn)
2. People story: Gang members - our own?
(check out this ad!)
3. Link: IMF - help or hindrance --> debatabase
(Cher Linn)
4. New Delhi - Indian court allows man to divorce HIV positive wife
5. Beijing - restriction of travel to heritage sites before Beijing 2008
6. Price hike - the Idea of Inflation - a good read*
(the LRT montly ticket price have increased RM 10! and it is before petrol prices surge *again!)
7. Freedom of speech - The rights to expression and the harm principle
Ok.. that's all from me now...
Friday, October 26, 2007
NHSD motions
Finally got the time to link =). The pros and cons are IMHO... feel free to comment, or even better, write something about the motions. Any news on the selection outcomes?
NHSD 2007
Theme: 21st Century Medicine: Making us better?
1. THW give the government the go-ahead in eKesihatan. (eventually revoked/put on hold)
4. THW make medical insurance compulsory for all.
5. THBT the Malaysian Government is not paying enough attention to the healthcare sector.
6. THW stand behind a National Healthcare Plan.
7. THW urge the Malaysian Government to play a larger role in women's healthcare.
8. THBT only pharmacists has the right to dispense drugs.
9. THW only honor the words of the terminally ill patient for euthanasia.
10. THW make passing an aptitude and communication test compulsory for all medical student before progressing to their clinical years.
11. THW make organ donation compulsory for all brain dead patients.
12. THBT medical schools should do away with the current PBL based medical curriculum.
13. THBT that medical services provided in-flight by a doctor should be absolutely free.
14. THBT the US child health insurance program should be implemented in Malaysia.
15. THBT athletes suffering from Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome should be excluded from the Gender Testing regulations.
16. THBT the government should make it compulsory for the private sector to offer the option of the 5 years maternity leave.
NHSD 2007
Theme: 21st Century Medicine: Making us better?
1. THW give the government the go-ahead in eKesihatan. (eventually revoked/put on hold)
- Pro: Accountability, Road Safety, Outsourcing.
- Cons: Monopoly, Cost-efficiency, Political will, Ethical issues, *A total waste of time? / counterproposal
- Pro: Scientific breakthrough, Medical benefits - eg infertility, Regulations of use
- Cons: Playing God, Ethical issues, Abuse, Protection for the Privileged
4. THW make medical insurance compulsory for all.
5. THBT the Malaysian Government is not paying enough attention to the healthcare sector.
6. THW stand behind a National Healthcare Plan.
7. THW urge the Malaysian Government to play a larger role in women's healthcare.
8. THBT only pharmacists has the right to dispense drugs.
9. THW only honor the words of the terminally ill patient for euthanasia.
10. THW make passing an aptitude and communication test compulsory for all medical student before progressing to their clinical years.
11. THW make organ donation compulsory for all brain dead patients.
12. THBT medical schools should do away with the current PBL based medical curriculum.
13. THBT that medical services provided in-flight by a doctor should be absolutely free.
14. THBT the US child health insurance program should be implemented in Malaysia.
15. THBT athletes suffering from Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome should be excluded from the Gender Testing regulations.
16. THBT the government should make it compulsory for the private sector to offer the option of the 5 years maternity leave.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Tagging the forgetful
This article about tagging forgetful people (Alzheimer's) with chips that store personal info. I'm sure everyone knew about the angkasawan and the debate on space exploration, so i thought I may interest you with something else. Read on!
We've tagged you
Sub Head: Uproar flares in the United States over Alzheimer's tags.
Byline: By CELESTE BIEVER
IT looks deceptively familiar. The patient rolls up his sleeve, the doctor sticks a needle into his arm, and soon it's all over.
But this is no routine vaccination. Instead, the patient has been injected with a fleck of silicon that will uniquely identify him when zapped with radio waves.
Now, nearly three years after their use was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, implantable radio frequency identification (RFID) chips are the focus of a new controversy.
The battle lines are being drawn in a quiet corner of West Palm Beach, Florida. On May 12, some 30 protesters held an inter-faith prayer vigil outside Alzheimer's Community Care, a day-care facility for people with dementia.
At issue is the facility's plan to implant 200 patients with microchips manufactured and donated by VeriChip of nearby Delray Beach. When scanned, the chip reveals a unique ID number, which when entered into a password-protected database gives access to medical information about its owner.
If the plan goes ahead, it will be the first time the technology has been tried on a group of people with a specific mental impairment. The forgetfulness that comes with Alzheimer's can make it impossible for people with the condition to pass on vital information when faced with a medical emergency, which is why advocates are keen to make use of RFID chips with this group.
"If for whatever reason – an automobile accident or hurricane – the person becomes separated from their loved one, they are totally, totally helpless. They can't share what medically is wrong with them," says Mary Barnes of Alzheimer's Community Care. "This could be a safety net."
Privacy advocates say that it is precisely this helplessness that makes the proposed use of the tags unacceptable. "This is a community that is not in a position to give fully informed consent or to say no," says Katherine Albrecht, of CASPIAN, a Florida-based consumer rights organisation. "The nature of the disease is that they can't fully understand."
Albrecht likens "the violent and invasive act" of implanting a chip in someone who does not have the ability to consent to the act of rape. Others agree with the sentiment, if not the comparison. "This is by definition a way of doing something that denies a person control," says Lee Tien, of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, San Francisco, California. "If that doesn't strike at the heart of human dignity, I don't know what does."
He and Albrecht would rather see a chip implanted in a bracelet.
Barnes says a bracelet would not be nearly as useful. People might remove it if it got uncomfortable, especially those with Alzheimer's, who might not understand why they should wear it.
Bracelets could also label people as mentally ill, whereas an implanted chip is much less obvious, says Rick Rader, of the Orange Grove Center, Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The centre, which cares for children with Down's syndrome, cerebral palsy and autism, was in the media spotlight two years ago when it considered using VeriChip's device in a similar study on its patients, a plan that has since been put on the back burner.
At the time, there was an outcry from those who saw an implantable RFID as reminiscent of the "mark of the beast", as described in the book of Revelation. As explained on Albrecht's Web site, the Bible states that people who take the mark of the beast – a mark on the right hand or the forehead that contains a number or a name that is required for buying and selling – will receive a "grievous sore" as well as the "wrath of God", while those who refuse will be rewarded.
It is something Albrecht, a Christian, takes seriously. "I don't think anyone is arguing that the VeriChip implant in its current incarnation would meet that definition," she says. "But the concern for many people is that this would be a necessary precursor to getting to that point and therefore probably should be objected to." – New Scientist Magazine/Premium Health News Services/TMSI
Pix: Injecting microchips into patients with Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia would violate their rights, some say.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Some news excerpts: click links to read
Dear all,
Selamat Hari Raya, and happy holidays! I am also stuck in the Raya mood, and the most exciting event that happened in Malaysia was the Angkasawan blast-off to space. "We have lift-off!". Nina has sent me her take on the AIDS debate, I'll post it online next week. So, just a quick summary on what's interesting (that I know of):
1.'Legalise drugs' report supported (BBC)
North Wales Police Authority has backed a review of drug laws after its chief constable urged legalisation.
Richard Brunstrom asked the authority to back his calls to scrap current laws, legalise most drugs and bring in a new system to control them. While it agreed to support the report - to go to the Home Secretary as part of UK-wide consultation, it stopped short of calling to scrap current laws. A senior police officers' body called legalisation "a counsel of despair".
The Genome Project has sparked a huge debate on its repercussions on the society. One of the most important issue was the abuse of genetic information and accompanying discrimination. Surf this site for more information.
3. Sensationalism in journalism - Yellow Journalism (Wikipedia)
Where do we draw the line?
4. Space tourism and Space exploration
The next frontier vs a total waste of time (and money)
That's all folks for this week :).
WW
Selamat Hari Raya, and happy holidays! I am also stuck in the Raya mood, and the most exciting event that happened in Malaysia was the Angkasawan blast-off to space. "We have lift-off!". Nina has sent me her take on the AIDS debate, I'll post it online next week. So, just a quick summary on what's interesting (that I know of):
1.'Legalise drugs' report supported (BBC)
North Wales Police Authority has backed a review of drug laws after its chief constable urged legalisation.
Richard Brunstrom asked the authority to back his calls to scrap current laws, legalise most drugs and bring in a new system to control them. While it agreed to support the report - to go to the Home Secretary as part of UK-wide consultation, it stopped short of calling to scrap current laws. A senior police officers' body called legalisation "a counsel of despair".
2. Genetic testing, Discrimination and Privacy (Council for Responsible Genetics)
The Genome Project has sparked a huge debate on its repercussions on the society. One of the most important issue was the abuse of genetic information and accompanying discrimination. Surf this site for more information.
| |
Where do we draw the line?
4. Space tourism and Space exploration
The next frontier vs a total waste of time (and money)
That's all folks for this week :).
WW
Saturday, October 6, 2007
The transplant debate
Weekly highlights - and links to reports/commentaries
1. Heart transplant - MAS
2. Myanmar's violence to silence- there
3. Methadone programme for drug addicts -MAS
4. Deporting and banning Bangladeshi immigrants - MAS
5. Jena Six - USA
*This is not new, but interesting: racial tensions still deeply ingrained in parts of the US.*
6. I hate sports pages... so anything in sports please let us know.
I'm sure all of us had debated organ transplants and organ donations one way or another. Be it the idea of who gets the transplant, the black market and organ "selling", or the rights to organs.
The recent case where Tee Hui Yee, a 14-year-old living on a mechanical heart for about one year, gets not one, but two heart transplants within the span of 1 week. The donor's picture was in the frontpage of nearly every newspaper in town. We celebrated the generosity of the young man, who was killed in the accident. I wonder what happened to the general rule that donors aren't supposed to reveal their identities.
That sparked an idea of a motion: THBT transplant patients can have a second chance.
Do give your supporting or dissenting arguments in the comment box below, or if you have problems with the motion, do shout-out! =)
Cheers, WW
1. Heart transplant - MAS
2. Myanmar's violence to silence- there
3. Methadone programme for drug addicts -MAS
4. Deporting and banning Bangladeshi immigrants - MAS
5. Jena Six - USA
*This is not new, but interesting: racial tensions still deeply ingrained in parts of the US.*
6. I hate sports pages... so anything in sports please let us know.
I'm sure all of us had debated organ transplants and organ donations one way or another. Be it the idea of who gets the transplant, the black market and organ "selling", or the rights to organs.
The recent case where Tee Hui Yee, a 14-year-old living on a mechanical heart for about one year, gets not one, but two heart transplants within the span of 1 week. The donor's picture was in the frontpage of nearly every newspaper in town. We celebrated the generosity of the young man, who was killed in the accident. I wonder what happened to the general rule that donors aren't supposed to reveal their identities.
That sparked an idea of a motion: THBT transplant patients can have a second chance.
Do give your supporting or dissenting arguments in the comment box below, or if you have problems with the motion, do shout-out! =)
Cheers, WW
A nuke-free world?
It's time to junk nuclear weapons
Sometimes I wonder if superpowers like the US wanted world peace. Without the "dictators" in the Middle East needing weapons, or Gaza's troops needing tonnes of bullets everyday, they can kiss a big chunk of their revenue goodbye. I may be cynical, but hey, this is a debate ;).
Should the United States aim to achieve a world free of all nuclear weapons? In one sense, the question is trivial - nuclear disarmament has been a stated aim of the United States since the dawn of the nuclear age. And the United States also committed to working toward this end when it signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968.
But in another sense, the question is fundamental. Although successive administrations (at least until the current one) have mouthed the words affirming this objective, few have actually made this commitment an organizing principle of their nuclear weapons policies. That may be about to change. Earlier this week, Senator Barack Obama pledged that as president he would say: "America seeks a world in which there are no nuclear weapons." Former Senator John Edwards has also pledged to lead an international effort to eliminate nuclear weapons, as has Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico.
And it isn't just presidential candidates who are talking about a nuclear-free world. So are former statesmen like Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, Bill Perry, and Sam Nunn. Writing in The Wall Street Journal last January, they urged that the United States set the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons, and proposed specific actions to that end.
Nearly 20 years after the Cold War ended, the time has come to make a concerted effort to verifiably rid the world of all nuclear weapons. The United States must start by recognizing that the threats it confronts have changed and so, consequently, has the role and purpose of our nuclear weapons. During the Cold War we worried about the possibility, however small, of a disarming bolt-out-of-the-blue attack on our nuclear forces. That is no longer a realistic possibility. We also confronted a superior conventional foe in Europe and elsewhere that we sought to deter by threatening nuclear escalation. Today, our overwhelming conventional forces can defeat any nation, anywhere on earth.
Tomorrow's nuclear threats are different. They are that unstable regimes or, worse, nihilistic terrorists get their hands on a bomb and use it. This threat is becoming more real as nuclear technology and materials spread around the world. The first order of business must be to ensure that all the nuclear weapons and materials in Russia and elsewhere are safe and secure. While recognizing the threat of loose nukes and materials, this administration has done far too little to make sure this happens. The next administration must do better.
The second order of business, though, is to reduce the salience of nuclear weapons in order to ease the road to their elimination. The only reason the United States should maintain nuclear weapons is because others have them. There cannot be another purpose. We don't need them to deter a non-nuclear attack on ourselves or our allies; our conventional forces can deal with those contingencies. We certainly don't need them to attack some far-away or deeply buried targets, because there isn't a target whose destruction is worth breaking the 62-year-old taboo against using a single nuclear weapon.
Given this limited role for nuclear weapons, there is much that the United States can do to lift the dark nuclear shadow over the world. It can sharply reduce its nuclear stockpile to 1,000 weapons or less, if Russia agrees to go down to the same level. It can eliminate tactical nuclear weapons to underscore that it understands that a nuclear weapon is a nuclear weapon, no matter its size, yield, range, or mode of delivery. It can agree never to produce highly enriched uranium and plutonium for weapons purposes, and accept the need for intrusive verification if other states agree to end such production as well. It can commit never again to test a nuclear device, and ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
If the United States were to do all these things, it would make clear, to our citizens and the world, that it is serious about tackling the nuclear danger. It would reestablish the nation as the leader of the global nuclear nonproliferation movement. Above all, it would make the world a much safer place.
Ivo Daalder is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. John Holum led the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency in the Clinton administration. This article appeared first in The Boston Globe.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Matter on AIDS
AIDS in Malaysia
Malaysia is home to the fifth fastest growing AIDS epidemic in the East Asia and Pacific region with its current rate of HIV infections doubling every three years.
Between the first detected case in 1986 and 2006, 76,389* people have been infected with HIV while 9,155* have died of AIDS. These statistics suggest that an average of 17 people test positive for the virus each day.
Malaysia's epidemic is largely dominated by injecting drug users who make up about 73% of total cases. There is concern however that heterosexual transmission is on the rise. The proportion of women reported with HIV has increased dramatically in the last decade from 4% of new cases in 1995 to 15% of new cases in 2006. Surveys show that in 2006, more housewives tested HIV-positive than sex workers. At the same time, the percentage of babies born with
HIV has also increased from 0.2% in 1991 to 1.4% in 2006.
As in most parts of the world, young people in Malaysia account for an increasing number of HIV infections every year. December 2006 statistics from the Ministry of Health reveal that 36% of infections are amongst people aged between 13 to 29 years old. It is likely that people infected with HIV before the age of 30 were infected in their twenties and sometimes even during their teens.
Gender inequity, stigma, discrimination, silence, denial and ignorance fuel the epidemic in Malaysia.
* Source: Ministry of Health, Malaysia
another related article, but in larger scope:
How widespread is the HIV/AIDS epidemic?
The HIV/AIDS epidemic is an unprecedented challenge to humanity. HIV/AIDS was once concentrated primarily in sub-Saharan Africa, but the epidemic knows no borders. It has spread to every region in the world and affects people regardless of age, gender, wealth, geography or sexual orientation. HIV/AIDS is now the fourth-biggest cause of death worldwide.
Concentrated Epidemics
In many countries, HIV is still considered 'low' or 'concentrated, ' confined mainly within groups at especially high risk, such as men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs and sex workers. An epidemic is considered 'concentrated' when less than one per cent of the general population but more than five per cent of any 'high risk' group are HIV-positive.
Generalized Epidemics
In sub-Saharan Africa, parts of Asia, Central America and the Caribbean, HIV has become a 'generalized' epidemic that is not contained within any section of the population. An epidemic is considered 'generalized' when more than one per cent of the general population carries the virus.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Nine out of ten children with HIV or AIDS are African. Sub-Saharan Africa is the worst affected region in the world. With just 11 per cent of the global population, the region is home to three-quarters of all people living with HIV and AIDS. Some 30 million people are carry the virus, and is AIDS the leading cause of death on the continent. One in ten people between the ages of 15 and 49 are HIV-positive in 12 countries. The majority of new infections occur among young people aged 15 to 24, especially among girls.
In Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe, it is estimated that more than 60 per cent of boys currently aged 15 can expect to become HIV-positive. In parts of southern Africa, more than 30 per cent of pregnant women are HIV-positive. Nine out of 10 children with HIV or AIDS are African.
Asia
In Asia, an estimated 7.2 million people are believed to be HIV-positive. Concentrated epidemics among injecting drug users and sex workers have crossed over into the general population in Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand, resulting in generalized epidemics. In Indonesia, Nepal and Viet Nam, infection rates are exploding among those two high-risk groups, of whom the majority are under the age of 25. In China, home to a fifth of the world's population, concentrated epidemics have emerged in several provinces and HIV is moving so rapidly that many fear the country is on the verge of a generalized epidemic. India is home to the world's second-largest HIV-positive population.
Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia
Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia have the fastest-growing epidemic in the world. Around 1 million people aged 15 to 49 were living with HIV/AIDS in 2001, and the number is growing by 250,000 people a year. The epidemic is concentrated among addicted injecting drug users, but it is now spreading to a wider population of occasional injecting drug users and their sexual partners, most of whom are young. In the Russian Federation, there were 3,008 reported new HIV infections among injecting drug users aged 10 to 19 in 1999. By 2000, that number had more than tripled to 9,612.
The Caribbean and Latin America
About 1.9 million adults and children now live with HIV and AIDS, and the epidemic is in danger of spreading rapidly and widely. The Caribbean, with a 2.3 per cent prevalence rate among 15¡V49 year olds, is the most affected region after sub-Saharan Africa. Unsafe sex among men who have sex with men appears to be rife across the entire region; a large proportion of these men also have sex with women. Prevalence levels are highest in The Bahamas, Guyana and Haiti. Most new infections are being reported among young women aged 15-24.
Middle East and North Africa
In the Middle East and North Africa, more than half a million people are living with HIV/AIDS. Available data point to increasing HIV prevalence rates, with about 83,000 new infections in 2002. Significant outbreaks among injecting drug users have occurred in about half the countries in the region, notably in North Africa and in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
High-income countries
Approximately 76,000 people became HIV-positive in high-income countries in 2002, and 23,000 died of AIDS. About 1.6 million people now live positively with the virus, in large part thanks to anti-retroviral drugs that have made remarkable headway in holding back the development of AIDS symptoms. Unfortunately, the advancement in treatment comes with an underestimation of the risk and gravity of HIV/AIDS. Infections are on the rise again apparently because many people view HIV/AIDS as a treatable disease and are therefore not taking precautions to prevent contracting it.
HIV status to tie the knot
Note: this is an exemplary effort from reno, :) I hope I could maintain this site with contributions from all of you.
28th Sept 2007 (Fri)
28th Sept 2007 (Fri)
BP training for NHSD
In front of KTSN PBSM, 20000
THW make it compulsory for future spouses to disclose their AIDS status
OG: Matthew, Reno
OO: Izzati, Nina
CG: J, Hafizah
CO: Prisca, Pravita
Adjudicators:
Chair- Bernard
Panel- Wen Nee, Stella
PM:
The problem is basically about the rise of AIDS cases in Malaysia due to unawareness of HIV status. Unawareness of spouse’s HIV status, if the spouse is HIV positive, it is more likely that he/she may be infected, including their offspring. It’s unfairness in marriage.
Mechanism:
- Premarriage counseling is conducted on future couples and HIV test is advised and make compulsory
- Medical result regarding HIV test must be presented during marriage legalization in marriage registrar
- If one/both of the couple is HIV positive, an agreement doc should be signed to make sure another half is well informed of this
- Check and balance: regular HIV test for an interval of approximately 5 years
*Medical confidentiality and practitioners of the test should be mentioned
1st point from the PM: Duty of state (on the societal health)
It is duty of state to make sure that the HIV status of their spouse is being well informed to each other. We want to create a healthy society and increase AIDS awareness in this country, especially in this particular case of marriage.
Leader of Opp:
Rebuttals:
- On Duty of State - Right of choice whether to disclose the HIV status or not, because the positive or negative HIV is going to cause a big impact on their relationship.
- On Registrar - Feasibility is being question on free HIV test and bribery in marriage registrar (human nature is being brought up)
- On trust - It is up to the HIV positive partner to choose appropriate time to disclose his/her HIV status, because we believe in love is built on trust
1st point from OO: Negative implication of the proposal (Freedom of Choice)
Discussed on the levels of human’s right of making choice and impact of tourism? of M’sia (*not much elaborated because running out of time)
* Adjudicator note: right to privacy is going to be a better point brought upon by Leader of Opp
=> I would love to listen to the argument on HIV status and tourism
DPM:
DPM:
Rebuttals:
- On Freedom of Choice - Right to choice are less likely to be prioritized since it’s jeopardizing another human’s right of information/ fairness/ and even life of another half (even whole family, if including offspring) of the marriage.
- On trust and integrity - Bribery cases are insignificant enough to be ignored. Persons elected for the marriage registrar is elite and bound to rules, religion (since this case setup is in M’sia), and regulation.
- On feasibility - More people will attend to HIV test after this proposal is implemented, thus create AIDS awareness among Malaysians, which is out objective
- Tourism - Impact of tourism is not likely because the HIV status is only known by 3 parties: the patient, their spouse, and marriage registrar
2nd point from OG: Fairness of the marriage
- Discussed in two levels: marriage partner and their children
Deputy Leader of Opp:
Rebuttals:
- Why the govt want to target only on disclosure of HIV status in marriage, why don’t target on other things that make more contribution to the HIV population in M’sia? e.g. IVDU (intravenous drug usage)
* 0.3% of M’sian are HIV positive
*60% are caused by IVUD
(it is outdated data; more recent data should be sought)
** please note that the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2006 (once in 10 years) has been released by the MOH lately.I've been trying to get it but to no avail, can anyone with access (doctors and medical line people alike) help? (ww) - would be helpful for debate on health - and politics in healthcare
CG:
CG:
Extension: Trickle down effects of the proposal
- Stigma removal from society which will further create societal acceptance on this case
*stigma is a good point but not well explained
- stigma always include fear, evasiveness and partial knowledge about an issue.
- revealing HIV status sends out a message that -
1. HIV is a disease, like cancer, like the common flu
2. The fact that it has no cure shouldn't create fear, because unlike SARS/EBOLA/even cancer, HIV is not genetic or highly communicable- (doctors would tell you that even healthy lifestyle may not prevent you from a strong inheritance of cancer), and conscious effort (condoms, abstinence) can prevent it.
*A bit of technical knowledge here - HIV is a Biosafety Level 3 virus, a step below Biosafety Level 4 bacteria, Tuberculosis (TB). If migrant workers are required to undergo check for TB, why not HIV in spouses?
3. HIV exposure will tell people that yes, it is deadly, but there are thousands of ways people can contract HIV - not necessarily promiscuity. And if the spouse can't take it, maybe they shouldn't be in the same bed together anyway. => better than getting a divorce later with HIV eh?
- stigma always include fear, evasiveness and partial knowledge about an issue.
- revealing HIV status sends out a message that -
1. HIV is a disease, like cancer, like the common flu
2. The fact that it has no cure shouldn't create fear, because unlike SARS/EBOLA/even cancer, HIV is not genetic or highly communicable- (doctors would tell you that even healthy lifestyle may not prevent you from a strong inheritance of cancer), and conscious effort (condoms, abstinence) can prevent it.
*A bit of technical knowledge here - HIV is a Biosafety Level 3 virus, a step below Biosafety Level 4 bacteria, Tuberculosis (TB). If migrant workers are required to undergo check for TB, why not HIV in spouses?
3. HIV exposure will tell people that yes, it is deadly, but there are thousands of ways people can contract HIV - not necessarily promiscuity. And if the spouse can't take it, maybe they shouldn't be in the same bed together anyway. => better than getting a divorce later with HIV eh?
CO:
- *Inconsistency because the member of Opp gave me the feeling that HIV is really a serious thing in M’sia, but the whip came out and even said AIDS is just a small matter in this country
- Rebuttals are mainly discussing about love, trust, and how disclosure of the HIV status will destroy a marriage. *Better elaboration about it is up to the HIV patient to choose time to tell their partner. It can be countered by saying procrastinating and lazy nature of human. However, it was not brought up by the CG whip
Extension: Impact on the marriage
** I think so…’cause I hardly catch the points being discussed…I knew only trust and love is being discussed throughout in the closing half of the debate. The CO also mentioned about the positive impact if the patient is given the choice to choose their appropriate time to disclose their HIV status.
p/s:
* indicates comment from adjudicators
** is my personal think about the debate
** the whole debate was not carried out well because of the environmental situations. (We actually had people screaming around us during the debate…they got their crazy own activities lah…) Few new people from KTSN is also being exposed what the hell is BP style. Everyone has presented well.
A selection for NHSD in KTSN will be conducted next week…be ready for the battle!
By
Reno
29 September 2007
It’s late in night…just finished watching Ultraviolet with other guys…sleepy… :)
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