A most emotional homecoming

A most emotional homecoming. Laura Ling and Euna Lee

I watched the CNN breaking news tonight,  on the return of 2 US journalists from North Korea, with many emotions and thoughts crossing my mind.

I was happy that finally after 140 days, the 2 jailed Asian American journalists accused of spying were released.

I was very moved to see the tears, the embraces and the joy of all those who were present.

I was proud that  humananity has set a good example to show that colour can be irrelevant when a sitting president secretly acted behind the scene to get a former president to visit North Korea to free 2 of its citizens, even though the colours of the 3 principals involved were as different as white grapes from blackcurrants.

I was pleased that even a regime deemed ‘evil’ by western standard has acted magnanimously to grant an amnesty to the 2 journalists that were convicted by its court for spying and sentenced to 12 years of hard labour. It shows that even ‘evil’ regime can be reasonable if approached properly and given due respect.

I was impressed by the flexibility of the US to drop its demand that its 2 citizens were not guilty and should be released immediately but instead ask for an amnesty from North Korea. This flexibility has enabled the smooth release of its 2 citizens. If US has stuck to maintaining its ‘face’ and demanding release instead of appealing for an amnesty, i do not think North Korea would have shown such a goodwill gesture.  (An amnesty means that US acknowledged tacitly that these 2 were wrong and that it respects the law of NOrth Korea. )

I can’t help but envy these 2 journalists. Where else but in the West would a former president take the trouble to travel to an ‘enemy’ state to negotiate the freedom of its citizens?

I wonder if these 2 are Malaysians, especially Malaysians of Non Malay lineage, will our government take such steps to get them released? I wonder if fellow Malaysians would uniformly rally to their support without thinking of their race and colour, like what US citizens were doing?

I have no answers to these hypothetical questions. The fact that I am not sure of the answers shows that we still have a long way to go to become  one nation, nevermind the rhetorics of 1this and 1that.

H1N1 update

I will try to post update on H1N1 news on and off since this is of big concern by most people now.

Latest update by WHO on H1N1:

Worldwide, the majority of patients infected with the pandemic virus continue to experience mild symptoms and recover fully within a week, even in the absence of any medical treatment. Monitoring of viruses from multiple outbreaks has detected no evidence of change in the ability of the virus to spread or to cause severe illness.

In addition to the enhanced risk documented in pregnant women, groups at increased risk of severe or fatal illness include people with underlying medical conditions, most notably chronic lung disease (including asthma), cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and immunosuppression. Some preliminary studies suggest that obesity, and especially extreme obesity, may be a risk factor for more severe disease.

This is the latest from European Centre of Disease Control (ECDC):

•  There are no reports as yet of unusual presentations or transmission routes for this influenza compared to normal seasonal influenza viruses. There is no indication of risk of infection through food or potable drinks.
•  If the pandemic behaves like previous ones, cumulative clinical attack rates over the first major wave of infection in 2009–10 might be expected to be in the range of 20% to 30%, with a reasonable planning  assumption of 30%.
• Based on experience in North America, clinical attack rates will be highest in children and younger adults.
•  Adults over 60 years seem, at present, to be the least affected age group, though there are indications from the USA that those few that are affected experience the highest risk of severe disease of any age group.
• The groups experiencing most of the severe disease and death are those in the risk groups of people with chronic underlying medical conditions (this includes morbid obesity), pregnant women and young children (especially under two years of age).
• Most of those infected experience a mild self-limiting illness, even in people in risk groups. However, as for seasonal influenza there are some people who experience more severe disease and some of these die despite medical care. These include a few people without any known underlying condition and outside  other risk groups.

 

One risk facing us is that our health resources may be stressed to the limits, as was the experience in New York city, and that other lethat diseases like Dengue may be neglected in our preoccupation with H1N1. Dengue kills more people in Malaysia than most seasonal flu every year, so while we should be vigilant about H1n1, we should not let our guard down against Dengue.

 

Unhealthy trend

After the new administration took over, a noticeable difference in the mainstream newspapers can be seen. There is more slant towards government views points.

The most alarming , however, is that certain newspapers have been  trying to play racial card .

First, one paper attributed the doubts cast on MACC as an attack against the Malay institution. What is obviously the death of a Malaysian in the custody of a Malaysian Insititution is skewed into racial angle. And of late another newspaper played up race sentiments asking Malays to be no more coward. Well, why is there a need to play up racial sentiments? This is 50 years after independence, why is there still a need to play up race when race has nothing to do with all these?

The quest to find the truth behind TBH’s death and the uproar of the ways MACC is handling things has nothing to do with race. It is about bad governance, abuse of power, more than anything else. 

If the government is sincere about reform, then the first thing to do is perhaps to reform these news papers.  There are plenty of liberal minded and nonracist Malaysians capable of running these newspapers, and if these papers can be run along Malaysian concept, instead of being racial, it will go a long way to foster real racial unity…

Perhaps the minister in charge of Unity should voice out to the top leader about this unhealthy trend of playing up racial sentiments?