Heading to Taipei, Taiwan to begin a new life in a new country, and working for Atelligent Global Consulting Corp. for 1 year...'Carriers shouldn't marry'Should this be considered an act of discrimination against HIV/AIDS carriers?KUALA LUMPUR - HIV carriers should not be allowed to marry, in order to avoid having sick children, a top Malaysian politician was quoted on Monday as saying.
'Somebody who is very sick like that should not be allowed to get married,' Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin, chief minister of northern Perak state was quoted as saying by New Straits Times newspaper.
'If there's any breeding, sorry for having to use that word, the embryo will also carry the same virus. So that is even more unfair because you are actually passing that disease on to the child.'
He had been asked to comment on a statement by an official of the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia that Muslims who test positive for the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, would still be allowed to marry.
An aide to Mr Nizar, who is a member of the opposition Islamist party Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS), said the minister was referring to both Muslims and non-Muslims.
Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak was quoted last week as saying all Muslim couples in peninsular Malaysia must undergo HIV screening before getting married.
The debate on the right of HIV/AIDS carriers, especially Muslims, to marry comes as mostly Muslim Malaysia is struggling to allay concerns of a rise in hardline Islam.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said last month Muslims are allowed to do yoga but without chanting, reversing an outright ban that had caused a flap in the country.
The government has also threatened to shut down a Catholic newspaper for using the world 'Allah', saying it could inflame the country's Muslim population.
Politically dominant ethnic Malay Muslims form about 60 percent of the population of roughly 26 million, while the ethnic Indian and Chinese minorities include Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Christians. -- REUTERS
It actually belongs to Shirley, who lent it to Rina who didn't manage to return it back.... and Rina didn't actually manage to read it till now so I borrowed it after learning from Shirley that it's with Rina (phew what an explanation haha)IMF conditions may result in 3m job cuts: economistsHaving read "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein (see previous posts HERE), I find the contents of this article quite disturbing... I am not an economist, and probably am extremely clueless about how to fix fiscal deficits and such... but speaking as a person on the street, I wonder about the very high costs associated with the option of receiving aid from the IMF. It is sad that pumping this money into this economy will make life harder for those who have been working hard on driving the economy all these while... I wonder also, if such dire consequences would have been predicted if the government of Pakistan had gone with some other option of funding...
Sher Baz Khan
Saturday, 29 Nov, 2008 | 10:36 AM PST |
ISLAMABAD: Conditions attached to the $7.6 billion International Monetary Fund loan are expected to cause up to three million job cuts in different sectors and push another 5.6 million to 7.5 million Pakistanis into poverty over the next two years.
This was stated by the chief economist of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Mr Sakib Shirani, at a discussion on the IMF loan organised here on Friday by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS). A number of economists and industrialists attended the discussion.However, Mr Shirani, who was part of the talks held in Dubai between Pakistani and IMF officials, said the government was left with no option but to seek the IMF ‘standby arrangements’.
The topic of the discussion was ‘IMF: pain or panacea’.
When asked about the immediate fallout of the conditions which was aimed at slowing down the import-led economic growth, Mr Shirani said that two to three million people would lose their jobs in various sectors, including fertiliser, manufacturing and services.
He said the GDP growth was expected to slow down to 3.4 per cent this year. ‘Some 5.6 to 7.5 million people will be added to the existing number of poor’.
...
CRSS executive director Dr Farrukh Saleem said Pakistan was facing three problems — trust deficit, budgetary deficit — the government raises Rs1.5 trillion as revenue and spends Rs2 trillion — and trade deficit — the country imports goods worth $35 billion and exports goods worth $20 billion. ‘Pakistan is now like a patient who is suffering from a severe heart attack and the only doctor around is the IMF.’
He said that over the past 64 years the IMF had been following a standard prescription: increase taxation, reduce government expenditure and devalue currency. But, he said, a large majority of the IMF recipients, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Haiti, Indonesia, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Pakistan, Paraguay, Philippines, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Thailand and Congo, had failed to implement these measures.
The panelists were of the view that an increase in taxation would mean a further slowdown in the economy which would mean an increase in unemployment. ‘Same thing is with the rate of interest. The high cost of capital leads to closure of a number of industrial units, meaning more unemployment.’
to read the article in full, click HERE
In a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and conflict, it's easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. Pangea Day seeks to overcome that — to help people see themselves in others — through the power of film.
Check out http://pangeaday.org/index.php and watch the featured films... some of the films are quite short... but very powerful in terms of the messages sent across...
I was particularly struck by this one film titled "More", which tells the story of an old inventor who lives a grey, gloomy life and how he pursues bliss in his life -> Click Here to watch More
Another great film is titled "Papiroflexia" (Spanish for “origami”) and is about shaping the world with our own hands -> Click here to watch Papiroflexia
This is me in March 2008 in Tokyo, Japan. and yes my hair was long enough to tie up...
In THE SHOCK DOCTRINE, Naomi Klein explodes the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically. Exposing the thinking, the money trail and the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises and wars of the last four decades, The Shock Doctrine is the gripping story of how America’s “free market” policies have come to dominate the world-- through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries. Click here to read more...
