My View on Egypt's Mass Protests...

Picture taken from National Geographic. :)

The recent mass protests in Egypt lately has been the front cover of the World section of The Star paper. The question is, why are people suddenly protesting by the millions for the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak? In recorded history, tt is the largest pro-democracy mobilization Egypt has ever seen! Because they are tired over the current president who has been in power for the past 30 years.

The Muslim Brotherhood, who has been keeping a low profile after the Tunisian uprising, which happened also quite recently, has announced that they will join in future efforts in bringing the current president down from throne. The Muslim Brother fyi, is the strongest opposition party over there. But, let me just give you a thing or two for you to think about, from my perspective.

The Muslim Brotherhood goal, if you do not know, the goal is to instill the Quran and Sunnah as the sole reference point for ordering the life of the Muslim family, individual, community and state (according to The Muslim Brotherhood - Wikipedia). It doesn't sound very democratic to me. I mean to rule the state with the Quran and Sunnah as the sole reference point? How about the non-Muslims who are staying over there? Will they be under this rule? The Muslim Brotherhood is like a first cousin from the unpopular group of Al-Qaeda. They have almost similar goals like it's cousin and if it does fall into the rule of The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt may enter into a darker phase. This is what I personally feel... or maybe, I just do not fully understand the underline meanings of this goal that they stated.

So, where shall this peaceful demonstrations lead to? Will there be a change in the government for a greater good? Or shall the current president be adamant as he is now to not step down in power and do what it takes to keep him seated up there? Time will tell.

Next post, should leaders be given a term limit on how long they can be in power?

GM food, the next solution?

The world's population is increasing at a rapid rate, and the supply of food cannot meet up with the ever increasing demands of the world's needs. Countries have poured in billions in dollars for research in genetically modified food (GM food) in the hope in solving this problem. In my opinion, I believe that there are two sides two a coin about this matter.

GM food as we know, is something new. Scientists are still uncertain about the short-term and long-term effects that GM foods might bring, towards humans, and the environment. For all you know, after consuming these foods, we might find the next generation born deformed. Or the plants and animals we know today mutated into something new. And with these new unknown changes taking place, it might disrupt the many cycles that keep the ecosystem in equilibrium, creating more problems!

GM food crops can be genetically modified to be resistant to various diseases, herbicides and pesticides, but when the climate changes, or when a new disease infects the crop, the whole crop will suffer and dies. This is because somehow, genetically modified crops lose the ability to adapt to these changes. For example, if the Earth's temperature were to rise by 1 degree Celsius worldwide, all the GM food crops will be affected, and this will result in billions of dollars in losses, and we might find ourselves without food.

By planting GM food crops can also bring unintended harm to other organisms. For example, in the United States, they planted genetically modified corn. And scientists have found out that a certain species of butterfly population, Monarch butterflies, has decreased at an alarming rate. This clearly indicates GM crops might bring harm to other organisms. Imagine if genetically modified grain causes chickens to die when consumed by them, we would find the world without chickens within months!

Although GM food has its cons, we cannot deny the fact that it has its pros too. With GM crops planted, less area can now produce more! Imagine 10 acres of land can now produced 10,000 tonnes of grain instead of the normal 2,000 tonnes. It's an increase by 5 times! Therefore, the world's food problem can be solved in no time. GM food can also genetically modified to be of a higher nutritional value. A scientist can now insert genes that can make the fruits of the plant contain more nutrients. Take an orange for an instance, scientists can take a good gene of a tomato and implant it in an orange. This means the orange can now have the nutritional value of BOTH the orange and the tomato. It's 2 in 1!

In conclusion, although GM foods solve the world's food problems, there are many unseen and unknown effects towards mankind and the environment that might be disastrous. Therefore, I believe that we should tread carefully and carry out extensive tests before we plant GM crops.

Spread the Word to End the Word.... R-Word Campaign.

Have you heard of this "Spread the Word to End the Word" campaign? I have heard about the F-word, C-word, M-word, B-word, K-word, but the R-WORD??

Btw, the R-Word that they are trying to end, is the word "Retarded". So, why end the word? Shouldn't addressing the people who use it by insulting ways or wrong reasons be better? I see no harm or wrong in using that word. But it's just my opinion.

So, what do you think?

How was Beijing chosen to host the 2008 Olympics?

I suppose many people know how an Olympic city is chosen. I recently knew, after reading the newspapers.

To host the Olympics, is a very great and honored thing. A country who wants to host must first submit an application to the IOC (International Olympic Committee). This application is a questionare. Then, the IOC filters the applications and pick a few cities as candidates. It takes about 10 months to complete this process.

For example, the handing of application of the 2008 Olympics started in 2000. Five cities were picked as candidates, Beijing, Toronto, Paris, Istanbul and Osaka.

Those chosen, will then have to prove that the cities are capable to host the Olympic Games. It is not easy to host the Olympics, because there are a lot of problems a city need to overcome, lodging, transportation and enough sport arenas. You may ask, why do you cities go through all the hassle? Well, because they would feel honored, and be labeled as "An Olympic City".

For the 2012 Olympic Games, guess where it would be? LONDON! Those who were shortlisted were New York, Paris, Moscow, Madrid and London. And London won the bid!

We will look forward to London Olympics 2012! I expect it would be better than Beijing Olympics 2008!

Next post: Olympic"ing" online: Basketball

National Rheumatoid Arthritis Day 2008.

Today is the national rheumatoid arthritis day. You might ask, what is rheumatoid arthritis (RA)? RA is a chromic autoimmune arthritis that can lead to joint deformity and destruction if untreated.

There are two types of arthritis, osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). There are differences between this two arthritis.

OA is a lot more common than RA. OA affects up to 20% of the population. OA is basically a failure of repair of cartilages as one ages, thus this disease affects the older population more. The disease progress is slow, about 10 to 20 years.

Compared to OA, RA is less common. It affects one in every two hundred in Malaysia. RA tends to affect the younger population compared to OA, that affects the older population. This disease tend to start between 30 to 55 years old.

RA produces abnormal antibodies that are harmful to joints and sometimes other parts of the body. They attack the synovium. They cause it to become hypertrophied, overproducing synovial fluid, causing swelling and inflammation in the joint.

If RA is left untreated, joint deformities can occur, with resultant difficulties in the activities of daily living. In this day and age, I think the medical services provided should be able to prevent such deformities from happening if treated early.

Myanmar finally opens its doors.

The path of Cyclone Nargis

The government of Myanmar finally opens its doors to all foreign cyclone aid workers. The cyclone had hit Myanmar and left 2.4 million destituted and killed nearly 134 000 people three weeks ago.
Than Shwe also agreed to allow the airport in Yangon to be used as a logistical hub for distribution of aid, which is still only trickling in.
Why did the government wait so long then only allowing aid workers to come in? Why? The government of Myanmar allowing cyclone aid workers in is certainly a breakthrough. Maybe the reason why the generals opened their doors is because they feared thousands nore of people would die of starvation and diseases.

The 7.9 magnitude earthquake in China.

The earthquake shook the mountainous province of Sichuan. Some towns in the earthquake zone in south-western China will need to be relocated because the terrain is no longer safe. Rebuilding the towns and villages will take at least 3 years. Thank God that Malaysia doesn't experience earthquakes.
The death toll of this earthquake has already reached 60 000, but it is expected to be more, as debris from the flattened cities, towns and villages. They have been at least 7000 aftershocks.
Schools in China where the earthquake happened, has resumed in tents. In Mianyang, a ten-year old boy has resumed his schooling in a blue emergency tent flown in from Italy, but it has no affected his eagerness to learn. The tent school at the Jiuzhou sports stadium in south-west China's Mianyang city is the biggest of its kind in the quake region. It accepts children from the thousands of homeless families who sought shelter temporarily at the stadium. The school has more than 40 teachers, mostly mobilised by the Mianyang education bureau, and over 1000 students from primary school to junior high. New students arrive everyday. Visitors passing by a police guard at the entrance of the school immediately face two large tents capable of holding hundreds of students each time. Think of the uncomfortable atmosphere the students there have to suffer, and here are we, students in Malaysia enjoying the comforts of the classroom that we take for granted everyday. They study in tents! A cyclone happened in Myanmar three weeks ago, why aren't there news of action being taken like in China?
China will lauch a national lottery to raise money for earthquake relief and rescue work. All the money earned will be used in relief and reconstruction projects. Why don't I see Myanmar doing the same?

DON'T reuse food and water containers!!!

Do not reuse plastic food and water containers. “Takeaway plastic food containers used in eating outlets are disposable items and designed for single use only. The chemicals that were found in the plastic was styrene monomer, bisphenol A (BPA), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), benzyl butyle phthalate (BBP), di- 2-ethylexyl adipate (DEHA) and di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP).

In my opinion, I think citizens of Malaysia should bring their own reusable plastic food containers such as cups, plates, bowls, bottles and boxes used in household kitchens for repeated storage of food because these containers have attributes such as sturdiness and thermal stability.

Takeaway food containers which were labelled “microwave safe” for reheating should not be reused.

As for mineral water plastic bottles, it is not advisable to keep on reusing them.

Children's vision not as good as adults, so keep them away from roads.

Children's field of vision is just one-third that of adults. That's enough reason to keep them away from roads.

Children below 10 have problems judging the speed of vehicles and distance, as well as the direction of sounds because of their brain development. They also tended to assume that drivers in the car could see them when they were trying to cross a road.

All parents: Remember "Children must be accompanied by adults. "