Home Blog Page 433

How effective are flu vaccines?

Anil Netto
-
8

Some flu experts are now challenging conventional medical thinking and arguing that flu vaccines and antiviral drugs may provide little or no protection for those most in need of such protection.

If you have ever wondered how effective flu vaccines really are, then take the time to read this excellent article in the Atlantic: Does the vaccine matter?

The writer, Shannon Brownlee, is the author of the acclaimed book, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer, which was named the best economics book of 2007 by a New York Times economics correspondent.

Blogger Zorro questioned by police

Anil Netto
-
13

Blogger Zorro has been questioned by police who are investigating what they perceive to be a possible offence under the Sedition Act in his postings. See here and here.

The questioning was carried out this afternoon at the Commercial Crimes Investigation Department headquarters at Bukit Perdana in KL. (‘Sedition’ and blogging fall under ‘commercial crimes’ jurisdiction?) Zorro was accompanied by fellow blogger Haris Ibrahim, a lawyer.

Meanwhile, Aliran president P Ramakrishnan has called for a full panel of 11  Federal Court judges to hear Nizar’s appeal tomorrow on the issue of who is the rightful Perak Mentri Besar. See Rama’s statement here.

“Mess” in Botanic Gardens raises concern

Anil Netto
-
24

Of late, I have heard a number of people expressing their unease about the “mess” in the Penang Botanic Gardens.

A RM5 million federal project to expand the Gardens is underway, but concern has been expressed that it has already deviated from the original plan drafted four years ago. Initial work has reportedly uprooted about 30 trees.

Kanda Kumar of the Malaysian Nature Society adds civil society’s voice to the disquiet over what is going on there.

Concern over slope stability at the site of the proposed Penang Botanic Gardens Visitors’ Centre

We, group of NGOs, stake holders and concerned citizens, are calling for this press conference as we are concerned over slope stability at the site of the proposed Penang Botanic Gardens Visitors’ Centre.

Continue

Najib’s 1Malaysia crowd in Ipoh

Anil Netto
-
38

Check out this interesting piece by Fathol Zaman Bukhari in the Ipoh Echo about the 40,000 OneMalaysia crowd that packed the Perak Stadium when Najib was in town.

Continue

Kg Tanjung Tokong: A closer look inside

Anil Netto
-
25

Rahmah Ali is not a happy woman. In fact, this feisty Tanjung Tokong villager is upset over Uda Holdings’ plans to demolish the houses in her kampung and ‘develop’ the area. “Hati geram!” she says.


Photos by Anil (Click on icon on bottom right to switch to full-screen slideshow mode)

Seated at the dining table inside her hundred-year-old wooden house, Rahmah says she has lived here since she was born.

I ask her, somewhat untactfully, how old she is.

“Sama dengan Mahathir,” the widow replies, in a matter-of-fact tone. That would make her 84, but her razor-sharp mind shows no sign of slowing down.

Hers is not the usual wooden kampung house; the beams inside are solid, probably hardwood similar to cengal or merbau.

Continue

LIVE: Zaid Ibrahim addresses crowd in Penang

Anil Netto
-
5

Zaid Ibrahim is speaking at the Caring Society Complex in Penang tonight on a two-coalition system in Malaysia.

Penang issues that need clarification

Anil Netto
-
25

An email landed in my email inbox and from the looks of it, the Penang state government needs to clarify a number of issues including land conversions: has the state government converted any land from leasehold to freehold so far?

In particular, was approval given in June to PDC Heritage (51 per cent owned by YTL) to convert its prime seafront land from leasehold to freehold status? Was the Penang State Assembly really misled, as the NST alleges (see here and here)?

Continue

Perak Pakatan convention heralds 2-coalition era

Anil Netto
-
19

The inaugural convention of the Pakatan Rakyat in Perak, held in Ipoh yesterday, has officially ushered in a new era of two-coalition politics.

pakatan 3a
Photo by Kinta Kid (Photo story at Kinta Chronicles)

Perhaps because of the furnace of trials and tribulations the Perak Pakatan was plunged in, its parties are said to have emerged welded together in greater solidarity. A manifesto was drawn up and debated upon.

Continue

Iraq Occupation: What has it accomplished?

Anil Netto
-
7

What has the US-led Invasion and Occupation of Iraq really achieved? What have the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and thousands of American troops really accomplished?

If you ask me, a lot of people made a lot of money out of this military adventure – that’s what it has accomplished. Yes, war is all about Big Business for a few: the oil price rockets up, military budgets are pumped up, weapons sales soar, strategic oil pipelines are laid, funds for dubious “reconstruction” are siphoned off and a few favoured corporations reap huge profits for their well-connected share-holders.

Leila Fadel of McClatchy reports:

I couldn’t understand what thousands of American soldiers had died for and why hundreds of thousands of Iraqis had been killed. I didn’t see a budding democracy in an Iraqi government that was more like Saddam Hussein’s every day. I didn’t see a land long divided by sect, ethnicity, tribe and class beginning to grow into a united nation.

Continue

Feeling the heat: Not just PKR but Ong, Koh too

Anil Netto
-
30

While the front pages of the newspapers today are all about Badrul Hisham quitting PKR and how PKR is supposedly on the verge of a meltdown, BN component parties too are feeling the heat.

In particular, MCA president Ong Tee Keat and Gerakan chief Koh Tsu Koon have been under pressure to call it a day. The latest broadside came not from opposition ranks but from a BN back-bencher in Parliament yesterday. (Did he receive the green light from the top?)

Continue
1...432433434...569Page 433 of 569