Ribs are the new breasts?

 

 Is it any wonder why more females are developing body image problems??

 

On an unrelated note.

Recently, my credit card has been used for unauthorised transactions. I’ve also been gettin calls from seedy, charge-by-the -hour hotels & seedy bust-enlargement companies over enquiries that i’ve supposedly made online (Inconveniencing the staff there,…..sigh…) . I’ve dutifully reported all this incidents to the credit card company (who has changed my card) & to the police as well, so i’m just gonna let them handle this credit card fraud and identity theft. (might be related to this guy, but I’m not sure…..    http://mathialee.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/wanted-female-police-officers/ )

 

What I’m really super amused about is this person’s multiple enquiries to bust-enlargement companies.

While our newspapers continually try to persuade its readership that one has to be big to be appreciated , it appears that he/she  hasn’t realised high street fashion has decided that ribs are the new breasts.

 

It appears that even mediacorp has been catching high street’s drift , with this very disturbing ad……

( http://imcms2.mediacorp.sg/CMSFileserver/documents/006/pdf/20091109/0911HNR013.pdf )

 

 

People with disabilities can do well, given the same educational opportunities everyone has

Hey I think this is really important! Too many people ignore the needs of people with certain disabilities thinking its futile to educate them.

 

Invitation to Focus Group discussion on Compulsory Education for Children with Disabilities
http://maruah.org/2009/11/19/fgdiscussion-compulsoryedchildrenwithdisabilities/
(Aim: children with physical disabilities to be included in Singapore’s Compulsory Education Act; also in line with the Convention on the Rights of Children)

 

 

When I went to the Vatican a few months ago I was super impressed. The guy who sold us tickets at the counter had 2 fingers only, and he was just handling all the transactions amazingly fast, no different from othr counters, and the queue was miles long but it cleared really fast.

 

The cloak room was run by just one guy and he had Downs’ syndrome (or some sort of other social disability) and everything was in perfect order, and so efficiently managed.

 

I was just so impressed with not only these 2 people, but with the people who hired them. In Singapore, even the enlightened people who hire people with disabilities tend to put them where their area of disability is not directly used in their job. There, I really learnt that your area of”disability” can be the primary requirement of your job, but it doesn’t have to matter at all!

(I mean, 2 fingers only & selling tickets much faster than 4x the speed of ANY movie ticket counter in singapore!!! )

NKF in the red & Sustainable Charities: Good people need fair salaries

I read with a mix of concern and amusement, the news that NKF was in the red for the first time in 10 years. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1018819/1/.html

 

Yes of course, donations have been down, especially since the scandal. It’s down 26% from the last year.

 

Expenses, aid and subsidies have gone up — we all know it’s getting more expensive in singapore, and more people are needing help. So its nice that the charity is doing its job and providing help.

 

The one particular thing that really got me noticing was the 97.5% drop in investment income from $3million to $80,000.

 

Now I really hope that’s because the current management has decided that investment income was something they no longer wanted to depend on and hence made a deliberate effort to not pursue investment income.

 

Because otherwise, it’s a 97.5% drop!!!! 97.5%!!! wow.  If anyone working in an investment firm, Temasek, GIC, Town Council , whatever. A 97.% drop is hilariously unacceptable, I think.  ( Maybe it’s just me being ignorant, and I know how irritating it is to encounter ignorant people acting like they know something in my field of expertise (health & biology, not econs), so I’ll be glad to learn something if you point out i’m wrong, and that a 97.5% drop is perfectly normal and OK cos it’s not like any money was lost?!?! )

 

 

But that’s not really the point I’m concerned with. What I was thinking was that the ex-management — yes the very one thrown out first by popular uprising, and then taken care of by the judiciary —- was really quite savy with the finances . Be it investment, marketing, or simply creating a financially sustainable charity —- they were damned good, so good that they could help themselves to some of the excess.

 

I’m definately not trying to defend their crimes or unethical behavior here. But what I’m actually wondering is that perhaps we should take a leaf from the PAP’s book, and start paying charity workers & social workers decently.

 

 Now I’m not talking about paying people 5times what their next highest-paid peers are paid ( http://timesbusiness.typepad.com/money_weblog/2009/04/the-10-highest-paid-politicians-in-the-world.html   (Times Absolute Ranking)  ;     http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/best-paid-politicians/story-0-1225696964080    (Rank by per capita)  oh look at that, Ireland comes in tops in Europe! =D )

 

I’m talking about simply paying charity workers & social workers the amount they deserve — comparable to their other Singaporean peers with equal educational qualifications and effort put into their jobs!  Not only would it be decent and fair to charity & social workers, we’ll also be able to retain more good people!

 

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying existing workers are no good. What I’ve hear from my charity & social worker friends is that fresh graduates (yes they need a degree, and often a masters degree too!  http://www.sasw.org.sg/site/job-vacancies/index.php   ) get into the industry with lots of passion, and learn alot on the job through their early years. However, because the pay just isn’t up to scratch, alot of them leave for other better paying jobs when they decide to start a family, simply to give their families a better life! In this way, the industry loses lots of experienced  people who could contribute so much more to Singapore’s needy. There are very very few experienced people who stay on after decades, they are so overworked!

 

Charity and social work is not just about physically taking care of people’s needs. One very important aspect of it is managing the financial sustainability of the organisation and helping it grow. Most companies would hire someone with financial degrees and experience; charity organisations should be no different. But because the Singapore society has this mentality that people who work for charity should be doing it out of their own good heart, they should be unpaid volunteers or paid very minimally. Now we have many people in this industry with good hearts, and rightly so. But lots of this work requires full time workers — who need to live decently, go for upgrading courses, have parent’s who need to see doctors, have children who want to go to the university. Paying people minimally would drive good financial managers away.

 

TT Durai’s model was actually an excellent one (minus ths fraud and gold toilets, that is). I remember him giving a lecture in NUS about his business model : Instead of a Not-for-Profit oragnisation, he actually has a FOR-profit-charity. This way, good people work for the organisation, grow it, an sustain it. Everyone benefits. Yes, fraud was involved, but with every industry eg. banking, politics etc, as long as the appropriate regulations are not in place, fraud is bound to happen. Profit, however, does not mean fraud. Paying people salaries benchmarked to their peers, is not fraud.

 

I’ve actually long wanted to write on this, but never got around to doing the research. Today’s article was simply an inpiration.

 

I did a quick google search and found a few things.

 

Civil Service Starting Salary for a Basic Degree (2007 ) : $2570,     Honours Degree : $2800,      Teachers: 2820   http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/277477/1/.html

 

Social Workers Starting Salary for Fresh Grads (Current)  :  $1800 – $2400     (Their upper limit doesn’t even come close to a Civil Servant!)
http://www.sasw.org.sg/site/general/social-work-in-singapore.html

 

Singapore Top 100 paying jobs (2007)   :  Social Workers are NOT even in that list!!!!!!!!! The bottom of that list makes about 4000+ . My social worker friends tell me they hit a ceiling of about $3000 after years of experience because of this mentality that social workers shouldn’t be doing this for profit, and definately not on donation money. 
 http://www.salary.sg/2007/top-100-jobs-in-singapore-2007/

 

I hope this would change.

Does the latest AIDS Vaccine work?

Recently,  in the field of HIV/AIDS research, a group of scientists announced that they have a vaccine strategy which was 30% effective.(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/health/research/25aids.html )

 

How did they arrive at 30% effective?

 

They had 2 groups of people. One group of people were given the vaccine, and another the placebo (a “fake vaccine”). These 2 groups (high risk people eg. prostitutes, were included in both groups)  then went about their normal daily lives for the next several years. After several years, the scientists realized that the number of HIV infected people in the Vaccine group was 30% less than the Placebo group.

 

Now, the question is: Is this vaccine a success or failure?

 

To the scientific community, as a scientist, I would hail this vaccine as a success, because for the first time in research history, we finally get a vaccine that prevented the disease in a significant number of people. Never before, has any of the previous AIDS vaccines worked to this extent. This  is a quantum leap that opens doors and sets our direction for future research. We can now study how this vaccine worked, and how we can make it better.

 

To the public health govt authorities, I would recommend this vaccine but with a lot of concerns and hesitation. If my country has 10,000 new HIV cases a year, and if I give this vaccine to everyone, I can save 3000 lives a year , and reduce the burden on society. However, if people thought they received the vaccine, they might engage in more risky behavior, and the infection rate might increase instead.

 

To the public ( & this is what I would tell the doctors as well (??)  ), I would actually say this vaccine is a failure. Because for any particular individual who receives the vaccine, a 30% reduction in risk means nothing — he/she is still vulnerable to infection, and his/her behavior should not change to become more risky. To tell the public that it is a success is dangerous.

 

And so, if anyone asked me, ‘Please tell me the truth, does this vaccine work? Is it a success or failure?’ I am unable to articulate an absolute truth. I would have to say “It depends, on your context, on who you are, on your objective” 

 

Appeal from TWC2 for maid abuse case

Sha Najak sent a message to the members of TWC2.

 

——————–

Subject: Cruel family spends time together – in jail

 

The Straits Times

Nov 4, 2009

 

Cruelty doesn’t seem to have bounds and this time, the culprits are a family of them.

 

On Wednesday, the last of them – 39-year-old grandmother Maselly Abdul Aziz – paid the price for going to the extreme.

 

She was jailed three years for pouring boiling water on maid Badingah’s genitals and joining in to extract the Indonesian woman’s two front teeth with pliers.

 

Her two older children and a woman described in court as Maselly’s lesbian lover were jailed last year for their part in abusing the maid, the Singapore Straits Times reported.

 

Maselly, a divorcee, will start her jail sentence on Dec 28 as her elder daughter Nur Rizan Mohd Sazali, 19, would be released on home detention by then to look after her (Nur Rizan’s) two-year-old son.

 

After the three-week trial, Singapore District Judge Jeffrey Sim was also convinced that Maselly had hit Badingah with a metal rod and threatened to kill her.

 

She pleaded guilty to employing another foreign maid without a work permit between March and December 2005 and was fined S$7,500.

 

Nur Rizan had acted as the “dentist” in extracting the maid’s teeth. Elsa Elyana Said, 25, a container driver and said to be Maselly’s lesbian lover, held the maid’s head still and forced her mouth open.

 

Nur Rizan was jailed 26 months – 12 months for forcibly extracting the two teeth and another 14 months for pouring boiling wax on the maid.

 

Elsa was jailed 17 months while Nur Rizan’s brother Muhammad Iz’aan, 21, a waiter, was jailed six weeks for caning Bandigah.

 

In the teeth extraction incident, Bandigah had been accused of theft and kept protesting her innocence. But she was not believed – and went on to lose her teeth.

 

Bandigah, in one of the punishments meted out for an unnamed infraction, had been ordered to stand facing the door through the whole night with one leg off the ground and holding her ears.

 

Muhammad Iz’aan caned her when she put down that leg.

 

In July 2007, Badingah escaped by jumping from a window of the second-storey flat near Havelock Road to seek help.

 

She was found with numerous injuries including bruises, cuts, an infected scalp and scalding on her genitals, thigh, arms, and back.

 

Link: http://www.facebook.com/l/828db;www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_450246.html

 

NOTE

————————————————————————————

As domestic workers are not covered by Workers Injury Compensation Act (WICA) Badingah will not be compensated for her loss of income while recuperating from her injuries or her loss of capacity to earn an income arising from any disability sustained by her injuries. She would also not be eligible to receive any pay out from the Personal Accident Insurance Scheme that employers are obliged to purchase for every domestic worker under their employ. A quick check of the terms and conditions of the policy offered by NTUC Income shows that injuries inflicted through criminal act are not covered under the scheme.

 

If you’d like to donate to Badingah, kindly contact TWC2 at 6247 7001. The end of this call for donations will be on 13th November. We would prefer cash donations so that the monies can be directly distributed to Badingah when we make a visit.

——————–

What the UK Audit Commission taught me about Marriage

From “Governing Partnerships” – Audit Commission, Oct 2005 Public Sector National Report.
www.audit-commission.gov.uk

http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/nationalstudies/localgov/Pages/governingpartnerships.aspx#downloads

On the different types of Marriages :
“Some partnerships are strategic; others are operational in focus; some partnerships attract dedicated funding, others do not. Some are limited companies, others are charitable trusts and still more are unincorporated associations…. The governance arrangements for different forms of partnership working are determined by their legal form”

On spending His money:
“even where the partnership does not spend money directly, it will need to influence how partner bodies spend and it must be able to judge the impact of this funding in helping to achieve shared objectives.”

On sex::
“bodies need to improve the coordination within and between different partnerships, in order to ensure that they understand which of the mainstream services provided by their partners already help to deliver their own objectives”

On money issues in general::
“resources:will budgets be merged or pooled or will individual agency spending be aligned to partnership objectives? How will value for money be assessed? “

On mothers, mothers-in-laws, bosses etc::
“External reporting: are constituent organisations accountable to different external bodies andhow will that affect ways of working and performance management requirements?”

On pre-nups::
” if a partnership had a good writen agreement to start with, it has a 3 x higher chance of succeeding (60 vs 22 percent)”

On screwing-up::
“accountability: how will partners share in contributing to better performance and who is responsible if things go wrong?”

On complaints and redress:
“The ability to manage complaints effectively is the acid test of .. accountability in a partnership working. Therefore, it is central to the governance of partnerships”

On quarreling::
“assessing the contributions of different partners to complex outcomes:how will partners agree to share risks, costs, benefits and rewards? “

On divorce::
“Partners should regularly review how they work to determine whether the outputs and outcomes merit continued involvement”

On affairs:
“Partners need to bring clarity to the governance of their collaboration. This requies agreement among them about purpose, membership and accountabiliy”

On the characteristics of a Good Spouse:
“Hard characteristics include, reliable financial data, performance data and risk assessments, which are generated by robust systems and processess and which produce timely and appropriate information for decision makers (ie, me). The soft factors encompass leadership, which sets overall objectives, the roles and responsibilities required to achieve them and cultural attributes like openess, honesty and integrity (The Cadbury Priniciples)

Youth Human Rights Workshop: “whose Right is it anyway?”

The Singapore Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism (MARUAH) would like to invite all youths to participate in a Youth Human Rights Workshop: “whose Right is it anyway?”. Co-organised with UNYAS, this is a full-day workshop for anyone keen on learning more about human rights.  Read more in our e-flyer here.

Details below
Saturday, 31 October 2009
9.00 am to 5.30 pm
Singapore Management University **** (LOCATION CHANGE, SEE BELOW)
More information at our website: http://www.whoseright.wordpress.com

Sign up online here, as soon as possible.

  

Source :    http://maruah.org/

 

*******HELP NEEDED. The venue is no longer SMU. A venue provider is now needed for the Youth Human Rights workshop for THIS Saturday. If anyone can supply a space for approx 70, or can contribute (even partially) financially to a new location, please private msg  (mathialee@yahoo.com) me. Thanks!!!

The workshop has been planned for months and is organised by Maruah and UNYAS. Please help, if you believe that youth leaders need to learn more about Human Rights in Singapore. thanks!!!

Oh and if you’re interested to attend, registration is open, and all are welcomed! Current attendance list has participants from 15 – 30 yrs.

 

Is it more ethical to lie or tell the truth?

 

Now this question is really posed to those who believe that

- humans , male and female, straight and glbtq, etc have inalienable human rights

- informed consent is important

- education/ decreasing ignorance or misinformation enables people to make better choices

- morality should not be legislated or imposed, but can be promoted

 

 

For those who believe teenagers should receive abstinence-only education, or that people with HIV deserve it, I’m not talking to you here, please come back another day.

 

 

Now, the question: Are there instances where it is more ethical to lie to the public than to tell the public the truth?

 

(I’m not referring to personal relationships eg. when you tell a dying relative there is hope because you don’t want him to go into despair, or you tell your best friend she’s beautiful to help her with her self-esteem)

 

 

This was the situation I was specifically pondering over:

 

 

There is a huge difference in societal attitudes towards HIV vs cervical cancer. HIV is many more times stigmatized compared to cervical cancer, even though both are STIs and primarily transmitted through sexual activity.

 

My hypothesis:  Knowledge that cervical cancer is caused by the sexually transmitted virus HPV is much much lower than the knowledge that HIV is an STI (this has been shown true by research). This ignorance results in a much much lower stigmatization level for cervical cancer.

 

I believe that its because cervical cancer has always been “marketed” as a cancer, and people are asked to do PAP smears to detect and stop it early. Seldom is it “marketed” as an STI. In fact, looking through my old science text books, STI brochures and posters at the DSC clinic in Singapore, cervical cancer does not appear in big words.

 

The HPV virus as an STI is “marketed” by its less dangerous symptom : genital warts. And genital warts IS stigmatized.

 

HIV is definitely “marketed” as an STI.

 

 

 

As a result of this ignorance, many more people are willing to discuss cervical cancers openly, and PAP smears can be advertised and encouraged openly.

It does not suffer from the similar backlash that HIV early detection suffers from. My dad has openly asked my mother and I to get the Cervical Cancer vaccine, but he will never think of asking either of us to do an HIV test………

 

 

 

 

This is where my dilemma comes in, and I’ll like to hear from other human rights supporters.

 

What is the ethical thing to do?

 

 

In this case, ignorance actually protects.

 

 

Should we then keep up this public ignorance?

 

Or should we educate people appropriately, risk stigmatizing cervical cancer, and driving people to hide their symptoms rather than seek help?

 

 

 

Ad used to promote condom use to prevent HIV infection. The caption reads : Cause AIDs ain’t sexy .   http://www.afa.org.sg/awarenesscampaign/CosAIDSIsntSexy.asp

 

 

Ad promoting papsmear to detect and treat cervical cancer early. Caption: power over cervical cancer.  http://www.pocc.sg/

 

Naturally, the next question would be this:

 what if we “rebrand” HIV, along the lines of cervical cancer?

Let’s acknowlege that HIV image took off on a bad start and lets try to start with a clean new slate.

Let’s stop the name HV and AIDs, lets call it…… cancer of the immune system, or white blood cell cancer.

Let’s not say HIV test; let’s call it CD4 viability test or NAT(nucleic acid test) or something like that.

Let’s not say retriviral treatment, lets call it chemotherapy …..

Let’s start this from scratch , and do the marketing we’ve done with cervical cancer.

After all, the 2 aren’t so different.

Both spread through sex
Both lethal if not detected and treated early
Both with significant life-prolonging rates with optimal treatment when detected in the earliest stages

What do you think?

Ethical?
Feasible?

(i’m putting up 2 advertisements used in singapore for comparison and hope i don’t get sued for copyright. Look at the cervical cancer one : what if we used exactly the same thing, but changing all the cervical cancer labels for the new HIV labels? )

How to clean oily lunchboxes without water

Poster @ SGH

Here’s useful trivia I learnt from the lab = )

To clean oily lunchboxes etc without soap and water :

1. Pour a few drops of Hand-sanitizer (the water-free kind recommended for H1N1) onto your lunchbox/plate etc

2. Use a normal dry tissue to gently spread the Hand-sanitizer all over, the way you would do with dish-washing liquid.

3. Use another dry tissue to clean it all off.

 

VIOLA!!! Oil-free, sauce-free, germ-free lunchboxes!!!! No need water!!!

 

I find this very useful for the lunchboxes I pack for work, where I’m too lazy to walk to the bathroom/pantry to use soap and water.

Good for sales people on-the-go, or mothers with kids stuff.

For oily-hands, i still like the Wet-tissues from Watsons, but that doesn’t work well for oily lunchboxes.

 

Oh, and having that travel-size Hand-sanitizer is also good for very easy cleaning of white-boards with permanant-marker writings!!!

Photography Enthusiasts: Open Call for works, Themed : Text and Image

My friend’s planning an exhibition and calling for works. Thought the theme was really interesting to explore!

Dear friends,

I’m currently working on a group exhibition based on Text and Image (working title) with 2902 Gallery. As this stems from my interest to explore the interplay between text and images in art, artworks could thus be in a variety of forms (photography, installation, video etc).

Just a few things to note:
1. If you have a work/body of works suitable for this show, please let me know. They may even be works in progress as the exhibition is scheduled to take place in Dec (there is still some time… fingers crossed). However, I’ll need you to express your interest by 25th Oct (Sun). Do not be put off by the paperwork and tight deadline.

2. I’ll be happy to elaborate on this exhibition as well as to send you a short write-up so you can better comprehend its motivation. Drop me an email at somemoreplants@yahoo.com if interested.

3. It’ll be great if you can forward this to any friends whom may be keen. They can also reach me at the above email address.

OK, here’s the lengthy bit!

About the exhibition
Text and Image calls for artists whose works explore the various relationships between the two through writing and photographic images. Both are ubiquitous mediums given our media-saturated world, we encounter their complementing and at times conflicting relationships through our everyday activities, be it through reading, blogging, shopping or travelling.

The exhibition aims to put together an interesting body of works that highlight the dynamic discourse between these two quotidian, communicative mediums. It is scheduled to take place 18 December 2009 to 30 January 2010 at 2902 Photo Gallery.

Open Call Submission

1. The exhibition is looking for:

a) Completed works that fit the exhibition’s theme.
b) Works in progress that are relevant and can be completed by the stipulated deadline.
c) Proposed works that are relevant and could be completed by the stipulated deadline.
An artist can submit up to a maximum of three different bodies of work for this exhibition.
This exhibition is open to interested parties based locally or overseas.
DO NOT submit actual works at this stage, see below for more details.

2. How to submit:

Note: Only JPEG and Word document will be accepted
Each project submission should include:
1) a resume (not more than two A4-size pages),
The resume should include your
a) name and contact details (handphone number, email)
b) date of birth
c) nationality
2) a one-paragraph bio (about 200 words)
3) an artist’s statement (not more than two A4-size pages).
The artist’s statement should include:
a) your name
b) a clear explanation about your work/s
c) how the work/s should be presented (prints, self-made books, video, etc)
d) year(s) in which it is made.
4) Jpeg images (in a zipped folder, if possible)
a)Do not send more than eight images for each body of work.
b)Each image in 96 dpi, compression 7-8, and with its shorter side at 10cm.
c)Image should reflect clearly how the text and photographic image are meant to work together.
d) Images should also reflect how the works are meant to be displayed
e) If necessary, paste images onto a Word document and further illustrate the relationship through writing

Pls Note:
Send one project in one email. All documents (1 – 3) should be in Microsoft Word format.
Do not resend your resume and bio if you are submitting more than one project.
Do not send prints or CDs/DVDs.
Curator may contact artists for more details if necessary.

Submissions must be made electronically to :
2902gallery@gmail.com
All submissions to have name/country on email subject line
Example: Text & Image: Your Name/Country You Are From

Submission call will close on 25th Oct 2009
For general enquiries, please send to info@2902gallery.com

3. About Exhibition’s Call for Submission

There is no specific theme apart from the exhibition’s intention to explore Text & Image. Photography must be used in the process of creating the work. All genres of photography as well as digital manipulation are accepted. Submitted works may be presented in prints, self-made books, video, or any other format as suggested by the artist.

The exhibition is open to all nationality, however, overseas artists, if selected must be willing to bear the cost of insurance and postage for their works. Selected artists should install their own works. However, the curator and her team can help look into the installation of works for those artists who cannot be around. These artists must be able to produced a detailed and comprehensive plan.

Only selected artists will be notified via email by 30th October 2009. Artists will then be expected to submit their chosen works latest by end-November. The exhibition aims to put together the works of about 6 artists, with about 1 – 2 bodies of work representing each artist. Works for the exhibition will spread over 3500 square feet, with 22 meters of white wall space available. For more information on gallery space, please go to www.2902gallery.com

Other important information:

All works will be for sale and the gallery takes a commission of 33% the price of the work sold. The gallery will take care of all publicity events which include writing to press, emailing its contacts, organising an opening reception & publicity material to complement the show. Please note GST 7% is applicable in all sales transaction in the gallery.
2902 GALLERY
Source: www.2902gallery.com