Mr Jo3's BLOG

Ever wonder how life without money would be? I just recovered from a surgery required general anaesthesia. It was a 30minutes surgery and it did not involve sophisticated equipments or tools. I stayed in a private hospital for 2 nights. In total, with 2 weeks medication, it costs RM5000+. Fortunate enough, it was covered under insurance. 

It triggered me to think what would happen to those people who did not have that amount of money. The only cheaper alternative is to seek medical help in government healthcare centers. The costs of seeking medical help in government funded clinics or hospitals are very reasonable. It costs only RM1-5 for consultation and medication. 

The only set back is that the queeing time was too long. For example, I saw a patient who had acute cholecystitis, was planned for elective cholecystectomy only 2 months later. In other words, in these 2 months, inadvertently, he will suffer several episodes of pain and discomfort.

Another example is that when a man suspected to have intra-abdominal injury after an accident. The protocol to diagnosed intra-abdominal injury nowadays has been by using ultrasonography (FAST). This gentleman was only given the priority to be screen with ultrasonography 24 hours later. 

In simple sense, in goverment settings, you get things done with long waiting & suffering period.  Under the current circumstances where government's resources are limited, we cannot do anything but to accept the fact - you have money you get relieve fast, if you don't have money you have to suffer longer. 

Healthcare insurance seems to be a luring option but it isn't cheap. A normal healthcare card will costs you RM1000+ per person annually. So, how could a family of 2-3 children whom total family income is RM10,000-15,000 afford such a plan?

However, I personally do not think there are no ways to improve the situation. First of all, the management of government clinics......

Recently we saw that certain parties are playing the racial card, attempting to off set the buffer between each races. Therefore increasing the racial tension. Their ultimate goal is to create an instable, chaotic Malaysia so that the emergency rule can be applied. And after that, god knows what will happen to Malaysia.

After more than 50 years of independence, and after bleak and painful historical incidences of May 13, 1969,  Operasi Lalng 1988, we (Malaysians) are not that naive and immature this time to fall into this big trap again. 

No matter what colour you are, Malay, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan, Bumi, Non-bumi, we are Malaysians. We want a progressive, stable and harmonious Malaysia. WE ARE MALAYSIANS. Hence, please do not fall into this big 'trap', that is so well planned and set up to disregard us Malaysians our right for a better Malaysia. 

Just yesterday, top opposition MP, Teressa Kok was arrested under ISA allegedly because she called the mosque to reduce the volume of loud speaker. For sure, this is not true as it was denied by herself and also by the mosque management. But then, if it is true, does this matter warranted her to be detained under the ISA? How does this affect national security until she needed to be arrested the ISA? 

Dailies editors can't escape too. One female editor has been arrested under the ISA for just reporting what another politician said. However, she has been released today. thank god. 

All these actions are being carried out to cause racial disharmony. But, we, Malaysians would like to tell them. We are one big family and please do not tell us to hate our brothers and sisters. 

We are not that worried about Raja Petra. He is a strong man and has already anticipated the arrest and I am sure he will be stronger when he comes out later. We wish him best health. 

Once again, please DO NOT fall into this big trap. Calm......

In our last semester in IMU medical course, we are supposed to practise and learn in Hospital Batu Pahat for 5 months before we graduate with MBBS. 31st August 2008 (Merdeka day), I drove down with my beloved Gf to Batu Pahat from Seremban, which took us 2.30 hours of drive. The journey was long and boring.

After entering Batu Pahat town, our first impression was that it was not that bad after all. We were however, too happy too early. When you locate our rented house, we were horrified. It was a terrace house located just 200m from the Hospital that we spend most of the time in and 300m away from the famous 'White House' of Batu Pahat - The IMU Clinical School. Yah, it sounds nice, but trust me, it is nothing but a renovated bungalow house. . Come back to our house. Both the gate and grill are rusty till some musical sounds welcome you when you try to open them. The porch was filled with rubbish, advertisement cards, letters etc. One word to describe the situation - Mess. That was not all, when we entered the house, the smell was so not welcoming. The floor was covered with 1cm thick of dust and millions of lizard's faeces. Nvm, there was still some hope that the room would be better. Em...Not any better, the toilet looks like shit, with the bath tub covered with streaks of stain and the floor covered......

In the highly scrutinised, high porfile case of Sodomy in Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, we see that doctors (be it in HKL & Hosp. Puswari) being pulled into the arena of politics. 

The duty of a doctor is to the patient and the sole responsibility is to the patients, the family members and the society, not to make the politicians happy. In this case, we can see tha a doctor, who has worked in Malaysia for 8-9 years being questioned about his credibility on doing a PR (Per Rectal Examination). A normal doctor, or maybe a junior medical student would be able to pick up fissure, anal injury, abrasion, erythema, ulceration or sinuses around the anus. Questioning the findings of the doctor is obviously telling the public that doctors in this country is STUPID. So, please do not involve doctors in politics, whom their duty is to save lives and improve the quality of lives, not dwelling in politics and fool the community.

In medicine, a doctor cannot release medical report, notes etc of a patient to anybody without the consent of the patient involved. The only exception is that it is an order by the court (Judge). However, this case happened in Malaysia and whether the Judge would give out such an order is another big question. :) 

I was amazed that how can Malaysian Medical Council be so queit in this case. It has infringed the integrity of Doctors in Malaysia and the MMC must speak for the doctors, not being silent!! Where are you when the doctors and the community needs to as the higher council of Doctors in Malaysia. 

Every country, every scientist now is searching and looking for the most efficient, most long-lasting, most environmental friendly, cheapest way to produce alternative energy.

Options are out there available, such as, nuclear power, biomass, wind generator, solar power. To be able to enjoy these alternative energies, there must be infrastructure to run them such as nuclear reactors, wind turbines(on sea), solar panels. These infrastructures comes in billions which developing countries find it difficult to afford. Malaysia, however, has the potential and glad to hear that Malaysia is planning to build its 1st nuclear reactor in 10-yrs time. Apart from that, I think solar power is the next energy that Malaysia has in abundance, and we should not waste it.

About cars. We can now see hybrid cars coming into Malaysia, however it is much more expensive than the ordinary cars. :(  I predict the next generation of cars would be running on batteries with solar panels on its body. Then, it will evolve to run on hydrogen gas. It has been established that hydrogen can be a fuel in a car and there are a few "concept" cars in US running on them. So what will be the fuel for Hydrogen-powered cars? It is H2O, water. Haha... And guess what, India has already invented few models of cars that run on Air, yes, Air, - pressurised air. No fuel, No emission, no pollution. So, lets wait and how vehicles evolve in the next 10-20 years. 

Let's share some information of yours on alternative energies and ways to save energy. Maybe using a Bicycle in not a bad idea after all. :)

In a couple of weeks time, Semester 7, 9 and 10 IMU Medical Students will be sitting for BIG EXAMS. I wish them all the best and best of luck too.

For my batch mates,  see you in Batu Bahat. We all can do it!. 

After few posts on Politics. Let's discuss something more close to us and coincidentally something just striked through my head. Does living luxurily means that you are financially stable and have great potential?

If we look at the structure of the current urban society, everything is about presentation. Mooncake's boxes, dining places, shopping mall, watches, handphone, etc, all of them have to be presentable and what lay man would say as " Beautiful". Why?

Most of the working subgroups are chasing for this luxury and most of the large-scale company earns big money from this luxury chasing game. For example, StarBucks, LV bags, Iphone, Padini, SEED, Giordano etc. They all earn huge part of their money by knowing most of the people will "chase" this luxury. Do you think most of the working class professionals are well off? The answer is simply a big NO. Because they are"chasing" this luxury. (Let us exclude those born billionaires and those fortunate to strike lottery). And for the sake of that, their account might not have lots of money because of this chasing game.

Author of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", called this a RAT RACE.  You work for the sake of your chasing, and as you crawl higher up the ladder, your chasing gets bigger and so goes the rat race. A big vicious cycle goes on and on with no end. So how do we end this vicious cycle? I think a 6 year old can tell you the answer. "Stop the chasing la". 

I can't tell you all more as I am still too young to exmeplify. Will probably update when i gets older :)

Here comes the second part, how do we stop the chasing? It comes with practice and determination. Now, Simplicity comes in. You can not be wanting luxury and tell people that your lifestyle is simple. It doesn't work this way. It is a practice! Some people will then ask, why those poor people, their financial status are so poor, they can't afford anything......

As we all well know that Anwar has filed a complaint with BPR regarding the fabrication of evidence by Tan Sri Musa and it is now being investigated. And Tan Sri Musa being the Inspector General Police in Malaysia, has also ordered the arrest of Anwar yesterday. This is totally unprofessional. If seen by foreigners, it will become a laughter.

Let's go into whether the arrest of Anwar is legally done or not? I would say no base on a few points:

1. He was given  a promise that he will not be arrested until 2pm but he was arrested at 1pm. 

2. He was not given the reason of arrest and no warrant was presented.

3. The investigating officer has called him 30mins before the arrest and Anwar mentioned that he will be there at 2pm sharp.

All the above are positive points pointing against the arrest. Next,lets look at the negative points (the explanation given by Musa and CID chief)

1. They said he is a SUSPEK. So, why cannot arrest him? (Why no warrant then?)

2. They are afraid that he is RUNNING AWAY. (Running Away? Ur IO just called and confirmed he is coming. Run to where? )

3. You deploy 15 Police Cars (As if petrol is cheap, and you are telling people not to waste petrol)to wait for him at the main road outside his house.  (if you know Anwar is running away and you deploy 15 Cars waiting for him there, and he stupidly let you arrest him. I personally don;t see this running away. He came to let you be arrested.)

So, No wonder US expressed SERIOUS CONCERNS over the arrests and even brilliant Japanese are so fascinated on our police's technologies on detecting people running away. And they would like to learn about that in the coming Asean meeting next week. :)

Anwar on Tuesday annouced that he will reduce the petrol price by 50 Cents if his pakatan rakyat takes over the government in September. According to him, the government would need an extra RM5 Billion for that 50 Cents reduction. And he greatly pointed out how we can get that RM5bil. Through reduction of IPP Power reserve from 40% -20%, reduce bribery, increase efficiency of government, and take 1 Bil fomr the 6 Bil that Petronas gave government as Special Divident. So, as we can see, according to his plan, it should not be difficult for the original government just to increase 30 Cents to RM2.2 instead of 70cents to RM2.7/L. But why they didn't think of that? Because they are scared that Petrol price would soar up to 200USD/Barrel.

But as we know, Malaysia through Petronas is a Net Petrol Exporter. Yes, rightly said by Datuk Shaberry that Malaysia is not evern listed in top 20 of Petrol production. But as we know Petronas ventures out of Malaysia for petrol and it is one of the top 10 Petrol Companies in the world. So, when oil price soars up the 200USD/barrel. We should strike equal with the subsidy. (I would not say we can earn more, as SBeRries said we only NET export a bit only). Hence, why increase the petrol price by 70 Cents? (Malaysians are asking you WHY 70 Cents????)

In Conclusion, the 50 Cents reduction in petrol price is totally feasible with the current statistic in Malaysia (provided the government runs efficiently without corruption and bribery).