Jessica’s Notes

I recently got this book from one of the warehouse sales around. I would say it is one of the best and most realistic book that I’ve ever came across. Definitely worth a read. Most importantly it has opened-up my mind on many perspectives on various global slavery issues we thought could not have happenned in the 21st century, but unfortunately it still EXIST. The stories actually gets your heart pounding- imagining the severity of the victims’ situations, especially when the survivors tell shares their stories of non-stop tortures, rapes, close-to-death experiences, escapes, and finally FREEDOM.

Authored by David Batstone (a professor of ethics at the University of San Francisco), the book shared a few real life stories about survivors of slavery including:

• How girls at young age ended up in sex parlours and brothels in Cambodia and Thailand?
• How South Asians ended up being a bonded labourer for generations?
• How children at young age were abducted and trained to kill as a child soldier in Uganda?
• How Eastern European women were transported by the European sex syndicates from one country to another and end up in US, Middle East or Asia Pacific?
• How Peruvian children ended up in the sex market and controlled by pimps?
• How slavery take place in the modern-day America?

More info:

“Not For Sale is a campaign of students, entrepreneurs, artists, people of faith, athletes, law enforcement officers, politicians, social workers, skilled professionals, and all justice seekers, united to fight the global slave trade,” find out more about this campaign at http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/

You can also read more on global slavery updates from the Not for Sale website, i.e: Human Trafficking by US military subcontractor in Baghdad, UK Unveils Plan for Sex Trade Crackdown,FBI: Local child-prostitution roundup snares more than 100 in Bay Area, Project Censored: Not For Sale Featured in Top 25 Censored Stories of 2009,How China has created a new slave empire in Africa,Uganda: Churches, bars cited in human trafficking, and many more.

In line with the fight against global warming, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has called on Malaysians to switch off all non-used lights for an hour, from 8.30pm-9.30pm on March 28 (Earth Hour).

This campaign was initiated in 2007, Australia. In 2008, many countries including 35 official flagship cities and also 400 supporting cities have participated in this campaign.

As for Malaysia, I believe it would be the first to be held in big scale. As off today, many iconic landmarks such as KLTower, Angkasapuri, Sunway Pyramid, MidValley Megamall, etc., in Malaysia have pledged their commitments for the ‘Earth Hour’ campaign.

The benefits of this campaign is obvious - energy saving -> reduces CO2 released -> reduces global warming. The amount of energy saved just in 1 hour by switching the lights and non-used electricity off, is quite alarming. Here are some figures from various countries which have participated in this campaign before:

• “Toronto saved 900 megawatt-hours of electricity. 8.7% was saved if measured against a typical March.”
• “Ireland, as a whole, had a reduction in electricity use of about 1.5% for the evening.In the three-hour period between 18:30 and 21:30, there was a reduction of 50 megawatts, saving 150 megawatt-hours, or approximately 6 tonnes of carbon dioxide.”
• “In Dubai, where external lighting on several major city landmarks was turned off and street lighting in selected areas was dimmed by 50%, the Electricity and Water Authority reported savings of 100 megawatt-hours of electricity.”
• “The best result was from Christchurch, New Zealand. The city reported a drop of 13% in electricity demand.”
• “Melbourne, Australia saved 10.1% of electricity. Sydney, being the city that participated both 2007 and 2008 Earth Hour, cut 8.4% electricity consumption.”

So friends, what are you waiting for, let’s switch off our lights too.

For more info about Earth Hour:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Hour
http://www.earthhour.org/
http://thestar.com.my/

Wooo….hooo….Chinese New Year is around the corner again. Gong Xi Gong Xi!!!

Unlike previous years, instead of getting angpows, I’m giving out angpows. Those who are interested, feel free to come and visit me.

Anyway, I’m think you will definately agree with me if I say Chinese New Years isn’t about angpow alone. I’m sure a lot of you (my friends) will be leaving KL for your hometown (balik kampung) to celebrate this auspicious event with your family.

But before you go back, remember to keep all your doors and windows lock, your auto-timer lights switched on, your neighbours or security guards informed (if you trust them…hehe) that you are leaving house for a couple of days. In addition to that, perhaps there’s no harm taking an extra step by informing your local authorities too. SMS them:

 SMSPOLISKL<space>BK<space>YOUR ADDRESS<space>HOLIDAY DATE send it to 32728

One more very important info:

POLIS KL HOTLINE:  03-2115 9999 (remember to save this no. into your mobiles)

Other states Police Headquarters HOTLINE: http://www.rakancop.net/HubungiKami/tabid/100/Default.aspx

Lastly, have a safe journey home and may you have a happy and prosperous chinese new year friends!

Being one of the oldest and most common surgical procedures known, perhaps the term Male Circumcision (surgical removal of some or all of the foreskin from the penis) is not uncommon to us. Normally this procedure was undertaken due to cultural, religious and social reasons. But with the advancement of the medical studies, male circumcision is now strongly encouraged by WHO as scientific evidence have tied the benefits of this procedure to the reducing possibility of sexually transmitted disease including the most serious type of STD: HIV.

HOWEVER, do you know that while male circumcision is strongly encouraged, female circumcision on the other hand is strictly opposed?

Female Circumcision, is also known as female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) (surgical removal of all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs). Similar to male circumcision, this practice is conducted in regards to traditional, cultural, and religious procedures.

Unfortunately, on the contrary to male circumcision, female circumcision practice that happens frequently in Africa, is extremely controversial due to 2 reasons: (a) issue of consent and (b) safety and consequences of the procedure.

(a) Issue of Consent - Most of the time, the procedure is normally carried out when child is between the ages of 4 to 8, in which it means that the child are still at innocent age to determine if they want the procedure or not. Decisions were being made merely by parents.

(b) Safety and consequences of the procedure - Due to the banned of this procedure, superstitions that persist have led to illegal/underground circumcision practices. Female circumcision performed by under the lack of medical training, anesthetics, sterilization and use of proper medical instruments have caused: death through shock from immense pain, excessive bleeding, infections, urinary and reproductive tract infections, menstrual flow blocked, scarring, infertility, infibulated women, increase risk of infant death during delivery, and many more side effects.

Horror of Female Circumcision

The issue of female circumcision is therefore still hot debate as the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has stated that [the] practice violates the basic rights of women and girls, [...]” and “[...] female genital mutilation or cutting is not required by any religion.”

References:

http://www.unaids.org/en/PolicyAndPractice/Prevention/MaleCircumcision/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumcision

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_cutting

Today, 6 June 2008 is the World Environment Day. Let’s us all do some part in this meaningful day. Little things that YOU AND ME CAN DO today:

1) Reduce plastic bag-If you are purchasing something from the grocery or the supermarket, try to not take so much of plastic bags from them. If the purchased product can be carried without a plastic bag - Just do it.

2) Reduce paper - Let’s just recycle the white paper that we are doing. Print on both sides.

3) Turn off the lights, PCs and other electrical appliances when you are not using it.

These are only selected things that most of us might not be aware off. You can also check out for more tips at: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/news/envirotips/tips_spring.htm

Your contribution towards making the earth a better place for all of us will definitely help in curbing global warming.