Thursday 06/28/12
Selamat Petang (Good Afternoon!)!!!
WOW!!! CLASSES SHOULD ALLWWAAYYSSS BE TAUGHT HOW IT WAS TODAY!!! Prof Anwar is the BEST!!! By the way, students and staff here in Malaysia do not address their professors with “Dr.”, they use “Prof” (pronounced pwef). I.e. Prof Hill (pwef Hill) not Dr. Hill. Needless to say we all thought it was cool and will probably use it until we return to the U.S. OK! Back to the fun! I actually recorded a great portion of today’s lecture and hopefully will be able to load both of them on youtube to embed in this post. If not, then at least you have a lot of mini videos including Prof. Anwar opening lecture and a lot of pictures!
Today’s Itinerary:
- Briefing by Prof. Dato’ Anwar Fazal [Right Livelihood College: http://rlc.usm.my/] (http://www.rightlivelihood.org/college.html)
- Lunch [Own Arrangement]
- Briefing Community Aids Service of Penang (CASP: http://www.casp.com.my/)
- Health Action International Asia Pacific (HAIAP: http://www.haiweb.org/01_about_a.htm)
Today we had a live lecture in the Youth Park with Prof. Anwar. (If you ever needed to know someone to know someone to become someone… HE is one of those people! Even has a Wikipedia page! WOW!: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_Fazal) What a great way to demonstrate the importance of using your natural environment for improving and maintaining environmental and community health!
We also had a second part to his lecture after having a field day listening (more like exploring and having fun like kids) to his lecture as Prof. Anwar lectured throughout the park. We took a group picture under this MASSIVE tree he likes to lecture under before walking to the The Gandhiji Ashram, also known as Dewan Mahatma Gandhiat at the foot of the Balathandayuthapani Temple (http://www.penang-traveltips.com/dewan-mahatma-gandhi.htm) for the second part of Prof. Anwar lecture and the second half of the lecture day. Here Prof. Anwar discussed the first Asian Public Health Professional Dr. Wu Lien-Teh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Lien-teh) who made great contributions to the medical field and just so happen to be from Penang, Malaysia. We are in the works to start a Dr. Wu Lien-Teh chapter here in Florida – Stay Tuned -.
- is a sheltered home that is not faith-based, BUT is directed by Elizabeth(?) who is Christian and still believes faith is important. But lives by example and does not incorporate her faith into the organization.
- The first HIV case in Malaysia was in1986 and in 2012 there are about 100,000 cases.
- For every 1 case reported there are 45 cases unreported.
- Sex education has become taboo. It use to be in school but now nobody is talking about safe sexual practices such as condom use or even abstaining.
- The country is in denial about the seriousness of HIV/AIDS and everything sexually related is kept on the hush until a child or individual has been infected. At that point the person is then blamed for contracting the disease even if their unfaithful spouse, infected mother, or rape attacker infected them with the virus.
- Children get sex/sexuality education from unfit sources.
- Government is aware of the issues and refers patients to non-profit organizations but leave these poor organizations with extremely low resources to come up with solutions without any assistance.
- Healthy lifestyle and positive living has been created to incorporate sex education at these non-profit organizations like CASP.
- HIV is increasing in women and men who have sex with men.
- Mostly women between the age of 18-35 yrs are infected: Malay makes up the majority followed by the Chinese and Tamil Indians.
- There are other organizations such as Youth with a Mission and USM AIDS Action Research Group to help with the fight against HIV/AIDS.
- There are many things that make medication weak against diseases/illnesses. But until poverty, social development, and policy development improves, then it will be difficult to fight the drug resistance.
Random tidbit: Neem mixed with coconut milk is a form of traditional medicine for skin conditions. both ingredients are wonderful aids for health, for example, you can use coconut water as an IV. Open up a coconut and plug the needle directly in your arm to receive coconut water directly in your blood stream!
