Capt Tom Moore

Number One this week in the British charts

Death by injection?

This cockwomble of a president never fails to amaze me with his unorthodox yet masterful grasp of modern science and medicine. Two days ago, Donald Trump laid the foundation for a new line of research into medical science, which left his aides scrambling for damage control. Be amazed, as I'm impressed, with his elephantine proposal:

"Supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said that hasn’t been checked but you’re going to test it. Supposing you brought the light inside of the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you’re going to test that too. Sounds interesting. And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute! And is there a way we can do something, by an injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that. So, that you’re going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me.”

In an immediate response, medical experts warned against Trump's suggestion of ingesting disinfectant, which was without any basis and should not be followed. Even the US Food and Drug Administration warned against it: "I certainly wouldn't recommend the internal ingestion of a disinfectant," said US FDA commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn, who is also a member of the White House coronavirus task force.

The manufacturer of Lysol and Dettol, two disinfectants that commonly use bleach for cleaning household surfaces, echoed the caution: "As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route)," Reckitt Benckiser said in a statement. "As with all products, our disinfectant and hygiene products should only be used as intended and in line with usage guidelines. Please read the label and safety information."



Oh yes, Trump has now also claimed that he did not see the study which revealed that hydroxychloroquine, the unproven drug he was touting, could be deadly. Hadn't he been threatening retaliation if India did not sell this drug to him?

Bak stake

With only my wife and I cooped up in the house during the Movement Control Order
period, this wok of bak stake is going to be our meal for the next 2½ days.   

Today, the 37th day of the Movement Control Order here in Penang, I decided to cook a dish that has always been close to my heart. The dish called bak stake or bak steak, which I suspect is more of a hainanese-inspired fare than baba-nyonya. Anyway, it has been one of my favourite dishes since small. My mother cooked it and later, after she had passed away, my aunt continued with this dish. With my aunt now also not around, I guess it has to be my wife and I to carry on with this tradition. But it is just too bad that my daughter and son are not home with us to enjoy it.

The bak stake is not unique to my baba-nyonya family, of course. I know of several friends and other people who consider this dish as their childhood favourite too. Same as me, this dish is a reminder of the days when we were young: sitting down at the table, eyeing the meatballs and impatiently waiting for our parents to say we can start eating our lunch and dinner. And we would then spear the meatball with the fork, ladle the broth onto the rice and have our feast. Ahh, the comfort food of our good old days.

So here is my version of the recipe for bak stake. You can improvise the recipe any which way you want to suit your own taste buds. Add in green peas if you want, add in carrots too if you wish, but peas and carrots do not feature in my family's version of the dish. The most important thing is to enjoy the food that you yourself have cooked. [A note of warning: you may have to budget 2½ to three hours for the preparation and cooking but I'm sure the end result completely justifies everything!]

Ingredients for meat balls:
750g pork, minced
½ medium-sized onion, chopped
2 large-sized eggs
2 tbsp corn flour
1 tbsp oyster sauce
½ tbsp salt

Ingredients for broth:

2½ medium-sized onion, sliced

2 large-sized tomatoes, sliced
2 tbsp corn flour
3 pips garlic, chopped
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp tomato sauce
1 litre water
cinnamon stick, star anise and cloves
pepper and salt

Ingredients, other:
3 large-sized potatoes, sliced

Method:
1. Add the ingredients for the meat balls into a mixing bowl and mix well until the paste becomes sticky.
2. Set the meatball mixture aside in the refrigerator for about an hour.
3. In a large wok, fry the potato slices in vegetable oil until cooked. They should be slightly brown.
4. Remove the cooked potato slices and set aside.
5. Fashion the meatball mixture into large pattie balls and fry them in the wok until brown. Do not over-cook.
6. Remove the cooked meatballs and set aside.
7. Remove the remaining oil from the wok.
8. Fry the chopped garlic.
9. When the garlic turns slightly brownish, add the sliced onion, cinnamon stick, star anise, cloves and soy sauce.
10. Stir fry until the onion becomes translucent.
11. Add the tomatoes.
12. Pour in the water and bring the broth to boil.
13. Add the cooked meatballs and leave until the broth boils again.
14. Add the cooked potato slices and let the broth continue to simmer for about five minutes.
15. Add the pepper, salt and tomato sauce according to one's taste.
16. Mix the corn flour in a little water and add to the broth to thicken it.

Chinese medical experts

Eight medical consultant experts from China are now in Malaysia to work with the local medical team here on the coronavirus that's sweeping the globe. It is great to have them here so that both can work with one another to learn more about this virus. But in reality, our Malaysian team will be in a position to learn first-hand from the visiting Chinese.

The Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society has direct access to the Chinese experts through our secretary-general. Though based at the Kepala Batas Hospital, Dr Hor Chee Peng has already spent a week teleconferencing with them in Kuala Lumpur and today, he sent over a picture of the Chinese experts being briefed at the Institute of Medical Research.

Here, they are listening intently to a local representative talking to them about Wu Lien-Teh. Of course, the information may be nothing new to the Chinese but to see them listening intently brings a certain pride that a Penangite had contributed so much to world medicine and their medicine, and he is being remembered more now than ever before.

Spot the difference

Sometimes, you've just got to do what's right and keep the media on their toes. I got to know from a pal that Free Malaysia Today had come out with a story on Dr Wu Lien-Teh on their news website. As I'm a committee member of the Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society in Penang, it was very natural for me to see what FMT had written about Wu Lien-Teh on their website.

I was very surprised - in fact, pleasantly surprised - that the writer had used one of my pictures from this blog as an illustration for his story. It was a picture of the bust of Wu Lien-Teh which sits today on the grounds of Penang Institute. However, my initial pleasant surprise turned into one of consternation when instead of crediting the picture to me, the caption only acknowledged it as a "blogspot pic" meaning that the writer and, inter alia, FMT was only crediting the picture to blogspot and not me. Obviously, they knew enough to pick the picture up from my blog as it does not appear anywhere else on the Internet. For whatever reason though, the writer thought he could get away with not crediting me.

The more I thought about it, the more indignant I was getting. Here was a respectable digital news media but they had no scruples about not giving credit to the source of their picture. So I decided to drop them a little note of complaint, couched in a little conciliatory tone.

"Dear FMT," I wrote, "you just cannot lift a picture from my blog, https://ssquah.blogspot.com/2019/11/jalan-dr-wu-lien-teh.html, without attributing it to me. I took that picture and the copyright is mine. However, I am agreeable to let you use this picture if you credit it to me. I am referring to the picture of the bust of Dr Wu Lien Teh on the grounds of Penang Institute. Please do the right thing!"

To their credit, a reply was received first thing this morning from their Lifestyle editor.

"Good morning Quah Seng Sun, Thank you for your email regarding the copyright of the photograph of the bust of Dr Wu Lien Teh on the grounds of Penang Institute. We apologise for the oversight on our part and have given due credit to your goodself for the photograph. Here is the link to the updated version of the story : https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/leisure/2020/04/20/dr-wu-lien-teh-malayas-nobel-prize-nominee-and-n95-mask-inventor/ Once again, our apologies." 

Two men of importance

Amidst the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, there is growing interest and awareness among people, certainly in Malaysia, of the work done by Dr Wu Lien-Teh who is generally accepted as the man who helped to prevent the large-scale spread of the plague in China in 1911.

Like the doctors and nurses fighting the Covid-19 coronavirus today, Wu Lien-Teh was at the forefront of the frontliners battling the Black Death in China then. Sure, 60,000 people had died in China before the plague was eradicated but this statistic has to be measured against a time when medicine in China could still be considered prehistoric. Today, although medicine in China is now so far more advanced than before, yet about 4,600 deaths were recorded for Covid-19 till now.

The medical fraternity in China still continues to remember and honour this man but this is as far as it has gotten. My friends and I are bemused that Wu Lien-Teh has been largely overlooked in the country of his birth and death. Surely he deserved more than just three roads in George Town and Ipoh named after him? We formed the Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society in Penang in 2012 in order to perpetuate his memory. We were on a slow auto-pilot in the past few years but thankfully, there is now more awareness for this heroic Son of Penang.

In these unprecedented times, Wu Lien-Teh's name is cropping up more often as more people begin to uncover and appreciate him. But apart from China and Malaysia, perhaps also Singapore, the Wu Lien-Teh story still appears untold. Last month though, there was this online news story from the Fast Company magazine that traced the N95 mask back to Wu. And two days ago, the Cable News Network (CNN) had a story about the Great Manchurian Plague and gave prominence to the role played by him. "In Harbin, the Chinese authorities' lead doctor Wu Lien-teh, a Malaysia-born ethnic-Chinese medic educated at Cambridge University, was managing to contain the outbreak," said the story. Of course, back in 1911 there was no Malaysia then. Only the Straits Settlements. But I bet this would have left CNN's readers confused.

On another matter, an old school friend brought a story to my attention yesterday. An article that had appeared in The Straits Times of Singapore. The story wasn't about Wu Lien-Teh though. It was about his grand-nephew who had isolated the Asian Flu virus in 1957. Although I've written about Dr Lim Kok Ann last month, I still think the Straits Times story is a good supplement to my story. Here's the story from the newspaper:

The man who isolated Asian flu virus with help of eggs
APR 19, 2020, 5:00 AM SGT
Valerie Tay 

As a young girl, Stella Kon accompanied her father, the late Professor Lim Kok Ann, to his workplace.

There, in a darkened laboratory in the microbiology department of the College of Medicine Building in Singapore General Hospital, she would hold up a single chicken egg to a bright, stark light.

Under it, the 13-year-old was able to see through the shell and look for any movement of the chick embryo.

This process, called candling, allowed her to check if the embryos of incubated eggs were still alive after being infected with a new strain of flu.

To read the full story, please click here. Note that you may need to register with the website. But it's free.

Non-self

The concept of non-self or anattā is an important doctrine in Buddhism, the way of life propounded by the Lord Buddha (c. 5th to 4th century BCE). In Buddhism, non-self is the nature of all living things as there is no unchanging, permanent self, soul or essence. Non-self is one of three marks of existence along with suffering and impermanence. Birth, aging, death, rebirth, redeath – that's the cycle of existence, by the way.

The French philosopher, René Descartes (b 1596, d 1650), once remarked his cognito, ergo sum which is translated into English as I think, therefore I am. In my opinion, the central point to this philosophy is the concept of I, me, myself; a theme totally associated by the Millennials or Gen Ys - or even the Gen X and earlier - to boost their personal egos.

But in Buddhism, there is no such concept. Ultimately, the final attainment in Buddhism is enlightenment or the disappearance of this automatic and illusory I. And that's what this concept of a non-self is all about. However, I must admit that I have not looked much into this concept other than to hear about it spoken often by the learned teachers in various Buddhism talks.

Yesterday, I was tinkering with this link from the BBC news portal. How much of your body is your own, the BBC asked. I was invited to key my date of birth, sex, height and weight into the website and a set of data and visuals were then generated. Lots of interesting information.

For instance, I was told the key chemical elements that made up my body, how many cells do I have and how much data is stored in my DNA, how many hair follicles and sweat glands do I have, how much do my organs and tissues weigh, how much blood have I produced, and many more. Oh yes, I now know that my testicles weigh 30 grammes and they will have produced 2.6 trillion sperms in my lifetime which is equivalent to two billion terabytes of information. Wow!

To my mind, the most intriguing information was to know that there are 6.8 octillion of atoms in my body. Atoms, as we know, is the basic unit of matter. They are everything we are all made up of. So I am made up of 6.8 octillion of these atoms. This is 6,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Those are 26 zeros there. One octillion is one thousand trillion trillion....

But noise aside, the BBC website tells me that if I could compress all these 6.8 octillion atoms, my body would be about the size of a tiny red blood cell. Mind boogling, isn't it? It really gives a fresh new perspective to the Buddhist concept of non-self. The all-seeing mind of Lord Buddha knew this more than 2,500 years ago....

Karim Kamar

One of the most impressionable and polished versions of Bohemian Rhapsody I've ever heard played on the piano. Guy's name is Karim Kamar.

Pure bollocks

Here's a damning report on Donald Trump's most recent tantrum when he doesn't get his way with the media in the United States. It says a lot for his state of mind.

A toddler threw a self-pitying tantrum on live television on Monday night. Unfortunately he was 73 years old, wearing a long red tie and running the world’s most powerful country.

Donald Trump, starved of campaign rallies, Mar-a-Lago weekends and golf, and goaded by a bombshell newspaper report, couldn’t take it any more. Years of accreted grievance and resentment towards the media came gushing out in a torrent. He ranted, he raved, he melted down and he blew up the internet with one of the most jaw-dropping performances of his presidency.

This was, as he likes to put it, “a 10”.

Trump’s Easter had evidently been ruined by a damning 5,500-word New York Times investigation showing that Trump squandered precious time in January and February as numerous government figures were sounding the alarm about the coronavirus.

With more than 23,000 American lives lost in such circumstances, some presidents might now be considering resignation. Not Trump. He arrived in the west wing briefing room determined to tell the world, or at least his base, that he was not to blame. Instead it was a new and bloody phase of his war against “enemy of the people” – the media. Families grieving loved ones lost to the virus were in for cold comfort here.

Read the full piece from The Guardian here.

Easter bells in Dittisham

The germ has gotten brilliant

Actually, the United States was hit by a stupidity virus four years ago. And the country hasn't recovered ever since.

Trump: "Antibiotics used to solve every problem and now one of the biggest problems the world has is the germ has gotten so brilliant that the anti-antibiotic can't keep up with it." 

But what to do when you have a resident cockwomble there?

Revelations

Note: This list did not originate with me. My apologies if you have read a similar version elsewhere. All I did was to tighten up on that old version while adding some of my own thoughts.

Some lessons learnt during this coronavirus pandemic

China probably won the Third World War without firing a missile
The Westerners are not as educated as they seem
No differentiation between princes and paupers
The vast number of Americans are truly ugly...and ignorant
No holy men could ever save their flock with prayers alone
Health professionals are worthier than football legends
Human rights is not everything
United we stand, divided we survive
Many traditional jobs are being shown the door
Working from home is a growing option
Oil is worthless in a society without consumption
Caged animals likely feel the same way we do, being locked down
The planet regenerates quickly without human interference
Everyone can survive without junk food
Living a healthy lifestyle is not beyond us
Men can cook too
Fake experts are everywhere
The media is still full of crap
Husbands and wives are learning to appreciate each other more
Covidiots believe everything they read and hear
Politicians are indeed empty vessels
Actors are entertainers, not heroes
Value life as you only live once
WHO CARES is a bad punchline

He will be back

One of my good friends have been replaced as the chairman of Penang Port Commission, a casualty of the illegitimate frog regime that seized federal power through the backdoor on the 29th of February 2020. Mark this date on the calendar because this is Malaysia's darkest hour since the upheavals of 1969. One month after this date, the new transport minister, putting party politics above everything else during this period of the coronavirus pandemic, terminated the tenure of Jeffrey Chew as the PPC chairman, thus ending 13 months when a rejuvenated Penang Port began showing real potential for some exciting growth. Instead of petty party politics, everyone should be focussed on fighting this new disease. I felt distressed when I learnt that this had happened. But, Jeffrey, keep your strength up. This is just one of several setbacks in life. You can spring back to achieve greater heights. For now, let me share Jeffrey's own words as he documents his achievements during the past 13 months:

1st April 2020 marks the end of my tenure as Chairman at Penang Port Commission. Appointed on 27 February 2019, my term would have lasted me until 26 February 2021 but has finally come to an abrupt end due to the changeover of the government recently. It is definitely an unfinished journey for myself as I accepted this position to serve the King and country to my best extend.

When I accepted that position, I knew my role as Chairman cannot just be to preside over PPC's board meetings only. The position must act as the advisory role to the management team and to provide the board of directors a clear direction of where to go. I knew that this role required me to work with different states and Federal Departments which are crucial for the success of Penang Port.

There were four initiatives that I set out for during my tenure. Firstly, during the early days of my tenure, I pushed for non-port related assets to be monetized so that it will be taken up by other interested parties so that they can provide better upkeep of the properties. Secondly, the Port needs to be revitalized. Thirdly, expand the North Butterworth Container Terminal. Fourthly, the need revitalize the Penang Port Consulative Council.

During the past year, I have worked with the management team to revitalize Swettenham Pier which has been neglected for the last 40 years. On 1st February, the project kicked off successfully. Penang deserves better and above politics, the management team took the effort to put out an RFP and eventually a successful tender was found after 5 months. This sets a new direction for the Pier to be revitalized to host the ever-expanding cruise market and to ensure that PPSB and Royal Caribbean's venture will materialize.

Also, the revitalization of the Port Consultative Council happened after my second month at PPC. This council has been dormant and neglected by the previous BN government for the past 12 years. I took up this initiative to ensure that all port users' voices were being heard. It became instrumental to be the conduit for our port operator, PPSB to discuss matters openly with the different port stake holders such as the different chambers of commerce, freight forwarding associations as well as associations representing the industries.

As for the expansion of the North Butterworth Container Terminal, I must commend the former Minister of Transport, Saudara YB Anthony Loke, who took every effort to ensure that the directions of Penang Port remain intact. Even the former Minister of Finance has been supportive in the efforts of the duty-free business at the Pier as well as the emergence of the newly formed 86 hectares of Free Commercial Zone at the NBCT - which could be one of the largest in the country.

During my 13 month's tenure, I chaired PPC's the Board of Directors deciding on important Port matters. I was very fortunate that the Board managed to execute many decisions timely and efficiently. All of the above was possible with great teamwork at PPC. I believe the team will march forward to achieve their new vision this year - Penang Port - the Economic Catalyst.

My tenure may have ended abruptly but I believe the sense of purpose of Penang Port has emerged back once again. What started as promising is now ending up incomplete in many sense but I will not be disappointed as my conscience is clear.

I have always had Penang in mind during my tenure. Today, we are faced with the crippling Covid -19 virus which will test Penang and the nation to the fullest. We must stand together to fight this virus pandemic and put partisan politics aside. PPC team and the board of directors knew very well that my role as the non-executive is limited. I personally didn't think it was as I continue to help the management sets its course.

I am fortunate to have worked with Puan Monaliza Suhaimi, the General Manager of PPC as well as Mr Sashe of PPSB to chart new directions for Penang Port Sdn Bhd to chart a new direction for the Port. It has been a very interesting journey and I look forward to completing the journey one day. Like McArthur had said before, I shall return.

Roast pork

This Movement Control Order period has not been sitting pretty on people's appetite. I've been looking at some of the most fabulous food prepared by my friends on facebook and Whatsapp. Criz Lai, for example, who was my clerk when we were still at Ban Hin Lee Bank in the 1980s, still cooks up a storm for his lunch and dinner every day. How I envy his culinary skill.

And then on separate occasions, one of my schoolmates chose to inform his cohorts on Whatsapp that he had made a mouth-watering chunk of roast pork. He was kind enough to share his recipe with us, and I am reproducing here without his permission, of course, but I know he doesn't mind.

Instructions:

1. Blanch pork in boiling water for five minutes. 
2. Make cuts approx 1” wide and 2cm deep along the length of the opposite side of the skin. 
3. Season the meat, not the skin. 
4. Poke lots of holes in the skin. I use a pointed knife. I have one of those gadgets that look like a bunch of nails together, but I prefer a pointed knife. 
5. Wrap in foil, skin side up and exposed. Refrigerate overnight. 
6. Lightly brush white (or rice) vinegar over skin. 
7. Cover entire skin end-to-end with a thick layer (at least 2mm) of salt. 
8. Then bake with foil intact for 45 minutes at 180C, with a tray of water below. 
9. Remove salt (it’ll be like a biscuit), open but don't remove foil and put it back in the oven for another 35 to 40 minutes at 240C. 
10. Allow it to sit for about 15 minutes after removing from oven. 

And voila, he exclaimed. Extremely crispy roast pork. "Oh, one other thing," he added, "make sure the slab of pork is about the same thickness throughout, by slicing off the uneven bits."

At about the same time too, another chap I know announced through one of my Whatsapp chat groups that he had also made an attempt at roast pork. His method was by following some instructions from a facebook page called Inherited Recipes With Love.  Here is the recipe, reproduced again without anyone's permission. Sorry 🙏 but it's for the common good since everyone's feeling so bored after depleting one's array of personal recipes.

Ingredients:

· 8" x 8" pork belly
· 4 tbsp coarse salt
· 1 tbsp baking soda
· 1 tbsp vinegar
· 1 tbsp oil

Marinade for underside of pork belly:

· 1 tsp 5 spice pepper
· 1 tsp chopped garlic
· 1 tsp cooking salt
· 1 tsp sugar
· 1 tbsp cooking wine

Instructions:

1. Score the underside of the belly. 
2. Mix the marinate and apply it to the underside of the belly. 
3. Turn the pork belly skin up, prick the surface with a sharp pointed knife or score it. Apply a tbsp of coarse salt and baking soda on it. 
4. Leave the belly pork to marinate for an hour under a colander. 
5. Put in a tray of water under the low rack of the roaster. Place the pork belly skin up on the low rack. Soak up any excess moisture with kitchen paper. Apply vinegar to the belly skin and top up with the balance of the coarse salt. Roast pork belly for 25 min at 180C. 
6. Remove the belly pork from roaster; and totally remove the salt crust from its skin. Remove the tray of water too. 
7. Prick the skin again and brush oil on it. 
8. Grill belly skin up for 30 min at 250C or till nicely brown using the low rack. Off the power and remove the roaster's cover. 
9. Cool well before cutting and serving.

Covid-19 winners and losers

This diagram says a lot about the potential winners of losers in the short term should the coronavirus pandemic drags on further without a quick resolution.

At the losing bottom of the chain are the players of the tourism and leisure industry, including the hospitality trade. There simply won't be many travellers willing to risk their lives visiting countries abroad. The tourism trade is totally dependent on people to survive and that's where the aviation industry will also suffer. Already, I've heard of airlines closing down or filing for bankruptcy.

At the other end, the medical supply and services industry will get a big boost. Pharmaceutical companies will be set to make billions when a vaccine is found. Even without a vaccine, these companies are producing supplements that they'll tout to build up the body's immune system. In the meantime, manufacturers of surgical face masks will be busy churning out supplies due to increased world-wide demand. So they are the clear winners.

Cheng Beng during the MCO

Only spirits allowed. Cheng Beng for me is a little late this year due to the Movement Control Order but it must go on and the observance is finally over. Instead of visiting the graves and temple, I invited the whole gang into my house: my paternal and maternal grandparents and of course, my parents and my aunt. Everyone who were dear to me when they were still alive. I hope they had relished this reunion because my two sets of grandparents seldom had the chance to meet together in the past. 😝😝

A matter of overflowing

I would believe everyone has one of these sewage holes at the back of their houses.

When I bought my house in 2012, the hole was located at the back of the unit. But then, I decided to extend the back portion of the house until the back lane. In the process, the hole became located within the building itself, but covered with a tile for easy access. This sewage hole was some sort of a waste water trap. Water from the sink would flow into it, as well as water from the bathroom and the outflow from the washing machine. So it was a three-in-one. The waste water flows in and then gets dumped into the main sewage tank somewhere at the back.

Technically this waste water trap shouldn't overflow because it's just water, dirty water. However about a month ago, I began hearing some strange noise from the trap as if the waste water wasn't flowing easily. Being ignorant, I ignored it.

Then it happened. Twice when the washing machine was being used, water seeped out from between the tiles. Dirty brown water. I had to mop the kitchen floor several times just to get it clean again.

Things came to a head on the 28th of last month when the waste water from the bathroom began overflowing from this trap. There was no choice but to pry open the tile and see what was down the hole. It wasn't pretty of course. Water was accumulating till the top of the hole, about three feet deep, maybe even deeper, and it wasn't subsiding. So I took a long pole and churned the water, hoping that the action would somehow dislodge the blockage and make the water to flow again. It wasn't easy work but it did reduce the water level to a reasonable level. And the problem was, I felt around the bottom of the hole with the pole but I couldn't find an outlet. Where on earth did the water flow to?

My neighbour suggested that I tried to force pour a kettle of boiling water directly into the hole, thinking that it might dislodge whatever was blocking the water outlet. Tried that but all it did was raising the water level again. The water simply could not flow out.

At first, I tried calling some plumbers I knew but no-one wanted to come out during this Movement Control Order period. No, I would have to resolve this urgent problem some other way. How about Indah Water Konsortium, I thought? Perhaps they should be able to help me.

They came with a big truck on the 29th, saw the problem and said they would come back on the 30th morning with a smaller truck. The problem, according to them, wasn't as serious as I had made it out to be. Cheaper too, they assured me, if their team came with the smaller truck. It was another overnight wait.

On the 30th morning, the IWK team came, they opened up the hole, stuck a pole down it and twisted about. Don't know what they did because the chap's back was back to me, but it cleared up the problem immediately. The waste water subsided immediately and I haven't had the problem anymore, touch wood. Cost to me was RM180 for a few minutes of their time.

Some coronavirus guidelines

An excerpt from a story in The Guardian online today:

Early guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) suggest the following symptoms may help a doctor to decide whether a patient with Covid-19 should go to hospital:

• Severe shortness of breath at rest or difficulty breathing.
• Coughing up blood.
• Blue lips or face.
• Feeling cold and clammy with pale or mottled skin.
• Collapse or fainting (syncope).
• New confusion.
• Becoming difficult to rouse.
• Little or no urine output.

In the first week, people who are fit and healthy, with a robust immune system, will usually fight off the virus. But the problems come for some people in the second week, when their immune system overreacts to the virus and ends up attacking the body’s own organs. That is why the most seriously ill can end up on life support machines with organ failure.

Chinese data showed that 20% of patients went to hospital. Some 15% had severe disease, which involved breathing difficulties and hypoxia, where some of the tissues of the body are not getting an adequate oxygen supply. That can manifest in anxiety, confusion and restlessness.

Only 5% ended up in critical care, with such severe illness that they needed organ support. Ventilators can take over the patient’s breathing, to allow the lungs time to recover. But patients could also need support for their heart, liver and kidneys – although many of those needing that sort of mechanical help have underlying conditions which make them particularly vulnerable.

Americans rushing to write wills

From the Daily Mail's online portal in the United Kingdom comes this story about Americans rushing to write their wills.

The story quotes online will company Gentreo saying that they had a 143% increase in business, week on week; Trust & Will saying that they have seen a 50% rise in uptake; and that 40 percent of Americans have their. wills. "People are getting a little scared," one expert in estate planning said Wednesday. One of those who has made a will in recent days said she "wanted to be prepared."

How about you: are you prepared too? Here's the Daily Mail story:

Americans are rushing to make online wills with some companies reporting a 143 per cent uptake in business amid the rising death toll as a result of coronavirus. 

A total of 823 people have died in the United States from the disease as of Wednesday. There are more than 60,000 confirmed cases. 

Online will company Gentreo told CNBC they have seen a 143 per cent week on week increase in business; Trust & Will has seen a 50 per cent rise. Around 40 per cent of Americans are thought to currently have wills place. 

New figures released on Wednesday show that New York, which is the epicenter of the US outbreak, now has 50 percent of the country's total confirmed coronavirus cases.

There are now more than 30,800 confirmed cases in New York and more than 17,800 in New York City alone. There are 285 deaths in New York, including 192 in the city.

Washington state, which was initially the epicenter following an outbreak at a Seattle nursing home, now has 2,472 confirmed cases and 125 deaths.

California is reporting 2,675 cases and 59 deaths, including the first child after a 17-year-old boy with no known pre-existing conditions died.

Texas has 1,150 cases and 14 deaths, while Florida is reporting 1,682 cases and 23 fatalities.

Attorney Alain Roman, who helps with estate planning, told Barrons: 'Seeing in the news that so many people are passing away worldwide and here in the U.S., people are getting a little scared.

'It’s getting them thinking about having a plan in place in case something happens to them.'

American Morgan Hopkins told CNBC she is 'willing to think about the worst case scenario' and 'wanted to be prepared' after getting an online will. 

She added: 'I started seeing stories of young people who are in otherwise perfectly good health in the hospital or in critical condition with the coronavirus.' 

But experts have warned those signing wills online to be wary of their legality. 

Leslie Tayne, founder of Tayne Law Group said the will will be valid if it 'meets all of the legal requirements of your state'.

Tayne added: 'However, since the vast majority of DIY wills are created and executed without any oversight from an attorney, a larger number of wills (may not be) executed in compliance with the proper will formalities, and that could end up making the will invalid.'

The US remains third behind China and Italy with the number of confirmed coronavirus cases.

The infection has killed nearly 20,000 people worldwide since the outbreak began in China in December.

The World Health Organization this week revealed a grim outlook for the United States, saying that the country could quickly become the global epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic given the 'very large acceleration' of confirmed infections.

Armed military personnel and NYC Medical Examiner's Office set up white tents and refrigeration trucks outside the hospital as health officials warned the city's morgues were nearing capacity. 

The Queen's message

The Head of the Commonwealth speaks.

"We will meet again."

London temporarily closed

Visited Google Map on my desktop a few minutes ago and zoomed in on London, wanting to find a particular location. But what did I see instead? A city that has closed many, if not all, of its famous landmarks. Tower Bridge - temporarily closed. St Paul's Cathedral - temporarily closed. London eye - temporary closed. Madame Tussauds - temporarily closed. The National Gallery - temporarily closed. Westminster Abbey - temporarily closed. Royal Albert Hall - temporarily closed. Wow, where else? The coronavirus is really gripping every nation's nerve and fibre.

Screeching stop

This coronavirus lockdown is hurting chess activities everywhere. A week ago, I peeked into the chess-results.com website and discovered that for many countries, Malaysia included, over-the-board chess competitions have basically come to a screeching halt. But there were still countries foolhardy enough to continue organising their tournaments. They should stop until the situation improves. Otherwise, hold online competitions instead.

A right fuckturd

This story from The New York Times, The Religious Right’s Hostility to Science Is Crippling Our Coronavirus Response, gives a probable explanation why Donald Trump is such a big fuckturd to many people's eyes. Not too different from our holier-than-thou racists back home, but that is another story. Some excerpts here from The New York Times article:

Donald Trump rose to power with the determined assistance of a movement that denies science, bashes government and prioritized loyalty over professional expertise. In the current crisis, we are all reaping what that movement has sown.

At least since the 19th century, when the proslavery theologian Robert Lewis Dabney attacked the physical sciences as “theories of unbelief,” hostility to science has characterized the more extreme forms of religious nationalism in the United States. Today, the hard core of climate deniers is concentrated among people who identify as religiously conservative Republicans. And some leaders of the Christian nationalist movement, like those allied with the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, which has denounced environmental science as a “Cult of the Green Dragon,” cast environmentalism as an alternative — and false — theology.

This denial of science and critical thinking among religious ultraconservatives now haunts the American response to the coronavirus crisis. On March 15, Guillermo Maldonado, who calls himself an “apostle” and hosted Mr. Trump earlier this year at a campaign event at his Miami megachurch, urged his congregants to show up for worship services in person. “Do you believe God would bring his people to his house to be contagious with the virus? Of course not,” he said.

Rodney Howard-Browne of The River at Tampa Bay Church in Florida mocked people concerned about the disease as “pansies” and insisted he would only shutter the doors to his packed church “when the rapture is taking place.” In a sermon that was live-streamed on Facebook, Tony Spell, a pastor in Louisiana, said, “We’re also going to pass out anointed handkerchiefs to people who may have a fear, who may have a sickness and we believe that when those anointed handkerchiefs go, that healing virtue is going to go on them as well.”

By all accounts, President Trump’s tendency to trust his gut over the experts on issues like vaccines and climate change does not come from any deep-seated religious conviction. But he is perfectly in tune with the religious nationalists who form the core of his base. In his daily briefings from the White House, Mr. Trump actively disdains and contradicts the messages coming from his own experts and touts as yet unproven cures.

Not every pastor is behaving recklessly, of course, and not every churchgoer in these uncertain times is showing up for services out of disregard for the scientific evidence. Far from it. Yet none of the benign uses of religion in this time of crisis have anything to do with Mr. Trump’s expressed hope that the country would be “opened up and just raring to go by Easter.” He could, of course, have said, “by mid-April.” But Mr. Trump did not invoke Easter by accident, and many of his evangelical allies were pleased by his vision of “packed churches all over our country.” “I think it would be a beautiful time,” the president said.

It is fair to point out that the failings of the Trump administration in the current pandemic are at least as attributable to its economic ideology as they are to its religious inclinations. When the so-called private sector is supposed to have the answer to every problem, it’s hard to deal effectively with the very public problem of a pandemic and its economic consequences. But if you examine the political roots of the life-threatening belief in the privatization of everything, you’ll see that Christian nationalism played a major role in creating and promoting the economic foundations of America’s incompetent response to the pandemic.

Shifting blame

Another pompous American politician trying to impose her opinions on others. 👉

The way I see it, the United States are big enough to run their own Intelligence. Same with Russia and China. These countries don't have to depend on the World Health Organisation or other UN agencies to tell them or advice them. In fact, the US would be the first to thumb their nose at these bodies. Thus, the negligence and responsibility for their own country are all theirs and theirs alone. They had months to prepare and they botched it.

When I posted my say in one of the Whatsapp chat groups, replies were many in response to my message and other people's too. They are here in chronological order so that they make sense when reading through. I've only removed the irrelevant comments:

From US point of view, this crisis puts them in a very bad light and compares them unfavorably to a communist country. Even if nobody is seriously claiming that "communist good, democracy bad" they sendiri terasa...Hence the desperate attempt to change the narrative by painting China in a bad light... this is what unites the Republicans (who want to deflect from Trump's mishandling) and the mainstream media like NYT/WaPo. It's a bit like the cold war space race, Fischer-Spassky etc.

I believe that regardless of whatever aids China give now, when this is over, we will the same old Anti China, US must be number 1 supporters coming out.

They believe that this is an extention of the Cold War which they must win.  China will have to be more friendly with the Europeans n just let them be.  In the process, China will change n be more open n tolerant.

Many may not trust China just because of one keyword......Communist

Its a battle of ideology. But China is not really communist anymore. Its now more of democracy vs a one party rule.

Americans are indoctrinated from young that communism is bad. It's similar to religious beliefs.

Look at India.so sad.  China will be like this if its democratic. But I guess those US supporters don t give a shit.

The problem is they trusted t China figures in t 1st place. Paying t price now

Intelligence failed.

No one really trust china data from gdp, inflation, security, military... somehow big nations have theirs own system to counter. Even SG has system on MY

Not trusting China is one thing. Not being prepared for an outbreak is another. Moreover, since people were so sceptical of China's numbers in the beginning, they should have been even more prepared at that time

That is the false narrative they are trying to paint to deflect from their own incompetence. Even just basing on China's official figures from Wuhan itself is alarming enough to take strong action. Heck, even we of all countries are handling this crisis wayyy better than the US.

Am talking ab t West generally, not just t US. Too many had bn converted, as in MSIA, into believing t China figures.

Brother, even assuming that we take the China numbers in the beginning in Jan at face value, the way the numbers rose exponentially is enough to raise alarms in all countries. The argument that "China hid the true numbers that's why all other nations were not alarmed" doesn't hold water.

80k infected and 3k died still not alarming? with the numbers raise so fast even in total lockdown. We better hope China dont relapse. otherwise we all really gg.. no face mask, no ventilator, no medicine

It's quite obvious the West has failed in its response, so don't flog a dead horse. Now, they hv to take stock of all factors.

The thing is, the West IS trying to flog a dead horse... worse still, claiming the horse is killed by someone else... they are the only ones keeping this discussion alive and not let it rest

The discussion about figures can be had, but doing that now while their countries are being engulfed makes people question their motive and priorities. In any case, official figures are always going to be up for debate... for one, they will never be accurate as it depends how many tests are done... also, if dead people are not post-humously tested because they prioritize testing ppl still alive, is that cover up?? What is much more important is the exponential spread of the disease. Even to lay-people like us, it is already so obvious it was going to be a problem.

Yup.  Just like blaming the firefighter for not  raising the alarm when the forest fire was small n thereby delay by 2 days.  And then you sit on the car porch for 2 weeks drinking Kool aid while the forest fire is coming your way.

The worst is... there are even some people now calling for China to make reparations... they don't know how awful this sounds with the century of humiliation

Whether or not China cover up is up to argument and needs to be assessed based on evidence. But my point is, the official numbers they released since Jan and the way they rose, should have prompted other governments to take more stringent measures. Or at least be prepared earlier when the numbers do rise. We saw that in Korea, Japan, Sg, Taiwan and HK.

That is not the right analogy... more like blaming the neighbor for not telling you how badly his house got burnt.

Or not telling you when his stove caught fire. But only when his whole kitchen was on fire.. 😆