(Subjects: Religion/Worship, Lightworkers, Food, Health, Prescription Drugs, Homeopathy, Innate (Body intelligence), New Age movement, Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text version)

“…… Should I use Doctors and Drugs to Heal Me or Spiritual Methods?

"Dear Kryon, I have heard that you should stay natural and not use the science on the planet for healing. It does not honor God to go to a doctor. After all, don't you say that we can heal with our minds? So why should we ever go to a doctor if we can do it ourselves? Not only that, my doctor isn't enlightened, so he has no idea about my innate or my spiritual body needs. What should I do?"

First, Human Being, why do you wish to put so many things in boxes? You continue to want a yes and no answer for complex situations due to your 3D, linear outlook on almost everything. Learn to think out of the 3D box! Look at the heading of this section [above]. It asks which one should you do. It already assumes you can't do both because they seem dichotomous.

Let's use some spiritual logic: Here is a hypothetical answer, "Don't go to a doctor, for you can heal everything with your mind." So now I will ask: How many of you can do that in this room right now? How many readers can do that with efficiency right now? All of you are old souls, but are you really ready to do that? Do you know how? Do you have really good results with it? Can you rid disease and chemical imbalance with your mind right now?

I'm going to give you a truth, whether you choose to see it or not. You're not ready for that! You are not yet prepared to take on the task of full healing using your spiritual tools. Lemurians could do that, because Pleiadians taught them how! It's one of the promises of God, that there'll come a day when your DNA works that efficiently and you will be able to walk away from drug chemistry and the medical industry forever, for you'll have the creator's energy working at 100 percent, something you saw within the great masters who walked the earth.

This will be possible within the ascended earth that you are looking forward to, dear one. Have you seen the news lately? Look out the window. Is that where you are now? We are telling you that the energy is going in that direction, but you are not there yet.

Let those who feel that they can heal themselves begin the process of learning how. Many will be appreciative of the fact that you have some of the gifts for this now. Let the process begin, but don't think for a moment that you have arrived at a place where every health issue can be healed with your own power. You are students of a grand process that eventually will be yours if you wish to begin the quantum process of talking to your cells. Some will be good at this, and some will just be planting the seeds of it.

Now, I would like to tell you how Spirit works and the potentials of what's going to happen in the next few years. We're going to give the doctors of the planet new inventions and new science. These will be major discoveries about the Human body and of the quantum attributes therein.

Look at what has already happened, for some of this science has already been given to you and you are actually using it. Imagine a science that would allow the heart to be transplanted because the one you have is failing. Of course! It's an operation done many times a month on this planet. That information came from the creator, did you realize that? It didn't drop off the shelf of some dark energy library to be used in evil ways.

So, if you need a new heart, Lightworker, should you go to the doctor or create one with your mind? Until you feel comfortable that you can replace your heart with a new one by yourself, then you might consider using the God-given information that is in the hands of the surgeon. For it will save your life, and create a situation where you stay and continue to send your light to the earth! Do you see what we're saying?

You can also alter that which is medicine [drugs] and begin a process that is spectacular in its design, but not very 3D. I challenge you to begin to use what I would call the homeopathic principle with major drugs. If some of you are taking major drugs in order to alter your chemistry so that you can live better and longer, you might feel you have no choice. "Well, this is keeping me alive," you might say. "I don't yet have the ability to do this with my consciousness, so I take the drugs."

In this new energy, there is something else that you can try if you are in this category. Do the following with safety, intelligence, common sense and logic. Here is the challenge: The principle of homeopathy is that an almost invisible tincture of a substance is ingested and is seen by your innate. Innate "sees" what you are trying to do and then adjusts the body's chemistry in response. Therefore, you might say that you are sending the body a "signal for balance." The actual tincture is not large enough to affect anything chemically - yet it works!

The body [innate] sees what you're trying to do and then cooperates. In a sense, you might say the body is healing itself because you were able to give it instructions through the homeopathic substance of what to do. So, why not do it with a major drug? Start reducing the dosage and start talking to your cells, and see what happens. If you're not successful, then stop the reduction. However, to your own amazement, you may often be successful over time.

You might be able to take the dosage that you're used to and cut it to at least a quarter of what it was. It is the homeopathy principle and it allows you to keep the purpose of the drug, but reduce it to a fraction of a common 3D dosage. You're still taking it internally, but now it's also signaling in addition to working chemically. The signal is sent, the body cooperates, and you reduce the chance of side effects.

You can't put things in boxes of yes or no when it comes to the grand system of Spirit. You can instead use spiritual logic and see the things that God has given you on the planet within the inventions and processes. Have an operation, save your life, and stand and say, "Thank you, God, for this and for my being born where these things are possible." It's a complicated subject, is it not? Each of you is so different! You'll know what to do, dear one. Never stress over that decision, because your innate will tell you what is appropriate for you if you're willing to listen. ….”

Monsanto / GMO - Global Health


(Subjects: Big pharma [the drug companies of America] are going to have to change very soon or collapse. When you have an industry that keeps people sick for money, it cannot survive in the new consciousness., Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text version)
"Recalibration of Free Choice"– Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Lose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth, 4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Pedal wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical) 8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)
"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)
"THE BRIDGE OF SWORDS" – Sep 29, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: ... I'm in Canada and I know it, but I will tell those listening and reading in the American audience the following: Get ready! Because there are some institutions that are yet to fall, ones that don't have integrity and that could never be helped with a bail out. Again, we tell you the biggest one is big pharma, and we told you that before. It's inevitable. If not now, then in a decade. It's inevitable and they will fight to stay alive and they will not be crossing the bridge. For on the other side of the bridge is a new way, not just for medicine but for care. ....) - (Text Version)

Pharmaceutical Fraud / Corruption cases

Health Care

Health Care
Happy birthday to Percy Julian, a pioneer in plant-drug synthesis. His research produced steroids like cortisone. (11 April 2014)

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Easy Access, Misinformation Leads to Misuse of  Antibiotics

Jakarta Globe, Dessy Sagita, April 27, 2011

A woman being examined by a doctor in Sukabumi, West Java.
 Health experts say physicians in Indonesia are too quick to
 prescribe antibiotics unnecessarily for mild ailments such as
common colds. (Antara Photo)  

Related articles

Hadalya, a 32-year-old housewife, puts a lot of faith in antibiotics, believing they can help her recover faster from any disease.

“I get upset if I go and see a doctor and they don’t prescribe me an antibiotic,” she says. “In that case, I usually just buy 10 amoxicillin capsules from the nearest drugstore.”

The growing trend of Indonesians routinely taking antibiotics prescribed by doctors even for conditions not including infections — or just as frequently bought without a prescription — has raised concerns among health officials about the misuse of the drugs and subsequent rise of drug-resistant bacteria.

This month, the Health Ministry said it was preparing a draft bill aimed at curbing overuse of antibiotics.

A ministry data sheet citing the World Health Organization said there were 440,000 new cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis around the world each year, causing at least 150,000 deaths.

Indonesia ranks eighth out of 27 countries suffering from the highest rates of this kind of tuberculosis, according to the WHO.

Nani Sukasediati, an official with the WHO’s Indonesian office, says antibiotic resistance can also be attributed to underuse of the drugs.

“Some patients take excessive amount of antibiotics, while others don’t finish the course of the medication as prescribed by the doctor because they believe they’ve recovered,” she says.

In both cases, Nani continues, the patients will likely require increasingly larger doses or more potent antibiotics the next time they come down with a bacterial infection.

Nani says it is common in Indonesia for patients suffering from diarrhea to be prescribed antibiotics. The WHO estimates that about 65 percent of Indonesian hospitals prescribe antibiotics for such patients.

“When you have diarrhea, your body will try to dispose all toxins, so the best cure is salt and sugar to replace the lost minerals,” she says.

“Antibiotics will only make the recovery process even slower. Self-limiting diseases that go away by themselves don’t require antibiotics.”

She adds those that do were the more serious ones such as tuberculosis and typhoid fever.

Iwan Dwiprahasto, head of the Association of Indonesian Pharmacologists (Ikafi), says patients should ask their doctors about whether their particular medical condition warrants the use of antibiotics before accepting a prescription.

“A common cold that lasts for a few days doesn’t require antibiotics,” he says.

“If you’re only suffering from a runny nose, cough or sore throat, most likely you don’t need it.”

Iwan says taking antibiotics unnecessarily can kill the microorganisms in the colon that serve to break down food waste.

“If those microorganisms are damaged by antibiotics, they can turn into pathogen bacteria that could endanger the body,” he says.

He also cautions against prescribing antibiotics for children below the age of 5, which he says can result in them falling sick more often.

However, Marius Widjajarta, chairman of the Indonesian Consumer Foundation for Health (YPPKI), says the growing problem of antibiotic misuse should not be blamed solely on doctors for prescribing them.

“The government has obviously failed to perform in terms of regulating sales of the drug,” he says.

“People who have no competence can sell antibiotics anywhere they want.”

He adds the government should also monitor nurses, midwives and other health workers who are not allowed to prescribe antibiotics but do anyways.

“The regulations are clear: those who have no business selling antibiotics should be jailed if they do so, and the same goes for doctors who force their patients to take antibiotics when they don’t need it,” he says.

But for patients like Hadalya, these kinds of restrictions are meaningless.

She says she sometimes doesn’t bother going to a doctor if she believes she is suffering from a common cold, and instead goes and buys the antibiotics directly.

“They’re available everywhere, not just in drugstores,” she says.

“Sometimes I also go to my neighbor, who work as a nurse and midwife, and she can also provide me with the drug.”

Monday, April 25, 2011

Govt must help to encourage breastfeeding: Expert

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 04/25/2011

All women are able to breastfeed new born infants, and mothers should not be misled by excessive infant formula advertising, Indonesian Breastfeeding Mothers’ Association (AIMI) chairwoman Mia Sutanto says.

A growing number of infant formula advertisements on Indonesian television has tended to influence mothers into not breastfeeding their babies, Mia said Monday in Jakarta.

“I understand that some women can’t produce breast milk because they have abnormalities in their endocrine systems. But this only affects one mother in 1,000, so basically, all mothers should be able to breastfeed,” she said.

Mia added that postnatal women needed support from close friends and family in this regard.

Babies should only consume breast milk, and not formula, at least for the first 6 months of their lives, she said.

“Breast milk contains all the nutrition babies need. At this age their digestion system has not fully developed, so if we gave them supplementary foods, they can get sick.”

From six months old and up, babies can begin to consume homemade supplementary foods, with ingredients such as corn and sago. However, breastfeeding should continue until babies reach two years of age.

Mia said she hoped the government could provide social facilities to encourage breastfeeding among Indonesian mothers.

Maternity leave periods should change, she said. Pregnant women normally receive three months’ paid maternity leave. Mia said that in some cases women were taking this time off work in two terms, with six weeks before birth and another six after.

“We should breastfeed exclusively for six months. But in reality, career women only [six weeks] in the post-natal period, so this is impossible,” she said. (fem)


Related Article:

Indonesia Jails Australian Drugs Smuggler to 18 Years

Jakarta Globe, April 25, 2011

Related articles

Denpasar. An Australian man was sentenced to 18 years in jail by an Indonesian court on Monday for smuggling drugs into the resort island of Bali.

Michael Sacatides, 43, was arrested in October as he passed through customs after landing on an AirAsia flight from Bangkok with 1.7 kg of methamphetamine in his luggage at Bali International Airport.

"The defendant was proven guilty of drug smuggling and sentenced to 18 years," chief judge Sigit Sutanto told Denpasar district court.

"He never admitted that the drug belonged to him," the judge said referring to the reason why he was given two years higher than the prosecutors' recommendation of 16 years.

"He committed a crime which could harm our young generation and it's against the government's campaign to eliminate drug use," Sutanto added.

The boxing trainer from Sydney will join almost a dozen compatriots who are behind bars in Bali's Kerobokan jail on drug--related convictions.

Three Australians are currently on death row for a 2005 attempt to smuggle 8.3 kg of heroin into Australia from the tourist island.

Six other members of the so--called Bali Nine gang are serving long jail sentences.

Another Australian, Schapelle Corby, is serving a 20--year sentence in Bali for trafficking 4.1 kg of marijuana into Indonesia in 2005.

AFP

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Boy, 5, Gives Up Childhood to Care for Paralyzed Mother

Jakarta Globe, April 23, 2011

Related articles

A five-year-old Indonesian boy forced to care for his paralyzed mother may have been given a chance to finally enjoy his childhood.

Muhammad Aditya Firmansyah, affectionately known as Adit, had been facing a daily routine of cooking, cleaning and doing the laundry as well as attending to the needs of his mother, who has been paralyzed since the death of her husband four years ago.

Desperately poor, Adit has never been to school, instead nursing his mother Sunarti and helping her bathe and go to the toilet.

Television footage on Metro TV shows the child from Keramat village, Nganjuk, East Java, cleaning dishes and scrubbing dirty clothes in a manner that suggests he has been doing chores for a number of years.

The story of Adit and his mother’s plight finally reached Taufiqqurachman, the head of Nganjuk district, culminating in a visit to the family.

Taufiq immediately arranged free hospital treatment for Sunarti and placed Adit in the care of the district’s social affairs department.

Sunarti, as quoted by a local newspaper, expressed her gratitude for the government’s help and hoped her son could go to school and learn to play like other children his age.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Studies Link Low IQ to Prenatal Pesticide Exposure

Jakarta Globe, Kerry Sheridan, April 21, 2011

High levels of pesticide exposure in pregnant women have been
linked to lower IQs in their children, a new study says
Related articles

High levels of pesticide exposure in pregnant women have been linked to lower IQs in their children, according to three separate US studies.

Two studies were done in New York City and a third was in Salinas, a farming area of northern California. All spanned nearly a decade, tracking levels of pesticide in expectant mothers and testing nearly 1,000 children up to age nine.

Researchers looked at exposure to a family of pesticides known as organophosphates, which are commonly used on fruit and vegetable crops. The reports are published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

In the California study involving 392 kids, "researchers found that every tenfold increase in measures of organophosphates detected during a mother's pregnancy corresponded to a 5.5 drop in overall IQ in the seven-year-olds."

The differences held even after researchers accounted for factors such as education, family income, and exposure to other environmental contaminants, the study, released on Thursday, said.

Researchers at Mount Sinai, New York measured 400 women and their children from 1998 onward.

They found that "exposure to organophosphates negatively impacted perceptual reasoning, a measure of non-verbal problem-solving skills" between the ages of six and nine.

They also found that about one-third of the mothers studied carried a gene variant that made them less able to metabolize the pesticides, and that the negative effects in children were limited to this subgroup.

The third study, done by researchers at New York's Columbia University, looked specifically at one pesticide, chlorpyrifos, which was widely used to kill cockroaches and termites until it was banned from residential use in 2001.

In the sample of 265 minority children born before the ban took effect, higher prenatal exposure was linked to lower intelligence scores and poorer memory.

Children in the top 25 percent of exposure levels scored 5.5 percent lower in working memory tests and 2.7 points lower in IQ.

"These observed deficits in cognitive functioning at seven years of age could have implications for school performance," said lead author Virginia Rauh of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health.

"Working memory problems may interfere with reading comprehension, learning and academic achievement, even if general intelligence remains in the normal range."

Even though the studies were carried out independent of each other, the similarity in results raises concern, said lead author of the California study, Maryse Bouchard.

"It is very unusual to see this much consistency across populations in studies, so that speaks to the significance of the findings," she said.

Principal investigator Brenda Eskenazi described the associations as "substantial, especially when viewing this at a population-wide level."

Organophosphate pesticide use declined more than 50 percent between 2001 and 2009, the Berkeley researchers said.

However, both diazinon -- another common organophosphate that was banned from residential use in 2004 because it was a known neurotoxicant shown to have health risks for children -- and chlorpyrifos continue to be used in agricultural fields.

Most of the modern-day exposure to such chemicals would likely be through eating food treated with the pesticides. Experts recommend washing produce with running water and rubbing it to remove residue.
AFP

Related Article:

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Food Crisis After Papua Floods

Jakarta Globe, Banjir Ambarita | April 17, 2011

Jayapura. Thousands of people are at risk of starvation and disease after heavy flooding in Papua’s Paniai district, an official said over the weekend.

District head Naftali Yogi said heavy rains over the past three months have led to Lake Paniai overflowing and flooding at least seven subdistricts in up to 4 meters of water, destroying homes and farmland and rendering thousands of families homeless.

There have been no reports of casualties as a direct result of the flooding.

“The situation now is pretty grim because so much agricultural land and so many fish farms have been flooded and can’t be harvested,” he said.

“This means that around 10,000 people who are subsistence farmers and rely on prompt harvests are at risk of starvation.”

Naftali said the extent of the flooding also made outbreaks of diseases such as cholera, respiratory ailments and malaria more likely.

“We don’t have enough medical supplies or health workers to respond to a potential outbreak,” he said.

“So we’re calling on all residents not to drink water from the lake. Drink rainwater instead.”

He added his administration was already distributing food supplies to residents, including uncooked rice and instant noodles — both of which need to be cooked in clean water. However, authorities have not distributed any potable water.

“We’ve been given Rp 1 billion [$115,000] in relief aid from the provincial administration and Rp 500 million from Jakarta, but that’s only enough for a month,” Naftali said.

“We expect many residents won’t be able to farm for another two years, so they’ll need food aid until then.”

Authorities have not set up shelters for the evacuees, who have been forced to stay with family and friends or out in the open.

“We’re still looking for sites where we can set up temporary shelters for those rendered homeless,” Naftali said.

He blamed the flooding on the increased sedimentation in Lake Paniai, which he said was a result of the clearing of forests in areas adjacent to the lake.

“About 10 years ago the military scorched the forests because they suspected that separatists were hiding out there, and since then there hasn’t been any effort to reforest the area,” he said.

Besides the effects of deforestation and subsequent flooding, Naftali said the district was also at threat from illegal mining.

He said illegal gold mines in Baya Biru subdistrict were responsible for large-scale pollution and environmental degradation.

“We’ve given the companies responsible until June to halt their activities, but obviously this is a tricky issue to handle,” Naftali said.

“There are an estimated 7,000 people working in the industry there.”

He said previous calls by the district and Papuan administrations for a halt to the illegal mining had fallen on deaf ears because of the many interests involved in the industry.

“Those mines are so remote that you can only get there by helicopter,” he said.

“If those helicopter services could be stopped, there would be no more mining, but they continue to transport workers, supplies and ore in and out of there.”

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Indonesian Doctors Criticized for ‘Alarming’ Use of Antibiotics

Jakarta Globe, April 16, 2011

Related articles

The use of antibiotics has reached an alarming level in Indonesia, fueled by poor diagnosis, ignorance and poor regulation of drugs, experts say.

“Irrational use of drugs, including antibiotics, is a global problem, but sporadic surveys show that the use of antibiotics in Indonesia has reached an excessive level,” said Purnamawati, a pediatrician and founder of the Foundation for Concerned Parents.

The most recent survey, conducted by Purnamawati’s foundation in 17 Indonesian cities, revealed that antibiotics were prescribed in 78.4 percent of cases of respiratory and stomach illnesses in children in 2008 — against 54.5 percent in 2006.

Such conditions are generally caused by viruses that are not treated by antibiotics, Purnamawati said.

The survey also showed that on average five different brands of drugs, including antibiotics and antihistamines, were prescribed for every case of respiratory infection, with generic drugs accounting for less than a quarter of drugs prescribed.

“Polypharmacy [the use of more drugs than necessary] is rampant not only in Jakarta, but also in other cities,” Purnamawati told IRIN. “Apart from the financial cost, there’s an intangible cost when we are prescribed antibiotics when we don’t need them. It’s a very high price to pay.”

Misuse of medicines, particularly antibiotics, leaves patients with fewer options for treatment when bacteria become resistant, said the World Health Organization’s representative in Indonesia, Khanchit Limpakarnjanarat, at a recent seminar.

In Southeast Asia, misuse and poor access to other drugs continue to be major components of the widespread inappropriate use of antibiotics, according to WHO. A comprehensive study led by the WHO and government is under way.

Patients too often demand that doctors prescribe antibiotics because they believe the drugs will speed up recovery, said Hari Paraton, chairman of the Antimicrobial Resistance Control Programme at Dr Soetomo Hospital in Surabaya.

“The situation is the same across Indonesia,” he said. “Doctors, pharmacists and the public contribute to the problems.”

Friday, April 15, 2011

Major Drug Bust at Jakarta Port

Jakarta Globe, Zaky Pawas | April 15, 2011

Related articles

Indonesian Customs officers intercepted more than $4 million worth of crystal methamphetamine at Tanjung Priok port in North Jakarta on Friday.

Martediansyah, who heads the customs and excise division at Tanjung Priok, said 17.9 kilograms of the drug was found stashed inside sofas.

“The shipment was from Iran,” he said. “It is worth Rp 36 billion on the market.”

Three suspects, including one Iranian, have been taken into custody by Jakarta Police.

JG

Another Nigerian man arrested at airport for drug smuggling

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 04/15/2011

Customs and excise officers at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport have arrested another Nigerian man for carrying 1,285 grams of crystal methamphetamine (shabu-shabu) worth Rp 1.9 billion (US$218,500).

Iyan Ribianto, customs office chief at the airport, said Friday the suspect flew from Doha with Emirates flight EK-358 and arrived at the airport Wednesday.

“Customs Tactical Unit team members conducting profile analyses at arrivals at terminal II D suspected the Nigerian man of carrying illegal materials,” he told reporters at a press conference.

Officers then examined the suspect’s luggage and performed a body search finding nothing. Because the suspect showed suspicious attitudes, officers then xrayed his body, which showed foreign objects in his stomach.

A stool test revealed 77 capsules containing crystal methamphetamine.

“In a case development, officers managed to pick up a Cameroonian man identified as T.O. at a hotel in Mangga Dua, West Jakarta. The latter is the receiver of the drug,” he added.

The Nigerian man, who also works as a garment trader and claims to own a garment store in Nigeria, testified he would purchase clothes at Tanah Abang to be resold in Nigeria after submitting the drugs to the receiver.

Ex-Unicef chief promises breast milk fight at Nestlé

Ann Veneman acknowledges food giant does not comply with World Health Organisation guidelines as she takes up board post
guardian.co.uk, Associated Press, Thursday 14 April 2011


Ann Veneman pledged to 'fight from within' to change the company's
marketing of breast milk substitutes. Photograph: Denis Balibouse
/ REUTERS

Former Unicef head Ann Veneman pledged to fight from within to change Nestlé's marketing of breast milk substitutes as she controversially took up a boardroom seat at the Swiss food and drinks giant, despite pleas from nutrition advocates not to lend her name to the company's marketing of breast milk substitutes.

Veneman, who headed the UN children's agency from 2005-2010 and before that was US agriculture secretary in George W Bush's administration, has acknowledged Nestlé is not fully complying with a voluntary breast milk code adopted by the World Health Organisation.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Award-Winning Indonesian Conservationist Says Children Victims of Pollution

Jakarta Globe, April 13, 2011


Prigi Arisandi, 35, examining polluted water from the Brantas river in Surabaya,
East Java. The biologist who enlisted schoolchildren in his fight to clean up
an Indonesian river and received an international prize for his efforts says he hopes
young people will do more for the environment. (Reuters Phoito/Sigit Pamungkas)

Related articles

Surabaya. A biologist who enlisted schoolchildren in his fight to clean up an Indonesian river that led to an international prize said he hoped young people will do more for the environment.

Student research into a 41 kilometer stretch of the Surabaya river that flows through Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, prompted 35-year-old Prigi Arisandi into discoveries that helped him become one of six winners of this year’s Goldman Environmental Prize, the world’s largest award for grassroots environmentalists.

Arisandi found that the river, which provides water for 3 million and is also used for bathing by people living along its banks, was contaminated with high levels of toxic effluent.

Recently, mercury levels were found to be 100 times the limit set by the World Health Organization.

He and other activists created the first environmental education programme in the region in 2000 to educate local communities about biodiversity and water pollution, teaching students about the dangers and using them to spread the word.

“These students are the victims of pollution,” Arisandi told Reuters at his Surabaya office last week, in an embargoed interview.

“We place these children as agents of change ... We bring them to the river and there are already thousands of children that we have trained.” Arisandi and other activists have also taken legal action to stop companies from polluting the river and won a case against East Java’s governor, who was ordered to reduce pollution.

The $150,000 prize, named after husband and wife philanthropists from San Francisco, honours individuals for sustained efforts to protect the natural environment, “often at great personal risk,” according to the prize’s Web site.

The other 2011 winners are from the United States, Zimbabwe, Germany, Russia and El Salvador.

Reuters

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Japan Refuses to Adopt ‘Radioactive-Free’ Certification

Jakarta Globe, Camelia Pasandaran,  April 09, 2011

Related articles

The Japanese government on Saturday refused Indonesia’s request for Japan to certify exported products as radioactive free.

The press secretary director-general for Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Satoru Satoh, said that such certification was impossible and impractical — arguing that the Japanese government had already conducted tight monitoring of its exports and issued certification with products to indicate their origin.

“The Japanese government and local governments are every day monitoring the level of radioactivity in vegetables, fruit and agricultural products,” Satoh said at a press conference at the Asean building in Jakarta.

“It monitors the level of radioactivity which remains low by Japanese standard — Japanese standard is very strict in this sense. If those products register lower than the limit, they [farmers] are allowed to sell [the product] to the market. This is controlled within Japan.”

Indonesia’s Health Ministry and National Food and Drug Agency previously announced that it would only accept products from Japan that were certified by the Japanese government to be radioactive free, otherwise the products would be quarantined.

Satoh said that several countries had requested certification of origin.

“Japan is providing certification of origin so products may enter foreign countries,” he said. “We are now trying to increase radioactive monitoring to as much as possible.

“It’s quite difficult to put certification on all exported products. So [we have to rely on] a combination of data, for example, radioactivity in the atmosphere in Tokyo and in the water and soil, and certificates of origin.

“It’s quite impossible and impractical to put certificates of ‘radioactive free’ on all products.”

Related Articles:


8,000 Street Kids to Get Rp 1.4m Each

Jakarta Globe, Arientha Primanita | April 09, 2011

Related articles

The Indonesian government is aiming to give the estimated 8,000 street children in Jakarta at least Rp 1.4 million ($160) each by the end of the year as part of efforts to get them off the streets.

Social Affairs Minister Salim Segaf Al-Jufri said 3,500 street children have so far received the allowances, which come in the form of savings accounts, through various shelters.

“So for the next eight months, the rest must be covered,” he told reporters at the Vice Presidential Palace on Thursday.

The savings program is part of efforts to help meet the ambitious goal of having Jakarta’s roads free of street children by the end of the year, and the rest of the country by 2014.

Salim said there are currently about 230,000 street children in the country, and if the program proves to be successful in Jakarta, it could be replicated in other areas.

The idea behind the program is to provide children with allowances to eliminate the need for them to go out on the streets and find money.

“Almost 80 percent of the children out working on the streets are there on orders of their parents. If they don’t come home with money, the parents would not let them in,” the minister said.

Therefore, with this program, he said, the parents should be responsible enough to no longer ask their children to go to the street and work.

The money, he added, should be used for the needs of the children, such as food and other snacks.

“The savings are purely for the needs of the children. If the money is used for other purposes, then we will take it back,” he said.

Other areas planning to adopt the program after Jakarta are Bandung, Solo, Surabaya, Semarang, Makassar and Medan.

But since the government’s budget for the program is limited, Salim is calling on private companies to become involved in the effort through their respective corporate social responsibility programs.

Besides the savings program, Salim said parents also need to be empowered.

“Many of the children’s parents are unemployed so they need to be empowered,” he said, adding that other directorates under the ministry are working to address this part of the problem.

Other ministries and government agencies are chipping in, as well. The police, for example, were working to enforce the law against criminal rings that use children as buskers.

“That is exploitation and trafficking for which police must take action,” he said.

J&J settles bribery, kickback allegations: SEC

Reuters, WASHINGTON | Fri Apr 8, 2011 12:14pm EDT

(Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) has agreed to pay $70 million to settle U.S. charges that it paid bribes and kickbacks to win business overseas, the first major pharmaceutical company to settle since the Obama administration began its scrutiny of the industry more than a year ago.

Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay a $21.4 million fine to settle criminal charges and pay more than $48.6 million in disgorgement and interest to settle charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the SEC said in a statement.

The Justice Department announced in November 2009 that it would focus on prosecuting those in the pharmaceutical industry who try to bribe foreign officials for preferential treatment of their products, leading to a wide-ranging probe.

(Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky, editing by Lisa Von Ahn)


Cosmetics and drugs giant Johnson & Johnson, the 15th largest
US company by market capitalisation, was found to have paid doctors
and hospital administrators in Europe for contracts and to promote
its drugs and medical devices / AFP


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Friday, April 8, 2011

'Earthquake Sickness' Hits Japan

Jakarta Globe, April 08, 2011

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An increasing number of people are experiencing motion sickness in Japan due to hundreds of aftershocks since the massive earthquake of March 11, physicians say.

“We are seeing a sharp increase in the number of patients complaining of dizziness,” the Mejiro University Clinic, which specialises in ear, nose, and throat conditions, said on its website.

“They are likely experiencing ‘earthquake sickness’, a condition similar to motion sickness,” the hospital’s chief physician Hideaki Sakata wrote on his blog.

Residents and rescue workers in the northeastern region, struck by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake on March 11, had felt nearly 400 aftershocks stronger than magnitude 5.0 as of Friday morning.

Countless smaller jolts have also hit, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

Major local media reported that the conditions have even affected people in Tokyo, more than 300 kilometres away from the offshore epicentres.

Sakata said the sickness can be eased by simply relaxing, and by sticking to fixed routines such as getting up and going to sleep at roughly the same time each day.

Agence France-Presse

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Thursday, April 7, 2011

150,000 Indonesians die each year misusing antibiotics on TB

Antara News, Thu, April 7 2011

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Jakarta (ANTARA News) - World Health Organization (WHO) data show that 150,000 people out of 440,000 tuberculosis sufferers in Indonesia died each year for misusing antibiotics, Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih said here on Thursday.

Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih.
(ANTARA News/Rosa Panggabean)
Speaking at a seminar on the Use of Antibiotics Appropriately to Prevent Bacterial Immunity, the minister said in 2009 Indonesia was eighth among countries with Multi Drug Resistance (MDR) cases caused by the misuse of antibiotics. Of this number, she said, 6,395 new TB cases had been predicted to appear in Indonesia every year.

However, the minister said that misuse of antibiotic also happened in other countries that WHO had announced the slogan Use Antibiotics Rationally as the theme of this year`s World Health Day.

Endang said antibiotics must be used appropriately to prevent body resistance against drugs since it would cause negative effects (especially to those with contagious diseases) such as longer period of infection or bad clinical condition.

To reduce the number of antibiotic misuse in Indonesia, Endang said her ministry had published a General Guidance Book for Antibiotic Use expected to be useful in giving health care services in Indonesia.

The minister also suggested people to use antibiotics wisely and follow doctor`s prescriptions.

Multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is defined as TB resistant at least to isoniazid (INH) and rifampicin (RMP), the two most powerful first-line anti-TB drugs. Isolates that are multiply-resistant to any other combination of anti-TB drugs but not to INH and RMP which are not categorized as MDR-TB.

MDR-TB develops during treatment of fully-sensitive TB when the course of antibiotics is interrupted and the levels of drugs in the body are insufficient to kill 100% of the bacteria. This can happen for a number of reasons: Patients may feel better and halt their antibiotic consumption, drug supplies may run out or become scarce, or patients may forget to take their medication from time to time. MDR-TB is spread from person to person as readily as drug-sensitive TB and in the same manner.

Editor: Priyambodo RH

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