Doomed teen Ben Breedlove shares life after death experiences on YouTube

Rawstory, by Agence France-Presse, Friday, December 30, 2011 

Ben Breedlove

CHICAGO — A week before Ben Breedlove died of a heart attack, the Texas teenager posted a remarkable video describing the peace and bright lights he’d found the other times his heart stopped. 

Breedlove, 18, tells his story with simple note cards and the occasional smile, sitting close to the camera and stepping back just once to show the scar from when a pacemaker was implanted to help his troubled heart.

It is a remarkably hopeful video, though Breedlove also describes the fear he lived with after being born with a serious heart condition and disappointment that he could not play sports and “be the same as everyone else.” 

“The first time I cheated death was when I was 4,” one of the cards said.

Breedlove had a seizure and as nurses rushed him down a hospital hallway, he told his mother of the bright light overhead.

She said she couldn’t see anything, but he felt his fear and worries washed away and couldn’t help smiling.

“I can’t even describe the peace, how peaceful it was,” he wrote. “I will NEVER forget that feeling or that day.”

Breedlove nearly died again a few months ago when his heart stopped during a routine surgery to remove his tonsils.

“It was a miracle that they brought me back,” he wrote. “I was scared to die but am SO glad I didn’t.”

Breedlove’s heart stopped again on December 6. He was at his Austin high school and sat down on a bench after feeling like he was going to faint.

He passed out and when he woke up, he couldn’t talk or move. He could only watch and listen as paramedics put shock pads on his chest.

He heard them say that his heart had stopped and that he had no pulse, which he explains by the fact that “when people’s bodies ‘die’ the brain still works for a short time.”

“I really thought to myself, this is it, I’m dying,” he wrote.

“The next thing that happened I’m not sure if it was a dream or vision. But while I was still unconscious I was in this white room. No walls, it just went on and on…”

He found himself standing with his favorite rapper, Kid Cudi, and they were both dressed in really nice suits.

“Why he was the only one there with me, I’m still trying to figure out,” Breedlove wrote.

“I had that same feeling, I couldn’t stop smiling. I then looked at myself in the mirror and I was proud of MYSELF. Of my entire life, everything I have done. IT WAS THE BEST feeling.”

Kid Cudi put his hand on his shoulder and then Breedlove’s favorite song came on, the part where Cudi raps “when will this fantasy end… when will the heaven begin?”

Cudi told him “Go now” and Breedlove woke up.

After viewing the video, the rapper said he broke down in tears watching it.

“This has really touched my heart in a way I cant describe, this is why I do what I do. Why I write my life, and why I love you all so much,” Kid Cudi wrote on his blog.

“I know Ben is at Peace, and I hope he gets a chance to sit and talk with my Dad.”

Breedlove ended his video with four final cards: “I didn’t want to leave that place. I wish I NEVER woke up. Do you believe in angels or God? I Do.”

Breedlove died at Christmas and his family said in his death notice that it was a gift from God.

“We know the Lord used the amazing life of our precious son to reach a weary world on Christmas night, just as He did over 2000 years ago with his own Son,” they wrote, and urged people to find the video that Breedlove posted on YouTube on December 18.

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"Perceptions of God" – June 6, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Quantum Teaching, The Fear of God, Near-death Experience, God Becomes Mythology, Worship, Mastery, Intelligent Design, Benevolent Creator,Global Unity.... etc.) (Text version)

“… When a Human almost dies, they get close to the veil, very close. They are ever so close to the creator's energy and just barely touched by it. When their heart was stopping and their breathing was almost gone, before they were brought back to life with science, they got to touch the hand of God for just an instant. What they saw was magnificent! The energy before them was filled with love and light, filled with family, filled with beauty. There was no strife there. There was no punishment there or even the hint of it. And when they came back from that experience, listen to what they told you. It changed their lives, didn't it? Listen to each one talk about it, for they continued to say, "There is nothing to fear and death is something you experience as a normal transition." Blessed is the Human Being who experiences both death and birth and has the wisdom to report, "Oh, it's uncomfortable, but I'll get through it, because I've done it before." The person who has experienced a near-death experience is no longer afraid to die! What does that tell you? They have seen what is there and they embrace it! …”

Cancer-Causing Toxin Found in Chinese Milk

Jakarta Globe, December 26, 2011

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China has discovered excessive levels of a cancer-causing toxin in milk produced by one of the nation's leading dairy companies, the firm said, in the latest in a series of food safety alarms.

The government's quality watchdog found high levels of an aflatoxin, which is caused by mould, in milk produced by the Mengniu Dairy Group, the company said in a statement issued Sunday.

Mengniu said the milk, produced at one of its plants in the southwestern province of Sichuan, was tested before being sold so the contaminated milk never reached the market.

China is trying to crack down on product safety violations to reassure citizens and restore faith in the government after a series of high--profile scandals.

Milk was at the centre of China's biggest food safety scandal in 2008 when the industrial chemical melamine was found to have been illegally added to dairy products to give the appearance of higher protein content.

At least six babies died and another 300,000 became ill after drinking milk tainted with melamine.

Product safety problems have been found in goods ranging from pharmaceuticals to cooking oil. In September, the government arrested 32 people over the sale of cooking oil made from leftovers taken from gutters.

Aflatoxins can be found in milk after cows consume feed contaminated by mould and can increase the risk of cancer, including liver cancer, according to the World Health Organization.

Mengniu said the products had been destroyed, and apologized to consumers.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine made the latest discovery in nationwide testing of 200 dairy products made by 128 companies, the agency said separately.

AFP

Australia Says Bali Tattoo Likely Gave Patient HIV

Jakarta Globe, December 24, 2011

Kuta Beach. Australian health authorities have said a patient diagnosed
with  HIV likely caught the virus while having a tattoo done on the Indonesian
resort island of Bali. (JG Photo/File)   

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Sydney. Australian health authorities have said a patient diagnosed with HIV likely caught the virus while having a tattoo done on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

They recommended that people who had recently been tattooed on the island, known for its white, sandy beaches, partying and nightlife, should consider being tested for HIV and other blood-borne viruses.

Authorities did not reveal any details of the patient concerned.

“All the evidence points to a tattoo received recently in Bali as being the source of the infection,” Western Australia’s Department of Health said in a statement dated Friday.

“This case demonstrates the very real health risk in having this type of procedure done overseas,” said Paul Armstrong, the department’s director of communicable disease control.

The department highlighted the risk not only of tattoos but also of body piercings, saying that besides HIV, patients were also potentially exposing themselves to Hepatitis B and C as well as bacterial infections.

Indonesian officials said last year that the number of known HIV/AIDS cases on Bali was soaring, with one in four prostitutes reported to be HIV-positive and the number of infections jumping almost 19 percent from the year before.

Agence France-Presse

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Report: Military hospitals not adequately checking doctor credentials

CNN News, By Charley Keyes, CNN, December 23, 2011

Congress and the military have examined how Maj. Nidal Hasan was
trained, evaluated and promoted as a military physician.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Congress called for the General Accountability Office report after the Fort Hood shootings
• The report urges the Defense Department to speed efforts to revise the review process
• The military says its centralized system will be delayed without adequate funding

Washington (CNN) -- A federal watchdog took a bite out of military hospitals this month, warning it is impossible to tell if some doctors are licensed, properly trained and evaluated in their specialties.

"Army oversight and physician credentialing and privileging requirements were not sufficient to assure that MTFs (Medical Treatment Facilities) fully complied with existing requirements or completely documented information needed to support credentialing and privileging decisions," said the new General Accountability Office report.

"Specifically, Army Medical Command's oversight of individual MTFs' reviews of physicians' applications for privileges was insufficient to identify the instances of noncompliance and incomplete documentation," the report added.

In some cases the military had failed to check properly on the legitimacy of doctors' licenses to practice medicine, the report alleged.

"Some credentials files we reviewed lacked complete documentation to show that MTFs had primary source verified all of the physician's state medical licenses, including seven instances involving a physician's only active medical license," the report says.

Primary source verification of credentials means they are verified with a specific credential's source.

Congress called for the report in the aftermath of the Fort Hood, Texas, shooting in November 2009, for which an Army psychiatrist is charged with 13 murders.

Congress and the military have examined how Maj. Nidal Hasan was trained, evaluated and promoted as a military physician. Nine military officials, including doctors, were disciplined for their actions or failures in the Hasan case. He faces a court-martial, with a possible death penalty, in March.

The GAO report cast a wider net and urged the Defense Department to speed up its efforts to revise and standardize reviews of doctors' credentials. And it singles out the Army for problems at its facilities.

"Based on our review of 150 credentials files at the five Army MTFs we selected for our review, we found that none of the five Army MTFs fully complied with certain Army physician credentialing and privileging requirements," the GAO report said. "Specifically, we found that the selected MTFs did not fully comply with the Army's requirement to primary source verify all state medical licenses at the time of privileging and at renewal."

In a response included in the report, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. Jonathan Woodson wrote the department is progressing with standardization and centralization of credential files and improving how doctors can apply for and renew privileges to practice at military hospitals. But the military warned that its centralized system would be delayed "without adequate funding."

The report cited over-reliance of so-called peer reviews, especially in cases where coworkers might have only a limited familiarity with a doctor.

"In one file we reviewed, both peer recommendations were from individuals who indicated they had limited knowledge of the physician's clinical competence," the report says. "The department chief later told us that this physician was terminated within the first three months due to issues with the physician's competence and professionalism."

In another instance, a doctor had problems with errors in prescriptions, above what the hospital allowed. However, this was not reflected in the doctor's file. And the physician's department chief "was not aware of the negative prescription days but was 'not at all surprised' because there were current concerns about this physician," the report said.

Breast implant scandal spreads across the world

RNW, 22 December 2011, by Frank Renout    

A huge scandal has broken out in France over faulty silicon breast implants. But the scandal has far-reaching consequences for women as far away as Chile and China.

 (Photo: RNW)

There are tens of thousands of women in France living in fear right now that their breast implants may have to be removed. Research into the implants made by the French manufacturer PIP show that the silicon material is prone to bursting. There are also fears about the safety of the implants after women died of cancer some time after receiving them.

Worldwide scandal

The French government is expected to call up all women who have the implants to have them removed as a precaution. Around 30,000 French women will be affected who have either decided to have a breast enlargement operation for esthetical reasons or because of the removal of a breast after cancer treatment. But the matter has gone far beyond the French borders. There is already talk of a “worldwide scandal”.

The French company PIP has been producing breast implants for almost ten years. And with great success. The company became a world leader in the sector: producing 100,000 implants every year, which are distributed to 65 countries all over the world. The main market (50 percent) is in South America, where the implants are sold via hospitals in Chile, Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina.

A quarter of the exports went to West European countries like Great Britain, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. The French implants were also shipped to the Middle East (from Turkey to Syria) and Azia (from Thailand to China).

Burst

The bubble has burst, so to speak, for the French company. In 2010, the first problems came to light. PIP used a different type of silicon than it officially registered; the implants were cheaper and of inferior quality: so they burst. More than 2000 French women took the company to court because PIP had misinformed them

Problems emerged in other countries too. In the spring of 2010, the Chilean authorities took the French breast implants off the market. Venezuela and Brazil followed suit, as did Colombia later.

Carcinogenic?

In West Europe, the Spanish authorities called on hospitals to stop using PIP products, in Great Britain hundreds of women took the company to court.

Last month, the ‘silicon scandal’ took on a whole new dimension when a French woman with PIP breast implants died of lymph cancer. Her family blamed her illness and death on the silicon implants. Research has not been able to show a direct link, but that made little difference to the commotion in France.

Now Paris is considering advising all 30,000 French women with PIP implants to have them removed as a precaution. The government is almost certain to foot the bill, because the French breast implant company PIP has gone bankrupt and is therefore unable to pay compensation. In Great Britain, women with PIP implants have decided to sue the clinics which operated on them.

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Police Reveal Jakarta-Netherlands Narcotics Network

Jakarta Globe, Bayu Marhaenjati, December 21, 2011

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The National Police narcotics division revealed a drug network on Wednesday between the Netherlands and Jakarta that they uncovered on Dec. 14. The police confiscated 85,000 ecstasy pills and 3,000 grams of methamphetamines worth Rp 29 billion ($3.19 million).

“We have arrested the perpetrator with the initials Y.U.N. in Ruko Harco in Mangga Dua, and confiscated the evidence [the drugs] allegedly sent from the Netherlands,” Brig. Gen. Arman Depari, the National Police’s narcotics director, said on Wednesday.

Arman said the narcotic storage area was surrounded by electronics shops in the Mangga Dua area.

“After interrogating Y.U.N., police have arrested two other suspects M.A.R. and VE.R.,” he said.

M.A.R. and V.E.R. told police they got the drugs from the Netherlands sent by a Dutch national with the initials B.C. The other Dutch man, G.N., was the drug financier.

“B.C. and G.N. are Dutch nationals and are still being searched for,” Arman said.

Revealed: huge increase in executive pay for America's top bosses

Exclusive survey shows America's CEOs enjoyed pay hikes of up to 40% last year – with one chief executive earning $145m

guardian.co.uk, Dominic Rushe in New York,  Wednesday 14 December 2011

John Hammergren, CEO of healthcare provider McKesson,
earned $145m last year. Photograph: George Nikitin/AP

Chief executive pay has roared back after two years of stagnation and decline. America's top bosses enjoyed pay hikes of between 27 and 40% last year, according to the largest survey of US CEO pay. The dramatic bounceback comes as the latest government figures show wages for the majority of Americans are failing to keep up with inflation.

America's highest paid executive took home more than $145.2m, and as stock prices recovered across the board, the median value of bosses' profits on stock options rose 70% in 2010, from $950,400 to $1.3m. The news comes against the backdrop of an Occupy Wall Street movement that has focused Washington's attention on the pay packages of America's highest paid.

The Guardian's exclusive first look at the CEO pay survey from corporate governance group GMI Ratings will further fuel debate about America's widening income gap. The survey, the most extensive in the US, covered 2,647 companies, and offers a comprehensive assessment of all the data now available relating to 2010 pay.

Last year's survey, covering 2009, found pay rates were broadly flat following a decline in wages the year before. Base salaries in 2009 showed a median increase of around 2%, and annual cash compensation increased just over 1.5%. The troubled stock markets took their toll, and added together CEO pay declined for the third year, though the decrease was marginal, less than three-tenths of a percent. The decline in the wider economy in 2007, 2008 and 2009 far outstripped the decline in CEO pay.

This year's survey shows CEO pay packages have boomed: the top 10 earners took home more than $770m between them in 2010. As stock prices began to recover last year, the increase in CEO pay outstripped the rise in share value. The Russell 3000 measure of US stock prices was up by 16.93% in 2010, but CEO pay went up by 27.19% overall. For S&P 500 CEOs, the largest companies in the sample, total realised compensation – including perks and pensions and stock awards – increased by a median of 36.47%. Total pay at midcap companies, which are slightly smaller than the top firms, rose 40.2%.

GMI released a preliminary report on 2010 CEO pay earlier this year, before all the data was available. Paul Hodgson, a senior research associate at GMI, said that report had shown a significant bounce but he had expected a wider sample to dampen the effect.

"Wages for everybody else have either been in decline or stagnated in this period, and that's for those who are in work," said Hodgson. "I had a feeling that we would see some significant increases this year. But 30-40% was something of a surprise." Bosses won in every area, with dramatic increases in pensions, payoffs and perks – as well as salary.

Still, there are no bankers among this year's big winners. Three of this year's top 10 earners come from the healthcare industry. Top earner John Hammergren at McKesson, the world's largest healthcare firm, made $145,266,91 last year – most of it from stock options.

The rising stock markets were especially good to CEOs, said Hodgson. Stock options were the main area that drove these outsized awards. "They got the options, the market collapsed, then it came back – and all of a sudden they were in the money again," he said.

And there will be more to come. GMI, formerly known as the Corporate Library, is expecting a rash of massive stock option bonuses as many firms awarded their top executives big option deals when the stock markets hit their lows in 2007-2008.

"There's still a lot of money just waiting in the market," said Hodgson. He described the upcoming awards as a "bombshell" likely to dwarf this year's figures.

2010 was a great year to lose your job as a CEO. Four of the 10 highest paid CEOs were retired or departing executives. Ronald Williams, former head of Aetna, a health insurer, exercised 2.4m options for a profit of $50.4m. Aetna's stock price declined by 70% from when Williams assumed the role of CEO in February 2006 until his retirement. At pharmacy chain CVS, Thomas Ryan made a $28m profit on his options. During Ryan's 13-year tenure as CEO, CVS Caremark's stock price decreased almost 54%.

Omnicare's Joel Gemunder retired last August and received cash severance of $16m, part of a final-year pay package worth $98.28m. Adam Metz, the former boss of General Growth Properties, a real estate company that specialises in shopping malls, walked away with a $46m cash bonus in 2010. GGP executives received nearly $115m in bonuses from the firm as it emerged from bankruptcy.

But this year's top earner may have his biggest payday still to come. Hammergren is due a $469m payoff if McKesson changes ownership. "Boards make these decisions, but they don't work out what happens if they stay in the job," said Hodgson.

"If they had have done, one hopes, they would have looked at each other and said: 'This is ridiculous.'"

A Thousand Aceh Police Officers Identified as Drug Users

Jakarta Globe, Nurdin Hasan, December 13, 2011

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Banda Aceh. About a thousand police officers, out of 13,000, in Aceh were identified as drug users, Aceh police chief Ins. Gen. Iskandar Hasan said on Tuesday.

Iskandar said the number of police officers who were found to be drug users was between 850 and 1,000. One hundred and eighty nine of the officers were sent to a month-long training and guidance session for drug users at the Aceh Police station.

“We’ll see whether they will change or not in a month using the indicators we have set up,” Iskandar said. “If they cannot be changed, we’re going to fire them.”

The National Narcotics Agency conducted hair tests to determine if the officers were using drugs. A former subdistrict police chief was among those who tested positive.

Iskandar said drug dealers want police officers to become drug users.

“It’s their strategy to get to the legal enforcers, such as police, military and prosecutors,” he said. “It is a strategy to secure their networks. If all the legal enforcers are silent, who will arrest them?”

Regardless of training and guidance, the police who were found to be drug users will be punished. Part of their salaries will be stopped, they will not be promoted or allowed to continue their studies.

Iskandar had previously said that Aceh was known as an international distribution point for crystal methamphetamine, with drugs coming from Malaysia and being distributed to other regions of Indonesia. Aceh is also known for its high quality of marijuana.

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Indonesian Man Dies After Self-Immolation

Jakarta Globe, December 11, 2011

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An 22-year-old Indonesian man has died after setting himself on fire near the presidential palace, police said on Sunday, in what is believed to be the country’s first self-immolation protest.

The man, identified as student Sondang Hutagalung, died on Saturday after he was taken to hospital with 98 percent burns, Jakarta police spokesman Baharudin Djafar told AFP.

“He died yesterday from a sizeable percentage of burns on his body after setting himself on fire. We still don’t know what caused him to immolate himself,” he said.

Local media reported that Hutagalung had doused himself in petrol and torched himself near the state palace on Wednesday before running towards a billboard bearing the photograph of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Witnesses told the Jakarta Globe newspaper he had shouted anti-government messages.

But Djafar said it was “not possible” to say he was protesting against the government or the president.

“He was the perpetrator as well as the victim. Only he had the answer — we couldn’t guess his motive,” he said.

“But we hope nobody will repeat such an act. If you’re unhappy with anything, you may protest but please do so without hurting yourself and others.”

Presidential adviser Daniel Sparingga said on Thursday that Yudhoyono had been informed of the incident and “expressed his sympathy and concern.”

Protests are common in Indonesia but the self-immolation is believed to be the first of its kind in the world’s third-largest democracy of 240 million people.

Yudhoyono’s popularity rankings have slumped despite strong economic growth, amid corruption and incompetence across all levels of the state. He was sworn in at the start of his second five-year term on Oct. 20, 2009.

The first Indonesian president to be directly elected after decades of authoritarianism, Yudhoyono has won two clear mandates with promises of tough action on corruption, but is seen as too weak and indecisive to take on powerful vested interests.

Agence France-Presse

Japan's Meiji recalls baby milk after caesium find

BBC News, 6 December 2011

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Japanese milk powder maker, Meiji, has recalled its baby formula after discovering radioactive caesium in the product.

Shares in the firm fell 10% in early trading in Tokyo after the company announced it would recall 400,000 cans of the formula.

Meiji produces the milk, which is only sold in Japan, in Saitama prefecture, north of Tokyo.

Saitama borders the tsunami-hit prefecture of Fukushima.

The recall was started after tests found up to 30.8 becquerels of caesium per kilo of Meiji Step powdered milk.

The level is below recommended limits set by the Japanese government, but Meiji has gone ahead with the recall.

Milk powder is the latest foodstuff to be affected by radioactivity in Japan after shipments of beef were banned in August and rice in September, also for caesium contamination.

Healthy living, organic Style

Triwik Kurniasari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Sun, 12/04/2011

Organic products enjoy rising popularity as more people adopt healthy
living. JP/Triwik Kurniasari

The importance of living a healthy life is a popular trend, with more nature-focused communities going for only natural and organic products.

Ahmad Nuh used to consume white cane sugar, the most common sweetener used in food and drinks. But the 30-something man decided to stop his habit when he started working at a palm sugar company around four years ago, finding that palm sugar was healthier since it contained more fibers and nutrients and had less carbohydrates than white sugar.

“White cane sugar undergoes a long process and producers sometimes add other refined sweeteners, chemical contents and even coloring, so it’s not that healthy,” Ahmad told The Jakarta Post.

“A long time ago, people ate palm sugar to boost their energy so they could walk for miles. So, let’s go back to the old days which ensured a healthier life.”

Since then, he eliminated white sugar from his daily intake, replacing it with palm sugar made from the sap of sugar palm trees or date trees. His family and relatives used followed his steps and used palm sugar to make soup or other dishes.

Ahmad was among the participants of the 2011 Organic, Green and Healthy Expo organized by the Indonesian Organic Community (KOI) and the Alliance of Indonesian Organic (AOI) at CNI Building in West Jakarta’s Puri Indah recently.

The event was aimed at introducing local certified organic and natural products as well as encouraging the public to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

Organic food products are made in ways that limit the use of synthetic substances including pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Among items on offer were vegetables, grains such as white rice, red rice and black rice, miscellaneous snacks made from cassava, sweet cassava and bananas, teas ranging from regular green and black tea to Rosella and kumis kucing (Orthosiphon spicatus), forest honey and palm sugar.

But the term organic is not only a matter of being pesticide free —the food must also be preserved in a chemical-free environment.

Theophillia Arispraptami of the Indonesian Forest Honey Network is promoting tropical forest honey, which is dubbed as organic, as the honey is not manufactured by humans.

The honey, she said, is derived from Apis dorsata bees, the most productive Asian bees living in tropical and subtropical areas such as Indonesia, the Philippines, India and Nepal.

“We collect and extract the honey directly from the hives in the forests, maintaining its natural nutrient values. The bees collect nectar and pollen from blossoms in the forest, while manufactured bees gathered nectar only from one type of blossom, depending on the season,” Theophillia said.

“The hives are usually found hanging on trees, caves and stones, while regular honey comes from worker bees in designed boxes.”

She also said that forest honey was safer, as the honeybees consumed wild blossoms that were not contaminated by hazardous chemical contents.

Sentarum Lake National Park in West Kalimantan and West Java’s Ujung Kulon National Park are two areas used to cultivate forest honey.

The network, she said, guaranteed that the honey was not mixed with water or sugar, not heated and contained no chemical treatments, because the cultivation was under supervision of organizations including her institution.

The farmers are trained before they harvest the honey so they don’t ruin the hives and the environment.

“We don’t squeeze the hives to get the honey. We only drain it so the honey will be more hygienic,” she said, adding that forest honey is sold from Rp 75,000 (US$8.20) to Rp 90,000 at a number of stores that specialize in organic produce in the capital.

Theophillia pointed out that forest honey production required well-conserved green forests, protected from illegal logging, fire and land conversion.

Eni Widarijani, a member of an organic community in East Java, said the production of organic foods required special treatment.

“Organic farming procedures are performed to conserve soil and water and reduce pollution,” Eni says.

“Firstly, we have to change farmers’ mindsets to go back to nature and leave all pesticides behind to boost their harvest. We had to give them some real examples to convince them.”

She and other members also encouraged farmers to go back to nature by making use of plants in their environment such as secang (sappanwood) and pegagan or button grass (Cetella asiatica), which can be turned into hot drinks.

To clean the grass from the dirt, they usually use lemon zest or aloe instead of using chemical-based disinfectants.

For many people, consuming natural and organic food poses some challenges, since such items are not easily found and the high prices may take toll on people’s wallets.

The author of Hidup Organik, Panduan Ringkas Berperilaku Selaras Alam (Organic Living, A Simple Manual to Live in Harmony with Nature), Bibong Widyarti, said the costly price was mainly caused by the long process of organic certification programs.

All organic foods, she added, have to meet some standards, including how the foods are grown, handled and processed before the products can be sold on the market.

Yuniken, who has consumed organic products since 2007 and organized women in West Java’s Bogor to farm organic products, admitted she had to be able to manage her household budget to support the healthy habit.

“One of the obstacles, however, sometimes is that it’s not easy to get organic items, especially when we run out of the stuff and don’t have time to go to organic food stores,” Yuniken said.

“But I’m trying my best to serve healthy dishes on my table with fresh organic produce. It’s for the sake of my family’s health.”

First lady calls for more jobs for disabled people

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Sun, 12/04/2011

First lady Ani Yudhoyono on Sunday urged all companies throughout the country to provide more job opportunities for disabled people, to help them realize their potential.

“I hope that companies will give work opportunities to disabled people as is regulated in the Constitution. Every company can widen their implementation so that the potential among disabled people in Indonesia is not neglected,” she said, as quoted by tribunnews.com.

She said the government had proven that they would provide support for people with disabilities and promised to continue to do so.

“This year the government has given financial aid of Rp 300,000 (US$33) to 19,025 disabled people in 33 provinces. Next year we will improve on that,” she said.

Apart from financial support, the government would also provide aid in the form of equipment, skills education and access to jobs, she said.