Malaysian transgender conversion plan sparks alarm

Yahoo – AFP, 30 December 2017

Human Rights Watch has previously warned that discrimination against LGBT
people was "pervasive" in Malaysia

A Malaysian state plans to run a conversion therapy course aimed at transgender women, officials said Saturday, sparking alarm among LGBT activists in the conservative Muslim-majority country.

The course would run over several days next year after authorities had completed a survey of the transgender population, a Terengganu state official said.

Participation in the course would be voluntary, Ghazali said, adding that the programme would include medical, psychological and religious experts, as well as transgender women who have "returned to normal lives".

"Transgender women are part of our society.... They are our responsibility," Terengganu executive council member Ghazali Taib told AFP.

"At the end, it is up to them to make a choice. The government's concept is not (to) force. (We) give them a path to make the best choices for their lives," he said.

A Human Rights Watch report in 2017 wrote that discrimination against LGBT people was "pervasive" in Malaysia, where there are laws against sodomy, with offenders facing jail time and whipping.

LGBT activists condemned the government's plans.

"If you ask someone not to be themselves that will have an adverse impact on the health and-well being of the person," Thilaga Sulathireh, co-founder of transgender activist group Justice for Sisters, said.

Leading transgender activist Nisha Ayub said courses such as these would only deepen the community's isolation.

"They're looking more to... corrective therapy, which violates everyone's rights in so many ways," she said.

"If (transgenders)...feel that they cannot change themselves, they will feel like outcasts from society," she added.

There are no official figures on transgenders in Malaysia, though a health ministry document estimated that the country was home to about 24,000 transgender sex workers as of 2014.

Related Articles:

Gay conversion therapy should have no place in NHS, says health minister

‘Pray away the gay’ therapies quickly losing ground in the United States

‘Gay cure’ no longer reimbursed: Dutch health minister

(Photo: Alexandria)

Mozart-Loving Chickens May Answer Quest for Healthier Nugget

Jakarta Globe, Naveen Thukral & Gavin Maguire, May 17, 2015

Chickens bred with drug-free feed rest in their coop as lights are dimmed and
 classical music by Mozart is being played in the background at Kee Song Brothers'
 drug-free poultry farm in Yong Peng, in Malaysia's southern state of Johor
April 16, 2015. (Reuters Photo/Edgar Su)

Yong Peng, Malaysia. In barns filled with classical music and lighting that changes to match the hues outside, rows of chickens are fed a diet rich in probiotics, a regimen designed to remove the need for the drugs and chemicals that have tainted the global food chain.

As food giants face growing pressure to offer healthier produce, Southeast Asian poultry firm Kee Song Group says its use of “good” bacteria in feed and water means it can meet one the industry’s biggest challenges: how to mass produce drug and hormone-free poultry at a reasonable price.

A series of scandals in the last few years —from melamine-tainted milk powder in China, horse meat supplied as beef in Europe and growth drugs causing lameness in US cattle — has triggered a consumer backlash over food standards and safety.

Recently, Tyson Foods pledged to eliminate the use of human antibiotics in chicken by 2017, one of the most aggressive timetables yet by a US poultry firm.

The top American poultry producer, which supplies fast-food chains such as McDonald’s, is among a number of groups globally incorporating probiotics into feed.

“For meat producers, reputation risks are becoming stronger driving companies to focus on safe ingredients specially in Europe and the United States,” said Pawan Kumar, director for food and agricultural research at Rabobank in Singapore.

Kee Song says the cost to produce drug-free chickens using probiotics is now only 10-12 percent more than using antibiotic-fed poultry. It sells these birds at a 30 percent premium in stores, far less than expensive free-range organic chicken.

The firm annually produces around 4 million drug-free birds at its Malaysian farms in Yong Peng, 125 km north-west of Singapore, and aims to expand sales to China and the West.

“Probiotics, either alone or in combination with essential oils and organic acids, are at the forefront of international approaches to replace antibiotics,” said Wayne Bryden, Professor of Animal Science at the University of Queensland.

Probiotics populate the gut with healthy bacteria in a bid to curb bad bacteria, while oils and organic acids are also often included in feed to aid digestion.

A team at the Australian university, partly funded by feed maker Ridley AgriProducts, have found in preliminary trials that using a probiotic can double the efficiency of use of protein from feed to boost weigh gain in livestock.

Superbugs

An estimated 80 percent of antibiotics used in the United States are administered to livestock with the use expected to surge by two thirds globally between 2010 and 2030.

Scientists are worried the practice could spur antibiotic-resistant superbugs.

McDonald’s has also pledged to eliminate chickens fed on human antibiotics at its US restaurants and is looking at similar steps in Asia.

“In Asia Pacific, we will be working with our supply partners and relevant experts to implement this enhanced measure,” a company spokesperson said via email.

While demand for healthier products is increasing fast in the West, some experts say that in parts of Asia customers will not be prepared to pay more for drug-free poultry, though China could be a promising market after high-profile food scares.

Mozart and blue lighting

In Kee Song’s Malaysian poultry farm, 20,000 chickens rest on saw dust in the dimly lit barns, with feed and water laced with probiotics being automatically pumped into feeding pans.

As well as playing Mozart, lighting is used in a bid to keep the birds tranquil with neon blue lighting turned on when the birds are taken for slaughter.

“Look at the environment, chickens stay healthy and happy here,” the firm’s Chairman Ong Kee Song told Reuters.

“Even the droppings don’t smell,” added Ong, who has been a vegetarian for 17 years after a stay at a Buddhist temple.

Traditional chicken farms are notorious for producing noxious fumes as well as loud noise from squawking birds.

Growth hormones mixed with feed can also produce oversized breasts and wings that underdeveloped legs struggle to support for more than a few steps.

Chia Tet Fatt, a molecular geneticist who previously was a professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University teamed up with Kee Song to produce the probiotic used, lactobacillus, and confirmed chickens were not fed any drugs or antibiotics.

Tan Chee Kiang, vice president of Charoen Pokphand, the world’s biggest animal feed miller, also said the feed it supplied to Kee Song was free of antibiotics.

By not using drugs, the poultry farms need to maintain stringent cleanliness measures to avoid the risk of infection and it takes three days more than conventionally produced chickens to attain a commercially viable weight of 1.8 to 2.0 kg.

As well as supplying supermarkets, Kee Song also sells to some restaurants in Singapore, including French restaurant Cocotte, where the chicken is used for a signature dish.

Reuters

Malaysia transgenders win landmark court case

Yahoo – AFP,  Julia Zappei, 7 Nov 2014

Transgender activists celebrate outside the court of appeals in Putrajaya on

 November 7 after winning a bid to overturn an anti-cross dressing law (AFP

Photo/Mohd Rasfan)

Three Malaysian transgender women on Friday won their landmark bid to overturn an Islamic anti cross-dressing law in the conservative Muslim-majority nation.

A three-judge appeals court panel ruled that a state provision that bars Muslim men from dressing as women was unconstitutional, saying it "deprives the appellants of the right to live with dignity".

"It has the effect of denying the appellants and other sufferers of GID (gender identify disorder) to move freely in public places... This is degrading, oppressive and inhuman," judge Hishamudin Yunus said.

Transgender activist, Nisha Ayub (R), talks

 to her colleague outside the court in

Putrajaya on November 7. Activists won

a bid to overturn an anti-cross dressing

law (AFP Photo/Mohd Rasfan)

The verdict overturns a 2012 lower court ruling, which had dismissed the challenge by the three appellants -- Muslims who were born male but identify as women -- over their arrest four years ago under the law in southern Negri Sembilan state.

Malaysia has a double track court system with state Islamic laws governing civil matters for Muslims, who account for 60 percent of the country's 30 million people.

Under state Islamic laws, men dressing or acting as women is punishable by up to three years in jail. Some Malaysian states also outlaw cross-dressing by women.

Aston Paiva, the plaintiffs' lawyer, said the ruling could be used to challenge any arrest of transgender people throughout Malaysia.

"It's quite historic... This will be a precedent... This court binds all other high courts," Paiva said.

A Negri Sembilan state legal advisor declined comment on whether his side would seek to appeal the verdict to a higher court.

"I am happy we won the case. I feel more relaxed now," one of the plaintiffs told AFP by phone. "I have waited for this."

She and the other two plaintiffs have shied away from any public appearances and were not in court.

Systematic repression

The case is the first attempt to overturn the prohibition on cross-dressing in the Southeast Asian nation, where homosexuality and transgender lifestyles remain taboo, and questioning Islamic laws is sensitive.

Human Rights Watch in September called on the government to repeal all laws that criminalise transgender lifestyles after the US-based group found that they face systematic and constant repression, harassment, mistreatment, social ostracism and "risk arrest every day".

Human Rights Watch said in a report that transgender people in Malaysia face worsening persecution due to the steady rise of conservative Islamic attitudes.

The abuses include arrest, physical and sexual assault and extortion by authorities, shaming by forcing transgender women to strip in public, and barriers to healthcare, employment and education.

Transgender activist, Nisha Ayub (R), greets

 her colleague outside the court in Putrajaya

 on November 7, 2014. Activists won a bid

 to overturn an anti-cross dressing law (AFP

Photo/Mohd Rasfan)

Authorities face no accountability in their treatment of transgender people, the report added.

Nisha Ayub, a transgender activist, said Friday's ruling was a "critical moment" for her community.

"The fight will still be there... (but) at least now the trans community know that they have their rights to challenge the law," she said. "It will encourage them to come out rather than being oppressed."

Activists and transgender people say that in the past attitudes were fairly tolerant in the historically moderate Muslim country.

But religious minorities and other critics have increasingly expressed fears about the spread of conservative Islamic attitudes.

Some Malaysian transgender people undergo sex-change surgery. But even then, they are unable to legally change their names and genders -- Muslims and non-Muslims alike -- complicating access to public services.

Deprived of jobs, many are pushed into sex work.

Malaysian transgenders 'live in fear' of arrest and abuse

Yahoo – AFP, Julia Zappei, 29 Sep 2014

Transgender people in Malaysia said they were often the subject of social 

ostracism, discrimination, harassment, sexual abuse and arrest by authorities 

(AFP Photo/Mohd Rasfan)

Seremban (Malaysia) (AFP) - Aryana had just returned to her home one night in June when Malaysian Islamic-purity enforcers burst in, ransacking her apartment and arresting her for cross-dressing.

Using a pseudonym to protect her identity, Aryana is transgender -- born a man but identifying as a woman -- and part of a substantial community that complains of rising persecution in the Muslim-majority Southeast Asian country.

The 30 year-old was detained for several hours, during which she was roughly handled, pressured to confess and charged a fine.

Homosexuality is effectively banned in

Malaysia. Gay sex -- considered "against the

order of nature" -- brings up to 20 years in jail 

under federal law (AFP Photo/Mohd Rasfan)

"It's difficult. When I wore men's clothing, it felt like a lie," said Aryana, a sex worker with long hair dyed reddish-brown and a heavily-powdered face.

Transgender people are common in Malaysia, typically men whose gender identity is female, but also vice versa. Some undergo sex-change surgery.

But their lives are far different from the famously tolerant stance in Buddhist neighbouring Thailand.

Human Rights Watch said Malaysia is one of the world's worst countries for transgender people, as it released a report last week detailing social ostracism, discrimination, and harassment, sexual abuse and arrest by authorities.

Homosexuality is effectively banned in Malaysia. Gay sex -- considered "against the order of nature" -- brings up to 20 years in jail under federal law.

State-level laws on Islamic purity also criminalise dressing as the opposite sex, activists say. Violations can bring three years in prison and a fine.

Court challenge

Three transgender women who were arrested four years ago are now boldly fighting that in court via a lawsuit in the southern state of Negeri Sembilan that calls such rules discriminatory and unconstitutional.

Its chances are uncertain, but activists hope success will prompt scrutiny of laws in other states. A ruling is expected November 7.

"I hope for success. I have been waiting so long already," said one of the parties to the suit, a slim 28-year-old dressed in tight jeans, sunglasses holding back reddish dyed hair, who asked to be unidentified.

"I'm not a man acting like a woman. I am a woman."

Activists and transgender people say past attitudes were fairly tolerant in the historically moderate Muslim country.

But conservative Islam is growing due to a complex mix of factors.

In 1982, the National Fatwa Council, Malaysia's highest Muslim authority, banned sex-reassignment surgery as un-Islamic.

Authorities have since taken a steadily harder line against transgenders and homosexuality, critics say. A gay rights festival was banned in 2011.

Activists said many transgender people can

 become depressed, suicidal, and turn to drugs

 and alcohol (AFP Photo/Mohd Rasfan)

Prime Minister Najib Razak, who portrays himself as a Muslim moderate, has repeatedly said in recent years that gay and transgender rights initiatives were deviant.

Officials in Najib’s office, Malaysia’s attorney-general, and a government agency that polices Islamic conduct did not respond to AFP requests for comment.

The report by Human Rights Watch urged the repeal of all discriminatory regulations, saying transgender people are at constant risk of mistreatment by authorities.

In June, 16 transgender women were arrested in a raid on a wedding party in a private home in southern Malaysia. They were sentenced to a week in prison and fined.

Some transgender people are sent for "counselling" sessions on "moral values".

Nisha Ayub, now a Muslim transgender activist, said after she was arrested in 2000 that a jailer took her from cell to cell to show male inmates her breasts. She was later molested by prisoners.

"We are not asking for special rights. We are just asking for equal rights," Nisha said.

Those who opt for sex-change surgery encounter a bureaucratic nightmare, unable to legally change their names and genders, complicating access to public services.

Others complain of discrimination in employment and other spheres.

Transgender women are commonly seen, especially in the capital Kuala Lumpur, working in restaurants and retail outlets.

But the price of acceptance is self-denial -- they typically wear gender-neutral clothes, such as pants and shirts, with long hair tied back conservatively.

'It was hell'

Deprived of jobs, many are pushed into sex work, risking sexually-transmitted disease.

Conservative Islam has grown in Malaysia

 since 1982 when the country's highest Muslim 

authority banned sex-reassignment surgery 

as un-Islamic (AFP Photo/Mohd Rasfan)

Abinaya Jayaraman worked at a bank but left when her employer demanded she dress as a man and use the men's toilet.

A Hindu ethnic Indian with long hair and dressed in a bright yellow Indian sari, Abinaya said she turned to sex work for 30 ringgit ($10) per encounter to survive.

"It was hell," she said.

Abinaya had sex-change surgery in 2011 and has found stability working with a local NGO that helps the transgendered.

But her pain lingers. She was sexually abused as a child by a relative, and is now estranged from her family over her lifestyle.

Activists said many transgender people can become depressed, suicidal, and turn to drugs and alcohol.

"Here we live in fear. We are treated as criminals. We are not treated as humans," Abinaya said.

Related Article:

"The Akashic Circle" – Jul 17, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Religion, The Humanization of God, Benevolent Design, DNA, Akashic Circle, (Old) Souls, Gaia, Indigenous People, Talents, Reincarnation, Genders, Gender Switches, In “between” Gender Change, Gender Confusion, Shift of Human Consciousness, Global Unity,..... etc.)  - (Text version)

“… Gender Switching

Old souls, let me tell you something. If you are old enough, and many of you are, you have been everything. Do you hear me? All of you. You have been both genders. All of you have been what I will call between genders, and that means that all of you have had gender switches. Do you know what happens when it's time for you to switch a gender? We have discussed it before. You'll have dozens of lifetimes as the same gender. You're used to it. It's comfortable. You cannot conceive of being anything else, yet now it's time to change. It takes approximately three lifetimes for you to get used to it, and in those three lifetimes, you will have what I call "gender confusion."

It isn't confusion at all. It's absolutely normal, yet society often will see it as abnormal. I'm sitting here telling you you've all been through it. All of you. That's what old souls do. It's part of the system. …”

DNA Hunt in MH17 Victim Identification

Police in Indonesia are collecting DNA samples from relatives of those killed in the Malaysia Airlines tragedy

Jakarta Globe, Ari Susanto, Jul 20, 2014

Ida Mardiyati, right, sister of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 plane crash victim
 Yuli Hastini, gets her blood drawn at her parents’ house in Kebonan, Solo, Central
 Java, on July 19, 2014, by the Central Java Police for DNA samples. (Antara Photo/
Hafidz Novalsyah)

Solo. Police have begun taking DNA samples from family members of some of the 12 Indonesians believed to have been on board the Malaysia Airlines flight that was shot down over Ukraine on Thursday.

Police are also questioning the relatives about any identifiable physical characteristics as they seek to provide details to the investigators trying to identify the remains scattered over a field in rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine, according to Adj. Comr. Aris Prasetyo, a spokesman for the National Police’s Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team.

Aris told the Jakarta Globe on Sunday that police had already taken a DNA sample from relatives of Yuli Hastini, 44, an Indonesian woman who was on board Flight MH17 with her Dutch husband, Johnny Paulisen, and their two children, Arjuna Paulisen and Sri Paulisen.

The family were said to be on an annual trip to visit Yuli’s family in Solo, Central Java. It was the first time they had flown Malaysia Airlines, having previously taken Singapore Airlines, relatives said.

In neighboring Karanganyar district, police took DNA samples from the parents of Supartini, 39, who was employed as a domestic worker in The Hague with her two sisters.

Aris said the family had also submitted a copy of a picture that Supartini had taken of herself at Amsterdam’s Schipol airport and sent to one of her sisters before boarding the flight.

The three sisters had all planned to return to Indonesia for a month before going back to the Netherlands. Paryati and Murtini, though, flew out a day earlier, on Emirates and Singapore Airlines flights, respectively.

Aris said the DVI team would submit all the DNA samples and descriptions of the victims to the National Police headquarters in Jakarta for use in aiding investigators identify the bodies at the crash site.

The plane was carrying 298 passengers and crew when it was shot down over territory controlled by pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine’s east. The separatist, the Ukrainian military and the Russian military have all denied responsibility for the incident.

Yuli and Supartini were among 12 Indonesians listed on the passenger manifest. The others were identified as Hadiono Gunawan, Hendry, Clarice Yelena Huizen, Vickiline Kurniati Kardia, Gerda Leliana Laherda, Jane M. Adi Soetjipto, Wayan Sujana, Yodricunda Theistiasih, Ketut Wiartini and Ninik Yuriani.

Related Article:

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashes in east Ukraine

New Zealand recalls dairy products over botulism fears

BBC News, 3 August 2013 

Related Stories

• China's Yili in baby milk recall
• China 'tainted milk' kills three
• China milk products tainted again

Fonterra is one of the world's leading

diary exporters

New Zealand's main dairy exporter, Fonterra, has found a strain of bacteria causing botulism in some of its products, including infant formula and sports drinks.

It has led to a global recall of up to 1,000 tons of dairy products across seven countries, including China.

Fonterra has not named the eight companies affected.

Botulism is one of the most dangerous forms of food poisoning, often leading to paralysis.

New Zealand's Ministry of Primary Industries confirmed on Saturday that the tainted products included infant formula, sports drinks, protein drinks and other beverages.

The bacteria was found in three batches of Fonterra's whey protein used in infants' Nutricia Karicare follow-on formula, Fonterra said.

Product lock down

The whey product was produced in May 2012, with a dirty pipe at one of its processing plants in Waikato responsible for the contamination, the company said.

Nutricia has locked down all five batches of formula believed to contain the tainted product and says none of its product was actually sold.

Fonterra - the fourth largest diary company in the world - says it has urged its customers to urgently check their supply chains.

"We are acting quickly," Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings said.

"Our focus is to get information out about potentially affected product as fast as possible so that it can be taken off supermarket shelves and, where it has already been purchased, can be returned."

The countries affected beside New Zealand include China, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia.

Fonterra said there had been no reports of any illness linked to the affected whey product.

The dairy industry powers New Zealand's economy, with the country exporting up to 95% of its milk.

Fonterra is a major supplier of bulk milk powder products used in milk formula in China.

Chinese consumers have a special interest after a tainted milk formula scandal in 2008 killed six babies and made some 300,000 infants sick.

The Chinese authorities have already ordered domestic importers to recall all milk products that could be affected.

Fonterra's chief executive, Theo Spierings, plans to fly to China on Saturday to deal with the fall-out.

Botulism is a rare paralytic illness caused by a toxin which is very poisonous to humans.

Related Article:

China bans New Zealand milk powder in botulism scare

UNFPA Focuses on Contraception for 222 Million in Developing World

Jakarta Globe, Thalif Deen, May 22, 2013

A person displays strips of contraceptive pills. (AFP Photo/Mychele Daniau)

When thousands of participants from around the world gather in Kuala Lumpur next week, the primary focus will be on health and empowerment of girls and women.

The meeting, scheduled for May 26-30 under a banner titled Women Deliver, will zero in on a longstanding unanswered question: how does the international community meet the massive unmet needs for contraception by over 222 million women in the developing world?”

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) points out that increased contraceptive use and reduced unmet needs for contraception are central to achieving three of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals — improving maternal health, reducing child mortality and combating HIV/AIDS — heading toward the 2015 deadline.

Sivananthi Thanenthiran, executive director at the Malaysia-based Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Center for Women (Arrow), told IPS the ability to decide the number, timing, and spacing of their children is one of the most fundamental rights individuals and couples can have.

Currently, she said, it is estimated 222 million women have an unmet need for family planning, and in many countries most women still continue to have more children then they desired.

“Investing in reproductive health and reproductive rights requires investment in a number of interventions by UN agencies, governments and donors,” she added.

Since UNFPA began operations back in 1969, the average global fertility has been cut in half. UNFPA says it has been a “critical catalyst” in this success by responding to requests by developing countries.

Asked how best the contraceptive needs could be met, Dr. Purnima Mane, president and chief executive officer of Pathfinder International, told IPS the United Nations and the international community need to continue advocating for increased funding — domestic and international — for access to contraception and for the integration of family planning into universal health coverage in all possible forums and through broader partnerships across sectors.

While it is true that investments in women’s education are essential to this effort, she said, much more needs to happen to change the situation of women.

Community-oriented work to change social norms around gender and enabling social and economic policies are essential to prevent early marriage, to keep girls in school, and to help women to space their births and give birth safely, when they want to bear children, said Mane, who heads an organization described as the global leader in sexual and reproductive rights.

She argued that based on historical evidence, political will is, and will be, the most critical element of success for strong family planning programs.

“However, we need to be vigilant about the voluntary nature of such programs and the quality of the care provided,” Mane added.

At this time, she said, the most critical priority is for the global community to come together to address the contraceptive and sexual and reproductive health information and service needs of the growing youth population of over three billion under the age of 25.

“There is no easy fix and we all know that. What we need is to address the multiple factors that impact on this issue rather than focus on any one aspect alone,” she said.

The Kuala Lumpur meeting, the third Women Deliver conference launched originally in 2007, is touted as the largest global event of the decade — primarily of government leaders, policymakers, healthcare professionals, representatives of non-governmental organizations, corporate leaders, and global media outlets.

The event will include a Youth Pre-Conference, a Minister’s Forum and a Parliamentarians Forum.

Asked about investments in reproductive health, Thanenthiran told IPS these include interventions around delaying the age of marriage and the age of first pregnancies, which include investments in girls’ education especially at the secondary and tertiary levels.

Interventions such as making available a range of contraceptive methods and ensuring women receive the right information so that they can make informed choices about the method that best suits them.

Health service providers should also treat women with kindness and providing quality care and service are essential in increasing trust towards family planning programs, she added.

Naturally this requires funding and political commitment, but the health of women and girls is well worth safeguarding, Thanenthiran added.

Asked how the United Nations’ post-2015 economic agenda could underline reproductive health,Mane told IPS human rights principles of the International Conference on Population and Development (which took place in Cairo in 1994) can be embedded constructively in a variety of ways in the new set of development goals.

But given that the relevant MDGs are especially lagging, “more explicit attention to the unfinished agenda is needed as we go forward.”

Population dynamics are also often left out of important discussions about future needs and development scenarios. For example, population growth may be mentioned but not in relation to access to contraception as a solution, she added.

She said universal health care is a start, if coverage of the broadest range of sexual and reproductive health care is explicitly included to move the unfinished agenda forward.

“Only then will we achieve sustainable development,” she said.

“My organization, Pathfinder International, stands behind confronting inequality by advocating with other civil society partners for better governance which not only addresses inequality but holds policymakers accountable for failing to address preventable deaths among women and children,” Mane declared.

Thanenthiran said it is essential that access to comprehensive, quality sexual and reproductive health services, as promised to women and committed to by governments in the Cairo ICPD Program of Action, is prioritized in the post-2015 development framework.

The ICPD Program of Action (PoA) is going to be 20 years in 2014, and women are yet to enjoy in full the promises made to them during that time, she pointed out.

In the MDGs, some attention was given to the agenda under MDG 5 (on improving maternal health), and those working in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights are hoping to see a more comprehensive approach with more reproductive health issues and indicators being covered in the new goal on reproductive and maternal health.

This would be the best way to go about to ensure government commitments to the ICPD are fulfilled, and initial investments made during the MDGs are continued and fully realized in the new development framework, she declared.

Inter Press Service

Related Articles:

"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, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle 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)

“…  3 - Longer Life is Going to Happen, But…

Here is one that is a review. We keep bringing it up because Humans don't believe it. If you're going to start living longer, there are those who are frightened that there will be overpopulation. You've seen the way it is so far, and the geometric progression of mathematics is absolute and you cannot change it. So if you look at the population of the earth and how much it has shifted in the last two decades, it's frightening to you. What would change that progression?

The answer is simple, but requires a change in thinking. The answer is a civilization on the planet who understands a new survival scenario. Instead of a basic population who has been told to have a lot of children to enhance the race [old survival], they begin to understand the logic of a new scenario. The Akashic wisdom of the ages will start to creep in with a basic survival scenario shift. Not every single woman will look at herself and say, "The clock is ticking," but instead can say, "I have been a mother 14 times in a row. I'm going to sit this one out." It's a woman who understands that there is no loss or guilt in this, and actually feels that the new survival attribute is to keep the family small or not at all! Also, as we have said before, even those who are currently ignorant of population control will figure out what is causing babies to be born [Kryon joke].

Part of the new Africa will be education and healing, and eventually a zero population growth, just like some of the first-world nations currently have. Those who are currently tied to a spiritual doctrine will actually have that doctrine changed (watch for it) regarding Human birth. Then they will be able to make free choice that is appropriate even within the establishment of organized religion. You see, things are going to change where common sense will say, "Perhaps it would help the planet if I didn't have children or perhaps just one child." Then the obvious, "Perhaps I can exist economically better and be wiser with just one. It will help the one!" Watch for these changes. For those of you who are steeped in the tradition of the doctrines and would say that sounds outrageously impossible, I give you the new coming pope [Kryon smile]. For those of you who feel that uncontrolled procreation is inevitable, I encourage you to see statistics you haven't seen or didn't care to look at yet about what first-world countries have already accomplished on their own, without any mandates. It's already happening. That was number three.….”

A Thousand Aceh Police Officers Identified as Drug Users

Jakarta Globe, Nurdin Hasan, December 13, 2011

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• $10m Pledge to Promote Acehnese Dance

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.

Related Article:

Major Drug Shock Rocks Police in Aceh

Spike in Fires Triggers Ailments in Palembang

Jakarta Globe, October 02, 2011

Haze from forest fires blanket Palangkaraya, the capital city of Central
 Kalimanatan last week. Severe drought has increased the incidence of forest
 fires, which are generally blamed on farmers clearing forest land for plantations.
Indonesian and foreign partner governments are waging a campaign to conserve
one of world's richest forest ecosystem in Borneo. (AFP Photo)

Palembang. Some 17,000 residents of Palembang are suffering from respiratory problems following months of haze that have blanketed the region after the dry season’s widespread bush and forest fires.

Gema Asiani, the head of the city’s health office, said the health problems mostly consisted of cough, flu and breathing difficulties, including asthma.

Gema suggested residents use face masks when leaving their homes, saying they were effective in preventing the development of respiratory ailments.

The head of the city’s environment office, Kemas Abubakar, said air pollution in Palembang had been steadily rising in correlation with the increased number of fires in the region.

The use of fire in traditional land-clearing methods, including peatlands, releases enormous amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and creates haze that blankets the area, which also travels into Malaysia and Singapore.

The practice is illegal but difficult to prevent in light of the vast area and limited available manpower.

The Straits Times reported on Friday that Singapore’s National Environment Agency warned the haze had returned and could linger throughout the weekend.

The NEA said the haze’s reappearance was largely because of a growing number of fires in Sumatra. The blazes increased from about 50 on Sunday to more than 300 on Wednesday, a two-week high.

The pollutant standards index, which measures air quality, spiked to 69 on Thursday evening. A pollutant rating of 100 is considered unhealthy.