Internet surfing.... Be aware and be safe.

Exciting!

One of the greatest inventions of all times has got to be the internet where information is at your finger tips and interaction is virtual. I have managed to keep abreast with my professional skill and knowledge through this medium.

I communicate with my colleagues and friends, both old and new, seamlessly. I even send images of disease conditions to experts and have had a fruitful interaction with a blogger who happened to be a Harvard professor, unheard of, prior to the internet era unless of course, you had the opportunity to study in that ivy league. I am very grateful and mindful of net etiquette. I would like to think that like any society, most netizens are genuine but there are also some bad elements one needs to be wary of.

Desolate ...


Through my blog, I meet some very nice people. People who are anonymous but individually operates a "live" blog all the same and as I mentioned in my profile I respect their privacy. How I wish everyone who is net-savvy would think this way. Of course I am being rather naive here. There are dangers lurking in the net. From friendly comments which I welcome, unsolicited responses which I tolerate, advertisements which I occasionally cringe at, to downright abuse, spam and pornography, let alone all those viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, malware, adware, you name it, they are there, surfing with you.

Do not send any email from your computer to an address which you do not know because your IP and location can be traced. So my friends, surf the net by all means for your positive "growth" but be aware and be safe....

Memories of My School Days

The incident about a Malaysian female teacher who punished her student by forcing him to smoke continuously for four hours, four at a time (42 cigarettes altogether), has made international news. I read the article with great regret.

There is a tendency for people to resort to options triggered by anger rather than reasoning. Most likely the child will be mentally scarred and, on the positive side, might actually cease his smoking addiction. But surely there are more civilised alternatives than the form of torture which could affect the child's physical and mental health. I thought teachers are exposed to the subject of child psychology during their training...no?

I remember when I was in primary school how we looked up to our teachers. Some teachers were inspiring and caring. I recall one particular lady teacher who used to inspect our teeth and hair on regular basis. Till now I would cringe if I am out of toothpaste! And my English teacher, the late Mr Hamid who was a cousin to the first President of Singapore... he was such an enthusiastic teacher who obviously knew the value of the language and he taught with passion. I used to look forward to his lessons... and what about the teacher who taught us how to sew? She was such a gentle soul, she would even provide us with the materials to work on. Thanks to her, I can do hand stitch quite well.

At the boarding school, I encountered teachers who were patient,considerate and helpful to the point of being motherly.... Miss Chua, I really cannot forget her. Mrs Ang who got me interested in science and Cik Kalthum who never failed to praise our good work and our maths teacher Mr Chan....yes, we called him "Daguless" Chan (Bless him) as he had a double chin!

I would be lying if I did not have a share of bad teachers who I would rather forget. Sometimes you have forgotten what was it that brought about the ire of a teacher making her/ him unreasonably angry. We had this lady who used to come around during our evening preps with such a grumpy face and virtually screamed whenever she came across chattering girls. And this teacher, a spinster who shouted at me for clearing out the dishes when the cookery lessons had not yet ended. Till today I can still visualise her furious face and I used to dislike her lessons.... maybe that is why I am not a great cook!

Teachers , how have you all influenced us and oft times, shape our outlook of life!

Non-Performing Mutual Funds..... Just Dump Them and Move On.

Investing is full of risks. You need to determine what levels of risks you can tolerate before you plunge into the various financial products with variable inherent risks. The financial chaos beginning with the subprime crisis in the US, later called credit crunch then global financial crisis has taught valuable lessons to individual investors.

The lesson for me is not to hold your position too long. Lock down your profit at a reasonable percentage while the euphoria is still on. Do not be greedy. Choose your portfolio carefully. Between 2005 and 2007, I bought four mutual funds sold by my bank. I must admit, I did not look, let alone read their respective prospectus. I bought simply because at that time the fund was just being launched and the markets were doing well and I wanted to diversify from just having capital protected products with lower returns.

My frustration began when the funds depreciated at alarming rates especially those related to property equities and climate change. I have waited for close to four years for the funds to at least return my capital. Since March 2009, the prices have slowly appreciated. In October 2008 my losses were nearly 55%!

Now that the market is on its way to a recovery, I have to take risks to compensate for my current losses on two mutual funds, CIMB Principal Climate Change Equity at 42.46% and Pacific Advantage GDP Momentum Fund at 11.79%. I am dumping these two current non-performing funds at a loss of 22.03% and put whatever meagre remaining capital into the stock market. I am keeping Amglobal Property Equities Fund, though my current loss is at 45.08% as I have more confidence in its future performance depending on the recovery of the US property market. It seems that there is light at the end of the tunnel as people have to buy properties, sooner or later.

The climate change fund is a real let down from the beginning ,well before the financial crisis and is a sight for sore eyes. I want to move on and avoid this particular organisation-related fund managers like the plague!

Amanah Saham 1 Malaysia...jumping on the bandwagon!

Today is the first day of public sale of Amanah Saham 1 Malaysia (AS1M) units, another product of Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) that was launched recently by the Prime Minister. This offer will go on for a month till 3 September 2009.

As I am feeling kind of lazy to monitor my stock portfolio and getting risk-averse at times, I have been thinking it is better to let the fund managers look after some of my money. Incidentally, I have also bought other PNB products like ASN2, the unit price of which is currently slowly and steadily ascending.

There is so much excitement about this new product which is offering 10 Billion units at RM1.00 each. Most of my friends are buying it so I thought I would be the odd one out if I did not buy the maximum permitted. Fresh from buying BNM Bond, ASM and a number of stocks which have upside potentials, I am now jumping on the ASIM bandwagon hoping that it will perform better than the others.

One would expect, like other capital-protected PNB products, this unit trust to certainly perform in the medium and long term. You can invest as little as 100 units and at end of the year, your investment will increase by about RM7 (at expected 7% dividend rate , maybe more? ... a strategy as my friend AC says...) compared to the same amount placed in a bank for the same duration, you would get only RM2 (at 2% current interest rate) For maximum permitted investment, we are talking about multiple of 500 (18-55)or 1000 (above 55). So eligible Malaysians, what are you waiting for?

Persistent Dry, Irritable Coughs......Allergy, Asthma, TB, COPD?

Mr HJ just turned 60. He is on treatment for diabetes and hypertension. He is a non-smoker and there is no family history of asthma. He has a good appetite and no problem with weight. There is no complaint of fever or sweating at night. Neither was there a history of food allergy though he did report that he was allergic to grass and once in his twenties, he collapsed following an injection of penicillin.

So with that background, Mr HJ comes to the clinic complaining of persistent dry coughs that he describes as irritating for the last six weeks or so. The coughs occur throughout the day and at nights occasionally disturbing his sleep.There has never been fever to indicate an infection, either viral or bacterial.

Looking at Mr HJ with his well coiffured hair, I was encouraged to ask whether he had been using a hairspray to set his hair which he admitted he used for many years without any ill-effects. Then I asked whether he had changed the brand of his hairspray recently. Yes, according to him he did, about a couple of months ago, he bought a small canister of hairspray of unknown brand in a small town near to a seaside resort where he went for a meeting and had forgotten to bring along his usual hairspray ( a well known brand). He has been using this new hair spray ever since and yes ,he has also been coughing ever since!

I told him to wash and shampoo his hair thoroughly and stop using the hairspray when he showed the canister which states the content to be polyvinyl pyrrolidone which is a known respiratory irritant. He followed my advice and about a week later reported that his coughs had miraculously gone!

I was reminded of a lady patient of mine, Ms NS who worked in a salon. She had always been having dry irritating coughs which had caused her many sleepless nights. She looked depressed and thin. Anti-histamines only gave a temporary relief. I surmised that her condition had something to do with her workplace, those hair spraying ,shampooing and manicuring , somehow had affected her health. After almost a year, she stopped work and decided to follow her family to the pilgrimage. When she returned, she was healthy looking and a lot happier and of course she attributed this healthy change to her pilgrimage.

I mentioned to her to please do justice to her pilgrimage by not returning to work in that salon!

H1N1 (swine flu) is now sustained community spread in Malaysia

Anti - flu Kit

The last month or so has seen widespread community spread of H1N1 in Malaysia, a good two or three months after UK has achieved that status. Infection seems to cluster in schools and higher learning institutions where close interactions are common. As the virus relentlessly goes through its natural course, more at risk persons are being infected, resulting in some deaths. The first reported death was that of a student from a foreign country in late June 2009 and up to date, eight H1N1- confirmed deaths have been reported in the country and the number is going to climb.

Any death due to this novel virus is tragic . This is especially so in the case of a pregnant woman who had just delivered a live baby. Among our deaths are that of young children and this becomes a source of deep concern especially if there are no detectable risk factors like asthma, obesity or immune suppression.


Antiviral capsules

The decision to prescribe antivirals for those at risk with influenza symptoms at primary care level is wise. However, indiscriminate prescribing has the likelihood of the virus developing resistance and render the antiviral insensitive. It follows that an antiviral vigilance cannot be overemphasised.

On a lighter note, the fear of influenza A H1N1 virus is so irrational that some of the health personnel became depressed when they tested positive for the virus. One doctor was reported to break down in anguish when told she was positive. Ghee... this is not HIV for God's sake!

In most healthy people the infection is mild and it is better to be infected and develop antibodies against it and remain simultaneously and relatively symptom-free. When you test positive for the virus, practice self isolation and inform those around you to be extra-cautious till the danger period is over, about six to seven days from your onset of symptoms.

Finally, the anxiously- awaited vaccine specific for H1N1, is expected to alter the epidemiological course of this virus. Let's hope that it is both safe and effective.