Weekend - Macau Daily Times

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MDTimes Number 1053 Weekend Times No. 51 July 31 2010
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31 July 2010
®
Malaysian
Muslims party
on despite
religious
crackdown
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Times
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31 July 2010
Cover story
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Mouse Click
by António Espadinha Soares
5
Malaysian Muslims
party on despite
religious crackdown
by Beh Lih Yi
10
Do you know Macau?
Chinese Festivities :
Mid-Autumn Festival
20
Cooking Times
Almond, Eggs and Gila
Squash
Marmelade Cake
by Diamantina Coimbra
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by Carlos Balona Gomes
Food for Health
Nutrition in cancer
prevention
by Eugénia Santos Silva
18 World of Wonder
28 Offbeat
29 This Day in History
30 Infotainment
34 Zoom
22
Macau Daily Times’
Saturday magazine
by MC LA
Emperors, princes and
Australia’s league
of mini-nations
by Talek Harris
by Cecília Jorge
Weekend
32
Press Play
Administrator: Kowie Geldenhuys
Director: Rogério Beltrão Coelho
Editor: Cecília Jorge
Design Editor: João Jorge Magalhães
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Ask the Vet
Going to the Vet’s
by Dr Ruan Du Toit Bester
Other contributors for this issue:
António José Espadinha Soares, Beh Lih Yi, Carlos Balona
Gomes, Diamantina Coimbra, Eugénia Santos Silva, Fabrizio
Croce, Lawrence Bartlett, Manuel Cardoso, MC LA, Ruan Du Toit
Bester, Talek Harris
E-mail for news and agenda: [email protected]
Address: 2nd Floor 62 Av. Infante D. Henrique, MACAU SAR Telephones: + 853 287 160 81/2 Fax: + 853 287 160 84
E-mail for advertisement: [email protected]
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31 July 2010
Malaysian Muslims
party on despite
religious crackdown
D
by Beh Lih Yi
usk has fallen
and the party is
just beginning
for 29-year-old
Asyikin, one
of the many young Malay
Muslims who hang out in
Kuala Lumpur’s vibrant Bukit
Bintang nightlife district.
A morality crackdown has
seen Malaysian Islamic
authorities hand out caning
and jail sentences for illicit
drinking and sex, and launch
raids on homes and clubs in
the glare of media flashlights.
But for Asyikin, a petite and
attractive business executive
dressed in a knee-length skirt
and strappy high heels, the
campaign hasn’t dampened
her party mood.
“I couldn’t care less, I’m
partying. Religion to me is a
personal thing,” she says as
she sips a glass of whisky and
greets other regulars at the
bars and restaurants that line
the narrow streets.
Malays, who make up 60
percent of the population,
are forbidden to have sex out
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Malaysian Muslims party
of wedlock or drink alcohol
under the Sharia legal system,
which runs in parallel to the
civil courts in Malaysia.
In an unprecedented case that
grabbed world headlines last
year, Muslim model Kartika
Sari Dewi Shukarno, 33, was
sentenced to six lashes of the
cane for drinking beer.
Kartika’s sentence was
commuted to community
service after an uproar from
rights groups, but three
other women were quietly
caned under Islamic laws in
February for having sex out of
wedlock.
Despite the highly publicised
cases, every weekend Kuala
Lumpur’s top clubs are
packed with fashionably
dressed youngsters including
Muslim Malays – many
offspring of the nation’s elite
– socialising and drinking
openly.
“I’m a bit more wary after
all these cases but it doesn’t
really affect my mood to
go out and party,” says
Muaz Omar, a civil servant
who goes to pubs with
friends to watch live band
performances.
“People who drink still do
go out because even private
parties at home are subjected
to raids, there is no longer a
safe haven,” says the 35-yearold, who adds that he does
not drink himself.
“The religious authorities
should not be a moral police.
In the religion, if it’s a private
matter, then it should be a
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private thing. There must be
a rethinking of the way they
act.”
The crackdown has
fuelled debate over rising
“Islamisation” of the multiethnic nation, and rights
groups have urged religious
authorities to stop acting as
morality police.
“We don’t agree with the way
they go on, Islam is not about
snooping around catching
people committing sin,” says
Ratna Osman, legal manager
from leading civil society
group Sisters In Islam (SIS).
Ratna blasted the raids as a
form of rights violation and
an intrusion into people’s
privacy.
“Unless that person is a
drunkard and started going
around committing crime or
causing accidents, then yes,
you can punish them because
they endanger people and
their own life,” she says.
“But if the person commits a
sin in a private domain then it
is between him and God. If as
a Muslim you feel compelled
to tell him, it should be done
in a compassionate way or to
educate them.”
Religious authorities defend
their actions, saying they
are merely carrying out
their duty to ensure fellow
Muslims stay away from sin.
“We don’t accept any
behaviour that is not
condoned by Islam,” Che
Mat Che Ali, the head of the
Islamic affairs department in
Kuala Lumpur, tells AFP.
31 July 2010
Muslims leave
the Jameh Masjid
(mosque) in Kuala
Lumpur
People enjoying
their evening in a
bar in Kuala Lumpur.
Malays, who make
up 60 percent of the
population, are forbidden to have sex out
of wedlock or drink
alcohol under the
Sharia legal system
which runs in parallel
to the civil courts in
Malaysia. Despiste
this every weekend
Kuala Lumpur’s top
clubs are packed with
fashionably dressed
youngsters
“Drinking is a big sin. If
you are drunk, you are not
in the right state of mind,
you yourself will suffer and
others may suffer too.”
“It’s not just something
between the person and God,
we have a duty to advise
them.”
The department has rounded
up nearly 500 individuals
in Kuala Lumpur so far this
year for offences including
drinking and “khalwat”, or
“close proximity” which
bars Muslims from being
alone with a member of the
opposite sex.
Ratna warns that if the
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Malaysian Muslims party
A bar decorated with baloons for the
weekend in Kuala Lumpur
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crackdown continues it will
hurt Malaysia’s image as a
moderate and progressive
Muslim nation.
“The outside world looks at us
as a country which is leaning
towards the Talibanisation
of the Muslim community in
Malaysia,” she says.
But many Malays are
unmoved by the ideological
debate.
“If you ask me whether I am
afraid to hang out with my
friends like this after all these
cases, the answer is no,” says
Asyikin, who like many of
Malaysia’s most privileged
youngsters went to university
abroad – in Britain.
“It’s a choice of lifestyle. Some
people, they really follow the
book (religious teachings)
and for some, you are born a
Muslim, you can’t get out of it,”
she says as she clinks glasses
with a friend. W
AFP
31 July 2010
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Chinese Festiviti
Mid-Autumn Fes
by Diamantina Coimbra,
Institute For Tourism Studies (IFT)
Water caltrops (top)
and mooncake
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T
Mid-Autumn Festival has been celebrated for more than 2000 years. It is
held on the 15th day of the 8th lunar
month, when the moon is full. It falls
usually in the middle of September and
in the middle of autumn. According to records, in the
ancient times, in spring, the emperors worship the
sun in the morning, and in autumn, they worship the
moon at night. This custom could have been the earliest origin of the mid-autumn festival. Moon worshipping became popular during the Ming dynasty. During
that period of time, an Altar of the Moon was built in
Beijing by order of the emperor. This was the place
where the emperor and high officials offer sacrifices to
the moon during the festival while moon ceremonies
were still held in the Imperial Garden of the palace.
Many people relate mid-autumn festival with midautumn rebellion. Long ago, when the different ethnic
groups were living in constant conflict and the Hans
were not in power, they were badly treated by the rulers. At one point, they secretly started to prepare a riot
and used cakes with hidden notes to convey messages
between them. Just some time before the mid autumn
festival, one of the leaders, Zhang Shicheng from Taizhou inserted a note in the moon cakes with a message saying “August 15 Night Uprising” and sent it
to many Han people. So, the Hans organized a revolt
secretly, and on mid-autumn festival night, they successfully overthrew the rulers. Although this is just a
folk story, the custom of eating moon cakes has continuously developed into an important custom. In the
past, when people worship the moon, they also make
an offering to the “Moonlight Buddha”. The offering
was a piece of paper which has a picture of the Buddha
in the center and under it, a picture of the jade rabbit.
After lighting the incense, the piece of paper is burnt.
Children called this rabbit, the Lord Rabbit. The figure of the rabbit is very appealing to the children as
he wore armor and had a golden helmed; he holds a
small flag on his back and his cheeks were rosy. Today,
some people still use the figure of the rabbit to decorate moon cakes.
he
ies
stival
31 July 2010
Piglets in the basket biscuits and (R) taro are traditional fare
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Mid-Autumn Festival
Mid-autumn festival is a time of
reunion. All families would gather
together to have dinner and then go
together to an open venue such as a
garden, a park or a beach to appreciate the moon and eat special food.
The list of food may include moon
cake, traditional piglets placed in
the basket, water caltrop, mini taro
and pomelo.
Until a recent past,
after dinner, families would gather
together in the yard to worship the
moon. Women prepare food, and
once ready, it is placed on an altar table. The eldest member of the
family leads the other members to
worship the moon, and when the
ceremony finishes, the moon cakes
are divided and distributed.
The day following the mid autumn
festival is determined by the government of Macau as an official public
holiday. W
Pomelo fruit, popular
during the Mid-Autumn
Festival
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Food for Health
C
Nutrition
in cancer
prevention
is a group
of diseases characterised by uncontrolled cell growth
as a result of DNA
alterations in a single cell or in its
clones which lead to loss control
of its normal growth and replication processes.
According to cancer death
projections by the International
Agency for Research on Cancer
(IARC), between 1975 and 2000
the cancer cases doubled worldwide, they will double again between 2000 and 2020 and nearly
triple by 2030. The increased
number may be, in part, attributable to the growing global population, an increase in life expectancy and progress in diagnosis
and screening, but the rising incidence of cancers is documented
across all age categories including children and adolescents, a
trend observed over the last three
decades (Steliarova-Foucher E. et
al, Lancet 2004).
In 2007, experts of the World
Cancer Research Fund (WCRF)
and of the American Institute for
Cancer Research (AICR) stated
that 40 per cent of all cancers are
linked to poor diet, low physical activity and excess of body
weight.
This statement presents a challenge to scientists and health
ancer
14
policy-makers to implement
measures for the promotion of
healthy lifestyles and reduced exposure to risk factors in order to
reduce cancer numbers.
In the last decades a broad
range of epidemiological and experimental studies have provided
evidence that food and nutrition,
or specific food constituents,
and some nutritional covariates
as obesity, have a pivotal role on
cancer prevention.
Multiple substances including
chemicals added to modify flavour, colour, stability or texture,
pesticide residues and drugs given to animals and chemical contaminants formed during food
preparation or into foods during
industrial processing and packaging can contaminate food supply.
In animal studies, these substances were linked to carcinogenesis.
Food can also be contaminated by
naturally occurring carcinogens
such as mycotoxins from mould
growth. Aflatoxin B1, founded
in cereals and legumes, was reported as a cause of liver cancer
risk. Since these compounds are
multiple and insidious in the environment, the role of carcinogens in foods is largely unknown
and difficult to assess. Food may
also contain other constituents
that can cause damage on cells
and tissues like alcohol and salt.
by Eugénia Santos Silva
On the other hand, foods contain
a wide range of compounds with
documented
chemopreventive
activity like phytochemicals that
confer particular properties on
foods, such as taste and colour.
These compounds have already
demonstrated, in vitro and in
vivo studies, anti-oxidant, anticarcinogenic, anti-inflammatory,
antimicrobial and immunomodulant effects.
The knowledge of these substances, specific nutrients and
their mechanisms of action may
allow dietary modifications, in
respect to food consumption,
avoiding some of them and/or
increasing the consumption of
another in order to cancer prevention, although differences
in cancer susceptibility due to
inherited variants in genes encoding enzymes involved in the
activation or detoxification of exogenous carcinogens, as well in
repair of subtle mistakes in DNA
structure may modify the individual cancer risk.
Cancer is a multistep process
that results from a complex interaction between genetic and
environmental factors including
food and nutrition.
We will talk about specific food
carcinogens and protective dietary components in the next
numbers of Weekend Times. W
31 July 2010
Steps in carcinogenesis
INITIATION
PROMOTION
PROGRESSION
CANCER
METASTASIS
Chemical
substances
Radiation
Viruses
1 - 40 YEARS
DNA LESION
ONCOGENE ACTIVATION/SUPRESSOR INACTIVATION
CLINICALLY DETECTABLE
TUMOURS
Image source: Can Fam Physician 2007;53:1905-1911
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Mouse Click
by António Espadinha Soares
Video of the Week
Software of the Week
THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD
http://vodo.net/yesmen/
Install Pad
http://installpad.com/
For those who’ve tried out other operating systems such
as Linux, in one of its many distributions, you probably
miss that operating system’s method of downloading and
installing software, by simply navigating a software management application, ticking off which applications you want
and then letting the software manager do the rest of the
job. Now you can do the same thing for Windows by using
this app, which should make a system reinstallation less of
a chore by making the reinstallation of popular programs,
and the discovery of new ones, an easier task.
Medtango
Here we have a full length film distributed for free on the
Internet. The reason as to why it’s being distributed this
way is partly because the authors of the film, two political activists, have been sued by one of the many corporations and organizations that they mock by impersonating
them, calling press conferences on their behalf and making
statements that usually run contrary to these institutions’
usual policies and method of business. The stunts pulled
off by this quirky pair are outlandish and will leave you
with a mixed bag of feelings as you will not know wether
you should laugh at their pranks, cry at the human misery
caused by greed, or be enraged at the indifference of those
whose actions affect millions of us every single day.
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http://medtango.com/
Although this one caters specifically to those in the
medical profession, even the laymen among us might
want to keep this one in the bookmarks. Medtango is a
search engine for doctors and physicians which searches
through several references of medical news, drugs, diseases, symptoms, PubMed information, Wikipedia and
medical images. Depending on how thorough a search
you’re conducting you can customize the engine to look
through more reputable sites such as PubMed all the
way down to Twitter feeds. You’ll have to signup for an
account to use all of the site’s features.
31 July 2010
Fits.me
http://fits.me/
Not all products are like CDs and books, in that there’s little
variation that is expected from those products bought unseen
and untried as there is for other items such as clothing. It was
to address this particular problem that Fits.Me was created.
The brain child of eCommerce experts, it hopes to address the
shortcomings of online clothing retailers by allowing shoppers to visualize how a particular item of clothing will look
on them after they’ve input their measurements onto a virtual
mannequin. Obviously one can’t still tell how a particular item
of clothing will feel on himself, but the concept is interesting
enough to check out.
Blog of the Week
The Unclutterer
http://unclutterer.com
If there’s one problem most people in Macau share
is lack of space, something which is compounded with
the fact that it’s relatively easy to buy a lot of cheap
stuff that just piles up around your home and office.
If you’re looking for solutions to better organize your
home and work space The Unclutterer provides some
pretty good suggestions on how to change your habits,
cool products that are useful and help you save space,
better ways to organize your lifestyle so as to reduce
your laundry, and many other types of useful tips and
suggestions.
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Almond, Eggs and Gila
Marmelade Cake
31 July 2010
Squash
Questions and comments to
[email protected]
To publish at http://www.sundayflavors.blogspot.com
by Carlos Balona Gomes
Photo by Fabrizio Croce
I
we talk about Portuguese conventual
sweets it is almost impossible to find a single recipe without eggs or almonds. But if
we go down South of Portugal, to Alentejo
or Algarve, we must add to eggs and almond another important ingredient: Gila squash
marmelade. This very peculiar type of squash got
its Portuguese name from Chila-caiota or chilacayote, due to the South-American name, and its
name in English is fig-leaf gourd, due to the Latin
name cucurbita ficifolia, which means squash
with fig leaf.
Gila marmelade filaments, almost like sweet crystal noodles, create an amazing paste when involved
with egg yolks and ground almond. Then you just
need to add a few more ingredients of your own
preference like I did in this recipe. If you really can’t
find Gila marmelade (doce de Gila), feel free to replace it by another fruit marmelade of your choice,
keeping the other listed ingredients. W
f
YOU WILL NEED
300 gr / 10 ½ oz of peeled
almonds;
300 gr / 10 ½ Gila squash
marmelade;
200 gr / 7 ¼ oz of sugar;
2 eggs;
10 egg yolks;
2 tablespoons of all purpose
flour;
1 teaspoon of baking
powder;
1 teaspoon of ground
cinnamon;
Scrapings of 1 orange;
1 pear, peeled;
Butter and flour to grease
and dust cake pan;
Icing sugar and ground
cinnamon to dust the cake;
Round cake pan with 30 cm
/ 12 inch diameter.
METHOD:
Soak almonds in boiled water for 5 to
10 minutes. Peal, dry and ground it.
Preheat your oven to 180º C / 350º F;
Grease the cake pan with vegetable
spray or butter and dust it lightly with
flour, tapping out any excess;
Beat together in a bowl eggs, egg
yolks, sugar, grounded almond and Gila
squash marmalade;
Add flour, baking powder, ground
cinnamon, orange scrapings and beat
again;
Pour the batter into the prepared
cake pan;
Peal and deseed pear and slice it;
Place pear slices over the cake batter
very gently;
Bake it immediately in preheated oven
to 180ºC / 350ºF during 45 minutes –
until is baked but not too dry;
Remove from oven and let it cool a bit
before removing from the pan;
Dust with icing sugar and ground
cinnamon and serve.
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Emperors, princes
league of mini-natio
I
t’s raining, and Emperor George
II is not impressed. He frowns at
the elements, curses, and retreats
up the stairs of his Sydney apartment block.
It’s hardly regal language. But if you
have your own empire, complete with
government, citizens and your picture
on the banknotes, you can talk exactly
as you like.
George’s empire is Atlantium, a selfproclaimed global state with the ambitious aim of sweeping away the traditional notion of countries based on
geography and race.
Atlantium has its own colours (blue,
yellow and orange), insignia and even
a capital, the Province of Aurora – a
rural patch of land where George and
his minions are building statues and
monuments.
Inside his flat, George has Atlantium’s
flag and its fictional Solidi currency,
bearing his bespectacled, bearded image, piled on his desk, and a medal of
the empire pinned to his chest.
“When I was 15 years old my parents
said to me, ‘if you don’t like the way the
world is, do something about it’,” says
the emperor, real name George Cruickshank, 43.
“I think they probably meant that I
go off and join a political party. What
I actually ended up doing, with my two
cousins, was starting Atlantium.”
It’s a novel idea, but George is not
alone. Australia has a ragtag collection
of perhaps 30 colourful mini-states of
various shapes, sizes and motivations,
making it a world centre for “micronations”.
For instance, across Sydney from
George’s flat is the Principality of Wy,
an artistic community born from a
planning dispute, while a few hours out
of town is Snake Hill, which declared
independence over a property row.
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Emperor George II of Atlantium, (aka George Cruickshank), displays his national
colours near his home in Sydney
and Australia’s
ons
31 July 2010
by Talek Harris
George II of Atlantium, displays the 25 imperial solidi note featuring a portrait of himself
In Outback Western Australia, the
Principality of Hutt River is celebrating
40 years’ independence from state authorities, during which time it has built
a thriving economy based on visits from
curious tourists.
Off Queensland, the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands
has unofficially sequestered a disused
weather station where it has a post office and funds itself by selling its unique
coins and stamps.
The kingdom, ruled by Emperor Dale
I, was established by a group setting out
on the Gayflower ship in 2004, in protest at a ban on same-sex marriage. Its
anthem: Gloria Gaynor’s “I Am What I
Am”.
According to Macquarie University
academic Judy Lattas, the quirky states
are part-protest, part-product of Australia’s rebellious streak.
“It’s just one form that popular protest
takes in the modern world. It’s interesting – they teach us about the nature of
nation-building itself,” she says.
“It’s also partly that Australians have
long had that attitude: they delight in
people defying authority.”
The mini-states range from one-man
fiefdoms and family ventures to those
like Atlantium, which aim to make a serious political statement.
The enterprises, fed by Australians’
deep-set distrust of authority, have also
flourished in its vast tracts of unused
land, with some bigger than recognised
countries such as Monaco.
“Some you just hear references to and
are really hard to track down. Some it’s
hard to know if they’re still viable,” Lattas says.
In April, Lattas brought Australia’s
micronations together for their first
summit, which was held at a small hall
on an island just outside Sydney and
drew about 50 participants.
She says many had been inspired by
Hutt River, which was established in
1970 and has become the benchmark
for Australia’s micronations thanks to
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Emperors, princes and ... mini-nations
the entrepreneurial zeal of its founder,
His Royal Highness Prince Leonard.
“They’re a lot of people with very
clear grievances. They have awful decisions made with banks and courts
and local bureaucracies and they get
very very frustrated,” Lattas says.
“They feel like there’s a violation of
their natural rights and this is one of
the languages that’s circulating that
they can articulate that sense of injustice in.”
The Principality of Wy is a case in
point. The arts haven, a property in
the leafy Sydney district of Mosman,
symbolically seceded from the local
council in 2004 in sheer frustration
at years of fruitless lobbying for road
access.
“Finally we got jack (fed up) of it and
we thought, look, this is crazy,” says
Wy’s “monarch”, Prince Paul. “All
councils provide is roads and take
away your rubbish so we thought
we’ll secede -- and we did.”
Now Prince Paul and his family,
often clad in robes and crowns and
bearing the emblems of state, happily
host speech days and poetry readings,
and are working on a unique cookbook.
“We thought it would be much too
vain and lofty to call ourselves a kingdom, so we’re just a little principality,”
says Prince Paul, real name Paul Delprat, who runs an art school in central
Sydney.
“And of course being a principality
we are not royal, we’re serene. After all the delays we’ve had from the
council, to retain one’s serenity is a
marvellous thing.”
George’s Atlantium meanwhile has
grown from a childhood fantasy to
an entity with about 1,300 citizens in
110 countries, all run from his inner
city apartment.
The emperor, a radio producer for an
ambient music show, readily admits
that Atlantium’s showier elements,
such as its stamps and open-handed
salute, are a tongue-in-cheek ploy to
draw attention and tourist dollars.
“I don’t demand that people defer to
me, but what I find is that many citizens do without prompting,” George
tells AFP. “I never object if it’s people
doing it unprompted.”
George believes non-bordered states
will play a part in mankind’s future,
and next year he’s planning an enthronement ceremony, when he will
be crowned with a wreath of metallic
laurel leaves.
“The long-term goal is for Atlantium
to take its place amongst the global
community of nations,” George says.
“Whether by the time that happens
the concept of the nation state is as
prevalent as it is today, I don’t know.
Micronations are not unique to
Australia, with self-styled states in
Britain, mainland Europe, America
and elsewhere prevalent enough to
inspire a Lonely Planet guide book
on the subject.
But it is in this far-flung country, little more than a collection of convict
settlements just 200 years ago, where
the concept has really taken hold.
“I think there is in the Australian
psyche a love of standing up for yourself,” says Prince Paul of Wy (http://
principalityofwy.com).
“We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but of course there’s this deep
undercurrent of a profoundly unfair
thing.” W
AFP
Emperor George II of Atlantium smiles next to his garden gnome collection at his home in Sydney
24
31 July 2010
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Ask The Vet
by Dr Ruan Du Toit Bester
Question Categories
to be covered are:
-All about Dogs.
-All about Cats.
-All about Exotics.
-All about pet
ownership.
-All about nutrition.
We will be focusing on
the following;
Allergies
Avian/Exotics
Behavior
Boarding
Dental
Digestive System
Diseases
Ears
General
Heart
Hormones
Husbandry
Medications
Musculoskeletal
Neoplasia
Nervous System
Nutrition
Reproductive System
Respiratory
Skin
Surgery
Travel
Urinary
Vaccinations
Please send all your questions to
[email protected]
or mail to;
Dr Ruan Du Toit Bester
Rua, D.R, L, P, Marquest 2/F, Flat B,
Ponte 6A, Macau SAR.
Tel: +853 66962666,
+852 66706906
Fax: +852 24142727
Ask the Vet - is a service that allows you to ask questions about your pets’ health and
behavior. My goal is to help you, the pet owner, improve the knowledge of your pet’s
everyday needs and health care in Macau through a variety of pet services and veterinary
resources that where never available to pet owners before.
Pets have become a very important part of our families. In many cases they have become as much a part of our lives as children or grandchildren. And, in certain ways, just
as complicated. Think of all the questions raised by wanting a pet. Pet ownership has
definitely become more complex. Everybody seems to have an opinion on what pet you
should get and what being a good pet owner means. My goal is to answer your questions
and try making things simpler for you. I want to give some of the basic information that
will help you to raise a healthy, happy and family compatible pet. And, of course, have
fun while you are doing it.
The ideas listed in this column come from many years of studying and practicing veterinary medicine in South Africa, Australia, Hong Kong and Macau. And they are just that,
my ideas and opinions. They are not meant to be all-encompassing or correct for every
situation. Use this information as a tool, along with the advice from your veterinarian, to
help you make the interaction between you and your pet a wonderful experience.
As far as I am concerned, there are two kinds of people; those who really love animals,
and those who have never owned any. People who say they do not love pets have usually
never owned one. And for those who say they hate them, well, let’s just not talk about
them! The picture above is of a 150kg sea turtle at Australia Zoo that I did abdominal
surgery on after it ingested a ball of fishing line. Indiscriminate and over fishing causes
this to happen too often.
I hope this section helps you enjoy that perfect life with your pet. And I would love to
hear the stories of how you came to own your particular pet and any interesting experiences you have had.
26
Going
Thanks for all the e-mails and letters
regarding the health of your animals.
This week I will focus on another
common question asked to all vets:
“Repeat visits”.
The purpose of this veterinary Q &A is
to hopefully answer some of the more
common “why does my vet do that?”
questions that pet owners ask. W
Question:
“My pet had surgery last week. The vet has
scheduled a visit for removal of the stitches, I
can do this myself. Why do vets require this
repeat visit for something so easy?”
The short answer is that the vet
wants to examine the surgical site
and make sure that healing is progressing well. I usually check the
wound 3 days after surgery and remove the stitches 10 days post op.
Many veterinarians do not charge
for suture removal appointments,
so the only requirement on the
part of the pet owner is the time
scheduled for the visit.
For busy people, the appointment
might seem like a waste of time,
however this is a great opportunity to visit with your vet about
how your pet did post-operatively
and perhaps make notes about any
future anesthetic or surgical procedures and what would be the best
for your pet. This is also a good
time to discuss any concerns you
had about the surgery, what to expect during the healing process, and
any behavioral aspects or problems
in the future to watch for.
If you do elect to remove the sutures yourself, call your veterinary
office and let them know so that
they can make appropriate notes in
your pet’s health record and answer
any questions that you may have.
Hope this helps,
Till next week
Dr. Ruan
31 July 2010
to the Vet’s
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Offbeat
Cloistered French nuns record album
A closed order of French nuns have signed an album
deal with Universal Music, the record label announced
yesterday, after a worldwide search to find the best
female singers of Gregorian Chant.
The Benedictine sisters cannot leave their abbey near
Avignon, in the south of France, and visitors are rarely
allowed in, but the ancient chants they sing eight
times a day will be available for everyone to hear from
November.
“We never sought this, it came looking for us,” said
Placide Devillers, the Reverend Mother Abbess of
the Abbaye de Notre-Dame de l’Annonciation, in a
statement released by Universal Music.
“At first we were worried it would affect our cloistered
life, so we asked Saint Joseph in prayer. Our prayers
were answered, and we thought that this album would
be a good thing if it touches people’s lives and helps
them find peace.”
To protect their vow of isolation, recording engineers
were only allowed into the convent when the nuns
were in a different part of the building.
They set up microphones in the chapel, then retreated
to a separate room when the sisters sang, directing
the recording remotely.
To promote the album, the nuns will film their own
television commercial and photograph the album
cover, said a spokesman for the label, whose vast
roster of artists include Lady Gaga.
The nuns were chosen after a search by the record
label of more than 70 convents worldwide, sparked by
the success of a 2008 album by the Cistercian Monks
of Stift Heiligenkreuz in Austria.
It’s all ears in Australian elections
Australians bored by the election
campaigns of Prime Minister Julia Gillard
and her challenger Tony Abbott have found
a source of distraction – the impressive
ears of both leaders.
Hundreds of people joined the ‘Julia
Gillard’s earlobes’ site on Facebook after
Sunday night’s leaders’ debate which
saw her decision to wear her hair slightly
differently expose her lobes to a national
audience.
“I can’t remember a thing from the debate
... just those earlobes,” one blogger wrote
in awe.
The topic occupied cartoonists and radio,
newspaper and television commentators
on Tuesday, prompting quips suggesting
Gillard’s centre-left Labor Party change its
name to “The Lober Party”.
Abbott, whose own ears have been
likened to “cupboard door ears” and also
have several Facebook pages dedicated
to them, made no comment.
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31 July 2010
This Day in History
“First Lady” of NASCAR born
On 31 July, 1916, the future racing legend Louise
Smith, who would become the first woman inducted
into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, is
born in Barnesville, Georgia.
In the mid-1940s, the racing promoter Bill France
was looking for a female driver as a way to attract
spectators to some of the earliest events in what
would become the National Association for Stock
Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) circuit. Before a race
near Greenville, South Carolina, in 1946, he heard
of Louise Smith, a local resident who was famous
for outrunning law enforcement on the roads. With
France’s encouragement, Smith entered the race at
Greenville-Pickens Speedway in a 1939 Ford and
finished third. Unaware that a checkered flag meant
the finish line, she kept going beyond the end of the
race until someone threw out a red flag.
Though her husband Noah, the owner of a junkyard,
didn’t approve of her new speed-demon career, Smith
was hooked. In 1947, she famously “borrowed” Noah’s
new car, a Ford coupe, and drove it to watch races in
Daytona Beach, Florida. She ended up entering the
race herself and wrecking the car, a fact she tried
to conceal from him, not knowing that the news had
made the front page of the Greenville paper before she
returned home. Smith subsequently became a regular
on France’s new circuit, appearing in NASCAR events
throughout the United States and Canada for the next
decade. She won 38 races and had some spectacular
crashes, including one in which her car overturned,
earning her 48 stitches and four pins in her left knee.
Dubbed the “Good Ol’ Gal” by her fellow drivers,
Smith nonetheless struggled in the masculine world of
NASCAR. As she told the Associated Press in 1998:
“Them men were not liking it to start with and they
wouldn’t give you an inch.”
Smith retired in 1956 but remained active in the
racing world: She sponsored various drivers, and
was involved in the Miss Southern 500 Scholarship
Pageant at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina.
In 1999, she was inducted into the International
Motorsports Hall of Fame in Talladega, Alabama.
Louise Smith died in April 2006, at the age of 89.
Moon gets close-up photographs
Also on this day, in 1964 Ranger 7, an unmanned U.S.
lunar probe, takes the first close-up images of the moon
– 4,308 in total – before it impacts with the lunar surface
northwest of the Sea of the Clouds. The images were
1,000 times as clear as anything ever seen through earthbound telescopes.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) had attempted a similar mission earlier in the
year – Ranger 6 – but the probe’s cameras had failed as
it descended to the lunar surface. Ranger 7, launched
from Earth on July 28, successfully activated its cameras
17 minutes, or 1,300 miles, before impact and began
beaming the images back to NASA’s receiving station in
California. The pictures showed that the lunar surface
was not excessively dusty or otherwise treacherous to a
potential spacecraft landing, thus lending encouragement
to the NASA plan to send astronauts to the moon. In July
1969, two Americans walked on the moon in the first
Apollo Program lunar landing mission.
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The Born Loser by Chip Sansom
Sudoku
Easy
Easy +
Medium
Hard
Cinema
Salt
As a CIA officer, Evelyn Salt swore an oath to duty, honor and country. Her loyalty will be tested when
a defector accuses her of being a Russian spy. Salt goes on the run, using all her skills and years of
experience as a covert operative to elude capture. Salt’s efforts to prove her innocence only serve
to cast doubt on her motives, as the hunt to uncover the truth behind her identity continues and the
question remains: “Who is Salt?”
Cineteatro
Room 1
Inception
Room 2
Salt
2:30/6:00/7:45/9:30 pm
Starring: Angelina Joli, Liev Schreiber
Starring: Leonardo Di Caprio, Ellen Page Director: Phillip Noyce
Language: English (Chinese subtitles)
Director: Christopher Nolan
Duration: 110 min
Language: English (Chinese subtitles)
2:15/4:45/7:15/9:45 pm
Duration: 148 min
Toy Story
TV
4:15 pm
Canal Macau
Saturday
11:00
11:30
12:00
12:25
13:00
13:30
14:30
18:45
19:30
20:00
20:30
21:30
22:00
23:00
23:30
00:30
30
Room 2
Sunday
RTP-i (Live)
THE THREE BEARS
THE TURTLE ISLAND
SANDOKAN THE TIGER OF MALAYSIA
COOKING
TDM NEWS ( REP. )
NEWS AT 24H (RTP - i) (Delayed Broadcast)
OPERA SOAP - COMPACT
CONTEST
DOCUMENTARY IN PORTUGUESE
TDM TALK SHOW
MAIN NEWS, FINANCIAL
& WEATHER REPORT
COMEDY
DRAMMA IN PORTUGUESE
TDM NEWS
PORTUGUESE TALK-SHOW
COMEDY
RTP-i (Live)
11:15
12:00
12:30
13:00
13:30
14:30
14:40
15:00
17:30
18:15
19:00
20:00
20:30
21:00
21:30
22:00
22:40
23:00
23:30
00:00
00:30
RTP-i (Live)
MAGAZINE
DOCUMENTARY IN PORTUGUESE
COOKING
TDM NEWS ( REP. )
NEWS AT 24H (RTP - i) (Delayed Broadcast)
DOUGIE IN DISGUISE
DETECTIVE BOGEY
SOAP OPERA
CULTURAL CONTEST
VARIETY
VARIETY
WHAT NOW, MR. PRESIDENT?
MAIN NEWS, FINANCIAL
& WEATHER REPORT
TDM INTERVIEW
THAT 70´S SHOW
CRIMINAL MINDS
NON-DAILY PORTUGUESE NEWS
TDM NEWS
TDM TALK SHOW ( Rep )
DRAMMA IN PORTUGUESE
DOCUMENTARY IN PORTUGUESE
RTP-i (Live)
Director: Lee Unkrich
Language: Chinese (English and Chinese subtitles)
Duration: 103 min
Room 3
Toy Story
9:30 pm
Director: Lee Unkrich
Language: Chinese (English and Chinese subtitles)
Duration: 103 min
Room 3
Doraemon:
Nobita’s Great Battle
of the Mermaid King
2:30/4:15/6:00/7:45 pm
Director: Kôzô Kusaba
Language: Chinese (English and Chinese subtitles)
Duration: 99 min
31 July 2010
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Press Play
by MC LA
Folk
Isobel Campbell
And Mark Lanegan
- Hawk (2010)
Though their partnership dates back to 2006, when
they released the Mercury Prize-nominated Ballad of
the Broken Seas, Isobel Campbell says that her and
Mark Lanegan’s artistic process has stayed largely
the same over the intervening years. Still, the two
artists’ relationship has definitely matured.
Isobel has worn any number of hats over the course
of her remarkable decade and a half in music, from
her stint as cellist and vocalist with scottish indie-pop
faves Belle and Sebastian to her role as bandleader in
the Gentle Waves to her work as duet partner, arranger and producer on a series of acclaimed albums
with former Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan. Yet when it came to making her latest effort,
a typically gorgeous collection of atmospheric roots
tunes titled “Hawk”, Campbell says she felt most like
she was wearing another hat entirely: that of movie
director.
“Some of my favorite bands are all about four guys
in a room playing together,” says the singer, who
produced the album herself in a variety of locations,
including Los Angeles, Texas, Louisiana, Arizona,
Denmark and her native Glasgow.
On Hawk--a word Campbell treasures for its symbolism and dual identities as both noun and verb-her co-conspirators include longtime partner Lanegan, who lends his distinctive blues-folk growl to
eight of the album’s 13 tracks; the young American
singer Willy Mason; and former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha, who contributes a dizzying
dustbowl solo to “You Won’t Me Let Down Again,”
one of a pair of tunes here co-written by Campbell
and Jim McCulloch of the Soup Dragons.
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Folk/experimental
Seabear - We Built A Fire (2010)
Defying its humble beginnings as the lo-fi solo project of
Icelandic singer/multi-instrumentalist Sindri Már Sigfússon,
Seabear morphed into a rambling experimental/indie/folk
septet with their first album, “Ghost That Carried Us Away”,
in 2007. Joining Sigfússon (whose unassisted musings are
now released via his Sin Fang Bous moniker on Morr Music)
are Gudbjörg Hlin Gudmundsdottir, Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir,
Halldór Ragnarsson, Örn Ingi Ágústsson, Kjartan Bragi Bjarnason and Sóley Stefánsdóttir - all working in a wide range of
solo-, band- (Kimono, Skakkamanage) and visual arts-projects in their own right. Their second album “We Built a Fire”
was released in March this year via Morr music.
Indie Holly Miranda - The Magici
Holly Miranda’s new album out
23th February on XL Recordings,
the label that hosts such a great
artists like Vampire Weekend, Radiohead, M.I.A., Titus Andronicus,
The White Stripes, Thom Yorke,
The Horrors, Basement Jaxx, Beck,
Peaches, Holly Miranda, Jack Peñate,
Sigur Rós and counting... Beautiful
ethereal voice of Holly will never get
you unsatisfied, she will bring you
to new world of peace and solace.
Enjoy!
Holly Miranda - Choose to See (EP)
(2010)
The limited edition bonus CD, has
been given away with the purchase of
the “The Magician’s Private Library”
album at Rough Trade shops.
31 July 2010
Pop
Tamaryn - The Waves (2010)
Following a spate of EPs and singles comes
the debut album by Tamaryn, entitled “The
Waves”. After collaborating with producer
Rex John Shelverton (ex-Vue, The Audience or Portraits of Past), Tamaryn left
New York and settled in Rex’s hometown
of San Francisco to record their first fulllength. Where as Tamaryn’s earlier material was rooted in traditional goth-psych
overtones, The Waves represents an incredible step forward in terms of her approach. These nine songs combine driving
pop and lush balladry with layered, guitardriven ethereal atmospheres, against which
Tamaryn’s voice, languid and restrained,
melts against its surface. The Waves is a
masterful collision of hypnotic psychedelia and bittersweet dream pop.
Dream pop
Beach House - Teen Dream (2010)
ian’s Private Library (2010)
Recorded in upstate New York, in
a converted church called Dreamland with producer/engineer Chris
Coady (who has worked with TV
on the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs,
Blonde Redhead, and a bunch of
others) Teen Dream is the third album from the Baltimore-based duo
Beach House, and their Sub Pop
label debut. The new album gives
voice to a full universe of unbridled
imagination, and the manifestation
of Teen Dream has been a welcomed and all-consuming obsession for Beach House the past nine
to twelve months. Teen Dream will
arrive packaged with a companion
DVD featuring a video for each
song on the album, each by a different director.
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Zoom
Photo by Cecília Jorge
‘Happiness’
No more voices of the ‘sing-song’ girls to be heard on this narrow street.
Or the wailing sound of the erhu some were early taught to play.
Ivory white faces, carmine cheeks, peeping from behind shutters,
overlooking the town’s bustle.
Happiness trapped in a name
Cecília Jorge
Journalist
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31 July 2010
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