TR EMERITUS

By Chong C F, a 3rd year medical student at the Flinders University, Australia Does suffering have any meaning? Regardless of your answer, most of us, when faced with a personal crisis, will try to find some meaning in it in order to make sense of things, in order to relieve our suffering, in order to be able to "move on." Meaning is made on the psychological and spiritual planes where Medicine usually does not tread. Rather, biomedicine seeks to alleviate suffering by use of medication for pain, anxiety, and other symptom relief. This addresses the physical, but not the emotional and psycho-spiritual aspects of a person who is suffering. Recently this has been noted to be a problem, thus the hospice and palliative care movements with their "team" approach to care which attempt to address suffering more fully. Dying and death is regarded as one of the greatest suffering that can inflict man. It is an insolvable riddle that has been troubling man for centuries and remains one of the last frontiers yet to be explored and conquered by science. Our inability to find any real or acceptable meaning in death culminates in a deep-seated fear in us, causing us to evade the mere mention of the word 'death' and rejecting its significance in life. The subject on 'Death and dying' is a taboo to the modern man who often perceive it as something bad and morbid. Death is hidden away from the consciousness of society, its existence is denied and its occurrence is lamented as a misfortunate. Not many of us are willing to think about our imminent deaths let alone prepared for it. It is customary in our modern day society to hide death neatly and nicely from public view and discussion. Ever since medicine took on the mantle of eliminating disease and prolonging lives, it has taken on a new moral dimension as the nemesis of death. The role of the physician as a care-giver has been transformed to that of a life-saver and a crusader against death. Through medical research, we have continued to push for an immortal, undying self. Death has no status in the medical field; there is little incentive to understand or accept it as a natural passing of life. Of all the professions, medicine counts as being the only one, besides the funeral parlor and the undertaker, which is allowed such intimate access to death. However, death is for the most part absent in modern textbooks of medicine, where the science of the field is collected and distilled for use in practice. Except for a place in the medical-ethics part of a medical school curriculum, it has no significant place in the training of physicians either. This stems in part from an erroneous perception that modern medicine has its end in fighting all diseases and illnesses in the view of eliminating death. The death of a patient is regarded as a failure in the course of treatment and therefore it makes a dent in the curative prowess of modern medicine. Not every physician is able to deal with the issues of dying and death with their patients openly and constructively. Some of them are so desensitized to death, treating it as a clinical stage with mere indifference. There are others who are in possession of a genuine heart to comfort their patients, but are unable to do so due to their own limited and often distorted understanding of death. Death is defined in various ways by modern medicine - the cessation of heartbeat, breath, or brain waves as detected by an EEG. There is scant respect for death as the ending of a life, a natural process marking the conclusion of a person's life. Because medicine does not account for the patient's life as a whole, treating it like a faulty biological machine in need of repair and mending, it risks undermining the care and comfort that should be provided to dying patients. Once in the hospital, the patient's life is put under total charge by the attending physicians and nurses - he has lost control of his life and death. Medicine presupposes that every patient's impending death should be fought and delayed until all possible measures are exhausted even though that death is already imminent and unavoidable. In doing so, it may ignore the wishes of the patients who may prefer a quicker, more peaceful death rather than empty heroics which can prolong the patient's suffering unnecessarily.  Read More →

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM-NKEzRo6s&hl=en&fs=1] From CNA: "Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) Teo Ser Luck will be the new chairman of YP." "Going forward, the committee aims to focus on issues like using new media to better engage young Singaporeans and to recruit and retain talent in YP." From Straits Times: "Assisting Mr Teo, who is with the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) and the Ministry of Transport, are two vice-chairmen: MPs Zaqy Mohamad, 34, and Christopher de Souza, 32." "The new 31-member exco appointed yesterday includes 15 new faces. It also includes two Young NTUC leaders, as a sign of the symbiotic relationship between the PAP and the labour movement." EDITORS' NOTE: Now, how is YPAP going to make use of the new media to reach out to the young when their own p65 website is deserted like a ghost town ? Obviously they must have another vehicle in place to serve this nefarious purpose. Is it a mere coincidence that The Online CONS have set up a Youth Wing at the same time to focus on young Singaporeans ?  Do you know how much money has been pumped into this project and who is sponsoring it ? We suspect this may be a front to recruit promising young candidates into the YPAP which is currently facing a shortage of fresh blood as well as a training ground for brooding SPH journalists. The real mastermind of TOC is now in the YPAP CEC who is also a member of the PAP's internet subcommittee if you check the papers in February 2007. Go and find out from those in the YPAP internet subcommittee his identity if you don't believe, there is no smoke without fire. And guess who has replaced Remy Choo now as PAP MP Ho Geok Choo's speech writer ? For daily news summary and CNA headlines, please visit The Singapore Enquirer  Read More →

This letter was sent to us by one irate reader which is a standard letter received by many DBS High Notes investors:   As the quality of the file is not very good, we have taken the liberty to type out the exact words used in the letter for you. DBS High Notes 5: We refer to your inquiry regarding High Notes 5. We also refer to our subsequent conversation on 25 September 2008. We have carefully revisited the matter raised in your inquiry and are satisfied that we have fully disclosed and explained the terms and risks of an investment in DBS High Notes 5 to you prior to your purchase. You had also acknowledged that you had read and understood the risks involved before investing in the DBS High Notes 5. If you have any further queries on this matter, please call your Relationship Manager. Alternatively, please call our Customer Service Hotline at 1800-111-1111.   Yours sincerely, Phoebe Chiang Vice President Investor Care Centre   EDITORS' NOTE: Notice the patronizing tone of the letter and the callous manner in which this DBS "valued customer" is treated.  DBS is obviously pushing the responsibility of the failed structure-linked investments entirely to its customers which fall outside the "vulnerable" group. How convenient it is for them to state they are "satisfied" that they have fully disclosed and explained the risks of the products to simply brush away the concerns, anxiety and frustration of their customers ! Is DBS satisfied too that they have one less customer to compensate ? Imagine if you would to lose your entire life-savings in less than a year, would your feelings of agony and pain be sufficiently assauged by this letter from DBS ? So to those investors who received this letter of reply from DBS, they have little choice other to call up their hotline which is forever engaged or through FIDReC where they would be subjected to another round of interviews again ? Is this the "fair settlement" which MAS Chairman Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong wants investors to accept or the "personal responsibility" so gleefully expoused by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to the investors to quote his very own words: “It cannot be that if I invested and it turned out well, then I am happy, but if I invested and it turned out badly, then I am entitled to compensation." Contrary to what the mainstream media had reported that the banks are trying their best to expedite the process, it appears that they are merely putting a premature termination to some of their customers' claims to save themselves the trouble and money. We urge more affected minibond investors to break your silence and share your story with us. Do not suffer in silence for you need not. Email us any documents, letters or correspondences which you think it may be useful. We will seek redress for you and be your VOICE. We can be contacted at: EDITORIAL TEAM: [email protected] Chief Editor, Fang Zhi Yuan: [email protected]  Read More →