As the country records 4,029 daily news cases yesterday, health director general Noor Hisham has once again reached out to remind people on how “the worst is yet to come”.
If we do not get this MCO right, the worst is yet to come. A daily reminder to all “please stay at home”. Stay home and stay safe pic.twitter.com/rVMeCTmM4d
“If we do not get this MCO right, the worst is yet to come. A daily reminder to all “please stay at home”. Stay home and stay safe” he said in a tweet yesterday upon news of the record breaking daily new cases.
He also mentioned of how red zones will be a common sight if this MCO is not taken seriously.
Time to take this MCO seriously, otherwise in no time it is not surprisingly to see all red zone states in our country pic.twitter.com/uj6XQIVTxs
In an earlier Facebook post, he also mentioned of the challenges faced by healthcare workers who are barely managing the burial rites for victims who had from Covid-19.
“It is not an easy task for the health frontliners to manage the remains of patients who died from Covid-19.
“Under the hot sun, they (health and medical staff) would be drenched in sweat since they are required to don complete personal protective equipment (PPE) until the remains of Covid-19 patients are laid to rest and the burial rites concluded.
“I hope all of us understand the odds and challenges faced by all frontliners. Let us all help (to control the spread of Covid-19 in) the country by continuing to embrace the ‘Kita Jaga Kita’, ‘Kita Jaga Keluarga’ spirits.
“May all of us be protected from the fury of Covid-19,” he said.
Muar MP, Syed Saddiq, recently started a storm on social media after reaching his RM200,000 target for #1Keluarga1Laptop and going bald for it.
With RM383,000 raised in merely five days, he has since started distributing the laptops to those in the Muar area for a good cause, but the internet on the other still hasn’t gotten over the fact that Saddiq, a frequent on social media as well, had shaved bald.
Of course, Malaysian’s weren’t going to let by the chance to make a good laugh from the moment.
Here are the top 10 tweets about the now “Botak YB”.
1) Not sure what bread this is, but it’s definitely Syed Saddiq-approved
3) One of the many highlights from news of how the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) had bought a Twitter account from a 16-year-old but forgotten to rid of the tweets.
In other things, MCMC’s Twitter disappeared after netizens uncovered tweets from a 16-year-old in which they had bought their Twitter account from in 2014.
Fresh off the announcement of the second round of MCO, Malaysians were waking up to another surprise on Tuesday morning as the national palace released a statement on how we may be facing a dreaded national emergency until August 1st.
Among the many SOPs set in place includes the usual banning of interstate travel, inter-district travel, social gatherings and large gatherings such as weddings, wedding receptions, conferences, religious processions (including Thaipusam), meetings, seminars, courses, and group sport activities.
Other than that, we’ll see the usual roadblocks in place, only two people per household allowed to be in a vehicle and to purchases groceries all in a 10km radius.
Coming to us as something that isn’t new, the second round of SOPs doesn’t even come as a surprise to us anymore as we’ve seen the same situation for almost six months now. An emergency though, does in fact comes as a surprise and Najib Razak has even went as far as saying that a push for a national emergency could mean one thing – politics.
“What else was not enough to fight Covid-19 then? As proven in the first MCO last year, the Prevention of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 is more than enough to contain Covid-19 without the need to declare an emergency or suspend Parliament.” he said in a Facebook post.
He added that such a move by the government would instead lay seeds to the thought that the government only wants to hold on to power.
A move declared by Sultan Abdullah to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic, the emergency is effective from January 11th to August 1st but can be lifted earlier when the pandemic is under control.
Much of civilian life will remain the same in accordance with MCO 2.0, while there will be no military rule or any curfew imposed.
In terms of governing bodies, no parliamentary and state assembly sittings or any elections will be taking place; but, much of the cabinet, state executives and public service is to continue functioning.
Lastly, the King can also order the taking over of private healthcare facilities by the government, if deemed needed to lessen the burden on public hospitals.
At the other side of the globe, America’s version of a national emergency differs wildly as the nation continues to get hold of the law while working on a presidential transition from Donald Trump to Joe Biden.
On Monday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned of possible armed protests in all 50 U.S. states in the days building up to Biden’s inauguration day on January 20th.
Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington D.C. also wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security seeking tigher security ahead of d-day amid the “chaos, injury, and death” caused by the Capitol riots.
This is the letter @SenGillibrand@MartinHeinrich and I sent to the Acting Sec. of Defense today. On Jan 6 it took 4.5 hours before the U.S. military arrived to defend the Capitol. That is not acceptable and we request a full accounting of what needs to change. pic.twitter.com/XZKiOqbA4R
On Tuesday, Trump approve the state of emergency declaration in the U.S. Capital, after increasing amount of threats kept coming in. The order authorises federal assistance in D.C. up until the day of Biden’s inauguration and allows identification, mobilisation and provide for the impacts of the emergency.
Last Monday, mobs of pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building, looting as they stormed through and leaving five people dead.
As Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced the second round of Movement Control Order (MCO), the public have responded with mixed reactions as some of them already saw it coming from far away.
According to an interview by The Star with retail marketing executive from Kuala Lumpur, Effendi Elias, he had expected MCO to be reinstated and says that it’s inevitable that it happens in the fight against Covid-19.
He had also mentioned that he had to scrap plans of wanting to ‘balik kamoug and also “I’ve been going back to see them almost every other weekend since the recovery MCO, ” he says. “Both of them are elderly so I’d like to spend as much time with them as possible, and of course see my nephew and niece (sister’s children) too, ” says Effendi.
“But understandably, with so many cases –more than 2,000 daily – we need to curb the spread of the infection so it’s necessary to implement the MCO again and I feel that the Prime Minister made the right decision, although it may be an unpopular one and some people may object, ” he says.
Effendi is just one of many that will be affected by the second round of MCO, but Malaysians had earlier already stated that they wouldn’t be surprised if MCO was reimplemented, as netizens who had took to Twitter earlier to express this.
Won’t be surprise if we have to go through MCO again.
Shannon Teoh, the Malaysia Bureau Chief for The Straits Time said that the increasing number of daily cases was a clear sign that this was going to happen and it wasn’t a matter of “if” but instead a matter of “when”.
“I think many Malaysians saw this coming, the numbers from a few hundred to a thousand to two thousand. Last week, we went past three thousand.” Teoh said in an interview with The Straits Times.
“A lot of people started talking about if further restrictions was going to be imposed. There were also word leaking out from of official sources that the health ministry had recommended returning to MCO.
“It didn’t really come as a surprise, in fact, many people were waiting for the announcement”.
Although the news doesn’t come as a shock, netizens were quick to point out that instead of surprising the public with the news on a fine Monday evening, the government should’ve planned for the announcement earlier as most people and especially the vulnerable would have just a day to start preparing for the lockdown-like situation.
One in particular mentioned on how MCO was announced as if it’s a birthday party.
Kerajaan ingat buat lockdown/MCO macam buat surprise birthday party.
Please announce early with enough time for people and businesses to prepare. https://t.co/ESDxGe9FER
Wong Shu Qi, the MP for Kluang, Johor also led in voicing out the timely decision made by the government’s announcement.
Announced MCO on 6pm, 11 Jan which was anticipated by many for a few days already. But the SOP can only be announced 23 hours later, just 7 hours before the MCO starts. How do you expect people to act? 🤦🏻♀️
Some on the other hand already expect MCO to be longer than the said two weeks and are questioning the proposed two-week period instead of a longer one.
We all know that MCO will be longer than 2 weeks since the cases are so high. Would be better to announce a month at least instead of adding two weeks each time.
“Is it a bird? Is it a plane?”, if you have a solid guess in your mind, you’d better hold your horses as it it’s drones instead of a red-caped flying man.
Somewhat a cultural phenomenon for gadget enthusiast, the creation drones undoubtedly enhance our lives as helping us reach places we couldn’t and also to see things we can’t. What is often made out of carbon fiber or plastic materials may have taken a turn for the better of Mother Earth, as researchers from Putra University has figured out a way to make drones from pineapple leaves.
Before we move to the specifications, it’s important to mention that the drone frames ar the ones made out of pineapple leaves. In an interview with Reuters, Professor Mohamed Thariq Hameed Sultan who had successfully found a way to turn fiber from pineapple leaves into material sturdy enough to make drone frames, said that drones built with the material had a higher strength-to-weight ratio than frames made with synthetic fibers. They’re cheaper and lighter, too, making it easier for them to fly greater distances and greater speed.
So how does a drone made out of pineapple leaves help nature? Drone flyers may be familiar with the dreaded feeling when your drone flies beyond your sight and connection, only to crash land somewhere untraceable. If remained uncovered for a long amount of time, one may give up the search to get a new drone instead while their lost plastic drone sits somewhere in the dirt, for almost eternity.
These new biodegradable drones help fix that problem, as the researchers say that A damaged frame can be buried and the bio-composite material will degrade within two weeks.
Prototypes made from the material have also flown to around 1,000 meters and can stay aloft for about 20 minutes, much like any other drone.
Started in 2017, the project helps finding sustainable uses for pineapple waste. Farmers are known to burn or discard these leaves after harvest, which can cause air pollution. Selling the waste to these research would help increase their income and may benefit the environment instead.
If you haven’t start working from home yet and expect it to be a breeze when it comes about, think again as you just might be setting yourself up for disaster.
As work from home became a new norm for us throughout 2020 and perhaps even for the majority of 2021, let’s take a look at a few misconceptions of working remotely and how unrealistic expectations brings out the worst of working from home.
1) Work schedule
Expectation: “Who needs an alarm clock when I can start whenever I want to?”
Reality: You still have deadlines to meet and colleagues to communicate with. If you don’t have a set work schedule for yourself, don’t expect the same for others as work from home means more conference calls than usual now that everyone is not seeing each other in the office anymore.
2) Resting hours
Expectation: “Yeah I’ll stop working whenever I want, who’s here to stop me from taking a day off anyway”
Reality: You won’t be calling it a week on Thursday and give yourself an early weekend. In fact, you might find work hours overlap with your resting hours since work and rest are all in the same space. Tasks that aren’t done before the weekend might just roll on over and take up your resting days, get a solid understanding of how you can maximize productivity while you’re still in the week.
3) Work-life balance doesn’t exist at home
Expectation: “I feel more productive today, I think I might as well work throughout the night while at home”
Reality: Burnouts happen whether you’re overworking in the office or at home. Take time off occasionally to tend to your own well-being and life when you find yourself taking off more than can chew. While overworking can be a might convenience, it is far too easy to slip into the dark hole of overworking yourself to the extremes.
4) Distractions
Expectation: “Home is so quiet, there should be lesser distractions for me when compared to the annoying co-workers I have in the office”
Reality: Even an everyday object such as a flowerpot is enough to stray your attention away from work. Don’t underestimate your senses as the teeniest tiniest bit is enough to break your focus, this reflects much more especially when you have pets that are constantly on the run or simply doing nothing, laying there in all that cuteness.
5) Alone time
Expectation: “Imagine all that I can get done with all this alone time! This is the ultimate work experience!”
Reality: Too much alone time may be the reality we are facing now, but it might just be the bit that breaks us as well during this whole pandemic situation. With long periods of time spent at home, face-to-face interaction is often taken for granted until one realizes of the overwhelming quietness of long periods without human interaction.
Potholes are such a common sight in Malaysia that when we drive on the streets, we are used to avoiding them with the occasional driving on them, resulting in various damages to our vehicles.
With all the news regarding casualties and injuries due to potholes lately, such as Khairy Jamaluddin’s incident, a story from the past about how a group of people are taking it upon themselves to fix these potholes.
Lando Zawawi
Led by actor Azlan Sani Zawawi, also known as Lando Zawawi, “Ikatan Silaturrahim Brotherhood” is doing what DBKL were lacking in at times.
Lando Zawawi/Facebook
According to Lando, the Brotherhood bikers would act when complaints were made to DBKL and if their response were either delayed or lacking. Using their own funds, they would purchase their own equipment and materials and start fixing potholes themselves, leaving a “calling card” on their repair work when it’s finished.
In an interview with The Star, they shared that they have been doing this since 2007 and does this for other people to be safe. The work is done mostly by volunteers almost every night in several states using a cold mix of asphalt and bitumen membranes.
The Star
Other than that, one of the crew members himself was also a victim of a pothole back in 2012, when a car hit had him after hitting a pothole, resulting in him losing one of his legs.
The Star
With this act, many netizens are thankful and are offering donations; however, the group is reluctant to receive any and instead would be more than welcome to have them buy Brotherhood merchandise instead.
To learn more about Brotherhood and their work, click here.
In an extraordinary step to curb the violence happening at the U.S. state capitol, social media giants Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have taken it upon themselves to temporarily silence Donald Trump.
Twitter being the first to lead, said that Trump’s account will be locked for 12 hours and warned for the first time that further violation of its rules would result in a permanent suspension of the president’s Twitter account.
As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, D.C., we have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump Tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy. https://t.co/k6OkjNG3bM
“We have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump Tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity Policy,” Twitter said. “This means that the account of @realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours following the removal of these Tweets. If the Tweets are not removed, the account will remain locked.”
“Future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account.”
Future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account.
Hours later, Facebook followed suit when it said that Trump’s Facebook will be blocked from posting content for 24 hours. This also comes after the company had removed a video of Trump professing “love” for a riotous mob that stormed the Capitol in protest of his electoral defeat that was liked more than 179,000 times on his Facebook profile.
We've assessed two policy violations against President Trump's Page which will result in a 24-hour feature block, meaning he will lose the ability to post on the platform during that time.
“We’ve assessed two policy violations against President Trump’s Page which will result in a 24-hour feature block, meaning he will lose the ability to post on the platform during that time,” Facebook said in a tweet.
We are locking President Trump’s Instagram account for 24 hours as well. https://t.co/HpA79eSbMe
Being owned by Facebook, Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram confirmed that the “Trump ban” will also be in effect on Instagram for the same 24 hours.
Facebook is yet to respond to whether a permanent suspension could be looming if Trump is to violate its policies again.
Nonetheless, this still marks an important step for social media companies in curbing the spreading of misleading information on the social platforms especially from those seen during the 2020 U.S. election.
dhflood – Flood in Malaysia
Credit: Persatuan Bangsa Johor##########1##########Persatuan Bangsa Johor
As thousands are evacuated while rain continues to pour down on already flooded areas in peninsular Malaysia, casualties continue to rise along with the roads we don’t get to drive on anymore.
There are many things that you should and shouldn’t do whenever caught in a flood. Here are 3 things that you absolutely should do to ensure that you’ll survive.
1) Stay informed
If you know of bad weather that is going to take place soon and of the areas that are going to be flooded, have a plan on where to evacuate to and prepare yourself. Bring in outdoor furniture and move important indoor items to the highest possible floor.
It’ll also be best if you disconnect electrical appliances and turn off your gas as this will all help prevent fires and explosions. In the event of a flood, know the basics of moving to higher ground and to avoid walking through flood waters as just 30 centimeters of water is enough to sweep your vehicle away.
2) Prepare for the worst
A disaster kit prepared well in advance could be a life-saver for when majority of what you need is underwater or swept away. Put together supplies made up of basic items and necessities as you may need to survive on your on after flooding happens. A few of those items would be water, food, emergency supplies and also communication devices.
Other supplies would be basic services such as electricity, or even gas as you might be cut off for days or even a week. Your supplies should be enough for you to survive this period.
3) Turn around, don’t drown
It’s that simple. If you see a flood and want to survive, turn around and don’t drown. Don’t attempt to walk or drive through flood waters as 15 centimeters of moving water can knock you down while 30 centimeters of water is enough to sweep your vehicle away.
Only return when the authorities say it’s safe; even with that, you have to be aware of debris and any harmful objects on the ground brought by the floods.
