We are doing well

How is the health care status of Malaysia since 2000 compared to other developing and developed countries?



Source: Unicef

As we can see, the perinatal mortality rate of Malaysia in 2000 is 5 per 1000 live birth, and it's not very different from developed countries, eg France, Germany, USA and Australia (3 to 5 per 1000 live birth). It is an outstanding achievement if we compared this figure with China (21 per 1000 live birth), India (43 per 1000 live birth), and Vietnam (15 per 1000 live birth).

Similarly, the under 1 year-old infant mortality rate of Malaysia in 2006 (10 per 1000 live birth) is far lower compared to China (20 per 1000 live birth), India (57 per 1000 live birth) and Vietnam (15 per 1000 live birth). However, it is slightly higher if compared to developed countries which have a rate of between 4 to 6 per 1000 live birth.

As a health care professional, I certainly agree that there are still a lot of health care aspects in Malaysia need to be improved: lack of sufficient medical staffs and public hospitals; long waiting time; less sophisticated medical technologies (but certainly not less reliable or efficient) etc, but over half a century post colonised era, we are doing absolutely well and should keep it going.

Autumn Dream in Lausanne

Hari Raya ponder

Went to Hari Raya open house today, and something puzzled me: When I saw an ex-Malaysian who is now a famous fashion designer in France, with whom I had taken photo with, denied immediately that he is the celebrity I knew. He answered: You're mistaken.

Perhaps I do not have excellent memory, but this person, has spoken for a long time during the dinner with the Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister at Hilton HOtel in Paris last year, and he told a group of us at the end of dinner that he was going to have a fashion show, and we were welcome to help to dress up his models etc.... well, I wasn't interested to do that so I didn't contact him after that.

Moreover, he came with the same wife who was also in our photos taken at the same occasion.

I tried to imagine myself in his place after his deny to his identity: He comes across hundreds of young ladies who are "models wannabe" daily from all over the world, his mail box is always full of pretty posing photos of these ladies and that he is overwhelmed. Or, wherever he goes, girls would come up to him to ask for opportunities to be models, or to get free tickets to his fashion shows etc...

Being famous, sometimes we trade off our honesty and courage to tell others who we really are.