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The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

When we were kids and first learnt to type on the old typewriter, we had to practice endlessly using this sentence: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. It is an English-language pangram —a sentence that contains all

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44% of traffic cops probably have mental illnesses

Today I told a doctor I could never do what she does, because doctors have to see sick, sad people all day. If I had to do that, I would go nuts. I had “going nuts” in mind when I

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Time to hand over power without burdening Dr Mahathir

One of the tenets of democracy has always been that there must be fair contest in periodically held elections where the people can decide who they want to represent them in government. The key here is that there must be

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Why are some “abang polis” liars, torturers and murders?

Policemen often appear when we hold street protests to draw attention to bad behaviour, bad policies or bad laws. Often an officer with high rank will urge us to disperse and threaten use of force if we do not disperse.

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Reviving an ancient system of healing

Ayurveda is perceived as an idea and practice that is well established as the national health system in Nepal. But this claim is not backed by research. Research helps to delineate an objectively false statement from fact. This statement is

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Malaysia’s financial scandals: Rewriting history is not an option

George Orwell once said: “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” Those who are in power today can try to rewrite the past but they would not succeed, not

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Stifling the Amman Message

In any civilised society no one will resort to violence, or the threat of violence, to stifle the voices that one does not want to hear.  Unfortunately, this is what happened in Malaysia a few days ago when some bigots

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Death in custody: Incapacity for outrage in ‘New Malaysia’

What does it take to make every elected representative and police officer feel outrage whenever there is a case of a death in custody? Under the bad old Barisan Nasional 9BN) regime, deaths in police and enforcement agencies’ custody were

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Ecocide and Prejudice: A Malaysian Emergency

“Stop deforestation immediately.” I cringed the first time I heard it. Socio-cultural anthropologist Dr Ivan Tacey, who was speaking about the role of the Orang Asli in addressing climate change, made it a key recommendation he repeated throughout the two-hour

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Is forced contraception on Orang Asli’s true?

The above subject has raised serious concerns amongst Malaysians. The explanation by the Health Ministry did not allay the anxiety amongst Malaysians. Severe anaemia in pregnancy is a serious problem. Medical schools devote an entire chapter on “Anaemia in Pregnancy

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