Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his wife, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail appeared touched after watching the premier of 'Anwar: The Untold Story' - Bernama pic
Anwar was sentenced to jail in 1999 after being charged with abuse of power. Four years after his release, he was accused of sodomising an aide in 2008.
He was imprisoned for sodomy in 2015 and released on May 16, 2018, upon receiving a royal pardon.
The film documents Anwar’s journey to battle corruption. It charts the period from when he was first appointed as Finance Minister in 1991 until his sacking from the Cabinet in 1998 and the “Reformasi” campaign, which led to his imprisonment later that year.
“It is difficult for me to comment much as I have tried very hard to forget certain episodes which were too hurtful for me to bear,” he told reporters.
He also said that although the film’s overall dialogue was not wholly accurate, the issues it raised were based on true events.
Despite going through so much, he made it clear during the media conference that he would not let the hardship stop him from campaigning for what’s right.
“The battle against corruption continues. As Prime Minister, I want to save this country, fight against corruption and fight it hard,” he said.
KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his wife, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail appeared touched after watching the premiere of 'Anwar: The Untold Story' last night.
He said although some of the dialog and storyline may not be truly accurate, he acknowledged that it was not easy to put together years of incidents into the 90-minute long biopic.
"We were touched, it was surreal, the performances were great and extraordinary.
"The children asked how can I agree to the making of the movie which I have not watched.
"Agree or not is not important, this is not a movie by Anwar for Anwar.
"Also, whether this movie will have a political impact or not is secondary, because this is a story that needs to be told," he said,
after the show at Dadi Cinema, Pavilion here.
The film was directed by Viva Westi of Indonesia, with Farid Kamil as Anwar, Tanda Putera actor Hasnul Rahmat as former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Indonesian actress Acha Septriasa as Wan Azizah.
The film attempted to chart the period from Anwar's appointment as finance minister in 1991 until his firing from the cabinet in 1998, as well as his Reformasi campaign which culminated in his jailing that year.
Anwar said while watching the movie, he identified some scenes that might not bode well with his siblings.
However, he said he has no plan to intervene and ask for it to be edited out and would leave the matter to the censorship board to decide.
"If they (siblings) are offended, then I will just have to make it up to them." he added.
Anwar said initially, he was hoping to listen to 'Menjaga Cintamu', the movie's theme song by pop queen Datuk Seri Siti Nurhaliza Taruddin but it was not included during the premier.
He hoped that the song, composed by Andi Rianto and written by Sekar Ayu Asmara, will be included in the final version of the movie which will be screened to public from May 18.
Also present during the premiere were director Viva Westi, executive producer Zulkiflee SM Anwar Ulhaque or better known as Zunar, and DMY chairman Datuk Mohamed Yusoff, the movie distributor.
China's reusable experimental spacecraft successfully lands after 276 days in orbit
Sitting
atop the Long March-2F Y14 carrier rocket and carrying three taikonauts, China's Shenzhou-14 spaceship is launched successfully from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China's Gansu Province on June 5, 2022. Photo: VCG
After 276 days in orbit, China's reusable experimental spacecraft landed at its planned site at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China's Gansu Province on Monday, and Chinese space watchers said it was a milestone in China's efforts to develop a fully reusable space transportation system.
The success is an important breakthrough in China's research on reusable spacecraft technologies, which will provide more convenient and affordable round trips for the peaceful use of space, the Xinhua News Agency said on Monday.
China launched a reusable experimental spacecraft using its Long March-2F carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on August 5, 2022, to test reusable technologies and in-orbit service technologies to support the peaceful use of space, Xinhua previously reported.
China tested the reusable experimental spacecraft in September 2020, and the spacecraft returned to the planned landing site after two days in orbit. The spacecraft was also launched with a Long March-2F carrier rocket.
Chinese authorities have disclosed few details about the craft's technology. So far, no images of the spacecraft or footage of its launch or landing have been disclosed.
Many space lovers compared it to the US Air Force's X-37B, an autonomous Boeing space plane that can remain in orbit for long periods before returning to Earth on its own, saying that the technology used in the experiment is "too advanced to show" on social media.
The reusable spacecraft's technology has evidently matured, considering how much longer it can stay in orbit, Chinese space watchers noted on Sunday.
Song Zhongping, a space expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Monday that the reusability of such spacecraft would drastically reduce costs. More importantly, the longer orbiting time means that the spacecraft can perform more complicated missions such as changing trajectory in near-Earth orbit and sending various payloads into orbit.
Judging from the rocket used in the launch, the Long March-2F carrier rocket - which is one of China's most advanced and reliable rockets for manned space flights - the reusable spacecraft may be used in future manned missions, said another space observer, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Given the payload launching capability of the Long March-2F, the spacecraft could weigh around 8 tons, which is very similar to the launch mass for the X-37B at around 5 tons, so that speculation about their similarity is not groundless, the observer said.
China’s secret spacecraft returns to Earth after 9-month mission
Experts believe the Chinese reusable unmanned spacecraft is likely to be
similar in size and design to the US Air Force’s X-37B, pictured at a California military base. Photo: AP
Chinese space authorities said a reusable uncrewed space vehicle returned to Earth on Monday morning after 276 days in orbit – more than 100 times longer than its maiden flight less than three years ago.
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the nation’s biggest space defence contractor, hailed the classified mission as a “complete success”, saying it “marks an important breakthrough” in China’s research into the technology.
Reusable spacecraft “will provide a more convenient and cost-effective way for peaceful use of space”, the company said.
China scientists carry out ‘rule-breaking’ AI experiment in space
Researchers from Wuhan University say they gave the technology full control of a satellite and set it free for 24 hours
The artificial intelligence machine picked a few places and ordered the small near-Earth orbiter to take a closer look
A small Chinese satellite was directed by artificial intelligence to observe sites in India and Japan, according to a research paper. Photo: Shutterstock
Chinese researchers say an artificial intelligence machine was given temporary full control of a satellite in near-Earth orbit, in a landmark experiment to test the technology’s behaviour in space.
For 24 hours the Qimingxing 1, a small Earth observation satellite, was directed by a ground-based AI, without any human order, assignment or intervention, according to a paper published in the journal Geomatics and Information Science of Wuhan University.
The research team, led by Wang Mi from the university’s State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, said the aim of the experiment was to see what the AI would do of its own accord.
‘Red scare’ in US causes multi-year flood of refugees with PhDs to China
OECD
data shows China sustains net gain of scientists while US suffers net
loss as ethnic Chinese researchers fear US government surveillance and
prosecution
The United States may want to choke off vital supplies of hi-tech gear, especially advanced semiconductors, to China. But, thanks to a “red scare” about industrial espionage and intellectual property theft that has specifically targeted ethnic Chinese researchers, it is inadvertently repatriating scientific talent to the mainland on a massive scale.
It’s an influx of refugees all right, but with PhDs and other advanced degrees, and many even with tenures back in the US. Forget Beijing’s Thousand Talents Plan or Overseas High-Level Talent Recruitment Programmes. The US government is recruiting for China by creating a climate of fear among an ethnic group of researchers through selective prosecution, while casting hundreds under suspicion and killing the careers of many.
In a new analysis of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) data, the conservative Cato Institute found that in 2021, the US lost published research scientists to other countries, while China gained more than 2,408.
“This was a remarkable turnaround from as recently as 2017 when the United States picked up 4,292 scientists and China picked up just 116,” it said. “The rest of the OECD and China have both surpassed the United States for net inflow of scientific authors.”
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The institute concludes: “This is a disturbing trend … started before the pandemic. In fact, it appears to coincide with the Trump administration’s ‘China Initiative’ – more accurately titled the anti‐Chinese initiative.
“Launched in November 2018, the Department of Justice’s campaign was supposed to combat the overblown threat of intellectual property theft and espionage. In reality, it involved repeatedly intimidating institutions that employed scientists of Chinese heritage and attempting malicious failed prosecutions of scientists who worked with institutions in China.”
While the FBI and Justice Department have supposedly ended its “China initiative”, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the country’s single largest funding source of academic biomedical research, has been boasting about its high kill rates.
According to a March report in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Science, in the past four years, the NIH asked about 100 US institutions it funded to carry out internal investigations into academic staff. Some 81 per cent of the scientists targeted identified themselves as Asian, and 91 per cent of the collaborations under investigations were linked to China.
Science reports that 103 of those scientists, or 42 per cent of the 246 targeted – most of them tenured faculty members – ended up losing their jobs.
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Even today, top NIH management is proud of the work, having cited the high number of “successful” cases resulting in job termination. But, according to Science, some administrators might find it easier to sack an employee than fighting the powerful NIH.
“Others, including some of the scientists targeted and the university administrators involved in investigating them, say the tremendous power differential between NIH and its grantees may be a better explanation for why so many scientists have been axed,” the Science article said.
“NIH is by far the largest funder of academic biomedical research in the United States, and some medical centres receive hundreds of millions of dollars annually from the agency. So when senior administrators heard [Michael Lauer, head of NIH’s extramural research] say a targeted scientist ‘was not welcome in the NIH ecosystem’, they understood immediately what he meant – and that he was expecting action.”
Separately, a late 2021 survey by MIT Technology Review identified at least 77 criminal cases and more than 150 defendants, out of hundreds of investigations linked to the China Initiative targeting research institutes.
“The initiative was supposed to focus on economic espionage, but it has increasingly charged academics with ‘research integrity’ issues,” it said.
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According to another survey by researchers at the University of Arizona, more than one in two scientists of Chinese descent feel considerable fear, anxiety, or both, about being surveilled by the US government, compared to 12 per cent of non-Chinese scientists.
The climate of fear noted by the Cato Institute study is hardly surprising. It warns: “If Chinese scientists are afraid to work in the United States, that means that the United States will not benefit from their discoveries as much or as quickly as China will.
“Although the Justice Department claims to have shut down its ‘China Initiative’, my colleagues doubt that Chinese scientists will be free from unjust scrutiny going forward.”
Beijing must love the irony. “Keep them coming, please,” it must be thinking.
Tnterventional therapies include blocking nerves so that the pain sensation is not felt by the patient. — 123rf.com
Many cancer patients may experience pain, especially during the advanced stages of the disease, but there are various ways to relieve this debilitating symptom.
CERTAIN cancers are more painful than most.
And most types of cancer, especially in the later stages (stage 4), are painful.
Among the most painful types of cancer are bone cancer, head and neck cancer, and brain and spinal cord cancer.
The presence of pain depends mainly on the location of the cancer and the stage of the disease.
Pain in cancer may arise from a tumour compressing or infiltrating nearby body parts; treatments and diagnostic procedures; or changes to skin, nerves and other tissues caused by a hormone imbalance or immune response.
However, the pain from most types of cancer can be controlled.
While most cancer pain can be managed with pharmacological treatment (using drugs such as opioids, anti-neuropathics, anti-depressants, etc), about 10% to 20% of cancer pain would need other methods, such as interventional pain management techniques and other non-pharmacological techniques like psychosocial management, physiotherapy techniques, and traditional and complementary medicine.
Pain management is important in palliative care.
Palliative therapy represents active care for patients whose illness is not responding to the curative treatment.
It aims to provide comfort and prevent the suffering of patients, especially towards the end of their life.
Thus, treatment of the pain presents an important integral part of palliative care.
Proper pain management can achieve a better quality of life for patients and their families.
Meanwhile, poor pain management has been shown to increase complications and reduce a patient’s life expectancy.
Proper assessment required
Patients with cancer pain need to undergo a comprehensive assessment of their pain.
This is the first step to achieving successful cancer pain management.
Similar to other clinical assessments, a complete pain assessment requires a detailed medical history, physical examination and relevant investigations.
The assessment aims to determine the nature and pathophysiology of the pain, severity of the pain, impact of the pain on functions and quality of life, and the response to interventions.
From the assessment, a plan can be formulated to help treat the patient’s pain.
Methods of pain management
Managing cancer pain is highly complex.
It can be divided into pharmacological treatment, anticancer treatments, non-pharmacological methods and interventional techniques.
Pharmacological treatment includes using drugs such as opioids (e.g. morphine), drugs to treat neuropathic pain (anti-epileptics, antidepressants etc), and steroids.
Non-pharmacological methods include exercise therapy, psychosocial therapy, and traditional and complementary medicine (e.g. acupuncture).
Anti-cancer treatment includes radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Meanwhile, there is a wide range of interventional techniques available for the relief of cancer pain.
These methods should be considered when conventional therapy, as mentioned above, fails to provide adequate pain control.
Examples of interventional techniques are nerve blocks, neurolysis, and insertion of an intrathecal morphine pump.
A nerve block is done by injecting local anaesthetics – sometimes combined with steroids – to block sensation to an area of the body.
For instance, if a patient has bone cancer of the arm, we would inject local anaesthetics around the nerve that supplies the arm in order to stop the pain sensation there.
However, the application of local anaesthetics may not last long due to the drugs’ limited time effect, thus, this is usually done for diagnostic purposes.
Neurolysis is a technique that is used to alleviate pain.
It is done either by using chemical agents (e.g. alcohol or phenol) or thermal techniques (e.g. radiofrequency ablation) on the nervous system.
Neurolysis is only used when the disease has progressed to a point where no other pain treatments are effective.
And an intrathecal pump is a device that delivers small quantities of pain medication such as morphine, directly to the spinal fluid.
When these drugs are used and delivered in smaller doses, it may minimise the side effects often experienced with larger oral doses of the same medications, and patients may also experience better pain relief.
Patients who should be considered for these interventions include those with significant pain from locallyadvanced disease, severe neuropathic pain, and severe pain on movement.
Challenges in pain management
There are barriers to effective pain management in cancer patients, including:
> Restrictive policies governing healthcare practice
> Regulatory scrutiny when prescribing controlled substances > Lack of knowledge among patients, healthcare providers and caregivers about cancer pain management
> The use of religious and cultural strategies to cope with pain. > Inadequate attention to pain in certain patient populations, and
> Patient concerns about addiction and the harmful effects of pain treatment.
Although effective cancer pain management is highly recommended, the patient’s cultural beliefs may ingrain a deep pain tolerance, thus discouraging effective treatment of cancer pain.
Some cultural and religious beliefs may discourage the use of certain pain management methods, such as medications, while others uphold alternative therapies or spiritual practices to cope with pain.
Some examples would be:
>Belief in karma
In many cultures, pain and suffering are perceived as a result of past actions and may be necessary for spiritual growth.
This belief can result in patients not seeking treatment or not reporting their pain because they feel that it is deserved.
>Belief in spiritual healing
Spiritual practices such as prayer or meditation, are believed to be more effective at managing pain than medications.
While these practices can provide some relief, they may not be sufficient for more severe or chronic pain.
Some also believe that certain medications or medical procedures are “impure” or interfere with spiritual purity.
> Fear of addiction
Some cultures and religions view pain medications as addictive, and therefore, discourage its use.
This can result in patients not receiving adequate pain relief because they are afraid of becoming addicted to such medications.
Relieving the suffering
Expertise in pain management techniques is continuously growing.
Hence, healthcare professionals should be aware of their roles and appropriately refer their patients to specialists who are trained in pain management where available.
To a cancer patient, the pain he or she feels can stand in the way of positive treatment outcomes.
When the pain is managed and becomes bearable – if not gone altogether – the patient’s focus can shift from one of suffering to one of hopefulness.
The Star Malaysia, By Dr RUSHIN MARIA DASS
Dr Rushin Maria Dass is a consultant anaesthetist. For more information, email starhealth@thestar.com.my. The information provided is for educational and communication purposes only, and should not be considered as medical advice. The Star does not give any warranty on accuracy, completeness, functionality, usefulness or other assurances as to the content appearing in this article. The Star disclaims all responsibility for any losses, damage to property or personal injury suffered directly or indirectly from reliance on such information.
