BFM :: The Bigger Picture

Online police surveillance of social media has uncovered that Malaysian children, some as young as 14 years old, have fallen victim to cyber sexual grooming involving foreign paedophiles. We speak to Sharmila Sekaran, from child advocacy group Voice of the Children, about what needs to be done to keep our children safe online.

Facebook apologized yesterday for refusing to run an advert featuring a bikini-clad plus-size model, citing it "depicts a body...in an undesirable manner." Facebook's Ads Team went on to say "ads like these are not allowed since they make viewers feel bad about themselves." Clinical psychologist Dr. Chua Sook Ning explains what this says about our attitudes towards body image as well as how to address unhealthy weight and eating issues in a constructive manner.

Babies in orphanages often don't cry. It's been well documented that they eventually fall silent after their cries go unanswered, as they realise no one will come. There is a general lack of knowledge about the reality of what institutionalization does to a child, and we speak to Lari Cannon, a Mental Health Counsellor and Adoption and Foster Care Specialist at OrphanCARE, about the growing movement to shift the focus and transfer resources from large institutions that provide poor quality care to community-based services.

On October 31, 1984, Delhi, India, witnessed a horror of great proportions. Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India was shot dead by her Sikh bodyguards. In retaliation, an orgy of murder, rape and arson was unleashed upon the Sikh residents of Delhi in which more than 3000 lost their lives. Our guests, performers from ‘Kultar’s Mime’-- based on a poem by Sarbpreet Singh --synthesize the suffering of the innocents and present violence to inform, educate and transform.

The 2016 Thomas and Uber Cup took place in Kunshan, China this year. The popular game, which demands excellent fitness and technical finesse is a popular after-work and weekend sport – to play or to watch. We learn more about it from Dr Harjeet Singh, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, and Dr Mohd Faithal Hassan, the Dean of Sports Science at the University of Malaya.

The father-and-son team has tweaked the Scottish play and situated it on our fair shores, and retell the Bard’s tale with local flavours that extend beyond rendang, rumours and rascals. They tell us the process and the challenges of translating Shakespeare.

Our metabolism slows down as we age. How do we ensure that weight gain is kept at bay in our later years? We also get comments from Personal Trainer, Karen Siah, on the recent NY Times story about how former contestants on The Biggest Loser regain their weight and continue to struggle to fight a slower metabolism. 

The Universal Periodic Review, or UPR, is a United Nations’ process where each member country’s performance on human rights is assessed by their peers. Every 5 years, the Human Rights Council assesses a country’s progress towards fulfilling their commitments to basic freedoms regardless of race, gender, and religion. Civil societies are encouraged to take part in the process and, in Malaysia, COMANGO, a coalition of Malaysian NGOs, has been involved since 2009. With two years to go before Malaysia’s next review, COMANGO’s spokesperson Jerald Joseph joins me in the studio to  explain COMANGO’s mid-term report for Malaysia.

With 10 new cases each day in Malaysia, there is a great need to ensure we have access to information and services on HIV and AIDS. In conjunction with the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial Day, the Kuala Lumpur AIDS Support Services Society (KLASS) organised a fundraising dinner recently. We find out from our guests about the response from that event from Andrew Tan and and Bakhtiar Talhah. 

For more information, you can reach out to KLASS at www.klass.org.my or [email protected]. If you'd like to know more about the LUWWY project (MSM testing service using Case Management approach), you can contact them at [email protected]. Also, Andrew Tan can be reached at [email protected], and you can find the Penang Family Health Development Association (Penang FHDA) at www.fhdapenang.org.

Last month, the terror group Abu Sayyaf filmed the beheading of Canadian hostage John Ridsdel and uploaded the video on the internet. This is the latest in a series of barbaric acts committed on an increasingly frequent basis. Four Malaysians were kidnapped in March off Sabah’s east coast and are currently held captive in the Southern Philippines. Negotiations are reportedly on-going  to secure their release, and prevent a repeat of Sarawakian Bernard Then, who was beheaded late last year. Aruna Gopinath, Professor of Politics and International Relations at the National Defence University, helps us understand the history of Abu Sayyaf and its motivations. Professor Aruna spent her career studying the problem of terrorism in the Philippines and is the only Malaysian woman to have conducted fieldwork in the dangerous rebel-controlled areas of Southern Philippines.