General

In an effort to widen the social security net for housewives, a new Socso Housewife Social Safety Scheme will take effect starting next year. Dhanya Nair gives us the details.

Image Source: Adismara Putri Pradiri, Unsplash

While mainly used as a drug to treat parasites in animals, Ivermectin is now touted by many as a treatment for Covid-19, despite the lack of medical evidence to show it's effective. We look at why so many people view it as a silver bullet, even though it is still unapproved by the Ministry of Health.

Image Source: James Yarema, Unsplash

In conjunction with SMA Awareness Month, which is observed every August, we discuss a new study which looks at what it is like living with SMA in Malaysia, together with neurogeneticist Dr Azlina Ahmad Annuar, consultant clinical geneticist and paediatrician Dr Ch’ng Gaik Siew, and parent & co-founder of WeCareJourney Yap Sook Yee. We also discuss how the pandemic has affected this tight-knit community, and how people living with SMA and their caregivers have been coping, as well as what we need to do better to support them.

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It’s been said that Malaysia is a democracy. That the people have the power. But when we look at our political landscape today, it seems like the voters -- the rakyat -- don’t actually have a say in the goings on. In fact, the political maneuvering and durian trading that’s allegedly currently ongoing is in complete contradiction with what the people want -- complete focus on curbing the pandemic and restarting the economy. But how does this happen? And is there a way to bridge the gap between the people and the state? Sharan Raj of Parti Sosialis Malaysia joins us to discuss.

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The death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic has been staggering, especially here in Malaysia as the number of deaths due to COVID-19 has surpassed 11,000 and we are reporting upwards of 100 to 300 deaths a day in the past weeks. That’s 11,000 people whose deaths leave a huge hole in the lives of their families and friends, including children who have lost one or both of their parents or caregiver to COVID-19. A recent study in the Lancet estimated that for every 2 people who die of COVID, 1 child is left orphaned. This group of children has even been referred to as COVID orphans, and this shows us just how widespread this problem is. So what are we doing to protect and provide for these children? What can we do to mitigate the economic, developmental and psychological impact that they will face because of COVID-19? Here to dive into this, is Sharmila Sekaran, chairperson of Voice of the Children.

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With restrictions being loosened in some states and more people traveling back to Malaysia from other countries, there has been some confusion regarding the digital vaccination certificates. For starters, no, you don’t have to print your cert. In fact, you’re strongly advised not to!

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Malaysia’s 907,065 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are living in very uncertain times -- from day to day it seems almost impossible for them to predict what will come next.

Businesses across the country have barely hung on after the arrival and persistence of COVID-19.

In this regard, entrepreneurs need to live in a new normal, which would entail high adoption rate of technology as the businesses have learnt their lesson well during the coronavirus outbreak.

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Evidently, workers in restaurants and food outlets that are open for dine-in need not be fully vaccinated - only the dine-in customers must be fully vaccinated, according to the National Security Council.

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Gone are the days where consumers have had to rush home in time to catch their favourite prime time shows. The introduction of video streaming services has since allowed viewers to stream high quality video content over the internet on demand and on-the-go. Increased broadband access and smartphone penetration globally also contributed to the rise in demand for OTT services. With over 500 million active users each month, 6 billion hours watched every month, and known as the Netflix of China, iQiyi is one of the largest online video sites in the world. We catch up with Dinesh Ratnam, Country Manager of iQiyi Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei to discover just how this freemium service profits in the highly competitive OTT space.

Neybrfood is a curated online marketplace for home-cooked meals by home chefs within their neighbourhood. From their kitchen to your dining table, we enable home-chefs in the neighbourhood to earn an income from home whilst making delicious home cooked meals.