By ANNA WILDE MATHEWS
If you're taking a daily aspirin for your heart, you may want to reconsider.
For years, many middle-aged people have taken the drug in hopes of reducing the chance of a heart attack or stroke. Americans bought more than 44 million packages of low-dose aspirin marketed for heart protection in the year ended September, up about 12% from 2005, according to research firm IMS Health.
Podcast
Ned Calonge, the chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, explains new guidelines for recommending aspirin therapy
Hear more WSJ Editors' Picks podcasts News Hub: New Doubts About Daily Aspirin Use
4:14
Medical experts say some people should think twice before taking aspirin daily. WSJ's Anna Mathews discusses these new findings with Kelsey Hubbard.
Now, medical experts say some people who are taking aspirin on a regular basis should think about stopping. Public-health officials are scaling back official recommendations for the painkiller to target a narrower group of patients who are at risk of a heart attack or stroke. The concern is that aspirin's side effects, which can include bleeding ulcers, might outweigh the potential benefits when taken by many healthy or older people.
Health Blog
Aspirin Blocking Blood Clots: For Some, It Doesn't Work
"Not everybody needs to take aspirin," says Sidney Smith, a professor at the University of North Carolina who is chairing a new National Institutes of Health effort to compile treatment recommendations on cardiovascular-disease prevention. Physicians are beginning to tailor aspirin recommendations to "groups where the benefits are especially well established," he says.
Doctors generally agree that most patients who have already suffered a heart attack or ischemic stroke, the type caused by a clot or other obstruction blocking an artery to the brain, should take regular low-dose aspirin. But for people without heart disease, the newest guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force spell out much more clearly than before when aspirin should be administered.
Jon Protas/The Wall Street Journal
The guidelines, announced last year, suggest aspirin for certain men 45 to 79 years old with elevated heart-disease risk because of factors like cholesterol levels and smoking. For women, the guidelines don't focus on heart risk. Instead, the task force recommends certain women should take aspirin regularly if they are 55 to 79 and are in danger of having an ischemic stroke, for reasons that could include high blood pressure and diabetes.
The panel urged doctors to factor in conditions that could increase a patient's risk of bleeding from aspirin, which tends to rise with age. The group didn't designate a dose, but suggested that an appropriate amount might be 75 milligrams a day, which is close to the 81mg contained in low-dose, or "baby," aspirin. The task force didn't take a position on aspirin for people who are 80 and older because of a lack of data in this age group.
Aspirin Advice
Doctors have been scaling back their aspirin recommendations for people who don't already have heart disease. Here are the current guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
Aspirin recommended for:
Some men 45 and older with risk factors for heart disease, assuming no history of ulcers or other bleeding dangers.Some women 55 and older with risk factors for stroke, and no history of bleeding danger.Aspirin not recommended for:
Men younger than 45, and women younger than 55.Anyone 80 and older.Related Health Video
News Hub: Even Thin People Face Health Risks (01/26/10)News Hub: Why You Can Die of a Broken Heart 02/08/10)Study: Heartburn Drugs-Plavix Mix Worrisome (04/22/09Other medical researchers dispute the idea that there should be different guidelines for men and women. Still, many experts agree that doctors may have been recommending aspirin to people for whom the risks might outweigh the benefits.
Aspirin acts as a blood thinner, which is believed to account for much of its benefit of protecting against heart attacks and strokes. But that same action, along with a tendency to deplete the stomach's protective lining, can lead to a danger of gastrointestinal bleeding and possibly bleeding in the brain.
The task force issued its latest guidelines after reviewing the evidence from a number of studies on aspirin's benefits and risks. The recommendations update the panel's previous guidelines from 2002, which were more broadly written. Those suggested aspirin use for people of any age who were at elevated risk of heart disease.
"We would like doctors to re-look at their patients who are on aspirin and consider recommending stopping it where the chance of harm outweighs the benefit," says Ned Calonge, a Colorado public-health official who serves as the task force's chairman. He notes, however, that in studies of healthy people taking aspirin, the actual rates of bleeding and of prevented heart attacks were very low.
Not all patients accustomed to taking aspirin will want to stop. Maxine Fischer, 55 years old, recently figured out that under the new U.S. guidelines, she wouldn't be encouraged to continue with the drug. Using an online calculator, which factored such data as her age, blood pressure and medical history, she learned she had just a 1% likelihood of a stroke in the next 10 years. Under the guidelines, only women in her age group with at least a 3% or higher stroke risk should take aspirin.
Ms. Fischer, who works as a manager for seniors' lobby AARP in San Diego, has taken aspirin daily for two years after reading it could reduce the risk of stroke. For the moment, she says she'll keep it up, partly because she's more worried about strokes than ulcers. Strokes are "the big scary thing," she says.
Other patients say they would stick with aspirin because of other benefits attributed to the drug; past research has suggested that regular aspirin may reduce the risk of colon cancer, for instance. Virginia Douglas, 64, a retired trade-association executive, takes aspirin a few times a week. In addition to the possibly reduced risk of stroke, Ms. Douglas hopes to avoid colon cancer, which affected her father and grandfather. "There's always a new study with a new recommendation," says Ms. Douglas, of Sacramento, Calif. "You have to do what's best for you."
In a separate analysis, published in medical journal Lancet last May, an international group of scientists reached a broadly similar conclusion as did the U.S. task force—that doctors may have been recommending aspirin too widely. "You really have to have a clear margin of benefit over hazard before you should be treating healthy people," says Colin Baigent, a professor at Oxford University who coordinated the Lancet analysis.
What Aspirin Does
Aspirin's effects in the body can have good and bad implications.
Blood thinner: It inhibits clotting, which helps reduce the risk of heart attack and ischemic stroke but increases the danger of bleeding.Inflammation reducer: It lessens pain and fever by preventing production of the hormone-like substances called prostaglandins. But this can also deplete a protective layer in the stomach and increase the risk of ulcers.What You Can Do
If you want to figure out if the newest guidelines recommend aspirin for you, here's where to check:
At ahrq.gov, type 'aspirin and prevention' into the search box, and the new guidelines will come up in the results. Click on 'clinical summary' for a table that explains what people of different ages should do, and includes links to online calculators to help you figure out your risk of heart attack or stroke. You should also speak to your doctor.An analysis published in the British journal the Lancet, which reached somewhat different conclusions.A letter from the task force responding to the Lancet authors' findings.Still, the Lancet authors disagreed with the U.S. panel on some important details, particularly about who should be taking aspirin. The two groups examined evidence largely from the same studies of the drug, although the international team analyzed the data differently. In the end, the international team of scientists, unlike the U.S. officials, concluded that aspirin's effects on men and women were mostly the same.
Another disagreement between the two groups also emerged: The U.S. task force said that age is the biggest factor determining a person's risk of internal bleeding from aspirin. But the international team said other factors, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, also play a significant role. Unfortunately, the scientists noted, the same factors that increase patients' risk of bleeding also increase their risk of developing heart disease. This, in turn, can make it more difficult to calculate whether the benefits of aspirin would outweigh the risks of side effects.
The U.S. task force responded with a letter to the Lancet, defending its finding that men and women's results did appear different. There is a "wealth of evidence that men and women have different cardiovascular disease manifestations and respond differently to aspirin," the letter said. The panel also reiterated its position that bleeding risk is best parsed by age.
Amid the debate, some individual doctors are finding their own position. Rodney Hayward, who codirects a Veterans Affairs research center in Ann Arbor, Mich., says he's not convinced that aspirin's effects on men and women are so different. He says he continues to recommend aspirin for certain patients of both sexes with significant heart risk.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
WHY AUSTRALIAN MPs PROTESTED THE ANWAR TRIAL
Posted by LIM KIT SIANG BLOG
By Michael Danby
The Malaysian Insider
FEB 21 — Last week saw an unusual event in Australian politics: backbench members of Parliament from both sides took a foreign affairs initiative, independent of their party leaderships.
Sixty Members and Senators — Labor, Liberal, Green and independent — signed a letter which was presented to the Malaysian High Commissioner protesting against the current trial of Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim on charges of “sodomy.”
The letter was signed by, among others, Laurie Ferguson, Malcolm Turnbull, Greg Hunt, Bob Brown, Nick Xenophon, Duncan Kerr, Deputy Speaker Anna Burke, Jennie George, Gary Gray and Mark Dreyfus QC.
It followed a speech which I gave in the House of Representatives on Feb 3, in which I drew the House’s attention to the 2nd Sodomy trial in Kuala Lumpur of Anwar Ibrahim.
I’m very grateful to all the Members and Senators who signed the letter. I can’t recall another backbench initiative like this in recent times.
Why should Australian Members of Parliament stick their noses into the affairs of a country like Malaysia, which is a friend and neighbour?
I would say it is precisely because Malaysia is a friend and neighbour that we care what happens there. No-one is surprised at show trials and political persecution in North Korea or Burma. When it happens in a country which is one of our region’s relative success stories, we are shocked and dismayed.
Many Australian’s have spoken for Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s democratically elected leader under house arrest by an authoritarian regime. In some sense these legal torments of Anwar are more egregious as they are happening in a developing democracy that says organs of the state such as the courts or police should not be used to persecute a democratic political opponent.
People-to-people contact between Australians and Malaysians has become very close in recent years, through students studying in Australia, steadily growing tourism in both directions and growing business ties.
The persecution of Anwar Ibrahim, however, does not put Malaysia in a good light.
The repeated attempts by Malaysia’s ruling party to drive Anwar out of politics by framing him up on obviously false charges is a disgraceful story which has now been running for more than ten years. Anwar was Deputy Prime Minister in 1998 when he fell out with the then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad — no friend of Australia.
He was arrested, beaten up, tried on faked evidence and coerced testimony, then jailed for four years, before his conviction was finally overturned in 2004. Now the same charges have been laid again.
Recently the Wall Street Journal published a first-hand account of how the Malaysian Special Branch police fabricated the charges that led to Anwar’s first trial. Munawar Anees recalled how he had been starved and beaten into signing a false confession which implicated Anwar. The same things are happening again now.
It would be intolerable in any democratic country for an accuser to front at the home of the Prime Minister before he then went to the impartial Malaysian police. This is what happened to Anwar Ibrahim when has accuser was succoured by Rosmah Razak, the Prime Ministers wife, before he went to charge Anwar at the Police station.
These are the tactics which Anwar’s enemies are willing to resort to, in order to eliminate the threat he poses to those currently in power.
The reason the ruling party UMNO fears Anwar is simply that he is the first Malay politician to challenge successfully its monopoly of the Malay vote, which is the basis of its long-standing hold on power.
At the 2008 elections Anwar’s People’s Justice Party and its allies won 60 seats away from UMNO and its allies, creating a viable two-party system for the first time. UMNO fears that he will win the next election unless he is stopped, and it seems that at least some elements of UMNO and their allies in the police are willing to resort to any means to stop him.
Their nightmare scenario is for the urban, educated Malays together with Indian and Chinese minorities together with deputies from the rebellious Sabah and Sarawak provinces, uniting to form a parliamentary majority.
Malaysia , however is not like North Korea, sealed off from world opinion. The Malaysian people and the Malaysian government care about their reputation in the region and the world.
There have been demonstrations by UMNO ‘youth’ outside the Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur. A leading supporter of the Malaysian Prime Minister sought to deflect Malaysian opinion by responding that ‘Michael Danby, who organized the petition is a homosexual’.
Sad and pathetic though such a reaction is, the response on many blogs and new sites, by ordinary Malaysians who are outraged at the trial, repudiate such prejudice and show hope for a civic discourse as Malaysia’s democratic ethos develops.
The Malaysian media reports what is said about Malaysia in other countries. That’s why an intervention such as our bipartisan letter to the High Commissioner, politely but clearly setting out our strong protest against persecution of Anwar Ibrahim, can be effective, and why it is such an important initiative. Hopefully when Anwar is free of these torments the best answer to those who would like to keep Malaysia a one party state, will be the peaceful transition to power al la Japan, Taiwan and Korea of an Opposition Government.
When that happens, Australia’s politicians will have done more to cement genuine friendship with Malaysia than oodles of “diplomacy.” — www.thepunch.com.au
* Michael Danby is the Member for Melbourne Ports and Chair of the Parliamentary Sub-committee for Foreign Affairs.
————————————————————
Letter to the High Commissioner for Malaysia
by Members of the Australian Parliament
Thursday February 11, 2010
His Excellency Salman Bin L Ahmad
High Commissioner for Malaysia
Malaysian High Commission
7 Perth Ave
Yarralumla ACT 2600
11/02/2010
Dear High Commissioner
We write to you with regards to the trial of Anwar Ibrahim which is currently taking place in Kuala Lumpur.
We members of the Australian parliament believe Malaysia is an important country, an emerging power in our region, and a friend of Australia. However the trial of Anwar Ibrahim raises serious concerns for us.
While Australia and many other countries no longer have laws against sodomy we respect the right of Malaysia to determine what should be its laws relating to personal morality.
Of more serious concern however is the fact that this trial is taking place at all, particularly given the testimony of Munawar A. Anees in the Wall Street Journal (see attached). We understand that the US State Department has urged Malaysian authorities to resolve this matter in a manner that builds confidence in the impartial rule of law in Malaysia, and we agree with this sentiment. Many friendly observers of Malaysia find it difficult to believe that a leading opposition voice could be charged with sodomy a second time, and so soon after his party made major gains in national elections. It should be made known to the Malaysian Government, that in our opinion, global esteem for Malaysia will be affected by these charges against Mr Anwar. We hope that Malaysia’s authorities will not pursue these charges.
Signed
Members of the Australian Parliament
By Michael Danby
The Malaysian Insider
FEB 21 — Last week saw an unusual event in Australian politics: backbench members of Parliament from both sides took a foreign affairs initiative, independent of their party leaderships.
Sixty Members and Senators — Labor, Liberal, Green and independent — signed a letter which was presented to the Malaysian High Commissioner protesting against the current trial of Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim on charges of “sodomy.”
The letter was signed by, among others, Laurie Ferguson, Malcolm Turnbull, Greg Hunt, Bob Brown, Nick Xenophon, Duncan Kerr, Deputy Speaker Anna Burke, Jennie George, Gary Gray and Mark Dreyfus QC.
It followed a speech which I gave in the House of Representatives on Feb 3, in which I drew the House’s attention to the 2nd Sodomy trial in Kuala Lumpur of Anwar Ibrahim.
I’m very grateful to all the Members and Senators who signed the letter. I can’t recall another backbench initiative like this in recent times.
Why should Australian Members of Parliament stick their noses into the affairs of a country like Malaysia, which is a friend and neighbour?
I would say it is precisely because Malaysia is a friend and neighbour that we care what happens there. No-one is surprised at show trials and political persecution in North Korea or Burma. When it happens in a country which is one of our region’s relative success stories, we are shocked and dismayed.
Many Australian’s have spoken for Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s democratically elected leader under house arrest by an authoritarian regime. In some sense these legal torments of Anwar are more egregious as they are happening in a developing democracy that says organs of the state such as the courts or police should not be used to persecute a democratic political opponent.
People-to-people contact between Australians and Malaysians has become very close in recent years, through students studying in Australia, steadily growing tourism in both directions and growing business ties.
The persecution of Anwar Ibrahim, however, does not put Malaysia in a good light.
The repeated attempts by Malaysia’s ruling party to drive Anwar out of politics by framing him up on obviously false charges is a disgraceful story which has now been running for more than ten years. Anwar was Deputy Prime Minister in 1998 when he fell out with the then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad — no friend of Australia.
He was arrested, beaten up, tried on faked evidence and coerced testimony, then jailed for four years, before his conviction was finally overturned in 2004. Now the same charges have been laid again.
Recently the Wall Street Journal published a first-hand account of how the Malaysian Special Branch police fabricated the charges that led to Anwar’s first trial. Munawar Anees recalled how he had been starved and beaten into signing a false confession which implicated Anwar. The same things are happening again now.
It would be intolerable in any democratic country for an accuser to front at the home of the Prime Minister before he then went to the impartial Malaysian police. This is what happened to Anwar Ibrahim when has accuser was succoured by Rosmah Razak, the Prime Ministers wife, before he went to charge Anwar at the Police station.
These are the tactics which Anwar’s enemies are willing to resort to, in order to eliminate the threat he poses to those currently in power.
The reason the ruling party UMNO fears Anwar is simply that he is the first Malay politician to challenge successfully its monopoly of the Malay vote, which is the basis of its long-standing hold on power.
At the 2008 elections Anwar’s People’s Justice Party and its allies won 60 seats away from UMNO and its allies, creating a viable two-party system for the first time. UMNO fears that he will win the next election unless he is stopped, and it seems that at least some elements of UMNO and their allies in the police are willing to resort to any means to stop him.
Their nightmare scenario is for the urban, educated Malays together with Indian and Chinese minorities together with deputies from the rebellious Sabah and Sarawak provinces, uniting to form a parliamentary majority.
Malaysia , however is not like North Korea, sealed off from world opinion. The Malaysian people and the Malaysian government care about their reputation in the region and the world.
There have been demonstrations by UMNO ‘youth’ outside the Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur. A leading supporter of the Malaysian Prime Minister sought to deflect Malaysian opinion by responding that ‘Michael Danby, who organized the petition is a homosexual’.
Sad and pathetic though such a reaction is, the response on many blogs and new sites, by ordinary Malaysians who are outraged at the trial, repudiate such prejudice and show hope for a civic discourse as Malaysia’s democratic ethos develops.
The Malaysian media reports what is said about Malaysia in other countries. That’s why an intervention such as our bipartisan letter to the High Commissioner, politely but clearly setting out our strong protest against persecution of Anwar Ibrahim, can be effective, and why it is such an important initiative. Hopefully when Anwar is free of these torments the best answer to those who would like to keep Malaysia a one party state, will be the peaceful transition to power al la Japan, Taiwan and Korea of an Opposition Government.
When that happens, Australia’s politicians will have done more to cement genuine friendship with Malaysia than oodles of “diplomacy.” — www.thepunch.com.au
* Michael Danby is the Member for Melbourne Ports and Chair of the Parliamentary Sub-committee for Foreign Affairs.
————————————————————
Letter to the High Commissioner for Malaysia
by Members of the Australian Parliament
Thursday February 11, 2010
His Excellency Salman Bin L Ahmad
High Commissioner for Malaysia
Malaysian High Commission
7 Perth Ave
Yarralumla ACT 2600
11/02/2010
Dear High Commissioner
We write to you with regards to the trial of Anwar Ibrahim which is currently taking place in Kuala Lumpur.
We members of the Australian parliament believe Malaysia is an important country, an emerging power in our region, and a friend of Australia. However the trial of Anwar Ibrahim raises serious concerns for us.
While Australia and many other countries no longer have laws against sodomy we respect the right of Malaysia to determine what should be its laws relating to personal morality.
Of more serious concern however is the fact that this trial is taking place at all, particularly given the testimony of Munawar A. Anees in the Wall Street Journal (see attached). We understand that the US State Department has urged Malaysian authorities to resolve this matter in a manner that builds confidence in the impartial rule of law in Malaysia, and we agree with this sentiment. Many friendly observers of Malaysia find it difficult to believe that a leading opposition voice could be charged with sodomy a second time, and so soon after his party made major gains in national elections. It should be made known to the Malaysian Government, that in our opinion, global esteem for Malaysia will be affected by these charges against Mr Anwar. We hope that Malaysia’s authorities will not pursue these charges.
Signed
Members of the Australian Parliament
PENANG UMNO : DEBATE ONLY WITH CM LIM GUAN ENG
Tue, Feb 23, 2010
National
GEORGETOWN: The Penang Umno Youth will only engage in an open debate if it is with chief minister Lim Guan Eng .
Its chief Norman Zahalan, who confirmed receiving an invitation to debate the allegedly persecution of Malay traders by Lim, said they were interested in thrashing it out with Lim, because he was the decision maker.
“We want to know what are Lim’s plans for the Malays of Penang,” Norman said.
Norman was, one of three officials of Penang Umno Youth, Penang Malay Chambers of Commerce and Federation of Peninsular Malay Students who were invited to to participate in a debate organise by Pakatan Rakyat on March 7.
State DAP Socialist Youth (Dapsy) head Yeoh Soon Hin said the debate, themed “The Penang Malay Issue: Between Provocation and Truth”, would be held at the Seberang Jaya Expo site.
The PR alliance would be represented by the Keadilan, DAP and PAS Youth at the debate which will chaired by an independent moderator.
“We want an open debate with the Penang Umno Youth, Penang Malay Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Peninsular Malay Students and we sent invitations to them today,” he said.
The invitation to debate follows a series of accusations and allegations made by Penang Malay chambers president Rizal Faris Mohideen against Lim. Apart from using the race card and calling him a dictator and communist, Rizal had also reportedly accused him of sidelining Malay traders and businessmen in Penang.
Lim has countered the allegations with statistics and proof of contracts issued to Malay businessmen in Penang.
National
GEORGETOWN: The Penang Umno Youth will only engage in an open debate if it is with chief minister Lim Guan Eng .
Its chief Norman Zahalan, who confirmed receiving an invitation to debate the allegedly persecution of Malay traders by Lim, said they were interested in thrashing it out with Lim, because he was the decision maker.
“We want to know what are Lim’s plans for the Malays of Penang,” Norman said.
Norman was, one of three officials of Penang Umno Youth, Penang Malay Chambers of Commerce and Federation of Peninsular Malay Students who were invited to to participate in a debate organise by Pakatan Rakyat on March 7.
State DAP Socialist Youth (Dapsy) head Yeoh Soon Hin said the debate, themed “The Penang Malay Issue: Between Provocation and Truth”, would be held at the Seberang Jaya Expo site.
The PR alliance would be represented by the Keadilan, DAP and PAS Youth at the debate which will chaired by an independent moderator.
“We want an open debate with the Penang Umno Youth, Penang Malay Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Peninsular Malay Students and we sent invitations to them today,” he said.
The invitation to debate follows a series of accusations and allegations made by Penang Malay chambers president Rizal Faris Mohideen against Lim. Apart from using the race card and calling him a dictator and communist, Rizal had also reportedly accused him of sidelining Malay traders and businessmen in Penang.
Lim has countered the allegations with statistics and proof of contracts issued to Malay businessmen in Penang.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
A Promising Lifestyle for Penangites
LETTERS/SURAT
Friday, 19 February 2010 admin-s
By Ong Eu Soon
A promising premier lifestyle destination located on 20 acres of prime land, without enough setback and buffer from Lebuhraya Thean Teik. The property is surrounded by 1,300 residential units of All Seasons Park and Melody Homes and 115 units of three-storey shop lots, and flanked at both ends by major anchor tenants.
Is this a smart-growth that promise reduced congestion, clean air, affordable housing, open space protection, and reduced urban-service costs?
There is 4 areas of major concern that the Penang state government has failed to consider when approving the project:
1) Traffic circulation
2) Storm water erosion
3) Land use compatibility
4) Housing stock
The project site is located along a short stretch of a narrow street without alternative routes provided to divert traffic circulation. Without enough front, side and rear yard setback and buffer zone, it is a very ambitious project that attempt to put too many people on too little land; 1300 residential units with thousands of shoppers on a 20 acres of land with a single access road of less than a kilo meter.
Take a look at the following table regarding typical densities. The 1300 dwelling units on 20 acres translated to 65 dwelling units per acre far exceeding the 20 residents per acre as defined in the table for high density residential occupancy. Density refers to the number of people or jobs in an area. A dwelling unit typically consists of average 3 residents, making this project having a density of 65x3=195 residents per acre. About 10 time higher than the permitted density without taking into consideration the commercial traffic generated by shopping events. Who on planet earth can approve such type of extreme congested development? Only in this Bolehland where both Pakatan and BN state governments have the stupidity to make such an incredible decision on development density.
Table 1 Typical Densities
Definition Population Density
Typical Housing
Rural
Less than 0.5 residents per acre.
Houses on large lots (>5 acres)
Low-Density – Suburban
0.5-5 residents per acre.
Houses on lots 0.5 to 5 acres
Mid-Density – Suburban Cluster or Urban
5-12 residents per acre.
Houses on lots 0.2 to 0.5 acres (2-5 houses per acre)
Compact – Urban
More than 12 residents per acre.
Various combinations of detached houses on small lots, duplexes, townhouses, and low-rise (under 4 story) apartments and condominiums.
High-density
More than 20 residents per acre
Low- and high-rise (more than 4 story) apartments and condominiums.
The project is build on an excavated hill slope, with limited space for parking , driving, entry and exit points, and no right hand turn when exit from the project site, the project would create enormous traffic problems for Lebuhraya Thean Teik and its surrounding neighborhoods. Channeling all traffic into one intersection without a single traffic light is the best recipe for traffic congestion, definitely not a best solution for prosperity.
The land is deemed topographically unsuitable for high density residential occupancy and commercial traffic. Disregard the land use compatibility with the surrounding neighborhoods and traffic , would make this project a big time failure. Development is not about just building more high rises and shopping complex. It should be about the sustainability of the project itself. The state government should explain how the project could benefit the Air Itam township in term of providing employment opportunities, reducing commuting pressures , generating local demand for services and supporting industries, and generating demand for housing? Will the project eventually end up as another suburban sprawl due to bad traffic congestion along Lebuhraya Thean Teik?
The whole project would end up as another abandoned or lowly occupied commercial and residential areas. Only a fool without common sense would invest his/her hard earned money on a project that is destined to fail from the very beginning. The state government has the obligation to stop this type of development which brings no benefit to the people.
The state government should stop all the excavation carried out on the slope as it is a dangerous activity and done without studying the full impact of the instability problems of the entire hill slope. Is the state government allowing developers to build landslide hazards disregard about the safety of the surrounding neighborhoods even if the project might lead to a calamity of catastrophic proportions in the future?
Lim Guan Eng may again blame Koh Tze Koon for the approval of the project, and claimed that it is too costly for the state government to stop the project. This will end up as another example where developer get his way with no benefit to the environment and the people. The existence of such type of project speak badly about the competency, accountability and transparency of the current state government.
Friday, 19 February 2010 admin-s
By Ong Eu Soon
A promising premier lifestyle destination located on 20 acres of prime land, without enough setback and buffer from Lebuhraya Thean Teik. The property is surrounded by 1,300 residential units of All Seasons Park and Melody Homes and 115 units of three-storey shop lots, and flanked at both ends by major anchor tenants.
Is this a smart-growth that promise reduced congestion, clean air, affordable housing, open space protection, and reduced urban-service costs?
There is 4 areas of major concern that the Penang state government has failed to consider when approving the project:
1) Traffic circulation
2) Storm water erosion
3) Land use compatibility
4) Housing stock
The project site is located along a short stretch of a narrow street without alternative routes provided to divert traffic circulation. Without enough front, side and rear yard setback and buffer zone, it is a very ambitious project that attempt to put too many people on too little land; 1300 residential units with thousands of shoppers on a 20 acres of land with a single access road of less than a kilo meter.
Take a look at the following table regarding typical densities. The 1300 dwelling units on 20 acres translated to 65 dwelling units per acre far exceeding the 20 residents per acre as defined in the table for high density residential occupancy. Density refers to the number of people or jobs in an area. A dwelling unit typically consists of average 3 residents, making this project having a density of 65x3=195 residents per acre. About 10 time higher than the permitted density without taking into consideration the commercial traffic generated by shopping events. Who on planet earth can approve such type of extreme congested development? Only in this Bolehland where both Pakatan and BN state governments have the stupidity to make such an incredible decision on development density.
Table 1 Typical Densities
Definition Population Density
Typical Housing
Rural
Less than 0.5 residents per acre.
Houses on large lots (>5 acres)
Low-Density – Suburban
0.5-5 residents per acre.
Houses on lots 0.5 to 5 acres
Mid-Density – Suburban Cluster or Urban
5-12 residents per acre.
Houses on lots 0.2 to 0.5 acres (2-5 houses per acre)
Compact – Urban
More than 12 residents per acre.
Various combinations of detached houses on small lots, duplexes, townhouses, and low-rise (under 4 story) apartments and condominiums.
High-density
More than 20 residents per acre
Low- and high-rise (more than 4 story) apartments and condominiums.
The project is build on an excavated hill slope, with limited space for parking , driving, entry and exit points, and no right hand turn when exit from the project site, the project would create enormous traffic problems for Lebuhraya Thean Teik and its surrounding neighborhoods. Channeling all traffic into one intersection without a single traffic light is the best recipe for traffic congestion, definitely not a best solution for prosperity.
The land is deemed topographically unsuitable for high density residential occupancy and commercial traffic. Disregard the land use compatibility with the surrounding neighborhoods and traffic , would make this project a big time failure. Development is not about just building more high rises and shopping complex. It should be about the sustainability of the project itself. The state government should explain how the project could benefit the Air Itam township in term of providing employment opportunities, reducing commuting pressures , generating local demand for services and supporting industries, and generating demand for housing? Will the project eventually end up as another suburban sprawl due to bad traffic congestion along Lebuhraya Thean Teik?
The whole project would end up as another abandoned or lowly occupied commercial and residential areas. Only a fool without common sense would invest his/her hard earned money on a project that is destined to fail from the very beginning. The state government has the obligation to stop this type of development which brings no benefit to the people.
The state government should stop all the excavation carried out on the slope as it is a dangerous activity and done without studying the full impact of the instability problems of the entire hill slope. Is the state government allowing developers to build landslide hazards disregard about the safety of the surrounding neighborhoods even if the project might lead to a calamity of catastrophic proportions in the future?
Lim Guan Eng may again blame Koh Tze Koon for the approval of the project, and claimed that it is too costly for the state government to stop the project. This will end up as another example where developer get his way with no benefit to the environment and the people. The existence of such type of project speak badly about the competency, accountability and transparency of the current state government.
INQUEST PUT OFF AT REQUEST OF TEOH'S FAMILY
Fri, Feb 19, 2010
National
Latest Update: 1.13pm
SHAH ALAM: The inquest into the death of political aide Teoh Beng Hock at the Shah Alam Magistrate’s court today was adjourned to March 1 to allow his legal team to study the second autopsy report by Dr Shahidan Md Noor, the chief pathologist in Sungai Buloh Hospital.
The adjournment was sought by Gobind Deo, Teoh’s family lawyer.
Gobind said there was a lot of information and reports to be read and as such needed more time to do so.
Earlier, Dr Shaidan testified that he disagreed with Thai pathologist Dr Pornthip Rojasunnand’s report that Teoh might have been murdered.
He said he had testified that Teoh died as a result of a fall from a high building and that there was no trace of physical abuse by any individual.
Majistrate Azmil Muntapha Abas is presiding over the inquest.
Dr Shahidan, had conducted the second autopsy last November following a court order to exhume Teoh’s body for a second check after Dr Pornthip raised doubts about the cause of his death.
Teoh’s employers, the Selangor government, had engaged Dr Pornthip to testify.
Teoh, a political aide to Selangor state executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, was found dead on the 5th floor of Plaza Masalam in Shah alam on July 16 after being quizzed by Selangor MACC at its office on July 15.
He was questioned about allegations that some state legislators had misappropriated Selangor government funds.
National
Latest Update: 1.13pm
SHAH ALAM: The inquest into the death of political aide Teoh Beng Hock at the Shah Alam Magistrate’s court today was adjourned to March 1 to allow his legal team to study the second autopsy report by Dr Shahidan Md Noor, the chief pathologist in Sungai Buloh Hospital.
The adjournment was sought by Gobind Deo, Teoh’s family lawyer.
Gobind said there was a lot of information and reports to be read and as such needed more time to do so.
Earlier, Dr Shaidan testified that he disagreed with Thai pathologist Dr Pornthip Rojasunnand’s report that Teoh might have been murdered.
He said he had testified that Teoh died as a result of a fall from a high building and that there was no trace of physical abuse by any individual.
Majistrate Azmil Muntapha Abas is presiding over the inquest.
Dr Shahidan, had conducted the second autopsy last November following a court order to exhume Teoh’s body for a second check after Dr Pornthip raised doubts about the cause of his death.
Teoh’s employers, the Selangor government, had engaged Dr Pornthip to testify.
Teoh, a political aide to Selangor state executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, was found dead on the 5th floor of Plaza Masalam in Shah alam on July 16 after being quizzed by Selangor MACC at its office on July 15.
He was questioned about allegations that some state legislators had misappropriated Selangor government funds.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 — United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry has added to calls for a fair trial for opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who is now facing another sodomy charge.The call came after 50 Australian MPs last week asked the Malaysian government to drop the sodomy charge, the second of such charge the former deputy prime minister is facing in 12 years. The Barisan Nasional Youth and Malay rights group Perkasa protested outside the Australian High Commission this morning
against that call.
I'm sorry I made a mistake ; Anwar Ibrahim says
Anwar said he was responsible for selecting the MP candidates and had made “some mistakes” by choosing “shaky and unclean” candidates.
“I feel sad that I asked you to vote for these people - I apologise. Now I have been stabbed in the back,” he said during the state PKR’s Chinese New Year open house here Tuesday.
PKR’s Bayan Baru MP and Anwar’s personal friend, Datuk Seri Zahrain Hashim, quit the party on Friday, triggering talk of an exodus by PKR lawmakers.
Zahrain’s ally, Nibong Tebal MP Tan Tee Beng, who is facing disciplinary action from the party, said he would only decide on his future after Chinese New Year.
“We enter politics not to get a Datukship or to ask for contracts, shares and land - you don’t join politics to become rich,” Anwar said.
Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, who was present at the event, has alleged that Zahrain’s departure from Pakatan was prompted by his rejection of the latter’s proposal for the Bukit Jambul Country Club (BJCC) to be outsourced and awarded to “a RM2 company”.
Lim also denied that Pakatan was a “brittle” coalition. “Just because one or two run does not mean that we are brittle.
“To those who have left, ‘selamat meninggal’ and to those who are physically still in Pakatan but are not with us in spirit, we leave it up to them what to do - we will still be alright,” he said.
He also hit out at Zahrain for not being a “true friend” to Anwar.
“If he is a truly a friend, why did he choose this moment to act up - when Anwar is facing a trial?
“He can leave - we don’t care,” he said.
A billboard in Zahrain’s constituency, put up by Pantai Jerejak PKR assemblyman Sim Tze Tzin about a week ago, has been vandalised with a large, red X spray painted over Zahrain face.
The board, that is located at the Jalan Tengah - Jalan Mayang Pasir intersection, is one of two PKR billboards in the Bayan Baru parliamentary area that have been put up to wish motorists a happy Chinese New Year.
A check at the other board, located at the Jalan Tun Dr Awang entrance of the Bayan Baru roundabout, Tuesday afternoon showed that it was still untouched.
When asked about the vandalism, Sim said he had only found out about it Tuesday and denounced the act.
“Many people are angry at Zahrain (for jumping ship) but this is not the right way to express their feelings. Instead, we should focus on turning this anger into votes,” Sim said when met at the state-level PKR open house in Rifle Range.
Zahrain quit PKR on Feb 12, citing, among other reasons, dissatisfaction with Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Engs leadership of the state.
Sim added that he would take down the affected board this week, earlier than after the full Chinese New Year festivities as previously scheduled.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
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