Archive for November, 2007
Thai Candidates Accused Of Vote-Buying With Viagra: Official
BANGKOK: Parliamentary candidates in Thailand’s upcoming election are trying to buy the votes of elderly men by passing out free Viagra, a local government official said on Friday.
Thais head to the polls on December 23 for the first time since the military toppled the elected prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a bloodless coup last year.
Residents in Prathumthani, on the northern outskirts of Bangkok, reported some of the candidates were passing out doses of the anti-impotence drug in exchange for promised votes, said Sayan Nopkham, a local government official.
“The villagers told me they have been given one or two pills of Viagra by candidates. Then they come to me to ask for more pills, or sometimes coffee, in exchange for voting for my brother, who is also running for a seat,” he told AFP.
Thailand has a long history of vote-buying, but laws banning it have recently been toughened.
Anyone found guilty of buying votes could face up to 10 years in prison while voters who accept money face up to five years in jail.
Charungwit Phumma, an investigator with the Election Commission, said he had received no formal complaints about a Viagra-for-votes scheme.
“It’s a funny claim,” he said.
Charungwit said the most common complaints filed with his office were voters being paid to join a political party or being promised cash for going to the ballot box.
- AFP/so
Channel News Asia
Indonesia Faces Prospect Of Explosion In Sexually-Transmitted HIV Cases
JAKARTA: Indonesia faces the prospect of an explosion in HIV infections transmitted through sex.
And, the social and economic costs of AIDS are expected to increase rapidly.
To prevent a possible HIV epidemic, Jakarta will for the first time launch a controversial campaign to promote condom use even between husband and wife.
Nancy Fee, Indonesia’s country coordinator for UNAIDS, said: “Indonesia has such a large population, the population is very mobile, the population is young, and all those are elements that give concern. And we’re still on the upward curve of the epidemic. We aren’t seeing figures levelling off at all.”
At last count, more than 200,000 Indonesians are infected with HIV.
Almost half of these are intravenous drug users.
But experience in other Asian countries shows that this pattern of infection will soon change.
More infections will be via sexual transmission and this will make the general population more vulnerable to the disease.
Nancy Fee said: “We are actually in the process of transition. Over the coming few years, the majority of new infections will come through sexual transmission. This is actually quite a dangerous time for an epidemic in Asia, and follows a general pattern in Asia where injecting drug use is like the engine of the train which starts the epidemic off.”
To put the brakes on the spread of the virus, Jakarta health authorities will actively encourage the use of condoms, starting with a week-long campaign.
This initiative is controversial and is expected to spark protests from conservative Muslim groups in the country.
They are likely to oppose any contraceptive measures on religious grounds and say the campaign to encourage the use of condoms will encourage promiscuity.
The condom campaign is not just targeted at those who buy sex or homosexual men.
Married couples have also been included as trends show that more husbands and wives are infecting each other.
Nafsiah Mboi, Indonesia’s National AIDS Commission secretary, said: “That is why we have decided to promote condom use in the family, even though there’s still a lot of controversy. But our condom promotion does not stand alone. We still say most Indonesians benefit from religious education, from what we called ketahanan keluarga - family resilience - those are two most important things.”
Meanwhile, international organisations are urging the Indonesian government to allocate more funds to fight the disease.
Currently, international donors provide 70% of US$66 million needed to prevent an AIDS epidemic in Indonesia. - CNA/ir
Channel News Asia
Health Survey Shows Fewer Youths Picking Up Smoking
SINGAPORE: Fewer youths are taking up smoking with the proportion of those who tried a puff or two going down 7 percentage points in six years, according to a survey which polled 3,844 Secondary 1 to 4 students.
The Students’ Health Survey, conducted by the Health Promotion Board (HPB) between April and August last year, found that the proportion of youths who tried smoking had declined from 26 percent in 2000 to 19 percent last year.
V Prema, Deputy Director of Youth Health Programme Development 2, HPB, said: “There are a lot of education factors that have been going on in smoke-free messaging and the kind of programmes that we have been doing in schools. So I think the message has, to a large extent, gone down to the students that it’s not a desirable habit to pick up.”
Among the smokers, it was found that the median age at which they picked up smoking was 12 years old.
The survey also showed that youths were more likely to take up smoking if their friends, parents or siblings did so.
In fact, among those who smoked, 95 percent had close friends with the habit and almost six in ten youths had at least one parent who smoked as well.
The survey also revealed several misconceptions that youth smokers held about smoking.
For example, seven in ten thought that they could stop smoking anytime they wanted, compared to 65 percent among non-smokers.
HPB said the survey information is important as it can help improve its campaigns to tackle the smoking problem better.
As for sexual issues, the survey found that 4 percent of upper secondary students said they had engaged in sexual intercourse. Among the reasons given were “It just happened” and “I was curious”.
Dr Chan Mei Fen, Deputy Director, Research and Evaluation, HPB, said: “The prevalence of sexual intercourse at 4 percent is something that we will be monitoring because we know that sexual activities in children are the result of curiosity and they are experimenting often.
“We have to look at strategies and programmes which will address this so that students will be aware of when they should be a bit more cautious.”
HPB added that it was heartened that the survey showed that youths who did not engage in sex were mindful of the risks.
The top reasons for abstaining from sex were “fear of sexually transmitted diseases” and “fear of unwanted pregnancies”. Six in ten youths also said they did not want to engage in any sexual activities before marriage.
Other issues explored in the survey were dietary practices of youths, their physical activities and mental wellness.
It is the first time such a survey, involving 51 schools, was carried out.
The Health Promotion Board said the survey findings provide useful information on the state of youth health in Singapore. To continue monitoring health trends among youths, HPB would conduct such surveys every two to three years.
There are also plans to conduct similar surveys among other age groups, including tertiary students in the next two years.
- CNA/so
Channel News Asia