Archive for September, 2008
Keep Teeth Healthy, Mums
SINGAPORE: Eat healthily, take prenatal vitamins and schedule visits to the obstetrician - expectant mothers have plenty to do during pregnancy.
Now, dental experts are advising pregnant women to add “good oral hygiene” to their prenatal checklist.
According to dentists TODAY spoke to, good oral health is critical for a healthy pregnancy.
Said Dr Sharon Chong, a dentist at Q&M Dental Group, a private dental healthcare group: “Poor oral hygiene leads to dental caries (progressive tooth decay) and gum disease. Bacteria caused by these two dental problems can enter the mother’s blood stream through the gums and affect the foetus.”
A study, which appeared in the Journal of Periodontology (JOP) last July, evaluated pregnant women who were at risk of premature labour.
The presence of periodontal (gum) bacteria, commonly found in the mouth, was found in the amniotic fluid of one third of the women.
Dr Chee Hoe Kit, a registrar at the periodontics unit of the National Dental Centre of Singapore said that “all infections are a cause for concern among pregnant women because they pose a risk to the health of the baby”.
Recent studies have shown that pregnant women with periodontal disease are seven times more likely to give birth to a premature or underweight baby.
“It appears that periodontal disease triggers increased levels of biological chemicals that induce labour,” said Dr Chee.
For women who already have gingivitis - the first stage of gum disease - “pregnancy hormones can worsen symptoms such as bleeding, tenderness and swelling in the gum tissue”, said Dr Chong.
Gingivitis occurs when plaque builds up, causing gum inflammation.
“By the third trimester, hormonal changes cause the gums to be more sensitive to plaque accumulation,” she added.
And because up to 75 per cent of pregnant women experience this condition, which usually starts to worsen around the second month of pregnancy, Dr Suresh Nair, a senior consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist in private practice, advised pregnant women to have good dental habits as a healthy pregnancy strategy.
However, dentists told TODAY that pregnant women tend to rank oral health low on their priority list.
“Not all of them are keen to visit the dentist, especially if they’re experiencing discomfort from morning sickness and nausea,” said Dr Chee.
Dr Chong, who sees a “handful” of patients who are pregnant, said: “The neglectful ones do not even come in for dental appointments. A few come only when they have severe toothaches or bad infections.”
Ideally, women should achieve a high level of oral hygiene - which includes visits to the dentist twice annually on top of daily brushing and flossing - even before their pregnancy. “Visit a dentist, preferably before pregnancy, to fix any dental problems,” advised Dr Chong. -
Channel News Asia
E-Nailed!
Smear mail on your PC can land you in trouble.When was the last time you wrote, or forwarded, an email that was either defamatory or saucy from your office computer? Yesterday? This morning? Be careful. Be very careful, writes SONIA RAMACHANDRAN after speaking to experts on email etiquette
YOU may think that quirky email you wrote, or forwarded, to entice some laughs or vent your feelings against someone or other would only be seen by the addressee. Wrong.
When it comes to office emails, or mails sent using office equipment, they are actually being monitored. And it can get you fired.
This was clearly demonstrated in the recent 2008 industrial court case of Rachel Mathews & Anor v. BASF (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd.
The court upheld the dismissal of Mathews, the company’s corporate communications manager, because of emails she had sent. The emails contained derogatory remarks about the company’s managing director.
How did the company get access to these emails?
In May 2003, the company’s human resources senior manager, who was leaving the company, was directed to hand over her official emails. But the emails had been deleted.
The IT department retrieved the emails from her computer and found derogatory emails about the managing director which had been circulated among three staff of the company, including Mathews.
Apart from the derogatory remarks, the emails also revealed a scheme to add an unknown substance into the drink of the managing director.
The court, in dismissing Mathews’ claim for unfair dismissal, said: “The emails were meant for personal reading but were typed on the company’s computers and sent during office hours. Therefore, they became the property of the company.”
That’s why employment law expert Thavalingam Thavarajah warned that sending an email, whether personal or official, using the company’s computer means the email belongs to the company.
“It’s the company’s proprietary right,” he said, adding there have been 76 cases relating to emails heard at the industrial court in the last 24 years.
What about forwarded emails?
Forwarding confidential information, blogging articles and pornography can not only get you fired but also expose you to lawsuits, said Thavalingam
This is illustrated by the case of Overseas Courier Services (M) Sdn Bhd v. Yeak Sing Meow, which was decided last year.
In this case, the company’s general manager was dismissed from his job because of emails he had forwarded.
Yeak had sent an email to his colleagues saying he was leaving for a new job which had to do with managing a high-end biotech biking activity in a secluded island on the Indian Ocean.
After explaining his decision, saying his goodbyes and signing off, he added a note at the bottom saying, “Enclosed is a picture of the team who will be going with me.”
A click on this attachment showed a picture of a group of nude women riding mini-bikes in what appeared to be a stadium.
The email was also forwarded to his employer, minus the attachment.
“The employer construed the email to mean the general manager was leaving and accepted his resignation,” said Bar Council Industrial Court Practice Committee deputy chairman Anand Ponnudurai.
The general manager, he said, then took the case to the industrial court and won the case as the court said anyone in the right frame of mind would have realised the email was meant as a joke.
However, Anand said, the court deducted 50 per cent of the general manager’s backwages as it felt a person in that position should be more diligent in using the company’s computer.
That’s why employees should realise they are committing an offence if they forward a seditious or saucy email as they are guilty of disseminating it, warned Anand.
Another case involved popular Malaysian veteran singer Datuk Sharifah Aini Syed Jaafar four years ago.
On Dec 1, 2004, Sharifah Aini was charged with defaming Datuk Siti Nurhaliza, the country’s most popular singer, by forwarding hate email to a lecturer in Penang.
The lecturer was also charged with defaming Siti by sending the email to three entertainment journalists.
Sharifah Aini was alleged to have made disparaging comments about Siti’s private and professional life.
Although Sharifah Aini was granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal on Jan 29, 2006, the incident illustrated the dangers of forwarding emails.
Most email traffic in office relate to porno
That is why Thavalingam stressed the importance of educating the employee on the consequences of email abuse from the outset.
“Like when you go to school and sing the ‘Negaraku’, or recite your daily prayer, one of the most important routines in today’s society is to open his email the moment he enters office.
” Imagine if the employer received a complaint from a vendor that pornographic material was sent by an employee using the company’s email account.
“When they open up the account, they find that the employees, from the highest rank to the bottom, are involved in forwarding this email. How do you punish one and not the other? So the entire workforce could go!” he said.
The company, he added, runs the risk of exposure when an employee abuses its email facilities as the mail will carry the company’s name.
“Thus, the employer has every right to act within the parameters of the law,” he said.
Thavalingam said although the government acknowledges the right to freedom of expression, this recognition will be counter-productive if the people are not sensitive about the information they relay.
“Awareness of the consequences of email abuse is still lacking as people react instantaneously when something juicy happens. They just forward it without realising the repercussions. Email communication is like reading the newspaper or watching the news. People will believe what they read,” he said.
Malaysian Employers Federation executive director Shamsuddin Bardan said most companies do not allow non-company related emails.
“If an employee is caught with non-company related emails, he runs the risk of being disciplined or dismissed,” said Shamsuddin.
The most number of problems related to emails in a working environment, he explained, are those concerning pornography, politics, trade secrets and confidential information.
“It is also becoming quite a problem when employers deal with union matters using the company email.”
Pornography stored in company computers and emails have also resulted in dismissals of employees, said Shamsuddin.
And these employees, he adds, include top executives of companies.
“It could also result in sexual harassment suits. An example would be an employee who complains to her employer about pornography being accessed or disseminated by her colleagues.
“If the employer does not take any action, the employee can walk off and bring an action against the company for constructive dismissal as the work environment for her has become offensive.”
There are two issues when it comes to monitoring an employee’s internet access; that of the employer’s right of surveillance of the employee and the employee’s privacy.
“From the foreign case law that we have seen, the authorities seem to say that if it relates to work, the employer has the right to monitor the employee.
“In fact, the company can monitor anything the employee does using company facilities,” he said.
Cyber law expert Deepak Pillai said that an employee cannot claim a right to privacy in relation to the emails he sends out during office hours using the company’s facilities.
“This would probably be the case even if Malaysia did have privacy laws. Anything done in an office, using office equipment, on office time, is not a personal matter.
“Any information generated during the hours of employment, using the facilities of the company, belongs to the company,” said Deepak, who served on the Bar Council’s Information Technology and Cyberlaws Committee for almost a decade.
He added that employers monitor the emails of employees for two reasons: To ensure staff remain productive during working hours and to ensure the company’s intellectual property, confidential information and trade secrets remain safe.
“Can you imagine how easy it would be for an employee to copy files containing the trade secrets or confidential information of the company and transfer it out of the company via email?” he asked.
What happens if an employee uses his own internet connection at home but accesses the company email service or portal?
“It’s the company’s email service, so it has the right to monitor. If the employee uses his own laptop in the office, the position is not so clearcut.
“While the company can monitor the traffic to and from the employee’s laptop and the files that the employee accesses on the company server, the company’s right to actually physically examine the employee’s laptop is open to question.
“It is the employee’s equipment and not the company’s. It is therefore recommended that companies should have clear policies on whether personal laptops should be allowed to be used for company business,” said Deepak.
“Employees don’t realise that even if they hit the ‘delete’ button, the employer can still trace the deleted item,” warned Shamsuddin.
What happens if an employee uses his personal email instead of the company email address?
“The company still has the right to monitor so long as it is done in the office premises. Office facilities belong to the employer. So long as it is connected to the office, the employer has the right to monitor.”
Can an employer still continue to monitor an employee’s personal email once he has left the organisation?
“No. Once the relationship is severed, the employer cannot monitor the employee’s personal emails,” said Shamsuddin
The employee, he adds, is also duty bound to report any incoming email received which is not in the company’s interest.
Companies, he added, need to have usage and security policies for emails as well as internet usage.
“It is no different than companies having policies in relation to personal telephone calls during office hours or using the office telephone.”
New Straits Times
Masters Of Political Satire
The Comedy Court duo were once again in their element in their latest stage act, aiming missiles at Malaysian politics, society and life in general. DENNIS CHUA reviews We Don’t Swear.
FUNNYMEN Allan Perera and Indi Nadarajah never fail to keep abreast of Malaysia’s political developments, and always have a field day parodying them in the guise of their alter-egos Loga and Singam, the Two Datuks, the Two Chinamen, and the gossiping housewives Myrtle and Thavi.
We Don’t Swear, the duo’s latest stand-up show at The Actors Studio in Bangsar Shopping Centre, in Kuala Lumpur, recently tapped the latest political developments to the hilt, and proved why they remain the country’s masters of political parody.
As the Two Datuks, Alan and Indi kicked off their 2´-hour show dozing in the “lobby” of Parliament. Their reason “too many Opposition MPs in the House”.
The Datuks wittily tackled all reported issues about politicians and public figures featured in the Press as well as cyber-dailies Malaysiakini and Malaysia Today.
Nobody was spared - colourful Kadazandusun Parliamentarian Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin’s “bigfoot” and bocor jibes, controversial Penang politician Datuk Ahmad Ismail’s “squatter” remark, overseas trips by Members of Parliament, and even Datuk Lee Chong Wei’s silver medal in the recent Olympics - all were parodied by the duo known as Comedy Court
Allan’s Datuk had perhaps the best “advice” for MPs - one should prepare a “credible itinerary” before embarking on a “study tour overseas”, be it “golf in Taiwan” or a “river cruise in Egypt”.
As the Two Chinamen, Allan and Indi raised the laughter mark a notch. Sweating it out at a gymnasium, they dared each other to do crazy stunts depending on which party - Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat - won hotly-contested Parliamentary seats.
The “pro-Establishment” Indi declared to “pro-Opposition” Allan that he would run across George Town and swim across the Penang Straits in the raw if Penang fell to the Opposition.
He also crazily swore to become a nude, human steamroller travelling the length of the Federal Highway if Selangor fell.
However, as Loga and Singam the barstool lawyers, Comedy Court failed to sizzle. Allan’s Loga and Indi’s Singam rehashed their previous jokes a tad too often, lounging in their watering hole the Oblong Bar.
Myrtle and Thavi, as always, were the stars of We Don’t Swear.
The nagging, gossipy and rather masculine housewives were in their element “commenting” about Malaysian life then and now in their trademark judgemental and often saucy style.
In this hit skit, the duo was joined by theatre newcomer Amanda Charmaine Murthy, who played Myrtle’s pop-loving and Britney-ish teenage daughter.
In “educating” Amanda about life, Indi’s Thavi was hilariously full of prejudice against cross-cultural romance, despite her frequent preaching of muhibbah and the “good old days” in her childhood home in Cochrane Road.
Allan’s Myrtle had her hands full fixing a broken washing machine, recollecting zany memories of a squint-eyed driving instructor and a “howling” old relative, and trying her utmost to close Thavi’s “big-mouthed expose” of their ultra-liberal, hippy-ish teenage years in the disco era.
Besides their stand-up acts, Allan and Indi also offered the audience their latest “hit songs” which parodied Malaysian political life. The best of these included Two Submarines, sung to the tune of The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, and Allan’s ingenious country song, The ISA.
New Straits Times