Serum creatinine result from blood taken on June 2 showed it hit 299umol/L. This is the highest level yet. It has never gone above 288umol/L before this. The threshold is 400umol/L after which I have to undergo dialysis regularly for the rest of my life. I hope this is just an abnormal spike. Or could it be the effect of the urinary tract infection that knocked me out in May?

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Monday June 16, 2008
Bloggers meet face-to-face
By LIM CHIA YING

BLOGGERS gathered for a day of networking and sharing at the second All Malaysian Bloggers Project (AMBP) jointly organised by The Star Online and Cinema Online recently.

The project was aimed at providing bloggers in Malaysia a platform to share their thoughts at a get-together instead of just via online communication.

AMBP editor Michael A. Fredericks said its website had a directory where bloggers could sign up and then get invited to attend events.

“We started off as a pilot project sometime last year but things kicked off in January. We changed the look of our website and a lot of sponsors began coming in.
Giving his views: Tan (in wheelchair)sharing his thoughts about blogging on disability issues.

“Today, we have more than 2,000 bloggers from all over Malaysia registered with us,” said Fredericks during the gathering at the Outpost Café in Cathay Cineleisure in Mutiara Damansara, Petaling Jaya.

He said the first gathering that was held at The Gardens in MidValley had been a more informal meet.

Three bloggers were invited to speak about their blogging experience. They were Project Petaling Street founder Aizaruddin Danian, lifestyle blogger Kimberley Low and disability advocate-cum-blogger Peter Tan.

Aizaruddin said he had been blogging since 2001, long before blogs became popular.

“Project Petaling Street (PPS) was started in 2003, and we celebrated our blog’s fifth anniversary on June 5. We have over 9,700 members registered with us,” added Aizaruddin.

He said any blogger could inform PPS to highlight it in its blog.
Perks: Low said the perks that came with blogging included getting to try products and services for her reviews.

“In short, it’s like a snapshot for people to see what it is going on in the Malaysian blogosphere.

“It’s convenient and easy for those of us who are lazy to surf what others are writing about in other blog sites.”

Tan spoke on how blogging helped him advocate effectively a cause he believed in – the rights of disabled people.

“The public don’t really see many of the disabled people in the city because the environment and public transport is not made accessible to them,” said Tan, a disabled person himself.

“I know of airlines that don’t accept the disabled.

“Those that do, meanwhile, require us to sign indemnity forms whereby we cannot sue the airline in the event the craft crashes or some other untoward incident occurs.

“Why the need for such conditions when disabled people pay the same airfare as everyone else?” he asked.

Tan said blogging allowed him to disseminate information with ease and reach out to people who were in the dark about disabled issues, as not many reports on this could be found in the mainstream media.

“It also provides unlimited space for us to give more radical views about a certain situation which is sometimes not reported in the mainstream media,” he added.

Low said she loved the perk of being able to forge friendships quickly, and getting to sample different products for reviews.

“I feel your personality shines through when you blog. It’s exciting to have a voice and be able to draw people to listen to you!

“The power of blogging can actually evoke thoughts and influence people to discuss a topic that you have written,” said Low.

She however, feels that blogs should never be used as an avenue to make baseless claims or to cause harm to people.

Cinema Online editor Chin Vin Sen and Rohan Thomas of Microsoft, which was one of the sponsors of the event, were also present to share tips about usage of popular social networking website Facebook.

Bloggers interested in registering with AMBP can log onto www.allmalaysia.info/ambp.

Lethargy has been the order of they day for me for as long as I can remember. When I had my first full blood test done in 2004, it showed I had elevated level of serum creatinine and mild anaemia. The serum creatinine of 188 umol/L indicated that I had chronic renal failure. The nephrologists that I consulted linked the anaemia to renal failure. However nothing was conclusive until recently.

Iron supplements have done little to improve the situation. I went to see a haematologist regarding the anaemia in April. I had my blood tested. The results indicated that I may be a thalassemia carrier. A hemoglobin electrophoresis was done to confirm it. The results are out. My blood profile is consistent with alpha thalassemia trait.

According to the Northern California Comprehensive Thalassemia Center, individual(s) with alpha thalassemia trait will experience no significant health problems except a possible slight anaemia which cannot be treated with iron. It also stated that thalassemia trait is common in people of Southeast Asian ancestry including Malaysians and Chinese. This is like striking first prize in the lottery together with the jackpot. What remarkable odds!

How did the government arrive at the RM625 yearly rebate for owners of private vehicles? This is for engine capacity up to 2000cc to offset the drastic price hike in petrol beginning today. That amounts to only RM52.08 per month which is grossly insufficient to cover the additional cost on fuel for people who depend on their cars to move around. The public transportation in the Klang Valley and elsewhere in the country is just too hopelessly inefficient to be reliable.

It will be interesting to see what factors were considered. It will be even more interesting to see how businesses are going to cope with the added cost since commercial vehicles are excluded from getting any fuel rebate. Are we going to see another round of price increase in essential goods such as foodstuff? These are uncertain and painful times but one sure thing is that punters will be hedging their bets on 625 come Saturday and Sunday.

The drastic increase in the price of essential good and fuel will affect many stratas of society - from the struggling single mother to the family with seven school going kids. Trying to make ends meet will be even harder. Families in the lower income bracket, disabled people with limited income opportunities, pensioners drawing monthly pension of a few hundred ringgits only and senior citizens depending on interests from their lifetime savings kept in fixed deposit are the few categories of people who will hard hit by the inflationary situation that we are all facing.

What will happen to these people should their essential monthly expenditure exceed their income? Missing a meal may not matter much to those who can afford it as they can eat a little more during the next meal. For people who are living from hand-to-mouth they need every ounce of energy they can get from their meager rations so that they can continue working. It is a vicious cycle for them. What will happen if their income is only sufficient for three weeks of a month only? What is being done for these people?