Brazilian confesses to sticking needles into two-year-old
AFP - Friday, December 18
A Brazilian man confessed Thursday to sticking more than 40 needles into his two-year-old former stepson in a ritualistic attack aimed at exacting revenge on his ex-wife, police said.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) - – A Brazilian man confessed Thursday to sticking more than 40 needles into his two-year-old former stepson in a ritualistic attack aimed at exacting revenge on his ex-wife, police said.
Roberto Carlos Magalhaes, 30, has been moved from Barreiras in the western state of Bahia because residents of the city want to kill him for his horrific crime, which has raised fears over "black magic" rituals, officials said.
Police said Magalhaes had confessed to sticking the needles into the boy, two or three every day, and said he was helped by two women who have denied the accusation but are under temporary arrest.
"He did it aiming to kill the child, to take revenge on the child's mother, with whom he used to fight a lot," said Barreiras police chief Helder Fernandes Santana.
The boy, who has not been named because of his age, was rushed by helicopter to Bahia's main city Calvados for emergency operations to remove the needles, but doctors said an infection near his heart prevented immediate surgery.
"One of the needles got to the heart and caused an infection, he's taking antibiotics right now," said Francisco Reis, director of the Ana Neri hospital in Salvador.
"Every heart infection goes straight to the circulatory system. We will obviously have to operate this child, but now we're looking for the best moment to do it," Reis said.
The boy's 38-year-old mother, Maria Souza Santos, was with her son. She had taken him to hospital in Barreiras when one of the needles perforated his lung, causing him to vomit.
A careful examination counted 42 of the metallic objects -- some measuring up to five centimeters (two inches) in length -- dispersed throughout the child's body including the neck, torso and legs.
Doctors said they planned to remove the most dangerous of the needles, but others would have to remain inside the body because removing them was too risky.
The village of Barreiras lies in Brazil's tropical northeast, a region heavily populated by the descendants of African slaves. It is known throughout Brazil as a center of religions and rites similar to voodoo practiced in Haiti and West Africa.
The Estado news agency reported that the boy was taken each weekend to the home of a woman named Angelina, who ordered his stepfather to insert the sewing needles.
Santos said she did not know how the needles got into son, but told reporters she found objects used for black magic ceremonies in her house, including a bottle of cachaca -- a common Brazilian rum made from sugar cane.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Why get them to come home when in the first place we should try to get them to stay?
Reasons to leave
Why Not?
By WONG SAI WAN
Friday December 4, 2009
The number of Malaysians leaving to settle down in other countries is growing and this worrying trend needs to be studied.
MALAYSIANS are a well-travelled lot and there are very few countries in the world where at least one of our countryman cannot be found eking a living there.
In my travels as a journalist in the past 25 years covering various assignments, especially the visits by the Prime Ministers, the only place I could recall where I did not meet a fellow Malaysian was Ulan Ude, the capital of Buryat - one of the isolated former Soviet republics in Siberia.
Former diplomat Dennis Ignatius wrote in his column in The Star last month that he estimated that there were about one million Malaysians living abroad, half of them in Britain and the United States.
According to Ignatius, there were more than 300,000 in Britain, 200,000 in the US, 95,000 in Australia and 50,000 in Canada.
I even met a Malaysian in Peru who together with his Taiwanese wife had settled down in the South American country where he exports seafood like abalone to Asian countries. Even in Africa, where I have visited more than 10 countries, I met at least two of our countrymen in each of those nations.
This shows that we are a resilient lot and can make a living anywhere in the world. It is something to be proud of.
However, when Deputy Foreign Minister A. Kohilan Pillay told the Dewan Rakyat on Monday that a total of 304,358 Malaysians left the country between March last year and August this year, it must have surely rung alarm bells in the halls of power.
If it did not and the government leaders are not worried, then they better sit up and listen.
The number of OUR people migrating overseas in that 18 months is more than double that in 2007 when 139,696 migrated to other countries.
Kohilan admitted that the figures may be higher because they were derived from only those who had registered with Malaysia’s representative offices abroad.
On top of that, the deputy minister said the figures included 50,000 students who left to study abroad during that period.
So even if we exclude these student numbers, that’s still over 250,000 capable Malaysians who have left the country to settle down elsewhere — and we can be sure that they are well qualified, otherwise their new home countries would not have accepted them.
I dread to think of how many doctors, engineers, accountants and other professionals we have lost. This does not include expert brick-layers, artisans and even artists who have chosen to seek their fortune elsewhere.
Many of our 50,000 students will also not return home.
I have made it a point when I am overseas to meet with our students, especially those about to graduate. It is not a difficult thing to do because the Malaysian missions often organise meetings between visiting VIPs and the students. I just stayed back to meet them afterwards and many of them tell me that they do not intend to come home immediately after their graduation.
Most of them want to stay back to gain some experience and some even admitted that they had already applied for their PR (permanent resident) visas.
Even at 250,000 (excluding the students), this means that we lost about 1% of our population - now that is a worrying figure if this trend continues, especially since these are among our top talents.
Labis MP Chua Tee Yong, who had asked Kohilan the question about migration, had wondered whether the higher number of migration was a result of the political climate after the March 8 election, to which the deputy minister replied that it was a ‘’weak factor’’.
And Kohilan stated that the reasons for them migrating were for better education, business and career prospects. In other words, they left because they don’t think their future in Malaysia is bright. Something must be done to reverse this trend.
The Government has drawn up an extensive brain gain programme to attract ex-Malaysians or those living overseas to come home but that is not a proactive move. Why get them to come home when in the first place we should try to get them to stay?
The authorities must examine the reasons why 1% of the population left in just 18 months and will this figure go up again? Are there any particular policies that are driving these good people away?
We have drawn up all sorts of incentives to attract foreigners to come here, ranging from tax incentives to the Malaysia My Second Home programme. Isn’t it more urgent and cheaper to retain our talents?
I hope that the authorities will not just dismiss this latest increase in migration as just an over-reaction by certain ethnic groups only.
Back in the 1970s, many non-Malays left because they felt insecure after the May 13 incident and the introduction of the New Economic Policy. In the late 1980s, there was another spike in migration after the Ops Lalang crackdown in 1987 and again it was mostly non-Malays.
However, a former Australian High Commissioner told me that in the past few years the number of Malays seeking to migrate has increased tremendously. But to me that is not the issue. Why not?
Because it would be against the spirit of 1Malaysia – we should treat brain drain not as an ethnic problem, but as a national issue.
> Deputy Executive Editor Wong Sai Wan’s son will soon leave for overseas to study but the boy says he will come back although the father is unsure.
Why Not?
By WONG SAI WAN
Friday December 4, 2009
The number of Malaysians leaving to settle down in other countries is growing and this worrying trend needs to be studied.
MALAYSIANS are a well-travelled lot and there are very few countries in the world where at least one of our countryman cannot be found eking a living there.
In my travels as a journalist in the past 25 years covering various assignments, especially the visits by the Prime Ministers, the only place I could recall where I did not meet a fellow Malaysian was Ulan Ude, the capital of Buryat - one of the isolated former Soviet republics in Siberia.
Former diplomat Dennis Ignatius wrote in his column in The Star last month that he estimated that there were about one million Malaysians living abroad, half of them in Britain and the United States.
According to Ignatius, there were more than 300,000 in Britain, 200,000 in the US, 95,000 in Australia and 50,000 in Canada.
I even met a Malaysian in Peru who together with his Taiwanese wife had settled down in the South American country where he exports seafood like abalone to Asian countries. Even in Africa, where I have visited more than 10 countries, I met at least two of our countrymen in each of those nations.
This shows that we are a resilient lot and can make a living anywhere in the world. It is something to be proud of.
However, when Deputy Foreign Minister A. Kohilan Pillay told the Dewan Rakyat on Monday that a total of 304,358 Malaysians left the country between March last year and August this year, it must have surely rung alarm bells in the halls of power.
If it did not and the government leaders are not worried, then they better sit up and listen.
The number of OUR people migrating overseas in that 18 months is more than double that in 2007 when 139,696 migrated to other countries.
Kohilan admitted that the figures may be higher because they were derived from only those who had registered with Malaysia’s representative offices abroad.
On top of that, the deputy minister said the figures included 50,000 students who left to study abroad during that period.
So even if we exclude these student numbers, that’s still over 250,000 capable Malaysians who have left the country to settle down elsewhere — and we can be sure that they are well qualified, otherwise their new home countries would not have accepted them.
I dread to think of how many doctors, engineers, accountants and other professionals we have lost. This does not include expert brick-layers, artisans and even artists who have chosen to seek their fortune elsewhere.
Many of our 50,000 students will also not return home.
I have made it a point when I am overseas to meet with our students, especially those about to graduate. It is not a difficult thing to do because the Malaysian missions often organise meetings between visiting VIPs and the students. I just stayed back to meet them afterwards and many of them tell me that they do not intend to come home immediately after their graduation.
Most of them want to stay back to gain some experience and some even admitted that they had already applied for their PR (permanent resident) visas.
Even at 250,000 (excluding the students), this means that we lost about 1% of our population - now that is a worrying figure if this trend continues, especially since these are among our top talents.
Labis MP Chua Tee Yong, who had asked Kohilan the question about migration, had wondered whether the higher number of migration was a result of the political climate after the March 8 election, to which the deputy minister replied that it was a ‘’weak factor’’.
And Kohilan stated that the reasons for them migrating were for better education, business and career prospects. In other words, they left because they don’t think their future in Malaysia is bright. Something must be done to reverse this trend.
The Government has drawn up an extensive brain gain programme to attract ex-Malaysians or those living overseas to come home but that is not a proactive move. Why get them to come home when in the first place we should try to get them to stay?
The authorities must examine the reasons why 1% of the population left in just 18 months and will this figure go up again? Are there any particular policies that are driving these good people away?
We have drawn up all sorts of incentives to attract foreigners to come here, ranging from tax incentives to the Malaysia My Second Home programme. Isn’t it more urgent and cheaper to retain our talents?
I hope that the authorities will not just dismiss this latest increase in migration as just an over-reaction by certain ethnic groups only.
Back in the 1970s, many non-Malays left because they felt insecure after the May 13 incident and the introduction of the New Economic Policy. In the late 1980s, there was another spike in migration after the Ops Lalang crackdown in 1987 and again it was mostly non-Malays.
However, a former Australian High Commissioner told me that in the past few years the number of Malays seeking to migrate has increased tremendously. But to me that is not the issue. Why not?
Because it would be against the spirit of 1Malaysia – we should treat brain drain not as an ethnic problem, but as a national issue.
> Deputy Executive Editor Wong Sai Wan’s son will soon leave for overseas to study but the boy says he will come back although the father is unsure.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Wanted: Intercessors
5 Nov 2009
Dear Prayer Partner,
1. TQ 4 your prayers. We do not take it for granted for we understand and realize the power of prayer – especially intercessory prayers.
2. In the last mail, I talked a bit about ministering and praying for Sabah so that they may be revived for the Lord. I had even nicknamed it R-Sabah.
3. A few days ago I received an urgent invitation to preach in a camp in Sabah. The original speaker cannot stay for the whole camp and I was invited to substitute for him. They anticipate over 1000 people to attend it, as it is a combination of 3 churches. Pray that the Lord will minister to them and revive Sabah for the glory of God.
4. It will be a pretty tight schedule for me for the next 2-3 weeks. This weekend I will be teaching for 9 hours on How to Interpret the Bible to a group of church leaders in Klang Valley. I will also be preaching for their Sunday morning service. Pray that they will fall in love with the eternal Word of God.
5. I will be back to rush 3 assignments for my Doctorate in Ministry. Then I will attend one week of lectures (Mon-Fri, 8am – 5pm) on how to handle stress and burnout in pastoring. This is my 5th module out of 7th.
6. Three days later, I will fly off for the abovementioned camp in Sabah. Pray for me as I will preach and minister in 4 services in 2 days. The next day, I will fly off to Kuching to preach in an Iban camp. This annual Iban camp would probably have 2,000 over participants. Pray for me as I preach on Laborers for the Harvest.
7. I fly back and a week later I will be preaching in an English camp in Klang Valley. One or two days, I will be off again to Sabah for 2 weeks of intensive ministry (at least 2 camps are confirmed). The first week, Jessie and Ana will be with me. Ana’s first trip to the land below the wind!
8. I share in detail so that you will keep us in prayer, as I may not have time to write. Ministry is hectic and can be stressful ~ we need all the prayers we can get!
9. Pray for Jessie as she juggles between Ana, work, her own family, ministry and an impatient hubby (me!). Without her and her complete dedication to the calling we have, it would be near impossible to do the things that God has entrusted me to do.
10. This month is her birthday and I would be away on the day itself (Nov 28). I would appreciate your prayers for her and drop a word of blessing and encouragement to her. It’s never easy to be the spouse of an itinerant speaker.
11. As I watch her sacrifice and work so hard and choose to live a simple lifestyle so that I can continue to minister to the various groups of people, I wish I can provide a better life for her. Pray for us. Pray financial breakthroughs. Pray for greater wisdom.
12. Also urgently pray for more intercessors and prayer warriors for us as there are more ministries being opened up for us. But we need more prayer covering so that it can effectively tear down the work of the enemy. Pray for the double portion of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It is a spiritual warfare, and not based on human effort alone.
13. Pray for more advocates for us. We need more people who will speak on our behalf and raise fund for us so that we can do the work of the ministry. I know the current economic situation is quite bad, but it is during such times that God reveal Himself in a greater way. Pray for more regular supporters as expanding ministry requires more finances.
Jesus is the "Amen" because all that He says is true, sure, and valid. His promises and warnings are trustworthy, certain and will definitely come to pass. The truths that He teaches are established and unchanging. He is the Last Word, the finality of all truths.
Dear Prayer Partner,
1. TQ 4 your prayers. We do not take it for granted for we understand and realize the power of prayer – especially intercessory prayers.
2. In the last mail, I talked a bit about ministering and praying for Sabah so that they may be revived for the Lord. I had even nicknamed it R-Sabah.
3. A few days ago I received an urgent invitation to preach in a camp in Sabah. The original speaker cannot stay for the whole camp and I was invited to substitute for him. They anticipate over 1000 people to attend it, as it is a combination of 3 churches. Pray that the Lord will minister to them and revive Sabah for the glory of God.
4. It will be a pretty tight schedule for me for the next 2-3 weeks. This weekend I will be teaching for 9 hours on How to Interpret the Bible to a group of church leaders in Klang Valley. I will also be preaching for their Sunday morning service. Pray that they will fall in love with the eternal Word of God.
5. I will be back to rush 3 assignments for my Doctorate in Ministry. Then I will attend one week of lectures (Mon-Fri, 8am – 5pm) on how to handle stress and burnout in pastoring. This is my 5th module out of 7th.
6. Three days later, I will fly off for the abovementioned camp in Sabah. Pray for me as I will preach and minister in 4 services in 2 days. The next day, I will fly off to Kuching to preach in an Iban camp. This annual Iban camp would probably have 2,000 over participants. Pray for me as I preach on Laborers for the Harvest.
7. I fly back and a week later I will be preaching in an English camp in Klang Valley. One or two days, I will be off again to Sabah for 2 weeks of intensive ministry (at least 2 camps are confirmed). The first week, Jessie and Ana will be with me. Ana’s first trip to the land below the wind!
8. I share in detail so that you will keep us in prayer, as I may not have time to write. Ministry is hectic and can be stressful ~ we need all the prayers we can get!
9. Pray for Jessie as she juggles between Ana, work, her own family, ministry and an impatient hubby (me!). Without her and her complete dedication to the calling we have, it would be near impossible to do the things that God has entrusted me to do.
10. This month is her birthday and I would be away on the day itself (Nov 28). I would appreciate your prayers for her and drop a word of blessing and encouragement to her. It’s never easy to be the spouse of an itinerant speaker.
11. As I watch her sacrifice and work so hard and choose to live a simple lifestyle so that I can continue to minister to the various groups of people, I wish I can provide a better life for her. Pray for us. Pray financial breakthroughs. Pray for greater wisdom.
12. Also urgently pray for more intercessors and prayer warriors for us as there are more ministries being opened up for us. But we need more prayer covering so that it can effectively tear down the work of the enemy. Pray for the double portion of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It is a spiritual warfare, and not based on human effort alone.
13. Pray for more advocates for us. We need more people who will speak on our behalf and raise fund for us so that we can do the work of the ministry. I know the current economic situation is quite bad, but it is during such times that God reveal Himself in a greater way. Pray for more regular supporters as expanding ministry requires more finances.
Jesus is the "Amen" because all that He says is true, sure, and valid. His promises and warnings are trustworthy, certain and will definitely come to pass. The truths that He teaches are established and unchanging. He is the Last Word, the finality of all truths.
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