Berbaju kurung. Tak pelik pun kan? Memanglah tak pelik kalau di Malaysia. Kalau di UK dan Ireland macam mana pula? Mungkin juga tak pelik sebab dah ramai kaum kerabat Melayu di sana. Tapi kalau di Czech ni pelik tak?
Pelik! Lagi-lagi waktu musim panas ni. Nak cover dengan kot/jaket, takkan lah kot sebab panas. Kenapa saya kata pelik? Sebabnya semasa dalam perjalanan ke kelas tadi, ada seorang makcik ni, terpegun dengan saya yang berbaju kurung. Sebelum nampak saya, elok-elok je dia jalan. Dah ternampak saya tu, terberhentilah dia. Rasa lucu pulak bila mengingatkan.
Bila orang dah tengok kita sampai macam tu sekali, mulalah keyakinan diri ni luntur. Saya pernah cakap kat suami yang kita kena yakin dengan apa yang kita pakai, barulah bila orang lain tengok kita, kita tak rasa kekok. Nasihat yang diberikan oleh saya nampaknya tidak berkesan pada saya hari ini. Asalnya rasa yakin je dengan berbaju kurung sebelum keluar rumah tapi bila dah nampak manusia-manusia Czech ni bagai langit dengan bumi dengan saya, terus tak yakin. Bukan sebab malu menutup aurat. Malunya sebab saya menarik perhatian orang. Semasa mula-mula datang ke Czech pun, macam tu juga. Orang-orang Czech tengok saya pelik sebab saya bertudung.
Cukuplah cerita mengarut saya buat kali ni. Jumpa lagi, insyaAllah.
Ketika sedang mencari artikel menarik untuk dimuatkan dalam blog High Qualities in You , saya berjumpa dengan artikel ini di Info Sihat . Mulalah saya terfikir, "Malaysia bertambah panas?". Maka mulalah saya bimbang tentang kesihatan keluarga saya di Malaysia terutamanya ayah saya yang merupakan seorang tukang rumah. Beberapa minit di bawah sang matahari sudah cukup membuat kita berpeluh, inikan pula tukang rumah, buruh, dan peladang yang perlu berada dalam pancar terik matahari untuk masa yang lama. Tanpa berlengah lagi, jom baca artikel di bawah tentang langkah berjaga-jaga yang perlu diambil ketika cuaca panas.
Cuaca Panas : Nasihat Kepada Orang Ramai
Cuaca panas memberi tekanan fizikal kepada tubuh manusia. Kesan terhadap kesihatan boleh jadi dari tahap sederhana (mild) kepada yang boleh menyebabkan maut contohnya akibat strok haba.
Semua orang berisiko menjadi mangsa cuaca panas. Walau bagaimanapun, terdapat kumpulan yang lebih berisiko:
Mereka yang terbabit dengan kegiatan aktiviti fizikal di luar seperti buruh, peladang, ahli sukan, tentera, polis dan lain-lain.
Orang dewasa (berumur 40 tahun ke atas mempunyai risiko 10 kali ganda berbanding dengan mereka yang lebih muda).
Kanak-kanak berumur 5 tahun ke bawah.
Penghidap penyakit sistem pernafasan.
Penghidap penyakit darah tinggi, jantung, kencing manis dan penyakit kelenjar tiroid.
Risiko bertambah jika mereka memakai pakaian yang tebal dan ketat yang menghalang haba keluar daripada penyejatan/ pengeringan peluh.
Gejala cuaca panas melampau adalah :
Sakit kepala
Keletihan
Lemah tumpuan
Pening
Lemah otot–otot atau kekejangan
Mual dan muntah
Keadaan yang terlalu teruk boleh menyebabkan dehidrasi (kekeringan), kekeliruan dan tidak sedarkan diri (koma).
Cara mencegah atau mengurangkan kesan terhadap kesihatan akibat cuaca panas melampau:
4.1 Anda Perlu :
Minum air kosong dengan banyak tanpa mengira tahap aktiviti fizikal yang anda lakukan. Jangan tunggu sehingga anda dahaga.
Minum minuman isotonik kerana ia boleh menggantikan garam dan mineral yang hilang semasa berpeluh.
Sejauh yang mana yang boleh, anda perlu berada di dalam rumah/bangunan
Hadkan aktiviti luar
Kerap berehat
Mandi atau gunakan kipas angin untuk menyejukkan tubuh badan anda
Pakai pakaian yang ringan, berwarna-terang dan longgar.
Pakai topi atau payung yang besar
4.2 Elakkan:
Minum minuman yang mengandungi kafein, alkohol, atau kandungan gula yang tinggi.
Membiarkan seseorang di dalam kereta yang tertutup.
Bersenam dalam cuaca panas
Jika anda mempunyai tanda-tanda masalah berkaitan dengan suhu panas, ingat tip-tip di bawah;
Calls for protests in Syria are spreading on social media websites, following popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.
Organisers say protests will be staged in front of the parliament in the capital, Damascus, on Friday and Saturday, and at Syrian embassies across the world.
Several pages have been set up on Facebook, with the most popular one, named "The Syrian Revolution", "liked" by about 13,000 people by Thursday.
However, many of those writing comments on Facebook appeared to be Syrians living abroad calling on their "brothers" at home to protest.
Sources in Syria told Al Jazeera they doubted that the calls for protests would really result in much action on the ground.
"I think the day of anger will turn out to be no more than a day of mild frustration," one journalist told Al Jazeera.
"There's no appetite for regime change in Syria as there has been in Egypt for a while. The president isn't hated as much as [Hosni] Mubarak, or seen as out of touch. Also, the local context is very different ... and the poverty rate is significantly lower than in Egypt."
Demonstrations planned
Organisers said demonstrations would be held in the Syrian cities of Damascus, Homs, Aleppo and Qamishli, and in countries including Canada, US, UK, Sweden and the Netherlands.
"For all the fine Syrians who live outside the Syria ... you can help your brothers in Syria by demonstrating in front of Syrian embassy where you live, the same day and same time," one post on Facebook read.
Fidaa Aldin Issa, a Syrian living in Sweden, said a number of activists, including himself, had found each other on Facebook and were now co-ordinating the protest plans.
"It's an independent youth initiative, without any ethnic or religious group, or political party, behind it," he told Al Jazeera.
Activists say Syria needs
a 'day of anger'
"We're working 24/7, we're not sleeping, urging people in Syria not to be afraid. They're very scared of the state and the intelligence service.
"We're trying through Facebook to break this fear, encouraging them to stage peaceful protests, without violence, even without badmouthing the president."
Issa said he has contact with two people on the ground in Syria who are trying to mobilise people.
"People in Syria are mistreated. The police is only protecting the elite. The state doesn't care about the unemployed and it has arrested many activists, just because they want to improve the country with means of democracy. There must be an end to this."
There were also reports that a pro-government demonstration would be held in Damascus to coincide with the other rallies.
Facebook is officially blocked in Syria since November 2007. However, many young Syrians bypass the hurdle by using proxy servers and, in August last year, there were about 30,000 Facebook users registered in the country.
As unrest broke out in Egypt last week, web users in Syria said the government tightened its grip over internet access by increasing the number of blocked sites and chat services.
Syria's emergency law - in place since 1963 - makes demonstrations unlawful unless authorised by the government in advance. When protests occur, security forces move in to disrupt.
Human Rights Watch reported on Thursday that a group of 20 people dressed in civilian clothing had beat and dispersed 15 demonstrators holding a candlelight in Damascus on Wednesday in support of the Egyptian mass protests.
The police, who were present nearby as the incident occurred, failed to intervene, the US-based rights group cited one of the gathering's organisers as saying.
Earlier reports had said that police were beating the demonstrators.
Curbs on freedom
As in Egypt, government critics in Syria complain of corruption and limitations to political freedom and human rights.
"Syria's authorities detained political and human rights activists, restricted freedom of expression, repressed its Kurdish minority, and held people incommunicado for lengthy periods, often torturing them, during 2010", Human Rights Watch, the respected rights monitor, said in a report issued last week.
The official unemployment rate is around 10 per cent, but some analysts say as many as every fourth Syrian is actually without a job.
However, Syria has undergone significant changes since Bashar al-Assad became president after his father Hafez's death in 2000, including slowly opening up the economy.
"Despite all troubles here, I don't think and don't hope that Syria will be the next [country to see an uprising] for too many reasons. My country is still not ready for such an experiment and the president here is not really hated," one young Syrian told Al Jazeera.
In an interview earlier this week, al-Assad told the Wall Street Journal that the ongoing protests in the region were ushering in a "new era" in the Middle East, and that Arab rulers would need to do more to accommodate their people's rising political and economic aspirations.
He said he would push through political reforms this year aimed at initiating municipal elections, granting more power to nongovernmental organisations and establishing a new media law.
However, he said stability and economy were higher on his agenda than political reforms.
"Reform in politics is important but it is not as important and urgent as the people waking every day and they want to eat, to have good health, to send their children to good schools. That is what they want," al-Assad said.
"I want to feel safe in my own country. That is my goal."
Domino effect ruled out
Al-Assad also told the Wall Street Journal that a domino effect with unrest spreading from Egypt and Tunisia to Syria was unlikely because his country is different.
"We have more difficult circumstances than most of the Arab countries but in spite of that Syria is stable. Why? Because you have to be very closely linked to the beliefs of the people. This is the core issue. When there is divergence between your policy and the people's beliefs and interests, you will have this vacuum that creates disturbance."
But in a possible reaction to the the recent events in Tunisia, whose long-time president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, was driven from power by unrest triggered partly by soaring prices, the Syrian government announced late last month that it had increased the heating oil allowance for public workers by 72 per cent to the equivalent of $33 a month.
Calls for protests in a number of Middle East countries are circulating on Twitter, including Yemen, February 3, Algeria, February 12, Bahrain, February 14 and Libya, February 17.
And that was the news (AlJazeera) on 4th February. What about now? Would there be no revolution for Syria? Watch this video.
Sometimes I can't sleep, and other times I'm afraid to sleep because of the amount of work that I have to do. How do I fit in quality sleep during medical school?
Response from Graham Walker, MD Resident, Emergency Medicine, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York, NY
Sleeping well -- or at least enough -- is a challenge for medical students and even for physicians long after they've finished a grueling residency. If it's not the long hours, it's a late call in the middle of the night or the tossing and turning while you worry about a patient you saw on the previous day. At the same time, not sleeping well sets you up for a rotten next day filled with brain fog and the mistitration of caffeine. One of the most frustrating things is knowing that you need to sleep but feeling wide awake. What are we to do?
Ask any sleep specialist and they'll tell you that it all begins with good "sleep hygiene." That term refers to the behavioral and environmental factors that precede sleep and that may interfere with sleep. To improve your sleep hygiene:
Avoid stimulants and depressants starting 6 hours before your bedtime (some would even say after noon). The goal is to prime your body to be appropriately tired at just the right time.
Don't take naps. As great as they feel, they're going to mess up your sleep cycle.
Don't study or do anything else in bed besides sleep. This helps train your body so that your bed is the place where you sleep, and getting in bed means "time to get sleepy."
Dark, quiet, and cool conditions are most conducive to falling and staying asleep.
So that's how to fall asleep, but how can you fit it into the demanding lifestyle of a medical student?
Like everything, it's all about balance. When you hear people talking about having a balanced life (social life, academic life, work life, family life), they never mention their sleep lives. You get 24 hours in a day to do with as you please, but sleep affects your ability and motivation to do what you want in other parts of the day. Sure, you can be the all-star in rotations and studying and still have a social life, but if you're sleeping 1 hour a night you will fall asleep in lectures, overdose on coffee, and feel cranky all day long. Making sleep a priority is vital to performing well in life. (Think of it this way: If you're getting a good night's sleep, you'll be energized the next day and less sluggish. You could potentially get more done because you're efficient.)
When it's late and I'm studying, I try to recognize my own limitations and the law of diminishing returns: You can only cram so much into your head in one evening. The later it gets, the less able you are to concentrate, analyze, and store the information that you so desperately want. Do you ever find yourself staring at a page trying to read but finding your mind constantly wandering? Alert! Alert! It's tired! Sleep helps you consolidate and lock in facts that you've been learning all day. If you don't sleep, what's the point of all that studying?
That said, even the most dedicated people have times when they simply have to cram. Try this method next time: Study until you start to recognize those diminishing returns, and then throw down a bookmark and go to sleep. Set your alarm for a couple of hours earlier than when you'd normally get up. You'll be surprised how much easier it is to study at 4:00 AM with some sleep under your belt than it is to wade through information at the end of a long day. (And, you can do some night prayers too.)
Finding the right way to sleep -- and knowing what your own body needs -- is absolutely critical to your success as a physician. Experiment with different approaches, and once you find what works for you, commit to it. You will be happier, healthier, and better able to cram that last bit of knowledge into your head to do your best in medical school, residency, and your career.
Du'a
And for Muslim, here's the du'a that you can read if you can't sleep.
“Ya Allah, sudah terbenam bintang-bintang sudah terkatup banyak mata sedangkan Engkau hidup dan jaga, tidak tidur. Wahai Yang Tegak, Yang Hidup dan Yang Jaga, tenteramkanlah mataku”.
This article has been written by afore-mentioned doctor and has been edited a bit by me. This article is from Medscape.
"Sesungguhnya Allah telah membeli dari orang-orang yang beriman akan jiwa mereka dan harta benda mereka dengan (balasan) bahawa mereka akan beroleh Syurga, (disebabkan) mereka berjuang pada jalan Allah maka (di antara) mereka ada yang membunuh dan terbunuh. (Balasan Syurga yang demikian ialah) sebagai janji yang benar yang ditetapkan oleh Allah di dalam (Kitab-kitab) Taurat dan Injil serta Al-Quran dan siapakah lagi yang lebih menyempurnakan janjinya daripada Allah? Oleh itu, bergembiralah dengan jualan yang kamu jalankan jual belinya itu dan (ketahuilah bahawa) jual beli (yang seperti itu) ialah kemenangan yang besar. " (Surah Taubah:111)
