#BenderaPutih Movement Urges Those Who Require Assistance To Signal For Help

The #BenderaPutih (white flag) movement is currently making rounds among social media users in Malaysia and has brought a lot of attention to the plight of those who have been badly affected by the ongoing lockdown. While its origin is rather unclear, the idea by the movement is rather simple: by flying a white flag or cloth outside their homes, those who needed assistance in terms of food supply and daily necessities can be found by others in the area.

There have been growing reports indicated that many Malaysians are facing difficulties because of the near-total and indefinite closure of the economy due to the lockdown which would remain until daily COVID-19 cases drop to below the 4,000 mark. Supporters of the movement have emphasised that waving a white flag should not be interpreted in its traditional sense of indicating defeat or surrender, but to view it purely as a means to signal their need for support.

As its message spreads to more netizens, the #BenderaPutih hashtag is leading Twitter’s trending chart in Malaysia as of 3:22 PM today. The movement appears to be similar in nature to the #KitaJagaKita movement, which gained traction briefly at the start of the pandemic last year but later lost momentum after being co-opted by the government, seemingly in an attempt to absolve themselves from widespread criticism.

Since it began in March, the Ministry of Health has used the hashtag in tweets dozens of times, even though the hashtag was often used to criticise the government’s handling of the pandemic. The movement was also appropriated by Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul, Minister of International Trade and Industry Azmin Ali, and Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin, just to name a few. Even backbencher government MPs such as Ahmad Maslan frequently use the hashtag to praise the government.

Hanna Alkaf, who is credited for starting #KitaJagaKita, has rebuked politicians who try inserting themselves into the rakyat’s movement and expressed the same for #BenderaPutih as well. After all, Minister Zuraida is already trying to ride on the trending hashtag and naturally, this has immediately attracted criticism from the netizens.

Google Doodle Pays Tribute To Malaysian Doctor Who Invented The Modern Surgical Mask

Google commonly has Doodles to mark various different occasions. Today, it commemorates the 142th birthday of Dr Wu Lien-Teh. And it’s definitely a fitting one for the climate that we’re in right now. This is because the doctor invented the modern day surgical mask that we now use daily.

Dr Wu was born to a family of Chinese immigrants in Penang back in 1879. His great medical contribution would come years later, while he is vice director of China’s Imperial Army Medical College. In 1910, he was ordered to investigate the Manchurian plague of northwestern China in 1910. He would then identify it as the pneumonic plague, which spread through respiratory transmission.

To fight the disease, Dr Wu invented the surgical mask we all know today, with cotton and gauze plus a few layers of cloth to act as filters. With the addition of other measures like establishing quarantine stations and travel restrictions, he helped put an end to the plague by April 1911.

This Google Doodle comes just about a year after the tribute to Dr Ignaz Semmelweis, the father of hand hygiene. Both are still immensely relevant, with the COVID-19 pandemic still being the threat that it is. So remember to wash your hands regularly, and don’t forget your mask.

WHO exposed for covering up for China, Internal recording last January exposed

There had been internal dissatisfaction among the WHO organization that the top brass is bias and covering up for China.
A recording from last January before the the global outbreak had been exposed, Mike Ryan of WHO is heard as saying "I am insisting the same scenario, (as SARS) in Guangdong, the data shows that the infection will implode."
According to the voice recordings obtained by the Associated Press, at the WHO internal meeting held in January last year, executives said, "There is no evidence that human to human transmission is not possible." There are dissatisfaction one after another in the internal discussion.
Mike Ryan: "It is not enough that in general that there had been "No evidence" of human to human transmission. We need to look at the data, geographic distribution, timeline, only we are able to judge by ourselves, objectively of the epidemic curve."
However, at the same time, WHO Secretary-General Tedros repeatedly defended China, which also caused the Trump administration of the United States to withdraw from WHO.
The WHO investigation team investigating the source of the virus is expected to start a concrete investigation in Wuhan City on the 28th, but there is a deep-rooted skepticism as to whether China will cooperate