Bertie Ahern - Taosearch for the third time in the Celtic Tiger Economy

Irish PM Bertie Ahern's Fianna Fail party has won the country's general election, but narrowly failed to gain an overall majority in parliament.

Bertis will again be the taoiseach (prime minister) – for the third consecutive terms has led a coalition government since 1997 - a period of sustained economic growth for the Republic

IRISH RESULTS
Fianna Fail: 78 seats ; Fine Gael: 51
Labour: 20; Greens: 6
Independents: 5 ; Sinn Fein: 4
Progressive Democrats: 2
Total seats: 166


The party secured 78 seats in the 166-seat assembly, but saw a decline in the vote of its previous coalition partners, the Progressive Democrats.

Mr Ahern now faces the prospect of tough talks with opposition parties to build a coalition government.

He can count on two independents and two surviving Progressive Democrats.

The current situation is main opposition Fine Gael polled well, winning 51 seats, but its potential coalition partners Labour and the Greens fared less well. As a result, not even these three parties combined could overtake Fianna Fail and the PDs.

The Republic of Ireland's system of proportional representation means that parties' representation in the Dail (lower house of parliament) closely matches their percentage of the vote.

3 days of fighting in Lebanon.

Here is the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, at the northern Lebanon, 4 miles North of Tripoli. At this camp, Lebanese army and militants of Fatah Islam group has been being fighting since yesterday Sunday.

According to Yahoo news: "Lebanese troops pounded a Palestinian refugee camp with artillery and tank fire for a second day Monday, raising huge columns of smoke as they battled a militant group suspected of ties to al-Qaida in the worst violence since the end of the 1975-90 civil war."

Here are pictures:

According to globalsecurity.org, "In what observers say is the worst fighting to hit Tripoli in two decades, army tanks opened fire on positions inside Nahr al-Bared camp held by militants from Fatah Islam, a Sunni al-Qaeda-styled group. ". "Sunday's violence began shortly after dawn when police raided a militant-occupied apartment on a major thoroughfare in Tripoli.

Authorities said police were looking for suspects of a bank robbery a day earlier in Amyoun, a town southeast of Tripoli. Local media reported the gunmen to be members of Fatah Islam. The armed militants resisted arrest and a gun battle ensued. It spread to surrounding streets and continued through the afternoon."

source google earth community.

Editor's note :
Kindly note that the videos were from CCN so hear the bad news but be reserved with their usual mediacracy of "Al Qaedah" related terror in the making and quick in "Bushism terror resolution" of sending in military might. Do you think by making a warlord out of Sinora or his successor will ever solve the issue.

MEDIA STATEMENT - FOUNDATION FOR THE FUTURE.

20 May 2007

The Foundation for the Future was first announced in Bahrain in Novembre 2005 by foreign and development ministers of the broader Middle East, North Africa, Europe and the United States. The Foundation is an independent set-up, involving governments and civil society to support civil society organisations in their efforts to foster democracy and freedom in the broader Middle East and North Africa.

From the onset, the Foundation obtained pledges of US$56 million. Thus far the Foundation only received funds from Turkey, the United Kingdom and Jordan, among others. The US has not disbursed any funds to the Foundation.

I was invited to join the board of the Foundation in mid 2006 together with representatives from Morocco, Kuwait, Iraq, Spain, Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, US, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Switzerland and Qatar.

The other board members include Kamel Abu Jaber, advisor to the Jordanian Foreign Minister; Dr. Cornelio Sommaruga, former President of the International Committee of the Red Cross; Professor Ibrahim Kallin, advisor to the Foreign Minister of Turkey; and Sandra Day O'Connor, former US Supreme Court justice.

The first board meeting was convened in Doha, Qatar at the invitation of Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani, the Foreign Minister and presently Prime Minister of Qatar on 15 July 2006, and I was unanimously elected as the first honorary chairman. The decision was to set up the headquarters in Beirut.

However, in the Board Meeting on 4 December 2006 in Amman, Jordan, I met the Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdelelah Al-Khatib, who endorsed the setting up of the regional secretariat in Amman due to the delay in the Beirut headquarters as a result of the Israeli attack on Lebanon. The next board meeting will convene in 29-30 May 2007 in Bahrain, Lebanon.

I did not appoint Ms. Shaha Ali Reza to the Foundation. She was first assigned by the World Bank through the US State Department to the Foundation in late 2005 before I became Chairman. The executive committee of the decided in mid 2006 to regularise the appointment so that Shaha advises directly from the World Bank and not the State Department.

The board will issue a full statement after the meeting in Bahrain next week. However, due to the incessant propaganda from the UMNO controlled-media, I have decided to issue this statement. If there is no clarification by the media on the matter, the Foundation will not hesitate to institute legal action against the relevant parties.

ANWAR IBRAHIM

Foundation for the Future Chairman

Kedudukan Kelantan - kewangan, Jenayah & Rasuah

Call That Humiliation?

Published on Saturday, March 31, 2007 by The Guardian/UK



No hoods. No electric shocks. No beatings. These Iranians Clearly Are a Very Uncivilised Bunch
by Terry Jones

I share the outrage expressed in the British press over the treatment of our naval personnel accused by Iran of illegally entering their waters. It is a disgrace. We would never dream of treating captives like this - allowing them to smoke cigarettes, for example, even though it has been proven that smoking kills. And as for compelling poor servicewoman Faye Turney to wear a black headscarf, and then allowing the picture to be posted around the world - have the Iranians no concept of civilised behaviour? For God’s sake, what’s wrong with putting a bag over her head? That’s what we do with the Muslims we capture: we put bags over their heads, so it’s hard to breathe. Then it’s perfectly acceptable to take photographs of them and circulate them to the press because the captives can’t be recognised and humiliated in the way these unfortunate British service people are.

It is also unacceptable that these British captives should be made to talk on television and say things that they may regret later. If the Iranians put duct tape over their mouths, like we do to our captives, they wouldn’t be able to talk at all. Of course they’d probably find it even harder to breathe - especially with a bag over their head but at least they wouldn’t be humiliated.

And what’s all this about allowing the captives to write letters home saying they are all right? It’s time the Iranians fell into line with the rest of the civilised world: they should allow their captives the privacy of solitary confinement. That’s one of the many privileges the US grants to its captives in Guantánamo Bay.

The true mark of a civilised country is that it doesn’t rush intocharging people whom it has arbitrarily arrested in places it’s just invaded. The inmates of Guantánamo, for example, have been enjoying all the privacy they want for almost five years, and the first inmate has only just been charged. What a contrast to the disgraceful Iranian rush to parade their captives before the cameras!

What’s more, it is clear that the Iranians are not giving their British prisoners any decent physical exercise. The US military make sure that their Iraqi captives enjoy PT. This takes the form of exciting “stress positions”, which the captives are expected to hold for hours on end so as to improve their stomach and calf muscles. A common exercise is where they are made to stand on the balls of their feet and then squat so that their thighs are parallel to the ground. This creates intense pain and, finally, muscle failure. It’s all good healthy fun and has the bonus that the captives will confess to anything to get out of it.

And this brings me to my final point. It is clear from her TV appearance that servicewoman Turney has been put under pressure. The newspapers have persuaded behavioural psychologists to examine the footage and they all conclude that she is “unhappy and stressed”.

What is so appalling is the underhand way in which the Iranians have got her “unhappy and stressed”. She shows no signs of electrocution or burn marks and there are no signs of beating on her face. This is unacceptable. If captives are to be put under duress, such as by forcing them into compromising sexual positions, or having electric shocks to their genitals, they should be photographed, as they were in Abu Ghraib. The photographs should then be circulated around the civilised world so that everyone can see exactly what has been going on.

As Stephen Glover pointed out in the Daily Mail, perhaps it would not be right to bomb Iran in retaliation for the humiliation of our servicemen, but clearly the Iranian people must be made to suffer - whether by beefing up sanctions, as the Mail suggests, or simply by getting President Bush to hurry up and invade, as he intends to anyway, and bring democracy and western values to the country, as he has in Iraq.

> Terry Jones is a film director, actor and Python
> www.terry-jones.net

> © 2007 The Guardian

Iran Clock Is Ticking

By Robert Parry
January 31, 2007



While congressional Democrats test how far they should go in challenging George W. Bush’s war powers, the time may be running out to stop Bush from ordering a major escalation of the Middle East conflict by attacking Iran.

/cut

Impeachment 2007 - A Constitutional Duty (Seymour Hersh)





The Arab TV station Al-Jazeera, is now in KL will that make Kuala Lumpur and Washington comfortable?

Malaysian Economic health, how is it?

This is one of the subjects you will study for corporate health form their Annual Accounts Reports. Ant that too, is what the political leaders said, as the CI or Composite Index (IK Index Komposite) reaches 1200 on 14 March 2007. Let's hear another opinion.

Perkembagan terkini Negara Malaysia

Doing up the House of Worship:

The year 2006 bring two new things to the local house of worship (HoW) in our Kampong, Pangkal Meleret, Machang, loving called Masjid Mukim Pangkal Meleret. Firstly the formation of a new committee. The norm has been people who are on the pension payroll by government standard will be elected to the committee. As such even among us, we have occasionally playfully dubbed the activities in the HoW especially the lectures as “pensioners course (kursus pencen)”. However we hope that with the new faces of young, thirty something in (CMs) committee members, will erase that image from the activities run by the HoW.

replaced roof covering.

Second, the new face which include a serving official did bring in a new dynamism. They manage to get some funds to do up the HoW. Initiated by a young federal government officer in the CMs, HoW manage to secure a federal government grant of some RM180,000.00 to carry out the renovation works from JPP, Jabatan Pembangunan Persekutuan, a Federal Government Arm equivalent to the Federal Implementation and Coordination Unit. Thanks to that. These changes the previous years of piece meal maintenance like making new fences and improving the sanitary facilities

JPP was formed since PAS and Semangat 46 took over the state government. JPP was meant to channel funds directly from the federal government to JPP to finance development projects in his state, hence by passing the state government or institutions runs by state government. In Kelantan under what federal government termed it as 'opposition' rule, the JPP is seen as a state within state or a parallel government to the state government, pick your choice.

New ladies' ablution area.

Among the work done were, provide:-

1. 1. New ablutions places each for Men and ladies.
2. 2. An area at the rear of some 500 feet square additional space
   
3. to the prayer hall.
4. 3. A covered veranda of some 1000 feet square on one side of the mosque.

Including facelifts like:-

4. Changing all glass louvers to sliding aluminum windows.
5. Replacing the roof covering
6. Floor tiling
7. New coat of Paint.

By grace of the Almighty, the gentlemen that initiated the move did not live to see the works completed. He was laid to rest at the end of last year when the construction works was progressing. Kudos to the gentlemen and alFaatihaah

almost completed work

Madness of war memo

22 November 2005
EXCLUSIVE: BUSH PLOT TO BOMB HIS ARAB ALLY
Madness of war memo

By Kevin Maguire And Andy Lines

PRESIDENT Bush planned to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera in friendly Qatar, a "Top Secret" No 10 memo reveals.

But he was talked out of it at a White House summit by Tony Blair, who said it would provoke a worldwide backlash.

A source said: "There's no doubt what Bush wanted, and no doubt Blair didn't want him to do it." Al-Jazeera is accused by the US of fuelling the Iraqi insurgency.

The attack would have led to a massacre of innocents on the territory of a key ally, enraged the Middle East and almost certainly have sparked bloody retaliation.

A source said last night: "The memo is explosive and hugely damaging to Bush.

"He made clear he wanted to bomb al-Jazeera in Qatar and elsewhere. Blair replied that would cause a big problem.

"There's no doubt what Bush wanted to do - and no doubt Blair didn't want him to do it."

A Government official suggested that the Bush threat had been "humorous, not serious".

But another source declared: "Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair. That much is absolutely clear from the language used by both men."

Yesterday former Labour Defence Minister Peter Kilfoyle challenged Downing Street to publish the five-page transcript of the two leaders' conversation. He said: "It's frightening to think that such a powerful man as Bush can propose such cavalier actions.

"I hope the Prime Minister insists this memo be published. It gives an insight into the mindset of those who were the architects of war."

Bush disclosed his plan to target al-Jazeera, a civilian station with a huge Mid-East following, at a White House face-to-face with Mr Blair on April 16 last year.

At the time, the US was launching an all-out assault on insurgents in the Iraqi town of Fallujah.

Al-Jazeera infuriated Washington and London by reporting from behind rebel lines and broadcasting pictures of dead soldiers, private contractors and Iraqi victims.

The station, watched by millions, has also been used by bin Laden and al-Qaeda to broadcast atrocities and to threaten the West.

Al-Jazeera's HQ is in the business district of Qatar's capital, Doha.

Its single-storey buildings would have made an easy target for bombers. As it is sited away from residential areas, and more than 10 miles from the US's desert base in Qatar, there would have been no danger of "collateral damage".

Dozens of al-Jazeera staff at the HQ are not, as many believe, Islamic fanatics. Instead, most are respected and highly trained technicians and journalists.

To have wiped them out would have been equivalent to bombing the BBC in London and the most spectacular foreign policy disaster since the Iraq War itself.

The No 10 memo now raises fresh doubts over US claims that previous attacks against al-Jazeera staff were military errors.

In 2001 the station's Kabul office was knocked out by two "smart" bombs. In 2003, al-Jazeera reporter Tareq Ayyoub was killed in a US missile strike on the station's Baghdad centre.

The memo, which also included details of troop deployments, turned up in May last year at the Northampton constituency office of then Labour MP Tony Clarke

Cabinet Office civil servant David Keogh, 49, is accused under the Official Secrets Act of passing it to Leo O'Connor, 42, who used to work for Mr Clarke. Both are bailed to appear at Bow Street court next week.

Mr Clarke, who lost at the election, returned the memo to No 10.

He said Mr O'Connor had behaved "perfectly correctly".

Neither Mr O'Connor or Mr Keogh were available. No 10 did not comment.

AL-JAZEERA'S INSIDE STORY

The Last chance to see

The Last Rites

Queuing for last respect

It was Friday 13^th January 2007. Some time after the Friday weekly congressional ritual, the phone rang. On the other end was my cousin informing that my auntie had just passed away, I was still watching my pc screen and reading e-mails. Read one from my younger sister in Klang Valley asking about my auntie’s condition. She was the first, outside my immediate family, to get the message of her death from me.

Normally someone of considerable experience would tell that someone had passed away by feeling the pulse. I am still unable to do that. Messengers would then sent out to every nooks and corners of the kampong (village) passing the news to the villagers. Immediate mobilization would be organized to prepare for burial. The grave digger, the bathing team and the funeral prayer organizers were placed to work.

Visitors will be pouring in, with the donations. This donation assists to fund the whole exercise. The cash donation would lessened the burden of the deceased family to fork out cash to finance the burial and what comes next. The norm is 10 Malaysian Ringgit per visitor, of course depending on affordability and totally at one’s liberty. The burial cost is nominal, largely to meet the cost of grave digging and the bulk of the expenses goes to the drinks and the meals for the living, more so for what is coming up in the next few nights.

Typical Funeral Prayers

Positioning bier for prayers

Preparation of the corpse for a Malay burial is generally define by the demands of the Islamic jurisprudence or better known as fiqh. The corpse is first cleaned by bathing her, then she is wrapped in white cloth from head to toe with less than a foot extra at each end. Thats to tie the ends at the top of the head and bottom of the sole. Normally, after the bath the face is left uncovered for an hour or so, for the immediate family to pay their last respect, salutation and kisses.

The prepared corpse is then placed on a bier cover with semi cylindrical space frames and capped with a specially designed cloth for the occasion. It is then ready for funeral prayers. As a family tradition the funeral prayers was done twice. First, by members of the immediate family in the deceased abode then the second in the local mosque. At the mosques a small amount of cash is given to the participants as a token of appreciation.

Bier to mosque

The bier is taken to the mosque. It used to be made of bamboo and palm, that were then be left at the cemetery to rot. Today, the bier is made of Aluminum so that it is light and will be brought and stored in the local mosque after the funeral. The bier will be used many times. The bier is designed in such a way that at the edges the bearers protruded out to be placed on the shoulders for carrying it around. In this case the bier was carried the shoulders some 500 metres to a local burial ground

reading talkin ( the deceased testimony )

Final resting place

Leaving the mosque

After the burial, nightly for seven continuous nights there will be a ritual of chanting verses of the Quran, salutations to the prophets, verses that will bring about god-consciousness and seeking forgiveness for the dead and the living . In the old days it used to be organized for forty nights continuously, now it is done for the first 3 or 7 nights then on the fortieth followed by a final one on the hundredth night.

Pilgrimage & Eid

My kids watching Quban in Kota Bharu.

Here is my opinion regarding Haj Pilgrimage. I would suggest anyone to do Haj at their younger age, than what had been a norm to the past generation. They went for Haj after years of pension which is in Malaysia the pension able age 55 or 56, quite early compared to States, where one will be thinking of 60 or 65.

Why younger? The trials have been very different for the past generation and today. In the past the trials have been the journey itself, where it took weeks to cross the Indian Ocean. By today’s standard, if Concorde is allowed to fly, flying faster than mach 1, the speed of sound, you will be walking anywhere in Hijaz in less than five hours after boarding the aircraft.

Those day they used huge ships. I recall Sanusi Junid, the former minister, used to talk in our school hall about buying ships and when it hits the sea with the potential Hajjis , it will sound Shammelinn, shammelinn. He was a great believer in Koperasi (Co-op). The trials those days were on the ship. There were quarrels, break ups, divorces, marriages not to mention the sea sickness. Well if that is my argument, we can get there older now! But that okay there is room for everybody.

Those days, once yet get to Mecca, you are okay. There were much lesser people and to do the rituals were much easier. Now is the reverse, when you get to Mecca, then the problem start to come. It is better to get there in the beginning or towards the end of the Haj period. At the peak there will be millions wanting to do the same thing at the same time. So you can imagine the havocs and the amount of garbage created included. Without the Bangladeshi doing their morning run with the huge bulldozers to pile up and collect them, the Haramain will sink in the rubbish dump.

With that size of crowd wanting to do the same thing at the same time, crowd control is not going to be easy and accidents do happened. That’s the reason we heard of death and near death occurring almost every Haj period now. It is due to these challenges that I proposed Haj to be done at a younger age so that one can carry oneself smoothly during the rituals.

I salute the Saudi’s authorities on this score, their control of situation and prevention of epidemics are excellent. So do not blame them for denying you rice, sold by the “Meccan Malays”. They are doing their job preventing unwanted outbreaks of diseases.

My congratulations to those relatives who have sacrifice their wealth and time to do their Haj. I came to know that Sue Zak, Sue Den and Che Nab left for Haj on Christmas Eve, 24 December. May their efforts be extremely well rewarded and come back with Haji Mabrur.

I also take this opportunity to wish Selamat Hari Raya Qurban to all family of Keluarga Haji Wan Ishak and a happy and bless future in the coming year 2007 Masehi too. Do pass my Salam to those who will not be reading these wishes and prayers.

Hari Raya Poole Technical College, UK 1976

The Hajj: concluding remarks

Wed, 2007-01-03 07:40

Dr. A.R.M, Imtiyaz

Hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims circled the Kaaba, Islam's holiest site, for a final time today in Mecca, bringing to a close what may have been the largest hajj ever. Several thousand faithful remained behind in Mina, some 5 kilometers east of Mecca, to stone pillars representing Satan for a fourth and final day. The hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, passed this year without the deadly incidents that have marred it in the past. Many pilgrims admired new safety measures taken by Saudi authorities since a stampede in 2006 killed more than 360 pilgrims during the stoning ritual.

On Somalia - the start of a new slaughter

Sally discharged

Sally was discharged from HKB yesterday after lunch. According to the surgeon he had wanted to do both eyes. One is out 5 degrees and the other was out 35 degrees. Since both Sally and her mum had expected to do only an eye. They did only the serious one.

Sally’s therapy:

This is the forth anak-cucu Wan Som undergoing surgery. This one if Wan Som should would have voted “No”. But Wan Som would probably be out voted by her house hold looking from the perspective that they are all western educated and would view therapy from the eyes of western medicine, sometimes ironically termed as allopathy, especially with believers in homeopathy – a science of issuing allopathic medicines.

Yaya - Sally's youngest Sister

In sally’s case it is just lazy eyes (is it Strabismus in medical term?) or “juling” known here. It is basically just a muscle correction operation. She was schedule to enter the HKB surgical room at 11 am this morning. Her mum called and Alhamdullilah it was successfully done at 3.00 pm. The result proper the operation may not be known until 2 or 3 days time after all the observations been done.

Ø A snip from answers.com

Amblyopia

Definition

Amblyopia is an uncorrectable decrease in vision in one or both eyes with no apparent structural abnormality seen to explain it. It is a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning that when a decrease in vision is detected, other causes must be ruled out. Once no other cause is found, amblyopia is the diagnosis. Generally, a difference of two lines or more (on an eye-chart test of visual acuity) between the two eyes or a best corrected vision of 20/30 or worse would be defined as amblyopia. For example, if someone has 20/20 vision with the right eye and only 20/40 with the left, and the left eye cannot achieve better vision with corrective lenses, the left eye is said to be amblyopic.

Description

Lazy eye is a common non-medical term used to describe amblyopia because the eye with poorer vision doesn't seem to be doing its job of seeing. Amblyopia is the most common cause of impaired vision in children, affecting nearly three out of every 100 people or 2-4% of the population. Vision is a combination of the clarity of the images of the eyes (visual acuity) and the processing of those images by the brain. If the images produced by the two eyes are substantially different, the brain may not be able to fuse the images. Instead of seeing two different images or double vision (diplopia), the brain suppresses the blurrier image. This suppression can lead to amblyopia. During the first few years of life, preferring one eye over the other may lead to poor visual development in the blurrier eye.

Causes and symptoms

Some of the major causes of amblyopia are as follows:

• Strabismus. A misalignment of the eyes (strabismus) is the most common cause of functional amblyopia. The two eyes are looking in two different directions at the same time. The brain is sent two different images and this causes confusion. Images from the misaligned or "crossed" eye are turned off to avoid double vision.
• Anisometropia. This is another type of functional amblyopia. In this case, there is a difference of refractive states between the two eyes (in other words, a difference of prescriptions between the two eyes). For example, one eye may be more nearsighted than the other eye, or one eye may be farsighted and the other eye nearsighted. Because the brain cannot fuse the two dissimilar images, the brain will suppress the blurrier image, causing the eye to become amblyopic.
• Cataract. Clouding of the lens of the eye will cause the image to be blurrier than the other eye. The brain "prefers" the clearer image. The eye with the cataract may become amblyopic.
• Ptosis. This is the drooping of the upper eyelid. If light cannot enter the eye because of the drooping lid, the eye is essentially not being used. This can lead to amblyopia.
• Nutrition. A type of organic amblyopia in which nutritional deficiencies or chemical toxicity may result in amblyopia. Alcohol, tobacco, or a deficiency in the B vitamins may result in toxic amblyopia.
• Heredity. Amblyopia can run in families.

Barring the presence of strabismus or ptosis, children may or may not show signs of amblyopia. Children may hold their heads at an angle while trying to favor the eye with normal vision. They may have trouble seeing or reaching for things when approached from the side of the amblyopic eye. Parents should see if one side of approach is preferred by the child or infant. If an infant's good eye is covered, the child may cry.

Diagnosis

Because children with outwardly normal eyes may have amblyopia, it is important to have regular vision screenings performed for all children. While there is some controversy regarding the age children should have their first vision examination, their eyes can, in actuality, be examined at any age, even at one day of life.

Some recommend that children have their vision checked by their pediatrician, family physician, ophthalmologist, or optometrist at or before six months of age. Others recommend testing by at least the child's fourth birthday. There may be a "critical period" in the development of vision, and amblyopia may not be treatable after age eight or nine. The earlier amblyopia is found, the better the possible outcome. Most physicians test vision as part of a child's medical examination. If there is any sign of an eye problem, they may refer a child to an eye specialist.

There are objective methods, such as retinoscopy, to measure the refractive status of the eyes. This can help determine anisometropia. In retinoscopy, a hand-held instrument is used to shine a light in the child's (or infant's) eyes. Using hand-held lenses, a rough prescription can be obtained. Visual acuity can be determined using a variety of methods. Many different eye charts are available (e.g., tumbling E, pictures, or letters). In amblyopia, single letters are easier to recognize than when a whole line is shown. This is called the "crowding effect" and helps in diagnosing amblyopia. Neutral density filters may also be held over the eye to aid in the diagnosis. Sometimes visual fields to determine defects in the area of vision will be performed. Color vision testing may also be performed. Again, it must be emphasized that amblyopia is a diagnosis of exclusion. Visual or life-threatening problems can also cause a decrease in vision. An examination of the eyes and visual system is very important when there is an unexplained decrease in vision.

Treatment

The primary treatment for amblyopia is occlusion therapy. It is important to alternate patching the good eye (forcing the amblyopic eye to work) and the amblyopic eye. If the good eye is constantly patched, it too may become amblyopic because of disuse. The treatment plan should be discussed with the doctor to fully understand how long the patch will be on. When patched, eye exercises may be prescribed to force the amblyopic eye to focus and work. This is called vision therapy or vision training (eye exercises). Even after vision has been restored in the weak eye, part-time patching may be required over a period of years to maintain the improvement.

While patching is necessary to get the amblyopic eye to work, it is just as important to correct the reason for the amblyopia. Glasses may also be worn if there are errors in refraction. Surgery or vision training may be necessary in the case of strabismus. Better nutrition is indicated in some toxic amblyopias. Occasionally, amblyopia is treated by blurring the vision in the good eye with eye drops or lenses to force the child to use the amblyopic eye.

Prognosis

The younger the person, the better the chance for improvement with occlusion and vision therapy. However, treatment may be successful in older children—even adults. Success in the treatment of amblyopia also depends upon how severe the amblyopia is, the specific type of amblyopia, and patient compliance. It is important to diagnose and treat amblyopia early because significant vision loss can occur if left untreated. The best outcomes result from early diagnosis and treatment.

Prevention

To protect their child's vision, parents must be aware of amblyopia as a potential problem. This awareness may encourage parents to take young children for vision exams early on in life—certainly before school age. Proper nutrition is important in the avoidance of toxic amblyopia.

Ø end of snip

Have you been using answers.com effectively.

Counting on your doa for cucu Mok Ngoh well being!

What we hope from the operation is that Sally would used her lazy eye and that usage according to doctors is important, to prevent deterioration that may ultimately lead to blindness. At the moment she is using the eyes when she has her glasses on. She would probably keep her glasses on until her vision improves.

Worried Sally's mum when she was younger

A stomach for Academics?

UPSR (that’s Malaysian, Primary School Exam) performance by schools around Machang.

Pangkal Meleret did well this year from their normal numbers of student scoring all A’s jump from their norm which is 4 or 5 students to double digit 11 students scoring all A’s, for the first time in their history. SK Temangan keeps the norm of 4 students getting all As.

Overall in terms of number of students scoring all A’s drop in most school around Machang. The school that did well before did not hit the figure of more than thirty.

The school where my children go to, SK Hamzah 2, had 24 students scoring all A’s. I was informed that the best school is SK Pangkal MokWan, second SK Pulai Chandong, third SK Hamzah 2 and forth place went to SK Pangkal Meleret, probably by percentage of students getting all A’s.