The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the
thoughts, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers
for Thursday April 20th, 2023
Farewell Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham – Noor Hisham’s dark legacies by Murray Hunter
On April 21, Dr Noor Hisham will retire as director-general of the ministry of health (MOH), after 35 years’ service.
Dr Noor Hisham became a hero of many Malaysians during their
Covid-19 pandemic, becoming a public figure known to almost all, due to
his TV briefings. Dr Noor Hisham was named one of the world’s top
doctors fighting Covid-19, alongside Dr Anthony Fauci of the United
States and Dr Ashley Bloomfield of New Zealand, by China Global TV
Network (CGTN).
Chinese trolls and bots would attack anyone who criticized Noor
Hisham in the media. When the MP for Bintulu in Sarawak Tiong King Sing
in parliament criticised Noor Hisham for not being on the frontlines
during the pandemic to give moral support for the doctors and nurses
working tirelessly, he was escorted forcibly from the chamber.
Noor Hisham has received many accolades. However, there are dark sides to the legacy he leaves behind.
1. Political bias as a public servant
First and foremost, Noor Hisham is a ‘political animal’. During the
2018 general election campaign, Noor Hisham made a number of tweets,
which could be construed to be politically biased, supporting Najib
Razak. The MOH main page of its official website promoted the Barisan
Nasional. Farida Ariffin, a spokesperson for the G25, made a statement
that Noor Hisham was abusing his position as the director-general of the
MOH. Bersih 2.0 also criticised Noor Hisham, stating he was breaking
public service regulations, and named in Bersih’s “Hall of Shame”, along
side jailed former prime minister Najib Razak.
Continue reading HERE!
Firefly Dreams #poem by Bohdan Yuri
“Fireflies whisper dreams
In the forest without noise,
And the night birds swoop
From shadow stations.”
Continue reading HERE!
Caresse Crosby: A World Citizen’s Passionate Years by Rene Wadlow
Caresse Crosby (20 April 1891 – 24 Jan. 1970) was one of the
more colorful figures of the early world citizens movement heading the
World Citizen Information Center in Washington, D.C. Her autobiography
The Passionate Years was first published in 1953 and more recently
republished by the Southern Illinois University Press in 1968. The
Southern Illinois University Library holds her papers.
Most of The Passionate Years concerns Caresse Crosby’s life in Paris
as the publisher of the Black Sun Press, at the center of the U.S.
writers living in Paris in the 1920s – what has been called the Lost
Generation – Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Archibold MacLeish. She had moved to Paris in 1922 from Boston with her
then husband, Harry Crosby. Harry Crosby was a nephew of J.P. Morgan,
the banker. Harry had a short-term job at the Paris branch of the Morgan
Bank, but he was not interested in banking and had a reasonable income
from a trust fund. Thus he started a small publishing house to publish
in fine but limited editions books of his own poems and those of his
friends. Harry Crosby was always preoccupied with the idea of death,
having seen it closely as a medical worker in France during the last
part of the First World War. Thus the name of Black Sun, a symbol of
death overcoming the light of the Sun for the publishing house. Harry
Crosby on a trip back to New York in 1929 in what may have been a
suicide pact, first shot a girl friend and then himself with her in his
arms.
Continue reading HERE!
Always something; the family edition #60 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas
For more Always something; the family edition HERE!
For more Ovi Cartoons, HERE!
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