Towards better mental health

Features

April 10, 2023

Rokiah Mahmud

Towards the effort of further enhancing knowledge about mental health, a regional seminar was organised by the Religious Teachers University College of Seri Begawan (KUPU SB), carrying the theme ‘Mental Health towards the Well-being of Ummah’.

At the one-day seminar, State Mufti Pehin Datu Seri Maharaja Dato Paduka Seri Setia (Dr) Ustaz Haji Awang Abdul Aziz bin Juned delivered a premier paper based on the theme.

According to the State Mufti, mental illness is defined as a disorder that can cause changes in thinking, feeling, and behaviour. In referring to World Health Organization (WHO) reports, mental illness is among top five major leading causes of disability across the globe.

The State Mufti noted that there are different types of mental illnesses such as neurosis and psychosis.

For neurosis, individuals experience disturbances in thinking, feeling and behaviour without losing their sanity. Examples of a neurotic disorder include depression, which is an overwhelming and prolonged feeling that is difficult to bear; and anxiety that is characterised by feelings of worry, restlessness and the feeling of uneasiness that leads to pressure, tension, sweating, palpitations and extreme fear of unknown danger.

Meanwhile, psychosis refers to the experience of significant changes in thinking, feeling, and behaviour that affect one’s sanity. Examples of a psychotic disorder include confusion and hearing voices, which is also known as hallucination. A person, who suffers from the illness also has strange beliefs that cause extreme reactions, such as believing that someone wants to harm or do evil upon them, which causes them to retaliate.

In addition, the patient also may talk non-sense or to themselves, laugh, or get angry without reason and, which may sever interpersonal relationships.

The State Mufti added that the exact cause of mental illness is unknown. However, there are several factors that are believed to contribute to the development of a mental illness, including hereditary factor as a family history of mental illness can increase the risk; chemical imbalance or dysfunction in the brain leading to the manifestation of mental illness symptoms; traumatic life experience, such as difficult childbirth, loss of a parent at a young age, frequent and severe challenges in life, poverty, and domestic violence.

The State Mufti noted that mental illness is treatable and curable because Allah the Almighty provides a cure to every disease and commanded seeking treatment.

The State Mufti also said that medicine is available to treat mental illness. In addition to psychotropic drugs and counselling, psychotherapy, cognitive therapy, group and family therapy, occupational therapy and psycho-social rehabilitation are also effective in treating mental ilnesses.

Hospitals and clinics usually have trained personnel treat for those who experience mental health issues, while psychiatrists are ready to handle complex cases.

The global burden of mental health has been increasing in recent years, the State Mufti noted, adding that in 2021, 1,515 individuals were diagnosed with anxiety disorder and over 900 individuals experienced depressive symptoms.

The State Mufti said the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an increase in mental stress, anxiety and depression. It is estimated that one in four individuals experienced mental health issues during the first year of the pandemic.

“We are no longer in the first year of the pandemic. So, what is the estimated rate of depression now? This can be explained by the health authorities.”

The State Mufti also said that apart from the pandemic, the world is also constantly hit by disasters such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions and wars, as well as political and economic upheavals. All of these have the potential to create symptoms of depression and other mental illnesses.

“We do not reject therapy or medicine, but believe mental illness is rooted from our hearts.

“Many do not realise that mental illness treatments can be found in Zikir, Al-Quran and prayer. Prayer is inseparable from the Al-Quran, both of which serve as therapy for all diseases, including mental illnesses.”

The State Mufti said that it is unfortunate that those who came up with treatments outside of Islam do not consider alternative, as they do not based their approaches on Al-Quran and Hadith. Therefore, he said, it is necessary for Muslim experts to devise a way to introduce divine therapies such as Al-Quran verses, ruqyah Nabawiyah, and prayers in our health centres and clinics as primary or at least supportive treatments to existing therapies.

“We should not underestimate the importance of mental health. Even before the 2019 pandemic, it was estimated that one in eight people worldwide lived with mental disorder. Due to COVID-19, a more chronic global mental health crisis has arisen, involving millions of people,” said the State Mufti.

“Statistics have shown that there was a 25-per-cent increase in depression during the first year of the pandemic alone, as per the latest data released by the WHO. According to its Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom, these findings may only represent a small fraction of the actual cases of depression that have yet to be identified.”

Drug dealer shot dead in Sabah

April 10, 2023

ANN/THE STAR – A suspected drug dealer was shot and killed in Malaysia just after he hit two policemen with his car in Lahad Datu, Sabah.

In the 11.45am incident on Saturday, policemen from the district Narcotics Crime Investigation Department stopped the vehicle at Jalan Palm Oil Industrial Cluster (POIC), Phase 2. They had received a tip-off that a suspect involved in drugs was travelling in the car.

Lahad Datu police said when authorities attempted to carry out an inspection, the suspect suddenly reversed his car aggressively, grazing one of the policemen.

The suspect made a U-turn and sped off against traffic flow and hit the other policeman trying to prevent his escape.

“The policeman fired off a shot at the car before he was hit,” police said in a statement yesterday. “The suspect managed to speed off but the car crashed to the roadside about 400 metres away.”

Policemen rushed over and saw the suspect unconscious in the front passenger seat. The suspect was later confirmed dead by a medical team, he added.

“Following a check, police found suspected syabu weighing 7.45 grammes worth over MYR1,400 and two swords in the suspect’s car.

“The suspect was identified as a 28-year-old wanted suspect who had a criminal record of five convictions for drug and commercial crime cases,” said the police.

The case was being probed under Section 307 of the Penal Code for attempted murder and Section 39A(1) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 for selling drugs.

Malaysian police securing the scene of the incident. PHOTO: THE STAR

Tesla hit with class action lawsuit over alleged privacy intrusion

Business

April 10, 2023

CNA – A California Tesla owner on Friday sued the electric carmaker in a prospective class action lawsuit accusing it of violating the privacy of customers.

The lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California came after media reported on Thursday that groups of Tesla employees privately shared via an internal messaging system sometimes highly invasive videos and images recorded by customers’ car cameras between 2019 and 2022.

The lawsuit, filed by Henry Yeh, a San Francisco resident who owns a Tesla Model Y car, alleges that the company’s employees were able to access the images and videos for their “tasteless and tortious entertainment” and “the humiliation of those surreptitiously recorded”.

“Like anyone would be, Yeh was outraged at the idea that Tesla’s cameras can be used to violate his family’s privacy, which the California Constitution scrupulously protects,” attorney representing Yeh Jack Fitzgerald said in a statement to media.

“Tesla needs to be held accountable for these invasions and for misrepresenting its lax privacy practices to him and other Tesla owners,” Fitzgerald said.

The Tesla logo on an unsold 2020 Model X in Littleton, Colorado in United States. PHOTO: AP

The lawsuit said Tesla’s conduct is “particularly egregious” and “highly offensive”. It said Yeh was filing the complaint “against Tesla on behalf of himself, similarly-situated class members and the general public”.

The complaint said the prospective class would include individuals who owned or leased a Tesla within the past four years.

Media reported that some Tesla employees could see customers “doing laundry and really intimate things”. We could see their kids, cited a former employee.

“Indeed, parents’ interest in their children’s privacy is one of the most fundamental liberty interests society recognises,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit asks the court “to enjoin Tesla from engaging in its wrongful behaviour, including violating the privacy of customers and others, and to recover actual and punitive damages”.

Small US banks use enlarged deposit guarantee to compete with giants

April 10, 2023

NEW YORK (AFP) – In the wake of the latest United States (US) banking meltdown, small lenders might appear vulnerable to an exodus of depositors fleeing for larger banks.

US banking rules guarantee deposits of up to USD250,000, meaning that customers with larger holdings face losses if the bank goes under.

The implications of this rule became painfully clear with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in early March after it suffered a run from customers with holdings exceeding the USD250,000 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) threshold.

Federal data shows that some depositors at small banks did head for the exits, moving some USD120 billion in a single week into larger banks sometimes viewed as too big to fail.

But minnows like Leader Bank of Massachusetts and Heritage Bank of Minnesota also have a solution to the issue that enables them to pitch themselves as safe options for those seeking to safeguard sums well beyond the USD250,000 FDIC limit.

Leader Bank can guarantee up to USD100 million in deposits from individuals through a technology platform run by fintech company IntraFi, that essentially helps to distribute the funds among a network of large and small banks.

This system of reciprocal deposits – which has been getting more attention since the SVB collapse – allows banks to accept large deposits well beyond USD250,000 while still guaranteeing clients they will be federally insured.

A pedestrian carries an umbrella while walking past a Silicon Valley Bank Private branch in San Francisco, United States. PHOTO: AP

The programme appealed to cofounder of the startup Early Works Jennifer Klepper who began looking at different cash management options last fall.

The goal was to take advantage of higher interest rates, while making sure the money was federally insured.

“We considered putting USD250,000 in each bank,” said Klepper.

But that option was an “accounting nightmare”, leading Klepper to a programme offered by Heritage Bank.

SAFER THAN BIG BANK?

The IntraFi venture and similar offerings from American Deposit Management and Wintrust, though compliant with US law, have not escaped criticism.

Former FDIC Chair Sheila Bair has accused the ventures of “just gaming the FDIC rules”, arguing it added moral hazard.

The FDIC “takes all the credit risk”, resulting in “much bigger costs to the FDIC”, she said.

But president of Leader Bank Jay Tuli countered that the programme mitigates risk “because it spreads the concentration of large depositors among many banks, not just a select few”.

Further, such reciprocal deposit programmes “can help reduce the risk of bank runs because insured depositors have no reason to participate in bank runs, much less start them”, said chief executive of Heritage Bank Tom Geiger.

Since SVB failed, there has been discussion in Washington of raising the USD250,000 FDIC limit, but no consensus has emerged thus far.

In any case, small banks have not always been eager to tout reciprocal deposits.

Bank employees “are very hesitant to mention deposit insurance”, said Geiger, adding that the fear is that borrowers will think “maybe there’s something wrong with this bank”.

This reticence also explains why reciprocal lending programmes are better known even though they have been around since the early 2000s.

“It’s really unfortunate, because… we have this great tool at our disposal,” said Geiger.

But the latest crisis has refocused attention on the FDIC limits, said Tuli of Leader, which added 100 new business clients in the week after SVB failed.

“We probably brought in like, you know, six months of business in one week,” Tuli said.
“We gained a lot of clients since SVB.”

Consciousness of the FDIC limits is also much higher in the startup world post-SVB, said Klepper.

“There’s a lot more awareness now,” said Klepper.

“We’re starting to see more banks advertising their (reciprocal deposit programmes) because people are now thinking about it.”

Bear kills jogger in Italy

World

April 10, 2023

ROME (AFP) – A bear attacked and killed a jogger on a woodland path in northwest Italy, the first case of its kind, a source close to the case told AFP on Friday.

Andrea Papi, 26, was killed out running in the mountainous region near his village, Caldes, in the Trentino region, said the source.

His family raised the alarm when he failed to return and a search team found his body overnight.

He suffered deep wounds to the neck, arms and chest and an autopsy carried out on Friday concluded he had been attacked by a bear, the source added, confirming Italian news reports.

Already in March, a man had been attacked by a bear in the same region, launching a debate on the dangers posed by the animals, which were reintroduced there between 1996 and 2004.

The local authority has decided to track and kill the animal, once it had been identified, Trentino region president Maurizio Fugatti told reporters on Friday evening.

Environmental group WWF had already acknowledged that it needed to be put down.

But Annamaria Procacci, a former ecologist deputy, who now works with the animal welfare group ENPA, denounced the lack of precautions taken by local officials.

Giving back to the community

National

April 10, 2023

Izah Azahari

Mitsubishi Corporation held its first donation drive yesterday as part of the company’s corporate social responsibility and to celebrate its 50 years in the Sultanate.

Mitsubishi Corporation Country Representative for Brunei Darussalam Tadashi Hara and Deputy General Manager of the Brunei Liaison Office Sayaka Adachi led the company’s delegation of six staff members and three drivers.

Tadashi said the recipients of the donations were from a list of families provided by the Community Development Department at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.

The company has been in the country for 50 years since the beginning of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, according to the country representative.

Mitsubishi Corporation Country Representative for Brunei Darussalam Tadashi Hara presents a donation. PHOTO: IZAH AZAHARI

Common yet deadly

April 10, 2023

ANN/THE STAR/DPA – People who get flu have a higher risk of heart attack for a week after they have been diagnosed with the virus, a new study suggests.

Experts said that the risk can be as much as six times higher in the seven days after a person tests positive for the virus compared with the year before or afterwards.

They said the results underline the importance of the flu vaccination programme, as well as awareness of heart attack symptoms among doctors treating patients with flu.

A team of Dutch researchers analysed lab test results from 16 laboratories across the Netherlands and compared them with death and hospital records.

Some 26,221 cases of influenza were confirmed by the laboratories between 2008 and 2019.

Among this group, 401 patients had a heart attack in the year before or after a bout of flu – some of them suffered more than one heart attack with the researchers noting 419 heart attacks in total.

Of the 419 heart attacks, 25 were in the first seven days after flu diagnosis, 217 within the year before diagnosis and 177 in the year after flu diagnosis = not including the first seven days.

Just over a third (35 per cent) of patients who had a heart attack – or 139 people – died, of any cause, within a year of being diagnosed with flu, according to the study.

The researchers calculated that people were 6.16 times more likely to have a heart attack in the seven days following a flu diagnosis than in the year before or after. But when they excluded data from death records, the increase in heart attack risk in the first week was 2.42 times greater compared with the year before or after flu.

Experts suggest that the combination of the body’s response to the flu virus and the virus’s ability to make the blood more “sticky” could be behind the link.

Lead author Dr Annemarijn de Boer, from the University Medical Centre Utrecht in the Netherlands, said: “With the potential public health implications of an association between influenza virus infection and acute heart attacks, showing robustness of results in a different study population is important.

“Our results endorse strategies to prevent influenza infection, including vaccination.

“They also advocate for a raised awareness among physicians and hospitalised flu patients for symptoms of heart attacks. “While it isn’t clear from our results if those with less severe flu are also at risk, it is prudent for them to be aware of the link.

Commenting on the study, Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said, “These recent preliminary data from the Netherlands are in keeping with what we know, which is that heart attacks can happen more often during or shortly after an episode of the flu.

“It supports the need to raise public awareness of heart attack symptoms, and reinforces the importance of preventing flu in the first place, particularly among older people.”

Clippers beat Blazers, hope to avoid play-in

April 10, 2023

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Kawhi Leonard scored 27 points, Norman Powell added 23 and the Los Angeles Clippers solidified their hopes of avoiding the play-in game with a 136-125 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers yesterday.

Russell Westbrook had 20 points for the Clippers, who have won four of their last six and hold the fifth spot in the Western Conference.

Wins by LA and Minnesota yesterday ensured the Clippers can finish no lower than seventh.

While the Suns are expected to sit most of their starters, which they also did on Friday night against the Los Angeles Lakers, coach Tyronn Lue said he will play everyone that he can.

“I hope they sit all five guys. I’ll take it however I can get it,” Lue said. “My main focus is doing what we have to do to get into the playoffs. It doesn’t matter what seed.”

The Clippers need a win in the final regular-season game to avoid landing in the play-in for the second straight season. They were the eighth seed last season and lost to Minnesota and New Orleans to miss the playoffs.

“We have to win. That’s the focus,” Leonard said.

Portland Trail Blazers guard Shaedon Sharpe shoots as Los Angeles Clippers forward Nicolas Batum defends. PHOTO: AP

“The parity in the West is incredible this year. I’ve seen some tough races, but this may be the toughest I’ve seen. Just all the way down to today and tomorrow, guys need to win. It’s some tough situations,” Portland coach Chauncey Billups said.

“I hate that we are not participating in it, but there’s been a lot of learning experiences this year because of that.”

Kevin Knox II had 30 points, Shaedon Sharpe 26 and Trendon Watford 24 for the Trail Blazers, who have dropped three straight and eight of their last nine.

“We played against a very desperate team. they are fighting and clawing for every win and they need it,” Portland coach Chauncey Billups said. “Our group came out and got it going.

They made some adjustments in the second half when they needed to.”

Portland led 70-64 at halftime before the Clippers went on a 14-2 run early in the third quarter to gain control.

The Trail Blazers rallied to get within 86-85 on a three-pointer by Knox before the Clippers put it away for good with a 23-7 spurt.

Leonard had 13 points in the third quarter as the Clippers were 15 of 24 from the field, including eight three-pointers.

“It wasn’t a great first half because we didn’t play the right way. That’s why they came out and played like they did in the third quarter,” Lue said.

Los Angeles’ largest lead was 19 in the fourth quarter.

Husband stabs wife at KK market in broad daylight

April 10, 2023

ANN/THE STAR – A man allegedly stabbed his wife several times in the back in broad daylight, killing her, at a Kota Kinabalu, Sabah street market on Saturday.

The woman, aged 38, was helping her sister at her vegetable stall in the market on Jalan Pahlawan, Kepayan when the suspect confronted her at 1.30pm.

“The man then stabbed the wife multiple times in the back before fleeing,” said acting Kota Kinabalu OCPD Superintendent Kalsom Idris.

She said passers-by alerted the police to the incident.

“The victim was rushed to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital I in an ambulance but she succumbed to her injuries at 2.21pm,” Superintendent Kalsom said.

She said a team from the Criminal Investigation Department managed to locate and arrest the suspect at Jalan Kepayan at 8.30pm.

“We managed to solve the case less than 24 hours. We believe the motive was jealousy.

“We also seized a knife at the crime scene which we believe was used in the incident,” Superintendent Kalsom said.

The suspect, a foreigner, has been remanded for investigations for murder, she added.

Police investigating the crime scene at the market in Kepayan, Kota Kinabalu. PHOTO: THE STAR

No love for EVs

Features

April 10, 2023

TOKYO (AFP) – Atsushi Ikeda loves his car so much that he founded a club for Tesla owners, but his embrace of an electric vehicle (EV) makes him something of an outlier in Japan.

As markets from China to the United States (US) race to put more EVs on their roads, the pedal is nowhere near the metal yet in Japan, where the hybrid still reigns supreme.

Last year, 59,000 new EVs were sold in Japan, a record and a three-fold annual increase, but still less than two per cent of sales of cars in the country in 2022.

It’s a situation that might seem counterintuitive, given Japan’s auto industry – which employs eight per cent of the country’s workforce, and accounts for a quarter of its exports – pioneered hybrid and electric cars.

But experts said the popularity of hybrids has actually hindered uptake of EVs, with Japanese automakers in no hurry to abandon existing line-ups.

The scepticism is no secret, and the former chief of Toyota, the world’s top-selling carmaker, regularly questioned the growing focus on electric.

“I think Toyota didn’t want the trend to tilt towards plug-in hybrids and EVs because of their focus on hybrids and also their significant investment,” said president of the Japan Electrification Research Institute Kenichiro Wada who helped develop early EVs at Mitsubishi Motors in the 2000s.

He compared the company to a top-ranking sumo wrestler, eager to “maintain the status quo for as long as possible”.

Founder and vice president of a Japanese club for Tesla owners Atsushi Ikeda checks his phone as he charges his Tesla Model S at a charging station in Tokyo, Japan. PHOTOS: AFP

ABOVE & BELOW: A cutaway display model of one of Nissan’s EVs; and Ikeda charges his Tesla

ABOVE & BELOW: A cutaway display model of one of Nissan’s EVs; one of Nissan’s EVs, the Sakura, on display at Nissan Motor in Yokohama, Kanagawa prefecture; and a man looks at the Sakura

When Ikeda went looking for a car that was “affordable, safe, with no pollutants”, he quickly turned to Tesla.

“I like high-performance cars,” he told AFP, describing the few Japanese options on the market when he bought in 2016 as small and unattractive.

There are now government incentives for people to go electric, but Ikeda says “charging infrastructure is too weak in Japan”, blaming “heavy regulations”.

The situation in Japan is increasingly inconsistent with priorities elsewhere.

EVs made up 20 per cent of new cars sold in China last year, around 15 per cent in western Europe and 5.3 per cent in the US, according to a PwC study.

Ironically, EVs have a long history in Japan, with Mitsubishi Motors unveiling its i-MiEV in 2009, and Nissan its Leaf model a year later.

At the time though, the models were expensive because of their batteries and considered impractical given the lack of a nationwide charging network.

Hybrids looked like a better bet, and have proved enduringly popular, making up more than 40 per cent of sales in Japan last year.

Government and industry efforts have also been sidetracked by a drive to develop hydrogen-powered vehicles – a sector that has grown much slower than electric.

The European Union (EU), Britain and several US states want all new cars sold to be zero-emission by 2035.

Japan’s goal however includes hybrids and hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles by the same year.

Despite the obstacles, there are some signs of change, spurred in part by more demanding EV targets in overseas markets.

If they cannot “react quickly” to these new demands, “some Japanese carmakers could disappear”, said auto analyst Koji Endo of SBI Securities.

Japanese firms have begun rolling out more ambitious EV targets, even as foreign automakers try to establish a foothold for their EVs in the country.

Last year, Nissan launched its “Sakura” model – a fully electric car in the mini-sized “kei” category that is popular in Japan. It accounted for a third of the country’s EV sales in 2022.

“Japanese drivers’ daily travel range is shorter,” compared with European or US consumers, Nissan’s chief marketing manager for EVs in Japan Nobuhide Yanagi told AFP.

So small cars “could potentially win more share in the EV market, not only for Nissan”.

Japan’s government plans to increase the number of charging stations from 30,000 to 150,000 by 2030.

Its embrace remains qualified though, with an official from Japan’s Trade Ministry warning EVs “are expensive, and resources are limited”.

“Hybrid technology is affordable and offers significant (emission) savings,” a director at the ministry’s Auto Industry Division Kuniharu Tanabe told AFP.

He described Europe’s EV strategy as “extreme”, and noted a last-minute carve-out for synthetic fuel vehicles.

Japan’s caution is not entirely unwarranted, particularly given potential shortages of raw materials like lithium, said an auto analyst at CLSA Christopher Richter.

“If you are all EV, you could be putting your franchise at great risk. That said, it still has to be EV first,” he told AFP.

“Climate change is real, the effects are going to get worse with time, so at some point there will be a demand to have zero emissions.”

Borneo Bulletin OnlineThe Independent Newspaper in Brunei Darussalam, Sabah and Sarawak

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