WARSAW, POLAND (AP) – Poland has become the latest European nation to reach the grim milestone of 100,000 deaths related to the coronavirus.
Nearly a quarter of those deaths – some 24,000 – occurred in the most recent wave of infection that began in October, a period in which vaccines have been widely available in the European Union (EU) nation.
Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said yesterday that 493 deaths of people with COVID-19 had been registered in the past day, pushing the death toll to 100,254 in the central European nation of 38 million people.
The bleak marker comes as the number of new infections has recently fallen following a peak in what officials call the country’s “fourth wave” of COVID-19 driven by the Delta variant, but as the Omicron variant is spreading and another large infection wave is looming.
The first two deaths from Omicron were reported on Monday, both of them in elderly and unvaccinated people. Niedzielski said there are now 18,000 hospitalisations, making this “the most difficult situation compared to other waves”.
Police guard a monument to the victims of the 2010 presidential plane crash during a protest of a group criticising government policies on fighting COVID-19 in downtown Warsaw. PHOTO: AP
Poland has struggled through the pandemic with a health care sector strapped by limited funding and the emigration of many medical professionals to Western Europe in past years.
According to OECD statistics, Poland is the EU nation with the lowest number of working doctors in proportion to its population – just 2.4 to 1,000 inhabitants compared with 4.5 in Germany. Poland also has only five nurses to 1,000 inhabitants, below the EU average of eight and far below richer countries like Germany, which has 14.
The vast majority of the deaths in the last wave – 83 per cent – are of the unvaccinated. Among younger people, those below 44, more than 90 per cent of those who died were not vaccinated.
The vaccination rate in Poland is 55.8 per cent – a much lower rate of vaccination than in the countries of western Europe but much higher than in some other central European countries, like Bulgaria and Romania.
The establishment of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO) in 1963 aimed at promoting cooperation in the fields of education, science and culture. In addition, it serves as a regional inter-governmental organisation among governments in Southeast Asia.
Southeast Asia has 26 SEAMEO centres with their various undertakings concentrating on training as well as research in education, science and culture.
The SEAMEO Regional Centre for Vocational and Technical Education and Training (SEAMEO Voctech) was established in Brunei Darussalam on August 28, 1990 and stands tall among SEAMEO centres.
In an interview with the Bulletin, SEAMEO Voctech Deputy Director of Administration Pengiran Haji Mohd Sufri bin Pengiran Ali said in line with its establishment, SEAMEO Voctech has been mandated to assist other SEAMEO member countries in identifying and solving common problems in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).
According to the deputy director, SEAMEO Voctech is committed to achieving its mandate, guided by its vision to be a leading regional centre in advancing TVET for Southeast Asia and beyond.
ABOVE & BELOW: SEAMEO Voctech Deputy Director of Administration Pengiran Haji Mohd Sufri bin Pengiran Ali; and SEAMEO Voctech Deputy Director for Professional Affairs Dr Paryono. PHOTOS: ADIB NOOR
At the same time, SEAMEO Voctech is also committed to meet its mission in assisting SEAMEO member states in advancing their TVET systems by providing relevant and effective programmes and services towards the sustainable development of the region.
In pursuing its role in promoting TVET, Pengiran Haji Mohd Sufri shared that SEAMEO Voctech was conceived and given the mandate of assisting and enhancing TVET systems of SEAMEO member countries through innovative services.
“Among the three major services offered at SEAMEO Voctech include training and professional development, research and consultancy services, and knowledge management and sharing,” he added.
In the fields of training and professional development, SEAMEO Voctech believes that delivering and promoting quality technical and vocational education as well as training is vital. Therefore, the centre provides four categories of training services by conducting regional, in-country, customised and special training programmes in the areas of curriculum development, management, teacher education, information and communications technology, research, and skills training. These programmes are often conducted in collaboration with SEAMEO Voctech’s or SEAMEO partners.
In the areas of research and development, SEAMEO Voctech prides itself on its expertise in research and research consultancy services with the core aim of elevating the quality of TVET in the region. The research programme is an important and built-in component in SEAMEO Voctech’s function as an international organisation.
For knowledge management and sharing, the centre also provides information services and disseminates information through print, digital and online pathways to reach the fast-increasing number of TVET clients in the region and beyond through its newsletter, social media, its website, e-library and SEA-VE.Net.
Apart from focussing on excelling in the field of research, consultancy as well as training, SEAMEO Voctech also plays its role in the community as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, in particular when the country was hit by the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The initiatives not only aim to ease the burden of those affected by the pandemic, but also students badly impacted and had to continue their studies via online learning.
For this purpose, aside from bringing their core business services online, for example in the conduct of SEAMEO Voctech’s training programme, SEAMEO Voctech has also actively taken part in a CSR initiatives showing their commitment and dedication as well solidarity responding to the national call to alleviate some of the challenges faced by the education sector due to pandemic.
One of the initiatives is to bridge the needy students in the country in terms of the digital divide and disparity by donating SIM cards and Internet top-up cards for continued Internet accessibility.
In another CSR initiative, SEAMEO Voctech provided staff with upcycled digital services such as desktop computers and laptops to help support the online learning of their children.
Meanwhile, in seeing the development of TVET amidst the demand of the fourth industrial revolution (IR4.0), SEAMEO Voctech Deputy Director for Professional Affairs Dr Paryono said in an effort to enhance the skills of workforce in the post-pandemic era and for SEAMEO Voctech’s aim to achieve its Five-Year Development Plan in ‘Preparing TVET for Industry 4.0’, the centre continues to strengthen its services to support the development of TVET in Brunei Darussalam and in the region.
This is especially in response to IR4.0 requirements through three main objectives: training and professional development; research and consultancies; as well as knowledge management and sharing.
“Under the training and professional development, SEAMEO Voctech offers capacity building to TVET trainers and academics in SEAMEO member countries and beyond as to identify and solve common problems in TVET through training and development initiatives on IR4.0 related topics.”
According to Dr Paryono, in collaboration with GIZ-RECOTVET, the centre has offered three topics of training programmes in the past two years. These include innovative teaching and learning for industrial changes due to IR 4.0; professional development training for TVET teachers in IR 4.0; and curriculum design for IR 4.0 work processes.
“In collaboration with the Institute of Technical Education Services (ITEES) Singapore and Temasek Foundation Singapore, we are running the third round of training programmes,” he said. “For this third round, we are offering four training programmes revolving around IR4.0 topics namely: online leadership training workshop for TVET leaders; skills upgrading course for TVET specialists in IR 4.0 on Robotics and smart systems; food processing andtechnology; and hotel management with IR 4.0,”
“Meanwhile, in the aspect of research and development, SEAMEO Voctech in collaboration with researchers from SEAMEO member countries representing ministries in charge for TVET and SEAMEO Centres conduct research on TVET Institutional Readiness for IR 4.0.
“In information and knowledge management and sharing, the centre brings together key TVET stakeholders to discuss pertinent TVET issues through various seminars, forums, conferences and meetings.”
He noted that a recent event was an E-Forum themed ‘Managing Pandemic Challenges and Opportunities of TVET in the Era of Digitalisation’.
“Most importantly, SEAMEO Voctech and its partner GIZ-RECOTVET gave developed a one stop-knowledge TVET platform (SEA-VET.net) which is gaining more and more traction in terms of usage and recognition from TVET providers, learners and researchers regionally and internationally. One of the features in these platforms is IR 4.0 and Digitalisation.
“In preparing TVET for IR 4.0 SEAMEO Voctech continues to engage with the global TVET community in understanding the changing economic and industry developments, to ensure that its practices reflect the new market demands and the centre’s services are in line with these requirements,” Dr Paryono added.
In strengthening the impact of the centre for young professionals, particularly those with vocational or technical careers with little awareness or knowledge about the establishment and functions of SEAMEO Voctech, Dr Paryono explained the centre continues socialising its programmes and services, especially in utilising the social media platforms.
Dr Paryono also shared that SEAMEO Voctech will continue working with TVET providers locally and in the region, for example in partnership with the Ministry of Education (MoE), to identify and provide industry-aligned training services, and offering training programmes that reach wider community by collaborating with the Lifelong Learning Centre (L3C), such as for industry players through Training of Trainers (TOT) and Training of Accessors (TOA) and offering both online and in-person training programmes and uploaded at SEA-VET.Net platform.
In sharing future plans and strategic initiatives of SEAMEO Voctech, Dr Paryono explained that SEAMEO Voctech’s future plans for the development of education in Southeast Asian countries include forward-looking innovations that could reshape the region in a post-COVID world and optimise the present of digitalisation and IR4.0.
“E-learning will be further enhanced as in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology in education bring about an official computer-generated world with the potential to help enhance the learning experience,” said Dr Paryono.
“With this in mind, SEAMEO Voctech’s future plan is to offer theoretical and practical courses by integrating innovative strategies and technologies such as simulation, AR and VR into its learning platform. To that end, SEAMEO Voctech recently signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with its strategic partner, Labtech International Ltd and agreement with ADE Finland,” he added.
The results on the registrations for Arabic schools’ entrance exam via short message service (SMS) begins today at 10am, the Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA) through the Examination Division at the Islamic Studies Department as the Secretariat for Brunei Religious Education Examination Board with the Information Technology Division announced.
SMS registration can be made by typing KHEU (space) REG (space) Exam Centre Number (space) Candidate Index Number and send it to 8885555 for DST customers and 38666 for Progresif customers.
Successful registration will be notified via SMS free of charge.
Exam results via SMS will only be sent to registered customers at a fee of BND1 for each SMS.
HARARE (XINHUA) – Early in the morning in Domboshava, a village near Harare, two women were gathering herbs in a lush green forest.
A branch at a time, the women carefully pruned the shrubs, making sure they leave the plants in good health.
Locally known as Zumbani, or Lippia Javanica by its botanical name, the plant is believed to possess medicinal value, and has become widely sought after during the COVID-19 pandemic, as it is believed to be helpful in treating flu-like symptoms.
A stone’s throw away, by a rocky mountain edge, two women could be seen plucking flowery plants from the ground.
As clouds gathered from a distance, they continued picking the herbs before dashing back home with their treasured collections.
At their workstation, two elderly women sorted dried plant roots from traditional handmade weaved baskets. Another woman effortlessly pounded some baobab fruit seeds using traditional handcrafted wooden mortar and pestle.
Tsitsi Machingauta pounds traditional herbs in Domboshava. PHOTO: XINHUA
The women are members of the Women’s Farming Syndicate (WFS), an organisation that aims to eradicate poverty among rural women through sustainable agribusiness and the use of traditional knowledge systems.
Their wide range of products include traditional herbs, tea, spices, traditional handicrafts and various products made from wild plants and fruits. The products are natural with no artificial additives and are handmade by rural women.
Founder and National Coordinator of WFS Tsitsi Machingauta said the goal of the organisation is to create value by harnessing resources widely available in the community.
“As the Woman’s Farming Syndicate we are using what is readily available within our environments to create products that are marketable both locally, and internationally to actually generate sustainable livelihoods for ourselves,” Machingauta told Xinhua.
Inspired by her grandmother, who had vast knowledge of plants, Machingauta said the idea to commercialise traditional knowledge systems came about out of a need to find a sustainable income.
While indigenous knowledge systems in treating diseases remain one of the most valuable intellectual resources owned by rural communities in Zimbabwe, Machingauta said it has been the least mobilised resource for sustainable development.
“So I realised that if we then leverage on these traditional knowledge systems to have sustainable livelihoods for women, it means that women can actually have decent lives where they are, with what they have within their communities, at their fingertips,” Machingauta said.
“Through this initiative, the women’s farming syndicate has enabled women to have decent livelihoods and to have a living wage, through the traditional knowledge systems, and through being able to commercialise it,” she added.
Local people have a long history of plant usage for medicinal purposes.
In most cases, practitioners, who are usually senior citizens, provide services based on traditional medicinal knowledge of local plants free of charge, or for a small fee.
Despite the increasing acceptance of traditional medicine, the rich indigenous knowledge is not adequately documented and is mostly passed on from generation to generation.
While the Zimbabwean government formally recognises traditional medicine, traditional healers have remained largely marginalised in most medical circles.
Machingauta said indigenous knowledge systems are a valuable national resource. Therefore, ensuring their protection should be a national priority.
She said China offers valuable lessons on how traditional knowledge systems can be used in the modern era, saying the Asian country has managed to preserve traditional knowledge for centuries.
MANAGUA, NICARAGUA (AP) – Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega was sworn in for a fourth consecutive term on Monday following elections considered rigged and on a day marked by sanctions from the United States (US) and European Union (EU) against members of his government.
Alongside him was First Lady Rosario Murillo, sworn in for her second term as his vice president.
“We are going to continue fighting to defend the people so they have health care, education and housing,” the former Sandinista commander said in the capital’s Revolution Plaza filled with the waving flags of his party.
Ortega, 76, and Murillo, 70, oversaw the jailing of opposition leaders, including seven potential challengers for the presidency, months before the November election. They have remained defiant under foreign pressure.
On Monday evening, Ortega called for the lifting of sanctions against Venezuela and Cuba – both of whose leaders attended the event – and said US President “has more than 700 political prisoners” in reference to those jailed in relation to the storming of the US capitol a year ago. Ortega maintains that huge street protests against his government in April 2018 were an attempt to overthrow his government with foreign backing.
Earlier on Monday, the US Treasury Department slapped sanctions on more Nicaraguan officials.
Residents watch the inauguration of President Daniel Ortega at a park in the Julio Buitrago neighbourhood of Managua. PHOTO: AP
LONDON (AP) – The British government on Monday told property developers they must bear the cost of removing dangerous cladding that has left scores of apartment buildings at risk of fire, and thousands of residents facing steep bills to make their homes safe.
The risk posed by some kinds of aluminium composite cladding was exposed when fire engulfed London high-rise Grenfell Tower in June 2017, killing 72 people in Britain’s deadliest domestic blaze since World War II.
Investigators found that the building’s flammable cladding helped the fire, which started in an apartment kitchen, race out of control.
Safety regulations brought in since then require similar dangerous cladding to be removed, but the work hasn’t been carried out on some apartment buildings because of wrangling over who should pay.
While high-rise buildings have been able to get government funding to remove the cladding, low-rise dwellings haven’t.
A man looks at tributes placed near Grenfell Tower in London. PHOTO: AP
Housing and Communities Secretary Michael Gove said that by the end of March, developers must come up with a plan to pay the estimated GBP4 billion cost of fixing the cladding on buildings between 11 metres and 18 metres in height, or face legal action and potentially a new tax to raise the money.
Gove said developers and cladding companies should pay to make buildings safe, not apartment owners who were “being asked to pay with money they didn’t have for a problem that they did not cause”.
He told lawmakers in the House of Commons that “we will make industry pay to fix all of the remaining problems”.
Reece Lipman, who lives in a London building with flammable cladding, welcomed the government’s “firmer tone”, but said the proposals didn’t go far enough. “It feels like the government (keeps) trying to bail water off the Titanic with pots and pans and that’s great, some people will be saved, but the ship is still going down and we haven’t yet addressed that problem,” he said.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA) will hold open auditions for an Arabic language television drama Fatihah 2 to be aired on Radio Television Brunei (RTB).
The programme is conducted through its Public Relations and Empowering of Arabic Language Programme at Arabic Schools (Ta’zeez Al-Lughah Al-Arabiah Bil Madaras Al-‘Arabiah) at the MoRA.
The ministry is looking for males and females aged 18-25 who are able to converse in Arabic language and possess a good personality.
Applicants can register on www.cc/fatihah2 no later than January 15.
PORTLAND, OREGON (AP) — Anfernee Simons had 23 points and 11 assists, and the short-handed Portland Trail Blazers took advantage of James Harden’s absence for a 114-108 victory over the Brooklyn Nets yesterday.
Harden was out with a hyperextended left knee. Kyrie Irving started in his second game of the season and finished with 22 points. Kevin Durant led all scorers with 28 points and 10 rebounds for the Nets.
Robert Covington had 21 points, including five three-pointers, for the Blazers, who saw five starters score in double figures.
Simons said Covington’s play against Durant boosted the team.
“I think RoCo did a good job of playing him the second half,” Simons said. “So that was big for us to slow him down and just kind of play team defence. We’ve been playing very hard, we’ve been making a lot less mistakes on defence. That’s been helping us.”
Yesterday’s game was originally scheduled for December 23 but was postponed because of COVID-19 issues. In making up the game, both teams were playing the second of back-to-backs.
Portland Trail Blazers’ Robert Covington and Ben McLemore. PHOTO: APPortland Trail Blazers’ Ben McLemore shoots over Brooklyn Nets’ Kevin Durant. PHOTO: AP
Portland led 87-81 going into the final quarter. Covington’s 3-pointer put Portland up 107-100 with 2:15 to go but the Nets closed within 110-105 down the stretch.
Ben McLemore’s three with 31.9 seconds left made it 113-105 and sealed it for Portland. McLemore finished with 20 points and five threes.
“Certainly nobody in the world thought that we would win this game with the guys that we have missing, even though they’re missing some important players too,” Portland first-year coach Chauncey Billups said. “I’m more happy than anything for our team, to be honest.
We’ve suffered a lot of losses in this building, a lot of bad losses.”
The Blazers again were without Damian Lillard, out with lower abdominal tendinopathy, and backcourt teammate CJ McCollum, who has been out for 14 games after a collapsed lung.
Fellow starters Norman Powell (COVID-19 protocols) and Larry Nance Jr (right knee) were also out for Portland.
Meanwhile, Nets coach Steve Nash said the team was being cautious with Harden in a dense stretch of games and that Harden should be available at Chicago.
Irving, who has refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine and is barred from playing in New York due to the city’s vaccine mandate, has resumed playing on the road. For his first game last week at Indiana, he finished with 22 points in nearly 32 minutes.
“It felt like I made a few good moves, but now it’s just getting back in that NBA action of that athleticism and catching up to that speed, that’s really what it is at this point, I feel,” Irving said.
Irving appeared to tweak his ankle in the fourth quarter but afterward said he was fine and would play. He criticised Portland’s Nassir Little for diving on the play. “I tried to get out of the way but I just felt like it was unnecessary for him to dive that far away from the ball.”
Brooklyn led 62-55 at the break, paced by Durant with 20 points. It was his 19th straight game with 20 or more points, the second-longest streak of 20-point games in Nets history.
“Second half, they hit threes in that third quarter, they hit threes in that fourth quarter. You gotta give them credit for knocking down shots but I thought we were there, intentions were good,” Durant said. “We’ve just got to finish it a little better, finish plays a little better.”
TOUGH TRAVEL
The Nets arrived in Portland late Sunday after wrapping up the win over the Spurs and flying across the country. Then there’s another long flight ahead for tomorrow’s game at the Bulls. And on Friday, they’re back at home against the Thunder.
The Nets are playing four games in five days, and five games in the next seven days.
“I think it’s really important for us to take day-by-day right now. I know that’s a cliche, but I think that is the smartest way to approach this,” Nash said.
TIP INS
Nets: Joining Harden on the Nets’ injury report was former Blazer LaMarcus Aldridge, who has a sore right foot and also missed the game against the Spurs. The Nets lead the league with a 15-4 road record.
Trail Blazers: Portland was coming off a 103-88 victory at home over Sacramento on Sunday night. Simons made a seemingly impossible layup to end the first half, going up against two defenders and throwing the ball up behind his back.
THE CHINA DAILY/ANN – Dorabot has seen a growing demand for its robotic solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
At a logistics service centre in Seoul, an industrial robotics arm is leveraging artificial intelligence to quickly sort documents and small parcels into separate delivery bins. It is capable of sorting over 1,000 small parcels per hour, increasing efficiency by 41 per cent.
The robotic arm flyer sorter was developed by Dorabot Inc, an international AI-powered robotic solutions provider for logistics, express delivery, smart manufacturing, retailing and other industries. Deployed at the Gangbuk Service Centre of international service provider DHL Express, the robot now processes the largest number of small parcels within the company’s network in South Korea after officially starting operations on July 20.
While minimising human interaction, which is crucial these days for employee safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, the robotic flyer sorter is also expected to sort packages into corresponding destinations with over 99 per cent accuracy, Dorabot said.
DHL Express Korea said it is handling record high shipment volume due to the current e-commerce boom, and robotics will ease its staff’s work burden as well as improve productivity.
DHL deployed its first AI-powered robotics arm for sortation at one of its service centres based in Miami, Florida, in June 2020, where courier pickup and delivery stops increased by about 30 per cent from the figure before COVID-19 due to pandemic-related express delivery growth.
After the Dorabot machine was put in as part of a pilot project, the Miami facility was able to sort 35 per cent more packages per hour.
An employee at Dorabot adjusting a custom end effector developed by the company in Atlanta. PHOTO: THE CHINA DAILY/ANN
HARARE, (XINHUA) – At a wedding ceremony in Ruwa, about 30km east of Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, the groom-to-be’s team attentively sat on a rug following the proceedings, which had just started.
On the opposite side of the room, a representative from the bride’s family held a list with the required payments before the groom could be formally introduced to the in-laws.
For each figure, negotiations between the two sides followed until an agreement on the amount was reached.
After some negotiations, with compromises on both sides, several United States (US) dollar notes were placed in a wooden bowl which was then forwarded to an elder from the bride’s side to count.
Women’s ululations and men’s handclaps flooded the room as greenbacks were handed over to the bride’s family.
Several procedures followed until the groom was finally allowed into the compound amid song and dance.
Groceries submitted as part of bride-price. PHOTOS: XINHUAThe bride Natasha Tizola and the groom Luciano Mafukidze cut a cake at their traditional wedding ceremony in Ruwa
Despite economic hardships amid COVID-19 pandemic, the groom, 31-year-old Luciano Mafukidze, toiled throughout the year to raise bride-price, which included cash, groceries and eight cows, to marry Natasha Tizola.
Bride-price, or roora/lobola in the local Shona language, is the customary token paid by the groom-to-be to his future in-laws. It is seen as a token of appreciation to the bride’s parents for raising a daughter.
There is no stipulated amount set for the bride-price, and the figure mainly depends on how deep the pockets of the groom or his family are.
After the ceremony, which was held at the in-laws’ house, Mafukidze was in high spirits for having formally married the love of
his life.
“Getting Natasha was not a walkover, it was through hard work. It was my wish that I marry her,” Mafukidze told Xinhua.
The bride was equally happy to have brought joy and pride to her family.
“I am happy that I made my mother proud, I followed the proper procedures,” she said.
In marriage, the family of the bride and groom are very influential among Shona people, who constitute a large portion of Zimbabwe’s population.
Following proper marriage customs brings honour and respect to the family.
Benny Chimene, the mother of the bride, could not conceal her joy.
“I am very happy, I can’t even express it because kids nowadays just meet by the roadside, they express love and the next thing is that they are staying together. So I am happy with what my child has done,” said Chimene.
Edmund Mandishona Chitehwe, father of the groom, was happy to welcome an additional member to the family.
“I am very happy, welcoming a daughter-in-law during the beginning of the year after following the proper marriage procedure of paying bride-price,” he said. According to Shona tradition, men expand the family, while women unite families, and bride-price formalises and legalises the union.
The system has evolved from submission of a hoe to monetary payments, livestock
and groceries.
The payment of bride-price is also common in the other southern African countries such as Malawi, Zambia, South Africa and Botswana.
In some cases, the traditional marriage ceremony is followed by a Western-style wedding.
Although the family is still important in issues regarding marriage, there has been a gradual erosion of traditional customs.
This has seen more girls rushing into early marriages without following proper procedures. Economic hardships and social ills have also seen young men failing to raise funds to pay for bride-price.
