Stand for anthem and show respect for U.S.
Categories: Letters to the Editor, Opinion Spoiled millionaires have the right to disrespect the flag and national anthem, but the vice president doesn’t have the right to walk out on them?Actors on Broadway have a right to disrespect the vice president from the stage, but he has no rights?Garbage. Wake up and show some respect. Maybe then people will listen to your message, whatever it is. I have still not heard it.Listen, it’s about the American flag and the national anthem. Time to stand, all you NFL players.If it’s not about the national anthem, flag and military, why are the protests during the national anthem?The NFL is backing down because it knows using the flag and anthem is wrong.An NFL game is four hours long. Use any of the remaining three hours, 58 minutes and 30 seconds to protest anything you want — not during the anthem. Period. Stand up and show respect.John MetalloSlingerlandsMore from The Daily Gazette:EDITORIAL: Beware of voter intimidationAlbany County warns of COVID increaseEDITORIAL: Urgent: Today is the last day to complete the censusFoss: Should main downtown branch of the Schenectady County Public Library reopen?EDITORIAL: Find a way to get family members into nursing homes
Here’s a New Year’s resolution that is never too late to start: Write down those things that make you mad and hurt our society for short-term gain. Keep that running list close and vote out those who have great talking points but often vote in way that does benefit you.The attack on our health care system and its lack of funding for our nursing homes is shameful. The time is now to change the system and vote out those who protect an antiquated system that benefits only those who can afford it.Research. Take 10 minutes a day to educate yourself on what your government is doing and trying to do, and always look at the bigger picture and vote.Look at your list you have compiled over the year and weigh out which party you think hurts our society by restriction and the blatant money grabs and greed. Let’s change health care. Let’s protect our elderly and fund nursing homes and hospitals properly.Write your government and start the process of real change.Shane CartruseScotia Vaccinated should protect unvaccinatedI have a vaccination question. Where does it state in the Catholic Church doctrine that the Church “even believes it’s immoral not to vaccinate” as written in the Feb. 12 editorial? Additionally, if those who get vaccinated are worried about getting sick from those who aren’t vaccinated, what’s the point of vaccinations in the first place? Doesn’t getting vaccinated prevent catching diseases? If so, then those who aren’t vaccinated can’t catch or spread any diseases because everyone else is vaccinated against the diseases. Emily LewisBallston Pay attention to the actions of politiciansWake up New York and pay attention to your state budget and the feds.This topic isn’t new. Healthcare and the proposed cuts to the system are putting even more burden on you and me and our insurance companies, who never seem to have the people’s interest at heart. Reject Geyser Road bike pathI‘ve been told that the right of eminent domain approval ruling on the Geyser Road Bicycle Path has been appealed.This procedure should be used only when the bulk of the people benefit; this certainly isn’t the case here.The Geyser Road Bicycle Path should have originally been voted on by a public referendum, not approved solely by the city council. If the Geyser Road Bicycle Path is to become a reality in spite of considerable opposition, at least make it safe. Divert the path from Geyser Road Hill approaching Route 50 to a different route. Many male bicyclers come down Geyser Road Hill at excessive rates of speed. Apparently, they get a charge out of this practice, which will endanger children, other bicyclists and pedestrians using the proposed bicycle path. Let’s not create a dangerous situation at considerable cost for the benefit of a few.James LawrenceSaratoga SpringsMore from The Daily Gazette:EDITORIAL: Beware of voter intimidationEDITORIAL: Thruway tax unfair to working motoristsCuomo calls for clarity on administering vaccineGov. Andrew Cuomo’s press conference for Sunday, Oct. 18Foss: Should main downtown branch of the Schenectady County Public Library reopen? Categories: Letters to the Editor, OpinionGrateful for report on slain city officerThanks to reporter Jeff Wilkin for the great article in Feb. 11 paper about our brother, deceased officer Bill Koenige of the Schenectady Police Department.It’s difficult to believe that it has been 40 years since he was killed on duty that evening, Feb. 12, 1989.At one time, Patrolman Slingerland of the Schenectady PD was instrumental in obtaining a K-9 shepherd, which was named after Bill. They did many patrols together before “Koenige” was retired. Bill made the supreme sacrifice and did his duty that evening with his partner, but he didn’t get to go home to his family that day. Ray WempleRotterdamThe writer is a retired sergeant with the Schenectady Police Department.
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Would you like to read more?Register for free to finish this article.Sign up now for the following benefits:Four FREE articles of your choice per monthBreaking news, comment and analysis from industry experts as it happensChoose from our portfolio of email newsletters To access this article REGISTER NOWWould you like print copies, app and digital replica access too? SUBSCRIBE for as little as £5 per week.
As no one admitted doing so, the student — who requested anonymity — said the seniors scooped the human feces with a spoon and force-fed it to each of the 77 junior students. The junior students accepted the mistreatment as they were too frightened to fight back, the student said. “It was very disgusting, but we could not fight back,” the class VII student said. He said after the incident, the senior students warned them not to report the incident to their parents. Read also: Stronger efforts key to improving child protectionOne of the victims, however, decided to run home and tell his parents about the incident, which was later made public after one of the students’ parents protested on a WhatsApp group handled by the school’s public relations officer on Friday.Maria Flora, one of the parents, said that she was disappointed, describing the incident as inhumane. She demanded the seniors involved in the abuse be exposed and punished for their actions. “This incident would not be accepted in any nation in any part of the world […] Maybe the people who punish their juniors this way have mental issues,” Maria said, as quoted from her statement in the WhatsApp group made available to The Jakarta Post. Another parent, Hetty Hendriyani, also expressed her anger.“We send our children to the seminary school so that they can learn to be good people, not to be treated in this way. This is extremely disappointing,” she said.The SBS seminary declined to issue any official statement when contacted by journalists about the incident. However, kompas.com reported that the school would hold a meeting with the students’ parents to discuss the matter. (gis)Topics : Some 77 students of class VII of Bunda Segala Bangsa (BSB) seminary junior high school in Maumere, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), were reportedly “punished” by two senior students and forced to eat human feces last week.One of the students who had been subjected to the abuse said the incident began when they came back to the school’s dormitory to take an afternoon rest after lunch. When they arrived at the dormitory, one of the senior students said he had found human feces in a bag inside a cupboard that was usually empty. The seniors called all of the junior students and asked them who put the feces inside the cupboard.
A new report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) found that Islamic State (IS) supporters who were deported while trying to join the extremist group played a major role in radicalizing neighborhood religious study groups in West Sumatra. The report, titled “Learning From Extremists in West Sumatra”, followed two groups in Padang and Bukit Tinggi in West Sumatra that grew from branches of pro-sharia advocacy groups into pro-ISIS cells. Both of the groups had members who had businesses in Tanah Abang market, Jakarta. In the market, the members came in touch with leading extremist clerics and invited them back to Sumatra. “Through these Jakarta-based friends, the groups were introduced to some of the highest-profile preachers in the extremist community,” the report said.The Padang group in particular was largely influenced by pro-IS deportees who were forced to return to Indonesia.Saifullah, a Padang native, had met an Acehnese man named Muhammad Aulia while stuck in a safehouse in Turkey waiting for the chance to cross over to Syria in 2015. The two men were deported in 2016.Saifullah left for Afghanistan in 2017 and acted as “a communications hub” between pro-IS extremist groups in Indonesia and the IS “province” in Khorasan. He was later implicated in the 2019 Jolo Cathedral bombings, which were conducted by an Indonesian couple who were in contact with him. Aulia, meanwhile, led a group of 11 Indonesians in an attempt to leave for Afghanistan in 2019 but was stopped in the Bangkok airport in Thailand and was deported again. He and his followers were arrested upon their return to Indonesia. “The combination of frustration at not achieving their goal, undiminished zeal with lack of exposure to the realities of the situation in Syria – not only constant bombing but also corruption and in some cases, discrimination against non-Arabs – and the difficulties of having to start life again with no resources all become reasons for returning to extremist activities,” the report said. “The West Sumatra study calls into question the wisdom of the Indonesian government’s approach of treating radicalism as a problem of insufficient nationalism, curable by indoctrination in the state ideology, Pancasila,” IPAC director Sidney Jones said in a press release about the report on Friday.“The problems here were more concrete: a mosque that hosted extremist discussions for more than a decade without any attention from local authorities and deportees from Turkey who returned home without sufficient monitoring.”She added that the government still lacked an effective rehabilitation, reintegration and monitoring program for deportees and should take steps to remedy that.“Knowing how deportees have fared even several years after their return could help in the development of programs for future returnees,” she said.The government has said that radicalism is one of the biggest existential threats to the state and has recently announced that it will not repatriate the nearly 700 Indonesian citizens who joined the IS movement.Topics :
Germany and France withdrew their representatives from North Korea and closed their missions on Monday, the British ambassador there said, amid growing concern in the isolated country about the spread of the coronavirus.North Korea has not confirmed any cases of the coronavirus but it has made foreigners from any country that has reported a case spend 30 days in quarantine. It has also reinforced border checks.North Korea is sandwiched between China, where the virus emerged late last year and has infected more than 80,000 people, and South Korea, where the virus has spread readily over the past few weeks to infect nearly 7,500 people. Britain’s ambassador to North Korea, Colin Crooks, did not say why his German and French colleagues were leaving North Korea, nor did he mention the coronavirus.”Sad to say farewell this morning to colleagues from German Embassy and French Office in North Korea which are closing temporarily,” Crooks said on Twitter.”British Embassy remains open”.Crooks shared photos showing white vans, apparently taking his French and German colleagues to the airport. Germany has an embassy in North Korea. France does not have formal diplomatic relations with North Korea but runs an office there to foster exchanges.Spokesmen at the French and German embassies in neighbouring South Korea were not immediately available for comment.CNN has reported a plan was under way to evacuate some 60 foreign diplomats from North Korea, including those from Germany, French and Switzerland.Sweden’s ambassador to North Korea, Joachim Bergstrom, last week posted a picture on Twitter of himself in Pyongyang, and said he was happy to be out of the compound where he was quarantined for a month.Topics :
Participants will compete on rFactor 2 simulator software from their own homes and in a ‘battle royale’ format where the last placed driver after each lap is eliminated until only 10 remain for a final sprint to the line.Two separate races will be held, one with the regular teams and drivers and the other for ‘gamers and influencers’ who can try and win real-life track time in a Formula E car at a race weekend.One of those aiming to win that prize is British racer Charlie Martin, who also hopes to become the first transgender driver to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.The challenge will be run over nine consecutive weekends, starting with a non-scoring test event on April 18 involving at least 14 current drivers.”I think it’s really exciting to race these guys again, my rivals, obviously from home,” DS Techeetah’s Portuguese driver and series leader Antonio Felix Da Costa told reporters on a conference call.”I’ve been having a lot of fun in the sim [simulator] and all of these challenges are welcome. It’s a great way to keep our minds sharp.”Topics : Formula E launched an esports ‘Race at Home Challenge’ series on Wednesday involving regular race drivers and gamers in the absence of any real track action due to the COVID-19 pandemic.The all-electric series follows other championships, such as Formula One and MotoGP, in using virtual racing to fill the void left by the coronavirus.Formula E’s version also aims to raise funds for UNICEF after the announcement on Tuesday of a partnership with the UN children’s fund’s global coronavirus appeal.
He said he was saddened that despite all their hard work, many workers faced hostility due to their close proximity to COVID-19 patients.”Some nurses have been kicked out of their rooming houses and nurses’ children are alienated by the neighbors due to the negative stigma surrounding COVID-19,” he said.Nevertheless, he thanked those in the public who have played their part to help slow the spread of the outbreak”We, nurses, and medical workers are placed on the last line. We are the last resource to come for when infections happened. But the public is on the front line, so let’s keep fighting the pandemic together,” he said.Topics : Besides medical treatment, COVID-19 patients also need companionship, a nurse at the Sulianti Saroso Infectious Diseases Hospital (RSPI) said.Nurdiansyah shared his experience treating patients at the COVID-19 referral hospital in a press conference held by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) on Sunday.”One nurse currently handles three to four patients,” he said. “One patient can take up to one hour for each treatment.” He said that sometimes nurses might even spend three to four hours at a time with a single patient, because some patients are afraid to be left alone.”We have to motivate patients and strengthen them mentally so that their immune system is also strengthened,” he said. “They hold our hands and we encourage them. They need mental support.”Nurdiansyah said that nurses helped coach patients who experienced shortness of breath and tried to comfort patients with lighthearted television programs.He said the first thing the nurses did before their shift every morning was pray for the patients’ recovery and the medical workers’ safety.