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Mats Boleh! Revisited
Bitched on: Friday, February 24, 2006
Time: 2/24/2006 09:41:00 PM
Hmmm... No more racist jokes this time.Time: 2/24/2006 09:41:00 PM
In the previous Mats Boleh! entries, I 'slammed' (ok, not really slammed) my own race (more like I flicked the finger..) about our educational and other statistics but this time, I am going to talk about something more serious and worrying (...yawn).
I won't beat around the bush and let me dive straight into the matter... Our health, or lack of it. Take a look around you and look at the makciks and pakciks (aunties and uncles in Malay). What do most of them have in common?
If you notice our bulging tummies, then you are right, my friends. A lot of us Malays are obese!
Another cheena (Chinese) friend of mine was commenting how curvy our Malay gals are (I do indeed agree whole-heartedly) but then another Malay friend of mine went on to joke that soon after marriage, the chicks will become round hens (this friend of mine is so sexist duncha think, I will not name him for his sake...).
Well, us Malay guys should not be spared too. Just look at some pakciks' waistlines and all the spare tyres hanging around (and I'm not talking about the ones in the overly modified Malay-owned cars)...
And also speaking as an instructor from BMTC (school for Army recruits), my neighbouring company (which is currently taking in and teaching obese recruits) has roughly 70% of the recruits who are Malay! And they are like morbid (how I can I put this nicer?) obese!
Are we a race that raises our children to become sumo wrestlers?
Before you pro-Malays start thumping your chest again and start chanting Hidup Melayu (Live On Malays) again... let me slap you (not physically, of course) with the following statistics from the Ministry of Health (MOH), Singapore.
In 2004, the prevalence of obesity amongst Malays (i.e to say the tendency for us to become fat) is 19.2% compared to the Chinese (4.3%) and the Indians (13.5%).
However, our Indians friends are more prone to abdominal fatness.
Hmmm... I'm part Indian too...
Those Malays who are not catergorised as obese should not be relieved as Malays are also more at risk of becoming obese. 33.6% of Malays (aged 18-69 years) have high BMI (Body Mass Index, kg/m2). That is like 1 in 3 of Malays may become obese (that explains the chicks to mother hens joke).
Looks aside, obesity also brings along other harmful and potentially fatal complications like heart risks and diabetes.
We are the ethnic race with the highest % with high cholesterol (27.9%) compared to the total population's 19.8%.
11.7% of Malays have diabetes (Diabetes Mellitus) compared to 8.9% of the population. However, our Indian friends are more at risk with a staggering 16.3% of them having diabetes...
Which makes up wonder...
Is Indian food really that sweet and sugary? Or izzit because of the genetic make-up? Or izzit just a combination of both? Whatever it is, I am really worried...being part Indian too...
Sigh...
Another thing you will notice about most Malays is that we smoke (like in cigarettes, duh!).
A very beng (slang for a Chinese... erm... mat?) colleague of mine asked me for a stick and when I said I don't smoke, he gave me a shocked expression. He broke into a grin and told me not to be selfish with the cigarettes and I should come up with a better excuse next time. It took me a while before I finally convinced him that I really don't smoke. And finally he blatantly told me that he assumed I smoke because of my ethnicity (how racist was that? haha...).
But who could blame him? Look at the statistics (page 9 0f 13) and judge for yourself.
18.6% of Malays are smokers compared to 11.7% of Chinese and 12.1% of Indians.
Before you brush it off as a only a small percentage, get this, 29.9% of male Malays smoke (that is like 1 in 3 Malay mats), again the highest amongst the other races in Singapore.
For us Malays, being Muslims and all, we are prohibited to consume alcohol but that has not stopped 7.6% who are occasional drinkers, 1% frequent drinkers and 0.6% regular drinkers (you know who you are...). Good for you, the remaining 90.8%.
To make matters worst we also tend to not have medical check-ups (page 11 onwards) like Breast Cancer screening, Cervical Cancer screening and Colorectal Cancer screening.
Only 34.8% of Malay women have gone for mammography (for breast cancer) compared to Chinese (53.7%) and Indians (46.2%).
What is it with us Malays?
Before you Malay readers start to despair and see ourselves to be doomed to an early grave. Hear this out, the % of us who exercise regularly (page 5 of 16) are higher than total population (28% compared to 24.9%).
That's great news!
For more details on all of the statistics see here.
However people, we still need to get our fat asses to the nearby clinics or polyclinics for our medical screening (I am nagging my mum to go for her mammography soon).
Dispell the belief that all medical check-ups involve needles and pain. If your mum is over 50, nag her to do the mammography! And tell your dad to watch his cholestrol intake and monitor his weight.
If you truly love your love ones, remind them to lead a healthier lifestyle...
The reason as to why I suddenly wrote this (sombre...ok...quite serious) blog entry was because a cousin of mine is recently warded in the hospital. For the sake of her two daughters (who might be reading this), I wish her a speedy recovery.
God bless...
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1 comments
1 Comments:
Hi there,
I wanted to post a comment on Cray's article but couldn't due to some reasons.....if you don't mind, please allow me to share some comments...
Much has been said about mats and how they are being stereotyped in the eyes of the society...fair enough...i personally feel that they brought that judgement upon themselves...
Having said that, somehow, i am relooking mats at another angle now. Let me give you an e.g:Tapered jeans use to be "in" but nowadays i doubt theres much of these tapered jeans....they have gone on to stripes....not that im into mats and minah fashion...hehe.. but what im saying is that, there are these group of people who are looking into these mats and minah issues....the trendsetters of mats and minahs....
Having said that, somehow, i was thinking, if these trendsetters a.k.a the chiefs of mats and minahs can influence their "followers" towards something good or just something of benefit to society etc, won't it be wonderful? Just look at how successfully they have influenced their fellow "fellowers"....
So in a way, i will say, the "chief" of mats does NOT have low intelligence as compared to the typical stereotype of a common mat on the streets....
To command such influence and to create such a trend among many require guts and some brains....
so i believe that we should give mats and minahs a chance..and most importantly, to search for these "chiefs of mats and minahs"....i am somehow intrigued by them....
What do you say? Constructive comments are very much appreciated.
Thanx Bro..
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