The black bearded Bible Man of Taiwan BorneoPost Online | Borneo , Malaysia, Sarawak Daily News » thesundaypost - New 2 Borneo

The black bearded Bible Man of Taiwan
Smoking out the nasal dragons
Going bananas over Cavendish
The sculpturing of Mount Kinabalu
The pregnant teen’s dilemma

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 02:30 PM PST

by Chang Yi. Posted on December 22, 2013, Sunday

A MUSICIAN friend recommended a Hokkien-English opera called Mackay, the Bearded One, if I ever had a chance to go to Taiwan – and also visit Mackay Street in Tamsui or Danshui.

But who is this Mackay the Bearded One?

Another Malaysian friend who has been studying in Taiwan, explained: "This was the first time I attended a full opera, sung in (Taiwanese) Hokkien and English. It was so unique! Overall, it was a wonderful opera. We would never have anything like this in Malaysia."

Indeed in 2008, the Taiwan government invested in the production of the world's first-ever Taiwanese-English-language opera based on Mackay's life.

Over 100 opera singers and production crew from Europe, Asia, and the US were brought in for the project. Mackay: The Black Bearded Bible Man had its world premiere on Nov 27, 2008, at Taiwan's National Theater.

Although our small study group from Sarawak went to Taiwan and did not watch the opera, we came to learn about one incredible missionary – Mackay, who gave so much of his life to Taiwan – by visiting the Street named after him.

We were taken to see a statue of George Leslie Mackay, dedicated on Nov 19, 1995, in the northern port town of Tamsui, Taipeh.

According to a brochure, the statue was unveiled by his grandchildren, John Ross Mackay and Anna Mackay. Also present at the ceremony were Jack Chen, Tamsui township chief, Hugh Stephens, director of the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei, and Legislative and Taipei County representatives.

Called Mah Kay in Taiwanese language, Rev GL Mackay brought about tremendous change to the social, religious and even economic map of Taiwan.

His contributions were so great that some people even find it hard to believe. George Leslie Mackay (March 21, 1844 – June 2, 1901) was the first Presbyterian missionary to northern Formosa (Taiwan), serving with the Canadian Presbyterian Mission.

Mackay who was among the best known westerners to have lived in Taiwan, was born in Zorra Township, Oxford County, Canada West (now Ontario), Canada.

He received his theological training at Knox College in Toronto, Princeton Seminary in the US and New College, Edinburgh in Scotland – all Presbyterian institutions.

In 1871, Mackay became the first foreign missionary to be commissioned by the Canada Presbyterian Church. He arrived in Tamsui, northern Formosa, in 1872 which remained his home until his death in 1901.

One of the most remarkable features of his life as a missionary was his immense contribution to the dental health of the aborigines there. From 1872-88, he reportedly extracted 18,235 teeth. It was said he pulled out over 40,000 during his lifetime in Taiwan. Many grateful people went away with a missing tooth plus an experience hard to forget.

He set up churches, schools and a hospital, practising western biomedicine. He learned to speak the vernacular Taiwanese fluently. It was said when his friends suggested he should get married, he gave it a good thought, and soon asked a friend to be match-maker for the hand of a lady he converted. That was how he married Tiu Chang-miâ – known as Minnie in the west – a Taiwanese woman.

Marriage at 34

In his sixth year in Taiwan, Mackay, 34, married his wife, a Tamsun local. Chang gave birth to two daughters and one son. Chang Tsung-ming died in 1925 at the an age of 65. She had been a good partner to Mackay for all her life. In fact, getting married was among the last three things he planned to do – travelling on a sedan chair, getting married and returning home for holiday. But due to circumstances, he was unable to do them all.

He was the most unusual of missionaries. The locals were suspicious of him but he insisted on staying amongst them. He was adamant though as his motto was – Rather burn than rust out.

By the time Mackay had his first home-return holiday in 1880, he had set up a total of 20 churches in northern Taiwan, assigned 10 missionaries to station in these churches and had 300 adult disciples. His establishment of churches on foreign soil in the first nine years is considered a great success – a rare achievement for overseas missionaries indeed.

He was described by a contemporary as a little man, firm and active, of few words, unflinching courage and one whose sound common sense is equaled only by his earnest devotion to the Master.

During the first year of his stay at Tamsui, he began an educational and evangelistic training movement amongst the young men who came about him, and this has been greatly blessed throughout that northern part of the Island.

The churches he planted later became the present Presbyterian Church in Taiwan. In 1896, after the establishment of Japanese colonial rule of Taiwan, Mackay met with the Japanese governor-general of Formosa, Maresuke Nogi. Some families in Taiwan today, particularly of lowland-aboriginal Kavalan ancestry, trace their surname (Kai or Kay) to their family's conversion to Christianity by Mackay.

The Tamsui Presbyterian Church today is not only a place of Sunday worship but a tourist attraction s well. This house of worship was built during the Japanese colonial period. Designed and built by renowned architect Huang A-shu, it was built for the 60th anniversary of Dr Mackay's arrival in Taiwan. It opened for services in 1933 and, at the time, was the tallest building in Tamsui with its four story belfry rising toward the sky.

The animated tour guide explained: "In those days when the bell was sounded on a Sunday morning to call the area's Christians to worship, it could easily be heard across the river in Bali."

Today, it's no longer loud enough against all the traffic and urban noises!

Mackay was honored in his own homeland by the Canadian Church during his two furloughs home. In 1880, Queen's College in Kingston, Ontario, awarded him an honorary Doctor of Divinity, presented by Principal George Monro Grant and Chancellor Sandford Fleming.

Before departing in 1881, he returned to Oxford County, where monies were raised to start Oxford College in Taiwan. A number of young people in the county were inspired to follow Mackay's example and entered into missionary service with a number of Christian denominations.

After returning to Tamsun from his last inspection tour of the churches in Lan-Yang plain in May of 1900, Mackay died of throat cancer on June 2 at his home in Paotaipu, aged 58. His family and church buried him according to his will in his private cemetery behind Tamkang Middle School instead of the foreign cemetery (which is separated by a wall).

A writer admiringly wrote: "In his 30 years in Taiwan, Mackay had established more than 60 churches and baptised more than 3000 people. He identified with Taiwan all his life and called himself a Tamsun local. His heart, his love, his blood and his legacy are all in Taiwan. This one person's love of the land marks a major contrast to the foreigner rulers who came and went without identifying with Taiwan in the past 400 years."

Awesome legacies

The Taiwan Church News (1885) was the first printed newspaper in Taiwan. The Taiwanese language was rendered phonetically, using a Latin orthography developed by Mackay.

His 1896 book – From Far Formosa – is considered an important early missionary ethnography of Taiwan and an important contribution to the anthropological understanding of the culture and customs of the people of Taiwan during that period.

Mackay was an enthusiastic collector of cultural artefacts and specimens of local flora and fauna. Many items he collected are today preserved at the ethnology department of the Royal Ontario Museum (Ontario, Canada) and the Aletheia University Museum (Tamsui, Taiwan).

The Taiwanese language first entered written form in the 19th century when Mackay and his colleagues adapted the Latin alphabet to render it phonetically. The orthography, called pe̍h-oç-jî (POJ), meaning vernacular writing, was used by the Presbyterian missionaries and became standard in the indigenous Presbyterian Church in Taiwan.

The first printed newspaper on the island was a church bulletin in Taiwanese. The Presbyterians continued to use Taiwanese in their services and communications even in years when pressure from first Japanese and then Chinese authorities was intense in suppressing public use of the language.

The Aletheia University was set up by Mackay. This University was originally constructed under his supervision and opened in 1882. He named it Oxford College, and it offered courses in theology and Bible study, sciences including medicine, anatomy and general science, sociology, Chinese history and classical Chinese literature, and is recognised as being the beginning of general education in Taiwan.

Today, the university takes pride in being Taiwan's oldest university. The name Aletheia, meaning truth in Greek, was only bestowed on the institution in 1999.

The major private Christian hospital in downtown Taipei is named Mackay Memorial Hospital, built in 1912, to replace the smaller Mackay Hospital he started in Tamsui in 1882. Locals and tourists alike love to visit this hospital and the little café within its premises.

In November 2006, a Canadian Television documentary was aired titled The Black Bearded Barbarian of Taiwan. It was broadcast in both Mandarin and English on OMNI 2 as part of their Signature Series.

Indeed, Mackay had left an indelible mark on Taiwan. And because he was instrumental in bringing educational, social, language, health and philosophical changes to Taiwan for more than 30 years, the Malaysian Taiwan Graduates have, no doubt, also indirectly benefitted from his role.

As we watched a modern photographer shooting some wedding scenes in front of the beautiful old Presbyterian Church, what would Mackay have said about modern technology and all the changes around Mackay Street?

It's in this street in Taipeh that so many different kinds of religions, languages, cultures and governments came together to give it a special remarkable and dynamic life.

Mackay's life and contributions had made Tamsui more than a entrepot and more than a melting pot. He brought meaning and sensibilities to all the different racial groups found in this area by his simple and courage belief in God.

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Smoking out the nasal dragons

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 01:50 PM PST

by Lian Cheng, reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on December 22, 2013, Sunday

IMAGINE this — worms or maggots popping out of your nostrils.

It sounds gross – and that's putting mildly — but some not so squeamish locals had these creepy crawlies wriggling out of their snouts when they tried Smoking Out Nasal Worms Or Maggots, a Chinese medical treatment, believed to be effective in curing sinus and other nasal problems such as smell insensitivity, constant blocked nose and breathing difficulties.

This traditional treatment used to be known only in peninsular Malaysia but was recently imported and popularised in the state by a benevolent organisation called Moral Uplifting Society which started the practice at its branch in Miri and it quickly spread to Sri Aman, Serian and Sarikei.

While in Penang, such a nasal therapy by a Chinese traditional sensei may cost RM25 (per adult) and RM20 (per child), the Moral Uplifting Society has been giving mass treatment for free. Nostril worms or maggots have actually been seen in containers after treatment, and instead of putting the nose of most "patients" out of joint, this rather unusual remedy to clear nasal congestion has, strangely enough, give rise to a longer waiting list.

Due to popular demand, the Serian Moral Uplifting Society has been organising even more mass treatments. On Nov 9, about 400 turned up for an evening treatment session. The simple procedure was not administered by a Chinese sensei but members of the Serian Moral Uplifting Society collectively. So at any one time, there could be as many 30 to 40 people being treated.

When my turn came, I was asked to sit at a long table with the others. In front of me was an aluminium bowl, containing some water, and placed over the water was a small dish. A Society member then put a burning piece of broken ceramic (part of a flower pot) on the dish before another member added to it some black medicinal beads.

I was told the concoction was a type of "Chinese medicine."

Subsequently, a third member came out and sprinkled some sesame oil on the beads. And once the oil touched the beads (on the burning ceramic), there was a sizzle and emission of fume.

I was asked to cover up the bowl immediately with a custommade wooden lid which had a metal tube, leading to the medicine, on one side, and a plastic tube for directing the fume to the nostrils, on the other side.

"Don't breathe. Put the end of the plastic tube to one of your nostrils — change side every now and then. Let the fume smoke out the worms," one of the members instructed.

I did as told — putting one end of the tube to my right nostril before stopping to breathe. When I was out of breath, I removed the plastic tube from my nose and put my fingers over it to prevent the smoke from escaping. After taking a deep breath, I put the tube to my left nostril.

Meanwhile, knowing I was a journalist, trying to report on the treatment, the members showed me containers with worms or maggots left by the others. So while busy trying to smoke out some worms, I was also busy taking pictures with one hand while holding the plastic tube close to my nostril with the other.

At one time, I was so engrossed with taking a good picture that I forgot I had a smoking tube in my nostril and drew a breath. I got choked and quickly removed the tube. However, it was too late as I had already inhaled quite a lot of smoke.

I tried to stop after that but was told I had to continue as the treatment would only be considered complete when no fume was emitted. I stopped only 10 minutes later when I lifted the wooden cover and fume had stopped coming out. A member quickly came over to check my bowl, and on the side of it was a very fine white substance of about half a centimetre long. I was told it was the worm that had come out of my nasal system. All of a sudden, I felt my nose was extremely itchy. I kept having the feeling there was something wriggling inside my nose.

And I had a sleepless night after that. I wasn't sure whether it was caused by the smoke I accidentally inhaled which gave me a very dry throat or the psychological effect after knowing there could be worms inside my system. The sick feeling continued over the next few days.

Serian Moral Uplifting Society chairman Chow Fah Sen, secretary Chong Kuet Hiong and event organiser David Chai all went through the treatment and worms were found in all their containers.

They assured everything was done hygienically and correctly and all the equipment used had all been properly sanitised. Every used plastic tube was disposed of and recycled wooden covers properly sanitised by cleaning it with water, alcohol and torch fire. The bowls used were also sanitised in the same manner.

They were very certain the treatment had neither side-effects nor harmful consequences to health generally.

"There are three types of worms — white, yellow and black. The white worms are young worms, the golden ones middle-aged worms and the black ones old worms.

"These worms are nasal worms. Smoking them out will help improve nasal health or cure some breathing problems such as sinus and blocked nose. To get rid of the worms completely, one has to receive treatment three times. After that, one will be free from the worms for the next six years," Chow explained.

According to him, only children above eight years old are allowed to receive the treatment. Pregnant women and flu patients are prohibited.

Kapitan Chai Ko Vui, 57, did his treatment on Dec 8 and said four brownish worms were found in his container.

Nine-year-old Ong Hui Ling who has been suffering from breathing difficulties and nasal itchiness, was brought from Kuching to Serian for treatment.

"There were three cream-coloured worms. I think that's why my daughter has been suffering from breathing problems," said Hui Ling's mother Chong Siat Kim, 47, who believes the treatment had healed the young girl's breathing ailments.

Lim Hui Kuan, 55, chairman of Pontianak Moral Uplifting Society, has also gone through the treatment and three golden coloured one-centimetre long worms were found after treatment.

"I'm going to ask one penghulu from Pontianak to come over and learn how to do it. After that, I'm going to bring the treatment back to Pontianak," he said.

Sarawak Traditional and Complimentary Medicine (TCM) Association president Dr Tan Kit Weng said what was done in Serian was only part of the larger Chinese folk tradition of "capturing nasal dragon."

According to him, there are two types of worms to catch from the nostrils — nasal dragons, the bigger worms from two inches to half a foot long, and nasal worms which are smaller maggots.

"There are also many ways to get rid of worms in the nasal system. Using smoke is just one. Just for smoking out the worms, there are three different types of herbal medicine we can use."

The Chinese sensei said another way to lure the nasal worms out was through medicated oil or powder, made from some herbs he preferred not to disclose. In modern times, there is also medicated nasal spray which has the same effect of drawing out parasites in the nasal system.

"Then, there's also the manual way to catch the nasal dragons. For this type of worms, we first apply some herbal medication to lure the worms out around the mouth. Then we turn off the light and wait for the patient to fall asleep.

"Only when the patient is fast asleep will the worms come out. Once they are out, we use a tweezer to clip on their heads to pull them out. When they struggle, we stop. When they stop struggling, we pull again. We do it slowly until the worms are pulled out. We have to use infrared light as any other lights will scare the worms and push them back into the nostrils," Dr Tan said.

On the mass treatment by the Serian Moral Uplifting Society, the certified TCM herbalist said the medicine used indicated the treatment was meant to catch maggots, but of course, it was also effective in catching small nasal parasites.

The method used by the Society is very old. In the old days, a coconut was used instead of a custom made container for the purpose. Dr Tan saw his sensei do it when he was still an apprentice.

His main concern was the fume might harm the lungs. He advised against receiving such treatment frequently, saying it was inevitable the patient would inhale the fume at some point of the treatment however hard he or she tried not to.

"Due to the side-effects, most traditional senseis no longer practise Smoking Out Nasal Worms Or Maggots but are leaning more towards using medicinal powder, herbal oil or nasal spray," he said.

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Going bananas over Cavendish

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 01:30 PM PST

BANANAS can become a major export for the state through large-scale cultivation — if the SGB Agriculture Banana Plantation in Bintangor is anything to go by.

Situated along KJD Road, about 24km from town, this 330-hectare (ha) banana plantation is set to become the biggest of its kind in the state.

Even though only 125 ha have been ploughed, the plantation has already made a name for itself as the main producer of Cavendish bananas which are sold at supermarkets and retail shops statewide.

The plantation owner, Robert Wong Fak Ming, started growing bananas in 2010, spending the first few months clearing the land and preparing the soil. After that, his team of 60 workers got down to planting banana trees on a 125-ha plot, initially opened up for cultivation.

"After months of toil, the plantation started producing fruits about a year ago. Since then, I have diversified the jobs of my workers by assigning some to general farm work and others to processing and packaging for the market," the 50-year-old said.

His plantation produces between eight to 10 tons of fruits everyday and currently supplies local supermarkets and vendors throughout the state with about two tons being transported to Sibu everyday. Ten tons of Cavendish bananas are also exported to Brunei every week.

But like any business ventures, there are challenges and problems to face and overcome.

Tan has explored the market in Peninsular Malaysia but finds the transportation costs rather stiff. For instance, to export the fruits cross the waters, he has to spend RM10,000 for a 20-ton (TEU) container. According to him, this is not economically feasible for a small-volume consignment.

Another hitch is the long shipment time as it takes about a month for a consignment to reach Port Klang.

The saving grace is that with Cavendish bananas, this does not pose a big problem since the shelf-life of the fruits is about two months – which is one of the reasons why Wong chooses this particular species.

The other challenges are quite normal for him as a plantation owner such as disease prevention and pest control. And he has them well under control.

However, one problem that continues to bug him is the difficulty in getting diesel supply. As all his machinery such as generators and vehicles are using diesel, quite a substantial volume is needed everyday but supply is affected because petrol stations have imposed restrictions on diesel purchases.

He said he urgently needs the help of the relevant authorities to solve the problem.

Wong foresees a big jump in production when his 330-ha plantation is fully developed. He hopes the authorities concerned can help explore foreign markets for his products since they are very supportive of his endeavour to venture into commercial and modern agriculture.

He brought the matter to the attention of officers from the Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry, the Federal Agriculture Marketing Authority, the Malaysian Agriculture Research and Development Institute and the Agriculture Department when they visited his plantation recently.

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The sculpturing of Mount Kinabalu

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 01:15 PM PST

by Alan Rogers. Posted on December 22, 2013, Sunday

ADMIRING the sheer size of this mountain from several vantage points in Sabah, it was only in Kundasang that my eyes focused on the crenulated notches on the bare granite skyline and on the mounds of small forest clad hills on the lower slopes.

How does one explain the rugged peaks of Mount Kinabalu, symbolised by such wonderful names as Donkeys Ears, The Rabbit, The Ugly Sisters and the peaks of St John, Victoria, King George, Tunku Abdul Raman and the South and North Peaks? Yet, what of Low's Peak and Low's Gully?

From their extensive research on the mountain's superficial deposits, Koopmans and Stauffer, at the University of Malaya, in 1966, estimated that during the Eurasian Ice Ages (the Pleistocene period in geological time) 1.4 million to 10,000 years BP (Before the Present), Mount Kinabalu was covered by an ice cap, 5km square in area.

From the edges of the ice cap ice lobes in the form of glaciers flowed down slope exploiting fault lines in the underlying granite-type rock. Slowly but surely the loose rocks embedded and frozen into the base of these glaciers abraded the granite surfaces over which they rode.

Evidence of glacial erosion may be seen today in the striations (chisel-like scratches) in the granite surface zigzagging across the upper plateau surface.

Through the pressure of the overlying ice, the rocks embedded in the base of these glaciers frictionally sanded and eroded the bedrock.

Interestingly these striations bisect each other at distinctive angles suggesting that at different stages of the Pleistocene era the glaciers on Mount Kinabalu came from different directions.

The deeper scratches are relics of more recent glacial advances and the shallower striations from earlier ice advances. It is likely that ice exploited a major fault in the granite that led to a huge icefall in the form of a glacial spillway from the ice cap, thus creating the 1,500 metre sheer drop of Low's Gully, best observed from Low's Peak.

The smoothness of the upper mountain, in the area of the fixed ropes, and the glacial shutes where the ice spilled downwards add further evidence of glacial erosion.

In stark contrast, the jagged skyline, best observed on a clear day from Kundasang or Ranau, poses yet a separate explanation. At the peak periods of the Pleistocene glaciations the rock protuberances of Low's Peak, Donkey's Ears and The Rabbit were all above the uppermost level of the ice cap.

Such upstanding features are known as nunataks (an Inuit term for bare rocks extending beyond the upper limit of the Greenland ice cap). These peaks experienced freeze-thaw action by night and day, when in daytime, the ice in the cracks in the granite melted only to allow the water to trickle deeper into a crack.

At night-time the water refroze with the new ice expanding by 9 per cent of the water's volume thus widening the crack. Repeated freeze-thaw cycles shattered the granite into angular shaped fragments.

Possibly this continues today, as I have seen a thin layer of ice at 5am on an April morning. Near the summit of Low's Peak there is evidence of fresh scree slopes or felsenmere, bearing witness to frost shattering even today.

Another explanation of the jagged skyline is possible. In 2013, Drs Knight and Grab, at Wits University Johannesburg, suggest that the jagged peaks in South Africa's Drakensberg Mountains are the product of lightning strikes which have blasted rocks apart.

There they found that lightning has hurled boulders weighing several tonnes over a distance of 10 metres or more leading to landslides. Could this have occurred on Mount Kinabalu given the frequency of tropical thunderstorms?

In the later stages of the Pleistocene glaciation, small corrie or cirque glaciers in armchair shaped hollows ate back into the back wall rock of these depressions into which small bodies of ice remained.

Such semi-circular hollows can be seen near Low's Peak, at King George's Peak and beneath three other peaks. The back walls of all five cirques face between northwest and northeast in direction.

Exactly the same orientation of cirques occurs in highland areas in the United Kingdom and in the Swiss Alps.

Simply by day time these would have been in the shade of the sun's rays thus allowing snow to accumulate from year to year and to survive the higher temperatures.

Some melting occurred, by day, on the darker rocks above the ice, only to freeze at night to shatter the rock surface.

This shattered rock melted through the ice to become embedded in the base of such a small glacier and as an abrasive tool cut the bowl shaped depression even deeper as the ice flowed downslope and out of its confines through pressure and gravity.

Around 10,000 years BP the gradual melting of the ice cap began and continued until 3,000 years BP.

As the tongue-like glaciers melted morainic deposits were dumped in the form of a terminal moraine just below Panar Laban, near to Paka Cave. Here angular rocks bulldozed by the once advancing glacier are seen.

It is possible that there are yet, undiscovered moraines exist on Mount Kinabalu and are either inaccessible today through vegetation cover or have been remoulded by subsequent landslides and erosion forces.

As the ice cap slowly melted gradually material from the glacial deposits slid downslope to create the Pinosuk gravels which are to a depth of 140 metres on the Pinosuk Plateau, thus flattening the landscape there.

The material in the Pinosuk gravels is ill sorted, consisting of clay, silt and angular fragments of granite – the latter bearing witness to ice action and the former the result of melt water. The plateau has subsequently been dissected by rivers, creating steep sided gullies.

Whilst the Summit Trail is readily accessible for the reasonably fit, there is much research for geomorphologists to explore beyond the well-trodden paths to locate, map and analyse hidden glacial deposits.

Today, Mount Kilimanjaro at a similar latitude to Mount Kinabalu, but 4 degrees south of the Equator, and at an altitude of 5,895 metres is experiencing the rapid melt of its glaciers resembling what possibly happened in Sabah some thousands of years before.

With the sight of a thin layer of ice on the Sacrificial Pool, pull on another layer of clothing, get to the summit of Low's Peak just at first light to see the mists in the valleys below.

Imagine yourself on this nunatak when an ice cap once smothered the fixed rope areas below. Look across to the silhouettes of the other nunataks and marvel at their descriptive names.

Turn your eyes downwards and imagine the lines of the mist below now demarcating where glaciers once flowed. Why? You have been transported back to the glacial history of this mystical mountain.

A few minutes later the sun rises and you are back to reality to see in the distance the South China Sea in one direction and the awesome drop of Low's Gully just to your right hand side.

For further reading: 'Geomorphology in Kinabalu Summit of Borneo by C Lynne and LC Myers (1978); 'The Geology and topography of Kinabalu National Park' in The Malayan Nature Journal Vol. 24 by DV Jenkins (1970-1971); 'Glacial Phenomena on Mount Kinabalu' by BN Koopmans and PH Stauffer (1967); and 'Kinabalu Summit of Borneo' by KM Wong and A Phillipps (1978).

The Malaysian Nature Society

Established in the 1940, the Malaysian Nature Society is the oldest scientific and non-governmental organisation in Malaysia. Our mission is 'to promote the study, appreciation, conservation and protection of Malaysia's nature heritage'. Our 5,000-strong membership, spread across 12 branches nationwide, come from all walks of life, bound by a common interest in nature. For further information on membership or our activities in Kuching, call Kwan on 019-8349499. For information on our activities in Miri, call Nazeri Abghani on 085-453185. You can also visit www.mns.org.my or http://mnskuching@blogspot.com.

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The pregnant teen’s dilemma

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 01:13 PM PST

WHEN facing an unplanned pregnancy, young women also deal with a swirl of fragile emotions and pressure from many sources.

Before considering how you might respond to the news that your unmarried teenager is pregnant, take a brief tour of the emotions and thought processes that are likely to be swirling through her mind and heart.

Fear is an overriding emotion in nearly every teen pregnancy.

"I can't tell my parents. They'll kill me!"

"How can I finish school when I'm pregnant?"

"My boyfriend will take off if I don't have an abortion."

The adolescent with a crisis pregnancy probably sees nothing but loss on the horizon — loss of love, time, education and physical health. Fear of one or more of these losses propels most of her other responses. Remember that the average age difference between the father of the baby and the teenage mother is 6.4 years.

Denial is common, especially during the early weeks of pregnancy when the only indication might be one or more missed periods, a little fatigue, possibly some nausea or even a positive pregnancy test.The longing for things to be "the way they were" may delay acknowledging the problem and seeking appropriate help for weeks or even months.

Ambivalence about being pregnant may cause fluctuating emotions. One day the only solution may appear to be an abortion, while the next the prospect of a cuddly baby may seem appealing.

Time spent with a friend's crying newborn may jolt the emotions in yet another direction. Indecision and apparent lack of direction in such an overwhelming situation are common.

Guilt. When a pregnancy results from the violation of moral values held since childhood, an adolescent will usually feel ashamed and worthless. Her growing abdomen becomes a constant reminder of her failure.

This is a time when you can come alongside your child and cement a lasting relationship with her.

Pressure to have an abortion. This may come from several directions. A teenager may be weighing what appears to be a dismal future of hardship and remorse against a quick and relatively inexpensive procedure. "No one needs to know, and I can get on with my life."

A boyfriend (who may be dealing with his own fear and guilt, along with concerns about future financial responsibilities) may exert considerable pressure to abort, even offering to pay the bill. He may also threaten to bail out of the relationship if the pregnancy continues.

Some parents, worried about their daughter's future or perhaps their own reputation in the community (or even the prospect of being responsible for the actual child-rearing), may also find abortion attractive.

The 'cuddly doll' mentality. Some unmarried teenage girls see their pregnancy unrealistically as an escape from a difficult and unpleasant home situation.

They may envision a baby as a snuggly companion who will require roughly the same amount of care as a new puppy, not realising the amount of energy a newborn will take without giving much in return (especially during the first few weeks).

Teens with this mindset need to adjust their expectations of child-rearing — not to drive them to abort, but to help them make more appropriate plans. If adoption is not chosen as a solution, some careful groundwork should be laid to prevent serious disappointment and even the mother's abuse of the baby.

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