Black Immigrant Daily News

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Black Immigrant Daily News

A Thai doctor has performed so many sex change operations his patients call him ‘Daddy’, because they feel born again.

Dr Thep Vejvisith runs a small clinic in an unglamorous part of Bangkok, Thailand, where he offers gender reassignment procedures for half the price of most other clinics.

The 69-year-old medic sells the genital procedure for 72,000 Thai Baht, or around 1,760 GBP, to people struggling with their identity but who can’t afford the high costs of a transition.

Such is Dr Thep’s popularity, many of his patients now call him ‘Daddy’ or their ‘Saviour’ because he was able to make them feel re-born. He has been doing the procedures for more than 35 years and believes he has performed more than 30,000 gender reassignment operations as well as more than 100,000 boob jobs and other cosmetic procedures for trans women.

Many trans women from Britain, Europe, and the US visit his clinic, which has little more than a reception desk, an operating theatre and the doctor’s office for a swift procedure.

“Sometimes they call me daddy because they feel re-born. Sometimes they call me their father. I founded Pratunam Polyclinic 35 years ago. I started treating general diseases and birthmarks because there were fewer than 20 cosmetic doctors around at that time.

“I studied and trained abroad and applied what I learned back home. A ladyboy is born a male. Some of them suffer from having a penis. Some [take their lives] or cut off their genitals because they didn’t have money,” said Dr Thep.

Buddhist-majority Thailand has for many years held liberal and accepting views towards trans women, known locally as ‘Katoys’ or ‘Ladyboys’, before it became a troubling social issue in the west. They are often glamorous and embrace the idea of being overtly female — wearing flamboyant dresses and makeup.

However, in a country where citizens earn a minimum wage of roughly 7 GBP per day, a sex reassignment surgery costs a whopping 150,000 to 200,000 baht (?3,400 to ?4,500) and is not covered under the country’s healthcare scheme.

Dr Thep carries out an average of 10 to 15 sex change operations per week — each takes him about three hours.

Some of his customers are tourists who travel to the country for a holiday while they have medical transitions.In his 35-year career, he believes he has carried out more than 130,000 operations, with many trans women having breast augmentations of facial procedures without genitial surgey.

Dr Thep even does regular boob jobs for women who join waiting lists to use the surgeon because of his cut-price operations.

Asked why several people have chosen him as their surgeon, Dr Thep gave a simple answer: “Cheap and good. If you can offer good work for a low price, customers will keep coming to you.”

He admitted that all surgeries come with risk, but he’ll always be there for his patients — as he’s been for more than 30 years of his career.

“To cut off the penis, there’s no way there won’t be some complications,” he said, adding about five per cent of patients have had issues.

“Whatever happens, you can reach me on my mobile phone,” Dr Thep said.

Speaking on the contentious issue of biologically male trans women participating in female sports, Dr Thep believes they should be allowed to compete alongside biological females.

He said: “They should have equal opportunity to study, work, survive… it’s a simple requirement for a human being. I think transsexuals should have the basic rights. They have female genitals so they should be allowed to have the same.”

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Black Immigrant Daily News

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Americas Health Corps (AHC), a new initiative to facilitate the training of 500,000 public health professionals over the next five years, was presented Monday at a side meeting of the 30th Pan American Sanitary Conference.

AHC aims to address gaps in quality and competency in order to meet priority needs, particularly in primary health care.

The initiative was presented to ministers of health and other health leaders by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director, Carissa F. Etienne, and the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra.

Chronic underinvestment and the sustained fragmentation of health systems in the Americas have led to a deficit of between 600,000 and 2 million healthcare workers, an issue compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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“Without a health workforce that is adaptable, trained and fit for purpose, the Region of the Americas will remain highly vulnerable to the impact of public health emergencies,” Dr. Etienne said.

Americas Health Corps aims to address this challenge by increasing the availability of well-trained and qualified health workers; building future leadership in health governance and public administration; and by ensuring private sector engagement in supporting the development of health workers.

It will also make use of the PAHO’s Virtual Campus to expand digital learning for public health in the Americas and support the creation of a consortium of academic centers in public health.

Americas Health Corps will constitute “a strong and capable health workforce that is familiar with the entire region and can be deployed to countries in times of crisis without encountering the bureaucratic and administrative hurdles that slowed down the response when we saw COVID-19,” Xavier Becerra said.

The initiative will also facilitate the implementation of the Action Plan on Health and Resilience in the Americas, which was adopted at the IX Summit of the Americas in June 2022.

This plan aims to expand equitable access to quality health services; strengthen training and education; increase public financing for health; improve emergency preparedness and accelerate the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Thanking healthcare workers for their “unwavering resilience” during the pandemic, the PAHO Director highlighted that countries in the region saved lives by moving health care workers to where they were most needed, expanding the delivery of telemedicine services, and increasing hospital capacity three-fold in some cases.

SOURCE: Pan American Health Organization/ SLT

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Una pareja ha creado indignación en Brasil tras pintar de azul el agua de una cascada en durante la fiesta de revelación de sexo de su bebé.

Videos publicados en las redes sociales muestran a la cascada del río Queima-Pé, en el estado de Mato Grosso, volverse de color azul mientras la pareja y sus familiares festejan el género masculino del bebé, en una celebración que se llevó a cabo durante el pasado fin de semana.

Um casal de Tangará da Serra (MT) decidiu tingir de azul uma cachoeira para anunciar que o filho que estão esperando é menino. Os vídeos publicados no Instagram foram apagados depois da repercussão negativa. pic.twitter.com/Kw4wRmg0Se

— Lázaro Thor (@lazarothor1) September 26, 2022

Con 18 metros de altura, la cascada se encuentra a solo 6 km del centro del municipio de Tangará da Serrarío y el río Queima-Pé es la principal fuente de agua que abastece a localidad, además de ser escenario de diversas actividades turísticas, como baño de cascada y ‘rappel’.

Por su parte, inspectores de la Secretaría de Medio Ambiente del Estado de Mato Grosso (Sema-MT) acudieron a la hacienda donde se realizó la celebración con el objetivo de notificar a los propietarios del inmueble e identificar a los responsables. Además, la inspección también determinará el daño ambiental dependiendo del material vertido al agua, recogen los medios locales.

Asimismo, el Ministerio Público estatal dijo que recibieron una denuncia por parte de la Defensoría del Pueblo, por lo que también iniciará una investigación.

El medio local G1 contactó a uno de los responsables de la celebración, Anderson Reis, quien afirmó que no se usó ningún producto químico, pero que solo comentaría la situación después de que la Sema hubiera inspeccionado la cascada.

Indignación en las redes

Luego de que numerosos internautas criticaran y calificaran de delito ambiental el acto, los videos fueron eliminados de las cuentas de las redes de la pareja y otros asistentes al evento.

“¡El ser humano no tiene límites para degradar a la naturaleza y a sí mismo!”, afirmó un usuario.

“¡Delito! ¿Es posible que las personas no tengan idea del daño que hacen con sus acciones?”, cuestionó otro.

Varios internautas también calificaron lo ocurrido como un crimen ambiental y pidieron que los responsables fueran sancionados.

“Totalmente sin sentido, deberían ser multados y pagar una multa enorme por el desprecio al medio ambiente”, exigió un usuario.

Otro escribió: “¡Crimen ambiental! Estos tipos deberían pagar una compensación para limpiar todo este desastre”.

“¡Estas personas deben rendir cuentas, especialmente si hubo daños ambientales! ¡Eso es un absurdo! No es suficiente hacer esta ridícula cosa de la revelación, incluso lograron ser más idiotas y teñir el agua de la cascada que no tenía nada que ver con eso”, sentenció otra tuitera.

Noticia original de RT en Español. 

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Black Immigrant Daily News

The Ministry of Transport, Belize City Council, and UNDP are poised to implement the “Driving Belize to Electric Mobility” pilot project, with grants approved for the purchase of three electric buses, but the Belize City bus operators want a slice of the pie.

BELIZE CITY, Mon. Sept. 26, 2022

The Belize Bus Association (BBA) and Belize City Shuttle have sent a letter to the resident representative of the United Nations Development Program, to object to the approval of grants to be issued to the Belize City Council and Ministry of Transport for the purchase of electric buses—a move which they say will displace operators in Belize City, where the public transportation sector is already saturated. The rollout of the pilot project to test the feasibility of electric buses in Belize has been in the making for some time, following the launch by the Belize City Council, in partnership with the European Union and UNDP, of the e-transit and electric bus initiative, geared toward finding low-carbon transport alternatives and reshaping the transport system to ensure increased reliability.

Mayor Bernard Wagner said that Belize City was selected as the municipality in which routes would be identified for these buses, and he noted that a total of three such buses would be procured for Belize City. The objective is to have those buses in operation for one year in order to gather the required data that would provide a snapshot of how the new system would function. The proprietor of the Belize City Shuttle, Phillip Jones, however, is calling for operators in the city to get a seat at the table, and perhaps even a chance to operate their own electric buses.

“When I heard that talking about city buses being electric and the Council would be the one solely responsible to manage and maintain them under the pilot project for the UNDP, me and the members we were concerned because one, we are dealing with an over-saturated market, and two, if that comes in, it will put us at a disadvantage because my understanding of grant is free. I don’t know how free it is, so my concern in the city is that will greatly displace us,” said Jones, who is also part of the executive of the BBA.

The letter to the UNDP asserts that the introduction of the electric buses could disrupt the revenue streams of up to three buses, and it thus points out that the only equitable approach would be one that includes the bus operators.

“We propose that the pilot be executed with the existing stakeholders,” the letter stated.

He said that the existing bus operators are the most appropriate entities to implement the pilot project in partnership with the government and UNDP, with the letter stating that the bus operators have “extensive real-life experience with managing bus fleets and years of commitment to the development of the industry.”

“Why are we excluded from sitting with the UNDP along with the members that are getting this grant. We should be a part of this; we shouldn’t be excluded. If you say you want to improve the transportation industry, who is the fittest one? We have real-time experience, knowledge we have been doing this from we jumped out of pampers, most of us. So why is it that we are not included?” Jones questioned.

“We need to have a level playing field. You can’t put us at a disadvantage. You cannot do that; that’s unfair for the association; that’s unfair for the bus industry,” he said, questioning how a pilot project could be done with no inclusion of members of the bus association.

Jones said that they have not received a response yet from the UNDP regarding the letter but were recently told that they could apply for grants.

“We’d like to have a sit-down with them to see how we can help the industry and improve the quality of buses,” he went on to say.

The letter from the BBA states, “The proposed pilot … will confirm through critical data gathered whether future investments in electric buses will be viable.”

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