Take part in healthy events, teens urged

TEENAGERS should get involved in activities, which will help deve-lop their mental and physical capabilities while promoting a healthy lifestyle, an assemblyman said.

Air Itam assemblyman Cheang Chee Gooi said activities which involved strenuous physical and mental exertion would develop a person’s character and help to build positive traits such as comradeship, integrity and team spirit.

He said Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) and Jamboree On the Internet (JOTI) were among such activities as participants were given various tasks to com- plete.

Cheang, who represented Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, said this to newsmen after launching the Scouts Asso-ciation of Malaysia, Penang’s 50th JOTA and 11th (JOTI) re- cently.

Also present were organising chairman Rozhan Yahaya and state Scouts Commissioner Zul-kapli Kamarudin.

More than 250 Scouts, Girl Guides and cub Scouts from seven schools in Penang participated in the three-day event held at the SK St Xaviers’ grounds in Jalan La Salle.

JOTI is an international scout meeting on the Internet and is an official event of the World Organisation of the Scout Move-ment.

It is held in October and thousands of Scouts from all over the world meet and com- municate with each other over the Internet.

JOTI is combined with the JOTA, an event where Scouts can communicate with each other over amateur radio (ham radio) frequencies.

Cheang said the event pro- vided the opportunity for Scouts to become friends with their counterparts in other countries.

A RM2mil jamboree in the works

THE Scout Association of Malaysia has announced plans to organise a National Jamboree next year to celebrate the centenary of the movement in Malaysia.

The jamboree at Universiti Putra Malaysia, is estimated to cost RM2mil and would cater to about 6,000 participants.

The plan was presented to Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said during her official visit to the association's headquarters for a dialogue with the commissioners.

“The jamboree is a step towards many new things in the scouting movement. We will see the role of the movement growing and playing a bigger role in the community,” national chief scout commissioner Datuk Dr Kamarudin Kachar said.

Greetings: Chief Scout of Malaysia Datuk Seri Shafie Mohd Salleh (left) accompanies Azalina as she greets some young scouts before the dialogue.

“We will help the scouting movement organise the jamboree and we will discuss the funding of the project further,” Azalina said.

The event is expected to take place from May 12 to 18, 2008, and would see the participation of scouts from Malaysia as well as Asia Pacific countries.

At the jamboree, the movement will also launch the 100 Year Book of Scouting History, stamps, and shillings. The event will also mark the founding of the International Scouts Camp and International Scouts Academy.

“There are a lot of issues that the scouts will play a big role in including environmental conser-vation, patriotism, and peace,” Kamarudin explained.

The association also announced plans to introduce the Rover Scout movement in all public and private tertiary education institutions as well as in countries where a high percentage of Malaysian students are present.

“We are targeting countries like the UK, the US, Egypt, Australia and Russia to set up branches of Malaysian Rover Scouts,” he explained.

The King of Sweden, King Carl XVI Gustav, the honorary president of the World Scout Foundation, also visited the Malaysian scouts on October 3.

Source : TheStar.com.my