Can’t resist to improve the following translation (from Indonesian texts to English), an announcement of the launching of a book written by the Indonesian Health Minister about the bird flu virus and the controversies surrounding the handling of the virus for vaccines.
It’s very painful to read because apparently the translator translated it word by word. I found it in the Indonesian Health Ministry’s website. It looked as if the translation was done by her children. I had to translate it to Indonesian first, then back to English to understand what it means. I read that they also produced the books in English language. I think it would be just a waste of money.
Why don’t they spend a bit more money to hire a better translator and English editor??
Below is my translation, I admit I need an English editor to check the grammars, but at least it’s more understandable, and you don’t feel like ‘reading mud’ (as my husband put it).
The Indonesian Minister of Health, Siti Fadilah Supari, launched her first book
For more than fifty years, sharing viruses between countries has been going on, but the practice turned out to hurt poor countries, as well as the country where the viruses come from. It is easy for the vaccine manufacturers from developed countries to take the virus without any permission from the origin/source country, develop it to produce vaccines and then sell it with high price to poor countries.
This reality was revealed when Indonesia found the first case of avian influenza to human in mid 2005. At that time Indonesia was asked to send the virus sample to WHO Collaborating Center in Hong Kong to be analyzed and to make a diagnosis from, and this process took place until August 2006. However, without any knowledge from the Indonesian government, the virus sample was handed over to the manufacturers in developed countries and produce vaccines for commercial purpose from it.
Since then, Siti Fadilah Supari, the Health Minister, decided that Indonesia would do its own research of the avian flu specimen, in its own laboratories — the Health Ministry Research Board and the Eijkman laboratory. She believes that Indonesia has the capability to examine and analyze the H5N1 virus, and it has been proven with their result continuously being the same as the one produced by the Hong Kong laboratory. However, Indonesia welcome all researchers from any countries to get access to the data which are saved in a public domain called Gen Bank. “For the sake of basic human interests, the Indonesian government declares that genomic data on bird-flu viruses can be accessed by anyone,” the Health Minister said at the time.
The Economist magazine wrote, “Siti Fadilah Supari started a revolution that could yet save the world from the ravages of a pandemic disease. That is because Indonesia’s health minister has chosen a weapon that may prove more useful than today’s best vaccines in tackling such emerging threats as avian flu: transparency.”
From that experience, Supari was inspired to change the virus sharing system, which had harmed the developing countries, to become more transparent, fair and equal. This idea was discussed and went through a great effort to be considered as the standard practice during the council meeting of the World Health Organisation in Geneva, Switzerland. However, at the end of the meeting, this idea was finally agreed and legalized to be the WHO resolution which all the participants have to abide by.
Her fight to make this idea being implemented is written in this 182-page book titled “Saatnya Dunia Berubah! Tangan Tuhan di Balik Virus Flu Burung” or in English “It’s Time For The World To Change! God’s Hand Behind The Bird Flu Virus”. …
Through the book, Supari hopes to get supports from all Indonesian in order to have the Indonesian people’s right heard by the world. She believes the fight is not finished yet and will keep fighting until the fair, transparent and equal system of virus sharing is realized. In her foreword, the Minister hope that her book can be used as a reference for researchers, practitioners and anyone who is fighting for the pride and unity of the developing countries, and for the equal position with the developed countries.
The launching of the book by the first female minister of health in Indonesia was held at Borobudur Hotel, Jakarta, on Wednesday night (January 6, 2008). The event was attended by many, including several Indonesian ministers, members of parliament, ambassadors, hospital directors, directors of state-owned companies, governors, lecturers from Indonesian universities, leaders of several organisations, and officials from the Ministry of Health and the Jakarta Provincial Health Office.
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