The London Bombings

Its too late to write on the happenings, hence this post on the aftermath. Though it was not as damaging & dramatic as 9/11, the London bombings have made sure that the West again becomes more paranoid on its outlook on terrorism & muslims. Am not here to write on the pros & cons of both the sides' argument, but what concerned me was the way the incident is being reported in BBC World. There was and is still a 24 hour coverage that gave some real 'useful' info like the names of the suspects, interviews with whoever close to them that the reporters can lay their hands on, the 'peaceful' neighbourhood that the suspects grew in, expert analysis with maps & graphics, blames & counterblames from politicians & religious leaders, police constables saying what's being done, views of cordoned off areas, flowers being offerred in the memory of the dead, controlled explosions being carried out & of course the London bus with its top gone. But the reports were silent on why this happened & how the government let it happen. When will the West(ern media) learn?

ps: It isn't good here either. 'The Hindu' published in its front page the birth certificate of one of the suspects.

Avian Flu - A Ticking Timebomb?

The reports on BBC World that I saw makes one think so (a BBC article). WHO officials warn that unlike SARS which had symptoms of high running temparature, this Flu (influenza) has got none & can be diagnosed only during very advanced stages. This allows for the virus to spread itself through say, airplane travelers.

And more frightening thing is that the avian flu virus can come in contact with the human flu virus & we'll have no clue over the mutated strain. Vaccines can be developed very fast though but still it may result in 30 to 300 million deaths & one-third of the world population may not work due to the fear of contracting the virus. A human pandemic is at hand & its fast closing on us as the disease moves to poultry farms in Japan, Vietnam & other South East Asian countries. One more problem is that the migratory wild geese in Lake Qinghai, China are dying due to this & it'll be during this September that these geese will start migrating to other parts of Asia, taking the flu virus with them.

Will countries like China take steps to control this latest threat? Will the South East Asian governements educate their poultry farmers about safe farming methods, sanitation, hygiene & about the disease's potential? Will developed countries help with more money & vaccines? Will the Avian Flu be controlled just like SARS? What are we gonna do?

Technorati tags : Avian Flu, Bird Flu

news to munch

David Cook and Roger Green, the founders of SeaCode have opened up new frontiers in Outsourcing. Programmers to be referred to as "seamen" (so that they are protected by international maritime laws) will churn out code on board a cruise liner. The ship would be stationed at a distance of 3.1 miles off the coast of El Segundo in California. (3.1 miles because the international maritime waters start at 3 miles from the coast)

thanks 2 Aniruddha Dutta for the info