bird flu, just wondering

the recent outbreak of bird flu all over the world and the linkage to human death, the reports of the ever constant mutation of the the virus, all pointed to a world epidemic, or pandemic. is the world over reacting? is everyone falling prey to the hype by drug companies and academics and ended up amassing expensive drugs and killing all the birds before we starve the human race to death? bird flu is not something new. it has always been there. the bird flu virus have been in existence for as long as there are viruses in the air and in all things, probably since time immemorial. just wondering if it is necessary to wipe out all the birds and stocks for every case of infection? all kinds of viruses are there in the air, water or tissues. that is how nature provides for the continue propagation, existence and death of matter, a continuous recycling process. very likely in any flock of healthy migrating birds, or in a farm, one would be able to test and find the presence of the bird flu virus. the death of a bird is likely because of its weak resistance to the virus or a new strain of virus. but letting nature takes its own course, either the birds will develop their own resistance or the virus further mutates into a less deadly form. just wondering.

once a president

it always baffles me to watch saddam hussein on tv, as a prisoner. how on earth can a foreign soldier invade your country and put your president or prime minister behind bars and then present to the people as a prisoner? is this acceptable international law, international code of practice? who is the next president or prime minister to be turned a prisoner? can another country do it instead of the usa and be acceptable to the world community, or will the world community just squeeze their own balls and keep quiet, can't do anything about it? hey, our capital punishment is seen as barbaric by some nations. can they use that as an excuse to invade us and put our prime minister behind bars too? why are the iraqis happily going about trying their own president because a foreign power tells them to do so?

when did selangor have a japanese mentri besar

i remember the name khir johari. but khir toyo, mohd khir toyo, is the mentri besar of selangor. is he japanese? definitely not. only bumis can be a mentri besar. but never heard of a malay name like toyo before. toyo is definitely japanese, or at least sounds like toyota. a name can be misleading. or is there a misprint?

dr lee wai leng, the other side of...

everybody knows who lee wai leng is. i hope so. and many only see one side of her, the daughter of lky, a president scholar and a prominent doctor who pulled the plug on the malpractice of a foreign talent. not many know the other side of lee wai leng, the human side. she shares her view in a pretty long article today in the straits time forum on the choice of top schools. what came out from the article, apart from some sensible advices, is a very human and down to earth person, and it came out very genuine and sincere. in the same article we got to know an unknown lee wai leng, her thoughts and views and how she made some tough decisions as a young student. let me just quote a small paragraph of what she wrote. 'i learnt more valuable lessons such as empathy for the less academicaly inclined, that there were other aspects of the human mind such as integrity, honesty, courage, generosity and compassion that are just as if not more important than academic ability.'

people in high office must be thick skinned

this is the advice king bhumibol gave to thaksin. thaksin has been under intense criticism from another media tycoon, and his authority and integrity are being challenged. there are many ways to respond to such an attack. but thaksin chose to sue his opponents. wonder where he learnt such a tactic to hit back at his opponents? must be his training in the usa i supposed. the king also modestly told him that to err is human and that the king himself had erred in many occasions when he was young. the king also corrected the misconception that the king can do no wrong. and he finally told thaksin to drop his lawsuits against his opponent. this is the price to be paid for being in political office. there will be many criticisms. it is part of the job. some will take criticism as a motivation to come up on top of it, to prove that the criticism was unjustified. some may runaway from criticism. and of course, some will sue.