Killing Two Birds with One..

Thailand is growing fast in most areas of 'development' (an ironic term, as we shall see) and in deciding how to go about certain things the Thai government naturally, logically, looks to more developed countries as examples.

Quite rightly then, Factory Farming has become a more common process for the production of various types of meat in Thailand.

The world media has been interested in Thailand recently thanks to Avian Influenza - the so called 'Bird Flu'.

“so called 'Bird Flu'”

Only, that's just the problem. It isn't just a flu for birds. That might be problem enough I grant you, but consider the unfortunate few in Vietnam and other Asian countries who have been in close contact with such birds and have died themselves from an incurable, antibiotic resistant and easily spreadable disease.

Unlucky chaps indeed. This week the western world is once again hearing about the expensive purchasing of flu jabs (vaccinations) - an entirely useless product to counter a 'human type' bird flu.

This is because we do not yet have a disease transmittable between humans to develop such a vaccine for. Nevertheless, American, British and European governments are 'stockpiling it'. Whatever 'it' is.

If you're anything like me, you might have spent a quiet minute reflecting on how we got to this stage. Firstly, and forgiveably, we still can't cure the common cold - a problem should we have a pandemic of any cold-based illness.

Secondly, and more crucially, how come we are at threat from a pandemic? Well, as Peter Singer has written to the Bangkok Post recently, this may well be our own doing:

'As University of Ottawa virologist Earl Brown put it after a Canadian outbreak of avian influenza, ''high-intensity chicken rearing is a perfect environment for generating virulent avian flu viruses'''.

Many experts agree. Recently a United Nations task force identified as one of the root causes of the bird flu epidemic, farming methods ''which crowd huge numbers of animals into small spaces''.

Not only have farmers been asking for trouble by putting all these animals so tightly together for such long periods of time, but it now turns out

that the 'food' (read: antibiotics) farmers give them have been steadily assisting the development of antibiotic resistant diseases. When you put it like that, it almost sounds simple.

For the full article, either check out the Bangkok Post website or indeed see the Utilitarian.net write up here.

Updates this week

Quite a few updates to list here this week. We start with Burmese Women and then a respectful glance at the Royal Family of Thailand.

Don't neglect the article on Chiang Mai Culture should you ever make a visit. Similarly we look into the cultures of Bangkok and Southern Thailand.

Our Vietnamese section is topped up with an article on Vietnamese Women. We also look at the people of Bangkok and Chiang Mai.

Finally, a factual write up on Southern Thai Muslims.

Have a relaxing week.