Further, Manila authorities are woefully ill-equipped for rescue operations if earthquakes and fires should destroy and engulf the high-rise hotels and offices in Manila’s business districts.

Although skeptical of selfserving corporate-funded researches and studies, best-selling author Michael Chrichton ("State of Fear," "Jurassic Park," "The Terminal Man," "The Andromeda Strain," and "The Lost World") has called the attention of the world on the rising threat of global warming, and the steady shrinking of the polar ice caps. Recent reports showed that Arctic ice has already shrunk by one-fourth in total area.

Human tragedies have had a bad start in this new century.

From the Spanish flu of the 1920s, then the Asian flu, and SARS, now comes the possibility of a global (pandemic) outbreak of avian or bird flu which is more menacing and insidious for its ease in mutating and making use of humans as the medium of transfer.

This is why the virus can escalate from being an epidemic to a pandemic. It should be noted that the avian flu originated from Asia where three of the world’s four largest populations — China, India, and Indonesia — are concentrated.

Unlike the SARS or mad cow disease, the avian or bird flu, as understood, incubates starting with fowl or wild duck by a combination of viruses into and among poultry species, such as duck, chicken, and quails, with domestic birds being more vulnerable to the flu.

The further menace comes with the combining of the avian flu upon contact with infected farm animals such as pigs which again produces a new combined virus strain that now travels to humans who ordinarily suffer from common colds or flu. Unless controlled, the virus could again mutate into a more virulent and resistant strain that could spread and inflict the whole world.

With the increase in air travel and tourism boom, the spread of the virus will be more difficult to monitor and control among people in enclosed spaces.

Fortunately for the Philippines, perhaps owing to its archipelagic structure and distance from the Asian mainland, this country has so far been spared the contagion.

We again reiterate our concern regarding the seeming unpreparedness of the Philippines, and its authorities, for massive disasters, whether they be earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, fires, floods, or bird flu, owing to our preoccupation with politics and corruption.

You be the judge.

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HERE AND THERE

Owing to the shortsighted employment policies of the Department of Labor and employment, specifically the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), banning the processing and sending of Filipino talents and workers to Japan, these "talents" have resorted to marrying Japanese nationals for pay, at the equivalent of R50,000 per month, for the next five years until they can apply for divorce on top of paying exorbitant fees to local recruitment agencies and bribes to labor officials before getting their visas….. Our OFWs are the most abused, exploited, and maligned "new heroes" of the Philippines…. Meanwhile, a Filipina talent contracted early syphilis when her Yakusa manager forced her to go out with a customer…. The girl was hastily repatriated to the Philippines by her employers without pay and medical benefits…..Since then, her impoverished family has been helping her meet her medical expenses…. Meanwhile, did you know that the city of Tokyo is shaken by 20 to 30 earthquakes every year?…. In 2005, so far, 60 tremors have already been recorded…. The major fault line is directly below central Tokyo about four kilometers deep the surface…. Japan, especially Tokyo, is bracing and preparing for a major earthquake of 7 or more on the Richter Scale any time soon since major quakes in Japan occur every 100 to 150 years, with the "Tokai zone," just outside Tokyo, which last rumbled in 1854…. The expected major earthquake in Tokyo could kill at least 11,000 people, and cause giant tsunamis as Tokyo is mostly reclaimed land…. The Philippines is also in the earthquake zone…….