04 August 2006

Open Access to Avian Flu Data: One Down

Terima kasih: Indonesia has agreed to provide open access to its avian flu data. Now all we need are for the other couple of dozen affected countries to do the same. (Via Open Access News.)

Posted by Glyn Moody at 4:46 pm

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder if the reason for the above turnaround in policy, is due to the recent events, described in the following posting by a blogger on our site?:


In which, the Government Ministers lose their Bird Flu protection.

By jmtom, blogging at www.birdflunewsflash.com

I saw this amazing news item, in the The Standard, a Hong Kong newspaper, (via http://crofsblogs.typepad.com).

It described a visit by three senior Indonesian Ministers, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari, Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono and Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie, to a site of a planned "Cull" of birds owned by the locals.

Apparently, instead of enjoying the experience of a nice Mass Killing of birds,- which is known as a Cull - the Ministers had to run for their very lives!

It seems that the locals, who stood to loose their livelihoods as a result of the above mentioned Cull, strongly objected to the said mass destruction of their flocks and "tried to rip off the protective masks, being worn by the three Ministers, who eventually were forced to take off the white protective suits they were wearing, and the planned cull was called off as the army restored order."

Later, Anton Apriyantono, the Minister of Agriculture, who must have been shaken by his unexpected experience, had this to say ,"This is the first time that we have had a rejection of bird culling."

Ya right!

I suppose that the villagers are normally happy to have their only source of income "Culled" by the Government.

Now I know that this is a very serious matter, but I just can not get out of my mind, the image of the three well fed Government Ministers, sweating profusely, under their thick heavily embroidered silk clothing, being forced to take off their protective masks and "the white protective suits they were wearing"..!

After their protective masks were removed, I can see the three Ministers, with a fixed smile on their faces, as they beat a hasty retreat, while holding their breath, in order to avoid breathing in any Bird Flu germs, until they could get in to their official limo!

I suppose that the local villagers, having temporarily won their battle to save their chickens and ducks, no doubt gathered all of the "Un-Culled" birds, each of them taking his flock of birds, back in to his small and cramped one room home, shared by his family, along with the chickens and the ducks.

5:39 pm
Glyn Moody said...

Well, it certainly brought them face to face with the reality of bird flu, if nothing else.

5:52 pm

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)