Ukraine government in crisis? Hell the world could be coming in for a crisis!

I have no idea if people make associations between things that on the surface do not seem to have connections - however . . .

The president of Ukraine has condemned a move by parliament to dismiss the government as "unconstitutional". . . .

The no-confidence vote was backed by 250 of the assembly's 450 deputies, but President Yushchenko plans to challenge the vote in the Constitutional Court.

It was the second time in six months that a Ukrainian government had been sacked."

Then on another site:

"A lethal form of bird flu that has swept across Turkey infecting 15 people, of whom two have died, may become entrenched and now menaces nearby countries, United Nations (UN) experts warn as the global death toll rises."

Er. . . is it just me or does anyone else realise that the Ukraine is just across the border, and is it just me or does anyone else realise that another country with bird flu is Romania which is next door to the Ukraine as well?

Does political instability that leads to an inability to respond quickly in a crisis augur well for a country surrounded by what may well be the beginning of a pandemic?

Er . . is it just me that realises that for the last twenty years people in MANY countries in that area of the world have learnt to rely on poultry as their main source of protein and so are highly unlikely to give up their birds without a major fight.

It's ironic in a way that the competition between fear of hunger and poverty and the fear of dying from a disease is likely to be the next most interesting exercise in human choice.

On the one hand people have first hand knowledge of what it is like to be poor and hungry on the other hand many have no memory of the devastation that was caused by the last flu epidemic at the end of the first world war

So what will win? Hunger and greed or fear of death from disease? Will the need to maintain power in politics over ride the need to save oneself from something even worse than being powerless?

Watch the next exciting episode in human frailty and stupidity play out on the world stage over the next few months.

Oh and by the way - in case you are really silly enough to believe that you are able to remain an armchair analyst at some distance from these matters because you live in Australia I have some bad news - migratory birds fly to Australia from the northern hemisphere for R&R during their winter and can carry all of the diseases we are talking about with them.

Last but by no means least, do people realise that in the past when a species grew too numerous and threatened the planet and its stability Mother nature seems to have done something to stabilise things.

Yeah .. let's get really conspiratorial here - maybe the religious extremists are right if the end of the world IS coming then we might as well go out with a bang rathern than a whimper or . . .

The twilight zone may no longer be an old TV series - we may be living in it!