bird flu from asia?

[Strangelet]

Originally Posted by Sean

Not necessarily MORE a culprit, but certainly a vital culprit. Regardless of how many factors were at work in this particular story, it was undeniably the media's opportunistic pounding of the swine flu panic button that actually pushed the tensions over the edge.

Hmmm.. this might be one of those rare times I disagree with you, Sean. I mean I'm right with you criticizing the media's exploitation, but for this particular example what supports the argument that the media functioned as the tipping point and not a catalyst, or in other words, the excuse?

especially when you've got stories coming out like this....

The government has been clamping down on rubbish collectors for the past two years. Why? Because the value of their land has rocketed in recent years, with new roads leading up to them. For instance, my town, Manchiyet Nasser, has become a destination for tourists. The government now wants to recover these lands. They first tried to get rid of the collectors by transferring them to the desert city of May 15 (the city’s name), which has neither water pipes nor public services. That enterprise failed, so they are now trying to wipe out their livestock.

Since 2000, two companies, one Spanish and the other Italian, have been licensed to handle rubbish collection. But they’re short of qualified workers. The Zabbaleen, on the other hand, have a long experience, but they are self-employed. The government was thus hoping to kill two birds with one stone: to take hold of the Zabbaleen’s land and force them to work for foreign companies as regular rubbish collectors.

http://observers.france24.com/en/con...ish-collectors