Buggered

Once again our Indonesian Intelligensia are at it again, this time, it’s bugs….more specifically, a U.S. Navy medical research lab in Jakarta is under the microscope as a possible cover for espionage!

Naval Medical Research Unit No. 2 is a US funded laboratory whose primary function is to investigate and identify viruses, including malaria, dengue fever and avian flu, in an effort to spearhead the hunt for mutating viruses that could set off the next global flu pandemic.

Indonesia has told the USA to shut the facility down and no longer supplies samples for testing as they believe that the “good ole merkuns” could make a biological weapon from the viruses which roam across the archipelago.

Funny that, just after announcing that Indonesia would no longer share it’s virus samples with the world, the Health Minister publishes a book warning that any viruses shared with other countries could be manipulated into Biological Weapons and turned against Indonesia. (I somehow cannot see this as getting on the best seller list anywhere.)

Why bother! In my opinion, Indonesian viruses are even stronger than their Indian and Pakistani cousins and incapacitate me on a regular basis, biological warfare, these fuckers are already the worlds deadliest “weaponised” bugs.

I have the toilet paper in the fridge to prove it!

The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta has off course “firmly denied” that the facility is used to gather intelligence and said most of the lab's staff are Indonesians helping with research

The Indonesian Defense Minister stated that his ministry recommended the lab be closed because its operations were too secretive and incompatible with Indonesia's security interests. In addition the Health Minister also said she had recommended to the President that it be closed.

Our “good ole merkun” friends say that this is all part off a bigger catfight over sample sharing (including Avian Flu) and eventually, the government backed down, allowing samples to be only supplied to World health Organisation researchers.

But, this does not help Indonesia one bit. In order to be fully prepared for pandemics, new viruses require testing as quickly as possible and you can test a virus not knowing if it's avian influenza, normal flu, or god forbid, something completely different.

Now those viruses do not appear to be going anywhere fast for testing, and worse, Indonesian labs cannot do the sophisticated research that the “merkun” Lab can.

It is widely believed that Indonesia has many strains of the avian flu virus, and that without constant research, a different strain more easily transmitted to humans could catch scientists off guard, and spread rapidly before a vaccine is ready.

In an effort to assist science, I contacted my local Indonesian Laboratory and offered a few samples of my own for testing. They asked me to provide a blood sample, a urine sample, a stool sample and a semen sample.

I gave them a pair of my old underpants. I have as yet received no response.

I am sure Naval research Unit No. 2 would have come back to me very quickly, thus, possibly saving the world from one of the worst possible pandemics ever.