Grocery store shelves empty, food-lines riots breaking out, reports of people killing and stealing from one another are scenarios, too frequently, seen on the evening cable news channels in the war-torn and disaster-plagued countries of the third world.

But could such scenes ever be duplicated in the richest nations of the world, nations such as the United States, Great Britain, France or Australia?

What's your pleasure? A question that is often asked in this hedonistic society, especially in the Western world, seemingly insulated from the incredible devastation that has struck the Asian countries in recent times.

Rescuers reaching the epicenter of China's 7.9 magnitude May 12, 2008 earthquake were met by scenes of horrific devastation. With bridges destroyed, and roads cut by landslides, soldiers had to hike to the remote city of Yingxiu in Wenchuan county, where they found just 3,300 survivors – 1,000 severely injured – from the town's population of 10,000.

Once, as I drove through a part of our city, I was taken aback by the number of tattoo parlors that had sprung up to meet the obvious demand for what some call "body art." Some were upscale storefronts with catchy names; others were seedy looking establishments.

Hospitals and other inpatient facilities are fighting a new, life-threatening intestinal super-bug, Clostridium difficile, which played a part in approximately 150,000 infections in 2000, and caused nearly 300,000 hospitalizations in 2005 (Associated Press Medical, May 28, 2008). This dangerous germ, which is spread by spores in feces, is said to have contributed to at least 5,500 deaths in the United States in 2004.