The shock and controversy surrounding the Vanity Fair bareback-in-a-sheet photo-shoot of popular fifteen-year-old television and singing star Miley Cyrus has been passionate and persistent. The voices criticizing Miss Cyrus' choice to be in such a photo have been loud and numerous.

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.