Happy Swimming!

"The Environmental Protection Department has rated water quality at five beaches 'good', 23 'fair' and five 'poor' for this weekend."

...roll eyes...

Only 5 were rated good!? I thought all beaches in Hong Kong were good.

...roll eyes...

...roll eyes...

Oh wait, there's more fine print...

"Seven gazetted beaches - Anglers', Approach, Ting Kau, Casam, Gemini, Hoi Mei Wan and Lido - are closed to swimmers year-round because of poor water quality. People should not swim at these beaches."

Ah, that makes more sense. People 'should not' swim. They don't include the nasty beaches in their headlines. Any beach named 'Lido' should be a dead give away not to swim!

People in Hong Kong 'should not' do many things, this doesn't stop them. Maybe a nice fancy MTR announcement would help...

...roll eyes...

All Chickens Must Die!

It seems all chickens are slated for death after a recent outbreak of bird-flu in Hong Kong. The funny thing is you don't hear anyone complaining about gas prices in Hong Kong, they are complaining about pork and chicken prices.

The whole bird flu thing isn't really a surprise considering you can still buy live chickens at market. I will continue to buy all my meat from an indoor air conditioned supermarket and cook the crap out of it when I get home.

Kentucky Grilled Chicken

I really hope this newest marketing technique from the U.S. doesn't find its way to Hong Kong's KFCs. As it is I find the chicken there disgusting, but at least when it's deep fried to smithereens it kills all the germs in the chicken. My guess is the chicken is fakely grilled in China, freeze dried, then sent to the U.S. where they microwave it for 30 seconds before serving it. Grilling the chicken will only heighten the soggy-effect and the chances of getting salmonella.

Finger licking blech!

Conflucius

The end is near...maybe.

Continuing on the flu story from Hong Kong >

Today all teachers still had to report to school, in case there were any children that NEEDED to be there. Numbers were down significantly from yesterday, but there were still many kids in class that we know have full-time moms or caregivers. According to the governments warnings they should not be in school. But I guess parents here don't trust the HK Gov (the same one that handled SARS) enough to keep the kiddies home.

There were still around 40 children from the international section that showed up. About 95% of them were Japanese. The Chinese kids are all locked up and stuffed away; with parents fearing another outbreak of some mystery disease. They could be right I suppose. Today the HK gov announced a local scientist had discovered that the flu strains that killed 3 children were not any new type of virus. I stress the local part. With the Beijing Olympics only a few months away, how much money do you think they would throw at Hong Kong to keep a new virus hush hush until after the games. If this seems absurd, look at how much money they have already spent. 300 people died during SARS in Hong Kong. Guess how many people Beijing executes every month? Do you think they would give a damn if a few thousand people died from a new flu? Doubt it.

Anyway, not to be too melodramatic - here's something funny from school today.

We asked a student why she was in class today and not at home with her mom. Her answer,

"Mommy has to play tennis."

Maybe she's warming up for the Olympics?

SARS II - Official Press Release

"
Education Bureau announcement on school closure
*************************************************

In order to prevent the spread of influenza in school campus, the Education Bureau announced that all kindergartens, kindergartens cum child care centres, primary schools and special schools will begin the Easter holiday starting from March 13 up to 28.

During the non-prearranged period of school holiday, these school campus will remain open. Students could go to school as usual, if necessary.
*************************************************
"

"Could" go to school?

I absolutely agree with the first statement, but what the hell are they thinking in the second sentence. What exactly does this mean? Are kids still allowed to go to classes? Who decides if it is necessary? What does necessary entail? As long as they're not dead children are fit for classes? Until they drop dead it's OK to show up in class and infect everyone else? Good call morons...

WHMIS Would love this city!

I have made fun of people being constantly sick in this city before, but this is ridiculous. Hong Kong has just moved up from being a petri-dish full of coughing and sneezing zombies to a full blown quarantine-ready state of sickness. This movie has a title:

SARS II

I like how if you look at it quickly it looks like Star Wars.

Seriously though, Hong Kong is entering flu season, but it's not all fun and games. 3 children have already died from what the government is calling "mysterious flu-like symptoms." Hmmm, I've heard that before....SARS! That's exactly how they describe it in every single program, poster, ad etc. etc. etc. documenting the events of 2003. I guess they could also call the movie, 4 Years Later. Not to make light of people dieing, this really did happen, I'm not joking about that point. All 3 kids were under the age of 7 and thankfully none of them were from my school.

Luckily my workplace prides itself on having only slightly sickly kids walking around. Most of their teeth are not black, and they all generally know how to wash their hands and not eat their own boogers. Based on my jobs last year, this is only the case in about 5% of HK kindergartens. We have been instructed by the Gov. to start a three month program where we make the parents take their kids temperatures every day for 3 month...sounds like SARS. Also we have a nice fresh full supply of face masks for everyone, one size fits all...sounds like SARS.

Personally my throat is only half swollen shut at the moment. The 50% of it that allows air to still pass through seems to feel alright. My head only feels like 1/4 of the brick it did yesterday, and my joints are slowly recovering. Whether this is due to the post rugby match drinking or 'mysterious flu-like symptoms' is tbd. Maybe I should submit myself to government health officials prodding.

...Sounds like SARS...