Hangzhou Lovin’

Very intersting article on SARS and HIV, speculative, but very interstin

This is only speculation, of course, but the notion is garnering interest among physicians here. An added bit of evidence supports the theory: The most effective SARS treatment so far is steroids — agents that stifle the immune response.”

I like these reports from baghdad a lot. It sems like wuite an intersting place, that America is definitly not in control of. Click on the links at the botom for more reprts by the same reporter.

Wow, i just saw the best Chinese TV show. I was flipping through the channels after watch, Globe Travellor, by far the best show that I get, and what do you think I saw? Lesbians! That’s right lesbians on chinese TV. This one girl who was wearing a suit but was obviosly female, was sliding her hand up another girls skirt. After a bit they switched to a foggy shower window shot, after out of which one of the girls steps to join the other girl in bed for an after sex cigarette. This was even better than the implied blowjob I saw on TV once.

So you know I’m gonna watch the rest of the show. It turned out that it was a serial crime Drama. It centered around this police women who was trying to solve the murder of one of the lesbian girls in the scene I saw. It turned out that this girl was invloved with all kinds of people and lots of people had motives for killing her. I understood most of the plot until the end, when the show cut to a random shot of two dudes being chased and then killed. But that was pretty cool anyway.

This show might even give minkey king a run for it’s money as the best chinese TV show. This show is better for my chinese because I got to learn useful words like homosexual, “tongxinglian,” and murderer “sharen”.

Fuck my chinese is just starting to get “ma ma hu hu” and now I’m gonna leave, f’ing SARS.

Good news about SARS,

via docbear

Basically it confims what I was thinking before. The SARS virus isn’t that contagious, but very deadly. If you are not in contact with someone who has SARS you needn’t be that afraid. But if you do have close contact, you should be very afraid.

Two of my friends are travellin gin Tibet and were planning on coming to China in May. This is the advice I gave them-

“Are you guys still planning on coming? I’m going to leave on May 13, so I might not be here when you start to travel. My parents are really worried and I want to go home before they start any stringent travel restrictions.

I would suggest that you two get out of China. Not so much because of the risk of catching SARS, (though it is a nasty, nasty virus), but because of difficulties in traveling in China right now. They’ve already started putting up roadblocks around my city where they are checking peoples tempatures and I here beijing is even worse.

The last thing you want to have happen is to be picked up at a chinese roadblock for having a cold and then be sent to a SARS infected hospital.

I think there is a also a possibility that the US might start restricting flights from China. At the least you will probably be medically screened and face a potential quarintine.

I think you guys should go somewhere else. I heard they sealed off the border with nepal, but maybe you could still get into india. Maybe you could go to japan or korea. Afgahnistan isn’t so far away. Maybe that it is safer than china…

I will be leaving around the 13. but plann on traveling a little on the 9-12. So if you are in China then we can meet up at qingdao or Shanghai.

Alf”

-Some more thoughts-
-Travelling is not a good idea right now, but if you are living here it proably won’t be that bad, just boring. You will have to stay at home and lots of places will be closed down. You will probably also have to deal with more bullshit checkpoints and lockdowns.

- Though people here are takin SARS seriously, there are still some serious miconceptions that the goverment is helping to spread. The most serious of these is that SARS will be gone in two weeks. I hear this every day, “just wait two weeks and it will all be normal.” All of the stores and schools that have closed down are planning on opening up again in 2 weeks.

Part of this is because of chinese medical knowledge that states that when it get’s warmer out it is harder to spread the flu. This is partly true, but for one thing it’s not guarenteed to be warmer in two weeks, (it’s already pretty warm) and the f’ing virus started in Guangdong, the hottest province in China!

But I think the real reason people are saying that it will all be ok in 2 weeks is because that is the line the officials are pushing. They want the people to think that they have the situation under control, by telling them an official timeline.

Of course it is not going to be better in two weeks. It will probably be much worse. By misleading the people, the goverment is playing a dangerous game.

- The mutation theme seems to be really big in the media right now. I don’t think the SARS virus is mutating in a way that is making it more virulent. If any thing mutations will lead toward a less virulent diesease.

Don’t think SARS is serious? Don’t think it will be that big of a deal if you get ti?

read this

I should tell y’all what I did last thursday, it was pretty crazy. I was in a fuck SARS kinda mood and after my evening class I ran into this german dude I know. If I describle him, y’all will think he is just dirty and disgusting but I like hanging with him. He is a 55 yeah mechanic, who has been sent al over the world fixing furnaces sold by his company in Germany. He is always telling stories about how the nightlife and prostitues (these are kinda the same in his mind) are in different areas of the world, (best: Brazil, I coulda told you that, worst Algeria/morocco, once he was working in Algeria and went to the beach. he accidently crossed the border into Morroco and got put in Jail for two weeks because they said he was a spy).

So we went out to one of the smaller bars in town because all the big ones are closed. While he bought the beers he told me to go look for a table that had a good view of the girls. Then we sat down and he started flirting with some of the girls sitting near us. (”ni hao, ni hao” “Gan bei Gan bei).

Then one of the dudes from the table with the girls came over. I thought he was gonna get made but instead he just told us to come over and sit down (”Allright, chinese free beer machine!). We sat down and this dude from Guangdong, (he has been in XingXinag for a few years) was trying to talk to me. He was really drunk and I could understand maybe 1 out of every 7 words. So I just kept saying “keyi, keyi” ok ok. This wasn’t my best decision.

Then it was time to go, and the dude wanted to take me somewhere. Being in a “Fuck SARS” kinda mood I thought why not. He then tried to get me to go on the back of his moped. He was could barely walk, so I said I should drive. It was pretty fun cruising around the streets on the moped. IT’s good thing they were basically empty.

Then he took me to a pool hall and had for some reason he thought I wanted to play snooker. One to many “keyi’s” I guess. So we started playing even though i only know that the first person to win is the person who sicks all the red balls. I got lucky and sunk my first three shots. He must have thought I was good. Because he then asked somebody else to come over and play. Tis guy wasn’t that good, but I suck. He easily beat me. I don’t think I sunk another ball. The guangdong dude who brought me there seemed really disapointed. He then started talking about “er bei kuai” 200 hundred rmb. I think that dumbass bet 200 hundred kuai on the game we were palying. Before we left, he had a really long conmverstation with this short due in a suit and a buzz cut. He wasn’t the kinda dude I would mess with.

Then we left again, and I thought we were going home. I was gonna drop him and the bike off and go home. But instead he took me to one of the nicer buildings in town. I thought we were gonna go up and see one of his friends. So we go up to the seventh floor of this building. And it’s like a nice hotel. But then we walk past this room and there are all these girls sitting in it. It’s a brothel. At this point I made a note to myself not to say “keyi” to random chinese dudes when they ask you something and you don’t understand. But I was there, so I figuered I might as well have a look inside.

It was a really nice brothel. Compters with fast internet in the rooms. Two TVS with hong kong TV. High class. Then the dude makes a call and up come the whores…

I’m not even gonna tell y’all what happened next, cause it’s all fucked up. I’ll just let you know that I got out of there before the fun started, so don’t worry about me compromising my high moral standards.

I went out and bought some dope Face masks today. Hello kitty, Moshi Moro* and a nice leopard skin one are my favorites, (I couldn’t find a Kikoman mask). So now when I’m wearng a mask it’s not because I want to be safe, it’s cause I have style.

It was beatiful day today and a lot of people were out on the street. I would say maybe 20 percent of the people had masks. I saw this official looking lady in a white coat going from store to store looking around ten putting up these little white signs. I asked my chinese friend what it means and she said it said that it meant the stores are free from diesease. That make me feel better. I’m sure that the lady in the white coat had a perfect SARS dector in her bag.

The schools here are freaking out. They closed most of the elementary and highshools and atthe colleges students are not allwoed to leave the gates. I tried to visit my firends university yesterday. They let me in, but then called up my friend 10 minutes later and made me come to the gate. At the gate, first they told me to sign a piece of paper. then they told me I had to leave the school. it really pissed me off, even though it is good of them to try to protect their students.

I’m to much of an ornery american to take this quarintine bullshit. I think I’m gonna leave soon. It is not outside the realm of possibility that one will not be able to fly out of china within the next few monthes. Though I am slightly afraid of getting the diesease, I’m more afraid of getting stuck here in the middle of a bad situation. The problem is there’s still stuff I want to do here, friends I want to see. Also if I make reservation for a flight two weeks from now who knows what will happen in that time?

*(Couldn’t find any good Moshi links, even though my students send me tem via QQ all the time must be an asian thing. The movies they send are actually pretty funny)

China has SARS

The US has SAPS

(sorry it’s a little old)

Those propaganda posters I linked to a couple days ago, but this is real!

A full blown, propaganda piece from People’s Daily! full of shitty englsih too!

My favorite qoutes

“”With the solicitude of the leaders, we’ll certainly be able to defeat the virus!” said Beijing residents with excitement”.

“In the face of the serious disease, people, with one heart and one mind, have begun a war involving the whole nation.”

some more good stuff,

“True Love Knot - Most Effective Weapon for Fighting SARS

Love and warmth are quickly disseminating and spreading. With warmth and love, a true love knot woven with one heart and one mind by the people of the whole country, the day of victory is drawing near…”

“Up to 20:00 pm April 23, the virus of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) had taken away the lives of 110 Chinese. Altogether 2,422 people were infected, with 1,278 suspected cases. In Beijing, 774 cases (143 cases related to medical workers) had been discovered, with 39 cases of death and 863 cases of suspected disease.

This is a war without the smoke and sound of guns. When Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, without wearing any guauze masks, appeared on the frontline of countering virus, when head nurse Ye Xin with the Guangdong Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine fell at the work post to which she had dedicated half of her life, when scientific research workers were weeping together in order to find out the culprit of SARS, when Guangdong’s photographer Wang Xiaoming was infected as he tried to find out the truth, and when the first patient infected with SARS was discharged from the Beijing You’an Hospital, people were shedding tears-the virus was shocking to the people for its ferocity and cruelty. Human beings continue to forge ahead with their tenacious efforts.

Science can beat back the serious disease, while unity is the strongest force that thoroughly defeats the disease…”

“Prof. Zhang Tongxin with the Party History Department of Renmin University of China, said: under the present circumstance wherein the epidemic situation has not been removed and many people are still wearing gauze masks, Hu as the highest State leader, who personally went to Guangdong to inspect the downtown area under the circumstance without taking any protective and security measures, has set an example featuring the style of “cordiality and affection” for the people…”

“Earlier on the afternoon of April 12, Premier Wen Jiabao who had left his footprints in “1,800 counties and districts nationwide” appeared in the Beijing You’an Hospital, a hospital specially accepting and treating SARS patients… A responsible government must always put the interests of the people in the first place,” said Wen Jiabao….”

“After the Changxindian Hospital in Fengtai District, Beijing city, was designated as a hospital specially for accepting and treating SARS patients, nurse Hao Yanmei, in her “request for a battle assignment” written to the hospital Party branch committee, she resolutely demanded to plunge herself into the frontline of fighting against SARS…”

“In compliance with the requirements of the Party Central Committee, the State Council and the Central Military Commission, the Microbial Epidemic Disease Research Institute under the Military Academy of Medical Sciences and the Beijing Genome Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences have launched the work of research on SARS and tackling difficult technical problems…”

“Artist Zhao Bandi, at the crucial moment when people of the whole country are fighting against SARS, presented his latest work of art-a plane advertisement with “fighting SARS and defending our homeland” as the theme. The advertising picture shows Zhao Bandi and his closest partner “Panda” wearing large gauze masks, an indicator of the “SARS period”. In an environmental setting similar to street fighting, arms in hands, they meet the “invisible “enemy” head-on.

“Zhao said, “I choose a battle scene, because I feel that the current resistance to SARS is like a war with the participation of the whole nation. I am an artist, but I am all the more a special social worker, in my own way I express my sense of responsibility to the society… ”

“Love and warmth are quickly disseminating and spreading. With warmth and love, a true love knot woven with one heart and one mind by the people of the whole country, the day of victory is drawing near.”