My Bout with Dengue Fever
Thursday, April 26th, 2007Dengue fever (IPA: [‘deŋgeɪ]) and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) are acute febrile diseases, found in the tropics, with a geographical spread similar to malaria.
I swear, I think I just got over Dengue Fever. At least I had some of the symptoms typical for Dengue: flu-like symptoms, severe muscle and bone pain, nausea and all kinds of other nasty stuff. It also lasted only less than 7 days like most of the 10 – 100 million cases of Dengue fever every year. Contrary to popular belief, Dengue fever is not that nasty killing disease. It kills less people than the common flu, so I guess I am not sure if I am a real “Survivor”.
Anyways, it was our travel agent who claimed to have had Dengue 4 times. After we had known him for approximately 20 minutes he had heard my entire medical history and he knew that it must be Dengue fever. Then he offered us some kick-ass deals on flights to Cuba. I think he must be right. After all he is the same person who told us that it’s not really a problem for Americans to go there as long as you don’t tell anyone. But that is an entirely different blog that I already started a few days ago. The title of that blog is “WHY?”
We just left Cancun and made it to Merida near the Gulf of Mexico. Usually it’s Allison who is in charge of directions and our itinerary and I hardly ever look at a map, but the other day I took a glance and I noticed that Cancun is so close to Cuba, we could almost swim there. So we were seriously considering about breaking American law and travel freely.
The fact that Americans aren’t allowed to travel to Cuba strikes me as equally stupid as censoring live TV because of Janet Jackson’s nipple. It also reminds me of the other half of my own country when I grew up.
So can anyone please tell me “WHY”? What’s the deal here? If any lawyers are reading this blog please give us advice. What should we do? I am from a democratic country (Germany) and I am allowed to travel freely. Our kids are both, American and German, but only William has a German passport. We never got one for Julian out of convenience. Are they allowed to go? And how about Allison? I once heard that traveling to Cuba is allowed, but not purchasing things there, because it’s considered “Trading with the enemy”. I have no idea if that’s true, but if it is, could I just invite Allison to Cuba, so she wouldn’t have to spend any of her own money there and what if she did do the unthinkable and break the law. What should we do? We’d like to tell you about it in our blog, but we would have to lie and other than to our parents and our tax return we always tell the truth (almost at least). It would be great to visit Cuba while Fidel is still alive, because I am sure Cuba will change a lot when he is gone. If we do go I am not sure if we will ever able to tell you about it without the fear of prosecution.
lotzbay