Black Humor
Thursday, April 30th, 2009My two couchsurfers at the moment, bicyclers riding from Vancouver BC to Argentina, went out roaming around yesterday and came upon some street theater making fun of the panic over the flu. Last night they went out with a friend wearing a flu mask with “mieda” (fear in Spanish) written in big black letters on it.
Videos and spoofs are showing up all over the web including Daily Mash and Comedy Central.
From Oaxaca Study Action Group Forum: “In the zocalo about one in ten are wearing face masks. All the servers in the restauants and cafes are wearing them. Doctora Bertha Muñoz was not wearing a mask. She says that viruses are too tiny to be obstructed by a piece of paper. But when she needed to sneeze, she pulled up the neck of her T shirt over her face to the eyes. The government bulletins recommend sneezing into your bent elbow.
Bertha’s opinion on the flu outbreak was that the gov is holding back info. A thought: does the government have info, or any way to gather it?”
Apparently, the Mexican authorities knew of the existence of this swine flu as early as mid-February but did nothing about it for two entire months. Government officials have been forced to acknowledge as much. Outrage over the Mexican government’s ineptitude has swept the country. On April 29, the Frente Sindical Mexicano (FSM) held a press conference during which it lambasted the Mexican government for its handling of the entire healthcare crisis.
7% of Mexico’s GDP comes from tourism. Tourists are leaving by the hundreds which will devastate the livlihoods of workers who depend on the tourist industry.
Zoe