You've been in the US long enough to have heard the undercurrent of stereotypes about Greeks. You also know they're (edit, stereotypes, not Greeks) pretty damned dumb, and calling Chinese peasants for gods' sakes while talking about eating rats out of sewers with the fur on is on no better level.Originally Posted by Stelio Kontos
With the caveat that one man's exotic meat is another's bush meat, I agree with you. My personal pet peeve on that front is conspicuous consumption of endangered species -- pangolin are high on that list for me, but tigers even more so. His phrasing, however, was right over the line into racist stereotypes.Originally Posted by Stelio Kontos
I've been here 20 years, and that means I saw the old style markets before SARS; while I have no doubt that there are places that do business the way it is portrayed, I've yet to encounter one even after going shopping with Tyger (Cantonese), and Pink (small town Hunan girl) among others. The most exotic thing we found in a market was turtle, the most exotic in a restaurant was a live alligator that was mainly there for show. Rats? Possibly down south, if I recall bamboo rats are popular in one of the SE Asian countries and there is cultural cross over -- but I've been run through the "freak the foreigner out" routine more than a few times and it runs more towards things like grilled sheep penis, no rat. Keep in mind, yes, there was a video of a Chinese girl eating a bat that was "proof" this kind of thing is common in China. Yeah, turned out she was a social influencer who ate it as an exotic dish ... outside of China.
Well said and I agree with all your points. Happily, we're dealing with COVID-19. It could well have been literal plague, there were cases near the end of 2019 in Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and some reached Beijing. Yep, eating wild game. One might have involved rabbit, but marmot is the usual problem.Originally Posted by Stelio Kontos
That is, a bit of a tricky line though. I say that having upset people with "gory pictures" from American news showing rattlesnake being sold. If you know hunters, then they may well eat deer, elk, moose, wild rabbit, bear, or a whole bunch of other things.
Bottom line, unsanitary food handling is a problem even if it is just chickens.
Last edited by shadowmouse; 2020-04-01 at 10:59 AM. Reason: distinguishing that I'm referring to stereotypes as dumb
With COVID-19 making its impact on our lives, I have decided that I shall hang in there for my remaining days, skip some meals, try to get children to experiment with making henna patterns on their skin, and plant some trees. You know -- live, fast, dye young, and leave a pretty copse. I feel like I may not have that quite right.
Some restrictions were already in place, the herd immunity got explained a few days later. There never was a plan to let the virus spread deliberately to create herd immunity. And as with all the other countries, measures get adjusted when it's needed. Every measure they took so far is based on experts and WHO models. Perhabs people should actually have a listen to those experts, and then have an informed opinion. I'm aware that other experts disagree with our aproach, but in reality most measures are similar. But to put him on the same level as Bolsonaro, as someone else just typed, is so far from the truth it isn't even funny.
So I'm racist for calling out Chinese health practices, but you aren't racist for calling Greeks dumb for some mistified reason?
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Also, if we're so dumb, why did we take the right approach by putting up a lockdown immediately? We now have 3 deaths a day, compared to other countries we are basically geniuses.
Eating raw animals spreads viruses and other microbiological entities into human cells, so yes. If the virus manages to transfer from one human to the next, it's how you create epidemics. The sooner people learn about hygiene, the better. I'm not lumping all the blame to Chinese, I'm not saying other countries like my own don't do dangerous shit like eating cow brains or whatever, but come on, read about how all the previous epidemics emerged in the world. When is it enough?
If I'm banned for expressing my opinion on the dangers of eating raw animals, so be it.
Every town needs its clown?
It is however amusing to see people dishing out criticism but unable to take any however.
We will see how the dutch strategy works out for them, i am not getting the impression that everyone is taking it equally seriously and are still seeing this as another holiday season. So long the measures towards companies stay in place and my wage isn't negatively impacted a whole lot let them try their thing. The borders are closed around them anyway for only essential traffic.
People coming to Belgium from Rotterdam for gas and cigarettes, well that's just a kind of special though.
My point is that Rutte didn't have armchair experts like me, he had established people telling him to contain this thing, yet he chose not to at first. Like I said in my post, he did the right thing a week too late. I'm not completely clueless btw, I'm a MSc who knows a thing or two about plant cell morphology and physiology, and viruses are a pretty interesting topic of conversation. Yet even the biggest idiot knows that fast containment is the only thing that works, plus everything concerning RNA viruses in the past has been well documented to prevent bad decisions.
Despite all that, bad decisions were made to preserve momentary currency flow.
In many countries people are executed for less, but that's my idea of justice for crimes of this scale that affect the lives of pretty much every person on the planet. If you want to put those people on a pedestal, that's mighty Christian of you, myself and probably many others won't be as keen on forgiveness.