400 Chinese students hospitalized with unknown flu
Mystery flu virus hits chinese students in Henan province
Surprise surprise, once again China has fallen victim to an epidemic. Honestly, I don't know if I should feel sorry for them or should I say shame on you!
In 2003, SARs rocked the Asian world, then it was the ebola and nipah virus in pigs, then came the bird flu and now this! If my sources are correct, all of these viruses originated from China due to the poor hygiene and sanitary conditions in the provinces. Farms have become hotspots for the spread of viruses and because of globalisation, these viruses have managed to find its way out of China into other countries.
It is true that with such a huge population, the government is unable to monitor every one and every part of the country. But I feel that the basic measures to prevent outbreak of epidemics are not even taken. Investigations done by NGOs have shown that conditions in agricultural estates are apalling. Just because the chinese garment industry managed to get away with its chinese sweatshops in the past, they think they can do it with animals too. With the kind of space alloted to the animals and the kind of food they are fed, it is no wonder that diseases and viruses have been coming out of the provinces of China.
Now it's not entirely the fault of the chinese people, and that's why I mentioned earlier on my dilemma, if I should actually feel sorry for them. Most of them are living in poverty and hence cannot afford to maintain the farms properly. I think this is where the government MUST step in if it wishes for China to become a super power in the future. Look at the current super powers, other than invasions on other countries, you don't hear of new virus strains coming out of these countries. You have to be healthy in order to stick your nose into the businesses of other nations. If China wants to live up to all this hype about how it's going to emerge as a giant soon, then she'd better start cleaning up before it all becomes too much for her and the rest of the world to handle.
Surprise surprise, once again China has fallen victim to an epidemic. Honestly, I don't know if I should feel sorry for them or should I say shame on you!
In 2003, SARs rocked the Asian world, then it was the ebola and nipah virus in pigs, then came the bird flu and now this! If my sources are correct, all of these viruses originated from China due to the poor hygiene and sanitary conditions in the provinces. Farms have become hotspots for the spread of viruses and because of globalisation, these viruses have managed to find its way out of China into other countries.
It is true that with such a huge population, the government is unable to monitor every one and every part of the country. But I feel that the basic measures to prevent outbreak of epidemics are not even taken. Investigations done by NGOs have shown that conditions in agricultural estates are apalling. Just because the chinese garment industry managed to get away with its chinese sweatshops in the past, they think they can do it with animals too. With the kind of space alloted to the animals and the kind of food they are fed, it is no wonder that diseases and viruses have been coming out of the provinces of China.
Now it's not entirely the fault of the chinese people, and that's why I mentioned earlier on my dilemma, if I should actually feel sorry for them. Most of them are living in poverty and hence cannot afford to maintain the farms properly. I think this is where the government MUST step in if it wishes for China to become a super power in the future. Look at the current super powers, other than invasions on other countries, you don't hear of new virus strains coming out of these countries. You have to be healthy in order to stick your nose into the businesses of other nations. If China wants to live up to all this hype about how it's going to emerge as a giant soon, then she'd better start cleaning up before it all becomes too much for her and the rest of the world to handle.
posted by Clarence Tan @ 9:48 PM
3 Comments:
At 1:58 PM,
silvanix said…
I know what you mean by hygiene.. china doesn't have very good hygiene standards in the largely populated rural provinces. it is definitely not surprising that so many chinese get hit by the virus. i think that china should start cleaning up by making education more widespread and hitting at the root of the problem instead of merely physically cleaning up.
At 11:57 AM,
Dark Shadow said…
yeah....the coming Olympics in Beijing will definitely go a long way towards boosting this aspect...
At 11:43 PM,
Musica said…
Bryan lian
i think China is responsible for its acts, and i for one sadly have to oagree with clarence in saying shame on you China, after countless outbreaks of disease and so on, China's hygeine standards as still close to zero , and second to none in terms of horrible hygeine practices. As China does not look very in depth or care much about their hygeine, i say that they deserve to get outbreaks of flu
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