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04/30/09
Generation of Swine, Flu Scare Shutting Mexico Down
Filed under: Cancun Casa Blog, Island Sounds, Cancun Swine Flu/AH1N1
Posted by: Dangers @ 8:39 pm

“We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear; fear of swine flu, fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer.”
Hunter S. Thompson

As you may have ascertained, we’re not playing happy camper tonight, they’ve gone and done it, they’re shutting Mexico down for five days, May 1st through May 5, in the continued swine flu scare, or can we call it a pandemic yet, as the Mexican Federal Government orders, asks, and cajoles it’s State governments to follow suit on a nation wide halt for almost everything but non essential services. Don’t take me wrong, I believe the situation is serious, but I also believe the horse is out of the barn as U.S. President Obama was so apt to remind us last night, stealing one of my favorite lines by the way, though I stole it from unnamed sources that probably had a long line of horse thieving in their bloodlines.

In less than a few short weeks we’re on the brink of putting one major nation in a quasi martial law isolation in some strange test at containment and isolation for a virus that has leapt across North America, galloped into Canada, flew across an ocean to Western Europe, found the Middle East and swan dived into the South Pacific. I mean who are we kidding, the thing is out there, the thing is on the loose and we’re all future potential targets pretending that by avoiding Mexico and locking her down gives us some chance at immortality, forever being swine flu safe from the serious but free AH1N1 swine flu variant.

All the while, our Mexican brothers and sisters sit there taking the blame for being the wrong country, at the wrong time, and an easier target than the U.S., Canada, Spain, France, the UK, Israel etc. While Mexico City, a city of an estimated 10-12 million people with a sprawling suburban area including upwards of 22 million people living in fear shuts down, along with the rest of her fellow countrymen while soccer moms and Ivory Tower types in the so called non Third World scream panic from the playing fields and rooftops half way around the world, gripped with fear that the swine flu is coming.

The reality check is that swine flu is here, and if it isn’t yet, it soon will be, what we don’t know and what experts fear the most is that the virus will mutate into something much more dangerous. And, I’ll tell you that’s a possibility but right now, the masses are being given the false presumption that surgical masks, rubber gloves and a case of “Wet Ones” will protect them, and that if they hide behind those walls at those safety sealed communities, the all safe will sound.

In short, it’s far to late for containment, that’s why the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control haven’t asked for outright international travel bans, they know the cat’s out of the bag, and we’re all hoping that the swine flu variant doesn’t develop into something much more effective in making people ill. Now, I’m not saying you should go out and french kiss the next twenty people you meet either or expose those beloved rugrats to a pee fest at the local kids pool but let’s get a grip on the fear and the reality of the situation while working towards a common solution in line with the situation.

The first step would be in making sure that the patents on effective drugs for treatment thus far like Tamiflu are pulled from the capitalist market place, mass produced and delivered for free to areas and people currently in the virus scope and prepare the same for the next line of countries to be hit in the coming weeks, months. The next would be responsible media and journalism, a self imposed moral obligation beyond booming headlines and jarring scenes of ratings chasers that make television broadcasting its bread and butter, those obligatory talking heads, and their production members whom are at the core of the original Thompson, Generation of Swine.

I’d really like to know when fear and false bravado became such agents of the same modern generations that walked on the moon and vowed to work towards world peace, before a whole slew of self help and me first mutants decided the world was there’s for the taking, as long as little Dick wore a condom when he practiced anal sex on Jane. Somehow the romance just ain’t what it use to be when fear has even gripped our modern sexuality.

What I’m trying to say here folks, and I may have just popped a few eyelids, is that we need to stop living in fear, afraid of the dark, the unknown.

Is Mexico really what we’re afraid of, is it the swine flu, or is it that everything has gotten us to the point of self resign over the last twenty or so years that we would feel more comfortable hiding under a rock…

Until someone signals the all clear.

Dangers…

10 Responses to “Generation of Swine, Flu Scare Shutting Mexico Down”

  1. Carol Says:
    I agree totally. I live in Minnestota, I am so tired of everyone being so scared all the time. I have a trip booked for the 20th, I plan on still coming to Cancun, I can get sick here just as well any where else. I could get in a car accident tomorrow. I love Mexico and am so sorry that so many people are so ignorant in this world.
  2. Dangers Says:
    Carol~ appreciate the comments and keep it safe while traveling, beautiful Cancun awaits you, enjoy. ;-)
  3. Robin Says:
    We have a large group coming to Riviera Maya on the 9th and were all still coming the us media has this blown way out of proportion, we are getting more cases here than you are there. Looking forward to our trip to Mexico
  4. Pam Says:
    I agree totally. We are tired of all news hype. We have a trip planned for the 19th, (we’ll see you there Carol, it may be easy to find you if no one is there). But to us, this is a virus. Just like any other virus. There are cases of it where we live. They are shutting down schools, so I can get it probably easier here than I can in Cancun. Unless Cancun is closed down, we plan on being there.
  5. robmarais Says:
    I plan on starting my vacation on Isla Mujeres tomorrow. In fact I will take great pleasure in Twittering (follow me @robmarais) about the impact, or lack thereof, of H1N1 on Isla and on Q Roo in general. Maybe as an eyewitness, I could defuse in a small way some of the media-hyped plague scare that this has become. Today in Massachusetts, more cases of H1N1 were announced. As of today, there are no confirmed cases of H1N1 on the Isla, or elsewhere in Q Roo. I am leaving the flu-ridden US for a much healthier part of the world: Mexico! It’s a big, beautiful country which is not riddled with flu in all states, nor is it worth such media alarmism.
  6. Lovesthesun Says:
    Thanks for Pink Floyd Dangers! We are also not cancelling until the last moment. There is no country we love to travel to more than Mexico. Heaven forbid we should have to cancel our July trip, we will re-schedule when they open up the gates for us.
  7. Dangers Says:
    Robin~ there’s nothing quite as enchanting as the RM, hideaway beaches and the big blue of the Caribbean, have a great time and thanks for dropping in. ;-)

     Pam~ Like you I refuse to hide in a shell with this thing or as Jimmy Buffett so appropriately stated, “I’d rather die while I’m living, than live while I’m dead”. Have a wonderful time! ;-)

     Rob~ the Little Isla is my favorite place in all of the Mexican Caribbean, where I feel free, down a couple cold ones for me at Jax and on Playa Norte. Enjoy!
  8. Dangers Says:
    Deb~ I’m no doctor but one of the best medicines in the world to me, is lounging and carousing around Mexico, good to hear, your trip is still on! ;-)
  9. kody Says:
    Will be there may 3rd. Cant wait for a cold beer and blue water! Nothing like this media drove flu is going to stop me!Stay at home if your scared just more beer for me.Ha!
  10. Dangers Says:
    Kody~ Here’s to a great trip, thanks for stopping by!

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