Posted: 金, 2005-11-18 16:03 | 件名: Another story about the acts

Another story about the acts that people commit when they aren't able to afford health care in China.

A Chinese peasant woman who suffered a brain haemorrhage was left at the undertakers alive for cremation because her family could no longer afford hospital treatment, state media said Friday.

The undertaker realized she was alive when he saw tears in her eyes.

Posted: 土, 2005-11-19 14:22 | 件名: Cold Reality

Don't you just love the cold reality of China ?

Posted: 土, 2005-11-19 14:55 | 件名: Still a poor place

I'm somewhat isolated from these realities, even here in fairly-poor Yunnan province.

1. I live in a (tiny) city, so the people I see are better off financially than these people in these news stories who are probably all poor farmers living relatively far from the nearest city.
2. There's enough money to go around that I think if someone were really screwed, they could borrow from friends or family.
3. There's probably taboo in talking too openly about these things.  Can't lose face.
4. Then again, I get the feeling (perhaps this is more Tibetan culture) that if someone had a brain haemorrhage here, they'd die quietly at home rather than even going to the hospital in the first place.  It's a matter of pride.  A similar pride that leads people to remain farmers by choice rather than try to get a "job" in a city where you have to serve someone else (your boss, your customers)

It's funny, I told this story at dinner tonight, and the first question I got asked was "where did this happen?"  Almost as if they were ready to say knowingly "oh..  anhui-ren" or "oh..  sichuan-ren" (a favorite saying here in Yunnan)

Posted: 日, 2005-11-20 07:35 | 件名: Big city stuff

My sister lives in a small city in the Australian outback. She tells me that the people in the city are referred to as being "NOT real people". I guess the country culture applies internationally.

NOTE: I can not read comments after my previous post until I submit another post. Not sure if this is just my computer or the Treehouse website. I don't seem to have this problem with any other sites that I contribute to

Posted: 月, 2005-11-21 03:34 | 件名: China's plan to vaccinate birds is likely to spread the bird flu

According to some experts,

China's plans to vaccinate billions of chickens against avian flu could backfire and end up spreading the disease

I think the part of the article most representative of china is this quote, though:

Postings on promedmail.org, a Web site that tracks outbreaks of infectious diseases, noted that in photos from the Chinese news media showing chickens being killed to stop an outbreak, the cullers lacked even goggles, a standard piece of safety gear for poultry workers who are likely to be spattered with blood.

I tried buying safety goggles while we were doing renovations on the bar, and for the life of me, I could not find any for purchase anywhere in town.  Lack of demand?  Do the workers think they look silly wearing them?  Lack of supply?  Or just a different valuation of human life in a country that has... well...  too many people by most counts.