My thoughts exactly!
Symptoms of Ignorance and Bigotry
By JIM DWYER
Published: May 1, 2009
The world is full of side effects. Earlier this week, a student arrived for a class on Photoshop at a social services center for Mexican immigrants inside an old church rectory.
“One of the students, a restaurant worker, said his boss told him, ‘I’m going to hire some other workers, please tell your people and friends to apply and come in for an interview,’ ” said Joel Magallan, the director of the center, Asociación Tepeyac de New York, on West 14th Street in Manhattan.
“Then the owner said, ‘Please, don’t bring Mexicans, because they could have the swine flu.’ ”
So far this year, about 13,000 people have died from ordinary, garden-variety flu in the United States, about four people every hour, every day. There was not a recorded peep from Joseph R. Biden Jr., the vice president, about this.
Then one person, a toddler in Texas, was reported to have died from swine flu. Mr. Biden went on television and said he’d advise his own family to stay off airplanes and subways. Later, the White House team in charge of pulling the vice president’s foot out of his mouth issued a statement saying that what he really meant was that the people who should stay off airplanes and subways were those suffering from swine flu.
More people die of loneliness or lard. More people died in a few minutes when a man went berserk in Binghamton, N.Y., last month. Since August, there have been 14 deaths by gun in schools in the United States.
The difference with swine flu, of course, is not simply foolish remarks by the vice president. When seasonal influenza is lethal, it is usually older people who die, or those in poor health. But in Mexico, swine flu apparently killed young people.
Just because one problem may turn out to be less dangerous than others — so far, no more than 25 people are confirmed as having died in Mexico from the swine flu, compared with more than 6,000 killed by drug violence in that country last year — does not undercut the genius of modern public health surveillance, which quickly recognizes changes in the course of an illness.
This important news has been quickly outpaced by alarm that has traveled faster than the virus, and sprinted well ahead of the known facts. The gaps in information are spackled with guesses, ignorance, even bigotry.
“I’ve been hearing all week at college: Stay away from the Mexican restaurants,” said Jocelyn Ponce, 18, who is in her first year at Baruch College. “Friends are telling me to be careful about those kinds of places.”
As Ms. Ponce spoke, she stood a few feet from a machine that is practically the foundation of Mexican restaurants around New York: the tortilla line at the Tortilleria Chinantla on Grand Street in Brooklyn.
The tortillas glide down the conveyor, six at a time, spilling into a basket. About a million a day come down the line. A machine stacks them. Then they are packed into plastic bags by four workers clad in hairnets and uniforms. One of them, Sandra Maceda, pressed the air out of the bags with the palm of her hand, then tied a red band at the top and loaded them into cardboard cases.
“Yes, I do think the flu is a big problem,” she said, speaking as her hands never stopped working the bags of tortillas.
Ms. Maceda, who is from Puebla, Mexico, has been following the news from home with anxiety. The Mexican economy has been frozen by the shutdown of businesses and schools.
In 1976, a young soldier died of an earlier version of swine flu; the United States launched a mass vaccination program that, some experts say, ultimately killed more people than the disease itself. In 2002, Dick Cheney, then vice president, urged that the entire country be vaccinated against smallpox, a disease that has effectively been eradicated from the world. Mr. Cheney argued that Iraq might have the ability to use a weaponized version of the smallpox pathogen to attack the United States. The side effects from a smallpox vaccination program, public health officials said, would probably have included several hundred deaths and thousands of serious illnesses. And, as it turned out, Iraq did not have any smallpox or any other biological weapons.
Before the news about the emergence of the new swine flu strain, Ms. Maceda said, her top worries were “immigration, schools for the kid, my job. And the security of the subways — the service cuts here, and the big fare increase.”
Not quite what Joe Biden had in mind.
By JIM DWYER
Published: May 1, 2009
The world is full of side effects. Earlier this week, a student arrived for a class on Photoshop at a social services center for Mexican immigrants inside an old church rectory.
“One of the students, a restaurant worker, said his boss told him, ‘I’m going to hire some other workers, please tell your people and friends to apply and come in for an interview,’ ” said Joel Magallan, the director of the center, Asociación Tepeyac de New York, on West 14th Street in Manhattan.
“Then the owner said, ‘Please, don’t bring Mexicans, because they could have the swine flu.’ ”
So far this year, about 13,000 people have died from ordinary, garden-variety flu in the United States, about four people every hour, every day. There was not a recorded peep from Joseph R. Biden Jr., the vice president, about this.
Then one person, a toddler in Texas, was reported to have died from swine flu. Mr. Biden went on television and said he’d advise his own family to stay off airplanes and subways. Later, the White House team in charge of pulling the vice president’s foot out of his mouth issued a statement saying that what he really meant was that the people who should stay off airplanes and subways were those suffering from swine flu.
More people die of loneliness or lard. More people died in a few minutes when a man went berserk in Binghamton, N.Y., last month. Since August, there have been 14 deaths by gun in schools in the United States.
The difference with swine flu, of course, is not simply foolish remarks by the vice president. When seasonal influenza is lethal, it is usually older people who die, or those in poor health. But in Mexico, swine flu apparently killed young people.
Just because one problem may turn out to be less dangerous than others — so far, no more than 25 people are confirmed as having died in Mexico from the swine flu, compared with more than 6,000 killed by drug violence in that country last year — does not undercut the genius of modern public health surveillance, which quickly recognizes changes in the course of an illness.
This important news has been quickly outpaced by alarm that has traveled faster than the virus, and sprinted well ahead of the known facts. The gaps in information are spackled with guesses, ignorance, even bigotry.
“I’ve been hearing all week at college: Stay away from the Mexican restaurants,” said Jocelyn Ponce, 18, who is in her first year at Baruch College. “Friends are telling me to be careful about those kinds of places.”
As Ms. Ponce spoke, she stood a few feet from a machine that is practically the foundation of Mexican restaurants around New York: the tortilla line at the Tortilleria Chinantla on Grand Street in Brooklyn.
The tortillas glide down the conveyor, six at a time, spilling into a basket. About a million a day come down the line. A machine stacks them. Then they are packed into plastic bags by four workers clad in hairnets and uniforms. One of them, Sandra Maceda, pressed the air out of the bags with the palm of her hand, then tied a red band at the top and loaded them into cardboard cases.
“Yes, I do think the flu is a big problem,” she said, speaking as her hands never stopped working the bags of tortillas.
Ms. Maceda, who is from Puebla, Mexico, has been following the news from home with anxiety. The Mexican economy has been frozen by the shutdown of businesses and schools.
In 1976, a young soldier died of an earlier version of swine flu; the United States launched a mass vaccination program that, some experts say, ultimately killed more people than the disease itself. In 2002, Dick Cheney, then vice president, urged that the entire country be vaccinated against smallpox, a disease that has effectively been eradicated from the world. Mr. Cheney argued that Iraq might have the ability to use a weaponized version of the smallpox pathogen to attack the United States. The side effects from a smallpox vaccination program, public health officials said, would probably have included several hundred deaths and thousands of serious illnesses. And, as it turned out, Iraq did not have any smallpox or any other biological weapons.
Before the news about the emergence of the new swine flu strain, Ms. Maceda said, her top worries were “immigration, schools for the kid, my job. And the security of the subways — the service cuts here, and the big fare increase.”
Not quite what Joe Biden had in mind.
Comments
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Ok, i guess it's not the flu that people are really worry about, it's the illegal Mexicans. Both repulicans and dems are totally incapable of solving the problem - they need VOTERS and CHEAP SLAVE LABOR.
Mexicans are tolerated only because they work like SLAVES. I say get rid of them or give them legal status.
This is my way of getting out of recession - bring 80-100 million illegal aliens into United States, it will drop their salaries extremely low cause they will all have to compete for the same jobs, $1 dollar an hour will be their average pay. House prices will drop like crazy and housing crisis will be over in less than 18 months!
You solve two problems with that move - save the third world people from hunger by bringing them here and get ourselves out of recession
Problem Solved! I'll even offer them my job as a financial analyst and move my family to Denmark -
i hope i never take financial advice from you.
-
vidro3 wrote: i hope i never take financial advice from you.
What , you think that 100 million is too much? What about American Indians? It's their land anyway, they were slaughtered like pigs, yet no one cares about Indian Holocaust, all you hear is the Black Slavery and WWII Nazi crimes, but what about Indians? They were moved into reservations and forgotten. I say invite as many Mexicans as possible, what the hell, bring ALL OF THEM , all latinos and perhaps millions of more from other Latin American countries and don't forget about millions of starving Africans! Follow Madonna and Jolie - every American whitey should adopt a black child! Don't be ashamed of your racial guilt, go all the way!
Don't worry about getting an "advise" from me -
i don't deal with private citizens, i'm in corporate consulting -
copilot7777 wrote: Problem Solved! I'll even offer them my job as a financial analyst and move my family to Denmark
Denmark has had a zero immigration policy since 1973, and since 2000, the tightest rules of any Western country. Unless you have a PhD in a priority specialty and an invitation from a Danish firm, or you're part of the UN-certified quota of asylum seekers, or your family not only includes Danish citizens by birth but can prove a tighter connection to Denmark than the US by having lived there longer (among several other strict criteria), or you are stationed there by a diplomatic mission, you cannot move your family from the US to Denmark. -
They don't want us?
They obviously have excellent judgment!
Look how badly we've f-d up here!
Largely due to corporate consultants, I might add... -
booklaw wrote: They don't want us?
They obviously have excellent judgment!
Look how badly we've f-d up here!
Largely due to corporate consultants, I might add...
are you sure it wasn't the lawyers? I always thought it was the lawyers
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Naah, the lawyers just carry out the instructions of the consultants!
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booklaw wrote: Naah, the lawyers just carry out the instructions of the consultants!
eh. everybody's in cahoots. -
doctorj wrote: [quote=copilot7777]Problem Solved! I'll even offer them my job as a financial analyst and move my family to Denmark
Denmark has had a zero immigration policy since 1973, and since 2000, the tightest rules of any Western country. Unless you have a PhD in a priority specialty and an invitation from a Danish firm, or you're part of the UN-certified quota of asylum seekers, or your family not only includes Danish citizens by birth but can prove a tighter connection to Denmark than the US by having lived there longer (among several other strict criteria), or you are stationed there by a diplomatic mission, you cannot move your family from the US to Denmark.
I'm a 'pretty' good specialist in my field. I kinda looked into it a few years ago, (before the crisis hit) and got quite a few interesting offers, but not from Denmark though. As long as there are banks or other financial institutions i can always move. However, if our global financial crisis goes on for another 10 years then i would probably think thrice before moving out of New York -
doctorj wrote: [quote=copilot7777]Problem Solved! I'll even offer them my job as a financial analyst and move my family to Denmark
Denmark has had a zero immigration policy since 1973, and since 2000, the tightest rules of any Western country. Unless you have a PhD in a priority specialty and an invitation from a Danish firm, or you're part of the UN-certified quota of asylum seekers, or your family not only includes Danish citizens by birth but can prove a tighter connection to Denmark than the US by having lived there longer (among several other strict criteria), or you are stationed there by a diplomatic mission, you cannot move your family from the US to Denmark.
There's one million muslim immigrants in Denmark, lol i wonder how they got their visas :? :roll: -
booklaw wrote: They don't want us?
I guess we can always go back to Africa :shock:
They obviously have excellent judgment!
Look how badly we've f-d up here!
Largely due to corporate consultants, I might add... -
Flexichick wrote: [quote=booklaw]Naah, the lawyers just carry out the instructions of the consultants!
eh. everybody's in cahoots.
That's why i propose to invite Mexicans and let them take our jobs. I'm sure that Mexicans will run United States al lot better that white people do. Quickly, get rid of the greedy gringo-jewish lawyers and analysts and everything will be just alright! There will be peace and tranquility on the streets and on Wall Street, and pot would cost $0.99 a pound in your local TOYS R'US store. Mexicans will revive our hearts and souls
I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO DOUBT!! Just look at Mexico today, what a beautiful nation!
i'm coming for'ya, my mamasita!!! :flower: :flower: :flower: :flower: :flower: -
Que?? Who's coming for me? Did I call a taxi?
Something tells me you've been on this board by a different name before. Anyways, moving on..... -
Flexichick wrote: [quote=booklaw]Naah, the lawyers just carry out the instructions of the consultants!
eh. everybody's in cahoots.
That's why i propose to invite Mexicans and let them take our jobs. I'm sure that Mexicans will run United States al lot better that white people do. Quickly, get rid of the greedy gringo-jewish lawyers and analysts and everything will be just alright! There will be peace and tranquility on the streets and on Wall Street, and pot would cost $0.99 a pound in your local TOYS R'US store. Mexicans will revive our hearts and souls
I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO DOUBT!! Just look at Mexico today, what a beautiful nation!
*********************************************
Will they replace the American Bald Eagle with a Chihuahua? -
copilot7777 wrote:
1) The second generation are counted as immigrants. The third generation are counted as immigrants. The fourth generation are counted as immigrants. Apparently Jewish families that have lived in Denmark more than a century (and survived the holocaust) are no longer counted as immigrants. These things take time.
There's one million muslim immigrants in Denmark, lol i wonder how they got their visas :? :roll:
2) There are not one million muslims in a nation of five million. That would be 20%, and around 95% of the population belongs to the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church. The actual number is aprx. 3-4%, or less than 200,000.
3) Some Turkish/Kurdish/Morrocan/Yugoslavian muslims came in the 1950s and 1960s under guest-worker programs, and some stayed, producing the above 'immigrant' descendents. Some of them (prior to 2002 when it became much more difficult) were able to import spouses from their ancestors' country of origin. That counts for about 60% of the Muslims in Denmark today.
4) The other 40% are asylum seekers, as part of the aforementioned UN quota; the larger groups include Palestinians, Bosnians and Somalians. Since the drastic cuts to family reunion, this is pretty much the only way in. It varies from year to year and country to country, depending on where people are fleeing from.
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