Interesting. I just heard from my aunt and uncle who are currently living in Mexico.
They are making preparations to return to Canada for the time being. Not because of the N1H1 virus, but because the economy is being severely crippled by the response to it and residents are becoming unpredictably irrational.
Many believe (not my relatives) that the US is about to close it's borders to ANY traffic commercial or otherwise coming from Mexico and are starting to panic. It's the panic that has my relatives rattled, not the rumor of a closing border, not the flu.
FWIW, one of the prominent local theories going around in my relatives' area is that they believe that:
1) The flu thing is getting blown way out of proportion,
2) The US is purposely getting everyone alarmed about it to punish Mexico for not complying with the truck unions in the US. Mx has stopped US corn and grain from coming into Mx because the US won't let Mx drivers bring their trucks across to the US and deliver their merchandize. The US unions are saying that they want US drivers only to drive in the US.
I find it hard to believe that much if any of this has much to do with a union dispute...but I would believe that union negotiators would take advantage of it.
I find it hard to believe that much if any of this has much to do with a union dispute...but I would believe that union negotiators would take advantage of it.
Obummah is working a lot of sweetheart deals for the unions these days. Who knows?
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They are making preparations to return to Canada for the time being. Not because of the N1H1 virus, but because the economy is being severely crippled by the response to it and residents are becoming unpredictably irrational.
That's not dissimilar to what happened during the SARS crisis. I remember visiting old Chinatown in the midst of it to buy some decorations for the house. I have never seen that neighbourhood emptier... nearly every store we went into was empty but for a couple of employees.
What's sadder is that many businesses in New York's Chinatown were adversely affected by people refusing to go into the area for fear of SARS. There wasn't a single case of SARS in New York City.
And as best as I can determine, SARS was far more virulent and deadly than this H1N1/swine flu stuff.
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Interesting. I just heard from my aunt and uncle who are currently living in Mexico.
They are making preparations to return to Canada for the time being. Not because of the N1H1 virus, but because the economy is being severely crippled by the response to it and residents are becoming unpredictably irrational.
Many believe (not my relatives) that the US is about to close it's borders to ANY traffic commercial or otherwise coming from Mexico and are starting to panic. It's the panic that has my relatives rattled, not the rumor of a closing border, not the flu.
FWIW, one of the prominent local theories going around in my relatives' area is that they believe that:
1) The flu thing is getting blown way out of proportion,
2) The US is purposely getting everyone alarmed about it to punish Mexico for not complying with the truck unions in the US. Mx has stopped US corn and grain from coming into Mx because the US won't let Mx drivers bring their trucks across to the US and deliver their merchandize. The US unions are saying that they want US drivers only to drive in the US.
I find it hard to believe that much if any of this has much to do with a union dispute...but I would believe that union negotiators would take advantage of it.
Mexico has been living with the United States pounding on her back for 200 years. Mexico is better positioned than Canada to be neglected by the US. Mexico ever since NAFTA began to go sour about four years ago, started shifting more and more of its business towards Europe and Latin America. Above that, the Latin American multi-lateral bank (ALBA) has both enormous food and capital reserves to sustain the entire sub continent for about one year.
My father's business in Queretaro, Mexico is doing fine. Albeit he is involved in industrial, not commercial. I can see commercial being hit much more acutely.
Also, KC4 anyone familiar with Mexican culture knows that blowing things way out of proportion and conspiracy theories are in common currency. So this "irrationalism" is perhaps a product of this, or your relatives are simple over-stating reality.
However, as I said, the people running Mexico, especially now since the PRI was defeated with Fox, have been doing a very prudent job or protecting the country from the whims of the Americans. The clauses in NAFTA have all been ratified through WTO committees, and the WTO is the body responsible for dealing out fines. Though the Americans control much of the WTO, they can't very well go about undermining it. The truck dispute is no more than what the soft wood dumping incidence was here.
then Cuba Mark - if the drug gangs are so influential on the 'poor' public... they can then lend some money to keep the public afloat, during the trying times.
Uh.. yeah, that's what people want to do, borrow money from drug lords...
There are essentially two courses the narcos take down here: (i) some "good works" in the community, building parks for kids, etc., to generate local support by the people even as they go around murdering cops and bureaucrats; (ii) dropping grenades into the middle of public events to sow fear, panic and to demonstrate that the officials are unable to protect the citizenry, undermining government power.
I'm fortunate to live in a part of Mexico where, in my past three years, there have been only (!) three significant confrontations between the narcos and the various law enforcement bodies (and only one in which bullets came close to my home).
then Cuba Mark - if the drug gangs are so influential on the 'poor' public... they can then lend some money to keep the public afloat, during the trying times.
Because they are transnational criminals. They have absolutely no connection to any nation or nationality. They are profiting from a game that is destroying two countries and two peoples simultaneously. They don't care about the public.
Also, KC4 anyone familiar with Mexican culture knows that blowing things way out of proportion and conspiracy theories are in common currency. So this "irrationalism" is perhaps a product of this, or your relatives are simple over-stating reality.
Probably a little of both Adrian. My Aunt and Uncle have lived there over ten years - they are well acclimatized to and enjoy the local "telenovela" culture and colorful tale telling. This seems to have gone frighteningly beyond or is different than that.
They reported than many resident Americans and Canadians have left or are preparing to leave like rats leaving a sinking ship. Their words, not mine.
Empty streets on a city of 20 million seems a bit more than cultural idiosyncrasy
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ANDRÉ PICARD
From Monday's Globe and Mail May 3, 2009 at 9:25 PM EDT
News that pigs contracted swine influenza A H1N1 virus from a human on a central Alberta farm should not alarm consumers of pork because the virus is not food-borne, food safety experts say.
But the unusual development creates a whole new series of challenges for public-health officials trying to limit the spread of the new form of flu in humans and swine alike.
“It happened once, it could happen again elsewhere,” said Peter Ben Embarek, a food-safety scientist at the World Health Organization. As the virus jumps from pigs to humans and back again it risks mutating and becoming more dangerous to both species. And there is an added concern now that swine flu has been reported in parts of Asia where avian influenza is already present, and the pandemic strains could mix into a lethal cocktail.
China banned all imports of Alberta pork yesterday, according to the Canadian Pork Council, and farmers speculate that their major export market, the United States, may follow suit this week. Both countries have expressed concern that the flu strain – originally termed swine flu by health officials because its genetic code shows porcine origins – will contaminate domestic herds.
Flu virus mutations are big concern for H1N1 experts
Updated Sat. May. 2 2009 11:08 AM ET
Angela Mulholland, CTV.ca News
While fears about the H1N1 virus that we used to call swine flu are abating somewhat, virologists say we shouldn't let our guard down yet. The virus could undergo genetic changes and perhaps even return with a vengeance in the fall.
Influenza viruses are notorious for their ability to mutate. No one can predict what this virus will do, but we can look to past pandemic-type strains for guidance.
The 1918 Spanish flu first emerged in early summer, then went quiet, only to cause a severe pandemic in the fall. The same pattern occurred in 1957 and 1968, when flu strains emerged first in Asia then re-emerged in North America and Europe in the fall, though with less virulence than the 1918 strain.
Preliminary research suggests people 60 and older may already have some protection against the new swine flu, possibly because of vaccines they've received in the past.
Dr. Nancy Cox, the head of the influenza division at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says work being done in the Atlanta labs shows older people have some antibodies that may offer protection against the swine H1N1 virus.
Cox says her team is seeing higher levels of antibodies against the virus in people starting at about age 50, but the rise is more noticeable in people 60 and older. She says the pattern of disease spread seems to support the idea, because most of the cases are in young people.
or because we've had a variation of this flu....
I can only recall one really bad bout and it was a nightmare as my wife and I both had it and despite being young and fit at the time we literally staggered into the doctors office after a week of trying to deal with it ourselves.
We were very ill and because of our isolation in an old farmhouse not easily accessed likely at more risk than we knew.
I still recall it decades later.....
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Uh.. yeah, that's what people want to do, borrow money from drug lords... 
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