H1N1 flu is a highly contagious strain, but not in China
I will declare that I am a Canadian who has spent a couple of years studying Chinese in China. An article in the local Toronto Star titled Canadians Quarantined in China reports that 22 Canadian students will be quarantined for 7 days in a hotel in Chongqing, China. None have fever or flu-like symptoms. I agree with the Chinese position to quarantine these students but the blame cannot be laid on the 22 unfortunate students themselves, but on the Canadian government’s laggard position on the H1N1 flu strain (formerly called swine flu) and the tendency of democratic countries for freedom of movement, irregardless of the consequences.
Taking something for granted is when you possess an amazing ability, object, or even when someone you implicitly trust helps you each and every time. As time goes on you rely on this “ability” in daily life, to the point when it no longer amazes you but has become commonplace. It is only when you then lose this ability that you look back and wonder how you did not fully appreciate this ability and assume that your ability is somehow a “given”.
Yangrou chuanr, mutton kebobs, Chinese street meat
It takes very little for me to have flashbacks of eating street meat in places I’ve lived or visited, namely China, HK and Japan. The mere whiff of an exotic spice can easily send me off to places past, transforming me from here to where I’ve been. I literally lose track of what I am doing and will walk off to chase a scent down. Now that I live in Toronto, Canada, where multiculturalism has evolved to mind expanding lengths, I become easily impatient with our city politicians as they dither about what is acceptable street food offerings to Torontonians. Here’s a novel idea: Let anyone offer food on the street and let the general public decide what they want to eat. Make it easy to get a licenses, enforce strict health rules, and punish those that are unclean. That, however, would be too easy.
