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Posts Tagged ‘swine flu’

“Miss Spain” Moves to Mexico

6 Jul 2009

Times are tough for beauty pageants. With every year that passes they become more irrelevant and more of a joke than a competition to most. Perhaps that’s why Spain’s “Miss España” pageant is suffering so much that they need to take the show on the road: to Mexico. The organization’s president admits that the economic crisis is what lead Miss España to leave la madre patria and move to el nuevo mundo:

It is the first time in 49 years that the event will be celebrated outside of the country. “The world economic situation has forced us to open up borders,” said Andrés Cid. He also mentioned that the decision will “possibly open doors to future events in different places around the world…”

Why Mexico? Because the Mexican tourism industry is still suffering the effects of the swine flu and needs a platform from which they can talk the hundreds of thousands of Spanish tourists who visited the Riviera Maya each year into coming back.

So it works out like this: lack of interest on the part of the Spanish public and low ratings = the pageant needing money. Mexican tourism authorities buy something that won’t work for them, since no one is watching this in the first place. Nice little deal.

Via / 20 Minutos

Lessons in Swine Flu: How NOT to Wear a Facemask

11 Jun 2009

While most of the world media seems to be over its love affair with swine flu, in the world of viral video (no pun intended) it appears to still be thriving. Take this video from Colombia (where new cases of the flu are still appearing, including a death yesterday) that’s making its away around the Latin American web:

Not very effective.

This poor guy has since become a laughing stock. But to me what is really “interesting” is how after he puts the mask on, the journalist says “well, that’s one way”!

Via / CityTv.com.co

Swine Flu “Patient Zero” Immortalized in a Statue

27 May 2009

964429 Um, what? Sure, he was famous for about a minute, but what’s the motivation behind making little Edgar into a bronze statue? Apparently attracting tourists to his hometown of Perote, Veracruz (Mexico). Reports 20 Minutos:

The statue of patient zero of the new flu in Mexico has a frog in his right hand as a symbol of biblical plagues. It was made by Mexican sculptor Bernardo Luis Artasanchez, who traveled to La Gloria in the town of Perote, Veracruz, to spend time with the youngster and his family.

The effigy, some 4 feet high and weighing 154 pounds, was created at the petition of the Veracruz authorities to symbolize the victory over AH1N1 virus and to attract tourists.

I guess I can understand the “victory over the virus” argument, but to attract tourists? I mean, do you think families will take an alternate route on their way to Veracruz from Mexico City and hit Perote to see the flu boy statue? I’m not seeing it.

Perote is beautiful by the way, I can vouch for it.

Via / 20 Minutos

Mexico City Tells Swine Flu ‘Adios’

4:52 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Health|Latin America|mexico|society · Comments Off

21 May 2009

3482891591_0772d4b1b1 While the swine flu might have claimed its latest victims stateside, Mexico City – plagued by the stigma of the disease for weeks now — is officially declaring the illness to be yesterday’s news. The city has lowered the alert level as the Mayor, Marcel Ebrard, tells citizens it to take a chill pill, since the megapolis has reached a milestone in its fight against the flu: one full week with no new cases. The AP reports:

Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said the change means the risk of contagion is low, the situation is under control and the images of countless people wearing blue surgical masks in cars, sidewalks, restaurants and theaters can be consigned to history.

“There’s no longer any need” to wear masks, Ebrard said. “Now you can come to the city without any risk.”

City Health Secretary Armando Ahued said nobody has been hospitalized with respiratory infections in the last three days, and no swine flu cases have been confirmed since May 14. “We are seeing a 96.1 percent drop in cases, and that’s why we are dropping the alert level to green today,” Ahued said.

The flu has meant a sharp dip in tourism to the city and indeed to the entire country, so I assume that as small as this milestone might be, the capital is anxious to milk it for all its worth in an effort to get tourists back to the Mexican capital with a quickness.

Via / AP

Image via xaminmo on Flickr

Fidel Castro Accuses Mexico of Lying About Swine Flu

4:26 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia|Cuba|Health|Latin America|mexico · Comments Off

13 May 2009

We don’t hear a lot from good old Fidel Castro, but when we do, it’s always something interesting. Take this piece of new: the Mexican government is angry because the Cuban leader is accusing them of keeping the 411 about the swine flu epidemic under wraps so as not to mess up Obama’s visit to Mexico. In a piece published in Cuba’s Granma newspaper, Fidel says that because of this deception, Cubans are now paying the price as citizens there were infected:

Today the presence of the H1N1 flu virus was detected in Cuba. The carrier is a young Mexican citizen who studies medicine in our country. The only thing that can be confirmed is that it didn’t come from the CIA, it came from Mexico [...]

The Mexican authorities did not inform the world of the presence of the virus while awaiting Obama’s visit, and now they are threatening us with suspending that of President Calderón, previously suspended for other, understandable reasons unconnected to the epidemic.

Mexico is emphatically denying this accusation, and Mexican president Felipe Calderon shot back yesterday that he “acted with determination, with promptness and with one single priority, which is and will always be to protect the health and the life of Mexicans.”

On the other hand, the Mexican Secretary for Foreign Relations (SRE) says that Castro’s accusations are making things a bit, well, weird for the relations between the two countries. Patricia Espinosa Cantellano, SRE, says that the declarations “make bilateral relations awkward”.

Via / Granma and Times of India

Obama Reassures Latinos on Swine Flu Epidemic

4:35 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Health|Immigration|mexico|Obama|Politics · 13 Comments

8 May 2009

barack-obama2 As the swine flu hysteria appears to be losing momentum, President Obama reached out to the Latino community today via Latino health professionals in a town hall style meeting with the aim of reassuring Latinos that the epidemic will not lead to discrimination. AP reports:

President Barack Obama sought Friday to reassure Hispanics that swine flu won’t lead to an epidemic of discrimination in the United States just because Mexico has been the epicenter of the outbreak.

At a town hall-style meeting at the White House, Obama told about 130 Latino public health professionals and neighborhood volunteers that the nation’s plan to fight the flu will not exclude their communities. Even if some residents are here illegally, they will still be able to get medical care for the flu, administration officials assured the group.

“We’re one country, we’re one community. When one person gets sick, that has the potential of making us all sick,” Obama said. “We can’t be divided by communities.”

I think it’s interesting that Obama chose to specifically address the Latino community on this issue right now. What do you think is behind this? Just a good excuse to do a bit more courtship?

Via / AP

Obama Says Happy Cinco de Mayo, Gives Props to Mexicans, Pero Doesn’t Say a Thing About Immigration

7:00 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration|mexico · 6 Comments

5 May 2009

Cinco De Mayo commemorates Mexican army’s defeat of French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. It’s not a drinking game, gringos (damn, why I gotta go make everything racial).

President Obama made a statement yesterday about the holiday. In his statement, he speaks bad Spanish, gives props to Mexicans, especially for how they dealt with the whole swine flu thing. Pero me thinks that it was a missed opportunity for President Obama.