Thursday, May 14, 2009

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Cruise Ship Industry reroutes passengers from Puerto Vallarta to San Diego, which has 25 times more confirmed cases of H1N1

Princess Cruise Lines diverted the Sapphire Princess from Puerto Vallarta to San Diego and Catalina Island. San Diego has over 50 confirmed cases of H1N1, as compared to 2 confirmed cases in Puerto Vallarta. There is no logic behind this move if the cruise ship giant's goal was protecting the safety of their passengers. There is however an enormous financial benefit to the two US destinations benefitting from the H1N1 hysteria, and the crusie ship company which is paying much less for fuel. (read the original article here)
The cruise ship operators put a clause in every ticket contract that says that the destinations can be changed at any time. This is allowing them to charge for a Pacific Mexico cruise while basically just idling around California. I'm sure there will be discounts, but if you paid for an international cruise and your cell phone never even switches to roaming, are you getting what you wanted in the first place? If it were me, I'd call the cruise operator and demand that they credit you with twice as many tickets and wait until they get their act together.

Friday, May 8, 2009

The US media's coverage of Mexico

I wanted to find a way to demonstrate to myself and others the tone of the US media with respect to Mexico. I'm not doing anything majorly scientific here, just trying a few different Google searches to see what the results are.

Let's see what happens when we Google "world health organization praises mexico" Ok, here's the sources of the first ten responses to that search;

1. telegraph.co.uk UK "WHO praises Mexico's response to virus "
2. health.mashget.com India "Mexico's professionalism, responsibility and transparency"
3. english.people.cn China "praised Mexico's professionalism"
4. sploid.com Blog "WHO praises Mexico's response"
5. javno.com Croatia "WHO has praised the Mexican government"
6. Delewareonline.com First US site "Mexico's reaction draws praise from experts"
7. Boston.com US site local news "Harvard Dean praises Mexico's response"
8. Japantimes "Mexican ambassador praises aid"
9. comcast US site "Obama praises vets" "Mexico citizens stay home"
10. new yorkblips "The Obama administration is winning praise"

Huh. From that search you would think that the US didn't have many websites at all. The two largest of the group above weren't about Mexico's accolades at all. Wierd. Lets see what happens when we search "mexico blamed for swine flu"

1. Foxnews.com "people in Mexico were dying of flu-like symptoms "
2. Msnbc.com "Americans who got swine flu had traveled to Mexico"
3. Pontealdia.com "U.S. Immigrants, Mexico Blamed For Swine Flu"
4. Cathnews.com "US priest blames swine flu on Mexico abortion laws"
5. Time.com "Don't blame the pig"
6. Huffingtonpost "Conservatives blame immigrants"
7. Globalresearch.ca "Blamed on Industrial Farming in Mexico?"
8. Mediamatters.org "media figures blaming Mexican immigrants"
9. Amazilia.com "Blame it on NAFTA"
10.negociosempresa "Conservative media baselessly blame swine flu outbreak on immigrants"

Hmmm. With a search regarding the WHO praising Mexico's performance during the crisis, the largest US media outlet represented that actually did repeat the WHO's sentiment was either delewareonline or boston.com. The other two US sources actually were running articles praising the US response. Now, when we search something like "Mexico blamed for swine flu" we get responses from some slightly bigger US players. Fox News, Huffington Post, Time, Mediamatters even MSNBC.

What fascinates me the most about this unscientific little experiment is that Mexico did do it right. They approached the WHO 8 days before the WHO responded with an advisory. They shut down schools and services and did an amazing job of containing the spread of the disease. Why wasn't that news to the major US media outlets? The articles blaming Mexico for the disease seemed to make the cut with FOX, MSNBC and the others even though Mexico is no more to blame for their outbreak than the US or the Phillipines was for their outbreaks.

The above example illustrates the need for this site's quest for non-biased research and data on the news surrounding Mexico, no?

Thursday, May 7, 2009

MFRA Travel Advisories



The Mexican Foreign Residents Association has issued the following travel advisories.



MFRA strongly recommends against travel to China. The polluted air in China will be responsible for the premature deaths of over 1.75 million people this year, even short term exposure to China's air can cause long term permanent damage. The elderly and very young are especially vulnerable. This travel advisory will be eased when China's "epidemic" of environmental pollution is brought under control. The MFRA recommends against holding your breath until that happens as this has been proven to lead to death.



MFRA reports indicate that there are over 45 murders each day in the United States, and that approximately 1.5 million people are victims of violent crime each year. Although areas such as New Orleans, Chicago and New Jersey have much higher crime rates than other parts of the United States, we recommed you just avoid the place entirely. This has nothing whatsoever to do with the US media's frequent generic references to "violence in Mexico" which constantly recycle border crime statistics and apply them to travel advisories (especially during vacation seasons) for the entire country. Really, absolutely nothing to do with it. We swear.

Conficker virus infects computers in Haiti

A computer virus has been found on a library computer in Haiti. Infected computers make flatulence sounds whenever a file is deleted.

The nation of Egypt took immediate and decisive action...
Egyptian government's response (click here)

China swiftly followed with measures of their own...
Chinese government's response (click here)