US swine flu scare - Dear Lovely Yankees!! Please be responsible, OK? A plague not made in China but manufactured authentically in America...

I got back from my US trip for a month already. I should have started writing about this as soon as I returned from the trip but I was just too scared - scared about the flu, scared about being a carrier, scared about spreading the flu to anyone should I happen to be a carrier. How could I not be scared, especially when I discovered that the country that has currently the most swine flu cases has chosen to turn a blind eye on the whole thing. Now, it has contaminated the whole world and people just have to put up with that because of perhaps for the political prowess, their economic might (which I believe is dwindling). I don't know. But I could share with you some of the anecdotes of this trip, hope whoever read this blog would find this enlightening and to those who happen to be Americans, not offensive but thought-provoking.

I went to Chicago virtually for an annual communication conference. My friend and I had an academic paper accepted so I was already planning the trip in February when the flu was still contained in Mexico and the Americans were still thinking themselves innocuous of the flu. I was hoping for a wonderful trip because of my extended stay in New York and it would be wonderful after not visiting one of my favorite shopping mecca for so long. I was really hoping.... to fill my wardrobe with wonderful clothes and shoes from Anthropologie, Gap, Banana Republic, Dolce Vita and Abercrombie and Fitch and last but not least, J.Crew.

Now, you may call me a material girl, but as soon as I realize that that swine flu has become extremely dire in America I was thinking of canceling the trip. I msned my friend and told him I would not come because of the flu. He could not believe his eyes and asked how come I was so paranoid about it. He explained to me that this would be a bit crazy to stop coming just because of the flu plus his supervisor would think I am a bit...um.... irresponsible not to come for the presentation. I didn't want to get my friend into trouble. So, I plucked up my courage and packed my suitcases and off I went, hoping that I would be lucky enough not to catch the flu. Just for your information: I packed sixty face masks and sixty packs of alchohol tissue paper for my six-day trip to make sure everything was sanitized when on the plane. And I kept praying that God would spare me from catching that.

As soon as I arrived at Newark, I could see lines after lines of visitors. How come people still go to America, I wondered. When it was my turn to pass through the immigration, I told the officer my purpose was to visit my friend to save my time and breath. (I had nightmarish experience in dealing with immigration officer in US. I still remembered they interrogated me while I was trying to pass through the immigration in LA, only when my ex (An Australian) told the guy that "I was with him" did they let me go. How humiliating!!!) So, they asked me how long I stayed and I told them I was just staying for six days because of the swine flu. I cut short my trip. The guy scowled and shocked that I did that, he shook his head and said, "It's nothing. Frankly, it's really nothing!" Well, not really, according to the New York Times, when schools in New York had to be closed and kids could run around the streets.

Anyway, I had a good time shopping and hanging out with my friends but the food was bad, crazy salty and super oily. Choices are not many and it was until I went to Arlington with my friend could I have some decent food. Can't believe that.

This is not a piece on the appalling American cuisine, nor my flu scare but rather a lament on how double-standard the Americans are. They pay no heed on the flu when their homeland has become the incubus of viral plague and pointed their fingers at the Mexicans when the flu broke out there. TVs and newspapers in Chicago were all about barbecues and their memorial celebration instead of warning people about the flu. How amazing when a flu was spreading so quickly could be totally unnoticed by the Americans themselves. They could have died without realizing the reason of their death.

Sometimes, you can't blame people outside America resenting Americans, for the sheer fact that when I arrived in Hong Kong and the territory was trying at all cost to prevent an outbreak by measuring passengers' temperature, one of them started screaming at the airport staff, calling Hong Kong "insane" by taking measures to curb the flu. I believe anyone who has some senses would take extra precaution after the SARS scare. I guess the insensitive and haughty attitude of the Americans could best explain why they are not really welcome by people um...I guess it's no good when one is too in love with oneself.