15453: Lyall: SARS and chinese at labor day (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: jedidiah daudi lyall <jdlyall@netscape.net>

On May day, labor day, I went down to cham de mars with madam to see the
labor day festivities.
Doc Phillipe told me that the agricultural fair is held there for may
day. I had looked forward to labor
union parades as that is my customary fete on labor day in usa. Couldn't
find any syndicate parades tho.

Some days before I had been told of the chinese who wanted to come off a
ship in PauP harbor but
were being denied entry due to the 'chinese disease'. This is the sars
virus which has the world in a panic.
Toronto is said to be a closed city due to the sars invasion and
haitians are apparently saying that
millions of people around the world have died of it.

Lucienne, madam mwen, didn't want to take the baby downtown because of
the chinese disease.

We met up with Dok Phillipe at the arts n crafts booths downtown and
went off to find the menangerie
where a caiman was supposed to be in residence. Didn't see any chinese
but it was said that the president
had ruled that the chinese on the ship were not infected and were to be
allowed off their ship.
Some rumours had manifestations heading to the port to prevent them
disembarking.
We saw a Brahma bull that the methodist agricultural station was
exhibiting and a real bee hive.
Goats too, but they didn't look any different from a country haitian
goat to me. The Brahma bull
was impressive. Dok said they will cross breed him with the haitian long
horns. The haitian cattle
are probably descended from spanish cattle of 500 years ago.

Now, phillipe had seen the ships at the port, two of them. He said that
they looked like military ships,
real ships sitting at the port and that exhibits and acrobats were
supposed to perform in la ville.
We saw no evidence of that.

I am wondering if a formal Taiwanese cultural visit was aborted due to
our fear of the chinese disease.

I did get sick that day with dyarea and lay in bed for three days
wondering if the chinese had been
allowed to breathe downtown.

The agrikol fair was a nice event. I'd recommend it to anyone. Just
don't eat the barbeque. It isn't fresh.

oh, this morning the bbc world service reported that sars is now
believed to be able to survive up to 24 hours
outside the body and up to 4 days in sewage. Maybe it can get to hayti?

-- 
j.david lyall
http://www.lyalls.net