lff12

I couldn't help feeling a slight unease when I read today about the swine flu alerts for people travelling from "affected areas."  Not least because I was travelling in one of them just under 12 days ago.  Well this is the thing - I was in Southern California between 31/3 and 6/4 and again from 12/4 to 14/4.  Now it appears to me that realistically, an "affected area" is an area where there have been deaths, such as Mexico city.  Then again, you have to wonder.  My first 6 days were at a location (Palm Springs) in the middle of the traditional "spring break" where lots of locals go travelling, and the majority of the thousands of people I was at the same circuit party as were from the LA and San Diego regions.

And yet, for whatever reason, it appears that the strain of H1N1 that is around southern California appears to be just "mild."  You can't help wondering if there is actually something to worry about though, although I have to say I'm very asthmatic and very suspectible to respiratory diseases so if there was something on the go, I can be fairly sure that I would have caught it, no surer thing for me!!

So I suspect that the scene at Hong Kong and KL are way over the top, particularly considering that such places were such a hub for previous infestations of diseases such as SARs and bird flu.  (Ok maybe not KL, which is by far probably the only city in Asia I've been to that I can even remotely describe as hygenic, compared to Bangkok, which is pretty filthy, and some of Hong Kong is pretty grubby, despite the rigorous cleaning it seemed to get).  I am guessing that something isn't being measure or publicised in Mexico, probably for political and economic reasons.  Huge amounts of USA dollars have been heaved into the Mexican economy as part of outsourcing initiatives designed to exploit low labour costs (usually at US workers expense) and lax labour laws.

It certainly does raise a further question about how stable and reliable these countries really are.  Mexico, seemingly, has repaced Colombia as the key lynchpin of the cocaine supply route.  It is increasingly becoming a very dangerous place to travel to, which can only slow down potential US investment in the region as comapnies will increasingly become concerned about political stability.  And with the Taliban closing in on Islamabad, and increasing levels of millitant Islamicism in previous mild places like Malaysia and Indonesia, one has to wonder how long it is going to take before the level of political instability in such countries start to threaten both their local tourist industries and international investment.  Thailand is a particular case in point - it has a long history of political problems and bloodless coups, you've got to wonder how long it will take before they become a threat to tourism, and not simply because of problems travelling.

The interesting thing about Thailand is that the southern, Muslim part of Thailand is considered to be relatively dangerous, yet northern Malaysia, where the supposed Islamic threat presumably feeds, is probably the safest Muslim country you can visit.  In fact I've a particular soft spot for Malaysia, which I would consider to be just as good as Thailand minus the whoring, aggressive hawkers and barely legalized begging masquerading as tourist related business.  I would really be saddened if the mild-mannered old fashioned and polite Islam domainant here was ever to be ousted by the agressive and warlike Islam spreading rapidly throughout the Muslim world.