Did somebody say ‘pork’?!
There’s no sensitivity like the sensitivity of Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman. It makes the sensitivity of that princess who slept on the pea look like a longshoreman’s glove.
The outbreak of swine flu should be renamed “Mexican” influenza in deference to Muslim and Jewish sensitivities over pork, said an Israeli health official Monday. Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman said the reference to pigs is offensive to both religions and “we should call this Mexican flu and not swine flu,” he told a news conference at a hospital in central Israel. Both Judaism and Islam consider pigs unclean and forbid the eating of pork products.
Oh right, so they do! Therefore it’s a hell of a good idea to name a scary lethal disease after a set of people instead of after an animal that one isn’t allowed to eat by one’s whimsical deity. Yes indeedy. Sure you don’t want to name it Perez flu? Juan and Maria flu? Spic flu? Funny little brown people on the far side of the world flu? They don’t wash their hands in Mexico flu? In deference to Muslim and Jewish sensitivities over pork and everything?
Even if you accept the dubious dietary advice of ancient religious texts, the reasoning behind Litzman’s remarks is incomprehensible.
Vegetarians don’t get offended every time someone mentions animals.
Unless they’re pigs! Then all bets are off!
Hahahaha
This stuff is so absurd it makes me erupt in hoots of laughter.
Well. This is an extreme example of paying attention to the wrong thing in the effort to stamp one’s little foot over something that might turn out to be a really serious thing. Way to trivialize, Yakov. Stay classy, dude.
Influenza Porcina has a lovely ring to it, and anyone who says it doesn’t get a big sneeze in the face and a depressed, sniveling pig of his own to care for! (Pigs apparently get depressed when they have influenza porcina, por things).
Hmmm…. I wonder what will happen when a devout (i.e. crazy) Jew or Muslim catches swine flu. Will they be “unclean” now?
Honestly, I wonder how people like this guy remember to breathe, much less become deputy health minister of a supposedly advanced industrial democracy like Israel.
Fuck Jewish and Muslim sensibilities. If they don’t want to acknowledge their genetic relationship with pigs, and the fact that animal to human transmission of disease is common, then let them live in their never never land. Good grief.
I don’t even get it. If I believed that pigs were unclean, swine flu would have me saying, “You see? You see?!”
Cam, that’s exactly what I was thinking.
Surely attaching “flu” after a word implies something bad about that word. That’s exactly why “Mexican flu” is offensive and borderline racist. So…why does “swine flu” mean “pigs are great”?
Perhaps there’s a psychological issue here, a patient mental health/comfort issue? Breaking cultural taboos can cause mental anguish depending on how strong those taboos are. If you’re a doctor, taking care of a patient who is feeling absolutely miserable and unclean because she has something called “swine flu,” calling it something else might be the ethical thing to do.
That’s about the only reason I can think up for this.
Jakob as a vegetarian I am deeply offended by your use of the word animals.
All those in favour of renaming some incredibly unpleasant gastric disease involving copious and noxious discharges from both ends of the GI tract to ‘Litzman Syndrome’ plz raise their hands…
Why the surprise? Consider who appointed this silly Litzman: Netanyahu.
Btw, on another favorite subject:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/poll/2009/apr/22/prince-charles-architecture
So what? 71% of people polled say; so what? My claim was never that what Charles does is unpopular; my claim has always been that he abuses a position he has by accident of birth as opposed to any talent or expertise. I don’t admire that kind of thing. I don’t object to the architectural branch as much as I object to the alt med branch, because the former is not life-threatening while the latter is, but I do still object. A poll has nothing to do with that.
‘…the former is not life-threatening while the latter is…’
I dunno. It seems to me a guy with the reasoning skills Charles demonstrates in alt-med isn’t probably the guy you want doing your blueprints either:
‘This? Ah, this is the alternative staircase, sport. It’s a shallow ornamental fountain containing the diluted *essence* of staircase. You just jump into the fountain, see…’
(… which is harmless enough for ascending, I guess. But not so much for coming back down.)
Ha!
Well it’s only relatively less worrying – I wouldn’t say it’s not worrying at all!
Well then, OB you will probably agree, as I generally do, with this editorial calling for POW to shut up or step down:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/20/prince-charles-richard-rogers-chelsea
Even though I very much agree with Windsor’s urban planning views, it appears to be a dangerous precedent for a constitutional monarch figure-head (or anyone in the Royal Family) to get involved with public policy matters.
(Of course I’d like to hear what British constitutional lawyers think is the proper extent of Royal involvement and whether Windsor is close to or exceeding the boudary.)
Yes it is tough for a Royal with sincere and strongly-held beliefs to be forcd to sit on the sidelines. Yes Princess Diane probably did good with her anti-AIDS efforts. And I think that Charles has done samewith his urban planning. Then again it is a good thing that Churchill et al shut up an earlier Prince of Wales.
The danger of inherited unelected power seems too real to me. And if Charles (or any of them) really believe so much in their ideals, then let them resign their position. Practically, they will have lost little social prestige or money but increased their political prestige by their resignation.
I cannot defend Litzman’s reasoning. He reminds me of my great uncle Abe, who refused to eat off a serving platter because it was decorated with a ceramic lobster.
However, the flu epidemics of the twentieth century have been named for the places in which they originated,i.e. the Spanish flu, the Hong Kong flu etc. It isn’t necessarily insulting to refer to this outbreak as the Mexican flu. Perhaps the Mexico City flu would be more apt.
David, yeah I do agree with that piece, and I linked to it in News a few hours ago.
That’s all I’m saying! I don’t much like the idea of a big glass tower opposite the Royal Hospital either; I don’t much like the idea of any drastic change to that bit of London; but I hate Charles’s presumption.
The thing about the frustration of being on the sidelines with strong beliefs is a little distorted because he would be on the sidelines anyway – it’s too easy to forget that the only reason he has the megaphone is because he’s in a position by birth that won’t allow him to use it. If he weren’t a royal he would be very much on the sidelines because no one would care about his opinions.
“However, the flu epidemics of the twentieth century have been named for the places in which they originated,i.e. the Spanish flu, the Hong Kong flu etc. It isn’t necessarily insulting to refer to this outbreak as the Mexican flu.”
You have made a great point there, Julia, but, Litzman stated”…[t]he outbreak of swine flu should be renamed “Mexican” influenza in deference to Muslim and Jewish sensitivities over pork,”
He should have ommitted to say, “in deference, etc”….as it then would have appeared not necessarily insulting to a lot of people.
There is no clear evidence that this influenza started in Mexico. There were three cases in San Diego/Imperial counties CA and a couple in Texas before any were identified in Mexico or Mexico City.
It’s premature to give this influenza a place name.
And, because I am feeling annoyed, it’s also totally stupid to rename it anything just because it has the magic string of letters p, o, r, k in it.
Some People should think a little bit about the relationship between a string of letters and its meaning and the object it names. Saying the letters doesn’t stand for eating the thing. I just want to slap pronouncement-makers.
Off-topic:
O – do you know when your new book will be available stateside? It appears to be available through Amazon in the UK only, unless I’m being a dolt.
Also, I’d like to encourage our local indie bookstores in VT to carry it, since I’d rather give them my money than give it to Amazon.
Also completely off topic, there’s a good piece in the American Prospect about female genital mutilation and the clash between human rights and “culture.”
http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=rights_versus_rites
Spanish flu didn’t originate in Spain, but in US Army camps.
And swine flu is what it is, it doesn’t need a new name.
Maybe PETA will be the next bunch to object to the name, and demand it be changed to “Fluffy-wuffy ickle piggy-wiggy cough-coughs” instead…?
Or perhaps its a whole lot more sinister, and they’re trying to make it out to be as terrifying and monstrous as possible – eg. maybe it’s PETA behind a lot of the “TWITter”-based scaremongering about eating pork…?
Of course, none of the above could ever have even the remotest coincidence with the truth, I hasten to add… :-)
“There is no clear evidence that this influenza started in Mexico. There were three cases in San Diego/Imperial counties CA and a couple in Texas before any were identified in Mexico or Mexico City.”
I heard on RTE Irish radio this afternoon that some people from the southern part of America – who went to Mexico passed on the swine flu.
One case has now been discovered in ireland.