Job Discussion Forums

davis · Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2003 3:22 am Post subject: They'll beat your dogs...

Well,our school's quarentined until May 10th. They recalled a few of the office staff and any Chinese teachers living off campus and made them move to the school. We foreign teachers are not allowed at the school now because it's a foreigner disease as everyone knows. No sweat,I'd rather be in my apartment than the school dorm. We were advised not to leave our apartment complex also. We foreign teachers happen to have pets and we take them for walks. Last couple of days we've been getting flack from people and I've just learned that they posted a sign at the complex gate and others around the city that if you have a dog and are spotted walking it out doors your dog is subject to being beaten to death by the general public. I wonder what the next wave of idiocy will bring.

hubei_canuk · Joined: 20 Apr 2003 Posts: 240 Location: hubei china

Davis, i think you might be in Beijing but i'm not sure.
..
It would be really useful to the rest of us if we knew where you were.
If it's a big city then what area?.
Are you saying you live off-campus and are not quarantined?
Then you are lucky.
Or do you have an apartment compound within the school?
thanks..

TEECHER · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Posts: 47

HI ALL, the "dog idiocy" is not confined to your area perhaps. I live in Mianyang, Sichuan province{5-7million}. My Chinese friends are now keeping their pets "in hiding" as the pet will be destroyed if found in their "living unit" . Your comment on "it's a foreigner disease" gave me an abrupt pause. I was assured by my school that I was under no obligation to stay and teach. I know this directive was handed down from our foreign affairs office here. I think perhaps there may be a move in the very near future to "accomodate" the removal of foreigners from China. As you are fully aware.....all we can do is spread mis-truths about what is really going on in China. Buckle up kids, and consider your health first. Do you want to go to a hospital in the PRC for a serious illness considering hospital availability, expertise, equipment, and hygiene......in the midst of the growing numbers? If you choose to stay in China, you will not be allowed out of the country once you are sick{with SARS} Get ready for some amazing turns of events.This has'nt even begun to get interesting yet. Consider travel restrictions, anti-Western sentiments, the removal of all pets, and schools suggesting that you "need not stay" . Beijing is on the verge of martial law. We have seen before in China, when "the machine" fails at one level, it just revs up to the next level of efficiancy using whatever means it takes. The next while should prove interesting me thinks. Bye for now.

davis · Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2003 5:34 am Post subject:

Actually I'm in Nanning. Guangxi. Which is supposed to have fewer cases. The foreign teachers live off campus as did the office staff and a couple of teachers with families that could afford to. The office staff and Chinese teachers were told to stay at the school and can't leave. No one in or out. I was mainly trying to point out how the powers that be are handling things. Seems as though anyone with any power is suddenly making rules or edicts that really do little more than expose their ignorance and create more problems. My step daughter goes to a public school and the wise ones there have opted to send the children home for lunch as their method of containment. So whether I go downtown or not the risk remains that she can get infected and pass it along to me. But not to worry. The principle and head English teacher of my school came around today and gave us some Chinese medicine that will prevent us from getting it. I have no idea what it is. 10 bottles of something foul. Now if they'd just issue me a decent bio-hazard suit I'd be ready for a vacation....

MartinK · Joined: 01 Mar 2003 Posts: 344

davis · Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2003 9:05 am Post subject:

I'm saying that unofficially it is considered a foreign disease. It is easier to blame the origins on foreigners bringing the disease into China rather than admit the unsanitary conditions of the food markets and general spitting,urinating and defecating in public places that are to blame. Just like your family pet that you've had since last September is to blame. They refuse to think that their open sewage might be a factor also.
Here's something from AP.....Authorities also suspended registration of marriages between foreigners and Chinese in order to help curb SARS, said an official at the city government's Civil Affairs Department. Registrations of marriages between Chinese citizens were unaffected, said the official, who would only give his surname, Wang. He would not explain the dual policy, or say how it could control SARS.

hubei_canuk · Joined: 20 Apr 2003 Posts: 240 Location: hubei china

"Authorities also suspended registration of marriages between foreigners and Chinese in order to help curb SARS, said an official at the city government's Civil Affairs Department. Registrations of marriages between Chinese citizens were unaffected, said the official, who would only give his surname, Wang. He would not explain the dual policy, or say how it could control SARS." Davis
----------------------------------------------------------
Of course foreigners are responsible for sars. It's government nurtured ancient xenophobia. It's what makes communism strong!! Blaming foreign governments and never looking inward.
Find an external enemy and they never have to clean house.
Who knows if this thing gets too bad mobs might hunt us foreigners down in revenge!
I'll never forget in some small village a little kid got hurt once so he saw me and came over and kicked me to make himself feel better.
Another time in a Yangshuo cafe a toddler was crying in his mother's arms sitting next to me (about somethig else not about me).
So she encouraged him to look at me... not to distract him , but she encouraged him to try to hit me as a way to blame someone and stop crying.
..
SO.......
they are taught from infancy: FOREIGNERS ARE TO BLAME FOR EVERYTHING!!!!
We created the disease in Canada. we brought it to China in our airplanes.
WHY DO WE FOREIGNERS CAUSE THEM SO MUCH PAIN.?
WHY DO WE FOREIGNERS NEVER UNDERSTAND THE CHINESE PEOPLE?
......
I remember a popular song:
Our guns are ready for them
if they come to our homeland
Our sweet motherland
in the warm sun"
..
But the song was written a few years ago... not in any war...
??
and i never figured out who "THEY" were..
but i'm sure it's US!!!!!!!!

hubei_canuk · Joined: 20 Apr 2003 Posts: 240 Location: hubei china

"Actually I'm in Nanning. Guangxi. Which is supposed to have fewer cases. The foreign teachers live off campus as did the office staff and a couple of teachers with families that could afford to. The office staff and Chinese teachers were told to stay at the school and can't leave. No one in or out. I was mainly trying to point out how the powers that be are handling things." - Roger
-------------------
This is a little worrisome.
This, also and the report on this board of another school outside the big three: BJ SH and GZ.
Thsi is an escalation.
Now i just looked at Guangxi stats.. 16 infections 8 released 3 deaths.
???????????????????
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Quarantine belies these statistics.
Guangxi is the interior, but i think Nanning must be a little bit rich being the Capital.
Roger: Can you confrm any cases at the school?
Are you on a two term contract with standard airfare clauses?
Any problem with salary or airfare refunding?
++++++++++++
A foreigner with a dog: Be careful you both might get beaten.
I'd hate to be a dog in China.
If you are not eaten, you are beaten.
A few years ago , or maybe still today in Beijing and some places dogs were executed. Not allowed as pets. The story i read in Beijing was that an owner ws forced to kill (bludgeon) his own dog by the cops who bust down his door and found him with the illegal dog.
..
Not EVEN a dog's life.
...

davis · Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2003 12:22 pm Post subject:

HC...Roger didn't post that info,I did. I was hoping he might add something though. As far as infected students...don't know. So far the school has honored everything else. They've actually been pretty decent all the way around. Scheduling,paying on time,advance notice of changes etc. I'm not so worry about the school policies as I am about all the little bosses. Guangxi,Nanning,the apartment complex,etc. Really I can't fault the school,only the experts that claimed there was no virus 2 weeks ago.

Steiner · Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Posts: 573 Location: Hunan China

I just got back from a teacher's meeting here at my school. Seems we're quarantined, too, but this doesn't really apply to the foreign teachers here. The students all live here and aren't allowed to leave or have their parents come on campus until at least May 15. But the school has been (for the most part) reasonable. The main concern is all the students and workers fleeing here from infected areas, so it's those people the quarantine is aimed at keeping out. It's also rice-planting season, so workers always come from neighboring areas to find jobs. I am still allowed to go into town and people from town are still allowed to come in to deliver water, gas, etc. There've been no cases officially reported nearby, so it's not all-out panic yet (even though inspectors from Changsha are coming this week).

And in other good news: the workers' dog that has been living under my window keeping up his 8:00p.m. to 2:00a.m. barking vigil every night for the last two weeks disappeared tonight. Apparently it was keeping the school principal awake, too. But since it didn't have SARS I don't think they beat it to death. If they hadn't stopped its barking soon, though, my wife would have Smile

Edit:added smiley face so absolutely everyone knows it's a joke.

davis · Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2003 2:18 pm Post subject:

Stein...If the dog didn't have SARS what happened to it? Where did it go? Most likely into the hotpot. If not the owners then someone else's. Hope I'm wrong...p.s. I don't condone yapping dogs in the middle of the day or night...usually means they need something the owner isn't providing. Your wife should've thought about beating the ignorant owner instead.

TEECHER · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Posts: 47

Hello Steiner, Good news for who????? Surely not the dog. If they really figured that the dog didnt have SARS....they probably ate him!

chinasyndrome · Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2003 2:45 pm Post subject:

[quote="davis"]

davis · Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2003 3:08 pm Post subject:

Makes sense to me... In a Chinese sort of way. So foreigners are more valuable human beings than Chinese? I think it's more consistent with the blame foreigner to save the Chinese mentality. But I'm glad they're looking out for our interests. Now if they'd only quit pi--ing on the hospital floors and hawking spit also, maybe it would be a tad bit safer for a physical...I was married here and it is a compulsory physical for both parties. But we had to have our physicals done at a regular quarentine/immigration/emmigration type facility. Not a hospital. But I'm happy to know that they might be aware that their facilities are germ pits...Now if they would only care about it things might improve...

chinasyndrome · Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2003 3:24 pm Post subject:

I married here too. My wife and I went to what they call the 'Women and Children's Hospital', which anyone can go to anytime. It seems the process varies from time to time, as my foreign friend and his soon-to-be wife were asked to sit through a video about the responsibilities of marriage, but my wife and I weren't even told about the video.

All 4 of us have found some similarities, in that what we were told by our embassies, the information given by the bureau in Guangzhou, and what was actually required in Shantou bore very little resemblance to each other.