Why O'Reilly and radical right religious leaders are WRONG when they claim they are not responsible for inciting individual action.
Our family just returned from a week at the Mayan Riviera (northeast coast of Yucatan peninsula). Yes, Mexico. Despite the dire warnings of many well-meaning but overindulgent consumers of American media.
At the Cancun airport there were people with scanners taking the temperatures of people arriving and leaving using wands they pointed at our foreheads. They had fancy heat maps on computer screens and they were all decked out in face masks and white lab coats and blue latex gloves and acted very serious. But it was obviously all for effect. We filled out "official" health reports that were less than cursory, riddled with errors (did we have "nasal fluxe" or "leye redness"?) and not even looked at by women who stamped them while chatting with each other.
Only one other place, a grocery, had its employees wearing masks, and it was obviously a company policy that embarrassed and annoyed the workers. I think they would have liked those temperature wands to be the same ones used on Men in Black to wipe out our memory of swine flu altogether.
There is virtually no swine flu in the area (it originated in the cooler central highlands of Mexico as the virus does not thrive in heat). The locals said their country followed all the WHO guidelines by taking draconian measures. But when their precautions got reported, it created a worldwide impression that killed tourism. They feel strongly that they are being punished for following the rules. The area we visited is 100% dependent on tourism, with much of the money flowing to other parts of the country.
Our resort was at 54% occupancy and the towns and the beaches were all but deserted. The resort people were so grateful that we were there they thanked us repeatedly for coming at all. Over the last month their occupancy rate had been far lower, as were those up and down the peninsula. Fourteen large hotels have had to close.
The only silver lining was for us: it was a great time to get bargains and lovely without crowds.
My husband wore a t-shirt he's had for years that said "Don't Trust Corporate Media". People really liked that. Every Mexican national we talked to there HATES the US media for taking food out of their children's mouths.
US media: Chicken Little, Jaws and Lizzy Borden of international diplomacy. Great.