If my social-media timeline reflects reality – which it does, inerrantly – Hong Kong’s gwailo population is either despicable for not taking Wuhan Virus seriously enough, or pitiful for overreacting and descending into hypochondriac paranoia.
There are the Westerners who come up with reasons you must wear a mask with the zeal of the most desperate blockchain fanatics. And there are the expats whose idea of fun is joining hundreds of others crammed into a side-street bar area that looks like the descent into Hell even without a pandemic.
But maybe it’s not so clear-cut. The expats congregating in Lan Kwai Fong like Korean Pentecostalist super-spreaders are, from my observation, the same nervous ninnies who buy multiple gallon bottles of distilled water from the supermarket every week because they are too precious to drink the stuff that comes out of the tap. And now the stereotyping has surely jumped the shark – with Apple Daily doing an expose on plague-ridden sai yan roaming at will in our midst.
Perhaps, you may conclude, if you average it all out, white people are not really much different from everyone else. Except, of course, you would be wrong. You have forgotten about Discovery Bay – a land where time and space as we know them have no meaning.
Over in the enclave for Occidentals who find Singapore too messy, exotic and zany, they are taking WuFlu especially seriously. Vigilantes are now threatening to shoot quarantine-breakers on sight…
That’s a message from a joint called Hemingways. Aptly named for a place promising instant justice to carriers of pestilence, no? Rugged, manly and using short no-frills sentences. (So I look it up. ‘A range of tasty meat substitutes’, it says. Maybe not.)
My own descent into Hell was my foolish decision to begin reading the comment thread.
*Yes – people should avoid crowded boozed fuedled streets.
*No – you are not a public health hero for wearing a surgical mask.
What Orientals don’t realize is that white people have a special power called White Transgressive Factor (WTF) which provides complete immunity against viruses, bacteria and other infections (such as Korean boy bands). Scientists are actively investigating WTF, in particular the curious phenomenon whereby WTF only activates once the person leaves his or her own country and arrives in Asia.
@reductio – new scientific evidence suggests that the syndrome is also active in the person’s country of origin. Students returning to HK from the UK are reporting that not only does anyone wearing a mask get looked at as if they’re an extraterrestrial alien, but some schools have forbidden students to wear masks because “it may frighten the little ones”. If I were a parent paying school fees, I would be giving the school hell for assuming it has the right to prevent my child from taking whatever precautions are necvesary to protect their health.
I urge everyone to avoid Discovery Bay at all costs. It is a dreadful place, and Hemingway’s is the epitome of that horror: a meat-free, virtue-signalling boozer perched wretchedly on the shore of a man-made, tideless, reeking bay, and named after a writer who would have been angered, no doubt, by the egregious association.
If you find yourself in Hemingway’s, stop, put down your false-pork disgrace, and hand yourself in to the police.
All that silliness is a result of democracy. Most people who are raised in such systems turn out to be stoopid (>80%, likely >90%). In my view, it’s far better if the populace is given a high degree of “guidance”.
Serious question related to the WuFlu…
Is anyone able to find a pharmacy in Hong Kong that sells chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine?
The above are pharmaceutical APIs and may be sold under those two names, or they may be sold under the brand names “Aralen”, “Plaquenil”, “Resochin”, or “Dawaquin”.
(I’ve checked all over the eastern NT, with zero luck so far…)
Guy walks into a hardware store, and asks “What gets rid of the Corona virus?”
The lady replies “Ammonia cleaner”
“Oh”, he says ” I’m sorry, I thought you worked here”
@Des Espoir
You, Sir, have made my day.
Of the same ilk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7LKJXvf_do
@ Des Espoir
She does work there……as a cleaner.
Funny how those who think rule by the elite is better than democracy usually think they are among the elite who supposedly have the superior wisdom required to guide the less intelligent. You rarely hear anyone saying “I’m too stupid to think for myself, I’ll let someone else do it for me”.
Incidentally, if “stoopid” is defined as being of below average intelligence, then assuming normal distribution no more than 50% will fit this description – and most of those will be wuthin striking distance of average. But perhaps Reactor #4 needs some “guidance” in statistical analysis.
@Private Beach
I don’t accept your definition of “stoopid”. I very definitely don’t need “guidance on statistical analysis”.
Has anyone seen that thing called “Westworld” on the Netflix? It’s awfully good – a sort of Discovery Bay with cowboys.
Talking of which, despite living on Lantau for decades, l only ever walked to DB about five or six times, and couldn’t wait to get out again. Absolutely loathsome place.
And as for that “Hemingways” outfit. What a bunch of shits.
People who live in DB don’t really want to live in HK. They wish they were elsewhere. Thankfully for the rest of us they’re all helpfully self-sequestered there.
Separately am I alone I’m thinking the Western world is going to induce a seriously heavy and damaging world recession through their great freak out Walking Dead scenario reactions. This didn’t happen in HK and SG who have managed quite well despite the relatively limited wisdom of at least the HK administration.
@ Boris
“Separately am I alone I’m thinking the Western world is going to induce a seriously heavy and damaging world recession through their great freak out Walking Dead scenario reactions. This didn’t happen in HK and SG who have managed quite well despite the relatively limited wisdom of at least the HK administration.”
Was it you who was on this forum 1 month ago, claiming that the WuFlu was even less serious than the seasonal flu? If you’re still downplaying the WuFlu at this point, there’s really no point in trying to educate you otherwise.
And don’t take a victory lap yet with respect to Hong Kong and Singapore’s management of the virus. All it takes is one super-spreader, one large cluster, to initiate a chain of uncontrolled, exponential growth.
@Hamantha
Are you a genuine epidemiologist or a paranoid self (google) educated one? I’ll hazard a guess you’re the latter as none of your paranoia aligns with the pragmatic and measured advice I’ve heard most epidemiologists give. That aligns with my experience of SARS. Were you here then? Probably not. Stay indoors with your 12 months supply of tinned food. While there watch The Omega Man with Charlton Heston. You’ll enjoy it. We’ll see you when it’s over.
@Boris
Careful, you’re quickly revealing yourself to be something of a slightly-less repugnant version of Reactor #4, who at least has has the self-awareness to know he’s a troll.
Anyway, I’m glad I got my Google Epidemiology Degree(tm), what with selling off nearly all my equities in mid-February, followed by lots of lots of short selling, all while the Boris’ of the world willfully ignored the looming public health disaster and chided those who advocated caution.
/No undue offense to Reactor #4.
@ Hamantha
Disagreeing with you doesn’t make someone a troll. Attempting to associate me with someone my views don’t at all resemble is lame. Trying to buy your own non-prescribed COVID-19 treatment medication (your inquiry supra) suggests you’re prepared to recklessly self-medicate as well as plan survivalist doomsday scenarios. I’d not put money on your judgement either on epidemiology or as an investment adviser.
@ Boris
“I’d not put money on your judgement either on epidemiology or as an investment adviser.”
Funnily enough, I’m part of an investment advisory group that primarily caters to surgeons and medical personnel. In mid-February when I instructed my group that I wanted to get out of all equities, ASAP, they thought I was delusional, living in something of a “survivalist doomsday scenario” as you said.
None of the group’s dozens of high-level, extremely highly credentialed medical personnel clientle were concerned about the disease whatsoever and, as such, none moved their money whatsoever.
Anyway, good luck in the months and years to come. Given your lack of preparation, imagination and ignorance, you’ll certainly need all the luck you can come by.
@Hamantha
Most people who short sell can’t keep quiet about it in my experience. Even clowns and former security fraudsters like Andrew Left are sometimes right for the wrong reasons (Valeant) – stopped clock/twice a day. It does mean that you have a thesis to defend as you’ve bet your wealth on it. I have none as I invest beyond temporary and medium term horizons and am not worried about temporary even year long blips.
Omega Man is not far off then. Stocked up on assault rifles too and a pool you can culture algae in to eat? And the reckless self-medicating which I note you don’t like replying to.
@ Boris
“Most people who short sell can’t keep quiet about it in my experience.”
It was actually my first time to short-sell anything, and I do indeed enjoy talking about it because I beat “the Masters of the Univerise(tm)” at the IFC and elsewhere who get paid the huge bucks and practically eat, sleep, and breathe market news.
And not that anyone cares, but typically my time horizon on equities that I (formerly) held were around 10 years.
“And the reckless self-medicating which I note you don’t like replying to.”
There’s a growing number of clinical trials in countries around the world which give increasing credence to the efficacy of the “self-medicating” that I noted. I’m of course willing to admit fault with my regimine if/when contradictory evidence comes to light, but in the main, I think the disease is likely to crush healthcare systems both in Hong Kong and worldwide; thus, having treatment on-hand is absolutely necessary.
Just as I wish I would have short-sold more aggressively, I wish I had purchased more of the meds back in early February, when the prices were still reasonable on the black market (because it’s tricky to get a legit prescription for this stuff in Hong Kong).
Now that the treatment is gaining more traction with experts worldwide, the price of the stuff seems to have increased by an order of magnitude assuming you can even find it, and certain countries are curbing their exports of the stuff in order to treat their location populations. I’ve secured enough meds for close relatives, but ideally I’d like to have a lot of extra on-hand for friends and colleagues, too.
@Hamantha
“I’ve secured enough meds for close relatives, but ideally I’d like to have a lot of extra on-hand for friends and colleagues, too.”
How sweet. It’s a shame you’re not a contestant in Miss World 1975.
@hamantha
I guess we’re the only ones still paying attention. So time to end this. I don’t agree with you but don’t wish you any harm.
@Reactor #4
I don’t think Miss World 1975 would publicly state that, on the record, she wouldn’t give you a single dose of her stuff if your life depended on it.
/”Oh no, the shouty-louties are closing my favorite watering hole(s) for the forseeable future! Wherever will I get my fix!”