W.H.O. wants to protect pigs

The World Health Organization (WHO) feels the urgent need to protect pigs and, therefore, is now officially referring to the swine flu as H1N1 Influenza A.

According to the organization, pigs pose no danger or direct connection with the illness spreading around the globe. Oh? Then why the hell was it termed "swine flu" in the first place AND ground zero traced back to a pig farm outside of Mexico City??

Instead of worrying over the 300,000 pigs slaughtered in Egypt and the many other countries inacting bans on Mexican pork products, the WHO ought to be squashing global anxiety with the administration of swine flu vaccines. The vaccines exist. Why aren't they being given out?

One needn't be a wordsmith to see through the word buggery being employed. Swine flu or H1N1 or whatever they wish to label it is serious, catching and catching beyond the Third World border of Mexico.

Am reminded of Malcolm X's observation on ebbing racism. He said you can't plunge a knife in a man's back nine inches, pull it out three inches and call that progress. The knife is still in the back.

American Airlines spokesman Tim Smith said, "[For Vice President Biden]to suggest that people not fly at this stage of things is a broad brush stroke bordering on fear mongering."

Yeah leave that job to the experts at CNN, FOX, MSNBC.

"The facts of the situation at this stage anyway," adds Smith, "certainly don't support that."

Huh?! Whatever. Well, I've lived in Mexico a few times and "I" am not returning anytime soon. How stupid do they think we are?

Safely out of Mexico

Whew! Talk about timing! If I hadn't left Mexico two weeks ago I would be probably stuck there trying to get the hell out. Swine flu has popped on the scene and all but shut down the capital---Mexico City---as well as most of the rest of the country. On top of that, crossing the border just got that much more complicated. Homeland Security, after all, has to do something besides manipulating color-coded hysteria.

If the virus doesn't become pandemic the paranoia certainly already has.

My friends email me about the dismal reality that has set upon Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara. No bars, gyms, dine-in restaurants, or discos are open. All closed by political decrees in the name of public safety---never mind the awesomely low hygienic standards involving, well, everything from public transportation to fast food joints and let's not forget one still shouldn't drink the tap water.

Suddenly swine flu appears and folks remember how filthy it is to NOT cover their mouths when coughing or wash their hands after using the bathroom. Oh the common sense catastrophes re-instill in us!

Portland Square Hotel

While in NYC over the weekend I stayed in the Portland Square Hotel on W.47th Street smack between Sixth Avenue (Colony of the Americas) and Seventh Avenue (Broadway). The location is wonderful in as much as one can walk down to the corner and be in the center---Broadway---of the "center of the universe." Somewhere in the vast universe aliens are laughing with me.

The hotel is nice enough and does try to put on a good show of sophistication. The lobby is well decorated in minimalism, the reception staff wear uniforms and are professional (and, thankfully, sans that goddamn awful New Yoik dialect), and my room was comfortable and sufficiently lighted. I had a single room with private bath and, while the room small, the matrimony size bed was absolutely comfortable! On top of that, the bathroom had a tub and I had been wanting to soak in a bath of hot water for weeks on end.

In all I liked the hotel however I think the rates are steep ($126 per night). I also did not like the computer consels available on the first floor. It seemed to me the timer ticked away five minutes faster than actual time which meant one was always conscious of needing to feed the machine another dollar bill.

132 West 47th St.
New York City 10036
212.382.0600
website