Tag Archives: health

in english

Recommended book: A life Too short, the tragedy of Robert Enke

Robert Enke was a German professional football goalkeeper who commited suicide at the top of his career, on the eve to represent his country at the 2010 World Cup. This book details his life, his career and his struggle with the pressures of professionalism and depression which led to his tragic end.

It is often unrecognized that a person’s mental health is as important as his physical one. Sadly it was only after this event that the German Football Federation started offering counselling to players.

in english

Beans = Kryptonite

Huarache
I’m allergic to beans. Maybe that’s why I had to flee so far I ended up in Finland 😛 .  Take the delicacy above, called huarache, for example. It happens to have beans inside the dough, and made me sick the whole night after I ate it.  At least I didn’t end up in hospital with serum like the time before that.

It’s ridiculous. It’s akin to a Finn being allergic to potatoes or a Japanese being physically unable to eat seaweed.

in english

And the swine flu was gone

Swine flu information

After the huge media coverage surrounding the A H1N1 situation in Mexico in April, it was a relief to see how calm everything on that front was when we were there in June & July.

The only signs I saw during our trip that anything like that had happened were info posters like the one above in some stores and the availability of hand disinfectant in many public places.  The only people wearing handmasks I saw in my whole trip were Asian tourists arriving to Mexico City airport.  Needless to say, neither I nor anybody I know was affected.

Since it’s summer, the situation in Mexico has calmed down, unlike what is happening in the South American winter season.  I find it funny that hasn’t made the news as much.

One of my friends was working at the National Institute for Respiratory Diseases in Mexico City in the middle of the crisis.  Funnily enough, he says he was not busiest  during the outbreak but afterwards, to return the hospital back to normal.

in english

Drinking before travelling

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One hand, two beers

Originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado

Don’t get me wrong, as any long-time reader of this blog knows, I like my beer. However, I find rather disgusting when people going on holiday start drinking on their departure airport before breakfast time.

I understand the need to unwind, but have you ever thought that If you need a beer or a glass of champagne before 7 a.m. in front of your kids you might have a problem?

in english

Times of swine flu

New 20 Peso note

Even though the name is rather contentious, it is definitely the main news topic worldwide.   The rate of new cases seems to be going down in Mexico according to the Health Ministry, but there have been more deaths in Mexico and the first one abroad and the disease has spread to more countries, including a suspected case in Finland.  In Mexico City most of my friends and family keep on staying home, and most have already paid a heavy-duty visit to the supermarket.  I certainly hope the situation stabilises before other countries besides Argentina and Cuba suspend flights to the country.

In the cultural reaction front, there is plenty of photoshopped images doing the rounds, and others taken from the scene.  There is now a second swine flu song, the first has been translated to English, and people keep on using humour as a way to cope, especially that now even restaurants in the city are closed (with losses of more than 70 million USD per day).

in english

Continuing with the story

The WHO has raised its alert status to level 4. There have been over 2,300 cases in Mexico now, 700 still in hospital, 150 deceased.  There are confirmed cases in Spain and Scotland, and closer to home suspected cases in Belgium, Sweden, Norway & Denmark.  To make matters even worse, there was an earthquake in Mexico City today, although there is no reports of damages.

Although Mexicans are now starting to sound worried, some still cope by joking.  Some people commented that the earthquake was basically another way of sneezing, and the influenza song now has a video.  People are still staying home, following the instructions of the government, and the school shutdown has been expanded nationwide.  If you speak Spanish, the Mexican Presidency has live video coverage of the situation here.

en español, in english

The reactions to swine flu in Mexico

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Football games cancelled in Mexico City
Football games cancelled in Mexico City

One very interesting consequence of the current situation with swine flu in Mexico (New Yortk Times, BBC, El Universal, Hesari) has been the reaction of the public.  While of course the healthcare system is taking all possible measures and people are worried, quite a few have tended to cope with the situation through jokes (some of a very dark nature). People have started joking about zombies, politics, Hollywood disaster movies or the fact that it seems to be a mutation of bird, swine and human flu.  There’s even a swine flu song…

A selection of tweets below (mostly in Spanish, sorry):