Let's Rename Swine Flu As "Colbert Flu" 607
Bruce Perens writes "The World Health Organization will no longer refer to Virus A(H1N1) as 'Swine Flu,' citing ethnic reactions to 'swine,' for example among middle-eastern cultures who feel that swine are unclean. Or, is it because meat packers are concerned that people might stop eating pork in fear of the virus? WHO suggests that the public select a new name for the virus. I suggest that we all start calling it The Colbert Flu, after the comedian and fake pundit who asked his audience to stuff a NASA poll so that a Space Station module would be named after him. What can we do to make the name stick?"
Re:+1 Vote for Mexican Flu (Score:4, Informative)
Unfortunately for us, the origin of the flu is turning out to be from the United States, not Mexico. So, the USA Flu then you are suggesting?
Just tell Colbert your idea... (Score:4, Informative)
The Plight of the Copts (Score:5, Informative)
There is a real problem in Egypt, which is persecuting its Coptic Christians by slaughtering their pigs. A minority in Egypt are Christian, the word "Copt" refers to their Egyptian ethnicity.
Some of the Copts farm pork, which the majority of Egyptian Islamic citizens (and their powerful clerics) feel are unclean. The Copts feed the pigs by recycling garbage, compounding their unclean nature in the eyes of Islamics. So, the Egyptians are slaughtering the pigs in the fear that they are influenza vectors.
We don't actually know that the pig is a vector for the virus at all. Thus, the Egyptian slaughters are unwarranted. We do know that human-to-human contact is a problem this time. The pigs are where influenza genes are often mixed, because they are susceptible to avian, human, and swine viruses. There probably was one pig-to-human transmission at the beginning of this epidemic, but there isn't evidence of continuing transmission after that.
The Copts are persecuted like most religious minorities in religious states. You don't see many of them in government (and none in high positions) or education. They don't often get government permission to build churches, and in 2007 there were Islamic riots because the people around the Copts thought they wanted to build a church. They need government permission to perform religious services.
The bottom line here is that the Egyptians, by slaughtering the pigs, remove the livelyhood of the Copts. They aren't promising to restore that livelyhood.
Re:Colbert != comedian (Score:5, Informative)
Colbert is an example of cultural humor. The Colbert character is a parody of American right-wing demagogues.
Unless you are familiar with those demagogues, you'll not understand the comedy.
It's like slashdot humor. Unless you're familiar with the memes, the subject matter, and the jokes that have come before, 3/4 of the jokes just won't be funny to you.
That's the problem with humor... little of it is universal (not even poop jokes are universal, as some cultures don't have the same hang-ups about doody that we do). Slapstick is probably the only truly universal humor.
Re:Let's not (Score:5, Informative)
I assumed it was after "Serenity" from the Firefly series.
No it didn't (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Trichinosis (Score:3, Informative)
Re:+1 Vote for Mexican Flu (Score:4, Informative)
No, it hasn't.
There was an outbreak of an influenza that was named swine flu at Fort Dix in the past. It didn't spread (although I've read it lead to a vaccine campaign that was linked to Guillain-Barre symdrome).
This form of influenza is not the same as the swine flu that happened then, just like this year's other predominant "human" influenza strains are not the same as the ones last year, or the year before. (Sometimes they do last for more than one year, but it is not a common occurance.)
Re:Dear Bruce... (Score:5, Informative)
The thing is: it is swine flu.
Actually, its not. The original swine flu was not able to jump from human to human, you could only catch it from being in close contact with pigs. This flu is actually two parts swine flu, one part bird flu and one part human flu. Although this is mostly swine, the other elements are what has enabled to it spread through the human population as it never has before.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swine_influenza [wikipedia.org]
If it was still just good old swine flu, it would not be romping through the human population with reckless abandon.
Re:Dear Bruce... (Score:4, Informative)
"Irony" is also a form of sarcasm, but reserved for observation of unfortunate associations.
Goodness, where do people come up with this stuff?
irony [ahy-ruh-nee, ahy-er-]
-noun, plural -nies.
1. the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning: the irony of her reply, "How nice!" when I said I had to work all weekend.
2. Literature.
a. a technique of indicating, as through character or plot development, an intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually or ostensibly stated.
b. (esp. in contemporary writing) a manner of organizing a work so as to give full expression to contradictory or complementary impulses, attitudes, etc., esp. as a means of indicating detachment from a subject, theme, or emotion.
3. Socratic irony.
4. dramatic irony.
5. an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected.
6. the incongruity of this.
7. an objectively sardonic style of speech or writing.
8. an objectively or humorously sardonic utterance, disposition, quality, etc.
Your definition seems to meet #5, but Colbert makes heavy use of definition #1 (and to a lesser extent, #7), which means the use of the term "irony" is quite justified. Alanis is another story, of course, but that's been discussed before. :)
Re:+1 Vote for Mexican Flu (Score:3, Informative)