Salty silliness

While it has been heart breaking to read the news and see the clips and pictures of the devastation in Japan, the Chinese’s reaction to what’s been going on has been borderline laughable. Of all the times to get in a frenzy the Chinese chose now? Now, I’m not trying to play down the real and plausible threat of a nuclear meltdown, or make light of the fact that thousands of lives have been lost and there are some still risking their lives to prevent another catastrophe or negate the potential for radiation to make its way over to the big dragon. But latest of “dumb ideas” is sweeping China by storm and taking all the salt with it. That’s right. The country is buying up all the salt.

New sources are now reporting that the radioactivity from Japan could contaminate the food supply, and supposedly a SMS is being spread throughout the country (and possibly Asia) that is saying that people need to buy all the salt they can get their hands on. Other reasons for the stalk up on salt are that these people think that salt will prevent thyroid cancer. But this CNN article dispels that myth pretty assuredly. And here are some pictures to show the mayhem.

What is so ridiculous about all of this is that there have been countless food safety issues in China in the past year (past week even) and people have just gone about their marry way. God only knows what is in the food over here (literally, I think God is the only one who knows) and I just don’t get why now, of all times, there is this sudden need to take precautions – that are useless mind you.

I kind of wonder if the country would be in the same panic if the radiation was coming from somewhere else (like Indonesia). Part of me thinks that this whole uproar doesn’t partly stem from their attitudes toward the Japanese. Now I am not going to generalize and say “the average Chinese person hates the Japanese,” but there is still some clear hostility toward their island neighbor (which can be seen in the paper I work for). So I wonder if these people who are so panicked about salt aren’t subconsciously, or consciously, doing so because this radiation isn’t just any old regular radiation, it’s Japanese radiation; really bad radiation. There’s no report or analysis to back this up. It’s just by passive observation.

Despite the salty silliness, my heart aches for the Japanese, those who have lost loved ones, and those who are putting their health and lives on the line to prevent another disaster.