Althouse: "The Masked Neocolonialist."

November 15, 2009

"The Masked Neocolonialist."

"Most of my colleagues remained under house arrest while Pamela (the other uninfected mzungu) and I traveled north to see some mountain gorillas. In Muhanga, a sound truck cruised the streets announcing that Americans had brought disease, and to keep away from us. When we walked through the streets, children covered their noses and mouths and turned away. The Rwandan newspaper New Times had an article about us."

12 comments:

Kevin said...: In Belarus, they are calling H1N1 the "California Flu".; 11/15/09, 3:11 PM
Unknown said...: Diseases flow both ways; there are those who say that, while the white man brought measles and smallpox to the New World, which wiped out Indian populations to the tune of 90 - 100%, the Indians returned the favor with syphilis (sp?) - if so, talk about Montezuma's revenge (yes, I know, this is hotly debated)!

What is left out of the conversation is that the white man was just as powerless against these diseases. He may have had some immunity, but Master Will may never have gone down in history as the greatest practitioner in the history of the English language had it not been for the fact that the city of London had to be closed in the 1580's (how many times in 250 years?) due to an outbreak of the plague.

WV "lessee" Legal and commercial term, as in, "Lessee how much you owe me".; 11/15/09, 3:14 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: I hope everyone makes it home OK, and that no one dies of the flu.; 11/15/09, 3:30 PM
kentuckyliz said...: I would call it the Mexico flu. That's where I was first aware of its hitting...and killing lots of people including docs and other hospital workers...they posted about on on the BBC website.

WV metacho
Spanish for asking permission to grope; 11/15/09, 3:33 PM
LonewackoDotCom said...: Who cares about the guy at the link, whoever that is?

However, he does link to this: Should you need to cough, cover your mouth and turn away from the gorillas.; 11/15/09, 3:46 PM
J said...: New Times publishes in Rwanda? I wouldn't have thought Rwanda had enough head shops to create that kind of ad revenue. Was it free? I'll bet the personals are fascinating.; 11/15/09, 4:59 PM
Wince said...: Most of my colleagues remained under house arrest while Pamela (the other uninfected mzungu) and I traveled north to see some mountain gorillas.

Does that make Althouse his ex-mzungu?; 11/15/09, 7:29 PM
traditionalguy said...: RLC...Wake up and come home. You are not in a safe place.; 11/15/09, 7:57 PM
Jeff with one 'f' said...: I poked through his blog and recall the first post here about him being there, but I still can't figure out wtf RLC is doing in Africa...

Meanwhile, the continent that gave AIDS to the world should stfu when calling foreigners disease-carriers!; 11/15/09, 7:58 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: It's the continent that gave the world humans, too.; 11/15/09, 9:02 PM
Triangle Man said...: @Mary

The incubation time for flu is short. They were probably infected while traveling. If they did not have symptoms prior to departure then the tests would all have been negative. Still, if any of them did have symptoms, staying home would have been the right choice.; 11/16/09, 8:43 AM
Eric said...: Diseases flow both ways; there are those who say that, while the white man brought measles and smallpox to the New World, which wiped out Indian populations to the tune of 90 - 100%, the Indians returned the favor with syphilis (sp?) - if so, talk about Montezuma's revenge (yes, I know, this is hotly debated)!

It's not really hotly debated any more. Researchers found evidence of syphilis in European bones that pre-date 1492, making it a disease that existed on both sides of the Atlantic prior to Columbus.

The strain we're all familiar with was the European variety, whereas the New World variety was a non-fatal skin disease that was transmitted by non-sexual contact.; 11/16/09, 12:33 PM