BEIJING — Worried shoppers stripped stores of salt in Beijing, Shanghai and other parts of China on Thursday in the false belief it can guard against radiation exposure, even though any fallout from a crippled Japanese nuclear power plant is unlikely to reach the country...The panic shopping was triggered by rumours that iodized salt can help ward off radiation poisoning -- part of the swirl of misinformation crisscrossing the region in the wake of Japan's nuclear emergency. The rumours have flown widely. Text messages on mobile phones have circulated about nuclear plumes spreading from Japan throughout Asia. Rumours also spread that salt was adequate protection for radiation sickness. Supermarkets in the capital of Beijing and many cities across the country have run out of salt in the last several days as a wave of panic buying spread across provinces from eastern Zhejiang to southern Guangdong to western Sichuan. Prices of salt jumped five or 10-fold in southern Guangdong, the Internet portal sina.com reported.
I guess I can stop worrying about China's impending global dominance for a while, huh? Every time I really start to fear the day where I'm forced to bow and kiss the feet of some Chinese world ruler, something like this comes a long and I realize I'm just being ridiculous.
Like I totally forgot how absolutely nuts Chinese citizens area about health fears. Chugging Green Tea and Ginsing by the swimming pool, spurning western medicine and it's scientific basis.
Just look at those people above with the face masks, thats a regular occurence on the morning and evening commutes on the Boston subway. These guys are just out of their mind, still fearing the bird and swine flu's years after the fact. Remember SARS? Everyone freaking out wearing those purple sterilized gloves because the world was going to end if you came in contact with another human being? I found some Chinese woman at a check out counter last week, still wearing those same gloves, SARS was like 10 years ago at this point, time to move on.
So yes, we can table the fears of China's global dominance for now until they get over their crippling fear of breathing fresh air. Worst case scenario we just cut off their supply of Tea, Salt and medical masks and watch them self destruct.
