Sunday, May 3, 2009

Headlines you never thought you would read -- China Quarantines Mexicans - WSJ

Headlines are a powerful tool in news media.

China, which is coincidentally one of the main topics discussed on this site is frequently thrown into headlines I never thought I would read before.

In tribute to such I have decided to start a theme -- "Headlines you never thought you would read."

Here are some excerpts from today's Wall Street Journal article titled "China Quarantines Mexicans."



BEIJING -- The A/H1N1 flu outbreak is leading to a potential diplomatic row between China and Mexico, as Chinese health authorities round up and quarantine scores of Mexicans -- only one of whom is thus far reported to be sick -- as they fly in on business and holiday trips.

Mexico's foreign minister said Mexican citizens with no signs of infection had been isolated in "unacceptable conditions" in China. Patricia Espinosa told a news conference Saturday that such measures were "discriminatory and ungrounded" and that the government is advising Mexicans to stay away from China.

Gustavo Carrillo, a 36-year-old general manager of a Mexican technology company in China who lives in Beijing with his wife and three sons, was taken off his Continental Airlines plane on Saturday and rushed into quarantine at a Beijing hotel. He had traveled to the U.S. from China on a business trip and hadn't visited Mexico.

Mr. Carrillo said health officials took the temperatures of other passengers after the plane landed, but didn't check his after they saw his Mexican passport. Instead, they led him down the aisle past gawking passengers. "It was embarrassing and humiliating," he said. "It's just pure discrimination."

"We felt like we were in a zoo," said Angel Yamil Silum, a 27-year-old business student, who arrived in Beijing with his girlfriend on Saturday as transit passengers en route to Bangkok for a holiday and ended up at Ditan and then the Guo Men Hotel.

Sigh...

Click here
to access this full article from the WSJ.

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