Really amazing how Peter99 manages to turn any topic into a platform for his anger at the rest of the world. GoKunming starts to look even more grim then Breitbart.com.
Now normally I ignore his ranting but this time I take it serious because it becomes a personal attack. (And that is not because I am, or ever was, a UN worker.)
aving worked in the fight against malaria and having worked in Laos I know that there is malaria there. Better medication and the availability of medication have created a significant drop in malaria. Because of this the efforts to control the vector are waning. This explains as well the rise in other vector transmitted diseases like Dengue.
Also some years ago, during malaria season, up to 15% of my workforce (A UXO clearing project) in Laos could be out with malaria (This was before the use of Artemisinin based combination therapy.) Indeed in Vientiane I never came across malaria but in the rural area we worked in this was a different story.
Also I rate the change that one would contract malaria in Laos small it is not so that this is impossible. Starting early with treatment after infection and the use of prophylactics in malaria prone area is still a good thing to do so carrying your own supply is advisable.
Like anywhere else there are some lazy UN workers and they might hang out in brothels and they might drive a SUV this does not mean that they are the source of misinformation and have an interest in keeping this misinformation going. It is often more the other way around in the sense that authorities hush up all kind of diseases in their territory because it makes them look not in control and hinders investments.
Most of the work against malaria is done by underfunded groups with limited means. The malaria project I did was based on one old truck and a fleet of bicycles and staff that was motivated by their own experience of malaria. We were happy that the UN (In this case WHO) handled the data we provided and not some bureaucrat that for political reasons filed our data in the bin.
Misinformation is created by those who write: been there didn’t know anybody with malaria so it does not exist. This is called anecdotal evidence. At the same time they quote from Breitbart and see zombies everywhere and think the world will be taken over by queer Prozac popping zombies.
Yunnan county cooks the books for $850 million
Posted byMan bites dog is news. Dog bites man is not news.
Books are cooked is no news. Books are not cooked is news.
Landslide closes Tiger Leaping Gorge to traffic
Posted byThis is the parking place of the Tiger Leaping Gorge. Looks like it happened at night because during the day this parking is full of cars and busses. The road is on the left of the picture and must be closed off as well. Clearing this will take some time because one cannot push the debris just over the edge because there is the Tiger Leaping Gorge itself. Might be nice to have a second big stone laying in the middle of the stream but that rock is bit too large to move in one piece.
As usual in reports in the local press the numbers are wrong. The big rock in the middle alone is 30 cubic meters (compared to the buildings in the back). The debris must be chopped up and even blasted to smaller pieces and then carted off. Pity that these horrible plaster murals on the hillside have not been destroyed.
Recipe: Yunnan-style sweet and sour ribs
Posted byCilantro = Coriander
US non-profit Sanford Health eyes Kunming
Posted byInteresting aricle in HealthlandTime.
healthland.time.com/[...]
Gives a good idea about what non-profit means in the USA.
Snapshot: Lugu Lake
Posted byI don't know when you went to Luguhu but the road between Lijiang and Lugu has improved enormously over the last few years and the new road between Lugu lake and Ninglang has been completed and is now one of the best roads in Yunnan. From there the road is the old road to Lijiang and a bit congested at certain spots. Indeed just outside Lijiang the road is a total mess because of road-works. The old road is completely destroyed by heavy trucks here going between the cement works and Lijiang (A common problem in China; modern trucks can carry more load then the road have been designed and build for and therefore destroy the roads).
I travelled this road earlier this month and it took me 5 hours to cover the Lugu Lake / Lijiang distance. Once the road works have been completed it might take 4 hours. That is half the time it took me in 2009.
Travelling from Xichang in Sichuan still takes a full day and from Chengdu I would do it in two days. (Many road improvement works here as well.).
Your statement that "the Sichuan side was much less developed than the opposite shore" I cannot agree with. On the contrary: Apart from Luoshui (The only village at the lake) the Yunnan side has hardly been touched by tourism while the Sichuan side has seen rapid touristic development.
One of the nice things of Lugu lake is/was that it is less over-run by tourists. Something that spoiled it for me in Lijiang and Shangri-La. A new airport will hasten the process of it becoming one more of the "shopping mall" tourist towns like Lijiang. Already now I noticed that more and more local business women (The local Mosuo culture is matrilineal and this mend that most shops, restaurants and hotels were owned and run by women) have been replaced by outsiders (Mostly Sichuan businessmen) and that part of the atmosphere has gone.
Note as well that the area has an access fee of 80 RMB per person.