Case of the Exploding Watermelons
May 19, 2011 0:46:22 GMT -5
Post by douglaslam on May 19, 2011 0:46:22 GMT -5
As a frequent visitor to China in recent years, there are two things about the country that I am very wary of.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13422776
1 The question of food safety is highlighted by the story of exploding watermelons. This is the latest in a long list of food scare. Where possible, I eat out with people who know the local dining scene well. In their headlong rush to get rich, through ignorance or loss of moral bearing, too many people have scant regard for the safety of the end product, be it infant formula, farm produce or animals, patent medicine, in fact anything which the customers ultimately ingest. It brought shame, dishonour and distrust to a proud old country and its people.
2 Since the opening up of the economy, the health service sector is now run along business line. It is a user-pay system, and every provider is responsible for its own viability. Money comes before all other considerations. If you can't pay upfront, you get no treatment, however dire the circumstances. Profitability also leads to over servicing and over prescription of drugs. The high cost of medical care is a simmering social problem and a cause of discontent and unrest among the rural poor.
Some of the medical procedures I observed personally are quite questionable. For example, I see many patients on the drips for whatever reasons. Of course, I am only speaking as a layman. Some of you may remember my brush with the medical service in my May / June 2010 trip report in this forum. On that trip my travel companion was seriously injured, and required long weeks of hospital treatment.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13422776
1 The question of food safety is highlighted by the story of exploding watermelons. This is the latest in a long list of food scare. Where possible, I eat out with people who know the local dining scene well. In their headlong rush to get rich, through ignorance or loss of moral bearing, too many people have scant regard for the safety of the end product, be it infant formula, farm produce or animals, patent medicine, in fact anything which the customers ultimately ingest. It brought shame, dishonour and distrust to a proud old country and its people.
2 Since the opening up of the economy, the health service sector is now run along business line. It is a user-pay system, and every provider is responsible for its own viability. Money comes before all other considerations. If you can't pay upfront, you get no treatment, however dire the circumstances. Profitability also leads to over servicing and over prescription of drugs. The high cost of medical care is a simmering social problem and a cause of discontent and unrest among the rural poor.
Some of the medical procedures I observed personally are quite questionable. For example, I see many patients on the drips for whatever reasons. Of course, I am only speaking as a layman. Some of you may remember my brush with the medical service in my May / June 2010 trip report in this forum. On that trip my travel companion was seriously injured, and required long weeks of hospital treatment.