Why Malign the Swine?

When I talk to Greeks about the difficulty of learning their language they often tell me that to learn English is more difficult for them. How can that be I ask? I had to learn the Greek alphabet before I could even hope to learn the language! Yes, they say, but in Greek wherever you see letters or combinations of letters in words, they are always pronounced in the same way. But in English, you can have two words spelt the same but pronounced totally differently. Or spelt differently, but pronounced the same. Take "malign" and "swine", for example. Once you get past the consonants you've got the same sound, but "...ign" and "...ine"? That presents all kinds of problems to a foreigner learning English.

But that's not the reason for this post. It's this... The first two cases of swine Flu have just been reported on Rhodes. AAAAArgh!!! Rush for the face mask, stay indoors, don't go near any tourists!!! What a load of twaddle. Am I alone in thinking all this furore is propaganda designed to get the public into a panic? If you want the facts about swine flu, check out the facts here. As it says on that page: "...So far, most swine flu cases have been mild, with symptoms similar to those of seasonal flu. Only a small number of people have had more serious symptoms. ...For most people, the illness appears to be mild. Cases have been confirmed in all age groups, but children and younger people seem much more likely to be affected. To date, fewer cases have been confirmed in older adults. For a minority of people, the virus has caused severe illness. In many of these cases, other factors have been identified that are likely to have contributed to the severity of the illness. Worldwide, just over 0.4% of the laboratory-confirmed cases reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) have died. This is a similar rate to ordinary flu." Cool it! There really is no need for all this flu-paranoia!!!

John Manuel