I left the Philippines last May 15 just when the world was in panic about a kind of flu tagged as having to do with pigs. The image of this animal and the symptoms of high fever were just too much to bear for human beings. The birds brought SARS; the monkeys offered Ebola. Now, the swine is proffering a new disease.
The early reaction in the Philippines was typical Pinoy bureaucracy: it was literal. Refrain from eating pork and you will be saved. Now, of course, those who made this pronouncement must be hiding behind the Hayden Kho scandal. Is there anyone talking about the new form of flu or is everyone into the sex tapes?
It is eerie being in Japan with this virus threatening to wipe out everyone, if not through actual death or death by anxiety.
I was with students who were all fulfilling a course, entitled "Fieldwork in Japan." We were entering through the new CentrAir Airport in Nagoya. The instruction given to us by our contact in Nagoya was for us to don our mask as soon as the plane landed. We did. Practically, the entire population near the immigration was wearing white masks of various forms, style, and strength. When we looked, however, back at the crew of the plane we took, not one of the crew was wearing any mask.
A huge screen was placed right before the immigration checked our passport. On the screen, anthropomorphic figures seems to float into each other.. Red blotches swayed in and out of the screen. Is this some anime ad or is the machine really able to read fever?
In 1980, a film called Virus was released. It was a Japanese film with the original title "Fukkatsu no Hi" or The Day of the Resurrection. The presence of many Hollywood actors, however, created the impression that it was an American film. Edward James Olmos was there before he became big with the film "Stand and Deliver." Olivia Hussey, reputably the most famous Juliet on screen and also and because she was the youngest to play the Shakespearean tragic heroine, was one of the leads.
Post-apocalyptic, the film was about the spread of virus caused by geniuses who had terror in their minds than science. At the core of the story was this sample called MM88, a deadly virus accidentally created by an American scientist, and was taken by an East German scientist. The spies who were securing the virus took a plane, which crashed. This caused the massive spread of a disease called the Italian flu. The name must be a precedent for people giving the flu the name Mexican flu, at the earlier stage of the epidemic and ignorance.
With half of my mindset cinematic, I thought of this film when we were on our second day in Nagoya. A flash report sent out information that there was huge increase of those infected in Osaka and other areas. This was in Kansai and we were just next-door.
The newspapers did not help calm our anxiety. Everyday, you see on TV announcement that anytime, the flu will reach Nagoya. The masks started to disappear from drugstores, kiosks and "kombini" or convenience stores.
The virus was soon given a new name, "Shin-gata Influenza." Literally, it means, a new form of flu. The name also cleared the pigs from being cursed as the source of the plague.
Historically, the Philippines also went through epidemic from various afflictions, like measles, smallpox and cholera.
In many towns, there still remain legends that are attributed to epidemic of years gone by. In Bikol, for example, there were accounts of how during the night or early morning, a cart or what looked like a funeral hearse would make a furtive, almost mysterious visit to a house. As soon as the figures draped in black capes entered the household, wailings would soon be heard. The figures as quickly as they entered would dash into their wagon and disappeared in the night or morning mist.
The stories have been embellished but what was really happening was people from the local government were checking on those infected with any disease. The speed with which they took the infected or dying or dead persons soon plagued the imagination of the neighbors who were too afraid to check the phantoms. Death literally came to their homes, or so they thought. Or so the storytellers infected the fact with fiction. In reality, life went into their homes to remove the potential source of death.