Shanghai Headlines

First off, I have to apologize for not being able to blog for awhile. The Chinese government has decided to block Blogger, so I have not been able to update for the past 2 weeks. In fact, I am only able to write this blog using anonymous surfing (don't ask- Sev's a techno geek).
Anyway, I know because I don't work, a lot of people think my life is stress free. True, I don't have work stress, but life in China is a stress all onto itself. As an example, I'll share some recent headlines from the local english language newspaper "Shanghai Daily". Keep in mind, that these three headlines are all from the same day.

1) Investigation of local produce finds up to 15 different types of pesticides- apparently, the local government went around to some local grocery stores and the wet market and tested several pieces of fruit and vegetables. On any given sample, there were up to 15 different pesticides on just one piece of produce, several of which are banned. Now you know if something is banned in China, it's gotta be REALLY bad stuff. I have since decided to try and buy only organic but over here, you can never really be sure if it's really organic or someone decided to slap an organic sticker on it because they know the foreigners like it!

2) Hand, foot, and mouth disease on the rise (again). I mentioned this in a previous post but the very common hand, foot, mouth disease has mutated in China and in some children, it develops into a fatal case of meningitis.

3) City investigation shows unacceptable levels of rat infestation in local grocery stores. The investigation focused on local grocery stores and found that the rat infestation was up to 10% in some stores (with the acceptable level at about 3%). This is wrong on so many levels, I don't even know where to begin. First off, why is there any acceptable level of rats in a grocery store?
And you be wondering how they determine the level of infestation- by examining the amount of rat poop, nests, and teeth marks throughout the store. They even found droppings on the counters where bread is sold. Although my favorite Carrefour was not part of the investigation, several of my friends have personally seen rats in the store so I can guarantee you that they have at least a 10% infestation.

So yeah, I am sometimes a little stressed about living in China which has lead to an obsession with getting cancer from our vegetables, compulsive hand washing, and inspecting my groceries for teeth marks from rats. Of course, you could argue it's no worse than worrying about the things most Americans worrying about these days: swine flu, the government taking over the banks and the auto industry, and job loss. It's just a different kind of worry.