Tokyo has a wonderful mass transit system. We have both overground and underground trains carrying its 12million inhabitants like red blood cells thru deep arteries and surface veins. It is a wonderful way for us to get where we want to -- fast. The complex delivery system of our mass transit is probably not equalled to any other city in the world.
Unfortunately viruses also think so too.
Our cramped, poorly ventilated trains are a perfect means for all sorts of viruses, bacteria, even mould(!) to get from one "host" to the other en masse. Yesterday I sat diagonally opposite to a red faced man who started to sneeze perfusely.
*a-choo, a-choo, a-choo*
I was sitting at least 2 metres away from this man and I could *smell* what he had expelled from each burst of his nose trumpet, for I recognised the faint smell of cheap liquor. The sneezer had been drinking, and now he is sneezing aerosol germs dissolved in ethanol vapour, and I can smell it. This only makes me believe that the pathogen, or allergen, responsible for causing the rapid fireing of his nasal contents has hitched a ride on the "Mass Transit", tickled my olifactory sensory nerves, saying:"tee hee, it's me, *hick* I'm here *hick*" (fuck, even the pathogens are drunk, how much has this man had to drink!)
Ewww. Gross.
And today I have a slightly soar throat... I am drafting this post in my BIB on my way back from work; all I hear is coughing, snivelling, sneezing and all sorts, and it does not help me to feel good about taking public transportation with all these strangers' germs, for I am currently reading a book called UNIT 731: Testimony. Japan's Wartime Human Experimentation Program. Unit 731 was the Japanese Imperial Army's medical unit set up in the early 30s by Dr.Shiro "Mengele" Ishii to combat disease amongst the ranks against their continued campaign against the Russians on the boarders near Manchuria. Ishii quicky recruited the "silent enemy" and decided the way forward in modern warfare is to use desease (and chemicals) to eradicate their enemy. And where better than to test your cholera, plague, haemorigic fever, and typhoid samples on "Lab Rats", see what happens in vivo, and in vitro.
Dr. Ishii, with the help of the special police, Kenpeitai, had his samples: Chinese detainees and prisoners to perfom gruesom tests, vivisection on humans often without anaesthesia. His research organisation was so efficient and accurate that it attracted many civilian medical researchers to continue their "research" in optimum conditions,with very minor error rates, why? They are done on human subjects. Ishii's experients went beyond the etiology of the disease, his team of medical researchers began to refine their germs and delivery methods. Bombs after bombs were dropped on civilian villages so that the "medical team" could record the death rates, perform post mortems, and burn the villages afterwords so that no one could live to tell the tale of the strange "packages" that landed in the village. Ishii's "medical unit" may have been responsible for up to 3000+ deaths of innocent civilians during his 13 year "clinical trial" period for his biological and chemical weapons program. Just like Dr. Joseph "Angel of Death" Mengele, Dr. Ishii was never even tried as a war criminal. Critics often say that the "war crimes" tried under a military tribunals are nothing more than a court for the victors' judging the defeated, rather than an objective judgment of crimes against humanity. I agree. Ishii's crimes agains humanity can only be discribed as just that. Crimes. But the Cold War and his extensive knowledge of pathology, and etiology of various infectious agents were what saved Ishii and his team.
They say that knowledge is power, but at what cost would you, dear readers gain that power? I would like to believe that there is a force amongst humanity more powerful than knowledge.
"There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands." Socrates, Plato's Republic
Dear Socrates, was this your vision of Philosopher Kings? Those who went about ernestly seeking the truth? Seeking how pathogens affect the human body? Ishii and Mengele were as accurate in their observations as Aristotle. I bet you are shaking with anger in your grave now, for these men, as you discribe, are lovers of knowledge, and were efficient rulers, "Kings" of their medical team.
Something went wrong, didn't it, Socrates. You missed the dark side of the equation, the darker side of the human soul....
And to you, Dr. Ishii, there was no need for you to kill all those innocent people, all you needed to do was to develop mass transit in a densly populated area to be your delivery system for your germs.
Oh I do wish these people would stop coughing on me!
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1 comment:
Germs, and biological warfare, what topics. This Dr. Ishii made some very bad choices in his quest for konwledge. It reminds me of the Nazis and what they did medically to the Jews. Terrible things indeed. How very sad that people will kill innocent others, go see if they can kill enemies. Very sad to hear, it makes my heart heavy. I do wish we could all learn to respect human life at all costs.
As for you DWR, get those goggles and or a gas mask like thing to keep your self healthy when riding the transit system in Tokyo. We want you healthy so you can blog on. Keep clear of the germs DWR!
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