(no Swine) flu 01.09.09

I caught a cold. Had some fever, headache, soar throat, the usual symptoms. I decided to go to the hospital; my first visit to this hospital close to our place in Bahrain. At first it took me over 20 minutes to have my file open, as the lady who was operating the terminal had no clue on how to use the system and the computer. I had to chose a middle name (John ?!) as the system (or the operator) needed to capture a middle name. Same with religion and 2 phone numbers... Finally my file was created, and they all started to call be Mr John....

I spent a few minutes with a generalist who got scared when I told him the symptoms and the fact that I just came back from a trip from Europe. He wore a mask, then gloves and made a few phone calls in Arabic. I could here 'Swine flu' 'isolation' 'test'. It reminded me of some of these cartoons and movies when a guy checks in in a psychiatric hospital, claiming he is not mad, and ends up in noise proof isolation room. I spent the next hour doing a few tests in this isolation room and I could finally leave the place. Negative to swine flu, just a basic cold.

I visited this US military cemetery in Manila a few weeks ago. Very impressive place, full of emotions. It contains the largest number of graves of the US military dead of World War II, a total of 17,202, most of whom lost their lives in operations in New Guinea and the Philippines. On a wide terrace are two large hemicycles. Twenty-five mosaic maps recall the achievements of the American armed forces in the Pacific, China, India and Burma; they are well realized and represent a great educational tool. On rectangular piers within the hemicycles are inscribed the 'Tablets of the Missing' containing 36,285 names, read a few on this picture.

70 years ago today Hitler's tanks invaded Poland. WWII began. Time to remember.