Former U-T editor in China: U.S. blamed by some for virus
While world speculation is running rampant that COVID-19 may have escaped from a biological lab in Wuhan rather than the animal wet market indicated by Chinese officials, the rumors that foreigners, namely the U.S. military, brought the virus there has gained traction with the Chinese populace. While Chinese news and social media are heavily censored, that theory remains in circulation.
I have been checking in periodically with former San Diego Union-tribune copy editor Jim Healy, who now works in the Beijing headquarters of the China Daily newspaper. He reported on Facebook in mid-april that some restaurants have reopened. He finally was able to revisit his favorite eatery, Casa Gusto, the other evening for pizza and some red wine. Here was his reaction:
“I savored EVERY sip and bite, I assure you, because I had not been able to sup here since the start of this so-far woeful year. Eleven weeks or more (I lost count) of lockdown can do some funny things to your mind, including torturing you with thoughts of your favorite foods. I felt like a parolee on a joy ride that night.”
While conditions began relaxing in early April, tight control of access to his residential compound remained in effect, and no guests were allowed. Masks still are required outdoors, and anyone arriving from outside Beijing must remain in quarantine for 14 days, he reported. Some businesses and restaurants are back in operation, although the eateries strictly check customers as they enter and register them.
But Healy is experiencing something new: “a LOT of cold shoulders from people on the street. Glaring and dirty looks. A spate of social media postings saying foreigners caused it.”
One of his favorite shopping centers, Beijing’s Silk Street mall, which caters to tourists, has reopened, but customers are few because China recently closed its borders to all foreigners (except those there already).
“The shop workers and owners at Silk Street, many of whom are my friends, would be delighted to see foreigners once again crowding into the mall,” Healy noted, “compared with the many Chinese on the streets who literally turn and run now when they see a foreigner, or sidestep to avoid us, or move to another subway car, or leave their table at a restaurant (I or my friends have experienced all of these).”
Healy’s strongest advice for those of us still cooped up indoors is to get into an exercise routine. He warns that it is far too easy to get sluggish, and that can become a bad habit.
Tigermania: As, Maverick, the “tiger king” of Lions Tigers & Bears in Alpine, celebrated his birthday on Monday, the sanctuary founder took some shots at Netflix’s current docu-series ratings darling: “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness.”
While the series has taken the Internet by storm, Bobbi Brink says it falls seriously short in its depiction of the reality that captive big cats endure when exploited for profit in the United States. She says, “They left the animals out of the story.”
Brink acknowledges having clashed in the past with Joseph Maldonadopassage, aka Joe Exotic, the colorful and controversial operator of the Oklahoma exotic animal park depicted in the series. He was convicted a year ago and sentenced late last month to 22 years in prison for two counts of murder for hire, multiple breaches of regulations governing trade in illegal wildlife and nine violations of the Endangered Species Act, including shooting five tigers to create more space in cages for other exotic cats and selling tiger cubs.
“Maverick’s story is not unlike that of many other captive tigers who have been victimized by the exotic animal trade,” Brink says. Facilities, like those depicted “Tiger King,” are “the grim reality for more than 10,000 tigers languishing in captivity at this very moment.”
What “Tiger King” doesn’t clearly show, she explains, is the ongoing cycle of breeding, exploitation and disposal of animals required to operate a facility that profits off photo ops and cub handling.
“Female tigers are bred, cubs are pulled just hours after birth, used (handled) for up to 12 weeks, and then after they’ve literally outgrown their use, what happens? The truth is — we don’t always know,” Brink says “As long as there is a demand for baby cubs to be held and posed with and the desire to own these wild animals as pets, these places are going to continue to breed, and animals are going to continue to suffer.”
Maverick came to Lions Tigers & Bears six years ago at 9 months of age after being confiscated from a backyard in Ventura by the California
Department of Fish & Wildlife. The cub had been purchased for Compton rapper Michael Ray Stevenson, who uses the stage name Tyga, without the proper exotic animal ownership licensing. Today the “cub” has matured to a healthy 419 pounds, Brink reports, and is certainly no one’s idea of a household pet.
“Not all tigers wind up as lucky as Maverick,” she says.
Remember Woodstock? Pizza, that is. Woodstock’s Pizza chain has partnered with The Salvation Army to give pizza to the poor. The pizzeria company, which has seven California outlets and is owned by Laura Ambrose and her family, has launched a “Double Your Doughnation” campaign on Gofundme.com. The restaurant is matching every public donation.
It is both delivering free pizza and salad to workers at area hospitals and providing Woodstock’s certificates to The Salvation Army to distribute to needy families to redeem for free food.
On Day 22 of the fundraiser, Ambrose told me the outlets had raised $9,060, creating more than $18,000 with matching funds. That translates, she says, into at least 3,600 free meals. Bravo!