The Rodent plagues of China & Spain
international |
environment |
other press 
Tuesday July 17, 2007 16:29
by o as if
In the last months an extraordinary plague of mice has hit China. Only in the last days has the story gone from the sarcastic coverage verging on racism "poor Chinese people think eating mice is good for the libido" turned to serious reporting of the phenomena. Which naturally the Chinese state are keen to downplay. The mice are estimated by the Guardian (reporting Chinese state authorities) to number over 2 billion now. Strange things happen you might think.., Except that in early June farmers in the mid-peninsular region of Spain roughly at the same lattitude as those affected in China began to complain of plagues of voles or fieldmice. Voles are pretty much like mice in that they are small rodents which feed on crops, do nothing for your libido if eaten and once they enter your water or sanitation system spell complete disaster for anyone who survives the famine which used to follow soon after.
Voles are also like mice in that both words are slang and argot in their respective languages for certain types of people. They are different in which everyone is talking about the Chinese plague & translating and bouncing the news on - whereas the Spanish are keeping it quiet. It was novelty news in the beginning but now water systems stuffed with rotting little bodies is not good news. I reckon we are witnessing allbeit at distance, an imbalance in ecosystems which for my prejudice I put down to climate change, public secondary school education resources being squandered on Microsoft and of course Fianna Fail.
reports on the two billion strong plague of mice in China :-
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20....html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6292698.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2127853,00.html
"off the menu please"
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2007/07/17/al....html
scant spanish reporting on their vole (or fieldmice) problem
http://www.nortecastilla.es/prensa/20070508/valladolid/....html
http://www.nortecastilla.es/prensa/20070710/zamora/plag....html
http://blogs.telecinco.es/eltendedero/post/2007/06/27/u...racia
you can even watch a video on Youtube of the Spanish rodents - it really is something.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3jaqw_rVl0c