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June 04, 2005
The Jungle Book: Part II - A Bug's Life
I've never had malaria, but I've had dengue fever and believe you me, it sucks. Once again rainy season is upon us, I'm dreading the mosquitoes. I go to sleep with my weapon of choice, the electric zapper tennis racket, within arms length. But what can you do? I mean really...
Well, for one, if you get bit, you can make hot cross buns with your swelling wound as shown as illustrated on LDK's entry, mosquito bites (instructional graphic animation par excellence). A reader of the site commented that even with the x mark, it still itches. In Vietnam, we dab on some dầu xanh (green eucalyptus oil). And yes, it still itches.
At least it's a mosquito bite and if it doesn't contain some tropical pathogen, it's a thousand times better than getting stung on the eye by a bee which I experienced this spring while doing my installation, Land of Milk and Honey, in Saigon South. My face blew up like Quasimodo for three days, fevered and practically blind, I considered scaling HCMC's Notre Dame Cathedral to toll the bells. In the duration of one month, I got stung 4 times. I shouldn't whine for a) I met to feed the bees everyday for one month, 4 stings isn't a bad ratio given thousands of bees and 2) anyone dumb enough to install bees in a gallery derserves what he gets.
Land of Milk and Honey, Sound Installation (2005), dimensions variable
Addendum to The Jungle Book: Part I - Discoveries
The two Japanese nationals thought to be WWII soldiers stranded on an island near Mindinao has been confirmed to be a hoax. However, there are still people coming out of the jungle, or as my mother would say, the woodworks. CNN reports today in an article,"Hmong emerge after decades on run"
"After decades on the run, 170 women, children and old men of the Hmong ethnic minority -- once part of a U.S. -backed secret army fighting communists in Laos -- emerged from their jungle hideouts on Saturday to surrender to the government."
I'll continue to monitor developments on this front. It's not Apolocypse Now or Heart of Darkness. These indeed are very real events that beyond the media spectacle beg urgent questions.
Posted by rst at June 4, 2005 05:01 PM
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