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.

I see hordes of rodents coming & they're not all human.....

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

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Brit Badgers

by pat c

Tue Jul 17, 2007 17:00

The Brits have let giant Badgers loose in Iraq. Maybe they could deal with the rodents.

Giant badgers terrorise Iraqis

The Iraqi city of Basra has been gripped by a scary rumour – giant badgers are stalking the streets by night, eating humans. The animals were allegedly released into the area by British forces.

Local farmers have caught and killed several of the beasts, but this has done nothing to dispel the rumour. “I believe this animal appeared following a raid to the region by the British forces,” said Ali Mohsen, a farmer in his 40s from Karmat Ali, near the air base used by the multinational force. “As we are close to the airport, they probably released this animal into the area.”

“I was sleeping at night when this strange animal hit me on my head. I have not seen such an animal before. My husband hurried to shoot it but it was as swift as a deer,” Suad Hassan, a 30-year-old housewife said. “It is the size of a dog but his head is like a monkey. It runs so quickly.”

“I saw it three days ago at night attacking animals. It even ate a cow. It tore the cow up piece by piece. I tried to shoot it with my gun but it ran away into the orchards. I missed it,” Sattar Jabbar said.

These Badgers would be well able to deal with rodents.

my fortean friend PatC! many Irish readers will miss the effect an broc has had on Iraqis

by O as if - (iosaf being just too serious)

Tue Jul 17, 2007 19:19

For of course most decent Irish people have never laid eyes on an broc or as the difficult to classify Badger is known in French the Blaireau is in fact a byword for boring bastard wherever the plucky Gaul left traces of his imperialist culture. The use of the French slang as much as the word may in fact be traced to (& probably further by proper use of university resources or internet spider search engines) to the much overlooked writer of chronicles known as the Abbey of Rabas who of course we remember lived in St Jean-de-Cuculles in what was then Occitan (an oppressed neighbour of the Catalans) in the dim mists of prehistory about 6 centuries after Christ. http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Jean-de-Cuculles
http://speleoclpa.free.fr/etymologie.htm when Ratzinger was still in his prime and lacked the moral authority to stop people speaking Latin. Thus they made up their own words for meles which we note is the largest of the weasel family & can break your leg if you put your leg in its jaws just as quick as a rottweiler but Dublin City Council still let tenants keep badgers. Tippoy toppy experts on arcania, verification of dodgey claims and oddities like PatC. & myself feel that the Norman invasion brought the conotations of "to badger" to England from 1066 onwards. Speakers of Gaeilge & saviours of the Tara EBE craft will relish one of the first entries on indymedia ireland which was about an broc a particularly sad one as well, not a boring or hectoring one like the one that got up the Iraqis' noses. http://indymedia.ie/article/16535

I can neither overstate nor understate the conviction based on reading of newspapers & the occasional bout of telly viewing I hold that we have in fact passed the age of Blair if not Blaireau. Many of you might share this conviction or be stumbling towards this conclusion just as I did. I wish I could tell you straight if Eire has rejoined the commonwealth & what the future for our north and south ridings might be. Alas I am no futurologist. Thus, I'll not waste you time on idle speculation.

I reckon the Spanish government stayed quiet about the field mice going biblical plague proportions because now farmers aren't allowed burn the chaff on fields because lowering water reserves has meant such an ancient agricultural practice is now less controlable and all too often leads to forest fires which annually see hectarage the size of Wales turn to ash. If that sounds too far-fetched, I'd like to hold onto my credibility & suggest lab chimera experiments have escaped from GM mind control projects and have bred with the voles from Castille to Shanghai as part of a Fu ManChu (pictured above) plot. Obviously for the moment only the Irish diasporia need worry about this. I wrote extensively about the problems of mice on my blog - but I lost the password. So can't refer you to De Selby like counsel..........pity.............just hammer them on the head or buy a cat.

Food chain fallout

by Tall Tailer

Wed Jul 18, 2007 03:09

Some years ago in a rural part of China farmers killed too many snakes, with the result that the field mice population increased. The mice ate the beans, lentils and maize. So the provincial government passed a law to protect the snakes, with resultant poisonings of good farm folk. Stone the crows in Ireland and the result is more rotten food for rats in corporation and county rubbish dumps. Nobody can win in the food chain game. Incidentally, there are snake farms in some areas of China to supply fresh meat to the restaurant trade. Deliciously fried snake served in oyster and other subtle sauces is supposed to benefit the lungs and intestines. And as for rat flesh - Remember [London]derry! Ta na francaigh ag teacht go hEireann ars' an tsean bhean vocht.

From the Sublime to the ridiculous

by Loony Fringe

Wed Jul 18, 2007 08:40

Maybe a permanent link to the Fortean times is in order for indymedia Ireland.

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The Rodent plagues of China & Spain

Comments (4 of 4)