Goodbye, Radiation Blocking Siew Yoke; Hello, radioactive iodine – 131

Random picture of market

And so, radiation particles from poor earthquake/ Tsunami/ smoked up nuclear plants – ravaged Japan are finally here. If there’s such a thing as a silver lining, it’s that the winds shifted to bring the stuff here now, as opposed to a little earlier when lots more locals (no one I know personally) were panicking.

“Wow, they’re out of salt,” a local friend observed weeks ago. He wasn’t actually freaked about radiation, he was just boh liao enough to go see if he would be able to buy table salt at the markets near where he lives, out around New Territories. I have strange friends. But thanks to him, I had half a blog post story for April Fool’s Day.

(As opposed to you guys with the fake BBC news release emails that spread radiation fears and yes we got forwarded one from Rockstar’s chinese teacher – VERY uncool.)

There were people in Hong Kong buying up table salt (which cost up to about HKD 50 a kilo at one point and mostly sold for HKD 20-30 a kilo vs pre-earthquake crisis price of less than HKD 5) and when that sold out they went for soy sauce and “Hum Choy” (salted veggies – basically anything they can think of with salt) to being embarrassed if they got caught freaking out.

But the best one I came across was an enterprising guy selling “Kong Fuk Seh Siew Yoke” (Radiation Blocking BBQ Pork) – because Siew Yoke is made with all the salt and other condiments, geddit? So local tv news sent a reporter to interview this guy, who apparently was on local news saying something along the lines of Aiya, Joking Lah (but my local friend tells me this was at best meant as half a joke).

It’s like the Salmon Wars marketing brainwave – if you’re stuck with unattractive white salmon, you stick a label, ”Guaranteed not to go pink in the can.” If you’re pissy about the white salmon marketing because you’ve got the pink salmon, you stick a label, “Guaranteed free of bleach.”

In fact, some of those guys who wrote “Kong Fuk Seh” stuff had even gotten the wrong Chinese word – apparently there are two words “Kong” that sound identical – except while one Chinese character means to block/ protect from radiation, the other means to spread radiation. Some of the enterprising sales guys in the markets had signs saying “Radiation Spreading —-.” (Siew Yoke, Hum Choy etc).

Friend Who Can Actually Read This Stuff finds it hilarious. But not hilarious enough to take a picture in some rural market of someone in possession of a giant meat cleaver who might not share his sense of humor.

So instead here’s another cute pork sign off the side of a random lorry parked outside a restaurant.

Today, it’s uncool to be freaked out. I should know. All I did was remark while walking the dog that I don’t know where I’m going to walk her (since JD walks 2 -3 times a day in the nearby waterfront park) if – IF, IF, IF!!!! – radiation EVER got to health-harming levels and the American and British couple walking their rescue dog seemed to not have too much more to say.

Wait guys come on, I SAID IFF!!! I was just looking for ideas of where else to bring JD. Crap. I’m now officially uncool among dog-walking expatriates.

In my head, anyway.

Hong Kong Observatory took a wee bit of flak for not mentioning they had detected radioactive iodine -131 last weekend, waiting a few days before informing the public, and they responded that they wanted to double check since it was the first time they had ever detected that substance in the atmosphere, and btw it would take like, 500 years at current levels to accumulate a harmful level of exposure. I’m just Yeah. Okay. Great! Two Thumbs Up!

Cos really Hong Kong’s Weather Observatory monitoring of typhoons and hideous rain storms and pollution levels are a part of their way of life with the whole system of Typhoon Signal 8 = no one goes to work or school; Typhoon Signal 3 = Kindergarten kids stay home, older kids go to school etc etc etc… They’ve got a pollution index too. So here’s their radiation particle reading one.

If there had been any cause for concern someone would probably have said something before I even noticed it because otherwise they’d just be totally flayed by other members of the Hong Kong public (yet another unexpected silver lining, living in a place where people in general are outspoken and there always seems to be someone complaining about something).They talk about the radiation particle situation every day now.

One of my local friends texts or mails me, I’m OK And Where’s That Info Online In English.

Ps: I got a text that people were hoarding noodles on the Mainland, but no one knows why. Yet, anyway.