Sashimi, maggots
and foreign relations



PLEASE do not read this while eating.

If we are to believe the latest urban myths circulating through the Internet, eating sashimi (raw fish) causes maggots in the brain while "grilled and barbecued babies" are the "hottest food item" now in Japan, each fetus supposedly available for 10,000 to 12,000 yen (about 4,300 pesos to 5,200 pesos) from hospitals.

These two "scoops" came in through my e-mail the last two weeks, complete with ghastly photographs. I could tell immediately that these were fabricated news, but to be sure, I checked an Internet site, www.snopes.com, which specializes in exposing these urban legends. Sure enough, the website had the two stories, entitled "maggot brain" and "fetal feast," complete with explanations on how these urban legends came to be.

The sashimi maggot yarn builds around an actual photograph of a man who was having a brain operation at Stanford University, following a vehicular accident. The "fetal feast" scam, on the other hand, was described as occurring in Taiwan, and featured the photograph of a man supposedly eating a fetus. It turns out the photograph was that of a Chinese performance artist doing his piece, "Eating People," with what looks like a doll's head grafted on to pieces of animal meat.

The new version forwarded to me had more photographs, including that of a woman in a grocery buying a bottle of "pickled brain." (I could read the Chinese characters, but I am certain it isn't human brain: the bottle was conveniently positioned to hide the other half of the label.) There was another picture showing a butcher slicing some brain, much too large to be human. Finally, there were several photographs of what looked to me like a hospital autopsy of an infant.

Urban legends often reflect social tensions and prejudices. As the Snopes website points out, if the fetus story had been located in Canada, people would have rejected it right away, but set in Taiwan (or now, Japan) it suddenly becomes plausible.

These anti-Japanese urban myths, even if intended to be jokes, will acquire a life of its own, people passing on the stories as facts and cited to "prove" the Japanese are immoral, if not amoral.

I know some readers are probably anxious now and wondering if indeed sashimi might cause brain maggots. I did my research and can say that sashimi isn't any riskier, in relation to food-borne bacteria and parasites, than other raw or lightly cooked seafood, including shrimps, mussels, clams and a wide assortment of fish, from salmon and herring to tuna and tanguinge.

Cultures all over the world have developed ways of marinating raw seafood, using onions, garlic, salt, limes, vinegar or wasabi (horseradish root) to disinfect the food. The risks of poisoning from these foods come not so much from their being raw than in the way they're handled, with bare hands for example, or if exposed to the heat and to insects and other contaminants.

But I wasn't intending today's column to deal with food safety so let's shift back now to the issue of urban myths and prejudice. I couldn't help but draw parallels between urban myths and our foreign relations, as exemplified by two recent incidents involving the President.

Readers will recall that the President recently took offense last week with Kojiro Takano, the Japanese ambassador, because of a speech he delivered before the Manila Overseas Press Club. The ambassador said he had spent "sleepless" nights for more than a year because he was "fearful of their (Japanese expatriates in the Philippines) safety," naming the threats of kidnappings, bombings and other terrorist acts.

The ambassador also said the Japanese were "confounded by changes in rules, confusing government policies and lack of coordination in government" and that Japanese investors felt "entrapped" because government policies were wanting "particularly in terms of consistency and transparency." Finally, Takano referred to a "large amount" of Japanese aid to the Philippines being stalled because the government was unable to absorb the money.

Following Ms Macapagal's expression of displeasure, there was the usual chorus of sycophants from among our officials and politicians, each trying to outdo the other with their outrage and demanding that the Japanese ambassador be expelled.

Note that the Japanese ambassador's speech only repeated points raised in a paper prepared by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce a month earlier, which supposedly had been sent to Malacañang but had not been acted on. Curiously, the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) also issued a paper a month ago, entitled "2003 Road Map to More Foreign Investment." AmCham called on the President to improve governance, accelerate legal reforms, modernize power and transport infrastructure, speed up privatization of state-owned firms, overhaul the Bureau of Internal Revenue, improve security, slow down population growth and reverse the deterioration of English among our workers. AmCham also described the current 12th Congress as the "slowest moving."

The President's response to the AmCham paper was positive, to say the least. Before flying off to Korea, she took time to acknowledge the AmCham paper and pledged her administration's commitment to structural reforms. In effect, while the Japanese ambassador was told to pack up his bags and leave because of his comments on the investment climate, similar suggestions from the AmCham elicited something more like this (you imagine the voice): "Thank you, thank you for your criticism. We promise to reform. Please stay."

Ms Macapagal's contrasting responses to the Japanese and to the Americans reflect the same selective jaundiced vision you find in urban myths. Even Hong Kong's South China Morning Post has noticed. In an article last week about Ms Macapagal's negative reactions to the Japanese ambassador, the Post recalled:

"Last year, however, (the US ambassador) Mr. Ricciardone came under fire for saying that 'corruption is a real problem for Americans in the Philippines.' There was no public outcry from Mrs. Arroyo at the time."