This SARS thing is really getting to me. I initially didn’t want to write about it, I just added comments to other people blogs when they brought it up. But today I found out that the food bank fundraiser that my food security class got funding for has been postponed until September because of SARS. All because it is at this Chinese restaurant on Spadina, the same restaurant that B, Catsy and Mud went to for Dim Sum the other day. They said that it was empty and china town was disserted. It wasn’t that the food bank itself is afraid, its just that no one is buying tickets. Just like no one is going to china town and surrounding areas. My friend Michelle lives between McCaul and Beverly just south of Baldwin, and she said that the businesses are complaining that no one is coming down anymore. I really feel that the government and the media have made such a big deal out of this so people will forget about protesting the war and fighting poverty and other issues. They will be too paranoid to organize. YES I know people are dieing, and I feel for the families and people who this disease has affected. But I also feel for the families and people who are suffering due to war, due to poverty, due to homelessness, and many other hardships and oppression that our capitalist society has created. As Marike says “we are living in a post democratic society”. She is referring to the states specifically, but with all this propaganda that is happening here. And the lack of attention to the voices of decent, I have to wonder how we can call ourselves a democratic, free country.