The 'good oil' from Lisa Simpson!

[Robin4]

Many words of truth come from the mouths of The Simpsons.

Hopefully Lisa will be onto something here!

Cheers......Rob

*offensive content removed*

[Mike-And-Helen0]

@Robin4 Lisa is definitely my favourite.

Didn't the Simpsons predict Trump's presidency?

[Pai207]

I am pretty sure you are not Chinese.....

In line with the National Long Term Tourism Strategy (Tourism 2020) and the China 2020 Plan, Tourism WA has identified a long term goal for 2020. Tourism WA aims to grow Chinese visitors to 100,000 and Chinese visitor spend to $500 million by 2020.

In the 2009 - 2010 swine flu pandemic, the first detection of the H1N1 flu virus then was in the US.  No one calls it the American or US flu, which is correctly so as further investigation shows that the H1N1 virus is a combination (or re-assortment) of various strains of the flu virus, which could have occurred because of multiple different sources of the virus, including sources from outside the US.  The fact that it was first detected in the US does not necessarily mean it originated there, or did not exist undetected in other places.  Similarly, HIV/AIDS was the same - originating more than likely in the Congo in the 20s, but being detected in the US in the 80s.

I am sure someone in the community will write that I have a thin skin and should chill, but I wonder why WHO named it Covid-19 and did not call it the Chinese virus, or the Wuhan virus.  Some kind of jokes should not be shared on a public fora.

Regardless, in the "Airbnb completely threw their hosts under a bus regarding Covid-19 - REVIVE" thread, the community managers were quick to act in applying community guidelines due to the thread devolving in to a slanging match.  I wonder how quick they will act to uphold their consistency of applying community guidelines in dealing with a post of this nature.

[Robin4]

@Pai207 

In over 450 hostings across 2 platforms my favourite guests are my Chinese guests. They are very tidy and respectful of, not just the property, but their elders. If I had tick a nationality of guest as my best....it would be my Chinese guests...and they do form about 25% of my hostings.

Pai, we are in tough times, we in the hosting community are all suffering badly and we need to inject humour into our lives. My post is not intended to in any way be racist, it is intended to be funny.

Would you tell Fred he is using bad taste because he depicts Jack Nicholson the actor as being a mad American? Does that make all Americans psychopathic in your eyes Pai?

Pai, see humour for humours sake. I am an Australia and I am fully prepared to be the but of jokes as are almost all Australians, we appreciate the boundary between humour and racism. 

The Americans are referred to as Yanks, the British as 'Poms' they don't get upset about that,The French as 'Frogs' ! They even play on that in a lot of advertising.......

 Pai, this is, around the world, a time when we need to have a balance in our lives, we have to be able to poke fun at each other, we can't all concentrate on doom and gloom.

You will notice in my other current posts I am trying to cultivate understanding and tolerance and a sharing of alternative ideas!

If you were here I would give you a big hug just as I do all my guests, I don't draw boundaries.

China makes some of the best goods in the world, they also make some of the cheapest....and we could not survive without that!

Pai, please see the humour as it was conveyed and have a laugh, it is not personal!

All the best.

Cheers.....Rob

[Pai207]

Dear Rob @Robin4 ,

Thank you for your clarification.  I do understand and appreciate as well that you had intended to inject some humour, but perhaps, no matter how "funny" it may be when viewed at a certain angle, it is not the best time to post such a joke as there are others on different threads that have taken President Trump's view of it being a Chinese virus.  One host even posted on the hosting forum to ask the Chinese President to pay for the current losses caused by the virus.

Reason I feel/felt strongly that your joke is out of place on a public forum is that although I am not from the "mainland China" but am of Chinese ethnicity, I have myself been subject to some recent direct criticism/being shunned simply for being Chinese in the context of Covid-19.

Whilst some humour does indeed help in the difficult times, some can also hurt.  Like one who takes away a garment in cold weather...is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.  A lot of hosts' hearts are extremely heavy right now.  Maybe, you just need to be conscious of the "right kind" of humour for now.

I wish you all the best too, and hope that we all get out on the other side of the pandemic with the ability to (re)build again.

[Robin4]

@Pai207 

Rest assured our door would always be open to you Pai and I totally understand your feelings on this.

It was a bit insensitive on my part but you have to appreciate I have a wonderful relationship with my Chinese guests and I have found them all to have a wonderful sense of humour, Ade and I being in our mid 70's they show us an enormous amount of respect....as they do their own elders and for that reason I tend to treat them much as I would fellow Australians.

I even have previous guests from Shanghai coming back here to get married and have their wedding photos taken in our garden, rather than on 'The Bund' in Shanghai.

Sorry for any offense Pai, there is nothing I can do with this thread now but maybe one of the moderators will remove it.

Cheers......Rob 

[Pai207]

Water under the bridge, mate.

All the best.

[Lisa723]

@Robin4 Not funny.

[Rebecca181]

@Pai207  I just wrote and published an article on Coronavirus and the increase of 'hate crimes' against Asian and Asian-American people, in the U.S. and U.K., especially. My psychotherapy clients are also reporting issues relating to being the targets of xenophobia they have never had to face before as 2nd and 3rd generation Asian-Americans.  Trump is contributing to this xenophobic stance via calling the virus "the Chinese virus". 

So I agree. Not funny.

[Sarah977]

@Pai207  Not to mention, none of us really know where this virus "came from". For all we know, it was introduced by foreign agents in China who brought it in a test tube from somewhere else. There's all kinds of ghastly and dastardly political intrigue that goes on in the world which the common person will never know the truth about.