O.M.G.So I, like my fellow pharmacy friends, received an email today from the PSA informing me of a "Pandemic Flu Infection Control Workshop" that is coming up (you know, just in time for the next outbreak of [insert animal] flu. So we've had bird flu, swine flu...how about something more exotic. Like llama flu. Yes, that sounds both innocuous and menacing at the same time).
Anyway, as I read the email a certain phrase caught my eye. The phrase was: "Kung Flu Fighting techniques". Oh my, I thought to myself. Surely the PSA have outdone themselves this time with such clever word play. Or perhaps it was just a typo (the editor must have had slippery fingers and typed out "kung" by mistake). Intrigued, I clicked on the link and thus arrived at this flyer and the above image.
A *facepalm* and *headshake* soon followed.
After I had recovered, I tried to ascertain what exactly about the image made me want to laugh and cry and get frustrated all at the same time. Sure, there was the stereotypical orientalist font. And a ninja wearing a facemask on a background of a red circle reminiscent of the Japanese flag. And the fact that kung fu is Chinese and not Japanese. And ninjas are Japanese and don't practice Chinese martial arts. And kung fu is an ancient artform that teaches self-defense, discipline and morality whereas ninjas were mercenaries, spies, arsonists, terrorists and assassins. And the fact that none of this had been taken into consideration but instead a bunch of Asian stereotypes were chucked haphazardly together in an attempt to get a cheap laugh and promote good sneeze etiquette.
Ok. So apart from those minor hiccups, everything else about the logo seemed fine. "Become a black-belt in infection control"? I'd rather be a black-belt in racial sensitivity!
And that's why I'm a member of the SHPA instead.
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