It's just salt...

Reading today in the paper about the 'salt hysteria' that we Chinese people are going through, makes me think of one thing, and that is "how can people be so scared?"  Dare I say it, the whole episode proves to me just another thing, that we really are sheep.Yes, sheep, in the term that we just follow what everyone else is doing, and not even bothering to checking the facts before we act. The article I read in the SCMP is a great example. The idea that eating salt would protect you from radiation because of the small amount of iodine in it, is to be frank, stupid. To quote, a person would have to 5g of salt in order to the amount of iodine in a iodine tablet, and to eat a lot of salt everyday would do you serious harm.

When the SCMP asked a customer why they were queuing, she said "I don't know what the salt can be used for. But people are snatching, so I'd better hurry.".

I really want to talk about how ignorant people can be. From the article, The craze started from rumours in China and as soon as salt ran out, these people started coming over to hk to buy salt. Soon, people started to queue up, and lines were formed. Which caused a price increase (typical). The people in Japan haven't even got to a panic stage like this. God forbid if anything happened to China or Hk, all mass panic would break out and most probably everyone would be out for themselves.
To not let panic control out emotions proves very important, and instead having common sense and regard for others. There is a lesson to be learned from how organisation can help benefit in terms of mass tragedy like this. This organisation helps provide a sense of order and unity which is very important.

So after my rant, if you still believe everything you hear, you can be like everyone else and go bid for that last bag of salt online or you could just read the news and check the facts to save some money and some grace. I know which one I'd rather do.

To sum up, one customer saw the queues and asked "why is it so intense? It's just isn't it?" So right, so right.