say what now?

couple of weeks ago my boss grabbed me off the street as i passed him walking into work, told me to come to a meeting in the main CDC building with him. i went in there having no idea what the meeting was about, who it was with, but he seemed to want some company , like he usually does when he meets with foreigners. the group that walked into the meeting room was a hoot. it was the weirdest combination of people i've think i've ever encountered anywhere. there were 5 of them: 1) ringleader 400 pound Italian woman with dyed orange hair and long done-up faker-nails 2) little tiny asian girl wearing just a coat and leggings 3) Dr. Garcia, wearing his best suit and tie and psycho rapist-like countenance probably didn't blink the whole time seemed maybe a little autistic 4) indie college boy who i thought was a girl because his hair was long and curly and he wore high-heeled boots and eye liner and 5) Dr. Einstein, as they called him, who in fact was a exact likeness of Albert and wore a bow-tie; they said he was a relative of the original but he was from Florida and to my ears he had a Spanish accent.

...any of these folks on their own might have warranted a second glance in China if encountered individually, but put them all together in a room, with two big potato very business-like Chinese lingdaos when no one in the room except me speaks english as a first language...

so, what was the meeting about? they wanted to talk to my boss about a procedure that's been used developed by what sounded like their mad-scientist buddy in the states for treating cancer and hepatitis. extracts 250 cc of blood out of the patient and somehow uses photophoresis to kill the bad cells before the blood is put back in. they want to use it to treat HIV, but clinical trials in the states cost millions of dollars. boss: so how can we help you? them: we want to continue research in china because it's cheap here. and has this procedure been approved by the FDA in the States? No, but we personally promise you it's very safe. How many patients have you treated this way? 20, in Puerto Rico.

!!!! they didn't realize that China's not just a crazy backwards place where anything goes but that there's actually a process here, which can take years, for getting approval to do clinical trials. i wish they had done a little research before flying all the way here. and it's very unlikely that something like this that is not approved in the States would get approved in China. if they can prove that it's effective and safe, maybe there's a chance. But the they insisted that it wasn't possible to get that kind of data, because it costs too much money to do test in the states. around and around in a circle. waste of an hour- although an interesting idea it's tough to get past how inefficient it sounds for treating HIV, a virus that replicates a billion times a day.

later that day i started reading 100 Years of Solitude and the first mention of the gypsies coming to town with their crazy inventions reminded me immediately of this group- how they got an audience with my boss is still a mystery. sometimes it blows my mind, the people you meet here. and apparently jackie chan has an apartment across the street from us. and then i found 40 kuai.

on a more ominous note, as we sit here, 1 hour until New Year Holiday starts, there are calls going around the office from somewhere higher-up not to do any practicing of Falun Gong...just a reminder or is there going to be some kind of crack-down...? you heard it here first.