A few months back I wrote about how dangerous for your health it is to be a woman in Taiwan. That there is immense pressure to be as thin as a skeleton and as white as snow. Meaning most women don't eat nor exercise, causing many to suffer from chronic colds or worse.
With such low immune systems, it seems that it is a quiet fact that women over eighteen in Taiwan have oral herpes. Obviously from the usual way, but also if you have ever traveled to Taiwan you will know that there are some shots that they suggest you get. This is because of the way illnesses can quickly spread through poorly washed chopsticks.
Because of how common it is here, herpes does not stigmatized the way it is in the states. It's treated as no different from the common cold, i.e. just something that comes up every now and then. Also in Taiwan it's very common to wear surgical masks all day when you are sick, so it is easy to cover up any cold sore.
This is all to say that the picture above freaked me out a bit. I've also spoken before about how dirty people will take advantage of cramped spaces on the bus. To combat this, some buses recently have put these whistles that you can blow. Of course the obvious question is wouldn't it be easier to just yell? But keep watching the face of somebody who has just seen one of these whistles for the first time. Their face will go from confusion, to disgust when they realized that the whistle could have been in the mouths of other people.
