# 314
This morning, I featured an excerpt from an editorial accusing the Indonesian government of downplaying the threat of bird flu. It was fairly scathing. This afternoon, I find this report, where Liputan 6 TV news appears to accuse a hospital of covering up the death of a bird flu patient.
I emphasize `appears’ because this is a machine-translated article, and one can never be too sure if the nuances of the translated text really match the intent of the writer. As we read these Toggletext translations, we need to be careful not to read too much into the wording and phraseology.
There is an old story in computer lore, probably apocryphal, of an early attempt to use software to translate an English phrase into Russian, and back into English again to check the accuracy. The phrase chosen was:
The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
They translated it into Russian, and back into English again, and it returned.
The vodka is strong but the meat is rotten.
True or not, it illustrates the point. Software translations leave a lot to be desired.
As I am totally reliant upon the machine translations, I have no way of knowing if this article’s use of the term `covered the death of the casualties up’ indicates a `cover up’ in the American sense, or simply `delayed the release of information’.
A fine point, I admit.
In the interest of fairness, I’m providing two sources on this story. First the translation of the Liputan 6 article, and then the report in the Jakarta Post.
Again the Patient Bird Flu died
Liputan6.com, Semarang: Another bird flu casualties died in Doctor's Hospital of Kariadi Semarang, Central Java.
Casualties had the initials the woman S (46 years) has been killed two days set, but the hospital side apparently covered the death of casualties up that already posotif bird flu.The woman S was villagers the Thunder, the Demak Regency, Central Java.
As you will note, the newspaper article from the Jakarta Post below declines to use the term `cover up’.
A suspected bird flu patient dies in Semarang
JAKARTA (JP): A woman, who is a suspected bird flu patient, has died in Karyadi Hospital, Semarang, with the result whether or not the patient is positive for bird flu to be received on Wednesday.
Elshinta radio station quoted an official of the hospital that the woman, who was admitted to the hospital on Saturday last week, at 11:00 a.m., died on the same day later in the evening.
According to the official, the woman blood sample has been to Jakarta with the test result to be received on Wednesday (***)
Two takes on the same story. One appearing a bit more inflammatory than the other. And frankly, I have no idea which `take’ on this story to believe.
Do I suspect there is some attempt to manage the flow of information here?
Of course I do. That's what governments and officials do. Coming on the heels of several confirmed bird flu deaths, I imagine there was great hesitancy in announcing another, as yet, unconfirmed H5N1 death.
Whether this was a malevolent move on the part of hospital or government officials is less clear. It is difficult to envision what they hoped to gain by delaying an announcement by two days.
The good news is, the local press appears to be in no mood to tolerate the withholding of information, and as this story progresses, I expect that sentiment to grow.
