Swine Flu in Memoriam

This little guy from the village of La Gloria in Veracruz, aka “Patient Zero,” is being honored with a statue, the governor of the state of Veracruz has announced. Modeled after the Manneken-Pis, the Belgian bronze effigy of a peeing boy, the  monument is supposed to symbolize that the government properly “sanitized” La Gloria and aided the sick.

If you want to go see for yourself, the government has put up a handy webpage for tourists. Earlier, it also hung up a big sign with the following words of comfort: “Welcome The Gloria, free place of influenza.” (That was soon switched out for the syntactically sounder “Welcome to La Gloria, influenza-free place,” though.)

Maybe this will generate some travelers with a taste for the bizarre, a la visitors to the Larry Craig airport bathroom. Mexico could certainly use them. The country depends heavily on the tourism sector, which, along with just about everything, continues to freefall. In the first quarter, the Mexican economy shrank 8.2 percent.