THE COMMUNITY'S
DOREEN SIMMONS
ON THE JAPANESE RED CROSS'S
APPARENT TREATMENT OF BLOOD DONATIONS
FROM NON-JAPANESE
(courtesy of Issho Kikaku, used with permission of the author)

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Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 01:04:57 +0900
From: Doreen Simmons <jz8d-smmn@asahi-net.or.jp>
Subject: [ISSHO] Re: issho V1 #1528

>Earl Kinmonth wrote:
>>
>> The rules are NOT directed at foreigners. They cover ALL residents,
>> Japanese nationals included, of a number of countries where BSE has been
> > found.

Well that's very nice to know, but only a few years back, it was assumed by
the Japanese Red Cross that *all* foreigners (especially Americans but
who's discriminating?) had AIDS. When I was still young enough to donate, I
noticed that my packet was labelled "gaijin" and had a different color and
a different box to be put in. I very much doubt that it got into the
central blood bank; the assumption was, regardless of age, sex or any other
consideration, that foreigners were going to the blood donation centers
only to get a free HIV test.

Even before that, it was noticeable that suddenly the forms to be filled in
were all in Japanese. When I proved equal to this task (but took pains to
point out, loudly, that it had never been necessary in the two previous
decades), there was a lot of behind-the-scenes fuss and they took my blood
as usual. But hey, what's the point if it's only going to be tested for
AIDS and then thrown away?

~~Doreen Simmons
<jz8d-smmn@asahi-net.or.jp>~

ENDS