On a wet soggy night (yet another one) thought I'd start a new topic. The heading says it all.

I was a bit concerned after reading about the spread of Avian flu in China, although this is nothing to do with monitoring birds/ possible patients, per se, but reading in the SCMP that on the mainland, there is now a hotline that citizens can call. to 'report' neighbors and/or people they know raising poultry.

On one hand yes, I totally agree with tackling a potentially dangerous situations like pandemics, but I'm reading more and more recently that 'hotlines' are set up to 'report'. On many things. Not just avian flu.

You have a neighbor or colleague with a grudge.... then there is a hotline now. That could be potentially a bad situation. Reminds me of history.

I saw one a while back in SCMP that one of the mainland provinces was setting up a "Mental Health" hot line and reminding people of their obligation to report unstable or dangerous people!

And actually, none of these "hotlines" are actually "hotlines" at all.

A hotline is a permanent connection. You don't dial. Just pick up and talk. Originally used I think for the Cold War teletype hotline between the White House and Kremlin in case of nuclear crisis.

But even if you use the term for a conventional phone system, it implies that you dial a number and immediately get the person you want. 999 is about the only real one that even tries to do this. With every other "hotline" I've tried, what you actually get is a recorded message telling you to to "press 1 for..." bullshit, the complete antithesis of a "hotline".