#Corona and the Myth that’s Called ‘Goodwill’ | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

msniw · 4 years

Text

Corona and the Myth that’s Called ‘Goodwill’

Most people are so determined to keep cheerful during these terrible times that many have invoked the mythical spirit of public goodwill displayed by British citizens during World War 2.

Give me a break!

As French Algerian novelist, Albert Camus suggests in ‘The Plague’, an escalating crisis like the Coronavirus pandemic produces the best and worst in us all.

Personally, I find notorious villains far more engaging than milk-and-water saints and such a man was Jewish Londoner Harry Dobkin, a delinquent who murdered, then dismembered his estranged wife and buried her remains on a bomb site in a vain attempt to make her look like a war casualty. According to both Murderpedia and Steemit, when the charred, mummified remains of the former Miss Rachel Dubinski were almost coincidentally unearthed at the height of the London ‘Blitz’ in July 1942 they had been lying below the ruins of the Vauxhall Baptist Chapel for between 12 - 15 months.

I will leave you to read the full details at the links provided above as here I prefer to examine the clever, if now old-fashioned forensic techniques employed to identify the corpse and trace the murderer.

It was a superb piece of team sleuthing, led first by pathologist Dr Keith Simpson who discovered the deceased had died by strangulation; then the police, whose records showed she had been reported missing by her sister, Polly who in turn led them to Rachel’s dentist, Barnett Hopkin.

Finally, writes the author of the account on Murderpedia, “Miss Mary Newman, the head of the Photography Department at Guy's, superimposed a photograph of the skull on to a photograph of Rachel Dobkin, a technique first used six years earlier in the Buck Ruxton case. The fit was uncanny. The bones found in the crypt were the mortal remains of Mrs Rachel Dobkin”.

Most improbably, the Dobkins’ awful story became the stuff of a fictionalised short crime film, ‘The Drayton Case’, whose stars included John Le Mesurier, now best remembered for his role in the BBC TV situation comedy ‘Dad's Army’ and which in a roundabout way brings me back to base.

------

Blood Libels, Then and Now

The feeling that succeeding generations fiercely sanctify and protect their forebears’ memory has been reinforced this week by social media chat about the early 20th century Beilis Affair.

The real story and character of Menachem Mendel Beilis and the ordeal he suffered at the hands of the Czarist Russian authorities on false accusations of ritual murder were used as the basis for the multi prizewinning novel ‘The Fixer’ by Bernard Malamud which in turn became a film. This was directed by John Frankenheimer and the screenplay was written by Dalton Trumbo, among the ‘Hollywood Ten’ imprisoned and then blacklisted for putative Communist sympathies.

I am sure that this was no coincidence as Beilis’s story will have resonated hugely with Trumbo for many reasons. Some years ago, the screenwriter’s life story was enshrined on film. It needs figures like his son, Christopher, also a film maker to explain to others like the descendants of Mendel Beilis why and how a factual documentary is quite different from a fictive piece of art. Certainly they won’t listen to me!

------------- The debate takes me to the monstrous artistic scandal of the week, the unveiling of the so-called ‘nouveau baroque’ painting, ‘The Martyrdom of Saint Simonino of Trento, for Jewish Ritual Murder’.

Whatever Italian artist, Giovanni Gasparro and his legion fans may say, the real power of the work is neither in its fine draughtsmanship and exquisite colouration, nor its astute pre-Easter and pre-Passover timing: It lies firmly in the evident glee with which he has depicted the anti-Jewish stereotypical characters in the false, hate-filled story.

The Italian episode was vastly worse than the Beilis Affair, involving Jews being forced to make false confessions to murder and then being burnt at the stake.

Gasparro, according to his online biography, enjoys the official patronage of UNESCO, the Italian state and many churches. Further, he boasts a huge social media following: At the last count, more than 2,000 people had reacted to the controversial work on his Facebook page, while it produced 6.2K comments and 1.4K shares.

I do hope that someone persuades Gasparro that if he wishes to honour his faith in paint, there are a million other ways to do so.

The current pandemic has also produced ‘mini’ libels: While a ‘New York Times’ op-ed compared the Corona quarantine to an IDF military curfew on Palestinians in 2002 without mentioning suicide bombings, the Palestinian Authority initially equated Israel with the virus and only after a long silence, did it admit to cooperating with Israel during the emergency. By then, of course, more damage had been done.

Corona as the Theatre of the Absurd

Try as I may, I cannot find any well-known recent commentators who have referred to Camus’s novel, ‘The Plague’. This is especially surprising in Israel where the great master of absurdist philosophy and art is said to be universally revered.

Professor David Ohana remarks in his work, ‘Israel and Its Mediterranean Identity’ that Camus experienced the Vichy regime’s treatment of its Jews “close at hand through the family of his wife Francine, his schoolmates, neighbors, and fellow intellectuals … Most of Camus’s friends at that period in Algeria were Jews”.

André Cohen, his family doctor became “a victim of the fascist plague that was spreading in Algeria: only two percent of the Jewish doctors were permitted to work in their profession, and there was a similar quota in governmental positions. When the decrees were imposed in Oran, Dr Cohen had to stop working as a doctor”.

Ohana muses “… was Dr Cohen, the enlightened Jewish doctor, Camus’s model for Dr Rieux, the fighting doctor in ‘La Peste (The Plague)’, the outlines of which he began to commit to writing at that time? …

“Camus, who was influenced by ‘Moby Dick’, needed a symbol that would embody the subject he wished to describe in his allegorical novel. The plague of typhus that was raging in the town of Tlemcen gave him his inspiration. In 1941, at the time of the plague, he wrote in the newspaper ’Paris- Soir’, for which he worked, a short story that sketched out the main outlines of the plot of ‘The Plague’, which were fully developed about six years later”.

The past three-four months have indeed seen our global and virtual village turn into a huge stage depicting a strange, absurdist universe that no-one can yet fully interpret or explain. It now remains to be seen if any leading Jewish writers, be they in Israel or the Diaspora, will return Camus’s compliment and write something worthy of his enduring legacy – and the plague that’s irrevocably changed modern times.

#PerfectlyWellRead Natalie Wood #Corona and the Myth that’s Called ‘Goodwill’

0 notes

lodelcar · 4 years

Text

SOUS LES PAVÉS, LA PLAGE - WHAT THE CORONA CRISIS TEACHES US ABOUT THE REGIONAL APPROACH

Picture: Suburbs of Brussels in Coronatimes

There is a Dutch translation of this article on the blog:earaernl.tumblr.com: https://earaernl.tumblr.com/post/618264356234379264/sous-les-pav%C3%A9s-la-plage-wat-de-coronacrisis-ons

Sous les pavés, la plage ![1]

The sentence above is a slogan from May '68. The slogan embodies the ambition of the May 68 movement to make a desire for freedom a reality. 42 years later, the corona crisis struck the western world at a time when many people questioned the democratic form of government, social media are starting to have numerous negative influences and citizens are being turned against each other in many countries. In addition, a new form of warfare is adversely affecting countries' public opinion by campaigns of fake news funded by states such as Russia[2] to destabilize democracies in Europe[3], and by right-wing movements in the United States that fuel the demonstrations against state governors who want to maintain the containment[4].

In previous articles, we have already called for a redesign of the democratic landscape in Europe by, on the one hand, transferring more powers to a supranational level and, on the other hand, better recognizing and financially supporting the expressiveness and decisiveness of politicians and citizens at regional level. In a recent article, international journalist and Euro-correspondent Caroline de Gruyter even argues: “What the state should do after this crisis: better delegation, both at European and local level. Like a switchboard. That means that he sometimes has to make himself small. ”[5]

Cool EU lovers blamed at the outset of the corona crisis that this pandemic was now an excellent opportunity for the EU to take the lead and that it did not.[6] They forgot to mention that public health was explicitly referred to by the Maastricht Treaty as a national matter in which the EU did not even have to play an advisory role. On the other hand, there were also passionate supporters of decentralization and a regional approach who suddenly demanded that the federal level take control. This fear of cold water led other commentators to argue in favor of deregionalisation and the reintroduction of a strong centrally-led state. One of the conclusions from the approach to the pandemic, Dutch professor and publicist Paul Scheffer suggests that the legitimacy of the national state was considered outdated too early.[7]

Still, in fact, we notice that the regional approach involving local and regional governments, universities and non-profit organizations working together has had faster results and thus instilled confidence at times when national governments were still struggling with all players in the country.

The struggle between supranational , national and regional

Since US President Trump started targeting international institutions, questioning their legitimacy and reducing the contribution of the US, traditionally the largest fund contributor, the latter have lost momentum. Antonio Gutierrez, the current Secretary-General of the United Nations, felt it was necessary to launch a call for common commitment: “We must see countries not only united to beat the virus but also to tackle its profound consequences. (…) What the world needs now is solidarity.”[8] He also advocates for changes in behavior and society in a post-Corona era: "With solidarity we can defeat the virus and build a better world."[9] After all, both UNDP and WHO have been pressured by the US President to threaten to reduce or even abolish US contributions.

This fold back on the home country is questioning traditional alliances and will make it difficult for the US as such in the future to regain leadership in the world. Even in Canada, the US's most loyal ally, prominent voices are pushing for new alliances as its southern neighbour is coming apart and is to be considered an empire fallen in decay: “It's therefore not an exaggeration, to ask if the U.S. empire is in jeopardy. It is entirely possible, if we look to history. ”[10]

The EU is also under pressure. The number of EU haters increased dramatically in recent years. The dubitative way in which the UK has been trying to turn Brexit into reality kept the activity limited to verbal decomposition. But the way in which some countries continue to oppose European solidarity initiatives assisting the European economy to recover as a whole after the COVID19 crisis does not testify of global European goodwill. The opinion that the Northern European "ants" (the Netherlands, Germany, Finland,...) - virtuous because little debt in terms of public debt, workers and prosperous - should not pay for the Southern European "crickets", which carried on spending, and are considered job reluctant and with a budget fueled by shortages, is a stereotype that has been circulating for quite some time now. And while it can be proven that many ants have gained prosperity on the hood of the crickets, these stereotypes persists and is even deepened out by the corona crisis. As a result, very nice initiatives of solidarity across the borders are overruled and left unrecognized.[11]

The American approach cannot be called an example. Security there is a competence of the states. Given the deep divisions in American society on the one hand and the almost total lack of social security for the average American, on the other hand, there is a very diverse approach between states. There are metropolises such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago etc on the one hand and rural states with a run-down white population and low population density. The corona crisis is, of course, less important in the latter states than in the densely populated states. Similarly, the battle between the legitimate rights of the states in terms of security policy and President Trump's attempt to turn this into a federal matter is far from over, and it will be at the cost of lives.[12]

However, the call for decentralization on the one hand and supranational solidarity and more state initiative on the other is getting louder. Italian-American economist Mariana Mazzucato has long been intrigued by the government's contribution to the innovative power of top companies such as Facebook, Tesla and Google. She extensively proved that these companies could only be successful because they could use government-funded research[13]. The myth of Silicon Valley’s free research is one that is artificially perpetuated by business leaders, Mazzucato said. A striking finding that the current British Tory government advising professor puts forward is the successful operation of mission-oriented institutions in the US, the UK and Israel.[14] According to the author, these various institutes set up markets.[15] The best example for her was the Apollo program in the sixties. More than 300 different projects emerged, not only in aviation, but also in areas such as food, textiles, electronics and medicine, resulting in 1,800 spin-off products, from freeze-dried food to cooling suits, spring belts and digital fly-by-wire flight control systems used in commercial aircraft. Mazzcucato therefore proposed to apply the same principle at European level, e.g. by reorganizing Horizon 2020 in this way.

The EU has been wrongly placed on the side where the blows fall; we mentioned it before: public health is a purely national matter for which the EU does not even have advisory powers. However, the Union has again taken its responsibility this time. Where in the early days, at the beginning of the COVID19 crisis, all countries have hermetically closed their borders, despite the Schengen Treaty, and have stopped orders for essential parts destined for other countries, the European Commission very quickly has confronted everyone with their own responsibility and was thus able to restore the free movement of goods and services within the Union. The European Commission has also rapidly started to coordinate a joint European response to the coronavirus outbreak. It has taken drastic measures to strengthen the health sector and absorb the socio-economic impact in the European Union and help Member States coordinate their national response.[16] There have been very good examples of cross-border cooperation between regions on both sides of the border to ease the burden on congested hospitals by transferring patients suffering from coronavirus disease to Member States where hospital beds are available. Germany’s Baden-Würtemberg, Switzerland and Luxembourg have made beds available to help the hard-hit eastern France and northern Italy.[17] Doctors and nurses have also been sent to Romania from Norway and Norway, because both countries had fewer problems.[18]

Nutrition is also decentralized

One of the most striking facts is the revaluation of the local food chain. Countries such as the Netherlands and Belgium, which are located in one of the most fertile regions of Europe, have struggled to provide for their own food supply in recent years. The food industry with its monoculture cut into the livelihoods of smaller farmers. As a result of the international market events, they got less and less for their products and then switched to French fries, which they cannot loose on the pavers nowadays. Farmers who continued to produce fresh fruit and mixed vegetables and who have set up farm shops are now reaping the benefits of their initiatives. The short food chain is back. “Farmers who until recently supplied to the catering industry or industry set up their own points of sale and are surprised to find that they cannot get the fresh asparagus, cheeses or cutlets to eat quickly enough. We revalue the food from our own region. There is attention for healthier living and eating and for the bike ride to the farmer. ”[19] Initiatives that were planned to set up food production as close as possible to the cities are now gaining momentum. And this at a time when food multinationals are arguing to postpone the new European Green Deal, because it does not allow them to recover from the COVID19 uppercut in time.

Relying on one’s own strength

The successful approach to the coronavirus does not only say something about charismatic politicians who can guide their country through a crisis. Naturally, the young, practically all-female cohort of prime ministers from Iceland, New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Taiwan and Austria are looked at with admiration.[20] They have quickly locked-down their country completely and rapidly and are now efficiently starting up their economies again. It is also necessary to look at underlying structures that already exist in countries and that have proved efficient.

A country such as the Netherlands, which is considered by the outside world as very centrally managed, still has a very decentralized structure on which it can fall back in times of crisis. After all, the Netherlands is divided into 25 safety regions, areas in which cooperation is carried out by various administrations and services in the performance of tasks in the field of fire service, disaster and crisis management, medical assistance, public order and safety. These have extensive autonomy, allowing national decisions to be anticipated or adapted to the needs of the region.[21]

Switzerland, on the other hand, whose structure is extremely decentralized, has a Bundesamt für Gesundheit BAG (Federal Office for Public Health) within its Eidgenössiges Department des Innern (Federal Office of Public Health) that coordinates all aspects of Health for the 26 cantons.[22]

Fortunately, as a result of the Chernobyl crisis in 1986, Belgium, a federal country whose federal states have the most powers that cannot be overruled by the federal state, had provided itself with a National Security Council. This enables the federal government to take measures related to terrorist threats as well as public health. This enabled the federal government during the COVID19 crisis to organize structural consultations with the federal states to coordinate all aspects of public health.

Germany is praised for its fast and consistent approach: extensive testing from the outbreak, mapping and insolating the contacts of infected persons.[23] However, Germany also benefited from its federal system. Health falls within the competence of the (sixteen) federal states. As a result, there is an extensive network of public and private laboratories. And they have been very active in recent weeks.

Italy, on the other hand, has fallen victim of its regional policy. The main focus of the epidemic outbreak was in the Lombardy region. However, that region was led by the populist Lega party that in previous years had replaced the traditional public health system by private clinics. The local Lega governor had failed to use his regional authority to lock-down his province and waited for a national decision.[24] On the other hand, however, the rapid intervention of certain mayors who had contained an entire area of villages on their own authority, from the death of a first patient, has made matters worse. “In Vò, a village of three thousand souls near Padua, Italy's first corona died. What happened in Vò between February 21 and March 23? Local initiative. A sanitary cordon was immediately placed around the village. Everyone was tested. The seriously ill were taken to hospitals further away. People with mild symptoms were isolated at home and checked by telephone and digitally. Everyone else in Vò also had to report regularly, and stay indoors until the virus was eradicated.”[25]

The Corona virus has not striken equally badly everywhere. It is clear that densely populated urban areas in Europe and North America are more likely to be affected by mass contamination than sparsely populated areas. Lombardy and Venezia in Italy are much more affected than the south of Italy. New York, New Orleans and Los Angeles are the hotbeds in North America. Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, London, Milan, Moscow are the obvious victims in Europe. Nevertheless, there are hotbeds by coincidences: the gathering of religious communities in Mulhouse (Alsace) and Daegu (South-Korea), the ski holiday in Ischl in Austria and the Dolomites in Northern Italy, the football match Atalanta Bergamo - FC Valencia, a nursing home in the suburbs of Seattle (Washington State) on the West coast in the US… The question must therefore be asked whether a very centrally controlled policy that puts an entire country in lockdown, is the most appropriate option. Sweden has taken stringent measures but has assumed that the Stockholm region is much more vulnerable than the sparsely populated North. Although Sweden is a centrally administered country, such as the Netherlands, it has passed many powers on to its provinces.

Centralize - decentralize?

Centrally managed countries such as the UK, which has a highly rated National Health Service by the British, are very vulnerable when retrenching that unique system. After all, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The British government in the last weeks has made tremendous efforts to make up for lack of space and lack of resources by temporarily setting up hospitals. But will also pay the financial toll for it at a later stage. In the US, with its numerous private hospitals and a dilapidated public offering, the entire healthcare system is exposed. All the weaknesses in the health care float to the surface like wreckage: the sky-high costs, the lack of beds, the lack of medical equipment, the lack of respirators for when the crisis reaches its peak.[26]

Should decentralization now be necessary or are the supporters of a strong central system gaining here?

There are several reasons why decentralized decision-making has advantages.

1) The principle of equality promoted by the French Revolution often prevents areas from being treated differently within a centrally managed state.

The Netherlands, Austria, Italy and Germany have opted for a regional approach in joint consultation between central government and regions. For the Netherlands, this meant that certain laws had to be amended. Belgium a small country with a very high population density but very decentralized has opted for a national approach, a mild confinement but with severe financial sanctions. France and Spain have maintained a very strict lockdown across its entire territory, although there are really clear hearths where the disease strikes vehementally. The fact that some regions are less affected than others has enabled France to relieve certain hospitals by transferring patients to other parts of the country. But the general lockdown is also hurting the French economy. Spain will pick up the accession regionally, whereby less affected regions such as the Canarias, the Balearic Islands, Murcia or Rioja can start up faster than major cities such as Madrid and Barcelona.[27]

2) A decentralized approach also enables a more small-scale and targeted approach. This offers opportunities.

A typical example are the mouth masks. Before the covid19 crisis, practically no face masks were available in Belgium. Although the 2009 Mexican flu epidemic the government decided to stock up on a strategic supply of face masks. The right populist dominated government decided not to renew them for austerity reasons. The existing stock was therefore no longer valid and was destroyed. The purchase of new masks has become a source of conflict within the various parties, as several orders in China have always yielded poor quality results and millions of masks had to be rejected. In the exit period, it was then decided to provide every Belgian with a cloth and reusable mouth mask. Buying together and thereby pushing the price down were no longer considered: the federal states would then have to deal with it. And what did the federal state of Wallonia do: it passed the sour apple on to the municipal authorities. They had to buy enough masks for their population and the state would pay the bill. Because smaller quantities could be processed by smaller workshops in Europe.[28]

3) Regional and local authorities also are often more acquainted with their environment : local companies, non-profit organizations and citizens with their heart in the right place.

A woman from Brussels living in a Spanish village already for several years has put her back into a fundraising campaign for the retirement home in her village. She encouraged her friends to make face masks at home. She herself cut 40 protective suits from plastic packaging of car seats that she got from a garage.

The mayor of her village delivered the masks and identified new needs that are addressed promptly. So she also contacted individuals and companies such as department stores to ask them to donate material urgently. She received a very quick response in the form of 40 3D-printed protective visors, 700 pairs of gloves, 160 surgical masks and a range of materials that people made at home.[29]

We don't think it is one solution or another. It is rather and ... and. But above all: it is relying on one’s own strength. A resilient society is a dynamic entity, in which citizens show solidarity, in which (local) companies place the interests of society and the environment in which they function first, in which knowledge centers and non-profit organizations bundle all their competences and in which the government consults with all these parties and seek their support and agreement so that the decisions they make are supported and accepted. This can only be done by putting forward charismatic national leaders. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio with his very active governance has had a much greater impact than the hot and cold blowing President Trump. It requires collective leadership from politicians who are in the service of the population, and not in the service of their party or, worse still, of themselves.

Louis Delcart, board member European Academy of the Regions, www.ear-aer.eu

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sous_les_pav%C3%A9s,_la_plage! The phrase became a symbol of the events and popular movement during the spring of 1968, when the revolutionary students began to build barricades in the streets of major cities by tearing up street pavement stone. As the first barricades were raised, the students recognized that the stone setts were placed on top of sand. The statement encapsulated the movement's views on urbanization and modern society in both a literal and metaphorical form.

[2] EUvsDisinfo: Throwing coronavirus disinfo at the wall to see what sticks, April 02, 2020 https://euvsdisinfo.eu/throwing-coronavirus-disinfo-at-the-wall-to-see-what-sticks/?fbclid=IwAR0LjdMHg-3jsVxigXRKgB_UA_jTO7OX34BhYqgiimHuermoBjnhZw9DYB0, retrieved on 2-04-2020

[3] Tom Van de Weghe, Zaait Rusland verwarring over het coronavirus in het Westen? (Is Russia sowing confusion about the coronavirus in the West?), Belgian Television (VRT NWS), 20/03/2020 https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2020/03/19/zaait-rusland-verwarring-over-het-coronavirus-in-het-westen/ retrieved 20-3-2020

[4] Jos De Greef, Wapenfanaten, extreemrechts én leden van entourage van Trump: deze mensen vuren lockdownprotest in VS aan (Fire arms fanatics, far-right and members of Trump entourage: these people are firing lockdown protests in the US), VRT News, 20 apr 2020 https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2020/04/20/wie-zit-er-achter-het-lockdown-protest-in-de-vs-extreemrechts/, retrieved 21-4-2020

[5] Caroline de Gruyter: Na globalisering ‘glokalisering’? (After globalisation “glocalisation”?) in De Standaard, 27-03-2020, translation in English: https://lodelcar.tumblr.com/post/613735131703885824/after-globalization-glocalization

[6] ORF – Redaktion, Leitl zollt EU bei Krisenbewältigung Lob, in ORF, 21-03-2020 https://ooe.orf.at/stories/3040283/ retrieved on 22-03-2020

[7] Paul Scheffer: We hebben een dienstbaar Europa nodig, (What we need is a serviceable Europe) in: De Standaard Weekblad, 18 april 2020

[8] António Guterres: The recovery from the COVID-19 crisis must lead to a different economy, UN Covid 19-response - 31 March 2020, https://www.un.org/en/un-coronavirus-communications-team/launch-report-socio-economic-impacts-covid-19 retrieved 27-4-2020

[9] ibidem

[10] Sergio Marchi, Is the U.S. empire in jeopardy?, in McLeans, April 15, 2020

[11] Dany Lang et Isabelle Salle : Coronavirus: pourquoi les Pays-Bas n’ont pas de leçons à nous donner, (Coronavirus: why the Netherlands has no lessons to teach us) in Le Figaro - 23 avril 2020

[12] Denny Baert, Ivan Ollevier, Gouverneurs opnieuw aan zet in exitstrategie van Trump.(Governors again in the frontline for decision making in Trump's exit strategy) In VRT News, 17-4-2020, https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2020/04/17/verenigde-staten-gaan-open-in-drie-fases/,retrieved on 27/4/2020

[13] “The development of Google’s search algorithm, for instance, had been supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, a US public grant-awarding body. Electric car company Tesla initially struggled to secure investment until it received a $465 million (£380 million) loan from the US Department of Energy. In fact, three companies founded by Elon Musk — Tesla, SolarCity and SpaceX — had jointly benefited from nearly $4.9 billion (£3.9bn) in public support of various kinds. Many other well-known US startups had been funded by the Small Business Innovation Research programme, a public venture capital fund. “It wasn’t just early research, it was also applied research, early stage finance, strategic procurement,” she says. “The more I looked, the more I realised: state investment is everywhere.” João Medeiros, This economist has a plan to fix capitalism. It's time we all listened, in Wired, Tuesday 8 October 2019

[14] João Medeiros, This economist has a plan to fix capitalism. It's time we all listened, in Wired, Tuesday 8 October 2019

[15] “The prime example was DARPA, the research agency founded by President Eisenhower in 1958 following the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik. The agency pumped billions of dollars into the development of prototypes that preceded commercial technology such as Microsoft Windows, videoconferencing, Google Maps, Linux and the cloud. In Israel, Yozma, a government-backed venture capital fund that ran between 1993 and 1998, supported more than 40 companies. In the UK, the Government Digital Service, launched in 2010, was behind the award-winning .gov.uk domain, saving the government £1.7bn in IT procurement. “When I use the word ‘state’ I am talking about a decentralised network of different state agencies," she says. When such agencies are mission-oriented to solve problems and structured to take risks, they can be an engine of innovation.” João Medeiros, This economist has a plan to fix capitalism. It's time we all listened, in Wired, Tuesday 8 October 2019

[16] https://ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-eu/health/coronavirus-response_en retrieved 29-04-2020

[17] Jolien De Bouw, Duitsland en Zwitserland vangen Franse coronapatiënten op (Germany and Switzerland accommodate French corona patients), De Standaard Avond, 23 maart 2020

[18] ANP, Noorwegen en Roemenië sturen medische teams naar Italië (Norway and Romania send medical teams to Italy), 7 april 2020, https://www.nd.nl/nieuws/varia/964840/noorwegen-en-roemenie-sturen-medische-teams-naar-italie, retrieved 29/04/2020

[19] Ine Renson, Plots komt de lokale boer weer in beeld,( Suddenly the local farmer comes back into the picture) in De Standaard, 2 mei 2020

[20] Corry Hancké, Hard met een hart, (Hard with a heart) in De Standaard, 2-5-2020

[21] Dominique Minten, Nederland timmert zijn coronabeleid juridisch dicht (The Netherlands have made its corona policy acceptable legally), De Standaard - dinsdag 28 april 2020

[22] Alexandra Wey, Coronavirus: the situation in Switzerland, in swissinfo.ch Apr 27, 2020 - https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/covid-19_coronavirus--the-situation-in-switzerland/45592192, retrieved 29-04-2020.

[23] Ruud Goossens, Alert en doelgericht houdt Duitsland virus in bedwang (Alert and targeted Germany keeps virus under control) in De Standaard, 18-04-2020

[24] Ine Roox, Het verdriet van Italië, eenzaam in Europa (The sorrow of Italy, lonely in Europe), in De Standaard, 18-04-2020

[25] Caroline de Gruyter, Na globalisering ‘glokalisering’?(After globalisation glocalisation?) in de Standaard, 27-03-2020, English translation: https://lodelcar.tumblr.com/post/613735131703885824/after-globalization-glocalization

[26] Björn Soenens: Corona in de wereld: Noord-Amerika: "Alle zwakheden in de ziekenzorg drijven boven als wrakhout" (Corona in the world: North America: "All weaknesses in the health care float like wreckage") in VRT News, 25-03-2020, https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2020/03/23/bjoern-soenens-over-corona-in-amerika-ik-ben-nu-oorlogscorresp/ retrieved on 30-4-2020

[27] Jos De Greef, Spanje stapt uit strikte lockdown, met kleine stapjes en niet overal op hetzelfde ogenblik (Spain gets out of strict lockdown, with small steps and not everywhere at the same time), in VRT News, 28 apr 2020, https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2020/04/28/spanje-stapt-uit-strikte-lockdown-met-kleine-stapjes-en-niet-ov/ retrieved on 30-04-2020

[28] Pascale SERRET, Au moins un masque par habitant: on s’organise comment? (At least one mask per capita: how is it organized?), in L'Avenir, 27-04-2020, https://www.lavenir.net/cnt/dmf20200427_01470325/au-moins-un-masque-pour-tous-on-s-organise-comment retrieved 29-04-2020

[29] Sven Tuytens: Brusselse is drijvende kracht achter burgerinitiatief in Spaans dorpje: "Geweldig om te zien hoe groot solidariteit is"(Brussels lady is driving force behind citizens' initiative in Spanish village: "Great to see how important solidarity is" – in VRTNews, 18 apr 2020 https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2020/04/17/sven-tuytens-brusselse-in-madrid/ retrieved 30-4-2020

#regional development #regional approach #coronavirus

0 notes

garudabluffs · 5 years

Photo

The Eerie Parallels Between COVID-19 and the Plague

One of the earliest things you talk about in this piece is the remarkable parallels between what happened back in the 1300s, a virus that started in Asia, that spread to Italy and other places that really parallels what we’re seeing today.

Parag Khanna: “Yes, that’s exactly right, it is truly uncanny. If you change one letter of the province where the plague broke out in Northwestern China, that was Hebei, and you change it to Hubei, that’s where Wuhan is the capital where the current virus broke out. They’re obviously in the same country, the plague spread westward along the Silk Road, it reached Iran and devastated more than half the population of Persia, which at the time was, so it’s called a connate, a protector of the territory of the Mongol empire. It reached Genoa, entered Italy in the year, I think 1341 through the port of Genoa. Parag Khanna: “You have of course today the main clusters of this being similarly China, Iran, Italy, and it’s not necessarily a coincidence, as I point out in the article. Iran and Italy are two of China’s major trade partners along the Belt and Road Initiative, which you mentioned at the outset. There are really these eerie parallels around how travelers and traders have enabled the spread of this virus. Given the long incubation period, it’s very difficult for us to know how many people are genuinely effected and obviously the weaknesses in these countries’ health systems that have been revealed. And by the way, it did spread from Italy back in the 14th century northward and decimated so much of the European population and of course so many Chinese people died as well.”

“This is really the core thesis of my Future is Asian book. I did not call the book The Future is Chinese, I called the book the Future is Asian for a good reason because China has never been number one in the world and it’s never been number one in all of Asia, because Asia, inherently, is so diverse. You have the Indian civilization, Japanese civilization, Russia is actually an Asian power, Persia, I mean Iran, Korea, Australia. India, the United States is still a major military presence, there are many balancing powers to contain China’s rise, so the notion that has taken hold over the last 20 years, that China is inevitably destined to be number one, and the prominent global power on the planet Earth was always a complete myth, it was always wrong. I think that this will just be one more nail in the coffin of that very bad and dangerous idea. It doesn’t mean that China isn’t powerful, I make very clear that China is a superpower. You know, 15 years ago I started saying China is definitively a global superpower. I was even writing about Chinese influence in Latin America and all across Africa, so there’s no question that China is a global power with a very significant influence worldwide. That does not mean that China will be number one in the world and it will not even be number one, necessarily, will not even dominate Asia.”

“I live in Singapore and you’ve probably seen that, whether it’s the Harvard study or many other, Goodwill Health Organization and experts like Laurie Garrett at the council on foreign relations, they’ve all said, “If the whole world had a public health system like Singapore’s, we would have a small fraction of the outbreaks.” This is the first country that became a poster outside of China because it’s not far from China, you have a huge amount of travel every single day, dozens of flights arriving from Chinese cities. This was the first country outside of China to reach a hundred cases of the virus and zero people have died, and I’m living here right now. I’m speaking to you while looking out the window at a very calm and peaceful landscape of palm trees and so forth.

Life continues as normal, not a single Singaporean person who’s died, and let’s bear in mind this is the fastest aging country in the world with the most lopsided aging demographics, just like Japan. This is a small version of Japan, so according to the demographic map of this virus, a hell of a lot of old Singaporeans should be dead right now, and instead the answer is zero. That’s just a fact, this is a place I’ve come to live the last few years and you have to admire the transparency of the system. They published on the front page of the newspaper every day what to do if you feel sick. They made a virus test absolutely free and open so that no one fears that they can’t afford it or that they wouldn’t be able to afford quarantine. Everything is completely free, they had videos made to air on television and everyone will know what to do if you don’t feel well and they encourage people to self quarantine, if you’ve been infected.

Just every possible sensible, commonsensical thing you would expect.

Just every possible sensible, commonsensical thing you would expect. If you and I as nonpublic health experts were to make a list of the 20 things you would want to do to contain a virus, they’ve done all 20 of those things. Again, they lived through SARS 15 years ago, so they learned the lessons, they embedded the best practices. Again, this is probably the only country that’s getting the credit now for having contained it, but it is a very small country. But it doesn’t mean that larger countries can’t do it.”

READ MORE Full Text Transcript: https://whowhatwhy.org/2020/03/16/the-eerie-parallels-between-covid-19-and-the-plague/

More than Just a Virus March 16,2020

“Italy was the only G7 country to sign on to the Belt and Road initiative with Sister-City Agreements throughout Italy. Some of those sister cities have been the hardest hit by corona. Iran has also suffered with increased infections as government officials have been especially affected, as if they were specifically targeted. Iran has had a comprehensive strategic partnership with China since 2016 and in defiance of US sanctions, Iran has continued to import embargoed products from China while selling its oil to China.

The question arises why, out of 175 countries in the world, that those two countries, in particular, have specifically experienced the strongest coronavirus presence than any other. It can be expected that the ‘coincidence’ has not escaped the notice of the Chinese, Iranian or Italian governments.”

“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a recent video revealed massive corruption at the CDC and WHO with both in the vaccine business rather than as regulatory agencies conducting oversight on Big Pharma and protecting the public health. Kennedy reported that with an $11 billion annual budget and a revolving door with industry, the CDC owns its own vaccine patents and collects millions in profits each year. Identifying the WHO as a ‘sock puppet’ for Big Pharma and Big Money, Kennedy said the WHO is controlled top to bottom by the pharmaceutical industry which provides half of the WHO’s budget.

Dr. Judy Mikovits, PhD, molecular biologist and former researcher with the National Cancer Institute, blew the whistle on contaminated virus being used in human vaccines. When she refused to renounce her study, she was fired and arrested in 2011. Here are her comments on the efficacy of the coronavirus as “part of the plague of corruption.”

Man Made or Mother Natural

While the origin of coronavirus is yet to be definitively nailed down, whether it might be a military bio-weapon, whether the virus leaked out of a lab through human error or whether, it was deliberately released into the public realm. Two experienced scientists (including a former NSA counterterror analyst) are suggesting that the Covid-19 appears to be man made while their research paper, which has been withdrawn from internet circulation, concluded that

“In summary, somebody was entangled with the evolution of 2019-nCoV coronavirus. In addition to origins of natural recombination and intermediate host, the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan.”

“With an estimated 250,000 Americans hospitalized with the flu/influenza since December, how many of those were misdiagnosed? How many sick people believe they have the coronavirus when they are only diagnosed with the flu? With no testing in the US, how accurate are any of the statistics, globally or domestically, confirming the number of infections or deaths attributed to corona or the flu/influenza? “

“If we have learned anything since 1963, it is to question everything that Big Government, Big Media and Big Money tell us as there is always more than the ‘official’ story. With too many unknowns still to be answered, there is no doubt that a bio-critter of uncertain nefariousorigins, perhaps electro magnetic 5G oriented, is loose within Earth’s atmosphere.

As we are all collectively, as One Universe, experiencing the potential of a coronavirus infection, we have been assured that the outbreak originated in a fish market in Wuhan, China’s eighth largest city with a population of 11 million. That is the largely unchallenged conclusion since China is well known for its extensive network of high tech labs and since the SARS virus began in China last year.

At first glance, it seems a passing curiosity that the next two most extensively affected countries with corona infections, each disparate from China and each other, have extensive trade relations with China. In defiance of science, why would Italy be the most infected country outside of China?

Italy was the only G7 country to sign on to the Belt and Road initiative with Sister-City Agreements throughout Italy. Some of those sister cities have been the hardest hit by corona. Iran has also suffered with increased infections as government officials have been especially affected, as if they were specifically targeted. Iran has had a comprehensive strategic partnership with China since 2016 and in defiance of US sanctions, Iran has continued to import embargoed products from China while selling its oil to China.

With the complexity and uncertainty of the coronavirus. it would not be the first crisis where TPTB have misled a trusting public. It would, however, be wise to treat the virus with respect as a potent pathogen of consequence. In case you had not noticed prior to the corona, there has been a titanic struggle for global dominance underway with the US, Israel, Russia and China as its sovereign representatives. The most current manifestation of that struggle, through happenstance or not, being the coronavirus outbreak.

While there are references to the virus spreading considerably through increased exposure, getting worse before it gets better, it is another curiosity that there is no optimism as the US flu season (December – February), peaks and winds down in March. So why the panic? If the coronavirus is a ‘normal’ virus, it should already be peaking just as it is in China and South Korea. If it is not a ‘normal’ virus, if it is mutated to reappear in the future or if it is man made or a bio-weapon, then we have a different problem. All of which begs the question which Federal agency is currently testing the virus to determine its origin, when will we know the results of that test and when will the virus peak?

China’s National Health Commissioner reports that the coronavirus has ‘peaked’ in Wuhan with only single digit new cases and no new cases in the Hubei province. The World Health Organization (WHO) agrees with that assessment. While South Korea closed its borders in early February, it also believes that the Covid-19 has peaked. Russia closed its borders in January and has reported 28 cases with no fatalities.

Big Media is portraying the Covid-19 as if it is here to stay in perpetuity rather than a flu that will run its natural course. Before the virus peaks, TPTB must move quickly if it is intent on institutionalizing those initiatives to tighten control and censorship; to destabilize what remains as a ‘normal’ environment withmandatory medical martial law and mandatory vaccinations. In other words, not unlike 911, any crisis can be used to create a new collectivization of society with a centralized global control as the new reality,

The Governor of California has suggested a ban on public gatherings of 250 people with the CDC Director suggests a 50 person ban. The real possibility is that, once adopted, the ban will never be lifted. The NY Fed Bank moved quickly to approve a $1.5 Trillion in ‘short-term loan’ to the banks for ‘unusual’ disruption of services during the corona virus smells more like a backdoor bailout for Wall Street during the recent downtown

WHO and CDC and Mandatory Vaccines

An out-of-control pandemic encourages the public to rely on the CDC or WHO (World Health Organization) as definitive ‘medical experts’’ on public health concerns. While both are thoroughly unscrupulous in their compromises to Big Pharma’s dominance, the CDC has no reliable test kits for coronavirus and is conducting no tests to determine the source of the virus. True medical agencies would be encouraging the public to strengthen their immune system and natural antibodies with doses of Vitamin C to ward off a head cold or respiratory infection.

Coronavirus Outbreak, a Global Public Health Emergency?

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a recent video revealed massive corruption at the CDC and WHO with both in the vaccine business rather than as regulatory agencies conducting oversight on Big Pharma and protecting the public health. Kennedy reported that with an $11 billion annual budget and a revolving door with industry, the CDC owns its own vaccine patents and collects millions in profits each year. Identifying the WHO as a ‘sock puppet’ for Big Pharma and Big Money, Kennedy said the WHO is controlled top to bottom by the pharmaceutical industry which provides half of the WHO’s budget.

Regarded as the UN’s public health leader, the WHO director generalDr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said, “We have made the assessment that #COVID19 can be characterized as a pandemic” without providing convincing infection or death rate statistics, More recently, Ghebreyesus refused to consider when the virus might peak with “this outbreak could still go in any direction” – whatever that means.

Man Made or Mother Natural

in addition, the Biondt.org published a paper with the findings that the coronavirus was engineered with ‘key structural proteins” identifying “four inserts of amino acid sequences homologous to amino acid sequences in HIV 1.” This paper was also withdrawn with the publisher warning that its conclusions should not be regarded as ‘conclusive.’

The Gates Foundation, the WHO and the European Commission are benefactors of the Pirbright Institute which owns the bio-safety lab-level 4 lab (BSL-4) in China which owns the coronavirus patent. The US patent application was filed in 2015 and granted in 2018. It is worth noting that the Fort Detrick bio weapons lab in Maryland with a history of violations, was shut down in August, 2019 due to ‘safety concerns related to a ”loss of pathogens.”

Event 201

In what might be considered another coincidence, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation partnered with the John Hopkins Center for Health Security and the World Economic Forum to conduct a five-hour simulated exercise specific to a coronavirus pandemic. The simulation was held in NYC on October 18thand was referred to as Event 201. The event, which included American business, public health, government leaders and military officials, occurred six weeks before the outbreak occurred in Wuhan although there are now unconfirmed reports of earlier exposures elsewhere.

In another coincidence, the 2019 Military World Games began in Wuhan on October 19th with 300 American military athletes in attendance. It has been reported that five unnamed athletes were hospitalized during the game with an unidentified infection.

As if on a dry run, Event 201 addressed how the world should respond to an coronavirus outbreak – with a special focus on how to control ‘conspiracy’ news with a Pandemic Emergency Board formed to manage the pandemic. The Chinese government was not invited to participate in the simulation.

READ MORE https://counterinformation.wordpress.com/2020/03/16/more-than-just-a-virus/

#conoravirus the Plague

0 notes