Above: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a ceremony marking the start of construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, India – 5 August 2020
Eskişehir, Türkiye, Sunday 21 August 2022
More than a century ago, wanderlust was not a desirable trait.
Instead it was considered a psychological condition.
Albert Dadas was the first man diagnosed for “travelling obsessively, often without identification or a specific reason for why he was travelling” in France in the 1890s.
Dadas would become one of many in the epidemic of Frenchmen who were locked up for wandering, be it across borders or continents, with no apparent destination or set plan in mind.
These men, when caught, would be put into a jail or a mental asylum.
They were eventually diagnosed amongst professionals as “pathological tourists“.
These diagnoses would continue in France for 23 years, from 1886 to 1909.
The epidemic would eventually have cultural repercussions for its misuse as a convenient diagnosis rather than a true psychiatric condition.
Doctors would label men as pathological tourists for any behaviour that were seen as outside as social norms.
Left your wife?
Pathological tourist.
Left the army?
Pathological tourist.
Quit your job?
Pathological tourist.
Above: Charlie Chaplin (1889 – 1977) strolling in The Tramp (1915)
As I sit down to write this blogpost, I have recently just returned to my apartment from a month of mostly travelling.
I feel hazy and disoriented.
I look around my living room and I am reminded that I am back to reality.
A physical reaction to this realization: a rush in my chest, followed by…..
Absolute nothingness.
The escapism I had sought and found when I was away is now merely a memory.
I find myself imagining where my next escape will be.
To wander the world with no apparent destination in mind.
I rarely stop to consider the intent behind my travels.
I believe that travel makes us interesting.
Is that why most people travel?
Above: James Stewart (1908 – 1997) (George Bailey) and Thomas Mitchell (1892 – 1962) (Uncle Billy), It’s aWonderful Life (1946)
“Any active participant in modern day society is prone to a series of low level addictive behaviours, checking our phones, finishing shows we don’t like, travelling not because we want to but because we want to be able to say that we went.
We are looking for diversions.
Freedom is not having more brands of cereal to choose from or more beach vacations to take selfies on.” (Mark Manson, Everything is F***ed)
90% of young travellers share their vacation photos on social media during their trip.
#Wanderlust has over 108 million posts on Instagram.
Travel is an entirely beautiful and enriching facet to life, but why do so many of us travel today?
Perhaps travel is a quick fix that provides immediate relief, experienced in the brain the same as pleasure.
Perhaps we seek to escape relationships or office life.
Perhaps travel helps with the pain of considering life mundane.
Perhaps travel makes us feel validated to have others call us well-travelled.
Perhaps some people believe that a move will make a fresh start, that their symptoms and suffering will vanish.
But new does not always mean better.
Certainly there are periods of peace and days of distraction, but the anxiety ascends, the depression descends, the addictive effects of the agony artificially abandoned return.
Because wherever you go, there you are.
But travel still has its trophies, to go is to gain growth and perspective.
Keep travelling.
Go far, explore often, meet new people, make new friends, learn new things.
Escape can effect enrichment.
Pain is postponed, suffering substituted, experience embraced leads to an upgrade of living.
“If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most deeply pondered over the great problems of life and has found solutions to some of them which well deserve the attention even of those who have studied Plato and Kant –
I should point to India.
And if I were to ask myself from what literature we who have been nurtured almost exclusively on the thoughts of Greeks and Romans, and of one Semitic race, the Jewish, may draw the corrective which is most wanted in order to make our inner life more perfect, more comprehensive, more universal, in fact more truly human a life –
Again I should point to India.“
(Max Müller)
Above: German philosopher Max Müller (1906 – 1994)
A land of remarkable diversity – from ancient traditions and artistic heritage to magnificent landscapes and culinary creations – India ignites my curiosity, a land that shakes the senses and warms the soul.
From the towering icy peaks of the northern mountains to the sun-bleached beaches of the southern coast, India’s terrain is breathtaking.
Exquisite temples rise majestically out of pancake-flat deserts.
Crumpling fortresses peer over plunging ravines.
Aficionados of the great outdoors can scout for big jungle cats on wildlife safaris, paddle in shimmering waters, trek high in the Himalaya, or simply inhale pine-scented air on a meditative forest walk.
Spirituality is the common characteristic painted across the vast and varied canvas that is contemporary India.
The multitude of sacred sites and rituals are testament to the country’s long and colourful religious history.
India can be challenging and yet this is the experience of India.
To embrace India’s unpredictability is to embrace one’s soul.
Above: Flag of India
With monkeys galore, the usual smattering of cows and even the odd working elephant, the relatively-free streets of Ayodhya would be an intriguing place to spend some time even if it wasn’t for the religious significance of the place.
Ayodhya (population: 55,890) is a city situated on the banks of the holy river Saryu in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
Above: Ram ki Paidi Ghat, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India
Ayodhya, also known as Saketa, is an ancient city of India, the alleged birthplace of Rama and the setting of the great epic Ramayana.
Above: Rama is depicted blue-skinned and carrying a strung bow with a quiver full of arrows on his back and a single arrow in his right hand, British Museum, London, England
(Rama is the 7th and one of the most popular avatars of Vishnu (God).
The entire life story of Rama, his wife Sita, and their companions allegorically discusses duties, rights and social responsibilities of an individual.
It illustrates dharma (duty) and dharmic living through model characters.
He is the central figure of the ancient Hindu epic Ramayana, a text historically popular in the South Asian and Southeast Asian cultures
The Ramayana is one of the largest ancient epics in world literature, consisting of nearly 24,000 verses.
It belongs to the genre of itihasa (narratives of past events/puravrtta) interspersed with teachings on the goals of human life.)
Above: Rama with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana during their exile in the forest
Ayodhya is not only the birthplace of Rama and as such one of Hinduism’s seven holy cities nor is it just the birthplace of four of Jainism’s 24 tirthankaras (religious teachers), this is also the site of one of modern India’s most controversial religious disputes.
Above: Sapta Puri – the seven holy cities of Hinduism
(Jainism is one of the world’s oldest religions in practice to this day.
An ancient Indian religion, Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of 24 tirthankaras (supreme preachers of Dharma) – with the 1st in the current time cycle being Rishabhadeva, whom tradition holds to have lived millions of years ago, the 23rd tirthankara Parshwanatha, whom historians date to the 9th century BCE, and the 24th tirthankara Mahavira, around 600 BCE.
Jainism is considered to be an eternal dharma with the tirthankaras guiding every time cycle of the cosmology.
The three main pillars of Jainism areahimsa (non-violence), anekantavada (non-absolutism), and aparigraha (asceticism).
The religion has between four and five million followers, known as Jains, who reside mostly in India.
Outside India, some of the largest communities are in Canada, Europe, and the US, with Japan hosting a fast-growing community of converts.
Estimates for the population of Jains differ from just over 4 million to 12 million.)
Above: This is the official symbol of Jainism, known as the Jain Prateek Chihna.
The early Buddhist and Jain canonical texts mention that the religious leaders Gautama Buddha and Mahavira visited and lived in the city.
Above: Statue of Gautama Buddha (563 – 483 BCE), preaching his first sermon at Sarnath. Archaeological Museum, Sarnath, India.Above: Statue of Mahavira (599 – 527 BCE), 24th tirthanaka of Jainism at Shri Mahavirji, Karauli, Hindaun, Rajasthan, India
The Jain texts also describe it as the birthplace of five tirthankaras and associate it with the legendary Bharata Chakravarti.
Above: Statue of Bharata, the first possessor of chakra (world domination) in our present half-time cycle of Jain cosmology, as a monk at Chandragiri Hill, Shravanabelagola, Karnataka, India
From the Gupta period (4th – 6th centuries) onwards, several sources mention Ayodhya and Saketa as the name of the same city.
Above: A view of the ancient city of Ayodhya in India, in the Ayodhya district of Uttar Pradesh.
Owing to the belief as the birthplace of Ram, Ayodhya has been regarded as one of the seven most important pilgrimage sites for Hindus.
It is believed that a temple stood at the supposed birthplace of Rama, which was demolished by the orders of the Mughal Emperor Babur and a mosque erected in its place.
Above: Babur (‘tiger‘) (1483 – 1530) (né Mīrzā Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad), founder of the Mughal Empire (16th – 19th centuries) in the Indian subcontinent
In 1992, the dispute over the spot led to the demolition of the mosque by Hindu mobs, who aimed to rebuild a grand temple of Rama at the site.
Above: Demolition of the Babri Masjid, Sunday 6 December 1992
A five-judge full bench of the Supreme Court heard the title cases from August to October 2019 and ruled that the land belonged to the government per tax records, and ordered it to be handed over to a trust to build a Hindu temple.
Above: Emblem of the Supreme Court of India
It also ordered the government to give an alternative 5 acres (2.0 ha) of land to the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board to build a mosque in lieu of the demolished Babri mosque.
The construction of Ram Mandir commenced in August 2020.
Above: Narendra Modi performing Bhoomi Pujan ceremony for temple construction commencement
The Ayodhya dispute is a political, historical, and socio-religious debate in India, centred on a plot of land in the city of Ayodhya.
The issues revolve around the control of a site traditionally regarded among Hindus to be the birthplace of their deity Rama, the history and location of the Babri Masjid at the site, and whether a previous Hindu temple was demolished or modified to create a mosque, the Babri Masjid.
Many attempts were thwarted previously, one of which led to the 1990 Ayodhya firing incident.
Above: Babri Masjid (1528 – 1992)
The Ayodhya firing describes the occasion when the Uttar Pradesh opened fire on civilians on two separate days, 30 October 1990 and 2 November 1990, in the aftermath of the Ram Rath Yatra (a political and religious rally by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Hindu nationalist affiliates.
The civilians were kar sevaks (religious volunteers), assembled near the Ram Janmabhoomi site at Ayodhya.
The state government’s official records reported that 50 people were killed.
Above: Ayodhya firing incident, Thursday 1 November 1990
On 30 October 1990, the police barred all bus and train services to Ayodhya.
Most kar sevaksreached Ayodhya by foot.
Some swam across the Sarayu River.
Above: Sarayu River, Bageshwar
The police also barricaded the 1.5 km-long climb to the disputed structure and imposed a curfew.
According to the investigatory Liberhan Commission report, issued after the event:
28,000 Uttar Pradesh Provincial Armed Constabulary personnel were deployed in Ayodhya.
Out of 40,000 kar sevaks, only 10,000 managed to reach Ayodhya
At around 10am, a large group of kar sevaks headed towards the site, this led to a mob frenzy and open confrontation between civilians and policemen.
At around 11am, a Hindu holy man (sadhu) managed to gain control of an Armed Constabulary bus in which the police were holding detainees.
The sadhu drove the bus right through the barricades, clearing a way for the others to follow on foot.
The security forces were caught off guard and were forced to chase about 5,000 kar sevaks, who stormed through the heavily guarded site.
Above: Logo of the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Armed Constabulary
According to eyewitnesses a saffron flag was mounted the Kothari brothers mounted atop the Babri Masjid.
Above: Hindu flag with the letter OM at its centre
On orders, government security personnel fired on the crowd and chased kar sevaksacross the area.
Many people died from head wounds.
There was a stampede at the Saryu Bridge, which killed a number of people.
Above: Saryu Bridge, Sarayu River, Ayodhya
On the morning of 2 November 1990, assembled kar sevaks offered prayers (pooja) at Ramlila and then proceeded to Babri Masjid.
Members of the crowd used the strategy of touching security personnel’s feet, which made them withdraw a step.
This worked for a while, and the procession continued.
Above: Ayodhya firing incident procession
However, the police took firm action by using tear gas and baton charges to disperse the crowd.
Nevertheless, some contingents of kar sevaks reached and partially damaged the mosque.
In response, the police opened fire for the second time in 72 hours, and chased kar sevaks through the alleys around Hanumangarhi.
In one place, later named Shaheed Gali (Martyr’s Alley), police killed many kar sevaks.
Above: Bodies of kar sevaks
Some Indians have accused the police of disposing of many dead bodies, either by cremating them at unknown places or by dumping them into the Saryu River in sacks.
News of the shootings was mostly suppressed from the Indian media, but some local and international media outlets mentioned them.
The firing incident had a major impact on Uttar Pradesh and on Indian national politics.
The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh was given the sobriquet ‘Mulla’ Mulayam Singh for his pro-Muslim stance during the incident.
He described his decision to fire on the crowd in Ayodhya as “painful yet necessary as it was ordered by the High Court to maintain peace, law and order till the judgment come out “.
Above: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav
Ayodhya became tragically synonymous with Hindu extremism in 1992 when rioting Hindus tore down the Babri Masjid, a mosque built by the Moghuls in the 15th century, which Hindus claimed stood on the site of an earlier Rama temple, marking Lord Rama’s birthplace.
The demolition of the Babri Masjid was illegally carried out on 6 December 1992 by a large group of activists of the Vishva Hindu Parishad and allied organizations.
Above: Demolition of the Babri Masjid
The 16th-century Babri Masjid in the city of Ayodhya had been the subject of a lengthy socio-political dispute, and was targeted after a political rally organised by Hindu nationalist organizations turned violent.
In the 16th century a Mughal general, Mir Baqi, had built a mosque, known as the Babri Masjid at a site identified by some Hindus as Ram Janmabhoomi, or the birthplace of Rama.
Above: Baqi Tashqandi (aka Mir Baqi) (14th century)
The Archaeological Survey of India states that the mosque was built on land where a non-Islamic structure had previously existed.
In the 1980s, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) began a campaign for the construction of a temple dedicated to Rama at the site, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as its political voice.
Several rallies and marches were held as a part of this movement.
Above: Logo of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, depicting a Banyan tree and the slogan dharmo raksatiraksitah (The Dharma protects those who protect it.) Above: Logo of India’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
On 6 December 1992, the VHP and the BJP organised a rally at the site involving 150,000 volunteers, known as kar sevaks.
During the first few hours of the rally, the crowd grew gradually more restless, and began raising slogans.
A police cordon had been placed around the structure in preparation for attack.
However, around noon, a young man managed to slip past the cordon and climb the structure itself, brandishing a saffron flag.
This was seen as a signal by the mob, who then stormed the structure.
The police cordon, vastly outnumbered and unprepared for the size of the attack, fled.
The mob set upon the building with axes, hammers, and grappling hooks, and within a few hours, the entire structure, made from mud and chalk, was levelled.
Above: Demolition of the Babri Masjid
A subsequent inquiry into the incident found 68 people responsible, including several leaders of the BJP and the VHP.
Above: Judge Manmohan Singh Liberhan of the Liberhan Commission investigating the Demolition incident
The ensuing riots spread to cities like Mumbai (formerly named Bombay), Surat, Ahmedabad, Kanpur, Delhi, Bhopal, and several others, eventually resulting in over 2,000 deaths, mainly Muslim.
Above: Mumbai (formerly Bombay)Above: SuratAbove: AhmedabadAbove: KanpurAbove: The Red Fort, Delhi, IndiaAbove: Bhopal
The Bombay Riots alone, which occurred in December 1992 and January 1993 caused the death of around 900 people, and estimated property damage of around $3.6 billion.
The demolition and the ensuing riots were among the major factors behind the 1993 Mumbai bombings and many successive riots in the coming decade.
In the Bombay riots in December 1992 and January 1993, an estimated 900 people died.
The riots were mainly due to escalations of hostilities after large scale protests by Muslims in reaction to the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodha and by Hindu mobs in regards with the Ram Temple issue.
Historian Barbara Metcalf has described the riots as an anti-Muslim pogrom, where the official death toll was of 275 Hindus, 575 Muslims and 50 others.
Above: Bombay (Mumbai) riots
The riots were followed by the 12 March 1993 Bombay Bombings.
Above: Promotional poster for the movie inspired by the events of Friday 12 March 1993
At 13:30 hours on 12 March 1993, a powerful car bomb exploded in the basement of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building.
The 28-story office building was severely damaged and many nearby office buildings also suffered damage.
Reports indicate that 50 were killed by this explosion.
Above: BSE Building, Dalal Street, Mumbai
About 30 minutes later, another car bomb exploded in front of the Mandvi branch of Corporation Bank near Masjid.
Above: Bombay Bombing, 12 March 1993
From 13:30 hours to 15:40 hours a total of 12 bombs exploded throughout Mumbai.
Most of the bombs were car bombs but some were in scooters.
Three hotels – the Hotel Sea Rock, Hotel Juhu Centaur, and Hotel Airport Centaur – were targeted by suitcase bombs left in rooms booked by the perpetrators.
Above: Hotel Sea Rock, MumbaiAbove: Centaur Hotel, Juhu, Mumbai
Banks, the regional passport office, the Air India Building, and a major shopping complex were also hit.
Above: Air India building, Marine Drive, Mumbai
Bombs exploded at Zaveri Bazaar and opposite it, a jeep bomb exploded at the Century Bazaar.
Above: Zaveri Bazaar, MumbaiAbove: Century Bazaar bombing, 12 March 1993
Grenades were thrown at Sahar International Airport and at Fishermen’s Colony, apparently targeting certain citizens at the latter.
Above: Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, MumbaiAbove: Fisherman’s Colony, Mumbai
A double-decker bus was very badly damaged in the deadliest explosion, with as many as 90 people killed.
The official number of fatalities was 257 with 1,400 others injured.
Jihadi groups, including the Indian Mujahideen, cited the demolition of the Babri Masjid as a reason for their terrorist attacks.
In Pakistan, the government closed offices and schools on 7 December to protest against the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
Above: Flag of Pakistan
The Pakistani Foreign Ministry summoned the Indian Ambassador to lodge a formal complaint, and promised to appeal to the United Nations (UN) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to pressure India to protect the rights of Muslims.
Above: Flag of the United NationsAbove: Flag of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)
Strikes were held across the country, while Muslim mobs attacked and destroyed as many as 30 temples in one day by means of fire and bulldozers, and stormed the office of Air India, India’s national airline, in Lahore.
Above: Images of Lahore, Pakistan
The retaliatory attacks included rhetoric from mobs calling for the destruction of India and of Hinduism.
Students from the Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad burned an effigy of Indian Prime Minister, P.V. Narashima Rao and called for “jihad” against Hindus.
Above: Islamabad, Pakistan
In subsequent years, thousands of Pakistani Hindus visiting India sought longer visas, and in some cases citizenship of India, citing increased harassment and discrimination in the aftermath of the demolition.
Following the demolition, Muslim mobs in Bangladesh attacked and burned down Hindu temples, shops and houses across the country.
Above: Flag of Bangladesh
An India-Bangladesh cricket match was disrupted when a mob of an estimated 5,000 men tried to storm the Bangabandhu National Stadium in the national capital of Dhaka.
Above: Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka, Bangladesh
The Dhaka office of Air India was stormed and destroyed.
Ten people were reportedly killed, 11 Hindu temples and several homes destroyed.
Above: Dhaka, Bangladesh
The aftermath of the violence forced the Bangladeshi Hindu community to curtail the celebrations of Durga Puja in 1993, while calling for the destroyed temples to be repaired and investigations be held into the atrocities.
Above: Durga Puja, also called Durgotsava, is an annual Hindu festival in the Indian subcontinent that reveres the goddess Durga. It is particularly popular in West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Assam, Tripura, Bangladesh and the diaspora from this region, and also in Nepal where it is called Dashain. The festival is observed in the Hindu calendar month of Ashvin, typically September or October of the Gregorian calendar, and is a multi-day festival that features elaborate temple and stage decorations (pandals), scripture recitation, performance arts, revelry, and processions. It is a major festival in the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism across India and Shakta Hindu diaspora. Depicted is Devi Durga killing Mahishasura with her trident riding her vahana lion, while Lakshmi and Ganesha flank the left and Saraswati and Kartikeya flank on the right.
At its summit meeting in Abu Dhabi, the Gulf Cooperation Council strongly condemned the Babri Masjid demolition.
Above: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE)
It adopted a resolution which described the act as a “crime against Muslim holy places“.
Above: Flag of the Gulf Cooperation Council
Among its member states, Saudi Arabia severely condemned the act.
Above: Flag of Saudi Arabia
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), home to large expatriate communities of Indians and Pakistanis, conveyed a more moderate reaction.
In response, the Indian government criticized the GCC for what it regarded as interference in its internal affairs.
Above: Flag of the United Arab Emirates
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the demolition and called upon India to do more to protect its Muslim population.
Above: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Although its government condemned the events, the UAE experienced severe public disturbances due to the demolition of the Babri Mosque.
Street protests broke out, and protesters threw stones at a Hindu temple and the Indian Consulate in Dubai.
Above: Images of Dubai, UAE
In Al-Ain, 250 km east of Abu Dhabi, angry mobs set fire to the girls’ wing of an Indian school.
Above: Qasr Al Muwaiji, Al Ain, UAE
In response to the violence, UAE police arrested and deported many expatriate Pakistanis and Indians who had participated in the violence.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Dubai police force, Dhahi Khalfan, condemned the violence by foreign nationals in his country.
Above: Dhahi Khalfan
Hindus built Ram Janam Bhumi in its place.
Above: Ram Manir, Ayodhya (when completed)
The problem eventually reached the High Court.
Archaeological investigations were carried out at the site.
In September 2010, the Allahabad High Court ruled that the site should be split equally between three religious groups: two Hindu, one Muslim.
The Muslim group Sunni Wapf Board vowed to appeal against the decision.
Above: High Court, Allahabad, India
A day after the demolition of the mosque, on 7 December 1992, the New York Times reported that over 30 Hindu temples across Pakistan were attacked, some set on fire, and one demolished.
The government of Pakistan closed school and offices in a day of protest.
Hindu temples in Bangladesh were also attacked.
Some of these Hindu temples that were partially destroyed during the retaliation of Babri Masjid have since remained that way.
On 5 July 2005, five terrorists attacked the makeshift Ram temple at the site of destroyed Babri Mosque.
All five were shot dead in the ensuing gunfight with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), while one civilian died in the grenade attack that the attackers launched in order to breach the cordoned wall.
The CRPF suffered three casualties, two of whom were seriously injured with multiple gunshot wounds.
Above: Ram Mandir (once completed)
Since then, security around the Ram Janam Bhumi has remained incredibly tight.
Visitor must first show their passports, then leave all their belongings and money behind in nearby lockers.
The visitor is then searched several times before being accompanied through a caged corridor that leads to a spot 20 metres away from a makeshift tent of a shrine that marks Rama’s birthplace.
Above: Ram Manir, Ayodhya (once completed)
Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India, Wednesday 5 August 2020
As priests in saffron robes chanted hymns, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sprinkled sacred water and flowers into a small robe, part of a ritual marking the start of construction of a grand Hindu temple.
It was an event for the history books.
The ceremony in northern India represents a signal victory for Modi and Hindu nationalism in their quest to transform the nation – a vast, multireligious democracy founded on secular ideals – into a state dominated by the Hindu majority.
Above: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ram Mandir, Ayodhya, 5 August 2020
For nearly 500 years, a mosque stood at the same spot in the city of Ayodhya.
Hindu extremists illegally razed the mosque in 1992, setting off bloody nationwide riots.
India’s Supreme Court handed control of the site to Hindu groups in 2019 after a protracted legal battle.
Above: Demolition of Babri Masjid, 6 December 1992
Modi struck a triumphant tone as he presided over the culmination of India’s most bitter religious dispute.
“The entire country is emotional and overwhelmed.“, he said.
“Today centuries of waiting areover.”
The ceremony, broadcast live across the country, was scaled down because of the corona virus pandemic.
With infections rising and the economy struggling, the temple groundbreaking is a welcome diversion for Modi, India’s most powerful Prime Minister in almost five decades.
Above: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 5 August 2020
The ceremony underlined how quickly – and dramatically – Modi has moved to put his stamp on this nation of more than 1.3 billion people since winning a landslide re-election victory in May 2019.
Above: Official portrait of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
A year ago, he revoked the semi-autonomy granted to Kashmir, India’s only Muslim majority region, breaking with seven decades of Indian policy.
Above: Map of the Kashmir region
In December, his government passed a law that excluded Muslim migrants from a fast track to citizenship.
In February, Hindu-Muslim riots erupted in Delhi, the deadliest such violence in the capital since Indian independence.
Above: Delhi riots, February 2020
India’s Muslim community has viewed these developments with alarm.
Although roughly 200 million Muslims live in India, they represent only 14% of the population.
They face discrimination in employment and housing and fare poorly on measures of socioeconomic progress.
Now many of them fear they are becoming second class citizens.
Above: Allah in Arabic calligraphy
The construction of the temple in Ayodhya is a prime example.
For three decades, the campaign to build the temple devoted to Lord Rama, a beloved deity, has been the animating principle of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The issue fused religion and politics in an amalgam that proved both effective and combustible.
Many Hindus revere the site as the spot where Lord Ram was born.
For some, the ceremony fulfills a yearning to honour a god worshipped for his heroism and virtue.
Above: Rama is portrayed in Hindu arts and texts as a compassionate person who cares for all living beings.
But the push to build the temple is not a simple act of religious devotion.
Hindu nationalists view much of recent Indian history as a series of humiliations – centuries of rule by Muslim kings and the British Empire – that must be rectified.
They believe a Hindu temple originally stood at the site in Ayodhya and was later torn down by India’s Muslim rulers.
The subsequent destruction of the mosque and the ultimate construction of the temple are viewed as the remedy to years of subjugation.
Above: The Mughal Empire at its greatest extent, 1700Above: 1909 map of India, showing British India in two shades of pink and princely states in yellow
The Ram temple is a “symbol of nationalism“, said Dattatreya Hosabale, a senior Hindu nationalist ideologue, at an event in Delhi in July.
“It was meant for regaining the self, which was damaged by foreign aggressors.“
Above: Dattatreya Hosabale
Hindu nationalism is a majoritarian ideology that seeks to create a state “where minorities have to give up their separate identity and pay allegiance to the dominant culture“, said Christophe Jaffrelot, a political scientist at the Paris Institute of Political Studies.
The construction of the Ram temple is “one more blow” to India’s secular foundations, but there will be others, said Jaffrelot, who studies the Hindu nationalist movement.
Above: Coat of arms of the Paris Institute of Political Studies
The temple will rise to 161 feet at its highest point.
Construction is expected to be completed in 2023, the year before India’s next national elections.
In the meantime, there are plans to transform Ayodhya – a small city on the Sarayu River – with a new railway station, a new airport and a towering statue of Lord Ram.
Above: Model of Ram Mandir once completed
The temple is being built at the site of the former Babri mosque, which was completed in the 16th century.
The legal tussle over whether Hindus or Muslims should control the site began 70 years ago, but it did not emerge as a national flash point until the BJP made the construction of the temple its signature issue and organized processions to Ayodhya, where party leaders rallied supporters to their cause.
After one such rally in 1992, a mob using axes, hammers, and their bare hands razed the mosque.
The demolition sparked riots across the country that are estimated to have killed 2,000 people.
The temple project was also at the root of deadly riots in Gujarat in 2002 that left more than 1,000 people died, mostly Muslims.
Above: Demolition of the Babri Masjid, 6 December 1992
A.G. Noorani, a lawyer and constitutional expert who wrote a book on the Ram temple dispute, said the groundbreaking left him dejected.
“I feel saddened and depressed.“, he said.
“This is no longer the same India.
Narendra Modi has seen to it that it becomes a Hindu India.”
Above: Abdul Ghafoor Majeed Noorani (aka A.G. Noorani)
The temple construction officially started again after a Bhoomi Poojan ceremony on 5 August 2020.
Three-day long Vedic rituals were held ahead of the ground-breaking ceremony, which revolved around the installation of a 40 kg silver brick as the foundation stone by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Above: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi lays the foundation stone of Ram Mandir
On 4 August, the Ramarchan Puja was performed, an invitation to all the major gods and goddesses.
Above: Ramarchan Puja ceremony, Ayodhya, 4 August 2020
On the occasion of the Bhoomi-Pooja, soil and holy water from several religious places across India were collected.
Soil was also sent from various temples across the nation to bless the upcoming temple.
Soil was also sent form the four pilgrimage locations of Char Dham.
Above: Bhoomi-Pooja ceremony, Ayodhya, 5 August 2020
Temples in the US, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname held a virtual service to celebrate the occasion.
Above: Flag of the United States of AmericaAbove: Flag of CanadaAbove: Flag of Trinidad and TobagoAbove: Flag of GuyanaAbove: Flag of Suriname
Rama’s image was shown at Times Square.
Above: Times Square, New York City, 5 August 2020
All 7,000 temples in a 7-km radius of Hanumangarhi were also asked to join in the celebrations by lighting diyas.
Muslims devotees in Ayodhya who consider Rama as their ancestor also looked forward to the bhoomi-puja.
Spiritual leaders from all faiths were invited on the occasion.
On 5 August, Prime Minister Modi first offered prayers at Hanumangarhi to seek blessings of Hanuman for the day’s events.
Above: Hanuman Garhi Temple, Ayodhya
Following this the ground breaking and foundation stone laying ceremony of Ram Mandir took place.
Yogi Adityanath, Mohan Bhagwat, Nritya Gopal Das and Narendra Modi gave speeches.
Above: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi AdityanathAbove: Mohan Bhagwat, 6th Sarsanghchalak (head) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organizationAbove: Mahant Nrityagopal Das, head of Ayodhya’s largest temple
Modi started his speech with Jai Siya Ram (glory to Sita and Rama) and urged those in attendance to chant it with him.
Above: Ram and Sita figurines
He stated, “the call of Jai Siya Ram is resonating not only in the city of Lord Ram but throughout the world today” and that “Ram Mandir will become the modern symbol of our traditions“.
Narendra Modi also paid his respects to the many who had made sacrifices for the Ram temple.
Mohan Bhagwat also thanked L.K. Advani for his contributions to the movement to get the temple built.
Above: Lal Krishna Advani, former Deputy Prime Minister of India (r. 2002 – 2004)
Modi also planted a sapling of Parijat tree (night-flowering jasmine).
Above: Jasmine blossoms
In front of the deity, Modi performed a dandvat pranam / sashtang pranam, lying completely prone on the ground with hands outstretched in prayer.
Above: Indian Prime Minister Modi practising dandvat pranam, 5 August 2020
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, attendees at the temple were limited to 175.
Above: Ram Mandir, 5 August 2020
(The COVID-19 pandemic in India is a part of the worldwide pandemic of the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
As of 21 August 2022, according to official figures, India has the 2nd highest number of confirmed cases in the world (after the US) with 44,298,864 reported cases of COVID-19 infection and the 3rd highest number of COVID-19 deaths (after the US and Brazil) at 527,206 deaths.
But these official numbers are suspected to be significant undercounts.
Above: Flag of Brazil
The first cases of COVID-19 in India were reported on 30 January 2020 in three towns of Kerala, among three Indian medical students who had returned from Wuhan (China), the epicenter of the pandemic.
Above: Wuhan, China
Lockdowns were announced in Kerala on 23 March, and in the rest of the country on 25 March.
Above: Emblem of Kerala State, India
Infection rates started to drop in September.
Daily cases peaked mid-September with over 90,000 cases reported per day, dropping to below 15,000 in January 2021.
A second wave beginning in March 2021 was much more devastating than the first, with shortages of vaccines, hospital beds, oxygen cylinders and other medical supplies in parts of the country.
By late April, India led the world in new and active cases.
On 30 April 2021, it became the first country to report over 400,000 new cases in a 24-hour period.
Above: COVID-19 cases in India as of 18 May 2021
Experts stated that the virus may reach an endemic stage in India rather than completely disappear.
In late August 2021, Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization, said India may be in some stage of endemicity where the country learns to live with the virus.
Above: Soumya Swaminathan
By 23 December 2021, India had 78,190 active cases which was lowest in 573 days.
This number fell to 21,530 in March 2022.
India began its vaccination programme on 16 January 2021.
On 30 January 2022, India announced that it administered about 1.7 billion doses of vaccines and more than 720 million people were fully vaccinated.)
Some priests and religious leaders complained that the ceremony did not follow proper ritual procedures, claiming, among others, that 5 August was not a ritually auspicious date and that the function did not include a havan (or homa) (a fire ritual performed on special occasions by a Hindu priest, usually for a homeowner).
Above: A homa fire ritual
In this respect, writer Arundhati Roy, a noted critic of Modi, pointed out that the chosen date marked one year since the revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, arguing that the decision to schedule the ceremony for 5 August, which she claimed was an inauspicious date with no significance in the Hindu calendar, symbolized the conclusion of a period “in which India under Modi has formally declared itself a Hindu Nation, the dawning of a new era“.
Above: Indian author Arundhati Roy
Among the international community, Pakistan made an official statement through its Pakistan Foreign Office related to the temple.
The Times of India also reported that post Ram Mandir ground–breaking, Pakistani Hundus fear violence in the same way as what happened in 1992.
Various Indian political leaders hailed the ground-breaking ceremony.
While some openly celebrated it, others worded their statements carefully.
Many expressed hope in furthering the country’s progress by following the ideals of Ram.
Soon after the ground-breaking ceremony, residents of Ayodhya expressed hope in improvements of job opportunities and development of the city, through tourism generated by the temple.
In August 2021, a viewing location was created for the public to watch the construction.
Following the ground-breaking ceremony, up to 40 feet of debris were removed and the remaining earth compacted.
The foundation was made using roller-compacted concrete.
A total of 48 layers, each layer one feet high, was completed by mid-September 2021.
Due to electricity supply issues in Mirzapur, the process for cutting sandstones was slowed down.
Above: Mirzapur
At the beginning of 2022, a video was released by the temple trust showing the planned construction of the temple in 3D along with other related information.
All should be accomplished by the end of August 2023.
The temple trust decided to launch a nationwide “mass contact and contribution campaign“.
Voluntary donations of 10 rupees (13¢ US) and higher will be accepted.
Above: Indian rupee banknotes
On 15 January 2021, the then-President of India Ram Nath Kovind made the first contribution towards the construction of the Ram Mandir by donating 501,000 rupees (US$6,300).
This was followed by several leaders and eminent personalities across the nation.
By April 2021, around 5,000 crore (1 crore = 10 million) (US$630 million) was collected as donations from across the country.
Nearly 1.50 lakh (1 lakh = 100,000) Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists collected funds from all across the nation.
The temple trust not only received donations from Hindu devotees but also from several members of Christian and Muslim communities.
Above: Former Indian President Ram Nath Kovind (r. 2017 – 2022)
A few individuals including former Karnataka Chief Ministers H.D. Kumaraswamy and Siddaramaiah strongly questioned the manner of collection of funds.
Above: Former Chief Minister of Karnataka Haradanahalli Deve Gowda Kumaraswamy (r. 2006 – 2007 / 2018 – 2019)Above: Former Chief Minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah (r. 2013 – 2018)
Following the inability to collect funds, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-affiliated school saw bullying.
Above: Saffron flag of the RSS, an Indian right-wing Hindu nationalist paramilitary voluntary organization
Following allegations of corruption, Tata Consultancy Services was roped in to digitize the accounts.
Mandir wahi banayenge is an expression in Hindi, translating as “the temple will be built there“.
It is one of the most popular slogans in relation to the Ram Janmabhoomi movement and Ram Mandir used as early as 1985, popularized in the 1990s, and has a number of variations.
The slogan has been used in both positive and negative connotations.
It has been a symbol of hope and it has become a part of festivities on one hand, while on the other it has become a part of standup comedy, jokes and memes.
In 2019, the slogan was used in the Parliament of India, and has also been used by media houses.
The slogan has been used as a threat as well as a vow.
Before we become too critical of the Hindu conversion of a Muslim mosque (or the prior conversion of a non-Muslim temple into a mosque), we must concede that conversion of a holy site from one faith to another is not a new phenomenon.
The conversion of mosques into non-Islamic places of worship has occurred for centuries.
The most prominent examples of such took place after and during the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula when mosques became Christian churches, as seen in Cordoba, Toledo, Sevilla, Jerez, Zargoza, Árchez, and Ronda.
Above: Mosque Cathedral, Córdoba, SpainAbove: San Sebastián, Toledo, SpainAbove: Cathedral, Sevilla, SpainAbove: Alcázar de Jerez de la Frontera, España (Spain)Above: La Aljafería Palace, Zaragoza, SpainAbove: Alminar, Árchez, SpainAbove: San Sebástian, Ronda, Spain
Mosques into churches has also occurred in Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece and Romania.
Above: Flag of HungaryAbove: Flag of BulgariaAbove: Flag of GreeceAbove: Flag of Romania
Former mosques with identified original buildings have been converted into Hindu temples in Ayodhya, Sonipat, Farrukhnagar, Aurangabad and Hisar cities in India.
Above: Ram Leela Mandir, Farrukhnagar, India
Former mosques with identified original buildings have been converted into Sikh gurdwaras in Meham, Amritsar, Haryana and Patipat in India and in Lahore, Pakistan.
Former mosques with identified original buildings have been converted into Jewish synagogues in the Israeli communities of Nes Ziona, Azur and Tel Aviv.
Above: Geulat Israel Synagogue, Nes Ziona, Israel
Lest we believe that Muslims are innocent of converting non-Islamic structures into mosques, this has occurred to Hindu temples, Jain temples, Christian churches, Jewish synagogues, and Zoroastrian fire temples in Mecca and Jerusalem, as well as in India, Iran, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, Cyprus, France, Greece, the Crimea, Hungary, Lebanon, Morocco, Spain, Syria, Algeria, Libya, Iraq and Israel.
Above: Adhai Din-ka-Jhonpra Mosque, Ajmer, Rajasthan, India (former Hindu temple)Above: Jama Masjid, Delhi, India (former Jain temple)Above: Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey (former Christian church)Above: Masjid Darul Ehsan, Suffern, New York (former Jewish synagogue)Above: Tarikhaneh Mosque, Damghan, Iran (former Zoroastrian fire temple)Above: Images of Mecca, Saudi ArabiaAbove: Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, IsraelAbove: Flag of IranAbove: Flag of AlbaniaAbove: Flag of Bosnia and HerzegovinaAbove: Flag of TurkeyAbove: Flag of CyprusAbove: Flag of North CyprusAbove: Flag of FranceAbove: Russian-controlled, formerly Ukranian, Crimea (in green)Above: Flag of LebanonAbove: Flag of MoroccoAbove: Flag of SpainAbove: Flag of SyriaAbove: Flag of AlgeriaAbove: Flag of LibyaAbove: Flag of IraqAbove: Flag of Israel
Destroyed heritage sites abound around the world, done either for religious or political reasons, or simply done with malicious intent.
Above: Engraving of the Buddhas, Bamiyan, Afghanistan – destroyed by the Taliban, March 2001
Why do I mention all of this to you, gentle reader, who may know nothing of other religions save (or perhaps even) your own?
I do so, partly to help you understand my compulsion to travel and partly to help you see a world beyond your own comfortable surroundings.
For many folks, travelling still means seeing if you can eat your own weight and still snorkel when you get into port.
I do not condemn this, for we all work hard for our leisure and I will not criticize anyone for what they choose to do with their free time as long as the activities are not harmful to themselves or others.
Simply put, for many, travelling is simply an exercise in hedonism.
And this hedonism accentuates the differences between Us and Them.
I believe that travel should bring humanity together, that travel should be thoughtful and challenging and broaden the mind, rather than thoughtlessly and effortlessly broadening the waistline.
Certainly I know the comforts of a good hotel, the desire to avoid long lines, the delight of sampling local delicacies, and the importance of catching a connection on time.
But travelling could be so much more.
We could travel to have enlightening experiences, to meet inspirational people, to be stimulated (sensory and intellectually), to learn, to grow.
Sometimes we need to rearrange the furniture within our minds, to challenge our ethnocentric self-assuredness.
Sometimes we need to be humbled by an awareness of our own ignorance as we witness the birth of other kinds of wisdom ne’er before dreamt of in our philosophies.
Oh, to better myself by watching others!
Oh, to learn about my society by observing other societies!
Oh, to challenge oneself to be broad-minded when it comes to international issues!
Oh, to make my little corner of the world a better place by learning from my travels and bringing those ideas home!
Thoughtful travel means powerful lessons.
From my own limited point-of-view, the desecration of one’s holy place to be converted into someone else’s divine sanctuary seems inherently wrong to me.
But should I condemn Hindus for razing a mosque and replacing it with a temple or should I feel Schadenfreude that they restore a temple that had been razed to be replaced by a mosque?
History and world politics is replete with the cries of “We were here first!“
Speak to Palestine for an example of this.
Above: Flag of Palestine
As religions go I find myself prone to practice a kind of ignorant willful barbarianism.
Once upon a time a man climbed to the top of a mountain and, standing on tiptoe, seized hold of the Truth.
Satan, suspecting mischief from this upstart, directed one of his underlings to follow him.
When the demon reported with alarm the man’s success – that he had seized hold of the Truth – Satan was unperturbed.
“Don’t worry.“, he yawned.
“I will tempt him to institutionalize it.“
Above: A man dressed as the Devil at New York City’s West Indian Day Parade, 7 September 2009
There is so much ambiguity in religion that the empowering theological and metaphysical truths behind them fail to inspire me.
Constituted as they are of people with their inbuilt frailties, institutions are built of their vices as well as their virtues.
Sometimes I think that religion’s best mistake was to ever get involved with people.
But to be aloof from people would mean that faith’s impact and traction on history would never have borne the benefits of philosophy and morality that make our continued civilizations possible.
I look at religion not so much for its assurance of a reality beyond my own, an existence beyond my years, but rather I seek to sift from them the truths that religious institutions preserve and which in turn empower those institutions.
When religions are sifted for truths, they become the world’s wise traditions.
“Where is the knowledge that is lost in information?
Where is the wisdom that is lost in knowledge?”
(T.S. Eliot)
Above: Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888 – 1965)
By looking at different religions I do not seek to compare them in a quest to compare their worth.
I do not seek to say that one religion is superior to another.
In fact, it has been this insistence that Ours is better than Theirs wherein lies much of the sorrow and carnage that has been visited upon this planet.
“There is no one alive today who knows enough to say with confidence whether one religion has been greater than all others.”
(Arnold Toynbee)
Above: English historian / philosopher Arnold J. Toynbee (1899 – 1975)
I travel and write about my travels (and the travels of others) (past and planned) because I seek to embrace the world, in spite of all my limitations.
I cannot claim to understand the Muslim mind, the Hindu heart, the Buddhist beliefs, the clarity of Confucianism, the truths of Taoism, the joys of Judaism, the hopes of Christianity nor even the essence of primal religions, but this does not mean that a glimpse into these might not garner wisdom inherent to all humanity.
I want to visit Ayodhya, not to celebrate the triumph of one faith’s temple on the ruins of another, but to try and understand why Ayodhya is so significant to so many people.
Above: Kanak Bhavan Temple, Ayodhya
I have been given the tiniest of glimpses into Hinduism through my connection with my Indian friend Sumit and his family now based in the greater Metropolitan Toronto area.
Above: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
At first glance, Hinduism seems quite alien to me having being raised as by an Anglophone Baptist foster mother and a French Catholic foster father in the Canadian province of Québec.
Above: Flag of the Canadian province of Québec
To take Hinduism as a whole – its vast literature, its complicated rituals, its sprawling folkways, its opulent art – is to find this Western man afloat in an ocean he cannot comprehend.
So, perhaps it is through a Western perspective we must first consider what all of this means.
Above: A puja Hindu ceremony, Besakih Temple, Bali, Indonesia
Los Alamos, New Mexico, Monday 16 July 1945
Above: Aerial view of Los Alamos, New Mexico
In the deep privacy of the desert, an event occurred that may prove to be the single most important happening in the 20th century.
A chain reaction of scientific discoveries that began at the University of Chicago and centred at Site Y at Los Alamos was culminated.
Above: Logo of the University of Chicago
The first atomic bomb was a success.
Above: Famous color photograph of the “Trinity” shot, the first nuclear test explosion, 16 July 1945
No one had been more instrumental in this achievement than Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Los Alamos project.
Above: Robert Oppenheimer (1904 – 1967)
An observer who was watching him closely has given us the following account:
“He grew tenser as the last seconds ticked off. He scarcely breathed.
He held on to a post to steady himself.
When the announcer said “Now!”, there came this tremendous burst of light, followed by the deep-growling roar of the explosion, his face relaxed in an expression of tremendous relief.“
This much from the outside.
But what flashed through Oppenheimer’s own mind during those moments, he recalled later, were two lines from the Bhagavad-Gita in which the speaker is God (Vishnu):
“I am become death, the shatterer of worlds, waiting that hour that ripens to their doom.“
This is one side of the Hindu faith.
Above: Illustration from the Bhagavad-GitaAbove: Vishnu bearing his four attributes
Eskişehir, Türkiye, Sunday 21 August 2022
Above: Sazova Park, Eskişehir, Turkey
Mahatma Gandhi lived in an age in which violence and peace faced each other more fatefully than ever before.
Above: Mahatma Gandhi (1869 – 1948)
His name became, in the middle of the 20th century, the counterpoise to those of Stalin and Hitler.
Above: Joseph Stalin (1878 – 1953)Above: Adolf Hitler (1889 – 1945)
The achievement for which the world credited this man (who weighed less than 100 pounds and whose worldly possessions when he died were worth less than $2) was the British withdrawal from India in peace.
What is less known is that among his own people he lowered a barrier more formidable than that of race in America.
He renamed India’s untouchables harijan (“God’s people“) and raised them to human stature.
Above: Dharavi is a slum in Mumbai, founded in the 1880s during the British Raj (1858 – 1947). The colonial government expelled Dalits, along with their traditional profession of leather and tannery work, from Mumbai (Bombay) peninsula to create Dharavi. Currently, about 20% of the Dharavi population are Dalits, compared to 16% nationwide. Dalits live together with Muslims (who constitute about a third of Dharavi’s population) and other castes and tribes.
In doing so he provided the nonviolent strategy as well as the inspiration for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s comparable civil rights movement in the United States.
Above: Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 – 1968)
Gandhi’s own inspiration and strategy came from his faith:
“Such power as I possess for working in the political field has derived from my experiments in the spiritual field.
Truth is the sovereign principle and the Bhagavad-Gita is the book par excellence for the knowledge of Truth.“
Above: Mahatma Gandhi Monument, Madrid, Spain
Hinduism is variously defined as an Indian religion, a set of religious beliefs or practices, a religious tradition, a way of life, or dharma — a religious and universal order by which followers abide.
Above: Om, a stylized letter of Devanagari script, used as a religious symbol in Hinduism
As a religion it is the world’s 3rd largest, with over 1.2 billion followers, or 16% of the global population, known as Hindus.
Above: Countries by percentage of Hindus
Hinduism is the most widely professed faith in India, Nepal and Mauritius.
Above: Flag of NepalAbove: Flag of Mauritius
Significant numbers of Hindu communities are found in Southeast Asia (including in Bali, Indonesia), the Caribbean, North America, Europe, Oceania, Africa and other regions.
Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, which refers to the idea that its origins lie beyond human history, as revealed in the Hindu texts.
Hinduism is a diverse system of thought marked by a range of philosophies and shared concepts, rituals, cosmological systems, pilgrimage sites, and shared textual sources that discuss theology, metaphysics, mythology, Vedic yajna (mantras said in front of a sacred fire), yoga, agamic (Hindu literature and scriptures) rituals, and temple building, among other topics.
Above: Upper seven lokas of Hindu cosmographyAbove: Lower seven lokas of Hindu cosmologyAbove: Hindu mythology – The Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) seated on lotuses with their consorts, the Tridevi (Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati)Above: Vishnu Yagna Kunda in Yagashala, as part of Mahakumbhabhishekam of Gunjanarasimhaswamy TempleAbove: Statue of Shiva meditating in the lotus yoga positionAbove: Developing physical and mental discipline with yoga is one of four recommendations in Agama texts. Depicted – a Yoga posture statue from Kashmir, a center of monistic Agama textsAbove: Kandariya Mahadeva Temple, Khajuraho, India
It is from this point that Wikipedia classification gets…..
Complicated.
Above: Logo of Wikipedia
If we were to take Hinduism as a whole, we would find it saying:
You can have what you want.
This sounds promising, but it throws the problem back at us:
What do we want?
India has lived with this question for millennia and her answer is that people want four things:
Above: Ganesha is one of the best-known and most worshipped deities in the Hindu pantheon.
They begin by wanting pleasure (Kama).
This is natural.
We are all born with built-in pleasure-pain reactors.
To the person who wants pleasure, India says:
Go after it – there is nothing wrong with it.
The world is awash with beauty and heavy with sensual delights.
Like everything else, hedonism requires good sense.
Not every impulse can be followed with impunity.
Small immediate goals must be sacrificed for long-range gains.
Impulses that would injure others must be curbed to avoid antagonisms and remorse.
Only the stupid will lie, steal or cheat for immediate profit.
Only the stupid will succumb to addictions.
But as long as the basic rules of morality are obeyed, you are free to seek pleasure you want.
Far from condemning pleasure, Hindu texts give pointers on how to enlarge its scope.
To simple people who seek pleasure almost exclusively, Hinduism presents itself as little more than a regimen for ensuring health and prosperity.
While, at the other end of the spectrum, for sophisticates, it elaborates a sensual aesthetic that shocks in its explicitness.
(Think Kama Sutra as an example of this.)
Hinduism suggests that if pleasure is what you want, do not suppress the desire.
Seek it intelligently.
Above: Kama-related arts are common in Hindu temples. These scenes include courtship, amorous couples in scenes of intimacy (mithuna), or a sexual position. Depicted: 6th to 14th century temples in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Nepal.
This India says.
India waits.
It waits for the time when a person realizes that pleasure is not all that one wants, because pleasure is too trivial to satisfy one’s total nature.
Pleasure is essentially private.
The self is too small an object for perpetual enthusiasm.
Above: The Hindu Trinity – Brahma, Siva, Vishnu – Hoysaleswara Temple, Halebidu, India
“In the bottomless ocean of pleasure I have sounded in vain for a spot to cast anchor.
I have felt the almost irresistible power with which one pleasure drags another after it, the kind of adulterated enthusiasm which it is capable of producing, the boredom, the torment which follows.
The glamour of yesterday I have come to see as tinsel.”
(Søren Kierkegaard, Journal)
Above: Søren Kierkegaard (1813 – 1855)
Sooner or later you may want to experience more than a kaleidoscope of momentary pleasures, however delectable.
When this time comes an individual’s interests can shift to the second major goal of life:
Worldly success (Artha), with its three prongs of wealth, fame and power.
Success’ satisfactions last longer, for, unlike pleasure, success is a social achievement and, as such, it involves the lives of others.
For this reason, success commands a scope and importance that pleasure cannot boast.
Visitors from abroad do not find North Americans or Europeans enjoying life a great deal or much bent on doing so, for they are too busy.
Being enamored not with sensualism but with success, what takes arguing in the West is not that achievement’s rewards exceed those of the senses, but that success too has its limitations.
“What is a man worth?” does not come down to “How much has he got?“.
Drives for power, position and possessions run deep, so they should not be disparaged per se.
A modicum of worldly success is indispensable for supporting a household and discharging duties responsibly.
Beyond this minimum, worldly achievements confer dignity and self-respect.
However, these too have their term, for they all harbour limitations:
Above: Statue of Shiva, Murudeshwar, India
Wealth, fame and power are exclusive, hence competitive, hence precarious.
Unlike mental and spiritual values, they do not multiply when shared.
They cannot be distributed without diminishing one’s portion.
Above: Illustration of Durga
The drive for success is insatiable, for people who make these things their chief ambition their lusts cannot be satisfied.
To try to extinguish the drive for riches with money is like trying to quench a fire by pouring gasoline upon it.
Success is a goal without a satiation point.
Above: Illustration of Lakshmi
“Poverty consists not in the decrease of one’s possessions but in the increase of one’s need.”
(Plato)
Above: Plato (428 – 348 BCE), Raphael’s The School of Athens
“Could you from all the world all wealth procure, more would remain whose lack would leave you poor.“
(Gregory Nazianzen)
Above: Gregory Nazianzen (329 – 390)
Success centres meaning in the self.
Neither fortune nor station can obscure the realization that one lacks so much else.
In the end everyone wants more from life.
Above: Illustration of Vishnu
Success’ achievements are ephemeral.
Wealth, fame and power do not survive bodily death.
“You can’t take it with you.“
Since we can’t, this keeps these things from satisfying us wholly, for we are creatures who can envision eternity and must instinctively rue by contrast the brief purchase on time that worldly success commands.
Above: Hindu god Vishnu (centre) surrounded by his ten major avatars: Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Parashurama, Rama, Krishna, Buddha and Kalki
The personal desires of the individual have thus so far been foremost in charting life’s course.
Other goals lie ahead, but this does not mean that we should berate these preliminaries, for nothing is gained by repressing desires wholesale or pretending that we do not have them.
As long as pleasure and success is what we think we want, we should seek them, remembering only the provisos of prudence and fair play.
The guiding principle is not to turn from desire until desire turns from you.
The prospect of adults who fail to develop interests more significant is sad.
Individuals whose development is not arrested will move through delighting in success and the senses to the point where their attractions have been outgrown.
Where the suspicion arises that life holds more than one is now experiencing.
Here we find the back-to-nature people who, disillusioned, renounce affluence to gain freedom from social rounds and the glut of things.
But this is only the beginning.
Above: Ardhanarishvara, showing both feminine and masculine aspects of this Hindu god
If renunciation always entails the sacrifice of a trivial Now for a more promising Yet-to-be, religious renunciation is akin to that of athletes who resist indulgences that could deflect them from their all-consuming goal.
The exact opposite of disillusionment, renunciation is evidence that the life force is strongly at work.
Hinduism does not say that everyone will find the path of desire wanting, but it draws a distinction between chronological and psychological age.
Neither the pursuit nor the attainment of the world’s visible rewards brings true happiness, for each attainment fans the flames of new desire.
None satisfies fully.
All perish with time.
Above: Ganesha with Shiva, Devi (Parvati), Vishnu and Surya
Eventually, there comes the suspicion that they are caught on a treadmill, having to run faster and faster for rewards that mean less and less.
When that suspicion dawns and they find themselves crying “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity!“, it may occur to them that the problem stems from the smallness of the self they have been scrambling to serve.
What if the focus of their concern were shifted?
Might not becoming a part of a larger, more significant whole relieve life of its triviality?
True religion begins with the quest for meaning and value beyond self-centredness.
The community is greater than ourselves.
In supporting at once our own life and the lives of others, the community has an importance no single life can command.
The transfer from self to community makes the first great step in religion:
It produces the third great aim of life in the Hindu outlook:
Duty (Dharma).
Above: The great Prambanian Hindu temple complex built in the 9th century, Java, Indonesia
Duty’s power over the mature is tremendous.
Myriads of men have transformed the will-to-get into the will-to-give, the will-to-win into the will-to-serve.
Not to triumph, but to do one’s best – to acquit oneself responsibly, whatever the task at hand – has become the prime objective.
Hinduism abounds in directives to people who would put their shoulders to the social wheel.
It details duties appropriate to age, temperament and social status.
Above: A wedding is the most extensive personal ritual an adult Hindu undertakes in his or her life. A typical Hindu wedding is solemnized before by a Vedic fire ritual.
Duty too yields notable rewards, only to leave the human spirit unfilled.
Duty’s rewards require maturity to be appreciated, but given maturity, they are substantial.
Faithful performance of duty brings respect and gratitude from one’s peers.
More important, however, is the self-respect that comes from doing one’s best.
But in the end even these rewards prove insufficient.
For even when time turns community into history, history is finite and hence ultimately tragic.
It is tragic not only because it must end, but in its refusal to be perfected.
Hope and history are always light years apart.
The final human good must be elsewhere.
Above: A home shrine with offerings at a regional Vishu festival
“There comes a time when one asks even of Shakespeare, even of Beethoven, is this all?”
(Aldous Huxley)
Above: William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616)Above: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)Above: English writer Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963)
“There is no true good here below, that everything that appears to be good in this world is finite, limited, wears out and once worn out, leaves necessity exposed in all its nakedness.”
(Simone Weil)
Above: French philosopher Simone Weil (1909 – 1943)
When this point is reached, the point where one finds oneself asking even of the best this world has to offer:
“Is this all?“
This is the moment Hinduism has been waiting for.
As long as people are content with the prospect of pleasure, success or service, the Hindu sage will not be likely to disturb them beyond offering some suggestions as how to proceed more effectively.
The critical point in life comes when these things lose their original charm and one finds oneself wishing that life had something more to offer.
The Hindu answer is unequivocal.
Life holds other possibilities.
Pleasure, success and duty are never humanity’s ultimate goals.
At best they are means that we assume will take us in the direction of what we really want.
What we really want are things that lie at a deeper level.
Above: Hindu priest
First, we want being.
Everyone wants to be rather than not be.
No one wants to die.
There is a profound reluctance to give up the future.
Above: The festival of lights, Diwali, is celebrated by Hindus all over the world.
Second, we want to know.
Whether it be scientists probing the secrets of nature, a typical family watching the nightly news, or neighbours catching up on local gossip, we are insatiably curious.
Above: Hindus in Ghana celebrating Ganesh Chaturti
Third, people seek joy, a feeling that is the opposite of frustration, futility and boredom.
Above: 2013 Festival of Colors, Sri Radha Krishna Temple Spanish Fork, Utah
These are what people really want.
They want these things indefinitely.
A distinctive feature of human nature is its capacity to think of something that has no limits.
The infinite.
Mention any good and we can imagine more of it.
Medical science has doubled life expectancy, but has living twice as long made life worth living or made us readier to die?
People want infinite being, infinite knowledge and infinite bliss.
The fourth aim in Hinduism is liberation (Moksha) – release from the finite that restricts us from the limitless being, consciousness and bliss our hearts desire.
What is a human being?
A body?
Certainly.
But anything else?
Some say no.
If we really are infinite in our being, why is this not apparent?
Why do we not act accordingly?
The answer, say the Hindus, lies in the depth at which the Eternal is buried under the almost impenetrable mass of distractions, false assumptions and self-regarding instincts that comprise our surface selves.
A lamp can be covered by dust and dirt to the point of obscuring its light completely.
The problem life poses for the human self is to cleanse the dross of its being to the point where its infinite centre can shine forth in full display.
Above: Kedar Ghat, a bathing place for pilgrims on the Ganges at Varanasi, India
“The aim of life is to get as far as possible from imperfection.”
(Justice Holmes)
Above: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841 – 1935)
Hinduism says to pass beyond.
If we were to set out to compile a catalogue of the specific imperfections that hedge our lives, it would have no end.
We lack strength and imagination to effect our dreams.
We grow tired, fall ill, and are foolish.
We fail and become discouraged.
We grow old and die.
All these limitations reduce to three basic variants:
We are limited in joy, knowledge and being.
Hinduism asks:
Is it possible to pass beyond the structures that separate us from these things?
Is it feasible to seek to rise to a quality of life that, because less circumscribed, would be life indeed?
Above: Four-armed Vishnu, Pandya Dynasty, 8th century
According to Hinduism, the structures on our joy fall into three subgroups:
Physical pain
Frustration that arises from the thwarting of desire
Boredom with life in general
Above: Priests performing Kalyanam (marriage) of the holy deities at Bhadrachalam Temple in Telangana It is one of the temples in India, where Kalyanam is done everyday throughout the year.
Physical pain’s intensity is partly due to the fear that accompanies it.
The conquest of fear can reduce pain.
Pain can also be accepted if we believe it has a purpose.
Above: Basic Hindu symbols
More serious is the psychological pain that arises from the thwarting of specific desires.
Life is so filled with disappointments that we are likely to assume that they are built into the human condition.
On examination, however, there proves to be something all disappointments share in common:
Each thwarts an expectation of the individual ego.
If the ego were to have no expectations, there would be nothing to disappoint.
What it the interests of the self were expanded to the point of approximating a God’s-eye view of humanity?
Seeing all things under the aspect of eternity would make one objective towards oneself, accepting failure on a par with success in the stupendous human drama of yes and no, positive and negative, push and pull.
How could one feel disappointed at one’s defeat if one experienced the victor’s joy as also one’s own?
We should content ourselves with noting how different this would feel from life as it is usually lived.
Above: Gosala, Guntar, India
When detachment from the finite self or attachment occurs, life is lifted above the possibility of frustration and above ennui, for the cosmic drama is too spectacular to permit boredom in the face of such vivid identification.
Above: Vadakkunnathan Temple
The second great limitation of human life is ignorance, the lack of an insight that lays beyond the point of everything.
Psychologists liken the mind to an iceberg, most of which is invisible.
What does the mind contain?
Some think it contains every memory and experience that has come its way, nothing being forgotten by the deep mind that never sleeps.
Others, like Carl Jung, think it includes memories that summarize the experience of the entire human species.
Psychoanalysis aims a few pinpoints of light at this mental darkness.
Who is to say how far the darkness can be dispelled?
Above: Carl Jung (1875 – 1961)
As for life’s third limitation, its restricted being, Hinduism suggests that we first have to ask how the boundary of the self is to be defined.
Not, certainly, by the amount of physical space our bodies occupy, the amount of water we displace in the bathtub.
It makes more sense to gauge our being by the size of our spirits, the range of reality with which we identify.
A man who identifies with his family, finding his joy in them, would have that much reality.
A woman who could identify with humankind would be that much greater.
By this criterion, people who could identify with being as a whole would be unlimited.
Above: Sri Natarajar Temple, Chidambaram
Yet this seems hardly right, for they would still die, for even as the object of their concerns would continue, they themselves would be gone.
Hinduism suggests that we need, therefore, to approach this question of being not only spatially, so to speak, but also in terms of time.
Our everyday experience provides a wedge for doing so.
Above: Kolka Temple
Strictly speaking, every moment of our lives is a dying.
The I of a moment dies, never to be reborn.
Yet despite the fact that in this sense life consists of nothing but funerals, we do not conceive of ourselves as dying each moment, we do not equate ourselves with our individual moments.
We endure through them – experiencing them, without being identical with any of them in their singularities.
Hinduism carries this a notion a step further.
Above: Besakih Temple, Bali, Indonesia
Hinduism posits an extensive self that lives successive lives in the way a single life lives successive moments.
A child’s heart is broken by misfortunes we consider trivial, as it identifies completely with each incident, being unable to see the moment against the backdrop of a whole, variable lifetime.
A lot of living is required before the child can withdraw its self-identification from the individual moment and approach, thereby, adulthood.
Compared with children we are mature, but according to Hinduism we are children nonetheless as we are no more capable of seeing our total selves in perspective than a three-year-old who has dropped its ice cream cone, because our attention is fixated on our present lifespan.
If we were truly mature we would see that lifespan in a larger setting, one that is actually unending.
Samsara: the cycle of death and rebirth.
Above: Akshardham Temple, New Delhi, India
This is the basic point in the Hindu estimate of the human condition.
Psychology has accustomed us to the fact that there is more to ourselves than we suspect.
Like the 18th century European view of the Earth, our minds have their own darkest Africas, their unmapped Borneos, their Amazonian basins.
Above: Africa (in green)Above: Borneo, IndonesiaAbove: Amazon River basin
Their bulk continues to await exploration.
Hinduism sees the mind’s hidden continents as stretching to infinity.
Infinite in being, infinite in awareness, there is nothing beyond them that remains unknown.
Infinite in joy, too, for there is nothing alien to them to mar their beatitude.
Above: Pashupatinath Temple, Nepal
Hindu literature is studded with metaphors and parables designed to awaken us to the realms of gold that are hidden in the depths of our being.
We are like kings who, falling victim to amnesia, wander our kingdoms in tatters not knowing who we really are.
We are like a lion cub who, having become separated from its mother, is raised by sheep and takes to grazing and bleating on the assumption it is a sheep as well.
We are like a lover who, in his dream, searches the wide world in despair for his beloved, oblivious of the fact that she is lying by his side throughout.
What the realization of our total being is like can no more be described than can a sunset to one born blind.
It must be experienced.
All of us dwell on the brink of the infinite ocean of life’s creative power.
We carry this within us: supreme strength, the fullness of wisdom, unquenchable joy.
It is never thwarted and cannot be destroyed.
But it is hidden.
Deep.
Which is what makes life a problem.
The infinite is down in the darkest profoundest vault of our being, in the forgotten well house, the deep cistern.
What if we could bring it to light and draw from it increasingly?
This question became India’s obsession.
Her people sought religious truth, not simply to increase their store of general information, they sought it as a chart to guide them to higher states of being.
Religious people sought to transform their natures, reshape them to a superhuman pattern through which the infinite could shine with fewer obstructions.
Just as a man carrying on his head a load of wood that has caught fire would go rushing to a pond to quench the flames, even so will the seeker of truth, scorched by the fires of life – birth, death, self-deluding futility – go rushing to a teacher wise to the ways of the things that matter most.
Above: Iraivan Temple, Kauai Island, Hawaii
How to come to God and remain in touch, how to become divine while still on Earth?
The spiritual trials that Hindus have blazed toward this goal are four:
At first this may seem surprising:
If there is one goal, should there not be only one path to it?
This might be the case if we were all starting from the same place.
As it is, people approach the goal from different directions, so there must be multiple trails to the common destination.
Where one starts from depends on who they are, the kind of person one is.
Karma: action, intent and consequences.
Above: A sadhu performing namaste in Madurai, India
“The aim of spiritual directors should not be to guide souls by a way suitable to themselves, but to ascertain the way by which God Himself is pointing them.”
(St. John of the Cross, The Living Flame)
Above: St. John of the Cross (né Juan de Yepes y Álvarez) (1542 – 1591)
There is also a strong Hindu tradition of questioning authority in order to deepen the understanding of these truths and to further develop the tradition.
Hinduism includes a diversity of ideas on spirituality and traditions, but has no ecclesiastical order, no unquestionable religious authorities, no governing body, no prophet(s) nor any binding holy book.
Ideas about all the major issues of faith and lifestyle – vegetarianism, nonviolence, belief in rebirth, even caste – are subjects of debate, not dogma.
Because of the wide range of traditions and ideas covered by the term Hinduism, arriving at a comprehensive definition is difficult.
The religion defies our desire to define and categorize it.
Hinduism has been variously defined as a religion, a religious tradition, a set of religious beliefs, and a way of life.
From a Western lexical standpoint, Hinduism like other faiths is appropriately referred to as a religion.
In India, the term dharma is preferred, which is broader than the Western term religion.
The study of India and its cultures and religions, and the definition of “Hinduism“, has been shaped by the interests of colonialism and by Western notions of religion.
Since the 1990s, those influences and its outcomes have been the topic of debate among scholars of Hinduism, and have also been taken over by critics of the Western view on India.
Above: Mahabalipuram Temple
To its adherents, Hinduism is a traditional way of life.
Many practitioners refer to the “orthodox” form of Hinduism as Sanatana Dharma, “the eternal law” or the “eternal way“.
Hindus regard Hinduism to be thousands of years old.
The Puranic chronology (the timeline of events in ancient Indian history as narrated in the Mahabaratha, the Ramayana, and the Puranas) envisions a chronology of events related to Hinduism starting well before 3000 BCE.
The Sanskrit word dharma has a much broader meaning than religion and is not its equivalent.
All aspects of a Hindu life, namely acquiring wealth (artha), fulfillment of desires (kama), and attaining liberation (moksha), are part of dharma, which encapsulates the “right way of living” and eternal harmonious principles in their fulfillment.
Above: Rangoli, decorations made from colored powder, is popular during Diwali
According to the editors of the Encyclopædia Britannica, Sanātana Dharma historically referred to the “eternal” duties religiously ordained in Hinduism, duties such as honesty, refraining from injuring living beings (ahimsa), purity, goodwill, mercy, patience, forbearance, self-restraint, generosity, and asceticism.
These duties applied regardless of a Hindu’s class, caste, or sect, and they contrasted with svadharma, (one’s “own duty“), in accordance with one’s class or caste (varṇa) and stage in life (purusartha).
In recent years, the term has been used by Hindu leaders, reformers, and nationalists to refer to Hinduism.
Above: Logo of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Sanatana dharma has become a synonym for the “eternal” truth and teachings of Hinduism, that transcend history and are “unchanging, indivisible and ultimately nonsectarian“.
According to other scholars, Sanātana Dharma refers to “timeless, eternal set of truths” and this is how Hindus view the origins of their religion.
It is viewed as those eternal truths and tradition with origins beyond human history, truths divinely revealed (Shruti) in the Vedas – the most ancient of the world’s scriptures.
To many Hindus, the Western term “religion” to the extent it means “dogma and an institution traceableto a single founder” is inappropriate for their tradition.
Hinduism, to them, is a tradition that can be traced at least to the ancient Vedic era.
Above: Mahashiviratree festival
Beginning in the 19th century, Indian modernists reasserted Hinduism as a major asset of Indian civilisation, meanwhile “purifying” Hinduism from its Tantric elements and elevating the Vedic elements.
Western stereotypes were reversed, emphasizing the universal aspects, and introducing modern approaches of social problems.
This approach had a great appeal, not only in India, but also in the West.
Major representatives of Hindu modernism are Ram Mohan Roy, Swami Vivekananda, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Mahatma Gandhi.
Ram Mohan Roy is known as the father of the Hindu Renaissance.
He was a major influence on Swami Vivekananda (1863 – 1902), who was “a figure of great importance in the development of a modern Hindu self-understanding and in formulating the West’s view of Hinduism“.
Central to his philosophy is the idea that the divine exists in all beings, that all human beings can achieve union with this “innate divinity” and that seeing this divine as the essence of others will further love and social harmony.
Above: Rembrandt portrait of Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772 – 1833)
According to Vivekananda, there is an essential unity to Hinduism, which underlies the diversity of its many forms.
Vivekananda’s vision of Hinduism “is one generally accepted by most English-speaking middle-class Hindus today“.
Above: Swami Vivekananda (1863 – 1902)
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan sought to reconcile western rationalism with Hinduism, “presenting Hinduism as an essentially rationalistic and humanistic religious experience“.
Above: Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888 – 1975)
This “global Hinduism” has a worldwide appeal, transcending national boundaries and “becoming a world religion alongside Christianity, Islam and Buddhism“, both for the Hindu diaspora communities and for westerners who are attracted to non-western cultures and religions.
It emphasizes universal spiritual values such as social justice, peace and “the spiritual transformation of humanity“.
It has developed partly due to “re-enculturation“, or the pizza effect, in which elements of Hindu culture have been exported to the West, gaining popularity there, and as a consequence also gained greater popularity in India.
This globalization of Hindu culture brought “to the West teachings which have become an important cultural force in western societies, and which in turn have become an important cultural force in India, their place of origin“.
Above: Navratri Navaratri festival preparations and performance
Hinduism is a diverse system of thought with a wide variety of beliefs.
Its concept of God is complex and depends upon each individual and the tradition and philosophy followed.
Hindus can choose to be polytheistic (a belief in multiple deities), pantheistic (reality is divinity), panentheistic (the divine intersects every part of the Universe and extends beyond space and time), pandeistic (a creator made the Universe and ceased to separate from it), henotheistic (involving devotion to a single god while accepting the existence of others), monotheistic (there is only one God), monistic (existence is everything), agnostic (God is unknowable), atheistic (there is no God) or humanist (focus on humanity not the divine).
One explanation I have heard from a Hindu is that God has different characteristics which Hinduism represents each of the characteristics as separate avatars – each “god” represents an aspect of God.
Above: Lalbaugh Ganesha, Mumbai
The Hindutva movement has extensively argued for the unity of Hinduism, dismissing the differences and regarding India as a Hindu country since ancient times.
There are assumptions of political dominance of Hindu nationalism in India (‘Neo-Hindutva’).
There have also been increase in pre-dominance of Hindutva in Nepal, similar to that of India.
The scope of Hinduism is also increasing in the other parts of the world, due to the cultural influences such as yoga and the Hare Krishna movement by many missionary organizations.
This is also due to the migration of Indian Hindus to the other nations of the world.
Hinduism is growing fast in many western nations and in some African states.
Above: One of Tompkins Square Park’s most prominent features is its collection of venerable American Elm (Ulmus americana) trees. One elm in particular, located next to the semi-circular arrangement of benches in the park’s centre, is important to followers of the Hare Krishna movement. It was beneath this tree, on 9 October 1966, that A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, held the first recorded outdoor chanting session of the Hare Krishna mantra outside of the Indian subcontinent. Participants in the ceremony included Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. The event is seen as the founding of the Hare Krishna movement in the US. The tree is treated by followers as a significant spiritual site.Above: Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami (1896 – 1977)Above: Allen Ginsberg (1926 – 1997)
Should this be a cause of concern to other religions?
Absolutely not.
If a religion is based on truth, its strength is unassailable.
I hold with Hinduism that each man’s path to salvation must be his own.
I neither affirm nor deny any man’s beliefs (or disbelief) in any faith as long as this faith does no harm to others and is practiced in healthy moderation and tolerance to those with differing ideas.
I am in no way, shape or form suggesting that a person become (or not become) a Hindu.
I am simply seeking to understand Hinduism’s attraction for its adherents.
Above: Mantras written on a rock near Namche Bazaar, Nepal
Where the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya concerns me is that the crux of the conflict between Hindu and Muslim in India revolves around an intolerance of the other and an insistence that one must needs be dominant over the other.
Above: Vijayraghav Mandir, Ayodhya
Hindu nationalism has been collectively referred to as the expression of social and political thought, based on the native spiritual and cultural traditions of the Indian subcontinent.
“Hindu nationalism” (Hindū rāṣṭravāda) is a simplistic translation and it is better described with the term “Hindu polity“.
The native thought streams became highly relevant in Indian history when they helped form a distinctive identity in relation to the Indian polity and provided a basis for questioning colonialism.
These also provided inspiration to Indian nationalists during the independence movement based on armed struggle, coercive politics, and non-violent protests.
They also influenced social reform movements and economic thinking in India.
Hindutva (Hindu-ness) is the predominant form of Hindu nationalism in India.
Above: Indian subcontinent
As a political ideology, the term Hindutva was articulated by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1923.
Savarkar was one of the first in the 20th century to attempt a definitive description of the term “Hindu” in terms of what he called Hindutva meaning Hindu-ness.
The coinage of the term “Hindutva” was an attempt by Savarkar who was non religious and a rationalist, to de-link it from any religious connotations that had become attached to it.
He defined the word Hindu as:
“He who considers India as both his Fatherland and Holy Land“.
He thus defined Hindutva (“Hindu-ness“) or Hindu as different from Hinduism.
This definition kept the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) outside its ambit and considered only native religious denominations as Hindu.
This distinction was emphasised on the basis of territorial loyalty rather than on religious practices.
In his book that was written in the backdrop of the Khilafat movement and the subsequent Malabar rebellion, Savarkar wrote:
“Their [Muslims’ and Christians’] holy land is far off in Arabia or Palestine.
Their mythology and Godmen, ideas and heroes are not the children of this soil.
Consequently, their names and their outlook smack of foreign origin.
Their love is divided.”
Savarkar, also defined the concept of Hindu Rashtra (Hindu Polity).
The concept of Hindu Polity called for the protection of Hindu people and their culture and emphasised that political and economic systems should be based on native thought rather than on the concepts borrowed from the West.
Above: Vinayak Damodar Savakar (1883 – 1966)
The Hindutva movement has been described by its critics as a variant of “right-wing extremism” and as “almost fascistin the classical sense“, adhering to a concept of homogenised majority and cultural hegemony.
Some analysts dispute the “fascist” label, and suggest Hindutva is an extreme form of “conservatism” or “ethnic absolutism“.
It is championed by the Hindu Nationalist volunteer organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) (the present ruling government) and other organizations in an ecosystem called the Sangh Parivar.
The official philosophy of the BJP is “integral humanism” a philosophy first formulated by Deendayal Upadhyaya in 1965, who described it as advocating an “indigenous economic model that puts the human being at centre stage“.
It is committed to Hindutva.
According to the party, Hindutva is cultural nationalism favouring Indian culture over westernization, thus it extends to all Indians regardless of religion.
However, scholars and political analysts have called their Hindutva ideology an attempt to redefine India and recast it as a Hindu country to the exclusion of other religions, making it a Hindu nationalist party in a general sense.
The BJP has slightly moderated its stance after the NDA was formed in 1998, due to the presence of parties with a broader set of ideologies.
Above: Deendayal Upadhyay (1916 – 1968)
Narendra Damodardas Modi is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014.
Modi is the Member of Parliament (MP) from Varanasi.
Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat (like a Canadian Premier or US state governor) from 2001 to 2014
He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu nationalist paramilitary volunteer organization.
He is the first Prime Minister to have been born after India’s independence in 1947 and the second Prime Minister not belonging to the Indian National Congress party to have won two consecutive majorities in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of India’s Parliament).
He is also the longest serving Prime Minister from a non-Congress party.
Above: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Modi’s administration has tried to raise foreign direct investment in the Indian economy and reduced spending on healthcare and social welfare programmes.
Modi has attempted to improve efficiency in the bureaucracy.
He has centralised power by abolishing the Planning Commission.
He began a high profile sanitation campaign, controversially initiated a de-monetization of high denomination banknotes and transformation of taxation regime, and weakened or abolished environmental and labour laws.
Under Modi’s tenure, India has experienced democratic backsliding.
Following his party’s victory in the 2019 General Election, his administration revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, introduced the Citizenship Amendment Act and three controversial farm laws, which prompted widespread protests and sit-ins across the country, resulting in a formal repeal of the latter.
Above: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
(Article 370 of the Indian Constitution gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir — a state in India, located in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent and a part of the larger region of Kashmir, which has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan and China.
The Article conferred power on Jammu and Kashmir to have a separate constitution, a state flag and autonomy over the internal administration of the state.
The Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir, after its establishment, was empowered to recommend the articles of the Indian Constitution that should be applied to the state or to abrogate the Article 370 altogether.
After consultation with the state’s Constituent Assembly, the 1954 Presidential Order was issued, specifying the articles of the Indian Constitution that applied to the state.
The Constituent Assembly dissolved itself without recommending the abrogation of Article 370, the article was deemed to have become a permanent feature of the Indian Constitution.
This article, along with Article 35A, defined that the Jammu and Kashmir state’s residents live under a separate set of laws, including those related to citizenship, ownership of property, and fundamental rights, as compared to residents of other Indian states.
Above: State flag of Jammu and Kashmir (1954 – 2019)
Since the partition of India and Pakistan on religious lines, the Hindutva organizations in India have stated that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral, inseparable part of India.
As in past election manifestos, the Bharatiya Janata Party included the integration of Jammu and Kashmir among its campaign promises for the 2019 Indian General Election.
The BJP and its allies won a landslide majority in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament.
On 5 August 2019, India issued a Presidential order superseding the 1954 order that made all the provisions of the Indian constitution applicable to Jammu and Kashmir.
Following the resolutions passed in both houses of the Parliament, the President of India issued a further order on 6 August declaring all the clauses of Article 370 except clause 1 to be inoperative.
On 5 August 2019, the Parliament of India voted in favour of a resolution to revoke the temporary special status, or autonomy, granted under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir — a region administered by India as a state which consists of the larger part of Kashmir which has been the subject of dispute among India, Pakistan, and China since 1947.
Above: Seal of Jammu and Kashmir
Among the Indian government actions accompanying the revocation was the cutting off of communication lines in the Kashmir Valley restored after five months.
Thousands of security forces were deployed to curb any uprising.
Several leading Kashmiri politicians were taken into custody, including the former Chief Minister.
Government officials described these restrictions as designed for preempting violence, and justified the revocation for enabling people of the state to access government programmes, such as reservation, the right to education and right to information.
Above: Pahalgam Valley, Kashmir
(Reservation is a system of affirmative action in India that provides historically disadvantaged groups representation in education, employment, government schemes, health, insurance, banking, foreign higher education, scholarships and politics.
Based on provisions in the Indian Constitution, it allows the Union Government and the States and Territories of India to set reserved quotas or seats, which lower the qualifications needed in exams, job openings, university admissions, scholarships, loan approval, promotions etc. for “socially andeducationally backward citizens“.
Reservation is provided regardless of financial condition of the beneficiary: meaning that a rich and a poor belonging to a certain class will receive equal treatment from the government.)
The reaction in the Kashmir Valley was effectively reduced to silence through the suspension of communication and with imposition of curfew (Section 144).
Many nationalists celebrated, declaring the move to herald public order and prosperity in Kashmir.
Above: Police in Kashmir confronting protesters
Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres expressed his concern over “restrictions” in Jammu and Kashmir saying that the curbs “could exacerbate the human rights situation in the region“.
The Secretary-General called on all parties to “refrain from taking steps that could affect the status of Jammu and Kashmir” and asked for the final status to be settled by peaceful means.
Above: UN Secretary-General António Guterres
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric expressed concern over India’s move to revoke the special status of Kashmir and said that “the United Nations Secretary-General all along maintained that Pakistan and India should resolve all outstanding disputes between the two countries through dialogue including Kashmir“.
He urged both India and Pakistan to exercise restraint.
Above: UN Spokesman Stéphane Dujarric
UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression David Kaye described the communication blackout imposed by India as “unprecedented” and “draconian“.
Above: David Kaye
Amnesty International responded that the Indian government’s action would “likely to inflame tensions inthe area and increase the risk of further human rights violations“.
It also mentioned that “use of pellet guns and other weapons are in defiance of international human rights standards“, after the Indian Supreme Court refused to lift restrictions on Jammu and Kashmir.
Human Rights Watch mentioned that basic freedoms was at risk in Kashmir, and asked India to ensure rights protections in Kashmir and “step back“.
Reporters Without Borders reported that Indian-administered Kashmir is cut off from the world and said:
“The state of Jammu and Kashmir became a news and information black hole in the space of a single morning yesterday.“
The organization condemned “the relentless information warfare that Prime Minister Narendra Modi began waging ten days ago by severing all communication in the Kashmir Valley” and called for the immediate restoration of all means of communication.
Above: Logo of Reporters sans frontières (Reporters Without Borders)
Genocide Watch, member and current Coordinator of the Alliance Against Genocide, issued a ‘genocidealert‘ calling upon “the United Nations and its members to warn India not to commit genocide inKashmir” since it claimed that all the “ten stages of the genocidal process” are far advanced and early warnings of “massacres” in the risk factors for genocide are fulfilled.)
(The Indian Constitution implemented in 1950 guaranteed citizenship to all of the country’s residents at the commencement of the Constitution, and made no distinction on the basis of religion.
In 1955, the Indian government passed the Citizenship Act, by which all people born in India, subject to some limitations, were accorded citizenship.
The Act also provided two means for foreigners to acquire Indian citizenship.
People from “undivided India” were given a means of registration after seven years of residency in India.
Those from other countries were given a means of naturalisation after twelve years of residency in India.
Political developments in the 1980s, particularly those related to the violent Assam movement against migrants from Bangladesh, triggered revisions to the Citizenship Act of 1955.
The Act was first amended in 1985, granting citizenship to all Bangladeshi migrants that arrived before 1971, subject to some provisos.
The government also agreed to identify all migrants that arrived afterwards, remove their names from the electoral rolls, and expel them from the country.
The Citizenship Act was further amended in 1992, 2003, 2005 and 2015.
Above: National Emblem of India
In December 2003, the National Democratic Alliance government, led by the BJP, passed the Citizenship Amendment Act with far-reaching revisions of the Citizenship Act.
It added the notion of “illegal immigrants” to the Act, making them ineligible to apply for citizenship (by registration or naturalisation), and declaring their children also as illegal immigrants.
Illegal immigrants were defined as citizens of other countries who entered India without valid travel documents, or who remained in the country beyond the period permitted by their travel documents.
They can be deported or imprisoned.
Above: Logo of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)
The 2003 amendment also mandated the Government of India to create and maintain a National Register of Citizens.
The bill was supported by the Indian National Congress, as well as left parties.
Above: Logo of the Indian National Congress
During the parliamentary debate on the amendment, the Leader of the Opposition, Manmohan Singh, stated that refugees belonging to minority communities in Bangladesh and other countries had faced persecution, and requested a liberal approach to granting them citizenship.
Above: Former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (r. 2004 – 2014)
The formulation of the 2003 amendment was based on the idea that Muslim groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan that had experienced persecution also needed to be treated with compassion.
Above: Flag of Afghanistan
A very large number of illegal immigrants, the largest numbers of whom are from Bangladesh, live in India.
The Task Force on Border Management quoted the figure of 15 million illegal migrants in 2001.
In 2004, the government stated in Parliament that there were 12 million illegal Bangladeshi migrants in India.
The reasons for the scale of migration include a porous border, historical migration patterns, economic reasons, and cultural and linguistic ties.
Many illegal migrants from Bangladesh had eventually received the right to vote.
This enfranchisement was widely described as an attempt to win elections using the votes of the illegal migrants from Bangladesh.
It has been estimated that over 11 million Hindus have left Bangladesh for India between 1964 and 2013, at a rate of 230,612 annually.
The reasons were religious persecution and discrimination, especially at the hands of the post-independence military regimes.
An unknown number of Pakistani Hindu refugees also live in India.
An estimated 5,000 refugees arrive per year, citing religious persecution and forced conversion.
India is not a signatory to either the 1951 UN Refugee Convention or the 1967 Protocol.
It does not have a national policy on refugees.
All refugees are classed as “illegal migrants“.
While India has been willing to host refugees, its traditional position is that such refugees must return to their home countries after the situation returns to normal.
According to the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, India hosts refugees in excess of 456,000, with about 200,000 from “non-neighbouring” countries.
Since the 1950s and particularly since the 1990s, Indian governments under various political parties have studied and drafted laws for the naturalization of refugees and asylum seekers.
These drafts have struggled with issues relating to a mass influx of refugees, urban planning, cost of basic services, the obligations to protected tribes, and the impact on pre-existing regional poverty levels within India.
The “detection, deletion and deportation” of illegal migrants has been on the agenda of the BJP since 1996.
In the 2016 assembly elections for the border state of Assam, the BJP leaders campaigned in the state promising voters that they would rid Assam of the Bangladeshis.
Simultaneously, they also promised to protect Hindus who had fled religious persecution in Bangladesh.
According to commentators, in the context of an effort to identify and deport illegal immigrants, the proposal to grant citizenship took a new meaning.
Illegal migrants could be granted citizenship if they were non-Muslim, on the grounds that they were refugees; only Muslims would be deported.
In its manifesto for the 2014 Indian General Election, the BJP promised to provide a “natural home” for persecuted Hindu refugees.
The year before the 2016 elections in Assam, the government legalised refugees belonging to religious minorities from Pakistan and Bangladesh, granting them long-term visas.
Bangladeshi and Pakistani nationals belonging to “minority communities” were exempted from the requirements of the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 and the Foreigners Act, 1946.
Specifically mentioned were “Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Parsis and Buddhists“, who had been “compelled to seek shelter in India due to religious persecution or fear of religious persecution“.
Eligibility for the exemption was made contingent on a migrant having arrived in India by 31 December 2014.
The BJP government introduced a bill to amend the citizenship law in 2016, which would have made non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh eligible for Indian citizenship.
The bill stalled in Parliament following widespread political opposition and protests in northeast India.
Opponents of the bill in Assam and the northeastern states of India stated that any migration from Bangladesh “irrespective of religion” would cause “loss of political rights and culture of theindigenous people”.
Above: Map of Assam
According to Niraja Jayal, while the BJP had promised to grant Indian citizenship to all Hindu migrants from Bangladesh in its election campaigns during the 2010s, the draft Amendment bill angered many in Assam, including its own political allies because they view the amendment as a violation of the Assam Accord.
That accord promised to identify and deport all illegal Bangladeshi migrants who entered the state after 1971, “regardless of their religious identity“.
In 2018, as the draft of this Amendment was being discussed, numerous Assamese organisations petitioned and agitated against it.
They fear that the Amendment will encourage more migration and diminish employment opportunities to the native residents in the state.
Above: Niraja Jayal
The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed by the Parliament of India on 11 December 2019.
It amended the Citizenship Act of 1955 by providing a pathway to Indian citizenship for persecuted religious minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis or Christians, and arrived in India before the end of December 2014.
The law does not grant such eligibility to Muslims from these Muslim-majority countries.
The act was the first time that religion had been overtly used as a criterion for citizenship under Indian law and attracted global criticism.
Above: Statue of Chandragupta Maurya (350 – 295 BCE) at the Parliament of India, New Delhi
The BJP government had promised in previous election manifestos to offer Indian citizenship to members of persecuted religious minorities who had migrated from neighbouring countries.
Under the 2019 amendment, migrants who had entered India by 31 December 2014, and had suffered “religious persecution or fear of religious persecution” in their country of origin, were made eligible for citizenship.
The amendment also relaxed the residence requirement for naturalization of these migrants from twelve years to six.
According to Intelligence Bureau records, there will be just over 30,000 immediate beneficiaries of the bill.
Above: Logo of India’s Intelligence Bureau
The amendment has been criticized as discriminating on the basis of religion, particularly for excluding Muslims.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) called it “fundamentallydiscriminatory“, adding that while India’s “goal of protecting persecuted groups is welcome“, this should be accomplished through a non-discriminatory “robust national asylum system“.
Above: OHCHR logo
Critics express concerns that the bill would be used, along with the National Register of Citizens (NRC), to render many Muslim citizens stateless, as they may be unable to meet stringent birth or identity proof requirements.
Commentators also question the exclusion of persecuted religious minorities from other regions such as Tibet, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.
Above: Flag of Sri LankaAbove: Flag of Myanmar
The Indian government said that since Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh have Islam as their state religion, it is therefore “unlikely” that Muslims would “face religious persecution” there.
However, certain Muslim groups, such as Hazaras and Ahmadis, have historically faced persecution in these countries.
The passage of the legislation caused large scale protests in India.
Assam and other northeastern states witnessed violent demonstrations against the bill over fears that granting Indian citizenship to refugees and immigrants will cause a loss of their “political rights, cultureand land rights” and motivate further migration from Bangladesh.
In other parts of India, protesters said that the bill discriminated against Muslims, and demanded that Indian citizenship be granted to Muslim refugees and immigrants as well.
Major protests against the Act were held at some universities in India.
Students at Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia alleged brutal suppression by the police.
Above: Logo of Jamia Millia, New Delhi, India
The protests have led to the deaths of several protesters, injuries to both protesters and police officers, damage to public and private property, the detention of hundreds of people, and suspensions of local internet mobile phone connectivity in certain areas.
Some states announced that they would not implement the Act.
In response, the Union Home Ministry said that states lack the legal power to stop the implementation of the CAA.)
Described as engineering a political realignment towards right wing politics, Modi remains a figure of controversy domestically and internationally over his Hindu nationalist beliefs and his handling of the 2002 Gujarat riots, cited as evidence of an exclusionary social agenda.
Above: Skyline of Ahmedabad filled with smoke as buildings are set on fire by rioting mobs, 1 January 2002
(On 27 February 2002, a train with several hundred passengers burned near Godhra, killing approximately 60 people.
The train carried a large number of Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya after a religious ceremony at the site of the demolished Babri Masjid.
In making a public statement after the incident, Modi declared it a terrorist attack planned and orchestrated by local Muslims.
The next day, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad called for a bandh (general strike) across the state.
Riots began during the bandh, and anti-Muslim violence spread through Gujarat.
The government’s decision to move the bodies of the train victims from Godhra to Ahmedabad further inflamed the violence.
The state government stated later that 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed.
Independent sources put the death toll at over 2,000, the vast majority Muslims.
Approximately 150,000 people were driven to refugee camps.
Numerous women and children were among the victims.
The violence included mass rapes and mutilations of women.
The government of Gujarat itself is generally considered by scholars to have been complicit in the riots (with some blaming then-Chief Minister Modi explicitly) and has otherwise received heavy criticism for its handling of the situation.
Several scholars have described the violence as a pogrom, while others have called it an example of state terrorism.
“There is by now a broad consensus that the Gujarat violence was a form of ethnic cleansing, that in many ways it was premeditated, and that it was carried out with the complicity of the state government and officers of the law.”
The Modi government imposed a curfew in 26 major cities, issued shoot-at-sight orders and called for the army to patrol the streets, but was unable to prevent the violence from escalating.
The President of the state unit of the BJP expressed support for the bandh, despite such actions being illegal at the time.
State officials later prevented riot victims from leaving the refugee camps, and the camps were often unable to meet the needs of those living there.
Muslim victims of the riots were subject to further discrimination when the state government announced that compensation for Muslim victims would be half of that offered to Hindus, although this decision was later reversed after the issue was taken to court.
During the riots, police officers often did not intervene in situations where they were able.
Modi’s personal involvement in the 2002 events has continued to be debated.
During the riots, Modi said that:
“What is happening is a chain of action and reaction.”
Later in 2002, Modi said the way in which he had handled the media was his only regret regarding the episode.)
The basic premise of Hindu nationalists is:
Look what they did to us!
They tried to crush us.
We are now strong.
They are still a threat.
Let’s consider that premise by looking first at India before independence:
Early on in the second millennium BCE, persistent drought caused the population of the Indus Valley to scatter from large urban centres to villages.
Around the same time, Indo-Aryan tribes moved into the Punjab from Central Asia in several waves of migration.
Their Vedic Period (1500 – 500 BCE) was marked by the composition of the Vedas, large collections of hymns of these tribes.
Their varna system, which evolved into the caste system, consisted of a hierarchy of priests, warriors and free peasants.
The pastoral and nomadic Indo-Aryans spread from the Punjab into the Gangetic plain, large swaths of which they deforested for agriculture usage.
The composition of Vedic texts ended around 600 BCE, when a new, interregional culture arose.
Small chieftaincies, or janapadas, were consolidated into larger states, or mahajanapadas, and a second urbanisation took place.
This urbanisation was accompanied by the rise of new ascetic movements in Greater Magadha, including Jainism and Buddhism, which opposed the growing influence of Brahmanism and the primacy of rituals, presided by Brahmin priests, that had come to be associated with Vedic religion, and gave rise to new religious concepts.
In response to the success of these movements, Vedic Brahamism was synthesized with the pre-existing religious cultures of the subcontinent, giving rise to Hinduism.
Above: North Gateway, Sanchi Hill
Most of the Indian subcontinent was conquered by the Maurya Empire during the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE.
From the 3rd century BCE onwards, Prakit and Pali literature in the north and Tamil Sangram literature in southern India started to flourish.
Wootz steel originated in south India in the 3rd century BCE and was exported.
Above: Wootz steel (left) and Damascus steel (right)
The Maurya Empire would collapse in 185 BCE, on the assassination of Emperor Brihadratha, by his General Pushayamitra Shunga.
Shunga would go on to form the Shunga Empire, in the north and northeast of the subcontinent, while the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom would claim the northwest, and found the Indo-Greek Kingdom.
Above: Pushyamitra Shunga (r. 185 – 149 BCE)
During this Classical Period, various parts of India were ruled by numerous dynasties, including the Gupta Empire (4th to 6th centuries CE).
This period, witnessing a Hindu religious and intellectual resurgence, is known as the classical or “GoldenAge of India“.
During this period, aspects of Indian civilisation, administration, culture and religion (Hinduism and Buddhism) spread to much of Asia, while kingdoms in southern India had maritime business links with the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
Indian cultural influence spread over many parts of Southeast Asia, which led to the establishment of Indianized kingdoms in Southeast Asia (Greater India).
The most significant event between the 7th and 11th century was the tripartite struggle centred on Kannauj that lasted for more than two centuries between the Pala Empire, the Rashtrakuta Empire and the Gurjura-Pratihara Empire.
Southern India saw the rise of multiple imperial powers from the middle of the 5th century, most notably the Chalukya, Chola, Pallava, Chera, and Pandyan Empires.
The Chola dynasty conquered southern India and successfully invaded parts of Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Bengal in the 11th century.
In the early medieval period Indian mathematics, including Hindu numerals, influenced the development of mathematics and astronomy in the Arab world.
Islamic conquests made limited inroads into modern Afghanistan and Sindh as early as the 8th century, followed by the invasions of Mahmud Ghazni.
The Delhi Sultanate was founded in 1206 CE by Central Asian Turks who ruled a major part of the northern Indian subcontinent in the early 14th century, but declined in the late 14th century, and saw the advent of the Deccan sultanates.
Above: Map of the Delhi Sultanate
The wealthy Bengal Sultanate also emerged as a major power, lasting over three centuries.
Above: Flag of the Bengal Sultanate (1352 – 1576)
This period also saw the emergence of several powerful Hindu states, notably Vijayanagara and Rajput states, such as Mewar.
Above: Flag of VijayanagaraAbove: Coat of arms of Mewar State
The 15th century saw the advent of Sikhism.
Above: Khanda, logo of Sikhism
The early modern period began in the 16th century, when the Mughal Empire conquered most of the Indian subcontinent, signalling the proto-industrialization, becoming the biggest global economy and manufacturing power, with a nominal GDP that valued a quarter of world GDP, superior than the combination of Europe’s GDP.
The Mughals (16th – 19th centuries) suffered a gradual decline in the early 18th century, which provided opportunities for the Marathas, Sikhs, Mysoreans, Nizams and Nawabs of Bengal to exercise control over large regions of the Indian subcontinent.
Although the Mughal empire was created and sustained by military warfare, it did not vigorously suppress the cultures and peoples it came to rule.
Rather it equalized and placated them through new administrative practices, and diverse ruling elites, leading to more efficient, centralized and standardized rule
From the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century, large regions of India were gradually annexed by the East India Company, a chartered company acting as a sovereign power on behalf of the British government.
Abpve: Flag of the British East India Company (1801 – 1858)
Dissatisfaction with company rule in India led to the Indian Rebellion of 1857, which rocked parts of north and central India, and led to the dissolution of the Company.
India was afterwards ruled directly by the British Crown, in the British Raj.
After World War 1, a nationwide struggle for independence was launched by the Indian National Congress party, led by Mahatma Gandhi, and noted for non-violence.
Above: Gandhi during the Salt March, March 1930
(The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March and the Dandi Satyagraha, was an act of non-violent civil disobedience in colonial India led by Mahatma Gandhi.
The twenty-four day march lasted from 12 March 1930 to 6 April 1930 as a direct action campaign of tax resistance and non-violent protest against the British salt monopoly.
Another reason for this march was that the Civil Disobedience Movement needed a strong inauguration that would inspire more people to follow Gandhi’s example.
Gandhi started this march with 78 of his trusted volunteers.
The march spanned 385 kilometres (239 mi), from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi.
Growing numbers of Indians joined them along the way.
When Gandhi broke the British Raj salt laws at 8:30 am on 6 April 1930, it sparked large scale acts of civil disobedience against the salt laws by millions of Indians.
After making the salt by evaporation at Dandi, Gandhi continued southward along the coast, making salt and addressing meetings on the way.
The Congress Party planned to stage a satyagraha (polite insistence) at the Dharasana Salt Works, 40 km (25 mi) south of Dandi.
Above: National Salt Satyagraha Memorial, Dandi
However, Gandhi was arrested at midnight of 5 May 1930, just days before the planned action at Dharasana.
The Dandi March and the ensuing Dharasana Satyagraha drew worldwide attention to the Indian independence movement through extensive newspaper and newsreel coverage.
The satyagraha against the salt tax continued for almost a year, ending with Gandhi’s release from jail and negotiations with Viceroy Lord Irwin at the Second Round Table Conference.
Above: Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax (aka Lord Irwin) (1881 – 1959)
Although over 60,000 Indians were jailed as a result of the Salt Satyagraha, the British did not make immediate major concessions.
The Salt Satyagraha campaign was based upon Gandhi’s principles of non-violent protest called satyagraha, which he loosely translated as “truth force“.
Literally, it is formed from the Sanskrit words satya, “truth“, and agraha, “insistence“.
In early 1920 the Indian National Congress chose satyagraha as their main tactic for winning Indian sovereignty and self-rule from British rule and appointed Gandhi to organise the campaign.
Gandhi chose the 1882 British Salt Act as the first target of satyagraha.
Above: Gandhi at a public rally during the Salt Satyagraha
The Salt March to Dandi, and the beating by the colonial police of hundreds of non-violent protesters in Dharasana, which received worldwide news coverage, demonstrated the effective use of civil disobedience as a technique for fighting social and political injustice.
The satyagraha teachings of Gandhi and the March to Dandi had a significant influence on American activists Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel, and others during the Civil Rights Movement for civil rights for African Americans and other minority groups in the 1960s.
Above: Reverend James Bevel (1936 – 2008), former Director of Direct Action and Director of Nonviolent Education of the Southern Christian Leadership ConferenceAbove: Civil Rights March on Washington (DC), 28 August 1963
The March was the most significant organised challenge to British authority since the non-cooperation movement (1920 –1922), and directly followed the Purna Swaraj declaration of sovereignty and self-rule by the Indian National Congress on 26 January 1930.
It gained worldwide attention which gave impetus to the Indian independence movement and started the nationwide Civil Disobedience movement which continued until 1934.)
Above: Flag of India (1931)
Later, the All-India Muslim League would advocate for a separate Muslim-majority nation state.
The British Indian Empire was partitioned in August 1947 into the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan, each gaining its independence.
Above: Flag of the All-India Muslim League (today Pakistan)
In the 1930s, the idea of a separate nation-state and influential philosopher Sir Muhammad Iqbal’s vision of uniting the four provinces in northwest British India further supported the rationale of the two nation theory aligning with the same ideas proposed by Syed Ahmad Khan who in 1888 at Meerut said:
“After this long preface I wish to explain what method my nation — nay, rather the whole people of this country — ought to pursue in political matters.
I will treat in regular sequence of the political questions of India, in order that you may have full opportunity of giving your attention to them.
The first of all is this — In whose hands shall the administration and the Empire of India rest?
Now, suppose that all English, and the whole English army, were to leave India, taking with them all their cannon and their splendid weapons and everything, then who would be rulers of India?
Is it possible that under these circumstances two nations — the Mahomedans and the Hindus — could sit on the same throne and remain equal in power?
Most certainly not.
It is necessary that one of them should conquer the other and thrust it down.
To hope that both could remain equal is to desire the impossible and the inconceivable.“
Above: South Asian Muslim writer, philosopher, and politician Muhammad Iqbal (1877 – 1938)Above: Syed Ahmad Khan (1817 – 1898)
With global events leading up to World War 2 and the Congress party’s effective protest against the United Kingdom unilaterally involving India in the War without consulting the Indian people, the Muslim League went on to support the British war efforts.
The Muslim League played a decisive role in the 1940s, becoming a driving force behind the division of India along religious lines and the creation of Pakistan as a Muslim state in 1947.
After the partition and subsequent establishment of Pakistan, the All-India Muslim League was formally disbanded in India and the leftover Muslim League diminished to a minor party, that too only in Kerala, India.
Above: The partition of India, 1947
In Bangladesh, the Muslim League was revived in 1976 but it was reduced in size, rendering it insignificant in the political arena.
Above: Emblem of Bangladesh
In India, a separate independent entity called the Indian Union Muslim League was formed, which continues to have a presence in the Indian Parliament to this day.
Above: Logo of the Indian Union Muslim League
In Pakistan, the Pakistan Muslim League eventually split into several political parties, which became the successors of the All-India Muslim League.
Above: State emblem of Pakistan
My reservations, though coupled with my congratulations, regarding the Ram temple of Ayodhya is that nationalists are using religion to further their domination goals.
Certainly, Muslims don’t need the exact location of the temple for their mosque.
Ayodhya can accommodate more than two religious buildings and two faiths.
Certainly, Ayodhya as the birthplace of one of God’s avatars is important enough to preserve and protect, and the commemoration of the temple is an event all Hindus should celebrate.
Above: Ram Mandir (once completed)
But this temple also causes me great concern, for it is used as a symbol of the ruling BJP to promote a Hindu-majoritarian view of India’s past and future, a powerful paramilitary movement that eerily echoes the shadows of Europe’s pre-WW2 fascism.
Above: Benito Mussolini (1883 – 1945) (left) and Adolf Hitler (1889 – 1945) (right), the leaders of Fascist Italy (1922 – 1943) and Nazi Germany (1933 – 1945) respectively, were both fascists. – Munich, Germany, 19 June 1940
Like them, the BJP thrives on an US versus THEM sense of identity, with the country’s 200 million Muslims as the chief bogeymen.
Among BJP politicians, anti-Muslim hate speech remains rife.
Last week, India celebrated its 75th anniversary of its independence.
In 2024, everyone fully expects that Narendra Modi will be anointed for a 3rd term as Prime Minister.
There is talk among Modi adepts of an emerging second republic, its past scrubbed of foreign influence (including – especially? – Islam) and its present (and future) defined by a Hindu state as envisioned by the BJP.
Despite being a man who does not adhere to any religion, I can understand the impact and value of religion in the lives of the common people.
But I strenuously object to faith being used as justification for power and prejudice.
The sounds of cheering for Ayodhya linger loudly, but the taste of victory is truly bittersweet.
Now all of the planes have landed Soldiers are in their beds Smoke rises from their clothing Sweet dreams through their heads
Truth faced leaves a strange taste When joy and sadness meet A country rain on a city street This life is bittersweet
The boy with the bloated belly Hears today’s trucks arrive He puts down his baby sister Makes his way outside
Truth faced leaves a strange taste When joy and sadness meet A country rain on a city street This life is bittersweet
Everyone’s a novelist Everyone can sing But no one talks when the TV’s on
Sweet dreams fill their heads The lightning flashed, and the thunder rolled Dark clouds filled the sky A country rain on a city street This life is bittersweet
Sources: Wikipedia / Google / Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel / Lonely Planet India / Moxy Früvous, “Bittersweet” / Joanna Slater and Niha Masih, “As a Hindu temple starts to rise, Modi is transforming India“, Washington Post, 5 August 2020 / Huston Smith, The World’s Religions / Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust / Rick Steves, Travel as a Political Act
In transit between Ankara and Eskişehir, Turkey, Saturday 2 October 2021
The train is warm in Wagon 1 and seat 48 is uncomfortable.
As the train waits at the older of the two Ankara stations for all its passengers to board for the slow journey to its final destination of Izmir, a teenage boy and his silver-haired grandfather enter the carriage with more luggage than the two can handle: two large suitcases half their individual weights, two 10-litre bottles of water and a half dozen bags which the boy’s father, the old man’s son dutifully stores in the overhead compartment above their seats diagonally across from my own.
The train modern in appearance, ancient in expression, rattles and bounces uncertain out of Ankara.
The grandson sits in the seat in front of me.
Grandfather removes his shoes, kneels on the twin suits reserved in their names, proceeds to pray.
Apparently this westbound train to Eskişehir means Mecca is in the direction of my windows rather than his.
He makes his prayers silently, bowing his body from time to time to show his devotion to God.
If he is noticed, neither train conductor nor passengers comment to give either praise or condemn him.
We respect his faith even if we do not copy his fellowship.
His faith is not my own – I am a man without faith – but I nonetheless respect him for his unashamed commitment to his beliefs.
Above: Panorama of the al-Masjid al-Haram, also known as the Grand Mosque of Mecca, during the Hajj pilgrimage
Eskişehir, Turkey, Sunday 3 October 2021
The wife is in Dresden, away at a medical conference.
And I am here.
Above: Dresden, Germany
My friend Rasool suggests that he and I take a shared vacation in 2022, but this is 2021.
And I am here.
Above: Rasool Ajini
I have plans for December to February for a brief sojourn back in Europe.
I have plans to visit Canada in August 2022 for yet another high school reunion.
It is October 2021.
And I am here.
Above: Flag of Canada
When I think back to 25 February earlier this year I find the feelings I have of late seem to parallel the feelings I had then.
Then five days remained until I would travel to Eskişehir and I found myself wondering what it would be like to be somewhere else…..
Above: Sazova Park, Eskişehir, Turkey
Landschlacht, Switzerland, Thursday 25 February 2021
Days are cool, nights are cold, and the insanity of today’s news seems to reflect an ongoing insanity without end.
Above: Landschlacht, Switzerland
The Yemeni Civil War is an ongoing multi-sided civil war that began in late 2014 mainly between the Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi-led Yemeni government and the Houthi armed movement, along with their supporters and allies.
Both claim to constitute the official government of Yemen.
I will be thrice damned if I said I understand this ongoing conflict.
Above: Flag of Yemen
The civil war began in September 2014 when Houthi forces took over the capital city Sana’a, which was followed by a rapid Houthi takeover of the government.
Above: Sana’a, Yemen
On 21 March 2015, the Houthi-led Supreme Revolutionary Committee declared a general mobilization to overthrow Hadi and expand their control by driving into southern provinces.
Above: Houthi Ansarullah “Al-Sarkha” banner – Arabic text: Line 1: “God is great” / Line 2: “Death toAmerica / Line 3 “Death to Israel” / Line 4 “A curse upon the Jews” / Line 5 “Victory to Islam“
Very subtle.
The Houthi offensive, allied with military forces loyal to Saleh, began fighting the next day in Lahij Governorate.
By 25 March, Lahij fell to the Houthis and they reached the outskirts of Aden, the seat of power for Hadi’s government.
Above: Lahij, Yemen
Hadi fled the country the same day.
Concurrently, a coalition led by Saudi Arabia launched military operations by using air strikes to restore the former Yemeni government.
Above: President-in-exile Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi
Although there was no direct intervention by Iran, who support the Houthis, the conflict has been widely seen as an extension of the Iran – Saudi Arabia proxy conflict and as a means to combat Iranian influence in the region.
Above: Flag of IranAbove: Flag of Saudi ArabiaAbove: Iran – Saudi Arabia proxy conflict – (green) Iran / (orange) Saudi Arabia / (red) Areas of proxy conflict
Houthi forces currently control the capital Sanaa and all of North Yemen except the Marib Governorate.
Above: Military situation, Yemen, April 2021 – (pink) Controlled by Hadi-led government / (green) Controlled by the Revolutionary Committee / (yellow) Controlled by the Southern Transitional Council / (white) Controlled by Ansar al-Sharia/AQAP forces / (purple) Controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) / (dark blue) Controlled by local, non-aligned forces, like the Hadramaut Tribal Alliance
They have clashed with Saudi-backed pro-government forces loyal to Hadi.
Above: Emblem of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee (Houthis)Above: Emblem of the separatist Southern Transitional CouncilAbove: Flag of the Islamic State – This flag is also used by al-Shabaab, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and Boko Haram.Above: Flag of the Hadramout Tribes Confederacy
Since the formation of the Southern Transitional Council (STC) in 2017 and the subsequent capture of Aden by the STC in 2018, the anti-Houthi coalition has been fractured, with regular clashes between pro-Hadi forces backed by Saudi Arabia and southern separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Above: Images of Aden before the Yemeni Civil WarAbove: Flag of the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have also carried out attacks against both factions, with AQAP controlling swathes of territory in the hinterlands, and along stretches of the coast.
Above: AQAP fighters, Yemen
According to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), over 100,000 people have been killed in Yemen, including more than 12,000 civilians, as well as estimates of more than 85,000 dead as a result of an ongoing famine due to the war.
In 2018, the United Nations warned that 13 million Yemeni civilians face starvation in what it says could become “the worst famine in the world in 100 years.”
The crisis has only begun to gain as much international media attention as the Syrian Civil War in 2018.
The international community has sharply condemned the Saudi Arabian-led bombing campaign, which has included widespread bombing of civilian areas inside the Houthi-controlled western part of Yemen.
Above: Flag of the United Nations
According to the Yemen Data Project, the bombing campaign has killed or injured an estimated 17,729 civilians as of March 2019.
The United States provided intelligence and logistical support for the Saudi-led campaign.
Above: Flag of the United States of America
In March 2019, the US Congress voted to end US support to the Saudi war effort, however, US President Donald Trump vetoed it.
Above: Former US President Donald Trump
Newly elected President Joe Biden announced a freeze on arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE in January 2021, and announced that he would end American support for the Saudi coalition.
Above: US President Joe Biden
Today the Iran-backed Houthi militia group has targeted the hotspot city of Marib with a ballistic missile, according to Yemeni reports.
Above: The ruins of Old Marib, which lie to the south of the modern city
The reports suggested that the ballistic missile launched on Thursday had landed in a residential area of Marib, the city currently a hotspot of infighting between the government and the Houthis.
The missile strike comes as the Houthis press further ground attacks on the frontlines south of Marib.
Above: A still image of a ballistic missile launch
The attack by Iran-aligned Houthi forces on government-held Marib city comes amid renewed diplomacy to end the six-year war, and as the United States said it would end support for the Arab Coalition backing the internationally recognised Yemeni government.
The United Nations has urged the Houthis to return to negotiations and said the offensive threatened mass displacement.
Hundreds of fighters from both sides have been killed in clashes in the gas-rich Marib region, the sources said.
They were not authorised to speak publicly about operational matters.
Above: Marib, Yemen
Cable News Network (CNN) reported on 8 April 2015 that almost 10,160,000 Yemenis were deprived of water, food, and electricity as a result of the conflict.
The report also added per source from UNICEF officials in Yemen that within 15 days, some 100,000 people across the country were dislocated, while Oxfam said that more than 10 million Yemenis did not have enough food to eat, in addition to 850,000 half-starved children.
Above: Emblem of the United Nations Children’s Emergency FundAbove: Logo of Oxfam
Over 13 million civilians were without access to clean water.
Above: An unidentified woman sitting among luggage as she waits at the international airport in the Yemeni capital Sana’a on Monday. In Yemen’s second-largest city Aden, fighting between Houthi rebels and Saudi-backed fighters has trapped thousands of noncombatants, who are now running short of food, water and medical supplies.
A medical aid boat brought 2.5 tonnes of medicine to Aden on 8 April 2015.
Above: UN ship brings aid to war-devastated Aden
A UNICEF plane loaded with 16 tonnes of supplies landed in Sana’a on 10 April.
Above: UNICEF plane landed in Sana’a
The United Nations announced on 19 April 2015 that Saudi Arabia promised to provide $273.7 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Yemen.
The UN appealed for the aid, saying 7.5 million people had been affected by the conflict and many were in need of medical supplies, potable water, food, shelter, and other forms of support.
On 12 May 2015, Oxfam warned that the five days a humanitarian ceasefire was scheduled to last would not be sufficient to fully address Yemen’s humanitarian crisis.
It has also been said that the Houthis are collecting a war tax on goods.
The political analyst Abdulghani al-Iryani affirmed that this tax is: “an illegal levy, mostly extortion that is not determined by the law and the amount is at the discretion of the field commanders“.
Above: Abdulghani al-Iryani
As the war dragged on through the summer and into the fall, things were made far worse when Cyclone Chapala, the equivalent of a Category 2 Hurricane, made landfall on 3 November 2015.
Above: Satellite image of Chapala after its landfall over Yemen
According to the NGO Save the Children, the destruction of healthcare facilities and a healthcare system on the brink of collapse as a result of the war will cause an estimated 10,000 preventable child deaths annually.
Some 1,219 children have died as a direct result of the conflict thus far.
Edward Santiago, the NGO’s Yemen director, asserted in December 2016:
Even before the war tens of thousands of Yemeni children were dying of preventable causes.
But now, the situation is much worse and an estimated 1,000 children are dying every week from preventable killers like diarrhea, malnutrition, and respiratory tract infections.
In March 2017, the World Food Programme reported that while Yemen was not yet in a full-blown famine, 60% of Yemenis, or 17 million people, were in “crisis” or “emergency” food situations.
In June 2017, a cholera epidemic resurfaced which was reported to be killing a person an hour in Yemen by mid June.
News reports in mid June stated that there had been 124,000 cases and 900 deaths and that 20 of the 22 provinces in Yemen were affected at that time.
UNICEF and WHO estimated that, by 24 June 2017, the total cases in the country exceeded 200,000, with 1,300 deaths.
77.7% of cholera cases (339,061 of 436,625) and 80.7% of deaths from cholera (1,545 of 1,915) occurred in Houthi-controlled governorates, compared to 15.4% of cases and 10.4% of deaths in government-controlled governorates, since Houthi-controlled areas have been disproportionately affected by the conflict, which has created conditions conducive to the spread of cholera.
On 7 June 2018, it was reported that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had pulled 71 of its international staff out of Yemen, and moved the rest of them to Djibouti, with some 450 ICRC employees remaining in the country.
The partial evacuation measure came on the eve of an ICRC worker, a Lebanese national, being killed on 21 April by unknown gunmen in the southwestern city of Taiz.
The ICRC stated:
“Our current activities have been blocked, threatened and directly targeted in recent weeks, and we see a vigorous attempt to instrumentalize our organization as a pawn in the conflict.”
In light of the serious security deterioration for ICRC personnel, the international organization has called for all parties of the conflict “to provide it with concrete, solid and actionable guarantees so that it can continue working in Yemen.”
Since the beginning of the conflict, more than 10,000 people have been killed and at least 40,000 wounded, mostly from air raids.
The International Rescue Committee stated in March that at least 9.8 million people in Yemen were acutely in need of health services.
The closure of Sana’a and Riyan airports for civilian flights and the limited operation of civilian airplanes in government-held areas, made it impossible for most to seek medical treatment abroad.
Above: Riyan International Airport
The cost of tickets provided by Yemenia, Air Djibouti and Queen Bilqis Airways, also put travelling outside Yemen out of reach for many.
Above: Queen Bilqis Airways logo
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) published a report in September 2019 that said if the war continues, Yemen will become the poorest country in the world, with 79% of the population living below the poverty line and 65% in extreme poverty by 2022.
On 3 December 2019, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Amnesty International released a report highlighting how the almost five-year old Yemen war has left millions of people living with disabilities and excluded from medical attention.
The armed conflict led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE as part of the former’s coalition in the Arab nation against Houthis and terror groups, has given birth to the worst humanitarian crisis, as stated by the United Nations.
Humanitarian aid provided to Houthi-controlled Yemen would be scaled-down in March 2020 because donors doubted if it was actually reaching the people in need, UN official said.
In June 2020, the UNHCR said that following more than five years of war in Yemen, more than 3.6 million people have been forced to flee their homes, while 24 million are in dire need of aid.
The group also informed that a significant gap in funding has been recorded with only US$63 million received thus far, while at least US$211.9 million is needed to run the operations in 2020.
On 2 July 2020, Human Rights Watch reported that detainees at Aden’s Bir Ahmed facility were facing serious health risks from the rapidly spreading corona virus pandemic.
The informal detention facility, controlled by Yemeni authorities affiliated with the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council, is grossly overcrowded and was deprived of health care facilities.
The World Food Programme (WFP) projected in March 2021 that if the Saudi-led blockade and war continues, more than 400,000 Yemeni children under five years old could die from acute malnutrition before the end of the year as the blockade devastates nation.
My life in Landschlacht is Paradise compared to the Hell that is Yemen.
Is it wise for me to decide to go to Turkey, a Middle East country?
Above: (in green) The Middle EastAbove: The Middle EastAbove: Flag of Turkey
The sadness for me is an awareness of the problems in Yemen combined with an utter helplessness to aid anyone one iota.
It is a game of thrones where the lives of the people the powers that be are supposed to represent are of little consequence.
I cannot help them.
I know not how.
Above: (in red) Location of Yemen
Insanity is not exclusive to Yemen.
Gunmen killed 36 people in two attacks in northern Nigeria on Wednesday, a day after fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades amid worsening security in Africa’s most populous nation, officials and residents said.
The series of attacks by armed bandits occurred over the past 48 hours with 18 people killed each in villages of Kaduna and Katsina states and several others injured.
The assailants burned down houses, displacing the villagers.
Above: Flag of Nigeria
In a statement quoted by the Daily Post website, the Kaduna State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs Samuel Aruwan said the attacks in that state followed an air operation by security forces in which “several armed bandits” were killed.
Above: Samuel Aruwan
Hundreds of people have been killed in northern Nigeria by criminal gangs carrying out robberies and kidnappings.
The attacks have added to security challenges in Nigeria, which is struggling to contain insurgencies in the northeast and communal violence over grazing rights in central states.
The latest attack comes less than a month after President Muhammadu Buhari replaced his longstanding military chiefs amid the worsening violence, with the armed forces fighting to reclaim other northeastern towns overrun by fighters.
Above: Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari
Last week, unidentified gunmen killed a student in an attack on a boarding school in Nigeria’s north-central Niger state and kidnapped 42 people, including 27 students.
Above: Government Science College, Kagara, Niger State, Nigeria
Nigeria is home to a substantial network of organized crime, active especially in drug trafficking, shipping heroin from Asian countries to Europe and America, and cocaine from South America to Europe and South Africa.
Above: (in green) Location of Nigeria
Various Nigerian confraternities or student “campus cults” are active in both organised crime and in political violence as well as providing a network of corruption within Nigeria.
As confraternities have extensive connections with political and military figures, they offer excellent alumni networking opportunities.
The Supreme Vikings Confraternity, for example, boasts that twelve members of the Rivers State House of Assembly are cult members.
In lower levels of society, there are the “area boys“, organised gangs mostly active in Lagos who specialise in mugging and small-scale drug dealing.
Gang violence in Lagos resulted in 273 civilians and 84 policemen killed in the period of August 2000 to May 2001.
There is some piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, with attacks directed at all types of vessels.
Consistent with the rise of Nigeria as an increasingly dangerous hot spot, 28 of the 30 seafarers kidnapped globally between January and June 2013 were in Nigeria.
Internationally, Nigeria is infamous for a form of bank fraud dubbed 419, a type of advance fee scam (named after Section 419 of the Nigerian Penal Code) along with the “Nigerian scam“, a form of confidence trick practised by individuals and criminal syndicates.
Above: Political cartoon by JM Staniforth: Herbert Kitchener attempts to raise £100,000 for a college in Sudan by calling on the name of Charles George Gordon
These scams involve a complicit Nigerian bank (the laws being set up loosely to allow it) and a scammer who claims to have money he needs to obtain from that bank.
The victim is talked into exchanging bank account information on the premise that the money will be transferred to them and they will get to keep a cut.
In reality, money is taken out instead, and/or large fees (which seem small in comparison with the imaginary wealth to be gained) are deducted.
In 2003, the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was created to combat this and other forms of organised financial crime, and in some cases, it has succeeded in bringing the crime bosses to justice and even managing to return the stolen money to victims.
Above: Nigeria nairaAbove: EFCC logo
Nigeria has been pervaded by political corruption.
Nigeria was ranked 136 out of 182 countries in Transparency International’s 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index.
More than $400 billion were stolen from the treasury by Nigeria’s leaders between 1960 and 1999.
In 2015, incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari said corrupt officials have stolen $150 billion from Nigeria in the last 10 years.
Turkey is distant from both Yemen and Nigeria, but other arenas of instability lie on Turkish borders.
Above: (in green) Turkey
After Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that he signed an agreement to cede Armenian-occuped territories in Azerbaijin and put an end to six weeks of hostilities over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, thousands of people took to the streets, and hundreds stormed the Parliament Building in the capital Yerevan.
Above: Flag of ArmeniaAbove: Flag of AzerbaijanAbove: National Assembly of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia
Pashinyan condemned what he said was an attempted coup after the Army demanded he quit on Thursday, and told a rally of thousands of supporters that only the people could decide his future.
Above: Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan
The Army’s demand, in a written statement, plunged the impoverished former Soviet republic of less than 3 million into a new political crisis, just months after ethnic Armenian forces lost a war and territory to Azerbaijan.
Russia, which is traditionally a close ally and has a military base in Armenia, said it was alarmed by events.
Moscow called it a domestic matter that Armenia should resolve peacefully and within the Constitution.
Above: Flag of Russia
Pashinyan, 45, has faced calls to quit since November over his handling of the six-week conflict between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave and surrounding areas in which Azeri forces made territorial gains.
But it was the first time the military had called publicly for his resignation.
“The ineffective management of the current authorities and the serious mistakes in foreign policy have put the country on the brink of collapse,” the Army’s general staff and other senior military officials said in a statement.
Above: Coat of arms of the Armenian Armed Forces
Two former presidents, Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sarksyan, released statements calling on Armenians to throw their support behind the military.
It was unclear whether the Army was willing to use force to back its statement.
Above: Former Armenian President Robert KocharyanAbove: Former Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan
Pashinyan told followers to rally in his support in the capital, Yerevan, where he delivered a fiery speech to several thousand people denouncing the generals’ demands.
“The army cannot be involved in political processes, the army should obey the people and the political power elected by people,” he said.
Pashinyan said he had dismissed the head of the general staff of the Armed Forces, but that the move had still not been signed off by the President.
The loss of territory in and around Nagorno-Karabakh last year was a bitter blow for Armenians, who fought a war with Azerbaijan over the enclave in the 1990s which killed at least 30,000 people.
The mountain region is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but is populated by ethnic Armenians.
Russian peacekeepers have been deployed to the region.
Above: A view of the forested mountains of Nagorno-Karabakh
Pashinyan, a former journalist who came to power in a peaceful revolution in May 2018, says he takes responsibility for what happened but has refused to quit, saying he is needed to ensure his country’s security.
“The most important problem now is to keep the power in the hands of the people, because I consider what is happening to be a military coup,” Pashinyan said.
He cultivated an image as being close to the people as he was carried to power in 2018 by protests known as Armenia’s 2018 Velvet Revolution, often sporting a baseball cap and inveighing against official corruption.
Above: Protests of the Armenian Velvet Revolution
On Thursday, he used a hand-held loudspeaker to shout greetings to passers-by as he led a march of thousands through Yerevan.
At a rival rally in Yerevan, several thousand opposition supporters could be seen cheering and clapping as a fighter jet flew overhead in footage circulated by Russia’s RIA news agency.
Above: Logo of RIA Novosti, a Russian media brand operated by Rossiya Segodnya
At that rally, Vazgen Manukyan, an opposition leader, accused the government of trying to set the people against the Army.
On one street, protesters put up barricades using rubbish bins.
Above: Vazgen Manukyan
In a statement, the defence ministry said the Army was not a political structure and any attempts to involve it in politics were inadmissible.
Pashinyan called on the opposition to stop protesting and suggested talks.
Above: Flag of the Armenian Ministry of Defence
Turkey’s Foreign Minister strongly condemned what he called a coup attempt against Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and said it was unacceptable that the military had called for the resignation of a democratically elected leader.
“We are against any coup d’etat or coup attempt, no matter where it takes place in the world.
We strongly condemn the coup attempt in Armenia,” Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told a news conference in Budapest
Cavusoglu’s comments came after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan warned of an attempted military coup against him and called on his supporters to rally in the capital after the army demanded he and his government resign.
Above: Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu
On 25 February 2021, Armenian Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces Onik Gasparyan said in a statement signed by 40 top officers that Pashinyan and the government “are no longer able to make proper decisions in this fateful moment of crisis for the Armenian people“, adding that their demand was triggered by Pashinyan’s dismissal of the first deputy chief of the General Staff Tiran Khachatryan a day earlier.
Above: Tiran Khachatryan
Pashinyan responded to the statement by calling it an attempted military coup and called on his allies to gather in the capital Yerevan’s main Republic Square.
Above: Republic Square, Yerevan, Armenia
Pashinyan also signed an order dismissing Onik Gasparyan from his post.
Above: Onik Gasparyan
While Pashinyan rallied his supporters in Republic Square, the opposition coalition called the Homeland Salvation movement held a parallel rally in Freedom Square in support of the generals’ declaration.
During his speech to his supporters, Pashinyan again suggested snap elections as the solution to the political crisis but stated that he would only resign at the demand of the Armenian people.
Protesters led by the Homeland Salvation Movement barricaded streets around Parliament overnight and set up tents to add pressure on the government to step aside.
Another protest was called for at 13:00 the next day.
Above: Logo of the Homeland Salvation Movement
(Two days later Armenian President Armen Vardani Sarkissian refused the order from Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to dismiss Onik Gasparyan, saying parts of the decree were in violation of the Constitution.
Pashinyan immediately resent the motion to dismiss Gasparyan to the President.
Above: Armenian President Armen Vardani Sarkissian
On 27 February, more than 15,000 protested in the capital Yerevan calling for Pashinyan to resign.
Above: protests in Yerevan against the 2020 ceasefire agreement in Nagorno – Karabakh
On 1 March, Pashinyan and the opposition again held rival rallies.
Pashinyan accused Onik Gasparyan of treason and alleged that he issued the statement calling for Pashinyan’s resignation at the suggestion of former President Serzh Sargsyan.
Above: Pashayin rally, 1 March 2021
On 2 March, President Armen Sarksyan declared his decision once again not to sign the motion to dismiss Gasparyan and to make a separate appeal to the Constitutional Court of Armenia regarding the decision.
However, as he did not send the motion itself to the Constitutional Court for review, Gasparyan’s dismissal is to come into effect by force of law.
In accordance with the Armenian Constitution, Onik Gasparyan was supposed to be relieved from his post on 4 March, although the General Staff announced that Gasparyan would stay in his role for eight days after the President would make his appeal to the Constitutional Court.
Above: Constitutional Court of Armenia, Yerevan
On 5 March, Andranik Kocharyan, the chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on defense and security, stated that Gasparyan’s responsibilities are being fulfilled by Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutiunyan.
On 28 March, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced he would resign in April, stating that his resignation was in order to hold snap elections in June.
His party won the 2021 election, receiving more than half of all votes.)
Above: Coat of arms of Armenia
Who do we blame for the loss of a war – those who fought it or those who failed to prevent it?
Above: 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War – (navy blue) Areas recaptured by Azerbaijan during the war / (green) Areas returned to Azerbaijan under the ceasefire agreement / (orange) Areas in Nagorno-Karabakh proper remaining under the control of Artsakh / (light blue) Lachin Corridor and Dadivank Monastery, patrolled by Russian peacekeepers
At least 14 people have been killed at a religious site in the Central African Republic (CAR) amid clashes between armed groups and security forces, according to material gathered by rights group Amnesty International.
Above: Flag of the Central African Republic
Following the analysis of satellite images, testimonies and photographs, Amnesty International published a report on Thursday detailing an attack that took place on 16 February in Bambari, CAR’s 5th biggest town, located in the centre of the country, 380 kilometres (236 miles) from the capital Bangui.
Above: Anti-balaka fighters in Bambari
Since January, President Faustin-Archange Touadéra’s government has gone on the offensive following a resurgence in violence ahead of presidential and legislative elections held on 27 December.
Above: President of the Central African Republic Faustin Archange Touadera
Six armed groups joined forces under the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC) to stop the elections from taking place while occupying several towns.
Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab, set up to help fact-finding human rights organisations, received one video showing at least 14 bodies laying on the floor of a religious site in the east of the city following an attack that took place a day before the government said it had “completely liberated” the town from armed groups.
While the video did not provide enough information to assess the identity of the victims, parts of it showed they were not wearing military clothes and that a woman and a child were among the dead.
The footage showed the building had been damaged by explosives and bullets, with the wounds on at least three of the bodies also consistent with such an attack, Amnesty said.
The human rights group also reported that during the 16 February clashes a medical centre supported by Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) (MSF) had been targeted with bullets and explosives.
The centre had treated 30 people, including eight women and nine minors.
Amnesty also said “many people” have been displaced in the southeastern city of Bangassou while humanitarian aid into the country was blocked.
Above: Central Market, Bangassou, CAR
The human rights group is calling for an independent investigation into the documented violence.
“In a country where conflict has been raging for two decades, the authorities must now clearly prioritise the protection of human rights and the fight against impunity for those who violate them,” said Abdoulaye Diarra, Amnesty International Central Africa researcher.
“An important first step is to open independent investigations into the violations and abuses documented,” he added.
The escalation of violence has led to a deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the mineral-rich country.
At least 2.8 million people, more than half of the country’s population, need aid and protection, according to the United Nations.
On Tuesday, UNICEF said the surge in fighting has put education on hold for 50% of the children across the country.
Above: Emblem of the United Nations
One of the world’s poorest countries, the CAR has been locked in violence since 2013 when the Seleka, an armed group drawn largely from the Muslim minority, overthrew then-President Francois Bozize.
Above: Former CAR President Francois BozizeAbove: Former CAR President Michel Djotodia, the former leader of the Séléka rebellion
“Anti-balaka” Christian militias struck back, and the country since descended into a spiral of violence that caused thousands of deaths and prompted about a quarter of the population to flee their homes.
The resulting war divided the country of almost five million people largely along religious and ethnic lines, with the ensuing chaos creating a hotchpotch of armed groups that still control large swathes of territory.
Bozize fled abroad after being toppled in 2013.
He returned in late 2019, but was barred from running in the 27 December vote.
President Touadéra has claimed the six armed groups acted in concert with the former president.
Touadéra won re-election in the first round of the polls, according to official figures, but the turnout was just 35% as many voters were unable to cast their ballot.
Bozize denies giving any support to the six groups, but the government on 4 January launched an inquiry into him for “rebellion”.
Above: Coat of arms of the Central African Republic
The Central African Republic Civil War is an ongoing civil war in the Central African Republic (CAR) involving the government, rebels from the Séléka coalition, and anti-balaka militias.
In the preceding Central African Republic Bush War (2004 – 2007), the government of President François Bozizé fought with rebels until a peace agreement in 2007.
Above: The town of Birao in northern CAR which was largely burnt down during fighting in 2007
The current conflict arose when a new coalition of varied rebel groups, known as Séléka, accused the government of failing to abide by the peace agreements, captured many towns in 2012 and seized the capital in 2013.
Bozizé fled the country, and the rebel leader Michel Djotodia declared himself President.
Renewed factions began between Séléka and militias opposed to them called anti-balaka.
In September 2013, President Djotodia disbanded the Séléka coalition, which had lost its unity after taking power, and resigned in 2014.
He was replaced by Catherine Samba – Panza, but the conflict continued.
Above> Former CAR President Catherine Samba – Panza
In July 2014, ex-Séléka factions and anti-balaka representatives signed a ceasefire agreement.
By the end of 2014, the country was de facto partitioned with the anti-balaka controlling the south and west, from which most Muslims had evacuated, and ex-Séléka groups controlling the north and east.
Faustin – Archange Touadéra, who was elected President in 2016, ran and won the 2020 election that triggered the main rebel factions to form an alliance opposed to the election called the Coalition ofPatriots for Change, which was co-ordinated by former President Bozizé.
Peacekeeping largely transitioned from the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS)-led Mission for the consolidation of peace in Central African Republic (MICOPAX) to the African Union-led International Support Mission to the Central African Republic (MISCA – Mission internationale de soutien à la Centrafrique sous conduite africaine) to the United Nations (UN)-led Multidimensional IntegratedStabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), while the French peacekeeping mission was known as Operation Sangaris.
Above: ECCAS logoAbove: Flag of the African UnionAbove: (in green) The Central African Republic (CAR)Above: Flag of France
Much of the tension is over religious identity between Muslim Séléka fighters and Christian anti-balaka and ethnic differences among ex-Séléka factions and historical antagonism between agriculturalists, who largely comprise anti-balaka, and nomadic groups, who constitute most Séléka fighters.
Other contributing factors include the struggle for control of diamonds and other resources in the resource rich country and for influence among regional powers, such as Chad, Sudan and Rwanda, and international powers, such as France and Russia.
Above: A diamond protruding from black rock
More than 1.1 million people have fled their homes in a country of about 5 million people, the highest ever recorded in the country.
People are dead.
People are dying.
The current president and the former president – do they care about the people they wish to dominate?
Make no mistake…..
Religion is never the reason for violence.
It is simply the excuse.
The true goal remains power and wealth.
Above: Title page of Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince
Nine soldiers have been killed in an attack near the central Malian town of Bandiagara, in an area where armed groups are rampant, a military official has said.
Above: Flag of MaliAbove: Badge of Malian Armed Forces
Army and local officials had earlier spoken of a death toll of eight in the attack on a gendarmerie post which took place on Thursday night.
Above: Bandiagara, Mali
Nine Malian soldiers were also wounded, five of them seriously, according to a military official who declined to be named.
A local official also said there was a long exchange of fire with a large number of fighters.
Mali has been plagued by a brutal conflict that began as a separatist movement in the north, but devolved into a multitude of armed groups jockeying for control in the country’s central and northern regions.
The insecurity has spread across the arid scrublands of the Sahel, into Burkina Faso and Niger, with groups exploiting the poverty of marginalised communities and inflaming tensions between ethnic groups.
Above: Flag of Burkina FasoAbove: Flag of NigerAbove: Camels in the Sahel
Attacks grew fivefold between 2016 and 2020, with 4,000 people killed in the three countries last year, up from about 770 in 2016, according to the United Nations.
Above: Members of the United Nations
Rebel attacks in central Mali typically involve roadside bombs or hit-and-run raids on motorbikes or pickups.
The region has seen a string of deadly attacks since the start of the year, including a roadside bomb that killed four United Nations peacekeepers from the Ivory Coast.
French and Malian troops have also carried out a joint mission in the area, called Operation Eclipse.
According to a Malian army statement on 26 January, “100 terrorists were neutralised” in the operation.
The deteriorating security situation has created an enormous humanitarian crisis across the Sahel, destroying fragile agricultural economies and hobbling aid efforts.
The Mali War is an ongoing armed conflict that started in January 2012 between the northern and southern parts of Mali in Africa.
On 16 January 2012, several insurgent groups began fighting a campaign against the Malian government for independence or greater autonomy for northern Mali, which they called Azawad.
The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), an organization fighting to make this area of Mali an independent homeland for the Tuareg people, had taken control of the region by April 2012.
Above: Flag used by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad as the “national flag” of Azawad.
On 22 March 2012, President Amadou Toumani Touré was ousted in a coup d’état over his handling of the crisis, a month before a presidential election was to have taken place.
Mutinous soldiers, calling themselves the National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State (CNRDR), took control and suspended the Constitution of Mali.
Above: Malian President Amadou Toumani Touré was ousted during the March 2012 coup d’état
As a consequence of the instability following the coup, Mali’s three largest northern cities — Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu — were overrun by the rebels on three consecutive days.
Above: Craftsman’s house, Kidal, Mali
Above: Tomb of Askia, Gao, Mali
Above: Sankore University, Timbuktu, Mali
On 5 April 2012, after the capture of Douentza, the MNLA said that it had accomplished its goals and called off its offensive.
Above: Douentza, Mali
The following day, it proclaimed the independence of northern Mali from the rest of the country, renaming it Azawad.
Above: (in green) Azawad / (in grey) southern Mali
The MNLA were initially backed by the Islamist group Ansar Dine.
After the Malian military was driven from northern Mali, Ansar Dine and a number of smaller Islamist groups began imposing strict Sharia law.
The MNLA and Islamists struggled to reconcile their conflicting visions for an intended new state.
Above: Flag of Ansar Dine
Afterwards, the MNLA began fighting against Ansar Dine and other Islamist groups, including Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA/MUJAO), a splinter group of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Above: al-Qaeda flag
By 17 July 2012, the MNLA had lost control of most of northern Mali’s cities to the Islamists.
The government of Mali asked for foreign military help to retake the north.
Above: Emblem of Mali
On 11 January 2013, the French military began operations against the Islamists.
Above: Logo of the French Army
Forces from other African Union states were deployed shortly after.
Above: Emblem of the African Union
By 8 February, the Islamist-held territory had been retaken by the Malian military, with help from the international coalition.
Tuareg separatists have continued to fight the Islamists as well, although the MNLA has also been accused of carrying out attacks against the Malian military.
Above: Tuareg separatist rebels in Mali, January 2012
A peace deal between the government and Tuareg rebels was signed on 18 June 2013, however on 26 September 2013 the rebels pulled out of the peace agreement and claimed that the government had not respected its commitments to the truce.
Fighting is still ongoing even though French forces are scheduled for withdrawal.
Above: National Assembly Building, Bamako, Mali
A ceasefire agreement was signed on 19 February 2015 in Algiers, Algeria, but sporadic terrorist attacks still occur.
Despite the signing of a peace accord in the capital on 15 April 2015, low-level fighting continues.
Above: Images of Algiers, Algeria
It is sad that nations that have citizens who are suffering from poverty are still able to find money to buy weapons.
Religion is never the reason for violence.
It is simply the excuse.
The true goal remains power and wealth.
The United States military says it carried out attacks on Iranian-backed Kata’ib Hezbollah military facilities in Abu Kamal, eastern Syria, on Thursday, following recent rocket attacks on US troop locations in Iraq.
Above: Flag of Kata’ib HezbollahAbove: Grand Mosque, Abu Kamal, Syria
“At President Biden’s direction, US military forces earlier this evening conducted airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern Syria,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby in a statement.
Above: US President Joe Biden
“These strikes were authorised in response to recent attacks against American and Coalition personnel in Iraq, and to ongoing threats to those personnel,” he said.
Above: Pentagon spokesman John Kirby
According to the Pentagon, US fighter jets dropped seven 500-lb Joint Direct Attack Munition-guided precision bombs, hitting seven targets, which includes a crossing used by the armed groups to move weapons across the border.
Kirby said the strikes destroyed multiple facilities at a border control point used by a number of Iranian-backed militant groups, including Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH) and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS).
Above: Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada flag
Reports said that strike targeted Imam Ali airbase near Al Bukamal, a border area near Iraq.
Above: Imam Ali Airbase, Syria
An Iraqi militia official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least one fighter had been killed and four others were wounded.
A medical source at a hospital in the area and several local sources told Reuters 17 people had been killed.
That toll could not be independently confirmed.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP at least 22 fighters were killed when the strike hit three trucks loaded with munitions coming from Iraq near the Syrian border.
Militia border posts were also destroyed, the war monitor said.
The group said all the dead were from the Hashed al-Shaabi, an umbrella organisation that includes KH and KSS.
However, an KH official told The Associated Press (AP) only one person was killed, while several others were wounded.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak of the attack.
The United States move came after an attack nearly two weeks ago on the main military base inside the airport in Erbil (the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan), which killed one foreign civilian contractor and wounded at least nine others, including an American soldier.
Above: Images of Erbil, Iraq
Foreign troops deployed as part of the US-led coalition that has helped Iraq fight the armed group ISIL (also known as ISIS) since 2014, are stationed at the site.
A shadowy group calling itself Awliya al-Dam – or the Guardians of the Blood – claimed responsibility for the attack and said it would continue to attack “occupation” American forces in Iraq.
Above: Logo of Saraya Awliya al-Dam
The Pentagon statement described the US military response as “proportionate”, co-ordinated with diplomatic measures and carried out in consultation with coalition partners.
Above: The Pentagon, headquarters of the US Department of Defense, Arlington, Virginia
“We have acted in a deliberate manner that aims to de-escalate the overall situation in both eastern Syria and Iraq,” it said.
“We are confident with the target we went for.
We know what we did,” said US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
“We are confident that target was being used by the same Shia militia that conducted the strikes.”
Above: US Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III
Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi, who is in Washington DC, said there was a clear effort to draw a distinction with Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump.
Above: Former US President Donald Trump
“Clearly they are trying to draw a comparison with the previous administration of Donald Trump who in response to attacks on coalition forces in Iraq used the most disproportionate force by killing the Iranian General (Qasem) Soleimani,” Rattansi said.
Speaking from Baghdad, Al Jazeera’s Simona Foltyn said that although the US airstrikes did not target Iraq, they put “less strain on US-Iraq relations.”
“It was a significant departure from the Trump administration which regularly targeted armed groups in Iraq,” she said, highlighting a December 2019 attack which put US-Iraqi relations on a collision course and drew strong condemnation from Baghdad that Washington was not respecting its sovereignty.
Above: Simona Foltyn
Hillary Mann Leverett, CEO of political risk consultancy Stratega, said the airstrikes sent a message about the Biden administration’s loyalties in the region.
Above: Hillary Mann Leverett
“The administration is trying to portray this first military attack as measured.
Biden spoke to the Iraqi Prime Minister earlier this week.
Above: Flag of IraqAbove: Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi
Importantly, he spoke to the King of Saudi Arabia today.
“The rocket attacks that US administration is saying were perpetrated, were not only in Iraq.
There are reports that they were in Saudi Arabia as well.
The call included a determination to protect Saudi Arabia from external threats,” she added.
Above: Flag of Saudi ArabiaAbove: Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud
The Iraqi government is carrying out its own investigation into the 15 February attack in Erbil.
That attack was followed by another days later, on a base hosting US forces north of Baghdad.
At least one contractor was hurt in that attack.
Rockets also hit Baghdad’s Green Zone on Monday which houses the US embassy and other diplomatic missions.
Some Western and Iraqi officials say the attacks, often claimed by little-known groups, are being carried out by militants with links to Kata’ib Hezbollah as a way for Iranian allies to harass US forces without being held accountable.
Above: (in green) Iraq
There are many things about the ongoing Syrian Civil War (since 15 March 2011) and the ongoing Persian Gulf Crisis (since 5 May 2019) that I cannot fully comprehend.
Above: Map of the Syrian Civil War – (pink) Syrian Arab Republic / (orange) Syrian Arab Republic – Rojava divided areas / (yellow) Rojava dominated areas / (light grey) Syrian Interim Government – Turkish occupied areas / (white) Syrian Salvation Government / (blue) Revolutionary Commando Army & US occupied areas / (purple) Opposition groups in reconciliation / (dark grey) Islamic State
I do not understand the political animosity between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Officially the excuse is that the Saudis are Sunni and Iranians are Shias.
As best as this non-Muslim can comprehend, all of this division seems to have begun over whom who should succeed Muhammad as leader (or caliph) of the Islam faith, even though the actual Caliphate was constitutionally abolished in Turkey on 3 March 1924.
Above: The last Caliph, Abdulmejid II of the Ottoman Dynasty (1868 – 1944)
These are matters of doctrine too arcane for this barbarian to fully understand.
Religion is never the reason for violence.
It is simply the excuse.
The true goal remains power and wealth.
On 27 November 2014, the New York Times headlined an article “Conflicting policies on Syria and Islamic State erode US standing in Middle East“.
But this was not news.
US standing in the Middle East (and elsewhere) has been eroding for half a century.
The reality is far larger than the immediate dispute between anti-Assad forces in Syria and their supporters elsewhere on the one hand and the United States on the other.
The fact is that the US (long before Donald Trump became President) has become a loose cannon, a power whose actions are unpredictable, uncontrollable and dangerous to itself and others.
As a result, it is trusted by almost no one, even when many countries and political groups call upon it for assistance in specific ways in the short run.
Above: The Stars and Stripes
According to Immanuel Wallerstein, it is useful to trace the successive moments of this erosion of effective power.
The US was at the height of its power from 1945 to 1970, when it got its way on the world scene 95% of the time on 95% of the issues.
This hegemonic position was sustained by the tacit understanding with the Soviet Union that the world be divided into zones of influence, rather than any military confrontation between the two superpowers, each possessing nuclear weapons that guarantee mutual assured destruction.
This was called the Cold War.
The point of the Cold War was not to subdue the presumed ideological enemy, but to keep a check on one’s own satellites.
Above: Immanuel Wallerstein (1930 – 2019)
This cozy arrangement was undermined by the unwillingness of certain countries to play the role of satellite and suffer the negatives of this status quo.
The Chinese Communist Party defied Stalin and proclaimed the People’s Republic.
Above: Soviet General Secretary Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (1878 – 1953)Above: Flag of China
The Viet Minh defied the Geneva Accords and insisted on marching on Saigon to unite the country under their rule.
Above: Flag of Vietnam
The Algerian Front de Libération Nationale in Algeria defied the French Communist Party’s injunction to give priority to the class struggle in France and launched its struggle for independence.
Above: Flag of Algeria
The Cuban guerillas that overthrew the Batista dictatorship forced the Soviet Union to help them defend against US invasion.
Above: Flag of CubaAbove: Fulgencio Batista (1901 – 1973)
The defeat of the US in Vietnam was the result both of the war’s enormous drain on the US Treasury and by the growing internal opposition by the middle class, which bequeathed a permanent constraint on future US military action.
Above: Images of the Vietnam War (1955 – 1975)
A disjointed world revolution in 1968 saw a worldwide rebellion not only against the US but against the Soviet Union, for neither side had changed the world for the better as they had promised and had become part of the problem not part of the solution.
Above: Flag of the Soviet Union (1955 – 1991)
The United States sought to slow down its decline by a triple policy:
It invited its closest allies to change their status from satellite to that of partner, with the proviso that they drift not too far from US policies.
It shifted its focus in the world economy from developmentalism to a demand for export-oriented production in the Southern Hemisphere.
It sought to curb the creation of further nuclear powers beyond the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council by imposing on all other countries an ending of their nuclear armament projects, a treaty that was not signed and was ignored by Israel, India, Pakistan and South Africa.
Above: United Nations Security Council Chamber, UN Headquarters, New York City, New York
These US efforts were partially successful.
They did slow down but not reverse American decline.
Above: (in green) The United States of America
When in the late 1980s the Soviet Union began to collapse, the United States was in fact dismayed.
The Cold War was never meant to be won, but to continue indefinitely.
The most immediate consequence of the collapse of the Soviet Union was the invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
Above: Saddam Hussein (1937 – 2006)
The Soviet Union was no longer there to restrain Iraq in the interest of US – Soviet arrangements.
And while the US won the Gulf War, it demonstrated further weakness by the fact that it could not finance its own role, but was dependent for 90% of its costs on four other countries – Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Germany and Japan.
Above: Flag of KuwaitAbove: Emblem of Saudi ArabiaAbove: Flag of GermanyAbove: Flag of Japan
(This last assertion by Wallerstein I am, at present, viewing with scepticism.)
Above: Immanuel Wallerstein’s books
The decision by President George H.W. Bush not to march on Baghdad but content himself with the restoration of Kuwaiti sovereignty was no doubt a wise judgment at the time but was seen by many in the United States as a humiliation in that Saddam Hussein remained in power.
Above: George H.W. Bush (1924 – 2018), 41st US President (1989 – 1993)
The 9/11 attack by al-Qaeda was seized upon to justify an invasion of Iraq in 2003 to overthrow Saddam Hussein.
Above: Rescue workers climb through rubble and smoke at the World Trade Center site destroyed on 11 September 2001
This was seen by President George W. Bush and the coterie of neo-conservative interventionists that surrounded him as a mode of restoring waning US hegemony in the world system.
Instead, it badly backfired in two ways:
The United States for the very first time lost a vote in the UN Security Council.
Iraqi resistance to US presence was vaster and more persistent than anticipated.
The invasion sped American decline.
Above: Images of the Iraq War (2003 – 2011)
The reason neither President Obama could nor any succeeding President will be able to reverse this decline is because the US has been unwilling to accept this new reality and adjust to it.
Above: Former US President Barack Obama
The US is still striving to restore its hegemonic role.
Pursuing this impossible task leads it to pursue “conflicting policies” in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Like a loose cannon, it constantly shifts positions seeking to stabilize the world geopolitical ship it no longer controls.
US public opinion is torn between the glories of being the “leader” (Make America Great Again) and the costs of trying to be the leader (especially domestically).
Public opinion zigzags constantly.
As other countries and movements regard this spectacle, they place no trust in US policies and therefore pursue their own priorities.
The problem for the world is the potential that loose cannons can result in destruction, both of the perpetrators and the rest of the world.
And this increases the role that fear plays in the actions of everyone else, augmenting the dangers to world survival.
Seven people have been killed over the past two days, (Tuesday 23 February / Wednesday 24 February), by Cooperative for Development of the Congo (CODECO) militiamen in the villages of Tchibi Tchibi, Mongali and Kabakaba, in the Banyari Kilo sector, in the territory of Djugu, of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Above: Flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Among the victims are four young people who were lynched in retaliation for the murder of a woman and two gold diggers who were shot dead in a mining area.
Since the offensive launched last week by the regular army against CODECO attackers in Mongbwalu, this militia has intensified attacks in the region.
Three militiamen, who were on the run, opened fire on Wednesday on a group of artisanal miners at the quarry called “America” in the village of Kabakaba, at the Nyolo group.
The youth president of the Banyari Kilo chiefdom specifies that three gold miners died and another was injured.
Above: Mongbwalu, Congo
A woman was also raped by these militiamen.
She was admitted to a health facility in Itendey.
On Tuesday, another group of militiamen fired point blank at a woman working in her field in the village of Tchibi Tchibi.
Her body was recovered by some young people who, along the way, lynched four people, say security sources.
For the customary authorities and civil society actors, the army must maintain pressure on this armed group which is increasing the atrocities against the population.
This in violation of the act of commitment signed by the various factions of CODECO to join the peace process with the government.
The Ituri conflict is a major conflict between the agriculturalist Lendu and the pastoralist Hema ethnic groups in the Ituri region of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
While the two groups had fought since as early as 1972, the name ‘Ituri conflict‘ refers to the period of intense violence between 1999 and 2003.
Armed conflict continues to the present day.
The conflict was largely set off by the Second Congo War (1998 – 2003), which had led to increased ethnic consciousness, a large supply of small arms, and the formation of various armed groups.
More long-term factors include land disputes, natural resource extraction, and the existing ethnic tensions throughout the region.
Above: Coat of arms of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Lendu ethnicity was largely represented by the Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI) while the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) claimed to be fighting for the Hema.
The conflict was extremely violent.
Large-scale massacres were perpetrated by members of both ethnic factions.
In 2006, the BBC reported that as many as 60,000 people had died in Ituri since 1998.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) (Doctors Without Borders) said:
“The ongoing conflict in Ituri, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has led to more than 50,000 deaths, more than 500,000 displaced civilians and continuing, unacceptably high, mortality since 1999.”
Hundreds of thousands of people were forced from their homes, becoming refugees.
Above: Headquarters of Médecins Sans Frontieres, Geneva, Switzerland
In June 2003, the European Union (EU) began Operation Artemis, sending a French-led peacekeeping force to Ituri.
The EU force managed to take control of the regional capital of Bunia.
Above: Flag of the European Union
Despite this, fighting and massacres continued in the countryside.
In December 2003, the Hema-backed UPC split and fighting decreased significantly.
“Long-dormant” land disputes between “Hema herders and Lendu farmers” were reignited in December 2017, resulting in a surge of massacres with entire Hema villages razed and over a hundred casualties.
Tens of thousands fled to Uganda.
Above: Flag of Uganda
While the massacres by Lendu militia ceased in mid-March 2018, “crop destruction, kidnappings, and killings” continued.
The UN estimated that as many as 120 Hema villages were attacked by Lendu militia from December 2017 through August 2018.
That other villages have recently been attacked is, sadly, no real surprise.
Military leaders in India and Pakistan have announced an agreement to stop cross-border firing on the disputed Line of Control in Kashmir.
Exchange of gunfire has become more prevalent in recent months and the military operational heads of the two countries spoke by phone on Thursday, seeking to calm the situation.
The pair agreed to discuss each other’s concerns, a joint statement from the military leaders said.
“The Director Generals of Military Operations of India and Pakistan (DGsMO) held discussions over the established mechanism of hotline contact,” the statement began.
“The two sides reviewed the situation along the Line of Control and all other sectors in a free, frank and cordial atmosphere.”
“In the interest of achieving mutually beneficial and sustainable peace along the borders, the two DGsMO agreed to address each other’s core issues and concerns which have propensity to disturb peace and lead to violence,” the statement said.
India and Pakistan have been at loggerheads over Kashmir for decades, with intermittent periods of peace.
However, in August 2019 tension was renewed after New Delhi withdrew the autonomy of the Himalayan region and split it into federally administered territories.
Most of Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since they became independent countries in 1947, with its remote eastern extremity controlled by China.
Both India and Pakistan claim the region in its entirety.
Insurgents in Kashmir have been fighting Indian rule since 1989, with some estimates suggesting more than 70,000 people have been killed in the armed conflict.
India–Pakistan relations refer to the bilateral relations between India and Pakistan.
The relations between the two countries have been complex and largely hostile due to a number of historical and political events.
Relations between the two states have been defined by the violent partition of British India in 1947 which started the Kashmir conflict and the numerous military conflicts fought between the two nations.
Consequently, their relationship has been plagued by hostility and suspicion.
Northern India and Pakistan somewhat overlap in certain demographics and shared lingua francas (mainly Punjabi, Sindhi and Hindustani).
After the dissolution of the British Raj in 1947, two new sovereign nations were formed — the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan.
The subsequent partition of the former British India displaced up to 12.5 million people, with estimates of loss of life varying from several hundred thousand to 1 million.
India emerged as a secular nation with a Hindu majority population and a large Muslim minority, while Pakistan, with a Muslim majority population and a large Hindu minority, later became an Islamic Republic, although its Constitution guaranteed freedom of religion to people of all faiths.
Above: Flag of IndiaAbove: Flag of Pakistan
It later lost most of its Hindu minority due to migration and the separation of East Pakistan in the Bangladesh Liberation War (1971).
Above: Flag of Bangladesh
Soon after gaining their independence, India and Pakistan established diplomatic relations, but the violent partition and reciprocal territorial claims quickly overshadowed their relationship.
Since their independence, the two countries have fought three major wars (1947 / 1965 / 1971), as well as one undeclared war (1999), and have been involved in numerous armed skirmishes and military standoffs.
The Kashmir conflict is the main centre-point of all of these conflicts with the exception of the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 and the Bangladesh Liberation War, which resulted in the secession of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
There have been numerous attempts to improve the relationship, notably the Shimla Summit (1972), the Agra Summit (2001), and the Lahore Summit (1999).
Above: Pakistan ranger stands near the flags of India and Pakistan at zero line international borderAbove: Indian and Pakistan soldiers taking down the border flags ceremonially
Since the early 1980s, relations between the two nations have grown increasingly sour, particularly after the Siachen conflict (1984 – 2003), intensification of the Kashmir insurgency (ongoing) in 1989, Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests in 1998, and the 1999 Kargil War.
Above: A memorial at the headquarters of the Dogra Regiment of the Indian Army in remembrance of members of the regiment who died or served in the Siachen Conflict.Above: Kargil, India
Certain confidence-building measures, such as the 2003 ceasefire agreement and the Delhi – Lahore bus service, have been successful in de-escalating tensions.
Above: Logo of the Delhi Transport Corporation
However, these efforts have been impeded by periodic terrorist attacks.
The military standoff following the 13 December 2001 Indian Parliament attack (14 dead) raised concerns of a possible nuclear war.
Above: Sansad Bhavan, India’s Parliament, New Delhi
The 18 February 2007 Samjhauta Express bombings, which killed 68 civilians (most of whom were Pakistani), was also a crucial turning point in relations.
Above: the Samjhauta Express between India and Pakistan
Additionally, the 26 – 28 November 2008 Mumbai attacks (186 dead) carried out by Pakistani militants resulted in a severe blow to the ongoing India–Pakistan peace talks.
Above: Map of the confirmed locations of the 26 November 2008 Mumbai attacks
After a brief thaw following the election of new governments in both nations, bilateral discussions again stalled after the 2 January 2016 Pathankot attack (14 dead).
On 18 September 2016, a terrorist attack on an Indian military base in Indian-administered Kashmir killed 19 Indian Army soldiers, the deadliest such attack in years.
India’s claim that the attack had been orchestrated by a Pakistan-supported jihadist group was denied by Pakistan, which claimed the attack had been a local reaction to unrest in the region due to excessive force by Indian security personnel.
The attack sparked a military confrontation across the Line of Control (LoC), with an escalation in ceasefire violations and further militant attacks on Indian security forces.
Since 2016, the ongoing confrontation, continued terrorist attacks, and an increase in nationalist rhetoric on both sides has resulted in the collapse of bilateral relations, with little expectation that they will recover.
Above: Director General Military Operations (DGMO) Lt. Gen. Ranbir Singh briefing the media on the terrorist attack at Army Camp, in Uri, a day after the attacks, on 19 September 2016
Notably, following the 14 February 2019 Pulwama attack (41 dead), the Indian government revoked Pakistan’s most favoured nation trade status, which it had granted to Pakistan in 1996.
Above: Aftermath of 2019 Pulwama attack
India also increased the custom duty to 200% which affected the trade of Pakistani apparel and cement.
Since the election of new governments in both India and Pakistan in the early 2010s, some attempts have been made to improve relations, in particular the development of a consensus on the agreement of Non-Discriminatory Market Access on Reciprocal Basis (NDMARB) status for each other, which will liberalise trade.
Both India and Pakistan are members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and its South Asian Free Trade Area.
Pakistan used to host a pavilion at the annual India International Trade Fair which drew huge crowds.
Deteriorating relations between the two nations resulted in a boycott of Pakistani traders at the trade fair.
In November 2015, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif agreed to the resumption of bilateral talks.
Above: Indian Prime Minister Narendra ModiAbove: Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
The following month, Modi made a brief, unscheduled visit to Pakistan while en route to India, becoming the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Pakistan since 2004.
Despite those efforts, relations between the countries have remained frigid, following repeated acts of cross-border terrorism.
According to a 2017 BBC World Service poll, only 5% of Indians view Pakistan’s influence positively, with 85% expressing a negative view, while 11% of Pakistanis view India’s influence positively, with 62% expressing a negative view.
Why all the fuss over Kashmir?
Kashmir’s economy is centred around agriculture.
Above: Srinagar, Kashmir
Traditionally the staple crop of the valley was rice, which formed the chief food of the people.
In addition, Indian corn, wheat, barley and oats were also grown.
Given its temperate climate, it is suited for crops like asparagus, artichoke, seakale, broad beans, scarlet runners, beet root, cauliflower and cabbage.
Above: Asparagus
Fruit trees are common in the valley and the cultivated orchards yield pears, apples, peaches and cherries.
Above: Peaches
The chief trees are deodar (cedar), firs and pines, chenar (sycamore), maple, birch, walnut, apple and cherry.
Above: Deodar forest, Manali Wildlife Sanctuary, Himachal Pradesh, IndiaAbove: Pine coneAbove: Chenar tree
Above: Walnuts
Historically, Kashmir became known worldwide when Cashmere wool was exported to other regions and nations.
(Exports have ceased due to decreased abundance of the cashmere goat and increased competition from China.)
Above: Cashmere woolen scarf
Kashmiris are well adept at knitting and making Pashmina shawls, silk carpets, rugs, kurtas and pottery.
Above: Mandala patterned Pashima shawlAbove: Traditional cotton kurta
Saffron, too, is grown in Kashmir.
Above: Saffron
Srinagar is known for its silverwork, papier-mâché, wood carving, and the weaving of silk.
Kashmir is referred as a beauty spot of the medicinal and herbaceous flora in the Himalayas.
There are hundreds of different species of wild flowers recorded in the alpine meadows of the region.
The botanical garden and the tulip gardens of Srinagar grow 300 breeds of flora and 60 varieties of tulips respectively.
The later is considered as the largest tulip garden of Asia.
Kashmir region is home to rare species of animals, many of which are protected by sanctuaries and reserves.
Above: Zaniskari horse
Dachigam National Park in the Valley holds the last viable population of Kashmir stag and the largest population of black bear in Asia.
Above: Dachigam National ParkAbove: Kashmir stagAbove: Black bear
In Gilgit-Baltistan, Deosai National Park is designated to protect the largest population of Himalyan brown bears in the western Himalayas.
Above: Deosai National ParkAbove: Himalayan brown bear
Snow leopards are found in high density in Hemis National Park in Ladakh.
Above: Snow leopardAbove: Snow leopard, Hemis National Park
The region is home to:
musk deer
Above: Musk deer
markhor
Above: Markhor
leopard cat
Above: Leopard cat
jungle cat
Above: Jungle cat
red fox
Above: Red fox
jackal
Above: Jackal
Himalayan wolf
Above: Himalayan wolf
serow
Above: Serow
Himalayan yellow-throated marten
Above: Himalayan yellow-throated marten
long-tailed marmot
Above: Marmot
Indian porcupine
Above: Indian porcupine
Himalayan mouse hare
Above: Himalayan mouse hare (Royle’s pika)
langur
Above: Langur (colobinae)
Himalayan weasel
Above: Himalayan weasel
At least 711 bird species are recorded in the valley alone with 31 classified as globally threatened species.
Irish poet Thomas Moore’s (28 May 1779 – 25 February 1852)1817 romantic poem is credited with having made Kashmir (spelt Cashmere in the poem) “a household term in Anglophone societies“, conveying the idea that it was a kind of Paradise (an old idea going back to Hindu and Buddhist texts in Sanskrit).
Above: Thomas Moore
In a nutshell, Kashmir is cursed by its location.
Above: Pahalgam Valley, Kashmir
The Dutch parliament on Thursday passed a non-binding motion saying the treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority in China amounts to genocide, the first such move by a European country.
Above: The Binnenhof (Parliament Buildings), The Hague, The NetherlandsAbove: Emblem of ChinaAbove: Uyghur man in Kashgar
Activists and UN rights experts say at least one million Muslims are being detained in camps in the remote western region of Xinjiang.
Above: (in red) Xinjiang / (in white) the rest of China
The activists and some Western politicians accuse China of using torture, forced labour and sterilisations.
China denies any human rights abuses in Xinjiang and says its camps provide vocational training and are needed to fight extremism.
Above: Xinjiang Re-education Camp, Lop County
“A genocide on the Uighur minority is occurring in China,” the Dutch motion said, stopping short of directly saying that the Chinese government was responsible.
Above: Flag of the Netherlands
The Chinese Embassy in The Hague said on Thursday any suggestion of a genocide in Xinjiang was an “outright lie” and the Dutch parliament had “deliberately smeared China and grossly interfered in China’s internal affairs.”
Above: Chinese Embassy, The Hague
Canada passed a resolution labelling China’s treatment of the Uighurs genocide earlier this week.
Above: Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
The Dutch motion said that actions by the Chinese government such as “measures intended to preventbirths” and “having punishment camps” fell under United Nations Resolution 260, generally known as the Genocide Convention.
Above: Genocide Convention participant countries
Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s conservative VVD party voted against the resolution.
Above: Dutch Prime Minister Mark RutteAbove: Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD : People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy of the Netherlands) logo
Foreign Minister Stef Blok said the government did not want to use the term genocide, as the situation has not been declared as such by the United Nations or by an international court.
Above: Former Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok
“The situation of the Uighurs is a cause of great concern”, Blok told reporters after the motion was passed, adding that the Netherlands hoped to work with other nations on the matter.
The author of the motion, lawmaker Sjoerd Sjoerdsma of the centre-left D-66 Party, has separately proposed lobbying the International Olympic Committee to move the 2022 Winter Olympics away from Beijing.
“Recognising the atrocities that are taking place against the Uighurs in China for what they are, namely genocide, prevents the world from looking the other way and forces us into action,” he told Reuters in an emailed response to questions.
Above: Sjoerd SjoerdsmaAbove: Logo of Democraten 66 (Democrats 66) Dutch political party
In a statement on its website, the Chinese Embassy in The Hague said the Uighur population in Xinjiang has been growing in in recent years, enjoying a higher standard of living, and a longer life expectancy.
“How can you call this a genocide?” it said.
“Xingjiang-related issues are never about human rights, ethnicity or religion, but about combating violent terrorism and succession.”
Above: Chinese Embassy, The Hague
China’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva accused Western powers on Wednesday of using the Uighur issue to meddle in his country’s internal affairs.
Above: Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Liu Jieyi
The Uyghur genocide is the characterization of the series of human rights abuses committed by the government of China against Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang as genocide.
Since 2014, the Chinese government under the direction of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during the administration of CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping has pursued policies that incarcerated more than an estimated one million Muslims (the majority of them Uyghurs) in internment camps without any legal process.
Above: Chinese President Xi Jinping
This was the largest-scale detention of ethnic and religious minorities since World War II.
Thousands of mosques were destroyed or damaged.
Above: Mosque, Tuyoq, Xinjiang, China
Hundreds of thousands of children were forcibly separated from their parents and sent to boarding schools.
Above: Entrance to a school in Turpan, a Uyghur-majority city in Xinjiang – The sign at the gate, written in Chinese, reads: “You are entering the school grounds. Please speak Guoyu [“the national language“, i.e. Mandarin Chinese]”
Government policies have included the arbitrary detention of Uyghurs in state-sponsored internment camps, forced labour, suppression of Uyghur religious practices, political indoctrination, severe ill-treatment, forced sterilization, forced contraception and forced abortion.
Chinese government statistics reported that from 2015 to 2018, birth rates in the mostly Uyghur regions of Hotan and Kashgar fell by more than 60%.
In the same period, the birth rate of the whole country decreased by 9.69%, from 12.07 to 10.9 per 1,000 people.
Chinese authorities acknowledged that birth rates dropped by almost a third in 2018 in Xinjiang, but denied reports of forced sterilization and genocide.
Birth rates in Xinjiang fell a further 24% in 2019 (compared to a nationwide decrease of 4.2%).
At first, these actions were described as the forced assimilation of Xinjiang, and an ethnocide or cultural genocide.
As more details emerged, some governments, activists, independent NGOs, human rights experts, academics and the East Turkistan government in exile termed it genocide, pointing to the definition laid out in the Genocide Convention.
Above: Flag of East Turkistan
International reactions have been diverse.
Some United Nations (UN) member states issued statements to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) condemning China’s policies, while others supported China’s policies.
Above: United Nations Human Rights Council logo
In December 2020, the International Criminal Court (ICC) declined to take investigate China on jurisdictional grounds.
Above: International Criminal Court logo
The United States was the first country to declare the human rights abuses a genocide, announcing its finding on 19 January 2021, although the US State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser concluded that evidence was insufficient to prove genocide.
Above: Coat of arms of the United States of America
Legislatures in multiple countries followed by passing non-binding motions marking China’s actions as genocide, including the House of Commons of Canada (22 February 2021), the Dutch parliament (25 February 2021), the House of Commons of the United Kingdom (22 April 2021) and the Seimas of Lithuania (20 May 2021).
Above: Westminster Palace (Parliament Buildings), London, EnglandAbove: Flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandAbove: Seimas Palace (Parliament Building), Vilnius, LithuaniaAbove: Flag of Lithuania
Other parliaments, such as those in New Zealand (5 May 2021), Belgium (15 June 2021) and the Czech Republic (15 June 2021) condemned the Chinese government’s treatment of Uyghurs as “severe humanrights abuses” or crimes against humanity.
Above: Flag of New ZealandAbove: Flag of BelgiumAbove: Flag of the Czech Republic
From the 1950s to the 1970s, the Chinese government sponsored a mass migration of Han Chinese to the region and introduced policies designed to suppress the cultural identity and religion.
During this period, Uyghur independence organizations emerged with potential support from the Soviet Union, with the East Turkestan People’s Party being the largest in 1968.
During the 1970s, the Soviets supported the United Revolutionary Front of East Turkestan (URFET) against the Han Chinese.
During the 1980s under Deng Xiaoping, the PRC pursued a new policy of cultural liberalization in Xinjiang and adopted a flexible language policy nationally.
Above: Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping (1904 – 1997) with former US President Jimmy Carter
Despite a positive response among party officials and minority groups, the Chinese government viewed this policy as unsuccessful and from the mid-1980s its official pluralistic language policy became increasingly subordinate to a covert policy of minority assimilation motivated by geopolitical concerns.
Consequently, and in Xinjiang particularly, multilingualism and cultural pluralism were restricted in favor a “monolingual, monocultural model“, which in turn helped to embed and strengthen an oppositional Uyghur identity.
Attempts by the Chinese state to encourage economic development in the region by exploiting natural resources led to discontent within Xinjiang over the region’s lack of autonomy and ethnic tension.
In April 1990, a violent uprising in Barin, near Kashgar, was suppressed by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), involving a large number of deaths.
Above: People’s Liberation Army logo
Writing in 1998, political scientist Barry Sautman considered government policies designed to reduce inequality between Han Chinese and ethnic minorities in Xinjiang unsuccessful at eliminating conflicts because they were shaped by the “paternalistic and hierarchical approach to ethnic relations adopted by the Chinese government“.
Above: Barry Sautman
In February 1997, a police roundup and execution of 30 suspected “separatists” during Ramadan led to large demonstrations, which led to a PLA crackdown on protesters resulting in at least nine deaths in what became known as the Ghulja Incident.
Above: Images of the Ghulja Incident
The Ürümqi bus bombings later that month killed nine people and injured 68, with Uyghur exile groups claiming responsibility.
Above: Ürümqi bus bombings
In March 1997, a bus bomb killed two people, with responsibility claimed by Uyghur separatists and the Turkey-based Organisation for East Turkistan Freedom.
In July 2009, riots broke out in Xinjiang in response to a violent dispute between Uyghur and Han Chinese workers in a factory which resulted in over 100 deaths.
Above: Images of July 2009 Ürümqi riots
Following the riots, Uyghur terrorists killed dozens of Han Chinese in coordinated attacks from 2009 to 2016.
These included the August 2009 syringe attacks (5 dead), the 2011 bomb and knife attack in Hotan (18 dead / 4 injured), the March 2014 knife attack in the Kunming railway station (3 dead / 79 injured), and the May 2014 car and bomb attack in an Ürümqi street market (31 dead).
Above: Armed police troops were deployed to maintain order in Ürümqi in early September 2009, after huge civilian demonstrations and protests had broken out around major sites in the cityAbove: Ürümqi, Xinjiang, ChinaAbove: Scene from the 2011 Hotan attackAbove: Tuanjie Square, Hotan, Xinjiang, ChinaAbove: Ürümqi Railway StationAbove: Scene from May 2014 Ürümqi attack
(September 2009 Xinjiang unrest:
According to Xinjiang police, attacks in which hundreds of individuals claim to have been stabbed with hypodermic needles began on 17 August.
On 2 September, posters appeared around Ürümqi saying that 418 people had reported being stabbed or pricked, referring to the attacks as a “serious terrorist crime“, although the government had so far not produced evidence of any terrorist link.
Ürümqi authorities said that fewer than one in five of reported stabbings had left any obvious mark.
A six-person PLA medical review panel announced at a press conference:
“In the patients we have seen in the last couple of days, there are many which we believe were not actually punctured with needles.”
They believed the false reports were due to widespread fear and lack of medical knowledge.
According to state media, witnesses say those who had been attacked include Hans and Uyghurs, although the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) said Hans claimed that they were being targeted.
In response to both concern over the attacks and dissatisfaction over the government’s slowness in prosecuting people involved with the July riots, protesters took to the streets.
Official media reported tens of thousands marching in the city centre on the morning of 3 September.
The police dispersed the crowd with tear gas.
Five people died during the protests and 14 were injured.
After the latest protest, the government announced a ban on all “unlicensed marches, demonstrations and mass protests”.
On 4 September, the Chinese Communist Party Chief of Ürümqi, Li Zhi, was removed from his post, along with the police chief, Liu Yaohua.
Li Zhi was later replaced with Zhu Hailan in a decision by the Xinjiang Autonomous Regional Committee.
Above: Li Zhi
No reasons were given for the dismissals.
On 9 September, state media reported a further 77 syringe attacks from the previous two days.
On 4 September 2009, three Hong Kong journalists were tackled and detained by paramilitary police while filming a disturbance.
According to the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of China, the reporters were punched and kicked by the police, then detained face-down on the ground with their hands tied behind their backs for up to 20 minutes.
Their pleas to the armed police to check their central government-issued press identification cards were ignored.
The reporters complained of being handcuffed and detained for three hours.
The Xinjiang authorities blamed the journalists for inciting the disturbance, saying they were “not actingappropriately, for example gesturing to the crowd“.
They however, regretted the “alleged beating“.
The spokesman said:
“Of the three journalists, only one had a temporary press card that allowed him to conduct interviews in the city, but the other two didn’t.
They violated our regulations.”
The three journalists were TVB cameraman Lam Tsz-ho, journalists Lau Wing-chuan and Now TV cameraman Lam Chun-wai.
Above: TVB News logoAbove: Now TV logo
Five more journalists were detained on 6 September.
They include Commercial Radio Hong Kong reporter Yeung Tung-tat, RTHK correspondent Chan Miu-ling, Chow Man-tau, and Now TV reporter Gary Chan Wai-li and cameraman Lau Hiu-lap.
They were taken away by officers, but were released half an hour later.
Above: Commercial Radio Hong Kong logoAbove: Radio Television Hong Kong logo
Hong Kong politicians were united in their outrage over the incident, and the apparent violation of press freedom, which was a core value enshrined in the Basic Law.
Chief Executive Donald Tsang said that he had written to the Xinjiang government, the State Council and the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council.
Seven local National People’s Congress deputies wrote to NPC chairman Wu Bangguo to express their concern.
Above: Great Hall of the People, National People’s Congress, Beijing, ChinaAbove: Former Chairman Wu Bangguo
Legislators from the Establishment camp as well as the pan-democrats regarded the incitement allegations “unpersuasive“, and said Beijing must launch a full and detailed inquiry into the beatings.
On 8 September 2009, Hong Kong journalists met with Ürümqi officials over the incidents.
The four media outlets whose journalists were assaulted were excluded, but they showed up anyway.
On 13 September 2009, about 700 people including Hong Kong journalists and politicians marched on local offices of China’s central government to protest the alleged police beatings of the three reporters.)
Above: Journalists rally for press freedom
The attacks were conducted by Uyghur separatists, with some orchestrated by the Turkistan Islamic Party (a UN-designated terrorist organization, formerly called the East Turkistan Islamic Movement).
Above: Flag of the Turkistan Islamic Party
The Chinese government has engaged in a propaganda campaign to defend its actions in Xinjiang.
China initially denied the existence of the Xinjiang internment camps and attempted to cover up their existence.
In 2018, after widespread reporting forced it to admit that the Xinjiang internment camps exist, the Chinese government initiated a campaign to portray the camps as humane and to deny that human rights abuses occurred in Xinjiang.
In 2020 and 2021, the propaganda campaign expanded due to rising international backlash against government policies in Xinjiang, with the Chinese government worrying that it no longer had control of the narrative.
Chinese authorities have responded to allegations of abuse by Uyghur women by mounting attacks on their credibility and character.
This included the disclosure of confidential medical data and personal information in an attempt to slander witnesses and undermine their testimony.
Commentators suggested that the goal of these attacks was to silence further criticism, rather than to refute specific claims made by critics.
Presentations given by Xinjiang’s publicity department and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to dispel allegations of abuse are closed to foreign journalists and feature pre-recorded questions as well as pre-recorded monologues from people in Xinjiang, including relatives of witnesses.
Chinese government propaganda attacks have also targeted international journalists covering human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
After providing coverage critical of Chinese government abuses in Xinjiang, BBC News reporter John Sudworth was subjected to a campaign of propaganda and harassment by Chinese state-affiliated and CCP-affiliated media.
The public attacks resulted in Sudworth and his wife Yvonne Murray, who reports for Raidió Teilifis Éireann (RTÉ), fleeing China for Taiwan for fear of their safety.
Above: Yvonne MurrayAbove: RTÉ logo
The Chinese government has used social media as a part of its extensive propaganda campaign.
China has spent heavily to purchase Facebook advertisements in order to spread propaganda designed to incite doubt on the existence and scope of human rights violations occurring within Xinjiang.
Douyin, the mainland China sister app to ByteDance-owned social media app TikTok, presents users with significant amounts of Chinese state propaganda pertaining to the human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
Above: Douyin logo
Between July 2019 and early August 2019, CCP-owned tabloid The Global Times paid Twitter to promote tweets that denied that the Chinese government was committing human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
Twitter later banned advertising from state-controlled media outlets on 19 August after removing large numbers of pro-Beijing bots from the social network.
Above: Twitter logo
In April 2021, the Chinese government released five propaganda videos titled, “Xinjiang is a WonderfulLand“, and released a musical titled “The Wings of Songs” which portrayed Xinjiang as harmonious and peaceful.
The Wings of Songs portrays “a rural idyll of ethnic cohesion devoid of repression, mass surveillance” and without Islam.
Above: Mt. Muztagh Ata by Karakul Lake, close to the Karakorum Highway, Xinjiang province
China has used the global “war on terror” of the 2000s to frame “separatist” and ethnic unrest as acts of Islamist terrorism to legitimize its policies in Xinjiang.
Above: Images of the War on Terror
Scholars, such as Sean Roberts and David Tobin, have described Islamophobia and fear of terrorism as discourses that have been used within China to justify repressive policies targeting Uyghurs, arguing that violence against Uyghurs should be seen in the context of Chinese colonialism, rather than exclusively as a part of an anti-terrorism campaign.
Above: Sean RobertsAbove: David Tobin
Arienne Dwyer has written that the US war on terror gave China an opportunity to characterise and “conflate” Uygher nationalism with terrorism, particularity through the use of state-run media.
Above: Arienne Dwyer
Dwyer argues that the influence of fundamentalist forms of Islam –
(Such as Salafism – a reform branch movement within Sunni Islam, advocating a return to the traditions of the “ancestors” (salaf), the first three generations of Muslims said to know the unadulterated, pure form of Islam.
The Salafist doctrine is based on looking back to the early years of the religion to understand how the contemporary Muslims should practise their faith.
They reject religious innovation (bid’ah) and support the implementation of sharia (Islamic law). )
Above: Sab’u Masajid (“the Seven Mosques“), Medina, Saudi Arabia
– within Xinjiang is overstated by China as it is tempered by Uyghur Sufism (Islamic mysticism).
Above: Tomb of Islamic mystic Abdul Qadir Jilani, Baghdad, Iraq
In December 2015, the Associated Press reported that China had effectively expelled Ursula Gauthier, a French journalist, “for questioning the official line equating ethnic violence in the western Muslim region with global terrorism.”
Gauthier, who was the first foreign journalist forced to leave China since 2012, was subject to what the AP described as an “abusive and intimidating campaign” by Chinese state media that accused her of “having hurt the feelings of the Chinese people” and that a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman accused her of emboldening terrorism.
Above: Ursula Gauthier
In August 2018, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UNCERD) decried the “broad definition of terrorism and vague references to extremism” used by Chinese legislation, noting that there were numerous reports of detention of large numbers of ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities on the “pretext of countering terrorism“.
In 2019, the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal, Sam Brownback and Nathan Sales each said that the Chinese government consistently misused “counterterrorism” as a pretext for cultural suppression and human rights abuses.
Above: Sam BrownbackAbove: Nathan Sales
In 2021, Shirzat Bawudun, the former head of the Xinjiang Department of Justice, and Sattar Sawut, the former head of the Xinjiang Education Department, were sentenced to death on terrorism and extremism charges.
Three other educators and two textbook editors were given lesser sentences.
Above: Shirzat Bawudun
The Xinjiang internment camps are a part of the Chinese government’s strategy to govern Xinjiang through the detention of ethnic minorities en masse.
Researchers and organizations have made various estimates of the number of Xinjiang internment camp detainees.
In 2018, UNCERD vice chairperson Gay McDougall indicated that around one million Uyghurs were being held in internment camps.
Above: Ms. McDougall, World Uyghur Congress, 10 August 2018
In September 2020, a Chinese government white paper revealed that an average of 1.29 million workers went through “vocational training” per year between 2014 and 2019, though it does not specify how many of the people received the training in camps or how many times they went through training.
Adrian Zenz stated that this “gives us a possible scope of coercive labour” occurring in Xinjiang.
There have been multiple reports that mass deaths have occurred inside the camps.
In March 2019, Zenz told the United Nations (UN) that 1.5 million Uyghurs had been detained in camps, saying that the number accounted for the increases in the size and scope of detention in the region and public reporting on the stories of Uyghur exiles with family in internment camps.
Above: German anthropologist Adrian Zenz
In July 2019, Zenz wrote in a paper published by the Journal of Political Risk that 1.5 million Uyghurs had been extrajudicially detained, which he described as being “an equivalent to just under one in six adult members of a Turkic and predominantly Muslim minority group in Xinjiang.”
In November 2019, Zenz estimated that the number of internment camps in Xinjiang had surpassed 1,000.
In July 2020, Zenz wrote in Foreign Policy that his estimate had increased since November 2019, estimating that a total of 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities had been extrajudicially detained in what he described as “the largest incarceration of an ethnoreligious minority since the Holocaust“, arguing that the Chinese government was engaging in policies in violation of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Above: Foreign Policy (FP) magazine logo
According to 2020 study by Joanne Smith Finley:
“Political re-education involves:
coercive Sinicization
deaths in the camps through malnutrition, unsanitary conditions, withheld medical care, and violence (beatings)
rape of male and female prisoners
and, since the end of 2018, transfers of the most recalcitrant prisoners – usually young, religious males – to high-security prisons in Xinjiang or inner China.
Other camp “graduates” have been sent into securitized forced labour.
Those who remain outside the camps have been terrified into religious and cultural self-censorship through the threat of internment.”
Above: Joanne Smith Finley
Ethan Gutmann estimated in December 2020 that 5% to 10% of detainees had died each year in the camps.
Above: US researcher Ethan Gutmann (left) with Edward McMillan-Scott at Foreign Press Association press conference, 2009
China has subjected Uyghurs living in Xinjiang to torture.
Mihrigul Tursun, a young Uyghur mother, said that she was “tortured and subjected to other brutalconditions.”
In 2018, Tursun gave a testimony during which she described her experience while at the camps.
She was drugged, interrogated for days without sleep, subjected to intrusive medical examinations, and strapped in a chair and received electric shocks.
It was her third time being sent to a camp since 2015.
Tursun told reporters that she remembered interrogators tell her:
“Being a Uighur is a crime.”
A spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Hua Chunying, has stated that Tursun was taken into custody by police on “suspicion of inciting ethnic hatred and discrimination” for a period lasting 20 days, but denies that Tursun was ever detained in an internment camp.
Above: Mihrigul Tursun
Another past detainee, Kayrat Samarkand, said that:
“‘They made me wear what they called ‘iron clothes,’ a suit made of metal that weighed over 50 pounds [23 kg].
It forced my arms and legs into an outstretched position.
I couldn’t move at all and my back was in terrible pain.
They made people wear this thing to break their spirits.
After 12 hours, I became so soft, quiet and lawful.‘”
Above: Kayrat Samarkand
Waterboarding is reportedly among the forms of torture which have been used as part of the indoctrination process.
Above: Waterboard displayed at the Tuoi Sleng Genocide Museum, Phnom Penh, Cambodia – Prisoners’ legs were shackled to the bar on the right, their wrists were restrained to the brackets on the left, and water was poured over their face, using the blue watering can, to drown them.
In 2019, reports of forced sterilization in Xinjiang began to surface.
Zumrat Dwut, a Uyghur woman, says that she was forcibly sterilized by tubal ligation during her time in a camp before her husband was able to get her out through requests to Pakistani diplomats.
The Xinjiang regional government denies that she was forcibly sterilized.
Above: Zumrat Dwut
In April 2021, exiled Uyghur Doctor Gülgine reported that forced sterilization of ethnic Uyghurs persisted since the 1980s.
Since 2014, there was an indication for a sharp increase in sterilization of Uyghur women to ensure that Uyghurs would remain a minority in the region.
Gülgine said:
“On some days there were about 80 surgeries to carry out forced sterilizations.”
She presented intrauterine devices (IUDs) and remarked that “these devices were inserted into women’s wombs” to forcibly cause infertility.
Former detainee Kayrat Samarkand described his camp routine in an article for NPR in 2018:
“In addition to living in cramped quarters, inmates had to sing songs praising Chinese leader Xi Jinping before being allowed to eat.
Detainees were forced to memorize a list of ‘126 lies’ about religion:
‘Religion is opium.
Religion is bad.
You must believe in no religion.
You must believe in the Communist Party.
‘Only the Communist Party could lead you to the bright future.'”
Documents which were leaked to The New York Timesby an anonymous Chinese official advised that “Should students ask whether their missing parents had committed a crime, they are to be told no.
It is just that their thinking has been infected by unhealthy thoughts.
Freedom is only possible when this ‘virus’ in their thinking is eradicated and they are in good health.”
Sometimes I think that the publication of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four may have been a mistake.
Orwell meant his novel to be a cautionary tale, a warning against tyranny, both obvious and subtle.
Above: Eric Blair (aka George Orwell) (1903 – 1950)
Nineteen Eighty-Four was never intended to be an instruction manual.
The Heritage Foundation reported that:
“Children whose parents are detained in the camps are often sent to state-run orphanages and brainwashed to forget their ethnic roots.
Even if their parents are not detained, Uyghur children need to move to Inner China and immerse themselves into the Han culture under the Chinese government’s ‘Xinjiang classrooms’ policy.”
In 2021, Gulbahar Haitiwaji reported being coerced into denouncing her own family after her daughter had been photographed at a protest in Paris.
According to Quartz, the Xinjiang region is described by the Uyghur Human Rights Project as a “‘cotton gulag’ where prison labour is present in all steps of the cotton supply chain…”
However, not only textile labour was present.
Tahir Hamut Izgil, a Uyghur, worked in a labour camp during elementary school when he was a child, and he later worked in a labour camp as an adult, performing tasks such as picking cotton, shoveling gravel and making bricks.
“Everyone is forced to do all types of hard labor or face punishment,” he said.
“Anyone unable to complete their duties will be beaten.”
Above: Tahir Hamut Izgil
In December 2020, an investigative report by BuzzFeed News revealed that “forced labor on a vast scale is almost certainly taking place” inside the Xinjiang internment camps, with 135 factory facilities identified within the camps covering over 21 million square feet (2.0 km2) of land.
The report noted that “fourteen million square feet of new factories were built in 2018 alone” within the camps and that “former detainees said they were never given a choice about working, and that they earned a pittance or no pay at all“.
A Chinese website hosted by Baidu has posted job listings for transferring Uyghur labourers in batches of 50 to 100 people.
The 2019 Five Year Plan of the Xinjiang government has an official “labour transfer programme” “to provide more employment opportunities for the surplus rural labour force“.
Above: On the Chinese Internet, there are hundreds of ads for Uighur labour.
These batches of Uyghurs are under “half-military” style management and direct supervision.
A seafood processing plant owner said that the Uyghur workforce in his factory had left for Xinjiang due to the COVID-19 pandemic and were paid and housed properly.
Above: Uighur workers would be escorted by buses if they wanted to leave the factory, owners claim
At least 83 companies were found to have profited from Uyghur labour.
Company responses included pledges of ensuring that it does not happen again by checking supply lines, such as Marks & Spencer.
Above: Logo of Marks & Spencer
Samsung said that it would ensure that previous controls ensured good work conditions under its code of conduct.
Apple, Esprit and Fila did not offers responses to related inquiries.
Above: Logo of Apple Inc.
The Chinese government is reported to have pressured foreign companies to reject claims of abuses.
Apple was asked by the Chinese government to censor Uyghur-related news apps among others on its devices sold in China.
After Apple and Samsung condemned the Uyghur genocide, it underwent boycotts in China, causing sales throughout the country to decrease significantly.
Above: Chinese yuan
Former inmates have said that they were subjected to medical experimentation.
BBC News and other sources reported accounts of organized mass rape and sexual torture carried out by Chinese authorities in the internment camps.
Multiple women who were formerly detained in the Xinjiang internment camps have publicly made accusations of systemic sexual abuse, including rape, gang rape, and sexual torture, such as forced vaginal and anal penetrations with electric batons, and rubbing chili pepper paste on genitals.
Sayragul Sauytbay, a teacher who was forced to work in the camps, told the BBC that employees of the internment camp in which she was detained conducted rapes en masse, saying that camp guards “picked the girls and young women they wanted and took them away”.
She also told the BBC of an organized gang rape, in which a woman around age 21 was forced to make a confession in front of a crowd of 100 other women detained in the camps, before being raped by multiple policemen in front of the assembled crowd.
In 2018, a Globe and Mail interview with Sauytbay indicated that she did not personally see violence at the camp, but did witness malnourishment and a complete lack of freedom.
Above: Sayragul Sauytbay
Tursunay Ziawudun, a woman who was detained in the internment camps for a period of nine months, told the BBC that women were removed from their cells every night to be raped by Chinese men in masks and that she was subjected to three separate instances of gang rape while detained.
In an earlier interview, Ziawudun reported that while she “wasn’t beaten or abused” while in the camps, she was instead subjected to long interrogations, forced to watch propaganda, had her hair cut, was under constant surveillance, and kept in cold conditions with poor food, leading to her developing anemia.
Qelbinur Sedik, an Uzbek woman from Xinjiang, has stated that Chinese police sexually abused detainees during electric shock tortures, saying that:
“There were four kinds of electric shock… the chair, the glove, the helmet, and anal rape with a stick.”
Chinese government officials deny all allegations that there have been any human rights abuses within the internment camps.
Above: Qelbinur Sedik
Reuters reported in March 2021 that Chinese government officials also disclosed personal medical information of women witnesses in an effort to discredit them.
In February 2021, the BBC released an extensive report which alleged that systematic sexual abuse was taking place within the camps.
The gang rapes and sexual torture were alleged to be part of a systemic rape culture which included both policemen and those from outside the camps who pay for time with the prettiest girls.
CNN reported in February 2021 about a worker and several former female inmates which survived the camps.
They provided details about murder, torture and rape in the camps, which they described as routinely occurring.
China performs regular pregnancy checks on hundreds of thousands of minority women within Xinjiang.
Zenz reported that 80% of new Chinese IUD placements (insertions minus removals) in 2018 occurred in Xinjiang, despite the region constituting only 1.8% of the country’s population.
Zenz reported that birth rates in counties whose majority population consists of ethnic minorities began to fall in 2015, “the very year that the government began to single out the link between population growth and ‘religious extremism‘”.
Prior to the recent drops in birth rates, the Uyghur population had had a growth rate 2.6 times that of the Han between 2005 and 2015.
According to a fax provided to CNN by the Xinjiang regional government, birth rates in the Xinjiang region fell by 32.68% from 2017 to 2018.
In 2019, the birth rates fell by 24% year over year, a significantly greater drop than the 4.2% decline in births experienced across the entire People’s Republic of China.
According to Zenz, population growth rates in the two largest Uyghur prefectures in Xinjiang, Kashgar and Hotan, fell by 84% between 2015 and 2018.
According to Zenz, Chinese government documents mandate that birth control violations of Uyghurs are punishable by extrajudicial internment.
Also in 2019, The Heritage Foundation reported that officials forced Uyghur women to take unknown drugs and liquids that caused them to lose consciousness, and sometimes caused them to stop menstruating.
In 2020, public reporting continued to indicate that large-scale compulsory sterilization was being carried out, with the Associated Press reporting a “widespread and systematic” practice of forcing Uyghur and other ethnic minority women to take birth control medication in the Xinjiang region.
Many women stated that they were forced to receive contraceptive implants.
Regional authorities do not dispute the decrease in birth rates but deny that genocide and forced sterilization is occurring;
Xinjiang authorities maintain that the decrease in birth rates is due to “the comprehensive implementation of the family planning policy.”
Above: A government sign in Tangshan Village, De’an County, Jiujiang, Jiangxi: “For the sake of the country’s prosperity and families’ happiness, please implement family planning.”
The Chinese Embassy in the United States said the policy was positive and empowering for Uyghur women, writing that:
“In the process of eradicating extremism, the minds of Uygur women were emancipated and gender equality and reproductive health were promoted, making them no longer baby-making machines. They are more confident and independent.”
Twitter removed the tweet for violating its policies.
Above: Chinese Embassy, Washington DC
Beginning in 2018, over one million Chinese government workers began forcibly living in the homes of Uyghur families to monitor and assess resistance to assimilation, as well as to watch for frowned-upon religious and cultural practices.
The “Pair Up and Become Family” program assigned Han Chinese men to monitor the homes of Uyghurs and sleep in the same beds as Uyghur women.
According to Radio Free Asia (RFA), these Han Chinese government workers were trained to call themselves “relatives” and forcibly engaged in co-habitation of Uyghur homes for the purpose of promoting “ethnicunity“.
Radio Free Asia reports that these men “regularly sleep in the same beds as the wives of men detained in the region’s internment camps.”
Chinese officials maintained that co-sleeping is acceptable, provided that a distance of one meter is maintained between the women and the “relative” assigned to the Uyghur home.
Uyghur activists state that no such restraint takes place, citing pregnancy and forced marriage numbers, and name the program a campaign of “mass rape disguised as ‘marriage’“.
Above: Radio Free Asia logo
Human Rights Watch has condemned the program as a “deeply invasive forced assimilation practice“, while the World Uyghur Congress states that it represents the “total annihilation of the safety, security and well-being of family members.”
Above: Logo of the World Uyghur Congress
A 37-year-old pregnant woman from the Xinjiang region said that she attempted to give up her Chinese citizenship to live in Kazakhstan but was told by the Chinese government that she needed to come back to China to complete the process.
She alleges that officials seized the passports of her and her two children before coercing her into receiving an abortion to prevent her brother from being detained in an internment camp.
Above: Flag of Kazakhstan
A book by Guo Rongxing on the unrest in Xinjiang states that the 1990 Baren Township riot protests were the result of 250 forced abortions imposed upon local Uyghur women by the Chinese government.
Ethan Gutmann states that organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience became prevalent when members of the Uyghur ethnic group were targeted in security crackdowns and “strike hard campaigns” during the 1990s.
According to Gutmann, organ harvesting from Uyghur prisoners dropped off by 1999 with members of the Falun Gong religious group overtaking the Uyghurs as a source of organs.
Above: Logo of the Falun Gong
In the 2010s, concerns about organ harvesting from Uyghurs resurfaced.
According to a unanimous determination by the China Tribunal in May 2020, China has persecuted and medically tested Uyghurs.
Its report expressed concerns that Uyghurs were vulnerable to being subject to organ harvesting but did not yet have evidence of its occurrence.
In November 2020, Gutmann told Radio Free Asia that a former hospital in Atsu, China, which had been converted into a Xinjiang internment camp, would allow local officials to streamline the organ harvesting process and provide a steady stream of harvested organs from Uyghurs.
Later, in December 2020, human rights activists and independent researchers told Haaretz that individuals detained in the Xinjiang internment camps “are being murdered and their organs harvested“.
At that time, Gutmann told Haaretz that he estimates that at least 25,000 Uyghurs are killed in Xinjiang for their organs each year and that crematoria have been recently built in the province in order to more easily dispose of victims’ bodies.
Gutmann said that “fast lanes” were created for the movement of human organs in local airports.
In 2020, a Chinese woman said that Uyghurs were slaughtered on demand to provide halal organs for primarily Saudi customers.
She said that in one such instance in 2006, 37 Saudi clients received organs from killed Uyghurs at the Department of Liver Transplantation of Tianjin Taida Hospital.
Dr. Enver Tohti, a former oncology surgeon in Xinjiang, supported the allegations.
Above: Tianjin Taida Hospital
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese government has imposed forced labour conditions on Uyghurs.
In January 2020, videos began to surface on Douyin showing large numbers of Uyghurs being placed into airplanes, trains, and buses for transportation to forced factory labour programs.
In March 2020, the Chinese government was found to be using the Uyghur minority as forced sweatshop labour.
According to a report published by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), no fewer than around 80,000 Uyghurs were forcibly removed from Xinjiang for purposes of forced labour in at least 27 factories around China.
According to the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, a UK-based charity, corporations such as Abercrombie & Fitch (US casual wear), Adidas (German textile/footwear), Amazon (US info tech/distribution), Apple (US infotech), BMW (German automobiles), Fila (Italian/South Korean sports apparel), Gap (US clothing/accessories), H & M (Swedish clothing/accessories), Inditex (Spanish clothing), Marks & Spencer (British retailer), Nike (US sportswear), North Face (US outdoor recreation), Puma (German sportswear), PVH (US clothing), Samsung (South Korean electronics) and Uniqlo (Japanese casual wear) sourced from these factories.
Above: Logo for Apple
Above: Bayerische Motoren Werke (Bavarian Motorworks) logo
Above: Hennes & Moritz logoAbove: Marks & Spencer logoAbove: Nike logoAbove: Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation logo
Over 570,000 Uyghurs are forced to pick cotton by hand in Xinjiang.
According to an archived report from Nankai University (Tianjin), the Chinese forced labour system is designed to reduce Uyghur population density.
In total, the Chinese government has relocated more than 600,000 Uyghurs to industrial workplaces as a part of their forced labor programs.
China has been accused of coordinating efforts to coerce Uyghurs living overseas into returning to China, using family still in China to pressure members of the diaspora not to make trouble.
Chinese officials deny these accusations.
The government of China regularly denies its role in the abuses of the Uyghur genocide.
China’s robust surveillance system extends overseas, with a special emphasis placed on monitoring the Uyghur diaspora.
According to the MIT Technology Review:
“China’s hacking of Uyghurs is so aggressive that it is effectively global, extending far beyond the country’s own borders.
It targets journalists, dissidents, and anyone who raises Beijing’s suspicions of insufficient loyalty.”
In March 2021, Facebook reported that hackers based in China had been conducting cyber-espionage against members of the Uyghur diaspora.
Uyghurs in the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have been detained and deported back to China, sometimes separating families.
Above: Emblem of the United Arab EmiratesAbove: Flag of Egypt
CNN reported in June 2021 that:
“Rights activists fear that even as Western nations take China to task over its treatment of Uyghurs, countries in the Middle East and beyond will increasingly be willing to acquiesce to its crackdown on members of the ethnic group at home and abroad.”
According to the Associated Press:
“Dubai also has a history as a place where Uyghurs are interrogated and deported back to China.”
Above: Images of Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE)
A joint report from the Uyghur Human Rights Project and the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs found 1,546 of cases Uyghurs being detained and deported at the behest of Chinese authorities in 28 countries from 1997 to March 2021.
In July 2020, The Globe and Mail reported that human rights activists, including retired politician Irwin Cotler, were encouraging the Parliament of Canada to recognize the Chinese actions against Uyghurs as genocide and impose sanctions on the officials responsible.
Above: Irwin CotlerAbove: Badge of the Parliament of Canada
On 21 October 2020, the Subcommittee on International Human Rights (SDIR) of the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development condemned the persecution of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang by the government of China and concluded that the Chinese Communist Party’s actions amount to the genocide of the Uyghurs per the Genocide Convention.
On 22 February 2021, the Canadian House of Commons voted 266–0 to approve a motion that formally recognizes China as committing genocide against its Muslim minorities.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet did not vote.
Above: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
China’s Ambassador to Canada responded to the motion by calling the allegations of genocide and forced labour the “lie of the century”.
Above: Chinese Ambassador to Canada Cong Peiwu
On 11 April 2021, Canada issued a travel advisory stating that individuals with “familial or ethnic ties” could be “at risk of arbitrary detention” by Chinese authorities when traveling in the Xinjiang region.
Radio Canada International reported that the announcement described that China had been “increasingly detaining ethnic and Muslim minorities in the region without due process“.
In 2009, remarks by then Turkish Prime Minister (now President) Erdoğan were published by the Anatolian News Agency where he denounced the “savagery” being inflicted on the Uyghur community and called for an end of the Chinese government’s attempts to forcibly assimilate the community.
Above: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Later at the Group of Eight Summit in Italy, Erdoğan stated that:
“The incidents in China are, simply put, a genocide.
There’s no point in interpreting this otherwise.”
Above: (dark green) Group of Eight (G8) countries / (light green) European Union (EU) countries – Russia has since been suspended from the Group.
In 2019, the Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a statement condemning what it described as China’s “reintroduction of concentration camps in the 21st century” and “a great cause of shame for humanity“.
Above: Emblem of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
In response to a question regarding the reported death of Uyghur musician Abdurehim Heyit within the Xinjiang internment camps, a spokesperson for the Turkish Foreign Ministry stated that:
“More than one million Uyghur Turks incurring arbitrary arrests are subjected to torture and political brainwashing in internment camps and prisons”.
Above: Uighur folk singer Abdurehim Heyt (1962 – 2021?)
In February 2021, authorities arrested Uyghur protesters in Ankara following a complaint by the Embassy of China in Turkey.
Above: Chinese Embassy, Ankara, Turkey
In March 2021, the Turkish parliament rejected a motion to call the Chinese government’s treatment of Uyghurs a genocide.
Above: Grand National Assembly Building
On 13 July 2021, President Erdoğan told Chinese President Xi Jinping in a bilateral telephone call that it was important to Turkey that Uyghur Muslims live in peace as “equal citizens of China“, but that Turkey respected the territorial integrity and sovereignty of China.
Above: Flags of Turkey and China
The Chinese Consulate in Almaty, Kazakhstan, has been the site of a daily protest demonstration, primarily made up of old women whose relatives are believed to be detained in China.
Above: Chinese Consulate, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Regular protests from local Uyghurs have been held at Chinese diplomatic sites in Istanbul, Turkey, where several hundred Uyghur women protested on International Women’s Day in March 2021.
In London, regular protests outside an outpost of the Chinese embassy have been organized by an Orthodox Jewish man from the local neighborhood.
He has held protests at least twice a week since February 2019.
In March 2021, hundreds of Uyghurs living in Turkey protested the visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Istanbul by gathering both in Beyazit Square and near China’s Consulate-General in Istanbul.
Over two dozen NGOs that focus on the rights of Uyghurs were involved in organizing the protests.
Above: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi
From Facebook, Tuesday 5 October 2021
“As much as I enjoy writing it is also an activity that saddens me, for good writing requires reading and what I read often makes me feeling desolate.
Every day, every damn day, I read of violence and cruelty and greed and for the very life of me it all seems so stupid.
Take the Uighurs in China.
How in Heaven’s name can the Chinese government possibly conceive that the elimination of a people is a rational thing to do?
Why is it so damn difficult to treat other human beings humanely?
Why is it a loss of face to treat others with the same dignity that you yourself desire?
Why do other nations tolerate such behaviour?
When did economics become more important than people?
And mankind never seems to learn that dehumanizing others dehumanizes ourselves, that demonizing others diminishes ourselves.
Individual lives seem so irrelevant to the powerful and yet the powerful claim to represent the people they exploit and extinguish.
Above: Judge Leonard White (Morgan Freeman), The Bonfire of the Vanities –
“Let me tell you what justice is. Justice is the law. And the law is man’s feeble attempt to lay down the principles of decency. Decency! And decency isn’t a deal, it’s not a contract or a hustle or an angle! Decency… decency is what your grandmother taught you. It’s in your bones! Now you go home. Go home and be decent people. Be decent.”
There is an old song that says “I love everyday people.“
When does someone lose that status?
When power is theirs.
Those with the power to make people’s lives better instead make the planet better for only themselves.
Above: Lord Acton (1834 – 1902)
I believe that there are good people in the world, but greed for (more) wealth and power make a man abandon honour and compassion.
And this is what saddens me.
We could be so happy, so progressive, could make ourselves a Heaven out of Earth and instead we create our own Hell.
I am no saint, but I am trying to be a good man.
What mistakes these hands have done have been the result of my wanting more than I have been blessed with.
Above: Leonard Cohen (1934 – 2016)
How tragic it is to view a man gain satisfaction by exploiting others.
How sad to see others suffer simply because they exist and inadvertently stand between the powerful and their insatiable desires.
There is no honour above, no dignity below.
There is just a feeling of hopelessness, helplessness and cold.
I understand why so many people choose to lose themselves audio-visually.
Reality is rough.
Best avoid and ignore.
The road to destruction is littered with distractions.
René Descartes, that clever Frenchman, wrote “I think, therefore I am.”
Above: René Descartes (1596 – 1650)
And that’s the problem with thinkers, we are forced to recognize that they exist, that they merit dignity.
Best avoid and ignore them, for the revelation of reality is rough.
Take delight in distraction.
Death is the final destination anyway.
Eat, drink and be merry.
Let tomorrow take care of itself.
And let dignity die and honour be mocked.
And face the emptiness of oblivion stupidly wondering:
What was the point of life anyway?
Life is a song.
God willing, I will contribute a verse.”
Above: John Keating (Robin Williams), Dead Poets Society
The Malaysian Federal Court’s nine-judge panel today unanimously declared that a Selangor state law’s provision which made unnatural sex a shariah (Islamic law) offence is invalid and having gone against the Federal Constitution, as such offences fall under Parliament’s powers to make laws and not under state legislatures’ law-making powers.
Above: Flag of Malaysia
Reading out a summary of the unanimous judgment, Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat said the Federal Court granted the order sought by a Malaysian Muslim man who was challenging the constitutionality and validity of Section 28 of the Shariah Criminal Offences (Selangor) Enactment (1995).
Section 28 makes it a Shariah offence for “any person” performing “sexual intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal”, with the punishment being a maximum fine of RM 5,000 or a maximum three-year jail term or a maximum whipping of six strokes or any combination.
Above: Malaysian Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat
The order sought by the man and granted by the Federal Court today is for a declaration that Section 28 is invalid on the ground that it makes provision with respect to a matter which the Selangor state legislature has no power to make laws and is therefore null and void.
Above: State flag of Selangor
Other judges on the nine-member panel who agreed with the chief justice’s grounds of judgment include:
President of the Court of Appeal Tan Sri Rohana Yusuf
Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed
Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Datuk Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim
Federal Court Judge Datuk Seri Zawawi Salleh
Federal Court Judge Datuk Nallini Pathmanathan
Federal Court Judge Datuk Vernon Ong
Federal Court Judge Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof
Federal Court Judge Datuk Seri Hasnah Mohammed Hashim
Above: Palace of Justice, Putrajaya, Malaysia
Justice Azahar Mohamed read out a summary of his separate grounds of judgment to explain the important constitutional issues in this case and why he felt the order should be granted to the Malaysian Muslim man, with the chief justice and all the other judges on the panel also agreeing with his judgment.
Above: Chief Judge Azahar Mohamed
In August 2019, the Malaysian Muslim man was charged in the Selangor Shariah High Court under Section 28 of the 1995 Selangor state law read together with Section 52 for attempted offences, where he was alleged to have in November 2018 in a house in Bandar Baru Bangi attempted to commit sexual intercourse “against the order of nature” with other men.
The man filed for leave directly at the Federal Court on 28 November 2019 to start court proceedings against the Selangor government to seek a declaration that Section 28 is invalid as the Selangor state legislature has no powers to make such law, with the Federal Court on 14 May 2020 then granting leave for the man to proceed to have his constitutional challenge heard at the Federal Court.
Above: View of Bandar Baru Bangi, Malaysia
On 6 October 2020, the Federal Court allowed the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) to be an intervener and join the court case as the second respondent, while the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Council (Maiwp) was not allowed to be an intervener but was allowed to be an amicus curiae.
On 14 December, the nine-judge panel at the Federal Court heard the constitutional challenge on Section 28 in the Selangor state law, with all parties including the man’s lawyers, the Selangor government, Mais and also Maiwp as the amicus curiae allowed to present arguments to the court.
Above: Coat of arms of Malaysia
In the Federal Court’s judgments today, two lists in the Federal Constitution’s 9th Schedule were examined, with these two lists stating the different matters that the federal government and state governments have powers to make laws on.
In the Federal Constitution’s 9th Schedule, List I, which is also known as the Federal List, states what the federal government via Parliament can make laws on, while List II, which is also known as the State List, states the matters which state governments through their respective legislative assemblies can make laws on.
Essentially, the court case was about whether the Selangor state government should not have made a state law — via Section 28 — which makes “unnatural” sex a shariah criminal offence, if “unnatural” sex is a matter which comes under Parliament’s power to make laws on instead, based on the Federal Constitution.
Under Item 1 of the Federal Constitution’s State List, state legislatures can make laws on Islamic law, including the “creation and punishment of offences by persons professing the religion of Islam against precepts of that religion, except in regard to matters included in the Federal List”.
The phrase “except in regard to matters included in the Federal List” was described in this court case as a “preclusion clause”, or a provision that excludes the state legislatures from making laws on matters falling under the federal jurisdiction.
Justice Tengku Maimun noted that the Muslim man’s lawyer Datuk Malik Imtiaz Sarwar had said the Selangor state legislature could not make Section 28 into law, as Section 377 and Section 377A of the Penal Code, which is a federal law which already governs the same subject matter in Section 28, and due to the preclusion clause.
The judge noted that the Selangor state government and Mais had both argued that the Selangor state legislature has jurisdiction or power to enact Section 28 as it comprises an offence “against the preceptsof Islam”, and that they had argued that Section 28 is worded differently from the Penal Code provisions and that this meant Selangor could make such a state law to co-exist with federal laws and that Section28 would be constitutionally valid.
In presenting the Federal Court’s decision, Justice Tengku Maimun however said the Selangor government and Mais had failed to answer satisfactorily on how Section 28 can still be valid despite the preclusionclause.
Examining the phrase “precepts of Islam” and its constitutional limitations, the judge said it was undisputed that “liwat” or sodomy which Section 28 covers is against the precepts of Islam, but said it isnot enough to argue that Section 28 is valid simply because it is an offence against the precepts of Islam.
The judge noted that the bigger question that was put forward for the Federal Court to consider was whether the Selangor state legislature is competent or had the powers to enact Section 28 in light of the Federal Constitution’s preclusion clause.
Looking at the preclusion clause in Item 1 of the State List, which placed a limit on what the state legislatures can enact or make laws on, the judge noted that the preclusion clause states “except in regard to matters included in the Federal List” and not “except in regard to matters included in the Federal Law”.
The judge explained that this does not mean that state legislatures have the power to make laws on matters that Parliament has not already made laws on, and that state legislatures are instead unable to make laws on matters that fall within Parliament’s jurisdiction, even if there is no such federal law yet.
In other words, it would be a case-by-case basis, where the question is not necessarily whether there is already a federal law on a matter, but whether the matter comes under federal jurisdiction.
Above: Logo of the Parliament of Malaysia
“It remains to be tested in every given case where the validity of a state law is questioned, for the courts to first ascertain whether a law in question is within the jurisdiction of Parliament to enact and not necessarily whether there is already a federal law in existence such that the state-promulgated law is displaced,” the judge said.
With no challenge by any of the parties in the case over Parliament’s powers to make the Penal Code provisions that cover the same matter as Section 28, the judge said the Federal Court must accept that Parliament had competently enacted the Penal Code provisions in line with the Federal Constitution.
Above: Malaysian Parliament Building, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
After going through judgments by the Federal Court in three other relevant court cases, Justice Tengku Maimun said that the nine-member panel is of the view that these judgments show that the issue is not about the “co-existence” of federal and state laws, but instead more about the independent application of the two streams of laws — civil and shariah laws — within their respective jurisdictions.
Looking through other provisions in the Federal Constitution including Article 3, Article 74(3), the chief justice also looked at the Reid Commission Report (1957) which she cited as showing that the main powers to make law in Malaysia is with the federal government via Parliament, while states are to only have limited powers to make laws on specific matters.
“Unlike countries such as the United States where the primary power of legislation lies with the individual states with residual powers in the Federation, the terms of our Federal Constitution and the history of its founding make it abundantly clear that the primary legislative powers of the Federation shall lie ultimately with Parliament save and except for specific matters over which the states shall have legislative powers,” she explained.
She also cited the Federal Constitution’s Article 75 and Article 77 as showing that Parliament has the primary legislative power or power to make laws, while state legislatures have residual powers to make laws.
The judge listed out the Federal List’s Items 3 and 4, which gave the power to Parliament to make criminal law and to create offences on matters listed within the Federal List, while noting that the State List does allow the creation of offences against the “precepts of Islam” but that these powers were limited by the “preclusion clause” and only on matters listed in the State List.
She also noted that the entire State List does not carry any of the same matters listed in the Federal List’s Items 3 and 4.
Above: The Dewan Negara, Parliament Building, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
The judge also said the argument by the Selangor government and Mais on Section 28 allegedly being worded more broadly than the Penal Code provisions was “wholly immaterial” or irrelevant, pointing out that what matters in this case is that Section 28 covers a matter which falls under the Federal List.
Above: (in green) Malaysia
The judge then concluded that it could be put forward that when Parliament and the state legislature make laws on the same subject matter of criminal law, the two laws cannot co-exist even if the offence is said to be against the precepts of Islam, due to the “preclusion clause” in Item 1 of the State List.
“Given the above, the natural consequence is that the subject-matter upon which section 28 of the 1995 Enactment was made falls within the preclusion clause of Item 1 of the State List.
“As such, it is our view that the said section was enacted in contravention of item 1 of the State List which stipulates that the state legislatures have no power to make law ‘in regard to matters included in the Federal List’.
To that extent, section 28 of the 1995 Enactment is inconsistent with the Federal Constitution and is therefore void,” the judge said when noting that Section 28 in the Selangor state law had went against the Federal Constitution.
Above: Political divisions of Malaysia
To avoid any doubt, the Chief Justice noted that the range of offences against the precepts of Islam that can be enacted by state legislatures in Malaysia is “wide” as the Federal Court had in another case previously decided that the “precepts of Islam” is wide and not limited to the Five Pillars of Islam – the Muslim creed, prayer, charity to the poor, fasting on the month of Ramadan, and the pilgrimage to Mecca for those who are able.
But she pointed out the wide range of such offences against precepts of Islam that state legislatures can make law on is subjected to limits under Malaysia’s Federal Constitution: “Thus, the range of offences that may be enacted are wide.
Having said that, the power to enact such range of offences is subject to a constitutional limit.”
Above: Religion in Malaysia
Justice Azahar Mohamed cited two previous Federal Court judgments which he said showed the phrase “precepts ofIslam” as being wide to include “every single rule, conduct, principle, commandment and teaching of Islam prescribed in the Shariah, including Islamic criminal law”.
He considered the wide meaning of “precepts of Islam” and cited two expert opinions by Professor Emeritus Tan Sri Mohd Kamal Hassan and Professor Emeritus Datuk Paduka Mahmood Zuhdi Abd Majid, before saying that Section 28, which relates to “unnatural” sex including “liwat” or sodomy, is undeniably an offence against the precepts of Islam.
Above: Professor Emeritus Datuk Paduka Mahmood Zuhdi Abd Majid
The judge said Section 28, which relates to unnatural sex including “liwat” or sodomy, is undeniably an offence against the precepts of Islam.
But he also said whether Section 28 was validly enacted by the Selangor state legislature within the limits of its powers under the Federal Constitution was a question that must be dealt with separately.
He noted that this is the first time that the Federal Court has had to directly address the point of whether Section 28 cannot be valid due to the “preclusion clause” in the Federal Constitution and as it had intruded into an area that belongs to Parliament.
He concluded that the “preclusion clause” was worded in a “compellingly clear and unequivocal” manner, adding that he had no doubt that it meant that the state legislature’s powers to make laws on offences against the precepts of Islam is regulated by the phrase “except in regard to matters included in the Federal List”.
“The preclusion clause functions as a limitation imposed by the Federal Constitution on the state legislatures to make laws on Islamic criminal law,” he said.
Above: Coat of arms of Selangor
Justice Azahar also pointed out that it is important to note that the Federal Constitution’s State List itself expressly recognises that certain areas of Islamic criminal law are part of Parliament’s jurisdiction, and that as a result, any matter falling under Parliament’s jurisdiction would not be something that the state legislature can make laws on.
“Although the range of the state legislature to enact “offences against the precepts of Islam” appears to be so extensive as to comprise almost ‘every single rule, conduct, principle, commandment, and teaching of Islam prescribed in the Shariah’, in reality there is constitutional limitation upon the subject matter of the legislation enforced by the preclusion clause.
“So construed, there could be no doubt, to my mind, that the state legislature cannot create offence already dealt with in the Federal List,” the judge said.
Above: Penang State Mosque, George Town, Penang, Malaysia
Based on this reason, Justice Azahar Mohamed concluded that the state legislature does not have the sole or exclusive right to make laws on Islamic criminal offences, stating that the preclusion clause clearly implies that the state legislature only has residual powers to make such laws and that it is subject to the federal jurisdiction on criminal laws.
He noted that “criminal law” comes under Parliament’s law-making powers under Item 4 of the FederalList and said the offence of “unnatural” sex in Section 28 obviously falls within that category.
“By that I mean, in practical terms, that even if Parliament has yet to make legislation with respect to an offence of sexual intercourse against the order of nature, still the State Legislature is precluded from legislating on this subject matter,” he said.
The judge however highlighted that the Penal Code — which applies to both Muslims and non-Muslims and is administered in civil courts — was enacted much earlier than Selangor’s Section 28.
The Penal Code is a written law by Parliament that covers most of the criminal offences and punishments in Malaysia.
Above: The National Mosque of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
In explaining his conclusion, the judge said:
“Put another way, only Parliament has power to make such laws with respect to the offence of sexual intercourse against the order of nature.”
Above: Flag of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Community
Justice Azahar disagreed with Mais’ claim that the state legislature would not be able to make any laws on offences if every offence is a criminal law and that the state legislature’s law-making powers would be redundant.
Instead, the judge said the Federal Constitution guarantees that states have the power to make laws on offences against the precepts of Islam unless already covered in the Federal List, explaining his view that this meant states could still validly make laws on offences that are “purely religious” in nature.
Above: Kota Kinabalu Sabah City Mosque, Malaysia
Justice Azahar noted that there are three categories of shariah criminal offences in Malaysia that would remain valid as state laws, despite the “preclusion clause”, namely offences relating to “aqidah” or the Muslim faith (including wrongful worship, deviating from Islamic belief, teaching false doctrines), offences relating to the sanctity of Islam and its institution (including insulting the Qu’ran, failure to perform Friday prayers, disrespecting Ramadan and not paying zakat), offences against morality (including consuming intoxicating drinks, khalwat or close proximity and zina or sexual intercourse outside marriage).
“As can be seen, these are offences in relation to Islamic religion practiced in this country that must conform to the doctrine, tenets and practice of the religion of Islam.
In short, I refer to these offences as religious offences,” he said, adding that this is a non-exhaustive list of examples of religious offences that can be validly enacted by state legislatures, based on the facts of each case.
Above: Putrajaya Mosque, Malaysia
“In my opinion, all these offences are purely religious in nature that is directly concerned with religious matters or religious affairs,” he said, citing Article 74(2) when saying that these religious offences which regulate Muslims’ beliefs and practices can only be created through laws passed by state legislatures and that such religious offences would not fall under the category of “criminal law” in the Federal List.
He noted that such religious offences come under the shariah courts’ jurisdiction and only apply to Muslims.
The judge said that such laws should be made by the state legislature — instead of Parliament — due to the State List, and as it is only the states that have the powers to make laws on such matters.
“It is the states alone that can say what should be the religious offences, which are reserved expressly for legislation by the state legislatures,” he said.
Above: Kampung Laut Mosque, Tumpat, Malaysia
Stressing that “criminal law” is a federal matter for Parliament to make laws on and that Islamic criminal law that is not caught by the preclusion clause is for state legislature to make laws on, the judge noted that the reason for this complicated division of federal and state law-making jurisdictions would require a close look at Malaysia’s legal history which stretches back to the beginning of the Malay states and the colonial rule period.
In his summary, Justice Azahar did not agree with the Selangor government’s and Mais’ arguments that Section 28 is constitutionally valid as the federal and state laws on “unnatural” sex could allegedly co-exist, noting that this was because of the Federal Constitution’s Article 8, which provides for equal protection of the law and non-discrimination against Malaysians.
Above: Malaysian Muslims participate in a Maulidur Rasul parade in Putrajaya, 2013
In this case involving the Malaysian Muslim man for example, Justice Azahar noted that the other male persons in the man’s Shariah case included three non-Muslims.
Justice Azahar Mohamed pointed out that Section 28 of the Selangor state law which only applies to Muslims is punishable by a maximum sentence of jail up to three years, fine up to RM 5,000, or whipping up to six strokes or any combination, while Section 28 would not apply to non-Muslims and that non-Muslims could instead be charged in the civil courts under the Penal Code’s Section 377, which is punishable with a maximum jail term of up to 20 years and also fines or whipping.
With Article 8 of the Federal Constitution providing for all persons to be equal before the law and no discrimination against citizens only on grounds such as religion, the judge had said it would be hard to deny that a non-Muslim would be discriminated in such a situation as a Muslim would have the benefit of a lesser sentence for a substantially similar offence.
Above: Melaka Islamic Centre, Malaysia
Justice Azahar Mohamed said this was among the reasons why he concluded that Section 28 is invalid as it was ultravires or went beyond the Federal Constitution, noting that the state legislature had made Section 28 when it had no power to make law on the “unnatural” sex offence and that “only Parliament could enact such a law”.
The shariah trial for the Malaysian Muslim man has yet to start, as it has been put on hold while waiting for the Federal Court’s decision today, his lawyer confirmed.
The man’s name is being withheld on the lawyers’ request, due to concern over the potential harm or risks he may face if namely publicly.
Above: Melaka Chinese Mosque, Malacca, Malaysia
In the online proceedings via Zoom where the Federal Court had delivered its decision, the legal teams for all the related parties had attended.
Lawyer Andrew Khoo held a watching brief for the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia.
Above: Logo of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia
Why, oh why, do I mention all of this?
A number of reasons.
The decision in Malaysia suggests that the rule of Man should predominate the wishes of those who would use religion as a tool to control people.
A separation of faith and state is necessary, for the state should not have the power to tell a person what to believe or how to practice that belief.
Within the walls of where a faith is practiced let rules dictate its practice, similar to how what happens in one’s house determines the rules to be followed therein.
But outside its walls, faith, and how it is practised, lies with an individual’s personal choices.
For what is faith if it is not freely given?
Above: Praying Hands, Albert Dürer
I find myself wondering how connected sharia law actually is to what Muhammad may have originally intended.
As for “unnatural” sexual acts my only concern is that the acts are between consenting adults.
Whether the local house of worship approves of the private behaviour of individuals is between the individuals concerned and the local religious leadership.
If a member of the flock cannot accept the rules of the religion then the religion requests the exclusion of the disobedient from the rest of the faithful.
But acting as if the house of worship has the right to act as a temporal authority, as if the spiritual has the right to police the bedrooms of its followers is to usurp the free will of individuals.
I am not saying that the lifestyles of the LGBT are those with which I am comfortable, for I am wary of that which I do not comprehend.
I may not approve for my own life so-called “unnatural” acts, but this does not mean I accept the policing of these acts in a manner that violates people’s personal privacy and individual choice.
What this does mean is that all human beings are worthy of dignity and respect, regardless of whether I approve of them or not.
Above: Pierre Elliot Trudeau (1919 – 2000), 15th Canadian Prime Minister (1968 – 1979 / 1980 – 1984)
And here’s the thing.
People don’t need (or want) my approval or permission to lead their lives as they so choose.
As long as a person’s actions do not bring harm to others then I have no right to tell another person how they should live.
The Malaysian High Court was not suggesting that they approve of the LGBT.
They were suggesting that the religious of a state do not have the right to punish the transgressors of a faith with punishments meant for federal authorities to decide and deliver as is determined by the nation’s Constitution.
Let that which is the government’s power be administered by the government.
Let the religious accept or reject the continued membership of the transgressor as pertains to the practice of the religion within the house of religion.
Above: The Iron Mosque, Putrajaya, Malaysia
In an ideal world it would be a wonderful thing if we all did as we were told, but then that would no longer be faith but rather force.
When a religion acts as judge and jury, when a faith claims the power of God as its own, then that faith does not respect what faith is supposed to be.
An individual’s choice to believe and practice the traditions of that faith as they see fit.
Above: The Creation of Adam, Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City
I also reject the notion that faith cannot be questioned, for I believe that if a faith is right it can defend itself.
If there is a God thenwhy would He reward us with intelligence and then reject our use of it?
The crux of the problem for the hierarchy of religion is more about saving face and preserving power than it is about ministering to people and giving them hope and salvation.
I judge religion in the same manner I judge politics.
How have they improved the lives of their fellow human beings?
Social media giant Facebook announced Thursday it was banning all accounts linked to Myanmar’s military (the Tatmadaw), as well as ads from military-controlled companies, in the wake of the Army’s seizure of power on 1 February.
Above: Flag of the Myanmar Armed Forces (Tatmadaw)
It said in a statement that it was treating the post-coup situation in Myanmar as an “emergency“, explaining that the ban was precipitated by events since the coup, including “deadly violence“.
Above: Flag of Myanmar
Facebook‘s action comes as diplomatic efforts to resolve Myanmar’s political crisis have intensified and protests continued in Yangon and other cities calling for the country’s coup makers to step down and return Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government to power.
Above: Aung San Suu Kyi
Facebook already has banned several military-linked accounts since the coup, including army-controlled Myawaddy TV and state television broadcaster MRTV.
Above: Myawaddy TV logoAbove: Myanmar Radio & TV logo
The bans are also being applied on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.
The junta has tried to block Facebook and other social media platforms, but its efforts have proven ineffective.
Above: Entrance to Facebook Headquarters, 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, California
For more than a week, it has also turned off access to the Internet nightly from 1 a.m.
Opposition to the coup continues inside Myanmar, with large demonstrations in many cities and towns.
There was a new look to anti-coup demonstrations Thursday, with protesters smearing a traditional yellow paste on their faces, as a proclamation of their national identity.
Outside the Hledan Centre in Yangon, where around 1,000 people gathered to keep up pressure on the new military regime, protestors wore the mixture, called thanaka, in broad swathes on their foreheads, cheeks and down their noses.
Some had slogans written into the designs.
Reuters news service reports that clashes broke out in the capital Thursday between backers and opponents of the military.
And it could have been worse – as roughly 1,000 military supporters held a rally, police blocked the gates of the capital’s main university campus, keeping hundreds of students from joining the protest against military rule.
There was a tense standoff on Wednesday in the country’s second-biggest city, Mandalay, where police holding riot shields and cradling rifles blocked the path of about 3,000 teachers and students.
After about two hours, during which demonstrators played protest songs and listened to speeches condemning the coup, the crowd moved away.
On Saturday, police and soldiers fatally shot two people in Mandalay while breaking up a strike by dock workers.
Above: Anti-coup protest near the University of Yangon, 8 February 2021
Facebook and other social media platforms came under enormous criticism in 2017 when rights groups said they failed to take enough action to stop hate speech against Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority.
Above: Displaced Rohingya people
The army launched a brutal counter-insurgency operation that year that drove more than 700,000 Rohingya to seek safety in neighboring Bangladesh, where they remain in refugee camps.
Above: Rohingya refugee camp, Bangladesh
Myanmar security forces burned down villages, killed civilians and engaged in mass rape in their campaign, which the World Court is investigating as a crime of genocide.
Above: The sad plight of the Rohingya
Facebook in 2018 banned the accounts of several top Myanmar military leaders, including Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who led this month’s coup that ousted the elected government of Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party.
The General heads the junta that now acts as the government.
Above: General Min Aung Hlaing
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi on Wednesday visited the Thai capital, Bangkok, and held three-way talks with her Thai counterpart and Myanmar’s new Foreign Minister.
Above: Thai Foreign Minister Don PramudwinaiAbove: Burmese Foreign Minister Wunna Maung-Lwin
The meeting was part of Marsudi’s efforts to coordinate a regional response to the crisis triggered by the military takeover in Myanmar.
Above: Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi
Indonesia and fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are seeking to promote some concessions by Myanmar’s military that could ease tensions to prevent more violence.
The regional group, to which Thailand and Myanmar also belong, believes dialogue with the generals is a more effective method of achieving concessions than more confrontational methods, such as the sanctions often advocated by Western nations.
Above: Flag of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
The military says it took power because last November’s election was marked by widespread voting irregularities, an assertion that was refuted by the state election commission, whose members have since been replaced by the ruling junta.
Despite the landslide victory by Suu Kyi’s party at the polls, the Army blocked Parliament from convening and detained her and President Win Myint and other top members of her government.
Above: Myanmar President Win Myint
The junta has said it will rule for a year under a state of emergency and then hold fresh elections.
Above: Images of Myanmar’s capital Nay Pyi Daw
It is difficult to imagine that those who would repress the population have the population’s best interests in mind, that those who would usurp democracy are democracy’s protectors.
As I consider the events of this one day – 25 February 2021 – I am left with the feeling that every day, every day, every damn day, I hear of suffering.
Every day, every day, every damn day, I listen and I watch, for hope and love and progress, and I see….
Nothing.
I read and I read, I study and I search for answers, and I know…..
Nothing.
I turn back the hands of time and I study the past significance of this day in history….
Moscow, Russia, Saturday 25 February 1956
“Stalin originated the concept of ‘the enemy of the people’.
Above: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (1878 – 1953)
This term automatically rendered it unnecessary that the ideological errors of a man or men engaged in a controversy be proven.
This term made possible the usage of the most cruel repression, violating all norms of revolutionary legality, against anyone who in any way disagreed with Stalin, against those who were only suspected of hostile intent, against those who had bad reputations.
This concept, ‘enemy of the people’, actually eliminated the possibility of any kind of ideological fight or the making of one’s views known on this or that issue, even those of a practical character.
In the main, and in actuality, the only proof of guilt used, against all norms of current legal science, was the ‘confession’ of the accused himself.
And, as subsequent probing proved, confessions were acquired through physical pressures against the accused.
This led to the glaring violations of revolutionary legality and to the fact that many entirely innocent persons, who in the past had defended the Party line, became victims.“
20th Congress of the Communist Party speech by Nikita Khrushchev
Above: Nikita Khrushchev (1894 -1971)
In 1956, three years after his death, Stalin was still seen as the saviour of the Russian nation, but at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party, the new General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev gave a four-hour-long speech behind closed doors, denouncing the “cult of personality” and detailing the abuses of the Stalin era, especially the purges of 1937 – 1938.
Above: “The Wall of Sorrow” – the 1st exhibition of the victims of Stalinism in Moscow, 19 November 1988
Khrushchev ranged over many aspects of Stalin’s rise and rule.
A large number of specific abuses were laid at the door of Lavrentiy Beria, the Secret Police chief whom Khrushchev called “the rabid enemy of our Party“.
Above: Lavrentiy Beria (1899 – 1953)
Many of the audience left shocked, having learned for the first time about the comprehensive mendacity underlying the Soviet state and the true fates of former Party members.
It was said that some delegates had heart attacks and others subsequently killed themselves.
Above: Communist Party of the Soviet Union flag, with portrait of founder Vladimir Lenin (1870 – 1924)
No word was released, officially, of the speech, but it was soon leaked to the West, where it was pored over with fascination.
Above: First edition of Khrushchev’s “Secret Speech“
Ushering in the Soviet ‘Thaw‘, the speech is seen as a decisive break from the abuses and megalomania of Stalinism while attempting to reclaim Leninism and the values of the Russian Revolution.
Above: Flag of the Soviet Union (or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)(USSR)
By giving us an enemy to focus on, other than focusing on those who seek to dominate us, other than dealing with the problems that plague us, other than taking responsibility for our problems, the key is to give us someone to hate, someone to fear, otherwise we might not perceive a need for our leaders.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against princes and powers and principalities.
Above: Wrestling, 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, Gazyumov vs Andriitsev
Eskişehir, Turkey, Tuesday 4 October 2021
My Wall Street English (WSE) colleague had a bad day and was glad of the chance to share it with me.
John wanted to make an audiovisual presentation, but technology failed him.
What should have functioned…. did not.
The group for whom the presentation was intended decided that the flaws of the machine must mean flaws in the man.
John felt that all that he said was dubiously accepted and accordingly doubted.
The shared walk back to our shared neighbourhood had not been my original intention.
John is far removed from me in both age and attitude and though I have never desired to avoid his company I have not deliberately sought it either.
My closest male friend at WSE remains Rasool, my closest female friend therein Shqipe, but the former had his plans and Shqipe hers.
A solo walk has never bothered me, but a similar destination inspired a shared walk and I could see no objection to walking with him.
John vented the wind of his discontent and I quietly listened, only to suggest that the troubles of today might seem irrelevant in the promise of tomorrow.
John, as is the wont of language teachers, spoke of languages, that which is his own, that which he teaches and those he has known.
His conversation drifted to the Russian language which he described as “the language of deep thinkers”.
I admit to bias in regards to that which is Russian.
I recall an attraction I once had for a lovely Austrian woman whose stated reason to reject my advances was that she was attracted to Russians and Russian I was not.
She too spoke of the deep and philosophical richness of the Russian language, of the dark and undefinable dimensions of the Russian character.
Above: Innsbruck, Austria
I unjustifiably decided to adopt a prejudice against Russians.
It is easy to feel rage when Russian soldiers invade lands not their original own.
It is easy to decide that Putin is a man I refuse to like.
Above: Russian President Vladimir Putin
It is easy to cheer my fellow Canadians when my countrymen face Russian hockey players in ice-cold competition, determined not to be defeated at a sport we call our own invention and national sport.
Above: Paul Henderson and Yvan Cournoyer celebrating the goal that won the Summit Series in Moscow, 28 September 1972
But when I am truly sober and honest with myself I do have a real respect for the literature that Russia has produced:
Vasily Zhukovsky (Mary’s Grove/ A Bard in the Camp of the Russian Warriors)
Above: Vasily Zhukovsky (1783 – 1852)
Alexander Pushkin (Ode to Liberty / Boris Godunov / Eugene Onegin)
Above: Alexander Pushkin (1799 – 1837)
Mikhail Lermontov (A Hero of Our Time)
Above: Mikhail Lermontov (1814 – 1841)
Nikolai Gogol (Nevsky Prospekt / Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka / The Government Inspector)
Above: Nikolai Gogol (1809 – 1852)
Ivan Turgenev (A Sportsman’s Sketches / Fathers and Sons)
Above: Ivan Turgenev (1813 – 1883)
Fyodor Dostoevsky (Notes from Underground / Crime and Punishment / The Idiot/ The BrothersKaramazov)
Above: Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821 – 1881)
Leo Tolstoy (War and Peace / Anna Karenina / The Death of Ivan Ilyich)
Above: Leo Tolstoy (1828 – 1910)
Ivan Goncharov (A Common Story / Oblomov / The Precipice)
Above: Ivan Goncharov (1812 – 1891)
Mikhail Saltykov – Shchedrin (The History of a Town / The Golovlvoy Family)
Nikolai Leskov (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk / The Cathedral Clergy / The Enchanted Wanderer)
Above: Nikolai Leskov (1831 – 1895)
Anton Chekhov (The Seagull / Uncle Vanya / The Cherry Orchard)
Above: Anton Chekhov (1860 – 1904)
Konstantin Balmont (Burning Buildings / Let Us Be Like the Sun)
Above: Konstantin Balmont (1867 – 1942)
Valery Bryusov (The Fiery Angel)
Above: Valery Bryusov (1873 – 1924)
Alexander Blok (The Twelve)
Above: Alexander Blok (1880 – 1921)
Anna Akhmatova (Evening / Rosary / Poem Without a Hero)
Above: Anna Akhmatova (1889 – 1966)
Nikolay Gumilyov (Turreted House / The Pearls / Alien Sky)
Above: Nikolay Gumilyov (1886 – 1921)
Osip Mandelstam (Stone / The Noise of Time / The Egyptian Stamp)
Above: Osip Mandelstam (1891 – 1938)
Sergei Yesenin (Mare’s Ships / The Keys of Mary / Goodbye, my friend, goodbye)
Above: Sergei Yesenin (1895 – 1925)
Vladimir Mayakovsky (A Cloud in Trousers / Backbone Flute / The Bedbug / The Bathhouse)
Above: Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893 – 1930)
Marina Tsvetaeva (Evening Album / The Magic Lantern / Mileposts)
Above: Marina Tsvetaeva (1892 – 1941)
Boris Pasternak (My Sister, Life / The Second Birth / Doctor Zhivago)
Above: Boris Pasternak (1890 – 1960)
Aleksandr Kuprin (The Duel / The Pit / Moloch / Oleysa / The Garnet Bracelet)
Above: Aleksandr Kuprin (1870 – 1938)
Ivan Bunin (The Village / Dry Valley / Dark Avenues / Cursed Days)
Above: Ivan Bunin (1870 – 1953)
Leonid Andreyev (He Who Gets Slapped / The Seven Who Were Hanged / The Life of Man)
Above: Leonid Andreyev (1871 – 1919)
Fyodor Sologub (Bad Dreams / The Petty Demon / The Created Legend)
Above: Fyodor Sologub (1863 – 1927)
Yevgeny Zamyatin (A Provincial Tale / At the World’s End / The Islanders / We)
Above: Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884 – 1937)
Andrei Bely (Petersburg / The Symphonies / The Silver Dove)
Above: Andrei Bely (1880 – 1934)
Maxim Gorky (Sketches and Stories / The Lower Depths / The Artamonov Business)
Above: Maxim Gorky (1868 – 1936)
Nikolai Ostrovsky (How the Steel Was Tempered)
Above: Nikolai Ostrovsky (1904 – 1936)
Alexander Fadeyev (The Rout / The Last of the Udegs / The Young Guard)
Above: Alexander Fadeyev (1901 – 1956)
Mikhail Bulgakov (The Master and Margarita / The White Guard / The Days of the Turbans)
Above: Mikhail Bulgakov (1891 – 1940)
Andrei Platonov (Chevengur / The Foundation Pit / Soul)
Above: Andrei Platonov (1899 – 1951)
Daniil Kharms (Incidences / The Old Woman / Elizaveta Bam)
Above: Daniil Kharms (1905 – 1942)
Vladislav Khodasevich (Heavy Lyre / European Night / Ballad)
Above: Vladislav Khodasevich (1886 – 1939)
Georgy Ivanov (The Embarkment for Cythera / Petersburg Winters / Spring in Fialta)
Above: Georgy Ivanov (1894 – 1958)
Vyacheslav Ivanov (Lodestars)
Above: Vyacheslav Ivanov (1866 – 1949)
Gaito Gazdanov (An Evening with Claire / The Spectre of Alexander Wolf / Night Roads)
Above: Gaito Gazdanov (1903 – 1971)
Vladimir Nabokov (Lolita / Pale Fire / Speak, Memory)
Above: Vladimir Nabokov (1899 – 1977)
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich / Cancer Ward / The Gulag Archipelago)
Above: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918 – 2008)
Varlam Shalamov (The Kolyma Tales)
Above: Varlam Shalamov (1907 – 1982)
The Khrushchev Thaw (1953 – 1964) brought some fresh wind to literature and poetry became a mass cultural phenomenon.
This “thaw” did not last long.
Above: Nikita Khrushchev meeting US President John F. Kennedy, 1961
In the 1970s, some of the most prominent authors were banned from publishing and prosecuted for their anti-Soviet sentiments.
The end of the 20th century was a difficult period for Russian literature, with few distinct voices.
Among the most discussed authors of this period were:
Victor Pelevin (Omon Ra / Chapaev and Emptiness / Generation P), who gained popularity with short stories and novels
Above: Viktor Pelevin
novelist and playwright Vladimir Sorokin (The Queue / Ice / Bro / 23,000 / The Day of the Oprichnik)
Above: Vladimir Sorokin
the poet Dmitri Prigov
Above: Dmitri Prigov (1940 – 2007)
In the 21st century, a new generation of Russian authors appeared, differing greatly from the postmodernist Russian prose of the late 20th century, which lead critics to speak about “new realism“.
The “new realists” are writers who assume there is a place for preaching in journalism, social and political writing and the media, but that “direct action” is the responsibility of civil society.
“It seems that our younger generation of writers, already labelled “New Realists”, understand this.
A generation raised in a free Russia, they combine both Gogol’s trends.
With a command since childhood of foreign languages, to which their forefathers had no access, enjoying freedom of speech, the absence of censorship, the opportunity to travel all over the world – for example, to spend time in Gogol’s beloved Rome, where he wrote “Dead Souls” and to read books that used to be banned, they are creating a new type of literature.
They clearly see everything wrong with new society and are far from conformist, but nevertheless are not “rebels” in the 20th-century sense (eg, anarchists, hippies, France’s 1968 “revolutionaries”).
They are writers who assume there is a place for preaching in journalism, social and political writing and the media, but that “direct action” is the responsibility of civil society.
Their names are not yet well known to “general readers”, but – believe me – the future belongs to them.
That’s why I’ll mention a few I know personally: Zakhar Prilepin, Alexander Karasyov, Dmitriy Faleyev, Vladimir Lorchenkov, Tatyana Zamirovskaya, Peter Orekhovskiy, Anton Nechayev, Ivan Klinovoy, Alexander Silayev, Yevgeni Bevers, Andrey Mukhin, Marta Ketro, Alexander Snegiryov and Viktoria Lebedeva.
I recommend you make a note of these names, just in case.
After all, good writers are always in short supply.“
(Yevgeni Popov)
Above: Russian writer Yevgeni Popov
Leading “new realists” include:
Ilja Stogoff (1,000,000 Evra / Boys Don’t Cry)
Above: Ilja Stogoff
Zakhar Prilepin (The Pathologies / Sin / Abode)
Above: Zakhar Prilepin
Alexander Karasyov (Chechen Stories / Traitor)
Above: Alexander Karasyov
Arkady Babchenko (One Soldier’s War)
Above: Arkady Babchenko
Vladimir Lorchenkov (The Good Life Elsewhere)
Above: Vladimir Lorchenkov
Alexander Snegiryov
Above: Alexander Snegiryov
Russia has five Nobel Prize in Literature laureates.
Above: The Nobel Prize, with portrait of Prize founder Alfred Nobel (1833 – 1896)
As of 2011, Russia was the 4th largest book producer in the world in terms of published titles.
A popular folk saying claims Russians are “the world’s most reading nation“.
Deep thinkers?
Above: Logo of the National Library of Russia
Of the 50+ Russian writers listed above, I am best acquainted with Dostoevsky because of five important lessons he tries to impart to his readers – lessons that console me somewhat for the daily tragedies the news continually reports.
Above: Dostoevsky Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
In his Notes from Underground, Dostoevsky introduces the reader to a most unpleasant character.
Notes at first glance seems like an extended rant against life and the world as delivered by a retired civil servant.
He is deeply unreasonable, inconsistent and furious with everyone, including himself.
He is always getting into rows.
For example, he goes to a reunion of some former colleagues and tells them all how much he has always hated them.
The Underground Man wants to puncture everyone’s illusions and make them as unhappy as he is.
He seems, at first glance, like a grotesque character to build a book around.
But Dostoevsky is doing something important here.
He is insisting, with a peculiar kind of intensity, on a very strange fact about the human condition.
We want happiness, but we have a special talent for making ourselves miserable.
“Man is sometimes extraordinarily, passionately, in love with suffering.
That is a fact.”
Dostoevsky is taking aim at philosophies of progress and improvement, which were very popular in his age as they continue to be popular in ours.
He is attacking our habit of telling ourselves that if only this or that thing were different, we could leave suffering behind.
This is a delusion.
Suffering will always pursue us.
Schemes for improving the world also contain a flaw.
They won’t eliminate suffering.
They will only change the things that cause us pain.
Life can only ever be a process of changing the focus of pain, never of removing pain itself.
There will always be something to agonize us.
Dostoevsky attacks all ideologies of technological or social progress which aspire to the elimination of suffering.
They won’t succeed, for as soon as they solve one problem they will direct our nature to become unhappy in new ways.
Dostoevsky is fascinated by the secret way in which we actually don’t want what we theoretically seem to seek.
He discusses the pleasure a lot of people get from feelings of superiority and for whom, consequently, an egalitarian society would be a nightmare.
He speaks of the real thrill we get from hearing about violent crimes on the news.
He believes that we would actually feel thwarted in a truly peaceful world.
Notes is a dark insightful counterpoint to well-intentioned liberalism.
It doesn’t show that social improvement is meaningless, but Notes does remind us that we will always carry our very complex and difficult selves with us and that progress will never be as clear and clean as we might like to imagine.
Above: Title page of Russian language 1866 edition of Notes from Underground
Crime and Punishment focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in Saint Petersburg, who is fascinated by power and ruthlessness:
“Leaders of men, such as Napoleon, were all, without exception, criminals.
They broke the ancient laws of their people to make new ones that suited them better, and they never feared bloodshed.”
Above: Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 – 1821)
Raskolnikov formulates a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker for her money.
Before the killing, he believes that with the money he could liberate himself from poverty and go on to perform great deeds.
However, once it is done he finds himself racked with confusion, paranoia, and disgust for his actions.
His justifications disintegrate completely as he struggles with guilt and horror and confronts the real-world consequences of his deed.
Dostoevsky reminds us that we share a troubling tendency.
We think we know ourselves better than we actually do.
Part of our life’s journey is to engage in the tricky task of disentangling ourselves from what we think we are like, in order to discover our true nature.
While so many novelists delight in showing the sickly reality beneath a glamourous or enticing façade, Dostoevsky has embarked on a more curious, but rewarding, mission.
He wants to reveal that beneath the so-called monster, there can be a far more interesting tender-hearted character lurking – a nice, but deluded, intelligent, but frightened and panicked person.
Dostoevsky lessens the imaginative distance between Us – who live mainly law-abiding and, more or less, manageable lives – and Them – the ones who do terrible things and wreak havoc with their lives and those of others.
That person is more like you than you might initially want to think, and, therefore, more accessible to sympathy.
The idea that you could be a good person, do something very bad, and still deserve some compassion sounds maybe slight and obvious, until one has need of this kind of forgiveness in one’s own life.
In Dostoevsky’s mind, no one is outside the circle of God’s love and understanding
Dostoevsky completed his first novel, Poor Folk, in May 1845.
His friend Dmitry Grigorovich, with whom he was sharing an apartment at the time, took the manuscript to the poet Nikolay Nekrasov, who in turn showed it to the renowned and influential literary critic Vissarion Belinsky.
Belinsky described it as Russia’s first “social novel“.
Poor Folk was released on 15 January 1846 in the St Petersburg Collection almanac and became a commercial success.
Dostoevsky felt that his military career would endanger his now flourishing literary career, so he wrote a letter asking to resign his post.
Shortly thereafter, he wrote his second novel, The Double, which appeared in the journal Notes of theFatherlandon 30 January 1846, before being published in February.
Around the same time, Dostoevsky discovered socialism through the writings of French thinkers Fourier, Cabet, Proudhon and Saint-Simon.
Above: French philosopher Charles Fourier (1772 – 1837)Above: French philosopher/ Utopian socialist Étienne Cabet (1788 – 1856)Above: French philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809 – 1865)Above: French philosopher Henri de Saint-Simon (1760 – 1825)
Through his relationship with Belinsky, Dostoevsky expanded his knowledge of the philosophy of socialism.
He was attracted to its logic, its sense of justice and its preoccupation with the destitute and the disadvantaged.
However, his relationship with Belinsky became increasingly strained as Belinsky’s atheism and dislike of religion clashed with Dostoevsky’s Russian Orthodox beliefs.
Dostoevsky eventually parted with him and his associates.
Above: St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral, Saint Petersburg, Russia
After The Double received negative reviews, Dostoevsky’s health declined and he had more frequent seizures, but he continued writing.
From 1846 to 1848 he released several short stories in the magazine Annals of the Fatherland, including “Mr. Prokharchin“, “The Landlady“, “A Weak Heart“, and “White Nights“.
These stories were unsuccessful, leaving Dostoevsky once more in financial trouble, so he joined the Utopian socialist Betekov Circle, a tightly knit community which helped him to survive.
When the Circle dissolved, Dostoevsky befriended Apollon Maykov and his brother Valerian.
In 1846, on the recommendation of the poet Aleksey Pleshcheyev, he joined the Petrashevsky Circle, founded by Mikhail Petrashevsky, who had proposed social reforms in Russia.
Mikhail Bakunin once wrote to Alexander Herzen that the group was “the most innocent and harmless company” and its members were “systematic opponents of all revolutionary goals and means“.
Above: Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakunin (1814 – 1876)Above: “the father of Russian socialism” Alexander Herzen (1812 – 1870)
Dostoevsky used the Circle’s library on Saturdays and Sundays and occasionally participated in their discussions on freedom from censorship and the abolition of serfdom.
In 1849, the first parts of Netochka Nezvanova, a novel Dostoevsky had been planning since 1846, were published in Annals of the Fatherland, but his banishment ended the project.
Dostoevsky never attempted to complete it.
Above: Netochka Nezvanova book cover
The members of the Petrashevsky Circle were denounced to Liprandi, an official at the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Above: Ivan Petrovich Liprandi (1790 – 1880)
Dostoevsky was accused of reading works by Belinsky, including the banned Letter to Gogol, and of circulating copies of these and other works.
Above: Vissarion Belinsky’s Letter to Gogol
Antonelli, the government agent who had reported the group, wrote in his statement that at least one of the papers criticised Russian politics and religion.
Dostoevsky responded to these charges by declaring that he had read the essays only “as a literary monument, neither more nor less“.
He spoke of “personality and human egoism” rather than of politics.
Even so, he and his fellow “conspirators” were arrested on 23 April 1849 at the request of Count A. Orlov and Tsar Nicholas I, who feared a revolution like the Decembrist Revolt of 1825 in Russia and the Revolutions of 1848 in Europe.
Above: Prince Alexey Fyodorovich Orlov (1787 – 1862)Above: Russian Czar Nicholas I (1796 – 1855)
The members were held in the well-defended Peter and Paul Fortress, which housed the most dangerous convicts.
Above: Aerial view of the Peter and Paul Fortress, Saint Petersburg, Russia
The case was discussed for four months by an investigative commission headed by the Tsar, with Adjutant General Ivan Nabokov, senator Prince Pavel Gagarin, Prince Vasili Dolgorukov, General Yakov Rostovtsev and General Leonty Dubelt, head of the secret police.
They sentenced the members of the Circle to death by firing squad.
The prisoners were taken to Semyonov Place in St Petersburg on 23 December 1849 where they were split into three-man groups.
Dostoevsky was the third in the second row.
Next to him stood Pleshcheyev and Durov.
The execution was stayed when a cart delivered a letter from the Tsar commuting the sentence.
Above: Petrashevsky Circle’s members going through an ‘execution ritual’
Dostoevsky later alluded to his experience of what he believed to be the last moments of his life in his 1869 novel, The Idiot, where the main character tells the harrowing story of an execution by guillotine that he recently witnessed in France.
Above: Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Idiot manuscript and drawing
Three minutes before his expected death Dostoevsky was able to see life clearly for the first time.
What would it be like to go through one’s whole life in such a state of gratitude and generosity?
You would not share any of the normal attitudes.
You would love everyone equally.
You would be enchanted by the simplest things.
You would never feel angry or frightened.
You would seem to other people to be a kind of idiot.
We are continually surrounded by things which could delight us, if only we could learn to appreciate them – the value of existence before we are overtaken by death.
Set in 19th-century Russia, The Brothers Karamazovis a passionate philosophical novel that enters deeply into questions of God, free will and morality.
It is a theological drama dealing with problems of faith, doubt and reason in the context of a modernizing Russia.
It has been acclaimed as one of the supreme achievements in world literature.
The Grand Inquisitor is a story within a story within The Brothers Karamazov, which imagines that the greatest event looked forward to by Christian theology, the Second Coming of Christ, has in fact already happened.
Dostoevsky imagined Jesus did come back several hundred years ago.
He turned up in Spain, during the highest period of power in the Catholic Church, the organization established, in theory at least, entirely in devotion to Him.
Christ is back to fulfil His teachings of forgiveness and universal love, but rather something odd happens…..
Above: Christ the Saviour (Pantokrator), a 6th-century encaustic icon from Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Mount Sinai
The most powerful religious leader, the Grand Inquisitor, has Jesus arrested and imprisoned.
Above: Logo of the Spanish Inquisition
In the middle of the night, the Grand Inquisitor visits Christ in His cell and explains that he cannot allow Him to do His work on Earth, because He is a threat to the stability of society.
Christ is just too ambitious, too pure, too perfect.
Humanity cannot live up to the impossible goals He sets before us.
The fact is that people have not been able to live according to His teachings.
Jesus should admit He failed and that His ideas of redemption were essentially misguided.
Human beings cannot live in purity, cannot ever be truly good, cannot live up to Christ’s message, and this is something we should reconcile ourselves to with grace rather than fury or self-hatred.
Above: The Sermon on the Mount, Carl Bloch
We have to accept a great deal of unreasonableness, folly, greed, selfishness and shortsightedness as ineradicable parts of the human condition and plan accordingly.
It is not just a pessimistic thesis about politics or religion.
It is a commentary on our own lives.
We won’t sort them out.
We won’t stop being a bit mad and wayward.
And we shouldn’t torment ourselves with the dream that if only we tried hard enough that we would become the perfect being that idealistic philosophies, like Christianity, like to sketch all too readily.
In a world that is very keen on upbeat stories, we will always run up against our limitations as deeply flawed and profoundly muddled creatures.
Dostoevsky’s attitude, bleak but compassionate, tragic but kind, is needed more than ever in our naive and sentimental age that so fervently clings to the idea that science can save us all and that we may yet be made perfect through technology.
Above: The famous windmill scene in Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (1547 – 1616)
There is a more humane darker truth.
As the great sages have always known, life is, and ever will be, suffering.
And yet there is great redemption available in articulating this message in brilliant and moving, complex and subtle, works of art.
And this is my hope that in my own humble way that I too can articulate this message in some way that matters.
The long-suffering readers of this blogpost may wonder why I bother to mention the news of the day at all.
Can we not peruse the news ourselves?
Do we really need someone to explain the evidence of our eyes?
“There are, of course, those who do not want us to speak.
I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones and men with guns will soon be on their way.
Why?
Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power.
Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth.
And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there?
Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression.
And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission.
How did this happen?
Who’s to blame?
Well, certainly, there are those who are more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable.
But again, truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.
I know why you did it.
I know you were afraid.
Who wouldn’t be?
War, terror, disease.
They were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense.
Fear got the best of you….
Fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words.
They are perspectives…..
But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me….”
Above: V (Hugo Weaving), V for Vendetta
These very questions arose a few days after my walk with “Big Bad” John….
Eskişehir, Turkey, Sunday 10 October 2021
At Wall Street English there are three types of activities for which native teachers are responsible:
Encounters: where we attempt to elicit from the students the grammar and vocabulary of the multimedia unit they studied
Social clubs: conversation classes where the students talk together in English in discussion of various topics
Complimentary classes: which are conversation classes structured in an Encounter format
Progress is measured in levels which are comparable to IELTS (International English Language Testing System), TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) and CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) measurements.
Roughly equivalent to CEFR B1, B2 and B3 levels are WSE’s N1, N2, N3, N4 and N5 standards.
Today I was scheduled to give an N3 Complimentary Class and today’s theme was the news.
I passed around a plastic hand-out questionnaire card with nine questions that have provoked many thoughts within since.
The questions were:
How often do you watch the news? (Class: Rarely)
Do you watch the news on TV? Which news shows do you watch? (Class: No)
Do you prefer to read a newspaper or read the news online? Why? (Class: Astonishment at the notion of reading a newspaper)
Do you read any news magazines? Which ones? (Class: No)
Did you buy a newspaper or magazine last week? Why? (Class: No)
What kind of news stories do you find interesting? (Class: Silence)
Can you remember an interesting or funny news story? (Class: Silence)
Did you watch the news on TV yesterday? (Class: Some said “Yes”.) What do you remember? (Class: Silence)
If you don’t watch or read the news, can you explain why not? (Class: Silence)
Later, back home in my wee apartment, I asked myself the same questions:
I watch the news three or four times a week, online or from a newspaper. I never watch TV, though there is one in my furnished apartment.
The news I get online tends to be of the late night comedy sort, which ironically feels more honest to me than any news received from the media networks.
I prefer to read a newspaper rather than read the news online, though I am aware, as one student pointed out, that the Hürriyet Daily News (English language edition) is more propaganda and fluff than actual hard news. Perhaps it is a question of age, but there is something more reassuring about the tangibility of touching a newspaper, a magazine or a book than reading the same from an electronic screen. As well, it seems more difficult to edit what has been printed and distributed than something that has been produced electronically, so the illusion of durability lends the printed matter the notion of reliability.
I buy the Hürriyet Daily News every weekday and most weekends. I occasionally stumble across TheEconomist and Time magazines. These are my only newspaper and magazine English language options here in Eskişehir. Beyond these, finding English language materials is not a simple matter in an inland Turkish city that does not attract many international tourists. I buy these for a number of reasons, but mainly for the feeling that I am not so isolated in this alien land.
My interests tend to be politics and history. Financial news is a cure for insomnia and feels unrelated to my impoverished spending capabilities. Sports are difficult to embrace when the nation is not your own.
Like my students, I sadly could not recall a story when I needed one, which leads me to wonder why. Has the news become unremarkable or has our collective retention diminished with our technological advancements?
I did not watch the news on Saturday. I instead fought the effects of a cold which still lingers like a party guest that won’t leave even though everyone else has long since departed. Generally Saturday’s news was depressingly uniform with: the resignation of the Austrian Chancellor, milquetoast Czech election results, COVID-19 restriction protests in Rome, 126 migrants found in a shipping container off the coast of Guatemala, dissatisfied victims of the 1994 AMIA bombing of Buenos Aires still seeking a long-denied justice, more BS from America as to the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan (Why was that two-decade war fought?), more corona virus cases around the globe, the entire nation of Lebanon without electrical power, 29 Russians dead from accidental alcohol poisoning, the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Canary Island of La Palma continues to erupt, a Roman Catholic nun is freed from Islamic militant captivity in Mali, and 20 people are killed by bandits in a Nigerian market. Around the world, people married and divorced, babies were born and folks died, the sun rose and set, and another calendar day came and went, unheralded and unnoticed by most of us.
Above: Former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian KurzAbove: Coat of arms of the Czech RepublicAbove: COVID-19 restriction protesting, Rome, ItalyAbove: Migrants seeking refuge in the US wait to be processed, Monterrey, Mexico, 4 October 2021Above: Remains of the AMIA (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina) Building, Buenos Aires, Argentina, after the suicide van bombing, 18 July 1994Above: The flag of AfghanistanAbove: Scientifically accurate atomic model of the external structure of the SARS COVID-19 virusAbove: Flag of LebanonAbove: Coat of arms of the Russian FederationAbove: Cumbre Vieja Volcano, La Palma, Canary Islands, SpainAbove: Sister Gloria Cecilia NarvaezAbove: Sultan Place, Sokoto, Nigeria
The last WSE question intrigued me the most. Why, or why not, read the news? Why do I bother? Why don’t my students? And it is this question that is the crux of this entire blogpost. Why should the news be of interest? What value, if any, is there in reporting and reading the news?
The aforementioned Swiss writer Rolf Dobelli, in his book Stop Reading the News: A Manifesto for a Happier, Calmer and Wiser Life, suggests that news is to the mind what sugar is to the body, that the news damages our concentration and well-being, and that the resulting misplaced sense of duty can misdirect our behaviour.
He suggests that in a world of increasing disruption and division a life without the news gives us more time, less anxiety and more insights.
I agree with him…..
Up to a point
The news can seem irrelevant, for of the roughly 20,000 news items in an average 12 months (60 a day minimum), if we are honest with ourselves, it is difficult to think of one single news item that has helped us make a better decision about our lives, our families, our careers or our well-being.
Dobelli makes a good case when he argues that when it comes to the things that really matter in our lives, the news is irrelevant.
Dobelli anticipated my next objection.
“You don’t have to be so black and white about this.
There is a middle ground here.
Just be more selective about what you read.
Only consume articles that are worth something and leave everything else aside.”
Above: Rolf Dobelli
Dobelli argues that this sounds good in theory, but does not work in practice, because we cannot judge the value of a news report in advance.
To adequately judge whether a headline is worth reading, we have actually got to read it.
And soon we are back to sampling the entire buffet.
Perhaps we can leave the selection process to the professionals?
How good are journalists at tracking down and filtering important events?
The first Internet browser appeared on 11 November 1993 – probably the most significant invention of the 20th century, after the atomic bomb and the discovery of antibiotics.
Do you know what this browser was called?
Mosaic.
If you did not know the answer, you have a good excuse:
It didn’t make the news.
Above: NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications) Mosaic browser screenshot
What were the lead stories on German TV that day?
Above: Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), a popular German TV channel
Party funding was being reformed.
Above: Logo of the Deutsche Bundestag (the German federal parliament)
The Israeli Prime Minister had a meeting with Bill Clinton.
Above: Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and US President Bill Clinton
The Pope had fractured his shoulder.
Above: Pope John Paul II (né Karol Józef Wojtyła) (1920 – 2005)
Neither journalists nor consumers have much sense of what is relevant.
The relationship between relevance and media attention seems inverse:
The greater the fanfare in the news, the smaller the relevance of the event.
Dobelli has come to the conclusion that the items journalists don’t report on are usually the very things you actually want to know.
Acknowledging the possible irrelevance of the news is nothing new:
In Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece Anna Karenina, published in 1877, Sergei Ivanovich observes that:
“The newspapers published a great deal that was superfluous and exaggerated, with the sole aim of attracting attention and talking one another down.”
Relevance is a highly personal issue.
It is not defined by the government or the Pope, by your boss or by your therapist.
Don’t get it confused with the media’s perspective.
To the media, what is relevant is anything that grabs attention.
This is the racket at the heart of the industry’s business model.
Dobelli argues that the news they supply us is irrelevant, but it is sold as relevant.
“The relevant versus the new“:
This is the fundamental battle facing us today.
I enjoyed the next paragraph Dobelli wrote:
“If I were going to put together a current affairs programmer personally tailored to me, what would it look like?
It would include the following:
a status report on my family (What have my kids been up to? What is on their minds? What is on my wife’s mind?)(Run, Rolf, run!),
a look back at the things I could have done better that day (a sort of daily critique),
a health check on my family,
a status report on my aunt’s illness,
the physical and psychological condition of my friends (Danger, Will Robinson, danger!),
an update on the planned traffic-calming measures in my town,
the waste pick-up schedule,
a renovation project in the kitchen,
holiday plans,
my email exchange with a researcher,
the plans for my next novel,
a new business idea,
a review of a pleasant conversation I had at lunch,
an article on the neighbourhood, the school, the city – in other words, regional and hyper-regional news.
And all the things I need for my job as a writer.
Would my personal show be a hit with anyone else?
Obviously not.
What is relevant to me has absolutely nothing to do with what is relevant for other people, let alone with what is on the global news.
Most people assume that the “world news” is automatically relevant to them.
They are mistaken.“
It is this point of relevance I must debate.
But let us continue with Dobelli’s arguments….
He argues that the news lulls us into a warm, all-inclusive sense of common humanity.
We are all citizens of the world.
We are all subject to the same troubles.
We are all connected.
The planet is a global village.
We sing “We Are the World” while swaying back and forth in harmony with thousands of others, holding our tiny lighters aloft.
This sense of empathy, magnified a thousand-fold, feels wonderfully soft and cosy – yet, Dobelli asserts, it achieves absolutely nothing.
This magical sense of all-encompassing, worldwide fellowship is a gigantic act of self-deceit.
The fact is, according to Rolf, consuming the news does not connect us to other people and cultures.
We are connected to each other because we co-operate, trade, cultivate friendships and relationships, fall in love.
Whenever Dobelli tells people he has stopped reading the news, he is always accused of taking no interest in the plight of impoverished people or in wars or atrocities.
His response?
“But should I?“
He is sure there are bad things happening on other continents or even other planets.
Should he also “take an interest” in that?
Where do we draw the line?
Tellingly, the media will report exhaustively on a light airplane crash in which a few people from the publication’s own country died, but hardly at all on a comparable crash affecting a hundred times more people from, say, Kamchatka.
Above: (in red) the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia
Besides, “taking an interest by consuming media“….
Could anybody be more self-deluded?
Genuine concern entails action.
Wallowing in your own empathy by watching earthquake victims crawling out of rubble on TV is not simply not helpful, it is actually repulsive.
If you really care, Dobelli argues, about earthquake victims, war refugees or famine victims, give money.
Not attention.
Not work.
Not prayers.
Money.
Dobelli argues that by following the fate of earthquake victims, for example, you are actually giving your attention to the people running the media platforms rather than to the victims themselves.
Your attention won’t make a blind bit of difference to the victims, but it certainly will boost the platforms.
Doubly so, in fact:
First, because they make money by selling your attention to advertisers.
Second, because it enables them to gather more of your personal data – your user behaviour, your personality and your emotional weaknesses – and use it to bombard you with increasingly targeted advertisements.
Dobelli believes that your attention helps the news media, not the victims.
And that you are harming yourself.
He asserts that even contributing your own manpower to a cause is of limited to 0 use.
Don’t go to the Sahara, Dobelli cries, to build a water pump with your own hands.
He calls this “well-intentioned lunacy…volunteer’s folly“.
“You might manage to build one well per day, but if you do a day’s work at your regular job (working within your circle of competence) and send the money you earn to Africa, you can help build 100 wells a day, which is of far more use to the world’s poor.
Don’t donate your manpower on site.
Donate money from where you are.“
“One objection I hear a lot is this:
“If you don’t consume the news, you don’t know where help is most urgently needed.”
This, too, is a cognitive error.
The news media is biased about what disasters it covers.
It reports on disasters that are:
new
visually striking,
and can be told through the lens of individual human stories.
The conflict in Palestine is getting boring after all these years, viruses aren’t very photogenic, and thawing permafrost only gets exciting if a car gets stuck in it.
Above: Flag of PalestineAbove: Melting permafrost, Canadian Arctic
These three criteria have nothing to do with an objective assessment of global suffering.
Slow developments towards potential disasters – which may still be preventable – hardly ever make the news.
Your humanity is not measured according to how much misery you consume on the news nor by the sympathy it elicits.
My tip?
Assume that there is enough suffering in the world even without the news.
Make regular donations to established aid organizations.
They – not the media – have the best sense of where help is most needed.“
Here I part company with Dobelli for two reasons:
First, if anything the prejudice of experience has taught me is that there is no guarantee that the charity you give to will ultimately assist those to whom the charity was intended – there are too many middlemen between donor and victim to reassure me that what is given will help anyone except the middlemen.
This is not to suggest that there are bad charities.
On the contrary, I believe that there are good people trying to make the world a better place.
But I return to my oft-quoted line about “princes and powers and principalities” and as well another oft-truism of the sad state of humanity.
“The problem is not that there is not enough for the poor, but rather there is never enough for the rich.”
Things like the Panama Papers and the Pandora Papers bear witness to this.
(The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) that were published beginning on 3 April 2016.
The papers detail financial and attorney-client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities.
The documents, some dating back to the 1970s, were created by, and taken from, former Panamanian offshore law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca.
The documents contain personal financial information about wealthy individuals and public officials that had previously been kept private.
While offshore business entities are not illegal in the jurisdictions where they are registered, and often not illegal at all, reporters found that some Mossack Fonseca shell corporations seem to have been used for illegal purposes, including fraud, kleptocracy, tax evasion and evading international sanctions.
“John Doe“, the whistleblower who leaked the documents to German journalist Bastian Obermayer from the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), remains anonymous, even to the journalists who worked on the investigation.
Above: Bastian Obermayer
“My life is in danger.”, the whistleblower told them.
In a 6 May 2016 document, John Doe cited income inequality as the reason for the action and said the documents were leaked “simply because I understood enough about their contents to realize the scale of the injustices they described“.
Doe had never worked for any government or intelligence agency and expressed willingness to help prosecutors if granted immunity from prosecution.
After SZ verified that the statement did in fact come from the source for the Panama Papers, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) posted the full document on its website.
Reports from 3 April note the law firm’s many connections to high-ranking political figures and their relatives, as well as celebrities and business figures.
Among other things, the leaked documents illustrate how wealthy individuals, including public officials, can keep personal financial information private.
Initial reports identified five then-heads of state or government leaders from Argentina, Iceland, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as government officials, close relatives, and close associates of various heads of government of more than 40 other countries.
Names of then-current national leaders in the documents include:
President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates,
Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine
King Salman of Saudi Arabia
the Prime Minister of Iceland, Sigmundur Davio Gunnlaugsson)
Above: Countries implicated in the Panama Papers
(The Pandora Papers are 11.9 million leaked documents with 2.9 terabytes of data that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published beginning on 3 October 2021.
The leak exposed the secret offshore accounts of 35 world leaders, including current and former presidents, prime ministers, and heads of state as well as more than 100 billionaires, celebrities, and business leaders.
The news organizations of the ICIJ described the document leak as their most expansive exposé of financial secrecy yet, containing documents, images, emails and spreadsheets from 14 financial service companies, in nations including Panama, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates, surpassing their previous release of the Panama Papers in 2016, which had 11.5 million confidential documents (2.6 terabytes).
At the time of the release of the papers, the ICIJ said it is not identifying its source for the documents.
Estimates by the ICIJ of money held offshore (outside the country where the money was made) range from US$5.6 trillion to US$32 trillion.
In total, 35 current and former national leaders appear in the leak, alongside 400 public officials from nearly 100 countries and more than 100 billionaires.
Among those names are:
former British Prime Minister Tony Blair
Chilean President Sebastián Pinera
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta
Montenegrin President Milo Dukanovic
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani
United Arab Emirates Prime Minister / Dubai ruler Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Gabonese President Bongo Ondimba
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati
Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso
family members of former Argentine President Mauricio Macri
his spin doctor, Ecuadorian Jaime Durán Barba
Cypriot president Nicos Anastasiades
King Abdullah II of Jordan
Azerbaijan’s ruling Aiyev family
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan
Pakistani Finance Minister Shaukat Fayaz Ahmed Tarin
former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko
associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin – Svétlana Krivonogikh / Gennady Timchenko
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis
International drug trafficker Raffeale Amato
US musician Shakira
German model Claudia Schiffer
Indian cricket player Sachin Tendulkar
Indian billionaire Anil Ambani
Dark website AlphaBay founder Alexandre Cazes
Konstantin Ernst, CEO of Channel One Russia
Spanish entertainer Miguel Bosé
Spanish footballer Pep Guardiola
Spanish entertainer Julio Iglesias
More than 100 billionaires
29,000 offshore accounts
30 current and former leaders
336 politicians )
Second, how the news is approached affects the impact it has upon its recipient.
Dobelli argues that the news is:
Outside your circle of competence.
Something is relevant when it enables you to make better decisions and allows you to understand the world better.
Investor Warren Buffet uses the term circle of competence.
Anything inside this circle is an area of expertise.
Anything outside it is something you do not understand, or don’t fully understand.
Buffet’s motto:
“Know your circle of competence and stick within it.
The size of that circle is not very important.
Knowing its boundaries, however, is vital.”
Above: Warren Buffet
Organize your professional life rigorously around your circle of competence.
These days – with very few exceptions – you will only find professional success in a niche.
The greater your knowledge and the greater your ability within that niche, the greater your success.
If you are the best in the world within your niche, you have made it.
Creating a deep knowledge base by reading textbooks and completing online courses, reading long articles and talking to people in the know is imperative.
All the information that matches your circle of competence is valuable.
Everything that is outside your circle of competence is best ignored.
Thinking about it will only waster your time and affect your concentration.
Everyone’s circle of competence contains a few sources of specialized media that you absolutely need to read.
Go deep, not broad.
What is outside your circle of competence, you are best off giving a miss.
Separate the relevant from the irrelevant.
When you consistently organize your life around your circle of competence, you will realize that 99% of what you read, see and hear in the media is irrelevant.
“I have only one piece of advice for you – not just for success in this business, but personally.
Begin at once – not today, or tomorrow, or at some remote indefinite date, but right now, at this precise moment – to choose some subject, some concept, some great name or idea or some event in history on which you can make yourself the world’s supreme expert.
Start a crash program immediately to qualify yourself for this self-assignment through reading, research and reflection.
I don’t mean the sort of expert who avoids all the small errors as he sweeps on to the grand fallacy.
I mean one who has the most knowledge, the deepest insight and the most audacious willingness to break new ground.
Such a disciplined form of self-education will give you prestige, eminence and worldwide contacts.
You will enjoy correspondence and fellowship with other people interested in the same speciality.
It will add a new dimension and a new unity to your entire education.
The cross-fertilization of ideas will become an exciting and unending adventure that will add a new total perspective to your entire life.”
(Max Schuster)
Above: Max Lincoln Schuster (1897 – 1970)
Getting risk assessment all wrong – reacting disproportionately strongly to visible, scandalous, sensationalist, shocking, personal, loud, striking, polarizing, rapidly changing, colourful stimuli and disproportionately weakly reacting to abstract, ambivalent, complex, slowly developing, inter-related pieces of information that require some degree of interpretation – distorting our perspective.
A waste of time – in its consumption, in the refocusing of attention away from it, and its persistent lingering in your mind interrupting your train of thought.
Obscuring the Big Picture, as it is incapable of explaining anything, confusing the presentation of facts with insight into the functional context of the world –
Dobelli argues that we ought to try and understand the generators underlying these events, that we ought to be investigating the engine room behind them.
Few journalists explains the casual relationships, the invisible processes that shape cultural, intellectual, economic, military, political and environmental events, that are complex, non-linear and hard for our brains to digest.
To see the bigger picture, you need the connecting lines.
You need the context, the mutual dependencies, the feedback, the immediate repercussions, and the consequences of these repercussions.
News is the opposite of understanding the world.
They are only events without context.
Nearly everything that happens in the world is complex.
Implying that events are singular phenomena is a lie.
Thomas Jefferson realized this as early as 1807:
“The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them.”
Above: Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826), 3rd US President (1801 – 1809)
Facts get in the way of thought.
Your brain can drown in facts.
Dobelli believes if you consume the news, you will be under the illusion that you understand the world.
This illusion can lead to overconfidence.
“Nobody knows what’s happening.
The newspapers only pretend as though they do from day to day.“, wrote the shrewd Swiss playwright Max Frisch more than 40 years ago.
Above: Max Frisch (1911 – 1981)
Current events cast a shadow on understanding.
I disagree with Dobelli that we should avoid the news completely.
I agree with him that we should read books and long articles that do justice to the complexity of the world.
I think that the news is only a springboard to knowledge, not the end-all and be-all of wisdom.
We should use both hindsight and research for a clearer understanding of the world.
Toxic.
Survival demands constant wariness.
It demands sensitivity to negative information, thus bad news is perceived as more relevant than good news.
Negative information has twice the psychological impact that positive information, what psychologists call negativity bias.
Negativity bias is innate, so the news simply exploits this weakness in expert fashion, delivering a stream of shocking stories that are tailor-made for our anxious brains.
The news continually stimulates our sympathetic nervous system, which leads to the release of adrenaline, which in turn leads to a rise in cortisol, which causes us to feel stressed.
Chronic stress leads to anxiety and digestive and growth problems and leaves us prone to infection.
Other potential side effects include panic attacks, aggression, tunnel vision and emotional desensitization.
In short, consuming the news puts your psychological and physical health at risk.
According to a study by the American Psychological Association, half of all adults suffer from the symptoms caused by news consumption.
Thanks to our omnipresent mobile phones, one in ten Americans check the world news once an hour.
As well, the news is becoming more garish and shocking, with some videos that are so intense that they can trigger acute symptoms like sleep disruption, mood swings, aggressive behaviour or even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD / shell shock).
We all have our anxieties.
Dobelli recommends that we take stock of our anxieties, write them down one by one, and then decide if we have the power or opportunity to do anything about these issues or not.
There are things you can influence and things that you cannot.
There is no point getting worked up about things you cannot change.
I agree with Dobelli here, but viewing the news long past the event or deliberately limiting yourself to a strict minimalist amount of current events, with the view of considering each event – in the news and/or in one’s own life – as both a blessing and a lesson I believe can diminish the news toxicity.
Reading the news reminds me that my life by comparison is not as bad as some (blessing) and that these situations may have something to teach me (lesson) to perhaps avoid the suffering that others may have or teach me how to cope with dignity with these commonalities of the human experience.
Confirming our mistakes.
We automatically block out clues that contradict our favourite opinions and are oversensitive to news that confirms our beliefs.
We are masters of interpreting new information so that it remains consistent with our previous point of view.
Confirmation bias is most dangerous of all when it comes to ideologies.
Ideologies and dogmas narrow your world view and lead you to make terrible decisions.
News, in reinforcing confirmation bias, become ideology’s accomplice.
If you unleash a whirlwind of news on the population, it polarizes the public.
The problem is that people don’t realize when they have fallen prey to an ideology.
Dobelli writes:
“If you meet someone who shows signs of a dogmatic infestation, ask them the following question: “Tell me what specific facts you would have to learn in order to change your mind.”
If they don’t have an answer, then give that person a wide berth.
Do the same for their opinions.
Don’t get smug here.
Ask yourself precisely the same question.
Only when you can defend your own position against five well-founded opposing arguments have you really earned your opinion.”
Reinforcing hindsight bias.
The world is in a complex, dynamic process of chaos.
Cause and effectdon’t hang together in a linear fashion.
In almost all cases, the interplay of hundreds or even thousands of causes lead to a particular event, yet this event is often attributed to only a few.
Take the financial crisis of 2008.
A whole poisonous cocktail of circumstances was responsible for the collapse of the financial system.
In hindsight, this all seems so clear.
Hindsight gives us the illusionthat crises are comprehensible and predictable.
This is called hindsight bias.
But in the eye of the hurricane, nothing whatsoever was clear.
The financial crisis of 2007–2008, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a severe worldwide economic crisis.
Prior to the COVID-19 recession in 2020, the GFC was considered by many economists to have been the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression (1929 – 1938).
Above: Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother depicts destitute pea pickers in California, centering on Florence Owens Thompson (32), a mother of seven children, in Nipomo, California, March 1936.
Predatory lending targeting low-income homebuyers, excessive risk-taking by global financial institutions, and the bursting of the US housing bubble culminated in a “perfect storm“.
Mortgage-backed securities (MBS) tied to American real estate, as well as a vast web of derivatives linked to those MBS, collapsed in value.
Financial institutions worldwide suffered severe damage, reaching a climax with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on 15 September 2008 and a subsequent international banking crisis.
The preconditions for the financial crisis were complex and multi-causal.
Almost two decades prior, the US Congress had passed legislation encouraging financing for affordable housing.
Above: The US Capitol, Washington DC
In 1999, the Glass-Steagall legislation was repealed, permitting financial institutions to cross-pollinate their commercial (risk-averse) and proprietary trading (risk-seeking) operations.
Above: Senator Carter Glass (1858 – 1946)Above: Congressman Henry Steagall (1873 – 1943)
Arguably the largest contributor to the conditions necessary for financial collapse was the rapid development in predatory financial products which targeted low-income, low-information homebuyers who largely belonged to racial minorities.
This market development went unattended by regulators and thus caught the US government by surprise.
Above: Coat of arms of the United States of America
After the onset of the crisis, governments deployed massive bail-outs of financial institutions and other palliative monetary and fiscal policies to prevent a collapse of the global financial system.
The crisis sparked the Great Recession (2007 – 2009), which resulted in increases in unemployment and suicide, and decreases in institutional trust and fertility, among other metrics.
At the time, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded that it was the most severe economic and financial meltdown since the Great Depression.
And, sadly, when we are embroiled in the next crisis, things won’t be clearer then either.
News has to be extremely short even as it tells a story.
This can only be done through a brutal process of simplification.
No matter what happened it will only ever be attributed to one or two causes.
Nothing will be said of the dozens of other causes, the interplay between them, or the retroactive effects playing out between the event and its causes.
In this way we are given the illusion that the world is simpler and more explicable than it actually is.
Thus the quality of our decision-making suffers.
It is easy to fall prey to the illusion that the future is easy to understand.
Our brains are desperate for stories that “make sense” as quickly and simply as possible.
Whether they correspond to reality is irrelevant.
Reinforcing availability bias.
What is available has a strong influence on our decision-making.
Every decision is based on something and this something consists of information.
For the sake of convenience, we always draw on what is to hand from the pool of available information, rather than on things that might be more important but would need to be researched first.
The news has a tremendous ability to jostle to the forefront of our minds, making it nearly impossible to make sensible decisions.
The news is much more available than other information – statistics, historical comparisons, complex arguments and counterarguments – which might be a much better basis for making a decision.
Journalists also labour under a second grave misconception:
They confuse “prevented” with “non-existent“.
Heroic acts that prevented accidents – that pre-empted disaster – are largely invisible to them.
Every day millions of heroic actions are taken – engineers design bridges strong enough not to collapse, pilots land at night and in the fog, mothers give their children the right medication at the right time.
Above: The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California
All of this is prevention.
All of this is very wise.
All of this is socially valuable.
Yet none of it is visible.
Above: Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
Unfortunately, journalists are prone to yet another misconception:
They confuse “absent” with “unimportant“.
Sometimes what it is precisely what is absent – what has not happened – that is relevant.
Journalists are innately blind to absences, because they are hypersensitive to what is happening.
They miss the dogs that aren’t barking yet – but might just one day bite.
Keeping the opinion volcano bubbling.
What do you think about…..?
As soon as we hear this question, our brains start generating opinions, even if we are no experts on the topic.
The opinion volcano erupts of its own accord.
It cannot be controlled.
Above: “Dirty” Harry Callaghan (Clint Eastwood), The Dead Pool
We form opinions on issues that don’t really interest us, that cannot be fully answered, or that are too complex without in-depth analysis.
And yet – especially with tough questions – we tend to come down very rapidly on one side of an issue or the other.
Only then do we consult our brains for reasons to support our position.
It is a serious mistake to think we need to form an opinion about everything.
90% of our opinions are superfluous.
Yet the news is constantly urging us to form opinions.
This robs us of concentration and inner peace.
Marcus Aurelius recommended:
“You are at liberty NOT to form opinions about all and sundry, thereby sparing your soul unrest.
For the things themselves demand no judgements from you.”
Above: Bust of Marcus Aurelius (121 – 180)
An inhibitor of thought.
Thought requires concentration.
Concentration requires time without interruption.
The moment you open yourself up to the torrent of news, your ability to concentrate will be swept away by the current.
News disrupts concentration, actively weakening your ability to understand things.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Herbert Simon identified the problem nearly 50 years ago:
“What information consumes is rather obvious:
It consumes the attention of its recipients.
Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”
Above: Herbert A. Simon (1916 – 2001)
Rewiring our brains.
According to Nicholas Carr:
“When we go online, we enter an environment that promotes cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning.
Even as the Internet grants an easy access to vast amounts of information, it is turning us into shallower thinkers, literally changing the structure of our brains.”
Above: Nicholas Carr
Similarly, researchers Kep-Kee Loh and Ryota Kanai of the University of Tokyo observed that:
The more frequently a person consumed different media at the same time, the fewer brain cells there were in the anterior cingulate cortex (the part of the brain responsible for attention, moral deliberation and impulse control).
Above: Logo of the University of Tokyo
If you watch a news junkie, you will see this in action:
Their concentration span shrinks and they have trouble controlling their emotions.
The more news you consume, the more you encourage the formation of neuronal circuits adapted to the flood of information and to multitasking.
At the same time, the circuits necessary for absorbed reading and deep thought will atrophy.
Michael Merzenich at the University of California in San Francisco:
“We are training our brains to attention to the crap.”
Above: Seal of the University of California
You may think that you can cope with losing your capacity for concentrated reading.
Deep reading, however, is demonstrably inseparable from clear thought.
If you want to regain the skill of concentrating and immersing yourself in a subject, then, in Dobelle’s opinion, there is no option but to go news-free.
Producing fake fame.
A functioning society requires co-operation.
A person’s reputation is a signal:
It tells us something about their potential as a collaborative partner.
Once upon a time, a person’s reputation was directly related to their achievements or their power.
Long after we had left the Stone Age behind us, there remained an indissoluble bond between fame and achievement or power.
Aristotle, Sappho, Augustine, Beethoven, Newton, Darwin, Marie Curie, Einstein – all of them acquired fame by virtue of their competence.
Emperors, kings and popes, meanwhile, acquired fame through power.
Marcus Aurelius managed both – competence and power.
With the advent of news, we suddenly found ourselves haunted by strange ghosts unknown to our ancestors:
Celebrities,people famous for reasons that are utterly irrelevant to society and to our own lives.
This is dangerous, because it undermines the relationship between fame and achievement, creating fake fame.
It has become virtually impossible to name someone who became famous before the advent of news media whose fame wasn’t based on competence or power.
Now a celebrity is a celebrity because they are a celebrity.
How they became a celebrity is soon forgotten and plays no role in the media circus.
Now, celebrity isn’t bad per se, but in the media’s eyes celebrities crowd out all the people who have actually achieved something.
Above: Paris Hilton, the epitome of being famous for being famous
Making us smaller than we really are.
We all arrange ourselves in hierarchies.
In the workplace, the military, the church, sports, our neighbourhood, even in the playground.
We can’t escape them.
(Though I have spent a lifetime trying to.)
News makes the already rather brutal natural hierarchy even more brutal by reporting disproportionately on the beautiful and successful.
In consuming the news we compare ourselves to people who have nothing whatsoever to do with us.
As a result, we feel smaller than we really are.
Of course, this could be rationally countered – but we don’t do that.
The emotional consequences are real.
We make life harder for ourselves than it already is.
Making us passive.
News stories are predominantly concerned with things you cannot change.
The daily litany of things we cannot change makes us passive.
The news wears us down until we are miserable, hopeless pessimists.
Of course, we want to help.
Of course, we want to intervene and make the world a slightly better place.
But our time is already at its limit.
How are we supposed to stop a volcano erupting on the other side of the planet, avert a terrorist attack or save people from starvation?
We are cursed to watch these disasters unfold while knowing there is nothing we can do to prevent them.
When our brains encounter information without having the possibility of acting on it, we gradually assume the role of a victim.
Our impulse to take action fades.
We become passive.
The scientific term for this is learned helplessness.
Stories and images in the news whip us up emotionally, but we have no way to turn and change the reported facts.
British media researcher Jodie Jackson:
“When we tune into the news, we are constantly confronted with unresolved problems and the narrative does not inspire hope that they will ever be resolved.”
Above: Jodie Jackson
Dobelli suggests that we:
Devote our energies to things we can influence.
Above: Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey), Bruce Almighty
Manipulative.
These days it is hard to distinguish between truthful, unbiased news items and those with an ulterior motive.
There is a vast industry of lobbying and leverage at work behind the scenes.
Media entrepreneur Clay A. Johnson:
“For every reporter in the United States, there are more than four public relations specialists working hard to get them to write what their bosses want them to write.”
Worldwide, the PR industry generates a turnover of $15 to $30 billion a year – the best evidence that journalists and consumers can be successfully manipulated, influenced or won over to a cause.
Above: Clay A. Jackson
Propaganda is nothing new.
Ever since the advent of the printing press, people have been grappling with fake news.
A hundred years ago, the American writer Upton Sinclair wrote:
“When you read your daily newspaper, are you reading facts or propaganda?”
Above: Upton Sinclair (1878 – 1968)
Today, the sheer volume of fake news has mushroomed, and it is specifically targeted at individual consumers, thus packing more of a punch.
Dobelli believes that if you want to protect yourself as much as possible against manipulation, it is best to keep well clear of the news.
The murder of creativity.
According to Dobelli, pseudo-knowledge stifles our creativity.
He believes that this is one of the reasons why mathematicians, writers, composers and entrepreneurs usually pull off their most creative accomplishments when they are young.
Their minds are free to roam through wide, uninhabited space, encouraging them to develop and pursue novel ideas.
Dobelli claims not to know a single creative person who is also a news junkie, though he knows plenty of extremely uncreative people who consume vast quantities of news.
(I will take him at his word.)
He believes that the reason for this is that no matter the question, problem or task, one’s first idea is usually one that has been heard before.
Dobelli, before he reads a book or a long article, takes a few minutes and forces himself to come up with his own ideas about the issue under discussion, because he knows that as soon as he starts reading, the author’s thoughts will fill his brain and he will have little chance of forming his own ideas about the subject under discussion.
If Dobelli gradually immerses himself in the book after having done some of his own reflection, then he can compare the author’s ideas with his own.
What is crucial is that the reading experience becomes a sort of mental dialogue with the author.
Dobelli finds this technique highly effective with books and long articles.
But not with the news, for the news is specifically constructed so that you cannot form your own thoughts.
The reader is overwhelmed before they can even get off the starting blocks.
The news is brief, garish and extremely oversimplified.
Above: Former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin
Other interesting practices that Dobelli recommends:
Set aside half a day per month, go to a large bookshop and flick through the new publications from as many areas as possible.
Even the most advanced scholars often find that wandering through the stacks of a library or bookstore, dipping into a book here and there as the spirit moves them, offers a serendipitous intellectual stimulation that is unavailable any other way.
Schedule regular meetings with experts in other fields.
News junkies sometimes justify their behaviour by claiming that the news gives them a fresh perspective, but if we take an objective look at the stream of news, we can see that it is always the same.
“Slowly you realize.
Nothing new.“, wrote Swiss playwright Max Frisch about the media.
Encouraging Sturgeon’s Law.
Theodore Sturgeon was one of the most prolific American science fiction writers of the 1950s and 1960s, yet with success came malice.
Sturgeon was the subject of endless condescension from literary critics who jeered that 90% of all sci-fi was rubbish.
Sturgeon reacted coolly.
His response?
Yeah, that’s true.
90% of everythingpublished is rubbish, regardless of genre.
His answer has gone down in history as Sturgeon’s Law.
Above: Theodore Sturgeon (1918 – 1985)
The American philosopher Daniel Dennett later broadened Sturgeon’s Law to include everything.
It is not just 90% of all literature that is crap, but 90% of everything – scientific studies, operas, start-ups, shirt buttons, PowerPoint presentations, dog food brands…..
Above: Daniel Dennett
Sturgeon’s Law applies to the news, too.
Take a moment to think about how much of what is reported does not actually deserve a second of your time – the derogatory, the abstruse, the coarse, the silly, the ridiculous.
Sturgeon’s Law is worse than the general irrelevance of the news.
Nonsense is not only tolerated and repeated.
It is given top billing.
The people producing this kind of rubbish know only too well that the media will lap it up, thereby encouraging other people to produce even more of it.
“Every man should have a built-in automatic crap detector operating inside him.“, wrote novelist Ernest Hemingway 50 years ago.
Sturgeon’s Law applies not merely to content, but also in the way it is reported.
The mixtures of facts, claims, product placement and opinions is an unappetizing cocktail you would be better off avoiding.
Above: Ernest Hemingway (1899 – 1961)
Encouraging terrorism.
Terrorism only works thanks to the news media.
The terrorist’s true weapon isn’t a bomb, but the fear, the terror, triggered by the bomb.
The actual threat of terrorism is relatively small, but the perceived threat is immense.
This balancing act is made possible by the news media.
A definition proposed by Carsten Bockstette at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, underlines the psychological and tactical aspects of terrorism:
Terrorism is defined as political violence in an asymmetrical conflict that is designed to induce terror and psychic fear (sometimes indiscriminate) through the violent victimization and destruction of noncombatant targets (sometimes iconic symbols).
Such acts are meant to send a message from an illicit clandestine organization.
The purpose of terrorism is to exploit the media in order to achieve maximum attainable publicity as an amplifying force multiplier in order to influence the targeted audience(s) in order to reach short- and midterm political goals and/or desired long-term end states.
Terrorists attack national symbols, which may negatively affect a government, while increasing the prestige of the given terrorist group or its ideology.
Since 9/11, terrorists have killed on average 50 people per year within the EU.
By comparison, 80,000 EU citizens die each year in traffic accidents and 60,000 by suicide.
The risk of being killed by a terrorist is astronomically smaller than the risk of being killed by your own hand.
Paradoxically, the news makes it seem like it is the other way around.
Above: United Airlines Flight 175 hits the South Tower of the World Trade Center, New York City, 11 September 2001
A terrorist’s primary goal is not to kill people.
Their goals are strategic:
They are seeking political change.
They are supporting separatist movements.
They are trying to discredit the ruling party.
Terrorist acts frequently have a political purpose.
Some official, governmental definitions of terrorism use the criterion of the illegitimacy or unlawfulness of the act to distinguish between actions authorized by a government (and thus “lawful“) and those of other actors, including individuals and small groups.
For example, carrying out a strategic bombing on an enemy city, which is designed to affect civilian support for a cause, would not be considered terrorism if it were authorized by a government.
This criterion is inherently problematic and is not universally accepted, because: it denies the existence of state terrorism.
An associated term is violent non-state actor.
According to Ali Khan, the distinction lies ultimately in a political judgment.
Above all, they want people to pay attention to their demands – attention they receive in the form of news and the ensuing backlash.
For Stanford University political scientist Martha Crenshaw, terrorists are entirely rational actors:
“Terrorism is a logical choice when the power ratio of government to challenger is high.”
In other words, terrorists themselves are powerless.
The only halfway promising method of forcing political change is to sow fear and change.
And for that they need the news media.
Above: Seal of Stanford University
Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari has remarked:
“Terrorists are masters of mind control.
They kill very few people, but nevertheless manage to terrify billions and rattle huge political structures, such as the European Union or the United States.
The theatre of terror cannot succeed without publicity.
Unfortunately, the media all too often provides this publicity for free.
It obsessively reports terror attacks and greatly inflates their danger, because reports on terrorism sell much better than reports on diabetes or air pollution.“
Above: Yuval Noah Harari
Destroying peace of mind.
The news is wrecking havoc on your peace of mind.
It is not just the frantic sense of chaos, but the permanently negative emotions it is always stirring up.
Fear, annoyance, jealousy, anger and self-pity are predominantly triggered by the news.
News and comments about the news bring out the worst in humanity.
99.9% of all world events are outside your control.
You have no influence on what is happening in the world, where or how.
It is much more sensible to focus your energies on things you can control.
You can influence what happens in your life, your family, your neighbourhood, your city, your job….
But the rest you simply have to accept.
The philosopher Epictetus offered another important argument 2,000 years ago:
“You become what you give your attention to.
If you yourself don’t choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will.”
Above: Epictetus (50 – 135)
To achieve wisdom, we should choose “a limited number of master thinkers and digest their works“, suggested the philosopher Seneca (also 2,000 years ago).
The freedom to choose for ourselves what is relevant is fundamental to a good life.
Above: Statue of Seneca the Younger (4 BCE – CE 65), Cordoba, Spain
What constitutes a good life?
How should you live your life so that one day you can look back on it as “successful” and “good“?
Dobelli is right….
Until you can answer these fundamental questions, life will be a non-stop crisis-coping machine.
Without a clear philosophy, you risk life passing you by.
Like Alejandro Murietta (Antonio Banderas) in The Mask of Zorro:
“I am a man in search of a vision“.
I seek something to say of value.
I believe that this search requires an exploration and cultivation of the mind.
“I have always made a respectable living, but I have not been willing to give up my life to getting the kind of money with which you can buy the best things in life.
I am stuck in business and routine and tedium.
I must live as I can, but I give up only as much as I must.
For the rest, I have lived and always will live, my life as it can be lived at its best, with art, music, poetry, literature, science, philosophy and thought.
I shall know the keener people of this world, think the keener thoughts, and taste the keener pleasures, as long as I can and as much as I can.
That is the real practical use of self-education and self-culture.
It converts a world which is only a good world for those who can win at its ruthless game into a world good for all of us.
Your education is the only thing that nothing can take away from you in this life.
You can lose your money, your wife, your children, your friends, your pride, your honour, and your life, but while you live you cannot lose your culture, such as it is.”
(Cornelius Hirschberg)
“We must somehow figure out how to be a democracy of intellect.
Knowledge must sit in the homes and heads of people with no ambition to control others, and not up in the isolated seats of power.
Only if the adventure of knowing and understanding are shared as widely as possible, will our scientific civilization remain viable.
In the end, it is not an aristocracy of experts, scientific or otherwise, on whom we must depend, but on them and ourselves.
The personal commitment of a man to his skill, the intellectual commitment and the emotional commitment working together as one, has made our true progress as a species.
Every man, every civilization, has gone forward because of its engagement with what it has set itself to do.
Knowledge is our destiny.”
(Jacob Bronowski)
Above: Jacob Bronowski (1908 – 1974)
I am sensible enough to know that Dobelli is right.
I cannot influence 99% of what goes on in the world.
I may never understand even 1% of why the world is the way it is.
But I never want to stop questioning.
I never want to stop trying to understand.
I never want to stop writing and trying to give solace and hope to those who may read my words.
Life is both a blessing and a lesson.
I read and ponder the news, at a distance and after a space of time, for I seek to find blessings and lessons through the lives of others.
I may not achieve empathy, but if I obtain some semblance of understanding then perhaps I may find a commonality between myself and others.
And, ultimately, hopefully, I will not feel so alone in the universe.
I think, therefore I am.
It is a place to start.
Sources: Wikipedia / Google / “At least 14 killed at religious site in CAR: Amnesty“, Aljazeera, 25 February 2021 / “Gunmen kill36 in attacks in northern Nigeria“, Aljazeera, 25 February 2021 / “Several soldiers killed in central Mali attack“, Aljazeera, 25 Febraury 2021 / “US attacks ‘Iranian-backed military infrastructure’ in Syria“, Aljazeera, 26 February 2021 / “Facebook bans accounts linked to Myanmar’s military in wake of coup“, CBS News, 25 February 2021 / “India, Pakistan agree to stop firing atKashmir border“, Deutsche Welle, 25 February 2021/ Rolf Dobelli, The Art of Thinking Clearly / Rolf Dobelli, Stop Reading theNews / Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov / Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment / Fyodor Dostoevsky, TheIdiot / Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground / Ronald Gross, The Independent Scholar’s Handbook / Nvard Hovhannisjan, “Thousands rally behind Armenia’s PM after he accuses army of coup attempt“, Reuters, 25 Febraury 2021 / Ida Lim, “Federal Court unanimously declares Selangor Shariah law criminalising ‘unnatural sex’ void, unconstitutional“, MalayMail, 25 February 2021 / Ismael Naar, “Houthis target Maub residential area with ballistic missile“, Alarabiya News, 26 February 2021 / George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four / “Djugu: 7 people killed by CODECO militiamen in Banyan Kilo“, Radio Okapi, 25 February 2021 / “Dutch Parliament: China’s treatment of Uighurs in genocide“, Reuters, 25 February 2021 / Dawn Wolfe, “14Ways to Find Expert Sources for Interviews“, http://www.thesimonsgroup.com, 13 February 2020
Stray cats and dogs wander the neighbourhood today (1 May) as they would on any other day.
Songbirds deliver their humble overtures outside my apartment window as they did yesterday and as they probably will tomorrow.
As nature’s denizens do as they do here as they would anywhere else, I wonder do they know the significance of this day?
Certainly, they might have noticed fewer humans on the streets as Turkey is in the midst of a long full lockdown.
Millions of Turks have left Turkey’s largest cities in droves to spend the lockdown in their hometowns with relatives or at resorts.
The exodus from Istanbul, Ankara and the western province (Turkey has 81 provinces in total.) of Izmir has seen traffic jams on highways and flocks of folks fleeing to bus terminals and airports.
The lockdown began Thursday evening (29 April) at 1900 hours and will last until 0500 on 17 May.
During the lockdown, intercity travel is subject to permission from authorities, which is why people rushed to leave big cities before the deadline as well as formed long lines before the offices of district governors to obtain travel authorization.
Many people have travelled to popular travel destinations, such as Bodrum and Marmaris, but health experts have warned that the lockdown should not be seen as an opportunity to take a vacation as the lockdown is meant to curb the spread of the virus.
Above: Bodrum Castle
As for me, I am a Canadian foreigner on a traveller’s visa, meaning that I can travel without written authorization.
As I am at present required to do my six-days-a-week job electronically, there is no reason why I need remain in Eskisehir throughout the lockdown.
Though most businesses and shops and eateries are closed, surprisingly museums and historical attractions remain open.
Hotels still take in guests and grocery stores are open.
(Though the sale of alcohol is prohibited.
I am not sure whether the government thinks that drinking alcohol causes the corona virus….)
Ironically, the lockdown liberates me (as I am still on a tourist visa) more than constrains me, for without the lockdown I would be unable to travel except on my one day off on Saturdays.
(At least, for now…)
Today is International Workers’ Day / Labour Day in many countries around the world.
1 May is an official holiday celebrated in Turkey.
It was a holiday until 1981 when it was cancelled after the 1980 coup d’état.
In 2010, the Turkish government restored the holiday after some casualties and demonstrations.
Taksim Square is the centre of the commemorations due to the 1977 Taksim Square Massacre.
Above: Flag of Turkey
Workers’ Day was first celebrated in 1912 in Istanbul and in 1899 in Izmir.
After the establishment of the Turkish Republic, it became an official holiday.
In 1924, it was forbidden by a decree and in both 1924 and 1925, demonstrations were intervened by armed militia.
In 1935, the National Assembly declared Workers’ Day to be a holiday again.
During the events leading to the 1980 Turkish coup d’état, a massacre occurred on 1 May 1977 (Taksim Square massacre), in which unknown people (agents provocatuers) opened fire on the crowd.
The resulting stampede left 41 people dead.
The crowd was the biggest in Turkish workers’ history with the number of people approximating 500,000.
Above: The “worker who raised the world in his hands” logo, prepared for 1 May 1977
In the next two years, provocations and confusion continued and peaked before the 1980 coup d’état.
The Workers’ Day holiday was cancelled once again.
Still, demonstrations continued with small crowds.
In 1996, three people were killed by police bullets, and a plain-clothes man who spied on the crowd was revealed and lynched by workers.
That same evening, a video broadcast on TV showed that two participants in the demonstration being lynched by far right-wing nationalist groups, in front of police forces who were watching the scene with happy faces.
Thus, 1 May 1996 has been remembered by workers’ movements.
Above: 1 May 1996, Taksim Square, Istanbul
In 2007, the 30th anniversary of the Taksim Square Massacre, leftist workers’ unions wanted to commemorate the Massacre in Taksim Square.
Since the government would not let them into the square, 580 – 700 people were stopped and one person died in police custody.
After these events, the government declared 1 May as “Work and Solidarity Day“, but not as a holiday.
The next year, the day was declared as a holiday, but people were still not allowed to gather in Taksim Square.
Above: 1 May 2007, Taksim Square, Istanbul
2008 is remembered for police violence in Istanbul.
Police fired tear gas grenades among the crowds, and into hospitals and a primary school.
Workers pushed forward.
In 2010, 140,000 people gathered in Taksim Square.
In 2011, there were more than half a million demonstrators.
After three years of peaceful meetings, in 2013, meetings in Taksim Square were again forbidden by the government.
Clashes occurred between police and workers.
Water cannons and tear gas were used by the police against the workers.
Today (1 May 2021) a total of 355 demonstrators were detained across Turkey for marching illegally and violating a full nationwide lockdown imposed by authorities.
Due to the 17-day full lockdown, traditional rallies were not held to celebrate the day, although some labour unions and representatives of political parties were allowed to place a wreath near Istanbul’s Taksim Square to commemorate the victims of the 1 May 1977 Massacre.
Above: Above: A police officer uses pepper spray against demonstrators as they attempt to defy a ban and march on Taksim Square to celebrate May Day, during a nationwide “full closure” imposed to slow the rate of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) contagion, in Istanbul, Turkey, 1 May 2021 (Reuters)
According to governor’s offices, police detained 355 demonstrators across the country after scuffles broke out during “unauthorized marches” amid a corona virus curfew.
Police sprayed tear gas on groups of demonstrators who had “gathered illegally”, violating the lockdown and ignoring calls to disperse from the area.
Above: A police officer uses pepper spray against demonstrators as they attempt to defy a ban and march on Taksim Square to celebrate May Day, during a nationwide “full closure” imposed to slow the rate of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) contagion, in Istanbul, Turkey, 1 May 2021 (Reuters)
The detainees are charged with opposing the law on holding meetings and demonstrations.
Above: Police officers detain demonstrators as they attempt to defy a ban and march on Taksim Square to celebrate May Day, during a nationwide “full closure” imposed to slow the rate of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) contagion, in Istanbul, Turkey, 1 May 2021 (Reuters)
There was also tension in Ankara, Izmir, Trabzon and Artvin Provinces.
Some 111 demonstrators were detained.
Above: Police officers detain demonstrators as they attempt to defy a ban and march on Taksim Square to celebrate May Day, during a nationwide “full closure” imposed to slow the rate of the corona virus disease (COVID-19) contagion, in Istanbul, Turkey, 1 May 2021 (Reuters)
Meanwhile, police officers have blocked reporters from filming the demonstrations and detentions, with officers citing a new police circular.
Following this new circular by the Security General Directorate prohibiting citizens from recording police intervention during social events, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu has said that the circular intends “to suspend democracy“.
Above: Logo of the Security General Directorate (Turkish National Police)
“This circular means democracy has been suspended in Turkey, the Constitution has been suspended, rights and freedoms have been suspended,” Kilicdaroglu told broadcaster KRT TV today, referring to the publication of a circular by the Directorate prohibiting citizens from shooting with mobile phones in social events.
Above: Kemal Kilicdaroglu
“What do you mean, don’t take pictures?
Is it not my right to take photos?
You issue a circular according to your mood,” he stated.
Kilicdaroglu recalled that a police officer (Derek Chauvin) on duty in the United States knelt on the neck of an American citizen (George Floyd), eventually killing him, and a photo taken there his relatives to file a case.
“The most serious piece of evidence they had was that photograph,” he added.
Above: The infamous photo
“You will not even have photos taken that wll manifest justice” in Turkey because of the circular, the CHP leader said.
Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said the circular was not against the Constitution, adding that was not a question for the press.
He stated that Kilicdaroglu did not understand its essence.
“Kilicdaroglu’s view on this issue is his view of political perspective,” he added.
Soylu said that the concept of the balance of freedom is of vital importance to ensure the freedom and security of the police or public officials.
“It is not the right approach to bring everyone to the point where they can harass the way they want with a camera in their hand,” he said.
Above: Süleyman Soylu
Where is the love of the people for their government?
Where is the love of the government for the people?
Where is the love?
When I look at the Turkish political landscape I find myself wondering whether the malaise that many Turks feel towards their government is not caused by two factors: leader fatigue and the search for Atatürk.
Recip Tayyip Erdogan has been the leader of Turkey as Prime Minister (2003 – 2014) and President (2014 – ) for a generation.
For example, my Turkish language teacher, a lovely lady in her 20s, has never known a time when Erdogan wasn’t in charge of her nation in one form or another.
And, to be fair, the thoughts and emotions of the minds and hearts of this generation are almost alien to the generation that preceded it.
Above: Turkish President Recep Erdogan
Everywhere one goes in Turkey one is reminded of the everpresent, almost omniscient, legacy of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
Atatürk’s presence casts a permanent shadow over the lives of the Turkish people and there is an almost unconscious thirst and inevitable comparison for the strength of character and the power of conviction that he possessed to be emulated in those who serve the state today.
What virtues Erdogan may possess are lost in the legacy of Atatürk and however much Erdogan may try to imitate the impact of the Father of Turkey the quality of a copy is rarely superior to that of the original.
Turkey may be built on the foundation of a strongman, but the edifice upon which it is built must also be strong for the structure to stand.
Turks may have tired of Erdogan, but the question remains whether anyone is capable of replacing him in the nation’s fruitless quest for a new Atatürk.
It is the building of a future on the relics of the past that concerns me when I consider the events of 14 February.
Above: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881 – 1938)
Landschlacht, Switzerland, Sunday 14 February 2021
I think of 14 February and I ask:
Where is the love?
Above: Landschlacht, Switzerland
He was first acknowledged by Pope Gelasius I (r. 492 – 496) as among all those “… whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God.”
The Catholic Encyclopedia and other hagiographical (biographies of religious figures) sources speak of three bearing the name of Valentine that appear in connection with 14 February.
Above: Cover of the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
One was a Roman priest, another the bishop of Interamna (modern Terni, Italy) both buried along the Via Flaminia outside Rome, at different distances from the city.
The third was said to be a saint who suffered on the same day with a number of companions in the Roman province of Africa, of whom nothing else is known.
Though the extant accounts of the martyrdoms of the first two listed saints are of a late date and contain legendary elements, a common nucleus of fact may underlie the two accounts and they may refer to a single person.
Above: Saint Valentine oversees the construction of his Basilica at Terni, Italy, from a 14th-century French manuscript
According to the official biography of the Diocese of Terni, Bishop Valentine was born and lived in Interamna and while on a temporary stay in Rome he was imprisoned, tortured, and martyred there on 14 February 269.
His body was hastily buried at a nearby cemetery and a few nights later his disciples retrieved his body and returned him home.
Above: Images of Rome, Italy
The Roman Martyrology, the Catholic Church’s official list of recognized saints, for 14 February gives only one Saint Valentine: a martyr who died on the Via Flaminia.
Above: St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City
A common hagiography describes Valentine as a priest of Rome or as the former Bishop of Terni, an important town of Umbria, in central Italy.
Above: Images of Terni, Italy
While under house arrest of Judge Asterius, and discussing his faith with him, Valentinus (the Latin version of his name) was discussing the validity of Jesus.
The judge put Valentinus to the test and brought to him the judge’s adopted blind daughter.
If Valentinus succeeded in restoring the girl’s sight, Asterius would do whatever he asked.
Valentinus, praying to God, laid his hands on her eyes and the child’s vision was restored.
Immediately humbled, the judge asked Valentinus what he should do.
Valentinus replied that all of the idols around the judge’s house should be broken, and that the judge should fast for three days and then undergo the Christian sacrament of baptism.
The judge obeyed and, as a result of his fasting and prayer, freed all the Christian inmates under his authority.
The judge, his family, and his forty-four member household of adult family members and servants were baptized.
Valentinus was later arrested again for continuing to evangelize and was sent to the prefect of Rome, to the Emperor Claudius Gothicus (Claudius II) (214 – 270) himself.
Claudius took a liking to him until Valentinus tried to convince Claudius to embrace Christianity, whereupon Claudius refused and condemned Valentinus to death, commanding that Valentinus either renounce his faith or he would be beaten with clubs and beheaded.
Valentinus refused and Claudius’ command was executed outside the Flaminian Gate on 14 February 269.
Above: Gold medallion depicting Claudius Gothicus (214 – 270). Legend: imp(erator) c(aesar) m(arcus) aur(e)l(ius) claudius p(ius) f(elix) aug(ustus).
An embellishment to this account states that before his execution, Valentine wrote a note to Asterius’s daughter signed “from your Valentine“, which is said to have “inspired today’s romantic missives“.
A popularly ascribed hagiographical identity appears in the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493).
Above: Woodcut of Nuremberg (Germany), Nuremberg Chronicles
Alongside a woodcut portrait of Valentine, the text states that he was arrested and imprisoned upon being caught marrying Christian couples and otherwise aiding Christians who were at the time being persecuted by Claudius in Rome.
Helping Christians at this time was considered a crime.
He was condemned to death.
He was beaten with clubs and stones.
When that failed to kill him, he was beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate (now known as Porta del Popolo in the Piazza del Popolo).
Above: Porta del Popolo, Rome
The account mentions Valentine in order “to remind men of their vows and God’s love, Valentine is said to have cut hearts from parchment“, giving them to these persecuted Christians, a possible origin of the widespread use of hearts on Valentine’s Day.
(It is interesting to note that the shape of a modern Valentine’s heart resembles less the fist form of a real human heart than it does the curve of a woman’s buttocks.)
Above: Human heartAbove: Heart symbol
There are many churches dedicated to Valentine around the world, though he is venerated no more than any other Christian martyr or saint.
Pieces of Valentine are said to be in various locations wherein relics are respected.
His flower-crowned skull is exhibited in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome.
Above: Relic of Saint Valentine in the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome
Valentine’s remains are deposited in St Anton’s Church, Madrid, where they have lain since the late 1700s.
They were a present from the Pope to King Carlos IV, who entrusted them to the Order of Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools (Piarists).
The relics have been displayed publicly since 1984, in a foundation open to the public at all times in order to help people in need.
Above: Relic of Valentine, St. Anton’s Church, Madrid, Spain
Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin also houses relics of Valentine.
Above: Shrine of St. Valentine, Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church, Dublin, Ireland
On 27 December 1835, the Very Reverend Father John Spratt, Master of Sacred Theology to the Carmelite order in Dublin, was sent the partial remains of Valentine by Cardinal Carlo Odescalchi, under the auspices of Pope Gregory XVI.
The relics and the accompanying letter from Cardinal Odescalchi have remained in the Church ever since.
The remains, which include “a small vessel tinged with his blood“, were sent as a token of esteem following an eloquent sermon Father Spratt had delivered in Rome.
Above: The Church of the Carmelite Friary, Dublin
On Valentine’s Day in Ireland, many individuals who seek true love make a Christian pilgrimage to the Shrine of St. Valentine in Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, with its relics of Valentine.
They pray at the shrine in hope of finding romance.
There lies a book in which foreigners and locals have written their prayer requests for love.
Above: Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church
Another relic of Valentine was found in 2003 in Prague in Church of St Peter and Paul at Vysehrad.
Above: St. Peter and St. Paul Basilica, Vysehrad, Prague, Czech Republic
A silver reliquary containing a fragment of Valentine’s skull is found in the parish church of St. Mary’s Assumption in Chelmo, Poland.
Above: Church of the Assumption, Chelmo, Poland
Relics can also be found in Mytilene on the Greek island of Lesbos.
Above: Panorama of Mytilini, Lesbos, Greece
(The island of Lesbos is widely known as the home of the ancient Greek poet Sappho, from whose association with homosexuality the word lesbian derives its modern meaning.)
Above: Bust of Sappho (632 – 570 BC), Istanbul Archaeology Museum
Another relics of Valentine can also be found in Savona, in the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta.
Above: Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, Savona, Italy
Alleged relics of Valentine also lie:
at the reliquary of Roquemaure, Gard, France
Above: Church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste and Saint-Jean-l’Evangéliste, Roquemare, France
in St. Stephan’s Cathedral, Vienna
Above: St. Stephan’s Cathedral (Stephandom), Vienna (Wien), Austria (Österreich)
in Balzan in Malta
Above: Church of the Annunciation, Balzan, Malta
in Blessed John Duns Scotus’ Church in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, Scotland.
in a gold reliquary bearing the words “Corpus St. Valentin, M” (Body of St. Valentine, Martyr) at Birminghan Oratory (UK), in one of the side altars in the main Church.
Above: Cardinal Newman Memorial Church, Birmingham Oratory, Birmingham, England
Many of the current legends that characterize Valentine were invented in the 14th century in England, notably by Geoffrey Chaucer and his circle, when the feast day of 14 February first became associated with romantic love.
Professor Jack B. Oruch of the University of Kansas charges that the traditions associated with “Valentine’s Day“, documented in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Parlement of Foules (Parliament of Fowls) and set in the fictional context of an old tradition, that did not exist before Chaucer invented it.
Above: Geoffrey Chaucer (134? – 1400)
He argues that the speculative explanation of sentimental customs, posing as historical fact, had their origins among 18th-century antiquaries, notably Alban Butler, the author of Butler’s Lives of Saints, and have been perpetuated even by respectable modern scholars.
In the French 14th-century manuscript illumination from Vies des Saints, Valentine, Bishop of Terni, oversees the construction of his basilica at Terni.
There is no suggestion here that the Bishop was a patron of lovers.
Above: Terni Cathedral
During the Middle Ages, it was believed that birds paired in mid-February.
This was then associated with the romance of Valentine.
Although these legends differ, Valentine’s Day is widely recognized as a day for romance and devotion.
And yet….
Where is the love?
Strasbourg, Alsace, France, Friday 14 February 1349
The causes of the increased anti-semitism are easy to make out.
Its development found fertile territory in the religious and social resentments against Jews that had grown deeper over the centuries (with allegations such as host desecration (the mistreatment or malicious use of a consecrated host —the bread used in the Eucharist – also known by Protestants simply as Communion bread), blood libel (murdering Christian children in order to use their blood in the performance of religious rituals), deicide (a historic belief, originally formalised as a theological position in early Christian times, which claimed that the Jewish people were collectively responsible for the death of Jesus), and Jewish conspiracies for world domination).
Above: 16th century painting showing the alleged desecration of hosts by Jews in Passau (Germany) in 1477Above: Statue of Simon of Trent (Trento), an Italian child whose disappearance and death was blamed on the leaders of the city’s Jewish communityAbove: Jesus about to be struck in front of Jewish High Priest Annas
Through their role as money-lenders, one of the only roles available to Jews, who were forbidden by local and often canon law, to own land or to be farmers, the Jews took an important position in the city’s economy.
However, this brought serious problems.
The chroniclers report that the Jews were criticised for their business practices:
They were said to be so arrogant that they were unwilling to grant anyone else precedence, and those who dealt with them, could hardly come to an agreement with them.
This supposed ruthlessness of the Jews did not, however, derive from any particular hard-heartedness, but was rather due to the huge levies and taxes that they were made to pay, mostly in exchange for protection.
Formally, the Jews still belonged to the King’s Chamber, but he had long since ceded these rights to the City (the confirmation of the relevant rights of the City by Charles IV occurred in 1347).
Above: Charles IV (1316 – 1378)
Strasbourg therefore took in the most part of the Jews’ taxes, but in exchange had to take over their protection (the exact amount of the taxes was determined by written agreements).
In order to satisfy the city’s demands, the Jews therefore had to do business accordingly, but in doing so further increased the population’s, and certainly the debtors’, anti-Semitism.
Above: The Star of David, symbol of Judaism
With the threat of the Black Death, there were also accusations of well poisoning, and some who now openly called for the burning of Jews.
Above: Spread of the Black Death (1346 – 1353)
Starting in the spring of 1348, pogroms (violent riots aimed at the massacre or expulsion of an ethnic or religious group) against Jews had occurred in European cities, starting in Toulon (France).
By November of that year they spread via Savoy to German-speaking territories.
In January 1349, burnings of Jews took place in Basel (Switzerland) and Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany).
Unlike the majority of the population, Strasbourg Council and the city’s master tradesmen remained committed to the policy of protecting the Jews and attempted to calm the people and prevent a pogrom.
The Catholic clergy had been advised by two papal bulls of Pope Clement VI the previous year (July and September 1348) to preach against anyone accusing the Jews of poisoning wells as “seduced by that liar, the devil.”
Above: Clément VI (1291 – 1352)
At first the Council tried to rebut the claims of well poisoning by initiating court proceedings against a number of Jews and torturing them.
As expected, they did not confess to the crimes.
Despite this, they were still killed on the breaking wheel.
Above: Illustration of execution by wheel (Augsburg, Germany, 1586): Classic example of the “breaking wheel” punishment, with wheel crucifixions in the background
Furthermore, the Jewish quarter was sealed off and guarded by armed persons, in order to protect the Jews from the population and possible over-reactions.
The master tradesmen wanted to maintain the legal process with respect to the Jews.
In their situation in which they themselves increasingly came under attack, this was a matter of self-preservation and holding on to power.
A pogrom could easily escalate and turn into an uncontrollable revolt of the people.
How seriously this threat of revolt was taken is shown by a letter from the city council of Cologne (Köln) on 12 January 1349 to the leaders of Strasbourg, which warned that such riots by the common people had led to much evil and devastation in other towns.
Above: Cologne (Köln), Germany, in the Middle Ages
Furthermore, this unrest could give the opponents the possibility of taking power themselves.
The bourgeoisie had, after all, come to occupy the leading political positions in a similar way, when they had used the dispute between the Zorn and Müllenheim noble families to their advantage.
Above: Strasbourg in the Middle Ages, the Nuremberg ChroniclesAbove: Zorn coat-of-armsAbove: Müllenheim coat of arms
As the de facto master over the Jews, the city had a duty to protect them, especially since they paid significant amounts of money in exchange for this.
Peter Swarber also pointed to this:
The City had collected the money, and had given in return a guarantee for their security—with a letter and a seal.
The Cty must therefore fulfill this duty towards the Jews.
Swarber therefore could not and would not agree to an extermination of the Jews, a stance in which he was surely strengthened by the fear of the negative effects on the economic development of the city.
A weakening of the city would also mean a weakening of the patrician bourgeoisie, that was reliant on stable political conditions and a healthy city economy for their long-distance trade.
The Jews especially had an important role to play in this:
People depended on their credit for large-scale investments, their supra-regional role as bankers ensured a positive balance of trade for Strasbourg, and they filled the city coffers through the taxes they paid.
There were reasons enough, therefore, to remain attached to the policy of protecting the Jews.
Above: Coat of arms of the City of Strasbourg
The motivations of the master tradesmen were concealed from the people of Strasbourg.
Instead, some people thought another reason far more likely:
There were rumours that the master tradesmen had allowed themselves to be bribed by the Jews, which was why they were protecting them so determinedly against the will of the majority.
It was therefore seen as important to first remove the masters from power, which would allow the majority to push through the will of the people.
Above: View of Strasbourg
On Monday, 9 February 1349, the artisans gathered in front of the cathedral and, in front of the crowd, informed the masters that they would not allow them to remain in office anymore, as they had too much power.
This action appears to have been organised beforehand among the guilds, since they had their guild banners with them and also appeared organised by guilds.
The masters attempted to persuade the artisans to break up the assembled crowd—without success—but made no moves to comply with the rebels’ demands.
The artisans, after an exhaustive debate which involved not only the guilds’ representatives but also the most eminent of the knights and citizens, decided to make a new attempt.
It now became finally clear to the masters that they had no support any more, and so they gave up their posts.
The guilds had thereby attained their goal:
The last obstacle to their demand of destroying the Jews was pushed aside, and they now had increased possibilities of participating in town politics.
This had previously been denied to them, although in 1332 they had helped the bourgeois patricians to get a position of power.
Above: Strasbourg Cathedral
The noble families of Zorn and Müllenheim, who had been forced from power at that time, tried to regain their old position of power, but in order to do this they had to cooperate with the guilds.
The noble families brought their weapons at the same time as the craftsmen when the latter assembled before the Cathedral, they were involved with the debates during the rebellion, and it was noblemen who put the demands to the masters, in the name of the artisans.
The nobles cooperated not only with the guilds, but also with the Bishop of Strasbourg at a meeting which took place one day before the rebellion and which concerned the “Jewish issue.”
This meeting revolved around the method of getting rid of the Jews.
The fact that the Jews had to go had already been decided a month previously.
On that occasion, the Strasbourg bishop, representatives of the cities of Strasbourg, Freiburg and Basel, and Alsatian local rulers met in Benfeld, in order to plan their actions towards the Jews.
Peter Swarber was in fact aware of this agreement by the Bishop and Alsatian nobles, which is why he warned:
If the Bishop and the nobles were successful against him in the “Jewish issue“, they would not rest until they were also successful in other cases.
But he was not able to dissuade from the anti-Jewish stance.
Above: Episcopal Palace, residence of the Bishop of Strasbourg
Through the coup, the old noble families regained a great deal of their former power, the guilds regained their political participation, and many expected an anti-Semitic policy from the new political leadership (whereas, between 1332 and 1349, not one nobleman had held the office of a master, now two of four town masters were nobles).
The demand to reduce the power of the masters was also granted.
The old masters were punished (the town masters were banned from election to the council for 10 years, the hated Peter Swarber was banished, his assets confiscated, the Council was dissolved and reconstituted in the next three days, and the pogrom began a day later.
Above: Strasbourg Massacre plaque memorial
The new rulers of the city did not care about either the contract of protection with the Jews nor the financial losses for the city which resulted from the pogrom.
The two deposed officials were left with the task of leading the Jews to the place of their execution, pretending to lead them out of Strasbourg.
Above: The Jewish footbridge is located near the Jewish Gate of the former Strasbourg precinct that led to the cemetery where the city’s Jews were burned.
At this place, a wooden house had been built in which the Jews were to be burnt alive.
On 14 February 1349, the Jewish community in Strasbourg was destroyed, when several hundred Jews were publicly burnt to death, and the rest of them expelled from the city.
Those Jews who were willing to get baptized as well as children and any women considered attractive were spared from the burning alive.
The massacre is said to have lasted six days.
Above: The Pogrom of Strasbourg, 14 February 1349
After getting rid of the Jews, the murderers distributed the properties among themselves, which suggests another motive for the murders.
By killing the Jews, the debtors had the opportunity to restore themselves, which they used consistently.
Many of those who promoted the overthrow were in debt of the Jews.
All debts due to Jews are automatically erased and the pledges and letters of credit that the Jews had returned to their debtors.
Then, after the death of the Jews, it was a matter of distributing their assets.
The columnist Jacques Twinger von Konigshofen saw this as the real reason for the murder of the Jews:
“If they had been poor and the nobles owed them nothing, they would not have been burned. »
Above: Portrait of Jacques Twinger of Koenigshoffen (1346 – 1420)
Apart from Strasbourg nobles and citizens, Bishop Berthold von Buchegg was also indebted to the Jews, as were several of the landed gentry, even some sovereign princes such as the Margrave of Baden and the Count of Württemberg.
Above: Coat of arms of the Bishop of StrasbourgAbove: Coat of arms of the Margrave of BadenAbove: Coat of arms of the Counts of Württemberg
The cash of the Jews was divided among the artisans by decision of the Council, as a “reward” for their support in overthrowing the master tradesmen.
This had probably been promised to the craftsmen in advance, and the prospect of a share of the Jews’ fortune may have motivated them even more to murder.
After the distribution of the loot among the citizenry had been decided, they had to ensure that this would not be reclaimed by anyone.
For King Charles IV started to play politics with the Strasbourg Jewish legacy, by granting large-scale debt repayments for Jews.
It is possible that the few Strasbourg Jews who were still alive also wanted to redeem their rights to the property.
Countermeasures were therefore decided.
Above: Flag of Strasbourg
Strasbourg made an alliance on 5 June 1349 with the Bishop and the Alsatian rural nobility:
The City would offer aid in times of war and promised to give back all bonds, and received the assurance that the Bishop and nobles would support Strasbourg against anyone wanting to hold it to account for the murder of the Jews and confiscation of their assets.
The Strasbourg Council demanded that its allies should also take action against the Jews.
In fact, it even tried to force those towns and nobles who did not do so to take action via the Landfrieden (the courts).
With these measures, Strasbourg managed to retain complete control of the Jewish assets.
In a deed of 12 July 1349, Charles IV also gave up his claims.
Above: Coat of arms of Alsace
No one seemed to remember that Jesus Himself was a Jew and that the Old Testament declares the Jews God’s Chosen People.
No one seemed to remember the words of Christ:
“Jesus said unto him:
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it.
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
(Matthew 5:16, The Holy Bible – King James Version)
Where was the love?
Instead of examples of love manifested, romantic or otherwise, this day is replete with bloodshed and death.
Colonial Chile, Spanish Empire, Sunday 14 February 1655
The Mapuches, the indigenous inhabitants of present-day south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina were unhappy with the terms of the Parliament of Boroa signed on 24 January 1651.
Above: A council of Araucanian Mapuche philosophers, 1901
(The Parliament of Boroa (Parlamento de Boroa) was a diplomatic meeting held between various Mapuche groups and Spanish authorities in the fields of Boroa.
The Parliament was attended by the Governor of Chile Antonio Acuna Cabrera who travelled to Boroa incognito from the fortress of Nacimiento in the north accompanied only by six men.
This riskful crossing of Mapuche territory was considered valiant but reckless stunt by Spanish subordinates.)
Above: Boroa Sur, Chile
Almost everything agreed then was in favour of the Spanish, including prohibition for the Mapuche to wear weapons unless the Spanish ask them to do so.
Peace was first compromised only two months later by a new episode in the Spanish – Cunco conflict.
(The Cunco are a poorly known subgroup of Huilliche people native to coastal areas of southern Chile and the nearby inland.)
Above: Distribution of the pre-Hispanic people of Chile
Jesuit fathers Diego de Rosales and Juan de Moscoso wrote to Governor Cabrera that renewing warfare on the Cuncos would evaporate gains obtained at Boroa.
While the Spanish sent initially some minor punitive expeditions against the Cunco through this conflict the Spanish found that tribes that had pledged to come to their aid in war declined to join Spanish forces.
The Cuncos, a peripheral southern Mapuche group, had a long history of conflict with the Spanish.
The Cuncos had previously forced the Spanish to abandon their city of Osorno in October 1602.
The Cuncos were not present at the Parliament of Boroa.
Above: Diego de Rosales, General History of the Kingdom of Chile
In March 1651, a Spanish ship was about to arrive to the newly re-established Spanish exclave of Valdivia when storms pushed the ship south into Cunco lands where it wrecked.
The ship carried important supplies and salaries from the Real Situado (an annual payment of silver from the Viceroyalty of Peru to finance the Spanish Army) which the Concos seized.
Two punitive expeditions were assembled to advance on Cunco lands, one from Valdivia in the north and one from Carelmapu in the south.
Above: Church of Carelmapu
Governor of Valdivia Diego González Montero advanced south with his forces, but soon encountered natives who were indifferent and even misled him.
His troops ran out of supplies and had to return to Valdivia.
Above: Valdivia, Chile
Captain Ignacio Carrera Yturgoyen who advanced north from Carelmapu reached the site of the old city of Osorno.
There he was approached by Huilliches who handed over three suspects who were killed.
After this, the expedition of Carrera Iturgoyen returned south.
The loot was never recovered despite the Spanish searching for the wreck.
Overall, the Spanish military was dissatisfied with the results.
Above: Coat of arms of the Carrera family
Albeit there was a general ban of slavery of indigenous people by the Spanish Crown, the Mapuche Uprising of 1598, that ended with the Destruction of the Seven Cities, made the Spanish in 1608 declare slavery legal for those Mapuches caught in war.
Above: Flag of the Spanish Empire
(The Destruction of the Seven Cities (Destrucción de las siete ciudades) is a term used in Chilean historiography to refer to the destruction or abandonment of seven major Spanish outposts in southern Chile around 1600 caused by the Mapuche and Huilliche uprising of 1598.
The Seven Cities were Santa Cruz de Cova, Santa Maria la Blanca de Valdivia, San Andrés de Los Infantes, La Imperial, Santa Maria Magdalena de Villa Rica, San Mateo de Osorno, and San Felipe de Araucan.)
Above: Settlements of the Conquistadores before the Destruction of the Seven Cities
Mapuche “rebels” were considered Christian apostates and could, therefore, be enslaved according to the church teachings of the day.
In reality, these legal changes only formalized Mapuche slavery that was already occurring at the time, with captured Mapuches being treated as property in the way that they were bought and sold among the Spanish.
Legalisation made Spanish slave raiding increasingly common.
The Mapuche Uprising of 1655 took place in a context of increasing Spanish hostilities on behalf of Maestro de Campo Juan de Salazar who used the Army of Arauco to capture Mapuches and sell them into slavery.
In 1654, a large slave-hunting expedition ended in a complete disaster at the Battle of Rio Bueno.
This setback did not stop the Spanish who under the leadership of Salazar organized a new expedition the summer of 1655.
Salazar himself is said to have profited greatly from Mapuche slave trade and being brother-in-law of Governor Cabrera allowed him to exert influence in favour of his military campaigns.
Above: Rio Bueno
Salazar began his campaign on 6 February, starting from the frontier fortress of Nacimiento.
In all the expeditionary army was made up of 400–700 Spanish soldiers and a larger number of indigenous auxiliaries, numbering in total 2,000 men.
As in the year before, the expedition was not aimed at the Mapuche next to the frontier, but towards the Cuncos who lived in Fütawillimapu, south of Bueno River.
Above: Fortress, Nacimiento, Chile
On the morning of 14 February 1655, Mapuches all over southern Chile — from Osorno to Maule River — launched attacks against Spanish estancias, forts and individuals.
Mapuche slaves rose against their masters, men were killed while women and children were held hostages.
Livestock was stolen and houses set afire.
Spanish forts were besieged.
Overall, the Spanish reported over 400 estancias between Bío Bío and Maule Rivers destroyed.
It was the worst military crisis in Chile in decades, and contemporaries even considered the possibility of a civil war among the Spanish.
The uprising marks the beginning of a ten-year period of warfare between the Spanish and the Mapuche.
Above: Painting El joven Lautaro(the young Lautaro) shows the military genius and expertise of his people
All because of one man’s greed to make a profit from human trafficking.
Above: Ancient flag of the Mapuche
James Cook (1728 – 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and to Australia in particular.
He made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.
Cook joined the British merchant navy as a teenager and joined the Royal Navy in 1755.
He saw action in the Seven Years’ War and subsequently surveyed and mapped much of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River during the Siege of Québec, which brought him to the attention of the Admiralty and the Royal Society.
This acclaim came at a crucial moment in his career and the direction of British overseas exploration, and led to his commission in 1766 as commander of the HMS Endeavour for the first of three Pacific voyages.
In these voyages, Cook sailed thousands of miles across largely uncharted areas of the globe.
He mapped lands from New Zealand to Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean in greater detail and on a scale not previously charted by Western explorers.
He surveyed and named features, and recorded islands and coastlines on European maps for the first time.
He displayed a combination of seamanship, superior surveying and cartographic skills, physical courage, and an ability to lead men in adverse conditions.
Above: James Cook
It was on his 3rd and final voyage that Cook encountered what are known today as the Islands of Hawaii.
He first sighted the islands on 18 January 1778.
He anchored off the west coast of the island of Kauai near Waimea and met inhabitants to trade and obtain water and food.
On 2 February 1778, Cook continued on to the coast of North America and Alaska, mapping and searching for a Northwest Passage to the Atlantic Ocean for approximately nine months.
He returned to the Hawaiian island chain to resupply, initially exploring the coasts of Maui and the Big Island of Hawaii and trading with locals, making anchor in Kealakekua Bay in January 1779.
Cook and his crew were initially welcomed and treated with honour, as his arrival coincided with the Makahiki season,an ancient New Year festival in honour of the god Lono of the Hawaiian religion, in celebration of the yearly harvest.
The idea or suggestion that the Native Hawaiians considered Cook to be the god Lono himself is considered to be inaccurate and is attributed to William Bligh.
It is conceivable that some Hawaiians may have used the name of Lono as a metaphor when describing Cook or other possible explanations other than Hawaiians simply assuming the explorer was their own deity.
Above: The route of Cook’s third voyage shown in red, blue shows route after his death.
However, after Cook and the crews of both ships, HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery, left the Islands, the festival season had ended and the season for battle and war had begun under the worship and rituals for Kuka’ilimoku, the god of war.
Although Cook’s sequential visits may have coincided with native traditional seasons, the natives had soured on Cook and his men by the time of Cook’s initial departure.
Above: The Resolution and the Discovery
John Ledyard was the only American aboard Cook’s ship during this time.
Ledyard was present during the events leading up to and during Cook’s death, and wrote a detailed account of the events in his journals.
During Cook’s initial visit, he attempted to barter with the Hawaiians and ordered his men to remove the wood used to border the natives’ sacred “Morai” burial ground, used for high-ranking individuals and depictions of their gods.
Ledyard says in his journals that Cook offered some iron hatchets for the wooden border around the Morai and when the dismayed and insulted chiefs refused, Cook proceeded to give orders to ascend the Morai, chop down the fence and load the boats with the wood.
Above: John Ledyard (1751 – 1789)
John Ledyard also tells of an episode where Captain Charles Clerke accused a native chieftain of stealing the Resolution‘s jolly boat.
However, the boat was soon found and the native chief was incensed by the accusation.
After staying in the bay for 19 days, Cook and his two ships sailed out of the bay.
Above: Map of the Hawaiian Islands made by one of Cook’s officers, probably William Bligh
On 6 February, Cook’s ships left Kealakekua Bay.
They were soon met with an unexpected hard gale which wrenched the mainmast of the Resolution.
On 11 February, the Resolution returned again to Kealakekua Bay to make repairs.
Ledyard writes on 13 February:
“Our return to this bay was as disagreeable to us as it was to the inhabitants, for we were reciprocally tired of each other.
They had been oppressed and were weary of our prostituted alliance.
It was also equally evident from the looks of the natives as well as every other appearance that our friendship was now at an end, and that we had nothing to do but to hasten our departure to some different island where our vices were not known, and where our intrinsic virtues might gain us another short space of being wondered at.“
While the Resolutionwas anchored in Kealakekua Bay, one of its two longboats was stolen from the ship by the Hawaiians, testing the foreigners’ reaction to see how far they could go with such a significant loss.
The Hawaiians had begun openly stealing from the foreigners.
To try to obtain the return of the stolen longboat from the Hawaiians, Cook attempted to kidnap the ali’i nui (ruler) of the Island of Hawaii, Kalani’opu’u.
Possibly being quite sick at this point, Cook made what were later described as a series of incredibly poor decisions.
On the following morning, Sunday 14 February 1779, Cook and his men launched from Resolution along with a company of armed marines.
They went directly to the ruling chief’s enclosure where Kalaniʻōpuʻu was still sleeping.
They woke him and directed him, urgently but without threat, to come with them.
As Cook and his men marched the ruler out of the royal enclosure, Cook himself held the hands of the elder chief as they walked away from the town towards the beach.
Kalaniʻōpuʻu’s favorite wife, Kanekapolei, saw them as they were leaving and yelled after her husband but he ignored her and did not stop.
She called to the other chiefs and the townspeople to alert them to the departure of her husband.
Two chiefs, Kana’ina, the young son of the former ruler, Keawe’opala, and Nuaa, the king’s personal attendant, followed the group to the beach with the king’s wife behind them pleading along the way for the aliʻi nui to stop and come back.
By the time they got to the beach, Kalaniʻōpuʻu’s two youngest sons, who had been following their father believing they were being invited to visit the ship again with the ruler, began to climb into the boats waiting at the shore.
Kānekapōlei shouted to them to get out of the boat and pleaded with her husband to stop.
The ruler then realized that Cook and his men were not asking him to visit the ship, but were attempting to abduct him.
At this point he stopped and sat down.
Cook’s men were confronted on the beach by an elderly kahuna (priest) who approached them holding a coconut and chanting.
They yelled at the priest to go away, but he kept approaching them while singing a mele (chant).
When Cook and his men looked away from the old kahuna, they saw that the beach was now filled with thousands of native Hawaiians.
Cook told Kalaniʻōpuʻu to get up but the ruler refused.
As the townspeople began to gather around them, Cook and his men began to back away from the hostile crowd and raise their guns.
The two chiefs and Kānekapōlei shielded the aliʻi nui as Cook tried to get him to his feet.
Kanaʻina angrily approached Cook, who reacted by striking the chief with the broad (flat) side of his sword.
Kanaʻina jumped at Cook and grabbed him.
Some accounts state that Kanaʻina did not intend to hit Cook while other descriptions say the chief deliberately struck the navigator across the head with his leiomano (shark-tooth club).
Either way, Kanaʻina pushed Cook, who fell to the sand.
As Cook attempted to get up, Nuaa lunged at him and fatally stabbed him in the chest with a metal dagger, obtained by trade from Cook’s ship during the same visit.
Cook fell with his face in the water.
Above: Death of Captain Cook
This caused a violent, close-quarters melee between the townspeople and Cook’s men.
Four of the Royal Marines (Corporal James Thomas and Privates Theophilus Hinks, Thomas Fachett, and John Allen) were killed and two were wounded.
The remaining sailors and marines, heavily outnumbered, continued to fire as they retreated to their small boat and rowed back to their ship, killing several of the angered people on the beach, including possibly High Chief Kanaʻina.
Cook’s ships did not leave Kealakekua Bay until 22 February.
They remained for another week to continue repair of the mast and collect better-quality drinking water.
A young William Bligh, the future captain of the HMS Bounty, later claimed to have been watching with a spyglass from Resolution as Cook’s body was dragged up the hill to the town by the native Hawaiians, where it was torn to pieces by them.
Above: William Bligh (1754 – 1817)
Death and bloodshed all for a rowboat.
Orasac, Sanjak of Smederevo (Serbia), Ottoman Empire, Tuesday 14 February 1804
Belgrade was made the seat of the Pashalik of Belgrade (also known as the Sanjak of Smederevo), and quickly became the second largest Ottoman town in Europe at over 100,000 people, surpassed only by Constantinople (Istanbul).
In 1788, during the Austro-Turkish War (1788 – 1791), Koca’s frontier rebellion saw eastern Sumadija occupied by Austrian Serbian Free Corps and hajduks (rebels), and subsequently most of the Sanjak of Smederevo was occupied by the Habsburg Monarchy (1788 –1791).
From 15 September to 8 October 1789, a Habsburg Austrian force besieged the fortress of Belgrade.
Above: Siege of Belgrade (15 September – 8 October 1789)
The Austrians held the city until 1791, when it handed Belgrade back to the Ottomans according to the terms of the Treaty of Sistova.
Above: The treaty was signed in the little house to the left in modern Svishtov, Bulgaria
With the return of the Sanjak to the Ottoman Empire, the Serbs expected reprisals from the Turks due to their support of the Austrians.
Sultan Selim III had given complete command of the Sanjak of Smederevo and Belgrade to battle-hardened Janissaries (elite infantry units) that had fought Christian forces during the Austro-Turkish War and many other conflicts.
Although Selim III granted authority to the peaceful Hadzi Mustafa Pasha in 1793, tensions between the Serbs and the Janissary command did not subside.
In 1793 and 1796 Selim III proclaimed firmans (a royal mandate), which gave more rights to Serbs.
Among other things, taxes were to be collected by the obor-knez (dukes); freedom of trade and religion were granted and there was peace.
Selim III also decreed that some unpopular janissaries were to leave the “Belgrade Pashalik“, as he saw them a threat to the central authority of Hadži Mustafa Pasha.
Above: Selim III (1761 – 1808)
Many of those Janissaries were employed by or found refuge with Osman Pazvantoglu, a renegade opponent of Selim III in the Sanjak of Vidin.
Fearing the dissolution of the Janissary command in the Sanjak of Smederevo, Osman Pazvantoğlu launched a series of raids against Serbians without the permission of the Sultan, causing much instability and fear in the region.
Pazvantoğlu was defeated in 1793 by the Serbs at the Battle of Kolari.
Above: Osman Pazvantoglu (1758 – 1807)
In the summer of 1797 the sultan appointed Mustafa Pasha to the position of Beglerbey (Governor General) of Rumelia Evalet (1365 – 1867) and he left Serbia for the city of Plovdiv to fight against the Vidin rebels of Pazvantoğlu.
Above: Rumelia Eyelet, Ottoman Empire
During the absence of Mustafa Pasha, the forces of Pazvantoğlu captured Pozarevac and besieged the fortress of Belgrade.
Above: Images of Pozarevac, Serbia
At the end of November 1797, Obor-knezes (Dukes) Aleksa Nenaovic, Ilija Bircanin and Nikola Grbovic from Valjevo brought their forces to Belgrade and forced the besieging Janissary forces to retreat to Smederevo.
Above: Belgrade Fortress
However, on 30 January 1799, Selim III allowed the Janissaries to return, referring to them as local Muslims from the Sanjak of Smederevo.
Initially the Janissaries accepted the authority of Hadži Mustafa Pasha, until a Janissary in Sabac, Bego Novljanin, demanded from a Serb a surcharge and murdered the man when he refused to pay.
Above: Images of Sabac, Serbia
Fearing the worst, Hadži Mustafa Pasha marched on Šabac with a force of 600 to ensure that the Janissary was brought to justice and order was restored.
Not only did the other Janissaries decided to support Bego Novljanin, but Osman Pazvantoglu attacked the Belgrade Pasahaluk in support of the Janissaries.
Above: Uniform of the Janissaries
On 15 December 1801, Vizier Hadzi Mustafa Pasha of Belgrade was killed by Kucuk-Alija, one of the four leading dahije (officers).
This resulted in the Sanjak of Smederevo being ruled by these renegade Janissaries independently from the Ottoman government, in defiance of the Sultan.
Above: Assassination of Mustapha Pasha, 15 December 1801
The Janissaries imposed “a system of arbitrary abuse that was unmatched by anything similar in the entire history of Ottoman misrule in the Balkans“.
The leaders divided the Sanjak into pashaliks (provinces).
Above: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk wearing the traditional Janissary uniform at a masquerade ball during his early years in the Ottoman Army
They immediately suspended Serbian autonomy and drastically increased taxes, land was seized, forced labor (citlucenje) was introduced and many Serbs fled to the mountains.
The tyranny endured by the Serbs caused them to send a petition to the Sultan, which the dahije learned of.
The dahije were concerned that the Sultan would make use of the Serbs to oust them.
To forestall this they decided to execute leading Serbs throughout the Sanjak, in an event known as the “Slaughter of the Knezes“, which took place in late January 1804.
According to contemporary sources from Valjevo, the severed heads of the leaders were put on public display in the central square to serve as an example to those who might plot against the rule of the dahije.
This enraged the Serbs, who led their families into the woods and started murdering the subasi (village overseers).
Above: Serb Knez about to be beheaded
Following the Slaughter of the Knezes and building on the resentment towards the dahije who had rolled back privileges granted to the Serbs by Selim II, on Tuesday 14 February 1804, in the small village of Orasac near Arandelovac, leading Serbs gathered and decided to begin an uprising against the dahijas.
Above: the Orasac Assembly
The Serb chieftains gathered in Orašac and elected Dorde Petrovic, a livestock merchant known as Karađorđe, as their leader.
Karađorđe had fought as a member of the Freicorps during the Austro-Turkish war, had been an officer in the national militia, and thus had considerable military experience.
Above: Karadorde (1768 – 1817)
The Serbian forces quickly assumed control of Sumadija, reducing dahija control to just Belgrade.
The government in Istanbul instructed the pashas of the neighboring pashaliks not to assist the dahijas.
The Serbs, at first technically fighting on the behalf of the Sultan against the Janissaries, were encouraged and aided by an Ottoman official and the sipahi (cavalry corps).
For their small numbers, the Serbs had great military successes, taking Pozarevac and Sabac and attacking Smederevo and Belgrade, in quick succession.
The Sultan, fearing their power, ordered all pashaliks in the region to crush them.
The Serbs marched against the Ottomans and, after major victories in 1805 and 1806, established a government and parliament that returned the land to the people, abolished forced labour, and reduced taxes.
Above: Members of the Serbian Free Corps
Military success continued over the years.
However, there was dissent between Karađorđe and other leaders — Karađorđe wanted absolute power while his dukes, some of whom abused their privileges for personal gain, wanted to limit it.
After the Russo – Turkish War (1806 – 1812) ended and Russian support ceased, the Ottoman Empire exploited these circumstances and reconquered Serbia in 1813.
The Serbs were the first Christian population in Ottoman history to have risen up against the Sultan, their uprising ultimately became a symbol of the nation-building process in the Balkans, inspiring unrest among neighboring Balkan peoples.
Although the uprising was unsuccessful, it resumed shortly with the Second Serbian Uprising in 1815.
Above: Flag of Serbia
Violence, the result of fear and greed, is a universal, even in Serbia.
Chicago, Illinois, USA, Thursday 14 February 1929
It was the struggle to control organized crime in the city during Prohibition between the Irish North Siders, headed by George “Bugs” Moran, and their Italian South Side Gang rivals led by Al “Scarface” Capone.
Moran and Capone had been vying for control of the lucrative Chicago bootlegging trade.
Above: A policeman with wrecked automobile and confiscated moonshine (homemade liquor), 1922
Moran had also been muscling in on a Capone-run dog track in the Chicago suburbs, and he had taken over several saloons that were run by Capone, insisting that they were in his territory.
Above: Capone’s race track
The plan was to lure Moran to the SMC Cartage warehouse on North Clark Street on 14 February 1929, to kill him and perhaps two or three of his lieutenants.
It is usually assumed that the North Siders were lured to the garage with the promise of a stolen, cut-rate shipment of whiskey, supplied by Detroit’s Purple Gang which was associated with Capone.
Above: the Detroit Purple Gang (1917 – 1932)
The Gusenberg brothers were supposed to drive two empty trucks to Detroit that day to pick up two loads of stolen Canadian whiskey.
All of the victims were dressed in their best clothes, with the exception of John May, as was customary for the North Siders and other gangsters at the time.
Above: John May (1894 – 1929)
Most of the Moran gang arrived at the warehouse by approximately 10:30 a.m., but Moran was not there, having left his Parkway Hotel apartment late.
He and fellow gang member Ted Newberry approached the rear of the warehouse from a side street when they saw a police car approaching the building.
They immediately turned and retraced their steps, going to a nearby coffee shop.
They encountered gang member Henry Gusenberg on the street and warned him, so he too turned back.
Above: Ted Newberry
North Side Gang member Willie Marks also spotted the police car on his way to the garage, and he ducked into a doorway and jotted down the license number before leaving the neighborhood.
Above: Willie Marks
Capone’s lookouts likely mistook one of Moran’s men for Moran himself, probably Albert Weinshank, who was the same height and build.
The physical similarity between the two men was enhanced by their dress that morning.
Both happened to be wearing the same color overcoats and hats.
Above: Albert Weinshank
Witnesses outside the garage saw a Cadillac sedan pull up to a stop in front of the garage.
Four men emerged and walked inside, two of them dressed in police uniform.
The two fake police officers carried shotguns and entered the rear portion of the garage, where they found members of Moran’s gang and collaborators Reinhart Schwimmer and John May, who was fixing one of the trucks.
The fake policemen then ordered the men to line up against the wall.
They then signaled to the pair in civilian clothes who had accompanied them.
Above: Chicago policeman, 1929
Two of the killers opened fire with Thompson sub-machine guns, one with a 20-round box magazine and the other a 50-round drum.
They were thorough, spraying their victims left and right, even continuing to fire after all seven had hit the floor.
Two shotgun blasts afterward all but obliterated the faces of John May and James Clark, according to the coroner’s report.
To give the appearance that everything was under control, the men in street clothes came out with their hands up, prodded by the two uniformed policemen.
Above: The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre brick
Inside the garage, the only survivors in the warehouse were May’s dog “Highball” and Frank Gusenberg — despite 14 bullet wounds.
Above: Highball
Real Chicago police officers arrived at the scene to find that Gusenberg was still alive.
He was taken to the hospital, where doctors stabilized him for a short time and police tried to question him.
He had sustained 14 bullet wounds.
The police asked him who did it, and he replied:
“No one shot me.”
He died three hours later, refusing to utter a word about the identities of the killers.
Al Capone was widely assumed to have been responsible for ordering the Massacre, despite being at his Florida home at the time.
The Valentine’s Day Massacre set off a public outcry which posed a problem for all mob bosses.
Two years later, Capone would begin an 11-year prison sentence, of which he served eight, his health diminishing in the last six years of his incarceration.
Above: Cell 181 in Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary where Capone was imprisoned
His remaining years were spent between hospitals and his mental faculties at the time of his death were comparable to a 12-year-old.
All his violence ultimately gave him was notoriety, syphilus and death at age 48.
Above: Grave, Mount Carmel Cemetery, Hillside, Illinois
Asbestos, Québec, Canada, Monday 14 February 1949
At midnight on 14 February 1949, miners walked off the job at four asbestos mines in the Eastern Townships (Cantons d’Est), near Asbestos and Thetford Mines.
Above: Val des Sources (formerly Asbestos), QuébecAbove: Canada’s biggest power shovel loading an ore train with asbestos at the Jeffrey Mine, Johns-Manville Co., Asbestos, Quebec, June 1944
Though these mines were owned by either American or English-Canadian companies, almost all the workers were Francophones.
The largest company was the American Johns-Manville firm.
The union had several demands.
These included:
the elimination of asbestos dust inside and outside of the mill
a fifteen cents an hour general wage increase
a five-cent an hour increase for night work
a social security fund to be administered by the union
the implementation of the Rand Formula
“double time” payment for work on Sundays and holidays.
(In Canadian labour law, the Rand formula (also referred to as automatic check-off and compulsory checkoff) is a workplace compromise arising from jurisprudence struck between organized labour (trade unions) and employers that guarantees employers industrial stability by requiring all workers affected by a collective agreement to pay dues to the union by mandatory deduction in exchange for the union agreement to “work now, grieve later.”
Historically, in some workplaces, some workers refused to pay dues to the union even after benefiting from wage and benefit improvements negotiated by the union representatives, resulting in friction and violence as they were seen as ‘free-loaders‘.
At the same time, absence of a peaceful grievance settlement mechanism created industrial instability as union members often walked off the job.
The compromise was designed to ensure that no employee will opt out of the union simply to avoid dues yet reap the benefits of collective bargaining, such as higher wages or health insurance.
The Supreme Court of Canada Justice Ivan Rand introduced this formula in 1946 as an arbitration decision ending the Ford Strike of 1945 in Windsor (Ontario).
Above: Ivan Rand (1884 – 1969)
The Canada Labour Code and the labour relations laws of a majority of provinces contain provisions requiring the Rand Formula when certain conditions are met.
In those provinces where the labour relations laws do not make the Rand Formula mandatory, the automatic check-off of union dues may become part of the collective bargaining agreement if both parties (i.e., the employer and the trade union) agree.
If there are religious objections to paying dues the dues may be donated to a mutually agreed upon charity.)
Above: Flag of Canada
The Asbestos workers’ demands were radical in Québec at the time.
They were rejected by the owners.
Above: Flag of Québec
On 13 February 1949, the workers voted to strike.
The workers were represented by the National Federation of Mining Industry Employees and the Canadian Catholic Federation of Labour (today’s Confédération des syndicats nationaux / CSN).
Jean Marchand was the general secretary of the latter and is often seen as the de facto leader of the strike.
The strike was illegal.
Above: Jean Marchand (1918 – 1988)
Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis sided strongly with the companies, largely due to his hostility to all forms of socialism.
The provincial government sent squads of police to protect the mines.
Duplessis’ Union Nationale party had long been closely allied to the Catholic Church, but parts of the Church would move to support the workers.
Above: Maurice Duplessis (1890 – 1959)
The population and media of Québec were sympathetic to the strikers.
The lead reporter for Le Devoir newspaper was Gérard Pelletier, who was deeply sympathetic to the cause of the workers.
Above: Gérard Pelletier (1919 – 1997)
Pierre Elliott Trudeau, future Prime Minister of Canada and father of current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, also covered, for the dissident journal Cité Libre, the strike in a sympathetic manner.
Above: Pierre Trudeau (1919 – 2000)
Six weeks into the strike, Johns-Manville hired strikebreakers to keep the mines open.
The community was deeply divided as some of the workers crossed the picket lines.
The strike turned violent as the 5,000 strikers attacked, destroying the property of the “scabs” and intimidating them through force.
More police were sent to protect the strikebreakers.
The striking miners and police fought on the picket line and hundreds of miners were arrested.
Above: Police respond to the 1949 asbestos strike
Some of the incidents included:
On 14 March, a dynamite explosion destroyed part of a railroad track that led into the Johns-Manville Corporation’s Canadian subsidiary property.
On 16 March, strikers overturned a company jeep, injuring a passenger.
Strikers had the support of Canadian unions and some of the Catholic Church in Quebec.
The Catholic Church, which had until that time been largely supportive of the Union Nationale government of Duplessis, profoundly affected the strike.
Some priests backed the companies, but most sided with the strikers.
On 5 March, Archbishop Joseph Charbonneau delivered a fiercely pro-union speech asking all Catholics to donate to help the strikers.
Premier Duplessis asked the Church to transfer the Archbishop to Vancouver because of his encouragement of the strike.
The Church refused, signaling a dramatic change in Québec society.
Charbonneau did resign and became the chaplain at a hospital in Victoria, British Columbia.
Above: Joseph Charbonneau (1892 – 1959)
On 5 May, the strikers launched an effort to shut down the mine in Asbestos by barricading the mine and every road into and out of town.
Police attempts to force their way through the barricades failed.
The strikers backed down when the police pledged to open fire on the strikers.
The next day, the riot act was read and mass arrests of the strikers begun, including a raid on the Church.
The arrested strikers were beaten and their leaders severely battered.
After the arrests, the unions decided that they must compromise, and began negotiations with the company.
Archbishop Maurice Roy of Quebec City served as mediator.
In June, the workers agreed to return to work with few gains.
When the dispute ended, miners received a small pay increase, but many never regained their jobs.
Above: Maurice Roy (1905 – 1985)
One of the most violent and bitter labour disputes in Québec and Canadian history, the strike led to great upheaval in Québec society.
The strike was in large part led by Jean Marchand, a labour unionist.
Journalists Gérard Pelletier and Pierre Elliot Trudeau also played significant roles.
Marchand, Pelletier and Trudeau would eventually become prominent Canadian politicians and were known later in their political careers as Les Trois Colombes (the Three Wise Men).
They would largely establish the direction of Québec federalism for a generation.
Trudeau edited a book, The Asbestos Strike, that presented the strike as the origin of modern Qubéec, portraying it as “a violent announcement that a new era had begun.”
Some historians argue that the strikers were simply pursuing better conditions and that the resulting change in society was an unintended byproduct.
Popular opinion for most of the strike was broadly supportive of the striking workers.
This support, beyond its moral value, manifested itself through monetary support and the supply of provisions.
It is likely that the strike would have quickly failed had it not been for the establishment of this kind of support.
Again greed and lack of compassion leads to social unrest.
The wealthy and powerful never learn that a gilded age ultimately ends.
Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday 14 February 1979
Adolph Dubs was born in Chicago.
A 1938 graduate of Carl Schurz High School, he graduated from Beloit College in 1942 with a degree in political science.
Above: Carl Schurz High School, ChicagoAbove: Logo of Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin
While at Beloit, classmates who said they did not want to refer to Dubs by the first name of an enemy dictator, gave him the nickname “Spike“, which stuck for the rest of his life.
Dubs served in the US Navy during World War II.
Later, he completed graduate studies at Georgetown University and foreign service studies at Harvard University and Washington University in St. Louis.
He subsequently entered the US Foreign Service as a career diplomat, and his postings included Germany, Liberia, Canada, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union.
Above: Flag of the US Foreign Service
He became a noted Soviet expert, and during 1973 and 1974 he served as ranking charge d’affaires at the US Embassy in Moscow.
Above: Adolph “Spike” Dubs (1920 – 1979)
In 1978, Dubs was appointed US Ambassador to Afghanistan following the Saur Revolution, a coup d’état which brought the Soviet-aligned Khalq faction to power (27–28 April 1978).
He was being driven from his residence to the US Embassy shortly before 9 a.m. on 14 February 1979, on the same day that Iranian militants attacked the US Embassy in Tehran, Iran, and just months before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
He was approaching the US Cultural Center when four men stopped his armored black Chevrolet limousine.
Some accounts say that the men were wearing Afghan police uniforms, while others state that only one of the four was wearing a police uniform.
The men gestured to the car to open its windows, which were bulletproof, and the ambassador’s driver complied.
The militants then threatened the driver with a pistol, forcing him to take Dubs to the Kabul Serena Hotel in downtown Kabul.
The abduction occurred within sight of Afghan police.
Dubs was held in Room 117 on the first floor of the hotel, and the driver was sent to the US Embassy to tell the US of the kidnapping.
At the hotel, the abductors allegedly demanded that the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) release “one or more religious or political prisoners.“
“No demands were made of the American government, nor did the DRA ever give a complete or consistent account of the kidnappers’ desires.”
Above: Flag of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (1987 – 1992)
Some accounts state that the militants demanded the exchange of author Tahir Badakhshi (1933 – 1979), Badruddin Bahes (who may have already been dead), and poet Wasef Bakhtari.
Above: Wasef Bakhtari
The US urged waiting in order not to endanger Dubs’ life, but the Afghan police disregarded these pleas to negotiate and attacked on the advice of Soviet officers.
The weapons and flak jackets used by the Afghans were provided by the Soviets, and the hotel lobby had multiple Soviet officials, including the KGB security chief, the lead Soviet advisor to the Afghan police, and the second secretary at the Soviet embassy.
Above: Emblem of the KGB (Committee for State Security)
At the end of the morning, a shot was heard.
Afghan police then stormed Room 117 with heavy automatic gunfire.
After a short, intense firefight, estimated at 40 seconds to one minute, Dubs was found dead, killed by shots to the head.
Two abductors died in the firefight, as well.
An autopsy showed that he had been shot in the head from a distance of six inches.
The other two abductors were captured alive but were shot shortly afterwards.
Their bodies were shown to US officials before dusk.
The true identity and aims of the militants are uncertain, and the crime “has never been satisfactorily explained” although US, Afghan, and Soviet officials “were all but eyewitnesses” to it.
The circumstances have been described as “mysterious” and “still clouded.”
Above: Flag of the Soviet Union (1955 – 1991)
Several factors obscured the events, including the killing of the surviving captors, lack of forensic analysis of the scene, lack of access for US investigators, and planting of evidence.
Soviet or Afghan conspiracy was not proven.
Some attribute responsibility for the kidnapping and murder to the leftist anti-Pashtun group Settam-e-Melli, but others consider that to be dubious, pointing to a former Kabul policeman who has claimed that at least one kidnapper was part of the Parcham faction of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan.
Disinformation that was spread in the Soviet and Afghan press after the murder blamed the incident on the CIA, Hafizullah Amin, or both.
Anthony Arnold suggested that “it was obvious that only one power would benefit from the murder—the Soviet Union“, as the death of the ambassador “irrevocably poisoned” the US – Afghan relationship, “leaving the USSR with a monopoly of great power influence over” the Nur Muhammad Taraki government.
Carter’s national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski stated that Dubs’ death “was a tragic event which involved either Soviet ineptitude or collusion“, while the Afghan handling of the incident was “inept.”
The Taraki government refused US requests for an investigation into the death.
The Carter administration was outraged by the murder of the ambassador and by the conduct of the Afghan government, and began to disengage from Afghanistan and express sympathy with Afghan regime opponents.
The incident hastened the decline in US – Afghan relations, causing the United States to make a fundamental reassessment of its policy.
In reaction to Dubs’ murder, the US immediately cut planned humanitarian aid of $15 million by half and canceled all planned military aid of $250,000, and the US terminated all economic support by December 1979, when the Soviet occupation of the country was complete.
The Afghan government aimed to diminish the US presence in Afghanistan and restricted the number of Peace Corps volunteers and cultural exchange programs.
On 23 July, the State Department announced the withdrawal of non-essential US Embassy staff from Kabul and the majority of the diplomats as security deteriorated.
The US only had some 20 staff members in Kabul by December.
Dubs was not replaced by a new ambassador, and a chargé d’affaires led the skeleton staff at the Embassy.
The death of Dubs was listed as a “Significant Terrorist Incident” by the State Department.
Documents released from the Soviet KGB archives by Vasily Mitrokhin in the 1990s showed that the Afghan government clearly authorized the assault despite forceful demands for peaceful negotiations by the US, and that KGB adviser Sergei Batrukhin may have recommended the assault, as well as the execution of a kidnapper before US experts could interrogate him.
The Mitrokhin archives also indicate that the fourth kidnapper escaped and the body of a freshly killed prisoner served as a substitute for the US inspection.
Other questions remain unanswered.
At the time of his death Dubs was married to his second wife Mary Anne, a Washington-based journalist.
He was previously married for over 30 years to Jane Wilson Dubs (1922–1993), his college girlfriend from Beloit College, whom he married in 1945 and divorced in 1976.
He had one daughter, Lindsay Dubs McLaughlin (1953–), who lives in West Virginia.
Dubs is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
An ambassador was killed and chess pieces moved across the board of international diplomacy.
Somehow, the notion of triumph seems elusive here.
Tehran, Iran, Tuesday 14 February 1989
Ahmed Salman Rushdie was born on 19 June 1947 in Mumbai (Bombay), then British India, into a Kashmiri Muslim family.
He is the son of Anis Ahmed Rushdie, a Cambridge-educated lawyer-turned-businessman, and Negin Bhatt, a teacher.
Rushdie has three sisters.
He wrote in his 2012 memoir that his father adopted the name Rushdie in honour of Averroes (Ibn Rushd).
Above: Salman Rushdie
(Averroes / Ibn Rushd (1126 – 1198) was a Muslim Andalusian polymath and jurist who wrote about many subjects, including philosophy, theology, medicine, astronomy, physics, psychology. theology, medicine, astronomy, physics, psychology, mathematics, Islamic jurisprudence and law, and linguistics.
The author of more than 100 books and treatises, his philosophical works include numerous commentaries on Aristotle, for which he was known in the western world as The Commentator and the Father of rationalism.)
Above: Statue of Averroes, Cordoba, Spain
Rushdie was educated at Cathedral and John Connon School, Bombay, Rugby School in Warwickshire, and King’s College, Cambridge, where he read (studied) history.
Above: Logo of Cathedral and John Connon School, Bombay, IndiaAbove: Coat of arms, Rugby School, EnglandAbove: Coat of arms of King’s College, Cambridge University, England
Rushdie has been married four times.
He was married to his first wife Clarissa Luard from 1976 to 1987 and fathered a son, Zafar (born 1979).
He left her in the mid-’80s for the Australian writer Robyn Davidson, to whom he was introduced by their mutual friend Bruce Chatwin.
His second wife was the American novelist Marianne Wiggins.
They were married in 1988 and divorced in 1993.
Wiggins reported that in the first few months following the fatwa the couple moved 56 times, once every three days.
In late July 1989, Rushdie separated from Wiggins, “the tension of being at the centre of an international controversy, and the irritations of spending all hours of the day together in seclusion“, being too much for their “shaky” relationship.
His third wife, from 1997 to 2004, was Elizabeth West.
They have a son, Milan (born 1997).
In 2004, he married Padma Lakshmi, an Indian-American actress, model, and host of the American reality-television show Top Chef.
The marriage ended on 2 July 2007.
Above: Padma Lakshmi
Rushdie worked as a copywriter for the advertising agencies Ogilvy & Mather, and Ayer Barker.
It was while he was at Ogilvy that he wrote Midnight’s Children, before becoming a full-time writer.
Rushdie’s first novel, Grimus (1975), a part-science fiction tale, was generally ignored by the public and literary critics.
The story loosely follows Flapping Eagle, a young native American man who receives the gift of immortality after drinking a magic fluid.
After drinking the fluid, Flapping Eagle wanders the Earth for 777 years 7 months and 7 days, searching for his immortal sister and exploring identities before falling through a hole in the Mediterranean Sea.
He arrives in a parallel dimension at the mystical Calf Island where those immortals who have tired of the world but are reluctant to give up their immortality exist in a static community under a subtle and sinister authority.
Grimus is said to allegorically encounter and investigate multiple social ideologies whilst in a search for a coherent centre of identity, in that its journey traverses both outer and inner dimensions, exploring both cultural ideologies and the ambivalent effects that they have on one’s psychological being.
Grimus undermines the concept of a “pure culture” by demonstrating the impossibility of any culture, philosophy or Weltanschauung (world view) existing in sterile isolation.
“Any intellect which confines itself to mere structuralism is bound to rest trapped in its own webs.
Your words serve only to spin cocoons around your own irrelevance.“
Grimus examines the habits that communities adopt to prevent themselves from acknowledging multiplicity and explores and undermines concepts of stable cultural origins of identity.
“One of the things that have happened in the 20th century is a colossal fragmentation reality, the state of confusion and alienation that defines postcolonial societies and individuals.”
His next novel, Midnight’s Children (1981), catapulted him to literary notability.
Midnight’s Children follows the life of a child, born at the stroke of midnight as India gained its independence, who is endowed with special powers and a connection to other children born at the dawn of a new and tumultuous age in the history of the Indian sub-continent and the birth of the modern nation of India.
Above: Flag of India
The character of Saleem Sinai has been compared to Rushdie.
However, the author has refuted the idea of having written any of his characters as autobiographical, stating:
“People assume that because certain things in the character are drawn from your own experience, it just becomes you.
In that sense, I’ve never felt that I’ve written an autobiographical character.“
After Midnight’s Children, Rushdie wrote Shame (1983), in which he depicts the political turmoil in Pakistan, basing his characters on Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.
Above: Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (1928 – 1979)Above: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (1924 – 1988)
This book was written out of a desire to approach the problem of “artificial” (other-made) country divisions, their residents’ complicity, and the problems of post-colonialism.
It portrays the lives of Iskander Harappa and General Raza Hyder and their relationship.
The central theme of the novel is that begetting “shame” begets violence.
The concepts of ‘shame‘ and ‘shamelessness‘ are explored through all of the characters.
This story takes place in a town called “Q” which is actually a fictitious version of Quetta, Pakistan.
Above: Quetta, Pakistan at night from above
In Q, one of the three sisters (Chunni, Munnee, and Bunny Shakil) gives birth to Omar Khayyám Shakil, but they act as a unit of mothers, never revealing to anyone who is Omar’s birth mother.
In addition, Omar never learns who his father is.
While growing up, Omar lives in purdah (exile) with his three mothers and yearns to join the world.
As a birthday present, Omar Khayyám Shakil’s “mothers” allow him to leave Q.
He enrolls in a school and is convinced by his tutor to become a doctor.
Over time, he comes in contact with both Iskander Harappa and General Raza Hyder.
Rushdie wrote a non-fiction book about Nicaragua in 1987 called The Jaguar Smile.
Above: Flag of Nicaragua
This book has a political focus and is based on his first-hand experiences and research at the scene of Sandinista political experiments.
The book is subtitled A Nicaraguan Journey and relates his travel experiences, the people he met as well as views on the political situation then facing the country.
The book was written during a break the author took from writing his controversial novel, The Satanic Verses.
After a period of political and economic turmoil under dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle, the leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (commonly known by their initials FSLN or as the Sandinistas) came to power in Nicaragua in 1979 supported by much of the populace and elements of the Catholic church.
Above: Anastasio Somoza Debayle (1925 – 1980)Above: Flag of the FSLN
The government was initially backed by the US under President Jimmy Carter, but the support evaporated under the presidency of Ronald Reagan in light of evidence that the Sandinistas were providing help to the FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front) rebels in El Salvador.
Above: Ronald Reagan (1911 – 2004)Above: Flag of El Salvador
The US imposed economic sanctions and a trade embargo instead which contributed to the collapse of the Nicaraguan economy in the early to mid-1980s.
While the Soviet Union and Cuba funded the Nicaraguan army, the US financed the contras (1979 – 1990) in neighboring Honduras with a view towards establishing a friendly government in Nicaragua.
Above: Flag of CubaAbove: Nicaraguan Contra rebelsAbove: Flag of Honduras
Nicaragua won a historic case against the US at the International Court of Justice in 1986, and the U.S. was ordered to pay Nicaragua some $12 billion in reparations for undermining the nation’s sovereignty.
Above: Seal of the International Court of Justice, The Hague, The Netherlands
It was during this period that Salman Rushdie visited Nicaragua on the occasion of the 7th anniversary of the Sandinistas rise to power.
Rushdie’s three-week trip to Nicaragua in the summer of 1986 was at the invitation of the Sandinista Association of Cultural Workers which was billed as, “the umbrella organisation that brought writers, artists, musicians, craftspeople, dancers and so on, together under the same roof“.
Time Magazine reviewer Pico Iver praised Rushdie’s account that was “quickened by a novelist’s eye“.
However, Iyer felt that Rushdie was quick to overlook Sandinista totalitarianism and censorship due to his ideological sympathies with their cause.
Predicting the readers’ expected response, Iyer said:
“Since his own views seem largely unchanged by what he encounters, the tourist is unlikely to change the views of his readers.
Those who share his assumptions will be reassured by his brief.
Those who do not will be outraged by it.”
Above: Pico Iver
His most controversial work, The Satanic Verses, was published in 1988.
Even before the publication of The Satanic Verses, the books of Salman Rushdie had stoked controversy.
Rushdie sees his role as a writer “as including the function of antagonist to the state“.
His second book Midnight´s Children angered Indira Ganghi because it seemed to suggest “that Mrs. Gandhi was responsible for the death of her husband through neglect“.
Above: Indira Gandhi (1917-1984)
His 1983 roman ã clefShame “took an aim on Pakistan, its political characters, its culture and its religion.
It covered a central episode in Pakistan’s internal life, which portrays as a family squabble between Iskander Harappa (Zulfikar Ali Bhutto) and his successor and executioner Raza Hyder (Zia ul-Haq).
‘The Virgin Ironpants’ has been identified as Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan“.
Above: Benazir Bhutto (1953 – 2007)
Positions Rushdie took as a committed leftist prior to the publication of The Satanic Verses were the source of some controversy.
He defended many of those who would later attack him during the controversy.
Rushdie forcefully denounced the Shah’s government and supported the Islamic Revolution of Iran (1978 – 1979), at least in its early stages.
Above: Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919 – 1980)Above: Mass demonstrations at College Bridge, Tehran, Iran
He condemned the US bombing raid on Tripoli in 1986, but found himself threatened by Libya’s leader Muammar al-Gaddafi three years later.
Above: A 48th Tactical Fighter Wing F-111F aircraft retracts its landing gear as it takes off from RAF Lakenheath, East Anglia England, to participate in a retaliatory air strike on Libya.
Above: Muammar al-Gaddafi (1942 – 2011)
He wrote a book bitterly critical of US foreign policy in general and its war in Nicaragua in particular, for example calling the US government, “the bandit posing as sheriff“.
Above: Coat of arms of the United States of America
After the Ayatollah’s fatwa however, Rushdie was accused by the Iranian government of being “an inferior CIA agent“.
A few years earlier, an official jury appointed by a ministry of the Iranian Islamic government had bestowed an award on the Persian translation of Rushdie’s book Shame, which up until then was the only time a government had awarded Rushdie’s work a prize.
Above: Shame (Persian version)
The publication of The Satanic Verses in September 1988 caused immediate controversy in the Islamic world because of what was seen by some to be an irreverent depiction of Muhammad.
The title refers to a disputed Muslim tradition that is related in the book.
According to this tradition, Muhammad (Mahound in the book) added verses (Ayah) to the Qur’an accepting three goddesses who used to be worshipped in Mecca as divine beings.
Above: “Muhammad the Messenger of God” inscribed on the gates of the Prophet’s Mosque in MedinaAbove: Goddesses Al-lat, Uzza and Manat
According to the legend, Muhammad later revoked the verses, saying the Devil tempted him to utter these lines to appease the Meccans (hence the “Satanic” verses).
However, the narrator reveals to the reader that these disputed verses were actually from the mouth of the Archangel Gabriel.
The book was banned in many countries with large Muslim communities (13 in total: Iran, India, Bangladesh, Sudan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Thailand, Tanzania, Indonesia, Singapore, Venezuela, and Pakistan).
In response to the protests, on 22 January 1989, Rushdie published a column in The Observer that called Muhammad “one of the great geniuses of world history,” but noted that Islamic doctrine holds Muhammad to be human, and in no way perfect.
Above: Al-Masijd an-Nabawi (“the Prophet’s Mosque”) in Medina, Saudi Arabia, with the Green Dome built over Muhammad’s tomb in the centre
He held that the novel is not “an anti-religious novel.”
“It is, however, an attempt to write about migration, its stresses and transformations.”
Above: World Muslim population by percentage, 2014
On 14 February 1989 — Valentine’s Day, and also the day of his close friend Bruce Chatwin’s funeral—a fatwa ordering Rushdie’s execution was proclaimed on Radio Tehran by Ayatollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, calling the book “blasphemous against Islam“.
Chapter IV of the book depicts the character of an Iman in exile who returns to incite revolt from the people of his country with no regard for their safety.
A bounty was offered for Rushdie’s death, and he was thus forced to live under police protection for several years.
On 7 March 1989, the United Kingdom and Iran broke diplomatic relations over the Rushdie controversy.
Above: Flag of the United Kingdom
When, on BBC Radio 4, he was asked for a response to the threat, Rushdie said:
“Frankly, I wish I had written a more critical book.”
“I’m very sad that it should have happened.
It’s not true that this book is a blasphemy against Islam.
I doubt very much that Khomeini or anyone else in Iran has read the book or more than selected extracts out of context.”
Later, he wrote that he was “proud, then and always“, of that statement.
While he did not feel his book was especially critical of Islam, “a religion whose leaders behaved in this way could probably use a little criticism.”
The publication of the book and the fatwā sparked violence around the world, with bookstores firebombed.
Muslim communities in several nations in the West held public rallies, burning copies of the book.
Several people associated with translating or publishing the book were attacked, seriously injured, and even killed.
Many more people died in riots in some countries.
Despite the danger posed by the fatwā, Rushdie made a public appearance at London’s Wembley Stadium on 11 August 1993 during a concert by U2.
In 2010, U2 bassist Adam Clayton recalled that lead vocalist “Bono had been calling Salman Rushdie from the stage every night on the Zoo TV tour.
When we played Wembley, Salman showed up in person and the stadium erupted.
You could tell from [drummer] Larry Mullen, Jr.‘s face that we weren’t expecting it.
Salman was a regular visitor after that.
He had a backstage pass and he used it as often as possible.
For a man who was supposed to be in hiding, it was remarkably easy to see him around the place.“
Above: The band U2, from left to right: Larry Mullen Jr., The Edge, Bono, Adam Clayton
On 24 September 1998, as a precondition to the restoration of diplomatic relations with the UK, the Iranian government, then headed by Mohammad Khatami, gave a public commitment that it would “neither support nor hinder assassination operations on Rushdie.”
Hardliners in Iran have continued to reaffirm the death sentence.
Above: The Islamic Consultative Assembly, also known as the Iranian Parliament
In early 2005, Khomeini’s fatwā was reaffirmed by Iran’s current spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message to Muslim pilgrims making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.
Above: Ayatollah Mohammad Khatami Above: Pilgrims in Mecca
Additionally, the Revolutionary Guards declared that the death sentence on him is still valid.
Above: The emblem of the Revolutionary Guards of Iran
Rushdie has reported that he still receives “a sort of Valentine’s card” from Iran each year on 14 February letting him know the country has not forgotten the vow to kill him and has jokingly referred it as “my unfunny Valentine” in a reference to the song “My Funny Valentine“.
He said:
“It’s reached the point where it’s a piece of rhetoric rather than a real threat.”
Despite the threats on Rushdie personally, he said that his family has never been threatened, and that his mother, who lived in Pakistan during the later years of her life, even received outpourings of support.
Rushdie himself has been prevented from entering Pakistan, however.
Above: Flag of Pakistan
A former bodyguard to Rushdie, Ron Evans, planned to publish a book recounting the behaviour of the author during the time he was in hiding.
Evans claimed that Rushdie tried to profit financially from the fatwa and was suicidal, but Rushdie dismissed the book as a “bunch of lies” and took legal action against Evans, his co-author and their publisher.
On 26 August 2008, Rushdie received an apology at the High Court in London from all three parties.
A memoir of his years of hiding, Joseph Anton, was released on 18 September 2012.
Joseph Anton was Rushdie’s secret alias.
In February 1997, Ayatollah Hasan Sane’i, leader of the bonyad panzdah-e khordad (the Fifteenth of Khordad Foundation), reported that the blood money offered by the foundation for the assassination of Rushdie would be increased from $2 million to $2.5 million.
Then a semi-official religious foundation in Iran increased the reward it had offered for the killing of Rushdie from $2.8 million to $3.3 million.
Above: Marmar Palace, Tehran, Iran
In November 2015, former Indian minister P. Chidambaram acknowledged that banning The Satanic Verses was wrong.
Above: Palaniappan Chidambaram
In 1998, Iran’s former President Mohammad Khatami proclaimed the fatwa “finished“; but it has never been officially lifted, and in fact has been reiterated several times by Ali Khamenei and other religious officials.
Yet more money was added to the bounty in February 2016.
On 3 August 1989, while Mustafa Mahmoud Mazeh was priming a book bomb loaded with RDX explosive in a hotel in Paddington, Central London, the bomb exploded prematurely, destroying two floors of the hotel and killing Mazeh.
A previously unknown Lebanese group, the Organization of the Mujahidin of Islam, said he died preparing an attack “on the apostate Rushdie“.
There is a shrine in Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery for Mustafa Mahmoud Mazeh that says he was:
“Martyred in London, 3 August 1989.
The first martyr to die on a mission to kill Salman Rushdie.”
Mazeh’s mother was invited to relocate to Iran, and the Islamic World Movement of Martyrs’ Commemoration built his shrine in the cemetery that holds thousands of Iranian soldiers slain in the Iran – Iraq War (1980 – 1988).
Above: Mustafa Mahmoud Mazeh
During the 2006 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons contorversy, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared that:
“If there had been a Muslim to carry out Imam Khomeini’s fatwā against the renegade Salman Rushdie, this rabble who insult our Prophet Mohammed in Denmark, Norway and France would not have dared to do so.
I am sure there are millions of Muslims who are ready to give their lives to defend our prophet’s honour and we have to be ready to do anything for that.”
Above: Hassan Nasrallah
In 2010, Anwar al-Awlaki published an Al-Qaeda hit list in Inspire magazine, including Rushdie along with other figures claimed to have insulted Islam, including Ayaan Hirsi Ali (a Dutch critic of Islam and advocate for the rights and self-determination of Muslim women, actively opposing forced marriage, honour violence, child marriage and female genital mutilation, Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks (an artist and activist whose drawings of Muhammad resulted in at least two failed attempts by Islamic extremists to murder him), and three Jyllands-Posten staff members: Kurt Westergaard, Carsten Juste and Flemming Rose.
The list was later expanded to include Stéphane “Charb” Charbonneau, who was murdered in the terror attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris (7 January 2015), along with 11 other people.
Above: Anwar al-Awlaki (1971 – 2011)Above: Ayaan Hirsi AliAbove: Lars Vilks Above: Kurt WestergaardAbove: Flemming RoseAbove: Stéphane Charbonneau (1967 – 2015)Above: The 11 victims of the Charlie Hebdo attack of 7 January 2015
After the attack, Al-Qaeda called for more killings.
Rushdie expressed his support for Charlie Hebdo.
He said:
“I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity.
Religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today.”
In response to the attack, Rushdie commented on what he perceived as victim blaming in the media, stating:
“You can dislike Charlie Hebdo.
But the fact that you dislike them has nothing to do with their right to speak.
The fact you dislike them certainly doesn’t in any way excuse their murder.”
Rushdie was knighted for services to literature in the Queen’s Birthday Honours on 16 June 2007.
He remarked:
“I am thrilled and humbled to receive this great honour, and am very grateful that my work has been recognised in this way.”
Above: Knighthood of Sir Salman Rushdie
In response to his knighthood, many nations with Muslim majorities protested.
Parliamentarians of several of these countries condemned the action, and Iran and Pakistan called in their British envoys to protest formally.
Controversial condemnation issued by Pakistan’s Religious Affairs Minister Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq was in turn rebuffed by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
Several called publicly for his death.
Some non-Muslims expressed disappointment at Rushdie’s knighthood, claiming that the writer did not merit such an honour and there were several other writers who deserved the knighthood more than Rushdie.
Al-Qaeda condemned the Rushdie honour.
The Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is quoted as saying in an audio recording that UK’s award for Kashmiri-born Rushdie was “an insult to Islam”, and it was planning “a very precise response.”
Above: Ayman al-Zawahiri
Rushdie came from a liberal Muslim family but is now an atheist.
In 1989, in an interview following the fatwa, Rushdie said that he was in a sense a lapsed Muslim, though “shaped by Muslim culture more than any other“, and a student of Islam.
In another interview the same year, he said:
“My point of view is that of a secular human being.
I do not believe in supernatural entities, whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim or Hindu.“
In 1990, in the “hope that it would reduce the threat of Muslims acting on the fatwa to kill him,” he issued a statement claiming he had renewed his Muslim faith, had repudiated the attacks on Islam made by characters in his novel, and was committed to working for better understanding of the religion across the world.
Above: Medallion showing “Allah” (God) in Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey
However, Rushdie later said that he was only “pretending“.
“It was deranged thinking.
I was more off-balance than I ever had been, but you can’t imagine the pressure I was under.
I simply thought I was making a statement of fellowship,” Times Online quoted him, as saying.
“As soon as I said it I felt as if I had ripped my own tongue out.
I realised that my only survival mechanism was my own integrity.
People, my friends, were angry with me, and that was the reaction I cared about,” he added.
Rushdie also said that the criticism of the book caused him more upset than the fatwa.
“I had spent five years writing this book.
It was my best effort.
To have it hated and dismissed was terrible.
I thought that if this is what you get, then why write?
I might as well become a bus conductor,” he said.
Rushdie advocates the application of higher criticism (a branch of criticism that investigates the origins of ancient texts in order to understand “the world behind the text“), pioneered during the late 19th century.
Rushdie called for a reform in Islam in a guest opinion piece printed in The Washington Post and The Times in mid-August 2005:
“What is needed is a move beyond tradition, nothing less than a reform movement to bring the core concepts of Islam into the modern age, a Muslim Reformation to combat not only the jihadist ideologues but also the dusty, stifling seminaries of the traditionalists, throwing open the windows to let in much-needed fresh air.
It is high time, for starters, that Muslims were able to study the revelation of their religion as an event inside history, not supernaturally above it.
Broad-mindedness is related to tolerance.
Open-mindedness is the sibling of peace.”
In a 2006 interview with PBS, Rushdie called himself a “hardline atheist”.
Rushdie is a critic of cultural relativism (the idea that a person’s beliefs, values, and practices should be understood based on that person’s own culture, and not be judged against the criteria of another).
He favours calling things by their true names and constantly argues about what is wrong and what is right.
In an interview with Point of Inquiry in 2006, he described his view as follows:
“We need all of us, whatever our background, to constantly examine the stories inside which and with which we live.
We all live in stories, so called grand narratives.
Nation is a story.
Family is a story.
Religion is a story.
Community is a story.
We all live within and with these narratives.
And it seems to me that a definition of any living vibrant society is that you constantly question those stories.
That you constantly argue about the stories.
In fact the arguing never stops.
The argument itself is freedom.
It’s not that you come to a conclusion about it.
And through that argument you change your mind sometimes.
And that’s how societies grow.
When you can’t retell for yourself the stories of your life then you live in a prison.
Somebody else controls the story.
Now it seems to me that we have to say that a problem in contemporary Islam is the inability to re-examine the ground narrative of the religion.
The fact that in Islam it is very difficult to do this, makes it difficult to think new thoughts.“
Rushdie is an advocate of religious satire.
He condemned the Charlie Hebdo shooting and defended comedic criticism of religions in a comment originally posted on English PEN where he called religions a medieval form of unreason.
Rushdie called the attack a consequence of “religious totalitarianism” which according to him had caused “a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam“:
“Religion, a medieval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms.
This religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today.
I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity.
‘Respect for religion’ has become a code phrase meaning ‘fear of religion.’
Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, our fearless disrespect.“
Rushdie is a self-professed humanist, believing that reading and writing is a pathway for understanding human existence.
When asked about reading and writing as a human right Rushdie states:
“The larger stories, the grand narratives that we live in, which are things like nation, and family, and clan, and so on.
Those stories are considered to be treated reverentially.
They need to be part of the way in which we conduct the discourse of our lives and to prevent people from doing something very damaging to human nature.”
Though Rushdie believes the freedoms of literature to be universal, the bulk of his fictions portrays the struggles of the marginally underrepresented.
This can be seen in his portrayal of the role of females in his novel Shame.
In this novel, Rushdie, “suggests that it is women who suffer most from the injustices of the Pakistani social order.”
(Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the potential and agency of human beings, individually and socially.
It considers human beings as the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term humanism has fluctuated according to the successive intellectual movements which have identified with it.
Generally, however, humanism refers to a perspective that affirms some notion of human freedom and progress.
It views humanity as responsible for the promotion and development of individuals, espouses the equal and inherent dignity of all human beings, and emphasizes a concern for humans in relation to the world.
In modern times, humanist movements are typically non-religious movements aligned with secularism, and today humanism may refer to a nontheistic life stance centred on human agency and looking to science and reason rather than revelation from a supernatural source to understand the world.)
Above: The Self-Made Man
The Satanic Verses controversy was said to have divided “Muslims from Westerners along the fault line of culture,”and to have pitted a core Western value of freedom of expression — that no one “should be killed, or face a serious threat of being killed, for what they say or write” — against the view of many Muslims that no one should be free to “insult and malign Muslims” by disparaging the “honour of the Prophet“.
English writer Hanif Kureishi called the fatwa “one of the most significant events in postwar literary history“.
Above: Hanif Kureishi
Broadcast on Iranian radio, the judgment (fatwa) read:
“We are from Allah and to Allah we shall return.
I am informing all brave Muslims of the world that the author of The Satanic Verses, a text written, edited, and published against Islam, the Prophet of Islam, and the Qur’an, along with all the editors and publishers aware of its contents, are condemned to death.
I call on all valiant Muslims wherever they may be in the world to kill them without delay, so that no one will dare insult the sacred beliefs of Muslims henceforth.
And whoever is killed in this cause will be a martyr, Allah willing.
Meanwhile, if someone has access to the author of the book but is incapable of carrying out the execution, he should inform the people so that Rushdie is punished for his actions.”
Khomeini did not give a legal reasoning for his judgement.
Above: Ayatollah and admirers
It is thought to be based on the 9th chapter of the Qur’an, called At-Tawba (“Repentence“), verse 61:
“Some of them hurt the Prophet by saying, ‘He is all ears!’
Say, ‘It is better for you that he listens to you.
He believes in God, and trusts the believers.
He is a mercy for those among you who believe.’
Those who hurt God’s messenger have incurred a painful retribution“.
(The question is from whence cometh this retribution?)
However it was not explained how that chapter could support such a judgment.
Above: The Qur’an
On 18 February, Iran’s President Ali Khamenei (who would later that year succeed Khomeini as Supreme Leader) suggested that if Rushdie “apologises and disowns the book, people may forgive him“.
Following this, Rushdie issued “a carefully worded statement“, saying:
“I recognize that Muslims in many parts of the world aregenuinely distressed by the publication of my novel.
I profoundly regret the distress the publication has occasioned to the sincere followers of Islam.
Living as we do in a world of many faiths, this experience has served to remind us that we must all be conscious of the sensibilities of others.“
This was relayed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran “via official channels” before being released to the press.
On 19 February 1990, Ayatollah Khomeini’s office replied:
“The imperialist foreign media falsely alleged that the officials of the Islamic Republic have said the sentence of death on the author of The Satanic Verses will be retracted if he repents.
Imam Khomeini has said:
This is denied 100%.
Even if Salman Rushdie repents and become the most pious man of all time, it is incumbent on every Muslim to employ everything he has got, his life and wealth, to send him to Hell.“
The Imam added:
“If a non-Muslim becomes aware of Rushdie’s whereabouts and has the ability to execute him quicker than Muslims, it is incumbent on Muslims to pay a reward or a fee in return for this action.”
Above: Satan is trapped in the frozen central zone in the Ninth Circle of Hell, Inferno, Canto 34.
McRoy (2007) stated that Khomeini’s interpretation of the Islamic law that led him to refuse the apology follows the same line of reasoning as Al-Shafi’i (9th century jurist), who in his Risala (Crimes Against Islam) ruled that an “apostate is also killed unless he repents.
Whoever abuses the Messenger of God is to be executed, and his repentance is not accepted“.
Above: The name of Al-Shafie (767 – 820)
Khomeini’s fatwa was condemned across the Western world by governments on the grounds that it violated the universal human rights of free speech, freedom of religion, and that Khomeini had no right to condemn to death a citizen of another country living in that country.
The twelve members of the European Economic Community removed their ambassadors from Tehran for three weeks.
Above: Flag of the European Economic Community (1953 – 2009)
In addition to criticism of the death sentence on the basis of human rights, the sentence was also criticised on Islamic grounds.
According to Bernard Lewis, a death warrant without trial, defence and other legal aspects of sharia violates Islamic jurisprudence.
In Islamic figh, apostasy by a mentally sound adult male is indeed a capital crime.
However, fiqh also:
“... lays down procedures according to which a person accused of an offense is to be brought to trial, confronted with his accuser, and given the opportunity to defend himself.
A judge will then give a verdict and if he finds the accused guilty, pronounce sentence.
Even the most rigorous and extreme of the classical jurist only require a Muslim to kill anyone who insults the Prophet in his hearing and in his presence.
They say nothing about a hired killing for a reported insult in a distant country.”
Above: Bernard Lewis (1916 – 2018)
Other Islamic scholars outside Iran took issue with the fact that the sentence was not passed by an Islamic court, or that it did not limit its “jurisdiction only to countries under Islamic law“.
Muhammad Hussan ad-Din, a theologian at Al-Azhar University, argued:
“Blood must not be shed except after a trial when the accused has been given a chance to defend himself and repent“.
Abdallah al-Mushidd, head of Azhar’s Fatwā Council stated:
“We must try the author in a legal fashion as Islam does not accept killing as a legal instrument”.
Above: Logo of Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt
The Islamic Jurisprudence Academy in Mecca urged that Rushdie be tried and, if found guilty, be given a chance to repent, and Ayatollah Mehdi Rohani, head of the Shi’i community in Europe and a cousin of Khomeini, criticised Khomeini for ‘respecting neither international law nor that of Islam.’
There was also criticism of the fatwa issued against Rushdie’s publishers.
According to Daniel Pipes:
“The Sharia clearly establishes that disseminating false information is not the same as expressing it.
Transmitting blasphemy is not blasphemy itself (naql al-kufr laysa kufr).
In addition, the publishers were not Muslim and so could not be sentenced under the Islamic laws of apostasy.
If there was another legal justification for sentencing them to death, Khomeini failed to provide it“.
Above: Daniel Pipes
Iran’s response to calls for a trial was to denounce its Islamic proponents as “deceitful“.
President Khomeini accused them of attempting to use religious law as “a flag under which they can crush revolutionary Islam“.
Above: Reza Shrine, Mashhad, Iran
Some speculate that the fatwa (or at least the reaffirmation of the death threat four days later) was issued with motives other than a sense of duty to protect Islam by punishing blasphemy/apostasy.
Namely:
To divide Muslims from the West by “starkly highlighting the conflicting political and intellectual traditions” of the two civilisations.
Khomeini had often warned Muslims of the dangers of the West – “the agents of imperialism who are busy in every corner of the Islamic world drawing our youth away from us with their evil propaganda“.
He knew from news reports the book was already rousing the anger of Muslims.
To distract the attention of his Iranian countrymen from his capitulation seven months earlier to a truce with Iraq (20 July 1988) ending the long and bloody Iran – Iraq War (a truce Iraq would have eagerly given him six years and hundreds of thousands of lives earlier), and strengthen the revolutionary ardour and morale of Iranians worn down by the bloodshed and privation of that war.
Above: Images of the Iran – Iraq War
According to journalist Robin Wright, “as the international furore grew, Khomeini declared that the book had been a ‘godsend‘ that had helped Iran out of a ‘naïve foreign policy‘”.
Above: Robin Wright
To win back the interest in and support for the Islamic Revolution among the 90% of the population of the Muslim world that was Sunni, rather than Shia like Khomeini.
The Iran–Iraq War had also alienated Sunni, who not only were offended by its bloodshed, but tended to favour Iran’s Sunni-led opponent, Iraq.
At least one observer speculated that Khomeini’s choice of the issue of disrespect for the Prophet Muhammad was a particularly shrewd tactic, as Sunni were inclined to suspect Shia of being more interested in the Imams Ali and Husayn ibn Ali than in the Prophet.
Above: Imam Husayn Shrine, Karbala, Iraq
To steal the thunder of Khomeini’s two least favourite enemy states, Saudi Arabia and the United States, who were basking in the glory of the Soviet withdrawl from Afghanistan.
This withdrawal, seen by many as a great victory of Islamic faith over an atheist superpower, was made possible by billions of dollars in aid to the Afghan mujahideen by those two countries.
Khomeini issued the fatwa on 14 February 1989.
The next day came the official announcement of the completion of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, lost in the news cycle of the fatwa.
Above: Last Soviet troop column crosses Soviet border after leaving Afghanistan
To gain the upper hand from Saudi Arabia in the struggle for international leadership of the Muslim world.
Each led rival blocs of international institutions and media networks, and “the Saudi government, it should be remembered, had led the anti-Rushdie campaign for months“.
Unlike the more conservative Saudi Arabia, however, Iran was ideologically and militantly anti-western and could take a more militant stand outside international law.
Above: Flag of Saudi Arabia
Despite claims by Iranian officials that “Rushdie’s book did not insult Iran or Iranian leaders” and so they had no selfish personal motivation to attack the book, the book does include an eleven-page sketch of Khomeini’s stay in Paris that could well be considered an insult to him.
It describes him as having “grown monstrous, lying in the palace forecourt with his mouth yawning open at the gates; as the people march through the gates he swallows them whole“.
In the words of one observer:
“If this is not an insult, Khomeini was far more tolerant than one might suppose“.
Above: Flag of France
John Crowley has noted that the section of the book depicting the Khomeini-like character was selected to be read publicly by Rushdie in the promotional events leading up to and following the book’s release.
In Crowley’s opinion, the fatwa was most likely declared because of this section of the novel and its public exposure, rather than the overall parodic treatment of Islam.
Above: John Crowley
I have a number of thoughts on this:
First, it is important to separate the players from the game they are playing.
Khomeini’s fatwa had nothing to do with faith as much as it has to do with power and its demonstration.
Theocracies claim to defend a faith, but in reality they employ faith to seize and maintain power.
Personally, I find it somewhat arrogant when men claim to represent God and commit deplorable deeds in His Name claiming that it is their divine right to do as they choose because they are God’s representatives.
It is also interesting to note how far interpretations of scriptual tomes seem to stray from the actual wording of the tomes themselves.
It is not my place to steady the Kaa’ba in Mecca or the Ark on Ararat or even brush against a brick on the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.
Above: The Kaa’ba, MeccaAbove: Mount Ararat, as seen from Yerevan, ArmeniaAbove: The Wailing Wall, Jerusalem, Israel
Islam is one of the three great faiths that rose from deserts of the Middle East.
(A man can get a lot of thinking done in a desert.)
Above: The Arabian Desert
Islam began 1,400 years ago as a result of one man.
Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam’s influence has spread far beyond the deserts of Arabia.
Today there are over one and a half billion Muslims all over the world, spanning Asia to Africa, Australasia to Europe.
It is, like Judaism and Christianity, a religion of choice, a faith of free will, that was never meant to be enforced by the powerful over the powerless, but instead it is a set of beliefs that is meant to encompass both paupers and princes, shepherds and sheiks, workers and wealthy equally.
Islam in the 21st century is at the very heart of world affairs, including its conflicts, and its name is associated with some of the greatest terrorist acts of our age.
Yet nowhere does the Qu’ran suggest that there is anything redeemable in acts of violence.
Islam does not and never has and never will justify cruelty and carnage, death and destruction.
Islam does not encourage or allow terrorism.
How conveniently the West forgets that acts of violence have not just been committed against the West or Westerners, but as well have struck and terrified and horrified Muslims all over the world by those who falsely use the name of Islam to justify murder.
Above: Flag of Al-Qaeda
No individual has the right to take the law into his own hands whatever the circumstances.
No individual committing violence in the name of faith is truly one of the faithful.
We must not confuse those who claim to represent a faith with the faith itself.
Theocratic rulers may pretend to act as agents of religion, but if their actions run contrary to that religion, then they truly are not practioners as they should be of that faith, and thus should not be confused with the faith itself.
We must not confuse politics with religion even if religion is given as the excuse for the politics.
We must not confuse the acts of men with the faith of people.
We in the West must not forget our own histories, that terrorism as a weapon in political conflict has many precedents in history that have nothing to do with Islam.
There has been no time in history when religion has truly been the only cause of conflict.
Religion is not the reason for conflict.
It is simply the excuse.
Islam when practiced as the Qu’ran suggests is a peaceful and compassionate religion.
Secondly, we must not confuse freedom of expression with freedom to offend.
I will never condone the violence committed against those who have foolishly written or caricatured images of Islam that run contrary to the faith.
And those who have committed such unspeakable violence have used this folly as an excuse to murder those who have offended them.
But I believe those bent on violence never need a reason.
They only need a target and an excuse to strike that target.
No one merits death for the act of drawing a cartoon or writing a novel.
That being said, I expect more intelligence to be exhibited by those with the power to influence other people.
Words can wound and images can insult.
And I expect men of education and learning to know this.
Blasphemy is an extremely grievous crime under Shari’ah law, but Muhammad’s own response to such attacks was to hold firm and be patient, hating the evil but not the person who had succumbed to it.
We must not confuse men’s application and interpretation of holy writ with holy writ itself.
Shari’ah law is not holy writ regardless of its claims.
What angered many Muslims about Charlie Hebdo and Jyllands-Posten wasn’t so much that the image of Muhammad was being attempted as much as this image was used to suggest that the Prophet advocated terrorism.
For in a world where Muslims struggle against a hostile image portraying all Muslims as violent as its most radical pretenders, caricatures of this nature only added fuel to the fury of the uninformed.
If a non-Muslim attacks Islam, it is not acceptable nor forgiven, but it would not warrant a death sentence.
If someone offends God, that is a matter between them and God.
But if someone who has had the advantages of being born and raised as a Muslim attacks Islam, it can be construed as an attack on Islam that endangers the brotherhood.
Even then it is preferred if the offender recanted and repented, rather than condemning an apostate to death.
If someone who has been raised a Muslim betrays their upbringing and rejects the brotherhood of Islam, they undermine the unity of the faith (and the authority of the faith), endangering those within it.
(How conveniently the world – and Rushdie himself – forgets that Rushdie was raised in a Muslim family.)
Above: Salman Rushdie
But it is always been my contention that if a faith is true it can stand up to questioning and can withstand both criticism and rejection.
Thus who waiver from the faith perhaps do not truly belong in that faith.
This does not mean that the faith isn’t true for the faithful.
This simply means that the belief no longer holds true for those who have lost faith in it.
Just because a man chooses not to believe in God does not mean that God either exists or doesn’t exist.
Perhaps there are those who choose not to believe in God, but let us hope that should God exist that He has chosen to continue to believe in us!
Above: Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City
To be born Muslim is a privilege.
(Just as it is to be born of any other faith).
For a Muslim not to recognise this privilege and renounce the advantages that God has granted may be considered an insult to God, but again I argue if God is truly all-powerful then is it not arrogance on our part to act as His judge and jury?
Can He not defend Himself?
(Which, of course, it can be assumed, He can.)
It is accepted that preaching is commendable, for why not offer the advantages we enjoy to others so that we might all live in harmony?
But the Qu’ran clearly states:
“Let there be no compulsion in religion.” (Surah 2.25)
Sadly, this has not stopped armies making life uncomfortable, or even extinguishing life, if people did not, readily and rapidly, desire to follow the faith of the powerful, be that faith Islam, Christianity or something else.
And this is ultimately what is the true aspect of it all:
Power over people’s lives.
Iran’s Supreme Leader was less interested in protecting the faith as he was in showing his strength.
Above: Yazd, Iran
As wrong as it was to declare a fatwa on Rushdie’s life, let us not paint Rushdie as simply a naive man who never realized the import and impact of his words.
Putting aside all of the aformentioned reasons that The Satanic Verses cause offense, Rushdie’s cardinal commission is his besmirching of the basic belief upon which Islam stands.
Above: Salman Rushdie
Although Islam can seem hard to define (especially for non-Muslims like myself), most Muslims agree that at its heart it is strikingly simple and is based, above all, upon three ideas.
First, it hinges upon the concept of Oneness:
There is one God and no God but the One.
Second, God sends messengers and the Prophet Muhammad was His final Messenger, who was fortunate to receive revelations from God.
Third, earthly life is a series of lessons and tests for the next life to come.
Around these three basic principles are five pillars of faith:
Oneness
Prayer
Charity
Fasting
Pilgrimage
These are the fundamental cornerstones on which Islam is built.
The first step in any Muslim’s path to worshipping God is the profession of faith:
“There is no God but Allah and the Prophet Muhammad is His Messenger.”
Above: The Muslim profession of faith, the Shahadah, illustrates the Muslim conception of the role of Muhammad: “There is no god except the God. Muhammad is the Messenger of God.” in Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, Turkey
The tenet that there is no God other than Allah is so important that it is inscribed on talismans that some Muslims carry on journeys to protect themselves from the hazards of the trip.
The verse is also frequently inscribed on tombstones, so that the dead may have equal protection on their journey to the afterlife.
Above: Allah in Arabic
According to Muhammad’s message, God’s oneness is one of three basic facets of His divine self.
The others are His transcendence and His omnipotence, each of which restates His unity with the world, His Oneness.
This unity, this Oneness, is expressed in the Qu’ran in one of its most famous verses, the Surah Ikhlas, which states that:
“He is God.
One.
God, eternal.
He does not give birth nor was He born.
And there is none like unto Him.“
Above: Allah script outside the Old Mosque, Edirne, Turkey
The basic unity (tawhid) of God, unlike the Christian concept in which the Divine is tripartite, composed of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, dictates that there is one God and no other divine forces.
Questioning Allah’s tawhid is a very serious offence.
Above: Christian Trinitarians believe that God is composed of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Those who were surprised by the trouble caused by Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses failed to understand that in questioning the singularity of God the book ignored and subverted the supreme importance that all Muslims bestow on God’s unity.
Rushdie’s offence was to give credence to the pre-Islamic belief that Allah had three daughters, each of whom held divine power.
The Prophet Muhammad’s teaching holds that God had neither wife nor children, as this would have been incompatible with His role as the Creator and the Almighty.
To believe that God is not alone is to commit shirk.
Shirk implies that God is not omnipotent but shares His power.
In strict authoritarian Muslim societies (of which not all Muslims are), shirk is so serious that the only appropriate punishment is death.
Above: (What if God were) One of Us?
The West regarded the outcry over The Satanic Verses as an affront to freedom of speech.
However, the important lesson to be learned from the Rushdie controversy is that, to Muslims, the central tenets of Islam are so powerful that they can transcend all other considerations.
Certainly, a commission of shirk by non-Muslims of little education and knowledge of the Muslim faith is somewhat understandable, but it stretches credulity to imagine that Rushdie was ignorant of the most basic tenet of Oneness when he penned The Satanic Verses.
He was raised Muslim.
He was neither ignorant nor innocent in his shirk, but he certainly was deliberate and idiotic.
He does not deserve death, but he certainly does not deserve sympathy.
Above: Rushdie at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
The cartoonists may have been shocked as to the reactions their simple drawings provoked, but I think it can be assumed that men of education, which I presume they were, should have known better not to add fuel to the fire of an already volatile relationship between Islam and the West.
They may not have deserved the violence they provoked, but they should have known better to have provoked it in the first place.
Freedom of speech is a marvelous thing, but it should not be carte blanche to be offensive.
I expect the uneducated to make errors of this magnitude.
I expect the educated to know better than to make these errors.
I also expect the educated to realize that the violence committed in the name of Islam is nowhere close to the teachings of Muhammad and the peace and compassion that Islam promotes.
Rushdie speaks of the need for an Islamic Reformation, but what seems to be forgotten is what the Christian Reformation was.
The reason for the Catholic Church’s resistance to the reforms that faithful Christians were seeking was not that the reforms ran counter to the faith, but more that the reforms questioned the authority of the Church to decide how Christianity was to be practiced.
The troubles that haunt Islam are less connected to the rightness of the faith or the fervour of the faithful as they are intertwined with the fears of the powerful who dictate how the faith is to be practiced.
Above: The Ninety-Five Theses (1517) of Martin Luther (1483 – 1546)
I disagree with Rushdie that religion is a threat to freedom, for the very essence of faith is the free will to follow it or not.
The threat to freedom is not faith.
The threat to freedom is those who use faith to dominate others.
As to whether faith is opposed to reason is akin to comparing a wrench to a banana.
They can neither be compared nor contrasted.
Though I am as distant from religion as Earth is from the Sun, I think to dismiss religion because it cannot be analysed scientifically would be doing a disservice to the positive attributes that religion offers.
Religion offers comfort with dealing with our destiny of demise and death.
Religion offers consolation that the evil that men do will eventually be punished and the good that men do rewarded.
Religion offers ceremony, granting significance to the important stages of our development: birth, maturity, marriage and death.
Religion offers tradition, in how it is practiced and how we ponder existence.
Religion offers conscience, a framework by which we determine how we live our lives and relate to one another.
Religion offers structure to our lives in regards to how we measure time and how that time is spent.
Faith is belief, sometimes without proof, save what was written in times far past our own memories.
Faith is free will and voluntary compliance with the tenets and standards of a religion.
Faith is not reason, but neither are we totally one or the other.
Our reason may help us to live but it is our emotions that make that life worth living.
Above: Praying Hands, Albrecht Dürer (1471 – 1528)
And it is this dichotomy in human behaviour that brings me back to Valentine’s Day.
It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a Christian martyr named Valentine, and, through later folk traditions, has become a significant cultural, religious, and commercial celebration of romance and love in many regions of the world.
While the European folk traditions connected with Saint Valentine and St. Valentine’s Day have become marginalized by the modern Anglo-American customs connecting the day with romantic love, there are some remaining associations connecting the saint with the advent of spring.
While the custom of sending cards, flowers, chocolates and other gifts originated in the UK (and thus spread to English-speaking lands of the British Empire), Valentine’s Day still remains connected with various regional customs in England.
In Norfolk, a character called ‘Jack Valentine‘ knocks on the rear door of houses leaving sweets and presents for children.
Although he was leaving treats, many children were scared of this mystical person.
Above: Jack Valentine, Norfolk
In Slovenia, Saint Valentine or Zdravko was one of the saints of spring, the saint of good health and the patron of beekeepers and pilgrims.
A proverb says that “Saint Valentine brings the keys of roots“.
Plants and flowers start to grow on this day.
It has been celebrated as the day when the first work in the vineyards and in the fields commences.
It is also said that birds propose to each other or marry on that day.
Above: Valentine’s Day, Slovenia
Another proverb says “Valentin – prvi spomladin“ (“Valentine – the first spring saint“), as in some places (especially Bela krajina / White Carniola, southeastern Slovenia on the border with Croatia), Saint Valentine marks the beginning of spring.
Above: Lovers, Bela Krajina, Slovenia
Valentine’s Day has only recently been celebrated as the day of love.
The day of love was traditionally 12 March (Saint Gregory’s Day) or 22 February (Saint Vincent’s Day).
Above: Tomb of Pope (Saint) Gregory I (540 – 604), St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican CityAbove: (Saint) Vincent of Saragossa (d. 304)
The patron of love was Saint Anthony, whose day has been celebrated on 13 June.
Above: (Saint) Anthony of Padua (1195 – 1231)
No evidence has been demonstrated to link St. Valentine’s Day and the rites of the ancient Roman purification festival of Lupercalia, despite persistent and sometimes detailed claims by many authors to the contrary, nor to any otherwise unspecified Greco-Roman holiday supposed to have celebrated love or fertility.
The celebration of Saint Valentine is not known to have had any romantic connotations until Chaucer’s poetry about “Valentine’s Day” in the 14th century, some 700 years after celebration of Lupercalia is believed to have ceased.
In ancient Rome, Lupercalia was observed 13 – 15 February.
It was a rite connected to purification and health, and had only slight connection to fertility (as a part of health) and none to love.
Lupercalia was a festival local to the city of Rome.
The more general Festival of Juno Februa, meaning “Juno the purifier” or “the chaste Juno“, was celebrated on 13 – 14 February.
Above: The Lupercalian Festival in Rome, showing the Luperci dressed as dogs and goats, with Cupid and personifications of fertility
Pope Gelasius I (r. 492–496) abolished Lupercalia.
Some researchers have theorized that Gelasius I replaced Lupercalia with the celebration of the Purification of the Blesssed Virgin Mary and claim a connection to the 14th century’s connotations of romantic love, but there is no historical indication that he ever intended such a thing.
Also, the dates do not fit, because at the time of Gelasius I, the feast was only celebrated in Jerusalem, and it was on 14 February only because Jerusalem placed the Nativity of Jesus (Christmas) on 6 January.
Although it was called “the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary“, it also dealt with the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple.
Above: Presentation of Jesus at the Temple (1501), Hans Holbein the Elder
Jerusalem’s Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 14 February became the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple on 2 February as it was introduced to Rome and other places in the 6th century, after Gelasius I’s time.
Above: Gelasius I (r. 492 – 496)
Alban Butler in his Lives of the Principal Saints (1756 – 1759) claimed without proof that men and women in Lupercalia drew names from a jar to make couples, and that modern Valentine’s letters originated from this custom.
In reality, this practice originated in the Middle Ages, with no link to Lupercalia, with men drawing the names of girls at random to couple with them.
This custom was combatted by priests, for example by Frances de Sales (Bishop of Geneva) around 1600, apparently by replacing it with a religious custom of girls drawing the names of apostles from the altar.
(Control the sex drive = control the person.)
Above: (Saint) Francois de Sales (1567 – 1622)
However, this religious custom is recorded as early as the 13th century in the life of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, so it could have a different origin.
Above: (Saint) Princess Elizabeth of Hungary (1207 – 1231)
The first recorded association of Valentine’s Day with romantic love is believed to be in the Parliament of Fowls (1382) by Geoffrey Chauncer, a dream vision portraying a parliament for birds to choose their mates.
Above: Geoffrey Chaucer
Honouring the first anniversary of the engagement of 15-year-old King Richard II of England to 15-year-old Anne of Bohemia, Chaucer wrote (in Middle English):
“For this was on seynt Valentynes day Whan every foul cometh there to chese his make Of every kynde that men thynke may And that so huge a noyse gan they make That erthe, and eyr, and tre, and every lake So ful was, that unethe was there space For me to stonde, so ful was al the place.”
In modern English:
“For this was on Saint Valentine’s Day When every bird comes there to choose his match Of every kind that men may think of And that so huge a noise they began to make That earth and air and tree and every lake Was so full, that not easily was there space For me to stand—so full was all the place.“
Readers have uncritically assumed that Chaucer was referring to 14 February as Valentine’s Day.
Above: King Richard II of England (1367 – 1400)Above: Anne of Bohemia (1366 – 1394)
Henry Ansgar Kelly has observed that Chaucer might have had in mind the feast day of St. Valentine of Genoa, an early Bishop of Genoa who died around AD 307.
It was probably celebrated on 3 May.
A treaty providing for Richard II and Anne’s marriage, the subject of the poem, was signed on 2 May 1381.
Above: Cathedral of San Lorenzo, Genoa, Italy
Jack B. Oruch notes that the date on which spring begins has changed since Chaucer’s time because of the precession of the equinoxes (the gradual shift in the orientation of Earth’s axis of rotation in a cycle of approximately 26,000 years) and the introduction of the more accurate Gregorian calendar only in 1582.
On the Julian calendar in use in Chaucer’s time, 14 February would have fallen on the date now called 23 February, a time when some birds have started mating and nesting in England.
Chaucer’s Parliament of Fowls refers to a supposedly established tradition, but there is no record of such a tradition before Chaucer.
The speculative derivation of sentimental customs from the distant past began with 18th-century antiquaries, notably Alban Butler, the author of Butler’s Lives of Saints, and have been perpetuated even by respectable modern scholars.
Most notably, “the idea that Valentine’s Day customs perpetuated those of the Roman Lupercalia has been accepted uncritically and repeated, in various forms, up to the present“.
Three other authors who made poems about birds mating on St. Valentine’s Day around the same years: Otto de Grandson (Switzerland) from Savoy, John Gower from England, and a knight called Pardo from Valencia.
Chaucer most probably predated all of them, but due to the difficulty of dating medieval works, it is not possible to ascertain which of the four may have influenced the others.
Above: Effigy of Otto de Grandson (1238 – 1328), Lausanne Cathedral, SwitzerlandAbove: Tomb of John Gower, Southwark Cathedral, London, England
The earliest description of 14 February as an annual celebration of love appears in the Charter of the Court of Love.
The Charter, allegedly issued by Charles VI of France at Mantes-la-Jolie in 1400, describes lavish festivities to be attended by several members of the royal court, including a feast, amorous song and poetry competitions, jousting and dancing.
Amid these festivities, the attending ladies would hear and rule on disputes from lovers.
No other record of the court exists, and none of those named in the Charter were present at Mantes except Charles’s Queen, Isabeau of Bavaria, who may well have imagined it all while waiting out a plague.
Above: Charles VI of France (1368 – 1422)Above: Isabeau of Bavaria (1370 – 1435)
The earliest surviving valentine is a 15th-century rondeau written by Charles, Duke of Orléans, to his wife, which commences:
“Je suis desja d’amour tanné Ma tres doulce Valentinée…“
Above: Charles I of Orléans (1394 – 1465)
At the time, the Duke was being held in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt (25 October 1415).
Above: A depiction of Charles’ imprisonment in the Tower of London from an illuminated manuscript of his poems
The earliest surviving valentines in English appear to be those in the Paston Letters, written in 1477 by Margery Brewes to her future husband John Paston “my right well-beloved Valentine“.
Valentine’s Day is mentioned ruefully by Ophelia in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1601):
“To-morrow is Saint Valentine’s day, All in the morning betime, And I a maid at your window, To be your Valentine. Then up he rose, and donn’d his clothes, And dupp’d the chamber-door; Let in the maid, that out a maid Never departed more.“
William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5
John Donne used the legend of the marriage of the birds as the starting point for his epithalamon (a poem written specifically for the bride on the way to her marital chamber) celebrating the marriage of Elizabeth, daughter of James I of England, and Frederick V, Elector Palatine, on Valentine’s Day:
“Hayle Bishop Valentine whose day this is
All the Ayre is thy Diocese And all the chirping Queristers And other birds ar thy parishioners Thou marryest every yeare The Lyrick Lark, and the graue whispering Doue, The Sparrow that neglects his life for loue, The houshold bird with the redd stomacher Thou makst the Blackbird speede as soone, As doth the Goldfinch, or the Halcyon The Husband Cock lookes out and soone is spedd And meets his wife, which brings her feather-bed. This day more cheerfully than ever shine
This day which might inflame thy selfe old Valentine.”
John Donne, Epithalamion Vpon Frederick Count Palatine and the Lady Elizabeth marryed on St. Valentines day
Above: John Donne (1572 – 1631)
The verse “Roses are red” echoes conventions traceable as far back as Edmund Spenser’s epic The Faerie Queene (1590):
“She bath’d with roses red, and violets blew, And all the sweetest flowres, that in the forrest grew.”
Above: Edmund Spenser (1552 – 1599)
The modern cliché Valentine’s Day poem can be found in the collection of English nursery rhymes Gammer Gurton’s Garland (1784):
“The rose is red, the violet’s blue,
The honey’s sweet, and so are you. Thou art my love and I am thine; I drew thee to my Valentine: The lot was cast and then I drew,
And Fortune said it shou’d be you.”
In 1797, a British publisher issued The Gentleman’s Valentine Writer, which contained scores of suggested sentimental verses for the young lover unable to compose his own.
Printers had already begun producing a limited number of cards with verses and sketches, called “mechanical valentines.”
Paper Valentines became so popular in England in the early 19th century that they were assembled in factories.
Fancy Valentines were made with real lace and ribbons, with paper lace introduced in the mid-19th century.
In 1835, 60,000 Valentine cards were sent by post in the United Kingdom, despite postage being expensive.
A reduction in postal rates following Sir Rowland Hill’s postal reforms with the 1840 invention of the postage stamp (Penny Black) saw the number of Valentines posted increase, with 400,000 sent just one year after its invention, and ushered in the less personal but easier practice of mailing Valentines.
Above: Rowland Hill (1795 – 1879)
That made it possible for the first time to exchange cards anonymously, which is taken as the reason for the sudden appearance of racy verse in an era otherwise prudishly Victorian.
Above: The “penny black“, 1840
Production increased, “Cupid’s Manufactory” as Charles Dickens termed it, with over 3,000 women employed in manufacturing.
Above: Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870)
The Laura Seddon Greeting Card Collection at Manchester Metropolitan University has gathered 450 Valentine’s Day cards dating from early 19th century Britain, printed by the major publishers of the day.
The collection appears in Seddon’s book Victorian Valentines (1996).
In the United States, the first mass-produced Valentines of embossed paper lace were produced and sold shortly after 1847 by Esther Howland (1828–1904) of Worcester, Massachusetts.
Her father operated a large book and stationery store, but Howland took her inspiration from an English Valentine she had received from a business associate of her father.
Intrigued with the idea of making similar Valentines, Howland began her business by importing paper lace and floral decorations from England.
Above: An Esther Howland Valentine
A writer in Graham’s American Monthly observed in 1849:
“Saint Valentine’s Day is becoming, nay, it has become, a national holyday.”
The English practice of sending Valentine’s cards was established enough to feature as a plot device in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mr. Harrison’s Confessions (1851):
“I burst in with my explanations:
‘The valentine I know nothing about.‘
‘It is in your handwriting’, said he coldly.“
Above: Elizabeth Gaskell (1810 – 1865)
Since 2001, the Greeting Card Association has been giving an annual “Esther Howland Award for a Greeting Card Visionary“.
Since the 19th century, handwritten notes have given way to mass-produced greeting cards.
In the UK, just under half of the population spend money on their Valentines, and around £1.9 billion was spent in 2015 on cards, flowers, chocolates and other gifts.
The mid-19th century Valentine’s Day trade was a harbinger of further commercialized holidays in the US to follow.
In 1868, the British chocolate company Cadbury created Fancy Boxes – a decorated box of chocolates – in the shape of a heart for Valentine’s Day.
Boxes of filled chocolates quickly became associated with the holiday.
In the second half of the 20th century, the practice of exchanging cards was extended to all manner of gifts, such as giving jewelry.
The US Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately 190 million valentines are sent each year in the US.
Half of those valentines are given to family members other than husband or wife, usually to children.
When the valentine-exchange cards made in school activities are included the figure goes up to 1 billion, and teachers become the people receiving the most valentines.
The average valentine’s spending has increased every year in the US, from $108 a person in 2010 to $131 in 2013.
The rise of Internet popularity at the turn of the millennium is creating new traditions.
Millions of people use, every year, digital means of creating and sending Valentine’s Day greeting messages such as e-cards, love coupons (Friends‘ Joey Tribani was onto something!) or printable greeting cards.
An estimated 15 million e-valentines were sent in 2010.
Valentine’s Day is considered by some to be a Hallmark holiday due to its commercialization.
(In the United States, a Hallmark holiday is a holiday that is perceived to exist primarily for commercial purposes, rather than to commemorate a traditionally or historically significant event.
The name comes from Hallmark Cards, a privately owned American company, that benefits from such manufactured events through sales of greeting cards and other items.
Holidays that have been referred to as “Hallmark holidays” include:
Valentine’s Day
Mother’s Day
Father’s Day
Grandparents’ Day
National Son’s Day
National Daughter’s Day
Sweetest Day
Boss’ Day
Administrative Professionals’ Day
Teacher Appreciation Day
Graduation Day.
However, holidays such as Valentine’s Day have been celebrated since the 5th century AD as the Feast of St. Valentine, and Mother’s Day observed since the 1780s in England and later in America as a day to “go a-mothering“, and others, all observed long before the Hallmark Company was founded (1910).
The Hallmark Corporation maintains that it “can’t take credit for creating holidays.”)
In the modern era, liturgically, the Lutheran Church and Anglican Church have a service for St. Valentine’s Day (the Feast of St. Valentine), which includes the optional rite of the renewal of marriage vows.
Above: The Luther Rose, symbol of Lutheranism
In 2016, the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales established a novena prayer “to support single people seeking a spouse ahead of St Valentine’s Day.”
Above: Coat of arms of the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales
Valentine’s Day customs – sending greeting cards (known as “valentines”), offering confectionary and presenting flowers – developed in early modern England and spread throughout the English-speaking world in the 19th century. In the later 20th and early 21st centuries, these customs spread to other countries, like those of Hallowe’en, or aspects of Christmas, such as Santa Claus.
Valentine’s Day is celebrated in many East Asian countries with Singaporeans, Chinese and South Koreans spending the most money on Valentine’s gifts.
Above: Flag of Singapore
What is important to note is that Valentine’s Day in Germany (where my wife is from and where we once lived) and in Switzerland (where she remains and where I was before coming to Turkey) is NOT a tradition and is viewed by many Germans and Swiss has a “Hallmark holiday”.
Nonetheless, my wife has tried to accommodate some of this Canadian’s eccentricities, including my insistence in celebrating “Hallmark holidays“, such as Valentine’s Day and Hallowe’en.
This 14 February 2021, in the midst of the pandemic, meant cafés and restaurants in Switzerland were closed, and as well, there was an awareness that in 15 days I would leave for Turkey.
The question arises:
Does a lover fail at being a lover if he/she does show the beloved “appropriate” Valentine’s Day behaviour?
The events that transpired and the walk that we did on this Valentine’s Day is a story for my next post, wherein I will try to answer the question:
Where is the love?
Sources: Wikipedia / Google / Magsie Hamilton Little, The Thing about Islam: Exposing the Myths, Facts and Controversies
Landschlacht, Switzerland, Thursday 14 January 2020
A man leads a donkey bearing his wife and child through the town.
The quartet of man, woman, child and beast enter the temple and gather around the altar, thankful for their lives.
The Feast of the Ass was a medieval Christian feast observed on this day, celebrating the Holy Family’s Flight into Egypt.
Joseph, Mary, Jesus and an anonymous ass are commemorated famously in Chester (England) and Beauvais (France).
Above: Bridge Street, Chester, England
Above: Beauvais Cathedral
The focus is on the determined compassionate man, his beautiful bride and beloved baby.
But the beast of burden makes their flight possible, their lives can continue away from a place where they were threatened because an anonymous animal gave his all for the needs of others.
The priest repeats a refrain by rote:
“From the Eastern lands the Ass is come, beautiful and very brave, well fitted to bear burdens.
Up, Sir Ass, and sing!
Open your pretty mouth.
Hay will be yours in plenty and oats in abundance.“
At the end of the mass, the priest turns to the people and instead of uttering “Go with God”, insteads brays three times.
The people respond, instead of saying “Thanks be to God“, reply with “hinham, hinham, hinham” in imitation of the only answer an ass can evoke.
The ass is celebrated for who he is, though ever in the shadow of those he has served.
There is something symbolic beyond the obvious here.
I am reminded that this is the anniversary of another spectacle.
The Human Be-In was an event held in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park Polo Fields on 14 January 1967.
It was a prelude to San Francisco’s Summer of Love, which made the Haight-Ashbury district a symbol of American counterculture and introduced the word “psychedelic” to suburbia.
(The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon that occurred during the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people, mostly young people sporting hippie fashions of dress and behavior, converged in San Francisco’s neighborhood of Haight-Ashbury.
More broadly, the Summer of Love encompassed the hippie music, drug, anti-war, and free-love scene throughout the West Coast of the United States, and as far away as New York City.
Hippies, sometimes called flower children, were an eclectic group.
Many were suspicious of the government, rejected consumerist values, and generally opposed the Vietnam War.
A few were interested in politics.
Others were concerned more with art (music, painting, poetry in particular) or spiritual and meditative practices.)
The Human Be-In focused the key ideas of the 1960s counterculture: personal empowerment, cultural and political decentralization, communal living, ecological awareness, higher consciousness (with the aid of psychedelic drugs), acceptance of illicit psychedelics use, and radical liberal political consciousness.
The hippie movement developed out of disaffected student communities around San Francisco State University, City College and Berkeley and in San Francisco’s beat generation poets and jazz hipsters, who also combined a search for intuitive spontaneity with a rejection of “middle class morality“.
Allen Ginsberg (1926 – 1997) personified the transition between the beat and hippie generations.
Above: Allen Ginsberg
(The counterculture of the 1960s was an anti-establishment cultural phenomenon that developed throughout much of the Western world between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s.
The aggregate movement gained momentum as the US Civil Rights Movement continued to grow, and, with the expansion of the American government’s extensive military intervention in Vietnam, would later become revolutionary to some.
As the 1960s progressed, widespread social tensions also developed concerning other issues, and tended to flow along generational lines regarding human sexuality, women’s rights, traditional modes of authority, experimentation with psychoactive drugs, and differing interpretations of the ‘American Dream‘.
Many key movements related to these issues were born or advanced within the counterculture of the 1960s.
As the era unfolded, what emerged were new cultural forms and a dynamic subculture that celebrated experimentation, modern incarnations of Bohemianism, and the rise of the hippie and other alternative lifestyles.
This embrace of creativity is particularly notable in the works of British Invasion bands such as the Beatles, as well as of New Hollywood filmmakers, whose works became far less restricted by censorship.
Within and across many disciplines, many other creative artists, authors, and thinkers helped define the counterculture movement.
Everyday fashion experienced a decline of the suit and especially of the wearing of hats.
Styles based around jeans, for both men and women, became an important fashion movement that has continued up to the present day, and likely into the future.
Several factors distinguished the counterculture of the 1960s from the anti-authoritarian movements of previous eras.
The post-World War II baby boom generated an unprecedented number of potentially disaffected youth as prospective participants in a rethinking of the direction of the United States and other democratic societies.
Post-war affluence allowed much of the counterculture generation to move beyond the provision of the material necessities of life that had preoccupied their Depression-era parents.
The era was also notable in that a significant portion of the array of behaviors and “causes” within the larger movement were quickly assimilated within mainstream society, particularly in the US, even though counterculture participants numbered in the clear minority within their respective national populations.
In general, the counterculture era commenced in earnest with the assassination of John F. Kennedy (1917 – 1963) in November 1963, became absorbed into the popular culture with the termination of US combat military involvement in Southeast Asia, and ultimately concluded with the end of the draft in 1973 and the resignation of President Richard Nixon (1913 – 1994) in August 1974.)
The Human Be-In took its name from a chance remark by the artist Michael Bowen (1937 – 2009) made at the Love Pagent Rally.
The Love Pageant Rally took place on 6 October 1966 — the day LSD became illegal — in the ‘panhandle‘ of Golden Gate Park, a narrower section that projects into San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district.
The ‘Haight‘ was a neighborhood of run-down turn-of-the-20th-century housing that was the center of San Francisco’s counterculture in the 1960s.
The major instigators of the rally were Allen Cohen and artist Michael Bowen, the creators of the San Francisco Oracle, which first hit the streets in September 1966.
The occasion was the banning of LSD, by the California legislature in Sacramento, an enactment which virtually created a neighborhood of outlaws in the Haight, where ‘acid‘ was a staple of community culture.
Since the new law was to go into effect on 6 October 1966, Cohen and others related the event to the number of the Beast of the Bible book of Revelations.
On a more serious level, busts for drugs were ramping up locally and on the national level, and confrontations between the hippie communes and the local police were getting more intense and led to street protests and rioting, followed by neighborhood curfews.
A better form of protest, more suited to hippie culture was needed.
“Without confrontation,” said Allen Cohen, “we wanted to create a celebration of innocence.
We were not guilty of using illegal substances.
We were celebrating transcendental consciousness.
The beauty of the universe.
The beauty of being.”
Posters advertising the event invited participants to:
“Bring the color gold.
Bring photos of personal saints and gurus and heroes of the underground.
Thousands showed up for the event, read a “prophecy of a declaration of independence” written by Cohen, after which many placed a tab of acid on their tongues and swallowed in unison.
Music was provided by the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin, both invited to play by Michael Bowen for free.
Above: The Grateful Dead
Left to right: Bill Kreutzmann, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan (1945 – 1973), Jerry Garcia (1942 – 1995), Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh.
Above: Janis Joplin (1943 – 1970)
Ken Kesey (1935 – 2001) was on hand with the Merry Pranksters (Kesey’s followers) in the legendary bus.
Above: Novelist Ken Kesey (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest)
The Love Pageant Rally drew several thousand people.
It was a warm-up for the Human Be-In the following January, which brought 30,000 together and established media attention to hippie culture that then led to the Summer of Love.)
The playful name of Human Be-In combined humanist values with the scores of sit-ins that had been reforming college and university practices and eroding the vestiges of entrenched segregation, starting with the lunch counter sit-ins of 1960 in Greensboro, North Carolina (1 February – 25 July) and Nashville, Tennessee (13 February – 10 May).
Above: The Greensboro Sit-in took place at this Woolworth five-and-dime store.
Above: The blatant racism on display
The first major teach-in had been organized by Students for a Democratic Society (1960 – 1974) at the University of Michigan, 24 – 25 March 1965.
(A teach-in is similar to a general educational forum on any complicated issue, usually an issue involving current political affairs.
The main difference between a teach-in and a seminar is the refusal to limit the discussion to a specific time frame or a strict academic scope.
Teach-ins are meant to be practical, participatory, and oriented toward action.
While they include experts lecturing on their area of expertise, discussion and questions from the audience are welcome, even mid-lecture.
“Teach-ins” were popularized during the US government’s involvement in Vietnam.
The first teach-in, which was held overnight at the University of Michigan in March 1965, began with a discussion of the Vietnam War (1955 – 1975) draft and ended in the early morning with a speech by philosopher Arnold Kaufman.)
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the US during the 1960s, and was one of the principal representations of the New Left (a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, feminism, gay rights, pro-choice movements, gender roles and drug policy reforms).
Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships and parliamentary procedure, the founders conceived of the organization as a broad exercise in “participatory democracy.”
From its launch in 1960 it grew rapidly in the course of the tumultuous decade with over 300 campus chapters and 30,000 supporters recorded nationwide by its last national convention in 1969.
The organization splintered at that convention amidst rivalry between factions seeking to impose national leadership and direction, and disputing “revolutionary” positions on, among other issues, the Vietnam War and Black Power.
A new national network for left-wing student organizing, calling itself Students for a Democratic Society, was founded in 2006.)
The Human Be-In was announced on the cover of the 5th issue of the San Francisco Oracle as “a gathering of the tribes for a human be-in”.
(The Oracle of the City of San Francisco, also known as the San Francisco Oracle, was an underground newspaper published in 12 issues from 20 September 1966, to February 1968 in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of that city.
Allen Cohen (1940–2004), the editor during the paper’s most vibrant period, and Michael Bowen, the art director, were among the founders of the publication.
The Oracle was an early member of the Underground Press Syndicate.
The Oracle combined poetry, spirituality, and multicultural interests with psychedelic design, reflecting and shaping the countercultural community as it developed in the Haight-Ashbury.
Arguably the outstanding example of psychedelia within the countercultural “underground” press, the publication was noted for experimental multicolored design.
Oracle contributors included many significant San Francisco–area artists of the time, including Bruce Conner and Rick Griffin.
It featured such beat writers as Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Michael McClure.)
The occasion for the Human Be-In was a new California law banning the use of the psychedelic drug LSD that had come into effect on 6 October 1966.
The speakers at the rally were all invited by Bowen, the main organizer.
They included Timothy Leary (1920 – 1996) in his first San Francisco appearance, who set the tone that afternoon with his famous phrase “turn on, tune in, drop out” and Richard Alpert (1931 – 2019) (soon to be known as “Ram Dass“), and poets like Allen Ginsberg (1926 – 1997), who chanted mantras, Gary Snyder and Michael McClure.
Above: Timothy Leary
Above: Ram Dass
Above: Allen Ginsberg
Above: “The poet laureate of deep ecology” Gary Snyder, 2007
Other counterculture gurus included comedian Dick Gregory (1932 – 2017), poet Lenore Kandel (1932 – 2009), poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, activist Jerry Rubin (1938 – 1994) and writer Alan Watts (1915 – 1973).
Above: Dick Gregory
Above: Lenore Kandel
Above: Lawrence Ferlinghetti. 2007
Above: Jerry Rubin
Above: Alan Watts
Music was provided by a host of local rock bands including Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Blue Cheer, most of whom had been staples of the Fillmore and the Avalon Ballroom.
Above: Jefferson Airplane
Top row from left: Jack Casady, Grace Slick, Marty Balin (1942 – 2018) / bottom row from left: Jorma Kaukonen, Paul Kantner (1941 – 2016), Spencer Dryden (1938 – 2005)
Above: The band Quicksilver Messenger Service
Left to right: John Cipollina (1943 – 1989), Greg Elmore, Nicky Hopkins (1944 – 1994) and David Freiberg
Above: Blue Cheer
Left to right: Dickie Peterson (1946 – 2009), Randy Holden, and Paul Whaley (1947 – 2019)
“Underground chemist” Owsley Stanley (1935 – 2011) provided massive amounts of his “White Lightning” LSD, specially produced for the event, as well as 75 twenty-pound (9 kg) turkeys, for free distribution by the Diggers.
Above: Owsley Stanley
The national media were stunned, publicity about this event leading to the mass movement of young people from all over America to descend on the Haight-Ashbury area.
Reports were unable to agree whether 20,000 or 30,000 people showed up at the Be-In.
Soon every gathering was an “-In” of some kind:
Just four weeks later was Bob Fass’ Human Fly-In (a get together at JFK airport where he and his friends could meet and party with Radio Unnameable listeners and their friends, while aircraft took off and landed in the background)(11 February 1967), then the Emmett Grogan (1942 – 1978) inspired Sweep-In (cleaning up the junk on the Lower East Side inviting the audience to join in cleaning up garbage-strewn blocks)(8 April 1967), Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In (1968 – 1973) comedy television show began airing over NBC just a year later on 22 January 1968.
(It wasn’t long before the movement nurtured in NYC went national.
Abbie Hoffman (1936 – 1989) became a household name in August 1967, after he led an anti-capitalist demonstration at the New York Stock Exchange, showering the traders with dollar bills.
Above: Abbie Hoffman
Radio Unnameable became the communications hub of the Yippies, the Youth International Party, started by Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Fass, Krassner, and a few others, to bring flower children, acidheads and old lefties together into one group that could change the course of American society.
Above: Yippie flag
The Yippies got worldwide attention that October when they applied for permission to levitate the Pentagon during a massive anti-Vietnam War demonstration that attracted 50,000 to Washington DC.
Above: The Pentagon, the world’s largest office building
Fass can be heard on tapes of the event (along with Ed Sanders of the rock group The Fugs (1964 – 1969), and Carolyn Mountain Girl) chanting, “Out, demons, out!” as they attempt to exorcize the evil spirits at the War Department.
Not every one appreciated the Yippies’ sense of humor and it proved hard to keep things light in 1968.
Fass and his friends spent months on the air plotting a march on Chicago to coincide with the Democratic National Convention.
They dubbed it the “Festival of Life“, in contrast to the “Festival of Death,” they felt the political power brokers were advancing in Vietnam.
Above: 1968 Democratic National Convention protest, Chicago
As a kind of a practice run for the big event, the Yippies decided to hold a Yip-In at Grand Central Terminal in New York in March 1968.
It began as a happy go lucky party: a reunion of people who’d met at the Fly In and the Easter Be-In in Central Park the previous year.
WBAI had reporters on the scene and Fass was broadcasting calls from Paul Krassner and others at Grand Central, describing the good vibes and great turn out.
Then suddenly, things turned violent.
Several hippies from the commune, Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers, decided it would be a symbolic gesture to rip the hands off the clock at the train station in “a rape of time.”
A couple others set off firecrackers and the NYPD began cracking heads and smashing cameras.
As the panicked crowd streamed for the exits, over 200 cops cornered them, throwing individuals like Village Voice (1955 – 2017) reporter, Don McNeil, through glass doors, and dragging others out and arresting them.
Radio Unnameable provided a link between people inside the terminal and the audience listening at home.
He broadcast eyewitness accounts from the scene and spoke to Abbie Hoffman, who was getting his wounds patched up at Bellevue Hospital.
Washington Post reporter, Nicholas Von Hoffman, came directly from Grand Central to join Fass on the air.
It was a brutal initiation for the Yippies, but it was also the moment that solidified Fass’s place in the city.
He was providing up to the second, unfiltered news that citizens wary of mainstream press coverage could trust.
As Sand points out in the Radio Waves Unnameable:
“Bob Fass did not just report the news, he helped mold the events of the time.“)
The first “Yip-In” (21 March 1968, at Grand Central Terminal), was followed by the “Love-In” (14 April 1968, at Malibu Canyon) and “Bed-In” (25 March 1969, in Amsterdam).
(A love-in is a peaceful public gathering focused on meditation, love, music, sex and/or use of psychedelic drugs.
The term was coined by Los Angeles radio comedian Peter Bergman, who also hosted the first one on 26 March 1967 in Elysian Park.
It has been interpreted in different ways by different organizations, but is often connected to protesting local, social or environmental issues.
Such protests were held in opposition to the Vietnam War.
Love-ins are largely considered a staple of the 1960s hippie counterculture.)
Above: Love-in, Malibu Canyon
As the Vietnam War raged in 1969, John Lennon (1940 – 1980) and his wife Yoko Ono held two week-long Bed-ins for Peace, one at the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam and one at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montréal, each of which were intended to be nonviolent protests against wars, and experimental tests of new ways to promote peace.
The idea is derived from a “sit-in“, in which a group of protesters remains seated in front of or within an establishment until they are evicted, arrested, or their demands are met.
The public proceedings were filmed, and later turned into a documentary Bed Peace, which was made available for free on YouTube in August 2011 by Yoko Ono, as part of her website “Imagine Peace“.)
Above: John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Amsterdam Bed-In for Peace
The Human Be-In was later recalled by poet Allen Cohen (1940 – 2004) (who assisted the artist Bowen in the organizational work) as a meld that brought together philosophically opposed factions of the San Francisco-based counterculture at the time:
On one side, the Berkeley radicals, who were tending toward increased militancy in response to the US government’s Vietnam War policies.
On the other side, the rather non-political Haight-Ashbury hippies, who urged peaceful protest.
Their means were drastically different, but they held many of the same goals.
According to Cohen’s own account, his friend Bowen provided much of the “organizing energy” for the event, and Bowen’s personal connections also strongly influenced its character.
Above: Poet Allen Cohen
The counterculture that surfaced at the “Human Be-In” encouraged people to “question authority” with regard to civil rights, women’s rights and consumer rights.
Underground newspapers and radio stations served as its alternative media.
The Be-In later spawned a series of digital be-ins.
A UK theatre company, Theatre 14167 takes its name from the date of the Be-In.
The company subsequently produced work by Michael McClure (1932 – 2020), who read at the event.
Above: Michael McClure
The 1960s were a long time ago.
Simultaneously much has changed since then and much has remained the same.
The Sixties saw good and evil harvests from the seeds sown in the previous decade.
In South Africa, apartheid produced the Sharpeville massacre and the assassination of Verwoerd.
Above: The row of graves of the 69 people killed by police during an anti-pass protest at the Sharpeville Police Station on 21 March 1960
Above: Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd (1901 – 1966)
Castro’s revolution in Cuba produced the Bay of Pigs fiasco.
Above: Bay of Pigs Memorial, Havana, Cuba
JFK was inaugurated President in 1961 and in his short time redefined the aspirations of an increasingly polarized population.
Above: President John F. Kennedy (1917 – 1963)
The momentum created by the civil rights movement swept through the United States.
Above: Civil Rights March on Washington, 28 August 1963
In the ensuing turmoil Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was gunned down.
Above: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 – 1968)
There were race riots in LA, Chicago, New York and Cleveland.
Above: Burning buildings, Watts riots, Los Angeles, 11 – 16 August 1965
Malcolm X and Black Power burst upon the scene.
Above: Malcolm Little (aka Malcolm X) (1925 – 1965)
In Britain, the golden days of Prime Minister “Supermac” Macmillan and his consumer-driven conservatism were abruptly brought to an end by the Profumo Scandal.
Above: Harold Macmillan (1894 – 1986)
Above: John Profumo (1915 – 2006)
Above: Christine Keeler (1942 – 2017)
In China, Mao Zedong unleashed the Red Guard.
Above: Mao Zedong (1893 – 1976)
In Africa, Ian Smith led his Rhodesian settlers in an ultimately hopeless attempt to hang on to white power.
Above: Ian Smith (1919 – 2007)
Nelson Mandela was jailed for life (as far as anyone knew).
Above: Nelson Mandela (1918 – 2013)
Above: Robben Island Prison
Above: Inside Nelson Mandela’s cell
Jomo Kenyatta led his people to independence.
Above: Jomo Kenyatta (1897 – 1978)
The Greeks threw out their King.
Above: King Constantine II of Greece
Violent death was the fate of Che Guevara in Bolivia, Adolf Eichmann in Israel, and the defenseless villagers of My Lai in Vietnam.
Above: Che Guevara (1928 – 1967)
Above: Adolf Eichmann (1906 -1962)
Above: 16 March 1968, in the aftermath of the Mỹ Lai Massacre showing mostly women and children dead on a road
Marilyn Monroe overdosed.
Above: Marilyn Monroe (1926 – 1962)
Elvis Presley overate.
Above: Elvis Presley (1935 – 1977)
In 1968 all hell broke loose.
The Soviet empire was shaken but not thawed by the Prague Spring.
Above: During the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovaks carry their national flag past a burning tank in Prague.
Paris almost had yet another revolution.
Bobby Kennedy was assassinated.
Above: Robert F. Kennedy (1925 – 1968)
Civil war broke out in Biafra.
Above: (in yellow) Map of the secessionist state of the Republic of Biafra (1967 – 1970)
There were riots in Chicago at the Democrat Convention.
Black athletes gave the Black Power salute at the Mexico Olympics.
In Europe and the States, schools and colleges became centres of anarchy, liberalism, pop culture and an ill-defined “Red menace“.
The Beatles endlessly repeated that “All You Need Is Love“, but it wasn’t enough.
Flower power may have been initially beautiful, eventually it was ineffective.
Above: Jane Rose Kashmir offers a flower to Pentagon soldiers, 21 October 1967
Everything was conflict and all was argument.
There were those who wished to extend higher education to all and sundry, while others preached the doctrine of de-schooling.
Drugs were good, drugs were bad.
The Bomb was the great deterrant and the great monster.
Some reckoned Kennedy had saved the world by not backing down in the Cuban Missile Crisis (16 October – 20 November 1962).
Above: President Kennedy signs the Proclamation for Interdiction of the Delivery of Offensive Weapons to Cuba at the Oval Office on 23 October 1962
Others believed Khrushchev had saved the world because he did back down.
Above. Nikita Khrushchev (1894 – 1971)
Disasters struck everywhere.
At Aberfan, Wales, a vast pile of mud and slag slithered down a hillside and killed 144 people, 141 of them children. (21 October 1966)
Florence was flooded. (4 November 1966)
The oil tanker Torrey Canyon ran aground off Land’s End, to give the world a taste of pollution to come. (18 March 1967)
Skopje was wrecked by an earthquake in the Balkans. (26 July 1963)
The Ronan Point tower block collapsed in London. (16 May 1968)
The Apollo Mission ended in tragedy at Cape Caraveral.
But there were also successes.
The jumbo jet was born.
The Concorde (1969 – 2003) roared through its maiden flight.
The QE2 ocean liner kept alive dreams of a romantic seafaring past.
Sir Francis Chichester sailed alone around the world.
Above: Frances Chichester (1901 – 1972)
Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. (12 April 1961)
Above: Yuri Gagarin (1934 – 1968)
James Bond became the last word in sexy sophistication.
Above: Ian Fleming’s original sketch impression of James Bond
Above: Poster for the first James Bond movie (1962)
Rudolf Nureyev (1938 – 1993) danced his way into Western hearts and found asylum there.
Above: Nurejev after his defection (16 June 1961)
Bob Dylan reckoned the answer to it all was “Blowing in the Wind“, but many women found a better answer in the Pill.
The Sixties were tragic, exciting, uplifting, depressing, shocking, and continuous.
Many things have changed, many things have not.
Whatever poets may pen, the child is seldom politically the father of the man.
Those who spent the Sixties in flower-bedecked, drug-induced Nirvana later became waspishly intolerant of “drop-outs“.
Those who raged against authority on the streets suffered changes of political heart and flocked to join their respective “establishments“.
For a while it seemed the air was full of abuse and tear gas and paving slabs, the streets were alive with the sound of shattering glass, every wall was papered from top to bottom with posters of exhortation, each splattered with blood.
But it wasn’t all bloodshed.
The quiet unfliching dignity of the civil rights movement begun then has kindled hope for abused people today and into tomorrow.
What was worth fighting for then is still worth fighting for now.
(On the point of drugs, I have no objection to legalization, but coupled with support to aid those unable to assist themselves in self-discipline and moderation.
Being cautious about what I do not understand and abyssmally incurious about blind experimentation, I am nonetheless nonjudgmental towards those whose use of recreational drugs is different from my non-usage.
I only wish that those who use know what they are doing, and do so without harming themselves or others.
I am not comfortable with authority telling others what to do with their own bodies.)
I have thought about the Day of the Ass and the anniversary of Human Be-In having stumbled across an article where my desire to be respectful of other cultures conflicts with my wish for human dignity to be universally respected.
Before Jamshed Eric plunges deep below Karachi’s streets to clean out clogged sewers with his bare hands, he says a little prayer to Jesus to keep him safe.
The work is grueling.
He wears no mask or gloves to protect him from the stinking sludge and toxic plumes of gas that lurk deep underground.
“It is a difficult job“, Eric said.
“In the gutter, I am often surrounded by swarms of cockroaches.“
After a long day, the stench of his work lingers even at home, a constant reminder of his place in life.
“When I raise my hand to my mouth to eat, it smells of sewage.“
A spate of deaths among Christian sewer cleaners in Pakistan underscores how the caste discrimination that once governed the Indian subcontinent’s Hindus lingers, no matter the religion.
Like thousands of other lower caste Hindus, Eric’s ancestors converted to Christianity centuries ago, hoping to escape a cycle of discrimination that ruled over every aspect of their lives: what wells of water they could drink from, what jobs they could hold.
Manual sewer cleaners, known as sweepers, are at the bottom of that hierarchy, the most untouchable of the untouchable Hindu castes.
But when the Indian subcontinent broke up in 1947 and Pakistan was formed as a homeland for the region’s Muslims, a new informal system of discrimination formed.
In Pakistan, Muslims sit at the top of the hierarchy.
And as one of Pakistan’s small Christian minority, Eric has now been forced into the same work his Hindu ancestors had tried to avoid through religious conversion.
Above: Pakistan (dark green), claimed by Pakistan (light green)
Although India has outlawed caste-based discrimination with mixed success, according to the New York Times, Pakistan is almost encouraged by the state.
In July 2019, the Pakistani military placed newspaper advertisments for sewer sweepers with the caveat that only Christians should apply.
After activists protested, the religious requirement was removed.
Above: Flag of Pakistan
But municipalities across Pakistan rely on Christian sweepers like Eric.
In the sprawling port city of Karachi, sweepers keep the sewer system flowing, using their bare hands to unclog crumbling drainpipes of feces, plastic bags, and hazardous hospital refuse, part of the 1,750 million litres of waste the city’s 20 million residents produce daily.
On a recent day Eric (40) had been hired to clean three sewers for $6.
Eric sends his son to school far from the crowded and segregated neighbourhood the city’s sewer cleaners live in, hoping to free him of the discrimination that forced him into this work.
Back home, the neighbourhood lacks safe drinking water and schools.
Swarms of mosquitoes, piles of garbage and overflowing gutters are the area’s only abundance.
While Christians make up only 1.6% of Pakistan’s population of some 200 million, according to a 1998 government census, rights groups believe they fill about 80% of the sweeper jobs.
Lower caste Hindus mostly fill the rest of the slots.
When Karachi’s municipality tried to recruit Muslims to unclog gutters, they refused to get down into the sewers, instead sweeping the streets.
The job was left to Christians like Eric, known derogatorily as “choora” or dirty.
They spend hours inside the city’s sewers.
Almost all of them develop skin and respiratory problems because of constant contact with human waste and toxic fumes.
And for some, the job has been lethal.
“I have seen death from very near“, said Michael Sadiq, legs trembling as he thought about his two-decade career as a sweeper.
In August 2019, Sadiq and his relatives, Rafiq Murad and Riaz Masih, sweepers for Karachi’s municipality, were relaxing on their only day off when they were interrupted by a call from their supervisor, ordering them to snap to it.
Murad was the first to step into a gutter 18 feet deep with a rope tied around his waist.
As he cleaned the detritus, a flood of putrid black water carrying sand, stones, sludge and a swarm of gases swept him away.
Sadiq scrambled into the sewer to save his cousin but was overwhelmed by the toxic mix and fainted.
Masih followed to help his cousins, but the fumes asphyxiated him, his lifeless body swept away without a struggle.
While Sadiq and Murad were saved, Masih was buried so deep, an excavator worked for four hours to extract his dead body from the stinking sludge it was buried under.
“This work has become so dangerous that I need to find a way out,” Sadiq said.
But he, like the rest of the sweepers, is a poor and illiterate Christian, and no other jobs are open to him, he lamented.
Pakistan has taken a few steps to protect and empower some minorities, but the efforts have failed to help mush.
A bill was passed in 2009 to reserve 5% of all government jobs for non-Muslims.
But over a decade later, that goal has not been reached, officials say.
Above: State emblem of Pakistan
Eric feels it is only a matter of time before he dies on the job, but he hopes his son can excel in school and shake off the discrimination that has plagued the family for generations.
“After hearing of the deaths in the gutters, I think about what will happen to my family if I die,” Eric said.
“But Jesus Christ will take care of them.
I don’t care about my life as long as I can provide my family with a decent living.“
Both Canada and Pakistan are credited on the international stage with significant contributions to United Nations (UN) peacekeeping and are members of the Commonwealth of Nations, owing to their shared history as colonies of the former British Empire.
Above: Flag of the Commonwealth of Nations
The relationship between the two countries has generally been characterized with stability and mutual cooperation, with Canadian Governor-General Roméo LeBlanc (1927 – 2009) making a state visit to Pakistan in 1998.
Above: Romeo LeBlanc
However, relations saw a major negative impact that same year after Pakistan conducted nuclear weapons tests (codenamed Chagai-I) and became an officially declared nuclear weapons state in late May — becoming the 7th country in the world to acquire nuclear weapons technology immediately after India’s tests (codenamed Pokhran-II) earlier that month.
Canada, along with many other nations, immediately condemned the acquisition of nuclear weapons by both nations, and imposed full sanctions on both India and Pakistan.
Relations normalized in the following years and bilateral trade between the two nations stood at C$1.04 billion in 2017.
Canada has recognized Pakistan’s significance as an important player and major non-NATO ally with regards to combating terrorism globally as well as domestically with the Afghanistan conflict and its spillover into Pakistan.
Canada was also among the nations that deployed peacekeepers to the disputed region of Kashmir in 1949, shortly after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 – 1948, and has since strongly advocated for a peaceful solution to the India – Pakistan conflict over Kashmir.
Today, Canada is home to one of the largest Pakistani diasporas, with population figures for the Pakistani Canadian community speculated to be at least 215,000 while there are some 30,000 –50,000 Canadians in Pakistan.
Canada considers Pakistan an important player and helper in the war against terrorism in the region.
The two countries continue to exchange intelligence on essential matters.
Both Pakistan and Switzerland share over six decades of friendship and have cooperated closely in several fields.
Switzerland ranks 5th in terms of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Pakistan and a reliable trading partner, the Swiss-based multinational companies have invested 1.2 billion dollars in Pakistan, in various sectors including food processing, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, machinery and engineering, banking. thus providing jobs for over 10,000 Pakistanis.
Recently, the Swiss Business Council has also opened in Karachi.
Switzerland has been a keen observer at meetings of the Friends of Pakistan.
Currently, there are a small number of Pakistani scientists who work at CERN in Geneva.
Above: The road named after Pakistani scientist Abdus Salam (1926 – 1996) in CERN, Geneva
Above: Abdus Salam
Pakistanis form one of the largest immigrant communities in Switzerland, numbering about 3,000, living predominantly in Zürich, Basel and Bern.
In September 2017, posters stating “Free Baluchistan” were advertised in parts of Geneva.
The posters appeared to be sponsored by Balochistan House, a group of exiled Baloch separatists, with proved ties to the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).
The BLA is banned as a terrorist organisation by Pakistan, the United Kingdom, United States and others.
The posters drew sharp condemnation and rebuke from Islamabad, which summoned the Swiss ambassador to lodge a protest and urged authorities there to investigate the incident, take action against the accomplices, and prevent a future recurrence.
Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Farukh Amil, in a letter to Swiss authorities added that the “use of Swiss soil by terrorists and violent secessionists for nefarious designs against Pakistan and its 200 million people is totally unacceptable” and was a matter of “grave concern“.
The situation of human rights in Pakistan is complex as a result of the country’s diversity, large population, its status as a developing country and a soverieng Islamic democracy with a mixture of both Islamic and secular law.
The Constitution of Pakistan provides for fundamental rights.
The Clauses also provide for an independent Supreme Court, separation of executive and judiciary, an independent judiciary, independent human rights commission and freedom of movement within the country and abroad.
However these clauses are not respected in practice.
Above: Parliament House, Islamabad, Pakistan
Khawaja Nazimuddin, the 2nd Prime Minister of Pakistan, stated:
“I do not agree that religion is a private affair of the individual nor do I agree that in an Islamic state every citizen has identical rights, no matter what his caste, creed or faith be”.
Above: Khawaja Nazimuddin (1894 – 1964)
However, this in stark contradiction to what Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, stated in an address to the constituent assembly of Pakistan:
“You will find that in course of time Hindus will cease to be Hindus and Muslims will cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as the citizens of the State.”
Above: Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876 – 1984)
Though the Constitution includes adequate accommodation for Pakistan’s religious minorities, in practice non-Sunni Muslims tend to face religious discrimination in both the public and private spheres (for example – non Muslims cannot hold any of the top positions in the country’s government).
Above: Badshahi Mosque, Lahore, Pakistan
In response to rising sectarian and religious violence, the Pakistani government has unveiled several high-profile efforts to reduce tension and support religious pluralism, giving new authority to the National Commission for Minorities and creating a Minister for Minority Affairs post.
Nonetheless, religious violence and intimidation, as well as periodic charges of blasphemy, have occurred.
Attacks against Shia Muslims, who make up between 5% – 20% of Pakistani Muslims, have also been carried out by terrorist organizations such as the TTP (Pakistan Taliban).
However, in recent years, the Pakistani military and law enforcement agencies have conducted vast and extensive operations against these terrorist organizations which has resulted in a dramatic decrease in violence against minorities and restoration of relative peace.
Above: Flag of the Pakistan Armed Forces
Furthermore, Pakistani courts have taken action against the misuse of blasphemy laws,in one case sentencing multiple people to life in prison and death for starting a blasphemy mob.
Pakistani lawmakers have also taken action against the misuse of blasphemy laws, putting forward amendments that seek to equate punishments for a false accusation of blasphemy to the punishment for actually committing blasphemy.
Although Pakistan was created to uphold the principles of democracy, military coups in Pakistan are commonplace, and for most of its history after independence has been ruled by military dictators who declare themselves president.
The 2013 Pakistani general election were the first elections in the country where there was a constitutional transfer of power from one civilian government to another.
Elections in Pakistan although being partially free, are rife with irregularities including but not limited to vote rigging, use of threats and coercion, discrimination between Muslim and non-Muslim and many other violations.
Above: Women in Rawalpindi queuing to vote in Pakistan’s 2013 elections
Additionally, the government of Pakistan has itself admitted on several occasions that it has absolutely no control over the military of Pakistan and related security agencies.
Domestic violence is an important social issue in Pakistan, specially because of allegations that the Pakistani government has not done enough to stem the problem from the country.
An estimated 5,000 women are killed per year from domestic violence, with thousands of others maimed or disabled.
The majority of victims of violence used to have no legal recourse, but this was fixed recently when multiple provincial parliaments passed thorough and strict laws against domestic violence.
According to the 2016 Global Slavery Index, an estimated 2,134,900 people are enslaved in modern-day Pakistan, or 1.13% of the population.
The State of Pakistan has particularly remained a discriminatory law enforcer against Non-Muslims since independence.
One of the significant issues being faced by minority communities is the abuse of the blasphemy law.
People belonging to minority religions are always considered as falsely accused of using derogatory remarks against the Prophet Muhammad which can result in fines, lengthy prison sentences, and sometimes the death penalty.
Often these accusations are made to settle personal vendettas and, due to the bias against minorities, victims are often immediately presumed guilty without any substantive evidence.
According to 1951 census, Non-Muslims constituted 14.20% of total Pakistan’s (West Pakistan and East Pakistan) population.
In West Pakistan (now Pakistan), Non-Muslims constituted 3.44% of the total population while East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) had a significant share comprising 23.20% of the population therein.
One reason for low Non-Muslim percentage is because of higher birth rates among the Muslims.
A report compiled by members of the European Parliament attributes multiple reasons for the decline of minority populations, including communal violence and forced conversions.
Another reason was due to the constant migration of India and Pakistan’s respective minorities after the partition of India in 1947.
Above: Logo of the European Parliament
However, the main reason as to why the population of minorities declined was due to the separation of East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh) which constituted almost 18% of Pakistan’s Hindu population according to the 1961 Pakistani census.
After the independence of Bangladesh, all minorities (mostly Hindus) that lived in the former East Pakistan were no longer counted in the census as they were officially Bangladeshis, and not Pakistanis.
Above: Flag of Bangladesh
Due to the fact that Hindus made up the large bulk of the minority population, the percentage of Pakistan’s minorities plummeted.
However, both the percentage and the actual population of minorities of Pakistan (former West Pakistan) has actually increased over the years.
In 1999, the United Nations Human Rights Council approved the first resolution against defamation of religions.
However these resolutions have been severely criticized by the United States, various European nations and freedom of religion groups as these resolutions contained language which could be used to discriminate against minority religions, and in March 2010 the UN refused to enact the most recent resolution.
In 2011, religious intolerance was reported to be at its height, hundreds of minorities, women, journalists and liberals were being killed by Islamist fundamentalist extremists, while the government remained mostly a silent spectator, often only making statements which condemned the ruthless acts of violence by extremists, but taking no real concrete action against them.
Progress on religious freedom is being made gradually as Pakistan transitions to democracy.
Above: Logo of the United Nations Human Rights Council
In 2016, Sindh, with Pakistan’s largest Hindu minority, passed a bill that outlawed forced conversions.
However, the bill was never ratified by the Governor.
The bill was tabled by a faction of the Pakistan Muslim League which in Sindh is led by Sufi leader Pir Pagara, called PML-F, Pakistan Muslim League functional.
Above: Pia Pagora
In 2014, NGOs estimated that around 1,000 girls from minority groups every year are being forcibly converted to Islam.
In November 2019, a parliamentary committee was formed to prevent act of forced conversion in Pakistan.
Above: Dargah pir sarhandi, a frequent crime scene of forced conversion and marriage of kidnapped underage Hindu girls
During the Covid-19 pandemic in Pakistan, reports emerged that rations were being denied to minority Hindus and Christians in the coastal areas of Karachi.
(As of 19 January 2021, there are 523,011 Covid-19 confirmed cases, 476,471 recoveries, 11,055 deaths.)
The Saylani Welfare Trust, carrying out the relief work, said that the aid was reserved for Muslims alone.
On 14 April, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom expressed concern with the discrimination.
Other organisations, including Edhi Foundation, JDC Welfare Organization and Jamaat-e-Islami are reported to have stepped forward to provide relief to the minorities.
Above: Flag of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan
It is too damn easy to feel judgmental about Pakistan as media impressions of Pakistan are a jumble of Islamic fundamentalism and martial law, while for overland travellers the country is often seen as the last hurdle before reaching India.
Above: Routes of the Hippie Trail
In fact Pakistan offers some of Asia’s most mind-blowing landscapes, extraordinary trekking, the spectacular Karakoram Highway, a multitude of cultures, and a long tradition of hospitality.
Above: Karakorum Highway
It is the site of some of some of the earliest human settlements and the crucible of two of the world’s major religions: Hinduism and Buddhism.
There is great joy to be found in:
trekking among giants in Baltistan, where the Karakoram erupts in an unequalled display of peaks and twisting glaciers
experiencing an emotion-charged cricket match in Karachi
exploring the ancient site of Moenjodaro, relic of an Indus Valley civilization
soaking up the frontier atmosphere of Quetta, a desert outpost with buzzing bazaars
rambling through the tangle of twisting alleyways in Lahore’s Old City en route to historic Lahore Fort
This is a land where too many are not afforded the basic human dignity that is every person’s right, but it is known for more than this: trekking the Karakorum Highway, totally obsessed cricket fans, Shoab Akhtar (the world’s fastest bowler), General Musharraf (though no longer President since 2008, he is still more recognizable than the current President Arif Alvi), nuclear weapons, and oily spicy curries.
Above: Shoaib Akhtar
Above: General Pervez Musharraf
It is easy to judge a nation when the mainstream media suggests that we should.
For example, Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on 2 May 2011, shortly after 1 AM local time by a United States military special operations unit.
Above: Osama bin Laden (1988 – 2011)
Allegations of a support system in Pakistan for Osama bin Laden have been made both before and after Osama bin Laden was found living in a compound in Abbottabad and was killed by a team of United States Navy SEALs.
The compound itself was located just half a mile from Pakistan’s premier military training academy Kakul Military Academy (PMA) in Abbottabad.
In the aftermath of bin Laden’s death, US President Barack Obama asked Pakistan to investigate the network that sustained bin Laden.
“We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan,” Obama said in a 60 Minutes interview with CBS News.
He also added that the United States was not sure “who or what that support network was.”
Above: President Barack Obama
In addition to this, in an interview with Time magazine, CIA Director Leon Panetta stated that US officials did not alert Pakistani counterparts to the raid because they feared the terrorist leader would be warned.
Above: Leon Panetta
According to Fred Burton, vice-president of the global intelligence firm Stratfor, officials of ISI, the Pakistani military, along with one retired Pakistani military general, had knowledge of the arrangements made for bin Laden and the safe house.
Bin Laden’s compound was razed that day at his Abbottabad safe house.
David Ignatius in the Washington Post referred to the claim of the former ISI chief General Ziauddin Butt that the Abbottabad compound was used by the Intelligence Bureau and noted that a report in the Pakistani press in December had quoted him as saying that Osama’s stay at Abbottabad was arranged by Brigadier (retired) Ijaz Shah, senior ISI officer and the head of the Intelligence Bureau during 2004 – 2008, on Pervez Musharraf’s orders.
Later Butt denied making any such statement.
Above: Ziauddin Butt
What is not mentioned is that in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan federal law applies only to the roads and ten yards on either side – elsewhere tribal law applies.
And this is what saddens me when I consider the Day of the Ass, the Human Be-In anniversary, and the sewer cleaners of Pakistan…..
What isn’t mentioned.
So much is taken for granted – those that help us, how we arrived here, and those that serve us unrecognized, unappreciated, unloved, unmourned.
I would like to see the ass praised in Chester or Beauvais.
I would like to understand what last millennium’s Sixties still have to teach us in this millennium’s Twenties.
I would like to show my appreciation for the blessings in my life by helping those less fortunate than I.
I want to live a long life for there is so much life I want to understand.
Sources: Wikipedia / Google / Lonely Planet The World / Maria Abi-Habib, “Sewer cleaners wanted in Pakistan“, New York Times, 4 May 2020
Landschlacht, Switzerland, Sunday 13 December 2020
There is a creative essential I have learned:
“Don’t wait until you know the meaning of life to get started.“
And there is a secret I have learned:
One day a famous artist, who was much younger than he is now, picked up a call from a collector who had acquired one of his early paintings on the secondary market.
Having kept the work in storage ever since, the collector only recently discovered that there was a small area of cracked paint in the corner of the canvas, which did not look so good.
Before returning the painting to storage, the collector thought he would contact the artist and ask him whether, for a modest fee, he would repair the damage.
The artist said yes.
A few days later, the painting arrived at the artist’s studio.
Still in its wooden packing crate, the art handlers heaved the large-format painting up against a wall and removed the front panel so the painting faced outwards and could be worked on.
Looking at the painting, the artist realized two things:
First of all, he didn’t like the work any more.
It was not how he remembered it.
Secondly, in order to repair the damage, the artist decided he might as well rework the entire surface and blend in any cracks, making them less visible.
Over the course of the day, he applied layer after layer of fresh paint, turning a monochromatic abstract work into a representative image of a cow in a field.
Not even a good representation.
The next day, the art handlers retunred to the artist’s studio, closed the crate back up again, and the painting – now completely different – was carted off to storage.
Years have since passed and the artist has yet to hear from the collector….
From the blog of Mitch Teemley, Saturday 6 June 2020:
“It is easy to vilify names, faces and images.
Online.
On social media.
In the news – real, fake or a mix of both.
The only way to know the truth is to know someone.
To listen, to learn and to care for them despite what we thought we knew.
May we ignore the sound bites and discover the real, hurting, angry misunderstood people in our midst.
Only then will there be true healing….”
Kingston to Napanee, Ontario, Canada, Thursday 9 January 2020
The news was not good this day.
Islamist militants killed over 25 Nigerian soldiers in an attack on an army base in Tillabéri Region, Niger. 63 militants were also killed in the ensuing shootout.
US, Canadian, British and Iraqi officials said they believed the plane crash near Tehran in which 176 were killed yesterday was likely caused accidentally by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile, while Iran says it was due to “mechanical failure“.
The New York Times released a verified video obtained from an Iranian citizen showing the plane being struck by what appeared to be a surface-to-air missile.
In a news conference, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it was “too early to draw definitive conclusions” that the downing of the plane was an “act of war”. Trudeau also condemned Iran’s attacks on US bases in Iraq.
(On 8 May 2018, the United States withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal, reinstating sanctions against Iran.
Iran’s oil production hit a historic low as a result of these sanctions.
Above: JCPOA Iran nuclear deal agreement in Vienna. From left to right: Foreign ministers/secretaries of state Wang Yi (China), Laurent Fabius (France), Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Germany), Federica Mogherini (EU), Mohammad Javad Zarif (Iran), Philip Hammond (UK), John Kerry (USA)
According to the BBC in April 2019, US sanctions against Iran “led to a sharp downturn in Iran’s economy, pushing the value of its currency to record lows, quadrupling its annual inflation rate, driving away foreign investors, and triggering protests“.
Iranian officials have accused the US of waging hybrid warfare against the country.
Above: Flag of Iran
Tensions between Iran and the US escalated in May 2019, with the U.S. deploying more military assets to the Persian Gulf region after receiving intelligence reports of an alleged “campaign” by Iran and its “proxies” to threaten US forces and Strait of Hormuz oil shipping.
US officials cited intelligence reports that included photographs of missiles on dhows and other small boats in the Persian Gulf, supposedly put there by Iranian paramilitary forces.
The US feared the missiles could be fired at its Navy.
The US began a buildup of its military presence in the region to deter what it regards as a planned campaign of belligerency by Iran and its non-state allies to attack American forces and interests in the Gulf and Iraq.
The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and Kata’ib Hezbollah were targeted by US airstrikes, claiming their proxy belligerent role on the orders of Iran.
Above: Flag of the PMF
Above: Logo of the Kata’ib Hezbollah
In June 2019, Iran shot down an American RQ-4A surveillance drone, sharply increasing tensions and nearly resulting in an armed confrontation.
In July 2019, an Iranian oil tanker was seized by Britain in the Strait of Gibraltar on the grounds that it was shipping oil to Syria in violation of EU sanctions.
Above: Strait of Gibraltar (Spain on the left / Morocco on the right looking east to the Mediterranean Sea)
Iran later captured a British oil tanker and its crew members in the Persian Gulf.
Both Iran and the UK later released the ships.
Meanwhile, the US created the International Maritime Security Council (IMSC), which sought to increase “overall surveillance and security in key waterways in the Middle East“, according to the US Department of Defense.
The crisis escalated in late 2019 and early 2020 when members of the Kata’ib Hezbollah militia, which is part of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, allegedly killed an American contractor in an attack on an Iraqi base hosting American personnel.
In retaliation, the US conducted airstrikes against Kata’ib Hezbollah’s facilities in Iraq and Syria, killing 25 militiamen.
Kata’ib Hezbollah responded with an attack on the US Embassy in Baghdad, which prompted the US to deploy hundreds of new troops to the Middle East and announce that it would preemptively target Iran’s “proxies” in Iraq.
Days later, the commander of IRGC’s Ouds Force Oasem Soleimani and PMF commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were both killed in a US drone strike, resulting in Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei pledging to exact revenge on US forces.
The US deployed nearly 4,000 troops in response to the tensions and Israel heightened its security levels.
On 5 January 2020, Iran ended its commitments to the nuclear deal and the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution to expel all foreign troops from its territory.
Above: Coat of arms of Iran
The US and Iran nearly entered into an open conflict on 8 January 2020 when the IRGC launched missile attacks against two US / Iraqi military bases housing US soldiers in retaliation for the killing of Soleimani, a rare direct Iran–U.S. confrontation and the closest to the brink of war between the two nations in decades.
Upon initial assessments of no US casualties, the Trump administration curtailed tensions by temporarily ruling out a direct military response but announcing new sanctions.
It was later revealed that more than a hundred US troops sustained injuries during the attacks.
Above: Satellite image, showing the damage to at least five structures at Ain al-Assad air base in Iraq in a series of precision missile strikes launched by Iran
During the crisis, Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot down after departing from Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport.)
A bus crashed in Iran’s Mazandaran Province, killing at least 20 passnegers and injuring 24 others.
Above: According to a May 2017 report by the Tehran-based newspaper Financial Tribune, over 20,000 people are killed and 800,000 injured annually in road accidents in Iran
Judge Ghassan Ouiedat, a Lebanese prosecutor, imposed a travel ban on former Chairman of Nissan Carlos Ghosn after he was summoned over an Interpol warrant issued by Japan seeking his arrest on financial misconduct charges.
Above. Carlos Ghosn
The UK House of Commons voted 330 – 231 to pass the Withdrawl Agreement Bill authorizing Britain’s departure from the EU at the end of January 2020.
Are we on the brink of another war?
Is Ghosan innocent as he claims or a thief and a fraud as he is accused?
Is Britain going to continue with its insane decision to leave the EU?
Lots of questions fill my mind as the train pulls into Kingston’s VIA Rail station in the Cataraqui suburban area.
The station is staffed, with ticket sales, baggage check, snack bar, vending machines, telephones, washrooms, and wheelchair access to the station and trains.
There are two tracks, one of which is accessed through a tunnel.
Short-term and long-term parking is available on the east side of the station.
A taxi stand is located on the north side of the station.
At the platform Big JS, Queen VS and cabbie A are waiting.
A (a friend of the S family) is not there to drive me to Napanee, but she is working the station today.
The Napanee sadness has begun and I am not even in Napanee as yet.
A is one of those people in my life that I must accept because those I know more intimately accept them.
I think everyone has folks like A in their lives and I am sure that I am like A as other people see me.
I never know how to respond to A, for truth be told A is a bit too plebian for my liking.
She speaks her mind, her opinions are fixed and she does not belong in my life any more than a goat belongs in a banquet hall.
But I say nothing of this to A, Big J or Queen V, for A is good-hearted despite her manner.
I feel the Napanee sadness, which is that feeling of not belonging to the place where I am, despite the longing to fit in.
Above: Dundas Street, Napanee
We drive into Kingston to pick up Princess K S (Big J and Queen V‘s only child) at the apartment she shares with a roommate and K‘s cat.
The apartment is a dark, dank disaster zone of dirt and decay, feline feces, feminine frenzy and chaotic clutter.
I look at the Family S and I am saddened.
Big J is age-weary, Queen V is frumpy, Princess K tragic.
They once again strike me as a sad and sorry travesty of lost potential.
But I wonder are they truly as I see them or am I putting my own doubts and fears upon them unjustifiably?
Either way I feel that I have stumbled into a pathetic purgatory of lost souls seeking salvation.
You look like… a perfect fit, For a girl in need… of a tourniquet. But can you save me? Come on and save me… If you could save me, From the ranks of the freaks, Who suspect they could never love anyone.
‘Cause I can tell… you know what it’s like. A long farewell… of the hunger strike. But can you save me? Come on and save me… If you could save me, From the ranks of the freaks, Who suspect they could never love anyone.
You struck me dumb, like radium Like Peter Pan, or Superman, You have come… to save me. Come on and save me… If you could save me, From the ranks of the freaks, Who suspect they could never love anyone, Except the freaks, Who suspect they could never love anyone, But the freaks, Who suspect they could never love anyone.
Come on and save me… Why don’t you save me? If you could save me, From the ranks of the freaks, Who suspect they could never love anyone, Except the freaks, Who suspect they could never love anyone, Except the freaks, Who could never love anyone.
I want to love this family whom I have known for much of my life (and certainly Princess K‘s life).
I feel I want to help and yet I am held back by an inner voice that cautions me not to judge others, not to tell others how to live their lives by my standards.
K‘s cat M is pushed into a cat carrier which she (the cat) does not like.
The car faithfully ferries us out of town along King’s Highway #2.
King’s Highway 2, commonly referred to as Highway 2, is the lowest-numbered provincially maintained highway in Ontario (there is no numbered Ontario Highway 1) and was originally part of a series of identically numbered highways in multiple provinces which together once joined Windsor, Ontario to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Formerly the primary east–west route across the southern portion of Ontario, most of Highway 2 in Ontario was bypassed by Ontario Highway 401, completed in 1968.
Virtually all of the 837.4 km (520.3 mi) length of Highway 2 was deemed a local route and removed from the provincial highway system on 1 January 1998, with the exception of a 1-kilometre (0.62 mi) section east of Gananoque.
The entire route remains driveable, but as County Road 2 or County Highway 2 in most regions.
County Road 2 takes us through Loyalist Township and the towns of Odessa and Ernestown.
Odessa, originally named Millcreek, was renamed in 1855 by its postmaster to commemorate the 1854 British siege of the Black Sea port at Odessa in the Ukraine during the Crimean War (1853 – 1856).
Above: Images of Odessa, Ukraine
The village is home to Ernestown Secondary School, which services about 650 students from Loyalist Township (formerly Ernestown Township), Napanee and Stone Mills.
Ernestown Secondary School (ESS) is a Canadian public, comprehensive school located in Odessa.
The school services about 450 students from Loyalist Township, Napanee and Stone Mills.
The town is in the eastern Ontario county of Lennox and Addington approximately 24 kilometers west of the city of Kingston.
The school offers classes for students in grades nine through twelve and is a member school of the Limestone District School Board.
The school motto at ESS is Amor Doctrinae Floreat (Let the love of learning flourish.)
Above: Ernestown Secondary School
As we drive through Odessa, I think of how similar-looking this school is to Laurentian Regional High School where I did my secondary studies in Lachute, Québec.
Both were built in the 1960s and one almost wonders if they were designed and built by the same architect.
My thoughts turn to Tenerife (one of the Canary Islands) and ESS alumni Aaron René Doornekamp, born in Napanee of Dutch heritage.
Doornekamp is a professional basketball player for Iberostar Tenerife of the Liga ACB.
He was one of the greatest players in the history of the Carleton University Ravens men’s college basketball team (2004 – 2009).
Above: Logo of the Carleton Ravens
(In men’s basketball, the Ravens have won 15 of the last 18 national men’s championships, more than any top division college in Canada or the United States.
The Ravens went on an 87-game winning streak from 2003 to 2006.
They also had a 54-game home winning streak.
The Ravens finished 2nd in the World University Basketball Championships in 2004.)
Doornekamp is also a member of the senior Canadian men’s national team.
At a height of 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) tall, he can play at both the small forward and power forward positions, with power forward being his main position.
I wonder:
Had my folks been not so stingy with letting me join the basketball team in Lachute (10 km away from where we lived in Marelan, which meant having to pick me up by car and fuel costs money) would I have had a sports career as successful as Doornekamp’s?
Like Doornekamp, I too towered over my classmates (6 ft 5 in) and still tower over the heads of many.
Did Doornekamp experience similar emotions to mine in his school years?
Above: Logo of my alma mater, Laurentian Regional High School
After finishing his college career, Doornekamp signed his first pro contract in Italy, with Pepsi Caserta (Campagna, Italy – the toe of the boot that is the Italian peninsula).
He played three years with the club.
Above: Logo of Pepsi Caserta
While sidelined with injury in the 2012 – 2013 season, Doornekamp was the assistant coach of the McMaster Marauders men’s basketball team.
Above: Logo of the McMaster Marauders, Hamilton, Ontario
In August 2013, he signed with the New Yorker Phantoms Braunschweig (Germany).
In June 2014, he parted ways with them.
Above: Logo (2006 – 2014)
(New Yorker, despite the American-sounding name, is a German clothing retailer headquartered in Braunschweig that primarily addresses the target group of 12- to 39-year-olds.)
On 29 June 2014, he signed with the German club Skyliners of Frankfurt, for the 2014 – 2015 season.
He won the European-wide 3rd-tier level FIBA Europe Cup’s 2015 – 2016 season championship with the team.
In June 2016, Doornekamp left Germany, to sign with the Spanish team Iberostar Tenerife.
He won the Basketball Champions League’s 2016 – 2017 season championship with the team.
He was also named to the BCL Star Lineup Best Team.
Above: Logo of Iberostar Tenerife
On 27 June 2017, Doornekamp officially opted out of his contract with the Spanish team.
The same day, he signed a two-year contract with Valencia Basket.
On July 8, 2019, Doornekamp re-signed with Valencia Basket for another season.
He re-signed with Iberostar Tenerife on 15 July 2020.
With Canada’s senior team, he played at the following tournaments:
the 2007 Pan American Games (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
the 2008 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (Athens, Greece)
the 2009 FIBA Americas Championship (San Juan, Puerto Rico)
the 2010 FIBA World Championship (Istanbul, Turkey)
the 2011 FIBA Americas Championship (Mara del Plata, Argentina)
the 2013 FIBA Americas Championship (Caracas, Venezuela)
the 2015 Pan American Games, where he won a silver medal (Toronto)
the 2015 FIBA Americas Championship, where he won a bronze medal (Mexico City)
Doornekamp was married on 13 July 2013, in Burlington, Ontario, to Jasmyn Richardson.
The couple has two children.
Above: Brant Street, Burlington, Ontario
I wonder:
Beyond height, would Doornekamp and I have much in common to talk about if our paths ever crossed?
Is Doornekamp’s home in Tenerife filled with trophies and medals and memorablia of past athletic achievements like my sprinter cousin’s home?
How must it be for Jasmyn and their children?
Another ESS alumni is Adnan Virk, a Canadian sportscaster for MLB Network and DAZN.
He previously worked for ESPN and TSN.
Virk also produces and hosts the weekly podcast Cinephile with Adnan Virk show covering cinema news and interviews with entertainment celebrities, as well as co-hosts the football podcast The GM Shuffle with former NFL executive Michael Lombardi.
Virk was born in Toronto to Zakaria and Taherah Virk, who immigrated to Canada from Pakistan.
In 1984 the family relocated to Kingston, then in 1989 to Morven, a small town just outside Kingston, where his parents owned and operated a gas station and Zack’s Variety store.
After graduating from Ernestown Secondary School, where he played basketball and soccer, Virk studied Radio and Television Arts at Ryerson University in Toronto.
Above: Logo of Ryerson University
From 2003 to 2009, Virk hosted several programs on The Score and was an associate producer for Sportscentre at TSN.
Above: Logo of the Score (2002 – 2013)
He was also the co-host of Omniculture and Bollywood Boulevard at Omni Television.
In 2009, he joined Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) as a host and reporter for Raptors TV, Leafs TV and Gol TV Canada.
In April 2010, Virk joined the ESPN family of stations in Bristol, Connecticut.
After joining ESPN, he became one of three main anchors for Baseball Tonight.
During 2014 spring training, he began calling play-by-play for an ESPN affiliate.
In the baseball off-season, he hosted SportsCenter and Outside the Lines.
He would also fill in for Keith Olbermann on Olbermann.
Above: Keith Olbermann
He was the host of a movie podcast Cinephile on ESPN.
In addition, he was also the main studio host for ESPN College Football and also hosted College Football Final.
On 3 February 2019, Virk was fired following an investigation regarding leaks of ESPN information to the media.
Virk and ESPN later agreed not to pursue litigation against each other.
In March 2019, it was announced that Virk would host the new MLB studio program ChangeUp for DAZN, a subscription streaming media service based in London.
In addition, Virk appears on MLB Network.
He also hosts boxing events.
Virk was born to a Pakistani Canadian Ahmadi Muslim family and considers himself a practicing Muslim.
He lives in New Jersey with his wife Eamon, whom he married in 2007.
They have four sons.
ESS has spawned not only athletes or those who cover athletic performance, but as well Gord Downie (1964 – 2017) of the Tragically Hip, and Brett Emmons of the Glorious Sons were alumni of this school in the middle of Nowhere.
(The Tragically Hip’s final tour’s final concert was held at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in Kingston, on 20 August 2016, and was broadcast and streamed live by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) on television, radio and on the Internet.
It was viewed by an estimated 11.7 million people.
Even I, living in distant Switzerland, heard about this final concert and the demise of Downie to brain cancer on 17 October 2017.)
Above: Gord Downie, 2013
Thoughts of Doornekamp and Virk, Downie and Emmons, remind me that a person can rise above their origins no matter how humble the start.
The township offices and fire hall on Odessa’s Main Street do not suggest fame and fortune nor do they whisper much of a world far beyond Loyalist Township.
There is nothing to my Canadian eyes in Odessa, Ontario, that suggests the exotic.
The quiet streets of Odessa do not feel pregnant with promise.
Above: Odessa’s Main Street
There is a small fairground.
An Ontario Provincial Police detachment serves Highway 401 and home to the Tactics and Rescue Unit of Eastern Ontario.
The water supply of the community of Odessa within the Township of Ernestown was studied in 1972, which led to the planning of infrastructure improvements.
The highest point in the village is the water tower.
Visible for several kilometres in all directions, the water tower has been outfitted as a wireless communications facility.
The village bills itself as “home of the Babcock Mill“, which historically was powered by Millhaven Creek which runs through the heart of Odessa.
The Babcock Mill planing mill and basket factory is the last standing mill, of three, at this Odessa historical site.
Known for its “Babcock baskets”, you can see where John Babcock’s designed and patented basket-making machinery in the early 1900s.
Built in 1856, this historical three-mill site once included a woolen mill (on Factory Street) and a saw mill.
Above. Babcock Mill
Napanee is a town of nearly 16,000 people, but it feels smaller than that stat.
Napanee is approximately 45 kilometres (28 mi) west of Kingston and is the county seat of Lennox and Addington County.
It is located on the eastern end of the Bay of Quinte, a long, narrow bay shaped like the letter “Z” on the northern shore of Lake Ontario.
The Bay, as it is known locally, provides some of the best trophy walleye angling in North America, as well as most sport fish common to the Great Lakes.
The bay is subject to algal blooms in late summer.
Zebra mussels as well as the other invasive species found in the Great Lakes are present.
The Quinte area played a vital role in bootlegging during Prohibition in the United States, with large volumes of liquor being produced in the area, and shipped via boat on the bay to Lake Ontario finally arriving in New York State where it was distributed.
Illegal sales of liquor accounted for many fortunes in and around Belleville.
Tourism in the area is significant, especially in the summer months due to the Bay of Quinte and its fishing, local golf courses, provincial parks, and wineries.
The first recorded settlement in the area of Greater Napanee is Ganneious, an Iroquois village, settled temporarily by the Oneida from 1660 to 1690.
The village was located on or near the Hay Bay area and is one of seven Iroquois villages settled on the northern shores of Lake Ontario in the 17th century.
The exact location of the village has not been determined.
The area was settled by Loyalists (Americans during the American Revolution who did not wish to stop being British subjects) in 1784.
Napanee was first incorporated in 1854.
The first Loyalists settlers arrived at Adolphustown on 15 June 1784.
Their landing spot and site of the first Loyalist cemetery in the area has been preserved by the Loyalists.
Napanee developed at the site of a waterfall, the head of navigation, on the Napanee River, where early industry could utilize the power potential of the River.
Above: Napanee Falls
The River (25 km / 15 miles long) transported logs from the interior north (up past the village of Colebrook) of the town.
Sawmilling, gristmilling and other farm service industries were established.
Napanee was first known as Clarksville after Robert Clark, who built a grist mill there.
Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, practised law in Napanee.
Above: Sir John A. Macdonald (1815 – 1891)
Napanee’s downtown core (along Dundas Street) is also lined with historical buildings dating back to the 1800s.
The Town of Greater Napanee’s Self-Guided Historic Walking Tour provides locations and information on these sites as well as other historical locations nearby.
At 180 Elizabeth Street, the visitor can find a ball of wood fiber paper.
This ball at the Allan Macpherson House (Lennox and Addington Museum) was preserved by John Thomson after his first successful attempt to duplicate the wood pulp process he had learned in the United States before settling here.
In 1872, on the Napanee River, Thomson built the first mill in Ontario designed to make paper from wood pulp only.
Also in the Museum is a British army lieutenant’s account of a 1784 trip up the St. Lawrence River from Sillery (near Québec City) with Napanee’s first white settlers, a group of Loyalists.
The Museum is a many-windowed Georgian mansion built in 1826, reflecting the affluence of its original owner, Allan Macpherson, the town’s first industrialist.
Furniture includes a Regency couch and a Sheridan love seat, both dating from 1830.
Above: Interior of the Macpherson House
Half-cousin to first Canadian Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, Allan Macpherson operated the grist and saw mills at Napanee Falls starting in 1818.
For almost three decades, Macpherson was one of Lennox and Addington’s most civic-minded and politically active entrepreneurs.
He created fine-quality flour shipped to Montreal and England and became Postmaster at Napanee in 1820.
Macpherson’s gentry-inspired house, built north of Napanee Falls, remained in the family until 1896, long after he had returned to Kingston.
In 1962, the Lennox and Addington Historical Society began a visionary labour of love to restore this home to its 19th century character.
True to its roots, the Macpherson House has been restored to its original splendour both inside and out.
The Macpherson House now functions as additional gallery space for the Lennox & Addington Museum and Archives.
Above: Allan Macpherson House (Lennox & Addington County Museum and Archives)
Two blocks away is a privately owned house that was the Red Tavern, built in 1810.
The white-columned town hall dates from 1856, the courthouse from 1864.
Above: Napanee Town Hall
Above: Lexington & Addington County Courthouse, Napanee
Gibbard’s, the oldest furniture factory in Ontario, has operated since 1835.
For over 180 years, the Gibbard Furniture Factory has been an iconic landmark in Napanee.
It’s a focal point for the town that’s rich in history.
Honouring this legacy, it has been transformed into a highly anticipated waterfront community where contemporary amenities enhance the charm of small-town simplicity.
With retail opportunities and a platform for local gatherings, Gibbard District is more than a residential space where every suite is just steps away from a private kayak dock.
It’s a vibrant hub for families, friends, and neighbours, one where they can share the moments that make lasting memories.
Built on a historic foundation, Gibbard District is a local destination that will inject energy and opportunity into Napanee.
Above: Gibbard’s District
Napanee unfortunately shares the fate of far too many towns in Ontario.
Step away from its historic quarters and you find yourself in zones of shopping malls and fast food joints, gas stations and repair garages.
The S Family lives just beyond this zone.
We have burritos at a Quesadas before heading to their trailer home.
(Does Napanee have a local dish?)
J and V and K and I share a common problem of being heavier than we should be.
We also share the seductive sorrow of turning to things that help us only if we allow them to.
We are unwell each in our own way.
We fear that which we cannot define.
For V and K it is the uncertainty of the unknown.
I fear familarity and the fetters that fealty forces upon its followers.
K‘s phobias are more real than reality.
K is unmotivated to change her clothes, to change her ways.
Her fears paralyze her.
For J it is the fear of not being of use.
J needs to be needed and he has always remained the loyal servant in their Majesties’ service.
J is nearly 20 years my senior, V is 14 years older than I, K is a little over half my age.
And yet J still caters to V and K, when he is at an age and body condition that suggests he should finally be the one who is pampered.
I understand J only too well.
I will surrender to aging only when I am physically incapacitated and unwell to fend and fetch for myself.
Neither J nor I plan to exit life without a struggle.
But I see the tolls of age upon his face and frame and in his movements.
Problem is he has been of such use, such utility, that I fear that their Majesties may find themselves unable to function without him should J fall and not rise again.
His love for his ladies is too great in that their reliance on him has diminished their abilities to become self-reliant.
He is butler, valet and chauffeur.
He lifts the heavy objects, he does the dirty deeds, he is man about the house.
He remains through his pension the breadwinner of this collective.
I have always been impressed by J’s quiet strength, his unending devotion to the damsels that are his destiny.
I have always marvelled at men who presevere despite every incentive to quit.
J is Endicott.
Endicott’s up by 5 o’clock Endicott’s givin’ it all he got Endicott’s job is six to nine but Endicott’s home by nine O five Endicott helps to cook the steak Endicott helps to wash the plates Endicott puts the kids to bed Endicott reads a book to them
(Why can’t you be like Endicott?)
Endicott loves Tribena sole Endicott puts her on a pedestal Endicott’s wish is her command but Endicott don’t make no demands Endicott’s always back in time Endicott’s not the cheatin’ kind Endicott’s full of compliment Endicott’s such a gentleman
(Why can’t you be like Endicott?)
Cause I’m free Free of any made-to-order liabilities Thank God I’m free Cos it’s hard enough for me To take care of me, oh-oh
Endicott’s carryin’ a heavy load Endicott never really ever moans Endicott’s not a wealthy guy but Endicott pays the bills on time Endicott’s got ideas and plans Endicott’s what you call a real man Endicott always will provide ’cause Endicott is the family type
(Why can’t you be like Endicott?)
Cause I’m free Freer than a pirate on a frigate out at sea Thank God I’m free Driftin’ all around just like a tumbleweed, oh-oh
Maybe I need me someone Someone who isn’t undone Maybe an older woman Will tolerate me Maybe that certain someone Older and wiser woman Maybe the perfect someone To satisfy me
Endicott keeps his body clean Endicott don’t use nicotine Endicott don’t drink alcohol Endicott use no drug at all Endicott don’t eat any sweet Endicott don’t eat piggy feet Endicott’s frame is mighty strong Endicott make love hard and long
(Why can’t you be like Endicott?)
Endicott loves Tribena sole Endicott walks her to the sto’ Endicott likes to hold her hand Endicott’s proud to be her man Endicott stands for decency Endicott means formality Endicott’s the epitome Endicott stands for quality
Endicott Endicott Endicott Endicott
I’ll never be, I’ll never be like Endicott
Said I’m not.
I’ll never be, I’ll never be like Endicott.
No Endicott in me.
There are three things (and three fingers pointing back at myself) men need to understand if they are to get it right with women:
Standing up to your wife or partner as an equal without intimidating her or being intimidated by her.
Knowing the essential differences in male and female sexuality and so mastering the art of the chase
Realizing she is not your mother and so making it through the long dark night
Most modern men, myself included, when faced with their wife’s anger, complaints or general unhappiness, simply submit, mumble an apology and tiptoe away.
(Which, of course, is still preferable to being the kind of man who handles his differences with violence and intimidation.)
If most modern men grumble, they do so into their beards.
For the most part we act conciliatory and apologize for being such dopes.
“I’m sorry, dear!“
“Yes, She Who Must Be Obeyed!“
Everywhere, you look around,the “husband as a lovable dope” is an agreed-upon type.
But real life doesn’t work like the comics, TV shows or movies.
Millions of men who adopt this stance find that it rarely, if ever leads, to her happiness or his.
Women with dopey husbands are not happy.
Actually they become more dissatisfied, more complaining.
Some psychologists suggest that, often without even realizing why, the henpecking behaviour escalates – for a simple reason.
Deep down, they say, women want to be met by someone strong, as strong as many of them have to be outside the relationship.
They want to be debated with, not just agreed with, for they are not always right (despite what they may say or think).
(To be fair, they are often right.)
Women hunger for men who can take the initiative sometimes, make some decisions, tell them when they are not making sense.
It’s no fun being the only adult in the room.
How can a woman relax or feel safe, when the man she is teamed with pretends to be weaker and softer than he can be, just for the sake of peace and harmony between them?
So many strong, capable women who once they finally find the sensitive, caring New Age man they thought they wanted now find themselves bored stiff with his complacency.
Above: Scene from Bedazzled, where Elliot Richards (Brendon Fraser) is rejected by Alison Gardner (Frances O’Connor) for being too sensitive
So many decent men are able to say to their women:
“I feel your pain.
I consider your life as important as mine.
I will take care of you and comfort you.”
So many men give so much of themselves to their relationships and in the process lose the self that she fell in love with.
They can no longer say what they want and stick to it.
It is that sense of resolve that drew her to him.
It is that sense of resolve he sold out for peace with her.
One of the things that marks out a mature man versus a male still not there is the discovery that women are as human as men.
Sometimes they are dead right and sometimes completely wrong.
Women are not devils (though they certainly have their moments) nor angels (despite how angelic they may appear, despite how divine they look).
They are mere normal, fallible human beings.
Being married means a man must keep his head on straight.
So many men just drift along and let women decide everything.
Marriage is not an excuse to stop thinking.
A woman can be as wrong, as immature, as perverse, as prejudiced, as competitive, or as bloody-minded as any man can.
Sometimes a man and a woman will see things differently because men and women are different.
What is right for her may often be wrong for him and vice versa.
Women often don’t understand men,
(Hell, often we of either gender don’t understand ourselves.)
You have to keep negotiating, for avoidance will not bring harmony.
To have a happy relationship, a man has to be able to state his point of view, to debate, to leave aside hysteria, to push on until something has been resolved.
To be fair, it is frightening to find strength, to speak up for oneself knowing that this may lead to confrontation with someone you fear losing.
But all that is gained by retreat or automatic compliance she that she enjoys having the upper hand and being able to manipulate her man into doing what she wants, until this becomes so facile that it becomes boring to her and futile for him.
It is not that a woman wishes a man harm (well, not always) it is just that boundaries need to be set in regards to what to what she can or cannot do regarding what is his responsibility to himself.
Often it is enough to say:
“Hey, you are crowding me.“
“Don’t make up my mind for me.“
“Let me choose my own clothes.“
(Good luck with that last one, lads!)
“When my King is weak, I ask my wife or children what is the right thing to do.
I have had strange adventures in buying sweaters.” (Robert Bly)
It is a mistake to think that a perfect marriage is harmonious, sweet and loving.
If a couple is happy 100% of the time, chances are someone is lying,
The passionate, heated European-style marriage has more going for it.
Carl Jung said:
“American marriages are the saddest in the whole world, because the man does all his fighting at the office.”
Above: Carl Jung (1875 – 1961)
Conscious fighting is a great help in relationships between men and women.
When a man and a woman are standing toe-to-toe arguing, what is it that the man wants?
Often he does not know.
He wants the conflict to end, because he is afraid, because he does not know how to fight, because he “doesn’t believe in fighting“, because his boundaries are so poorly maintained that every sword thrust penetrates to very centre of his soul.
Men are afraid because they sense that both men and women have the capacity for blind rage which achieves nothing.
“I have had it with men!“, she says.
“Women!“, he cries, “Can’t live with them, can’t live without them!“
Such frustration, to need someone so much and yet…..
All men hate all women some of the time and all women hate all men some of the time.
There is a long history of male-bashing by women and female-bashing by men.
But boundaries must be set to ensure that this hate is not more than is deserved.
We must fight, debate and be true to ourselves, otherwise our closeness is merely an act.
But in fighting, we must show great restraint and respect for one another.
Above: Audrey Woods (Julianne Moore) / Daniel Rafferty (Pierce Brosnan), Laws of Attraction (2004)
And it is here where the outsider to someone else’s relationship knows not how to react.
I judge the Family S by my own standards.
I don’t see them as they may see themselves.
I see them as I wish they were, not as they are.
I see the present moment, not the events that led them here.
I feel that their situation is sad.
Too much TV watching, too much game playing, too little reading, too little exercise, lives unlived.
I find myself repulsed, for I see this potential in myself and I silently scream against this.
The trailer home is small and I am relegated to a fold-out sofa within a space cluttered by the unnecessary stuff that people eagerly collect, more to possess than to have permanent purpose.
K‘s cat does not seek my company.
V‘s cat and I share the warmth of the sofa bed.
No words are needed between us.
The cat demands nothing from me but respect and restraint.
I expect the same from the cat.
It is peace in our time and a silent night.
I read the Napanee Beaver, hoping it will distract me from my depression.
I learn that:
Saturday 4 January saw Napanee’s first major snowfall of 2020
a fellow named Ernie will celebrate his 90th birthday in ten days’ time
Greater Napanee water rates could rise by 2.1% this year
bus charters and Thai massages and financial advice and all manner of goods and services are available in Napanee
the Napanee roller-rink celebrated its grand opening on Friday 3 January in the old arena
Life Labs experienced a cyber-attack, YOUR information is out there!
there are church services this week at 16 different churches for one God only, pick your own road to redemption
opinions are expressed that women’s hockey does not get the same amount of respect as men’s hockey
Drew Daywalt’s My Tooth Is Lost and Cassandra Clare’s Ghosts of the Shadow Market and John E. Douglas’ The Killer Across the Table and Julie Andrews’ Home Work: A Memoir of my Hollywood Years and Jojo Moyes’ The Giver of Stars are well worth a read (according to the county’s friendly librarians)
eight public notices indicate that the town hall is still functioning in 2020
42 properties are available to purchase NOW
hockey deserves at least four articles in a weekly newspaper (This is Canada, after all, eh?)
the Lennox Community Theatre is holding auditions (The Dixie Swim Club)
the Lennox Agricultural Society is holding its annual meeting (I wonder what they could possibly discuss: “Hey, Joe, how was your harvest on the back forty?“)
the Ontario SPCA’s Lennox & Addington Branch in Napanee is ready to spay and neuter your pets (Look at Marlon, a six-year-old domestic shorthair in the cropped photo. I wonder how he feels.)
scooters, firewood, new and used appliances, barn repairs, livestock, boilers, water softeners, dog grooming, cars and trucks, rooms at the retirement home, apartments, real estate, mortgages, firearms courses (What do you want?)
five cards of thanks, six memorials, 15 obituaries (and a partridge in a pear tree)
the same classified page offers both baby photos and cremations, life and death encapsulated in simplicity
A & W offers teen burgers, chubby chicken burgers, bacon & eggers, mozza burgers, three-strip combos….its own products, its own coupons, its own jargon (How do teenagers and chubby chickens find themselves sacrificed and sandwiched?)
tours from Kristine Geary’s Fully Escorted Maple Leaf Tours to Myrtle Beach, NYC, Atlantic City, Nashville, Memphis, Cape Cod, DC, Newfoundland, the Caribbean, Alaska, Bermuda, Hawaii and mysteriously the words “Come From Away“, which confuses me…..shouldn’t it be “go away“?
The cat purrs and lies across my chest.
Reading rendered impossible.
Lights out.
The purring before the loss of consciousness.
Napanee, Ontario, Friday 10 January 2020
Another sad day in the news and too much time on my hands to read it:
After Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested that Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was downed by an Iranian missile, Iranian authorities rejected this theory.
At a news conference on Friday, Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation (CAOI) chief Ali Abedzadeh repeated his view that a missile was not the cause of the crash.
“The thing that is clear to us and that we can say with certainty is that this plane was not hit by a missile,” he told reporters.
“As I said last night, this plane for more than one and a half minutes was on fire and was in the air, and the location shows that the pilot was attempting to return.“
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he had received intelligence from multiple sources indicating the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile, adding that it was possible that this was unintentional.
“This reinforces the need for a thorough investigation,” he said.
“Canadians have questions and they deserve answers.“
Victims of the crash included 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians and 11 Ukrainians as well as nationals from Sweden, the UK, Afghanistan and Germany.
But he said it was too early to apportion blame or draw any conclusions and refused to go into detail about the evidence.
(It isn’t clear whether the loved ones of the 82 Iranians, the 11 Ukrainians and the nationals from Sweden, the UK, Afghanistan and Germany deserve answers.)
A bombing claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS / ISIL) at a mosque in Quetta, Pakistan, killed at least 15 people and wounded 18 others, three days after a motorcycle bombing in the city killed two.
Above: Flag of Pakistan
A suicide bombing took place inside a Taliban-run mosque located in Ghousabad neighbourhood during Magrib (first morning) prayer in Quetta’s Satellite Town area.
The bomb had been planted inside a seminary in the mosque.
Among the dead was a Deputy Superintendent of Police, the apparent target of the attack, along with 14 civilians.
At least 19 others were injured.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombing.
They said the bombing caused 60 casualties, including 20 dead.
(It is so easy to forget that those who cause death and destruction in the name of Islam often target more Muslims than non-Muslims.
No matter how often the name of God is used, its use does not make an act of violence godly.)
the Iraqi cleric and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani condemned both the US and Iran over the escalation of conflict in Iraq, saying it shows blatant disregard for Iraqi sovereignty and the suffering of the Iraqi people.
Above: Ali al-Sistani
A lot of war talk, a lot of sabre-rattling, a lot of innocent blood waiting to be spilled by young folks sacrificed in the name of nations, represented by leaders who remain far from any chance that they themselves are in danger.
Fear-mongering, defence of country, words like honour and glory, lives betrayed so the powerful can maintain or increase their power.
What baffles me is that we are supposed to believe that Iraq is a threat to the USA.
Above: Location of Iraq
Let’s compare, shall we?
Military power ranking: US #1 / Iraq #53
Population: US 329 million / Iraq 40 million
Manpower: US 144 million / Iraq 16 million
Fit for duty: US 119 million / Iraq 13 million
Military personnel: US 1.2 million / Iraq 165,000
Reserve forces: US 360,000 / Iraq 0
Tanks: US 6,287 / Iraq 309
Armored vehicles: US 39,000 / Iraq 4,700
Self-propelled artillery: US 992 / Iraq 44
Towed artillery: US 864 / Iraq 120
Rocket projectors: US 1,056 / Iraq 30
Air strength: US 13,400 / Iraq 327
Fighters: US 2,362 / Iraq 26
Attack aircraft: US 2,831 / Iraq 59
Transport aircraft: US 1,153 / Iraq 24
Trainer aircraft: US 2,853 / Iraq 78
Helicopters: US 5,760 / Iraq 179
Naval strength: US 415 / Iraq 60
Frigates: US 22 / Iraq 0
Destroyers: US 68 / Iraq 0
Corvettes: US 15 / Iraq 0
Submarines: US 68 / Iraq 0
Patrol craft: US 13 / Iraq 25
Mine craft: US 11 / Iraq 0
Oil production: US 9.3 million barrels / Iraq 4.4 million barrels
Oil consumption: US 825 million barrels / Iraq 19 million barrels
Oil reserves: US 142.5 million barrels / Iraq 36.5 million barrels
Labour force. US 160.4 million / Iraq 8.9 million
Merchant marine: US 3,611 / Iraq 77
Ports / terminals: US 33 / Iraq 3
Roads: US 6,586,610 km / Iraq 44,900 km
Railroads: US 224,792 km / Iraq 2,272 km
Airports: US 13,513 / Iraq 102
Defence budget: US $716 billion / Iraq $6 billion
External debt: US $17 trillion / Iraq $73 billion
Foreign gold: US $123 billion / Iraq $48 billion
Purchasing power: US $19 trillion / Iraq $680 billion
Nuclear warheads: US 4,000 / Iraq 0
By the numbers, which country is the greatest threat to the other?
I may not find the idea of the theocratic government of Iraq a comfortable notion, but let us not paint the US as an innocent victim.
Above: Imam Ali Mosque, Najaf, Iraq: One of the holiest sites in Shia Islam
An 11-year-old student opened fire at his school in Torreón, Mexico, killing a teacher and wounding six others before committing suicide.
At least two people have been killed and six injured after an 11-year-old boy entered a school in northern Mexico with two handguns and opened fire.
The shooting took place on Friday morning in the city of Torreón, in Coahuila state.
Above: Images of Torréon, Mexico
One of the dead was reportedly a female teacher, with some reports suggesting she had been the shooter’s target.
The other was the shooter, who police said had killed himself.
A graphic photograph published by Mexican news outlets showed what appeared to be the body of a young boy splayed out in a pool of blood, with a handgun lying on the ground.
Police chief Maurilio Ochoa told reporters six people had been wounded – five schoolchildren and a teacher – with two in a “delicate” condition in hospital.
Ochoa said the shooter was believed to have entered his school with two weapons: a small-calibre handgun and a high-calibre weapon.
The boy’s parents and grandmother, with whom he lived, had said they had no idea how he acquired the guns.
“This is really regrettable,” Ochoa said, as anxious parents gathered outside the school’s entrance.
He suggested backpack searches might be needed to prevent future tragedies.
Torreón’s mayor, Jorge Zermeño, told reporters the causes of the attack were still unclear.
“They tell me he was a boy who had very good grades, who lives – lived – with his grandmother and who certainly suffered some kind of family problem.”
He added:
“It is very serious, so, so sad, and lamentable to see a primary school student do something like this.”
In an interview with the Mexican news channel Milenio TV, Zermeño called the shooting an “atypical situation” that did not speak to the “peaceful society” that was Torreón.
“This is a city that likes to work and likes to live in peace,” he said.
Above: Jorge Zermeno
Coahuila state’s governor, Miguel Ángel Riquelme, told reporters there were suspicions the shooter had been influenced by a video game called Natural Selection.
Above: Miguel Ángel Riquelme
Before carrying out the shooting the boy – who has not been identified – reputedly told classmates:
“Today is the day.”
Despite suffering some of the world’s highest murder rates, school shootings of the kind that blight the US remain relatively rare in Latin America.
Thousands of people protested in Australia, calling for the resignation or ouster of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, accusing him of negligence over the Australian bushfires.
The Sack ScoMo protests, organised by Uni Students for Climate Justice, were held in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne — where the rain did little to dampen the mood of the large crowd.
They went ahead despite calls from Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Victoria Police who expressed concern that police would need to be pulled away from bushfires to monitor the large crowds.
Above: Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews
A sea of umbrellas could be seen along the steps of Victoria’s State Library and protesters spilt across Swanston Street and towards Melbourne Central Station.
Some used megaphones to speak to small groups who sheltered from the rain.
T-shirts, selling for $40 each, read F*** SCOMO.
Placards help by protesters read:
“We deserve more than your negligence.”
“This is ecosystem collapse.”
“We can’t breathe.”
Protesters told news.com.au they were pleased with the turnout.
“There are so many people here, despite the weather.
It proves that people really care about the cause and are tired of waiting for action,” one young woman said.
In Sydney, thousands more gathered outside Sydney Town Hall to hear from speakers.
Organisers Uni Students for Climate Justice wrote on Facebook they want to “make the climate criminals pay” and “keep up the pressure”.
It comes as NSW authorities warn of a “long night” with almost a dozen fires flaring up across the state.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said besides the two new fires, everything else was playing out as forecast with the hot and windy conditions on Friday.
But she urged communities remain vigilant.
“In essence, we know it’s going to be a long and difficult night,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“We won’t know the extent of the impact of these fires until early tomorrow morning.”
Above: New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian
Starting from September 2019, fires heavily impacted various regions of the state of New South Wales, with more than 100 fires burnt across the state.
In Victoria, large areas of forest burnt out of control for four weeks before the fires emerged from the forests in late December, taking lives, threatening many towns.
Significant fires occurred in South Australia and parts of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).
Moderately affected areas were southeastern Queensland and areas of southwestern Western Australia, with a few areas in Tasmania being mildly impacted.
On 12 November 2019, catastrophic fire danger was declared in the Greater Sydney region for the first time since the introduction of this level in 2009 and a total fire ban was in place for seven regions of New South Wales, including Greater Sydney.
The Illawarra and Greater Hunter areas also experienced catastrophic fire dangers, as did other parts of the state, including the already fire ravaged parts of northern New South Wales.
Above: Images of 2019 – 2020 Australian bush fires
The political ramifications of the fire season have been significant.
A decision by the New South Wales government to cut funding to fire services based on budget estimates, as well as a holiday taken by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, during a period in which two volunteer firefighters died, and his perceived apathy towards the situation, resulted in controversy.
Above: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison
Author and self-help guru Marianne Williamson dropped out of the US Democratic Party presidential primaries.
Williamson said that her lack of elective office experience does not disqualify her from being President.
She implies that not having held office before is, in part, what makes her uniquely qualified.
She stated that the belief that only experienced politicians can lead the US is “preposterous“, arguing that experienced politicians led the US into unfounded wars, extreme income inequality and environmental harm.
Above: Marianne Williamson
She has called for her expertise in empathy, differentiated thinking, and political vision to be valued on par with elected experience and cited President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1932 statement that:
“The Presidency is not merely an administrative office.
That’s the least of it.
It is preeminently a place of moral leadership.”
Above: Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 – 1945)
“Throughout her campaign, Williamson talks more about ideas than plans.
Some people might see that as an inability to lead, but when inciting the darkest parts of humanity helped win the previous election, trying to appeal to the light side doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.
She’s doing her best to move the conversation to one of peace and love instead of anger and division.
What is so laughable about that?
Campaign promises – plans for Medicare, plans for how to curb climate change – are great.
But promises without a fundamental shift in thinking will simply become empty promises.
Williamson is trying to teach us that our mind-set needs a new baseline, one of true empathy, so that it becomes impossible to deny people basic health care, so that Americans would never for one second think that separating breastfeeding mothers from their infants at the border is in any way acceptable.”
(Kerry Pieri, Harper’s Bazaar)
Williamson believes that the Presidency of Donald Trump inspired increased visibility and political participation of White nationalists and is therefore unique and requires “more” than past political experience to be defeated:
When we look at the role that emotion plays in White Nationalism, the role of emotion in those movements is undeniable.
Hate is powerful and hate is contagious.
And it is not enough to meet it simply with an intellectual analysis or rational argument.
The only way you can defeat them is by overriding them through an equal force is exerted when people are awakened to those positive feelings and positive emotions.
Williamson stressed that she meets all the requirements to be President as laid out by the US Constitution and implied that those who dismiss candidates without elective office experience are elitists impeding the country’s democratic process and values.
She has appealed for a process that excludes media favouritism in favor of bringing forth candidates to voters, allowing those candidates to “do their best” and then “allowing voters to decide for themselves through their own intelligent analysis“.
If the Founders wanted to say ‘That Presidential candidate needs to be a governor or a senator, or a congressman or a lawyer,’ then they would have.
But they didn’t, because they were leaving it to every generation to determine for itself the skillset that that generation feels is most necessary in order to address the challenges of their time.
I think we need more than someone who’s just qualified because they understand how Washington works.
We need someone today who understands how “we” work.
And I think my 35-year career gives me those qualifications.
I must admit I am torn between the idea that if any American wants to be President desire should be enough, and the importance of political experience.
The Tunisian Parliament votes to reject a cabinet proposed by Prime Minister-designate Habib Jemli.
President Kais Saied has ten days to select someone else to build a new government.
I can’t imagine forming a cabinet is easy.
Above: Flag of Tunisia
Above: Location of Tunisia
Omani statet television announced the death of the Sultan of Oman Qaboos bin Said al Said (79).
At the time of his death, Said was the longest serving head of state in the Middle East and Arab world.
Above: Qaboos bin Said al-Said (1940 – 2020)
The high military council of the Sultan of Oman’s Armed Forces called on the Omani royal family to convene to name a successor to the late Sultan within three days.
A three-day period of national mourning was declared.
Above: Flag of Oman
Above: Location of Oman
I compare my life with world events since I arrived in Napanee:
There is little risk of being attacked by anyone.
I fortunately knew no one aboard Flight 752 nor in the Iranian bus crash.
I have no stake in the future of Nissan nor have I ever met Ghosan (or anyone famous for that matter).
I have no stake in Brexit though I do think it is a bad idea.
I knew no one in the Quetta bombing nor in the Torréon shootings.
The bush fires in Australia are interesting and global warming affects the globe, but beyond this I am uninvolved.
The US elections are interesting, but I am neither an American nor a resident in America.
Politics elsewhere in the world are worthwhile watching, but folks in Tunisia and Oman care little about what a Canadian residing in Switzerland thinks.
Instead I watch with sadness the activities of the family S.
Happily, Big J is not as obsessed with games and TV as the females in the place.
In the early afternoon J and I walk to A & W.
I had forgotten how much I missed A & W root beer.
A few hours later I retrace our steps to the creek J had showed me and then treat myself at the local Denny’s.
In the evening, cabbie A with her daughter S show up and more games are played.
S is like my cousin Steve, a natural winner in any competition.
It is easy to love folks like Steve, except when competiting against them.
Being winter, it is difficult to play tourist in Napanee.
Being five years apart and away from the family S means escape must be done in a manner that does not offend.
There is a great irony that dominates my thoughts before the cat and I return to the sofa bed.
I am leaving as planned tomorrow for Toronto.
Above: Images of Toronto
It will again be years before I see the family S again (barring disease or disaster unforeseen).
I am simultaneously relieved and anxious to be leaving.
I love these people and yet they fill me with sadness.
So much wasted potential, I think.
They are my soul’s mirror.
I am discomfited.
Napanee to Kingston, Ontario, Saturday 11 January 2020
48 hours it has been between arrival and departure at the station.
I loathe myself and my eagerness to leave.
Before we packed J, V, K, her cat and I into the family car, I gave prefunctionary presents of what I had on hand that I acquired and carried since my return to Canada nine days ago.
It is a drizzling grey day that matches my mood.
My mood lifts at seeing Canada geese in a Kingston park.
Shouldn’t they have already flown down south?
We drive by the Kingston Penitentary, still impressive, still imposing.
Above: Kingston Pentientary
Somewhere on the way we stop for milkshakes (in January!).
At the convenience store next door, I buy today’s Kingston Whig Standard newspaper and two magazines on writing (something to read on the train ride to Toronto).
As K‘s cat needs medical attention (It won’t eat as it should.) I am left alone at the station one hour before departure, a farewell that felt forced, I fear my face telegraphed my feelings.
As I wait for the train, I eat the sandwiches that Big J made me last night (ham and cheddar upon leaves of lettuce between slices of dry bread).
I hope that the Napanee Sadness will eventually fade.
All I know is that as much as I love the family S, as much as they are my family, I do not belong with them.
The skies are grey, within and without.
Sources: Wikipedia / Google / YouTube / http://www.lyrics.com / The Napanee Beaver, 9 January 2020 / Reader’s Digest Explore Canada / Steve Biddulph, Manhood / Frank Bodin, Do it, with love / Thomas Girst and Magnus Resch, 100 Secrets of the Art World / Esther Vilar, The Manipulated Man
Landschlacht, Switzerland, Friday 11 December 2020
Have you ever heard the phrase:
“I haven’t met a/an (insert a type here) I haven’t liked.“?
I myself have used this phrase to describe Turkish people (mostly ex-pats) whom I have personally met.
This phrase reassures me whenever I find myself questioning the wisdom of my moving to Turkey in the New Year.
The topic of this post is another country which everyone simultaneously knows and yet doesn’t know.
A country that is so far away from the rest of the world that I have met only one native of that land in person and I have never had the pleasure of visiting her homeland.
It is a land with only 4.3 million people, compared with eight million Swiss, 21 million Aussies, 30 million Canadians, 52 million English, 127 million Japanese, 242 million Indonesians and 307 million Americans.
It is a land more than twice the size of England and as long as Italy if the toe of the boot-shaped Italian peninsula were removed.
(Ciao, Calabria!)
It is a nation seven times bigger than Switzerland.
It is a nation so small that it could fit into Australia 28 times, into Canada or the US 37 times, or into Russia 64 times.
It is God’s own country – the Godzone – a land of unsurpassed natural beauty, friendly welcomes, fair play for one and all, and a place of happily ever afters.
This is how New Zealanders see New Zealand.
Give Kiwis – (the people, not the fruit or the flightless bird) – half a chance and they will go out of their way to prove it to you.
Indeed, visitors to New Zealand (or so I am told) can expect to be constantly set upon by the insatiably hospitable locals of “New Zild” (as Kiwis pronounce it).
Above: Flag of New Zealand
If the rumours are to be believed – (And if I can’t believe my cousin Steve, who has been there – as an athlete in the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland – who can I believe?) – a quick chat with a passing Kiwi on any New Zild street can very quickly turn into an invitation to dinner, a weekend stay in the spare room or an extended guided tour of the local sights.
Kiwis are fiercely proud of their country and love nothing better than to show it off.
At least until 28 February 2020 when the first corona virus case was detected on New Zild shores.
As of 7 December 2020, New Zild has had:
2,085 cases
2,006 recoveries
25 deaths
Above: Covid-19 outbreak cases in New Zealand as of 30 September 2020: the darker the region, the more cases therein.
Worldwide as of 7 December 2020:
68.2 million cases
43.9 million recoveries
1.56 million deaths
Above: COVID-19 Outbreak World Map Total Deaths per Capita (as of 9 December 2020)
All borders and entry ports of New Zealand were closed to all non-residents on 19 March 2020, with returning citizens and residents being required to self-isolate.
Since 10 April, all New Zealanders returning from overseas must go into two weeks of managed isolation (compulsory quarantine)
A four-level alert system was introduced on 21 March to manage the outbreak within New Zealand.
No.
Name
Description and Measures
1
Prepare
COVID-19 is uncontrolled overseas. The disease is contained in New Zealand and there are sporadic imported cases, but isolated household transmission could be occurring. Border entry measures to minimise risk of importing COVID-19 cases.Intensive testing for COVID-19. Rapid contact tracing of any positive cases. People arriving in New Zealand without symptoms of COVID-19 go into a managed isolation facility for at least 14 days. People arriving in New Zealand with symptoms of COVID-19 or who test positive after arrival go into a quarantine facility and are unable to leave their room for at least 14 days. Mandatory self-isolation may be applied. Schools and workplaces are open and must operate safely. No restrictions on personal movement or gatherings. Stay home if you are sick, report flu-like symptoms. Wash and dry hands, cough into elbow, do not touch your face. No restrictions on domestic transport – avoid public transport or travel if sick. Businesses and public transport must display QR codes to allow for contact tracing.
2
Reduce
The disease is contained, but the risk of community transmission remains. Household transmission could be occurring, and there are single or isolated cluster outbreaks. People can connect with friends and family, go shopping, or travel domestically, but should follow public health guidance. Physical distancing of two metres from people you do not know when out in public is recommended, with one metre physical distancing in controlled environments like workplaces unless other measures are in place. No more than 100 people at indoor or outdoor gatherings (subject to any lower limit, e.g. fire regulations). Sport and recreation activities are allowed, subject to conditions on gatherings, contact tracing, and – where practical – physical distancing. Public venues can open but must comply with public health measures. Health and disability care services operate as normally as possible. Businesses can open to the public, but must follow public health guidance including in relation to physical distancing and contact tracing. Alternative ways of working encouraged where possible (e.g. remote working, shift-based working, physical distancing, staggering meal breaks, flexible leave). Schools, early childhood education and tertiary education providers can open with appropriate public health measures in place. People at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19 (e.g. those with underlying medical conditions, especially if not well controlled, and seniors) are encouraged to take additional precautions when leaving home. They may work, if they agree with their employer that they can do so safely. Face coverings are required on public transport and aircraft, but not school buses or Cook Strait ferries. Children under 12 are exempt along with passengers in taxis or rideshare services and people with disabilities or mental health conditions.
3
Restrict
There is a high risk the disease is not contained. Community transmission might be happening. New clusters may emerge but can be controlled through testing and contact tracing. People instructed to stay home in their support bubble other than for essential personal movement – including to go to work, school if they have to or for local recreation. Physical distancing of two metres outside home (including on public transport) or one metre in controlled environments like schools and workplaces. People must stay within their immediate household bubble, but can expand this to reconnect with close family / friends, or bring in caregivers, or support isolated people. This extended bubble should remain exclusive. Schools (years 1 to 10) and Early Childhood Education centres can safely open, but will have limited capacity. Children should learn at home if possible. People must work from home unless that is not possible. Businesses can open premises, but cannot physically interact with customers. Low risk local recreation activities are allowed. Public venues are closed (e.g. libraries, museums, cinemas, food courts, gyms, pools, playgrounds, markets). Gatherings of up to 10 people are allowed but only for wedding services, funerals and baptisms. Physical distancing and public health measures must be maintained. Healthcare services use virtual, non-contact consultations where possible. Inter-regional travel is highly limited (e.g. for essential workers, with limited exemptions for others). People at high risk of severe illness (older people and those with existing medical conditions) are encouraged to stay at home where possible and take additional precautions when leaving home. They may choose to continue to work.
4
Eliminate
It is likely the disease is not contained. Sustained and intensive community transmission is occurring, and there are widespread outbreaks and new clusters. People must stay at home (in their bubble) other than for essential personal movement. Safe recreational activity is allowed in local area. Travel is severely limited. All gatherings cancelled and all public venues closed. Businesses closed except for essential services (e.g. supermarkets, pharmacies, clinics, petrol stations) and lifeline utilities. Educational facilities closed. Rationing of supplies and requisitioning of facilities possible. Reprioritisation of healthcare services.
The Alert Level was initially set at Level 2, but was subsequently raised to Level 3 on the afternoon of 23 March.
Beginning on 25 March, the Alert Level was moved to Level 4, putting the country into a nationwide lockdown.
The Alert Level was moved back down to Level 3 on 27 April, partially lifting some lockdown restrictions, and down to Level 2 on 13 May, lifting the rest of the lockdown restrictions while maintaining physical distancing and gathering size limits.
The country moved down to Level 1 on 8 June, removing all remaining restrictions except border controls.
On 11 August, four cases of COVID-19 from an unknown source were reported in Auckland, the first from an unknown source in 102 days.
At noon the following day, the Auckland region moved up to alert level 3, while the rest of the country was moved to level 2.
On 30 August at 11:59 pm, Auckland moved down to “Alert Level 2.5“, a modified version of Alert Level 2 with limitation on public gatherings, funerals, and weddings.
On 23 September at 11:59 pm, Auckland moved down to Alert Level 2, after the rest of New Zealand moved to Alert Level 1 on 21 September at 11:59pm.
On 7 October, Auckland also moved down to level 1.
New Zealand’s approach to the pandemic has been widely praised internationally for its quick and tough action over the virus, having completed 1,030,115 tests (one in four people) as of 18 October 2020.
Smart people, wise people, a compassionate country.
Is religion the reason?
Above: A Ratana church on a hill near Raetihi (a town in the centre of North Island). The two-tower construction is characteristic of Rātana buildings.
Irreligion in New Zealand refers to atheism (there are no deities), agnosticism (the supernatural is unknown), deism (belief in God if supported by facts), religious scepticism (do we need religion?) and secular humanism (focus on humanity not faith) in New Zealand society.
Former Prime Ministers John Key and Helen Clark were agnostic, as is current Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Above: Helen Clark (Prime Minister: 1999 – 2008)
Above: John Key (Prime Minister: 2008 – 2016)
Above: Jacinda Ardern (Prime Minister since 2017)
Post-war New Zealand has become a highly secular country, meaning that religion does not play a major role in the lives of many of the population.
That being said, although New Zealand has no established religion, Christianity has been the majority religious affiliation since European settlement in the 19th century.
Despite the lack of established religion, this is not to say that there is disrespect shown to those who follow a faith.
Above: The Church of the Good Shepherd on the shore of Lake Tekapo (South Island). The stone church was built as a memorial to the pioneers of the Mackenzie region.
Religion in New Zealand encompasses a wide range of groups and beliefs.
Almost half (48.6%) of New Zealanders stated they had no religion in the 2018 census and 6.7% made no declaration.
However if a faith is followed, Christianity remains the most common religion.
37% of the population in the 2018 census identified themselves as Christians.
Above: St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Auckland (North Island)
Around 6% of the population is affiliated with non-Christian religions.
Hinduism is the second-most popular religion, claiming 2.6% of the population and Sikhism is the fastest-growing faith. (123,000 Hindus / 40,908 Sikhs)
Above: Bharatiya Mandir (the oldest and largest Hindu temple in NZ), Auckland
Above: Gurdwara Guru Ravidass (Sikh temple), Auckland
1.3% profess to be Muslims. (61,455 people)
Above: Al Noor Mosque, Riccarton, Christchurch (South Island)
1.1% profess to be Buddhists. (15,000+ people)
Above: Fo Guang Shan (Buddhist temple), Auckland
There are 5,274 Jews, 2,925 Baha’is and 3,699 Maoris in New Zealand.
Above: Jewish synagogue, Christchurch
Above: Māori Christian church in Akaroa (South Island)
The respect given to all faiths can best examplied when we consider Kiwi attitudes towards Islam.
In 2006, two newspapers in New Zealand decided to republish controversial Danish cartoons depicting Muhammad, the prophet of Islam.
Above: The offending Danish newspaper
Above: An example of one of the banners that was posted across the web to encourage support for Danish goods.
The Muslim community registered its displeasure through press statements and a small peaceful march in Auckland.
The editors said they did not mean offence but would not back down.
Prime Minister Helen Clark and opposition leader Don Brash both made statements that the cartoons were not appreciated if they deeply offended members of the New Zealand community, but that such decisions were for editors to make, not politicians.
Above: Don Brash
Muslim leaders and the editors got together with the Race Relations office, and Jewish and Christian representatives in Wellington.
As a result of this meeting the editors said they would not apologise, but in good faith would refrain from publishing the offending images again.
The New Zealand Muslim leadership, through the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand (FIANZ), then proceeded in good faith to consider the matter closed, and drafted letters to 52 Muslim countries reversing their earlier stance and asking that New Zealand products not be boycotted.
In November 2016, Mohammad Anwar Sahib, the Imam of the Al-Taqwa mosque in Manukau, Auckland and a religious adviser to the FIANZ, drew controversy when he made offensive remarks about Jews, Christians, and women in a series of speeches that were posted by the right-wing blogger Cameron Slater on YouTube.
Sahib’s comments were condemned by a wide range of figures and groups in New Zealand society, including:
the FIANZ’s President Hazim Arafeh
the Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand (IWCNZ)
the Race Relations Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy
the Ethnic Communities Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga
the ACT party (liberal-libertanian) David Seymour
the New Zealand First (nationalist-populist) leader Winston Peters
the New Zealand Jewish Council
the Ahmadiyya (Islamic revival) community
Above: Imam Dr. Mohammad Anwar Sahib
In response to negative publicity, Sahib was dismissed from his advisory position at the FIANZ.
Sahib denied accusations of racism and issued a statement claiming his statements had been taken out of context.
Above: Mohammad Anwar Sahib
In late October 2017, it was reported in the media that the first secretary of the Iranian Embassy Hormoz Ghahremani, the visiting Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Shafie, and community elder Sayed Taghi Derhami had made remarks denying the Holocaust and attacking Israel at the Shia Islamic Ahlulbayt Foundation in Pakuranga, Auckland during a meeting to commemorate Quds Day (the last Friday of Ramadan, expressing support for Palestine and opposing Israel and Zionism) in June.
A video of the speeches was posted on the Foundation’s YouTube channel.
Above: Flag of Iran
These remarks were criticized by the New Zealand Jewish Council and the pro-Israel think tank the Israel Institute of New Zealand, who advocated Ghahremani’s expulsion.
Ghahremani later clarified that his actions represented the Iranian government’s official position on Israel.
Above: Flag of Israel
Race Relations Commissioner Susan Devoy also condemned the trio’s anti-Semitic statements.
Above: Susan Devoy
The opposition (centre-right) New Zealand National Party’s foreign affairs spokesperson Gerry Brownlee also urged the incumbent Labour / New Zealand First / Green coalition government to expel Ghahremani.
Above: Gerry Brownlee
In response, Foreign Minister Winston Peters countered that the incident had occurred under the previous National Party government’s watch.
Peters indicated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade had summoned Ghahremani to express its disapproval.
Above: Winston Peters
On 15 March 2019, a terrorist attacked worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch, killing 51 people, including 42 at the Al Noor Mosque in Riccarton, seven at the Linwood Islamic Centre, and two who died in hospital.
Above: Al Noor Mosque in Riccarton. Built over 1984–85, it was the world’s southernmost mosque until 1999. Al Noor Mosque was one of the two mosques targeted.
Above: Linwood Islamic Centre
The attacks took place on a Friday afternoon, when worshippers inside the mosques were gathering for Jumu’ah (Friday prayer).
The accused perpetrator of the attack was an Australian described as a white supremacist who intended to create an “atmosphere of fear” against Muslims.
However, a week after the attack, a nationwide moment of silence was observed in New Zealand on Friday – ushered in by the Muslim call to prayer.
The prayer and two-minute reflection were broadcast live on national media outlets and came as an estimated 20,000 people, including Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, gathered metres from the Al Noor mosque in the city of Christchurch for Muslim Friday prayers.
Above: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern visited members of the Muslim community at the Phillipstown Community Hub in Christchurch the day after the attack.
Gamal Fouda, an imam who survived the attack at Al Noor mosque, said:
“Last Friday I stood in this mosque and saw hatred and rage in the eyes of the terrorist, but today from the same place I look out and I see the love and compassion in the eyes of thousands of New Zealanders and human beings from around the globe.”
Above: Imam Gamal Fouda
Speaking to mourners in the crowd, Prime Minister Ardern said:
“New Zealand mourns with you.
We are one.”
Quoting Muhammad, she said:
“The believers in their mutual kindness, compassion, and sympathy are just like one body.
When any part of the body suffers, the whole body feels pain.”
Above: “Allah” in Arabic
Brenton Harrison Tarrant, a 28-year-old man from Grafton, New South Wales, Australia, arrested shortly after the shootings, had live-streamed the first shooting on Facebook.
Prior to the attack, Tarrant had published an online manifesto.
Both the video and manifesto were subsequently banned in New Zealand.
After police investigation, Tarrant was charged with 51 murders, 40 attempted murders, and engaging in a terrorist act.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole on 27 August 2020.
It was the first time a life imprisonment without parole sentence was handed down in New Zealand.
The attack was linked to an increase in white supremacy and alt-right extremism globally observed since about 2015.
Above: Brenton Tarrant
(Nine days after the attack, a mosque in Escondido, California, was set on fire.
Police found graffiti on the mosque’s driveway that referenced the Christchurch shootings, leading them to investigate the fire as a terrorist attack.
Above: Dar-ul-Arqam Mosque, Escondido, California
A mass shooting later took place at a synagogue in nearby Poway on 27 April 2019, killing one person and injuring three others.
Above: Altman Family Chabad Community Center, Poway, California
The suspect in the shooting, John T. Earnest, also claimed responsibility for the fire and praised the Christchurch shootings in a manifesto.
He and Tarrant were said to have been radicalised on 8chan’s /pol/ discussion board.
Above: John T. Earnest
On 3 August 2019, Patrick Crusius killed 23 people and injured 23 others in a mass shooting in a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.
Above: Walmart, El Paso, Texas
In a manifesto posted to 8chan’s /pol/ board, Crusius expressed support for and inspiration from the Christchurch shootings.
Above: Patrick Wood Crosius
On 10 August 2019, Philip Manshaus tried to attack a mosque in Baerum, Norway, and livestream it on Facebook.
Above: Al-Noor Islamic Centre, Baeram, Norway
Manshaus referred to Tarrant as a saint online and posted an image depicting Tarrant, Crusius, and Earnest as “heroes“.
Above: Philip Manshaus
Two New Zealand-based anti-immigration groups, the Dominion Movement and the New Zealand National Front, quickly condemned the attacks, distanced themselves from the perpetrator, and shut their websites down.
Above: Logo of the National Front
However, the broader far-right culture celebrated the attacks and “sanctified” Tarrant as a central figure.
Tarrant’s manifesto was translated and distributed in more than a dozen different languages, and a number of supporters on 8chan made photo and video edits of the shooting.
Some extremists were inspired by Tarrant, committing violent incidents and deadly attacks of their own, such as those in Poway, El Paso, and Baerum.
The United Kingdom’s domestic intelligence service, MI-5, launched an inquiry into Tarrant’s possible links to the British far-right.
Ahmed Bhamji, chairman of the largest mosque in New Zealand, spoke at a rally on 23 March in front of one thousand people.
He claimed that Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence agency, was behind the attack.
Above: Logo of Mossad
The claim has been widely described as an unfounded, antisemitic conspiracy theory.
The chairman of the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand said that Bhamji’s statement did not represent other New Zealand Muslims, but Bhamji defended his statements.
Above: Ahmed Bhamji
According to Sri Lankan State Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardene, an early inquiry indicated that the Sri Lanka Easter bombings on 21 April 2019 were retaliation for the Christchurch attack.
Above: Ruwan Wijewardene
However, some analysts believe the attacks to have been planned before the Christchurch attack, and any linkage was questioned by New Zealand’s government — with Prime Minister Ardern saying she was not aware of any intelligence linking the two.
Politicians and world leaders condemned the attack.
Queen Elizabeth II, New Zealand’s head of state, said she was “deeply saddened” by the attacks.
Other politicians and world leaders also condemned the attacks, with some attributing them to rising Islamophobia.
Above: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, announced that Pakistani emigrant Naeem Rashid, who charged at the gunman and died as a result of the attack on the Al Noor Mosque, would be posthumously honoured with a national award for his courage.
Above: Prime Minister Imran Khan
The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, announced that:
“In the future, whenever we send our cricket team abroad, we will do that after examining and reviewing the security matters of the host countries.”
She added that Bangladesh had always provided highest security to visiting foreign teams.
Above: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
Serbia’s Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic condemned the Christchurch attack and said that the shooter “has nothing to do with Serbia.”
Serbian President Aleksander Vucic criticised media for implying that Serbs should be blamed for the shootings.
Above: Flag of Serbia
The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, showed footage taken by Tarrant to his supporters at campaign rallies for upcoming local elections.
The New Zealand and Australian governments, as well as Turkey’s main opposition party, criticised his actions.
Above: Flag of Turkey
US President Donald Trump condemned the “horrible massacre“.
When asked after the attacks if he thought white nationalists were a growing threat around the world, Trump replied:
“I don’t really.
I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems.
It’s certainly a terrible thing.“
Above: Trump commenting on Christchurch shootings
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the incident as “one of New Zealand’s darkest days“.
The government established a royal commission of inquiry into its security agencies in the wake of the shootings, which were the deadliest in modern New Zealand history and the worst ever committed by an Australian national.
The commission submitted its report to the government on 26 November 2020, the details of which were made public on 7 December.
Above: The Beehive (government executive branch HQ), Wellington (North Island)
Several media organisations in Australia and tabloid-news websites in the UK broadcast parts of the video, up to the point the gunman entered the building, despite pleas from the New Zealand Police not to show it.
Sky Television New Zealand temporarily stopped its syndication of Sky News Australia after that network showed the footage, and said it was working with Sky News Australia to prevent further displays of the video.
At least three Internet service providers in New Zealand blocked access to 8chan and other sites related to the attacks, and temporarily blocked other sites hosting the video such as 4chan, LiveLeak, and Mega until they comply with requests to take down copies of the video.
The administrator of the online message board Kiwi Farms refused a New Zealand Police request for the data of users who made posts related to Tarrant and the attack.
Above: Flag of the New Zealand Police
Social media sites including Facebook, YouTube, Reddit and Twitter said they were working diligently to remove the video from their platforms and would also remove anything posted in support of the attacks.
According to Facebook, no complaints were made about the video until 12 minutes after the live-stream ended.
The original video from Tarrant himself had been viewed fewer than 200 times before Facebook was notified of its content, and it had been viewed only 4,000 times before it was removed, which happened within minutes of notification.
Facebook created a digital hash fingerprint to detect further uploads, however by this point the video had been propagated on other sites.
Facebook said it had blocked 1.5 million uploads of the video and images from it in the day after the attacks, including edited versions, with most blocking occurring through use of the fingerprint to prevent visibility.
Above: Logo of Facebook
Reddit banned “subreddits” named “WatchPeopleDie” and “Gore“, saying threads there had glorified the attacks, in violation of user agreements.
Microsoft, in light of how social media sites handled the content related to the shooting, proposed the establishment of industry-wide standards that would flag such content quickly, and, in the wake of similar major events, operate a joint virtual command center to manage and control the spread of such information via social media.
Despite the networks’ attempts to self-police, New Zealand officials and other world leaders have asked them to take responsibility for extremist content posted on their services.
Australia introduced legislation that would fine content providers and potentially imprison their executives if they do not remove violent imagery of these types of attacks.
The French Council of the Muslim Faith filed a lawsuit against Facebook and YouTube, accusing the companies of “broadcasting a message with violent content abetting terrorism, or of a nature likely to seriously violate human dignity and liable to be seen by a minor“.
Facebook has contested the lawsuit, saying:
“Acts of terror and hate speech have no place on Facebook, and our thoughts are with the families of the victims and the entire community affected by this tragedy.
We have taken many steps to remove this video from our platform.
We are cooperating with the authorities.”
Stuart Bender of Curtin University in Perth noted that the use of live video as an integral part of the attacks “makes them a form of ‘performance crime’ where the act of video recording and/or streaming the violence by the perpetrator is a central component of the violence itself, rather than being incidental.”
Just before carrying out the attacks, the gunman said to the camera:
“Remember lads, subscribe to PewDiePie“, referring to the most subscribed YouTuber at the time, Felix Kjellberg, who goes by the alias PewDiePie who at the time was having a race to 100 million subscribers with Indian music channel T-Series.
PewDiePie has been accused of using far-right content in his videos.
In response, Kjellberg tweeted:
“Just heard news of the devastating reports from New Zealand Christchurch.
I feel absolutely sickened having my name uttered by this person.
My heart and thoughts go out to the victims, families and everyone affected by this tragedy.“
He later called for the phrase to be discontinued.
Above: Felix Kjellberg (aka Pewdiepie)
Gun laws in New Zealand came under scrutiny in the aftermath, specifically the legality of military-style semi-automatic rifles compared to Australia, which banned them after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996.
Above: Port Arthur Bay, Tasmania
(The Port Arthur massacre of 28–29 April 1996 was a mass shooting in which 35 people were killed and 23 wounded.
The murderer, Martin Bryant, pleaded guilty and was given 35 life sentences without possibility of parole.
Fundamental changes of gun control laws within Australia followed the incident.
The case is the worst massacre in modern Australia committed by a single person.)
In 2018, for example, it was reported that of the estimated 1.5 million firearms in New Zealand, 15,000 were registered Military Style Semi-Automatic weapons as well as perhaps 50,000 and 170,000 unregistered A-Category semi-automatics.
As Philip Alpers of GunPolicy.org noted:
“New Zealand is almost alone with the United States in not registering 96% of its firearms.
One can assume that the ease of obtaining these firearms may have been a factor in his decision to commit the crime in Christchurch.“
Cabinet, however, remains undecided on the creation of a register.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced:
“Our gun laws will change.
Now is the time.
People will be seeking change and I am committed to that.”
She continued:
“There have been attempts to change our laws in 2005, 2012, and after an inquiry in 2017.
Now is the time for change.“
Above: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
Attorney-General David Parker was later quoted as saying that the government would ban semi-automatic guns, but subsequently backtracked, saying that the government had not yet committed to anything and that regulations around semi-automatic weapons was “one of the issues” the government would consider.
Above: David Parker
The day after the attacks, some gun-store owners reported an increase in sales, particularly of semi-automatic weapons, in response to the prospect of stricter laws.
The New Zealand auction website Trade Me banned the sale of semi-automatic weapons on its platform and some gun owners responded to the attacks by voluntarily handing in their weapons to police.
At a press conference on 18 March, Ardern said details of the proposed reforms would be given by 25 March.
On 21 March, she announced a ban, adding that she was working to have legislation in place as early as 11 April.
As a transitional measure, from 3:00 pm that day, some semi-automatic rifles and shotguns were classified as requiring the owner to hold a licence with an “E” endorsement.
“After a reasonable period for returns, those who continue to possess these firearms will be in contravention of the law,” Radio New Zealand reported.
A “gun buy-back” scheme was also considered.
The 2019 Arms (Prohibited Firearms, Magazines and Parts) Amendment Act was introduced in the House of Representatives on 1 April, and passed its first reading the following day.
The final reading was passed on 10 April, supported by all parties in Parliament except ACT.
It became law by the end of the week.
Above: Parliament Buildings of New Zealand, Wellington
All legally obtained semiautomatic and military-grade firearms and their relevant ammunition were able be handed over to police in a buy-back scheme.
On 13 July, the gun buy-back scheme was initiated, where 607 collection points for owners to turn in their prohibited firearms were held.
On 20 December, the gun buy-back scheme ended.
Provisional data from police as of show of 21 December that a total of 33,619 hand-ins had been completed, 56,250 firearms had been collected (51,342 as buy-back and 4,908 under amnesty), 2,717 firearms had been modified, and 194,245 parts had been collected (187,995 as buy-back and 6,250 under amnesty).
Police Minister Stuart Nash hailed the buy-back scheme as a success, but Nicole McKee, the spokeswoman of the Council of Licensed Firearms Owners, said that the buyback had been a failure and claimed that there are 170,000 prohibited guns in New Zealand, so “50,000 is not a number to boast about“.
Above: Stuart Nash
Granted that there is seldom perfection in the ways that governments react, but what is important to note is that the New Zealand government acted, in all three controversies involving religion, in ways that were both common sense and compassionate.
Kiwis love receiving praise about their country and this is what this Canuck is attempting to do here.
Kiwis know they take rather more interest in other countries than those in other countries take in them.
(A massacre is not the kind of attention any nation wants.)
This lack of reciprocal attention grieves Kiwis a little, though they say politely that it is a natural consequence of being few in number and living at the bottom of the map.
In fact, Kiwis enjoy nothing more than a chance to educate those who live under a cloud of ignorance concerning their country.
A common preoccupation of Kiwis abroad is watching out for their nation’s name in their host country’s newspapers.
Any mention is pounced upon, even if, as is most likely, it concerns a natural disaster or is confined to the sports pages.
Above: The Realm of New Zealand
Still, Kiwis are quick to remind others about their country’s successes.
Conversations with them are often studded with references to the deeds of their famous fellows.
Outside the world of sport, there are four nationals few would question as being well-known abroad:
mountaineer Edmund Hillary
Above: Edmind Hillary (1919 – 2008)
(On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay (1914 – 1986) became the first climbers confirmed to have reached the summit of Mount Everest.
Above: Mount Everest
They were part of the 9th British expedition to Everest.
Above: Tenzing and Hillary
From 1985 to 1988, Hillary served as New Zealand’s High Commissioner to India and Bangladesh and concurrently as Ambassador to Nepal.
As part of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition he reached the South Pole overland in 1958.
He subsequently reached the North Pole, making him the first person to reach both poles and the summit of Everest.
Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.
Following his ascent of Everest, Hillary devoted himself to assisting the Sherpa people of Nepal through the Himalayan Trust, which he established.
His efforts are credited with the construction of many schools and hospitals in Nepal.
Above: Flag of Nepal
Hillary had numerous honours conferred upon him, including the Order of the Garter in 1995.
Upon his death in 2008, he was given a state funeral in New Zealand.)
writer Katherine Mansfield
Above: Katherine Mansfield (1888 – 1923)
(I have read her In a German Pension, a 1911 collection of short stories written after her stay in Bad Wörishofen, a German spa town, in 1909, where she was taken by her mother after her disastrous marriage, pregnancy and miscarriage.
Some reflect on the habits and demeanour of Germans.
Some refer to the exploitation and repression of women by men.)
nuclear scientist Ernest Rutherford
Above: Ernest Rutherford (1871 – 1937)
(Rutherford discovered the concept of radioactive half-life, the radioactive element radon, and differentiated and named alpha and beta radiation.
This work was performed at McGill University in Montréal.
It is the basis for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry he was awarded in 1908 “for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances“, for which he was the first Canadian and Oceanian Nobel laureate.
Rutherford moved in 1907 to the University of Manchester in the UK, where he and Thomas Royds proved that alpha radiation is helium nuclei.
Above: Helium discharge tube
Rutherford performed his most famous work after he became a Nobel laureate.
In 1911, although he could not prove that it was positive or negative, he theorized that atoms have their charge concentrated in a very small nucleus, and thereby pioneered the Rutherford model of the atom, through his discovery and interpretation of Rutherford scattering by the gold foil experiment of Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden.
He performed the first artificially induced nuclear reaction in 1917 in experiments where nitrogen nuclei were bombarded with alpha particles.
As a result, he discovered the emission of a subatomic particle which, in 1919, he called the “hydrogen atom” but, in 1920, he more accurately named the proton.
Rutherford became Director of the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge in 1919.
Under his leadership the neutron was discovered by James Chadwick in 1932 and in the same year the first experiment to split the nucleus in a fully controlled manner was performed by students working under his direction, John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton.
After his death in 1937, he was buried in Westminster Abbey near Sir Isaac Newton.
The chemical element rutherfordium (element 104) was named after him in 1997.)
opera singer Kiri Te Kanawa
Above: Kiri Te Kanawa, 2013
Kanawa is a New Zealand opera singer.
She had a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as “mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced”.
Te Kanawa had three top 40 albums in Australia in the mid-1980s.
Te Kanawa has received accolades in many countries, singing a wide array of works in many languages dating from the 17th to the 20th centuries.
She is particularly associated with the works of Mozart, Strauss, Verdi, Handel and Puccini, and found considerable success in portraying princesses, nobility, and other similar characters on stage.
Though she rarely sang opera later in her career, Te Kanawa frequently performed in concert and recital, gave masterclasses, and supported young opera singers in launching their careers.
Her final performance was in Ballarat, Australia, in October 2016, but she did not reveal her retirement until September 2017.
This is, of course, thought to be an absurdly short list in view of New Zild’s overall contribution to the world, such as:
Godfrey Brown, once the world’s fastest sheep shearer
Above: Godfrey Brown
William Atack, the first man to use a whistle to stop a sporting event
Above: William Atack
Ernest Godward, inventor of the spiral hairpin
Regardless of the topic, therein lies a tale of Kiwi greatness.
Kiwis would like to be seen as people of consequence (and conscience) living in a country with much to offer the rest of the world.
As a first step they wish the rest of the world would learn just where they are on the globe.
And colour it clean green.
Above: Aoraki / Mount Cook is the highest point in New Zealand, at 3,724 metres.
Because of this, Kiwis were shocked by the way the American government reacted to the Kiwi nuclear-free policy instituted in the 1980s which prevented access of American nuclear-powered naval vessels to New Zealand’s territorial waters.
The US took this anti-nuclear policy as an insult (Bullies are always insulted when someone refuses them.) and cast New Zealand out of the three-power ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand and the US) defence alliance.
New Zealand’s anti-nuclear position was enormously strengthened when the French resumed their nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll.
“The French have the bomb.
Still one of the few people that test their bombs.
Above: Types of nuclear testing: 1. atmospheric, 2. underground, 3. exoatmospheric, and 4. underwater
The underground tests.
Where do they do it?
In the Sahara?
In a total wasteland?
No, f… off.
No.
In Tahiti, in Paradise.
Above: Muruoa Lagoon, 1972
Why?
Because we’re French.”
Above: Flag of France
(Robin Williams)
Above: Robin Williams (1951 – 2014)
Incensed that this should be happening in their Pacific backyard, Kiwis, backed by the Aussies, led the united South Pacific opposition, demanding that the French conduct their underground nuclear tests a little closer to home (preferably under the Arc de Triomphe).
Above: Arc de Triomphe, Paris
Kiwis are not an especially zealous people, but the Americans and French between them brought about an almost religious conversion of the entire country to the anti-nuclear banner.
Kiwis and Aussies share a love of the great outdoors, with tourism and agriculture key economic sectors in both countries.
The Kiwis do not need the Aussies’ jokes reminding them that New Zealand hillsides are blanketed with fluffy white sheep.
There are close to 40 million of them – which means the country has ten times as many sheep as people – and they graze almost everywhere.
Kaikoura is a small coastal town on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand, about 180 km north of Christchurch and 130 km south of Blenheim.
It is famous for its marine mammals (whales, dolphins, seals) and other sealife, all of which you can see, some of which you can swim with and some you can eat.
In Maori, kai means eat and koura is crayfish, so Kaikoura is a place to eat crayfish.
Above: Kaikoura
Kaikoura lies on a coastal plain and a peninsula between high mountains and the Pacific Ocean.
In places along this coast the mountains drop almost straight into the sea, with barely enough flat land for a single railway line, two-lane road and rocky beach, and even then some short tunnels are needed on corners.
The steepness of the mountains reflects the underwater geography, with the deep water Hikurangi Trench and the continental shelf edge lying just offshore south of the peninsula.
This makes the ocean around Kaikoura rich in sealife, attracting seals, whales (and humans) to the area to partake in the bounty of the sea.
The town has a similar charm to an east coat USA beach town, with a hodgepodge of signs trying to grab tourists’ attention.
At the edges of the town, the more relaxed and nature-oriented activities again take precedence.
Kaikoura is the perfect place to enjoy both the wonders of the magnificent Pacific Ocean and the tall majestic mountains.
It is an ideal rest stop on a section of State Highway 1 that passes through isolated country north and south of the town.
The Coastal Pacific train runs through Kaikoura on its way between Picton and Christchurch each day from October through April.
It departs Christchurch at 0700, then departs Kaikoura at 0954, arriving in Picton at 1213.
The train journey is fantastic, with the mountains on one side and the ocean on the other.
The track follows the coast for the last part of the journey into Kaikoura and you can often see fur seals lazing on the rocks.
You might also sperm whales, dolphins and wandering albatross.
Above: Mother and baby sperm whales
Above: Bottlenose dolphin
Above: Wandering albatross
Depending on the season you may also see migrating humpback whales, pilot whales, blue whales and southern right whales.
Above: Humpback whale
Above: Pilot whale
Above: Blue whale
Above: Southern right whale
Kaikoura often hosts the orca, the largest member of the dolphin family, and is home to the world’s smallest and rarest dolphin, the Hector’s.
Above: Orcas (killer whales)
Above: Hector’s dolphins
Kaikoura also attracts the largest concentration and variety of seabirds on mainland New Zealand, including 13 species of albatross, 14 varieties of petrels and seven types of shearwater.
Above: Cape petrel
Above: Great shearwater (Puffinus gravis)
A taxi driver in New Zealand has swapped drunken revellers for wayward seabirds in an attempt to halt the decline of one of the nation’s endangered species.
Local cabbie Toni Painting leads a volunteer army that scours the streets of the South Island town of Kaikoura in the middle of the night in search of Hutton’s shearwater chicks that crash-land onto the road – mistaking the shiny bitumen for the sea.
Above: Hutton’s shearwater
Painting was the first to spot the seabird chicks dazed and confused around town on foggy nights five years ago.
Now she patrols each evening in fledging season, collecting the wayward birds and delivering them to a nearby rehabilitation centre, who then take them out to sea.
Above: Toni Painting
Hutton’s shearwater are the only seabird in the world that nests and raises its young in the mountains, at heights around 1,200 metres.
Since the 1960s, their breeding colonies have reduced from eight to two, classifying them for “endangered” status by the Department of Conservation.
Above: Hutton’s shearwater breeding colony, Shearwater Stream, Seaward Kaikoura Range
Experts think the fledging chicks in Kalkoura are confusing black, shiny bitumen for the surface of the ocean on their first journeys out of their nest, especially on foggy, moonless nights.
Once they have crash-landed the birds are unable to walk on land, or move, and often get hit by vehicles, or eaten by roaming cats or dogs.
“I go out half an hour after dark.
Then I go out every hour until half past midnight, it takes them half an hour to get down from the mountains,” said Painting, who keeps animal boxes in her taxi to hold the chicks, which are fluffy, heavy and grey.
“If there’s a lot of birds coming down I can go all night, if I have passengers they will help me too.”
On an average night during fledging season, which runs through March and April, between 10 and 20 birds will be found on local Kaikoura roads, especially those bordering the coast.
Painting said on her busiest night more than 200 birds were rescued, with volunteers working through till dawn.
Ted Howard is the chairman of the Hutton’s Shearwater Charitable Trust.
He says the local Kailouta community was well-used to the birds’ antics now and on any given night about a dozen volunteers would be out patrolling the roads.
The highest death toll was 12 dead shearwaters in one night, which Howard said was “a tragedy” as the birds were so rare.
“We call them crash-landers.
They really are fascinating and strange birds.
They are the only seabird on the planet that breeds in the high mountains,” Howard said.
Once the birds have been rehabilitated they are taken out on dolphin watching boats and released over the water.
In its primal state, New Zild had practically no native creatures except birds and seals.
All others have been imported – even pests such as wasps.
Other than the katipo, a very rarely seen native spider, there are no poisonous creepy-crawlies wanting to end your life.
Above: Female katipo
The birds of New Zealand evolved into an avifauna that included many endemic species found in no other country.
As an island archipelago New Zealand accumulated bird diversity and when Captain James Cook arrived in the 1770s he noted that the bird song was deafening.
Above: James Cook (1728 – 1779)
The mix includes species with unusual biology such as the kakapo which is the world’s only flightless, nocturnal parrot which also exhibits competitive display breeding using leks.
There are also many species that are similar to neighbouring land areas.
A process of colonisation, speciation and extinction has been at play over many millions of years, including recent times.
Some species have arrived in human recorded history while others arrived before but are little changed.
Above: Kakapo
Largely lacking the bright plumage found elsewhere, New Zealand’s birds – like its endemic plants – have an understated beauty which does not shout for attention.
Above: Kea (Nestor notabilis) is the world’s only alpine parrot and has high intelligence and inquisitiveness.
Among the most musical is the bellbird, common in both native and exotic forests, though likr many birds it is more likely to be heard than seen.
Its call is a series of liquid bell notes, most often sounded at dawn or dusk.
Above: New Zealand bellbird
The tui, another nectar eater and the country’s most beautiful, is a great mimic, with an inventive reprtoire that includes clicks, grunts and chuckles.
Notable for the white throat feathers which stand out against its dark plumage, the tui often feeds on flax flowers in suburban gardens but is most at home in densely tangled forest (“bush” to New Zealanders).
Above: Tui
Fantails are commonly encountered on forest trails, swooping and jinking to catch insects stirred up by passing hikers.
Above: New Zealand fantail
While pukeko, elegant swamp hens with blue plumage and bright red beaks, are readily seen along wetland margins and even on the sides of roads nearby.
Be warned.
They have little road sense.
Above: Pukeko
If you spend any time in South Island high country, you are likely to come up against the fearless and inquisitve kea – an uncharacteristically drab green parrot with bright red underwings.
Kea are common in the car parks of the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers where they hang out for food scraps or tear rubber from car windscreens.
Above: Kea
Then there is the takahe, a rare flightless bird thought extinct until a small colony was discovered in 1948 and the equally flightless kiwi, NZ’s national emblem and the nickname for New Zealanders themselves.
Above: South Island Takahe
The kiwi has a round body covered in coarse feathers, strong legs and a long, distinctive bill with nostrils at the tip for sniffing out food.
It is not easy to find them in the wild, but they can be seen in simulated environments at excellent nocturnal houses.
The birds of New Zealand are like the people themselves, understated, underestimated, beautiful and alive in ways few know, that few appreciate.
To me, the idea of a volunteer army led by a local taxi driver that scours the streets in the middle of the night to save endangered birds encapsulates why I admire the behaviour of New Zealanders in the handling of any crisis large or small.
There is so much to see and do in New Zild, from the northernmost point on North Island (Cape Reinga) to Stewart Island, just south of South Island: bungy jumping, rail trails, horse trekking, marine reserves, river canoeing, surfing, rambling around Rotorua, skydiving, cave exploring, glacier climbing….
Above: Cape Reinga Lighthouse
And the walks one can do:
the Abel Tasman Coast Track (five-day, 51 km)
the Coast to Coast Walkway (four-hour, 16 km)
the Heaphy Track (82 km)
the Hump Ridge Track (three-day, 53 km)
the Kepler Track (four-day, 60 km)
the Lake Walkaremoana Track (four-day, 46 km)
the Milford Track (four-day, 54 km)
the Mt. Taranaki Summit (eight-hours)
the Queen Charlotte Track (five-day, 71 km)
the Tongariro Alpine Crossing (one-day, 18 km)
New Zealand may be small, remote and thinly populated, but it more than compensates for these deficiencies with its:
cinematic scenery (The Lord of the Rings / The Hobbit / The Piano / Eagle vs Shark to name a few of many)
fabulous festivals (World Buskers Festival / Rippon Festival / Fringe NZ / Pasifika Festival / NZ Gold Guitar Awards / Carrot Carnival / Queenstown Winter Festival / Nelson Arts Festival / Seafest / Opotiki Rodeo)
Above: Cook Island dancers at Auckland’s Pasifika Festivaö
superb food and wine
Above: Pavlova
Above: Hangi
Above: Fish and chips
magical outdoor experiences
its powerful mainstream Maori culture
Above: A wharenui (Maori meeting house)
This is a country that recognizes and celebrates its indigenous people.
This is a kinder, gentler, more respectful place, where lizards live for a century and kauri trees for two millennia, a land of over 3,100 glaciers and 45 microbreweries.
Above: Baby Canterbury geckos
Above: Kauri tree Te Matua Ngahere (Father of the Forest) at Waipoua Forest (North Island, New Zealand)
Above: Franz Josef Glacier
This is a nation that could brag about itself and yet doesn’t.
If I could afford to, I would love to book a flight to Auckland, arrange a six-week holiday, and then lose my return ticket.
Above: Auckland International Airport
I may never get to Heaven (character defects et al.) but New Zealand seems as close to Heaven on Earth as this mere mortal might ever experience.
Crises come and crises go, but clearly the Kiwi character mix of common sense and compassion will take these all in their stride.
In my travels I picked up a T-shirt with the words:
“Fernweh: the desire to be in a place you have never been before“.
For me, that place is New Zealand.
Sources: Wikipedia / Google / Lonely Planet New Zealand / Christine Cole Catley and Simon Nicholson, Xenophobe’s Guide to the Kiwis / Eleanor Ainge Roy, “Seabirds get a lift to safety after crash-landing in fog“, The Guardian, 20 March 2020
Landschlacht, Switzerland, Monday 20 April 2020 (Lockdown Day #33)
It takes three days, minimum, to produce a “Rumours” post, each numbers over 20,000 words, and, truth be told, much of these posts are the result of copying and pasting.
My wife who considers being married to me means taking the opposite POV to anything I say or do wonders why in the hell I bother to do any and all of this.
She reminds me that we live in an ADD (attention disorder deficient) society and time so few will have the patience to read a “Rumours” post from start to finish.
So, why do I bother?
Part of the reason is a belief in the primary point of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights:
“All human beings are born free and equal in human dignity and rights.”
I believe that we have given a great gift of knowledge, of an awareness of what is happening beyond our doorsteps, that signifies a responsibility to inform ourselves as fully as possible of world events that show how humans are more alike than different and how we are all symbiotically connected.
I believe that everyone is my superior that I may learn from them and I am superior to everyone that they may learn from me.
I believe that we have allowed distance to keep us complacent and impassive.
It is easier not to know, and what we don’t know we don’t care about.
Ignorance is bliss, but we have run out of excuses to remain ignorant.
I repeat the news, because I want to show how we are all interconnected, how what happens “over there” could happen “over here”.
Of course, the corona virus dominates the news because it continues to threaten the world, so for awhile much focus must necessarily be on Covina-19 and how it affects all of us.
There are over 300 nations on the planet and millions of events taking place on a daily basis, so through the assistance of Wikipedia, (which I acknowledge is not perfect though I feel it is often damn informative), I choose to repeat news I think is worth repeating, for the lessons these events have to teach us.
The corona virus affects not only your locked down neighbourhood, but as well nations as diverse and distant as Mali, the United States, France, South Korea, Nigeria, Great Britain, India, Brazil, Myanmar, the Philippines, Bangladesh…..
Just to name a few.
And, sadly, this global pandemic which could unite us as a planet instead is being used by some governments to manipulate and control their populations.
Also, sadly, problems that existed before Covina-19 came a-callin’ still remain important issues and some of these are magnified by the corona virus.
Racism and domestic violence have increased, despite the fact that a pandemic does not discriminate.
Terrorism and war continue unabated even though a plague threatens us all.
Politics and economics seem to matter more than the lives of our fellow human beings.
We have gone from “Every life matters” to “No lives matter” including our own.
Those that lead nations have shown their true colours in this catastrophe.
I find myself respecting some leaders whose politics I do not embrace but I find their skills at handling these crises noteworthy.
I find myself thoroughly disgusted with those leaders whose only concern is the maintenance of power regardless of the suffering of their people.
I find men such as Trump and Bolzano and Duterte unworthy of respect.
I find myself angry at the incompetence and ignorance of some who lead.
I find myself sorrowful at all the needless deaths this pandemic has caused, the continual loss of lives to warfare, the victims of terrorism and violence.
I watch Wuhan and wonder how truthful their recovery really is.
I shake my head at the ceaseless stupidity of racism and discrimination of too many Americans who capture the headlines and at the optimism, unity and compassion of far more Americans that goes unreported and unappreciated.
I am disgusted by an Administration so quick to blame others for the faults that they themselves have.
I am baffled by a movement that protests lockdowns yet creates the conditions that prolong and make these lockdowns necessary.
I think it is educational to see how other nations handle their problems, especially those with which we ourselves struggle.
I watch countries like Israel, Lesotho and Zimbabwe and wonder what it takes to make men of power pay for the pain and suffering they cause and whether they will ever be punished for the wrong they have done.
I weep to see how human rights are regarded as expendable in far too many places.
I rage at my own gender for the unforgivable acts of harming women and children and I am saddened that this pandemic has given some an excuse for worsening their behaviour.
I cry for those I don’t know killed in yesterday’s shooting spree, back home in a land I know intimately.
And, in complete confessional mode, I do have more leisure time than I am comfortable with.
There is too much time to think and never enough poetry in my prose to fully capture how I feel.
“Rumours” is copy and paste and repeating records and reports.
But if what I have read and repeated makes you feel as I do, then the time it took to post this and the time it takes for you to read this post, has not been in vain.
Switzerland
Swiss pharma and business insiders predict that an effective drug therapy against Covid-19 will be available by the end of this year, but a vaccine might take a year longer than that.
Above: The number of corona virus (COVID-19) cases in Switzerland broken down by cantons as of April 17 – the darker the canton, the more cases therein
“In the best-case scenario, a drug could be available before the end of 2020,” said on Monday Francesco De Rubertis, director and co-founder of Medicxi, a Geneva-based venture capital company that invests in biotechnology.
In an interview with the Swiss newspaper Le Temps, De Rubertis said:
“We should know by the end of 2020 if any of the vaccines tested are promising.
If the answer is positive, a vaccine may appear in the second half of 2021, possibly in the third quarter.”
He noted that this time frame would be “exceptionally short” – less than two years after the appearance of Covid-19 – when it normally takes five to seven years to develop a vaccine.
De Rubertis predicts that a vaccine will come from a large pharma or a large biotech company rather than a start-up.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the board of the Swiss reinsurance company Swiss Re reckons a vaccine will be ready “in the first quarter of 2021 at the earliest – and then it will have to go into mass production very quickly”.
In an interview published by the CH-Media newspaper group on Tuesday, Walter Kielholz said that the world would not return to normal until there was a vaccine against Covid-19.
However, he said he could imagine lockdown measures being relaxed soon.
“Why jewellery shops or furniture stores, for example, have to remain closed is beyond me.
They could resume operations if the hygiene regulations were observed.
This also applies to other shops, such as clothing stores,” he said.
During a briefing on Tuesday, Margaret Harris of the Geneva-based World Health Organization said:
“We shouldn’t really be expecting to see the vaccine for 12 months or longer.”
Above: Swiss President Sommaruga (centre) with Interior Minister Berset (right) and Economics Minister Parmelin (left) talking to the government spokesman.
Political parties, trade unions and other interest groups have published their proposals for the government to relax restrictions introduced to stem the Covid-19 pandemic.
The calls come a day ahead of the government’s decision on a nationwide coronavirus exit strategy, notably a staggered resumption of business activities and the reopening of schools.
The right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) demanded that the government give up its special powers by 20 April and that economic and social restrictions be lifted while ensuring the protection of vulnerable people.
In a similar vein, the centre-right Radical Party (FDP), traditionally close to the business community, called for detailed exit scenarios in line with the health situation in the country.
The think tank Avenir Suisse, which advocates a free market economy, wants the government to lift all restrictions by 26 April, warning of a steep increase in unemployment and high costs for businesses if the curbs are upheld.
Avenir Suisse also stressed the need to increase the testing of population on a broad scale and the respect of hygiene precautions.
For its part, the Trade Union Federation (SGB/USS) has stressed the importance of preventive measures to secure jobs and to guarantee full salaries.
The federation calls on the government to present proposals, including a waiver of health insurance premiums to help low-paid employees, as well as for those who can’t go to work because they have medical preconditions.
In addition, the leading trade union umbrella group, wants additional state support for childcare facilities which were ordered to close in mid-March as well as one-person business ventures.
Meanwhile, the Green Party is pushing for multi-billion economic stimulus package compatible with a sustainable and climate-friendly policy principles.
The centrist Christian Democrats (CVP) have called for a transparent information policy and more solidarity in Switzerland while a left-wing Social Democratic parliamentarian says rich countries like Switzerland have a responsibility to help developing countries cope with the Covid-19 pandemic.
The government pledged an economic relief programme to the tune of CHF42 billion ($43.6 billion).
Parliament is due to meet in an extraordinary session next month to discuss the financial aid package.
Switzerland’s consumer confidence index plummeted to a “historically low” level in April, according to a Wednesday statement from the Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).
The index fell to -40 points, compared to -9 points in January, when the previous survey was conducted.
That marks the lowest results since the early 1990s.
These results are provisional and are published exceptionally, SECO noted.
Household expectations regarding the development of the economic situation have deteriorated significantly since the onset of the corona virus pandemic.
The corresponding sub-index plummeted to -84 points.
Respondents are also pessimistic about their own budgetary situation.
The indicator relating to future financial situation also dropped to a historic low (-24 points).
Survey participants indicated that it is not the right time to make big acquisitions (-48 points).
“These responses reflect, on the one hand, the impact of the closure of many businesses in the context of the extraordinary situation and, on the other hand, the very great uncertainty that currently prevails”, the office stated.
Renowned painter, illustrator and sculptor Markus Raetz, has died at the age of 78.
The principal topic of his work was the nature of perception.
His artistic objects and drawings often required interaction by the viewer and could only be understood when viewed in motion or from different angles as described in the bibliographical dictionary on visual art in Switzerland.
Raetz’s oeuvre contains over 30,000 two-dimensional paintings and prints before he began working with sculpture in the 1970s.
Raetz, who trained as a teacher, began his career as a painter and illustrator in the early 1960s near Bern and was inspired by Harald Szeemann who is considered a leading figure of 20th century art curating.
“I’m doing things everybody can understand.
It is not complicated work.
I can see that in the reaction of children,” Raetz is quoted on artnet as saying.
Described as both playful and complex, his artworks were on display at numerous international exhibitions around the world, including in New York, Sao Paulo, Paris and Amsterdam.
He was recognised for his work in the 2006 edition of the Swiss Grand Award for Art/the Prix Meret Oppenheim.
The federal government has clarified who can enter the country under current measures to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, as authorities are inundated with complaints over border restrictions.
Despite entry bans introduced in mid-March to help contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, shoppers have continued to visit neighbouring countries, according to the Federal Customs Administration.
Now those who cross the border exclusively for the purpose of shopping will be fined CHF100 ($103), the government announced on Thursday.
The act of shopping itself was not being sanctioned, it pointed out, but rather the burden on resources that shopping trips create for customs agents.
Travellers who are not entitled to enter Switzerland according to the Covid-19 Ordinance are not subject to a fine, the government added, seeking to clarify the measures currently in place.
The State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) has received thousands of complaints and questions in recent weeks from a confused public.
Media reports have revealed cases of parents with visiting rights in neighbouring countries and those caring for elderly relatives across the border being fined upon re-entry into Switzerland.
The government reiterated that under the ordinance, Swiss citizens and those with a valid residence permit are allowed to enter the country, regardless of the purpose of travel.
Foreign nationals without a residence permit are not entitled to entry, except under situations of absolute necessity, which have now been clarified.
They include those who are travelling to care for elderly or sick relatives, parents living separately who hold visiting rights, those travelling for urgent business purposes, and those who are undergoing medical treatment in Switzerland or abroad.
Switzerland will start easing its corona virus lockdown from 27 April, allowing businesses like hairdressers and garden centres to re-open their doors.
Children should be able to return to compulsory schooling from 11 May.
From 8 June, higher education establishments, museums, zoos and libraries will be open once again, providing there is no resurgence of the corona virus pandemic in the country.
The government announced its three-phase plan for restoring Switzerland to normality during a crisis that has claimed more than 1,200 lives.
“This will give us all a perspective for the near future and businesses have time to prepare for a reopening of shops under the rules of social distancing and hygiene precautions,” Swiss president Simonetta Sommaruga told a news conference on Thursday.
Hospitals will also be allowed to conduct non-urgent procedures from 27 April along with a lifting of restrictions of doctors’ and dental practices.
Businesses such as hairdressing salons, massage practices, tattoo and cosmetic studios, florists, DIY stores and garden centres may also open again in the first stage of the normalisation plan.
“Restrictions on the range of products that can be sold at grocery stores will be lifted.
Shops stocking goods other than essential everyday items in their stores may then resume selling these too,” the government stated.
Measures that currently restrict funeral services to immediate family will also be lifted during this phase.
Interior Minister Alain Berset said the government chose a cautious Covid-19 exit strategy.
“We want to proceed as swiftly as possible and as slowly as necessary,” he said.
“We have to avoid a stop-and-go policy.”
On 29 April, the government will make a decision on whether to proceed with stage two of the measures.
This involves the re-opening of compulsory education schools on 11 May, followed by higher education facilities and other public buildings on 8 June.
“Moving from one phase to the next depends on there being no significant increase in Covid-19 cases.
Sufficient time has to be allowed between each phase so that the effects can be observed.
The criteria are the number of new infections, hospital admissions and deaths, and hospital occupancy rates,” the government stated.
The ban on public and private gatherings of more than five people remains in place, as well as the hygiene recommendations, said Berset.
Preparations are underway for the public transport companies to resume regular services.
The government is also considering options for organisers of mass events, notably music festivals, sports competitions as well as political rallies.
Details are expected to be announced at the end of the month.
A first set of restrictions was imposed by the government at the end of February and the measures were gradually tightened.
Schools and non-essential businesses have been forced to close their doors since 23 March, a measure that was later extended until 26 April.
The government said that high-risk people would not be forced to return to work immediately.
Companies have a duty to protect such workers.
Cantons will continue to trace and isolate infected people to prevent further transmissions.
“To this end, an extended testing strategy, a contact tracing concept and an app providing information about contacts with infected persons will be developed.”
Meanwhile, the government has decided to grant financial benefits for single business ventures as part of a major relief package to prevent unemployment.
The move follows political pressure over the past few weeks.
It is expected to cost CHF1.3 billion ($1.4 billion).
An additional CHF20 million have been earmarked for a special Covid-19 research project, Economics Minister Guy Parmelin said.
The government has already pledged CHF42 billion in financial support, including loans and a short-time unemployment benefits.
Above: Visits to old people’s homes and care units are still limited to telephone calls.
The Swiss government has again urged residents against complacency even as the country’s corona virus infection rate slows.
Daniel Koch, the government delegate on the Covid-19 pandemic, warned residents to keep their guard up.
“The increase in infections is not as steeply as feared, thank God.
But we’re a long way from being out of the danger zone.
There is a real risk that more people become infected and that we have additional hospitalisations,” Koch told a news conference on Friday.
Currently there are about 300 patients in intensive care, Koch added.
The government on Thursday presented details of a three-phased exit strategy from the sweeping restrictions gradually introduced since the end of February.
Koch reiterated that hygiene and social distancing rules had to remain in place to ensure that the pandemic can be contained.
The government is due to present further details on easing the lockdown, while different sectors of the industry were asked to issue safety concepts notably for hairdressers, beauty salons and other select businesses to reopen.
Small and medium-sized companies as well as the restaurant sector have criticised the government delaying the re-opening until June at the earliest.
The hospitality sector has been particularly hard-hit by the corona virus outbreak.
In total, more than 167,000 companies representing 1.76 million people, have applied for short-work hour unemployment benefits.
That is about 25% of the total workforce in Switzerland.
The Swiss death toll from the new corona virus has reached 1,111 people, the country’s public health agency said, rising from 1,059 a day earlier.
The number of people showing positive tests for the disease increased to 27,404, the agency said, up from 27,078.
Algeria
Algeria will extend a lockdown by 10 days until 29 April as it tries to limit the spread of the corona virus amid increases in deaths and confirmed cases, the prime minister’s office.
The government had imposed a full lockdown in the Blida area, south of the capital Algiers, and a night curfew in the country’s remaining 47 provinces until 19 April.
Algeria has so far reported 2,418 infections and 364 deaths.
Above: 2020 corona virus pandemic cases in Algeria – the darker the Region, the more cases therein
Australia
Australia’s corona virus-related death toll rose by three to a total of 68 on Saturday, health data showed, with the government stepping up its calls for people to sign up for a controversial movement-tracking mobile phone app.
Australia and neighbouring New Zealand have shown early success in potentially stopping Covid-19 after closing their early and imposing strict curbs on public movement.
Australia recorded 36 new cases on Saturday, bringing the total to 6,533 cases, according to the health ministry data.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Saturday that downloading a movement-tracking up, which would enable the government to detect potential new outbreaks and which has been criticised as invasion of privacy, would not be mandatory.
Bangladesh
Over a hundred thousand people gathered at the funeral of a renowned Bangladeshi Islamic preacher on Saturday, breaking the lockdown that the government of the South Asian nation imposed to avert the threat of coronavirus pandemic.
The funeral of Maulana Zubayer Ahmed Ansari took place at Sarail Upazila of Brahmanbaria district, some 100 kilometers away from the capital Dhaka.
Ansari, a leader of the Islamic political party Khelafat Majlish, died on Friday evening.
He was 59.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, officer-in-charge of Sorail police station Shahadat Hossain Titu said:
“We couldn’t control the crowd.
Over one lakh [hundred thousand] people gathered at premise of Jamia Rahmania Madrasa established by the late Maulana Ansari.”
“The funeral crowd extended up to nearby Dhaka-Sylhet highway,” said Titu,
“Even people from capital Dhaka came to attend the funeral.”
Like other parts of Bangladesh, the district of Brahmanbaria also went into lock down since 26 March up until 25 April.
On last Thursday, the Bangladesh government declared the entire country at risk of the corona virus pandemic.
As of Saturday, Bangladesh has 2,144 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 84 deaths.
Mahbub Kabir Milon, a secrerary with Bangladesh government called the gathering “devastating“.
Hundreds of workers poured onto the streets of Bangladesh’s port city of Chittagong on Saturday, flouting social distancing rules to demand work and wages during the corona virus shutdown.
Bangladesh, the world’s second-largest apparel producer after China, is set to lose about $6 billion of export revenues this fiscal year as retailers and brands across the world cancel orders, two industry bodies have said.
The country reported 306 new cases of the corona virus and nine more deaths on Saturday, taking the total to 2,144 cases and 84 deaths.
Those figures are still relatively low compared with the worst-hit regions including China, parts of Europe and the United States.
But health officials have warned that the infection could still spread fast through the surrounding South Asia region, home to a fifth of the world’s population where millions live in packed slums with fragile public health systems.
Above: Covid-19 cases in Bangladesh
Bangladesh has sent troops out into the streets to help enforce a shutdown on travel and restrictions on gatherings.
In Chittagong, the crowds of workers on the streets said they were still waiting for last month’s wages.
Police had talked to one factory owner who had promised to make the payments by 28 April, local officer Mohammad Zamiruddin told Reuters.
Bangladesh’s government last month launched a $588 million package to help companies in the crucial garments sector pay staff during the pandemic, but manufacturers have said it is not enough.
Brazil
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has fired his health minister after weeks of infighting and threats over the country’s corona virus strategy.
“I just heard from President Jair Bolsonaro the notification of my discharge as Health Minister,”the outgoing minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta tweeted Thursday, thanking his colleagues and wishing success for his replacement.
He will be replaced by Nelson Teich, an oncologist who supported Bolsonaro’s presidential campaign.
Mandetta was one of Brazil’s biggest proponents of social distancing, supporting governors’ decisions to shut down schools and businesses.
But his approach put him at odds with Bolsonaro, who has previously downplayed Covid-19 as nothing more than a “little flu” and warned that the economic fallout from isolation could be worse than the virus itself.
Above: Covid-19 cases in Brazil
Mandetta also challenged the president’s insistence that malaria drugs are the solution to the Covid-19 crisis.
While Brazil has launched trials involving the drugs, Mandetta has warned there is no evidence that they are effective in treating the symptoms.
During a televised press conference immediately after his meeting with Mandetta, Bolsonaro called the departure a “consensual divorce” and part of a “transition.”
He praised the work Mandetta had done but insisted the economy and health at this moment should be treated like two illnesses.
“You can’t treat one and ignore the other.”
He said he had already discussed the need to “gradually open up” with incoming minister Teich, who was standing by his side.
National and local governments in Brazil have issued mixed messaging on how to behave during the pandemic.
While Bolsonaro has been pushing against strict restrictions, state and local governments in some of the country’s hardest-hit areas have promoted social distancing, with firefighters and police in the streets urging people to stay indoors.
Bolsonaro himself has been seen flouting the guidelines issued by his own health experts, wandering into bakeries and greeting supporters with handshakes and hugs.
The newly appointed health minister spoke briefly after Bolsonaro, repeating that there wouldn’t be any “sudden” decisions, and that jobs and health were complementary priorities.
“The part about social isolation, there won’t be any sudden definitions,” Teich said.
“What is fundamental is that people have more and more information about each action.
We will make decisions based on solid information.”
“Everything will be based on science,” Teich added.
The change comes as corona virus continues to spread through the vast Latin American country:
Beds in intensive care units are filling up in Brazil’s biggest cities and in the northern Amazon region, authorities warn the health system is already collapsing.
Brazil has reported more than 30,000 confirmed cases of corona virus infection.
More than 1,900 people have died.
At the same time, fears are growing that the virus could ravage Brazil’s indigenous communities.
A 15-year-old Yanomami boy from the village of Rehebe in northern Brazil died on Friday from complications related to Covid-19, according to the Health Ministry.
The Association of the Indigenous People of Brazil (APIB) said the boy was the third indigenous person to die of the disease in Brazil.
Hundreds of people in trucks, cars and motorcycles, are taking to the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and the capital of Brasilia, calling for governors to resign over lockdown measures that have forced most businesses to close for weeks.
In Rio de Janeiro, about 100 vehicles are seen in the gridlock, cruising down Atlantica Avenue, along the iconic and temporarily shut-down Copacabana Beach.
“Either we just have the pandemic, which is already a lot, or we have the pandemic and chaos,” says Anderson Moraes, a state legislator who had called for Rio residents to join the protest.
“For sure, lives are more important than anything else, but we can’t take decisions today without thinking about tomorrow.
Because tomorrow, I don’t know how a family man will be when he sees his children going hungry.”
In Brasilia, President Jair Bolsonaro who opposes the lockdowns reiterates his intention to start reopening the economy.
“The fear was excessive,” he says, denouncing the “greed” of politicians “who have shut down everything and created panic.”
“People want a return to normality,” the President says in a Facebook Live session shortly before meeting with a small crowd of supporters who had gathered outside the Planalto Presidential Palace.
Canada
Canada’s transport agency has announced that all airline passengers would be required to wear a non-medical mask or face covering during travel to curb the spread of coronavirus.
The regulator said travellers must cover their mouth and nose during the boarding process and flights.
The rule goes into effect on Monday.
Air Canada, the country’s largest carrier, had previously recommended that customers wear a face-covering over their mouth and noses while onboard its flights.
RCMP say 17 people are dead, including one of their officers, after a man who at one point wore a police uniform and drove a mock-up cruiser went on a rampage across northern Nova Scotia in one of the deadliest killing sprees in Canadian history.
Police said Sunday night the suspected shooter, 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, was killed after being intercepted by officers in Enfield, Nova Scotia.
Constable Heidi Stevenson, a 23-year member of the force and mother of two, was identified as the officer killed.
A male officer suffered non-life threatening injuries.
“Our hearts are heavy with grief and sadness today as we have lost one of our own,” said Brian Sauvé, president of the union representing RCMP officers.
Above: RCMP Constable Heidi Stevenson, a mother of two and a 23-year veteran of the force, was killed during a gunman’s rampage.
Stevenson is seen in a 2015 photo posted to the Nova Scotia RCMP’s Facebook page.
RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki told CBC News the death toll had risen to 16, plus the shooter, which surpasses the 14 victims killed in the 1989 Polytechnique massacre in Montreal.
RCMP Chief Superintendant Chris Leather earlier told an evening news conference that “in excess of 10 people” had been killed.”
Leather said it was hard to specify the exact number of victims, “because as we’re standing here, the investigation continues into areas that we have not yet explored across the province.”
He said the killings appear to be, “at least in part, very random in nature.”
The first reports of an active shooter came from Portapique, a community about 40 kilometres west of Truro, which residents described as a quiet place to live that attracts cottagers from Halifax in summer months.
Upon arrival, police found “several casualties” inside and outside a Portapique residence, he said, but they could not locate the suspect.
He added there were “multiple sites in the area including structures that were on fire.”
Lee Bergerman, commanding officer for the RCMP in Nova Scotia, said the day’s events have left many families in mourning.
“The impact of this incident will extend from one end of the province to the other,” she said.
By late Sunday morning, the suspect was stopped about 90 kilometres away in Enfield, a scene that was surrounded by a half dozen police vehicles.
Yellow police tape surrounded the gas pumps, and a large silver-coloured SUV was being investigated by police.
A body was seen lying at the gas station.
Police would not comment on whether it was Wortman.
The province’s Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) said Sunday evening it was investigating the shooting of a man in Enfield by RCMP officers.
According to a release, the suspect was involved in a serious criminal event in Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, which is north of Enfield.
A confrontation with police followed in Enfield, “resulting in officers discharging their firearms.”
The police watchdog said it was contacted by RCMP and has assumed responsibility for the investigation of the suspect’s shooting.
The organization is responsible for investigating all serious incidents involving police in Nova Scotia, whether or not there is an allegation of wrongdoing.
Lucki said she believed the shooter had an initial “motivation” at the beginning that “turned to randomness.”
“Our investigation will tell that.
We don’t know for sure, and we’re going to have to do a lot of work on finding the motivation — a lot of background, a lot of profiling-type events and a lot of crime scene processing,” she said.
The RCMP will also be calling on their subject-matter experts in forensics and criminal profiling, Lucki said.
“Whatever it takes so that we can give the families of the victims answers to the many questions that they probably have.”
On Sunday morning, police had warned that the gunman was driving a vehicle that looked like an RCMP vehicle at one point, and was wearing an RCMP uniform.
“The fact that this individual had a uniform and a police car at his disposal certainly speaks to it not being a random act,” Leather said.
Due to privacy reasons, Leather said he was not able to discuss Wortman’s relationship with the victims, besides saying some of the victims did not appear to have a relationship with the gunman.
Assistant Commissioner Lee Bergerman said he met with Const. Stevenson’s family.
“There are no words to describe their pain,” Bergerman told reporters Sunday
“Heidi answered the call of duty and lost her life while protecting those she served,” he said.
“Two children have lost their mother.
And a husband has lost his wife.
Parents have lost their daughter and countless others lost an incredible friend and colleague.”
Darcy Sack, a Shubenacadie resident, said she and her friend came across two burning police vehicles and the silver suspect vehicle while out driving on Sunday morning near Highway 102, one of the province’s main arteries.
“We were right behind the police car that was on fire.
There was one officer we could see on scene and then all of a sudden, he went running toward one of the burning vehicles,” Sack said.
“We heard gunshots.”
Sack said her heart was pounding the whole time.
“I had that feeling that something was wrong with the police officer’s partner — the way he looked.
My heart went out to him,” she said.
Sack said they then turned on to the highway and then saw the shooter in the silver car again being chased by police.
She said he was dressed like a police officer.
Mike MacKay, who lives just off the Glooscap Trail in Portapique said he saw police cars on the Portapique Beach Road around 11:30 p.m. Saturday, across the Portapique River from his home.
“We saw a fire down the road, and thought that’s all that it was.
Then we saw a second fire and a third fire,” said MacKay in a phone interview from his home Sunday morning.
Lifelong Portapique resident Peter Hodge, 65, woke up at 1:30 a.m. and saw lights so bright, he thought it was a fire.
He then realized that the bright lights were from “probably upwards of 14 police cars in the community.”
Christine Mills, another resident, said it had been a frightening night for the community, which was suddenly filled with armed officers patrolling the streets. In the morning, helicopters flew overhead searching for the suspect.
She said she was fearful the shooter might have gone through the woods and attempted to enter her home.
“It’s nerve-wracking because you don’t know if somebody has lost their mind and is going to beat in your front door,” she said.
Police have not released any information about whether it is connected to the shooter investigation.
The RCMP would not comment on the report of multiple house fires when asked by CBC News on Sunday morning.
MacKay said he did not sleep at all overnight Saturday.
“You’re on edge.
It’s a small community,” said MacKay.
“It becomes quite a concern.”
Councillor Tom Taggart, who represents the area for the Municipality of Colchester, described Portapique as a quiet community with many seniors.
Taggart said there are many seasonal homes in the area, which has around 100 residents but swells to 250 in the warmer months.
“It’s a beautiful, quiet, rural community,” said Taggart, adding that the situation is not something he’d expect to happen in “cottage country.”
A person with the name Gabriel Wortman is listed as a denturist in the Halifax area on the Denturist Society of Nova Scotia website.
Above: Wortman’s Dartmouth office
Chad
A group of 44 suspected members of Boko Haram who had been arrested in Chad during a recent operation against the jihadist group have been found dead in their prison cell, apparently poisoned, Chad’s chief prosecutor has announced.
Speaking on national television on Saturday, Youssouf Tom said the prisoners were found dead on Thursday.
Autopsies on four dead prisoners revealed traces of a lethal substance which had caused heart attacks in some victims and severe asphyxiation in others, he said.
The dead men were among a group of 58 suspects captured during a major army operation around Lake Chad launched by President Idriss Déby Itno, at the end of March.
“Following the fighting around Lake Chad, 58 members of Boko Haram had been taken prisoner and sent to [the capital city] N’Djamena for the purposes of the investigation.
On Thursday morning, their jailers told us that 44 prisoners had been found dead in their cell,” Tom said, adding that he had attended the scene.
“We have buried 40 bodies and sent four bodies to the medical examiner for autopsy.”
An investigation was ongoing to determine exactly how the prisoners had died, he said.
Earlier this week, Justice Minister, Djimet Arabi, told AFP the captured men had been handed over to the court system on Wednesday, and had been due in court for trial on Thursday.
A security source, speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP that “the 58 prisoners were placed in a single cell and were given nothing to eat or drink for two days”.
Mahamat Nour Ahmed Ibedou, secretary general of the Chadian Convention for the Protection of Human Rights (CTDDH), made similar accusations.
Prison officials had “locked the prisoners in a small cell and refusing them food and water for three days because they were accused of belonging to Boko Haram,” Ibedou told AFP.
“It’s horrible what has happened.”
The government denied the allegations.
“There was no ill-treatment,” Chad’s justice minister, Djimet Arabi, told AFP by telephone.
“Toxic substances were found in their stomachs.
Was it collective suicide or something else?
We’re still looking for answers,”he said, adding that the investigation was still ongoing.
One of the prisoners was transferred to hospital on Thursday, but he was “faring much better” and had rejoined “the other 13 prisoners still alive and who are doing very well,”the minister said.
The military operation against Boko Haram killed more than a thousand of the group’s militants and cost the lives of 52 soldiers, a Chadian army spokesman said.
The operation ran from 31 March to 8 April.
It was launched in response to a devastating attack on Chadian troops on 23 March on a base at Bohoma, in the Lake Chad marshlands, which killed 98 soldiers.
It was the largest-ever one-day loss suffered by the army.
Idriss warned his allies in the region that Chad’s army will no longer take part in operations outside the country.
China
China has reported 27 new confirmed cases of corona virus, also known as COVID-19, as it tries to stem an upsurge in infections in a northeastern province bordering Russia.
Twenty of the new cases were in Heilongjiang Province, including 13 Chinese nationals who had returned recently from Russia.
The land border with Russia has been closed.
The confirmed cases brought the total to 82,719, of which 77,029 have recovered.
Above: Covina-19 in Mainland China by attack rate per 100,000
Meanwhile, China’s official death toll rose sharply to 4,632, reflecting a major upwards revision the previous day by authorities in Wuhan, the nation’s hardest-hit city.
China ordered on Saturday that anyone in Wuhan working in certain service-related jobs must take a coronavirus test if they want to leave the city.
The order comes after the central city, where the corona virus emerged late last year, lifted a 70-day lockdown that all but ended the epidemic there.
People in Wuhan work in nursing, education, security and other sectors with high exposure to the public must take a nucleic acid test before leaving, the National Health Commission said in an order.
The government of Hubei province, of which Wuhan is capital, will pay for the tests, the commission said.
Since the city relaxed its lockdown restrictions people who arrived in there before Chinese New Year, when the virus was peaking in China, are allowed to go back to their homes.
Health authorities in China are reporting 16 new corona virus cases in the mainland, the lowest number since March 17 and down from 27 a day earlier.
Of the new cases, nine are imported from abroad.
There are no new deaths.
The latest figures bring the total number of cases in the mainland to 82,735.
The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the corona virus originated last year, has raised its official Covid-19 death toll by 50%, adding 1,290 fatalities.
Wuhan officials attributed the new figure to updated reporting and deaths outside hospitals.
China has insisted there was no cover-up.
It has been accused of downplaying the severity of its virus outbreak.
Wuhan’s 11 million residents spent months in strict lockdown conditions, which have only recently been eased.
The latest official figures bring the death toll in the city in China’s central Hubei province to 3,869, increasing the national total to more than 4,600.
China has confirmed nearly 84,000 corona virus infections, the seventh-highest globally, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
The virus has had a huge impact on the Chinese economy, which shrank for the first time in decades in the first quarter of the year.
In a statement released on Friday, officials in Wuhan said the revised figures were the result of new data received from multiple sources, including records kept by funeral homes and prisons.
Deaths linked to the virus outside hospitals, such as people who died at home, had not previously been recorded.
The “statistical verification” followed efforts by authorities to “ensure that information on the city’s Covid-19 epidemic is open, transparent and the data is accurate“, the statement said.
It added that health systems were initially overwhelmed and cases were “mistakenly reported” – in some instances counted more than once and in others missed entirely.
A shortage of testing capacity in the early stages meant that many infected patients were not accounted for, it said.
A spokesman for China’s National Health Commission, Mi Feng, said the new death count came from a “comprehensive review” of epidemic data.
In its daily news conference, the foreign ministry said accusations of a cover-up, which have been made most stridently on the world stage by US President Donald Trump, were unsubstantiated.
“We’ll never allow any concealment,” a spokesman said.
Friday’s revised figures come amid growing international concern that deaths in China have been under-reported.
Questions have also been raised about Beijing’s handling of the epidemic, particularly in its early stages.
In December 2019, Chinese authorities launched an investigation into a mysterious viral pneumonia after cases began circulating in Wuhan.
Civil Human Rights Front convenor Jimmy Sham has warned that the authorities should expect resistance from frontline and peaceful demonstrators alike in light of Saturday’s mass arrests, announcing that plans are already underway for a large-scale protest on 1 July.
More than a dozen high-profile figures were rounded up on Saturday morning, in connection with several anti-government protests last year, including major demonstrations on 18 August and 1 October.
Sham, who is also a district councillor in Sha Tin, was among around 20 people who gathered outside Cheung Sha Wan Police Station on Saturday afternoon to protest against the arrests.
The group chanted “five demands, not one less” and “free Hong Kong“.
The demonstrators said police are selectively making arrests, being as more than a million people had taken to the streets on some of these protest days, with a mass rally on Hong Kong Island on 18 August and protests across the city on 1 October.
“Police no longer discriminate whether protesters are peaceful or violent, as they have arrested pro-democracy figures known to be peaceful, like Martin Lee, Yeung Sum and Sin Chung-kai.
So people will continue to resist as one, no matter whether they’re peaceful or violent,” Sham said.
Although the protests have died down since the corona virus crisis erupted, Sham said the police have already been informed that plans are in place to hold the annual 1 July demonstration as usual.
Croatia
Croatia is extending its corona virus lockdown for another 15 days, Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said, but added the government was looking at whether it was possible to gradually ease restrictions on movement.
A month ago, the government closed all the shops, bars, restaurants, schools and public transport leaving open only food stores, pharmacies and petrol stations.
Croats have been allowed to leave their homes to buy essentials or seek medical treatment, go for a walk or do an exercise, but not in a group and avoiding social contact.
Many people have been working from home.
Croatia has recorded 1,832 cases of COVID-19, with 39 deaths.
Above: Map of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in Croatia by county as of 17 April 2020 – the darker the county, the more cases therein
On Saturday, the number of new infections rose by 18 which is the lowest daily increase registered since 17 March.
Czech Republic
Prague Airport and a regional Czech hospital said on Saturday they had thwarted cyber attacks on their IT networks, reinforcing warnings by the national cyber security watchdog of likely attempts to harm the country’s infrastructure.
“Attempted attacks on web pages of the airport were detected in preparatory phases,”the airport’s spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.
“That prevented their spreading and all further phases that could have followed and potentially harm the company.”
A regional hospital in the western Czech city of Karlovy Vary was attacked twice overnight on Saturday and foiled the attempts, which however were not exceptional, a spokesman said.
Several other hospitals in the Czech Republic reported attempted attacks on their computer systems on Friday, and said the attacks were successfully blocked.
The Czech cyber-security watchdog NUKIB said on Thursday that it expected attacks in the coming days.
The malware used in the attacks is designed to damage or destroy victims’ computers, according to researchers.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday the United States was concerned by the threat of a cyber attack against the Czech Republic’s healthcare sector, adding that anybody engaged in such activity should “expect consequences.”
A Czech official speaking on condition of anonymity said it was not proven who was responsible for the activity the cyber-security watchdog had identified but it was thought to be the work of a “serious and advanced adversary.”
Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek said on Saturday the attacks were “extremely ruthless” during the corona virus pandemic.
“I do hope that our experts will find out who is interested in the Czech Republic losing to this disease,” he said on Twitter.
Above: Confirmed cases of COVID-19 per million residents in Czechia by region
East Timor
Domingos Pinto Gabrial, also known as Berliku, was a 19-year-old school teacher in the northeastern city of Baucau when Indonesian forces invaded East Timor in December 1975.
He joined many young people in fleeing to the mountains to join the newly established resistance army, FALINTIL (Forcas Armadas de Libertacao de Timor-Leste, or Armed Forces for the Liberation of East Timor).
“We had no choice.
We just had to fight.”
A short man with a steely look in his eyes and the muscles of someone used to hard work, Berliku is now the lead singer of Maubere Timor, a band of veterans who sing patriotic songs composed in the mountains during the dark days of the occupation.
Maubere Timor released their first album in 2017, a selection of 12 songs that capture the fighting spirit of a resistance movement under an occupation that was to last 24 years and led to the death of an estimated 200,000 East Timorese.
More than 20 years after the referendum for independence, and close to 18 years since the country was finally declared free, Maubere Timor seeks to capture the state of the nation through its music.
Berliku recalled that despite the lengthy struggle for independence, many in East Timor were prepared to fight longer.
“We thought it could be longer.
We already knew it would be a long, hard struggle.”
Isolated from the rest of the world, life in the mountains was difficult, with daily running battles with the occupying Indonesian forces.
While Indonesian soldiers were very well equipped and had better manpower, “tactically they had a lot to learn.
The main problem they faced was that they did not know the ground [in the mountains] well.”
During one battle, Berliku was shot five times.
He was also wounded in the legs during a bombing raid.
He wears his scars without any particular pride or swagger, saying that, up in the mountains, it was necessary to “just survive“.
“Live or die, independence was the only answer.
There was no other choice.”
By 1983, resistance leader Xanana Gusmao, who would later become the first president of the independent East Timor, realised that it was going to be impossible to defeat the Indonesians by force alone.
So Gusmao, who has since returned to his old seat as Prime Minister, employed music to their cause.
Named after a bird that sings every morning, Berliku was given the nickname by the resistance leader because he liked to sing and compose songs during lulls in fighting.
Berliku was encouraged to start writing music and poems to be distributed among the population, as he explained, in order to use “music or any tools that we can get to fight against the Indonesians“.
Up in the mountains, there were no music studios, so they recorded on portable tape recorders in the caves they were living in.
Above: Berliku (left) with Timorese independence hero and current Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao (centre) and fellow veteran Muugade
“The aim at the time was to smuggle the music out of Timor to resistance abroad,” Berliku said, “in order to inspire and educate people outside of Timor as well as encourage the population throughout the country.”
During this time, “we were locked out, isolated.
That was (former Indonesian President) Soeharto’s policy at the time.
He wanted to isolate Timor.”
Berliku described feeling “abandoned” by the rest of the world and seeking refuge in the music that was a way to get the news of the Timorese struggle to the world.
In 1990, Berliku was captured by Indonesian forces and jailed on a remote island, where he could only look on as the country voted for independence in 1999.
He would return to East Timor in 2008, nearly a decade after independence, with the help of the Red Cross.
During this time, his family back in Baucau thought he was dead and even made him a tomb.
Today, Berliku still sings, as a free man.
In 2014, a group of veterans assembled to record the patriotic songs written long ago in the mountains, in order to capture the spirit of the resistance and to document an important part of East Timorese history.
As well as concerts in Australia, the band also tour East Timor, performing for schoolchildren, who give them a “good reception“.
“Our history, our resistance is sacred.
And it’s important that the young people understand that.”
“The young generation feel proud of the past and of our history, and it is not going to be easy to forget.”
Now, 20 years since the referendum through which independence was finally achieved, Berliku said “peace and stability” for East Timor is the most important thing for the future.
Given his experience, does he resent Indonesia?
“It is the past but like it or not, it was the history – you cannot deny the history.
But yes, we have to move forward.”
With another album planned, Berliku said he wants to “keep on playing“.
“It’s not only about the storytelling of the past, but also for the future of the young generations.
To understand about the past but also how to promote development for the future.”
France
The number of people who died from corona virus infection in France jumped by 1,438 or 9.1% to 17,167 in the biggest single-day increase as a number of nursing homes reported cumulative tolls following the three-day Easter weekend, the health ministry said on Wednesday.
The number of people who died in hospitals rose by 514 or 5% to 10,643, less than the 541 reported on Tuesday, but the cumulative death toll in nursing homes rose by 924 or 17% to 6,524, compared with 221 on Tuesday.
Above: Confirmed cases of COVID-19 per million inhabitants in France by region
A third of the nearly 2,000 sailors who were aboard France’s aircraft carrier and support craft when a corona virus outbreak occurred at sea have tested positive for the virus, the defence ministry said on Wednesday.
With two-thirds of test results in, 668 sailors from the Charles-de-Gaulle and escort vessels in its battle group are confirmed to have the virus, it said.
Thirty-one were being treated in hospital, and one was in intensive care, a ministry statement said.
Last week, it was decided to bring the Charles-de-Gaulle home 10 days early from a deployment in the Atlantic after some crew members showed corona virus symptoms.
The carrier which had helicopters and fighter jets on board, was accompanied by two frigates — one for aerial defence and the other an anti-submarine vessel.
Sailors from the Charles-de-Gaulle, one of the frigates and the pilots who returned the aircraft to their respective bases, are all placed in isolation for 14 days, the ministry said.
There had been no virus outbreak on the other frigate.
So far, 1,767 sailors from the battle group have been tested for the virus, the vast majority from the aircraft carrier itself, said the ministry statement.
Some thirty percent of results are still outstanding, meaning more than half of those tested so far have come back positive.
The Charles-de-Gaulle, which can transport about 2,000 sailors, had been deployed in the Atlantic as part of a NATO exercise after taking part in Operation Chammal that seeks to contain the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
The vessels in the battle group are being disinfected, the ministry said.
The Tour de France has been pushed back until August, according to cycling’s governing body, after the French government extended its ban on mass public gatherings amid the corona virus pandemic.
The world’s most prestigious bike race takes place annually in France.
One of the most supreme tests of sporting endurance, the event is also embedded in French culture and society, with millions of fans lining the roads to watch the Tour.
The race had been due to be held from 27 June to 19 July, but after French President Emmanuel Macron announced Monday that certain restrictions in the country would remain in place until mid-July that plan was scuppered.
The Tour will now be staged between 29 August and 20 September.
“Holding this event in the best conditions possible is judged essential given its central place in cycling’s economy and its exposure, in particular for the teams that benefit on this occasion from unparalleled visibility,” read a statement on the UCI’s website Wednesday.
Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome welcomed the announcement after a period of uncertainty for teams and riders.
“The news many of us have been waiting for.
Some light at the end of the tunnel,” he wrote on Twitter.
France registered 642 more deaths from corona virus infections, bringing the total to 19,323, the fourth-highest tally in the world, although the number of people in hospital declined for a fourth day running.
France’s public health authority said in a statement that the total number of people in intensive care units also fell for the 10th day in a row, to 5,833 – the lowest level since 31 March.
France has been in virtual lockdown since 17 March as part of efforts to curb the outbreak.
Germany
Germany’s confirmed coronavirus cases have risen by 2,866 to 130,450, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Thursday, meaning the number of new infections rose for a second consecutive day.
The reported death toll has risen by 315 to 3,569, the tally showed.
Above: Map of states with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases – the darker the state, the more cases therein
Greece
Greek Orthodox priests held Easter services in empty churches on Saturday night due to restrictions in place to try and prevent the spread of the corona virus.
Greece is under lockdown and the government had warned faithful to stay away from churches.
Priests still carried out services and fireworks were set off over the Acropolis at the stroke of midnight, ushering in Easter Sunday.
Many in the northern port city of Thessaloniki and around Greece stepped out on their balconies at the stroke of midnight with lit candles to mark the resurrection.
The threat of a fine for violating the lockdown measures did not stop some faithful who stood outside St Demetrios Church in Thessaloniki with lit candles, while the church bells rang at midnight.
Guatemala
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei has announced that a large number of the migrants on a deportation flight from the United States to Guatemala earlier this week were infected with the novel corona virus.
Earlier, it was reported that at least 44 of the 77 Guatemalans deported on Monday were infected with the corona virus.
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei has suspended all flights of deportees from the United States after a large number of migrants who were flown back this week were found to be infected with the novel corona virus.
Giammattei said on Friday that 12 randomly selected people from the Monday deportation flight had tested positive for corona virus when examined by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after their arrival.
He suggested more on the flight had tested positive as well.
The flight has been at the centre of a political storm since Guatemalan Health Minister Hugo Monroy this week said up to 75% of passengers on a deportation flight in March had been infected with the virus.
Guatemala’s President Alejandro Giammattei says 19 more Guatemalans deported from the US to the Central American nation have tested positive for corona virus.
The affected migrants had arrived from Alexandria, Louisiana on Monday.
Giammattei said on Friday that 12 randomly selected people from the flight had tested positive.
The discovery prompted Guatemala to suspend all flights of deportees from the US.
Above: 2020 corona virus pandemic in Guatemala – the darker the area, the more cases therein
India
The leader of a prominent Muslim group has been charged with manslaughter in India after a meeting it held in Delhi spawned numerous Covid-19 clusters.
Police say Muhammad Saad Khandalvi ignored two notices to end the event at a mosque in the capital in March.
The event has been linked to 1,023 cases across 17 states – believed to have been spread by infected foreign attendees.
Above: Map of the Covid-19 outbreak in India as of 19 April 2020 – the darker the area, the more cases therein
Mr Saad and his Tablighi Jamaat group have denied any wrongdoing.
Delhi police said that Mr Saad had been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, which means he will not be able to apply for bail.
The charges were brought against him while he was in self-isolation.
Police say the Tablighi Jamaat gathering in Delhi’s Nizamuddin area, which began on 3 March, was not ended even when India announced a lockdown on 24 March.
However, the organisation says they had suspended the event and asked everyone to leave as soon as Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that there would be a day-long national curfew on 22 March.
While many were able to leave, they say, others were stranded because states began to seal their borders the following day, and two days later, India went into lockdown, suspending buses and trains.
The mosque’s premises include dormitories that can house hundreds of people.
The organisers say they informed the local police about all of this and continued to co-operate with medical officers who came to inspect the premises.
When the beating began on 25 March, Parvathi tried the usual things first, but things were different under the nation-wide corona virus lockdown.
As her husband began beating her, she would run out into the narrow lanes of the slum she lives in to call for help from her neighbours, a strategy that usually worked.
But a police barricade had been erected at the entrance of the street, and neighbours called to her from their homes to stay indoors.
The 45-year-old cook in the southern Indian city of Chennai had become accustomed to physical abuse from her unemployed, alcoholic husband in the early years of her marriage, but the violence had diminished recently, largely because of the salary she brought home every month, she said.
Under the lockdown, Parvathi’s employer asked her to stay home.
She was not being paid, and her husband, deprived of his daily drink, was in a foul mood.
Half an hour later, she ran out again, this time working up the courage to walk to the police barricade, and asked to be taken to the police station.
“Go home and sort it out,” the officer on duty told her from behind a mask.
India’s National Commission for Women (NCW) on Friday said it registered 587 domestic violence complaints between 23 March and 16 April – a significant surge from 396 complaints received in the previous 25 days between 27 February and 22 March.
One in six new complaints of domestic violence was made over a relaunched WhatsApp number.
That WhatsApp number had been out of use for some time, an NCW official told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity, suggesting there could have been more complaints that never got through.
The NCW relies on women to report domestic violence on its fixed helpline numbers and through the post, two modes of communication that have been closed since the lockdown.
The Commission then publicised the email address of its members and began receiving complaints on social media and through its online portal.
This in a country where only one-third of women have access to the Internet.
Feminist economist Ashwini Deshpande analysed NCW data for the months of March and April in 2019 and 2020.
She calculated the average complaints per day and found that “there is already a jump in complaints related to domestic violence and the right to live with dignity, and a smaller increase in rape or attempt to rape and sexual assault“, all within the home.
Even in normal times, women facing domestic violence in India rarely turn to the police.
One-third of women in India’s 2015 – 2016 National Family Health Survey (NFHS) said they had experienced domestic violence, but less than 1% of them sought help from the police.
Their neighbourhood or community is also not always a refuge for women facing abuse.
According to the NFHS study, 52% of women and 42% of men believed that a husband is justified in beating his wife.
Showing disrespect towards the in-laws topped the list of reasons respondents deemed it acceptable to subject a wife to a beating.
And these are not normal times.
Some women’s groups were more prepared, anticipating the surge.
Before the lockdown came into force, the Chennai-based International Foundation for Crime Prevention and Victim Care diverted calls from its landlines to counsellors’ mobile phones, helped women submit documents they needed to save to a cloud-based service, and started a WhatsApp service.
“For the first week, the number of calls we get fell, and we believe this is because women were basically locked in with their abusers,” Swetha Shankar, director of client services at the organisation, told Al Jazeera.
Soon after, however, women began to call late at night or from their children’s rooms, and the numbers began to climb.
The stress of confinement, financial constraints and the lack of access to alcohol were exacerbating factors, Shankar said.
In Tamil Nadu, protection officers, appointed by the state, are allowed movement during the lockdown, and Shankar said some women in dangerous situations were rescued and moved to shelters.
This is not the case everywhere, federal officials told Al Jazeera.
In many states, only the police are allowed to move, and requisitioning a vehicle from them was difficult.
Many women facing abuse want to go to their mothers’ houses, but during the lockdown, they can only be sent to state-run shelter homes, where the risk of overcrowding and poor hygiene runs high.
“Why should a woman escaping abuse in the middle of a lockdown be sent to a shelter home where she risks catching corona virus?” Vrinda Grover, a leading feminist lawyer who is associated with several landmark women’s rights advances in India, said.
“India’s Domestic Violence Act gives the woman a right to shelter. Let her stay home in her house, with her kids, and let the man be sent to a shelter home if he is going to abuse the woman in the middle of a pandemic,” she told Al Jazeera.
Bunty Chand used to work in a garment factory on New Delhi‘s southern border, while her husband works as a garbage collector.
Her alcoholic husband’s abuse has taken on a frightening edge of late, she told Al Jazeera.
Her anger crystallises in telling of the government’s decision to revive a mythological TV show for broadcast during the lockdown.
“They think that we will all sit at home and drink tea and watch Ramayan [the TV show].
My husband got angry about some small thing on the first day of the lockdown and hit me and broke the TV.
So there goes the Ramayan.”
For Grover, the government’s failure to shore up women’s protection organisations and to plan for what was an expected surge in domestic violence is of a piece with its failure to protect the poor and daily wage earners, particularly migrants, from the devastating shock of this lockdown.
“Whether it is poor migrants or women, the government has shown absolutely no concern for the vulnerable in planning and executing this lockdown,” said Grover.
On 14 April, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a three-week extension of the corona virus lockdown until 3 May.
For India’s battered women, it is a prison sentence that only got longer.
India reported 991 new cases and 42 new deaths from the virus on Saturday, taking the total number of reported cases to 14,378 and deaths to 480.
Indian health ministry official Lav Agarwal told reporters some districts had not reported any new cases.
But he urged people to stick to social distancing rules.
“This is a battle for which we have to stay vigilant continuously,” he said.
India is in the fourth week of a nationwide shutdown, though the government has said it will allow industries in the countryside to reopen and some farms to resume work next week.
Indonesia
From zero reported infections and fatalities in January and February, Indonesia now has the highest number of cases and deaths in Southeast Asia.
Indonesia has reported nearly 6,000 cases surpassing the Philippines.
The death toll in Indonesia as of Friday was 520.
Indonesia has reported 325 new corona virus cases, taking the total number of infections in the world’s fourth most populous country to 6,248.
Health ministry official Achmad Yurianto also reported 15 new deaths, taking the total to 535.
On Friday, Indonesia surpassed Philippines to become the country with the highest number of infections in Southeast Asia.
It has the most number of deaths in Asia outside of China.
Above: Map of the corona virus pandemic in Indonesia showing the density of the outbreak by province (as of 19 April 2020) – the darker the area, the more cases therein
Iran
Iran allowed some businesses in the capital and nearby towns to re-open Saturday after weeks of lockdown aimed at containing the worst coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East.
Iran was slow to respond to the pandemic and held off on imposing widespread restrictions even after other countries in the region with far fewer cases forced most businesses to close.
Iran has reported more than 80,000 confirmed cases and over 5,000 deaths.
Above: Map of regions with confirmed or suspected corona virus cases in Iran – the darker the area, the more cases therein
Gyms, restaurants, shopping malls and Tehran’s grand bazaar will remain closed.
Shrines and mosques are also shuttered, and a ban on public gatherings remains in place.
Government offices have reopened with a third of employees working from home, and schools and universities are still closed.
Traffic was heavy in Tehran early Saturday, the first day of the work week.
Authorities allowed businesses outside the capital to reopen a week ago.
Iran’s death toll from the new corona virus has risen by 73 in the previous 24 hours to reach 5,031 on Saturday, health ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpour has said.
The number of death recorded daily is one of the lowest in recent days, he said.
The total number of people diagnosed with the COVID-19 disease caused by the new virus reached 80,868, he said.
A parliamentary report released earlier this week said the coronavirus death toll might be almost double the figures announced by the health ministry, and the number of infections eight to ten times more.
Businesses in Iran’s capital will begin reopening on Saturday.
That is despite health authorities in the country warning of a second wave of Covid-19 infections.
But the government has been scaling back the lockdown, as it shifts its focus to saving the economy from complete collapse.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned the United States about its military activities in the Gulf on Sunday, adding that their navy had as a result increased patrols, which would also secure the passage of Iranian ships and combat fuel smuggling.
The US military said on Wednesday that 11 Revolutionary Guards naval vessels had come close to its navy and Coast Guard ships, describing the moves “dangerous and provocative”.
The Guards’ statement on Sunday, which said Iran will give a decisive response to any mistake by the United States in the Gulf, provided the first confirmation of the incident.
“We advise the Americans to follow international regulations and maritime protocols in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman and to refrain from any adventurism and false and fake stories,” the statement said.
“They should be assured that the Revolutionary Guards navy and the powerful armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran sees the dangerous actions of foreigners in the region as a threat to national security and its red line and any error in calculation on their part will receive a decisive response.”
The US military statement said the Iranian vessels approached six US military ships conducting integration operations with Army helicopters in international waters.
At one point, the Iranian vessels came within 10 yards of the US Coast Guard cutter Maui, the US military said.
In its statement the Guards navy denied the U.S. military’s account of the incident and said the U.S. had acted unprofessionally.
While such incidents occurred occasionally a few years ago, they had stopped.
But tensions between the two states spiked this year after the United States killed Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, in a drone strike in Iraq.
Iran retaliated on 8 January with a rocket attack on Iraq’s Ain al-Asad base, where US forces were stationed.
No US troops were killed or faced immediate bodily injury, but more than 100 were later diagnosed with traumatic brain injury.
Israel
More than 2,000 Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Sunday, demonstrating against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempts to form an “emergency” government with his chief rival and accusing him of using the corona virus crisis to escape prosecution on corruption charges.
Demonstrators wore face masks and largely kept their distance from one another, in line with social-distancing rules, as speakers criticized Netanyahu’s possible partnership with rival Benny Gantz.
Some held black flags, which have become the symbol of their campaign in recent weeks.
Gantz, who during three bitter election campaigns over the past year vowed never to sit in a government with Netanyahu due to his legal problems, announced last month that he had accepted the Prime Minister’s suggestion to form an “emergency” government to deal with the corona virus crisis.
The announcement infuriated many of Gantz’s supporters and caused his Blue and White party to fracture.
“You don’t fight corruption from within.
If you’re inside, you’re part of it,”said Yair Lapid, Gantz’s former political partner, who withdrew from the Blue and White alliance last month.
Netanyahu has been charged with fraud, breach of justice and accepting bribes.
He denies the charges and says he is the victim of a hostile media and aggressive police and prosecutors.
Protesters on Sunday accused Netanyahu of exploiting the crisis to evade his looming trial and cement his lengthy rule.
Citing the pandemic, Netanyahu’s hand-picked Justice Minister delayed the Prime Minister’s trial just two days before it was to begin until late May.
Since then, Netanyahu’s coalition talks with Gantz have reportedly stalled due to demands by the Prime Minister to gain more control over judicial appointments and assurances that he can remain in office even if he gives up the Prime Minister’s job in a proposed power-sharing arrangement with Gantz.
Under Israeli law, public officials, with the exception of the Prime Minister, must resign if charged with a crime.
Demonstrators repeatedly chanted “democracy” and accused the prime minister of endangering the country’s democratic institutions.
“Corona equals virus in the service of a dictator,” said one sign.
Italy
Selam Palace is the largest building in Rome to become a squat for refugees and migrants, who struggle to afford the Italian capital’s rental costs.
Experts estimate there are another 110 occupied buildings in the Eternal City.
The president of the local municipality, Monica Lozzi, confirmed to Al Jazeera that all residents had been tested for corona virus, and 50 were found to have contracted it.
Japan
Japan, alarmed by rising corona virus deaths and the spectre of the collapse of the medical system, is scrambling to expand testing with drive-through facilities and general practitioners helping to collect samples, according to Reuters.
The decision to expand testing came as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe this week expanded a state of emergency, originally issued for Tokyo and six other areas, to the entire country, and warned of the growing burden on health facilities
Japan conducted about 52,000 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests in March, or just 16% of the number carried out in South Korea, according to data from Oxford University.
The number of confirmed novel corona virus cases in Japan has risen to 10,000, NHK public broadcaster has said, just days after a state of emergency was extended to the entire nation in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus.
Above: Confirmed cases of COVID-19 per million residents in Japan by prefecture
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday appealed to the nation to stay indoors as new cases hit a record in the capital of Tokyo and fears medical services could fail in rural areas that are home to many elderly prompted the expansion of the state of emergency from an original seven areas.
Just over 200 people have died from the virus in Japan, but Tokyo remains the hardest-hit area, reporting 201 new infections on Friday alone – a new record.
Tokyo reported 181 new cases on Saturday, NHK reported.
Lesotho
Lesotho’s embattled Prime Minister has announced that he has sent troops onto the streets to “restore order“, accusing unnamed law enforcement agencies of undermining democracy.
Prime Minister Thomas Thabane is under pressure to step down after police said they suspect him of having had a hand in the murder of his estranged wife in 2017, a case that has thrown the country into political turmoil.
In an address on public television on Saturday, 80-year-old Thabane said he had “deployed the army to take control of this situation and take necessary measures against these elements in alignment with the security orders and restore peace and order”.
“This is to avoid putting the nation in danger,” he said.
A highly placed government source said police commissioner Holomo Molibeli, his deputy Paseka Mokete and another senior police officer have been arrested by the army.
“The general informed the Prime Minister that he has arrested Holomo, Mokete.
They are temporarily detained at Makoanyane Barracks,” the source told AFP in the capital Maseru.
There was a heavy presence of armed soldiers, in bulletproof vests and helmets, patrolling the streets.
Other soldiers drove around Maseru in armoured cars.
The Prime Minister said he was “surprised” that some “institutions entrusted with maintaining order and adhering to law are busy tarnishing the very principles” of the country’s stability and democracy.
He said the army would also help enforce a 24-day corona virus lockdown in the country, which has so far not recorded a single case.
The Prime Minister’s order is the latest twist in a saga that has gripped the southern African Kingdom.
The murder accusations against Thabane came after communications records from the scene of his estranged wife’s murder included the Prime Minister’s mobile phone number.
His order to deploy the army came a day after the constitutional court set aside his decision to suspend Parliament for three months.
In March, Thabane imposed a three-month suspension of Parliament shortly after the national assembly passed a bill barring him from calling fresh elections if he loses a no-confidence vote hanging over his head.
Last month, he ordered the security forces and intelligence service to investigate his governing All Basotho Convention (ABC) party rivals, whom he accused of plotting to topple his government.
Citing his advanced age, the Prime Minister had earlier this year offered to step down from office by 31 July following the accusation of his possible involvement in the murder of his then-estranged wife.
He faces allegations he acted in “common purpose” in the killing of 58-year-old Lipolelo Thabane, whom he was in the process of divorcing.
Lipolelo’s murder, two days before his inauguration as Prime Minister, sent shock waves through the tiny picturesque mountainous kingdom of 2.2 million people.
His current wife, Maesaiah Thabane, 43, whom he married two months after Lipolelo’s death, is considered a co-conspirator in the murder case and has already been charged.
Thabane’s ABC rivals are pushing for his early departure and have teamed up with opposition with the goal of forming a coalition government.
Lesotho has a long history of political turmoil.
It has been more than a decade since a Prime Minister served out a full five-year term in the country which is completely surrounded by South Africa.
Libya
Libya’s internationally-recognised government has said its forces have killed eight fighters loyal to eastern-based renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar.
The announcement by military spokesman Mohamed Gnunu on Saturday came as forces aligned with the United Nations-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) ramped up their offensive against Haftar’s forward bases in western Libya.
GNA troops have in recent days retaken a string of strategic cities located west of Tripoli, including Sabratha, Surman and al-Ajaylat.
Libya, a large oil producer, has been engulfed in chaos since 2011 when longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi (1942 – 2011) was killed in a NATO-backed uprising.
It is now split between two rival administrations:
The Tripoli-based GNA, led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, and the House of Representatives allied to Haftar and his self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA).
In April 2019, Haftar launched a military campaign to wrest control of Tripoli but the offensive was largely stalled by forces loyal to the GNA.
Gnunu said GNA forces on Saturday overran a camp in the area of al-Hawatim near the city of Tarhouna, arresting 12 fighters from Haftar’s LNA and seizing several armoured vehicles.
“The latest developments are threatening the very existence of Haftar’s forces in the whole of western Libya,” said Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed, reporting from Tripoli.
“The city of Tarhouna is a major stronghold for Haftar after they lost the city of Gharyan last June.
It’s important to note that the central command of Haftar’s forces is now located in Tarhouna and it is from there that Egyptian, Emirati and Russian military experts are running Haftar’s offensive against Tripoli.”
On 17 March, the UN and nine countries called on Libya’s warring sides to cease hostilities to allow health authorities to fight against the new corona virus.
Numerous UN efforts to mediate a ceasefire have failed to result in a truce and have been on hold since envoy Ghassan Salame quit his post in early March, citing health reasons.
Malaysia
Malaysian health officials have reported 54 new corona virus cases, the lowest daily increase since the government imposed curbs on movement and business on March 18, taking the cumulative total to 5,305.
The health ministry also reported two new deaths, bringing total fatalities to 88.
Above: Distribution map of COVID-19 confirmed cases by state (territory)
Mali
More than 100 Spanish soldiers have been repatriated early from Mali after a corona virus outbreak.
There were 278 members of the Spanish armed forces based in the African country to help the Malian army.
The Ministry of Defence has evacuated these soldiers after they were no longer needed due to the pandemic paralysing the training tasks the Malian army were undertaking.
A soldier who contracted the virus has also been evacuated, in a medical Airbus 310 from the Air Force, making him the second Spanish soldier in the African country who has tested positive.
The soldiers that have contracted the disease will have to undergo a quarantine period of two weeks when they return home.
The EU mission in Mali has already counted seven COVID-19 patients.
Between 150-200 personnel from Iraq and 30 from Afghanistan have also returned to the Iberian country for the same reason.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson spoke to El Pais:
“This decision was made in coordination with our allies and with the host nations, so that it does not affect the commitments with the different security organizations of which Spain is a part of.”
Parliamentary elections went on as planned in Mali Sunday, despite threats of Jihadist violence and fears of spreading the novel corona virus.
Low voter turnout was expected Sunday for the run-off legislative elections.
The first round of elections, held on 29 March 29 after repeated delays, was marred by intimidation and jihadist attacks — including the kidnapping of opposition leader Soumaila Cisse.
Voter turnout in the first round of elections was just over 12% in the capital city of Bamako, according to government officials.
Many are expected to stay inside, heeding guidelines to avoid large gatherings and keep distance between people.
Mali has reported over 200 cases of Covid-19 and 13 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Corona Virus Resource Center.
These are the first elections to fill Mali’s 147-seat parliament since 2013.
Elections were initially scheduled to take place in late 2018 but were delayed due to security concerns, which has left many Malians questioning why Sunday’s vote was not delayed as well.
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who was elected in 2013, addressed the nation last week wearing a face mask, saying that the decision to continue with the vote as scheduled was not made by his government, but instead determined by an independent commission in the country.
Thousands of Malians have died as the country suffered sporadic attacks by jihadists as well as cases of inter-ethnic violence since unrest began in 2012.
Mexico
Mexico’s president says that United States President Donald Trump has promised Mexico will be able to buy 1,000 ventilators and other intensive-therapy equipment used in treating severe cases of Covid-19.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says he spoke with Trump about Mexico’s request to purchase the machines, relatively few of which are available in Mexico.
Lopez Obrador said on Twitter that Trump “guaranteed me that by the end of this month” Mexico could buy 1,000 ventilators and possibly more.”
Lopez Obrador calls it a “new gesture of solidarity with Mexico“.
He says he suggested a meeting with Trump in June or July to personally express the country’s appreciation.
Mexican health officials have reported 578 new cases of the novel corona virus and 60 new deaths, bringing the country’s total to 6,875 cases and 546 deaths.
Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said on Thursday the country might have nearly 56,000 people infected with the fast-spreading corona virus.
Citing government models, Lopez-Gatell has said many who are infected likely did not have symptoms or were not diagnosed.
Indigenous women in Mexico have been making face masks against the coronavirus, using palm leaves native to the region.
They say that masks made from palm leaves are cheaper than the medical masks that have been scarce because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Mexico declared a state of emergency on March 31 to battle the pandemic.
Above: Map of states with confirmed COVID-19 cases
Morocco
Morocco will extend lockdown measures to contain the spread of the corona virus for another month until 20 May, the government said.
The decision was made by the government council as the number of coronavirus cases rose to 2,670, including 137 deaths and 298 recoveries as of Saturday morning.
Lockdown conditions imposed on 20 March mean poople are only allowed to go out to buy food or medicine, and to staff some key jobs.
Schools, mosques, non-essential shops and entertainment venues have all been closed.
Morocco has made wearing masks mandatory with those who fail to do so risking jail terms and fines.
Above: Confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Morocco by region – the darker the area, the more cases therein
Myanmar
“I had a conversation with someone yesterday, who told me that thanks to God, there is not a single Christian who has been infected with the virus,”Pastor David Lahdeclared, wagging his finger at the audience in a recorded sermon posted on social media.
“I can guarantee that the church that goes by Jesus’s teaching, there will be no infection,” added Lah, as he waved a bible in the air at an event held earlier this month, in defiance of the Myanmar government’s order banning religious gatherings due to the corona virus outbreak.
Days later, Lah tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the rapidly spreading corona virus.
He and three other people have also been charged with violation of the country’s Natural Disaster Management Law.
On learning about the global corona virus pandemic, those displaced by conflict in Myanmar’s Kachin state wasted no time in taking measures to keep the virus from reaching their camps.
“As we are staying in crowded conditions, if one of us gets the virus, an outbreak is very likely,” said Galau Bawm Myaw, a camp leader in Jaw Masat internally-displaced people (IDP) camp on the outskirts of the state capital, Myitkyina.
“We advise people to follow [Ministry of Health] guidelines to keep ourselves healthy, and we put our lives in God’s hands.”
While Myanmar’s capacity to prevent and address a Covid-19 outbreak nationally remains a concern, the country’s 240,000 IDPs find themselves at increased risk.
Above: Map of the Covina-19 outbreak in Myanmar as of 14 April 2020 – the darker the area, the more cases therein
Among them are 100,000 ethnic Kachin who remain scattered across 138 camps and church grounds in Myanmar’s northernmost state, which shares a border with China.
Most fled their villages shortly after a ceasefire between the Kachin Independence Army and Myanmar military collapsed in 2011.
On 1 April, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called on governments to step up measures to protect the world’s 40 Million IDPs from the disease, describing IDPs as “among the most vulnerable“.
In Jaw Masat, with a population of more than 600 people, camp leaders placed restrictions on entry and exit in March, prohibited group gatherings, and partitioned the learning centre into individual prayer rooms to replace church services.
They also built a hand-washing station at camp gates and designated a bamboo hut at the camp’s perimeter as a quarantine facility, where those returning from cities or abroad must stay for 14 days.
When visitors came to give health information or donations, they also sprayed the visitors and their vehicles with a chemical disinfectant.
IDPs living in Bethlehem camp in Myitkyina, which houses more than 700 people, have taken a similar approach.
Both camps play a recording of the Ministry of Health COVID-19 prevention guidelines daily over loudspeakers – guidelines which IDPs are following carefully.
“I stay with my family at home as much as possible and we practise proper personal hygiene,”said Kumbu Seng Gu of Jaw Masat.
“We are doing our best to protect ourselves.”
Yet IDPs worry that their efforts will not be enough.
Families are crowded into bamboo shelters, with multiple families in each; a few toilets are typically shared by hundreds of people.
Humanitarian assistance has been dwindling for years, and most rely on daily wages to meet their basic needs.
“We have to live in crowded conditions and lack nutritious food, while the government’s instructions are to avoid crowds and eat nutritious food,” said Seng Gu, adding that camp residents were running out of money to buy basic hygiene items.
“As we can’t practise social distancing, lack medical supplies and food, I fear the outbreak and pray to God to overcome this.”
Amid increasing concerns, on 8 April, camp leaders in Myitkyina and Waingmaw townships instituted a total lockdown and padlocked their gates.
Seng Gu hopes the government will come to the IDPs’ aid.
“I want the government to donate food and medical supplies to IDPs, and to put us as a priority,” he told Al Jazeera.
Myanmar’s state media reported on 24 March that a national plan for IDP camps was being prepared, but no updates came until 14 April, when state media announced the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement had begun implementing a plan for the prevention and containment of Covid-19 in IDP camps, in collaboration with UN bodies, international and local aid groups, donors and other government ministries.
The plan covers IDPs in Shan, Rakhine, Karen and Chin states, in addition to Kachin.
“The Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement is not neglecting or ignoring to protect, contain, or treat Covid-19,” the announcement said, adding that the plan includes awareness-raising, emergency planning, social support, mask, digital thermometer and soap distribution, and one-time financial assistance of 20,000 kyats ($14) to the elderly, as well as pregnant women and infants in some areas.
A representative of the ministry told Al Jazeera that implementation of its Covid-19 IDP response plan had begun before the announcement and that the ministry had reached most IDP camps in Kachin with basic support.
That does not include camps in areas under the control of the Kachin Independence Organization, which has its own Covid-19 response committee.
The Myanmar government has blocked UN humanitarian access to KIO-controlled areas since 2016.
The Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement and the KIO’s Covid-19 committee have no official contact, said the representative.
When Al Jazeera interviewed IDPs in Jaw Masat and Bethlehem before the camp leaders instituted a lockdown on 8 April, they said government workers had visited to provide health information.
In Bethlehem, they said each family was given a bar of soap.
Both camps lacked a digital thermometer at that time.
Aoife McDonnell of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Myanmar told Al Jazeera she welcomed the inclusion of IDPs in national response efforts.
“Our main priority is to ensure that the people we serve, including internally displaced persons, are included in national response plans,” she said.
Yet some worry that the support coming is too little, too late.
“The lack of effective, quality health services for IDPs, combined with food security concerns, underlying illnesses among camp residents, and cramped accommodations, means the IDP camps are like tinderboxes for Covid-19 spread,” Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera.
“Waiting for the Myanmar government to get ready will be simply too late.”
Local church groups and the Kachin public have filled a critical gap.
The Kachin Baptist Convention, which manages many IDP camps and has long played a leading role in Kachin’s humanitarian response, released its COVID-19 response plan, including provisions for IDP camps, on 1 April.
They have since provided prevention education, disease surveillance, and material assistance in the form of handwashing stations, personal protective equipment and medical supplies.
Members of the Kachin public also formed a COVID-19 Prevention Network focused on IDP camps, through which they provided similar services, and also sprayed camps with disinfectant.
Yet food insecurity – already a concern prior to the lockdown – remains a critical need.
Some members of the public have stepped in donating food in the absence of government support with IDPs’ food needs.
“People are mentally unwell because they are worried about their livelihoods as well as a virus outbreak,” said Nhkum Tang Ra of Bethlehem camp.
“So far, we haven’t yet faced severe food shortages, but if this virus lasts past the end of April, it could get much worse,” added Bawm Myaw.
A surge in fighting between the Myanmar military and insurgents has killed at least 32 civilians, mostly women and children, in the restive Rakhine and Chin states, the U.N. human rights office said on Friday, adding the military had destroyed homes and schools.
Myanmar’s military denies targeting civilians and a spokesman on Friday declined to respond to the allegations.
The Arakan Army, an insurgent group seeking greater autonomy for the region, has been battling government troops for more than a year.
“Myanmar’s military has been carrying out almost daily air strikes and shelling in populated areas resulting in at least 32 deaths and 71 injuries since 23 March, the majority women and children, and they have also been destroying and burning schools and homes,” UN human rights office spokesman Rupert Colville told a Geneva news briefing.
He later said that the 32 were civilians.
Colville said it was “very difficult to get precise information from Rakhine”, noting that there had been an Internet blackout in the area since June 2019.
“So as to whether the reported casualties are a result of targeting or were caught in the crossfire between the Arakan Army and Myanmar government army, it’s not entirely clear,” he said.
Myanmar army spokesman Major General Tun Tun Nyi told Reuters:
“We published news of what happened there.
You can find out by reading them.
I don’t think I have to give any comment on it.”
After local officials and a resident told Reuters shelling in Rakhine state’s Kyauk Seik village on Monday killed eight people, the army said such reports were fake.
Countries including the United States and Britain have called for an end to fighting in Rakhine amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Myanmar has reported 85 cases of Covid-19 and four deaths.
The Arakan Army declared a month-long ceasefire for April along with two other ethnic armed groups, citing the pandemic.
The military rejected the ceasefire, with a spokesman saying a previous truce declared by the government went unheeded by insurgents.
Netherlands
Confirmed corona virus infections in the Netherlands have risen by 1,140 to 31,589, Dutch health authorities have said.
The death toll among people known to have been infected with the novel corona virus increased by 142 to 3,601, the Dutch Institute for Public Health (RIVM) said in its daily update.
Above: Confirmed cases of COVID-19 per 10,000 residents in Netherlands by municipality
Nigeria
The Nigerian president’s chief of staff, Abba Kyari, died on Friday after contracting the new corona virus, two presidency spokesmen said on Twitter.
Kyari, who was in his 70s and had underlying health problems including diabetes, was the top official aide to 77-year-old President Muhammadu Buhari and one of the most powerful men in the country, Reuters news agency reported.
“The Presidency regrets to announce the passage of the Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari,” said presidency spokesman Garba Shehu in a tweet, using an honorific title for Kyari.
Kyari’s was the highest-profile death due to the disease in the West African country, which has 493 confirmed cases and 17 deaths, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
The Nigerian president’s chief of staff died on Friday from COVID-19, the presidency said, making him the most high profile person in the country to die in the coronavirus outbreak.
Abba Kyari had acted as the gatekeeper to 77-year-old President Muhammadu Buhari.
After his re-election last year, Buhari ordered ministers to channel all communications through him.
Kyari had underlying health problems including diabetes.
His age was not officially disclosed, although two presidency aides said he was 70.
It was reported on 24 March that he had contracted the disease.
“Mallam Abba Kyari, who died on 17 April 2020, at the age of 67 from complications caused by the corona virus, was a true Nigerian patriot,” said Buhari in a tweet, using an honorific title for Kyari.
He referred to Kyari as his “loyal friend and compatriot for the last 42 years” who, as chief of staff, “strove quietly and without any interest in publicity or personal gain” to implement the President’s agenda.
Kyari travelled to Germany in early March with a delegation of other Nigerian officials for meetings with Siemens AG.
He attended meetings with senior government officials upon his return to Nigeria before he was diagnosed as having contracted the new corona virus.
Nigeria has 493 confirmed cases and 17 deaths, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
Above: Covid-19 cases in Nigeria by states and territory
Buhari, whose public pronouncements are rare, himself has undisclosed medical ailments and spent five months in London for treatments in 2017.
Kyari’s death might leave a potential opening for a rethink of policy at the heart of government.
Analysts said the government’s statist approach since Buhari took office in 2015 was in large part influenced by his chief of staff, a former executive at the United Bank for Africa Plc.
Antony Goldman, head of Nigeria-focused PM Consulting, said Kyari was “the central figure in driving forward” government policies on agricultural reform, investment in infrastructure and power.
“Kyari was very close to Buhari and arguably the most powerful man within the administration,” said Malte Liewerscheidt, vice president of Teneo Intelligence in a note.
“Kyari’s death removes the centre of gravity from Buhari’s inner circle and might provide an opening for more reform-minded elements such as Vice President Yemi Osinbajo,” he said.
Kyari’s death could be very significant because he showed “an immense ability to wield power in the context of a largely absent president”, said Clement Nwankwo, director of the Abuja-based Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre think-tank.
“There is no evidence that the chief of staff shared that power with anyone. He was totally trusted and it isn’t clear who could fill those shoes,” said Nwankwo.
Kyari died at a private hospital in the commercial capital, Lagos, a statement issued by Lagos state government said.
His body was flown to the capital, Abuja, on Saturday.
He was buried at a cemetery in the city in a private ceremony after funeral prayers at his residence, said Buhari’s spokesman Garba Shehu.
Gunmen killed 47 people in attacks on villages in the northwestern Nigerian state of Katsina in the early hours of Saturday, local police said.
“Armed bandits”, some of whom wielded AK 47 guns, carried out the attacks, Katsina police said in a statement on Sunday.
Hundreds of people have been killed in the last year by criminal gangs carrying out robberies and kidnappings in northwest Nigeria.
Such attacks have added to security challenges in Africa’s most populous country, which is already struggling to contain Islamist insurgencies in the northeast and communal violence over grazing rights in central states.
Gunmen, some with AK 47 guns, carried out the attacks in three local government authorities in the state in the early hours of Saturday between 12:30 a.m. (2330 GMT) and around 3 a.m., Katsina police said in its statement.
“There was reports of organised and simultaneous attacks in villages in Danmusa, Dutsenma and Safana by groups of armed bandits,” the statement said of some of the attacks.
“Detachments of Police, Nigerian Army, Nigeria Airforce, Civil Defence and DSS (Department of State Services) have been drafted to the area,” it added.
President Muhammadu Buhari, in a statement, said he would not tolerate large scale killing of innocent people by criminal gangs.
“In line with my commitment to security of the people, these attacks will be met with decisive force,” said Buhari, who is from Katsina.
Pakistan
Pakistan has lifted restrictions on congregational prayers at mosques, but put in place a host of safety conditions to avert the further spread of the corona virus in the country.
The South Asian nation, the second most populous Muslim country in the world, imposed the restrictions less than a month ago, allowing only three to five people at mosques for prayers.
The decision to lift restrictions, taken in a meeting between Pakistani President Arif Alvi and religious leaders, comes less than a week before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in which the size of congregations typically increases.
The government had been under pressure to reverse the congregation restrictions, and clashes between mosque attendees and police had been reported in Karachi, the country’s largest city.
Philippines
The Philippines’ health ministry has reported ten new corona virus deaths and 209 additional infections.
In a bulletin, the health ministry said total infections have risen to 6,087, while deaths have reached 397.
It added that 29 more patients have recovered, bringing the total to 516
Above: Map of the corona virus outbreak in the Philippines as of 19 April 2020 – the darker the area, the more cases therein
Islamic State-linked (ISIS) militants killed 11 Philippine soldiers and wounded 14 others on Friday 17 April in the group’s deadliest attack in over a year, the military said.
The extremists belong to Abu Sayyaf – a group based in the southern Philippines that has engaged in bombings as well as kidnappings of Western tourists and missionaries for ransom since the early 1990s.
They also have ties to Islamic State in Iraq and Syria militants seeking to set up a caliphate in Southeast Asia.
The attack occurred on a remote island in the country’s south.
Regional military commander Lieutenant-General Cirilito Sobejana told reporters Abu Sayyaf carried out the attack, adding the soldiers were ambushed and had been pursuing security operations against the militants in Sulu province.
Most of the Philippines is under quarantine to stem the spread of the corona virus that has infected nearly 6,000 people and killed more than 380 nationwide.
Friday’s attack is the deadliest involving Abu Sayyaf militants since two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the Catholic cathedral in Sulu province in January last year, killing 21 people.
The military have since mounted operations to free hostages held by Abu Sayyaf, including crew members of foreign cargo vessels abducted in Sulu waters.
An Abu Sayyaf faction took part in the May 2017 seizure by ISIS-linked gunmen of the southern Philippine city of Marawi.
Philippine troops recaptured the bombed out city after a five-month campaign that claimed more than a thousand lives.
Poland
Sirens wailed and Jewish prayers were said for the heroes of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising, but the annual memorial observances were scaled down Sunday and moved to the internet because of the corona virus pandemic and the need for social distancing.
Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, said prayers at the monument to the ghetto fighters in downtown Warsaw.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and representatives of Jewish and Polish organizations laid wreaths.
They were all wearing face masks and kept themselves at a distance from each other. President Andrzej Duda and Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski also sent wreaths.
History lectures and virtual visits to ghetto sites were offered on the Internet, mainly by the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, which faces the monument to the ghetto heroes. Commemorative concerts were to be broadcast on Radio POLIN and on Poland’s state radio.
Museum director Zygmunt Stepinski said that the corona virus pandemic “has forced us to change the formula” of the commemorations on the 77th anniversary.
On 19 April 1943, a few hundred poorly armed Jewish fighters put up resistance to the Nazi German army that started to “liquidate” the ghetto, sending the remaining inhabitants to the Treblinka death camp and razing their houses to the ground.
The fighters held out almost a month in what was the first city revolt of World War II.
They almost all died and the Germans destroyed the ghetto.
Portugal
In mid-March, Spain and Portugal both declared states of emergency, just a few days apart, to step up their fights against the corona virus pandemic.
But one month later, the two countries of Europe’s Iberian Peninsula seem to be facing very different situations.
The full extent of the pandemic in both countries, as is the case with most nations worldwide, has yet to be established.
But there is a striking difference between Thursday’s total of 182,816 registered infections in Spain – the highest in Europe – and the corona virus toll in Portugal, which, despite having around a fifth of Spain’s population, had 18,841 infections as of Friday, roughly a tenth of Spain’s number.
Above: Map of Portugal municipalities with corona virus cases
The contrast is much more stark when it comes to death tolls.
Spain’s total confirmed corona virus deaths reached 9,130 on Thursday.
Portugal had registered just 629 by Friday – 3% of its neighbour’s fatalities.
Above: The number of people affected per capita in Spain by COVID-19: the darker the area, the more cases therein
Socially and culturally at least, Portugal and Spain are often credited with having more in common than just a 1,200 kilometre (745 mile) border and currently having a centre-left government in power.
Attempting to grasp why the two neighbouring nations’ fortunes in the corona virus battle have varied so greatly – at least from what limited data we have – is not straightforward, or 100% certain.
“The most important point to raise is that the first registered case in Portugal was a month later than the first case in Spain: 2 March versus 31 January,” argues Guillermo Martínez de Tejada de Garaizabal, professor of microbiology and parasitology at the University of Navarra in northern Spain.
“In fact, Portugal was the last country in Europe to register its first case of COVID-19.
That gave the Portuguese an enormous advantage over the Spanish.
They could thoroughly prepare their containment strategy regarding the pandemic,” he told Al Jazeera.
“We also have to applaud the rapid, decisive action by the Portuguese government, which decreed a total lockdown when it only had a handful of cases,” he said.
Portugal had just over 100 confirmed cases when restrictions on movement were put into place.
“Spain, on the other hand, took that decision at almost the same point in time as Portugal, when it had more than 5,000 cases and 133 deaths.
Without any doubt, that was key in Portugal’s obtaining such low levels of mortality.”
Manuel Carvalho, director of Publico, one of Portugal’s best-selling daily newspapers, agrees.
“The fight against the corona virus has had quite good results mainly because the government acted quickly,” he told Al Jazeera.
“Schools were closed around 12 days after the first case and the state of emergency declared 14 days after.”
Highlighting a positive grassroots nationwide reaction to the lockdown, Carvalho continued:
“To gain that kind of ‘community spirit’ reaction, the consensus between political parties, the government and the president was very important.
Rui Rio, the leader of the main opposition party, the PSD [Social Democratic Party] said:
“We are not going to cause problems for the country just to cause problems for the government.”
Carvalho contrasts that attitude with the situation in Spain, where “the government’s main ally, Podemos, are seen by the main opposition party, the Partido Popular, as radical extremists”.
Above: Portugal’s Parliament
Yet across the border, and despite a poll showing 87% of Spaniards believe the opposition parties should drop their criticism of the government, as the crisis deepens, the political divisions show no sign of lessening.
On Thursday, Pablo Casado, head of the PP, accused Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of “only caring about power, while we only care about Spain”.
He then postponed attending the government’s cross-party talks on a united front for the corona virus crisis until at least next week.
And Spain’s hard-right party, Vox – the country’s third-largest parliamentary grouping – accused Sanchez of “imposing a totalitarian Communist regime“, and refused point-blank to attend the talks.
Meanwhile, Madrid’s long-troubled relationship with the Catalan separatists, which dominated the political agenda prior to the corona virus crisis, rumbles on.
Recent bones of contention range from Catalan President Quim Torra‘s serious reticence over the relaxing of lockdown for non-essential workers to a protest from the region’s interior minister, Miquel Buch, over Spain sending exactly 1,714,000 face masks to Catalonia – which he claimed could be a deliberate coincidence with the defeat of separatist forces in Barcelona back in 1714.
“Don’t play with our history,” Buch snarled in a press conference on Monday.
“Over the past three or four years there has been an increasing Fragmentation both of the Spanish regions and politics in general.”, notes Jose Hernandez, assistant professor of sociology and a specialist in social health policies at the University of Cordoba in southern Spain.
“So now, rather than trying to build consensus, the rival parties are trying to wear each other out.”
“Also, this is a minority government with fragile parliamentary support, and which lost votes in Spain’s last elections – unlike in Portugal, where the ruling party was strengthened in the most recent ballot.
So it tends to impose measures, rather than risk negotiations it might lose.
That lack of consultation only fuels the opposition’s anger.”
On the medical front, the courage and resilience of Spain’s health workers when faced with overflowing hospital intensive care units as the corona virus cases mounted has rightly drawn widespread praise, but depleted medical resources after years of austerity policies in public health have left them hamstrung.
In comparison, Portugal has yet to hit such difficulties.
“We haven’t reached our full capacity yet,” the country’s health director, Graca Freitas, said a few days ago, referring to hospital occupation levels.
“Right now, we’re on a plateau and no expansion of hospital capacity has been necessary.”
Hernandez points to differences in the two nations’ human geography.
“Portugal’s public health system works well partly because of the country’s demography,” he said.
“The urban areas are not so densely populated, with people spread more evenly through the countryside, and that has forced the health service to retain a broader network.
“Portugal’s greater recent investment in public health and a much more centralised health service have all helped, while greater levels of mass tourism in Spain and the high degree of mobility that goes with it could have encouraged the spread of corona virus.”
Spain’s current total of recovered patients, 74,797, is proportionally far higher than Portugal’s current total of 493.
However, that may well be partly down to Portugal being hit later by the epidemic, and for patients to make a full recovery from coronavirus can take weeks.
But in either case, both Portugal and Spain are continuing to take major precautions.
In Spain, the lockdown is currently due to end on 26 April, although Prime Minister Sanchez has already warned that further extensions will be required.
In Portugal, the country’s health minister announced this week that face masks should be worn by everyone in enclosed public spaces such as buses and shops, and President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa confirmed on Thursday that the state of emergency would be extended to 2 May.
“We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Rebelo de Sousa said with cautious optimism on Wednesday.
In Spain, too, the national conversation is turning slowly towards the idea that that the worst of the pandemic may have passed.
But on current evidence, Spain’s next challenges may well prove considerably more complex to resolve.
Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the government to provide daily forecasts of the spread of the novel corona virus as Russia recorded almost 5,000 new cases in a single day.
Corona virus infections in Russia began rising sharply in April after reporting far fewer infections than many western European countries in the outbreak’s early stages.
Russia’s official tally of corona virus cases is 36,793, a record overnight rise of 4,785, and death toll rose by 40 to 313.
Russia has said its death toll from the novel corona virus had risen to 313, an overnight increase of 40, as it posted a new record daily jump in new cases.
The authorities reported 4,785 new cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number to 36,793.
Moscow, which became the epicentre of Russia’s corona virus outbreak and was also the first region in the country to introduce a lockdown, recorded 2,649 new cases, and 21 new deaths, the Russian corona virus crisis response centre said.
Corona virus infections in Russia began rising sharply this month, although it had reported far fewer infections than many western European countries in the outbreak’s early stages.
Above: Russia’s confirmed COVID-19 cases per capita per one million inhabitants – the darker the area, the more cases therein
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia has executed a Yemeni man found guilty of attacking a Spanish dance troupe and wounding three people on stage before a stunned audience in the capital Riyadh last year.
The interior ministry announced the execution in a statement on Thursday, identifying the man as 33-year-old Emad Abdelqawi al-Mansouri.
He was sentenced to death in late December, a swift six weeks after the attack in mid-November.
The troupe from Spain had been performing at a park in Riyadh on the evening of 11 November when a man stormed the stage and attacked them with a knife.
It marked the first such incident of violence since the Kingdom began loosening restrictions on entertainment two years ago.
The Specialised Criminal Court, established to try “terrorism” cases in Riyadh, found al-Mansouri guilty on various charges, including stabbing performers and a security guard, intimidating the public, tampering with national security, creating “chaos and terror“, and attempting to derail entertainment activities in Saudi Arabia.
The court also found the man guilty of acting on the orders of a senior al-Qaeda leader in Yemen.
The name of the alleged al-Qaeda leader was not made public.
The court ruled a second suspect, who was not identified, be sentenced to 12-and-a-half years in prison.
He was found guilty of aiding and abetting the attacker and sending money to al-Qaeda in Yemen.
State-owned news media outlets aired footage of the night of the attack, showing security personnel as they ran on stage to capture the suspect.
Other state-linked media outlets shared footage online of a man running on stage and apparently attacking the performers from behind as the troupe, dressed in gold ensembles, performed a dance.
Singapore
Singapore’s health ministry has confirmed 942 new corona virus infections, a new daily record, taking the total number of Covid-19 cases in the city-state to 5,992.
The vast majority of the new cases are of “work permit” holders living in foreign worker dormitories, the health ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
South Korea
South Korea has reported 18 new cases of the corona virus, its lowest daily jump since 20 February, continuing a downward trend as officials discuss more sustainable forms of social distancing that allows for some communal and economic activity.
Figures released by South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday brought national totals to 10,653 cases and 232 virus-related deaths, the Associated Press news agency repoted.
At least 993 of overall infections have been linked to arrivals from overseas.
South Korea has been holding an election unlike any other.
Voters wore masks and stood at least 1m apart.
They had their temperature taken, disinfected their hands and wore plastic gloves.
Only then were they given their voting slip and allowed to head into the booth to cast their ballot.
These are just some of the measures taken to allow the scheduled National Assembly election to take place during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Three hundred seats at the National Assembly are being contested.
Thirty-five parties have registered candidates, but the race will be between the ruling Minjoo (Democratic) Party and the main opposition, the conservative United Future Party.
The government’s handling of the corona virus outbreak has dominated all discussions during this election.
It has eclipsed fears of a struggling economy and a number of corruption scandals involving presidential aides.
The National Assembly elections are seen as a bit of springboard to test candidates and party popularity ahead of the presidential elections in 2022.
After voting closed on Wednesday, exit polls published by the three main broadcasters suggested President Moon Jae-in‘s ruling Democratic party had won the majority of seats and increased its majority.
The full results will take time to count, but polling also suggests that the North Korean defector and Pyongyang’s former deputy ambassador to the UK, Thae Yong-ho, could win a seat in Gangnam, the capitalist heart of Seoul.
If confirmed, he will be the first defector from the North to win a seat in the South.
Some critics feared the vote would be chaos.
Instead, all that was observed on the days of early voting was calm.
People quietly stood in line at the designated mark, patiently waiting their turn.
“I thought maybe the election should be postponed because people wouldn’t turn up,” one young female voter told us.
“But now that I’m here and see so many others, I’m not worried.”
The fear of infection didn’t keep people away.
Overall the turnout was 66% – the highest in 16 years.
More than 11 million people, about 26% of the population, cast their votes in advance.
Some by post, but most travelled to early polling stations which were set up around the country on Friday and Saturday.
It was also the first time that 18-year-olds were allowed to vote.
We met a number of them at Seoul Station all excited to take part.
The pandemic did not put them off.
“This is about our right to vote,” said one waiting in a queue.
“Voting is something we must do,” said another first-time voter.
She admitted that the plastic gloves were a little bit “inconvenient” but they made her feel safe.
South Korea has never postponed an election.
Even during the Korean War in 1952, the presidential elections went ahead.
The challenge for officials was how to avoid the risk of infection.
They decided that if someone had a temperature above 37.5C, they would be taken to a separate voting area and kept separate from other people.
Patients being treated for corona virus were given the option of mailing their ballot.
But polling booths were also set up outside residential centres, which care for hundreds of people with mild symptoms.
One woman in a mask emerged from a facility in her hospital gown and was handed her ballot by staff in full protective clothing.
The booth was outside to help prevent the spread of infection.
“At first thought I couldn’t vote and I was disappointed,” she told the news agency Reuters.
“But once I heard we would be able to vote as well I was thankful for this opportunity.”
One of the biggest issues has been how to allow the 60,000 people in quarantine across the country to head to the polls.
They have been under strict instructions to only vote at certain times and in designated polling stations.
They could leave their homes from 17:20 until 19:00 on the day of polling, they couldn’t use public transport and could only walk or use their own car.
They had to call health officials when they returned to their homes, otherwise police officers would be despatched to find them.
A number of people have already broken quarantine rules in South Korea in the last month, which is why the authorities monitored this so closely.
It took an army of 550,000 staff to prepare the polling booths and ensure things went smoothly on election day.
They disinfected about 14,000 voting stations and marked lines so queuing voters avoided standing too close to one another.
It all took a bit more time and effort, but it seemed most people were happy to put up with the short delay for the sake of democracy.
“Everyone recognised the seriousness of the situation and showed mature citizenship by encouraging electoral officials rather than complaining,” the mayor of Seoul’s Yongsan district, Sung Jang-hyun, told the BBC.
The virus had an impact on campaigning.
In South Korea, election times can often be raucous and rowdy affairs.
Vans with loud speakers blasting outside your window.
Politicians and their staff shouting from every corner.
But this year, masked encounters from a distance have replaced mass rallies and there are fist and elbow bumps instead of handshakes.
At one point during a briefing, Dr Jung from the Korean Centre for Disease Control urged politicians to simply “smile with their eyes“.
It hasn’t stopped some from getting creative.
The North Korean defector Thae Yong-ho who is running for office for the first time in South Korea decided to make his own rap video.
“Drop the beat” are his opening words.
The virus has also changed the content of the campaign.
In January, political discussions were dominated by the slowing economy, job creation and stalled talks with North Korea.
But now it is about South Korea’s response to Covid-19.
Health officials controlled the spiralling number of cases in February and March quickly and effectively by aggressively tracing and testing infected patients.
The infection peaked in February when around 900 people a day were infected.
Now the number of new cases each day is under 50 and more than 7,000 people have recovered from the illness.
Above: South Korea’s corona virus cases (as of 18 April) – the darker the area, the more cases therein
It has given President Moon Jae-in’s embattled Democratic Party a boost.
His opponents in the United Future Party give credit to the thousands of health professionals on the frontline.
There are fears that holding an election could trigger a second wave of infections across the country.
But for now, South Korea is once again determined to prove what is possible during this pandemic.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting eight new cases of the corona virus, marking the first time infections in South Korea fall to a single digit since the outbreak peaked in February.
Of the eight, five involve travellers from overseas.
The nation’s total tally is 10,661 cases and 234 deaths.
Spain
Spain’s death toll from corona virus has risen 565, down from a rise of 585 on Friday, the Health Ministry said, bringing the total to 20,043 deaths in one of the world’s hardest hit countries.
The number of overall corona virus cases rose to 191,726 on Saturday from 188,068 on Friday, it added.
Fears of an underestimation of Spain’s corona virus death toll have risen sharply this week, amid emerging evidence that mortality rates could be much higher than anticipated.
As of Thursday, Spain already had the greatest total of confirmed coronavirus infections in Europe, with 188,068.
It also had Europe’s second-highest death toll, after Italy, with 19,478 fatalities.
But while Spain’s central government has previously defended its criteria for its published figures as following World Health Organization guidelines, for days multiple media reports – as well as the opposition – have suggested that the real toll is more severe.
Sudan
Sudan’s capital Khartoum has been placed under a three-week lockdown following a sharp increase in corona virus cases.
The decision came as the country’s Federal Ministry of Health on Saturday reported 30 new cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number to 66.
“Twenty-seven of these cases were reported in Khartoum state, while for the first time two cases were confirmed in White Nile state and one in Gazeera state,” the ministry said in a statement.
The total deaths from the corona virus in the country rose to ten, as four more people died in the past 24 hours, it added.
Khartoum has more than 90% of Sudan’s reported corona virus cases.
An outbreak in Sudan would severely strain the health system, which has been weakened by decades of civil war and sanctions.
Authorities have also banned Friday prayers in Khartoum mosques, a measure taken by several other countries in the region.
While the lockdown is in place, people will still be allowed to go out for a few hours every day to get essentials but strictly within their neighbourhood.
The government has put the military, police and security forces on each bridge to make sure people don’t cross from one part of the capital to the other.
The government has said it is facing severe shortages in testing kits and personal protection equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers.
The Prime Minister has made a plea to the UN to make sure that it supports the government to be able to combat the disease.
The UN economic commission said that there will 300,000 people in Africa that will suffer and die from the corona virus and that Sudan will be one of the countries affected because of the infrastructure.
Taiwan
Taiwan will put 700 navy sailors into quarantine after three cases of the new corona virus were confirmed among sailors who had been on a goodwill mission to the Pacific island state of Palau, the government has said.
Three Taiwan navy vessels visited Palau – one of only 15 countries to maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan – in the middle of March, before returning to Taiwan a month later, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung told reporters.
The three confirmed cases had all shared quarters on the same ship, but all 700 sailors on all three ships were being re-called and would be put into quarantine, he said.
The president of Palau, Tommy Remengesau, told Reuters news agency in an interview on Wednesday that his country of 20,000 people had not had a single case of the corona virus and he was going to shut it off from the outside world to keep the virus out.
Thailand
Thailand has reported 33 new corona virus infections, bringing the nation’s total to 2,733 cases, a senior official has said.
Eleven of the new cases were in Bangkok and had a history of going to public areas, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for the government’s Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration.
No new deaths were reported and 1,787 people have recovered, he said.
Thailand has reported 47 fatalities since the outbreak escalated in January.
Above: Confirmed cases of Covid-19 per million residents in Thailand by province
Turkey
Turkey’s confirmed corona virus cases have risen to 82,329, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said, overtaking neighbouring Iran for the first time to register the highest total in the Middle East.
An increase of 3,783 cases in the last 24 hours also pushed Turkey’s confirmed tally within a few hundred of China, where the novel corona virus first emerged.
Koca said 121 more people have died, taking the death toll to 1,890.
A total of 1,822 people have recovered from the corona virus so far, and the number of tests carried out over the past 24 hours came to 40,520, the minister said.
Above: Covid-19 pandemic cases in Turkey as 3 April – the darker the area, the more cases therein
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates will fine people up to 20,000 dirhams (approximately $5,500) if they share medical information about the corona virus that contradicts official statements, state news agency WAM reported.
The move appears to be aimed at containing the spread of misinformation and rumours related to the COVID-19 outbreak that has claimed 37 lives in the country, with 6,300 confirmed infections as of Friday.
“It is forbidden for any individual to publish, re-publish or circulate medical information or guidance which is false, misleading or which hasn’t been announced officially using print, audiovisual or social media, or online websites or any other way of publication or circulation,” WAM reported, citing the government directive.
United Kingdom
Britain needs to do more to get personal protective equipment (PPE) to health workers on the frontline, housing minister Robert Jenrick said on Saturday after criticism about shortages in hospitals treating COVID-19 patients.
“We’ve got to do more to get the PPE that people need to the frontline,” Jenrick said, adding that a consignment was due to arrive from Turkey containing equipment including 400,000 protective gowns.
“We are trying to do everything we can to get the equipment we need.”
Britain’s hospital death toll from Covid-19 rose by 888 to 15,464 as of 16:00 GMT on 17 April, the health ministry said.
“357,023 people have been tested, of which 114,217 tested positive,” the health ministry added.
Queen Elizabeth II asked that there be no gun Salutes to mark her Birthday on Tuesday, the first such request in her 68-year reign.
Lockdown restrictions in the UK will continue for “at least” another three weeks as it tackles the coronavirus outbreak, Dominic Raab has said.
The foreign secretary told the daily No 10 briefing that a review had concluded relaxing the measures now would risk harming public health and the economy.
“We still don’t have the infection rate down as far as we need to,” he said.
It comes as the UK recorded another 861 corona virus deaths in hospital, taking the total to 13,729.
Strict limits on daily life – such as requiring people to stay at home, shutting many businesses and preventing gatherings of more than two people – were introduced on 23 March, as the government tried to limit the spread of the corona virus.
Ministers are required by law to assess whether the rules are working, based on expert advice, every three weeks.
Mr Raab, deputising for Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he recovers from the illness, said:
“There is light at the end of the tunnel but we are now at both a delicate and a dangerous stage in this pandemic.
“If we rush to relax the measures that we have in place we would risk wasting all the sacrifices and all the progress that has been made.
“That would risk a quick return to another lockdown with all the threat to life that a second peak to the virus would bring and all the economic damage that a second lockdown would carry.”
Mr Raab said the review concluded that the measures were working, but there was evidence the infection was spreading in hospitals and care homes.
He said five conditions needed to be met before the lockdown was eased:
Making sure the NHS could cope
A “sustained and consistent” fall in the daily death rate
Reliable data showing the rate of infection was decreasing to “manageable levels“
Ensuring the supply of tests and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) could meet future demand
Being confident any adjustments would not risk a second peak
He said he could not provide a definitive timeline, but said the Prime Minister’s warning at the outset of the epidemic that it would take about three months to come through the peak still applied.
“We know it is rough going.
Every time I come to this lectern and read out the grim toll, I walk away and think of their sons and daughters going through this right now, their brothers, sisters, grandchildren, all those left behind,” Mr Raab said.
“It makes this government focus even harder on what we must do and I know together, united, we must keep up this national effort.”
It isn’t a surprise.
But it is hugely significant for every single person in this country.
The lockdown measures will go on for at least another three weeks.
Ministers from devolved administrations across the UK have agreed that as a united way forward.
The PM’s deputy, Dominic Raab, said that we’ve sacrificed too much to ease up now.
And while ministers in Westminster have been very reluctant to talk about a future exit strategy – for fear it could distract from its core “stay at home” message – the foreign secretary did nod to how we could, in future, see measures relaxed in some areas while potentially strengthening them in others.
That may not sound like a lot of detail, but it is possible to start tentatively piecing this exit strategy puzzle together.
It’s important to say things could change as more information comes to light.
But, as things stand, it seems that the route out of this will be staggered, gradual and cautious.
The government’s clear and ongoing priority will be to avoid overwhelming the NHS.
Increased testing will be an essential part of tackling the infection.
And meanwhile the country, and indeed the world, waits for what appears to be the ultimate way out – a vaccine.
With Labour calling on the government to publish plans for easing the lockdown, Mr Raab said they were being as “open as we responsibly can” but they could not “prejudge” the evidence that their scientific advisers would consider at the next review in three weeks’ time.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said “the government is right” to extend the restrictions but he said any exit strategy would require mass testing in the community and it was “struggling” to reach its target of 100,000 tests a day by the end of April.
The UK now has the capacity to carry out 35,000 tests for the corona virus a day, Downing Street said, although the most recent figures showed they only carried out 18,665 in the last 24-hour period.
Sir Keir also told the BBC’s podcast Corona Virus Newscast that he suspected Mr Raab was “reluctant” to sign off an exit strategy without the Prime Minister in office.
Also speaking at the briefing, Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, played down suggestions that vulnerable groups such as the elderly could be kept under lockdown conditions for longer.
He said the aim was for “everything to start moving more towards normal, not to segregate certain groups“.
The government’s announcement in the UK comes after a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee, involving the first ministers of Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland.
In Scotland, a further 80 people have died in hospitals.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the lockdown should continue because “we are not confident enough that the virus has been suppressed sufficiently“.
Wales recorded another 32 deaths, with First Minister Mark Drakeford saying it was “still too early to change course“.
Northern Ireland saw its highest daily toll, with a further 18 deaths in hospitals.
England recorded another 740 deaths.
The tallies for individual nations can differ from the UK-wide total, because they are calculated on a different timeframe.
Above: Confirmed cases of COVID-19 per million residents in the United Kingdom by country and English region
At 20:00 BST for the fourth week running, people across the country gathered on doorsteps, balconies or in gardens to applaud workers in the NHS, care services and others helping during the crisis.
“It got really big, eh?” said Annemarie Plas, a Dutch woman living in London who began the weekly Clap for Carers ritual.
“You can never say British people don’t have passion and spirit.”
Downing Street said Boris Johnson, who continues to recover from Covid-19, joined in the applause to thank the “incredible efforts” of NHS and care workers.
During the No 10 briefing, Professor Chris Whitty, the UK’s chief medical adviser, urged people to continue to attend hospital if they needed to for other emergencies, saying the NHS “is open for business“.
It comes after figures showed that visits to accident and emergency units have dropped sharply since the outbreak began.
Professor Whitty also said the government was reviewing whether there were any circumstances in which it should recommend people wear masks in public to prevent the virus spreading, but said “the evidence is weak” and it would be a “very bad thing” if increased demand created shortages for healthcare workers.
But London Mayor Sadiq Khan told the BBC he wanted people in the capital to wear masks or face coverings whenever they leave the house.
“The evidence around the world is that this is effective, and I’m lobbying our government, our advisers to change their advice, and I want us to do that sooner rather than later,” he said.
Following reports that black, Asian and minority ethnic people were critically ill in disproportionately high numbers, Downing Street said the NHS and Public Health England would carry out a review into whether some ethnicities were particularly at risk from the virus.
Professor Whitty said that it was “absolutely critical” to determine which groups were most at risk, but said the evidence on ethnicity was “less clear” at the moment than other factors, such as age, sex and underlying illnesses.
Some countries across Europe which introduced lockdown measures before the UK are now beginning to ease them, including Austria, Italy and Germany.
However, they continue to require some social distancing measures, which reduce close contact between people and prevent large gatherings.
The health ministry in the UK has said the number of people who have died in hospital from the corona virus has risen by 847 to 14,576.
The increase over a period of 24 hours is slightly lower than the 861 new deaths recorded yesterday.
The latest data also shows a further 5,599 people tested positive for Covid-19 over 24 hours, taking the total number of infections in the UK to nearly 109,000.
In Northern Ireland, a further 18 people have died in hospitals after being diagnosed with Covid-19, bringing the overall hospital figure to 176.
Northern Ireland’s Statistical Research Agency said an additional 39 deaths were not recorded by the Department of Health.
Wales’ First Minister Mark Drakeford told a press conference in Cardiff there were reasons the nation could “look forward cautiously and carefully” to how the future would look after the pandemic.
“On 7 April, we saw the highest number of new admissions for the corona virus in the outbreak so far to Welsh hospitals,” Mr Drakeford said.
“On that day, the figure was 196.
It has been below that number every day since.”
Mr Drakeford said there had been as few as 105 such admissions yesterday.
In terms of critical care, the highest figure – 161 patients – was recorded on 9 April, but this has since “stabilised“, he said.
“These are the reasons why we are able to look forward cautiously and carefully to the future, to what Wales and the wider world will look like when the pandemic is over,” Mr Drakeford said.
Meanwhile, community testing could prevent lockdown measures having to be implemented during potential future waves of corona virus, British health select committee chairman Jeremy Hunt has said.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Hunt said:
“A test is not a cure.
A test gives you vital information as to where the virus is in the community so you can track it and trace everyone who’s been near the person who had it.
“And that means that you don’t have to lock down because in Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, they’ve kept the offices open, the shops are open, the shopping malls are open and normal life is able to continue much more than it is able to do at the moment in the UK.”
A further 17 people have died with Covid-19 in hospital settings in Northern Ireland in the past day.
It takes the total number of confirmed deaths in hospital settings in the North to 193, according to the Public Health Agency.
Another 148 people were diagnosed with the corona virus in Northern Ireland, taking the total to 2,486.
The full death toll is likely to be higher after official statistics published on yesterday showed the figures were around a third higher than previously reported.
The disparity is due to differences in how the statistics are gathered.
Overall deaths in the UK have risen by 888 to 15,464.
The British health ministry said:
“357,023 people have been tested, of which 114,217 tested positive.”
Britain’s official corona virus toll only includes deaths recorded in hospitals.
The number of people killed by the corona virus in UK care homes could be as high as 7,500, the sector’s main charity has warned.
“Without testing, it is very difficult to give an absolute figure,” Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, told The Daily Telegraph.
“However, if we look at some of the death rates since 1 April and compare them with previous years’ rates, we estimate a figure of about 7,500 people may have died as a result of Covid-19.”
The figure is more than five times higher than the estimate of 1,400 suggested by the UK government earlier this week.
“This is a shocking and utterly heartbreaking estimate that will send a chill down the spine of anyone with a loved one living in a care home,” said Caroline Abrahams, charity director at the Age UK charity.
“As we have feared for some time, what’s going on in care homes – not only here but in many other countries too – is a tragedy in the making.”
United States
A Massachusetts man attempted to burn down a Jewish nursing home earlier this month that had been discussed as a target on white supremacist platforms online, federal authorities say.
John Michael Rathbun, 36, was arrested Wednesday on two counts of attempted arson.
He is accused of placing a gasoline-filled canister outside Ruth’s House, a Jewish-sponsored assisted living facility in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, and trying to ignite it.
It did not ignite, and no one at the facility was hurt.
The incident took place on 3 April, according to a criminal complaint.
Police said they discovered a burnt Christian religious pamphlet in the nozzle of the canister.
Blood on the canister matched Rathbun’s DNA, according to federal investigators.
“As alleged, John Rathbun placed a homemade incendiary device near the entrance of a Jewish assisted living facility, located within a short distance of three Jewish temples, a Jewish private school, and a Jewish Community Center,” Joseph R. Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston division, said in a statement Wednesday.
“This case highlights the very real threat posed by racially motivated violent extremists.”
According to a federal affidavit, FBI agents started investigating a white supremacist group in March that used two unidentified social media platforms to promote and plot mass killings in the US targeting religious and racial minorities.
The group often listed targets for such attacks, including mosques and synagogues, the affidavit states.
One member of the group suggested targeting “that Jew nursing home in Longmeadow Massachusetts.”
Authorities believe the same member created an “event” in the group calendar titled “Jew Killing Day”, scheduled for 3 April.
It named the location as “Jew Nursery Home” and contained the message “F— JEWS”, according to the affidavit.
The event was “accepted” by six other users.
When FBI agents confronted Rathbun, the affidavit says, he “categorically denied any involvement” or interest in white supremacist groups.
He said he only used the Internet to watch pornography and access a dating website.
Rathbun, who had cuts on his hand, also initially denied involvement in the arson attempt.
But when the agents “informed him that his DNA matched the blood” found on the gas canister, his demeanor changed and a short time later he “stated that he did not know what he was going to do and that he wanted to cry”, according to the affidavit.
Rathbun will make his initial court appearance this week via videoconference, according to the Massachusetts US Attorney’s office, as courtrooms in the state and across the country are closed to slow the spread of the corona virus.
He could face up to 20 years in prison.
News of Rathbun’s alleged attempt to burn down the facility comes as nursing homes are struggling to cope with outbreaks of COVID-19, the disease caused by the corona virus, which is particularly fatal for the elderly.
Ruth’s House was already in lockdown on 3 April when Rathbun allegedly tried to burn it down, according to a note on the company’s website.
Although no one there has contracted corona virus, almost 100 residents at an affiliated nursing home nearby have tested positive for the virus.
Twenty-one of them have died.
US corona virus deaths increased by a record number for the second day in a row, rising by at least 2,371 on Wednesday to top 30,800, according to a Reuters tally, as states spared the worst of the pandemic mulled a partial lifting of restrictions on business and social life by 1 May.
The United States recorded its first corona virus fatality on 29 February.
It took 38 days to reach 10,000 deaths and just nine more days to go from 10,000 fatalities to 30,000.
The previous high single-day death toll was 2,364 on Tuesday.
US confirmed cases topped 635,000 in the United States and 2 million globally.
Above: Confirmed cases of COVID-19 per million residents in the USA by state or territory
Despite the spike in deaths, there were tentative signs in some parts of the country that the outbreak was beginning to ebb.
Governors of about 20 states with few corona virus cases believe they may be ready to start the process of reopening their economies by President Donald Trump’s 1 May target date, a top US health official said on Wednesday.
Governors in harder-hit states – New York, California, Louisiana, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Michigan – said there was a need for more widespread testing before starting to end the corona virus shutdown, which has thrown millions out of work with the closing of restaurants, businesses and schools.
Health officials have noted that death figures are a lagging indicator of the outbreak, coming after the most severely ill patients fall sick, and do not mean stay-at-home restrictions are failing to curb transmissions.
New York State and some other hard-hit areas continue to report sharp decreases in hospitalizations and numbers of patients on ventilators, although front-line healthcare workers and resources remained under extraordinary stress.
Officials have also cautioned that corona virus-related death figures are likely an undercount due to people dying at home or in nursing homes who were never tested for the virus.
China may have secretly set off low-level underground nuclear test explosions despite claiming to observe an international pact banning such blasts, the US State Department said in a report on Wednesday that could fuel US – Chinese tensions.
The finding, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, may worsen ties already strained by US charges that the global COVID-19 pandemic resulted from Beijing’s mishandling of a 2019 outbreak of the corona virus in the city of Wuhan.
US concerns about Beijing’s possible breaches of a “zero yield” standard for test blasts have been prompted by activities at China’s Lop Nur nuclear test site throughout 2019, the State Department report said.
Zero yield refers to a nuclear test in which there is no explosive chain reaction of the type ignited by the detonation of a nuclear warhead.
“China’s possible preparation to operate its Lop Nur test site year-round, its use of explosive containment chambers, extensive excavation activities at Lop Nur and a lack of transparency on its nuclear testing activities raise concerns regarding its adherence to the zero yield standard,” the report said, without providing evidence of a low-yield test.
Beijing’s lack of transparency included blocking data transmissions from sensors linked to a monitoring center operated by the international agency that verifies compliance with a treaty banning nuclear test explosions.
The 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) allows activities designed to ensure the safety of nuclear weapons.
A spokeswoman for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, which verifies compliance with the pact, told the Wall Street Journal there had been no interruptions in data transmissions from China’s five sensor stations since the end of August 2019 following an interruption that began in 2018.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a daily briefing in Beijing that China was committed to a moratorium on nuclear tests and said the United States was making false accusations.
“China has always adopted a responsible attitude, earnestly fulfilling the international obligations and promises it has assumed,” he said.
“The US criticism of China is entirely groundless, without foundation, and not worth refuting.”
A senior U.S. official said the concerns about China’s testing activities buttressed President Donald Trump’s case for getting China to join the United States and Russia in talks on an arms control accord to replace the 2010 New START treaty between Washington and Moscow that expires in February.
New START restricted the United States and Russia to deploying no more than 1,550 nuclear warheads, the lowest level in decades, and limited the land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers that deliver them.
“The pace and manner by which the Chinese government is modernizing its stockpile is worrying, destabilizing, and illustrates why China should be brought into the global arms control framework,” said the senior U.S. official on condition of anonymity.
China, estimated to have about 300 nuclear weapons, has repeatedly rejected Trump’s proposal, arguing its nuclear force is defensive and poses no threat.
Russia, France and Britain – three of the world’s five internationally recognized nuclear powers – signed and ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which still requires ratification by 44 countries to become international law.
China and the United States are among eight signatories that have not ratified it. But China has declared its adherence to its terms, while the United States has observed a unilateral testing moratorium since 1992.
Russia tested a missile capable of knocking out satellites in orbit, the top US space general said on Wednesday.
The Russian anti-satellite missile (also known as “ASAT”) is capable of destroying satellites in low Earth orbit, according to US Space Command, which is tracking the test.
“Yet another example that the threats to U.S. and allied space systems are real, serious and growing,” General John Raymond, commander of US Space Command and chief of US Space Force Operations, said in a statement.
“This test is further proof of Russia’s hypocritical advocacy of outer space arms control proposals designed to restrict the capabilities of the United States while clearly having no intention of halting their counterspace weapons programs.”
The Pentagon noted that the test comes shortly after a pair of Russian spacecraft came close to a US spy satellite.
At the time Raymond said Russia’s spacecraft showed “unusual and disturbing behavior.”
He specifically called out Russia for developing technologies that could harm US systems in space, saying the recent maneuvers could “create a dangerous situation in space.”
Russia last conducted a test of its PL-19 Nudol anti-satellite missile system in December 2018.
Anti-satellite missiles are not a new technology but only a few of the world’s superpowers have been able to develop and prove the capability.
Last year, India joined that limited group when it destroyed a satellite during a test.
But anti-satellite tests that destroy spacecraft have broad implications and even tiny pieces of debris can threaten other satellites in orbit.
An unclassified report from the National Air and Space Intelligence Center, or NASIC, explained how China conducted an anti-satellite test in 2007 that produced a great deal of space junk.
At an altitude of about 800 kilometers, China destroyed one of its own weather satellites with an anti-satellite missile.
Although the test was successful, the satellite shattered into thousands of pieces, which continue to zip around in an orbital cloud of dangerous debris.
US President Donald Trump says he remains hopeful that he will be able to resume campaign rallies ahead of the November election.
Trump said that he does not want social distancing at his rallies, which typically draw big crowds, because doesn’t want attendees to miss the “flavour” of the experience.
Trump stopped holding his big stadium rallies in early March because of the corona virus pandemic.
The President predicted that when the rallies resume they’ll be “bigger than ever.”
He plans to travel to the US Military Academy in New York next month to deliver the commencement ceremony.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee on Friday accused Donald Trump of “fomenting domestic rebellion and spreading lies” after the United States President urged supporters to “LIBERATE” three states led by Democratic governors.
“The president’s statements this morning encourage illegal and dangerous acts.
He is putting millions of people in danger of contracting Covid-19,” Inslee said in a series of tweets on Friday afternoon.
Inslee’s tweets came after Trump apparently encouraged the growing protests against the stay-at-home restrictions aimed at stopping the corona virus.
Frustration boiled over into anger on a private call with Vice President Mike Pence as Democratic senators questioned administration officials about corona virus testing plans but left without adequate answers, according to reports.
At one point in the Friday call, Maine Senator Angus King, an independent and former governor, told Pence the administration’s failure to develop an adequate national testing regime is a “dereliction of duty,” a person who joined the hour-long call but was unauthorised to discuss it told the Associated Press News agency.
“I have never been so mad about a phone call in my life,” King told the administration officials, the person said.
The plea for more testing before implementing President Donald Trump’s new guidelines to ease stay-home restrictions is a top priority for Democrats.
They are heeding the warnings of health officials worried the virus will simply boomerang into prolonged national crisis.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday that 540 people died across his state over the last 24 hours due to the novel corona virus, marking the lowest daily tally in more than two weeks.
Speaking at a daily briefing, Cuomo also said new hospital admissions stayed around the 2,000-patient mark, which he said was “still an overwhelming number.”
Amazon has started to use thermal cameras at its warehouses to speed up screening for feverish workers who could be infected with the corona virus, employees told Reuters news agency.
The cameras in effect measure how much heat people emit relative to their surroundings.
They require less time and contact than forehead thermometers, earlier adopted by Amazon, the workers said.
Cases of the virus have been reported among staff at more than 50 of Amazon’s US warehouses.
That has prompted some workers to worry for their safety and walk off the job.
Unions and elected officials have called on Amazon to close buildings down.
Hundreds of people are protesting the virus-related lockdowns in the US, too, with rallies in states including Texas, Maryland, New Hampshire and Ohio.
In Washington, DC, Trump told reporters that some state governors have gotten “carried away” and imposed “unreasonable” restrictions.
New Jersey police found 17 bodies in one of the state’s largest nursing homes after an anonymous tip said a body was being stored in a shed.
A total of 68 people associated with the Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Centres have recently died, with 26 having tested positive for Covid-19.
Police did not find a body in the shed, but said the facility’s tiny morgue was “overwhelmed“.
New Jersey has over 71,000 cases and 3,100 deaths due to the corona virus.
Over the weekend, the nursing home had requested 25 body bags from authorities.
On Monday, police received the anonymous tip about a body being kept in a shed.
Instead, they found 17 bodies kept in a morgue built to house four.
“They were just overwhelmed by the amount of people who were expiring,” Andover police chief Eric Danielson told the New York Times.
It is unclear whether any of the 17 deaths were due to the corona virus.
Chaim Scheinbaum, a co-owner of the nursing home, addressed the morgue problem in an email to New Jersey Congressman Josh Gottheimer, according to the Associated Press.
“The backup and after hours holiday weekend issues, plus more than average deaths, contributed to the presence of more deceased than normal in the facility holding room,” he said.
Mr Scheinbaum also said the facility is adequately staffed.
Seventy-six patients have tested positive for Covid-19 along with 41 staff members between the two buildings, according to the Times .
Thirteen bodies were moved to a refrigerated truck at a neighbouring hospital, while the remaining four were to be sent to a funeral home.
The nursing home owner has since obtained a refrigerated truck for bodies, local media reported.
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan has decided to prolong restrictions imposed to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus until 10 May, the Central Asian nation’s government said.
The social distancing measures were set to expire on 10 April.
The Tashkent government has locked down all provinces and some major cities, closed some businesses and ordered citizens to only leave their homes for work or essential shopping.
Vietnam
Vietnam protested on Sunday at China saying it had established two administrative units on islands in the South China Sea, in Beijing’s latest move to demonstrate its assertiveness in the disputed waters.
China has recently been pushing its presence in the energy-rich waters while other claimants are pre-occupied with tackling the new corona virus pandemic, prompting the United States to call on China to stop its “bullying behaviour” there.
On Saturday it said it had established an administrative district on the Paracel islands and another on the Spratly islands.
The two districts are under the control of China’s Sansha city, according to China Global Television Network.
“The establishment of the so-called Sansha City and related activities seriously violated Vietnam’s sovereignty,” Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said in a statement.
“Vietnam demands that China respect Vietnam’s sovereignty and abolish its wrongful decisions,” Hang said in the statement.
A Chinese government survey ship was seen earlier this week tagging an exploration vessel operated by Malaysia’s state oil company Petronas in the disputed waters, and remained offshore of Malaysia as of late Sunday.
Earlier this month, Vietnam lodged an official protest with China after the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat it said had been rammed by a China Coast Guard vessel near the Paracels.
Zimbabwe
The bones of the young couple lay mingled in an open pit near the railway tracks.
In one corner, a male skull stuck out of the earth while a soiled pinkish dress nearby covered some of the other remains.
They belonged to Justin Tshuma, 34, and his pregnant wife Thembi Ngwenya, 21, who were shot dead by soldiers in 1983 while trying to flee their village during Zimbabwe’s first post-liberation conflict.
Robert Mugabe (1924 – 2019), the elected prime minister of an independent Zimbabwe in 1980, had claimed dissidents and fighters loyal to a rival liberation movement were threatening the country’s newly found freedom.
An elite unit, the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade, was deployed to the southwestern regions to fight the alleged dissidents, in a military campaign that killed more than 20,000 people – mostly ethnic Ndebele – between 1982 and 1987, according to rights groups.
Saturday marks 40 years since Zimbabwe gained independence from British and local white minority colonial rule.
But four decades since its founding on 18 April 1980, Zimbabwe is a fractured nation whose journey towards reconciliation and healing from past atrocities is not yet over.
In April last year, the remains of Tshuma and Ngwenya were the first to be discovered in Tsholotsho district following a government pledge to exhume and rebury those killed in the 1980s purge, known as Gukurahundi, a Shona word that translates to “the rain that washes away the chaff from the last harvest, before the spring rains“.
Exhumations have since continued but are no longer open to communities nor the media, with just a few family members and officials allowed to attend.
Once unearthed, the skeletal remains are taken to a forensic laboratory for identification and determination of the cause of death, a lengthy process that can take months.
Subsequently, the bones are given back to the family for re-burial at the homestead or a chosen location.
One year since the first public exhumation, Beauty Ngwenya, Thembi’s older sister, said the disinterment, along with prayer, had helped the family in their pursuit for healing.
“I feel the pain I’ve carried in my heart for so many years has subsided,” the 48-year-old told Al Jazeera.
“I hope others who are suffering will see that it’s possible to be free of this pain.
Now that we know the truth about Thembi, I can forgive those who did this if they seek forgiveness from me.”
Yet for others, the memory of Gukurahundi remains hard to erase.
“I was a young man then, but I still have the scars of what they did to me,” said Simeon Ncube, now 58.
Ncube had joined the liberation struggle as a teenager but was later accused of being a dissident fighter.
He said he was captured by soldiers in August 1982 after his older brother, also a liberation fighter, escaped to South Africa.
Ncube said he was taken to Bhalagwe, once a military base south of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city.
Thousands of civilians were detained and brutally tortured there, and many were killed.
“I was tortured at Bhalagwe,” said Ncube, alleging that he was beaten and given electric shock treatment.
“What kind of freedom is this if people have to live with their pain and those who tortured us won’t tell us why they did it?
It’s hard for me to forgive and forget, I can’t do it,” he added.
There is still no public acknowledgement of the Gukurahundi atrocities, which were once described by the late Mugabe as “a moment of madness“.
Meanwhile, the findings of the two commissions of inquiry conducted decades ago are not publicly accessible even under a different leader.
Following 37 years of Mugabe’s rule, former aide Emmerson Mnangagwa took over in a de facto coup in November 2017, promising a new era for Zimbabwe.
However, despite making efforts to reconcile and heal the wounds of the past, the new president’s government has also cracked down on citizens – rights groups have accused state security forces of using excessive lethal force to quell protests last year.
Ordinarily, the celebration of independence would have culminated with a stadium commemoration featuring live music, an army parade and liberation war veterans recounting their role in the armed struggle against colonial rule.
But this year, it will be a low-key affair that will find Zimbabweans, most of whom struggle under the weight of a protracted economic crisis, under lockdown as the country tries to contain the spread of the corona virus pandemic.
Zimbabwe has so far registered 24 cases and three deaths associated with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new corona virus.
Earlier this week, Kembo Mohadi, the second vice president who chairs the inter-ministerial taskforce for COVID-19, said Zimbabweans should draw inspiration from the bush war victory against the British in order to succeed in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
“It was through the resilience of Zimbabweans that we have this independence, and we got it without assistance from Europe and the US.
We did it ourselves,” he said during a meeting with government stakeholders, chiefs, religious leaders and business people on Wednesday.
“Let us forget the political bickering we might have.
Covid-19’s our war together and we have to fight it together.”
Justice Sello Nare leads the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC), a nine-member body constitutionally mandated to “ensure post-conflict justice, healing and reconciliation”.
Amid reports of rights violations during the enforcement of the lockdown, Nare said the commission has urged security forces to show restraint and encouraged mutual cooperation between the state and citizens.
He also promised that exhumations would continue, even as some in the region remain sceptical about the efforts of the government and the commission – NPRC-led community consultations in the past have been disrupted by angry protesters.
“The situation has improved reasonably in the reception we have received in this area.
There were a few disturbances last year, but we have found a way to relate on this issue,” Nare told Al Jazeera.
“There have been a lot of conflicts in this area because of Gukurahundi, but we are here to assure our people that they must tell the truth and make peace.
We want to carry out exhumations freely so people must not be afraid.”
World
Authorities in several countries, including the United States, Italy, Spain, France and Canada, have launched inquiries into how elderly care facilities have responded to the corona virus crisis after reports emerged of high death rates at those facilities.
The pandemic has put a spotlight on nursing homes across the world, where thousands of elderly residents, who are most vulnerable to the disease, are believed to have died after contracting it.
Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones and Beyonce are taking part in a global special of music, comedy and personal stories in what Gaga calls a “love letter” to front-line workers battling the coronavirus pandemic.
The two-hour “One World: Together at Home“, broadcast across multiple television channels in the US and overseas, features a Who’s Who of pop culture, with contributions, filmed from their homes, from Elton John, Stevie Wonder, British football star David Beckham and former US first ladies Michelle Obama and Laura Bush.
“I’m so grateful for the healthcare workers, the medical workers, all the grocery store workers and delivery people, the postal workers, all the other nonprofits that are working so hard,” Gaga says.
“This is really a true love letter to all of you all over the world, and I hope a reminder of the kindness that’s occurring right now,” she adds.
Hosted by three of the biggest late-night television show hosts in the US – Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon – the special pays tribute to teachers and healthcare, grocery, delivery, postal and other workers.
The event, organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the nonprofit group Global Citizen, is the biggest celebrity effort so far to mark the corona virus pandemic.
Europe now accounts for a total of 100,510 corona virus deaths – nearly two-thirds of the 157,539 fatalities worldwide, according to an AFP tally.
Many countries are testing only the most serious cases and the number of confirmed infections is likely to be a fraction of the true total.
Italy and Spain remain the hardest-hit countries in Europe, with 23,227 and 20,043 fatalities respectively, followed by France with 19,323 deaths.
The United Kingdom’s overall death toll is officially 15,464.
Most countries globally are seeing a surge in domestic violence, leading to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealing to governments to pay attention to and prevent a “horrifying global surge in domestic violence” amid lockdown measures.
But in other parts of the world, mechanisms to protect women from being locked in with their abusers have evolved to take into account lockdowns and social distancing.
The French government has promised to open pop-up counselling centres and pay for hotel rooms for domestic violence victims, who have also been encouraged to seek help at pharmacies.
In Italy, the government has launched an app that enables domestic violence victims to seek help without making a phone call.
Corona virus cases worldwide have doubled in the past two weeks, bringing the total to over two million.
The United States remains the epicentre, responsible for almost a third of all cases, with approximately 636,000 people infected across the country.
The United States continues to have the highest recorded death rate at 28,586.
On Wednesday, it registered its highest daily death toll, beating out the record set the previous day, as almost 2,500 deaths were reported.
Per capita, Europe has suffered the highest death rate with countries such as Spain, Italy, France and the United Kingdom all experiencing a higher proportion of deaths than the United States.
However, the number of new cases per day is falling in Spain and Italy, whereas the trend remains flat in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, where new cases have not yet fallen.
Above: Map of the COVID-19 verified number of infected per capita as of 19 April 2020 – the darker the nation, the more cases therein
As the public health situation deteriorates so does the economic one, and pressure is building to reopen economies shut down by the pandemic.
Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that a number of US states may reopen on 1 May.
“There are a number of counties within this country that have not experienced really any coronavirus despite testing,” Redfield told ABC.
“There are a number of states—19, 20 states—that really have had limited impact from it.
So I think we will see some states that are, the governors feel that they’re ready, we’re poised to assist them with that reopening.”
Will the global economy ever recover?
Foreign Policy asked nine leading global thinkers, including two Nobel-Prize-winning economists, to weigh in with their predictions for the future economic and financial order once the coronavirus pandemic subsides.
Laura D’Andrea Tyson warns that those on the bottom rungs may suffer the most immediate effects:
“Many low-wage, low-skill, in-person service jobs, especially those provided by small firms, will not return with the eventual recovery,” she writes.
Can we trust the corona virus numbers?
Experts have warned repeatedly that recorded numbers, whether corona virus cases or deaths, are likely undercounted due to testing shortages and prioritizing the living over the dead when it comes to testing.
However, a report by ProPublica looking at deaths in major US metropolitan areas shows just how far off the count may be.
In New York, 200 deaths were recorded per day outside of hospitals or nursing homes in the past week.
The usual average is 35 per day.
What a difference a day makes!
What change a week reveals!
One more depending on a prayer
And we all look away
People pretending everywhere
It’s just another day
There’s bullets flying through the air
And they still carry on
We watch it happen over there
And then just turn it off
We must stand together
(Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
There’s no getting even
(Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Hand in hand forever
(Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
That’s when we all win
(Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
That’s, that’s, that’s when we all win
That’s, that’s, that’s when we all win
They tell us every thing’s alright
And we just go along
How can we fall asleep at night
When something’s clearly wrong
When we could feed a starving world
With what we throw away
But all we serve are empty words
That always taste the same
We must stand together
(Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
There’s no getting even
(Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Hand in hand forever
(Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
That’s when we all win
(Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
That’s, that’s, that’s when we all win
That’s, that’s, that’s when we all win
The right thing to guide us
Is right here, inside us
No one can divide us
When the light is leading on
Landschlacht, Switzerland, Wednesday 8 April 2020 (Lockdown Day #23)
I like to think that there is always something positive to be found in every situation, even if that scenario is painful or uncomfortable.
Take as an example the present lockdown with which I and the entirety of the country and the populations of many other nations are currently experiencing.
What, you may ask, is positive about the circumstances in which many of us are enmeshed in?
And I think the one certainty is a sense of perspective.
The potential loss of employment has made me value being employed.
Many days of 24/7 spent with my betrothed are simultaneously a reminder of what has drawn us together and an awareness of that which strains our relationship.
For a month I have been mostly in exile within the walls of our apartment – first because I was enduring a man-cold and then the state of emergency that the government of Switzerland has declared.
Stores are shuttered.
Religious services are suspended.
Gyms are closed as are schools and museums and libraries, cafés and restaurants.
This nation, as with other countries, longs to evolve to the stage of reliable treatments and ready vaccinations.
The historian in me finds parallels between the pandemic of 1918 – 1919 and the present 2019 – 2020 virus that plagues us.
Certainly the statistics of the “Spanish flu” killed a lot more people than I anticipate this virus ever will.
The corona virus has killed thousands.
The Spanish flu killed 100 million – one third of the planet’s population.
Above: Soldiers from Fort Riley, Kansas, ill with Spanish flu at a hospital ward at Camp Funston
The corona virus is unpleasant and potentially fatal.
The symptoms of the Spanish flu were terrifying.
Then and now mankind has found itself overwhelmed and bewildered.
But behind the numbers are human lives, the stories of those who suffered and those who struggled on.
Both have struck (and struck down) world leaders, celebrities and writers.
But not all those in the path of the pandemic are politicians, famous or literary.
What of those that serve to secure us, those that seek to cure us, those that supply us and those whose lives sustain us with the enthusiasm of youth or the erudition of experience?
They are lives without voice, memories without memorials.
“The Captain looked suddenly tired.
“Sometimes I think, Mr. Benson, that the very air is poisoned with the damned influenza.
For four years now millions of rotting corpses have covered a good part of Europe from the Channel to Arabia.
We can’t escape it even when we are 2,000 miles out to sea.
It seems to come as it did on our last trip, like a dark and invisible fog.”
Herbert Faulkner West, HMS Cephalonia: A Stoy of the North Atlantic in 1918
“Fly this plague-stricken spot!
The hot, foul air is rank with pestilence – the crowded marts and public ways, once populous with life, are still and noisome as a churchyard vault.
Aghast and shuddering, Nature holds her breath in abject fear and feels at her strong heart the deadly fangs of death.”
Susanne Moodie, “Our Journey up the Country”
Above: Susanne Moodie (1803 – 1885)
In terms of national identity, there was nothing inherently Spanish about the Spanish flu as there is nothing inherently Chinese about the corona virus, for though it began in China it could easily have started anywhere.
In 1918 and in 2020 full biohazard suits are donned and counsel sought from medical experts, clergy, officers, family and friends.
Answers are hard to find and opinions hard to ignore.
The corona virus is hard to define and harder to defeat.
Like the Spanish flu it shares the common characteristics of acute breathing difficulties, haemorrhaging and fever.
Both are complex diseases caused by airborne viruses which spreads between individuals in microscopic droplets via coughing or sneezing.
With both bringing people together in close contact aids the spread of infection, particularly in crowded communities such as schools, rallies political or religious and hospitals themselves.
And truth be told, though each strain is individualistic, the flu itself is nothing new.
Hippocrates (460 – 370 BC) witnessed an epidemic in Greece in 412 BC, as did Livy (64 Bc – 17 AD) in the days of ancient Rome.
Above: Hippocrates
The most terrifying aspect of the Spanish flu was how easily it was transmitted.
With most influenza, the victim incubates the virus for at least 24 hours and up to two weeks before the disease becomes obvious.
The first signs are headache, chills, dry cough, fever, weakness and loss of appetite.
Generalized fatigue and, in some, bronchitis and pneumonia ensue.
For most of us a case of the flu, even the corona, means little more than a few days off work, paracetamol tablets and hot lemon drinks on the sofa.
But Spanish flu, by contrast, was far more aggressive and fast-acting.
Infected in a instant, dead within days.
Victims collapsed in the streets, haemorrhaging from lungs and nose.
Their skin turned dark blue through lack of oxygen as their lungs filled with pus and they gasped for air like landed fish.
There was projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhoea.
The victims died raving as their brains were starved of oxygen.
Doctors and nurses, then and now, worked heroically to care for the sick, often falling ill themselves.
Entire families were struck down in their homes.
Children starved to death as their parents lay helpless in their beds.
Deranged fathers murdered their children, convinced that their pffspring would starve without them.
The bodies of the dead and dying were thrown from trains and left alongside the track.
Children became orphans, entire cities became ghost towns, undertakers ran out of coffins, and there was no room to bury people in individual plots but rather steam shovels dug giantic holes for mass graves.
With the corona virus already world leaders have fallen or are hospitalized.
Above: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson
Now, as then, leaders free of the plague are either burdened with knee-jerk reactionary, glorious purpose or hampered by a halting timorous fear that knows no comfort in abject terror.
Have we learned anything from the flu of 1918?
Those not in control of the uncontrollable must seize control of what and whom they can and act as if they have authority over the indefinable.
Congregating crowds must be discouraged.
And freed from freedom in the name of safety and security…..
Switzerland is contributing to a European digital platform that promises to combat the spread of pandemics by better identifying people at risk of viral infection.
According to the scientists behind the platform, the system alerts anyone who has been in contact with an infected person without compromising the data privacy of individuals.
Knowing who has tested positive for a virus is not enough to contain its spread.
The Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (PEPP-PT) system identifies who is most at risk of having picked it up without yet knowing that they too are contagious.
Crunching data from a variety of smartphone apps, spread across multiple countries, the platform can pinpoint those at risk from infection and connect them with their local health services.
It is being offered as an antidote to nationwide lockdowns imposed by governments that have no other means of controlling the spread of the corona virus.
“We all know that as a society and as an economy we cannot go on like this for extended periods of time,” Marcel Salthé, an epidemiologist at Lausanne’s Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), told a media conference on Wednesday.
“Instead of quarantining entire populations, we could focus on the very few people who need it.”
The corona virus has been so much harder to contain than the SARS virus because this time around people appear to be contagious before they show symptoms, Salthé explained.
This intensifies the need to identify anyone who had been in contact with corona virus victims before they even knew they were infected.
PEPP-PT is set to go live as early as next week.
Scientists from eight countries, including Switzerland, have been working on the system that will be incorporated in Switzerland as a non-profit entity.
The system squares the circle of tracing people’s movements with privacy safeguards in place.
Individuals can voluntarily download apps that encrypt their identities whilst tracking their movements.
If they come into close proximity to a person who has later tested positive for a contagious virus, it will send an alert and connect them with the health authorities.
Above: Leper with bell
Does anyone else see the grave potential for discrimination being practised?
Unlike other digital tracking systems that have been used to contain the corona virus around the world, the PEPP-PTT designers say their version will not simply pull data from telecommunications providers and hand it to governments.
PEPP-PTT will also comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
“The idea is to make the technology available to as many countries, managers of infectious disease responses and developers as quickly and as easily as possible,” reads a statement.
“The technical mechanisms and standards…fully protect privacy and leverage the possibilities and features of digital technology to maximise speed and real-time capability of any national pandemic response.”
So, the idea is not only is freedom of movement and freedom of assembly drastically curtailed, but your movements are being monitored by the digital devices we are shown we cannot function without.
Library closed?
Read online.
Bank closed?
Do your banking online.
Your privacy will be respected, except when it won’t.
Good evening…..
Allow me first to apologize for this interruption.
I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine – the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition.
I enjoy them as much as any bloke.
But in the spirit of commemoration, whereby those important events of the past usually associated with someone’s death or the end of some awful bloody struggle are celebrated with a nice holiday.
I thought we could mark this …… day, that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat.
There are of course those who do not want us to speak.
I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way.
Why?
Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power.
Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth.
And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there?
Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression.
And where once you had the freedom to object, think, and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillence coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission.
How did this happen?
Who’s to blame?
Well, certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable.
But again, truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.
I know why you did it.
I know you were afraid.
Who wouldn’t be?
War, terror, disease.
There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense.
Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now High Chancellor, Adam Sutler.
He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent…..
More than four hundred years ago a great citizen wished to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives.
….. if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me …..
The Swiss government is preparing an additional financial package to help the economy shaken by the corona virus epidemic.
Economics Minister Guy Parmelin said the planned aid was aimed at supporting those small independent businesses that were ineligible for the first relief package of CHF20 billion (around 20.6 billion) presented two weeks ago.
“The government is prepared to provide more financial aid,” he said at a press conference on Wednesday.
“There is no question that the economy will suffer because of the crisis, but the government wants to minimise the damage.”
Parmelin said the Finance Ministry would present a proposal for additional funds by next Friday.
For its part, the Economics Ministry has been mandated to define the criteria for new beneficiaries within a week.
The new package is destined for self-employed one-person ventures, including those in the cultural and the sports sector, as well as people working on demand.
There are currently 330,000 people working as one-person ventures but 270,000 of them do not qualify for financial support, Parmelin said.
By the end of March, credits worth CHF11 billion ($11.5 billion) have been granted and more than 86,000 businesses applied for unemployment benefits covering reduced working hours.
This represents nearly 20% of the Swiss work force.
“We are in the midst of a crisis – the worst to hit the Swiss economy since the Second World War,” said Parmelin.
The government wants to ensure that those people in the labour market most affected by the current crisis can survive, he added.
However, Parmelin again dismissed calls for tackling non-repayable loans and untargeted financial support.
He said his Ministry was considering measures to prevent abuses of the credits.
He also indicated that the government is preparing different scenarios to crank up the Swiss economy, gradually easing certain restrictions on businesses.
And, here the duality of doublethink is demonstrated.
Here we find governments who cripple the economy by acting rashly, by shutting entire nations down and then pretend to have compassion for the pain that they themselves caused.
And notice how monies are directed to businesses not to citizens.
Note how the concern is for the economy and not for those affected by the economy.
And yet our governments imitate Bryan Adams and croon in our ears:
“Everything I do, I do it for you.”
Meanwhile, the government has decided to continue processing asylum applications rejecting calls by human rights organisations for a moratorium.
Above: An asylum centre
Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said it was important to remain within the rule of law despite the Covid-19 epidemic.
Asylum requests will continue to be processed but adapted and deadlines will be extended, she said.
She also stressed that the asylum centres will house fewer people than under normal conditions to take into account the official health measures on social distancing.
Ah, nationalism!
Such a fine and wonderful word to use when you wish to sway the unwise and unworldly masses to accept the unacceptable, to tolerate the intolerable, to forget our humanity for those victims of inhumanity and injustice.
But there seems to be a contradiction coming out of the Justice Ministry.
If asylum requests are being processed, how can they be honoured if borders are sealed?
If businesses and government are being shutdown, then how can the construction or organization of other asylum centres be arranged?
And besides, nationalism dictates that the needs of the native of the nation must take precedence over those from the outside amongst the homeland-born.
Best not to focus on the asylum centres.
With any luck the consequences of congregating together during a corona crisis will consolidate this conundrum of compassion for us.
Who says I can’t achieve the accomplishment of alliteration like Hugo Weaving’s “V“?
Swiss farmers are asking people who have been temporarily laid off work in their normal jobs to help bring in the spring harvest.
The usual supply of seasonal workers from abroad has dried up because of corona virus lockdowns and border restrictions.
Without replacement workers, seasonal crops such as asparagus could go to waste, farmers are warning.
Their plea has been echoed by Economics Minister Guy Parmelin.
“I call on anyone looking for work to go to the fields to help farmers.
Spring vegetables must be harvested and it is difficult to get seasonal workers from abroad entry into Switzerland,” he told Schweizer Illustrierte magazine.
Above: Federal Ministry of Finance
Thomas Wyssa, a spokesman for vegetable farmers in northwestern Switzerland, told Swiss public broadcaster, SRF, that hotel or catering staff who have been told to stay at home during the pandemic by their employers could come to work in the fields.
“This is a precarious situation that will be difficult to solve in such a short space of available time,” he said.
Temporary workers from countries including Portugal, Spain, Poland and Romania are usually relied upon to plant the next batch of crops for harvesting later in the year.
Mathias Grünig from the Bernese Farmers Association said laid-off Swiss workers were starting to respond to appeals for help from the agricultural industry.
“This has never happened before and it shows that people want to help,”he told SRF.
However, he warned that the work could often be strenuous and open to the elements while wages were not high.
Parmelin said that there were other ways Swiss people could help farmers.
“I appeal to consumers to drink Swiss wine and eat Swiss products.”
So, we won’t left anyone in and we reduce the jobs of the most vulnerable – like the immigrants already here.
If they want to stay, they must work.
If we close their traditional positions in gastronomy and tourism, then send them to the fields.
Schools have been closed to foreigners without finance and national requirements limit the foreign ability to compete for the same jobs as professional Swiss, so let us take an idea from China’s Cultural Revolution.
In 1968, the Communist Party instituted the Down to the Countryside Movement, in which “Educated Youths” (zhishi qingnian or simply zhiqing) in urban areas were sent to live and work in agrarian areas to be re-educated by the peasantry and to better understand the role of manual agrarian labor in Chinese society.
In the initial stages, most of the youth who took part volunteered, although later on, the government resorted to forcing many of them to move.
Between 1968 and 1979, 17 millions of China’s urban youths left for the countryside, and being in the rural areas also deprived them the opportunity of higher education.
The entire generation of tormented and inadequately educated individuals is often referred to as the ‘lost generation‘ in both China and the West.
In the post-Mao period, many of those forcibly moved attacked the policy as a violation of their human rights.
People have to eat and crops need harvesting.
If you want to stay, earn it by the sweat of your brow.
Just don’t expect to earn much for doing this.
If you don’t like it, then leave.
And useless concepts like human rights and freedom be damned.
Visits to Swiss restaurants, shopping centres or museums plummeted by 81% in March, according to location data from users’ phones collected by Google.
Google’s analysis of billions of phones in 131 countries is the largest public dataset available to help health authorities assess whether people are obeying shelter-in-place and similar orders issued across the world to rein in the spread of Covid-19.
Its reports show charts that compare traffic from February 16 to March 29.
These are broken down into segments such as restaurants, shopping centres and museums, retailers and chemists, parks, train stations, and workplaces and residential areas.
In Switzerland, in addition to visits in the restaurant, retail and leisure sectors, activity declined in all areas except residential areas.
The food stores and chemists that were still open were 51% less frequented.
There were 41% fewer people strolling along rivers and in parks, 68% fewer on public transport and 46% fewer at work.
On the other hand, 15% more people stayed at home.
After 16 March, when the government announced its emergency measures, the numbers in restaurants sank abruptly.
At the same time, the frequency of visits to food stores and chemists increased as people started stocking up.
This curve later flattened out.
In parks and public spaces, the number of visitors initially increased right after 16 March.
Elsewhere, in Italy, one of the countries hardest hit by the virus, visits to retail and recreation locations, including restaurants and cinemas, plunged by 94% while visits to workplaces slid 63%.
Reflecting the severity of the crisis there, grocery and pharmacy visits in Italy dropped 85% and park visits were down by 90%.
The data also underscore some challenges authorities have faced in keeping people apart.
Food store visits surged in Singapore, Britain and elsewhere as travel restrictions were set to go into place.
Visits to parks spiked in March in some San Francisco Bay Area counties, forcing them to later put the sites off limits.
By contrast in Japan, where authorities have been relatively relaxed in urging social distancing measures but where calls have been growing daily for a state of emergency, visits to retail and recreational places fell 26%.
Visits to people’s workplaces dropped a mere 9%.
Data in Google’s reports came from users who enabled Google’s “Location History”feature on their devices.
The company said it adopted technical measures to ensure that no individual could be identified through the new reports.
And, of course, because they said this is so, then this certainly must be so.
We know we are being tracked and yet we do not shut off our phones.
We have convinced ourselves that being connected is the ultimate expression of our freedom.
Without thinking, we assume that our being connected to the world is unconnected to the notion that therefore the world is connected to you.
We think that the gild on the cage is reason to sing, convincing ourselves that only within the cage are we free from danger and insecurity, not noticing that we are caged until it is too late.
The peak of corona virus infections has not yet been reached in Switzerland and it is far too early to relax restrictions, says top public health official Daniel Koch.
Meanwhile nearly a quarter of the population is on short time work.
Koch, who is head of communicable diseases at the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), reminded people at a press conference on Saturday that the government measures were aimed at flattening the curve of infections and protecting vulnerable groups, notably people over 65 and / or with existing health problems.
“These are the people who put a strain on our hospitals and the health system and who have to fear for their lives,” said Koch.
He stressed that it is “everyone’s responsibilityto protect the vulnerable”, urging people to “stay home” this weekend and only go out “alone for a short walk” or exercise in the garden.
The number of Covid-19 infections detected in Switzerland has now climbed to some 20,000, while the number of deaths is over 600.
The number of people under artificial respiration on Saturday was 435, according to Koch.
He said the age range of the deceased was 32 to 101 years, and the average age was 83.
Only 6% of them were under 65 years old.
97% of the dead had suffered from at least one previous illness, with the three most frequently mentioned being high blood pressure (69%), cardiovascular diseases (55%) and diabetes (29%).
The total number of corona virus tests carried out to date is around 153,440, of which the result was positive in 15% of cases, according to the FOPH.
Above: The number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in Switzerland broken down by cantons as of April 7 – the darker the canton, the more cases therein
We apparently cannot be trusted with deciding for ourselves when it is safe to return to normality.
Almost a quarter of the Swiss working population (1.3 million people) is on short-time work, Director of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch told a press conference on Saturday.
In the southern canton of Ticino, where around 8,000 applications for short-time work are submitted every week, the rate is as high as 40%, she said.
Despite government measures including CHF60 billion in economic aid, she reiterated that the Swiss economy will not emerge from the crisis without damage.
For the authorities, the important thing for the time being is to ensure the salaries of employees and to avoid business bankruptcies.
It is very difficult to say today how and when the recovery will take place, she admitted.
The authorities are preparing for a way out of the crisis, with SECO and the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) studying various scenarios.
SECO is monitoring the situation closely, she said, citing the example of a teleconference she had this week with the tourism sector.
“We will maintain regular contacts, so that we can best prepare what will be necessary when the time comes,” Ineichen-Fleisch told the press conference.
Again, we learn of how God awful important the economy is from the very folks who shut the economy down.
Folks are dying.
What we need to hear is not how the economy is being salvaged after it has been savaged.
We need to know when we will be safe again, hear how safe we are and how that safety will be maintained.
A virus has attacked the world and once a vaccine has been developped we need to be assured that we will be better prepared for such a scenario re-occurring.
And if history teaches us anything, such a scenario will occur again.
About 5,000 civil protection personnel are currently mobilized in the fight against the corona virus, said Christoph Flury, Deputy Director of the Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS).
Of these, 2,900 are deployed in French-speaking Switzerland.
The western canton of Vaud, one of the worst affected by the epidemic, has been allocated 1,200 civil protection personnel, while another 200 were sent to Geneva over the weekend.
However, he said these figures could vary greatly from week to week.
Their main mission is support to hospitals, but also increasingly hospices and old people’s homes, Flury told the press conference.
There they relieve the medical staff in routine and disinfection work.
They are also supporting the law enforcement agencies to ensure that the population complies with federal measures such as social distancing.
These civilian service militia have been deployed alongside the army.
Brigadier Raynald Droz, Chief of Staff of the DDPS Operations Command said that on Saturday, the 20th day of the army’s engagement, 4,900 soldiers are mobilised, including 4,000 medical personnel.
One thousand army medical personnel could still be called up if necessary, he told the press conference.
On 16 March, the Swiss government announced that it was mobilising up to 8,000 members of the military to help the cantons fight the rapidly spreading corona virus, Covid-19.
This radical measure, taken during what is described as an “exceptional” emergency, is the largest military mobilisation in Switzerland since the Second World War.
Every power on the planet loves how an emergency can justify any act.
So, more soldiers, more men with guns, enforcing our safety and security, watching out for all of us.
But who watches the watchmen?
We certainly don’t control them.
Can we trust those who do?
I am not suggesting conspiracies or advocating paranoia.
But I am advocating caution and suggesting we don’t accept everything in blind faith or meek compliance without rational discourse justifying actions that affect us all.
Pressure to gradually reopen the economy is increasing, but Swiss Health Minister Alain Berset has told a Sunday newspaper a rapid end to corona virus restrictions is not realistic.
In an interview with the Sonntags Zeitung, Berset warned that if public adherence to the restrictions over Easter fell, the government might even tighten them and impose a curfew.
He said the government would discuss on Wednesday scenarios for ending confinement but a decision was not yet expected.
“It is only when the number of infected people and admissions to hospital are clearly falling that we will be able to consider softening the rules,” he told the paper.
However, there is growing pressure to gradually reopen the economy.
In an interview with the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper, Petra Gössi, head of the centre-right Radical Liberal Party, calls for the reopening of all shops that can comply with government safety measures, i.e. two-metre distancing between all persons in the shop and all hygiene regulations.
“If we don’t do this, we risk unnecessarily undermining public understanding of the government measures,” she told the paper.
Faced with the devastating effects of the pandemic on employment, the heads of the Swiss employers’ association Swissmem and the Swiss Trade Union Federation (USS) are both calling for the government to present exit scenarios, writes the Sonntags Zeitung.
“The Federal Council must now develop a strategy in which economic and social risks also play a role,” USS President Pierre-Yves Maillard told the paper.
And the Social Democrat Party is calling notably for a cap on health insurance premiums to relieve household budgets, its parliamentary group chairman Roger Nordmann told the Sonntags Blick newspaper.
Cash-strapped Swiss hospitals, in the front line of the fight against the corona virus, are calling for financial help and an end to the ban on non-emergency procedures which has sapped revenue, reports the Sonntags Zeitung newspaper.
It quotes the Director of Valais Hospital Hugo Burgener as saying “we need liquidity to pay salaries”, and writes that the Graubünden cantonal hospital will also have to raise an additional CHF20 million ($20 million) in the next few days.
Other clinics with empty coffers are reporting to the H+ Swiss Hospitals association, to which 220 Swiss hospitals are affiliated, according to the paper.
The federal government’s ban on scheduled non-emergency procedures during the crisis has led to “considerable losses in earnings, which in turn have an impact on liquidity,” says H+ spokeswoman Dorit Djelid.
There is definite irony here.
Prior to the corona crisis, hospitals complained that the public needed to be educated about not visiting them unless they truly had an emergency.
Now they are losing money hand over fist because the public learned that lesson too well.
“We are clarifying with the Federal Office of Public Health whether a gradual relaxation can be envisaged,”Dorit Djelid told the paper, which says this is likely to depend on when the peak of the pandemic is reached.
Revenue has also been lost because the ski resorts are closed and so no skiing accident victims are reporting to emergency wards.
At the same time, hospital spending has risen sharply to cope with the corona virus pandemic.
Intensive care units have had to increase the number of beds with ventilators, requiring new walls to be built and rooms adapted, while the cost of protective material has exploded.
Cantons have started to support their hospitals with bridging loans, according to the paper.
Meanwhile, the federal government, cantons and hospitals are discussing how the corona virus services will be paid for.
In the past decade of my life in Switzerland I have been hospitalized three times – only once for an occurrence that wasn’t the result of an accident.
How much money would have been saved had I been accident-free!
Police surrounded Geneva’s main prison on Friday after some 40 prisoners refused to return to their cells from their daily walk, complaining about measures taken due to the Covid-19 epidemic, officials said.
“There was a refusal to go back to their cells.
At the end of the afternoon, the prisoners who were finishing their walk inside the prison refused to go back to their cells,” said Laurent Forestier, spokesman for prisons in Geneva.
“Discussions are continuing and it’s not over yet,” he said.
There has been one confirmed infection in the facility, Forestier said, adding that the person had been hospitalised.
French-language Swiss broadcaster RTS said on Twitter that police have surrounded the area.
The chronically-overcrowded Champ-Dollon prison, located in the Geneva countryside, was built for 400 inmates, but had some 600 last month, the daily Le Temps said.
Maybe it has become long overdue time for mankind to examine why we incarcerate our fellow human beings and to examine if incarcerating in the numbers that we do is truly necessary and whether options to incarceration might be explored.
The Swiss death toll from the novel corona virus has risen to 584, the country’s public health agency has said, from 559 people on Sunday.
The number of positive tests also increased to 21,652 from 21,100 on Sunday, it said.
The country has been shut down, but the numbers are still rising.
Why?
Austria plans to reopen smaller shops from next week in its first step to loosen a lockdown that has slowed the spread of the corona virus, as long as the public continues to observe the lockdown broadly, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has said.
Kurz told a news conference that since Austria had acted earlier than most countries, that gave it the ability to reopen shops sooner as well.
If all goes well, it will reopen non-essential shops of less than 400 square metres and DIY shops on 14 April, followed by all shops and malls on 1 May, he said.
And what guarantees do Austrians have that a resurgence of Covina-19 won’t happen?
Above: Covid-19 – Cumulative cases in Austria per 100.000 inhabitants – the darker the region, the more cases therein
The Ruby Princess, a cruise ship that has become the biggest single source of corona virus cases in Australia, is docking at a port in southern New South Wales so crew in need of urgent medical treatment can be brought ashore.
Police in New South Wales are launching a criminal investigation into the ship’s allowing infected passengers to disembark in Sydney on 19 March.
At least 360 COVID-19 cases, including crew members, are associated with the Ruby Princess.
At least six of them are reported to have died.
Which does make me wonder how did the ship contract the disease?
In March 2020, the Miami New Times reported that managers at Norwegian Cruise Line had prepared a set of responses intended to convince wary customers to book cruises, including “blatantly false” claims that the corona virus “can only survive in cold temperatures, so the Caribbean is a fantastic choice for your next cruise”, that “scientists and medical professionals have confirmed that the warm weather of the spring will be the end of the corona virus”, and that the virus “cannot live in the amazingly warm and tropical temperatures that your cruise will be sailing to.”
Scientists caution that this is possible, but not guaranteed.
It is typical of the folly of man that we think by riding off to Samara we will avoid the pre-arranged appointment that death has set up for us there.
There are no guarantees in life, especially in how life ends.
Amnesty International is warning that older Rohingya refugees in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh are being left behind in the humanitarian response to COVID-19.
The rights group says basic accurate information about the illness and measures to prevent its spread is failing to reach people in the camps, especially older refugees.
There are more than 31,500 refugees aged 60 or older among the 860,000 people residing in the camps, according to United Nations figures.
Were the Rohingya considered human before the corona crisis struck?
Mainland China reported 39 new corona virus cases as of Sunday, up from 30 a day earlier, and the number of asymptomatic cases also surged, as Beijing continued to struggle to extinguish the outbreak despite drastic containment efforts.
The National Health Commission said in a statement on Monday that 78 new asymptomatic cases had been identified as of the end of the day on Sunday, compared with 47 the day before.
Imported cases and asymptomatic patients, who have the virus and can give it to others but show no symptoms, have become China’s chief concern in recent weeks after draconian containment measures succeeded in slashing the infection rate.
Of the new cases showing symptoms, 38 were people who had entered China from abroad, compared with 25 a day earlier.
One new locally transmitted infection was reported, in the southern province of Guangdong, down from five a day earlier in the same province.
The new locally transmitted case, in the city of Shenzhen, was a person who had travelled from Hubei province, the original epicentre of the outbreak, Guangdong provincial authorities said.
The Guangdong health commission raised the risk level for a total of four districts in the cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Jieyang from low to medium late on Sunday.
Mainland China has now reported a total of 81,708 cases, with 3,331 deaths.
Daily infections have fallen dramatically from the peak of the epidemic in February, when hundreds were reported daily, but new infections continue to appear daily.
Above: 2019-nCoV in Mainland China by attack rate
The country has closed off its borders to foreigners as the virus spreads globally, though most imported cases involve Chinese nationals returning from overseas.
The central government also has pushed local authorities to identify and isolate the asymptomatic patients.
Mainland China reported 39 new corona virus cases at the end of Sunday, all but one of them imported from abroad, up from the 30 reported a day earlier, as the number of asymptomatic cases also surged.
The National Health Commission said 78 new asymptomatic cases had been identified on Sunday, compared with 47 the day before.
Only one new death was recorded on 5 April, the new data showed.
China will work to further prevent corona virus cases imported through its land borders, the Chinese government has said in a statement after a meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang.
The risk of the virus being imported into China via land borders is increasing and the number of such cases has exceeded those recorded at airports recently, the statement said.
Of the 38 imported cases with symptoms recorded in mainland China on Sunday, 20 had arrived in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang after travelling overland from Vladivostok in neighbouring Russia, having flown to Vladivostok from Moscow.
The Chinese see no irony in forbidding foreigners entry for the danger they pose while distracting the world from the realization that the virus began in China itself.
Jack Ma, co-founder of tech powerhouse Alibaba, donated 500 ventilators, 200,000 suits and face shields, 2,000 thermometers, one million swabs and extraction kits and 500,000 gloves to all 54 African countries, he said on Twitter.
Ma had previously donated over one million laboratory diagnostic test kits and infection prevention and control materials to the continent.
This generosity is appreciated, but I get the sense that this Good Samaritan is not sacrificing much of his wealth to do so.
Public health experts have warned of a severe shortage of supplies, in particular ventilators, across Africa, with the Norwegian Refugee Council warning in March that the Central African Republic had only three ventilators available for COVID-19 patients.
Take a minute and let that sink in.
A country of over four million people has only three ventilators in the entire nation.
Why?
The International Monetary Fund cited limited but encouraging signs of recovery in China, the first country to suffer the full force of the COVID-19 pandemic, but said it could not rule out a resurgence of the pandemic in China and elsewhere.
Top IMF economists said in a blog that the pandemic caused by the new corona virus had pushed the world into a recession that would be worse than the global financial crisis, and called for a global, coordinated health and economic policy response.
“The economic damage is mounting across all countries, tracking the sharp rise in new infections and containment measures put in place by governments,” the IMF experts wrote.
We cannot simply return to life as normal without taking into account that without a viable vaccine there are absolutely no guarantees that the corona virus will not return.
We cannot simply return to life as normal without finally preparing ourselves for the likelihood that emergencies will happen to us again.
A controversial memorial in Prague to a Soviet-era military commander has been removed from its pedestal, drawing a rebuke from Moscow and from Czech President Milos Zeman.
The bronze statue of General Ivan Konev (1897 – 1973) a marshall of the Soviet Union during World War II, was dismantled on 3 April after a local assembly in the Prague 6 district voted in 2019 to remove it.
Konev is regarded as a hero in Russia for retaking much of Eastern Europe from Nazi German forces during World War II.
But many Czechs view him an enforcer of Soviet rule after the war.
He led the Soviet troops that entered Prague after it had been liberated from the Nazis by resistance forces.
But he also commanded the troops that crushed the1956 anti-Soviet uprising in Hungary and helped build the Berlin Wall.
Some historians say Konev also participated in planning the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia.
The Russian Embassy in Prague protested the removal of the monument on 3 April in a note sent to the Czech Foreign Ministry.
“The dismantlement of a monument to Marshal Ivan Konev will not be left without the Russian side’s appropriate response,” the Russian Embassy said.
President Zeman said local authorities “abused” a public-health lockdown aimed at slowing the spread of the corona virus.
Local officials say a new monument will be erected at the site to honor the Prague uprising resistance fighters who liberated the city from the Nazis at the end of World War II, days before Konev’s Soviet troops arrived.
Konev’s statue, erected in 1980 by Czechoslovakia’s Communist regime, will be transferred to a planned history museum.
I acknowledge that men make war a necessity by the desire of some to lay claim to what they believe to be theirs by any means possible.
I have no problem honouring the sacrifice of soldiers and civilians during times of savagery and violence.
But I do have a problem with showing homage to men who send others to die in their stead in the name of patriotism, honour and God in conflicts that where men die regardless of the flag on their tunics, in ways lacking honour or dignity, in wars that have nothing to do with God.
Why die in conflicts that those who cause them won’t risk their own lives for?
Die in defence of others’ lives?
That is an honourable end.
Die to preserve the wealthy’s bank balance?
Not interested.
Konev may have led men to defy Nazis but if in defiance against one conquering force he then aides and abets his own nation’s conquest of others, then one action differs from the other only in ideology and nationality.
Mourn and remember the lives lost, but let us not pay homage to those who didn’t risk their own.
The Czech Republic has reported its lowest daily percentage rise in confirmed corona virus cases, as the country entered its fourth week of restrictions on business and movement.
The country had 4,591 cases as of Sunday midnight, up 2.6% from the previous day, the Health Ministry said on its website.
This was the lowest percentage increase since early March when the country had a handful of known infections.
There have been 72 deaths and 96 recoveries.
Troops and police in Ecuador have collected at least 150 bodies from streets and homes in the country’s most populous city Guayaquil amid warnings that as many as 3,500 people could die of the corona virus in the city and surrounding province in the coming months.
A joint military and police task force sent out to gather corpses in the horror-struck port city had collected 150 in just three days, government spokesman Jorge Wated said late Wednesday.
Residents had published videos on social media showing abandoned bodies in the streets in the Latin American city worst hit by the pandemic.
Some left desperate messages for authorities to take away the corpses of people who had died in their homes.
Authorities have not confirmed how many of the dead were victims of the corona virus.
Every life should matter, whomever and wherever they may be.
Abandoned and lost bodies is evidence that the lack of dignity or even registery of who a person was means that the powers-that-be in Guayaquil are either incompetent or immoral or possibly both.
Rosa Romero, 51, lost her husband Bolivar Reyes and had to wait a day for his body to be removed from their home.
A week later, amid the chaos of the city’s mortuary system, she does not know where it is.
“In the forensic bureau they told us that they had taken him to the Guasmo Hospital.
We went there to find him but he was not registered anywhere,” Romero told AFP.
A 15-hour curfew imposed in the city makes further searching difficult.
The government’s spokesman apologized in a message broadcast on state television late Wednesday.
He said mortuary workers had been unable to keep up with the removal of bodies because of the curfew.
“We acknowledge any errors and apologize to those who had to wait days for their loved ones to be taken away,” Wated said.
Mortuary workers in masks and protective clothing were seen carrying plastic-wrapped coffins in the city on Wednesday as authorities tried to cope with the backlog of dead.
Work at cemeteries and funeral homes has stalled, with staffers reluctant to handle the dead over contagion fears.
Ecuador is the Latin American country worst hit by the virus after Brazil, with more than 3,160 infections and 120 deaths by Thursday morning.
Guayaquil has Latin America’s highest mortality rate from COVID-19 with 1.35 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants — higher than the 0.92 per 100,000 registered in Brazil’s epicenter Sao Paulo — according to Esteban Ortiz from Ecuador’s University of the Americas.
Guayaquil’s surrounding province of Guayas has 70% of the country’s COVID-19 infections.
Ecuador’s first reported case of COVID-19 was a 71-year-old Ecuadoran woman who arrived in Guayaquil from Spain on 14 February.
Wated said the government is preparing for even more difficult days ahead.
“The medical experts unfortunately estimate that deaths from COVID in these months will reach between 2,500 and 3,500 — in the province of Guayas alone, and we are preparing for that,” he said.
Autopsies have been restricted and the government, which has banned usually crowded funeral services, initially insisted that COVID-19 victims be cremated but was forced to relent after a public backlash.
“We are working so that each person can be buried with dignity in one-person spaces,”Wated said, referring to a government-run cemetery being made available with capacity for around 2,000 bodies.
Above: 2020 corona virus pandemic in Ecuador – the darker the region, the more cases therein
Last month, the city’s mayor Cynthia Viteri sent municipal vehicles to block an Iberia plane sent to repatriate stranded foreigners from landing at the city’s international airport.
But Viteri was unapologetic as the number of cases spiraled in her city.
“I take responsibility for protecting my city,” she said.
Unapologetic is not the right reaction for a public servant.
The death of even one of its citizens is a failure on the part of those responsible for the lives of the people to protect one of their own.
A crisis developed and reactions produced actions that were poorly planned and improperly prepared.
When respecting a curfew takes precedence over the lives and deaths of those the curfew is suppoed to protect, then the curfew needs adjustment.
The corona virus pandemic is the European Union’s biggest test, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, adding that it was important that the bloc emerges strong from the economic crisis unleashed by the corona virus.
“In my view, Europe, the European Union is facing the biggest test since its foundation,”Merkel said.
“We have a big health challenge that is impacting all member states however differently.”
Merkel would make a better role model for Germany and Europe if human lives were mentioned more than economics.
The corona virus death count in France surged to nearly 5,400 people on Thursday after the Health Ministry began including nursing home fatalities in its data.
Above: Confirmed cases of COVID-19 per million inhabitants in France by region
(Why weren’t they included before?
Does becoming a nursing home resident entail a loss in importance?)
The pandemic had claimed the lives of 4,503 patients in hospitals by Thursday, up 12% on the previous day’s 4,032, said Jerome Salomon, head of the health authority.
A provisional tally showed the corona virus had killed a further 884 people in nursing homes and other care facilities, he added.
This makes for a total of 5,387 lives lost to the corona virus in France – an increase of 1,355 over Wednesday’s cumulative total – although data has not yet been collected from all of the country’s 7,400 nursing homes.
“We are in France confronting an exceptional epidemic with an unprecedented impact on public health,” Salomon told a news conference.
The country’s broad lockdown is likely to be extended beyond 15 April, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Thursday, extending a confinement order to try and deal with the crisis that began on 17 March.
The government was racing to try to ensure it can produce or procure itself certain medications needed to treat corona virus patients as stocks were running low, Philippe told TF1 TV, echoing concerns across Europe as the pandemic places a huge strain on hospitals in Italy, Spain and elsewhere.
More than two-thirds of all known nursing home deaths have been registered in France’s Grand Est (Alsace – Lorraine) region, which abuts the border with Germany.
It was the first region in France to be overwhelmed by a wave of infections that has rapidly moved west to engulf greater Paris, where hospitals are desperately trying to add intensive care beds to cope with the influx of critically ill patients.
The care sector has called for blanket testing for all staff, with the virus often entering nursing homes through employees.
More than 1 million people live in France’s care homes.
“We have to limit the impact on old people as we know that they are the most fragile,” said Romain Gizolme, head of an association for the care of the elderly.
In early March, health authorities asked nursing home staff to toughen entry protocols, wear gloves and masks and isolate suspected cases.
However, one worker in the Lyon region said that as of last week in her nursing home, residents were still dining together and staff were not wearing masks.
Since then two workers had tested positive and four residents had fallen sick, she said.
It is still not clear when the epidemic will reach its peak in France and hospitals in Paris are still scrambling to add more intensive care beds.
France has already boosted their number to 9,000, from about 5,000 before the start of the crisis.
Salomon said the number of corona virus patients requiring life support rose by 6% on the previous day to 6,399.
With France now in its third week of lockdown, the number of patients going into intensive care should in the next few days show how effective the government’s unprecedented measure is proving in slowing the rate of spread.
In the Paris region, intensive care units are more or less saturated.
Health authorities in the capital are trying to add 200 beds.
Philippe said authorities would open a new ward at a hospital just outside Paris ahead of schedule so that it can take in an extra 86 patients there by mid-April.
In Neuilly, a wealthy Paris suburb, one intensive care nurse told Reuters TV wild swings in the conditions of some patients were among the most difficult aspects to deal with.
“You can go from a state wherein he’s doing well one minute and the next he’s not,” the nurse at the Ambroise Pare clinic, who gave his name as Martin, said.
About 100 patients are being transferred from the capital to other less-affected regions to ease congestion in the wards, while medics are being relocated in the opposite direction.
Respirators are also being put into people’s homes to save space at hospitals with patients monitored remotely.
“We really now are on the frontline of the battle,” said an official at the Paris region’s health authority.
I find myself feeling impatient with France.
And France is only an example of the global malaise that frustrates me.
Why has no one learned from the past to be prepared for pandemics?
Why do we hear only of the dead and the dying?
Tell us why it takes so long to find a cure.
Tell us who has recovered and what is believed the reason for this recovery.
Don’t tell us what we cannot do.
Tell us what we can do.
Tell us how and when you will know we need no longer fear for our lives.
France will likely see its worst post-war economic downturn this year, surpassing the 2.2% slump seen in 2009 after the global financial crisis, its Finance Minister has said.
“We will probably be at more than the negative 2.2% in 2009.
That shows the magnitude of the economic shock we are facing,”BrunoLe Maire told the Senate in hearing by teleconference.
The government estimated last month in an emergency budget update that the economy would contract by 1% this year, but has since indicated that it would have to revise that figure.
Gosh, nothing comforts me less than learning of percentages of how the economy will contract.
“It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen…..
Inside the flat a fruity voice was reading out a list of figures which had something to do with the production of pig iron…..
Behind Winston’s back the voice from the telescreen was still babbling away about pig iron and the overfulfilment of the 9th Three-Year Plan….
“Comrades!”, cried an eager youthful voice.
“Attention, comrades!
We have glorious news for you.
We have won the battle for production!
Returns now completed of the output of all classes of consumption goods Show that the standard of living has risen by no less than 20% over the past year.
All over Oceania this morning there were irrepressible spontaneous demonstrations when workers marched out of factories and offices and paraded through the streets with banners voicing their gratitude to Big Brother for the new, happy life which wise leadership has bestowed upon us….”…..
It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to 20 grams a week.
And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to 20 grams a week.
Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only 24 hours?
Yes, they swallowed it…..
Was he then, alone in the possession of a memory?
The fabulous statistics continued to pour out of the telescreen…..
He meditated resentfully on the physical texture of life…..
Always in your stomach and in your skin there was a sort of protest, a feeling that you had been cheated of something you had a right to.”
In Switzerland, we were – pre-corona crisis – constantly reminded of what a great quality of life we enjoy here.
Apparently, quality cannot long endure adversity.
French police have launched a terrorism investigation after two people were killed and five wounded in a knife attack in southeast France.
The attacker entered a tobacconist shop in Romans-sur-Isère, near Grenoble, and stabbed the owners and a customer.
He then attacked more people at two other shops before being arrested.
Prosecutors said the suspect was a Sudanese refugee in his 30s who lived in the town.
Two other people have also been arrested, police said.
At the time of his arrest on Saturday, the man was “found on his knees on the pavement praying in Arabic”, prosecutors said.
David Olivier Reverdy, of the National Police Alliance union, said the man had asked police to kill him.
Counter-terrorism prosecutors said they had launched an investigation into “murder linked to a terrorist enterprise”.
The suspect was not previously known to the police or intelligence services, news website France Bleu reported.
On a visit to the town, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said:
“This morning, a man embarked on a terrorist journey.”
Town mayor Marie-Helene Thoraval told AFP news agency that after leaving the tobacconist, the suspect went to a butcher’s shop where he grabbed another knife before attacking people queuing outside a bakery.
The butcher’s shop owner, Ludovic Breyton, said:
“He took a knife, jumped over the counter, and stabbed a customer, then ran away.
My wife tried to help the victim but in vain.”
In a statement, the prosecutor’s office said initial investigations suggest the attacker had “a determined murderous course aimed at seriously disturbing public order by intimidation or terror”.
During a search of the suspect’s home, “handwritten documents with religious connotations were found”, it said.
Prosecutors said they arrested a second Sudanese man at the suspect’s home and on Sunday revealed that a third person – “a young Sudanese man from the same household” – was also in custody.
Two of the wounded are said to be in a critical condition.
President Emmanuel Macron described the attack as an “odious” incident that further saddened a country already going through an ordeal.
“My thoughts are with the victims of the Romans-sur-Isère attack – the injured, their families,” he tweeted.
Mr Macron promised that “light will be shed” on the crime.
France is currently in lockdown because of the corona virus pandemic.
People are only allowed out to buy basic necessities or for exercise.
The country has been on high alert since 2015, when Paris was hit by a series of attacks attributed to the Islamic State Group.
Would we have received such alarming news had the perpetrator been French Christian?
Several viral tweets purporting that snorting cocaine would sterilize one’s nostrils of the corona virus spread around Europe and Africa.
In response, the French Ministry of Health released a PSA debunking this claim, as did the World Health Organisation.
Cocaine won’t kill corona, but it will kill your desire to care whether it will.
Going back to work and getting the economy moving again may take a long time in many countries.
But there is one idea in the works with the hope that it may ease worldwide lockdowns: the “immunity passport”, a certificate for those who have recovered from COVID-19 and have been declared immune to the virus.
“The idea behind this is that if people get immune through natural infection, they are in a similar situation as someone having received a vaccination.
We could use antibody tests as soon as proper tests become available to document that immunity,” says Gerard Krause, who heads the Department for Epidemiology at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Germany’s Braunschweig.
(This worries me…..
Will we be forced to get immunity certificates if we have jobs where we meet people?)
Germany recorded 3,677 new corona virus infections in the past 24 hours, marking the fourth straight drop in the daily rate of new cases.
The figure is lower than the 5,936 new infections reported on Sunday, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases.
At least 1,434 people have died from Covid-19 in Germany, while the total number of confirmed cases now stands at 95,391.
Above: Confirmed cases of COVID-19 per 10,000 residents in Germany by county
Germany has drawn up a list of measures, including an obligation to wear masks in public, limits on public gatherings and the rapid tracing of infection chains, that officials think should allow life to return to normal after lockdown’s scheduled end on 19 April.
The proposals, contained in a draft action plan compiled by the Interior Ministry document and seen by Reuters news agency on Monday, say the measures should be sufficient to keep the number of people infected by each person below 1% even as public life is allowed gradually to resume.
For this to be possible, mechanisms will have to be in place to track more than 80% of people an infected person had contact with within 24 hours of diagnosis.
In return, schools will be able to reopen on a regional basis and strict border controls will be relaxed, the paper said.
The message is we want to know where you go or we will keep schools and borders closed.
“There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment.
How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork.
It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time.
But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to.
You had to live – did live, from habit that became instinct – in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.”
Every breath you take and every move you make
Every bond you break, every step you take, I’ll be watching you
Every single day and every word you say
Every game you play, every night you stay, I’ll be watching you
Oh, can’t you see you belong to me
How my poor heart aches with every step you take
Every move you make, and every vow you break
Every smile you fake, every claim you stake, I’ll be watching you…..
The US had no knowledge of a shipment of face masks bound for Germany that officials in Berlin have accused it of diverting from an airport in Bangkok, a spokeswoman for the US embassy in Thailand said.
The comment came after Berlin Secretary of Interior Andreas Geisel said on Friday that an order of 200,000 masks bound for Germany had been “confiscated” in Bangkok and diverted to the United States, calling it an “act of modern piracy”.
“The United States government did not take any action to divert any 3M supplies that were destined to Germany nor did we have any knowledge of such a shipment,” Jillian Bonnardeaux, the spokeswoman for the US Embassy in Bangkok, told Reuters news agency.
Considering the free-for-all, no-holds-barred struggle for medical supplies currently ongoing between the individual US states in the spirit of the worst side that unharrassed market competitive capitalism can exhibit, I tend to believe the German claims over the American denials.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modiand other top government figures will take a 30% salary cut this year, a government minister has said, as the country tackles the corona virus outbreak and its impact on the economy.
Modi has imposed a three-week lockdown to halt the spread of the virus, but it has left millions without jobs and many of the more vulnerable sections of society struggling for food and shelter.
The federal cabinet has approved a decree under which Modi, along with President Ram Nath Kovind, state governors and members of parliament, will take the salary cut as part of their social responsibility, cabinet minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters.
I don’t really know if government salary reductions will make an iota of difference on lives of the rest of India, but it is at least a nice gesture on the part of the government to pretend some empathy.
Political activist Swami Chakrapani and Member of the Legislative Assembly Suman Haripriya claimed that drinking cow urine and applying cow dung on the body can cure Covid-19.
WHO’s chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan rubbished such claims and criticised these politicians for spreading misinformation.
In fact, the opposite is true.
Chances are strong that the corona virus is zoonotic (transmitted from animals) in origin.
The co-existence of animals alongside humans has been a familiar feature of history for millennia.
“Little did doctors suspect, during the First World War, that ducks operated as a ‘reservoir’ for bird flu viruses, littering the soil with faeces that were then snorted in by pigs grubbing for food, and that the pigs would subsequently incubate avian viruses and combine them with human flu viruses acquired through contact with people…..
It would not be until 1938, with the invention of the electron microscope, that scientists would begin identifying viruses.
It would not be until the last decades of the 20th century that virologists…..discovered that avian flu could leap the species barrier and mutate into an influenza virus capable of infecting and killing humans…..
Virologists have identified China as the epicentre for influenza epidemics, due to the ingrained Chinese habit of living at close quarters with their animals…..”
Parliamentarian Ramesh Bidhuri of the Bharatiya Janata Party claimed that experts say using Namaste as a greeting prevents transmission of Covid-19, but using Arabic greetings like Adab and As-salamu alaykum does not prevent it as they direct air into the mouth.
Words may be a means to meaning, but they mean little to a virus.
Misinformation that the government is spreading an “anti-corona” drug in the country during Janata curfew, a stay-at-home curfew enforced in India, went viral on social media.
The notion that the vibrations generated by clapping together during Janata curfew will kill the virus was debunked by the media.
Misinformation has spread that the lifetime of SARS-CoV-2 is only 12 hours and staying home for 14 hours during Janata curfew would break the chain of transmission.
Another message claimed that observing Janata curfew will result in the reduction of Covid-19 cases by 40%.
Beware of those who would argue using percentages as proof.
In India, Muslims have been blamed for spreading infection following the emergence of cases linked to a religious gathering.
There are reports of vilification of Muslims on social media and attacks on individuals in India.
Claims have been made Muslims are selling food contaminated with the corona virus and that a mosque in Patna was sheltering people from Italy and Iran.
These claims were shown to be false.
It is easier to blame others than to accept the fault may lie in our own behaviour.
Amidst a rise in Sinophobia, there have been conspiracy theories reported on India’s social networks that the virus is a state-supported “bioweapon that went rogue” and also fake videos alleging that Chinese authorities are killing citizens to prevent its spread.
There is no logic to killing your own citizens and – being the long-term thinkers the Chinese are reputed to be – it would make little sense deliberately manufacturing a virus that won’t only kill your enemy but will also kill yourself.
Indonesia has confirmed 218 new corona virus cases, the biggest daily jump since the first cases were announced a month ago, taking the total number of infections to 2,491, a Health Ministry official said.
Achmad Yurianto, the official, said that 11 deaths had been recorded, taking the total to 209, while 192 people had recovered.
From the numbers, it was looking like Iran had managed to flatten the corona virus curve, but many in the country remain sceptical of the government data.
They fear Iran’s severe shortage of testing and medical equipment – caused largely by US sanctions – has left the health system with few resources in a fight that is nowhere near over, and could get a lot worse.
Iran will never ask the US to help Tehran in its fight against the new corona virus, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi has said, adding that Washington should lift its “illegal” sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
“Iran has never asked and will not ask America to help Tehran in its fight against the outbreak.
But America should lift all its illegal unilateral sanctions on Iran,”Mousavi said in a televised news conference.
“They are trying to force Tehran to accept negotiations with America.”
Sanctions hurt average people far more than they intimidate governments.
Economic sanctions are commercial and financial penalties applied by one or more countries against a targeted self-governing state, group, or individual.
Economic sanctions are not necessarily imposed because of economic circumstances—they may also be imposed for a variety of political, military, and social issues.
Economic sanctions can be used for achieving domestic and international purposes.
Economic sanctions generally aim to create good relationships between the country enforcing the sanctions and the receiver of said sanctions.
However, the efficacy of sanctions is debatable and sanctions can have unintended consequences.
Economic sanctions may include various forms of trade barriers, tariffs, and restrictions on financial transactions.
According to the data, regime change, the most frequent foreign-policy objective of economic sanctions, accounts for just over 39% of cases of their imposition.
Researchers debate the effectiveness of economic sanctions in their ability to achieve their stated purpose.
Hufbauer claimed that in their studies 34% of the cases were successful.
When Robert A. Pape examined their study, he claimed that only five of their forty so-called “successes” stood up, reducing economic sanctions’ success rate to 4% in his analysis.
Success of sanctions as a form of measuring effectiveness has also been widely debated by scholars of economic sanctions.
Success of a single sanctions-resolution does not automatically lead to effectiveness, unless the stated objective of the sanctions regime is clearly identified and reached.
According to a 2015 study, the US and UN economic sanctions had a statistically significant impact on the target country’s economy by reducing GDP growth by more than 2% a year.
The study also concluded that the negative effects typically last for a period of ten years amounting to an aggregate decline in the target country’s GDP per-capita of 25.5%.
Imposing sanctions on an opponent also affects the economy of the imposing country to some degree.
If import restrictions are promulgated, consumers in the imposing country may have restricted choices of goods.
If export restrictions are imposed or if sanctions prohibit companies in the imposing country from trading with the target country, the imposing country may lose markets and investment opportunities to competing countries.
British diplomat Jeremy Greenstock suggests that the reason sanctions are popular is not that they are known to be effective, but “that there is nothing else between words and military action if you want to bring pressure upon a government”.
The death toll in Iran from the corona virus outbreak has reached 3,739, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur has said on state TV.
The total number of people infected by the corona virus in the country has reached 60,500, he said.
Above: Map of regions with confirmed or suspected corona virus cases – the darker the region, the more cases therein
Ah, the pride of nations, the hubris of leadership which would rather have its people die rather than admit to needing help or accepting that the leadership is fallible.
Iran has reported methanol consumption incidents under the false belief that it would cure or protect against the corona virus.
Bootleg alcohols that contain methanol, which is an industrial alcohol, were often consumed since alcohol is banned in Iran
According to Iranian media, nearly 300 people have died and over a thousand have become ill due to methanol poisoning, while the Associated Press gave figures of around 480 deaths with 2,850 others affected.
Iranian social media had circulated a story on British tabloids that a British man and others had been cured of the corona virus with whiskey and honey, which combined with the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers as disinfectants, led to the false belief that drinking high-proof alcohol can kill the virus.
Like cocaine, alcohol won’t kill the virus, but it can kill the person with the virus.
According to Radio Farda, Iranian cleric Seyyed Mohammad Saeedi accused US President Donald Trump of targeting Qom with the corona virus “to damage its culture and honor”.
Saeedi claimed that Trump is fulfilling his promise to hit Iranian cultural sites, if Iranians took revenge for the US airstrike that killed off Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani.
As much as I think that there is little that Trump wouldn’t do if there were potential profit in it for himself or a chance to avenge himself upon an enemy, I cannot see any advantage to Trump whatsoever in infecting Qom.
Quite frankly I don’t think he would believe that Qom is actually a real place unless there is a Trump Resort there.
Iranian TV personality Ali Akbar Raefipour claimed that the corona virus was part of a “hybrid warfare” programme waged by the United States on Iran and China.
Again, no.
Too illogical, impractical, unprofitable.
Brigadier General Gholam Reza Jalali, head of Iranian Civil Defense Organization, claimed that the corona virus is likely a biological attack on China and Iran with economic goals.
Hossein Salami, the head of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), claimed that the corona virus outbreak in Iran may be due to a US “biological attack“.
Several Iranian politicians, including Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Rasoul Falahati, Alireza Panahian, Abolfazl Hasanbeigi and Gholamali Jafarzadeh Imanabadi, also made similar remarks.
However, Iran’s deputy health minister Reza Malekzadeh rejected the biological warfare theory.
Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a letter to the United Nations on 9 March, claiming that “it is clear to the world that the mutated corona virus was produced in a lab” and that Covid-19 is “a new weapon for establishing and/or maintaining political and economic upper hand in the global arena.”
Ayatollah Hashem Bathaie Golpayegani claimed that “America is the source of the corona virus, because America went head to head with China and realised it cannot keep up with it economically or militarily.”
I disagree.
If someone developed it then they would know how to deal with it should the virus visit those who created it.
The way in which every nation is struggling valiantly to find a cure suggests that no nation is directly responsible for its creation.
Italy reported its lowest daily Covid-19 death toll for more than two weeks on Sunday as authorities began to look ahead to a second phase of the battle against the new corona virus once the lockdown imposed almost a month ago is eventually eased.
The toll from the world’s deadliest outbreak reached 15,887, almost a quarter of the global death total, but the rise of 525 from a day earlier was the smallest daily increase since 19 March, while the number of patients in badly stretched intensive care units fell for a second day running.
“The curve has reached a plateau and begun to descend,” said Silvio Brusaferro, head of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Italy’s top health institute.
“It is a result that we have to achieve day after day.”
“If this is confirmed, we need to start thinking about the second phase and keep down the spread of this disease.”
The total number of confirmed cases of the novel corona virus rose by 4,316 to 128,948, the lowest increase in five days, which added to signs the epidemic has reached a plateau, about six weeks after it broke out in northern Italy on 21 February.
Sunday’s figures added to growing signs the tough restrictions on movement and public gatherings imposed across the country on 9 March were having an effect in containing the epidemic, but officials have been desperate to avoid a letup.
“Don’t lower our guard, stay at home,” Angelo Borelli, head of the Civil Protection department, told a daily briefing.
But alongside the public health crisis, the government is also grappling with the economic devastation caused by the sudden halt to business across the country.
Following several days of encouraging data, Health Minister Roberto Speranza outlined a series of measures, including more testing and a beefed up local health system, intended to allow a gradual easing until a vaccine might be developed.
“There are difficult months ahead.
Our task is to create the conditions to live with the virus,” at least until a vaccine is developed, he told the daily La Repubblica newspaper.
The national lockdown, strictly limiting people’s movements and freezing all non-essential economic activity, will officially last until at least 13 April, but it is widely expected to be extended.
Speranza said it was too early to say when it could be lifted.
The Minister said he had issued a note outlining five principles around which the government planned to manage the so-called “phase two” of the emergency, when lockdown restrictions begin to be eased but before a full return to normal conditions.
He said social distancing would have to remain, with wider use of individual protection devices such as face masks, while local health systems would be strengthened, to allow a faster and more efficient treatment of suspected Covid-19 cases.
Testing and “contact tracing” would be extended, including with the use of smartphone apps and other forms of digital technology, while a network of hospitals dedicated solely to treating Covid-19 patients would be set up.
Italy recorded 760 more deaths, and now has a total of almost 14,000 – the worst of any nation – but new infections continued to level off.
More than 10,000 medical personnel in the country have been infected, and 69 doctors have died.
Masks are meant for those who wish to prevent spreading an illness already present in their bodies.
Masks do not prevent the healthy from getting sick.
Contact tracing is not what a democracy does if it truly practices what it espouses to believe.
I think another thing that annoys me about this crisis most is the inability to see any other disease as worthy of attention.
Cancer, for example, hasn’t stopped killing people just because the world is focused on the corona virus.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will declare a state of emergency as early as Tuesday in a bid to stop the corona virus spreading across the country, the Yomiuri newspaper reported, as the cumulative number of infections topped 1,000 in Tokyo alone.
Abe will likely announce his plans to declare the emergency on Monday, the paper said, while the Kyodo news agency said new measures would likely come into force on Wednesday.
Pressure had been mounting on the government to make the move as the pace of infections continues to accelerate – particularly in the capital – even though it remains slow for now compared with the United States, countries in Europe and China, where thousands have died.
Sounding alarm over the high rate of cases that couldn’t be traced, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike indicated last week that she would favour a state-of-emergency declaration as a means to help her urge residents to adhere to stronger social-distancing measures.
Under a law revised in March to cover the corona virus, the Prime Minister can declare a state of emergency if the disease poses a “grave danger” to lives and if its rapid spread could have a huge impact on the economy.
Japan’s top government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, said on Monday that a decision had yet to be made.
Declaring an emergency would give governors in severely affected regions legal authority to call on people to stay home and businesses to close, but not to impose the kind of lockdowns seen in other countries.
In most cases, there are no penalties for ignoring requests, and enforcement will rely more on peer pressure and respect for authority.
The government is likely to designate the greater Tokyo metropolitan area for the state of emergency, and possibly also Osaka and Hyogo prefectures in western Japan, the Yomiuri reported.
More than 3,500 people have tested positive and 85 have died in Japan from the Covid-19 disease associated with new corona virus, according to public broadcaster NHK.
While that toll is dwarfed by 335,000 infections and more than 9,500 deaths in the United States alone, experts worry a sudden surge could strain Japan’s medical system and leave patients with nowhere to go.
Above: Confirmed cases of COVID-19 per million residents in Japan by prefecture
Kenji Shibuya, director of the Institute for Public Health at King’s College, London, said Abe’s decision on a state of emergency was too late given the explosive rise in Tokyo.
“It should have been declared by 1 April at the latest,” he said.
Abe must seek formal advice from a panel of experts before deciding to go ahead and declare a state of emergency.
One medical professional on the panel has said a decision to do so was “complex”, involving political, economic and other factors.
The government’s corona virus task force – a separate entity from the panel of experts – is scheduled to hold a meeting on Monday evening.
Government spokesman Suga said he was not aware of any meeting with the advisory panel of experts itself on Monday.
Above: The Diet, Japan’s Parliament, Tokyo
Governors in Tokyo and elsewhere have previously asked citizens to stay home on weekends, avoid crowds and evening outings, and work from home.
That had some effect, but less than many experts said was needed.
Restricting movement and businesses under a state of emergency would deal a heavy blow to an economy already struggling to avoid a recession.
The government is readying a stimulus package of hundreds of billions of dollars to be rolled out this week.
The Japanese government is considering a period of six months for the state of emergency that it is preparing to call in response to the corona virus pandemic, broadcaster TBS has reported.
The move would cover Tokyo and three neighbouring prefectures as well as Osaka, TBS said, citing unidentified sources.
Within the six-month period, these prefectures would decide the length of time for their individual measures, TBS said.
Japan is to declare a state of emergency in Tokyo and six other prefectures as early as Tuesday in a bid to stop the corona virus, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said, with the government preparing a stimulus package to soften the economic blow.
More than 3,500 people have tested positive for the corona virus in Japan, and 85 have died.
As the numbers rise, there is particular alarm over the spread in Tokyo, which has more than 1,000 cases, including 83 new ones on Monday.
During a televised news conference, Abe said an emergency, which would last about a month, will give governors authority to call on people to stay at home and businesses to close, but not to order the kind of lockdowns seen in other countries.
Again, profits over people seems to be a theme not unique to Japan…..
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has ordered a halt to all movement in parts of the country affected by the new corona virus, including the capital Nairobi.
“The cessation of movement within the Nairobi metropolitan area shall be for an initial containment period of 21 days with effect from 7 pm Monday 6 April 2020,” Kenyatta said in a televised address.
Kenya has reported 158 corona virus cases and six deaths.
Kenyan Secretary of Health Mutahi Kagwe explicitly refuted rumors that “those with black skin cannot get the corona virus”, while announcing Kenya’s first case on 13 March.
Unfortunately the virus does not discriminate.
Mahmoud Jibril, who briefly served as the head of Libya’s National Transitional Council during the country’s uprising against its longtime leader, died after being diagnosed with corona virus, al-Wasat news website reported Sunday.
Jibril, 67, had been in quarantine in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, since his 26 March diagnosis, according to his party’s official Facebook page.
He served as the OPEC member state’s acting Prime Minister for about seven months during the 2011 civil war in which ruler Muammar Qaddafi was deposed and killed.
This much the corona virus shares with the Spanish flu, which killed King Alfonso XIII of Spain and almost killed US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi and Kaiser Wilhelm.
The corona virus has attacked (and in some cases killed) celebrities just as the Spanish flu attacked author Mary McCarthy, film star Lillian Gash, comedian Groucho Marx, animator Walt Disney, novelists John Steinbeck, Katherine Anne Porter and Thomas Wolfe, painters Edvard Munch and Egon Schiele.
Malawi’s president and all government ministers are taking a 10% wage cut for three months to raise money to tackle the coronavirus outbreak.
President Peter Mutharika made the announcement as he set out a stimulus package to help cushion the economic impact of the disease.
Malawi reported its first cases of the corona virus on Thursday – one of the last countries to do so.
The country, among the world’s poorest, has declared a state of emergency.
There is no lockdown but schools are closed and the government says it is urging people to work from home and follow hand-washing and social-distancing guidelines.
All social gatherings of more than 100 people, such as funerals, church services and political rallies, have been banned.
Mr Mutharika earns about $3,600 (£3,000) a month but no figure was given for how much money would be raised by the pay cut for all ministers.
As part of the stimulus package, the President announced a series of tax breaks for businesses, a reduction in fuel prices and an increase in risk allowances for health workers, Reuters news agency reports.
He also said that an extra 2,000 health workers would be recruited.
Again, reducing government minister salaries is a nice gesture but whether this salary reduction does anything to actually combat the corona virus seems doubtful.
Tobacco is Malawi’s main export and the President said that all tobacco markets would remain open to maintain foreign currency earnings and keep farmers in business, Reuters reports.
The four confirmed cases so far have all been linked to people travelling from the UK.
Perhaps choosing how you will die is comforting to smokers?
Mr Mutharika, 79, became President in 2014.
His re-election last year was cancelled in February after judges found there had been widespread irregularities.
Vote for me, again, and again, and again?
A shootout between suspected drug cartel hitmen has killed 19 people in the northern Mexico state of Chihuahua, the state government said on Saturday, in one of the country’s worst outbreaks of gang violence this year.
“They’re two criminal groups fighting over drug trafficking routes to the United States,”Chihuahua’s attorney general Cesar Peniche told Reuters.
Security forces found 18 bodies on Friday evening at the site of the gunfight in the municipality of Madera, and a wounded man picked up at the scene later died of his injuries, the state attorney general’s office said in a statement.
They also secured 18 long firearms, two vehicles and two grenades, the statement said, adding that the search for armed men and the investigation of the site was continuing.
Local media reported that the gunmen belonged to groups linked to the Juarez Cartel and the rival Sinaloa Cartel, which Peniche said was correct.
The Juárez Cartel (Spanish: Cártel de Juárez), also known as the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Organization, is a Mexican drug cartel based in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, across the Mexico – US border from El Paso, Texas.
The cartel is one of several drug trafficking organizations that have been known to decapitate their rivals, mutilate their corpses and dump them in public places to instill fear not only into the general public, but also into local law enforcement and their rivals, the Sinaloa Cartel.
The Juárez Cartel has an armed wing known as La Línea, a Juarez street gang that usually performs the executions.
It also uses the Barrio Azteca gang to attack its enemies.
The Juárez Cartel was the dominant player in the center of the country, controlling a large percentage of the cocaine traffic from Mexico into the United States.
The death of Amado Carrillo Fuentes in 1997 was the beginning of the decline of the Juárez cartel, as Carrillo relied on ties to Mexico’s top-ranking drug interdiction officer, division general Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo.
In September 2011, the Mexican Federal Police reported that the cartel is now known as “Nuevo Cartel de Juárez” (New Juárez Cartel).
It is alleged that the New Juárez Cartel is responsible for recent executions in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua.
The Sinaloa Cartel (Spanish: Cártel de Sinaloa), also known as the Guzmán-Loera Organization, the Pacific Cartel, the Federation and the Blood Alliance, is an international drug trafficking, money laundering, and organized crime syndicate established during the late 1980s.
The cartel is primarily based in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa, with operations in the Mexican states of Baja California, Durango, Sonora, and Chihuahua.
The United States Intelligence Community considers the Sinaloa Cartel “the most powerful drug trafficking organization in the world” and in 2011, the Los Angeles Times called it “Mexico’s most powerful organized crime group.”
The Sinaloa Cartel operates in the “Golden Triangle“, the states of Sinaloa, Durango, and Chihuahua.
The region is a major producer of Mexican opium and marijuana.
According to the US Attorney General, the Sinaloa Cartel was responsible for importing into the United States and distributing nearly 200 short tons (180 t) of cocaine and large amounts of heroin between 1990 and 2008.
According to the National Drug Intelligence Center, within the US the Sinaloa Cartel is primarily involved in the distribution of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and MDMA.
It is also the majority supplier of illicit fentanyl to North America.
As of 2017, the Sinaloa Cartel is the most active drug cartel involved in smuggling illicit drugs into the United States and trafficking them throughout the United States.
On Friday, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said violence among criminal groups has persisted despite the outbreak of the new corona virus in the country.
“It seemed in late March, when the corona virus had become more widespread, that we would have a considerable reduction in violence,” Lopez Obrador said.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that way.”
Last year, suspected drug cartel gunmen shot dead three women and six children, all members of a US – Mexican Mormon community, in a daytime attack as they were travelling by car in the northern state of Sonora.
Mexico is a very foreign country for the Swiss and for Canadians.
Mexico often seems as different to us as Ecuador or China.
“Like Mexico, there are not two.” is a popular expression of pride in the country’s unique personality.
Mexico, despite its full name being the United States of Mexico, is notthe United States of America.
To which I say:
Thank Heaven.
Mexico is a distinct and different country, with its own language, food and customs.
What it is not is some kind of predictable American theme park filled with mariachi music and tequila sunrises.
Above: South of the Border theme park, South Carolina
The problem is America in its self-promotion as being a land far superior to any others loves to publicize chilling lists of horror stories, premeditated crimes and bandit antics that they claim await anyone foolish enough to venture outside the borders.
Mexico is safe, but Americans have made people nervous about it, by spreading any bad news that afflicts Mexico.
And bad news not only travels fast but it dies very slowly.
Mexicans and foreign residents often complain that in the eyes of the American and international press…..
(Sometimes hard to tell these apart.)
“The only news about Mexico is bad news”.
Drug wars, bus wrecks, floods and hurricanes make good headlines and attention-grabbing sound bites.
This sensational form of news coverage contributes to the mistaken impression that Mexico (or the world beyond America’s borders) is a riskier place than America.
“As a matter of cold fact, there are more bandits in a city like Los Angeles in one night than in the entire Republic of Mexico in one year.
But being more picturesque, every bandit in Mexico becomes an alluring drama to the Yankee newspapers.”
(Harry Carr, Old Mother Mexico)
Keep in mind that several million tourists visit Mexico every year.
Of these millions of annual visitors, only the tiniest fraction have problems during their stay.
In fact, statistics show that you are more likely to be a victim of violent crime while in the US than in Mexico.
Among those who spend more than a couple of weeks in Mexico or who make repeat visits, the consensus is virtually unanimous:
Mexico actually feels safer than the United States.
For example, children play freely in public parks and walk city streets without close supervision.
Mexico is safer than the US, though like anywhere in the world it is not always perfectly safe.
Mexico’s federal government has been slow to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic as of late March 2020, with a great deal of criticism.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has continued to hold rallies, be tactile with crowds, and downplay the threat of corona virus to Mexicans’ health and to the Mexican economy.
Ostriches in Mexico?
Morocco’s King Mohammed VI has pardoned 5,654 prisoners and ordered measures to protect inmates from the corona virus outbreak, the justice ministry said on Sunday.
The inmates were selected on the basis of their age, frail health, time spent in prison and good conduct, the ministry said in a statement.
The north African country has confirmed as of Sunday morning 919 corona virus cases, including 59 deaths.
Morocco’s announcement follows on the heels of a similar initiative by its North African neighbour Algeria.
On Wednesday, the Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune pardoned 5,037 prisoners.
The Presidency said that those convicted of terrorism, treason, espionage, murder, asset killing, poisoning, drugs, misdemeanor, rape and felonies were excluded from the pardon.
I am not sure that releasing prisoners from overcrowded prisons is necessarily safer for us.
New Zealand will stick to its tough curbs to combat the corona virus, despite some early signs the spread of the illness has been stabilising, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said.
New Zealand started a four-week total lockdown of its population of about five million late in March, and declared a national emergency to slow the spread of the virus.
The country’s 67 new infections on Monday were the lowest in five days, taking its tally to just over 1,100.
It has reported one death.
“Our actions for the remainder of the period in level four will be about doubling down to ensure the gains made in the first half are not squandered in the second,” Ardern told reporters in Wellington.
I find myself continually impressed with Prime Minister Ardern.
I wish more world leaders were like she appears to be.
The Covid-19 epidemic is under control in Norway, the Nordic country’s health minister said, pointing to the low rate of transmission of the disease.
A person carrying the novel corona virus in Norway contaminates now on average 0.7 other individuals, Bent Hoeie told a news conference.
The government’s goal was to limit the spread to maximum one other person.
The government will decide on Wednesday whether to extend ongoing restrictions, including the closures of schools and nurseries, beyond mid-April.
I wonder what 0.7 of a person looks like…..
A provincial government in Pakistan on Friday prevented the release of four men suspected in the 2002 death of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, a day after a court cleared them.
The Sindh government used the Maintenance of Public Order Law to keep Omar Saeed Sheikh and three others behind bars for another 90 days while prosecutors appeal the court ruling.
Sheikh, a British native, has spent 18 years on death row after he was convicted of Pearl’s disappearance and death.
Fahad Naseem, Syed Salman Saqib and Sheikh Mohammad Adil were also jailed in in the case.
The Sindh high court on Thursday commuted Sheikh’s sentence to seven years for just Pearl’s kidnapping and acquitted the other three.
The ruling brought condemnation from the US State Department.
“The overturning of the convictions for Daniel Pearl’s murder is an affront to victims of terrorism everywhere,” Alice Wells, principal deputy assistant secretary of the State Department’s South and Central Asian Affairs Bureau, said in a statement.
“We welcome Pakistan’s decision to appeal the verdict.
Those responsible for Daniel’s heinous kidnapping and murder must face the full measure of justice.”
Pearl was working as the Journal‘s South Asia bureau chief investigating “shoe bomber” Richard Reid in Karachi when he was abducted by militants in January 2002.
The militants said Pearl was a spy and submitted a list of demands to the US government.
US and Pakistani intelligence were unable to find Pearl before he was killed.
I cannot comment much on this story as yet….
The Philippines’ Health Ministry has reported 11 additional deaths and 414 new infections from of the corona virus outbreak.
In a bulletin, the ministry said total deaths in the Philippines had reached 163 and cases rose to 3,660, while 73 patients had recovered.
A 63-year-old man was shot dead in the Philippines after threatening village officials and police with a scythe at a corona virus checkpoint, police said on Saturday.
The man is believed to have been drunk when he threatened village officials and police manning the checkpoint in the town of Nasipit in the southern province of Agusan del Norte on Thursday, a police report said.
“The suspect was cautioned by a village health worker for not wearing a face mask,”the report said.
“But the suspect got angry, uttering provoking words and eventually attacked the personnel using a scythe.”
The suspect was shot dead by a police officer who was trying to pacify him.
Death is a great pacifier.
The incident is the first reported case of police shooting a civilian for refusing to follow restrictions to curb the spread of the novel corona virus.
President Rodrigo Duterte had warned on Wednesday he would order the police and the military to shoot anyone who created trouble.
“Follow the government at this time because it is critical that we have order,” he said in a late-night televised national address.
“And do not harm the health workers, the doctors, because that is a serious crime.
My orders to the police and the military, if anyone creates trouble, and their lives are in danger:
Shoot them dead.”
The Philippines’s main island of Luzon has been under a month-long lockdown since 16 March, prohibiting people from leaving their homes except for essential trips to the grocery or the pharmacy, or if they are front-line workers.
Many provinces outside of Luzon have also imposed their own restrictions in a bid to prevent the virus from spreading.
The Department of Health reported 76 new confirmed cases of infection in the Philippines, bringing to 3,094 the total tally in the country.
Eight additional deaths were also recorded, pushing the death toll to 144, while 57 patients have recovered.
Duterte defended his warning against troublemakers in another late-night televised address on Friday, saying the public needed to realise the gravity of the situation because anyone can get sick of the disease.
“Without these restrictions, this will not end,” he said.
“So if you don’t want to follow, then I will finish you to protect the lives of the innocent who don’t want to die.”
Amnesty International lamented the fact that strongmen leaders around the world like Duterte have been using the COVID-19 pandemic “to further stifle criticism and dissent”.
“This is an unprecedented health crisis, but President Duterte is focusing on attacking freedoms of speech and assembly,” said Butch Olano, a director for Amnesty International in the Philippines.
“He is downplaying the nation’s plea for better services when the priority should be to fulfil the government’s obligation to provide healthcare and vital relief to all persons without discrimination,” he added.
The government has begun to distribute cash assistance to poor families and workers affected by the lockdown under a 200 billion peso ($4 bn) amelioration package.
But there have been persistent complaints of delays in the delivery of assistance, especially food packs.
On Wednesday, a commotion broke out in a Manila suburb when a group of slum residents gathered outside their shanty homes after hearing rumours that donations would be distributed.
Village security officers and police urged the residents to go back to their homes, but they refused.
Twenty-one of the residents were arrested and various criminal charges have been filed against them.
Poland is still at the beginning of its fight with the corona virus, with the peak of infections expected in May and June, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has said.
Speaking to the lower house of parliament, Morawiecki said Poland has some shortages of medical equipment.
It plans to increase within days the number of daily corona virus tests to 8,000-9,000 from the current 6,000 – 7,000, he said.
Poland has reported 4,201 corona virus cases, including 98 deaths.
Jaroslaw Gowin, the head of Accord, a junior party in Poland’s ruling coalition, has said he is quitting because he opposes the country’s decision to hold a presidential election in May, when the corona virus outbreak is expected to peak there.
The biggest party in the conservative alliance, the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS), plans to hold the election on 10 May as scheduled.
“I am resigning since I think the election cannot be held on May 10.
Accord will remain a member” of the coalition, Gowin told a news conference.
Polish lawmakers have rejected a ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party proposal to hold a presidential election on 10 May by post, making it more uncertain whether the ballot will take place amid the coronavirus pandemic.
PiS insists the election should be held despite the rising number of deaths caused by the virus.
But critics accuse it of sacrificing public health in a bid to support its ally, the incumbent Andrzej Duda, who is running first in the polls.
It has proposed replacing voting booths with postal ballots.
Parliament said 228 lawmakers opposed including the plan in the legislative agenda, and 228 were in favour, while three abstained and one did not vote.
The tied result meant the PiS motion was rejected.
Romania’s government will extend its state of emergency by another 30 days after the current period ending next week, to help halt the spread of the new corona virus, President Klaus Iohannis has said.
“We need to do this again.
It’s a necessity.
People should understand that without this measure the virus cannot be stopped,”Iohannis told a video briefing.
Romania has so far recorded 4,057 confirmed cases of infection and 157 deaths.
Russia’s corona virus case tally has risen to 6,343 in the past 24 hours, a record daily increase of 954, the country’s crisis response centre has said.
Cases have been recorded widely, but Moscow remains the epicentre of the outbreak with 591 new cases, the centre said.
At least 47 people have died across the country, it said.
A man in Russia has shot dead five people for talking loudly outside his house late in the evening.
Police said the shooting happened in the village of Yelatma, in the Ryazan region about 200km (124 miles) southeast of Moscow.
The area is currently under lockdown due to the corona virus.
Investigators say the man initially complained to the group from his balcony, and an argument broke out.
He then opened fire with a hunting rifle.
The four men and one woman “died of their injuries on the spot” at around 2200 on Saturday, the Investigative Committee said.
The suspect, who has not been named, was later arrested.
His apartment has been searched and the weapon seized.
I understand the impulse but I don’t think prison will be quieter.
South African telecoms regulator ICASA has announced an emergency release of broadband spectrum to meet a spike in Internet usage due to the new corona virus, which has so far infected 1,655 people and killed 11 in the country.
“The emergency release of this spectrum does not negate the processes that are currently underway for permanent assignment of spectrum through an auction, the process which the Authority had committed to finalise by the end of 2020,” said the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) in a statement.
South Korea reported fewer than 50 new corona virus cases for the first time since its peak at the end of February as daily infections in Asia’s largest outbreak outside China continued to trend downward.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said on Monday there were 47 new infections as of midnight on Sunday compared with 81 recorded a day earlier, taking the national cumulative tally to 10,284.
The death toll rose by three to 186, while another 135 people have recovered from the virus for a total of 6,598.
South Korea has largely managed to bring the epidemic under control for now, with around 100 or fewer new daily cases for the past month, but it was the first time the rate of daily cases dropped below 50 since 909 were reported on 29 February.
But officials urged even greater vigilance, saying a large epidemic could reemerge at any time, with smaller outbreaks in churches, hospitals and nursing homes, as well as infections among travellers, continuing to arise.
Above: Confirmed cases of COVID-19 per million residents in South Korea by province or city
A fall in daily demand for tests to some 6,000 from around 10,000 over the weekend contributed to the decline in numbers, Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip said.
“We are taking great caution against any optimistic expectations with this one-off figure,”he told a regular briefing.
On Saturday, the government extended its intensive social distancing campaign by two weeks, citing sustained infections among small clusters and travellers.
South Koreans had refrained from socialising in February when the number of patients exponentially rose, but more people started going out recently as the weather became warmer and fatigue grew about social distancing, Kim said.
I am expecting this to be repeated in Switzerland…..
The movement of citizens spiked about 20% over the weekend compared to the end of February, he said, citing data from the state-run statistics agency and SK Telecom, the country’s largest mobile operator.
Starting Sunday, the government toughened penalties for those who violate self-quarantine rules to up to ten million Won ($8,100) in fines or one year in prison and three million Won ($2,400) in fines.
Authorities have reported several cases of breaching quarantine rules over the past few days.
The Gunpo city government south of Seoul said on Sunday it has filed a complaint with police against a couple in their 50s and their children who broke away from isolation and went out even after testing positive for the virus.
Above: Images of Gunpo
A Korean student residing in the United States sparked public uproar after taking fever remedy before flying home late last month.
The student was found to have contracted the virus, putting some 20 other people who took the same flight in self quarantine.
“We cannot maintain social distancing for ever,” Kim said.
“But it is the most effective measure to help protect others and yourself.”
South Korean “conservative populist” Jun Kwang-hun told his followers that there was no risk to mass public gatherings as the virus was impossible to contract outdoors.
Many of his followers are elderly.
On 17 March, around 79 church devotees were infected with the virus at the River of Grace Community Church after followers had salt-water sprayed into their mouths under the belief that this would protect them from the virus.
God, keep me from the religious!
Faith may not fear viruses but viruses do not discriminate in favour of the faithful.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting 47 new cases of the new corona virus, down from 81 cases a day earlier and the fewest daily infections since its 29 February peak.
The figure brings South Korea’s total infections to date to 10,284.
Three people died from the virus at the end of Sunday, raising the death toll to 136.
On Thursday, Spain’s death toll rose above 10,000 after a record 950 people died overnight – but health officials are encouraged by a slowdown in daily increases in infections and deaths.
Spain has the world’s second-highest number of deaths after Italy at 10,003 – but today’s one-day toll is the highest for any country since the start of the pandemic.
On Friday, Spain reported 4,273 new cases of the corona virus with 637 new deaths, the fourth day the daily total for both tallies has declined from the previous day.
The total deaths from Covid-19 in the hard-hit country, which has the second-most cases in the world to date, now stands at 13,055 among 135,032 reported infections.
Spain’s government wants to consolidate the current rate of corona virus contagion slowdown in Europe’s second-worst hit country, Health Minister Salvador Illa has said, as Spain enters its fourth week of confinement.
Up to 60,000 recently retired medical staff – aged 70 or less – have been rehired to contribute to the outbreak response, Illa added.
The total deaths in the country from Covid-19 as of Monday stands at 13,055 among 135,032 cases.
The new numbers offer another glimmer of hope in Europe, after Italy on Sunday saw its death toll at its lowest in more than two weeks and its infection curve finally on a downward slope.
Above: Confirmed cases of COVID-19 per million residents in Spain by autonomous community
I cannot help wondering how wise it is getting the most vulnerable (the elderly) to this disease involved in fighting this disease.
The corona virus pandemic has reached a grim landmark, with more than one million cases confirmed worldwide.
Almost a quarter of that number (236,000) are people diagnosed with COVID-19 in the US, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Italy and Spain make up nearly another quarter between them (225,000), with China, Germany and the UK also having a high number of cases.
Above: Map of the COVID-19 outbreak per capita as of 8 April 2020 – the darker the country, the more cases therein
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has announced plans to donate ten million masks to countries that have been most severely impacted by the corona virus.
On the heels of an estimated $35 billion stimulus package intended to bolster the island nation’s economy, Taiwan pledges to donate masks and medical supplies to the rest of the world as part of its global “Taiwan can help” campaign.
“We want everyone to not only see that ‘Taiwan can help,’ but that ‘Taiwan is helping,’”Tsai said at a press conference Wednesday morning.
Despite being one of the countries expected to be hardest hit by Covid-19, Taiwan as of Wednesday had a total of only 329 cases and five deaths.
While Taiwan appears to have the virus under control, Tsai said that each country affects all others.
“We cannot stop the spread of Covid-19 simply by preventing an outbreak within Taiwan.
All members of the international community must pool their capabilities and work together to overcome this challenge,” she said.
Above: Confirmed cases of COVID-19 per million residents in Taiwan by subdivision
Yes, yes, yes, President Tsai, humans are in a symbiotic relationship with one another whether we choose to acknowledge or not.
With the ability to produce up to 13 million face masks a day, Taiwan is donating seven million masks to Europe, including Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Belgium and the U.K., and an additional two million masks to the US, with the rest going to other smaller countries who have diplomatic ties with the island, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Over the past months we have seen countless acts of bravery and sacrifice from medical workers from around the world.
It is our duty as global citizens to give them our full support,” Tsai said in English, adding that Taiwan would also be donating its surplus medical supplies to those “on the front lines who are working around the clock to save lives.”
Taiwan’s mask donation announcement comes as the White House corona virus task force is debating whether to reverse the current US recommendation against wearing masks in public, an about-face that President Donald Trump informally endorsed at his Wednesday evening press conference.
Taiwan, meanwhile, is seeking to strengthen its position in the international medical community, having been largely excluded from involvement with the World Health Organization due to pressure from China.
Earlier last month, Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s most prominent research institution, held a video conference with the US, the EU, the Czech Republic and Canada to discuss the research and development of Covid-19 test kits, vaccines and reagents.
In addition to working with charities and nongovernmental organizations, Taiwan is also slated to start collaborating with the Czech Republic on the production of test kits and vaccines and the exchange of medical supplies and equipment.
Taiwan previously received alcohol for making hand sanitizer from Australia in exchange for fabric used for masks.
“Taiwan again urges WHO to comprehensively include it in related meetings, mechanisms and activities, so that Taiwan can work hand in hand with the world to overcome this grave challenge,” Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
“Taiwan will take concrete actions to prove to the international community that the world needs Taiwan and that Taiwan will not be absent.”
On 13 March, for the first time since the outbreak began, the World Health Organization declared the novel corona virus a pandemic due to its alarming rate of global spread.
But as the US fights to contain the disease, Taiwan is setting an example of how to effectively curtail its spread.
Taiwan, an island of 23 million people just off the coast of China, was predicted to have the second-highest “importation risk”of any country.
With over 850,000 of its citizens residing and working in mainland China, experts expected Taiwan to be heavily impacted by COVID-19, especially given the timing of the outbreak coinciding with Chinese New Year, one of the busiest travel times of the year.
However, Taiwan has only had 49 confirmed cases and one death, an astonishingly low number considering its proximity to China and frequency of flights between the two countries.
It ranks below far-flung countries, like Finland, Iceland and Brazil in terms of cases.
China’s death toll was over 3,100 as of Thursday, with nearby countries, like South Korea, at over 7,800 confirmed cases and at least 66 deaths, and Japan, with 639 cases and at least 16 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins, which is tracking the disease’s spread.
Taiwan’s success has been largely credited to its early mobilization of specific strategies and plans implemented during the severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, outbreak in 2003, according to an analysis by Stanford Health Policy.
Jason Wang, a pediatrician and director of the Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention at Stanford University, started collecting his own data back in January, when he first heard of the coronavirus outbreak.
Initially, Wang started the list simply to determine whether it was safe to travel to Taiwan in February to teach his course at the New School for Leadership in Healthcare in Taipei.
“I tried to understand the government responses if they are effective and at one point my colleague, Bob Brook, was listening to this story and said, ‘This is kind of interesting, you can kind of make sense of what they’re doing; let’s put together a list to help other people and other countries,'” Wang told ABC News.
After the SARS outbreak, Taiwan established the National Health Command Center with a branch that specifically focuses on large outbreak responses and acts as a central command post for direct, transparent communications.
As soon as news about an unknown virus came out of Wuhan, China, on 31 December, officials in Taiwan began restricting flights to and from the region and began to screen passengers.
It expanded its assessment criteria a week after and began quarantining anyone showing symptoms.
Taiwan officially activated its Central Epidemic Command Center, a branch within the NHCC, by 20 January, which allowed coordination with various ministries to enact policies and strategies already in place.
For the past two months, the CECC, led by the minister of health, has swiftly implemented 124 actions, said Wang.
They did so “in a span of five weeks.”
“That’s three or four actions every week.
Some of this requires cross-agencies cooperation,” Wang said.
Actions included border control from the air and sea, identifying cases, quarantine of suspicious cases, managing resource allocation, daily press briefings, identifying false information and formulating economic policies to relieve families and businesses.
A lot of the government’s actions were made possible by Taiwan’s integration of big data and technology.
In a single day, Taiwan’s government was able to combine data from the National Health Insurance Administration and Immigration Agency to identify patients’ 14-day travel history.
In addition, with data from citizens’ household registration systems and foreigners’ entry cards, individuals at high risk were identified, self-quarantined and monitored through their cellphones.
Low-risk passengers could scan a QR code prior to departure or arrival to complete a health declaration form allowing expedited immigration clearance.
On 18 February, the government granted all hospitals, clinics and pharmacies access to patients’ travel histories.
Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s digital minister and the youngest minister without portfolio to hold office, utilized artificial intelligence to harness data and created real-time digital updates to alert citizens of risky areas to avoid and a live map of local supplies of face masks.
Taiwanese Vice President Chen Chien-Jen praised Tang in a Facebook post, calling her “not only a key figure in our national disease prevention efforts but also set an example of application of artificial intelligence in disease prevention.”
Beyond daily press briefings, top government health officials, including the Minister of Health, the Vice President and a prominent epidemiologist, regularly give public service announcements about travel, personal hygiene recommendations and dangers of stockpiling masks — all accessible online.
Both public and private sectors are cooperating with government recommendations, which has proved crucial in the nation’s containment efforts.
Virtually every mall, store, restaurant and offices offered hand sanitizers and screen people’s temperature before entering the building.
In addition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has actively sought out and fought misinformation from both the news media and Chinese cyber attacks.
“The government stopped exporting and started producing,” Wang said.
The government began allocating funds and military personnel to expand its capacity of production.
By late January, Taiwan had a stockpile of 44 million surgical masks, 1.9 million N95 masks and 1,100 negative pressure isolation rooms.
Masks have always been considered courteous and are used regularly as a protective measure in Asian countries, like Taiwan.
But during this public health emergency, demand for face masks has soared.
In order to meet the growing demand, the government has taken over production.
On Tuesday, President Tsai Ing Wen announced that they are now able to produce up to ten million masks a day.
As Italy, Iran, France, Spain and the US grapple with thousands of confirmed Covid-19 cases and rising death tolls, governments around the globe have been criticized for their delayed response.
With the stock market plunging, closures of schools, cancellation of all major events and health experts admitting the failing of our testing system, the US is scrambling to get a handle on the worsening outbreak.
When asked if countries like the US, which has a population 13 times larger than Taiwan, can realistically implement similar protocols, Wang answered:
“Of course.
The US has a lot of capacity, more power, it’s whether we pull ourselves together with big tech companies, governors, federal agencies, to work together in the right direction,”Wang told ABC News.
Taiwan learned from their mistakes during the 2003 SARS experience, Wang said, andput in place a public health emergency response mechanism that enabled experienced officials to quickly recognize the crisis at hand and respond with efficient, culturally sensitive policies that helped contain the spread and significantly minimize deaths.
“Taiwan’s ability to contain the COVID-19 outbreak is a tribute to our unity and resilience.
It also speaks to the collaboration between our government, people and the many private businesses that have ramped up production to protect public health & make the impossible possible,” Tsai said in a statement on Twitter.
Brook points out Taiwan’s two-party system is just as divided as Democrats and Republicans.
“But they knew they had a crisis on their hands and they were able to act together, break down bureaucracy and work rapidly to get things done and that’s the lesson,” he said.
On 26 February 2020, Taiwanese Central News Agency reported that large amounts of misinformation had appeared on Facebook claiming the pandemic in Taiwan had lost control, the Taiwanese government had covered up the total number of cases, and that President Tsai Ing-wen had been infected.
The Taiwan fact-checking organization had suggested the misinformation on Facebook shared similarities with mainland China due to its use of simplified Chinese and mainland China vocabulary.
The organization warns the purpose of the misinformation is to attack the government.
In March 2020, Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau warned that mainland China was trying to undermine trust in factual news by portraying the Taiwanese Government reports as fake news.
Taiwanese authorities have been ordered to use all possible means to track whether the messages were linked to instructions given by the Communist Party of China.
The PRC’s Taiwan Affairs Office denied the claims calling them lies and said that Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party was “inciting hatred” between the two sides.
They then claimed that the “DPP continues to politically manipulate the virus“.
According to the Washington Post, China has used organized disinformation campaigns against Taiwan for decades.
Nick Monaco, the research director of the Digital Intelligence Lab at Institute for the Future, analyzed the posts and concluded that the majority appear to have come from ordinary users in China not the state.
However, he criticized the Chinese government making to decision to allow the information to spread beyond China’s Great Firewall which he described as “malicious.”
According to Taiwan News, nearly one in four cases of misinformation are believed to be connected to mainland China.
On 27 March 2020 the American Institute in Taiwan announced that it was partnering with the Taiwan FactCheck Center to help combat misinformation about the COVID-19 outbreak.
Thailand has reported 51 new corona virus cases and three more deaths, according to a spokesman for the government’s Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration.
Thirteen of the new cases were medical personnel who tended to infected patients or were in contact with them, said the spokesman, Taweesin Wisanuyothin.
More than half of the new cases were in Bangkok, he said.
Thailand has confirmed a total of 2,220 cases and 26 fatalities since the outbreak emerged in the country in January.
Thailand has extended a ban on all passenger flights from landing in the country to curb the outbreak of the new corona virus, the country’s aviation agency said.
The ban on incoming flights came into effect on Saturday morning and was originally set to run until the end of Monday, according to a previous order by the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand.
The new order, which extended the ban for 12 more days until the end of April 18, came after the country reported 51 new corona virus cases and three more deaths on Monday, raising the numbers to 2,220 cases and 26 fatalities.
More than 20,000 Pakistani workers stuck in the United Arab Emirates want to go home, as the Gulf state tightens restrictions due to the corona virus outbreak.
Over 20,000 people had registered since 3 April with the Consulate to return to Pakistan, a Consulate spokesman told Reuters news agency.
The UAE, which has reported 1,799 corona virus cases and 10 deaths, has gradually increased curbs, including imposing a nationwide curfew, suspending passenger flights and putting Dubai under lockdown.
On Thursday, the UK endured its deadliest day of the corona virus pandemic, with 569 fatalities recorded in 24 hours.
As Downing Street comes under mounting pressure over its perceived failure to accelerate nationwide testing to combat the virus, the country’s Covid-19 death toll continues to rise.
A total of 2,921 people had died in hospitals after testing positive for the disease as of 5 pm on Wednesday, representing a slightly bigger increase than the previous day, when there were 563 deaths.
The figures also suggest that UK is about a fortnight behind Italy, Europe’s worst-hit country, in terms of fatalities.
Italy has recorded more than 13,000 deaths, while Spain passed 10,000 on Thursday and more than 4,000 people have died in France.
As of 9 am on Thursday, 163,194 people had been tested for the virus in the UK, of whom 33,718 were positive, a rise of 4,244 on the previous day.
The government has been criticised for not testing more healthcare staff, meaning thousands of doctors, nurses and other frontline employees are at home isolating when they could potentially be at work.
Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia who specialises in infectious diseases, said:
“Yesterday was a huge jump on the previous day, which itself was a pretty big rise from the day before.
This rise is slightly more than yesterday, but essentially on par.
I think we probably are about two weeks behind Italy in terms of the number of fatalities, but our epidemic started differently to the Italian one.
The Italians messed up early on by not realising they had a problem for a few weeks.
Whereas we did containment really well, but it started to unravel a bit when we moved into the next stage of the outbreak.
The Italians do seem to have brought things under control, as the last few days shows the number of cases are declining.
If social distancing measures work, I think we will probably see the impact of that by the end of next week.
We should see a substantial flattening of new cases.
But the deaths will continue to rise day on day for probably another two to three weeks even if we control new cases, because there is obviously a lag in when someone contracts the disease to when they die.
However, there is a challenge, because we’re not doing as many tests as other countries, so we really don’t know how many cases we’ve got in the community.”
Boris Johnson, who is still in isolation after contracting Covid-19, acknowledged in a video message on Wednesday evening that mass testing may be the only way to “unlock the puzzle” of the pandemic.
Downing Street said on Thursday that 2,800 NHS staff had now been tested for the corona virus at drive-in testing facilities, an increase of 800 on the previous day.
This is still only a fraction of the more than 500,000 frontline NHS workers.
At the daily Downing Street press conference later on Thursday, the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, confirmed that 5,000 NHS staff had been tested.
He also set the goal of delivering 100,000 Covid-19 tests per day by the end of the month.
The government is considering immunity certificates to identify people who have had corona virus, Downing Street suggested.
Johnson’s spokesman said:
“This is something which has been discussed in other countries.
We have always said that we are watching closely what other countries are doing and we will always look to learn from ideas which could be helpful.”
Comedian Eddie Large, best known for being part of double act Little and Large, has died on 2 April from the corona virus.
The star, 78, was a well known face on TV in the 1970s and 80s and was famous for his partnership with Syd Little.
His family confirmed the news “with great sadness” on Facebook, saying he had been suffering with heart failure and contracted the virus in hospital.
Syd Little said he was “devastated” by the news.
“He had been ill for a while but when it happens, it hits you,” he said.
“We were together 60 years,” he told BBC Radio Lancashire.
“It wasn’t like having a partner.
We were friends.”
The comedian’s family said they had been unable to visit him in hospital due to restrictions around the corona virus, “but all of the family and close friends spoke to him every day”.
“We will miss him terribly and we are so proud of everything he has achieved in his career with Syd and know that he was much loved by the millions that watched them every week.”
Reacting to the news, TV hosts Ant and Dec said the entertainer, who they recently worked with, “will be missed”.
“He just loved making people laugh,” they wrote.
Large, whose real name was Hugh McGinnis, was born in Glasgow but grew up in Manchester’s Moss Side.
He formed double act Little and Large with Syd Little in 1960, after watching Little’s set in a local pub, and joining him on stage to sing a Cliff Richard song.
They went on to win the talent show Opportunity Knocks and had a long-running comedy show on BBC One in the 1970s and 80s.
The sketch-based comedy show was as a fixture of Saturday evening TV, with Little mainly acting as the butt of Large’s cheeky humour.
They largely stepped away from the limelight when the show ended in 1991, after doctors told Large his heart couldn’t stand the rigours of touring their live show.
“That phone call to Syd was the most painful I’ve ever had to make,”he told the Mirror in 2017.
“I was crying my eyes out because I knew I was putting him out of work. He had bills to pay.
“I felt horrible.
We weren’t just a double act.
We were mates, right from the start.”
Large had a heart transplant in 2003 and became an spokesman for the British Heart Foundation.
In later years, he lived in Portishead, near Bristol, with his wife Patsy Scott.
Little said he had remained in almost daily contact with his stage partner and spoke to him on Wednesday night, shortly before he died.
“He was in pain, bless him, but he even asked me how are we up here in Lancashire,” he said.
“He was so thoughtful to everybody.”
Reflecting on their career, he added:
“We did everything there was to do in showbiz and we did it together.
Happy times.”
Fellow comics including Little Britain‘s Matt Lucas paid tribute on Twitter, writing:
“Eddie Large (along with his supersonic friend Syd) was really lovely and kind and encouraging to me when I was a nipper on Shooting Stars.
So sad to hear of his passing.”
Actress Kate Robbins described him as a “great chap”.
“Sorry to hear the comedian Eddie Large has died,” she tweeted.
“A real pro.
Rest in peace, Eddie”.
Manchester City Football Club also paid tribute to Large, who was a lifelong fan, saying everyone at the club was sad at the news.
“Our thoughts are with Eddie’s friends and family at this difficult time.”
Fellow City fan and comedian Jason Manford added:
“So sorry to hear about Eddie Large passing away.
Came to every comedy and musical show I did whenever I hit Bristol and was always around for a chat about comedy and Man City afterwards.
Such a gentle, funny man.
RIP Eddie.”
Call the Midwife actor Stephen McGann described Large as “a constant feature on telly in my life.”
Another comic, Sir Lenny Henry recalled seeing him perform in Great Yarmouth in 1978 and how he had “never heard laughter like it”.
Tommy Cannon, of Cannon and Ball-fame, said he was “devastated” to hear of the death of his “good friend”.
“Eddie Large has passed …. very heavy hearts at home today,” he wrote.
“Mine and Hazel’s hearts go out to Patsy and the family.”
“Dear Eddie Large – thank you for the laughter and joy,” added 80s TV comedy character Timmy Mallett.
Michael Barrymore described Large as “such a funny and talented man.”
“I was his support act for many years and he was nothing but kind caring and supportive to the upstart at the bottom of the bill,” posted Barrymore on Twitter.
Paul Chuckle, who is currently recovering from having contracted Covid-19 himself, said Large “was such a funny and lovely man”.
Is the dying of comedians Covid-19’s way of suggesting that it is no laughing matter?
Another 684 people have died in the UK after contracting the corona virus – bringing the total number of deaths to 3,605.
The number of deaths, tallied in the 24 hours up to 5 pm on Thursday, marks the largest increase so far, with the previous day recording 569 people.
The Department of Health said as of 9 am on Friday, 38,168 people had tested positive for the corona virus across the UK.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Sky News on Friday the peak of the UK’s coronavirus outbreak may come on Easter Sunday, with as many as 1,000 deaths a day leading up to it.
As the number of deaths and cases increased, Boris Johnson announced he would not be coming out of self-isolation on Friday as he still has a temperature.
The Prime Minister had been self-isolating in his Downing Street flat after testing positive for the corona virus last Friday.
Hancock returned to work on Thursday evening after recovering from coronavirus for the opening of the NHS Nightingale Hospital in East London the following morning.
Catherine Calderwood, Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer, is resigning after she broke her own advice on staying at home by visiting her second home this weekend and last.
Calderwood said she had agreed in discussions with Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Sunday evening that her actions risked distracting from the “hugely important job that government and the medical profession has to do in getting the country through this coronavirus pandemic”.
“It is with a heavy heart that I resign as Chief Medical Officer,” she says in a statement.
Police had earlier issued a warning to Calderwood about her behaviour and Sturgeon had removed her as the public face of the campaign to tackle the corona virus.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson continues to lead the government, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has said, after the British leader spent the night in hospital for tests because he was still suffering symptoms of the corona virus.
“He’s been working extremely hard, leading the government and being constantly updated, that’s going to continue,” Jenrick told BBC TV.
The Housing Minister added that Johnson is “doing well”.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had a comfortable night in hospital, is in good spirits and continues to carry out work as leader of the government but will remain in hospital under observation, his spokesman has said.
“The Prime Minister had a comfortable night in St. Thomas’ Hospital in London, and is in good spirits.
He remains in hospital under observation,” the spokesman told reporters.
Britain now has 10,000 ventilators in its health care system, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman has said, confirming the number had increased after deliveries from suppliers.
The spokesman also said there were no current plans to ban citizens from exercising outside their homes, and that 16,000 tests for the corona virus were carried out on Sunday.
Another 708 people have died after testing positive for the corona virus in the UK, including a five year-old child who is the youngest victim to date.
The daily increase in deaths, which includes cases from up to 5 pm on Friday, took the UK’s total to 4,313.
It comes after the figure rose by 684 on Friday and 569 on Thursday.
Of the extra 637 English deaths reported in hospitals, Public Health England said that the patients were aged between five years old and 104 years old.
The Department of Health has since confirmed the five-year-old is the UK’s youngest person to die with COVID-19 related symptoms so far.
Before today, the youngest known victim was 13, Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, had been the youngest corona virus victim in the UK.
Ismail was buried in the Eternal Gardens at Kemnal Cemetery in Chislehurst, southeast London, on Friday afternoon, without his family present.
Two of Ismail’s six siblings had come down with symptoms of Covid-19, meaning that his family could not attend his funeral as they have to self-isolate.
Socially distanced mourners who could attend said prayers and watched as the coffin was lowered into the ground.
The total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England now stands at 3,939.
NHS England said that of the latest 637 deaths in the country, 40 of them – aged between 48 and 93 – had no known underlying health conditions.
No information was released about the five-year-old, but the implication is that the child had an underlying condition.
The child is among 637 people who have lost their lives to Covid-19 in the last 24 hours in England.
Earliest this week, it was announced a six-week-old baby, died of Covid-19 in Connecticut.
Conservative commentator Candace Owens called for the resignation of Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont after she claims he lied about an infant dying from the corona virus.
“If you can be arrested for yelling fire in a theatre, Governor Ned Lamont should be in prison for this,” Owens said on Twitter in response to a video she made with the headline “BREAKING NEWS! Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont lied about the infant death from the corona virus”.
“The death of the infant in Connecticut had nothing to do with Covid-19.
I know exactly how the infant died,” Owens said in the video.
“I know this because people that were involved were mortified and angry, and they were so happy that I spoke out and called out this double-speak.
These people reached out to me, not the mother and the father.”
“I think Governor Ned Lamont should have to step down,” she added.
Owens argued that the infant succumbed to another illness before testing positive for corona virus postmortem.
“Postmortem, after this infant had already succumbed, they tested this infant for Covid-19. God knows why,” she said.
“Because as I have been trying to shout to you all, it does not matter how you die, they will test you for Covid-19.
Then, they will use the exact same language that Ned Lamont used: ‘a death linked to Covid-19,’ knowing fully well that the manner in which that infant died had nothing to do with the corona virus.”
Owens followed up her initial tweet with another post accompanied by a video of Lamont calling for his resignation again.
Owens does bring up disturbing thoughts.
What if the governors of each state feel the compulsion to show urgency in their region to ensure that their state gets the medical supplies needed?
It is possible to have the disease without having the symptoms of the disease.
This is known as being asymptomic.
It is also possible for one’s body to have another medical problem simultaneously alongside Covid-19 without Covid-19 being the disease leading to death.
Of today’s new cases, the oldest patient was 104, and forty victims aged between 48 and 93 had no known underlying conditions.
Their families have been informed.
NHS England said 212 of the deaths of patients with Covid-19 were in the Midlands, with 127 in London, 97 in the North West, 73 in the North East and Yorkshire, 70 in the East of England, 41 in the South East and 17 in the South West.
Among the UK-wide death toll are seven healthcare professionals, Mr Gove confirmed.
Five of those who have died are London bus workers, the trade union Unite said earlier and the Prison Officers’ Association said two support staff workers, Bovil Peter and Patrick Beckford, also died.
The prison workers had been at North London’s Pentonville Prison and were believed to be aged in their 60s.
The largest share of deaths in England occurred in the Midlands, with 212 deaths in the region, with 127 in London and less than 100 in other regions.
The least hit region was the South West.
Previously, the largest share of deaths was in London, which has also experienced the highest rates of infection.
Cabinet member Michael Gove referred to sharply rising rates occurring in Yorkshire and in the Midlands, with rates falling slightly in London, during the government’s daily briefing from Downing Street.
Meanwhile, the number testing positive for Covid-19 in the UK as a whole has risen to 41,903, as of 9 am on Saturday, after 183,190 have been tested.
The number of people in Scotland who have died is 218, up 46 from 172 on Friday, the Scottish Government said.
Public Health Wales said 13 further deaths have been reported of people who had tested positive, taking the number of deaths in Wales to 154.
Northern Ireland’s Public Health Agency reported another eight deaths, bringing the country’s total to 56, with a total of 998 testing positive.
Mr Gove also announced a series of new Nightingale hospitals would be built in cities across the UK to boost intensive care capacity, after the Excel Centre in London’s Docklands was opened as a temporary hospital on Friday.
Analysis by the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC) found that the death rate among those admitted to intensive care with Covid-19 has topped 50%.
The centre looked at a sample of 2,249 coronavirus patients and found that out of the 690 patients whose care outcomes were known, 346 – 50.1% – had died, while 344 had been discharged.
The remaining patients, 1,559, were reported still to be in critical care.
As a comparison, just 22.4% of patients admitted to intensive care with viral pneumonia between 2017 and 2019 died of the disease.
The corona virus infection rate will remain high for “weeks and weeks” if people flout social distancing rules this weekend, a scientist advising the government has warned.
Professor Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, said earlier that while the epidemic was expected to plateau in the next week to 10 days, people’s behaviour was critical to determining what happens next.
His warning followed similar pleas by Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock for people to stick with the social distancing measures and resist the temptation to enjoy the sunshine forecast for swathes of the UK on Saturday and Sunday.
Efforts were under way around the UK to dissuade people from visiting popular spots across the country.
Mr Gove reiterated the message at the daily briefing on Saturday, saying:
“I know that life under lockdown can be challenging, and some will be tempted on this sunny weekend to venture out and about.
“If we relax our adherence to the rules, we increase the risk for others.”
Earlier, it was announced that up to 4,000 prisoners in England and Wales are to be temporarily released from jail in an effort to try and control the virus’s spread.
Despite the London no longer being the worst area for deaths, pressure on health services there has continued.
Watford General Hospital has told people not to attend A&E until further notice, even in an emergency, and to visit other nearby hospitals or seek advice through the 111 helpline.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been admitted to hospital for tests, 10 days after testing positive for corona virus, Downing Street has said.
He was taken to a London hospital on Sunday evening with “persistent symptoms” – including a temperature.
It is said to be a “precautionary step” taken on the advice of his doctor.
The Prime Minister remains in charge of the government, but the Foreign Secretary is expected to chair a corona virus meeting on Monday morning.
Mr Johnson, 55, spent the night in hospital and is having what has been described as a series of “routine tests”.
In a statement, a Downing Street spokeswoman said:
“On the advice of his doctor, the Prime Minister has tonight been admitted to hospital for tests.
“This is a precautionary step, as the Prime Minister continues to have persistent symptoms of corona virus 10 days after testing positive for the virus.”
She added:
“The prime minister thanks NHS staff for all of their incredible hard work and urges the public to continue to follow the government’s advice to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives.”
US President Donald Trump began a White House press briefing by sending “our nation’s well wishes” for Mr Johnson’s “own personal fight with the virus”.
“All Americans are praying for him.
He’s a great friend of mine, a great gentleman and a great leader,” Mr Trump said, adding that he was sure the Prime Minister would be fine because he is “a strong person”.
Labour’s new leader Keir Starmer also wished Mr Johnson well, saying he hoped for a “speedy recovery”.
The Prime Minister, alongside the Queen, personifies the country’s public response to this pandemic.
And Boris Johnson is continuing to personally experience the unpleasant reality of the virus.
Downing Street officials are adamant Mr Johnson remains in charge of the government and is in contact with ministerial colleagues and civil servants.
But the undeniable reality is there is nothing conventional, nothing normal about this – however routine the tests are that the Prime Minister is receiving.
The corona virus has repeatedly proven its capacity to turn the far-fetched into reality, over and over again.
Advisers, officials and ministerial colleagues have all been forced to self-isolate.
Covid-19, the illness which the virus causes, is crippling the economy, robbing us of our usual liberties – and now it is straining the personal capacity of those at the highest level of government to respond to it.
Dr Sarah Jarvis, a GP and broadcaster, told the BBC that Mr Johnson would be likely to have his chest X-rayed and his lungs scanned, particularly if he had been struggling for breath.
She said he is also likely to have an electrocardiogram to check his heart’s function, as well as tests on his oxygen levels, white blood cell count, and liver and kidney function before he is released from hospital.
Mr Johnson has worked from home since it was announced that he had tested positive for corona virus on 27 March.
He was last seen in public applauding the NHS and other key workers from his flat in Downing Street on Thursday evening, and chaired a corona virus meeting remotely on Friday morning.
Also on Friday, the Prime Minister posted a Twitter video in which said he was still displaying minor symptoms.
“I still have a temperature.
So in accordance with government advice I must continue my self isolation until that symptom itself goes,” he said.
“But we’re working clearly the whole time on our programme to beat the virus.”
On Saturday, his pregnant partner Carrie Symonds tweeted that she has spent a week in bed with the main symptoms.
She said she had not been tested for the virus.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock had also tested positive for the virus and returned from self-isolation on Thursday to host the daily Downing Street news conference.
The government’s chief medical adviser, Professor Chris Whitty, has also had to self-isolate after showing symptoms.
Last month, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said if the prime minister was unwell and unable to work, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, as the first secretary of state, would stand in.
The news of Mr Johnson’s admission to hospital came shortly after the Queen delivered a rallying message to the nation, saying the UK “will succeed” in its fight against the corona virus pandemic.
In a rare speech, the monarch thanked people for following government rules to stay at home and praised those “coming together to help others”.
She also thanked key workers, saying “every hour” of work “brings us closer to a return to more normal times”.
It comes as the number of people to die with the virus in the UK reached 4,934.
Speaking from Windsor Castle, the Queen said:
I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time.
A time of disruption in the life of our country:
A disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all.
I want to thank everyone on the NHS frontline, as well as care workers and those carrying out essential roles, who selflessly continue their day-to-day duties outside the home in support of us all.
I am sure the nation will join me in assuring you that what you do is appreciated and every hour of your hard work brings us closer to a return to more normal times.
I also want to thank those of you who are staying at home, thereby helping to protect the vulnerable and sparing many families the pain already felt by those who have lost loved ones.
Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it.
I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge.
And those who come after us will say the Britons of this generation were as strong as any.
That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet good-humoured resolve and of fellow-feeling still characterise this country.
The pride in who we are is not a part of our past, it defines our present and our future.
The moments when the United Kingdom has come together to applaud its care and essential workers will be remembered as an expression of our national spirit.
And its symbol will be the rainbows drawn by children.
Across the Commonwealth and around the world, we have seen heart-warming stories of people coming together to help others, be it through delivering food parcels and medicines, checking on neighbours, or converting businesses to help the relief effort.
And though self-isolating may at times be hard, many people of all faiths, and of none, are discovering that it presents an opportunity to slow down, pause and reflect, in prayer or meditation.
It reminds me of the very first broadcast I made, in 1940, helped by my sister.
We, as children, spoke from here at Windsor to children who had been evacuated from their homes and sent away for their own safety.
Today, once again, many will feel a painful sense of separation from their loved ones.
But now, as then, we know, deep down, that it is the right thing to do.
While we have faced challenges before, this one is different.
This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavour, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal.
We will succeed – and that success will belong to every one of us.
We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return.
We will be with our friends again.
We will be with our families again.
We will meet again.
But for now, I send my thanks and warmest good wishes to you all.
In other developments:
The National Domestic Abuse helpline has seen a 25% increase in calls and online requests for help since the lockdown, the charity Refuge says.
High Street pharmacists are “needlessly being put at risk” due to a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), the Royal Pharmaceutical Society says.
Young workers and the worst paid are the most likely to be affected by the closure of businesses because of corona virus, according to research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
On Sunday, the Department of Health said 621 more people had died in hospital in the UK after testing positive for the corona virus, taking the total death toll to 4,934.
As of 09:00 on Sunday, 47,806 people had tested positive for the corona virus, the department said.
In February 2020, the BBC reported that conspiracy theorists on social media groups alleged a link between the corona virus and 5G mobile networks, claiming that Wuhan and Diamond Princess outbreaks were directly caused by electromagnetic fields and the introduction of 5G and wireless technologies.
Some conspiracy theorists also alleged that the corona virus outbreak was cover-up for a 5G-related illness.
In March 2020, Thomas Cowan, a holistic medical practitioner who trained as a physician and operates on probation with Medical Board of California, alleged that the corona virus is caused by 5G, based on the claims that African countries were not affected significantly by the pandemic and Africa was not a 5G region.
Cowan also falsely alleged that the viruses were wastes from cells that are poisoned by electromagnetic fields and historical viral pandemics coincided with the major developments in radio technology.
The video of his allegations went viral.
Both the claims and the video, which were endorsed by singer Keri Hilson, were criticized on social media and debunked by Reuters,USA Today, Full Fact and American Public Health Association executive director Georges C. Benjamin.
Engineers working for Openreach have had to resort to posting pleas on anti-5G Facebook groups asking to be spared abuse as they are not involved with maintaining mobile networks.
Mobile UK said that the incidents were affecting attempts to maintain networks that support home working and provide critical connections to vulnerable customers, emergency services and hospitals.
A widely circulated video shows people working for broadband company Community Fibre being abused by a woman who accuses them of installing 5G as part of a plan to kill the population.
After telecommunications masts in several parts of the United Kingdom were torched, British Cabinet Officer Minister Michael Gove said the theory that Covid-19 virus may be spread by 5G wireless communication is “just nonsense, dangerous nonsense as well.”
YouTube will reduce the amount of content spreading conspiracy theories about links between 5G technology and corona virus that it recommends to users, it has said, as four more attacks were recorded on phone masts within 24 hours.
The online video company will actively remove videos that breach its policies, it said.
But content that is simply conspiratorial about 5G mobile communications networks, without mentioning corona virus, is still allowed on the site.
YouTube said those videos may be considered “borderline content” and subjected to suppression, including loss of advertising revenue and being removed from search results on the platform.
“We also have clear policies that prohibit videos promoting medically unsubstantiated methods to prevent the corona virus in place of seeking medical treatment, and we quickly remove videos violating these policies when flagged to us,” a YouTube spokesperson said.
“We have also begun reducing recommendations of borderline content such as conspiracy theories related to 5G and corona virus, that could misinform users in harmful ways.”
The company’s decision to reduce the visibility of content linked to the false theory came as Vodafone said that two of its own masts, and two it shares with O2, were targeted.
Three other masts were subjected to arson attacks last week.
Nick Jeffery, Vodafone UK’s chief executive, said:
“It beggars belief that some people should want to harm the very networks that are providing essential connectivity to the emergency services, the NHS and the rest of the country during this lockdown period.”
Amir Khan on Sunday became the latest celebrity to share the debunked theory on Sunday in a series of Instagram videos.
The theory, which has been described as “dangerous nonsense” by cabinet office minister Michael Gove, has also been promoted by Woody Harrelson and Amanda Holden.
Just because someone is famous and/or successful does not mean they are expert in everything.
One video, removed by the site after the Guardian flagged it, featured a man claiming to be a former executive at a UK mobile network falsely stating that corona virus tests were actually used to spread the virus, and that the pandemic was created to hide deaths from the mobile technology.
But variations of the video have been available on the site for weeks, and shortly after it was taken down, the Guardian found another three versions of the same recording uploaded to different channels.
In a statement, Mats Granryd, the director general of the GSMA, the global communications industry body, said:
“The telecoms industry is working around the clock to keep vital health, education and emergency services online, businesses running, and friends and families connected.
It is deplorable that critical communications infrastructure is being attacked based on outright mistruths.
We urge everyone to trust health authorities and rest assured communications technology is safe.
There is no link between 5G and Covid-19.”
YouTube says that since early February, it has manually reviewed and removed thousands of videos that spread dangerous or misleading corona virus information.
For other videos, it has applied its main tool for fighting the spread of misinformation:
A text link that takes users to the NHS information page about Covid-19.
That box was visible on some, but not all, of the videos flagged by the Guardian.
“We’ll continue to evaluate the impact of these videos on the UK community and look forward to continuing our work with the UK government and the NHS to keep the British public safe and informed during this difficult time,” the YouTube spokesperson added.
Content that spreads falsehoods about 5G but does not mention corona virus is not in violation of the site’s policies, YouTube says, but is often considered borderline content and is subjected to limited functionality, such as being removed from recommendations and search features on the platform.
These actions reduce views on affected videos by more than 70%, it says.
The site’s refusal to remove entirely misinformation about 5G may set it on a collision course with the UK government.
On Sunday, the Observer reported that the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, is to hold talks with platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube and Twitter to “hammer home” the message that spreading 5G misinformation is unacceptable.
Last week, mobile phone masts in Birmingham, Merseyside and Belfast were set on fire and broadband engineers faced physical and verbal threats from people who believe that 5G signals are responsible for the global pandemic.
In the UK there are reports of far-right groups blaming Muslims for the corona virus outbreak and falsely claiming that mosques remained open after the national ban on large gatherings.
Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the UN, is appealing for an end to domestic violence as fears grow that victims are unable to escape to safety because of corona virus lockdowns imposed as the world.
“Over the past weeks, as economic and social pressures and fear have grown, we have seen a horrifying global surge in domestic violence.
In some countries, the number of women calling support services has doubled,” he says in a statement.
Governments must make the “prevention and redress” of violence against women a key part of their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he adds.
The commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt has been removed after saying the US Navy was not doing enough to halt a corona virus outbreak on board the aircraft carrier.
In a letter, Captain Brett Crozier had urged his superiors to act to prevent US troops dying outside of wartime.
But acting US Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said the commander “exercised extremely poor judgement”.
At least 100 people aboard the vessel have been infected, reports say.
On Thursday, Mr Modly told reporters that Captain Crozier was being fired for allegedly leaking the letter to the media.
He said the letter “created the impression the Navy was not responding to his questions”.
“It creates the perception the Navy is not on the job.
The government is not on the job.
That’s just not true.”
Uninfected members of the ship’s more than 4,000 crew are now being quarantined in Guam after the governor of the US island territory in the western Pacific Ocean said they could stay as long as they had no interactions with locals.
Until now, the sailors had been restricted to the naval base’s pier.
He had warned the Pentagon that the outbreak aboard his ship was “accelerating” because crew members were living in confined spaces.
“We are not at war.
Sailors do not need to die,” stated the four-page letter, dated 30 March.
Captain Crozier had called for “decisive action”, saying uninfected sailors had to be removed from the ship and isolated.
The letter was later published by the San Francisco Chronicle.
In a statement, Democratic leaders of the House Armed Services Committee said:
“While Captain Crozier clearly went outside the chain of command, his dismissal at this critical moment is a destabilising move that will likely put our service members at greater risk and jeopardise our fleet’s readiness.”
“Throwing the commanding officer overboard without a thorough investigation is not going to solve the growing crisis aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt.”
The Democratic National Committee is officially delaying the party’s presidential nominating convention from mid-July until 17 August, as the US continues to respond to the corona virus pandemic.
The Democratic National Convention was originally scheduled to take place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from 13 – 16 July, but uncertainty about rising corona virus cases across the country and how long this outbreak will last raised questions about possibly delaying the gathering of over 5,000 party officials, delegates, and journalists.
The new date means the DNC will now take place one week before the Republican National Convention, which is still scheduled to happen from 24 – 27 August in Charlotte, North Carolina, as initially planned.
“In our current climate of uncertainty, we believe the smartest approach is to take additional time to monitor how this situation unfolds so we can best position our party for a safe and successful convention,” Joe Solmonese, Democratic National Convention Committee CEO, said in a statement.
Although questions had been accumulating for weeks about delaying the convention and the DNC had told Vox they were monitoring the situation and following public health guidelines, the decision to postpone only came two days after the presumptive nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, weighed in.
During an MSNBC appearance on Tuesday, the former vice president, who’s currently leading the delegate count, said it was “hard to envision” the event occurring in July given the current outbreak.
DNC leadership is evaluating the situation to determine if more adjustments, like crowd size, will have to be made to ensure that the event will take place safely and in line with public health guidelines later this summer.
“Ultimately, the health and safety of our convention attendees and the people of Milwaukee is our top priority,” DNC Chair Tom Perez said in a statement.
The Democrats’ convention is just the latest in a slew of election-related events that are being postponed or adapted to respond to the corona virus crisis.
As Vox’s Sean Collins reported, over a dozen states including New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio have delayed their primary elections because of the corona virus, and the DNC has urged those states that have yet to vote to expand vote-by-mail options.
At this point in the primary, Biden has established a strong lead, with Senator Bernie Sanders currently trailing him by more than 200 delegates.
The White House announced Thursday that President Donald Trump is invoking the Defense Production Act to clear up supply-chain issues encountered in the manufacturing of ventilators and to ensure the production of additional N95 face masks.
Thursday’s orders come amid increased fears of ventilator shortages and personal protective equipment around the country.
The use of ventilators among critical corona virus patients and the demand for protective equipment, such as the N95 respirator, has skyrocketed since the coronavirus pandemic hit the US.
The first order, a White House statement said, will help domestic manufacturers “secure the supplies they need to build ventilators needed to defeat the virus.”
The President also said the move “will save lives by removing obstacles in the supply chain that threaten the rapid production of ventilators.”
The order, which came in the form of a presidential memorandum, directs the supply of materials to make ventilators to six companies:
– General Electric Co.
– Hill-Rom Holdings Inc.
– Medtronic Public Limited Co.
– ResMed Inc.
– Royal Philips N.V.
– Vyaire Medical Inc.
It also directs acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to “use any and all authority available under the Act to facilitate the supply of materials” to these companies.
A second order invokes the Defense Production Act to authorize Azar and Pete Gaynor, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to “use any and all authority available under the Act to acquire” N95 respirators from 3M.
Speaking about the decision to invoke the act against 3M, Trump told reporters, “Hopefully they’ll be able to do what they are supposed to do.”
A spokesperson for General Electric said the company welcomes “efforts by the administration to address supply chain constraints and help the industry in its mission to produce as many ventilators as possible for clinicians on the front lines treating COVID-19 patients.”
After signing an executive order authorizing the use of the Defense Production Act for corona virus-related federal procurement, Trump initially stopped short of using it against specific companies.
Even after he signed an executive order activating the use of the act for corona virus supplies, Trump had argued that businesses were voluntarily pitching in and didn’t need to be threatened by the invocation of the act.
“Frankly, they don’t need someone to walk over there with a hammer and say do it,” he said at the time.
But last week, Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to require General Motors to produce more ventilators.
The President has faced pressure to use the act to procure medical equipment and protective equipment for dealing with the coronavirus in the US.
The Defense Production Act, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is “the primary source of presidential authorities to expedite and expand the supply of resources from the US industrial base to support military, energy, space and homeland security programs.”
US Surgeon General Jerome Adams said Americans should brace for “the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans’ lives” because of the corona virus pandemic.
“This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it’s not going to be localised,” the top doctor warned on Fox News on Sunday.
He had a message for the nine governors who have not yet imposed shelter-in-place orders in their states
“If you can’t give us a month, give us what you can.
Give us a week.
Give us whatever you can to stay at home during this particularly tough time when we’re going to be hitting our peak over the next seven to ten days.”
It is a sad commentary on society when a leader must be begged to give a damn about the people they represent.
Trump is expressing hope the US is seeing a “levelling-off” of the corona virus crisis, citing a slight drop in deaths in New York, the hardest-hit state.
“Maybe that’s a good sign,” Trump told reporters, referring to the drop in fatalities.
The death toll in New York state rose to 4,159 on Sunday, up from 3,565 the day before.
US President Donald Trump is warning of an increase in corona virus deaths in the US in the coming weeks.
“I think we all know that we have to reach a certain point and that point is going to be a horrific point in terms of death.
But it’s also a point at which things are going to start changing,” the President said.
“We are getting very close to that level right now.
The next week and a half, two weeks, are going to be very difficult.”
Apple says it will produce one million face shields a week for medical workers battling the corona virus pandemic.
Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook says the company has designed its own transparent protective face shield and begun mass production at its factories in the US and China.
“We plan to ship over one million by the end of this week,” he says, adding that initial distribution will be focused on the US.
A tiger at New York’s Bronx Zoo has tested positive for the new corona virus, in what is believed to be the first known infection in an animal in the US or a tiger anywhere in the world, federal officials and the zoo said.
The four-year-old Malayan tiger, Nadia, was among a group of six other animals to have also fallen ill, the Wildlife Conservation Society, which manages the zoo, said in a statement on Sunday.
She was screened for the Covid-19 disease after developing a dry cough along with three other tigers and three lions, it said, adding that all of the cats are expected to recover.
New York State reported 594 deaths from the corona virus and 8,327 new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, increasing the numbers to 4,159 dead and 122,000 cases since the outbreak began, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday.
But he said there was good news in that the number of people discharged from the hospital was three times as great as the number of newly hospitalized people, relieving stress on the health care system.
Cuomo has become a leading national voice on the corona virus pandemic as his state accounts for more than a third of US cases and more than 40% of deaths.
Meanwhile, the United States entered one of the most critical weeks so far in the corona virus crisis with government officials warning the death toll in states such as New York, Michigan and Louisiana was a sign of trouble to come in other states.
Above: New York State flag
Globally, the death toll from Covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by the new virus, has passed 70,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, while the number of infections rose above 1.28 million.
A poll was released showing that 38% of American beer-drinkers have refused to drink Corona-brand beer.
This statistic is not considered a reliable indication of an American belief that drinking the beer causes the virus, even though assumptions have been made along this line in the media and among the public.
There is no direct link between the virus and the beer brand, but rather, both names draw upon the Latin corona, meaning ‘crown‘.
US hospitals have been silencing doctors and other staff, threatening to fire them if they publicly speak about the inadequacies in the working conditions and lack of equipment.
The Washington State Nurses Association states that there is an effort by hospitals to preserve their image.
After the initial outbreak of the corona virus disease (Covid-19), conspiracy theories, misinformation, and disinformation emerged regarding the origin, scale, prevention, treatment, and other aspects of the disease.
Disinformation and misinformation was spread through social media, text messages, as well as the state media of some countries.
Medical misinformation about ways to prevent, treat, and self-diagnose coronavirus disease have circulated on social media.
Some false claims may be commercial scams offering at-home tests, supposed preventives, and “miracle” cures.
The World Health Organization has declared an “infodemic” of incorrect information about the virus, which poses risks to global health.
Some misinformation and disinformation claimed the virus was a bio-weapon with a patented vaccine, a population control scheme, or the result of a spy operation.
Some of these misinformation and conspiracy theories may have state involvement.
Some world leaders have also downplayed the threat of the virus and disseminated misinformation.
Conservative political commentator Rush Limbaugh said on The Rush Limbaugh Show— the most popular radio show in the US — that the virus was probably “aChiCom laboratory experiment” and that the Chinese were using the virus and the media hysteria surrounding it to bring down Donald Trump.
In February 2020, The Financial Times quoted virus expert and global co-lead corona virus investigator Trevor Bedford:
“There is no evidence whatsoever of genetic engineering that we can find”.
“The evidence we have is that the mutations in the virus are completely consistent with natural evolution.”
Conservative commentator Josh Bernstein claimed that the Democratic Party and the “medical deep state” were collaborating with the Chinese government to create and release the corona virus to bring down Donald Trump.
Bernstein went on to suggest that those responsible should be locked in a room with infected corona virus patients as punishment.
Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University, promoted a conspiracy theory that North Korea and China conspired together to create the corona virus.
He also said that people were overreacting to the corona virus outbreak and that Democrats were trying to use the situation to harm President Trump.
Some conservative figures in the United States downplayed the scale of the pandemic, stating that it has been exaggerated as part of an effort to hurt President Trump.
Some people pointed to empty hospital parking lots as evidence that the virus has been exaggerated.
Despite the empty parking lots, many hospitals in New York City and other places experienced thousands of Covid-19-related hospitalizations.
On 2 February, the World Health Organization (WHO) described a “massive infodemic”, citing an over-abundance of reported information, accurate and false, about the virus that “makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it.”
The WHO stated that the high demand for timely and trustworthy information has incentivised the creation of a direct WHO 24/7 myth-busting hotline where its communication and social media teams have been monitoring and responding to misinformation through its website and social media pages.
The WHO specifically debunked as false some claims that have circulated on social media, including the claim that a person can tell if they have the virus or not simply by holding their breath; the claim that drinking lots of water will protect against the virus; and the claim that gargling salt water will prevent infection.
Facebook, Twitter and Google said they were working with WHO to address “misinformation”.
In a blogpost, Facebook stated they would remove content flagged by leading global health organizations and local authorities that violate its content policy on misinformation leading to “physical harm”.
Facebook is also giving free advertising to WHO.
At the end of February, Amazon removed over one million products claimed to cure or protect against corona virus, and removed tens of thousands of listings for overpriced health products, although price gouging is said to still be rampant on the platform.
Millions of instances of Covid-19 misinformation has been seen across a number of online platforms.
Other fake news researchers noted certain rumors started in China and then later many of these same rumors spread to Korea and the United States prompting several universities in Korea to start the multilingual Facts Before Rumors campaign to separate common claims seen online.
Conspiracy theories have appeared in both social media and mainstream news outlets, and are heavily influenced by geopolitics.
Al Jazeera reported that mainstream outlets which had spread conspiracy theories included Russian state media (RT and Channel One Russia), the British tabloid The Daily Mail, and right-wing media in the United States.
If there is one message I want to leave:
Think for yourselves.
Keep learning.
Keep questioning.
Believe something or someone only when its veracity can be proven.
Landschlacht, Switzerland, Tuesday 30 March 2020 (Lockdown Day #15)
Once upon a time I worked for a mail order company in Hawkesbury, Ontario.
I stood by an assembly line band and put into boxes the products that were requested by the customers.
The job paid a decent wage, but the work itself bored me to tears.
What did not help was that there was no music to alleviate the tedium.
It was there and then I realized how much of my late foster mother’s character was inherant in me, for her habit of singing while she worked manifested itself at this job.
I became known as “Jukebox” and when I did not spontaneously sing a song I just recalled someone would ask me if I knew such-and-such a tune and I would be off and running singing their requested song if I knew it.
Writing this blog, though not a paid activity, is nonetheless work in its demands on my time and energy.
And like the Hawkesbury habit, my mind is a neverending jukebox as I type these words.
Mister Postman look and see (Oh, yeah) Is there a letter in your bag for me? (Please, please, Mister Postman)…..
Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane Ain’t got time to take a fast train Lonely days are gone, I’m a-goin’ home My baby just wrote me a letter
I don’t care how much money I gotta spend Got to get back to my baby again Lonely days are gone, I’m a-goin’ home My baby just wrote me a letter
Well, she wrote me a letter Said she couldn’t live without me no more Listen mister, can’t you see I got to get back To my baby once more Anyway, yeah…..
Close your eyes and I’ll kiss you Tomorrow I’ll miss you Remember I’ll always be true And then while I’m away I’ll write home every day And I’ll send all my lovin’ to you…..
Though we’ve got to say goodbye for the summer Darling, I promise you this I’ll send you all my love everyday in a letter
Sealed with a kiss
Yes it’s gonna be a cold, lonely summer But I’ll fill the emptiness I’ll send you all my dreams everyday in a letter Sealed with a kiss…..
With all but non-essential businesses and shops in the country closed, the Swiss postal service has seen its workload increase dramatically as housebound residents order online.
“Two weeks ago, we noted an increase of some 15% compared with normal volumes,”Swiss Post boss Roberto Cirillo said on Friday in an interview with the CH-Media group.
Since then, he added, volumes have been comparable to the period just before Christmas, while on Wednesday this week, numbers were similar to those of “Black Friday”.
The demand comes as Covid-19 measures in Switzerland have led to the closure of all but “non-essential” shops and a recommendation that everyone “stay at home” as much as possible.
Online shopping has thus become the method of choice for those in need of unavailable products, on the one hand, but also for those less keen to step outside.
For example, food deliveries have increased threefold, said Cirillo, which has put a strain on services and decreased the speed of deliveries.
Swiss Post has begun sorting on Saturdays – something they usually only do during the Christmas period – and last week got the go-ahead from the government to also start delivering food packages on Sundays.
However, Roberto Cirillo says, the social distancing measures introduced across the country have also meant that the number of employees in the sorting centres, and the conditions under which they work, have also been limited.
Food and basic goods are not the only things in demand:
Cirillo says oversized packages like bikes, sofas, and garden furniture have also been disproportionately in demand.
Due to the difficulties of preparing such products under current conditions, the postal services are introducing a size limit as of next Monday:
Maximum dimensions will be capped at 150 x 80 x 60 cm.
Maximum weight will remain as it is, at 30 kg.
Other repercussions from the corona virus pandemic and associated measures are an inability to guarantee next-day delivery for registered post, Cirillo said.
Some post offices have also reduced opening hours, or closed completely, due to staffing or client shortages.
I am grateful that I can leave the apartment and check my mailbox.
Others ain’t so lucky.
Some 280 people are currently on respiratory support in Swiss hospitals, according to the latest update from federal authorities.
But intensive care units are not yet overrun.
Daniel Koch from the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) told press on Saturday that the current scenario in the country is not as catastrophic as it might have been.
“The worst-case scenarios which we forecasted a few weeks ago have not occurred,” he said.
Ten days ago, Koch had declared that situation in the southern canton of Ticino, especially, was “dramatic”, and that the health system there risked being completely overwhelmed.
Some 1,052 new cases of corona virus were nevertheless reported by the FOPH on Saturday, bringing the nationwide total above 13,000.
Its tally of fatalities stood at 235, slightly less than that calculated – using regional aggregations – by some researchers and media.
Above: Corona virus (COVID-19) cases in Switzerland broken down by cantons – the darker the canton, the more cases therein
Daniel Koch also said that the 280 patients currently on respiratory support around the country signified “a huge number”, but that no intensive care unit was overrun, and that respirators remained available.
As for whether the social distancing and lockdown measures introduced by the government on March 16 are having an effect, Koch declined to speculate.
Not enough data is available and “it’s too early to draw conclusions,” he said.
(Koch doesn’t look so healthy himself…..)
Health Minister Alain Berset, meanwhile, told La Liberté on Saturday that the corona crisis “will not be over by mid-May”.
It’s wrong to assume that the epidemic will hit, pass, then disappear, he said.
Experts say that the virus is going to stick around, and that the only solution will be to develop a vaccine – which will take time.
He called for the Swiss response to remain “flexible” and “modest”.
Berset also said that the possibility of a full lockdown and confinement of the population – like that in operation in France or Spain – is not completely off the table, should the situation worsen.
“It’s a very tough measure, but has never been fully ruled out for Switzerland,” he said.
However, “what counts are not the measures taken from above, but people’s behaviour.”
As Switzerland prepares to enter week three of its corona virus lockdown, some see the current situation stretching right into summer.
Others want a return to normality from April.
Following the comments of Interior Minister Alain Berset on Saturday that the Covid-19 crisis “will not be over by mid-May”, the Sunday papers carry a range of reports on the timeline.
“Oh, my little Wuhan one, viral one,
Comin’ to congest my lungs
My Corona.
Zoonotic transmission, where’s it from?
Bats or civet cats?
Who knows why, Corona?
When’s it’s gonna’ stop?
Fever, cough
Wash your dirty hands
Why’d I ever stop
In Hubei for vacation, man?
Why, why, why, why, ah-choo
My-my-my Corona
My-my-my Corona.”
Blick got its hands on an internal report by the Zurich city security services, which reckons the “most likely situation” is a continuation of the pandemic, a further tightening of measures by the government, and a “massive extension”of the lockdown beyond the summer holidays.
This would mean keeping the country in “standstill until at least the end of August”, the paper writes, a situation which authorities have up to now been reluctant to publicly envisage.
Furthermore, Blick writes, the Zürich security forces document foresees two possibilities:
the “most probable” would be a situation which in the coming days would see intensive-care units in the country overrun, and doctors forced to choose who should receive life-saving treatment.
the second, “unfavourable”, scenario foresees an uncontrolled breakout leading to a “catastrophic” situation with widespread losses of life across all age groups.
The SonntagsZeitung, meanwhile, carries a headline claiming that the right-wing People’s Party want shops in Switzerland to be back open again by mid-April.
Citing concerns about economic damage, the party’s Thomas Aeschi said that all businesses like hairdressers, gardeners, butchers, electronic and do-it-yourself stores, and dentists should be allowed back to work from 19 April.
From a point of view of continuing to protect the vulnerable, Thomas Aeschi says, older and weaker people can still be protected if those coming into contact with them ensure they are wearing masks.
He also says many more tests should be carried out to “more quickly isolate the sick”.
And while on the other side of the spectrum, the newspaper writes, there is also a willingness to study scenarios on returning to normality, the timeline is more sober.
Pierre-Yves Maillard, president of the Swiss Trade Union Federation, says that nothing can be decided until we know more about the extent of the virus and how many people have been infected.
Social Democrat president Christian Levrat, meanwhile, criticises all such speculation as “dangerous charlatanry”.
Only health experts can make such judgments, he says.
The NZZ am Sonntag mentions in its front-page story that one estimate puts the cost of each week of lockdown for Switzerland at some CHF4 billion ($3.38 billion).
It also quotes Aeschi, and his idea that younger people, especially, might be allowed to progressively return to work as soon as the rate of new infections starts to slow.
Such concerns about getting the economy back moving again have also been raised by the centre-right Radical Liberal Party, the paper writes.
Meanwhile, it continues, Professor Stefan Felder from the University of Basel has calculated the cost of saving each year of a human life, through current lockdown measures, at half a million Swiss Francs – “much more than we have been willing to spend on health until now,” he says.
Morally and politically, the paper asks, faced with such calls and cost-benefit analyses, what are politicians supposed to do?
“Don’t you come no closer, huh
No closer, bruh
Unless you got an N95, Corona.
Got a travel history
I’m quarantined
Should have just quit touching my
Eyes, Corona.
Never getting off
Stuck on board
Such a dirty boat
Why you hoarding masks
When you live in Alaska tho’?
Why, why, why, why, oh?
My, my, my, my Corona
My, my, my, my Corona.”
Thirty-nine health workers from Cuba arrived in Andorra on Sunday, as the country’s confirmed cases and death toll per capita became one of the highest in the world.
Above: Hospital Nostra Senyora de Meritxell, in Escaldes-Engordany, Andorra
The 2020 corona virus pandemic was confirmed to have reached Andorra on 2 March 2020.
With a total population of 77,543 ( as of 31 December 2019), on 29 March infection rate was 1 case per 232 inhabitants and the death rate was 1 case per 12,923 inhabitants.
The government ordered schools closed beginning 16 March.
In addition, all cultural activities planned by the government were cancelled.
On 13 March the head of government Xavier Espot Zamora announced that all public establishments would be closed for two weeks except those that provide essential products, gas stations and pharmacies.
The next day, Constitution Day celebrations were canceled. In addition, the borders were restricted, and people were only permitted to leave for health reasons, to transport goods, or for residents abroad.
The sale of tobacco and alcohol to tourists was prohibited, and the quantity permitted to be sold to Andorran nationals and residents was restricted.
On 16 March, Zamora ordered the cessation of high-risk work activities, such as construction and “liberal” (high-education) professions, for a minimum of eight days, and public administration was reduced to a minimal level to avoid the collapse of the healthcare system.
Meanwhile, the government began working on legal steps to manage states of alarm and of emergency, provided for in the Constitution but never developed in any laws.
Canada will not allow anyone displaying symptoms of the COVID – 19 respiratory illness to board domestic flights or inter-city passenger trains, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Saturday, the latest travel restriction aimed at curbing the corona virus outbreal.
Trudeau’s government has long urged Canadians feeling ill to stay at home, but he told reporters at his daily press conference outside his residence that Transport Canada had now formalized travel rules as COVID-19 cases steadily rise.
Trudeau had been in self-isolation after his wife tested positive for the virus. In a statement on Saturday, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau said she had “received the all clear from my physician and Ottawa Public Health.”
Canada’s domestic travel restrictions will take effect on Monday at noon EDT.
Asked how screening would be different, Trudeau said the government was giving new tools to airlines and railways.
Transport Canada later said airline and rail company staff would ask health questions of passengers and look for visible symptoms.
Even enhanced screening offers “no guarantee” that sick people will not board, as they can hide symptoms,
Howard Njoo, Canada’s deputy chief public health officer, said in a separate press conference.
Canada has confirmed 5,153 cases of the corona virus, and 55 deaths, health officials said.
Above: COVID-19 cases in Canada (as of March 21) – the darker the region, the more cases therein
While case numbers are climbing, the rate of growth in British Columbia, the Pacific Coast province where community transmission was first reported, seems to be slowing, Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam said.
“There are signs of hope,” she told reporters in Ottawa.
In the province of Québec, however, the number of cases jumped by 24% in the past day to nearly 2,500, more than double any other province.
Four additional deaths raised Québec’s death toll to 22.
New police checkpoints were set to begin restricting non-essential traffic to eight Quebec regions on Saturday, Québec Deputy Premier Genevieve Guilbault.
Ontario banned public events and gatherings of more than five people on Saturday.
Air Canada, the country’s biggest airline, said it would operate a special flight returning Canadians from Algeria on Tuesday, with additional flights scheduled from Peru and Ecuador.
China’s embassy in Ottawa tweeted that the Bank of China had on Friday donated medical supplies to Canada, including thousands of masks, goggles and gloves.
Trudeau has faced criticism at home for sending a shipment of protective equipment to China in February, before COVID – 19 cases spiked in Canada.
The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the corona virus outbreak first emerged, began lifting a two-month lockdown on Saturday by restarting some Metro services and reopening borders, allowing some semblance of normality to return and families to reunite.
After being cut-off from the rest of the country for two months, the reopening of Wuhan, where the epidemic first erupted in late December, marks a turning point in China’s fight against the virus, though the contagion has since spread to over 200 countries.
Among those on the first high-speed trains allowed into the city on Saturday morning was Guo Liangkai, a 19-year-old student whose one-month work stint in Shanghai stretched to three months due to the clamp down on movement.
“It makes me very happy that I can see my family,” Guo told Reuters after being greeted by his mother at the main station.
“We wanted to hug but now is a special period so we can’t hug or take any actions like these.”
Authorities took draconian measures to stop people from entering or leaving the industrial city of 11 million people in central China.
Families were confined to their homes.
Bus and taxi services were shut and only essential stores were allowed to remain open.
“I think the resumption of work represents a kind of hope. It at least shows that China is victorious,” said Zhang Yulun, 35, returning to Wuhan for work.
China’s National Health Commission said on Saturday that 54 new corona virus cases were reported on the mainland on Friday, all involving so-called imported cases.
Mainland China now has 81,394 cases, with the death toll rising by three to 3,295, the Commission said.
Wuhan accounts for about 60% of China’s corona virus cases, but they have fallen sharply in recent weeks, a sign that the measures are working.
The last confirmed locally transmitted case of the virus in Wuhan was on Monday.
Above: COVID-19 cases in mainland China by provinces as of 7 March 2020
With the United States, Italy and Spain and other countries now battling soaring infections, China is focusing on the risk posed by imported cases – most of them Chinese returning home.
Effective Saturday, China suspended the entry of foreign nationals with valid Chinese visas and residence permits.
But even with the decline in cases and loosening of restrictions, Wuhan authorities were taking few chances.
Staff, some in full-body protective gear, and volunteers bustled around the railway station in the morning, setting out hand disinfectant and putting up signs reminding travellers they need a mobile-phone based health code to take public transport.
A worker walked through one metro train carrying a signboard reading:
“Wear a mask for the entire journey, people should not gather and when you disembark please scan the health code.”
“Everyone is taking the right precautions.
So, there shouldn’t be a problem,” Yuan Hai, 30, a passenger on a reopened metro line said when asked about the risks.
“But you have to be careful.”
The existence of an unknown number of asymptomatic carriers of corona virus in China has raised concerns among the public that lifting the restrictions may release thousands of people who could still be spreading the virus that causes COVID-19, without knowing they are sick.
Life in Wuhan remains far from normal.
The vast majority of shops are shut while bright yellow roadblocks remain.
Wuhan will not let people leave the city until 8 April.
Some people at the railway station, such as a woman who only gave her surname as Zhang, said they were there to see if there was any chance people could leave earlier.
Her grandson came to visit her for the week-long Lunar New Year holiday in January and has been separated from his parents in the southern city of Shenzhen ever since. With schools there possibly reopening, she hopes he can get back soon.
“He was supposed to leave on the fifth day of the holiday but has now been here for a few months,” she said.
China reported 45 new corona virus cases in the mainland for Saturday (28 March), down from 54 on the previous day, with all but one involving travellers from overseas, the country’s health authority said on Sunday.
In the last seven days, China has reported 313 imported cases of the corona virus but only six confirmed cases of domestic transmission, data from the National Health Commission showed.
Most of those imported cases have involved Chinese returning home from abroad.
Airlines have been ordered to sharply cut international flights from Sunday.
And restrictions on foreigners entering the country went into effect on Saturday.
Five more people died on Saturday, all of them in Wuhan, the industrial central city where the epidemic began in December.
But Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, has reported only one new case in the last 10 days.
A total of 3,300 people have now died in mainland China, with a reported 81,439 infections.
Saturday’s sole case of domestically transmitted corona virus was recorded in Henan province, bordering Hubei.
Saturday marked the fourth consecutive day that Hubei province recorded no new confirmed cases.
With traffic restrictions in the province lifted, Wuhan is also gradually reopening borders and restarting some local transportation services.
“It’s much better now, there was so much panic back then.
There weren’t any people on the street.
Nothing.
How scary the epidemic situation was,” a man, who gave his surname as Hu, told Reuters as he ventured out to buy groceries in Wuhan.
“Now, it is under control.
Now, it’s great, right?” he added.
All airports in Hubei resumed some domestic flights on Sunday, with the exception of Wuhan’s Tianhe airport, which will open to domestic flights on 8 April.
Flights from Hubei to Beijing remain suspended.
A train arrived in Wuhan on Saturday for the first time since the city was placed in lockdown two months ago.
Greeting the train, Hubei Communist Party Secretary Ying Yong described Wuhan as “a city full of hope” and said its people’s heroism and hard work had “basically cut off transmission” of the virus.
More than 60,000 people entered Wuhan on Saturday after rail services were officially restarted, with more than 260 trains arriving or travelling through, the People’s Daily reported on Sunday.
On Sunday, streets and metro trains were still largely empty amid a cold rainy day.
Flashing signs on the Wuhan Metro, which resumed operations on Saturday, said its cars would keep passenger capacity at less than 30%.
The Hubei government on Sunday said on its official WeChat account that a number of malls in Wuhan, as well as the Chu River and Han Street shopping belt, will be allowed to resume operations on 30 March.
Concerns have been raised that a large number of undiagnosed asymptomatic patients could return to circulation once transport restrictions are eased.
China’s top medical adviser, Zhong Nanshan, played down that risk in comments to state broadcaster CCTV on Sunday.
Zhong said asymptomatic patients were usually found by tracing the contacts of confirmed cases, which had so far shown no sign of rebounding.
With the world’s second-biggest economy expected to shrink for the first time in four decades this quarter, China is set to unleash hundreds of billions of dollars in stimulus.
The ruling Communist Party’s Politburo called on Friday for a bigger budget deficit, the issuance of more local and national bonds, and steps to guide interest rates lower, delay loan repayments, reduce supply-chain bottlenecks and boost consumption.
China on Sunday resumed domestic flights in the corona virus epicentre Hubei province, except for its capital Wuhan, as part of a plan to ease lockdown in the region amid a decline in the number of confirmed cases.
Hubei’s capital Wuhan, which bore the brunt of the vicious virus for over two months, would begin its air services from 8 April.
China began to ease its lockdown of Hubei province, home for over 56 million people, from 25 March by resuming local transport services followed by relaxation of travel for people tested negative for the corona virus.
Chinese National Health Commission (NHC) on Sunday said that 45 new corona virus cases, including one locally transmitted, were reported in the country on Saturday while the death toll due to the pandemic reached 3,300 with five new fatalities.
The new domestically transmitted case was reported in Henan province on Saturday, the NHC said.
The five new fatalities were all reported from the epicentre Hubei province, taking the death toll to 3,300, it said.
With 44 new imported cases, their number has gone up to 693, the NHS said.
The overall confirmed cases on the mainland has reached 81,439 by the end of Saturday.
This included 3,300 people who have died, 2,691 patients still undergoing treatment and 75,448 others discharged after treatment, the NHC said.
A Fuzhou Airlines flight departed Yichang city on Sunday morning marking the resumption of flights from the province.
Flight FU6779 with 64 passengers left the Three Gorges Airport in Yichang for Fuzhou, capital of east China’s Fujian Province, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), except for the Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei, all passenger and cargo flights on domestic air routes via airports in Hubei were resumed from Sunday.
The province hard hit by the COVID-19 outbreak lifted outbound travel restrictions on highway traffic in all areas except Wuhan on 25 March, with all checkpoints at expressway exits, national and provincial-level highways reopened within two days.
Xu Zuoqiang, chairman and general manager of the Three Gorges Airport, said that before the resumption of flights, the airport had carried out comprehensive disinfection and organised staff training for epidemic control and prevention.
The airport has newly installed thermal imaging equipment for mass body temperature checks on people in the departure and arrival halls.
Isolation areas have also been prepared to quarantine people tested with fever.
The CAAC’s central and southern regional subsidiary said that on Sunday, airports in Hubei will have a total of 98 departing flights.
Hubei is a central China air traffic hub.
All air traffic control units in the central and southern regions have cooperated to fully ensure the safe and orderly resumption of Hubei civil aviation, the CAAC said.
Inga lives in Denmark.
Karsten lives in Germany.
The border between Germany and Denmark is now almost completely closed due to the worsening situation in both countries from the corona virus outbreak.
However, this hasn’t deterred their love.
Each day, Inga Rasmussen, 85, and Karsten Tüchsen Hansen, 89, meet each other at the border to chat, eat lunch or share some biscuits and have a flask of coffee or Geele Köm — a popular spirit from the region.
“Cheers to the love,” said Hansen as they toasted each other.
Normally they would embrace, kiss and hug.
But now they must keep their distance.
The two sit on either side of the red-and-white barrier marking the border — on chairs they have brought with them from home.
The pair have been meeting up every day at the closed border crossing at Aventoft.
Hansen lives in Süderlügum in Germany’s Nordfriesland region, Rasmussen in the Danish town of Gallehus.
Hansen rides his e-bike from Süderlügum to his afternoon dates.
Rasmussen drives her car from Gallehus to the border.
Above: The Golden Horns of Gallehus
“Don’t the hours grow shorter as the days go by You never get to stop and open your eyes One day you’re waiting for the sky to fall The next you’re dazzled by the beauty of it all
When you’re lovers in a dangerous time Lovers in a dangerous time
These fragile bodies of touch and taste This vibrant skin, this hair like lace Spirits open to the thrust of grace Never a breath you can afford to waste
When you’re lovers in a dangerous time Lovers in a dangerous time
When you’re lovers in a dangerous time Lovers in a dangerous time
When you’re lovers in a dangerous time
Sometimes you’re made to feel as if your love’s a crime But nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight Got to kick at the darkness ’til it bleeds daylight
When you’re lovers in a dangerous time When you’re lovers in a dangerous time When you’re lovers in a dangerous time Lovers in a dangerous time Lovers in a dangerous time Lovers in a dangerous time Lovers in a dangerous time”
On 14 March, Denmark closed large parts of the border to the German border state of Schleswig-Holstein.
Two days later, Germany followed suit.
“It’s sad, but we can’t change it”, said Rasmussen.
The pair has frequently talked over the phone since the border closure and try their best to meet every day, not letting the pandemic affect their relationship.
The couple met two years ago purely by chance, they explained.
Since 13 March last year, they have spent every day together.
“I am otherwise always with Karsten,” said Rasmussen.
But the time in between is already long, when you’re alone, she added.
The couple hopes that by Easter they can visit each other again.
They have also made plans for the future.
When the restrictions are lifted —they would like to travel again.
“They built a wall at the border Not to keep us out But to leave no doubt They’re out of order, hey
And all the people who are trapped within Serve to show just how far we’ll go And how dumb we’ve been”
French health authorities reported 319 new deaths from the coronavirus on Saturday, up 16% on the previous day and taking the total to 2,314, as the government scrambled to increase the number of intensive care beds nationwide.
The daily government tally only accounts for those dying in hospital but authorities say they will be able to compile data on deaths in retirement homes from next week, which is likely to result in a big increase in registered fatalities.
The number of known cases of infection rose to 37,575 on Saturday from 32,964 a day earlier, the health authority said.
Above: Confirmed cases of COVID-19 per million inhabitants in France by region
“Harry got up Dressed all in black Went down to the station And he never came back They found his clothing Scattered somewhere down the track And he won’t be down on Wall Street in the morning
He had a home The love of a girl But men get lost sometimes As years unfurl One day he crossed some line And he was too much in this world But I guess it doesn’t matter anymore
In a New York minute Everything can change In a New York minute Things can get pretty strange In a New York minute Everything can change In a New York minute”
Police suspect Thomas Schäfer died by suicide after his body was found on train tracks near Wiesbaden.
He was the finance minister for the state of Hesse, where Germany’s financial center Frankfurt lies.
The body of a man identified as Thomas Schäfer, the finance minister of the German state of Hesse, was found on a high-speed train line in the town of Hochheim between Frankfurt and Mainz, police confirmed Saturday.
The presence of a body on the tracks was first reported by witnesses to paramedics, who were unable to initially identify the remains due to the extent of the injuries.
Investigators said an investigation on the scene confirmed the identity of the man as Schäfer and that the death was likely a suicide.
Police did not immediately release further details of the case.
The politician apparently left a note before taking his own life, German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported, citing sources close to the investigation.
The note, according to the report, referenced Schäfer’s reasons for his apparent suicide.
According to media in the state of Hesse, the 54-year-old regularly appeared in public in recent days, for example, to inform the public about financial assistance during the corona virus crisis.
Schäfer was a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democrats (CDU).
He had been active in Hessian state politics for more than two decades and was finance minister for almost 10 years.
Germany’s financial capital, Frankfurt, lies in Hesse and is the state’s biggest city.
Schäfer had been widely expected to succeed state premier, Volker Bouffier, if he decided not to stand for re-election in 2023.
In a statement, Bouffier said that the state’s leadership has received the news with “sadness and disbelief.”
Bouffier also said that Schäfer had been living under considerable worry and stress because of the current COVID-19 pandemic.
“His main concern was whether he could manage to fulfill the huge expectations of the population, especially in terms of financial aid,” Bouffier said on Sunday.
“He clearly couldn’t see any way out.
He was desperate, and so he left us.
That has shocked us, has shocked me.”
“Our sincere condolences go to his closest relatives,” he added.
Outgoing CDU chief Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said Schäfer’s sudden death “shocked me, shocked all of us” in the party.
“It has hit us and left us sad and stunned,” she wrote on Twitter.
One of the candidates to succeed Kramp-Karrenbauer as leader of the party, Friedrich Merz, and possible successor to Merkel as chancellor wrote on Twitter about his shock at the death.
“News about the sudden death of Thomas Schäfer has deeply shaken me,” Merz wrote on Twitter.
“As a person and politician he was one of our best – this is a difficult loss.
We will mourn him with his wife and children.”
Lawmakers from other parties also paid tribute to Schäfer.
Left party member of the Bundestag Fabio De Masi wrote on Twitter:
“We often no longer recognize politicians as people or the burdens they carry away from politics.”
Green politician Kordula Schulz-Asche wrote:
“I am stunned by the death of Thomas Schäfer.
My deepest condolences and thoughts to his family at this time.”
Schäfer leaves behind a wife and two children.
“You must’ve a been in a place so dark, couldn’t feel the light Reachin’ for you through that stormy cloud Now here we are gathered in our little home town This can’t be the way you meant to draw a crowd
Oh why, that’s what I keep askin’ Was there anything I could have said or done Oh I, had no clue you were masking a troubled soul, God only knows What went wrong, and why you’d leave the stage in the middle of a song”
If you are suffering from serious emotional strain or suicidal thoughts, do not hesitate to seek professional help.
You can find information on where to find such help, no matter where you live in the world, at this website:
India said on Saturday it was planning to turn some railway coaches into isolation wards for patients with the corona virus, as authorities scramble to prepare the country’s health infrastructure for an expected surge in cases.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the country’s 1.3 billion people this week to stay indoors for three weeks in the world’s biggest lockdown, seeking to curb the spread of the illness.
India’s network of trains, the country’s lifeblood, has been idled.
One train coach has been turned into a prototype quarantine facility, state-owned Indian Railways said in a statement on Saturday.
Once they get clearance, the plan is for each of India’s railway zones to convert ten coaches into such wards every week, the company added.
Indian Railways has 16 zones, according to its website.
“Railways will offer clean, sanitised & hygienic surroundings for the patients to comfortably recover,” tweeted railways minister Piyush Goyal.
He did not specify how many people could be cared for in each coach.
India has reported 918 confirmed cases, including 19 deaths.
Above: Map of the 2019 COVINA – 19 outbreak in India as of 29 March 2020 – the darker the region, the more cases therein
The lockdown measures are taking a huge toll on India’s poor, including millions of migrant labourers whose jobs in cities have vanished.
Many are now walking back to their villages or crowded bus stations in the hopes of finding rare transport, raising fears they will unintentionally spread the virus across India.
On Saturday, a migrant worker, who set out from New Delhi on a 270 kilometres (168 miles) walk to his hometown in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, collapsed and died, a police official said.
India’s home ministry said in a statement on Saturday it was advising states to provide food and shelter to migrants at relief camps alongside highways.
Overall, the number of corona virus cases in South Asia has risen to 2,648, including 39 deaths.
While the toll in South Asia remains low overall, there are fears it could swell given the region’s poor health services and population density.
The numbers of new deaths, infections, and severe corona virus cases in Italy are showing an optimistic trend — a very early sign that the country’s strict lockdown is working.
The number of new people being taken into intensive care with COVID-19, the disease caused by the corona virus, dropped to 50 on Sunday from 124 on Saturday, said Professor Luca Richeldi, a government adviser, according to the Italian newspaper Il Giornale.
New cases also dropped to 5,217 on Sunday from 5,974 the day before, according to the data website Statista.
The number of new deaths dropped to 756 on Sunday from a record 919 on Friday, Reuters reported.
Italy is one of the countries hit hardest by the corona virus outbreak, recording 10,779 deaths as of Monday, or about one-third of the global death toll.
Above: Confirmed cases of COVID-19 per million inhabitants in Italy by province
The country’s health system has struggled to battle the outbreak.
Medical students have been fast-tracked to serve in corona virus wards, and six patients were flown to Germany for treatment on Saturday, according to the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
The improving numbers in Italy are a sign that “through our behavior, we save lives,”Luca Richeldi told reporters on Sunday, according to Deutsche Welle.
Italy’s strict lockdown, which began on 9 March, is due to be lifted on Friday.
But the encouraging signs after three weeks of lockdown are “a reason for us to be even stricter,” Richeldi said, adding:
“We are in a very long battle.”
Francesco Boccia, Italy’s regional-affairs minister, told the Sky TG24 TV channel that the lockdown “inevitably will be extended,” according to The Guardian.
“We all want to go back to normal,” he said.
“But we will have to do it by turning on one switch at a time.”
Malians headed to the polls Sunday for a long-delayed parliamentary election, less than a day after the country reported its first death from the corona virus.
Also overshadowing the election was the kidnapping of the leading opposition figure of the West African country on Wednesday.
Soumaila Cisse is believed to be in the hands of jihadists.
Security concerns have seen the vote postponed several times since 2018.
The war-torn country has over 200,000 displaced people, none of whom are expected to be able to vote.
“No mechanism has been established” for them to participate in the election, one government official told the Agence France-Presse news agency.
Mali reported its first COVID-19 case on Wednesday, with many observers and authorities concerned that an outbreak could wreak havoc in the impoverished nation of 19 million.
The country has now declared a medical emergency despite the relatively low number of cases so far.
As of Saturday, 18 cases have been reported, with the first death confirmed hours before polls opened.
Much of Mali’s territory lies outside of state control, meaning that widespread implementation of preventative measures could be difficult or impossible.
Large parts of the north of the country are controlled by an al-Qaeda-aligned jihadist group.
Despite the Cisse kidnapping, the country’s main opposition party has still called for “massive participation” in the election, agreeing with the president that another delay would not be good.
“In these difficult times our country is going through, more than ever, the party’s activists are resolutely urged to redouble their efforts for massive participation in the 29 March 2020 elections,” they said Saturday.
But amid corona virus fears, violence and poverty, large swathes of the population are not expected to pay much attention to the election.
“The population generally doesn’t trust the state,” Baba Dakono from the Institute for Security Studies told DW earlier in the week, describing general apathy even among those voters who were able to vote.
“The people are trying to survive,” former Prime Minister Moussa Mara said.
“Putting food on the table is their main worry.”
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita’s Rally for Mali party won a substantial majority in 2013, when the last election took place.
The second round of 2020’s election is expected to be held on 19 April.
“Maximum big surprise Your smile is something new I pull my shirt off and pray We’re sacred and bound To suffer the heatwave Pull off my shirt and pray We’re coming up on re-election day”
In Nepal, more than 600 European tourists were evacuated on charter flights on Saturday, authorities said, but thousands more are still waiting to be brought home by their countries.
“This will leave between 8,000 and 10,000 tourists still stranded due to lockdown in Nepal,” said Dhananjay Regmi, the chief of Nepal’s tourism board.
“I wish that I could fly Into the sky So very high Just like a dragonfly
I’d fly above the trees Over the seas in all degrees To anywhere I please
Oh I want to get away I want to fly away Yeah yeah yeah”
North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles into the Ocean off its east coast on Sunday, the latest in an unprecedented flurry of launches that South Korea decried as “inappropriate” amid the global corona virus pandemic.
Two “short-range projectiles” were launched from the coastal Wonsan area, and flew 230 kilometers (143 miles) at a maximum altitude of 30 kilometers (19 miles), South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff reported.
“In a situation where the entire world is experiencing difficulties due to COVID-19, this kind of military act by North Korea is very inappropriate and we call for an immediate halt,” South Korea’s JCS said in a statement, according to Yonhap news agency.
Japan’s Ministry of Defense said they appeared to be ballistic missiles, and they did not land in Japanese territory or its exclusive economic zone.
They would be the eighth and ninth missiles launched in four rounds of tests this month as North Korean troops conduct ongoing military drills, usually personally overseen by leader Kim Jong Un.
That would be the most missiles ever fired in a single month by North Korea, according to a tally by Shea Cotton, senior researcher at the James Martin Center for Non-proliferation Studies.
“Coming this early in the year, the only time we’ve seen tests this frequently were in 2016 and 2017, both of which were huge years for North Korea’s missile program,” he said in a post on Twitter.
All of the missiles fired so far this year have been small, short-range weapons, such as the KN-24 fired during the last launch on 21 March.
But Kim has warned that North Korea is developing a new “strategic weapon” to be unveiled this year, with analysts speculating that it could be a new long-range ballistic missile, or a submarine capable of launching such missiles.
United Nations Security Council resolutions bar North Korea from testing ballistic missiles and the country has been heavily sanctioned over its missile and nuclear weapons programs.
This month’s military drills have been conducted despite a border lockdown and quarantine measures imposed in North Korea in an effort to prevent an outbreak of the new corona virus.
South Korea and the United States have postponed some of their joint military exercises because of the corona virus outbreak in South Korea.
Politically and economically isolated, North Korea has not reported any confirmed cases, though some foreign experts have expressed doubts.
In the past, North Korea has typically conducted military drills, including tests of its ballistic missiles, in March as the wintry weather turns warmer.
For the previous two years, however, it had avoided such springtime launches amid denuclearisation talks with the United States.
Those talks have since stalled, and this year’s string of tests and military drills appear aimed at underscoring North Korea’s return to a more hard-line policy, said Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists.
“There is an element of projecting a business-as-usual image amid the COVID-19 situation, but I think it’s not overriding,” he said.
“These tests do allow Kim Jong Un to show that he’s sticking to the hard-line policy he laid out in December 2019.”
Now here I stand, I’ve got no eyes Got no hands, no arms to embrace The darkest day, crossed man’s way Can’t describe the sorrow in me
Missiles never win Missiles never care Missiles never win Missiles
The papers said that we would try Nuclear weapons we say good-bye But a few more tests, some islands sink Jack, we can do without sorrow you bring
Missiles never win Missiles never care Missiles never win Missiles
The dead, they cry, do we need more? Where’s the sense? what is it good for?
Missiles never win Missiles never care Missiles never win Missiles
In Pakistan, police on Saturday arrested 38 prayer leaders and mosque officials for violating a ban on congregational prayers even as cases swelled to over 1,400 in the country.
A plane carrying relief assistance and eight doctors from key ally China landed in Islamabad on Saturday, a Pakistani foreign ministry statement said.
“They will advise our health care specialists in the light of their experience and success in battling COVID-19 in China,” the statement read.
China has already given Islamabad testing kits, masks, protective gear and other medical equipment.
Russia will close its borders starting on March 30 in a bid to curb the spread of the corona virus, a government order published on Saturday said.
The measure will come into force at all vehicle, rail and pedestrian checkpoints, and apply to Russia’s maritime borders, the government said.
It will not apply to Russian diplomats and the drivers of freight trucks, among others.
The country, which has already grounded all international flights, has reported 1,264 corona virus cases.
“There is no monopoly on common sense On either side of the political fence We share the same biology, regardless of ideology Believe me when I say to you I hope the Russians love their children too”
In Kabardino-Balkaria, registry offices offer newlyweds to limit the number of guests at the ceremonial registration of marriage to ten people or to postpone the wedding to a later date due to the situation with the corona virus, the website of the regional government reports.
“You’ll never know how much I love you Never know how much I care When you put your arms around me I get a fever that’s so hard to bear
You give me fever when you kiss me Fever when you hold me tight Fever in the mornin’ Fever all through the night
Sun lights up the day time Moon lights up the night I light up when you call my name ‘Cause I know you’re gonna treat me right
You give me Fever when you kiss me Fever when you hold me tight Fever in the mornin’ Fever all through the night
Everybody’s got the fever That is somethin’ you all know Fever isn’t such a new thing Fever started a long time ago”
To date, four cases of corona virus infection have been reported in the republic.
According to the Ministry of Health, two patients returned from abroad, the other two were in contact with them.
Three people have mild flu symptoms, another is in a stable serious condition.
Those in contact with the patients are isolated and under the supervision of specialists, RIA Novosti reports.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Saturday announced stricter lockdown measures that will force all non-essential workers to stay at home for the next two weeks, as the government reported 832 new corona virus deaths overnight.
The latest moves to combat the virus in Spain, the second-worst affected country in Europe after Italy, will be approved at a cabinet meeting on Sunday and will last from 30 March until 9 April.
“This decision allows us to reduce the number of infected people to a much greater extent,” Sanchez said in a televised address to the nation.
Over the next few days Spain would be making a “powerful collective effort”, he said, adding that the new measures would have the effect of extending the Easter holidays.
Workers would receive their usual salaries but would have to make up lost hours at a later date, he said.
Sanchez also used the address to urge the European Union to act and called for a “united economic and social strategy”.
He urged the EU to issue bonds, saying “we have to mutualize the debt, issue reconstruction bonds to deal with the corona virus”.
“We do not understand why the Eurozone, which shares a currency, does not share fiscal policy,” he said.
As Spain prepared to enter its third week of lockdown, hospitals and morgues struggled under the pressure and infections rose to 72,248 from 64,059 the day before.
Above: Confirmed cases of COVID-19 per million inhabitants in Spain by autonomous community
An unused public building known as “the doughnut” was the latest to be turned into a makeshift morgue after a city ice rink last week, Spanish media reported.
Health emergency chief Fernando Simon said the epidemic appeared to be reaching its peak in some areas, but the nation was short of intensive care unit beds.
“We continue to have a major problem with ICU saturation,” said Simon.
A delivery of 1.2 million masks bought by the Ministry of Transport from China for health, transport and postal workers arrived at Madrid airport, the government said.
In Barcelona, delivery workers with masks took free meals to health workers on Friday evening as part of the Delivery 4 Heroes initiative, in which six companies have joined forces to send free meals daily to up to 200 people.
“It is not only food, but a gift of emotion and encouragement to continue and to think that everything that is being done is really worth it,” Dr Luis Miguel Martin, who was given dinner at Barcelona’s Hospital del Mar, told Reuters.
Schools, bars, restaurants and shops selling non-essential items have been shut since 14 March and most of the population is housebound as Spain tries to curb the virus.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has extended the nationwide disinfection campaign for an additional week to curb the corona virus outbreak.
UAE health authorities on Saturday (28 March 2020) reported 63 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, bringing the country’s total cases to 468, according to the Ministry of Health and Prevention.
In a press conference held on Saturday, the ministry spokesperson revealed that the nationwide disinfection programme has been extended for an additional week to curb the corona virus outbreak.
Above: Map of the corona virus outbreak in the United Arab Emirates as of 10 February 2020
Dr. Farida Al Hosani, official spokesperson for the UAE health sector, told local media on Saturday:
“Through the follow up, we found that negligence in the home quarantine is the main factor in the increase of infection rate.
We would like to clarify an important point that staying at home does not mean breaking ties with family members, but rather ‘physical distancing’.”
Residents are urged to stay home to help curb the virus’ spread.
Authorities ealier issued a warning on people who fail to comply with home quarantine instructions in the UAE.
On Thursday, the UAE Attorney General issued a resolution following the Cabinet decision on the list of sanctions for violating the precautionary measures taken to contain the spread of COVID-19.
The United Arab Emirates launched on Saturday a corona virus drive-through testing site where people can get tested while remaining in their cars, according to photos posted by Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince on Twitter.
“Today, I visited the mobile COVID-19 Test Center set up by SEHA as part of measures to contain the virus.
Medical teams out in the field are the first line of protection of the UAE, their sacrifices safeguard our health,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed tweeted.
The UAE had earlier reported 63 new cases of corona virus on Saturday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 468, the Ministry of Health announced.
The number of people to have died with the corona virus in the UK has reached 1,019.
The latest government figures on Saturday showed there were another 260 deaths in the UK in a day, up from 759 on Friday.
There are now 17,089 confirmed cases in the UK.
It comes as the government said it was ramping up testing for frontline hospital staff who have symptoms, or who live with people who have symptoms.
Critical care doctors and nurses will be prioritised first, with testing expected to follow for A&E staff, paramedics and GPs.
In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, health workers are already being tested.
The jump in deaths is the biggest day-on-day increase the UK since the outbreak began.
The number of deaths is 34% higher than Friday’s figure.
The new figures include a further 246 people in England, with patients aged between 33 and 100 years old.
All of them had underlying health conditions except 13 people, who were aged 63 and over.
In Scotland, 40 people have died so far in total, while the figure in Wales is 38.
Northern Ireland has seen a total of 15 deaths.
Above: Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the UK by country and NHS region
The Department of Health and Social Care also corrected figures that it shared on Friday, saying the number of confirmed cases was 36 fewer than it had tweeted, at 14,543.
Among the latest public figures to announce they have tested positive for the virus is Scottish Secretary Alister Jack, who is self-isolating.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock are self-isolating after testing positive for the virus.
England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, is also self-isolating, but has not tested positive.
Former Cabinet Secretary Gus O’Donnell said politicians needed to “obey their own rules much more strictly” on social distancing.
In other developments:
The car park of Chessington World of Adventures in Chessington has become a temporary drive through testing station for NHS workers.
Photos showed work under way to turn London’s ExCel centre into a temporary hospital with capacity for 4,000 people.
Two new temporary hospitals will be set up in Birmingham and Manchester to help the NHS cope with the virus.
County councils are warning residents some services, such as recycling centres and adult education centres, will be significantly scaled back or stopped to prioritise keeping people safe from the corona virus.
The Local Government Association says council workers are being physically and verbally abused for implementing the government’s social distancing policy.
Workers have been spat at, sworn at and racially abused, it said.
The Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said he had received about 300 complaints from employees and the public about businesses not following social distancing guidelines.
The HCSA hospital doctors’ union said potential supply issues should not delay the reported introduction of more stringent guidance on the use of personal protective equipment by frontline NHS staff.
The total number of people tested for the virus in the UK was 120,776, as of Saturday morning.
Currently, about 6,000 people are tested daily, but the government wants to increase that number to 10,000 a day by the end of March and 25,000 a day by mid-April.
The British Medical Association said the move towards testing NHS staff in England was “long overdue”, following concerns that healthy members of staff may have been self-isolating at home when they did not need to.
The new tests being offered to frontline NHS staff – and which have already been used to check very ill patients in hospitals – are antigen tests, which indicate if someone is currently infected and risks spreading it to others.
Another type of test, called the antibody test, indicates whether someone has recently had the virus.
It is not available to the public yet but Public Health England is ordering it in.
Over the weekend, the first of three new testing labs are expected to start work to process 800 samples, the government said.
Samples will be taken around the country, initially focusing on corona virus hotspots such as London.
Dozens of universities, research institutes and companies are lending equipment for the labs.
Two more facilities in the UK are being converted into temporary field hospitals to help the NHS deal with the growing coronavirus crisis.
Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre (NEC) and Manchester’s Central Convention Centre will both temporarily become ‘NHS Nightingale Hospitals’.
And work has started on a temporary mortuary at Birmingham Airport with space for up to 12,000 bodies in a worst-case scenario amid the Covid-19 outbreak.
The hangar facility will initially have space for 1,500 bodies “but will expand to hold more”, according to the West Midlands and Warwickshire strategic co-ordination group, made up of police, councils and other agencies.
It is understood the site could expand to accommodate up to 12,000 bodies.
It follows news that the Ministry of Defence had already began converting London’s Excel Centre into another NHS Nightingale Hospital that will eventually have 4,000 beds in two separate wards.
It is hoped the 500 beds in the new hospital will be available as early as next week.
NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said building new hospitals in “very short order”was an “extraordinary action”.
He said he had “given the go-ahead”to the additional hospitals because this problem is “not just confined to London” and he said there would be “further such hospitals to follow”.
On Thursday Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson said sites “all around the country”were being considered by NHS England, which is working with clinicians and teams of military planners to identify what can be done in a “number of scenarios”.
Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Catherine Calderwood also claimed sites in Scotland – where there have been 894 positive tests, and 25 deaths – were “absolutely” being considered.
“We have had quite detailed discussions very recently and I know that there are sites being considered in Scotland this week,”she told BBC Scotland.
The death toll from the corona virus in New York State now stands at 728 – up from 519 the previous day and 385 on Thursday, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Saturday.
New York is the U.S. epicentre of the virus outbreak and has far more confirmed COVID-19 cases than any other state in the nation:
More than 52,000.
Over 177,000 people have been tested, according to Cuomo.
Hospitalizations in the state are expected to peak in as soon as 14 days.
President Trump has approved four sites in New York City to be used as emergency medical facilities:
the New York Expo Center in the Bronx
the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens
the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal
the College of Staten Island
“This is going to be a big advantage,” Cuomo said.
The locations will add another 4,000 hospital beds to the state’s capacity.
Cuomo also said that some sites will be “COVID only” – “where people in those hospitals will just have the COVID virus, so the staff that is there is just working with one type of issue.”
Those locations are:
the South Beach Psychiatric Center in Staten Island
Westchester Square in the Bronx
SUNY Downstate (University Hospital) in Brooklyn
The USNS Comfort, a Navy hospital ship with 1,000 beds and 1,200 medical personnel, was expected to arrive in New York Harbor on Monday.
In light of the crisis, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the state is delaying its presidential primary and extending the state’s tax filing deadline to 15 July, matching the new federal income tax filing deadline.
He said Saturday the primary, which was scheduled for 28 April, will now be linked to congressional and legislative primary elections on 23 June.
“I don’t think it’s wise to be bringing people to one location to vote,” he said.
Other states including Louisiana, Connecticut and Maryland have also postponed their presidential primaries.
President Trump said Saturday he is considering declaring an “enforceable” quarantine affecting residents of the New York metropolitan area.
“I am giving consideration to a QUARANTINE of developing ‘hot spots,’ New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
A decision will be made, one way or another, shortly,” Trump tweeted Saturday afternoon.
Trump said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had told the President he wanted to stop the flow of New Yorkers who may be infected with COVID-19 into the state.
Cuomo said Saturday he had not spoken to the President about quarantining the metro region.
Cuomo also said:
“I don’t even know what that means.
I don’t know how that could be legally enforceable.
And from a medical point of view, I don’t know what you’d be accomplishing,”
“It was so easy livin’ day by day Out of touch with the rhythm and blues But now I need a little give and take The New York Times, the Daily News
It comes down to reality And it’s fine with me ’cause I’ve let it slide I don’t care if it’s Chinatown or on Riverside I don’t have any reasons I left them all behind I’m in a New York state of mind”
The White House approved Michigan’s request for an emergency declaration Saturday, after a week of contentious public feuding between President Donald Trump and the state’s governor over measures to combat the coronavirus.
The squabble between Trump and Governor Gretchen Whitmer, which has played out across Twitter, cable news and radio airwaves, has been one of several conflicts simmering between Trump and governors who have criticized the federal response to the pandemic — and then seen Trump return fire online or in his press briefings.
Whitmer — a first-term governor who in February delivered the Democrats’ response to Trump’s State of the Union address — charged in an interview Friday morning that Trump’s actions have prevented her state from getting the equipment it needs.
“What I’ve gotten back is that vendors with whom we’ve procured contracts — they’re being told not to send stuff to Michigan,” Whitmer told Detroit’s WWJ 950.
“It’s really concerning.
I reached out to the White House last night and asked for a phone call with the President, ironically at the time this stuff was going on.”
Trump first invoked the DPA later Friday following escalating public criticism of General Motors, after the White House and company failed to reach a deal to build ventilators.
After doing so, Trump reprised his criticisms of Whitmer — without mentioning her by name — during the White House’s corona virus briefing, in which he said he directed Vice President Mike Pence to not call governors who aren’t “appreciative” of his efforts.
“I say, ‘Mike, don’t call the governor in Washington, you’re wasting your time with him. Don’t call the woman in Michigan,’” Trump said.
“You know what I say, if they don’t treat you right, I don’t call.”
Trump ignited the war of words with Whitmer on Tuesday after she called on the federal government to provide more support during an MSNBC interview.
“Failing Michigan governor must work harder and be much more proactive. We are pushing her to get the job done,” Trump tweeted.
“I stand with Michigan!”
Whitmer replied to Trump with a list of actions she has taken to protect Michigan residents, saying only “swift and clear guidance, tests, personal protective equipment, and resources” would solve the crisis, not attacks.
In a Fox News interview on Thursday, Trump stated he had a big problem with “a woman governor from Michigan.”
“I mean, she’s not stepping up,” Trump told Fox host Sean Hannity.
”I don’t know if she knows what’s going on, but all she does is sit there and blame the federal government.
She doesn’t get it done.
We send her a lot.”
Whitmer fired back at Trump on Twitter, continuing her calls for more medical supplies to help combat the virus.
“Hi, my name is Gretchen Whitmer, and that governor is me,” she wrote.
“I’ve asked repeatedly and respectfully for help.
We need it.
No more political attacks, just PPEs, ventilators, N95 masks, test kits.
You said you stand with Michigan.
Prove it.”
Friday evening, hours before he signed the emergency order she’d repeatedly demanded, Trump gave the governor he previously refused to name a trademark nickname:
Gretchen “Half” Whitmer.
So amazing how this world was made I wonder if God is a woman The gift of life astounds me to this day I give it up for the woman She’s the constant wind that fills my sail Oh that woman With her smile and her style, She’ll protect like a child That’s a woman
She’ll put a smile upon your face And take you to a higher place So don’t you underestimate The strength of a woman The strength of a woman
Woke up this morning With the pretty scent of a woman Just picture what life would be Ain’t much good without a woman She can nag and be a constant pain Oh that woman But those hips she’s got me whipped And it’s just to hard to resist What a woman Hey, hey
She’ll put a smile upon your face And take you to that higher place So don’t you underestimate The strength of a woman The strength of a woman
Tender lips that are so sweet Gentle words she softly speaks Such an angel when we need God bless the ground beneath her feet She can take you on a high Be your comfort when you cry But if you look into her eyes You’ll see the strength of a woman Strength of a woman
She’ll put a smile upon your face And take you to that higher place So don’t you underestimate The strength of a woman The strength of a woman”
Michigan has the fifth-most corona virus cases of any state, with more than 3,600 confirmed cases and 92 deaths as of Saturday afternoon.
The United States this week surpassed China to become the world leader in confirmed corona virus cases.
Above: Confirmed cases of COVID-19 per million inhabitants in the USA by state or territory
Senator Chris Murphy weighed in on the drama on Saturday, suggesting that Whitmer’s claim was akin to allegations made against Trump during his impeachment investigation that disbursement of aid was dependent upon personal favors being carried out for him.
“Michigan is the new Ukraine,” Murphy tweeted.
Republican governors, too, like Massachusetts’ Charlie Baker, have broken with Trump’s response to the crisis.
Baker, whose state was also granted an emergency declaration by the White House on Saturday, has said Massachusetts will not be “up and running” by Easter, bucking Trump’s previous suggestion that the country could loosen social distancing guidelines by 12 April.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday announced he would extend his “PAUSE” program by more than two weeks — until at least until 15 April – meaning the “the non-essential workforce is directed to continue to work from home,” Cuomo said in a tweet.
Cuomo said the decision to expand the order would be made every two weeks, indicating the governor doesn’t see 15 April as the end of his PAUSE program, which he enacted 20 March.
The PAUSE order directed “non-essential businesses” in New York to close by 8 p.m. on 22 March.
The order also banned all “non-essential gatherings of individuals of any size for any reason.”
Essential businesses, like grocery stores and healthcare facilities, have remained open.
New Yorkers are not prohibited from leaving their homes, though the state recommended people only leave their homes for necessary reasons, like trips to the grocery store or the pharmacy.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called for the cancelation of events that require groups larger than 10 to congregate.
To that extent, hoops at 80 basketball courts across New York City were removed by officials in order to prevent groups of people coming together to play, NY1 reported.
The CDC says people should remain six feet apart to prevent the spread of the novel corona virus.
“What’s not fine anymore is any kind of basketball game between people who do not live under the same roof, because, let’s face it, it’s a contact sport.
People are going to get close together.
It creates a danger,” said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who ordered the hoops removed, according to NY1.
States around the country have enacted similar orders to encourage residents to remain at home, though the language they’ve used surrounding such orders has varied.
States like neighboring New Jersey have called such demands “stay at home” orders.
“I’m from New Jersey I don’t expect too much If the world ended today I would adjust
I’m from New Jersey No I don’t talk that way I watched too much TV When I was young
I’m from New Jersey My mom’s Italian I’ve read those mafia books We don’t belong
There are girls from New Jersey Who have that great big hair They’re found in shopping malls I will take you there
I’m from New Jersey It’s not like Texas There is no mystery I can’t pretend
I’m from New Jersey It’s like Ohio But even more so
Imagine that
I know which exit And where I’m bound The tolls on the parkway They will slow you down
New Jersey people They will suprise you Cause they’re not expected To do too much
They will try harder They may go further Cause they never think That they are good enough
I’m from New Jersey I don’t expect too much If the world ended today I would adjust I would adjust I would adjust”
The extension comes less than 24 hours after President Donald Trump said he was considering placing New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut on an “enforceable quarantine.”
Cuomo had rejected such a plan, saying he didn’t “know how that could be legally enforceable.”
“From a medical point of view, I don’t know what you would be accomplishing.
I don’t even like the sound of it,” he added.
The President on Saturday night said after speaking with leaders in the states he named, he decided against putting such a policy in place.
Instead, he ordered the CDC to issue a “strong” travel advisory.
While Trump has suggested social distancing measures could be scaled back as soon as Easter, Cuomo has suggested social distancing procedures could remain in place for months — as long as nine months, he said.
The White House Corona Virus Task Force was expected Sunday to deliver recommendations to the President over how to potentially scale back social distancing guidelines in portions of the country that have not yet experienced serious COVID-19 outbreaks.
The potential guidelines would not likely apply to New York City, an official told a CNN reporter earlier Sunday.
The State of New York has been hardest hit by the number of corona virus cases and deaths in the US as it becomes a new epicentre of the disease that is believed to have originated in China at the end of last year.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, there have been more than 53,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state, and 834 deaths.
At least one person in Kentucky is infected after taking part at a “corona virus party”with a group of young adults, Governor Andy Beshear said Tuesday.
The partygoers intentionally got together “thinking they were invincible” and purposely defying state guidance to practice social distancing, Bashear said.
“This is one that makes me mad,”Governor Andrew Bashear said.
“We have to be much better than that.”
While Covid-19 has been more deadly and severe for people older than 60 and those with underlying health issues in data from China, health officials and leaders around the country have been imploring millennials and other young people to practice social distancing, because even people who are infected but without symptoms can transmit it to other people.
In fact, recent modeling based on Chinese data shows that asymptomatic carriers of the virus may have been responsible for its initial rapid spread there.
And the virus seems to be affecting young people in the United States more than it has in China.
A report released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that up to 20% of people hospitalized with coronavirus in the United States are between the ages of 20 and 44.
“So far the demography definitely seems to be very different in the United States versus in other countries that saw this hit earlier,” US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said on NBC’s “Today” on Monday.
In New York State, more than half of corona virus cases — 53% — have been among young people between the ages of 18 and 49, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Sunday.
California on Tuesday reported the first death in the United States of a Covid-19 patient younger than 18, and the family of a 12-year-old in Georgia said Sunday she was on a ventilator and fighting for her life in an Atlanta hospital.
There also have been “concerning reports from France and Italy” about young people becoming seriously ill, “and very seriously ill in the ICUs,” said Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s corona virus reponse coordinator, last week.
There are now more than 52,000 cases of the virus in the United States.
At least 680 people had died as of Tuesday afternoon.
There are at least 163 cases of Covid-19 in Kentucky, Beshear said Tuesday, announcing 39 new cases there.
There are now more than 52,000 cases of the virus in the United States. At least 680 people had died as of Tuesday afternoon.
There are at least 163 cases of Covid-19 in Kentucky, Beshear said Tuesday, announcing 39 new cases there.
“When is it gonna get to me?
Get to me?
You killed the doc that called you out.
Why, Corona?
Internet conspiracy
COVID – 19
Is it just a pack of Communist
Lies, Corona?
Never gonna stop
Media
Such a dirty game
Cuz no one gets the shot
For the flu
But it’s just as lame
Why, why, why, why?
My, my, my, my Corona”
But let us forget all about the end of the world, ending not with a bang but a sniffle….
Instead, Business as usual, folks killing folks in the Middle East….
When the leader of Yemen’s Houthi rebels recently offered a surprise prisoner exchange to Saudi Arabia, the announcement brought to light the case of dozens of Palestinians on trial in the kingdom, where they are accused of “supporting terrorism”.
Above: Territorial situation in Yemen. Houthi forces are shown in green
In a televised address to mark the fifth anniversary of the Saudi intervention in Yemen, Abdul Malek al-Houthi offered to swap a Saudi military pilot and four other prisoners of war held by the Houthis for the Palestinian activists.
Al-Houthi said the offer was made because his group stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people against those who “conspire against its legitimate cause”.
Saudi Arabia put dozens of Palestinian activists on trial on 8 March, accusing them of supporting the Hamas group, which governs the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza and is considered a “terrorist group” by Riyadh.
The activists’ first court appearance was held in secret without legal representation to defend them against the charges, according to the families of the detainees.
The next court date is scheduled for May.
Hamas sees itself as a “national resistance movement” against the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Hussain al-Bukhaiti, a political analyst who is close to the Houthi movement, told Al Jazeera via telephone from the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, the Houthi initiative is “genuine and is not a show-off offer as some critics have made it out to be”.
He said the people of Yemen support the Palestinians and their cause, and feel it is their duty as fellow Arabs to stand with them, especially at a time when many Arab governments seem to have deprioritised the Palestinian cause and have strengthened relations with Israel.
Al-Bukhaiti said the Houthis sought the release of the Palestinians over the release of Houthi prisoners held by Saudi Arabia because the Yemeni prisoners would likely be exchanged eventually in a separate future prisoner swap.
Saudi Arabia formed a coalition of some Arab states and launched a military intervention in Yemen in March 2015 after the Houthis took over the capital Sanaa the previous year and forced President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee.
The Saudi-led coalition has since dwindled and is now largely made up of forces aligned with Riyadh and the United Arab Emirates who have sought to remove the Houthis from power and restore the internationally recognised government.
The Saudi-led effort has largely failed to drive the Houthis out of power.
Hamas issued a statement on Thursday in response to the Houthi offer stating that it “highly appreciates al Houthi’s initiative and the spirit of brotherhood and solidarity it expressed with the Palestinian people.”
“We express gratitude for al-Houthi’s concerns and for his initiative,” it added.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniya issued a statement last week asking the Saudi government to release its activists at a time when the corona virus outbreak spreading in the region could endanger the detainees.
Basem Naim, a Gaza-based Hamas spokesman, told Al Jazeera by telephone that the Palestinian people appreciate any effort from any group or state that would help their cause.
Naim said the Palestinian detainees were innocent and had not committed a crime that would warrant “terrorism charges”.
“The detainees are well known in Saudi Arabia and have been living there for decades and have never once tried to undermine the Saudi security.
Therefore we find it very unusual for the Saudi government to consider them as terrorists,” he said.
Naim added Saudi Arabia had a long history of support for the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli occupation.
Among those arrested was Mohammed al-Khudari, 81, a longtime Palestinian resident of Saudi Arabia and a retired physician suffering from colon cancer, his family told Al Jazeera by phone from Gaza.
Saeed Thabet, a Doha-based analyst who focuses on Yemen, told Al Jazeera that the Houthi initiative may not necessarily be a genuine attempt to secure the release of the prisoners but could be a tool to promote the Houthi movement within the region.
“Using the Palestinian prisoners, al-Houthi is trying to expand his status from a local player into a regional one,” he said.
Thabet argued that Saudi Arabia is unlikely to engage in a prisoner swap with the Houthis because Riyadh does not want to give them the status they seek.
“The Palestinian cause enjoys strong support among all Yemenis regardless of their political affiliation.
Dragging them into the Yemeni conflict is very dangerous,” he added.
Mahjoob Zweiri, a political science professor and director of Gulf Studies Center at the University of Qatar, viewed the Houthi initiative through the lens of Iranian regional goals, which include casting the Saudi government in a negative light.
He said the Houthi initiative was essentially a “tactic to deploy the Arab public opinion against Saudi Arabia”.
Zweiri added that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s (MBS) effort to secure the Saudi throne “led him to back US President Donald Trump’s Middle East plan and liquidate the Palestinian cause altogether”.
He said this “explains the Saudi animosity toward the Palestinians”.
The US plan supports the Israeli goals of annexing large sections of the occupied West Bank, which the Palestinians want for a future state, and legitimises Israeli settlements built on occupied land.
The Trump administration also recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital – a move the Palestinians and the Arab League condemned as a violation of international law, as well as a violation of the 1993 Palestinian-Israeli Oslo agreements and numerous international resolutions.
The Palestinian government in Ramallah wants the eastern half of the city to be the capital of a future Palestinian state.
Look into my eyes Tell me what you see You don’t see a damn thing ’cause you can’t relate to me
You’re blinded by our differences My life makes no sense to you I’m the persecuted one You’re the red, white and blue
Each day you wake in tranquility No fears to cross your eyes Each day I wake in gratitude Thanking God He let me rise
You worry about your education And the bills you have to pay I worry about my vulnerable life And if I’ll survive another day
Your biggest fear is getting a ticket As you cruise your Cadillac My fear is that the tank that has just left Will turn around and come back
Yet, do you know the truth of where your money goes? Do you let your media deceive your mind? Is this a truth nobody, nobody, nobody knows Has our world gone all blind?
Do you know the truth of where your money goes? Do you let your media deceive your mind? Is this a truth nobody, nobody, nobody knows? Someone tell me..
.
Oh, let’s not cry tonight I promise you one day it’s through Oh my brothers, Ohh my sisters Oh, shine a light for every soul that ain’t with us no more Oh my brothers, Oh my sisters
See I’ve known terror for quite some time 57 years so cruel
Terror breathes the air I breathe It’s the checkpoint on my way to school
Terror is the robbery of my land And the torture of my mother
The imprisonment of my innocent father The bullet in my baby brother
The bulldozers and the tanks The gases and the guns
The bombs that fall outside my door All due to your funds
You blame me for defending myself Against the ways of my enemies
I’m terrorized in my own land But am I the terrorist?
Yet, do you know the truth of where your money goes? Do you let your media deceive your mind?
Is this a truth nobody, nobody, nobody knows Has our world gone all blind?
Do you know the truth of where your money goes? Do you let your media deceive your mind?
Is this a truth nobody, nobody, nobody knows? Someone tell me…
Oh, let’s not cry tonight, I promise you one day it’s through Oh my brothers, Oh my sisters, Oh, shine a light for every soul that ain’t with us no more Oh my brothers, Oh my sisters,
America, do you realize that the taxes that you pay Feed the forces that traumatize my every living day So if I won’t be here tomorrow It’s written in my fate
May the future bring a brighter day The end of our wait
Oh, let’s not cry tonight, I promise you one day it’s through Oh my brothers, Oh my sisters,
Oh, shine a light for every soul that ain’t with us no more Oh my brothers, Oh my sisters,
Oh let’s not cry tonight I promise you one day is through Oh my brothers! Oh my sisters!
Ooh shine a light for every soul that ain’t with us no more Oh my brothers! Oh my sisters!
…..and here’s the thing.
Outlandish is absolutely right.
I don’t understand.
I live in a land, and I come from a land, where I tend to believe what the media tells me to be true.
Despite being a student of history, places so faraway from both my Canadian experience and my Swiss location…..
Places like Mali and Yemen, Israel and Palestine…..
These are beyond my horizon.
The corona virus doesn’t care.
Whether I am far removed and sheltered or in the midst of fighting for my life against an implacable enemy…..
The corona virus doesn’t care.
Perhaps we have become ostriches…..
We bury our heads under our blankets.
If we don’t see the danger…..
Maybe the danger won’t see us…..
Sun’s up, mm-hmm, looks okay The world survives into another day And I’m thinking ’bout eternity Some kinda ecstasy got a hold on me
I had another dream about lions at the door They weren’t half as frightening as they were before But I’m thinking ’bout eternity Some kinda ecstasy got a hold on me…..
Young men marching, helmets shining in the sun Polished and precise like the brain behind the gun Should be, they got me thinking about eternity But some kinda ecstasy got a hold on me
And I’m wondering where the lions are (wondering where the lions are) I’m wondering where the lions are (wondering where the lions are) I’m wondering where the lions are, uh-huh (wondering where the lions are) I’m wondering where the lions are, mm-hmm (wondering where the lions are) Wondering where the lions are, uh-huh (wondering where the lions are) Wondering where the lions are (wondering where the lions are)…..
Freighters on the nod on the surface of the bay One of these days we’re gonna sail away We’re gonna sail into eternity Some kinda ecstasy got a hold on me
And I’m wondering where the lions are (wondering where the lions are) I’m wondering where the lions are (wondering where the lions are) I’m wondering where the lions are (wondering where the lions are) I’m wondering where the lions are, oh (wondering where the lions are)…..
Sources: Wikipedia / Google / http://www.swissinfo.ch / Reuters / Strait Times / Financial Express / Deutsche Welle / Vestnik Kavkaza / Gulf News / Al Arabiya / BBC / ITV / CBS / Politico / Business Insider / CNN / Al Jazeera / the Beatles, “Wait a Minute, Mister Postman” / the Boxtops, “The Letter” / the Beatles, “All My Loving” / Brian Hyland, “Sealed with a Kiss” / Z Dogg MD, “My Corona” / Peggy Lee, “Fever” / Bruce Cockburn, “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” / Little River Band, “Down on the Border” / Don Henley, “New York Minute” / Warhead, “Missiles”/ Rascal Flatts, “Why” / Arcadia, “Election Day”/ Lenny Kravitz, “Fly Away” / John Gorka, “I’m from New Jersey” / Billy Joel, “New York State of Mind” / Shaggy, “Strength of a Woman” / Outlandish, “Look into my Eyes” / Bruce Cockburn, “Wondering Where the Lions Are” / Reunion, “Life Is a Rock (but the Radio Rolled Me)”
Landschlacht, Switzerland, Friday 27 March 2020 (Lockdown Day #11)
It finally happened.
My wife and Donald Trump have something in common.
Neither is good at being told to “stay home“.
Both wander from room to room – she at home, he in the White House – looking to be involved, to participate in someone else’s activities, and social distancing be damned.
Both long for a return to normal life, such as it was, back to work, back to making things great again, however imperfect that life may have been.
And it is this desire to dash out of our homes and return to lives not yet prudent to resume, this irrational impulse to abandon reason and rational thought, that defines us in the West.
We have trouble seeing the forest for the trees, to look at the bigger picture or the long-term approach.
And it is this frustration that China must be thoroughly enjoying at this moment.
Chinese authorities said Tuesday they will end a two-month lockdown of most of corona virus-hit Hubei province at midnight, as domestic cases of what has become a global pandemic subside.
People with a clean bill of health will be allowed to leave, the provincial government said, easing restrictions on movement that were unprecedented in scale.
The city of Wuhan, where the virus was first detected in December, is to remain locked down until 8 April.
China barred people from leaving or entering Wuhan beginning 23 January in a surprise middle-of-the-night announcement and expanded that to most of the province in succeeding days.
Trains and flights were cancelled and checkpoints set up on roads into the central province.
The drastic steps came as the corona virus began spreading to the rest of China and overseas during the Lunar New Year holiday, when millions of Chinese travel.
The virus raged for weeks in Wuhan, the provincial capital, and surrounding cities.
Hospitals overflowed, and temporary ones were hastily set up to try to isolate the growing number of infected patients.
More than 2,500 people have died in Wuhan out of 3,270 nationwide.
The outbreak has since been brought under control, and Hubei has seen almost no new infections for more than a week.
The move to end the lockdown showed the authorities’ apparent faith in the success of the drastic measures as they try to kick start the world’s second-largest economy and put money in the pockets of workers, many of whom have gone weeks without pay.
It remained unclear, however, which cities and provinces, including Beijing, the capital, would allow people from Hubei to enter their jurisdictions.
Above: Hubei Province (in red), China
About 120,000 migrant workers, including many who had made the traditional trip home to Hubei for Lunar New Year, have already been allowed to leave in recent days on special buses and trains, according to Chinese media reports.
The reports said manufacturing centers such as Guangdong and Zhejiang province are open to people from Hubei.
Outside of Hubei, the government says work has restarted on about 90% of major public construction projects across the country.
While many migrant workers remain trapped by travel restrictions and quarantines, factories are operating again, though not at full capacity.
In the Beijing area, the city zoo and parts of the Great Wall reopened this week, though they required advance reservations to limit the number of visitors.
Some restaurants were reopening for business, some on the condition that customers do not sit facing each other.
Above: Images of Beijing
At the Xibei Restaurant inside a mall in eastern Beijing’s Shuangjing neighborhood, a line formed at around 11 a.m. Tuesday for the lunch opening, although managers said they expected to serve only around 140 customers, down from the usual daily number of 900 before the virus outbreak.
Half of the establishment’s 20 tables had “closed” signs on them to help keep a distance between customers, while food delivery workers rushed in and out with orders of grilled beef and lamb, noodles, pancakes and other northern Chinese dishes.
Wu Lin, who works in cosmetics, was dining out for the first time since restrictions were imposed because of the outbreak.
“Since the restaurant can open at the moment, I believe their prevention and control is fairly good,” Wu said.
“For example, they check the temperature of every customer and staffer.
It gives us a sense of safety.”
Officials have turned their attention to the threat of the virus entering from abroad, with almost all new cases being recorded among people arriving from overseas.
China’s National Health Commission on Tuesday reported 78 new corona virus cases, among which 74 were imported.
Starting Wednesday, Beijing will require everyone coming from overseas to be tested for the corona virus on top of being quarantined for 14 days.
In a notice published online, city authorities said those who have entered the city within the last 14 days will also undergo the mandatory testing.
“Currently, the imported risk from the epidemic’s rapid spread overseas continues to rise,” the Beijing notice said.
The heightened measures — which apply regardless of one’s final destination — follow a previous order that all overseas arrivals quarantine themselves at designated hotels at their own expense unless they live alone.
A small section of the Great Wall of China has reopened to visitors as of 24 March, a sign that life in China is slowly returning to normal following the corona virus epidemic.
The Badaling section of the Great Wall, which stretches from Bei Liu Lou to Nan Wu Lou Ban, will be open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Around 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Beijing, it’s the most popular section of the wall for tourists, to the point that officials instituted a cap of 65,000 visitors per day as of June 2019.
Chinese officials said in a statement that they will only permit 30% of the usual number of visitors into the area for the time being.
To be permitted entry, visitors must first book a ticket in advance, either on the Badaling Great Wall’s official website or through China’s WeChat app.
Then, upon arriving at the Great Wall, they will have their temperatures checked.
Visitors must have a registered Health QR code — a system through the AliPay or WeChat app that is connected to their ID card — that shows as green, or healthy, before being permitted entry.
Visitors also must wear face masks and stay at least one meter away from each other at all times.
Medical staff and active military personnel will get free entry — but will also have to follow the same set of rules.
Otherwise, tickets cost 35 RMB ($5) during the off-peak season, which ends 30 March, and 40 RMB ($5.65) during peak season from 1 April – 1 October.
All other sections of the Great Wall remain closed, as do the cable car and China Great Wall Museum in Badaling.
Normally, more than 10 million people visit the Great Wall every year.
The UNESCO World Heritage Site was closed to visitors on 25 January as the corona virus epidemic began to ramp up.
Many other sites throughout China remain closed, including the Forbidden City complex in Beijing and Shanghai Disneyland.
While the world reels from the corona virus outbreak, China is in the process of bringing its country back to life.
Part of that process involves resuscitating China’s increasingly important cinema industry.
In order to do that, it’s bringing back the big guns, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
A source at one of China’s nationwide cinema operators told the publication that movies from the Avengers series, Christopher Nolan movies such as Inception and Interstellar, and — get this — Avatar will be brought back in an attempt to lure an understandably cautious Chinese public back to cinemas.
In the last few months China has implemented a strict lockdown of its citizens in the wake of the corona virus, but those regulations are being relaxed after China has begun reporting very few new cases compared to previous months.
One of the most interesting parts:
If these movies do well at the Chinese box office, it could revive the eternal battle for the global box office champion.
Avengers: Endgame is currently the highest grossing movie of all time at $2,797,800,564.
But Avatar is close behind at $2,790,439,000, according to Box Office Mojo.
That’s a gap of just $7 million.
If Avatar somehow finds itself outperforming Avengers: Endgame during these events, it could possibly usurp the existing king.
And what of the rest of the world?
As in Rumours from my room #1, let me begin with Switzerland and then move on to Europe, Africa, Asia and finally the Americas.
With many couples suddenly finding themselves in close confinement due to the corona virus distancing measures, tensions are inevitable.
The University of Zürich is now offering free online counselling.
The goal of the programme is to help relationships become stronger in times of stress by increasing mutual support, the University wrote on Tuesday.
The main focus of the counselling is on boosting effective communication, which often falls victim in stressful times.
It also aims to teach participants that the value of a solid partnership lies not merely in the relationship itself, but also in the general health and well-being benefits it brings, the University writes.
Being in a satisfying and loving relationship leads to a better overall mood, as well as better psychological and even physical health.
“A ‘healthy’ partnership is objectively linked to having a stronger immune system and a lower risk of sickness.”
Initially, a five-hour introduction offers videos, examples, and practical lessons about how to better solve shared problems and challenges.
For those who need more targeted advice, one-on-one counselling can be booked from this week.
The offer is directly linked to the social isolation measures around the Covid-19 pandemic, which has seen people in Switzerland forbidden from congregating in groups of more than five people, and strongly advised by the government to stay at home.
Authorities have so far stopped short of a complete lockdown.
Those who are able to do their jobs from home, meanwhile, have been advised to do so.
Deliveries of protective equipment to Switzerland are still blocked in France and Germany, despite a European Union directive exempting the export of protective equipment to EFTA states from needing an export permit.
A French supplier told a Swiss purchasing group that the French export ban was still in force and that he was therefore unable to supply masks from his warehouse in Lyon, according to CH-Media newspapers, including the Aargauer Zeitung, on Wednesday.
Above: Images of Lyon, France
Also in Germany a delivery intended for Switzerland was sent back to the main customs office in Mönchengladbach in the northwest of the country after two weeks at customs, the report said.
Above: Mönchengladbach Cathedral
The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) confirmed to Swiss public radio, SRF, that deliveries to Switzerland were blocked in France and Italy.
SECO told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA that it was aware of the problems and was in contact with the companies and countries concerned.
It added that the administration was working “vigorously” on a solution.
Switzerland was “necessarily dependent on imports from Germany and France, among others”, it continued.
“It is of utmost importance for the economy that trade continues to function.
In principle, the understanding between Switzerland and the EU in this difficult situation is good.”
Last Friday Economics Minister Guy Parmelin announced a “breakthrough” in the supply of protective material from the EU for Switzerland.
After several contacts with EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan, Brussels instructed EU countries to no longer block exports of protective material to Switzerland and other EFTA states Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland.
Hogan said the reason for the exemption for the four EFTA states was “the deep integration into the Single Market” and the “integration of the value chain and distribution networks”.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had previously announced that ventilators and other products needed to fight the pandemic could only be exported to non-EU countries with the express permission of the government concerned.
The Swiss government has extended entry restrictions to all Schengen states.
This will increase the protection given to the population against the coronavirus, it said on Wednesday.
Above: The Schengen Area – blue: members / green: de facto members / orange: will join but not members yet
Last week the Federal Council (executive body) imposed restrictions on entry by land and by air from Italy, France, Germany, Austria and Spain, and from all non-Schengen states.
Above: The Swiss Federal Council
“Since midnight, these stricter entry requirements have also applied to flights from all remaining Schengen states with the exception of the Principality of Liechtenstein.
Above: Vaduz, Liechtenstein
The relevant authorities in the EU have been notified of the changes,” the government said in a statement.
With the extension of the stricter entry requirements to cover flights from all Schengen states and the checks being made on these entry requirements as part of border controls at airports, all flights from abroad are now subject to the same entry checks.
Above: Federal Palace of Switzerland, Bern
Citizens of Switzerland and Liechtenstein, people with a Swiss residence permit and people who have to travel to Switzerland for work-related reasons or because of an emergency will continue to be allowed to enter the country.
Travellers may continue to transit through Switzerland and movements of goods are still permitted.
Switzerland has introduced temporary restrictions on the export of protective equipment to head off shortages among medical staff and others fighting the corona virus outbreak.
Licences will now be needed to export masks, gloves, goggles and swabs as of 26 March, the government said on Wednesday.
Exceptions to the licensing requirement will apply to the European Union, as well as Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, as long as they treat Switzerland the same way, it added.
Economics Minister Guy Parmelin said the decision was in line with EU regulations.
“It is a precautionary measure and is not intended to create more problems,” he said.
“It’s the least we can do for the Swiss population to avoid a shortage of necessary medical equipment in an emergency situation.”
Parmelin confirmed that said deliveries of protective equipment to Switzerland were still blocked in France and Germany, despite a EU directive exempting the export of protective equipment to countries of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) from needing an export permit.
“There are apparently still administrative hurdles,” he said at a news conference.
Parmelin said he had spoken to an economics minister from an unspecified neighbouring country, pleading him to speed up procedures and show solidarity.
Last weekend, Swiss hospitals agreed to take a number of corona virus patients from France.
Also on Wednesday, the Swiss government extended entry restrictions to all other 25 Schengen states.
The measures previously applied to the neighbouring countries and Spain.
In another development, the government also announced a raft of measures to cut red tape related to recruitment and short-time working to soften the impact of the economic downturn caused by the corona virus crisis.
The measures are designed to make it easier to recruit medical, pharmaceutical, agricultural or logistics workers.
“We want to provide practical help and we are willing to adapt quickly if need be,” he said.
Anonymised data collected by Swisscom and given to the government have revealed that the Swiss population is behaving in a disciplined manner and is following the guidelines set out by the federal authorities to contain the spread of Covid-19.
Health Minister Alain Berset confirmed on Wednesday that, at the government’s request, the country’s largest mobile operator was detecting crowds via mobile phones. The data, which are anonymised and delivered with a 24-hour delay, are handed to the government for the specific purpose of limiting the corona virus pandemic in Switzerland.
Daniel Koch, head of communicable diseases at the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), stressed on Thursday that this was “not surveillance”.
He said the live movements of phone users could not be traced.
He explained it was a question of seeing whether there were patterns in the movements – and only in public spaces.
“It’s a simple reflection of past mobility in public.”
The measure is completely anonymous and completely safe in terms of data protection, Koch said.
The Swiss government has banned gatherings of more than five people and has closed bars, schools, restaurants and other non-essential shops as part of “social distancing” measures to contain the virus that has infected more than 10,000 people in the country.
Under the arrangement, Swisscom informs federal authorities when 20 mobile phones are found within an area of 100 metres squared (100 metres by 100 metres) in public spaces.
Residential areas and business premises are not analysed.
In response to reports by French-language paper Le Temps, Swisscom spokesperson Christian Neuhaus told news agency Keystone-SDA that there is no live tracking of people but rather data from SIM cards are shared a day later.
The use of technology to monitor those in quarantine and to track infections has raised concerns about possible privacy violations and raised the prospect of a state surveillance.
The Chinese government reportedly used technology tools such as facial recognition and mobile tracking apps to monitor health status and movements of the population at the centre of the Covid-19 outbreak that some people considered excessively intrusive.
At a press conference, Berset sought to assuage these concerns, confirming that there was no intention to carry out real-time monitoring of individuals.
Only a few people at the Federal Office of Public Health have access to data and that the data made it possible to observe “the past in an anonymised and globalised manner”, Berset said.
On Wednesday, an association of mobile operators announced that Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, Orange and five other telecoms providers had agreed to share mobile phone location data with the European Commission to track the spread of the corona virus.
Swiss companies are reporting slumping sales, cashflow problems and bottlenecks in the supply of crucial materials as the corona virus crisis hits the economy.
However, a survey also found that three out of four firms are satisfied with a CHF42 billion ($43 billion) state bailout package.
The 84 respondents to the Swiss Business Federation (economiesuisse) survey paint a grim picture of trading conditions.
They expect the situation to get worse and last at least six months before seeing any signs of improvement.
For example, textiles manufacturers are unable to sell their current inventories while the declining European automobile industry is hitting Swiss suppliers to the sector.
Non-essential high street shops and services have been told to close their doors, while some cantons are clamping down on construction sites and canton Ticino, bordering Italy, has told some industrial production lines to cease operating.
The government has announced a CHF42 billion emergency funding package, including CHF20 billion of cheap loans.
Some economists expect the total bill to soar beyond CHF100 billion if the pandemic conditions do not ease until the end of the year.
Respondents to the economiesuisse survey expect sales to slump by a third in the coming weeks.
Several report that they are not being paid by companies that they supply.
A third of firms are already experiencing cashflow problems, with that proportion expected to soon reach a half of all businesses.
Companies also report delivery bottlenecks, particularly for flavors, vitamins, packaging materials, building materials, alcohol, glycerin, medical goods, rare earths and magnets.
Economiesuisse expects that up to 85% of all export companies will be affected by supply bottlenecks within the next two months.
Two-thirds of survey respondents are looking at reducing working hours for their staff and nearly a third are contemplating lay-offs among their workforce.
But 75% of companies believe the government’s financial bailout will be sufficient to pull them out of the crisis.
The number of positive responses rose from the 50% that were satisfied with a previous government pledge to provide CHF10 billion.
On Tuesday, it was announced that the corona virus death toll in Spain has jumped by 514 in a single day, as the situation in the country quickly worsens.
Official figures show that 2,696 people have now died in the country and close to 40,000 are infected.
About 5,400 health care workers are among those confirmed cases.
Spain is the worst affected country in Europe after Italy, which has recorded more than 6,000 deaths so far.
While cases have been mostly concentrated in Madrid, Catalonia and the Basque Country, infection numbers are growing in other regions.
Castilia-La Mancha and Castilla y Leon, which border the capital, have seen a big jump in cases. Both regions have large elderly populations.
Above: The number of people affected per capita in Spain by COVID-19 – the darker the region, the more cases therein
The police criticised “irresponsible people” on Tuesday, including some who have left hospitals without being formally discharged.
In the capital Madrid, meanwhile, the municipal funeral home has stopped collecting Covid-19 victims because of a lack of protective equipment.
The city is to use a major ice rink, the Palacio de Hielo (Ice Palace), as a temporary mortuary where bodies will be stored until funeral homes can collect them, officials told Spanish media.
The images are sobering – hearses bringing coffins of the dead to a large municipal ice rink in Madrid.
Mortuaries, as well as hospitals, are overwhelmed.
Though the daily tally of dead has worsened remorselessly, there might be one crumb of comfort — the rate of rise has slowed for the last three days consecutively.
Spain’s latest figures come after soldiers helping to combat the outbreak found retirement home patients abandoned and even dead in their beds on Monday.
The defence ministry said that staff at some care homes had left after the coronavirus was detected.
Prosecutors have launched an official investigation.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said he will ask parliament to approve a further extension of lockdown measures until 11 April amid the worsening crisis.
“I know that it is very uncomfortable to be confined until 11 April, and that it is affecting everyone.
But experts agree that it is an effective measure in the fight against the corona virus,” he told a meeting of regional leaders.
On Wednesday, it was announced that the corona virus death toll in Spain has climbed to 3,434, surpassing China in overall number of deaths.
Spain recorded 738 deaths in the past 24 hours, its deadliest toll in a single day.
It is now the second country in the world with the highest number of deaths from Covid-19, behind Italy.
China says it recorded 3,287 deaths, while Italy’s death toll stands at more than 6,800.
Above: Map of the COVID-19 outbreak per capita as of 27 March 2020 – the darker the nation, the more cases therein
The overall number of cases in Spain increased by 20% to 47,610 from 39,673 on Tuesday, said Spain‘s Ministry of Health.
The outbreak has hit Spain hard, putting its fragile healthcare system under immense strain, especially in the central region around Madrid, with one third of the positive cases and roughly half of the casualties.
Madrid City Hall turned an ice rink at the Palacio de Hielo shopping centre into a temporary morgue to deal with the surge in deaths.
Spanish authorities have also set up a field hospital in the capital’s Ifema Congress Centre as the country’s health service has struggled to deal with the number of cases.
Earlier this week, the country’s defence ministry said elderly people were being found abandoned and dead in their own homes by soldiers who were drafted to help in the fight against the highly contagious virus.
Spanish defence minister, Margarita Robles, said the government would not tolerate mistreatment of older people in retirement homes during the crisis.
Spanish prosecutors said an investigation had been launched into the incident.
Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles told the private TV channel Telecinco that the government was “going to be strict and inflexible when dealing with the way older people are treated” in retirement homes.
“The army, during certain visits, found some older people completely abandoned, sometimes even dead in their beds,” she said.
The defence ministry said that staff at some care homes had left after the coronavirus was detected.
Health officials have said that in normal circumstances the bodies of deceased residents are put in cold storage until they are collected by the funeral services.
But when the cause of death is suspected to be linked to corona virus they are left in their beds until they can be retrieved by properly equipped funeral staff.
In the capital Madrid, which has seen the highest number of cases and deaths, that could take up to 24 hours, officials said.
Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa told a news conference that retirement homes were “an absolute priority for the government”.
“We will exercise the most intensive monitoring of these centres,” he added.
France now has 22,300 confirmed corona virus cases, including an increase of 2,444 in the past 24 hours, said the country’s Director General of Health, Jérôme Salomon, at a news briefing Tuesday.
Across the country, 10,176 people were hospitalised for corona virus, including 2,516 in a serious condition, said Salomon.
Above: Confirmed cases of COVID-19 per million inhabitants in France by region
Tuesday’s death toll rise made France the 5th country to exceed a grim 1,000 fatalities milestone after Italy, China, Spain and Iran.
The spike in corona virus cases and deaths came after the country’s scientific council, which advises French President Emmanuel Macron on the corona virus crisis, said a lockdown to contain the epidemic should last a total of six weeks since it was put in place.
France has been under a strict lockdown since 17 March, when Macron announced restrictive measures, including fines for people violating the rules.
The lockdown was initially expected to last 15 days.
In its statement, France’s scientific council said the lockdown was at present the only really efficient strategy.
The council also said it was “necessary to strengthen” the containment measures without providing details.
Responding to the council’s lockdown recommendations, French Health Minister Olivier Véran said it was not possible to put a clear time frame just yet.
“The members of the scientific council aren’t able to say with precision if the confinement should be for such a set duration.
They said, maybe we need to prepare for the confinement to last longer.
Beyond 15 days we know, but perhaps it could extend past that – another five or six weeks,” he said.
“It will only end when the epidemic curve allows it, this is the basic principle.
Confinement has a purpose, to protect the French people.
It will last as long as it has to last.”
Noting that three weeks were needed to obtain an initial estimate of the impact of the lockdown, the council said:
“Containment is currently the only truly operational strategy, as the alternative policy of large-scale screenings and isolation of those detected is not currently feasible on a national scale.”
A decision to end the lockdown “could be taken on the basis of epidemiological indicators. in particular the saturation of hospital services and especially of intensive care units”.
The government will also have to ensure that the elements of a post-confinement strategy are operational, the council added.
Members of the council also issued an “alert” on “the real or perceived shortage of various types of equipment, starting with essential health protection equipment”.
They recommended that the government “provide full transparency and clarity” to answer questions from hospitals and health care providers about existing stocks and how services will be supplied.
Poland’s government said on Tuesday it would expand restrictions on citizens to prevent the spread of coronavirus, including a limit on the number of people taking part in masses, a drastic move in a deeply devout country.
However, the presidential election, the first round of which is scheduled for May 10, will go ahead as planned, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told a news conference.
Poland, a country of 38 million, has so far reported 799 infections.
Nine people have died.
Above: Map of the COVID-19 outbreak in Poland, as of 25 March 2020 – the darker the region, the more cases therein
Morawiecki, speaking alongside Health Minister Lukasz Szumowski, said the new constraints include a ban on gatherings of more than two people, excluding families, and a lockdown confining people to their homes except for essential activities, which would include food shopping, dog-walking, going to work and taking care of elderly relatives.
As of Tuesday the government of Poland also limited to five the number of people allowed to take part in religious services including funerals, and cut the number of people permitted to ride public buses and trams at one time to avoid crowds endangering health.
“We are doing so to prepare for the increased wave of infections,” Morawiecki said, adding that the restrictions – due to run at least until 11 April – would not influence the holding of May’s presidential election.
The opposition has called on the ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party to delay the election for safety and procedural reasons, saying it was difficult for them to conduct their campaigns due to the corona virus restrictions.
Ukrainian security forces arrested Leonid Kozhara, who served as foreign minister in the pro-Russian government led by exiled president Viktor Yanukovych, on suspicion of pre-meditated murder on Wednesday.
Kozhara is suspected of killing advertising mogul Sergiy Starytsky.
The body of the 56-year-old pro-Russian businessman was discovered in Kozhara’s home outside Kyiv last moth.
Investigators determined he was shot in the head from Kozhara’s pistol, said deputy interior minister Anton Gerashchenko.
The former minister and his wife “continue to claim Sergiy Starytsky ended his life by committing suicide,” Gerashchenko wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.
The couple admits to being at home at the moment of Starytsky’s death, but say that the enterpreneur went to a different room and used the gun on himself.
However, the authorities have “reached the conclusion that Starytsky could not have shot himself,” Gerashchenko said.
Ukrainian investigators now believe that the two men were consuming alcohol in the Kozharas’ kitchen when they got into an argument, which turned into a physical altercation.
“The owner of the house went to the bedroom, took a gun, returned to the kitchen and shot at his friend,” the police statement said.
The 57-year-old Kozhara led the country’s Foreign Ministry from 2012 to 2014, when Yanukovych was ousted by the Maidan protest movement.
If convicted, the former diplomat faces up to 15 years in jail.
The Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti lost a no-confidence vote late Wednesday over his response to the corona virus pandemic, toppling his government.
Wednesday’s vote was initiated by his coalition partners with 82 parliamentarians supporting it, 32 against it and 1 abstention in the 120-member assembly.
“With this I confirm that the parliament approved the motion,” parliamentary speaker Vjosa Osmani said after the debate that lasted nearly 12 hours.
The coalition between Kurti’s Vetevendosje (VV) and the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) had fallen out after Interior Minister Agim Veliu was fired by Kurti.
Veliu had criticized the Prime Minister for not declaring a state of emergency amid the corona virus pandemic.
Vetevendosje has to now select a new nominee for Prime Minister within 15 days.
More than 60 people believed to be migrants from Ethiopia have been found dead in a cargo container in Mozambique’s northwest Tete province, according to officials.
Police and immigration authorities stopped the truck en route from Malawi in the early hours of Tuesday morning in the province of Tete, bordered by Malawi on one side and Zimbabwe on the other.
Amelia Direito, spokeswoman for Tete migration services, said the officials checked the container after hearing banging coming from inside.
They found 14 people alive among the bodies of 64 who had died from suspected asphyxiation.
Above: The lorry was found near this bridge crossing the Zambezi River
“The truck driver and his assistant (both Mozambicans) have been arrested by the police,” Direito said.
She added the driver told police he had been promised 30,000 meticais (about $500) to transport the men.
Police have launched a manhunt for “the intermediary who facilitated the illegal entry of the Ethiopians into the country,” she said.
The foreign ministry in Addis Ababa said it had “confirmed through the Ethiopian embassy in South Africa that many Ethiopians travelling inside a vehicle from Malawi to Mozambique have died”.
It said it was working to establish the numbers of the dead and their identities.
“The ministry expresses deep sadness at the tragedy and extends a message of strength to the family and friends of the deceased,” it said.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the survivors were being treated for severe dehydration and exhaustion.
Mozambique is generally seen as a smuggling corridor for migrants seeking to make their way to South Africa.
South Africa, the continent‘s most industrialised country, is a magnet for poor migrants not only from neighbouring countries such as Lesotho and Zimbabwe but also from nations further afield, such as Ethiopia.
Egypt has declared a curfew from 1900 to 0600 for two weeks from Wednesday (25 March) to prevent the spread of the corona virus.
Those who violate the measure will be punished under emergency laws, the Prime Minister said.
Flights, which were suspended at Egyptian airports on 19 March until the end of the month, will remain grounded for an additional two weeks until 15 April.
A closure of schools and universities will also be extended to mid-April, while cafes, sports clubs and gyms will be shut for the next two weeks and restaurants will be restricted to deliveries.
Shops other than food stores and pharmacies will be required to close from 5 p.m., two hours earlier than previously, as well as at weekends.
Those who do not respect the new rules face fines of up to 4,000 Egyptian pounds ($255) or prison, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly told a televised press briefing.
“I call on all Egyptians to fully comply with these measures,” President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Twitter.
“And I affirm that all elements of the Egyptian state will confront any attempts to breach them with the utmost firmness and resolution.”
The number of corona virus cases confirmed by the health ministry rose by 36 on Tuesday to 402.
There was one new death, bringing the total to 20.
Above: Map of governorates with confirmed (red) or suspected (blue) coronavirus cases as of 25 March 2020
Senior officials have sought to reassure the public that they are able to contain corona virus and that information on cases is being released quickly and transparently.
“Compared to surrounding countries, we are still at the stage of being able to contain the spread of the epidemic,” Prime Minister Madbouly said.
Ahead of the briefing, state TV aired a video that highlighted strict measures taken in China to combat corona virus, with a caption:
“Egypt can defeat the corona virus like China.”
Later the presidency released pictures of Sisi inspecting trucks adapted by the army to carry large disinfectant sprayers and hoses.
Authorities face a challenge tackling the virus in a country of 100 million where many live in fertile areas around the Nile and public health services can be severely stretched.
In some densely populated residential districts in Cairo, daily street life has appeared largely unaffected until now, though with lighter traffic.
On social media, many criticised the government for not halting services in mosques and churches before Saturday, when that decision was announced.
Listing the latest measures, Madbouly said almost all government offices would now close their doors to the public.
He urged citizens to limit movement between towns and cities, and said a measure to restrict the number of government employees going to work would be prolonged until mid-April.
Separately, the government said it was allocating one billion Egyptian pounds ($63.69 million) to the health ministry to help it provide supplies.
Like other countries, Egypt has taken steps to curtail the impact of coronavirus on the economy, including a surprise 3% interest rate cut and an injection of 20 billion Egyptian pounds to support the stock market.
Most early cases in Egypt were linked to a cruise ship on the Nile from which both foreign passengers and local crew tested positive, dealing an early blow to the country’s crucial tourism sector.
Above: the MS River Anuket
Egypt began deep cleaning the area around the Giza pyramids on Wednesday as authorities work to disinfect tourist spots closed down by the corona virus outbreak.
Workers wearing face masks and gloves swept and sprayed the walkways around the bases of the pyramids, as well as the ticket office and a visitor centre – though the giant stone structures were not themselves cleaned.
All Egypt’s famed archaeological sites and museums from the Egyptian museum in Cairo to the Valley of the Kings in Luxor have been shut since Monday as authorities try to prevent the corona virus from spreading.
With passenger flights suspended — except for those repatriating the last remaining tourists — officials have been sterilising hotels and tourist sites up and down the country.
“We started the first phase of disinfection, and there are other phases. We are in the process of disinfecting all tourist sites, though the artefacts themselves require specific materials and (cleaning) must be carried out by a specialised team of excavators,” said Ashraf Mohie El-Din, director general of the pyramids area.
“We are making use of this period to sanitise the entire area, but also to carry out some maintenance work and renovation to have this area ready to accept visitors again,” he added.
Battles erupted around Tripoli on Wednesday following intensified bombardment of the Libyan capital, defying international pleas for a truce to tackle the coronavirus after the first case was confirmed in the country.
The internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) launched an assault on several fronts early in the day, including an attack on an airbase west of Tripoli, according to both sides.
Above: Images of Tripoli, Libya
However, later on Wednesday the Libyan National Army (LNA) of eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar said its forces moved from repelling the attack to capturing territory near Zuwara, 30 miles (45km) north.
Above: Images of Zuwara, Libya
“Attacks and counterattacks in Libya continue to inflict further suffering and civilian casualties,” the United Nations mission said in a tweet, calling for an immediate halt to the violence.
Residents of Tripoli, seat of the GNA, said the shelling was the worst in weeks, shaking windows in the city centre miles from the front line in the southern suburbs.
“We are done in this country.
There is a war and we hear clashes all day, fearing a missile will fall near us.
Now there is corona virus.
If it spreads in Libya, I think we can only pray,” said Issa, 30, a shop owner in Tripoli.
The LNA has been trying to capture the capital for almost a year, backed by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia.
The GNA is supported by Turkey and allied Syrian fighters.
An LNA shelling attack last week drew UN condemnation after it killed four girls and young women.
On Tuesday, shells hit a prison in an area held by the GNA, also drawing UN anger.
Pro-GNA forces attacked al-Watiya airbase, 125 km (80 miles) west of Tripoli and the closest such facility to the capital in LNA hands, early on Wednesday, leading to intense clashes.
“In response to the heaviest bombardments Tripoli has seen, we launched a series of counter attacks against Haftar,”Mohamed Geblawi, spokesman for the Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement.
Geblawi cited what he called “indiscriminate shelling”by the LNA after both sides had agreed to a ceasefire to tackle the coronavirus.
The LNA spokesman Ahmed Mismari said it was the pro-GNA forces that had broken the truce.
The LNA had repulsed the attack and later captured the areas of Zaltan, al-Jameel, al-Assa and Raqdalin near the GNA-held town of Zuwara, he said.
A fighter in the pro-GNA forces said the battle would continue.
“It was a successful operation during the progress and the attack, and these operations will continue,” he said by phone.
The escalation in the fighting could spell disaster for Libya’s already fragmented and badly stretched health system in handling the corona virus, after authorities confirmed the first case of the disease late on Tuesday.
“Libyans have suffered for years under this brutal conflict, and now they face yet another threat to their health and wellbeing,” said Elizabeth Hoff, the World Health Organisation representative in Libya.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called fora complete ceasefire in conflicts around the world as governments and local authorities struggle with a pandemic that has spread to most countries.
“We sit at home hearing the clashes, which are a daily routine since 2011. But now we are scared of the corona virus.
I am scared for my family.
Libya doesn’t have a good healthcare system,” said Akram, a 28-year-old barista in Tripoli with three children.
(The Second Libyan Civil War is an ongoing conflict among rival factions seeking control of Libya.
Above: Military situation in Libya as of April 2019
Pink: Under the control of the House of Representatives in Tobruk and the Libyan National Army
Light green: Under the control of the Government of National Accord and the Libya Shield Force
Dark green: Under the control of the National Salvation Government
Grey: Controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Libyan Provinces) and the Mujahedeen Councils of Derna, Benghazi and Adjabiya
Blue: Controlled by local forces
Yellow: Controlled by Tuareg forces
After erupting in 2014, the conflict is mostly between :
the House of Representatives, elected in 2014 with a low turnout, relocated to Tobruk, which appointed Marshal Khalifa Haftar as commander-in-chief of the Libyan National Army (LNA) with the mission of restoring its sovereignty over the whole of Libyan territory
the Government of National Accord (GNA), led by Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, based in the capital Tripoli and established after failed military coups and the relocation of the House of Representatives to Tobruk.
The House of Representatives (HoR) (also known as the Council of Deputies) is the unicameral parliament of Libya relocated to Tobruk following the occupation of Tripoli by armed islamist groups in 2014.
The House of Representatives is in control of eastern and central Libya and has the loyalty of the Libyan National Army of General Khalifa Haftar which was as officially made commander on 2 March 2015.
The House of Representatives has been supported by airstrikes by Egypt and the UAE.
The General National Congress, based in western Libya and backed by various militias (mainly Libya Dawn in the west and Libya Shield in the east) with some support from Qatar and Turkey, initially accepted the results of the 2014 election, but rejected them after the Supreme Constitutional Court nullified an amendment regarding the roadmap for Libya’s transition and HoR elections.
Due to controversy about constitutional amendments, the HoR refused to take office from GNC in Tripoli, which was controlled by powerful militias from the western coastal city of Misrata.
Instead, the HoR established its parliament in Tobruk, which is controlled by General Haftar’s forces.
In December 2015 the Libyan Political Agreement was signed after long talks in Skhirat.
The LPA was the result of protracted negotiations between rival political camps based in Tripoli, Tobruk, and elsewhere which agreed to unite as the Government of National Accord.
On 30 March 2016, Fayez Sarraj, the head of the GNA, arrived in Tripoli and began working from there despite opposition from GNC.
Although the Government of National Accord is currently the only internationally recognized government in the country, its authority remains unrecognized by the House of Representatives, as specific details acceptable to both sides have not yet been agreed upon, especially regarding the future of Haftar.)
Mali’s main opposition leader Soumaila Cisse is being held hostage with six members of his delegation, his party said on Thursday, after they were attacked on the campaign trail in a region where jihadists often strike.
Cisse’s bodyguard was killed and two others wounded when unidentified gunmen ambushed the group on Wednesday afternoon between villages in the northern region of Timbuktu, the Union for the Republic and Democracy (URD) said.
“Cisse and the six others are in their hands,” party spokesman Demba Traore said at a briefing, citing four witnesses to the incident who were released by the assailants.
“We have not received any request for ransom.”
Militants with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State launch frequent attacks on civilian and military targets in the area, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility.
The incident came before long-delayed legislative elections, which authorities say will take place on Sunday despite the corona virus epidemic.
Mali was one of the last countries in West Africa to confirm a case, with four reported by Thursday.
The parliamentary vote was originally scheduled for 2018 but has been pushed back several times because of insecurity.
Cisse is Mali’s leading opposition figure.
He lost 2013 and 2018 elections to President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
Mali’s government said it was working with the military to find the hostages.
Security sources said at least one helicopter of United Nations peacekeepers was helping the search.
(The Mali War, Northern Mali Conflict or Mali Civil War is a series of armed conflicts that started from January 2012 between the northern and southern parts of Mali in Africa.
On 16 January 2012, several insurgent groups began fighting a campaign against the Malian government for independence or greater autonomy for northern Mali, an area of northern Mali they called Azawad.
The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), an organization fighting to make this area of Mali an independent homeland for the Tuareg people, had taken control of the region by April 2012.
On 22 March 2012, President Amadou Toumani Touré was ousted in a coup d’état over his handling of the crisis, a month before a presidential election was to have taken place.
Soldiers, calling themselves the National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State (CNRDR), took control and suspended the constitution of Mali.
As a consequence of the instability following the coup, Mali’s three largest northern cities—Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu—were overrun by the rebels on three consecutive days.
On 5 April 2012, after the capture of Douentza, the MNLA said that it had accomplished its goals and called off its offensive.
The following day, it proclaimed the independence of northern Mali from the rest of the country, renaming it Azawad.
The MNLA were initially backed by the Islamist group Ansar Dine.
After the Malian military was driven from northern Mali, Ansar Dine and a number of smaller Islamist groups began imposing strict Sharia law.
The MNLA and Islamists struggled to reconcile their conflicting visions for an intended new state.
Afterwards, the MNLA began fighting against Ansar Dine and other Islamist groups, including Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA/MUJAO), a splinter group of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
By 17 July 2012, the MNLA had lost control of most of northern Mali’s cities to the Islamists.
The government of Mali asked for foreign military help to re-take the north.
On 11 January 2013, the French military began operations against the Islamists.
Forces from other African Union states were deployed shortly after.
By 8 February, the Islamist-held territory had been re-taken by the Malian military, with help from the international coalition.
Tuareg separatists have continued to fight the Islamists as well, although the MNLA has also been accused of carrying out attacks against the Malian military.
A peace deal between the government and Tuareg rebels was signed on 18 June 2013.
However on 26 September 2013 the rebels pulled out of the peace agreement and claimed that the government had not respected its commitments to the truce.
Fighting is still ongoing even though French forces are scheduled for withdrawal.
A ceasefire agreement was signed on 19 February 2015 in Algiers, Algeria, but sporadic terrorist attacks still occur.
Despite the signing of a peace accord in the capital on 15 April 2015, low-level fighting continues.)
As most of India went into shutdown in a mega effort to stop the spread of Covid-19 — complete lockdowns were announced in 30 states and a total of 548 districts — Delhi prepared to step up measures to keep people at home.
Above: Map of the pandemic in India as of 26 March 2020 – the darker the Province, the more cases therein
Delhi Police will be issuing “curfew passes” to facilitate inter-border movement of persons engaged in providing essential goods.
Police issued an order to this effect late on Monday evening.
As of now, persons from Delhi-based essential services organisations — both private and government — can move around in the city for work by showing their official identity cards.
As inter-state borders have been sealed, private organisations engaged in providing essential services will need to obtain the passes by 12 noon, Tuesday, from the office designated by the department.
On Monday, police registered 475 cases for violation of the government order restricting movement of people.
Around 100 cases for violations were registered for disobedience of government instructions.
The crackdown came even as more areas of India were put under lockdown on Monday as the battle against Covid-19 entered a decisive phase, with the government of Punjab and the Chandigarh administration, imposing curfew.
The Pinarayi government in India’s second worst hit state Kerala also decided to follow other states on Monday by ordering complete shutdown of the state till 31 March.
Other states where total lockdown was imposed on Monday were Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, Assam and Manipur.
On Sunday, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram had ordered total lockdown.
30 state governments have imposed complete lockdown in their respective territories.
Severe restrictions on movement of people have been imposed in nearly 600 districts in all.
Another three governments have brought certain areas in the states under lockdown, covering total 58 districts.
On Wednesday, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a nationwide lockdown in an attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
The restrictions came into force at midnight local time (18:30 GMT) and will be enforced for 21 days.
“There will be a total ban on venturing out of your homes,” Mr Modi said in a televised address.
He appealed for people not to panic – but crowds quickly mobbed stores in the capital, Delhi, and other cities.
Correspondents say it is not clear how – or even if – people will now be allowed out to buy food and other essentials.
The new measures follow a sharp increase in cases in recent days.
There have been 519 confirmed cases across India and 10 reported deaths.
India – which has a population of 1.3 billion – joins a growing list of countries that have imposed similar measures.
Nearly 400,000 people have tested positive for the virus worldwide and around 17,000 have died.
“The entire country will be in lockdown, total lockdown,” Mr Modi said on Tuesday.
He added:
“To save India, to save its every citizen, you, your family, every street, every neighbourhood is being put under lockdown.”
Mr Modi warned that if India does not “handle these 21 days well, then our country will go backwards by 21 years”.
“This is a curfew,”he said.
“We will have to pay the economic cost of this but it is the responsibility of everyone.”
PM Modi later warned that panic-buying would only spread the disease.
He said the government would ensure supplies.
But in Delhi and the financial capital, Mumbai, people fearing shortages quickly thronged shops and pharmacies.
“I have never witnessed such chaos in my life,” the owner of one store in the Shakarpur district of Delhi said, quoted by the Press Trust of India.
“All our stocks, including rice, flour, bread, biscuits, edible oils, have been sold out.”
Police in the busy city of Ghaziabad, in Uttar Pradesh state, patrolled the streets with megaphones to tell residents to stay indoors.
Under the new measures, all non-essential businesses will be closed but hospitals and other medical facilities will continue to function as normal.
Schools and universities will remain shut and almost all public gatherings will be banned.
Anyone flouting the new rules faces up to two years in prison and heavy fines.
In his address, Prime Minister Modi also:
stressed that the 21-day lockdown was “very necessary to break the chain of corona virus“
emphasised the seriousness of the situation and said that even developed countries had faced problems in combating it
said that “social distancing was the only way to stop” the virus spreading
announced that nearly $2bn (£1.8bn) would be made available to boost the country’s health infrastructure
called on people not to “spread rumours” and to follow instructions
His announcement came after several Indian states introduced measures of their own, such as travel restrictions and the closure of non-essential services.
India has already issued a ban on international arrivals and grounded domestic flights.
The country’s rail network has also suspended most passenger services.
Many parts of India, including cities such as Delhi and Mumbai, are already under tight restrictions.
But this move extends those provisions to every corner of the country.
An earlier one-day curfew, which was seen as a trial, was flouted by many.
PM Modi called on Indians to clap and cheer the emergency services from their balconies on Sunday.
But many misunderstood the call and congregated in the streets as they danced and chanted.
“It’s impossible to fathom the cost that India may have to pay if such irresponsible behaviour continues,” PM Modi warned at the time.
“Social distancing is the only option to combat the corona virus.”
The implications of a total lockdown in India are huge, not just economically, but socially.
This is a nation where community is everything.
Going to worship at a temple, mosque or church is an essential part of daily life for so many.
This is a seismic cultural shift but – like the rest of the world facing similar restrictions – a necessary one.
Neighbouring Pakistan has almost twice as many confirmed cases….
878 as of Monday evening.
Sweeping restrictions are in place although the government has stopped short of imposing a nationwide lockdown.
However, several provinces have announced them independently.
The army is being brought in to help enforce the restrictions.
Above: Map of the COVID-19 outbreak in Pakistan as of 24 March 2020 – red: confirmed cases reported / blue: suspected cases reported
Bangladesh, which has reported 33 cases and three deaths, is also deploying its armed forces to help maintain social distancing and boost Covid-19 preventive measures.
The soldiers will also monitor thousands of quarantined expatriate returnees.
Across South Asia, there are concerns that the actual number of cases could be much higher than is being reported.
Indonesia, which has 49 confirmed Covid-19 deaths – the highest in South East Asia – has converted an athlete’s village built for the 2018 Asian Games into a makeshift hospital for coronavirus patients.
A state of emergency was declared in Jakarta on Monday.
In Thailand, a month-long state of emergency which will include curfews and checkpoints began on Thursday.
The government has been criticised for failing to take strong action so far.
Four people have died and nearly 900 tested positive.
Above: Map of Covid-19 cases by province in Thailand – the darker the province, the more cases therein
The most populous country that was without a case until now – Myanmar – has announced two cases.
In the Philippines, Congress granted President Rodrigo Duterte special temporary powers on Tuesday to manage the COVID-19 crisis that continues to surge in the country of 110 million people.
To date, there are 552 confirmed cases and 35 deaths.
Above: Map of the coronavirus outbreak in the Philippines as of 26 March 2020 – red = confirmed cases in province
The measure granting Duterte the new powers was the first to be approved by Philippine lawmakers using Zoom, the remote teleconferencing service, and puts the country under a “state of national emergency.”
However, Duterte failed to win approval to take over private companies and utilities, authority he had sought.
The president has been locked in battle with private concessionaires who supply water to Metro Manila, accusing them of over-charging and under-performing, and repeatedly threatening to put water under government control.
Duterte’s new powers extend to the narrower sectors of hospitals and public transportation.
He can direct private hospitals and medical facilities to house health care workers and serve as quarantine centers, and take over public transport operations to ferry front-line workers.
But even these measures have drawn criticism.
“No to emergency powers.
The existing powers are already being abused,” University of the Philippines law professor Jay Batongbacal said in a Facebook post, the South China Morning Postreported.
Duterte has jailed critics, harassed journalists and waged a controversial drug war, exposing him to charges of autocratic rule.
Rights advocates fear the new powers will make it dangerous for local governments to express dissent over how best to combat the virus.
Fifty million Filipinos meanwhile remain under lockdown since Duterte ordered half the population to stay home last week.
The main island of Luzon is a web of checkpoints to ensure people stay put.
The new law also gives Duterte the authority to reallocate items in the 2020 national budget for projects that would fight the spread of COVID-19.
Under a $5 billion emergency fund, some 18 million low-income households would receive assistance.
The package also helps equip hospitals and bolster testing.
Any accurate measurement of the corona virus in the Philippines has been severely constrained by a chronic shortage of test kits.
As of Tuesday, only 1,793 individuals have been tested nationwide.
Last week, the Philippine Health Department said it has only 2,000 kits left.
The Chinese Embassy in Manila said it will donate 100,000 test kits.
Singapore contributed diagnostic kits on Tuesday that can perform 3,000 tests.
One bone of contention: who should be tested.
Reports that VIPs — including senators, other officials and their relatives — were tested ahead of ordinary citizens have generated predictable scorn.
A bomb blast took place near a Sikh crematorium in the Afghan capital on Thursday, injuring a child and disrupting funeral services for 25 members of the minority community who had been killed by a heavily armed Islamic State suicide bomber a day earlier.
A magnetic bomb went off close to the Sikh cremation in Kabul, Pajhwok Afghan News quoted a policeman as saying.
It said a child was injured in the blast, which also disrupted the funeral services for the victims of the Islamic State attack on a prominent gurdwara (temple) on Wednesday in the heart of Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul.
Thursday’s attack was the second assault on the minority community in as many days.
Wednesday’s attack was one of the deadliest targeting the Sikh community in the strife-torn country.
Eighty people, including women and children, were rescued from the gurdwara.
TOLOnews, quoting sources in the Afghan government blaming the dreaded Haqqani group for the attack.
The Pakistan-based Haqqani group, designated by the US as a banned terror outfit, has conducted several deadly attacks inside Afghanistan.
Sikh lawmaker Nardendra Singh Khalsa told reporters that up to 150 people were praying inside the gurdwara when it came under attack.
Khalsa, the only representative of the Sikh community in Afghanistan, said he received a call from a worshipper inside the gurdwara, informing him about the attack.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack on the gurdwara, saying the attack on the religious sites shows the extreme weakness of the enemy, religious sites should not be vulnerable to attacks and violence.
War-torn Afghanistan is currently mired in a political stalemate with two politicians- Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah– both claiming victory in the presidential election.
Sikhs have been target of attacks by Islamist militants before in Afghanistan.
In July 2018, ISIS terrorists bombed a gathering of Sikhs and Hindus in the eastern city of Jalalabad, killing 19 people and injuring 20.
Avtar Singh Khalsa, one of the country’s best-known Sikh politicians then, was among those killed in the attack.
South Korea said it will send medical equipment to the United States to fight the corona virus if it has any spare after an urgent request from US President Donald Trump in which he promised to help Korean firms gain US government approval.
The news, which sent shares in South Korean manufacturers of test kits for the virus rocketing higher, highlights the diverging paths the two countries have taken since both discovered their first corona virus cases on the same day.
After a big early outbreak, South Korea rolled out widespread testing within days, swiftly launching an aggressive programme to isolate confirmed cases and trace their contacts.
It won praise for slowing the spread of the disease with comparatively little disruption and just 125 deaths, and has brought the number of new infections per day to below 100 for the past 13 straight days.
Above: Map of regions in South Korea with confirmed or suspected corona virus cases (as of 27 March) – the darker the region, the more cases therein
The United States did little testing initially and has been shutting parts of the country en masse, with fast-growing outbreaks in a number of states and thousands of new cases per day.
Above: Confirmed cases of COVID-19 per million inhabitants in the USA by state or territory
In a 23-minute phone call, Trump told President Moon Jae-in he would help Korean producers obtain approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for their equipment, South Korea’s Blue House office said in a statement late on Tuesday.
Moon told Trump that South Korea “will provide as much support as possible, if there is spare medical equipment in Korea”.
The United Arab Emirates is set to impose overnight curfews in a bid to tackle the spread of the corona virus pandemic.
Starting from Thursday, the country will begin curfews as it carries out a nationwide disinfection campaign.
The Gulf country has increasingly restricted movement after it confirmed 333 cases of the virus as well as two deaths, but had not announced an official curfew or work suspension.
Above: Map of the outbreak in the United Arab Emirates as of 10 February – regions with confirmed cases in red
Authorities announced that the UAE will restrict movement of traffic and people overnight from Thursday until Sunday.
The restrictions will last from 8pm to 6am each night.
Only essential service workers would be allowed out and violators will face fines, a security forces spokesman said in a press conference on Thursday.
Public transport including trams and metro services will be suspended, while private cars, cabs and delivery vehicles can operate outside those hours.
The UAE has slowly followed other Gulf states in suspending passenger flights and closing public venues such as restaurants and malls.
Dubai on Wednesday directed the private sector to implement remote working for most staff but exempted a broad spectrum of businesses.
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have taken the most drastic steps, including imposing partial nationwide curfews and suspending work at most public and private sector establishments.
Kuwait and Oman announced more confirmed corona virus infections on Thursday, taking the total in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council to just over 2,500 cases, with eight deaths.
Saudi Arabia has the highest tally of infections at 900.
Saudi Arabia has released 250 foreign detainees held on non-violent immigration and residency offences as part of efforts to contain the spread of the disease, the state-backed Human Rights Commission said on Thursday.
Bahrain and Kuwait have also announced prisoner releases.
Bahrain continued to evacuate several hundred Bahraini pilgrims stranded in Iran, which is an epicentre for the disease in the region.
A second repatriation flight of around 60 Bahrainis arrived overnight from the holy Iranian city of Mashhad, operated by Iranian airline Kish, families and a Bahraini official told Reuters.
Bahrain earlier this month repatriated 165 people, but a number of subsequent scheduled flights were cancelled.
At least 85 of the first batch of evacuees tested positive for the virus.
The island state, which has reported 419 corona virus cases and four deaths, most of them linked to travel to Iran, has longstanding differences with Iran and has criticised the Islamic Republic for not stamping Bahraini citizens’ passports.
The United States blacklisted five Iranian and Iraqi companies and fifteen individuals on Thursday for supporting terrorist groups, its 3rd round of sanctions on Iranian targets in the last two weeks, even as Tehran battles the corona virus outbreak.
In a statement, the US Treasury Department accused those targeted of supporting the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and its Quds Force elite foreign paramilitary and espionage arm and of transferring lethal aid to Iran-backed militias in Iraq, such as Kataib Hezbollah and Asaib Ahl al-Haq, all of which Washington deems foreign terrorist organizations.
The Pentagon blamed Kataib Hezbollah for a 11 March rocket attack that killed one British and two US personnel in Iraq.
US officials say they plan to keep sanctioning Iran to try to force it to curb its nuclear, missile and regional activities despite the corona virus outbreak, which has killed 2,234 people in Iran.
Above: Map of regions in Iran with confirmed or suspected corona virus cases as of 10 March 2020 – the darker the region, the more confirmed cases
Treasury accused those designated of “malign activities” including selling Iranian oil to Syria, smuggling arms to Iraq and Yemen and backing Iraqi militias that attack U.S. forces.
The sanctions freeze any of their US – held assets and generally bar Americans from dealing with them.
The five targeted companies are:
Mada’in Novin Traders
Reconstruction Organization of the Holy Shrines in Iraq
Bahjat al Kawthar Company for Construction and Trading Ltd.
Al Khamael Maritime Services
Middle East Saman Chemical Company
The action also blacklists 15 individuals who are associated with the companies or officials of the Quds Force and Kataib Hezbollah.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarifurged the boycott of US sanctions, though it was unclear if he was responding to the latest actions.
“Does the US want a ‘forever pandemic’?
Moral imperative to stop observing the bully’s sanctions,” he tweeted.
Humanitarian supplies are exempt from sanctions Washington reimposed on Tehran after President Donald Trump abandoned Iran’s 2015 multilateral deal to limit its nuclear program.
However, broader US sanctions deter many firms from humanitarian trade with Iran.
The United States and Switzerland this year finalized a Swiss channel to get humanitarian goods to Iran.
As of 19 March, one transaction had been processed.
Separately, Washington renewed a sanctions waiver letting Iraq import electricity from Iran, but vowed to blacklist anyone who used it to help terrorist groups.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced more businesses will be forced to close due to the growing number of corona virus cases, along with even tougher restrictions on social interactions.
There are now 2044 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia with eight deaths so far.
Australians have been told to stay in their homes unless it is “absolutely necessary” to go outside.
“Going out for the basics, going out for an exercise, perhaps with your partner or family members, provided it’s a small group, that’s fine,” Morrison said.
“But going outside and going out and participating more broadly in the community unless you’re shopping for basics or there are medical needs or you’re providing care and support to an individual at another place.”
He said people should also try and limit the number of people visiting their homes.
“We don’t want to be overly specific about that.
We want Australians to exercise their common sense,” Morrison said.
“So that means barbecues of lots of friends, or even family, extended family, coming together to celebrate one-year-old birthday parties and those sorts of things, we can’t do those things now.
“These will be a significant sacrifice, I know.”
The PM said that states and territories will be looking at whether specific restrictions will be placed on people having house parties and other gatherings with multiple people.
“The medical experts panel have made suggestions about how that can be managed.
It’s very difficult to put a number on it.
But the point about it is this:
If you’re gathering together in a group, say, 10 people, together, outside in a group, that’s not OK,” he said.
“We’ve got to move people on.
It’s not a hard and fast rule.
I say it only for illustrative purposes.
“You should only go outside your home to go to those essential things I talked about, not to go and congregate in groups.”
Australians will soon be banned from travelling overseas, Morrison announced.
A do-not-travel warning was put in place regarding overseas travel for Aussies but that will now be upgraded to a ban.
“There will be exceptions to these rules which will be set out in the directive that will be provided.
But this would include people involved in aid work in the Pacific and the support we’re providing,” Morrison said.
“It may involve compassionate travel and essential travel for employment, things of that nature.
“The number of people and the number who are leaving Australia now is very, very low.
But, still, it strikes me on those numbers there are people defying that advice and looking to go overseas on leisure travel.”
Morrison said because there are still Australians ignoring the do not travel advice a ban must be put in place to ensure other people aren’t put at risk.
The PM also added there will be a crackdown on people seeking to profit from buying large amounts of supplies and selling them.
“We are putting in place arrangements that make it an offence and seize at the border those who have engaged in profiteering by bringing together and making large purposes of various supplies in Australia and seeking to export them overseas,” he said.
“Now, it doesn’t relate to normal commercial legal activities, but we have been able to seize at the border, and the Minister for Home Affairs can speak to this, quantities of materials seeking to be sent overseas and that is not helping Australia and is not doing the right thing and there will be penalties.
“We will be able to seize the equipment including medical supplies, including personal protective equipment, and that will be seized and redeployed to its best use here in Australia.”
Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said he is “very worried” about the significant rise in corona virus cases in Australia over the last few days.
“It is a very, very steep growth and it is very concerning,” he said.
“Still, a significant proportion of those new cases are returned travellers or contacts of returned travellers.
“I want to emphasise again that we are really serious now about a return traveller.
You leave the airport, you go home and stay there for 14 days and the states and territories will be checking on you.
“We will not tolerate anybody putting the community at risk as a returned traveller.
People coming back from some countries – you know which ones they are – have a high risk now of carrying the corona virus and they are the people who have largely led to the spread of the virus in our community over the recent weeks.”
Dr. Murphy added that people who have been in contact with a person diagnosed with the virus and told to isolate for 14 days must do so.
“You must not go to the chemist when you are told you have got the disease,” he said.
“Some people are being told they are a positive case and going into the chemist or the supermarket on the way home.”
Dr Murphy said that people need to adhere to social distancing recommendations, saying that everyone will need to change the way they interact with others for “quite a long time”.
“This virus will be with us for some time.
We have to all think about avoiding any unnecessary interactions where you are close to someone and could place them at risk,” he said.
“These measures are really draconian.
We know that.
But if we’re going to control community transmission, we have to stop the capacity of this virus from spreading from person to person.
“And I have said many times, it is a long haul and that is why we are keen to keep society functioning but keep society safe.”
Here is a wrap up on everything that will be banned under stage two restrictions:
Beauty therapy, tanning, waxing, nail salon and tattoo parlors will all be forced to close.
Food courts in shopping centres will be restricted to take away like cafes.
Community and recreation centres, health clubs, fitness centres, yoga, barre, spin facilities, saunas, wellness centres will close
Boot camps and personal training sessions are limited to a maximum of 10 people with strict social distancing rules enforced.
Galleries, museums, national institutions, historic sites, libraries, community centres, nonessential facilities, community facilities such as halls will be closed
Weddings will be restricted to five people including the couple, celebrant and witnesses.
Funerals will be restricted to 10 people.
People have been told only to go outside if absolutely necessary, such as shopping for essentials and exercise.
Social events such as family gatherings and birthday parties should be avoided.
Australians will soon be banned from all international travel.
These new restrictions came into effect at midnight Tuesday.
A national state of emergency has been declared in New Zealand after 50 more corona virus cases were confirmed today.
This takes the country’s total number to 205.
On Wednesday afternoon a state of emergency was declared, handing emergency powers to authorities to enforce the nationwide lockdown from midnight.
Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told reporters that six people are in hospital in a stable condition, one in Rotorua, two in Waikato and three in Wellington.
Three patients were discharged from hospitals on Tuesday.
There were 1,400 tests processed on Tuesday, bringing the total number of tests thus far to 9,780.
He said the cases are being actively being followed up.
The majority still had a direct link to overseas travel, or were linked to close contacts of confirmed cases.
Meanwhile, the man accused of deadly attacks on mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch a year ago has pleaded guilty to 51 charges of murder.
Brenton Tarrant, 29, also admitted the attempted murder of another 40 people, and one terrorism charge.
He had previously denied the charges and was due to go on trial in June.
The gun attacks at two mosques sent shockwaves around the world.
In the wake of the killings, New Zealand brought in stricter gun laws.
New Zealand is in a state of lockdown due to the corona virus outbreak and the plea was made at a scaled-down court hearing in Christchurch High Court on Thursday.
No members of the public were allowed in to the hearing and Tarrant, from New South Wales, Australia, and his lawyers appeared via video link.
A representative of the two mosques that were attacked was allowed to attend the hearing to represent the victims and their families.
Judge Justice Cameron Mander said:
“It is regrettable that the Covid-19 restrictions that presently apply do not permit victims and their families to travel to be present in the courtroom when the defendant entered his pleas of guilty.”
Sentencing on the 92 charges will take place at a date yet to be set.
Tarrant was remanded in custody until 1 May when the court hopes to be able to set a sentencing date.
Justice Mander added:
“There is no intention to sentence the defendant before the court returns to its normal operations and at a time when the victims and their families can attend court in person.”
Farid Ahmed, who lost his wife Husna in the attack on Al Noor Mosque (Masjid An-Nur), told TVNZ that many would be relieved they did not have to go through the trial, but others would feel very sad, still thinking about their loved ones.
Speaking of the gunman, he said:
“I have been praying for him and he has taken the right direction.
I am pleased he is feeling guilty, it is a good start.”
Minutes after Brenton Tarrant changed his plea, families of mosque attack victims began finding out on the rumour mill.
And to everyone it seems to have been a huge shock and surprise.
The trial looming in early June was something many were dreading:
Witnesses being forced to revisit what happened…..
Graphic CCTV and the head-mounted camera of the attacker being played frame by frame.
But a few said they were – in a way – looking forward to it, to seeing justice being done.
It gave them a focus.
One father learned that his son’s actions in Al Noor Mosque had been heroic.
He had wanted to see and hear that in court for himself – and for the world to see and hear it.
People like him will no longer have the opportunity to get that level of detail to what happened to their loved ones.
And, because of the Covid-19 lockdown, they did not even get the chance to hear the guilty pleas in person.
But not having a trial takes away one real fear:
That Tarrant would use the occasion as a platform to push his right-wing agenda of hate, something the justice system, the media and most importantly the Muslim community were desperate to avoid.
The shootings on 15 March 2019 began when the gunman drove to the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, entered the building and began shooting.
Less than 30 seconds later, he returned to his car, picked up another weapon, then re-entered the mosque and resumed his attack.
Footage from a headcam he was wearing showed him pass from room to room, killing as he went.
The shootings were broadcast on Facebook Live.
He then drove to the Linwood mosque where he shot two people outside and then shot at the windows.
A man from inside the mosque came outside, picked up one of the attacker’s shotguns, and chased him away.
Two police officers then chased and arrested the suspect.
Speaking on the first anniversary of the massacre, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand had “fundamentally changed” because of the attacks.
She acknowledged that “much more” needed to be done to stop radicalisation in the country.
“The challenge for us will be ensuring in our everyday actions, and every opportunity where we see bullying, harassment, racism, discrimination, calling it out as a nation,” she said.
“That is when we’ll show we each individually have a role to play in making sure that New Zealand has changed fundamentally for the better.”
Immediately after the attacks, Ms Ardern said the government would bring in laws to make it harder for New Zealanders to access firearms.
In April, less than a month after the shootings, Parliament voted by 119 to 1 to change the gun laws.
Military-style semi-automatic weapons were banned, as were parts that could be used to build prohibited firearms.
In June, a buy-back scheme began, where the government would compensate owners of newly-illegal weapons.
Above: New Zealand Parliament Building, Wellington
On Wednesday, the Solomon Islands declared a State of Public Emergency as the country ramps up its response to the global Covid-19 pandemic.
The country has no confirmed cases and currently has three suspected samples pending tests results.
The declaration was announced by the Governor-General David Vunagi.
“In accordance with section 16.2 of the Consittion I hearby proclaim and declare that a State of Public Emergency now exists on the Solomon Islands.”
Immediately after the declaration on state radio the Attorney General, John Muria Junior, told the country the state of emergency was not the same as a lockdown despite what was being shared on social media.
“I also urge and reiterate that government’s call for us to remain calm and not to panic,” Muria said.
“Further I would also like to reiterate that there is no confirmed case in Solomon Islands and this declration is in no way associated with any confirmed case Covid-19.”
Mr Muria said according to the Constitution, the State of Public Emergency, would last for two weeks, within which time parliament must be reconvened to extend it.
More details of what restrictions would be put in place as a result of the declaration were still to be announced by the Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.
Samoa started fining people and organisations that do not adhere to the new Covid-19 lockdown requirements from Wednesday midnight.
Lockdown requirements include restricting public gatherings to no more than five people.
Prime Minister Tuila’epa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi said individuals would be fined $45 for their first offence and $245 for a repeat.
Fines for organisations – including churches – are $2,080, increasing to $2,916.
Tuila’epa said people breaching the lockdown requirement would have the offence lodged as a criminal record which would affect overseas travel.
Meanwhile under the new lockdown requirements, inter-island passenger travel will be halted from midnight with ferries then only carrying goods and essential services staff.
Special flights will have been made today between Samoa and Fiji and American Samoa, to return those people to their homes and transport back Samoan students before the midnight lockdown.
Vessels bringing fuel and freight into Samoa were still allowed but new security measures apply.
Initially Samoa shut the border with American Samoa last Thursday when a state of emergency was announced but that left dozens of American Samoans stranded.
The US territory’s governor, Lolo Matalasi Moliga, asked for special flights to be arranged to bring people back to Pago Pago.
Samoa Airways said it flew six flights with 14-16 passengers yesterday and operated more today.
All who return to Pago Pago are being transported to a quarantine facility for 14 days.
Meanwhile American Samoa’s Department of Health has sent a sample of a suspected COVID-19 case off island for testing.
The case is a woman who is being quarantined at home after travelling to New Zealand.
The local resident had already spent 14 days in quarantine in Samoa before arriving in the territory on 14 March.
Department of Health Epidemiologist Dr John Tufa said two days before she arrived in American Samoa she developed a slight cough.
She had been given a three day health clearance by the Samoa’s Ministry of Health.
A few days later she started having breathing problems and called the Department of Health.
She is currently being isolated at home with DOH teams visiting her every day.
Her results are expected within a week.
Two other tests are pending, one a traveller from Seattle, and the other a local who was exposed to a traveller from the same area at a funeral.
Since Thursday, Samoa is now officially on lock down.
The government said people or organisations who don’t adhere to new Covid-19 lockdown requirements will face finds.
Prime Minister Tuila’epa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi said the last flights from Fiji, New Zealand and American Samoa had arrived and all passengers are now under 14 days quarantine.
The flights from New Zealand and Fiji were mostly scholarship students ordered home by government after the closure of their educational institutions.
Tuila’epa also announced that all fishing boats had now been banned from coming to Samoa effectively closing ports to all vessels except cargo ships bringing goods and petrol.
“This means we now wait for two weeks and see what happens and based on that, further decisions will be made on the next stage for us,” Tuilaepa said.
Vice President Mike Pence announced on Tuesday that thousands of ventilators will be sent from the national stockpile to New York as the state grapples with the corona virus pandemic.
“I was so pleased to confirm that earlier today, FEMA, from the national stockpile, shipped 2,000 ventilators to the state of New York,” Pence said Tuesday at the White House.
“And tomorrow, there will be another 2,000 ventilators shipped from the national stockpile.”
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo pleaded with the federal government for ventilators just prior to the vice president’s comments, saying the Federal Emergency Management Agency planned to send just 400 ventilators, a number he called far too small.
“Four hundred ventilators? I need 30,000 ventilators,” he said.
“You want a pat on the back for sending 400 ventilators?
What are we going to do with 400 ventilators when we need 30,000 ventilators?”
As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 46,000 people in the United States have tested positive for the virus and 593 have died, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
New York makes up a large share of those infected, with more than 20,000 cases.
As of Wednesday, there are at least 52,976 cases of the novel corona virus in the United States and 704 people have died, according to CNN Health’s tally of US cases that are detected and tested in the US through public health systems.
There have already been 163 deaths reported today, according to a tally by CNN, making this the deadliest day in the US since the corona virus pandemic began.
The total includes cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as all repatriated cases.
New York Cityon Wednesday night reported 81 additional corona virus fatalities, raising the death toll to 280, city officials said.
The number of cases in the Big Apple also soared over the course of eight hours on Wednesday, from 17,856 to 20,011, City Hall said.
The increase in cases came as Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday night warned that half of the city’s population — more than 4 million people — will get the corona virus.
“It’s a fair bet to say that half of all New Yorkers and maybe more than half will end up contracting this disease,” de Blasio said at a City Hall press briefing.
The city’s Health Commissioner, Dr. Oxiris Barbot, said the city may even exceed that projection by the fall.
Meanwhile, the FBI announced on Wednesday night that a domestic terrorism suspect who was allegedly planning to use a car bomb at a local medical facility was killed during an attempt to apprehend him just outside of Kansas City, Missouri.
Timothy Wilson, 36, was “actively planning to commit an act of domestic terrorism — a bombing — and over the course of several months had considered several targets,” according to the FBI.
He had recently decided to target a hospital as news surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic picked up, sources familiar worth the investigation told ABC News.
Wilson was killed Tuesday when he allegedly showed up armed to pick up an inert explosive device supplied by authorities.
He was injured and taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
It is unclear whether the suspect killed himself or was shot by authorities.
According to the FBI, Wilson sped up the plan to use his car as a bombing device “in an attempt to cause severe harm and mass casualties” during the corona virus pandemic.
“Wilson considered various targets and ultimately settled on an area hospital in an attempt to harm many people, targeting a facility that is providing critical medical care in today’s environment,” according to a statement from the FBI Kansas City Field Office.
“Wilson had taken the necessary steps to acquire materials needed to build an explosive device.
At all times during the investigation, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force kept close track of Wilson in order to protect public safety.”
One of the suspect’s early targets was a school with African American youth, according to sources.
Wilson was under investigation by the FBI for nearly 18 months.
The Senate passed a historic $2 trillion corona virus relief package Wednesday night, as it tries to stem the destruction the pandemic has brought to American lives and wallets.
The chamber approved the mammoth bill — the largest economic rescue package in US history — in a unanimous 96-0 vote after days of furious negotiations, partisan sniping and raised tempers on the Senate floor.
The bill now heads to the House, which will push to pass it by voice vote Friday morning because most representatives are out of Washington.
“This is a proud moment for the United States Senate and for the country and we’re going to win this battle in the very near future,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, told reporters after the vote.
The 880-page legislation includes one-time direct payments to individuals, stronger unemployment insurance, loans and grants to businesses and more health-care resources for hospitals, states and municipalities.
It includes requirements that insurance providers cover preventive services for COVID-19.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expects her chamber will approve the measure in a “strong, bipartisan vote” on Friday, she told reporters Thursday.
The Senate rushed to pass the sweeping aid bill as data are expected to show a historic spike in unemployment claims after businesses across the country shuttered in an attempt to slow the outbreak’s spread.
Some hospitals have started to buckle under a flood of patients, asking for critical supplies such as masks and ventilators.
As of Thursday morning, US corona virus cases numbered more than 69,000, while deaths have now topped 1,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The chamber approved the plan to combat the outbreak as the crisis started to thin its ranks.
Senator Rand Paul did not vote after testing positive for COVID-19, and neither did GOP Senators Mitt Romney and Mike Lee of Utah, both in isolation after contact with their colleague.
Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the second-ranking Republican, also missed the vote after feeling ill.
While the Senate took precautions Wednesday such as keeping votes open longer to reduce crowding, senators still huddled in groups and chatted.
Speaking before the chamber passed the bill, McConnell said the Senate would not return until 20 April.
However, he said lawmakers would be “nimble” as the evolving crisis could force further action to boost the American economy or health-care system.
“If circumstances require the Senate to return for a vote sooner than 20 April we will provide at least 24 hours of notice,” he said.
Before passing the bill, the Senate rejected an amendment proposed by Senator Ben Sasse to cap unemployment insurance at a recipient’s previous wages.
The bill adds $600 per week to the benefits a recipient would normally get for up to four months.
Sasse’s amendment failed in a 48-48 vote.
The senator and three of his GOP colleagues threatened to delay passage of the legislation if they could not get a vote on an amendment.
Senator Bernie Sanders then suggested he could hold up the bill’s approval if they did not back down from their opposition.
While the snag caused fears the bill would not pass, hitting US stock indexes just before markets closed Wednesday, it ultimately did not stop the Senate from approving the proposal.
The last delay to the bill Wednesday night came as lawmakers added language requiring the Treasury Department to post on its website information about which companies get loans, according to NBC News.
In a letter to colleagues Wednesday night, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the chamber will convene at 9 a.m. EST Friday to consider the legislation.
The Maryland Democrat said that “in order to protect the safety” of representatives and staff and “prevent the further spread of COVID-19,” he and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy expect the House will take a voice vote.
“Members who want to come to the House Floor to debate this bill will be able to do so.
In addition, we are working to ensure that those who are unable to return to Washington may express their views on this legislation remotely,” he wrote.
House approval would send the package to President Donald Trump, who has expressed support for the agreement negotiated by his Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Senate Republicans and Democrats.
During a White House corona virus briefing Wednesday, Trump said he would sign the legislation “immediately” after Congress passes it.
Lawmakers already approved two pieces of legislation to respond to the crisis:
$8.3 billion in emergency medical funding
$100 billion to expand paid leave and unemployment insurance
Both of which were dwarfed by the scope of this third package.
As the pandemic rips through the country, senators signaled they may need to provide more relief.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, whose home state of New York has been ravaged by the outbreak more than any other part of the country, told reporters the “odds are high” Congress will need to pass more measures.
The bill, designed to offer relief to individuals, the health-care system and even an entire corporate sector ravaged by the outbreak, will:
Give one-time direct payments of up to $1,200 for individuals and $2,400 for couples, with $500 added for every child, based on 2019 tax returns for those who filed them and 2018 information if they have not.
The benefit would start to phase out above $75,000 in income for individuals and $150,000 for couples, going away completely at the $99,000 and $198,000 thresholds, respectively.
Boost unemployment insurance, adding $600 per week for up to four months on top of what beneficiaries normally receive from states.
It expands eligibility to self-employed people and independent contractors.
Create a $500 billion pool of taxpayer money to make loans, loan guarantees or investments to or in businesses, states and municipalities damaged by the crisis.
Give $25 billion in grants to airlines and $4 billion to cargo carriers to be used exclusively to pay employee wages, salaries and benefits, and set aside another $25 billion and $4 billion, respectively, for loans and loan guarantees.
Provide $17 billion in loans and loan guarantees for unspecified “businesses critical to maintaining national security.”
Put $117 billion into hospitals and veterans’ health care.
Provide $16 billion for the strategic national stockpile of pharmaceutical and medical supplies.
Give $350 billion in loans for small businesses to cover salary, wages and benefits, worth 250% of an employer’s monthly payroll, with a maximum loan of $10 million.
Include a tax credit for retaining employees, worth up to 50% of wages paid during the crisis, for businesses forced to suspend operations or that have seen gross receipts fall by 50% from the previous year.
Require group health plans and insurance providers to cover preventive services related to the corona virus without cost sharing.
Delay payroll tax for employers, requiring half of the deferred tax to be paid by the end of 2021 and the other half by the end of 2022.
Ban companies that take government loans from buying back stock until a year after the loan is paid back.
Bar employees or executives who made at least $425,000 last year from getting a raise.
Stop President Donald Trump and his family members’ businesses from receiving emergency taxpayer relief.
The provision also applies to Vice President Mike Pence, heads of executive departments, members of Congress and their family members.
Suspend federal student loan payments through 30 September with no accrual of interest on those loans.
On Thursday, the death toll from COVID-19 in the US reached 1,200.
The total number of cases in the country is 83,097.
The US has surpassed China in number of active cases, making it currently the most infected country in the world.
Meanwhile the US Justice Department announced federal charges against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his top deputies for crimes related to narco-terrorism, money laundering and drug trafficking, marking the most aggressive action taken by the United States against the socialist country.
Attorney General William Barr announced the unsealing of superseding indictments in federal court in New York and South Florida against Maduro and other Venezuelan officials, alleging they orchestrated a “narco-terrorism conspiracy” spanning more than two decades.
“As alleged, the Maduro regime is awash in corruption and criminality. Maduro and his other defendants have betrayed the Venezuelan people and corrupted Venezuela’s institutions,” Barr said during a “virtual” news conference in Washington, DC, to reduce the risk of exposure to the corona virus.
“While the Venezuelan people suffer, this cabal lines their pockets with drug money and the proceeds of their corruption, and this has to come to an end.”
In addition to Maduro, the head of Venezuela’s Constituent Assembly, its former director of military intelligence and a former high-ranking general were charged in New York for their involvement in narco-terrorism.
The chief justice of Venezuela’s Supreme Court was charged for involvement in money laundering in South Florida, Barr said, and the country’s minister of defense was indicted on drug trafficking charges in the District of Columbia.
Fifteen people in total were charged.
The State Department is offering rewards of up to $15 million for information leading to the arrests of Maduro and the others charged.
Federal prosecutors allege Maduro and other Venezuelan leaders worked with FARC, a Colombian guerilla group, as part of efforts to “flood the United States with cocaine.”
According to the Justice Department, Maduro and the others charged served as leaders of the Cartel de Los Soles, which worked with FARC to dispatch shipments of cocaine that traveled from Venezuela to the US through Central America and the Caribbean.
The shipments were made by sea through “go-fast” vessels, fishing boats and container ships, as well as by air, by using clandestine airstrips.
The State Department estimates 75 unauthorized flights suspected of drug-trafficking activities used an “air bridge” cocaine route between Venezuela and Honduras and entered Honduran airspace.
The State Department also estimates that by 2004, roughly 250 or more tons of cocaine were traveling through Venezuela.
The Justice Department alleges FARC and members of the Cartel de Los Soles paid bribes in exchange for access to commercial ports and data from air and maritime radar in Venezuela in order to ensure safe passage of the cocaine shipments, which benefited Maduro and the other defendants.
Federal prosecutors also said the Venezuelan president directed the cartel to provide military-grade weapons to the FARC.
“Maduro very deliberately deployed cocaine as a weapon,” said Geoffrey Berman, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
The Justice Department alleges Maikel Moreno, the chief justice of the Venezuelan Supreme Court, demanded bribes from those who appeared before him.
In one instance, he allegedly authorized the seizure of a General Motors plant in exchange for a kickback, leaving thousands without jobs.
The charges against Moreno“demonstrate that the last line of defense in Venezuela has crumbled, creating a system without rule of law and without justice,” said Ariana Fajardo Orshan, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida,
“In short, Venezuela has descended in a state of corruption, resulting in a massive treasure grab for the rich and powerful,”she said.
The decision to pursue criminal charges against top officials further escalates tensions between the US and Venezuela.
The Trump administration has engaged in a maximum pressure campaign against Venezuela, seeking to topple President NicolásMaduro amid the country’s ongoing political and economic crisis.
Last year, the Trump administration froze all Venezuelan government assets and blocked American companies and individuals from doing business with Maduro’s regime.
The US and other countries have recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s rightful leader, and Guaidó met with President Trump at the White House in February.
He also attended this year’s State of the Union address as a guest of Mr. Trump’s, during which the president introduced Guaidó as Venezuela’s “true and legitimate” and said Maduro was a “tyrant.”
Barr said the Justice Department has not been in contact with Guaidó about the charges against Maduro and other Venezuelan leaders.
Still, Maduro has retained control of Venezuela in the wake of last year’s uprising led by Guaidó and clashes between civilians and Maduro’s security forces.
Maduro took over as president of Venezuela in 2013 after the death of Hugo Chavez (1954 – 2013).
The last Latin American leader charged by the U.S. was Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega (1934 – 2017), who faced charges of narcotics trafficking and money laundering in 1990.
Noriega surrendered after the United States invaded the country and was flown back to Miami, where he was ultimately sentenced to 40 years in prison.
I consider all that I have recorded and I find myself asking:
What does all of this mean?
Certainly, Afghanistan remains what it is and has always been…..
An eternally tragic battlefield where religion is used as an excuse to hate and commit violence all in the name of God who commands us to love and be decent to one another.
I see no divinity in bombing people in a temple or attending a funeral.
I see no courage or honour in men who would commit such acts.
All I see is men using religion as a means to seize wealth and power.
They shame the faith they claim to defend.
They dishonour the species that spawned them.
Somehow Afghanis need to find within themselves the wisdom of tolerance towards one another.
They need to realize that it is the differences within a society – as long as that society is moral and just – that make it strong.
Australia feels like it is being led by a government that reacts more than reasons out their courses of action.
The Morrison administration reminds me of a man struggling through a stranger’s darkened apartment desperately trying to reach a toilet before it is too late.
In an unfamiliar setting and yet convinced that practised ways will lead to desired outcomes.
Invariably things will get messy and embarrassing.
Memories of a pandemic of present proportions were buried with our grandfathers.
And like our grandfathers we are neither prepared nor capable of resolving this crisis easily.
Bahrain is a nation that might as well be a crater on the dark side of the moon for all the attention it gets (or rather doesn’t get) from the rest of the world.
Nevertheless Bahrain has a few lessons to be learned from its example.
Inspired by the regional Arab Spring, Bahrain’s Shia majority started large protests against its Sunni rulers in early 2011.
Sadly this clash between Islam’s Shia and Sunni has not led to the same crossroads of conscience that resulted in the conflict that was the Reformation and the Counter Reformation between Protestants and Catholics.
For all the bloodshed and sorrow that Christianity visited upon itself the one positive that quietly emerged was that people as individuals should be free to decide for themselves how they shall worship (or not worship) God, what they shall believe or whether they believe at all.
Somehow from the ruins of cathedrals there emerged the idea that the state should not dictate how a man should think or what he should believe.
The government should represent the best of what the nation is and thus be the people’s moral example, but with the realization that love and faith cannot be forced.
Somehow the government should remember that the laws they create are meant to bring order and justice to the people, but only by the consent of the people and not to force their compliance.
The government initially allowed protests following a pre-dawn raid on protesters camped in Pearl Roundabout.
No one likes criticism, but there can be no compass to a nation’s direction without dissent, without an examination of the actions that governments do.
If a government is acting justly and morally, it need not fear dissent, if that dissent is manifested in a just and moral manner.
If a government is unjust and immoral, dissent is meant to steer it back to serving the people it exists to serve,
The strength of a government should not be judged by approval ratings, but rather how it deals with adversity, including from those who disagree with how it governs.
A month later Bahrain requested security assistance from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries and declared a three-month state of emergency.
The government then launched a crackdown on the opposition that included conducting thousands of arrests and systematic torture.
Almost daily clashes between protesters and security forces led to dozens of deaths.
Protests, sometimes staged by opposition parties, were ongoing.
More than 80 civilians and 13 policemen have been killed as of March 2014.
Law at the end of a barrel of a gun is not justice but merely force.
Torture is not the act of a moral administration but rather the behaviour of bullies afraid of being seen as the cowards they truly are.
According to Physicians for Human Rights, 34 of these deaths were related to government usage of tear gas originally manufactured by US-based Federal Laboratories.
I find it ironic how nations which claim to have a high moral code can so easily ignore that code in the name of a quick profit.
I long for the day when a nation’s leadership has the courage and moral fiber to tell the world:
No, we will not sell you weapons to perpetuate violence.
The lack of coverage by Arab media in the Persian Gulf, as compared to other Arab Spring uprisings, has sparked several controversies.
Iran is alleged by the United States and others to have a hand in the arming of Bahraini militants.
As to American allegations, I simply suggest the old adage of “He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.”
As to media coverage I cannot say why this tiny nation does not receive more attention than it does, but what attention it does receive is not positive.
Bahrain’s record on human rights has been described by Human Rights Watch as “dismal”.
The government of Bahrain has marginalized the native Shia Muslim population.
Torture and forced disappearances are common in Bahrain.
The crackdown on protesters during the 2011 Arab Spring has brought further human rights complaints, including the destruction of dozens of long-standing Shia mosques.
There is a growing problem of stateless people, known as Bedoon, who are descendants of Iranians (especially ethnic Persians) who have lived in Bahrain for many decades.
Most of Bahrain’s stateless are Muslims, some are Christians.
In Bahrain, stateless people are denied the right to hold legal residency, are not allowed the right to travel abroad, buy houses, and to hold government jobs.
They are also not allowed to own land, start a business and borrow loans.
Recently, the Bahraini government issued regulations preventing them from sending their children to public schools and to receive free medical care.
The stateless can also get deported at any time.
Since the beginning of the 1980s, the Bahraini government has deported hundreds of Bedoon to Iran.
Despite repeated government claims of improvement over the course of several years, Human Rights Watch claims that “torture is a regular part of the legal process in Bahrain.”
According to a 2011 report by Human Rights Watch, between 2007 and 2009, the government regularly practiced torture and ill-treatment in interrogating security suspects.
Although government spokesmen have issued denials, there is no evidence of criminal investigations and the government has not imposed disciplinary measures on the alleged perpetrators.
According to The Christian Science Monitor, Bahrain is practicing “a form of sectarian apartheid by not allowing Shiites to hold key government posts or serve in the police or military.
In fact, the security forces are staffed by Sunnis from Syria and Pakistan who also get fast-tracked to Bahraini citizenship, much to the displeasure of the indigenous Shiite population.”
According to the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, while the Shiites exceeds 70% of the population, “they occupy less than 18% of total top jobs in government establishments.
In several government ministries and corporations no Shiite is appointed in leading jobs.”
Jobs in the police and armed forced are reserved for Sunni.
Sunni Saudis are admitted to Bahrain as citizens to fill these jobs.
Shiites and “some Sunnis of Persian origins”, are banned from residing in the city of Riffa, where only Sunni Muslims are permitted to live.
There are also concerns of the Bahraini government’s systematic efforts to diminish the Shia majority by promotion of immigration of Sunni Muslims and granting them citizenship.
According to Dr. Saeeid Shahabi, a London-based journalist,“there is the problem of political naturalization.
The ruling family – similar to the apartheid regime in South Africa, where you had a minority ruling a majority – wants to change the demographic situation of the country.”
On 28 April 2007, the lower house of the Bahrain Parliament passed a law banning unmarried migrant workers from living in residential areas.
To justify the law MP Nasser Fadhala, a close ally of the government said “bachelors also use these houses to make alcohol, runprostitute rings or to rape children and housemaids”.
Sadiq Rahma, technical committee head, who is a member of Al Wefaq said:
“The rules we are drawing up are designed to protect the rights of both the families and the Asian bachelors.
These labourers often have habits which are difficult for families living nearby to tolerate.
They come out of their homes half dressed, brew alcohol illegally in their homes, use prostitutes and make the neighbourhood dirty.
These are poor people who often live in groups of 50 or more, crammed into one house or apartment,” said Mr Rahma.
“The rules also state that there must be at least one bathroom for every five people.
There have also been cases in which young children have been sexually molested.”
The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) issued a press release condemning this decision as discriminatory and promoting negative racist attitudes towards migrant workers.
Nabeel Rajab, then BCHR vice president, said:
It is appalling that Bahrain is willing to rest on the benefits of these people’s hard work, and often their suffering, but that they refuse to live with them in equality and dignity.
The solution is not to force migrant workers into ghettos, but to urge companies to improve living conditions for workers – and not to accommodate large numbers of workers in inadequate space, and to improve the standard of living for them.
There was a flurry of race hate messages sent to naturalized Bahrainis from developing countries after opposition political leaders alleged that immigration was tantamount to ‘cultural genocide’.
In November 2006, Al Ayam published a collection of threats sent to naturalized citizens warning that they would have to ‘choose between the suitcase and the coffin’, promising ‘death and fire are your destiny’.
Another warned that the author hated all naturalized Bahrainis:
“You are detested.
You have taken from us, the sons of Bahrain, our homes, jobs and education opportunities.
You will face the same destiny as the Egyptians in Iraq [after the end of the Iraq-Iran war].
It will be nails, hammers and a coffin.
Your destiny is near.”
According to Human Rights Watch, Bahrain’s personal status law (Law 19/2009), adopted in 2009 regarding marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance cases, applies only to Sunnis although women’s groups believe that it should treat all citizens equally.
On 27 September 2017, Bahraini authorities attacked and took down many Ashura banners and slogans.
Ashura, the tenth day of the Islamic year, is an event commemorated by Shias annually, as it marks the date that Imam Husain, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad, was martyred in the Battle of Kerbala.
This is not the first time that Bahraini authorities have attacked the commemoration of Ashura.
Rather, they do so on a yearly basis.
In 1996 the UK newspaper The Guardian stated that:
“If Bahrain is to preserve its reputation as a financial and service center in the Gulf, then the government must begin to forge a new national consensus and end the apartheid against the Shi’ites”.
In February 2011, the tensions between the Sunni ruling minority and the Shi’a majority spilled over into street protests which was violently suppressed by police forces, resulting in multiple civilian deaths.
McClatchy Newspapers/csmonitor.com reported that as of mid-May 2011:
Authorities have held secret trials where protesters have been sentenced to death, arrested prominent mainstream opposition politicians, jailed nurses and doctors who treated injured protesters, seized the health care system that had been run primarily by Shiites, fired 1,000 Shiite professionals and canceled their pensions, detained students and teachers who took part in the protests, beat and arrested journalists, and forced the closure of the only opposition newspaper.
Physicians for Human Rights reported that during the 2011 uprising the Bahraini government initiated systematic and targeted attacks against medical personnel who had witnessed government atrocities while treating civilian protesters.
In a report titled Do No Harm: A Call for Bahrain to End Systematic Attacks on Doctors and Patients, released in April 2011, Physicians for Human Rights documented:
violations of medical neutrality including the beating, abuse, and threatening of Shi’a physicians at Salmaniya Hospital
government security forces stealing ambulances and posing as medics
the militarization of hospitals and clinics, thus obstructing medical care
rampant fear that prevented patients from seeking urgent medical treatment.
Other key findings in the report included the use of excessive force against unarmed civilians and violent assaults on civilian detainees by government authorities and security forces.
The corona virus is coming to Bahrain.
This gives me no pleasure to write these words, for I wish no evil on anyone.
Anyone’s death anywhere, before one’s natural demise from advanced aging, saddens me.
But I fear Bahrain will suffer greatly from this pandemic.
And much of this suffering will be the result of those who are supposed to serve the people.
I fear the same for the Philippines.
By contrast, I find myself admiring and respecting the actions and behaviour of the Arden Administration and the people of New Zealand.
It is nice to see a nation of compassion and intelligence.
Bahrain could learn much from New Zealand.
And then there is Donald Trump.
What can I say that I and others haven’t said before?
A classic example of the folly that afflicts America is Trump shown signing the Corona Virus Relief Act…..
In a crowded room.
So much for America’s representatives practising the doctrine of social distancing.
Dark days are in store for America.
The pandemic will worsen.
Frankly, I don’t envy America’s chances with a leadership without a leader.
For far too long character hasn’t mattered in American politics.
But now it is needed more than ever.
Imagine a Parliament like Kosovo with the power to simply deliver a leader like Donald a vote of no confidence and someone more suitable brought in to replace him.
But Kosovo is not America.
In America there are too many Timothy Wilson types and not enough sane sages like Bernie Sanders.
Dark days.
Countries are coping with the pandemic.
And countries are scared.
In this report I have written of how Australia, Egypt, France, India, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, Samoa, the Solomon Islands and the United Arab Emirates are now operating in full emergency mode and sober seriousness.
They are scared, but they valiantly fight an insane battle against an invisible, invincible enemy.
And there is hope on the horizon.
Morning has broken.
China is reopening.
South Korea is recovering.
And they who have suffered much now offer help to others in the midst of their own corona conflicts.
Nonetheless, my hope is tempered with sadness, when I consider Libya and Mali with their factions so hellbent on civil war and uncivilized violence that they make themselves vulnerable victims to a pandemic that takes no sides and takes no prisoners.
Dark days in darkest Africa.
I have meagre amounts of optimism for nations where foreign ministers murder, governments sell their souls for cash and human bodies are piled like animal carcasses in lorries.
This is mankind.
At our best and at our worst.
And my guitar gently weeps…..
I look at you all, see the love there that’s sleeping While my guitar gently weeps I look at the floor and I see it needs sweeping Still my guitar gently weeps
I don’t know why nobody told you How to unfold your love I don’t know how someone controlled you They bought and sold you
I look at the world and I notice it’s turning While my guitar gently weeps With every mistake we must surely be learning Still my guitar gently weeps
Well…
I don’t know how you were diverted You were perverted too I don’t know how you were inverted No one alerted you
I look at you all, see the love there that’s sleeping I look from the wings at the play you are staging. While my guitar gently weeps Look at you all As I’m sitting here doing nothing but aging Still my guitar gently weeps
Sources: Wikipedia / George Harrison, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” / Swiss News