Of all the spirits you met in this assembly and whose hands you kissed, you are vouchsafed to visit their tombs.
You will be a world traveller and unique among men.
The well-protected kingdoms through which you pass, the fortresses and towns, the strange and wonderful moments, each land’s praiseworthy qualities and products, its food and drink, its latitude and longitude:
Record all of these and compose a wonderful work.
Make use of my weapon and become my son in this world and the next.
Do not abandon the path of truth.
Be free of envy and hatred.
Pay the due of bread and salt.
Be a faithful friend but no friend to the wicked.
Learn goodness from the good.“
Evliya Çelebi, The Book of Travels
Sometimes a man just needs to be surrounded by beauty.
This is why it is nice to work in a school where half the staff and half of our students are female.
This is why it is nice to occasionally see the wife from time to time.
This is why, despite some standards of behaviour exhibited by the locals I could live without, I look forward to visiting Switzerland again at the beginning of next month.
Above: Flag of Switzerland
Certainly the wife and I will do a spot of travelling – to Freiburg im Breisgau and Konstanz (Germany) and to Zürich (the New York of Switzerland) – but I am also looking forward to simply strolling upon country roads between the neighbouring village of Münsterlingen to the west of the hamlet (where our residence remains) and Altnau to the east.
Above: Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Above: Rheintorturm (Rhine Gate Tower), Konstanz, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Above: Zürich, Canton Zürich, Switzerland
Above: Münsterlingen, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland
Above: Oberdorf (Upper Town), Altnau, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland
I began, not so long ago, a travelogue of a journey from Landschlacht to Mürren, commencing with Landschlacht itself, for I seek to show my gentle readers that there is magic and depth in even the most mundane (at first glance) of ordinary communities – whether they be in Canada, Switzerland or Vietnam.
Above: Landschlacht (Münsterlingen), Canton Thurgau, Switzerland
Above: Mürren, Canton Bern, Switzerland
The first destination the traveller meets in leaving Landschlacht bound for Mürren via the scenic route is Altnau – “the next townover” as one might say in Canada.
Above: Beyond the bend of the highway, beneath the glory of the heavens, Altnau
Altnau is a town (and a municipality in the district of Kreuzlingen in the Canton of Thurgau in Switzerland.
Above: Coat of arms of Altnau
Above: Flag of Canton Thurgau
The Kirchdorf (church settlement) consists of the upper and lower villages and other settlements.
Above: Swiss Reformed Church, Altnau
It is located on the old Romanshorn – Kreuzlingen Road near the southern shore of the Bodensee (Lake Constance) on the moraine of the former Rhine Glacier.
Above: Harbour, Romanshorn, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland
Above: Kreuzlingen, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland
Above: Satellite image of the Bodensee (Lake Constance)
Above: Map of the Rhine Glacier
The actual centre of Altnau is around two kilometers from the shore of the Bodensee, at 471 metres above sea level.
It borders on the municipalities of Güttingen, Langrickenbach and Münsterlingen.
Above: Location of Altnau Municipality (in pink)
Altnau has a train station on the Kreuzlingen – Romanshorn railway (or to be precise, the Schaffhausen – Wil rail line).
Above: Altnau Station
Above: Schaffhausen, Canton Schaffhausen, Switzerland
Above: Wil, Canton St. Gallen, Switzerland
In 787 the village was first mentioned as Althinouva (Aldo’s land by the water).
In the 8th century, the Monastery of St. Gallen was made wealthy here.
Above: Abbey Cathedral of St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Canton St. Gallen, Switzerland
In 1155, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa confirmed that the Cathedral in Konstanz owned the property rights to the Altnau court and church.
Above: (seated) Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (1122 – 1190)
Above: Konstanz Cathedral
The noble rights over the University of Konstanz lands here, which belonged to the Freiherren (free lords) von Altenklingen around 1300, passed to various Konstanz families in the Late Middle Ages (1378: family Schwarz / 1430: family Tettikofen / 1468 family Mangolt).
Above: Logo of the University of Konstanz
From 1471 to 1798, Altnau was held by the city of Konstanz.
Above: Coat of arms of the City of Konstanz
In 1454, Altnau was included in the Appenzeller Landrecht (law courts), but had to give these rights up after a complaint from the Cathedral chapter.
Above: Flag of Appenzell
The parish rights passed in 1347 from the Cathedral Provost to the Cathedral Dean.
After the Reformation in 1528, the few Catholics that remained here were cared for from Konstanz, with the Altnau church shared between both Catholics and Protestants.
In 1810 the parity relationship was dissolved and two churches were built.
Above: Martin Luther (1483 – 1546), pioneer of the Protestant Reformation
The rights of the village were first handed down in 1468.
Above: Aerial view of Altnau (1924)
In the 19th century, farmers switched from three field grain production to livestock and dairy production.
Above: The three-field system of crop rotation
In 1880 a dairy company was established.
The viticulture (wine industry), which had been in operation since the Middle Ages came to an end in 1912.
Above: Altnau viticulture
Field fruit growing was documented in the 19th century:
After 1945, the high stems were replaced by extensive low stem cultures.
Above: Altnau apple production
Like the Lake Road built around 1840, the Lake Rail Line opened in 1870 brought little upswing in the village because the station was too far away.
All regional trains between Schaffhausen and Wil – via Kreuzlingen, Romanshorn and St.Gallen – stop at Altnau Station.
Regional trains run every half hour.
Above: Two Thurbo GTW 2/6 crossing the bridge over the Rhine between Schaffhausen and Feuerthalen, Switzerland
Main road number 13 runs between the Town and the Lake, which leads from Schaffhausen via Kreuzlingen and on to Romanshorn and Rorschach.
There is a port, but no pier for scheduled boats on the Bodensee.
Above: Rorschach, Canton St. Gallen, Switzerland
Until the middle of the 20th century, the village was heavily agricultural.
Nevertheless, industry moved in.
From 1870 to 1910, numerous Altnau residents worked as hand embroiderers, in 1882 and 1910 the Altwegg and Walser embroidery factories were established, and from 1883 to 1967 the Sallmann knitwear factory offered numerous jobs and employed 17 people in 1883, 60 in 1895 and 41 in 1923.
The Setafil silk weaving mill, which opened in 1948, ceased production in 1974.
Above: This 1881 painting (by Emil Rittmeyer) shows the embroidery world trade in the second half of the 19th century.
Left: Embroidery patterns, then factories, the locomotive used for transporting the goods, the installation of a telegraph line.
On the right side, the embroidery is presented to the representatives of all continents.
In 1977, a mechanical engineering company set up in the boatyard built in 1964.
Above: Altnau Boatyard
In 2016, Altnau offered work to 577 people (converted to full-time positions).
Of these, 12.9% worked in agriculture and forestry, 27.1% in industry, commerce and construction and 59.9% in the service sector.
Worth mentioning are:
the Reformed Church
the Catholic Church
the Apfelweg (Apple Trail), the first fruit nature trail in Switzerland, is a nine-kilometre-long circular route that leads through the local orchards and explains the path of the apple from blossom to fruit on 16 boards.
the ship jetty, which has existed since 2010 and is 270 meters long due to the wide shallow water zone – making it the longest jetty on the Bodensee – it is nicknamed the Bodensee Eiffel Tower, because of its length
Above: Altnau Jetty
Above: Tour Eiffel, Paris, France
The Thurgau village of Altnau is surrounded by gently rolling apple orchards.
Altnau has been breeding, cultivating and processing Jonagold, Gala or Braeburn for generations.
Above: Gala apples
Above: Braeburn apple
Visitors can find out why apples thrive particularly well here at the information boards along the Altnau Apple Trail.
The revised adventure trail extends the previous fruit trail and can be explored on foot, by bike or in a horse-drawn carriage.
Game tips and hands-on activities along the routes are aimed specifically at families with children.
The tour is particularly beautiful during the apple blossom season in spring or harvest time in autumn.
The starting point of the Apple Trail is at the foot of Altnau, 500 meters from the train station.
The Altnauer Apfelweg consists of three routes that can be combined to form circular routes of five, six or seven kilometres.
There is an apple mascot for every path:
East of Altnau, the apple path meanders through the apple orchards beneath the bright red “Lisi” apple.
The 14 stations tell exciting things about fruit growing and the work of the fruit growers all year round.
The yellow route with the mascot “Fredi” leads through the middle of the village and presents different types of apples and pears.
With riddles, recipes and anecdotes, every walk flies by.
On the green “Emma” route west of Altnau, apple fans meet wild and honey bees and learn a lot about the Thurgau fruit region and the history and cultivation of the crunchy fruit.
On the red and green routes, Lisi and Emma invite the children balancing on tree trunks, looking for fruit pairs or exploring the earth.
Fredi inspires on the yellow route with variety information, puzzles and fun.
The themed trail is varied and offers the best conditions for a trip with the whole family.
Apple path Lisi: The red route, four kilometers long, takes about two hours on foot or one hour by bike. It runs east of Altnau, the main focus is the work of the fruit growers.
Apple path Emma: The green, three-kilometre route takes about an hour and a half on foot and 40 minutes by bike. To the west of the village, she reveals interesting facts about fruit growing, the apple village of Altnau and Thurgau.
Apple path Fredi: The yellow route leads right through the village. Pedestrians need about an hour for the two kilometers. The path is not suitable for cyclists.
Farm shops, restaurants and pubs in and around Altnau offer sweet cider, apple rings and other delicious fruit creations.
If you run out of breath on the way, you can rest on the numerous benches, rest areas and picnic areas along the route – mostly in front of a wonderful panorama of the Bodensee.
A tip is the Feierlenhof in Altnau, where the Barth family has been welcoming guests to their own farm for several generations.
A petting zoo delights children and animal lovers alike.
Above: Feierlenhof, Altnau
The Bodensee has always been considered a transport axis for a wide variety of goods, which were transported by barge.
Since Eastern Switzerland mainly traded in textiles, it was dependent on a functioning trade in food stuffs, mainly grain.
Due to the fluctuating water level between summer and winter, a summer and a winter landing site had to be built.
A pier was built near today’s Altnau, the “Stelli“.
With the onset of industrialization, ship trade became less relevant as the railroad was faster and easier.
This also had an effect on the shipping trade on the Bodensee.
Winter ports were no longer used by ships, which is why the Stelli was destroyed by the water over time and sank.
Above: Construction of the Altnau Jetty
The Stelli, which can still be seen with the naked eye today, was examined in 2012 by a diving team from the Thurgau Archaeology Office, who measured the remains, had these results recorded and recovered samples for dating tree rings.
The salvage showed that the Stelli was an L-shape with two legs, each 10 and 25 meters long.
It consisted of spruce poles, which were fastened with the tops of the bottom of the lake.
Crosspieces and quarry stones were filled in between the posts.
Rorschach sandstone slabs were placed on top.
It is assumed that the origin of the Stelli goes back to the 17th century.
The shore of the Municipality of Altnau stretches along the Obersee (upper part of the Bodensee) from northwest to southeast.
The Altnauer Steg (jetty) is at a right angle to this, so it points to the northeast.
By raising the ridge of the Lake, Altnau Harbour area is covered to the south and west.
Above: Altnau Jetty
The distance to the next town bordering the lake in the northwest, Kreuzlingen, is around 7.5 kilometers and to the next in the southeast, Romanshorn, around 10 kilometers.
At least six kilometers must be covered to cross the Lake to Hagnau on the German side of the Bodensee.
Above: Hagnau am Bodensee, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
In contrast to other Swiss inland lakes, the Bodensee does not have a uniform shipping company, but rather several different shipping companies.
This is due to the location of the Bodensee, because this (specifically the Obersee) is shared by the three countries Germany (Deutschland), Switzerland (Schweiz) and Austria (Österreich).
Above: Map of the Bodensee (Lake Constance)
During the shipping season, the Altnauer Jetty is used by the Romanshorn – Immenstaad – Hagnau – Altnau – Güttingen route.
Above: Immenstaad am Bodensee, Baden-Württemberg, Germany (in winter)
Above: Güttingen Castle, Güttingen, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland
For residents of the municipality of Altnau and the surrounding area as well as for tourists, the footbridge serves as a good leisure offer.
Provided with a bathing platform at the jetty, another one to the east and several descent possibilities, swimming in the Lake is made possible in the summer season.
In the event of an emergency, rescue equipment for drowning people is distributed on the railing.
In addition, hobby anglers do not want to fish at the jetty.
Above: The way to Hagnau, Altnau Jetty
As early as 1994, a working group from the municipality of Altnau expressed the desire for a new shipping pier.
The purpose behind this was that the attractiveness of the community should be promoted.
In Altnau there is a very large campground, which is particularly busy in the height of summer.
In this season many people in Altnau go to the Lake to swim.
Altogether there are up to 2,000 people in the vicinity of the port during the warmest time of the year.
A positive factor was that, according to a 2007 study for additional shipping piers on the Bodensee, Altnau was the location between Kreuzlingen and Horn that would have the lowest environmental impact.
Shipping also benefited from the immediate increase in tourist attractiveness.
Above: Horn, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland
At Altnau Harbour in the direction of the middle of the Lake there is a flat shore, which made the construction of such a long jetty necessary.
The ground was measured and evaluated by means of probing in 2007.
The Dr. Vollenweider organization divides the ground into three stratified phases:
Young lake deposits: Consisting of slightly clay, relatively fine sandy silt loosely layered with a high water concentration. The layer height is between two and three meters on the bank, further away it increases up to ten meters.
Postglacial lake deposits: Consisting of strong clay silts with little fine sand soft to slightly resistant. The layer height is about two meters at the bank and increases up to six meters at a greater distance.
Moraine: Consisting of little clay, very silty-fine sand with a high proportion of gravel and stones
Above: Harbour, Altnau
The walkable area of the jetty is 398 meters above sea level and therefore around two meters higher than the summer water level.
A height of 15 centimeters of concrete can be seen on the side.
The maximum height is 35 centimeters.
The bridge is founded with hollow concrete piles, each with a diameter of 35 centimetres.
These stand in pairs 12 meters apart.
While the western stake is driven vertically into the ground, the eastern stake has a 5º inclination.
The moraine, which is not too deep, is responsible for holding and fixing these.
Barriers are installed on both sides along the jetty.
The two railings vary from each other.
The western railing is half solid / half transparent, with a guided chrome steel handrail.
On the one hand, this heavily protected site is intended to provide security.
On the other hand, it is to prevent disturbances to aquatic animals.
The eastern side, on the other hand, is supported only by longitudinal wire cables – no handrail.
There is a gap in the area of the bathing platform so that access to it is freely possible.
Above: Altnau Jetty
Canton Thurgau Facts:
900 km of marked cycle paths
1,000 km of hiking trails
150 km of inline skating routes
72 km of shoreline on Lake Constance
200 kinds of apples
210,000 standard apple trees
1,600 hectares of orchards
Romping about in flowering meadows, playing knights and experiencing unforgettable farm adventures:
In Thurgau, even young visitors never get bored.
The idyllic surroundings and a wide range of leisure activities ensure lots of holiday fun.
With over 72 kilometers of shoreline, Thurgau also has the longest bathing beach on the Bodensee.
The landscape is green and flat everywhere – ideal for bike tours with the family.
When swimming, hiking or cycling, holiday guests can feel nature up close.
The southern part of the Bodensee stretches out in lush greenery:
Meadow orchards let the petals dance in spring.
In autumn the fruit falls heavily onto the grass.
Anyone who drives further up into the hills will experience new perspectives and very special adventures.
The ancient cultural landscape also harbors a wealth of treasures:
From pile dwellings to Roman forts, medieval chapels and monasteries to imperial parks and gardens.
First-class wines from local winegrowers, fresh fish from the Bodensee and a multitude of other culinary specialties spoil the palate in Thurgau.
Whether gourmet restaurant, country inn or rustic Buure-Beiz – Thurgau makes connoisseurs’ hearts beat faster.
Excellent wines also thrive on the vineyard slopes along the Untersee (Lower Lake), the Rhine and also on sunny Ottenberg near Weinfelden.
The grape variety Müller Thurgau, which is also called Riesling Sylvaner in this country, has its origins in Thurgau.
Let us raise a glass in memory of one of Altnau’s own, Hans Baumgartner.
Hans Baumgartner (1911 – 1996) was a Swiss photographer and teacher.
Above: Hans Baumgartner
Hans Baumgartner was born in Altnau.
He trained as a teacher at the Pädagogische Maturitätsschule Kreuzlingen (teacher training college) and at the University of Zürich.
Above: Pädagogische Maturitätsschule Kreuzlingen buildings constructed in the 1970s
Above: Pädagogische Maturitätsschule Kreuzlingen in the former Kreuzlingen Monastery
Above: Logo of the University of Zürich
From 1937 until his retirement he worked as a teacher, until 1962 in Steckborn, later in Frauenfeld.
Above: Steckborn, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland
Above: Frauenfeld, capital of Canton Thurgau, Switzerland
Baumgartner’s first photographs were taken in 1929.
Above: Zürich (1936), Hans Baumgartner photo
The journalist Arnold Kübler discovered him in the early 1930s.
Above: Arnold Kübler
(Arnold Kübler (1890 – 1983) was a Swiss writer, draftsman and journalist.
He founded the cultural magazine Du (you) in 1941.
Arnold Kübler grew up as the son of an innkeeper and farmer in Wiesendangen.
Above: Wiesendangen, Canton Zürich, Switzerland (1934)
He broke off his geology studies and training as a sculptor.
After World War I, he worked as an actor in Dresden and Berlin.
He had to give up this career in 1926 after an operation due to scars on his face.
In 1927, he married Alva Jessen (1887 – 1965).
The couple had three children: Jörn Kübler (1922 – 1975), Olaf Kübler (1924 – 1987) and Ursula Kübler (1928 – 2010).
Above: Images of Dresden, Sachsen, Germany
Above: Berlin, Germany
Kübler was able to celebrate greater success with his literary and journalistic work.
He was appointed editor-in-chief of the Zürcher Illustrierte (Zurich Illustrated) in 1929, which under his lead developed into a respected literary and photographic magazine.
He was convinced that a photograph can also be a vehicle of a message.
He worked with prominent photographers Paul Senn and Gotthard Schuh among others.)
Above: Paul Senn
(Paul Senn (1901 – 1953) was a Swiss photographer.
After attending school in the city of Bern, Senn learned the trade of advertising draftsman and re-toucher around 1917.
Above: Bern, Switzerland
After completing his education, he worked in various European cities and from 1922 as a graphic artist in Lyon, France.
Above: Images of Lyon, France
In 1924, he became picture editor at the Basler Nachrichten (Basel News), where his first photos appeared.
In 1927 and 1928 he stayed in Milan, Genoa, Germany, Belgium, France and Barcelona.
Above: Images of Milano (Milan), Italy
Above: Piazza de Ferrari, Genova (Genoa), Italy
Above: Flag of Germany
Above: Flag of Belgium
Above: Flag of France
Above: Images of Barcelona, Spain
After these trips he opened his own graphics and advertising studio in Bern.
In the 1930s, Senn worked as a photo reporter for the Zürcher Illustrierte and the Berner Illustrierte.
Senn traveled to France, Italy, Spain and the Balkans.
Above: Flag of Italy
Above: Flag of Spain
Above: Map of the Balkan Peninsula
In 1937, Senn accompanied an aid convoy from the Swiss Aid Committee for the Children of Spain to the war zone of the Spanish Civil War and reported on it in a special issue of the Zürcher Illustrierte.
Above: Images of the Spanish Civil War (1936 – 1939)
In 1939, he travelled to the US.
Above: Flag of the United States of America
During the Second World War, Senn did active service as an army photographer in the Heer und Haus (Army and Home) division.)
Above: Bronze statue “Morning readiness“, erected in 1941 to celebrate the 650th anniversary of the Swiss Confederation in the park of the Federal Archives in Schwyz (Switzerland)
(In order to strengthen the spirit of the troops, Swiss Army General Henri Guisan ordered the formation of the Army and Home section, a kind of psychological service.
This had the task of maintaining the military will of the troops through lectures and entertainment, even during long military service.
In the army order of 3 November 1939, he wrote:
It is absolutely necessary that the troops, despite long service and regardless of the separation of family and work, maintain an elevated state of mind.
Free from nagging doubts and discouragements, the soldier should maintain equanimity and confidence.
With the formula “Think Swiss and act Swiss”, the “civilian reconnaissance service” expanded and launched a campaign to educate the civilian population.
For this purpose, cadres were recruited from around news agencies and resistance organizations.
Above: Henri Guisan (1874 – 1960)
Army andHome tried to strengthen the will to resist in the population and to supplement the role of the war-censored press.
Firstly, it was about the “communication of facts” from which the citizen should form his own opinion.
Secondly, the “communication of bases for the discussion” as a means of forming opinions in a democracy, in contrast to propaganda, agitation and terror, which are the methods used by totalitarian states to subdue their subjects.
It organized around 3,000 two-day educational courses, as well as lectures, performances, sporting events and film and radio screenings.
The 200 voluntary speakers came from all political camps, regions and professions.
For the lecturing activity of the commanders, Army and Home issued military service letters, which not only called for resistance against the totalitarian threat, but also took a stand for the old custom of granting asylum (December 1942) or against anti-Semitism (May 1943).
More than 7,000 shop stewards recruited in the lectures distributed the documentation published by the Army and Home in their sphere of activity and gave regular feedback on the respective mood in the population.
In the army order of November 1939, Guisan also gave didactic instructions for Army and Home officers and the unit commanders:
I consider it essential that there is a clear separation between serious lectures, which require constant attention, and purely entertaining events.
The former belong in working hours, the others in leisure time.
Both are important, sometimes to teach, sometimes to amuse.
Teaching does not mean imposing any theories, but rather stimulating thoughts and challenging reflections.
It is a question of showing the team, above all using concrete examples, the tangible and spiritual reality of Switzerland, its honorable past, the military traditions, honoring our heroes, artists, scientists, pointing out the high level of culture that it has achieved and on to indicate their destiny in this world.
For the historian Peter Dürrenmatt and other contemporary observers, between 1941 and 1945, Army and Homemade a decisive contribution to maintaining and strengthening intellectual resilience:
One can say that never before in the history of the Confederation has there been a movement of anything remotely similar in creative unity existed, like those that formed around the Army’s reconnaissance service, around the idea of ’Army and Home’.)
Above: Peter Dürrenmatt (1904 – 1989)
(After the Zürcher Illustrierte was forced to cease publication in 1941, Senn worked for the Schweizer Illustrierte (Switzerland Illustrated) and for Sie + Er (She and He).
From 1942 to 1944, Senn travelled to southern France several times and reported on the activities of Swiss relief organizations and the construction work in Lyon.
Above: Lyon, France
After the end of the war in 1945, Paul Senn travelled to the European war zones on behalf of the Swiss Red Cross and the Swiss Donation to War Victims, taking photographs in France and Germany.
Above: Logo of the Swiss Donation
In 1946, Senn stayed in the US for Schweizer Illustrierte, visiting New York and the Swiss Colonies.
Above: Harlem, New York City, New York, USA (1946) – Paul Senn photograph
(Most immigration from Switzerland took place mainly in the second half of the 19th century.
The reasons for this were mostly economic in nature, Switzerland was considered one of the poorest countries in Europe at the time.
By 1820, around 25,000 Swiss had immigrated, mainly with the destination of Pennsylvania and the Carolinas.
Above: Swiss migrants in the US (1946), Paul Senn photograph
In general, the target in the 19th century was the Midwest and the Pacific coast.
The Italian-speaking Swiss preferred California.
Some Swiss settlements were established, such as New Glarus (Wisconsin), Gruetli-Laager (Tennessee) and New Bern (North Carolina)(“the birthplace of Pepsi“). )
Above: Flag throwing and Alphorn blowing, New Glarus, Wisconsin, USA
Above: Historical marker, Gruetli-Laager, Tennessee, USA
Above: City Hall, New Bern, North Carolina, USA
Above: Classroom scene, New Bern
In 1947, Senn went to Finland and Germany at the invitation of the Swiss Donation and documented the reconstruction.
Above: Flag of Finland
In 1950, trips to Germany, France, Italy and England followed.
Above: Flag of England
In 1951, he founded the College of Swiss Photographerswith Werner Bischof, Gotthard Schuh and Jakob Tuggener.
In 1952 he became a member of the Schweizerischer Werkbund (SWB) (Swiss Work Association) (an association of artists, cultural mediators and other specialists in the field of design).
On 25 April 1953, Senn died of cancer in the Zieglerspital in Bern.)
(Gotthard Schuh (1897 – 1969) was a Swiss photographer, painter and graphic artist.
Above: Gotthard Schuh
Gotthard Schuh was born in Berlin to Swiss parents.
His father was the engineer Christian Heinrich Schuh.
In 1902 the family moved to Aarau, where he attended school.
Above: Aarau, Canton Aargau, Switzerland
From 1914, he began to paint.
In 1916, he graduated from the trade school (now the site of the Basel Trade Museum) in Basel.
Above: Gewerbemuseum, Basel, Switzerland
In 1917, Schuh was drafted as a soldier for border service until the end of the First World War.
Above: Kilometre Zero -where the Swiss border met the Western Front, World War I (1914 – 1918)
From 1919, he lived as a painter in Basel and Geneva.
Above: Basel, Switzerland
Above: Genève (Geneva), Switzerland
After a long trip to Italy in 1920, he settled in Munich as a painter.
Above: München (Munich), Bayern (Bavaria), Germany
In 1926, he returned to Switzerland and became manager of a photo shop.
After his marriage in 1927 he moved to Zürich, where he began to take photographs.
Various exhibitions as a painter followed from 1928 to 1931, during which time he joined the Basel artist group Rot-Blau (red-blue).
Above: Albert Müller (1897 – 1926)(Rot-Blau), Vineyards in Ticino (1925)
In 1931 his first photos were published in the Zürcher Illustrierte.
Above: Gotthard Schuh photograph of Swiss author Friedrich Glauser (1896 – 1938), Zürcher Illustrierte, (3 December 1937)
A picture exhibition followed in Paris in 1932, where he met Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger and Georges Braque.
Above: Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973)
Above: French artist Fernand Léger (1881 – 1955)
Above: French artist Georges Braque (1882 – 1963)
From 1933 to 1939, Schuh worked as a freelance photojournalist for the Zürcher Illustrierte, Berliner Illustriete (1892 – 1945), Paris Match and Life (1883 – 2000).
His reports took him all over Europe and to Indonesia.
Above: Flag of the European Union
Above: Flag of Indonesia
From 1941 to 1960 he was picture editor at the Neue Züricher Zeitung (NZZ).
From this period a significant part of his own photographic work illustrated books, of which the most successful was Inseln der Götter (Island of the Gods) published in 1941, the result of his almost 11-month journey through Singapore, Java, Sumatra and Bali undertaken just before the war.
It was a mixture of reportage and self-reflection, with a poetic quality that, though individual images may be read either way, Schuh sometimes valued over documentary authenticity:
“Everyone just depicts what he sees.
Everyone just sees what corresponds to his being.”
In 1951, he founded the College of Swiss Photographers together with Werner Bischof, Paul Senn and Jakob Tuggener.
After 1960, Schuh turned to painting again.
Schuh died in Küsnacht by the Zürchersee (Lake Zurich) in 1969.)
Above: Küsnacht, Canton Zürich, Switzerland
(Werner Bischof(1916 – 1954) was a Swiss photographer and one of the most famous photojournalists of the 20th century.
Above: Werner Bischof
Bischof, son of a merchant, grew up first in Zürich and Kilchberg (Canton Zürich) in Switzerland, but spent his school days in Waldshut (Germany).
Above: Kilchberg, Canton Zürich, Switzerland
Above: Kaiserstrasse (Emperor Street), Waldshut, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
His father had been manager of a branch of a Zürich pharmaceutical factory there since 1922.
This time was overshadowed by the early death of his mother.
He attended teachers’ college in Schiers (Canton Graubünden) to become a drawing and physical education teacher.
Above: Evangelische Mittelschule (EMS), Schiers, Canton Graubünden, Switzerland
At the age of 16, Bischof switched to studying at the Zürich School of Applied Arts.
In 1936, he received his diploma with distinction as a photographer and, after basic training with the Swiss Army, opened in Zürich a studio for fashion and advertising photography.
After interludes as an employee at a Zurich publishing house, a freelance artist for the Swiss National Exhibition in 1939 and a graphic designer in Paris, he was drafted into military service in Switzerland in 1939.
In short phases between military deployments, he devoted himself to photographing natural motifs.
In 1942, Bischof published his first photos in the then new monthly magazine Du.
In autumn 1945, he traveled to southern Germany, France and the Netherlands.
He was deeply moved by the hardship in the regions badly affected by the Second World War.
On behalf of the Swiss Donation he reported on the victims of war-destroyed Europe.
Above: Boy drawing in the ruins, Freiburg im Breisgau, Werner Bischof photographer
In 1948, Bischof represented Time magazine at the St. Moritz Winter Olympics.
In 1949, his documentary photographs were published in Life magazine.
Bischof joined the newly formed photographers’ cooperative Magnum Photos.
From 1951, he traveled to the Middle East (famine in Bihar, India) and the Far East (Japan and Korea).
Above: Seal of the Indian state of Bihar
Above: Flag of Japan
Above: Flag of South Korea
He was a war correspondent for Paris Match magazine during the Indochina War (1946 – 1954).
Above: French Foreign Legionnaires with a suspected Viet Minh supporter
In 1953, he began a journey through the American continent that had been planned for a long time, visiting and photographing Mexico and Panama and Peru.
Above: Flag of Mexico
Above: Flag of Panama
Above: Flag of Peru
The following year, on 16 May 1954, his SUV crashed into a Peruvian river at Pena de Aguila Andes down a slope.
Bischof was killed.
Above: Pena de Aguila, Peru
In his relatively short life, Werner Bischof was highly productive and dedicated.
He created a work of 60,000 photographs.
With his fascinating compositions of light and shadow, Bischof made a name for himself early on as a studio and advertising photographer.
But when he was able to travel through devastated Europe after the end of the Second World War, his pictures described the suffering and destructiveness of the war with oppressive urgency.
Above: Two girls inside a church destroyed by the war. Friedrichshafen (Germany). 1945, Werner Bischof photograph
Above: A man looking at the city in ruins. Frankfurt (Germany). 1946 – Werner Bischof photograph
Above: A man walking through the destroyed city searching for food in Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany). 1945 – Werner Bischof photograph
His motto now became:
“It is not important to make an art out of photography as in the old sense, but rather the deep social responsibility of the photographer, who does a job with the given elementary photographic means that cannot be done with other means would be able to afford.
This work must become the unadulterated document of temporal reality.”
Above: A view of the Thames River from Westminster Abbey in London. 1950 – Werner Bischof photograph
With this in mind, Bischof created images that show bitter poverty and deep suffering, but are also documents of the inner strength and willpower of the people depicted.
The superficiality and sensationalism of the editorial business repelled him, but he was mostly sent to crisis areas.
Despite the external circumstances, the love for people and the love for the cause are always visible in Bischof’s photographs.
Aesthetic feeling, elementary formative power and human commitment combined with him to an inner unity.
One of his most famous pictures shows a boy playing the flute walking along a precipice.
Bischof took the picture in Peru in 1954.
The NZZ called the picture “an icon of photojournalism“.
“Werner Bischof was a photographer personality who, after the Second World War, photographed the trouble spots of this world with the eye of a poet and the awareness of a politician.”)
Showing the shadows of poverty and despair, tempered with his desire to travel the world, Bischof conveyed the beauty of nature and humanity.
“I felt compelled to venture forth and explore the true face of the world.
Leading a satisfying of plenty has blinded many of us to the immense hardships beyond our borders.“
Above: A pleasant sleep – Werner Bischof photograph
(Jakob Tuggener (1904 – 1988) was a Swiss photographer.
Above: Jakob Tuggener?
Tuggener did an apprenticeship as a mechanical draftsman in Zurich.
In 1930 – 1931 he studied graphics, typography, drawing, window dressing and film at the Reimann School in Berlin (then the largest private arts and crafts school in Germany).
His work at that time was published in the school magazine Farb und Form (Colour and Form).
Above: Reimann Art School (1902 – 1940), Berlin, Germany
After his return to Switzerland he worked as an industrial photographer.
In 1934, Tuggener bought a Leica camera and took his first photographs at the Grand Bal Russe (Russian ball) in Zürich.
The subject of dance balls would not let him go for two decades.
The glories of nightlife enchanted him with their alabaster light illuminating a fairy tale of women and flowing silk.
Above: ACS Ball Grand Hotel Dolder, 1948 – Jakob Tuggener photograph
He photographed balls in Zürich’s Grand Hotel Dolder and the Hotel Baur au Lac, St. Moritz’s Palace Hotel, and the Vienna (Wien) Opera Ball.
Above: Dolder Grand Hotel, Zürich, Switzerland
Above: Hotel Baur au Lac, Zürich, Switzerland
Above: Palace Hotel, St. Moritz, Canton Graubünden, Switzerland
Above: Vienna State Opera, Wien (Vienna), Austria
He also devoted himself to topics such as country life and technology.
Above: Untitled, Oeschgen, Canton Aargau, Switzerland, 1942 Jakob Tuggener photograph
Above: Plant entrance, Oerlikon Machine Factory, Canton Zürich, Switzerland, 1934 – Jakob Tuggener photograph
In 1943, Tuggener made his breakthrough into avant-garde Swiss photography with his book Factory: a photographic essay on the relationship between man and machine.
Above: Grande Dixence power station, Canton Valais, Switzerland, 1942 – Jakob Tuggener photograph
Above: Barrage de la Grande Dixence, Lac des Dix reservoir, Canton Valais, Switzerland
After the Second World War, his pictures were shown in the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and published in the magazines Leica-Foto and Du, among others.
Above: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, New York, USA
In 1949, the new editor of Camera magazine, Walter Laubli (1902 – 1991), published a substantial portfolio of Jakob Tuggener’s pictures made at upper-class entertainments and in factories, a world familiar to him from his early apprenticeship as a technical draftsman in Zürich, as well as a series of stills from his silent films, with an introduction by Hans Kasser (1907 – 1978), himself a photographer and member of the Werkbund.
Alongside Tuggener’s work, Camera presented the 25-year-old Robert Frank, who had just returned to his native Switzerland after two years abroad, with pages including some of his first pictures from New York.
The magazine promoted the two as representatives of the ‘new photography’ of Switzerland.
Above: Cover of the 1st issue of Camera magazine, July 1922
Tuggener was a role model for Frank, first mentioned to him by his boss and mentor, Zurich commercial photographer Michael Wolgensinger (1913–1990).
Tuggener, as a serious artist who had left the commercial world behind, was the “one Frank really did love, from among all Swiss photographers”.
Fabrik, as a photo book, was a model for Frank’s Les Américains (1958).
A first major exhibition of Tuggener’s “Ball Nights” pictures took place in Munich in 1969.
In 1951, Tuggener founded the College of Swiss Photographers with Werner Bischof, Gotthard Schuh and Paul Senn.
Above: Ball Nights photograph, Jakob Tuggener
The “pictorial poet” Tuggener is regarded as a representative of social documentary photography, one of the most important areas of photographic art.
For Tuggener, people, truth and the concern for social justice were at the centre of his work.
His work is characterized by the interplay of the artistic media of painting, photography and film with the three main themes of work in the factory, life in the country, and glamorous balls in magnificent hotels.
He created expressive photography and knew how to assemble radical sections and dynamic perspectives into film-like series of images.
As with a moving camera, he captured the “pulse of life” and condensed fleeting moments into a poetic overall view.
In 1950, Tuggener wrote:
The photographer as an expressionist does not exist in the commercial register.
He is the freest and free.
Detached from all purpose, he only photographs the pleasure of his experience.
Above: Work in the boiler (1935), Jakob Tuggener photograph
His archive is in the Fotomuseum in Winterthur.)
Above: Fotomuseum, Winterthur, Canton Zürich, Switzerland
(Robert Frank (1924 – 2019) was a Swiss photographer and documentary filmmaker, who became an American bi-national.
Above: Robert Frank
His most notable work, the 1958 book titled The Americans, earned Frank comparisons to a modern-day Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 – 1889) for his fresh and nuanced outsider’s view of American society.
Above: French political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville
Critic Sean O’Hagan, writing in The Guardian in 2014, said The Americans:
“‘The Americans‘ changed the nature of photography, what it could say and how it could say it.
It remains perhaps the most influential photography book of the 20th century.“
Above: Sean O’Hagan
Frank later expanded into film and video and experimented with manipulating photographs and photomontage.
Above: Robert Frank, “Couple/Paris” 1952
Frank was born in Zürich, Switzerland, the son of Rosa (Zucker) and Hermann Frank.
His family was Jewish.
Robert states in Gerald Fox’s 2004 documentary Leaving Home, Coming Home that his mother, Rosa (other sources state her name as Regina), had a Swiss passport, while his father, Hermann originating from Frankfurt, Germany had become stateless after losing his German citizenship as a Jew.
They had to apply for the Swiss citizenship of Robert and his older brother, Manfred.
Though Frank and his family remained safe in Switzerland during World War II, the threat of Nazism nonetheless affected his understanding of oppression.
Above: Flag of the National Socialist Party (1920 – 1945)
He turned to photography, in part as a means to escape the confines of his business-oriented family and home, and trained under a few photographers and graphic designers before he created his first hand-made book of photographs, 40 Fotos, in 1946.
Frank emigrated to the US in 1947.
He secured a job in New York City as a fashion photographer for Harper’s Bazaar.
In 1949, the new editor of Camera magazine, Walter Laubli, published a substantial portfolio of Jakob Tuggener pictures made at upper-class entertainments and in factories, alongside the work of the 25 year-old Frank who had just returned to his native Switzerland after two years abroad, with pages including some of his first pictures from New York.
The magazine promoted the two as representatives of the ‘new photography‘ of Switzerland.
Tuggener was a role model for the younger artist, first mentioned to him by Frank’s boss and mentor, Zürich commercial photographer Michael Wolgensinger (1913 – 1990) who understood that Frank was unsuited to the more mercenary application of the medium.
Tuggener, as a serious artist, had left the commercial world behind.
Above: Michael Wolgensinger
Frank soon left to travel in South America and Europe.
He created another handmade book of photographs that he shot in Peru, and returned to the US in 1950.
That year was momentous for Frank:
He participated in the group show 51 American Photographers at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
He married fellow artist Mary Lockspeiser, with whom he had two children, Andrea and Pablo.
Though he was initially optimistic about US society and culture, Frank’s perspective quickly changed as he confronted the fast pace of American life and what he saw as an overemphasis on money.
He now saw America as an often bleak and lonely place, a perspective that became evident in his later photography.
Frank’s own dissatisfaction with the control that editors exercised over his work also undoubtedly colored his experience.
Above: Robert Frank, “Trolley —New Orleans”, 1955
He continued to travel, moving his family briefly to Paris.
Above: Robert Frank, “Tulip/Paris” 1950
In 1953, he returned to New York and continued to work as a freelance photojournalist for magazines, including McCall’s, Vogue and Fortune.
Associating with other contemporary photographers, he helped form the New York School of Photographers during the 1940s and 1950s.
In 1955, Frank achieved further recognition with the inclusion of seven of his photographs (many more than most other contributors) in the world-touring MoMA exhibition The Family of Man that was to be seen by 9 million visitors and with a popular catalogue that is still in print.
Frank’s contributions had been:
in Spain of a woman kissing her swaddled babe-in-arms
of a bowed old woman in Peru
a rheumy-eyed miner in Wales
others in England and the US, including two (one atypically soft-focus) of his wife in pregnancy; and one (later to be included in The Americans) of six laughing women in the window of the White Tower Hamburger Stand on Fourteenth Street, New York City.
Inspired by fellow Swiss Jakob Tuggener’s 1943 filmic book Fabrik, Bill Brandt’s The English at Home (1936) and Walker Evans’ American Photographs (1938), Frank secured a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1955 to travel across the United States and photograph all strata of its society.
Cities he visited included:
Detroit, Michigan
Dearborn, Michigan
Savannah, Georgia
Miami Beach, Florida
St. Petersburg, Florida
New Orleans, Louisiana
Houston, Texas
Los Angeles, California
Reno, Nevada
Salt Lake City, Utah
Butte, Montana
Chicago, Illinois.
Above: Detroit, Michigan, USA
Above: Dearborn, Michigan, USA
Above: Savannah, Georgia, USA
Above: Miami Beach, Florida, USA
Above: St. Petersburg, Florida, USA
Above: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Above: Houston, Texas, USA
Above: Los Angeles, California, USA
Above: Reno, Nevada, USA
Above: Images of Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Above: Images of Butte, Montana, USA
Above: Chicago, Illinois, USA
He took his family along with him for part of his series of road trips over the next two years, during which time he took 28,000 shots.
83 of these were selected by him for publication in The Americans.
Frank’s journey was not without incident.
He later recalled the anti-Semitism to which he was subject in a small Arkansas town.
“I remember the policeman took me into the police station.
He sat there and put his feet on the table.
It came out that I was Jewish because I had a letter from the Guggenheim Foundation.
They really were primitive.”
He was told by the sheriff:
“Well, we have to get somebody who speaks Yiddish.”
“They wanted to make a thing out of it.
It was the only time it happened on the trip.
They put me in jail.
It was scary.
Nobody knew where I was.“
Above: State flag of Arkansas
Elsewhere in the South, he was told by a sheriff that he had “an hour to leave town“.
Those incidents may have contributed to the dark view of America found in the work.
Above: The states in dark red compose the Deep South today.
Adjoining areas of Texas and North Florida are also considered part of this subregion.
Shortly after returning to New York in 1957, Frank met Beat writer Jack Kerouac “at a New York party where poets and Beatniks were,” and showed him the photographs from his travels.
However, according to Joyce Johnson, Kerouac’s lover at the time, she met Frank while waiting for Kerouac to emerge from a conference with his editors, at Viking Press, looked at Frank’s portfolio, and introduced them to each other.
Kerouac immediately told Frank:
“Sure I can write something about these pictures.”
He eventually contributed the introduction to the US edition of The Americans.
Above: Jack Kerouac (1922 – 1969)
Frank also became lifelong friends with Beat poet Allen Ginsberg.
Above: Allen Ginsberg (1926 – 1997)
Frank was one of the main visual artists to document the Beat subculture, who felt an affinity with Frank’s interest in documenting the tensions between the optimism of the 1950s and the realities of class and racial differences.
The irony that Frank found in the gloss of American culture and wealth over this tension gave his photographs a clear contrast to those of most contemporary American photojournalists, as did his use of unusual focus, low lighting and cropping that deviated from accepted photographic techniques.
This divergence from contemporary photographic standards gave Frank difficulty at first in securing an American publisher.
Les Américains was first published in 1958 by Robert Delpire in Paris, as part of its Encyclopédie Essentielle series, with texts by Simone de Beauvoir, Erskine Caldwell, William Faulkner, Henry Miller and John Steinbeck that Delpire positioned opposite Frank’s photographs.
Above: French writer Simone de Beauvoir (1908 – 1986)
Above: American writer Erskine Caldwell (1903 – 1987)
Above: American writer William Faulkner (1897 – 1962)
Above: American writer Henry Miller (1891 – 1980)
Above: American writer John Steinbeck (1902 – 1968)
It was finally published in 1959 in the US, without the texts, by Grove Press, where it initially received substantial criticism.
Above: Logo of Grove Press
Popular Photography derided his images as “meaningless blur, grain, muddy exposures, drunken horizons and general sloppiness“.
Though sales were also poor at first, the fact that the introduction was by the popular Kerouac helped it reach a larger audience.
Over time and through its inspiration of later artists, The Americans became a seminal work in American photography and art history.
It is the work with which Frank is most clearly identified.
Critic Sean O’Hagan, writing in The Guardian in 2014, said:
“It is impossible to imagine photography’s recent past and overwhelmingly confusing present without his lingeringly pervasive presence.”
Above: “Mr. and Mrs. Feiertag/Late afternoon“, Robert Frank, from the photo essay “People You Don’t See (series),” 1951
In 1961, Frank received his first individual show, entitled Robert Frank: Photographer, at the Art Institute of Chicago.
He also showed at MoMA in New York in 1962.
Above: Art Institute of Chicago, Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, USA
The French journal Les cahiers de la photographie devoted special issues 11 and 12 in 1983 to discussion of Robert Frank as a gesture of admiration for, and complicity with, his work, also to set forth his critical capacity as an artist.
To mark the 50th anniversary of the first publication of The Americans, a new edition was released worldwide on May 30, 2008.
For this new edition, most photographs are uncropped (in contrast to the cropped versions in previous editions).
Two photographs are replaced with those of the same subject but from an alternate perspective.
Above: Robert Frank, “Covered car — Long Beach, California”, 1956
A celebratory exhibit of The Americans, titled Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans, was displayed in 2009 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Above: National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA
Above: Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California, USA
Above: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York, USA
An accompanying book, also titled Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans, was published, the most in-depth examination of any photography book ever, at 528 pages.
While working as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jason Eskenazi asked other noted photographers visiting the Looking In exhibition to choose their favorite image from The Americans and explain their choice, resulting in the book, By the Glow of the Jukebox: The Americans List.
Though Frank continued to be interested in film and video, he returned to still images in the 1970s, publishing his second photographic book, The Lines of My Hand, in 1972.
This work has been described as a “visual autobiography“, and consists largely of personal photographs.
However, he largely gave up “straight” photography to instead create narratives out of constructed images and collages, incorporating words and multiple frames of images that were directly scratched and distorted on the negatives.
None of this later work has achieved an impact comparable to that of The Americans.
In contrast to The Americans, Frank’s later images simply were not beyond the pale of accepted technique and practice by that time.
By the time The Americans was published in the US in 1959, Frank had moved away from photography to concentrate on filmmaking.
Among his films was the 1959 Pull My Daisy, which was written and narrated by Kerouac and starred Ginsberg and others from the Beat circle.
The Beats emphasized spontaneity.
The film conveyed the quality of having been thrown together or even improvised.
Pull My Daisy was accordingly praised for years as an improvisational masterpiece, until Frank’s co-director, Alfred Leslie, revealed in a 28 November 1968 article in the Village Voice that the film was actually carefully planned, rehearsed, and directed by him and Frank, who shot the film with professional lighting.
In 1960, Frank stayed in Pop artist George Segal’s basement while filming The Sin of Jesus.
Above: American artist George Segal (1924 – 2000)
Isaac Babel’s story was transformed to center on a woman working on a chicken farm in New Jersey.
Above: Russian writer Isaac Babel (1894 – 1940)
It was originally supposed to be filmed in six weeks in and around New Brunswick, Canada, but Frank ended up shooting for six months.
Above: Flag of the Canadian province of New Brunswick
Frank’s 1972 documentary of the Rolling Stones is arguably his best known film.
The film shows the Stones on tour, engaging in heavy drug use and group sex.
Frank said of the Stones:
“It was great to watch them — the excitement.
But my job was after the show.
What I was photographing was a kind of boredom.
It’s so difficult being famous.
It’s a horrendous life.
Everyone wants to get something from you.”
Mick Jagger reportedly told Frank:
“It’s a good film, Robert, but if it shows in America we’ll never be allowed in the country again.”
The Stones sued to prevent the film’s release.
It was disputed whether Frank as the artist or the Stones as those who hired the artist owned the copyright.
A court order restricted the film to being shown no more than five times per year, and only in the presence of Frank.
Frank’s photography also appeared on the cover of the Rolling Stones’ album Exile on Main Street.
Above: Album cover, The Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street
Other films by Frank include:
Me and My Brother
Keep Busy
Candy Mountain
Frank and Mary separated in 1969.
He remarried, to sculptor June Leaf.
Above: American artist June Leaf
In 1971, they moved to the community of Mabou, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Above: Mabou, Nova Scotia, Canada
In 1974, his daughter, Andrea, was killed in a plane crash in Tikal, Guatemala.
In 1995, in memory of his daughter he founded the Andrea Frank Foundation, which provides grants to artists.
Above: Mayan Temple 1, Tikal, Guatemala
Also around this time, his son, Pablo, was first hospitalized and diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Much of Frank’s subsequent work dealt with the impact of the loss of both his daughter and subsequently his son, who died in an Allentown, Pennsylvania hospital in 1994.
Above: Images of Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA
Well, we’re living here in Allentown And they’re closing all the factories down Out in Bethlehem they’re killing time Filling out forms Standing in line Well, our fathers fought the Second World War Spent their weekends on the Jersey Shore Met our mothers in the USO Asked them to dance Danced with them slow And we’re living here in Allentown
But the restlessness was handed down And it’s getting very hard to stay
Well, we’re waiting here in Allentown For the Pennsylvania we never found For the promises our teachers gave If we worked hard If we behaved So the graduations hang on the wall But they never really helped us at all No, they never taught us what was real Iron and coke And chromium steel And we’re waiting here in Allentown
But they’ve taken all the coal from the ground And the union people crawled away
Every child had a pretty good shot To get at least as far as their old man got But something happened on the way to that place They threw an American flag in our face
Well, I’m living here in Allentown And it’s hard to keep a good man down But I won’t be getting up today
And it’s getting very hard to stay And we’re living here in Allentown
After his move to Nova Scotia, Canada, Frank divided his time between his home there, in a former fisherman’s shack on the coast, and his Bleeker Street loft in New York.
He acquired a reputation for being a recluse (particularly since the death of Andrea), declining most interviews and public appearances.
Above: Robert Frank address, 7 Bleecker Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
He continued to accept eclectic assignments, however, such as photographing the 1984 Democratic National Convention, and directing music videos for artists such as New Order (“Run“) and Patti Smith (“Summer Cannibals“).
Above: Logo of the US Democratic Party
Above: Front cover for the single Summer Cannibals by Patti Smith
Frank produced both films and still images, and helped organize several retrospectives of his art.
His work has been represented by Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York since 1984.
In 1994, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC presented the most comprehensive retrospective of Frank’s work to date, entitled Moving Out.
Anthony works in the grocery store Savin’ his pennies for someday Mama Leone left a note on the door She said, “Sonny, move out to the country” Workin’ too hard can give you A heart attack (ack, ack, ack, ack, ack) You oughta know by now (oughta know) Who needs a house out in Hackensack Is that what you get for your money?
It seems such a waste of time If that’s what it’s all about Mama, if that’s movin’ up Then I’m movin’ out I’m movin’ out
Sergeant O’Leary is walkin’ the beat At night he becomes a bartender He works at Mister Cacciatore’s down On Sullivan Street Across from the medical center He’s tradin’ in his Chevy for a Cadillac (ack, ack, ack, ack, ack) You oughta know by now And if he can’t drive With a broken back At least he can polish the fenders
It seems such a waste of time If that’s what it’s all about Mama, if that’s movin’ up Then I’m movin’ out I’m movin’ out
You should never argue with a crazy mind (mi-, mi-, mi-, mi-, mi-) You oughta know by now You can pay Uncle Sam with the overtime Is that all you get for your money If that’s what you have in mind If that’s what you’re all about Good luck movin’ up ‘Cause I’m moving out I’m moving out (mmm) Ou, ou, uh huh (mmm)
I’m moving out
Frank died on 9 September 2019, at his home in Nova Scotia.
Above: Robert Frank home, Mabou, Nova Scotia
Let us return back to Switzerland and Arnold Kübler…..
Above: Arnold Kübler, editor of the Zürcher Illustrierte
(Under Kübler, in the literary section, works by Hermann Hesse and Max Frisch were included.
Above: German writer Hermann Hesse (1877 – 1962)
Above: Swiss writer Max Frisch (1911 – 1991)
In 1941, Conzett & Huber decided to sell the Zürcher Illustrierte and publish a new magazine with which they planned to promote the multi-color print they have developed.
Arnold Kübler became the editor-in-chief of the newly founded cultural magazine Du, which he ran for 16 years.
Under Kübler’s leadership, Du became a well respected cultural magazine, employing prominent photographers and focused on painters like Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro and Paul Klee.
Above: Spanish artist Joan Miro (1893 – 1983)
Above: Swiss artist Paul Klee (1879 – 1940)
Kübler was active in his positions as a cultural mediator and source of inspiration, but did not neglect his own artistic forms of expression:
In the 1960s he returned to the theatre stage with great success as a one-man cabaret.
In addition, Kübler was active in drawing and writing, which he was able to combine in several of his books, for example, in the travelogue Paris – Bâle à pied (Paris to Basel on foot) – Report and drawings of a 500 km journey on foot in 28 days (1967).
In his Öppi novels, Kübler described autobiographical events on more than 2,000 pages.
Kübler’s works:
The Failed Actor (1934)
The Heart, the Corner, the Donkey, and Other Stories (1939)
Öppi from Wasenwachs: The boy without a mother (1943)
Öppi the student (1947)
Öppi and Eve (1951)
Velodyssey: A sporting epic (1955)
In Alfred Hüggenberger’s country: A winter journey with drawings (1958)
Mitenand, gägenenand, durenand: A picture book of how to treat your neighbor in Switzerland (1959)
Zurich experienced, drawn, explained (1960)
48 cheerful stories (1961)
The dare: A Zürich booklet about Basel (1961)
Sites and cities: Experienced, drawn, explained(1963)
Öppi the fool (1964)
Draw, Antonio!(1966)
Babette, best regards: Predominantly true accounts and drawings (1967)
Paris – Bâle à pied: Report and drawings of a 500 km journey on foot in 28 days (1967)
Say & write! – A humorous cabaret autobiographical contribution to the cultural history of the city of Zürich (1969)
Israel: a look – Report with drawings (1970)
Stay: Mostly cheerful reports with drawings (1974) )
Above: Original German language version of Arnold Kübler’s The Failed Actor
(Alfred Huggenberger (1867 – 1960) (aka Dr. Hans Meyerlein) was a Swiss writer.
Above: Alfred Huggenberger
With his numerous farces, stories and poems, both in standard German and in his Eastern Swiss dialect, he became known beyond Switzerland.
Alfred Huggenberger was born the son of a farmer in Bewangen (Canton Zürich) near the border of Canton Thurgau.
Above: Village school with clock tower, Bertschikon bei Attikon, Canton Zürich, Switzerland
At the age of 29, he took over his parents’ farm, which burned down, due to arson, in 1904.
Together with his wife Bertha and their daughter, Huggenberger moved to neighboring Gerlikon (Canton Thurgau) in 1908, where he took over a smaller farm that gave him more time for his literary work.
Above: St. George Chapel, Gerlikon, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland
Alfred Huggenberger began writing early on.
He made his literary breakthrough beyond the Swiss border in 1907 with the book Hinterm Pflug (Behind the Plough) supported by well-known authors, such as Hermann Hesse.
During the National Socialist era, he was used by the Nazis to propagate blood and soil literature.
(Blood and soil literature is the contrast between town and country, with the city embodying the concepts of democracy, liberalism, modernism and individualism as negative values, and the rural countryside, with its naturalness.
A sense of community and an anti-progress ideal represented the supposedly positive pole.
Blood and soil literature differs from other streams of Nazi fiction in its glorification of country life, nature and the return to nature.)
Above: Coat of arms of the German Reich (1935 – 1945)
(I never cease to be amazed by how the Nazis could take something wonderful and convert it into something terrible.
For example, the swastika is a millennia-old sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism that represents peace and good fortune, but in the West, it remains equated to Adolf Hitler’s hooked cross (Hakenkreuz).
Happily, calls to reclaim the swastika as a sacred symbol become louder.
Above: Hindu Swastika
Another example is Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844 – 1900), a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic and philologist, whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy.
Nietzsche’s writing spans philosophical polemics, poetry, cultural criticism and fiction while displaying a fondness for aphorism and irony.
Prominent elements of his philosophy include:
his radical critique of truth in favor of perspectivism
a genealogical critique of religion and Christian morality and a related theory of master – slave morality
the aesthetic affirmation of life in response to both the “death of God” and the profound crisis of nihilism
the notion of Apollonian and Dionysian forces
a characterization of the human subject as the expression of competing wills, collectively understood as the will to power
He also developed influential concepts such as the Übermensch (Superman) and his doctrine of eternal return.
In his later work, he became increasingly preoccupied with the creative powers of the individual to overcome cultural and moral mores in pursuit of new values and aesthetic health.
His body of work touched a wide range of topics, including:
art
philology
history
music
religion
tragedy
culture
science
After his death, Nietzsche’s sister Elisabeth became the curator and editor of his manuscripts.
She edited his unpublished writings to fit her German ultranationalist ideology, often contradicting or obfuscating Nietzsche’s stated opinions, which were explicitly opposed to antisemitism.
Through her, Nietzsche’s work became associated with fascism and Nazism.
20th-century scholars defended Nietzsche against this interpretation.
Corrected editions of his writings were soon made available.
Nietzsche’s thought enjoyed renewed popularity in the 1960s.
His ideas have since had a profound impact on 20th- and early 21st-century thinkers across philosophy — especially in schools of Continental philosophy (such as existentialism, postmodernism and post-structuralism — as well as art, literature, poetry, politics, and popular culture.
Above: Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900)
I have visited the Nietzsche Museum in Sils Maria, where the philosopher spent his final years.
I highly recommend a visit.)
Above: Nietzsche Haus Museum, Sils Maria, Canton Graubünden, Switzerland, where the German philosopher lived during the summers of 1881 and from 1883 to 1888.
(In addition to absorbing Germanic pagan myths, blood-and-soil literature played an important role in the creation of the Nazi worldview.
Nature and natural life are made the subject of a political myth by the writers of the blood-and-soil style.
The focus is on the farmer and the farmer’s wife as symbols of the “pure” German par excellence.
Village society appears as a Nazi microcosm.
Nazi racism is propagated through blood and soil literature.
One of the basic tenets of the genre is the idea that “nobility” is nothing other than the peasant clan who must hold on to their indivisible, unsaleable hereditary farm for the purpose of breeding, to keep their blood pure.)
Above: German People, German Work, Kaiserdamm, Berlin, Germany (1934)
Huggenberger’s entire oeuvre comprises over 100 volumes of prose and poetry – some in Standard German, some in Swiss German – as well as numerous plays.
Huggenberger worked in agriculture until old age.
He died at the age of 92 in the former monastery of St. Katharinental and is buried in the cemetery in Gachnang.)
Above: Monastery of St. Katharinenthal, Diesenhofen, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland
Now let us go back to Altnau and Hans Baumgartner…..
Above: Swiss teacher/photographer Hans Baumgartner
Baumgartner’s first photo report appeared in 1935.
Baumgartner then published in magazines, such as Camera, Du, Der Schweizer Spiegel (the Swiss Mirror), DieSchweiz (Switzerland) and Föhn (a type of dry, relatively warm, downslope wind that occurs in the lee (downwind side) of a mountain range – what Canadians call a chinook).
The Neue Zürcher Zeitung (New Zurich newspaper) and the Thurgauer Zeitung also published his pictures.
His photo books (from 1941) deal primarily with themes from his home canton of Thurgau.
Above: Exercise in the snow, Hans Baumgartner photograph
In 1937, he made the acquaintance of the painter Adolf Dietrich, whom he subsequently portrayed several times.
Above: Swiss artist Adolf Dietrich
(Adolf Dietrich (1877 – 1957) was a Swiss painter.
Dietrich was born in a small, modest house in Berlingen, in Canton Thurgau, the 7th child of Heinrich Dietrich and Dorothea (née Kern).
Above: Adolf Dietrich Haus, Berlingen, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland
Even as a small boy he collected a lot and tried to imitate and draw everything.
From 1885 to 1893 he attended primary school.
He was a good and diligent student.
His teacher recognized his talent for drawing and encouraged it.
He recommended to his parents that their son should do an apprenticeship as a lithographer.
But the family was poor and Adolf had to learn a trade that would earn him more.
So he started to work in a jersey factory in Berlingen.
On Sundays he painted and drew passionately.
From 1896 to 1910 he worked at home as a machine knitter.
Above: Berlingen, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland
Nature with its mysteries and wonders fascinated him more and more.
He began a first sketchbook and a dozen animal watercolours followed.
In 1902, Dietrich became friends with Friedrich Neeser, a baker’s apprentice who also painted.
They spent Sundays together in nature.
Neeser encouraged the serious and somewhat anxious Adolf not to give up painting.
Above: Waldrand, Adolf Dietrich (1918)
In 1903, Dietrich drew his first self-portrait in charcoal.
Above: Adolf Dietrich
His brother, who lived in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, commissioned him to paint a portrait of his parents.
Above: Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
That same year his mother died.
From then on, Dietrich lived alone with his father in a small house in Berlingen.
Above: Dorothea and Heinrich Dietrich
Working from home on the knitting machine helped to cope with the daily worries of existence.
For technical reasons, however, he soon gave up working from home and earned his living as a forest worker.
In 1913, he exhibited his paintings for the first time in Konstanz in the Wessenberghaus Museum.
Above: Wessenberg Haus, Konstanz, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
This was followed by further exhibitions in various galleries in Germany.
In 1918 his father died.
This loss was difficult for him.
Above: Moonlight on the Bodensee, Adolf Dietrich
Dietrich was discovered by the art dealer Herbert Tannenbaum, which enabled Dietrich to exhibit at various locations in Germany.
Tannenbaum endeavored to make Dietrich known in Switzerland and soon obtained permission for exhibitions in Zürich and Schaffhausen.
From 1924, Dietrich was able to make a living from his painting.
In 1937, Adolf Dietrich met Hans Baumgartner, who portrayed him several times for the magazine Du, thus helped him to achieve his international breakthrough.
As a result, Dietrich was able to take part in exhibitions in Paris, London and New York.
It was not until 1941 that his home canton of Thurgau acquired a picture of his.
From 1942, the demand for his pictures became so great that he copied his own pictures and promised the same picture to several people at the same time.
He painted until his death.
He died in his house in Berlingen.
Above: Sunset, Adolf Dietrich
Above: Sunset, Adolf Dietrich
The lawyer Hans Buck, the author of Adolf Dietrich as a draftsman, made sure that Dietrich wrote a will and in it foresightedly thought of a future Thurgau art museum.
Adolf Dietrich had been fascinated by nature and animals since his childhood.
He owned many stuffed animals that he drew.
He often drew his garden or the Bodensee.
He painted portraits and various still life works.
Adolf Dietrich had no academic training as a painter.
He always drew very precisely, so his pictures are very realistic.
Above: Balbo lying on the meadow, Adolf Dietrich, 1955
Above: Fox in the forest, Adolf Dietrich
At the beginning Adolf Dietrich made pencil drawings in his sketchbooks on his hikes, 18 are still preserved today.
Around 1929 he began taking black-and-white photographs, leaving behind several thousand.
He never painted in nature, but only ever made a sketch, which he then painted in color at home from memory.
He never used an easel and always painted his pictures on the table in his living room, often in poor light.
His techniques were gouache and watercolour painting, charcoal drawing, oil painting and pencil sketches.
In the beginning he painted on cardboard, later on wood, but only rarely on canvas.
For this reason quite a lot of his pictures are in a sensitive condition.
The Museum is in his former home in Berlingen and is worth a visit.)
Above: Inside Adolf Dietrich Haus Museum, Berlingen, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland
(The Nazis completed destroyed the worthiness of the given name Adolf, which originally meant “noble wolf“.
Above: Seal of King Adolf of Nassau (1255 – 1298)
In both Protestant Germany (because of Swedish King Gustav Adolf and German writer Adolph von Knigge) and Catholic Germany (because of German priest/philosopher Adolph Kolping), Adolf enjoyed some popularity.
Above: Swedish King Gustav Adolf (1594 – 1632)
Above: German writer Adolphe von Knigge (1752 – 1796)
Above: Adolph Kolping (1813 – 1865)
In 1890, the name was in 13th place on the popularity scale of all male first names in Germany.
But since the beginning of the 20th century, its frequency as a first name has been decreasing.
After an upswing from 1933, which lasted until 1942, the use of the name collapsed – in correlation with Adolf Hitler’s popularity.
Above: Adolf Hitler (1889 – 1945)
Since the early 1950s, the first name Adolf has rarely been given to newborns in German-speaking countries.
The name is heavily burdened by the dictator Adolf Hitler and other Nazis, such as Adolf Eichmann (who orchestrated the Holocaust).
Above: Adolf Eichmann (1906 – 1962)
The first name is given about 15 times a year in Germany.
The competent registry office decides on the admissibility in individual cases, in particular on the basis of the best interests of the child.
In cases of doubt, they can consult the Onomastics Center at the University of Leipzig.
Above: Logo of the University of Leipzig, Saxony, Germany
The name was also popular in Sweden, where several kings bore the name.
However, it has not been in the top ten most popular first names in any decade since the 1920s.
In 2015, there were only around 2,600 bearers of this name in Sweden.
Since at least 1998, fewer than ten newborn boys have been given this name each year.
Above: Flag of Sweden
In the 2018 film Der Vorname (just like in the original 2012 French film Le Prénom), the name is the catalyst for a consequential dispute among the antagonists.
In it, an expectant father says with deadly seriousness that he will name his son Adolf.
But he only wants to provoke his brother-in-law in order to give him a tit-for-tat for his constant mockery.)
Baumgartner also photographed his trips to Paris and Italy, the Balkans, southern France, North Africa and the Sahara, Croatia and the Dalmatian Coast, Burgundy, Spain and Portugal, Sweden and Finland, the US, Hungary, Belgium and Germany.
Above: Sand dunes, Sahara Desert, Algeria
Above: Flag of Croatia
Above: Flag of Portugal
Above: Flag of Hungary
On his world trip by ship in 1963, he reached Asia (Bombay/Mumbai, Colombo, Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Yokohama) and the American continent (Mexico and the US).
Above: Mumbai, India
Above: Parliament Buildings, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Above: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Above: Hong Kong, China
Above: Yokohama, Japan
Stays at spas took him to Davos.
Above: Images of Davos, Canton Graubünden, Switzerland
Hans Baumgartner died in Frauenfeld in 1996.
Above: Frauenfeld, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland
The Swiss Foundation for Photography manages his estate of around 120,000 photographs.
It cannot be denied that Switzerland, despite its diminutive size (as compared to Canada or Turkey), is replete with talented artists.
Above: Coat of arms of Switzerland
Above: Flag of Canada
Above: Flag of Turkey
All of the above-mentioned Swiss artists, save Dietrich, travelled the world.
Dietrich’s world surrounded him.
Above: Sunset, Adolf Dietrich
I mention Baumgartner, because I think his photography abandoned the sphere of technical experimentation, the abstract and the avant-garde.
Photography became more wholesome, concentrating on the poetry of real things, the universal language of life.
Baumgartner was a teacher but by following his passions he succeeded in creating photos that tell a narrative, such as in Italy, a stolen image of lovers resting beside their discarded bicycles amongst long summer grass in an olive grove, or in Java, a boy stretches balletically across the pavement as he plays marbles.
Above: Hans Baumgartner
Kübler tried to be a geologist, then a sculptor, found success as an actor, was disfigured and still managed to achieve success as an artist in the field of literature.
Kübler believed in the role that photography can play upon the people who view it.
Above: Arnold Kübler
Senn showed that photography can be of a humanist nature.
Above: Paul Senn
Bischof sought to capture the true face of the world, the essence of real life.
Above: Werner Bischof
Tuggener showed that there was poetry in photography.
Above: Jakob Tuggener
Dieter’s guide to creation was Creation itself.
Above: Flowers by the Window with Butterflies, Adolf Dietrich
I believe that once Frank and Huggenberger moved on from their beloved Switzerland they gained their reputations, but lost themselves and the beautiful spirit that is Switzerland that had nurtured them.
Above: Swiss International Air Lines logo
I have only mentioned a few famous Swiss photographers but there are many more worthy of mention, such as:
Fred Boissonnas (1858 – 1946) was a Swiss photographer from Geneva.
Above: Fred Boissonnas
His work is considered crucial for the development of photography in Greece, and its use in favourably publicising the country’s expansionist ambitions, during the early 20th century.
Boissonnas constitutes a central figure in the transition from 19th century approaches to a more contemporary photography of antiquities.
Between 1903 and 1933 Boissonnas made several trips to Greece where he systematically documented Greece in landscape photographs, taken in all corners of the country, reflect its continuity from ancient times to the present day.
On one Greek expedition with compatriot art historian Daniel Baud-Bovy (1870 – 1958), Boissonnas made the first recorded modern-era ascent of Mount Olympus on 2 August 1913, aided by a hunter of wild goats.
Above: Mount Olympus, Greece
In total, Boissonnas published 14 photo albums dedicated to Greece, many of which belong to the thematic series entitled L’image de la Grece (The Image of Greece), his imagery contributing decisively to the identity of Greece in Europe, its promotion as a tourist destination but also its political situation.
His photographs of archaeological sites form 20% of his total Greek series.
He visited the Acropolis, Delphi, Olympia, Dodoni, Knossos, Delos, and many other sites, providing an extensive iconographic panorama of classical Greek antiquities.
Above: The Acropolis, Athens, Greece
Above: Delphi, Greece
Above: Olympia, Greece
Above: Dodoni, Greece
Above: Knossos, Crete
Above: Delos, Greece
Interested not only in documenting a site, Boissonnas also aimed to interpret the Greek landscape in combining classical antiquity with the provincial Greek folklore through associations of natural and cultural elements carefully composed and in the best ambient light.
His last photo album about Greece Following the ship of Ulysses (1933) sought to reconstruct the epic and, in a symbolic way, the dissemination of Greek culture throughout Europe.
The photographs were accompanied by excerpts from Homer’s Odyssey.
Fred Mayer – One of Switzerland’s most influential photographers, Mayer travelled to Indonesia, where he shot a documentation about the former President Sukarno.
His other works include pictures of King Hussein of Jordan and portfolios from all around the world, from the Vatican to Bali.
Above: Hussein bin Talal (1935 – 1999) (King of Jordan: 1952 – 1999)
Above: Flag of Vatican City
Above: Flag of Bali, Indonesia
He further published books about various countries, the Russian orthodox church, Chakkar Polo, Japanese theatre and the Chinese Opera.
Above: Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Moscow, Russia
Above: Noh theatre, Japan
Above: Chinese National Opera House, Beijing, China
In 2011, Mayer published Homage to Hermann Hesse and his Siddhartha, based on the novel Siddhartha by the German author Hermann Hesse.
René Groebli – His first small folio Magie der Schiene (Rail magic) comprising 16 photographs (with front and back cover) was also shot in 1949 and self-published later the same year.
Above: René Groebli
It captures the ‘magic’ of steam train travel during the late 1940s.
Photographed in and around Paris, as well as locations in Switzerland, the often motion-blurred and grainy images convey the energy of steam.
The small book, Das Auge der Liebe (The Eye of Love), though respected for its design and photography, caused some controversy, but also brought Groebli attention.
The term “love” in the title being considered by students to be too sentimental given the obvious sexual connotations.
Where the photographer’s intention was for a romantic effect, the editor admitted that the narrative was sexualized.
In the leading periodical Neue Zürcher Zeitung, editor Edwin Arnet objected to the emphasis on nudity.
Groebli sequenced his photographs to tell the story of a woman meeting a man in a cheap hotel.
The last photograph shows the woman’s hand with a wedding ring on her ring finger holding an almost finished post-coitus cigarette.
In the perception of audiences of the era, the implication was that the woman had to be either an ‘easy woman’, a prostitute, or an unfaithful wife.
However the US Camera Annual review of the work in 1955 pronounced it “a tender photo essay on a photographer’s love for a woman”.
René Robert (1936 – 2022) – In the mid-1960s, he moved to Paris, where he met a Swedish dancer who introduced him to the flamenco.
Above: René Robert
In 1967, he became one of the great portrait photographers.
He photographed personalities such as Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia (1947 – 2014), Spanish flamenco dancers Israel Galván and Rocio Molina Cruz in black-and-white.
Above: Paco de Lucia
Above: Israel Galván
Above: Rocio Molina Cruz
On the evening of 19 January 2022, Robert was walking through the Place de la République in Paris when he suddenly had a heart attack and collapsed on the sidewalk on rue de Turbigo.
Despite Robert lying motionless and on the pavement for nine hours, no one stopped to assist him or called for help, until eventually a homeless person called the emergency services.
Robert died of hypothermia on 20 January 2022, at the age of 85.
His death was subsequently the subject of media debate around public indifference to street people.
Above: Monument to the Glory of France, Place de la Republique, Paris, France
Ella Maillart (1903 – 1997) – From the 1930s onwards, she spent years exploring Muslim republics of the USSR, as well as other parts of Asia, and published a rich series of books which, just as her photographs, are today considered valuable historical testimonies.
Above: Ella Maillart (1903 – 1997)
Her early books were written in French, but later she began to write in English.
TurkestanSolo describes a journey in 1932 in Soviet Turkestan.
Above: (in green) Former location of Soviet Central Asia / Russian Turkestan
Photos from this journey are now displayed in the Ella Maillart Wing of the Karakol Historical Museum, Kyrgyzstan.
Above: Flag of Kyrgyzstan
In 1934, the French daily Le Petit Parisien (1876 – 1944) sent her to Manchuria to report on the situation under the Japanese occupation.
Above: Map of Manchuria – From left to right: Outer Manchuria / Inner Manchuria / Northern Manchuria
Above: Images of the Second Sino-Japanese War / War of Chinese Resistance (1937 – 1945)
It was there that she met Peter Fleming (1907 – 1971), a well-known writer and correspondent of The Times, with whom she would team up to cross China from Peking (Beijing) to Srinagar (3,500 miles), much of the route being through hostile desert regions and steep Himalayan passes.
Above: English writer Peter Fleming (elder brother of James Bond creator Ian Fleming)
Above: Flag of China
Above: Beijing, China
Above: Srinagar, India
The journey started in February 1935 and took seven months to complete, involving travel by train, on lorries, on foot, horse and camelback.
Their objective was to ascertain what was happening in Xinjiang (Chinese Turkestan) where the Kumul Rebellion (1931 – 1934) had just ended.
Above: (in red) Location of Xinjiang (Chinese Turkestan)
Above: Turkic conscripts of the 36th Division near Kumul – They are carrying Kuomintaung (Chinese Nationalist Party)(blue sky with a white sun) flags.
Above: Emblem of the Kuomintang
Maillart and Fleming met the Hui (Chinese Muslim) forces of General Ma Hushan.
Above: Ma Hushan (1910 – 1954)
Ella Maillart later recorded this trek in her book Forbidden Journey, while Peter Fleming’s parallel account is found in his News from Tartary.
In 1937 Maillart returned to Asia forLe Petit Parisien to report on Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey.
Above: Ella Maillert, Meshid, Iran, 1939
In 1939 she undertook a trip from Geneva to Kabul by car, in the company of the Swiss writer, Annemarie Schwarzenbach.
The Cruel Way is the title of Maillart’s book about this experience, cut short by the outbreak of the Second World War.
Above: Genève (Geneva), Switzerland
Above: Kabul, Afghanistan
Above: Annemarie Schwarzenbach and Ella Maillert
She spent the war years at Tiruyannamalai in southern India, learning from different teachers about Advaita Vedanta, one of the schools of Hindu philosophy.
Above: Images of Tiruvannamalai, India
On her return to Switzerland in 1945, she lived in Geneva and at Chandolin, a mountain village in the Swiss Alps.
Above: Chandolin, Canton Valais, Switzerland
Annemarie Schwarzenbach (1908 – 1942) was a Swiss writer, journalist and photographer.
Above: Annemarie Schwarzenbach
Her bisexual mother brought her up in a masculine style, and her androgynous image suited the bohemian Berlin society of the time, in which she indulged enthusiastically.
Her anti-Fascist campaigning forced her into exile, where she became close to the family of novelist Thomas Mann.
Above: German novelist Thomas Mann (1875 – 1955)
She would live much of her life abroad as a photojournalist, embarking on many lesbian relationships, and experiencing a growing morphine addiction.
In America, the young Carson McCullers (1917 – 1967) was infatuated with Schwarzenbach, to whom she dedicated Reflections in a Golden Eye.
Above: American writer Carson McCullers (1917 – 1967)
Schwarzenbach reported on the early events of World War II.
On 7 September 1942 in the Engadin, she fell from her bicycle and sustained a serious head injury.
Following a mistaken diagnosis in the Sils clinic where she was treated, she died on 15 November.
Above: Silssee (Lake of Sils), Engadin Valley, Canton Graubünden, Switzerland
There always remains a question in my mind as I travel and discover what personalities places have fostered:
Did these places make them the people they became or would they have become what they were regardless of the environment which spawned them?
Had René Robert not had his heart attack in Paris would he have continued to live on?
Why did Maillart and Schwarzenbach, who had seen so much of the world, decide to return to their homeland of Switzerland – a nation famous for both its international diplomacy but insular fortress mentality?
The art that all these people produced is inspirational.
I love the way words and pictures can work together on a page or a screen.
When wise words have visuals added to them, they seem to travel further, like paper airplanes catching an updraught.
I ask myself questions as I once again visualize the quiet beauty of the Altnau of my memories:
How alike to these Swiss artists in any way might I be, might had I become, had I grown up here?
Would I have become a teacher much like Baumgarten, he who travelled the world but remained devoted to his classroom and his Canton and his country?
Or is it my fate to travel the world and die neglected far from home like René Robert or Werner Bischof?
Or would I have simply faded into the scene as beautiful and ignored as Altnau’s apple blossoms in spring?
The other thoughts that possess me as I type these words is the notion that not only are we products of the places we have been but we are as well artifacts of the age we live in.
Could this modern age of social media, audiovisual developments and the Internet have manifested the molds that made women and men like Baumgartner and Bischof, Senn and Schwarzenbach, Mayer and Maillart?
Words and photos have evolved into sound bites and film.
Books are buried by the cacophony of commentary crowding our consciousness continually by the inane insane bombardment of unfiltered information crashing upon us, drowning us in its mindless distraction.
There is so much reality that life feels unreal.
Technology has greatly improved the lives of many people around the world.
The use of the Internet, in particular, has become so widespread in so many countries that our daily existence is now unimaginable without it.
This is not necessarily a positive development.
When social media first started to become popular, it was an innocent extension of the standard types of interactions between friends and new acquaintances.
These days, however, there are two noticeable extremes, both negative:
One is where the platform is used as a substitute for human-to-human interaction.
The second is where it is employed as a way to bully or aggressively intimidate other people.
And I feel there is a third danger lurking in the corridor….
Above: Facebook logo
Above: Instagram logo
Above: WhatsApp logo
Above: Snapchat logo
For hundreds of years, the more forward-thinking elements of science and technology have stoked imaginations in the world of entertainment.
For example, a huge number of sci-fi movies were produced in the 20th century, a period during which space exploration became first a possibility, then a reality.
Many such films depict situations in which one character (in full bodily form) interacts with a 3-D holographic image of another.
Various aspects of society could be going through enormous changes as virtual reality (VR) technology moves towards fully operational and interactive implementation of its potential.
To what extent VR establishes itself as an integral part of our lives and how quickly it is likely to move from niche technology to common usage throughout society remains a matter of deliberation.
VR may well have become sufficiently developed for it to form an essential part of life by the mid-21st century, if not sooner.
Over 40 million people currently own VR headsets.
This figure is expected to double over the next three years.
By 2025, we may well have reached the point at which 200 million users will own a VR viewing device, a head-mounted display (HMD), more commonly known as a VR headset.
We may all prefer to live in a virtual reality that creates an illusion of a reality more desirable than real life itself.
Oh, the seduction promised by this brave new world!
Educators will be presented with a vast array of new opportunities through which to pass on knowledge.
Within the next ten years teachers may become able to move completely away from the course book or flat screen – even the classroom itself – and into an immersive world of instruction and learning.
By way of example, history students could be taken into the epicentre of the world’s greatest battles and conflicts, experiencing and understanding the machinations of victory first-hand.
Medical students may be provided with the opportunity to travel through the human body as if they were themselves the size of a blood cell, building their comprehension of how veins and arteries or nervous systems are interconnected.
Music students will be able to watch a VR orchestra perform their new composition in a venue of their choice, whether that be the local concert hall or even the Sydney Opera House.
Above: Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia
A student of Mandarin should one day be able to walk the streets of Beijing, conversing with the local native speakers and practising the regional pronunciation.
Similarly, by the year 2050, the concept of travel may have undergone a profound transformation.
Parts of the world currently inaccessible to most people, whether because the expense of flying is too great or because those places are too remote to be easily reached, will become open to visitors in the form of exact VR replicas of the original cities, rainforests, beaches, and so on.
Not only is this bound to please avid “travellers“, it could also appease the concerned environmentalist.
The number of commercial flight operators each day might well decrease as people opt for VR vacations.
Perhaps one day VR will be replaced by memory implants of having travelled as suggested by Philip K. Dick’s short story “We can remember it for you wholesale“, which was the inspiration for the 1990 film Total Recall and its 2012 remake.
Above: Philip K. Dick (1928 – 1982)
Perhaps in the future, widespread use of remotely controlled androids will enable everyone to live in idealized forms from the safety of their homes, as suggested by Robert Venditti’s comic book series The Surrogates, which became the 2009 sci-fi film Surrogates.
Despite its potential to change life as we know it today, it may even be possible that VR will ultimately fail to catch on in common usage, that HMDs will be consigned to history’s obsolescence in the same way as compact discs (CDs), mini disc players, the Walkman, cassette players, vinyl record players and personal digital assistants (PDAs).
After all, even the technology that today seems improbable will at some point become outdated.
Despite the optimism in some quarters, genuine interaction with holograms in the real world is still as far from becoming a reality as ever, so if the hologram cannot come to Muhammad then Muhammad must enter the world of the hologram.
Above: A compact disc
Above: Mini disc player
Above: Sony Walkman
Above: Cassette player
Above: Vinyl record player
Above: Personal digital assistant
However, what is currently available has begun to be used for entertainment purposes in a wide range of industries.
The music industry is one.
The music industry has sought to take advantage of holographic technology since its infancy.
There have been numerous examples – concerts and events – during which audiences have been able to watch modern vocalists sharing the stage with holographic images of performers who departed this world some time ago.
In fact, the technology has been developed to such an advanced level that it is almost possible to stage an entire concert performed by dead rock stars.
Great actors could also be resurrected.
Above: Hologram version of Buddy Holly (1936 – 1959)
Critics have argued that this is exploitative of both audiences and musicians, putting on stage an artist who has no way of refusing to be there.
This has led some people inside the music industry to predict a future of bands touring without needing to leave the rehearsal studio.
That being said, I think it would be rather unlikely for any fan to buy a ticket to watch their favourite artists, knowing that the performances they have paid to see is not technically a live show and that the musicians they admire do not wish to be present in the same room as they are.
Real-time 3-D representations of artists are becoming ever more accurate, but have less appeal for live audiences than authentic performances do.
As is often the case, the will to create something new and exciting for consumers of entertainment is hindered by the technology currently available to it.
So, if the real live artist cannot come to a concert, then perhaps it is more desirable to enter a virtual reality that brings the artist’s simulation to you.
Above: Holographic version of Roy Orbison (1936 – 1988)
All of this bothers me deeply.
For in this quest for speed, for distraction, for entertainment, for ease and comfort, we have forgotten to give ourselves the time to think and feel, which is crucial to our very existence.
Modern technology of the moment tends to pull us into life patterns that gradually degrade the ways in which each of us exists as an individual.
By immersing ourselves in VR or holographic illusion, to allow ourselves to become slaves to the machines that were designed to serve us, deemphasizes our value as individuals and the intrinsic value of an individual’s unique internal experience and creativity.
As technology gets “better and better“, as civilization becomes more and more digital, we are hurting ourselves.
The more dependent we become upon our technology, the more we lose the ability to self-determine, the more we lose our freedom.
The more we seek to become like everyone else, the more we lose ourselves.
The reality is that until we become someone, we are not ready to share our lives with someone else.
Widespread impersonal communication has demeaned interpersonal interaction.
The most important thing about technology is how it changes people.
For instance, Stanford University research demonstrated that changing the height of one’s avatar in immersive VR transforms self-esteem and social self-perception.
Technologies have become extensions of ourselves.
Different media designs stimulate different potentials in human nature.
We should not seek to make the pack mentality as efficient as possible.
We should instead seek to inspire the phenomenon of individual intelligence.
Algorithms may find correlations between what you say online and your purchases, your romantic adventures, your debts….
But a person is not a pat formula.
Being human is a quest, a mystery, a leap of faith.
Technology is meant to be an extension of our being, not a replacement of it.
I find myself thinking of the 2013 film The Congress and the 1971 sci-fi novel that inspired it – Stanislaw Lem’s The Futurological Congress.
Actress Robin Wright’s longtime agent Al (Harvey Keitel) takes her to meet Jeff Green (Danny Huston), CEO of film production company Miramount Studios, who offers to buy her likeness and digitize her into a computer-animated version of herself.
Realizing she may be unable to find future work with the emergence of this new technology, she agrees to sell the film rights to her digital image to Miramount in exchange for a hefty sum of money.
She is forced to promise never to act again.
After her body is digitally scanned, the studio will be able to make films starring her, using only computer-generated characters.
Since then, Robin’s virtual persona has become the star of a popular sci-fi action film franchise.
Twenty years later, as her contract is about to expire, Robin travels to Abrahama City, where she will speak at Miramount’s entertainment Futurological Conference in the Hotel Miramount Nagasaki, and also to renew her now-expired contract.
Abrahama City is an animated surreal Utopia that is created from figments of people’s imaginations, where anyone can become an animated avatar of themselves, but are required to use hallucinogenic drugs that allow them to enter a mutable illusionary state.
They can become anyone or anything they want to be.
Above: Scene from The Congress
While discussing her new contract, Robin learns that the studio has developed a new technology that will allow anyone to devour her or transform themselves into her.
She agrees to the deal, but has a crisis of conscience and does not believe anyone should be turned into a product.
Asking to speak to the public at the Congress, she publicly voices her contrary views, upsetting the hosts, judges and the councils of the Congress, who are unimpressed with her disapproval.
Above: Scene from The Congress
Shortly afterwards, the Congress is interrupted by an attack of a group of rebel terrorists and protesters ideologically opposed to the technology industry.
The head of the Congress is assassinated.
Returning to the unanimated real world, Robin finds herself in a dystopian environment.
The inhabitants are severely dysfunctional.
Most people have left the real world for an existence in the animated unreal world.
Above: Scene from The Congress
I am also reminded of Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World.
Above: Movie poster for the 1966 film Fahrenheit 451
Above: Movie poster for 1980 film Brave New World
Fahrenheit 451 presents an American society where books have been personified, outlawed and burnt when found.
Ray Bradbury wrote the book as a commentary on how mass media reduces interest in reading literature, citing political correctness as the real enemy that seeks to control thought and freedom of speech.
Above: Ray Bradbury (1920 – 2012)
Between 1947 and 1948, Bradbury wrote “Bright Phoenix“, a short story about a librarian who confronts a “Chief Censor“, who burns books.
An encounter Bradbury had in 1949 with the police inspired him to write the short story “The Pedestrian” in 1951.
In “The Pedestrian“, a man going for a nighttime walk in his neighborhood is harassed and detained by the police.
In the society of “The Pedestrian“, citizens are expected to watch television as a leisurely activity, a detail that would be included in Fahrenheit 451.
The story features Leonard Mead, a citizen of a television-centered world in November 2053.
In the city the sidewalks have fallen into decay. Mead enjoys walking through the city at night, something which no one else does.
“In ten years of walking by night or day, for thousands of miles, he had never met another person walking, not one in all that time.”
On one of his usual walks, he encounters a police car, which is robotic.
It is the only police unit in a city of three million as the purpose of law enforcement has disappeared with everyone watching television at night.
When asked about his profession Mead tells the car that he is a writer, but the car does not understand since no one buys books or magazines in the television-dominated society.
The police car, which is revealed to have no occupants, cannot understand why Mead would be out walking for no reason.
So it decides to take him to the Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies.
As the car passes through his neighborhood, Mead, locked in the confines of the back seat says, “That’s my house.”, as he points to a warm and bright house with all its lights on, unlike all the other houses.
There is no reply.
The story concludes.
The address of the main character, Leonard Mead, happens to be the address of the house in which Bradbury grew up.
This has caused speculation that this short story is actually referring to himself, or is in some related way a message to his home town of Waukegan, Illinois.
Above: Downtown Waukegan, Illinois, USA
The 60th anniversary of Fahrenheit 451 contains the short piece “The Story of Fahrenheit 451” by Jonathan R. Eller.
In it, Eller writes that Bradbury’s inspiration for the story came when he was walking down Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles with a friend in late 1949.
On their walk, a police cruiser pulled up and asked what they were doing.
Bradbury answered, “Well, we’re putting one foot in front of the other.”
The policemen did not appreciate Ray’s joke and became suspicious of Bradbury and his friend for walking in an area where there were no pedestrians.
Inspired by this experience, he wrote “The Pedestrian“.
The short novella that would later evolve into Fahrenheit 451.
Above: “The Miracle Mile“, Wiltshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA – this stretch of Wilshire near the La Brea Tar Pits was named “Miracle Mile” for its improbable rise to prominence
What’s the matter with the clothes I’m wearing? “Can’t you tell that your tie’s too wide?” Maybe I should buy some old tab collars? “Welcome back to the age of jive Where have you been hidin’ out lately, honey? You can’t dress trashy till you spend a lot of money” Everybody’s talkin’ ’bout the new sound Funny, but it’s still rock and roll to me
What’s the matter with the car I’m driving? “Can’t you tell that it’s out of style?” Should I get a set of white wall tires? “Are you gonna cruise the Miracle Mile? Nowadays you can’t be too sentimental Your best bet’s a true baby blue Continental” Hot funk, cool punk, even if it’s old junk It’s still rock and roll to me
Oh, it doesn’t matter what they say in the papers ‘Cause it’s always been the same old scene There’s a new band in town But you can’t get the sound from a story in a magazine… Aimed at your average teen
How about a pair of pink sidewinders And a bright orange pair of pants? “You could really be a Beau Brummell baby If you just give it half a chance Don’t waste your money on a new set of speakers, You get more mileage from a cheap pair of sneakers” Next phase, new wave, dance craze, anyways It’s still rock and roll to me
What’s the matter with the crowd I’m seeing? “Don’t you know that they’re out of touch?” Should I try to be a straight ‘A’ student? “If you are then you think too much Don’t you know about the new fashion honey? All you need are looks and a whole lotta money” It’s the next phase, new wave, dance craze, anyways It’s still rock and roll to me
Everybody’s talkin’ ’bout the new sound Funny, but it’s still rock and roll to me
In Fahrenheit 451, Leonard’s character can be considered similar to that of Clarisse McClellan‘s uncle, who tells of a similar story repeated by her niece to Montag.
“The Pedestrian” was adapted for radio and broadcast on the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) program Theatre 10:30 (1968 – 1971).
Above: Corporate flag of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)
The story was made into an episode of The Ray Bradbury Theatre, starring David Ogden Stiers as Leonard Mead.
Above: David Ogden Stiers (as Leonard Mead) (1942 – 2018)
Elements of both “Bright Phoenix” and “The Pedestrian” would be combined into “The Fireman“, a novella published in 1951.
Bradbury was urged to make “The Fireman” into a full novel.
Simple pleasures and interests make one an outcast.
Bradbury recounts a history of how books lost their value as people began to embrace new media, sports, and an ever-quickening pace of life.
Books were ruthlessly abridged or degraded to accommodate shorter attention spans.
Books were condemned as sources of confusing and distressing thoughts that only complicated people’s lives.
In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, society’s methods of keeping its citizens peaceful is with the constant consumption of a soothing, happiness-producing drug, soma.
I am also reminded of the 2002 American dystopian sci-fi film Equilibrium:
Libria, a totalitarian city-state established by survivors of World War III, blames human emotion as the cause for the war.
Any activity or object that stimulates emotion is strictly forbidden.
Those in violation are labelled “Sense Offenders” and sentenced to death.
The population is forced to take a daily injection of “Prozium II” to suppress emotion.
Libria is governed by the Tetragrammaton Council, led by “Father“, who communicates propaganda through giant video screens throughout the city.
Above: Flag of Libria: The four Ts on the flag represent the Tetragrammaton Council.
At the pinnacle of law enforcement are the Grammaton Clerics, trained in the martial art of gun kata.
Clerics frequently raid homes to search for and destroy illegal materials – art, literature and music – executing violators on the spot.
A resistance movement, known as the “Underground“, emerges to topple Father and the Tetragrammaton Council.
The film follows John Preston (Christian Bale), an enforcement officer in a future in which feelings and artistic expression are outlawed and citizens take daily injections of powerful psychoactive drugs to suppress their emotions.
After accidentally missing a dose, Preston begins to experience emotions, which makes him question his morality and moderate his actions while attempting to remain undetected by the suspicious society in which he lives.
Ultimately, he aids the resistance movement using advanced martial arts, which he was taught by the regime he is helping to overthrow.
Above: Christian Bale (as John Preston), Equilibrium
Insidious forces are marshalled against the time, space and will to walk and think, to see and imagine, and against all that these acts embody.
We live in an age of fear of the time in-between, the time it takes to get from here to there, moments of meandering, of rushing and running.
The time in-between has been deplored as a waste, requiring reduction, silence silenced by earphones playing music, the serendipity of the scene that surrounds us is ignored by eyes downcast drawn to mobile phones.
The very ability to appreciate this uncluttered time, the uses of the “useless“, is evaporating, as has appreciation of the outside – anything outside the familiar.
Mobile phones are our buffer against solitude, silence and encounters with the unknown.
But it is only in solitude and silence can we learn to love our own company and can hear our own mind.
It is encounters with the unknown through which we can learn to live and discover the myriad possibilities of existence.
Dependency on our devices is not freedom.
Dependency is merely distraction from our fears of the unknown.
Distraction ultimately leads to destruction of self.
What we’re living in? Lemme tell ya
Yeah, it’s a wonder man can eat at all When things are big that should be small Who can tell what magic spells we’ll be doing for us
And I’m giving all my love to this world Only to be told I can’t see, I can’t breathe No more will we be
And nothing’s gonna change the way we live ‘Cause we can always take, but never give And now that things are changing for the worse, see Whoa, it’s a crazy world we’re living in And I just can’t see that half of us immersed in sin Is all we have to give these
Futures made of virtual insanity, now Always seem to be governed by this love we have For these useless, twisting, of our new technology Oh, now there is no sound, for we all live underground
And I’m thinking what a mess we’re in Hard to know where to begin If I could slip the sickly ties that earthly man has made And now every mother can choose the color Of her child, that’s not nature’s way
Well, that’s what they said yesterday There’s nothing left to do, but pray I think it’s time to find a new religion
Whoa, it’s so insane To synthesize another strain There’s something in these futures That we have to be told
Futures made of virtual insanity, now Always seem to be governed by this love we have For these useless, twisting, of our new technology Oh, now there is no sound, for we all live underground, wow
Now there is no sound If we all live underground And now it’s virtual insanity Forget your virtual reality
Oh, there’s nothing so bad As a manmade man Oh, yeah, I know, yeah (take it to the dance floor)
I know I can’t go on
Of this virtual insanity we’re living in Has got to change, yeah Things will never be the same And I can’t go on Where we’re living in Oh, oh, virtual insanity
Oh, this world He’s got to change ‘Cause I just I just can’t keep going on in this virtual, virtual insanity That we’re living in, that we’re living in And that virtual insanity is what is, yeah
Futures made of virtual insanity, now Always seem to be governed by this love we have For these useless, twisting, of our new technology Oh, now there is no sound, for we all live underground, oh
Futures made of, now, virtual insanity Now we all, we seem to be governed by a love For these useless, twisting, of our new technology And now there is no sound, for we all live underground Yes, we do, oh
Now this life that we live in (Virtual insanity) it’s all going wrong Out of the window (living in) Do you know there is nothing worse than (virtual insanity)
A manmade man (Virtual insanity) There’s nothing worse than (Living in) a foolish man (Virtual insanity) Hey!
Virtual insanity is what we’re living in, yeah Well… It’s alright
Altnau is a small town, full of life and light and love, but one must walk its streets and stroll along its shore and meander through its apple orchards and linger on its jetty to capture its universal language.
Its past and the teacher-photographer who emerged from it and those of his ilk whose photographs captured the beauty of the canton, the country, the world, remind us that beauty is accessible to everyone, anywhere and everywhere, if only we choose to see it.
Walk away from your laptops and mobile phones.
Look up to the glory of the heavens instead.
Pull the phones from your ears.
Listen to the orchestra of songbirds, the crash of waves, and the whisper of your own thoughts.
Reject VR.
Choose reality.
Turn off the TV.
Switch off the radio.
Ignore movies that rob us of imagination.
Resist stimulants and distractions.
Learn to love life as it is in all its complexity.
Read a great work of literature.
Look at photographs and pictures.
Walk and make your own memories.
Words are the expression of thought.
Pictures are the expression of emotion.
Walking is the synchronicity of both thought and emotion in a symphony of all the senses.
Another suburban family morning. Grandmother screaming at the wall.
We have to shout above the din of our Rice Crispies We can’t hear anything at all. Mother chants her litany of boredom and frustration, But we know all her suicides are fake.
Daddy only stares into the distance There’s only so much more that he can take.
Many miles away something crawls from the slime At the bottom of a dark Scottish lake.
Another industrial ugly morning The factory belches filth into the sky. He walks unhindered through the picket lines today, He doesn’t think to wonder why. The secretaries pout and preen like cheap tarts in a red light street, But all he ever thinks to do is watch. And every single meeting with his so-called superior Is a humiliating kick in the crotch.
Many miles away something crawls to the surface Of a dark Scottish loch.
Another working day has ended. Only the rush hour hell to face. Packed like lemmings into shiny metal boxes. Contestants in a suicidal race. Daddy grips the wheel and stares alone into the distance, He knows that something somewhere has to break. He sees the family home now looming in his headlights, The pain upstairs that makes his eyeballs ache.
Many miles away there’s a shadow on the door Of a cottage on the shore Of a dark Scottish lake Many miles away [7x]
Altnau is nowhere special.
Altnau is everywhere special.
Discover your own Altnau.
Sources: Wikipedia / Google / Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 / The Pedestrian / Evliya Çelebi, The Book of Travels / Philip K. Dick, We can remember it for you wholesale / Aldous Huxley, Brave New World / Jamiroquai, Virtual Insanity / Billy Joel, Allentown / It’s still rock & roll to me / Movin’ Out / Jaron Lanier, You Are Not a Gadget / Stanislaw Lem, The Futurological Congress / The Police, Synchronicity II / Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust / Louise Purwin Zobel: The Travel Writer’s Handbook
An article I read on the day I returned to work (Tuesday 1 March 2022) has suggested to me that maybe I could do it, should do it, too.
Hürriyet Daily News, Tuesday 1 March 2022
A Zambian student has won hearts in the Aegean province of Afyon as she promotes the city of Afyonkarahisar with YouTube videos she makes to earn a living.
Above: Chimwemwe Chita
(Hold the phone….
People earn a living from this?)
“My real name is Chimwemwe Chita, but everybody calls me ‘çhita’.
Many tourists come to visit Afyonkarahisar after watching my videos.”, the 22-year-old woman told the daily Hürriyet.
Above: Chimwemwe Chita
(Afyonkarahisar (Turkish: afyon “poppy, opium“, kara “black“, hisar “fortress“) is a city in western Turkey, the capital of Afyon Province.
Afyon is in the mountainous countryside inland from the Aegean coast, 250 km (155 miles) southwest of Ankara along the Akarçay River.
In Turkey, Afyonkarahisar stands out as a capital city of hot springs and spas, an important junction of railway, highway and air traffic in West Turkey, and the place where independence was won.
Above: Afyonkarahisar Kalesi (castle)
The top of the rock in Afyon has been fortified for a long time.
Above: Afyon Castle
It was known to the Hittites as Hapanuwa, and was later occupied by Phrygians, Lydians and Achaemenid Persians until it was conquered by Alexander the Great (356 – 323 BCE).
Above: Map of the Hittite Empire at its greatest extent, with Hittite rule (c. 1350–1300 BCE) represented by the green lineAbove: PhrygiansAbove: Map of the Lydian Empire in its final period of sovereignty under Croesus(r. 585 – 546 BCE). (7th century BCE boundary in red)Above: Achaemenid Empire at its greatest territorial extent, under the rule of Darius I (522 to 486 BCE)Above: Alexander on a mosaic from Pompeii, 4th century BCE
After the death of Alexander, the city (now known as Akroinοn (Ακροϊνόν) or Nikopolis (Νικόπολις) in Ancient Greek), was ruled by the Seleucids and the kings of Pergamon, then Rome and Byzantium.
Above: The Kingdom of Pergamon at its greatest extent, 188 BCEAbove: The Roman Empire at its greatest extent, 117 CEAbove: The Byzantine Empire at its greatest extent since the fall of the Western Roman Empire, 555 CE
The Byzantine Emperor Leo III (685 – 741) after his victory over Arab besiegers in 740 renamed the city Nicopolis (Greek for “city of victory“).
Above: Coin bearing the image of Leo III
The Seljuq Turks then arrived in 1071 and changed its name to Kara Hissar (“black castle“) after the ancient fortress situated upon a volcanic rock 201 meters above the town.
Above: The Seljuq Empire at its greatest extent, 1092 CE
Following the dispersal of the Seljuqs the town was occupied by the Sâhib Ata (r. 1260 – 1277)(Sultanate of Rum) and then the Germiyanids.
Above: The Sultanate of Rum (1100 – 1240)Above: Location of Germiyan Kingdom
The castle was much fought over during the Crusades and was finally conquered by the Ottoman Sultan Beyazid I (1360 – 1403) in 1392, but was lost after the invasion of Timur Lenk (1336 – 1405) in 1402.
Above: Beyazid IAbove: Timur Lenk
It was recaptured in 1429.
The area thrived during the Ottoman Empire, as the centre of opium production and Afyon became a wealthy city.
In 1902, a fire burning for 32 hours destroyed parts of the city.
During the First World War British prisoners of war who had been captured at Gallipoli were housed here in an empty Armenian church at the foot of the rock.
Above: Landing at Gallipoli, April 1915
During the Greco-Turkish War (1919 – 1922) campaign (part of the Turkish War of Independence: 1919 – 1923) Afyon and the surrounding hills were occupied by Greek forces.
However, it was recovered on 27 August 1922, a key moment in the Turkish counterattack in the Aegean region.
After 1923 Afyon became a part of the Republic of Turkey.
Above: Flag of the Republic of Turkey
The region was a major producer of raw opium (hence the name Afyon) until the late 1960s when under international pressure, from the US in particular, the fields were burnt and production ceased.
Now poppies are grown under a strict licensing regime.
They do not produce raw opium any more but derive morphine and other opiates using the poppy straw method of extraction.
Above: Seed head of opium poppy with white latex
Afyon was depicted on the reverse of the Turkish 50 lira banknote of 1927 – 1938.
Today, Afyonkarahisar is one of the top leading provinces in agriculture, globally renowned for its marble and is the world’s largest producer of pharmaceutical opium.
Almost a third of all the morphine produced in the world derives from alkaloids factory in Afyon, named as “Afyon Alkaloids“.
This large capacity is the byproduct of Afyon’s poppy plantations.
The pharmaceuticals derive from the opium of the poppy capsules.
The “Afyon Alkaloids” factory is the largest of its kind in the world, with high capacity processing ability and modern laboratories.
The raw opium is put through a chain of biochemical processes, resulting into several types of morphine.
In the alkaloid extraction unit only base morphine is produced.
In the adjacent derivatives unit, half of the morphine extracted is converted to morphine hydrochloride, codeine, codeine phosphate, codeine sulphate, codeine hydrochloride, morphine sulphate, and ethyl morphine hydrochloride.)
Above: Opium poppy crop
Chita’s bond to Afyonkarahisar dated back to 2017 when Kocatepe University, one of the 12 Turkish universities she had applied to, accepted her application to study veterinary medicine.
“Now I am in my 4th year.
I have one more year to study.”, she said.
“But I won’t leave Afyonkarahisar after my graduation.
I want to stay here.
I love it here.“
Her dream is to work in a veterinary clinic, especially to take care of horses.
Above: Chimwemwe Chita
(Afyon Kocatepe University (PIL) was founded in 1974 under Anadolu University and became a university in Afyonkarahisar in 1992.
It is a public university.
As of January 2012, the university has 1,078 academic staff, including 61 professors, 128 associate professors, 259 assistant professors, 255 lecturers, 56 lecturers, 294 research assistants, 25 experts and one education planner.
The number of administrative staff is 846.
The total number of students is 33,000.
As a result of the establishment of Afyonkarahisar University of Health Sciences with health themes in Afyonkarahisar, faculties and colleges providing health education were transferred to AFSU.)
Above: Logo of Afyon Kocatepe University
However, after graduation, Chita has a plan in mind “to travel all around Anatolia“.
Above: Anatolia
The very first place to visit will be Cappadoccia, the picturesque historical region famous for its chimneys in Central Anatolia.
“I want to fly with a hot air balloon over Cappadoccia.”
Above: Balloons over Cappadocia
(Cappadocia (Turkish: Kapadokya) is a historical region in Central Anatolia, largely in the Nevsehir, Kayseri, Akasaray, Kirsehir, Sivas and Nigde provinces in Turkey.
Since the late 300s BCE the name Cappadocia came to be restricted to the inland province (sometimes called Great Cappadocia), Upper Cappadocia.
According to Herodotus (484 – 425 BCE), at the time of the Ionian Revolt (499 BCE), the Cappadocians were reported as occupying a region from Mount Taurus to the vicinity of the Euxine (Black Sea).
Above: Bust of Herodotus
Cappadocia, in this sense, was bounded in the south by the chain of the Taurus Mountains that separate it from Cilicia, to the east by the upper Euphrates, to the north by Pontus, and to the west by Lycaonia, and eastern Galatia.
The name, traditionally used in Christian sources throughout history, continues in use as an international tourism concept to define a region of exceptional natural wonders, in particular characterized by fairy chimneys and a unique historical and cultural heritage.)
Above: Cappadocian landscape
When asked how she started making videos for YouTube, Chita pointed out a local media company called “Afyon Postasi“.
“One day, a friend in the dormitory said officials of Afyon Postasi wanted to work with me and get benefit from my perspective while promoting the city.“, she said.
The first video she filmed was about her visit to the village of Ayazini.
“More than 50,000 liked the video.
It was a good start.
And then came the other videos.“
(Ayazini is a village in the District of Ihsaniye, Afyon Province, Turkey.
It is a historical place settled by Phrygians, Ancient Romans, Byzantines and Seljuks.
There are dwellings, churches and tomb chambers in rock-cut architecture at the archaeological site.
The location has been used as a settlement since the Phrygian period.
Above: Byzantine church carved into rock in Ayazini
There are family and single-person rock tomb chambers with lion figures and columns from Roman and Byzantine times, churches and rock dwellings from the Byzantine period, thanks to carving-suitable rocks.
In addition, there is the Avdalaz Castle with a cistern carved into massive rock.
After the Byzantine era, the site was settled by the Seljuks.
It was reported that there are more than 300 caves in various size used as dwelling and 35 churches and chapels.
Rock dwellings from the early Byzantine period are found in the entrance and inside the village.
The dwellings have single rooms, rooms grouped side by side or one over the other.
Some are accessible by steps or by tunnel-shaped passages from other rooms.
In some rooms, there are benches and niches of various size for storing objects and candles or oil lamps.
The rock dwellings on both sides of the entrance to Avdalaz Valley are large.
The dwellings on one side are in multi-story form.
On the inside, there are deep pits used as a hearth and warehouse.
A circular room featuring seats side by side around the walls is accessible by an inclined tunnel.
Next to this section, a slightly-elevated toilet room is carved into rock.
There are multi-story dwellings resembling modern apartments in the rock-carved castle at the upper end of the Avdalaz Valley.
A cistern is carved on the castle’s ground.
A church structure carved into steep tuff rock is situated at the entrance to Ayazini.
It has an apse and a dome.
Built in the 1000s, it has a monastery structure with the adjacent rock chambers.
The facade of the rock-carved tombs are in the form of columned openings arched with a figure of Medusa.
Some tombs are decorated with lion figure reliefs.
On one tomb, the occupant couple is depicted.)
Above: Rock-carved Ancient Roman tomb with Medusa relief, Ayazini, Afyon Province
(Afyon is the centre of an agricultural area and the city has a country town feel to it.
Above: Afyon
Afyon breeds a large amount of livestocks, its landscape and demography is suitable for this field.
As such it ranks in the top 10 within Turkey in terms of amounts of sheep and cattle it has.
As a result of being an important source of livestock, related sectors such as meat and meat products are also very productive in Afyon.
Its one of the leading provinces in red meat production and has very prestigious brand marks of sausages, such as “Cumhuriyet Sausages“.
Afyon is the sole leader in egg production within Turkey.
It has the largest amount of laying hens, with a figure of 12,7 million.
Afyon produces a record amount of 6 million eggs per day.
Sour cherries are cultivated in Afyon in very large numbers, so much so that it became very iconic to Afyon.
Every year, a sour cherry festival takes place in the Cay district.
It is the largest producer of sour cherries in Turkey.
The sour cherries grown in Afyon are of excellent quality because of the ideal climate they are grown in.
Top quality cherries known as “Napolyon Cherries” are grown in abundance.
One of the iconic agricultural practices of Afyon is the cultivation of poppy.
Afyon’s climate is ideal for the cultivation of this plant, hence a large amount of poppy plantation occurs in this region.
Though, a strong limitation came some decades ago from international laws, nevertheless, Afyon is the largest producer of poppies in Turkey and accounts for a large amount of global production.
Afyon has a durable reputation in potato production.
It produces around 8% of Turkish potato needs.
Afyon ranks in the top five in potato, sugar-beets, cucumber and barley production.
There is little in the way of bars, cafes, live music or other cultural amenities, and the standards of education are low for a city in the west of Turkey, with the exception of Afyon Kocatepe University.
Afyon is known for its marble (in 2005 there were 355 marble quarries in the province of Afyon producing high quality white stone), its sucuk (spiced sausages), its kaymak (meaning either cream or a white Turkish Delight), and various handmade weavings.
Above: Afyon marble quarry
Above: Afyonkarahisar sucuk
Above: Kamak lokum, Turkish delight of cream, a speciality of AfyonkarahisarAbove: Afyonkarahisar weaving
There is also a large cement factory.
Above: Cement factory, Afyonkarahisar
Afyon is a natural crossroads, the routes from Ankara to Izmir and from Istanbul to Antalya intersect here and thus is a popular stopping-place on these journeys.
Above: Afyonkarahisar Station
There are a number of well-established roadside restaurants for travellers to breakfast on the local cuisine.
Some of these places are modern well-equipped hotels and spas – the mineral waters of Afyon are renowned for their healing qualities.
There is also a long string of roadside kiosks selling the local Turkish delight.)
Chita’s favourite local food is soufflé with hash.
“People need to come to Afyonkarahisar and taste all the local foods.
They are delicious.“, she recommends.
Above: Afyonkarahisar soufflé with hash
(Turkish cuisine (Turkish: Türk mutfağı) is largely the heritage of Ottoman cuisine, which can be described as a fusion and refinement of Mediterranean, Balkan, Middle Eastern, Central Asian, Eastern European, Armenian and Georgian cuisines.
Turkish cuisine has in turn influenced those and other neighbouring cuisines, including those of Southeast Europe (Balkans), Central Europe and Western Europe.
The Ottomans fused various culinary traditions of their realm with influences from Mesopotamian cuisine, Greek cuisine, Levantine cuisine, Egyptian cuisine, Balkan cuisine, along with traditional Turkic elements from Central Asia (such as ayran and kaymak), creating a vast array of specialities.)
(Ayran, doogh, dhallë, daw or tan is a cold savory yogurt-based beverage of Turkic origin, popular across Western Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeastern Europe and Eastern Europe.
The principal ingredients are yogurt, water and salt.
Herbs, such as mint, may be optionally added.
Some varieties are carbonated.)
Above: Ayran
(Kaymak, Sarshir, or Qashta/Ashta is a creamy dairy food similar to clotted cream, made from the milk of water buffalo, cows, sheep or goats in Central Asia, some Balkan countries, some Caucasus countries, the countries of the Levant, Turkic regions, Iran and Iraq.
In Poland, the name kajmak refers to a confection similar to dulce de leche instead.
The traditional method of making kaymak is to boil the raw milk slowly, then simmer it for two hours over a very low heat.
After the heat source is shut off, the cream is skimmed and left to chill (and mildly ferment) for several hours or days.
Kaymak has a high percentage of milk fat, typically about 60%.
It has a thick, creamy consistency (not entirely compact, because of milk protein fibers) and a rich taste.)
Above: Kaymak
(Turkish cuisine varies across the country.
The cooking of Istanbul, Bursa, Izmir, and the rest of the Asia Minor region inherits many elements of Ottoman court cuisine, including a moderate use of spices, a preference for rice over bulgar (a type of wheat), koftes (a type of meatball), and a wider availability of vegetable stews (türlü), eggplant, stuffed dolmas (vegetables) and fish.
Above: IstanbulAbove: BursaAbove: IzmirAbove: BulgarAbove: Turkish köfte on pilaf (rice) with orzo (tomato) (“şehriyeli pilav“)Above: Türlü
The cuisine of the Black Sea region uses fish extensively, especially the Black Sea anchovy (hamsi) and includes maize (corn) dishes.
Above: Anchovy
The cuisine of the southeast (e.g. Urfa, Gaziantep, Adiyaman and Adana) is famous for its variety of kebabs (souvlaki / gyros), mezes (appetizers) and dough-based desserts, such as baklava (a layered pastry dessert made of filo pastry, filled with chopped nuts, and sweetened with syrup or honey), söbiyet (A Turkish dessert similar to baklava, it is stuffed with a cream, made from milk and semolina, and nuts (walnuts or pistachios. It has a soft but crusty outside and creamy inside.), kadayif (a traditional Middle Eastern dessert made with spun pastry (kataifi), soaked in a sweet, sugar-based syrup (attar), and typically layered with cheese or with other ingredients, such as clotted cream, pistachio or nuts, depending on the region.) and künefe (a variant of kadayif).
Especially in the western parts of Turkey, where olive trees grow abundantly, olive oil is the major type of oil used for cooking.
Above: Olive oil
The cuisines of the Aegean, Marmara and Mediterranean regions are rich in vegetables, herbs, and fish.
Central Anatolia has many famous specialties, such as keşkek (a sort of ceremonial meat or chicken, wheat or barley stew found in Turkish, Iranian, Greek and Balkan cuisine), manti (a type of dumpling, especially from Kayseri) and gözleme.
Above: Keşkek mealAbove: Kayseri manti
(Gözleme is a savory stuffed turnover, usually made from unleavened dough (of flour, salt and water), lightly brushed with butter or oil, rolled thin, then filled with various toppings, sealed, and cooked over a griddle.
Fillings for gözleme are numerous and vary by region and personal preference, and include a variety of meats (minced beef, chopped lamb, fresh or smoked seafood, sujuk (a dry, spicy fermented sausage), pastirma (a highly seasoned, air-dried cured beef)), vegetables (spinach, zucchini, eggplant, leek, chard, various peppers, onion, scallion, shallot, garlic), mushrooms (porcino, chanterelle, truffle), tubers (potatoes, yams, radish), cheeses (feta, Turkish white cheese, lavaş (a distinctive variety of cheese traditionally produced in Karacadağ, in the vicinity of Diyarbakir in eastern Turkey, generally made from sheep’s milk), Beyaz peynir (a brine cheese produced from unpasteurized sheep, cow or goat milk), çökelek (a fermented, coagulated fresh cheese similar to cottage cheese), Kasseri (a medium-hard or hard pale yellow cheese made from pasteurised or unpasteurised sheep milk and, at most, 20% goat’s milk) and Kashkaval (a type of yellow cheese made from cow’s milk, sheep’s milk or both)), as well as eggs, seasonal herbs and spices.)
Above: Gözleme
Food names directly cognate with mantı are also found in Chinese (mantou: steamed bun) and Korean cuisine (mandu) and it is generally considered to have originated in Mongolia during the 13th century.
Above: Chinese mantouAbove: Korean mandu
Specialties are often named for places, and may refer to different styles of preparation.
For example, Urfa kebab is less spicy and thicker than Adana kebab.
Although meat-based foods, such as kebabs, are common in Turkish cuisine abroad, meals in Turkey largely center around rice, vegetables and bread.)
Above: Urfa kebabAbove: Adana kebab
Apart from the money Chita earns from the local media company, she makes a living in the city by tutoring English lessons and sewing dresses.
She may be homesick, missing her family who reside in her mother country, but she has become an “Afyon local“, with even her music taste converting into “Turkish“.
“I love listening to Baris Manço, Sezen Aksu, Murat Boz and Hadise.”, she listed.
Above: Chimwemwe Chita
(Barış Manço (1943 – 1999) was a Turkish artist, arranger, singer, composer, songwriter, TV show producer and presenter, columnist, State Artist and cultural ambassador.
He was considered one of the pioneers of rock music in Turkey and one of the founders of the Anatolian Rock genre.
His more than 200 songs earned him twelve gold and a platinum album and cassette award. [
Some of his songs were later interpreted in Arabic, Bulgarian, Dutch, English, German, Greek, Hebrew and Japanese.
He went to many countries of the world with his television program and was therefore called “PeaceÇelebi“.
In 1991, he was awarded the title of State Artist of the Republic of Turkey.
Above: Barış Manço
Sezen Aksu (born 1954) is a Turkish singer-songwriter and producer.
Since her debut in the mid-1970s, she has become an influential figure with her songs of Turkish pop music.
In addition to her singing, she also frequently came to prominence as a songwriter and composer thanks to the songs she wrote and composed for others.
She has supported many of the people who were her backing vocalists and produced their albums.
In this way, she helped to promote various names throughout the 1990s and early 2000s and influenced them.
Aksu, who is often referred to the media as Little Sparrow.
She was born in Sarayköy, Denizli.
When she was three years old, her family moved to Izmir.
After completing Izmir Girls High School, she attended Ege University Faculty of Agriculture, but dropped out of school in her second year.
In 1974, she moved to Istanbul and a year later she released her first 45 record asSezen Seley.
In 1977, she released her first studio album, Allahaismared (Goodbye).
She then released dozens of albums, including Sparrow (Serçe) (1978), Firuze (Turquoise) (1982), Don’tYouCry (Sen Ağlama)(1984), Git (Go)(1986), Sezen Aksu Sings (Sezen Aksu Söylüyor)(1989), Smile (Gülumse) (1991), The Song of the Crazy Girl (Deli kizin türküsü)(1993), and Dream Gardens (Duş bahçeleri)(1996).
Smile became one of the best-selling albums of all time in Turkey.
Aksu has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide to date.
Murat Boz (born 1980) is a Turkish singer-songwriter and actor.
After completing his primary and secondary education in his birthplace of Karadeniz Eregli, Zonguldak Province, he settled in Istanbul.
He studied at Istanbul Bilgi University and Istanbul Technical University.
During these years he was a vocalist for many singers, especially Tarkan.
Boz embarked on his solo career with the single “I Can’t Find Love” (Aşki Bulaman Benim), released in 2006.
The following year, he released his first studio album Maximum which won numerous awards praising his debut.
He then continued his career with the albums Luck (şans)(2009), My Loves Are Bigger Than Me (AşklariumBüyük Benden) (2011) and Janti (Rim)(2016).
The songs “Maximum“, “Cliff” (Uçurum), “No Money” (Para Yok), “I MissYou” (Özledim), “Sallana Sallana” and “Let Who Knows YourNameWrite” (Adini Bilen Yazsin) have reached the top five of the Official List of Turkey.
“Maybe Turn Back” (Geri Dönüş Olsa), “I Can’t Stay Friends” (Kalamam Arkadaş) and “Janti” reached the top of the Official List of Turkey.
In addition to his musical career, he has focused on his acting career since 2014, starring in Let’s Hope (Hadi Inşallah)(2014), My Brother (Kardeşim Benim) (2016), If She Returns She Is Yours (Dönerse Senindir) (2016) and Kill Me, Darling (Öldür Beni Sevgilim)(2019).
Murat Boz, who can play piano, violin, drums and ney (a type of Persian flute), is the advertising face of various companies.
Above: Ney
He is one of the four judges of Voice of Turkey.
Above: Murat Boz
Hadise Açgöz (born 1985) is a Belgian-Turkish singer.
She was born and raised in Belgium.
Above: Hadise Açgöz
After participating in the 2003 Idol competition, she began preparations for her first album.
She became popular in Belgium and Turkey for her song “Stir Me Up“, which appeared on her first studio album Sweat, released in 2005.
After the Turkish press took notice of her, she moved her career to Turkey.
In 2008, she released her second studio album, Hadise.
The song “Mad Boy“, which was included in the album consisting of English and Turkish songs, became a hit in Turkey.
The following year, she came fourth in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, representing Turkey with “DümTek Tek“(The Rhythm of My Heart).
Thanks to this competition, she has increased in popularity.
In the same year, she released her albums Fast Life and Hero (Kahraman).
Kahraman‘s debut song, “We Must Get Married“, performed well on the charts.
In 2011, her fifth studio album, “Love Wore What Size?” (Aşk Kaç Beden Giyer) was released.
She recorded music videos for “Superman“, “How Many Sizes Does Love Wear?” and “He Got MyMessage“.
She released the album Advice in 2014 and Champion in 2017.
She said she was inspired by Christina Aguilera, Brandy Norwood and Beyoncé.
She has been a judge on the Voice of Turkey competition since 2011.)
Above: Logo of The Voice of Turkey
Chita also said that it was easy for her to adapt to Turkish society as the social orders of the two countries, Turkey and Zambia, are similar.
“People of the two countries are both helpful and friendly.
Even the salutation styles are the same.“, she said.
“The only difference, I may say, is that Zambian food is spicier.
We do not have as many kinds of desserts as Turks do.“, she underlined.
Above: Flag of Zambia
Blogging, frequently seen as a hobby, an obsession, or a duty imposed on you by your company, your publisher, or your social media consultant, has continued to grow.
Where bloggers in earlier days were often treated as the illegitimate offspring of “real” media, the attractions of blogging remain strong, because blogging may be the most democratic form of self-expression ever invented.
Plenty of pundits have predicted the “death“ of blogging, because they were so many millions of people starting blogs it became impossible to catalog or even count them.
But blogging continues to morph into new forms, incorporating multimedia, penetrating social media platforms, and claiming a seat at the table.
It has become commonplace to see bloggers sitting on panels on broadcast news and they are quoted everywhere.
Blogs may be, in fact, the most trusted source of information for many consumers.
Even people who profess to not read blogs are probably reading plenty of them.
They just don’t know that they are.
They are likely reading online articles on blog sites that don’t even call themselves “blogs” any more.
We now get much of our information from blogs calling themselves “resource centres” or “informationarchives” or any number of other labels.
Bloggers know they can build a community of interest around their topic, network with other bigger bloggers, and eventually find some way to monetize all this activity.
The ability to use blogging as a way to build authority, gather a community of interested readers, and cultivate a cadre of committed fans is beginning to show writers how to use this platform to create the literature they have always wanted to write, because blogging provides a kind of high-energy promotion.
I have begun to understand that in this digital age every writer is a start-up business trying to find room in a crowded marketplace.
An increasingly popular way to drive traffic to blogs involves video.
As of 2015, statistics on the YouTube site stated that more than 1 billion unique users visit the site each month.
Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube.
This is almost an hour for every person on the planet.
Additionally, 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.
YouTube videos have become an ever more popular form of Internet information and entertainment.
Bloggers can and should use these videos to drive traffic to their sites.
Since YouTube constitutes the 3rd most popular website on the Internet today, you want to have a presence there.
If you have a YouTube channel, you can post videos related to your blog to YouTube.
You can share this link via your social networks and, if you have included a link to your blog somewhere in the video description, viewers can find your blog.
As well, all blogging software has a function whereby you can add video right into your blog posts.
These days, most computers have video capacity.
Digital video cameras are pretty inexpensive and easy to use.
Your cellphone likely has video capacity as well.
Once you have figured out how to videotape yourself, you can upload that video to YouTube.
What can you record?
A blog post
Information about your blog
Your mission statement
The benefits of reading your writing
Tips from your blog
A trailer about your writing
A report on your writing or blogging process
Be creative.
Have fun.
Record whatever you think might be fun for you to talk about or interesting for viewers to watch and hear.
Share it wherever you can.
On all your social networks.
Which brings me to the topic of the title above…..
It all began with Plato.
In 1973, the PLATO system (developed at the University of Illinois and subsequently commercially marketed by Control Data Corporation) offered early forms of social media with:
Notes, PLATO’s message-forum application
TERM-talk, its instant-messaging feature
Talkomatic, perhaps the first online chat room
News Report, a crowd-sourced online newspaper and blog
Access Lists, enabling the owner of a notes file or other application to limit access to a certain set of users, for example, only friends, classmates, or co-workers.
Above: PLATO running a fractional distillation simulation
Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea of Usenet in 1979 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University.
It was established in 1980.
Above: A diagram of Usenet servers and clients. The blue, green, and red dots on the servers represent the groups they carry. Arrows between servers indicate newsgroup group exchanges (feeds). Arrows between clients and servers indicate that a user is subscribed to a certain group and reads or submits articles.
As operating systems with a graphical user interface, such as Windows and Mac OS, began to emerge and gain popularity, this created an environment that allowed for early social media platforms to thrive and exist.
Above: The original Apple Macintosh Desktop
Bulletin Board Systems (BBS)(1980) and Internet Relay Chat (IRC)(1988) were popular during this time period.
Above: A welcome screen for the Freenet bulletin board, 1994
IRC is still widely used today.
Above: The first IRC server, the Tolsun 2, University of Oulu, Finland
FidoNet formed in 1984, as BBSs start to exchange email in North America and later internationally.
The WELL, established in 1985, is one of the oldest still-operating online communities.
Its name is an acronym for “Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link“, coined by Stewart Brand, creator of the Whole Earth Catalog.
Various notable social media platforms, such as Myspace and Facebook, are developed and released.
Classmates.com originally launched as a list of school affiliations, is launched in December 1995.
The site, founded by Randy Conrads, later incorporated features to help former and current classmates find and contact each other online.
The Swedish social networking website LunarStorm, originally called Stajlplejs, is launched in 1996.
The site, founded by Rickard Eriksson, was renamed LunarStorm in 2000 and has been described as “the world’s first social media on the Internet” by the founder.
In 1996, ICQ (“I seek you“) is released by Israeli company Mirabilis.
Above: Logo of ICQ
That same year, Bolt.com was started as the first social networking and video website.
In 1997, the social networking website SixDegrees.com (1997 – 2001) was created.
In 1998, Open Diary launched the first social blogging network, inventing the reader comment and friends-only content.
In 1999, LiveJournal, an early blogging platform and social network, was launched.
Blogging began to gain popularity.
Above: Logo of LiveJournal
Instant messaging platforms such as AOL (America Online) Instant Messenger (AIM)(1997), Yahoo! Messenger (1998 – 2018) and Windows Live Messenger (1999) also became increasingly popular.
Above: Logo of Windows Live Messenger
In 2000, Habbo, a game-based social networking site, was launched.
Wikipedia was launched in 2001.
Above: Logo of Wikipedia
In 2002, social networking and gaming site Friendster (2002 – 2014) was launched.
The service would be popular in Asia and the Pacific Islands.
Many social media platforms that have remained are now thriving, and new ones are appearing sporadically.
This includes popular blogs, instant messaging servers, and various social networking platforms, such as:
Skype (2003)
Above: Logo of Skype
LinkedIn (2003)
Hi5 (2003)
Facebook (2004)
Above: Logo of Facebook
Flickr (2004)
Orkut (2004 – 2014)
Tagged (2004)
XING (2005)
MySpace (2005)
Bebo (2005)
Qzone (2005)
Reddit (2005)
Renren (2005)
Twitter (2006)
Above: Logo of Twitter
FriendFeed (2007)
Justin.tv (2007 – 2014)
Sina Weibo (2009)
Above: Logo for Sina Weibo
Pinterest (2010)
Instagram (2010)
Above: Logo of Instagram
Path (2010 – 2018)
Quora (2010)
Snapchat (2011)
Above: Logo of Snapchat
Google+ (2011 – 2019)
Keek (2011)
Twitch (2011)
Tinder (2012)
ByteDance (2012)
Vine (2013 – 2016)
Google Hangouts (2013)
Above: Logo for Google Hangouts
Musical.ly (2014 – 2018)
Above: Logo for Musical.ly
Periscope (2015)
Above: Logo for Periscope
Berne (2015 – 2017)
Above: Logo of Berne
Discord (2015)
Meerkat (2015)
Above: Logo of Meerkat
Triller (2016)
TikTok (2017)
Above: TikTok Logo in Chinese
Co-Star (2017)
Parler (2018 – 2020)
Clubhouse (2020)
Above: Logo for Clubhouse
With advances in smartphone technology, almost all social media services now have their own mobile apps.
What follows is a story about one app and how its gain and loss has affected a person and a nation….
Two years ago, Sangita Gaikwad’s teenage daughter Mona introduced her to TikTok.
Like many first-time users of the video-sharing app, Gaikwad, a homemaker in a farming village in western India, was baffled.
What would she want with an infinite stream of 15-stream clips showing strangers dancing, lip-synching, and reenacting memes on their phones?
But when Mona insisted, Gaikwad, a wise-cracking (then) 35-year-old who once dreamed of becoming a TV actress, started uploading her own short videos.
One day she posted a lighthearted clip of herself as she was heading to the market to buy mutton.
The video was viewed 100,000 times.
Gaikwad did not understand it, but she was on her way to becoming another unlikely star in the huge, highly addicting, and often mystifying universe of TikTok, the Chinese-made app whose popularity has skyrocketed worldwide.
Above: Sangita Gaikwad
Nowhere is this truer than in India, TikTok’s biggest international market, where its 200 million users include many villagers, LGBTQ Indians, and others from marginalized backgrounds for whom the app was a source of joy, self-respect, income – and even a measure of fame.
Above: India
Now these Indians’ social media habits have become enmeshed in a geopolitical clash between the world’s two populous countries.
India, in the last week of September 2020, banned TikTok and 58 other apps developed by Chinese companies, labeling them threats to national security, in apparent retaliation for the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers in a melee with Chinese troops on the countries’ disputed Himalayan border two weeks previously.
The announcement dealt a blow to China, whose tech industry is a source of national pride and a key competitor in an emergent Cold War with the US.
But it also illustrated how ubiquitous and influential Chinese apps and other digital products have become around the world, transforming lives even as rival governments worry about their potential for harm.
The success of China’s slick, low-cost smartphones and software has prompted warnings from the US and others who believe they are illegally mining data and could be used to spy for the Chinese Communist Partry.
China and the companies have denied the allegations.
Above: Flag of China
With its 635 million Internet connections and a fast-growing, $3.7 billion digital advertising market, India represents one of the most important countries for China’s tech start-ups.
In 2019, India was the only major developing economy where Chinese apps had a greater market share than American competitors, according to an analysis by MacroPolo, a think tank based at the Paulson Institute in Chicago.
Although 90% of TikTok’s revenues come from China, its parent company, ByteDance, had hired 2,000 employees in India and had planned to invest $1 billion in the market over the next three years.
In April, TikTok said it had donated about $40 million to PM Cares, a fund established by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office to fight COVID-19.
The company quickly moved to demonstrate compliance with the ban, pulling TikTok from app stores in India and saying it was “committed to working with the government to demonstrate our dedication to user security until our commitment to the country overall“.
India’s TikTok nation has felt the sting.
Above: Tik Tok India logo
“I am so dejected.“, Gaikwad said.
By Monday 27 September 2020, the day the ban was announced, her account had amassed nearly half a million followers.
That night, she barely slept.
She was mourning the loss of not just a favourite “timepass” – Indian parlance for a frivolous activity – but of a new way of seeing herself.
Celebrity isn’t something Gaikwad expected, growing up poor in Maharashtra state and raising four children with her husband Ankush, who earns $120 a month as a local government employee.
When she goes to the market now, she said, people stop her for selfies.
Strangers ask to shoot videos with her.
Some even come to her house.
“I never got into TikTok for money.“, she said.
“But I got respect, legitimacy, and confidence.
We are poor people.
We have never received any attention in life.
All we have gotten is disdain and scorn.
TikTok turned it around.“
Above: Sangita Gaikwad
Nikhil Pahwa, founder of Medianama, a website that covers the Indian digital industry, said that TikTok’s intuitive, full-screen design and emphasis on music made it a hit with rural Indians who found American apps too text-heavy or clunky.
“TikTok specialized in being a platform that is accessible irrespective of socioeconomic class.“, Pahwa said.
“That’s why it has become a hub of creative activity from places that we did not expect.“
Even among ardent TikTok users, there has been little pushback to the ban, widely seen as a necessary response by Modi’s Hindu nationalist party to Chinese aggression.
India has also reportedly delayed customs clearance for some Chinese imports, signaling that the trade dispute could widen.
Above: Logo of the Bharatiya Janata Party (the Indian People’s Party)
“Given that soldiers have been killed and sentiments are running high, banning Chinese apps is going to be a popular move.“, Pahwa said.
“What we see are people looking for alternatives.
If the situation doesn’t get resolved over the next month, creators will have to find other platforms to migrate to.“
TikTok hosts a variety of short-form user videos, from genres like pranks, stunts, tricks, jokes, dance, and entertainment with durations from 15 seconds to three minutes.
TikTok is an international version of Douyin, which was originally released in the Chinese market in September 2016.
TikTok was launched in 2017 for iOS and Android in most markets outside of mainland China.
However, it became available worldwide only after merging with another Chinese social media service, Musical.ly, on 2 August 2018.
Above: Location of China (in green)
As of October 2020, TikTok surpassed over 2 billion mobile downloads worldwide.
TikTok has been downloaded more than 130 million times in the United States, and has reached 2 billion downloads worldwide, according to data from mobile research firm Sensor Tower (those numbers exclude Android users in China).
In the United States, celebrities, including Jimmy Fallon and Tony Hawk, began using the app in 2018.
Other celebrities, including Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Alba, Will Smith and Justin Bieber joined TikTok as well and many other celebrities have followed.
Above: Flag of the United States of America
On 3 September 2019, TikTok and the US National Football League (NFL) announced a multi-year partnership.
The agreement occurred just two days before the NFL’s 100th season kick-off at Soldier Field, where TikTok hosted activities for fans in honor of the deal.
The partnership entails the launch of an official NFL TikTok account, which is to bring about new marketing opportunities such as sponsored videos and hashtag challenges.
Above: Logo of the National Football League
In July 2020, TikTok, excluding Douyin, reported close to 800 million monthly active users worldwide after less than four years of existence.
Above: “The Blue Marble” – Full disk view of the Earth taken on 7 December 1972, by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft en route to the Moon at a distance of about 29,000 kilometres (18,000 miles)
On 3 August 2020, US President Donald Trump threatened to ban TikTok in the United States on 15 September if negotiations for the company to be bought by Microsoft or a different “very American” company failed.
On 6 August, Trump signed two executive orders banning US “transactions” with TikTok and WeChat to its respective parent companies ByteDance and Tencent, set to take effect 45 days after the signing.
A planned ban of the app on 20 September 2020 was postponed by a week and then blocked by a federal judge.
Above: Former US President Donald J. Trump
President Biden revoked the ban in a new executive order in June 2021.
Above: Current US President Joe Biden
The app has been banned by the government of India since June 2020 along with 223 other Chinese apps in view of privacy concerns.
Pakistan banned TikTok citing “immoral” and “indecent” videos on 9 October 2020 but reversed its ban ten days later.
In March 2021, a Pakistani court ordered a new TikTok ban due to complaints over “indecent” content.
Above: Flag of Pakistan
In May 2021, TikTok appointed Shou Zi Chew as their new CEO who assumed the position from interim CEO Vanessa Pappas, following the resignation of Kevin A. Mayer on 27 August 2020.
Above: Shou Zi Chew
In September 2021, TikTok reported that it had reached 1 billion users.
The TikTok mobile app allows users to create short videos, which often feature music in the background and can be sped up, slowed down, or edited with a filter.
They can also add their own sound on top of the background music.
To create a music video with the app, users can choose background music from a wide variety of music genres, edit with a filter and record a 15-second video with speed adjustments before uploading it to share with others on TikTok or other social platforms.
They can also film short lip-sync videos to popular songs.
The “For You” page on TikTok is a feed of videos that are recommended to users based on their activity on the app.
Content is generated by TikTok’s artificial intelligence (AI) depending on the content a user liked, interacted with, or searched.
Users can also choose to add to favorites or select “not interested” on videos for their page.
TikTok combines the user’s enjoyed content to provide videos that they would also enjoy.
Users and their content can only be featured on the “for you” page if they are 16 or over as per TikTok policy.
Users under 16 will not show up under the “for you” page, the sounds page, or under any hashtags.
The app’s “react” feature allows users to film their reaction to a specific video, over which it is placed in a small window that is movable around the screen.
Its “duet” feature allows users to film a video aside another video.
The “duet” feature was another trademark of Musical.ly.
The duet feature is also only able to be used if both parties adjust the privacy settings.
Videos that users do not want to post yet can be stored in their “drafts“.
The user is allowed to see their “drafts” and post when they find it fitting.
The app allows users to set their accounts as “private“.
When first downloading the app, the user’s account is public by default.
The user can change to private in their settings.
Private content remains visible to TikTok, but is blocked from TikTok users who the account holder has not authorized to view their content.
Users can choose whether any other user, or only their “friends“, may interact with them through the app via comments, messages, or “react” or “duet” videos.
Users also can set specific videos to either “public“, “friends only“, or “private” regardless if the account is private or not.
Users are also allowed to report accounts depending on the account’s content, either being spam or inappropriate.
In TikTok’s support center under “For Parents“, they reassure the parents that inappropriate content for their children can be blocked and reported.
When users follow other users, a “following” page is located on the left of the “for you” page.
This is a page only to see the videos from the accounts a user follows.
Users can also add videos, hashtags, filters, and sounds to their “saved” section.
When creating a video, they can refer to their saved section, or create a video straight from it.
This section is visible only to the user on their profile allowing them to refer to any video, hashtag, filter, or sound they’ve previously saved.
Users can also send their friends videos, emojis, and messages with direct messaging.
TikTok has also included a feature to create a video based on the user’s comments.
Influencers often use the “live” feature.
This feature is only available for those who have at least 1,000 followers and are over 16 years old.
If over 18, the user’s followers can send virtual “gifts” that can be later exchanged for money.
One of the newest features as of 2020 is the “Virtual Items” of “Small Gestures” feature.
This is based on China’s big practice of social gifting.
Since this feature was added, many beauty companies and brands created a TikTok account to participate and advertise this feature.
With quarantine in the United States, social gifting grew in popularity.
According to a TikTok representative, the campaign was launched as a result of the lockdown, “to build a sense of support and encouragement with the TikTok community during these tough times.”
TikTok announced a “family safety mode” in February 2020 for parents to be able to control their children’s digital well-being.
There is a screen time management option, restricted mode, and can put a limit on direct messages.
The app expanded its parental controls feature called “Family Pairing” in September 2020 to provide parents and guardians with educational resources to understand what children on TikTok are exposed to.
Content for the feature was created in partnership with online safety nonprofit, Internet Matters.
In October 2021, TikTok launched a test feature that allows users to directly tip certain creators.
Accounts of users that are of age, have at least 100,000 followers and agree to the terms can activate a “Tip” button on their profile, which allows followers to tip any amount, starting from $1.
In December 2021, TikTok started beta-testing Live Studio, a streaming software that would let users broadcast applications open on their computers, including games.
The software also launched with support for mobile and PC streaming.
However, a few days later, users on Twitter discovered that the software allegedly uses code from the open-source OBS Studio.
OBS made a statement saying that, under the GNU GPL version 2, TikTok has to make the code of Live Studio publicly available if it wants to use any code from OBS.
Above: Logo of OBS Studio
A variety of trends have risen within TikTok, including memes, lip-synched songs, and comedy videos.
Duets, a feature that allows users to add their own video to an existing video with the original content’s audio, have sparked many of these trends.
Trends are shown on TikTok’s explore page or the page with the search logo.
The page enlists the trending hashtags and challenges among the app.
Some include #posechallenge, #filterswitch, #dontjudgemechallenge, #homedecor, #hitormiss, #bottlecapchallenge and more.
In June 2019, the company introduced the hashtag #EduTok which received 37 billion views.
Following this development, the company initiated partnerships with edtech startups to create educational content on the platform.
The app has spawned numerous viral trends, Internet celebrities, and music trends around the world.
Many stars got their start on Musical.ly, which merged with TikTok on 2 August 2018.
These users include Loren Gray, Baby Ariel, Kristen Hancher, Zach King, Lisa and Lena, Jacob Sartorius, and many others.
Loren Gray remained the most-followed individual on TikTok until Charli D’Amelio surpassed her on 25 March 2020.
Gray’s was the first TikTok account to reach 40 million followers on the platform.
She was surpassed with 41.3 million followers.
Above: Loren Gray
D’Amelio was the first to ever reach 50, 60, and 70 million followers.
Until now Charli D’Amelio remains the most-followed individual on the platform.
Above: Charli D’Amelio
Other creators rose to fame after the platform merged with Musical.ly on 2 August 2018.
One notable TikTok trend is the “hit or miss” meme, which began from a snippet of iLOVEFRiDAY’s song “Mia Khalifa“.
The song has been used in over four million TikTok videos and helped introduce the app to a larger Western audience.
TikTok also played a major part in making “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X one of the biggest songs of 2019 and the longest running number-one song in the history of the Billboard Hot 100.
Above: Montero Lamar Hill (aka Lil Nas X)
TikTok has allowed many other bands to gain a wider audience, often including foreign fans.
For example, despite never having toured in Asia, the band Fitz and the Tantrums developed a large following in South Korea following the widespread popularity of their song “HandClap” on the platform.
Above: Fitz and the Tantrums
“Any Song” by R&B and rap artist Zico became number one on the Korean music charts due to the popularity of the #anysongchallenge, where users dance the choreography of “Any Song“.
Above: Zico
The platform has received some criticism for not paying royalties to artists whose music is used on their platform.
In 2020, more than 176 different songs surpassed 1 billion video views on TikTok.
In June 2020, TikTok users and K-pop fans “claimed to have registered potentially hundreds of thousands of tickets” for President Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa through communication on TikTok, contributing to “rows of empty seats” at the event.
Above: Trump rally, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 19 June 2020
TikTok has banned Holocaust denial, but other conspiracy theories have become popular on the platform, such as Pizzagate and QAnon (two conspiracy theories popular among the US alt-right) whose hashtags reached almost 80 million views and 50 million views respectively by June 2020.
Above: Proponents of Pizzagate connected Comet Ping Pong (pictured) to a fictitious child sex trafficking ring
(“Pizzagate” is a debunked conspiracy theory that went viral during the 2016 US presidential election cycle.
It has been extensively discredited by a wide range of organizations, including the Washington DC police.
In March 2016, the personal email account of John Podesta, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair, was hacked in a spear-phishing ( the creation and sending of emails to a particular person to make the person think the email is legitimate) attack.
WikiLeaks published Podesta’s emails in November 2016.
Above: John Podesta
Proponents of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory falsely claimed the emails contained coded messages that connected several high-ranking Democratic Party officials and US restaurants with an alleged child sex trafficking ring.
One of the establishments allegedly involved was the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington DC.)
Above: Democratic Party donkey logo
QAnon is a political conspiracy theory that later evolved into a political movement.
It originated in the American far right political sphere.
QAnon centres on false claims made by an anonymous individual or individuals known as “Q“.
They claim that a cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic sexual abusers of children operating a global child sex trafficking ring conspired against former US President Donald Trump during his term in office.
Some experts have described QAnon as a cult.
Above: QAnon flag featuring the Q logo and the movement’s prominent slogan “Where we go one, we goall”, at a rally in Richmond, Virginia, in 2020
Followers of the conspiracy theory say that Trump was planning mass arrests and executions of thousands of cabal members on a day known as “the Storm” or “the Event“.
QAnon supporters have named Democratic politicians, Hollywood actors, high-ranking government officials, business tycoons, and medical experts as members of the cabal.
QAnon has also claimed that Trump stimulated the conspiracy of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election to enlist Robert Mueller to join him in exposing the sex trafficking ring, and to prevent a coup d’état by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and George Soros.
Above: Robert Mueller
QAnon is described as antisemetic, due to its fixation on Jewish financier George Soros and conspiracy theories about the Rothschild family, a frequent target of antisemites.
Above: George Soros
It also has roots in the Internet conspiracy theory, Pizzagate.
QAnon’s conspiracy theories have been amplified by Russian and Chinese state-backed media companies, social media troll accounts, and the far-right Epoch Media Group.)
The platform has also been used to spread misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic, such as clips from Plandemic.
TikTok removed some of these videos, and has generally added links to accurate COVID-19 information on videos with tags related to the pandemic.
On 10 August 2020, Emily Jacobssen wrote and sang “Ode To Remy“, a song praising the protagonist from Pixar’s 2007 computer-animated film Ratatouille.
The song rose to popularity when musician Daniel Mertzlufft composed a backing track to the song.
In response, a “crowdsourced” project called Ratatouille the Musical was begun.
Since Mertzlufft’s video, many new elements including costume design, additional songs, and a playbill have been created.
The trend has been even been noticed by Lou Romano (who voiced Alfredo Linguini in the original film), Broadway performer Kevin Chamberlin, and Disney Channel actor Milo Manheim.
On 1 January 2021, a full one-hour virtual presentation of Ratatouille the Musical premiered on the Today Tix.
The production featured elements created via TikTok.
It starred Titus Burgess as Remy, Wayne Brady as Django, Adam Lambert as Emile, Chamberlin as Gusteau, Andrew Barth Feldman as Linguini, Ashley Park as Colette, Priscilla Lopez as Mabel, Mary Testa as Skinner, and André de Shields as Ego.
Several food trends have emerged on the platform, such as Dalgona coffee.
Above: Homemade Dalgona coffee
(Dalgona coffee is a beverage made by whipping equal parts instant coffee powder, sugar, and hot water until it becomes creamy and then adding it to cold or hot milk.
Occasionally, it is topped with coffee powder, cocoa, crumbled biscuits, or honey.
It was popularized on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people refraining from going out started making videos of whipping the coffee at home, by hand without using electrical mixers.
The name is derived from dalgona, a Korean sugar candy, due to the resemblance in taste and appearance, though most dalgona coffee doesn’t actually contain dalgona.)
Above: Dalgona – Korean sugar candy
Another TikTok usage that corresponds with engagement and bonds people in society is the use of “challenges“.
These could be on any related topic such as dances or cooking certain meals.
People see other people doing something that is trending and then it continues to spread until it is a viral trend which connects people from all over.
While TikTok has primarily been used for entertainment purposes, TikTok may soon have another use, that of a job resource with the idea that prospective employment seekers would send in videos rather than traditional resumes.
The form would most likely be a job search add-on.
TikTok has had favorable results in the past with people using the site to find jobs and may be expanding that need especially in the newer generations.
However, employers need to take care when viewing TikTok resumes that they are not being influenced by biases.
Employers can see people’s faces and physical traits which could potentially create diversity, equity and inclusion issues.
TikTok has provided a platform for users to create content not only for fun, but also for money.
As the platform has grown significantly over the past few years, it has allowed companies to advertise and rapidly reach their intended demographic through influencer marketing.
The platform’s AI algorithm also contributes to the influencer marketing potential, as it picks out content according to the user’s preference.
Sponsored content is not as prevalent on the platform as it is on other social media apps, but brands and influencers still can make as much as they would if not more in comparison to other platforms.
Influencers on the platform who earn money through engagement, such as likes and comments, are referred to as “meme machines“.
In 2021, the New York Times reported that viral TikTok videos by young people relating the emotional impact of books on them, tagged with the label “BookTok” significantly drove sales of literature.
Publishers were increasingly using the platform as a venue for influencer marketing.
Z generation are more willing to spend their time on TikTok.
TikTok tends to appeal to younger users, as 41% of its users are between the ages of 16 and 24.
Among these TikTok users, 90% say they use the app daily.
TikTok’s geographical use has shown that 43% of new users are from India.
As of July 2020, there were over 90 million monthly active users in the United States alone.
In October 2020, the ecommerce platform Shopify added TikTok to its portfolio of social media platforms, allowing online merchants to sell their products directly to consumers on TikTok.
Some small businesses have used TikTok to advertise and to reach an audience wider than the geographical region they would normally serve.
The viral response to many small business TikTok videos has been attributed to TikTok’s algorithm, which shows content that viewers at large are drawn to, but which they are unlikely to actively search for (such as videos on unconventional types of businesses, like beekeeping and logging).
In 2020, digital media companies, such as Group Nine Media and CDS Global, used TikTok increasingly, focusing on tactics such as brokering partnerships with TikTok influencers and developing branded content campaigns.
Above: Logo of Group Nine Media
Notable collaborations between larger brands and top TikTok influencers have included Chipotle’s partnership with David Dobrik in May 2019 and Dunkin’ Donuts’ partnership with Charli D’Amelio in September 2020.
Above: David Dobrik
Popular TikTok users have lived collectively in collab houses, predominately in the Los Angeles area.
Some users may find it hard to stop using TikTok.
In April 2018, an addiction-reduction feature was added to Douyin.
This encouraged users to take a break every 90 minutes.
Later in 2018, the feature was rolled out to the TikTok app.
TikTok uses some top influencers, such as Gabe Erwin, Alan Chikin Chow, James Henry, and Cosette Rinab, to encourage viewers to stop using the app and take a break.
Above: Gabe Erwin
Many were also concerned with users’ attention spans with these videos.
Users watch short 15-second clips repeatedly and studies say that this could result in a decreased attention span.
This is a concern as many of TikTok’s audience are younger children, whose brains are still developing.
Some countries have shown concerns regarding the content on TikTok, as their cultures views it as obscene, immoral, vulgar, and encouraging pornography.
There have been temporary blocks and warnings issued by countries including Indonesia, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan over the content concerns.
In 2018, Douyin was reprimanded by Chinese media watchdogs for showing “unacceptable” content.
On 27 July 2020, Egypt sentenced five women to two years in prison over TikTok videos.
One of the women had encouraged other women to try and earn money on the platform, another woman was sent to prison for dancing.
The court also imposed a fine of 300,000 Egyptian pounds (UK£14,600) on each defendant.
Above: Flag of Egypt
Concerns have been voiced regarding content relating to, and the promotion and spreading of, hateful words and far-right extremism, such as anti-semitism, racism, and xenophobia.
Some videos were shown to expressly deny the existence of the Holocaust and told viewers to take up arms and fight in the name of white supremacy and the swastika.
Above: Scene from the Holocaust (1941 – 1945) – Selection on the ramp at Auschwitz, May 1944
As TikTok has gained popularity among young children, and the popularity of extremist and hateful content is growing, calls for tighter restrictions on their flexible boundaries have been made.
TikTok have since released tougher parental controls to filter out inappropriate content and to ensure they can provide sufficient protection and security.
A viral TikTok trend known as “devious licks” involves students vandalizing or stealing school property and posting the videos of the action on the platform.
The trend has led to increasing school vandalism and subsequent measures taken by some schools to prevent damage.
Some students have been arrested for participating in the trend.
TikTok has taken measures to remove and prevent access to content displaying the trend.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that doctors experienced a surge in reported cases of tics, tied to an increasing number of TikTok videos from content creators with Tourette syndrome.
Doctors suggested that the cause may be a social one as users who consumed content showcasing various tics would sometimes develop tics of their own.
In January 2020, Media Matters for America said that TikTok hosted misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic despite a recent policy against misinformation.
In April 2020, the government of India asked TikTok to remove users posting misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
There were also multiple conspiracy theories that the government is involved with the spread of the pandemic.
As a response to this, TikTok launched a feature to report content for misinformation.
TikTok’s censorship policy has been criticized as non-transparent.
Criticism of leaders, such as Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Mahatma Gandhi and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has been suppressed by the platform, as well as information relating to the Xinjiang internment camps and the abuse of Uyghurs in the region.
Above: Xinjiang Re-education Camp
Internal documents have revealed that moderators suppress posts created by users deemed “too ugly, poor, or disabled” for the platform, and censor political speech in livestreams.
TikTok moderators have also blocked content that could be perceived as being positive towards LGBT people.
Above: Rainbow flag of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) community
In October 2019, TikTok removed about two dozen accounts that were responsible for posting ISIS propaganda on the app.
Above: Islamic State (ISIS / ISIL / Daesh) flag
Privacy concerns have also been brought up regarding the app.
In its privacy policy, TikTok lists that it collects usage information, IP addresses, a user’s mobile carrier, unique device identifiers, keystroke patterns, and location data, among other data.
Web developers Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk said that allowing videos and other content being shared by the app’s users through HTTP puts the users’ data privacy at risk.
Above: The Internet Messenger, Holon, Israel
In January 2020, Check Point Research discovered a security flaw in TikTok which could have allowed hackers access to user accounts using SMS.
In February, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman criticized the app, calling it “spyware” and stating:
“I look at that app as so fundamentally parasitic, that it’s always listening, the fingerprinting technology they use is truly terrifying, and I could not bring myself to install an app like that on my phone.“
Responding to Huffman’s comments, TikTok stated:
“These are baseless accusations made without a shred of evidence.”
Above: Steve Huffmann
American multinational financial services company Wells Fargo banned the app from its devices due to privacy and security concerns.
In May 2020, the Dutch Data Protection Authority announced an investigation into TikTok in relation to privacy protections for children.
In June 2020, the European Data Protection Board announced that it would assemble a task force to examine TikTok’s user privacy and security practices.
In August 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported that TikTok tracked Android user data, including MAC addresses and IMEIs, with a tactic in violation of Google’s policies.
The report sparked calls in the US Senate for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to launch an investigation.
In June 2021, TikTok updated its privacy policy to include collection of biometric data, including “faceprints and voiceprints“.
Some experts reacted by calling the terms of collection and data use “vague” and “highly problematic“.
The same month, CNBC reported that former employees had stated that “the boundaries between TikTok and ByteDance were so blurry as to be almost non-existent” and that “ByteDance employees are able to access US user data” on TikTok.
In October 2021, following the Facebook Files and controversies about social media ethics, a bipartisan group of lawmakers also pressed TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat on questions of data privacy and moderation for age appropriate content.
(In 2021, an internal document leak from the company then known as Facebook (now Meta Platforms, or Meta) showed it was aware of harmful societal effects from its platforms.
The leak, released by whistleblower Frances Haugen, resulted in reporting from The Wall Street Journal in September, as The Facebook Files series, as well as the Facebook Papers, by a consortium of news outlets the next month.
Primarily, the reports proved that based on internally commissioned studies, the company was fully aware of negative impact on teenage users of Instagram, and the contribution of Facebook activity to violence in developing countries.
Other takeaways of the leak include the impact of the company’s platforms on spreading false information and promoting anger-provoking posts.
Furthermore, harmful content had be known to be pushed through Facebook algorithms reaching young users.
The type of content included anorexia posts and self harm photos.)
Above: Frances Haugen
The New York Times reported:
“Lawmakers also hammered the head of US policy at TikTok, Mr. Beckerman, about whether TikTok’s Chinese ownership could expose consumer data to Beijing,”
stating that:
“Critics have long argued that the company would be obligated to turn Americans’ data over to the Chinese government if asked.”
TikTok told US lawmakers it does not give information to China’s government.
TikTok’s representative stated that TikTok’s data is stored in the US with backups in Singapore.
According to the company’s representative, TikTok had ‘no affiliation‘ with the subsidiary Beijing ByteDance Technology, in which the Chinese government has a minority stake and board seat.
Above: National emblem of China
As with other platforms, journalists in several countries have raised privacy concerns about the app, because it is popular with children and has the potential to be used by sexual predators.
Several users have reported endemic cyberbullying on TikTok, including racism and ableism.
In December 2019, following a report by German digital rights group Netzpolitik.org, TikTok admitted that it had suppressed videos by disabled users as well as LGBTQ+ users in a purported effort to limit cyberbullying.
TikTok’s moderators were also told to suppress users with “abnormal body shape“, “ugly facial looks“, “too many wrinkles“, or in “slums, rural fields” and “dilapidated housing” to prevent bullying.
In 2021 the platform revealed that it will be introducing a feature that will prevent teenagers from receiving notifications past their bedtime.
The company will no longer send push notifications after 9 pm to users aged between 13 and 15.
For 16-year-olds and those aged 17 notifications will not be sent after 10 pm.
TikTok has received criticism for enabling children to spend large sums of money purchasing coins to send to other users.
TikTok, as with anything else, has its angels and demons, its opportunities and its threats.
Am I cozy with the notion of creating more of a digital presence for myself?
Not yet.
But I have come to realize that a silent voice in a digital age does not get the attention it might deserve.
If I want people to recognize my talents I need to shine a spotlight upon them.
I am not seeking fame, but I am seeking respectful recognition.
TikTok and YouTube attract attention.
The latter seems more of a comfortable fit for me than the former.
For now.
Above: John C. Reilly, “Mr. Cellophane“, Chicago
The blog will eventually lead to the video.
The video will lead back to the blog.
Blogs began as diary entries about people’s personal experiences and/or hobbies.
This is the stage where I am at.
Now, blogs feature content targeted to particular audiences and focused on specific subjects.
Bloggers pick a topic, often in a niche, about which to write.
While bloggers may write about personal experiences, business, news, politics, hobbies, sports, health, opinions, or just about anything else, blogs are anything but personal in the sense that bloggers publish them in cyberspace for anyone and everyone to read.
Writing a blog is about as public as you can get.
You may choose to write about a personal topic, but you will do it publicly on the Internet.
Many blogs offer commentary on a particular subject, cover various aspects of the news, or offer expert advice on a specific topic.
Blogs often combine text with images, include audio and video, and provide links to other similar blogs, websites and online resources.
Readers can comment on posts, making blogs interactive.
A blog is a type of website.
It provides an online presence manageable by even the least tech-savvy person – a website solution for the technologically challenged.
Above: Chris O’Dowd (Roy Trenneman), Scene from The IT Crowd
Anyone who can write – and whose writing is worth reading – can blog.
(Actually lots of people who have scant writing ability and no worth reading have blogs, write and publish posts, call themselves bloggers.)
According to http://www.WPVirtuoso.com, in 2013 there were approximately 152 million blogs on the Internet, with more added every minute.
In fact, at the time of this report, the site claimed that 172,800 blogs were being added to the Internet every day.
That is about 40 new blogs per minute or 2,395 per hour.
As of 2013, 22% (or 2,200,000) of the top 10 million websites ran on WordPress.
That same year, WordPress.com reported having 63 million + websites.
What is the point?
Each one of these blogs represents a subject.
You can blog about nearly anything.
And most importantly…..
A blog allows you to publish as you write.
I humbly believe that I can write.
But I need to occasionally be changing my thinking cap from the hat of a writer to that of a business person.
Do I have the instinct, the insight, the imagination and enthusiasm to be a travel writer?
A travel blogger?
Can I cultivate the ability to not only ask what can be seen, but as well the courage to ask who, how and why?
I believe every place, every person, has a story to tell.
But do I have the necessary perception needed to delve more deeply, to observe more carefully, to focus more clearly to find the humanity of the places of which I wish to write?
Do I have the instinct?
Do I have the impulse that moves a man to the right place at the right time?
Do I have the insight, that quality of discernment that apprehends the inner nature of things?
Do I have imagination, the creative ability to visualise something not currently in view?
Do I have enthusiasm, the force that propels a person forwsrd and ferries the reader forwards?
Do I have the curiosity, the inquisitiveness, the readiness to “read the room”, to look through the looking glass, the drive to discover what is waiting around the bend in the road?
Ultimately I need faith in myself.
I need to be organized.
I need to look at a bigger picture, a bigger audience.
Challenge accepted.
Above: Neil Patrick Harris (Barney Stinson), How I Met Your Mother
Let me do that most democratic of actions while I still can.
Speak.
While there is still time…..
Sources: Wikipedia / Google / Facebook / “Zambian promoting Aegean city with videos“, Hürriyet Daily News, 1 March 2022 / Lonely Planet, The Digital Nomad Handbook / Nina Amir, How to Blog a Book / Shashank Bengali and Parth M.N., “TikTok made stars of out of villagers in India, then it was banned“, LosAngeles Times, 19 May 2020 / Mark Harnett, A Quick Guide to Podcasting / Louise Purwin Zobel, The Travel Writer’s Handbook
“It was about the beginning of September 1664, that I, among the rest of my neighbours, heard in ordinary discourse that the Plague was returned again in the Netherlands.
For it had been very violent there, particularly at Amsterdam and Rotterdam, in the year 1663, whither, they say, it was brought, some said from Italy, others from the Levant, among some goods which were brought home by their Turkey fleet.
Others said it was brought from Candia.
Others from Cyprus.
It mattered not from whence it came, but all agreed it was come into the Netherlands again.
We had no such thing as printed newspapers in those days to spread rumors and reports of things….
But such things as these were gathered from the letters of merchants and others who corresponed abroad, and from them was handed about by word of mouth only…..
Hence it was that this rumor died off again and people began to forget it as a thing we were very little concerned in, and that we hoped was not true.“
Daniel Defoe, Journal of the Plague Year
It had been a stressful week thus far, especially the last 48 hours, for not only was I changing apartments in Eskişehir, but I was preparing to take a leave of absence from Turkey until mid-February 2022.
Above: Sazova Park, Eskişehir, Turkey
I worked every day Monday to Sunday this week, allowing our newly arrived American colleague the opportunity to have Christmas weekend off.
I worked Christmas Day, that night I attended the staff Xmas party, and I spent the remainder of the evening packing to change apartments this Boxing Day evening after my PCR test, required before I would be allowed to fly on Tuesday.
COVID-19 testing involves analyzing samples to assess the current or past presence of SARS-CoV-2.
The two main branches detect either the presence of the virus or of antibodies produced in response to infection.
Molecular tests for viral presence through its molecular components are used to diagnose individual cases and to allow public health authorities to trace and contain outbreaks.
Antibody tests (serology immunoassays) instead show whether someone once had the disease.
They are less useful for diagnosing current infections because antibodies may not develop for weeks after infection.
It is used to assess disease prevalence, which aids the estimation of the infection fatality rate.
Individual jurisdictions have adopted varied testing protocols, including whom to test, how often to test, analysis protocols, sample collection and the uses of test results.
This variation has likely significantly impacted reported statistics, including case and test numbers, case fatality rates and case demographics.
Because SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs days after exposure (and before onset of symptoms), there is an urgent need for frequent surveillance and rapid availability of results.
Test analysis is often performed in automated, high-throughput, medical laboratories by medical laboratory scientists.
Alternatively, point-of-care testing can be done in physician’s offices and parking lots, workplaces, institutional settings or transit hubs.
Positive viral tests indicate a current infection, while positive antibody tests indicate a prior infection.
Other techniques include a CT scan, checking for elevated body temperature, checking for low blood oxygen level, and the deployment of detection dogs at airports.
Detection of the virus is usually done either by looking for the virus’ inner RNA, or pieces of protein on the outside of the virus.
Tests that look for the viral antigens (parts of the virus) are called antigen tests.
There are multiple types of tests that look for the virus by detecting the presence of the virus’s RNA.
These are called nucleic acid or molecular tests, after molecular biology.
Above: This is a single strand of RNA (ribionucleic acid) that folds back upon itself.
As of 2021, the most common form of molecular test is the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.
Above: A strip of eight PCR tubes, each containing a 100 μL reaction mixture
Other methods used in molecular tests include:
CRISPRgene editing is a genetic engineering technique in molecular biology by which the genomes of living organisms may be modified. It is based on a simplified version of the bacterial CRISPR-Cas9 antiviral defense system. By delivering the Cas9 nuclease complexed with a synthetic guide RNA (gRNA) into a cell, the cell’s genome can be cut at a desired location, allowing existing genes to be removed and/or new ones added in vivo (in living organisms). The technique is considered highly significant in biotechnology and medicine as it allows for the genomes to be edited in vivo with extremely high precision, cheaply, and with ease. It can be used in the creation of new medicines, agricultural products, and genetically modified organisms, or as a means of controlling pathogens and pests. It also has possibilities in the treatment of inherited genetic diseases as well as diseases such as cancer. However, its use in human genetic modification is highly controversial.
Isothermal nucleic acid amplification – A nucleic acid test (NAT) is a technique used to detect a particular nucleic acid sequence and thus usually to detect and identify a particular species or subspecies of organism, often a virus or bacterium that acts as a pathogen in blood, tissue, urine, etc. NATs differ from other tests in that they detect genetic materials (RNA or DNA) rather than antigens or antibodies. Detection of genetic materials allows an early diagnosis of a disease because the detection of antigens and/or antibodies requires time for them to start appearing in the bloodstream. Since the amount of a certain genetic material is usually very small, many NATs include a step that amplifies the genetic material — that is, makes many copies of it. Such NATs are called nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs).
Digital polymerase chain reaction (digital PCR, DigitalPCR, dPCR, or dePCR) is a biotechnological refinement of conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods that can be used to directly quantify and clonally amplify nucleic acids strands, including DNA, cDNA or RNA. The key difference between dPCR and traditional PCR lies in the method of measuring nucleic acids amounts, with the former being a more precise method than PCR, though also more prone to error in the hands of inexperienced users. A “digital” measurement quantitatively and discretely measures a certain variable, whereas an “analog” measurement extrapolates certain measurements based on measured patterns. PCR carries out one reaction per single sample. dPCR also carries out a single reaction within a sample, however the sample is separated into a large number of partitions and the reaction is carried out in each partition individually. This separation allows a more reliable collection and sensitive measurement of nucleic acid amounts. The method has been demonstrated as useful for studying variations in gene sequences — such as copy number variants and point mutations — and it is routinely used for clonal amplification of samples for next generation sequencing.
Microarray analysis techniquesare used in interpreting the data generated from experiments on DNA (Gene chip analysis), RNA, and protein microarrays, which allow researchers to investigate the expression state of a large number of genes – in many cases, an organism’s entire genome – in a single experiment.Such experiments can generate very large amounts of data, allowing researchers to assess the overall state of a cell or organism. Data in such large quantities is difficult – if not impossible – to analyze without the help of computer programs.
Next generation sequencing – Massive parallel sequencing or massively parallel sequencing is any of several high-throughput approaches to DNA sequencing using the concept of massively parallel processing. It is also called next-generation sequencing (NGS) or second-generation sequencing. Some of these technologies emerged between 1994 and 1998 and have been commercially available since 2005. These technologies use miniaturized and parallelized platforms for sequencing of 1 million to 43 billion short reads (50 to 400 bases each) per instrument run.
Many NGS platforms differ in engineering configurations and sequencing chemistry.
They share the technical paradigm of massive parallel sequencing via spatially separated, clonally amplified DNA templates or single DNA molecules in a flow cell.
This design is very different from that of Sanger sequencing — also known as capillary sequencing or first-generation sequencing — which is based on electrophoretic separation of chain-termination products produced in individual sequencing reactions.
At this point in time, if your eyes have glossed over in the realization that you, like myself, haven’t the foggiest idea of what all this science actually means in terms that anyone can comprehend, please know that you are not alone in this regard.
The first COVID case in Turkey was recorded on 11 March 2020, when a local returned home from a trip to Europe.
The first death due to COVID-19 in the country occurred on 15 March 2020.
Turkey stood out from the rest of Europe by not ordering a legal lockdown until April 2021 (a month after I arrived in the Republic), when the country enacted its first nationwide restrictions.
The government kept many businesses open, and allowed companies to set their own guidelines regarding workers.
The resulting wave of infections never came close to overwhelming the Turkish health system, which has the highest number of intensive care units in the world at 46.5 beds per 100,000 people (compared to 9.6 in Greece, 11.6 in France, and 12.6 in Italy).
As of 3 May 2021, Turkey’s observed case-fatality rate stands at 0.84%, the 148th highest rate globally.
This low case-fatality rate has generated various explanations including the relative rarity of nursing homes, favorable demographics, a long legacy of contact tracing, its high number of intensive care units, universal health care, and a lockdown regime that led to a higher proportion of positive cases among working-age adults.
Above: Flag of Turkey
On 30 September 2020, Turkish Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca acknowledged that since 29 July 2020, the reported number of cases was limited to symptomatic cases that required monitoring, which was met with rebuke by the Turkish Medical Association.
This practice ended on 25 November, when the Ministry started to report asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic cases alongside symptomatic ones.
Above: Fahrettin Koca
As of November 8, 2021, the total number of patients infected with the corona virus in Turkey was 8,259,503 and 1,405 of the existing patients were being treated in intensive care.
So far, the number of patients recovering is 7,737,259 and the number of patients who have died is 72,314.
A total of 99,834,300 tests have been carried out to date.
A total of 24,278,886 people were vaccinated as of 5 May 2021.
Of these, 14,327,674 people received the first dose of the vaccine, while 9,951,212 people received a second dose.
Above: Location of Turkey (in green)
(I was vaccinated on 17 July 2021, 3 August 2021, and 1 January 2022 in Weinfelden, Switzerland.)
Above: Rathausstrasse, Weinfelden, Switzerland
Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa and Antalya were among the top five cities where the most vaccines were applied.
Above: IstanbulAbove: AnkaraAbove: IzmirAbove: BursaAbove: Antalya
In addition, Turkey is the 6th most vaccinated country in the world after the US, China, India, the UK and Brazil.
Above: Rate of vaccination by provinces (update 28 June 2021)
As of 30 April 2021, Turkey was the 5th country with the highest number of cases among 193 countries, behind Brazil and France, and 19th after Ukraine in the number of deaths.
Above: COVID-19 deaths per million residents as of 25 November 2020 – the darker the region, the more deaths therein
The outbreak has led to radical decisions in Turkey that have had many significant impacts and consequences in social, economic, political, economic, administrative, legal, military, religious and cultural fields.
Education and training in primary, secondary and high schools in the country was suspended, while spring semester classes were canceled and exams were postponed in all universities.
The Directorate of Religious Affairs announced a pause in prayers with the community in mosques and mosques, especially Friday prayers.
Above: Logo of the Directorate of Religious Affiars
All restaurants, cafes, museums, classrooms, courses, shopping malls, hotels, barber shops, hairdresser salons, beauty centres, coffee shops, gyms, concert venues, nightclubs, association locales and wedding/engagement halls were temporarily closed.
Above: ES Park Shopping Mall, Eskişehir
All citizens were banned from picnics and barbecues in forests, parks and gardens.
Above: Sazova Park, Eskişehir
All football leagues in the country have been postponed and all sporting events cancelled until further notice.
Above: Logo of Eskisehirspor professional football club
The Ministry of National Defense announced that all subpoenas, referrals and discharges at military barracks have been postponed for a month.
Above: Logo of the Ministry of National Defense
(My WSE colleague has had his conscription twice postponed.)
About 90,000 prisoners and detainees were released after Parliament passed a law aimed at reducing the occupancy of prisons, with the risk of the epidemic spreading to prisons and disrupting public order.
In the amnesty law, terrorism, murder, drugs and sexual offences were excluded.
The Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK) announced that all hearings, deliberations and discoveries were suspended until 15 June 2020, except for detainees and emergency work and statute of limitations.
Above: Logo of the Board of Judges and Prosecutors
All airlines, especially Turkish Airlines, announced that they were terminating all international and domestic flights until further notice.
The obligation to use masks in public areas, such as markets, was put into effect.
Above: Eskişehir lulestone, Grand Bazaar, Istanbul
Intercity travel was granted the Governor’s permit and sparse seating arrangements were introduced on public transport.
Hundreds of settlements, villages and towns were quarantined under COVID-19 measures.
In order to minimize the economic impact of the pandemic, many arrangements were made and support packages were announced.
Flexible working systems were introduced with minimum staff in private and public sectors.
The Treasury and Finance Ministry (HMB) said it had lowered, deferred or waived taxes on many items.
Above: Logo of the Ministry of the Treasury and Finance
Under the law, employers were banned from laying off for three months by the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Services (ASHB).
Above: Logo of the Ministry of Family and Social Services
In a speech, President Erdoğan described the outbreak as the biggest crisis since World War II in terms of its economic consequences.
The government first imposed a curfew on people aged 65 and over to reduce the rate of spread of the epidemic and maintain social distancing between people.
Above: President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
(A practice much ignored generally in my experience in Turkey.)
Above: A label stating that the social distancing rule in the Istanbul Metro should be observed.
It later extended the restriction to include children and young people aged 20 and under.
The public was urged not to travel outside the country and also to stay indoors unless they had to.
Above: Eskişehir Bus Station
On 10 January 2020, the Corona Virus Science Board was established within the Ministry of Health to combat COVID-19 in Turkey.
Thermal cameras were installed at airports by the Ministry of Health on 24 January.
The Ministry also began to subject passengers from China to additional screenings and announced that anyone showing signs of corona virus infection would be quarantined.
Screenings were later expanded to include countries that reported large numbers of confirmed cases.
Other measures at airports included infrared screenings, disinfection of all customs gates, free masks and the distribution of instruction leaflets.
Above: Logo of the Ministry of Health
On 31 January, the Turkish Government sent a plane to pick up 34 Turkish citizens and citizens of other countries from Wuhan.
Other nationals included seven Azerbaijanis, seven Georgians and one Albanian.
Above: Wuhan, China
China ordered 150 million masks annually, as well as 200 million masks from Turkey.
On 3 February, Turkey announced that it had suspended all flights from China.
Above: Flag of China
On 23 February, the Iranian border was closed and flights with Iran were unilaterally suspended after the Iranian authorities failed to comply with Turkey’s recommendation to quarantine the Iranian city of Qom.
Above: Flag of IranAbove: Qom, Iran
On 29 February, Turkey said flights to Italy, South Korea and Iraq had been mutually suspended.
Shortly afterwards, the Iraqi border was also closed.
The Ministry also established field hospitals close to the borders of Iraq and Iran.
Above: Flag of Iraq
On 8 March, disinfection began in public places and public transport in some provinces.
In Istanbul, the municipality decided to install hand sanitizers at metro and bus stations.
Above: Logo of the Istanbul Metro
On 10 March, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced that a Turkish man who contracted the virus while travelling to Europe was the country’s first case of the corona virus.
The patient was isolated to an undisclosed hospital and his family members were taken into custody.
On 12 March, a five-hour meeting was held under the chairmanship of President Erdoğan, attended by all ministers, some presidencies and members of the Health and Food Policy Council, to discuss measures against the corona virus.
Presidential Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin announced the decisions after the meeting.
It was decided that sports events should be played without spectators until the end of April, that the departure of public employees abroad should take place with special permission, and that the President should postpone his visits abroad.
Above: Ibrahim Kalin
On 13 March, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced on his official Twitter account that a person close to the first patient under observation had also been diagnosed with the corona virus.
With the new announcement made in the evening, it was determined that three more people in the same family as the first patient carried the corona virus, thus increasing the number of confirmed cases in Turkey to five.
Above: Logo of Twitter
On 14 March, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced that a person returning from Umrah (the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca) had been diagnosed with the corona virus, bringing the number of cases in Turkey to six.
Of the 10,330 citizens who returned from Umrah, 5,392 were quarantined in Ankara and 4,938 were quarantined in state dormitories in Konya, according to the Ministry of Youth and Sports (GSB) on 15 March.
Above: Pilgrims circumambulating the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi ArabiaAbove: Logo of the Ministry of Youth and SportsAbove: Images of Konya
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced that the first case had been diagnosed with two people in the vicinity who were under observation, and that there were seven cases from European countries and three from America.
The number of confirmed cases has risen to 18.
On 16 March, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced that 29 new diagnoses with contacts in the US, Europe and the Middle East, bringing the total number of patients to 47.
On March 17, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced the death of an 89-year-old patient with Chinese contacts who had been quarantined, 51 new diagnoses and a total of 98 cases.
Above: Dr. Fahrettin Koca
On 17 March 2020, the Turkish Medical Association, the TTB Specialist Association, the Public Health Professionals Association, the Turkish Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, the Turkish Thorax Association, and the Turkish Intensive Care Association held a meeting to evaluate developments related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The final statement of the meeting called for transparency.
The statement also found that the pandemic poses significant dangers to health workers and patients, that deficiencies in information and measures lead to confusion, and that inadequate information on medication use, access to tests and various issues complicates the fight against the pandemic.
Above: Logo of the Turkish Medical Association
On 18 March, a “Anti-Coronavirus Co-ordination Meeting” was held in Çankaya Pavilion within the scope of the fight against the corona virus.
Above: Çankaya Pavilion, Ankara
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced on his Twitter account that a 61-year-old patient had died, bringing the number of cases to 191.
Also on 18 March, it was announced that the Commander of the Army, Aytac Yalman had died of the corona virus three days earlier and that his wife was in quarantine.
Above: Tahir Aytaç Yalman (1940 – 2020)
The Sultan Abdulhamid Khan Training and Research Hospital Chief Medical Officer announced on 19 March that Yalman’s cause of death was COVID-19, which developed within the framework of the pandemic.
“Given that the clinical picture of the deceased Aytaç Yalman was also compatible after his wife’s test result was COVID positive, it was concluded that he had died due to COVID-19,” the chief medical officer said.
Above: Logo of the Turkish Army
On 19 March, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca stated that the corona virus was the cause of death of former Army Commander Aytaç Yalman, who died on 15 March 2020.
Thus, the number of people who died due to the corona virus in Turkey increased to three.
The Minister of Youth and Sports Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoğlu announced the postponement of football, volleyball, basketball and handball leagues.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced that an 85-year-old woman had died, with 168 new cases.
The total number of cases was 359, bringing the death toll to four.
Above: Mehmet Kasapoğlu
On 20 March, all private and foundation hospitals were declared pandemic hospitals with the circular issued by the Ministry of Health.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, in a message posted on his Twitter account, said there were 311 new cases and five more had died.
The total number of cases rose to 670, while the death toll was nine.
Above: Dr. Fahrettin Koca
The Human Rights Association (IHD), the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, the Lawyers Association for Freedom, the Association of Contemporary Lawyers, the Health and Social Workers Union, the Civil Society Association in the Penal System, Covid-19 Outbreak and Measures to Be Taken Urgently in Prisons issued a statement.
The statement included provisions such as the release of elderly and sick, children, pregnant, pregnant, child detainees and the necessity of regular public information about quarantine practices and the health status of prisoners, especially family and lawyers.
Above: Logo of the Human Rights AssociationAbove: Logo of the Human Rights Foundation of TurkeyAbove: Logo of the Health and Social Workers Union
On 21 March, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, in a message posted on his Twitter account, reported 277 new cases and 12 deaths.
The total number of cases rose to 947, with 21 deaths.
On 22 March, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, in a message posted on his Twitter account, said there were 289 new cases, nine people had died and the total number of tests carried out was 20,345.
The total number of cases rose to 1,236, with 30 deaths.
Above: Dr. Fahrettin Koca
On 23 March, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced at a press conference that the drug Favipiravir had been brought in from China that was said to be good for the virus and was being applied to patients in intensive care.
Koca also announced that health workers would be paid additional wages for three months.
Koca posted a new message on his Twitter account later in the day, explaining that there were 293 new cases and that seven people had died.
The total number of cases increased to 1,529 and the number of deaths increased to 37.
On 24 March, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced on his Twitter account that there were 343 new diagnoses and that seven people had died.
The total number of cases increased to 1,872 and the death toll increased to 44.
On 25 March 25, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca and Minister of National Education Ziya Selçuk held a joint press conference.
It was stated that schools were closed until 30 April, the number of existing patients in the intensive care unit was 136 and two patients over the age of 60 were discharged and that data on the cases in Turkey would now be published digitally.
Later, Fahrettin Koca posted on his Twitter account that there were 561 new diagnoses and that 12 people had died.
The total number of cases rose to 2,433 and the death toll rose to 59.
Above: Ziya Selçuk
On 26 March, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced on his Twitter account that there were 1,196 new diagnoses and 16 more had died.
The total number of cases was 3,629, while the deaths rose to 75.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced after the Corona Virus Science Board meeting on 27 March that 42 people had recovered, 341 people were in intensive care, 241 were in intensive care, 2,069 positive cases had been detected in the last 24 hours and 17 people had died.
Thus, the total number of cases increased to 5,698 and the number of deaths increased to 92.
On 28 March, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced that there were 1,704 new cases and 16 people had died.
Thus, the total number of cases increased to 7,402, while the death toll was 108.
The total number of tests carried out so far was 55,464.
On 29 March, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced that there were 1,815 new cases and 23 people had died.
Thus, the total number of cases increased to 9,217, while the death toll was 131.
The total number of tests carried out so far was 65,446.
On 30 March, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced that there were 1,610 new cases and 37 people had died.
Thus, the total number of cases increased to 10,827, while the death toll was 168.
The total number of tests carried out so far was 92,403.
On 31 March 31, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced that there were 2,704 new cases and 46 people had died.
Thus, the total number of cases increased to 13,531, while the death toll was 214.
The total number of tests carried out so far was 92,403.
Above: Dr. Fahrettin Koca
Also on 31 March, Turkish business leader Ergun Atalay issued a written statement demanding a ban on layoffs and a halt to all work except mandatory production of goods and services for at least 15 days.
Atalay stressed the need to quickly deploy the resources of the Unemployment Insurance Fund against the loss of income caused by these, and to provide income support to all workers who lose jobs and income by the employer, the Unemployment Insurance Fund and the state.
The Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions of Turkey (DISK), the Confederation of Public Workers Union (KESK), the Union of Turkish Chambers of Engineers and Architects (TMMOB) and the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) published texts containing seven emergency measures and started a petition.
Among the emergency measures:
“All jobs except basic, mandatory and emergency goods and services should be stopped urgently during the epidemic.
Layoffs should be banned during the epidemic, small trades should be supported, employees should be given paid leave and unconditional unemployment benefits should be paid for the unemployed.
Consumer, residential and vehicle loans, credit card debts and electricity, water, natural gas and communication bills should be deferred without interest being processed during the risk of an epidemic.”
Above: Logo of the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions of TurkeyAbove: Logo of the Confederation of Trade Unions of TurkeyAbove: Logo of the Confederation of Public Workers’ UnionAbove: Logo of the Union of Turkish Chambers of Engineers and Architects
(According to data from the Istanbul Police Department during the epidemic, the rate of domestic violence in Istanbul increased by 38.2% in March 2020.)
On 1 April 2020, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced that a total of 277 infected people had died, with 15,679 current cases.
At the same time, it was announced that there were cases in all 81 provinces and deaths in 39 provinces.
The province with the highest number of cases and deaths was Istanbul with 8,852 cases and 117 deaths.
Above: Haghia Sophia, Istanbul
Istanbul was followed by Izmir with 853 cases and 18 deaths, and Ankara with 712 cases and seven deaths.
Above: IzmirAbove: Anitkabir, Ankara
It was also stated that 601 health workers were infected and one doctor died.
On 2 April 2020, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced that 18,757 new tests had been carried out, 2,456 new cases had been identified and 79 new deaths had occurred.
With these figures, the total number of tests increased to 125,556, the total number of cases increased to 18,135 and the total number of deaths increased to 356.
Koca said on his Twitter account that the number of tests increased by around 4,000 compared to the previous day and the number of positive cases decreased compared to the number of tests, explaining that 82 patients had recovered in the last 24 hours and that 82% of those who died during this time were 60 years of age or older.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Yavuz Selim Kiran announced that as of 4 April 2020, the total number of citizens of the Republic of Turkey who lost their lives abroad due to COVID-19 had reached 156.
Kıran said on his Twitter account that 55 Turkish citizens died in France, 31 in Germany, 22 in the Netherlands,16 in the UK,14 in Belgium, seven in the US, five in Sweden, three in Switzerland, two in Austria and one in Lebanon.
Above: Yavuz Selim Kiran
The Istanbul Medical Chamber said the figures provided by the Ministry of Health are based on cases that test positive for PCR and do not include the number of “suspected/probable cases” in hospitals or outpatient follow-up.
The Medical Chamber also criticized the practices of private hospitals in Istanbul.
Above: Logo of the Istanbul Medical Chamber
On 11 April 2020, a large-scale curfew was declared for the first time, 20 years after the 2000 census.
The Interior Ministry announced two hours in advance that a two-day curfew would be imposed over the weekend in Zonguldak Province, where lung diseases are common in 30 metropolitan areas with 64 million people, equivalent to 78% of Turkey’s population.
In many cities where the ban would be enforced, citizens flocked to grocery stores and bakeries, causing long queues, mayhem and heavy crowds.
Above: Location of Zongulduk Province (in red)
Interior Minister Suleymann Soylu announced that he accepted criticism of the timing and implementation of the ban and announced his resignation the next day.
However, his resignation was not accepted by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Soylu was announced to continue in office.
Above: Suleyman Soylu
The curfew was continued the following weekend.
On 20 April 2020, President Erdoğan announced that the curfew would be maintained in 30 metropolitan areas and Zonguldak between 23 April and 26 April, including National Sovereignty and Children’s Day (23 April) and the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Grand National Assembly and the first three days of Ramadan (24 – 27 April 2020).
Between 23 May and 26 May 2020, curfews were imposed in all 81 provinces for four days.
Above: National Sovereignity and Children’s Day, Cumhuriyet, 23 April 1938Above: Logo of the Grand National Assembly of TurkeyAbove: A quiet Ramadan Bayram in Turkey, 2020
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced on 5 May that 473 Turkish citizens had died from the corona virus abroad.
Cavusoglu also said that more than 65,000 Turkish citizens from 103 countries had been evacuated and brought to Turkey.
While 116 countries requested assistance from Turkey, medical supplies, including N95 masks, overalls, protective goggles, respirators, test kits and visors were sent to 44 countries, including the US, the UK, Spain, Italy and Iran, which were most affected by the outbreak.
Above: Mevlut Cavusoglu
The IBB Scientific Advisory Board shared the results of the meeting and announced that a 7+4 day curfew should be announced to cover 16 May to 26 May.
Addressing the risks of starting to discuss normalization steps, the statement said:
“The plateau provided was achieved as a result of the great compliance of our people with the restriction guidelines carried out.
This state of well-being should not bring relief or a temporary relaxation of measures.
In the report prepared by the IBB Scientific Advisory Board, the transition period in the restrictions is defined in excess and the transition process is detailed.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke after a cabinet meeting on 4 May 2020.
He noted that the daily increase in patients had now decreased to thousands, the number of patients connected to condensation care and respirators was constantly decreasing and the number of patients recovering had increased exponentially.
He announced that 1 billion 910 million Turkish Liras had been raised in the campaign against the corona virus.
Announcing the gradual start of the return to normal life, President Erdoğan stated that the government had made arrangements for the gradual stretching of restrictions by spreading them to May, June and July in general.
The explanations for this normalization process were as follows:
People over the age of 65 would be able to go outside for one of the curfew days and for four hours.
Malls would start operating as of 11 May, provided that the rules were followed.
Children up to the age of 14 would be able to walk outside between 11.00 and 15.00 on 13 May.
The 15-20 age group would be able to walk outside between 11.00 and 15.00 on Friday 15 May.
City entry and exit restrictions would be completed for Antalya, Aydin, Erzurum, Hatay, Malatya, Mersin and Mugla.
Military discharges would begin on 31 May.
The Ministry of National Defense’s appointment, assignment and personnel procurement activities would resume on 1 June, subpoenas on 5 June, and paid military service on 20 June.
As of 5 May, the application of single-double plates for commercial taxis in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir would end.
Businesses such as barbershops, hairdressers and beauty salons would be able to operate on 11 May.
The High School Entrance Exam (LGS) would be held on 20 June, and the Higher Education Institutions Exam (YKS) would be held on 27 June.
On 5 May 2020, Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank announced that all major automotive factories in the country would resume operations as of 11 May.
Above: Mustafa Varank
On 6 May 2020, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced the normalization process and called this new period “controlled social life“.
Minister Fahrettin Koca said the risk remains and citizens should remain vigilant.
Koca stated that the outbreak has been contained in Turkey, but the threat has not disappeared and the last carrier will not be removed without isolation and treatment.
Minister Koca also said that the phrase “return to normality” is not true, they constitute “the normals ofnew life“.
Minister Koca stated that their goal in the first period was to control the disease and explained that their aim in this second and new period was to eliminate the opportunities in front of the disease and to reorganize life.
He said citizens would live a free but cautious life.
Stating that it is now confirmed that the virus is transmitted through breathing, he noted that the mask and social distancing are two complementary measures.
Minister Koca also mentioned the mobile application “Life Fits Home” (HES) developed by the Ministry.
Minister Koca noted that they see the application as one of the extremely important needs of this new era, and mentioned that thanks to the application, people can see the extent to which they can face a risky situation in their environment and where they want to go and take immediate measures.
According to the density map prepared with Ministry data, users can see where there are patients and how much social distance is exceeded during the day using Bluetooth and location services.
Above: Logo of the HES app
Minister Koca also announced that they will increase the number of tests instead of reducing them.
He said they would detect cases early and conduct regular screenings at public places.
Minister Koca added that citizens will need masks more during this period, explaining that more than 40 million people have accessed the application, which includes the free delivery of a five-pack mask every 10 days to the 20 – 65 age group, and that 160 million masks had been distributed to date.
He stated that there would be citizens who may need more during this period of limited freedom, and emphasized that it paved the way for people to buy surgical masks from many places, including pharmacies, grocery stores and medical stores, provided that there is a ceiling price.
Minister Koca stated that the Ministry was responsible for the announcement by the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) that football leagues would continue in Turkey, and that the Federation could make its own decisions.
Above: Turkish Football Federation crest
In addition, Minister Koca announced that 150,000 people would be screened by sampling method as part of their study with the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) to see the degree, carriership and disease status of the outbreak throughout Turkey, and that this study would be a large, perhaps rare, study that would demonstrate carriership, protection and disease status by performing both PCR and antibody tests.
Above: Logo of the Turkish Statistical Institute
On 7 May 2020, the ceiling price of surgical masks was set at ₺1.
A guide published on this day announced that barbershops, hairdressers and beauty salons would not accept unmasked and unscheduled customers in the process and that no one would be present at work except the customer and the employee.
In June 2020, the Association of Emergency Medicine Specialists announced the launch of a story contest titled “Covid-19 Stories“.
The Association said they would evaluate the stories that processed the impact of the pandemic in the competition.
In August 2020, “How has the information ecosystem in Turkey been affected by the pandemic process?” research conducted jointly by Tandans Data Science Consultancy was published with Onay.
Above: Logo of ONAY Engineering and Consulting
On 30 September 2020, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said at a press conference after the Corona Virus Science Board Meeting:
“Not every case is sick.
Because there are those who tested positive but showed no symptoms, and they make up the vast majority of them.”
Explaining the distinction between patient and case definitions, Koca said:
“The number of new patients announced every day and we focus on should be the subject of attention.”
On 9 October 2020, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced the latest developments in domestic vaccination, saying that vaccinations on human subjects would probably begin after two weeks.
On 25 November 2020, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca stated that they will also start to disclose asymptomatic (symptomless, mild) cases that they have not previously disclosed.
As of 25 November, 28,351 new positive cases and 6,814 new patients were announced.
(There has been various controversy since Health Minister Koca announced on 25 November that an agreement had been reached with Sinovac for the Covid-19 Vaccine and that 10 million doses of vaccines would be provided.
It was claimed that the Coronavac vaccine was inadequate and unreliable due to the fact that phase-3 studies had not been carried out.
HDP Istanbul MP Garo Paylan proposed adding TL 15 billion to the Ministry of Health budget and applying the German (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine to citizens free of charge instead of the Chinese (CoronaVac) vaccine, but the motion was rejected.
Above: Garo Paylan
On 9 December 2020, CHP Ankara MP Murat Emir claimed that the COVID-19 vaccine from China had arrived in Turkey and had been being made to AKP politicians and their relatives for 10 days.
Health Minister Koca denied the allegation.)
Above: Murat EmirAbove: Logo of the Justice ad Development Party (AKP), the party in power
On 25 December 2020, Health Minister Koca announced that 4.5 million doses of the Pzifer BioNTech vaccine would arrive by the end of March 2021.
“Bythe end of March, 4.5 million doses of vaccines will be delivered to our country,” Koca said.
On 30 December, the first batch of the CoronaVac vaccine produced by Sinovac was brought to Turkey.
On 13 January 2021, the CoronaVac vaccine produced by Sinovac received “emergency use approval” in Turkey.
On the same day, national vaccination began.
The vaccination process in Turkey began on 13 January 2021, when Health Minister Fahrettin Koca and members of the Scientific Council were vaccinated live on air to encourage citizens to get vaccinated.
(In January 2021, the vaccination, scheduled to start on 23 December, had not yet begun.
According to Sebnem Koru Fincanci, president of the Central Council of the Turkish Medical Association, on 26 January 2021, only 10 million people can be vaccinated in three months if 100,000 vaccinations are given per day.
He said that figure was not enough for social immunity.)
Above: “We stand by our words. We are on duty.“, Turkish Medical Association
On 3 February, the South African and Brazilian variants were also seen in Turkey.
Above: Flag of South AfricaAbove: Flag of Brazil
(On 23 February 2021, CHP Leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu claimed that $12 million was paid for 1 million doses of free vaccines.
On 6 March 2021, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca rejected CHP Leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s claim and accused Kılıçdaroğlu of putting the vaccination programme at risk.
Koca said that there was absolutely no free vaccine agreement between us and China, and our state did not pay anything other than the prices agreed with Sinovac.“)
Above: Leader of the Opposition Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu
(Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on 25 February:
“The important thing for us is to be able to complete this vaccination process in April, May at the latest.
In total, we know that we will have access to 105 million dosesof the vaccine by the end of April, May at the latest.
If we vaccinate 50 million people before the fall, the epidemic will cease to be severe pressure”.
There was a reaction when the vaccination calendar, which Minister Koca announced as “spring“, was postponed to “autumn“.)
On 1 March, Turkish President Erdogan announced that an on-site decision period would be implemented as part of controlled normalization.
He said 81 provinces would be separated by “low, medium, high and very high” risk based on the risk situation of each province, and that governorships would make decisions.
He also said the risk map would be updated every two weeks.
In low- and medium-risk provinces, the ban on the over-65s and under-20s was lifted, training begun at all levels of education, and the weekend curfew lifted.
In high and very high risk provinces, only primary schools and preschool education institutions were opened.
The ban on the over-65s and under-20s was not over, but curfews were increased.
On weekends, it was only forbidden to go out on Sundays.
In all provinces except very high risk provinces, businesses such as cafés and restaurants started to accept customers again at a 50% capacity.
The curfew between 2100 and 0500 continued throughout Turkey.
In all provinces, all high school levels were tested for the 1st semester.
On 24 March, 1.4 million doses of the vaccine arrived in Turkey.
On 12 April 2021, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine became available.
As of 14 April 2021 at 19.00, a two-week partial shutdown was implemented.
Restrictions were imposed in many areas, especially the implementation of curfews between 1900 and 0500 on weekdays to cover the entire weekend.
A full shutdown was announced until 17 May 0500 to be implemented from 1900 on 29 April 2021.
Training was suspended at all levels and exams were postponed.
It was announced that intercity public transport would operate at a 50% capacity.
Chain stores were to be closed on Sundays.
On 28 April 2021, Health Minister Koca announced the signing of 50 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine.
On 30 April, the Sputnik V vaccine was approved for emergency use.
On 16 May 2021, the Ministry of the Interior issued a circular effective from 17 May 2021.
According to the circular, curfews would be imposed between 2100 and 0500 on weekdays and full days at the weekend.
Curfews were lifted for citizens under 18 and over who have been vaccinated with two doses.
For individuals aged 65 and over who were not vaccinated despite being eligible for vaccinations, they were allowed to go out between 1000 and 1400 on weekdays.
Citizens under the age of 18 and over 65 were banned from public transport regardless of whether they were exempt from the restriction.
Shopping malls opened between 1000 and 2000 on weekdays and were completely closed on the weekend.
The visitor restriction, which was already in place in social protection/care centers such as nursing homes, aged care home rehabilitation centers and children’s homes, was extended until 1 June 2021.
Ugur Sahin, the founder of BioNTech, attended the Corona Virus Science Board meeting held on 20 May 2021.
Above: Ugur Sahin
The first shipment of the Sputnik V vaccine took place on 14 June.
On 30 June 2021, Health Minister Koca announced that it had been decided that those over 50 and health workers should get a 3rd dose of the vaccine.
Turkey moved to the 3rd stage of gradual normalization as of 1 July 2021.
Many of the restrictions that had existed for 15 months disappeared.
Accordingly, the curfew ended completely, while many restrictions on food and drink places were lifted.
Mask and social distancing rules taken within the scope of corona measures continue throughout the country.
(On 30 July 2021, the Sputnik V vaccine, which received Emergency Use Approval on 30 April 2021, was criticized for still not being used.
Following the Scientific Council meeting on 2 September, Health Minister Koca was asked why the vaccine was not available.
“There was a dose for 200,000 people related to Sputnik, that is, 400,000.
There is a difference of the first and second doses related to Sputnik, not the same vaccine.
They’re different.
Therefore, due to the vaccine difference that has come in, we have been in contact in the new period, especially yesterday, we are striving for the arrival of both one and second doses of the vaccine more intensively.”)
On 16 August 2021, due to the request of two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine by some countries on their departure abroad, two doses of Sinovac and one dose of BioNTech were granted a 4th dose of vaccine.
(After the 4th dose vaccine decision, Prof. Dr. Esin Davutoglu Şenol explained that:
“There is currently no direct evidence for repeated doses other than indirect data.”
Prof. Dr. Kayihan Pala stated:
“Making arrangements without data/evidence that are not based on scientific knowledge is another example of mismanagement.”)
Above: Prof. Dr. Kayıhan Pala
On 19 August 2021, President Erdogan announced after the cabinet meeting that all levels would start full-time training on 6 September 2021, while non-vaccinated teachers and staff would be asked to test for PCR at least twice a week.
Starting from 6 September 2021, the Ministry of the Interior circular issued on 20 August 2021 required PCR testing for non-vaccinated persons for activities such as concerts, cinemas, theatres and public transport such as non-private vehicles (planes, buses, trains).
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said vaccination appointments have been opened for those with chronic diseases over the age of 12 and for the over-15s.
In the new period, it announced that there was no closure.
Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer said that students and teachers can come to school wearing masks.
Above: Mahmut Özer
(WSE teachers tend to wear masks these days whilst teaching.)
On 3 November 2021, Health Minister Koca announced that two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine would be given after six months.
During the pandemic, Turkey has provided funds, doctors, dispatched medical equipment such as PPE, PCR testing kits, and other assistance to at least 55 countries.
The dispatched medical equipment includes 1,300,000 N-95 masks and 300,000 PCR testing kits in April 2020 alone.
By setting itself up as a provider rather than a recipient of aid, Turkey portrayed itself as a valuable partner in combating the global spread of SARS-CoV-2.
Has the pandemic been handled well in Turkey?
In my assessment, it has.
Above: Your humble blogger
In Turkey, a person is required to obtain a HES code for contact tracing.
(I was issued mine on 1 March 2021 at the Istanbul bus terminal before I was permitted to take a bus to Eskişehir.)
Above: Grand Istanbul Bus Station
HES stands for Hayat Eve Sığar, which in the Turkish language means “Life Fits Into Home“.
The code helps you safely share your Covid-19 risk status with individuals and institutions for daily activities such as transportation or circulations for traveling.
It is mandatory to have a valid HES (Hayat Eve Sığar) code when purchasing a bus, train, plane ticket, travelling long distances between cities inside Turkey, or entering public assembly areas such as shopping centres.
In order to get the code you have to fıll in a form.
In case you haven’t filled in the form correctly or you gave misleading statements, you might face administrative and legal sanctions or even may not be permitted to enter Turkey.
(Unless you are a Turkish citizen or residence permit holder).
The HES Code is a personal code implemented by the Ministry of Health in order to reduce the presence of those who tested positive for COVID-19 or have had contact with a positive patient, to prevent them from participating in public activities.
Shopping centres will often have sensors that record your body temperature to ensure that feverish individuals are denied access to public exposure.
The PCR test at the hospital this evening was performed by a woman encased behind a plexiglass barrier with plastic sheathed openings where her gloved arms reached out with a large stick to impale me in my nostril.
Above: COVID testing kiosk, India
I am reminded of the line used by Chandler (Matthew Perry) in an episode of Friends:
“You have to stop the Q-tip when there is resistance”
Before cleaning one’s ears, a person has to make sure that they don’t push the cotton swab too deep inside the ear because the more you push it inside, it actually starts damaging your brain.
So when Joey (Matt Leblanc) talks utter nonsense, Chandler just came up with the line:
“You have to stop the Q-tip when there is resistance”.
This is to portray how Joey had been pushing the cotton swabs too deep inside his ear that his brain got damaged and couldn’t make sense while he was talking.
It feels like brain matter must surely be punctured when the test stick is violently rammed up one’s nose.
Clearly it takes a special sort of person to regularly stab folks up the nose on a constant basis.
I wonder what the job description must be for this activity.
I received a negative result the following morning and then dashed off to the train station bound for Istanbul.
I would need to show this result before boarding the train in Eskişehir, at the Istanbul airport check-in, at the airplane boarding gate, upon arrival at customs in Zürich, Switzerland, and upon entering a steakhouse restaurant that same evening in Konstanz, Germany.
Above: Eskişehir StationAbove: Interior of Istanbul AirportAbove: Interior of Heuboden Steakhouse, Konstanz, Germany
Landschlacht, Switzerland, Thursday 30 December 2021
The only ray of light which illuminates the gloom is when – miracle of miracles, wonder of wonders – you have somehow still avoided contracting the corona virus.
You have been a sensible soul – for the most part.
These past two years you have worn a protective mask, have endured lockdowns, have kept your distance from others, have been vaccinated (twice) and you anticipate your appointment to get your 3rd shot – a booster – soon.
You certainly are not enjoying these times wherein you find yourself.
Masks are uncomfortable and make it challenging for those with glasses to see.
You cannot remember the last time you attended a concert and you wonder when or if you might ever go to one again.
You resent the compulsion of governments and institutions that demand proof of health and record of vaccinations as almost an invasion of your private medical history.
And yet in the name of public safety you cooperate with all the rules and restrictions, seeing no reason to doubt science or the deadly dangers of this prevalent pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic is an ongoing global pandemic of corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
The novel virus (a virus that has not previously been recorded) was first identified from an outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, and attempts to contain it there failed, allowing it to spread across the globe.
The World Health Organization (WHO) (a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (a formal declaration of “an extraordinary event which is determined to constitute a public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease and to potentially require a coordinated international response“, formulated when a situation arises that is “serious, sudden, unusual, or unexpected”, which “carries implications for public health beyond the affected state’s national border” and “may require immediate international action“) on 30 January 2020, and a pandemic on 11 March 2020.
As of 28 December 2021, the pandemic had caused more than 281 million cases and 5.4 million deaths, making it one of the deadliest in history.
113 countries have more confirmed cases than the People’s Republic of China, the country where the outbreak began.
All countries with more cases than China have at least 100,000 cases, including Greece, Portugal, Hungary, Romania, Chile, Egypt, Austalia, Japan and South Korea.
Above: Cumulative confirmed cases by country, as of 1 December 2021
Thailand was the first country to report at least one case outside China.
Above: Flag of Thailand
The United States and Italy were the first two countries to overtake China in terms of the number of confirmed cases.
Above: Flag of the United States of America
The country that overtook China in terms of the number of confirmed cases several days later was the United Kingdom.
Above: Flag of the United Kingdom
Japan was the first country in East Asia to overtake China in terms of the number of confirmed cases.
Above: Flag of Japan
The second country in East Asia that overtook China in terms of the number of confirmed cases was South Korea, while the third and most recent one was Mongolia.
Above: Flag of South Korea
The most recent country that overtook China in terms of the number of confirmed cases was Laos.
Above: Flag of Laos
Today, 13 most affected countries have at least five million cases, including the United States, India, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Argentina.
Above: Flag of India
At the moment, 27 most affected countries, including Thailand, the Czech Republic, South Africa, Canada and Poland, have at least two million cases.
Above: Flag of the Czech Republic
The first person infected with the disease, known as COVID-19, was discovered at the beginning of December 2019.
The disease has spread very easily to the United States, India, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Argentina, Poland, South Africa, the Czech Republic, Thailand, Canada, Romania, Chile, Japan, Portugal, Hungary, Greece, South Korea, Egypt, Australia, and many other countries.
Above: Flag of Russia
The COVID-19 outbreak has been a pandemic since 11 March 2020.
A total of about 5.4 million deaths worldwide pertaining to COVID-19 was reported as of late December 2021 (early winter in the northern hemisphere and early summer in the southern hemisphere).
At the beginning of December 2021, the second anniversary of the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak was commemorated.
COVID-19 symptoms range from none to deadly.
Severe illness is more likely in elderly patients and those with certain underlying medical conditions.
COVID-19 is airborne, spread via air contaminated by microscopic virions (viral particles).
The risk of infection is highest among people in close proximity, but can occur over longer distances, particularly indoors in poorly ventilated areas.
Transmission rarely occurs via contaminated surfaces or fluids.
Infected persons are typically contagious for 10 days, often beginning before or without symptoms.
Mutations produced many strains (variants) with varying degrees of infectivity and virulence.
There are many variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Some are believed, or have been stated, to be of particular importance due to their potential for increased transmissibility, increased virulence, or reduced effectiveness of vaccines against them.
These variants contribute to the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Five SARS-CoV-2 variants have been designated as variants of concern (a category used for variants of the virus where mutations in their spike protein – the largest of the four major structural proteins found in corona viruses.
The spike protein assembles into trimers (a macromolecular complex formed by three, macromolecules) that form large structures, called spikes or peplomers that project from the surface of the virion.
The distinctive appearance of these spikes when visualized using negative stain transmission electron microscopy, “recalling the solar corona“, gives the virus family its name.
TheAlpha variant, also known as lineage B.1.1.7, is a variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
One of several variants of concern, the variant is estimated to be 40% – 80% more transmissible than the wild type (the typical form of a species as it occurs in nature) SARS-CoV-2 (with most estimates occupying the middle to higher end of this range).
Above: Symptoms of COVID-19
Alpha was first detected in November 2020 from a sample taken in September in the UK, and began to spread quickly by mid-December, around the same time as infections surged.
This increase is thought to be at least partly because of one or more mutations in the virus’ spike protein.
The variant is also notable for having more mutations than normally seen.
As of January 2021, more than half of all genomic sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 was carried out in the UK.
This has given rise to questions as to how many other important variants may be circulating around the world undetected.
On 2 February 2021, Public Health England reported that they had detected “a limited number of B.1.1.7 VOC-202012/01 genomes with E484K mutations“, which they dubbed Variant of Concern 202102/02 (VOC-202102/02).
Imperial College London investigated over a million people in England while the Alpha variant was dominant and discovered a wide range of further symptoms linked to Covid.
“Chills, loss of appetite,headache and muscle aches” were most common in infected people, as well as classic symptoms.
Above: Coat of arms of Imperial College London
(The name of the mutation, E484K, refers to an exchange whereby the glumatic acid (E) – an α-amino acid that is used by almost all living beings in the biosynthesis of proteins, non-essential in humans, meaning that the body can synthesize it – is replaced by lysine (K) – another α-amino acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins, which the human body cannot synthesize, but is essential in humans and must be obtained from one’s diet.
It is nicknamed “Eeek“.
E484K has been reported to be an escape mutation (i.e., a mutation that improves a virus’s ability to evade the host’s immune system) from at least one form of monoclonal antibody (an antibody made by cloning a unique white blood cell) against SARS-CoV-2, indicating there may be a “possible change in antigenicity (the capacity of a chemical structure to bind specifically with a group of certain products that have adaptive immunity)”.
(White blood cells, also called leukocytes or leucocytes, are the cells of the immune system that are involved in protecting the body against both infectious disease and foreign invaders.
All white blood cells are produced and derived from cells in the bone marrow known as hematopoietic stem cells.
Leukocytes are found throughout the body, including the blood and lymphatic system.)
Above: Artificially colored electron micrograph of blood cells. From left to right: erythrocyte, thrombocyte, leukocyte.
The Gamma variant (lineage P.1), the Zeta variant (lineage P.2, also known as lineage B.1.1.28.2) and the Beta variant (501.V2) exhibit this mutation.
A limited number of lineage B.1.1.7 genomes with E484K mutation have also been detected.
Monoclonal and serum-derived antibodies are reported to be from 10 to 60 times less effective in neutralising virus bearing the E484K mutation.
On 2 February 2021, medical scientists in the United Kingdom reported the detection of E484K in 11 samples (out of 214,000 samples), a mutation that may compromise current vaccine effectiveness.)
Above: False-colour transmission electron micrograph of a B.1.1.7 variant corona virus. The variant’s increased transmissibility is believed to be due to changes in structure of the spike proteins, shown here in green.
One of the mutations (N501Y) is also present in the Beta and Gamma variants.
N501Y denotes a change from asparagine (N) (an α-amino acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins, non-essential in humans, meaning the body can synthesize it) to tyrosine (Y) (one of the 20 standard amino acids used by cells to synthesize proteins, and found in many high-protein food products (such as chicken, turkey, fish, milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese, peanuts, almonds, pumpkn seeds, soy products and lima beans, but also in avocados and bananas), the Dietary Reference Intake (recommended dietary allowance: RDA) is 42 mg per kilogram of body weight).
N501Y has been nicknamed “Nelly“.
This change is believed to increase binding affinity because of its position inside the spike glycoprotein’s receptor-binding domain, which binds ACE2 in human cells.
(Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is an enzyme (a protein that acts as a biochemical catalyst) that can be found either attached to the membrance of cells (mACE2) in the intestines, kidney, testis, gallbladder and heart, or in a soluble form (sACE2).
Both membrane bound and soluble ACE2 are integral parts of the Renin Angiotensin Aldosterone System (RAAS) that exists to keep the body’s blood pressure in check.
mACE2 also serves as the entry point into cells for some corona viruses.)
Above: Total number of B.1.1.7 sequences by country as of 25 March 2021 – The darker the region, the more cases therein
On 31 May 2021, the WHO announced that the Variant of Concern would be labelled “Alpha” for use in public communications.
The Beta variant, also known as lineage B.1.351, is a variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
One of several SARS-CoV-2 variants believed to be of particular importance, it was first detected in the Nelson Mandela Bay metropolitan area of the Eastern Cape province of South Africa in October 2020, which was reported by the country’s health department on 18 December 2020.
Above: Official seal of Nelson Mandela Bay
The WHO labelled the variant as Beta variant, not to replace the scientific name but as a name for the public to commonly refer to.
The WHO considers it to be a variant of concern.
Above: Countries with confirmed cases of Beta variant as of 25 June 2021 – The darker the region, the more cases therein
The Gamma variant, also known as lineage P.1, is one of the variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
This variant of SARS-CoV-2 has been named lineage P.1 and has 17 amino acid substitutions (a change from one amino acid to a different amino acid in a protein due to point mutation in the corresponding DNA sequence), ten of which in its spike protein, including these three designated to be of particular concern: N501Y (Nelly), E484K (Eeek) and K417T.
Above: Total number of P.1 sequences by country as of 21 April 2021 – The darker the area, the more cases therein.
This variant of SARS-CoV-2 was first detected by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) of Japan, on 6 January 2021 in four people who had arrived in Tokyo having visited Amazonas, Brazil, four days earlier.
Above: National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan
It was subsequently declared to be in circulation in Brazil.
Under the simplified naming scheme proposed by the WHO, P.1 has been labeled Gamma variant, and is currently considered a variant of concern.
Gamma caused widespread infection in early 2021 in the city of Manaus, the capital of Amazonas, although the city had already experienced widespread infection in May 2020, with a study indicating high seroprevalence (the number of persons in a population who test positive for a specific disease based on serology (blood serum) specimens, which is often presented as a percent of the total specimens tested or as a proportion per 100,000 persons tested) of antibodies for SARS-CoV-2.
Above: Images of Manaus, Brazil
A research article published in Science Journal indicates that P.1 infected people have a greater chance of transmissibility and death than B.1.1.28 infected ones.
The Gamma variant comprises the two distinct subvariants 28-AM-1 and 28-AM-2, which both carry the K417T, E484K, N501Y mutations, and which both developed independently of each other within the same Brazilian Amazonas region.
Gamma is notably different from the Zeta variant (lineage P.2) which is also circulating strongly in Brazil.
In particular, Zeta only carries the E484K mutation and has neither of the other two mutations of concern, N501Y and K417T.
The Delta variant is a variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
It was first detected in India in late 2020.
The Delta variant was named on 31 May 2021 and had spread to over 179 countries by 22 November 2021.
The WHO indicated in June 2021 that the Delta variant was becoming the dominant strain globally.
It has mutations in the gene encoding the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein causing the substitutions T478K, P681R and L452R, which are known to affect transmissibility of the virus as well as whether it can be neutralised by antibodies for previously circulating variants of the COVID-19 virus.
Above: Countries with confirmed cases of Delta variant as of 10 August 2021 – The darker the region, the more cases therein.
The name of the mutation, P681R, refers to an exchange whereby proline (P) (an amino acid used in the biosynthesis of proteins) is replaced by arginine (R) (another amino acid used in protein biosynthesis, which determines the development stage amd health status of the individual).
The name of the mutation, L452R, refers to an exchange whereby leucine (L) (an essential amino acid used in the biosynthesis of proteins in humans, meaning the body cannot synthesize it, so it must be obtained from one’s diet) is replaced by arginine (R) (another α-amino acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins, classified as a semiessential or conditionally essential amino acid, depending on the developmental stage and health status of the individual, though most healthy people do not need to supplement with arginine because it is a component of all protein-containing foods).
L452R is found in both the Delta and Kappa variants which first circulated in India, but have since spread around the world.
L452R is a relevant mutation in this strain that enhances ACE2 receptor binding ability and can reduce vaccine-stimulated antibodies from attaching to this altered spike protein.
L452R, some studies show, could even make the corona virus resistant to T cells, that are class of cells necessary to target and destroy virus-infected cells.
They are different from antibodies that are useful in blocking corona virus particles and preventing it from proliferating.
The Delta variant is thought to be one of the most transmissible respiratory viruses known.
In August 2021, Public Health England (PHE) reported secondary attack rate in household contacts of non-travel or unknown cases for Delta to be 10.8% vis-à-vis 10.2% for the Alpha variant.
The case fatality rate for those 386,835 people with Delta is 0.3%, where 46% of the cases and 6% of the deaths are unvaccinated and below 50 years old.
Immunity from previous recovery or COVID-19 vaccines are effective in preventing severe disease or hospitalisation from infection with the variant.
On 7 May 2021, PHE changed their classification of lineage B.1.617.2 from a variant under investigation (VUI) to a variant of concern (VOC) based on an assessment of transmissibility being at least equivalent to B.1.1.7 (Alpha variant).
The UK’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) (a British government body that advises the central government in emergencies, usually chaired by the UK’s Chief Scientific Adviser) using May data estimated a “realistic” possibility of being 50% more transmissible.
On 11 May 2021, the WHO also classified this lineage VOC, and said that it showed evidence of higher transmissibility and reduced neutralisation.
On 15 June 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared Delta a variant of concern.
The variant is thought to be partly responsible for India’s deadly second wave of the pandemic beginning in February 2021.
(India began its vaccination programme on 16 January 2021.
On 19 January 2021, nearly a year after the first reported case in the country, Lakshadweep became the last region of India to report its first case.
By February 2021, daily cases had fallen to 9,000 per-day.
Above: Location of Lakshadweep Islands, India
However, by early-April 2021, a major second wave of infections took hold in the country with destructive consequences.
On 9 April, India surpassed 1 million active cases, and by 12 April, India overtook Brazil as having the second-most COVID-19 cases worldwide.
By late April, India passed 2.5 million active cases and was reporting an average of 300,000 new cases and 2,000 deaths per-day.
Some analysts feared this was an undercount.
On 30 April, India reported over 400,000 new cases and over 3,500 deaths in one day.
Above: Map of cumulative COVID-19 cases in India, 18 May 2021
Multiple factors have been proposed to have potentially contributed to the sudden spike in cases, including highly-infectious variants of concern such as Lineage B.1.617, a lack of preparations as temporary hospitals were often dismantled after cases started to decline, and new facilities were not built, and health and safety precautions being poorly-implemented or enforced during weddings, festivals (such as Holi on 29 March, and the Haridwar Kumbh Mela which was linked to linked to at least 1,700 positive cases between 10 and 14 April including cases in Hindu seers), sporting events (such as the Indian Premier League), state and local elections in which politicians and activists have held in several states, and in public places.
Above: Holi Festival of Colors, Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple, UtahAbove: Bathing ghat on the Ganges during Kumbh Mela
An economic slowdown put pressure on the government to lift restrictions.
There had been a feeling of exceptionalism based on the hope that India’s young population and childhood immunisation scheme would blunt the impact of the virus.
Models may have underestimated projected cases and deaths due to the under-reporting of cases in the country.
Due to high demand, the vaccination programme began to be hit with supply issues.
Exports of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine were suspended to meet domestic demand, there have been shortages of the raw materials required to manufacture vaccines domestically, while hesitancy and a lack of knowledge among poorer, rural communities has also impacted the programme.
The second wave placed a major strain on the healthcare system, including a shortage of liquid medical oxygen due to ignored warnings which began in the first wave itself, logistic issues, and a lack of cryogenic tankers.
On 23 April, Modi met via videoconference with liquid oxygen suppliers, where he acknowledged the need to “provide solutions in a very short time“, and acknowledged efforts such as increases in production, and the use of rail and air transport to deliver oxygen supplies.
A large number of new oxygen plants were announced.
The installation burden was shared by the centre, coordination with foreign countries with regard to oxygen plants received in the form of aid, and DRDO.
A number of countries sent emergency aid to India in the form of oxygen supplies, medicines, raw material for vaccines and ventilators.
This reflected a policy shift in India.
Comparable aid offers had been rejected during the past 16 years.
Above: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
The number of new cases had begun to steadily drop by late May.
On 25 May, the country reported 195,994 new cases — its lowest daily increase since 13 April.
However, the mortality rate has remained high.
By 24 May, India recorded over 300,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19.
Around 100,000 deaths had occurred in the last 26 days, and 50,000 in the last 12.
In May 2021, WHO declared that two variants first found in India will be referred to as ‘Delta‘ and ‘Kappa‘.
Karnataka announced a COVID-19 Memorial.
Above: Karnataka Covid-19 Memorial
On 25 August 2021, Soumya Swaminathan said that India “may be entering some kind of stage of endemicity where there is low level transmission or moderate level transmission going on” but nothing as severe as before.
In other words, India is learning to live with the virus.
Above: Dr. Soumiya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist, World Health Organization
India announced a mandatory 10-day quarantine on travellers arriving from United Kingdom irrespective of their vaccination status starting 4 October 2021 after the UK also put the same restrictions on travellers from India by not recognizing India’s vaccine certificate.
On 8 October, the UK opened up the restrictions on travellers from 47 countries and locations including India.
It later contributed to a third wave in Fiji, the UK and South Africa.
Above: Flag of Fiji
The WHO warned in July 2021 that it could have a similar effect elsewhere in Europe and Africa.
By late July, it had also driven an increase in daily infections in parts of Asia, the US, Australia and New Zealand.
Yet another COVID variant, Omicron, followed.
Above: Flag of Australia
The Omicron variant is a variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
As of December 2021, it is the newest variant.
It was first reported to the WHO from South Africa on 24 November 2021.
On 26 November 2021, the WHO designated it as a variant of concern and named it “Omicron“, the 15th letter in the Greek alphabet.
The variant has an unusually large number of mutations, several of which are novel and a significant number of which affect the spike protein targeted by most COVID-19 vaccines at the time of the discovery of the Omicron variant.
This level of variation has led to concerns regarding its transmissibility, immune system evasion and vaccine resistance, despite initial reports indicating that the variant causes less serious disease than previous strains.
The variant was quickly designated as being “of concern“.
Travel restrictions were introduced by several countries in an attempt to slow its international spread.
Compared to previous variants of concern, Omicron is believed to be far more contagious (spreading much quicker) and spreads around 70 times faster than any previous variants in the bronchi (lung airways), but it is less able to penetrate deep lung tissue, and perhaps for this reason there is a considerable reduction in the risk of severe disease requiring hospitalisation.
However the extremely high rate of spread, combined with its ability to evade both double vaccination and the body’s immune system, means the total number of patients requiring hospital care at any given time is still of great concern.
The new variant was first detected on 22 November 2021 in laboratories in Botswana and South Africa based on samples collected 11–16 November.
The first known sample was collected in South Africa on 8 November.
Above: Flag of Botswana
In other continents, the first known cases were a person arriving in Hong Kong from South Africa via Qatar on 11 November, and another person who arrived in Belgium from Egypt via Turkey on the same date.
Above: Flag of Hong Kong
As of 16 December 2021, the variant has been confirmed in more than 80 countries.
The WHO estimated that by mid-December, Omicron likely was in most countries, whether they had detected it or not.
Above: Flag of Belgium
Symptoms of COVID-19 are variable, ranging from mild symptoms to severe illness.
Common symptoms include:
headache
loss of smell (anosmia)
loss of taste (ageusia)
nasal congestion
runny nose
cough
muscle pain
sore throat
fever
diarrhea
breathing difficulties
People with the same infection may have different symptoms, and their symptoms may change over time.
Three common clusters of symptoms have been identified:
one respiratory symptom cluster with cough, sputum/mucus, shortness of breath, and fever
a musculoskeletal symptom cluster with muscle and joint pain, headache, and fatigue
a cluster of digestive symptoms with abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea.
In people without prior ear, nose, and throat disorders, loss of taste combined with loss of smell is associated with COVID-19 and is reported in as many as 88% of cases.
Of people who show symptoms:
81% develop only mild to moderate symptoms (up to mild pneumonia)
14% develop severe symptoms (dyspnea/shortness of breath, hypoxia – a condition in which the body or a region of the body is deprived of adequate oxygen supply at the tissue level, classified as either generalized (affecting the whole body) or local (affecting a region of the body) – or more than 50% lung involvement on imaging)
5% of patients suffer critical symptoms (respiratory failure, shovk or multiorgan dysfunction).
At least a third of the people who are infected with the virus do not develop noticeable symptoms at any point in time.
These asymptomatic carriers tend not to get tested and can spread the disease.
Other infected people will develop symptoms later, called “pre-symptomatic“, or have very mild symptoms and can also spread the virus.
As is common with infections, there is a delay between the moment a person first becomes infected and the appearance of the first symptoms.
The median delay for COVID-19 is four to five days.
Most symptomatic people experience symptoms within two to seven days after exposure.
Almost all will experience at least one symptom within 12 days.
Most people recover from the acute phase of the disease.
However, some people – over half of a cohort of home-isolated young adults – continue to experience a range of effects, such as fatigue, for months after recovery, a condition called long COVID.
Long-term damage to organs has been observed.
Multi-year studies are underway to further investigate the long-term effects of the disease.
COVID-19 vaccines have been approved and widely distributed in various countries since December 2020.
A COVID‑19 vaccine is a vaccine intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2), the virus that causes corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, an established body of knowledge existed about the structure and function of corona viruses causing diseases like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).
Above: Corona vaccination mechanism
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory disease of zoonotic (coming from animals) origin caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus (SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-1), the first identified strain of the SARS corona virus species severe acute respiratory syndrome-related corona virus (SARSr-CoV).
The first known cases occurred in November 2002.
The syndrome caused the 2002 – 2004 SARS outbreak.
Around late 2017, Chinese scientists traced the virus through the intermediary of Asian palm civets to cave-dwelling horseshoe bats in Xiyang Yi Ethnic Township, Yunnan.
Above: Asian palm civetAbove: Horseshoe bat
SARS was a relatively rare disease.
At the end of the epidemic in June 2003, the incidence was 8,469 cases with a case fatality rate (CFR) of 11%.
No cases of SARS-CoV-1 have been reported worldwide since 2004.
Above: An electron microscopic image of a thin section of SARS-CoV within the cytoplasm of an infected cell
Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is a viral respiratory infection caused by the Middle East respiratory syndrome-related corona virus (MERS-CoV).
Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe.
Typical symptoms include fever, cough, diarrhea and shortness of breath.
The disease is typically more severe in those with other health problems.
The first identified case occurred in June 2012 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Most cases have occurred in the Arabian Peninsula.
Over 2,500 cases have been reported as of January 2021, including 45 cases in the year 2020.
About 35% of those who are diagnosed with the disease die from it.
Larger outbreaks have occurred in South Korea (2015) and in Saudi Arabia (2018).
MERS-CoV is a corona virus believed to be originally from bats.
However, humans are typically infected from camels, either during direct contact or indirectly.
spread between humans typically requires close contact with an infected person.
Its spread is uncommon outside of hospitals.
Thus, its risk to the global population is currently deemed to be fairly low.
Diagnosis is by rRT – PCR testing of blood and respiratory samples.
Above: MERS-CoV particles as seen by negative stain electron microscopy
(Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a method widely used to rapidly make millions to billions of copies (complete copies or partial copies) of a specific DNA sample, allowing scientists to take a very small sample of DNA and amplify it (or a part of it) to a large enough amount to study in detail.
PCR was invented in 1983 by the American biochemist Kary Mullis at Cetus Corporation.
Above: Kary Mullis (1944 – 2019)
It is fundamental to many of the procedures used in genetic testing and research, including analysis of ancient samples of DNA and identification of infectious agents.
Using PCR, copies of very small amounts of DNA sequences are exponentially amplified in a series of cycles of temperature changes.
PCR is now a common and often indispensable technique used in medical laboratory research for a broad variety of applications including biomedical research and criminal forsenics.
Applications of the technique include:
DNA cloning for sequencing, gene cloning and manipulation, gene mutagenesis
construction of DNA-based phylogenies, or functional analysis of genes
diagnosis and monitoring of genetic disorders
amplification of ancient DNA
analysis of genetic fingerprints for DNA profiling (for example, in forensic science and parentage testing)
detection of pathogens in nucleic acide tests for the diagnosis of infectious diseases)
Above: Placing a strip of eight PCR tubes into a thermal cycler
As of 2021, there is no specific vaccine or treatment for MERS, but a number are being developed.
The WHO recommends that those who come in contact with camels wash their hands and not touch sick camels.
They also recommend that camel-based food products be appropriately cooked.
Treatments that help with the symptoms and support body functioning may be used.
Previous infection with MERS can confer cross-reactive immunity to SARS-CoV-2 and provide partial protection against COVID-19.
However, co-infection with SARS-CoV-2 and MERS is possible and could lead to a recombination event.
Reassortment is the mixing of the genetic material of a species into new combinations in different individuals.
Several different processes contribute to reassortment, including assortment of chromosomes, and chromosomal crossover.
It is particularly used when two similar viruses that are infecting the same cell exchange genetic material.
In particular, reassortment occurs among influenza viruses, whose genomes consist of eight distinct segments of RNA.
These segments act like mini-chromosomes, and each time a flu virus is assembled, it requires one copy of each segment.
If a single host (a human, a chicken, or other animal) is infected by two different strains of the influenza virus, then it is possible that new assembled viral particles will be created from segments whose origin is mixed, some coming from one strain and some coming from another.
The new reassortant strain will share properties of both of its parental lineages.
Reassortment is responsible for some of the major genetic shifts in the history of the influenza virus.
In the 1957 “Asian flu” and 1968 “Hong Kong flu” pandemics, flu strains were caused by reassortment between an avian (bird) virus and a human virus.
In addition, the H1N1 virus responsible for the 2009 swine flu pandemic has an unusual mix of swine, avian and human influenza genetic sequences.
Above: H1N1 virus
This knowledge about the structure and function of corona viruses causing diseases accelerated the development of various vaccine platforms during early 2020.
The initial focus of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines was on preventing symptomatic, often severe illness.
On 10 January 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequence data was shared through the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID).
By 19 March, the global pharmaceutical industry announced a major commitment to address COVID‑19.
The COVID‑19 vaccines are widely credited for their role in reducing the severity and death caused by COVID‑19.
Many countries have implemented phased distribution plans that prioritize those at highest risk of complications, such as the elderly, and those at high risk of exposure and transmission, such as healthcare workers.
As of 28 December 2021, 9.02 billion doses of COVID‑19 vaccines have been administered worldwide based on official reports from national public health agencies.
By December 2020, more than 10 billion vaccine doses had been preordered by countries, with about half of the doses purchased by high income countries comprising 14% of the world’s population.
Above: Vaccine platforms being employed for SARS-CoV-2 vaccine design. This figure illustrates the different vaccine approaches being taken for the design of human SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. Whole virus vaccines include both attenuated and inactivated forms of the virus and subunits of inactivated virus can also be used. Protein and peptide subunit vaccines are usually combined with an adjuvant in order to enhance immunogenicity. The main emphasis in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development has been on using the whole spike protein in its trimeric form or components of it, such as the RBD region. Multiple non-replicating viral vector vaccines have been developed, particularly focused on adenovirus; while there has been less emphasis on the replicating viral vector constructs. Nucleic acid-based approaches include DNA and mRNA vaccines, often packaged into nanocarriers such as virus-like particles (VLPs) and lipid nanoparticles (LNPs). Nanoparticle and VLP vaccines can also have antigen attached to their surface or combined in their core. The immune cell therapy approach uses genetically modified SARS-CoV-2-specific cytotoxic T cells and dendritic cells expressing viral antigens to protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Each of these vaccine approaches has benefits and disadvantages in terms of cost and ease of production, safety profile and immunogenicity, and it remains to be seen which of the many candidates in development protect against COVID-19.
GISAID is a global science initiative and primary source established in 2008 that provides open-access to genomic data of influenza viruses and the corona virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.
On 10 January 2020, the first whole-genome sequences of SARS-CoV-2 were made available on GISAID, which enabled global responses to the pandemic, including the development of the first vaccines and diagnostic tests to detect SARS-CoV-2.
GISAID facilitates genomic epidemiology and real-time surveillance to monitor the emergence of new COVID-19 viral strains across the planet.
Since its establishment as an alternative to sharing avian influenza data via conventional public domain archives, GISAID has been recognized for incentivizing rapid exchange of outbreak data during the H1N1 pandemic in 2009, the H7N9 epidemic in 2013, and the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.
GISAID was recognized for its importance to global health by G20 health ministers in 2017.
In 2020 the WHO chief scientist called the data science initiative “a game changer”.
Its closed access license, however, has been criticized by hundreds of researchers.
Other recommended preventative measures include social distancing, masking, improving ventilation and air filtration, and quarantining those who have been exposed or are symptomatic.
Social distancing, or physical distancing is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures taken to prevent the spread of a contagious disease by maintaining a physical distance between people and reducing the number of times people come into close contact with each other.
It involves keeping a distance of six feet or two meters from others and avoiding gathering together in large groups.
During the current COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing and related measures were emphasised by several governments as alternatives to an enforced quarantine of heavily affected areas.
According to UNESCO monitoring, more than a hundred countries have implemented nationwide school closures in response to COVID-19, impacting over half the world’s student population.
In the UK, the government advised the public to avoid public spaces.
Cinemas and theatres voluntarily closed to encourage the government’s message.
With many people disbelieving that COVID-19 is any worse than the seasonal flu, it has been difficult to convince the public to voluntarily adopt social distancing practices.
Above: COVID-UK
In Belgium, media reported a rave was attended by at least 300 before it was broken up by local authorities.
Above: Location of Belgium (dark green)
In France, teens making nonessential trips are fined up to US $150.
Above: Flag of France
Beaches were closed in Florida and Alabama to disperse partygoers during spring break.
Weddings were broken up in New Jersey and an 8 p.m. curfew was imposed in Newark.
New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania were the first states to adopt coordinated social distancing policies which closed down non-essential businesses and restricted large gatherings.
Above: Flag of New Jersey
Shelter in place orders in California were extended to the entire state on 19 March.
On the same day, Texas declared a public disaster and imposed statewide restrictions.
Above: Flag of Texas
These preventive measures such as social-distancing and self-isolation prompted the widespread closure of primary, secondary and post-secondary schools in more than 120 countries.
As of 23 March 2020, more than 1.2 billion learners were out of school due to school closures in response to COVID-19.
Given low rates of COVID-19 symptoms among children, the effectiveness of school closures has been called into question.
Even when school closures are temporary, it carries high social and economic costs.
However, the significance of children in spreading COVID-19 is unclear.
While the full impact of school closures during the coronavirus pandemic are not yet known, UNESCO advises that school closures have negative impacts on local economies and on learning outcomes for students.
In early March 2020, the sentiment “Stay The F**k Home” was coined by Florian Reifschneider, a German engineer and was quickly echoed by notable celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and Busy Philipps in hopes of reducing and delaying the peak of the outbreak.
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram also joined the campaign with similar hashtags, stickers and filters under #staythefhome, #stayhome, #staythefuckhome and began trending across social media.
The website claims to have reached about two million people online and says the text has been translated into 17 languages.
It has been suggested that improving ventilation and managing exposure duration can reduce transmission.
Treatments include monoclonal antibodies and symptom control.
Governmental interventions include travel restrictions, lockdowns, business restrictions and closures, workplace hazard controls, quarantines, testing systems, and tracing contacts of the infected.
The pandemic triggered severe social and economic disruption around the world, including the largest global recession since the Great Depression.
Widespread supply shortages, including food shortages, were caused by supply chain disruption and panic buying.
The resultant near-global lockdowns saw an unprecedented pollution decrease.
Educational institutions and public areas were partially or fully closed in many jurisdictions, and many events were cancelled or postponed.
Misinformation circulated through social media and mass media.
Political tensions intensified.
The pandemic raised issues of racial and geographic discrimination, health equity, and the balance between public health imperatives and individual rights.
There have been protests, demonstrations and strikes around the world against national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic by governmental bodies.
Some have protested against governmental failure to stem the spread of the virus effectively, while others have been driven by the financial hardship resulting from government measures to contain the virus, including restrictions on travel and entertainment, hitting related industries and casual workers hard.
Protests continue against restrictions on people’s movements, compulsory wearing of face masks, lockdowns, vaccinations and other measures.
The virus was confirmed to have spread to Switzerland on 25 February 2020 when the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed following a COVID-19 pandemic in Italy.
Above: Flag of Switzerland
A 70-year-old man in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino which borders Italy, tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.
The man had previously visited Milan.
On 27 February, a 28-year-old IT worker from Geneva, who had recently returned from Milan, tested positive and was admitted to the Geneva University Hospital.
A 55-year-old Italian who worked in an international company also tested positive in Geneva.
Two Italian children, who were on vacation in Graubünden, tested positive and were hospitalised.
Above: Flag of Graubünden
A 26-year-old man in Aargau, who had gone on a business trip the week before and stayed in Verona, tested positive and was hospitalised.
Above: Flag of Aargau
A 30-year-old woman, who had visited Milan, was admitted to a hospital in Zürich.
Above: Zürich, Switzerland
A 49-year-old man living in France and working in Vaud was confirmed positive in Canton of Vaud.
Above: Flag of Vaud
A young woman, who had travelled to Milan, tested positive in Basel Stadt.
She worked in a daycare centre in Riehen, and after her test had been confirmed, the children at the daycare were put into a two-week quarantine.
Above: Basel, Switzerland
On 28 February, her partner, a 23-year-old man, also tested positive in Basel Landschaft.
Above: Flag of Basel Landschaft
Afterwards, multiple cases related to the Italy clusters were discovered in multiple cantons, including Basel City, Zürich and Graubünden.
Multiple isolated cases not related to the Italy clusters were also subsequently confirmed.
Above: Location of Switzerland (dark green)
The government began to hold COVID-19 press conferences to which several members of the Federal Council (Swiss Cabinet) and the Head of the Swiss Corona Task-Force, Daniel Koch (dubbed “Mr. Corona” by the media) assisted.
Above: Daniel Koch
On 27 February 2020, following the confirmation of COVID-19 cases in the region, Graubünden cancelled the Engadiner Ski Marathon.
On 28 February, the Federal Council banned events involving more than 1,000 people in an effort to curb the spread of the infection.
Multiple events such as carnivals and fairs were either postponed or cancelled.
Above: Official photo of the Federal Council, 2022
The Geneva Motor Show, Baselworld, the Bern Carnival and the Carnival of Basel were cancelled.
Above: Basler Fasnacht (Carnival) mask
The University of Bern replaced all face-to-face lectures with more than 250 attendees with online lectures.
On 28 February 2020, the national government, the Federal Council, banned all events with more than 1,000 participants.
On 3 March, the University of Zürich announced six confirmed cases of the corona virus at the Institute of Mathematics.
As of 5 March, there were 10 confirmed cases at the University of Zürich, at least seven at the I-Math and one at the Center of Dental Medicine.
Above: Logo of the University of Zürich
On 5 March, the Lausanne University Hospital announced that a 74-year-old female coronavirus case had died overnight.
The patient had been hospitalised since 3 March, and had been suffering from chronic illness.
Above: Logo of the Lausanne University Hospital
On 6 March, the Federal Council announced a “changed strategy” with a focus on the protection of the most vulnerable individuals, i.e., older persons and persons with pre-existing conditions.
Above: Logo of the Swiss Confederation
On 11 March, a 54-year-old male died from COVID-19 in the Bruderholz Hospital in Basel Landschaft, marking the 4th fatal case in Switzerland.
He had joined a religious event in Mulhouse, France, previous to contracting the virus and suffering from pneumonia.
Above: Bruderholz Hospital, Basel Landschaft
On 13 March, the Federal Council decided to cancel classes in all educational establishments until 4 April 2020, and banned all events (public or private) involving more than 100 people.
It has also decided to partially close its borders and enacted border controls.
The canton of Vaud took more drastic measures, prohibiting all public and private gatherings with more than 50 people, and closing its educational establishments until 30 April.
Above: Official information explaining hygiene rules and correct reaction in case of symptoms (version of 16 March 2020 in the parliament building)
On 16 March 2020, a State of Extraordinary Situation under the Federal Law of Epidemics was declared.
Most shops were closed nationwide.
On 16 March, the Federal Council announced further measures, and a revised ordinance applicable on 17 March.
Measures include the closure of bars, shops and other gathering places until 19 April, but left open certain essentials, such as grocery shops, pharmacies, (a reduced) public transport and the postal service.
The government announced a 42 billion CHF rescue package for the economy, which included money to replace lost wages for employed and self-employed people, short-term loans to businesses, delay for payments to the government, and support for cultural and sport organizations.
Shortly thereafter, on 20 March, all gatherings of more than five people in public spaces were banned.
Additionally, the government gradually imposed restrictions on border crossings and announced economic support measures worth 40 billion Swiss francs.
The measures were gradually removed in several phases beginning in late April until June 2020 but new measures were imposed in October as cases surged again.
On 20 March, the government announced that no complete lockdown would be implemented, but all events or meetings over five people were prohibited.
Economic activities would continue including construction.
Those measures were prolonged until 26 April 2020.
On 16 April, Switzerland announced that the country would ease restrictions in a three-step, gradual way.
The first step began on 27 April, for those who work in close contact with others, but not in large numbers.
Surgeons, dentists, day care workers, hairdressers, massage and beauty salons could be opened with safety procedures applied.
DIY stores, garden centres, florists and food shops that also sell other goods could also be opened.
The second step was to begin on 11 May, assuming implementation of the first step without problems, at which time other shops and schools could be opened.
The third step would begin on 8 June with the easing of restrictions on vocational schools, universities, museums, zoos and libraries.
From 25 June onwards, the Government pays for the costs of an eventual COVID test, if a patient has enough symptoms of COVID-19.
In July and August, masks became mandatory, first on public transport and then also in airplanes.
In October 2020, following a rapid increase in corona cases, the authorities imposed stricter public health measures.
These include limiting public gatherings to 15 people, prioritising home office and making masks mandatory in all enclosed public spaces.
On 19 December 2020, the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products (Swissmedic) approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty) for regular use, two months after receiving the application, although it was expected to give a decision later than other European countries, as Swiss laws do not allow emergency approvals.
After the application was processed with high priority using all the available resources, the head of Swissmedic stated that the vaccine fully complied with the requirements of safety, efficacy and quality.
This constituted the first authorization by a stringent regulatory authority under a standard procedure for any COVID-19 vaccine.
Three days later, 107 000 vaccine shots were received by the army to be dispatched in the cantons.
On 23 December, 302 days after the first official case, the first patient, a 90-year-old woman from Central Switzerland, was vaccinated in a retirement home in Lucerne.
On that day, the cantons of Lucerne, Zug, Schwyz, Nidwalden and Appenzell Innerrhoden launched the vaccination campaign, marking the beginning of mass vaccination in Switzerland and continental Europe outside Russia.
Above: Images of Lucerne (Luzern)
In January 2021, after a month of corona cases remaining at a high level, additional measures were passed that required the closure of all restaurants, sport and cultural venues as well as shops that do not sell products for daily use.
Most cantons followed by 4 January 2021 and all the rest of them by 11 January.
By that day, about 0.5% of the population received the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
On 12 January 2021, Swissmedic approved the second COVID-19 vaccine: the mRNA-1273 made by Moderna.
The Lonza Group where the vaccine is produced was visited by Federal Councilor Alain Berset the previous day.
Above: Alain Berset
Up to 800,000 vaccines per day are expected to be produced there.
A year after the first COVID-19 outbreak, the number of vaccinated people largely outnumbered the official cases.
On 7 March, about 10% of the population received at leat one shot of the two approved vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) and about 3% were fully vaccinated.
A third vaccine, the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine (AZD1222), which comprised 5.3 million of the doses ordered by Swiss authorities, was rejected for approval by the Swiss medical authority, SwissMedic, citing insufficient data.
In March 2021, the Swiss Federal Health Ministry (BAG) reported that approved vaccine deliveries have increased steadily every month.
Switzerland received 1.1 million doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines in January and February 2021, and another 1 million vaccine doses in March, exceeding initial expectations.
As of 16 March 2021, 843,974 people had taken the first dose of corona virus vaccine.
The country planned to have its 8.6 million residents vaccinated by summer 2021.
Above: Federal Office of Public Health, Liebefeld, Switzerland
In April 2021, there were reports that vaccine administration and production efforts at the Lonza Group plant in Visp had been hampered due to overly stringent immigration rules in Switzerland, reducing the influx of qualified biotech and healthcare workers, particularly with regard to non-EU/EFTA states.
The Valais National Council urged the Swiss federal authorities to create exemptions from the current immigration rules for essential biotech industries.
Above: Flag of Valais
On 1 August 2021, Switzerland achieved a vaccination rate of 52%.
Above: Swiss vaccination rate – The darker the region, the more have been vaccinated.
From 13 September 2021, access to indoor public spaces like restaurants, bars, museums or fitness centres is only permitted with a valid Covid certificate.
This measure will expire by the end of January 2022.
By 5 November 2021, 11,178,041 doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered.
The COVID-19 virus has an especially high mortality rate for the elderly aged 65 and over.
This was especially concerning for Switzerland which had an elderly population of 18.3% in 2018, above the average for OECD countries.
Above: Logo for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Only two days after my arrival in Switzerland, I am once again required to be tested for COVID-19 – at least until I receive my 3rd dose of vaccine two days from now.
It is not without irony that I note that the testing centre in Kreuzlingen is in the same building where I once went to the gym.
Again the question is:
Am I fit?
Another stick up the nose and half an hour later it is confirmed that I am still virus free.
If only the entire planet could say this…..
Landschlacht, Switzerland, Saturday 1 January 2022
Less than a week has passed since I vacated my apartment in Eskişehir to travel west to Istanbul, Zürich and Landschlacht, and I have already been tested for the corona virus twice and today I received my 3rd dose of a vaccine.
Above: Your humble blogger in Florence (Firenz) a lifetime ago
The news of the world in respect to COVID-19 is not as optimistic.
Though Swissmedic has approved the use of the monoclonal antibody cocktail Ronapreve, developed by Roche and Regeneron to treat severe COVID-19 patients, and the use of the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine as a booster dose for people over the age of 18, I find myself depressed by news from my home and native land of Canada.
Canada has surpassed two million confirmed COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, according to CTVNews.ca’s COVID-19 tracker.
Official tallies of case numbers were delayed over the weekend due to some provinces and territories not inputting data because of the holidays.
However, Monday saw Ontario report more than 9,400 cases for the fourth day in a row and Québec report more than 8,000, pushing the country over the two million mark.
As of Monday afternoon, 27 December, there were 159,431 active COVID-19 cases, 1,836,475 recovered and 30,172 deaths.
Widely reported testing delays during the holiday season, long lines and laboratory backlogs also mean the true scope of where Canada stands with COVID-19 cases may take a while to determine.
The arrival of the highly transmissible Omicron variant has seen case numbers skyrocket across the country, leading to restrictions and cancellations.
Above: Flag of Canada
On Boxing Day, 26 December, Québec capped private gatherings at six people or two household bubbles.
Above: Flag of Québec
Athletes testing positive for COVID-19 saw Curling Canada cancel the Olympic mixed doubles Sunday.
Several provinces have requested residents only get tested if they are displaying symptoms.
Quebec’s seven-day average now stands at 8,020 cases with 1,469 recorded active outbreaks, and Ontario’s rolling seven-day average has surged to 7,550 up from 2,863 last week.
And the number of new COVID cases are rising around the world:
Iceland: 672 new cases (27 December)
Above: Flag of Iceland
Cyprus: 2,241 new cases (28 December)
Above: Flag of Cyprus
France: 179,807 new cases (28 December)
Above: Emblem of France
Greece: 21,657 new cases (28 December)
Above: Flag of Greece
Italy: 78,313 new cases (28 December)
Above: Flag of Italy
Portugal: 17,172 new cases (28 December)
Above: Flag of Portugal
UK: 138,831 new cases (28 December)
Above: Coat of arms of the United Kingdom
Ontario: 8,825 new cases (28 December)
Above: Flag of Ontario
California became the first state to record more than 5 million known corona virus infections, according to the state dashboard Tuesday, which was delayed by the holiday weekend.
The grim milestone, as reported by the California Department of Public Health, wasn’t entirely unexpected in a state with 40 million residents poised for a surge in new infections amid holiday parties and family gatherings forced indoors by a series of winter storms.
The first corona virus case in California was confirmed 25 January 2020.
It took 292 days to get to 1 million infections on 11 November of that year, and 44 days from then to top 2 million.
California’s caseload is also ahead of other large states.
Texas had more than 4.4 million and Florida topped 3.9 million as of Sunday.
California has recorded more than 75,500 deaths related to COVID-19.
The state has fared far better than many other states that are dealing with a coronavirus surge, with areas in the Midwest and Northeast seeing the biggest jump in cases and hospitalizations amid frigid temperatures that have kept people indoors.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists California as a place with “high” transmission of the virus, along with nearly everywhere else in the country.
But in the last week California averaged 16.4 new cases per 100,000 people, less than a third of the national rate.
Meanwhile, corona virus related hospitalizations have been rising slowly in California, up about 12% in the last 7 days to 4,401.
That’s less than half as many as during the late summer peak and one-fifth of a year ago, before vaccines were widely available.
On Tuesday, San Francisco announced it was canceling its New Year’s Eve fireworks show because of the rising caseload, while Contra Costa County in the Bay Area announced that it would require masks to be worn in all public indoor places as of Wednesday.
Above: The Golden Gate Bridge
Previously, some vaccinated people had been allowed to remove them.
The timeline of COVID-19 in America often comes back to California.
Above: Coat of arms of the United States of America
It had some of the earliest known cases among travellers from China, where the outbreak began.
The 6 February 2020, death of a San Jose woman was the first known corona virus fatality in the US.
That same month, California recorded the first US case not related to travel and the first infection spread within the community.
Above: San Jose, California
On 19 March 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom issued the nation’s first statewide stay-at-home order, shuttering businesses and schools to try to prevent hospital overcrowding.
Above: California Governor Gavin Newsom
It is unclear how many of the newly reported cases were attributed to the Omicron corona virus variant.
Much about Omicron remains unknown, including whether it causes more or less severe illness.
Scientists say Omicron spreads even easier than other corona virus strains, including Delta, and it is expected to become dominant in the US by early 2022.
Early studies suggest the vaccinated will need a booster shot for the best chance at preventing an omicron infection but even without the extra dose, vaccination still should offer strong protection against severe illness and death.
With cases surging, the nation’s largest state-based health insurance marketplace urged more than 1.1 million uninsured Californians to sign up by Friday for subsidized coverage that would then start with the new year.
Covered California said the average cost of an intensive care corona virus hospitalization is $127,000, but estimated that 85% of those eligible for the state-brokered health insurance can get coverage free of charge, with government assistance.
Those who sign up after Friday will have their coverage start on 1 February 2022.
USA: 512,553 new cases (28 December)
France: 208,099 new cases (29 December)
Greece: 28,828 new cases (29 December)
Italy: 98,030 new cases (29 December)
Malta: 1,337 new cases (29 December)
Above: Flag of Malta
The autonomous communities have notified this Wednesday to the Spanish Ministry of Health 100,760 new cases of COVID-19, 59,867 of them diagnosed in the last 24 hours.
These figures are higher than those of the same day last week, when 60,041 positives were reported, which shows theupward trend in the evolution of the pandemic.
The total number of infections in Spain already rises to 6,133,057 since the beginning of the pandemic, according to official statistics.
The cumulative incidence in the last 14 days per 100,000 inhabitants stands at1,508.39, compared to 1,360.62 yesterday.
In the past two weeks, a total of 715,741 positives have been recorded.
Wednesday’s report added 78 new deaths, compared with 50 last Wednesday.
Up to 89,331 people with a positive diagnostic test have died since the virus arrived in Spain, according to data collected by the Ministry.
In the last week, 271 people have died with a confirmed positive COVID-19 diagnosis in Spain.
The positivity rate in diagnostic tests also remains high, up to 20.3%, on a day in which 82 deaths fromthe corona virus have been reported.
And, according to the report of the Ministry of Health, infections continue to skyrocket, but the hospital pressure is contained, despite the fact that in the ICUs the occupation is 19.1% (4 tenths more than yesterday) and in the plant of 8.5% (half a point more).
The ICUs of Catalonia are the ones with the highest occupancy and almost double the national average (37.5%), followed by those of the Basque Country (26.2%), the Valencian Community (25.6%) and Castilla y León (24.8%).
As for the transmission of the virus, Madrid is the community with the highest number of new positives in the last 24 hours, with 16,612, while the Basque Country is in second place, with 7,179.
In terms of incidence, Navarre occupies the first place, reaching 3,236.5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 14 days.
The autonomous communities have carried out 2,386,657 diagnostic tests, of which 1,325,336 have been PCR and 1,061,321 antigen tests, with an overall rate per 100,000 inhabitants of 5,075.16.
Above: COVID-19 cases in Spain per 100 000 inhabitants, as of 7 December 2021
Likewise, the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, has requested that the positives for self-diagnosis tests in all communities be notified to the national surveillance system to have an accurate accounting of the evolution of the pandemic.
On Wednesday at the press conference after the meeting of the Interterritorial Health Council, it was announced that the members of the Public Health Commission have been placed to continue working on this matter, “especially hand in hand with the presentation of alerts” and will meet again next week.
“It is clear that we needthe positives to be communicated to the national system“, said Darias, who acknowledged that there is currently a situation of bottleneck in communications, especially in some primary care centers.
Therefore, the head of Health has ensured that her department works with the communities so that this notification is possible and the accounting of the cases can be kept.
Above: Carolina Darias
In Madrid, the general director of Public Health of the Community,Elena Andradas, indicated onTuesdaythat the positive self-diagnostic tests that citizens perform and that communicate to the number of covid information are counted in the statistics of the region, but they are not dumped in the national surveillance system ofthe Ministry of Health.
Above: Flag of Spain
UK: 183,037 new cases (29 December)
Australia: 18,243 new cases (29 December)
Zambia: 5,255 new cases (29 December)
Above: Flag of Zambia
The Ministry of Health reported on Wednesday 42,032 cases of the corona virus in the last 24 hours in Argentina, a record number since the pandemic began in March last year.
In addition,26 deaths were reported, bringing the total number of deaths officially registered nationwide to 117,111 and 5,556,239 infected since the beginning of the pandemic, respectively.
The curve of infections continues to grow exponentially since a couple of weeks ago.
Such is the increase that Wednesday’s figure surpassed the record of 41,080 cases that was set on 27 May 2021.
Meanwhile, on Monday 20,263 cases were reported, while on Tuesday there were 33,902 in 24 hours.
Above: Flag of Argentina
Regarding the third wave, the Minister of Health, Carla Vizzotti, admitted that:
“We can say that Argentina avoided a wave, that is an achievement of the whole country, and at this moment we are going through the third wave”.
In the same vein, the official differentiated the situation in Argentina with that of other regions of the world that “are already going through the fourth wave like the United States and many countries in Europe.
Most regions are transiting their fourth wave and South America is starting its third wave.“
The Health portfolio indicated that there are 977inmates with the corona virus in intensive care units, with a percentage of adult bed occupancy in the public and private sector, for all pathologies, of 34.9% in the country and 36.3% in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area.
Vizzotti also announced on Wednesday areduction of the days of isolation to be fulfilled by people infected with coronavirus and close contacts who have the complete vaccination scheme, in a measure that will begin to take effect from this Thursdayand that was agreed with all the provinces within the scope of the Federal Health Council (Cofesa).
The Minister said in a press conference held at the Government House that she agreed with her provincial peers to reduce from ten tofive days the isolation for close contacts of asymptomatic positive cases, provided they have the complete vaccination scheme, while those who are positive with mildsymptoms must be protected forseven days.
The official explained that for those people who areasymptomatic close contacts without vaccination or with the incomplete schedule, the isolation will be reduced to 7 days with a negative PCR test or, if the test is not available, the current ten days will be maintained, as well as for those who are positive and have not been vaccinated.
Above: Carla Vizzotti
The positivity rate of the tests continues to rise, with 30.98%, well above the 10% set as a reference by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Of the total infected, 5,556,239 were discharged and 155,218 are confirmed active cases.
According to the Public Vaccination Monitor, the total number of inoculated amounts to 75,644,660, of which 38,036,381 received one dose, 32,587,409 both, 2,436,423 an additional one and 2,584,447 a booster, while the vaccines distributed to the jurisdictions reach 93,954,966.
The Ministry also indicated that 135,645 tests were carried out in the last 24 hours and since the beginning of the outbreak there have been 27,790,142 diagnostic tests for this disease.
The report stated that 16 men died.
On Wednesday, 15,135 cases were registered in the province of Buenos Aires.
Above: Images of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Greece: 35,580 new cases (30 December)
Italy: 126,888 new cases (30 December)
Ireland: 20,554 new cases (30 December)
Portugal: 28,659 new cases (30 December)
Above: Flag of the Republic of Ireland
Russia has overtaken Brazil to have the world’s second-highest death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic, behind the United States, data from Russia’s state statistics service and Reuters calculations showed on Thursday.
The statistics service, Rosstat, said 87,527 people had died from coronavirus-related causes in November, making it the deadliest month in Russia since the start of the pandemic.
Above: Emblem of the Russian Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat)
Russia’s overall pandemic death toll reached 658,634, according to Reuters calculations based on Rosstat figures up to the end of November and data from the coronavirus task force for December, overtaking Brazil which has recorded 618,800 deaths.
The death toll in the United States is higher, at 825,663 people, according to a Reuters tally, but its population is more than twice as big as Russia’s.
Reuters calculations also showed Russia recorded more than 835,000 excess deaths since the beginning of the outbreak in April 2020 to the end of November, compared to average mortality in 2015-2019.
Some epidemiologists say that calculating excess deaths is the best way to assess the true impact of a pandemic.
So far, Russia’s death toll has not been affected by the Omicron variant and was mostly caused by a surge of infections in October and November, which health authorities blamed on the Delta variant and a slow vaccination campaign.
On Thursday, Russian authorities ordered hospitals to get prepared for a possible surge in COVID-19 cases.
Above: Coat of arms of Russia
UK: 189,213 new cases (30 December)
Above: Logo of the National Health Service, England
Québec is bringing back its controversial overnight curfew beginning Friday at 10 p.m., which is New Year’s Eve, and continuing to 5 a.m. the next day.
Québec Premier François Legault made the announcement Thursday amid increasing hospitalizations and an exponential growth in COVID-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant.
Also beginning on Friday, private gatherings in homes will be prohibited.
Only people who live alone or need caregivers will be allowed to join another family bubble.
Dining rooms at restaurants will be closed but take-out and delivery options will be allowed to continue.
The province reported a record-breaking 14,188 infections and an increase of 135 pandemic-related hospitalizations for a total of 939 patients, including 138 in intensive care.
Legault said the number of cases to be published Friday is above 16,000.
Above: Québec Premier François Legault
Earlier in the day, Québec’s Institute for Excellence in Health and Social Services (INESSS) released its modelling predictions which show an already dire situation getting even worse.
The more optimistic scenario, based on average growth rates, shows that COVID-19 hospitalizations could reach 1,600 in the next three weeks, while those for intensive care patients could jump to 300.
The second scenario projects up to 2,100 COVID-19 patients in regular beds and 375 in intensive care, which is higher than what the province saw in previous waves of the pandemic.
The Institute, however, said the intensification of vaccination efforts, coupled with newly-implemented or upcoming public health measures, could slow the predicted increase in hospitalizations.
Legault pointed to INESSS’ report and modelling from the public health institute as reasons to bring in more measures.
“Our experts tell us there is a risk that we won’t be able to treat everyone, all those who need it in the coming weeks,” he said.
“I know we’re all tired but it’s my responsibility to protect all ourselves from this. This is why I’m announcing new restrictions as of tomorrow.”
Essential workers, people seeking medical care, or people travelling for humanitarian reasons will be exempt from curfew.
Anyone outside their home during curfew hours could be asked to justify their movements.
Fines for breaking curfew range between $1,000 and $6,000.
The province first imposed a curfew during the pandemic on 9 January 2021, and only lifted the health order on 28 May.
Québec is the only province in Canada to have imposed a curfew during the pandemic.
Legault admitted bringing it back was an extreme move but a necessary one under the circumstances.
He promised it would be the first restriction to be lifted once the situation in hospitals stabilizes.
“We’re not doing this for fun, but out of necessity to save our network and save lives,” Legault said.
France: 232,200 new cases (31 December)
Cyprus: 5,048 new cases (31 December)
Greece: 40,560 new cases (31 December)
Italy: 144,243 new cases (31 December)
Florida: 75,900 new cases (31 December)
New York: 85,476 new cases (31 December)
England: 162,572 new cases (1 January)
Above: Flag of New York State
France became the 6th country in the world to report more than 10 million COVID-19 infections since the outbreak of the pandemic, according to official data published on Saturday.
French health authorities reported 219,126 new confirmed cases in a 24-hour period, the 4th day in a row that the country has recorded more than 200,000 cases.
France joined the United States, India, Brazil, Britain and Russia in having had more than 10 million cases.
Above: Great Seal of France
Saturday’s figure was the 2nd highest after the 232,200 record on Friday when French President Emmanuel Macron warned the next few weeks would be difficult.
In his New Year’s Eve address, Macron did not mention a need for more restrictive health measures than those already announced, adding that the government should refrain from further limiting individual freedoms.
But the government said earlier on Saturday that from Monday wearing masks in public spaces would be mandatory for children as young as 6 versus 11 before.
Above: French President Emmanuel Macron
And some big cities, including Paris and Lyon, have re-imposed wearing of masks in the street for everyone.
The seven-day moving average of new cases in France, which smoothes out daily reporting irregularities, rose to an all-time high of 157,651 – jumping almost five-fold in a month.
The number of people hospitalised for COVID-19 has increased by 96 over 24 hours, standing at a more than seven-month peak of 18,811.
But that figure is still almost half the record 33,497 reached in November 2020.
The COVID-19 death toll increased by 110 over 24 hours to 123,851, the 12th highest globally.
The seven-day moving average of new daily deaths has reached 186, a high since 14 May.
Above: Paris, France
Ireland: 23,281 new cases (1 January)
Above: Coat of arms of Ireland
Europe has surpassed 100 million cases of the corona virus since the pandemic began nearly two years ago, according to data from the Johns Hopkins Corona Virus Resource Center.
Worldwide, nearly 290 million cases have been recorded.
Nearly 5 million of Europe’s cases were reported in the last seven days, with 17 of the 52 countries or territories that make up Europe setting single-day new case records thanks to the highly contagious omicron variant, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Saturday.
More than 1 million of those cases were reported in France, which has joined the US, India, Brazil, Britain and Russia to become the 6th country to confirm more than 10 million cases since the pandemic began, Reuters reported.
Above: In Noisy le Grand in the suburbs of Paris, strolling along the River Marne has been forbidden “until further notice”.
India’s health ministry reported 22,775 new cases of the corona virus Saturday, saying the new cases bring the country’s Omicron variant count to 1,431.
Public health officials, however, have warned that the country’s COVID-19 tallies are likely undercounted.
Above: Emblem of India
The Sydney Morning Herald reported Saturday that paramedics in the Australian state of New South Wales had a “record breaking” level of calls overnight, resulting in its busiest night in 126 years, as the Omicron variant of the corona virus sweeps across the globe.
New South Wales Ambulance Inspector Kay Armstrong told the newspaper the telephone calls included, “the usual business of New Year’s Eve—alcohol-related cases, accidents, obviously mischief—and then we had COVID on top of that.”
The Herald reported paramedics also received “time-wasting calls from people wanting COVID-19 test results”.
Above: Flag of New South Wales
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of Britain’s NHS Confederation, said the Omicron variant will “test the limits of finite NHS [National Health Service] capacity even more than a typical winter.”
Taylor also predicted that hospitals will be forced to make “difficult choices” because of the variant.
CNN reports that more than 30 colleges and universities have changed the starting date of their spring semesters as the Omicron variant crosses the United States.
Above: Logo of the Cable News Network (CNN)
The Johns Hopkins Corona Virus Resource Center on Saturday reported more than 289 million global COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began.
The Center said 9.1 billion vaccinations have been administered.
Happy New Year?
I receive my 3rd dose of vaccine today in Weinfelden.
The staff are friendly and efficient.
The process is quick and painless.
Above: Waiting room, Vaccination centre, Weinfelden, Switzerland
I get a message from my cousin Steve, back in Lachute, Québec, Canada, to call him.
He has been organizing our last high school reunion (Class of 1982) set for 13 August 2022.
As one of his oldest friends, he seeks my opinion.
Should he postpone the reunion until 2023?
I tell him to wait until 1 March before making this decision.
But truth be told, I find it hard to maintain my optimism.
Above: Steve, Nick, Mark and your humble blogger, Lachute, Québec, Canada, 3 January 2020 – Covid arrived in Canada 22 days later.
COVID-19 has changed normal routines around the world.
During the beginning of the pandemic, everyone wanted to learn more about the virus.
After four months, with death tolls rising and isolation not being over anytime soon, psychological fatigue has set in.
There is fatigue from pandemic news throughout the world.
This fatigue persists despite knowing someone with COVID-19.
Either we simply cannot care any more or we cannot hear any more bad news.
Hi.
I feel badly even writing this, but all of this conversation about COVID-19 is depressing me.
And I mean that clinically…
I have major depressive disorder, and things are hard enough already.
This pandemic is making me feel so much worse, and I just need to tune it out for a while — but that seems so…
Insensitive?
Am I wrong for just needing to ignore it for a while?
Here’s a fun fact for you:
Dozens of people are asking more or less the exact same question.
So if this makes you a bad person?
There are a lot of bad people out there right now.
Let’s address the more basic part of your question first:
Are you a bad person for needing to unplug for a while?
Not at all.
When we live with any kind of mental health condition, it’s very important to set boundaries around social media, the news cycle, and the conversations we can and can’t have at any given time.
This becomesespecially important when something traumatic is happening on a global scale.
I think social media has created a kind of pressure where people feel that if they unplug from what’s happening in the world, it makes them complacent or selfish.
I don’t believe that taking a step back is complacency, though.
I believe that having strong boundaries around issues that activate us emotionally is what allows us to show up for ourselves and others in healthier, more impactful ways.
I also want to just validate how you’re feeling.
Years into this pandemic, so many of us are burning out.
And this makes a lot of sense!
Many of us are experiencing some serious fatigue and dysregulation brought on by chronic, pervasive stress.
And if you’re someone living with depression?
That fatigue is likely going to feel a lot heavier.
Don’t apologize for taking care of yourself, my friend.
That’s exactly what you’re supposed to be doing right now.
Above: E guarirai da tutte le malattie.. ed io, avrò cura di te, Giovanni Guida
As long as you’re still being mindful of your impact on others (wearing a mask, practicing physical distancing, not stockpiling toilet paper that you don’t need, not blocking traffic because you’re mad that you can’t get your hair cut or go to Olive Garden, etc.), I wouldn’t worry about it.
And if you’re thinking:
“Duh!
I have depression and there’s a pandemic!
Of course I’m depressed!”
I’d like to ask you to pump the brakes for a second and hear me out.
Sure, yes, it makes a lot of sense that you’d be feeling burnt out and depressed about the state of the world.
Even so, when life gets tough — regardless of the reasons why — we deserve support to get through it.
And I’d say that when we start noticing our mental health taking a hit?
It’s always a good time to check in with a mental health professional.
Because yes, a global pandemic is scary and difficult.
But I can fortify myself by making sure I have all the proper support around me.
There’s a difference between grieving the state of the world and giving our mental illness a free pass to torment us.
You know what I mean?
One piece of great advice that I heard recently was that, rather than thinking of this as the “new normal”, we can think of it as the “new now” instead.
So, reader, if in this “new now” you find yourself more depressed than usual?
Meet yourself where you’re at and get some extra support.
Taking each day as it comes is the best I think any of us can do right now.
And it sounds like today, you’re having a hard time.
So rather than writing off the significance of those feelings or trying to cope by checking out, how about we address them head-on?
Something to consider.
Reader, if taking care of yourself makes you “bad” somehow?
I hope you’re bad to the bone.
If there were ever a time to build a blanket fort and shut out the rest of the world for a while, I’d say the time is definitely now.
Raise your hand if you’re tired of hearing about COVID.
I get it.
On so many levels I am, too.
What makes me tired is the constant information that, seemingly, does nothing to change peoples’ minds on the severity of the issue.
Above: Protest against plans to set up designated corona virus clinics near residential areas in Hong Kong, China,15 February 2020
Wear masks.
We know.
Above: “Afectos en pandemia,” Hilda Chaulot
Stay distant.
We know.
No large gatherings.
We know.
No, we don’t.
For every person who has had COVID, some people are quick to point out:
“Yeah, but…look at the number of people who have been cured.”
For every person who has died from COVID, some people are quick to say:
“Yeah, but…so-and-so probably had an underlying condition.”
Above: Deceased in a refrigerated “mobile morgue” outside a hospital in Hackensack, New Jersey, April 2020
I’m tired of defending the simple idea that deaths are preventable.
Why?
Because I honestly feel that most of these stories do not make a difference.
Above: Gravediggers wearing protection against contamination bury the body of a man suspected of having died of COVID-19 in the cemetery of Vila Alpina, east side of Sao Paulo, Brazil, April 2020.
My hope is that we realize that COVID is not just a danger for the elderly or those with pre-existing conditions.
This is a virus that is impacting countless people and families – neighbors, loved ones – more than we can truly comprehend.
More than anything, my hope is we will reignite our passion and desire for being proactive, for wearing masks, for staying distant, for staying away from large gatherings.
Be decent.
Be good.
It might not be your safety you’re concerned for.
Maybe you’ll be fine, untouched by COVID-19 or any of its symptoms.
I certainly wish for that to be the case.
Some people, though, have not been that lucky.
I have, so far, been lucky.
I have had colds and headaches and backaches, but none that have proven to be symptoms of a greater consequence.
Certainly, I have known those who have been afflicted by the virus, though, happily, I have not known anyone personally who has died from it.
Am I tired of the pandemic?
Most definitely.
The COVID-19 pandemic may have brought many changes to how you live your life, and with it, at times, uncertainty, altered daily routines, financial pressures and social isolation.
You may worry about getting sick, how long the pandemic will last, whether your job will be affected and what the future will bring.
Information overload, rumors and misinformation can make your life feel out of control and make it unclear what to do.
Above: Illustration of Plague and Death encircling the Earth, Spencer Alexander McDaniel
During the COVID-19 pandemic, you may experience stress, anxiety, fear, sadness and loneliness.
And mental health disorders, including anxiety and depression, can worsen.
Surveys show a major increase in the number of adults who report symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression and insomnia during the pandemic, compared with surveys before the pandemic.
Some people have increased their use of alcohol or drugs, thinking that can help them cope with their fears about the pandemic.
In reality, using these substances can worsen anxiety and depression.
People with substance use disorders, notably those addicted to tobacco or opioids, are likely to have worse outcomes if they get COVID-19.
That’s because these addictions can harm lung function and weaken the immune system, causing chronic conditions such as heart disease and lung disease, which increase the risk of serious complications from COVID-19.
For all of these reasons, it’s important to learn self-care strategies and get the care you need to help you cope.
Self-care strategies are good for your mental and physical health and can help you take charge of your life.
Take care of your body and your mind and connect with others to benefit your mental health.
Take care of your body
Be mindful about your physical health:
Get enough sleep. Go to bed and get up at the same times each day. Stick close to your typical sleep-wake schedule, even if you’re staying at home.
Participate in regular physical activity. Regular physical activity and exercise can help reduce anxiety and improve mood. Find an activity that includes movement, such as dance or exercise apps. Get outside, such as a nature trail or your own backyard.
Eat healthy. Choose a well-balanced diet. Avoid loading up on junk food and refined sugar. Limit caffeine as it can aggravate stress, anxiety and sleep problems.
Avoid tobacco, alcohol and drugs. If you smoke tobacco or if you vape, you’re already at higher risk of lung disease. Because COVID-19 affects the lungs, your risk increases even more. Using alcohol to try to cope can make matters worse and reduce your coping skills. Avoid taking drugs to cope, unless your doctor prescribed medications for you.
Limit screen time. Turn off electronic devices for some time each day, including 30 to 60 minutes before bedtime. Make a conscious effort to spend less time in front of a screen — television, tablet, computer and phone.
Relax and recharge. Set aside time for yourself. Even a few minutes of quiet time can be refreshing and help to settle your mind and reduce anxiety. Many people benefit from practices such as deep breathing, tai chi, yoga, mindfulness or meditation. Soak in a bubble bath, listen to music, or read or listen to a book — whatever helps you relax. Select a technique that works for you and practice it regularly.
Take care of your mind
Reduce stress triggers:
Keep your regular routine. Maintaining a regular daily schedule is important to your mental health. In addition to sticking to a regular bedtime routine, keep consistent times for meals, bathing and getting dressed, work or study schedules, and exercise. Also set aside time for activities you enjoy. This predictability can make you feel more in control.
Limit exposure to news media. Constant news about COVID-19 from all types of media can heighten fears about the disease. Limit social media that may expose you to rumors and false information. Also limit reading, hearing or watching other news, but keep up to date on national and local recommendations. Look for reliable sources, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Stay busy. Healthy distractions can get you away from the cycle of negative thoughts that feed anxiety and depression. Enjoy hobbies that you can do at home, such as reading a book, writing in a journal, making a craft, playing games or cooking a new meal. Or identify a new project or clean out that closet you promised you’d get to. Doing something positive to manage anxiety is a healthy coping strategy.
Focus on positive thoughts. Choose to focus on the positive things in your life, instead of dwelling on how bad you feel. Consider starting each day by listing things you are thankful for. Maintain a sense of hope, work to accept changes as they occur and try to keep problems in perspective.
Use your moral compass or spiritual life for support. If you draw strength from a belief system, it can bring you comfort during difficult and uncertain times.
Set priorities. Don’t become overwhelmed by creating a life-changing list of things to achieve while you’re home. Set reasonable goals each day and outline steps you can take to reach those goals. Give yourself credit for every step in the right direction, no matter how small. And recognize that some days will be better than others.
Connect with others
Build support and strengthen relationships:
Make connections. If you work remotely from home or you need to isolate yourself from others for a period of time due to COVID-19, avoid social isolation. Find time each day to make virtual connections by email, texts, phone or video chat. If you’re working remotely from home, ask your co-workers how they’re doing and share coping tips. Enjoy virtual socializing and talking to those in your home.If you’re not fully vaccinated, be creative and safe when connecting with others in person, such as going for walks, chatting in the driveway and other outdoor activities, or wearing a mask for indoor activities.If you are fully vaccinated, you can more safely return to many indoor and outdoor activities you may not have been able to do because of the pandemic, such as gathering with friends and family. However, if you are in an area with a high number of new COVID-19 cases in the last week, the CDC recommends wearing a mask indoors in public or outdoors in crowded areas or in close contact with unvaccinated people. For unvaccinated people, outdoor activities that allow plenty of space between you and others pose a lower risk of spread of the COVID-19 virus than indoor activities do.
Do something for others. Find purpose in helping the people around you. Helping others is an excellent way to help ourselves. For example, email, text or call to check on your friends, family members and neighbors — especially those who are older. If you know someone who can’t get out, ask if there’s something needed, such as groceries or a prescription picked up.
Support a family member or friend. If a family member or friend needs to be quarantined at home or in the hospital due to COVID-19, come up with ways to stay in contact. This could be through electronic devices or the telephone or by sending a note to brighten the day, for example.
“To have compassion for those who suffer is a human quality which everyone should possess, especially those who have required comfort themselves in the past and have managed to find it in others.” ― Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron
Stress is a normal psychological and physical reaction to the demands of life.
Everyone reacts differently to difficult situations, and it’s normal to feel stress and worry during a crisis. But multiple challenges, such as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, can push you beyond your ability to cope.
Many people may have mental health concerns, such as symptoms of anxiety and depression during this time.
And feelings may change over time.
Despite your best efforts, you may find yourself feeling helpless, sad, angry, irritable, hopeless, anxious or afraid.
You may have trouble concentrating on typical tasks, changes in appetite, body aches and pains, or difficulty sleeping or you may struggle to face routine chores.
When these signs and symptoms last for several days in a row, make you miserable and cause problems in your daily life so that you find it hard to carry out normal responsibilities, it’s time to ask for help.
Hoping mental health problems such as anxiety or depression will go away on their own can lead to worsening symptoms.
If you have concerns or if you experience worsening of mental health symptoms, ask for help when you need it, and be upfront about how you’re doing.
“Nothing is so indecent that it cannot be said to another person if the proper words are used to convey it.” ― Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron
To get help you may want to:
Call or use social media to contact a close friend or loved one — even though it may be hard to talk about your feelings.
Contact a minister, spiritual leader or someone in your faith community.
Contact your employee assistance program, if your employer has one, and ask for counseling or a referral to a mental health professional.
Call your primary care provider or mental health professional to ask about appointment options to talk about your anxiety or depression and get advice and guidance. Some may provide the option of phone, video or online appointments.
You can expect your current strong feelings to fade when the pandemic is over, but stress won’t disappear from your life when the health crisis of COVID-19 ends.
Continue these self-care practices to take care of your mental health and increase your ability to cope with life’s ongoing challenges.
No, it ain’t over till it’s over.
The pandemic persists.
Let’s try and live through it.
One hundred tales told by a group of seven young women and three young men.
They shelter in a secluded villa just outside Florence in order to escape the Black Death, which was afflicting the city.
To pass the evenings, each member of the party tells a story each night, except for one day per week for chores, and the holy days during which they do no work at all, resulting in ten nights of storytelling over the course of two weeks.
Thus, by the end of the fortnight they have told 100 stories.
Each of the ten characters is charged as King or Queen of the company for one of the ten days in turn.
This charge extends to choosing the theme of the stories for that day, and all but two days have topics assigned: examples of the power of fortune, examples of the power of human will, love tales that end tragically, love tales that end happily, clever replies that save the speaker, tricks that women play on men, tricks that people play on each other in general, examples of virtue.
Only Dioneo, who usually tells the tenth tale each day, has the right to tell a tale on any topic he wishes, due to his wit.
Recurring plots of the stories include mocking the lust and greed of the clergy; female lust and ambition on a par with male lust and ambition; tensions in Italian society between the new wealthy commercial class and noble families; and the perils and adventures of travelling merchants.
The various tales of love in The Decameron range from the erotic to the tragic.
Tales of wit, practical jokes and life lessons contribute to the mosaic.
“And the plague gathered strength as it was transmitted from the sick to the healthy through normal intercourse, just as fire catches on to any dry or greasy object placed too close to it.
Nor did it stop there:
Not only did the healthy incur the disease and with it the prevailing mortality by talking to or keeping company with the sick.
They had only to touch the clothing or anything else that had come into contact with or been used by the sick and the plague evidently was passed to the one who handled those things.” ― Giovanni Boccaccio,The Decameron
“Since the beginning of the world men have been and will be, until the end thereof, bandied about by various shifts of fortune.” ― Giovanni Boccaccio,The Decameron
Sources: Wikipedia / Google / Facebook / Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron / Albert Camus, The Plague / Daniel Defoe, Journal of the Plague Year / “Spain exceeds 100,000 cases of COVID daily, the highest figure of the pandemic“, El Periodico, 29 December 2021 / Debora Mackenzie, Covid-19: The Pandemic that Never Should Have Happened, and How to Stop the Next One / Dr. Michael Mosley, Covid-19: What You Need to Know about the Corona Virus and the Race for the Vaccine / Annabelle Olivier, “Covid-19 – Québec brings back nightly curfew, private gatherings prohibited as cases soar“, GlobalNews, 30 December 2021 / “Russia’s Covid-19 death toll climbs to world’s second highest“, Reuters, 30 December 2021 / Christy Samos, “Canada surpasses 2 million Covid-19 cases since start of pandemic“, CTV News, 27 December 2021
Out of the blue, Rasool, both my friend and supervisor at Wall Street English Eskişehir, informs me that this night I must prepare a topic of debate for the higher levels our student body and then moderate them during their discussion.
Given barely a few hours to prepare for this I quickly turned to Google and typed “topics for debate” and the subject of social media’s benefits and detriments came to my attention.
Social media is a powerful communications medium, with widespread influence over cities as well as remote areas.
However, it is only part of the digital revolution that we are witnessing.
Digital transformation has not only influenced businesses and made the world more accessible, but it has also changed the way we communicate.
But here’s the thing…..
Being more accessible does not necessarily mean we understand the world we have accessed.
According to Oberlo, as of 2019, there were 3.2 billion social media users all around the world, which is about 42% of the Earth’s population.
In addition, there are roughly 4.5 billion Internet users across the world today.
These statistics are proof of the growing dominance of digital media in our daily lives.
What bothers me immensely is that this dominance has been foisted upon us.
We are not given a choice in the matter.
Use the Internet for damn near everything or consider yourself lost back in the mists of a time long gone before the Digital Revolution changed the planet.
The emergence of social media has created a new avenue for facilitating daily information and communication needs.
Is easier necessarily better?
As technology grows and expands our range of communication, social media is becoming a vital tool for daily social interaction.
It creates opportunity for people to interact with each other in a way that is both helpful and essential to socially motivate people.
Is it truly interaction when a machine is the medium through which we communicate?
The rapid fire quick communication style that captivates the millennials has shifted our conversations from face-to-face instances to through-the-screen interaction.
Is faster necessarily better?
Are there not aspects of life where more time and more patience enhances life?
Social media has been described as the collection of online communication channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content sharing and collaboration.
Is the group necessarily right in all circumstances?
It has been argued that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one.
Above: James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
Yet it seems that only a few control the wealth of the world, while negating the importance of the individual in favour of a collective compliance.
Some of the commonly known communication websites are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
With the help of these websites, people can share memories, reconnect with friends, plan events and communicate almost instantaneously.
The sharing of memories is a problematic question, for the accuracy of memory is questionable and the revelation of a private memory on a public forum exposes the well-intentioned to the possibility of unwanted attention and censure.
Above: Memory, Olin Levi Warner (1896), Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress, Washington DC
Reconnecting with friends not seen for ages is, at face value, a positive thing, but the dark side of these reunions is the uncertainty that the way they were may not necessarily be the way they are today.
A shared past does not necessarily guarantee the comfort of a shared future.
Give the electronic devils their due.
Rallying people to a group event by announcing it on social media may attract more attention, but I return to the argument of whether or not a large group is superior to small intimate gatherings of two to four people.
Connecting to people is a skill, an art, a science, that requires time and attention from its participants.
Marathon speed encounters of a quick superficial nature do not enhance the human connection.
As for instantaneous communication there are a number of arguments against this notion.
Why must we always be accessible to the world or the world accessible to us?
Do I need to always be “on call” to the world, available anytime anywhere to anyone?
Above: “Why must we dial so speedily, anyway? Why rush through life?“, Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry) Friends – The One Where Chandler Can’t Remember Which Sister (Season 3, Episode 11)
Is there no value to isolation?
As for what is happening in the world, if I have not created the situation, have no stake in the situation and have no effect on the situation, then how is the knowledge of a situation going to improve, or detract, from my life?
At the end of the day, how relevant to my life is much of the news that this instantaneous communication offers me?
How good are the news-gatherers at tracking down and filtering important events relevant to my life?
For example, the first Internet browser appeared on 11 November 1993.
This is possibly the most significant invention of the 20th century, after the atomic bomb and the discovery of antibiotics.
Do you know what that browser was called?
Mosaic.
If you didn’t know the answer, you have a good excuse.
It didn’t make the news.
Instead the world learned that the Israeli Prime Minister had a meeting with the US President and that the Pope had fractured his shoulder.
Neither journalists nor those who take in what is reported have much sense of what is relevant.
Social media has taken over the business sphere, the advertising sphere and, additionally, the education sector.
I cannot think of a single instance in my life when something that could not be purchased in person was truly worth buying online, especially with my banking information so accessible to the unscrupulous.
And yet more and more our financial transactions are increasingly made electronic whether we wish them to be or not.
It is considered the epitome of folly to show up at an airport and expect to get a flight that had not previously been purchased online.
Above: İstanbul Yeni Havalimanı Airport main building
It is considered foolhardy to expect to find a hotel room in a strange city without having pre-arranged it electronically beforehand.
Above: Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen Airport Hotel
I cannot think of a single instance in my life where as the result of advertising I suddenly changed my buying patterns and bought something I had not known I wanted before.
Granted that music videos played in my gym do give me the desire to hear the same music in my home, but considering that this music is accessible online, the need to purchase it is no longer as critical as it once was in pre-Internet days.
There is no disputing that education online became critically important during lockdowns caused by our ever present planetary pandemic, but is removing the physical presence of a teacher necessarily a better way of learning?
Is there no value to the interaction between a teacher and his class physically together in the same room?
Is there no value to the spontaneity of the physical moment between people?
The interplay of emotion and empathy is, in my opinion, never fully captured online.
The Internet has had a long-lasting impact on the way people communicate and has now become an integral part of our lives.
Again, I return to my original complaint.
Were we ever given a choice in the matter?
For instance, WhatsApp has redefined the culture of instant messaging and taken it to a whole new level.
Today, you can text anyone across the globe as long as you have an Internet connection.
This transformation has not only been brought about by WhatsApp, but also the aforementioned Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Above: WhatsApp logo
So why bother travelling if you can communicate with anyone anywhere?
As for instant messaging where is the prevention from impulsively writing something, in the spur of the moment, that you wish you hadn’t?
In face-to-face conversation it is certainly possible to say the wrong thing at the wrong time, but unless what was said was recorded the proof and the memory of what was expressed diminishes the impact of the misspoken message.
But with instant messaging, once something is written down a record of this can be retrieved and can haunt the communicator long afterwards.
As for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, I am bothered by the sheer mass of passwords I must remember should I wish to be accessible on more than one social medium.
My phone registers that, through the help of friends more tech-savvy than myself, I am connected to the first three of the aforementioned four media, but I never use Twitter nor Instagram for I no longer remember what the hell my passwords for these were.
Simultaneously we are told that we must use different passwords for each and every application we use, but nowhere is there an application that helps you remember these passwords, and even if there were you would probably need a password to access the password memory app.
Through my PC there are remnants of past attempts to use LinkedIn, but I have, so far, not seen an instance of anyone attempting to reach me through this medium.
I am constantly told by the smug techno brats that my career, both as a teacher and a would-be published writer, would be enhanced were I more proficient in the use of social media, and certainly their arguments sound plausible.
Problem is none of these geniuses seem to have either the time nor patience to teach others how to acquire the skills they seem to have acquired in their mothers’ wombs.
The importance of social media in communication is a constant topic of discussion.
Online communication has brought information to people and audiences that previously could not be reached.
It has increased awareness among people about what is happening in other parts of the world.
A perfect example of the social media’s reach can be seen in the way the story about the Amazon Rainforest fire spread.
It started with a single post and was soon present on everyone’s newsfeed across different social media platforms.
Above: Amazon fires (in orange), 15 – 22 August 2019, NASA satellite image
Again, the problem is discerning through the sheer volume of information that is out there what is worthy of your time and attention.
Certainly there is no disputing the importance of the Amazon Rainforest on the planet’s ecosystem.
Above: Amazon rainforest
But, as I didn’t start the fire and I was unable to stop the fire, knowing about the fire only causes anxiety about a situation I barely understand and have no power to affect.
Movements, advertisements and products are all being broadcasted on social media platforms, thanks to the increase in social media users.
Today, businesses rely on social media to create brand awareness as well as to promote and sell their products.
Again I ask, who are all these people who do all this shopping because of online advertising?
It allows organizations to reach customers, irrespective of geographical boundaries.
Do we really want a globe unified into a uniformity where everyone has everything everyone else has?
The Internet has facilitated a resource to humankind that has unfathomable reach and benefits.
And herein lies the danger.
We have never bothered to fathom the reach and potential pitfalls of that reach upon our society.
So preoccupied with the potential benefits no one ever stops to consider the consequences.
So quick to replace the past with the Latest New Thing we never stop to consider the losses that result.
We can text, so why talk on the phone?
For what importance is tone and voice in a world of instant messaging?
Above: “Weird” Al Yankovic, “First World Problems” video clip
We can send heart-shaped emojis, so why write emails or love letters?
For what importance is thoughtfulness, contemplation and full romantic expression when an icon is worth a thousand words?
Everything is just a click away and includes everything from news to buying your groceries.
The ease of access that social media provides has taken over the traditional methods of shopping, reading news and studying.
And it is this ease that is the problem.
How easy it is now to form a half-formed opinion with half-informed information!
How easy it is now to spend money you don’t have on stuff you don’t need just to impress people you don’t know!
How easy it is to study something without the effort that brings true wisdom to knowledge!
Education too has incorporated forums and social media chatrooms to increase interactivity among students, conduct webinars, and promote events and courses.
How truly interactive is education through a machine?
How intellectual can a conversation be when anyone with an opinion can communicate that opinion without intelligence, forethought, proof or censure?
WSE has tried to get me excited about webinars designed to make me a better educational facilitator -(More syllables, more significance?) – but the hassle of registering and remembering the event and then somehow connecting to a conversation to which my contribution is less significant that those who have organized the damn thing….
Well, the webinars were there before I came along and will probably continue long after I am gone.
They survive without me.
Perhaps I can survive without them?
Social media is a crucial section of digital marketing, helping businesses go beyond demographic and geographic boundaries.
While there was a time when online payments just meant online banking services, the dynamics have changed today.
Social networking platforms like WhatsApp are incorporating options (WhatsApp Payments) within the application that allows you to transfer money to other people with minimal effort.
The only challenge that these new payment systems presents is the maintenance of security standards.
While this is a convenient way to digitally send money, the security standards must be regulated to ensure customers are stepping into a safe zone.
Gone are the days when the actual money in your pocket meant something.
Gone are the days when employers actually put cash in your hand.
And with these gone is the tangible importance of money.
Social media has changed the way healthcare services are carried out.
Rather than physically visiting a doctor for your ailments, you can now speak to a virtual doctor who will suggest medications based on your symptoms.
Some doctors even consult with patients over Skype calls to better understand their ailments.
While this poses a great advantage for patients who do not want to pay a visit to the clinic, it also comes with its share of risks.
The chances of non-qualified individuals posing as doctors are high.
Moreover, it is difficult to confirm a doctor’s credibility by the look of their profile online.
However, if used appropriately, this can be a beneficial resource for people worldwide.
With no disrespect intended to doctors whatsoever, diagnosing what ails each and every patient 100% accurately all the time is problematic even when a patient is physically present in a doctor’s office.
Forgive me then my scepticism if I have my doubts about the accuracy of diagnoses done online.
Above: The Doctor, Luke Fildes, 1891
Social media has changed how we are governed by making the process more transparent.
I disagree with this opinion, for how transparent is a process lost in a fog of facts and opinions?
Many leaders across the world have taken to social media to voice their opinions and priority issues, giving people a better understanding of the government they have elected.
Here’s the thing about the voicing of opinions….
Just because more people hear what you have to say does not necessarily mean that your message is worth listening to.
Just because a message is loudly shouted and oft repeated does not necessarily mean that message is accurate or valid.
It has also limited the influence of political stakeholders over what information should reach people.
Do we actually know what it is that we are supposed to know?
Can we discern for ourselves what information we actually need?
Before social media’s entry into the digital era, traditional media and the government were the only source of information.
However, this has now changed for the better.
Granted that having limited options does deter our ability to discover the truth, but unlimited options deters us as well as most of us lack the necessary discernment needed to filter news from noise, fact from fiction, truth from tales.
The downside of this is that some organizations are also misusing the power of social media to negatively influence people.
Turkish officials of Internet giants Google and YouTube have said they share the same parental worries as everyone else and are trying to protect their own children from the dangers of the digital world, in a meeting with a parliamentary committee.
According to the daily Milliyet, the top executives of the world’s biggest Internet search engine and the video-sharing platform visited the Digital Channels Committee of Parliament upon an invitation.
The motto of the meeting was “online security” as the executives informed committee members, especially on children’s safety.
To depict the volume of the Internet use across the globe, the officials highlighted that “half of the world’s population has been going online since 2019, with Generation Z taking the lead“.
“There are malevolent actors in real life and the digital world.“, an official added.
Reminding that Google teams are neatly publishing reports on “data security” and “child abuse“, the officials gave three pieces of advice to parents:
Manage your child’s mobile accounts.
Track time of the mobile online.
Put rules for your child’s access to the digital world.
(Perhaps adults should apply these rules to themselves?)
Erkan Kaptan, the public policy executive of Google, is careful when his child goes online, too.
Above: Erkan Kaptan
(Why are we letting children go online at all?)
“I am a father, too.
She is only six and we experience her digital experiences all together in the family.“, Kaptan said in the meeting.
“Like taking her to a park and keeping her under watch all the time, I keep an eye on her when she is online, too.“, he added.
(I have a doubt.
Kaptan is a chief executive at Google.
Exactly how much time does he actually spend at home?)
Kaptan advises parents to “use Family Link or Google Kids applications“.
Family Link enables you to learn your child’s digital tendencies like what kind of application he or she uploads the most.
“When my daughter wants to download something, a reminder comes to my mobile, asking me if I approve it or not.“. Kaptan underlined.
Gönenç Gürkaynak, a lawyer for Google, also underlined the company’s cooperation with Turkish institutions.
“The Competition Authority is always on watch.
Even after their warnings and fines, the company did not challenge them.”, the lawyer said.
Above: Gönenç Gürkaynak
According to Kaptan, Google has three priorities:
the prevention of sexual assault
the reduction of harmful and inconvenient content
the protection of privacy
Above: The Googleplex, Google HQ, Mountain View, California
“YouTube was not designed for individuals under the age of 13.“, said Kaptan and recommended parents to make their children follow “YouTube Kids“.
Global warming has affected our planet to the extent that natural calamities make headlines every other day.
In the face of this, social media has become a saviour, enabling relief funds, information and support to be sent and accessed more easily.
For example, the safety check feature on Facebook allows you to mark yourself safe in disaster zones, helping your friends and family know that you are safe, in case there is no other medium of communication available.
News stories are predominantly concerned with things you cannot change.
For example:
Terrorists have detonated a bomb somewhere.
A volcano is erupting somewhere else.
A famine in the Sahara has killed 100,000 people.
A politician has tweeted something absurd.
Above: Twitter logo
Immigrants are pouring over the border.
Above: The Statue of Liberty was a common sight to many immigrants who entered the United States through Ellis Island
Apple has a new model headphone.
Above: Apple Inc. logo
Volkswagen has failed emissions testing.
Above: Logo of Volkswagen
Brad Pitt is doing something somewhere at some time.
Above: Brad Pitt
None of this is within your control.
Hardly anything you hear, watch or read on the news will be something you can 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?
How can we avert a terrorist attack?
How can we 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 us 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.
Once the news has made us passive, we tend to behave passively towards our family and our jobs as well – precisely where we do have room for manoeuvre.
British media researcher Jodie Jackson takes a similar view:
“When we tune into the news, we are constantly confronted with unresolved problems and the narrative does not inspire much hope that they will ever be solved.“
Devote your energies to things you can influence.
What constitutes a good life?
It doesn’t matter what philosophy you choose.
If we survey the last 2,500 years – since philosophers first began to write their ideas down – we find a remarkable degree of overlap between philosophers.
“Inner peace” was nearly always considered a key component of a successful life.
Peace of mind arises in part through the absence of toxic emotions.
The faster you can eliminate toxic emotions like envy, anger and self-pity from your emotional repertoire, the better.
What has this got to do with the news?
Quite simply, the news is wreaking 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 these days by the news.
You only have to read the comments underneath any online article.
The hatred you find there is alarming, especially when you bear in mind that the website’s algorithms have already filtered out the nastiest ones automatically.
News and comments about the news bring out the worst in humanity.
What is wisdom?
News cannot answer the Big Questions.
In fact, the news suggests these Questions do not exist at all.
Virtually any type of content – novels, non-fiction books, films, music, visual art, academic research, essays – is a better conduit for wisdom than the news.
A cornerstone of any sensible life philosophy is as follows:
There are things you can control and there are things you cannot control.
It is idiotic to trouble yourself about things you cannot control.
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 an important argument 2,000 years ago:
“You become what you give your attention to.
If you yourself do not 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 these works“, suggested the philosopher Seneca (also 2,000 years ago).
Above: Statue of Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (aka Seneca) (4 BCE – 65 CE) in Córdoba, Spain
Consuming the news is like a frantic, never-ending journey.
Seneca noted:
“When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances but no friends.“
Take this last remark as gospel from your good friend Canada Slim who has spent much of his life in foreign travel.
Above: Your humble blogger
If there is a topic that has struck you as important, do not solely rely on the Internet as your sole resource.
Pull together all the books you can and get an overview of the scope of the subject.
Select the most authoritative and recent comprehensive book to get a taste of the various dimensions of the subject.
Dip into magazines for a stimulating glimpse of what is current and exciting on the subject.
Try and visit a local centre of activity dealing with the subject which will put you in touch with local practitioners and enthusiasts.
Thus, with a minimum of time (though more than a mere Google search) you can dip into a subject, get a sense of its scope and current thrust, communicate with experts and perhaps even participate in some meaningful activities.
I want you to have an opinion.
But let it be an intelligent informed opinion.
It is a serious mistake to think we need to form an opinion about everything.
90% of our opinions are superfluous.
We form opinions on issues that don’t really interest us, that cannot fully be answered, or that are too complex without in-depth analysis.
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 judgments from you.“
Above: Coin image of Marcus Aurelius (121 – 180)
Social media has brought people face-to-face with humanitarian issues.
Many social work organizations, such as animal welfare and fundraising organizations, are also taking to social media to create awareness about the issues of society.
It brings together activists, allows people to raise their voice against injustice (for example, the #MeToo movement) and helps people come together for social causes.
Be careful of being manipulated by your own good will and intentions.
These days it is hard to distinguish between truthful, unbiased new and those with an ulterior motive.
There is a vast industry of lobbying and leverage at work behind the scenes.
“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 say.“, media entrepreneur Clay A. Johnson has remarked.
Worldwide, the PR industry generates a turnover of between $15 and $30 billion a year – the best evidence that journalists and consumers can be successfully manipulated, influenced or won over to a cause.
Companies, interest groups and other organizations wouldn’t pay such dizzying sums to publicists if they got no return on their investment.
If PR advisors can manipulate journalists – people who are professionally required to be sceptical – then what chance do we have of avoiding their subtle influence?
Nurse Nayirah was a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl who testified before the US Congress prior to the Gulf War in 1991.
She claimed to have seen Iraqi soldiers murdering babies in her hospital in Kuwait.
Virtually every media outlet reported on her testimony.
Above: Nayirah al-Sabah, testimony to US Congress, 14 October 1990
The American public was outraged and the story helped swing the vote in favour of the War.
Nayirah’s testimony, which at the time was taken at face value, later proved to be part of an extensive propaganda campaign run on behalf of the Kuwati government.
Above: Flag of Kuwait
Today we would call Nayirah’s story a classic example of fake news.
Propaganda is nothing new.
Ever since the advent of the printing press and the sudden multitude of flyers in its wake, people have been grappling with fake news.
100 years ago, the American writer Upton Sinclair wrote:
“When you read your daily paper, are you reading facts or propaganda?“
Above: Upton Sinclair (1878 – 1968)
These days, however, two things are new:
The sheer volume of fake news has mushroomed.
Today’s fake news is specifically targeted at individual consumers, known as micro-targeting, and thus packs more of a punch.
Soon we won’t even need human beings to produce fake news.
Intelligent computer programs can already write it by themselves.
In the future, these automatically generated articles will be perfectly tailored to the preferences of the consumer.
Resistance will be futile, even for the critical.
Whether these articles have anything in common with the truth is secondary.
The main thing is that they generate clicks and thereby advertising revenue.
Or they sway our opinion or encourage us to buy something.
The news at base is pure manipulation.
US regulators are scrutinizing a deal between Donald Trump’s fledgling social media company and an investment vehicle to bring the former President’s venture to the stock market, documents have shown.
Above: He Who Is Not Shamed
The companies, once merged, say they plan to launch the social media platform “Truth Social” nationally early next year, hoping to rival services like Twitter, which banned Trump over the 6 January US Capitol riot.
Digital World Acquisition Corporation (DWAC), which is partnering with Trump, reported in a filing to US markets watchdog the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it received “preliminary, fact-finding inquiries from regulatory authorities, with which it is cooperating“.
Digital World, already listed on Wall Street, announced in late October it would merge with Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), allowing the ex-President’s venture to be listed without the usual procedures.
In a joint statement, the two companies announced on 4 December that a group of institutional investors had committed to contributing $1 billion to the transaction.
They did not specify on 6 December in the regulatory document the identity of these investors.
Digital World says the SEC is seeking details of its board meetings, brokerage procedures, the identity of certain investors and dealings with Trump’s company.
The Financial Industry Regulation Authority (FINRA), for its part, requested information from DWAC about its stock activity, prior to the official announcement of the TMTG deal on 20 October.
“The investigation does not mean that the SEC has concluded that anyone violated the law or that the SEC has a negative opinion of DWAC or any person, event or security.“, Digital World’s filing said.
Digital World is a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), sometimes called a “blank check” company because it is set up with the sole purpose of merging with another entity.
Trump says the new platform will be an alternative to Silicon Valley Internet companies that he says are biased against him and other conservative voices.
Above: Silicon Valley, California
The 75-year-old was thrown off Twitter – his preferred communications conduit while President – as well as Facebook and YouTube after the 6 January Insurrection in which a mob of Trump supporters, riled up by his repeated false claims the November 2020 election was stolen from him, assaulted the US Capitol.
Above: 2021 storming of the US Capitol
Currently available for pre-order on the App Store, its expected launch is set for the first quarter of 2022.
Social media’s influence has given rise to a different genre of communication, where conversations are quick and information is easily relayed.
Due to its widespread impact, employers are seeking professionals who are well-versed in social media platforms to take on important roles within an organization.
In fact, social media as a business function is growing rapidly and presents a number of employment opportunities.
The news at base is pure manipulation.
Take this news article as an example:
Rohingya refugees sued Facebook on 6 December for $150 billion over claims the social network is failing to stem hate speech on its platform, exacerbating violence against the vulnerable minority.
Above: Displaced Rohingya
The complaint, lodged in a California court, says the algorithms that power the US-based company promote disinformation and extremist thought that translates to real world violence.
Above: Flag of California
“Facebook is like a robot programmed with a singular mission:
To grow.“, the court document states.
Above: Logo of Facebook
“The undeniable reality is that Facebook’s growth, funnelled by hate, division and misinformation, has left hundreds of thousands of devastated Rohingya lives in its wake.“
The mainly Muslim group faces widespread discrimination in Myanmar, where they are despised as interlopers despite having lived in the country for generations.
Above: Flag of Myanmar
A military-backed campaign that the United Nations said amounted to genocide saw thousands of Rohingya driven across the border into Bangladesh in 2017, where they have since lived in sprawling refugee camps.
Above: Kutupalong Refugee Camp in Bangladesh
Many others remain in Myanmar, where they are not permitted citizenship and are subject to communal violence, as well as official discrimination by the ruling military junta.
Above: Flag of the Myanmar Armed Forces
The legal complaint argues that Facebook’s algorithms drive susceptible users to join ever more extreme groups, a situation that is “open to exploitation by autocratic politicians and regimes“.
Rights groups have long charged that Facebook does not do enough to prevent the spread of disinformation and misinformation online.
The chairman of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar said Facebook played a “determining role” in the Rohingya genocide.
Facebook has been criticized for enabling Islamophobic content targeting the Rohingya people to spread.
Above: Flag of the United Nations
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has called the platform “a useful instrument for those seekingto spread hate“.
Above: Logo of the UNHRC
In response, Facebook removed accounts owned by the Myanmar Armed Forces for inciting hatred against the Rohingya people, and “engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior“.)
Above: Flag of the Rohingya people
So, let’s examine this article’s impact and intentions before we even begin to consider its veracity.
Without a doubt, this news is disturbing.
We are told that the world’s most popular social medium is failing to stem hate speech, disinformation and misinformation.
Our peace of mind is destroyed.
Can we trust Facebook?
The article lulls us into a warm, all-inclusive sense of common humanity (with the Rohingya) against a common enemy (Facebook), but the sad reality is that unless we have directly cooperated, traded, cultivated friendships and relationships, lived with or have fallen in love with one of them, we simply cannot understand the complexity of the Rohingya situation nor the reasons for the Myanmar government’s actions against them.
It is not that I do not take an interest in the plight of impoverished people or in wars or in atrocities, it is simply my attention to the Rohingya won’t make the slightest bit of difference to these Rohingya victims.
My humanity is not measured by how much misery I consume nor by the sympathy elicited from me.
My humanity is measured by the acts I do (or the acts I don’t).
The best I could possibly do is donate money to aid organizations.
And sadly I remain uncertain of whether what is donated is able to reach the intended.
And, without a doubt, the article is meant to manipulate me into feeling sympathy for the Rohingya (who indeed merit it) and animosity towards Facebook (who have earned this).
What is shown is half-information.
How many Rohingya precisely are making this complaint?
Which court in California?
Does this document have a name, a case file number, something that could be referenced and read?
What is Facebook’s view of this accusation?
Where is the proof in print that Facebook was used against the Rohingya?
Half-information.
Enough to form a feeling and generate an opinion.
Que bono?
Who benefits from this story?
The Daily News tells us the article originated in Los Angeles.
It does not tell us who wrote it or why.
Some of my students have suggested to me that the newspaper is nothing but thinly-disguised government propaganda.
To this I cannot judge.
(According to Wikipedia, the Hürriyet Daily News has generally taken a secular and liberal or centre-left position on most political issues, in contrast to Turkey’s other main English-language daily, the DailySabah, which is closely aligned with the Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Another conservative competitor, the Gülen movement-run Today’s Zaman, was shut down by the government following 2016 Turkish coup d’état attempt.
In May 2018, the new Erdoğan-aligned owners appointed a new editor and publisher and stated that they intended to run the paper as an independent, non-partisan voice, in implicit contrast to both its previous secular orientation and the Daily Sabah.)
Above: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
But were I a suspicious man, the defence of the Muslim Myanmar minority by a Turkish government, with openly theocratic motivations, might appear to be made to generate sympathy towards fellow Muslims against the clear manipulative decadence of a Western monopoly.
If I were a suspicious man….
Above: Justice and Development Party (Turkey) logo
The attempt to make us compare ourselves to people who have absolutely nothing to do with us, people we do not know or understand, is manipulative.
The attempt to make us care about situations we have absolutely no control over whatsoever is manipulative.
To form an opinion on algorithms I do not understand, or on the politics of a nation I have never visited, or on the plight of a people with whom I have never interacted with, beyond the carefully selected camera shots that the media produces, is to form an opinion not worth the expulsion of my breath.
In fairness, I have read of human rights abuses and violations committed against the Rohingya, but whether we can somehow blame Facebook for the violence against them remains unresolved for me, because of my lack of understanding as to how Facebook polices itself and its users.
I will also state for the record that for all of its flaws and imperfect record, Facebook, at least for the present, remains my preferred platform of expression, for it allows me to write my thoughts in their entirety where other platforms restrict me to a limited number of characters.
Perhaps in my poignant moments of pure paranoia I wonder whether it is this very ability to express full thoughts that may be one reason that there is opposition to Facebook’s existence.
The thinking man is always a threat to those who wish uncritical compliance from those they dominate.
Social networks have become the central facilitator for daily communication with peers, family and acquaintances.
It is affecting our relationships and decreases the quality of interpersonal communication.
Another impairment of communication skills caused by the extensive use of social media platforms is the impoverishment of language.
From “Newspeak and the Impoverishment of Language“, Lynne Clive, Fifth Estate #315, Winter 1984
In his appendix on language in the world of 1984, George Orwell explains that:
“Newspeak was the official language of Oceania and had been devised to meet the ideological needs of Ingsoc, or English Socialism.”
Newspeak was created for the ultimate purpose of thought control.
By reducing the English language (Oldspeak) to a utilitarian skeleton, dispensing with all verb tense irregularities and syntactical complexity, and by scaling down word choice to a bare minimum, it destroyed the ambiguity of human communication and would eventually “diminish the range of human thought”.
Most people had not yet adopted Newspeak as their only means of communication, but it was intended that by the year 2050 Oldspeak would be made totally obsolete by the new Party language.
Perhaps 1984 analogies will become tiresome and overworked.
The year 1984 was 1948 for Orwell of course, and aspects of this “fictional” world are easily mirrored in any year of our modern myopic age.
The uncanny truth of the analogies shouldn’t surprise us.
There are no off-the-wall coincidences here.
We’re on a treadmill and have been long before 1948.
It’s just that Orwell was astute enough, perceptive enough, to write it all down, and with such clear, sharp wit and honest irony that history seems to ring truer and truer each year.
It is 1984 after all and some things do just jolt you.
Above: Eric Blair (aka George Orwell) (1903 – 1950)
“He sat back.
A sense of complete helplessness had descended upon him.
To begin with, he did not know with any certainty that this was 1984.“
Above: Winston Smith (John Hurt), Nineteen Eighty-Four
Newspeak isn’t being openly imposed on us by our government, but the communications industry is shoving computers, computer systems, systems communications, and the vapid, facile language of computer technology down our consumptive throats.
Computer companies are inundating schools with free computers in their mad rush to sell the world on this “new, practical, effective, efficient, invaluable mode of communication”.
Through school and television and video arcades, it is hoped that our vulnerable children will be easily won over to the cause of the computer revolution.
By being exposed at every turn to the world of computer technology — in study, in play, in creative activity — they will become fluent in the language of systems communications, adept at responding with the right password and appropriate obeisance to computer command, and so set the stage for future generations.
Computerspeak and Newspeak are strikingly similar in certain respects.
In both languages difficult spelling is changed and simplified.
Many words are abbreviated, and new and efficient compound words are constructed.
Traditional correct grammar and regular syntax are sacrificed for alleged clarity and simplicity in order to avoid the ambiguous or the possibility of shades of meaning.
Abstractions of Oldspeak simply cannot be expressed in Newspeak.
Orwell gives us an example:
“The word free still existed in Newspeak, but it could only be used in such statements as ‘This dog is free from lice’ or ‘This field is free from weeds.’
It could not be used in its old sense of ‘politically free’ or ‘intellectually free’ since political and intellectual freedom no longer existed even as concepts, and were therefore of necessity nameless.”
All other words that expressed antiquated concepts of freedom or equality were included in one Newspeak word:
Thoughtcrime.
Computers, of course, only accept responses constructed of their own limited vocabulary.
All other responses are categorized as syntax error.
The language of technology, like Newspeak, is of necessity standardized, streamlined, concrete and elementary.
While in Newspeak you find such words as:
Miniluv (Minister of Love)
bellyfeel (blind acceptance)
goodthink (orthodoxy)
joycamp (forced labour camp)
unperson
speedful
untold
In Computerspeak you have such words as:
Basic and Fortran (two computer languages that are considered simple and straight forward)
input
output
crash
feedback
interface
flip-flop
memopak
zeroflag
warm-boot
linefeed
The powerful inner structure of a certain computer is called “Soul”.
One who works on computers is a “servoprotein”.
Computerspeak is simply destroying the former “archaic” meanings of abstract words such as:
memory
truth
time
logic
think
freedom
friendship
It is mutilating some words and creating countless others from abbreviations.
Words themselves, of course, are not spoken or written but “processed”.
What follows are two partial explanations of the processes of a new computer from a technology trade journal:
“There are no tri-state gates, and no provisions for wired ORing of the outputs of two or more gates.
Each has a ‘0’ delay; and there is no provision for adding the delays necessary to create flip-flops or adjust the circuit for dc convergence where feedback is used.
Rather than arbitrary inputs, you must use signal sources for your inputs.
“You must have a network listing, a pattern and have defined the order of your output node display in memory before involving simulator.
If any portion is missing, your RUN will bomb-out requiring a RESET and PR 6.”
We see in the already well established language of big business and advertising, the seeds of computer-speak.
It is here that one observes the blatant, steady development of a world in which people are conceptualized as objects, as resources.
I was recently talking about life with a young man who turned out to be a business administration student.
Towards the end of our discussion, he told me that he had enjoyed “marketing” together.
I replied, deeply insulted, that I wasn’t sure what he was doing, but that I was merely discussing life with him.
He insisted that we were both marketing, trying to convince the other of our point of view, selling ourselves.
My concept of sharing ideas was much too archaic and only seemed to confuse him.
In big business, particularly in management, there are such concepts as:
network theory
queuing
quantitative analysis
programming
management style
motivation
demotivation
commercial awareness
performance appraisal
dysfunctional activity
hi-lo management
These are cold, fearsome words to my mind, but they have become all too familiar in a society that unquestioningly views commodities and consumption as its lifeblood.
My fear comes from the realization that these are not simply trade languages, isolated buzzwords, or the obscure jargon of specialized professions and activities.
As big business and technology have exploited humankind, they have exploited its language in the process, just as Newspeak abused Oldspeak.
And now, in turn, they invade our popular everyday speech.
We find ourselves using such words as “input” and “feedback”.
We inadvertently trade our dictionary definitions of certain words like “soul” or “freedom” for the mutilated utilitarian definitions of a computer, and soon we will become oblivious to such flagrant travesty.
We will be discussing life with a friend and find that we are marketing.
Yet it is the language of politicians which is so obviously characteristic of one of the most significant aspects of Newspeak.
To one versed in Oldspeak, many Newspeak words mean the opposite of what they seem to be expressing.
So, for example, “joycamp” was a forced labour camp, “goodsex” meant chastity, “miniluv” was the governmental agency responsible for law and order, and “doublethink” meant reality control.
Above: Julia (Suzanna Hamilton), Nineteen Eighty-Four
“Pax” or peace, meant war in actuality, and peace as we understand it simply did not exist as a concept in Newspeak.
Clearly this must have also been the meaning of the word for US President Ronald Reagan and US Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger.
There is an Environmental Protection Agency — a term reflecting a warehouse concept of nature that falls deep into semantic absurdity — which sets guidelines for the dumping of toxic wastes.
We have a Department of Defense — in actuality a Department of Offense — which initiates war and foments right-wing counter-revolution.
We also have a Department of Welfare which distributes a miserable pittance to the poor to keep them poor.
Above: Present logo of the former Department of Welfare
Examples of political doublespeak abound.
There are arms reductions talks and concepts of “build-down” while we continue to develop our nuclear and conventional arms capabilities by leaps and bounds.
The three Party slogans of Ingsoc (English socialism) in 1984 don’t seem all that absurd or illogical now that our ears are accustomed to the sincere tease-talk of promising politicians:
(1) War is peace (they are building up nuclear arsenals and feeding the entire war machine in order to ensure peace, right?)
(2) Freedom is slavery (This is what we must explain to the people of Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador.)
(3) Ignorance is strength (This would fit nicely as part of the slogan for America’s finest: the Few, the Proud, the Marines.)
This all begins to make sense once we let doublethink do its thing and listen seriously to our concerned Party leaders talk to us in the most refined dialect of Newspeak:
Duckspeak, is speech which, according to Orwell, issued from the larynx without involving the higher brain centers.
Any one of these leaders could be described with the same Newspeak noun/adjective used to laud a party orator in Oceania:
He was a doubleplusgood duckspeaker.
In this real world of 1984, we consciously and unconsciously respond to a myriad of very dangerous subtle and overt influences.
It is an obvious fact that language profoundly reflects the environment, the culture, the lifestyle of the people who speak it.
In an increasingly urbanized, suburbanized, streamlined environment where our wilderness is polluted, destroyed, smoothed over to make way for high-rises, shopping malls, expressways, factories and nuclear power plants, it is small wonder that our senses are becoming dulled and our language impoverished.
Our hearing is deafened by the roar of engines, our sense of smell deadened by burning poisons, and our frantic speech is fast becoming fragmented, cold and unexpressive.
My grandparents knew the names and the medicinal qualities of numerous wild herbs and grasses, the songs and names of a multitude of birds, the leaves and bark of countless trees, the phases of the moon.
I know only categories and must search through books for lost details.
Lewis Mumford speaks of the birth of language and man’s environment:
“If man had originally inhabited a world as blankly uniform as a ‘high-rise’ housing development, as featureless as a parking lot, as destitute as an automated factory, it is doubtful if he would have had a sufficiently varied sensory experience to retain images, mold language, or acquire ideas.”
Above: US historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, literary critic Lewis Mumford (1895 -1990)
As we methodically lose our connection with the Earth and its infinite diversity, our language becomes more and more refined, terse, standardized and insipid.
As progress and technology transform our way of life and our physical surroundings, they eat away at our language, enfeeble our spirits, and perhaps without even the intention of controlling us, control us still by systematically destroying the creative options that sprout from a humane and naturally balanced world.
(And remember that the above article regarding fear of the impoverishment of the language was written before the Internet was commonplace and cellphones were connected to it.)
And yet, you may counter, in spite of all these signs of the deterioration and degeneration of language, literature is flourishing, the written word lives as it has never lived before.
There are more publications than ever before, more books, paperbacks, magazines, journals, newspapers and reviews.
Perhaps this phenomenon represents a refusal on the part of individuals to accept the alienation created by a world of computerspeak and duckspeak.
But the publishing business suffers the malaise of all big business.
They are flooded with more published material than we could possibly consume and are lost in a mountain of mediocrity.
There are also more writers, poets, novelists, journalists, than ever before.
At times it seems that everyone is talking or writing and that no one is listening or reading.
The mountain keeps growing, of course, and one hardly knows where to begin reading or who truly has something to say that’s worth listening to.
(This is one of my fears.)
The Eastern European writer, Milan Kundera, writes about this phenomenon of literary over-abundance or “mass graphomania”, as he calls it, in one of his stories.
He explains it as a mass spirited effort to save oneself from the void.
“The reason is that everyone has trouble accepting the fact he will disappear unheard of and unnoticed into an indifferent universe, and everyone wants to make himself into a universe of words before it’s too late.”
(The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, 1980)
It is a natural human need to be acknowledged, to be noticed, but this is only part of the older, more all-encompassing human instinct of reciprocity, which includes the active and the passive, the offering and the acceptance, the speaking and the listening.
We are in danger of losing hold of the last threads of our humanity.
Above: Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
“Once the writer in every individual comes to life (and that time is not far off),” Kundera tells us, “we are in for an age of universal deafness and lack of understanding.”
Above: Milan Kundera
We need not accept Kundera’s scenario as inevitable and inescapable, but we are forewarned.
We must find a way to let our senses rest, refuse to speak the empty chatter of machines, seek out the immeasurable silence of the remaining wilderness, and step ever so carefully into this year.
Using messengers, people use shortened versions of words in order to type and deliver their messages as quickly as possible.
Shortened versions like “k“, “ttyl“, “ur“, “gr8“, “cu“, “ic“, and so on, completely ruins the rules of grammar and syntax.
It also develops the use of slang terms and sometimes people tend to forget that they are neglecting the beauty of language when they are online busy with social media.
From “The beauty of language“, Emma Sorkin, The Black and White, 10 December 2021:
Each language contains countless unique words, phrases and rules.
Each language is absolute:
If you don’t speak it, you won’t understand it.
While language has the terrifying power to divide us, it also has the incredible power to unite us.
We need to celebrate and accept language and the diversity it encourages.
Learning multiple languages exposes people to millions of opportunities and offers chances to travel, explore, or talk to people across the globe.
Language allows anyone willing to learn it the chance to thrive in the richness of various cultures.
In countless ways, language allows for self expression.
In Yiddish, for example, “Schlep” describes the action of going a great distance, or out of the way, while carrying something heavy or unnecessary.
Above: A page from the Shemot Devarim (lit. ’Names of Things’), a Yiddish–Hebrew–Latin–German dictionary and thesaurus, published by Elia Levita in 1542
In Spanish, “Sobremesa” describes the period during a meal when everybody is done eating, yet remains talking at the table.
Above: Miguel de Cervantes (1547 – 1616), considered by many the greatest author of Spanish literature, and author of Don Quixote, widely considered the first modern European novel.
In French, “L’ésprit d’escalier” describes the phenomenon of coming up with the perfect retort or reply too late.
Above: The “arrêt” signs (French for “stop”) are used in Québec while the English stop, which is also a valid French word, is used in France and other French-speaking countries and regions.
English doesn’t have one all-encompassing phrase to express any of these actions or feelings.
Every language offer various forms of expression that others do not, and to me that is the greatest secret.
The ability to identify with other cultures is more important than any formal policy or border.
It’s no wonder countries struggle with acceptance when so many can’t comprehend or even begin to understand what other people are describing.
The notion that new concepts exist that I don’t have the vocabulary to even fathom amazes me.
Language is a secret that everyone can possess, and to me, that’s beautiful.
Social media and online communication is believed to be having adverse effect on social skills and communication among adolescents.
Long ago, the time when social media did not exist and social communication and interaction were the only way of communication.
(I divide the world into BC – before computers – and AD – age of digital these days.)
In the era of technology, social media interactions now dominate both online and offline conversation.
In a society where interacting and oversharing is the norm, you are probably more likely to speak to friends and family through electronic devices than face-to-face.
Often at events or parties, guests are attached to their smartphones twitting or texting, but no one is truly engaging or interacting with the people around them.
As more generations are born into the social age, social media will continue to be the favoured communication form among young people.
However, this shift may begin to affect their ability to properly communicate in person with their peers.
Whether or not people want to accept it, social media has several negative impacts on their daily lives.
We cannot deny the fact that social platforms are very helpful providing news, gossip, and help us to keep in touch with friends and family, but we cannot afford it to become the focal point of our lives.
The access that people have on the Internet and social media specifically has become too easy.
It has made the language lazy and thus resulting in people uninterested in meeting others in person, which eliminates any chance of deep and meaningful conversation.
People have started losing their ability to communicate effectively, which is a testament to what kind of total control social media has over their lives.
Overall, social media can be beneficial if used wisely and in the proper proportion.
Sadly, the history of mankind does not suggest wisdom or proper proportions.
Sources: Wikipedia / Google / Chetan Bhamare, “Effects of Social Media on Communication Skills“, TheKnowledge Review / Lynne Clive, “Newspeak and the Impoverishment of Language“, Fifth Estate #315, Winter 1984 / Rolf Dobelli, Stop Reading the News / Ronald Gross, The Independent Scholar’sHandbook / George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four / Emma Sorkin, “The beauty of language“, The Blackand White, 1 March 2017 / http://www.ucanwest.ca, “How has social media emerged as a powerfulcommunications medium?” / “Donald Trump’s social media venture under scrutiny” – “Rohingya sue Facebook for $150 billion” – “Tech execs voice concern over protection of kids“, Hürriyet Daily News, 8 December 2021
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
I like the way you smile at me I felt the heat that enveloped me And what I saw I liked to see I never knew where evil grew
I should have steered away from you My friend told me to keep clear of you But something drew me near to you I never knew where evil grew
Evil grows in the dark Where the sun it never shines Evil grows in cracks and holes And lives in people’s minds
Evil grew, it’s part of you And now it seems to be That every time I look at you Evil grows in me
If I could build a wall around you I could control the thing that you do But I couldn’t kill the will within you And it never shows The place where evil grows
Evil grows in the dark Where the sun it never shines Evil grows in cracks and holes And lives in people’s minds
Evil grew, it’s part of you And now it seems to be That every time I look at you Evil grows in me
Cinemas and theatres are closed.
Streets are bare past 8 pm.
The heart of the city is silent.
We are a world in hiding.
Everyone has the potential to kill us, with a sneeze, a cough, a kiss, a hug, a handshake.
Imagine a place without people.
<p value="<amp-fit-text layout="fixed-height" min-font-size="16" max-font-size="72" height="80">Considering how humans are prone to error, that ol' thing called free will, does seem to cause a number of problems, does make the notion of a place without pesky humans seem somewhat desirable at times.Considering how humans are prone to error, that ol’ thing called free will, does seem to cause a number of problems, does make the notion of a place without pesky humans seem somewhat desirable at times.
Just the most casual of historical observations, a look at only one day in the calendar reveals the madness of Man.
This day saw the execution of a man (Guy Fawkes) who wished to worship as he chose (1606).
Above: Guy Fawkes (1570 – 1606)
This day saw the opening of the world’s first veneral disease clinic in London. (1747)
This day saw a man (John Frémont) who could barely control himself being forced to cede his power over others. (1848)
Above: John Frémont (1813 – 1890)
This day saw the beginning of the end of slavery in America as the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution is passed. (1865)
On this one single night five collisions occurred between eight vessels in the Firth of Forth off May Island in northern Scotland, 104 sailors needlessly killed by repetitive human error. (1918)
On this day one man (Leon Trotsky) who wanted Communism to be practised as Marx and Engel intended is exiled for his inability to remain silent. (1928)
Above: Leon Trotsky (1879 – 1940)
A 24-year-old soldier (Eddie Slovik) wishing to avoid his death by gunfire is executed for treason by gunfire. (1945)
Above: Eddie Slovik (1920 – 1945)
US President Harry S. Truman decides that the world needs more thermonuclear weapons and somehow the risk of total planetary annihilation becomes plausible. (1950)
Above: Harry S. Truman (1884 – 1972)
A foolish decision (Brexit) is now manifest as the UK is officially out of the EU. (2020)
5,000 are arrested across Russia for questioning the imprisonment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.(2021)
400 are arrested in Brussels for protesting against pandemic lockdown in Belgium. (2021)
The UK passes a visa scheme allowing Hong Kong residents to obtain British citizenship. (2021)
Considering the propensity to error around us, sometimes the only rational reaction is to practise resistance, to insist that responsbility is taken, that the solidarity of being human means uniformity of human rights.
This is how artists and playwrights make our globalized world a better place.
Theatre gathers speeches and essays, performance texts and manifestos, written by artists and activists, journalists and lawyers, bringing their diverse contributions, saying what needs to be said, reflecting what needs reflection, that analyses our racism, our imperialism, and accuses princes and powers and principalites of not behaving as they should towards those they claim to represent.
Theatre through the drama of human interaction is a call to action to follow our better natures.
Theatre is often understood as mere fiction, as “words, words, words” and acting “as if” fiction is fact and not mere fantasy.
But spaces of act are places where we enact our deepest desires, where we search for and rehearse alternatives, how much worse things could get, how much better things could be.
We should never underestimate the power of performance.
Speaking is a social action and mere written language never adequately describes the world in all of its nuances the way human voice and movement can.
The playwright creates the weapons of truth, theatre wields them.
To read of the injustice caused by imperialism and out-of-control capitalism is to easily ignore the evils inherent in these systems, but to witness injustice enacted before our eyes is to affect us on a very deep and emotional level.
Theatre puts into action the need for reflection, for consideration, of the folly of our world.
Theatre is a platform to voices that need to be heard, that reveals power to the powerless, that submission without permission is admission of defeat of all we could be, of all we should be.
The arts, literature and theatre do not just reflect society or Zeitgeist.
They create society.
They implement new thoughts and shape hearts and minds.
They decolonize, deconstruct and derail the illusions that those with power would have the powerless believe.
A theatrical performance is akin to marching into a new daybreak.
To see folks like ourselves show ourselves through their acts is to educate the world, by teaching us to feel and think and ultimately love the best within ourselves and reject that which diminishes us.
The actor’s desire to change the world is neither megalomania nor madness.
On stage, all are equal.
On stage, everything is possible.
A better reality is only achievable if Utopia is perceived.
Theatre offers that perception.
Theatre makes us question normality and whether that normality is desirable,
Theatre shows us different points of view, different ways of being in the world.
Theatre dances us on the edge of the volcano, makes us look into the abyss of what is ahead, makes us wonder who we are and how we got here.
We are not safe even though we grasp the familiar.
We are vulnerable and theatre shows us that we are dancing in the dark.
Theatre shows us the shipwreck of politics, the arrogance of the powerful, the kingdom of the false, the vulgarity of wealth, the cataclysms of industry, the rampant misery, the naked exploitation, the edge of apocalypse.
Theatre does not spare us from anything.
It is truthful and humble and curious.
The characters of a play are us.
They order, they demand, they plead, they yield, they challenge, they provoke, they dare, they claim, they name, they condemn, they disrupt, they disturb, they evoke, they initiate, they resist, they request us to ask what counts as a good life, they represent, they are us.
And it is this potential, these possibilities, that the pandemic denies us.
Agatha Christie’s murder mystery play “The Mousetrap” has been staged continuously in London since 1952, making it the world’s longest-running show, but the corona virus lockdown has brought the famous production to an abrupt halt.
Goodbye, Les Misérables, showing since 1985.
Farewell to the Phantom of the Opera, staged since 1986.
As the UK faces months (years?) of restrictions on social gatherings, there is no prospect of any of London’s West End hits opening any time soon.
Live theatre in the land of William Shakespeare now faces a crisis from which many in the theatre fear it might never fully recover.
When the lights went out at the end of a production of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre on 14 March 2020, the actors did not know that it was for the last time, final curtain.
On 16 March 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Britons to avoid theatres.
“Our business model just stopped,” Sheffield Theatres Artistic Director Robert Hastie said.
“We lost nearly 90% of the money coming in and that is presenting us with enormous business problems.“
The government’s 60-page strategy for getting the UK working again does not mention the country’s more than 1,000 theatres.
Even as the UK takes what Johnson called its first “baby steps” to get the economy moving, the virus makes it hard for theatres to host audiences.
Social distancing rules are “here to stay”, according to ministers.
Above: Boris Johnson
“If social distancing is maintained, theatres will not be able to open:
Simple as that.”, said Rebecca Kane Burton, Chief Executive Officer of LW Theatres, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s portfolio of venues.
The industry operates by packing strangers into cramped auditoriums, with actors in close contact on stage and support crews behind the scenes.
“A West End production can cost 5 to 7 million pounds before it even hits the stage,” Burton said.
“Theatre producers are already incredibly bold for doing this in a normal environment.
With social distancing in place, why would you take the risk with no prospect of breaking even, let alone any of the upside?“
Above: Rebecca Kane Burton
The pandemic poses a threat to venues from the smallest provincial theatres to London’s West End, which draws tourists from all over the world to see musicals such as “The Lion King“, “Wicked“, and “Mamma Mia!“.
According to Burton, musical theatres need to be at 70% capacity just to cover costs.
There are already casualities.
The Artrix Arts Centre in Bromsgrove stopped trading in April 2020.
Nuffield Southampton Theatres went into administration on 6 May 2020.
The Old Vic, one of London’s most prestigious theatres, is in a “seriously perilous” financial situation, Artistic Director Matthew Warchius told the Guardian.
“Progressively as you go through June, July, August and September, theatres just start having cash flow issues,” said Julian Bird, CEO of UK Theatre.
He said the industry will need government assistance not just for actors and theatres but for the “whole ecology” of the sector, including agents, lighting and sound designers, set builders, and costume and wig makers.
The performing arts and associated creative industry contributed 9.9 billion pounds to the UK economy in 2019, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Beyond the economic value, they improve the lives of millions of people….
Even if theatres are allowed to reopen, they will face major logistical difficulties.
Long-running shows may need new cast members as well as fresh marketing campaigns to drive ticket sales, according to Burton.
Venues without a show will need months to audition and rehearse, as well as to build sets and arrange costumes.
Then there is the question of how to make venues safe.
LW Theatres has bought hundreds of self-sanitizing door handles to test.
The company is also looking at taking temperatures, providing staff with protective equipment and encouraging the public to wear face masks.
In Sheffield, Hastie said the greatest concern is what happens at year-end, when the traditional programme of holiday pantomimes and musical would normally bring in a large proportion of annual income.
“The big fear that everybody has got is can Christman be made to work?” he said.
“If we can’t do Christmas, things will look bleaker.”
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a substantial impact on the film industry in 2020, mirroring its impacts across all arts sectors.
Across the world and to varying degrees, cinemas and movie theatres have been closed, festivals have been cancelled or postponed, and film releases have been moved to future dates or delayed indefinitely.
Due to cinemas and movie theaters closing, the global box office has dropped by billions of dollars, and streaming has become more popular, while the stock of film exhibitors has also dropped dramatically.
Many blockbusters originally scheduled to be released since mid-March of 2020 have been postponed or cancelled around the world, with film productions also halted.
The Chinese film industry had lost US$2 billion by March 2020, having closed all its cinemas during the Lunar New Year period that sustains the industry across Asia.
North America saw its lowest box office weekend since 1998 between 13 and 15 March.
Cineworld, the world’s second-largest cinema chain, closed its cinemas in October 2020.
The Eight Hundred, the highest-grossing film of 2020, earned $468 million worldwide.
It was the first time since 2007 that the top-grossing film of a given year had earned less than $1 billion and the first time a non-American film was the top-grossing film of the year.
One night in April, Queen’s University Professor Kelsey Jacobson found herself holding her cat up to her laptop, eagerly showing her off to a group of strangers on Zoom.
Above: Professor Kelsey Jacobson
She was, in fact, an audience member immersed in a production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest by Creation Theatre, based in Oxford, England.
Over the course of the show, produced entirely over Zoom, Kelsey was tasked with asking questions of the characters in a news conference, providing sound effects like bird squawks and stormy weather and holding up props (like her cat) when requested.
Given social distancing protocols that prohibit physical gatherings, theatre makers have responded creatively to the Covid-19 pandemic by turning to online, digital and lo-fi or “non-embodied” modes of performance that use radio and phone.
This change in how to perform theatre has required a reconsideration of longstanding ideas of what it means to be a theatre audience member:
How has access to theatre changed?
What etiquette is expected?
How have ideas of privacy and intimacy shifted?
Most obviously, streamed versions of pre-recorded theatrical productions have enjoyed great popularity.
#JaneEyre became a trending topic on Twitter in April 2020 after the National Theatre in London, aired a recording on YouTube, with more than 4,600 tweets in the seven days after it streamed.
Digital analytics by the company OneFurther about online viewing of One Man Two Guvnors by Richard Bean, based on the 18th-century Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni, count a staggering 2.6 million viewers over the course of one week.
Such views are far beyond the seating capacity of a regular theatre building.
This increased access is especially important in light of growing awareness of inaccessibility in theatre more broadly.
Some progress has been made to better welcome audience members with certain disabilities, especially in the advent of relaxed performances, which seeks to “relax” or loosen audience conventions in order to create more accessible theatre.
But systemic issues of racism, classism and ableism continue to exclude many potential spectators.
Shakespeare scholar Erin Sullivan cites the UK Arts Council’s report “From Live to Digital” to point to the potential of streamed performance to increase access to theatre:
“Streaming does appear to attract younger, less wealthy and more ethnically diverse members of the population.”
What’s also notable about online performances is that, as an audience member, I can choose when, where and how to watch.
Above: Erin Sullivan
Scholar Kirsty Sedgman, who studies theatre and performance audiences, has written extensively about audience etiquette and how such behavioural expectations are often exclusionary:
You must be quiet, immobile and have singular focus.
If you don’t, you need to leave.
Within the privacy of my own home, however, such rules are removed.
I can eat, drink, talk and be on my phone — or so one would think.
Above: Kirsty Sedgman
Actress Gillian Anderson asked audience members to stay off their phones while watching the National Theatre’s streamed version of A Streetcar Named Desire, which she starred in at the Young Vic in London.
She thereby tried to enforce public theatre behaviour in private.
That live tweeting alongside performances is already a well-established practice means that expected audience behaviour must be renegotiated for online viewing.
Kelsey, for instance, eagerly read the comments of her fellow audience members during a YouTube livestream of Blind Date, a show from Toronto-based Spontaneous Theatre centred on a virtual first date between Mimi (a French clown played by Rebecca Northan) and actor Wayne Brady.
The ways in which audience members can connect with each other in the absence of shared physical space means that virtual sites of conversation — like Twitter and the YouTube comments section — become vital.
Finally, questions of privacy are also important.
In The Tempest, Kelsey saw into several peoples’ homes, and watched them leave and return with snacks or get interrupted by their children and pets.
The boundaries between public and private lives were blurred and she had a deeper awareness of her fellow spectators.
In a cleverly customized theatrical experience from Toronto’s Outside the March Theatre, a “detective” attempted to solve her possibly paranormal printer problems over the course of six phone calls.
In this interactive performance experience called The Ministry of Mundane Mysteries, I was also asked to reveal aspects of her personal life: where she worked, what her hobbies were, and so on.
As an audience member of such performances, she was asked to contribute and reveal more than she might sitting in the quiet darkness of a traditional theatre.
This is not to say that audiences haven’t been active participants in theatre throughout history, but the visibility of such participation is made more evident by theatre’s move into private spaces.
An article in the New York Times suggested that the current explosion of digital theatre is merely a way of holding space before we can return to “real” theatre.
But this ignores the inventive responses of theatre artists who have shown that theatre is patently not tied to theatres:
The presence of a public building is not a necessity for performance.
Indeed, many artists were creating innovative online work long before the pandemic.
With theatres thinking about a return to physical spaces, it is worth considering how the “digital turn” will impact future spectator conventions and expectations.
Renegotiated and re-imagined ideas of access, community and interactivity, borne out of necessity, are an opportunity to rethink theatre.
These should not be ignored when the return to public spaces happens:
Rather, they should inform theatre’s future.
Honestly, on screen theatre, which seems to me to be merely a close cousin of movie streaming and TV, worries me, for my mind is filled with three images:
I am reminded of Leonard Mead, Ray Bradbury’s short story, The Pedestrian.
Leonard Mead is a citizen of a television-centered world in November 2131.
In the city, sidewalks have fallen into decay.
Mead enjoys walking through the city at night, something which no one else does.
“In ten years of walking by night or day, for thousands of miles, he had never met another person walking, not one in all that time.”
On one of his usual walks, he encounters a police car, which is possibly robotic.
It is the only police unit in a city of three million, since the purpose of law enforcement has disappeared with everyone watching television at night.
When asked about his profession, Mead tells the car that he is a writer, but the car does not understand, since no one buys books or magazines in the television-dominated society.
The police car and its occupants can neither of them understand why Mead would be out walking for no reason, and so they decide to take him to the Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies and force him into the car.
As the car passes through his neighborhood, Leonard Mead in the locked confines of the back seat says, “That’s my house,” as he points to a house warm and bright with all its lights on, unlike all other houses.
There is no reply, and the story concludes.
In Surrogates, the 2009 American science fiction action film, in the near future, widespread use of remotely controlled androids called “Surrogates” enables everyone to live in idealized forms from the safety of their homes.
Compared to their surrogates, the human operators are depicted as slovenly and homebound.
Protected from harm, a surrogate’s operator feels no pain when the surrogate is damaged, and can do acrobatics that a normal person wouldn’t.
In Boston, FBI agent Tom Greer has been estranged from his wife Maggie since their son’s death in a car crash several years before.
He never sees her outside of her surrogate and she criticizes his desire to interact via their real bodies.
In order to protect ourselves from contagion, what if we retreat into our individual isolated homes?
Can we learn how to interact with one another without social contact?
In the spirit of The Pedestrian this screen-centred existence allowing those who protect us to police us in an autocratic manner brings to mind an episode of the sci-fi series Sliders.
In Fever, Season One, Episode 3, Wade (Sabrina Lloyd) is infected with deadly pathogen on an Earth racked by an epidemic where Quinn’s double (Jerry O’Connell) is Patient Zero, Rembrandt (Cleavant Derricks) and Arturo (John Rhys-Davies) race to find a cure and free Quinn from a Gestapo-like health agency.
A pandemic gives the government an excuse to enforce its will in the name of securing the health of its citizens.
It is a repeated theme of live theatre in history that some performances have resulted in riots, for as I have said, live theatre creates a commonality of emotion directly experienced, enhanced to a far greater capacity than on screen can ever generate.
Individuals in their homes are far easier to handle than an entire auditorium of upset rioters.
As the creation of theatre is both time-consuming and expensive perhaps the premise of the 2013 film The Congress is not so far-fetched to imagine.
Robin Wright plays a fictionalized version of herself as an aging actress with a reputation for being fickle and unreliable, so much so that nobody is willing to offer her roles.
Her son, Aaron, suffers from Usher syndrome that is slowly destroying his sight and hearing.
With the help of Dr. Barker (Paul Giamatti), Robin is barely able to stave off the worst effects of her son’s decline.
Robin’s longtime agent Al (Harvey Keitel) takes her to met Jeff Green (Danny Huston), a representative of the film production company, Miramount Studios, who offer her to buy her likeness and digitize her into a computer-animated version of herself.
After initially turning down the offer, Robin reconsiders after realizing she may be unable to find work with the emergence of this new technology, and agrees to sell the film rights to her digital image to Miramount Studios in exchange for a hefty sum of money and she promises never to act again.
After her body is digitally scanned, the studio will be able to make films starring her, using only computer-generated characters.
By then, Robin’s virtual persona has become the star of a popular science-fiction film franchise, “Rebel Robot Robin“.
The notion of a world resembling The Congress, Fever, Surrogates, or The Pedestrian frightens me.
Culture, in my opinion, is not just the reserve of lofty institutions or private servers.
It should be available to all, with everyone interacting with each other and with the performers.
I fully support the preservation and protection of life, but fear of death shouldn’t keep us from living.
We need theatre and theatre needs us.
The pandemic has cost the lives of over two million people across the globe.
Will it also come at the cost of our souls?
Sources: Wikipedia / Google / The Poppy Family, “Evil Grows” / Alex Morales, “London’s West End faces existential crisis as theatres stay dark“, Bloomberg News, 17 May 2020 / Stefan Bläske, Luanda Casella, Milo Rau and Lara Staal, The Art of Resistance: On Theatre, Activitism and Solidarity / Kelsey Jacobson, “Theatre companies are pushing storytelling boundaries online audiences amid Covid-19“, http://www.theconversation.com, 21 July 2020
Landschlacht, Switzerland, Tuesday 26 January 2021
As the world turns, things keep happening.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has resigned – and it is not clear if he will be able to form and lead a new coalition government.
Above: Giuseppe Conti
Parties are divided over spending in the corona virus crisis, in which more than 85,000 Italians have died.
Conte met President Sergio Mattarella, who may ask him to form a stronger government.
Above: Sergio Mattarella
Last week Conte lost his Senate majority.
But someone else could become Italy’s PM or a snap election could be called.
The law professor, who has headed coalition governments since 2018, tendered his resignation to the president.
Above: Flag of Italy
And now Conte is discussing the political crisis with Senate President Elisabetta Casellati.
Above: Elisabetta Casellati
The centrist coalition government was plunged into crisis two weeks ago when former PM Matteo Renzi pulled his small, liberal Italia Viva party out of it.
He said he would only return if Conte accepted a list of demands.
Above. Matteo Renzi
Conte survived a vote of confidence in the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, last week.
He then won a Senate vote, but without an absolute majority.
The lack of a majority would restrict government business – hence the political shake-up.
Renzi’s main objection was to Conte’s plans for spending €209bn (£186bn; $254bn) of EU recovery funds – part of a €750bn EU rescue for the Covid crisis.
Renzi says EU funds should be invested in promising sectors like digital and green technologies, and wants MPs, rather than technocrats, to decide on the allocations.
But he also wants more investment in the embattled health service.
Italy, now mired in recession, was at the epicentre of the pandemic in Europe last year.
Renzi governed Italy in 2014 – 2016, but currently his Italia Viva party is polling below 3%.
And so Italy’s 66th government since World War Two comes to a close.
A country of seemingly perennial political crises has chosen the worst possible time to face another – in the grip of a pandemic that has killed more than 85,000 Italians and unleashed the worst economic collapse in decades.
That’s why Giuseppe Conte may manage to come back with a new revamped government, arguing the need to avoid the turmoil of fresh elections at such a difficult time.
Added to that, polls suggest an early vote would be won by the far right.
So Conte is hoping that the threat of losing their seats might tempt enough centrist politicians to jump the opposition ship and join a reformed coalition.
Italy’s 29th prime minister since the war is hoping to return as Italy’s 29th prime minister since the war.
But his opponents are circling.
And he won’t have much time to convince parliament that he can become the new, stronger comeback kid.
So, what’s next?
Meanwhile….
Acting US Attorney General Monty Wilkinson announced that President Biden has rescinded the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy, which led to the separation of over 3,000 migrant families on the Mexico – US border.
Above: Monte Wilkinson
Police have detained 200 protesters following Tuesday’s deadly violence in India’s capital Delhi during a massive protest against agricultural reforms.
Thousands of farmers clashed with police as protesters on the outskirts of the city forced their way in.
One protester died, and more than 300 police officers were injured.
Blaming the chaos on rogue elements among an otherwise peaceful march, most farmers’ leaders said they would not call off their protests.
Those detained are being held on charges of rioting, damaging public property, and attacking police personnel.
So far, 22 police complaints have been registered.
“We are making arrests after conducting proper verification.
We are also looking into CCTVs near Red Fort, ITO, Nangloi and other areas where the violence erupted,” police officials told the Indian Express newspaper.
India’s government deployed 15 companies of paramilitaries to boost security after the protests, which also saw some farmers storming the city’s historic Red Fort and occupying the ramparts until police drove them out.
The violence coincided with Republic Day – a national holiday that marks the anniversary of India officially adopting its constitution on 26 January 1950.
Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella group of protesting farmers, said in a statement that they “condemn and regret the undesirable and unacceptable events and dissociate ourselves from those indulging in such acts”.
Two farmers’ unions withdrew from the ongoing agitation on Wednesday, but most said they were determined to continue their protests against the new agricultural laws.
The government says its reforms will liberalise the sector, but farmers say they will be poorer as a result.
Tens of thousands of them have been striking on the outskirts of Delhi since November, demanding that the laws be repealed.
Last week they rejected a government offer to put the changes on hold.
The government had opposed the planned rally by farmers, but police allowed it on the condition that it would not interrupt the Republic Day parade in central Delhi.
Farmers were given specific routes for the tractor rally, which would largely be confined to the outskirts.
But shortly after the parade came to a close, convoys of tractors broke through police barricades and converged on the city centre.
One group of protesters burst through security at the historic Red Fort where they clambered on to the walls and domes of the fortress, even hoisting flags alongside the national flag.
By Tuesday afternoon, police said they had removed protesters from the complex.
Some of the most violent clashes took place near the ITO metro station junction – on the route to central Delhi.
Footage showed farmers attacking police with sticks and metal bars while officers used tear gas and batons.
Police said one protester died at the junction when his tractor overturned after hitting a barricade.
Police said in a statement that they had acted after farmers broke conditions for the rally and took “the path of violence and destruction”.
But one farmers’ union leader accused the police of provoking the violence.
“When you attack a peaceful protest, then difficulties for the government will surely increase,” Kawalpreet Singh Pannu told AFP news agency.
“This won’t stop here.
Our movement and message have only become stronger.“
The laws loosen rules around the sale, pricing and storage of farm produce which have protected India’s farmers from the free market for decades.
Farmers fear that the new laws will threaten decades-old concessions – such as assured prices – and weaken their bargaining power, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation by private companies.
While Mr Modi has defended them, the laws have been likened to a “death warrant” by farmer groups.
Most economists and experts agree that Indian agriculture desperately needs reform. But critics of the government say it failed to consult farmers before passing the laws.
Global Covid-19 cases topped 100 million Tuesday as virus mutations continue to create new concerns, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.
The milestone comes less than three months after the world hit 50 million cases, and just over a year after the first case was diagnosed in the US.
The US remains the leader in recorded cases of the corona virus with more than 25 million infections.
India ranks second with more than 10.5 million cases, and Brazil third with almost nine million, according to John Hopkins.
The 100 million mark comes as countries around the world are struggling to adapt to emerging mutations of the virus and vaccine rollout has begun in some parts of the world.
The UK variant, which spreads more easily and quickly than others, has been detected around the world, including in the US and Canada.
There is currently no solid evidence that it causes more severe illness or risk of death, according to the CDC, and current vaccines in the US appear to be effective against the strain.
But questions remain around the South African variant, which was first seen in early October, and has not yet been detected in the US.
Moderna announced Monday it will upgrading its vaccine after it was shown to be less effective against the South African strain.
The Biden administration has pledged to vaccinate 50 million people, with two doses of the vaccine, in its first 100 days.
And on his second day in office, Biden signed ten executive orders to ramp up vaccinations, expand testing and reopen schools as he outlined a detailed plan to tackle the pandemic.
Still, the President has warned that there is a long road ahead for the country.
“We didn’t get into this mess overnight and it is going to take months to get it turned around,” Biden said last week, warning the country will likely top 500,000 deaths in February.
Above: US President Joe Biden
The US government is working to buy 200 million more doses of Covid-19 vaccines, a move that could provide enough doses to fully inoculate nearly every American by the end of the summer, President Joe Biden said Tuesday.
The government is seeking 100 million doses from Pfizer/BioNTech and 100 million from Moderna, an order that would be made available over the summer.
They would be in addition to the 400 million combined doses the companies had already committed to provide the US, Biden said.
He said he expects to be able to confirm the purchase soon.
“It will be enough to fully vaccinate 300 million Americans to beat the pandemic,” Biden said.
The agreement would lessen the country’s reliance on getting additional doses on the market from other manufacturers.
The Trump administration had passed on buying more doses from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna and was instead betting that additional vaccines from Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca would come to market.
Johnson & Johnson said it will release data for its single-dose vaccine in the coming days.
“We can’t speak to the Trump administration, but what we can say is it is our philosophy, given the nature of this emergency and the speed with which the virus needs to be addressed, to procure enough supply as we need to vaccinate Americans and to give Americans the confidence we can do that,” a senior administration official said.
In the near term, the supplies being shipped to states are set to increase by about 20%, to 10 million doses a week, for the next three weeks, the official said.
The federal government will also begin letting states know how many doses they will be getting at least three weeks in advance — addressing complaints by governors that they aren’t able to plan and schedule appointments.
The Biden administration has begun using the Defense Production Act to buy more of a special syringe that can extract more doses per vaccine vial, and it plans to use the wartime law for other raw materials, like lipid nanoparticles and bioreactor bags, if necessary, the official said.
But the supply chain for those relatively rare materials is “somewhat fragile,” and there is a risk of disrupting production of other health care products, the official said.
The US also has to compete with other countries for the same resources.
The official said the administration isn’t holding back doses aside from a small emergency reserve, but states have been holding back the doses they receive at different levels to ensure that enough is available for people to get their second shots.
State and local officials have been complaining in recent weeks that while they can give more shots and that demand from the public is high, they lack the supply of vaccines.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that as of Tuesday, 23.5 million doses were administered and that more than 3.4 million people were fully vaccinated.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday on MSNBC that the city has the capacity to administer 500,000 doses a week but that it hasn’t been able to do so because it is waiting on more vaccine supplies from the federal government.
Above: Bill de Blasio
Those who celebrate Australia Day, the country’s national holiday, associate it with barbecues and pool parties.
But for those who protest against it, it is a reminder of the continent’s brutal colonization.
On Tuesday, tens of thousands of people marched through Australia’s major cities in opposition to the holiday, which they instead refer to as Invasion Day.
It is a blunt reframing of the legacy of the arrival of the British 233 years ago, which set in motion centuries of oppression of Indigenous people.
Year upon year, these protests have grown and gained political traction, and Tuesday’s were bolstered by the global Black Lives Matter movement.
Here is a look at this contentious day.
Australia Day, on 26 January, marks the date that a British fleet sailed into Sydney Harbor in 1788 to start a penal colony.
The mariners raised a flag on land that the British described as “Terra Nullius” (nobody’s land), though Aboriginal people had inhabited the continent for at least 65,000 years.
The public holiday was first formally recognized in 1818, and it has been commemorated nationally since 1994.
It takes place during the Southern Hemisphere’s summer, so many Australians spend the day at the beach or with family and friends.
Since the holiday’s beginning, however, Indigenous Australians have been excluded from celebrations. In 1888, when Sir Henry Parkes, the father of the Australian federation, was asked how First Nations people might be involved, he remarked that it would serve only to “remind them that we have robbed them.”
Above: Henry Parkes (1815 – 1896)
Australians who protest the public holiday argue that it not only excludes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people but also actively celebrates the day their land was taken.
Since 1938, protesters have periodically commemorated the national holiday with a day of mourning.
(That same year, several Aboriginal men were forced to participate in a re-enactment of the British landing.)
Two Aboriginal activists, Jack Patten and William Ferguson, wrote at the time:
“We, representing the Aborigines, now ask you, the reader of this appeal, to pause in the midst of your sesqui-centenary rejoicings and ask yourself honestly whether your ‘conscience’ is clear in regard to the treatment of the Australian blacks by the Australian whites during the period of 150 years’ history which you celebrate?”
Since then, the demonstrations have involved sit-down protests, rallies and marches on Parliament House in Canberra.
Protesters have called for a range of changes, from recognizing Indigenous Australians in the country’s Constitution and creating a treaty between them and the Commonwealth, to reducing high rates of Indigenous incarceration and deaths in custody.
Previously, activists have pushed for changing the date of Australia Day — suggestions have included 1 January (the date Australia was federated), the 4th Friday in January (because it would make for a good long weekend) or May 8 (because the abbreviation M8 sounds like “mate“).
Above: Flag of Australia
But this year, the messaging shifted more toward abolishing the day altogether.
“There’s a growing awareness and growing solidarity right around the world among Indigenous people everywhere,” said Lidia Thorpe, the first Aboriginal senator elected in the state of Victoria.
“There is an uprising.”
Above: Lidia Thorpe
On Tuesday, thousands of people took to the streets in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin and Perth in protest.
They wore Aboriginal flags draped across their shoulders, chanted and held signs reading “Pay the Rent,” “Abolish the Date” and “No Pride in Genocide.”
Above: the Australian Aborginal flag
Before dawn on Tuesday, the Sydney Opera House lit its sails with the artwork of Frances Belle-Parker, an Indigenous artist, while an Aboriginal flag was raised next to the Australian flag on Sydney Harbour Bridge.
“Solidarity is key,” said Frankie Saliba, an activist, as he marched through downtown Melbourne holding a painted sign that read “Landback,” referring to the movement to return land to its original Indigenous owners.
Another protester, Emily Hart (11) said she hoped more of her peers would get involved in the protests.
“We need to acknowledge this is not our land,” she said.
Though protests were largely peaceful — with masked activists marching in groups of 100 in Melbourne to adhere to social distancing rules — some protesters clashed with the police and were arrested in Sydney after coronavirus regulations were breached, leading organizers to cancel the remainder of the event.
Organizers in Perth and Hobert said the turnout was the largest they had experienced.
Support for the Invasion Day movement has been steadily rising, with even mainstream organizations like Cricket Australia removing the name “Australia Day” from their promotional material.
Above: Logo for Cricket Australia
Still, less than a third of Australians say Australia Day should be moved from 26 January, according to a recent poll conducted by Ipsos.
Australia’s conservative political leaders have expressed the same view, at times minimizing the abuse of Aboriginal people.
“When those 12 ships turned up in Sydney all those years ago, it wasn’t a particularly flash day for the people on those vessels either,” Scott Morrison, the country’s Prime Minister, told reporters last week.
At a ceremony in Canberra on Tuesday, Mr. Morrison added that Australians had “risen above” their “brutal beginnings.”
Paul Fletcher, Australia’s minister for communications, excoriated the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for including the term “Invasion Day” in an article headline, alongside the holiday’s formal name, pushing the national broadcaster to remove the words.
Above: Paul Fletcher
Marcia Langton, an anthropologist and professor of Indigenous studies at the University of Melbourne, called Mr. Morrison’s comments “cretinous” and an insult to the hundreds of thousands of Indigenous Australians she and others estimate lost their lives in the decades following European settlement.
“The arguments for Australia Day now are clearly morally and intellectually defective,” she said.
“It’s not a national day anymore.
It’s a day for division.”
Above: Logo of the University of Melbourne
Perhaps American and Australian, Indian and Italian athletes could borrow an idea from their English counterparts, in demanding free and prompt distribution of vaccines, along with freedom and justice for all….
A generation ago, the role of a footballer was typically confined to kicking balls with élan and trying to avoid disgrace while spending their abundant wealth.
Many were not even adept at that.
Expectations must now change as the cohort of players in the Premier League emerges as a new political class with the power to shape lives far beyond their own.
The success of the Manchester United and England striker, Marcus Rashford in convincing the government to provide free school meals to disadvantaged children over the 2020 summer holidays was merely the latest achievement by a cadre of players who are turning their social media followings into lobbying power.
Above: Marcus Rashford
While players of all colours have gained confidence as community leaders, the fight against racism has highlighted the changing status of young black footballers.
Football insiders argue that black players’ confidence comes from within, but that one catalyst for change was the appointment of Garath Southgate as England manager in 2016.
Above: Gareth Southgate
A source at the Football Association said that Southgate would never take credit for any achievements by England players off the pitch, but he had encouraged players to use their status to celebrate their own life stories.
“You have had a waterfall of stories, from Danny Rose’s views in the fight for mental health to Raheem Sterling on the fight against racism,” the source told the Times.
“At the same time, social media has gone from being a one-dimensional messaging platform to something where players can use their influence for good.“
Above: Danny Rose
Above: Raheem Sterling
Alan Shearer, the former England captain, said that Southgate had promoted a culture of self-confidence and self-expression.
“Gareth has a great understanding with his players and what some of his players have had to go through,” he told Today on BBC Radio 4.
“I think the way Gareth talks, very articulate, in a very professional manner, without doubt I think his players will look at him, admire him for that.“
Above: Alan Shearer
Shearer cited Sterling of Manchester City, the Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson, the England captain Harry Kane, and the Watford captain Troy Deeney as examples of players who are using their influence for public good.
Above: Harry Kane
Above: Troy Deeney
Henderson was instrumental in setting up the Players Together campaign, which has raised GBP 4 million for NHS charities.
Above: Jordan Henderson
Others to fit the new type include Tyrone Mings and Jadon Sancho.
Above: Jadon Sancho
Andre Gray has also made his mark on public debate with his tattoos of black political figures on his back.
Above: Andre Gray
Like many of his peers, Mings, of Aston Villa and England, comes from a hard-up background.
The defender has given time and resources to homeless people because of his own experience in a “horrendous” homeless shelter as a child, when his mother removed him and his sisters from her partner’s house in Chippenham in Wiltshire.
Above: Tyrone Mings
Mings has also taken a public stand against racism after he became a target for abuse during his debut for England at the Euro 2020 qualifier against Bulgaria in Sofia in October 2019.
(England’s Euro 2020 qualifying victory over Bulgaria in Sofia was overshadowed by shameful scenes of racism that saw the game stopped twice and officials threaten to abandon the match.
Gareth Southgate’s side strolled to a 6-0 victory in an atmosphere that was toxic in the first half and eerie in the second, with a large section of the Vasil Levski Stadium already closed after racist incidents here in June.
Above: Vasil Levski Stadium
England debutant Tyrone Mings was an early victim, turning towards the home fans when chants were aimed in his direction and referee Ivan Bebek stopped the game in the 28th minute after Raheem Sterling was a target for further abuse.
After lengthy discussions, and in accordance with Uefa’s protocol for dealing with racism, the crowd were warned of the consequences if there were further problems – and there was a further stoppage just before half-time.
On the pitch, England moved closer to Euro 2020 qualification as they romped to victory with the recalled Marcus Rashford opening the scoring early on with a superb rising drive.
Ross Barkley added a tap-in and a head from Kieran Trippier’s cross before Sterling got on the scoresheet with another simple finish just before half-time.
And Sterling provided an even more emphatic answer to those who directed the shameful chants at England’s players when he strode through for the fifth goal after 68 minutes.
The issue of racism provided a disturbing backdrop to this game and it was only a matter of minutes before England’s worst fears were realised.
Mings was clearly perturbed by chanting, a sorry state of affairs for the 26-year-old who should have been savouring the greatest moment of his career by winning his first England cap.
When England manager Gareth Southgate, captain Harry Kane and several players gathered near the touchline before half-time after more audible abuse, it looked as if the game may be abandoned but it swiftly resumed.
A large group of black-clad supporters, some of whom were making right-wing salutes, were moved from an area behind the dugout and Bulgaria captain Ivelin Popov went into that part of the stadium while the teams walked off at half-time to plead with supporters.
The atmosphere, not to mention the one-sided scoreline, was almost surreal in the second half with the Bulgarian players seemingly demoralised and dispirited themselves by the shocking events of the night.
England needed to produce a significant response after the disappointment of their first loss in 44 qualifying matches in the Czech Republic on Friday – and they delivered in every way in these most trying of circumstances.
Above: Logo of the Czech Football Association
Mings kept his head under the most disgraceful provocation, while Sterling did what he does well – answered with his actions with another stellar performance.
This was a shockingly poor Bulgaria side, but the environment here in the Levski Stadium meant this was an examination of England’s character, their ability to stay cool while recording the impressive result they required to boost their chances of being seeded for Euro 2020.
In this context, it was a remarkably impressive effort from Southgate’s players.
Above: Flag of Bulgaria
There was a grim inevitability about how events unfolded in Sofia given the build-up, with England manager Southgate having reminded his players of Uefa’s protocol on racism after they were abused in Montenegro in March.
Above: Montenegro Football Association logo
The Bulgarian authorities responded angrily, with BFU president Borislav Mihaylov sending a letter of complaint to Uefa and coach Krasimir Balakov insisting England’s problems with racism were worse than theirs.
Above: Logo of the Bulgarian Football Association
England manager Gareth Southgate to BBC Radio 5 Live:
“We had to prepare for this eventuality.
The most important thing was the players and staff knew what we were going to do and were in agreement.
Nobody should have to experience what our players did.
We followed the protocol.
We gave two messages – one that our football did the talking and two, we stopped the game twice.
“That might not be enough for some people but we are in that impossible situation that we can’t give everyone what they want.
But we gave the players what they wanted and the staff what that they wanted.
Remarkably, after what we have been through, our players walked off smiling and that’s the most important thing for me.
Not one player wanted to stop, they were absolutely firm on that.”)
Above: Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane
England defender Tyrone Mings to BBC Radio 5 Live:
“It was a great night for me personally.
It was a really proud moment in my career.
I hope everyone enjoys this moment and it isn’t overshadowed.
I am proud of how we dealt with it and took the appropriate steps.
I could hear it as clear as day.
It doesn’t affect me too much.
I feel more sorry for those people who feel they have to have those opinions.
I am very proud of everyone for the decisions we made.
It’s important not to generalise the whole country.
It was a minority, not a representation of the country.“
Above: Tyrone Mings
Rather than keep quiet about the racism he experienced, as previous generations might have done, Mings spoke out.
“I went to Harry Kane first,” he said.
“He spoke to the manager, who then spoke to the fourth official.
Everyone was aware of it, but we ultimately let our football do the talking.
I am proud of how we dealt with it and took the appropriate steps.
I could hear it as clear as day.”
Above: Mings consoled by Kane
Speaking of his time helping homeless people on Christmas Day, Mings told the Daily Telegraph:
“I have been in a lot of unfavourable situations growing up, so I know what it is like to need help.
If you are in any position of influence, then it is almost your duty to try to help.
If people don’t have the ability or opportunity to help themselves, then sometimes it has got to come from someone who can.”
Trevor Phillips, the former chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said young black players had “benefitted from the tribulations of the previous generation“, who endured racist taunts in Britain as well as abroad.
“Being in football no longer means that you have to pretend not to be black,” he said.
Research by his company, Webber Phillips, has shown that the proportion of people from black African or Caribbean backgrounds working in English football has risen from 3% to 10% since 1992, while the share of white British people has fallen from 87% to 50%.
Above: Trevor Phillips
Phillips credited the change in attitudes among black players to role models on the pitch and on television.
“Young black people are meeting black individuals from other countries who are much more sophisticated than their predecessors,” he said.
He cited Thierry Henry and Jermaine Jenas as examples of commentators who served as role models.
“Where else do young black footballers see black people talking with expertise and treated with respect, and not just appearing on the news to say how badly they have been treated?”
Above: Thierry Henry
Above: Jermaine Jenas
Troy Deeney, who grew up on a council estate in Birmingham, set up a foundation to help children with learning difficulties and life-limiting diseases.
The Watford captain has spoken of transforming his life after being jailed for ten months in 2012 for kicking a man in the head while on a night out.
He recalled an inmate telling him:
“You have got to understand how big an opportunity you have got, not only for you but to show kids from around our area that they don’t have to be like us.”
In my own lifetime, in my own country of Canada, I have borne witness to the remarkable selflessness, sacrifice, courage and determination of cross-Canada runner Terry Fox.
Above: Terry Fox (1958 – 1981)
My own cousin, the sprinter Steve O’Brien, has used his fame and life experience to form a Foundation that aims to encourage and support young people in school to realize their dreams.
Above: Steve O’Brien
My late friend, Mark Bordeleau, dedicated his life to helping others combat disease and to rediscover hope.
Above: Mark Bordeleau
Britain was inspired by one kind-hearted retired Captain Sir Tom Moore who in the simplest way used a walk in his garden to raise desperately needed monies for the NHS.
Above: Tom Moore (1920 – 2021)
Fox, O’Brien, Bordeleau and Moore were not household names when they first decided to make a difference in other people’s lives any way they could.
Yet despite their lack of initial fame, they did what they could, and because they decided to make a difference, they did, at least in the lives of those privileged enough to have met them.
And that’s my point.
We can all make a difference, if we decide to try.
Those with fame have a greater opportunity and responsibility to effect change.
Use that fame to make a difference.
Become known not just for your talent, but as well for your compassion and humanity.
Show others by your example of the potential for good we all possess.
Personally I lean towards role models like Hollywood actors Sandra Bullock or Steve Buscemi who help others without seeking much (if any) attention for their efforts.
Above: Sandra Bullock
Above: Steve Buscemi
I reject those whose personas seem to show arrogance and contempt for the hoi polloi beneath them who were not as blessed by good fortune as they were.
There are far too many Kayne copycats and trumpeting Trumps in the world.
Above: Kayne West
We need more Marthas quietly making a difference in the lives of others and less of clamouring Karens who would risk the lives of others in their determination to cling to a dignity they do not deserve.
Above: Jesus at the house of Mary and Martha
The Internet is a tool where the average person can speak their mind openly.
It has the power to heal and help, or to hurt and hinder.
If you have the self-confidence and the courage to say that you as a unique individual want to help others then let your voice be heard.
If you don’t want to help others, then please step aside for those that do.
Change does not come from blind conflict and destructive criticism, butcomes from the courage and cooperation and compassion of those who, within their limitations, try and make a difference in the world.
I am no Terry Fox, no Steve O’Brien, no Mark Bordeleau, no Captain Moore, nor do I wish to be.
The world has been blessed by the uniqueness of these individuals and I never want to detract from them the recognition (large scale or small) that they wholeheartedly deserve.
I lack the courage of Fox, the gift of gab of O’Brien or Bordeleau, the quiet charm of Moore.
I am certainly not as handsome as any of these gentlemen were nor as talented at gathering support.
But I have self-confidence enough to say that in its own manner my life matters and that I have moments where I can string words together.
There are so many problems that it is sometimes difficult to know where to begin.
Begin with where you are and simply do what you can.
Then smile at yourself in the mirror, content in the knowledge that the day was improved by something you did.
If you believe that the powers that be need to secure health and security for everyone, say this in a non-aggressive manner that encourages their compassion.
(Admittedly my hackles rise at the mention of US politics and it is difficult to keep my composure around the spectacle of the reign of error that seems to dominate the news coming out of America from folks like the Donald and the Marjorie.)
Above: Marjorie Taylor Greene
If you believe that the powers that be are not meeting their responsibilities, then remind them of those they have neglected and politely ask for their assistance.
Maintain your dignity and respect by showing dignity and respect to others.
Protest without violence, shout without hate, love without limits.
True change does not come from the fist, but from the heart.
True change does not come from the shout, but from the whisper.
I don’t seek a revolution that storms palaces but instead I desire one that affects people’s hearts.
I seek unity not division.
I seek reflection not reaction.
Soon I will travel to a land I barely understand, ruled by those the West has not always embraced.
I will withhold my criticism, not out of a lack of courage or compassion, but rather out of a lack of comprehension.
Above: Flag of Turkey
For I believe that we cannot change the world if we don’t first try and understand it.
To judge without knowledge, to speak without wisdom, is akin to arrogantly traversing a desert without water.
Travel is fatal to ignorance and everyone we meet is a library of experience we can learn from.
I am closer to my death than I am from my birth and yet I feel young.
So much to learn, so much to do.
May the gift of life imparted to me make a difference.
And to everyone reading these words, thank you for being.
Sources: Wikipedia / Google / Mark Lowen, “Italian PM Conte resigns in split over Covid response“, BBC, 26 January 2021 / “Red Fort violence: Delhi police detain 200 after farmer protests“, BBC, 27 January 2021 / Ben Kesslen, “Global Covid cases top 100 million as new strains emerge“, NBC News, 26 January 2021 / Livia Albeck-Ripka, “Day of celebration or mourning? Australia grapples with its national holiday“, New York Times, 26 January 2021 / Phil McNulty, “Bulgaria 0 – 6 England: Racism overshadows dominant Euro 2020 qualifying win“, BBC Sport, 14 October 2019 / Jack Malvern, “Footballers rise up to tackle injustice“, The Times, 20 June 2020
Landschlacht, Switzerland, Wednesday 20 January 2021
One of the saddest observations that a man is forced to acknowledge is that sometimes it is less important who a person is than how a person is perceived to be.
It is what it is and such has it ever been.
It has always been one of the conundrums of human existence that puzzles me, this question of how we assign more value to some people’s existence over others, along with the determination of some to increase their perceived value by diminishing the assumed worth of others.
On this day of days when a man in Washington is sworn into the office of US President, the value of human life fills my thoughts.
Above: Biden oath of office, Inauguration, 20 January 2021
I think first of a different world capital, the city of Berlin.
Few people associate Berlin with hikes through dense woodland or swimming beside crowded beaches, but this is just what the German capital’s Grunewald forests and the adjacent Havel lakes.
In all the Grunewald makes up around 32 square kilometres of mixed woodland between the suburbs of Dahlem and Wilmersdorf.
The eastern edge of the Grunewald, where the wealthy suburbs of Zehlendorf begin, is dotted with a series of modest but unusual museums that can be combined with time spent hiking in the forest to make a pleasant well-rounded day out.
The museums include the Brücke Museum, which showcases German Expressionism, the Jagdschloss Grunewald with its small collection of old masters, the Allied Museum, which has important relics of Cold War Berlin, and the Museumsdorf Düppel, which recreates medieval village life.
The other main cluster of attractions in the Grunewald is at its southern edge – around the Wannsee lake, known for its large sand beach and forming an idyllic backdrop for the agreeable landscaped island Pfaueninsel and the Wannsee Villa, where one of Berlin’s most sinister events took place on 20 January 1942.
Of the many lakes which dot, surround and generally enhance the Grunewald, the best known is the Wannsee.
The main attraction here is the Strandbad Wannsee, a kilometre-long strip of pale sand that is the largest inland beach in Europe and one that is packed as soon as the sun comes out.
From here it is easy to wander into the forests and to smaller, less crowded beaches along the lakeside road Havelschaussee.
The main tourist destination around the Wannsee is, however, the Wannsee Villa, the venue for the Wannsee Conference.
The Villa is now a memorial, with its exhibition remembering the Conference and giving an overview of the atrocities this Conference created.
While it cannot be described as the most enjoyable of sights (and nor should it ever be), it is the one place that should on no account be missed on a trip here to the house overlooking the lake, where the fate of European Jewry was determined.
The Villa, which is entered through strong security gates, contains an exhibition showing the entire process of the Holocaust, from segregation and persecution to the deportation and eventual murder of Jews from Germany, its allies and all the lands the Third Reich conquered.
Each room examines a different part of the process and there is an English translation of the exhibits available from the ticket desk.
Inevitably, it is deeply moving.
Many of the photographs and accounts are horrific and the events they describe seem part of a world far removed from the quiet suburban backwater of Wannsee – which, in many ways, underlines the tragedy.
Particularly disturbing is the photograph of four generations of women – babe in arms, young mother, grandmother and ancient great-grandmother – moments before their execution on a sand dune in Latvia.
The room where the conference took place is kept as it was, with documents from the meeting on the table and photographs of participants ranged around the walls, their biographies showing that most lived on to comfortable old age.
Even more than 50 years after the event, to stand in the room where the decision was finally formalized to coldly and systematically annihilate an entire race of people brings a shiver of fear and rage.
The vast scale of the Holocaust sometimes makes it hard to grasp the full enormity of the crime.
Looking into the faces of the culpable and then of those they destroyed makes the crimes feel more immediate and tragically intimate.
The Villa also has a library containing reference material such as autobiographies, first-hand accounts, slides, newspapers, and much else concerning the Holocaust and the rise of neo-fascist groups across Europe.
Legalized discrimination against Jews in Germany began immediately after the Nazi seizure of power in January 1933.
Violence and economic pressure were used by the Nazi regime to encourage Jews to voluntarily leave the country.
The ideology of Nazism brought together elements of antisemitism, racial hygiene, and eugenics, combined with pan-Germanism and territorial expansionism with the goal of obtaining more Lebensraum (living space) for the Germanic people.
Above: 1935 chart shows racial classifications under the Nuremberg Laws: German, mixed lineage, and Jew.
Nazi Germany attempted to obtain this new territory by attacking Poland and the Soviet Union, intending to deport or exterminate the Jews and Slavs living there, who were viewed as being inferior to the Aryan master race.
Above: Europe, 1939, before WW2
Discrimination against Jews, long-standing, but extra-legal, throughout much of Europe at the time, was codified in Germany immediately after the Nazi seizure of power on 30 January 1933.
The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, passed on 7 April of that year, excluded most Jews from the legal profession and the civil service.
Similar legislation soon deprived other Jews of the right to practice their professions.
Violence and economic pressure were used by the regime to force Jews to leave the country.
Jewish businesses were denied access to markets, forbidden to advertise in newspapers, and deprived of access to government contracts.
Citizens were harassed and subjected to violent attacks and boycotts of their businesses.
Above: Nameplate of Dr. Werner Liebenthal, Notary & Advocate: The plate was hung outside his office on Martin Luther Strasse, Schöneberg, Berlin. In 1933, following the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service the plate was painted black by the Nazis, who boycotted Jewish owned offices.
Above: Members of the Sturmabteilung (SA) (the paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party) picket in front of a Jewish place of business during the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses, 1 April 1933.
In September 1935, the Nuremberg Laws were enacted, prohibiting marriages between Jews and people of Germanic extraction, extramarital sexual relations between Jews and Germans, and the employment of German women under the age of 45 as domestic servants in Jewish households.
Above: Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour
The Reich Citizenship Law stated that only those of German or related blood were defined as citizens.
Thus, Jews and other minority groups were stripped of their German citizenship.
Above: The Reich Citizenship Law
A supplementary decree issued in November defined as Jewish anyone with three Jewish grandparents, or two grandparents if the Jewish faith was followed.
By the start of World War II in 1939, around 250,000 of Germany’s 437,000 Jews emigrated to the United States, Palestine, Great Britain, and other countries.
Above: “Whoever wears this sign is an enemy of our people.“
After the invasion of Poland in September 1939, Hitler ordered that the Polish leadership and intelligentsia should be destroyed.
Above: Images of the invasion of Poland, 1939
The Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen (Special Prosecution Book Poland)—lists of people to be killed—had been drawn up by the SS as early as May 1939.
The Einsatzgruppen (special task forces) performed these murders with the support of the Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz (Germanic Self-Protection Group), a paramilitary group consisting of ethnic Germans living in Poland.
Members of the SS, the Wehrmacht (German Armed Forces), and the Ordnungspolizei (ORPO) (Order Police) also shot civilians during the Polish campaign.
Approximately 65,000 civilians were killed by the end of 1939.
In addition to leaders of Polish society, they killed Jews, prostitutes, Romani people, and the mentally ill.
On 31 July 1941, Hermann Goring (Parliamentary President) gave written authorization to SS-Obergruppenführer (Senior Group Leader) Reinhard Heydrich, Chief of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), to prepare and submit a plan for a “total solution of the Jewish question” in territories under German control and to coordinate the participation of all involved government organisations.
Above: Hermann Göring (1893 – 1946)
The resulting Generalplan Ost (General Plan for the East) called for deporting the population of occupied Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to Siberia, for use as slave labour or to be murdered.
Above: Map of the “Master Plan for the East” (Generalplan Ost) in May 1942
The Minutes of the Wannsee Conference estimated the Jewish population of the Soviet Union to be five million, including nearly three million in Ukraine.
Above: Facsimiles of the minutes of the Wannsee Conference and Eichmann’s list, presented under glass at the Wannsee Conference House Memorial
In addition to eliminating Jews, the Nazis also planned to reduce the population of the conquered territories by 30 million people through starvation in an action called the Hunger Plan devised by Herbert Backe.
Above: Herbert Backe (1896 – 1947)
Food supplies would be diverted to the German army and German civilians.
Cities would be razed and the land allowed to return to forest or resettled by German colonists.
The objective of the Hunger Plan was to inflict deliberate mass starvation on the Slavic civilian populations under German occupation by directing all food supplies to the German home population and the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front.
Above: Images of the Eastern Front
According to the historian Timothy Snyder, “4.2 million Soviet citizens (largely Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians) were starved” by the Nazis (and the Nazi-controlled Wehrmacht) in 1941 – 1944 as a result of Backe’s plan.
Harvests were poor in Germany in 1940 and 1941 and food supplies were short, as large numbers of forced labourers had been brought into the country to work in the armaments industry.
If these workers—as well as the German people—were to be adequately fed, there must be a sharp reduction in the number of “useless mouths“, of whom the millions of Jews under German rule were, in the light of Nazi ideology, the most obvious example.
Above: Beginning in 1941, Jews were required by law to self-identify by wearing a yellow badge on their clothing.
At the time of the Wannsee Conference, the killing of Jews in the Soviet Union had already been underway for some months.
Right from the start of Operation Barbarossa — the invasion of the Soviet Union — Einsatzgruppen were assigned to follow the army into the conquered areas and round up and kill Jews.
Above: Images of Operation Barbarossa
In a letter dated 2 July 1941, Heydrich communicated to his SS and police leaders that the Einsatzgruppen were to execute Comintern (Communist International) officials, ranking members of the Communist Party, extremist and radical Communist Party members, people’s commissars, and Jews in party and government posts.
Open-ended instructions were given to execute “other radical elements (saboteurs, propagandists, snipers, assassins, agitators, etc.)“.
He instructed that any pogroms spontaneously initiated by the occupants of the conquered territories were to be quietly encouraged.
On 8 July, he announced that all Jews were to be regarded as partisans, and gave the order for all male Jews between the ages of 15 and 45 to be shot.
Above: Reinhold Heydrich (1904 – 1942)
By August the net had been widened to include women, children, and the elderly—the entire Jewish population.
By the time planning was underway for the Wannsee Conference, hundreds of thousands of Polish, Serbian, and Russian Jews had already been killed.
The initial plan was to implement Generalplan Ost after the conquest of the Soviet Union.
European Jews would be deported to occupied parts of Russia, where they would be worked to death in road-building projects.
In Hitler’s view, the Jews had unleashed the world war.
They would now pay the price.
The Führer said they had burdened Germany with the war and brought about the destruction so it was no wonder that they should be the first to feel the consequences.
On 16 December 1941, Hans Frank, the head of the government in occupied Poland, reported back to leading figures in the administration of the General Government:
“As regards the Jews, I will tell you quite openly that an end has to be made one way or another.
I will therefore proceed in principle regarding the Jews that they will disappear.
They must go.
At any event a great Jewish migration will commence, but what is to happen to the Jews?
Do you believe they will be accommodated in village settlements in the Ostland?
They said to us in Berlin:
Why are you giving us all this trouble?
We can’t do anything with them in the Ostland or in the Reich Commissariat (Ukraine) either.
Liquidate them yourselves!
We must destroy the Jews wherever we find them and wherever it is possible to do so.
The Jews are extraordinarily harmful to us through their gluttony.
We have in the General Government an estimated 3.5 million Jews.
We can’t shoot these 3.5 million Jews, we can’t poison them, but we must be able to take steps leading somehow to a success in extermination.”
Above: Hans Frank (1900 – 1946)
The Final Solution – the physical extermination of the Jews of Europe – was still emerging.
The ideology of total annihilation was now taking over from any lingering rationale of working the Jews to death.
“Economic considerations should remain fundamentally out of consideration in dealing with the problem” was the answer given.
Above: Original annotated map from Stahlecker’s Report, summarizing murders committed by Einsatzgruppen in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and Russia until January 1942
Above: Franz Stahlecker (1900 – 1942)
On 20 January 1942, the conference on the Final Solution took place in Wannsee Villa.
The list of attendees:
SS (Schutzstaffel / Protection squadron)-Obergruppenführer (Lieutenant General) Reinhard Heydrich (1904 – 1942), Chief of the RSHA (Reich Main Security Office) and Deputy Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia (Presiding)
SS-Gruppenführer (Major-General) Otto Hofmann (1896 – 1982), Head of the SS Race and Settlement Main Office (RuSHA / Race & Settlement Main Office)
SS-Gruppenführer (Major-General) Heinrich Müller (1900 – 1945), Chief of the Gestapo (Secret state police)
SS-Oberführer (Senior Colonel) Dr. Karl Eberhard Schöngarth (1903 – 1946), Commander of the SiPo (security police) and the SD (security service) in the General Government
SS-Oberführer (Senior Colonel) Dr. Gerhard Klopfer (1905 – 1987), Permanent Secretary of the Nazi Party Chancellory
SS-Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) Adolf Eichmann (1906 – 1962), Head of Referat IV B4 of the Gestapo, recording secretary
SS-Sturmbannführer (Major) Dr. Rudolf Lange (1910 – 1945), Commander of the SiPo and the SD for Latvia, Deputy Commander of the SiPo and the SD for the RKO, Head of Einsatzkommando (assassin commandos) 2
Dr. Georg Leibbrandt (1899 – 1982), Reichsamtleiter (Reich Head Office)
Dr. Alfred Meyer (1891 – 1945), Gauleiter (Regional Party Leader), State Secretary and Deputy Reich Minister
Dr. Josef Bühler (1904 – 1948), State Secretary, Polish Occupation Authority
Dr. Roland Freisler (1893 – 1945), State Secretary, Reich Ministry of Justice
SS-Brigadeführer (Brigadier General) Dr. Wilhelm Stuckart (1902 – 1953), State Secretary, Reich Interior Ministry
SS-Oberführer (Senior Colonel) Erich Neumann (1892 – 1948), State Secretary, Office of the Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan
Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger (1890 – 1947), Permanent Secretary, Reich Chancellery
Martin Luther (1895 – 1945), Undersecretary, Reich Foreign Ministry
Heydrich opened the Conference by recapitulating that Göring had given his responsibility for preparing the final solution of the European Jewish question.
The Conference aimed to clarify and coordinate organizational arrangements.
Heydrich surveyed the course of anti-Jewish policy, then declared that “the evacuation of the Jews to the east has now emerged, with the prior permission of the Führer, as a further possible solution instead of emigration”.
He spoke of gathering “practical experience” in the process for “the coming final solution of the Jewish question“, which would embrace as many as 11 million Jews across Europe.
In the gigantic deportation programme, the German-occupied territories would be combed from west to east.
The deported Jews would be put to work in large labour gangs.
Many would die in the process.
The particularly strong and hardy types who survived would have “to be dealt with accordingly“.
Though there was explicit talk, off the record, in the Conference of “killing and eliminating and exterminating“, Heydrich was not orchestrating an existing and finalized programme of mass extermination in death camps, but the Wannsee Conference was a key stepping stone on the path to that terrible genocidal finality.
A deportation progrmme aimed at the annihilation of the Jews through forced labour and starvation in occupied Soviet territory following the end of a victorious war was rapidly destroyed before the war ended.
The main locus of their destruction would no longer be the Soviet Union, but the territory of the General Government.
That the General Government should become the first area to implement the Final Solution was directly requested at the Conference by its representative, State Secretary Josef Bühler.
He wanted the 2.5 million Jews in his area – most of them incapable of work, he stressed – “removed” as quickly as possible.
The authorities in the area would do all they could to help expediate the process.
Bühler’s hopes would be fulfilled over the next months.
Above: Josef Bühler (1904 – 1948)
The regionalized killing in the districts of Lublin and Galicia was extended by spring to the whole of the General Government, as the deportation trains began to ferry their human cargo to the extermination camps of Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka.
By this time, a comprehensive programme of systematic annihiliation of the Jews embracing the whole of German-occupied Europe was rapidly taking shape.
By early June a programme had been constructed for the deportation of Jews from western Europe.
The transports from the west began in July 1942.
Most left for the largest of the extermination camps by this time in operation, Auschwitz-Birkenau in the annexed territory of Upper Silesia.
The Final Solution was underway.
The industrialized mass murder would now continued unabated.
By the end of 1942, according to the SS’s own calculations, 4 million Jews were already dead.
Above: Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin, 2008
Hitler had not been involved in the Wannsee Conference.
There was no need for his involvement.
He had signalled in unmistakable terms what the fate of the Jews should be now that Germany was embroiled in another world war.
At no time during the Conference were the words “murder” or “killing” written down, only careful euphemisms to shield the enormity of what was being planned.
Reading through the Minutes (copies are kept in the Villa’s library), it is difficult not to be shocked by the matter-of-fact manner in which the day’s business was discussed, the way in which politeness and efficiency absorb and absolve all concerned.
When sterilization was suggested as one “solution“, it was rejected as “unethical” by a doctor present.
There was much self-congratulation as various officials described their areas as “Judenfrei” (free of Jews).
Heydrich himself died following an assassination attempt in Prague a few months later.
Some of the others present did not survive the war either, but, in contrast to the millions who were destroyed by their organizational ability, many of the Wannsee delegation lived on to gain a pension from the postwar German state.
Above: The Mercedes-Benz 320 Convertible B in which Heydrich was mortally wounded
As early as 1925, in his book Mein Kampf (My Struggle) Hitler, writing while he was in prison for a failed Bavarian coup d’état, spoke of his plans to exterminate the Jewish race:
Hitler wrote “the nationalization of our masses will succeed only when, aside from all the positive struggle for the soul of our people, their international poisoners are exterminated“.
He suggested that:
“If at the beginning of the war and during the war twelve or fifteen thousand of these Hebrew corrupters of the nation had been subjected to poison gas, such as had to be endured in the field by hundreds of thousands of our very best German workers of all classes and professions, then the sacrifice of millions at the front would not have been in vain.“
Then and there, the deliberate cultivation of hate, his disrespect for the dignity of others, should have warned German voters that Hitler was never a man to be entrusted with power.
The signs were there, in his own words.
Fast forward nearly a century later and an ocean away….
The inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States took place on 20 January 2021, marking the commencement of the four-year term of Joe Biden as President and Kamala Harris as Vice President.
The inaugural ceremony took place on the West Front of the US Capitol in Washington DC.
The inauguration took place amidst extraordinary political, public health, economic, and national security crises, including:
the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic
former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 US presidential election, which incited a storming of the Capitol
Trump’s unprecedented second impeachment
a threat of widespread civil unrest, which stimulated a nationwide law enforcement response.
Festivities were sharply curtailed by efforts to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and mitigate the potential for violence near the Capitol.
The live audience was limited.
Members of Congress could attend with one guest of their choosing, resembling a State of the Union address.
Public health measures such as mandatory face coverings, testing, temperature checks, and social distancing were used to protect participants in the ceremony.
“America United” and “Our Determined Democracy: Forging a More Perfect Union“—a reference to the Preamble to the United States Constitution — served as the inaugural themes.
The inauguration marked the formal culmination of the presidential transition of Joe Biden, who became President-Elect after defeating Donald Trump in the US presidential election on 3 November 2020.
The victory of Biden and his running mate, Harris, was formalized by the Electoral College vote, which took place on 14 December 2020.
Trump repeatedly falsely disputed the legitimacy of the election, but committed to an orderly transition of power exactly two months after losing.
The inauguration, like all ceremonies since the first inauguration of George W. Bush in 2001, was designated a National Special Security Event (NSSE).
However, on this occasion, the week preceding it was included in preparations.
The storming of the United States Capitol on 6 January by a mob of pro-Trump extremists raised concerns about the security of the Inauguration.
The Secret Service, which provides additional security to events involving high-profile public officials, released a statement asserting that the ceremony would be safe.
Mesh fencing and barriers that were previously installed for the construction of the inaugural stage were torn down in the attack.
Rehearsals for the ceremony, originally set for 17 January, were postponed until 19 January, citing these security concerns.
Biden chose not to move the ceremony indoors, saying he was “not afraid of taking the oath outside” during a public ceremony as originally planned.
Biden’s team indicated that they believed a public, outdoor ceremony was necessary to show US national strength, resilience, and resolve.
Former Homeland Security Lisa Monaco advised the Biden team on security-related matters for the ceremony.
Following the attack and subsequent violent threats by the same groups and individuals to disrupt Biden’s inauguration, the Secret Service launched a massive security operation that surpassed any in modern US history, with the aim of avoiding a repeat of the deadly Capitol riot.
On 11 January, Trump approved a request for an emergency declaration in Washington DC, allowing federal assistance through FEMA to help secure the event.
On the same day, the National Park Service warned that groups who were involved in the riot “continue to threaten to disrupt” the inaugural ceremony and posed “credible threats to visitors and park resources“.
On 14 January, a thirteen-page “joint threat assessment” was issued by the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and other federal and local agencies, identifying domestic extremist groups as “the most likely threat” to the Inauguration, followed by foreign influence operations and extremist drone attacks.
The bulletin noted that extremists have had the “ability to act with little to no warning, willingness to attack civilians and soft targets, and ability to inflict significant casualties with weapons that do not require specialized knowledge“.
The bulletin also noted that since the 6 January Capitol attack, US intelligence had identified Chinese, Iranian, and Russian efforts to inflame tensions and violence, echoing prior attempts by foreign adversaries to take advantage of disinformation spread by Trump, such as a campaign to cast doubt on the security of postal voting.
In a separate 18 January intelligence briefing, the FBI warned law-enforcement agencies that, although the bureau had not identified any specific plots to attack the inaugural ceremonies, far-right extremists had discussed the possibility of impersonating National Guard members in DC in order to infiltrate the Inauguration.
The briefing warned of potential threats from both “lone wolf” attackers and followers of the extremist “QAnon” ideology.
On the same day, the Secret Service established a Multi-Agency Command Center (MACC) to coordinate inauguration security.
Established six days earlier than planned, the MACC includes agents and representatives from 50 to 60 entities, including government agencies (such as the FBI, the US Marshals Service, the Defense Department, Park Police, and DC Metro Police) and private companies (including a gas company, CSX railroad, and Amtrak).
At the request of DC Metro Police, the Marshals Service assisted with inauguration security, and planned to deputize up to 4,000 local law enforcement officers from across the nation to assist.
“Non-scalable” seven foot-high crowd control barriers with razor wire atop them and jersey barriers were installed around the perimeter of the Capitol grounds to prevent disruptions during the ceremony and deconstruction of the platform.
The network of barriers and fencing were taken down after the inaugural events were completed, although a heightened security presence continued.
The Inauguration proceeded without incident.
After the violent attack on the Congress on 6 January, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser asked the Interior Department to cancel DC demonstration permits and reject demonstration applications during the Inauguration, but the Interior Department declined to do so.
While the National Mall is closed to the public during the inaugural events, the National Park Service designated two adjacent areas — portions of the John Marshall Park and Navy Memorial — exclusively for “First Amendment activities” (protests).
Above: John Memorial Park
Above: US Navy Memorial
The US Park Police made the determination that “in light of recent events, and with the current available threat assessments, each of these park areas will be limited to no more individuals than can be safely accommodated” which was set as a maximum of 100 individuals in each location.
Those entering the designated areas were screened via magnetometers.
The left-wing groups ANSWER Coalition and DC Action Lab were granted permits.
Both agreed to stage demonstrations within these attendance limits.
Some applications for First Amendment permits were processed by the National Park Service for demonstrations on Inauguration Day, including those filed by the pro-Trump groups Roar for Trump and Women for a Great America.
The scale of protests and armed militia marches that intelligence reports indicated would occur near the United States Capitol and at state capitols on Inauguration Day was vastly overestimated, both in size and scope.
Nationally, few people demonstrated at state capitols.
At the New York State Capitol (Albany), a lone Trump supporter reportedly visited with the intention of protesting—the demonstrator had expected a “massive protest“.
On 17 January, three days before the inauguration, some members of the Michigan Boogaloo Bois openly carried weapons outside the state’s capitol, but never became violent.
Above: Boogaloo flag
NPR attributed the lack of violent protests to several factors:
the Justice Department’s targeting of rioters from the storming of the Capitol
protest organizers warning of “false flag” events staged by law enforcement to “gather people for potential arrest“
the banning or removal of social media profiles, groups, pages, and applications, such as Parler, associated with political extremism and fringe movements
Biden and Harris’s assumption of their respective offices was met with congratulations from many world leaders, including:
Australian
Belgian
British
Canadian
Danish
Ethiopian
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
Finnish
French
German
Greek
Icelandic
Indian
Irish
Israeli
Italian
Japanese
Mexican
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg
New Zealander
Norwegian
Pakistani
Pope Francis
Portuguese
South Korean
Spanish
Swedish
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying stated that the Chinese government hopes Biden will restore bilateralism.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called Trump a “tyrant” and urged Biden to return to the Iran nuclear agreement, which Trump withdrew the United States from, saying Iran will then “fully respect” their “commitments under the pact“.
Hamas called Trump “the biggest source and sponsor of injustice, violence and extremism in the world“, calling for Biden to “reverse the course of misguided and unjust policies against their people“.
Above: Flag of Hamas (Palestine)
Donald Trump is the first outgoing president to refuse to attend his successor’s inauguration since Andrew Johnson, who did not attend Ulysses S. Grant’s inauguration in 1869.
Few heads of state have refused to celebrate their successors.
“It’s usually a sign that American society is in the midst of major political feud,” the presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said.
The inauguration of an American president typically takes place at a public ceremony marked by pomp, circumstance and the presence of a predecessor.
This has been the custom for about two centuries:
A show of participation from the departing head of state that symbolizes the peaceful transfer of power.
When President Donald J. Trump promised to put an end to “American carnage” in his inauguration speech on 20 January 2017, former President Barack Obama looked on from a seat just beyond Mr. Trump’s left shoulder.
President Biden, who attended that inauguration as the former vice president four years ago, took his own oath of office on 20 January 2021.
But Mr. Trump was absent.
And while that decision is a break from the norm, it is not without precedent:
A handful of American presidents have also missed the inaugurations of their successors.
The presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said:
“The fact that the incoming and outgoing presidents can’t shake hands and co-participate in an inauguration means that something’s off-kilter in the democracy.”
That was the case for John Adams, his son John Quincy Adams and Andrew Johnson — three presidents who were bitterly at odds with those who unseated them.
All three men served no more than one term.
And Johnson, like Trump, was impeached.
Above: US Constitution
When the presidency of John Adams ended in 1801, it could have gone badly.
Above: John Adams (1735 – 1826)
The United States was in its infancy and had never seen a head of state transfer power to a political opponent — in this case, Thomas Jefferson, whose republican vision for the country was at odds with the strong central government favored by Adams.
Above: Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826)
The election of 1800 was hard fought, marred by personal attacks and deadlocked for weeks, in part because the country had not yet worked out the kinks of electing its president and vice president at the same time.
“This problem overshadowed Adams’s rude refusal to show up for the inauguration,” said Carol Berkin, a professor of history at Baruch College in New York City.
Democracy seemed so wobbly during the voting process that civil war was a distinct possibility.
But in the end, Jefferson claimed the presidency peacefully.
And on Inauguration Day, Adams left Washington quietly, before dawn, in a stagecoach bound for Baltimore.
John Quincy Adams, the sixth American president, followed in his father’s footsteps when he declined to attend the swearing-in of the man who had unseated him:
Above: John Quincy Adams (1767 – 1848)
The populist Andrew Jackson.
Like his father, Adams had differences with his successor that were not just political.
The men also disliked each other, Dr. Berkin said.
Above: Andrew Jackson (1767 – 1845)
The election, which took place at a time when the right to vote was expanding to a slightly larger pool of white men than before, involved plenty of mudslinging.
Jackson won, and Adams left the White House on 3 March 1829, the day before the inauguration.
The next president to snub his predecessor was Johnson, whose presidency was, like Trump’s, marred by impeachment.
Johnson was not on the ballot in the presidential election of 1868.
Above: Andrew Johnson (1808 – 1875)
The Democratic Party instead nominated Horatio Seymour, who was in turn beat by Ulysses S. Grant, a Republican.
Above: Horatio Seymour (1810 – 1886)
But the animosity between Grant, who had led the Union to victory in the Civil War, and Johnson, a Southerner who opposed Reconstruction, was clear.
Above: Ulysses S. Grant (1822 – 1885)
It culminated in Johnson’s refusal to attend the inauguration in 1869 — a decision that was so last minute that a carriage arrived to collect him on the morning of the ceremony and was turned away, according to a report from the New York Herald.
That snub, which happened 152 years ago and reflected deep schisms in a country trying to recover from the deadliest war in its history, appears to have been the last time a departing president declined to attend his successor’s inauguration for political reasons.
Above: Inauguration of Ulysses S. Grant
(There were other instances that were not necessarily political.
Martin Van Buren didn’t attend the 1841 inauguration of his successor, William Henry Harrison, for reasons that remain unclear.
Above: Martin Van Buren (1782 – 1662)
Above: William Henry Harrison (1773 – 1841)
Woodrow Wilson accompanied his successor, Warren G. Harding, to the Capitol on Inauguration Day in 1921, but was not well enough to participate in the ceremony.
Above: Woodrow Wilson (1856 – 1924)
Above: Warren G. Harding (1865 – 1923)
Richard M. Nixon, who resigned the presidency in 1974, did not stick around to see Gerald Ford take the oath of office in the East Room of the White House.)
Above. Richard M. Nixon (1913 – 1994)
Above: Gerald Ford (1913 – 2006)
Trump announced on 8 January that he would not attend Mr. Biden’s ceremony.
“To all of those who have asked,” the president tweeted from an account that is now suspended,
“I will not be going to the Inauguration on 20 January.”
And while Mr. Trump was not the first to make such a decision, both Dr. Berkin and Dr. Brinkley pointed out that he had broken from his predecessors by refusing to accept the results of the election that unseated him.
Dr. Brinkley said that while it was “an esteemed American tradition” for a president to attend the inauguration of his successor, the events of two weeks ago — when a violent mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol — were extraordinary enough to overturn old precedents.
“For a while, I thought it would be helpful for the country if Trump were there for the inauguration,” he said.
“But everything changed on 6 January, when Trump became an insurrectionist.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
When I consider He Who Was President, I find Trump to be disturbingly disrespectful of the dignity of others, even before his absence from Biden’s Inauguration.
He completed his term with a record-low approval rating of between 29% to 34% (the lowest of any president since modern scientific polling began).
His average approval rating throughout his term was a record-low 41%.
Trump’s approval ratings showed a record partisan gap: over of the course of his presidency, Trump’s approval rating among Republicans was 88% and his approval rating among Democrats was 7%.
Since Gallup started conducting the poll in 1948, Trump is the first elected president not to be named most admired in his first year in office.
Globally, a Gallup poll on 134 countries comparing the approval ratings of US leadership between the years 2016 and 2017 found that only in 29 of them did Trump lead Obama in job approval, with more international respondents disapproving rather than approving of the Trump administration.
Only 16% of international respondents expressed confidence in Trump by mid-2020, according to a 13-nation Pew Research poll:
A score lower than those of Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping.
Trump’s presence on social media attracted attention worldwide since he joined Twitter in 2009.
He frequently tweeted during the 2016 election campaign and as President, until his ban in the final days of his term.
Over twelve years, Trump posted around 57,000 tweets.
Trump frequently used Twitter as a direct means of communication with the public, sidelining the press.
A White House press secretary said early in his presidency that Trump’s tweets were official statements by the President of the United States, employed for announcing policy or personnel changes.
Trump used Twitter to fire Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in March 2018 and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper in November 2020.
Above: Rex Tillerson
Above: Mark Esper
(Not the most dignified way to fire a public servant….)
Trump’s tweets frequently contained falsehoods.
In May 2020, Twitter began tagging some Trump tweets with fact-checking warnings and labels for violations of Twitter rules.
Trump responded by threatening to “strongly regulate” or “close down” social media platforms.
In the days after Trump incited his supporters at a rally on 6 January 2021, and they subsequently stormed the Capitol, he was banned from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, as well as other platforms.
Twitter blocked attempts by Trump and his staff to circumvent the ban through the use of others’ accounts.
The loss of Trump’s social media megaphone, including his 88.7 million Twitter followers, diminished his ability to shape events and prompted a dramatic decrease in the volume of misinformation shared on Twitter.
As a candidate and as president, Trump frequently made false statements in public speeches and remarks to an extent unprecedented in American politics.
His falsehoods became a distinctive part of his political identity.
Trump’s false and misleading statements were documented by fact-checkers, including at the Washington Post, which tallied a total of 30,573 false or misleading statements made by Trump over his four-year term.
Trump’s falsehoods increased in frequency over time, rising from about six false or misleading claims per day in his first year as president to 16 per day in his second year to 22 per day in his third year to 39 per day in his final year.
He reached 10,000 false or misleading claims 27 months into his term; 20,000 false or misleading claims 14 months later, and 30,000 false or misleading claims five months later.
Some of Trump’s falsehoods were inconsequential, such as his claims of a large crowd size during his inauguration.
Others had more far-reaching effects, such as Trump’s promotion of unproven anti-malarial drugs as a treatment for Covid‑19 in a press conference and on Twitter in March 2020.
The claims had consequences worldwide, such as a shortage of these drugs in the United States and panic buying in Africa and South Asia.
Other misinformation, such as misattributing a rise in crime in England and Wales to the “spread of radical Islamic terror,” served Trump’s domestic political purposes.
As a matter of principle, Trump does not apologize for his falsehoods.
Despite the frequency of Trump’s falsehoods, the media rarely referred to them as lies.
Nevertheless, in August 2018 theWashington Post declared for the first time that some of Trump’s misstatements (statements concerning hush money paid to Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal) were lies.
Above: Stormy Daniels
Above: Karen McDougal
In 2020, Trump was a significant source of disinformation on national voting practices and the COVID-19 virus.
Trump’s attacks on mail-in ballots and other election practices served to weaken public faith in the integrity of the 2020 presidential election, while his disinformation about the pandemic dangerously delayed and weakened the national response to it.
Some view the nature and frequency of Trump’s falsehoods as having profound and corrosive consequences on democracy.
James Pfiffner, professor of policy and government at George Mason University, wrote in 2019 that Trump lies differently from previous presidents, because he offers “egregious false statements that are demonstrably contrary to well-known facts“.
These lies are the “most important” of all Trump lies.
By calling facts into question, people will be unable to properly evaluate their government, with beliefs or policy irrationally settled by “political power“.
This erodes liberal democracy, wrote Pfiffner.
Before and throughout his presidency, Trump has promoted numerous conspiracy theories, including “birtherism,” the Clinton Body Count theory, QAnon and alleged Ukrainian interference in US elections.
Above: Bill and Hillary Clinton
Above: Flag of Ukraine
In October 2020, Trump retweeted a QAnon follower who asserted that Osama bin Laden was still alive, a body double had been killed in his place and “Biden and Obama may have had Seal Team 6 killed.”
Above: Osama bin Laden (1957 – 2011)
During and since the 2020 US presidential election, Trump has promoted various conspiracy theories for his defeat including the “dead voter” conspiracy theory, and without providing any evidence he has created other conspiracy theories such as:
some states allowed voters to turn in ballots after Election Day
vote-counting machines were rigged to favor Biden
the FBI, the Justice Department and the federal court system were complicit in an attempt to cover up election fraud
Throughout his career, Trump has sought media attention, with a “love–hate” relationship with the press.
Trump began promoting himself in the press in the 1970s.
Fox News anchor Bret Baier and former House speaker Paul Ryan have characterized Trump as a “troll” who makes controversial statements to see people’s “heads explode.”
Above: Bret Baier
Above: Paul Ryan
In the 2016 campaign, Trump benefited from a record amount of free media coverage, elevating his standing in the Republican primaries.
New York Times writer Amy Chozick wrote in 2018 that Trump’s media dominance, which enthralls the public and creates “can’t miss” reality television-type coverage, was politically beneficial for him.
As a candidate and as president, Trump frequently accused the press of bias, calling it the “fake news media” and “the enemy of the people.”
In 2018, journalist Lesley Stahl (60 Minutes) recounted Trump’s saying he intentionally demeaned and discredited the media “so when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.”
Above: Leslie Stahl
As President, Trump privately and publicly mused about revoking the press credentials of journalists he views as critical.
His administration moved to revoke the press passes of two White House reporters, which were restored by the courts.
In 2019, a member of the foreign press reported many of the same concerns as those of media in the US, expressing concern that a normalization process by reporters and media results in an inaccurate characterization of Trump.
The Trump White House held about a hundred formal press briefings in 2017, declining by half during 2018 and to two in 2019.
Trump has employed the legal system as an intimidation tactic against the press.
In early 2020, the Trump campaign sued theNew York Times, the Washington Post, and CNN for alleged defamation.
These lawsuits lacked merit and were not likely to succeed, however.
Many of Trump’s comments and actions have been racist.
He has repeatedly denied this, asserting:
“I am the least racist person there is anywhere in the world.”
In national polling, about half of Americans say that Trump is racist.
A greater proportion believe that he has emboldened racists.
Several studies and surveys have found that racist attitudes fueled Trump’s political ascendance and have been more important than economic factors in determining the allegiance of Trump voters.
Racist and Islamophobic attitudes have been shown to be a powerful indicator of support for Trump.
In 1975, he settled a 1973 Department of Justice lawsuit that alleged housing discrimination against black renters.
He has also been accused of racism for insisting a group of black and Latino teenagers were guilty of raping a white woman in the 1989 Central Park jogger case, even after they were exonerated by DNA evidence in 2002.
He has maintained his position on the matter.
Trump relaunched his political career in 2011 as a leading proponent of “birther” conspiracy theories alleging that Barack Obama, the first black U.S. president, was not born in the United States.
In April 2011, Trump claimed credit for pressuring the White House to publish the “long form” birth certificate, which he considered fraudulent, and later saying this made him “very popular.”
In September 2016, amid pressure, he acknowledged that Obama was born in the US and falsely claimed the rumors had been started by Hillary Clinton during her 2008 presidential campaign.
In 2017, he reportedly still expressed birther views in private.
According to an analysis in Political Science Quarterly, Trump made “explicitly racist appeals to whites” during his 2016 presidential campaign.
In particular, his campaign launch speech drew widespread criticism for claiming Mexican immigrants were “bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists.”
His later comments about a Mexican-American judge presiding over a civil suit regarding Trump University were also criticized as racist.
Above: Flag of Mexico
Trump’s comments in reaction to the 2017 Charlottesville far right rally suggesteded a moral equivalence between white supremacist demonstrators and counter-protesters.
In a January 2018 Oval Office meeting to discuss immigration legislation, he reportedly referred to El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, and African nations as “shithole countries.”
His remarks were condemned as racist worldwide, as well as by many members of Congress.
In July 2019, Trump tweeted that four Democratic members of Congress – all four minority women, three of them native-born Americans – should “go back” to the countries they “came from.”
Two days later the House of Representatives voted 240–187, mostly along party lines, to condemn his “racist comments.”
White nationalist publications and social media sites praised his remarks, which continued over the following days.
Trump continued to make similar remarks during his 2020 campaign.
Trump has a history of insulting and belittling women when speaking to media and in tweet.
He has made lewd comments, demeaned women’s looks, and called them names like ‘dog‘, ‘crazed, crying lowlife‘, ‘face of a pig‘, or ‘horseface‘.
In October 2016, two days before the second presidential debate, a 2005 “hot mic” recording surfaced in which Trump was heard bragging about kissing and groping women without their consent, saying “when you’re a star, they let you do it, you can do anything… grab ’em by the pussy.”
The incident’s widespread media exposure led to Trump’s first public apology during the campaign and caused outrage across the political spectrum.
At least twenty-six women have publicly accused Trump of sexual misconduct as of September 2020, including his then-wife Ivana.
There were allegations of rape, violence, being kissed and groped without consent, looking under women’s skirts, and walking in on naked women.
In 2016, he denied all accusations, calling them “false smears” and alleged there was a conspiracy against him.
Research suggests Trump’s rhetoric causes an increased incidence of hate crimes.
During the 2016 campaign, he urged or praised physical attacks against protesters or reporters.
Since then, some defendants prosecuted for hate crimes or violent acts cited Trump’s rhetoric in arguing that they were not culpable or should receive a lighter sentence.
In August 2019, it was reported that a man who allegedly assaulted a minor for perceived disrespect toward the national anthem had cited Trump’s rhetoric in his own defense.
In August 2019, a nationwide review by ABC News identified at least 36 criminal cases in which Trump was invoked in direct connection with violence or threats of violence.
Of these, 29 were based around someone echoing presidential rhetoric, while the other seven were someone protesting it or not having direct linkage.
On 13 January 2021, the House of Representatives impeached Trump for incitement of insurrection for his actions prior to the storming of the US Capitol by a violent mob of his supporters who acted in his name.
The Trump administration had a high turnover of personnel, particularly among White House staff.
By the end of Trump’s first year in office, 34% of his original staff had resigned, been fired, or been reassigned.
As of early July 2018, 61% of Trump’s senior aides had left and 141 staffers had left in the previous year.
Both figures set a record for recent presidents – more change in the first 13 months than his four immediate predecessors saw in their first two years.
Trump publicly disparaged several of his former top officials, calling them incompetent, stupid, or crazy.
Trump was slow to appoint second-tier officials in the executive branch, saying many of the positions are unnecessary.
In October 2017, there were still hundreds of sub-cabinet positions without a nominee.
By 8 January 2019, of 706 key positions, 433 had been filled (61%) and Trump had no nominee for 264 (37%).
This is not what I call a dignified legacy, this record of:
abuse and bullying
incitement of violence
misogyny and allegations of sexual assault and misconduct
racism
media manipulation and defamation
promotion of conspiracy theories
lying
social media misinformation
lack of leadership in handling the Covid-19 pandemic
attempts to influence justice officials
attempts to interfere in elections
hush money payments for his infidelity
his taking the US out of WHO, the Iran nuclear arms deal and the Paris Accord
his bullying of allies and his cosying up to autocrats
his useless border wall
migrant children detentions and family separations
cronyism
racist travel bans
late response to the pandemic
his handling of Black Lives Matter protests
his response to Charlottesville
the dubious nature of his pardons
his repeated violation of the emoluments clause
his opposition to a woman’s right to choose
his opposition to LGBT rights
his lack of real gun law reform
his favouring capital punishment and interrogation torture methods
his poor record on health care: Obamacare repeal, opoid crisis ignored, Covid-19
deregulation of protective measures on health, labour and the environment
increase of the national debt
refusal to raise the minimum wage
tax breaks for the rich (who certainly don’t need them)
his lack of financial transparency
his financial mismanagement before and during his presidency
“The wretch, concentred all in self, Living, shall forfeit fair renown, And, doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust, from whence he sprung, Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung.”
Above: Walter Scott (1771 – 1832)
This is how Donald Trump will be remembered.
I often wonder what my legacy might be.
An old article caught my attention….
All adults in England will be considered organ donors when they die, after a change to the law that will presume consent unless the family intervenes or the individual opts out.
At present, 80% of adults in England say they would consider becoming a donor, but fewer than 40% have signed up to the current register.
Above: Flag of England
The change, which came into effect on 20 May 2020, could save hundreds of lives each year.
The law is called Max and Keira’s Law, after a boy whose life was saved when he received the heart of a none-year-old girl who died in a car crash.
Family consent will still be required for organs or tissues to be retrieved, both out of consideration for the family and to make sure additional relevant information is gathered.
Opt-out has been a success in Wales, where it has been law since 2015.
“Since Wales introduced an opt-out system, their consent rate has risen from 58% to 75%,” said Helen Gillan, the general manager of tissue and eye services at NHS Blood and Transplant.
While the need for internal organs is the most acute, the need for tissues, particularly corneas, is also urgent.
Twenty corneas – ten donors – are needed every day….
Above: Schematic diagram of the human eye
Donation does not only occur after death.
Bone can come from living donors – often those who are having procedures such as hip replacements – while the service also provides “artificial tears” produced from blood serum for patients who have dry eyes and amniotic membrane from women who have given birth by elective caesarean section.
Many organ and tissue recipients are upbeat about the changes.
Andy Coghlan (34) was born with a heart defect and received a new heart valve aged 15.
He thinks the new rules will make a difference to tissue donation.
“Signing the register is the sort of thing you think ‘Oh, yeah, I should really do that.” and then you don’t do it,” he said.
While Coghlan welcomed the continued requirement for family consent, he is optimistic about the new system.
“Personally I think it is fantastic because it will save more lives.
That is the bottom line for me.”
I try to live a life that those who know me won’t be ashamed of.
I try to treat everyone with the same dignity and respect that I wish to receive for myself.
I sincerely doubt that my name will go down in infamy (or, for that matter, up in celebrity).
I am an organ donor, by choice.
Above: Map showing the coverage of 3 international European organ donation associations – (red) Balttransplant / (blue) Eurotransplant / (green) Scandiatransplant
If my death brings new life to someone else, then, for this alone, my life, whether it is acknowledged or not, has dignity.
We all must die.
It is my hope that my life and death will have meaning.
Sources: Wikipedia / Google / Nicola Davis, “All adults in England to be deemed organ donors in ‘opt-out’ system“, The Guardian, 2 May 2020 / Jacey Fortin, “Trump is not the first President to snub an Inauguration”, New York Times, 19 January 2021 / Ian Kershaw, Hitler: Nemesis (1936 – 1945) / Rough Guide to Berlin
Landschlacht, Switzerland, Tuesday 22 December 2020
I want to hope.
And there is hope, but one of the things that is hard to accept, emotionally, is that we are just about to have a second (almost) total lockdown all across Switzerland starting on Tuesday, three days before Christmas.
We are in the midst of a second wave of corona virus cases here in Switzerland and, finally, after a long period of denial and meek attempts at trying to keep the economy going, as beds in intensive care units fill up in cantons formerly not as affected as others during the first wave, the Swiss authorities on Friday announced that restaurants and cafés and shops and museums and cinemas and almost any venue where people congregate are to be closed.
All these will be closed, save for takeaway and essential stores like grocery outlets and pharmacies.
In some countries death rates and rates of infection have fallen, but here is Switzerland, it has been difficult for the all-knowing Swiss to admit that their former policies of semi-dealing with the virus may not have been as effective as they believed they would be.
Countries like New Zealand have managed to control the virus by cutting themselves off from the rest of the world, but nations like Switzerland, landlocked in the middle of the European Continent, have been reluctant to close borders despite the fact that pandemics don’t bother with passport controls.
Above: Flag of New Zealand
So, we continue in half-assed ways to live with a virus that laughs at our vanity and supposed wisdom.
Until we get a vaccine, supposedly distributed in Switzerland in late January 2021, we are going to have to find ways to live with this virus.
Above: Flag of Switzerland
One approach, for the countries who can afford it and are both smart enough and humble enough, is to follow the example of countries like Taiwan or South Korea.
Above: Flag of Taiwan
That means social distancing (practised half-heartedly here), wearing masks in public (where enforced, this is done; where not enforced, this is ignored), along with tracking (I, like too many folks around me here, leave contact details when strongly urged to do so, but this is neither automatic nor desirable and is avoided whenever possible), so that folks who have been infected can be detected, isolated and treated before they spread it to others like some morbid Christmas cheer.
But extensive tracking done the South Korean way involves major privacy issues.
In South Korea an emergency law means officials can trace your movements by using suveillance cameras and accessing data from your phine.
If you have crossed paths with someone who has recently tested positive, you are sent a text and told to report to a testing centre.
If you test positive (how ironic that the word “positive” is viewed darkly), you are sent to a government shelter or told to go home and self quarantine, depending on your circumstances.
If you test negative, you still have to self-isolate and download an app which tells the police if you go outside.
You can be fined or sent to jail for failing to comply.
Above: Flag of South Korea
Some countries, like the UK and Switzerland, are trialling the voluntary use of tracker apps, to let people know when they have been exposed to the virus, but experts say that for these to be effective at least 60% of the population would need to download and use the app.
Will enough people do that voluntarily?
I can only speak for myself and my answer is “No“.
As for being tested, we are still being discouraged from doing so unless we exhibit symptoms, even though the spread of the virus can be effected by non-symptomatic carriers as well.
Going forwards, Switzerland, like many places around the globe, has followed a “lift, suppress, lift” approach to social distancing.
We want our children to go back to school.
We want universities to open.
We want restrictions on social gatherings to be relaxed.
But the realization that the easing of regulations has led to the virus spreading again, we reluctantly keep our children home, close our universities again, and stay away from one another.
The economy is again damaged.
With more infections and restrictions there is a rise in mental illness.
For that which cures the mind requires human contact, and, at present, hugs, handshakes and social gatherings are all off the menu for the foreseeable future.
On the plus side, there is hope that people will continue to wash their hands.
People will fly less, travel less and work more from home.
We will be (or at least should be) more appreciative of our healthcare workers and people who work in social care.
Perhaps this crisis may, paradoxically, make us more communal.
Let’s be frank.
Most observers of American behaviour don’t believe that the US has been handling the pandemic at all well.
The COVID-19 pandemic in the United States is part of the worldwide pandemic of the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Over 17,700,000 confirmed cases have been reported since January 2020, resulting in over 317,000 COVID-19-related deaths, the most cases and deaths of any country.
As of 19 December, the US death rate had reached 959 per million people, the 12th-highest rate among nations.
On 31 December 2019, China announced the discovery of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan.
The first American case was reported on 20 January and President Donald Trump declared the US outbreak a public health emergency on 31 January.
Restrictions were placed on flights arriving from China, but the initial US response to the pandemic was otherwise slow, in terms of preparing the healthcare system, stopping other travel, and testing for the virus.
Meanwhile, President Trump downplayed the threat posed by the virus and claimed the outbreak was under control.
The first known American deaths occurred in February, but were not known to be caused by COVID-19 until April.
By mid-April, cases had been confirmed in all fifty US states, the District of Columbia, and by November in all inhabited US territories.
On 6 March, President Trump signed the Corona virus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, which provided $8.3 billion in emergency funding for federal agencies to respond to the outbreak.
On 13 March, President Trump declared a national emergency.
In mid-March, The Trump administration started to purchase large quantities of medical equipment.
In late March, the administration started to use the Defense Production Act to direct industries to produce medical equipment.
By 17 April, the federal government approved disaster declarations for all states and territories.
A second rise in infections began in June 2020, following relaxed restrictions in several states.
State and local responses to the outbreak have included prohibitions and cancellation of large-scale gatherings (including festivals and sporting events), stay-at-home orders, and the closure of schools.
Disproportionate numbers of cases have been observed among Black and Latino populations, and there were reported incidents of xenophobia and racism against Asian Americans.
Clusters of infections and deaths have occurred in many areas.
Medical materials and other goods shortages caused by the Covid-19 pandemic quickly became a major issue of the pandemic.
The matter of pandemic-related shortage has been studied in the past and has been documented in recent events.
On the medical side, shortages of personal protective equipment such as medical masks, gloves, face shields, gear, sanitizing products, are also joined by potential shortage of more advanced devices such as hospital beds, ICU beds, oxygen therapy, ventilators and ECMO devices.
Human resources, especially in terms of medical staff, have been drained by the overwhelming extent of the epidemic and associated workload, together with losses by contamination, isolation, sickness or mortality among health care workers.
Territories are differently equipped to face the pandemic.
Various emergency measures have been taken to ramp up equipment levels such as purchases, while calls for donations, local 3D makers, volunteer staffing, mandatory draft, or seizure of stocks and factory lines have also occurred.
Bidding wars between different countries and states over these items are reported to be a major issue, with price increases, orders seized by local government, or cancelled by selling company to be redirected to higher bidder.
In some cases, medical workers have been ordered to not speak about these shortages of resources.
While public health advocates and officials have encouraged to flatten the curve by social distancing, the unmitigated ICU needs would be about 50 times the available ICU beds and ventilators capacity of most developed countries.
There have also been calls to increase healthcare capacity despite shortages.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, face masks have been employed as a public and personal health control measure against the spread of SARS-CoV-2.
Their use is intended as personal protection to prevent infection and as source control to limit transmission of the virus in community and healthcare settings.
The use of face masks or coverings by the general public has been recommended by health officials to minimize the risk of transmissions, with authorities either requiring their use in certain settings, such as on public transport and in shops, or universally in public.
Health officials have advised that medical-grade face masks, such as respirators, should be prioritized for use by healthcare workers in view of critical shortages and widely recommend cloth masks for the general public.
Early in the pandemic, public health messaging about masking often offered inconsistent and conflicting statements, which led to public confusion and subsequent scrutiny.
The recommendations have changed as the body of scientific knowledge evolved.
One such recommendation was that only symptomatic individuals should wear masks, though evidence suggested asymptomatic transmission, and has since been revised to also include individuals without symptoms.
About 95% of the world’s population live in countries that recommend or mandate the use of masks in public during the pandemic.
Face mask shortages also occurred, leading to use of uncertified and substandard masks with significantly reduced performance.
Different types of face masks have been recommended throughout the COVID-19 pandemic including:
cloth face masks
loose-fitting medical or surgical masks
face-sealing filtering facepiece masks, including uncertified dust masks as well as certified respirator masks (with respirator certifications such as N95 respirators, N99 respirators, and FFP respirators)
other respirators, including elastomeric respirators, some of which may also be considered filtering facepieces.
Transparent face shields, medical goggles, and other types of personal protective equipment (PPE) are sometimes used in conjunction with face masks.
The National Health Commission of China cited the following reasons for the wearing of masks by the public, including healthy individuals:
Asymptomatic transmission. Many people can be infected without symptoms or only with mild symptoms.
Difficulty or impossibility of appropriate social distancing in many public places at all times.
Cost-benefit mismatch. If only infected individuals wear masks, they would possibly have a negative incentive to do so. An infected individual might get nothing positive, but only bear the costs such as inconvenience, purchasing expenses, and even prejudice.
There is no shortage of masks in China. The country has the production capacity to meet the demand on masks.
In a comment to The Lancet, Kar Keung Cheng, Tai Hing Lam, and Chi Chiu Leung argued that a public health rationale for mass masking is source control to protect others from respiratory droplets and underscored the importance of this approach due to asymptomatic transmission.
Wang Linfa, an infectious disease expert who heads a joint Duke University and National University of Singapore research team, stated that masking is about “preventing the spread of disease rather than preventing getting the distance“, remarking that the point is to cover the faces of people who are infected but do not know it, so it is imperative for everyone to wear one in public.
The US CDC also highlighted the use of masks for source control, pointing out that asymptomatic and presymptomatic cases are estimated to account for over 50% of the transmissions.
At the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak in the US, the American Strategic National Stockpile contained just 12 million N95 respirators, far fewer than estimates of the amount required.
Millions of N95s and other supplies were purchased from 2005 to 2007 using congressional supplemental funding, but 85 million N95s were distributed to combat the 2009 swine flue pandemic, and Congress did not make the necessary appropriations to replenish stocks.
The Stockpile’s primary focus has also primarily been on biodefense (defense against a terrorist or weapon of mass destruction attack) and response to natural disaster, with infectious disease a secondary focus.
By 1 April 2020, the Stockpile was nearly emptied of protective gear.
In January and February 2020, US manufacturers, with the encouragement of the Trump administration, shipped millions of face masks and other personal protective equipment to the PRC, a decision that subsequently prompted criticism given the mask shortage that the US faced during the pandemic.
In France, 2009 H1N1-related spending rose to €382 million, mainly on supplies and vaccines, which was later criticized.
It was decided in 2011 to not replenish its stocks and rely more on supply from China and just-in-time logistics.
In 2010, its stock included one billion surgical masks and 600 million FFP2 masks.
In early 2020, it was 150 million and zero respectively.
While stocks were progressively reduced, a 2013 rationale stated the aim to reduce costs of acquisition and storage, now distributing this effort to all private enterprises as an optional best practice to ensure their workers’ protection.
This was especially relevant to FFP2 masks, more costly to acquire and store.
As the Covid-19 pandemic in France took an increasing toll on medical supplies, masks and PPE supplies ran low, causing national outrage.
Above: Flag of France
France needs 40 million masks per week, according to French President Emmanuel Macron.
France instructed its few remaining mask-producing factories to work 24/7 shifts, and to ramp up national production to 40 million masks per month.
French lawmakers opened an inquiry on the past management of these strategic stocks.
The mask shortage has been called a “scandal d’État“ (State scandal).
Above: French President Emmanuel Macron
In late March and early April 2020, as Western countries were in turn dependent on China for supplies of masks and other equipment, China was seen as making soft-power play to influence world opinion.
However, a batch of masks purchased by the Netherlands was reportedly rejected as being sub-standard.
The Dutch health ministry issued a recall of 600,000 face masks from a Chinese supplier on 21 March which did not fit properly and whose filters did not work as intended despite them having a quality certificate.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded that the customer should “double-check the instructions to make sure that you ordered, paid for and distributed the right ones.
Do not use non-surgical masks for surgical purposes“.
Above: Flag of China
Eight million of 11 million masks delivered to Canada in May also failed to meet standards.
Thefts of face masks and other personal protective equipment have been reported at hospitals in the United States and other countries.
The Naval Medical Center San Diego began mandatory random bag checks for staff members, after several incidents of theft.
Hospitals in Canada reported that theft of PPE had become so commonplace that face masks had to be locked away.
According to hospital staff, the policy of locking up PPE often resulted in staff requests for PPE being denied.
Above: Flag of Canada
Thefts of N95 masks were reported from a locked hospital office in South Carolina and off loading docks at the University of Washington.
Two thousand surgical masks were stolen from a hospital in Marseilles, France during the early months of the COVID-19 outbreak, in March.
The masks were stolen from an area of the hospital that could only be accessed by surgery patients and staff.
Above: Marseille, France
A hospital employee in Cooperstown, New York was charged with misdemeanor larceny for a similar incident.
Above: Main Street, Cooperstown, New York
Hospital employees in West Java were arrested for stealing hundreds of boxes of face masks and selling them on the black market.
Above: Flag of West Java Province, Indonesia
One month later an Indiana hospital pharmacy reported a theft to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
Along with morphine, with a street value estimated at $3000, the thieves, one of whom was an employee of the hospital and had an access card, had stolen masks and other in-demand goods.
In the criminal complaint, filed in Indiana federal court, a DEA task force officer said:
“Based on my training and experience, I know these items are highly sought after in the secondary market due to shortages resulting from the corona virus pandemic and that these types of items are being sold on the secondary market at an increased price well over fair market value.“
A former hospital employee in Georgia was arrested on allegations of stealing masks and gloves from the hospital on five separate occasions after he was fired.
Also in April, an employee of the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center was charged with a misdemeanor for stealing disposable gowns and surgical masks from the hospital.
PPE, including masks, were reported stolen by a member of the housekeeping staff at a hospital in Arizona and a physician’s assistant in Florida.
According to a BBC News report from August hospital staff in Ghana were selling PPE on the black market.
Above: Flag of Ghana
Two government workers from the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in North Charleston, South Carolina were charged in October for conspiracy to steal PPE, obstruction of justice and lying to the FBI.
In March 2020, US President Donald Trump applied the Defense Production Act against the American company 3M, which allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency to obtain N95 respirators from 3M.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro stated that there were concerns that 3M products were not making their way to the US.
3M replied that it has not changed the prices it charges, and was unable to control the prices its dealers or retailers charge.
Jared Moskowitz, the head of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, accused 3M of selling N95 masks directly to foreign countries for cash, instead of the US.
Moskowitz stated that 3M agreed to authorized distributors and brokers to represent they were selling the masks to Florida, but instead his team for the last several weeks “get to warehouses that are completely empty.”
He then said the 3M-authorized US distributors later told him the masks Florida contracted for never showed up, because the company instead prioritized orders that came in later, for higher prices, from foreign countries (including Germany, Russia, and France).
Above: Jared Moscowitz
Forbes reported that “roughly 280 million masks from warehouses around the US had been purchased by foreign buyers on 30 March 2020 and were earmarked to leave the country, according to the broker—and that was in one day“, causing massive critical shortages of masks in the US.
Masks were still in short supply in late September, eight months into the pandemic.
The Defense Production Act (DPA) powers that averted a ventilator shortage were not used as extensively to increase N95 production, despite outcry from healthcare workers.
Even though 3M has increased domestic production from 20 million to 95 million masks a month, they say “the demand is more than we, and the entire industry, can supply for the foreseeable future.”
N95 manufacturers and other companies have been reluctant to invest more in domestic mask production because manufacturing in the United States is not profitable for them.
There are some American companies who can shift production temporarily to meet the demand for masks but most of them have not received any funding through the DPA.
Some have taken the initiative but there were problems with the fit of the masks and obtaining regulatory approvals.
3M and other N95 manufacturers have not entered into any corporate partnerships to share intellectual property or increase N95 production.
Trump gave Rear Admiral John Polowczyk the responsibility for the logistics of PPE.
Polowczyk said that he believed “hospital systems are making management decisions that might lead to an appearance that we still don’t have masks, which is the farthest from the truth.“
In East Asian societies, a primary reason for mask-wearing is to protect others from oneself.
The broad assumption behind the act is that anyone, including seemingly healthy people, can be a carrier of the corona virus.
The usage of masks is seen as a collective responsibility to reduce the transmission of the virus.
A face mask is thus seen as a symbol of solidarity in Eastern countries.
Elsewhere, the need for mask-wearing is still often seen from an individual perspective where masks only serve to protect oneself.
However, over the course of the pandemic, people began promoting a new meaning of masking as an act of solidarity to each other.
Masking is gradually shifting to become a new social norm.
Helene-Mari van der Westhuizen points out that the successful implementation of public masking policies, especially in communities that has no cultural traditions for such interventions, requires a reframing of social meanings and moral worth, and that public messages help to conceptualize who typically wear masks and what the moral valence of masking is.
It has been noted that the earliest members who wear face coverings may be seen as deviant when the community starts to adopt masking, but that changing narratives will generate new meanings that construe those that do not mask as deviant.
The argument is that public health messaging about face coverings should shift from masks as a medical intervention to masks as a social practice based on values such as social responsibility and solidarity, as a successful uptake requires face coverings to be grounded in the social and cultural realities of affected communities.
Above: Helene-Mari van der Westhuizen
Clemens Eisenmann and Christian Meyer argue that the question, how the meaning of wearing face masks develops in society, depends on their practical and public uses within everyday social interactions.
They explain that masking has destabilized interactional infrastructures embedded in routines, revealing both taken-for-granted infrastructures of everyday life—including social inequalities (such as those of people reliant on lip reading) and moral evaluations in transcultural situations (such as those involving implicit racism in which the health instructions of essential workers belonging to certain groups are disregarded)—and new challenges on the interactional level.
In the Western world, the public usage of masks still often carries a large stigma, as it is seen as a sign of sickness.
This stigmatization is a large obstacle to overcome, because people may feel too ashamed to wear a mask in public and therefore opt to not wear one.
There is also a divide within the Western world, as seen in the Czech Republic and Slovakia where mass mobilization has occurred to reinforce the solidarity in mask-wearing since March 2020.
Above: Slovakia was one of the first countries in the world to introduce universal masking in public places.
Mask-wearing has been called a prosocial behaviour in which one protects others within their community.
On social media, there has been an effort with the #masks4all campaign to encourage people to use masks.
Nevertheless, there have been many occurrences of violence and hostility by people who became aggressive after they were requested to wear a mask or saw people wearing masks in customer-based service industry establishments.
Multiple people have been killed in attacks by people who refused to mask.
It has led to concerns about worker safety, so employees have been discouraged to actively enforce masking policies due to the potential of hostile situations, while enforcement by official authorities is severely lacking.
Masking has been subjected to racial politics in Western countries.
For instance, it has been heavily racialized as an Asian phenomenon.
This has been reinforced in a lot of media discourses, where stories about the pandemic are often accompanied by unrelated imagery of Asian people in masks.
The focus on race has brought hostility towards Asians who are confronted with the choice to mask as precaution while they face discrimination for it.
Huang Yinxiang, a sociologist from the University of Manchester, described maskaphobia — negative prejudice, fear or hatred against people wearing face masks—as making Asians in Western countries into targets for racists who want to legitimize xenophobia during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Above: Logo of the University of Manchester
Likewise, people from certain groups such as Black Americans may not feel comfortable wearing masks, especially those that are not clearly medical but homemade masks, due to concerns of racial profiling.
There have also been concerns that the wearing of masks may also further isolate disadvantaged communities.
Concerns had been expressed that masks would make communication difficult for people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.
This led to calls for wider distributions of transparent masks, which allow for lip reading.
Similar concerns over difficulty in communicating have been expressed by those who may depend on dogs for therapeutic or social reasons, as the animals depend on body language such as facial expressions.
Conversely, people who are exempt from wearing masks on medical grounds or due to a disability, fear they will be subjected to abuse for not wearing a mask, even if they are legally exempt from doing so.
For instance, in the United Kingdom, the charity Disability Rights UK received numerous reports about people being confronted on trains and buses.
Health organizations, such as the American Lung Association, commented that, even though there may be people who will seek an exemption, the individual’s concerns needs to be weighed against the societal needs to limit the spread of the virus.
However, anti-maskers have called upon bogus claims about legal or medical exemptions in their refusal to mask.
They have, for instance, claimed that the Americans with Disabilities Act (designed to prohibit discrimination based on disabilities) allows exemption from mask requirements, but the US Department of Justice responded by stating that the act “does not provide a blanket exemption to people with disabilities from complying with legitimate safety requirements necessary for safe operations.”
There are feelings of mask fatigue among the general public, which is exacerbated by frustrations about people who are not taking the mask and other guidelines seriously as the pandemic and its intensity continues on.
In some countries, large rallies have taken place in protest against masking mandates.
In Canada the anti-mask crowd has hailed their protests as the “March to Unmask“.
In the United Kingdom, new protests came in the wake of the official announcement that masking will be compulsory in shops.
After eight months since the beginning of the lockdown in the Czech Republic, mass manifestations against the restrictions imposed by the government arose.
Some anti-mask protestors have co-opted the feminist slogan “my body, my choice” and the Black Lives Matter slogan “I can’t breathe“.
Businesses have also been purposely disrupted by anti-maskers (purportedly in defense of their constitutional rights).
According to Moe Gelbart, Executive Director of the Thelma McMillen Recovery Center, anti-maskers’ behaviors do not appear only from the facts they hear, but the problems also come from the meaning they give to those facts.
He identifies several key psychological reasons that prompt them to not wear a mask:
Firstly, denial is seen in some people who feel worried and anxious by masks as it interferes with their belief and desire that everything is alright.
Secondly, another reason is a sense of invulnerability, as some people and especially younger individuals believe that nothing bad will happen to them and are thus are prone to risk-taking behaviors.
Thirdly, behavioral drift is seen among some people who find it difficult to maintain behaviors intended for prevention rather than treatment.
Fourthly, some people may have issues related to authority due to mistrust of science or tribe identification with powerful figures.
Fifthly, the meaning of covering one’s face is often associated with bad things that people want to hide or are ashamed of.
Sixthly, some people do not want to admit fear and vulnerability, which they associate with the act of wearing a mask.
Finally, some people have selfish and self-centered reasons, because the call to wear a mask for the protection of others seems to provide not enough motivation to do something that they do not want to do.
American opposition to mask-wearing during pandemics is not new:
During the 1919 influenza pandemic, the Anti-Mask League was established in San Francisco, California.
Christian clergy from the Lutheran, Catholic, Presbyterian, Anglican, Baptist and Mormon traditions, as well as those from the Jewish, Buddhist and Unitarian religions have implored people to wear masks.
Large amounts of disposal face masks have been discarded throughout the pandemic, which has led to an increase in plastic waste negatively impacting the environment.
In a nutshell, there remains places where there are not enough masks and where there are too many people resisting mask wearing.
On 1 April, John Miller, a manufacturer with deep connections to a close-knit Amish community in Central Ohio, got a call from Cleveland Clinic.
The hospital system was struggling to find protective face masks for its 55,000 employees, plus visitors.
Could his team sew 12,000 masks in two days?
Above: Cleveland Clinic
Miller appealed to Abe Troyer with Keim, a local lumber mill and home goods business and a leader in the Amish community:
“Abe, make a sewing frolic.“
A frolic, Miller explained, is a colloquial term here that means:
“Get a bunch of people. Throw a bunch of people at this.“
A day later, Troyer had signed up 60 Amish home seamstresses.
And the Cleveland Clinic sewing frolic was on.
For centuries, the Amish community has been famously isolated from the hustle of the outside world.
Homes still lack telephones or computers.
Travel is by horse and buggy.
Home-sewn clothing remains the norm.
And even now, as the corona virus rages in the country at large, there is resistance from people sustained by communal life to the dictates of social distancing that have brought the economy to a halt.
But as the virus creeps ever closer, the Amish community is joining the fight.
“If there is a need, people just show up,” said Troyer, a man in his 40s with a gray-streaked beard and a mild German accent.
The Amish are not immune from the corona virus’s rampage.
As of Thursday 9 April 2020, Holmes County, where the nation’s largest Amish community resides, had only three confirmed corona virus cases, but the pandemic has idled hundreds of Amish seamstresses, craftsmen and artisans, and Amish people do not apply for federal unemployment benefits.
“It conflicts with our faith and our commitment to the government,” said Atlee Raber, who founded Berlin Gardens, an area maker of garden furniture that now makes protective face shields.
Almost overnight, a group of local industry, community and church leaders has mobility to sustain Amish households by pivoting to work crafting thousands of face masks and shields, surgical gowns and protective garments from medical grade materials.
When those run scarce, they switch to using gaily printed quilting fabric and waterproof Tyvek house wrap.
“We consider this a privilege that we can come in here and do something for somebody else who is in need and do it right at home here and do it safely,” Raber said, instead of “taking handouts“.
Miller, who is president of both Superb Industries, a manufacturer in Sugarcreek with medical, automotive and commercial clients, and Stitches USA, a commercial sewing production, calls 16 March “Black Monday“.
That is when social distance guidelines laid waste to Holmes County’s economy.
It is also the day he convened a conference call with Developing Excellence, an area business group, to discuss the damage.
Member businesses employ about 6,000 people, the majority of them Amish.
Three days later, Miller created “Operation Stop Covid-19“.
“I thought if we could pool resources and leverage the much needed technical skill of sewing that is literally lying latent in this community, we could do a lot,” Miller said.
With area businesses, he set up a website and enlisted emergency workers from Sugarcreek Fire & Rescue to model prototypes of N95 mask covers, fluid-resistant gowns sewn of tarp material from Zinck’s Fabric Outlet in Sugarcreek, and boot covers made of Tyvek from Keim, in nearby, Charm, Ohio.
Keim’s Amish millworkers built hardwood dividers for field hospitals in New York, the meticulous workmanship belying their temporary purpose.
Berlin Gardens, which normally makes garden furniture from recycled plastic milk jugs, completed their first order of 20,000 plastic face shields for Yale New Haven Hospital last month.
“We are close to 100,000 a day,” Sam Yoder, the current owner of Berlin Gardens, said:
“It almost covers our payroll. Not quite.“
Simrit Sandhu, the chief supply chain for the Cleveland Clinic, said the traditional channels for health care supplies had dried up amid the pandemic.
“The need to find local solutions has become more important than ever before,” she said.
“This was timing and relationships coming together as our need went up exponentially.“
Cleveland Clinic has since increased its order to 10,000 masks a day, Sandhu said, and has also ordered protective gowns.
Amish leaders are aware that the corona virus poses a threat to their deeply communal way of life.
How to change those traditions is another matter.
“More people are becoming aware of it, seeing a risk, but maybe not as fast as the outside world,” said Leroy Yoder, an Amish bishop.
“People think that compared to other people, it is nothing to worry about, but if we have to add names to the numbers, then it is going to become real, but then it is going to be too late.”
Above: Old Amish cemetery, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
The Amish are a group of traditionalist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian Anabaptist origins.
They are closely related to, but a distinct branch off from, Mennonite churches.
The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, Christian pacifism and slowness to adopt many conveniences of modern technology, with a view to not interrupt family time, nor replace face-to-face conversations whenever possible.
The history of the Amish church began with a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Mennonite Anabaptists in 1693 led by Jakob Ammann.
Those who followed Ammann became known as Amish.
Above: Jakob Ammann (1644 – 1730)
In the second half of the 19th century, the Amish divided into Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites.
The latter do not eschew motor cars, whereas the Old Order Amish retained much of their traditional culture.
When people refer to the Amish today, they normally refer to the Old Order Amish.
Amish church membership begins with baptism, usually between the ages of 16 and 23.
It is a requirement for marriage within the Amish church.
Once a person is baptized within the church, he or she may marry only within the faith.
Church districts have between 20 and 40 families and worship services are held every other Sunday in a member’s home.
The district is led by a bishop and several ministers and deacons.
The rules of the church, the Ordnung, must be observed by every member and cover many aspects of day-to-day living, including prohibitions or limitations on the use of power-line electricity, telephones, and automobiles, as well as regulations on clothing.
Most Amish do not buy commercial insurance or participate in Social Security.
As present-day Anabaptists, Amish church members practice nonresistance and will not perform any type of military service.
The Amish value rural life, manual labor, and humility, all under the auspices of living what they interpret to be God’s word.
As time has passed, the Amish have felt pressures from the modern world.
Their traditional rural way of life is becoming more different from the modern society.
Isolated groups of Amish populations may have genetic disorders or other problems of closed communities.
Amish make decisions about health, education, relationships based on their Biblical interpretation.
Amish life has influenced some things in popular culture.
Child labor laws, for example, are threatening their long-established ways of life, and raise questions regarding the treatment of children in an Amish household, and also in the way the Amish view emotional and medical support.
A modern society places little emphasis on the emotional and spiritual bonds found in an Amish household that bind them together as a people.
There is instead a negative perception regarding how the Amish choose to view some medical conditions as being ‘The Will of God‘, without always receiving modern medical treatment found in hospitals or medical clinics.
However, many Amish communities maintain communal telephones to reach others in cases of emergency.
Amish children often follow in their faith’s long-standing tradition of being taught at an early age to work jobs in the home on the family’s land or that of the community.
Contrary to popular belief, some of the Amish vote, and they have been courted by national parties as potential swing voters: while their pacifism and social conscience cause some of them to be drawn to left-of-center politics, their generally conservative outlook causes most to favor the right wing.
They are nonresistant, and rarely defend themselves physically or even in court.
In wartime, the Amish take conscientious objector status.
Their own folk-history contains tales of heroic nonresistance, such as the insistence of Jacob Hochstetler (1704 – 1775) that his sons stop shooting at hostile Indians, who proceeded to kill some of the family and take others captive.
During World War II the Amish entered Civilian Public Service.
Amish rely on their church and community for support, and thus reject the concept of insurance.
An example of such support is barn raising, in which the entire community gathers together to build a barn in a single day.
Such an event brings together family and friends to celebrate and bond.
It is their reaction, their response, to this pandemic that gives me hope.
Despite their having every reason to reject the science behind this pandemic…..
Despite their rejection of much of modern civilization….
Despite their natural inclination to stay separate from the world….
They have come together to assist others fight this pandemic in ways that respect their beliefs and allows them their methods.
There are lessons to be, yet again, learned from the Amish.
We would be wise to learn from them.
Sources: Wikipedia / Google / Dr. Michael Mosley, Covid-19: What You Need to Know about the Corona Virus and the Race for the Vaccine / Elizabeth Williamson, “In Ohio, the Amish take on the corona virus“, New York Times, 9 April 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
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Building Everest 