Dear Friend,
More than 10,000 people have been killed by coronavirus across the European continent. The gruesome milestone has been reached just five weeks after the first death was recorded on the continent, in France, on February 15.
On the other hand, Hubei, China’s first locked-down province to reopen on March 25.
Dozens of activists and public intellectuals have written to the government of India to declare an emergency economic package for the economically distressed in COVID-19 pandemic
As the novel coronavirus spreads, a double crisis looms over India: a health crisis and an economic crisis. In terms of casualties, the health crisis is still very confined (seven deaths in a country where eight million people die every year), but the numbers are growing fast. Meanwhile, the economic crisis is hitting with full force, throwing millions out of work by the day. Unlike the health crisis, it is not class-neutral, but hurts poor people the most.
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Europe’s coronavirus death toll passes 10,000
by Robert Stevens
More than 10,000 people have been killed by coronavirus across the European continent. The gruesome milestone has been reached just five weeks after the first death was recorded on the continent, in France, on February 15.
Members of Military Emergency Unit arrive at Abando train station, in Bilbao, northern Spain, Monday, March 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)
More than 10,000 people have been killed by coronavirus across the European continent. The gruesome milestone has been reached just five weeks after the first death was recorded on the continent, in France, on February 15.
With yesterday’s 1,414 new deaths, the total for the entire continent reached 10,220 deaths from 192,663 cases. Among the European Union’s 27 countries, 9,720 deaths have been recorded from 172,407 cases.
Members of Military Emergency Unit arrive at Abando train station, in Bilbao, northern Spain, Monday, March 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)
In Italy, 601 new fatalities brought the total to 6,077 deaths. Almost 5,000 new cases of the virus were reported. Many more lives are threatened even before these new cases, with 50, 418 active cases and 3,204 classed as “serious, critical.” All told 63,927 people have been infected in Italy.
In Spain, the death toll reached 2,206, with 434 new deaths reported, up from 391 the previous day. There were 4,321 new cases making for a total of 27,528 active cases. Some 2,355 are classed as serious, critical.
The inability of health and social care services across Europe to cope with the destructive impact of the virus—after decades of being underfunded, privatised and de-staffed—saw soldiers, who were drafted in to provide disinfecting and run residential homes in Spain, find elderly people dead in their beds, abandoned to their fate with the country under a strict lockdown.
In France, there were 186 new deaths, an increase over the previous day’s 112, bringing the total to 860. The deaths included another two medics, one a GP and the other a gynaecologist. There are over 13,000 active cases in the country, 8,675 people in hospital and 2,082 people in critical condition.
A further 34 people perished in the Netherlands, bringing the total to 213, and 24 people died in Germany, bringing fatalities to 118.
In the UK, after it was announced that 54 more people had died, and 335 in total, Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a lockdown of the country Monday evening. People can only leave their homes for “very limited purposes” including “shopping for basic necessities, as infrequently as possible” and “one form of exercise a day.” Only two people can be together, unless they live in the same household. Police can enforce the lockdown, “including through fines and dispersing gatherings,” said Johnson.
The Foreign Office advised the up to 1 million Britons on holiday or on business trips abroad to return to the UK immediately. They warned that otherwise there would likely be no more commercial flights available with air routes likely shutting without warning over Tuesday and Wednesday.
Johnson’s government has refused to take a number of critical measures to stop the spread of the virus. Its original plan, before being forced to retreat, was to allow the mass infection of the population supposedly in order to achieve “herd immunity.” The government still advises all who suspect they have the virus not to seek treatment in hospital, but to “self-isolate” at home—without being tested.
More evidence is emerging that those who are contracting the virus and in some cases dying are from many age ranges, including younger, fitter people, from a baby who was born with the virus to a group of three 30-year-old junior doctors in the same UK hospital who were diagnosed Sunday and required ventilators.
In response, the ruling elite is putting into operation draconian attacks on civil liberties that set a dangerous precedent, while providing no real medical assistance.
Yesterday, the Johnson government was able to pass all stages, in the House of Commons, of the Emergency Coronavirus Bill, under which he and his ministers are granted extraordinary authoritarian powers, including banning any assembly of people, at any time and place.
This week, Hungary’s parliament will hear a bill under which far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán is set to receive dictatorial powers enabling him to rule by decree. The powers provide no defined cut-off date and include imprisoning those deemed to be spreading “fake news” for prison terms of up to five years.
No government in Europe or internationally is carrying out the mass testing required to successfully quarantine and then treat those infected, who may not be showing symptoms, but who are still spreading COVID-19. Even front-line medical staff are not being tested. Due to health service cuts, there is hopelessly inadequate provision of basic medical facilities, including ventilators and personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff.
In contrast the banks, corporations and super-rich are being granted bailouts that eclipse those granted to the bankers and financial institutions after the 2008 global financial crash. In recent days, Germany, France, Britain and Spain have announced massive subventions to big business, under conditions in which millions of workers have already been laid off, with only those in essential services now employed in most European countries.
Well over a trillion euros have been made available in a matter of days to prop up the financial aristocracy and corporate billionaires. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has made available a package worth around €750 billion to protect Germany’s banks and major corporations. Emmanuel Macron’s French government committed €300 billion and Johnson’s Chancellor Rishi Sunak £350 billion.
Spain’s Socialist Party prime minister Pedro Sánchez has committed $219 billion to the corporations, including €100 billion of guarantees for company loans. A further €17 billion of direct support for enterprises is available and €83 billion is reportedly being reserved for private sector investment.
These represent a gigantic raid on the public purse for the second time in a decade. Germany’s bailout is the equivalent of 20.5 percent of GDP, Spain’s 15.6 percent, the UK’s 15 percent.
These bailouts followed the lead of the European Central Bank, which last week announced a €750 billion new money-printing programme aimed at keeping financial markets afloat. The ECB is committed to buying government debt and private securities with the new funds by the end of this year.
These vast sums are just a down payment, with government officials in treasuries in the main European counties stressing that there will be “unlimited” funds available. This was confirmed yesterday as Johnson’s government agreed to nationalise the losses of every private rail franchise in Britain for the next six months initially. This transfers all revenue and cost risk to the government but leaves private firms able to still reap profits and to be paid a management fee under an “emergency measures agreement.”
Workers throughout Europe must demand a programme directly opposed to that of the corporations and the governments that act on their behalf. They must reject this unprecedented bleeding dry of the public purse for the purpose of funding big business and the bankers. These entities must be taken under public control and run by the working class in the interests of society.
In a statement Monday, “The spread of the pandemic and the lessons of the past week,” the WSWS proposed the measures necessary for workers to take forward the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic: “The working class must demand universal testing and free and equal access to health care; the closure of all nonessential production, with full income to those affected; safe working conditions in industries essential to the functioning of society; and an emergency program to build health care infrastructure and ensure that all medical workers have access to the necessary equipment.”
Originally published by WSWS.org
COVID-19: Emergency Package Of 3.75 Lakh Crores Urgently Needed
Press Release
Dozens of activists and public intellectuals have written to the government of India to declare an emergency economic package for the economically distressed in COVID-19 pandemic
India: The perils of an all-out lockdown
by Jean Drèze
As the novel coronavirus spreads, a double crisis looms over India: a health crisis and an economic crisis. In terms of casualties, the health crisis is still very confined (seven deaths in a country where eight million people die every year), but the numbers are growing fast. Meanwhile, the economic crisis is hitting with full force, throwing millions out of work by the day. Unlike the health crisis, it is not class-neutral, but hurts poor people the most.
Covid-19: Analysis of the Global Pandemic as on 20 March 2020
by VT Padmanabhan
The news and analyses, usually report the total number of cases and death by countries. To see things in perspectives, these numbers need to be translated into rates. Two rates we consider are (a) Attack Rate, which means the number of people infected per one million population and (b) Crude Fatality Rate, means death per 100 cases. This is called ‘crude’ because the Fatality Rate can be worked out only after all the patients are cured and discharged from the hospitals. All countries in the world today have covid-19 patients in the hospital.
The 2009 swine flu pandemic caused by a new strain of H1N1 virus infected as many as 1.4 billion people across the globe and killed between 151,700 and 575,400 people, during eight months according to the US Centre for Disease Control. The newly emerged coronavirus disease of 2019 (Covid-19) caused by SARS-Cov-2 virus is nowhere near that, at least as on 110th day of the outbreak.
The origin of the virus is still under debate. It was earlier thought to have come from bats via pangolins to humans. Scientists had almost unanimously rejected a theory of leakage from a weapon research laboratory. Some officials in China think that it jumped out of the backpack of an American soldier.
5000 yrs before present: Hamin Mangha” one of the best-preserved prehistoric sites in north-eastern China.
According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. There are 338,307 cases globally as on 23 March 2020. Two-third of these confirmed during the past 15 days. Of these, 14602 patients died; the crude mortality rate (per 100 infected) is 4.32.
The news and analyses, usually report the total number of cases and death by countries. To see things in perspectives, these numbers need to be translated into rates. Two rates we consider are (a) Attack Rate, which means the number of people infected per one million population and (b) Crude Fatality Rate, means death per 100 cases. This is called ‘crude’ because the Fatality Rate can be worked out only after all the patients are cured and discharged from the hospitals. All countries in the world today have covid-19 patients in the hospital.
Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei in China, is thought to be place where the virus emerged. The first patient is also from Wuhan. The dynamic of the epidemic in Wuhan is different from not only China, but also all other countries. I have divided the Chinese into two groups – from Wuhan and China-less Wuhan.
The attack rate per million populations in Wuhan is 3888, Italy is 978, China-less Wuhan is 10. India is not in the graph because the attack rate is far below 1.
Population: Wuhan has a population of about 6 million (present in the city at the time of epidemic). Rest of China has a population of 1400 M, which is almost twice as that of Europe.
Caseload:
There are 11 regions with caseloads above 5000. Italy is on top, Wuhan is the second, and Rest of China occupies the fourth position, behind USA.
Attack Rate
We place countries in two groups –
(a) the high attack rate of 200 or more per million people. There are 11 countries and the city of Wuhan in Central China which are in this league. Of this, Wuhan has the highest attack rate of 3800, while Bahrain has the lowest rate of 241 per million.
(b) in the second group there are 20 countries with attack rate 50 and 200 per million and China less Hubei province with an attack rate of 10 per million.
With an attack rate of 3884 per million people, Wuhan is on top. With a rate of 938, Italy is the second, Greece is the third region. Rest of China is not in this big league.
There are 18 countries/regions in the second attack rate group with <200/M. Rest of China with an attack rate of 10 per million holds the last position.
Total Deaths: We are looking at 10 countries/places with a total death above 100. Italy is on top with 5476 deaths, with 2306, Wuhan is in the second position. China-30 holds the ninth position with 151 deaths. In S Korea, 111 people died.
Crude Fatality Rate: Since different regions are in different phases of the epidemic, comparison of death rate is really meaningless. For instance, in Italy 80% of the patients are still under treatment while nearly 90% of the cases have been cured and discharged in China. Yet, we give this rate. Italy is on top, Greece holds the second position and Wuhan is the third. Rest of China’s rate is 1.2%. The rate in China is likely to go beyond 1.5% when the outcomes for all the patients would be known.
The results are presented in graphs below:
Figure-1 : Number of cases – country wise
Figure-2 Attack rate – countries in top league
Figure-3 Attack rate – countries in middle position
Figure – 4 : Total number of death- top 10 countries
Figure – 5 : Crude Fatality rate
New Analysis of China
I have recently analysed the data for China, placing the patients in three groups, Wuhan city, Hubei province minus Wuhan and China minus Hubei. There were two kinds of quarantine in China. In Wuhan city and Hubei Province, there was the extreme kind of lock-down, with no public transport and no permission to go out of the homes except for essential shopping, pharmacies and hospitals. According to WHO, this kind of quarantine of 55 million people is “new to science”. In 30 other provinces of China, there community controls, but people could still move out and visit relatives etc.
My final analysis of China data shows that:
- The controls in Wuhan were highly successful during the first 11 days of the lock-down that is from 23 January to 03 Feb 2020. The infection rate in Wuhan was 1.1%, which is 3 times lower than that of other provinces of China.
- During the second phase – 04 Feb-07 March, the infection rate in Wuhan was 5.5%, which was five times higher than rest of China.
- My analysis also indicates that there was another epidemic caused by yet another unknown agent in Wuhan since February 2020, which caused Covid-19 like symptoms in about 40,000 people. This is an “unknown known” among the Chinese scientists and the WHO. They did not so far ask whodunnit.
My detailed analysis, 2500 words, can be read here.
In short, the community quarantines, social distancing and other measures worked extremely well in 30 provinces of China, where the attack rate is 10 per million people, which is about a hundred times lower than that of Italy. The unimaginably higher attack rates and death rates all over Europe and America are suggestive of the virus- SARS-Cov-2 acquiring some deadly mutations in the passages during the past several weeks.
So I fully support the proposals for the lock-down of India and Kerala, announced by the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister respectively. I also appreciate their decision to include alcohol vending outlets (known as beverage shops) as essential services – In spite of the noises from some ill-informed opposition politicians. The ingredients for making sanitizers for hand washing are alcohol, aloe-vera and lemon.
VT Padmanabhan is an epidemiologist. He conducted genetic epidemiological and occupation health studies among people living in high background radiation areas of Kerala, among the workers of the Indian Rare Earths and Gwalior Rayons in Nagda, Madhyapradesh and the survivors of gas leak at the Union Carbide (now DOW chemicals) plant at Bhopal. E-mail id: vtpadman@gmail.com
In The Name Of Coronavirus
by Sandeep Pandey
If President Kovind sincerely believes in ‘vasudhaiva kutumbakam,’ meaning whole world is a family, and that ‘nature is reminding us to acknowledge, with humility, our quintessential equality and
inter-dependency,’ then he should recommend to the government to withdraw the CAA which discriminates among human being based on their religion and nationality.
Hubei, China’s first locked-down province to reopen on March 25
by Countercurrents Collective
China is lifting travel restrictions on Hubei Province on Wednesday, as China’s fight against coronavirus, officially designated Covid-19, and is yielding positive results. Even constraints on the city of Wuhan, where the virus first emerged, will be lifted in April.
Let Rationality Prevail: Follow International Ethical, Legal & Medical Guidelines Before Conducting Vaccine Trials On Coronavirus Patients
Co-Written by Dr. P.S. Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal
During pandemics truth and rationality become the first casualty. Without acknowledging till date that there is community spread of Covid-19 by the government, we have been put under a massive lockdown!!! By the time a vaccine for Covid-19 is developed the disease is likely to have taken its course. There is no logic in giving ‘International Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical Research involving Human Subjects’ and local laws governing the same a go by. Let sanity prevail!
Lessons from a crisis
by Melwyn Pinto
Humanity has fought every crisis successfully in the past, and this too will be overcome. It may take a while, but the world will come out successful. The larger question, however, is will the world be the same again or different. One hopes that it will be a different world. It is hoped that the human world will strive hard to be less greedy, less polluting and less irrational adventurous. Rightly did Shakespeare
say, ‘One touch of nature makes the whole world kin’. One only hopes the world will remain in this kinship even after the current crisis disappears.
How Did Indian Masses Cope With 1897 Plague Pandemic?
by Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd
The global panic and unusual measures that all countries in the world are taking like lock down measures forces us to look back how India survived in 1897 Bubonic Plague that killed one crore Indians and 20 lakh people in China and other countries.
Observing Elites Manipulate Our Fear: COVID-19, Propaganda and Knowledge
by Robert J Burrowes
While humans stand on the brink of precipitating our own extinction, with the prospects of now averting this remote – see ‘Human Extinction Now Imminent and Inevitable? A Report on
the State of Planet Earth’ – virtually everyone remains unaware of the critical nature of our plight. Moreover, the ongoing human death toll from the activities that are generating this crisis numbers in the many millions each year while the number of species driven to extinction is estimated at 200 per day.
While humans stand on the brink of precipitating our own extinction, with the prospects of now averting this remote – see ‘Human Extinction Now Imminent and Inevitable? A Report on the State of Planet Earth’ – virtually everyone remains unaware of the critical nature of our plight. Moreover, the ongoing human death toll from the activities that are generating this crisis numbers in the many millions each year while the number of species driven to extinction is estimated at 200 per day.
In contrast, a virus that is killing a very small proportion of the minuscule number it has infected is causing panic in many countries around the world, devastating the travel and tourism industries while emptying supermarket shelves of food and that apparently most vital of commodities: toilet paper.
According to the Johns Hopkins University Coronvirus Resource Center (which is presumably separate from the JHU bioweapons research facility), the last time I checked it before this article was sent for publication, official reports indicate that the COVID-19 virus has so far infected 372,563 people in a world population of 7,800,000,000 (that is, about .0048% of the human population), killing 16,380 (4.3% of those infected) with 100,885 (27%) recovered already (and many more highly likely to do so). Of course, there is an unknown number of people who have contracted the virus but not reported it (through ignorance or intention) thus indicating that the death rate from the disease is (probably significantly) lower than the official rate.
Moreover, as one doctor has reported after researching the data on Italy, where the greatest rate of COVID-19 infection has occurred: ‘80% of the deceased had suffered from two or more chronic diseases’ and ‘90% of the deceased are over 70 years old’. In addition, ‘Less than 1% of the deceased were healthy persons’ defined, very simply, as ‘persons without pre-existing chronic diseases’. Given that northern Italy has one of the oldest populations and the worst air quality in Europe, which has already led to an increased number of respiratory diseases and deaths in the past, these are undoubtedly factors that help to account for the current local health crisis. See ‘A Swiss Doctor on Covid-19’.
Obviously the utterly inadequate response to the genuine crisis in which humans now find themselves and the panic-stricken response to a simple virus tells us a great deal about how human fear is working in these two contexts and the way in which elite agents, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), governments, medical personnel and the corporate media, have no trouble manipulating this fear to serve elite interests. A few minutes listening to or reading government and medical personnel commenting on COVID-19, as reported in the corporate media, is enough to reveal the extent of the fear they are peddling, although to those who are terrified, this is not obvious at all. It is just frightening.
While the multifaceted existential crisis clearly requires a concerted response ranging from nonviolent strategies to compel key corporations in various industries to desist from their biosphere-destroying behaviours to convincing ‘ordinary’ people to systematically reduce their consumption to relieve pressure on the biosphere as well, the virus problem requires either zero precautions for those individuals who make a point of maintaining their health (preferably by eating healthily-prepared biodynamic/organically grown vegetarian whole food etc which sustains their immune system), or the simplest of precautions (perhaps including taking some nutritional supplements such as vitamins A and C, for example), commensurate with precautions one might take to avoid catching the flu.
Of course, it should be noted, like many other threats to human health – including ‘doctor error’ (see, for example, ‘Table Of Iatrogenic Deaths In The United States’ and ‘Johns Hopkins study suggests medical errors are third-leading cause of death in U.S.’), heart disease, cancer and tuberculosis – the flu kills vastly more people, every day, than COVID-19 is doing. For example, according to the WHO, which ignores deaths from other diseases such as cardiovascular disease that can be influenza-related, seasonal influenza may result in as many as 650,000 deaths each year (an average of 1,781 each day) due to respiratory illnesses alone. See ‘Influenza: Burden of disease’. That is, the global death toll from COVID-19 in the months since it originated is equal to the global death toll from flu every 6.5 days.
Moreover, if we were seriously concerned about our world, the gravest and longest-standing health crisis on the planet is the one that starves to death 100,000 people each day. No panic about that, of course. And no action either.
So, leaving aside this last point, the key question is this: Why aren’t people scared of the prospect of imminent human extinction and behaving powerfully in response, while vast numbers of people are terrified of catching one particular virus (but, apparently, not scared of being killed by their doctor or catching other viruses, contracting heart disease, cancer or TB) and acting insanely as a result?
And the short answer to this question is this: The elite is using its international organizations (particularly the United Nations and its agencies), governments, education systems, corporate media and other agents to suppress people’s awareness (and hence fear) of the threat of extinction so that business-as-usual (that is, profit-maximization) can continue for as long as possible unhindered by efforts to contain this existential crisis while deliberately triggering people’s fear in relation to COVID-19 so that a greater degree of elite control can be achieved and greater profits can be secured by exploiting certain opportunities (such as ‘short-selling’ on the stock market and profit-making by pharmaceutical corporations) that the panic arising from the virus generates.
Let me elaborate.
If one investigates the state of Earth’s biosphere, it quickly becomes evident that the biosphere is under siege on many fronts: There is the ongoing threat of nuclear war (perhaps started regionally) as the Cold War infrastructure containing this threat has been progressively dismantled. There is the ongoing threat posed by the progressive collapse of biodiversity as habitat is destroyed at an accelerating rate while animals, birds, insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles and plants are killed in vast numbers by a multitude of concurrent assaults. There is the ongoing threat posed by the climate catastrophe. There is the ongoing threat posed by the deployment of 5G (and electromagnetic radiation generally). And these threats are complemented by the imminent collapse of the Amazon, the widespread radioactive contamination of the Earth, the use of geoengineering and the ongoing ecological destruction caused by the many ongoing wars and other military activity. Among a wide variety of other threats.
The nature and details of these threats are readily available – again, for example, see ‘Human Extinction Now Imminent and Inevitable? A Report on the State of Planet Earth’ – and can be accessed by virtually anyone on Earth interested. Moreover, there is a great deal of evidence to support the argument that human extinction is now imminent given the synergistic impact of these (and so many other) threats. In essence, if one chooses, one can consider the evidence oneself and use this knowledge to behave sensibly and powerfully in response.
However, only a rare individual is seeking out and considering this wide range of evidence so that they can consider modifying their behaviour in light of this multifaceted crisis. Why?
Because our fear allows our life circumstances (‘I am busy with work/my family’ etc.) and elite agents, such as the corporate media, education systems and the entertainment industry, to distract us from paying close attention to these interrelated crises. This means that, if we do pay attention, it is usually to the corporate media’s version of the ‘evidence’, as presented by corporate scientists, and we are directed how to interpret this information; only the rarest individual seeks out the science for themselves or reads the scientists who courageously tell the truth. See, for example, ‘Arctic News’. In this way, strategically-focused action based on an analysis of the driving forces, even by those who self-label as ‘activists’, can be prevented and business-as-usual continues.
In contrast, because events such as the COVID-19 virus – like the long list of such threats (including AIDS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome [SARS], Mad Cow disease and Ebola) that preceeded it – are created to expand elite political, economic, social and geopolitical control as well as to generate greater profits in some sectors of the economy (including through stock market windfalls by ‘short-selling’), our fear is deliberately played upon by the propaganda distributed through various elite agents. The resulting panic ensures that the bulk of the human population – willing to surrender control on the promise of greater material security – serves elite interests precisely. For a sample of the literature and videos that thoughtfully discuss points such as these, as well as others consistent with them (such as the push for compulsory vaccination and marginalization of the elderly), see ‘COVID-19 Coronavirus: A Fake Pandemic? Who’s Behind It? Global Economic, Social and Geopolitical Destabilization’, ‘This Is a Test: How Will the Constitution Fare During a Nationwide Lockdown?’, ‘China – Western China Bashing – vs. Western Biowarfare?’, ‘CoVid-19 – What the government is really covering up’, ‘Plunging stocks, pandemic fears, quarantines – what’s the real operation?’, ‘How Many People Have Coronavirus?’, ‘The Coronavirus Phenomenon is a Political Pandemic, not a Medical Emergency’, ‘The Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic: The Real Danger is “Agenda ID2020”’, ‘The Coronavirus Hoax’, ‘Pandemic: The Invention of a Disease Called Fear. People are being “Herded”. Disrupting the World Economy’, ‘Coronavirus scare – the hoax of the century?’, ‘Corona Panic – erstaunliche Einblicke / stunning insights’, ‘The Coronavirus: Crown Jewel of the New World Order or Crippling Blow to Globalization?’, ‘Coronavirus and the Gates Foundation’ and ‘In a Europe Closed Down by the Coronavirus the EU Opens its Doors to the US Army. Could the Defender become the Invader of Europe?’
In essence then, knowledge – whether of those actually possessing it but even of one’s own – is marginalized because once people are scared, their fear overwhelms their capacity to think, assess, evaluate and critique, as well as to feel the other emotional responses that tell them what is actually taking place. Only the occasional individual pauses to consider – and research – what is happening in order to respond powerfully.
Of course, knowledge might not be easy to acquire given that, in this instance, there are various theories, apart from those mentioned above, about what is happening. These include the hypotheses that the virus is a (deliberately or even accidentally) released bioweapon – see ‘Author of US Biowarfare Law: Studies Confirm Coronavirus Weaponized’, ‘Who Made Coronavirus? Was It the U.S., Israel or China Itself?’, ‘China is Confronting the COVID-19 Epidemic. Was It Man-Made? An Act of of Bio-warfare?’ and ‘Bioweapons Expert Speaks Out About Novel Coronavirus’ – and that the virus is being used to obscure the death toll from the deployment of 5G (already done extensively in Wuhan, for example). See ‘Wuhan China, One Big 5G FEMA style Camp & Not because of Coronavirus’ and ‘China, 5G, And The Wuhan Coronavirus: The Emperor’s New Virus’.
However, just because knowledge requires effort, it does not mean that it is not available if we conscientiously apply our intelligence to identify and investigate credible sources, such as those mentioned above. Moreover, if knowledge is genuinely sought, we might also need to spend time endeavouring to comprehend the complexity of some issues, starting by asking key questions. In this case, for example, there are many people benefiting from this crisis but doing so even though they work at different points in relation to it. How does this help us to understand what is going on?
The fundamental problem, of course, is that applying intelligence to a challenge is effectively impossible if, as is the case with the bulk of the human population, the individual is (unconsciously) terrified and hence easily stampeded into panic, especially if the stampede is precipitated deliberately to serve specific elite ends.
So why is virtually everyone so (unconsciously) terrified? Unfortunately, it is the standard state of virtually all human beings after being terrorized into submission by parents, teachers, religious figures and other adults during childhood. But also denied the opportunity to feel and release this fear, the individual suppresses their awareness of the fear which simply remains in the unconscious endlessly shaping behaviour without the individual even realising. For a full explanation of this, including the roles that ‘visible’, ‘invisible’ and ‘utterly invisible’ violence play in generating this outcome, see ‘Why Violence?’ and ‘Fearless Psychology and Fearful Psychology: Principles and Practice’.
One way in which this works is as follows. Children start learning at a very young age to identify, often unconsciously, when a parent or other adult is delusional about something. This is particularly the case when this involves the parent projecting their fear onto the child (or something the child is doing), when there is actually no danger. See ‘The Psychology of Projection in Conflict’. The child can perceive the parental projection because the child’s perceptions are not yet as damaged as those of the adults around them. However, because the adult is always fearfully attached to their delusions and projections as a key outcome of their own childhood terrorization experience, the child also quickly learns that if they seriously contradict a delusion or projection held by the parent/adult, they are highly likely to be punished. And so the child acts to avoid punishment by not challenging the delusion/projection.
As Anita McKone further explained her understanding of this process during a recent discussion, she noted the way it feels for the parent in this context: ‘If you don’t help me to keep safe from my projected fear/delusion (which, of course, for me is absolutely real), then I consider you to be dangerous to me and I will attack you!’ The problem for the child in this circumstance is that the parental fear and the threat it poses are overwhelming and so, after a time, the child copies the fear and ceases to remember how things actually were. But without a subsequent opportunity to feel the fear holding this delusion/projection in place, the child will retain this delusion/projection for life, just as the parent has done.
However, the problem is that once a childhood fear is suppressed, it spends the remainder of the individual’s life seeking ways of being felt and expressed. This can occur in ways that are easily not noticed, such as feeling scared while watching a horror movie. However, the most usual ways in which this suppressed fear manifests in later life is by projecting it at activities undertaken by one’s children that trigger this fear. And because it is not actually frightening to control the child’s behaviour, the parent will seek this control so that they can feel the relief of (temporarily) getting their own fear back under control.
But another way in which this fear can be given a safe outlet on something that is not actually frightening, is by participating in ‘socially-approved’ activities that allow the fear to be expressed. For example, the people who are participating in the panic-stricken purchase of foods and goods from supermarkets are simply responding to their unconscious fear which has been deliberately triggered to enable elite-desired outcomes for greater social control to be achieved by making political use of this panic. Again see articles cited above such as ‘This Is a Test: How Will the Constitution Fare During a Nationwide Lockdown?’
In essence then, the COVID-19 pandemic was created as just another step in the endless effort to fully establish elite political, economic and social control. With the WHO, governments, medical personnel and the corporate media warning the population (with their superficially suppressed terror readily accessible) of the dangers of the virus and directing them to respond in particular ways under threat of punishment, governments implementing measures to restrict freedom and movement (including ‘lockdowns’, border closings, bans on gatherings in a variety of public contexts and a range of other drastic measures), the corporate media endlessly referring to and discussing possible ‘horror’ scenarios, people’s fear is readily triggered to ensure there is little resistance to the ongoing curtailment of their rights (and many even end up asking for these curtailments if it will make them feel safer).
The fundamental problem is this: once we fearfully surrender a right, it is rarely won back. And we are one step closer to living in a dystopian (technologically-monitored and controlled) police state. If you think this won’t/can’t happen, I gently encourage you to read the relevant references cited above, each of which was carefully chosen because it illustrates this point in one way or another.
Whether COVID-19 is intended to be the final step or just another in what remains of the series, we will soon know. In any case, if we are not resisting strategically, the elite will ultimately succeed.
So here is the summary:
Our existing parenting and education models are designed to produce submissively obedient children, students, workers, soldiers and citizens. After all, we want children, students, employees, military personnel and even citizens who obey orders, not think for themselves. But this outcome can only be achieved by terrorizing children throughout childhood until they suppress their awareness of their own self-will so completely that they submit to the will of adults virtually without protest. Now devoid of their own unique and powerful self-will, they become sheep herded from one supermarket to the next by their own fear. No need for a shepherd.
Then, when the global elite plans and implements its next move, using COVID-19 as ‘cover’ on this occasion, to consolidate its ever-tightening grip on the human population (more militarized policing, new and improved police/military weapons systems, privacy-abusing law, surveillance technology, facial recognition system, vaccination regime, genetically-mutilated organism, monetary or banking convenience….), it simply instructs its agents in the UN, government, education systems, the corporate and social media, and elsewhere to carefully explain why this particular response is so beneficial to everyone with genuine critiques confined to those few outlets with modest audiences, such as this one, that tell the truth.
Terrorized into accepting adult dogma as a child, the typical adult now participates in many delusions, such as the one that the choice offered at elections constitutes having a say in how a country is governed. Devoid of the capacity to critique society beyond the most superficial level, elite propaganda is devoured as ‘knowledge’. And once their deeply-suppressed terror is triggered, these ‘adults’ will be readily panicked into doing as the elite directs. People in a terrified state are in no condition to defend themselves and their rights and so they readily give these up on the promise of not having to feel afraid.
What can we do?
Well, because the foundation of this entire elite-controlled world is the submissively obedient individual, the world can only be rebuilt as we might like it if we stop terrorizing children into being submissive. So I would start by parenting and educating children so that they become powerful. See ‘My Promise to Children’ and ‘Do We Want School or Education?’
If you need help to parent in this manner, try ‘Putting Feelings First’ and learning how to nistel to your child(ren). See ‘Nisteling: The Art of Deep Listening’.
If you know someone who is frightened, or even panicking, about COVID-19, and you feel capable of doing so, it will help them enormously if you are able to listen to them talk about, and feel, their fear. Again, see ‘Nisteling: The Art of Deep Listening’.
If you want to better understand the origin, identity and behaviour of the global elite and why it is insane, see the section headed ‘How the World Works’ in ‘Why Activists Fail’ and the articles ‘Exposing the Giants: The Global Power Elite’ and ‘The Global Elite is Insane Revisited’.
If you want to better understand the link between suppressed fear and panic-buying in supermarkets, see ‘Love Denied: The Psychology of Materialism, Violence and War’.
If you wish to campaign to defend our rights and the integrity of our biosphere, then consider doing it strategically. See Nonviolent Campaign Strategy. The global elite is not about to give way unless we compel it to do so. We have plenty of power if we deploy it strategically.
If you wish to remove a corrupt or electorally unresponsive government, see Nonviolent Defense/Liberation Strategy.
If you wish to fight powerfully to save Earth’s biosphere against those governments and corporations so intent on destroying it, but you prefer local engagement, consider joining those participating in ‘The Flame Tree Project to Save Life on Earth’ which outlines a simple program to systematically reduce your consumption and increase your self-reliance over a period of years.
You might also consider joining the global network of people resisting violence in all contexts, particularly that inflicted by the global elite, by signing the online pledge of ‘The People’s Charter to Create a Nonviolent World’.
Or, if none of the above options appeal or they seem too complicated, consider committing to:
The Earth Pledge
Out of love for the Earth and all of its creatures, and my respect for their needs, from this day onwards I pledge that:
- I will listen deeply to children (see explanation above)
- I will not travel by plane
- I will not travel by car
- I will not eat meat and fish
- I will only eat organically/biodynamically grown food
- I will minimize the amount of fresh water I use, including by minimizing my ownership and use of electronic devices
- I will not buy rainforest timber
- I will not buy or use single-use plastic, such as bags, bottles, containers, cups and straws
- I will not use banks, superannuation (pension) funds or insurance companies that provide any service to corporations involved in fossil fuels, nuclear power and/or weapons
- I will not accept employment from, or invest in, any organization that supports or participates in the exploitation of fellow human beings or profits from killing and/or destruction of the biosphere
- I will not get news from the corporate media (mainstream newspapers, television, radio, Google, Facebook, Twitter…)
- I will make the effort to learn a skill, such as food gardening or sewing, that makes me more self-reliant
- I will gently encourage my family and friends to consider signing this pledge.
Conclusion
Each of the measures nominated in the section above identifies ways in which we can restore our power to resist elite insanity and/or take strategic action to resist elite violence once we have the power to do so.
If we do not take measures such as these, the insane global elite will continue to manipulate us into doing its bidding, usually using more insidious techniques than COVID-19, until human beings cease to exist. As touched on above, the evidence strongly suggests we do not have much time.
What you decide is therefore critical.
Robert J. Burrowes has a lifetime commitment to understanding and ending human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in an effort to understand why human beings are violent and has been a nonviolent activist since 1981. He is the author of ‘Why Violence?’ His email address is flametree@riseup.net and his website is here.
8 Day Journey From Hong Kong To Chile, COVID-19 On My Tail
by Andre Vltchek
Andre Vltchek's journey from Hong Kong to Chile in COVID-19 times
Coronavirus on East Coast of USA
by Sally Dugman
The man who owns a pizza shop was practically crying last night. He does not live high on the hog, but doesn’t have spare money to tide his family over. Yet nobody at all except a few people come to his eatery any more. … Yes, I ate pizza last night from his place that’s a few miles from my home. Nothing
except takeout, of course.
First, this information at the link below in its second half conforms to the “secret” information that my nephew knows. His is from US government sources that indicate that half of Americans will likely get the virus.
Second, his father is writing an exam for tomorrow for some of his approximately 120 students. He is concerned that the remote viewing online might not work and that some of the students may cheat using books and such. So he is doing all that he can to make corrections for both contingencies.
Third, remember the 2008 bailout. Remember AIG throwing a big vacation overseas for executives while not helping mid and low level workers with that money? Well, it is happening again. Redux. .
Darling Donald Trump and miserable Mitch McConnell have the same plan in place with no contingency to bail out workers with corporate given funds when giving the money to corporations, and no tracking measurements for the ways that the money is used. Way to go NOT! … Absolutely no tabulations on the way that the bailout money is spent! And who is on the hook for it? Taxpayers.
Fourth, the man who owns a pizza shop was practically crying last night. He does not live high on the hog, but doesn’t have spare money to tide his family over. Yet nobody at all except a few people come to his eatery any more. … Yes, I ate pizza last night from his place that’s a few miles from my home. Nothing except takeout, of course.
Fifth, my sister daily takes a Facebook exercise class using her husband’s account since she has no Facebook account like me with none. The class comes out of NY and she is in MD. With the shelter in place conditions, it’s a case of “use it or lose it” with your body nonetheless.
Karen C. from elder services in Worcester, MA called me recently. She phoned to inquire about whether I needed food, medicine or some other critical provision such as visits for home care providers and physical therapy. This is because she was calling to all people whom she knows and will make sure that they will get whatever that they need.
She’ll even go out herself to provide whatever may be needed after she dons her mask and gloves. … Yes, we all need to step up in troubled times. Fortunately, some of us like Karen go all out. They are willing even to personally handle emergencies even when it puts themselves at risk.
At https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1239975682643357696.html:
To read more than the analysis below, please go to the link. The second half of the article is excellent and is applicable to many countries.
To read more than the analysis below, please go to the link. The second half of the article is excellent and is applicable to many countries.
Excerpted:
This mitigation strategy is what you’ve seen a lot of people talking about when they say we should “flatten the curve”: try to slow the spread of the disease to the people most likely to die from it, to avoid overwhelming hospitals. And it does flatten the curve — but not nearly enough. The death rate from the disease is cut in half, but it still kills 1.1 million Americans all by itself. The peak need for ventilators falls by two-thirds, but it still exceeds the number of ventilators in the US by 8 times.
Sally Dugman lives in MA, USA.
Hope in Troubling Times
by Dr Nishi Pulugurtha
My college is closed, classes are off and examinations have been deferred. We need to go in only if and when there is a need. It is not a holiday as I keep telling all my students, it is a shutdown, done for the sake of social distancing and isolation. It is difficult convincing all about the seriousness of it all, how important it is to take precautions. There are many who dismiss it as media hype, as unnecessary, as India is safe, etc. Convincing does not seem to work, nor does rationale, some just refuse to see logic and reason. No, I am not in a state of panic, just being careful. Trying to do my bit. As I began writing this. news came in of the first case in Kolkata.
COVID-19: Four Suggestions
by Dr Prem Singh
The poor will be worse hit leading to more deaths. But it is
clear from the example of Europe that the rich too will fall victim to the epidemic in large numbers. India, therefore, needs to employ concrete immediate and effective measures.
Just a few days after the outbreak and spread of COVID-19 in China, it became clear that the world economy will be badly hit due to this epidemic. Nearly three months since, it has also become clear that the downside impact on the economy will be far-reaching. The long-standing trade war between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump has turned into an virus-war with the COVID-19 epidemic. Once they have dealt with the threats of the disaster, other influential countries of the world will also join this ‘war’. This is to say that the political effects of the epidemic will be global and the political map of the world will change. India, too, will not remain untouched by this inevitable change.
But right now India has a huge challenge to deal in the form of COVID-19. There are many speculations by experts about the impact of coronavirus in India. It is being said that after the current attack has passed, a second wave of epidemic too may come. The impact of the epidemic, it is said, can last for three years. If the situation of social transmission of the virus does not happen in the current phase, there will be a lot to be thankful about. But if there is social transmission of the virus, then the condition could become dreadful. Due to the large population, extremely inadequate health services, unhygienic environment, wide scale unemployment, shabby state of economy and so on, there can be large scale mortality. The poor will be worse hit leading to more deaths. But it is clear from the example of Europe that the rich too will fall victim to the epidemic in large numbers. India, therefore, needs to employ concrete immediate and effective measures.
There are four suggestions in this regard:
1) Along with making the government-run healthcare network effective to its full capacity, the government should immediately acquire the support and assistance of the private-sector healthcare network too, through an ordinance.
2) The government should establish a COVID-19 fund. All permanent employees of the government and private sector, including MLAs and MPs should give one month’s salary to COVID-19 fund. The owners of corporate houses, non-resident Indians and celebrities should generously donate money to this corpus.
3) Doctors have advised a nutritious diet to increase resistance against Kovid-19. In view of this, the central and state governments should allocate an appropriate amount and ration for workers in the unorganized sector, considering their family as a unit.
4) In order to lend support to the teams of already burdened doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers, young volunteers from well to do families should come forward and register with the government to serve as volunteers.
Dr. Prem Singh, Dept. of Hindi, University of Delhi
Mystic Mash …..looks like dog food, tastes like heaven!
by Zahid Makhdoom
My body needs food that would not only consider my sedentary condition but also meet my other needs, for instance use what I can easily source out, if not in its entirety but at least partially, from my kitchen cupboards and freezer, that is also things with a longer shelf life. Mystic Mash came in my consciousness, so I revised the original recipe to make Mash “isolation-friendly” as well as tasty, chewy, simple, yet offering a melange of textures and fragrances, easy to digest, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, fibre-rich, and immune-boosting.
Technology of Death: The Not-So-Shocking Report on Israeli Weapons Exports
by Dr Ramzy
Baroud
Data released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on March 9, paints a grim picture of the world, in general, and the Middle East, in particular. According to the report, the demand for weapons in the warring region has increased by a whopping 61% between 2015 and 2019.
The Middle East region, battered by wars and adjoining humanitarian crises that have left millions of people stateless, hungry and diseased, is in urgent need for peace, security and reconstruction. Thanks to the US, Russian, French, Israeli and other weapons manufacturers, however, it is now the dumping ground for military hardware, an ominous sign for the years ahead.
Data released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on March 9, paints a grim picture of the world, in general, and the Middle East, in particular. According to the report, the demand for weapons in the warring region has increased by a whopping 61% between 2015 and 2019.
The correlation between arms, war, and casualty count needs no elaborate algorithm to be deciphered, as facts on the ground amply demonstrate. Syria remains the epicenter of conflict in the Middle East, with Libya, Yemen, Iraq, Palestine, and South Sudan trailing, but not far behind.
The top five merchants of death, according to SIPRI, are the United States, Russia, France, Germany, and China. Interestingly, while US arms exports have increased exponentially by 76% in the last five years, Russia’s arms exports fell by 18%.
The US market is in constant expansion as it now includes 96 client countries, while Russia has, essentially, lost one of its most significant clients, India.
Ruled by a right-wing Hindu nationalist government, Delhi has found in Tel Aviv a more ideologically like-minded supplier. The special ‘friendship’ between India’s Narendra Modi and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu has made India Israel’s largest weapons market.
In 2017, Israel’s arms exports reached a record high of $9 billion dollars, following the signing of a $2 billion deal with India. The contracts awarded to the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) were considered the “single largest deal ever signed by the Israeli arms industry.”
With India becoming the largest importer of Israeli arms in the world, Israel is now a secondary party in the protracted conflict between India and Pakistan. The two nuclear-armed countries edged closer to the abyss of a full-blown war in March 2019. Naturally, Israeli weapons, now featured prominently in India’s military arsenal, will play a major role in sustaining any future conflict.
According to the newly-released data, Israel is only second to South Korea in terms of the vast expansion of weapons exports, as Israel’s weapons manufacturing industry has experienced an unprecedented boom in recent years. SIPRI puts that increase at 77%.
Last year, the International Defense Cooperation Directorate of the Israeli Ministry of Defense (SIBAT), which is the cornerstone of Israel’s weapon manufacturing, testing and export, released a comprehensive plan aimed at the expansion of Israel’s global weapons market, with due focus on the US, Finland and India.
What makes Israeli weapons more attractive than others is the fact that they are not accompanied by any political price tag. In other words, Israel is willing to sell weapons to any country, or even non-state actors, openly or secretly, regardless of how these weapons are used and whether their use violates human rights or not.
In May 2019, Amnesty International’s Israeli chapter released an in-depth report that examined Israel’s weapons export markets. Contrary to the claim by Rachel Chen, head of the Israeli Defense Export Controls Agency, that “we will carefully examine the state of human rights in each country before approving export licenses for selling them weapons,” Israel is known for peddling its weapons to the world’s most notorious human rights violators. The list includes Myanmar, Philippines, South Sudan, and Sri Lanka.
A damning proof to the above claim is a statement made by Philippines President, Rodrigo Duterte, who is known for his dismal human rights record, on September 4, 2018, during his highly touted visit to Israel. Duterte told Israeli President, Reuven Rivlin, that the Philippines “would henceforth only buy weapons from Israel due to its lack of restrictions,” ‘Times of Israel’ reported.
The US is “a good friend,” Duterte said, but like Germany and China, US weapons come with certain “limitations”.
Considering that Washington provides Israel with over $3 billion worth of weapons annually that are used freely against occupied Palestinians and other Arab nations with no regard whatsoever for international or humanitarian law, one has to marvel at Duterte’s statement.
It is logical to assume that a country that sells weapons to civil war-torn and extremely impoverished South Sudan, has not an iota of regulations, let alone moral standards.
What is unique about the export of Israel’s weapons and so-called ‘security technology’ to the rest of the world, is that they often appear in regions where people are most oppressed and vulnerable. For example, Israeli companies have for years stood at the forefront of successive US administrations’ war on undocumented immigrants.
Moreover, recent years have witnessed the infusion of brutal Israeli military tactics in many aspects of American society, including the militarization of American police, thousands of whom received training in Israel.
Similarly, in 2018, Israeli war technology was incorporated to the European Union’s security apparatus. One such contract was awarded to the Israeli company Elbit, estimated at $68 million, to provide maritime unmanned aircraft system (UAS) services. This technology, which relies on the Hermes 900 Maritime Patrol system, allows Frontex – the European Border and Coast Guard Agency – to intercept war refugees and migrants in their attempts to cross into safer European territories.
Interestingly, the EU has purchased from Israel the same deadly technology that the Israeli army has used against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip during Israel’s so-called ‘Protective Edge’ war of 2014.
The latter fact represents the backbone of Israel’s marketing strategy. Branding its military products as ‘combat-proven’, Tel Aviv is able to obtain top dollar for its bloody technology, as it is able to demonstrate, using actual footage, how its armed drones, for example, can flatten whole Palestinian neighborhoods in seconds and return safely to their bases inside Israel.
SIPRI and Amnesty International are right in exposing Israel’s thriving weapons exports market, while emphasizing the fact that much of these weapons proliferate freely among human rights violators. But far greater focus should be placed on the fact that Israel is, itself, a notorious human rights violator that should be held accountable for its crimes against Palestinians, who are often used as guinea pigs in the testing stage of Israel’s technology of death.
Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net
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