22 March 20
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22 March 20
Michael Moore | Millions Will Die Because of Trump's Incompetence
Michael Moore, Michael Moore's Facebook Page
Moore writes: "A woman in my apartment building was taken out by EMT workers yesterday and died shortly after. She tested positive for the coronavirus. Rest her soul, blessings upon her."
Michael Moore, Michael Moore's Facebook Page
Moore writes: "A woman in my apartment building was taken out by EMT workers yesterday and died shortly after. She tested positive for the coronavirus. Rest her soul, blessings upon her."
A chill spread through many in the building, knowing this is only the first of these, here & everywhere. The media doesn’t want you to panic. The politicians insist that you not panic. I’m here to tell you to panic. Panic like you’ve never panicked before. Millions will die because of Trump’s incompetence, inaction and waiting too long to figure out how to make a buck off all this. THAT will be why your loved ones will perish. PANIC! But SMART panic! Don’t go crazy - think! Then ACT. Organize everyone you know to scream bloody murder today. Let your governor/mayor/Senator/President know you will not tolerate one more fucking day of this. Call them & demand:
1. PROTECT OUR HEALTH CARE WORKERS! Take over factories & make millions of masks, gowns, gloves, respirators, ventilators NOW. Keep doctors & nurses safe from the virus. If they get infected, NONE of us will get help when we come down with it.
2. TEST EVERYONE. Yes, that’s right. In the city of Vo, Italy, they decided to test all 3,300 residents. The result? There are now no new cases in Vo, Italy. Information is power, ignorance is death. The government needs to make 300 million tests NOW. Ask the Germans and Koreans and Taiwanese for help. We don’t automatically think of testing everyone because we’re not used to treating everyone. We don’t believe in the “EVERYBODY GETS TO SEE A DOCTOR” system. Our corrupt core belief that doesn’t guarantee EVERYONE free health care is now going to be the death of us as we enter Week Nine of wondering why we don’t have enough masks.
3. MOBILIZE THE ARMY. We need temp and field hospitals built now with hundreds of thousands of extra beds and medics to assist.
4. LOCKDOWN. A three-week nationwide lockdown where people stay inside will go a long way to slowing down the spread of the virus. This is going to be a two-year pandemic. Isolating ourselves will spread out those needing medical assistance instead of millions in need all at once.
Let’s do this now, before the next ambulance arrives.
Bernie Sanders speaking to supporters an an election night rally in Manchester, N.H. (photo: Damon Winter/NYT)
Bernie Sanders Raises Over $2 Million for Coronavirus Relief Effort
Marty Johnson, The Hill
Johnson writes: "Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) campaign said Saturday morning that it had raised more than $2 million in the last 48 hours for several charities that are working to combat the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S."
Marty Johnson, The Hill
Johnson writes: "Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) campaign said Saturday morning that it had raised more than $2 million in the last 48 hours for several charities that are working to combat the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S."
The money raised will go to No Kid Hungry, One Fair Wage Emergency Fund, Meals on Wheels, Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund and the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the campaign announced.
"What we've seen in the last two days is the definition of fighting for someone you don’t know," Robin Curran, the Sanders campaign's digital fundraising director, said in a statement.
"The people supporting this campaign have made more than 50,000 donations to help those most impacted by coronavirus because they understand that now more than ever it is important that we are in this together," Curran added.
There have been more than 19,600 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and at least 260 deaths, according to John Hopkins University.
Elizabeth Warren greets supporters at a community conversation event in Newton, Iowa, in January. (photo: Jabin Botsford/WPGetty Images)
How the Sting of an Elizabeth Warren Defeat Felt Different for Young Women
Kenya Evelyn, Guardian UK
Evelyn writes: "Warren's candidacy struck an all-too-familiar note for many as hopes faded for a highly qualified contender: 'What more could she have done?'"
READ MORE
Kenya Evelyn, Guardian UK
Evelyn writes: "Warren's candidacy struck an all-too-familiar note for many as hopes faded for a highly qualified contender: 'What more could she have done?'"
READ MORE
A woman eating alone at a restaurant. (photo: Valeria Ferraro/Echoes Wire/Bancroft Media/Getty Images)
Eating Alone, Together: Virtual Dinner Parties Are Helping People Fight Isolation
Emily Heil, The Washington Post
Heil writes: "Not being able to share meals with friends and family, to gather at others' tables or pull up more chairs to our own, has been one of the most disconcerting effects of the coronavirus. But just as those weekly work meetings have become virtual, the communal meal lives on."
READ MORE
Emily Heil, The Washington Post
Heil writes: "Not being able to share meals with friends and family, to gather at others' tables or pull up more chairs to our own, has been one of the most disconcerting effects of the coronavirus. But just as those weekly work meetings have become virtual, the communal meal lives on."
READ MORE
NYC. (photo: Lucas Jackson/Reuters)
This Is What a Coronavirus Lockdown Means in Each State
Pilar Melendez, The Daily Beast
Melendez writes: "Here's a list of state lockdowns, and what they actually mean."
READ MORE
Pilar Melendez, The Daily Beast
Melendez writes: "Here's a list of state lockdowns, and what they actually mean."
READ MORE
Women walk in the streets of Abidjan, Ivory Coast following the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) (photo: Reuters)
In Africa, Social Distancing Is a Privilege Few Can Afford
Karsten Noko, Al Jazeera
Noko writes: "In Africa, the crisis has not yet reached epic proportions. But the cracks caused by existing inequalities are already showing."
Karsten Noko, Al Jazeera
Noko writes: "In Africa, the crisis has not yet reached epic proportions. But the cracks caused by existing inequalities are already showing."
If you live in a township, make a living in the informal sector, or travel on a crowded bus, how do you self-quarantine?
he COVID-19 pandemic has already permeated all aspects of life.
While optimists hope it will force us to rethink inequality and global access to healthcare, the realists believe the net effect of the pandemic will be to further entrench the divides that already exist.
In Africa, the crisis has not yet reached epic proportions. But the cracks caused by existing inequalities are already showing.
In South Africa - which declared a national state of disaster because of the pandemic last week - the working classes are navigating how to avoid contamination on cramped public transport on their way to meagre-paying jobs that often only help them live hand-to-mouth, while the more affluent classes empty large chain stores to stockpile as much food and toilet paper as they can.
Imaginary borders
In South Africa, the government only declared a disaster after more than 60 cases appeared. But Rwanda and Kenya declared decisive measures - including travel restrictions and bans on public gatherings - just after the first positive case was reported.
The option of closing borders to deal with the crisis, which some countries have already adopted, is undoubtedly a vexed one. South Africa, for example, has said it will build a 40km (25 miles) fence along its border with Zimbabwe. Although closing borders contributes positively to the social distancing recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), the question is how practical such a measure will be for African countries.
National borders were arbitrarily drawn during the colonial era and, for many communities living along these boundaries, they exist only in theory. We see them on Google maps. But trade and family ties have been established since way before colonialism - and they endure. It may be possible to close an official border post, but so-called "irregular crossing points" - dotted across hundreds of kilometres and even over rivers and lakes - abound.
As we saw in the West Africa Ebola outbreak - where the first case was recorded in Guinea before spreading to Liberia and Sierra Leone - and the cholera outbreaks that began in Zimbabwe before spreading to South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique, diseases can easily spread across these essentially imaginary lines that nation-states carve out.
COVID-19 is not novel in this sense.
The myth of self-isolation
Knowing the realities on the ground, it is curious that the WHO and ministries of health in different African countries are recommending that people self-quarantine if they could have been exposed to the coronavirus. In Rwanda, for example, a man travelling from the US has potentially infected his wife and brother, accounting for three of the seven cases. Which raises the question: how are people in shared accommodation expected to self isolate?
Slums and informal settlements are also part of the physical infrastructures of many African cities. All of them were overcrowded and lacked services even before the threat of a global health crisis emerged.
Think of Alexandra in Johannesburg, where over 700,000 people are estimated to live in less than 5 square kilometres (1.9 square miles), Mbare in Harare with some 800,000 people, Kibera in Nairobi with at least 250,000, and Makoko in Lagos with over 300,000 whose homes are built on stilts in a lagoon.
Our big cities also pose a conundrum to people who must commute to work. Anyone who has been stuck in a traffic jam in a "matatu" (bus) in Nairobi or in a taxi in Johannesburg - often filled with 12 to 14 people - knows too well that the idea of social distancing on your way to work is a myth.
Not only are these overcrowded, but the commute and queues to use them require significant amounts of time that could potentially expose more people to the coronavirus.
No choice to 'work from home'
It is more practical for people who work in offices to "work from home" but if your only means of livelihood is selling tomatoes or second-hand clothes at an informal market in a big city, how do you begin to do this "online"?
The choice before you is often to stay home and fail to provide the evening meal for your family, or to brave it out into the city and try and fend for your family. If I was that person selling at a market, I know what choice I would make. It is not social distancing.
For those concerned about the risk of exposure to the virus, the WHO recommends self-quarantining. This has so far included advice for people not to share bathrooms, living space and even bedrooms, if they can. But what if you live in a house where the bedroom doubles as a kitchen and living space - all shared with your (sometimes extended) family? Such recommendations are even more absurd if your source of water is a community tap or borehole, or if your toilet is one you share with a dozen other families. For many people forced to live on the margins of our societies, this is unfortunately a reality.
Even in the well-to-do parts of many African cities, getting access to water is a challenge. Harare's taps have been nearly dry for almost 10 years now - and yet we recommend that residents not only self-isolate but also regularly wash their hands.
With coronavirus on our doorsteps, suddenly the importance of access to water is staring all of us in the face. But the governments and the WHO giving advice know only too well the conditions and challenges these communities have always faced.
Struggling health systems
A lot has been said about the health systems of many African countries and how they would struggle to cope with a fast-spreading virus like the coronavirus. Indeed, after many years of conflict, in countries like South Sudan and Somalia, the health system has almost collapsed.
In some countries around the Sahel - Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali - people continue to be displaced by conflict and live in squalid conditions in displaced peoples' camps. Even in countries not in conflict, like Uganda and Zimbabwe, structural adjustment programmes proffered by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have seen a continuous decrease in funding available for healthcare. The Abuja declaration of 2001, requiring each country to set aside at least 15 percent of its national budget for healthcare, is still gathering dust in health authorities' offices. None of the parties to the declaration has managed to achieve its goals.
It clearly does not require a pandemic to expose the gaps in the health system. If developed systems like in northern Italy can buckle under pressure from COVID-19, one can only imagine the impact this will have on front-line health staff who are without adequate training, protective equipment and even basic drugs.
No one knows how the pandemic will spread across Africa. But we know it is a matter of time. One can not help but wonder if it is not time for African governments, with support from the WHO, to develop recommendations that take all these environmental conditions into account.
Social distancing could probably work in China and in Europe - but in many African countries, it is a privilege only a minority can afford.
The WHO has done well since the onset of the outbreak to provide leadership and access to information about a virus that virtually nothing was known about just several weeks ago. But now, more must be done to reimagine our governance systems, especially because healthcare is intrinsically linked to everything else.
And in Africa - likely the next battlefield for the virus - tackling COVID-19 will need more imagination and alternative solutions from all of us.
Black rhinoceros in the African Savannah. (photo: Pierre-Yves Babelon/Moment/Getty Images)
Hopeful Increase of Black Rhino Population in Africa
Jordan Davidson, EcoWatch
Davidson writes: "After immense conservation efforts, the numbers of critically endangered black rhinoceroses is slowly ticking up, according to the latest figures released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)."
Jordan Davidson, EcoWatch
Davidson writes: "After immense conservation efforts, the numbers of critically endangered black rhinoceroses is slowly ticking up, according to the latest figures released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)."
here's a welcome bit of good news coming out of Africa. After immense conservation efforts, the numbers of critically endangered black rhinoceroses is slowly ticking up, according to the latest figures released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), as the BBC's Science Focus reported.
The numbers show that the population is growing, albeit at a slow rate — just 2.5 percent per year over six years. The species is still in grave danger, susceptible to poaching and a changing habitat due to the climate crisis. Yet, the population growth, from 4,845 in 2012 to an estimated 5,630 in 2018, provides a glimmer of hope that efforts put into saving the species are paying off, as The Guardian reported.
"While Africa's rhinos are by no means safe from extinction, the continued slow recovery of black rhino populations is a testament to the immense efforts made in the countries the species occurs in, and a powerful reminder to the global community that conservation works," Dr. Grethel Aguilar, acting director general of the IUCN, which compiles the global red list of species under threat, said as The Independent reported.
"At the same time, it is evident that there is no room for complacency as poaching and illegal trade remain acute threats," she added. "It is essential that the ongoing anti-poaching measures and intensive, proactive population management continue, with support from national and international actors."
The IUCN projections forecast that the population will continue to grow over the next five years.
Different strategies to save the endangered species have been employed to varying degrees of success. Those attempts have included relocating some individual animals from established groups to new areas to increase the species range, according to the Australian Broadcasting Company. Some rhinos have been removed from their home areas to avoid interbreeding.
In an upsetting failure in June 2018, 11 black rhinos were move to Kenya's Tsavo East National Park, from Nairobi. They all died — 10 from drinking water that was saltier than they were used to, and one from a lion attack, as the Australian Broadcasting Company reported.
Despite those mishaps, the largest threat to black rhinos is still poachers.
"There are major challenges still facing rhinos today," Paula Kahumbu, the CEO of wildlife charity Wildlife Direct said to the Australian Broadcasting Company. "The first is the demand for rhino horn in Asia. So long as that demand remains, the price will stay high and the incentive for poaching will continue across Africa."
"The prevention of poaching requires very good intelligence, extremely good anti-poaching efforts, and that is expensive," she added. "It means that we have to have almost a military-style approach to protecting these animals."
The IUCN has said that ramped up efforts from range states, private landowners and communities in recent years are having a positive effect. The numbers are still troubling, but trending in the right direction. Figures indicate that poaching numbers have decreased after peaking in 2015, when a minimum of 1,349 rhinos were poached. In 2018, that number dropped to a minimum of 892 rhinos poached. That's equivalent to one every 10 hours, according to Science Focus.
"With the involvement of transnational organized crime in poaching, rhino crimes are not just wildlife crimes," Richard Emslie, a coordinator for African rhinos at IUCN, said as The Guardian reported. "If the encouraging declines in poaching can continue, this should positively impact rhino numbers. Continued expenditure and efforts will be necessary to maintain this trend."
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