alanjjohnstone
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WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the organisation was constantly learning about the new virus sweeping the globe, which has now killed nearly 115,000 people and infected over 1.8 million.
“We know that COVID-19 spreads fast, and we know that it is deadly, 10 times deadlier than the 2009 flu pandemic,” he said.
WHO says 18,500 people died of “swine flu”, or H1N1, which was first uncovered in Mexico and the United States in March 2009, but the Lancet medical estimated the toll to be between 151,700 and 575,400.
The Lancet review included estimated deaths in Africa and Southeast Asia that were not accounted for by the WHO.
The West, particularly Europe, and the WHO were criticised for overreacting at a time when annual influenza epidemics every year killed between 250,000 and 500,000 people, according to WHO.
https://www.france24.com/en/20200413-who-says-covid-19-is-10-times-more-deadly-than-swine-flu
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52267117
South Asia faces its worst economic performance in 40 years because of the coronavirus, the World Bank has said.
“South Asia finds itself in a perfect storm of adverse effects. Tourism has dried up, supply chains have been disrupted, demand for garments has collapsed and consumer and investor sentiments have deteriorated,”
“Anyway he kept the term “Socialist Commonwealth” in circulation.”
And that is the only thing we can aspire towards when it comes to words and definitions.
We may not succeed in determining meanings as understood by many people, but we can still act as a counter-tendency, even if the overwhelming weight of the media makes us a tiny voice in the wilderness.
In scientific and scholarly works, authors also persist with original explanations of their terms, regardless of the way they have been adopted by the general public.
From the right, probably Von Mises book title is the most prominent reference to socialism and commonwealth
“Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth”
This is an insightful article
And then there was in Canada, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, a reformist political party that attracted several members of the SPC
Ozy, I asked before…why would 99% of capitalists in nearly every country in the world go along with such a hoax?
Why are they bringing capital accumulation to a standstill and sacrificing their profits?
It’s unprecedented, even in war-time.
To create authoritarian government? Then why is the pandemic happening in already existing autocratic states.
To provide a market for a particular sector of the capitalist class? And it isn’t challenged by any of the competition?
They have to have a motive?
What is it? Any idea?
The first cracks begin to appear in the proponents for capitalism
“I’m a big believer in capitalism – but some markets simply don’t function properly in a pandemic, and the market for lifesaving supplies is an obvious example”- Bill Gates
The archbishop of Canterbury has said inequalities must be addressed or even eliminated once the current “pestilence” is over.
Speaking on Easter Sunday on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, Justin Welby said there was a “huge, huge danger” of the coronavirus pandemic exacerbating inequality, but “that is our choice as a nation and as a world”.He added: “The next wave coming is the economic one … We have a choice there as a nation and as a society and as a world. Do we take hold of our destiny and make sure the differences are mitigated, abolished where possible – or do we just let things happen, do we let the market rule, in which case there will be enormous suffering.”
“We will then be a better and a happier and a more wonderful country and a better world.” The crisis had shown that “we depend on each other at the most fundamental level. Therefore we have to re-look at how we value each other. That includes how we value each other in financial terms, who bears the burdens of our society… If we don’t re-look at that, there is no justice in our society.”
Meanwhile, the pope called for global solidarity in fighting the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout, urging the relaxation of international sanctions, debt relief for poor nations and ceasefires in all conflicts.
“This is not a time for indifference, because the whole world is suffering and needs to be united in facing the pandemic,” he said. “Indifference, self-centredness, division and forgetfulness are not words we want to hear at this time. We want to ban these words for ever!”BD, I think the real hypocrisy is that as believers in some sort of omnipotent entity, neither church leader is appealing for any divine intervention but instead hoping for the application of human solutions.
It seems God has been one of the early victims of coronavirus
Don’t forget that a number of US states describe themselves as commonwealths.
Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
Two U.S. territories are also designated as commonwealths: Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Delaware and Vermont have also used the term commonwealth to refer to themselves
Either it adds to the confusion or we can make it resonate with a section of American audience if we explain socialism is a commonwealth as originally envisaged by the early settlers – communities for the common good administered by common consent.
Where are the anti-vaxxers now?
In Italy the anti-vax movement has “virtually disappeared” in the discussion on the coronavirus, according to virologist Dr Roberto Burioni.
“If a vaccine were made available tomorrow, everyone would jump to get it,” said Laurent-Henri Vignaud, who co-authored a history of France’s anti-vax movement.
https://www.france24.com/en/20200411-covid-19-pandemic-gives-anti-vaxxers-pause
In ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ David Grann describes how white people in the area conspired to kill Osage members in order steal their oil wealth, which could only be passed on through inheritance. “This was a culture of complicity,” he says, “and it was allowed to go on for so long because so many people were part of the plot. You had lawmen, you had prosecutors, you had the reporters who wouldn’t cover it. You had oilmen who wouldn’t speak out. You had morticians who would cover up the murders when they buried the body. You had doctors who helped give poison to people.”
About half of Scotland’s privately-run care homes have suspected coronavirus cases.
There is an official count of the number of suspected cases of coronavirus in care homes, but it could be up to three months before it is published. The Care Inspectorate watchdog is refusing to publish this Scotland-wide data at the height of the crisis.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-52246860
In France a similar issue of non-reporting of deaths and cases
In fact care homes is a world problem
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/10/mafia-distributes-food-to-italys-struggling-residents
Don’t worry…where the government fails to deliver, the Mafia will
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/10/mafia-distributes-food-to-italys-struggling-residents
“Mafias are not just criminal organisations,’’ Federico Varese, professor of criminology at the University of Oxford, said. “They are organisations that aspire to govern territories and markets. Commentators often focus on the financial aspect of mafias but they tend to forget that their strength comes from having a local base from which to operate.”
In recent days and weeks, stock prices have been improving dramatically — even though the health and economic crisis on the ground seems far from over.
“In the face of some of the worst economic numbers in American history,” White and Rasayam explain, “cratering energy prices and a freshly dysfunctional Congress, investors are sending stock prices higher. To many, this may seem insane. And it quite possibly is insane.”
There is a general belief that the efforts by Congress to flood the economy with cash will help ensure that, once the doors finally open again, there will be a massive surge in rehiring and a rapid snapback in economic growth.
Investors seemed to react joyfully to the Fed’s announcement that it “would pump more than $2 trillion in loans to businesses of all sizes, as well as buy up the bonds of troubled city and state governments along with riskier corporate debt,”
