CORONAVIRUS DIARIES IV

“A nation loses the place which it once held in the world’s history when money becomes more precious to the souls of its people than honesty and labour. A universal, widespread greed of gain is the forewarning of some upheaval and disaster. Civilisations have been born and completed, and then forgotten again and again.” – Colonel James Churchward 

Millions of Americans expect to receive $1,200 cheques as part of a $2 trillion stimulus deal that was signed off by President Trump on Friday. This was cited to be a measure to combat a sluggish economy by getting the beneficiaries of this handout to spend it, and thus stimulate the nation’s industries by the direct injection of funds. Other governments of first world countries are commencing similar such releases of funds into their economies, hoping thus to stave off a worldwide depression.

An interesting site to view in light of the President’s announcement is the US National Debt clock. I looked at it mesmerised for a few minutes as the hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt increased with each fleeting second. You may have heard of the immense economic strife that Greece found itself in through reckless borrowing of funds and unchecked spending. Currently, every Greek citizen owns about $40,000 USD of their country’s national debt. Terrible, isn’t it? Well, you may think, the US is a more powerful country, with a stronger economy, much more resilient finances and home of the richest people of the world. Think again, each US citizen owns about $73,000 USD of the national debt. Furthermore, each taxpayer in the US owns about $191,000 USD of the national debt.

Play around with the US National Debt site. There is an interesting feature called “Time Machine”. Go back to 1980 and see the National Debt per citizen: About $4,000! A lot of money has been printed and injected into the economy since then to “stimulate” it! By stimulation I understand that means the stock market does well, the few filthy rich get richer, the middle classes do less and less well, while the poor get poorer and poorer, each citizen paying a higher and higher price for a “flourishing economy”.

Coronavirus had infected at least 92,932 people in the U.S. as of Friday 27th March and killed at least 1,380 people, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering. Of course, simply tracking confirmed cases underestimates the actual scale of the problem. Many more cases of infection will lurk in the community undetected. This is particularly the case for a virus like COVID-19 where symptoms can be mistaken for a cold or flu. Without massive investment in testing, cases will always be missed.

New cases of infection and casualties continue multiplying in the USA. New York and Louisiana hospitals are grappling with a flood of patients that threatens to overwhelm their health-care systems, and their resources are dwindling. Meanwhile, the president and political conservatives are increasingly agitating to end drastic restrictions meant to buy time and save lives. The rhetoric is: “Give people a stimulus handout, get them to spend it, and thus end this nonsense over a stupid ‘flu’ which is keeping them from being happy workers and model consumers.”

Politics has always been a dirty game, but especially so in the Trump era. In recent days, a sizeable and growing number of Trump supporters have claimed that health experts are part of a deep-state plot to hurt Trump’s re-election efforts by damaging the economy and keeping the United States shut down as long as possible. Trump himself pushed this idea in the early days of the outbreak, calling warnings on Coronavirus a kind of “hoax” meant to undermine him. The distrust of Science and Scientists runs deep in the psyche of the uneducated, the simple, the ‘average’ person, but also in the twisted mind of the sly opportunists who wish to further their own fortunes no matter what the cost, human lives included. 

Epidemiologists are medical specialists who have been educated for decades in order to be able to give advice on how diseases appear, how they occur in communities and in the case of infectious diseases, how the diseases spread and how we can limit that spread. They act based on their knowledge, their experience and the scientific modelling that they carry out in order to protect communities and increase the health of a population. Their role in these days of COVID-19 is to avert massive numbers of deaths and devise strategies in order to stem spread of disease and make the disease disappear. One of the frustrations of  epidemiologists trying to prevent disease (rather than curing it, as doctors do and with appreciation of the cured patients), is that it’s often difficult for the public to understand the disasters epidemiologists help them avoid.

A noted epidemiologist, Neil Ferguson published a paper on March 16th, outlining the model of Coronavirus infection and its toll on populations. If nothing were done to prevent  COVID-19 infection in the USA, the number of deaths was predicted to reach 2.2 million people. If all patients were able to be treated, there would still be in the order of 1.1-1.2 million fatalities in the US.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a wake-up call. We are all aware of it, we are all affected by its consequences on our daily existence, we are suffering its effects on our jobs, our leisure, our interaction with family, friends, even strangers. We are all experiencing varying degrees of fear, ranging from foolhardy insouciance, to mild apprehension, to informed alarm, to justified dread, to mindless panic.

We react to the pandemic in direct proportion to our subjective feelings of fear. Foolhardy politicians inject funds into struggling economies and hope that the deaths amongst their political opponents will be higher than the deaths in the camp of their supporters. The rich and famous are mildly apprehensive and plan courses of actions that decrease their probability of contracting the virus (as advised by their exclusive medical care personnel). The thinking, rational, educated person is alarmed and does what epidemiologists and microbiologists advise, lessening their personal risk of infection, but also doing what is best for the community. People who have come in contact with the virus and its effects first-hand are filled with dread and can act irrationally – perhaps justifiably so. The mindless, panic and act unpredictably with often dire consequences.

Open your eyes, unstop your ears, think! Read critically and follow the advice of experts whose job is to protect the lives of everyone in the community – yes, your life too! If you cannot understand something, ask for clarification. If you have been affected personally by illness or death of a loved one, support is available. If you have financial troubles and you cannot cope, there are many places that provide real support and material help – help that goes beyond one-off handouts of money that you spend on consumer goods to support economies and raise stock prices.

You have been asleep in your comfortable, unthinking existence; blithely unaware in your cushy, mindless routine; you have flooded your existence with cheap thrills, huge numbers of consumer goods you don't really need, you have been in pursuit of trite goals. Wake-up! Re-examine your existence. Find again all that is important, really important, in life. Reach out to your family, your friends, your community. If you’re dead, it doesn’t really matter if your stocks do well in the NYSE or if Trump is re-elected (growing National Debt notwithstanding)…

CORONAVIRUS DIARIES III

“My life is like a memento mori painting from European art: There is always a grinning skull at my side to remind me of the folly of human ambition.” - Yann Martel

Memento mori – “Remember you will die”. An apt reminder in these days of COVID-19, with deaths due to infection with this sinister and highly contagious virus climbing to higher and more alarming levels day by day, worldwide. We look at the deserted streets in our cities and we are reminded of our mortality. We look in shock as military trucks in Italy convey scores of corpses to a place where they will be prepared for burial, and memento mori, the Latin phrase resounds through the centuries to remind the survivors that death lies in wait, that they too will die. Madrid in Spain is the new epicentre of COVID-19 in the world and a huge skating rink has been converted to a temporary morgue to hold the hundreds of corpses. News bulletins inform us of increasing infection transmission rates and we are obliged to think: “Am I next? What if I get sick? What if I get very sick? What if I can’t be cured? What if I die?”

Most people in our society push the idea of their death into the darkest and deepest crypts of their mind. Our culture has a become a life culture, a youth and pleasure-seeking culture. Death has been sanitised and has become something that is seen mainly on the TV screen, in movies, in video games, as a fitting end to deserving miscreants. We have been given a diet of ‘cartoonified’ death (especially as it relates to an untimely and violent death), where death is trivialised and treated with a contemptuous disregard. The more we see the ease with which death is meted out to others on screen, the more it has made our own death a more distant and unlikely possibility – after all we live in the real world, don’t we?

Think of the hypothetical situation where you are infected with the deadly Coronavirus and the even more hypothetical eventuality where you will be told: “You have two days to live…” What would you do? Is what you do much different to what you would do if you had been told: “You have two weeks to live.” Or perhaps: “You will die in two months…” Or even “You have two years of life left!” What then determines your course of action? Many around the world have had to deal with this scenario, confronting a horrific and rapid death as something they or a family member will go through  in a matter of days.

The religious amongst us may say: Vanitas vanitatum, omnia est vanitas; which you will find in Ecclesiastes 1:1 onward: 
The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. 

In the past when life on earth was seen to be a transient and preparatory phase for life eternal, death was seen as a liberation, a door through which we passed to be greeted by the angels of paradise and its eternal bliss. Death was then a part of life and a promise of liberation from all of our wordly cares and toil. None feared death then, provided one lived a devout and God-fearing life with thoughts and deeds as stipulated by the Gospels.

We have ‘progressed’ and ‘evolved’ socially. Our lay society largely views death as an abrupt end to life, an eternal and dreamless sleep – or even more bluntly perhaps, an infinitude of non-being. Is it a surprise then that we nowadays live our life seeking pleasures, riches, enjoyment, shallow and constant gratifications of every one of our whims and selfish desires? Is it a surprise that we shun even the thought of death and remove from everyday existence even the mention of the word? How many euphemisms we have devised to replace the straightforward ‘she died’? “She passed away; she perished; she went the way of all flesh; she crossed the great divide; she went to meet her Maker; she croaked it; she kicked the bucket…” And so on.

Enter Coronavirus from stage left. It brings with it a sharp sickle, shining bright, its blade whetted and ready to be used. All are vulnerable, all may become horribly sick, all are at risk of dying. Yes, dying, not undergoing some strange linguistic euphemistic transmogrification. We are suddenly jolted back into the grim reality of death as an end to life. And even more so we are forced to contemplate the possibility of an unfair, premature, agonising death far from those we love and who love us. A rapid, sombre funeral (if we’re lucky!) to follow, no ‘celebration’ of our life and the telling of funny anecdotes in the upbeat ceremony, no playing of our favourite pop song.

To add insult to injury, COVID-19 has hit at the foundation of our comfortable, pleasurable existence. Worldwide, economies teeter, stock prices tumble, politicians flounder and pass bill after bill in parliament trying to rescue nations from recession, the world from a depression. Shops close, companies fold, our jobs are at risk, our lifestyle with its multitudinous delights has suddenly been degraded, all those activities which readily gave us amusing diversions and pointless recreations have suddenly ceased. The restaurants and bars have closed, the spectator sports have stopped, the cinemas, the discos, the clubs, the multitude of crowd-pleasers that filled our vacuous existence are all ‘temporarily suspended’.

Instead, we are now confined at home and forced to be alone with our worrying thoughts about life, death, the universe and everything. A reassessment of our existence to date inevitably follows. If we are lucky, we share our home with family, a partner, a pet, or even compatible company. The unlucky amongst us close our door and remain truly alone, making the isolation and ‘social distancing’ even more absolute, more trying, more gnawingly soul-destroying.

Really, when we consider everything, is it surprising that we have panicked? Is it so astounding that people all over the world are behaving in very strange ways? It is such great revelation when we see the scenes of mass hysteria, when we observe people doing whatever they believe will avert the possibility of their infection and the highly unpleasant dénouement it often entails? After all that, buying and stashing toilet paper seems to be a logical and greatly satisfying activity, which makes us better able to deal with the insanity of the situation we have to live through. I think I’m running low, I need to go and buy a few rolls…

TULIPOMANIA

“But the eyes are blind: One must look with the heart…” The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

In the language of flowers, a red tulip, Tulipa gesneriana, symbolises ardent love.  The tulip is an importation into the West from Turkey and Persia, the word tulip being derived from the Turkish word tulband, meaning “turban”.  Young men in Persia would present their love with red tulips, this signifying their heated countenance (red petals) and their heart burnt to a coal (the black base of the petals).  The tulip also stands for eloquence, oratory and fame.

Tulipomania also called Tulip Craze, (Dutch: Tulpenwoede), was a speculative frenzy in 17th-century Holland over the sale of tulip bulbs. The tulip was first introduced into Europe from Turkey shortly after 1550. The delicate, vividly-coloured flowers became a popular but very costly item. The demand for differently coloured varieties of tulips soon exceeded the supply, and prices for individual bulbs of rare types began to rise to unwarranted heights in northern Europe. By about 1610 a single bulb of a new variety was acceptable as dowry for a bride, and a flourishing brewery in France was exchanged for one bulb of the variety “Tulipe Brasserie”.

The craze reached its height in Holland during 1633–37. Before 1633 Holland’s tulip trade had been restricted to professional growers and experts, but the steadily rising prices tempted many ordinary middle-class and poor families to speculate in the tulip market. Homes, estates, and industries were mortgaged so that bulbs could be bought for resale at higher prices. Sales and resales were made many times over without the bulbs ever leaving the ground, and rare varieties of bulbs sold for the equivalent of hundreds of dollars each. The crash came early in 1637, when doubts arose as to whether prices would continue to increase. Almost overnight the price structure for tulips collapsed, sweeping away fortunes and leaving behind financial ruin for many ordinary Dutch families.

Does this sound familiar? Do you invest in stocks and shares? Does it remind you of what happened when the stock market crashed in 1929? The Great Depression? The market collapse of the late 1980s? How frail we humans are. Ready to succumb to our basest desires. Avarice and laziness are ever present in our psyche. We want something for nothing. Easy life and riches obtained without hard work. Why work hard when you can invest your capital (even better if you can borrow it!) so that it magically multiplies. Be it tulips of shares, who cares? As long as we can make a fortune. The billions of dollars spent on lottery tickets is another instance of this attitude…

This attitude of getting “something for nothing” is unfortunately becoming increasingly more common around the world. It is not a feature of Western nations only (the “cargo cult” of New Guinea springs to mind) but it is certainly widespread in countries like ours. The consumer society that we live in contributes to it to a certain extent and the advertising messages that we are inundated with are difficult to resist. Increasing desires for consumer goods and aspirations to a lifestyle suited to the “rich and famous” bring with them desire for ready cash. We have gone beyond what we need to have a “comfortable” life and now desire and greedily want a “luxurious” one.

I grow tulips in our garden and the only profit I get out of it is the beauty of the blooms, a more than ample reward of the hard work I invest in growing my plants. I am not a stock market investor, nor do I actively buy and sell shares. My salary was always earnt through my own labours – I need no parasitic riches. I have forgotten the last time I bought a lottery ticket (well, yes, I admit it I occasionally buy one, I am human too), but should I win, my family and friends would be the ones that would most profit, my winnings spread liberally to those around me.

HYDROECONOMICS

“And the hooded clouds, like friars, Tell their beads in drops of rain.” - HenryWadsworth Longfellow

How wonderful it is to lie in bed and hear the sound of rain falling on the roof, listen to the gurgling of the water as it runs down the gutters and the sound of cars on the wet streets. One is grateful and the mind turns to places affected by drought, California for example. Australia is often affected by severe droughts and we sympathise with our cousins across the great ditch…

We live on a planet whose surface is largely water, with 71% of it covered by water. However, this water is largely unusable because of its high solute content. Water locked away as ice in the polar regions is fresh, but inaccessible.  Lakes and rivers are becoming increasingly polluted and climate change in many cases reduces their water capacity, with water levels decreasing. Rain falls torrentially in some parts of the world, causing floods and destruction, with little possibility of long-term storage and alarm bells are ringing in many temperate regions where rain is becoming scarcer and scarcer.

Desalination of seawater has been suggested as a possible way of ensuring a reliable, and potentially limitless, fresh water supply for our major urban centres, many of which are coastal. Desalination is already operating in some countries and is providing water, although at a cost! The Middle East Desalination Research Centre, which is located in Muscat (Sultanate of Oman), was conceived out of the Middle East Multilateral Peace Process as an international organisation, which is dedicated to research in desalination technology. As water resources in the region are already under stress and future population and economic growth will require an increased supply, the Centre will seek to bring together scientists, engineers, water policy-makers and water system operators in the Middle East/North Africa region to work on areas of research that will reduce the cost of desalination. The economy of the Middle East is tied to desalination of seawater and brackish ground water.

Another way that can be used to generate fresh water is based on the principle of condensing water from humid air. This technology is already in use in small scale and machines are available for use in the home to produce drinking water directly from the air. To scale up this process is another suggestion for resolving our fresh water supply problems. Cost-effectiveness is the real limiting factor in this process and unless one has access to a cheap, renewable supply of energy, the process becomes too expensive in order to be scaled up. The use of nuclear power to run desalination and condensation plants has various attendant difficulties and raises a host of concerns.

Other ways of ensuring reliable fresh water supplies for big urban centres have been proposed, including increasing use of recycled water from waste water, building larger reservoirs in water catchment areas, better utilisation of groundwater and aquifers and also building urban water supplies that are more water efficient and allow recycling of grey water in applications that would allow its safe use (flushing toilets, watering parks and gardens, some industrial uses).

In any case, increasing public awareness of climate change, water shortages, green-efficient solutions, recycling and cognisance of the importance of reducing waste will help in more effective use of our precious resources.

My word for this Thursday is a neologism that describes what will become an increasingly major issue around the world:
Hydroeconomics |ˈhīdrōˌekəˈnämiks| (noun, pl.)

The study of the physical, cultural, political, and financial aspects of human interaction with the water cycle. The study of hydroeconomics will attract more interest in the near future as human populations find it necessary to make more efficient use of our dwindling fresh water supplies.

MUSIC SATURDAY - GREEK ELEGY

Μοναχή το δρόμο επήρες,

εξανάλθες μοναχή.

δεν είν’ εύκολες οι θύρες,

εάν η χρεία τες κουρταλεί.

Άλλος σου έκλαψε εις τα στήθια,

Αλλ’ ανάσαση καμιά.

Άλλος σου έταξε βοήθεια

και σε γέλασε φριχτά.

Alone you went on the road,

And you came back alone.

Doors don’t open easily

When need knocks on them.

Someone cried on your breast

But no relief was forthcoming.

Someone else promised to help you

But betrayed you terribly.

                  From “Hymn to Liberty” by Dionysios Solomós

Alexis Tsipras, Greece’s left wing prime minister has called a referendum on the 5th of July for Greek voters to decide whether to accept a bailout deal offered by international creditors. The PM made it clear he was against the “unbearable” bailout plan, which would further demoralise the already wretched populace and worsen the economic crisis faced by the country.

Greek Parliament is debating whether to ratify the vote, and internal bickering divides further the destabilised political scene. Eurozone finance ministers are meeting to discuss the crisis, and to decide whether to give Greece an extension of the bailout until after the vote. The current bailout expires on Tuesday, the same day Greece’s IMF debt is due. It is unclear what would happen if Greece does not get a temporary extension. Without a deal on the bailout, there are fears Greece’s economy could collapse.

Iceland’s debt default and financial crisis of 2008-11 comes to mind. The country faced difficulties after it defaulted its debts, but the world did not end and recovery occurred. Greece can perhaps do the same, if only all Greeks united and presented a strong, single voice of opposition to untenable and harsh economic conditions imposed by the external bodies (both European and International).

Aptly then today for Music Saturday, some music by a Greek Woman composer, Eleni Karaindrou. Eleni Karaindrou (Greek: Ελένη Καραΐνδρου; born 1941) is a Greek composer, born in the village of Teichio in Phocis, Central Greece, on November 25, 1941. She is best known for scoring the films of Greek director Theo Angelopoulos.

When she was eight, Karaindrou moved with her family to Athens, and she subsequently studied piano and theory at the Hellenic Conservatory. She also attended history and archaeology classes at the university. With the advent of the Greek military junta (in power 1967–1974) she moved to Paris in 1967, where she studied Ethnomusicology and Orchestration, and improvised with Jazz musicians. Then she began to compose popular songs.

In 1974 she returned to Athens where she established a laboratory for traditional instruments and collaborated with the department of Ethnomusicology of the National Radio. In 1976 she collaborated with ECM Records, and appreciated the creative freedom offered by the label. This was a period of high productivity for her; she was also introduced to music for the theatre and the cinema.

Karaindrou has stated that her own personal style emerged in working on soundtracks, and that the relationship between images and movements created a new space for her to express emotions. Her first soundtrack album was released in 1979 for the movie “Periplanisi” by Hristoforos Hristofis. In 1982 she won an award at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival and was noticed by Theo Angelopoulos, who was serving as president of the jury. Karaindrou collaborated with Angelopoulos on his last eight films, over the period 1984 to 2008.

Karaindrou is very prolific. By 2008 she had composed music for 18 full-length movies, 35 theatrical productions and 11 TV series and television movies. Among the screen directors she has worked with are Chris Marker, Jules Dassin and Margarethe von Trotta. In 1992 she received the Premio Fellini award.

MOVIE MONDAY - THE CONSTANT GARDENER

“If I had to climb into hell and wrestle the devil himself for one of my films, I would do it.” - Werner Herzog

Eighty years ago if someone contracted pneumonia caused by any one of several types of bacteria, it was quite likely that he or she would die a very rapid and a very unpleasant death. Similarly, at that time, high blood pressure was very poorly controlled and often led to fatal outcomes. Diseases like cancer, which are now controlled by a number of successful drugs, in the recent past quickly killed hundreds of thousands of people a year. Drugs have been developed recently for many common conditions – drugs we take for granted nowadays, and which allow millions of people worldwide to survive potentially lethal diseases. These drugs were only a few decades ago completely unknown. The science of pharmacology (drug discovery, the uses, effects, and modes of action of drugs) has come a long way in the last 50 years or so.

Associated with this immense development of drug therapies is the development of the pharmaceutical industry, a multi-billion dollar industry where multinational companies spend enormous amounts of money to develop, test and market therapeutic drugs. It is a lucrative business and one whose profits have been escalating constantly as more and more new drugs are being discovered and marketed around the world. It is to these multinational drug companies that spend enormous amounts of money to develop and market new drugs that we owe thanks for ridding us of the fatal outcomes associated with many of the killers of the past. We owe them a great deal of gratitude, altruists that they are… Should we really be that grateful? Are they the golden-hearted altruists that they wish us to believe them to be?

Before a new drug is marketed it has to adhere to a set of standards and several safety requirements must be met. Each and every drug has numerous side-effects (some of which are potentially lethal), adverse reactions, risks of causing allergies and other untoward reactions in people who are prescribed the drug. Much research and clinical trials must be carried out in order to test not only the efficacy of a newly developed drug, but also its potential for causing these adverse reactions. Ultimately, the drug must be tested on a human population, as all of the cell culture toxicity trials and animal trials that are carried out will give an indication of how these drugs will work in the human and all favourable preliminary drug trials must be extended to human clinical trials.

The testing of drugs on humans is a thorny area, a veritable minefield of ethical and moral dilemmas, a legally and constitutionally controlled activity, which in most Western countries is regulated to the point of non-viability in many cases. Drug companies that need to develop effective (and profit-making) new drugs spend enormous amounts of money to develop and test these drugs, often taking the clinical trials to developing countries where legislation is laxer and people more willing to “volunteer” take part in the trials (for one another benefit – money, food, or curing of a disease they suffer from). More information on this can be obtained here.

Needless to say that when billions of dollars of profits are involved, some companies are willing to bend a few rules and regulations, some are willing to act illegally and risk thousands of human lives in these clinical trials. People in developing countries are willing to collude with the drug companies, government officials are willing to accept bribes and proper, ethical conduct in drug trials is unlikely to occur under these circumstances. By cutting corners and risking “expendable” lives, profits are increased and the company’s competitiveness in the marketplace is assured. This keeps the shareholders happy and of course, benefits the ultimate end-user of the drug in a Western country who is assured of a cheaper, human-tested drug that can be sold with the pledge of causing few side effects in humans.

For Movie Monday today, I am looking at a film that takes as its subject the dirty and corrupt world of drug development and clinical trials and in its scope attempts to raise public awareness of the magnitude of the problem. It is “The ConstantGardener” (2005), Fernando Meirelles’ film of the book by John Le Carré.  It stars Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz who give good performances in this thriller. The film is also an accusation against big business, corporate corruption and unethical practices in business and government.

I found it to be a disturbing and emotionally challenging film, which contains many images that will stick in any sensitive person’s mind. The depth of the plot of the film is enhanced by several ideas that are also explored: How well do we know our partner in a marriage? How do we express our love in this most special of relationships? Who are our friends and how can we tell? Who can we trust in a difficult situation? How important is our career in our life and where do we place it in our scale of priorities? How active are we prepared to be in the social issues debate and what are we prepared to sacrifice in a quest for justice and fairness on a global level?

Fernando Meirelles has also directed the excellent “City of God” (2002) and he uses a similar documentary-style exposition in this film, and the non-linear plot working works very well, allowing us to delve into the lives of Justin and Tessa slowly, the horrible truth being finally revealed to us as though obscuring curtains are torn down successively. Justin’s journey of discovery and the gaining of wisdom is beautifully recounted and the immensity of his love for his wife is finally affirmed when he follows in her footsteps, realising her own immense love for him. We are challenged by this movie and we are forced to take a stand.

These days, we must realise that nothing remains hidden, no matter which distant part of the world it happens in and we must acknowledge the equal worth of every human life no matter which. We must take responsibility not only for our own actions, but also for the policies and actions of our governments, the ethics of the businesses we patronise and whose products we consume. This film is one that sounds an alarm bell and one that jars our conscience into full alertness and watchfulness…

OUR "INTERESTING" TIMES

“The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.” - Dante Alighieri

We live in interesting times… Interesting as in the old Chinese curse: “May you live during interesting times”! Everywhere one looks there is something “interesting” going on, as for example the activities of ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) or ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) if you prefer; the Ukraine crisis; climate change; the Ebola virus epidemic; almost daily terrorist attacks; African warfare and Asian warfare… And the list goes on with famines, rapes, murders, cannibalism, religious fanaticism, random shootings, abductions, kidnappings, etc, etc.

Granted that some of these events are local and have always occurred in the background right throughout human history, and the only way they achieve notoriety now is because of the internet and the ready dissemination of information (and misinformation!). However, one cannot deny that there is a constant escalation of all sorts of critical events around the world, each one of which could possibly have global consequences. The Ebola virus outbreak in Africa in one example, and we have already seen imported cases of the disease in Western countries, which rang alarm bells around the world.

The G20 summit is about to begin in Brisbane, Australia. Just in case you’ve just come out of a coma and you don’t know what G20 (Group of 20) is, it is a forum for the governments and central bank governors from 20 major economies, including 19 individual countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States; and the European Union (EU). The EU is represented by the European Commission and by the ECB.

The Brisbane G20 agenda outlines that action on tax avoidance, free trade, economic growth, tax avoidance and other economic issues will be discussed. There is growing scepticism that G20 meetings fail to achieve tangible outcomes and simply deteriorate into talkfests and a host of junket type activities for attendees (brothels in Brisbane are expecting a roaring trade).

In 2008 when the global economy was in crisis, the G20 was in panic mode, trying to find solutions. In the six intervening years since then it has become better known for the protests it attracts than the progress it has made on its central goals of promoting growth and strengthening international economic institutions. The leaders meeting in Brisbane this weekend will be under pressure to achieve something real and achievable for the gathering to prove its relevance, in times when the G20 risks losing focus. Climate change may be raised, but to its shame Australia wishes to avoid this thorny issue.

More importantly, the G20 summit has to shed its elitist, paternalistic and capitalistic image. There is a strong perception that the G20 is there to make the rich of the world richer and develop continuing economic well-being in Western type countries. That major banks are involved is reason enough for many people to doubt the intentions of the group as “global do-gooders” for all people in the world. Scandalously high annual salaries ($2 to $4 million) for top bankers and obscene “golden handshakes” on retirement find little sympathy amongst the common people who struggle with mortgages (if they are lucky enough to be buying a house), or even worse, those who are trying to scratch out a living in famine-ridden lands.

How much will be discussed in relation to developing countries in this G20 summit? Precious little, I should think. The G20 nations wish to preserve their supremacy, the bankers wish to grow their profits even more, the world leaders wish to strengthen capitalism, grow big business further and maintain the status quo in terms of the worker ants milling about slaving away and busily making the rich of the world richer. The G20 is indeed pursuing its interests wearing a set of prodigious blinkers that amplify the tunnel vision that characterises their activities.

Meanwhile, up in the heavens we’ve landed on a comet. On November 12, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft and Philae lander made history. The lander successfully made it to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Scientists confirmed the landing at a little bit after 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT). A huge technological and scientific step for humankind, but one has to wonder on its broader significance and its impact on the millions dying of famine, in wars, due to economic hardship, as a result of terrorism?

POETRY JAM - YOUR FAVOURITES

“Poverty is the worst form of violence.” - Mahatma Gandhi

For this week, Poetry Jam enjoins its readers to write about “a toy or game you liked in your childhood”. Almost all readers of this blog will have a wealth of happy childhood memories where many hours were spent in carefree play. It is important to remember, however, that there are still children in the world who live and die in poverty.

Of the estimated 2.2 billion children worldwide, about a billion, or every second child, live in poverty. Of the 1.9 billion children in developing nations, 640 million are without adequate shelter; 400 million are without access to safe water; 270 million have no access to health services. In 2003, 10.6 million children died before reaching the age of five, which is equivalent to the total child population of France, Germany, Greece, and Italy. 1.4 million die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation while 2.2 million die each year due to lack of immunisations...

Our Favourite Toys

A hard life, where every day is a struggle,
Where putting bread on the table is hard labour,
Where drinking water is never taken for granted:
A life that cheats death every day.

A hard existence, where everyone works
To eke out a living, and children grow up early,
To till the barren soil, trying to raise a meagre crop:
A life that gives pleasures rarely.

A poor man’s lot, where bitter food is eaten greedily,
Where hunger never goes away completely, and disease kills,
Where most children never get a chance to grow up:
A life of want gratefully stopped short.

Our favourite toys:
A ball of rags kicked stealthily, in between chores;
Worn plastic containers, no good for reuse,
Make toy houses, cars and drums to beat:
In secret, while we steal a few moments to play.

Sticks, pebbles, twigs – and if you’re lucky –
An old bicycle wheel, to make of them whatever
Your boundless imagination desires,
Rubbish transformed into wondrous things;
And most precious of all:
Your little sister a living doll to care for…

If you are able to, please donate some money to ease poverty in some part of the world so children are able to live, and perhaps play:

UNICEF is the United Nations Children’s Fund. UNICEF’s vision is of a world where the basic rights of every child will be met.

CARE Australia is an Australian charity and international humanitarian aid organisation fighting global poverty, with a special focus on empowering women and girls to bring lasting change to their communities.

World Vision is a worldwide community development organisation that provides short-term and long-term assistance to 100 million people worldwide (including 2.4 million children).

OUR GLOBAL VILLAGE

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it you will land among the stars.” - Les Brown

If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following:

There would be:

• 58 Asians
• 21 Europeans
• 17 Africans
• 4 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
• 52 would be female
• 48 would be male
• 70 would be non-white
• 30 would be white
• 71 would be non-Christian
• 29 would be Christian
• 98 would be heterosexual
• 2 would be homosexual
• 6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from USA
• 80 would live in substandard housing 
• 70 would be unable to read 
• 50 would suffer from malnutrition
• 1 would be near death
• 1 would be near birth
• 1 would have a university education
• 1 would own a computer...

When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly apparent. The following is also something to ponder...

• If you woke up this morning with more health than illness...you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week. 
• If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ...you are ahead of 500 million people in the world. 
• If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death ...you are more blessed than three billion people in the world. 
• If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep ...you are richer than 75% of this world. 
• If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace ... you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy. 
• If your parents are still alive and still married ... you are very rare, even in the United States and Canada.
• If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all. 

Consider donating some money to charity, because you are able to and because there are millions upon millions of people on earth who need support in order to survive just another day…

WORLD POVERTY & FOOD AID

“As a child my family’s menu consisted of two choices: Take it or leave it.” - Buddy Hackett

For many years I was naïve enough to believe that providing Food Aid to nations that were impoverished and had large malnourished populations, was a noble and worthy cause. I know that one sixth of humanity goes to bed hungry at night, even in non-famine, non-emergency situations. I would try to do my little bit to help and donated money so that food from our surplus could be dispatched to these people. The situation in some of these developing countries has now become a chronic dependence on the rich, developed nations of Europe, America and Australasia for continuing handouts of food. This has led to a culture of “food dumping” by the multinational agricultural companies.

Let me differentiate immediately between emergency famine relief and the term “food dumping”. The former is a humanitarian action designed to provide food quickly in order to save lives in the short term – the latter is a calculated, long-term provision of food to a third-world country, such that its own agriculture and self-sufficiency is stifled.  The USA is one of the world’s largest “dumpers” (60%, in fact!) with wheat, maize, soybean, rice and cotton being the major crops dumped. The dumping of the surplus agricultural production for free (or at a very low price) to poorer nations means that the farmers from such countries cannot compete and are driven out of jobs, further slanting the “market share” to the favour of the larger producers such as the US and Europe. A clear-cut case of commercial opportunism lies at the heart of the matter.

The other concern is that food aid to the poorer nations is contaminated with genetically modified foods. No controls exist for this and a person living in Africa on the poverty line is unlikely to request a genetic analysis of the food they have been given free to feed their starving family. These poor people of course, may have the option to buy locally produced food, which in many cases is fully organic. However, the price of this local food is outrageously expensive.

In order to provide a long-term solution, aid must not only provide stimulation of local food production but also provide the support needed for the local economy to develop and help people to get out of the slough of poverty they live in. Canada, a large provider of food aid, has decided to use half its food aid budget to provide buy food locally in developing countries, rather than dump its own. This encourages local economies, rather than destroy them. Needless to say that my food aid dollar now goes towards initiatives that provide help to agricultural and industrial initiatives, rather than “food dumping”.

And some more sobering facts on poverty:

• Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day.

• The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of the world’s countries) is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest people combined.

• Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.

• Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.

• 1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or roughly 29,000 children per day).

How can I help?

Poverty Action

Oxfam

United Nations World Food Programme

The image is: Kathe Kollwitz’s – "Poverty" (1893-94); Etching and drypoint - Statliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden