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Kristalina Georgieva is the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

By Kristalina Georgieva
WASHINGTON DC, Apr 22 2020 (IPS)

I have been saying for a while that this is a ‘crisis like no other.’ It is:

• More complex, with interlinked shocks to our health and our economies that have brought our way of life to an-almost complete stop;
• More uncertain, as we are learning only gradually how to treat the novel virus, make containment most effective, and restart our economies; and
• Truly global. Pandemics don’t respect borders, neither do the economic shocks they cause.

Credit: IMF

The outlook is dire. We expect global economic activity to decline on a scale we have not seen since the Great Depression.

This year 170 countries will see income per capita go down – only months ago we were projecting 160 economies to register positive per capita income growth.

Actions taken

Exceptional times call for exceptional action. In many ways, there has been a ‘response like no other’ from the IMF’s membership.

Governments all over the world have taken unprecedented action to fight the pandemic—to save lives, to protect their societies and economies. Fiscal measures so far have amounted to about $8 trillion and central banks have undertaken massive (in some cases, unlimited) liquidity injections.

For our part, the IMF has $1 trillion lending capacity – 4 times more than at the outset of the Global Financial Crisis—at the service of its 189 member countries. Recognizing the characteristics of this crisis—global and fast-moving such that early action is far more valuable and impactful—we have sought to maximize our capacity to provide financial resources quickly, especially for low-income members.

In this regard, we have strengthened our arsenal and taken exceptional measures in just these two months.

These actions include:
• Doubling the IMF’s emergency, rapid-disbursing capacity to meet expected demand of about $100 billion. 103 countries have approached us for emergency financing, and our Executive Board will have considered about half of these requests by the end of the month.
• Reforming our Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust, to help 29 of our poorest and most vulnerable members—of which 23 are in Africa—through rapid debt service relief, and we are working with donors to increase our debt relief resources by $1.4 billion. Thanks to the generosity of the UK, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore, and China, we are able to provide immediate relief to our poorest members.
• Aiming to triple our concessional funding via our Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust for the most vulnerable countries. We are seeking $17 billion in new loan resources and, in this respect, I am heartened by pledges from Japan, France, UK, Canada, and Australia promising commitments totaling $11.7 billion, taking us to about 70 percent of the resources needed towards this goal.
• Supporting a suspension of official bilateral debt repayments for the poorest countries through end 2020—a ground-breaking accord among G20 countries. This is worth about $12 billion to nations most in need. And calling for private sector creditors to participate on comparable terms—which could add a further $8 billion of relief.
• Establishing a new short-term liquidity line that can help countries strengthen economic stability and confidence.

Kristalina Georgieva

This is the package of actions that the International Monetary and Financial Committee endorsed last week at our virtual Spring Meetings.

It represents a powerful policy response. Above all, it enables the IMF to get immediate, ‘here and now’ support to countries and people in desperate need. Today.

Preventing a protracted recession

But there is much more to be done and now is the time to look ahead. To quote a great Canadian, Wayne Gretzky: “Skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.”

We need to think hard about where this crisis is headed and how we can be ready to help our member countries, being mindful of both risks and opportunities. Just as we responded strongly in the initial phase of the crisis to avoid lasting scars for the global economy, we will be relentless in our efforts to avoid a painful, protracted recession.

I am particularly concerned about emerging markets and developing countries.

They have experienced the sharpest portfolio flow reversal on record, of about $100 billion. Those dependent on commodities have been further shocked by plummeting export prices. Tourism-dependent countries are experiencing a collapse of revenues, as are those relying on remittances for income support.

For emerging economies, the IMF can engage through our regular lending instruments, including those of a precautionary nature. This may require considerable resources if further market pressures arise.

To prevent them from spreading, we stand ready to deploy our full lending capacity and to mobilize all layers of the global financial safety net, including whether the use of SDRs could be more helpful.

For our poorest members, we need much more concessional financing. With the peak of the outbreak still ahead, many economies will require significant fiscal outlays to tackle the health crisis and minimize bankruptcies and job losses, while facing mounting external financing needs.

But more lending may not always be the best solution for every country. The crisis is adding to high debt burdens and many could find themselves on an unsustainable path.

We therefore need to contemplate new approaches, working closely with other international institutions, as well as the private sector, to help countries steer through this crisis and emerge more resilient.

And the IMF, like our member countries, may need to venture even further outside our comfort zone to consider whether exceptional measures might be needed in this exceptional crisis.

Preparing for recovery

To help lay the foundations for a strong recovery, our policy advice will need to adapt to evolving realities. We need to have a better understanding of the specific challenges, risks and tradeoffs facing every country as they gradually restart their economies.

Key questions include how long to maintain the extraordinary stimulus and unconventional policy measures, and how to unwind them; dealing with high unemployment and ‘lower-for-longer’ interest rates; preserving financial stability; and, where needed, facilitating sectoral adjustment and private sector debt workouts.

We also must not forget about long-standing challenges that require a collective response, such as reigniting trade as an engine for growth; sharing the benefits of fintech and digital transformation which have demonstrated their usefulness during this crisis; and combating climate change—where stimulus to reinforce the recovery could also be guided to advance a green and climate resilient economy.

Finally, in the new post-COVID-19 world, we simply cannot take social cohesion for granted. So, we must support countries’ efforts in calibrating their social policies to reduce inequality, protect vulnerable people, and promote access to opportunities for all.

This is a moment that tests our humanity. It must be met with solidarity.

There is much uncertainty about the shape of our future. But we can also embrace this crisis as an opportunity—to craft a different and better future together.

 

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The post A Global Crisis Like No Other Needs a Global Response Like No Other appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Kristalina Georgieva is the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

The post A Global Crisis Like No Other Needs a Global Response Like No Other appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Considered essential to the U.S. economy, as Donald Trump himself now acknowledges, Mexico's seasonal farmworkers are exposed to the coronavirus pandemic as they work in U.S. fields, which exacerbates violations of their rights, such as wage theft, fraud, and other abuses. CREDIT: Courtesy of MHP Salud

By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY, Apr 21 2020 (IPS)

As the high season for agricultural labour in the United States approaches, tens of thousands of migrant workers from Mexico are getting ready to head to the fields in their northern neighbour to carry out the work that ensures that food makes it to people’s tables.

But the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic, of which the U.S. has become the world’s largest source of infection, threatens to worsen the already precarious conditions in which these workers plant, harvest, process and move fruits and vegetables in the U.S.

Exposed to illegal charges for visa, transport and accommodation costs, labour exploitation, lack of access to basic services and unhealthy housing, Mexican seasonal workers driven from their homes by poverty must also now brave the risk of contagion.

Evy Peña, director of communications and development at the non-governmental Centro de los Derechos del Migrante (Migrant Rights Centre – CDM), told IPS from the city of Monterrey that the COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating violations of the rights of migrant workers.

“Temporary visa programmes are rife with abuse, from the moment workers are recruited in their communities. They suffer fraud, they are offered jobs that don’t even exist in the United States. It’s a perverse system in which recruiters and employers have all the control. There are systemic flaws that will become more evident now,” the activist said.

In 1943, the United States created H2 visas for unskilled foreign workers, and in the 1980s it established H-2A categories for farm workers and H-2B categories for other work, such as landscaping, construction and hotel staff.

In 2019, Washington, which had already declared them “essential” to the economy, granted 191,171 H-2A and 73,557 H-2B visas to Mexican workers, and by January and February of this year had issued 27, 058 and 6,238, respectively.

Two emergencies converge

Now, the two countries are negotiating to send thousands of farmworkers within or outside of the H2 programme, starting this month, to ensure this year’s harvest in the U.S. The Mexican government has polled experts to determine the viability of the plan, IPS learned.

The migrant workers would come from Michoacan, Oaxaca, Zacatecas and the border states. The plan would put leftist President Andres Manuel López Obrador in good standing with his right-wing counterpart, Donald Trump; generate employment for rural workers in the midst of an economic crisis; and boost remittances to rural areas.

For his part, Trump, forced by a greater need for rural workers in the face of the pandemic and under pressure from agriculture, abandoned his anti-immigrant policy and on Apr. 1 even issued a call for the arrival of Mexican migrant workers.

“We want them to come in,” he said. “They’ve been there for years and years, and I’ve given the commitment to the farmers: They’re going to continue to come.”

U.S. authorities can extend H-2A visas for up to one year and the maximum period of stay is three years. After that, the holder must remain outside U.S. territory for at least three months to qualify for re-entry with the same permit.

On Apr. 15, Washington announced temporary changes allowing workers to switch employers and to stay longer than three years.

A Mexican migrant worker works at a vineyard in California, one of the U.S. states most dependent on seasonal labour from Mexico in agriculture, and which has now urged President Donald Trump to facilitate the arrival of guest workers from that country so crops are not lost. CREDIT: Kau Sirenio/En el Camino

The most numerous jobs are in fruit harvesting, general agricultural work such as planting and harvesting, and on tobacco plantations, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Migrant workers traditionally come from Mexican agricultural and border states and their main destinations are agricultural areas where there is a temporary or permanent shortage of labourers.

Jeremy McLean, policy and advocacy manager for the New York-based non-governmental organisation Justice in Motion, expressed concern about the conditions in which migrants work.

The way the system works, “it’s not going to be easy to follow recommendations for social distancing. Hundreds of thousands of people are going to come and won’t be able to follow these recommendations, and they will put themselves at risk. It could spell another wave of infection and transmission,” he warned IPS.

“This population group has no health services and no medical insurance. If they fall ill in a remote area, what help can they get?” he said from New York.

On Mar. 26, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico reported that it would process without a personal interview the applications of those whose visas had expired in the previous two years or who had not received them in that time, under pressure from U.S. agribusiness.

Trapped with no way out

The migrant workers’ odyssey begins in Mexico, where they are recruited by individual contractors – workers or former workers of a U.S. employer, fellow workers, relatives or friends, in their hometowns – or by private U.S. agencies.

Although article 28 of Mexico’s Federal Labour Law, in force since 1970 and overhauled in 2019, regulates the provision of services by workers hired within Mexico for work abroad, it is not enforced.

It requires that contracts be registered with the labour authorities and that a bond be deposited to guarantee compliance. It also holds the foreign contractor responsible for the costs of transport, repatriation, food for the worker and immigration, as well as the payment of full wages, compensation for occupational hazards and access to adequate housing.

In addition, it states that Mexican workers are entitled to social security benefits for foreigners in the country where they are offering their services.

Although the Mexican government could enforce article 28 of the law in order to safeguard the rights of migrant workers who enter and leave the United States under the visa programme, it has failed to do so.

In its recent report “Ripe for Reform: Abuse of Agricultural Workers in the H-2A Visa Program”, the bi-national CDM organisation reveals that migrant workers experience wage theft, health and safety violations, discrimination, and harassment as part of a human trafficking system.

Recruitment without oversight

For Mayela Blanco, a researcher at the non-governmental Centre for Studies in International Cooperation and Public Management, the problem is the lack of monitoring or inspections of recruiters and agencies.

“In Mexico there are still many gaps in the mechanisms for monitoring and inspecting recruitment. There is still fraud,” she told IPS. “How often do they inspect? How do they guarantee that things are working the way they’re supposed to?”

There are 433 registered placement agencies in the country, distributed in different states, according to data from the National Employment Service. For the transfer of labour abroad, there are nine – a small number considering the tens of thousands of visas issued in 2019.

For its part, the U.S. Department of Labor reports 239 licenced recruiters in that nation working for a handful of U.S. companies.

Data obtained by IPS indicates that Mexico’s Ministry of Labour only conducted 91 inspections in nine states from 2009 to 2019 and imposed 12 fines for a total of around 153,000 dollars. Some states with high levels of migrant workers were never visited by inspectors.

Furthermore, the records of the federal labour board do not contain any reports of violations of article 28.

Mexico is a party to the Fee-Charging Employment Agencies Convention 96 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which it violates due to non-compliance with the rights of temporary workers.

Peña stressed that there is still a gap between the U.S. and Mexico in labour protection and said workers are being left behind because of that gap.

“Countries like Mexico see temporary visas as a solution to labour migration and allow the exploitation of their citizens. The H2 programme is about labour migration and governments forget that bilateral solutions are needed,” she said.

In response to the pandemic and its risks, 37 organisations called on the U.S. government on Mar. 25 for adequate housing with quarantine facilities, safe transportation, testing for workers before they arrive in the United States, physical distancing on farms and paid treatment for those infected with COVID-19.

Blanco emphasised the lack of justice and reparation mechanisms. “The more visas issued, the greater the need for oversight. Mexico is perceived as a country of return or transit of migrants, but it should be recognised as a place of origin of temporary workers. And that is why it must comply with international labour laws,” she said.

McLean raised the need for a new U.S. law to guarantee the rights of migrant workers, who are essential to the economy, as underscored by the demand reinforced by the impact of COVID-19.

“We pushed for a law to cover all temporary visa programmes so that there would be more information, to avoid fraud and wage theft. But it is very difficult to get a commitment to immigration dialogue in the United States today,” he said.

But the ordeal that migrant workers face will not end with their work in the U.S. fields, because in October they will have to return to their hometowns, which will be even more impoverished due to the consequences of the health crisis, and with COVID-19 in all likelihood still posing a threat.

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Mandeep Tiwana is chief programmes officer at CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance. He’s based at CIVICUS’ New York office.

By Mandeep Tiwana
NEW YORK, Apr 21 2020 (IPS-Partners)

In her book, ‘A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,’ Mary Ann Glendon tells the beautiful story of how out of the ashes of the Second World War emerged the world’s pre-eminent rights framework. The Declaration recognises the inherent dignity of every human being and was born out of the shared horror felt by the international community with war crimes and genocide on an unprecedented scale. It acknowledged that fundamental change was needed to make the world fit for future generations.

Mandeep Tiwana

Today, the COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting our lives and livelihoods in wholly unanticipated ways, testing the resilience of our social, economic and political structures. Fundamental problems in our economies and societies stand exposed and accelerated. A global recovery effort will be needed. But it must do more than just paper over cracks. Business as usual approaches won’t work. In the current scenario, we at CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance, believe that resolute action on five key areas is crucial.

First, we need to rethink how our economies are structured. The response to the pandemic has created huge economic shocks. It is estimated that cutbacks have amounted to the loss of about 195 million jobs over the first three months alone. People are experiencing lay-offs and pay cuts on a monumental scale. Small businesses built through a lifetime of striving and saving are facing ruin. Street vendors and others who work in the informal sector are facing deprivation and even starvation. Many will face ruinous healthcare bills. All of this adds to the immeasurable human cost of losing precious lives. The pandemic has already exposed the fragilities and inequities in our economies. Those who are presently performing the most essential jobs to keep our societies running are often the least rewarded. It’s estimated that half a billion people could be pushed into poverty by the impacts of COVID-19. With over 90 countries seeking assistance from the International Monetary Fund, the present economic lockdown is being characterised as the worst economic crisis in nearly a century.

To navigate a new normal, our economies will need to change in fundamental ways as too many people are adrift. Solidarity and mutual accommodation between workers and employers, property owners and tenants, and creditors and debtors, will be key. An egalitarian economic model that protects the weakest and creates stability through redistribution of resources would be a wise choice for decision makers. Now is the time to reinforce public control over essential services such as health, test new models such as a universal basic income and try out progressive modes of taxation to create fairer societies.

Second, the needs of the most excluded should be placed front and centre. Daily wage labourers, informal workers and migrants, who are often the most impoverished, are bearing the brunt of the present crisis. Their living conditions make physical distancing and access to proper sanitation particularly difficult. Xenophobia, denial of access to basic services and repression by law enforcement agencies against excluded groups has been compounded in the current scenario. Risks of abuse have multiplied as violence against women has spiked during lockdowns. In several places, the pandemic has reinforced racism and discrimination against disadvantaged religious and ethnic minorities. Some LGBTQI+ people have been targeted by misinformation accusing them of spreading the virus. The elderly and those with compromised immune systems who don’t have access to adequate nutrition and health care are extremely vulnerable to the ravages of the virus.

A key aspect of reconstruction efforts post COVID-19 should focus on adopting a human rights approach that seeks to reach the most disadvantaged first. Decision makers should make wise and humane choices that enhance well-being through spending on social security nets rather than military infrastructures and repressive state apparatuses. A key aspect of reconstruction efforts post-COVID should be to dismantle systems that perpetuate cycles of poverty and exclusion, and adequately compensate the most affected.

Third, the spotlight needs to be on climate justice and safeguarding biodiversity. Lockdowns have drastically lowered pollution levels and made air breathable in several major cities. Social media is replete with pictures of mountain vistas previously hidden due to pollution, and of endangered animals emboldened to walk the empty streets of shuttered towns. In every corner of the world, the reality of environmental degradation is visible – along with the possibility of reversal. The pandemic has provided the impetus to question our patterns of conspicuous consumption while also exposing the jarring environmental impacts of contemporary ways of life. Just last year wildfires and flooding devasted large swathes of the planet from the Amazon to Australia, causing immeasurable suffering and loss of biodiversity.

The healing of nature that we’ve started to see from people staying home should be encouraged and become the post-pandemic new normal.Indigenous communities around the world have long lived in greater harmony with nature. Decision makers can learn from their ways of life by prescribing practices that allow for regeneration of natural resources and focus on sustainable means of production and consumption. Earnest implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate action to limit our emissions of greenhouse gases and control rises in temperatures can set us on a better path.

Fourth, international cooperation is crucial. The pandemic has laid bare the artificial nature of our borders and accentuated the need for cooperation – rather than competition – between countries. Nonetheless, a few political leaders have taken recourse in self-serving insular modes of nationalism. The spread of COVID-19 has shown that sharing information, technology and resources can make a huge difference in saving lives and lessening negative impacts. The importance of multilateral institutions, especially the United Nations, which turns 75 this year, in understanding the extent of the crisis and devising responses appropriate to the scale of the pandemic cannot be overstated. Governments around the world have turned to multilateral institutions for leadership and support in the fight against the virus. COVID-19 has shown us that we need stronger international cooperation and unified actions across borders. The UN Secretary General’s call for a global ceasefire is significantin this respect.

Responses to the pandemic must therefore safeguard the independence of international institutions, including the World Health Organisation, from the narrow geo-political interests of powerful states and the profit driven impulses of mega businesses. This will surely not be the last global crisis. Investments by states in well-resourced international institutions able to respond rapidly to future emergencies is crucial. Payment of dues on time to the UN would be a good first step.

Fifth, civic freedoms and unfettered civil societies are needed now more than ever. Political leaders are making life-or-death decisions and choices that could define the fate of generations. The need to access credible information, shape decisions and hold decision makers to account has never been more acute. This is a hard task, even in normal circumstances, when only three per cent of the world’s population live in countries where the civic freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression are adequately protected. Constraints on civil society freedoms have been further exacerbated through declarations of emergency in over 70 countries.

In many parts of the world, delays in election processes, censorship and restrictions on press freedom in relation to COVID-19 have made it harder for people and civil society organisations to articulate their needs and question the official response to the pandemic. Limits on freedom of movement and assembly have proliferated, disrupting public protests claiming rights and demanding justice. Law enforcement agencies have been given enhanced coercive powers, which although temporary in nature might linger.

One thing is clear: as often happens in crises, civil society organisations around the world have come forward, providing food, health care and other essential services to those in need. They have demonstrated leadership in stepping up protections for their workers and are actively contributing innovative ideas and policy solutions to pandemic responses. In the present scenario, public safety concerns should be balanced by a rights-based approach. All emergency measures should stand the test of proportionality and necessity in a democratic society, in line with international law and the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Emergency measures should be withdrawn as soon as normalcy returns.

The post-Second World War experience has shown that crisis moments can be important turning points. COVID-19 has exposed deep fault-lines in our current way of living. Course correction through a revamped societal contract is urgently needed. The road less travelled might lead us to something beautiful.

The post Reimagining a Post COVID World: Key Principles for the Future appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Mandeep Tiwana is chief programmes officer at CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance. He’s based at CIVICUS’ New York office.

The post Reimagining a Post COVID World: Key Principles for the Future appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: Samuel Otieno/UNHCR

By External Source
IBADAN, NIGERIA, Apr 21 2020 (IPS)

Since the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic late last year in Wuhan, China, the global community has witnessed unprecedented policy responses to curtail, contain and control the disease. Many have proven to be successful. But others required critical context consideration.

For instance, the lockdown in Nigeria risks threatening the livelihoods of millions of people who are dependent on the informal market for their survival. Another example is the fact that the security measures being imposed are extracting a heavy price from ordinary citizens.

The situation is a learning curve for all countries.

The responses at national level have included policy measures consistent with recommended social and hygienic practices.

These have ranged from staying at home and regular washing of hands or use of sanitiser to social and physical distancing, wearing of protective masks and kits, limiting the number of people in public gatherings, restriction of human and vehicular movement or curfews or travel bans, and total or partial lockdown.

I think it is imperative that poor countries do not simply cut-and-paste interventions being imposed in rich countries. The specific differences between rich and poor countries should be taken on board

There have also been broad policy responses to help economies manage their way through the crisis.

Some policy responses have proven to be effective in some cases. But what’s become clear is that policy responses cannot be a one-size-fits-all. That is, the local realities of each country in terms of financial, social, cultural and environmental contexts should be considered.

Based on my academic work on public policy and sustainable development, I think it is imperative that poor countries do not simply cut-and-paste interventions being imposed in rich countries. The specific differences between rich and poor countries should be taken on board.

I have therefore identified six areas that countries in Africa would do well to focus on. The list comes from my experience of working with administrations seeking to meet development goals ranging from social inclusion to economic sustainability.

 

Six key areas to focus on

The first need is for proper data and information management. These play a critical role, right from the identification of the first case to tracing contacts, provision of medical care infrastructure and caring for infected and affected populations. Countries that have data about their residents, like the United Kingdom, are able to target the measures they put in place. Countries that don’t have data about their populations, like many in Africa, are unable to focus their responses.

Secondly, developing countries must avoid simply copying the policy responses of rich countries. Countries have different resources. It would be unrealistic to contain and control the COVID-19 pandemic in a uniform way. There is a need to reconsider and rejig the current policy responses by countries to suit their local contexts.

Home-grown initiatives – like support for households and livelihoods – would offer sufficient conditions for effective disease control and management. For example, Ghana and Rwanda have home-grown school feeding and health insurance programmes that have worked. These could be used to ensure national coverage of social inclusion and social protection during this period.

Thirdly, local resources should be used while soliciting greater partnership. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the strength and weaknesses of both rich and poor countries. It has also shown opportunity for partnership for sustainable development. This includes monetary and material support from rich countries to help manage the disease.

The socio-economic foundations of most countries have been shaken, while resilience-building capacity – the ability to rebound and recover – has become the defining character for the survival of countries. For instance, the fall in the price of crude oil has affected the annual budget of many oil-producing countries, including Nigeria. Such countries will need to re-strategise on economic diversification of the revenue base.

The fourth need is to strengthen institutions and build human capacity for disaster and risk management. Having the right institutions in place – such as a national disaster and risk management commission, inter-ministerial capability and the right skill-sets – have also been effective in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Poor countries have a lot to learn on this front.

Fifthly, citizens are at the mercy of government when there is an emergency like this pandemic. Trust can only be assured when the right leadership is in place. The important factors are respect for human life, and responsive and responsible institutions.

Lastly, all countries need a recovery and sustainability plan. COVID-19 is not the first pandemic to happen in the world. Each century has witnessed different pandemics, often resulting in global economic recessions. What is important, therefore, is to plan for recovery. Countries will emerge from the current pandemic in different economic conditions. Those that have robust economic recovery plans will recover faster and rebuild better.

 

Olawale Emmanuel Olayide, Research Fellow and Coordinator, Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Ibadan, University of Ibadan

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Credit: Human Rights Center, University of Dayton, Ohio

By Sam Ben-Meir
NEW YORK, Apr 21 2020 (IPS)

Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 film The Seventh Seal is set in medieval Sweden, as the bubonic plague ravages the countryside. In one famous scene, a procession of zombie-like flagellants enters a village and interrupts a comic stage-show.

The townspeople are present to hear the procession’s leader, a bombastic preacher who proclaims that death is coming for them all: they are full of sin – lustful and gluttonous – and the plague is God’s punishment for their wicked ways.

That scene is not without historical merit: the flagellants were indeed a very real phenomenon, and with the plague, the movement grew and spread throughout Europe.

For most of us, public self-mutilation and penance is a particularly extreme and repulsive form of religious fanaticism. But in the West, we still have ways of lashing ourselves, and each other, in the face of plague, pestilence and the terror they sow; and pandemics still invariably prompt a religious explanation.

During the AIDS epidemic, we were told that God was punishing homosexuals and illicit drug users. In 1992, 36 percent of Americans admitted that AIDS might be God’s punishment for sexual immorality.

The interesting question is: What is the temptation to view a catastrophe like the plague as divine punishment as opposed to a brute fact of nature?

Surely at least one reason we are tempted to do so is because, if it is heavenly retribution, then the hardship still has some meaning; we still live in a world with an underlying moral structure.

Indeed, to many, the idea that such a great calamity is nothing more than a brute act of nature is far more painful to contemplate than an account by which God cares enough about us to punish us.

In case you think the coronavirus is any different, it is not. On March 8, 2020, the Times of Israel reported that Rabbi Meir Mazuz “claimed the spread of the deadly coronavirus in Israel and around the world is divine retribution for gay pride parades.”

By some ironic twist, the rabbi is basically in agreement with Rick Wiles, a Florida pastor who said the spread of coronavirus in synagogues is a punishment of the Jewish people.

The Jerusalem Post quotes Wiles as saying, “It’s spreading in Israel through the synagogues. God is spreading it in your synagogues! You are under judgment because you oppose his son, Jesus Christ. That is why you have a plague in your synagogues. Repent and believe on the name of Jesus Christ, and the plague will stop.”

The temptation to view catastrophes as divine punishment is nothing to scoff or smirk at: it is entirely legitimate to want to construct a narrative out of what has occurred – to find a pattern, to derive some meaning that redeems the suffering, hardship and death.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres appeals for a global ceasefire in a virtual press conference broadcast on UN Web TV last month. Credit: UN News/Daniel Dickinson

What is unfortunate is the tendency to point to some perceived wickedness of which others are purportedly guilty as the justification for God’s wrath.

Both the rabbi and the pastor are the same: both talk like Job’s notorious companions, those so-called friends of the unfortunate and innocent Job, who insist that he must be guilty, that he must have sinned for God to assail him with such fury.

Of course, at the end of the poem, God tells the companions that they were wrong: Job was right – his suffering was not punishment for any sin he had committed. Indeed, the Bible teaches that God often sees fit to test precisely those that are good and righteous. Sadly, the pastor and rabbi entirely disregard that biblical lesson.

If a pandemic is divine punishment, then in a sense we can be at peace – inasmuch as we have provided the scourge with a theodicy, that is, a justification of God’s ways to man.

Whenever we are faced with human tragedy, we cannot but question how an omnibenevolent and omnipotent deity would permit so much suffering to occur. A plague sharpens the concerns that lie at the heart of the theological problem of evil – the problem of reconciling a loving God with the reality and ubiquity of human and animal suffering.

Thankfully, most religious leaders are unwilling to cast the burden of guilt on any particular group of which they may disapprove. Instead, they take a page from Job and underscore the impenetrable mystery of suffering – taking their inspiration perhaps from God’s speech to Job from out of the whirlwind, where He begins with one of the famous queries of the Bible: “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?”

And He continues with withering sarcasm, “Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!” In short, do not attempt to sound the depths of God’s inscrutable purpose.

For every pandemic there is a theology; by their nature, they call forth notions of guilt, sin and responsibility. It is almost as if we cannot but view them through theological categories.

Each pandemic begins with a kind of “fall,” or original sin, which we attempt to retrace with our search for “patient zero,” the individual representing the source of the calamity, the one who kicked us out of paradise as it were.

The writers of the 2011 film “Contagion” clearly had as much in mind when they decided that their story’s patient zero (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) should also be an adulteress.

A pandemic also highlights an inescapable function of all significant human action – namely, that our actions always outrun our intentions. Everything we do has consequences that we never anticipated, wanted or even imagined.

We like to think that we are not responsible for everything our actions may cause – but the reality is that we cannot dodge or entirely relinquish our responsibility even for those things we never intended.

Perhaps like nothing else, a pandemic reveals the burden of human action, our infinite liability; indeed, our indeclinable responsibility.

There is a theology accompanying every plague because there is a very human need to make sense of such colossal suffering. That theology may take the form of a conspiracy theory, but it is a theology all the same.

One example is the persistent speculation that the coronavirus originated in some kind of bio-weapons laboratory in Wuhan, China. This explanation, regardless of its lack of evidentiary merit, is a temptation because it offers us a story, which is but a secularized version of the fall.

The essential features are there: to say that human beings deliberately created the virus is to say that this pandemic is the result of human transgression; that human hubris introduced this uncontrollable element that upset the order of things.

The current pandemic has left fear and death, loneliness and stagnation in its wake. We must start asking ourselves what it has all been for.

Eventually, this great tide of suffering will ebb, life will resume, the economy will reopen and pick up steam, and the coronavirus will slowly fade from our immediate view – at that point, when we think of all those many tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands who died, alone, what will we be able to point to as their legacy? What did they die for?
Undoubtedly many will say only that their deaths were unfortunate – all we can do to honor their sacrifice is return to life as it was, prosper and grow the economy at two percent annually. If we allow that to happen, then we will have failed, completely and utterly.

If we do not seize this crisis as a moment for transformation, then we will have lost the war. If doing so requires reviving notions of collective guilt and responsibility – including the admittedly uncomfortable view that every one of us is infinitely responsible, then so be it; as long we do not morally cop out by blaming some group as the true bearers of sin, guilt, and God’s heavy judgment.

A pandemic clarifies the nature of action: that with our every act we answer to each other. In that light, we have a duty to seize this public crisis as an opportunity to reframe our mutual responsibility to one another and the world.

The post The Theology of Pandemics appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Sam Ben-Meir is a professor of philosophy and world religions at Mercy College in New York City.

The post The Theology of Pandemics appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 21 2020 (IPS)

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro appointed medical entrepreneur Nelson Teich his new health minister on 17 April. The businessman quickly echoed his boss’ desire to resume business as usual regardless of its potentially lethal consequences.

Bolsonaro had fired his previous health minister, displeased by Luiz Henrique Mandetta’s public remarks on the need for lockdowns and physical distancing. Mandetta’s firing was met with outrage across Brazil. Locked-down citizens banged pots and pans, shouting “Bolsonaro Murder”.

Anis Chowdhury

In his final briefing as minister, Mandetta urged staff to challenge “denialism” and mount an “unyielding defence of life and science”. “Don’t be afraid”, he said, “Science is light … and it is through science that we will find a way out of this.”

Covid-19 apocalypse
Meanwhile, Brazil has begun digging large graveyards ahead of an anticipated peak of the national Covid-19 epidemic. In Sao Paulo’s Vila Formosa cemetery, the largest in Latin America, about 20 excavators are digging graves around the clock.

In an impassioned interview, popular former President Lula da Silva accused Bolsonaro of leading Brazilians “to the slaughterhouse” with his irresponsible handling of the crisis. Officially confirmed cases have soared to over 38,000, with close to 2,500 deaths as of April 19.

But these figures likely understate the gravity of the situation as Brazil’s states have no standardized testing method, and mainly test those hospitalized. A Brazilian research group estimates actual infections at 15 times the official number. Lula’s successor, Dilma Rousseff has asked: “Why is there no testing? What are they trying to conceal?”

Another study projects that without any action to stem the pandemic, Brazil could face more than 1.15 million deaths, and 529779 with only ‘enhanced social distancing’ for the elderly over 70. Even with extreme lockdown measures and widespread testing, the death toll would still be 44,200 due to late action.

Bolsonaro vs state governors
Despite the life-threatening risks, Bolsonaro has compared the C-19 threat to a “little flu” or “cold”, dismissing it as a media-hyped “fantasy”. He has dismissed preventive measures as “hysterical” and has repeatedly demanded that state governors withdraw their social distancing orders.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

On March 24, Bolsonaro emulated US President Donald Trump, claiming “those under 40 rarely die of coronavirus and that even he, at 65, shouldn’t be worried because he was ‘an athlete’ in the past”. On April 8, Bolsonaro passed the buck, “Each family has to protect its elderly people, not to throw that responsibility to the state.”

Bolsonaro has disregarded social distancing recommendations, urging others to also defy them. At a pro-government rally he called on March 15, he shook hands with the crowd while supposed to be in quarantine after 24 people who had travelled with him to the United States had tested positive for the virus!

The Brazilian president has also lashed out at Brazil’s state governors, who have ordered shops and schools closed to slow the spread of the pandemic that threatens to overwhelm the health system in Latin America’s largest nation. Nevertheless, Brazil’s 27 state governors have defiantly maintained restrictions.

Sao Paulo has been the epicentre of the outbreak in Brazil. Without offering a shred of evidence, Bolsonaro accused the state of exaggerating its Covid-19 deaths. Its governor Joao Doria has accused Bolsonaro of unleashing an “uncontrolled attack” against him for his strict measures in the economically crucial industrial state.

Bolsonaro vs courts, congress
The President’s March 20 executive order, stripping states of authority to restrict people’s movements, was revoked by Brazil’s Supreme Court four days later.

On March 23, Bolsonaro issued a presidential order suspending deadlines for government agencies to respond to public information requests, including his policies to address the health emergency. Brazil’s Congress rejected the decree.

On March 27, a federal court suspended Bolsonaro’s presidential decree the previous day exempting churches and lottery houses from state and municipal health regulations by classifying them as essential services, also barring the federal government from over-ruling social distancing measures enacted by states.

On March 28, a federal judge ordered the federal government to stop a publicity campaign urging Brazilians to flout social distancing recommendations, initiated by the president’s own communications office and his son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro.

On April 1, Bolsonaro posted a video claiming shortages of food and other essential products because of Minas Gerais state government measures, which his own agriculture minister later admitted was false.

Military is back
Meanwhile, the Brazilian elite is losing faith in Bolsonaro as his handling of the crisis threatens to call into question the entire status quo. In response, Bolsonaro has appointed his Chief of Staff Gen. Walter Braga Netto to head a new crisis committee.

Braga Netto was praised by Vice President Gen. Hamilton Mourão for “doing what we (the military) know, putting the house in order”, less than a week after Mourão celebrated the 1964 US-backed military coup that led to a 21-year military dictatorship, tweeting “56 years ago, the Armed Forces intervened to face the disorder, subversion and corruption that ravaged institutions and scared the population”.

Meanwhile, Army Commander Gen. Edson Leal Pujol issued a March 24 statement, warning: “The Strong Arm will act if necessary, and the Friendly Hand will be more extended than ever to our Brazilian brothers”, concluding “WE WILL FIGHT WITHOUT FEAR!”

It has been suggested that Braga Netto is now “operational president”, with Army support, at least for the duration of the Covid-19 crisis. On April 19, Bolsonaro joined demonstrations in Brasilia protesting coronavirus-related lockdowns, calling for a military coup outside Army headquarters!

The main objective of enhancing federal executive powers is expected to be preventing, and, if necessary, repressing an increasingly likely social explosion.

The post Covid-19: Brazil’s Bolsonaro trumps Trump appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Four women and a young child were detained at Ukiya Police Station in Cox's Bazar after police rescued them from being trafficking to Malaysia. Credit: Rafiqul Islam/IPS

By Rafiqul Islam
COX'S BAZAR , Apr 21 2020 (IPS)

Last week more than 396 starving Rohingyas were rescued off the coast of Bangladesh after being at sea for two months. At least 32 had died on the boat after it failed to reached Malaysia. While it was unclear at the time of the breaking news whether the refugees were from Myanmar, where they are originally from, or Bangladesh — where more than a million Rohingya Muslims live as refugees after fleeing violence in Myanmar in 2017 — the attempt to reach Malaysia is not a new one.

For years, Rohingya refugees have boarded boats, organised by traffickers, in the hope of finding refuge in Southeast Asia. Usually they make the 2,500 km sea voyage during the dry season from November to March while the waters are calm.

While there are no official figures from local police about the number of trafficking victims, a local crime reporter who asked not to be named told IPS that the numbers rank in the thousands.

“Around 350 people are trafficked from Cox’s Bazar in every trip. And there are six to seven such trips per month. About 1,500 to 2,000 people, on average, are being trafficked to Malaysia every month,” he told IPS.

• On Feb. 11, 15 Rohingyas, 11 women and four children, died as an overcrowded mechanised fishing boat illegally carrying 138 Rohingyas to Malaysia sunk in the Bay of Bengal, about 10 kilometres away from Saint Martin’s Island in Cox’s Bazar. 72 Rohingyas and three suspected traffickers were rescued alive.
• On the evening of Mar. 10, police rescued 15 Malaysia-bound Rohingyas, including six women and a child, from traffickers in Ukhiya, Cox’s Bazar.

The Rohingya are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, they are denied citizenship in Myanmar and also restricted from freedom of movement, state education and civil service jobs.

• In 2017 more than 750,000 fled to neighbouring Bangladesh during what the United Nations later called genocide-like attacks by the Myanmar military. There had already been some hundreds of thousands Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh who had fled to the country prior this mass exodus. 

Some of those living in the Cox Bazar camps have attempted the irregular migration journey to Malaysia in the hope of earning an income and having a better life. But many of the so-called “work opportunities” they have been offered have proven to be trafficking scams.

A gang of human traffickers based in Malaysia have reportedly been luring Rohingya youth and young girls to the South Asian nation, working with local traffickers who visit Rohingya camps and identify possible targets.

“There is a section of people in Rohingya camps and they find the Rohingya girls, who look pretty, and those who could be trafficked,” Nurul Islam Majumder, a police inspector at Ukhiya Police Station in Cox’s Bazar, told IPS.

The Malaysian-based traffickers then call their targets and lure them into making the crossing to Malaysia by promising jobs or marriage. 

“And then they bring the victims to seashore though a specific route and they are trafficked to Malaysia by boats,” Majumder said.

Mukarrama was taken to Ukiya Police Station in Cox’s Bazar after police saved her with others who were attempting to travel irregularly to Malaysia. What they didn’t know was that they had been potentially caught in a human trafficking syndicate. Credit: Rafiqul Islam/IPS

16-year-old Mukarrama, how lived with her family in Bangladesh in the Kutopalong camp in Cox’s Bazar, was one of the young women who had been lured to Malaysia by the promise of marriage. But before she could leave the shores of Bangladesh she, and others with her, were discovered by authorities and returned to the camp. 

Her journey first started in 2019, when a man called her mobile and introduced himself as a Rohingya named Jubair. He was living in Malaysia, he told the young girl, and wanted to marry her.

What Mukarrama and her family did not know then was that he was part of a human trafficking syndicate. Jubair may not have been his real name.

Since her family’s escape from Myanmar, the family of five had been living in a single-roomed makeshift house without basic amenities. Built on a hill slope, the home is in a precarious position and vulnerable to destruction during the landslides that inevitably occur during the monsoons here.

Mukarrama and her family wanted a better life. So when Mukarrama told her parents about the call with Jubair, they agreed to the “proposal”. 

“With permission of my family, I got married with my husband over the phone one year ago,” Mukarrama told IPS while she was at a one-stop policing centre in Cox’s Bazar. She needed the legal services of the centre to re-enter the camp.

Since her “marriage”, Mukarrama was desperate to go Malaysia to join her husband. On Mar. 9, Jubair phoned her and said a local man would call her over the phone and ask her to follow him as he would help her travel to Malaysia.

“A person phoned me the next day morning and asked me to come to the gate of the Rohingya camp immediately. And when I came to the camp’s gate, he took me inside an auto-rickshaw…there were also two Rohingya girls and two youths in the rickshaw.

“We were taken into a jungle along the coastline in Cox’s Bazar to send us to Malaysia by a wooden boat on the rough sea route,” Mukarrama remembered.

“A group of brokers gathered us in a jungle and just before [we boarded] a boat for sending us to Malaysia, we were rescued by police.”   

Local brokers often gather the persons to be trafficked, particularly adolescent girls and boys, at isolated places along shores.

Mukarrama had been fortunate. As there have been reports of extortion and physical assault of the victims before they board the boats. 

“Before putting us on a boat in a night, they (local brokers) had tried to rape us in an isolated place. And that’s why we started screaming. Hearing our crying, local people recovered us and handed over to police,” a trafficking survivor who did not wish to be named told IPS.

Local crime reporter Mahmudul Haque Babul told IPS that once in Malaysia the abuse continues: “Once Rohingyas reach Malaysia, traffickers demand a big amount of ransom from the family members of victims. If the families of women victims fail to give the ransom, the women are sold for prostitution abroad.”

According to the Global Sustainability Network (GSN), trafficking remains an issue globally as “there are many incentives for people to exploit others for financial gain and as a result many people profit. It’s therefore a thriving business with a strong hold in countless sectors and at multiple levels. It will be defended with vigour”.

Rasheda Begum (19), another trafficking survivor, told IPS that she had married fellow refugee Mohammd Ilias when she was only 15. He left for Malaysia shortly after via the irregular sea route.

“Since then, we have not united and that’s why I wanted to join my husband any way,” she said, revealing that her long-cherished wish was to join her husband in Malaysia.

Recalling the dark days when the Myanmar military burnt their houses and killed Rohingyas in Rakhine State, Begum said: “Nothing remains in my life. Brokers lured me to help go Malaysia and meet my husband.”           

But fortunately she and the others being trafficked with her were discovered by authorities and returned to Cox’s Bazar.

Citing official statistics, Majumder said that so far in 2020 five cases linked to human trafficking were recorded with the Ukhiya Police Station, adding that law enforcement agencies were doing their best to combat the crime.

“If the authorities concerned do not install strong boundary fences around the Rohingya refugee camps, it would be very hard for the law enforcing agencies to check human trafficking here. Deploying only 300 to 400 police personnel around the refugee camps, it would be quite impossible to bring forcibly displaced Rohingyas under surveillance,” he added.    

In a recent statement, the U.N. Refugee Agency said they, along with the Bangladesh government, had been working to raise awareness among the refugees and local people on the issues of trafficking and risks they face. The U.N. is also supporting the strengthening of law enforcement capacities to address smuggling and trafficking, while support is also available to trafficking survivors, the statement read.

This is part of a series of features from across the globe on human trafficking. IPS coverage is supported by the Airways Aviation Group.

The Global Sustainability Network ( GSN ) is pursuing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 8 with a special emphasis on Goal 8.7 which ‘takes immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms’.

The origins of the GSN come from the endeavours of the Joint Declaration of Religious Leaders signed on 2 December 2014. Religious leaders of various faiths, gathered to work together “to defend the dignity and freedom of the human being against the extreme forms of the globalisation of indifference, such us exploitation, forced labour, prostitution, human trafficking” and so forth.

 

Related Articles

• Concerns for the Nearly 400 Rohingya Refugees Rescued off the Coast of Bangladesh
• Little Hope of Justice for Rohingya, Two Years after Exodus

The post Dying for a Better Life – How Rohingya Refugees Risk their Lives to Cross into Malaysia appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Last week almost 400 Rohingyas were rescued off the coast of Bangladesh after being at sea for two months after their boat failed to reach Malaysia. But the case is not a new one as each month thousands board boats from refugee camps in Bangladesh in an attempt to irregularly migrate to Malaysia.

The post Dying for a Better Life – How Rohingya Refugees Risk their Lives to Cross into Malaysia appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Fahmida Hasan
Apr 20 2020 (IPS-Partners)

While one-fourth of the world’s population is under home-quarantine to contain the spread of the novel Covid-19 pandemic, another crisis is brewing behind closed doors—domestic violence.

Research shows that in emergencies be it conflicts, economic crisis or during disease outbreaks, there has been a repeat pattern of increase in domestic abuse, therefore abusers and their partners having to self-isolate together at home may lead to a rise in new and pre-existing abusive behaviour and violence.

The warning signs were first shown in China where domestic violence reports more than tripled. A similar pattern was reported in Singapore (33 percent increase), Australia (40 percent increase), Brazil (40 percent increase), and India (100 percent increase). With the spread of the pandemic to Europe, there is a surge in the “shadow pandemic” (as UN termed domestic violence) as reported by Italy (13.6 percent increase), Spain (18 percent increase), France (30 percent increase), and Cyprus (30 percent increase). The UK reported an increase of 25 percent and the USA reported upto 35 percent increase in cases.

The situation undoubtedly is no different in Bangladesh if not worse. On April 15, the country saw its first domestic violence fatality since the lockdown began, when Obaidul Haque Tutul brutally murdered his wife, Tahmina Akhter, 28 with a sharp weapon at home while streaming on Facebook Live in Sadar upazila of Feni district. Obaidul then turned himself to Feni Model Police Station and confessed to the killing.

Violence against women and girls has always been a social, cultural and economic problem in Bangladesh. Nearly two-thirds of women have experienced gender-based violence during their lifetime. According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 54.2 percent of married women face physical and sexual intimate partner violence. Bangladesh enacted the Suppression of Violence against Women and Children Act in 2000 targeting rape, trafficking, and kidnapping and the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act in 2010 criminalising domestic violence. Despite having legislation in place the implementation of the laws largely remains complex.

It is well-documented that isolation is generally used by many perpetrators as a “tool of control” and the conditions created by the pandemic is the perfect opportunity for domestic abuse to flourish. In addition to physical violence, which may not be true in every abusive relationship, spending concentrated periods of time with the abuser potentially means constant surveillance and further restricting their freedom.

As reported by Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), between January and March 2020, 42 women were murdered by their husbands in Bangladesh. Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) notes that more than 300 incidences of domestic violence, and 36 rape incidents occurred in March in three districts alone, namely, Bogura, Jamalpur and Cox’s Bazar.

In response to mounting domestic violence cases, Italy launched a new app that will enable victims to ask for help without making a phone call and ruled that the abuser must leave the family home, not the victim.

The United Kingdom introduced contacting options for help through websites which ensures no record of the attempt is left on the phone and anyone in immediate danger can call 999 and press 55 on a mobile if they are unable to talk. There have been calls to turn underused hotel chains and university halls into emergency accommodation and need for increased public messaging, through supermarkets, pharmacies and other appropriate avenues, to provide information on the means by which victims can alert the police for help; and special police powers to evict perpetrators from homes and for authorities to waive court fees for the protection orders. There are campaigns in the UK (#Listeningfromhome) and Germany that advises and educates people to be vigilant and encourages them to seek help if they hear or observe incidents indicating domestic violence.

In China, women in dire need of fleeing their homes were able to access permits to leave the city and escape their abusers—with the hashtag #AntiDomesticViolenceDuringEpidemic trending on social media. India campaigns “Suppress corona, not your voice,” and have launched a new domestic violence helpline and engaged female officers to handle cases.

The lockdown pertaining to the prevention of the covid-19 spread in Bangladesh has essentially shattered support networks, making it far more difficult for victims to get help or escape their aggressor. One immediate effect of being confined with the abuser is not only are women more vulnerable to domestic abuse but are also less likely to be able to make an emergency telephone call in fear of being overheard by the abusers.

Additional financial burdens due to increased unemployment, salary cuts, looking after children full-time and more hours at home with increased household labour adds insult to injury. Amid social distancing requirements, restricted mobility preventing relocation to family homes in other areas, and pressing financial constraints, staying with friends or relatives became impracticable. Research suggests that the heightened domestic tensions and concern of financial uncertainty brought by the pandemic only adds to the burden of violence. Victims could be denied medical attention and made to feel guilty for falling ill. Emotional and mental abuse may soon turn physical.

It is likely that in times like this, support groups and police would not be of much help to victims and will ask them to tolerate the violence reasoning this period of lockdown to be not the right time. It is an expected response as a pandemic such as this is unprecedented and the law enforcement agencies are overburdened. However, as with the response to the virus itself, delays mean that irreparable harm may already have occurred. Police need to train and transfer resources in emergency situations especially because it is extremely difficult for women trapped and controlled at home to reach out for help. The recent media coverage of police and military beating and punishing people who were out on the streets may also act as a deterrent to stepping out to report by victims.

Experts warn that as the lockdown continues, the danger is likely to intensify- fear of the perpetrator inside the house and the virus outside. Soon homicide cases, like Tahminas will escalate amidst personal crisis.

It is therefore imperative that the Bangladesh government step in to provide leadership in this area. Urgent steps have to be taken to ensure that anyone experiencing domestic abuse can seek protection during this Covid-19 crisis and be placed in a safe place. The government should say loud and clear that people should leave home if they need to do so for their safety and that services are open for them.

Dedicated and responsive emergency helpline numbers and websites need to be launched. Domestic violence services should be classified as “essential” and support workers should be classified as “key” workers. Organisations providing domestic violence support and services must get an emergency financial package from the government to ensure shelters and other support services remain operational. Avenues for help including helpline numbers and websites need to be advertised widely at all media platforms including social media platforms, electronic and print media, public messaging, through supermarkets, pharmacies and other appropriate areas.

This must also include simple ways to contact and alert the police of the need of urgent help, such as text messages or online chats, and the use of code words with doctors or pharmacists. Law enforcement agencies need to lodge complaints and take immediate and effective measures while maintaining confidentially and safety of victims. Cooperation between authorities, law enforcement agencies and support workers cannot be understated to tackle this crisis. Local authorities should turn vacant hotels and public university halls to emergency accommodation where victims could quarantine safely. The women and children who show signs of physical or sexual abuse or domestic violence need to be provided with medical treatment, psychological counselling, and other assistance, like legal aid.

In rural and remote areas of Bangladesh, where possession of mobile phone by households are uncommon or are limited to men, lighter-touch interventions, like less regular community meetings, and check-ins will curb the abusive behaviour of intimate partners as they would believe that they are likelier to get caught if they are abusive. These kinds of programmes are also fairly inexpensive and like the lockdown itself, these could be lifesaving measures.

Being stuck at home because of coronavirus is difficult for everyone, but it becomes a real nightmare for victims of domestic violence. A crucial safety net therefore must be offered to some of the most at risk women, children and anyone vulnerable to abuse in order to triumph over the immediate and long-term impact of this corona virus crisis.

Barrister Fahmida Hasan is a practicing lawyer in the UK specialising in immigration, asylum and human rights laws.

Email: hasanfahmida87@gmail.com

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

The post Addressing the rise in domestic violence during lockdown appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Apr 20 2020 (IPS)

Epidemic diseases are not random events that afflict societies capriciously and without warning, on the contrary, every society produces its own specific vulnerabilities. To study them is to understand the importance of a society’s structure, its standard of living, and its political priorities. […] Epidemics are a mirror, they show who we really are: Our ethics, beliefs, and socio-economic relationships.
                                                                                                                                                          Frank Snowden 1

After contagion, the symptoms of the Ebola Virus become evident between two days and three weeks – vomiting, diarrhoea and rash as victims begin to bleed both internally and externally, an average of 50 percent of the afflicted will die. The disease was first identified in 1976. The largest outbreak to date was in West Africa, between December 2013 and January 2016, with 11,323 deaths.2

A two year-old-boy, Emile Ouamono, used to play with his friends in a huge hollow tree close to Meliandou, a small village in Guinea. On March 14, 2014, the tree caught fire and ”a rain of fruit bats” descended on the village, they had apparently been living in the old tree. Six months later, Emile was dead from Ebola. After investigating bat spilling, collected from the site of the burnt down tree, researchers could establish that they were the original cause of the deadly infection.3 The bats had originally been living in dense jungle canopies, though when the huge trees had been cut down to make way for oil palms the bats had been forced to move closer to human dwellings.

COVID-19 was apparently also spread by forest-living bats. In this case they had probably infected ant-eating pangolins, which meat was sold at wet markets in Wuhan. Everything indicates that it is humanity’s ruthless abuse of earth’s forests and their resources, coupled with an ever-progressing globalization, that is the most significant cause of the current proliferation of COVID-19.

Some years ago, I flew across the Congo basin. Looking down at the jungle deep below I could not discern any roads. Occasionally a village could be glimpsed by the brink of one of the many waterways, which meandered through the compact greenery. Kinshasa, proved to be completely different. With a population of approximately 15 million, growing at a speed with at least one million per year, it had except for some skyscrapers and villas the appearance of being a gargantuan shanty town. Most of the metropolis’s exceptionally straight and long streets were lined with makeshift hovels. The contrast between the lack of roads in the jungle and the grid of paths, streets and main roads in Kinshasa, where it lay spread out on the southern banks of the wide, sluggishly moving Congo river, could not be greater. This made me remember the opening lines of Ben Okri’s The Famished Road – ”In the beginning there was a river. The river became a road and the road branched out to the whole world. And because the road was once a river it was always hungry.”4

The Famished Road constitutes a bewildering reading experience. A magic mirror which accurately depicts the world we live in, though seen through the eyes and mind of a boy who is far from being a common child. Azaro is a spirit child, an abiku, who divides his existence between a West African shanty town and the Spirit World. Due to the love Azaro has for the family of mortals he has been allotted to stay with for a while, he decides to remain with it, acting as a son to his poor parents. He neither forgets, nor severs his ties with the Spirit World. However, the spirits constantly keep summoning Azaru to return to their realm, though he resists all their attempts to lure him back.

Ben Okri who lives in London, though he spent his childhood and youth in Nigeria, explains that: ”We all have an Africa within […] but this Africa has been made sick by the economic, political and ecological troubles of the Africa outside, [severed from] the Africa of myths and legends, storytelling and playfulness; the Africa of paradox, proverbs, and surprise; the Africa of magic, faith, patience and endurance; the Africa of a profound knowledge of nature’s ways and the secret cycles of destiny.”5

In Yoruba mythology, where Okri finds much of his inspiration, the forest is associated with magic and other supernatural manifestations. It is where the spirits dwell. The great Yoruba author Amos Tutuola told in his My Life in the Bush of Ghosts from 1954 about a small boy lost in the jungle and through his experiences Tutuola explored a world inhabited by spirits, demons and gods. A threshold existence between our concrete, visible communities and The Other World, dwelling place of mysterious and innumerable stories.

The Famished Road takes place in an unnamed African country, where globalization and neocolonial exploitation expose the fragility of our natural environment. Azaro tells his story in a straightforward and deceptively naïve manner. It is a visionary, poetic tale, filled to the brim with verbal pictures of a cruel, beguiling, strangely tender and poor community, harassed by corrupt politicians, thugs, profiteers and parasites. Passions explode in violence, or heart-felt empathy, while everything is engulfed in poverty and a constant struggle for survival.

The Famished Road that apparently describes a West African society by the beginning of the 1960s predicts a future where human agency will destroy nature in an irremediable manner. Azaro’s position between a concrete, visible world and a vanishing invisible Spirit World unfolds in a strangely repetitive way. The tale may occasionally appear as a poetic chant that induces its reader in something akin to a meditative state of mind. The cycle of birth, death and rebirth of the abiku Azaru and his continuous threshold existence between childhood and youth, as a celestial being and a suffering human, seems to depict a state of perpetual hardship, a Culture of Poverty marked by endless repetition and arrested development. It appears as if not much is happening in the novel. However, while the reader is gently rocked into the novel’s dreamy atmosphere s/he soon discovers that the society Okri describes in reality is undergoing violent transformations – politically, culturally and above all ecologically. Events seem to be circular, though they are actually spiralling towards disaster.

The dirt and violence which characterize life in the ghetto where Azaro spends his perpetual childhood are depicted as a consequence of colonial and neocolonial policies pushing the community towards a chaotic and mindless urbanization. The forest is destroyed and cut down. It will soon cease to be an abode of resistance against alienating commercialism and rectified thinking. It will no longer be a domain of vegetal power and natural energy opposing human greed, violence and inanity. Azaro spends most of his time wandering around in his ghetto, occasionally walking into the nearby forest, or sitting in Madame Koto’s bar, while constantly bearing witness to a slowly changing scenery; the rivalry between The Party of the Poor and The Party of the Rich, both equally manipulative, and increasingly wealthy people who promote deforestation and a building frenzy accompanied but a constant destruction of nature.

The forest is Azaro´s second home. He calls it ”an overcrowded marketplace” and it is swarming with shape shifting animals, monsters and spirits, so numerous that they mutate, continually changing appearance and voices. Insects, lizards, snakes, spirits and birds are moving into the shanty town, some of them are carrying messages to Azaro, others attack him. He is aware that his entire world finds itself in a state of anomaly. Humans´ ruthless onslaught on nature will eventually destroy everything. The fragile balance between humans and nature is already irreversibly upset. The future will bring disease and alienation: ”Steadily, over days and months, the paths had been widening. Bushes were being burnt, tall grasses cleared, tree stumps uprooted. The area was changing […] In the distance I could hear the sounds of dredging, of engines, of road builders, forest clearers, and workmen chanting as they strained their muscles. Each day the area seemed different. […] The world was changing and I went on wandering as if everything would always be the same.”6 Azaro’s father tells him:“Sooner than you think there won’t be one tree standing. There will be no forest left at all. And there will be wretched houses all over the place. This is where the poor people will live […] This is where you will live.”7

This is where we all live. Everything is interconnected; the fate of the poor is also the fate of the wealthy. What we are doing to nature is now affecting us all, global warming is one result, epidemics another. The only way to stop this is to act in unison – our future depends on it; especially that of our children and grandchildren, and all generations following them.

The bleak future depicted in The Famished Road is already here. For a long time, we have known that anomalies caused by humans generate natural disasters – inundations, draughts and epidemics, still we remain unprepared to meet the consequences. What happens if COVID-19 hits the poor people living in mega cities in the Southern Hemisphere, cites like Kinshasa, or São Paulo with its 22 million inhabitants, Dhaka (20 million), Mumbai (18 million), Lagos (14 million), Jakarta and Manila with 11 million?

Since Ben Okri wrote his novel, most of Nigeria’s forests have disappeared. Last year, the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) reported that Nigeria has lost 96 percent of its natural forest cover and deforestation rate is at an alarming 11 percent per annum.8 Thousands of animal species have lost their habitat. This is happening all over the world, for example has Indonesia since 2001 lost 37 percent of its rain forests, while Brazil lost 45 percent.9 The spread of epidemics may be only one indication of the hardships that might be in store for us all if we continue with our overexploitation of natural resources.

1 Snowden, Frank (2019) Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present. New Haven CT: Yale University Press.
2 https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ebola-virus-disease
3 https://www.bbc.com/news/health-30632453
4 Okri, Ben (2016) The Famished Road: 25th Anniversary Edition. London: Vintage, p. 3.
5 Okri, Ben (2011) A Time for New Dreams. London: Rider, pp. 134-135.
6 Okri (2016), p. 122.
7 Ibid, p. 42.
8 https://economicconfidential.com/2019/03/challenge-of-deforestation-nigeria/
9 https://news.mongabay.com/by/ongabay-com/

Jan Lundius holds a PhD. on History of Religion from Lund University and has served as a development expert, researcher and advisor at SIDA, UNESCO, FAO and other international organisations.

The post Haunting Forest Spirits – is Mother Nature Striking Back? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

ActionAid Vanuatu conducted COVID 19 awareness and TC Harold early warning preparedness for islanders. Cyclone TC Harold made landfall on the South Pacific island nation this month. Courtesy: ActionAid Vanuatu

By Neena Bhandari
SYDNEY, Apr 20 2020 (IPS)

Sitting atop a banyan tree branch, Fiona Robyn had a cell phone tightly clasped in her fist raised high to get a signal. She was impatiently waiting for the SMS weather alert from the Women’s Wetem Weta (Women’s Weather Watch (WWW)) hub in Port Vila as cyclone TC Harold raged towards the Republic of Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean on Apr. 5.

No sooner had she received the message, Robyn, a WWW leader in Eton on the eastern coast of Efate island in Vanuatu, immediately swung into action. She began mobilising other women and youth to help widows, the physically challenged and older people secure their roofs, store food and clean water, secure documents in air tight containers, and move those in unsafe houses to the local school serving as an evacuation centre.

When natural disasters strike, women are the first responders for their families and communities. The WWW programme is giving women in remote areas access to appropriate timely information, and building their capacity and confidence to communicate complex scientific weather and climate information from the Meteorological Department in simple “disaster ready” warnings to prepare for cyclones, floods, droughts and volcanic eruptions.

“Women in my community are taking lead in disaster preparedness, emergency and humanitarian crises situations. Our husbands are beginning to acknowledge this transformation,” Robyn told IPS. She is one of about 60 WWW leaders aged between 18 and 33 years, who are working on the frontline in Erromango and Tanna islands in Shefa province, and in Efate island in Tafea province of Vanuatu, which is recognised as one of the most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change and disasters in the world.

In 2015, Cyclone Pam had seriously harmed the livelihoods of over 40,000 households and resulted in economic damages accounting for 64 percent of the country’s GDP. This month, TC Harold made landfall at Category 5 causing wide scale damage to infrastructure and vegetable and food gardens.

Global women’s rights organisation, ActionAid is collaborating with Shifting the Power Coalition (StPC), a regional alliance of 13 women-led civil society organisations from six Pacific Forum member countries, WWW, Women I Tok Tok Tugeta (WITTT), a coalition of women leader groups, and the National Disaster Management System in supporting local women through training, network building and research to ensure women’s rights and needs are addressed in climate change and humanitarian disaster response.

“Some of our women are dealing with six crises currently – COVID 19, drought, scarcity of potable water, and volcanic ash, acid rain and sulphur gas as we have several active volcanoes,” ActionAid Vanuatu’s country programme manager, Flora Vano told IPS from the WWW hub in the country’s capital, Port Vila.

The hub is a message bank, where information received from the Meteorological Department and women leaders is stored and shared.

“It is a two-way communication process which is enabling women to become leaders in disaster planning and adaptation. For example, women leaders will message the hub that a cyclone is approaching and we don’t have water supply. We relay this information to the Department of Water so they can help the community.

“Similarly, women will message about crops being damaged by a pest. We convey this information to the Department of Agriculture, who in turn informs us of what the community needs to do or they will send officials on the ground to ensure food security,” Vano said.

The messaging service, a combination of SMS and in-person for remote areas, has reached 77,000 people or nearly a quarter of Vanuatu’s population.

“Each woman leader looks after three to four villages and in each village, the women convene their own sister circles. They communicate weather alerts in local languages so women can understand and take requisite action. For example, if there is a gale force wind warning, we explain that this level of wind speed means it can move a thatched roof house or if there is a mango or coconut tree near the house, there is high probability of it falling and damaging the house,” Vano added.

When natural disasters strike, women are the first responders for their families and communities. ActionAid Vanuatu conducted COVID 19 awareness and TC Harold early warning preparedness for islanders. Courtesy: ActionAid Vanuatu

WWW, which is recognised as the gender best practice by the World Meteorological Organisation, is an inter-operable information and communication system that was adapted for Vanuatu by Sharon Bhagwan-Rolls, technical adviser of StPC, based on the Fiji Women’s Weather Watch.  Bhagwan-Rolls developed the system with and for rural women so that they could access meteorological information to enhance disaster preparedness, and have their own channels of communication to share reports to ensure local and national disaster response is inclusive and accountable to women of all diversities. 

StPC focuses on strengthening the collective power, influence and leadership of Pacific women in responding to disasters and climate change. It shows how local information becomes not just national, but also regional and it has given women the opportunity to participate in national and international forums and influence the agenda on disaster preparedness and climate change adaptation.

“The new Pacific Young Women Responding to Climate Change programme supported by the Australia Pacific Climate Partnership, which we are rolling out shortly, is engaging with young women and looking at demystifying climate science and information in a way that it not only boosts disaster preparedness plans, but also how information from meteorological/weather office can be used to improve planning of health programmes, food security and women’s leadership in new livelihood initiatives offering economic alternatives,” Bhagwan-Rolls told IPS.

“It will build the capacity of young women while utilising the traditional, indigenous knowledge of older women and marrying it with science to use climate service information a lot better. In Pacific Island countries, the traditional village development planning committees tend to be led by men. Through collaboration of the StPC, women leaders are learning how to engage with traditional leaders, and faith leaders because our church community is very strong,” Bhagwan-Rolls added.

Vanuatu, like most Pacific Island countries, except Tonga and Palau, has ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), but gender inequalities exist.

“In most countries in the Global South, women are at the frontlines of the global climate emergency. It is critical to involve women in decision making on climate action. Supporting women to take leadership positions in emergencies not only ensures that women’s immediate needs are addressed, it also has a lasting positive impact on gender equality, particularly in countries like Vanuatu where women have no voice in the National Parliament,” says Carol Angir, ActionAid Australia’s programme manager for Women’s Rights and Emergencies.

Members of the 2018 and 2019 G7 Gender Equality Advisory Councils, including Women Deliver, an international organisation advocating around the world for gender equality and the health and rights of girls and women, are urgently calling on G7 member states to take into account the gendered dimensions of the COVID-19 crisis and to prevent the deterioration of gender equality and women’s rights worldwide.

In a letter, they are urging governments to take special measures to support healthcare and social workers, create additional emergency shelter spaces, ensure immediate removal of abusers from homes, keep all girls engaged in learning, guarantee access to sexual and reproductive health services, and provide free menstrual and modern contraception products for girls and women.

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The post How Some Pacific Women are Responding to Climate Change and Natural Disasters appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Women in the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu are dealing with six crises currently – COVID 19, drought, scarcity of potable water, and volcanic ash, acid rain and sulphur gas as there are several active volcanoes on the island. But global women’s rights organisations are collaborating with regional alliances in supporting local women.

The post How Some Pacific Women are Responding to Climate Change and Natural Disasters appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The map from the medical journal Plos Medicine displays BCG vaccination policy by country. Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine is a vaccine primarily used against tuberculosis. Yellow: The country now has a universal BCG vaccination program. Blue: The country used to recommend BCG vaccination for everyone, but now does not. Red: The country never had a universal vaccination program.

By Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Apr 20 2020 (IPS)

Numerous studies in many parts of the world have linked the BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) vaccination, widely used in the developing world with fewer Coronavirus cases. This is good news for countries that have universal BCG vaccination in tropical Asia and Africa.

Many of these countries cannot afford extended lock downs and curfews since the ensuring economic and supply chain disruption, loss of livelihoods, and poverty could kill more people in the long term.

Originally developed against Tuberculosis (TB), the hundred-year-old BCG vaccine offers broad protection and sharply reduce the incidence of respiratory infections, while also preventing infant deaths from a variety of causes.

According to Prof Luke O’Neill, who has specialised in the study of the vaccine at Trinity College Dublin, a combination of reduced morbidity and mortality could make the 100-year-old BCG vaccination a game-changer in the fight against coronavirus.

While there is no specific cure for Covid-19, the BCG maybe a flak-jacket against the Coronavirus. Experts note that the vaccine seems to “train” the immune system to recognize and respond to a variety of infections, including viruses, bacteria and parasites.

The vaccine is now being tested in several countries including Australia, Germany and Netherlands against the new Coronavirus – to protect frontline health workers.

In many countries of the global south’s tropical regions, Covid 19 cases and deaths are in single digits, double digits or hundreds; certainly not in the thousands, unlike in the US and EU, and other temperate regions where the Coronavirus seems more virulent.

This variation has been attributed to differences in climate, cultural norms, mitigation efforts, and health infrastructure. Research indicating that countries whose populations have high levels of BCG vaccination had significantly fewer Covid-19 deaths is highly significant.

Countries that do not have universal policies of BCG vaccination, such as Italy, the Netherlands, and the United States, have been more severely affected compared to countries with universal and long-standing BCG policies,” noted Gonzalo Otazu, assistant professor of biomedical sciences at NYIT.

BCG flattens the disease curve since countries that use BCG vaccination programs had a fatality rate of four per million people, while countries without BCG vaccination programs were 10 times more likely to die at a rate of 40 deaths per million people.

While he stressed the research was largely a statistical one and so came with caveats, there was a case for authorities moving to provide a BCG vaccine top-up for everybody age over 70. “This is feasible and should be considered.

BCG in South Asia

In South Asia, the vaccine has been universally used for decades. India and Pakistan started using BCG in 1948 and in Sri Lanka, BCG vaccination became mandatory in 1949, according to the Ministry of Health epidemiology unit. Compared to case numbers in Europe and North America, and relative to population size South Asian countries have registered low numbers and Covid 19 case load.

Three weeks after a pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization (WHO), it is increasingly clear from the Covid 19 data that Asian countries which practice universal BCG vaccination are relatively better positioned to fight Coronavirus — despite the crippling curfews that saw millions of migrant labourers walking hundreds of miles and dying in the process to get home.

In addition to BCG, hot and humid tropical weather may be another factor inhibiting the spread and strength of the Covid 19 flu in South Asia. Countries that have a late start of universal BCG policy (Iran, 1984) had high mortality, consistent with the idea that BCG protects the vaccinated elderly population.

Pakistan, a country with 200 million people that did not impose the crippling curfews that neighbouring India and Sri Lanka did, had 4,072 patients with 59 deaths on April 10. Pakistan Prime Minister, Imran Khan, sensibly pointed out that more people would die of poverty caused by lockdowns in the long run.

In Sri Lanka where a brutal curfew was imposed, there have been under 210 Covid 19 cases with 7 deaths, and India a country with more than a billion people has reported 9,000 cases over 3 weeks.

There have been only 12,434 confirmed cases in all 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states, a miniscule number compared to China, Italy, Spain and the United States, and about the same as Canada, a country of just 37.6 million compared to Southeast Asia’s 622 million.

While lack of testing may be cited as a reason for the relatively low numbers, by now – three weeks after Covid-19 was declared a global pandemic and months after the epidemic in neighbouring China – the region surely should have expected an explosion of cases similar to Italy and Spain.

Clearly in tropical Asian countries, including those with poor health systems the epidemic is far more limited.

This fact raises questions about the Indian and Sri Lankan government’s imposition of economically devastating and socially crippling curfews at the urging of the WHO and Johns Hopkins University (JHU) which is collecting Covid 19 data for a global database, while providing analysis seeming based on simulated pandemic from the mysterious EVENT 201 which was staged last October with the WHO and Gates Foundation and others modeling a fictional novel coronavirus.

WHO’s data and policy recommendations

The bad news is that the World Health Organization (WHO) which is funded by States and big pharmaceutical companies that are rushing to develop Covid 19 vaccines and make big profits,claims on its website that :

“there is no evidence that the Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine (BCG) protects people against infection with COVID-19 virus. Two clinical trials addressing this question are underway, and WHO will evaluate the evidence when it is available. In the absence of evidence, WHO does not recommend BCG vaccination for the prevention of COVID-19..

The WHO’s pandemic narrative and call for lockdowns to fight Covid 19 that have caused massive livelihood loss and economic meltdowns in countries like India and Sri Lanka (with the GMOA in tow), have not been modulated by the evidence that the BCG vaccine may act as barrier to the disease.

In short, while the BCG may be a ‘game changer’ in the long run, also in assisting development of herd immunity which would mitigate need for harsh curfews imposed in developing countries that cannot afford shutdowns, the WHO denies this. Heaven forbid that a BCG booster may be the solution in front of us!

There are parallels in the WHO’s denial that the anti-Malaria drug Hydroxychloroquine could be beneficial for Covid 19 patients, while pushing for development of new drugs and vaccines that would bring big profits to drug companies, although researchers in France and China had reported success with the drug.

Increasingly, questions are being raised about the WHO’s Covid19 data, models and analysis. Professor Jay Battacharya of Stanford University has noted that “the claim that coronavirus would kill millions without shelter-in-place orders and quarantines is highly questionable”.

In an interview at the Hoover Institute he observed: “there’s little evidence to confirm that premise—and projections of the death toll could plausibly be orders of magnitude too high.” Fear of Covid-19 is based on its high estimated case fatality rate—2% to 4% of people with confirmed Covid-19, according to the World Health Organization and others.

Drs. Eran Bendavid and Jay Bhattacharya argue that Covid-19 isn’t as deadly as suggested and suggest that the “extraordinary measures” being pushed by the WHO may not be justified. Their argument is that the total number of coronavirus infections is much higher than we think, which mathematically means the mortality rate is much lower.

Exaggeration using war metaphors and nationalism has characterized the WHO’s Covid pandemic narrative. However, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington School of Medicine now predicts that fewer people will die and fewer hospital beds will be needed compared to estimates from last week.

As of last week, the model predicted the virus will kill 60,000 people in the United States over the next four months – 33,000 fewer deaths than estimated last Thursday.

In India, the WHO this week was compelled to correct an exaggeration in a report that claimed that Covid19 had reached level 3 – community spread severity. In Sri Lanka several doctors have challenged Covid 19 case numbers and suggested that there is inflation and data manipulation.

We know very little about the virus, but shut down your economies –WHO

“Better to get Corona than see our harvest rotting without customers’, said a famer at the shuttered vegetable wholesale market in Dambulla, central Sri Lanka recently, indicating that there is no trade off to be made between lives and livelihoods as you cannot have one without the other especially in developing countries with high poverty rates.

Farmer suicide rates in South Asia tend to be high due to poverty and debt.

Would the WHO and its director general who called to congratulate the strongman President of Sri Lanka for imposing an indiscriminate and economically destructive month long curfew with military enforcement also count the deaths of farmers, wage-less day labourers and migrant workers who make up the greater part of the labour force who walked hundreds of miles to get home after the imposition of brutal lock downs in India with just 4 hours advanced notice?

WHO’s Covid 19 global media narrative (Al Jazeera CNN, BBC etc), has concentrated on hyping up fear psychosis and groupthink, based on data from Europe and North America, while suppressing mitigating information in the global south.

This has resulted in economically devastating policy making in India and Sri Lanka and a devil’s bargain – an attempt to trade off lives with livelihoods.

The flood of Covid data and information in the media, masks a lack of adequate data disaggregation, comparative analysis and modelling by geographic region and country, as well as, an ahistorical approach. After all, seasonal flu is known to infect over a billion people and kill as many as 750,000 people annually according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

The crippling curfews and destruction of the real economy in India and Sri Lanka reveals serious short comings in national and South Asian (SAARC) regional data analysis, planning and policy making, by the Modi and Rajapaksa governments, and allied medical associations like the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA), as well as, the failure to access regional expertise.

Claims that curfews and lockdowns cannot end until a vaccine is found, reflect bias toward big pharmaceutical companies that also fund research and the WHO, which stand to profit from a new “gold standard” Covonavirrus vaccine.

Surveillance, fear and groupthink

Although the great majority of people who get Corona virus will have mild symptom and survive well, with the creation of a Coronavirus global fear psychosis, economies have been shut down, livelihoods destroyed, and democratic rights compromised as new systems of surveillance and governance are being put in place – for patient network tracking.

In Sri Lanka a brand new USAID funded hospital exclusively for Covid 19 patients has been constructed with promised funding or USD 1.3 million at the former Voice of America compound in Chilaw, equipped with robots, and surveillance technologies “to activate case finding and event-based surveillance, with technical experts for response and preparedness.

The Covid-19 outbreak reveals how pervasive surveillance mechanisms developed in the last decade or so have become. In a strategically located country like Sri Lanka with an under-developed tech sector, foreign countries may access private data platforms via such surveillance platforms is a concern.

Meanwhile, US President Trump’s withdrawal of funds from WHO citing China bias distracts from a more substantive bias at WHO toward big drug companies and related foundations that stand to make a windfall from a Covid 19 vaccine, as well as, related data and policy manipulated that constitute a danger to the health and well-being, lives and livelihood of people everywhere.

This bias is also shared among medical associations like the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA), in Sri Lanka.

As Professor Nyasa Mboti of Free Town University, wrote: : “by its own admission, WHO seems to have declared Covid19 a pandemic IN ORDER to avert a Covid19 pandemic. This seems illogical. You cannot be in a pandemic that has not YET started, and you can only avert a crisis that has NOT YET taken place.

The current global coronavirus crisis is proof that global agencies such as the WHO can actually cause irreparable harm. Perhaps their global roles need to be called into serious question. “

The post BCG Vaccine Fighting Coronavirus in South Asia appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake is an independent researcher affiliated with the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) in Sri Lanka.

The post BCG Vaccine Fighting Coronavirus in South Asia appeared first on Inter Press Service.

This playground just outside the Slovak capital, Bratislava, was sealed off to stop people spreading the virus. Similar measures were in place in cities and towns across Europe. Credit: Ed Holt/IPS

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 17 2020 (IPS)

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres on Thursday pleaded with global leaders and families to ensure the protection of the world’s children, millions of whom he says are vulnerable to a myriad of threats as a result of the shutdown arising from the global coronavirus pandemic. 

While children are at a significantly lower health risk than adults from the coronavirus, the social and economic impacts as a result of both the disease as well as the lockdown can be extremely harmful on children, a new report has revealed.  

Guterres made his remarks at the launch of the policy brief “The Impact of COVID-19 on children” that examines the different areas in which children are affected: health, family life, education, lack of access to healthcare, and increased risks as a result of heightened presence online. 

The report claims that about 60 percent of all children around the world are currently in a country that is maintaining some level of a lockdown, which is limiting their mobility and/or access to society. Nearly all the grave impacts arise out of children not being able to go to school anymore. 

The report states that with 188 countries enforcing a lockdown, more than 1.5 billion children and youth are being impacted in terms of:

• access to food and nutrition,
• access to digital teaching tools,
• increased exposure to violence and/or conflict in the household,
• increased risk of falling prey to cyberbullying and sexual exploitation on the internet.

Furthermore, children with underlying medical conditions, including those living with HIV, are facing a higher risk of not being able to access their appropriate medicines and care. 

Food insecurity

Many children around the world who previously had their only meals provided through educational institutions, have now been left  without. The report estimates that more than 368 million children in about 143 countries are being affected by this, and are having to seek their food and nutrition through alternative means. 

Increased threat to family violence

With heightened stress levels among quarantined families, children could face the brunt and fall victim to family violence, the report warned. They’re also at a risk of witnessing domestic violence, which has been on the rise given many adults are stuck at home with their abusers.

Other advocates working in the field of children’s rights have also raised alarm bells about the issue. 
In response to the policy brief released on Thursday, international NGO Save the Children agreed with the Secretary General’s concerns and highlighted different ways in which this abuse is carried out.

“Social disruption and high stress at home can have a deep impact on children, and millions of them now face an increased risk of violence, abuse, neglect, and exploitation,” Janti Soeripto, president and CEO of Save the Children, said in a statement on Thursday.

“Families stricken by poverty often see no alternative to marrying off their daughters or putting their children to work just to survive,” she added.

Digital access

With children unable to physically attend schools, many are have had to go online for learning, which requires various digital tools. However, disparity in this access means that not everybody can receive the same level of training.

• Only 30 percent of low-income countries have been able to ensure digital training for their students.

There is also gender disparity as more boys have access to digital technology than girls, which makes it fundamentally more difficult for girls to attain their education this way. The report expressed concern that this might, in the long run, lead to girls dropping out of school, and also would increase the risk of teen pregnancy.

Risks online

While many children are accessing their lessons and staying connected with friends online, this too can expose them to a different set of risks altogether.

“School closures and strict containment measures mean more and more families are relying on technology and digital solutions to keep children learning, entertained and connected to the outside world,” Dr. Howard Taylor, executive director of the Global Partnership to End Violence, said in a statement on Wednesday, “but not all children have the necessary knowledge, skills and resources to keep themselves safe online.”

The Partnership, in collaboration with the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other rights organisations, released a report detailing the layers of this issue and pointing out ways in which different stakeholders can do their part in ensuring safety of children now that they have an increased presence online.

The report points out that children are more likely to exhibit riskier behaviour online or “outreach to new contacts” at a time when they have limited access for socialising. This means they’re more prone to be at a risk of grooming by online predators, being cyber-bullied, being manipulated into sharing content such as sexually explicit photos which would later be used for extortion methods.

While these are all matters of concern, it’s governments and family members that can play a crucial role in protecting children from these issues.

The UNICEF report recommended that governments must make sure that child protective services be open and accessible; technology companies should make sure their services are built in secure manners that don’t compromise the child users’ data; and parents should be vigilant about keeping antivirus and software updates on their kids’ phones.

The Secretary General further called on social media companies to execute their “special responsibility to protect the vulnerable.”

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Security Council Members Hold Open videoconference meeting in a locked down UN building. Credit: United Nations

By Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury
NEW YORK, Apr 17 2020 (IPS)

The current financial crisis, triggered as a result of withholding or delaying payment of assessed contributions by Member States, is nothing new to the United Nations.

We have travelled that road quite a few times in recent decades. No reason to panic. The past crises have been somehow resolved in a manner that UN soon went back to business as usual mode.

The discussions and suggestions for avoiding such situations in the future were forgotten very quickly. This is true for the Member States as well as the UN Secretariat leadership. Such forgetfulness and lack of serious attention to lessons learned actually serve narrow parochial interests of both sides.

Tough decisions needed for avoiding future financial and liquidity crises needed genuine engagement of all sides, yes, ALL sides, in particular the major “assessed” contributors.

Today’s financial and liquidity crisis is not caused by recent withholding of payments by a few major contributors for political reasons. Outstanding contributions for UN’s regular budget have reached $2.27 billion this month.

Peacekeeping operations also face increasing liquidity pressure as the outstanding contributions for that area are approximately $3.16 billion. These accumulations have been building up for some years.

Why no extra effort was made by all sides well ahead of time to avoid the current panic? The situation has now got complicated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury

Inherent parochial approaches prevalent in any reform exercise for financial, budgetary and administrative areas ensured that no meaningful efforts were possible.

For a forward movement in this regard we need to duly and urgently address much-needed reforms necessary in both intergovernmental decision-making processes as well as mandatory streamlining measures for the UN Secretariat.

The intergovernmental process of UN always reflects the positions and attitude of the governments in power towards the UN system as a whole in general and how they undertake their respective UN Charter obligations in particular.

One of those includes payment of all assessed UN contributions “on time, in full and without any condition”.

Since 1980s, another emerging political dimension of the liquidity crisis has been manifested in paying a big price by UN agreeing to the undue and unrelated conditions whenever the part(s) of withheld contributions were released by the Member State(s) concerned.

This has the debilitating effect of undermining the independent and universal mandate of UN. As in the past, this time the UN management is warning about possible cutting of programmes of work only.

That is supposed to be an area of concern for the Member States because those programmes were decided by them in the UN General Assembly by consensus – with the support of all 193 Members States.

Such cutback of programmes of work would particularly setback the UN activities in the most vulnerable countries, like the LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS, which are appropriately the main focus of UN’s support to these target nations.

In his letter to Member States on 28 January 2020, UN Secretary-General “drew attention to the risk of insufficient cash to implement the programme of work for 2020”.

He reiterated the same point in his recent-most letter of 1 April 2020 “to Member States to raise the alarm about the deteriorating liquidity situation and inform them that he is once again compelled to implement additional measures that may hinder mandate delivery”.

Also, it needs to be remembered that in facing the past financial crises as the one is being faced now, the regular staff salary has never been affected negatively.

In view of its mission and mandate, unlike the private sector, UN staff has not lost any part of their salary and other benefits, like medical insurance and pension contributions.

That means whether the programme of work and mandate delivery is negatively affected by the financial crisis, the staff salary and other entitlements would continue unaffected.

That point is underlined by the UN management in its internal advisory of 1 April conveying a series of measures to manage expenditures and liquidity “to ensure that all Secretariat operations in headquarters and the field can continue, that salaries and entitlements can be paid on time, and other financial obligations met without delays”.

If the liquidity crisis keeps on affecting the work of the UN and its mandate delivery, the UN staff as a privileged part of the humanity should join in making creative efforts placing interest of the world body ahead of their sacrifice.

One such measure could be for UN staff to allow UN to withhold 20% of their monthly salary to offset the impact of the current liquidity crisis in the coming months.

When the liquidity situation gets better, say in six months time, the 20% would be paid back. UN Secretary-General and his Senior Management Team should lead by example by announcing that they would so voluntarily.

It was so energizing to learn that on 14 April, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, ministers in her government and public service chief executives agreed to take a 20% pay cut for the next six months amid the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The global pandemic, in addition to the health aspects of the virus, has financial, socio-economic and developmental consequences.

UN management mentioned on 1 April in its advisory that “although the immediate impact of the move to alternate working conditions in response to the COVID-19 outbreak will lead to reductions in travel, contractual services and general operating expenses across all budgets, we also anticipate new demands upon our operations and services as we respond to the global health crisis.”

UN Secretariat should brace itself to perform its global responsibilities in a high-spirited way and in an effective and efficient manner. No more business as usual.

The humanity is trying to cope with the threat and its multidimensional impact as best it can.

Why not a new UN should emerge out of the crisis inspired by the full and true internalization of its mission to transform our planet and its people to create a better world for all in a positive and meaningful way?

The post UN Faces Financial & Liquidity Crisis as Global Pandemic Rages appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury is a former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the UN (2002-2007), Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to UN (1996-2001) and Chairman of the UN General Assembly’s Administrative and Budgetary Committee (1997-1998)

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Kenyan nurses wear protective gear during a demonstration of preparations for any potential coronavirus cases at the Mbagathi Hospital, isolation centre for the disease, in Nairobi. Credit: Quartz Africa March 2020

By Paul Polman, Myriam Sidibe and Siddharth Chatterjee
NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 17 2020 (IPS)

The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that now is “a defining moment for modern society. History will judge the efficacy of the response not by the actions of any single set of government actors taken in isolation, but by the degree to which the response is coordinated globally across all sectors for the benefit of our human family.”

Governments, the private sector, and development institutions need to come together in innovative ways not just to flatten the curve of infection and mitigate the economic disruption, but also to prepare for the new normal of the post-Covid world in Africa and the rest of the world.Greater partnership between the public and private sectors is going to be critical. The fight to flatten the coronavirus curve is an acid test for stakeholder capitalism and especially for multilateralism.

As Covid-19 continues to spread sickness and death, Africa has so far escaped the worst effects. The continent’s lagging health care infrastructure, however, makes it highly vulnerable if the virus reachesthe high-velocity community transmission we have seen in Italy, Spainand New York.Not only are health systems delicate,but crucial medical supplies are far from sufficient, and social protections as a whole are weak.

With the health crisis also becoming an economic and soon a social crisis, the continent is under siege.Many companies are struggling through the economic slowdown, with tourism and smaller enterprises the most challenged. With bankruptcy and job losses looming, many families are already reducing spending and consumption. In the absence of significant fiscal stimulus – which few African countries can afford anyway – some projections are cutting the continent’s GDP growth in 2020 by as much as eight percentage points.

L to R: The co-authors Myriam Sidibe, Siddharth Chatterjee, Paul Polman join the First Lady of Kenya, Ms Margaret Kenyatta, in Nairobi, Kenya at an event. Credit: UNFPA Kenya, 24 Jun 2016

No one knows for sure what is ahead, with scenarios changing daily as new information comes through. Many firms are focused on business continuity, employee safety and simply survival and lack the luxury of assisting external stakeholders. But it’s time for an all-hands-on-deck response, both to flatten the curve of infections and keep businesses resilient, and to be ready to restart as physical distancing ends. More than ever before, the private sector needs to deploy its full capabilities to innovate and bring positive, sustainable change – to help secure strong markets in the future.

There are several areas where private sector support is essential. Current priorities include unified communication platforms to enable populations to practice the needed preventative behaviours (washing hands, wearing masks, and practicing physical distancing), as well as managing stocks of essential materials, test kits, ventilators and oxygen and PPE. Support would also include protecting the most vulnerable people from the economic effects of the pandemic, especially where curfews are enforced.

This is also a unique opportunity to challenge sceptics, in both the not-for-profits and for-profit sectors, with a new blueprint of collaboration. The World Health Organisation has issued guidelines on engaging the private sector as part of a whole-of-society response to the pandemic and has signed an iconic partnership with the International Chamber of Commerce. The African Union and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention have also launched a public-private partnership known as the Africa Covid-19 Response Fund, which raises resources to prevent transmission and support sustainable medical responses.

In Kenya the national government has led the charge in fighting Covid-19 by rapidly scaling up a large array of public health interventions and putting into force social interaction rules. To complement the government’s preparedness and response efforts for the next six months, the United Nations, together with humanitarian Non-Governmental Organisationslaunched a flash appeal seeking over US$267 million to respond to the critical needs of 10 million of the country’s most vulnerable people.

So far the pandemic has not been the finest hour for international cooperation. But the role of the UN and the private sector has never been more critical as an enabler of multisectoral partnerships for deliveries, and also to keep the focus on the most vulnerable that these partnerships need to reach.

In Kenya, and under the leadership of the Government, the UN has built a model to catalyse public private action: the SDG Partnership Platform. It is a tested instrument for engagement that has brought together a variety of private players in previous initiatives to co-create and rapidly deploy with government large-scale shared-value solutions to address the challenges our societies and planet are facing. It is through such a mechanism,for example,that the UN mobilized the private sector to carry out a maternal mortality reduction campaign in Kenya’s north-eastern counties, one that was recognised as a global best practice.

Kenya’s National Business Compact on Coronavirus, a gathering of companies aimedat accelerating local action and supporting governmental efforts against the pandemic, got successfully off the ground with the help of the UN SDG Partnership Platform, and champions from private sector and civil society.

The Kenyan model of cooperation could take shape all over Africa. Such models allow governments to foster an ecosystem of purposeful partnerships; to amplify private-sector philanthropy, corporate social responsibility and policy advocacy for national mitigation; and to accelerateshared-value partnerships. It also allows the UN to play its role as a neutral broker, and steer a much-needed balance between lethargic action on one hand and misdirected reactions on the other.

This may well be the blueprint needed to fight the next global pandemic,whose speed and fury could surpass what we are witnessing now.

Paul Polman is co-founder of IMAGINE, Chair of the International Chambers of Commerce and former CEO of Unilever

Myriam Sidibe is a Senior Fellow at Mossavar Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School

Siddharth Chatterjee is the UN Resident Coordinator of Kenya

 

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Credit: United Nations

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 17 2020 (IPS)

The deadly coronavirus COVID-19, which has shut down the UN secretariat in New York, along with 32 of its agencies globally, has forced over 37,500 UN staffers worldwide to work from their homes.

Asked about a decision to re-open the Secretariat building after nearly a month-long hiatus, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said: “I don’t know. I think, some experts have said, it’s the virus that will decide.”

Still, there are several other lingering questions which remain unanswered– specifically against the backdrop of a severe new cash crisis threatening the survival of the UN and aggravated by a global economic meltdown.

If the crisis continues, will there be staff layoffs in a country where more than 22 million people have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic.?

In New York city alone – host to the United Nations – it is estimated that 475,000 jobs will be lost by March 2021, and nearly 60,000 workers in the New York’s five boroughs will be out of work before July this year, according to a report last week from the city’s Independent Budget Office.

Among some of the questions raised by staffers: how long can the UN keep its staff on its payroll while the Organization is fast running out of cash– and is on an austerity drive freezing new recruitment?

If there are salary cuts, will they start at the top with senior management (as is done in several private sector firms in the US). Or will it start at the bottom?

And, equally important question by staffers: will medical coverage be affected?

As things stand, if UN staffers are laid off, they are unlikely to qualify for unemployment benefits from New York State because the UN is an international organization with its own independent status.

Meanwhile, will the global economic recession have a direct or an indirect impact on the estimated $53 billion UN Pension Fund on which UN retirees survive? What was the reason, for the sudden resignation of a senior official, which is being kept under wraps?

And what is the future of educational grants staffers are entitled to?

Credit: United Nations

Guy Candusso, a former First Vice President of the UN Staff Union, told IPS the UN was in bad shape financially long before this pandemic hit the Organization.

“We know member states are now under tremendous pressure but they still must step up and fulfill their obligations.”

If there are to be furloughs of staff, it should be the very last step taken by the organization, and done across all levels of staff and management, he argued.

“In any case, the Organization must continue to pay their medical insurance. It should not be cut as it is more necessary now than ever.”

Candusso also pointed out that UN staff in New York were never eligible for unemployment insurance.

“I don’t know if the current law passed by the US Congress makes UN staff eligible for any benefits,” he said.

In a letter to 92 heads of departments, regional commissions, special political missions and peacekeeping operations, Catherine Pollard, Under-Secretary-General for Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance, says contributions for regular budget assessments have “sharply declined” in the first quarter of 2020 relative to earlier years, and the payment of assessments by the 193 member states currently stands at 42 percent compared to 50 percent by this time in earlier years.

This has resulted in a collection gap of more than $220 million while outstanding contributions for regular budget have reached $2.27 billion, said Pollard.

As a result, the UN has decided to temporarily suspend all hiring for regular budget vacancies and limit all non-post expenses while postponing all discretionary spending unless it is directly and immediately linked to ongoing mandated activities—activities approved by the General Assembly, the UN’s highest policy making body.

Pollard also said that even peacekeeping operations face increasing liquidity pressure with outstanding contributions amounting to $3.16 billion.

Ian Richards, a UN Staff representative and former President of the 60,000-strong Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA), told IPS there are a number of factors at play, and for this reason, it is too early to draw hard conclusions.

“Yes, governments have had to devote a lot of resources to trying to mitigate the impact of the crisis within their borders, and for some countries, money is limited.”

“But many also realise that efforts to fight this global pandemic at home and abroad are only as strong as the world’s weakest health systems and economies –and the world’s most vulnerable populations”.

“So. we are seeing aid budgets being redirected to this area,” he noted.

The UN’s ability to position itself in this area and demonstrate the importance of international coordination, is key to securing funding stability.

“Staff are certainly worried, but we all have a role to play here”, said Richards .

“At the same time, we need to be vigilant about vulnerable staff, such as those on temporary or uber-style contracts, falling through the gaps”.

“The Secretary-General has made assurances to protect a great many of them, but they are also the most impacted by the postponement of conferences and other activities,” he said.

Samir Sanbar, a former UN Assistant Secretary-General and head of the Department of Public Information (now re-christened Department of Global Communications) told IPS “unprecedented times require unprecedented creative handling”.

Focus on essential staff is crucial for the U.N. to survive when member states, particularly those unabashedly failing to pay their assessed dues, avert minimum required action.

He pointed out that many U.N. programmes and Funds, like UNDP, UNICEF,UNHCR and UNRWA depend on voluntary contributions.

Certain governments which are not even paying their mandatory dues may use the global virus as a pretext to avoid or delay payments.

The Secretary General who is trying his best called for ceasefire in conflicts but with limited results. And peacekeeping operations are increasingly vulnerable, said Sanbar.

Staff face risk of catching the virus working in close proximity while not getting adequate payment– let alone required per diem, he said.

Sanbar said countries contributing troops are more likely to focus on their internal needs while staff representatives who would normally meet to co-ordinate and propose action are limited by home confinement.

“Let us hope the obvious threat in varied forms inspires unity of thought and action among leadership and staff of all the U.N. system,” he declared.

Andreas Bummel, Executive Director, Democracy Without Borders, told IPS the liquidity crisis has been lingering for more than a year and major contributors should not be allowed to use the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to continue withholding their dues.

A strong and functional UN is in the best interest of all member states and the world community, he said.

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org

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David Lewis is professor of social policy and development at the Department of Social Policy, LSE.

By David Lewis
LONDON, Apr 17 2020 (IPS)

Contagion is a 2011 film by US director Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Che) that has proved very popular viewing during the first few weeks of the Coronavirus crisis. Set in a fictional global pandemic – modelled on the outbreak of a bat-borne Nipah virus identified in 1999 that killed around 100 people in Malaysia – the film is a tightly-written topical drama with a great castthat includes Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard and Jennifer Ehle.

David Lewis

In the film, the Paltrow character returns to the US from a business trip from Hong Kong, and begins the spread of a deadly infection. The authorities are slow to understand the implications of the virus. As it spreads across the world scientists try to find a vaccine and societies struggle to contain the social and economic consequences.

When it was originally released, Contagion drew praise for the unusual efforts made by its writers and director to ‘get the science right’. More recently, with the filmmade available on Netflix and shown on ITV, it has attracted further attention for its uncanny parallels with the current crisis.

We argued in our book Popular Representations of Development: Insights from Novels, Films,Television and Social Media, co-edited with Dennis Rodgers and Michael Woolcock, that popular culture provides useful insights into social change and may offer social scientists representations of social reality that can be productive.

I enjoyed the film. It’s well-made and prescient, but perhaps not engaging enough that I’d watch it again. I learned things from it – that ‘social distancing’ has a history, and appreciated the ‘explainer’ that told me what is meant by the ‘R-nought’ of a virus. But what mostly struck me after watching Contagion was how old-fashioned the world it portrayed felt today, and how different the world seemsnow, despite the film being released less than a decade ago.

The movie depicts a post-Cold War international order that is still largely intact. The Global North is in charge, working with the World Health Organization (WHO) office in Geneva, to fight the virus and solve the crisis. US authorities and scientistsare at the forefront of international efforts,in the form of the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.If they can’t solve the problem, it seems no one can. Villagers in Hong Kong have to kidnap and hold a WHO scientist hostage to ensure they get access to the vaccine.

Today’s world looks different. Countries like China, Singapore and South Korea have deployed their own scientific expertise, mobilised their publics and adapted governance arrangementsin the face of the pandemic – in apparently effective ways. By comparison, the responses ofBritain, US, Italy and Spain have appeared disorganised and fragile. President Trump has suspended WHO funding.

UNDP’s 2013 report The Rise of the South: Human Progress In a Diverse World drew attention to the changing balance of global power, where it was no longer useful to understand ‘development’ throughits traditional framing as the Global North trying to influence the Global South. ‘Increasingly the North needs the South’, the report pointed out.The coronavirus crisis has made this decentred, multipolar world of even more apparent and highlights the urgency with which all countries need to cooperate, share ideas, and learn from each other in ways that transcend the old binaries.

The Covid-19 crisis has dramatically highlighted the extent of inequality and poverty within and between countries that has been allowed to increase under neoliberalism. It also shows us the catastrophic consequences of the extreme pressures that we have placed on the natural environment through our unsustainable food systems and consumption practices.

The world is more interconnected, and many commentators on the current crisis emphasise the need for multilateral action. Recent trends towards populist isolation and protectionism have not only made international cooperation to deal effectively with borderless pandemics more difficult, but have also led to an increased questioning of the value of science, the austerity driven decline of public research capacity, and the rise of a populist distrust in experts.‘One thrill of the movie is its belief in solution-driven competence’, wrote Wesley Morris in the The New York Times, highlighting another way in which the movie highlights how far things have changed.

The crisis may, as some have claimed, reinforce the trend towards isolationism and a retreat from globalization. Yet the coronavirusresponse has also promoted a resurgence of community solidarity, volunteering and mutual support. The challenge now is to press national governments into forms of international cooperation that can support this new localism and build a better future.

There are some who see the chance for the sort of reconfiguration of priorities and institutions that came in Britain after World War 2, with a new progressive domestic role for state intervention and an appetite for rebuilding global institutions. As UN Secretary General António Guterres has said: ‘we must act together to slow the spread of the virus and look after each other.This is a time for prudence, not panic. Science, not stigma. Facts, not fear.’

Contagion is a film that entertains, informs and helps to bring these urgent new priorities into even sharper focus.

This story was first published on the London School of Economics (LSE) blog.

The post On Watching Contagion: What Do We Learn? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

David Lewis is professor of social policy and development at the Department of Social Policy, LSE.

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Nearly 400 Rohingya refugees have been rescued in Bangladesh after being at sea for two months. Experts are concerned about the spread of coronavirus if these refugees are housed in the Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar along Bangladesh border with Myanmar. Credit: ASM Suza Uddin/IPS

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 16 2020 (IPS)

Nearly 400 Rohingya refugees have been rescued in Bangladesh after being at sea for two months. 

Bangladesh coast guards reported rescuing 382 Rohingyas, including many women and children, who were starving and stuck on a boat as they were trying to reach Malaysia, the BBC reported on Thursday. 

Coast guard spokesman Lt Shah Zia Rahman told AFP news agency that they were on “a big overcrowded fishing trawler” and were brought to a beach near Teknaf. 

In the midst of the current coronavirus pandemic — on Mar. 26 Bangladesh went into a nationwide lockdown in an attempt to contain the spread of the coronavirus — this rescue effort poses particular concerns about potential coronavirus cases and/or it being spread in the camps, where people remain at extremely high risk of contracting and spreading the disease. 

The Bangladesh government also closed the 34 refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar district on Apr. 8, allowing only medical aid and essential food into the camps.

Latest figures show that the country has just over 1,500 reported cases of the coronavirus and 60 deaths.

“They have not been moved to any refugee camps, they’re getting the medical attention that they need,” Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, told IPS on Thursday.

“The survivors, who include a large number of women and children are all in weak physical condition, many dehydrated and malnourished and in need of immediate medical attention,” Dujarric said at a press briefing on Thursday. 

A photo shared on social media by the Rohingya Women’s Education Initiative showed a large group of people, all sitting extremely closely. IPS was not able to independently verify if this photo was of the rescued refugees. 

Dujarric also added that according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), those on board said about 30 more refugees may have died while on the ship because of lack of food, water, and fuel. 

Citing reports and rumours where people have reportedly said the refugees have tested positive for coronavirus, he said there is currently no evidence to substantiate these claims. 

Even though there are currently no positive cases of coronavirus among the rescued refugees, he said they’re “being watched medically”. 

Other advocates have also raised concerns about the refugees being rescued especially under current circumstances. 

Biraj Patnaik, Amnesty International’s South Asia Director, lauded the Bangladeshi government for taking the refugees into the country, but called for authorities to ensure proper care for those rescued. 

“Given the ordeal they have passed through, adrift on the sea for two months, they need to be provided with immediate medical attention and adequate food and shelter,” he said in a statement.

“At a time when there are fears that COVID-19 could strike the densely populated and poorly resourced Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar,” he added, “there’s also a need for the authorities to ensure that the rescued refugees are protected from the spread of the virus and will receive medical attention if they need it.”

Advocates have been sounding the alarm for how the coronavirus crisis will affect South Asian countries, given living situations where many often live together in close quarters. 

Currently, about more than one million refugees are living in the camps in Bangladesh, a large number of whom arrived during the latest exodus in 2017, fleeing the Myanmar military’s violent crackdown on the community. 

On Thursday, in response to the Associated Press’ query about whether the U.N. will call on the Myanmar government to respond, Dujarric further reiterated Guterres’ recent plea for a ceasefire on all areas of conflict under the current coronavirus threat, given that can further exacerbate the current situation especially for vulnerable communities, putting them further at risk of contracting the disease.  

 

Related Articles

• No Space for Social Distancing in Rohingya Refugee Camps
• Asia-Pacific Response to COVID-19 and Climate Emergency Must Build a Resilient and Sustainable Future

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By Paul S. Teng
SINGAPORE, Apr 16 2020 (IPS)

COVID-19 has disrupted supply chains that are essential to assure food security in the Asia Pacific region, yet countries overall seem to have managed, so far, to keep supermarkets stocked with food and feed those who can afford it.

The Asia Pacific region is home to over 60% of humanity and also contains sub-regions with among the highest frequencies of severe weather events and some of the most challenging environments for agriculture. As a region it is characterized by diverse food systems and a multiplex of supply chains. Under normal circumstances, food security is already threatened by a multitude of factors.

Paul S. Teng

The COVID-19 pandemic has now become another factor with generalized impact across a swathe of countries. Ironically, it is fortunate that countries have not all been infected nor are they showing peak infections at the same time. This has thankfully provided windows of opportunity to tackle disrupted supply chains. It has also provided opportunities for later-infected countries to learn from the mitigation actions taken by countries affected earlier.

China has been at the forefront of the COVID-19 battle and the earliest to have taken broad action. Its total movement control or “lockdown” has been successful in containing the spread of the virus, although admittedly at some inconvenience. This “lockdown” approach has been adopted by other countries subsequent to the Chinese action but in most countries this has disrupted parts of the supply chain, in particular the food processing and transport sectors.

This is important as “physical access to food”, i.e. consumers being able to access food, and farmers being able to get their produce to the consumer, is an important part of food security. Physical access has been seriously affected in many countries.

In India and elsewhere, agricultural produce are either being dumped, fed to livestock or left to rot. All because farmers cannot harvest their produce or transport them to market. In China and Malaysia, restrictions have been put in place to limit consumer access to supermarkets and other food retail outlets.

Capacity to transport food items between countries, either by land, sea or air has reduced further. This particularly affects countries which depend on imports as the key means of making food available, like the small island states.

Of greater concern in the Asia Pacific region is the disruption of crop planting, which in many countries and for important food crops like rice, is closely tied to seasons. The April-May period is critical for planting rice to replenish stocks. And several rice exporting countries, perhaps in anticipation of reduced future production, have already started putting restrictions on the timing and quantum of their exports.

Rice is important for food security in the Asia Pacific region and it behooves governments to remember the learnings from the 2007-08 crisis and not indulge in panic reactions such as restricting exports or hoarding. Both the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) have projected sufficient rice stocks for the rest of 2020 even though the new rice season has been forecasted to produce slightly lower due to weather conditions.

In this regard, it is also important that governments view agricultural activities and farm workers as providing “essential” services and be exempted from some of the total lockdown measures. The example of China is worth noting, where special “green channels” at lockdown checkpoints allowed the passage of vehicles and people transporting agricultural inputs to grow new crops.

Another metric of food security is food affordability as measured by food prices. Overall, although there have been reports of price increases, governments appear to have been effective in preventing the price spiking seen during the 2008-08 crisis which led to civil unrest in over 47 countries. The increases mainly reflect supply chain delays rather than real shortages. At the macro level, the FAO Food Price Index for March 2020 has not shown increases except for rice.

The COVID-19 pandemic if allowed to run longer has potential to affect the nutrition aspect of food security. Asia is already home to the largest number of poor and hungry people in the world, according to FAO and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Scenes of thousands of daily-paid workers in cities currently deprived of work in South and Southeast Asia, and not have the means to buy food portend the threat that hunger and under-nutrition may become more prevalent. In the rush to implement movement control, governments need to have ready safety nets to help this sector avoid food insecurity.

In January 2013, I attended an ASEAN High-Level Cross-Sectoral Consultation titled “Pandemics as Threats to Regional and National Security” in Manila and spoke on the “Impacts of Pandemic Disasters on Food Security.” I shared a framework that showed that the longer a pandemic lasted, the more players in a food supply chain would be affected, leading eventually to total paralysis.

Some of the interventions discussed in 2013 are currently being implemented, e.g. movement control, release from stockpiles, food price control. Warnings were also given to avoid export restrictions, hoarding or panic buying.

Some countries have learnt better than others in formulating responses, after having gone through the SARS and the 2007-08 food crisis. The sense of déjà vu reminds one of Santayana’s advice that those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it.

Paul S. Teng is Adjunct Senior Fellow, Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies at Nanyang Technological University Singapore and concurrently Managing Director of NIE International Pte. Ltd. Singapore. He has worked in the Asia Pacific region on agri-food issues for over thirty years, with international organizations, academia and the private sector.

 

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Credit: UN Photo/Cia Pak

By Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Erna Solberg
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 16 2020 (IPS)

Our world today is dealing with a crisis of monumental proportions. The vicious, novel coronavirus is wreaking havoc across the globe, destroying lives and ruining livelihoods.

The primary cost of the pandemic as seen in the loss of human lives is distressing, but the secondary effects on the global economy, on livelihoods and on sustainable development prospects are even more alarming.

The International Monetary Fund estimates that our world has entered into a recession, and while the full economic impact of the crisis is difficult to predict, the costs of the pandemic will no doubt be astronomical, with preliminary estimates placing it at a whopping US$2 trillion.

The pandemic has utterly exposed fundamental weaknesses in our global system. It has shown beyond doubt how the prevalence of poverty, weak health systems, lack of education, and above all sub-optimal global cooperation, is exacerbating the crisis.

If there was ever any doubt that our world faces common challenges, this pandemic should categorically put to rest that doubt.

The on-going crisis has re-enforced the interdependence of our world. It has brought to the fore the urgent need for global action to meet people’s basic needs, to save our planet and to build a fairer and more secure world.

We are faced with common, global challenges that can only be solved through common, global solutions. After all, in a crisis like this we are only as strong as the weakest link. This is what the SDGs, the global blueprint to end poverty, protect our planet and ensure prosperity, are all about.

Sadly, this ferocious, sudden on-set pandemic has come at a time when the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were getting good traction and a significant number of countries were making good progress in their implementation.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana. Credit: @GhanaPresidency

As the world is seized with containing the spread of the virus and addressing its negative and debilitating impacts, the reality is that countries are resetting their priorities, and reallocating resources to deal with the pandemic.

This certainly is the right thing to do because the priority now is to save lives, and we must do so at all costs.

That is why we must all support the call by the United Nations for scaling up the immediate health response to suppress the transmission of the virus, to end the pandemic and to focus on people particularly, women, youth, low-wage workers, small and medium enterprises, the informal sector and vulnerable groups who are already at risk.

Working together we can save lives, restore livelihood and bring the global economy back on track.

But what we cannot afford to do even at these crucial times is to shift resources away from priority SDGs actions. The response to the pandemic cannot be de-linked from actions on the SDGs.

Indeed, achieving the SDGs will put us on a solid foundation and a firm path to dealing with global health risks and emerging infectious diseases.

Achieving SDGs Goal 3 will mean strengthening the capacity of countries for early warning, risk reduction and management of national and global health risks.

This pandemic has manifestly exposed the crisis in global health systems. And while it is severely undermining prospects for achieving global health by 2030, critically it is having direct far-reaching effects on all the other SDGs.

The emerging evidence of the broader impact of the crisis on our quest to achieve the SDGs must be troubling for all. UNESCO estimates that some 1.25 billion students are affected by this pandemic, posing a serious challenge to the attainment of SDGs Goal 4; and according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) some 25 million people could lose their jobs with those in informal employment suffering most from lack of social protection during this pandemic.

Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway. Credit: @Thomas Haugersveen/Statsministerenskontor

Unfortunately, these might just be the tip of the iceberg.

Crucially, in many parts of the world, the pandemic and its effects are being exacerbated by the crisis in delivering on clean water and sanitation targets (SDG Goal 6), weak economic growth and the absence of decent work (SDGs Goal 8), pervasive inequalities (SDGs Goal 10), and above all, a crisis in poverty (SDGs Goal 1) and food security (Goal 2).

The World Bank estimates that the crisis will push some 11 million people into poverty.

Even at this stage in this deadly pandemic, we cannot deny the fact that the crisis is fast teaching us, as global citizens, the utmost value in being each other’s keeper, in working to leave no one behind, and in prioritising the needs of the most vulnerable in society.

As our world strives to deal with the challenges posed by the pandemic, we ultimately must seek to turn the crisis into an opportunity and ramp up actions necessary to achieve the SDGs.

The spirit of solidarity, quick and robust action to defeat the virus that we are witnessing must be brought to bear on the implementation of the Goals.

The quantum of stimulus and pecuniary compensation packages that is being made available to deal with the pandemic make it clear that, when it truly matters, the world has the resources to deal with pressing and existential challenges. The SDGs are one such challenge.

What is acutely needed is enhanced political will and commitment. Our world has the knowledge, capacity and innovation, and if we are ambitious enough, we can muster the full complement of resources needed to implement successfully the Goals.

Buoyed by the spirit of solidarity, Governments, businesses, multi-lateral organisations and civil society have in the shortest possible time been able to raise billions, and in some cases, trillions to support efforts to combat this pandemic.

If we attach the same level of importance and urgency to the fight against poverty, hunger, climate change and towards all the other goals, we will be well poised for success in this Decade of Action on the SDGs.

As the world responds to the effects of this brutal pandemic, and seeks to restore global prosperity, we must focus on addressing underlying factors in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals.

We must not, and cannot relent in our efforts, even amid this painful pandemic. While some of the gains on the SDGs have been eroded, this should not deflate our efforts.

They should rather spur us to accelerate and deepen our efforts during this Decade of Action to ‘recover better’, and build a healthier, safer, fairer and a more prosperous world, so necessary in avoiding future pandemics.

The post Amid Coronavirus Pandemic, SDGs are Even More Relevant Today Than Ever Before appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is President of the Republic of Ghana and Co-chair of the UN Secretary-General’s Eminent Group of Advocates for the SDGs and Erna Solberg is Prime Minister of Norway and Co-chair of the UN Secretary-General’s Eminent Group of Advocates for the SDGs

The post Amid Coronavirus Pandemic, SDGs are Even More Relevant Today Than Ever Before appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Mohammad Rafique (right) and other refugee children gathered at the Rohingya market in Kutupalong camp to sell vegetables he brought earlier from a local market in this photo dated Mar. 11, 2020. This was two weeks before Bangladesh went into a nationwide lockdown in an attempt to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Credit: Rafiqul Islam/IPS

By Rafiqul Islam
COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Apr 15 2020 (IPS)

Nine-year-old Mohammad Rafique used to collect vegetables from Kutupalong Bazaar and sell them at a market inside Kutupalong camp, a camp of some 600,000 Rohingyas, in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar.

But nowadays he has to stay home with his parents inside their makeshift home built on the slopes of a hill in the sprawling refugee settlement because of the coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic.

On Mar. 26 Bangladesh went into a nationwide lockdown in an attempt to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Latest figures show that the country has just over 1,200 reported cases of the coronavirus and 50 deaths.

The Bangladesh government later followed with a lockdown of the 34 refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar district on Apr. 8 and, aside from essential food and medical aid, people are not allowed to leave or enter the district.

Cox’s Bazar is the world’s largest refugee camp. Fleeing persecution in the predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, over one million Rohingyas have been living in the overcrowded camps in the southeastern Bangladeshi district.

“My parents have strongly asked me to stay at home after they are informed that people are getting infected with a lethal virus around the world and it started infecting people nearby the camps too,” Rafique told IPS.

“Not only me and my parents, the Rohingya population living in the camp are very concern about the infectious virus as they have heard that many people are dying around the world after getting infected with the virus,” he said.

Although no coronavirus case have been recorded in the Rohingya camps as yet, one person in an area nearby has tested positive for COVID-19. And this created a wave of panic among the refugees.

“It is true that panic grips Rohingyas in the camps. But, along with the local administration, we are conducting awareness campaign among the refugees so that they can be aware of the infectious coronavirus,” Rohingya community leader Hafez Jalal told IPS over phone.

He said the refugees have been advised to stay in their homes and follow health guidelines to keep safe from infection. 

Social distancing is the main way to prevent coronavirus but this is very hard to maintain in the overcrowded camps where makeshift homes are built alongside each other, with only narrow lanes and paths bisecting areas. There are few water points in the camp, and while it is not known exactly how many there are, one water point is believed to serve the needs several thousand people.

Experts are concerned that if the coronavirus emerges in the camp, it could spread rapidly in the crowded conditions.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees spokesperson Louise Donovan said the overcrowded conditions in the camps pose a greater risk for the virus spreading rapidly in the event of an outbreak as currently around 40,000 people are living in one square kilometre.

Social distancing is particularly challenging in such an environment, despite measures which have been put in place at distribution points throughout the camps to maintain this.

“At the moment, it is a race against time to establish isolation and treatment facilities in order to cater for patients if there is any outbreak in the camps,” Donovan told IPS.

She said all humanitarian partners, in support of the Bangladesh government, were working round-the-clock to ensure a minimum response capacity in the case of an outbreak since the situation was very concerning.

Rohingya refugee traders selling chickens at market inside the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar in this photo dated Mar. 11, 2020. This was two weeks before Bangladesh went into a nationwide lockdown in an attempt to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Credit: Rafiqul Islam/IPS

Sharing information about the coronavirus has also been key.

According to one aid worker, communication about COVID-19 is ongoing in the refugee camps through radio spots, videos, posters, and messages, in Rohingya, Burmese and Bengali languages. The messages are also passed on by Imams and other community leaders and volunteers, who explain how the coronavirus spreads, how people can protect themselves and their families, what the symptoms are and how they can seek care. 

The government is also disseminating awareness messages through multiple channels, including mobile phone networks and over loudspeakers.

Locals have told IPS that law enforcement agencies and army personnel have installed roadblocks on the main roads of the district and are carrying out patrols inside and around the refugee camps to prevent people moving about.

In a recent Facebook post, Deputy Commissioner of Cox’s Bazar Kamal Hossain said 34 Rohingya camps were under lockdown, which includes prohibiting mass gatherings and rallies.

“Refugees of one camp would not be to go to another camp and they are not allowed to set up markets haphazardly inside the camps. But, steps have been taken to keep the refugees at homes and ensure supply of essential commodities for them. The law enforcing agencies have intensified their surveillance there,” he said.      

Hossain warned that legal actions would be taken against those who violate the order.

Yet despite knowing the risks, many have had no choice but to leave their homes for food and water.

“Many refugees are going out of their homes for daily needs, ignoring the directives of the authorities concerned, which is a matter of concern,” Jalal added. 

The Bangladesh government has extended the nationwide shutdown till Apr. 25.

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The post No Space for Social Distancing in Rohingya Refugee Camps appeared first on Inter Press Service.