Great Pyramid in Egypt lights up in solidarity against virus

AFP / Khaled DESOUKI 

Egypt has carried out sweeping disinfection operations at archaeological

 sites, museums and other sites

Egypt's famed Great Pyramid was emblazoned Monday evening with messages of unity and solidarity with those battling the novel coronavirus the world over.

"Stay safe", "Stay at home" and "Thank you to those keeping us safe," flashed in blue and green lights across the towering structure at the Giza plateau, southwest of the capital Cairo.

Egypt has so far registered 656 COVID-19 cases, including 41 deaths. Of the total infected, 150 reportedly recovered.

"The tourism sector is one of the most affected industry but our priority is health," said tourism and antiquities minister Khaled al-Anani, speaking at the site.

Senior antiquities ministry official Mostafa al-Waziri thanked "all the medical staff who help to keep us safe."

Egypt has carried out sweeping disinfection operations at archaeological sites, museums and other sites across the country.

In tandem, strict social distancing measures were imposed to reduce the risk of contagion among the country's 100 million inhabitants.

Tourist and religious sites are shuttered, schools are closed and air traffic halted.

Authorities have also declared a night-time curfew and threatened penalties including fines and even prison.

On Monday, the interior ministry said hundreds were arrested for violating curfew orders. It was not immediately clear if they were later released.

The World Health Organization has commended Egypt's response to the pandemic as "strong and adapted to the situation".

But it called on the Arab world's most populous country to boost hospital resources to better prepare for potential wider transmission.

The novel coronavirus was declared a pandemic on March 11. It originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has so far spread in 183 countries.

Over 727,000 people have been infected and more than 34,000 have died worldwide, according to a tally compiled by AFP.

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Facebook and Instagram remove Bolsonaro video questioning virus quarantine

AFP/File / Sergio LIMABrazilian president Jair Bolsonaro shared

 videos showing him flouting his government's social distancing guidelines

Facebook and Instagram removed videos of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro on Monday, saying they spread misinformation about the coronavirus, a day after Twitter did the same.

"We remove content on Facebook and Instagram that violates our terms of use, which do not allow misinformation that could cause physical harm to individuals," Facebook said in a statement in Portuguese.

Twitter on Sunday explained it had removed the videos in accordance with its recently expanded global rules on managing content that contradicted public health information from official sources, and could put people at greater risk of transmitting COVID-19.

The videos showed the far-right leader flouting his government's social distancing guidelines by mixing with supporters on the streets of Brasilia on Sunday and urging them to keep the economy going.

On Saturday, Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta highlighted the importance of containment as a means of fighting the coronavirus. Brazil has reported the most coronavirus cases in Latin America so far: 4,256, with 136 deaths.

On Monday, Mandetta again stressed the importance of social distancing in order to slow the virus.

"At this time, we must maintain the highest degree of social distancing, so that we can... give time for the (health) system to strengthen itself," he said.

Bolsonaro has repeatedly downplayed the seriousness of the coronavirus, describing it as "a flu" and calling for schools and shops to re-open, with self-isolation necessary only for people over the age of 60.

On Monday, his leading opponents urged him to resign in a joint letter, arguing that he committed a crime with his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic.

"Bolsonaro is more than just a political problem, he has become a public-health problem... He should resign," said the statement, which was signed by a dozen leading left-wing figures.

Twitter removes two Bolsonaro tweets questioning virus quarantine

AFP / EVARISTO SA

Brazilian soldiers disinfect the Subway Central Station in Brasilia on March 29, 2020

Two tweets by Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro in which he questioned quarantine measures aimed at containing the novel coronavirus were removed Sunday, on the grounds that they violated the social network's rules.

The far-right leader had posted several videos in which he flouted his government's social distancing guidelines by mixing with supporters on the streets of Brasilia and urging them to keep the economy going.

Two of the posts were removed and replaced with a notice explaining why they had been taken down.

Twitter explained in a statement that it had recently expanded its global rules on managing content that contradicted public health information from official sources and could put people at greater risk of transmitting COVID-19.

In one of the deleted videos, Bolsonaro tells a street vendor, "What I have been hearing from people is that they want to work."

"What I have said from the beginning is that 'we are going to be careful, the over-65s stay at home,'" he said.

"We just can't stand still, there is fear because if you don't die of the disease, you starve," the vendor is seen telling Bolsonaro, who responds: "You're not going to die!"

In another video, the president calls for a "return to normality," questioning quarantine measures imposed by governors and some mayors across the giant South American country as an effective containment measure against the virus.

"If it continues like this, with the amount of unemployment what we will have later is a very serious problem that will take years to be resolved," he said of the isolation measures.

"Brazil cannot stop or we'll turn into Venezuela," Bolsonaro later told reporters outside his official residence.

On Saturday, Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta highlighted the importance of containment as a means of fighting the coronavirus, which has already infected 3,904 people in Brazil, leaving 114 dead, according to the latest official figures.

"Some people want me to shut up, follow the protocols," said Bolsonaro. "How many times does the doctor not follow the protocol?"

"Let's face the virus with reality. It is life, we must all die one day."

In the four videos posted on his Twitter account, Bolsonaro is seen surrounded by small crowds as he walked about the capital.

Bolsonaro has described the coronavirus as "a flu" and advocated the reopening of schools and shops, with self-isolation necessary solely for the over-60s.

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/mutual-aid-solidarity-and-humor-in.html

On This Day: 15th Amendment gives African-American men right to vote
On March 30, 1870, the 15th Amendment, granting African-American men the right to vote, was adopted into the U.S. Constitution.

MANY ABOLITIONISTS WERE FEMINISTS WHO STILL COULD NOT VOTE
By UPI Staff


A voter casts a ballot in the Democratic presidential primary February 29 at the Dutch Fork High School in Irmo, S.C. On March 30, 1870, the 15th Amendment, granting African-American men the right to vote, was adopted into the U.S. Constitution. File Photo by Richard Ellis/UPI | License Photo

March 30 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

In 1842, Dr. Crawford Long became the first physician to use anesthetic (ether) in surgery.

In 1858, a U.S. patent was granted to Hymen Lipman for a pencil with an attached eraser.

In 1867, U.S. Secretary of State William Seward reached an agreement with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7.2 million in gold.

File Photo by Library of Congress/UPI

In 1923, the Cunard liner Laconia arrived in New York City, the first passenger ship to circumnavigate the world. The cruise lasted 130 days.

In 1975, the South Vietnamese city of Da Nang fell to North Vietnamese forces. UPI correspondent Paul Vogle described "the flight out of hell" as refugees attempted to flee the city.

In 1981, On March 30, 1981, John Hinckley Jr. shot and injured U.S. President Ronald Reagan outside a Washington hotel. White House press secretary James Brady, a Secret Service agent and a Washington police officer also sustained injuries. Hinckley was released from a psychiatric hospital in September 2016.

In 1999, a jury in Oregon awarded $81 million in damages to the family of a smoker who died from lung cancer. A state judge reduced the punitive portion to $32 million.

In 2006, Jill Carroll, a freelance reporter for The Christian Science Monitor, was freed in Baghdad after being held for 82 days by kidnappers.

In 2018, at least a dozen Palestinians died in the first week of the so-called Great March of Return protests in Gaza. More than 180 people died in the nearly weekly protests through the end of 2019.

In 2019, Slovakia elected its first female president, liberal lawyer Zuzana Caputova.

File Photo by Martin Divisek/EPA-EFE

(Trump) FDA OKs system to decontaminate, reuse face masks for coronavirus
DUE TO TRUMP FAILURE TO GET MASK PRODUCTION UNDERWAY IN JANUARY USING DPA
St. Louis Fire Department paramedic Andrew Beasley wears a mask, gloves and

 a gown as he disinfects the back of an ambulance with a bleach mix, after

 delivering a patient to the Emergency Department at Barnes-Jewish Hospital 

in St. Louis on March 16. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

March 30 (UPI) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new decontamination system that enables health providers to reuse industrial face masks that have become scarce during the coronavirus outbreak.

The FDA on Sunday issued an emergency-use authorization under which the Battelle Decontamination System, built by the Battelle Memorial Institute of Columbus, will be sent to critical facilities around the United States.

Battelle says the system is capable of decontaminating 80,000 N95 respirator masks each day, which would provide relief to front-line healthcare providers who are seeing severe shortages of personal protection equipment.

The FDA also did an about-face on an earlier stance limiting the number of masks that can be decontaminated each day, following complaints from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.

The agency approved a plan over the weekend allowing Batelle to sterilize only 10,000 masks per day, but DeWine said the sterilization was only allowed to occur on a limited basis.

"That's just not good enough, he tweeted.

DeWine later said he spoke with President Donald Trump and the FDA lifted the limit a short time later.

RELATED Esper: Pentagon to give masks, ventilators to HHS



Also Sunday, the FDA issued an emergency-use authorization for a pair of anti-malaria drugs to treat COVID-19. The authorization will allow 30 million doses hydroxychloroquine sulfate and chloroquine phosphate products donated by pharma giants Sandoz/Novartis and Bayer Pharmaceutical to be developed for possible treatment of the coronavirus disease.

Although the anti-malarial drugs have not yet been shown to be effective against COVID-19 in clinical trials, anecdotal evidence exists to show that they could be.

FDA emergency-use authorizations enable new products or new uses for existing drugs without clinical trials if it determines the benefits outweigh the known risks, when there are no alternatives.
RELATED WHO: Hoarding hurts medical supply for health workers

ACLU, Planned Parenthood, file suit against Iowa over halting abortions

The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa and Planned Parenthood filed 

suit Monday against Iowa state officials based on governor's order halting

 abortions during the coronavirus pandemic.

 File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

March 30 (UPI) -- The American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood Federation of America filed a lawsuit Monday against Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds' order halting abortions amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Pat Garrett, a spokesman for Reynolds, told the Des Moines Register Friday that the governors' proclamation earlier this week to suspend "non-essential" medical procedures through mid-April included surgical abortion.

The lawsuit filed in Johnson County District Court against Reynolds and other state officials "asks the court for an emergency injunction to block the Governor's Proclamation as it applies to abortions," an ACLU of Iowa statement said Monday.

The suit was filed on behalf of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, which offers services at health centers in Iowa and Nebraska, its medical director Jill Meadows, and the abortion clinic called Emma Goldman Clinic, based in Iowa City.

"Abortion is an essential, time-sensitive medical procedure," Planned Parenthood's Iowa Executive Director Erin Davison-Rippey said in a statement. "We are in a critical moment for our state when we must come together to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, not politicize health care services that are constitutionally protected. Iowans are doing all they can to protect their families and communities during this pandemic and Planned Parenthood is focused on providing our patients with crucial services they need."

The Iowa Constitution grants women a fundamental right to abortion, according a recent Iowa Supreme Court ruling, which the lawsuit cites.

Reynolds has been a vocal pro-life advocate for years and in 2018 signed one of the most restrictive state abortion bans in the nation into law, known as the "heartbeat" bill, banning the procedure after six weeks.

RELATED U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments in Louisiana abortion case

The pro-life governor has defended her position and said it is not because of her ideology, but part of plan to deal with national shortage in medical equipment during the pandemic.

However, the lawsuit says the governor calling abortions non-essential procedures "flagrantly defies clear and binding constitutional precedent," showing "protected liberty interest in terminating an unwanted pregnancy."

Officials in Texas, Ohio and Mississippi have also halted abortion procedures amid the pandemic.

RELATED Senate fails to pass two abortion bills

Anti-LGBTQ hate groups surged by 43% in 2019, advocacy group says

A Southern Poverty Law Center report released earlier this month showed anti-LGBTQ groups surged last year.

 Marchers in parade are shown celebrating LGBTQ pride in San Francisco 

last year. File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI | License Photo

March 30 (UPI) -- The number of anti-LGBTQ hate groups in the United States increased by 43 percent last year, the Southern Poverty Law Center said.

The hate groups grew from 49 in 2018 to 70 in 2019, the a new SPLC report said.

President Donald Trump has shown support for at least some of these hate groups, the report shows.

"Though Trump promised during his campaign to be a 'real friend' to the LGBTQ community, he has fully embraced anti-LGBTQ hate groups and their agenda of dismantling federal protections and resources for LGBTQ people," the report said.

RELATED N.Y. man dies 3 months after hate crime-related machete attack

The SPLC highlighted the Trump administration's affiliation with the Family Research Council, which it has deemed a hate group that uses "junk science" to make "false claims" about the LGBTQ community in an effort to promote hate and fuel the fight against their civil rights.

SPLC spokeswoman Lecia Brooks told NBC News that long-time FRC President Tom Perkins has had "unfettered access" to the Trump administration, noting that Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell appointed Perkins to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

The LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD has listed more than 30 examples of Perkins' opposition to LGBTQ rights. Among them, the FRC has distributed a pamphlet comparing same-sex marriage to a "man-horse marriage." Perkins also claimed lawmakers who voted to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" had the "blood of young Marines" on their hands.

RELATED Gay, lesbian teens at higher risk for physical, sexual abuse

Trump spoke at an FRC-hosted event in October in which he reiterated his position against the Equality Act, a bill the House passed that would extend to LGBTQ people federal non-discrimination protections.

The Trump administration's Department of Justice has also filed briefs supporting the Alliance Defending Freedom, which the SPLC has also designated a hate group, in three anti-LGBTQ lawsuits.

The ADF won a case before the Supreme Court in 2018, representing a Christian baker who refused to bake a cake for a gay wedding. In another high court case, the ADF is defending a Detroit funeral home who fired a worker going through a gender transition.

In a lower court, the ADF is representing three athletes suing the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference for its policy of allowing transgender girls to compete with other high school girls.

"Trump's embrace of these groups, their leaders and their policy agenda fuels this growth," Brooks said of the rise in "anti-LGBTQ hate groups."

The report noted that anti-LGBTQ hate groups represented the "fastest-growing sector" of hate groups last year. White nationalists groups have also been on the rise, increasing 55 percent from 100 in 2017 to 155 in 2019.

Anti-immigrant groups also went up slightly from 17 in 2018 to 20 in 2019.

The SPLC exposed hundred of emails Trump's senior policy adviser, Stephen Miller, wrote to the far-right website Breitbart News in 2015 and 2016 which showed he was "stepped in the language, literature and ideology of the white nationalist movement," the report said. It added that Miller has been connecting groups the SPLC has designated as extremist anti-immigrant hate groups -- such as the Center for Immigration Studies and Federation for American Immigration Reform -- to some lawmakers with similar views.

Still, the number of overall hate groups declined from a record high of 1,020 in 2018 to 940 in 2019.

The "collapse of two neo-Nazi factions riven by leadership turmoil and community pressure," contributed to the overall decline in the number of hate groups after a 30 percent rise since 2015, the SPLC said.

ADF's senior counsel, Jeremy Tedesco, rebuked the SPLC for releasing the report on March 18, amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"It's appalling that the Southern Poverty Law Center would choose this time of national emergency to launch their divisive and false 'hate report,'" Tedesco told NBC News. "We call on SPLC to retract the report, stop sowing division and join the rest of America against our common foe: COVID-19."

Brooks dismissed this rebuke.

"Fighting hate is something we have to keep at the forefront of our minds," Brooks said. "They don't take a break, and we don't take a break either."

The SPLC similarly defends compiling a list of hate groups, exposing that their "patriotic" rhetoric masks their true intentions, in its report.

"For all their 'patriotic' rhetoric, hate groups and their imitators are really trying to divide us; their views are fundamentally anti-democratic and need to be exposed and countered," the report said.

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Solar-powered cisterns bring running water to Navajo homes
By Jean Lotus

Freshwater solar-powered cisterns are being installed in homes with no 

indoor plumbing on the Navajo Nation. Photo courtesy of DigDeep

DENVER, March 30 (UPI) -- More than 300 families on the Navajo Nation reservation have fresh running-water systems for the first time, provided for free, and a non-profit group hopes its delivery model can expand to other remote Navajo households in New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.

The Navajo Water Project installs complete water systems, funded by donations, for households across the Navajo Nation. School bus drivers in their off-hours deliver free water monthly by truck to the new solar-powered cistern systems.


The project is run by parent organization DigDeep, a California-based water and sanitation non-profit.

About 125,000 residents, or 35 percent of the reservation's population of 375,000, live without running water and sanitation services, according to the Navajo Nation.

RELATED As coal dwindles, Southwest tribal solar farms pump out power

"Grandmas and grandpas have taught us how to get water from a livestock well, and boil that and run it through a Bluebird flour bag," said Cindy Howe, the organization's project manager in Thoreau, N.M. "That's how we grew up."

It costs Navajo Water Project about $4,500 and takes 24 hours to hook up families to water. Technicians install a 1,200-gallon cistern and pump, powered by a solar panel. They then plumb a sink and water heater in the home.

Solar energy also can power a bank of LED lights and USB ports for charging devices if the home has no electricity.

RELATED Many household drinking water filters fail to totally remove PFAS


"Even myself, I get choked up when I see a person getting water for the first time in their home," Howe said.

'They're so happy'

"The look on their faces, whether it's a grandma or a small child -- they're so happy. It's been promised and promised and promised, and sometimes they still don't believe it's going to happen," she said.

RELATED Plans advance for Colorado River water conservation

Water is purchased from the reservation's Navajo Tribal Utilities Authority or acquired from refurbished community wells that may have been contaminated formerly or were no longer used.

Cisterns are filled by a delivery truck service.

"School bus drivers have a big chunk of free time between routes," said George McGraw, parent organization DigDeep's executive director. "They drive a water truck, pick up water at access points and then deliver it on their routes."

The organization also cleaned up and re-plumbed the water system at Navajo Nation's only special-needs school in St. Michaels, Ariz.

This year, the Navajo Water Project plans to install 300 more cistern systems from offices in Thoreau, Navajo Mountain, Utah and Dilkon, Ariz.

Building infrastructure, including miles-long water lines, to plumb remote homes could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, which could never be recouped by the water utility authority, McGraw said.

Larger-scale solar cistern and delivery systems could help remote reservation residents get running water access, he said.

Living without running water is a way of life for many of the residents of the Navajo Nation, residents said.

"We do have elderly still tied to the land in remote areas who don't want to move to homes that are available with all the modern essentials," Navajo Mountain Chapter President Hank Stevens said. About 800 residents straddle the state line between San Juan County, Utah and Navajo County, Ariz.

No indoor plumbing

Arizona and New Mexico are among the states with the highest number of people living without indoor plumbing, according to U.S. Census American Community Survey.

Race is the greatest predictor of having no access to running water, an October 2019 report from DigDeep and the U.S. Water Initiative said.

Native Americans are more than 19 times more likely to live without indoor plumbing, and African Americans and Latino residents are twice as likely to live without it, the report said.

"Nationally, there has been economic disinvestment and lower tax bases in these communities," McGraw said. "The vast majority have never had infrastructure, and their communities were either deliberately or inadvertently sidelined in the past when that infrastructure was being built."

Some residents of the Navajo Nation travel hundreds of miles each month to buy bottled water and reuse water several times, the report found.

Some elderly members practice extreme water conservation, using 3 to 4 gallons of water per day, while the average U.S. resident uses 88 gallons. Some families favor processed food that doesn't require using fresh water, the report said.

"Some people are homebound, and they're having a hard enough time getting water for basic consumption needs," said Zoe Roller, senior program manager at the Oakland, Calif.-based U.S. Water Alliance, a water access non-profit.

Local wells also can be contaminated with uranium and other toxins like arsenic, Roller said.

"That's even more urgent now when health depends on basic hygiene like frequent hand-washing," Roller said.

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(Updated) We can and we must learn from this global catastrophe

March 30, 2020  Blog www.ceasefire.ca

UN chief calls for global ceasefire

On March 23rd in virtual format, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued a plea for a global ceasefire:

The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war….That is why today, I am calling for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world. It is time to put armed conflict on lockdown and focus together on the true fight of our lives.

www.passblue.com, a website that provides detailed, timely, independent commentary on the work of the United Nations, outlines the following positive responses to the ceasefire call:
The [opposition] Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced “their commitment to avoid engaging in military action.”

Communist guerillas in the Philippines said they would observe a ceasefire in “direct response to the call of UN Secretary-General for a global ceasefire between warring parties for the common purpose of fighting the Covid-19 pandemic”.
In Cameroon, one of several opposition groups, The Southern Cameroons Defence Force (Socadef), stated they would maintain a ceasefire as “a gesture of goodwill”.

Tragically, Libyan warlord General Haftar has rejected the appeal.

What kind of society do we want to have in future?

At the end of an extraordinary interview on Talk to Aljazeera with Dr. Michael Ryan, the head of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, interviewer Mohammed Jamjoon asked the following question:

Dr. Ryan, are you getting the sense that people are changing as a result of this [pandemic] and that populations around the world will be changed as a result of this, that they will start to have a different outlook when it comes to all of this?

Dr. Ryan replied in part:

When this is done, we need to sit down and see what kind of society we want to have in future…. Are we to be defended from foreign armies, [or] are we to be defended from viruses; where are we putting our investment in society… our civilization and way of life…?

On the issue of spending priorities, Daryl G. Kimball, head of the prestigious Arms Control Association, penned an April editorial entitled Pandemic Reveals Misplaced Priorities (April 2020):

The U.S. government spends tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to maintain a massive nuclear arsenal capable of destroying the planet many times over. Meanwhile, it does not have a stockpile of masks large enough to protect front-line health care workers who are battling COVID-19 and is proposing to cut programs that help provide for early disease detection….

If we are to survive well into this century, there must be a profound shift in the way we deal with global security challenges and how we align our scientific, economic, diplomatic, and political resources to address the health, climate, and nuclear dangers that threaten us all.

Ed Yong, writing in The Atlantic, foresees an America with Trump as a second-term President which turns even further inward. But he also envisages another future where America learns a different lesson from the pandemic:

A communal spirit, ironically born through social distancing, causes people to turn outward, to neighbors both foreign and domestic. The election of November 2020 becomes a repudiation of “America first” politics. The nation pivots, as it did after World War II, from isolationism to international cooperation…The U.S. leads a new global partnership focused on solving challenges like pandemics and climate change.

The concept of human security is being revisited

Others, like Jonathan Granoff and Barry Kellman, are revisiting expanded notions of security. Their recent article in Newsweek begins with the headline:

‘National Security’ is Too Crude to Protect Us From Pandemics. It’s Time to Shift to Human Security Instead

And they go on to argue:

Coronavirus is a wake-up call to stop ignoring our common human condition. It’s telling us that chasing security with an inordinate adversarial perspective, without recognizing the value of cooperative and collective security, has left us unprepared and insecure before this very real global threat.

Human security is a concept that Canada pioneered and promoted globally, with much success, in the wake of the end of the Cold War.

See for example, Human Security and the New Diplomacy Protecting People, Promoting Peace, eds. Rob McRae and Don Hubert, Introduction by Lloyd Axworthy, foreword by Kofi Annan (McGill Univ Press, 2001). A description of the book reads:

Human Security and the New Diplomacy is a case-study of a major Canadian foreign policy initiative and a detailed account of the first phase of the human security agenda. The story of Canada’s leading role in promoting a humanitarian approach to international relations, it will be of interest to foreign policy specialists and students alike.

Tragically, it was all but abandoned in the wake of the September 11th attacks even as the unanimous UN Security Council resolution 1377 (2001) called for a

sustained, comprehensive approach … in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and international law… [including] efforts to broaden the understanding among civilizations and to address regional conflicts and the full range of global issues, including development issues….

One of the most prescient voices at the time, cautioning against a primarily military-led response to the terror attacks, was Professor Paul Rogers of Bradford University. And he has never given up making the case for a human security-centred approach. In his 900th column for Opendemocracy.net, he writes:

The West has applied the control paradigm to the world since 9/11 and it has proved a disaster. It has left a trail of weak and failing states, hundreds of thousands of people killed, millions displaced and a legacy of bitterness and resentment. Yet few military and political leaders recognise this failure.…

What is actually required is a human-rights dimension to security, the need to see it as a common right to freedom from fear and want, rooted in socio-economic and ecological awareness.

Even some commentators on the right are highlighting the absolute need for stronger international organizations and closer international cooperation, See for example, David Frum’s recent article: The Coronavirus Is Demonstrating the Value of Globalization (theatlantic.com, March 2020):

If we build a world of trust that’s efficient and attractive enough, we may find that we can inspire better behavior from China too. Great nations do not react well to threats, and they react even worse to insults and name-calling of the empty Trumpian kind. But they do sometimes respond to positive incentives…[such as] a partnership of trusted partners in global health….

Update on 30 Mar, 2020.

Back to Professor Paul Rogers and a riveting interview he gave on CBC’s Sunday Edition on Sunday, 29 March 2020. He sums up the global imperative as follows:

There is no alternative whatsoever to greater international co-operation and trying to have economic and social health systems which can cope with this particular issue. We are not remotely there at present…

And how well we do in managing this crisis could be an indication of how equipped we are to deal with the much larger issue of climate breakdown….

Let that be our guiding light once we emerge from the dark days still ahead!

Whither Canada?

We call on our government to deepen its cooperation with other nations, through the WHO, the G20 and other multilateral bodies to ensure that developing countries get the assistance they desperately need to help us all fight COVID-19.

Iran and “medical terrorism” in the time of pandemic
March 20, 2020 Ceasefire.ca

Dear Friends,

As we all do everything we can here at home to slow down the progress of the coronavirus and safeguard our loved ones and our communities, let us not forget those most in need at the global level. We are all in this together and international solidarity has never been more important than it is now.

In Iran Covid-19 is killing one person every 10 minutes….

Right now one of the hardest hit countries in the world is Iran with the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 surpassing 18,400, and where the death toll from the disease is fast approaching 1,300, according to Johns Hopkins University data. On Friday 20 March Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said that the virus was killing one person in the country every 10 minutes, while 50 new infections were detected each hour.

Yet, unbelievably, even for Trump, the USA has tightened sanctions. In a letter to the UN Secretary-General, Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif called the American actions “economic terrorism” but later, in a tweet, he coined an even more chillingly accurate term: “medical terrorism”. In turn, the spokesman for the UN Secretary-General stated:

…the U.N. chief is also very aware of the shortage of medicine and medical equipment that makes it much more difficult to contain the outbreak in Iran, and he appeals to all member states to facilitate and support Iran’s efforts in this critical moment…..

It is crucial to bear in mind that the coronavirus is hitting an Iranian health care system already devastated by U.S. sanctions. On October 29, 2019 Human Rights Watch published a report documenting how broad restrictions on financial transactions, coupled with aggressive rhetoric from US officials, has drastically constrained the ability of Iranian entities to finance humanitarian imports, including vital medicines and medical equipment. Human Rights Watch went on to say:

The US government had built exemptions for humanitarian imports into its sanctions regime. But Human Rights Watch found that these exemptions have not offset US and European companies’ and banks’ strong reluctance to risk sanctions and legal action by exporting or financing the exempted humanitarian goods.

In our blog of 28 February, we reported that the USA had “slightly eased” sanctions to allow humanitarian goods to flow to Iran through a mechanism entitled the Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement. While this is promising, Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch was quick to comment:

This ‘trial’ transaction shouldn’t obscure the need for a comprehensive system to monitor the negative impact of US sanctions on human rights, and to take steps for a remedy.

Most mainstream media have been derelict in their reporting on this grotesque action by the USA, typically content to note they provide a humanitarian exemption but failing to acknowledge its total inadequacy.

Alternative media has stepped up. See: U.S. Sanctions on Iran Are Increasing Coronavirus Deaths. They Need to Be Stopped Now. (Sarah Lazare, inthesetimes.com, 17 Mar 2020). See also: The Coronoavirus is Killing Iranians. So Are Trump’s Brutal Sanctions. (Medi Hasan, theintercept.com, 17 Mar 2020).

Sarah Lazare writes:

In Iran, one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus crisis, a complex web of sanctions imposed by the Trump administration… is choking off critical medical supplies to a country desperately in need.

An article in the UK Independent recalls that both President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama provided sanctions relief to Iran in the wake of devastating earthquakes in 2004 and 2012 respectively.

But, as noted above, the Trump administration is tightening, not loosening sanctions, even leading to Google removing from its App store an interactive Android app released by the Iranian government to help people self-diagnose for the coronavirus and so avoid overwhelming hospitals with every mild symptom.

The stark contrast with past presidential actions prompted Intercept journalist Mehdi Hasan to conclude:

Imagine being both so cruel and so unreasonable that you make George W. Bush and Dick Cheney look compassionate and reasonable in comparison.

For those searching for an explanation, Sarah Lazare writes:

This large-scale human suffering is not incidental to the U.S. sanctions, but part of the strategy….The goal… is to collectively punish the population based on the unproven theory that this will make the people rise up against their government.

China and Russia were the first to call for the USA to lift sanctions in light of the COVID-19 pandemic but recently the UK quietly added its voice. The countries now providing financial and material assistance directly to Iran in its battle against coronavirus include China, Turkey, Uzbekistan, the UAE, Germany, France, the UK, Japan, Qatar, Azerbaijan and Russia. The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF are also assisting.

Progressive American Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has made his views known via tweet:

U.S. sanctions should not be contributing to this humanitarian disaster. As a caring nation, we must lift any sanctions hurting Iran’s ability to address this crisis, including financial sanctions.

Journalist Sarah Lazare has a message for all of us:


Right now, in the grips of an emergency, anyone who claims to care about human life and solidarity needs to fiercely fight to shut Iran sanctions down.

Whither Canada?

We call on the government of Canada to add its diplomatic voice to those already urging the USA to lift its sanctions for the duration of the pandemic and we further call on the government of Canada to join others in the provision of direct humanitarian assistance.

Send your email today to: justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca .


Rideau Institute President Peggy Mason



Photo credit: Frank Hebbert



Tags: "economic terrorism", "medical terrorism", coronavirus, COVID-19, Human Rights Watch, humanitarian exemption, humanitarian goods, inthesetimes.com, Iran, Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif, Medi Hasan, pandemic, Sarah Lazare, Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement, The Intercept, U.S. unilateral sanctions on Iran, UN Secretary-General António Guterres

Florida’s huge ‘Republican-rich’ retirement settlement hit with coronavirus community spread: report

NO CHEERING, JEERING, OR HORSE CALLING.. ROFLMAO ALLOWED

March 27, 2020 By Bob Brigham


Community spread of COVID-19 coronavirus is occurring in a giant retirement community in Florida that is know for being a GOP stronghold.

“At least five residents from The Villages have contracted the coronavirus through community spread or close contact with someone else who had the virus, according to the Florida Department of Health in Sumter County,” Politico reported Friday. “The Villages is a rapidly growing retirement community of more than 125,000 residents that spans three north central Florida counties. Most of the community is in Sumter County, where 29 people have tested positive for the virus as of Friday.”

Authorities report over 2,900 Floridians have tested positive for COVID-19, with 34 fatalities.

“The Villages last week became one of the first locations in the state to receive a 250-bed mobile hospital from the Florida Division of Emergency Services,” Politico reported. “Gov. Ron DeSantis opened a mobile testing site in The Villages on Monday through a partnership with University of Florida Health.”

The Villages, Florida's huge Republican-rich retirement community, is experiencing community spread of coronavirus more than a week after Gov. Ron DeSantis was criticized for his slow and cautious response https://t.co/6u79KxMxcn
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) March 27, 2020