Thursday, May 21, 2020

This pandemic threatens to undo what generations of feminists have fought for

With schools and daycares closed, and employers embracing permanent work-from-home arrangements, women will be forced to pick up the slack
Moira Donegan @MoiraDonegan
THE GUARDIAN Thu 21 May 2020
 
Farrah Eaton helps her two daughters, Elin, left, and Nola with home schooling. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images


During this pandemic, a contracting economy, public health fears, and steadily reduced public services have shifted massive amounts of work and caregiving responsibilities to the home – and it is women who are picking up the slack. Even as lockdowns lift and the virus recedes, many of these needs that were previously met outside the home will still be left to families to try to meet within it, and women will be disproportionately affected. The result is a potentially long-term constricting of women’s lives to the domestic sphere. This threatens to undo a century’s worth of progress that women have made in claiming access to public life.

Some women are home because they’ve lost work. The economic recession that has been prompted by the pandemic has disproportionately hurt woman-dominated service industries, meaning that this time, unlike the 2008 recession, women make up the majority of the newly unemployed. In April, the unemployment rate climbed to 15.5% for women, with black women and Latinas facing even higher average unemployment rates.


The economic recession that has been prompted by the pandemic has disproportionately hurt woman-dominated service industries

With schools and daycares closed, responsibilities like childcare and eldercare that were once diffused out into public services or commercial enterprises are now reined in to the home. But waged work, for those women who still have it, continues apace, with few concessions towards the new reality. In the pandemic, women’s lives have become more burdened, smaller and less free. Everyone has a public health obligation to stay home, but only women have a socially enforced responsibility to take on disproportionate domestic work while they are there.

Of those women who still have jobs and are working remotely, many are likely to keep working from home even after the virus recedes and lockdowns are lifted, since the pandemic has caused many companies to re-evaluate their overhead costs and the necessity of physical office space. Twitter has announced plans to move to more permanent work-from-home arrangements after the pandemic, and other companies are likely to follow suit. Many women who used to work outside the home will lose their income, but even those who keep it may have to stay in. And with unemployment surging and labor at a surplus, female workers whose children, housework or other domestic distractions don’t allow them to maintain their productivity know that their employers will find them easy to dispose of and easy to replace.


Female workers whose children, housework, or other domestic distractions don’t allow them to maintain their productivity know that their employers will find them easy to replace

Meanwhile, mothers working from home are likely to have their children with them for the foreseeable future. It remains unclear when schools will reopen in many parts of the country, but the Cal State university system has suspended in-person classes for the fall semester, a move that is likely to push many other university systems and K-12 institutions to do the same. When schools do reopen, many may use partly remote schedules, with students learning from home for part of the week.

Men are home too, but many of them aren’t helping. Studies have shown that men consistently underestimate the time that women spend on housework, childcare, and eldercare, and drastically overestimate their own contributions. This pattern has only been exacerbated by the pandemic. A Morning Consult and New York Times Poll found that in heterosexual households with school-age children, 45% of husbands thought that they spent more time homeschooling than their wives did. Among women, the perspective was wildly different: just 3% of wives said that their husbands did more of the homeschooling.

Homeschooling, meanwhile, is likely to remain the norm for the foreseeable future. Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York recently announced plans to overhaul the state’s public K-12 education programming in conjunction with the juggernaut Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a group that has historically advocated for the privatization of public education and lobbied against employment protections for the majority-woman teaching workforce. The plan is to implement technology to enable more distanced learning. “The old model of our education system where everyone sits in a classroom is not going to work in the new normal,” Cuomo argued. What he did not mention is that remote schooling still requires children to be supervised. The result is that parents – overwhelmingly, mothers – will effectively be deputized as teachers, without training or pay, and required to stay home with their kids.

The result of remote schooling is that mothers will effectively be deputized as teachers, without training or pay, and required to stay home with their kids

Cuomo’s decision is premised on the sexist assumption that women are perpetually available for more and more unpaid domestic work. In fact, it elevates that attitude from a cultural and marital injustice to a pillar of public policy. The state is retreating from its obligation to provide an education for children, and the childcare that that education represents. Women are inevitably tasked with compensating for the state’s failures.

With the state rolling back services, private companies making few concessions to women workers’ domestic needs, and men not picking up the slack, the post-pandemic world could mean smaller, more claustrophobic and more constrained lives for women. It could mean women out of work and unable to earn the money that would allow them to provide for their families or gain independence in marriages that are exploitative, abusive or just unhappy. It could mean a public, social and commercial realm that is less vibrant for being predominantly male. It could mean women doing more and more work with less and less freedom, tasked as they are with being the resource of last resort when employers, institutions and the state throw up their hands. And it could mean the loss of what feminists have been fighting for: women’s freedom from the domestic sphere, freedom from financial dependence on men and freedom to access public life.

It is still not clear what life will look like after the pandemic, but it seems increasingly likely that much more of it will be confined to that place that women have been striving for decades to get out of: the house.


Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist






Mexico has 1,900 species of bees and they’re all at risk: biologist

May 21, 2020

All of Mexico’s 1,900 different species of native bees are at risk of extinction, says Ricardo Ayala Barajas, a National Autonomous University researcher based at the Chamela Biology Station in Jalisco.

Most of Mexico’s bees do not sting and only 47 species produce honey, but all native species are endangered, explained the researcher on the United Nations World Bee Day, May 20.

In an interview with the newspaper Milenio, Ayala said that around the world there are approximately 20,000 different named species of bees, and like in Mexico, every one is threatened by the use of insecticides and deforestation.


“A great effort is required to try to reduce the use of insecticides and make more careful use of natural resources, for the future of humanity and to care for the bees that help plants reproduce and generate fruits and seeds,” Ayala said. “We must appreciate and understand them more in order to prevent them from disappearing,”

Bee conservation is on the rise in Mexico, just as it is globally.

In Guanajuato, people who kill bees or harm their habitat can be fined up to 8,000 pesos (US $350). In Yucatán, the government and communities are collaborating on a bee conservation project after significant bee populations have died, thought to be a result of crop dusting. A similar campaign is underway in Campeche.

Beekeeping in Mexico has been around for some 3,000 years, according to earth.com, and the nation’s beekeepers watch over some 2 million hives with annual honey export profits totaling some US $56 million per year.

Source: Earth.com (en), Milenio (sp)
Coronavirus conspiracy theories: More than a fifth of people believe the virus is a hoax
Coronavirus conspiracy theories: More than a fifth of people believe the virus is a hoax


May 21, 2020

More than 4 in 10 people believe to some extent that China created coronavirus as a bioweapon to control the west, new research on Covid-19 conspiracy theories has suggested.

A new survey has revealed that when asked whether they believed that coronavirus is a bio-weapon developed by China to destroy the West, 55 per cent said they did not agree, 20.2 per cent said they agreed a little and 5.5 per cent agreed completely.

The research, led by clinical psychologists at the University of Oxford and published in the journal Psychological Medicine, indicates the number of adults in England do not agree with the scientific and governmental consensus on the Covid-19 pandemic.

It revealed that almost three fifths (59 per cent) of adults in England believe to some extent that the Government is misleading the public about the cause of the virus.

More than a fifth (21 per cent) believe the virus is a hoax, and 62 per cent agree to some extent that the virus is man-made, scientists say.

While 70.9 per cent said they did not agree the WHO already has a vaccine and are withholding it and 79 per cent said they did not agree that coronavirus is caused by 5G and is a form of radiation poisoning transmitted through radio waves.
From May 4-11, 2,500 adults – representative of the English population for age, gender, region, and income – took part in the Oxford Coronavirus Explanations, Attitudes, and Narratives Survey (Oceans) online.

Researchers found that approximately 50 per cent of this population showed little evidence of conspiracy thinking, 25 per cent showed a degree of endorsement, 15 per cent showed a consistent pattern of endorsement, and 10 per cent had very high levels of endorsement.

Higher levels of coronavirus conspiracy thinking were associated with less adherence to all Government guidelines, the study suggests.

The authors write: “Higher levels of coronavirus conspiracy thinking were associated with less adherence to all Government guidelines and less willingness to take diagnostic or antibody tests or to be vaccinated.

“Such ideas were also associated with paranoia, general vaccination conspiracy beliefs, climate change conspiracy belief, a conspiracy mentality, and distrust in institutions and professions.

“Holding coronavirus conspiracy beliefs was also associated with being more likely to share opinions.”

Daniel Freeman, professor of clinical psychology, University of Oxford, and consultant clinical psychologist, Oxford Health NHS Foundation, said: “Those who believe in conspiracy theories are less likely to follow government guidance, for example, staying home, not meeting with people outside their household, or staying two metres apart from other people when outside.

“Those who believe in conspiracy theories also say that they are less likely to accept a vaccination, take a diagnostic test, or wear a face mask.”

He added that the epidemic has all the necessary ingredients for the growth of conspiracy theories, including” sustained threat, exposure of vulnerabilities, and enforced change”.

Prof Freeman went on to explain that the beliefs were “corrosive to our necessary collective response to the crisis”.

The research also suggests that conspiracy theories are becoming more commonplace in wider society.

Dr Sinéad Lambe, Clinical Psychologist, said: “Conspiracy thinking is not isolated to the fringes of society and likely reflects a growing distrust in the government and institutions. Conspiracy beliefs arguably travel further and faster than ever before.

“Our survey indicates that people who hold such beliefs share them; social media provides a ready-made platform.”

“In the wake of the epidemic, mistrust looks to have become mainstream,” Prof Freeman added.

The research project is funded by the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre.





Auto Workers union demands Trump wear anti-virus mask on Ford plant visit  AND HE DOES


May 21, 2020 10:08 AM CDT BY MARK GRUENBERG

United Auto Workers members leave a Warren, Mich., plant at the end of their shift on May 18, 2020. The union is insisting President Donald Trump wear a mask when visiting a Ford plant on May 21. | Paul Sancya / AP



YPSILANTI, Mich.—When GOP President Donald Trump visits a Ford auto parts plant in Ypsilanti, Mich., on May 21, the United Auto Workers demands he wear an anti-coronavirus face mask.

He said he may, depending on specific parts of the plant he visits. But if past is prologue, given his visits to plants in Allentown, Pa., and Arizona whose workers manufacture personal protective equipment (PPE), he won’t.

More than a show of bravado is involved since Trump also refuses to wear a mask in the White House. Not coincidentally, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Arizona are swing states in the fall election that Trump needs in his column for another White House term. So is Wisconsin, where Vice President Mike Pence recently visited a PPE manufacturer, too. He didn’t wear a mask, either.

Ford officials backtracked late on May 20 from trying to force Trump to wear a mask when he visited the Rawsonville parts plant in Ypsilanti. That plant, like others run by the Detroit 3—Ford, FiatChrysler, and GM—started reopening on May 18. All restarted under strict protocols, with coronavirus tests and temperature checks of every worker, separation where needed on assembly lines, orders to wear masks, and other requirements. Workers’ entry is staged to keep them six feet apart as they walk in the gates.

The Detroit 3 also deep-cleaned and sterilized its plants in the weeks they were closed. That helped but didn’t completely stop the coronavirus. Ford had to briefly close its Chicago truck plant on May 18 when two workers tested positive, then reopened it on May 20—the same day it shut a 4,800-worker Dearborn truck plant when another worker tested positive for the coronavirus.

Given all that, Ford initially demanded Trump wear an anti-virus mask. So did the United Auto Workers. Then, after 4 pm on May 20, Ford backed down. UAW didn’t.

“The position of the union is that out of respect for the clean, sterile environment, anybody who enters into that plant needs to follow protocols,” spokesman Brian Rothenberg told news services.
Trump has refused to wear a mask when visiting other manufacturing facilities lately, such as at a Honeywell plant in Arizona. | Evan Vucci / AP

Starting on May 5, UAW reluctantly agreed to the Detroit 3’s reopening plans, after the firms and the union, working on a joint committee, hashed through the issues involved. But union President Rory Gamble warned the automakers that health and safety come first.

“We have supported a number of measures put in place to address Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization guidelines from FiatChrysler, GM, and Ford to protect our health and safety in the plant. Our volunteer members and the companies have done great work to reconfigure plants to achieve this safety goal,” Gamble said then.

“We continue to advocate for as much testing as possible at the current time and eventually full testing when available. As for the start date, the companies contractually make that decision, and we all knew this day would come. Our UAW focus and role is and will continue to be, on health and safety protocols to protect our members.”

The Detroit 3 yielded to COVID-19 cases and UAW pressure and closed the plants more than a month ago, due to outbreaks of the virus and fears of community spread among thousands of workers.

Along with the deep-cleaning and sterilization of the auto plants before they fully reopened, small sections were converted when the Detroit 3 switched to making ventilators.

Nobody openly discussed the political motives behind Trump’s and Pence’s visits to factories in swing states, whether PPE facilities or auto plants. The tours are designed to pump up the president’s political theme of “open up the economy again.” That mantra, echoed by congressional Republicans, right-wing extremists, and much of big business, is to declare it’s time to return to work, regardless of whether doing so would sicken or kill more people. Or cause a new spike in joblessness, too.

The virus has infected almost 1.6 million people nationwide and killed over 95,000 as of this writing. It’s also thrown at least 40 million people out of work since mid-March, as firms—including the Detroit 3—shut down as part of social distancing and anti-crowd efforts were undertaken to beat the virus’s community spread.

But Trump and Pence and their echo chamber argue the weekly numbers are declining, thus making opening safer. And they’re so confident of a quick economic turnaround that Trump told GOP senators on May 19 that he opposes extending increased jobless benefits beyond their scheduled end in July.

CONTRIBUTOR

Mark Gruenberg
Mark Gruenberg is head of the Washington, D.C., bureau of People's World. He is also the editor of Press Associates Inc. (PAI), a union news service in Washington, D.C. that he has headed since 1999. Previously, he worked as Washington correspondent for the Ottaway News Service, as Port Jervis bureau chief for the Middletown, NY Times Herald Record, and as a researcher and writer for Congressional Quarterly. Mark obtained his BA in public policy from the University of Chicago and worked as the University of Chicago correspondent for the Chicago Daily News.




Donald Trump is FINALLY pictured wearing a mask during private tour of Michigan Ford plant




by internewscast 21st May 2020

Donald Trump was finally photographed wearing a mask Thursday during the private part of a high-profile visit to a Ford factory – but spent the entire public part of the tour defying its boss Bill Ford’s request to cover up.

The president showed off the navy blue covering with the seal of the president on it, but added he didn’t want to give the media the ‘pleasure’ of seeing him wear one.

‘I wore one in this back area. I didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it,’ Trump said during his tour of the Rawsonville Components Plant. ‘I had the goggles and the mask.’

Trump has been reluctant to be photographed wearing a face covering and is reported to have said it would send the wrong message as he pushes to get the country focused on reopening from the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected more than 1.58 million Americans and killed almost 100,000.

He was finally photographed wearing a face covering backstage as Ford, the executive chairman of the firm founded by his great-grandfather Henry Ford, showed him three Ford GTs during a private tour.

But when he was in public, he brandished the mask with the presidential seal without putting it on, and posed with a face visor which he did not ear either.

After the tour, Ford Motor Company put out a statement from its executive chairman, saying the president was asked to wear a mask. The state attorney general also has threatened legal action against Ford if Trump did not wear a face covering during his tour.

‘Bill Ford encouraged President Trump to wear a mask when he arrived. He wore a mask during a private viewing of three Ford GTs from over the years. The President later removed the mask for the remainder of the visit,’ the company said.

Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel told CNN: ‘He is a petulant child who refuses to follow the rules. This is not a joke.’
What took so long? Donald Trump was finally photographed in a mask during the private portion of his tour of the Ford plant – , but he took it off before it could be seen in public


Request: Trump toured the plant with Bill Ford, the company’s executive chairman, who asked him directly to wear a mask throughout his time there. The president refused to wear it in public


President Trump defied Michigan’s mandatory face mask policy on Thursday and toured a Ford Motor factory with no covering


The navy blue mask has the seal of the president of the United States on it


President Trump was pictured holding up a plastic face covering


President Trump showed off the mask and said it ‘looked very nice’ when he had it on backstage




President Trump said it was his choice whether to wear the mask or not




Ford executives giving President Trump the tour wore face masks




President Trump carries a face mask crumbled in his hand during his factory tour


Michigan requires people to wear some type of face covering in public enclosed spaces thanks to an executive order signed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer at the end of April. There are no fines for violating the order but stores can refuse to serve those without the coverings.

‘Honestly, if he fails to wear a mask, he’s going to be asked not to return to any enclosed facility inside our state,’ Dana Nessel, a Democrat, told CNN.

Michigan requires people to wear some type of face covering in public enclosed spaces thanks to an executive order signed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer at the end of April. There are no fines for violating the order but stores can refuse to serve those without the coverings.

President Trump said he didn’t have to wear a mask because he’s been tested for the coronavirus and was tested again that morning. The mask prevents someone with the illness from transmitting it.

He did say the mask looked good on him when he wore it backstage.

‘It was very nice. It looked very nice,’ he said of his wearing the mask out of public view.

He said he didn’t wear one during the public portion of his factory tour – despite Michigan’s requirement – because ‘I was given a choice.’ The Ford Motor Company executives guiding him through the factory wore masks.

Bill Ford, the Executive Chairman of Ford Motor Company, who accompanied Trump on the tour, told the reporters traveling with Trump that it was the president’s ‘choice’ to wear a mask or not.

Asked if he should be wearing a mask to set an example, Trump said: ‘I think it sets an example both ways. As they say, I did have it on.’

During the visit, Trump touted his administration’s efforts to fight the coronavirus in the state.




President Trump nor his Chief of Staff Mark Meadows wore a mask but Housing Secretary Ben Carson and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner wore them


President Trump answered questions from the press during the factory tour


Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Hackett (left) speaks with President Donald Trump during the factory tour


President Trump did try on a plastic face shield during the tour, the face shields are made in the plant




The Rawsonville Components plant makes protective gear and ventilators to help battle the coronavirus


In his remarks, Trump told factory workers they were a ‘national treasure’


President Trump spoke among automobiles at the Rawsonville Components factory




Workers wear face masks when they listened to the president’s remarks

‘We have done a tremendous job in the state of Michigan, not only in terms of bringing autos back – auto productions – back but also in terms of fighting the virus,’ the president said at a roundtable with African American leaders on how the disease has infected disenfranchised communities.

The group was seated five feet apart at a long table in a closed off area of the Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The area was closed off by blue drapes. Behind Trump was a backdrop that read ‘Transition to Greatness,’ the president’s new slogan.

‘You’ll notice at this table we are socially distance,’ Housing Secretary Ben Carson, who traveled with Trump to Michigan, pointed out.

Also at the event were Republican Senate candidate John James and State Representative Karen Whitsett. James wore a mask during the roundtable.

Trump touted Whitsett’s story after she appeared on Fox News to describe how she took hydroxychloroquine and was cured of COVID-19. She’s also met with the president at the White House during an event with people who survived the coronavirus.

Also at the event, Robin Barnes, a real estate agent, said hydroxychloroquine cured her when she had COVID-19.

She told Trump she heard him talking about the anti-malaria drug on television.

‘I was able to call my doctor and say listen hey let’s try this because, you know, this must be what’s going on,’ Barnes noted. She said got a prescription for it and the antibiotic azithromycin, also known as z-pack.

‘I took it at 9:30 in the morning. By four or five o’clock I was breathing good. So it works,’ she said.

‘Thank you for that,’ Trump told her.




State Representative Karen Whitsett joined President Trump at a roundtable meeting; Trump has touted her story of how taking hydroxychloroquine cured her of the coronavirus




Real estate agent Robin Barnes told President Trump she took hydroxychloroquine after seeing him talk about it on television and it cured her case of COVID-1

The president is taking hydroxychloroquine as a preventative measure against exposure to the coronavirus. He said he is finishing up his course of it this week.






Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel, a Democrat, said President Donald Trump will be told not to come back if he refuses to wear a face mask when he tours a Ford Motor plant




President Trump will visit a Ford Motor Company plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan, which has been recast to produce ventilators




Ford Motor Co., line workers put together ventilators that the automaker is assembling at its Rawsonville plant

During the roundtable, Trump offered his support to the state, which is suffering from heavy flooding in the north.

He did not address his previous threat to with hold federal funding after the Michigan secretary of state sent absentee ballot applications to all registered voters.

‘I’m not going to discuss that. There are so many forms of funding. What we want is good, straight, honest voting,’ he said.

Trump and other Republicans have claimed, without evidence, that mail in voting increases the chances for voter fraud. The president made that argument again on Thursday and explained why he, himself, votes absentee.

‘Now, if you’re president of the United States and if you vote in Florida, and you can’t be there, you should be able to send in a ballot. If you’re not well, you’re feeling terrible, you’re sick, you have a reasonable excuse – just a reasonable excuse – you should be able to vote by mail in,’ he said.

Trump has never been photographed wearing a face mask. He was not seen wearing a mask when he visited factories in Arizona and Pennsylvania over the past two weeks but he claimed he donned one for a few minutes backstage while at the Honeywell plant in Phoenix on May 5.

Ford has a policy that all visitors must wear personal protective equipment and originally indicated Trump would wear one. But the company later backed down and said the White House has its own protective procedures and will make its own determinations about whether masks will be worn.

Nessel threatened to take legal action against Ford Motors if the president doesn’t wear a face covering.

‘I know that Ford has asked him to do the same thing, but if we know that he’s coming to our state, and we know he’s not going to follow the law, I think we’re going to have to take action against any company or any facility that allows him inside those facilities and puts our workers at risk. We simply can’t afford it here in our state,’ she said.

‘We are just asking that President Trump comply with the law in our state, just as we would make the same request of anyone else in those plants,’ she added, pointing out that an agreement that allowed auto workers to return to the plant included a provision that everyone will wear a mask and observe social distancing policies.

She implored President Trump to think about the cost and work that would go into disinfecting the Rawsonville Components Plant after his visit.

‘We’re asking if President Trump doesn’t care about his own health, doesn’t care about the health and the safety of people who work in those facilities, at least care about the economic situation of, you know, costing these facilities so much money by having to close down and disinfect the plant after he leaves,’ she said.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Ford said the company shared its safety policy, which includes a requirement to wear masks, with the White House.

But the company backed down from saying Trump would be required to don a facial covering.

‘The White House has its own safety and testing policies in place and will make its own determination’ about whether Trump and White House officials will wear masks during the visit,’ a spokesperson said.

Trump said Tuesday he’d consider wearing a mask if the situation warranted it.

‘I don’t know, I haven’t even thought of it,’ Trump said. ‘It depends, in certain areas I would, in certain areas I don’t, but, I will certainly look at it. It depends on what situation. Am I standing right next to everybody, or am I spread out. Is something a hospital, is it a ward, what is it exactly? I’m going to a plant.’

‘So we’ll see,’ Trump said. ‘Where it’s appropriate, I would do it, certainly.’

Michigan has had more than 52,000 cases of the coronavirus and more than 5,000 deaths.

Nessel wrote an open letter to Trump on Wednesday, asking him to wear a face mask during his visit, arguing he has a ‘social and moral’ responsibility to do so.




Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order requiring people to wear face masks in public enclosed places




Protestors chant on the steps of the state Capitol in Lansing




Don Richardson assembles a ventilator at the Ford Rawsonville plant that Trump will visit


Whitmer has instigated tough measures to try and combat the pandemic. In addition to the face covering policy, she instituted a stay-at-home requirement that remains in effect. Restrictions will start to ease in parts of the state on Friday.

Protesters, however, swarmed the state Capitol in Lansing to object to the shut down.

President Trump has cheered them on.

On Wednesday, the president argued the stay-at-home order should be lifted so residences can help out with flooding in the northern part of the state that has led to two burst dams and 10,000 people being evacuated.

‘We have sent our best Military & @FEMA Teams, already there. Governor must now ‘set you free’ to help. Will be with you soon!,’ he tweeted.

President Trump on Wednesday threatened to with hold unspecified federal funds from Michigan after the secretary of state sent absentee ballot applications to all registered voters.

The state is crucial to the president’s re-election effort. He won it by less than one point in the 2016 election.

Trump declined to specify on Wednesday what laws he said Michigan was breaking when Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson mailed out the applications. Republicans have argued without proof that mail-in ballots increase voter fraud. Democrats claim Republicans are against it because it benefits voting blocs that tend to vote Democratic.

‘Mail-in ballots are a very dangerous thing they’re they’re subject of massive fraud,’ Trump said at an event at the White House with the governors of Kansas and Arkansas.

Trump didn’t get specific on what kind of federal funds might be with held from the state. ‘You’ll be finding out that we finding out very soon if it’s necessary,’ he said. ‘I don’t think it’s going to be necessary.’

Whitmer called the threat ‘scary’ and ‘ridiculous’ given the heavy flooding in Midlands county.

‘We’ve got to evacuate tens of thousands of people who are worried and scared. On top of this global pandemic. And to have this kind of distraction is just ridiculous to be honest. It’s – threatening to take money away from a state that is hurting as bad as we are right now is just scary. And I think something that is unacceptable,’ Whitmer told CBS’ ‘This Morning’ on Thursday ahead of the president’s visit.




MAY 5: President Trump did not wear a mask to a Honeywell mask plant, but did wear protective safety goggles




MAY 14: The president also didn’t wear a mask nor gloves when he toured a medical supply company in Allentown, Pennsylvania


So far the president hasn’t been photographed wearing a face mask.

He told reporters that he put one on ‘backstage’ when visiting a Honeywell plant on May 5 in Arizona that was producing N95 masks to help deal with a nationwide PPE shortage due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump did not wear a mask when cameras were focused on him.

He did wear safety goggles.

He also didn’t wear a mask when touring a Allentown, Pennsylvania factory last week that was a distribution center for medical supplies and protective gear.

Source: dailymail US
SO MUCH FOR BEING HEROES
French healthcare workers fined at Paris hospital protest


AFP Protesters were calling for better conditions for healthcare workers

At least 50 healthcare workers were fined and three people arrested for a protest outside a hospital in Paris.

More than 400 doctors, nurses and ancillary staff wore scrubs and banged trays and pans to demand better funding for the hospital, which French media report is in financial difficulty.

The demonstrators were breaking social distancing rules, police have said.

Officers demanded that the protesters disperse, and gave those who refused a €135 ($150; £120) on-the-spot fine.

Protesters called for pay rises, and demanded reforms for better working conditions for healthcare workers.

Footage posted on social media shows large crowds banging on the doors of the hospital, while waving banners of support.
Skip Twitter post by @izpho

Beaucoup de monde pour soutenir le personnel hospitalier de l’hôpital Robert Debre à Paris pic.twitter.com/e5FQ7ATsCm— Nabil Izdar. (@izpho) May 21, 2020
Report
End of Twitter post by @izpho

Robert Debré Hospital, in the north of the city, was already having financial problems before the coronavirus outbreak, local news outlet France Info reports.

However, the epidemic has further exposed the hospital's funding issues.

In speeches delivered at the protest, healthcare workers described being overworked, while describing their fear of catching and transmitting the virus themselves, another outlet France Bleu reports.

France started easing its lockdown earlier this month, with shops and primary schools reopening. However, Paris remains under tight controls.



Pollution: Birds 'ingesting hundreds of bits of plastic a day'
By Helen Briggs BBC Environment correspondent

CHARLES TYLER
The dipper feeds on river insects

Birds living on river banks are ingesting plastic at the rate of hundreds of tiny fragments a day, according to a new study.

Scientists say this is the first clear evidence that plastic pollutants in rivers are finding their way into wildlife and moving up the food chain.

Pieces of plastic 5mm or smaller (microplastics), including polyester, polypropylene and nylon, are known to pollute rivers.

The impacts on wildlife are unclear.

Researchers at Cardiff University looked at plastic pollutants found in a bird known as a dipper, which wades or dives into rivers in search of underwater insects.

"These iconic birds, the dippers, are ingesting hundreds of pieces of plastic every day," said Prof Steve Ormerod of Cardiff University's Water Research Institute. "They're also feeding this material to their chicks."

Previous research has shown that half of the insects in the rivers of south Wales contain microplastic fragments.

"The fact that so many river insects are contaminated makes it inevitable that fish, birds and other predators will pick up these polluted prey - but this is the first time that this type of transfer through food webs has been shown clearly in free-living river animals," said co-researcher Dr Joseph D'Souza.
Plastic also accumulates in animals on beaches like this lugworm

The research team examined droppings and regurgitated pellets from dippers living near rivers running from the Brecon Beacons down to the Severn Estuary.

They found microplastic fragments in roughly half of 166 samples taken from adults and nestlings, at 14 of 15 sites studied, with the greatest concentrations in urban locations. Most were fibres from textiles or building materials.

Calculations suggest dippers are ingesting around 200 tiny fragments of plastic a day from the insects they consume.

Previous studies have shown that microplastics are present even in the depths of the ocean and are ending up in the bodies of living organisms, from seals to crabs to seabirds.

Rivers are a major route between land and sea for microplastics such as synthetic clothing fibres, tyre dust and other fragmenting plastic waste.

The research, published in the journal Global Change Biology, was carried out in collaboration with the Greenpeace Research Laboratories at the University of Exeter.



SEE 

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/05/long-read-africas-exploding-plastic.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/05/microplastic-pollution-in-oceans-vastly.html
Calls to US poison control centres jump during

pandemic

More than 3,600 cases of disinfectant exposure were reported in April to the US poison control centres compared to 1,676 in February.
Experts warn against using cleaning products beyond their intended use, such as wiping down groceries.
Dr Kelly Johnson-Arbor from the National Capital Poison Center said there was no medical reason to be "drinking or bathing in disinfectants".
In April, President Trump seemed to suggest injecting bleach as way of "cleaning" Covid-19 from the inside but appeared to recant the following day, telling journalists: "I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen."
21 May 2020




Robot dog tries to herd sheep

A robot dog designed for search and rescue missions has had a go at herding sheep in New Zealand.
Technology company Rocos is exploring how the Spot robot - made by US-based Boston Dynamics - might be put to work in the agricultural industry.
  • 21 May 2020

OPINION
The Time Is Ripe for More Socialism | Opinion
NATHAN ROBINSON , AUTHOR AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, CURRENT AFFAIRS
ON 5/20/20 AT 12:32 PM EDT


Bernie Sanders, America's most prominent socialist, is known for a signature policy: Medicare For All, a single-payer system of socialized health insurance covering every American and making health care free in America. Sanders, along with others like the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), understands that the health care status quo may be profitable for large corporations, but that it is a disaster for the American people.

Now, the coronavirus epidemic has proven the socialists completely right. With unemployment rising faster than ever before, up to nine million people may have already lost their employer-based health insurance. Under the American private insurance system, people are constantly losing their coverage because of changes in their work status—a needless cruelty that becomes even worse during a pandemic. And those who are lucky enough to keep their insurance are likely to face a nasty shock next year: premiums are going to jump substantially, absent massive government subsidies.

Yet there are countries where people do not face any such worries. In Britain, for instance, while the coronavirus epidemic itself has been disastrous, nobody needs to fear that he/she won't be able to afford care. That's because the National Health Service (NHS) covers everybody. Brits love their socialized medicine; the NHS is the most respected institution in the country, even more popular than the royal family.

American conservatives try to convince people that socialized medicine is a disaster. But public opinion polling in countries with such systems suggests otherwise. So do rankings of outcomes—a 2017 Commonwealth Fund study placed the U.K. number one in the world for effective health care services based on 72 indicators. When you look at actual data rather than anecdotes, universal government health care systems around the world perform well. (So do Medicare and TRICARE here in the United States.)

Having a tax-funded, free-at-point-of-use, universal health care system cannot prevent a pandemic outright; Britain's coronavirus outbreak has been just as bad as America's, thanks in large part to decisions made by Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative government. What socialized health care can do is make sure that nobody has to worry about being able to pay for treatment. No British person has ever had to beg not to be put in an ambulance because he/she don't have enough money to afford it.

What is it that makes socialized medicine "socialized?" Is it the fact that it's run by the government? Sort of, but this misses the core idea of socialism. Many think "socialism" means "government control." But socialism is better thought of as "collective" control. A king or feudal lord might control a lot of things, but that wouldn't make him a socialist. Socialism requires meaningful equality, democratic participation and the elimination of class distinctions. (This is why Mr. D'Souza is wrong when he argues that the Nazis were socialist. The Third Reich had none of these features whatsoever; its leaders were hardly democratic egalitarians!)

Institutions are more socialist if they are owned and controlled by everyone together, and anyone can access them regardless of their wealth or status. The public library and the fire department can be considered "socialist" institutions. In fact, those of us arguing for socialized health care are just advocating a way of doing things that already exists. We're just saying that hospitals should operate on the same model as do fire departments: not for profit, democratically controlled and free for anyone to use their services. We know these institutions work because they exist already.

Mr. D'Souza makes three points against the socialists. First, he says, these services are not actually "free," because they are paid for through taxes. Correct, but the same is true of libraries. What matters is that the services themselves are distributed freely to all regardless of means.

Second, he says that democratic oversight of these institutions is a mirage. He argues that Britons do not control the NHS and Americans do not control the U.S. Postal Service. It is true, of course, that our countries are not really representative democracies; they are unduly influenced by a power elite of extremely rich people. But this is an argument for deepening democracy, not eliminating public services!

Finally, Mr. D'Souza says that the market is already a democracy, because we vote with our dollars. This is laughable: if the market is a democracy, it is one in which some people get zero votes and other people get a hundred billion. If the U.S. government ran on this principle, would anyone call it fair? Without equality, the right to participate is a sham. A marketplace with wealth concentrated in a few hands is much more like a feudal system than anything deserving the label "democracy."
Courtesy of Nathan Robinson
COURTESY OF NATHAN ROBINSON

We also have data showing that countries with more socialist policies (strong labor unions, public ownership, high government expenditure on education and health and redistributive taxation) are better off. Mr. D'Souza actually partly concedes this in United States of Socialism, saying that he does not "deny that [Nordic] socialism works to a point." He only contests that it can be "imported here." He then proceeds to give an unconvincing argument that "our type of society doesn't permit" us to have the successes of Scandinavia, because Nordic socialism is built on a unique ethic of solidarity and unification.

As I said, this is unconvincing. First, any country can fund medical services through taxes; health care financing models do not succeed or fail based on whether a populace eats lutefisk and performs the hallingdans. Second, this perspective simply reflects an unfamiliarity with the ideas espoused by American socialists. Bernie Sanders and the DSA are constantly talking about the need for social solidarity; you can hear it everywhere from Eugene Debs' "while there is a lower class, I am in it" speech to Sanders' plea to fight for those who are very different from ourselves.

Coronavirus has very clearly exposed some of the systemic dysfunctions that come from having profit-based health care. And that's not just my own opinion, it's what The Wall Street Journal found in an investigation that showed that for-profit hospitals were ill-prepared for a pandemic because stockpiling supplies for rare emergencies is costly.

The fact is that administering health care to the poorest people is never going to be very lucrative, which is why the free market can't be allowed to determine who gets health care. Today, American health care is excellent if you're a billionaire and it is terrible if you're homeless. In the U.K., your health care may not be quite as luxurious if you're rich (though Boris Johnson had nothing but praise for his NHS treatment), but you don't have to worry that having less money will mean less access to medicine.

Mr. D'Souza characterizes socialism as "evil," and in his book repeats all the antiquated old cliches that try to link Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with Joseph Stalin. But look at the facts: In America, the "market" approach to coronavirus has led to bidding wars over essential medical supplies. Finland, on the other hand, was amply prepared, because a government that knows markets cannot be relied upon has been diligent in maintaining vital stockpiles. When it comes to coronavirus, Americans should wish their country was just a bit more socialist.
Nathan Robinson is the author of Why You Should Be a Socialist, published by All Points Books.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.


Covid-19: Neglected by government, Amazon tribes turn to traditional medicine
Issued on: 21/05/2020

Text by:FRANCE 24


Video by:Sam BALL



With the Covid-19 pandemic taking a heavy toll on Brazil’s Amazonas state, some Amazon tribes are turning to traditional medicine to treat the illness amid what they say is a lack of help from the country’s government.

Using ingredients including tree bark, mango peel mint and honey, as well as knowledge passed down through generations, members of the Sateré Mawé say their concoctions are effective against the virus.

"We have treated all the symptoms we have been experiencing with homemade remedies,” community leader André Sateré Mawé told AFP.

“Thanks to knowledge passed over generations, each member of the community has gathered an understanding of remedies. We have been experimenting, each remedy fights a symptom of the disease."

But they also say they have little choice but to turn to traditional medicine.

"It seems that the government chooses who to attend to and they leave us without attention. We have learnt to manage ourselves. We have learnt to fight alone,” said the community leader.

Amazonas is one of the states most affected by the pandemic in Brazil with 22,132 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 1,491 deaths, according to official figures, overwhelming hospitals in the state’s capital Manaus.

Local officials and NGOs have warned that indigenous tribes are particularly at risk due to a lack of health services in remote areas, while the government of Jair Bolsonaro has been accused of doing little to help.

On Tuesday the mayor of Manaus, Arthur Virgilio Neto, warned of an impending “genocide” of indigenous people as a result of government inaction.

"I fear genocide and I want to denounce this thing to the whole world. We have here a government that does not care about the lives of indigenous people,” he said.
Coronavirus, race and income: how the virus discriminates



Issued on: 22/05/2020
Experts say evidence is mounting that other determining factors -- specifically race and income -- play a key role in how the virus chooses its victims DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS AFP/File


Paris (AFP)

After COVID-19 first appeared in China late last year, doctors quickly realised what made some patients more vulnerable to the virus than others: age, gender and underlying health problems all played a part.

Now, as the pandemic kills hundreds across the world each day, experts say evidence is mounting that other socioeconomic factors -- specifically connected to race and income -- influence who become sick and who dies.

Officials in Europe and the US have insisted that COVID-19 doesn't discriminate. But the figures suggest otherwise.

A slew of recent studies have highlighted how people from minority backgrounds in Britain and the United States -- two of the hardest hit nations -- are disproportionately more likely to die from COVID-19 than their white counterparts.

Research printed in the Journal of the American Medical Association this month found that COVID-19 mortality was "substantially higher" among black and Latino patients than in white patients.

In Chicago, the rate of infection was 925 per 100,000 black people compared with 389 among white people.

Age-adjusted black mortality in New York City was more than twice as high as white, a trend backed up by another study carried out by Britain's Institute of Fiscal Studies.

That found that black Britons were 2.5 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than their white compatriots.

In addition, several studies suggest that deprivation is a key determinant in COVID-19 cases.

- 'Two-tiered system' -

A University of Oxford review of 3,600 COVID-19 test results found that people living in the most deprived areas of Britain were four times more likely to test positive for the virus than those living in the richest.

An Imperial College pre-paper estimated that people in the lowest income bracket were 32 percent more likely to die from the virus than those in the highest.

Devi Sridhar, professor and chair of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, said that a lack of preparedness when the pandemic struck exposed "a two-tiered system" in Britain's response to the virus.

"If we look back to March -- which is astounding -- if you were networked enough and rich enough you could go and purchase a COVID test, just if you were curious if you had it or not," she told AFP.

"Yet if you were a health worker on a COVID ward and had symptoms, you would not have had access to a test. That's a dual system that is not good for public health because you need people tested on the front line."

- 'Shocking' death figures -

It is among those on the front line, including doctors, nurses and care home workers, that the link between COVID-19 mortality and race becomes particularly stark.

Tim Cook, professor of anaesthesia at the Royal United Hospital of Bath and the University of Bristol, keeps a database of health worker COVID-19 deaths.

Because official figures are tricky to come by, he and colleagues began by scouring media reports. The results were startling.

Of the 63 nurses and midwives killed by the virus in Cook's database, 76 percent were from a BAME (black, Asian, and minority ethnic) background.

Of the 32 doctors and dentists who have died from COVID-19 so far, all but two were non-white -- 94 percent.

Overall, BAME health workers made up 63 percent of the deaths, despite only making up just over 20 percent of the workforce.

Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the British Medical Association (BMA), told AFP the figures were "a shock and a cause for alarm".

"None of us could have foreseen this, it goes beyond the margins of statistical variation we would allow for," he said.

"Many of these doctors played a very visible role in the care of patients in their communities and for them to die from COVID is a very noticeable loss."

Cook said he was taken aback by the disproportionate number of BAME COVID-19 health worker deaths, especially because it was not initially understood as a risk factor when the pandemic struck.

"China did really well in giving us information but they perhaps are less multicultural than other societies in the world," he told AFP.

"The risk factors we saw coming out of China were to do with age, diabetes, immunosuppression, those kind of risk factors. So that's what we focused on."

- 'Constellation' of factors -

But while the data shows clearly that BAME people are at great risk of dying from COVID-19, Cook said it was hard to pinpoint precisely why.

"BAME individuals are more likely to have a constellation of other risk factors," he said.

"Compared to white populations they are more likely to have hypertension, diabetes, to have cardiovascular disease and those factors are known to put people at increased risk of harm from COVID."

But that alone doesn't explain the discrepancy, and Sridhar said social factors likely played a significant role.

"It could be because there's some underlying genetic predisposition but then we'd expect to see many more deaths in countries that have larger BAME populations," she said. "That's not what we're seeing.

"The one factor that's over-riding has to do with their social position, particularly with health workers. What we're seeing with doctors with BAME backgrounds is really astounding."

Cook added that a greater proportion of BAME individuals live in deprived areas of Britain than white individuals, which may limit their access to quality healthcare and testing.

In Sweden, which has gone against the grain of strict lockdown procedures, the Public Health Agency reported this month that Somali-born residents were over-represented among those hospitalised with COVID-19.

Poorer areas of Stockholm -- where many migrants live -- have seen up to three times as many cases per capita as wealthier areas.

- 'BAME doctors at risk' -

Within Britain's health service, several studies suggest that BAME doctors and nurses may be the victims of systemic discrimination.

In a recent BMA survey of 16,000 health workers, BAME doctors were three times more likely than their white colleagues to report having been under pressure to work on COVID-19 wards without adequate personal protective equipment (PPE).

Previous surveys have also shown, for example, that BAME health workers feel less able to speak out against their management, are more likely to feel unconfident while at work, and are subjected to far higher levels of bullying and harassment than their white colleagues.

A recent survey conducted by ITV News collected around 4,000 anonymous responses from doctors and nurses, including numerous individuals raising concerns that their BAME status was putting them at higher risk.

"We were... threatened with being sacked if we spoke up about not being allowed to wear PPE," said one respondent.

For Nagpaul, BAME status should be added to the list of known COVID-19 risk factors.

"BAME status puts a doctor at higher risk," he said.

"While of course we need to understand the reasons why, both for healthcare workers and the community at large, what the NHS has a duty to do is to make sure no one sector of the workforce is at greater risk. The priority needs to be to prevent further death."

At least two healthcare trusts in Britain have already unilaterally declared BAME workers at high risk of COVID-19 and have redeployed them away from the front lines.

Cook said that without far greater monitoring and data reporting -- including the medical histories and ethnicities of those patients and health workers who succumb to the virus -- it would be hard to ever get to the bottom of why BAME people appear to be more vulnerable.

"We still can't unpick whether being hypertensive is more of a risk factor than being Asian, or whether having asthma is more of a risk than being black," he said.

"At the moment we just have a list of risk factors and those risk factors each have to be considered."

© 2020 AFP
Philippines: How women pay the price of pandemic-induced health care shortages

Amid a lockdown, staffing shortages and overcrowded hospitals, women are losing access to family planning services and essential lifesaving care. Ana P. Santos reports from Manila.




As already scarce medical resources are being redirected to respond to COVID-19, women in need of maternal and reproductive health services are paying the price.

According to government data, family planning services were reduced by over 50% in March, when a lockdown was declared to curb the spread of coronavirus.

"The suspension of public transportation, limited clinic staff and reduced clinic hours have made it difficult for women to access family planning services," said Juan Antonio Perez, executive director of the Commission on Population and Development.

According to Perez, a number of government-run reproductive health clinics are operating with only two-thirds of their regular staff, as many health care workers have been unable to get to the clinics due to lockdown measures.

Subscribe to Corona Compact — DW's newsletter tracking coronavirus in Asia

To fill in the gap, government health workers have started going door-to-door to deliver birth control that will last for up to three months. Additionally, telephone hotlines have been set up for remote medical consultations, in place of face-to-face doctor visits.

"It's too early to tell what the full impact of this pandemic on reproductive health will be, but we are trying to stay ahead of the curve," Perez told DW.

As of May 15, the Southeast Asian island nation, which has the third highest number of cases in the region, had recorded 11,876 COVID-19 cases and 790 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Read more: Coronavirus: Vulnerable Filipinos fight for survival during lockdown
Watch video 01:36  https://p.dw.com/p/3cHxu
Coronavirus complicates typhoon evacuation in Philippines

Millions cut off from services

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that 47 million women in low and middle income countries like the Philippines may not be able to access modern contraceptives, as overwhelmed health care systems close facilities or limit family planning services due to staff shortages.

If lockdown measures continue for another six months, such a health care shortage could cause 7 million unintended pregnancies, according to UNFPA estimates.

Earlier this week, authorities extended lockdown measures in the capital of Manila and neighboring cities until the end of May, while allowing certain industries to resume operations in order to jumpstart the economy.

But some women, like 26-year-old Dimples Ortiz, are suffering. Ortiz has been struggling to feed her two children – one 18-month-old and one 6-month-old – since her husband lost his construction job in March due to suspended operations. She wasn't able to get another dose of her contraceptive injection, and fears an untimely pregnancy that would add to her financial worries.

"My eldest child has a disability. We don’t know when my husband can find work again. I cannot get pregnant," Ortiz told DW.

In her desperation, she reached out to the Likhaan Center for Women’s Health – an organization that runs community clinics. Likhaan then arranged to pick Ortiz up from her home, and take her to get a free contraceptive implant.

"In some areas under lockdown, you can only go out on certain days and only at specific times," said Diane Vere, who works for the Likhaan Center.

"Women now have to choose how to spend their limited time. Do they go to the market, go to get their social assistance from the government or go to the clinic for their family planning needs? Each activity could entail hours of waiting in long lines. How do you choose?" she said.

Read more: Coronavirus: Demand for Filipino nurses increases in Europe

Watch video 02:24 
 https://p.dw.com/p/3cHxu
Philippines reports first coronavirus death outside China

An overwhelmed system

Meanwhile, reproductive health advocates are demanding urgent action to address the increasing number of pregnant women who are being rejected by hospitals.

Last month, a 26-year-old woman died after six hospitals refused to admit her because they were either full or understaffed. The woman, Katherine Bulatao, had given birth at home but died of blood loss afterwards.

Another woman, Mary Jane Alpide, died in labor after being turned away from four hospitals, and finally being admitted to the fifth, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. The center says it has received at least three reports of pregnant women being refused treatment by hospitals.

"Obstetric emergencies cannot be scheduled. The current pandemic and resource constraints do not justify the refusal of lifesaving medical attention," Jihan Jacob, the Asia Legal Adviser of the Center for Reproductive Rights told DW.

The shortcomings in the Philippines' health care system have long been apparent, but Jacob fears that conditions are becoming even worse due to the pandemic.

"Deaths of women like Bulatao and Alpide are preventable. The fact that it happened is a failure of our health care system," she said.

Read more: Is Philippines muzzling free press amid coronavirus lockdown?

Date 15.05.2020
Author Ana P. Santos (Manila)
Related Subjects Women's rights, Asia, International Women's Day, Coronavirus
Keywords Asia, Coronavirus, COVID-19, The Philippines, women

Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3cHxu
BOOKS
Forever a rebel role model: Pippi Longstocking at 75

It's Pippi Longstocking's birthday. Why does everyone admire the strongest, bravest and most independent girl in the world? A children's book classic has the answers.


Happy birthday, Pippi Longstocking!
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pippi+longstocking


"Allow me to introduce myself: Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Ephraim's Daughter Longstocking!"

It takes a long moment for Pippito rattle off her full name. This is not only true in English, but in each of the over 70 languages into which Pippi's adventures have been translated to date.

Pippi is still very popular in Germany, according to the books' Hamburg-based publisher, Oetinger. About 8.6 million Pippi Longstocking books have been sold in Germany since 1949, from a total of about 70 million worldwide.
In Sweden back in 1941, Astrid Lindgren sat beside her little daughter Karin who was sick in bed. Karin asked for a story about... "Pippi Longstocking" — that was the name the girl came up with. So, her mother Astrid invented a red-headed little girl with freckles and two stiff braids, whose mother is an angel and whose father is a king of the South Seas, and who lives in a house named Villa Villekulla with Mr. Nilsson, the monkey, and a horse. Three years later, Astrid Lindgren jotted down the Pippi stories and sent them to a publisher, allegedly with the words: "In the hope that you will not alert the Youth Welfare Office." The rejection was prompt.


Love her or hate her

In 1945, Astrid Lindgren entered a slightly modified manuscript of Pippi's adventures in a children's book competition by publisher Raben & Sjogren's — and won first prize. Christmas 1945 saw the publication of Pippi Longstocking that went on to become a children's book classic.

Initially, however, Pippi was the subject of debate, at least among adults. Critics argued that this 9-year-old with the strength of a giant, who lived alone in a mansion and did whatever she wanted, could be a bad role model for children. They felt her language was sloppy and vulgar, and the book demoralizing. "No normal child eats a whole cream cake or walks barefoot on sugar," wrote John Landquist, a well-respected professor, in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. "Both are reminiscent of the imagination of a madman." He said Astrid Lindgrenlacked talent and was uncivilized, while the character Pippi was abnormal and pathological.

It's never boring with Pippi

But Pippi's popularity, especially with children, proved her creator right. Astrid Anna Emilia Lindgren's stories of Bullerby, about everyday heroes like Kalle Blomquist, Karlsson on the Roof and Emil of Lönneberga, turned her into one of world's best-known author of books for children and young people to this day.

Her works have been published in over 100 languages with a sale of around 165 million books worldwide. Before Astrid Lindgren died in 2002 at the age of 95, more than 40 films with seven different Pippi actresses were made in Sweden alone. The literary character Pippi Longstocking is now 75 years old.


Villa Villekulla

But what do people find in this girl, who is unusual in every respect? Following Pippi's move into Villa Villekulla, the neighborhood children Annika and Tommy are no longer bored either. Because with Pippi you can play wonderfully, pretending for example that you're a "thing-searcher." Pippi explains what that is to her friends: "Someone who finds things, you know? What else could it be? The whole world is full of things, and it's really necessary for someone to find them. And that's what people do. They find things." Pippi doesn't go to school because, let's face it, "Who needs pluttification?'"

Emancipated girl

"Pippi Longstocking is a true children's heroine," says Münster-based psychology professor Alfred Gebert. "Especially girls can identify with her. Because Pippi is strong, cheeky and helpful. She lives alone in a big villa, does not go to school and can still achieve everything she wants." Pippi gets along very well alone — or at least almost, because her friends play an important role in her life. "Anyone who had Pippi Longstocking as a child heroine will probably be able to stand up well against men in their profession and do everything for their friends," Gebert surmised in an interview with the newspaper BILD.


Developmental psychologist Herbert Scheithauer

The Berlin-based developmental psychologist Herbert Scheithauer takes a similar view: "Pippi Longstocking is all about observing and not observing rules, about human strengths and weaknesses — and about friendship. Smaller children in particular can identify well with Pippi, but at the same time distance themselves from her. Another attraction of the Pippi stories lies in the reversal of the balance of power between adults and children," Scheithauer told German public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk. That renders Pippi Longstocking rather "timeless."

A recipe for life

Pippi embodies everything that children want for their own lives, says Kiel-based child psychologist Svenja Lüthge — self-determination, adventure, superpowers. "Children need heroes like Pippi Longstocking; they gain strength from them." The somewhat chaotic Pippi can give support to particularly insecure children. "Pippi has a recipe for life," Lüthge said in an article in the daily newspaper Die Welt. "She is on par with adults and even dares to play practical jokes on teachers and policemen." At the same time, Pippi has an unerring sense of justice and a big heart for the feeble-hearted. "This makes her an ideal role model for children."


Handstands aren't hard for Pippi

Doesn't it bother anyone that Pippi is one of the most unrealistic Astrid Lindgren characters? "On the contrary," the Hanover-based child psychologist Wolfgang Bergmann, author of the book "Erziehen im Informationszeitalter" (Raising Children in the Information Age), also told Die Welt. "Children love the supernatural qualities of their heroes. You can see that in the figure of Harry Potter."

That's how Astrid Lindgren stimulates her little readers' imaginations in terms of proper behavior and experiencing things. But after a lot of playing around with crazy ideas, she gently guides the children back to the real world, Bergmann believes. "Sigmund Freud already knew how good it feels when the ego ideal and the ego are reconciled — then the soul rejoices. "

The Pippi stories are still such a celebration today — for children and adults alike. In Sweden, at any rate, Pippi's 75th anniversary will be celebrated on May 21, 2020, the birthday of Astrid Lindgren's daughter Karin Nyman.



NOW YOU CAN VISIT ASTRID LINDGREN'S STOCKHOLM HOME
Pippi: The strongest girl in the world
The eccentric little girl with the freckles and red braids, who lives in Villa Villekulla, was Astrid Lindgren's favorite character. Pippi Longstocking dared to talk back, climb walls and wear unusual clothes. In Lindgren's children's book, Pippi is the strongest girl in the world and, since she doesn't have parents, she's allowed to do whatever she wants.
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AUDIOS AND VIDEOS ON THE TOPIC
Happy birthday, Pippi Longstocking!


Date 20.05.2020
Author Stefan Dege (db/als)
Homepage DW News -
Related Subjects Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling
Keywords literature, Astrid Lindgren, Pippi Longstocking, children's literature, Harry Potter, books

Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3c8Cq