History.com: This Day In History (March 02-1969): Soviet Union and Chinese armed forces clash

One could wonder why people would come to fight for Damansky or Chen-Pao (Zhenbao), the uninhabited island in the Ussuri river, between China and the Soviet Union, but it became a serious Sino-Sovietborder clash, Soviet and Chinese forces fighting a battle on an island claimed by both nations.

Levant's Agora

By History.com Editors.

In a dramatic confirmation of the growing rift between the two most powerful communist nations in the world, troops from the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China fire on each other at a border outpost on the Ussuri River in the eastern region of the USSR, north of Vladivostok. In the years following this incident, the United States used the Soviet-Chinese schism to its advantage in its Cold War diplomacy.

The cause of the firefight between Soviet and Chinese troops was a matter of dispute. The Soviets charged that Chinese soldiers crossed the border between the two nations and attacked a Soviet outpost, killing and wounding a number of Russian guards. The intruders were then driven back with heavy casualties. The Chinese report indicated that it was the Soviets who crossed the border and were repulsed. Either way, it was the first time that either…

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What 2022 brought to us and looking forward to 2023

Liberation

Lots of people thought 2022 would be the year of liberating us from that terrible virus which got the world in its grip. Though not a liberation became several people on their part, an even more senseless killing ‘disease’ came unto Europe.

The leader of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, who would love to find a renewed Soviet Union, said at the beginning of the year he would bring liberation to the Ukrainians. Instead, his “bloodstained” tyranny plunged Europe into the war on a scale not seen since 1945 as Russian troops advanced on Kyiv on Thursday night, February 24th.

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia is shocking and disgraceful. It is the latest terrible aggression by the Putin regime and the latest damaging conflict in our world, with so many people being killed or injured, losing loved ones and seeing their homes destroyed.

2022 has been a tough year to navigate, with a series of political and economic crises that continue to shape our world.

One powerful man

Who could have ever imagined that one man, from up north, would single-handedly turn the world upside down? However, he has succeeded very well in not only bringing black snow over several people, and literally turning the landscape blood-red, he has severely disrupted economic life in several countries.

Following two long pandemic years – with many still experiencing the effects – we’ve witnessed the outbreak of war in Ukraine and could feel in our purse how it affects us also in our region. We cannot ignore this war that has affected many citizens. At our new WordPress Site “Some View on the World” we have given a voice to those suffering in the conflict as well as reporting the situation on the ground and providing the expertise needed to understand geopolitics.

Picturing what is happening in the world

As best we can, we try to give a picture of what is happening in the world on the continuation of “Our World“. 2022 was another year of figuring out how we would be able to keep up with bringing political and religious news alongside our other spiritual websites. We hope to find that balance further in 2023.

By nature, I am not an easy person and have dared to clash several times by speaking my mind outright. Even in the articles, I publish here and on my other websites, my thinking is based on my personal opinion. One can agree or disagree with that view. I, therefore, appreciate that people also dare to express their opinions. But in general, there is a little reaction in that area. Still, I hope the articles brought, can make people think. For instance, I was happy to find that my op-eds on Christmas in the Daily Telegraph were able to bring a debate after all.

Hoping to expose wrongdoings

With the news we place at Some View on the World we do hope we also could be able to expose the mistreatment and deaths of migrant workers in Qatar for almost a decade as well as other wrong attitudes towards people as well as animals and plants. At my personal site and this site as well, in particular on “Some View on the World” we continue to bear witness to the climate crisis as it destroys lives, uproots whole communities and changes the course of our shared future. We hope for 2023 to be able to bring regular news about our environment.

The fallout from the January 6 hearings and Donald Trump’s presidency could get our attention, and we hold our hearts for the intentions of Mr Trump, wanting to come back as president of the U.S.A..

Independence of my websites

For all the reporting we do here, and on my other websites, I would like to remind you, readers, that there is no financial support from companies anywhere and that all reporting is based on personal and independent reporting, where I keep searching for this site among texts that appear on the net what could possibly be fascinating for you to read as well, and thus to reblog them here.

2022 could bring lots of blogs on the net of which we presented some selections over here too. At Firefox several could find their way into ‘Pocket’, like: Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid, How to Want Less, A Neurologist’s Tips to Protect Your Memory, Why You Should Really Stop Charging Your Phone Overnight, A Guide to Getting Rid of Almost Everything, a.o. most read.

Uncovering and unravelling

Whether on social, political or religious issues, we are eager to seek the truth and expose false reports. Exposing wariness is not always appreciated, but is very important in our view. To do that, we can count on several investigative journalists and some newspapers to join in the pursuit of that muddle, so that together we can make certain things known to the world while others would rather see them covered up.

At Some View on the World we have maintained round-the-clock coverage from several places, not always bringing nice news, like mass graves of Bucha, Izium and many war crimes.

The war accelerated a global economic slump, sending costs soaring, throttling energy supplies and raising the spectre of blackouts, malnutrition and a winter of discontent across dozens of countries. As global food supplies fluctuated, we reported on the hunger gripping the Horn of Africa and Afghanistan. In 2022, it became impossible to ignore those victims in poorer countries. But sadly, we had to observe how little the public cared about those people living far from their homes. And closer, many did not wish to have refugees, so we could speak of a refugee crisis again this year.

Here in Belgium, the influx of refugees seems completely uncontrollable and many, even with small children, shamefully had to sleep outside several nights through rain and wind. This while in Great Britain, the reception was also not going smoothly and people started looking for a housing solution in Rwanda, and proceeded to deportations.

Condition of mother earth

A lot of people do not want to realise that things are very bad for Mother Earth. To this, in 2022, several scientists again tried to make it clear to the world that we need to think seriously about this and take action. We were confronted with UK’s hottest summer, a very early and long great Summer in Belgium, drought in Europe, and the accompanying fires.

Heating the houses became for many difficult to keep in the household budget. It looked like mother nature felt the pressure on the energy market, as well. Everywhere in Europe, we had extremely high temperatures for the time of year. In Belgium 2022 became the warmest year since measurements.

The climate emergency ran as a constant thread through much of our Some View on the World journalism in 2022.

While many European countries were suffering from a shortage of water, they had it in other countries, like Pakistan, too much. Devastating floods in Pakistan, encountering one of its worst natural catastrophes, Sydney’s wettest year on record, ferocious heatwaves in the US southwest and the costliest Atlantic hurricane for years, could catch our attention.

At Cop27 in Egypt, the Guardian asked the tough questions. Though, we did not give so much attention to the changing tactics of activists, now more likely to throw soup at a painting as they are to glue themselves to a public highway.

Uprising

In my view, many other protests could get our attention earlier, as they were carried out in a more correct way. Coming from a not expected corner, sparked by the death in custody of a young woman, Mahsa Amini.

Once again, we were able to conclude in Afghanistan and Iran that there is no improvement in human rights yet. The Iranian authorities tightly control reporting inside the country, so we counted on the teams of the Guardian to redouble efforts to reach protagonists to tell their stories. Social media remained also important for this, so it was satisfying to see the Guardian Instagram video on why Iranians are risking everything for change reach more than 2 million viewers.

It is impossible for me to have news sources everywhere, which is why we must also call on professional companies, for which we must also pay. Financial aid is therefore very welcome to cover these expenses. Nevertheless, we try to be as aware as possible of the general events, for which we also make further use of the known news channels and reliable TV channels and newspapers.

United States debacle

In terms of exposure, it was imperative to look at the Trumpists who still claim high and low that the US elections were forged.

The country which was formed on the idea that it could be a free world where everybody could express himself freely and would not be bounded by limitations through a government, in 2022 came to see deep political divisions, caused by a man who as 45th president of the U.S.A. did mutiny on that state and brought democracy in danger. His party made the ongoing climate crisis and racial, economic and health inequalities worsened. It was impossible to ignore the fallout from the January 6 hearings and Donald Trump’s presidency, as well as his willingness to come back as president.

The repeal of Roe v Wade provided a divisive backdrop to the November midterm elections. The conservative, or better said, the extremist Christians in the U.S., made it possible that women lost even the right to their own bodies. They also did not want to give an eye for mother nature nor for all those poor Americans who have no house or anywhere to live except on the streets, where many in the last weeks of the year found their dead by Winter storm Elliott. Buffalo got the worst hit by that bomb cyclone.

Political storms

In 2022 there were more significant elections in America which caught our attention. In Brazil, there were an anxious few weeks as Jair Bolsonaro wanted to do like his friend Trump, saying the votes were falsified. Finally, he suffered a chastening defeat by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who completed a comeback from prison to the presidential palace.

To our annoyance, we in northern Europe had to observe an inverse movement towards South America. The far right in Sweden, Italy and Israel, could get most seats in parliament. Despite her political prowess, the 45-year-old from Rome, whose strong will and determination has drawn comparisons to Margaret Thatcher, Giorgia Meloni has spent three decades fighting her way to the top of Italian politics. She is clear evidence that go-getters win. In October last year, after Brothers of Italy managed to draw votes away from the Northern League in its northern strongholds in local elections, a secret recording revealed Matteo Salvini hitting out at Meloni, calling her a “pain in the ass”.

In Belgium, too, the newspapers disguised several polls, clearly showing that the right is making a strong rise and where voices can already be heard that NVA will have to make the choice to form a majority coalition with Vlaams Belang.

As for British politics, prime ministers came and went with alarming regularity and the nation buried the pound, Queen Elizabeth and its global standing in quick succession. For 10 days in September, the future of the monarchy dominated the newsroom. The crazy game of the English conservatives who wanted their leader to put his capsones under the benches and to ask the people to stay at home because of Corona and not to have parties seemed to think it normal that their leader could do that and lie about it too. The whole world could laugh at the blunders of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, while the British citizen seemed not to mind. In any case, they did not demand new elections and left it to the Tory members to elect the new prime minister.

In Australia Labour could note a historic federal election victory.

Economical storms

The struggle between Russia and Ukraine is also a struggle between the Putin regime and Western Europe.

The war accelerated a global economic slump, sending costs soaring, throttling energy supplies and raising the spectre of blackouts, malnutrition and a winter of discontent across dozens of countries. But we also noticed that certain companies were abusing the war in Ukraine to raise their prices.

Cereals and gas were not released enough by blockades from the Russians, which caused major food problems, especially in Africa. In Western Europe we felt our energy prices skyrocket due to the pressure on the export and import markets. In Belgium, it took forever for the government to take measures to mitigate the costs of its citizens. After several months of calls by the Labour Party PvdA/PtB to reduce VAT to 6% and by their appeals to the public to put pressure on the government, things finally came to a head.

Health matters

2022 received big leaps forward for Alzheimer’s treatments, bowel cancer prevention and understanding depression.

In several countries there was joy that people could come together again to party and that the elderly should no longer be separated from their children and grandchildren. The lockdown had made it very clear how important personal contact is. It was striking how in 2022 teenagers and twens still had many psychological difficulties, which were not resolved. Bad enough, many could not be admitted in time, causing unnecessarily too many young people to die, while this could have been avoided.

Post-pandemic in Europe in danger

For months Europe tried to combat Covid-19. We started the annual overview with the relaxation of the Corona measures. But at the end of December, they now appear to be endangered because Europe does not want to take strict measures for the Chinese who are now allowed by their government to travel outside China again, which will allow them to spread the increased disease further outside China. With the coming Chinese New Year, they could start a new pandemic as in Belgium, it started in Antwerp.

For much of the world, a sort of post-pandemic normality has resumed – with one striking exception: the country where it all began. Chinese leaders faced a rapid spread of public anger caused by their draconian Covid lockdown policy. Only after some activists could ignite a revolt against the lockdown and more people joined them on the streets, even coming to shout to get rid of the Chinese leader and communist party, the government got seriously afraid and eased the lockdown measures. After they had done that another hell broke down, the virus rapidly spreading and killing so many people the mortuaries could not handle it anymore.

While the Chinese seem to be in the first Corona wave, as it were, the rest of the world has gotten out over time and everyone is now looking forward to a shock-free 2023.

We too look forward to an ending of the war in Ukraine and to a peaceful solution between Kosovo and Serbia.

At Some View of the World and at my other personal Space, we shall try to bring you up-to-date news of the happenings in the world, and here on this website, we hope we shall still be able to offer you and share with you, some worthwhile articles to read in this coming New Year.

 

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A sincere thank you to our readers and supporters – wherever you are in the world,
we wish you a wonderful end to 2022 and an optimistic 2023.

°°°

In case you like our work,
do not forget that we always can use your support.

To help us defray the costs
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For which we thank you wholeheartedly

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Additional reading

1. G7 agreed to ban or phase out Russian oil and gas imports
2. 2022 the year of fearing some wars

New form of body exercises gaining popularity

Physical therapies and body exercises

Regularly, some body technique is promoted. Since the 1980s, techniques have thus passed where the utmost of the body was demanded, while other techniques focused on just a few parts of the body. In addition, yoga techniques have come and gone only to reappear in a different form.

Photo by Cliff Booth on Pexels.com

In recent years, many even went so far as to make exercise an essential part of their lives or even came to adhere to a body cult. Thus, in the early 21st century, a kind of new religion or body cult began to replace traditional religions.

People wished to feel good in their skin and were willing to go very far in this and even invest a lot of time, energy and money in it. But there were also many who actually wished to distance themselves from money and matter. For them, materialism was the enemy of our society and dependence on the matter was reprehensible and one had to train the mind to become master of the body again, through appropriate exercises on both spiritual and physical fleets. Several people were convinced that all facts (including facts about the human mind and will and the course of human history) are causally dependent upon physical processes, or even reducible to them.

Because of the augmented stress in our industrialised world or so-called developed countries, a lot of therapies were also doled out.

Physical therapy is a professional career which has many specialties including musculoskeletal, orthopedics, cardiopulmonary, neurology, endocrinology, sports medicine, geriatrics, pediatrics, women’s health, wound care and electromyography. Neurological rehabilitation is, in particular, a rapidly emerging field. PTs practice in many settings, such as private-owned physical therapy clinics, outpatient clinics or offices, health and wellness clinics, rehabilitation hospitals facilities, skilled nursing facilities, extended care facilities, private homes, education, and research centers, schools, hospices, industrial and these workplaces or other occupational environments, fitness centers and sports training facilities

Fitness, a United States-based women’s magazine, focusing on health, exercise, and nutrition, launched in 1992.

As we entered this century, a lot of health mags found the publishing market while only fitness magazines left the magazine shelves. Though there appeared men’s and women’s magazines which also centred largely on well-being, body form, exercise, nutrition, health, and beauty. For a while, wellness was the fashion word. Lots of magazines presented several adverts for wellness farms and all sorts of wellness programs.

After all the years of hard, intense exercise with a lot of sweating, place was made for gentil exercises and feel good cures.

An aerobics class

All the brutal violence of the 80s with Aerobics, among others, now seems to have been pushed under the carpet for good. It has finally dawned on several people how bad such ‘good sweat and suffering’ programmes are bad for the body. It has taken several medics years to rid people of such techniques that do more harm than good.

However, a large part of the population has become aware that one has to take care of the heart and treat the body respectfully to know how to handle multiple things smoothly. One came to see that for doing cardio or cardio-respiratory exercise there is no need in such high intensity exercises but has to come to low-intensity enough that all carbohydrates are aerobically turned into energy via mitochondrial ATP production. Medium- to long-distance running or jogging, swimming, cycling, stair climbing and walking, have proven to be more effective and less damaging than the overpopular Jane Fonda Workout or Aerobics. The American actress, political activist, and former fashion model spawned imitators and sparked a boom of women’s exercise classes, opening the formerly male-dominated fitness industry to women, and establishing the celebrity-as-fitness-instructor model. The horrible “Feel the burn!”, became a common saying lots of people really started to believe, along with the proverb, “No pain, no gain.” The exercise motto that promises greater value rewards for the price of hard and even painful work, has been luckily now pushed in the corner. It is true that one has to put in the effort to achieve something and it is not all that simple. Effort is a must, but it should not be at the expense of a healthy body.

Something of a revelation to devotees of hard, intense exercise, Zone 2 is one of this year’s key fitness talking points. Influential US well-being podcasters such as the American neuroscientist Andrew Huberman and the Canadian-American physician Dr Peter Attia who focuses on the science of longevity, have been recommending Zone 2 to their many thousands of listeners.

In January 2021, Huberman started the “Huberman Lab Podcast”, focused on neuroscience and science-based tools.In those podcast s he gives attention to breathing/breathwork and the visual system influence the autonomic nervous system, stress, and other brain states, including sleep.

On his podcast Huberman said:

“Getting 180-200 minutes of Zone 2 cardio per week has enormous positive effects on longevity and general health.”

Stress, he says, is not just about the content of what we are reading or the images we are seeing. It is about how our eyes and breathing change in response to the world, as well as the cascades of events that follow. Both these bodily processes also offer us easy and accessible releases from stress. By doing body exercises the wrong way we build up negative stress.

If you need to run and catch your train, you want all the things that go along with stress to go pursue that train. But if the stress response is spontaneous or excessive, it can start to feel pathological.

In the previous decades those exuberant fitness programs won terrain because lots of women wanted to lose weight.

“Despite reaching epidemic proportions, obesity has been wandering in the wilderness of medical lexicon.”

says Attia.

It is striking and distressing to see how several fat people have been added in recent years. Notwithstanding so many fitness programmes and all kinds of diet items and drinks, obesity has increased enormously. (Today the definitions of overweight and obesity are based primarily on measures of height and weight—not morbidity.) Since obesity is often the on-ramp to cancer, heart disease and even Alzheimer’s, we sincerely need to do something against this worrying increase.

The prevalence of overweight and obesity varied across countries, across towns and cities within countries, and across populations of men and women. In China and Japan, for instance, the obesity rate for men and women was about 5 percent, but in some cities in China it had climbed to nearly 20 percent. In 2005 it was found that more than 70 percent of Mexican women were obese. WHO survey data released in 2010 revealed that more than half of the people living in countries in the Pacific Islands region were overweight, with some 80 percent of women in American Samoa found to be obese. {Encyc. Britannica}

The fattening population has everything to do with culture and lifestyle habits among which eating and exercise habits are the main ones.

People need to be aware that it is not about being physically engaged to the point of giving up. On the contrary, one should exercise in a balanced way and not overload the body. It comes down to finding the right balance.

Zone 2 training means exercising at a level of exertion where your body is working, but not very hard – at this level your body is able to use fat as fuel rather than carbohydrates. As you work harder and move up into Zone 3 and beyond you will switch to using carbohydrates, a quite different state in which your heart, lungs and muscles are under stress and will need time to recover. (You know this switch is happening when breathing becomes harder and you are gasping or panting.)

Thanks to its turbocharging effect on our cells’ mitochondria Zone 2 cardio exercises have a very positive effect on the metabolism, improving blood sugar levels and reducing insulin resistance.

The cardio is linked to lower rates of a whole raft of diseases including type 2 diabetes, dementia, stroke and heart disease.

Dr Richard Blagrove, senior lecturer in physiology at Loughborough University, says:

“In terms of both health and performance, Zone 2 training can be really advantageous. I don’t feel bad about getting on my stationary bike and reading a book for an hour.”

Photo by Rui Dias on Pexels.com

Yes, even in a simple and not too strenuous way, one can train their body and work on it. Of course, it is even better to get out now and then, say twice a week, to fully focus your mind on movement in, say, a beautiful green environment. Though such ‘biking’ can lay down an “aerobic base” before one goes training further and build to more intense modes of exercise for competition later in the year.

For the rest of us, Zone 2 can be transformative.

Blagrove points out.

Former professional cyclist and fitness coach at ATP Performance Andy Turner lost 24kg through this kind of movement.

“Zone 2 makes you better at utilising fats as a fuel source and it can help level out your blood sugar. Longer-duration aerobics work can sometimes be forgotten, now it’s all about time-efficient, 30-minute, High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).”

HIIT cannot be done every day without strain and risk. It can take 48 hours or more for your body to recover from a session and unsurprisingly this does not speed up as you grow older, whereas Zone 2 provides its many benefits in a sustainable way.

Zone 2 works best in a mix with some high-intensity training – three Zone 2 sessions a week with two HIIT blasts is a good mix.

Zone 2 is the place where your body is working, but not very hard. Technically this is 60-70 per cent of your maximum heart rate, but I would recommend an easier way, namely to check the Talk Test. If one trains properly and performs breathing correctly, one should be able to simply converse without getting out of breath. If you were to call someone during a Zone 2 workout, you should be able to use complex sentences, not just sentiments such as “Help!” or “Taxi!”.

I hope now some more people will put aside that wrong thought of having to suffer to have some successful training. One should not do penance for having sinned by going to a dinner or party. Physical exercise should never continue as a punishment. It should be an enjoyable activity so that it is also a liberating activity.

Always take of your body, because it is the only one you got.

Photo by Chevanon Photography on Pexels.com

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Preceding

Happy First Day of Spring: Spring Cleaning!

What would you do if…? Continued trial

”For The Moment Of Happiness”

Anxiety Management During Pandemic Days~

7 Ways To Boost Your Immune System in Lockdown

Be it in May or September: Run the race

Do you have painful creaky knees

Reasons to be cheerful

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Additional reading

1. Strength of older people can be boosted by resistance training
2. Self-development, self-control, meditation, beliefs and spirituality
3. The focus of multiculturalism in Europe on Muslims and Jews
4. Why are we surprised when Buddhists are violent?
5. Spreading good cheer contagious

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“Celebrate” – channelled spiritual message from The Circle of The Light of The Love Energy – Channelled by Kay Meade.

Related articles

1. Fitness
2. Chronic Disease Management and Prevention
3. Many cancers might be avoided if people did at least five hours of moderate-intensity exercise per week @HarvardHealth
4. Upper Body Workout You Can Do at Home With No Equipment
5. Simple way of getting fit at home.
6. How to Squeeze Fitness into Your Day?
7. Relaxation or exploitation? The commodification of yoga as a colonial practice
8. How do you prepare for yoga as a beginner?
9. Today: “Now we have to understand…how we can tune our mind to Infinity. ” – Yogi Bhajan
10. Trusted Sources: a Journey, Comfort and Wheeeeee
11. Is Hot Yoga Right for Me? @ClevelandClinic
12. What Are the Advantages And Benefits of Meditation Courses And Classes NYC?
13. I Tried Nude Yoga…And It Was Nothing Like What I Expected (via Yoga Journal)
14. Kicking it old school on Fitness Friday
15. My Day At The 3rd Lehurutshe Annual Mandela Cycling & Sports Day
16. CHA Celebrates 10 Years of Helping Residents Lose Weight, Lower Blood Pressure and Reduce Cardiovascular Risk
17. Fitness Tips: Monitoring Aerobic Exercise Intensity
18. Step Aerobics Routines You Can Do At Home
19. Exercise #18 – Leg Warmers and Raving Lunatics
20. Aerobic Training Workouts That Benefits Your Entire Body
21. Aerobics and ale
22. Looking On For More
23. Today’s Health Tip ~
24. Sprint Triathlon Training 101
25. Dance with all your might
26. Pilates et yoga : comment choisir ?

Trilateral naval drills between China, Russia and Iran started on Friday

Friday 21st of  January

China, Russia and Iran will hold joint naval drills on Friday, a public relations official from Iran’s armed forces told semi-official ISNA news agency on Thursday.

The “2022 Marine Security Belt” exercise will take place in the north of the Indian Ocean and is the third joint naval drill between the three countries, Mostafa Tajoldin added. Since coming to office last June, Iran’s hardline President Ebrahim Raisi has pursued a “look east” policy to deepen ties with China and Russia. Tehran joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in September, a central Asian security body led by Beijing and Moscow.  China, Russia and Iran started joint naval drills in 2019, and will continue them in the future, Tajoldin said.

“The purpose of this drill is to strengthen security and its foundations in the region, and to expand multilateral cooperation between the three countries to jointly support world peace, maritime security and create a maritime community with a common future,”

the Iranian official told ISNA.

The key nations that are opposed to the West are coming together in a show of force. They are all sensing weakness in the West and have therefore decided to show their own military prowess and abilities as they prepare for conflict.

The Bible says that Russia and Iran will be allied together when they invade Israel in the war detailed in Ezekiel 38. China isn’t mentioned there but the Bible is interested in nations that impact Israel directly – and due to distance China clearly cannot do this to the extent Russia and Iran can. Daniel 11 also says that Russia will come with ”many ships”. Russia on Thursday announced sweeping naval drills in several parts of the world. The exercise will involve over 140 warships and more than 60 aircraft, and will be conducted in many areas including the Mediterranean, north-eastern Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean.

Andy Walton

Find this weeks Weekly World Watch: Download this week’s WWW or or Download as a PDF

 

Half Time

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Preceding

Time for world to ‘grow up’ and tackle climate change, says Boris Johnson

A cry in the dark by scientists and medics

Us and climate change – We can do much more than we think

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Find also to read:

1. Stepping forward with public commitments for Making different sectors carbon neutral by 2050
2. EU well placed to protect and enhance citizens’ living standards while pursuing an ambitious transition to an environmentally sustainable economy
3. 2019 was #1 a Year of Raising fire and voices
4. 2020 in view #2 The 45th president of the U.S.A. not willing to go
5. Cop26 presidency run from within the UK Cabinet Office
6. Are you serious?
7. The world is still on course for climate catastrophe
8. Rome gathering before heading to Glasgow
9. UK’s path to net zero set out in landmark strategy
10. World leaders gathering in the Scottish city of Glasgow for the UN climate conference
11. Dangerous climate change is already with us
12. Activists rally at U.N. climate talks

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Related

1. COP OUT
2. Huge 4,000kg iceberg shipped to Glasgow to melt outside COP26
3. Borrell Mission: EU urges Brazil to keep environmental commitments
4. Tackling climate change – even regulators have roles to play
5. Forests can’t handle all the net-zero emissions plans. Companies and countries expect nature to offset too much ‘carbon’
6. Voting this Week – November 5, ’21
7. thousands of young people march through the streets of Glasgow to call on leaders to action
8. cop26, GLAS-NO
9. COP26: Issues beyond global warming
10. Greta Thunberg blasts COP26 and slams world leaders at Glasgow youth climate strike
11. C C C C C – Climate – Covid – Commitments – Cash – Controls
12. Climate change and fancy hospitals
13. “Planet is fine, people are fucked”
14. Mnangagwa claims even under sanctions ‘we are progressing well’
15. Climate crisis, Cop26 and the wealthy. The screaming hypocrisy of the rich.
16. Vegan Meat Boss Hits Out At COP26 For ‘Irresponsibly’ Serving Beef
17. The pandemic barely dented the huge rise in carbon emissions since 1990

COP26 an activist's viewpoint

It’s hard to believe it, but COP26 is already nearly halfway through. So, what has actually happened? If you’re an avid absorber of the news, you’re likely to already know everything I’m about to mention, so feel free to skip this post (and feel a bit smug. It’s the weekend – put your feet up 😊)

The general consensus coming from inside the Blue Zone is cautious optimism; this is how the mainstream media seem to be reporting it. Some of my colleagues also, who perhaps have experience of previous COPs and weren’t expecting much progress to begin with, are treating positively anything that can reasonably be taken that way. Although, comments have been made about the inside of the COP being very much a place of status quo and business as usual rather than any attempt at system change.

The mood on the streets is less gracious, especially among…

View original post 939 more words

State capitalism and climate emergency

A continued look at {Why capitalism massively intensified the climate crisis, and why only collective action can solve it}

Continuation of

Capitalism and relevance to climate change

Capitalism and The environmental record of the communist world

In his article “Why capitalism massively intensified the climate crisis, and why only collective action can solve it” Gezwin Stanley confirms that the climate emergency couldn’t have happened without fossil fuel driven industrialisation. But there is more:

human technology plus the very human inclination towards short termism tends to result in environmental degradation. It isn’t just capitalism that caused the climate crisis. But it is clear that capitalism, or rather the different varieties of capitalism, meaning any system where the few both control and benefit from the engines of wealth creation, the very same productive forces that can damage the environment, while also being best able to use their position to shield themselves against any environmental side effects, did and will dramatically exacerbate environmental damage. And, comparing state capitalism with private capitalism, it isn’t markets or consumerism that appeared to make the difference: the West had those in abundance, but the Communist world did not, and the outcomes were similar: critical environmental crises. The implication is that mass-scale industrial technology, combined with the control of that economy by a few who are compelled to strive for growth at all costs and to disregard, even deliberately hide, all externalities, is sufficient to cause environmental collapse, even if consumerism and insufficiently democratically regulated markets really don’t help. {Why capitalism massively intensified the climate crisis, and why only collective action can solve it}

We must remember that important pressures contributing to current and future ecological collapse include habitat loss, habitat degradation, and habitat fragmentation, monocultures, overgrazing, overexploitation of ecosystems by humans, human industrial growth and overpopulation. The Soviet Union sinned against the respectful use of the earth by the practice of growing the same crop each year on a given acreage. The Soviet government found out, to its shame, that their large-scale plan of mass production or to produce huge quantities of cereals, vegetables and fruit, impoverished the country and did not produce good harvests. This because nonlegume crops usually exhaust the nitrogen in the soil, with a resulting reduction in yields. When they wanted to make the fertility level of the soil higher, they introduced fertilisers that poisoned the soil. The idea of greater flexibility in planning the system to meet year to year changes in the need for various crops, failed dramatically with food shortages and starvation as a result.

That environmental damage will be even more extreme if the masters of the economy, under private or state capitalism, are actively competing with each other whether for profit or to hit targets mandated by some dictator’s latest five year plan. {Why capitalism massively intensified the climate crisis, and why only collective action can solve it}

writes Gezwin Stanley, admitting that

 the vital experiment, of a technologically advanced society that combines political and economic democracy, hasn’t as yet really been tried, perhaps because it is so offensive to the powerful and power-hungry.

Would such a society be able to better balance environmental and economic concerns? It certainly seems likely in theory, but in practice all we have to go on are smaller scale examples, often embattled and created despite huge challenges, such as the Zapatistas in Mexico or Rojava in Kurdistan. While environmentalism is a core thread of the ideology of both these movements (see for example: “What the Zapatistas can teach us about the climate crisis” or “Rojava is trying to build a green society”), how that would play out in the long term, in more stable conditions and at scale, has still to be determined. Though social democracy may be precarious, because the super-rich often buy politicians, parties and media influence, the historically more thorough-going social democracies may offer a clue as to what would be possible environmentally if economic control was more democratic, with (again according to the World Bank figures here: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.PC) per capita carbon dioxide emissions in 2018 for Denmark being 5.8 tonnes, for Norway 7.0 tonnes and for Sweden 3.5 tonnes, compared to the USA at 15.2 tonnes, though the Nordic countries are at a similar level of technological advancement and average prosperity and overall have a colder climate. The same figure for the Russian Federation is 11.2 tonnes per capita and for considerably poorer China 7.4 tonnes. It may also be worth contrasting how Scandinavia confronted the problem of acid rain from the 1970s with how the former Soviet Union attempted to “bury” its multiple environmental crises. {Why capitalism massively intensified the climate crisis, and why only collective action can solve it}

For him, it is no wonder that the state-capitalist communist countries of the past or the present were the cause of environmental calamities.

There have been more human generated greenhouse gas emissions since 1990 than in the rest of history (see this excerpt from “The Uninhabitable Earth”, published in 2019). Nor should we ever forget the whole corporate funded global disinformation campaign of climate change denial , and now “greenwashing”. For example, Exxon knew of climate change in 1981, but it funded climate change denial for 27 more years. None of this is surprising as the richest have an incentive to care least about climate change, because they can most easily escape its effects, from basing themselves in less affected countries, through being able to afford air conditioning, coastal defences and other protections to participating in the growing market for elite bunkers and safe havens (see “‘Billionaire bunkers’ that could shelter the superrich during an apocalypse”).

If the economies of at least the most technologically advanced and richest nations had been run along lines of distributed economic power, of economic democracy as described here: https://gezwinstanley.wordpress.com/what-is-economic-justice-and-how-can-we-create-it/ , then there would most likely still have been a climate crisis. We are not angels. But without hugely powerful billionaires willing to conspire to deny climate change, and able to rig the political debate in many countries such as the USA, we would have acted a decade or two, possibly three, sooner. For example, the climate change deniers’ “Climategate” conspiracy in 2009 sabotaged the Copenhagen COP15 Conference and alone may have set back progress a decade, while none of the conspirators or those enlisted to help with the subsequent public relations have ever been brought to book. All that lost time could prove to have been crucial.

To resolve this conflict of interest we need to place everyone in control of the things they need to live and make a living. Then no one can disproportionately reap the economic benefits while disproportionately avoiding the environmental costs. That ensures everyone has an incentive to co-operate to create environmental regulations, pricing, taxes and subsidies, that avoid collective catastrophe, because no one can rig the deadly serious economic “game” of balancing economic output against environmental costs by largely reaping the economic benefits while passing most of the environmental impact onto someone else. {Why capitalism massively intensified the climate crisis, and why only collective action can solve it}

 

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Capitalism and The environmental record of the communist world

Continuation of Capitalism and relevance to climate change

When looking at the pollution in communist countries questions can be posed if those communist regimes were somehow unable to regulate the use of their common resources.

Nice to notice that Gezwin Stanley finds it more reasonable to posit that the communist failures were also failures of capitalism, specifically “state capitalism”, the economic system in which the state undertakes business and commercial (i.e. for-profit) economic activity and where the means of production are nationalized as state-owned enterprises (including the processes of capital accumulation, centralised management and wage labour). He writes:

The environmental record of the communist world, once it finally started to be revealed with the fall of the Warsaw Pact and the at least partial “opening up” of China to Western business interests, was, at times, disastrous. The proposition is essentially that ownership makes owners take more care of the environment, and that the communist record is one huge tragedy of the commons (for example, see: “Marxism and the Failure of Environmental Protection in Eastern Europe and the U.S.S.R.”). {Why capitalism massively intensified the climate crisis, and why only collective action can solve it}

Though in the idea of communism is included the ownership of everybody of everything. Everything is namely part of that what we are allowed to use or to be confronted with. We do not own the world, but we may use the world, as having it in loan. As such in communism is expected that everybody shows respect for the goods of others and for the nature where we are allowed to live in.

We agree that in the communist system we have seen it evolve in the wrong way, in the Soviet Union going to dictatorships as Stalinism and Leninism, which have not much to do with real communism, as well with the hypercapitalism we can see now in the Republic of China.

The communist world’s track record on the environment really is rather catastrophic. The most infamous examples include the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, the shrinking of the Aral Sea and the irradiation of northern Kazakstan by the Semipalatinsk (present-day Semey) nuclear testing site. The Soviet record in terms of air and water pollution is also very poor. Shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, in the early 1990s, Russia’s Hydrometeorological Service, which monitors air quality, reported that 231 out of 292 cities exceeded maximum permissible concentrations (MPCs) for particulate matter, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, or carbon monoxide, with eighty-six cities exceeding MPCs by a factor of ten. At around the same time 75 percent of Russia’s surface water was polluted, 50 percent of all water was not potable according to quality standards established in 1992, and an estimated 30 percent of groundwater available for use was highly polluted (http://countrystudies.us/russia/25.htm). {Why capitalism massively intensified the climate crisis, and why only collective action can solve it}

Gezwin Stanley looks at (a) communism where there is an economic system where the things that people need to live and make a living are controlled by the few. For him it doesn’t have to mean “free” markets as many capitalists aim for and sometimes achieve oligopoly or monopoly.

Also, though “control” normally means “legal ownership” that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case: there are situations where very effective control of the things that people need to live and make a living is possible without formal legal ownership, from a company where directors are able to laud it over shareholders to the situation we are about to explore: state capitalism in the Soviet Union.

One very clear reason why we should take the concept of “state capitalism” in Marxist-Leninist regimes seriously is that it is not an invented phrase imposed on such regimes after the fact. It was, in fact, a phrase use by Lenin himself in 1918, not to describe a state of affairs that should be avoided, but as a stage in a plan to modernise Russia as part of its road towards socialism. Basically the idea was that, to transition to a system where the workers would take over the means of production, large-scale, centralised industries had to be created first, under state control, but using the techniques and expertise of capitalists.

The main aim of “state capitalism” was therefore to build, in relatively backward and agrarian Russia, the very capitalist enterprises that the workers could later control as part of socialism. From the very inception of Soviet “state capitalism” though there was a secondary aim: to modernise the economy of Russia so that it could better defend itself militarily against foreign hostility. In 1918 Russia had just lost a war to a much more industrially advanced Germany. This was a further driver influencing the nature of state capitalism in the Soviet Bloc that would persist for the duration of the Soviet Union. {Why capitalism massively intensified the climate crisis, and why only collective action can solve it}

Here was how, in 1918, Lenin who claimed that World War I had transformed laissez-faire capitalism into the monopolist state capitalism, described his plan for state capitalism:

“What is state capitalism under Soviet power? To achieve state capitalism at the present time means putting into effect the accounting and control that the capitalist classes carried out. We see a sample of state capitalism in Germany. We know that Germany has proved superior to us. But if you reflect even slightly on what it would mean if the foundations of such state capitalism were established in Russia, Soviet Russia, everyone who is not out of his senses and has not stuffed his head with fragments of book learning, would have to say that state capitalism would be our salvation.

I said that state capitalism would be our salvation; if we had it in Russia, the transition to full socialism would be easy, would be within our grasp, because state capitalism is something centralised, calculated, controlled and socialised, and that is exactly what we lack: we are threatened by the element of petty-bourgeois slovenliness, which more than anything else has been developed by the whole history of Russia and her economy, and which prevents us from taking the very step on which the success of socialism depends.” (Session of the All-Russia C.E.C. April 29 1918: https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1918/apr/29.htm)

The greatest problem is man’s love for power and control and often when people come to power they start enjoying their status and often want more. Often those who got in power want to stay in power and do not want to share their power with others.  The article writer notices this also and writes

once a state capitalist system under the control of Communist Party apparatchiks was created, any transition to actual socialism was stalled indefinitely.

Joseph Stalin, secretary-general of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922–53) and premier of the Soviet state (1941–53), misusing his power eliminating everybody whowas in his way or did not agree with his ruling (and dictatorship).

“State capitalism” had severe effects on how the Soviet system would deal with environmental concerns. As with western style capitalism this was partly because those in control had much more to gain by, say, maximising production, than they had to lose through environmental degradation. It was those at the top, higher up the party structure, who by driving up their production figures, could gain promotion or at least, at times, and especially during Stalin’s rule, avoid being purged. Also, as ever, it was those at the bottom who were generally least able to escape the effects of environmental degradation, as in the “exemplar” Soviet steel producing city of Magnitogorsk, where party officials enjoyed a comparatively luxurious life in the wooded “American town” that was originally built for specialists from the United States in 1930, while many workers lived in barracks where filthy conditions and a lack of clean water contributed to the spread of deadly disease ( see “The secret history of Magnitogorsk, Russia’s steel city”). {Why capitalism massively intensified the climate crisis, and why only collective action can solve it}

Magnitogorsk: Monument depicting a steelworker giving a sword to a Soviet soldier, Magnitogorsk, Russia. – Photo © ekb/Fotolia

The whole command and control system of the Soviet Union felt compelled to drive for economic growth at almost any cost, and did not mind losing lives for it. It became so bad that there was an obsession with economic growth and with high status on all levels, but in particular in sports and arts, like ballet. Any opposition to the ideas of those in power had to be killed by the root, as that could endanger targets.

The “Plan” and the careers, or at times lives, of individual apparatchiks. Similar to how in the West the climate crisis was first concealed with well-funded and orchestrated denial and then greenwash, in the Soviet Union the true state of the environment was kept hidden by deeming environmental statistics to be state secrets. {Why capitalism massively intensified the climate crisis, and why only collective action can solve it}

Next: State capitalism and climate emergency

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Australia could be ‘nuclear war target’ in new Aukus defence pact

Without having discussed the matter of the previous standing contract for submarines, Australia broke the contract with France to arrange a new deal with the United States and Great Britain.

By the security agreement with the US and UK buying nuclear-powered submarines, Australia could become the target of a nuclear strike by China.

According to the Global Times, a daily tabloid newspaper viewed as a mouthpiece of the Communist Party in Beijing, Chinese military experts fear the vessels could be upgraded with a nuclear arsenal, despite assurances they will only carry conventional weapons.

Chinese military experts have supposedly warned of a potential strike on Australia. This is reportedly because it would be relatively easy for Washington and London to equip the vessels with ballistic missiles carrying nuclear warheads.

Saber Rattling in the South China Sea

 

Association of World Citizens

By René Wadlow

Six days of Chinese naval maneuvers started on August 6, 2021 near southeast Hainan province in the South China Sea at the same time as warships of the USA, the United Kingdom, Australian Defense Forces ships and those of the Japan Self-Defense Forces are also training in the area. The South China Sea is fast becoming a theater of brinkmanship.

“We view with concern China’s unlawful claim to the entire South China Sea – directly and negatively impacting all the countries in the region from their livelihood, whether it be with fishing or access to natural resources.” said John Aquilino, commander of the U. S. Indo-Pacific Command at the Aspen Security Forum on August 4. The U. S. Commander added that he was concerned by China’s suppression in Hong Kong, human rights issues in Xinjiang, as well as China’s military actions on the border with India. “These…

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Flash Floods Are Proof That Climate Disaster Is Already Here

To remember:

Mary Dhonau is one of the leading flood risk experts in the UK, and says we all need to be concerned about the proliferation of so-called “super basements” in areas like Kensington and Chelsea.

“There are a lot of celebrities in those areas – Simon Cowell, Kate Garraway, Brian May – and they were all flooded,”

“A lot of them have these super basements, and when you stop and think of the earth that has been excavated to accommodate all these projects, that’s earth that would have absorbed water had it still been there.”

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We will almost certainly not avoid climate emergency now. As the Met Office puts it:

“Even if we were to stop all emissions today, we would not prevent some changes. However, the sooner we cut emissions, the smaller the changes will be.”

There is no longer time to stop the process; that ship has well and truly sailed. But there is still time to mitigate the worst of its damage.

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Perhaps the question of ‘what can we do?’ is not the right one to ask after all; a self-lacerating response engendered by a society that has gaslit us into believing that it’s our plastic straws that are to blame – rather than, you know, the 71 percent of all carbon emissions that come from just 100 companies.

“The onus is on the government to reduce emissions,”

Juliet Kinsman adds.

“That’s why they exist, to protect every member of society. We all have to think what we can do more, of course, but essentially this is on the government, private sector, and manufacturing to think of solutions.”

Matthew Neale

Credit: Twitter/Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images

On the evening of the 12th of July, bookseller Lynn Gaspard received a text from her mother, concerned that their west London bookshop would flood yet again. “We were really worried,” she says over the phone, “but thinking, ‘What can we do?”

It’s a desperate question that has reverberated around the world, perhaps this month more than ever. The floods that have swept across the southeast of England in July caused significant property damage, leading to evacuations in London – on the 12th of July and, remarkably, again on Sunday – and the cancellation of Standon Calling festival.

But they are not yet comparable to the devastation in Germany and Belgium, where over 180 people were killed in flash floods, nor the horrific scenes of submerged homes in India or flooded subway train carriages in China. In the UK, many are praying that it…

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Can China Become A Super-Power

 

Political And Developmental Thoughts

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A Chinese soldier in Beijing [Photo by Brian Matangelo on Unsplash]

Throughout history, many superpowers that dominated the world politically and economically came and left, the Roman empire, the Byzantine empire, the Umayyad empire, the Abbasid empire, the Mongol empire, the British empire. In today’s world, the hegemon that can be said is the world power that dominates the world not only politically and economically, but also culturally such as by movies, media, music and literature is the United States. 

The United States became the new superpower after world war 1 when the British Empire lost that position due to the economic and political damage the war had cost. The Americans filled that space by entering and ending the war, helping Europe recover by financing projects to rebuild war-torn Europe, and spreading its muscle around the world.

Today many believe that in the 21st century the world will experience another…

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Further glimpses on Latin America

With Let South America come to you #1 Reasons to stay away from South America, Let South America come to you #2 For those with a good taste, The Science Says Everyone Needs a COVID-19 Booster Shot—and Soon we had a look at South America.

This Month’s Region of the World: Latin America has a look at the huge region where many of the people in this region are spiritually blinded to the hope of the Gospel by the darkness of false religion.

In line with those articles you may be interested to read further how most of Latin America is still far from the horrific conditions prevailing in Venezuela, where output has fallen by a staggering 75% since 2013. But, given the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe there, and the spectre of political instability elsewhere, investors should not take a sustained economic recovery for granted.

The current disconnect between market calm and underlying social tensions is perhaps nowhere more acute than in Latin America. The question is how much longer this glaring dissonance can continue. > Under the Latin American Volcano

While the United States and other advanced economies are returning to normalcy, Colombia reported its highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths to date during the last week of June. > Colombia’s Triple Crisis

Once a peripheral presence in Latin America, China has become one of the region’s most important partners. Bilateral trade expanded from $12 billion in 2000 to over $300 billion in 2020, raising China’s share of the region’s total trade from 1.7% to 14.4%. China has also become an increasingly significant source of foreign direct investment in Latin America, accounting for nearly 10% of inflows in recent years. > How Latin America Should Navigate US-China Tensions

At a glance, the Latin American venture capital and startup market appears similar to what we’ve seen from other growing ecosystems. Like the U.S., Canadian, European, Indian and African startup hubs, Latin America is seeing venture capital activity set records. Early-stage venture capital fund Newtopia VC launched Monday with $50 million to invest in tech startups based in Latin America. > Why Latin American venture capital is breaking records this year

Big problem in several Latin-american countries is the repression. In Brazil police actions against peasant areas have intensified since the announcement of “Operation Rondônia,” using federal and state forces to repress the just peasant struggle in the region and particularly the combative and honorable peasant organization LCP – League of Poor Peasants of Rondônia and Western Amazonia. The troops of Bolsonaro and the military police (MP) of the governor of Rondônia, the puppet of landowners, Colonel MP Marcos Rocha, seek to concentrate forces to attack, acting shamelessly with the support of paramilitary forces, actually hitmen in the pay of the latifundium [large, monopolistic landowners -Ed.], under the cover of a “private security” company. > Brazil: Bolsonaro National Force, Military Police, and Gunmen Shoot at Peasants.

The situation is very serious, all the more so because the fascist and genocidal Bolsonaro himself, gives free rein to landowners and murderous troops to commit their crimes against peasants with impunity, as denounced in a statement by the LCP, “Bolsonaro arms landowners and says the police can kill peasants who will go unpunished”

The Science Says Everyone Needs a COVID-19 Booster Shot—and Soon

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Dewayne-Net Archives

The Science Says Everyone Needs a COVID-19 Booster Shot—and Soon
It’s time for governments to admit that the biology of the delta variant has made mass revaccination an urgent necessity.
By Laurie Garrett
Jul 30 2021
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/07/30/booster-shot-coronavirus-covid-science/

The world has fought many battles against the novel coronavirus since January 2020, losing more than 4.2 million people and vanquishing some of its spread. But the war is still raging and will do so for a long time. I predicted early last year, in a best-case scenario, that we would face a 36-month battle before COVID-19 could be considered under human control. We are only now in month 19.

Sure enough, the United States is again awash in virus, with the incidence of new COVID-19 cases having soared 131 percent in the third week of July. To be clear, the vaccines available work well—especially the Pfizer and Moderna products based on mRNA…

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A look at China wanting to be everywhere in the world

The last two decades we could see how china has more become a hyper capitalist state, it putting all interests in becoming the world-leader in all businesses no matter at what costs. Lots of people had to leave their house because they had to make a place for a great dam or for an immense stadium. Lots of people where put in small apartments with no garden because the government ordered them to move, making place for modern developments.

Nobody can ignore the neo-colonial expansion of China’s post-Mao economic model. The People’s Republic has become an economic superpower that has witnessed continued GDP growth while lifting millions out of poverty.

Xi Jinping, (°1953), Chinese politician and government official who served as vice president of the People’s Republic of China (2008–13), general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP; 2012– ), and president of China (2013– ).

China wanted to show the world that it is able to restore overland trade routes from China to Central Asia and Europe — the ancient “Silk Road.” In Indonesia, president Xi Jinping of China introduced the concept of a “maritime Silk road,” which is essentially the already well-traveled sea corridor South from China to the Middle East and Europe.  In seven years of implementation, the initiative has become quite controversial, especially in the West.  The controversy is fuelled by a lack of transparency that makes it difficult to get reliable information on the financing involved in the initiative, as well as the specific projects and their terms. There are a growing number of academic efforts, however, to collect and analyse data on ‘The Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI), with a consistent set of findings.

The republic got a lot of African countries in its power by giving them loans and workforce, though many of those Chinese worker were forced to go to work in Africa, often in very bad conditions and months away from their family. At the same time China uses the same colonial tactics of getting as much treasures from those ‘colonies’ as possible, even worse than King Leopold II of Belgium did with the Belgian colonies or other colonial countries did. [Belgium controlled 3 colonies and 3 concessions during its history, the Belgian Congo (modern DRC) from 1908 to 1960, and Ruanda-Urundi (Rwanda and Burundi) from 1922 to 1962. It also had a small concession in China and was a co-administrator of the Tangier International Zone in Morocco. ]

In a smart way the republic of China is gaining more control over several countries widely spread all over the world. By its technological and industrial espionage, it also managed to introduce its ‘own’ technological features in several capitalist countries, having created as such a good stable economic platform or insured economic outlet.

As the owings of developing countries to China have mushroomed debt sustainability is a mounting concern, exacerbated further by the impact of COVID-19 economic shut-downs.  China has given some short-term debt relief but it does not belong to the Paris Club of creditors, and sets its own rules and ethics. By now Beijing has those countries which can’t service their expensive loans in their clamps and power. Question might be if the loans will be converted into strategic extra-territorial acquisitions.

Sri Lanka, as a coveted geopolitical outpost of China, is a case in point. Since the end of the three-decade separatist war there, China’s role in the Indian Ocean has received much attention for its infamous debt-trap led extraterritorial approach. However, within Sri Lanka (and many African countries) the response is mixed – China is both the land grabber, the political influencer, the military supplier and the friendly brother capable of fuelling long-awaited economic growth.

The eyes of China are directed to countries often left aside by Europe and the United States of America, because too poor and of no economical interest because too dangerous or for being highly corrupt and conflict ridden zones. Counties who want some financial help from China may not have alliances with Taiwan or have to stop their relationship with them.

The narrative that China is engaging in problematic debt trap diplomacy has taken off since 2018. Coined the preceding year by an Indian pundit, the term implies that Beijing is purposely striking unsustainable debt-for-infrastructure deals with developing countries along the routes of its ubiquitous Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port, which a Chinese state-owned firm acquired via a ninety-nine-year lease in 2017 after the Sri Lankan government could not service its loans, has been cited repeatedly as evidence that the Chinese government is practicing debt trap diplomacy. Many countries which do not receive enough aid from Europe or the U.S. hope that China will help them. China does not show any interest in the conflicts those countries may have as long as their are enough goods to explore and to transport to China.

Certain countries are starting to see how China wants to integrate in as many countries as it can.

Poorly planned and badly executed energy and infrastructure deals involving China in Latin American countries like Venezuela and Ecuador have increasingly attracted critical headlines. Even in Europe, Beijing’s efforts to finance and build a railway between the capitals of Hungary and Serbia have run into obstacles and sparked backlash.

The colonial expansion of China is something we would have to watch with Argus eyes also investigating how they treat the people who work for their institutions of firms in that country where they so-called offer their help.

The Chinese government and the developing countries it partners with too often have failed to consult sufficiently with the people most directly affected by grandiose infrastructure projects.
The trending Chinese role model is that of an authoritarian goliath that can make its doctors and billionaires disappear while protecting favoured war-crime offenders and military regimes elsewhere, while meanwhile it exploits a lot of people and makes them work as slave labourers while the managers of the company rake in all the big money.

The Plight of Uighurs beyond the Great Wall

Because too much money involved the EU and USA are not willing to make more effort of pointing their finger at the discrimination and forced labour. The Eu citizens should demand their governments more to react against the deplorable state of affairs and instances of rights violations.

Uighur = Turkish Muslim ethnic group having close ties with Central Asian nations, with a population of nearly 11 million living in the Xinjiang province of China

China’s government has gone up to the extent of curtailing the Uighur religious, cultural and commercial activities.

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To remember

• gross + egregious human rights violations in internment camps in Xinjiang, China against Uighur Sufi Islamists > systematic repression Uighur Muslims in China ~~ to root out Islamic extremism and separatism
  
• oppression of minorities
• intolerance towards the religious minorities
• “re-education camps” functioning in Chin => serious violations of human rights by subjecting religious minority to forced labour and forced sterilisation supplemented by constant and intense surveillance.
• systematic repression + political indoctrination => serious international humanitarian laws violation
• global silence and inaction on the matter
• stern actions ought to be taken
• responsibility is on us to fight this evil that is breeding right before our eyes for if not curtailed timely this might find its place in the history as one of the biggest catastrophe upon humanity since the Second World War.

+

Find also to read:

1. Who are Uighurs?
2. The Hard Edge To The Soft Power Of Chinese Patriotism
3. Genocide of Uighurs Does Not End Muslim Support for China​
4. China targets Uighurs with more prosecutions, longer prison terms: HRW
5. Rape as a Weapon of Genocide: Systematic Sexual Abuse Within China’s Internment Camps
6. Does Joe Biden relativize the genocide in China? “There are different cultural norms in every country”
7. Dutch parliament: China’s treatment of Uighurs is genocide
8. China slams Dutch motion declaring genocide in Xinjiang
9. Uighur author tells of imprisonment and China attacks
10. China’s treatment of Uighurs is not ‘a different norm,’ but ‘genocide,’ activist says
11. China committing genocide against Uighurs: report
12. Legal Report on Uighurs: China breaches every Article in Genocide Convention
13. Actions against Uighur minority: Trudeau stands exposed after refusing to meddle in China’s internal affairs
14. Uighurs: China bans UK MPs after abuse sanctions
15. China lashes out at H&M, Nike over criticism of human rights abuses in Xinjiang
16. See, that’s what Uighurs are really afraid of…
17. Human Rights Drives Deeper Wedge Between Beijing and Washington
18. Canada’s parliament says China’s treatment of Uighurs is genocide
19. Canada’s parliament says China’s treatment of Uighurs is genocide
20. Canada should be ready to weather any export issues to deal with China: O’Toole
21. The Plight of Chinese Uighurs – A Story of Structured Minority Cleansing
22. 04/06/21 Reuters: Chinese ambassador to Turkey summoned over response to Uighur claims: source
23. US senators match House bill to assist Uyghur refugees
24. The Uighurs, Allies, and China
25. Where do Ideas Come From?
26. Uighurs and The Forgotten Protection
27. Still no word from Toon Lampoon’s China correspondent
28. Proposing #StopUighurHate Protests Across China
29. Chinese hackers used Facebook to target Uighur activists with malware
30. China-based hackers used Facebook to target Uighurs abroad with malware
31. Xinjiang shakedown: US anti-China lobby cashed in on ‘forced labor’ campaign that cost Uyghur workers their jobs
32. Blinken says US must deal with China as Beijing ramps up aggression abroad
33. AI and its Impact on Government Surveillance Capabilities and the Suppression of Uighur Muslims in China
34. John Kerry believes it’s OK to use slaves to fight global warming

The Human Rights Blog

This article is authored byAstha Sharma, the Senior Editor of the Human Rights Blog, CASIHR.

---

“The object of terrorism is terrorism. The object of oppression is oppression. The object of torture is torture. The object of murder is murder. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?”

–George Orwell (1984)

This article elucidates the predicament of Uighur Muslims in China. It traces the roots of the problem and sheds light on the deplorable condition of this community and their systematic repression. The oppression of minorities by majority is not a new story however in the current day and light oppression to this extent and through such means is chilling and deserves appropriate action from the global community.

Introduction

It was noticed after a long time, it took longer to condemn and even longer to act. The predicament of the Uighur Muslims gained…

View original post 1,127 more words

A dangerous turning point – Earth facing the collapse of everything

Despite so much evidence to the contrary, “experts” deny there is any threat to the world’s ecology.
Study Disputes That Earth is in a ‘Climate Emergency’

Brietbart 07-Feb-21 by Delingpole

“There is no “climate emergency”, according to a study for the Global Warming Policy Foundation by independent scientist Dr Indur Goklany.
Dr Goklany concludes:

“While climate may have changed for the warmer:  Most extreme weather phenomena have not become extreme, more deadly, or more destructive.  Empirical evidence directly contradicts claims that increased carbon dioxide has reduced human wellbeing. In fact, human wellbeing has never been higher.

Whatever detrimental effects warming and higher carbon dioxide may have had on terrestrial species and ecosystems, they have been swamped by the contribution of fossil fuels to increased biological activity. This has halted, and turned around, reductions in habitat loss”.

The report would make hugely depressing reading for all environmental activists — even the Pope – if it was
infallibly accurate – which it is not!
Dr Goklany says there is little to scare us:

Yes, there will be more hot days, but fewer cold days. Oh? Where?

In the Arctic and the Antarctic of course – silly!

*There will be less tornados – #in Great Britain?
* There will be less floods, less frequent and smaller!
# Perhaps Goklany slept through last year, but there were half a dozen cyclones causing death by floods, drowning, landslides and inundation from January to December 2020 throughout the Southern Hemisphere!
*There will be less droughts and less wildfires.

# When does this begin? So far so bad in California and many parts of Australia. In October 1917 intense, deadly fires killed 41 people in Spain and Portugal, and in 2020 fires affected Sweden and Northern France as well as Italy and Spain where wildfires are not indigenous!

In 2020 for months, Siberia has been experiencing extreme heat due to a combination of persistent sunny weather and human-caused climate change. In addition to producing Arctic temperatures that cracked 100 degrees in June, the heat has fueled an enormous outbreak of wildfires, including fires on Siberia’s tundra……

Breitbart News Desk February 16, 2021:

The deep freeze that knocked out power in Texas spread across the country this week. The agency that manages power in fourteen states from Texas through Oklahoma and all the way up to North Dakota declared a state of emergency and ordered utilities to initiate rolling blackouts to cut electrical demand and stabilize the grid.
Meanwhile, a lot of fracking for oil has been brought to a halt by the freeze. Twenty percent of the U.S. oil production has gone offline, and some of the biggest refineries have been shuttered. The big problem is that the Texas oil kits are not set up for arctic weather. Up in North Dakota the extraction process is winterized, but that’s not the case farther south. Even something as simple as picking up oil in a truck to move to a refinery can become impossible when your roads are iced over, there are no snow ploughs or road salt, and no one has snow tires.
Crude oil production is down by more than four million barrels a day, twice what was reported a day earlier. Prior to the cold crisis, the U.S. was producing around 11 million barrels a day.
The Permian Basin, America’s largest oil field, has been hard hit. Production in the area that straddles western Texas and
New Mexico is down between 65 percent and 80 percent.

The melting Arctic has been watched closely by countries like China and Russia who are looking to take advantage of the increasingly available shipping lanes. But scientists have lamented the latest milestone, and are sounding the alarm about further environmental degradation due to increased shipping activity.

It is a very dangerous turning point

says Associate Professor Nengye Liu, an expert in international polar law at Macquarie University.

In Revelation 6:8-9 we can see that “Global Warming” is the result of the 4th Vial of God’s Wrath –

   8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. 9  And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.

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‘Too late’:

David Attenborough warns Earth faces ‘total collapse’

Nick Whigham ·Assistant News Editor | Yahoo News| 24.2.20-21

The world’s most famous naturalist has issued a dire proclamation about the state of the planet, warning Earth is facing “the collapse of everything” if we continue on our current path.

94-year-old Sir David Attenborough warned overnight that climate change is the biggest security threat modern humans have ever faced while addressing the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) session on climate, saying it was “already too late” to stem the diabolical impacts of global warming.

   “There is no going back, no matter what we do now, it’s too late to avoid climate change and the poorest, the most vulnerable, those with the least security, are now certain to suffer,”

he said.

“And if the natural world can no longer support the most basic of our needs, then much of the rest of civilisation will quickly break down.”

Arthur Wright, Kallangur, Brisbane

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Related

1. Global Climate Change. Overstated or Understated?
2. Earth Is In Serious Trouble If We Don’t Make Major Changes. Period.
3. Stop the depletion of the earth
4. Earth had its coolest February since 2014
5. Climate Change Responsibility
6. The Triple Crisis: Coronavirus is increasingly linked to global warming and remaking the economy, call it a socialist trifecta
7. Sea-level rise caused by climate change> LTE Under Consideration: Re: March 1 Article, “Was climate change to blame?”
8. Scientists stunned to discover plants beneath mile-deep Greenland ice
9. New Permian Methane Leakage Study Confirms What We Already Knew
10. Routine Gas Flaring Is Wasteful, Polluting and Undermeasured
11. Rare Lizard’s Habitat May Open Up
12. “Arctic air freezes Permian shale fields”… Fake news?
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14. Clean Fuel Opens Door for Sustainability
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16. 60,000 Belgians take government to court over alleged climate inaction

Coronavirus disinfectant use alarms scientists

Everywhere a lot of people want to use a lot of disinfectants, antibacterial products, Dettol, Alcohol, a.o..

Once people were confronted with the seriousness of the possible spread of the new 6th coronavirus they wanted to disinfect the surroundings. China, South Korea, France, Spain, and several other countries thought they best would be to spray copious amounts of disinfectant throughout densely populated urban areas. Fleets of trucks, drones, and even robots doused streets, parks, playgrounds, and other outdoor public spaces with virus-killing chemicals.

On television, we could see that in several countries government people even went into the houses spraying loads of chemicals.

China was the first country, in January 2020, to start sanitizing its cities — and as soon as it did, reports of poisoned animals started coming in. In February, an investigation by the Chongqing Forestry Bureau in Chongqing, a huge city in southwestern China, found that at least 135 animals across 17 species — including wild boars, Siberian weasels, and blackbirds — had died after exposure to disinfectants, according to Chinese news agency Xinhua.

Disinfectant ingredients, mostly sodium hypochlorite, chlorine, and bleach, are “acutely toxic to both terrestrial and aquatic animals,” says Dongming Li, professor of ecology at Hebei Normal University and co-author of the Environmental Research analysis, which was based solely on the Chongqing Forestry Bureau’s investigation. Li and his colleagues did not personally examine the dead animals to confirm what had killed them.

Even so, the animals’ deaths are concerning evidence, Li believes, that

“the overuse of disinfectants may contaminate the habitats of urban wildlife.” (Read more about how animals are moving into cities.)

Li’s team is now calling on world leaders to regulate the dispersal of disinfectants in urban areas, which they say is being done without input from the scientific community.

Furthermore, we also want to warn people antibacterial products are of no use against viruses, and an overdose of such products kills also the necessary and good bacteria we do need, whilst it makes the bad bacteria resistant. That will give a lot of problems in the treatment and prevention of bacterial infections.

Antibiotics have been used since ancient times, but the last few years there was such an increase that many bacteria managed to resist those articles. The World Health Organization has classified antimicrobial resistance as a widespread

“serious threat [that] is no longer a prediction for the future, it is happening right now in every region of the world and has the potential to affect anyone, of any age, in any country”. {Antimicrobial resistance: global report on surveillance(PDF). The World Health Organization. April 2014. ISBN978-92-4-156474-8. Retrieved 13 June 2016.}

People should be fully aware that chemical disinfectants kill viruses, bacteria, and other microorganisms by destroying their cell walls and damaging their proteins through oxidation. If inhaled or ingested by people or animals, these substances can irritate or corrode the mucous membranes of the respiratory and digestive tracts. In extreme cases, exposure can lead to death.

We also may not forget that using all those disinfectants, also by washing our hands with such products they all come into our water system. Christopher J. Schell, professor of urban ecology at the University of Washington, in Tacoma, ways:

“If you put toxicants into a system, they are going to travel through the food web,”

While sanitizing frequently touched surfaces can help reduce the spread of the coronavirus, scientists now know that most people get the disease by breathing in droplets in the air from an infected person and not so much by coming into contact with a contaminated surface.

That’s why, in May, the World Health Organization advised against using disinfectants outdoors, both because streets and sidewalks

“are not considered as routes of infection for COVID-19”

and because spraying such chemicals

“can be noxious for people’s health and cause eye, respiratory or skin irritation or damage.”

The WHO didn’t mention the harm to wildlife as well, but many wildlife rangers and animal scientists warn people of the danger of those products contaminating the environment and endangering wildlife. Though with that knowledge there are still several countries which continue to spray disinfectants in public areas.

“The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has caused public fear in many countries. Many health agencies around the world may spray more disinfectants to ensure the virus is fully killed and to alleviate their worries of viral infection,”

Li says.

Politicians who dare to take the right measures, demanding restrictions to where people go, are not risking their popularity and therefore ordered going on the streets with spraying trucks or spraying agents, or drones, and even robots dousing streets, parks, playgrounds, and other outdoor public spaces with virus-killing chemicals, is more visible for many, who then would think their government does it best. Though it would be much better and safer for the environment if people would be encouraged to stay home.

“Rather than indiscriminately spraying high volumes of disinfectants in biodiversity-rich areas such as urban parks, wetlands, and green spaces,”

Dongming Li says,

“it would be preferable to suspend human activities in such places.”

*

Please find also to read:

1. Why antibodies may not be the key to beating coronavirus
2. Why COVID-19 will end up harming the environment
3. Antarctica is the last continent without COVID-19. Scientists want to keep it that way.
4. How Wild Animals Are Hacking Life in the City

Uit de Oude doos: In het Nieuws – Honger en bevolkingsgroei

2007-2008 In het Nieuws – Belangrijke en interessante nieuwsfeiten in het licht van de Bijbel:

Honger en bevolkingsgroei

Slechts weinigen lijken te beseffen dat de wereld afstevent op de grootste ramp ooit. Niet het broeikaseffect, maar een onbeheersbare overbevolking. Milieuvervuiling, klimaatbeïnvloeding, dat zijn hooguit de gevolgen.

Het verloop van de bevolkingsgroei volgens Thomas Malthus en volgens Pierre-François Verhulst

In de jaren ’60 telde de wereld 3,25 miljard inwoners, en het sleutelwoord was ‘bevolkingsexplosie’. Daar hoor je nu niemand meer over.

We zitten nu op 6,4 miljard en nog steeds is er groei. Toch pleiten wereldleiders weer voor grote gezinnen: dat is

‘goed voor de economie’.

Verwachte vergrijzing in Nederland in 2025. Percentage bejaarden in de totale bevolking (Bron: CBS) Van licht naar donker groen: 18 – 20% 20 – 22% 22 – 24% 24% of meer.

En we moeten de vergrijzing betalen. We zijn humaan bezig in Afrika de sterftecijfers omlaag te brengen, maar niemand praat over geboortecijfers. Terwijl ze daar op gezinsniveau maar één manier hebben om hun persoonlijke vergrijzing te ‘betalen’:

zo veel mogelijk kinderen, in de hoop dat er genoeg in leven blijven om later voor hun ouders te zorgen.

Toen vroegen we ons af hoe we iedereen gingen voeden. Dankzij pesticiden en steeds verdere optimalisering van de landbouw is dat nog steeds gelukt. Althans bij ons. Voor de meesten hier is hongersnood een ver-van-mijn-bed show. Maar of het nu wel of niet door ons komt, het klimaat is bezig te verschuiven. Droge gebieden worden droger en natte natter. En in beide gevallen leidt dat tot minder opbrengst. Die zorgvuldig opgebouwde balans raakt steeds verder verstoord.

Plantenziekten en insectensoorten worden resistent voor pesticiden; ook daar komen we terug bij ‘af’. Daar komt nu nog een factor bij. Een klein berichtje in de krant:

het brood wordt duurder, want de Amerikanen gaan minder graan exporteren.

Ze hebben het nu zelf nodig om biobrandstoffen te maken voor hun auto’s. Ter bestrijding van het broeikaseffect!

Uitwijken naar visserij is ook al geen optie meer. Die ‘fabrieksschepen’ zijn nu zo effectief dat ze een spoor van absolute leegte achterlaten. Vissoorten worden inmiddels serieus met totale uitroeiing bedreigd, en halfslachtige vangstquota (die belanghebbende partijen weer ontduiken) moeten de ergste schade nog wat indammen.

Even wat cijfers.

Millennia lang woonde het gros van de wereldbevolking in het Midden-Oosten en omgeving, plus India en China. Daar zijn schattingen voor mogelijk. Eeuwenlang was de bevolkingsgroei uiterst laag, met een verdubbelingtijd van ca. eens per 1000 jaar.
In de bloeitijd van het Romeinse rijk steeg dat naar eens per 500 jaar, en bij het begin van onze jaartelling telde onze wereld zo’n 200 miljoen mensen. Met de val van dat rijk viel de groei terug op nul, om in de middeleeuwen weer lang-zaam toe te nemen, telkens onderbroken door sterke krimp tijdens zwa-re pestepidemieën. Bij het begin van de industriële revolutie stond de wereldbevolking op 700 miljoen. Toen begon er echter een nieuwe groei-spurt. In 1970 bereikte deze een top die neerkwam op een verdubbelingstijd van eens per 35 jaar!

‘Dankzij’ AIDS en andere moderne tegenhangers van de middeleeuwse plagen, is dat nu gedaald tot een verdubbelingstijd van ‘maar’ 45-50 jaar. Dat is nog steeds tienmaal zo snel als die tijdens de grootste bloei van het Romeinse rijk! De verklaring is simpel. In een sterk agrarische wereld is de bevolking voor haar voeding afhankelijk van het land dat zij bewoont. Dat stelt een bovengrens aan de omvang en de groei. Maar in het Romeinse rijk werden land en bevolking ‘losgekoppeld’. Graan werd elders verbouwd en met immense schepen aangevoerd naar het thuisland. De arbeidskracht die thuis vrij viel werd aangewend voor andere doelen, en de bevolking kon onbelemmerd groeien, want hun voeding was verzekerd. Met de val van het rijk kwam daar een eind aan, en werd de koppeling tussen land-oppervlak en bevolkingsomvang hersteld.

De industriële revolutie bracht een nieuwe ontkoppeling, en van zulke omvang dat het nu volledig uit de hand loopt. En geen politicus die je daarover hoort, want groei moet, vanwege die economie. Maar nu al wagen horden vluchtelingen zich in gammele bootjes aan de oversteek van Lybië naar het Italiaanse eilandje Pantelleria, of van Marokko en Mauretanië naar de Canarische eilanden. Velen betalen dat met hun leven, maar ze blijven komen. Want ‘thuis’ overleven ze in elk geval niet. De plaatselijke autoriteiten kunnen het niet meer aan, en de EU weet geen structurele oplossing. En het wordt alleen maar erger. Want het gaat niet om rijkdom, maar om puur overleven.

Bevolkingsdichtheid

Wanneer de wereldbevolking stijgt naar de verwachte 10 miljard in ca. 2035-2040, kunnen we wereldwijde voedseltekorten verwachten. Dan zullen ‘vluchtelingen’ niet meer in wrakke bootjes komen, maar met hun wapens, om desnoods kwaadschiks te nemen wat ze goedschiks niet krijgen. De wereld staat daarmee voor problemen, die ze zelf heeft veroorzaakt, maar niet kan oplossen. Die ze niet eens wil zien, want dat is maar ‘doemdenken’.

We hebben tot nu toe al onze problemen altijd weer opgelost toch?

Onze conclusie is dat de wederkomst van onze heer met de dag urgenter wordt.

 

++

Vindt verder te lezen

1. Bijbel en Wetenschap: Schepping, intelligent design, evolutie (6) De Boodschap van de Bijbel zelf
2. Mogelijkheid tot wereldwijde voedselcrisis
3. Hongerwapen
4. Olieland Nigeria balanceert tussen klimaat en economie
5. Mura-stam ten strijde om regenwoud te verdedigen.
6. Wat is de Green Deal?
7. Materialisme, “would be” leven en aspiraties #6
8. Want het is geen leeg woord
9. Rapture ~ Vervoering

+++

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8. Middle East confronts outbreak against backdrop of conflicts

Kort overzicht Corona gebeuren in België (januari – begin juni 2020)

De laatste maanden zijn voor heel wat mensen zeer moeilijke maanden geweest. Heel wat families hebben meerdere moeilijke dagen doorgemaakt, terwijl een van hun geliefden in het ziekenhuis lag met een coronabesmetting. Meerdere families moesten zonder een echt afscheid in de familiekring hun geliefde begraven, doordat deze het niet overleefd had. Een heel pak mensen werd niet rechtstreeks emotioneel getroffen door het virus, maar niemand kon aan de gevolgen van dit verraderlijk virus ontsnappen.

Op 28 januari klonk het dat in Wuhan, de hoofdstad in de provincie Hubei in China, er een epidemie met een nieuw coronavirus (2019-nCoV) was uitgebroken. Snel bleek dat ook in andere gebieden van China en een aantal andere landen gevallen met een reisgeschiedenis naar Wuhan ontdekt was die verdere besmetting over Europa bracht.

Toen werd er nog gezegd dat er geen ongerustheid over het nieuwe virus hoefde te zijn en dat de Belgische gezondheidsautoriteiten waakzaam waren en de situatie in China op de voet volgenden. Ook werd er toen nog gezegd dat

Ons land heeft zeer goede procedures voor het opsporen van coronavirussen. De ziekenhuizen en de huisartsen weten hoe ze het coronavirus kunnen herkennen en hoe ze ermee moeten omgaan. Een referentielaboratorium kan het virus op een veilige manier identificeren. Ook de gespecialiseerde behandeling in twee referentieziekenhuizen van patiënten met een coronavirus is in ons land voorzien.

{Persmededeling van de Gezondheidsraad op 28-01-2020}

In februari werd een grote bestelling geplaatst van beschermingsmateriaal en maskers voor zorgprofessionals. Daarnaast was ook een grote voorraad maskers besteld die patiënten met een virale infectie zouden kunnen dragen om hun omgeving te beschermen. Uiteindelijk bleek de levering van al die zaken toch moeilijk te verlopen. Meer dan eens liet de Belgische regering zich ook in het zak zetten en werd het geld van de burgers door die verkeerde aankopen ‘in het water gegooid’.

Maart bracht een hele reeks besmettingen op gang en bracht de regering er toe om over te gaan tot drastische maatregelen om de burgers te beschermen. De 10de maart vraagt de FOD Volksgezondheid aan iedereen om de hygiënemaatregelen strikt toe te passen om de verspreiding van het virus af te remmen. Naast aandacht voor de eigen gezondheid en persoonlijke hygiëne, worden aan de bevolking verschillende tips gegeven om toe te passen en om contact met anderen te beperken. Zo wenste men het werk van dokters en ziekenhuizen te verlichten en kon elke burger mee helpen om kwetsbare personen te beschermen.

De evolutie van de verspreiding van het coronavirus werd dagelijks geëvalueerd en bracht de regering er toe om op 12 maart aan te kondigen dat wegens de verergde gezondheidssituatie de Nationale Veiligheidsraad in aanwezigheid van en in overleg met de ministers-presidenten in het verlengde van de vergaderingen van de deskundigengroepen, namelijk de Risk Assessement Group en de Risk Management Group, het land te beschouwen als in een ernstige noodsituatie.

Aanvullende social distancing maatregelen met het doel de verspreiding van de epidemie tegen te gaan werden proportioneel verhoogd, gericht op maximale efficiëntie. Operationeel gezien ging het land toen in de federale fase van het crisisbeheer, wat betekende dat alle beslissingen werden genomen door een beheerscel die bestond uit de eerste minister, de bevoegde ministers en de ministers-presidenten zodat een betere coördinatie en informatie over de maatregelen kon verwezenlijkt worden. De aangekondigde maatregelen werden van toepassing op het hele grondgebied. België kwam in lockdown.

Op woensdag 25 maart was het een echt trieste dag met  1298 nieuwe gerapporteerde gevallen waarvan 857 in Vlaanderen, 256 in Wallonië en 164 in Brussel wonend. Dat bracht toen het totale aantal bevestigde besmette personen op 6235. Op één dag vielen er toen 220 doden.

Op vrijdag 27 maart werden er 1850 nieuwe gevallen gerapporteerd, wat het totale aantal bevestigde besmette personen op 9134 bracht.

Pas op 10 april kon de Task Force van minister Philippe De Backer te kennen geven dat eindelijk de testcapaciteit in ons land gevoelig verhoogd kon worden. Als eerste prioriteit waren er dan 20.000 testen beschikbaar gemaakt voor de woonzorgcentra en de rust- en verzorgingstehuizen die wel kerncentra van besmettingen leken te zijn met hoge mortaliteitscijfers. Die verhoogde testgevallen bij bewoners en verzorgend personeel in de woonzorgcentra, leverde op dat op dinsdag 14 april 2454 nieuwe COVID-19 gevallen gerapporteerd werden.

Geleidelijk aankonden er meer mensen de ziekenhuizen verlaten en kon men de instroom zien verminderen. Sinds 15 maart mocht men op 28 april 10 785 patiënten ontslagen uit het ziekenhuis en genezen verklaard zien. toen melde men

Van de in totaal 7 094 overleden personen, overleed 45% in het ziekenhuis, 53% in een woonzorgcentrum, 0% thuis en 0% op een andere plaats. De sterfgevallen in het ziekenhuis zijn allemaal bevestigde gevallen. De sterfgevallen in de woonzorgcentra zijn zowel bevestigde (10%) als vermoede (90%) gevallen.

Op 4 mei, werd er vergaderd over o.a. de testing- en opvolgingsstrategie in het kader van Covid-19 en kwam men er toe te gaan werken aan een afbouw strategie. Woensdag 6 mei, kwam de Nationale Veiligheidsraad, uitgebreid met de ministers-presidenten, bijeen om een afbouwstrategie die op 11 mei van start zou gaan te valideren, te vervolledigen en te verduidelijken. De experts hebben toen groen licht gegeven voor deze nieuwe fase naar aanleiding van een aantal gunstige criteria op dat moment, namelijk het aantal ziekenhuisopnames per dag, de gemiddelde trend van deze ziekenhuisopnames die lager kwam dan de voorgaande weken, het aantal bedden op intensieve zorg, testing en tracing. Deze criteria zullen ook nu nog een rol blijven spelen bij de geleidelijke en verdere afbouw.

De impact van de overheidsmaatregelen wordt pas tien tot veertien dagen later zichtbaar in aantal hospitalisaties en opnames in intensieve zorgen. Dit door de incubatietijd en het verloop van COVID-19.

Om kort op de bal te spelen zouden daarom indicatieve gegevens vanuit de bevolking zo snel mogelijk ter beschikking moeten zijn.

De medische wetenschappers krijgen voor de verwerking van de antwoorden op aan de bevolking voorgelegde enquêtes, de hulp van de sociale wetenschappers van de Antwerpse universiteit. Het ‘corona citizenscienceproject’ loopt ook met medewerking van collega’s van de KU Leuven en de Universiteit Hasselt.

Op donderdag 4 juni werden nog 140 nieuwe gevallen gerapporteerd en waren er nog 32 nieuwe opnames. In de ziekenhuizen waren er dan in totaal 700 patiënten opgenomen met nog 137 patiënten in intensieve zorgen. Toen werden er in totaal 9 566 sterfgevallen gerapporteerd, waarvan 48% in het ziekenhuis overleed , 50% in een woonzorgcentrum, 0,5% in andere residentiële collectiviteiten, en 0,6% thuis en elders. De meeste sterfgevallen in het ziekenhuis (95%) zijn bevestigde gevallen. De sterfgevallen in de woonzorgcentra omvatten 26% bevestigde gevallen en 74% vermoede gevallen.

Bekijk het volledige dagelijkse rapport met de nationale epidemiologische situatie van het coronavirus.

Er worden in ons land nog steeds nieuwe besmettingen vastgesteld, maar de trends dalen. We kunnen enkel maar blijven herhalen zeer voorzichtig te zijn en om de coronamaatregelen van voldoende afstand en hygiëne voorzorgsmaatregelen vol te houden. Voor alle veiligheid raden wij dan ook aan om en de algemene maatregelen op te volgen.

Zorg goed voor jezelf en voor anderen.

Bent u ziek (koorts, hoesten, ademhalingsproblemen,…)? Volg dan het advies van de FOD Volksgezondheid op en:

1. blijf thuis
2. neem rechtstreeks telefonisch contact op met uw arts
3. volg de aanbevelingen op van de website https://www.info-coronavirus.be/nl/. Zo helpt iedereen de voortgang van de pandemie te vertragen en de meest kwetsbaren onder ons te beschermen.

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Voorgaande

Opkijkend naar een onzichtbare vijand

Symptomen Covid-19

Nieuwe sociale etiquette

Meer last van slaapproblemen of piekeren?

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Vindt ook te lezen

1. Meer dan 4 miljoen coronabesmettingen wereldwijd
2. Sterker uit de coronacrisis komen
3. China staat open voor internationaal onderzoek naar oorsprong coronavirus
4. Voor het eerst in jaren weer een Pesach in isolatie
5. Zending van Met Open Bijbel April 2020
6. Kunnen focussen in een hectische tijd
7. Isolatietijd vrij te nemen voor jezelf

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Engelstalige artikelen:

1. CoViD-19 warnings
2. Christian Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic
3. Love in the Time of Corona
4. Recrafting our World
5. Israel celebrates Purim amid Coronavirus outbreak – ILTV Israel news – Mar. 9, 2020
6. Even in Corona time You are called on to have the seder
7. One Passover tradition asking to provide the less fortunate with foods and help
8. In a time when we must remain in our place
9. Using fears of the deadly coronavirus
10. Catholics facing a totally different Holy Week
11. Not able to see Jesus working wonders
12. Observance of the Lord’s Evening Meal
13. Hosting a Virtual Seder During a Pandemic
14. According to Pew Most White Evangelicals Don’t Think COVID-19 is a Medical Crisis
15. The Struggle Ends When Gratitude Begins
16. When 1 699 676 people worldwide are infected and the number of deaths had totalled 102 734 in 210 countries or territories
17. Europe in Chaos for a Pandemic
18. In Coronatime thinking about death
19. Covid-19 Psalm 19 Isaiah 26 and the Evangelical Proof-Texters
20. Broken daily routines
21. Epictetus: What is in our control?
22. Making deeper cuts than some terrorist attacks of the near past
23. The unseen enemy
24. President Trump shall have to recognise that Immigrant Workers Are Vital to the U.S.A.
25. In denial, Donald Trump continues to insist that nothing serious is at hand and everything is in control
26. José Antonio Vergara talking in Esperanto about the outbreak of the epidemic
27. Margaret Zaleski-Zamenho from Paris telling in Esperanto about the situation in France
28. Remembering what happened in the previous influenza pandemic
29. Staying at home saves lives
30. Unlikely silence
31. A recovery plan for Europe
32. India affected by Corona
33. Under-reporting the total number of coronavirus cases
34. Coronavirus on March 11 declared a global pandemic on March 31 affecting more than 177 countries
35. No idea yet for 14 Nisan or April the 8th in 2020 Corona crisis time

When 1 699 676 people worldwide are infected and the number of deaths had totalled 102 734 in 210 countries or territories

Thirty years old Gordon Bland who is a seminary student at Regent University, in his second year has a website called Agape Ministry on which he writes in his blogarticle Pandemic: Be Calm During the Storm:

We are living in a time that is certainly not the norm that we are used to, but is this unprecedented? If it is unprecedented, then is it totally unique or should our actions and emotions be similar to any other catastrophic event? The new Coronavirus that has spread globally, Covid-19, has caused over 13,000 deaths and over 300,000 illnesses. This is something that is affecting nearly every person in some manner, but is fear appropriate? Perhaps more importantly, is fear ever appropriate?

As of April 11, 2020, the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) had been confirmed in around 210 countries or territories. The virus had infected 1,699,676 people worldwide, and the number of deaths had totalled 102,734. The most severely affected countries include the U.S., Italy, and Spain.

Lots of people have signs of anxiety and fear that unseen enemy that had not previously been identified in humans. In February 2020, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses and the World Health Organization announced official names for both the virus and the disease it causes: SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, respectively. The name of the disease is derived from the words corona, virus, and disease, while the number 19 represents the year that it emerged.

There have been leaders of states who first downplayed or minimalised this virus as an ordinary virus resembling that of the common cold, with those infected often experiencing fever, coughing, and shortness of breath, and called it a “Chinese disease”, wanting to have people to believe it was the Chinese infecting others.

Soon that horrible virus infected the USA, where there are still people not wanting to see the importance of staying at home and when coming into public to stay far away enough from each other, on the 11th of April there were already 502 876 cases, leaving Spain far behind with its 158 273 registered infected people.
On the 11th of April over 376,339 people had recovered from the disease, while there had been 102,734 deaths.

Gordon Bland wonders:

We are living in a time that is certainly not the norm that we are used to, but is this unprecedented? If it is unprecedented, then is it totally unique or should our actions and emotions be similar to any other catastrophic event? {Pandemic: Be Calm During the Storm}

The world has had more very dangerous diseases bringing fear over this globe. One of the most devastating pandemics was the Black Death (also known as The Plague or Black Plague), which killed an estimated 75–200 million people in the 14th century. Other notable pandemics include the 1918 influenza pandemic (Spanish flu). Among the ten major virus outbreaks in the last 50 years, the Marburgvirus, genus of viruses in family Filovirida, caused severe disease in humans and other primates. One species has been described, Marburg marburgvirus (formerly Lake Victoria marburgvirus), which is represented by two viruses, Ravn virus (RAVV) and Marburg virus (MARV). The zoonotic disease that is characterized by high fever known as Marburg virus disease (MVD), with a malaise, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, skin rash, and hemorrhage (bleeding) gave a fatality rate as high as 80 to 90 percent.

How the Nipah virus spreads

Nipah, a type of RNA virus in the genus Henipavirus, followed in 1986 with a fatality percentage of 77,6.

Ebola, in full Ebola virus disease, formerly called Ebola hemorrhagic fever, contagious disease caused by a virus of the family Filoviridae that is responsible for a severe and often fatal viral hemorrhagic fever.

In comparison, the recent novel coronavirus, originating from the Chinese city of Wuhan, had a fatality rate of 2.2 percent as of January 31, 2020, whilst the so much feared Ebola in 1976 had ‘only’ a fatality rate of 40,4%.  As of early February 2020, the virus has spread to 24 countries with over 40 thousand confirmed cases.

The present virus came for many as a surprise. People should know it is because so many countries took such drastic measures there are no more casualties. Looking at the many deaths and so many illnesses. Bland wonders if this:

is something that is affecting nearly every person in some manner, but is fear appropriate? Perhaps more importantly, is fear ever appropriate? {Pandemic: Be Calm During the Storm}

It can be said it is normal that people are afraid for something they can not control; This time the world faces a pandemic they have a lot of difficulties to keep under control. Dangerous leaders of States, like Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, brought their own population in danger and made that we now can see more deaths than there should have been with the knowledge scientists have to battle this disease.

we should not disregard actions to preserve life such as “social distancing.” We can learn from Jesus’ concern in the boat that He knew there was no reason to fear the storm for He was aware of the Father’s plan for His life. He knew it was not the time for His death. Instead, we can see that the storm was a trial for the disciples so that their faith may be tested. Jesus, with His sovereign control over all, controlled the storm and used it as a teaching moment regarding faith. {Pandemic: Be Calm During the Storm}

We all should know that it is God Who decides when our time to go comes. But we should not tempt Him by shouting we should not fear this diseases because we have God on our side. The Adonai has given the world people with brains, who can study diseases and can warn and help others to stay safe. I other people shall ignore those warnings and think all those scientists are fools they shall have to bear the consequences.

Bland urges you to

not sin through disregarding the life the Lord has given us. Do not take actions that cause you to endanger others, but instead, do what you can to ensure others are safe and provided for. We are to love our neighbor (Mark 12:31), so live your lives as such. It is not loving to needlessly risk other’s health for the sake of vain pleasure. Similarly, to disregard your own health is to sin against the Lord. If God gave us the gift of life, how foolish are we to live in a way to put it in danger? If a child is given a gift, is it not disrespectful to the giver of the gift to destroy it? How much more disrespect do we show to the Creator of life if we treat it as something to disregard. {Pandemic: Be Calm During the Storm}

Two days ago we could see how in White Rusland (White Russia) or Belarus, formerly known by its Russian name Byelorussia or Belorussia, for Good Friday people all gathered in churches and came to kiss a grand cross lying in the aisle. An ideal way for the virus to transmit from one person to another. Other pictures also entered in our living room from the United States of America, where so-called Christians said they had nothing to worry because they are Christians and God is with them, protecting them, and if their time would be there to die than it would be so. According to Pew Most White Evangelicals Don’t Think COVID-19 is a Medical Crisis. Several Protestants and Roman Catholics were calling their members to ignore the request for distancing and to come to the Easter celebrations. Also in Europe there are people who find the Easter egg hunt such an important family tradition that families should come together with their children in the houses of their grandparents to search for eggs. (Naturally one can wonder what eggs have to do with the death and resurrection of Christ!?!)
Such people ignoring the scientists their advice to stay at home and to avoid contact with others, are bringing other people in danger, but also themselves.

Many people are indeed showing respect for life by taking measures to protect the elderly and immune-compromised. This type of concern is something demonstrating how to love our neighbor, but how much more important that we show the same love for the unborn, who are but at the beginning of life. {Pandemic: Be Calm During the Storm}

We should not forget

The church has survived many pandemics like Covid-19. In fact, some were much worse, like the Black Death that killed 75 million deaths in Europe in the 14th Century. In 1918, the church saw the Spanish Flu ravage the world population, yet we are still here today. I will not say we should not have some concern, because we have a duty to both ourselves and others, but we shall not live in fear. Trust upon the Lord for his provision and protection. We will get through this together, all the whilst praising the Lord. If not, I’ll see you in Heaven, and we will praise the Lord! No matter what happens, we can have everlasting joy because of Jesus Christ, so that we may praise the Lord. I pray everybody will remain in good health, or recover quickly. God bless you all. {Pandemic: Be Calm During the Storm}

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Preceding

CoViD-19 warnings

Anxiety Management During Pandemic Days~

Hope on the Horizon: Pandemic Anxiety Management II~

Pandemic Anxiety Busters~

Mel Brooks saying “go home” to Max Brooks

Christian Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic

So many being afraid – reason enough to step in the boat with Christ

“In The Midst Of The Storm”

Love in the Time of Corona

Why are you afraid?

Fear in your own heart or outside of it

Our life depending on faith

If you keep your faith and trust in God

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Find also to read

1. 2014 Health and welfare
2. 2015 Health and Welfare
3. The unseen enemy
4. Making deeper cuts than some terrorist attacks of the near past
5. Under-reporting the total number of coronavirus cases
6. In denial, Donald Trump continues to insist that nothing serious is at hand and everything is in control
7. India affected by Corona
8. Coronavirus on March 11 declared a global pandemic on March 31 affecting more than 177 countries
9. José Antonio Vergara talking in Esperanto about the outbreak of the epidemic
10. Margaret Zaleski-Zamenho from Paris telling in Esperanto about the situation in France
11. Using fears of the deadly coronavirus
12. Europe in Chaos for a Pandemic
13. Only a few days left before 14 Nisan
14. Today’s thought “A night of watching” (February 5)
15. Catholics facing a totally different Holy Week
16. According to Pew Most White Evangelicals Don’t Think COVID-19 is a Medical Crisis
17. Not able to see Jesus working wonders
18. Observance of the Lord’s Evening Meal
19. Christian values, traditions, real or false stories, pure and upright belief
20. When Belonging to the escaped ones gathering in Jesus name

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Further Related

1. Holy Lament, Holy Suffering
2. The Planet is On Fire and We’re Chilling Out — Mental Illness and the COVID-19 Crisis
3. Is this over yet?
4. Social Distancing Works, But What’s Next?
5. Can COVID-19 Be Our Catalyst to a More Equitable Future?
6. COVID-19 Journal (Entry 12)
7. The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 19
8. 20,000: US death toll overtakes Italy’s as Midwest braces
9. ‘Do not take this virus as a joke’: 25-year-old L.A. COVID-19 survivor shares warning after brush with death
10. A Thought for Easter Sunday
11. Epictetus: What is in our control?
12. Facing the Coronavirus
13. We’re All Behind Together
14. It’s senseless to attack the people who are protecting us from COVID-19: López-Gatell
15. Crazed Corona Chatter 2: Survival Mode, Disengage!
16. Quarantine YA Recommendations
17. On Easter
18. The Wind of Prayer in Battle
19. Let Us See the Light
20. ‘We’re Catching It Double.’ Amid Coronavirus Lockdowns, Gun Violence Continues to Plague Chicago
21. Coronavirus: contain and delay phases Explained – BBC News
22. #trumpcovidfails more bedbuggery than features, Bret Stephens decides bigly government sucks
23. kids and coronavirus, three weeks in
24. COVID-19 Chronicles: Day 26
25. Pope: Easter gives hope in our ‘darkest hour,’ despite fear
26. Headlines promise Australia’s on the ‘cusp’ of defeating coronavirus. We’re not and it’s too soon to relax restrictions
27. Easter is coming
28. Isolation
29. Gorgeous Rendition of Rise Again by the Choir of Women Physicians
30. The Grim Reaper
31. Today was full of panic
32. staying connected during quarantine
33. Update: Wilmington Now Has 155 Active Positive COVID-19 Cases — 65 In Community, 73 At Advinia, 17 At CareOne
34. Couple celebrates milestone anniversary while keeping social distancing in mind
35. The Cottages, Fayetteville PD enforce social distancing
36. S . O . S . ~ Move Your Body
37. Today I am going for a walk
38. Words for the Way IV: Pastoral Notes for locked down times. Easter Sunday Who will Roll the Stone Away?
39. Covid
40. Draw in & Breathe – For me
41. Easter 2020
42. Easter Greetings from Mrs Daffodil
43. Sew it Begins….Sew It is Finished
44. ‘Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread’
45. Easter Vigil
46. The Longest Night of My Life
47. Dak Prescott And Zeke Need To Be Suspended Until (At Least) 2022 For Violating Social Distancing Laws
48. Dispatches from Covid-ville: Sunday is Coming
49. Easter is coming