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Showing posts from April 5, 2020

Civilisation

Coronavirus and Civilisation Related UK Home Secretary refuses to take children from Greek camps

UK

Coronavirus deaths of BAME doctors amd nurses Related Ethnic minority academic Ethnic minority workers When do you become "British enough"?

UK

Immigrant UK doctors died from coronavirus Related Bloody Foreigners, a book by Robert Winder

Political Economy

A very illuminating interview. "The Fundamental Questions About Capitalism Seem to be Coming Back" An example from the US and UK that the effects are asymmetrical. The BBC here does not mention any socio-economic background (education, marginalisation, inequality, overlapping of race and class.) which is structural and precedes the current pandemic for a long time. Are minorities being hit harder by coronavirus
"Similar to a biological pandemic, the economic earthquake is defined as a crisis produced by an external shock, i.e. as the sudden and unanticipated change that is the consequence of an exogenous element that pushed the global economy out of its ‘normal’ cycle. Both the virus carried by bats that jumps into the human species and the lockdown of whole countries that jumps into the global supply chain equilibrium are thus described as unexpected and unpredictable events." "There is nothing external and symmetrical in the global economic downturn"

Airbnb

"The coronavirus has been the only force so far that has been capable of preventing the company’s continual expansion. While it is temporarily halted, it’s time we acknowledged that it is a threat to affordable housing and should be replaced by a democratically controlled alternative." Airbnb, Covid-19 and the alternative to platform capitalists Related Envisioning Real Utopias

UK

Boris Johnson speaking to the nation from hospital:  "This virus represents a radicalised small minority that is against our way of life, and what we stand for: liberal values and tolerance. It wants to undermine our health system and our economy as a wealthy country. It's has so far killed many thousands of innocent people. We will all stand together in the fight against hate and evil and make Britain great again." We don't think that such a malign entity represents China or the Chinese people and we will continue to work with our Chinese friends to eradicate this terror that has brought the world economy to a standstill." Satire by me, N.M.
Capitalism "degrades and undervalues precisely those who make real social wealth: nurses and other workers in hospitals and healthcare, agricultural laborers, workers in food factories, supermarket employees and delivery drivers, waste collectors, teachers, child carers, elderly carers. These are the racialized, feminized workers that capitalism humiliates and stigmatizes with low wages and often dangerous working conditions." On Social Reproduction and the Covid-19 Pandemic