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theratopia · 3 years

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No time to cry

Dear Therapals,

The problem with passion projects is that sometimes they are forced into a hiatus while I take care of… other passion projects.

There is a bit of time travel involved in this one considering my first draft is many weeks old. For the sake of story-telling and good personal anecdotes, I will ignore date accuracy. In fairness, I reckon none of you cares about this.

Episode 187 reminded me of the ambivalence of our resilience. We are strong because surrender is never an option for those who count themselves lucky to get this far.

“I would think about how I would kill myself if I could…”

I cried ugly with this episode twice now. When our friend from Zimbabwe talked about having a better life than most people from their country just because they have food, shelter, enough money, and access to higher education I broke down hard. They look around themselves and see other people in dire situations and they feel like they should be more grateful, they feel like those few “luxuries” suffice to a happy life.

When we consider the vast majority of PodTherapy’s listeners, I’m confident to say that I am a type of diversity just from being not American. Yet, I am completely aware that I’m still a white, middle-class person. Behind my many complaints about the country I live in, there is a very conscious appreciation for the level of privilege I have within this particular reality. So, hearing from someone who I would consider less privileged than me that they sometimes think they should just be grateful because other people around them have even less was heartbreaking. I can relate, and I know how much it hurts.

The idea that you are ungrateful for wanting more than the bare minimum is something that I battle with sometimes too. We have these voices in our minds judging us at every display of dissatisfaction, badgering us for daring to be so spoiled as to want more. We tell ourselves that we could be in a worse situation and we think about that all the time because the worse situation is not far away in another “third world country”, it’s right there outside the window. For people who care about others, there’s almost shame of being ambitious. Or being different. Or wanting something else. It’s survivor’s guilt, but an entire lifetime of it.

One of my usual criticisms about the show is the general American-centrist approach, but I don’t exactly expect this to change because it would be silly of me to do so. Not that I don’t believe people can change their perspective, I just can’t expect this from three American guys who never had to deal with anything other than average white America. Their entire reality is fundamentally different from mine and will probably always be since we grew up in vastly different situations. It’s okay, and it is why I decided to write to them and to eventually create this space where I can speak freely on how I see things. By now I have learnt to appreciate those disparities and communicate them as much as I can. The bottom line is, Americans will hardly ever really understand how we Brazilians - or you Zimbabweans - think about community and how we position ourselves as individuals. The same goes the other way around - I don’t get at all the constant need for competition. We can recognize those contrasts and share our experiences to broaden everyone’s perspectives. Seeing things from multiple angles can be a powerful tool to better solve the problems we are faced with. For the record, I am not comparing Brazil and Zimbabwe, I can perfectly recognize that Brazil has a lot of advantages in comparison, and I also know very little about Zimbabwe to make any further judgment. My point here is to clearly put these two countries in a separated group from the US.

Nick said that the listener seemed to have developed healthy coping mechanisms. Speaking from this part of the world that gets described as “third world” I feel like I need to point to the cruelty involved in that process. Living through historic events is exhausting and we have to do it with a grace that is rarely shown to us.

What our beloved American friends seem to fundamentally miss is that we just don’t have the time and the resources to even consider mental illnesses as part of the conversation.

What I mean is that we don’t recognize the impact of our mental health when we are too busy surviving. Throughout this entire pandemic, Brazil is putting its grief on an imaginary credit card that will probably never be charged, or it will snowball into a bigger catastrophe. We simply don’t have the time to cry for every single person that we lose to a preventable disease while we are already burdened with other worries about our own survival. I don’t have time to be depressed and not go to work because I have to feed my family. I don’t have time to contemplate the death of another thousand because I would just be doing that every day. Maybe as a defense mechanism, we become very numb to otherwise tragic situations. Death, loss and suffering are not an anomaly in our reality, they are somewhat the expectation. Considering this, emotional resources are rationed wisely. I cried when one of my favorite comedians died, but nothing changed for me after the passing of the neighbor who almost destroyed my family. To be honest, we will catch ourselves smiling when we hear some famous person died from old age, at least they expired at their terms.

During the days leading to my first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine, my sister and my partner warned me about the pain that would follow the desired jab. They told me to expect a lot of soreness, a sick feeling, real exhaustion. I was prepared to take the rest of the week off to enjoy the beating of immunization.

The issue is this: none of that happened. My arm was hurting for less than 24 hours. In fact, two days after the shot I gave myself two hard slaps in the arm just to show dominance. Pain is not a stranger to me, it’s a character trait. You can’t be soft in a battle.

That said, it’s not cute that we are survivors. Only a few of us are privileged enough to contemplate what it actually means to live, to have the ability to desire for more than the bare minimum. And it hurts us to know that the majority is just surviving.

Now, one thing we can always do is look for peers. The internet made it possible for people to create borderless communities, so we should take advantage of that for our benefit. (Please, Darwin, let me not go on a tangent about destructive communities that can only thrive and expand because of the internet. Thank you.) So, if you can’t find a friend in your village to talk about your struggles with mental health, reach out to a friend in Brazil. Or Poland. Or Australia. We exist, we are here. We are other real people with real problems and a lot of us are open to help those who feel lost and alone. I promise you will find someone who understands your pain, or at least is willing to try.

If you need to hide your care from your family, and can, do it. Just get treated, get help. Worry about yourself first. Nobody needs to know about your health but your doctor or health care team. We love ourselves first, then we ration our energy to help others.

We deserve what we want, friend. We deserve more, we deserve better.

As the official Mayor of Theratopia, fan number #1, and president of the Brazilian Chapter, I hereby dub thee president of the Zimbabwean Chapter. Rejoice!

Triple hug.

The Mayor

#resilience #therapy #podtherapy

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theliberaltony · 4 years

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via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Graphics by Anna Wiederkehr

Americans have changed their behavior in ways that would have been unthinkable even a few months ago. Masks are an essential accessory. Social distancing is the norm. And even as states moved to reopen their economies in May and June, many Americans continued to think it was better for people to stay home.

But underneath that apparent consensus is a large — and growing — partisan divide. Even as cases and hospitalizations spike in red states that mostly escaped the early effects of the virus, Republicans and Democrats remain stubbornly split on the threat it poses. For instance, it was only in July that President Trump wore a mask in public for the first time. And perhaps thanks to Trump’s repeated downplaying of the threat that COVID-19 poses, Republicans are much less concerned than Democrats are about the virus.

On the one hand, according to surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center, Republicans have consistently been less likely than Democrats to say that they fear being hospitalized because of COVID-19 or that they might unknowingly spread the virus to others. But on the other hand, that partisan gap has widened significantly between April and June.

It’s hard to find a more extreme test of our tribal political attachments than the current pandemic, where Trump continues to downplay the risks of the virus in the face of near-universal opposition from medical experts. It also raises a thorny issue: In the midst of a pandemic, partisanship appears to be shaping people’s perceptions of their risk and personal behaviors — to the point that our divided politics actually affects our health. For Americans, that might mean that questions of whether to stay home, wear a mask or to see friends and family without social distancing are filtered through a partisan lens.

In other words, do our politics risk making us sick?

It’s pretty clear that at this point, Republicans’ and Democrats’ experiences of the pandemic have been steadily diverging for months. It’s much harder to say, though, what that means for transmission of the virus. Some surveys offer a glimmer of hope, suggesting that the partisan gaps in how people are actually behaving — whether they wear a mask, for example — are much narrower than the divides on questions about what they think the government should do in response to the virus or whether the worst is behind us. It’s possible, too, that some of the partisan divides we’re seeing now could start to narrow as outbreaks spiral out of control in states like Arizona, Florida and Texas.

These trends are cause for alarm among the small army of social scientists who have tried to figure out how Americans are responding to the virus since the beginning of the pandemic — from the conflicting signals they’ve received from Trump and other political leaders, to changing guidelines from public health experts.

“Some Republicans are much less freaked out by the virus than they were a few months ago,” said Marc Hetherington, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina who is tracking Americans’ perspectives of the coronavirus through a panel survey. “But things are changing so quickly — these new outbreaks could scare them and maybe some of that polarization disappears.”

That doesn’t mean the politicization of the virus isn’t having an impact, though. Take the political fighting around whether people should be required to wear masks or the timeline around when businesses should reopen. The virus is spiking in Georgia, with thousands of new cases each day, but the state’s Republican governor is suing the Democratic mayor of Atlanta over the city’s decision to revert to its most restrictive opening phase and mandate the wearing of masks. “The national conversation about how we behave during this pandemic has been so colored by the partisan divide that it’s becoming impossible to talk rationally about the risks we are and are not willing to tolerate,” said Dr. Sandro Galea, an epidemiologist and the dean of the Boston University School of Public Health who studies the politics of public health. “If both sides were pushed out of their corners, they would both have to concede quite a bit, and we’d frankly all be safer.”

Understanding how Americans are responding to the pandemic isn’t an easy task; there are essentially two methods at researchers’ disposal. The first is to use a survey. The second is to look at mobility trends, such as geolocation or credit card data, to see if people are actually behaving the way they say they are. And over the past few months, political scientists and economists have leaned on both methods to figure out how Americans are thinking about the COVID-19 pandemic and how that relates to their behavior. With the exception of a few studies conducted in late March and early April, when fear of the pandemic ground the economy to a complete halt, all of this research has uncovered an accelerating partisan divide, too.

For example, as early as March, a group of researchers found that Democrats in a large panel survey exhibited more worries than Republicans about the pandemic and were also likelier to embrace health behaviors like more frequent hand-washing or avoiding mass gatherings. The first round of Hetherington’s survey suggests a partisan divide in Americans’ support for some public health interventions, like widespread testing.

The problem with these surveys, of course, is that there’s no way to figure out, for example, whether someone who says they’re quarantining is actually doing so. So a number of other studies have tried to figure out what people were actually doing by using geolocation data to follow people’s movements. This research has found basically the same thing as the surveys: People in Republican-leaning counties, or counties that voted for Trump in 2016, didn’t reduce their activity as much as people in Democratic counties.

Another study that looked at individual-level smartphone data found a similar pattern. And one team of researchers examined both survey data and geolocation data and determined that the trend held up for both — people in more Republican areas were less likely to feel at risk because of COVID-19, and they were also less likely to stay at home.

But this mobility data has its own limitations, according to Rebecca Katz, a professor at Georgetown University Medical Center. It can only tell you whether people are leaving their homes, not where they’re going or whether they’re taking precautions. “We’re all using this data because it’s the data we have, but it’s imperfect,” she said. “Sometimes, I pack my kids in a car and we just drive for a little while so we can get out of the house — by my cell phone, we’re moving. But that doesn’t tell someone looking at that data if we are interacting with other people, or if we’re wearing masks.”

Geography is another confounding factor; people in rural areas are more likely to drive places, even if they’re otherwise following public health guidelines, and less densely populated parts of the country were also less hard hit by the virus in the beginning. The problem is that Republicans are more likely to live in those parts of the country — and the effects of political segregation and the virus’s trajectory are very difficult to untangle, especially for studies that were conducted a month or two into the pandemic.

The partisan split was hard to deny, though, so early on, a couple of research teams tried to figure out why Republicans and Democrats were responding to the pandemic differently. Two usual culprits — politicians and the media — emerged as possible factors in the divide.

One study conducted from late February through the end of March found that the partisan divide on risk perception and health behavior only narrowed after the White House issued federal social distancing guidelines, suggesting that Trump’s role as a national Republican leader could be quite significant. Several other studies dug into the impact of cable TV, with one survey finding that an MSNBC viewer’s response to the pandemic was quite different than that of a Fox News watcher. Another study focused only on the impact of Fox News and concluded that an increase in viewership did appear to result in less social distancing. The evidence for the effects of politicians and differing media sources is less robust because there aren’t as many studies, but it does suggest that even when there are serious health risks at stake, how both talk about the virus and the public health response may affect the way people behave.

Shana Gadarian, a professor of political science at Syracuse University who is helping to conduct one of the panel surveys, said she was surprised to see such enormous divides emerge as the pandemic wore on. According to other research she’s conducted, moments of extreme anxiety and uncertainty can actually make people more open to new sources of information — including public health experts and leaders from the opposing party. So at the beginning of the pandemic, she and her team expected that Americans would coalesce around public health experts’ recommendations, or that other demographic factors — like age — would turn into key dividing lines.

Scientists and doctors do still enjoy a high level of trust from most Americans, as Maggie Koerth wrote for FiveThirtyEight in May. But that doesn’t mean they are entirely immune to the winds of partisanship — for example, Democrats are likelier than Republicans to trust the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Crucially, though, big divides haven’t emerged everywhere. According to the latest wave of the Democracy Fund’s Voter Study Group, conducted between July 2 to 8, the vast majority (88 percent) of Republicans said they wore a mask when going out in public, even though Republicans in greater numbers have said in other surveys that the government shouldn’t require people to wear masks. And according to Robert Griffin, research director of the Voter Study Group, that’s significantly higher than in any wave of the weekly data going back to May 28. There was more of a partisan gap in responses to other questions about coronavirus-related behavior, although it was still fairly modest.

So are these partisan splits actually driving the spread of the virus?

As it turns out, it’s hard to prove that Republicans’ resistance to mask mandates or social distancing is actually worsening the pandemic. One reason is that political scientists and economists don’t feel equipped to take on the epidemiological modeling that would be necessary to measure what, say, a partisan divide on hand-washing actually means for the spread of the disease. Yael Hochberg, an economist at Rice University, said that the lack of uniformity in testing data made her reluctant to wade into the public health data. “There are places where testing still isn’t widely available,” Hochberg said. “And if testing isn’t uniform, it’s hard to compare what you’re seeing in one county versus another.”

One study tried to pin down the effect of differing levels of compliance with social distancing policies among Republicans and Democrats using individual geolocation data. It concluded that a Trump voter who contracts COVID-19 infects 16 percent more people than a comparable Clinton voter. That’s a striking finding — but it’s also only one study, and several infectious disease experts who reviewed the paper at my request were a little skeptical of its conclusions.

Samuel Scarpino, a professor at Northeastern University who studies infectious diseases, said that it can be very difficult, even in a sophisticated model, to separate all of the confounding factors that could be at play, like geography. And Katz said that without information about whether people are wearing masks or engaging in social distancing, it’s hard to draw very solid conclusions about transmission from mobility data.

Scarpino was quick to add, though, that polarization can still be a serious problem, even if it’s hard to quantify its precise impact. “If politicians’ messaging is making people feel like they’re safe from COVID, those are people who are unnecessarily being put at risk,” he said. He’s also concerned that public health experts’ credibility will erode as certain health behaviors, like mask-wearing or social distancing, become associated with one party or another. “We’re kind of building the airplane as we fly it and we need to be able to change course when we get new evidence,” he said. “But it becomes harder to have those conversations and get buy-in from the public as the whole process becomes more politicized.”

There’s danger in exaggerating the extent of the partisan divide, though. Galea told me that he’s been struck by the fact that so many Americans — including nearly all Republicans — report they are going along with health experts’ recommendations, like wearing masks, at least to some degree. And it would be a mistake, Galea said, to gloss over this unusual level of partisan unity, because it’s a sign that health behaviors aren’t as divisive as they could be, given the strength of partisan loyalties.

“Nobody should ignore the fact that people on the political extremes are embracing polarizing positions on health behavior that should not be polarized,” Galea said. “But I think the evidence we have indicates that most people have tried to be responsible and adopt the recommended behaviors, even at a time of immense polarization and confusion and discomfort.”

That said, he still thinks some politicians — and in particular, Trump — need to do more to get on the same page as public health experts. “It’s not that politics is making it impossible to implement these health behaviors, because we see that many ordinary people are getting on board regardless of what political leadership is saying,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean we should give politicians a pass for turning these serious, serious health conversations into a political football, because that is very much to our detriment.”

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux

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electriccenturies · 4 years

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my school made me buy a meal plan when i lived in residence and i never spent it all, i was rationing it and SHOULD have finished it by graduation but i obviously wasn't able to because the school closed. and the policy is when you graduate the school just takes the money, but i emailed the office because its so unfair and i need the money back because im almost certainly out of a summer job.

and they fucking emailed me back THIS

“While we continue to monitor and assess the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, unfortunately, there are no refunds for the meal plan taxable account at this time. Please note while some food locations on campus has closed, the meal taxable accounts continues to be accepted at Pizza Pizza via call centre only. Call 555-555-555 to order. Indicate that you want to pay with your student card prior to ordering. Provide the 14-digit number that appears under the barcode on the back of your card”

AND IM LIVID. I live 2 hours away by public transportation and im not fucking leaving my house, AND i dont want pizza pizza because its shitty!!!!!!!!!! im so mad i dont even know what to do but my school has a reputation for fucking people over however they can and they literally just ensured that i will vehemently recommend that people DONT go there now!!!!!!!

#this school is full of bullshit ive seen professors make students send their papers in via MAIL with a fucking return envelope #instead of having them email it like a normal person!!!!!!#and in my second year we had a 6 month strike which is the length of TWO semesters #and were barely compensated

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sinchwhatsapp · 2 years

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An introduction to the use of WhatsApp by government organizations and agencies of India

WhatsApp is being increasingly deployed by both state and central government agencies and organizations over the last decade. While Covid-19 related services like downloading certificates, booking vaccination slots, and finding other services dominated the last few years, many other use cases have also be launched on the widely popular WhatsApp platform. While there are some organizations that provide 24x7 helpline for expectant mothers through this platform, others leverage the WhatsApp bot to make it simpler for farmers and other citizens to access services like ration cards, get information on paddy procurement or even lodge grievances. There are numerous common services centers across India that use the WhatsApp chatbot, which can be programmed to respond in several local languages, along with English.

Even though a number of public sector organizations and agencies do have their own website or mobile, a large percentage of the citizen prefer using WhatsApp to communicate and avail services owing to its familiar interface. WhatsApp is by far the most popular and extensively used messaging platform in India, and has more than five hundred million users across the nation. The use of Whatsapp is able to deliver a range of solutions and services with “impact at scale”, and therefore a growing number of city administrations and state governments are seeing the value of this platform.

Two popular forms of interaction carried out by Government bodies and public agencies via Whatsapp business API include:

Sending notifications: These messages are ideally sent with the use of templates that are pre-approved by WhatsApp. While exactly what notifications are send to the receivers would depend on the government department or company, they can usually be grouped into board classes, such as notification that a document is about to expire, an acknowledgment of the receipt of documents or payment, notifications related to public safety and health, and so on. As WhatsApp does integrate effectively with existing back-end systems and databases, certain notifications can be sent automatically at a predetermined trigger.

Customer service and request: Usually the WhatsApp chatbot is used for resolving requests and answering questions. A lot of people who approach government organizations are likely to be looking to find information or report a problem, and doing both can be easier for a well-designed chatbot. The bot may guide the users through various procedures for completing applications, making payments, and so on.

Details on more ways government organizations can use WhatsApp business account can be found online.

#WhatsApp bot #Whatsapp business API #WhatsApp business account

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humanitywelfarecouncil · 3 years

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How Has COVID-19 Devastated India’s Self-Employed Class?

We all know that the social impact of covid-19 on the Indian economy has been overwhelming, and the burden has not fallen equally in our country. The horrid two waves and the ongoing third wave have been continuously causing a disastrous Social and economic impact on many communities' livelihoods, especially on small businesses and the self-employed within it.

The loss of work and rise in care demands for the vulnerable due to the Coronavirus outbreak in India have left many families struggling for survival during the lockdown times.

Families in which members were infected with the virus faced the struggle in many folds.

The informal sector faced job insecurity when the lockdown was declared.

The loss of employment and incomes reached its peak among casual workers, self-employed skilled staffers, and those who operated small businesses.

In addition, the social security programs failed to support all households.

People working in these sectors were eliminated from discussions on the economic impact of the pandemic.

While there were debates about the payments of the domestic workers, security guards, caretakers, gardeners, and other house helps, there was not much for other small businesses and self-employed workers.

With no ration cards in majority households, a substantial proportion of people could not access subsidized food grains from the public distribution system during the lockdown.

Also, very few people in this sector received the vaccination shots during the onset of the second wave, making them more vulnerable to the virus.

It is not surprising that the poorest and most vulnerable families are the worst affected, with many starving and coping by cutting back their food consumption.

Rural Employed People Were The Worst Hit Due To The Global Crisis

The timing could not have been more alarming for most artisans and weavers in the countryside areas who have been out of work for a long time, i.e., since the first Covid-19 lockdown. A falling economy, unemployment, reduced spending, and the pandemic have had a biting impact on the handicrafts sector - one of the most significant sources of employment in rural areas. However, as most of their products were termed non-essential goods, their alarming situation continues to gain less traction despite the cry for "Vocal For Local" and 'Self-Reliant India."

ion of livelihoods, there is an urgent need for a collaborative approach to help these people – to help them survive the crisis for the time being and to get them back on their own feet to uncover gainful employment in the longer term.

The Crisis Has Cruelly Exposed The Vulnerability Of Millions Of Self-Employed Workers And Small Businesses.

The work and the toil for the people in this sector were always tough, but life became immeasurably harder for these workers when Covid-19 struck and businesses slumped. Yet we have to not give up; we have to help coordinate assistance for the self-employed workers and empower them. With the proper approach and re-building from the locals upwards, we can create a better tomorrow for them, their families, and their industries.

Join hands with Humanity Welfare Council to make a difference in the livelihoods of the self-employed sector.

Resource Url:- https://www.hwcindia.org/blog/how-has-covid-19-devastated-india's-self-employed-class

@humanitywelfarecouncil

@indiangalz @povertymaps @jobsenboite

@healthybeastbys @covidgarden

@corona @covid19 @younghollywoodcelebs

@educabilia

#healthyindia #covid19 #impact wrestling #humanitywelfarecouncil #hwcindia #top npo in india #ngo in india #help #kind people

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xtruss · 3 years

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When Liberty Can Be Snatched Away at a Moment’s Notice, It Becomes Meaningless.

"Public services are supposed to make life easier for the public; now the public is told to make sacrifices to assist these services"

— December 16, 2021 | By Brendan O’Neill, Chief Political Writer | Spiked

“State health has become a kind of god we must appease by agreeing to the occasional loss of our liberty, of our connection with other people, and in some cases our jobs.”

Fear is now the only language our politicians speak. There’ll soon be a ‘tidal wave’ of Omicron in the UK, said Boris Johnson last night. He was echoing Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, who warns of a ‘tsunami of infections’. These watery metaphors, these prophecies of breakers of disease crashing on the shores of the UK, capture the extent to which the politics of dread and doom have replaced calm analysis. Covid is a transmissible virus. It is not a punishment visited upon us by Poseidon. It is not a hellish rush that will wipe away entire towns. These tidal tropes are deployed, not for their accuracy, but in order to terrorise the populace into believing it faces an imminent and catastrophic threat. This is the political world we inhabit now.

Project Fear staggers on. Like Covid itself, it has mutated over the past 21 months. It has peaked and troughed. There have been virulent strains and weaker strains. But it has been a constant. From both the political class and across the media airwaves, the foghorn of fear has blasted. Go outside and you might unwittingly kill someone. Visit granny and she could end up in hospital. And now, get boosted or you could be washed away by that tsunami on the horizon, by the violent wave of sickness coming to a street near you soon. Any attempt to engage with us as rational, reasonable adults, capable of understanding viruses and of taking voluntary action where necessary to protect ourselves and our communities, was abandoned long ago. Instead we are treated as lab rats, poked and jolted this way and that by a bureaucracy that now relies entirely on fear. We need to start talking about how this weaponised dread, this politicisation of panic, is diminishing us as citizens and harming society itself.

My view is that the politics of fear was never necessary, not even back in March 2020, when Covid-19 was new, clearly virulent, and arriving among populaces that had no protection against it – no vaccines, no immunity. Even then, levelling with the public, and galvanising us to pull together to face down this health threat, would have been preferable to the enforced atomisation and culture of perma-fear that the political and media elites opted for. Today, 21 months later, the playing of the fear card is more preposterous still. Omicron seems to be a milder variant than Delta. What’s more, 95 per cent of Brits have some level of antibodies against Covid. The idea that we are helpless, hapless creatures facing a mountainous wave of doom is simply untenable. It is, to all intents and purposes, a lie.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson

The elites have entirely lost the ability, and the will, to reason with us. The impact this has on the ideal and the practice of citizenship cannot be overstated. It is an offence against democracy to issue apocalyptic warnings to try to dragoon the masses into compliance with restrictions. It turns us from democratic citizens who ought to be engaged in factful discussion about how crises should be tackled and society should be organised, into aberrant children whose behaviour must be shaped and controlled by threats and occasional treats (‘Follow the rules and Christmas will be saved’). The hollowing out not only of civil liberty but also of democracy itself, where The People are transformed into a problematic blob to be massaged and reprimanded by behavioural experts, is perhaps the grimmest achievement of the Covid era. Anyone who thinks these authoritarian consequences will not linger past the Covid pandemic is kidding themselves. They ought to acquaint themselves with history.

We can’t go on like this. We can’t keep ratcheting up terror in response to every outbreak of Covid. We can’t keep putting social life and work life on hold every time there’s a wave of disease. We can’t keep putting a gun to the head of the hospitality industry, and threatening to plunge its businesses and its workers into turmoil, whenever a worrying variant emerges. We can’t keep drifting back into lockdown, which we might now do in January, in response to the notoriously pessimistic and often wrong modelling of epidemiologists who know the R number of everything and the value of nothing. We can’t carry on in this limbo between normality and shutdown. In some ways it isn’t the current restrictions themselves that are particularly onerous. They’re relatively mild, for now. No, it’s the knowledge that restrictions could return at any time that corrodes our citizenship and throttles our freedom. When liberty can be snatched away at a moment’s notice, it becomes meaningless.

But we have to do all of this, we’re told, in order to protect the NHS. This has been the cry of the elites during the entire pandemic. It still is. It captures how thoroughly the relationship between the individual and the state has been rearranged, for the worse, over these past 21 months. The NHS is meant to serve us; now we must serve it. Public services are supposed to make life easier for the public; now the public is told to make sacrifices to assist these services. State health has become a kind of god we must appease by agreeing to the occasional loss of our liberty, of our connection with other people, and in some cases our jobs.

A terrible irony is that in the process of suspending normal life to save the health service, we may end up worsening the health of the nation. Last night Boris said doctor’s appointments will need to be postponed to aid the booster rollout. What that will mean for undiagnosed cancers or insufficiently treated mental-health problems remains to be seen. Health secretary Sajid Javid says cancer check-ups will be prioritised this time, but we still face the prospect of people avoiding contacting health services as part of our ‘duty’ to the NHS. It is a very odd and perverse health drive that suspends the diagnosis and treatment of certain health problems. Our Covid myopia could prove dangerous.

No one in officialdom seems capable of getting us out of this Covid loop of doom. Something has to change, something has to give. We are vaccinated, we have antibodies, we are getting boosted – so let us now live with this virus as we do with other viruses. As for the NHS – a health service that requires the suspension of normality and a clampdown on liberty every time a worrying new virus emerges is clearly not fit for purpose. It should be an urgent priority of the government to introduce enough elasticity into the health service to ensure that we never have to shut society down again, in response to any disease. Normality used to be a pretty boring word, but it’s the thing we should all be fighting for right now. Against the distrustful political elite, the hysterical media and the modellers of doom, we need to make a radical cry for the restoration of normal life.

— Source: Spiked

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bhanu-seruds-india · 3 years

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Donate to COVID19 Relief in India

Seruds Relief Service during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

India has been in lockdown since 25 March to control Covid-19 pandemic, causing mass layoffs and heavy job losses. Millions of desperate migrant workers, particularly daily-wage earners, facing starvation after losing jobs are fleeing cities on foot to return to their villages. Help promised by state governments in terms of cash transfers and free ration kit distribution has not reached many sections, due to the sheer numbers involved and lack of ration cards with migrant guest workers.

SERUDS in one of the leading ngos providing relief during covid-19 in Andhra Pradesh. SERUDS is providing cooked meals and grocery kits to the poor and jobless daily wage workers across Kurnool district.

We directly donate food, needy essentials to homeless people, and poor families impacted by the COVID-19 coronavirus. Daily wage workers, migrant workers rendered jobless by the current COVID-19 pandemic and they need our timely support to prevent hunger. Read More.

#seruds #serudsngo #serudsindia #serudsorphanage #serudscharity #charitabletrust #charity #charityindia #ngo #ap #kurnool

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covid19updater · 3 years

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COVID19 Updates: 09/08/2021

RUMINT (US): A friend of mine posted tonight on social media about a friend of hers who had died. The woman was very young, and no cause of death was listed, so my first thought was that it was some sort of tragic accident. I went to the Go Fund Me that was linked, and it turned out she died of Covid. The woman was young (under 30, I think), wore masks, and was fully vaxxed. She left behind two young kids. She was a fit, healthy-looking young woman. I don't know anything about whether there were underlying conditions or not, but her family and friends all seemed quite shocked by her passing. The Go Fund Me was to provide something for her children. Every time I listen to someone like Chris Martenson, or others like him, who say that Delta is actually not as bad as the media makes it sound, I almost become convinced ... until I hear something like this, and it reminds me that this variant is infecting and sometimes killing young, cautious, vaxxed people.

World: Study: Mu variant is more vaccine evading "Mu variant is highly resistant to sera from..[Pfizer]-vaccinated individuals. Direct comparison of different spike proteins revealed that Mu spike is more resistant ..than all other currently recognized variants LINK

World: Op/Ed: Remember: the desensitization to death and suffering that the 1918 flu brought paved the way for fascism in the 1920s and 1930s.

Europe: Notices of Liability for COVID-19 Vaccine Harms and Deaths Served on All Members of the European Parliament LINK

India: New "Pandemic Potential" Brain-Destroying-Virus With 75% Death Rate Spreading In India LINK

US: U.S. COVID update: Many states reporting holiday weekend backlogs - New cases: 303,843 - Average: 154,645 (+19,837) - In hospital: 100,700 (+434) - In ICU: 26,094 (+84) - New deaths: 2,265

Australia: #Australia's 1,721 new #Covid19 cases is the second worst ever total, almost 500 up on last Weds. 1,480 infections in #NSW, 221 in #Victoria while #ACT has the other 20. Today was also 2nd highest daily death toll for 364 days as another 10 fall victim to #Coronavirus

World: Some people have 'superhuman' ability to fight off COVID-19, study finds LINK

Germany: TOP GERMAN PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIAL SAYS IF WE DO NOT VACCINATE MORE PEOPLE, THE FOURTH WAVE OF THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC COULD HAVE A MASSIVE MOMENTUM THIS FALL

Japan: THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT IS SOLIDIFYING ITS PLANS TO PROLONG THE STATE OF EMERGENCY IN MOST PLACES UNTIL THE END OF SEPTEMBER - NHK

Czech Republic: The Czech Republic on Wednesday recorded 588 new cases of COVID-19, the highest daily tally since May 25, as government officials predict a continued rise in cases;

Europe: EMA: ASTRAZENECA COVID-19 VACCINE PRODUCT INFORMATION WILL BE UPDATED WITH GUILLAIN-BARRÉ SYNDROME (GBS) AS A SIDE EFFECT

Germany: The head of Germany’s CDC, Lothar Wieler, warned of a drastic 4th coronavirus wave this fall as the number of Covid ICU patients, many of them younger, has nearly doubled in the past two weeks. Wieler, who leads the Robert Koch-Institute, urged Germans to get vaccinated.

Ukraine: Ukraine could tighten lockdown restrictions as COVID-19 picture worsens LINK

Idaho: Idaho hospitals begin rationing health care amid COVID-19 surge LINK

Missouri: St. Louis children's hospitals near capacity, and not just from COVID LINK

South Korea: S.Korea planning to live 'more normally' with COVID-19 after October LINK

California: California’s Central Valley overwhelmed by COVID-19 Delta surge LINK

US: Just Say It: The Health Care System Has Collapsed LINK

World: Bad news on #MuVariant—Japanese scientists: "Mu variant is highly resistant to sera from convalescent & [Pfizer]-vaccinated people. Direct comparison of different spike proteins revealed that Mu spike is more resistant…than all other current variants”

Canada: Alberta nurses say government is scaling back its pay cut proposal amid fourth wave of COVID-19 LINK

Kansas: Kansas data doesn’t reflect reality as COVID-19 rips through schools LINK

Vermont: FBI opens criminal probe into 3 troopers over fake Covid-19 vaccination cards LINK

Texas: Texas Hospital Reports 50 Mu COVID Cases As Delta's Dominance Continues LINK

Indiana: Union Hospital emergency rooms are filling up with patients LINK

Mississippi: Nurse walkouts possible statewide as COVID-19 takes a toll on healthcare professionals LINK

US: From Alaska To Idaho And Beyond, Covid Surges Stress Hospital Systems LINK

Hawaii: DOH, HAH COVID efforts give hospitals a couple weeks before reaching “crisis point” DOH Director Elizabeth Char, MD, and HAH President and CEO Hilton Raethel shared a joint presentation to the Committee, noting that Hawaii exceeded its ICU bed capacity as of Friday. LINK

US: COVID Now Leading Cause of Death Among Law Enforcement LINK

Wisconsin: Wisconsin reports more than 1,000 COVID-19 hospital patients for the first time since January LINK

Colorado: Nursing homes face staffing shortages, financial problems as they serve growing need LINK

West Virginia: No ICU beds available: PCH at capacity with COVID-19 patients LINK

Florida: At West Boca Medical Center, 32 Kids Admitted Over Seven Days For COVID LINK

US: 252,000 children test positive for COVID-19 in past week as classes resume LINK

Washington: A Washington county has approved an emergency declaration to bring in a refrigeration trailer for the bodies of COVID-19 victims that have overwhelmed the morgue LINK

World: Why are we seeing more COVID cases in fully vaccinated people? LINK

World: Is Covid here to stay? A survey of more than 100 scientists found a vast majority expect the coronavirus will become endemic LINK

Jamaica: GRIEF, HORROR AND DEATH “They say we are low on oxygen, I am telling you, we are running out of medication too. What we have to be doing is writing prescriptions and giving it to the family to fill because there is this great demand for these products” LINK

RUMINT (US): OK. So now a first for me. TBH, previously I've known no one directly who has died either of the covid19 or the trial vaccination. Now that has changed. 26 year old mum, has child of 9 months, died three days after trial vaccination. Foremost it's a tradgedy for her & close ones.

World: COVID-19 created lots of supply chain problems — and they're nowhere close to being solved LINK

US: Supply chain issues impacting ports in Pacific Northwest LINK

World: Op/Ed: The only thing I seem to recall re. Mu, is all the same people playing that down played Delta down for quite a while too. Perhaps Mu won't succeed. But, it seems very sensible to have the attitude, one will soon.

US: NEW: White House signals new COVID-19 measures coming for unvaccinated Americans LINK

Canada: 814 new cases of #COVID19 announced in B.C., as the rolling average rises slightly as we continue to be in this bumpy short-term plateau. Active cases rise to 5,550, hospitalizations rise to 261, but no new deaths.

Iowa: Iowa DPH confirms 18 cases of COVID-19 mu variant LINK

Macedonia: 15 people have reportedly been killed and more than 20 others injured in a fire at a Covid hospital in North Macedonia - #Covid #hospital #Fire

UK: More than 50 cases of the Mu variant have been detected in the UK LINK

World: Ivermectin causes sterilization in 85 percent of men, study finds LINK

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supplychainsystems · 3 years

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Breaking Up Chip Supply Chain

New Post has been published on https://supplychainmanagementcertificate.com/2021/07/19/breaking-up-chip-supply-chain/

Breaking Up Chip Supply Chain

Contents

0.0.1 TSMC Founder Says Breaking Up Chip Supply Chain Will Be Costly

1 Chip shortage

1.1 Contents

1.2 Introduction

1.3 Cases of shortages

1.3.1 2020–21 global chip shortage

1.4 Causes

1.5 1986 chip pact

TSMC Founder Says Breaking Up Chip Supply Chain Will Be Costly

(Bloomberg) — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. founder Morris Chang warned that efforts by governments around the world to build domestic chip supply chains could push up costs and yet still fail to achieve self-sufficiency.

Speaking as Taiwan’s envoy to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ virtual meeting, Chang’s comments come as Taiwan’s dominant position in the semiconductor business has come under pressure, amid a widespread global chip shortage and calls in Tokyo to Washington and Beijing for domestic chipmakers to increase self-reliance.

“Free trade over the past few decades has significantly boosted the development of semiconductor technology,” Chang told reporters Friday night in Taipei. “More complex technology has led to the supply chain going offshore,” he said. “If we try to turn back the time, costs will go up, technology development will slow down.”

While not naming any specific country, Chang said governments may still not be able to build a self-sufficient supply chain after spending hundreds of billions of dollars and many years on it.

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden is proposing a $52 billion bill to boost chip production and bolster semiconductor research and development on U.S. soil, and the European Union plans to double chip production to at least 20% of world supply by 2030. Chinese President Xi Jinping has appointed his economic czar Liu He to oversee the country’s efforts to reduce reliance on TSMC and other foreign chip companies.

Chang continued to champion the foundry business model he pioneered, which has led to global chip production to be highly concentrated in Taiwan, particularly for cutting-edge semiconductors that are used in smartphones and servers. But TSMC is now gradually departing from that path with various overseas projects. The company is building a $12 billion factory in Arizona, planning expansion in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing, and mulling over a specialty technology plant in Japan.

Chip shortage

For the currently ongoing shortage, see 2020–21 global chip shortage.

A chip shortage, also referred to as semiconductor shortage or chip famine, is a phenomenon in the integrated circuit (chip) industry when demand for silicon chips outstrips supply.

Contents

1 Introduction

2 Cases of shortages

2.1 2020–21 global chip shortage

3 Causes

4 1986 chip pact

5 Results of shortages

6 References

7 External links

Introduction

Chip shortage typically occurs when there is some sociological or physical change that prevents certain chips from being produced in large enough numbers to satisfy demand. A severe case of chip shortage occurred in 1988 after a pact between American and Japanese chip manufacturers resulted in severely reduced production. Changing to newer production methods also causes chip shortages as the new factories are not built quick enough to meet the demand for the newer chips. An example was the shortage of smart card chips in 1999, another was during the rationing of other types of chips in 2004. The 2011 Japanese earthquake led to a period when it was difficult to source all the parts needed for various systems.

Chip shortages can have a major effect on the electronics industry where manufacturers change their sourcing of chips and suffer major loss of profits, such as when PC manufacturer Gateway switched from Intel to AMDmicroprocessors in 2000. Some manufacturers may find themselves having to redesign their products to take account of the shortage of certain chips, or have to leave design options open to allow alternative chips to be incorporated into the design.

Cases of shortages

In 1988 there was a shortage due to high demand. Workers at seven Hitachi corporation factories had to work through their summer vacations to meet demand.[1] In 1994, there was a shortage due to new technologies being developed. The newer manufacturing processes required significantly cleaner “clean rooms” and many batches of integrated circuits were discarded due to manufacturing errors.

Intel suffered a shortage of several products in 2000. Larger companies were able to receive the products they needed but smaller companies such as Gateway had to wait or find other chips. [2]

There was a lack of CDMA chips in 2004.[3] This was due to the strong push of mobile phone companies to introduce and establish CDMA in both the United States and India.

After the 2011 earthquake in Japan, there was a severe chip shortage of NAND memory and displays. Qualcomm released a statement on April 19, 2012 that they expect a shortage of their Snapdragon chip due to a lack of facilities to manufacture the 28 nm chip.

2020–21 global chip shortage

Main article: 2020–21 global chip shortage

The COVID-19 pandemic caused disruptions in supply chains and logistics which, coupled with a 13% increase in global demand for PCs owing some countries’ shift to a stay-at-home economy,[4] impacted the availability of key chips necessary for the manufacturing of a broad swathe of electronics.[5] The pandemic’s impact on the manufacture of semiconductors in South Korea and Taiwan was cited as a cause for the shortage, with constrained supply impacting industries as broad as console gaming and the automotive industry.[5][6]

In February 2021, market analysts IHS Markit were cited by the BBC as forecasting the impact of the dearth to last through to the third quarter of 2021; lead-times on chip supply at this time had already extended to 15 weeks, the longest lead-time since 2017.[6] By April 2021, lead-times for semiconductors from Broadcom Inc. had “extended to 22.2 weeks, up from 12.2 weeks in February 2020.”[6]

At the end of Q1 2021, used car prices were increasing due to the demand from both economic recovery, as well as the chip shortage. Some cars increased as much as 10% in Q1.[7]

Causes

The 1986 U.S.-Japan semiconductor trade pact was designed to help U.S. chip manufacturers compete with Japanese companies. This resulted in severe cuts in Japanese production [8] A 1993 DRAM chip famine was caused by a factory explosion at the factory which produced 60% of the world’s supply of resin used in chips.[9] From 1993 to 1994, there was a glut of chips and companies lost incentive to build new leading-edge factories. When the new generations came out, there were not enough factories to produce the new chips.[10]

An earlier chip famine might cause a slump in the market, which would result in fewer chips being manufactured. When the slump is over, the demand might grow too high for the companies to fulfill, resulting in a second shortage.

New generation chips are difficult to produce due to manufacturing capabilities. In many cases batches of product are discarded due to manufacturing defects in the first few runs, resulting in manufacturing capacity that could have gone to producing older chips not being used to ship newer chips either. Furthermore, customers often want the newest chips available and may not be willing to settle for older chips, so companies must wait for newer chips to put into their products.[11]

Conversely, older chips can also be subject to chip shortages. Older chips made on “mature node” equipment can easily go into shortage if demand spikes, because the production lines have already been fully depreciated and optimized. There is no easy way for chip foundries to scale up their production of older chips, because the capital costs of setting up or expanding chip production lines are so high that they are economically justifiable only for new lines featuring the latest technology. This is what caused global shortages of older chips in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.[12]

1986 chip pact

A chip pact enacted in 1986 was designed to help the United States compete with Japanese manufacturers. However, it had unintended consequences. The pact called for Japanese companies to stop selling chips below cost, or dumping, which led to the companies producing and exporting fewer chips, the root cause of the dumping.[13] American companies did not reenter the market as expected due to the high cost of production and risk.[14]

Chip Supply Chain

#chip supply chain

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esytes69 · 3 years

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Decoded | One Nation One Ration Card, why Supreme Courtroom pushed govt scheme

The Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday gave a deadline to all states and Union territories to implement 'One Nation, One Ration Card' (ONORC) scheme by July 31. The unique deadline for ONORC was March 31, 2021. What's ONORC scheme? One Nation, One Ration Card is a authorities scheme to make it possible for no citizen sleeps hungry. It was rolled out below the Nationwide Meals Safety Act (NFSA), 2013. Why ONORC scheme was launched? The central authorities introduced rolling out the One Nation, One Ration Card scheme in Might 2020. It was the time when reviews, pictures and movies of hundreds of migrant staff had been splashing via screens of cell phones, tv and newsprints. They had been fleeing their administrative center following nationwide lockdown introduced in March 2020 to include unfold of Covid-19. The ONORC will not be precisely a 2020 product. It was launched in August, 2019 whereas work on the portability of ration card had begun as early as April 2018. ALSO READ | Delhi govt's claims over 'One Nation One Ration Card' deceptive, Centre tells SC Again then, the federal government launched the Built-in Administration of Public Distribution System (IM-PDS) aiming to reform the present Public Distribution System (PDS). What it requires One Nation, One Ration Card scheme entitles migrant staff to purchase subsidised ration from any truthful worth store on the administrative center or keep anyplace in India. The beneficiary will not be required to be a registered ration card holder within the state, district or village of labor or keep. One other provision is that if one member of the family (migrant employee) receives her quota of ration at one place (say Delhi), the remainder of the members of the family are nonetheless entitled to getting ration of their village in different district (say Cachar in Assam). How it's to be executed? A nationwide platform digitises ration playing cards which have all related particulars of beneficiaries and schedules a month-to-month quota of ration the cardboard holder is entitled to obtain. Aadhaar is the principle biometric information supply. The system permits withdrawals of ration via digital level of sale machines. In impact, One Nation, One Ration Card permits portability of ration advantages throughout states and it really works similar to cell quantity portability. The nationwide platform runs on two supporting portals - Built-in Administration of Public Distribution System (IM-PDS) (impds.nic.in) and Annavitran (annavitran.nic.in). ALSO READ | Mera Ration App below One Nation One Ration Card plan: All you have to know What number of states have adopted ONORC? Thirty-two states and Union Territories. That's, besides Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and West Bengal, all states have adopted the ONORC. What occurred to previous PDS? The ONORC incentivises reforms within the current Public Distribution System (PDS). The central authorities set a situation: further borrowing by a state might be permitted through the Covid-19 pandemic provided that it implements One Nation, One Ration Card scheme. To struggle the pandemic, all states want extra funds. Greater than 15 states have since cumulatively acquired over Rs 37,500 crore as further borrowing below ONORC incentive. ALSO READ | 'One Nation One Ration Card' to offer simpler ration entry to migrants by 2021 How many individuals get the profit? The estimates of migrant staff differ, from 10-12 crore. The central authorities at the moment gives cheaper foodgrains to about 80 crore individuals throughout the nation below the NFS Act. There are over 23.60 crore ration card holders in India. They're entitled to purchase ration from almost 5.5 lakh truthful worth outlets. What they get and at what worth? The NFSA ration card holders are entitled to buy rice at Rs three per kg, wheat at Rs 2 per kg and coarse grains at Re 1 per kg. What did the Supreme Courtroom say? The Supreme Courtroom was listening to a petition that sought a number of instructions to the Centre and state governments to make sure meals safety for susceptible segments of society. The petition additionally sought course for extra environment friendly money transfers and higher implementation of welfare measures for migrant staff. The Supreme Courtroom directed the Centre to distribute dry ration amongst migrant staff freed from value until Covid-19 pandemic scenario prevails. ALSO READ | Regardless of complaining of useful resource crunch, a number of states ignored further borrowing scheme On ONORC, the Supreme Courtroom ordered registration of migrant staff and ration card holders needs to be full on a nationwide portal by July 31. It directed all states and Union Territories to register all institutions and contractors earlier than deadline to make sure meals safety of migrant staff. Throughout an earlier listening to in Might, the Supreme Courtroom had chided the federal government businesses saying the method of registration of unorganised staff was "very sluggish". Read the full article

#Card #Court #Decoded #govt #indiannews #latestindiannews #Nation #pushed #Ration #scheme #Supreme

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