#Our local police showed up 2 days later. Sad story of reality. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mediconico · 6 years

Text

Quetzaltenango

9.6.2018

We get into Guatemala city in the early afternoon around 1. We are put up in a hotel called “Patricia’s BNB” only about 2 minutes away from the main airport of Guatemala city. Everything has been arranged for us by my program, The Guatemala Initiative-UVA, given how dangerous Guatemala City is known to be; upon arriving at the airport, we’re picked up in a pretty run-down mustard-colored Mitsubishi minibus that is prototypical to the Central American region.

Although we arrive relatively early in the afternoon, our program director has advised that we don’t leave our gated neighborhood of our hotel due to the relative danger of the city. A big, polluted city with high rates of crime, writes Lonely Planet. Your time is best spent exploring other parts of the country that have more beauty to offer at much lower risk. They’re not wrong; in 2016, the National Guatemalan Police Department (PNG) reported more than 4500 homicides, 5800 assaults, and 3500 kidnappings throughout the country, largely centered in the City.

So we decide to stay in “Patricia’s” for the rest of the day. But it’s not a problem; I decide to take a rather long nap after having traveled over 24 hours straight in arriving to Guatemala and having slept in the Fort Lauderdale airport the night before. Actually, that’s a lie. Airports are like hospitals; nobody sleeps there.

At “Patricia’s” with me are 5 other girls from the study-abroad program here in Guatemala (I’m actually the only guy in a group of 9...), so we hang out talking throughout the rest of the night, and order some Chinese takeout for dinner from our hosts. It’s not yet the “cultural experience” I’m hoping from Guatemala, but I already know that it awaits me in the city of Quetzaltenango (more colloquially known as Xela), 4 hours to the west of Guatemala City, shrouded in the mountainous volcanic mist.

* * *

Here in Xela, I live with a Guatemalan host family which is all arranged for me through my Spanish school, “Celas Maya”. The grandmother of the family is named Sandra and she is kindly and deftly hosting a group of 7 (!) composed of her grandchildren and other students in the house. Sandra’s grandchildren are of various ages and are named Abigail, Jemima, and Jose Miguel. I’ve given them some nicknames: Abigail is “La Alumna” because she’s always studying, Jemima is “La Gemela” (this sort of annoys her, but it’s worth it), and Jose Miguel is “El Jugador” because he’s always playing video games. I’ve found that nicknames are a good icebreaker with the family, and we typically joke around during each meal.

There’s another student from my school who lives in the room next to me, Tsai, who is from Taiwan. He’s pretty quiet, but joins us at all the meals and has been a good buddy. Lastly, there are two other students living in the house, Marlo and Junior. Marlo is also a medical student in Xela, and Junior is studying English. Junior and I have become friends here; he’s quiet and mild-mannered, and I’ve learned that he likes to lift weights together at the gym, and supports himself by selling used motorcycles. In summary, it’s a house that is pretty full of people, but we get along well and I’ve been enjoying living here.

Here’s a picture of the view from my room in Sandra’s house:

* * *

After class one day at Celas Maya, we go on a trip to a small mountain-town pueblo to the northwest of Xela named San Andrés Xecul. The trip is the archetype of getting around in Central America; we get there on 3 different modes of transportation. First, we get on a minibus packed with people that reminds me of the colectivos I rode in Mexico last summer. Next, we get on a Chicken Bus which is actually a heavily outfitted and remodeled school bus, equipped with speakers that blast reggaetón during the entire trip, painted on the surface with brilliant colors, and named for wome–ours is named “La Princesa”, painted in hot pink across the windshield. Finally, we arrive to San Andrés Xecul by taking a “tuk-tuk” que is actually a motorcycle that’s been equipped to carry 5 people seated tightly underneath a cloth covering. I’m skeptical of their safety.

Here’s a shot from inside the Chicken Bus:

And another from inside the tuk-tuk:

After arriving to the pueblo after a tumultuous trip, we are welcomed by the striking church in in the main plaza:

Constructed in the 18th century, the church illustrates the history of the influence of the Spanish conquistadores on the Mayan culture in Guatemala. It’s a Catholic church, but the outside of the church is painted with a scene and colors that come from the Mayan culture.

Our guide from Celas Maya, Luis, tells us the history of the church. It has 3 principal Paint colors, yellow, green, and red, each of which has significance in the Mayan culture. The yellow, which forms the majority of the walls of the church, signifies the importance of yellow corn to the culture. Luis points off into the distance, showing us the countryside extending beyond towards the horizon, full of corn. It’s obvious that corn still forms a critical pillar for San Andrés Xecul, 200 years later.

But I interpret this information as a sad story behind the corn that supplies this Guatemalan pueblo: although it’s a major product, it’s not exported to the rest of the world in a way that would support the economy of San Andrés Xecul. In reality, the people of the pueblo essentially only use the corn they grow to put food on their dinner tables. Maybe this illustrates a history that is common to the Guatemalan pueblos–that they have a horizontal economy in which their people can survive, but it’s difficult to achieve a better economic standing and a stable career.

The other colors on the outside of the church, green and red, illustrate the fauna and flora around San Andrés Xecul and the blood of the Mayan culture, respectively. Ironically, one can see in the surrounding countryside rampant deforestation, the hills stripped of their natural guardians. In that moment, it’s perfectly illustrated the juxtaposition between the Mayan culture and its modern counterpart: one is trying to protect and cultivate the land beneath us stretching off into the horizon, while the other is seeking nautral resources in the name of “progress”. At what cost, I think. That same vermillion blood of the Mayan culture, disappearing into the cracks of the fractured sidewalks in San Andrés Xecul. In the name of the future, technology, the richness promised by the city life.

San Andrés Xecul, as seen from the hill above town:

* * *

15.6.2018

My Spanish classes have gone very well. Before going to class, however, I go every day to the “Casa de Yoga” in the zócalo in Xela to take a yoga class from 6:50 to 7:50am. The cost of the studio: 150 quetzales (Q150) per month, which is equivalent to about $20. There are studios at home in the U.S. that cost the same in dollars. It should be noted here the privilege that we have to think that Q150 is inconsequential; the miminum salary in Guatemala is ~Q2700 per month, or ~$360. And there are many who don’t even reach this minumum, as they are working in the streets, they have their own business, or they have to maintain a family.

We are a diverse yoga class. The Dutch yoga teacher, Samantha, leads us through our Hatha style yoga classes with poise and elegance, even including a short meditation at both the beginning and the end of class. For me, it’s been a good way to come into the day, setting an intention and relaxing my body and mind with the breath. To remain centered in ways such as this while one is traveling is imperative in order to overcome the culture shock experienced upon arriving to another country.

Casa de Yoga also holds a weekly potluck on Sunday nights after their late afternoon class from 5:15-6:30. I’m lucky enough to be invited this week. The crowd is diverse and interesting; I meet two girls from Holland, one from France, several local Guatemalans, and the owner, Kevin, from the United States who opened Casa de Yoga over 10 years ago. It’s a mix of both students and teachers, and I enjoy hearing stories about how everyone has come to live in Xela. At the end of the night after a cathartic yoga class with our teacher Joel and having attended a dinner with such a rich sense of community, I’m left with a warm feeling in my chest and smile spreading across my face as I fall asleep.

Casa de Yoga, as seen from the street:

* * *

My Spanish teacher, Ingrid, lives in the suburbs around Xela and arrives every morning to practice conversation with me. Although I speak Spanish well, I have been improving significantly with respect to more advanced grammar, sentence and speech fluency, vocabulary, and my understanding of Guatemalan culture. Every day, we talk for 5 hours from 8 o’clock in the morning until 1 o’clock in the afternoon about themes ranging from the healthcare system in Guatemala to the concept of depression to our life stories.

It’s worth briefly discussing the concept of healthcare and personal health here in Guatemala. There are three major centers in which Guatemalans can seek their healthcare, Puestos de Salud, Centros de Salud, and hospitals, ranging from least equipped to most equipped. Puestos are small health outposts typically present in the more rural communities in Guatemala and do not typically have doctors present; they are run by medical students and nurses, may have a small pharmacy, and a few might also have a lab for basic tests such as urinary analysis and blood draws. Centros are closer to hospitals but are not fully equipped; they are often places where mothers will go to deliver babies if they are not delivered at home. Hospitals in Guatemala are viewed with trepidation, as many Guatemalans believe based on stories of loved ones that people only go to hospitals to die.

Traditional medicine handed down through generations of the indigenous Mayan culture is pervasive in Guatemala. While it is less likely to see locals walking through the streets of Xela dressed in the traditional Mayan huipil (top shirt) and corte (bottom skirt), most of the population still believes and practices in many of their ancient family traditions. And as an American coming into Guatemala to help deliver healthcare in one of the many under-equipped hospitals here, it’s important to realize the importance of these traditions to many of the Guatemalan patients. For example, mal de ojo is a disease widely believed by Guatemalans to affect their infant children. Essentially, if someone with too much energía looks at their baby or is even too near to their child, their child will become sick in some way. Mal de ojo is more dangerous with individuals who have blue or green eyes, but can also be caused by “bad blood”. Therefore, in the indigenous Guatemalan culture nobody aside from the direct family of an infant is allowed to see the child for the first 40 days of life. This is a practice still maintained by some families.

Some professionals from the Western medicine tradition might cringe at this suggestion. But it’s important to remember to avoid ethnocentrism, and to offer culturally sensitive healthcare that includes both the patient’s traditions in addition to more evidence-based medicine. In the end, a combination of more modern medicine and traditions that are more comfortable for the patient will end up producing the best results.

* * *

On Friday, Ingrid and I go to a market, San Francisco El Alto, for our class. I decide that a class mixed in with a cultural experience will help me more in understanding Guatemala and its people than staying in the courtyard at school again.

In the market, there is a cacophonous mix of food vendors, clothing, electronics, shoes…anything that one might want. With Ingrid as my guide, we meander among the narrow streets packed with vendors selling typical Guatemalan goods, such as seafood including shrimp and dried fish, vegetables from the surrounding farms, and even livestock in a dirt field near the top of the hill. Unfortunately, I don’t bring my camera to the market for fear of losing it to a thief. It’s only later that I realize that the market is relatively safe, and that I might have taken some photos that reminded me of the rich colors, smells, and sounds of San Francisco El Alto.

But the purpose of traveling isn’t only to take photos, and I’m glad to be immersed in such an authentic experience. After walking for a little while, we sit down in the middle of the market to eat a small lunch. Ingrid recommends the classic: a fresh tortilla folded about chicharrones bought from a street vendor, topped with fresh squeezed lime juice and served with a typical Guatemalan drink named atol. We choose to drink the atol de elote, which is made from the cob of the corn plant, pulverized and mixed with spices including cinnamon and cardamom. The thick yellow drink is served steaming hot, warming the spirits of these cold Guatemalan mountain pueblos. Delicious, I say audibly, thinking of the late Anthony Bourdain and his adventures among the street markets like this around the world.

I suppose this is how I’ve always wanted to travel: fully immersed in the culture, fee to explore and say yes, learning the customs and traditions of our global community. Because in the end, it turns out that traveling like this shows me that we’re not as different as we might think.

#guatemala #xela #travel #quetzaltenango #spanish #español

2 notes · View notes

aion-rsa · 4 years

Text

Marvel’s WandaVision Episode 5: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains WandaVision spoilers through episode 5, possibly beyond, and for the wider MCU.

WandaVision episode 5, “On a Very Special Episode…” took everything we liked about the first two episodes and shook them up. For the first time, we have a fully blended approach to the storytelling, with the episode alternating between the altered “sitcom” reality of Westview, NJ and the actual, current MCU events. And then there’s that multiverse-shattering ending to contend with.

There’s a lot to break down with this week’s WandaVision, so we’d better get to it…

Sitcom Influences

WandaVision took us to the ‘80s this week, with a little Growing Pains, some Family Ties, and maybe a hint of Full House thrown in for good measure. The living room set itself looks very much like the standard seen on shows of the era, specifically Family Ties and Growing Pains.

Family Ties

The aging up of Billy and Tommy is much like Andy Keaton from Family Ties. In season 4, Andy was born and spent the whole season as a baby. As of the beginning of season 5, Andy was suddenly about 5 years old with zero explanation.

Also from Family Ties is the beginning of the opening credits, where it would show someone painting a colorless sketch of the family.

Bettany’s Michael Gross impression was extremely disturbing in how good it was a couple of times.

Growing Pains

Wanda and Vision getting vaguely horny for each other while doing regular domestic stuff is reminiscent of the way the parents would occasionally get it on on Growing Pains and Family Ties.

The sitcom theme lyrics and feel are extremely Growing Pains. And yes, as you might expect, they are very appropriate for these characters.

Here are the full lyrics for you (courtesy of the Disney+ closed caption feature):

“You wander the world with a vision…Of what life could be But then the years come and teach you…To just wait and see Forces may try to pull us apart…But nothing can phase me If you’re in my heart Crossing our fingers Singing a song We’re making it up as we go along Through the highs and lows We’ll be right, we’ll be wrong We’re making it up as we go along And there will be days…We won’t know which way to go But we’ll take it higher…You’re all I desire When the going gets tough…When push comes to shove We’re making it up Cuz we got love we got love we got love We got WandaVision”

Darcy also refers to Vision “playing Father Knows Best,” a callback to the sitcom style of the first episode.

We wrote in more detail about the sitcom influences of WandaVision episode 5 here.

Scarlet Witch

For the first time, we get the names of Wanda’s parents: Irina and Oleg Maximoff, but in the comics they were known as Django and Marya.

Wanda was born in 1989, the same year as Elizabeth Olsen.

We learn here that the “Scarlet Witch” codename has never been used in the MCU

Darcy refers to the anomaly as “the hex” after the hexagonal patterns that were noted in the previous episode. In the comics, Wanda’s powers are often referred to as “hex bolts.” She could also produce “hex spheres” and the town seems to be enveloped in a large one here.

Wanda’s accent, missing since Avengers: Age of Ultron, makes its triumphant return here.

Wanda talking to the kids about how “my brother is far away from here” is technically true: his corpse is…nowhere nearby. Although given how the episode ends, she could very well have been referring to another corner of the multiverse. We’ll get to that soon enough.

SWORD seems to refer to what’s going on as “The Maximoff Anomaly.”

Vision

We now know that Vision’s corpse is physically present in Westview and he isn’t just a manifestation of Wanda’s powers, nor was the horrific image of him glimpsed at the end of episode 3 a hallucination: it was Wanda seeing him as he really is.

Vision is working on a Commodore 64 at Computational Services. This early personal computer was a terrific gaming machine, with graphics and sound that were far better than early home gaming consoles of the era.

Vision apparently had a “living will” about what he didn’t want done with his body in the event of his untimely demise. Think of it like the MCU equivalent of a DNR. No, not a “do not reveal.” The other thing.

House of M

Before Agnes shows up the second time around, Vision is reading a newspaper with the headline, “LOCAL HOMEMAKERS INNOVATING RECIPES.” Moments later, he folds the newspaper in a way so that it only says “HOM.” HOM is short for the big Scarlet Witch comic event House of M.

The Twins

While it’s used as a setup for the twins inexplicably growing up, Wanda and Vision are horrified to find that the babies have simply vanished. In the comics, the first time we really get an idea that something is wrong with the children (as well as Wanda’s mental wellbeing) is when they show us that Billy and Tommy would cease to exist when Wanda wasn’t around.

This episode is the first to really feel like it’s borrowing a lot from Wanda’s most important story: the Dark Scarlet Witch story from Avengers West Coast. In that book, the first clue that something was wrong with Wanda was how the twins would disappear when she wasn’t looking a them. This would often happen when Agatha Harkness (presumably Agnes here) was babysitting for them. And later, Wanda’s personality started to shift towards full villainy and she was very cavalier about the use of her powers, something we start to see in this episode.

For most of the episode, the twins are dressed in red and green. This more than a nod to their parents’ favored color schemes, but it appears to mirror the colors they adopt when they grow up to be superheroes themselves. William becomes the hex-wielding Wiccan, who favors red, while Tommy favors green (like his Uncle Pietro) as Speed.

Sparky

Poor Sparky. Good boy.

The name “Sparky” is a reference to Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta’s brilliant Vision story, in which Vision and his “family” (not the Maximoffs) move to the suburbs and try to live a “normal” life. Part of that includes a synthezoid canine named “Sparky.” He didn’t meet a good end there, either. Stop letting dogs die in our stories, you monsters! It’s too sad.

Lagos

This week’s commercial is for Lagos Brand Paper Towels, with the catchy slogan of: “For when you make a mess you didn’t mean to.”

This references the opening scenes of Captain America: Civil War, when Wanda used her powers to stop Crossbones from detonating a bomb in a crowded marketplace. While she reduced the number of casualties overall, a number of innocent civilians still died when he exploded. It’s the first indication that Wanda’s grief and trauma in Westview are driven by far more than just the loss of her lover.

The Lagos ad is also another reference to the Infinity Stones. Previously, we’ve had the toaster (Power), the watch (Time) and the Tesseract-shaped bath powder (Space). Here, we have a red liquid spill in a sly nod to the Aether (Reality). Only the Mind and Soul stones to go – which means two more commercials.

X-Men

These are definitely not the only X-Men references in the episode (of course), but we’ll get to that big one down below…

The scene of Wanda confronting SWORD agents looks to be directly inspired by the scene in the first X-Men movie where the police try to take down Magneto. Much like Wanda, he uses his powers on their guns, causing them to be aimed at the cops themselves before escaping. Considering the payoff to this episode and Magneto’s role as Wanda and Pietro’s sometimes-father in the comics (not to mention Pietro’s definite father in the X-Men movies), this was more than likely set up.

Vision says he was reading Charles Darwin’s “The Descent of Man” to one of the twins, a book that deals with evolution. (David Bowie voice) “Gotta make way for the homo superior!”

The Twilight Zone

Serious Twilight Zone “It’s a Good Life” vibes in the episode throughout, particularly when Agnes is visibly weirded out by Wanda with her “take it from the top” moment (unless she’s deliberately screwing with everyone), and the mailman telling the twins “your mom won’t let [Sparky] get far.”

Also, while we’re on the subject of The Twilight Zone, Agnes appears to live at the corner of Maple St. and Sherwood Drive. “The Monsters are due on Maple Street” is a notoriously paranoid unpacking of suburban paranoia.

Westview

The opening credits feature a “Greetings From Westview, NJ” postcard in a pretty common format, but one made most famous on the cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Greetings From Asbury Park” album.

We wrote more about Westview in general here.

“For the Children

Vision points out that there are “no other children in Westview,” which calls to mind the creepy “for the children” chant from back in episode 2.

Captain Marvel

Darcy draws the connection between how both Wanda and Carol Danvers got their powers via an Infinity Stone. Similarly, they acknowledge Wanda almost took out Thanos in Avengers: Endgame but that this feels outside the scope of her powers. Still, the fact that both Wanda and Carol stood up to Thanos isn’t something that’s being glossed over in the MCU.

Note Monica’s reaction when the name “Captain Marvel” is said isn’t exactly what you’d call enthusiastic.

Monica Rambeau

Monica’s test results coming back blank seem pretty significant. Is this a signifier that her molecular structure has changed, whether from the blip or passing through the hex barrier? Are we witnessing Monica’s superheroic origin story in slow motion?

Who is the Villain of WandaVision, anyway?

Despite the implications from the end of episode 4, Wanda isn’t completely in control of what’s going on. At various points in the episode she seems to be manipulating everything, but at others seems to be completely immersed in this reality.

But if she doesn’t remember how this all started, that sets up a potential villain reveal (or more than one) down the road.

What’s up with Agnes?

Agnes is complicit but was disturbed by Wanda’s ability to “resurrect” so how much can she really know? Unless, of course, she’s just “acting” this way to continue with her cover.

On the other hand, Agnes “helping out with the kids” is kind of in line with our Agatha Harkness theory for the character.

Reed Richards?

Monica mentions that she has a particular “aerospace engineer” in mind to call for help. Based on all the other subtle Fantastic Four clues that were in the fourth episode, could this individual be Reed Richards?

If they aren’t taking that big a swing, it could be Adam Bernard Brashear, known as “The Blue Marvel,” another prominent Marvel scientist, and one who has led the 616 version of the Ultimates with Monica on the team.

Evan Peters is Pietro

“She recast Pietro?”

Yes, you are indeed seeing Evan Peters returning as Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver here. This is (at least until it’s revealed that the MCU Wanda and Pietro were indeed mutants whose powers were merely “activated” by Strucker’s experiments) now officially the first appearance of a mutant/member of the X-Men in the MCU. Peters, of course, played Pietro in three films,X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse, and Dark Phoenix. While Aaron Taylor-Johnson played Pietro in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Peters played him in Days of Future Past, and he was generally more warmly-received by fans.

And does this indeed mean that Pietro is alive again, albeit in “recast” form? Or is Wanda so powerful that she ripped open a hole in the multiverse itself in order for her brother to “make a guest appearance” in Westview? This could very well be the first indication of what’s to come in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and the possibly Spiderverse-y Spider-Man 3.

Unless…what if this isn’t Pietro at all? What if it’s someone manipulative merely taking the form of Pietro to mess with Wanda even further?

Also, Pietro’s “bad boy” appearance very much feels like it fits with the Family Ties aesthetic. His “New York tough guy” look and persona is much like Nick, Mallory’s idiot boyfriend. Coincidentally, Nick also starred in an episode of the show where he got a dog and it died soon after from an accident.

We wrote much more about the shocking WandaVision episode 5 ending here.

We Are Kind of OK With the ’80s

Jazzercise was indeed a real thing, god help us.

For those of you thinking the internet was a whatever a reverse anachronism is, we made the same mistake too. But it turns out it has been around in some form since the 1960s, when the Advance Research Projects Agency (precursor to today’s US government mad science agency, DARPA) networked a few computers and sent messages back and forth.

Unanswered Questions

Dennis the Mailman is back from episode 1. His little aside to the kids is an indicator that he is vaguely aware of what’s really going on. Not necessarily in a sinister way, but a reminder that the people of Westview aren’t really enjoying this.

One of the camera feeds we see is from Satellite 348. Avengers #348 had a Vision-centric cover and story.

Is there a significance to the stuffed animal on the chair at the beginning? I thought maybe it was a stuffed Bova or something, but I think it’s just a bunny.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Spot anything we missed? Let us know in the comments!

The post Marvel’s WandaVision Episode 5: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3pZW8jy

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

0 notes

corona-de-vil · 4 years

Text

How did this happen?

The article I‘m sharing below is the first post about Covid-19 that I shared on Facebook, that I can find – on Feb 6, 2020. The first cases were reported back in December 2019, in Wuhan. I’d heard about it, I’d thought about, it entered my mind a few times, but I wasn’t concerned. This was happening in Wuhan, China, thousands of miles away from Cincinnati, Ohio. Surely, we were safe. Clearly, we should have all been paying more attention. The doctor referenced in the article below, died. He died trying to treat patients from a virus that seemed like the flu - that he didn’t yet understand.

In the U.S. we were too busy holding impeachment hearings and failing to impeach our corrupt President. The world was mourning Kobe Bryant’s death. At home, my uncle and my grandma Secen had both passed away days apart. We were mourning them. I was able to see her a few hours before her death and although I’m so grateful for that, it was so sad to see her so frail and so close to death. I’ll never forget her sister-in-law coming in and overhearing my grandma whisper for her to pray with her. I think she knew then it was upon her. She lived a long and full life I know, but still, I can’t imagine lying there with a fully functioning brain knowing that your body would give out at any moment and there was nothing anyone could do about it. Life and death have always weighed so heavy upon me. I feel like I am constantly trying to sweep away thoughts of death. 2020 had already started out as a shit year. I worried about my dad losing his mom. Elizabeth Warren, the best candidate in my opinion, fell in the polls and ultimately dropped out. I was getting over that and busy being excited that Bernie Sanders was looking likely that he really could be the nominee and then, March 3rd, Super Tuesday came and went and out of nowhere, Joe Biden swept taking the delegate lead and not looking back. Not everyone cares about these things, but politics is really important to me and we need to get Trump out of office. Also the kids were sick and Jonathan and I were both sick, so we were out like an entire week as a family. It took me days to clean up all the vomit filled laundry. Isla was telling me dirty stuff was coming out of her mouth and Sophia was crying “please don’t throw up, please don’t throw up”…. Pretty much breaking my heart seeing my kids so sick.

So 2020 has been less than stellar to say the least. And now here we are, Sophie has been out of school most of March and she probably won’t ever return to preschool. She was supposed to be working on art work for her end of year art show, having a pizza party with her classmates, getting ready for a graduation ceremony. She may never see any of those kids again. She has no idea. My heart hurts. They haven’t been to gymnastics in weeks. Isla has cried several times because we can’t go to the zoo. And we have no idea when this will end. Everything is cancelled until further notice - Opening Day, all of baseball, the flying pig marathon. I have renewed anger for Trump supporters. I’ve seen so many posts over the last month about how this is blown out of proportion, that it’s a hoax, that the media is in a frenzy and scaring everyone. The sad reality is its real, and its very scary. And we lost weeks not preparing – our President couldn’t stop this virus from reaching our shores, no one could have prevented it really, but he wasted time downplaying for weeks and were paying for it. Its global, it’s a pandemic, but he is not a leader and he caused us to fall behind the curve. There is a shortage of tests, numbers are under-reported, everything is basically shut down and we’ve been in a lockdown in Ohio for nearly 3 weeks. We’re under social distancing, stay at home orders ow until at least April 30. It’s April 1st. Thankfully Governor Dewine has been taking it seriously in Ohio.

There are close to a million cases worldwide, with over 200k in the U.S. and nearly 40,000 people have already died.

I’m already losing it a bit. So, here we are, making the best of it. We have our beach vacation planned the last week of May. Right now I’m crossing my fingers we don’t have to break Sophia’s heart and cancel. ☹

So I guess that kind of catches things up. I’ll add a timeline from wiki.

Beijing (CNN)The death of a doctor widely regarded as a hero in China for blowing the whistle on the threat posed by the Wuhan coronavirus has led to a massive outpouring of grief and anger online.

Li Wenliang died of the virus in the early hours of Friday morning local time, Wuhan Central Hospital, where he worked, said in a statement. The confirmation follows a series of conflicting statements about his condition from the hospital and Chinese state media outlets.

"Our hospital's ophthalmologist Li Wenliang was unfortunately infected with coronavirus during his work in the fight against the coronavirus epidemic," the hospital said. "He died at 2:58 am on Feb 7 after attempts to resuscitate were unsuccessful."

Li was among a number of supposed "rumormongers" detained in December for spreading news about the virus. He had warned about a potential "SARS-like" virus spreading in Wuhan. Nothing Li said was incorrect, but it came as officials in the city were downplaying the severity of the outbreak and its risk to the public.

There were more apparent efforts to control the narrative even after Li's death -- leading to widespread anger.

Earlier on Thursday night, several state media outlets had reported Li's death, following which Chinese social media erupted in mourning. Hours of confusion followed, with Wuhan Central Hospital releasing a statement saying Li was still alive and in critical condition, adding that they were "making attempts to resuscitate him."

State media subsequently deleted their previous tweets, only for the hospital to then confirm his death.

Wuhan's whistleblower

Li had raised the alarm about the virus that ultimately took his life.

In December, he posted in his medical school alumni group on the Chinese messaging app WeChat that seven patients from a local seafood market had been diagnosed with a SARS-like illness and were quarantined in his hospital in Wuhan.

Soon after he posted the message, Li was accused of rumor-mongering by the Wuhan police.

He was one of several medics targeted by police for trying to blow the whistle on the deadly virus in the early weeks of the outbreak, which has sickened more than 28,000 people and killed more than 560. He later contracted the virus himself.

Li was hospitalized on January 12 and tested positive for the coronavirus on February 1.

Fury on social media

China's social media channels were awash with anger following news of Li's death.

The topics "Wuhan government owes Dr. Li Wenliang an apology," and "We want freedom of speech," soon began to trend on China's Twitter-like platform, Weibo. Each gained tens of thousands of views before disappearing from the heavily censored platform.

Another topic, called "I want freedom of speech," had drawn 1.8 million views as of 5 a.m. Friday morning local time (4 p.m. ET Thursday).

Top comments under the Wuhan Central Hospital's statement about Li's death included "I've learned two words: political rescue & performative rescue" and "Countless young people will mature overnight after today: the world is not as beautiful as we imagined. Are you angry? If any of us here is fortunate enough to speak up for the public in the future, please make sure you remember tonight's anger."

Several comments also marked the timing of the announcement. "I knew you would post this in the middle of the night," wrote one Weibo user.

"You think we've all gone to sleep? No. We haven't," said another.

Confusion over his condition

The Global Times first announced Li had died in a tweet at around 10:40 p.m. local time Thursday, linking to a report that cited friends and doctors at Wuhan Central Hospital.

It deleted the post several hours later. Other Chinese media outlets also deleted their reports of his death, without explanation. The World Health Organization released a message of condolence following the initial reports that Li was dead but later updated their statement to say they did not have any information about the doctor's status.

Wuhan Central Hospital issued a new statement confirming his death later that day.

The death toll and number of people infected by the Wuhan coronavirus continues to grow, with no signs of slowing despite severe quarantine and population control methods put in place in central China.

The number of confirmed cases globally stood at 28,275 as of Thursday, with more than 28,000 of those in China. The number of cases in China grew by 3,694, or 15%, on the previous day. There have been 565 deaths so far, all but two of which were in China, with one in the Philippines and one in Hong Kong.

CNN's Amy Woodyatt contributed to this story.

0 notes

realestate63141 · 8 years

Text

Donald Trump, Colin Kaepernick, And The Politics Of Football

Football Is Trumpball Lite Cross-posted with TomDispatch.com

The Super Bowl is superfluous this year. Who needs a reality show about violence, domination, and sexism, not to mention brain damage, now that we have Trumpball, actual reality that not only authenticates football’s authoritarianism but transforms us from bystanders into victims? Before this game is over, the players may swarm the grandstands and beat the hell out of us.

Pro football actually helped prepare us for the new president’s upset victory by normalizing a basic tenet of jock culture: anyone not on the team is an enemy, the Other. And it’s open season on opponents, the fans of opponents, critics, and women (unless they’re cheerleaders or moms). Trash talking is the lingua franca of this Trumpian moment, bullying the default tactic.

Yet pro football has also provided us with the single most vivid image of current American resistance to racism. Last summer, before a pre-season game, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat during the playing of the national anthem as a symbol of his refusal “to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.” As the season progressed, he started going down on his right knee when the anthem began, revealing that he was wearing black socks decorated with pigs in police hats. These, he said, represented “rogue cops that are allowed to hold positions in police departments.” He would eventually stop wearing them, convinced that the socks were a tactical mistake.

Kaepernick’s non-violent gestures, done initially without fanfare, were the most powerful message from SportsWorld since that other hard year of despair and determination, 1968, when two American Olympic medalists, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, raised their black-gloved fists in Mexico City.

Incredibly, Smith, Carlos, and Kaepernick were all tutored by the same man, sociologist Harry Edwards. In the 1960s, as a young San Jose State professor, Edwards created the Olympic Project for Human Rights as his protest against racism. Now a retired Berkeley professor, he has been a long-time adviser to the 49ers.

Forty-nine years ago, as symbols of the so-called Athletic Revolution -- an attempt to resist the tyrannical rule of coaches and administrators, particularly over African-American football players and college track-and-field competitors -- Smith and Carlos were marginalized. Instead athletic “activism” morphed into hustling for sneaker endorsements. But this time, Edwards promises, will be different. “The evident trajectory of the Kaepernick ‘movement’ (and the growing support among athletes for its concerns),” he recently wrote, “means that there are going to be some turbulent times over the upcoming Trump era as the pressure on athletes to stand up and speak out escalates.”

You won’t be surprised to learn that Donald Trump immediately disparaged Kaepernick’s gesture, telling a Seattle radio station, "I think it’s a terrible thing, and you know, maybe he should find a country that works better for him, let him try, it’s not gonna happen." He then moved on, as he tends to do -- perhaps because he was already bored or perhaps because it triggered a memory of his own disastrous pro football days.

Sports Owner Trump Destroyed His League

Donald Trump is an old story for me. When I first began talking to him in the mid-1980s -- I was then a sports reporter for CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt -- he had just bought the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League (USFL), then in its second year of operation. The USFL played its games in the spring and summer to avoid direct competition with the National Football League for fans and TV access, but did manage to bid successfully against the established league for a number of star players, including Herschel Walker, Steve Young, and Doug Flutie.

In the course of our first long interview, Trump assured me that he was not a man consumed by his latest purchase. (“If the league isn’t successful, then, you know, it’s off to the next thing.”) He did, however, boast -- he was already The Donald, of course -- that his involvement gave the USFL “a little bit more warlike posture toward the establishment,” and that the “magic” of Trump Tower would enhance the image of the league. He insisted that he didn’t much like attention himself, but felt obligated to do this interview because I represented “a great show.” Even then, he spoke in the adjectival style (Great! Sad!) now familiar to all Americans. At the time, though I sensed that it was all mud, I was a journalist and at least it covered the ground.

When I asked him about reports that the USFL’s hidden agenda was to eventually merge with the successful National Football League or at least pressure it into admitting some of the upstart franchises, he responded genially, “I hadn’t thought of it to be perfectly honest,” adding, “I don’t think it’s in the cards for many years.”

Of course, Trump turned out to be the leader of a group of owners pushing the new league to shift its games to the fall, a direct challenge to the NFL. An anti-trust lawsuit against that league followed, ending in a Pyrrhic victory. The USFL received a judgment of $3 and collapsed, having lost tens of millions of dollars in the process.

It was all so Trumpian, so much the shape of things to come. Maybe I didn’t take him seriously enough then because we both came from Queens, a scorned outer borough of New York City, or because he was already a well-known publicity hound and classic boldface tabloid name. But I did come away with two insights that helped me in later interviews with him (when the subject was real estate or politics): first, that he would always respond to a question, even a needling one, as long as he was its subject, and second, that he had a gift for what I came to think of as predatory empathy. He was remarkably skilled at reading what his interviewer wanted to hear and then reshaping himself and his answer accordingly.

Once he read me as a liberal with a weakness for pop philosophy, he typically answered a question about the moral responsibilities of sports owners by offering this supposed credo: “I tend to think that you should be decent, you should be fair, you should be straight, and you should do the best you can. And beyond that, you can’t do very much really. So yeah, you do have a responsibility.” Then, as if adding a note in the margins of his own bland comment, he added, “I’m not sure to what extent that responsibility holds.”

Typically, he had swallowed his own tail and who knew what he meant, including him. Through the 1990s, as the host of a local PBS public affairs show and then back writing columns at the New York Times, I watched his mean-spirited pomposity swell as he filled airtime and notebooks. But what more could a journo ask?

Once, for reasons I can’t recall, I returned to that supposed sense of “responsibility” of his, asking him if he’d like to “run the country as you have run your organization.”

“I would much prefer that somebody else do it. I just don’t know if the somebody else is there,” he replied, as if already imagining January 20, 2017. “This country,” he added ominously, “needs major surgery.”

“Are you the surgeon?”

“I think I’d do a fantastic job, but I really would prefer not doing it.”

I’ve thought about Donald Trump ever since -- he did have that effect on you -- and have come to realize that he’s an avatar of the worst aspects of jock culture. (He had, in fact, been a good high school athlete.) His kind of boastful, bullying, blowfish persona is tolerated in locker rooms (as in sales offices, barracks, trading floors, and legislatures) just as long as the big dog can deliver. Which he has done. It’s no surprise that his close pals and business associates in SportsWorld include two other notorious P.T. Barnums, boxing’s Don King and wrestling’s Vince McMahon (whose wife, Linda, is now Trump's pick to head the Small Business Administration).

Another typical jock culture trait is rolling over for the alpha(est) dog in your arena, be it the team leader, coach, owner, or even the president of Russia. One wonders, had Trump become a successful NFL owner, would he have wimped out as completely as New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft did when Russian President Vladimir Putin pocketed his Super Bowl ring in 2005 and walked out of their Moscow meeting room with it. It was never returned. Under pressure from the George W. Bush White House, according to Kraft, he claimed it was a gift, only to change his story years later. Kraft is a Democrat, while his coach, Bill Belichick, and his quarterback, Tom Brady, are friends of Trump. The Patriots, the best team of our era, will, of course, be playing the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl.

A Jock Spring?

Colin Kaepernick, alas, won’t be getting a Super Bowl ring, at least not this year. The 49ers, long a successful and lucrative franchise, ended up with a 2-14 record this season. The 29-year-old Kaepernick is a scrambler with a powerful arm. Once an exciting prospect who led his team to the Super Bowl in 2013, only his second pro season and first as a starter, he seemed to have lost some of his mojo in recent years.

He’s still an interesting character, though: biracial, raised by white adoptive parents, smart, and curious. His torso and arms are tattooed with religious phrases, and he ostentatiously kisses the “To God the Glory” tat on his right biceps after any touchdown, which became known as “Kaepernicking.”

His emergence as a progressive hero, however, surprised even Harry Edwards. “Nobody saw [Muhammad] Ali coming, nobody saw Kaepernick coming,” Edwards told Elliott Almond of the San Jose Mercury News. “He was in the tradition of people who tend to open up new paths. Nobody saw Dr. [Martin Luther] King coming.”

Putting Kaepernick in such a league may be a tad premature, but he has stimulated what might be called a Jock Spring, and not just because he promised to distribute his first million dollars in salary this season to community charities. Women soccer stars, high school football players and their coaches, National Football League and Women’s National Basketball players all began going down on one knee as the national anthem struck up. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called the gesture “dumb and disrespectful” before professing regret for her remark. Time put Kaepernick on its cover. Trump blamed him, in part, for a decline in the NFL’s ratings.

The initial signs of a Jock Spring actually pre-date his protest. Last July, New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony posted on his Instagram page an old black-and-white photograph of a dozen young black athletes in suits and ties posed in protest at what was then a summit meeting of sports stars. The front row of that 1967 photo now seems like a sports Mt. Rushmore -- Bill Russell, Jim Brown, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Muhammad Ali, whose heavyweight title had been stripped from him after he refused to be drafted into the military.

Anthony’s message called on “all my fellow ATHLETES to step up and take charge. Go to your local officials, leaders, congressman, assemblymen/assemblywoman and demand change. There’s NO more sitting back and being afraid of tackling and addressing political issues anymore. Those days are long gone. We have to step up and take charge. We can’t worry about what endorsements we gonna lose or who is going to look at us crazy. I need your voices to be heard. We can demand change.”

It was a surprising statement from a player best known for not passing the ball enough. A few days later, he joined fellow NBA stars Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, and LeBron James onstage at ESPN’s annual awards show, where LeBron declared: “It’s not about being a role model, it’s not about our responsibility to the tradition of activism. I know tonight we’re honoring Muhammad Ali, the GOAT [Greatest of All Time], but to do his legacy any justice, let’s use this moment as a call to action for all professional athletes to educate ourselves, explore these issues, speak up, use our influence, and renounce all violence.”

A month later, Kaepernick sat down.

“Athletes have the biggest megaphone in the country,” Edwards said to Almond in their Q-and-A. “Everybody identifies with the athletes. Kap has opened up a conversation about what is probably the most convoluted, the most difficult, and the longest-standing and intractable issue in terms of race relations in this country: This is why it was so important for Colin to take off the pig socks.

“I told him that we went through that in the 1960s and it was one of the biggest mistakes we ever made. Ultimately, we are going to have to sit down across the table with the police and hopefully come to some resolution with some of these life-and-death issues.”

As the season ended, Kaepernick’s teammates awarded him their Len Eshmont Award for “inspirational and courageous play,” making a mockery of reports in the media that he had been alienating the rest of the team. Edwards describes the media and the sports establishment as clueless when it comes to Kaepernick’s growing support among athletes -- a phenomenon that promises “some turbulent times over the upcoming Trump era.”

Kaepernick’s most transcendent transgression has been the way he punctured the comfort of football’s sweaty sanctuary, letting in both light and some hard truths -- including this reality: that objectified and extravagantly well-paid performers can still have real thoughts about the world outside the white lines, a world becoming more and more perilous for those who think Trumpball should not be the national pastime.

Trump has said he will not be attending the Super Bowl -- that might even be true -- but he will sit for the usual pre-game presidential interview, this year with Bill O’Reilly of Fox, which will broadcast on the holiest event of the sports calendar. Should you tune in? While we’re still a democracy, make your own decision. Do whatever you did for the Inauguration.

Robert Lipsyte is the jock culture correspondent for TomDispatch. He returns after having been on leave to explore the belly of the beast as Ombudsman for ESPN. His most recent book is his memoir, An Accidental Sportswriter.

Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check out the newest Dispatch Book, John Feffer's dystopian novel Splinterlands, as well as Nick Turse’s Next Time They’ll Come to Count the Dead, and Tom Engelhardt's latest book, Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2kcIXdG

#DIYS

0 notes