A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books
The COVID 19 pandemic has not left India unaffected. We are under lockdown and days seem to stretch into inflinity. We cannot leave the House and so have not been blogging. Today my daughter helped me configure her old lap top and am back blogging after quite a while. I am a Historian, a Professor of History a Researcher and an Animal Rights'Activist. We need a curfew pass to move out and being a senior citizen I am given some relaxation in the number of curfew passes I am issued. I drive from the Campus to the town and get the stuff we need and return in the blazing sun,as the shops close by 1100.At least I have tonnes of books to read and have an interesting project to work on. Living through COVIID 19 has given me time to relect and this blog is on my two cents worth.
When the Pandemic began. i was more or less convinced that the virus was the result of an AmericanGerm Warfare experiment gone horribly wrong. Now I have changed my mind and believe that the Communist Regime in China have a lot of explanation to give to the International Community. Wuhan Wet Market which they blamed for the outbreak is not the primary source of the virus. It was probably the Wuhan Institute of Virology that was reponsible. It is too early to say if this was a deliberate attempt at disrupting the world economy or an accident in the lab. Whatever be the circumstances, China owes an expalnation and has to make a clean confession and International sanctions may be invoked to make the State comply. And the behaviour of China, in trying to make profit off the suffering of human beings all over the world is despicable even by Communist standards. India and Germany have changed the norms of Foreign Direct Investment to prevent hostile Chinese takeovers and China is threatening to take matters to the WTO. A bad move as China virtually dands isolated in the World today.
USA is devastated. Seeing the rising number of casulities which is reaching the 50,000 mark I cannot help feeling a tinge of sorrow at the stoicism of the American people. They are going through hell and they are bearing their immense suffering with great dignity. I dont want my words to be seen as patronizing or taken as a wise crack. I mean it. Did Trump err in calling it the Chinese virs. I dare to say NO. I am now convinced that the virus originated in China and the WHO has worked overtime to hide the involvement of China in this tragic Greek Opera that is unfolding before our very eyes. And the attention of the Trump Administration was distracted by the Impeachment Proceeding launched by the Democrtas precisely at the time when the US Administration was rlizing the gravity of th situaton and had imposed the travel ban.
India does not see a huge spike in COVID cases. The Government of India acted at the right time. A Nationwide Lockdown was imposed on March 25th even as the country saw less that hundred cases on that day. Under Lockdown which was imposed nder the Infectious Disease and Epidemics Act, which was legislated in the nineteenth century, the Government can arrest people for breaking the curfew. Barring one particular identity group, all behaved the citizens behaved well. This brings to to the Tablighi Jamaat or Single ource Event as we refer euphemisticlly.
THe Tablighis, a group of orthodox Sunni muslims were found to have gathered in large numbers in Nizamuddin Area in New Delhi and violating the Social Distancing norms they hind in moques all over India thereby infecting and contaminating places which were free of the virus. The states of Maharashtra, Telengana and Tamil Nadu are the worst affected. I think the situation in West Bengal is also grim.
Unlike USA, India's strategy was different. It imposed Lockdown and undertook tracing and tracking of those exposed to the virus and strict quarantine measure are in place. An APP Arogya Sethu was rolled out which alerts smart phone usere of the possible Covid hot spots. It tracks using the GPS and blue tooth, This app has been effevtive and more than 70 million people have downloaded it. Though travel restrictions are in place, the country has not been seeing fatalities as what was witnessed in USA, Italy, Spin and UK. The Nation must thank the Prime MInster for his pro active steps,
Every night as I watch Andrew Coumo, the Governor of New York speak on CNN I hear the words"flatten the curve". The basic mistake that USA dis was to address the problem from the wrong end. The models as indeed all models in such cases were wrong and predicted a situation that was both impossible and hellish. Had the US not depended on statistical models which are Bayseian in their basic architecture and relied more on prctical measures as were put in place after the 1918-19 Pandemic, the US would have fared better.
The COVID 19 pandemic has not left India unaffected. We are under lockdown and days seem to stretch into inflinity. We cannot leave the House and so have not been blogging. Today my daughter helped me configure her old lap top and am back blogging after quite a while. I am a Historian, a Professor of History a Researcher and an Animal Rights'Activist. We need a curfew pass to move out and being a senior citizen I am given some relaxation in the number of curfew passes I am issued. I drive from the Campus to the town and get the stuff we need and return in the blazing sun,as the shops close by 1100.At least I have tonnes of books to read and have an interesting project to work on. Living through COVIID 19 has given me time to relect and this blog is on my two cents worth.
When the Pandemic began. i was more or less convinced that the virus was the result of an AmericanGerm Warfare experiment gone horribly wrong. Now I have changed my mind and believe that the Communist Regime in China have a lot of explanation to give to the International Community. Wuhan Wet Market which they blamed for the outbreak is not the primary source of the virus. It was probably the Wuhan Institute of Virology that was reponsible. It is too early to say if this was a deliberate attempt at disrupting the world economy or an accident in the lab. Whatever be the circumstances, China owes an expalnation and has to make a clean confession and International sanctions may be invoked to make the State comply. And the behaviour of China, in trying to make profit off the suffering of human beings all over the world is despicable even by Communist standards. India and Germany have changed the norms of Foreign Direct Investment to prevent hostile Chinese takeovers and China is threatening to take matters to the WTO. A bad move as China virtually dands isolated in the World today.
USA is devastated. Seeing the rising number of casulities which is reaching the 50,000 mark I cannot help feeling a tinge of sorrow at the stoicism of the American people. They are going through hell and they are bearing their immense suffering with great dignity. I dont want my words to be seen as patronizing or taken as a wise crack. I mean it. Did Trump err in calling it the Chinese virs. I dare to say NO. I am now convinced that the virus originated in China and the WHO has worked overtime to hide the involvement of China in this tragic Greek Opera that is unfolding before our very eyes. And the attention of the Trump Administration was distracted by the Impeachment Proceeding launched by the Democrtas precisely at the time when the US Administration was rlizing the gravity of th situaton and had imposed the travel ban.
India does not see a huge spike in COVID cases. The Government of India acted at the right time. A Nationwide Lockdown was imposed on March 25th even as the country saw less that hundred cases on that day. Under Lockdown which was imposed nder the Infectious Disease and Epidemics Act, which was legislated in the nineteenth century, the Government can arrest people for breaking the curfew. Barring one particular identity group, all behaved the citizens behaved well. This brings to to the Tablighi Jamaat or Single ource Event as we refer euphemisticlly.
THe Tablighis, a group of orthodox Sunni muslims were found to have gathered in large numbers in Nizamuddin Area in New Delhi and violating the Social Distancing norms they hind in moques all over India thereby infecting and contaminating places which were free of the virus. The states of Maharashtra, Telengana and Tamil Nadu are the worst affected. I think the situation in West Bengal is also grim.
Unlike USA, India's strategy was different. It imposed Lockdown and undertook tracing and tracking of those exposed to the virus and strict quarantine measure are in place. An APP Arogya Sethu was rolled out which alerts smart phone usere of the possible Covid hot spots. It tracks using the GPS and blue tooth, This app has been effevtive and more than 70 million people have downloaded it. Though travel restrictions are in place, the country has not been seeing fatalities as what was witnessed in USA, Italy, Spin and UK. The Nation must thank the Prime MInster for his pro active steps,
Every night as I watch Andrew Coumo, the Governor of New York speak on CNN I hear the words"flatten the curve". The basic mistake that USA dis was to address the problem from the wrong end. The models as indeed all models in such cases were wrong and predicted a situation that was both impossible and hellish. Had the US not depended on statistical models which are Bayseian in their basic architecture and relied more on prctical measures as were put in place after the 1918-19 Pandemic, the US would have fared better.
