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March 28, 2020 - No. 10
Parliament Convenes to Pass Bill C-13,
the COVID-19
Emergency Response Act
No to Secret Deals! Parliamentary
Negotiations Should Be Broadcast Live!
  
News and Comment
• A
Problem that Is Revealing Itself
- Laura Chesnik -
• Priorities
at
a Time of Pandemic
- Peter Ewart -
• All
Life Is Worthy of Life!
- Isaac Saney - • Quebeckers
Express Their Social Solidarity
• Community
Responds
to Nova Scotia Declaration of
COVID-19 State of Emergency
Efforts to Cope with
Pandemic, U.S. Sanctions
and Paid Assassins
• Mounting
Opposition
to U.S. Sanctions Warfare
Amidst COVID-19 Crisis
• Vietnam's
Proactive
Approach to Battling COVID-19
• Cuba Increases
International Cooperation and Steps Up
Measures to Deal with the Pandemic at Home
• U.S.
Criminal
Threats Against Venezuela
Cannot Be Allowed to Stand!
- ALBA Social Movements
Canada, Ottawa Branch -
• Venezuela's
Bolivarian National Armed Forces Reject
Latest Vulgar U.S. Attack
• Venezuela's
Coronavirus
Response Might Surprise You
- Leonardo Flores -
For Your Information
• Measures
Contained
in the
COVID-19
Emergency Response Act, Bill C-13
• Update on Global
Pandemic for Week Ending March 28
Supplement
• Peoples
of the World Firmly Support the
Heroic People of Palestine and Their Right to Be
Parliament Convenes to Pass Bill
C-13, the
COVID-19
Emergency Response Act
The cartel parties which have seats in the
Parliament of Canada passed Bill C-13, the COVID-19
Emergency Response Act, on March 25. The
bill was negotiated between the parties and with
business interests and between the Premiers in
secret negotiations behind the backs of Canadians.
It was adopted by both the House of Commons and
Senate and given Royal Assent in the name of
protecting Canadians during the coronavirus
pandemic.
The original proposal from the Liberal Party in
power was apparently reorganized after two of the
cartel parties objected to its demand for two
years of rule by exception. This was reduced to
six months, during which the Liberal Party can
spend state money without Parliamentary oversight.
This is already happening, as two days later, on
March 27, Prime Minister Trudeau announced changes
to the wage subsidy for businesses, increasing the
amount from 10 to 75 per cent.
Rule by exception is emergency police powers. The
Act gives the Liberal Party Cabinet executive, in
particular the Prime Minister and Minister of
Finance, extraordinary powers to adopt measures
and spend state money until September 30, 2020
without public or even parliamentary discussion or
oversight.
 Of course, nothing
is known of the details of this horse-trading and
what the Liberal Party in power received in return
for shortening the term because everything was
done in secret behind closed doors. Nothing is
known of the arguments employed to suggest why the
government needed extraordinary police powers in
the first place. Was it argued that the existing
governing institutions are inadequate to deal with
the situation? Elizabeth May, an MP for the Green
Party, even insists the government should go
further and put into force the Emergencies Act,
which replaced the War Measures Act in
1988.
What is known is that very little, if any,
discussion of why the cartel parties agreed to
give the Liberal Party executive emergency police
powers has taken place. Discussion on how the
needs of Canadians are to be met is reduced to
disinforming the public who does not know who is
deciding what, let alone participating in making
the decisions. The Finance Minister has announced
he is spending $6 billion a week and Canadians are
left nonplussed in the face of the situation. They
are forced to fend for themselves and try to learn
what is happening through stories picked up
randomly here and there. The backroom negotiations
between the government, the cartel parties,
business interests and the Premiers should be
televised so that they can all be held to account.
 Discussion in the
monopoly-owned and controlled mass media has been
mostly reduced to either berating the Prime
Minister for wanting a two-year limit rather than
a shorter one or praising him for taking control
of the treasury in a manner which is out of the
people's control. It is an illusion that the
Parliament represents the interests of the people
and must therefore have what is called oversight
because this Parliament is the one horse trading
and blocking access to the information and
organization Canadians need.
To suggest that once the barn door has been
opened and the horses let loose Parliament can be
convened down the road and close the barn door as
if no damage has been done is a bad joke. This
chatter diverts from discussion of whose interests
are being served by this rule by exception, why
this can happen in the first place and, most
importantly, the fact that when it comes to
looking after seniors, women and children, the
Indigenous communities and urban Indigenous
populations, the homeless and all the working
people, the government is not there for them. In
these backroom negotiations only the business
interests and the premiers have the money and
means to intervene as organized forces to make
sure their interests are being looked after.
Canadians are defenceless as far as the government
goes.
The refusal to involve Canadians in
decision-making and the taboo on discussion of
what is relevant and what is not is par for the
course, but deteriorates further during rule by
exception. Prime Minister Trudeau Sr. used the War
Measures Act in 1970 to suppress discussion
and efforts to create new nation-to-nation
relations between Canada and Quebec, unleashing
police powers against the people. Also, Trudeau
Sr's disgraceful 1969 White Paper, entitled
"Statement of the Government of Canada on Indian
Policy," proposed destroying any motion towards
building respectful nation-to-nation relations
with the Indigenous peoples. Trudeau Sr. and his
Minister of Indian Affairs Jean Chrétien sought to
abolish all previous arrangements and treaties
with Indigenous peoples and "incorporate" them
into Canada without upholding hereditary or treaty
rights. The aim was to impose fee simple or
private property relations on all Indigenous
territories, without exception, so that the
imperialists could seize those lands and exploit
them without opposition from the Indigenous
inhabitants. Even though the people mobilized
massive opposition to defeat the odious White
Paper, the unjust colonial line it represents
remains to this day. This is evident with
the continuing assault of the federal and
provincial governments, RCMP and Coastal
GasLink on the Indigenous Wet'suwet'en
territory and its courageous Land Defenders in
northern BC.
 The backroom
negotiations and sweetheart deals exemplify the
typical modus operandi of floating a trial
balloon to solicit opposition and then modifying
the stand to achieve the aims it was originally
intended to achieve, and declaring it has the
consent of the governed. The action of the cartel
parties on Bill C-13, in agreeing to emergency
rule by exception so long as a sunset clause of
six months permits it to be reviewed, is
additional proof of the necessity for democratic
renewal and empowerment of the people through new
governing forms so that they can represent
themselves and serve their own interests by taking
decisions openly and publicly that affect their
lives. It is very convenient for those who serve
private interests to give themselves carte
blanche to spend money as they see fit. The
existing liberal democratic institutions are
opposed to empowering the people. The institutions
lurch from crisis to crisis pragmatically seeking
to benefit from the problems of an imperialist
world continually in crisis.
In the case of this crisis, two things are
repeated to disinform Canadians. One is that the
measures are all in place to protect the people
and the other is that everything is being done to
avert an economic meltdown. Far from accepting
these as being the case, the people must establish
their own reference points based on the needs of
the real world as they know it so as to make sure
they are not disinformed. They must keep the
initiative on how all matters are dealt with in
their own hands.
A reader of TML Weekly commented on the
issue with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic: "While
the government is capable of giving instructions
and then making it the responsibility of
individuals to fend for themselves with some
financial help on the way but not soon enough, and
is capable of issuing fines and punishing those
who don't comply, there is no recognition of the
social responsibility of employers and government
to protect the whole society by protecting the
workers. The high praise for 'essential workers'
and front line workers seems to have an element of
hope that these workers will continue to work in
unsafe conditions, putting themselves and others
at risk, out of a sense of duty, without the
government and employers standing up for their
rights.
"It ain't happening."
Using the Crisis to Justify Massive Payments to
the Rich
While the cartel parties claim that all their
actions are intended to serve the people and to
avert serious "structural damage to the economy,"
this leaves the vast majority of Canadians with
great concern. When terms like "structural damage"
are used, it is a warning that the government's
main concern is to preserve at any expense this
system that maintains the wealth of the financial
oligarchy and the ruling elite's domination of the
economy at the expense of working people. The
pandemic now provides an emergency to justify
doing whatever they want.
The Financial Post reported on March 27
that "The Bank of Canada cut its benchmark
interest rate to effectively zero, while pledging
for the first time to create tens of billions of
dollars to buy bonds, an approach to monetary
policy called quantitative easing, or QE. [...]
"Along with the interest-rate cut, the central
bank said it will begin buying at least $5-billion
worth of government bonds per week until the
economy turns around. It will also purchase
commercial paper starting next week, but it hasn't
yet settled on an amount. The idea is to flood
fear out of credit markets by pumping them full of
cash."
This follows in the footsteps of the U.S.
government which is injecting trillions of dollars
into the system.
The Bank of Canada has indicated that it will
provide whatever funds are deemed necessary to the
banks, hedge funds and other institutions that do
not create value, but nonetheless must be
guaranteed their profits. The Financial Post
quotes Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz as
saying, "We're doing a tremendous amount. A
firefighter has never been criticized for using
too much water."
This is who is being served by the decisions of
the government and not the needs of the people
whose lives have been turned upside down.
The Cartel Mafia
This habit of so-called representatives
negotiating behind the backs of the people and
then announcing only what the ruling elite want
the people to know must stop. This autocratic
practice is in contempt of the right of the people
to know what decisions are being taken and to
participate in taking those decisions by giving
their views.
To call a member of parliament a representative
of a constituency of people even though the people
who are said to be represented do not even know
what secret deals are being struck and whom the
horse-trading may benefit is in contempt of
notions of what democracy means.
These representatives say they represent "the
people" but who exactly are "the people" they
represent? The financial oligarchy is not "the
people." Narrow private business interests are not
"the people." The stock market is not "the
people." Down south, President Trump and NY
Governor Andrew Cuomo and oligarchs of their ilk
are not "the people."
Those entities that call themselves political
parties form a cartel party system in Parliament
as is also the case in the U.S. Congress and
elsewhere. This refers to the fact that political
parties long since stopped representing a national
interest. They act like a cartel mafia not just
figuratively but literally and objectively through
their actions. The mafia is a cartel defined as "a
close-knit or influential group of people who work
together and protect one another's interests or
the interests of a particular person." The
cartel's aim is to keep everyone else out and
control its turf. A criminal or political Capo
defines the turf and keeps the cartel's troops in
line through either corrupt inducement of one sort
or another or violent inducement of one sort or
another. Negotiations or turf wars among different
cartels may result in a coalition established for
a particular aim.
Of course, to broadcast the backroom
parliamentary negotiations of a political cartel
is considered taboo because it would expose and
harm certain private interests or business
interests, or give someone an edge or even damage
the stock market or at least that is what is said
without much elaboration. The secrecy of a
criminal cartel needs no further explanation
because secrecy gives the cartel strength and
protects it from its enemies. The secrecy of a
political cartel is also its strength for much the
same reasons but also importantly to enforce the
mystique of the fictitious person of state that is
all powerful and not to be trifled with.
But all this ignores the very real harm the
political cartel does by keeping the people out of
the deliberations on the direction of the economy,
public health and all matters related to war and
peace. The more each party spokesperson within the
cartel rises to say, "Of course we are acting for
the well-being of the public, not our own partisan
interests," the sicker any Canadian with a
conscience is made to feel.
These so-called representatives do not speak in
the name of the people or in the name of their
communities and those collectives of workers in
charge of producing everything the people need to
look after themselves. These cartel politicians
have absconded with the people's name and claim to
speak in their name without ever having bothered
to ask, let alone receive, the people's
permission.
Many workers have chosen to deal with the cartel
party governments during this coronavirus pandemic
by loudly and justly making their claims on what
is theirs by right, as they must. Their fight to
safeguard their living and working conditions
within the conditions and to demand a living
stipend for all is exactly the decisive
contribution to contain the virus and resolve the
crisis in a manner that favours the people.
News and Commentary
- Laura Chesnik -
A problem that is revealing itself more and more
during this COVID-19 pandemic is the necessity for
the people to have their own forms of organization
in the face of these disasters so as to lead
governments to take up their social responsibility
under the circumstances. The government and the
state are not organized to mobilize the people to
be part of solving problems. Instead they appear
to be only capable of doling out public funds,
whether to individuals or private interests. Or,
they play the role of asking for others to take up
solving the problems, such as small and
medium-sized businesses. Instead of solving
problems using their legal authority they are
using their powers to criminalize the response of
various individuals to the lack of solutions from
the government, such as the issue of hoarding
goods or people not staying home for a 14-day
quarantine. Both of these are important issues,
but the only way the government is capable of
dealing with them is issuing orders, shaming or
threatening fines or jail time. They are not in
any way able or willing to involve the people in
forms of organization to contribute to solving the
problems themselves such as the need for an
internal supply chain of food for all or proper
sanitary supplies or medical equipment.
 An example of
problems which the government should solve, but
appears unwilling to do so, is on the issue of
providing lodging to health care workers so they
don't infect their families. Border towns like
Windsor, Niagara Falls and Sarnia in Ontario have
many health care workers who work in the U.S. They
are going across the border each day to do their
vital work and then coming back to Canada and in
many cases living with their families, sleeping in
their garages, etc. There is a definite objective
need for the government to organize accommodations
for these workers so they can look after others.
In Windsor, as an example, the mayor is asking for
hotels to volunteer to take in hospital workers.
The whole problem is left to chance and worse, to
the whim of a private company, in the hopes they
will provide a room. Those that agree are
presented as heroes who the workers are supposed
to thank. This problem requires the government to
commandeer hotels. In the case where the province
owns hotels, such as at casinos, they have the
legal authority to easily do so, however
municipalities are left begging for hotels to do
their civic duty with the caveat that, at the end
of the day, these are private business decisions.
Similar problems exist in the provision of food
and necessities under the circumstances. All
provinces are issuing orders for travellers to go
right home after returning and not stop for food
or other necessities but to immediately
self-isolate for 14 days. This is an important
measure. However, no public
organization is mobilized to guarantee food
and necessities for these people or to check up on
them regularly to make sure they are okay. This
too is left to chance and creates a dangerous
situation where people have to rely on family or
friends, and if that is not possible, then they
are either to violate the law and risk infecting
others or stay home and starve. Neither is an
acceptable option. Then there are those who are
homeless or those without the means to get food.
Using social media, various initiatives have
sprung up to fill the role that the government
should be playing for ensuring people are fed,
have shelter and are taken care of or that health
care workers have proper protective equipment.
But, this is on an ad hoc basis and is
based on a charity-type mentality of doing what
you can for those less fortunate or making do with
what you have. It is lofty but not a solution. It
is not able to fulfill the right of the people to
their basic needs or workers for their proper
working conditions. Governments with their legal
authority, resources and bureaucracy could put
them in the service of solving these problems;
however they are not doing so.
The people are seeing they cannot rely on
governments to solve these problems. However, the
solution is not to respond with charity. The
working class is taking the lead to demand that
governments and elected officials take up their
duty in a socially responsible manner. This first
and foremost shows what is required from elected
officials to solve actual problems and involve the
people in their solution. The working class is
showing by example what governments should be
doing in times such as these.
- Peter Ewart -
The COVID-19 pandemic that is sweeping the globe
has illuminated the serious flaws, gaps and
shortcomings of health care in Canada and other
countries, as well as the economy as a whole, and
underlined the need for new priorities.
Extraordinary measures must be taken to deal with
the pandemic, but at the same time we need a great
reckoning as to what kind of health care and food
supply system is needed to confront the challenges
of a 21st century globalized world.
 The current model
of globalization, which has been in place for a
number of decades in Canada, the U.S. and other
countries, has meant severe cutbacks in public
health care and other social services, the
chopping up of health services through massive
privatization and contracting out to globalized
private corporations, long delays and gaps in
health care, the deterioration of working
conditions for health care personnel, and other
problems.
In addition, much of Canada's scientific,
pharmaceutical, and medical equipment industries
have been hollowed out and sold off to globalized
corporations, making Canada dependent on
facilities and manufacturing in the U.S., China
and other countries. Indeed, Connaught
Laboratories, the last truly independent,
Canadian-based pharmaceutical company (which was
connected to the University of Toronto), was
privatized by the federal government in 1986. In
the decades prior to its privatization, Connaught
Laboratories was famous in the world for the
discovery of insulin, the production of cures for
the childhood disease diphtheria, and other
developments. Nonetheless, this famed national
asset was sold off to a globalized, private
monopoly.
Food supply is related to health care. In that
regard, our food supply system is highly skewed
and vulnerable. Much of our fruits and vegetables
come from California. But how reliable and secure
is this food chain and other foreign-based chains?
U.S. President Trump is apparently considering
moving troops to the Canadian border which
resembles a threat and does not inspire confidence
in Canadians, especially if food shortages break
out in the U.S.
It is a fact that we live in a globalized world.
That is the reality that we must accept. However,
that does not mean that we have to accept the
current model of globalization in which the
interests of large corporations predominate over
those of people, where production and supply
chains are farmed out all over the world to make
maximum profit, and national and local economies
are hollowed out. Under this current model,
smaller, resource-based communities, like Prince
George, Mackenzie and other towns in northern BC
are particularly vulnerable.
 In this globalized
world, strong, diversified and self-reliant local
and national economies are absolutely necessary,
as is trade for mutual benefit between peoples and
countries. Canada has the capabilities to develop
its own pharmaceutical and medical equipment
industries, as well as strengthen and enlarge our
public health care system and scientific
institutes. As is so clear in the current
pandemic, our health care workers and personnel
are heroic. Their full power and talents must be
unleashed.
We also have all the ingredients to build local,
regional and national food industries that make us
more self-reliant and diversified. Canada has
abundant energy supplies which could be used to
power and heat greenhouses to grow food across the
provinces and even in the far north. And there are
many other examples.
In any case, in the wake of the pandemic, health
care needs to be prioritized. We need a
first-class, fully public health system to meet
any challenge in the future. And we need a local
and national, and more self-reliant food supply.
For the immediate period, we must speak out for
emergency measures to meet the requirements of
everyone in our society. In the overall, we must
break with the old globalized economic system and
establish new priorities.
- Isaac Saney -
Undisguised
eugenist/social-darwinian/neo-malthusian policies
are an inevitable outcome of the capitalist and
imperialist system in the 21st century. In the
eyes of the global financial oligarchy, some lives
are less valuable, even dispensable. During this
ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the first expression of
these odious developments was the various
pronouncements on the necessity to abandon the
elderly to their fate.
Now, in Alabama, a ventilator rationing plan
explicitly states that: "Persons with severe or
profound mental retardation, moderate to severe
dementia, or catastrophic neurological
complications such as persistent vegetative state
are unlikely candidates for ventilator support."
The plan also states: "Children with severe
neurological problems may not be appropriate
candidates in the pediatric age group."[1]
This is reminiscent of the thinking that emerged
and was articulated and then translated into
practice in Germany in the 1930s of "life unworthy
of life."
What was once considered beyond the pale --
supposedly vanquished with the defeat of fascism
in the Second World War -- is now overt.
One is forced to ponder, where will this all end?
Who next is to be judged as "life unworthy of
life"?!
These are not horrendous developments or
decisions forced on society due to an unavoidable
lack of resources. It is the result of a
deliberate decision not to provide those
resources. It is not a question of whether we have
resources or not, or whether it is possible to
"create" those resources in time or not! It is
simply a question of the unequal and unjust
distribution of wealth and decision-making power,
which drives the policies and actions made by
governments on what to prioritize.
Trillions can be found for the ruling elite but
not for ordinary workers, the exploited and
oppressed. In a world of terrible social
inequalities in which a privileged few (a tiny
fraction of the world's population) monopolize the
overwhelming majority of the global wealth, the
governments have decided NOT to provide the
resources needed to preserve the lives and health
of the citizens they supposedly serve and in
theory have a social contract with.
The struggle continues! Surely, a better, more
just world is possible and necessary!
Note
1. The following is an excerpt
from Alabama's Criteria for Mechanical
Ventilator Triage Following Proclamation of
Mass-Casualty Respiratory Emergency:
"For example, persons with severe mental
retardation, advanced dementia or severe traumatic
brain injury may be poor candidates for ventilator
support. The average life expectancy of persons
with mental retardation now spans to the seventh
decade and persons with significant neurological
impairments can enjoy productive happy lives.
Functional assessment for persons with
intellectual disability, complex neurological
problems, dementia, or mixtures of symptoms should
focus on premorbid function in all domains of life
including social, intellectual, professional, etc.
Persons with severe or profound mental
retardation, moderate to severe dementia, or
catastrophic neurological complications such as
persistent vegetative state are unlikely
candidates for ventilator support. Individuals
with complex neurological issues such as motor
neuron disease, glioblastoma multiforme and others
may not be appropriate candidates in a mass
casualty situation. Children with severe
neurological problems may not be appropriate
candidates in the pediatric age group."
The people of Quebec continue to take various
creative initiatives to express their social
solidarity and keep spirits high in the face of
the COVID-19 pandemic. These popular expressions
have taken all sorts of forms.
 Many Facebook pages
have been created to ensure that people are not
alone as social distancing is implemented. Various
groups have been created online by parents and
their children. Teachers, educators and parents
contribute to them to promote educational
activities, games, and even scientific experiments
that can be tried at home. To cope with the
difficulty of keeping children busy, examples are
provided of schedules to structure their day, as
well as ways to make teenagers aware of measures
to adopt in this time of the pandemic.
Teachers and educational workers have taken other
initiatives for their primary and secondary
students. Some produce videos to talk to their
students, to play games, experiment, or simply
tell them that they are thinking of them and
encourage them to take care of themselves.
To demonstrate people's appreciation of the
crucial work being done by all those involved in
health care, transportation, the food industry,
housekeeping, garbage collection, etc., some
citizens suggest that every evening at 8:30 pm,
people turn their house or car lights off and on
for one minute.
Increasingly, rainbow patterns can be seen in the
windows of homes, businesses and other buildings,
often accompanied with the words. "It's going to
be alright." "Rainbow Hunting" is a children's
game started by parents at the beginning of the
announced quarantine measures. The aim is to look
for "rainbows" in the windows of houses when
parents take their children for walks. The
initiative spread quickly and can now be found
across Quebec. It also assists in keeping the
collective morale high.
 Other initiatives
include dance groups sending an entertainer
with a sound system to seniors' residences,
where they invite the seniors to dance on their
balconies. Others offer their services to people
who are vulnerable or who have less income as a
result of the pandemic, such as doing their
shopping, filing their income tax returns,
bringing food to their door, and so on.
Performers and musicians have been putting their
talent in the service of their neighbours and
passers-by by performing from their balconies
every night.
Local entrepreneurs have also decided to
contribute: distillers and micro-breweries in
various Quebec regions have transformed their
production to make disinfectants. They share their
experience and work together to meet everyone's
needs.
Whether it was during the earthquake in Haiti on
January 12, 2010, the Lac Mégantic tragedy on July
6, 2013, or the massive floods in the spring of
2019, the people of Quebec are always there,
searching for and finding ways to express their
social solidarity in the face of crises.
Joining organizations such as the British
Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA, whose
March 17 statement is found here),
we
are writing to express our deep concern about the
current and ongoing well-being of our loved ones
and communities, and the Nova Scotia government's
declaration of a State of Emergency (under
subsection 12(1) of the Emergency Management Act) in
relation to COVID-19. As a group of Nova Scotia
community members, we are committed to expressing
our thoughts to ensure our views are incorporated
into our government's agenda for the eradication
of this serious health threat.
Like the BCCLA, we fully support the need for
actions to be taken "by all levels of government
that prioritize public health, including measures
that resource our public infrastructure for the
benefit of all and protect those, such as seniors,
precarious workers, Indigenous communities, and
homeless people, who are most vulnerable during
this pandemic." However, history demonstrates
again and again that governments use moments of
social crisis to expand power and violate vital
constitutional principles, including those set
forth in the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in the
name of "public safety." When the declared
emergency is over, the expanded powers often
become permanent. Given this, we now call on the
Nova Scotia and municipal governments, local
police and RCMP, Nova Scotia Department of
Justice, and the Halifax Board of Police
Commissioners to exercise powers (and strictly
monitor the exercise of such powers) in this State
of Emergency in ways that respect the civil rights
and freedoms of every single person and community
in Nova Scotia. We are particularly concerned that
current practices do not re-enact documented
historical and ongoing patterns of state
surveillance, policing, and prosecution that
disproportionately target Black, Indigenous, and
other racialized peoples, people living in
poverty, and homeless, the mentally ill, and other
vulnerable groups.
 With the BCCLA, we
point to the long and well-documented history of
abuse of power under the federal War Measures Act (the
predecessor to the federal Emergencies Act being weighed
for declaration in Ottawa), which was invoked
during World War I and II to detain, intern, and
seize the property of Canadians defined as "enemy
aliens," with extreme consequences for Japanese
Canadians. This abuse of power was also exercised
during the 1970 October Crisis to effect thousands
of searches and hundreds of detentions, the vast
majority of which never led to formal charges. We
remind Nova Scotia's authorities that "Emergency"
measures are "subject to the Canadian Charter of
Rights and Freedoms." We also underscore
Michael MacDonald's and Jennifer Taylor's
"Independent Legal Opinion on Street Checks"
(October 2019) on their illegality, and the
extensive documentation of the disproportionate
impacts of policing on Black people and
communities in our province. The Rao and Dixon
African Nova Scotian families' recent experiences
with police conduct in the immediate wake of this
ruling, official condemnations of police racist
conduct, and the banning of street checks, have
done nothing to assure our communities' faith that
racist policing has been meaningfully addressed.
These recent examples provide timely reminders of
the wilful transgressions of state power as we
move into this new State of Emergency in the
province related to COVID-19.
Given how institutionalized racism and other
intersecting socio-economic inequities shape
policing and prosecution, as well as discrepancies
in access to public and private resources and
space, we are led to question who will be targeted
in police enforcement and prosecution of
anti-gathering and pro-social distancing measures
in the current State of Emergency? How are the
disproportionate and specific health concerns of
Black, Indigenous, and other vulnerable
communities and groups addressed in this public
health crisis and this State of Emergency?
We call on communities and all official bodies in
Nova Scotia to embrace this crisis as an
opportunity to develop and implement practices
that produce inclusive and equitable public health
and safety practices, through what the BCCLA aptly
calls "public infrastructure for the benefit of
all," and through holding each other and public
authorities, responsible for our collective
well-being. Examples of inclusive and equitable
public health and safety practices include the
following:
- Immediate translation of Emergency and related
COVID-19 measures into Mi'kmaw and the languages
of Nova Scotia's refugee and immigrant communities
to ensure crucial information is equally
circulated.
- Clarity on penalties for non-payment of fines
and measures to ensure impoverished people are not
criminalized or have life- and public-health
sustaining funds garnished. We definitively reject
the fining of people living in poverty as a
disproportionate penalty.
- Clear oversight and accountability measures for
police: we demand a complaint mechanism be set up
for the public to report abuses specific to the
current application of the Emergency
Management Act and the Health Protection
Act, 2004.
- Clear rules around police entering property:
police must take a harm reduction approach to
better ensure that vulnerable people will call for
help when needed, particularly those in
communities already alienated from the police.
- Immediate clarity is required from authorities
regarding ways that exercises of authority during
the Emergency will not become street checks. We
demand that community members be allowed to refuse
to provide personal information, so as not to
recreate the racist practice of street checks.
- Clear public communication on exactly what
provincial and municipal authorities are doing to
address the health of vulnerable communities
(Black, Indigenous, and other racialized peoples,
people living in poverty, the homeless and
precariously housed, the mentally ill, and the
disabled) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Clear measures to address the health of those
still confined in the province's "correctional"
and "forensic" institutions for adults and youth,
and long-term funding to support housing and
health needs of people released from
incarceration. Community members are concerned for
all people confined in institutions, and note, for
example, the over-representation of Black and
Indigenous adults, and especially youth, in
provincial detention. We also note that the vast
majority of those in detention are on remand
awaiting trial, and thus have never been convicted
of a crime
Signed,
Concerned Community Members of Nova Scotia
Working for Fully Inclusive Health and Safety in
the Face of Covid-19, including
Department of Social Justice & Community
Studies, Saint Mary's University (Benita Bunjun,
Val Marie Johnson, El Jones, Darryl Leroux,
Rachel Zellars)
Dr. OmiSoore Dryden, James R. Johnston Chair
in Black Canadian Studies, Faculty of Medicine,
Dalhousie University
Global Afrikan Congress-NS Chapter
Lynn Jones, activist
Efforts to Cope with Pandemic,
U.S. Sanctions and Paid Assassins
In his March 27 address to the special Virtual
Summit of the G20, called by Saudi Arabia, UN
Secretary General António Guterres once again
called for a ceasefire of all conflicts between
nations so that humanity as one can focus on
overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic. He once again
called for the lifting of sanctions against
countries so that they can employ all the
resources needed to fight the virus.
 Two days earlier
Russia, Syria, Iran, Cuba, China, the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Nicaragua and
Venezuela sent a joint letter to the UN Secretary
General calling on him to demand that sanctions be
lifted on countries that are being hindered in
their national efforts against the virus.
Additionally, Russia has submitted a resolution to
the UN General Assembly calling for the lifting of
sanctions against targeted countries, in order to
by-pass the U.S. veto at the UN Security Council.
Guterres pointed out in his speech that "we are
in a war and are not winning it. It took the world
three months to reach 100,000 confirmed cases of
the infection. The next 100,000 happened in just
12 days. The third took four days. The fourth,
just one-and-a-half. This is exponential growth
and only the tip of the iceberg. This war needs a
wartime plan to fight it. Solidarity is essential
... That is why I appealed for a global
ceasefire."
The appeal by Guterres has been taken up by many
countries who, even before his call, had been in
action to assist others. Cuba, for example, while
facing brutal U.S. sanctions itself, is expressing
once again its legendary internationalism by
sending doctors and healthcare workers to help in
Italy, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Suriname, Jamaica and
Grenada, among other countries. It even offered to
help the U.S. but the Trump administration has
spurned its generous offer. Not only is the U.S.
refusing the help of Cuba to save the lives of
U.S. citizens, it has not lifted sanctions against
Cuba, and it is tightening sanctions and making
war threats against Iran and has put out a bounty
for the capture of President Nicolás Maduro of
Venezuela on the spurious charge that he is
involved in trafficking in narcotics -- all of
which are unconscionable criminal acts at a time
when the peoples of the world are standing
together as one against the pandemic.
Additionally, the U.S has been interfering in the
ability of Iran to purchase medical supplies in
its fight against the pandemic.
It is noteworthy that in his intervention at the
Virtual G20 Summit, Prime Minister Trudeau said,
among other things: "We are gravely concerned with
the serious risks posed to all countries,
particularly developing and least developed
countries, and notably in Africa and small island
states, where health care systems and economies
may be less able to cope with the challenge, as
well as the particular risk faced by refugees and
displaced persons." What is hidden in that
statement is that it is the imperialist system of
states, to which Canada belongs, that has
exploited and abused these countries and has been
directly responsible for their health care and
other systems being compromised. Yet these
countries are taking pro-active measures under the
direction of the World Health Organization to stop
the pandemic. Trudeau's concern about small island
states can be amply illustrated by the dastardly
role Canada has played in Haiti over decades, in
tandem with the U.S., to terrorize and exploit the
Haitian people, putting their health care and
other infrastructure in crisis. Canada too
participates in illegal sanctions against the DPRK
and other countries and has not seen fit to lift
these sanctions in this grave time.
It can thus be seen that while the U.S., Canada
and other countries continue to impose sanctions
against certain countries, which is directly
impeding their ability to cope with the pandemic,
there is an increasing global opposition to these
criminal acts.
What comes out in sharp relief during this
crisis, this defining moment facing humanity, is
the social solidarity of the peoples of this
world, the lofty acts of Cuba and other nations,
and efforts to share information and help one
another. In contrast, the pandemic also shows the
ugly face of U.S. imperialism and its fellow
travellers, who, by continuing sanctions against
Cuba, the DPRK, Iran, Venezuela and others, reveal
that they are bereft of any humanity whatsoever.
It underscores the political need for humanity to
step up the collective battle to bring the U.S.
imperialists and their allies to heel, if the
nations and peoples of the world are to have a
bright and prosperous future.
Vietnamese family of recovered COVID-19 patient
presents flowers to a doctor in the northern
province of Vinh Phuc, Feb. 26, 2020. At the time
the patient was the last being treated.
From the get-go, the government of the Socialist
Republic of Vietnam has taken all measures to
combat COVID-19, including a massive public
education and rules enforcement campaign. As of
March 28, Vietnam reported 174 cases and no
deaths. As soon as the virus appeared in Vietnam,
the government struck a National Steering
Committee for COVID-19 with the participation of
ministers and officials across ministries, led by
Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, who is
determined that Vietnam will keep its number of
cases to less than 1,000. Deputy Prime Minister Vu
noted that with the people mobilized under the
leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam, and
the government and its ministries, the Vietnamese
people will defeat the virus. Ministries are
responsible for implementing any decision taken by
the National Steering Committee. In addition,
Vietnam works closely with the World Health
Organization, which has provided lab testing
resources to the country.
In a recent interview, Professor Le Vu Anh, a
public health leader and founding Dean of the
Hanoi School of Public Health, pointed out that
citizens' health care is a top priority of the
government. He explained that health care is
organized through four levels of administration --
central, provincial, district and commune -- and
at each level there is adequate staffing and
infrastructure to support the health of the
people. These levels of organization make it
possible to undertake a successful public
education campaign to inform the citizens of the
danger posed by COVID-19 and involve them in the
fight against the virus, he noted.
Professor Le also pointed out that there is
public health insurance, and although there are
public as well as private health facilities, all
are required to be licensed by the state and are
regularly monitored to ensure that a thorough job
is being done to secure the people's health and
well-being.
Reports reveal the level of intervention and
support Vietnam gives its citizens when it comes
to fighting COVID-19. For example, if a person is
sick in a building, the whole building is locked
down and the government provides three hot meals a
day to everyone in the building at minimal cost
until the person recovers. If a person enters the
country from abroad, government health officials
immediately put them in quarantine for a 14-day
period at state expense. Hotels are being opened
and rooms made available at subsidized rates for
those who wish to move there to self-isolate. This
also helps to keep the tourism industry active
during the pandemic. These and other measures have
proven to be effective means of fighting COVID-19
and Vietnam is showing that the full intervention
of the state and the mobilization and active
participation of the entire people are the key to
successfully containing the virus.
Despite brutal U.S. blockade against Cuba, yet
another Cuban medical team prepares to
travel
to the European principality of Andorra,
bordering Spain, to assist in combatting
COVID-19.
"Humanity faces a common challenge. This
pandemic does not respect borders or ideologies.
It threatens the lives of all and it is everyone's
responsibility to address it," Cuban Foreign
Minister Bruno Rodríguez wrote on his Twitter
account this week.
In his intervention on March 27 at the Virtual
Ministerial Meeting of the Community of Latin
American and Caribbean States (CELAC) on Health
Issues for the Containment and Monitoring of
COVID-19, Rodríguez called for a joint effort to
strengthen solidarity and international
cooperation to address the pandemic.
He said Cuba provides its modest cooperation to
those who request it and is willing to continue
doing so, and affirmed that Our America can emerge
victorious supported by solidarity and unity in
diversity. In this sense he said political
differences must be set aside, to make way for the
joint search for the necessary answers, without
expecting miraculous aid from the developed North.
He said it was unacceptable that some countries
have to deal with the application of arbitrary
unilateral coercive measures like those imposed by
the United States against Nicaragua and Venezuela,
demanding an immediate end to them. He also
condemned the campaign of the U.S. government to
try and discredit Cuba's medical cooperation by
pressuring countries to reject it, noting that it
comes right at a time when solidarity among
nations is increasing around the world.
"Cuba promotes peace, health, life. We are proud
of our health professionals who from this island
or different corners of the world have joined the
fight against COVID-19. They embody the humanity
and solidarity of the Cuban Revolution," he said.
Cuba has so far sent medical teams to assist 14
countries, including Italy and Andorra, which
borders the hard-hit countries of Spain and
France, in Europe; Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda,
St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Haiti, St.
Lucia, Suriname, Grenada, Dominica, St.
Kitts and Nevis, and Belize in the
Caribbean; and Venezuela and Nicaragua. Most
of the 800 health professionals on these missions
are members of the specially trained Henry Reeve
International Medical Brigade against Disasters
and Serious Epidemics, renowned for its work
against the Ebola epidemic in Africa. Another 500
doctors, mainly specialists in emergency medicine
and therapy, will shortly depart for Argentina.
Cuba also reports that over 45 countries around
the world have requested its Recombinant Human
Interferon Alpha 2B for use in their treatment
regimens for COVID-19, based on favourable results
it has obtained in China, Cuba and other
countries.
Coping with the Pandemic at Home
Public Health Minister Jose Angel Portal reported
on Sunday that as of March 29 Cuba had 139
confirmed COVID-19 cases. These included 114
Cubans and 25 foreigners. There are 124 who are
clinically stable, 3 are in critical condition, 3
in serious condition, and 3 have died. One has
been evacuated from the country and 4 have been
released. He said Cuba is currently in the
pre-epidemic stage as community transmission is
not yet in evidence.
On March 20 President Díaz-Canel addressed the
nation on television, saying "As a state and
government, we have the responsibility to protect
human lives and the entire social fabric,
addressing the situation in a comprehensive
manner, with serenity, realism and objectivity.
There can be no panic, but no overconfidence
either." He announced that as of March 24
non-residents of Cuba would not be allowed to
travel to the country, cutting off a major source
of the country's income for 30 days. Cuban
residents entering that country would be required
to undergo 14 days of quarantine. He also called
on the population to more seriously practice
social distancing and other practices aimed at
preventing the transmission of COVID-19.
Of the Cuban residents who returned home from
abroad on March 28, 128 went directly to
established isolation centers for
clinical-epidemiological monitoring. So far 2,317
people, 115 of them foreigners, have spent time
and been monitored in those centres. In addition,
30,642 people are in quarantine at home, at the
primary care level. Medical students and members
of the Federation of Cuban Women and of Committees
for the Defense of the Revolution have visited
more than 642,560 families to ensure they have the
support needed to confront the pandemic.
Cuba has begun adopting new measures in terms of
its internal trade and sectors of the economy
where investments will be directed, since its
ability to import needed goods cannot be counted
on in the coming period.
On March 28 Deputy Prime Minister Alejandro Gil
announced that domestic production would be
focused on such things as agriculture, hygiene and
medications. Minister of Internal Trade Betsy Diaz
announced plans for the distribution of food and
other necessities in an equitable way, aimed at
preventing crowding. Sales of vegetables, proteins
and hygiene products will be prioritized, she
said, to supply all Cuban households.
- ALBA Social Movements Canada,
Ottawa Branch -
After years of brutal sanctions and threats of
military intervention against Venezuela, the U.S.,
frustrated by the failure of all the attempts to
impose regime change, has escalated their attacks
by accusing Venezuela and President Nicolás Maduro
of narco-terrorism and offered a $15 million
reward for his arrest or assassination along with
the other leaders of the Bolivarian Revolution.
Only yesterday [March 27], the U.S. was invoking
a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, blaming Maduro
and calling for his overthrow in the name of the
human rights of the Venezuelan people, to give
their umpteenth attempt at regime change some kind
of legitimacy. Now that mask has been cast aside
and the U.S. is openly resorting to a blatant form
of targeted assassination, a repugnant form of
international bounty hunting. This must not pass!
Needless to say, the U.S. authorities did not
present a single shred of evidence to support
their accusations. It is a well-known fact that it
is the U.S. through the CIA and its main ally in
Latin America, President Duque of Colombia who are
the main sources of narco-terrorism in the region.
 This dangerous and
criminal action of the Trump administration comes
at a time when Venezuela and countries around the
world are mobilizing their resources to fight the
COVID-19 pandemic which is rapidly expanding.
Peoples around the world are uniting in an
unprecedented international effort to overcome the
virus and defend the health and safety of the
people. It comes at a time when the U.S. itself
has become in recent days the epicentre of the
pandemic.
It has been recently reported that eight
countries representing around one quarter of all
humanity, say that Washington's actions are
undermining their response to the COVID-19
pandemic. The governments of China, Cuba, Iran,
Nicaragua, North Korea, Russia, Syria and
Venezuela -- all under sanctions by the United
States -- sent a joint statement to the United
Nations Secretary-General, the UN's High
Commissioner on Human Rights and the Director
General of the World Health Organization calling
for an end to the unilateral American economic
blockade as it is illegal and a blatant violation
of international law and the Charter of the United
Nations.
In recent weeks, nations have been calling out
for increased cooperation, for a pooling of
resources and a setting aside of differences to
work together to overcome the planetary pandemic.
The times are crying out for new international
relations under the banner "One Humanity, One
Struggle." The U.S. is intent on running counter
to the needs of the people on the world scale and
is hindering the forward march of the people with
their sanctions, their ongoing wars of aggression
and occupation and their plots for regime change.
These latest hoodlum activities of the U.S.
against Venezuela must not pass!
This latest outrageous provocation by the U.S.
administration creates a very dangerous situation
for the people of Venezuela and all the ALBA
countries. The invitation to violence against the
democratically-elected government of Venezuela not
only poses a clear threat to the independence and
sovereignty of Venezuela but also threatens the
stability of the whole region of Latin America and
the Caribbean.
The U.S. criminal threats cannot be allowed to
stand! The Venezuelan people and their President
Nicolás Maduro, deserve the support of Canadians
and peoples all over the world against these
latest U.S. provocations.
Hands Off Venezuela!
On March 27, after
Attorney General William Barr announced that the
U.S. government would pay millions of dollars for
the handover of President Nicolás Maduro and other
named leaders of the Venezuelan state, the
following communique was issued by the Bolivarian
National Armed Forces of Venezuela (FANB):
The Bolivarian National Armed Forces
categorically reject the extravagant and extreme
accusations of the United States Department of
Justice against the citizen Nicolás Maduro Moros,
Constitutional President of the Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela, our Commander-in-Chief; the
citizen General-in-Chief Vladimir Padrino López,
Vice President of Political Sovereignty, Security
and Peace, and Minister for Defence, as well as
other important political and military leaders of
the Venezuelan State.
Without shame, this base attack of the U.S.
empire occurs precisely at a critical moment
experienced by humanity, when it is fighting for
life, trying to contain COVID-19, against which
the Bolivarian Government, through its
civil-military union, is achieving effective
results and adequately attending to the basic
needs of its population. Likewise, this onslaught
arises right after a plot was revealed involving
the carrying out of violent acts against
recognized authorities of our country from
Colombian territory. It seems that their
frustrated attempts to overthrow the legitimately
constituted government have led them to come up
with judicial fantasies, that without a doubt
deserve the international community's strong
condemnation.
It is obvious that their treacherous intention is
to discredit our democratic institutions and
render invisible the extraordinary sacrifice that
millions of Venezuelans make every day to overcome
the sanctions and economic-financial blockade,
which has been categorized as a crime against
humanity, imposed by the empire itself, and to
overcome adversities in order to achieve peace and
national development. It can also be easily
inferred that they are trying to divert attention
from the enormous difficulties their capitalist
health system is having dealing with the pandemic
currently plaguing us, and from the electoral race
for the re-election of Donald Trump, who will go
down in history as the most disastrous and
irrational of the U.S. presidents.
These accusations, totally devoid of any kind of
evidence, are intended to tarnish the morality of
a handful of patriots who have dedicated their
lives to the service of the Nation, and contrary
to what they claim, fight the scourge of drug
trafficking generated in Colombia with vehemence
and revolutionary ethics. According to the UN
Office on Drugs and Crime, it is in Colombia where
70 per cent of the world's cocaine is produced, 93
per cent of which reaches the United States via
the Pacific route. In this regard, the magnanimous
effort that the FANB has made in combating this
illicit activity needs to be highlighted, pointing
to the neutralization of more than 189 aircraft
used for drug trafficking, all within the
framework of the Control Law for the Comprehensive
Defense of Airspace .
President Nicolás Maduro Moros is a renowned
social leader forged in union struggles for the
demands of the working class, who promotes a
humanist and social justice project for our
beloved homeland; he has also served as an
exceptional Commander-in-Chief. For his part,
General-in-Chief Vladimir Padrino López, is a
General with a refined academic and professional
career, with great moral authority both inside and
outside the institution, at the head of which he
has assumed complex challenges for more than five
years as Minister of People's Power for Defence.
For these reasons, the FANB reaffirms its absolute
loyalty and unwavering commitment to continue
accompanying them in the battles that we wage
permanently to guarantee health, safety, good
living and the sacred interests of the Venezuelan
people.
Holding firm to the traditions handed down to us
by the Liberator Simón Bolívar and the Supreme
Commander Hugo Chávez, we reiterate to the entire
world that the U.S. empire and its allies will
never bend our dignity and irrevocable decision to
be free, sovereign and independent.
Chávez lives The homeland continues.
Independence and a socialist homeland We will
live and win. Always loyal Traitors never!
- Leonardo Flores -
Venezuelan doctors conduct a COVID-19 house visit.
Within a few hours of being launched, over 800
Venezuelans in the U.S. registered for an
emergency flight from Miami to Caracas through a
website run by the Venezuelan government. This
flight, offered at no cost, was proposed by
President Nicolás Maduro when he learned that 200
Venezuelans were stuck in the United States
following his government's decision to stop
commercial flights as a preventative coronavirus
measure. The promise of one flight expanded to two
or more flights, as it became clear that many
Venezuelans in the U.S. wanted to go back to
Venezuela, yet the situation remains unresolved
due to the U.S. ban on flights to and from the
country.
Those who rely solely on the mainstream media
might wonder who in their right mind would want to
leave the United States for Venezuela. Numerous
outlets -- including TIME Magazine, the Washington Post,
The Hill,
the Miami
Herald, and others -- published opinions
in the past week describing Venezuela as a chaotic
nightmare. These media outlets painted a picture
of a coronavirus disaster, of government
incompetence and of a nation teetering on the
brink of collapse. The reality of Venezuela's
coronavirus response is not covered by the
mainstream media at all.
Furthermore, what each of these articles
shortchanges is the damage caused by the Trump
administration's sanctions, which devastated the
economy and healthcare system long before the
coronavirus pandemic. These sanctions have
impoverished millions of Venezuelans and
negatively impact vital infrastructure, such as
electricity generation. Venezuela is impeded from
importing spare parts for its power plants and the
resulting blackouts interrupt water services that
rely on electric pumps. These, along with dozens
of other implications from the hybrid war on
Venezuela, have caused a decline in health
indicators across the board, leading to 100,000
deaths as a consequence of the sanctions.
Regarding coronavirus specifically, the sanctions
raise the costs of testing kits and medical
supplies, and ban Venezuela's government from
purchasing medical equipment from the U.S. (and
from many European countries). These obstacles
would seemingly place Venezuela on the path to a
worst-case scenario, similar to Iran (also
battered by sanctions) or Italy (battered by
austerity and neo-liberalism). In contrast to
those two countries, Venezuela took decisive steps
early on to face the pandemic.
As a result of these steps and other factors,
Venezuela is currently in its best-case scenario.
As of this writing, 11 days after the first
confirmed case of coronavirus, the country has 86
infected people, with 0 deaths. Its neighbors have
not fared as well: Brazil has 1,924 cases with 34
deaths; Ecuador 981 and 18; Chile 746 and 2; Peru
395 and 5; Mexico 367 and 4; Colombia 306 and 3.
(With the exception of Mexico, those governments
have all actively participated and contributed to
the U.S.-led regime change efforts in Venezuela.)
Why is Venezuela doing so much better than others
in the region?
Skeptics will claim that the Maduro government is
hiding figures and deaths, that there's not enough
testing, not enough medicine, not enough talent to
adequately deal with a pandemic. But here are the
facts:
First, international
solidarity has played a priceless role in enabling
the government to rise to the challenge. China
sent coronavirus diagnostic kits that will allow
320,000 Venezuelans to be tested, in addition to a
team of experts and tons of supplies. Cuba sent
130 doctors and 10,000 doses of interferon
alfa-2b, a drug with an established record of
helping COVID-19 patients recover. Russia has sent
the first of several shipments of medical
equipment and kits. These three countries,
routinely characterized by the U.S. foreign policy
establishment as evil, offer solidarity and
material support. The United States offers more
sanctions and the IMF, widely known to be under
U.S. control, denied a Venezuelan request for $5
billion in emergency funding that even the
European Union supports.
Second, the government
quickly carried out a plan to contain the spread
of the disease. On March 12, a day before the
first confirmed cases, President Maduro decreed a
health emergency, prohibited crowds from
gathering, and cancelled flights from Europe and
Colombia. On March 13, Day 1, two Venezuelans
tested positive; the government cancelled classes,
began requiring facemasks on subways and on the
border, closed theaters, bars and nightclubs, and
limited restaurants to take-out or delivery. It
bears repeating that this was on Day 1 of having a
confirmed case; many U.S. states have yet to take
these steps. By Day 4, a national quarantine was
put into effect (equivalent to shelter-in-place
orders) and an online portal called the Homeland
System (Sistema Patria) was repurposed to survey
potential COVID-19 cases. By Day 8, 42 people were
infected and approximately 90% of the population
was heeding the quarantine. By Day 11, over 12.2
million people had filled out the survey, over
20,000 people who reported being sick were visited
in their homes by medical professionals and 145
people were referred for coronavirus testing. The
government estimates that without these measures,
Venezuela would have 3,000 infected people and a
high number of deaths.
Third, the Venezuelan
people were positioned to handle a crisis. Over
the past 7 years, Venezuela has lived through the
death of a wildly popular leader, violent
right-wing protests, an economic war characterized
by shortages and hyperinflation, sanctions that
have destroyed the economy, an ongoing coup,
attempted military insurrections, attacks on
public utilities, blackouts, mass migration and
threats of U.S. military action. The coronavirus
is a different sort of challenge, but previous
crises have instilled a resiliency among the
Venezuelan people and strengthened solidarity
within communities. There is no panic on the
streets; instead, people are calm and following
health protocols.
Fourth, mass
organizing and prioritizing people above all else.
Communes and organized communities have taken the
lead, producing facemasks, keeping the CLAP food
supply system running (this monthly food package
reaches 7 million families), facilitating
house-by-house visits of doctors and encouraging
the use of facemasks in public. Over 12,000
medical school students in their last or
second-to-last year of study applied to be trained
for house visits. For its part, the Maduro
administration suspended rent payments, instituted
a nationwide firing freeze, gave bonuses to
workers, prohibited telecoms from cutting off
people's phones or internet, reached an agreement
with hotel chains to provide 4,000 beds in case
the crisis escalates, and pledged to pay the
salaries of employees of small and medium
businesses. Amid a public health crisis -
compounded by an economic crisis and sanctions -
Venezuela's response has been to guarantee food,
provide free healthcare and widespread testing,
and alleviate further economic pressure on the
working class.
The U.S. government has not responded to the
Maduro administration's request to make an
exception for Conviasa Airlines, the national
airline under sanctions, to fly the Venezuelans
stranded in the United States back to Caracas.
Given everything happening in the United States,
where COVID-19 treatment can cost nearly $35,000
and the government is weighing the option of
prioritizing the economy over the lives of people,
perhaps these Venezuelans waiting to go home
understand that their chances of surviving the
coronavirus -- both physically and economically --
are much better in a country that values health
over profits.
Supplies arriving from China to assist Venezuela
in dealing with COVID-19.
Leonardo Flores is a
Latin American policy expert and campaigner with
CodePink.
For Your Information
The COVID-19 Emergency Response Act
which received Royal Assent on March 25 contains
the following provisions, which are excerpted from
the website of the Department of Finance. Most of
these measures have already been announced but are
repeated here as official with some changes. The
Notice of Ways and Means Motion to introduce Bill
C-13 containing the complete text is available here.
This legislation amongst other things:
- Provides additional assistance to families with
children by temporarily boosting Canada Child
Benefit payments, delivering almost $2 billion in
extra support.
- Provides additional assistance to individuals
and families with low and modest incomes with a
special top-up payment under the Goods and
Services Tax (GST) credit, delivering $5.5 billion
in support.
- Introduces a Canada Emergency Response Benefit
(CERB) providing a taxable benefit of $2,000 a
month for up to 4 months to support workers who
lose their income as of result of the COVID-19
pandemic. The benefit would cover Canadians who
have lost their job, are sick, quarantined, or
taking care of someone who is sick with COVID-19,
as well as working parents who must stay home
without pay to care for children who are sick or
at home because of school and daycare closures.
Additionally, workers who are still employed, but
are not receiving income because of disruptions to
their work situation related to COVID-19, would
also qualify for the CERB. The CERB is available
to Canadian workers affected by the current
situation whether or not they are eligible for
Employment Insurance (EI).
Further clarification on how Canadians can
receive the taxable benefit of $2,000 a month for
up to four months called the Canada Emergency
Response Benefit (CERB) reveals that eligible
workers are those who lose their income as a
result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The CERB combines
the previously announced Emergency Care Benefit
and Emergency Support Benefit.
A Department of Finance News Release March 25
says that the CERB would cover Canadians who have
lost their job, are sick, quarantined, or taking
care of someone who is sick with COVID-19, as well
as working parents who must stay home without pay
to care for children who are sick or at home
because of school and daycare closures. The CERB
would apply to wage earners, as well as contract
workers and self-employed individuals who would
not otherwise be eligible for Employment Insurance
(EI).
Additionally, workers who are still employed, but
are not receiving income because of disruptions to
their work situation due to COVID-19, would also
qualify for the CERB. This would "help businesses
keep their employees as they navigate these
difficult times, while ensuring they preserve the
ability to quickly resume operations as soon as it
becomes possible," the Finance Department News
Release says.
It says the EI system "was not designed to
process the unprecedented high volume of
applications received in the past week. Given this
situation, all Canadians who have ceased working
due to COVID-19, whether they are EI-eligible or
not, would be able to receive the CERB to ensure
they have timely access to the income support they
need."
"Canadians who are already receiving EI regular
and sickness benefits as of today would continue
to receive their benefits and should not apply to
the CERB. If their EI benefits end before October
3, 2020, they could apply for the CERB once their
EI benefits cease, if they are unable to return to
work due to COVID-19. Canadians who have already
applied for EI and whose application has not yet
been processed would not need to reapply.
Canadians who are eligible for EI regular and
sickness benefits would still be able to access
their normal EI benefits, if still unemployed,
after the 16-week period covered by the CERB."
"The portal for accessing the CERB would be
available in early April. EI eligible Canadians
who have lost their job can continue to apply for
EI here, as can Canadians applying for other EI
benefits."
"Canadians would begin to receive their CERB
payments within 10 days of application. The CERB
would be paid every four weeks and be available
from March 15, 2020 until October 3, 2020."
Further excerpts from the Department of Finance
March 25 news release state that the COVID-19
Emergency Response Act:
- Introduces a pause on the repayments of Canada
Student Loans in the Canada Student Financial Assistance Act,
the Canada
Student Loans Act, and the Apprenticeship
Loans Act in order to introduce a 6-month
moratorium on the repayment of Canada Student
Loans for all borrowers currently in repayment.
- Helps businesses keep their workers by
providing eligible small employers a temporary
wage subsidy for a period of three months.
Eligible employers would include small businesses
(including co-operative corporations) eligible for
the small business deduction, unincorporated
employers, certain partnerships, non-profit
organizations and charities."
[Note that this item was changed March 27 when
the Prime Minister announced wage subsidies would
go up to 75 per cent from 10 per cent for small
and medium-sized businesses. The government will
also guarantee bank loans up to $40,000 of which
the first year will be interest-free and up to
$10,000 of the loans could be non-repayable. Also,
GST and HST payments, as well as duties and taxes
owed on imports, will be deferred until June.]
- Helps protect seniors' retirement savings from
the impact of volatile market conditions by
reducing required minimum withdrawals from
Registered Retirement Income Funds by 25 per cent
for 2020.
- Supports provinces and territories with a
COVID-19 Response Fund that would provide one-time
funding of $500 million through the Canada Health
Transfer for their critical health care system
needs and to support mitigation efforts as needed.
- Ensures the availability of drugs and medical
devices by providing the Government with the
authority to make regulations to address any
future shortages of therapeutic products,
including drugs and medical devices. This would
include allowing for drug patent overrides in
health emergencies in the period up to September
30, 2020, and for the importation of drugs and
medical devices not authorized for sale in Canada
to address certain shortages, such as for personal
protective equipment or drugs required to treat
COVID-19.
- Supports Canadian businesses through the
Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) by
temporarily providing the Minister of Finance with
more flexibility to determine BDC's capital limit,
allowing it to provide further financial support
to Canadian businesses when they need it.
- Supports Canadian businesses through Export
Development Canada (EDC) by temporarily providing
the Minister of Finance with more flexibility in
setting EDC's capital and liability limits -- as
well as the Canada Account limit -- and expanding
EDC's ability to engage in domestic financial
transactions so that it can more effectively
deliver financial and credit insurance support to
affected Canadian businesses.
- Supports the agriculture and agri-food sector
by amending the Farm Credit Canada (FCC) Act to
temporarily provide the Minister of Finance with
the flexibility to set the limit on the amounts
that may be paid by the Minister of Finance to FCC
out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund to ensure
continued availability of credit to businesses in
the agriculture and agri-food sector.
- Supports the mortgage financing market in
Canada by enhancing the Canada Mortgage and
Housing Corporation's (CMHC) access to capital,
and increasing its insurance-in-force and
guarantees-in-force legislative limits, so that it
can continue to provide stable funding to banks
and mortgage lenders in support of continued
lending to Canadian businesses and consumers.
- Protects Canadians from the Spread of COVID-19
by providing authority to a federal minister to
requisition funds from the Consolidated Revenue
Fund with the concurrence of the Minister of
Finance and the Minister of Health to support
federal efforts to prevent or control the spread
of COVID-19.
- Provides the Minister of Finance with
flexibility to respond expeditiously to COVID-19
developments, by amending the Financial
Administration Act (FAA) to temporarily
remove the requirement for the Minister of Finance
to receive Governor in Council's authorization in
order to use emergency powers.
- Supports the protection of Canadians' savings
by providing the Minister of Finance with the
flexibility to increase the Canada Deposit
Insurance Corporation's deposit insurance limit
beyond its current level of $100,000.
The situation facing humanity from the COVID-19
pandemic continues to develop rapidly, as
governments around the world and the World Health
Organization (WHO) strive to contain the outbreak.
About one third of the world's population is said
to be currently living under lockdown due to the
coronavirus.
WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus continues to give daily briefings to
provide an overview of the global situation. In
them, he repeatedly stresses the need for
international cooperation and solidarity to
overcome the pandemic.
Dr. Tedros reported on March 27 of a briefing
with 50 health ministers where China, Japan, the
Republic of Korea and Singapore shared their
experiences from fighting the pandemic. He noted
that "Several common themes emerged about what has
worked: the need for early detection and isolation
of confirmed cases; identification, follow-up and
quarantine of contacts; the need to optimize care;
and the need to communicate to build trust and
engage communities in the fight." Also highlighted
in this briefing were several common challenges,
most notably the chronic global shortage of
personal protective equipment (PPE).
Regarding the global PPE shortage, Dr. Tedros
informed that the WHO "has shipped almost 2
million individual items of protective gear to 74
countries that need it most, and we're preparing
to send a similar amount to a further 60
countries." He stressed that "This problem can
only be solved with international cooperation and
international solidarity. When health workers are
at risk, we're all at risk. Health workers in low-
and middle-income countries deserve the same
protection as those in the wealthiest countries."
He also pointed out that to support the WHO's
call for "all countries to conduct aggressive
case-finding and testing, we're also working
urgently to massively increase the production and
capacity for testing around the world."
Regarding treatment and a possible vaccine for
COVID-19, Dr. Tedros stated that, "One of the most
important areas of international cooperation is
research and development.
"A vaccine is still at least 12 to 18 months
away. In the meantime, we recognize that there is
an urgent need for therapeutics to treat patients
and save lives.
"Today we are delighted to announce that in
Norway and Spain, the first patients will shortly
be enrolled in the Solidarity Trial, which will
compare the safety and effectiveness of four
different drugs or drug combinations against
COVID-19. This is a historic trial which will
dramatically cut the time needed to generate
robust evidence about what drugs work.
"More than 45 countries are contributing to the
trial, and more have expressed interest. The more
countries who join the trial, the faster we will
have results."
Dr. Tedros also explained that the WHO is
facilitating training for health care workers,
noting that "More than 1 million health workers
have been trained through our courses on
OpenWHO.org. We will continue to train more."
In his March 25 briefing, Dr. Tedros put the
various social isolation measures in context of
the overall fight to overcome the pandemic. He
explained, "Asking people to stay at home and
shutting down population movement is buying time
and reducing the pressure on health systems. But
on their own, these measures will not extinguish
epidemics. The point of these actions is to enable
the more precise and targeted measures that are
needed to stop transmission and save lives.
"We call on all countries who have introduced
so-called 'lockdown' measures to use this time to
attack the virus. You have created a second window
of opportunity. The question is, how will you use
it?
"There are six key actions that we recommend.
First, expand, train and deploy your health care
and public health workforce; second, implement a
system to find every suspected case at community
level; third, ramp up the production, capacity and
availability of testing; fourth, identify, adapt
and equip facilities you will use to treat and
isolate patients; fifth, develop a clear plan and
process to quarantine contacts; and sixth, refocus
the whole of government on suppressing and
controlling COVID-19.
"These measures are the best way to suppress and
stop transmission, so that when restrictions are
lifted, the virus doesn't resurge. The last thing
any country needs is to open schools and
businesses, only to be forced to close them again
because of a resurgence.
"Aggressive measures to find, isolate, test,
treat and trace are not only the best and fastest
way out of extreme social and economic
restrictions -- they're also the best way to
prevent them."
Number of Cases Worldwide
As of March 28, 8:05 pm GMT, the worldwide
statistics for COVID-19 pandemic as reported by
Worldometer were:
Total reported cases: 656,763
- 484,946 active cases
- 171,817 closed cases
Deaths: 30,398
Recovered: 141,419
There were 60,451 new cases from March 27 to 28.
The disease has now been reported in 199
countries and territories. Of these, 98 have under
100 cases.
This compares to figures from eight days earlier
on March 20 of 266,208 reported cases (164,418
active; 101,790 closed); 11,187 deaths; 90,603
recovered; 21,314 new cases over the previous day;
in 160 countries.
The five countries with the highest number of
cases on March 28 were:
USA: 119,682 (114,465 active; 3,229
recovered; 1,988 deaths)
Italy: 92,472 (70,065 active; 12,384
recovered; 10,023 deaths)
China: 81,394 (3,128 active; 74,971
recovered; 3,295 deaths)
Spain: 72,248 (54,151 active; 12,285
recovered; 5,812 deaths)
Germany: 57,695 (48,784 active; 8,481
recovered; 430 deaths)
Compared to a week earlier, the most drastic
change is that the U.S. is now the country with
the highest number of reported cases. That said,
Europe continues to be the epicentre of the
pandemic, and per capita has the highest number of
cases. Of the top 20 countries with the highest
number of reported cases, 11 are in Europe. It is
also the continent with the highest number of
deaths, with 20,059, Agence France Pressse
reports. Notably, Iran, which on March 20 had the
fourth highest number of reported cases with
19,644, as of March 28 had 35,408, for the seventh
highest total.
Cases in Selected Countries by Region
In Europe on March 28, the five countries with
the highest number of reported cases were:
Italy: 92,472 (70,065 active; 12,384
recovered; 10,023 deaths)
Spain: 72,248 (54,151 active; 12,285
recovered; 5,812 deaths)
Germany: 57,695 (48,784 active; 8,481
recovered; 430 deaths)
France: 37,575 (29,561 active; 5,700
recovered; 2,314 deaths)
UK: 17,089 (15,935 active; 135 recovered;
1,019 deaths)
In these five countries alone, the total number of
cases increased by more than 150,000 in the past
week. Of these, the UK had the fastest rate of
increase, more than quadrupling the total number
of cases in the past week. Italy has the highest
number of deaths worldwide from COVID-19 at 10,023
as of March 28, reporting 889 deaths that day
alone. Spain has the second highest at 5,812,
reporting 832 deaths on March 28.
Euractiv reports that in Italy: "The northern
region of Lombardy, by far the hardest-hit, showed
a steep decline in the number of deaths and new
infections on [March 25], raising hopes that the
epidemic may be slowing at its original epicentre.
"However, optimism was tempered by warnings from
the south, where contagion and deaths are far less
widespread but are rising steadily, and could
overwhelm a health service which is much less well
equipped than in the rich north."
Various measures to stop the spread of COVID-19
remain in place throughout Europe. Euractiv
reports that Belgium has extended its lockdown
until April 19; Spain has extended its "state of
alarm" until April 11; Hungary has announced a
curfew; and France has extended its lockdown until
April 15.
In Eurasia:
Turkey: 7,402 (7,224 active; 108 deaths)
Russia: 1,264 (1,211 active; 49 recovered;
4 deaths)
Armenia: 407 (376 active; 30 recovered; 1
death)
Kazakhstan: 228 (211 active; 16 recovered;
1 death)
Azerbajian: 182 (36 active; 7 recovered; 1
death)
Since March 20, these countries experienced a four
to five-fold increase in the total number of
cases, except Turkey which increased almost
20-fold from 359 cases.
Russia will close its borders on March 30 in an
attempt to slow the pandemic's spread, according
to a government decree.
In West Asia:
Iran: 35,408 (21,212 active; 11,679
recovered; 2,517 deaths)
Israel: 3,619 (3,518 active; 89 recovered;
12 deaths)
Saudi Arabia: 1,203 (1,162 active; 37
recovered; 4 deaths)
Qatar: 590 (544 active; 45 recovered; 1
death)
Iraq: 506 (333 active; 131 recovered; 42
deaths)
The total number of cases in Iran increased by
15,764 since March 20. PressTV reported that on
March 26, the U.S. imposed new sanctions against
20 companies, officials and individuals in Iran
and Iraq.
An Iranian Foreign Ministry senior official
reported on March 28 that the U.S., through its
sanctions regime, continues to block Iranian
assets needed to purchase medicines and equipment
to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. The official
made the remarks in response to some reports
claiming that the U.S. had granted waivers to some
countries allowing them to release frozen Iranian
assets to help Tehran buy urgent medical supplies,
PressTV reports.
"The efforts of some countries have led to the
release of some of the Iranian central bank's
money," a source told the Middle East Eye
on March 27. "Those countries will receive a
sanctions waiver [for releasing Iran's frozen
assets], this has been granted and we are
following this issue," the source added.
Earlier in the week, eight countries sent a letter
to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, warning
about the negative impacts of unilateral sanctions
on international anti-coronavirus efforts. In the
joint letter obtained, the ambassadors of China,
Cuba, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea,
Iran, Nicaragua, Russia, Syria and Venezuela urged
the Secretary General to "reject the
politicization of such a pandemic."
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi
on March 28 referred to this action, saying the
world should stand against U.S. unilateralism and
its violation of international regulations.
"Unfortunately, the Americans have found the
courage during the recent years to impose their
own internal regulations and cruel sanctions on
other countries," Mousavi said in an interview
with the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting
(IRIB). He expressed hope that countries facing
U.S. sanctions and those independent states that
oppose the U.S. unilateralism would form a united
body and adopt measures to resist U.S. dictate.
In sharp contrast to the inhuman U.S. sanctions,
Mousavi said more than 30 countries and
international organizations have so far dispatched
health and medical aid to Iran to help the country
contain the coronavirus.
In South Asia:
Pakistan: 1,495 (1,454 active; 29
recovered; 12 deaths)
India: 933 (829 active; 84 recovered; 20
deaths)
Sri Lanka: 113 (103 active; 9 recovered; 1
death)
Afghanistan: 110 (104 active; 2 recovered;
4 deaths)
Bangladesh: 48 (28 active; 15 recovered; 5
deaths)
Regarding the disproportionately low number of
COVID-19 cases in India, The Wire Science provides
some perspective based on the low rate of testing:
"As public health experts continue to wonder why
India has such low rates of diagnostic tests for
COVID-19 per capita, a recently published study by
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
scientists indicates the council may have ignored
its own analysis on the need for more aggressive
testing.
"A mathematical model prepared by ICMR scientists
almost two months ago suggested that simply
isolating symptomatic international air passengers
could not have helped delay a COVID-19 epidemic in
India.
"In the model, published in a paper this month,
scientists from the ICMR compared a scenario of
'no airport screening' with three other scenarios
in which airport screening detected all
symptomatic cases. The researchers found that even
flawless screening couldn't have delayed a
COVID-19 epidemic in India by more than 2.9 days
because such screening wouldn't capture infectious
people who weren't yet showing any symptoms
(a.k.a. pre-symptomatic cases).
"The model also suggested that the only strategy
that could appreciably 'flatten the curve' for
India would be extensive testing of symptomatic
people with no travel history, allowing up to 50%
of all COVID-19 infections to be identified.
"These findings raise serious questions about
ICMR's reluctance to widen testing beyond people
with a travel history until only last weekend.
"Jacob John, a professor of community medicine at
Vellore's Christian Medical College, said, 'I
believe the testing of only travel-related cases
was a serious error.' As of March 17, ICMR had
tested only 500 community cases of severe acute
respiratory illness (SARI). The agency changed its
strategy only on March 20, to include all SARI and
pneumonia cases.
"Further, after WHO director general Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus asked all countries to 'test,
test, test.' ICMR officials claimed to have
written to WHO's India office that Ghebreyesus's
statement was unwarranted because it didn't apply
to countries like India with no evidence of
community transmission.
"When asked
why ICMR waited so long to widen community
testing, despite the agency's own model suggesting
otherwise, the paper's coauthor and epidemiologist
Tarun Bhatnagar said logistical constraints had
played a part. 'This is not Singapore or South
Korea, which are like a single Indian state. We
have to take a balanced approach to see that we
are using our resources in an optimal manner,' he
told The Wire Science.
"However, by ICMR's own admission, India had
ample capacity to conduct tests for COVID-19, and
so a shortage wasn't the cause for the slow
ramp-up. Raman Gangakhedkar, another coauthor of
the paper, has said previously that ICMR was only
using 10% of its testing capacity. The reason it
wasn't expanding further, he explained, was
because there was no evidence of community
transmission.
"This conclusion was in turn seemingly based on
negative test results from 500 SARI samples -- a
sample size that other experts have called
inadequate for a country of over 1.3 billion
people."
A TML Weekly reader reports:
"India has been put under a 21-day lockdown by the
government in the name of stopping community
transmissions. But this causes great hardship to
India's 200 million daily wage earners, 50 million
of whom work in the building and construction
industry. Many companies have laid them off. Close
to 200 million registered shopkeepers have been
shut down and millions of unregistered small
businesses have been forced to close. More than
175 million school children are not getting their
midday meal, which for a great many of them
is their only meal.
"Videos show labourers walking 60 to 70
miles to their homes in villages since they have
been let go. Many from Bihar were sent home
earlier by train but many are stuck without
shelter, food and water. The police are goondas
-- thugs -- who are beating up people who come out
into the streets without surgical masks.
Thousands of workers can be seen crowded at bus
stations while protective gear is not even
available to doctors and other health workers. As
in all crises, the ruling elites, religious
predators, politicians and all kinds of characters
are selling snake oil, cow urine and other such
things as a cure for the coronavirus. Health
experts and doctors are warning people against
such scammers. The ruling elite of India, Tata,
Ambani, Adani and others are using this crisis to
steal from the public funds. The central
government has announced a hefty package for
them."
In Southeast Asia:
Malaysia: 2,320 (1,973 active; 320
recovered; 27 deaths)
Thailand: 1,245 (1,140 active; 42
recovered; 1 death)
Indonesia: 1,155 (944 active; 109
recovered; 102 deaths)
Philippines: 1,075 (972 active; 35
recovered; 68 deaths)
Singapore: 802 (588 active; 212 recovered;
2)
In this region, cases for Malaysia and Singapore
roughly doubled, while those in Thailand,
Indonesia and the Philippines increased by roughly
three to four times, with the overall numbers
being quite low relative to other regions of the
world.
In East Asia:
China: 81,439 (2,691 active; 78,139
recovered; 3,300 deaths)
South Korea: 9,487 (4,523 active; 4,820
recovered; 144 deaths)
Japan: 1,693 (1,217 active; 476 recovered;
52 deaths)
Taiwan: 283 (242 active; 39 recovered; 2
deaths)
In this region, the spread of coronavirus has been
relatively low since March 20. Cases in Taiwan and
Japan roughly doubled, cases in China increased by
less than 500, while south Korea saw an increase
of about 800 new cases.
In North America:
USA: 123,578 (118,127 active; 3,231
recovered; 2,220 deaths)
Canada: 5,655 (5,199 active; 516 recovered;
60 deaths)
Mexico: 717 (701 active; 4 recovered; 12
deaths)
The number of cases in Canada increased at a rate
of about six times since March 20, while cases in
Mexico went up by about four times.
The U.S. saw the biggest increase worldwide,
going up from 16,517 cases, or an increase of 7.5
times that of the number of cases on March 20.
From March 20 to 21, the number of cases increased
by roughly 5,000. From March 27 to 28, the number
of cases increased by almost 20,000. The main
factor responsible for the worsening of the
coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. is the overall
anti-social offensive and neo-liberal wrecking
carried out by the ruling circles. This is
especially notable in the health care sector at
this time, which is mostly privatized, as part of
an overall economy that is fundamentally organized
to serve supranational interests, narrow business
interests and those with wealth, with everyone
else being left to fend for themselves. The
situation has been further aggravated by the
disinformation about the pandemic and measures to
combat it originating from within the Trump
administration, that is serving to disarm and
disorganize the people. This is a sharp contrast
to the heroic efforts of health care and public
sector workers, as well as the initiatives of
people from all walks of life who are going all
out to stay informed and organize themselves to
look after one another and keep the epidemic in
check. While these are not new features of the
political and economic arrangements in the U.S.,
the coronavirus epidemic has brought this
contradiction to the fore.
Regarding the number of cases by state, New York
has highest number, with 53,393 cases as of March
28, while New Jersey had the second highest with
11,124.
In Central America and the Caribbean:
Panama: 901 (880 active; 4 recovered; 17
deaths)
Dominican Republic: 708 (677 active; 12
recovered; 28 deaths)
Costa Rica: 295 (290 active; 3 recovered; 2
deaths)
Cuba: 119 (112 active; 4 recovered; 3
deaths)
Jamaica: 30 (27 active; 2 recovered; 1
death)
In South America:
Brazil: 3,904 (3,784 active; 6 recovered;
114 deaths)
Chile: 1909 (1,827 active; 75 recovered; 7
deaths)
Ecuador: 1,853 (1,807 active; 3 recovered;
46 deaths)
Argentina: 745 (654 active; 72 recovered;
19 deaths)
Peru: 671 (619 active; 16 revovered; 16
deaths)
A notable example from the region is Venezuela,
which as of March 28 has a relatively low number
of cases with 119 (39 recovered; 2 deaths). It is
is one of a number of countries that has begun
using rapid tests for COVID-19 that can be applied
outside health care settings and produce results
in minutes, a tremendous advantage over countries
like Canada where people approved for testing
still have to wait up to a week for results.
Venezuela recently received 500,000 rapid tests
from China along with other supplies. Venezuela
also massively surveyed its population through the
Homeland card portal and has health care teams
carrying out follow-up visits to almost 62,000
people. They have so far found over 3,600 people
with cold or flu-like symptoms who are being given
rapid tests to see if they have the virus.
In Africa:
South Africa: 1,187 (1,155 active; 31
recovered; 1 death)
Egypt: 576 (419 active; 121 recovered; 36
deaths)
Algeria: 454 (394 active; 31 recovered; 29
deaths)
Morocco: 402 (364 active; 13 recovered; 25
deaths)
Burkina Faso: 207 (173 active; 23
recovered; 11 deaths)
A recent report from Al Jazeera highlights a
particular concern for Africa, namely the
potential for the COVID-19 pandemic to hit refugee
camps across the continent. The article states:
"As the rapidly spreading virus gains ground, aid
groups warn of the potentially disastrous
consequences of a major outbreak of COVID-19 [...]
in places where health care systems are already
strained and not easily accessible to large
segments of the population.
"Lack of funding and years of fighting have gutted
critical infrastructure in several parts of the
continent, which could leave many countries unable
to respond to a surge in infections, said Crystal
Ashley Wells, regional spokeswoman for the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in
Nairobi.
"For example, in South Sudan, where more than 1.6
million people are internally displaced, it often
takes people hours, even days, to reach healthcare
facilities, and the leading cause of death is
'often preventable: treatable diseases like
malaria and diarrhea,' Wells told Al Jazeera.
"'We have surgical wards right now that are full
of patients recovering from gunshot wounds,' she
said. 'Then you have this health care system that
has suffered from decades of under-investment and
then conflict that has basically left people with
little health care at best.'
"Some of the internally displaced in South Sudan
have found refuge in overcrowded camps inside UN
peacekeeping bases.
"'They're literally living surrounded by walls and
barbed wire' in tents that are only inches apart,
Wells said.
[...]
"A country that is of particular concern is
Burkina Faso, which has registered the most
confirmed cases in West Africa [...] An
impoverished country of some 20 million people,
Burkina Faso has been gripped by an escalating and
complex conflict that has caused 'explosive
displacement' over the past year, according to
Wells.
"'There are about 765,000 people displaced,' she
said. 'It's up by more than 1,200 percent since
2019 [...] and it's expected to continue to rise.
Security and access to these communities is also
really challenging for humanitarian workers.'
In a recent interview with RFI, UN Secretary
General António Guterres said he "fears 'millions
and millions' of coronavirus cases in Africa,
where the youth will not be spared. He called on
wealthy countries to help the developing world,
for their own sake.
"Guterres told RFI that Africa should be the
priority of the international community as the
continent does [not] have the resources to fight
the pandemic.
"'Ninety percent of the cases are in the G20
countries which hold 80 percent of the global
economy. They shouldn't be working alone, each in
their corner, but in a coordinated manner to find
treatments and vaccines to put at the world's
disposal,' he said."
"Guterres says at least USD$3 trillion, around 10
percent of the world's GDP, is needed to slow the
spread of the coronavirus for vulnerable countries
in the Global South."
Neither article acknowledges the historical
responsibility of the imperialist countries which
invaded Africa, enriched themselves based on the
enslavement and exploitation of the African
peoples, and carried out coups and foreign
interventions, all of which has contributed in
large measure to leaving them impoverished and
vulnerable to the pandemic today.
In Oceania:
Australia: 3,635 (3,451 active; 170
recovered; 14 deaths)
New Zealand: 514 (457 active; 56 recovered;
1 death)
Guam: 56 (1 death)
French Polynesia: 34
(To access articles
individually click on the black headline.)
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