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COVID-19 diaries from Wuhan: What future after the pandemic? · Global Voices
Winston Chiu

A barber came to the residential district to do haircuts for the men in the community. (Photo credit: Guo Jing. Used with permission)
The following post is the twelfth in a series of diaries written by independent filmmaker and feminist scholar Ai Xiaoming and feminist activist Guo Jing. Both are living in Wuhan at the initial center of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are the links to the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh parts of the series.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
This instalment was written between March 15 and March 19, 2020. The original Chinese diaries are published on Matter News.
早上起来，打开冰箱，手在饺子那里停了一会儿。春节前夕，老家的侄儿儿媳给我们姐弟两家包了一千个饺子送来。家里阿姨回乡过年前也包了上百个饺子留下。这些饺子，现在只剩了二、三十个。按理，我吃掉也没有关系。但是，弟妹带着孩子回来，就尝不到亲情饺子了。
衣食无忧如我，也会叹饺子所剩无几；由此想到一些小视频里出现的居民生活匮乏的场景。有的老人不会团购，听说社区要送菜，坐在家门口等了一整天，然后失望地告诉外地子女，今天没有等到菜。
每次经历了大灾难和生死劫，我们这里，都有两种力量的角力。一种是强化和坚持我们对于权利和尊严的珍视，另一种是降低标准，每过一劫降一次。这样，灾难节节长，受难者把苟活当幸运。疫情过后，我们注定会庆幸自己的存在；但整个社会将提升对生命和权利的尊重，还是放弃或拉低了它的标准？目前各地都有以防疫为名侵犯公民权利，以及对弱者缺乏保护的情形。大难不死很可能留下长久的负面遗产，那就是满足于苟活且放任自私自利，以邻为壑。
This morning when I opened my refrigerator looking for food, my hand stopped at dumplings. Before Chinese New Year, my cousin and his wife prepared 1,000 dumplings for me and my brother and our helper also left me several hundred dumplings before she went home for the holiday break. Now I only have 20-30 dumplings left. I could finish all these dumplings. But then, if my brother’s wife and her children were to visit me, they wouldn't be able to enjoy these hand-made delicacies.
Carefree as I am, I still feel worried about having not enough dumplings. This reminds me of some video clips showing how some were deprived of food. Some elderly people who don't know how to join groups to buy online — they would sit outside their house, waiting for community workers to deliver vegetables. Quite often at the end of the day, they would tell their children in other cities that they did not get any vegetables.
Whenever people go through a disaster or a traumatic experience, they struggle between whether they should be persistent in defending their rights and dignity, or give up their principles. In the latter case, we give up some of our principles each time we experience a disaster. After a few disasters, the victims may consider mere survival fortunate. After this pandemic, we will probably feel lucky to be alive. But what of our society as a whole? Will it have more respect for human life and rights? Will it give up its fundamental principles? Recently, we have observed a lot of pandemic control measures that violate human rights. The weak are unprotected. Surviving a disaster may result in a long-lasting negative impact, such as satisfaction with mere survival and the consolidation of individual selfishness and interest at the expense of others.
今天的阳光依然很好，连续几天天气都很好，春天似乎真的来了。一个城就这样从冬天封到了春天。
今天有人在群里发了最新的无疫情小区名单，我们小区终于上榜了。大家又关心起社区别的小区有没有上榜。下午，小区门口贴了“无疫情小区”的牌子，物业主任拍照发到了群里，大家又是点赞，又是鼓掌，又是感谢。
It was sunny today. We have had several sunny days in a row. It seems that spring has arrived. This city has been locked down from winter until spring.
Today someone in our chatroom posted an updated list of zero confirmed case communities, and our community is finally on the list. We also checked on other communities in our area. In the afternoon, a sign reading “zero-confirmed case community” was posted at the gates of our district. The director of property management took a photo and sent it to our chatroom. We ‘like’ the photo, applaud, and feel thankful.
前几天有网友曝光了医护人员在疫情期间拿到的工资反而比平时少。这是因为医护人员平时的收入除了基本工资，还有绩效奖金，而疫情期间医院只发基本工资加补贴，有些人的工资反而少了。
Several days ago, some netizens revealed that medical staff received a smaller salary during the pandemic than usual. Medical workers usually receive basic salary plus bonus, but hospitals only paid them basic salary plus subsidy during the pandemic. As a result, some of them received less money than what they usually earn.
湖北一些地方解封也有几天了，可是朝令夕改的现象却让人摸不着头脑。昨天群里有个麻城的朋友说：“麻城明天又要封城了”，有人问：“为什么啊”，这人也不知道，说是村里刚发的通知，还艾特了大家，说：“政策有变，高速明天早上九点将禁止通行，办理了通行证的请抓紧时间返岗”。大家都紧张起来了，让有通行证的人赶紧走。
有个湖北的朋友小区解封了几天后，突然有一天，她的家人不知从哪里收到的消息，说是不让说的秘密消息，据说他们市要再封城，她和家人赶快去囤了一些米、油之类的食物，结果几个小时后又有人说再次封城的消息是谣言。
朝令夕改会让政府失去公信力，也会让人们没有安全感，无所适从。
Some regions in Hubei Province have lifted the lockdown for several days. However, the rules keep changing and people are confused. Yesterday a person from Macheng city said in our chatroom, “Macheng will be locked down again tomorrow.” Another person asked why, but that person did not know the reason. She just said that they received a notice from the village office, which said: “The policy has changed. The highway will be closed tomorrow 9 AM. If you have a pass [permission to leave the city], please leave and return to work ASAP.” People were very anxious and urged those with a pass to leave.
Another friend from Hubei said her family heard from an anonymous source that their city would be locked down again. The message was circulated a few days after the city was unlocked. She and her family ran to buy some rice, oil, and some food. Then a few hours later, they were told the message was only a rumor.
The policy keeps changing, and the government is not a credible source anymore. People are insecure and restless.
A kid looked outside from a window. (Photo credit: Guo Jing. Used with permission.)
有人说：“武汉的情况在好转”，武汉的疫情确实在好转，可是疫情引发的隔离、恐慌、牺牲、创伤是否在好转呢？新冠肺炎会给一些病人带来身体的后遗症，还会造成在武汉的人的心理后遗症，这需要多久才能好起来呢？
布鲁克林创伤中心的创始人巴塞尔·范德考克博士讲到创伤的时候曾指出，经历911的人们受到的创伤相对较小。他提到三个重要的影响因素：行动、关注、讲述。
行动”是指灾难发生的时候人们可以行动…“关注”是指911事件获得了全世界的关注…“讲述”则是人们能够去谈论自己的遭遇，更不会因为讲述而被指责。
这次疫情中，从封城到封小区，我们的行动空间却在逐步缩小，我们被困住。就关注而言，武汉确实获得了全世界的关注，可是人们的支持一度被阻断，医生不经医院允许不得向社会求助，志愿组织的医疗物资被官派机构所拦截。很多关注难以转化为实际的帮助。关于讲述，一些讲述在被封杀，很多网友纷纷准备了微博的备用号。
当悲剧接连发生，真话被当作谣言，“正能量”却被鼓吹。悲剧得到的社会关注遭到限制，问责得不到回应，人们的情绪就会慢慢地被消耗，愤怒在消失，无力在增强。
Someone said “the condition in Wuhan is improving.” The pandemic in Wuhan is indeed under control. However, what about the panic, sacrifice, isolation, trauma and sufferings related to the pandemic? Have these been healed? COVID-19 has wrought both physical and psychological damage. How long will it take for people to get healed?
When Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, the founder of the Trauma Center in Brooklyn, talked about psychological trauma, he pointed out that those who experienced 911 had less trauma than others. There are three factors mitigating psychological trauma: Action, Care, and Storytelling.
“Action” means people could act when a disaster happened… “Care” means the September 11 attack had caught the world's attention… “Storytelling” means people could talk about their experience and they wouldn't be blamed for doing so.
In this pandemic, the space for us to take action has been diminishing ever since the lockdown extended from the city to residential districts. We are trapped. Considering “care”, Wuhan has caught the world's attention, but aid from the outside was once blocked from entering — medical workers were forbidden to reach out for help without the approval of hospital authorities and medical supplies of volunteer groups were intercepted by government-designated organizations. People's attention was not transformed into action. Regarding “storytelling”, some of our stories were censored and many have to prepare backup accounts on Weibo.
In the face of tragedies, true stories are labelled as rumors while “positive energy” is promoted.
武汉今天新增病例为0，这信息可信吗？
11点多，物业的工作人员在群里发消息说：“大家好，我们联系了理发师师傅，有需要的业主，可下来理发，每人20元。”马上就有男人到物业办公室的门口剪起来头发，有四五个男人还排起了队。
我前几天问一个律师有没有接到疫情期间的家暴受害者的求助。她今天告诉我，听当地妇联讲有个单亲妈妈打死了自己的孩子。朋友说可能是生存压力太大了，没有收入，因为封锁也不能出门，各种因素夹杂在一起导致了悲剧的发生。
可怕的是，她听说不止一个这样的惨剧。孩子死了，妈妈会被判刑。孩子很可怜，可我们也不能一味地指责妈妈，因为这是一个社会性的悲剧。
Wuhan has zero confirmed cases today. Is this information reliable?
Today at around 11 AM, the staff in the property management office announced in our chatroom, “Hello, we asked a barber to come to our community. If any of you want to have a haircut, please come. The cost is RMB 20 yuan (US$ 2.83 dollars) per person.” One man went to the estate management office immediately, and soon there were 4-5 men in the line.
Several days ago, I asked a lawyer whether she received help messages from victims of domestic violence during the pandemic. She told me today that the local branch of the All-China Women’s Federation told her that a single mom had beaten her child to death. She said maybe the mom was too stressed, maybe she did not have any income, or maybe she felt trapped during the lockdown — all these factors combined led to the tragedy.
What's more horrible is that this is not the only tragedy she heard of. A child is dead and a mom will be sentenced. The story of the child is pitiful but we cannot just blame the mom. It is a social tragedy.


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After disappearing for 53 days, Bangladeshi journalist is found and sent to jail · Global Voices
Samaya Anjum

Bangladeshis on social media protested Kajol's disappearance holding a banner, “Where is Kajol”. Image via Instagram by theawkwardbibliophile. Used with permission.
On March 9, Bangladeshi photojournalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol, who is the editor of the fortnightly publication Pakkhakal, was charged with defamation. A day later, he went missing from his office in Hatirpool. When he was found alive 53 days later in Benapole, near the border of Bangladesh with India, police sent him to jail for ”trespassing.”
It’s not clear how he ended up there on the border, around 250 kilometres from where he went missing, but Amnesty International expressed concerns that this was potentially a case of enforced disappearance.
The news of his return arrived coincidentally on World Press Freedom Day, celebrated on May 3.
After a night of high drama, it appears Kajol is alive! His son Polok spoke to him in the early hours of the morning. What better news to have on World Press Freedom Day! #whereiskajol #disappearance #journalist #photojournalist #photographer #editor #writer #father #bangladesh pic.twitter.com/WkcdQyN7Jg
— Shahidul Alam (@shahidul) May 3, 2020
On May 3, in the wee hours of the morning, Kajol's famlily received a phone call from a duty officer from Benapole Police Station. After confirming the filing of a complaint, the phone is handed over to Kajol.  “I recognized him through his voice, we were all listening,” his son, Monorom Polok, mentions in a Facebook live video as he sets off for the destination Benapole, Jashore.
He is alive and he is fine.
Kajo's family and supporters, however, did not get to rejoice at his return for long enough, before he was sent to jail.
The same day of his return, a new case was filed against him for “trespassing” into the borders of Bangladesh without a passport or visa, for which he was later granted bail. Subsequently, Kajol was arrested again under section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure , which allows the police to arrest anyone without a warrant. According to Jashore Kotwali Police Station OC Moniruzzaman, he was arrested under section 54 because he has three cases under the Digital Security Act. He was sent to Jashore Central jail where he will be under quarantine for 14 days “as a precaution against COVID-19 infection”.
Handcuffed photos of Kajol being escorted by the police circulating around social media caused rage among his supporters.
Since March 10 the question had been: Where is Kajol?
Now the question is: Why is he handcuffed? #WorldPressFreedomDay2020 pic.twitter.com/cwWDjrsE95
— Leesa Gazi (@LeesaGazi) May 3, 2020
Currently, there are four lawsuits filed against him, three of which are identical under the controversial Digital Security Act 2018 for a report published by Daily Manabzamin, on March 2, regarding the arrest of Shamima Noor Papia a leader of the Jubo Mohila League in Narsingdi, an affiliate organization of the ruling party, on the charges of prostitution and extortion. The report mentions that Papia told investigators, during interrogation, that 30 influential bureaucrats and politicians including members of parliaments frequented her prostitution and extortion racket. The lawsuits also mentioned that the report was shared individually on social media by Kajol and other of its co-authors suggesting some names without evidence, which was considered part of the offences.
It is found out from family sources that now, due to the closing of courts for the COVID-19 pandemic, they are unable to file for Kajol’s bail.
On March 9, Saifuzzaman Shikor, Awami League MP of Magura, filed a case against Shafiqul Islam Kajol and 31 others, including Daily Manabzamin Editor Matiur Rahman Chowdhury, under the Digital Security Act. An officer of Dhaka's Sher-E-Bangla Nagar police station informed reporters that they have been charged with “spreading confusion by publishing false, fabricated and defamatory news.”
The next day, on the eve of March 10, Kajol went missing from his office, on Meher Tower at Hatirpool. A CCTV footage obtained by Amnesty International on their Twitter account shows a group of men tampering with his motorbike while he is still inside the building. Sometime later, when he drives away from the spot, it can be seen that the same group of men leave at the same time, following his direction.
On March 23, Sushmita S. Preetha wrote in an Oped on The Daily Star:
The (Manabzamin) report itself did not name any of these lawmakers and others, but it was later shared by some, including Shafiqul, on social media with a list of names.
Mysteriously, following his disappearance, his Facebook posts from this year have also disappeared. In fact, the last post that can still be accessed on his page dates back to November 27, 2019. According to a report by Prothom Alo, many of the missing posts involved the arrest of Jubo Mohila League leader Shamima Nur Papia.
When Kajol went missing, his family tried to file an abduction case, but two police stations refused to take the case, citing jurisdiction issues. They were finally able to lodge a complaint with the Chawkbazar police station on March 18, following a suo moto order from the High Court asking the police why it had not filed a case yet.
After fifty-three days his family came to know that he was found, however, a new case was filed against the photojournalist for breaching section 54 of Code of Criminal Procedure, for “illegally trespassing” into the borders of Bangladesh from India without a passport.
Symbol of the press freedom of Bangladesh. We found a journalist (Shafiqiul Islam Kajol) backed handcuffed after he was missed two months ago. #FreeKajol pic.twitter.com/iihwTtOn28
— Saif Hasnat (@saifhasnat) May 3, 2020
Saad Hammadi, South Asia Campaigner for Amnesty International, tweeted:
Caught between dignity and freedom is a journalist and father who has refused to trade off one for the other and has chosen the long haul to fight for both! Meanwhile, some of us have seen a son give his all to find his father back without giving in to any pain or pressure! ? pic.twitter.com/mDrWI2f2CY
— Saad Hammadi (@saadhammadi) May 3, 2020
Monorom Polok, upon the disappearance of his father, started the #whereiskajol movement on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter. In light of the current pandemic, different social media platforms were used as prime tools to address the concern. Resistance was built through art, words, live Facebook discussions, and also through live poetry recitations by Kajol’s 11-year-old daughter, Poushi. Approximately hundreds of people around the world participated in a digital human chain. They shared photos of themselves holding a paper to their chest that said “Where is Kajol”, urging others to do the same.
Bangladeshis on social media protested Kajol's disappearance holding a banner, “Where is Kajol”. Image via Instagram by Sofia Karim. Used with permission.
A virtual exhibition – titled Last Man Standing – was organized with the lifelong works of photojournalist Kajol. Literature from the exhibition read:
Kajol's work is the stark reminder of resilience and his disappearance is perhaps the price of his uncompromising lens towards social distortion. We demand the return of the last man standing.
The Digital Security Act on the basis of which three of Kajol’s cases were filed, has nationally and internationally drawn criticism and concern about press freedom from the time it was announced in 2018.
Time and again, a different journalist is prosecuted, or reported missing after encountering miscreants or people who claim to be from law enforcement agencies. Receiving frightening phone calls and murder threats keep the nation's media persons wary, making them vulnerable to attacks.
Mohona TV journalist FM Mushfiqur Rahman is one of the latest reported cases of disappearances. He  went missing in August last year. He said that some people sprayed a liquid substance on his face which made him unconscious while he was in a public transport. He was later beaten severely by his abductors and a few days later he was found by a local mosque imam in Sunamganj while crying for help.
Bangladesh has dropped one spot since last year in RSF’s 2020 World Press Freedom Index, ranking 151st out of 180 countries. Last year, a Bangladesh-based human rights organization, Odhikar, recorded 104 cases of attacks against journalists and media.

source: news-globalvoices

license: Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

author: Samaya Anjum


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Benin’s partial withdrawal from African Charter of Human Rights is a retreat from democracy · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

Regional conference on the death penalty in West and North Africa. Source: Guillaume Colin & Pauline Penot's Flickr account via CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
On April 23, Benin announced its withdrawal from a key document of the African Charter on Human and People's Rights, a decision which threatens to limit citizen access to justice under its terms.
Alain Orounla, communications minister and chief spokesperson of the government of Benin, said that his country was withdrawing from the protocol of the African Charter on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR) which allows a citizen or an organization to make a direct application to the African Court of Human Rights.
The ACHPR derives from an African intercontinental convention held under the auspices of the Organisation of African Unity, and ratified by Benin on January 20, 1986, with headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
Orounla's position, as given to the journalist Arnaud Doumanhoun:
… le Bénin reste parti à la Charte africaine des droits de l’Homme, continue d’œuvrer pour la protection, la sauvegarde des droits de l’homme. Sauf que le pays n’adhère plus au mécanisme ou à la procédure qui autorise les citoyens à saisir directement la Cour africaine des droits de l’homme
…Benin remains a party to the African Charter of Human Rights, and continues to strive toward the protection and safeguarding of human rights.  With this exception: the country no longer adheres to the mechanism or the procedure which authorise citizens to make direct application to the African Court of Human Rights.
Sévérin Quenum, minister of justice and legislation, justified the withdrawal in a declaration, reported by journalist Raymond Falade:
Depuis plusieurs années déjà, certaines décisions rendues par la Cour africaine des droits de l’homme et des peuples ont suscité de très vives préoccupations en raison « de graves incongruités au point de conduire la Tanzanie, pays hôte, et le Rwanda, à se désengager en matière de recours individuels et des Ong.
For several years now, certain rulings made by the African Court of Human and People's Rights have given grave cause for concern because of ‘severe anomalies which have driven Tanzania, its host country, and Rwanda, to withdraw from participation over individual and NGO access arrangements.’
It would nonetheless seem that the door of the African Court of Human and People's Rights is not totally closed to Benin citizens. Nathaniel Kitti, president of the Beninese Movement For the Defence of Human Rights (MBDH), writes:
ce retrait ne ferme pas définitivement leur accès à la Cour pour revendiquer le respect de leurs droits garantis par la Charte africaine des droits de l’homme et des peuples. A en croire ledit communiqué, «conformément à l’article 119.4 de son Règlement Intérieur, ils peuvent présenter des communications devant la Commission Africaine des Droits de l’Homme et des Peuples sans qu’un Etat partie puisse s’y opposer ».
…this withdrawal does not block absolutely their access to the court to claim protection of their rights as guaranteed by the African Charter of Human and People's Rights. According to the above communiqué, ‘in accordance with Article 119.4 of its Rules of Procedure, they may present communications to the African Commission on Human and People's Rights with no State having the right to object.’
One of the reasons which could explain Benin's partial withdrawal is a judicial case going back to October 2018.
The Benin businessman and politician, Sébastien Ajavon, had just been sentenced to 20 years in prison plus a fine of 5 million CFA francs (nearly $8,400  United States dollars), by the Court for the Prevention of Economic and Terrorist Offences. The accused being at the time outside Benin, the court had issued an international arrest warrant against him.
His lawyers had appealed to the ACHPR, which, in March 2019, after several delays, had ordered the Benin state to quash Ajavon's conviction and to pay compensation of approximately 40 billion CFA francs (around $66 million USD) to him.
Sébastien Ajavon also complained to the ACHPR against the exclusion of his party, the Social Democratic Union, from the local elections called for May 17, 2020. Here again, the court ruled in favor of the plaintiff and ordered Benin state to suspend elections, until such time as the court could examine Ajavon's deposition.
Journalist F. Aubin Ahéhéhinnou writes about the reaction of Benin's bar association official arbiter of disputes, Maitre Cyrille Djikui, one of the lawyers allocated by the Beninese government to his defense:
Pour le Bâtonnier, la juridiction continentale s’autorise trop de choses, et interfère « un peu trop dans les affaires des Etats ». « On a l’impression que les Etats n’ont plus de souveraineté, les Etats ne peuvent plus s’auto-déterminer »
For the arbiter, the continental jurisdiction is exceeding its brief, and interfering ‘a little too much in the affairs of states…One gets the impression that States no longer have sovereignty, that states can no longer exercise self-determination.’
Democracy in Benin seems to have been sharply set back since Patrice Talon's election to the country's presidency in April 2016.
The politician is also a businessman, ranking 15th in the wealth stakes in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa, and thus wields power in his country. But the government's decision to withdraw from the protocol provoked strong feelings among human rights activists like Samira Daoud, regional director of Amnesty International for West and Central Africa:
La Cour africaine des droits de l’Homme et des Peuples est une fois de plus la cible d’attaques politiques de gouvernements peu respectueux des droits humains. Le Bénin par ce geste sape les efforts de construire un système régional crédible et efficace de protection des droits humains.
The African Court of Human and People's Rights is once again the target of political attacks by those governments with little regard for human rights. By this act, Benin is undermining efforts to build a credible and effective regional system of human rights protection.
Benin's digital communications law 2017-20, of April 20, 2018, includes some clauses that criminalize the publication of false information. Amnesty International commented on this law and stated:
Au moins 17 journalistes, blogueurs et opposants ont été poursuivis en moins de deux ans en vertu d’une loi en vigueur dont certaines dispositions répressives mettent en péril la liberté d’expression et la liberté des médias au Bénin…
At least 17 journalists, bloggers and oppositionists have been prosecuted in under two years under a law currently in force, whose repressive provisions are putting freedom of speech and freedom of the media in peril in Benin…
In less than a month, two journalists, Ignace Sossou and Aristide Fassinou Hounkpevim, and eight other cyberactivists, had become the latest victims of this law's repressive provisions.
Beninese human rights militants have been no less vocal in denouncing the government's latest withdrawal announcement. For example, Renaud Fiacre Avless,  a lawyer and Amnesty International coordinator in Benin, tweeted on Twitter:
Les #droits de l’#Homme sont en deuil au @229.le 23 avril, le Bénin a annoncé le retrait de la Déclaration au Protocole portant création de la Cour africaine des droits de l’homme et des peuples . Les citoyens béninois ne peuvent plus saisir directement la Cour Africaine @kikanfr
@kikanfr
— Renaud Fiacre Avless (@Avlessifiacre) April 24, 2020
#HumanRights RIP at 229 [Benin's international dialling code prefix] as of 23 April, Benin announced its withdrawal from the Declaration and founding protocol of the African Court of Human and People's Rights. Beninese citizens can no longer make direct application to the African Court
Deo Gratias Kindoho, a journalist at the radio and television broadcasting office of Benin, tweeted:
Le #Bénin dégringole encore au class #RSF, 113è sur 180. – 17 places. Au dernier class, il chutait déjà de 12 rangs. Au moment où Patrice Talon prenait le pouvoir, le pays était 78è. Il venait de gagner 6 places ce mois-là, Avril 2016.
— Deo Gratias Kindoho (@dgkindoho) April 21, 2020
#Benin tumbles further down the #RSF Index, to 113th out of 180 – 17 places lower. By the last Index, it had already dropped 12 places. At Patrice Talon's coming to power, the country was 78th. It had gone up 6 places that very month, April 2016.

author: Abdoulaye Bah


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Hong Kong protesters make online game their new home during pandemic · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Game protest image from Joshua Wong's Facebook.
Hong Kong’s youth-driven anti-government protests, which at their peak brought more than one million people out onto the streets, have largely subsided since January due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
Schools and universities, which became hubs for the protest movement, are suspended, while the Disease Control Prohibition on Group Gathering issued March 28 linits gatherings in public places to no more than four people.
Since then, young people have been taking to their screens rather than to the streets, and filling their free time with online video games.
One online game, Animal Crossing, has stood out during the pandemic, as Hong Kong protesters have made use of the game's platform to air their political views and keep the spirit of the protests alive.
The social simulation was released for Nintendo Switch on March 20, 2020.
Animal Crossing allows gamers to escape to a deserted island where they can freely build a house and garden using resources on the island. Moreover, gamers are able to host events and open their islands up to visitors. The game app also enables voice communication among gamers
At the end of last month, a number of gamers gathered on the platform to create a virtual concert where they sang the protest anthem — Glory to Hong Kong.
Below is a video recording of the game scene:
願榮光歸香港（動物之森版）https://t.co/Ttn5DIaHXF#香港 #動物の森 pic.twitter.com/XwuS0KYlHt
— HoSaiLei???????? (@hkbhkese) April 30, 2020
@studioincendo meanwhile shared a gamer’s island where visitors are invited to strike portraits of Hong Kong's Chief Executive with hammers:
This is how #hongkong ppl spend our time during coronavirus lockdown – villain hitting in #animalcrossing, the villain is #CarrieLam, the worst governor in #hongkong history.#AnimalCrossingNewHorizons#StandWithHK pic.twitter.com/K5AbOTl9tD
— Studio Incendo (@studioincendo) April 1, 2020
Joshua Wong, a prominent pro-democracy activist, declared the game a new phase in the protests, which survived repeated crackdowns only to be brought to a halt by measures to combat COVID-19.
Animal Crossing is Fast Becoming a New Way for Hong Kong Protesters to Fight for Democracy! The #Covid_19 pandemic has halted public demonstrations, so protesters are taking their cause to #AnimalCrossing.https://t.co/A599kjlYsV
(This is my island!) pic.twitter.com/vjBhzw1nUa
— Joshua Wong 黃之鋒 ? (@joshuawongcf) April 2, 2020
Shortly after Joshua Wong’s Tweet, on April 10, Animal Crossing was removed from online stores across China.
Mainland censors are widely believed to be behind the removal and mainland gamers have blamed Wong for the ban. The incident has attracted international press attention.
Never one to pass up an opportunity to further the cause, Wong has been offering journalists tours around the various protest sites in the game.
He believes that online platforms can become a new arena to raise public awareness about Beijing's political encroachment in Hong Kong.
Over a year since the beginning of mass protests sparked by a proposed bill on extradition to China, may Hong Kongers are itching to get back to the real thing, however.
On April 18, taking advantage of diminished protest potential, Hong Kong police arrested 15 opposition leaders on suspicion of organising and participating in unauthorised assemblies against the Hong Kong government's proposal to amend the extradition law between August and October 2019.
The arrests have triggered small protests in major shopping districts over the past two weeks. Police have charged the protesters, citing the Prohibition on Group Gathering.
With the city marking 14 consecutive days of zero locally transmitted COVID-19 infections, it is anticipated mass protests will start up again in June, when disease control measures are set to be lifted.

author: Oiwan Lam


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How can the Caribbean prepare for a post-COVID-19 world? · Global Voices
Jada Steuart

Associate director for design thinking for social impact and professor of practice at Tulane University, Lesley-Ann Noel. Photo courtesy Noel, used with permission.
As is the case with a few other countries, the Caribbean is beginning to see a plateau in the numbers of new COVID-19 infections, as well as deaths resulting from the virus. Some regional territories, like Trinidad and Tobago, are supposedly meeting the criteria to slowly roll back lockdown protocols.
As Caribbean nations begin to look to the future, however, concerns abound as to how already vulnerable regional economies will adjust to a post-COVID world.
Lesley-Ann Noel, associate director for design thinking for social impact and professor of practice at Tulane University, believes that design thinking is a great way for Caribbean nations to reengineer many aspects of life — and governance — after the pandemic. Speaking with Global Voices via email, she explained how this might happen in the Caribbean context.
According to Noel, design thinking is a process — a mindset — that implements how designers think and work as a way of finding solutions to problems. The solutions that come out of this approach are typically empathetic responses to human needs.
As the region faces heightened levels of both social and economic uncertainty, change is inevitable, leaving many questions as to how Caribbean governments intend to plan for the near future.
To Noel, it's the perfect opportunity for regional leaders to use the process of design thinking to plan for and implement change:
We have an opportunity to redesign many things after this pandemic. It's a good time to reengineer social services, education, healthcare, among other areas, particularly because all of the pre-COVID-19 ways [in which] we accessed these services will have to change once the ‘stay-at-home’ orders are lifted.
Noel suggests that regional governments can first learn about the concerns and consider the solutions proposed by various members of the community:
Designers are […] very good at facilitating cross-disciplinary conversations. One of my favourite parts of the process is talking with people and learning about their concerns and dreams. Designers and design thinkers borrow anthropology skills to understand human needs. So, there is an opportunity to dig deep and check with people about the systems and services that do not serve them well. When we discover and pay attention to these ‘painpoints,’ we can design better solutions.
Of course, this measure can be paired with other techniques. Governments can also use a “prototype” approach, which many tech companies tend to use. They quickly find a solution to the challenge at hand, then follow up with people about the “efficacy of the solution.” After receiving this feedback, they can then make the required adjustments, as part of a design thinking process that is “participatory and collaborative.”
Caribbean governments can also use the creation of forums in which people propose expected solutions. This, Noel says, will allow leaders to see a variety of ideas and draw inspiration from unusual sources.
Many Caribbean territories still have rigid systems that make possibilities for change subject to high levels of bureaucracy. While Noel acknowledges that this type of red tape can get in the way of governments using design thinking, she believes the Caribbean's creative and experimental nature offers an ideal environment to test this type of thinking and devise practical solutions to pressing issues.
Even so, she cautioned against the temptation to think that “things can be fixed easily and quickly”, explaining, “Speed can also result in not listening carefully to people and properly analysing the issues deeply.”
Noel thinks design thinking can work really well in the field of education because it has the capacity to not only help plan for the future of schooling but also to “work out the kinks” in the region's educational systems.
As a collaborative effort, design thinking could allow stakeholders — teachers, students, parents and more — to come together, identify needs and challenges and propose and implement solutions. These will begin slowly on a small scale to be reviewed and then implemented by the government on a larger scale.
“A Designer's Critical Alphabet,” a card game developed by Lesley-Ann Noel, to introduce designers and design students to critical theory and help them reflect on their design process. Image courtesy Lesley-Ann Noel, used with permission.
Her second application would be to the curriculum, by implementing this problem-based methodology and adopting more creative mindsets in academic as well as everyday life. Noel's PhD research considered these very theories within the context of a Standard 4 primary school class in the rural village of Moruga, in south Trinidad.
Governments like Singapore have already used this type of thinking to reshape their country — from the way hospitals deal with elderly patients, to helping families deal with the mental and emotional aspects of  family court cases:
Hefen Wong from Singapore presents how they combine behavioural insights, design thinking and data analytics to develop better policies and services #GovDesign pic.twitter.com/7uvOvaps7C
— Honey (@honeygolightly) July 17, 2018
Noel is confident that this type of thinking will assist the Caribbean in coming together and thinking differently about the future. Interestingly, the government of Trinidad and Tobago has already begun to use this design thinking approach: the Ministry of Communications’ “Roadmap to Recovery” website allows citizens to submit proposals for the ways in which they think the country should be re-opened.
The balance between optimism and realism that design thinking provides can also be used on a personal level post-COVID-19, Noel suggests:
One small way that people can use a design thinking approach in their personal lives might be in asking, ‘How might I create the future that I want post-COVID-19?’ and use the problem-solving approach and the experimentation and creativity to design several possible futures for themselves. That might help people move beyond the fear that this pandemic might create for us […] to a place of hope and possibility.
Rather than adding to the panic, design thinking offers a tangible way in which to bring people and ideas together, and come up with a practical, achievable roadmap for a better, more resilient region — one that is stronger together, and empathetic to wider societal needs.
Not only will this kind of thinking help shape a better future, Noel says, but it's already a part of Caribbean identity:
Caribbean people design all the time. So, this way of thinking is compatible with our way of life.

author: Jada Steuart


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Taiwan refuses to deport caregiver who ‘insulted’ Philippine president on Facebook · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Philippine Overseas Labor Office personnel celebrating Labor Day in Taichung, Taiwan on May 1, 2020. Photo from official Facebook page of a Philippine government agency
Taiwan has rejected the request of a Philippine government labor official to deport a Filipina caregiver for allegedly publishing libellous social media posts.
On April 25, 2020, the official website of the Philippines’ Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) posted a press statement from Labor Attaché Fidel V. Macauyag of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) about the request to deport a Filipina caregiver in Taiwan for making “nasty and malevolent” remarks against President Rodrigo Duterte.
We are constrained to act for the deportation of a Filipina working as caregiver in Taiwan for the crime of cyber libel for wilful posting of nasty and malevolent materials against President Duterte on Facebook intended to cause hatred amidst the global health crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The statement added that the caregiver “has a group organized to discredit and malign the President and destabilize the government.”
The Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) mentioned in the statement is Elanel Egot Ordidor, a caregiver who has been working in Taiwan’s Yunlin County for the past three years. Ordidor’s husband is also an OFW and they have three children back in the Philippines.
There are an estimated 12 million OFWs in various parts of the world. Taiwan has about 150,000 OFWs who are mostly factory workers or domestic helpers.
The DOLE press statement said Ordidor initially agreed to cooperate by committing to delete her ‘libelous’ videos and make an apology addressed to Duterte. But POLO said Ordidor continued to attack the president through her other alleged social media accounts prompting the office to “coordinate with her broker and employer on her deportation on the basis of the gravity of the offense under Philippine Law.”
Ordidor was to be charged for cyber libel under Republic Act No. 10175.
Ordidor has regularly criticized the Duterte government’ COVID-19 response on her Facebook page. Some of her videos were taken down by Facebook but she continued to post commentaries criticizing the harsh lockdown measures that prevented the poor and workers from earning a livelihood.
She reportedly wrote that many will die not from the virus, but from hunger and poverty.
The deportation request against Ordidor was rejected by Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs which emphasized that migrant workers enjoy citizen treatment which includes freedom of expression.
The Yunlin County labor affairs department director-general also echoed the ministry’s stand and assured Ordidor that she can continue to work as a caregiver.
Ordidor expressed her gratitude to the Taiwanese government in a media interview:
I’m happy and I am very grateful for what the Taiwanese government said about upholding my rights.
I felt that they listened to what I was trying to say, and it shows that they do value democracy here in Taiwan.
Watch and listen as Linn Ordidor talks about her convictions, and why she thinks being opinionated and outspoken is worth the risk of offending the powerful here: https://t.co/TPweLGxcbq
— Rappler (@rapplerdotcom) April 30, 2020
Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) chairman and resident representative Angelito Banayo immediately apologized to Taiwan.
MECO is the official representative of the Philippine government in Taiwan. Banayo said the POLO official acted on his own without consulting with MECO.
The issue has sparked outrage in the Philippines. It was cited as further proof of the Duterte government’s intolerance of dissent.
Migrante International, a group providing assistance to OFWs, accused POLO of having twisted priorities:
There are thousands upon thousands of distressed, abused, stranded and neglected OFWs needing to be rescued and assisted but these overseas POLO officials opted instead to expend all their time in the world to gang up on Ordidor on the mere basis of her critical views against President Duterte. This is definitely meant to divert people’s attention from the Duterte regime’s inutility in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and recession in the Philippines.
Philippines Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon called for the removal of the labor attache:
His mandate is to promote the welfare of our OFWs. He has shown the highest level of ignorance. Worse, his action embarrassed the Philippine government.
Mr. Macauyag's irresponsible act toward a helpless overseas Filipino worker is clearly an abandonment of his sworn duties to protect the welfare of OFWs.
The Commission on Human Rights spokesperson, Atty Jacqueline Ann de Guia, urged authorities to uphold free speech:
We continue to remind the government that public service requires a higher tolerance for opinions and criticisms, especially that a democracy works best when there are healthy discourses on governance; thereby, allowing greater accountability from our public officials.

author: Mong Palatino


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COVID-19 and Trinidad and Tobago education’s digital divide · Global Voices
Amilcar Sanatan

“Classroom of the future.” Photo by Chris Gebert (CC-BY-NC-2.0)
On March 16, 2020, a week before the country went into its version of lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19, the Trinidad and Tobago government ordered the closure of all educational institutions.
For the most part, universities and other tertiary educational institutions have been able to transition to online teaching, learning and assessment. In many primary and secondary schools, however, the shift has exposed the severity of the country’s digital divide and the need to address digital illiteracy in Trinidad and Tobago.
In comparison to a number of CARICOM members states, the digital landscape in Trinidad and Tobago would appear to provide a ready environment for online learning. Internet penetration was reported to be 77.3% in December 2018, and for almost two decades there has been significant state investment and support from development agencies for the development of digital infrastructure and e-services in the public sector.
Yet our education system has lagged behind. In June 2019, the Minister of Education, Anthony Garcia, announced that Trinidad and Tobago would inform the Caribbean Examinations Council, CARICOM’s central examinations board, that the country’s schools would not be ready for the planned shift to in 2020. The aim was to have the public education system prepared to make this transition by 2021.
The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic has since accelerated these efforts and the urgency of moving teaching, learning and assessment online. The thing that does not transition as smoothly, however, are the socio-spatial inequalities that exist in Trinidad and Tobago, and the corresponding digital divide—the term used by social scientists and others to refer to uneven access to basic information and communication technologies.
The concept of a digital divide seems abstract until we examine the realities faced by both teachers and students. I have been interviewing secondary school teachers who teach fifth form (15-to-16-year-old) students. In one secondary school in the Caroni district in central Trinidad, out of the 15 students in the English A classroom, eight students neither have access to a laptop or the internet. The teacher has created a WhatsApp group to engage with the students. She e-mailed the group an exam revision exercise, and after one week received responses from only two students.
Similarly, a teacher in a secondary school in Port of Spain, Trinidad’s capital, reported being in regular contact with only four out of the 20 students in her class. The participation rate has been low and engagement with students difficult in schools that have large student populations from under-resourced communities. Some teachers have nevertheless created vibrant online communities for the teaching and learning of English and Math, but these appear to be exceptions to the rule.
Navigating online technologies for education presents many challenges, besides the obvious concerns about students’ ability to access the necessary tools and technologies. The interaction between teachers and students in the digital space is different from face-to-face engagement and depends on the level of digital literacy possessed by both parties. To carry out “formal” educational processes online requires both competence and confidence. For evidence of this, just ask any of the many members of parliament or local government councillors who have assisted members of the public with submitting online applications for social services.
To make up for the lack of comprehensive pedagogical training in this area, teachers in Trinidad and Tobago’s public education system are being trained to make the transition through piecemeal “emergency” online workshops and tutorials. As tracking student participation in online classes is difficult, a significant portion of teaching and communication with students has moved to mobile phone communications. “Online classes” have in some cases become “mobile phone classes,” as teachers use WhatsApp groups and personal phone calls to reach out to students. This has implications for what we think of as effective online teaching, in addition to the added labour teachers are required to perform to engage students.
Consecutive Trinidad and Tobago governments have sung the gospel of technology in schools. The Ministry of Education’s Laptops in Schools programme, initiated in 2010 by the People’s Partnership administration, did not bring about the major pedagogical and attitudinal shifts it declared it would. Studies evaluating the programme have shown that teachers and students had different expectations of the use of laptops in classrooms, and the success of the programme relied more on the culture of individual schools than on any benefits derived from individual ownership.
The scope of the programme did, however, bring into focus the limited ICT capacity available in secondary schools, and the need to direct resources to improve it. By 2016, the People’s National Movement administration discontinued the distribution of personal laptops to students in favour of an approach intended to build schools’ ICT capacity.
In the past I have publicly criticised the implementation of the Laptop in Schools programme both for its failure to confront issues of digital literacy and to create content suitable for digital modes of learning. My position has since changed. I am in favour of a comprehensive ICT in education overhaul that also delivers laptops into the hands of students. Will COVID-19 also shift the political positions of the current regime?
Teachers and school administrators have also pointed out the need for support services for students with physical and learning impairments and interventions into households with heightened parent-child conflicts. Many students in Trinidad and Tobago already contend with a high level of stress in their homes and communities, and with the new arrangements, many young people now find themselves burdened with the care of younger siblings, including managing their educational needs. The unequal division of labour often means that these tasks fall to young women and girls.
To say that the state has been negligent in their duty to educate the public during this crisis would be to disregard the significant emergency response and relief they have offered since the closure of schools. The fairly quick transfer of the meals from the School Nutrition Programme to parents’ short-term “food cards” on a needs basis was impressive.
But the ministers of government and public servants in the Ministry of Education have a difficult task in front of them. A press conference on April 14, 2020, offered a picture of the challenging context in which they have to work in order for “the core business of education” to continue. It also showed their openness to responding to questions about pertinent issues such as examination dates at the local and regional levels.
But what I did not hear was an acknowledgement of the importance of students as stakeholders and decision-makers. Student government leaders, student clubs and digital student “users” need to be a part of the decisions being made on their behalf and that will shape their futures.
Screenshot of the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Education's recently launched online learning platform.
Whether we call the thing we’re experiencing a crisis or a disaster, what will need to follow is a recovery and a reimagining of education, and to leave students out of the discussion around this is to leave them behind. The experiences and perspectives of students at all levels of the education system should influence the response and “way out” for the education system. What we do not want is a situation where the exclusion of students becomes a threat greater than COVID-19 to our education. As the Guyanese poet Martin Carter declared, “all are involved! all are consumed!”
Immediately after the Ministry of Education’s April 14 press conference, I received two phone calls. The second was from a parent who was trying to decide whether to invest in private lessons being offered by their child’s primary school teacher at a cost of three hundred dollars ($US45) per week. The deal being offered included two WhatsApp video calls.
The first call was a sixth form student who offered me a review of the School Learning Management System (SLMS), the online platform recently launched by the Ministry, on the basis of user-friendliness and content. People who have accepted politicians’ assessment of the platform should sign up themselves and draw their own conclusions. Maybe they could then begin to distinguish between public relations and reality.

author: Amilcar Sanatan


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Life’s a beach: How COVID-19 is changing tourism on the Albanian coast · Global Voices
Ardi Pulaj

Albania offers incredible beaches such as this one in Ksamil, in the southern part of the country. Photo by Ardi Pulaj, used with permission.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
Tourism is one of the industries that took an immediate hit from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, while the sector's medium to long-term future remains filled with uncertainty.
As summer approaches and most of the world's population is subject to various forms of lockdown, well-known beach destinations are unclear on what the traditional holiday season will look like.
In spite of lockdown measures, many Albanians flocked to beaches on the first Sunday of May. Dozens of citizens in Golem, Kavaja were seen relaxing in the seashore and enjoying the warm weather.
Albanian authorities have drafted a protocol to be implemented during the summer season in light of the pandemic.
According to the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Health's new draft policy, which has been sent to the business community for consultation, firms will have to employ an anti-COVID-19 coordinator to oversee hygiene measures for staff and ensure disinfection of premises. Staff will have to wear masks and gloves at all times.
Things will change for beach-goers, too. They will have to undergo temperature checks and sign a form declaring whether or not they have coronavirus symptoms, while noting any contact they might have had coronavirus-infected people in the past 14 days. They will also have to list any recently visited places affected by the pandemic.
Masks, gloves and hand sanitizers should be made available for tourists at all times.
The draft also stipulates that umbrellas should be positioned at least four meters apart and 10 meters from the seashore. Coastguards will be tasked with monitoring the distance between tourists.
In the swimming pool area, sun beds and parasols should be two meters apart, while a distance of three metres should be respected during swimming.
In the bars and restaurants, a table for four should have a 10 m/sq area all to itself, and customers will have to stay one meter apart.
Self-service will not be allowed and customers will be attended to by waiting staff, wearing masks and gloves.
Businesses will have to display these new rules somewhere visible to the public, in both Albanian and in English.
Despite the arduous new procedures in the works, tourism and environment minister Bledi Klosi expressed optimism regarding the local industry's prospects for recovery.
There are several reasons why Albanian tourism can be saved in the summer of 2020. About 80% of tourists come to Albania by land. Another advantage over other peripheral countries is the high number of small hotels. Greece is considering banning large hotels this summer, as they are very difficult to manage. The small hotels are manageable. Albania is a positive example of rapid response to the COVID-19 situation.
With its Adriatic and Ionian coastlines and picturesque highlands, Albania has a lot to offer during the summer season.
Businesses on the coast have already started advertising their offers, as have tour operators.
Remote beach – #Albania
All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware . . .
Credits: @nentor_oseku pic.twitter.com/HiHeXkRv4l
— Albania Holidays DMC (@albaniaholidays) May 4, 2020
? ALBANIA ? The Best Places To Visit
Plan your visit to Albania: find out where to go and what to do:
Best beaches: Ksamili islands,Crystal waters of Gjipe beach, Dhermi beach…Jala,Himara…
Ruins of ancient Roman basilica in Butrint…and many other places… pic.twitter.com/FcDPKiUAaQ
— Tea Tours (@ToursTea) May 5, 2020
The number of foreigners who visited Albania in 2019 grew by 8.1 percent compared to 2018, totalling over 6.4 million people. Albania's airspace and borders remain closed as of March and there is no indication as to when they will be opened.
Other beach destinations across Europe are also debating measures to manage beach-going.
Greek authorities and the European Union (EU) are evaluating the usage of an “immunity passport”/ “health passport” or “risk-free certificate”.
This document would enable individuals to travel within the EU or to return to work on the condition that they can prove that they have immunity from COVID-19.
But current World Health Organization (WHO) advice cautions that there is no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19, and therefore have antibodies, can avoid re-infection.
“People who assume that they are immune to a second infection because they have received a positive test result may ignore public health advice. The use of such certificates may therefore increase the risks of continued transmission”, the WHO warns.
Another option is being considered in Italy, in a region that's right opposite Albania across the Straight of Otranto.
According to AFP:
In Porto Cesareo, a small seaside town nicknamed “the Caribbean” of Apulia, a private beach is trying out a set-up respecting social distancing rules with chairs and umbrellas placed 1.5 meters apart and ropes to mark out the spaces for future holiday makers.
On the private beach “Bacino Grande” owner Fabrizio Marzano says they will focus on tailoring services to customers rather than trying to maximize visitor numbers as they would have in previous years. Rather than queuing at the beach bar, which is prohibited, customers will have their pizzas, sandwiches and drinks delivered to their umbrellas.

author: Ardi Pulaj


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As tourism declines in Cambodia, tuk-tuk drivers are down and out in Phnom Penh · Global Voices
VOD

A driver sits in his tuk-tuk, awaiting clients at Deumkor market in Phnom Penh on April 23, 2020. (Photo and caption by Panha Chorpoan/VOD)
This edited article by Taing Keoratanah is from VOD News, an independent news site in Cambodia, and is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement. Translated from the original article on VOD Khmer
When Poeun Da abandoned his job at a Phnom Penh garment factory to drive a tuk-tuk (a three-wheeled auto rickshaw) in 2019, his 3,000 US dollars investment in the vehicle seemed to pay off. Da said he could earn at least 100,000 riel ($25) a day, and between $500 and $600 a month, ferrying locals and tourists through the capital via mobile ride-hailing apps.
That was the case until mid-March when the COVID-19 pandemic made its way to Cambodia — with confirmed cases rising from one to more than 100 — and dealt a blow to his livelihood. Now, he earns anything between $2.50 to $5 a day, as he explains:
It’s really hard, bro! To be frank, in one day, [I get] only one ride. Today, from morning till night, I had only one ride, and I need to pay to the [ride-hailing] company and some for gas.
Tuk-tuk drivers like Da are losing their income as tourist arrivals to Cambodia have plummeted, and residents decide to stay home. At the same time, informal workers are largely excluded from the limited social welfare that formal workers have access to during the economic slowdown.
Cambodia has recorded 122 cases of COVID-19 since January, with almost all the patients having recovered and left quarantine. The Health Ministry has not reported any new coronavirus case since April 12, and no deaths linked to COVID-19 have been confirmed.
But globally, more than 3 million people have contracted the virus and over 210,000 deaths have been counted, according to the World Health Organization, with many nations restricting travel within and through their borders.
Cambodia has ordered a travel ban on people coming from Spain, Italy, France, Germany, the U.S. and Iran. The government has also closed schools, cinemas, museums, nightclubs and gyms, and temporarily banned religious events as well as other public gatherings.
Though most Phnom Penh stores, coffee shops and restaurants remain open for business, tuk-tuk drivers say people are going out less frequently since restrictions were established in March.
Vorn Pao, president of the labor group Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association (IDEA) says informal workers like taxi and tuk-tuk drivers have faced a sharp fall in income since the novel coronavirus hit Cambodia because of their inconsistent work and looming loans that many take to buy their vehicles.
If the virus and its economic impacts persist, Pao says drivers may feel forced to abandon their jobs in the capital, and return to their provincial homes.
At his vehicle trade shop in Stung Meanchey commune, Ry Silay says he would still buy tuk-tuks in good condition, but at a price that is $200 or $300 less than the vehicle’s value before the pandemic. However, Silay admits that he has not bought any tuk-tuks in the last two months:
The difference between [the number of] buyers and sellers is big. There are five, six or seven [drivers who want to sell their tuk-tuk] a day, but there are almost no [buyers] in a day, maybe one or two, so we cannot sell.
Hout Ieng Tong, president and CEO of microfinance lender Hattha Kaksekar Limited (HKL), explains his company would help clients who work as tuk-tuk drivers, noting that the National Bank had urged microfinance institutions to offer borrowers some relief because of the impact COVID-19 has had on their jobs.
LPG-powered tuk-tuks sit parked in a line, with drivers awaiting customers in Phnom Penh on April 23, 2020. (Photo and caption by Panha Chorpoan/VOD)
As Cambodia’s economy was beginning to feel the impact of the global recession, Prime Minister Hun Sen said in early March that tourism would be one of the sectors most impacted by the pandemic.
Civil Aviation Secretariat spokesman Sinn Chanserey Vutha told reporters in April that international visitors decreased by 20 percent in January, and 50 percent in February, and then by more than 70 percent in March and by 90 percent in April.
Parked outside the Phnom Penh International Airport, Mao Yorn, a 40-year-old driver, explains he could generally earn $25 a day by chauffeuring tourists and others using the litany of available ride-hailing apps. The income was sufficient to repay $300 per month on his $5,000 loan from Cambodia Post Bank.
But when the number of coronavirus cases increased in Cambodia, the number of customers approaching him in person or on apps dwindled:
Today, as a whole from morning till night, I have not provided one service, and tomorrow, I’m not sure whether one will come or not. Finding a construction job is probably better.
In an April report, the World Bank projected that the poverty rate among Cambodia’s hospitality workers — including transportation, tourism and restaurant staff — could jump to more than 20 percent if the sector’s average income is cut in half for two quarters. It also warned that the impact on informal workers would be most severe. In March, industry experts said that the tourism sector would be feeling the consequences of the pandemic for at least two quarters, if not longer.
Alongside a range of economic initiatives to help the struggling tourism sector, Hun Sen announced in March that unemployed tourism industry workers who lost their jobs could qualify for job skills training. However, the premier noted in April that informal economy workers — including drivers — would not have access to funds granted to suspended garment workers.
Hun Sen said on April 7:
For those who have the ID poor card, the state will intervene. But as you asked me, motorbike-taxi drivers have asked if there is any solution. [They must] sell their motorbikes first for spending and buy rice to eat, because if they all come and ask for a solution, [we are going to] die. How could the state have this much money?
According to IDEA president Pao, based on research by his association, there are about 50,000 tuk-tuks operating thanks to mobile ride-hailing apps, and about 10,000 Cambodia-made tuk-tuks on the road.
Luy Lary, marketing manager of the Cambodia-based ride-hailing company PassApp, acknowledged the strain felt by the company’s drivers and said the management was considering how to help workers.
In 2019, drivers protested PassApp’s decision to reduce rates while raising the company’s commission from 13 percent for each ride to 15 percent.
For Da, the driver, the payment deadline for his $2,000 loan from HKL is becoming more worrisome. Rather than waiting for a tenuous support from ride-hailing companies or the government, Da said he’s considering selling his tuk-tuk and looking for work at a construction site, or going back to a garment factory.
The latter sector has seen more than 130 factories request production suspensions, affecting about 100,000 workers in recent months.
If the situation is still like this, we do not know what to do. If we cannot make enough money, we can only sell our tuk-tuks to cover daily expenses and bank loans. If we do not make sales, we can’t repay loans.

author: VOD


text:
Thailand’s homeless particularly at risk amid COVID-19 pandemic · Global Voices
The Isaan Record

Members of Friends of the Homeless, along with local government officials, visiting homeless people in Khon Kaen City. Photo and caption from The Isaan Record
This edited article by Weerawat Somnuk is from The Isaan Record, an independent news site in Thailand, and is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Homeless people in Khon Kaen, a city located in northeast Thailand are one of the most vulnerable groups among the urban poor, as a 2018 study from Khon Kaen University found. How are these people dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak, and what measures is the government taking to protect the most vulnerable members of society?
According to the Khon Kaen Protection Center for the Destitute, there are 83 homeless people in the city. But the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed many people out of their jobs and onto the streets, making it difficult to estimate the actual number of homeless people. The Thai Chamber of Commerce predicted in March 2020 that the current crisis might leave more than seven million people unemployed, or nearly ten percent of Thailand's total population.
Nattawut Krompakdee, a coordinator at Friends of the Homeless, a charity group, remarked that:
Homeless people are probably less at risk of COVID-19 infection, compared to other groups of people because they don’t meet many people on a regular basis. Also because of their personality: they don’t usually mingle with other people. But if one of them gets infected, there is a high chance that the virus will spread among other homeless people.
Friends of the Homeless, and various government agencies, such as the Social Development and Human Security Office in Khon Kaen and the Khon Kaen Protection Center for the Destitute, have been distributing food and other necessities to homeless people and informal workers in the city.
The Khon Kaen railway station has become a gathering spot for many homeless people in the city. Many of them used to live in slum communities along the railway tracks. But in 2016, the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) demolished many of the houses as part of a double-track rail project.
Unlike the middle class, the homeless and low-income groups often lack basic access to information on how to protect themselves amid a public health crisis, Nattawut notes:
They don’t have access to tools that can prevent them from getting COVID-19, such as masks, hand sanitizer, clean water, and even a place to quarantine themselves.
Their lives have also been affected by the government’s measures to prevent the spreading of the virus. The Khon Kaen governor ordered a temporary closure of entertainment venues, schools, theaters, and other venues on March 18, bringing much of the city’s public life to a standstill. Nattawut explains that:
Flea markets, fresh markets, supermarkets, and small enterprises are a main source of income for homeless people. When those places closed or cut jobs, informal and day laborers lost their income and ran out of food for themselves and their families.
Another place where homeless people in Khon Kaen often spend the night is the city shrine in the city center. The area is illuminated at night, giving homeless people a sense of safety.
Sonsiri Wippraset, a 25-year-old native of Udon Thani in the northeast of the country, has been sleeping in the area since he was laid off from his job as an air conditioning technician in Bangkok. He only had enough money for a train ride to Khon Kaen.
He explains that he does in fact have a house in Udon Thani, but due to family problems, he decided to stay in Khon Kaen where he has found a community of homeless people who share a similar fate.
Despite becoming friends with other homeless people, Sonsiri still hasn’t learned what aid the government is providing to those affected by COVID-19. Although he would like to register to receive the 5,000-baht [156 US dollars] compensation money, he doesn’t have any information on how to do so:
Since I didn’t have enough money to go home, I decided to become a homeless person and stay here.
I had never heard of COVID-19 before. I just learned about it in the news but I don’t know what the symptoms are like. I’m scared. I protect myself by wearing masks that are being handed out, but sometimes I don’t wear one because it feels uncomfortable.
I don’t have an ID card right now. I don’t know how I lost it, and the homeless people in this area have not heard of this policy. Right now we want to survive by getting a job.
The Khon Kaen municipality has been working to address the needs of homeless people in the city for a few years. Pongsapat Saengpitoon, an official of the Social Development and Human Security Office in Khon Kaen, says the city has a policy to look after vulnerable groups to make sure they are not left behind in the COVID-19 pandemic.
We have a project in collaboration with the private sector called, “Pun Kun Im, which brings high-quality, clean, and safe food to homeless people and those who have lost their jobs due to the coronavirus outbreak every Monday at the Khon Kaen railway station.
There are also two homeless shelters in the city. One is run by the Protection Center for the Destitute under the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security and another one is Ban Home Saen Suk, managed by the private sector and capable of taking in about 100 homeless people.
Khaek, a 52-year-old woman, is one of the residents of the shelter of the Protection Center for the Destitute. She used to live on the streets before the shelter took her in.
The center usually allows people to stay for no more than 15 days, as it can only accommodate 10 to 15 people. But since Khaek is sick with breast cancer, she has been allowed to stay longer.
I have to undergo treatment at Khon Kaen Center Hospital once or twice a month. There, I noticed that the staff were very strict in detecting COVID-19, so it made me more alert.
Currently, there are eight people staying at the center, says Chansak Khukhirikhet, one of the shelter’s staff. Residents are urged to wear face masks, maintain one to two meters distance from each other, and avoid touching in order to prevent the spreading of the disease.
Apart from local projects in Khon Kaen, the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security has implemented measures to help people affected by the virus outbreak under a program called, “No Thai Left Behind.”
The program provides accommodation with free meals for people who are unemployed and have no place to stay, especially during the 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew. Those wishing to use this service are encouraged to contact a hotline for more information.

author: The Isaan Record


text:
Across the Middle East, many women face a double threat: Abuser inside, virus outside · Global Voices
Saoussen Ben Cheikh

Iraqi women in Baghdad, Iraq, April 4, 2016. Photo by David Stanley via Flickr CC BY 2.0.
In many countries around the world, domestic violence is on the rise due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has forced people to shelter at home.
Under various lockdown and confinement orders, violence against women has surged — including in progressive democracies. France reported a 30 percent increase in domestic violence since the country went into lockdown, a figure similar to Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Brazil and China.
The issue remains largely unaddressed in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, where the violence in largely patriarchal societies is particularly acute. Here, the COVID-19 pandemic intervenes concurrently with large-scale conflicts, uprising and economic depression.
This situation has prompted the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to speak out against a “horrific outbreak of domestic violence,” and to call for urgent government action.
Violence against women is not a recent scourge in the MENA region, where rates remain high in overall assessments of gender equality. Sexual and gender-based violence is chronic and endemic. The “intimate partner” is the most common perpetrator of violence.
Women face a wide range of legal discriminations and patriarchal social norms in MENA countries, where participation in public and civic space is low — only 25 percent join the workforce.
Now, as families are forced to stay close together at home, violence has escalated in scale and severity throughout the region. Tunisia has reported a five-fold increase in gender-based violence since the COVID-19 pandemic began, according to the Tunisian Minister of Women, Children and the Elderly, Asma Shiri Laabidi.
Crowded accommodation and poor living conditions exacerbate the experience of hyper surveillance and monitoring among large families living in close quarters. According to Yosra Frawes, the president of the Tunisian Association of Women Democrats:
Many women report feeling that they are suffocating as a result of the physical proximity to their husbands who are watching their every move.
In Lebanon, where massive uprisings were raging against corruption and a poor economy before the virus forced a lockdown, domestic violence had risen 20 percent.
In Morocco, a 2019 government survey found that more than half of women experienced violence yet less than 7 percent reported it. A group of women’s rights organizations recently sounded the alarm and sent a letter to authorities with a clear message: “Home has become the most dangerous place for women.”
Physical violence is usually the final stage of a long chain that begins with verbal abuse and may also include sexual abuse. Najia Tazrout, head of the Anjad against gender-based vilolence, a Moroccan women’s rights organization says:
Marital rape is a taboo and women don’t talk about it. Women accept this violence because they are financially dependent on their husband who is often the only breadwinner in the family.
Many women now find themselves under lockdown for an indefinite period of time with their abusers. Due to travel restrictions or fear of exposure to the virus, women can no longer seek refuge at their parents’ home. They become more isolated and unable to access networks of support and social services.
The few public institutions and organizations providing support to women — many shelters, safe spaces, and women’s health centers — were closed or under strain from working with bare budgets. Family planning services were also closed. Courts were put on hold and the police have mostly focused on enforcing lockdowns across the region.
Hend, a victim from Morocco, who only gives her first name, reported that “shelters, fearing the virus, refused to receive women.”
According to the director of ABAAD, a nonprofit organization that runs shelters for women in Lebanon and operates as a resource center for gender equality:
With the cases that are turning up at the shelters right now, we’re seeing a violence more severe than before the financial crisis and even during the revolution. There are more death threats.
Murder cases are also being reported. On April 17, a man shot his mother and sister to death in the Beqaa Valley, according to a statement from the Lebanese army.
Even with several alarming reports on domestic violence surges, the true extent of the violence is likely larger and remains untold.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), violence against women is the most widespread, but least reported type of human rights abuses. Fear, cultural norms and stigma are among the barriers dissuading women from reporting attacks.
A recent survey by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) found that 75 percent of women in Iraq do not feel comfortable reporting violence to the police, fearing additional abuse and cultural stigma.
The lack of legal protection against domestic violence and access to economic resources also deter women from speaking out.
In Kuwait, there are no laws criminalizing domestic and sexual violence against women. In Iraq, a husband has the right to “punish” his wife, and parents are allowed to discipline their children “within limits prescribed by law or custom.”
Governments have imposed lockdowns without planning for or making sufficient provisions to tackle gender-based violence generated by confinement.
While domestic violence spikes during emergencies — especially when couples spend long periods of time together under the same roof — women's rights were simply not part of the response.
Suad Abu-Dayyeh, from Equality Now, concludes that governments in the region have “completely forgotten the whole issue of the violence-against-women aspect of coronavirus.” The lack of preparation and the delays in tackling the violence means that irreparable harm has occurred that could have been avoided.
The gendered response to the pandemic has been framed as a “war effort” in the region — which replicates patriarchal gender dynamics.
While women have been heavily mobilized to the frontline as health care staff, considering that they make up 70 percent of all health care workers, according to WHO, they are also the main caregivers.
According to the International Labour Organization, women perform 76 percent of the total hours of unpaid care work — more than three times as much as men.
Women have been confined to a primary role and side-lined from higher executive decisions. They are underrepresented in the political response. Decisions-makers in the region are overwhelmingly men and women political representation is at the lowest levels in the world.
Male leaders have devised a strategic response to the pandemic in terms of budgets and plans that do not prioritize women's issues. The media also replicates this imbalance of power. Men predominantly lead public discussions on COVID-19 and act as main sources of information.
The pandemic has once again exposed the dire state of women’s rights in the region and exacerbated the silent but deadly pandemic of domestic violence.

author: Saoussen Ben Cheikh


text:
Bocas Lit Fest crowdsources ‘100 Caribbean books that made us’ · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Screenshot of Bocas Lit Fest's Facebook post promoting its “100 Caribbean Books that Made Us” initiative.
The Bocas Lit Fest, which has emerged not only as the premier Caribbean literary festival but as one of the best in the world, celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. The founders of the Trinidad and Tobago-based festival had planned to mark the occasion in grand style from September 18-20, 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic has, thus far, forced all events in the lead-up to the festival online — and it remains unclear at this point whether the country's borders will be reopened in time for the carded festival dates.
One of the initiatives the festival has taken to keep its audience engaged is its “100 Caribbean books that made us” campaign. Inspired by the BBC’s “100 books that shaped our world,” the challenge asks readers to submit the titles of the Caribbean books that have meant the most to them. Bocas makes clear that this “isn’t a competition, but a chance to curate the stories that hold pride of place on your bookshelves and in your hearts.”
The campaign, which ended on May 8, 2020, received a robust response on social media channels, via the hashtag #MyCaribbeanLibrary. Some literature fans simply posted their picks in comment threads, while others created their own posts and videos. We'll feature some of the most interesting choices.
Trinidadian book vlogger Saajid Hosein kicked things off by explaining how the initiative worked and selecting a few picks of his own:
Many of the books Hosein chose had the shared theme of the inner creating the outer, including Elizabeth Nunez’ “Anna In Between,” in which the heroine learns that “home is not a place, but rather, the people that you love and care for,” and Kevin Jared Hosein's “The Beast of Kukuyo,” a tale about a girl who learns that the true monsters that plague our fears […] are, in fact, the ones that live within us.”
Poet and blogger Amilcar Sanatan also posted a video with his choices:
Sanatan's list was an eclectic one. It included Caribbean literary classics like Earl Lovelace's “The Dragon Can't Dance,” Austin Clarke's “Growing Up Stupid Under the Union Jack,” which looks at “the coloniality of education and Barbadian social life,” and Jamaican Lorna Goodison's poetry collection, “I Am Becoming My Mother,” which Sanatan says helped shape him.
He also deemed Jamaica Kincaid's “A Small Place” a “very important piece of work” as “a contestation of space, place [and] power” in the region. As a spoken word poet, Sanatan was also drawn to “The History of the Voice,” by Kamau Brathwaite, who believed that poetry, just like Caribbean culture, must be experienced through the region's rich oral tradition.
Author Breanne Mc Ivor also weighed in, with picks that included Caribbean crime fiction in the form of Jacob Ross’ “The Bone Readers”, and Edwidge Danticat's acclaimed novel, “The Dew Breaker”:
Mc Ivor also chose Trinidadian poet Shivanee Ramlochan's startling debut, “Everyone Knows I Am a Haunting,” which she calls “poetry that shows us the best and worst of ourselves.”
Another Trinidadian poet, Andre Bagoo, chose Trinidadian writer Lawrence Scott's “Aelred’s Sin” as a book that had a profound impact:
Look closely, it is as though Lawrence Scott has ripped out the spine of Umberto Eco’s “The Name of the Rose,” the yearning root, the bones beneath tender flesh and transplanted the same mood and energy, the same series of baffling yet dazzling antinomies into the heat of the islands— in all senses, across geographies. A book that is bold in its willingness to explore a hidden struggle which, even in all its particulars, manages to be universal. An incredible feat not only of art, but also, in its own way, restitution, justice and song. Bless you, Lawrence Scott.
Finally, Anna Lucie-Smith's suggestions stayed firmly in the realm of children's and young adult literature, in order to help mould the Caribbean readers — and writers — of tomorrow:
The Bocas Lit Fest is asking us to name the 100 [Caribbean] books that made us. Well, I think we might well make it to 1,000! […] Yes, there are the obvious classics and I won't rehash any of that. But there are a few very recent books that I want to see on the list.
Her picks included Lisa Allen-Agostini's “Home Home,” which she calls “a simple, readable, and oh so important little book that touches on so many serious things that we as Caribbean people bury, ignore or make jokes about without ever fully understanding.”
Lucie-Smith also liked “My Fishy Stepmom,” by Shakirah M. Bourne because of its “powerful messages for youth, plus the language plays with Caribbean folklore in a lighter way,” and Jeunanne Alkins’ “Ready, Set…Hatch!” — a picture book that educates children about leatherback turtles through a charming story about a competitive little hatchling who learns a valuable lesson about teamwork.
Lucie-Smith ends by saying:
Bocas Lit Fest forgive me for only mentioning YA [young adult] and children's lit — but it's our foundation! Long before my children read lovelace and naipaul, we will be enjoying Alkins, Bourne and Allen-Agostini as a family!
The first 20 books selected by Bocas Lit Fest are here and include “multiple genres […] spanning generations, styles, settings, and concerns. Some of the themes explored in these fiction, nonfiction and poetry titles include class division, xenophobia, young love, rural development, exile, colourism — amid so many more.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


text:
COVID-19 diaries from Wuhan: ‘A person can survive the pandemic but not bullying, fear, and hatred’ · Global Voices
Winston Chiu

Kids playing and jumping in a yard. (Photo credit: Guo Jing. Used with permission.)
The following post is the thirteenth in a series of diary entries written by independent filmmaker and feminist scholar Ai Xiaoming and feminist activist Guo Jing. Both are living in Wuhan at the initial center of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are the links to the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth parts of the series.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
This installment was written between March 20 and March 22, 2020. The original Chinese diaries were published on Matter News.
有人在群里发消息：治好回家后复发后有症状大家知晓还好点，还有回家复发无任何症状那才真可怕，建议不要过早溜娃溜狗，引起重视不能最后放松警惕啊！
有几个人应和了起来。每次发类似信息的都是那几个人。我开始替那些依然走不出家门的人担心，不知道他们内心的自我封锁什么时候可以结束？
Someone sent a message to our online group: Some patients who recovered from COVID-19 may turn positive with symptoms or without any symptom. The latter is more terrible. It is better not to take children outside or walk dogs too early. We should not lower our guards.
The message attracted some echoing. Similar messages are usually sent by a few in the group. I started to worry about those who dare not step outside their homes. When will their minds be eased
封锁让很多人没有收入，可很多支出又没法停。封锁给越来越多的人带来了经济危机。湖北封城将近2个月，很多行业也受到重创。湖北的一个朋友说，她家附近的一个养鸡户由于封城买不到饲料，开始把家里的鸡便宜卖给别人，甚至送人。
人们承受着封锁带来的经济负担、心理压力，这些重压已经到了危及生命的程度。很多国家和地区都在给居民发放补贴。发放补贴是展现政府责任的措施。我们要把走投无路的人拉回来，而不是推出去。
The lockdown has left many people having no income, but bills keep coming in. The lockdown has brought financial crisis to more and more people. Hubei Province has locked down for almost two months, causing serious damages to many business sectors. A friend of mine in Hubei said that a poultry farmer nearby started selling chicken cheaply or even giving out for free because s/he could not buy chicken feed during the lockdown.
People have suffered from huge financial and psychological stress and the pressure has escalated to a life-threatening level. Many countries have released subsidies to their residents. Such measure is a manifestation of the responsibility of a government. We should help people who couldn't find a solution to their problem, instead of pushing them away.
武汉被封城60天了，小区里生活平静。莺飞草长，门前的日本晚樱马上就是繁花满树。人们都宅在家中，网格员让大家每日在小程序里填写报表。为了得到今后顺利出行的机会，我也每日汇报个人隐私：在家吗？在家。体温正常吗？正常。住房是自己的还是别人的？居家自住。家中几个人？……除此之外，每天还在湖北健康码小程序上打卡。总之，我们的个人信息比玻璃都透明。
我们一直在放弃，等待上级有关部门决定自己的命运。如今的等待就是小区解封，可以自由出行，可以去超市买菜，外出见朋友；至少，湖边跑个步什么的。忍了这么久，动力是什么呢？无非是不得病，活下去。
可是，我们活下去了，世界改变了。你还相信一切会是从前的样子吗？
作为一个户籍广州现居武汉的人，我被告知，现在既不能去北京，也不能回广州。…如果武汉新增病例已经归零，如果健康码以及每日小区疫情报表都管用，如果说我们是健康的；为什么不能回到户籍或工作所在地？
另一个如果是：我们依然被假定为无症状的病毒携带者；那么，归零的统计、健康码打卡以及每日报表，不是浪费了很多人的时间吗？
又或者，我们属于疫区居民，不管健康与否，对其他地区总是一个风险人群。
在这个想象意义大于统计意义的推论中，个人的喜怒哀乐、个人权利和尊严，都无足轻重，不在考量的范围内。它依然在全社会范围内，支持对湖北人的地域偏见和恐惧。
一个人可能从新冠肺炎中幸存下来，却难以在排挤、恐惧和仇恨中活下去。
当人们无法应对一种困难，一个简单的办法就是找替罪羊。统治者也可以以此转移公众焦虑，缓解真正的危机，逃避被问责。这是原始的做法，但很方便。
人民的希望未必仅在于瑞德西韦，希望之有无，还在于我们内心是否保有对疾病带来的伤亡而深感悲痛的能力。……总之，把对方看做人之同类的情感，是缓解他人病苦的起点。
This is the 60 day since Wuhan has been locked down. The life in my residential district is peaceful. Birds fly and grass grows. The Japanese cherry tree in front of my door will soon be in full blossom. Everyone is stuck at home. The grid controllers [note: officers of small district social management system] ask us to update our status online every day in exchange of a permission to go out after the lifting of the lockdown. I also report my private information every day: Are you at home? Yes. Do you have a normal temperature? Yes. Do you live in your own apartment or someone else's apartment? I live in my own apartment. How many people are staying in your apartment?…In addition, I also need to check in with the online application of “Hubei Health Code” every day. In summary, our private information is more transparent than glass.
We keep giving up. We keep waiting for the officials to make decisions on our fate. Now we are waiting for the lifting of the lockdown in our residential district. Then we can be free to go out, buy food in supermarkets and visit friends. Alas, we can go jogging along the lake. What has motivated us to endure all these? We don't want to get sick and we want to survive the pandemic.
Now, we have survived and the world has changed. Do you believe that everything will go back to normal?
I have my household registration in Guangzhou but currently reside in Wuhan, I was told that I am not allowed to go to either Beijing or Guangzhou now… If the number of newly confirmed cases is zero now, if the so-called Health Code and the community pandemic report systems are reliable, we are supposed to be healthy and free of virus. Why can’t we go back to where we have household registration or where we have work to do?
If we are suspected to be asymptomatic virus carriers, what's the point of updating our status and health report every day?
Perhaps residents from endemic regions, regardless of their health conditions, are considered a risk to other places.
All the above scenarios is the result of a rationality that governed people’s imagination rather than statistics. Under such rationality, individual emotions, rights and dignity can be put aside. Prejudice and fear against people coming from Hubei is embedded on people's minds.
A person can survive COVID-19 pandemic but may not survive bullying, fear, or hatred.
When people cannot handle a difficult situation, a simple way out is to find a scapegoat. The government can also apply the method to shift public attention, mitigate the political crisis, and evade responsibility. This is a primitive method, but very convenient for a way out.
Our hope is not limited to the Remdesivir drug. Our hope relies on our capability to feel remorse for the victims of the pandemic… compassion is the starting point to relieve the pain of others.
今天，中国民航局等五部门发公告称，国际航班目的地为北京的航班需从天津、石家庄等12个指定的第一入境点入境，在第一入境点做完检疫并符登机条件的旅客可搭乘原航班入京。看到这个消息的时候，我脑海中浮现了一些北京人用趾高气扬的口气说着：“我们北京人……”。
这些北京人确实有得意的资本，毕竟北京为了控制入境感染人数的增加，能把别的城市作为过滤器，还有哪个城市可以做到呢？北京各方面的资源都很多，应对疫情上的资源也不会少，可是却在这种时候将风险转移出去。这是极其不好的示范。
Today, five government departments, including the Civil Aviation Administration of China, announced that international flights heading for Beijing should first land in other airports, including Tianjin and Shijiazhuang. After passengers finish quarantine procedures and pass all the inspections, they can take the same flight to Beijing. This news brought the image of an elitist and arrogant Beijingese saying “we Beijingese….” back to my mind.
These Beijingese do enjoy the kind of (political) capital that they can be proud of – they have the power to use other cities as filters to suppress the number of imported cases in their city. No other city has such power. Beijing is resourceful in many aspects, and they should have a lot of medical resources to tackle the pandemic, too. However, they still try to transfer the risk to other cities. This sets a very bad example.

author: Winston Chiu


text:
COVID-19 regulations and the issue of overcrowding in Jamaica’s markets · Global Voices
Shakira Leslie

A screenshot of a YouTube video by Jamaica Beacon, showing overcrowding at a market in Linstead, a town in the parish of St. Catherine, despite social distancing regulations being in place.
Some Caribbean nations appear to be handling the COVID-19 pandemic relatively efficiently, but despite lockdowns, curfews, and the closure of nonessential businesses, Jamaica has not been faring as well.
The detection in mid-April of more than 100 positive cases at a call centre in Portmore, in the parish of St. Catherine, seriously spiked the country's numbers and precipitated the government's announcement of even stricter safety regulations, including the closure of call centres islandwide.
A key feature of the St. Catherine parish lockdown was that residents were allowed only two shopping days per week: Wednesdays and Saturdays. On both days, people would be given a set time schedule and allowed into the stores on a surname basis.
In addition, there is also mandatory use of face masks in public and the reduction in opening hours for essential businesses to 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Non-essential businesses are encouraged to have their employees work from home.
Though stringent, these most recent precautionary measures are an attempt to slow community spread of the virus, but what unfolded on the first two shopping days — April 15 and April 18 — was chaotic. Any attempt to implement social distancing guidelines was negated by major overcrowding of markets.
Various crucial structures were missing from these shopping areas including proper booth allotment that would have allowed for social distancing between vendors, and an absence of floor decals or barricades to encourage safe queueing.
This approach is in stark contrast to that of other countries, which are trying to shift from large, centralised markets by dispersing smaller shopping locations across towns to reduce overcrowding. It is also recommended that such shopping destinations open at least five days a week, to further reduce the concentration of people.
In acknowledgment of its shortcomings in this regard, the Jamaican government subsequently added two extra shopping days per week and did away with the shopping-by-surname system, which aided crowd reduction in some areas, but not others.
The reaction of social media users to the incidents of overcrowding was varied, with one Facebook user suggesting that the most reasonable way to ensure proper social distancing was through law enforcement presence.
Another commenter made various suggestions:
Create more community market spaces and limit and register the amount of people who sell there. More banks can set up transfer of remittances so people don't need to crowd. Reduce some of the redtape and unnecessary paperwork and show people how to. The problem is some things were designed for a certain socioeconomic group. Its time we do away with those things and level the playing field.
Several commenters noted the reckless disregard for social distancing measures because those who refused to comply were putting not only themselves at risk, but others as well.
In response to the extensive criticisms of the crowding, Facebook user Michelle Michelle recommended that empathy be exercised in one’s judgment of the situation:
What you guys fail to understand is that not everyone has enough money to stock up on food as they'd like. Also there are persons that rely on vending for a living. I know social distance is highly recommended, but how do you do that when you have a family to feed? Most people commenting are living overseas, so it may be a little easier for us to get groceries than the average Jamaican. Show some empathy.
With just over 2.9 million people, Jamaica is reportedly the fourth most populous Caribbean territory. Citizens are therefore used to being in fairly close proximity to others in social situations — including local markets.
Social distancing, a concept thrust upon the global population because of the pandemic, is a behaviour that Jamaicans will simply have to adjust to if they want to slow the spread of COVID-19.

author: Shakira Leslie