Covid is out of control. It's nothing new, but more and more are being affected in irreparable ways, taking out teachers and doctors and all sorts of necessary workers. It's harder to avoid when almost nobody else wears a mask. One-way masking only protects so far, and I know many people just getting their first infection now despite always wearing a mask. I've suggested to the region that we could use a post-Oktoberfest month of masking - just four weeks, and just in healthcare facilities, schools, stores, and public transportation to reduce case loads, since our entire city has been a full on superspreader event of frantic frivolity. But that's not going to happen despite the recent surge of hospitalizations. And people won't do it if other people won't do it in a downward spiral of disease. When I asked my class to mask, my dear, sweet professor put one on immediately, then realized nobody else was, and sheepishly took it off again. He wanted to do the right thing, but couldn't stand up for me alone. He wasn't quite that brave.
Kim Molloy's astute prediction: "The next phase of this pandemic is 'you should have known' from the systems and 'you should have warned me' from individuals."
And climate change is only going to get worse as leaders rally between present prosperity and future survival, without a clear and firm plan and action towards dramatically reducing GHGs. Prepare for food prices to skyrocket and then certain foods will no longer be available. It really is time to stock up on rice, dried beans, and canned goods.
Be prepared for truly bizarre media spin on it all, starting with this type of bullshit. If I were complicit in many people dying, I might do all I could to convince people there was absolutely nothing we could have done. They'll double down before they'll ever capitulate.
And I think it unlikely that what's happening in the Gaza Strip will just stay there as an isolated event, a tragedy that came and went. Retaliation begets more retaliation from neighbouring states, and this will affect the world's access to oil, which will affect the economy and make things even more difficult everywhere. Despite many calls to keep oil in the ground, we're really not prepared to live without it. Without security, people get scared, and many get angry; all minorities of any kind become targets, including randos wearing masks, as we all bear witness to the atrocities overseas.
Raz Segal wrote about Friday's evacuation of northern Gaza:
"The order has left more than a million people, half of whom are children, frantically attempting to flee amid continuing airstrikes, in a walled enclave where no destination is safe . . . missiles never stop and we're running out of food, water, and power. . . . Israel's campaign to displace Gazans--and potentially expel them altogether into Egypt--is yet another chapter in the Nakba, in which an estimated 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes during the 1948 war that led to the creation of the State of Israel. But the assault on Gaza can also be understood in other terms: as a textbook case of genocide unfolding in front of our eyes. I say this as a scholar of genocide, who has spent many years writing about Israeli mass violence against Palestinians. . . . the worst of the worst is happening. . . . Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant declared it in no uncertain terms on October 9th: 'We are imposing a complete siege on Gaza. No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we will act accordingly.' Leaders in the West reinforced this racist rhetoric. . . . This dehumanizing language is clearly calculated to justify the wide scale destruction of Palestinian lives. . . . Meanwhile, genocidal verbs--calls to 'erase' and 'flatten' Gaza--have become omnipresent on Israeli social media. In Tel Aviv, a banner reading 'Zero Gazans' was seen hanging from a bridge. . . . Israel's goal is to destroy the Palestinians of Gaza. And those of us watching around the world are derelict in our responsibility to prevent them from doing so."
So send in the clowns: (It's only a couple minutes, and it's very heartfelt.)
Comedians kept me sane during the very first lockdown, a time of difficulty that was absolutely nothing compared to the tragedies unfolding now, but, at the time, it was the very worst thing many of us knew. As I scrambled to learn how to teach online, I also discovered all the many British panel shows - pseudo-game shows with comedians - and then Peep Show, and I heard myself laugh out loud again. I have a long list of stand-up comedians I follow; Nate Bargatze is the latest addition that started with Monty Python records we listened to on repeat just for fun. It wasn't even to cope.
Film, music, dance, art, poetry, philosophy, inventions, moments of understanding or overcoming... any form of human ingenuity reminds us we have so much to live for. And that doesn't even begin to cut it because all the other creatures and life forms are equally fascinating. I can watch water spiders near-miss each other on a lake for hours. Thank goodness they are likely to make the cut at least.
So it goes.
Try to get outside today, try to remember that everything's connected - everything - and don't forget your mask.
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