Category Archives: Government Oppression

Rhett WilkinsonMarch 30, 2020Rey in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. (Disney/Lucasfilm)

-SPOILERS AHEAD FOR STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER-

Reys father being a failed clone (and nothing about her mother being Sheev Palpatines daughter and presumably not Force-sensitive) is revealed the novelization of The Rise of Skywalker. It preserves the emphasis in the saga that you can be a nobody but be Force-sensitive.

Kylo Ren tells Rey in the film version of The Rise of Skywalker that Palpatine is Reys grandfather. That seemingly explained why Rey was (very) Force-sensitive: she inherited it from the Dark Lord of the Sith.

But then the novelization of revealed what it did about Reys father, aside from Palpatine being a clone.

This continues an emphasis in Star Wars in the last few years of people not needing to be Force-sensitive by blood, where anyone could be Force-sensitive a democratization of the Force.

This emphasis was especially marked by Star Wars: The Last Jedi ending with a slave boy using the Force to grab a broom to continue his slave work.

It may even be a shift given that the previous focus in Star Wars has been on the Skywalker line, the stories of father and son Anakin and Luke Skywalker, with their Force powers.

Its true that Anakin was not powerful in the Force because of blood, but that was a whole other enchilada an Immaculate Conception, Star Wars style.

This new emphasis is good. Its important to teach children that anyone can be special and that your last name doesnt determine your abilities. Its important to teach children that you can make your life incredible regardless of your family line.

Further, the democratization of most things is good. Its important to decentralize power. In politics, its important to give power to the people to preserve freedom from government oppression. In business, its important so that employees are not exploited by their employers, like corporations. Regarding the Force, its to teach those lessons lessons of inclusivity and self-determination.

At nine years old, Rhett Wilkinson wrote stories about Han Solo & Princess Leia's son Ben Solo, so he's waiting for Disney to pay up! Rhett is the owner of Hero's Journey Content and author of "'Star Wars' Is Still Intact: Re-finding Yourself in the Age of Trump." His work has been seen in USA TODAY, ESPN & the Pew Forum. He also was a screenwriter for the theatrical production "Before Your Time" and is a survivor of abuse. Reach him on Twitter @rhettrites.

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A Novelization Revelation and the Force - That Hashtag Show

What better way to ignore the world possibly crumbling around us then doing some research on different apocalypses

With so much of the news cycle devoted to the coronavirus, it can feel like were living through our very own apocalypse. Its a scary time to be alive, and the fact is, a lot of our lives have become incredibly uncertain and uprooted as a direct result of the virus, quarantining and socially distancing ourselves. Obviously, its all to protect the members of our society who need it most, but that doesnt stop the whole situation from being chaotic, and even a little frightening.

Something that helps for me (and it seems counterintuitive), is watching a movie about the apocalypse, whether its about nuclear war, an alien invasion or a zombie plague. Somehow, it puts things into perspective and reminds me that, no matter how bad things are right now, at least Im not John Cusack in 2012 (Never watch that movie sober). With that said, lets look at some of the hits.

MadMax series (1979-2015) directed by George Miller

The four films in the Mad Max franchise are some of the best movies about the leather-clad, biker gang end of the world ever made. In the future, nuclear war and oil shortages have created anarchic wastelands, where gangs of violent criminals control the desert, driving over-the-top cars and fighting for gas. Mel Gibson (before he went off the deep end) shines as Max Rockatansky, a former cop who drives a V8 hot rod around the desert, fighting for justice, eating dog food and generally being extremely Australian. Tom Hardy takes over the role for Mad Max: Fury Road, which besides being one of the best shot and directed movies of the 2010s, has a guy playing a flaming guitar on a truck made entirely of amps. Really, thats all I should need to say.

Available on Amazon Prime & Netflix.

Childrenof Men (2006) directed by Alfonso Cuaron

This is one of those rare films where, and Im not ashamed to say it, I cry every time. Its a grim portrayal of the near-future, where humanity has lost the ability to have children. Clive Owen plays a depressed government worker who has to escort a pregnant refugee girl to safety, through warring gangs and government oppression, to give birth to the first child in two decades. Children of Men is by turns immensely sad, crushingly prescient and surprisingly hopeful, with a depiction of totalitarian England that feels incredibly possible.

Available on Amazon Prime.

10Cloverfield Lane (2016) directed by Dan Trachtenberg

Weve all got that weird prepper uncle whos probably building a bomb shelter in his backyard right now. This is a movie about what happens when it comes time to use the shelter. John Goodman shines as a sociopathic conspiracy theorist, who brings two unsuspecting young adults into his survival bunker, after an unknown disaster strikes the US. As the movie continues, and the intensely claustrophobic atmosphere amps up to 11, Goodmans character slips closer and closer to the edge. No spoilers, but theres a scene with a vat of acid that made me physically slip into the fetal position. Watch this one if you dont plan on sleeping any time soon.

Available on Amazon Prime.

I Am Legend (2007) directed by Francis Lawrence

A classic of apocalypse sci-fi horror, this stars Will Smith as New Yorks only survivor of a plague that turned everyone else into bloodthirsty, sun-fearing zombies. AND HES GOT A DOG!!! Atmospherically, seeing Smith run around a completely empty New York, succumbing to the effects of loneliness and fear is unlike any other performance, and he really taps into the existential ennui of being the last guy around when everyone else is gone. The ending leaves something to be desired, but overall, this is a must-watch.

Available on Amazon Prime.

Dredd (2012) directed by Pete Travis

Take a break from leather biker gangs and psychopaths in bomb shelters and enjoy one of the coolest action movies ever made, starring Hollywoods scowliest actor: Karl Urban. Dredd is essentially a 90-minute shootout, and it kicks ridiculous amounts of ass. Future America is an irradiated wasteland, except for Mega-City One, a giant urban sprawl stretching over the entire East Coast. Crime runs rampant here, and the only lawmen are authoritarian Judges, like Urbans Dredd. When a drug dealer locks down an apartment building, the only thing thatll stop her is you guessed it a ridiculous amount of guns and ammo. Its like if the shootout scene from Heat was an entire movie, and I can find nothing wrong with it. I am the law!

Available on Amazon Prime.

28 Days Later (2002) directed by Danny Boyle

Im saving one of the best for last, because this zombie movie, directed by the mind behind Trainspotting is one of the best of the genre. Its lo-fi, its genuinely disturbing and its one of the most realistic depictions of post-apocalypse England out there. Cillian Murphy plays a coma patient who wakes up after a zombie plague has wiped out most of the population. He finds survivors, but thats nowhere near the end of the story, that features a power-mad army leader, an adopted family and of course, lots and lots of the undead. Plus, Godspeed You! Black Emperor contributed the soundtrack, which makes this an automatic classic, no matter which way you slice it.

Available on Amazon Prime and Hulu.

Honorable Mentions:

The Rover (2014) directed by David Michod

Twelve Monkeys (1995) directed by Terry Gilliam

The Road (2009) directed by John Hillcoat

Escape From New York (1981) directed by John Carpenter

The Book of Eli (2010) directed by the Hughes Brothers

Shaun of the Dead (2004) directed by Edgar Wright

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Movies for the End Times - The Daily Evergreen

The post, Hello world! How is the Lockdown? Kashmir, appeared on different social media platforms right after various countries of the world started to announce lockdowns as a precautionary measure to combat the COVID-19 outbreak. It was a reminder from the oppressed valley of Kashmir, now enteringtheninth month of the lockdown, after Indias unilateral move of abrogating the special status of the occupied Kashmir on August 5, 2019. On October 30, India practically split the state of Kashmir in two union territories-Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh-takingthem under direct control of the central government in Delhi. The move waswidely criticised by different countries and even the United Nations, but India was deaf to all the hue and cry.It imposed a strict curfew with an information blackout in the occupied Kashmir.

The coronavirus has offered a chance to the world to realise that Kashmiris are not the children of a lesser god

The valley of Kashmir has a long history of witnessing restrictions, curfews and lockdowns,especially in the last three decades. India has used different draconian laws, like the Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA), Public Safety Act (PSA), to suppress the voices of Kashmiris. Kashmiris have been resisting the Indian occupation for the last 72 years, and their resistance has transformed in many ways. The youth of the Kashmir has now become the new face of the resistance movement and is using social media platforms, along with other techniques, to unveil the real face of the Indian state to the world. India, afraid of that, has imposed restrictions on the oppressed territorythat is witnessing an information blackout with no access to internet, mobiles and even print media. 2G was partially resumed after six months, andthe valley is still compelled to use 2G.

The coronavirus has offered a chance to the world to realise that Kashmiris are not the children of a lesser god and that they also have the right to exercise their right to self-determination and other basic human rights. This is the time for the world to realise the suffering of 70 million people living in an open prison in the Indian-occupied Kashmir. International organisations, especially the UN, must play its part to end the miseries of the people living under the oppression of India.

Cries of the mothers of Kashmir might be better understood by mothers all over the world now when they are afraid for their children because of an invisible virus. Maybe it could be the point for the world to understand what it means to have mass graves in Kashmir. Maybe the world could comprehend what it means to have a complete shutdown, students not able to go to schools, and Ph.D. scholars like Raafi Butt,Mannan Waniand Sabzar Sofi losing their lives at the hands of Indias occupational forces. Maybe the world could realise the pain of half-widows, waiting for several years for their husbands to return home. Maybe the world could grasp the pain of the father who because of the inhumane curfew is unable to earn enough to feed his children

It is the time for the world to fight against the common threat to humanity:coronavirus. I am sure that the combined efforts of humanity would defeat this temporary pandemic, but I doubt if the world would realise its duty towards the permanent pandemic faced by humanity: injustice. It must be debated and realised by the so-called superpowers of the world that injustice anywhere is the threat to justice everywhere.If the world failsto comprehend its duty, it would have to face more severe pandemics than this virus as it is the law of the nature that injustice cannot prevail for a long time.

The campaign started by Kashmiris in the form of a short but a meaningful phrase should be taken seriously, and the government of India must be compelled to release the JRL and other political leaders jailed on false accusations, as their lives are at stake due to the pandemic. Countries throughout the world are granting bails to political and general prisoners during the pandemic.Secretary General of UN Antonio Guterres has called for a global ceasefire. India should listen and release political prisoners as the first gesture of international cooperation regarding Kashmir.

Humanity is facing the most severe global health crisis of its time. Only global cooperation can help us fight this pandemic. The guidelines by the World Health Organisation and self-curfew must be imposed to slowthe spread of this virus down and eventually defeating it.

The writer is an MPhil graduate in International Relations. Currently visiting lecturer at COMSATs, Islamabad

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Hello world! How is the Lockdown? Kashmir - Daily Times

Donald Trump has been roundly criticized for calling the virus that causes Covid-19 a "Chinese virus" it has been said that using a term invented by Chinese state media the "Wuhan Virus" is also racist. He is trying to rebut the propaganda and lies of the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party which has said via official channels that they think it came from an American serviceman who visited Wuhan China. That it was developed by the US Army to use against China. That is a lie on the order of stating that the Great Leap Forward was a huge success and the Tiananmen Square protest never occurred. It must be rebutted with all available force. However, Asian Americans have suffered "racist" xenophobic and discriminatory attacks because of this. That said, a stern lesson from history shows why we cannot simply concede to the language chosen by the Chinese Communist Party in the name of not being called racist. To criticize this party is to stand up for over one billion Chinese people who cannot dare speak out. According to the Chinese communist party the Tiananmen square massacre never occurred. That is a lie,a huge lie.Compared to that lie a bit of propaganda about a virus is nothing.

Asian Americans, Casualties of a Propaganda Battle.

East Asians are a smaller group here in the US who have a complex relationship to racism. Suffering greatly yet also being thought of as an treated as a "model minority". Accepted in some context yet rejected in others. Thought of as smarter than the other students and so not needing as much help YET being no more able than any other students. As a result, they may struggle latter on in school unless they study hard on their own. This virus has reminded people that both sides of that status are rooted in the idea of Asians as "other" than white. No it is not quite the same as that which was done to Africans the world over. We were as Robin DiAngleo describes it treated as the ultimate racial other. (Chinese and Japanese people got the exclusion acts black people were property.) This makes it hard for some people to see this discrimination for how bad it is even if it does not rise to the level of something like chattel slavery or the holocaust. Yet it is a great evil and can lead to such thing if unchecked.Asian Americans have suffered hundreds of xenophobic attacks in the last few weeks as foolish people think that a virus originating in China means that all Asian people are responsible. Those people are the same kind who when told bleach will kill the virus might drink a cup of bleach.

It is a very real problem that fighting this propaganda battle with the CCP will cause as a casualty suffering for Asian Americans. The blame for that lies on the fools and bigots who firstly cannot see the difference between people from China VS Vietnam VS Japan VS Korea. The same ignorant people, and even many who think themselves enlightened cannot see that the Chinese Communist Party is not of by or for the Chinese people.

The story of the tank man. In 1989 students in Beijing China created a protest camp in Tiananmen square. It started out as mourning a communist party official who had died and evolved in time into a pro-democracy movement. The military was called in once and backed off. Then they came one night with tanks and live ammo and cleared Tiananmen square with deadly force. To this day if you try to discuss it on the internet or in public in the Peoples republic of China you may be disappeared.

The great leap forward was portrayed as a huge success by the CCP. This economic program of Maos lead to approximately 45-50 million deaths due to famine. He had the children of city people shipped to the country to work on collective farms called peoples communes. He had people who lived on the communes try to produce steel in back yard furnaces. Both agricultural production and steel production were lied about. The deaths due to starvation were lied about. Then the whole thing was covered up. Mao was out and free years latter to launch a cultural revolution which would devastate traditional Chinese culture.

Beware of Chinese Communist Party Propaganda Not Random Asian People You Meet.

The Chinese Communist Party whose propaganda has been unwittingly spread by western media and social media is the greatest oppressor of Asian people inside and outside of China in history. They have killed millions via their inability to punish the incompetence of party members including their paramount leaders. They have made criminal their negligence by refusing to acknowledge even that mistakes were made. In the covid-19 situation their same old pattern has repeated.

The largest country by population on Earth is China to hate China is to hate a large fraction of humanity. To love Chinese people is not to love the Chinese government. To equate China or Chinese people with all Asians is ignorant. To attack Asian people in America for a situation that is, at worst, due to the mismanagement of a government they never had anything to do with is criminally stupid.

The only thing worst is to mindlessly parrot the CCP propaganda and to prolong, even slightly, the brutal oppression of over 1.4 Billion people. Including the specific oppression of minorities in Tibet, Uighurs of Xinjiang in concentration camps, and the repression of Falun Gong practitioners. In all cases chiefly for having a cultural identity that is not in lock step with that of the Han Chinese dominated CCP. That is an evil that must be opposed right along with our own domestic racism.

We in the west can and must do both.

Do not believe anything the CCP says about this virus. Do protect the rights and lives of Asian Americans.

More reading on this.

"Coronavirus Is More Fodder for Chinese Propaganda" By Jonah Goldberg, National Review

"Life in China Has Not Returned to Normal, Despite What the Government Says" Charlie Campbell Time.

The Comprehensive Timeline of Chinas COVID-19 Lies By Jim Geragthy, National Review

See more here:

China's Government Lies: Tiananmen Square and Mao's Great Leap - Science 2.0

In a cavernous ballroom at the Hilton Hotel Philadelphia in 2009 when I was twenty-one years old, I sat at a round table with the others whose name tags had also been stamped with the double green dots meaning we were headed for central AppalachiaWest Virginia, western Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina.

There were tuna wraps and miniature bags of chips, then slides projected on a wall-sized screen told us all the things we couldnt do now that we were Volunteers in Service to America (better known as VISTAs): work another job, advocate for any political cause or candidate, get drunk in public, etc. We encourage you to remember, said a skirt-suited woman, that even on your off hours, you are now a representative of the United States government.

I exchanged smirks with another outspoken nose-ringed white girl sitting next to me. From the summer I had already spent at the nonprofit for which I would be working in southeastern West Virginia, I knew that the economic realities of modern central Appalachia could not be easily fixed by anything I could offer. The problems there were largely the result of centuries of corporations often based elsewhere systematically extracting the regions wealth and natural resources. Yet I still believed in real altruism, in service, and that the work I was off to do would accomplish that lofty mission.

From todays vantage point, I can see why I believed thisthe Jewish moral seriousness of my childhood, the Quaker empathy of my small collegebut I no longer do. My time as a VISTA was many thingsawakening, grueling, joyful, dark, life alteringbut I do not believe anymore that it was service, meaning work done for others, or acts contributing to the public good. I was neither skilled enough nor mature enough nor knowledgeable enough about the context of the work to perform it with real efficacy. This is a problem greater than me and intrinsic to the structure of VISTA itself. VISTAs tend to be young, white, and unskilledthe only requirement to apply is that you be at least 18 years old and a citizen of the United States (or national or asylum seeker) without a criminal record.

On the morning of our last day at the Hilton Hotel, they gave us grey polo shirts with the insignia of an A with a star and two stripes on the sleeve, and they told us to raise our right hands and to swear. I will get things done for America, we said. Faced with apathy, I will take action. Faced with conflict, I will seek common ground. I will carry this commitment with me, this year and beyond. I am an AmeriCorps member, and I will get things done. I looked at the other pierced girl, to see how I should respond, but she was gone. I raised my hand and I swore.

We know VISTA as one of the many arms of AmeriCorps, the governmental organization which connects thousands of mostly young or underemployed Americans with meaningful work in exchange for job experience, a modest living stipend, health insurance and a lump sum to use towards future education or loan repayment, effectively indistinguishable from other similar AmeriCorps programs. But it did not begin this way. In 1964, Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty and signed into law the Economic Opportunity Act to eliminate the paradox of poverty in the midst of plenty in this Nation. Johnson located this paradox in three main placesmigrant worker communities, big-city slums, and the hill towns of Appalachiaand its solution in peoplevolunteers. By the 1970s, several thousand volunteers were working in poor communities all over America; President Clintons 1993 National Community Service Trust Act created AmeriCorps, an expanded umbrella organization for dozens of domestic service opportunities, and VISTA took shelter there.

It was my job as a VISTA in Pocahontas County to work at a nonprofit that offered local teenaged girls a different picture of themselves than the ones that were readily available in that place where just 8% of the population is between the ages of 18-24.

Half of Pocahontas County is Monongahela National Forest. Eight major rivers have their headwaters here, and more than one million tourists visit each year to camp and hike, fish and ski. Snowshoe Mountain ski resort is here, on land that was logged in the first half of the twentieth century, then left to burn. It is the birthplace of Nobel Prize winner Pearl S. Buck, and hosts Allegheny Echoes, a local annual Bluegrass and Old Time music institute to which people from all over America travel to study under local teachers. At its heyday in the mid 1970s, it was home to over two hundred Back to the Landers, and it hosted the 1980 and 2005 Rainbow Gatherings. This is not coal country. Instead, its main exports are timber and people.

Being a VISTA created a divide between the kind of life I lived and the kind of life everyone else in Pocahontas County lived. Where most people worked reasonable hours, working often just enough to get by, then spending their leisure time playing music, hiking, and relaxing with their families, I worked Sundays and nights. Though I didnt always feel connected to the term VISTA, I quickly learned that whether I felt like one or not, in Pocahontas County I was identified that way. In a community where peoples work was, by and large, unyoked from their identity, I was always, always Emma the VISTA.

VISTA is partly modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps, the New Deal initiative that trained millions of unemployed Americans in such useful tasks as fighting fires, planting trees and building campgrounds. These days, most VISTAs are employed doing less tangible workrunning youth programs or senior centers or YMCA programs, offering education or services, assisting an existing cultural or environmental nonprofit in many of the aspects of their daily functioning, as I did.

I came to understand that I was linked to a history and legacy of the VISTA program that is illustrious, complicated, and fraught, particularly in Appalachia. VISTA is a program specifically designed to fight poverty; only organizations in places the government deems sufficiently poor receive VISTA workers. By the time I arrived, Pocahontas County and the neighboring counties had seen more than 250 people serve as VISTAs in their communities over the course of 40 years. To wear the AmeriCorps seal that says VISTA is like wearing a name tag that says, hello, Im here to fight your poverty.

If poverty alleviation is its goal, VISTA may not be very effective. According to the most recent USDA data, which defines a U.S. county as persistently poor if twenty percent or more of its population has lived in poverty for the past 30 years, 353 American counties currently fit the bill, 301 of those are rural, and 55 are in West Virginia, including all three of the counties served by the non-profit which employed me. Much has changed since Johnson declared war on poverty, but little is profoundly improved.

I think its important to note, says Samantha Jo Warfield of the National Corporation for Community Service which houses AmeriCorps that VISTAs mission, is to strengthen organizations that alleviate poverty. No one entity government or philanthropic can eliminate poverty alone. What national service brings to the table is people power and VISTAs unique scope in that space is to support organizations working to address the issues of poverty by providing human capital a VISTA.

Warfield also notes that in the five years the CNCS has published a list of their top AmeriCorps-member producing states, West Virginia has never dropped below the top five, meaning more West Virginians are signing up to become AmeriCorps members than in other states. I suspect many of them are choosing to serve in their home state.

There is also the matter of the fact that VISTA pays its members a wage that is calculated, on purpose, to put them at the poverty line, which is both ideologically and pragmatically misguided. Ignoring the fact that some who sign up for VISTA may have access to family wealth or may already be poor, this presumes that manufacturing circumstances of poverty supposedly parallel to that experienced by the people VISTAs are supposed to serve will make the quality of their service better. I was paid about $800 per month in 2009, though I was lucky because my rent in Pocahontas County was $150 per month and the local DHHS office was so used to the ebb and flow of service volunteers arriving and leaving that getting on food stamps was as easy as showing up and saying the word VISTA. But friends of mine who served as VISTAs in Philadelphia or Atlanta or New York City during the same time were paid only minimally more and either denied access to food stamps by the bureaucracy of a big city or shamed by those involved in VISTA for wanting to access a program designed for the truly poor. The CNCS states that today however, it would pay a VISTA in West Virginia their lowest pay tier of $12,490 and a VISTA in Manhattan approximately $20,600 (75% of VISTA members earn less than $14,000 per year).

I am not the first to question the efficacy and workings of VISTA. Even before there were VISTAs, there were Appalachian Volunteers (AVs), a similar volunteer corps that came together organically when students from Berea College in Berea, Kentucky volunteered to go repair a one room school in Harlan County, Kentucky. Soon college students and young people from around the northeast had gotten word of the opportunities to work against poverty in Appalachia and began showing up.

Sometimes I wonder about the real value of [AV/VISTA] in places like Fonde [Kentucky], wrote one corps member there in 1966. Were supplying candles when the house needs to be wired for electricity.

Some AV/VISTAs and other mountain activists including Harry Caudill, author of Night Comes to the Cumberlands, felt it was the duty of any true anti-poverty volunteer corps to inform people living in Appalachian communities that their struggles were larger than they could see, the result of exploitation and absentee ownership, and to, as Caudill put it, set in motion a revolutionary change of thought. But many were also constantly wary of the charge of being labeled outside agitators (as has already happened in several counties in Kentucky and West Virginia) which weighed heavily on their minds. One AV/VISTA staff coordinator called the position an obvious paradox of trying to end poverty without disturbing the present situation.

There are so many problems were not the solution to, wrote the same doubting VISTA in 1966. We by-passed the big problems . . . and threw a lot of time, money and effort into little things that dont amount to no more than memories of good times spent together.

I do have a lot of memories of good times spent together in Pocahontas County and that may be the point. Serving as a VISTA in Pocahontas County rewired my brain and remapped the path of my life. I was radicalized there, pushed from my modest intellectual ambitions into the intense contradictions of living under late stage capitalism in a place America prefers to forget exists. It was in Pocahontas County as a VISTA member that I began to see how one form of oppression connects to another, the ways that poor white people and poor black people are pitted against each other in an environment of unnecessary scarcity, the way the same thing happens between poor women and poor men, poor straight people and poor queer people, and the ways that it is in the best interests of those in power to try to keep us all on alcohol or pills, sick or depressed, so we stay numb to these truths.

Hamlet of Beard, WV, in 2016.

Courtesy of Emma Copley Eisenberg.

We are told this is true: service only works if we all look alike when we do it, if we are bound by certain rules. If we are selfless; that is, if we have no self. But what if it could be the opposite?

Its a tricky thing, this word, service. It covers all manner of sins. It is a slippery, adult thing to live and work and play in a community of people who you care about both in idea and in practice, to be an authentically good member of community that is not your own, to fall down as a person and grow yourself up in front of people at the same time as it is your actual job to help those people get stronger.

In the real story of service, there is no telling who gave what to whom or why or if it was proper or right to give it. In the real story of service, sometimes what you can give is nothing and what you can get is your life. Sometimes the needy onein fact, not platitudeis you.

I served best, I think, when I served truest, when I drank and played Bluegrass music with a group of twenty-something local men who worked construction which lead to some poor choices on my part but a lot of conversations about work and god and queerness and violence and the past and when I drove teenaged girls around and around those switchbacks blasting Rihanna and getting a flat tire we all had to figure out how to fix.

But was it for them or was it for me? It may be that national service programs like VISTA are not effectively for the communities they purport to help, but rather that they are for those who serve: to employ us, to radicalize us, to wake us up. We had basketball games in the elementary school gym in Nellis, wrote John D. Rockefeller IV, who after being raised in New York City served as a VISTA in Emmons, West Virginia in his twenties. I was on the team because I was still young enough then to play. We had baseball games. We never won a single game in two yearsIt was exhilarating. I was rebornlike I had finally found my soul.

This may be alright, necessary even, as an investment America is making in educating and equipping young people and educating us in the meaning of service. But a single VISTA costs the government about $22,000; at around eight thousand active annual VISTA members, thats about $176 million per year, money that could be spent on changing systemic policies that affect the rural poor or creating opportunities for those central Appalachians impacted and then discarded by the coal, timber, and fracking industries.

But then, always, what if its bothwhat if it was for me and it was for others. According to the CNCS, in 2017, VISTA members generated $158 million in cash donations and an additional $49 million in in-kind services for their organizations.

What if we could have a government program that acknowledged that it is both ways, a program that made possible sufficient funding for national service opportunities and for poverty alleviation initiatives with proven results? Thats a corps Id like to serve in.

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I was an AmeriCorps Member in West Virginia. The Benefits and Limitations of National Service. - TIME

Sixty years ago on 3 February 1960, three months before the Sharpeville massacre, the UK Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, after spending a month travelling through Africa, delivered the famous Winds of Change speech in Cape Town. Back then, we were still the Union of South Africa and not a republic as yet.

Macmillan said that it was quite significant that he was visiting the Union in its 50th year, its golden anniversary the Union having been formed in 1910. He remarked that: In the 50 years of their nationhood, the people of South Africa have built a strong economy founded upon a healthy agriculture and thriving, and resilient industries. During my visit, I have been able to see something of your mining industry, on which the prosperity of the country is so firmly based. I have seen your Iron and Steel Corporation and the skyscrapers of Johannesburg, standing where 70 years ago there was nothing but the open veld. I have seen, too, the fine cities of Pretoria and Bloemfontein.

Nowhere does he mention seeing the poverty-stricken locations in which the great majority lived. Nowhere does he mention that the progress he noted was gained through the severe oppression of a majority by a minority. He does, however, hint that Britain does not approve of apartheid South Africas policies.

However, at the core of Macmillans speech is his observation of a greater phenomenon occurring throughout Africa. He states that we have seen the awakening of national consciousness in peoples who have for centuries lived in dependence upon some other Power the most striking of all the impressions I have formed since I left London a month ago is of the strength of this African national consciousness. In different places it takes different forms, but it is happening everywhere. The wind of change is blowing through this continent and, whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.

More poignantly, Macmillan states: What is now on trial is much more than our military strength or our diplomatic and administrative skill. It is our way of life. In recognition of the differences Macmillan perceives between South Africa and the UK , with many in the UK calling for a boycott of South Africa, he concludes his speech by saying: I hope indeed, I am confident that in another 50 years we shall look back on the differences that exist between us now as matters of historical interest, for as time passes and one generation yields to another, human problems change and fade. Let us remember these truths.

However, more than three decades after Macmillans speech showed that one generation did not yield to another, if yielding means giving way to demands and pressure. The apartheid government did not yield in the aftermath of the Sharpeville massacre. Instead, it doubled down by banning liberation political parties and banishing its leaders. It did not yield after children as young as 12 years old, inspired by the independence of Mozambique in 1975, in the next year demanded equal education and the end to apartheid instead, they again responded to peaceful protest with bullets. Hundreds died.

They tightened the screws of apartheid until the very end; even after the release of Nelson Mandela, many in their ranks were found to be sowing seeds of civil war among the people.

The apartheid government did not yield to change as Macmillan had invited them to do. They had instead been overwhelmed by the undeniable force of the great majority of the people of South Africa and their supporters from all over the world who formed the anti-apartheid movement. Despite the apartheid governments efforts to hold on to power, the winds of change overturned the wagons of the racist laager and on 10 December 1996, a new country with a new Constitution defined by the values of human dignity, equality and freedom, was signed into life at Sharpeville.

1960 was a decisive turning point in South African history. Shortly after the Winds of Change speech came the Sharpeville massacre which led to the launching of the armed struggle against apartheid. It would take another 36 years, with countless deaths and years in prison, and in exile, before South Africa rid itself of apartheid. And the battle to end the practices and thought patterns of apartheid, and to make the Constitution live for all our people, still continues.

Today, our country and the world finds itself at yet another decisive turning point. The winds of change are blowing from Cape to Copenhagen. We are all facing another wind of unmitigated destruction that gives us the opportunity to bring about abundant change for the better.

A pervasive virus infiltrates all our lives across racial, gender, sexual orientation and class lines. From peasants to kings. Its a problem that poses such a threat to the world that we finally understand how interconnected we are. What happens in a home in Sandton affects what happens in a shack in Alex. What happens in China affects the income of a taxi driver in South Africa who will have fewer customers because of the lockdown that has been imposed in an effort to contain Covid-19.

What is on trial is our way of life. The inequality in the world is on trial. Covid-19 has fundamentally shifted the world during its brief presence in our lives. Author Kenan Malik writes for The Guardian that: the severity of our current crisis is indicated by the extreme uncertainty as to how or when it will end It is now inevitable that we will enter a deep global recession, a breakdown of labour markets and the evaporation of consumer spending. Small businesses are shedding employees at a frightening speed.

We are spending our days tracking infection and death rates rising at a concerning speed. But it is worth remembering that in this darkness we can find regeneration as we have before. South Africa will not be spared the hardships that will follow in the aftermath of this virus, but what we have been seemingly spared is an unreliable, fickle and corrupt president.

For the first time in a long time, we are fighting the issue and not fighting our president a battle we have unfortunately grown only too accustomed to. It is refreshing to have decisive, thorough and vigorous leadership. In a crisis, a country needs a Czar, a person that will be the source of reliable information and which the other branches of government can support and not fight.

The unity in government is a welcome break from the in-fighting that was becoming the status-quo and I hope it holds for the sake of the people because in the end, we all want a country.

Covid-19 is testing our democracy and our way of life. It is testing our unequal society. At this moment, our country is haemorrhaging and to stop the bleeding we need to act collectively otherwise we will not have a country. At this moment, some of us who are better off in this moment bear more responsibility to help those who are most vulnerable. The realisation of an equal society costs. It costs courage and sacrifice. It costs unwavering commitment and conviction much like it did in 1960. If it was not hard, there would be no need for heroes.

The turbulent winds of change are indeed blowing throughout the world. Our global consciousness is awakening. If we do not use this moment as a springboard or a bridge to elevate to a better place, then our democracy will ossify.

It would be the ultimate tragedy if humanity does not once again prevail, if we do not change for the better after all that has been revealed to us and if we do not sustain our sense of unity beyond this crisis. Our country has myriad problems that need our urgent attention, but first, lets deal with this immediate threat so that we can live to fight another day. DM

Lwando Xaso is an attorney and a writer exploring the interaction between race, gender, history and popular culture.@including_society

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The Winds of Change of 2020: Now is the time to act collectively - Daily Maverick

By KHAKHUDU AGUNDAMore by this Author

The word curfew has not been so animatedly spoken about in the country for a long time.

It is, of course, something that does not happen often. And when it does, the peoples lives are drastically changed.

Ironically, the tough measures imposed are for the direct benefit of those who see them as a form of oppression.

However, when the curfew is finally lifted, it is a moment of celebration for all, as they look forward to resuming their normal lives.

I have in my life witnessed only one curfew. Therefore, the one that begins tonight, as a result of the coronavirus epidemic, evokes harrowing memories.

Nearly 40 years ago, precisely on August 1, 1982, some elements in the Kenya Air Force attempted to overthrow the second President of Kenya, Daniel arap Moi.

I was then a student at the University of Nairobi and lived in the Halls of Residence on Lower State House Road. A 6pm-to-7am curfew would then be declared.

The coup attempt happened early in the morning on August 1, and for six hours, some disorderly Air Force rebels were literally in power, having announced the takeover on the Voice of Kenya Radio, just across Uhuru Highway, from our Halls of Residence.

On August 2, President Moi announced that the attempt by junior Air Force officers to overthrow his government had been crushed.

He then advised Kenyans to stay at home "until this trouble is over". However, some sporadic firing could still be heard amid a mopping-up operation by loyal soldiers, mostly from the infantry, led by Major-General Mahmoud Mohamed.

He would later be promoted to a full general and appointed the Chief of Defence Forces.

The University of Nairobi had been a vibrant place for robust academic and social life. It had been boisterous, highly politicised, funny, and interesting, and then the gloom descended.

The worst thing about a curfew is the great uncertainty about personal safety and even whether there will be food.

Suddenly, your freedom to move about and enjoy yourself is gone. The short distance between the Main Campus on University Way, for us, became a no-go zone during the nearly five days.

It was a dusk-to-dawn curfew that turned the once vibrant university community into a rather life-less place.

We could not party anymore and worse, we could not even move around and did not know for how long this denial of freedom would go on.

It was as if death lurked everywhere. You could not even venture into the city centre. Nightlife was dead. There were no lectures. Nothing.

Unlike today, there were no mobile phones and, therefore, many of us who had relatives in the citys residential areas could not visit them.

My father and part of our family lived at Jericho Estate in the Eastlands. It felt like being marooned on a remote island, with anxiety heightened by reports of killings in the mop-up operation against the Air Force rebels who had been overpowered and driven out the old Voice of Kenya, where they had announced the takeover.

It was scaring. Some people, who will never shy away from taking advantage of such adversities, were out looting the shops and the city centre looked like a ghost town.

It didnt help matters that some university student leaders had foolishly appeared to endorse the coup.

However, it was not surprising, as the relations between the students and the increasingly oppressive government, which had been strained, were at their worst.

Being confined to our rooms and hardly venturing out felt like being in a jail.

Hardly was there any physical presence of the soldiers or the GSU, but the students dared not move around, and they knew that being identified as one, and therefore, a rebel sympathiser could spell doom. It felt like being abandoned on an island for eternity.

It was the first attempted coup in Kenya, which had been independent for 19 years, and considered a haven of peace in a sea of regional turbulence.

Next door, Uganda presented the worst-case scenario, having endured military dictatorship and a struggle for the restoration of democracy and human rights raging.

No wonder when the curfew was called off, the students poured out of the Halls of Residence in a mad rush, headed for the residential areas and many to try and find a way to head upcountry.

Scores of student leaders and many others had been arrested, quickly tried and jailed, some for up to six months or more.

On August 7, 1982, the government eased the dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed after the abortive Sunday coup as much of Nairobi returned to normal.

Most government offices were back in operation. Businesses reopened, traffic returned to normal and tourists were returning.

The deathly silence, with gloom hovering over all, remains etched in my mind.

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Under the curfew lurks gloom, fear and anxiety - Daily Nation

The Herald

Elliot Ziwira Senior WriterMusic is neither provocative nor defeatist, for it tells a tale in many ways through its evocation of the sensuous neurons; it appeals to the heart.

Since time immemorial women have managed to keep their heads above the rising tornadoes of their existence through song.

They have made it possible for their feelings to be discernible, even to a society that seemed to be impenetrable as a product of their realisation that a story does not die because it is not told, but dies if it is told to deaf ears; the heart listens.

In the book Women Musicians of Zimbabwe: A Celebration of Womens Struggle for Voice and Artistic Expression: 1930s-2013 (2013) Joyce Jenje Makwenda captures more than 75 years of the musical expression of womens travails.

The 1930s belonged to Laina Mattaka and Evelyn Juba, who were reported as the pioneers of township jazz music by the African Daily News.

Their music was a fusion of negro spirituals, gospel and traditional music.

The 1940s and 50s saw the rise of Reni Nyamundanda and the De Black Evening Follies, Faith Dauti with the Milton Brothers and the Gay Gaieties and Dorothy Masuka. Dorothy Masuka rode on the crest of a new wave of expansion and investment in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which created opportunities for entertainment.

Township music suffered a temporary glitch in the 1960s and 70s which saw new genres of music dominating.

Susan Chenjerai and Susan Mapfumo rose to prominence around this period.

The liberation struggle inspired songstresses like The Two Singing Nuns, the Chataika Sisters, who sang mostly gospel songs with their brother, Jordan, and Virginia Sillah.

As the flame of Independence illuminated the airwaves in 1980, more opportunities opened up for musical expression and women rose to the occasion.

Traditional instruments like the mbira and ngoma were on a rebound with the likes of Beaulah Dyoko, Stella Chiweshe, Elizabeth Ncube, Francisca Muchena, Irene Chigamba, Taruwona Mushore and Chiwoniso Maraire taking mbira music to the international stage.

In the 1980s, the appreciation for gospel music grew as Shuvai Wutawunashe made her mark.

Busi Ncube and Rozalla Miller, the Queen of Rave, of the Everyone is Free fame became household names.

Township jazz made a rebound around this period and its flame continues to glow in the hands of Prudence Katomeni-Mbofana, Dudu Manhenga, Patience Musa, Rute Mbangwa, Nomsa Mhlanga and Hope Masike.

Jenje Makwenda reiterates how Independence, which Zimbabweans will be celebrating for the 40th time on April 18, 2020, revolutionised the airwaves to create space for local artistes.

She notes how urban grooves popularised by Memory Zaranyika, Plaxedes Wenyika, Betty Makaya, Pauline Gundidza, Portia Njazi aka Tia, Tambudzayi Hwaramba and Kudzai Sevenzo, benefited from the Governments 75 percent local content directive to local stations.

She cites Selmor Mtukudzi, one of the beneficiaries of the initiative: The 75 percent introduced by Government meant that we could get to listen to my music, people would get to hear of me, even though I hadnt recorded, then it gave me hope that in the event that I want to record and do something, I would have a listener-ship, because then our music was not played much. We used to hear musicians like Beyonce and everyone else, but ours was not played.

Although Governments directive is commendable, and society has been forthcoming in giving an ear to womens plight highlighted through music, a lot still needs to be done for that musical appreciation to be fully articulated.

The music industry still remains the preserve of men to a great extent because of stereotypical inclinations steeped in patriarchal societies.

Women musicians do not only suffer financial barricades, but are considered morally bankrupt.

A woman may rise to the apex before she marries, but once matrimony comes, her decline also becomes inevitable.

The challenges that come with wifehood and motherhood may be baneful to her career and as a result the suffering and oppression of her ilk will continue unabated, as the voice that should come to the defence of their toil is stifled.

Laina Gumboreshumba, whose musical career started at an early age and is working on a PhD in Music at Rhodes University, says: I think the demands of a musical career and the demands of marriage for a woman as expected by the husband and the society at large clash As a result many men are not comfortable with their wives tackling the heavy schedule and working odd hours.

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Celebrating womanhood through music - The Herald

The Socio-economic vulnerabilities of the marginalized are spiralling out of control by the imprudent Social Distancing measures. Prime Minister Narendra Modis sudden announcement of a 21-day nationwide lockdown has taken a serious toll on the vulnerable sections of the society. Disturbing visuals of the exodus of migrant workers from the metro cities to their home states caught the BJP government off guard. The Modi government had barely thought through the impact of a national lockdown equipped with strict social distancing measures. While the social distancing measures are effective ways to slow the community transmission of coronavirus pandemic, it is also meant to put large sections of the working class at greater risk. As the chores across the country, "If we dont die of the coronavirus, we will die of hunger" already started growing among the poor migrant labourers and unstable contract workers amidst safe distancing policies, the whole idea of social distance may fall through without adequately addressing the livelihood concerns of the have nots of the state. Indias exponential slowdown of the growth has been creating adverse impacts on the per capita incomes of the weaker sections of the society. Hence, a phase-wise roll out of cluster based isolation at an early stage would have prepared Indias poor and destitute to cope with national lockdown effects. The consequences of drastic actions by the Modi government substantially generated social vulnerabilities and gave birth to ethical concerns that reinforce the process of otherness on the economically marginal classes. Now there is a growing need for social safeguarding to secure the livelihoods.

Coronavirus Pandemic: Follow All The Live Updates Here

Social Vulnerabilities

As social distancing has become a global buzzword in the wake of Coronavirus pandemic, the privileged rich and upper middle class communities are responding to it seamlessly whereas many marginalised groups are susceptible to potential harm. On March 24 evening, immediately after the Prime Ministers announcement of 21-day national lockdown, brought migrant workers, and contract workers in the metro cities and farmers, poor groceryowners, in the rural areas to a standstill. The painful transition of market economy in the developing countries like India has experienced steep emergence of new proletariats in the large informal sectors. They largely live on the sharp debt trap, that daily engulf them in socio-economic uncertainties. With the growth of rentier capitalism in Indias post reform era, a shrinking of Salariat class and the massive growth of Informal sector workforce today constitute a large number of fragile labor force in the country. The post national shutdown has sent shockwaves to them and revealed their vulnerabilities wide in the open. The hardest hit among all are the interstate migrant laborers and contract workers of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha. They found themselves literally jobless overnight and stranded at various locations of the country. These migrant workers today are in immediate need of a national safety net and integrated social protection system. Governments economic relief package is too late and too little armed with short-sighted planning and no innovative ideas so far to deal with long-term livelihood crises may meet with large scale hunger deaths in the rural areas. Hence, it is the moral duty of the government to protect the social vulnerabilities looming out of the social distancing measures.

Ethical Concerns

Amid the disturbing visuals of police beating poor migrant workers, and small traders, there are significant ethical concerns such as harm in forms of physical and mental pains that might form as vulnerability. As police get their quarantine powers from their executive bosses, its firm orders with arbitrary use of force to enforce Public Good at the cost of human dignity and individual rights may further push the poor to the margins. Stringent police actions also as a major disrupting force for the working class and make their livelihood suffer overwhelmingly during the lockdown. The moral marker of the gap followed in Social Distancing may potentially amplify the socio economic gaps between the privileged class and marginalized sections. Needless to say, before this Covid outbreak distance used to be largely a state of mind, but the epithet social has added a physical process of social-cultural disassociation.

Brookings Economist Richard Reeves, In his book, Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do About It, claimed "members of the upper middle class are doing very well and should be asked to contribute a greater share to the common good. This requires them first to look in the mirror and see that they are not the victims of inequality, but the victors." He identifies income and wealth as a crucial dimension which virtually segregates top 20% with the rest 80%. Reevess prophecy is truer than ever in the global outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. The Mass exodus of migrant workers from the metro cities to their home states is clearly reflexive of deeply rooted income segregation structure of India.

Distanced by Class-caste model

Maintaining distance is historically entrenched in various forms of normative isolations by the upper caste groups in the Hindu social order. It goes back to the centuries old untouchable practices against the lower caste communities of the Indian subcontinent. Also, the sexual agency of Hindu women has had been historically suppressed. These archaic trajectories will manifold as well as embolden the gaps between the upper and lower caste groups in the public sphere. On the other, upper class and upper middle class perennially act selfishly and hoard as well as do panic buying since wealth is concentrated in their pockets. There is a consistency in the behaviours of privileged upper class which is directly linked with their social positioning and greed that automatically puts marginalized at the bottom and aggravate the economic gulf. Hence, the distancing models enforced by the govt will intensify double edged exclusion and work as major disrupter in their livelihood amid the India shutdown. In fact, Indian State and societys credibility has historically been lessened through the unfolding of epistemic violence and long drawn prejudice in dealing with marginal groups. At a time like this harm caused by social distance without social safeguards will have spill over effects.

Reinforcing otherness

Finally, while privileged locations of upper class and upper castes create a safety net around them, daily wage earners are otherised by the harsh social distancing provisions in the absence of adequate social safeguards. Social locations of the marginalized classes results in more oppression and exploitation without intersecting endeavours and understanding of the nature of continuous process of otheration. Therefore, The deep seated apathy towards the marginal sections hit hard by the widespread Covid-19 outbreak in India and will reproduce otherness as well as accelerate the process of othering. Even, amid the self-quarantines, the empowered sections experiences are prioritised by the institutional dispensations. The rerunning of the Ramayana confirms the behavioural dynamics of the government while unwavering vigilance of police on street vendors, poor laborers affirm the case in point. Traditionally unequal societies widened up the hierarchies and produced asymmetrical social relations. Multilayered matrix of domination augment their sufferings.

Governments knee jerk reactions to the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in ever growing indifference towards the plural specificities of vulnerability. Political elites opportunism in subtle promotion of social cleavages reinforce subtly the process of othering. The underpinning cheer over the thrashing of working class by the police is testament of privileged sensibilities of class and caste entitlements. Thus, this is a grave reminder to the social safeguarding measures for the sustainable livelihood of the marginal castes and classes.

(Subhajit Naskar is an Assistant Professor, Department of Politics and International Relations in Jadavpur University. He has completed integrated MPhil/PhD from the Centre for South Asian Studies of School of International Studies (SIS) at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

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Why India Needs Aggressive Social Safeguarding Measures To Protect Marginalised In The Time Of Corona - Outlook India

Just as the coronavirus is more dangerous to people with underlying medical conditions, the Middle East and North Africa faces a crisis caused not by the coronavirus alone, but also by their already existing economic, social and political fragility. Combined with the new reality sweeping the world, they form a perfect storm that threatens the region in ways that are more dangerous than anything it has faced for decades.

Throughout the region it is hard to find a single country that one can honestly say is strong enough to face what is about to happen. Country after country has been struggling for years with fundamental challenges; civil wars in Iraq, Syria and Libya, major debt crises in Lebanon, Egypt and elsewhere, overburdened budgets and great poverty in Egypt and Morocco, countries that depend on foreign aid, tourism and investments, such as Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt even oil-rich economies are facing budget constraints as oil prices collapse because of over supply and slowing economic activity.

In the face of this storm, governments throughout the region have some immediate concerns, many of which carry within them the seeds of deeper challenges to come soon if this global crisis persists.

Thousands of Arabs seek medical care in Europe, the US and elsewhere every year because healthcare systems in almost all Arab countries are weak, and incapable of handling a pandemic. These fragile healthcare systems will be put under enormous additional pressure as more cases of COVID-19 are diagnosed. Combined with travel bans preventing anyone from leaving their own countries, and increasing difficulty in procuring medical equipment and medicines as supply chains stall, this is a real ticking bomb.

Another pressing issue will be how the region copes with inevitable shortages of food and medical supplies. Much of the region, if not all, depends heavily on imported goods, not only in the medical sector but also food and basic necessities. This dependency will be increasingly difficult to overcome as the global supply chain comes under intensified pressure and is interrupted, in some parts at least, for the foreseeable future. The lack of any long-term food security will be exposed and there will be major shortages.

The old traditional ways of obtaining hard currency and help in financing government budgets foreign aid, international loans, tourism, foreign direct investment, transfers and remittances from expats, or even exporting labor to other countries will no longer work. As countries around the world close their borders, take their own strict economic measures, increase their own debt and set their own economic incentive packaging to minimize the impact of the crises on their own people and labor forces, it will be more difficult for developing countries to find help.

All resources need to be focused on these efforts to prevent a temporary health crisis from becoming a major economic, social, and political tsunami that will overwhelm governments in the region.

Hafed Al-Ghwell

There is a weak underlying foundation to much of the regions political and economic systems, with oppression, corruption, top-down decision making and lack of freedom of information and debate all serving to deny both governments and societies the proper tools to address weaknesses in the system and reach consensus on how to tackle these challenges in a unified manner. This lack of the proper tools of governance means that as economic and social pressure builds, the chances of uprisings will increase, exposing the region to another potential cycle of revolts and chaos.

The regions top priority at the moment, in the face of these challenges, is to do anything it can to stop the spread of COVID-19. All resources need to be focused on these efforts to prevent a temporary health crisis from becoming a major economic, social, and political tsunami that will overwhelm governments in the region.

The second priority is to strengthen social safety nets for the most vulnerable in society; those who have no financial capacity to withstand even a short-term disruption to their incomes. This should include a combination of fiscal policy tools as recommended by the International Monetary Fund, such as a mix of targeted policies on hard-hit sectors and populations, including tax relief, government fees and cash transfers, and reprioritizing spending within the existing fiscal budgets, tight as they may be.

Historical evidence suggests that developing countries with much less global connectivity, such as those in the Arab world, tend to feel the full impact of such global crises a little later than more globalized economies. With that in mind, the Arab world is well advised to scale up its combined response to the pandemic much more quickly than it is doing now. The full force of this storm is yet to come.

The only real protection only from the disease and from its consequences is to reduce the level of its penetration and spread. The region will simply not be able to protect itself from the cascading wave of political, economic, and social earthquake that is coming, if it fails in doing this.

* Hafed Al-Ghwell is a non-resident senior fellow with the Foreign Policy Institute at the John Hopkins University School of Advanced InternationalStudies. He is also senior adviser at the international economic consultancy Maxwell Stamp and at the geopolitical risk advisory firm OxfordAnalytica, a member of the Strategic Advisory Solutions International Group in Washington DC and a former adviser to the board of the WorldBank Group. Twitter: @HafedAlGhwell

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News' point-of-view

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This region is ill prepared for the tsunami that is coming - Arab News