PANDEMIC

30

Mar

2020, 2021, COVID crisis, COVID-19, COVID19, PANDEMIC

Short comic history of a pandemic (2020-2021)

Original column BY: Sergio Flore Translation BY: Costantino Ceoldo PEJOURNAL - In a way yes, they are right: it is like a war. But no, no bayonet charges against the enemy. No act of courage or self-denial and certainly a few pats on the back between fellow soldiers. However, there is Manichean thought, the implicit rhetoric of the “with us or against us”. There is the impossibility of stopping, doubting, asking questions, on pain of social exclusion. Here, in this sense, yes, it is like a war. Brief review, in outline, of the stages of the military campaign. I go…

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27

Mar

COVID crisis, Mattias Desmet, PANDEMIC, psychologist

Mattias Desmet; a great psychologist explains why we are so passive in front of COVID19

Translated to English BY: Costantino Ceoldo PEJOURNAL - Inside the Great Imposture, the thing that is really scary (it has already been said) is the passivity in the face of the general decline of freedom and civilization of the Western masses. With their masks and their obedience to lockdowns increasingly similar to a state of imprisonment, the majority give the impression of fearing a substantially imaginary danger (death from COVID19 but in 99.8 percent of cases they do not risk) more than the real damage that has already fallen on them. From the tragic depressions that affect their young children…

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05

Oct

Capitalism, Corona virus, COVID19, Global Economy, PANDEMIC, post-corona

Capitalism After the Pandemic

BY: Mariana Mazzucato PEJOURNAL - After the 2008 financial crisis which was a challenge to Capitalism, governments across the world injected over $3 trillion into the financial system. The goal was to unfreeze credit markets and get the global economy working again. But instead of supporting the real economy—the part that involves the production of actual goods and services—the bulk of the aid ended up in the financial sector. Governments bailed out the big investment banks that had directly contributed to the crisis, and when the economy got going again, it was those companies that reaped the rewards of the…

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26

Jul

2020-election, Corona virus, PANDEMIC, TRUMP

Trump’s Chance in 2020; amid corona virus pandemic

BY: Mohammad Ghaderi PEJOURNAL - Regarding the reduction in the spread of the coronavirus, the first question in the United States has been the impact of the virus on the 2020 presidential election, and to what extent the remnants of Covid19 will be the cause of Trump’s defeat or victory. It is clear that the coronavirus has already strongly influenced the 2020 election and even resulted in a sort of ‘genetic mutation’ in Trump, who described the drowsy and dumb Joe Biden as a calm and good man after a phone conversation between the two. Although he seemed to believe…

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14

Jul

Corona virus, COVID19, Crisis, foreign policy, Geoeconomics, Liberal economies, Liberalism, PANDEMIC

Foreign Policy: The Pandemic Could Be the Crisis Liberalism Needed

BY: Matt Warner* , Tom G. Palmer* PEJOURNAL - The world may be reaching a dangerous inflection point for liberalism. According to the latest reports from Freedom House, over the last 15 years the share of unfree countries in the world has risen while the share of free countries has dropped. Today, government deficits are spiking in response to the public’s demand for intervention to mitigate the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, and some warn that authoritarian leaders are seizing the opportunity to expand their control. Still, this may be a time when liberalism starts to gain ground, not…

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06

Jul

COVID19, Europe, financial crisis, PANDEMIC

Is Europe ready to face this new financial crisis?

BY: Elena Lazzaro* , Luca Carelli* PEJOURNAL - The Covid-19 crisis has shaken the global economy putting many countries on their knees. Although this isnot the first pandemic in human history, Covid-19 presents a number of characteristics that make it a uniqueevent. First of all, much like with natural disasters, this virus comes from exogenous factors uncorrelated to countries’economies; however unlike these, it does not remain circumscribed to a specific area.Additionally, when comparing the current economic recession to that of 2007, it appears clear that the formerdoes not present a sheer financial nature; however, as in the case of the…

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27

Jun

COVID19, Iran, lock down, PANDEMIC

Asia Times: Why Iran won’t be broken

BY:  PEPE ESCOBAR PEJOURNAL - So what’s going on in Iran? How did the Islamic Republic really respond to Covid-19? How is it coping with Washington’s relentless “maximum pressure”? These questions were the subject of a long phone call I placed to Prof. Mohammad Marandi of the University of Tehran – one of Iran’s premier, globally recognized analysts. As Marandi explains, “Iran after the revolution was all about social justice. It set up a very elaborate health care network, similar to Cuba’s, but with more funding. A large hospital network. When the coronavirus hit, the US was even preventing Iran…

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26

Jun

COVID19, DER SPIEGEL, GERMANY, Italy, PANDEMIC, Rimini, tourism

DER SPIEGEL: The Italian Resort of Rimini Opens Carefully to Summer Tourists

PEJOURNAL - Germans are finally able to travel to their favorite holiday destination again: Italy. In the tourist city of Rimini, hosts are setting up lounge chairs and putting out the umbrellas, but even so, this summer won't be the same. Italy's borders have been open again since June 3 and the German government's blanket travel warning has been lifted as well, including for Italy, a country that was especially hard-hit by the coronavirus. Germans will once again be permitted to travel south - if they dare. But will they? That's the question people along the Adriatic coast want to…

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18

Jun

Africa, Corona virus, COVID19, PANDEMIC, The Economist

The pandemic in Africa is not just a crisis of public health or the economy, It’s a political one, too.

Writing in The Economist, former senior UN official Alan Doss and founder of Celtel Mo Ibrahim argue that the pandemic threatens the democratic progress made in Africa in recent years."Hard times often make people especially vulnerable to the siren song of populists and extremists trading on communal enmities," they write.At least 18 African countries are expected to hold national elections this year. But unless proper laws are in place, suspending elections amid the pandemic could erode democracy.To prevent this from happening, Mr Doss and Mr Ibrahim explain, there are several steps African governments and the public can take

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16

Jun

COVID19, Democracy, Election, Foreign Affairs, PANDEMIC

Foreign Affairs: Democracy Versus the Pandemic

The Coronavirus Is Emboldening Autocrats the World Over By Larry Diamond PEJOURNAL - In late March, Philippine strongman Rodrigo Duterte rammed a bill through his country’s parliament that granted him vastly expanded emergency powers, ostensibly to fight the novel coronavirus. The bill authorized Duterte to reallocate the national budget as he saw fit and to personally direct hospitals. “Do not challenge the government,” he bellowed in a menacing televised address. “You will lose.” Six days later, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban pushed even more expansive emergency legislation through his rubber-stamp parliament, enabling him to suspend existing laws, decree new ones,…

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