Another beautiful sunny Autumn day in the Illawarra, making it impossible to be miserable. It is also the birthday of my late father, Winston (1916-2012). The Ruby Princess has still not left Port Kembla with its ailing crew; 2 passengers who returned to the US have died, along with the 19 in Australia. The Queensland Government has allocated $2 million to keep Virgin viable. And sub-40 year olds were reminded that COVID-19 can afflict them too.
Since the lockdown four weeks ago I have not been able to purchase toilet paper from conventional supermarkets, not hoard but to procure only enough for our needs. Unfortunately, my fellow humans have selfishly been acquiring much more than they needed. Today I managed to get a six pack from our local servo. It is a sign of the times that this is newsworthy and the source of smug joy.
Readers may have detected I am not a Trump fan and I do allow myself to wallow in the vivid descriptions of his ineptitude. However, I am close to promising to ignore him and write no more on the subject. History will judge his effectiveness in confronting the virus. So thanks go to New York Times columnist Jennifer Senior for filling my cup with gems like “a man renowned for intellectual incontinence”; “he has all the focus of a moth”; “his prefrontal cortex is entirely offline” (Trump’s Brain: A Guided Tour, April 16, 2020).
Calls for a relaxation of shutdown restrictions have become more urgent and pressing, not least in the US where individual states are said to have some discretion on easing. There is much talk of mitigating impacts of the virus on the economy. Reactionaries seem at ease with sacrifice, not theirs, as collateral damage, human dross to be trimmed in the interests of capitalism. This sentiment was expressed by Crikey correspondent Michael Bardley yesterday as:
“Get the economy moving, return everyone to work, let the virus spread a bit and smooth a few dying pillows for people we’ve given the dignity of being allowed to hug their grandkids once more. If they die, well, we all die eventually…It’s an appalling tragedy, happening right now before our eyes. The rush to give the privileged back what they feel has been temporarily removed from their grasp is unseemly. They’re able to express such mercenary awfulness because they don’t believe that they’ll, personally, ever be poor, sick or dead.” (“Wake up, reactionaries. Your world has changed – forever. Crikey Weekender, April 17, 2020)
Forty two more cases for Australia (total 6,565) and now 69 deaths. For NSW, 10 more cases for 2,936 and 29 deaths. Global incidence of COVID-19 damage is around 2.2 million cases and over 154,000 deaths.
Awesomely Astute 