Ovi magazine; Thursday February 23rd, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Thursday February 23rd, 2023

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The Pandemic Public Policy Catastrophe – Research indicates failed pandemic strategies by Murray Hunter

Now more research is being published concerning the Covid-19 pandemic, some to the realities of public health strategy failures are coming to light. One of the most startling aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic was the total catastrophe that occurred within the public policy area.

Governments around the world instigated policies and measures to manage the Covid-19, that were far from effective. Many measures implemented caused more harm than benefits.

A recent paper in pre-print stage, Global Covid-19 pandemic Outcomes: Dissecting a failed strategy, which studied statistical data, across 108 countries, had the following conclusions.

1. Higher nationwide Covid-19 vaccinated rates correlated with higher Covid-19 deaths per 1,000 people.
2. Higher country per capita healthcare costs correlated with higher Covid-19 deaths per 1,000 people. 
3. Higher per capita incomes correlated with higher Covid-19 deaths per 1,000 people.
4. Higher testing for Covid-19 correlated with higher Covid-19 deaths per 1,000 people.
5. Higher Covid-19 response measures like masking, social distancing, curfews, quarantine, business and school closures, lockdowns, travel bans, contact tracing, and PCR testing correlated with higher Covid-19 deaths per 1,000 people.
6. Higher country hydroxychloroquine use correlated with lower Covid-19 deaths per 1,000 people.

Continue reading HERE!

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Disobedience At The Top #cartoon by Jan Sand

“I have a mind that does not mind.
It thinks it thinks in ways I think
But I find I do not mind it strays
With thoughts of quite other kind,
Thoughts that wind with the wind
That whirls with worlds I find unpinned
So rapidly, haphazardly, undefined
In intents, so strangely bent with increments
That leave me with no defense.”

Continue reading HERE

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Ephemera #81 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Thursday May 26th, 2022 – National Paper Airplane Day

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Thursday May 26th, 2022 – National Paper Airplane Day

National Paper Airplane Day is an unofficial observance, celebrated on May 26 each year in the United States to commemorate the simple aeronautical toy.

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JAKIM’s undesirable impact on Malaysian politics and society by Murray Hunter

After three years of accusations over the lack of halal integrity and corruption within Malaysia’s Department of Islamic Development (JAKIM), a number of very concerning issues regarding the political environment and society have been exposed. These issues need to be identified and discussed. The purpose of this article is list these issues and make some preliminary observations, so they can be discussed within the public domain.

JAKIM is not a divine religious organization

JAKIM is part of the Malaysian bureaucracy housed under the authority of the Prime Minister’s Department, and under supervision of the Council of Rulers. JAKIM is staffed by civil servants. There is nothing about divinity and altruism within JAKIM’s mission, other than to promote state influence within Islam and related issues.

As such, civil servants who pursue a career within JAKIM share the same ambitions as civil servants in other ministries and agencies. They want promotion, pursue self-interest, and participate in internal politics. Consequently, JAKIM is not immune from corruption.

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I’m watching you leave #poem by Bohdan Yuri

“A look beyond the shadows of death
invites a mistress to seduce the sorrow
still untapped, and measured in cold time
inside the collection of madhouse pleasures,
old age and youth holding frail hands,
the ending, the beginning always the same.”

Continue reading HERE!

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Morbid Matters: Estimating COVID-19 Mortality by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

It has dominated news cycles, debates and policies since 2020, but COVID-19 continues to exercise the interest of number crunchers and talliers.  While the ghoulish daily press announcements about infections and deaths across many a country have diminished and, in some cases, disappeared altogether, publications abound about how many were taken in the pandemic.

The World Health Organization, ever that herald of dark news, has offered a revised assessment across of the SARS-CoV-2 death toll associated either directly or indirectly with the pandemic.  Between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021, the global health body suggests that the mortality figure is closer to 14.9 million, with a range of 13.3 million to 16.6 million.

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Mika Toxica #026 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Sunday February 6th, 2022 – Sámi National Day

 

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Saturday February 5th, 2022 – Sámi National Day

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Special Privileges: Charlotte Bellis, Fortress New Zealand and the Taliban by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Not wishing to be left out from the brutal closed border system that has characterised COVID-19 policy in Australia, New Zealand has also been every bit as extreme in limiting the return of its nationals. Pandemic policy, if not logic, has taken issue with the nature of citizenship, which, truth be told, is simply not worth the print or the paper.

In theory, New Zealanders should have more claim to a right of return than their Trans-Tasman cousins. Australia lacks a charter or bill of rights that protects such entitlements; New Zealand does not. Article 18 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 outlines provisions on the freedom of movement, including the right for all New Zealand citizens to enter and leave the country.

Australians can only rely on the mutable constructs of common law and weak judicial observations. At best, international law, fortified by Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, offer mild protections that have done little to make governments in Australia and New Zealand more tolerant of their returning citizens during these pandemic times.

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The handsome stranger at the seaside #poem by Abigail George

“I can smell the hungering sea
on my fingers. Your dancing
is bittersweet. The royal-loyal
invention of the cracked day overcast. Birdsong finds
itself in my palms. Between”

Continue reading HERE!

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Fika bonding! #025 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Saturday February 5th, 2022

 

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Saturday February 5th, 2022 – World Nutella Day

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Could Malaysia and Thailand be heading into a bout of classic stagflation? by Murray Hunter

Medical experts around the world are beginning to say that the Covid-19 crisis is heading into an endemic stage with the emergence of the Omicron variant. The world is experiencing drags within supply chains, a lethargic recovery in international tourism, and continued pressures on the cost of living from high oil prices. Countries will need to transition from heavy restrictions to protect public health to a basket of measures to kickstart their respective economies. However, coming over the economic horizon in both Malaysia and Thailand is the prospect of stagflation hitting these respective economies, presenting policymakers with new challenges.

Classic stagflation was a phenomenon that hit the world in tandem with the oil supply shocks of 1973-74 and 1978-79. Stagflation is a condition where the economy is experiencing high inflation, recession, and high unemployment, all at the same time. It was perplexing to economists at the time because the remedies for each of the major conditions making up stagflation, would aggravate other symptoms. For example, boosting economic activity in the economy would be inflationary and fighting inflation with raising interest rates would adversely affect economic activity and increase unemployment.

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“I write poetry” #poem by George Cassidy Payne

“I write poetry
to perform
a craft”

Continue reading HERE!

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Insert Brain Here 2.0 #001 #cartoon by Paul Woods

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Ovi magazine; Friday January 28th, 2022

 

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Friday January 28th, 2022 – Data Protection Day

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Arise, #Pandemic Profiteers by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

History’s annals are filled with war profiteers and hustlers for the opportunistic return. They come in the form of hoarders, arms manufacturers and wily business folk making a steal on slaughter and mayhem. But the other conflict – that of battling a pandemic – has also shown that profits exist for those willing to exploit the crisis.

With the global surge of SARS-CoV-2 in 2020, there were early signs that saving money, notably for large corporations, and earning greater revenue from such a lethal crisis, was possible. Work remotely as Zoom zombies – if you can. Retreat to the second or third abode, preferably in a remote location – if you have them. The sardine-packed proles toiling and providing essential services could endure the heavier burden of suffering.

Other historical periods also suggest sharp social inequalities in the face of disease and despair. That sublime Italian writer, Giovanni Boccaccio, who wrote The Decameron, a collection of 100 tales, gives us more than just a bird’s eye view into the horror of plague and affliction. The Black Death gathered somewhere between 40% to 50% of the European populace between 1347 and 1351. While Boccaccio cites the proverb that, “It is inherently human to show pity to those who are afflicted”, his colourful spread of characters suggests something quite different. The wealthy find fine seclusion amidst their provisions; the essential workers of the time go about their doomed labours, contracting the plague and dying in the process.

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“Spark” #poem by Jan Sand

“What joins wit to weight is matter
In filigreed ionic fields
That seine sensation from the scatter,
Covet it in horny shields”

Continue reading HERE!

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Sceptic feathers #027 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Friday January 7th, 2022

 

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Friday January 7th, 2022

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The role of corruption and narcotics in the Thai deep south insurgency by Murray Hunter

Institutional corruption and the narcotics trade within the Thai deep south are important dynamics of the ongoing insurgency. These two issues have often been neglected in most analyses of the regional conflict.

Up until early 2000, the southern Thai drug trade was primarily controlled by Chinese diaspora based in Hat Yai, Songkhla Province. Hat Yai is the major southern railway junction and where major roads crossed. The town became the major transit point for heroin shipped down from the Golden Triangle onto Malaysia and the rest of the world through Sadao, near the border.

As the Chinese mafia switched from narcotics and prostitution into legitimate businesses, the deep south provinces and Yala and Narathiwat became more important smuggling transit points, taken over by local Thai-Chinese.

Continue reading HERE!

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At a Red Light #poem by George Cassidy Payne

“There are those who only have their name to give as thanks.
Have you seen a two year old boy hand his papa an orange peel?”

Continue reading HERE!

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Where the #economy headed by Joseph Gatt

I think what COVID did was prune the dead wood. That is those industries that were not being productive but kept producing now have a pretext to halt production and shut down.

Those industries that were healthy and knew where they were heading are going to keep producing; start investing in new markets, and take over the old markets that were held by unproductive economies.

But the new economic order needs to be one where industries don’t waste money and energy on projects that are not productive. A lot of industries stayed afloat without being productive because they had easy access to credit and money, and were cooking the books so people in the industry could keep their jobs. And that’s a dangerous move in case we face new pandemic times.

Continue reading HERE!

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Ghostin’ #025 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Wednesday January 5th, 2022

 

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Wednesday January 5th, 2022

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Social Media and Fake News – Web of disinformation and misinformation by Kola King

Today, the world is a global village because of the inter-connectivity made possible by the internet. At the touch of a button one can connect with the outside world from the remotest location to the biggest cities and metropolises of the world. Much as the internet has made possible connectivity on a global scale, yet the rise of social media has led to increased proliferation of fake news.

Now social media is an all comers affair since there are no clear-cut rules and regulations guiding the use of this most innovative invention of the 21st century. Social media has turned to a market place of mischief and misinformation. Unlike the traditional media, there are no set rules or regulations that bind the users of this information superhighway.

Continue reading HERE!

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The Heart Cries #poem by Bohdan Yuri

“The heart cries,
Its voice muted.
Eyes well, spine wilts,
Bloodflow, aimless.”

Continue reading HERE!

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Will COVID cause social chaos? by Joseph Gatt

Thank God I don’t have cancer or any other terminal illness. And may God grant me a healthy life into ripe old age.

But the last couple of years I know what it’s like to live with a terminal disease. We all do. You let go of your life goals and plans and you fight the disease. You wake up every morning checking your health report. Every day has its loads of medication and things you’re allowed to do and not allowed to do, places you’re allowed to go and places you’re not allowed to go.

More sadly, the first couple of weeks into your diagnosis, your family and friends hang out with you and cheer you up. But after that first couple of weeks your friends and family and loved ones tend to let go of you and tell you they have a life of their own. So you’re left all alone, stranded, fighting for your life.

Continue reading HERE!

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Ma-Siri & Alexa #21 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Sunday January 2nd, 2022

 

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Sunday January 2nd, 2022

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COVID and collective PTSD by Joseph Gatt

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a condition where, when in times of war, people don’t cooperate like they should; you’re left on your own. Fighting all by yourself and facing a probable death over a long period of time leads to anxiety disorders in peacetime. You end up believing that life really is unpredictable, that individuals really don’t cooperate, and that no one will help you deal with life’s struggles.

So the COVID pandemic has created chaos. People are trying to survive all by themselves, cooperation is at an all time low, and you have to fight all by yourself to get what you need. You also face uncertainties in life and a possible death if you are infected with the virus.

So a lot of individuals in society will tend to believe that life is unpredictable and that you have to fight all by yourself to overcome life’s struggles. This way of life has consequences in the form of collective PTSD, and the following is the kind of society you end up with.

Continue reading HERE!

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New Years Resolution #poem by Jan Sand

“The sensible, these days, has become
Incomprehensible.
The weather, whether one agrees
To please
The experts, on the matter”

Continue reading HERE!

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Mirrors #shortstory #fiction by Abigail George

She is two people. One filled with introspection and the other is a mirror held up to her face, her identity, her personality, and perhaps truth too in ways in means inconceivable to the world around her.

The man is magnificent. Everything about the man is magnificent. His life speaks of travel and adventure. She has never been anywhere.

Continue reading HERE!

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Ephemera #34 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Thursday December 23rd, 2021

 

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Thursday December 23rd, 2021

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Covid Testing Rackets and Flying Again by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

The young boy of seven or so was kissing a toy doll affixed with an alarmed face. The doll, no doubt of full Chinese make, was fully tarted up, lips glossy, eyes wide, a blonde with curls. “Stop making out with her,” cried her mother, sitting in the seat beside him with concern. “It’s creepy.”

The passengers on this Melbourne to Brisbane flight were taking a moment to compose themselves. The customary hard cushion seating, cool, slightly refrigerated, touched the skin, imposing itself upon the visitor. The cafeteria, plastic tray tables that must be put up prior to lift-off and descent. The sardine can phenomenon of being kept close and packed. The mandatory wearing of fitted facemasks, a rule constantly subverted by people nibbling snacks or sneaking a drink or too. People were flying again.

The mother and her child were awaiting to travel to the Queensland capital. She, weary and bleary-eyed, seemed fascinated with another toy her son had also taken on as hand luggage: a classic example of macho moronic strength, an elastic muscle man who could be abused and distorted into any shape of your preference. “Look,” she squealed, “I can tie his arms up.” Just what a traveller needs: a bit of cruelty inflicted on a plastic figure by a desperate human.

Continue reading HERE!

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The message #poem by Bohdan Yuri

“The message I’m getting is far from here
it travels in a line of constant despair.”

Continue reading HERE!

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Ma-Siri & Alexa 21#20 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Thursday December 16th, 2021

 

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Thursday December 16th, 2021 – Victory day of Bangladesh

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The ‘Other’ Victims of the Liberation War of Bangladesh by Dr. Habib Siddiqui

Bijoy Dibosh or the Victory Day is celebrated as a national holiday in Bangladesh on 16 December to commemorate the surrender of the Pakistani forces in Dhaka to the allied forces of Bangladesh and India. The nine-month-long Bangladesh Liberation War witnessed death of many individuals on all the sides – for and against the liberation of Bangladesh. As is often the case, most victims were innocent unarmed civilians.

Extant research works show that the Urdu-speaking non-Bengalis faced genocidal crimes at the hands of Bengali vigilantes before, during and after the liberation war of 1971. As religious minorities fleeing persecution in Hindu-majority India, they settled in East Pakistan and remained loyalists to the very end of what was once “united” Pakistan.

During 1947-48 nearly 96% of the fleeing Muslim refugees from the Indian administered states of West Bengal, Bihar and Assam settled in East Pakistan; the remainder 4% settled in West Pakistan, especially in Karachi, then the capital city of Pakistan. The Bihari Muslim migration to East Bengal (later to become East Pakistan) started earlier. The pre-partition anti-Muslim pogroms in 1946 witnessed the slaughter of more than 30,000 Bihari Muslims in the hands of communalistic Hindus. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, then a student leader, accompanied Husain Shahid Suhrawardy, the then chief minister of (undivided) Bengal in British-run India, to visit Bihar and distributed relief goods amongst the affected victims’ families.

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The Wall #poem by George Cassidy Payne

“I loved you, the way jewels are left unclaimed on the ocean floor. I loved you forevermore, and I knew all along that such a place does not exist.”

Continue reading HERE!

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Punishing the Unvaccinated: Europe’s COVID-19 Health Experiment by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Forget any notions of juicy carrots; the stick approach of savage punishment is in vogue with the Greek government in pushing vaccination rates. It is far from the only one. Across a number of countries in Europe, governments wishing to drive up levels of COVID-19 vaccination have decided to abandon suasion and the generous supply of medical information in favour of penalties and punishments.

In Austria, Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg was very much a standard bearer for that cause, citing stubbornness on the part of the citizenry of his country. (Only 69% of those eligible have received at least one dose, a rate significantly behind that of other western European states.) “We have enough vaccines,” he told CNN prior to announcing his resignation. “Science gave us the possibility, the exit ticket out of this vicious circle of virus waves and lockdown discussions. And simply not enough people are using this possibility and taking this exit ticket”.

Continue reading HERE!

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Fika bonding! 21#21 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Tuesday December 7th, 2021 – International Civil Aviation Day

 

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Tuesday December 7th, 2021 – International Civil Aviation Day

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Omicron and the Travel Ban Itch by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Stick to the script: owe that duty of care to your population, so the legal experts in government tell you. Self-interest pays, if in small amounts. These rigid, formulaic assumptions have done wonders to harm and deter any spirit of cooperation regarding dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

History’s record of humanity’s response to plagues, pandemics and disease is one of isolation, marginalisation, and exclusion. The infected shall be kept away and sealed off from the healthy and wealthy. This, inevitably, results in partiality, prejudice and distinctions. Omicron, having been pumped with the prestige of a potential COVID super variant, has given dozens of countries grounds to stop travel, halt movement and stem flights. As always, these measures have been applied unevenly and hypocritically.

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I Didn’t Know What to Say #poem by Bohdan Yuri

“Look at me,
I’m dripping,
Tears, Blood.”

Continue reading HERE!

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Health advice from someone who’s not a doctor by Joseph Gatt

I have no other qualifications than having read a few books on health and healthy living. So here are my observations (in no particular order).

-Watch out for health gurus. To me, health is kind of like religion. Those good Christians tend to discuss faith very little. They let God watch over them. Those Christians leading double lives full of sin, well, they’re the ones who discuss religion at length. Same goes for Jews and Muslims and name any religion.

So health kind of works the same. You have those who practice healthy living habits but rarely discuss them. Then you have those who secretly snort cocaine or binge on joints or have some filthy habit, yet all they ever talk about is how nasty eating meat is or how bad hormones are for your health. That’s because cocaine wrecks your appetite, so lots of vegans use veganism as a front for their bad habits. Not all of them, but a lot of them do.

Continue reading HERE!

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Sceptic feathers 21#23 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Saturday November 13th, 2021

 

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Saturday November 13th, 2021

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The Devolution of Evolution by Bohdan Yuri

On October 24, 2021 the average weekly deaths from covid-19 in the United States was 1509 with a total number of deaths at 736,112. Recently the cases have been decreasing after a late summer surge; but with the winter enclosures ahead the cases will surely rise. All the more reason to get vaccinated.

Fortunately, this winter the world will have a vaccine available to fight the virus. Unfortunately, while many are getting vaccinated there is still a great minority who will refuse to get vaccinated. Their reasons vary:

“Nobody, especially the Government is gonna tell me what to put in my arm or not!”

The government didn’t think they would have to mandate, they assumed that you would welcome the free vaccine to protect you from the pandemic.

“Who knows what the serums actually contain?’

It contains a vaccine that may prevent your death from covid-19.

“What about all those other things…?”

There’s only this one thing: it’s safe, it works, it saves lives.

If that logic isn’t enough then I’d say, “Fine, you win — Don’t Get Vaccinated!”

In this nuanced age of social media distractions we may be spending too much time trying to convince the non-vaxers to get vaccinated.

Continue reading HERE!

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Window Pain #poem by Pamela Hunt

“The cat…slate gray, stands sentry-
At the bedroom window, sentry for centuries…standing like an old, tall building,
Green eyes panicky….”

Continue reading HERE!

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FW de Klerk: A Negotiator Before Defeat by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Rarely is the pragmatist admired. Be it in policy or politics, such a figure induces suspicion, a concern that principles will have to be subordinated to broader goals. True dreamers and visionaries, for all their glaring faults, can take the accolades; the pragmatists can be given lower pegging.

These differences have proven stark with the late FW de Klerk, South Africa’s last apartheid president. “De Klerk,” suggested Mac Maharaj, formerly official spokesperson for President Jacob Zuma, “was a man of the moment and [Nelson] Mandela was a man of history.” The late Colin Eglin went one better in his observation of the two men. “A relatively conservative Afrikaner leader decided to negotiate before he had lost, and an imprisoned leader of a liberation movement decided to negotiate before he had won.”

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Ma-Siri & Alexa 21#17 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Thursday 21, 2021

 

The articles, the opinions, the stories and the cartoons, Ovi magazine covers for Thursday 21st, 2021

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Religious extremists in South Asia are a threat to regional stability by Dr. Habib Siddiqui

Religious harmony is becoming an illusion these days with the election win of extremist forces in some parts of our world. Organized violence directed against vulnerable minorities, scripted by ruling power, is often the norm than an exception. Nowhere in South Asia is this fact more plain than in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled India where the ruling party is in a competition of its own to prove to the Hindu-majority India that it is the only trustworthy political party to represent Hindu interest. Hindutva, or militant and political Hinduism, has become the party’s religio-fascist ideology to make India Hindu again (akin to Donald Trump’s slogan for making America great again!).

Through a series of bigotry-ridden and anti-Muslim laws and acts, touching the lives of hundreds of millions of Muslims from Assam in the east to Kashmir in the western flank of India, Narendra Modi and his BJP have proven beyond any shadow of doubt that they are serious about making India for, of and by its Hindu majority in which people of the other faiths (esp., Muslims and Christians) have little to no rights in this country of nearly 1.4 billion inhabitants. Since Modi’s ascendancy in 2014 as the head of the government, India has tattered and dropped its pretense as a secular democracy. It is less hypocritical today about what modern India stands for than any time before in its checkered history. Political parties must now prove how anti-Muslim or pro-Hindu they are to be relevant in Modi’s India.

Continue reading HERE!

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“A fast” #poem by Bohdan Yuri

“Cosmic order, young or old,
eternal life shed from bright,
move along on stilted visions,
swiftly set our hearts afire.
Speck our path, give us quarrel,
make us guess, create our best.”

Continue reading HERE!

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Funeral Rites for COVID Zero by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

It was such a noble public health dream, even if rather hazy to begin with. Run down SARS-CoV-2. Suppress it. Crush it. Or just “flatten the curve”, which could have meant versions of all the above. This created a climate of numerical sensitivity: a few case infections here, a few cases there, would warrant immediate, sharp lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, the closure of all non-vital service outlets.

Then came mutations and variants. Delta became the word mentioned like a terrorist saboteur, placing bombs under the edifice of the health system. The pro-market factions within governments receptive to using lockdown formulas could claim that harsh stay-at-home rules were not working. It was time to open up the economy; time to live with the virus, and, consequently, a good number of deaths. It was time for the epidemiologists to do more modelling.

Continue reading HERE!

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Tang & Ram 21#19 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Friday 15, 2021

 

The articles, the opinions, the stories and the cartoons, Ovi magazine covers for Friday 15th, 2021

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COVIDSafe: The Failure of An App by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

The returns have not been impressive. For an app essentially anointed as a saviour for tracing purposes in the worst pandemic in a century, COVIDSafe is a lesson in exaggerated prowess and diminished performance.

It was billed as necessitous and supremely useful. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was fashionably vulgar in linking the use of the app with an important goal: getting watering holes opened. “If that isn’t an incentive for Australians to download COVIDSafe, I don’t know what is,” Morrison claimed in May last year. The prime minister even equated the use of the app to protecting yourself before going outdoors. “If you want to go outside when the sun is shining, you have got to put sunscreen on. This is the same thing.”

Numerous organisations across Australia, private and public, jumped to the call in a concerted effort to embrace surveillance in order to suppress the virus. The National Waste and Recycling Industry Council, to name one enthusiastic participant, claimed that the COVIDSafe App, “together with good hygiene, safe work practices and social distancing will help protect the health of waste and recycling staff and our committee.” Seven million people also seemed to agree in downloading the app.

Continue reading HERE!

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A Fair Shake #poem by Jan Sand

“Life, stuffed into a bag.
A sack of bones, glutinous flesh,
Strings and tubes, blobs of cells,
Lakes of blood, piss, snot and indeterminate goo”

Continue reading HERE!

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Ephemera 21#22 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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