FROLITICKS

Satirical commentary on Canadian and American current political issues

Jun 27

Could COVID-19 be the Harbinger to the Decline of the American Empire

by bcurry

This past week, over half of U.S. states reported record-breaking breakouts of coronavirus cases. According to a New York Times database, Friday June 26 was the third day in a row that the country set a daily record during the pandemic. The stock market responded badly, with the S&P 500 dropping 2.4 percent, especially in light of Governor Greg Abbott of Texas placing the state’s reopening on pause. Other major hot spots included Florida, Arizona and California. On top of which, experts agree that the jump in cases and hospitalizations did not represent a so-called “second wave”, but the increases were still part of the pandemic’s “first wave.”  Investors are right about their concerns that the virus continues to be a major threat to the economy — already quite frail.

According to a well-known expression, Rome’s emperor at the time, the decadent and unpopular Nero, “fiddled while Rome burned.” The expression has a double meaning: Not only did Nero play music while his people suffered, but he was an ineffectual leader in a time of crisis.  Although the expression is based on a historical myth, there is still some relevance to current events.  When the Great Fire of Rome broke out, Nero was at his villa at Antium, some 35 miles from Rome. Even as he immediately returned and began relief measures, people still didn’t trust Nero.  While enthusiastic Vice-President Mike Pence was briefing the American people on the current state of coronavirus outbreaks in the U.S., Donald Trump was probably golfing at his resort in Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. Much like Emperor Nero, Americans now have come to mistrust Trump.  Just look at the latest polls putting Joe Biden well ahead of Trump even in key electoral states.

Even in the face of the alarming news, the White House continued to praise its own efforts. Pence went on about how Washington had made truly remarkable progress in moving the nation forward. Meanwhile, the city and country continue to suffer and lead the world on the basis of per-capita infection rates.  With its current mortality rates, the U.S. is now projected to surpass 200,000 coronavirus deaths by the fall of this year. Hospitals in many counties are at full capacity due to the influx of patients with serious symptoms, including more younger people.

Other countries, including Canada, appear to have much better survived the first wave of this pandemic. Success in containing Covid-19 comes down to good national leadership and strategy, continuing cooperation between national and local health authorities, and support from each and every community and citizen.  These elements have been seriously lacking in the U.S. where chaos reigns and policies are all over the map. Many countries are now carefully preparing for a “second wave” outbreak, while the U.S. is floundering about in dealing with the “first wave”. Trump’s administration is still counting on some sort of sudden miracle, putting all its unrealistic hopes in a future vaccine.  In the meantime, he is fiddling while Washington burns and more Americans die.

Coronavirus US

Leave a comment »
Jun 19

Worldwide Crises Appear To Want To Come In Bundles of Threes

by bcurry

There’s nothing like stating the obvious. 2020 has been a crazy year so far.  Humans are facing the greatest health and economic crises since the influenza outbreak of 1918-19 and the great depression of the early thirties.  In the meantime, the global issue of climate change is still on the table.  To complicate matters, recent shootings by police of black and indigenous people in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere has led to a resurgence of “black lives matter” and the need for examination of systemic racism by governments and corporations. Despite fears over the on-going coronavirus pandemic, protests against anti-black racism emerged around the world.

As with the recent growth in support of tackling climate change issues, there has obviously been a major change in support for dealing with systemic racism and in particular the use of force by police and the authorities against marginalized groups. The spread of COVID-19 has particularly negatively affected various marginalized groups in proportion to their statistical share of the general population.  The economic lockdown of many sectors has also disproportionately affected those same groups as indicated by unemployment and poverty stats.  Vulnerable seniors in long-term care have unfortunately been the most affected by the pandemic as evidenced by the fact that in many states and provinces they represent around ninety percent of the related deaths.  This is a clear negative outcome of the inadequate warehousing of and continuing poor health care for seniors that took place over the last fifty or sixty years.

Young people today are also bearing the brunt of dealing with climate change, the downturn in the economy, systemic racism and future employment changes. As a member of the boomer generation, I do not envy their multitude of challenges.  As a society, we must recognize that the younger generation will require all the support that can be provided, regardless of the costs.  Once we are through with the various impacts of the pandemic, if ever, societies will have to seek out a “new normal”.  This will take a concerted effort on the part of individuals, communities, organizations, governments, international bodies, and many others.  Changes are inevitable.

Unfortunately, uncertain times as these can be overwhelming for people. Often, there is a desire to return to the way it was in the past — a form of “unrealistic nostalgia”. There will no doubt be opposition to far-reaching societal change.  If there is one thing that these crises have done is to force us to recognize the urgent need for real changes.  Simply talking about the issues is not longer acceptable, especially for future leaders.  Recent collective reactions to all three crises, including the emergence of global movements, are clear evidence of the growing desire for action and real change.

Canada Cimate Change Climate Change Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Economy US

Leave a comment »
Jun 11

Trump’s Strange Saga of U.S. and Denmark Over the Purchase of Greenland

by bcurry

With everything going on in the world today, maybe one needs a minor distraction like the battle of Donald Trump over the purchase of Greenland by the U.S.  About a year ago, Trump approached the Danish P.M., Mette Frederiksen, with an offer to buy Greenland which is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark. Thinking it was some kind of April Fool’s Day joke, the Danes refused. Unfortunately, like so many times before Trump took the refusal to even consider the idea a sign of disrespect and immediately cancelled his planned September 2019 trip to Denmark — one which had been at the formal invitation of Queen Margrethe, Denmark’s head of state. Needless-to-say, this did not go over well with the Danes who after all are an important NATO ally.

Greenland is the world’s largest island and has a population of less than 60,000 inhabitants. Denmark contributes two thirds of Greenland’s budget revenue, the rest coming mainly from fishing. Greenland is noted for its vast tundra and immense glaciers. While the country has a vast array of minerals, including rare-earth elements used for electronic, military and new energy technologies like wind turbines, these are very difficult to mine in its harsh environment.

As a strategic location, Greenland was important to the U.S. during the Cold War as evidenced by American military presence at the Thule Air Base under a U.S.-Danish treaty dating to 1951. However, in this day and age of new military capabilities, including those in space, Greenland would not be considered anymore as a strategic importance. Then there’s those rare earths, most of which currently come from China. Experts believe that the environmental impact of mining for rare earths is profound and extremely costly.  Even if it was to happen, the process to get new mining operations off the ground takes decades.

However, despite the Danish rejection to what Trump referred to as one “big real-estate” deal,   the Trump administration has opened a consulate in Greenland for the first time in nearly 70 years. In a further extension of U.S. influence, Greenland announced at the end of April that it had accepted an offer of US$12.1 million for mining, tourism and education. There is little doubt that Trump is keen to expand the U.S. presence in the entire Arctic region amid fears of growing Russian and Chinese militarization. The U.S. recently announced its intention to create a new fleet of ice-breaking ships for use in the Arctic.

As for Canada, Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert located on Ellesmere Island is the northernmost settlement in the world. With the end of the Cold War and the advent of new technologies allowing for remote interpretation of data, the over-wintering population has been reduced to 62 civilians and military personnel as of 2016. I guess that the location for an American base on Ellesmere Island is not as popular as one in Greenland, although the two islands are geographically at an identical latitude. The new consulate in Greenland has once again made for strange bedfellows.

Canada, as a near-Artic country and member of The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), conducts aerospace warning, aerospace control and maritime warning in the defense of North America.  For this reason, Canada has been wary of Chinese and Russian threats to expand in the region, and like the U.S. is also building a new fleet of ice-breaking ships for use in the Arctic.  Rather than worry about relations with Greenland, maybe Trump should be working more closely with Canada to safeguard our Artic waters.

 

Canada Donald Trump Foreign Policy Foreign Policy NATO US

Leave a comment »
Jun 4

While Thousands Protest Racism, Who’s Protesting Against Ageism?

by bcurry

While one can certainly empathize with the protesters over the recent murder of a black man by police and continuing racism in America, there is another large group of people who deserve an equal amount of empathy in this day and age. They are our seniors, and their numbers are growing.  Recent statistics in Canada show that the older cohort – the baby boomers and gen-Xers – represent nearly 45 percent of Canada’s population, or 16,753,198 people.  By 2030, Statistics Canada estimates it will be 46.5 percent, or 19,461,400 people.  The stats are somewhat similar in the U.S.  In the not too distant future, one out of four Canadians will be over the age of 65.  Yet, discrimination against seniors continues because of “ageism”.

In 2,011, a disturbing survey in the United Kingdom of adults who were over 18 revealed that two out of five young people aged between 18 and 24 believed that there were not enough jobs for older people to continue working. Fourteen percent felt that older people should retire to make way for young blood.  Even more shocking, seven out of ten young people did not consider older relatives to be an important part of the family, while ten percent considered it a chore to go and see them.  Researchers often refer to such attitudes as ageism and rightly so.

For years, North Americans have been warehousing the majority of their elderly citizens. Seniors have been ushered away from families and communities into retirement and so-called long-term care residences.  Unfortunately, many of these residences were built in the early seventies when the idea was to accommodate as many residents as possible into one facility, regardless of conditions resulting in overcrowding.  Today, the pandemic has illustrated how such warehousing unfortunately has often led to deaths representing more than eighty percent of COVID-19 related deaths in the general population.  Politicians are now raving that the numbers are inexcusable and horrific, especially for those thousands housed in long-term care.  Where were they years ago when several studies outlined ongoing problems with staff shortages, inadequate resident care and government standards, and lack of affordable accommodation and health care?

More and more seniors are being forced to continue working because of living near the poverty line and a lack of retirement savings. However, many employers continue to discriminate against the hiring of seniors for indefensible reasons, despite all the experience and skills such persons can bring to a job.  This again is a form of overt ageism.  Maybe it’s time that we have a real national ‘Grey Pride’ movement.  Sometimes the elderly have difficulties in speaking for themselves.  Maybe the time has come for all citizens to force governments to address the serious issues surrounding ageism in society.  The time for lip service is long gone, the time for action is now.  After all, the reality is that we have ageing populations, whether we believe it or not.

Ageism Agism Canada US

Leave a comment »
Blog at WordPress.com.