A video circulating on social media showing migrants sprayed with disinfectant to fight the spread of the coronavirus sparked outrage in India.
India imposed a three weeks lockdown, prompting thousands of workers to return to their villages after losing their jobs. | Photo: EFE (Photo posted here fromteleSUR’s article).
(teleSUR)* — Health workers in India caused outrage Monday [30 March 2020] on social media after spraying a group of migrant workers with chemical disinfectant, amid fears that a massive displacement of people from cities to the countryside could spread the novel coronavirus.
In what is being called the worst financial crisis since 1929, the US stock market has lost a third of its value in the space of a month, wiping out all of its gains of the last three years. When the Federal Reserve tried to ride to the rescue, it only succeeded in making matters worse. The government then pulled out all the stops. To our staunchly capitalist leaders, socialism is suddenly looking good.
Ellen Brown
The financial crisis began in late February, when the World Health Organization announced that it was time to prepare for a global pandemic.
The Russia-Saudi oil price war added fuel to the flames, causing all three Wall Street indices to fall more than 7 percent on March 9. It was called Black Monday, the worst drop since the Great Recession in 2008; but it would get worse.
(UN News)* — The economic fallout from COVID-19 is likely to get “much worse” before it gets better for some six billion people living in developing economies, the UN said on Monday[30 March 2020], in an appeal for a $2.5 trillion rescue package to boost their resilience to further hardship.
According to new analysis from UNCTAD, the UN trade and development body, commodity-rich exporting countries will face a $2 trillion to $3 trillion drop in investment from overseas in the next two years.
30 March 2020 (UN News)* — Combatting the COVID-19 pandemic must also include stamping out what one independent human rights expert has called the “darker sides” of the disease: verbal and physical attacks against Chinese and other minority communities, and excluding them from access to healthcare.
World Bank/Curt Carnemark | A woman wears a medical mask in China. (file photo)
“COVID-19 is not just a health issue; it can also be a virus that exacerbates xenophobia, hate and exclusion,” said Fernand de Varennes, the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues, in a statement issued on Monday [30 March 2020]. He reported that politicians and groups are exploiting fears surrounding the disease to scapegoat certain communities, leading to a rise in violence against them.
In a recent article I reported existing evidence on the way in which COVID-19 is being used to implement, but also divert attention from, initiatives being taken by the global elite to consolidate and expand its power in significant ways, and perhaps to make the final drive to take total control of global society. See ‘Observing Elites Manipulate Our Fear: COVID-19, Propaganda and Knowledge’.
Robert J. Burrowes,
Moreover, while global attention is focused on COVID-19, attention has been distracted from the many other ongoing crises – particularly including the vast range of threats that constitute an imminent danger to human existence: see ‘Human Extinction Now Imminent and Inevitable? A Report on the State of Planet Earth’ – and no doubt other undesirable initiatives being carried out by the global elite outside our view.
In addition, activism has been stymied as activists are either themselves distracted by COVID-19 or hindered by the measures (such as ‘social distancing’ and bans on public gatherings) introduced to supposedly deal with it.
“It is a duty of a society of solidarity in times of crisis to ensure that migrant citizens have access to health and social security,” the Minister of Internal Affairs said.
Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa’s socialist party returned the country to economic growth while reversing austerity policies. | Photo: EFE (Photo fromteleSUR’s article).
29 March 2020 (teleSUR)* — The current socialist government in Portugal decided to grant citizenship rights to all migrants and asylum seekers with pending residency applications from Monday until July 1 at least due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the country’s authorities announced Saturday [28 March 2020].
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 30 2020 (IPS)* – As coronavirus makes its way through different continents, countries, and communities around the world having claimed more than 23,000 lives, experts are ringing alarm bells about the implications of the disease as it hits South Asia, which hosts almost 2 billion of the world’s population.
The first case of coronavirus was found near Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh.Over a million Rohingya refugees are now cramped in hilly terrains of Ukhiya in southeastern regions of Cox’s Bazar along Bangladesh border with Myanmar. Credit: ASM Suza Uddin/IPS
FAO’s Chief Economist maps the ways the world can mitigate shocks to agriculture and food systems (*).
Global food supply chains are complex and include these kale farmers in Uganda.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put the world on a crisis footing, with unprecedented actions to restrict movements and plans for radical deployment of public funds to combat the threat posed by a novel coronavirus that knows no boundaries.
Women and girls face particular challenges as migrants, whatever their reason for leaving their country of origin. UN agencies are learning more about these difficulties, and how to address them.
28 March 2020 (UN News)* — Mauritania, where the job market has been tight in recent years, has seen many people fall prey to the patter of so-called hiring agents, who sell false promises of lucrative job opportunities abroad, and charge a hefty price for their services.
As the elderly and unwell self-isolate, a network of Syrians provides a vital bridge to the outside world for Swiss in greatest need. | Español | Français | عربي
India imposed a three weeks lockdown, prompting thousands of workers to return to their villages after losing their jobs. | Photo: EFE (Photo posted here from teleSUR’s article).
