I’m not old enough to know if human rights atrocities are common in today’s world. It seems like all the bombings in Russia and China’s destruction of their indigenous Uighur minority is well tolerated in the world. I have no experience in such matters, so I’m learning. This is what you get when you’ve not lived through a war.
I don’t know as I’m not old enough, and so I’m asking. I’ve not been through a war before. All these international human rights agreements between countries really useful an enforceable? We are witnessing wanton destruction and killings of Russia bombing Ukraine, as well as the more opaque China destroying their indigenous Uighur population.
Russia bombs Ukraine, destroying cities, killing and injuring countless people. Russia is a member of the UN Security Council, as is China. Both are also part of the UN Human Rights Council, and have been the chair on numerous occasions. Why is Russia and China able to chair these UN councils when they so easily violate the very principals of their council?
The reduced local CoVid-19 Omicron transmissions here in Ontario and the Western world, has been a welcome sight for everyone. This has coincidentally merged with the frustration the Western world has experienced after living with the virus and pandemic for over two years. We all want to breath a sigh of relief and get back to a pre-pandemic life. We all wish to get back to living more normally. The restrictions must go and not return.
It has been over two years since CoVid-19 has blighted the earth. From Wuhan, China, it spanned out all over the earth, reproducing and growing, maiming and killing people. The race between CoVid-19 strains results in the winner finding ever better ways of infecting humans and animals. The other strains die off. Much has been done to blunt the sword of Covid-19, but now we are at a point where we’ve chosen to live with the virus instead of trying to eradicate it. CoVid-19 is formidable and is here to stay.
You could see it coming from a long way: Omicron will overrun the Ontario healthcare system. While the system usually works for us in normal times. It’s internal partial collapse is imminent. The cascade of partial failure is very evident, and will continue until Omicron passes. We can only hope that another variant will not emerge. It is clear that we, as advanced as we think we are, are at the mercy of this little, persistent, virus. We could have done more, I think, but that may not have prevented the collapse.
Very brave, Alina Chan is. She postulates a theory that CoVid-19 might be “pre-adapted” for humans, and then gets lambasted from the for and against sides by fellow scientists and others on the internet. I am surprised that scientists would judge her work so harshly, even though she just puts out the theory and is searching for proof
Tragedy can be heartbreaking, and the Zhengzhou floods in China’s interior Henan province on 2021 Jul 20 is no exception. Within 3 days the area received a year’s worth of rain. This massive rainfall in such a short period of time is a natural disaster. What multiplied this natural disaster were human errors that multiplied the death count. Further, after the disaster and death, to threaten and assault news reporters for reporting on the news is incomprehensible. People need to know what happened so that it does not happen again. Yes, face might be lost in the short-term, but so many people were killed, who did not have the choice to lose face, instead losing their lives. It did not need to be this way.
It has been a long haul of 16 months in Canada, and specifically Ontario. Ontario has made some major mistakes in its pandemic response, resulting in prolonged lock down, but all that is now in the past. Now we are in a better place, with over 50% of citizens double vaccinated and near 78% single vaccinated. Lock down measures have been greatly reduced. But is the pandemic over? Not by a long shot.
Buy when you need something, but only what you need. Buy better quality products that can be repaired and last a long time. Eschew throw away consumerism. Repurpose products when these products are no longer needed. With these rules, people will buy less but better, putting much less pressure on Mother Earth. It is a possible solution to reducing the effects of climate change.
