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Post by cato on Mar 11, 2020 12:26:47 GMT
By now it is clear the corona flu outbreak is having an impact on world events up there with September 11 and the Great Crash of 10 years ago. Some silly people try to minimise this but it will inconvenience many. Some will lose their jobs and some will die as a result.
On Monday last in Dublin I noticed 3 Asians wearing surgical masks. This annoyed me as it only succeeds in drawing attention to the wearers without giving any real protection. The government finally agreed to ban the St Patrick's day parades after previously pressurising local bodies not to do so. Internationally shares crashed around the world. Shops in the UK have started informal rationing on certain products including bizarrely toilet roll. The sale of corona beer has fallen.
What is worrying from a human life point of view is that a spike in cases will swamp the hospital system and the staff. In Italy staff are prioritising Covid 19 cases and other cases like strokes are being basically ignored or receive minimal care. Staff will be overwhelmed and may die due to overwork and compromised immune systems.This is profoundly worrying.
In Italy masses have been cancelled for at least a month. The country shut down yesterday but 4 planes from northern Italy arrived in Dublin yesterday before Aer lingus and Ryan Air ended flights. Ireland is at the edge of Europe and the virus will hit us last as it drifts across Europe. We can only pray and prepare for a disease which shows how fragile our globalised sophisticated world is. I hope we can show we are still a resilient people.
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Post by Stephen on Mar 11, 2020 14:52:46 GMT
It's all very alarming.
I am finding it difficult to discern what is actually happening vs hysteria.
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Post by cato on Mar 12, 2020 12:56:39 GMT
We do need to keep our heads and avoid hysteria and panic. This is a serious crisis but it can be managed if people act responsibly .
Unfortunately there is evidence of panic buying in shops today after government announcements of school closures which will impact families and work practices.
It is ironic that a media and government which whipped up hysteria last year over Brexit claiming we would see shortages , jobs being endangered , medications being put at risk , unrest etc is now seeing similar risks becoming a distinct possibility because of a microscopic organism that few heard of a few months ago! Crying wolf is a dangerous activity.
Conservatives would normally be opposed to state restrictions on movement and
public association but this is an emergency situation to protect vulnerable human beings who would suffer disproportionately if these measures weren't taken. Keeping calm and acting responsibily are core conservative principles. We will now see as a society how vitally important those principles are.
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Post by Tomas on Mar 12, 2020 14:28:21 GMT
True enough. This plague is apparently not like the black death yet perhaps worse than what we have seen in comparison with previous viruses from the region. The panic movements appears to thrive at all levels rather of a sudden. It definitely would seem that politics is involved insofar as state restrictions comes in. Worst thing is to find in real time how many things are failing about everywhere, among us all, and for the moment concern hits especially when it comes to supplies of food and services for the vulnerable elders and some other areas of public interest. (In Sweden the Government has also put a ban om arrangements and attendance at events gathering 500 people or more. Some entertainment shows has replied first by limit the audiences to maximum 500. Many telephone lines related to bookings are overwhelmed… also a lot of travel bookings gets cancelled by phone right now.)
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Post by cato on Mar 12, 2020 16:33:04 GMT
True enough. This plague is apparently not like the black death yet perhaps worse than what we have seen in comparison with previous viruses from the region. The panic movements appears to thrive at all levels rather of a sudden. It definitely would seem that politics is involved insofar as state restrictions comes in. Worst thing is to find in real time how many things are failing about everywhere, among us all, and for the moment concern hits especially when it comes to supplies of food and services for the vulnerable elders and some other areas of public interest. (In Sweden the Government has also put a ban om arrangements and attendance at events gathering 500 people or more. Some entertainment shows has replied first by limit the audiences to maximum 500. Many telephone lines related to bookings are overwhelmed… also a lot of travel bookings gets cancelled by phone right now.) In our favour is the knowledge we have of the virus and the substantial resources now being devoted to delaying the spread and in inventing a vaacine. Our ancestors had no such luxury. On the negative side widespread global travel makes transmission almost universal in range . Social media and 24/7 news can also create a false sense of catastrophic peril. The population of Syria or persecuted Christians of the Islamic world experience much higher levels of existential danger every day. This is not to minimise our current situation but context and perspective are important too. |
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Post by Séamus on Mar 13, 2020 2:08:46 GMT
I notice Slovenia is part one the Schengen nations which Trump's travel ban is directed at- there's a novel way of keeping any in-laws at bay.
It might be worth quoting from a 1861 letter of Henrietta Kerr (an Oxford Movement-influence convert),showing the very different attitude the Scotchwoman had to a worse season in France :
"I had been sick of some small fever, which I am very proud of now that it is over and I am in my usual robust state of health...there seem to be a great many deaths everywhere and Hyères is not an exception. The Cloche des Morts rings sometimes two or three times in the day. The funerals are so pretty, and what I like is that they are just as nice for the poorest of the poor as for the rich. Sometimes for quite a poor person I see half-dozen priests with acolyte and candle-bearers,and the Suisses, and quantities of women and girls in white. Then if it is a girl or child who is dead,the coffin is all white with a lily or palm-branch laid on it. We know several of those who have died- one was a girl of my age,an only child,to consumption. Her father and mother would not believe she was so ill,so it was a dreadful blow to them. Another was a nice old man of just eighty,but so active,and I think the happiest-looking old man I ever saw. Then there was a lady who died of the same illness I had,but mine stopped in time. Somehow I don't feel at all as if it were possible for me to die yet. I suppose that is wrong though,isn't it?" cf biography John Morris sJ
My father mentioned the death-bell was still used in Howth when he was a regular visitor there growing up.
Inspired by the canned-laughter of sitcoms I wonder,if sports leagues worldwide follow the Italian precedent and play in empty stadiums, will they eventually resort to canned-cheering?
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Post by Tomas on Mar 13, 2020 6:09:35 GMT
there's a novel way of keeping any in-laws at bay. will they eventually resort to canned-cheering? :-D Cheers! Thanks for those two of a kind. Well needed hearing a witness from the past also, to counter the gloom. |
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Post by cato on Mar 13, 2020 7:06:30 GMT
I see various catholic dioceses have reacted differently. Meath has effectively banned the public celebration of the Mass. As far as I know this is unprecedented since Famine times and maybe not even then. In Donegal Mass with a congregation under 100 is being permitted but a time of peril may see more people come to mass and confession than normal. Most Irish dioceses have suspended the Sunday and Holy day obligation and have closed churches.
The bishops did not mention general absolution which is permitted in time of danger of death and a risk to penitent and priest. Undertakers have even suggested burying the dead the same day with only immediate relatives permitted to attend. Irish Moslems have suspended Friday prayers.
Meanwhile museums , galleries and public sites are closing. Cinemas are leaving two out of three seats free . Pubs and restaurants are still open so far but it may be impossible to keep everyone a metre apart. Many sporting child care and cultural events are cancelling.
Sales of alcohol are up. Despite scenes of empty shelves and panic buying yesterday my two local shops one small The other a large chain store kept most products available even toilet rolls. It did feel a little bit like the day before Christmas though.
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Post by Séamus on Mar 14, 2020 7:41:21 GMT
there's a novel way of keeping any in-laws at bay. will they eventually resort to canned-cheering? :-D Cheers! Thanks for those two of a kind. Well needed hearing a witness from the past also, to counter the gloom. I'm very much in two minds about all these measures. Anyone with a dystopic imagination could easily suggest that,as Green political parties worldwide tend to be fronts for rebutted Socialism,the actions and reactions to corona by those who govern could almost be serving as a façade for neo-fascism. But I was handed something interesting yesterday. A priest of Pittsburgh diocese is trying to renew devotion to a littje-known sacramental,the Cross of St Zechariah of Jerusalem,said to be efficacious against plague in any building it's displayed,similar to St Anthony of Padua's cross('brief'),except that it's a Greek or eastern Cross with letters symbolising different prayers and scripture readings. The ones my friend downloaded and laminated also had images of the three saints once said to particularly pray against pandemics- Sebastian(because bubonic sores were said to resemble his legendary arrow wounds),Roch(who was traditionally cured from plague)and Rosalia(who stopped an epidemic in Sicily six centuries after her death)- but,like the image of St Benedict in his eponymous medallion, the depiction of the three seems to be secondary to the cross itself. |
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Post by cato on Mar 15, 2020 15:48:55 GMT
There are a smattering of people on the streets of Dublin this afternoon. It's hard to believe this is supposed to be the second biggest and busiest weekend of the year. A few folorn tourists wander through Temple Bar bewildered at the closure of the pubs there. For the first-time since penal times most Dublin churches did not hold public Mass. The number of virus cases rises but it doesn't seem to have hit home yet how big this is going to be. Most predictions indicate most of us will catch it and a minority will die. Hopefully fatalities will be as low as possible but for the moment we wait and pray. A silent invisible storm is on the way.
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Post by Séamus on Mar 16, 2020 12:03:52 GMT
There are a smattering of people on the streets of Dublin this afternoon. It's hard to believe this is supposed to be the second biggest and busiest weekend of the year. A few folorn tourists wander through Temple Bar bewildered at the closure of the pubs there. For the first-time since penal times most Dublin churches did not hold public Mass. The number of virus cases rises but it doesn't seem to have hit home yet how big this is going to be. Most predictions indicate most of us will catch it and a minority will die. Hopefully fatalities will be as low as possible but for the moment we wait and pray. A silent invisible storm is on the way. And there was an article in a Perth paper just last weekend encouraging people to visit Dublin's new museum of literature. Seeing that museum-visitors are not allowed to actually touch anything,one would think that a visit was no unhealthier than a supermarket,as well as being a good opportunity for souls to visit their own backyard and culture while grounded from going overseas. Advanced medical science will see potential situations like this,often still in the bud, more and more in the future- are we really going to react like this at every possible pandemic? So far Italy seems to be the country that could really call this a state of emergency, the health system and ageing population always being a disadvantage there. It was strange a couple of weeks ago seeing China and Milan as the two epicentres- a place known for the mass-production of clothes by cheap labour alongside one of one of the world's high-fashion capitals. Toilet paper rage in Australian stores has caused fights and arrests,but a review I read of a newly-published biography of a French War heroine is a counterpoint. Political prisoner Odette Sansom survived Ravensbruck largely due to being considered a 'bargaining chip' by the Gestapo - she was romantically involved with a close relation of Churchill. She was once given a book by guards as toilet tissue...but kept in intact instead after falling in love with the letters and verse. (As sensitive as I am about these conversations,it should be pointed out that these people would have consumed little to pass) (too much information). The author was a New Zealander poet,Katherine Mansfield,which shows that Europe could and can culturally benefit from 'newer nations',even then. (The book will be loaned to a museum this year,which would currently be locked down) (!?) |
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Post by cato on Mar 16, 2020 12:55:04 GMT
And there was an article in a Perth paper just last weekend encouraging people to visit Dublin's new museum of literature. Seeing that museum-visitors are not allowed to actually touch anything,one would think that a visit was no unhealthier than a supermarket,as well as being a good opportunity for souls to visit their own backyard and culture while grounded from going overseas.
Advanced medical science will see potential situations like this,often still in the bud, more and more in the future- are we really going to react like this at every possible pandemic?
We are basically closing Ireland and most of Europe down to safe our hospitals and medical staff from a chaotic overwhelming collapse. The Italians have apparently a lot of surplus beds more than us but they have been in a wartime scenario for weeks now were medics are having to act like God choosing who can live and who can die.
Rod Dreher and others wrote this a couple of weeks ago . I thought he was being alarmist. Now it's obvious he was correct.
The basic plan is to get people off the streets and to avoid unnecessary gathering. All pubs closed last night . You read that correctly! On the eve of St Patrick's day we have closed all bars.
The economic cost will be huge. Already an extra 140,000 are unemployed. Shops however are essential businesses and are looking for new staff.
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