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As far as I know the UK figures still only include hospital deaths which means their situation is much worse than it appears from the figures.
So when will both countries include deaths in the community, and to what extent are deaths being excluded because no test was ever performed?
I think it will be some time before we get accurate counts for most countries, and then only by inference from a much higher than usual total death count in the population.
Already I see quite a few right wing commentators saying its only people in the 70+ age range who are dying, and they would have died sooner rather than later in any case.
Some are arguing that the shut down is crazy because people die in huge numbers all the time, and this is only a bump on that road. It's almost as if they regard this as a necessary cull of expensive to maintain and unproductive elderly people. Index of Frank's Diaries
Deaths in hospital: 8,598 (+554 in the last 24 hours)
Deaths in nursing homes: 4,599 since March 1st (+433 in the last 24 hours)
Total deaths since the outbreak: 13,197
7,004 patients in ICU nationwide, the second day in a row that this figure is decreasing, which might be a sign, if a faint one, that the pressure on the health care system is slowly starting to ease.
The number of cases and ICU patients is much lower than the national average in the regions on the Atlantic seaboard, from Brittany to the Basque country. This prompted again a transfer of 48 ICU patients from the Paris region to the southwest towns of Bordeaux, La Rochelle, Poitiers etc.. using the famous "high-speed hospitals", TGV high-speed trains repurposed into high capacity ambulances.
Meanwhile in the UK:
Deaths in hospital: 8,958 (+980 in the last 24 hours) No figures for care homes.
Beyond the official RIVM death count, the real numbers more than doubles this false representation. Not causing fear... or saving a$$. Rutte & Co.
Mortality in NL Continuous to Rise | NL Times |
My earlier post ...
Lying Liars: Rutte, BoJo, Trump
This I found to be emblematic, a letter to a Dutch newspaper in the hard hit South of Holland recently .... it loosened many tongues.
"Houdoe Mien, I'll be there shortly": the loss of hundreds of grandpas and grandmas | AD.nl |
Jacqueline's letter
Children are more important "Goodbye Dad, Goodbye Mom, Goodbye Granddad, Goodbye Grandma." Nice story though. But shall we stop pretending this is a terrible drama? Actually nice, isn't it? If you may go together at that age, after a relatively short illness? Rather write about all those children who are currently lagging behind in school, who are in potentially dangerous home situations, who are not getting enough exercise. About all people who cannot be treated in hospitals now. Or entrepreneurs who break down. I am very concerned. The remedy is many times worse than the disease. What if we don't build resistance to the possibly much worse second wave by sitting inside? What if that wave does hit our children? The schools are only closed due to social pressure. Where is the much needed counterweight? We sacrifice the future of our children for a large group that barely had a future.
* Houdoe is a local expression - meaning from Wikipedia.
○ Trump: 'We Can't Have the Cure Be Worse Than the Problem' ○ The Longhorn State - Bigger Than Trump's New York
Of course in The Netherlands the numbers of lives lost add up into the thousands, elderly dying in anguish with no medical staff like St. Thomas in London. St. Thomas the doubter. The grandmas and grandpas dying in loneliness, separated from their loved ones.
On the whole it was a very positive experience, but it also led to familial splits, estrangements, a social distancing were some parents/older people were identified with the enemy. They has come through an entirely different set of experiences - the Great depression, WWII, the holocaust, rationing - which had shaped their generation in a very different way.
I don't sense as much of an inter-generational divide this time around. There may be the occasional raves and youth protest parties like Podemos, but no international counter-culture like the last time around. And this is despite this being possibly the first generation, in a long while, which may be poorer than their parents.
I'm not even sure about that latter point. Certainly inequality has been rising, encouraged by neo-liberal globalisation, privatisation and austerity, and most wealth is in the hands of the elderly. But younger people now take for granted what we couldn't even dream of - their own cars, smart phones, the internet, home entertainment systems and eating/drinking out regularly in a wide variety of cuisines when the chip shop was the height of our aspirations or affordability and a cheap Chinese meal was the height of exotica.
But overall I am driven my a sense that inter-generational relationships are better than they used to be, with older people more prepared to adapt, and younger people more prepared to make allowances. Maybe I am just very fortunate in that regard and the dominant experiences in other societies may be different.
Certainly I am struck by what seems to be a fracturing, atomisation, alienation, commodification, and distancing of relationships particularly in the USA, and perhaps being nationalist movements in Europe - to a degree even technology can't ameliorate. Trump seems to me to be leading a protest of the privileged and ageing against the diminution of their powers.
But I'm not sure. Your views are welcome... Index of Frank's Diaries
I will reply in full in a bit, but this really stung me.
Trump is not leading in anything, but was carried into the presidency and White House by a group op billionairs especially Robert Mercer with Steve Bannon, Breitbarth, SLC Group from UK, subsidiary Cambridge Analytics and Zuckerberg's Facebook. Trump is a AAA Class puppet of his masters. Do think of influence Adelson, Jared Kushner and the Jewish Nation led by Netanyahu.
Deaths in hospital: 8,951 (+353 in the last 24 hours)
Deaths in nursing homes: 4,889 since March 1st (+290 in the last 24 hours)
Total deaths (hospitals + nursing homes) since the outbreak: 13,840
6,883 patients in ICU nationwide (7004 yesterday), still decreasing for the third day in a row. "Flattening the curve" actually means that the "peak" is looking more like a plateau ("a high plateau" said a Health Ministry official).
In the UK:
Deaths in hospital: 9,875 (+917 in the last 24 hours) No figures for care homes.
De emotie moet echt uit het #coronadebat. Het dorre hout wordt gekapt, misschien een paar maanden eerder dan zonder virus. Moet iedereen die nog in de bloei van zijn leven zit daar alles voor opofferen? [_link] [_link]— Marianne Zwagerman (@mariannezw) April 16, 2020
De emotie moet echt uit het #coronadebat. Het dorre hout wordt gekapt, misschien een paar maanden eerder dan zonder virus. Moet iedereen die nog in de bloei van zijn leven zit daar alles voor opofferen? [_link] [_link]
Translation: "The dry wood is cut down, perhaps a few months earlier than without a virus. Does anyone still in the prime of life have to sacrifice everything for that?"
As I commented earlier ... there is a strong undercurrent of a generational gap. Young people belief their income is insufficient to live happily and pension costs are eating up the government budget.
Demographics of the Baby Boomers ... building an economy of wealth ... who profited?
"resentment against the austerity of the 1950's"
I grew up in the 1950s in Holland, a devastated country after WWII, rebuilding housing, industry of Rotterdam and manufacturing from Philips. Our family had nothing to spend, lived in poverty but there was no room for resentment. As kids we had a lot of fun, but no toys to play with or for intellectual development. Remember the 1953 storm and floods quite well. In 1957 my parents emigrated to the U.S.
○ Family: What do you mean, the good old days?
○ Austerity addicts: why is 1940s nostalgia all the rage?
Living for five years under Nazi occupation, terror, torture, executions ... citizens of the Western nations wanted CHANGE. Roosevelt and Truman wanted colonialism to cease and urged the empire nations to set the colonies free. A major economic jolt to Europe at the time. The riches were pilfered for centuries from overseas territory.
The African Americans fought for their country and died. By returning, it was a matter of some years and they too wanted to be free as the white man. The great losses during the Vietnam War added further urgency. The Black men died, the White privileged studied in the university and got deferments.
○ Racism is the history of Slavery, Civil War and Ku Klux Klan
Civil Rights movement is about leadership of MLK and Black Power activism. The FBI countered and put the label of Communism on the movements.
○ How the Black Power Movement Influenced the Civil Rights Movement
○ Kicked Out of Olympics in 1968 for Racial Protest, Sprinters Smith and Carlos Now Going to Hall of Fame
So the South American countries, its people suffered from fascism ruled by US installed dictators. Death, torture, executions ... even missionaries belonging to progressive, social views to support a oppressed people. German boots of fascism worn by "educators" from the U.S. Army School of the Americas.
On Flower Power .. a countercultural movement:
○ 'Homo Sovieticus' | The Economist - Nov. 2019 |
Some movements are quite universal and reached beyond Iron Curtains of Soviet dictatorship. Kennedy's Cultural Exchange and the power of music, American Rock & Roll ...
○ How the U.S. Used Jazz as a Cold War Secret Weapon | TIME | ○ A Brief History of Soviet Rock and Roll | The Atlantic |
Missing Reality ...
Shaping a New America : Flower Power Like the UTOPIAN SOCIETIES of the 1840s, over 2000 rural communes formed during these turbulent times. Completely rejecting the capitalist system, many communes rotated duties, made their own laws, and elected their own leaders. Some were philosophically based, but others were influenced by new religions. Earth-centered religions, astrological beliefs, and Eastern faiths proliferated across American campuses. Some scholars labeled this trend as the THIRD GREAT AWAKENING. Most communes, however, faced fates similar to their 19th century forebears. A charismatic leader would leave or the funds would become exhausted, and the commune would gradually dissolve. One lasting change from the countercultural movement was in American diet. Health food stores sold wheat germ, yogurt, and granola, products completely foreign to the 1950s America.
Like the UTOPIAN SOCIETIES of the 1840s, over 2000 rural communes formed during these turbulent times. Completely rejecting the capitalist system, many communes rotated duties, made their own laws, and elected their own leaders. Some were philosophically based, but others were influenced by new religions. Earth-centered religions, astrological beliefs, and Eastern faiths proliferated across American campuses. Some scholars labeled this trend as the THIRD GREAT AWAKENING. Most communes, however, faced fates similar to their 19th century forebears. A charismatic leader would leave or the funds would become exhausted, and the commune would gradually dissolve.
One lasting change from the countercultural movement was in American diet. Health food stores sold wheat germ, yogurt, and granola, products completely foreign to the 1950s America.
On a personal note ...
For all faiths, the Easter message is important beyond belief
The Paris riots of May 1968: How the frustrations of youth brought France to the brink of revolution | The Independent | The French always celebrate 1 May with a few riots. They did so this year with added piquancy because it was the 50th anniversary of the famous "Mai 68" when, in the Latin Quarter of Paris, the Left Bank, the whole month was devoted to riotous assembly led by students. In contemplating these events, I recall Wordsworth's often quoted phrase: "Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive" - unless, of course, you were struck by a cobblestone hurled by a student demonstrator or soaked and knocked off balance by a police water cannon. Presumably those who were demonstrating in Paris last Tuesday have now resumed their normal lives. The point about May 1968, however, is that they didn't go back to college or to work the next day, they carried on, some of them for the whole month. Why was that? After all, economic growth had been unusually strong, the country was calm, both politically and socially, inflation was weak, living standards had been rising and there was little unemployment. Was it in a way a very 1960s thing? That question is prompted by a French historian of the period, Éric Alary, who observes that "May 68 is seen as a period when audacious moves seemed possible and during which society profoundly changed". For that is an accurate description of the nature of the 1960s, whether in Western Europe or in North America. ... The intellectual gods of these 1960s students were Marx, Freud and Sartre, the French existentialist philosopher. In a famous passage, Sartre wrote that "God does not exist, and as a result man is forlorn, because neither within himself nor without does he find anything to cling to". This struck home. For as Bob Dylan sang in 1965 - "How does it feel/How does it feel/To be on your own/With no direction home/Like a complete unknown/Like a rolling stone?"
The French always celebrate 1 May with a few riots. They did so this year with added piquancy because it was the 50th anniversary of the famous "Mai 68" when, in the Latin Quarter of Paris, the Left Bank, the whole month was devoted to riotous assembly led by students. In contemplating these events, I recall Wordsworth's often quoted phrase: "Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive" - unless, of course, you were struck by a cobblestone hurled by a student demonstrator or soaked and knocked off balance by a police water cannon.
Presumably those who were demonstrating in Paris last Tuesday have now resumed their normal lives. The point about May 1968, however, is that they didn't go back to college or to work the next day, they carried on, some of them for the whole month. Why was that? After all, economic growth had been unusually strong, the country was calm, both politically and socially, inflation was weak, living standards had been rising and there was little unemployment.
Was it in a way a very 1960s thing? That question is prompted by a French historian of the period, Éric Alary, who observes that "May 68 is seen as a period when audacious moves seemed possible and during which society profoundly changed". For that is an accurate description of the nature of the 1960s, whether in Western Europe or in North America.
... The intellectual gods of these 1960s students were Marx, Freud and Sartre, the French existentialist philosopher. In a famous passage, Sartre wrote that "God does not exist, and as a result man is forlorn, because neither within himself nor without does he find anything to cling to".
This struck home. For as Bob Dylan sang in 1965 - "How does it feel/How does it feel/To be on your own/With no direction home/Like a complete unknown/Like a rolling stone?"
○ 1968 Paris student riots Europe, Amsterdam - Berlin; USA Berkeley ○ British Pathé : 1968 Student Protests
Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone - the lyrics
How does it feel How does it feel To be without a home Like a complete unknown Like a rolling stone?
You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely But you know you only used to get juiced in it And nobody has ever taught you how to live on the street And now you find out you're gonna have to get used to it You said you'd never compromise With the mystery tramp, but now you realize He's not selling any alibis As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes And ask him do you want to make a deal?
How does it feel How does it feel To be on your own With no direction home Like a complete unknown Like a rolling stone?
You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns When they all come down and did tricks for you You never understood that it ain't no good You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat Ain't it hard when you discover that He really wasn't where it's at After he took from you everything he could steal.
Princess on the steeple and all the pretty people They're drinkin', thinkin' that they got it made Exchanging all kinds of precious gifts and things But you'd better lift your diamond ring, you'd better pawn it babe You used to be so amused At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used Go to him now, he calls you, you can't refuse When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal.
Speaking of a "domino effect", not in SE Asia, but in the western world as the youth took to power and demanded more democracy in institutions!
○ Nixon Loses Face: The Kent State deadly shooting - May 4th, 1970
The Hague Carnegie Institute: Women and Peace An exhibition about Bertha von Suttner, Aletta Jacobs and other women who have played a role in the (international) peace movement. At the end of the 19th century, Bertha von Suttner was part of the international peace movement that pioneered the Peace Palace. Attention is also paid to women and Hague women from the Women's Peace Movement (1890-1920) and the Dutch Peace Movement.
An exhibition about Bertha von Suttner, Aletta Jacobs and other women who have played a role in the (international) peace movement.
At the end of the 19th century, Bertha von Suttner was part of the international peace movement that pioneered the Peace Palace. Attention is also paid to women and Hague women from the Women's Peace Movement (1890-1920) and the Dutch Peace Movement.
See also my entry @BooMan ...
○ Women's Suffrage Archive Film Clip 1915
Miss Jane Addams of Chicago leads party of 39 women to attend peace meeting in The Hague
In the 1970s there were many progressive think tanks on issues to advance peace in the world. In past decades, even renowned institutions changed to right-wing strongholds in promoting "self-defense" and complying with the Industrial-Military Complex led by the United States and its multi-billion weapons corporations who need profits to survive. The Fall of the Berlin Wall put the military industry at a cross-roads. Osama Bin Laden saved their a$$es. May the Saudi monarchy and Crown Prince Salman burn in hell till eternity! NATO needs to be cut back drastically! Mea Culpa by former NATO Head Jaap De Hoop Scheffer many years too late ...
Dutch Institute Clingendael was a founded in 1983 and its first director was Henk Neuman. A respectable person I was acquainted with. It was truly an think tank focused on promotion of peace in the world. In 1990 it changed when Joris Voorhoeve took over the reigns and funding came from the Dutch Government Foreign Affairs and Defence. Before the merger, Neuman was director of Netherlands Institute for Questions of Peace (NIVV).
○ US Foreign Policy from Crisis to Crisis ○ New American Century - A Balance of ME Failure
Related reading ...
○ Whatever Happened to Peace? Arms, Oil and War by Proxy
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