Subterms
The novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 has opened the floodgates of shame and blame. This has been specifically aimed at politicians for their lack of preparation and insistence on spreading misinformation in the form of wishful thinking before changing their tune by acknowledging the true extent of the problem and ultimately pushing the panic button. […] More
In a recent press briefing, US President Donald Trump was asked why he hadn’t ordered the federal government to do more to respond to the pleas of state governors for more help in fighting the coronavirus pandemic now ravaging some of their states and exhausting their limited resources. His reply was stunning. The federal government, he said, […] More
As I reread Anne Frank’s diary — living just a 10-minute walk from her hiding place in Amsterdam and having first read it in an American middle school, only imagining Europe — I immediately recognize many things that were not familiar the first time around. In recounting her life before going into hiding, she describes her […] More
The COVID-19 pandemic has placed almost the entire world on lockdown. The current crisis is often compared to historic events such as the two World Wars, the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 or 9/11. The worst-case modeling of the spread of the novel coronavirus predicts millions of deaths on top of immeasurable economic consequences across […] More
With nearly every government and populace around the world now mobilized to combat the coronavirus pandemic, the sort of broad-based international coordination often seen in previous global crises remains glaringly absent, and it’s holding us back from a solution. The reasons for this lack of overarching collaboration and coordination may be several, but one stands […] More
The far right thrives on fear. It’s no surprise, then, that it would use the latest pandemic, which has generated widespread panic, to bolster its own agenda. All of the hallmarks of the far right are in play during the coronavirus crisis. It has pushed to close borders. It has demonized foreigners and particularly border-crossers. […] More
US President Donald Trump will go down in history as the ultimate master of hyperreal politics. No matter how far he deviates from reality, the American public consistently expresses its approval. The further he wanders from rationality, even when the consequences are measurable in the number of deaths, the more he is rewarded. In the […] More
A lot of attention is being paid to the profound impacts COVID-19 is having on the Chinese and global economy, steering us into uncharted waters with uncertain long-term consequences. Supply chain, trade, investment, lending and GDP impacts are readily measurable, but less attention is being paid to the political impacts the virus is having around […] More
