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She can get inspired by almost anything — from her daily walks in the park, watching a movie, reading a book, interacting with people, or just looking out the window watching birds. Shazia Bhanji, Doha-based Pakistani, is a narrative paper sculpture artist who has a stunning array of work that can inspire anyone from an art lover to a passer-by. Her portfolio spans a wide range but is mostly based on the narration of human stories and emotions. Over the years she has found various techniques in how to manipulate and bend the paper to make these magnificent masterpieces. Introducing herself to Community, she said: “I grew up in Lahore, Pakistan at a time when it was easy to jump on our bicycles and roam the city. There was far less traffic and far more areas where nature was untouched. I think that gave me an appreciation to observe and explore things the same way I approach art. Observing things as they are and exploring ways of representing them is how I like to work. “As a child, I was very creative in using everything I could find around me to create gifts for my family and friends. Imagine a picture of flowers made of rice and pasta or photo collages, felt figures, etc. I have been living in Qatar for the last seven years with my husband and my 17-year-old daughter.” Shazia did not go after paper sculpture as much as art found her. “Initially, I wanted to be a painter but found that working with something more tactile like gently coaxing paper to do things came more naturally to me. I eventually went to learn how to draw and paint with leading artists in the country, but that was when paper sculpture found me instead. The realisation that working with paper is what I enjoy as it gives me the passion and driving force to immerse in every project I work on, I didn’t have a choice, so I put down my paintbrushes and picked up an X-Acto knife instead. “I have worked with several mediums such as oil, acrylic, and metallic sculpturing in the early days. My first exhibition was a blend of oil and acrylic. It’s not that I don’t enjoy working with these mediums, but for me, paper is one of the tremendous artistic chameleons. It is easily accessible material and can be used in crafting incredible, gallery-worthy works of art. It’s this fascinating dichotomy that entices me to experiment and use paper art as the centrepiece of my work.” Shazia loves the way art lovers respond to his creative pieces. “Being a paper sculpture artist involves working with paper in all its forms. It can be cut, bound, curved, glued, modelled, sculpted, built, and worked in many other ways — to create a stunning piece of décor, an architecture, or an ambiance. But wherever I’m exhibiting my artworks at an exhibition, there is always someone who asks me, “What is it? What is it made of?” And then I reply, paper. Usually, it’s followed by how is it held together? And that’s what I love about creating artworks with paper. “Last year has been very busy for me as I wanted to broaden my horizon with new techniques and have attended various exhibitions on mechanical installation, digital and art integration, sculpture and contemporary art in Qatar, Germany, Australia, London and Turkey.” The artist can obtain inspiration from almost everything. “I can get inspired by almost anything — from my daily walks in the park, watching a movie, reading a book, interacting with people, or just looking out the window watching birds. I also like to surround myself with nature and flowers. It’s one of my ways to reboot my head and open my mind to new ideas. “Travelling is an excellent source of inspiration in itself, and made me more open to accept and appreciate different cultures, which I can incorporate into my work. “I start with an idea, try to visualise what it might look like and sketch a bunch of thumbnail ideas. It’s just as vital for me to know what’s going on behind as it is in front. It gives me a better idea of why something is the way it is when you see what’s holding it up. From there, I choose the best idea sketch and develop it from there. Then, I do a final line drawing to actual size on vellum (which is used as a blueprint for the cut pieces). This is then broken down into individual parts and transferred to the paper and cut out. The final steps involve cleaning, trimming, shaping, scoring, and rounding each piece of the paper layer by layer which is then glued together to make something that looks (like) 3D.” The seasoned artist advises young and budding artists to just love their art and nurture it. “I have one piece of advice to all young artists, find that one thing, love it, nurture it, and strive to be the best at it. If you have an idea, just experiment with it. Be enthusiastic, because creating something handmade needs patience, but the result will compensate for the time and effort invested.” Except art, Shazia has also been taking part in community activities with the sense of paying back. “I was working on a group exhibition with International Artists Doha (IAD) which was scheduled in April 2020. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19, it’s been postponed until conditions are safe to hold such events.  “As part of paying back to the community, I along with my fellow artists from IAD worked with Hamad Medical’s mental health for activities along with bespoke art workshops for children and adults. “As a country, Qatar has always been supportive in promoting art and creativity. We have equal opportunities and amazing venues to exhibit our artworks. For me, Qatar is a second home and my art has been received with open arms.” Though the social distancing norm has made the situation grim, the artist has been nurturing some plans for the future. “This year, my goal is to experiment with different mediums, combining paper, metal, and wood. I will also be challenging myself with mega projects such as a nine feet tall art mechanical sculpture. Moreover, I will be collaborating with international artists and showcasing my artworks in various geographies.”  Photos supplied

On the good days, Bonnie Reed believes that, for the first time in a long time, just about everyone is united in a common cause: to protect society’s most vulnerable citizens against the coronavirus. On the bad days, the Sherman Oaks senior is stunned by the carelessness she sees around her. She sees it in the unmasked young people who saunter towards her and her husband, Alton, with little regard for social distancing. She sees it in the decisions of some governors to reopen economies despite dire warnings from public health officials. Reed, who did not want to reveal her age, tries to not take it personally. But on those bad days, it can feel as though such actions send a clear message about how little some people care about the well-being of older adults, who make up roughly 80% of those who die from Covid-19 complications. “Am I the only one feeling like they’re ready to throw us out?” she asks herself. As the debate rages over when or how to resume public life, older adults like Reed have increasingly borne witness to behaviour and rhetoric that implies that their lives are not as valuable as reviving the economy. Ageism has been quietly pervasive in American culture for decades, according to those who work with and study the health of seniors. But they fear that this particular form of discrimination has become magnified during the pandemic as those who have lost income and stability look for someone to blame. “The stigma (against elders) is growing,” said Dilip Jeste, a geriatric psychiatrist at the University of California, San Diego Center for Healthy Aging. “Anytime you mention the virus and risk, immediately people think of older adults. They think of the people more likely to be hospitalised, to take up beds in the ICU.” This rejection of prolonged sacrifices made by all for the sake of the old has been voiced from the highest ranks of government. “Let’s get back to living,” Texas Lt Governor Dan Patrick told Fox’s Tucker Carlson in late March, defending President Donald Trump’s push at the time to reopen businesses by Easter. Patrick, who turned 70 in March, said no-one had asked him if he was willing to risk his survival in order to save the American economy for future generations. But, he added, “If that’s the exchange, I’m all in.” Nationwide anti-lockdown protests show that many have taken that idea to heart. One woman among the dozens who rallied outside Tennessee’s state capitol on April 20 held a sign that read “Sacrifice the weak, reopen (Tennessee).” Koshin Paley Ellison, co-founder of The New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, said a photo of the sign was circulated among the community of older adults he leads in spiritual practice. “What does that do to those who are feeling weak?” Paley Ellison said. “It terrifies them.” But no-one from the group was surprised. On a Facebook chat, they talked about how a subtler disdain for older people has been a running thread in American culture. They are well aware of the prevailing belief that beauty and productivity — the primary measures of worth in the US — are the domains of the young. But this prejudice has become acute during the pandemic, they agreed. “It’s open season for discrimination against older, vulnerable people,” one person commented. Eight prominent psychologists from across the globe were so concerned about mounting ageism that in mid-April they wrote an academic paper on the issue for the Gerontological Society of America. “What we are seeing in public discourse is an increasing portrayal of those over the age of 70 as being all alike with regard to being helpless, frail, and unable to contribute to society,” they said. The negative health effects of ageism are well-documented. When seniors face age-based discrimination and internalise harmful stereotypes, they are more likely to experience stress and depression and are at higher risk for chronic illnesses. A 2018 study from researchers at Yale University found that ageism could lead to $63 billion in additional annual health care costs in the US. Jeste, the geriatric psychiatrist at UC San Diego, worries that an increase in ageism could lead to weaker immune systems among the elderly. “It could put them at higher risk of developing Covid complications,” Jeste said. “We are perpetuating that.” Gregory Kuhl, a 69-year-old Hollywood resident, said he experienced age bias well before the coronavirus’s siege. Kuhl has severe spinal stenosis, a condition that compresses the nerves in his spinal cord and makes walking painful. He has often felt invisible in public; many people assume he isn’t capable or worthy of conversation, he said, because he is older and uses a wheelchair. That sensation of invisibility has reached a fever pitch during the pandemic. Going to the grocery store has been especially frustrating, Kuhl said. Though he receives most of his food through the Meals on Wheels programme, Kuhl buys dairy and produce at a Sprouts market near his apartment. Recently, a cashier pushed Kuhl’s groceries to the edge of the checkout counter, indicating that he would need to bag his own groceries to prevent viral spread. He placed the fruit and nuts in a bag on his lap, but it was too heavy to lift. Usually, the cashier would have hung the bag on the back of his wheelchair. A security guard eventually noticed Kuhl struggling and helped him out. Kuhl felt similarly disregarded when he learned that most coronavirus testing in Los Angeles occurs at drive-up mobile sites. “Where do seniors who no longer drive go to get tested?” he wondered. “Somebody somewhere needs to be thinking about the consequences (of the shutdown) for older people,” Kuhl said in an interview. In these unprecedented times, unfavourable perceptions of older adults can be a matter of life and death, according to advocates for seniors and people with disabilities. California Governor Gavin Newsom was roundly criticised recently after his administration advised hospitals to prioritise younger people with greater life expectancy for care during the coronavirus outbreak. Those guidelines were swiftly retracted. They were not, however, without precedent. When doctors are forced to make gut-wrenching decisions around who will receive scarce medical resources such as ventilators, two factors are typically considered: the likelihood that a person’s life will be saved, and the estimated years of life left, said David Magnus, director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics. “If you’ve got strong evidence that someone will die in a year, that’s a pretty good reason for saying that person should be a lower priority for scarce ventilators,” Magnus said. The bioethicist noted that in an “era of plenty,” healthcare systems often spend large amounts of money keeping people alive for weeks or months; a quarter of Medicare spending occurs in the last year of life. The institutional concept of older people being worth less than younger people predates the pandemic. Cass Sunstein, a legal scholar who worked for the Obama administration, once proposed focusing government policies on saving years of life rather than individual lives. The Environmental Protection Agency used a similar calculus during the George W Bush administration when it was weighing the benefits of power-plant emission regulations. The agency determined that people over 70 were worth just 67% of the lives of younger people. Jeste insists that this way of thinking is short-sighted. Assigning a value to seniors based on their economic output ignores the many other ways people contribute to society, he said. They travel and volunteer. They are mentors with decades of hard-earned wisdom. They take care of grandchildren and older family members. It’s important for older people to question negative stereotypes and resist them if possible, said Becca Levy, a professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health who has been researching attitudes on aging since the 1990s. “We’ve found that those who value and affirm their own meaningful contributions to society can avoid internalising those stereotypes,” she said. On the flip side, Levy’s research shows that older adults with negative attitudes about aging may live 7.5 years less than those with positive attitudes. Bonnie Reed knows her worth. The retired schoolteacher and her 74-year-old husband, Alton, volunteer for political campaigns and the Red Cross, and they’ve been trained by the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) programme to spring into action if an earthquake or fire happens in their community. She checks in on neighbours and makes sure her older cousin’s refrigerator is fully stocked. “We try to help where we can,” Reed said.                       — Los Angeles Times/TNS

People around the world are looking for ways to keep themselves mentally strong, with many trying to help others in how to stay strong during the novel coronavirus pandemic. Sanah Thakur is a young speaker, educator and writer. With a degree in psychology and PGCE (Postgraduate Certificate in Education) in psychology and sociology, she is a firm propagator of mental well-being. Sanah is also a trained facilitator and assessor for the psychological and mental well-being and resilience training programme – The Fear Project. The psychologist also runs her own organisation – Sanation, which began in India following the work of Jiddu Krishnamurti, an Indian philosopher and writer, in order to change priorities in education. Recently, she has been holding her innovative talks on why ‘The Education System Must Die’ and inspiring young students. She is also a prolific writer on topics such as memory, well-being, personality and cognitive psychology. Sanah currently works as a facilitator and event co-ordinator at Passare Consultancy UK. She has co-authored and designed four online courses, which she is working to bring to the marginalised communities in India. Sharing about the programme – The Fear Project, she said: “It is a psychological training programme designed to help individuals positively and productively re-engineer their mind to reduce the mental discomfort and confusion they experience every day. This can be for individuals in the workplace, education or in their personal lives. The training focuses on tackling the impact of psychological fear in our everyday lives. It was created by Martyn Stewart, Chartered Psychologist from England.” When asked to share her opinion on the uncertain times caused by the pandemic, Sanah said: “The current pandemic and resulting lockdown has revealed to people how important it is to look after your mental state. Just few weeks ago, we were all distracted by our jobs, our education, our daily routines and recreation activities. Today, we have nothing but the thoughts in our head to pay attention to. There are no distractions or escapes and if your mind space is not a safe place, this can be a problem. “The noise of the outside world often drowns the conversations in our head, that voice in our head. But things have changed and it is important to be aware of the things that the voice in your head says to you. Is it telling you things will be okay or is it creating panic, tension, stress and confusion due to uncertainty? I think this is a great opportunity for everyone to start improving their mental resilience, for creating strategies to deal with uncomfortable situations filled with unpredictability. Remember, your brain only likes certainty, so you have to train it to always find that.” When asked if she thinks the Fear Project can help people deal with the stress caused by uncertain times, the expert said: “As people are home and more in tune with their mental well-being, we have created short online courses based on the Fear Project to help people find answers to some of the questions that run around in their head all day. The Fear Project gives it to you straight, with no sugar coating or subtle messages. Only you can control what will happen in the future by managing your thoughts and emotions today. Our short courses can be finished in one day and have tools and strategies that people can implement immediately. Our most popular one is the free mood assessment that tells you what your everyday mood is and why whenever it changes, you are confused and frustrated. Things may not get better but your mindset can. That is the only way you will survive this period.”  The courses can be accessed at: https://thefearproject.net/online-courses/

Ingrid Londono feels that the coronavirus affects her on all fronts. The 40-year-old nurse started a new job on April 1 and it has been hard for her to learn from a distance and to prove herself as a professional, especially in English, her second language. With her 10-year-old son at home taking remote classes, she worries as much about the gaps that may remain in his education, at a moment that the help of a tutor cannot be used, as the times that the child interrupts her and does not allow her to focus on work. “The work has doubled, you are managing the stress of everyone and yourself,” said Londono. She is worried about her mother who is alone in Colombia, her in-laws, and her brother, who is in quarantine in Spain, one of the countries most affected by the coronavirus. “I have the financial burden on the family,” said Londono. Her husband, who recently immigrated legally to the United States, does not yet have a work permit, a situation that will not change immediately because his appointment with immigration authorities was cancelled at the end of March. Women are bearing the brunt of the social and economic crisis caused by Covid-19, experts say. Concern for the family, the education of children, the instability of the economy, and especially unemployment is causing an excessive burden for women, who outnumber men in job loss in almost all sectors, and to a greater extent in hospitality, services, health and education jobs. Data on employment in the United States released in early April indicates that women were the most affected initially by losses in the labour market due to Covid-19. In February, women accounted for 50% of the payroll and in March they accounted for 58.8% of lost jobs, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit organisation that provides economic statistics and analysis. These figures are expected to increase for the next release of unemployment data on May 8. The responsibility is even greater for the women who are the main breadwinner in their family. “I haven’t been working for a month. I haven’t been able to ask for unemployment help, because the page won’t let me, when I’m near the end I have to start over,” said a divorced mother from Pembroke Pines, who asked not to give her name. Like her, more than a million Floridians have been unable to get their unemployment benefits because the Florida website was in serious trouble. On April 20, a new page was launched that reports that until April 24, only 153,788 people had received the unemployment payment. A music teacher and professional singer, this Pembroke Pines mother has lost most of her income due to the cancellation of shows, parties and the closure of entertainment centres. And while she still has singing lessons on Zoom, she doesn’t think she can survive on this income and the federal stimulus money, which she estimates will last her two months without incurring any expenses that are not strictly necessary. “A single mother has three or four jobs, generally, because she has a lot of expenses and nobody to help her,” she said. She has already paid the rent for her room in a shared house, but she does not know if she will be able to do it in coming months. “I have worked very hard to achieve these savings, which I had planned to move. Obviously I do need help,” she said of the importance of receiving unemployment benefits. In the United States, 46.9% of Hispanic households are headed by a single mother with children under the age of 18, who is in charge of supporting the family, sometimes with various jobs, according to figures published by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research on April 6. In the case of African American women, the percentage is 74, and in the case of white women, 45.4%. In Florida, the largest demographic living in poverty are females 25-34, followed by females 35-44 and then females 18-24. “There is still a perception that men are the breadwinners in the family, and that is why they keep their jobs more than women in the same industry and at the same professional level,” explained Deanne Butchey, professor in the Department of Finance of Florida International University. At the same time, Butchey noted that women often have to take time to dedicate to their children, preventing them from advancing at the same rate as men. She also said that a trend began in 2014 where women started earning more four-year college degrees than men, and that trend continues. However, even though women have come a long way in attaining higher levels of education, their salary levels and the levels of responsibility still lag those of men in most industries. The current wage gap and lower levels of advancement during the Covid-19 catastrophe persist, she said. Butchey also anticipates that the wage gap will continue after the coronavirus pandemic because women generally work in lower-paying jobs in the hospitality and service industry, in banks, and often in positions and jobs that are about to disappear. “When women return to the work force after the recession, they will be expected to accept reduced levels of pay,” said Butchey. Before the pandemic hit, Vania Bredy, a 41-year-old health care professional, was used to working long hours. She combined the administration of the business she co-owns with her husband, a physical therapy consultation in Miramar, with the care of her two children, 8 and 12 years old. Now the uncertainty and the level of stress are sometimes “overwhelming,” she admits. “I don’t stop from 8 to 4pm. In the mornings, I play my son’s ‘teacher.’ Then I worry about the restrictions, the health of the family, the danger of contagion, buying food and exercising with children so as not to gain much weight,” said Bredy. She acknowledges that, without losing optimism, she is very concerned that “if the situation continues like this, in the coming months we will not be able to survive.” “At least 55% of our business is lost,” said Bredy, whose office, Bredy Physical Therapy & Sports Rehabilitation, is still open with her husband and two other employees up front. However, income has been kept to a minimum because many of his patients were people over the age of 65, who avoid leaving their homes, even if they need therapy. “We need to get more help to small businesses, which are the ones that support so many families,” said Bredy, who cannot apply for unemployment benefits because her business is open. For her part, Londono is already worried about the difficulties she will face when the economy returns to business and many businesses demand that their employees go to work. “Where do I leave my son if the schools are closed? Will the sanitary measures be adequate where I send him? And when the summer holidays arrive, what will we do?” said Londono. “I say this as a nurse and a health professional, the coronavirus has affected us a lot emotionally. I think that the number of psychiatric problems that will develop are many,” said Londono. The emotional burden has already caused her to feel some physical ailments that she thought were cured. She points out that many patients complain of anxiety and depression, and that children, even if they sometimes do not manifest it openly, are very affected by the situation. “My son has had nights that he has not been able to sleep,” she said. As a nurse she offers some tips for dealing with stress: — Women must create a support network, and know who is available to help. — Set up a relaxation activity every day, watch a personal growth video, take dance classes or exercise online, do crafts. — Limit the consumption of sweets, because they weaken the immune system, and also contribute to weight gain and that causes more depression.                                — Miami Herald/TNS

Faizel Moosa, Ambassador of South Africa to Qatar, is a man of diverse qualities. An advocate by profession, a political companion of Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid activist, and a thorough extrovert, he spoke at length during an interview with Community. Excerpts: Please tell us briefly about your journey so far. Born in 1963 in Cape Town South Africa, I am the son of a prominent lawyer of the country. We were seven brothers and two sisters. I am the second youngest. My father molded my political outlook from a very young age. As a lawyer, he had defended many anti-apartheid activists, including Nelson Mandela. From an early age, I became active in the fight against apartheid during my high school years. After completing my high school, I started working as a clerk in my father’s law firm. The work exposed me to many well known anti-apartheid activists. In 1984, some of my brothers and I joined the African National Congress [ANC]. I was arrested and detained several times between 1985 and 1990 for my political activities. I was assigned by the ANC to work with Nelson Mandela the day he was released in 1990. I worked with Mandela till he was elected as the first black president of the Republic of South Africa in 1994. I also started my own business. I got a university degree in law in 2000. In 2011, I was elected to the leadership of the ANC and remained politically active until I was appointed as the South African ambassador to Qatar in 2017. How do you best define diplomacy? What are its basic tenets? My role as a diplomat is to ensure and constantly improve political, social and economic relationship between South Africa and Qatar. Diplomacy therefore, is consistent strengthening of bilateral and multi-lateral relations among nations. It is my responsibility as an ambassador to always explore the opportunities that are in the national interest of my country and are in accordance with the foreign policy of my country. One of the main tenants of diplomacy, in my view, is that you must always garner enough trust, credibility and understanding to be able to play a positive role in bringing about world peace especially in the turbulent international political environment. In this regard, I must compliment Qatar for its very impressive foreign policy which became more evident in the recent US and Taliban peace process. The lesson to be learnt is that one must always keep an avenue open for negotiations no matter what the circumstances are. As a diplomat or political activist, what has been your most challenging assignment? The most exciting and challenging for me was working with the great Mandela. He truly changed my view of life. Mandela took us into negotiations with the apartheid government which at the time was viewed as an enemy. Many of us including myself were not very happy for negotiating with the government. It is with hindsight that today, I thank the Almighty that we had Mandela’s wisdom and foresight which resulted in a fairly peaceful transition in South Africa. On the diplomatic front, I have fewer challenges so far. We are two friendly countries and always work out our solutions. Recently, Qatar Airways and the Qatari authorities helped stranded South Africans reach home during Covid-19 pandemic. What are other highlights of your career? One of the highlights of my short diplomatic career is when Naledi Pandor, South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, made an official visit to Qatar. We spent some quality time with His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. During the visit we also had the opportunity to engage with the-then prime minister and the foreign minister of Qatar. These engagements strengthened my confidence to have better bilateral ties with Qatar. What is your  take on Qatar-South Africa relations? How many expats from your country are living here and what professions do they practice? I believe that very cordial relations between the two brotherly countries will significantly improve in future. Qatar has a wonderful ambassador in South Africa and we share a common vision. Ambassador Tariq al-Ansari and I have regular contact and we work well together to further cement relations between the two countries. There are about 6,500 South Africans living in Qatar and they are almost all white collar professionals. Many are in the healthcare sector at the cold face with the coronavirus pandemic. We also have many in the oil and gas, education and banking sectors. Where does the bilateral trade currently stand and what are the potential areas for investment? In which areas Qatar can benefit from your country and vice versa? Exports from South Africa to Qatar decreased marginally from ZAR1,029 million in 2018 to ZAR962 million in 2019. The trade deficit remains in favour of Qatar due to South African hydrocarbon imports with the total bilateral trade reaching ZAR3.59 billion in 2019. The presence of South African goods such as processed foods, fruit juice as well as fresh fruit and vegetables and frozen and fresh meat is increasing. There remain major opportunities for Qatar to tap into the South African food and agriculture sector. The investment of Qatar in exploring oil and gas in South Africa is also increasing. After Covid-19 outbreak, the will definitely be a huge tourism opportunity going both ways between South Africa and Qatar. What do you do in your leisure? What kind of books do you read, films you watch, and music you listen to? I enjoy swimming. I’m also an outdoor person and thoroughly enjoy going into the desert, doing dune bashing and watching the sunset at the Sealine while having a barbeque with my family. Fortunately, just before the lockdown my wife bought a treadmill which has now become quite useful as we no longer go to the Corniche for our regular walks. Lockdown has also given me the time to catch up on my reading and I enjoy reading biographies and life experiences. I prefer watching documentaries. When I do watch a movie it must be an action movie. I like Kevin Costner, Al Pacino and Jason Statham. I also enjoy many different music genres like classical and opera. How would you describe your experience of living in Qatar? What places do you venture out the most? I am fortunate enough to have been sent to Qatar for my first diplomatic posting. Qataris are very friendly once you get to know them. I have become quite accustomed to visiting them in their Majlis in the evenings. The new generation coming through is also well educated and hails from some of the best academic institutions in the world. Doha is a very modern city and is exceptionally clean. My wife really enjoys the safety and security in Qatar. Before the lockdown, we regularly visited places like Souq Waqif, Souq Al Wakrah and Katara to dine out. I would still love to experience glamping in a desert. My family also likes going to Banana Island. What is that one lesson in life that has always held you in good stead? I think the one thing that my parents taught me was respect for your fellow human beings especially the elders and something that I learnt during my stint with Mandela was humility and forgiveness. These three tenants of life I believe have taken me to where I am today.

The current coronavirus crisis has created grave uncertainties across the world. In response, most governments have introduced unprecedented measures to curb the spread of the virus and mitigate the economic fallout. One major question is that if the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic will destroy the momentum that climate movement has built over the years. Climate activists ask if the economic fallout will push climate down the list of priorities for governments, and the postponement of the UN Climate Summit COP26 in Glasgow in United Kingdom will diminish the united ability to address climate emergency. The parallel drawn between Covid-19 and climate change offers several key lessons that can be drawn for help in the fight against climate change. The opportunities are clear, well-studied, and well-documented. Reduced emission, clean air and water do not only result from loss and disruption; they can be planned, designed, invested and implemented in the form of strategies that can reduce the emissions that do not cause suffering. As part of the Earth Day 2020, the Arab Youth Climate Movement (AYCM) Qatar recently arranged a focused webinar – Covid-19 and Climate Action - Global to Arab Regional Perspective – and question and answer session featuring a global panel of experts from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UNESCWA) who shared insights on Covid-19 pandemic, climate action and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from global perspective and Arab regional perspective and what it means for the ability to address the climate emergency for a more sustainable future. Reem Nejdawi, chief of Food and Environment, Climate Change & Natural Resources Sustainability, UNESCOWA, and Katia Simeonova, Manager of Transparency & SBI Co-ordinator UN Climate Change Secretariat UNFCCC, as the panellists addressed the webinar and responded to the questions as participants took keen interest in the discussion. Katia spoke about UNFCCC’s extensive work ahead of the canceled COP26 this year. She spoke about direct impacts of Covid-19 on the climate action momentum globally. The UN expert also explained the outcome of the 11th Petersburg Climate Dialogue (PCD), which was held as a video conference on 27 and 28 April. The United Kingdom, as president of the next Climate Change Conference (COP 26), will co-chair this year’s PCD. Reem spoke about impact of Covid-19 with regard to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in the Arab world. She explained environmental impact in the Arab region and the post Covid-19 Arab World. Reem said: “A decade marked for accelerated action and delivery towards sustainable development has been disrupted by a global health threat that has severely impacted the Arab region.” She explained the outcome of ESCWA report saying an additional 8.3 million people will fall into poverty in the Arab region. She also highlighted that there would be an increased poverty that could raise the number of undernourished people by some 2million. Both the speakers spoke about the lessons from the health crisis that will help mitigating the climate emergency by not bailing out countries, industries or financial institutions – it is about saving thousands of lives and keeping environment in the core of the recovery plan. The speakers expressed their support for AYCMQ and appreciated the movements for organzing such a relevant event for the Arab region on Covid-19 and climate change as well as praised their works on leading Arab youth for climate action. Both speakers hoped to work ahead with AYCM Qatar in the coming days. Neeshad Shafi, Founder & Executive Director of AYCMQ, moderated the webinar. AYMQ is a first registered, nonprofit, youth-led, grassroots environmental association in Qatar. The movement seeks to create a transformative change in the community by developing holistic environmental learning programmes, engaging in community activities and supporting evidence-based policy research.

Lisa Dahl scanned the horizon from the patio of one of her five restaurants, watching thick clouds cast shadows on red rock spires that formed outlines like desert skyscrapers. The restaurateur stood in the afternoon silence, a rarity at Mariposa, billed as the best fine dining in a town about two hours from the south rim of the Grand Canyon. She thought about what life was like here, on this patio, before the coronavirus. Reservation only. New Yorkers. Angelenos. Investment bankers. Tech entrepreneurs. They sipped stiff cocktails and snapped photos in front of a backdrop so picturesque it looked it was created in Photoshop. As they savoured bites of $48 veal chop, they talked about how next time they were in town, they’d have to try the flourless chocolate chile orange torte with vanilla bourbon gelato. Such scenes have been relegated to nostalgia as a deadly pandemic has upset an enclave that was once kept sequestered only by money. But the virus has also exposed the stark divide between the rich and everyone else in a nation whose disparities are marked by upward spiralling joblessness and luxury cars racing through the desert air. Dahl has adjusted to Sedona’s rearranged lifestyle, setting up a delivery service catering to those who have flocked to their second homes in this high-desert valley to ride out the stay-home restrictions. “There are people who love the food and are willing to spend,” Dahl said on a recent afternoon as she cradled Leonardo, her Maltese poodle. “These are trying times for many people, but many people are also very blessed.” As the coronavirus continues its destructive path across the US, killing more than 50,000 and devastating the economy — drive-up food bank lines snake on for miles and about 26 million have filed for unemployment, marking what could become the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression. Amid such reckoning, some well-heeled Americans have activated pandemic escape plans. They’ve fled big cities and headed to second homes or $8,000 a month rentals in places like Sedona and rural coastal stretches of the Pacific Northwest. They’re arriving by personal travel buses, private planes and yachts. On Fisher Island — a 216-acre luxury destination south of Miami Beach that’s home to one of the nation’s richest ZIP codes — management paid more than $30,000 for 1,200 employees and residents to be tested for coronavirus antibodies. A similar testing effort took place in the mountain resort town of Telluride, Colorado. By contrast, governors of many states have struggled to secure an adequate number of tests. Hollywood billionaire David Geffen recently posted an Instagram photo of the sun setting behind his 454-foot yacht in the Caribbean. “Isolated in the Grenadines avoiding the virus,” he captioned the photo. “I’m hoping everybody is staying safe.” Faced with fierce criticism, he swiftly made his account private. Some small, quiet towns have started to post “stay out” signs — a message to those fleeing from cities — and mayors have publicly urged people to stay away. On a recent afternoon at the Sedona Airport, a strip of asphalt atop a mesa overlooking the city, three private jets sat parked. Sedona’s mayor, Sandy Moriarty, has made a plea to potential visitors: Please stay home. She told a local TV station that she’d seen social media photos of tourists packing into local camping grounds and popular hiking trails. “It’s incredible,” she said, “it really is crowded, it’s too crowded.” So far, this stretch of northern Arizona has seen fewer than 100 diagnosed cases of the coronavirus infection, but some locals worry that numbers could spike if there’s too much travel here. And that could mean more devastation, they worry, for locals who have already suffered deep economic losses. During the pandemic, Dahl said she’s had to cut back from 345 employees at her restaurants — among the largest employer in Sedona — to 45. “This situation pains me for my employees,” she said, noting that some had worked for her for more than a decade. “I’ve poured my heart into these restaurants and so have they.” Last year, her five restaurants grossed $20 million, she said, and she was on track to have an even better year in 2020. Then came the outbreak and, within a matter of days, she had to scale back and adjust to a new reality. On a recent afternoon, Dahl put together a well-to-do version of a care package for two New York dermatologists. They’re among her best clients, she said, and they had planned to leave Manhattan earlier this month for Sedona. She shipped them a few familiar tastes from her Sedona restaurants — macaroons, marinara sauce and tomato soup. Twelve hundred miles from Sedona at Surf Pines, a gated community northwest of Portland, Oregon, with homes overlooking the Pacific Ocean, is another quiet, stay-home haven. Gina Sjolander, her husband and their three adult children are hunkered in their second home, where they pass the days playing board games, gazing out across windswept dunes as elk wander by, and ordering takeout from the Astoria Golf & Country Club. They’re visiting from the Seattle area — the first hot spot for the virus in the US — where Lil’ Jon Restaurant & Lounge has been in their family for three generations. The restaurant is closed for now. “For us,” Sjolander said, “it hasn’t been too much of a hardship.” Head a couple hours south along the coast to Lincoln City, Oregon, and you’ll find Diana Hardy, a cashier at a grocery store. She spends her days sweating behind a mask and wiping down counters with bleach. “I feel in danger every day,” said Hardy, 66, a coastal resident since 1986. “Those of us that live here full time and wait on them are the ones that are at risk.” Leaders of Lincoln City and other coastal communities acted quickly in late March, when vacationers swarmed beaches, stripping store shelves and alarming managers of local hospitals, who feared their small facilities couldn’t handle a surge. Cities and counties that thrive on tourism banned visits by nonresidents, booting guests from hotels and shutting down short-term rentals a day before Oregon Governor Kate Brown announced a statewide stay-at-home order. Much of Oregon’s shoreline, and Washington state’s coastal Pacific County to the north, remains off-limits to outsiders. Lincoln County, where Hardy lives, and Clatsop County, where the Sjolanders stay in their second home, have only 11 confirmed coronavirus cases between them, and no deaths. But coastal residents remain suspicious of outsiders, all too aware that other parts of Washington and Oregon have more than 14,000 confirmed cases of the virus and a death toll of 770. Hardy acknowledges that owners of second homes are entitled to stay in their properties, although she wishes that more of them would stop travelling back and forth between houses. Claire Hall, a Lincoln County commissioner, says a gulf has appeared between the haves and the have-nots. “There’s a class strain, in that people see privilege in those who can afford a second home,” Hall said. “But asking people to stay away is not that great a sacrifice, when you’re talking about people’s health and in some cases their lives.” Similar suspicion is on display in Big Sky, Montana, a resort community north of Yellowstone National Park renowned for its ski slopes. “For a while if you went to the market and saw a licence plate that said Minnesota, California or Illinois, you’d get curious, maybe a little afraid,” said Eric Ossorio, who moved to the town from Connecticut nearly three decades ago. “Luckily, the spike in infections one may have feared hasn’t happened.” Still, the region hasn’t escaped unscathed. There are at least 145 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Gallatin County, the hardest hit in the state and home to Big Sky and Bozeman, the fourth-largest city in Montana. At the exclusive 15,200-acre Yellowstone Club community, where empty, half-acre lots start in the millions and attract CEOs and business moguls, management e-mailed members in the middle of the March ski season, telling them to cancel plans. Several were already on their properties, though, and have stayed there since. Resort foundations have now raised more than $2 million to donate to the Bozeman medical system and community groups. Ossorio, a 63-year-old real estate agent, said he regretted the health crisis and shutdowns but added that residents were enjoying the slower pace of life with fewer visitors. “It’s so huge out here, the land. You can go Nordic skiing, you can ride your bikes,” he said. “It’s frankly difficult to run into anybody. Maybe at the post office you’ll see people, or if you go to buy groceries or takeout, but otherwise it’s just you.” Back in Sedona, Scott MacDonald, an investment manager who lives in Denver, had arrived earlier this month after loading up his Tesla Model X and making the 12-hour drive south with his wife and two children. The construction around their downtown Denver loft was deafening, MacDonald said, and the lack of social distancing perturbed him. The family decided to head to Sedona, where they rented a home on a ledge overlooking the city for $8,000 a month. “We love it here,” MacDonald said on a recent morning after a mountain bike ride. “The quiet, the space, the scenery, it’s all just amazing.” He said he and his family were taking social distancing seriously and hoped that the US doesn’t try to rush back to a sense of normalcy. It’s too risky, MacDonald said. They stay inside, cook and sometimes order takeout and delivery from some of Dahl’s restaurants. On a recent afternoon, Dahl and her chief operating officer, Jay Schimmel, sat in the patio of Mariposa. Leonardo napped in her lap and a container of lemon-scented Clorox wipes sat on a nearby table. Dahl and Schimmel were preparing for a meeting among a coalition of Arizona restaurant owners about safe practices for when businesses can resume opening next month. “We really cannot worry about what other restaurants do,” Schimmel said. Dahl nodded, stroking Leonardo’s back. “We have to be safe,” she said, “make sure everyone in our restaurants are protected.” A hush fell over the patio. It lingered until the hum of a small chartered jet flying low on a final approach to the airport broke the silence. Dahl hopped up and started making calls.   — Los Angeles Times/TNS (Lee reported from Sedona, Arizona, Read from Gearhart, Oregon, and Kaleem from Los Angeles.

Naturalist Gerry Hans stood in the middle of a lonely road in Griffith Park on Saturday, inhaled deeply though his face mask and admired the natural sights and sounds of an oddly serene landscape that typically draws thousands of visitors each weekend. “It’s sheer heaven not hearing the deafening clatter of tourist helicopters hovering over the Hollywood sign,” he said, with an appreciative sweep of his eyes. As California’s coronavirus lockdown enters its second month, some residents on the edges of Griffith Park and other urban ecosystems swear that Mother Nature is reclaiming territories that once echoed with humanity’s tumult. On message boards, shut-ins trade emotional “coyote talk,” recounting the movements of stealthy canids as they search for prey along quiet streets. Others share snapshots of hawks and owls nesting in the trees of city parks and centre dividers, and of raccoons and rats raiding trash cans, suggesting that — by bits and pieces — wildlife is restaking old claims. Although local experts insist these creatures were always there, and were just ignored in more industrious times, shelter-at-homers are enjoying a rare glimpse into Southern California’s natural heritage. On Hans’ expedition Saturday, the loudest sounds were the trills and chatter of resident woodpeckers and migrating birds — western tanagers, black-headed grosbeaks, hooded orioles and warblers — moving through the boughs of sycamores, pine trees and gnarled oaks. Just out of view, in the park’s canyons and slopes, lurked opossums, skunks, coyotes, deer, bobcats and a lone mountain lion known as P-22. An eerily quiet parade of visitors clad in ball caps, running shoes and face masks ambled along a stretch of Western Canyon Road that is usually choked with cars and tour buses. Roadkill of western gray squirrels, brush rabbits, ring-necked snakes and western toads has plummeted to zero, according to Hans, a wildlife expert with the nonprofit Friends of Griffith Park. And for the first time in memory, rare peregrine falcons have been seen swooping over the Hollywood sign, instead of in the vicinity of downtown skyscrapers, where they nest and dine on pigeons. While naturalists like Hans have thrilled to the prospect of new wildlife sightings, some Southern California residents have been rattled by their brushes with the great outdoors. On March 18, a resident of the Villeurbanne townhomes in Orange posted this warning on Nextdoor: “This evening while walking my dogs, a pack of six coyotes saw us, stopped running and two started heading my way. I held the dogs close and started yelling at the coyotes, then they stopped long enough for me to duck behind the houses getting in the back gate. So scary!” Responses the next day included this one: “The coyotes think we all moved away with no cars driving around.” Wildlife biologists, however, say this rich urban ecosystem was always there, and it is too early to know how the wild side of Los Angeles and Southern California is responding to the month-old lockdown. For example, research biologists have seen no evidence that Southern California’s increasingly isolated and inbred populations of mountain lions are benefiting from far fewer vehicles on freeways cutting across their ever-shrinking islands of habitat. “There is no evidence that the animals that we’re tracking are crossing freeways any more in the last couple of weeks,” said Seth P D Riley, wildlife ecologist and branch chief for the National Park Service’s Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. “But that is not too surprising — it is a very short time frame.” While there are fewer vehicles on roads and freeways these days, there are “still quite a few, from a wildlife perspective, especially during midday, early am, and evening hours,” he added. “The couple of animals that have happened to have been near freeways recently have not crossed. Of course, we cannot interview them, sadly, to find out what they are thinking.” Similarly, research scientist Niamh Quinn, who serves as human-wildlife interactions advisor for UC Cooperative Extension, said none of the five collared coyotes she is studying in the cities of Hacienda Heights, Roland Heights, La Verne and Chino Hills “have changed their behaviour yet.” “I do believe, however, that human behaviour has been altered significantly by the lockdown in ways that are closing the gap between us and what’s wild around our own homes — and that’s great, up to a point,” she said. She worries that animals may be pushed into closer conflicts with humans. “We have to interact with wildlife from a distance. That is because we still do not know all the diseases that, say, coyotes and rats carry with them.” Despite reports of emboldened coyotes in urban settings, there is no evidence of an increase in the rate of coyote attacks since the lockdown went into effect, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. In any case, conservationists are rejoicing in the scene at Griffith Park a month after its roads were closed to traffic and its trailheads were blocked to keep out hordes of daytripping parents and children mingling with tourists for a hike up scrubby slopes and canyons. Directly in front of Hans on Saturday, western gray squirrels casually crossed Fern Dell Drive at Griffith Park’s southwestern edge, near where it had been cordoned off with yellow tape. To the left, woodpeckers hunted for insects in sycamores shading an empty parking lot. “Follow me. I want to introduce you to some new arrivals,” said Hans, leading up a gentle slope to a flat spot in a grove of oaks. “Hear that chattering up high in the trees?” he whispered with a smile. “That is the call of Cooper’s hawks fortifying a nest.” That nest was not the only reason conservationists have plenty to crow about this year. The 2020 Griffith Park raptor survey tallied 122 active hawk, falcon and owl nests — a record jump from 60 nests counted a year ago. But raptors are sensitive to human disturbance — so sensitive that human activity can cause them to abandon their nests. “Noisy crowds are a big issue for Griffith Park’s raptors during their breeding season,” Hans said. “Perhaps not quite so much this year. We’ll see.” Researchers hope a network of strategically placed cameras throughout the nation can provide scientists with a precise picture of how wildlife reacted when the commotion and clatter of urban life from Disneyland to New York City came to a standstill. “Think of these cameras as unbiased observers,” said Ted Stankowich, a biologist and director of the Mammal Lab at Cal State Long Beach. “Looking forward to an analysis of the imagery they’ve collected,” he said, “is a case of finding something to be excited about in this horrible time of suffering.”                        — Los Angeles Times/TNS

The first Earth Day was an uprising for humankind to do better than smother its coasts with crude-oil blowouts, poison wildlife with factory and farm chemicals, and irradiate the atmosphere by testing nuclear weapons. As we marked the 50th anniversary yesterday,  amid the death toll, economic mayhem and stay-at-home orders of the coronavirus outbreak, Earth Day may have never been so relevant for a planet more vulnerable than previously thought. Covid-19 is a warning, environmentalists say, that even in times of soaring stocks, accelerating technology, plentiful consumer goods and growing cities, civilisation is not all that resilient. The world’s prime environmental fear is climate change and its potential to drown cities, disrupt food supplies, deliver new diseases and be far more disastrous than Covid-19. University of Miami geography professor Harold Wanless, long a proponent of an urgent response to climate change, said the coronavirus outbreak may have been a needed revelation. “It has demonstrated what I don’t think any of us thought could have happened,” Wanless said. “We are really capable of doing surprising things quickly. If we had talked about this sort of response on January 15, it would have been, ‘No way would these things ever be happening.’” The first Earth Day brought formidable federal laws protecting the nation’s air, water and wildlife, but Florida has become only more tormented by a widening array of environments troubles. “Since the first Earth Day, Florida’s resident population has more than doubled, and our tourist visitation has grown six-fold,” said Julie Wraithmell, executive director of Audubon Florida. In Central Florida more recently, Sanford’s airport has joined a worldwide legal battle against chemical makers, alleging that their toxic, firefighting foams threaten human health, ecosystems and water supplies. Orlando’s electric utility is being sued by east Orange County residents, who blame radioactive contamination of their communities on nearby power plants burning coal. In South Florida, the city of Fort Lauderdale earlier this year was fined nearly $2 million for what state officials deemed as the largest outbreak of sewage spills in state history, a deluge that flowed largely into the city’s vast and prized canals. The statewide damage from nutrient pollution, from mishandled sewage, fertiliser and storm water, has plagued the state for decades and yet has worsened in recent years in springs, rivers and coastal estuaries. The funnelling of polluted water from Florida’s huge Lake Okeechobee to the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, triggering eruptions of toxic, foul-smelling and wildlife-killing algae, remains an ongoing threat. Unrecognised 50 years ago, the US and planet now face the most profound environmental danger yet: rising global temperatures that, among mounting catastrophes, have spawned drought and wildfires in Western states and stronger hurricanes and rising seas along Florida’s coast. “This 50th Earth Day anniversary is an opportunity to take stock of where we stand when it comes to the battle to live sustainably on this planet,” said Michael Mann, a prominent climatologist and geophysicist at Pennsylvania State University. “Covid-19 and the loss of life that has resulted from it is a tragedy,” Mann said. “But the pandemic has also been a teaching moment, an opportunity to take away some important lessons. One of those lessons is that it is possible to consume fewer resources and still lead our lives.” In Florida, opposition to offshore drilling has been perhaps the most unifying environmental cause for Floridians, allying the most progressive activists with the most conservative politicians and with all beach lovers. For many, the essence of Earth Day on April 22 became inseparable from the specter of the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20 a decade ago. The inaugural Earth Day owed some of its momentum to the nation’s revulsion over the Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969. Crude oil massacred marine life in Southern California coastal waters. The BP disaster, from a blowout unleashed by the drilling vessel Deepwater Horizon, lasted five months and dumped more than 200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico south of Louisiana. More than killing mammals, fish and birds, the submerged oil, as advanced research techniques found, severely altered phytoplankton, the basic organisms that convert sunlight to biomass that feeds all of the food web, said Samantha Joye, a microbiologist at the University of Georgia. “This lasted much, much longer than the signature of visible oil,” Joye said. Prey fish were wiped out, corals were damaged and thousands of square miles of seabed were coated with a dirty blizzard of “oil snow,” Joye said. Florida, particularly dependent on tourism and vulnerable to economic and environmental disruption, finally became acquainted with another devastating foe it had long feared. It took little more than a month for the BP slick of congealing crude to find the state’s vulnerability. Morning beachgoers at Pensacola Beach came across orange-brown blobs of oil, from dime-sized to lumpier, slimier chunks the size and shape of fried eggs. Within weeks, Western Panhandle beaches were deserted, crushing the region’s economy. “I call it the ‘quafecta’ that started with Hurricane Ivan that destroyed 85% of Pensacola Beach, followed by the real estate bubble popping, followed by the worldwide economic crisis,” said Julian MacQueen, founder and chairman of Innisfree Hotels, which owns Hamptons, Hiltons and other hotels from Panama City to east Alabama beaches. “Just when you thought it was safe again, BP hit.” Now he’s considering a label for five disasters. The coronavirus has again emptied the Panhandle’s famed beaches. “We are used to the hurricanes,” MacQueen said. “We have a plan and we have insurance. The big gut punch now is that there is no business-interruption insurance.” John Amos, president of SkyTruth, a nonprofit environmental, watchdog group that specialises in satellite imagery, said Florida should be wary of a blowout more destructive than BP’s. “Deepwater Horizon is not the worst-case scenario for an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico,” Amos said. The BP spill resulted from human errors and violations of drilling procedures. But the Gulf of Mexico seafloor is a minefield of potentially catastrophic mud slides that could bowl over rigs containing multiple wells with oil flowing to pipelines, Amos said. Worsening the risk is that most drilling has migrated into very deep waters of the Gulf, where technology would be hard-pressed to control a blowout, he said. Jeff Masters, a meteorologist at Scientific American co-founder of the web-based Weather Underground, said there is a common thread to the disasters and crises hitting Florida and the US, and that thread is worth paying attention to. “Our lamentable lack of preparedness for and response to the pandemic bears similarity to what happened with the BP oil spill and the recent spate of intense hurricanes that have hit the US,” Masters said. “Our reactive efforts ended up being far more expensive than if we had proactively prepared,” Masters said of responses to the spill, storms and the coronavirus outbreak. “Accelerating climate change will cause far more damage to society than the Covid-19 pandemic will end up causing, and we need to learn from its lessons and take strong science-based government action.” The effort will come with a price, environmentalists say, but potentially with a critically needed payoff. “For a long time now, Florida’s been about growth above everything. Climate change means its future is going to be about retraction,” said Bill McKibben, a prominent US writer and voice on climate change. “But that can be done gracefully, yielding a state that’s hardier, more resilient and still a place of great beauty.” Audubon’s Wraithmell hopes that Floridians are up to the task. At the time of the BP spill, “my daughter was 2 and I remember lying awake at night, wondering if I could ever stand to watch her swim in the Gulf again,” Wraithmell said. “It amazes me how many people have forgotten the stark horror of this disaster. Maybe it’s because Florida is such a growth state, with newcomers who don’t remember. Or maybe there have just been so many hurricanes, algal blooms and epidemics since then to make the memory of it fade.” — The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Florida)

Coronavirus has claimed more than 42,000 lives in the US as of Wednesday — especially those of older Americans, who represent 91% of all Covid-19 deaths. Within that vulnerable population, older black people are more likely to die of the virus than their white counterparts. And among those lost are prominent black pastors, performers, and practitioners who lived through struggles for civil and cultural rights in their communities.  “Many of them are the last flag bearers of an era long ago,” said Brian Turner, an associate professor of psychology and director of African American Diaspora Studies at Xavier University, a historically black university in New Orleans. “The collective trauma our communities are experiencing risks the lifelines of our cultural anchors and folklores shared through oral traditions.” The map of where these elders live is a story within itself. African Americans face a higher risk of exposure to the virus, mostly on account of concentrating in urban areas and working in essential industries. In the Midwest and north-east, racial inequities in labour and population density threaten lives. Meanwhile, the south presents the “perfect storm of characteristics to just be a tragic region in terms of the Covid outbreak,” said Thomas LaVeist, dean of public health and tropical medicine at Tulane University. Poverty and inadequate healthcare mean higher rates of diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.  “So many black folks struggle with inequities that contribute to premature death rates,” said Daniel Dawes, professor of health law and policy at the Morehouse School of Medicine. “Many are not even able to die in dignity.”  “We’re losing an incredible brain trust with these generations and that will impact an entire country, not just the black community,” Dawes said. The Guardian presents the stories of five black Americans who died of the coronavirus, the impact on their families, and unique communities. Theodore Gaffney, 92 Washington, District of Columbia Theodore Gaffney’s presence in the civil rights movement remains one of the most recognisable — even though he was always behind the scenes. Gaffney captured much of the historic events of the era as a photographer. Descended from former slaves in South Carolina, Gaffney went on to become one of the first African Americans photographers inside the White House and for the Washington Post. “He provided proof that black people are being assaulted at these protests,” said Lopez Matthews, a librarian at Howard University’s Moorland Spingarn Museum, where Gaffney was a longtime contributor. “His work was important in portraying an experience only African Americans were believing at the time,” he added. Gaffney documented the infamous Freedom Riders, civil rights activists who, beginning in 1961, rode interstate buses throughout the south to protest segregation.  After Klansmen and white mobs attacked the activists debarking a Greyhound bus in Alabama, Gaffney’s photo of the bus in flames made national papers across the country. According to his wife, Gaffney died on Easter Sunday at the age of 92 in his native Washington, DC. He tested positive for the virus on 12 April. “We’ve lost a tremendous wealth of knowledge who actually lived many of the things we are documenting,” Matthews said. Ronald Lewis, 68 New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell called Lewis “the very definition of a culture bearer”. “I want to educate the world about our great culture, how we do this, and why we are so successful at it even though the economics say we ain’t supposed to be,” Ronald Lewis once said. As founder of the House of Dance & Feathers in 2003, Lewis provided a community centre that celebrated African American and Creole culture, an important cause as the city saw rampant gentrification after Hurricane Katrina. “He spoke up for us all,” his neighbour, Jimmy Lewis, told the Guardian. “He was full of love and concern.” As a lifelong resident of the Lower Ninth ward, Ronald Lewis’s home was also one of the first to be rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina. But though he weathered nearly every storm, the coronavirus proved an entirely different beast for the 68year old with diabetes. Social distancing made a proper sendoff of Lewis impossible, but the community will come together again to celebrate a cultural icon. Lila Fenwick, 87 Manhattan, New York Lila Fenwick is most known for being the first black female graduate of Harvard Law School in 1956, a year before US Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg began her studies. But, as she recalled to Harvard Law alumni, “It never occurred to [her] that there were going to be any obstacles.” “I knew I was going to be a lawyer when I was a little girl,” she said. Fenwick spent much of her adult life working as a specialist on gender, racial and religious discrimination at the United Nations until she retired in 1974 — when the UN’s headquarters were relocated to Geneva. She died at the age of 87 in her Manhattan home on 4 April. In a tribute blog post, Harvard University remembered Fenwick as “an extraordinary leader who devoted her career” to protecting “human rights of all people across the globe”. Gil Bailey, 84 Queens, New York Bailey was born in Jamaica and moved to the US in the 1960s and quickly became a prominent voice in local radio and Caribbean American affairs. “In our history, the Jamaican population had one person on the radio waves, it was this man. We’ve come a long way, and he led the way,” artist Nadine Sutherland wrote in tribute. “We are losing the pillars that built our legacies throughout this country,” Sutherland told the Guardian. “That’s what matters most.” Eugene Kane, 63 Milwaukee, Wisconsin Decades before race and identity where designated beats for news outlets, Eugene Kane often called out Milwaukee’s long history of struggle with civil rights and race relations. And he didn’t hold back. “I’m not doing this to make white people feel better,” he once said. Born in Philadelphia, Kane called Milwaukee home for most of his adult life, covering the city before launching his own award-winning column, Raising Kane. “He wrote to make people uncomfortable, to be provocative and start conversation,” artist Andre Lee Ellis, a close friend of reporter Eugene Kane, recalled over the phone. The longtime reporter and columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel was found dead in his apartment on Thursday. City officials praised the former journalist for inspiring a generation of young, black media professionals — including this Guardian reporter. “He spoke for a community who wanted the world to know we don’t have to ask for permission to be black,” Ellis said. — The Guardian

In a message shared on Earth Day, which is to be observed today, António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, said; “We must act decisively to protect our planet from both the coronavirus and the existential threat of climate disruption.” Nature is suffering and various natural calamities are a proof of it. The Australian fires, heat records, the worst locust invasion in Kenya, as well as the ongoing worldwide health pandemic Covid-19 are linked to the health of our ecosystem. Climate change, man-made changes to nature as well as crimes that disrupt biodiversity, such as deforestation, land-use change, intensified agriculture and livestock production or the growing illegal wildlife trade, can increase contact and the transmission of infectious diseases from animals to humans (zoonotic diseases) like Covid-19. From one new infection disease that emerges in humans every 4 months, 75% of these emerging diseases come from animals, according to UN Environment. This shows the close relationships between human, animal and environmental health.  As this year’s Earth Day goes digital, the single most important event is telecasting of a documentary The Story of Plastic by Discovery Channel and by climate volunteers through different digital platforms. In Qatar, the Arab Youth Climate Movement (AYCM-Qatar) is all set to launch the documentary during Earth Day watch party. Neeshad Shafi, AYCM executive director, said: “With Covid-19 affecting all in-person gatherings, we have planned to host a virtual community screening of The Story Of Plastic. This model ensures the safety of our communities while providing shared viewing experiences to watch, discuss, and take action to end the plastic crisis. “To access the documentary, the enthusiasts need to get registered with AYCM via its Facebook page or e-mail. People have already been registering and we urge more people to get registered. All the registered people will receive a one-time link of the film that is one and a half hour long. Once the documentary is finished the link will not be used again. The online screening will start at 4pm and will end at 5:30pm.  Viewers can use the documentary link one time during the three hours period starting from 4pm. “Following the watch party, there will be an online question and answer session that will provide viewers a chance to discuss their experience and take action to end the plastic crisis. We will also have discussion of our Instagram account.” An official selection of Mill Valley Film Festival (Audience Award winner) and 2019 DOC NYC, The Story of Plastic looks at the man-made crisis of plastic pollution and the worldwide effect it has on the health of our planet and the people that inhabit it. Spanning three continents, the film illustrates the ongoing catastrophe: fields full of garbage, veritable mountains of trash; rivers and seas clogged with waste; and skies choked with the poisonous emissions from plastic production and processing. The film features interviews with experts and activists on the frontlines of the fight, revealing the disastrous consequences of the flood of plastic smothering ecosystems and poisoning communities around the world –and the global movement rising up in response. With original animation, archival industry footage starting in the 1930s and first-person accounts, the film distills a complex problem that is increasingly affecting the planet’s and its residents’ well-being. Neeshaed said: “The issues highlighted in The Story of Plastic illuminate how the decisions made locally can affect us globally. We are eager to highlight the solutions laid out in the film that will help make our world a cleaner and healthier place to live.” He added: “The film reveals how the plastics industry is simultaneously blaming wasteful consumers for plastic pollution and aggressively investing to produce more single-use plastic than ever before. Reclaiming the narrative, the film highlights that while cleanup is important to understanding the situation, the real solution lies in stopping the mass production of plastic in the first place.”  For registration [email protected] For post film discussion Instagram @AYCMQA

The phone rings every few hours. “Are you OK, my son? Are you wearing a mask? Please don’t go out. Please don’t touch anything.” From his home in Washington, DC, Haris Tarin, 41, does his best to answer his mother’s calls. These days, he knows how much it calms her to hear the voices of her children, spread across three states. “She’s been through so much, she’s constantly afraid of the worst happening, of losing everything,” Tarin said. “I understand her. I’ve inherited the same anxiety.” For families who have survived untold hardship — war, persecution, natural disasters — the coronavirus pandemic has provoked a mix of emotions and coping methods. There’s a lingering trauma, an instinct to protect your own, to focus on life’s most urgent needs. In some cases, the elders who lived through the worst of times, many of them immigrants, have become the greatest source of strength. Tarin’s mother, Latifa Tarin, doesn’t linger on lectures or advice. When she calls from Phoenix, she wants to know if her son, a senior policy adviser for the federal government, has enough money in his bank account. “I’m going to send you something,” she says. “You don’t need to,” Tarin tells her. “We’re OK.” Back in Afghanistan, when life was good, the mother of six used to manage every detail of her home while her diplomat husband travelled. After the Russians invaded in 1979, the Tarins, like millions of families, lost everything. Latifa forged ahead alone, smuggling three of her kids into Pakistan to reunite with her husband. For three weeks, the family rode at night on camel and donkey over rugged mountains as helicopters rumbled in the sky, threatening to bomb them. Tarin was 6 years old. He was so terrified, he’d sometimes vomit from the nerves. He’d watch in awe as his mother, barely 5 feet tall, would scold the gun-toting smugglers if they tried to cheat them out of food — all paid for in advance by Latifa. “If she needed to scream, she would scream at them,” he said. “She did everything to keep us safe.” Today, as the Covid-19 death toll swells by the day, it is Tarin and his siblings who do everything to protect Latifa. She lives in an apartment attached to her second eldest son’s home. She used to see several of her children and grandchildren daily. Now, she sees their faces only in photographs that decorate her walls. “Are things getting any better out there?” she often asks by phone. “No,” Tarin tells her. “People are still dying.” Recently, Latifa lost a family friend to the virus. She knows about 10 others who also got sick. Not long ago, she revealed to Tarin that his great-grandfather and great-uncle died in the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. “I could tell that in her mind she was still trying to piece it all together,” Tarin said. Many Afghans like to call themselves resilient, he said. They’re expected to be tough, to move forward. “But there’s trauma and pain that comes from going through so much.” Mariya Parodi, who lives in New York City, likes to search for meaning in her family’s history. One day, when she has children of her own, she wonders how she’ll explain this pandemic, along with all the other trials her kin have endured. Her great-grandmother, Etya, lost all 10 of her siblings during the Holocaust. Her grandmother, Fanya, survived the Siege of Leningrad. Her mother, Rimma, lived through the fall of the Soviet Union. At 9 years old, Parodi arrived in the US as a refugee, part of a new generation looking for a fresh start. Today, she’s 32 and lives in Queens, just 20 minutes from her mother and grandmother. “We talk every day and take care of each other,” said Parodi, who works for Amnesty International. When the outbreak began, she worried about her grandmother, who lives alone in her apartment. At 84, Fanya is a joyful woman, constantly focused on the positive. Still, those first few days on the phone, Parodi said there was a brief moment, when she could tell that her grandma was struggling to make sense of things. “How is it that I survived the war, but I’m still living through this now?” she told Parodi. “I thought the worst of my life was over.” During the Siege, about 80 years ago, Fanya’s family shared a small apartment with five other families. Food was scarce. Fires ignited by German bombs painted the sky an eternal pink. In the winter, the pipes froze and the families were forced to burn their furniture and books to keep warm. “There was always this constant fear,” Parodi said. A few days ago, the family faced another scare as Parodi’s mom, Rimma, began to experience Covid-19 symptoms. The secretary, who works at a health centre, had fatigue, chest pain and was struggling to breathe. When an ambulance rushed her to the emergency room, Parodi imagined the worst. She couldn’t bring herself to tell her grandma. “I worried how she might take it,” she said. But Fanya found out anyway. And when she did, Parodi was surprised by her response. “She was totally calm,” she said. “She told me we need to wait and that everything was going to be just fine.” The next day, they were relieved to hear that Rimma was released from the hospital. She was home resting and taking her medication. Hugo Torres has learned by now that life can change in just an instant. He was a boy, just 7, when Mexico City’s 1985 earthquake struck, killing an estimated 10,000 people and leaving tens of thousands injured or homeless. The morning of the magnitude-8 quake, Torres’ mother, Maria Luisa, was rushing to get the kids out the door for school. When the ground began to jolt, his mom and youngest sister were flung across the floor. “We were so shook up, terrified,” Torres said. Moments later, they learned they’d been fortunate. The city was devastated. Their little, brick house was nearly intact. But for the next five months, the family would go without electricity or running water. They struggled to find the most basic necessities. Maria Luisa had to stand in food lines for hours. She left her son in charge of his sisters, 5 and 3 years old. “Every time she left, it was turmoil for me,” said Torres, now 42 and living in Monrovia. “I thought the earth would fall apart and swallow her up.” Over time, the responsibility Maria Luisa placed on his her son’s shoulders influenced him in countless ways. It prepared him for the uncertainty of this pandemic. “This is the biggest thing we’ve faced since then,” said Torres, a Realtor. “But I know how to buckle down, how to tighten our belts and not add to the paranoia that’s out there.” His mother, now 63, still lives in that humble brick house in Mexico City. She moved back a few years ago to care for her own mother. She’s stocked her shelves with plenty of food to weather the outbreak. “She’s mighty and quite resourceful,” Torres said. “I know she’s going to be all right.” Yoshio Nakamura was in 11th grade when his family received notice that they had two weeks to abandon everything they knew. It was 1942, Pearl Harbour had just been attacked, and about 120,000 people of Japanese decent were stripped of their lands and incarcerated in desolate camps. “It was demoralising,” Nakamura, 94, said. “To be blamed for something you didn’t do, just because of how you look.” The retired college administrator has found himself reflecting a lot lately on everything his family endured as he hears news of Asians nationwide being harassed or shunned due to the virus pandemic. It’s hurtful to hear that Asians, yet again, are suffering consequences they do not deserve. Sheltered at home in Whittier, he sometimes feels as powerless today as he did the day the government forced his Japanese immigrant father to surrender his small El Monte farm and board a train with his children to a incarceration centre up north. Armed soldiers and century towers surrounded the premises. So did barbed wire. Ultimately, the family would spend several years in captivity. They were later relocated to a more deserted camp in Arizona. Looking to prove his allegiance to the US, Nakamura eventually volunteered to fight in World War II. He joined the 442nd Infantry Regiment, a unit composed almost entirely of second-generation American soldiers of Japanese ancestry. Many days were filled with dread, but Nakamura said he’s grateful for his experiences. Along the way, he said there were teachers, fellow soldiers and mentors who looked after him and inspired him. “You learn to have a little more compassion for others,” he said. “To appreciate all the things people are willing to do help you.” Today, when he feels overwhelmed by the death toll, the scarcity of hospital supplies and misinformation, he thinks of all the health workers risking their lives. He hopes that years from now, the world will remember them as heroes. — Los Angeles Times/TNS

Qatar is a place that has been nourishing the talents of young artists and giving recognition to the established ones. Expatriate artists not only get time to create art but also opportunities to showcase their works to the diverse audience and art enthusiasts. Jeff Mugagga Wamala is one such artist, who has started finding his feet here. He is a Ugandan artist, specialising in modern mosaic art. A member of MAPS International Qatar, a local based artists’ organisation, Jeff has already taken part in different group exhibitions winning praise for his unique canvas. Recently, the artist spoke with Community at length about his work and aspirations. How and when did you develop interest in painting? It was a long time ago. Growing up as a young boy, sketching images and objects came naturally and I was not that serious about being an artist at that time. I joined secondary school where Fine Arts was offered as a subject, optional though. As I was interested and loved drawing, I took the subject to study arts. I was a pretty good student and with the help of my elder brother, I slowly but surely improved as an artist. The help from my elder brother was really significant at that time. I continued to do art up to my advanced level. Unfortunately, I did not study fine arts while at university, where I diversified my studies and got a degree in human resource management. What kind of work and mediums do you use for your creative pieces? Being an African artist coming from Uganda, my raw materials have been dry banana fibre and traditional bark cloth that I use as my canvas. I am sure not too many even know what these materials are. Bark cloth is a subtle material from the bark of a fig tree and whereas the banana fibres are the dry leaves of a banana plant cut from its stem. Both of these materials are found in abundance in Uganda. They are of course, independently used for various other reasons but as an artist, I opted to use them as my raw materials to come up with whatever I feel like doing. How do you describe the art of painting?  I think art, whatever type it is, is an expression of an artist’s inner feeling; particularly when it comes to imaginative composition. I strongly believe that art is a passion and that all artists are passionate about what they do. There are always some art pieces that actually stimulate passion among those who take time and observe the creative pieces. How do you see the works of young artists? What piece of advice will you share with aspiring artists? Being a young artist myself, I do not deem it fit to kind of advise others. Every day presents us with an opportunity to learn something new or add to what we already know. Young or old, learning never ends. Every young person tries and commits something wrong. However, I believe there is no mistake in art and like they say, ‘in art every mistake is a design.’ My piece of advice to the young artists is to be persistent and never give up. The journey to success is never a simple cup of tea. It is full with lots of challenges, difficulties, and negatives to mention but a few. The secret is to hang in there and follow your heart, do not listen to too many people. What activities have you been doing in Qatar? How do you see the art scene in Qatar? To start with, I thank God that I have a job in Qatar. I work as a front desk clerk at Katara Hospitality in Lusail city. It is during my free time that I get to do some art. If I am not doing art, I am moving around Doha on the beautiful metro, checking out galleries. I love the museums. I have visited different souqs here in Doha. I am quite an adventurous person who loves seeing and getting to know new things whenever I get a chance. It is in the blood, a family thing. From the experience of visiting manifold exhibitions, galleries and souqs, I can say the people of Qatar have an obsession for art and culture but in a positive way. They believe in what is theirs, they love art. I admire how the Qatari culture is very much preserved for the greater good taking into account what modernity has and continues to do to the world. No wonder I read it somewhere that the most expensive art piece was bought by a Qatari, a sign of how much art is appreciated here in Qatar. How do you see life here in Qatar generally?  I have lived in Qatar for a little over 15 months now and I can say that living here is very cool. The people are very friendly, especially the locals that I have managed to interact with both at work and outside. My experience from working in the best hospitality company in the region speaks volumes in this regard. Furthermore, the cost of living here is not that high, especially if you are lucky to have a good job. For instance, being expatriates, we also save money aiming at supporting our families back home which is a good thing. It would not be out of context to mention harsh summers here. It is however, a normal thing to have here in the Gulf but ceteris paribus (a Latin phrase to denote that “all other things being equal), I would happily live here. What are your future plans regarding? I want to look at art as a career and pursue it. Having specialised in mosaic art using banana fibre and traditional bark cloth, I have decided to always use these as my raw materials to create art pieces. The fact that I am living here in Doha, I want all my pieces to have an attachment to Qatari culture. I have done a few so far but want to do more. I want the uniqueness of my artwork to appeal to the Qatari people as it reflects their culture here.  Through reading, visiting museums and galleries, going places, I am getting to learn more about the culture slowly but surely and will be coming up with different pieces here and there. For starters, I have already made portraits of some of the prominent figureheads here that I was fortunate to exhibit last year in the second edition of Qatar International Art Festival at Katara Cultural Village which is a yearly exhibition organised by my parent artists’ organisation — MAPS International. My goal is to leave a lasting legacy by creating art pieces that will spread happiness to those who will get the chance to look at them.

As the world observes social distancing, the beaches, parks and markets are almost deserted. The picture can be gloomy but there is a silver lining. It has reduced plastic pollution and littering to a noticeable degree. The times may be unusual but still people can do some usual and necessary things every day. The novel coronavirus outbreak has forced people to use more face masks and plastic gloves. If people are careful in disposing off these items, the impact can be far great. Excessive use of plastic and littering in the pubic and open places have been resulting in heaps of garbage in oceans and at beaches. There are different volunteering groups in Doha that carry out beach cleanups and raise awareness against littering. Doha Environmental Action Group (DEAP) is one of the largest community groups that has done over 150 cleanup drives. US national Jose Saucedo is an operations manager turned environmentalist. He holds a Master’s degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the Ohio State University and he is the director of DEAP, a volunteering group that is leading beach cleanup movement and fight against plastic pollution in Qatar. “DEAP has organised over 162 beach cleanups and has mobilised almost 10,000 volunteers, and have collected 106 tons of trash from the beaches, sand dunes, and heritage sites of Qatar. In addition to that, in an effort to raise awareness and to inspire students to take action, I spend a lot of my time in schools doing many presentations and workshops,” Saucedo said. Like other people the environmentalist stays at home and has put a stop at outdoor activities. “The outbreak forced us to stop all our cleanup activities and all of our school presentations, during what was on track to be the most active year for DEAP. So far I have spent a month staying at home, working from home, and helping my three kids with their schooling as their school continued online without any interruptions. We have been very responsible in observing social distance. It has not been easy, but we are doing our part. It is a small sacrifice for everyone’s sake in Qatar.” When asked if he thinks staying at home can help reduce littering and plastic pollution, Saucedo said: “Yes, staying at home, and the closure of beaches and parks, as well as the prohibition of social gatherings, should result in an overall reduction of littering and plastic pollution. However, that could give us a false sense of accomplishment. We may not be littering as much, but not because we are doing a better job properly disposing our waste. Instead, it is simply because we just don’t have as many opportunities to litter. Proof of that is the incredible amount of gloves and face-masks that can be found littering parking lots, grocery stores and other public areas in Qatar.  “We still have a lot of work to do to ensure that people are doing the right thing and properly disposing their waste. I am hopeful that this health crisis will enable us to further increase awareness. It will help people understand that the time to take action is here and now. All of our actions have a direct impact on the environment and on all of us. Small changes make a huge difference.” In response to the question that what steps people can take to reduce littering and avoid plastic as they stay at home, the volunteer said: “Start with the basics, put your trash in the bin. If you already do that, reduce your reliance on single use plastics to the extent that’s possible. Using a reusable water bottle is a great alternative vs buying multiple disposable water bottles every day. While staying at home people could always start recycling plastic and paper. You can do this for your apartment, villa, building, compound, office or neighbourhood. If your building, or office, or compound is not recycling, this could be a great project for you to lead during the next couple of weeks.  “We will make it through these difficult times. I have no doubt that people will continue to do what they can to #keepqatarclean. It takes all of us to make a difference. It is time to show Qatar and the environment some love.”

Olivia Labrador’s mind started racing last week after she received a call from her 89-year-old father’s nursing home, Garden Crest Rehabilitation Center in Silver Lake, informing her that a patient at the facility had tested positive for the coronavirus. “Oh my God,” Labrador thought, picturing patients she’d seen on breathing machines in the past. “What’s going to happen to all of them?” Labrador’s family considered their options. They could bring her father home, but they worried he might already have been exposed to the virus that causes Covid-19, which would put other vulnerable relatives at risk. As some experts advise pulling loved ones out of nursing homes to save them from the pandemic, Labrador and her family faced an awful dilemma, one that would have seemed unimaginable a month ago. But they are far from alone. Across the US, outbreaks are occurring in nursing homes at terrifying speed — leading administrators to ban visitors, confine patients to their rooms and scramble to create sterile wings to treat residents who come down with the disease. The stakes are literally life and death, since residents, who are elderly and almost always have underlying health problems, are among the most vulnerable to the lethal new pathogen. Hundreds of long-term care facilities in the US now have residents who are infected with the virus. Last Tuesday, health officials in Washington state alone reported 108 outbreaks at long-term care facilities. And at a single nursing home in Tennessee, more than 100 residents have tested positive. In Connecticut, state officials are re-opening previously closed facilities to create separate nursing homes only for residents who are positive for Covid-19 — like modern-day leper colonies. The “extreme precaution” is warranted, according to Connecticut officials, because the results can be catastrophic when the virus gets loose among such a vulnerable population. One of the first coronavirus hot spots in the US was at the Life Care Center nursing home in Kirkland, Washington, where two-thirds of the residents and 47 workers fell ill, and 37 people died. The worrisome national trend is picking up steam in Southern California, too. On Monday, Los Angeles County health officials announced that Garden Crest was among 11 area nursing homes with outbreaks, meaning three or more cases involving residents or staff had been confirmed at the facility. That was nearly quadruple the number of nursing-home outbreaks county officials had announced on March 27. The county’s Department of Public Health is also investigating reports of at least one suspected coronavirus infection at nine additional nursing homes. Of the county’s 54 deaths from coronavirus, at least six have been nursing-home residents. Debbie Alexander’s 74-year-old mother is at the Kensington in Redondo Beach, another of the LA County facilities battling an outbreak. When Alexander heard about the first case from administrators, she considered pulling her mom out, but there was nowhere available to move her that would necessarily be safer. Alexander, who is still going to work at a research laboratory at a San Diego hospital, worries she might infect her mother if they were living together. While she’s nervous, Alexander said, she’s satisfied with the measures administrators at the Kensington are taking to try to control the outbreak. They are not allowing visitors to enter, and residents are mostly confined to their rooms. Residents’ temperatures are taken twice per day. And administrators are sending a daily e-mail update. “Obviously, I’m worried about mom. She’s very high-risk. But I think they are doing everything they can,” Alexander said. Len Maisch, 84, said he moved into the Kensington about five weeks ago to care for his wife Joann, 71, who was diagnosed with a fatal and degenerative brain disease. They sold their Hermosa Beach home, a beloved place with citrus trees, when Joann could no longer use the stairs. “When you have someone you truly love, you try not to leave them in a facility alone,” Maisch said. “She’s a beautiful flower, and she’s wilting, and so all you can do is give her love. … I can’t love her enough. I can’t kiss her enough.” Now, with the coronavirus loose, the facility is essentially on lockdown, Maisch said. But he and his dog, Sophie, are still allowed to go outside to the courtyard. Every morning at 6, he takes the black-and-white spaniel for a walk, then comes in to read newspapers: The Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Boston Globe, among others. Maisch said some of the facility’s staff has left since the outbreak, which he understands. He has been told one person tested positive, and five others were removed over concerns related to the outbreak. But in general, he said, he feels safe. “I understand what’s going on, and I understand they are doing everything they can,” he said. “I feel comfortable that they’ve done a good job.” Officials at the Kensington declined to specify how many residents or staff have tested positive, or whether any residents have died of Covid-19. Families with loved ones in nursing homes should consider pulling them out if it’s at all feasible to care for them at home, said Charlene Harrington, professor emeritus at UC San Francisco’s School of Nursing. “The risk of exposure is so overwhelming,” said Harrington, who has studied nursing homes since the 1980s. “It’s a terrible concern.” Even before the recent outbreak, Harrington said, there were less-than-ideal conditions at many facilities across the state. Much of the work is done by certified nurse assistants, who have limited training in infection control and are paid minimum wage, she said. To make ends meet, workers often patch together shifts at two or three facilities and work even when they don’t feel well. “They don’t have sick leave; they don’t have health insurance,” she said. “They’re going to come to work.” Also concerning to nursing-home administrators and physicians is guidance from federal and some state regulators to accept new residents and those returning from hospitals without proof that they are virus-free. Hospitals in New York are so burdened for space that regulators there ordered nursing homes to take in discharged patients even if they are Covid-19 positive. Those nursing homes will “do their best, they’ll try to contain it, but people will run out of (protective equipment), caregivers will get sick, and people will die,” said David A Nace, clinical chief of geriatric medicine for the University of Pittsburgh Department of Medicine. “New York will have killed people. There’s no way to soften that statement. It’s such a vulnerable population.” Dr Michael Wasserman, a geriatrician for more than 30 years and president of the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine, is lobbying California regulators not to follow a similar policy. “If a hospital thinks they are going to save lives by sending a 90-year-old to a nursing home so they can get a 20-year-old on a ventilator, they’re right, they will save a life. But in three weeks they are going to get 30 patients back from the nursing home,” Wasserman said. Current guidance from the California Department of Public Health advises nursing homes to be prepared to accept patients with the coronavirus from hospitals and advises the homes to quarantine those patients and make sure staff members have access to protective equipment — which has been in short supply everywhere — and that they are trained in using it. Even with all the concerns, some of the most well-informed family members are making the hard choice to leave loved ones where they are, hoping to ride out the crisis. Peter Beilenson, the health director of Sacramento County, is among them. He said he believes most nursing homes in the state are doing all they can under dire circumstances. A few days ago, he went by his mother’s assisted-living facility but was unable to touch her. “I stood outside and delivered some packages to her and was not allowed in,” Beilenson said. “We came to the window and put our hands together.” In a press release on Tuesday, Paul Barron, administrator at Garden Crest, acknowledged that at least one resident had tested positive. He did not say how many others had. Labrador knows of at least two. After the first call last week to inform her family that a resident had tested positive, another call came a few days later with dreadful news: Her dad had tested positive too. She and her siblings can’t visit him anymore, and it’s difficult to communicate by phone, she said, because he has dementia. They manage to FaceTime with him every other day or so. “It’s terrible,” she said, adding that, so far, he hasn’t shown any symptoms. “What if he does get sicker? What are we going to do?” For now, she and her siblings are taking things one day at a time. They hope. They pray. And they imagine ways to get to their stricken father. “If I have to get a hazmat suit to see my dad,” Labrador said, “that’s what I’ll be doing.”  — Los Angeles Times/TNS

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only once.” These are the words American fantasy novelist George R R Martin shared in his piece A Dance with Dragons. The habit of reading has always been regarded as a very positive hobby. People try and inculcate reading habit among their kids. It is a very useful time-pass with a lot of learning. The social distancing phenomenon, triggered by the novel coronavirus pandemic around the globe, can serve as the best opportunity to either inculcate the reading habit or read the books you have long been waiting to go through. Kummam al-Maadeed is a young Qatari story-teller, specialising in English fantasy novels. The only female Qatari English fantasy writer holds a Master of Business Administration (2018) and a Bachelor of Public Relations and Advertising (2011) from Qatar University. Currently the head of media and publications at Qatar University, Kummam loves to create new worlds and new cultures. She dreams about new and different worlds and then creates new characters for her stories. She has constantly been learning about ancient cultures and civilisations. The writer has so far published three books in English and one of them has been translated into Arabic. These are unusual times as people are staying home most of the time and Kummam thinks it would be good for people to read fiction and spend quality time and be stress free. “Fiction helps us escape for a few hours to a different world and allows us to disconnect with our current worries. Being exposed to negative news 24/7 is draining, so reading can help reduce the anxiety of that exposure. It doesn’t even need to be just fiction. It can be any book with information and scenes that can take the reader’s mind off the current situation. When asked how she spends most of her time while being at home, the fantasy novelist said: “I am head of media and publication at Qatar University so I work remotely from home. Other than that, I try to focus on stress relieving activities like baking, puzzles, video games and watching shows. I also spend a lot of my time with my family. We try to play or cook together. I try to stay connected with my friends, like I have never called this many people in my life before. But staying connected with my friends and extended family helps me stay grounded and reduce the anxiety of these days. And of course reading fiction takes away the most of my free time at home.” The fiction and fantasy writer reiterate the significance of reading habit and not only keeps people busy but also eases the stress caused by the coronavirus outbreak and related social and economic complications. She said: “Reading can help ease anxiety due to the current situation. It can also stimulate the mind and keep it active while staying home, so I highly recommend it. When choosing a book, make sure it has a topic you like and if you start reading a book and feel you do not like it, it is okay to stop and find another book. Do not pressure yourself. Also, try audiobooks. They are the best to listen to while you work around in the house or when you are doing your puzzle. I know a lot of people are hesitant about audiobooks, but give them a chance. They are so fun and practical.”

As coronavirus sickens thousands in Illinois, several Chicago-area survivors shared the stories of their illness and recovery, describing how the highly contagious new virus has altered their lives as well as the world around them. Although their experiences and the severity of their symptoms vary, all of the recovering patients cautioned against minimising or underestimating the threat of the pandemic. “I hope this makes it more real and people take social distancing seriously,” said one recuperating patient. “Because you don’t want to have this.” Pregnant and praying Through sweat-soaked and feverish nights, the expectant mother would sing to her unborn baby. Katina Theodorou of southwest suburban Stickney was just past her first trimester when diagnosed with coronavirus in late March. “I literally felt like I would die,” she said. “I couldn’t breathe. I had shortness of breath. I would be sweating and have the chills and then I would be soaked; my clothes were like I had just come out of the shower.” She recalled fervently praying, unsure how the new virus might impact her pregnancy. She was constantly on guard for cramping or spotting. Her obstetrician called to check in daily — “because of the unknown,” she said. “There’s not a lot of documentation of pregnant women who have it.” After learning she had the virus, Theodorou isolated herself in her room at home, unable to hold her 20-month-old son until last Saturday. A 34-year-old respiratory therapist, she hasn’t gone back to work yet, feeling torn between the need to care for her patients and a desire to protect her family. Her expertise is in particularly high demand amid the outbreak, from managing ventilators and administering oxygen to assisting with intubating patients in respiratory distress. “There’s a mental challenge for me,” she said. “I want to be helping. But I’m also making a baby. And I have a child I have to take care of.” The job requires intimate proximity to the virus, and she suspects she contracted it while caring for a patient who later tested positive for Covid-19. “You’re at a huge risk being at the head of the bed,” she said. Theodorou said she always wore personal protective equipment — face masks, gloves — while treating patients, but had not been using the full protective gear recommended for people treating Covid-19 because it wasn’t known that her patient was infected. She recently watched a patient die of coronavirus. Next-of-kin weren’t permitted at the bedside for fear of contagion. “I saw a son and a daughter say goodbye to their mother from a hospital window,” she said. “They couldn’t let them in the room because she had Covid-19.” Yet Theodorou has also been struck by the profound sense of shared responsibility that’s emerged in combating the health crisis. “At least in my lifetime, this is the first time the whole world is experiencing the exact same thing,” she said. “The fear and the camaraderie — it’s almost like 9/11 was here — it’s a global thing now. And that’s astonishing.” Anxiety, guilt, fear Struggling to get some air in his lungs, lying in a hospital bed on a Covid-19 isolation unit, the young father confronted his own mortality. The oxygen saturation monitor dipped dangerously low. Each gasp of breath was immediately pushed out by a burning cough that wouldn’t relent. Michael Bane, 42, of west suburban Berwyn recalled fearing that these moments would be his last. “I felt like I had no air,” he said, his words interspersed by a dry, racking cough. “I don’t know what drowning is like, but I imagine it’s something like this — just a struggle to breathe. I mean, the air is right there.” After 10 days at Rush University Medical Center, Bane returned home at the end of March and is slowly recuperating. Yet the emotional scars of Covid-19 linger. He worries that he might infect his loved ones as he continues to shed the virus. He’s unsure whether that angst will subside even after he’s no longer contagious. Self-isolated in his basement, he hears the voices and movements of his wife and 2-year-old daughter upstairs but sees them only on a screen, through FaceTime. It has been three weeks since he has been able to touch the people he loves most. “There was always this sense of guilt that I could put them in some sort of danger,” he said. “I don’t know if I can mentally handle if my wife or my child, or any close family member or friend, were to become sick … knowing what I went through and how bad this is.” Coming out of isolation might be scarier than the peak of the illness, he said. “You want to be around people, but you feel like you might kill them,” he said. “I don’t know how else to say it. The thought of coming into proximity with anyone … there’s that anxiety, guilt.” He stressed that he was generally healthy, not in any of the classic risk groups identified by the medical experts. “I’m not an elderly person, I’m not immunocompromised,” he said. “It’s so scary. Especially when you think it’s not going to be you.” Hoping for a treatment His symptoms were consistent with Covid-19, and he had likely been exposed to other people who had tested positive. Stuart Nissenbaum, 28, of north suburban Long Grove was approved in mid-March to be tested for the new virus, meeting strict screening guidelines implemented due to a shortage of test kits across the country. A bit delirious with fever, he drove himself on March 18 to a drive-thru coronavirus screening site at a north suburban hospital. That testing station would suspend operations two days later, citing a national dearth of testing supplies. Then Nissenbaum faced a lengthy wait for results: It took 11 days before he received a phone alert that he was Covid-19 positive. Many patients locally and across the country have described similar delays, as overwhelmed labs face a backlog of tests. While awaiting results, Nissenbaum quarantined himself in part to avoid infecting his parents who live in the same home. He wonders, though, if everyone acts the same way before getting a definitive diagnosis. “I was certainly anxious and frustrated,” he said. “I did not think it was going to take that long at all. I understand just how bombarded the medical system has been with the whole Covid-19 outbreak.” While he said he has great faith in physicians and nurses, Nissenbaum said he’s always had trepidation about barriers to health care in the United States. “People not having access is an issue,” he said. “I am a proponent of universal health care and making sure everyone has access to it. I think (the pandemic) certainly has exposed the problem.” While enduring the disease was gruelling, Nissenbaum believes something positive might emerge from his infection. He’s eager to donate convalescent plasma, hoping that infusions of his blood — and the immunity it’s suspected to provide — might help others fight Covid-19. The Food and Drug Administration last week announced a national study allowing hospitals to offer experimental plasma therapy and track outcomes. “I’m obviously lucky to have had as relatively mild symptoms as I’ve had,” Nissenbaum said. “Now I can use it for good. … I just want to contribute what I can to society.” Looking forward The first signs of illness mirrored a sinus infection, with debilitating muscle aches. The painful, vicious cough didn’t come until later. Under different circumstances, Mic Reich of Chicago’s Rogers Park neighbourhood doesn’t know if she would have sought coronavirus testing in early March. But the 36-year-old tends to pay close attention to her body after years of managing ulcerative colitis, an autoimmune disease that put her in a higher risk category for Covid-19. She was taken aback by how quickly the virus became debilitating, and she was hospitalised for a night while medical providers monitored her condition. “The best way I can describe it is it’s like wearing a corset that’s too tight, while walking through the polar vortex,” she said. Reich is now on the mend, though her stamina hasn’t fully returned. The nonprofit consultant has begun working again, marvelling at how quickly much of the nation has acclimated to telecommuting and performing tasks remotely — the kind of job accommodations long championed by many people with disabilities or medical concerns. She hopes these work from home adaptations will persist beyond the pandemic. “I’m hoping we as a society can go forward with this change,” she said. “Hopefully, the revolution has started.” Reich lives alone and is used to caring for herself, yet was touched by how many friends and loved ones went out of their way to help her through the illness. Groceries were brought to her door. Phone calls cut through the loneliness of isolation. A friend even risked exposure by driving her home from the hospital. Once fully recovered, Reich said she intends to pay forward these acts of kindness. Since medical experts think that people already infected will have immunity to coronavirus, she anticipates caring for others who are sick or volunteering at a food bank — the kind of in-person support few others can provide. “I am very much looking forward to when I have more energy, being the person who is out and about,” she said. New perspective The mother of three felt scared and alone as she was taken by ambulance to an Evanston hospital last month. Her husband and children were barred from riding along to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Terri Chaseley, 45, of north suburban Highland Park recalled that the negative-pressure isolation unit was a little eerie. Medical providers would scrub down and don full protective equipment in a decontamination area before entering. Nurses would call first to see if she needed anything, to avoid unnecessary trips that waste limited protective gear. “I would say it was life-altering,” she said. “I was very concerned that I was never going to see my family again. I at one point told my husband to make sure the will was up to date. That was how sick I felt.” She worries about medical providers — particularly those who risked exposure to treat her — amid reports of strained hospital resources such as ventilators, beds and protective equipment. “When they would come in my room, I felt extreme guilt and disbelief,” she said. “They knew that I had a disease that could potentially be fatal to them. And they were still coming in my room and treating me, and I’m so grateful.” After weeks of isolation, Chaseley said she’s excited to be reunited with her husband and children. One upside of social distancing guidelines and school closures is a slower lifestyle, she said, leaving more time to spend with family. “Everyone is having more time to relax and enjoy each other’s company,” she said. “All five of us are having dinner together; we’re eating every meal together. It’s heartwarming. It feels right.” Priorities have changed, she said. While she knows typical routines will return once the outbreak subsides, she doesn’t want to fully reintroduce the packed schedules and back-to-back school activities of the past. “I’m not sure I want to go back to that,” she said. “I think it’s put into perspective family time and what’s important. That’s one of the silver linings; that’s where the perspective shifts.” — Chicago Tribune/TNS

ABCmatrix is a cross functional social media platform which connects teachers and students from any part of the world to be a part of its learning management platform. The digital platform operates from Qatar. Karthik Govin, Indian expatriate and founder of ABCmatrix, is an electronics and communication engineer by profession. He has a vision to use digital technology in a way to make learning fun for kids. He recently spoke to Community on his concept at length. Please run us through your journey briefly for the benefit of our readers. I was born and brought up in Thanjavur, delta region of Tamil Nadu, India. The combined lifestyle of rural and urban environment made me bridge the gap between two extreme lifestyles of smart work and hard work. I am proud to say that I studied in the first English medium school established in year 1784 by the British government in our region. Later, I studied electronics and communication engineering, and with work experience in Indian’s leading telecom companies landed in Qatar for the first ‘Fiber to the Home’ project. My experience in Qatar National Broadband Network helped me understand the Qatari government’s vision in setting up a top class fiber optic communication network.  When and why did you discontinue your career as communication engineer? When I was working for Lusail Smart City project as smart applications solution architect, I got hands-on experience in implementing cutting edge technology for the first time by integrating multiple technologies for such a large project in Qatar. As a communication engineer, I easily visualised the power of connected community and positive and negative impacts on the society. I was excited to see the kind of smart applications that are going to hit the market which will change the way we live. I wanted to make an impact beyond technology in any one particular domain of it. I understand the simple fact that education sector is going to change a lot by accommodating technology changes either organically or forcefully. Instead of just watching the change, I want to be the change and lead the migration of education using modern technologies. In January 2018, I completely moved my career path from being an engineer to be a promoter of modern connected education platform. What has made you start ABCmatrix? In the era of information influx, knowledge is nothing but knowing the truth in any form. Google, Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp give lots of information for free. Though the smartphone in your hand brings in the latest information on the go, you feel a sense of truth while you read the same message in a printed paper. The touch and feel is not only for the materials we buy but for the information that we consume in any format. Print media is the only format which you can connect with the content at your own pace whereas with the smartphones, you have to move along with the speed of the content delivery — for both audio or video messages — to have better understanding of the content. Where telephone numbers and e-mail addresses are the two unique identities which the majority of individuals use to move information from one person to other person, ABCmatrix uses the connection link between the source and destination for moving the information. The important reason to start ABCmatrix is to compensate for the revenue loss in using telecom infrastructure by disruptive technologies like Messenger and WhatsApp in international phone calling.  Hailing from the telecom industry and having shifted to education industry, I wanted to start a learning management platform where people come together and share their knowledge for financial benefit. This surely makes a new revenue model for telecom industry by having value added communication across the industries like education, employment and entertainment.  Having exposed to new technologies like Big Data, Block Chain, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and Robotics, my vision is to be an enabler of a knowledge-based economy. The name ABCmatrix is because of the trusted connection (C) it makes between source (A) and destination (B) across multiple social media networks. How would you briefly define ABCmatrix for the readers? ABCmatrix is a cross functional social media platform which connects teachers and students from any part of the world to be a part of its learning management platform. As we have smart classes and modern technologies to teach students, the reading habit is diminishing due to the attraction in smart devices. The objective of ABCmatrix is to reach people who don’t have smartphone and Internet and make a level playing field between those with technology and without. ABCmatrix has the scale to find how quickly a student can understand new concepts and how fast s/he can explain the concept to others. ABCmatrix is taking latest cutting edge technologies to the students and inspiring them to learn the art, culture and heritage of human civilisation. Thus ABCmatrix is compensating for the damage it causes to human values and interaction by introducing machine in almost all walks of the life cycle. What makes learning fun?  Human brain always tries to explore things on its own as part of its learning and evolution. When there is fun added to the learning part of a team, their achievement soars. If there is a scientific comparison between learning and teaching, the art of learning will be given more value than the concept of teaching. If the concept of teaching has to be justified, all the students, who are under common teaching environment, have to perform the same. However, the performance varies. This is due to the fact of difference in everyone’s learning curve. With the ABCmatrix-guided learning management platform, the art of learning is given more importance. The art of learning in a group by sharing knowledge makes ABCmatrix a unique programme of the era. As we are seeing intelligent machines being introduced in day-to-day life, human interaction level is going down which needs an element of fun in learning new things from everyone. What are you plans in future? Do you have some specific projects? Like how the whole world is waiting for FIFA 2022 in Qatar, a team of professionals and entrepreneurs in Qatar is waiting for ABCMatrix 2020, a game for knowledge-based economy. The world is going to witness for the first time, remote teams on social media are going to face each other for a common goal. To promote the spirit of sports in advance technology learning, we are going to conduct knowledge game connected to their education like Robo Football.  To begin with, we are setting up 10 locations in Qatar like Al Khor, Dukhan, Najma, Abu Hamour, Al Hilal, Al Rayyan, Al Dafna, Al Gharaffa, Al Mamoura, Al Wakrah. Students can learn how to make Robo play football and form team in their native country name to participate in the game. Since Qatar is a hub of sports, rest assured that the knowledge game of this type will get more fan followers all over the world. Following knowledge game will inspire them to build technology to win the game. Do you think that living in Qatar has helped you forward your novel ideas? Of course, the idea of ABCmatrix is gaining an international foothold by conducting online knowledge game in different countries. We are currently present in India, Sri Lanka, UK, Malaysia and Nepal. As Qatar is the second home of many expatriates, connecting with ABCmatrix and their near and dear ones back in the mother country inspires to connect more countries from Qatar. Our objective is to conduct international online knowledge games especially using advance technology from Qatar and to keep up the leading position of introducing latest technology to all.

Abrupt changes in routines, loss of connections with teachers and friends, unexpected school closures, and the possibility of contracting the virus — all of these factors can heighten the anxiety level of children with Autism amid the global coronavirus pandemic.  According to Dr Christina Lee Roberts, the School Psychologist at Renad Academy — a specialised school for children diagnosed with autism, under Qatar Foundation’s Pre-University Education — children with Autism and their families require supportive strategies to cope with this uncertain time.  “Children with autism may face additional challenges, including difficulty understanding what is happening, inability to express their anxiety, and the need to have a constant routine, all of which may exacerbate their anxiety during this stressful period,” she explained.  “This is why parents are encouraged to use supportive strategies that they have adopted in the past to build and sustain their child’s emotional health and well-being.” According to Dr Roberts: “Keeping routines in place is vital, as children with autism thrive in a structured environment. “Parents may want to ensure their child gets up, eats, and goes to bed at a specified time. They can be adopt similar routines to those the child has established at school — for example, different school tasks and preferred activities can be interspersed between, which, in turn, allows each activity to be carried out at a predictable time.  “Having a routine is also beneficial as it allows your child to know when a task begins and ends, which is likely to reduce concerns relating to transitioning. A consistent routine also provides the student with a clear expectation of what is required from them.” Another way to assist students in adapting and adjusting to the current situation is creativity. “Parents may want to consider incorporating students’ daily routine as part of family time together,” said Dr Roberts, “including completing a craft activity, making a simple pizza, doing yoga, camping together in the garden or having a family game in the evening. “Such activities can promote family bonding and create a sense of positive connectivity, which, in turn, contributes to keeping everyone’s emotional well-being and health. Simple exercise such as jumping on a trampoline, for example, allows children to burn off energy and make sure that everyone stays active.” Dr Roberts emphasised the importance of children with Autism staying virtually connected with their teachers throughout school closures. “Parents should support their child to keep in touch with his or her teacher,” she said. “There are several free apps that parents can download, including ClassDojo, Zoom, and Facetime, to support their child in staying connected with their teachers, school friends, and extended family members such as cousins and grandparents. “Young children with Autism might seem oblivious to the current situation, but they may still feel unsettled by the changes in routine and able to sense that people around them are upset and worried. Parents are encouraged to provide a simple and clear explanation of why they need to stay at home. It is also important that parents of children with autism check on them and provide them with the opportunity to process any concerns they may be having.”   During this uncertain and stressful time, Dr Roberts says children with Autism may display a greater level of outbursts, non-compliance, aggression, and other inappropriate behaviour due to abrupt changes to daily life.  “Parents can support their children by responding in a calm, consistent and comforting manner to reduce their stress and anxiety,” she said. “They also need to watch out for other changes, such as in eating or sleeping patterns, as this may be an indicator that their child needs additional support to cope with the situation.  “It’s of the utmost importance that children with autism are allowed to be part of decision-making within the family where possible, and have the chance to process and express their emotions in this uncertain period.” Dr Roberts also says there are many websites developed specifically to support children with Autism in understanding Covid-19. For example, online resources — such as social stories that parents can read to their children — can be found at   https://nationalautismassociation.org/covid-19-resources-for-families/

Before dawn, bags of groceries ordered online are plopped at my front door by deliverymen (-women?) whose faces I’ll never see. I summon taxis on my smartphone, rendering unnecessary even the brief conversation to give the driver my destination or discuss an optimal route. All manners of food — from steaming stews to sushi to the seemingly most ephemeral of dishes, shaved ice — can be ordered for delivery within the hour. If I so choose, I can avoid even a split-second of face time by requesting, in an app, that the food be left outside my door. In Seoul, one of the most densely packed metropolises in the world, I can glide through a day dining out, shopping and even singing karaoke on my own without ever interfacing with another human. My world is one of apps, tablets and self-service screens. It’s almost as if the city was girding itself for this moment in history, when each and every face-to-face interaction has come to feel like a game of Russian roulette. Long before the virus’s arrival, social distancing was becoming a way of life in my native South Korea, as it was around a globe increasingly accustomed to same-day shipping, on-demand service apps and more streamed entertainment than one could watch in a lifetime. The precision and convenience of drop-down menus and electronic payments has taken the place of in-person transactions; the allure of algorithm-optimised content and infinitely replenishing social media has come to trump the less sure bet of flesh-and-blood company. The coronavirus, in forcing a swath of humanity to shelter in place for weeks on end, may very well accelerate that digital sequestration and seal us more deeply in the glow of our screen-enabled confines. It’s a grand social experiment of an unprecedented scale. When we emerge from weeks or months of distancing from one another, will we crave and relish human contact, or realise how comfortably we can live without it? What will that do to us? “I think this will become the new normal,” said Koo Bon-kwon, a South Korean columnist and author who writes about how technology has changed human lives. “A chunk of our society will experience this for the first time and realise, there isn’t a whole lot of difference to workflow, productivity and performance.” It’s long been the paradox of urban living that the closer we’re packed together, the more anonymous and alienated we become. The novel coronavirus has added to even the most fleeting of interactions a sense of peril, changing the risk-benefit calculus of the minute, mundane human encounters that thread our daily lives. Will that exchange with the store clerk, that brush on the subway, that elevator ride be the fateful moment the invisible virus makes its entry? The shelter-in-place and 6-feet social-distancing measures unfolding across the US have left many anxious about the indefinite period of isolation ahead. News reports are asking everyone from astronauts to inmates in long-term solitary confinement for tips on how to persevere. But nestled in front of our TV screens and scrolling through our smartphones, weren’t we increasingly living that way already? Isolation has for years been both a cultural trend and marketing buzzword in South Korea and elsewhere in East Asia. The once-robust family ties in these societies are fraying. Rapid urbanisation and cut-throat economic competition have left a generation fatigued by interacting with fellow denizens. In Japan, “low-interaction dining” for lone diners, facilitated by automated ticketing machines and cubicle-like partitions, had long since become a fixture of city life. In China, consultants in recent years published reports on the Economy of Loneliness, extolling business opportunities to cater to a generation more comfortable spending time alone than in the company of others. In South Korea, increasing numbers of young adults had been self-identifying as “honjok” — loosely translated to “tribe of loners,” people who prefer solitude. Businesses realised more and more people preferred services devoid of human contact, and would even pay a premium for it. They began offering up what’s come to be known here as “untact” services, a neologism combining “undo” and “contact,” popularising self-service auto financing, coffee served up by robot-arm baristas and unmanned, self-pay karaoke stalls. In the US and Europe, there’s been increasing alarm about the health consequences of loneliness, researchers calling loneliness itself an “epidemic.” But in Asia, time alone for some has come to be celebrated and cherished as a revolt against a collectivist tradition and something of a liberation for a generation of young adults. Jeong Dan-bi, 31, runs a startup providing information and services for the honjok — such as cocktail recipes to make at home, and where to get shabu shabu (Japanese nabemono hotpot dish of thinly sliced meat and vegetables boiled in water and served with dipping sauces) for one. She said the “loner” phenomenon was about prioritising one’s own time and preference in defiance of a rigid corporate and working culture that limits individual expression. “We were probably able to accept (social distancing) more easily because that culture was already spreading, especially among millennials,” said Jeong, 31, chief executive of the company King of Honjok. Since the coronavirus outbreak, there’s been a twofold surge in sign-ups for her app, Jeong said. She noted in South Korea, there had been negative views of the trend from the older generation casting it as youthful selfishness, but that may shift with the coronavirus outbreak. “A monumental event like this will really change people’s perceptions,” she said. “People across generations were forced to experience it. There are going to be people who think, now that I’ve tried it out, I like it.” Despite an early surge of coronavirus infections in February — with the largest number of infected outside China at one point — South Korea never imposed mandatory business closures or large-scale quarantines. Instead it urged citizens to voluntarily socially distance for two weeks. Combined with extensive contact tracing and widespread testing, the approach appeared to stabilise the community spread, the number of new infections levelling off in recent weeks. A newspaper op-ed last week credited South Korea’s legions of deliverymen and -women as the unsung heroes who had allowed life in the country to largely go on even as cities elsewhere went on lockdown. Amid a surge in orders, a deliveryman in his 40s with a heart condition collapsed and died on the job in the early hours of March 12. “It is not an exaggeration to say, doctors are on the front lines fighting the coronavirus and protecting our lives, while in the rear, deliverymen are protecting people struggling to keep their distance from the virus,” an op-ed in the Joongang Ilbo newspaper said. While the possibility of a second wave of cases from travellers and students returning from abroad still remains, Seoul is in a thaw. In time for the spring bloom, Jeong’s office reopened after about two weeks of telecommuting. Koo, the columnist, who writes for the Hankyoreh newspaper, has begun setting up the occasional lunch appointment after about a month of little contact with anyone outside his immediate family. “The world has changed. It could easily have been very depressing and anxiety-inducing, but even in self-quarantine we were connected through the mobile web,” said Koo, who is 54 and identifies as a product of a pre-digital world. “We were cut off but not cut off at the same time, connected all the more intimately.” Koo, though, said he believed there were things that would never be replaced with an app or a screen. “There is an emptiness that comes from not being able to see someone’s facial expression, feel their warmth and share a moment of kinship,” he said.                  — Los Angeles Times/TNS