Coronavirus Stories - Reaching Out From Isolation

Edited BY G P Kennedy Peace - Lagos, Nigeria  HUMANITY NEEDS A LARGE DOSE OF LOVE  As numbers reached 20,000 and Lagos state having more than 9,000 of the COVID-19 patients the Government this week started enforcing the use of Masks in public spaces and face shields to try to flatten the Curve many people don’t understand that COVID-19 is increasing in our communities as local transmission rates are at 50%.    The Black lives matter BLM around the world continued to make a point of asking Governments to realize that all humans are equal. The world over color, religion and tribe are issues. Tribalism is a big issue in my country Nigeria as well, Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa being the predominant tribes have deep issues amongst themselves.    The world needs a load of love, the whole world is at war with itself, the lockdown brought out a lot of pent up anger triggered by the killing of George Floyd and that seemed to spark the anger that many people had decided it wa...

Edited BY G P Kennedy   Ellie - Milan, Italy 1. Photo by Angelo Amboldi  Just like many other social waves, Italy is now also swept by the protests and debates on racism that started in the United States over the past month. At first, events and public discussions were simply meant to show solidarity with Black Lives Matter. However, very quickly the attention shifted to racism in Italian society itself, which has seen its significant share of violence and injustice. Racism here often is seen through the lens of the refugee crisis and so it can be masked as some other kind of social tension. However, let it not be mistaken: it is racism.     One of the focal points in which this has been manifested is the figure of Indro Montanelli, an influential journalist active between 1930-2000 and the subject of the monument in the photo above, placed in the public park in Milan also named after him. Montanelli volunteered as a conscript for Mussolini's colonizing campaign...

Edited BY G P Kennedy Ian and Minako - Tokyo, Japan  The tragic event of George Floyd’s death has raised awareness about the BLM movement and institutional racism in the U.S. more than ever before in Japan.    This has left us upset and angry about what happened and that urged us to learn about the historical/social background and the reality. Tokyo police beat a Kurdish man during a traffic stop  Five days later, there was news about a Kurdish man who was held down and brutally treated by a police officer after he refused a police search of his car in downtown Tokyo.    This case has brought home, for many people, that racial injustice is not irrelevant to Japan, and that triggered a call for change. Peaceful demonstrations and marches took place in major cities in Japan in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and protest against racism.    In Tokyo 3,500 people joined the march and in Osaka and Kyoto 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silenc...

Edited BY G P Kennedy Simon...somewhere in Western Australia  This is a photo of me at work the other day.    It looks like I might be in disguise but actually I’m just protecting myself from sun, dust and flies.    Still, it’s pretty difficult to see anything about me and therefore to make any assumptions or kick start any racial or other prejudices.    As soon as I take of my hat, my sunglasses, my head sock there I am for all to see.    Truth is I am 51, white, bit scruffy looking and basically an average looking male for where I live, Australia.    However, there are a people who were here way before Captain Cook and the others. And I can I assure you that if I was an Aboriginal male of the same age many people in this country would have a very different, instantaneous opinion about me.    I’m sure it’s the same in North America with the Native Americans and in South America with the indigenous tribes. All this hate, a...

Edited BY G P Kennedy Gul - Istanbul, Turkey THE OTHERS  My country, Turkey is a center of double standards and a deep well of the ‘others’. I’m ashamed of it. Nationalism has been the most influential trend in political discussions in this land for some time and nationalism exist in varying tones that is almost untouchable political trend.    Who’s a Turk? It’s complicated issue. There’s always ‘us’ and ‘others’ for racist Turks and they are many. The ‘other’ one, could be an Armenian one day, a Kurd another day, or an Alevi (the minority religious group) or may be a Syrian immigrant. Kurds and LGBT members are always others. I refuse all these discriminations.    ‘I was called a Georgian. I apologize fort this; but they even said something worse: they called me an Armenian. But I’m Turk. These words were Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s during an interview with a Tv channel, NTV. I have nothing left to tell you.   OUR BLACKS  The Kurds are the blacks of this c...