Coronavirus Stories - Reaching Out From Isolation

 Edited BY G P Kennedy Simon - Perth, Western Australia Hi everyone, I hope you are all safe and well.    It’s approaching the end of winter here in Australia and where we live it’s been a pretty cold one. As usual we are all reading about our shock weather events, everything from rampaging bushfires in summer to floods, droughts, storms, snow, cyclones and about everything in between.    This year it’s obviously a bit different as we are all reading about and dealing with this pandemic. As I mentioned last time it is still a case of ‘them’ and ‘us’. Most states and territories have an absolute minimal or no new cases daily. We are still not at our Phase 5 reopening here in WA but that is because of the situation over East.    New South Wales are getting a fair few cases every day but the main event is happening in Victoria, specifically Melbourne. A couple of months ago they, like us, were cruising along thinking how well we were all managing and then...

Edited BY G P Kennedy   Sally...,and the baby - London, UK  02:05am  Good morning…. the baby, as usual, has woken up for a bottle of milk.  She is still in our room, before Covid 19 hit we found black mold in the nursery and the landlord wouldn’t sort it out. Then we went into full lockdown and for a few months people could not come into your house to do work, so to cut a long story short the baby is still in with us at 15 months old!  She is not the best sleeper and wakes 2-3 times a night, so we haven’t had a full night’s sleep in forever. She wouldn’t settle after the bottle and nappy change so came into bed with us.   06:25am  The baby is awake again which means we all are.  After 6 o’clock is good as she is usually ready to get up for the day between 5am and 5.30am.  We have a small Android tablet, which we will put CBeebies on just so we can get 30 minutes more sleep usually. The baby's room 07:00am  The baby and I are up for break...

Edited BY G P Kennedy Sally - London, UK  This week has really, really gone slowly for me, but the world seems to be moving faster and faster.  Non-essential shops have started to re-open which means the roads and pavements are busier which people taking more risk and not observing the 2-meter (6 feet) rule.  Some of my friends have started to go back to work, which is great for them I guess; hopefully their employers have made it a safe environment.     Football (soccer) has started again, with no fans allowed in the ground, but the risk level hasn’t gone down!!  My colleagues who film the matches say its very surreal to be there when you can actually hear what the players and managers are shouting to each other instead of the deafening cheers are 50,000 fans.    Mané and Salah - two key players for Liverpool FC  Liverpool FC won the Premier League, which is brilliant as the last time they won it was 30 years ago. Unfortunately it broug...

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...