Canada in pandemic

The fake news, which, thanks to the monopoly and servitude of many journalistic media, circulates faster than the correct information, promoted by the networks, where armies of trolls, haters, conspiracy, pseudoscientists and postmodern prophets are assembled. In this way they condition a huge proportion of society, which in good faith shares this reality created by puppets disguised as communicators. – E. J. Derlindati


Canada in pandemic
By Nora Fernández, Mario R. Fernández:
The emergence of the corona virus (COVID-19) that shows us vulnerable can be seen from several perspectives. It is obvious that the West until late did not understand the virus as its own concern or with the potential to spread outside of China.

While the virus attacks China the West takes it even as a joke, a little more than a cold, a flu like so many, nothing serious. China was incapable and the virus was its problem, some comments pointed to the almost positive possibility that this virus would end with the Asian giant - to which the West attributes its intentions to dominate the world. Until the first weeks of February 2020, the press and the government in Canada understood the virus as the rest, connected to the Chinese open markets for food sales and a general lack of hygiene. For the West, there was a great distance between "them," China, and us. Chinese measures to control the level of contagion were viewed with suspicion and even contempt, there was much talk of Chinese "authoritarianism". For the West, the virus in China was similar to the uprisings in Hong Kong, that violent and destructive were understood here as "liberators". In the eyes of the West, both phenomena reflected the same problem: lack of "freedom and democracy." Some thought, surely, about the benefits for the West implied by a breakdown of the Asian power. Proving once again that we cannot see in the other more than what we ourselves are and think. Canada was no exception, it could not imagine, although it was obvious, that COVID-19 could be a pandemic, come to test us and charge us a price.

Xenophobia

Xenophobia, fear or hatred of the other, has played a role in this pandemic as in other events of the past two years. In Canada xenophobia is neither new nor limited to Asia, but history bears witness that Chinese slaves helped build the railroad in the Rockies in the 19th century and that racism and discrimination are not over. Racism and discrimination have been legally challenged since the last quarter of the 20th century and after the adoption in 1971 of a multicultural policy in the framework of two official languages. This multicultural policy has evolved and has been extended to the human rights framework, transforming the law and prohibiting racist and discriminatory language and action. But all that has not prevented xenophobia from re-emerging, and in more than one case, but particularly and without apology with the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the Vancouver airport in December 2018 (1).

Meng Wanzhou's arrest continues to be a questionable response by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Canadian government to a dubious US-initiated extradition request that Washington released only subsequently, and on alleged conspiracy charges. Meng, after a million dollar bail, awaits the resolution of his case at home with an electronic box at his ankle. In the prevailing xenophobic climate, his extradition to the United States would be a crime. The treatment of Meng is surprising: no rich man in Canada, or in the world, has been troubled for having money. On the contrary, the press everywhere favors even the most detestable wealthy. It is difficult to see in Meng the villain that the press describes, and not a corporate executive like others. Canada, an accomplice, looks weak, compromised, going above its own laws. The political and racist nature of this arrest is so obvious that it shows a plan with a Washington flavor, and a western client-partner network and even in part subordinate, but nothing innocent. The Meng saga continues, while it becomes obvious that we are holding it hostage to force China's hand, and more wealthy Chinese begin to understand, even against their will, the disgraceful role that our government plays, in which it has complicated us. to all. China becomes a new enemy from a partner in the West, and although its problematic "communism" is openly spoken of, its successful "capitalism" is in fact the biggest problem.

Pandemic stories.

 As soon as the virus receives a name and is no longer alien, the few initial cases multiply by adding deaths. The Canadian authorities, without a plan to face the pandemic, and the press that had more or less made fun of the Chinese response, had to prove themselves, and do so with a lack of masks, gloves, equipment and hospital beds, in addition to worrying to "save" the economy. Despite the fact that the Canadian health system is public and universal, budget cuts and lack of pandemic preparedness make it vulnerable. The population surprised by the level of infections and deaths applies the measures proposed by the federal government. Disinformation about COVID-19 played a role and the last pandemic experience in the West was the Spanish flu, in the early 20th century, which was terrible. The West, which expects miracles from technology, confuses advances in celluloid and "online" with reality. Authorities who had believed themselves invulnerable have to accept their vulnerability. Pharmacies had no masks or protective gloves, Canada had stopped producing personal protective equipment with the "free trade" agreement signed in the 1980s that disappeared these industries. Canada even buys equipment for health personnel from the United States, but when ordering equipment necessary to deal with the pandemic, the United States responds that it is a priority to have equipment first for the United States, proving to us that it is not good to depend on another in cases of emergency.

The federal government was slow to implement appropriate measures, for example it did not close its borders with the United States although it knew that they were the reason for contagion that, ironically, these were closed by order of the government of President Trump. From the moment the federal government recognizes the emergency, however, it implements appropriate measures. But Canada has federal, provincial and municipal governments, not always in harmony. US policy impacts Canada a lot and from the beginning of the pandemic, the Trump administration, and Trump himself, deny their seriousness. Trumpism is a live animal in Canada, especially in Alberta and Quebec, as this pandemic has shown, where the irrational extreme right wing gets its voice out. Alberta holds the dubious notoriety of having the most polluted workplace in the country, at the Cargill meatpacking stations in High River (with 821 infected and 1 dead) and JBS in Brooks (with 276 infected and 1 dead) totaling 21 per percent of the total cases in the province (1,099 of 5,165). Thomas Hesse, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (local 401), denounced the danger of reopening these plants but could not prevent Deena Hinshaw (Alberta Health Services) and the Minister of Labor from reopening them. Both plants export meat to the US and employ numerous visible minority member workers. The Quebec provincial government, hostile in implementing measures recommended by the federal government, has come to have half of all cases in the country and recently decided to reopen schools in areas of the province increasing the risk to teachers, children, their families , against the will of both.

Vulnerable adult care homes are a problematic space. According to the National Institute on Aging at Ryarson University in Toronto, more than 3,300 deaths have occurred in these long-term care homes, accounting for 82 percent of all fatalities in this country ( 2). The biggest problem is the lack of standardization regarding elder care, which favors a mix of non-profit households with for-profit households that have very different standards but are publicly funded. In Ontario, the top three for-profit home operators have a disproportionate number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, yet these operators have paid $ 1.5 billion in dividends to their shareholders over the past decade. For a healthcare area, this figure of high profits, which does not include the millionaire salaries paid to its executives or the money invested in buying own shares to keep them on the rise, is important. Jagmeet Singh, leader of the Canadian NDP (New Democrats) party, argues in favor of ending this situation, taking nursing homes from private for-profit companies to establish a better quality universal public service.

Image and Economy

 The image has been given by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, daily and on television, highlighting the economic consequences of the pandemic, in the context of protecting human lives. Health authorities limit themselves to specific announcements, such as the need to respect social distancing. No one has yet solved the problem of lack of protection elements for the population (masks and gloves) and it seems to be understood that they are of little relevance since there are none. Trudeau announces new financial aid almost daily, for the most part these benefit companies, banks and rentiers, but they come nuanced with aid to the rest of the unemployed population (which amounts to more than 15 percent). Unemployed workers, almost all in the private sector and in services, receive unemployment benefits and those who do not qualify for this, other aid. For all this type of aid, the federal government has disposed of 35,000 million dollars. There is additional aid, estimated at 9,000 million dollars, to be delivered between May and August to students and recent graduates of post-secondary institutions.

Pandemic spending increases and the federal government has spent more than $ 145 billion in direct aid to the population, but this total is no more than 20 percent of the estimated total that will be spent. This sum does not include health, safety, or what is provided to companies in monetary resources and tax exemptions, or direct aid to individuals, businesses and other private sectors that reach 817,000 million Canadian dollars (equivalent to almost half the gross domestic product of 1.7 trillion dollars, (3) Much of this money will not be recovered, it will be added to our public debt. All employers authorized to continue operating during the state of emergency (supermarkets , banks, pharmacies, stores for the sale of construction and related materials, home food sales, fuel stations, mechanical workshops, etc.) will receive from the state, for 5 months, 75 percent of the value of wages paid by employee.

Financial institutions receive no less than $ 300 billion as interest-free capitalization. Another large portion of the total amount goes to emergency (interest-free) credits to retail and wholesale, and other businesses. These credits will begin to be paid in a year or more, but it passes through the financial institutions that deal with the applicants; these interests are paid by the government to these institutions, which for them is a great business with free capitalization. In times of crisis, the big beneficiaries are still the big banks, completing an obscene parasitic circle.

In addition, in recent days, the Canadian government announced new financial aid to companies that have more than 300 million dollars in annual entries, in addition to monetary contributions to the pharmaceutical industry in order to investigate the creation of a vaccine against the COVID-19. A bit to get us hooked and cover up the obvious, this latest corporate aid announcement comes with a “prize” ($ 200 to $ 500) for some 6.7 million Canadians and residents over the age of 65. The government decides, instead of increasing the state pension that is low and controlling the rents raised by property speculation, to provide insufficient general aid to the older adult population, thus not serving the most needy group among them in the long term. Every day they trick us from the press trying to convince us that the billions of dollars that are printed, given away or loaned to the private sector, are going to save us and save the country but it is about ensuring that the good business of the richest continue and that they even increase.

The Dragon's Head and Tail

A year and months have passed since the capture of Meng Wanzhou. If we believed in magic we could say that the connecting element of our current misfortune is to have appropriated a princess from the land of the dragon, captivated in her own castle in Vancouver. But Meng is not a princess, the land of the dragon is not magic and the pandemic is not punishment, rather a consequence - not of having been happy about the pain of others, but of implementing suicidal globalizing economic policies. Guilty of a quasi-religious cult of consumerism that destroys our environment and the natural barriers that protect us, of creating speculative societies focused on the generation of easy money, of foolish exploitation, of war, of invading the seas of cruise ships to dealing with boredom by exploiting others, trapped in the predatory dissatisfaction that contaminates everything, a strip of RNA, as soon as a living organism becomes a pandemic, a plague that strikes another plague, ours.

 The consequences of this crisis, say some, is that we will develop technologies to live without pandemics, they show great faith in technology. The pandemic has accelerated public debt in Canada. The pandemic has shown us a country that is too aligned with the United States, although less dysfunctional. We have stopped learning from others. China, Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela, Thailand have been effective in a pandemic. The press talks about how important it is to find an effective medicine but almost does not mention, the interferon alfa B2 patented by Cuba and produced in China, widely and effectively used to recover vulnerable people. Nor are there too many criticisms of the actions of some very questionable countries, the United States itself, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, have neglected their population. Peru instituted a curfew and militarization instead of medical treatment as a way to deal with the pandemic. This crisis uncovers economic vulnerability: the private sector depends on services and real estate and stock market speculation. Discover vulnerability in our health system: Canada has suffered more deaths from COVID-19 than China itself, in Canada 7 percent of those contaminated died but in China, even in Iran, 5 percent - Iran is a blocked country and even sanctioned by Canada. Many Canadians already in debt, each household owes $ 1.76 for every dollar earned, they are not in a position of greater debt. The future is in debt, we need to review ourselves, transform ourselves.