Chicago Nurses Protest

Report on Cook County Hospital Nurses’ press conference 

By Neal Resnikoff

Nurses at Stroger Hospital (Cook County Hospital), including nurses working with covid-19 patients, held a press conference today after evening shift change. 

They exposed the criminal lack of protective gear, lack of screening of incoming staff each shift, and the lack of facilities to decontaminate after each shift. Nurses are thus forced to risk being contaminated, contaminating patients and other staff, and then bringing this home to possibly infect their families and the broader community. And they are retaliated against by management if they demand their rights. Nurses often buy and rig up protective gear, but this should not be how the hospital is run. 

The source of the problem goes beyond immediate management personnel and to the Cook County Board of Commissioners, whose President is Toni Preckwinkle, and to the federal government which has not prepared for a pandemic even though they had been warned for years that another was likely to come. 

A bus driver and el driver from the Chicago Amalgamated Transit Union also spoke at the press conference, about how they too do not have sufficient protective gear to guard against being contaminated by riders who may be carrying the covid-19 virus, even as some are making their way to Cook County Hospital or other hospitals. 

The organizer of this press conference was the local branch of the National Nurses United union. One of the organizers pointed out that because of the lack of protective gear, Chicago Cook County Hospital has the second greatest number of nurses infected with the covid-19, with only nurses at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in California having more. 

Some 15-20 people participated in the press conference, holding up a banner and signs which said #Protect Nurses. All Our Lives Depend on It. 

The press conference was attended by tv channels 7 and 32, Chicago Tribune, and others including Labor Express. We will see what, if anything, makes it to newscasts and news reports.

 

I think we should do all we can to support the needs of the nurses and transit workers. Protect nurses, patients, public health. What do you think? 

–Neal Resnikoff

People Power

Working People and Others Need to Oppose 

Aggressive U.S. Wars Abroad and

Government Attacks on the People Here at Home

 

Statement of the Chicago Anti-War Coalition

                         

It is working people who pay for the U.S. government’s aggression around the world, and attacks on the working and health conditions of workers and others here at home.

 

The attacks on the people include the lack of preparedness for a new pandemic that many knew for years was bound to be coming. The government’s actions benefit banks and corporations—not us, who may get $1200 each.

 

What we need to demand, and organize to fight for, includes:

 

    --pay for those who are sick so they can stay home from work and not  

       infect others. 

    -- allowing all to get care, whether they have insurance or not.

    -- having the necessary hospital rooms, trained staff, health aids such as

       masks, ventilators. 

 

The government, instead of helping people, spends trillions on the military to try to dominate countries around the globe and beat back competition. They are representing the big banks’ and corporations’ aim to squeeze maximum profits out of natural resources, labor power, and markets. We need to oppose this.

The government of the rich in the last weeks has agreed, without serious dissent in Congress, to rob trillions of our tax money to bail out the big banks and corporations. These are corporations which have not kept enough reserves on hand to weather a storm such as this pandemic. One example is Boeing, the world's largest aerospace company, which began to sink in the wake of cutting safety corners in building planes in order to increase its profits.

 

Meanwhile the government is throwing small amounts of money to the working class and other people, such as owners of small businesses. Most of these people live from pay check to pay check because of how the banks and corporations treat them.  There is no provision in the bailout bill to mandate keeping current workers on the payroll or to pay the unemployed enough money to pay for rent or mortgage, for food and health care. This what we must demand as a minimum.

 

This crisis has further exposed the gaping holes in the U.S. healthcare system. Tens of millions are uninsured or are under-insured by substandard plans they cannot afford to use. Millions are losing their employer-based healthcare coverage. Healthcare workers and patients and other people are at great risk because of the shortages of test kits, personal protective equipment, ventilators, and hospital beds. Privatized hospitals and insurance plans are a big part of the problem we face.

The pandemic is being used as an excuse in many parts of the U.S., and in other parts of the world, for governments of the ruling class to concentrate more power in a government that is not of, by, and for the people. It is being used as an excuse to increase surveillance, squelch dissent, and crack down on people in all kinds of harsh and unjust ways. 

The U.S. government is taking maximum advantage of the corona virus pandemic to ramp up attacks on Iran and Venezuela. The government refuses to lift sanctions so that medical supplies can get in, and has set the stage for a military assault on Venezuela, including the overthrow of President Maduro and leading members of the government.

 

What the U.S. government is doing in attacking other countries is in violation of international law, the right of self-determination by other governments, and the kinds of humanitarian concerns we should all be having in the face of the pandemic. (See the United Nations Charter, Chapter 1, which the U.S. government has signed onto.)  But the government is mounting attacks on other countries anyway. Their war-making for further profit-making of the banks and corporations has a higher priority than assuring the health and well-being of the people in the U.S. or anywhere else. 

 

This crisis further exposes the dehumanization and insecurity caused by the capitalist system. The “solutions” offered by the government further expose the class nature of U.S. society, with a ruling class holding most of the wealth in the country and working hard to grow richer.  Meanwhile the rest of us grow poorer and are in greater danger from viruses, from the economy, from the threat of global warming/climate change, from U.S. wars. 

 

It’s our youth who are recruited into the military when they see no job future. Then they are trained to kill people who have done them no harm.

 

It’s also we who pay high taxes to pay for wars. These wars bring in high profits for the rich when the U.S. government steals oil and other resources from countries such as Venezuela, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Nicaragua, Syria, etc.

 

62% of federal discretionary tax money goes to the military—while social programs are cut.

 

Working people in general don’t want to be involved in this immoral aggression-- a lot of it going on under the radar. We are not bullies who take advantage of others.

 

So we have to think for ourselves and see through the lies that the media—the largest ones of which are owned by big corporations—try to feed us. The government fears that if we find out what’s really going on, we might rise up to challenge the criminal decisions by the ruling elite.

 

Let’s keep in mind:   We are not the ones who decide to threaten and attack countries which have not attacked the U.S. or to attack people here at home. It is the politicians—whose election campaigns are funded by the rich-- who make decisions without public debate that presents all sides of issues.

 

International Workers’ Day is a good time for us to have our own discussions and plan what to do. We must oppose the unjust and illegal U.S. wars abroad and the attacks on working people here at home, which is part of the way the ruling class operates every day. And so we express solidarity with all the workers here at home struggling for their rights, and other people in struggle against U.S. interference and threats against countries abroad—that is, against U.S. imperialism.

 

                           Chicago Anti-War Coalition

                              ChicagoAntiwarCoalition@gmail.com

                 www. facebook.com/chicagoantiwarcoalition

Shakespeare Day

SHAKESPEARE: A POET FOR ALL TIME!

By Stephen Wilson

 

 

            'He was not of an age, but for all time' declared the actor Ben Jonson when paying homage to the famous poet and playwright in the First Folio of his works in 1623. On April 23rd, the anniversary of the birth of the great poet, endless praise, and performances are presented all over the World. The universal appeal of Shakespeare seems beyond controversy as so many people from different cultures  can readily identify with the dilemmas faced by characters such as Hamlet, Cassio or Brutus. For Shakespeare confronts all the things which matter most in our lives, love, death, loss of face and grief in a gripping and arresting way which few dramatists can hope to surpass. However, not everyone agrees that Shakespeare has and will retain universal meaning. For in Scotland, some bluntly state: "Shakespeare is just for those folk down in England." And the writer Yuval Noah Harari has gone so far to claim that many of the problems the heroes of Shakespeare confront will become increasingly irrelevant in a new age which technology determines the fate of people. Algorithms will decide everything!  

 

            There is a view that Shakespeare is too deep to be appreciated by the ordinary person in the street. The theater is mainly for either intellectuals or those who can afford to pay for it. The archaic and almost obsolete language makes it

more remote from the everyday lives of 21st century people. And in Scotland, some people even state Shakespeare is only for the English and not for the Scots. In Scotland, the theater was practically banned until 1764 and one playwright who wrote and performed a successful play 'Douglas', in 1756, was forced to flee to England because of the intolerant reaction. But when his play was performed some Scots were so enraptured by the performance they uttered the famous line 'Whaur's yer Wullie Shakespeare Noo'? In other words, the Scots had surpassed the achievements of Shakespeare through the playwright John Home. It proved a wishful conceit. Ask your average Scot if he has heard of Home and you'll get a "Who was he?" response. But people can still readily identify Shakespeare. The notion that Shakespeare is purely for England is as absurd as Claiming Robert Burns' relevance remains within Scotland. It is worth noting that Shakespeare was one of the main influences on the work of Robert Burns. Although a biographer of Burns, Hans Hecht, claims that the influence of Shakespeare was superficial on his work you can find as many as a dozen references to him in his biography alone. For example, Hecht records how Burns' school teacher William Murdoch gave a play by Shakespeare as a farewell present and in one poem of Burns you'll find the lines 'Or, for a Shakespeare, or an Otway scene to paint the lovely, hapless Scottish Queen'. Even some of the songs of Burns might betray an influence of Shakespeare. For example, compare the famous opening line of Anthony's speech in Julius Caesar where he thunders 'Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears :....' and Burns' line from the song Ye Jacobites by Name ' which reads 'Ye Jacobites by Name, give an ear, give an ear'.

            Burns even insisted that his children be taught the works of Shakespeare. Both Burns and Shakespeare were humanists and admirers of the renaissance where the often hidden beauty of the human soul was actively affirmed.

 

            A second argument questioning the universal relevance to Shakespeare comes from Yuval Noah Harari, in his book, 21 lessons for the 21st century,' 2018. In one chapter he argues that the drama surrounding making a decision will be swiftly resolved by algorithms. He writes 'but once we begin to count on AI to decide to study, where to

work and who to marry, human life will cease to be a drama of decision making.'

            Surely such a view flatters the achievements of technology. Artificial intelligence has become more pervasive in our lives, but it will hardly determine the most important decisions people make because machines commit errors. They are hardly as efficient and effective as Harari imagines. The agony experienced by a Hamlet or Brutus won't go away because some decisions are too important to be left to machines.

 

            In another chapter of this book Harari offers a curious interpretation of the character of John the Savage, the rebel who defies authority with humanistic values and virtues he has learnt from Shakespeare in Huxley's book 'Brave New World'. He stated that Savage almost does not have a mind of his own when he writes, 'Years of living on an Indian reservation and of being brainwashed by Shakespeare and religion have conditioned him to reject all the blessings of modernity'. This begs the question, "How can Shakespeare brainwash John the Savage?' Quite apart from the fact that

Shakespeare is dead and never set out to develop any dogmatic philosophy or system it seems an absurd claim. The word brainwash should not be used lightly as a term of abuse regardless of what you think might construe as the negative influence of Shakespeare or religion. The meaning of brainwash is when someone uses a degree of force, compulsion and one sided attention to induce someone to believe in a point of view. And this is mainly accomplished by denying the subject of brainwashing alternative and opposing ideas. If you read the works of Shakespeare you'll find that the main characters as well as ideas are often ambiguous and open to interpretation. Attempts to develop a coherent philosophy in Shakespeare have often failed. The Russian philosopher Leon Shestov attempted to do this. Firstly, he developed a philosophy based on the decisiveness, virtues and values personified by Brutus of Shakespeare in contrast to the weak-willed and terrible Hamlet. Then years later, he wrote that Hamlet now represented his new existentialist philosophy. What an abrupt about turn! It shows that Shakespeare is more likely to confuse than brainwash you into accepting a dogma. This was something which the author Huxley admitted in his reflections of the poet on his deathbed. In a word, Shakespeare can not be reduced to any crude ideology or narrow religious determination. Shakespeare is not Hegel or Hamlet but simply tells a story well. The fact that Shakespeare was trained in the art of rhetoric enabled him to perceive acute problems and people from many perspectives. Characters are larger than life in the sense they question not only the authority of others, but also their own conscience. John the Savage might have been addicted to Shakespeare,

but he was not brainwashed by him. And when machines break down, the drama of decision making returns again and again. Hamlet haunts us all!         

TIFs for Virus Help

Activists demand a closer look at TIFs to deal with crisis

By Jim Vail

News-Star

As the City of Chicago tries to deal with one of its worst financial crises ever, some activists are demanding that the mayor take money from the controversial Tax Increment Financing or TIF fund and use it to battle the coronavirus epidemic.

¨We are calling for the complete elimination of TIFs from the Chicago development portfolio and the releasing of the remaining $1.2 billion in property taxes sitting in the TIF funds for emergency COVID services and support immediately,” said Tom Tresser, founder of the CivicLab which has analyzed the TIF program and educated the public in numerous meetings across the city.

Tresser and other critics have described the TIF program as a slush fund for the mayor used to subsidize wealthy developments on the North Side at the expense of impoverished areas on the South Side where the program was supposed to help.

The coronavirus crisis has especially hit the black population in this city hard because many have less access to proper health care, must work during the epidemic which exposes them to the virus and live in crowded living conditions.

¨TIFs have harmed Black communities especially hard over the decades, so it's fitting that they be eliminated (and) the funds remaining in those accounts be used to save lives now,¨ Tresser said in an email.

The CivicLab sent a letter to city officials that calls on all workers to receive guaranteed four week full salary if they are sick with COVID19 or are staying at home to care for sick families; a halt on rent, evictions, mortgages, student loan payments, foreclosures and property taxes until six months after stay at home is lifted (and the state rent control ban be lifted as emergency order by the governor); no shut off or late fees of utilities until stay at home order is ended; free public transit; free COVID19 testing and treatment; hire 1,000 public health workers; reopen mental health clinics that Mayor Emanuel closed; provide protective gear to all workers dealing with COVID19 cases and begin door to door screening and testing where needed. (http://www.civiclab.us/end-tifs-action-center)

The People´s COVID19 Response states that these demands can be paid for if the mayor reinstates the head tax on all businesses with more than 50 employees, and uses the $1.2 billion public dollars remaining in TIF accounts.

While Mayor Lori Lightfoot campaigned against two controversial TIF programs - the Lincoln Yards in Lincoln Park and Project 78 in the South Loop, she reversed course and backed subsidizing these two mega developments to the tune of $2.4 billion in taxpayer money.

Her administration´s vow to reform the TIF program, however, has earned the wrath of experts and TIF reform activists. The Grassroots Collaborative, a coalition of 11 community groups and labor unions opposed to using TIF dollars to help fund private development, said they had ¨high expectations¨ but now see Mayor Lightfoot following in the footsteps of Mayor Emanuel. They sued the city stating the program was racist.

The TIFs have showered millions of taxpayer dollars on special private projects, while the city and school finances continue to struggle. And with the current health crisis, things are only getting worse. Chicago has 163 TIF districts, which collected $841 million in 2018. 

The mayor is basically repeating Emanuel´s promises to increase transparency and oversight of the city´s TIF dollars, but the TIFs are by nature inequitable because they can best generate revenue when situated near wealthy areas of the city, Rachel Weber, a professor at UIC, told the Better Government Association. In fact, critics say the mayor´s promises appear set up to further more projects like Lincoln Yards. For one, she has set up a committee to reform TIFs, but no critics were invited. Still, the city says there will be a robust community process. 

A similar situation can be found in Lincoln Square today, where Alderman Matt Martin is claiming there will be community input into a proposed affordable housing project at Leland and Lincoln Avenues. The proposal has several area businesses up in arms that they will lose valuable parking, and they claim they have not been informed. The project has been mostly discussed behind closed doors, while community output will be reserved at the end, giving the idea it is a done deal to those who feel they had no input from the start.

According to Tresser, TIFs are racist and structurally unfair and cannot be reformed. In October, 2019 the CivicLab issued a detailed argument for the abolition of TIFs online at Endtifsnow.org. To date 389 people have signed. In addition, two community organizations have called for TIF abolition, the 33rd Ward Working Families and Mi Villita.

Mental health & Teaching

STOP THE STIGMA

MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS AND TEACHING

By Stephen Wilson

 

             'Having a mental illness is like having a criminal record. Only a week ago my friend from school said this. Do you tell them {employers} or don't you??? You might cost the company or establishment money or else as one teacher said to me, that, "You [meaning me] might attack the children". That was when I worked as a classroom assistant from 2000-2001, for 59 pounds a week from 9 to 3.30 p.m. five days a week. I was not allowed to sit with the other classroom assistant in the staff room with the teachers. I had to eat my pack lunch in the corridor' a friend recently informed me. Her experience happened twenty years ago but my distinct impression is that very little substantial progress has been made in tackling entrenched misunderstanding, prejudice and ignorance which many people with mental health problems experience all over the world. My correspondent is a teacher who has worked abroad and in Scotland who I will call 'Mary' because she prefers that we do not disclose her real name.

 

             INCREASED PUBLICITY CREATES COMPLACENCY

 

             Although increased publicity and campaigning has been done to raise the awareness of mental health problems to challenge the stigma by educating people as well as calls for more effective funding and treatment, the problems of mental health problems may be increasing rather than declining. It could be because more media attention conveys the misleading impression that something substantial is actually being done thus making people complacent. If

someone else appears to be doing something about a problem, then I don't need to do anything about it. The letters which I receive from Scotland are sometimes stamped with a printed slogan from a mental health awareness campaign appealing for correspondents to consider such problems.

 

             From the information I have received from Mary it seems that effectively challenging the stigma has a long way to go. I recall on one visit to Scotland how a friend I met in a pub told me how he had thrown a person with mental health problems out of a pub for "babbling nonsense". Mary stated that if a person stated they had a physical illness they would obtain sympathy, but if they mentioned they had a mental health problem, they would look upon you as almost being a criminal. It is small wonder that people prudently keep any

mental health problems to themselves. Perhaps it is due to the influence of films or literature, but a false common stereotype is that people who suffer from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are aggressive and are more likely to attack

you than your average person. However, much research indicates that most of those people are less aggressive than normal people. They are far more likely to harm themselves than other people. That is why it is absurd not to let another teacher into a teacher staff room because of this. And this is in a school where you would surely expect people to be more educated and intelligent in their response. But how are schools going to react if their colleagues crack up because of the stress of the job? Are they going to drive them out the classroom in case the teacher attacks them? Because this is the growing reality of the situation in schools not just in Scotland and England, but America. This is confirmed by recent surveys carried out in 2019 by the Nuffield Foundation on the mental health being of teachers in England based on the data of 20,000 staff. It found that 5% of teachers today are suffering from long long lasting mental health problems. Another recent survey by the National Foundation for Educational research found that one out of five teachers are tense most or all the time, and such a profession experiences more stress than others. School teachers

commonly complain of panic attacks, anxiety and insomnia. The reasons for this stress is no mystery: over-testing, overcrowded classrooms, endless accountability and terrible working conditions.

 

             A HARD MAN CULTURE

 

             It is important to acknowledge that mental health problems are not something alien and outside schools and universities. On the contrary, they have become practically part of the buildings! Researchers have found that 32% of PhD students were at risk of having a psychiatric disorder. At the University of Arizona, 75% of doctorate students had above average stress levels. This may be because they are being asked to overwork for free in the evenings and at weekends.

             In numerous parts of Scotland, 'a hard man culture' prevails. That is a person is expected to be hard, not show emotions or shed a tear. The men have to be as tough as nails or they will be teased or trodden under foot by bullies. To show too much kindness to others is to be a 'softie'. In a fight, you no longer fight like gentlemen as a century ago, but kick a person even when he is down. This was the culture I partly grew up in though there were always exceptions! Cracking up

is taboo. This is one of the reasons why eccentrics or sensitive people can face remorseless mockery or bemused and bewildered actions from the crowd.

             People who experience mental health problems in Scotland can face a lot of prejudice not to mention ill treatment. People can shun you, exclude you from their company and make fun of you. A patient who suffered from schizophrenia once told me, "I heard that the staff at those hospitals were making fun of their patients behind their back. They were mimicking the patients." One thing which a nurse is taught during training is never to discuss a patient with

another person in a public place. For the parent or even a relative of this patient could overhear you. But the main point is that a patient is entitled to dignity and should be treated well. Now if psychiatric nurses are mocking their patients in

some hospitals you might wonder the extent of prejudice among people who have no training or education !  I recall how people with mental health problems were mocked at school as 'headbangers'. They still are.

 

             INTENSE SUFFERING BEYOND  MUCH UNDERSTANDING

 

             According to Mary, some of the problems experienced by those afflicted with an attack of schizophrenia can be terrifying. You hear and believe strange voices and feel a loss of control. "You can't imagine what it is like to have this experience.

             I think only people who gone through this can really understand my condition. Even trained psychiatrists can't fully understand us." I recall one patient who told me, "It was a real nightmare. I was having hallucinations where I swore I saw this ugly green creature from another planet sitting on my bed looking at me".  However, there is medication which is available for people to take to curb or contain the recurrence of such attacks. For instance, Mary had to take medicine called Olanzapine. Although taking this medicine helps, it can have terrible side effects such Odema where the feet swell up from excessive leaking water as well as putting on weight. Patients who take this medicine feel hungry all the time and can put on weight. Mary told me that she was once subject to 'fat shaming' when a tactless person shouted at her, "Hi, Fatty, why are you here? Is you local town not good enough for you". However, her psychiatrist decided to prescribe a new drug called Lamotrigine which may have less adverse side effects. Mary wrote, "Even if I don't lose weight, I am helping reduce my chances of heart failure or getting diabetes ... My brother told me that my feet are no longer swelling up so much." Mary seems to be leading an active life as an author, a cook, can do gardening, can sing well , write verse and seems to have many talents. She could play a very important role in improving the awareness of people concerning all kinds of problems which people face. Let us hope that people begin to listen to her wise voice and learn something new.

 

             PEOPLE WITH MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS DO WORK AS TEACHERS

                          

             But if we return to the question, 'Could a person with past mental health problems work within a school?' After all, a school is a highly stressful place which seems hardly conductive to mental well being! It largely depends on the kind of problem and how much the person might cope with it. In my school, an art teacher with mental health problems managed to carry on teaching. The great English poet Gerald Manley Hopkins suffered from manic depression but could still work as a teacher at a university in Dublin. By the way, those people never attacked anyone in the staff room. There are numerous cases where teachers with mental health problems have managed to cope. So having a record of ill mental health should not be an excuse for disqualifying a person from working in school or from visiting the staff room. In fact, a person with a mental health problem might be a great plus as they can empathize with school children who are also experiencing such problems. They can play a key role in preventing the potential outbreak of such a problem. They could bring unique insight and invaluable personal knowledge to school. Schools are not just about imparting knowledge to pass exams, but to help children to cope with unexpected and acute life problems which can arise.

             And who knows? May be the teacher who had past mental health problems just might be the only person who understands the particular problem of a school child who is convinced, "Nobody understands me". And the intervention of that teacher might make a profound difference.

Teachers Tested

TEACHERS TESTED AGAIN

By Stephen Wilson

 

             The switch to online teaching in Russia has placed more pressure on parents, children and teachers as most schools were not prepared for such a national emergency as the Covid 19 crisis. Parents complain of computers breaking

down, chaos, confusion and homework that is either too much or just too difficult to do. Some students just don't have access to the internet or readily access to information technology.

 

            "Parents are always complaining that there is too much online homework, or that it is too difficult to do. They complain they can't get into Google and it does not work or that it is too much strain for their eyes. For example, teachers are asking my daughter Natasha to do more math tasks. I don't know if she can do all this work ... Some of my students have just disappeared into the countryside and are inaccessible. One family went to the Volga region where they

say there is no Internet connection or way of doing online lessons," stated Russian English Teacher Oksana Chebotareva.  

             Olga, a mother who works for a pharmaceutical company, told me: "The teacher of Russian is always asking my daughter to learn this Russian poem or text by heart or enter this Olympiad competition. I am not against this in principle. I would like my daughter to learn good Russian and avoid the slang she can pick up on the internet. But it is still hard work. "

 

             One of the biggest headaches for the parents of children is how to help them deal with difficult problems in math. Math in Russian schools is taught at a much higher      level than at American or British schools. Some parents complain it is taught at too high a level that neither many children or parents can cope with it. Two brains are better than one so you often find parents phoning each other up and asking each other for aid! One mother who is a linguist who has a nine year old daughter stated, "I find it very difficult to help my daughter with her math homework. I mean I have not done this for years". Tanya Rasschepkina  complained that, "My daughter spent 12 hours at her computer. Several teachers send homework without any explanation. Homework has increased by 2 to 3 times. Is this normal? "

 

             Common complaints tend to be not only excessive online school work, but the complexity of tasks, the difficulties of using information technology and the fact that a bewildering number of online platforms are available leading to confusion.

             This exacts a mental and physical strain on school teachers, parents and pupils. Alexander Beghov, a head head official from Saint Petersburg, states that from 507,000 school children in the city, 17,000 don't have access to the internet.

             The government's own Electronic School Service did not work when teachers attempted to use it, leading teachers to resort to Zoom, Whats Up and Google. This is despite the fact that a huge amount of rubles has been invested in Moscow Electronic schools. This service could not cope with the transition and floundered. Vselvolod Lukhovitsky, a spokesman for the Union 'Teacher' asked, "Why is it the case that despite millions of rubles being spent out of the state

budget, Moscow Electronic schools do not work? Teachers are constantly being told they are living in a new century where are new demands and you mustn't work in the old way ... Why is there no sufficient research done into the impact of this new technology in schools before more money is invested

in it?"

 

             Some people view this switch to online as an attempt to test the competence of school teachers. The proficiency of teachers in handling online technology is being tested and if some teachers fail to competently use it their jobs could be on the line. The Covid 19 crisis is being used as a pretext to restructure the whole Russian education system where schools become more online. So there would be less demand for teachers as technology can do their jobs better. If there are such people in the administration pushing such an agenda, then this switch to online during this crisis has backfired. If anything, the crisis starkly reveals the limits of not only online technology in education, but the limits of

over-management and control. The reason why so many teachers give pupils too many tests and too much homework is because they feel that every second of their work is controlled by officials. People don't let teachers get on with their jobs and freely choose their own methodology. If anyone took the trouble to read the Russian Law on Education they would find that teachers have the right to choose their own methodology. This very fact has eluded so many headmasters

and officials who insist, 'This is how you must teach and no other".  

 

             At present, there has been much discussion about amending the Constitution of the Russian Federation. It would be much more constructive if people practiced the existing Constitution, especially Article 37! In this article you can read in 2. 'Forced labor is forbidden, and 5. Everyone has the right to rest.' It seems that teachers, parents and children are being deprived of those very rights in the area of education. Yes, it might seem strange to some people, but teachers do need to sleep from time to time.

             

Harsher Measures

STRICTER MEASURES SET TO BE IMPOSED

By Stephen Wilson    

 

             An unreal situation has arisen in Moscow.  Something surreal surfaces all the time here. Just as my Australian friend was lamenting on how his flight to Russia had been cancelled due to the coronavirus crisis I noticed a strange man passing by my window casually coolly  riding a 19th century penny bicycle. He fell off and then got on again. And as I got up at seven a.m. to go shopping I was confronted by a group of council workers advancing up the road sweeping all the dust before them. They were performing this task in such a strident manner I thought they would sweep me out of their way. I was wondering whether they saw me as some inconvenient obstacle impeding their progress. But now I have noticed that every morning, without fail, they ritually perform such a duty. When I arrived to buy the milk I read instructions that I had to keep 1.5 meters from the staff while making a purchase. The staff were all wearing gloves and masks. 

     

             Now, after two weeks, I have noticed that almost half the people on the streets of Moscow are dawning masks.

 

             If you want to go to the Moscow English Theater for light escapism forget it. The theater will be performing a play adapted from Daniel Defoe's work On the Great Plague of London. But how people can watch this performance might be problematic given strict quarantine rules.

 

             Over the past few days the Moscow mayor and police have been tightening up in enforcing quarantine regulations which they fear too many people are flouting.

             The Mayor Sergei Sobyanin claimed that an estimated 20% of the population are failing to observe the rules on Quarantine. The number of people being infected by

the virus has shot up within the space of a few weeks from a few hundred to beyond the 10,000 mark. And even Russian politicians openly admit this is an underestimate.

  

             The Russian state has enlisted the support of famous actors to make a public appeal to people 'to stay at home' for the sake of not only their health but their family'. On every entrance door way you can read the instructions on how to observe the quarantine, such as 'Keep a social distance of 1.5 meters from people, only leave your home to go shopping , dispose rubbish, to go to work and to walk your dog no further than 100 meters.´ Going out for a walk in the park or even taking children out into the nearby playground is strictly forbidden. Social police patrols and cars glide along the road stopping people and asking what their business is.

             Attempts are being made to extend a wider surveillance system where cameras are recording people going in or out of their homes.

             A group of people fishing in a public place was told that their group would have to pay a 15,000 ruble fine for violating the quarantine by a policeman on duty. But on other occasions the situation could look comical and absurd. A jogger in a forest park who was stopped by police continued to jog even as he was being interviewed and warned. Generally speaking, people who are stopped can expect a fine from 4000 to 5000 rubles and heaver fines should they repeat offences. But there are still ambiguities about how people should observe this law. People keep asking anxiously, Will I be fined just for dropping into the chemist or taking my dog for a walk? How do you prove that you are actually going shopping or not? Perhaps you'd have to say you are going to the nearest shop to your house or not walking you dog beyond 100 meters. A business man who has three dogs asked me, "My dog will only do the toilet habitually in one place and not within 100 meters." The worst thing is that people are not allowed to even go out to do exercise as in Britain or Sweden.

 

             A lawyer, Vitaly Negova Macdhugaill from Krasnodar has noticed huge contrasts in the opinion on the spread of the virus. He states: ¨There are different opinions on the Covid 19 in Russia. Some people are of the opinion that the virus is no more dangerous than a standard flu .{I am not among them } and they are against the strict quarantine measures. They are also deeply concerned that those measures can ruin all business {particularly small businesses.} I think I am well aware what is going on with Coronavirus and I don't think it is a joke and not dangerous." In deed, the recent death of a 36- year-old journalist from Perm, Anastasia Petrova, from what now seems to be an in infection from the virus rather than just a previously diagnosed 'double pneumonia' should serve to emphasize this is not another case of the flu as many people still claim.

 

             The quarantine is set to last until the first of May, but many people believe it may be extended.  The result of this is a fall in consumption, loss of jobs and many small businesses going to the wall. Many people have a lot of time on their hands.

             For many workaholics this amounts to a shock. They are not used to working from home or doing little. A businessman told me, "Now it is much easier for me to contact my business partners. They are now more accessible because they are at home. The same goes for my partners in India or Germany."

 

             But for Russian school teachers and school children, there is no reprieve from work.

             On the contrary, their work has intensified. A colleague who works at school told me, "I have been working from 6 a.m. in the morning until late at night everyday. I am very fatigued from working at both the school and an institute. My eyes hurt from spending so much time before a computer screen doing those on-line lessons.

             ¨What I found strange was that I was being asked to take a first aid course and even write a grammar text book when I have no time left from the teaching."

             The toll on physical and mental health from too much exposure to on-line teaching has hardly been addressed. Online teaching appears to be a kind of panacea for the problem of teaching school children during the closure of schools.

             The early euphoria being experienced by some children and even some shop assistants has almost faded. When my wife asked staff at a nearby stationary whether they would be working during quarantine, they replied, "No, thank God we can have a rest." A few weeks ago the mayor emphasized to school students: "You are not on holiday! School work continues." Police were often dismayed to  

discover some people had a laid back attitude to the Quarantine where people were going to parks to party, have a barbecue or even sunbathe.  A real fear exists among the authorities that after two or three weeks people will be lulled into thinking that, "Well, I am not infected so there is no real threat, so it is time to come out and enjoy the Spring sunshine. " Hence the constant public announcements that stronger measures to maintain the quarantine will be enforced. It seems like this quarantine could last longer that people wished or anticipated. The exact economic and social repercussions are anyone's guess.

An American Plague

Book Review
An American Plague
The True and Terrifying Story of the YELLOW FEVER EPIDEMIC of 1793
By Jim Murphy

Review by Jim Vail

The corona virus epidemic today and the Yellow Fever epidemic that hit Philadelphia in 1793 have so much in common. 

People were quarantined and did not go out in public ... People fled the big city ... Doctors and nurses put their lives on the line trying to save people. Doctors died ... So many people were dying that they were scrambling to find places to put the dead ... The city fought for resources to help the sick. Prices surged. Stores and workshops closed. People panicked. Foreigners were blamed.

This was 1793! George Washington was President, the U.S. had just defeated the British in the American Revolutionary War and Philadelphia was the United States capital before the government moved to Washington D.C.

The book ¨An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793¨ published in 2003 is a must read today as we hunker down to avoid the corona virus. Every teacher should consider using this book to teach the children today about an historical event that repeats. I know one teacher who read it in class and she said her 5th grade students were so riveted that they kept asking about it. And that was before our current crisis. It is suspenseful, fascinating and filled with amazing historical facts that will captivate those turning the pages!

The book begins on August 3, 1793, a very hot day that was buzzing with mosquitoes and insects amidst the stench of spoiled coffee that was dumped into the Ball´s Wharf which feeds from the Atlantic Ocean. People noticed cats were dying in the streets. Then people started getting sick. The sickness began with chills, headache and a painful ache in the back, arms and legs. It was followed by a high fever and constipation for about three days. Then the patient appeared to recover for a few hours. But the fever returned, the skin and eyeballs turned yellow as red blood cells were destroyed, causing the pigment bilirubin to accumulate in the body. The nose, gums and intestines began bleeding and the patient vomited stale, black blood. As the pulse grew weak, the tongue turned a dry brown and the victim became depressed and delirious. 

They thought the repulsive smell in the air caused by the rotting coffee caused the sickness.

They tried the damnedest things to cure themselves - they shot off guns and canons believing the smoke would clear the air; families including children smoked cigars even. They scrubbed floors, walls and ceilings and rooms were whitewashed and sprinkled with vinegar. 

The science of medicine at the end of the 18th century still relied a great deal on ancient myths and folk remedies. But despite the precautions and various remedies that included herbal teas, bloodletting and rest, people kept dying and panic spread.

Advice 200 years ago is the same today, ¨... keep at a distance from infected persons and places.¨ Both the city legislature and the federal government headed by President George Washington fled the city. Even our founding father Alexander Hamilton got yellow fever. Mayor Clarkson, along with Dr. Benjamin Rush, Stephen Girard and the Free African Society members were among the fearless heroes who fought the disease head on despite the enormous risk to their lives. They can be compared to our valiant doctors, nurses and health care workers battling against the corona virus today!

As I mentioned earlier, there are so many similarities of the yellow fever epidemic in 1793 and the corona epidemic today. In 1793 people thought black people were magically immune to the disease, just like people thought today black people were immune to the corona virus at the start. The reality was some black people back then who had grown up in either Africa or the West Indies had the disease as children and built up antibodies to fight it, but most blacks in Philadelphia did not have this natural immunity and later suffered greatly. The same today where black people are dying in high numbers because they have diabetes, high blood pressure, and other debilitating health conditions that make them weak in fighting off the corona virus. As Mark Twain wrote: ¨History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.¨

In Philadelphia at this time there were 3,000 free blacks and 200 slaves, and one half of them served as caretakers and cleaners. They were well positioned to help, but like their white counterparts, some of the black nurses profited off their dreadfully needed services by raising their rates.

There was a debate in the medical profession over how to cure yellow fever. Dr. Benjamin Rush, who tirelessly traveled everywhere to attend to the sick and dying and was considered the most famous and respected doctor in the U.S. at the time, said the cure had be aggressive blood letting and even pour a poison into people so that the induced vomiting and diarrhea would clean the body. Doctors who disagreed with this method ridiculed the doctor and said the cure was worse then the disease. Usually medical treatment was very gentle at this time, with herb teas and a glass of brandy the preferred methods. However, the bloodletting (a trusted medical practice for 2,500 years) and poison did in fact begin to show results, although it was not the cure and probably did more harm than help.

The idea that illness was caused by microscopic organisms such as bacteria and viruses, was not known at the time. Instead, doctors based their medical thinking on the 2,500-year-old Greek humoral theory. This concept stated that good health resulted when body fluids, called humors, were in balance. The humors were phlegm, choler, bile and blood. 

Just like today in the scramble to buy ventilators and masks, in 1793 the government had to borrow $1,500 to purchase medicine and coffins and pay doctors, nurses and gravediggers, many of whom became infected. And just like today, the massive Javits Convention Center in NY and the McCormick Convention Center in Chicago have been turned into overflow hospitals. In 1793, Bush Hill was turned into a makeshift hospital for the overwhelmed hospitals in Philadelphia. It was first called the ¨great human slaughter-house¨ and considered a death sentence to those who were transported there, but it soon became a model for wonderful care at this precarious time. Stephen Girard, one of Philadelphia´s wealthiest citizens, could have fled the city with his fellow rich folk, but instead chose to stay and risk his life to saving the afflicted at Bush Hill. One witness saw him clean himself up after a patient threw up black vomit all over him, and then comfort the patient in return. We live for heroes!

Remember the cruise ship that the Florida governor was refusing to allow to dock because there were corona virus patients aboard? Same thing in 1793, citizens in a Delaware town refused to allow one ship from Philadelphia to land and take on fresh water. They even attacked and sank another! 

Today ice rinks are turned into temporary morgues. Back then grave diggers set up tents to take short breaks with their nonstop work to bury the escalating numbers of dead. Today we believe the summer months will kill off the deadly virus, then they believed the rain and cold would kill off the deadly fever. Neither have it exactly right.

How bad was the yellow fever epidemic?

¨One man named Collins had lost his entire family - his wife, his two daughters, his son, and his son´s wife and child - early in the plague. He married again and his new wife promptly died. Finally, at the height of the fever, his will to survive gave out. Mr. Collins caught the fever, and a few days later he joined the rest of his family members in the crowded potter´s field.¨

Whole families were wiped out. Dead bodies lined the streets. People starved amid cries of agony because nobody was around to help them. In all about 4 to 5,000 perished in Philadelphia, but just like we suspect about the real number of corona virus infections and deaths, the real numbers of yellow fever are probably much higher. One headstone from 1793 reads: ¨Stay Passengers see where I lie, As you are now so once was I, As I am now so You shall be, Prepare for Death and follow me.¨

The housing crisis that resulted from people losing their jobs and being threatened with eviction was no different 200 years ago.  Tenants who were made jobless by the fever were evicted for lack of rent money. The city could not stop the evictions, but they did attempt to assist renters with small cash advances meant only for the short term. Today many who has lost their jobs are wondering if they will too be evicted or will the city provide some relief. The verdict is still out!

The business of the nation was put on hold while the plague raged in Philadelphia. President George Washington was not in the capital and did not know if he could make government decisions. Alexander Hamilton told him he could, stating that the government cannot stop functioning if an enemy captured the capital, which in this case was the plague. However, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison disagreed, arguing on behalf of states rights who were wary to give away too much power to the president, for they had just defeated the British King.

And just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water, wand Bush Hill proclaimed: ¨No more sick persons here¨, signs of the fever reappeared. The disease had not been completely wiped out, and the city told people to continue to clean their homes thoroughly, burn gunpowder to purify the air, dump lime down their privies and whitewash every room. We dread the same thing now - when will we be entirely clear of the corona virus? But the reemergence of the deadly fever (it began in August, and people returned home by January) did not stop people from returning, and eventually getting back on with their lives. The same thing will happen here!

The next suspense that keeps you riveted was the hunt to find the cause of the yellow fever. The people knew that when next summer´s hot, humid weather  returned, yellow fever might return as well. 

And it has. Yellow fever has terrorized many major cities throughout the 1800s, including NY, Boston, Baltimore, Mobile, Norfolk, Charleston, Jacksonville, and others. And it continues to devastate. Over 30,000 workers and engineers died from yellow fever while working on the Panama Canal for the French from 1881 - 1889. Eventually scientists discovered that it was the mosquito that carried the yellow fever and infected people. It originated from tree-dwelling monkeys. 

Countries attacked the mosquitoes to contain the fever, the pesticide dichlorodiphenyl-trichloroethane, or DDT, being particularly effective. But using DDT is also highly destructive to the environment and people´s health. Today we know mosquitoes, animals, and human disease go together. ¨As new roads are cut into virgin rain forests, more and more people enter areas where they can become infected. A car ride takes that newly infected person to a major city, where more mosquitoes wait to feed on him, then carry the disease to another and another and another person. A plane ride carries one of these infected persons to a new country, where still more mosquitoes wait to feed and fly off.¨ 

So far no company here has produced the vaccine in recent years. Some estimate it could kill 10,000 people in a city like New Orleans. Scientists say it is a modern time bomb waiting to explode.

Sound familiar?

¨If the history of yellow fever tells us anything, it is that this is a struggle with no real end. Yellow fever as we know it now might be conquered, but another version of the disease will eventually emerge to challenge us again. And when it does, we will have to overcome our fears and be prepared to confront it.¨

Amen!