'Death to dissenters. It's for your own good.'

@wwaycorrigan

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]

I do find it somewhat perplexing — and occasionally amusing — how self-proclaimed freedom-loving liberals demand that others follow their path. At times, this is seen in a passive-aggressive manner. However, more frequently these days it's simply done aggressively; there's nothing passive about it whatsoever.

'That's my boy, Bart. Just comply. Life shall be easier then.'

It's no longer a case — as at least it seemed to be only a decade or so ago — of being open to alternative views when there is no conclusive evidence that one belief is the real truth, with all others simply wrong. No. The tone of this pugnacious proselytising wouldn't be out of place in the days of Europe's Reformation and subsequent Counter-Reformation.

Only EU can make the darkness bright

From an Irish perspective, more understandable as it is with its quite incestuous media and politics, we've seen it with Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic. I have tried, from afar, to provide a little bit of balance as regards the latter (see https://wwcorrigan.blogspot.com/2022/01/covid-19-anti-vaxxers-immunity-my-chat.html).

With Brexit, OK, there is the old quip that Britain's, nay England's, difficulty is Ireland's opportunity. There is, after all, a long bloody history between the two islands (there's been much intermingling of a more peaceful variety, too). So, despite the better relations that have developed between them over the last couple of generations, many Irish still have a deep-rooted desire to see England fail.

Add in the fact that most of Ireland's agenda-setters naively see the European Union as a rock of rectitude and it's not surprising to find such a hostile attitude towards Brexit. (If I had to choose one over the other, seeing the direction of travel of the EU and playing the long game, I'd opt for Britain over a Europe dominated by France and Germany. For one, the traditional common law approach tends to defend the individual more so than civil law.)

Coming back to the pandemic and zooming out from Ireland to a global level, to go against the narrative of lockdowns being a necessary evil, that they were the 'only viable option', was akin to blasphemy. As early as March 2020 I questioned this wisdom in Coronavirus' collateral damage.

'These facemask fascists, rather than castigate others for not "complying", should stick a sock in it, quite literally.'

Some commentators who submissively went along with all this back then are now, however, trying to rewrite their own history.

Some, that is. Others, those who seem to think that covid-19 is the only threat to human life, appear to want to have indefinite lockdowns. 'Can't everybody just work from home?' Eh, no, they can't.

Such types also tend to be facemask fascists. 'I care about others, that's why I wear a facemask.' Wonderful. The snag here is that there is no conclusive evidence that a piece of cloth wrapped around one's mouth and nose is truly effective in reducing the spread of coronavirus.

Indeed, there are so many variables at play that any study showing a benefit in this regard comes with numerous caveats. (For a detailed breakdown of such studies carried out so far, see https://brownstone.org/articles/more-than-150-comparative-studies-and-articles-on-mask-ineffectiveness-and-harms/. Also, https://emilyburns.substack.com/p/no-masks-dont-help-keep-kids-in-school).

Thus, if people want to wear a facemask because it makes them feel safer or more virtuous, fine. However, this castigating of others who don't wear them, well, such facemask fascists should stick a sock in it, quite literally.

'A jab a day keeps Pfizer in play'

Then there are the covid-19 vaccines. Considering the number of breakthrough infections we've seen, this idea that prevails in significant quarters that an unvaccinated person is more of a risk to him/herself and society in general compared to a vaccinated person just doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

Personally, and so far it seems to be holding true, my immunity or whatever natural defences I have against covid may be stronger than that of many of those who have had multiple vaccines.

Yet, the covid-19 vaccine-mandate brigade continues to exert a significant influence across the globe. They insist that the benefits outweigh the risks in all cases, when there is strong evidence that suggests otherwise, particularly the lower down the age cohorts one goes. (For more on that, see https://brownstone.org/articles/are-the-covid-mrna-vaccines-safe/.)

Now, while not all who endorse compulsory vaccination and mask-wearing are woke, illiberal leftists, there does certainly appear to be a substantial crossover.

These attempts at control, to force submission and/or destroy the credibility of the dissenters match nicely with the woke ideology.

Such types talk of equality and freedom but on their highly prejudiced terms only. (I went into more detail on this in Drunk almost to death on the culture wars.)

Putting an optimistic spin on it, it would appear the ordinary Joe and Josephine don't really go along with those who follow a more militaristic line on the above and other similarly contentious issues.

The average, informed citizen seems to realise that these matters are more nuanced than they are often portrayed. It's not, so to put it, 'everything black, good; everything white, bad.'

The problem, particularly in the West, is that in the traditional media and politics — spheres that exert much influence of course — there's an over-representation of these illiberal liberals.

Thus, it's incumbent on those of us of a more balanced nature to push back at every opportunity. Death awaits us regardless, so we might as well go down putting up a fight.
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Letter to the editor: Climate crisis hypocrites

@wwaycorrigan

Well, this is a real sign that things are returning to normal after the coronavirus chaos. The Irish Independent has published a letter of mine, unrelated to the pandemic as it is. Wonders never cease, hey?! (For some context, see https://wwcorrigan.blogspot.com/2021/08/my-unopened-open-letter-to-ireland.html.)

Below is a screenshot of the letter and you can read it in full at https://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/class-categories-demean-everyone-so-can-we-please-stop-defining-ourselves-by-our-earnings-41361557.html (fourth letter down). For a somewhat related piece see https://wwcorrigan.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-great-reset.html.

I didn't pick the heading.

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A reinvigorated fun police

@wwaycorrigan

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]

And just like that, it's all over — kind of. Within a couple of days of each other, both England (just England initially that was, not the other UK nations) and, more shockingly, a heretofore extremely cautious — officially, anyway — Republic of Ireland announced that they were ending most of the coronavirus pandemic restrictions.

Thou shalt not pass without a covid-19 vaccine pass: The social credit system in action — comply or be ostracised.

Learning to live again

Of course, I don't (currently) reside in either jurisdiction but I was somewhat optimistic on hearing the news. I'm not, however, expecting a domino effect around the globe in the coming weeks.

It does, nonetheless, give one hope that other nations will start to accept that we have to learn to live with covid-19 rather than stubbornly and damagingly maintain a suppression strategy.

As has been said oft-times before on this blog, we're not talking about an indiscriminate killer here, despite the efforts of many governments and media groups to portray Sars-Cov-2 as such. This covid monomania comes at a price — not just economically but in lives lost as well — and that price is something we're set to live with for some time to come.

I wrote previously (see https://wwcorrigan.blogspot.com/2021/09/rocking-in-fear-world.html) about the irrational fear that has been instilled in the masses over the last two years. 

Thus, for people to return to their pre-pandemic lives — as much as they want to, that is — it was always going to take more than just an address from our esteemed leaders simply telling us that it's all pretty much back to normal and "away with you".

What's more, all the various rules and recommendations aimed at saving lives have empowered what one could call a citizen's army of do-gooders and virtue-signallers. Well-intentioned they may be but, as is often the case in such affairs, they are potentially doing more harm than good — and most likely to themselves than to anyone else.

'"Recklessly" going against the doctrine puts us all in jeopardy. So, à la Novak Djokovic in authoritarian Australia, an example must be made of these apostates.'

You see, many of us at the receiving end of such unsolicited help to save ourselves and humanity at large can, to a certain extent, shrug it off. The preachers, on the other hand, are so worked up about it that it appears to consume them.  

In effect, they almost stop living because they become so concerned about avoiding death.

Pernicious pretenders

Raised as an Irish Catholic, I see something quite familiar here. The top brass who issue the orders largely ignore them in their private (and not-so-private) lives — vide the No. 10 Downing Street parties and Golfgate in Ireland — but the foot soldiers follow the commands with zeal.

In other words, the plebs are the ones who do the donkey work, pay the biggest price, yet they'll never see the green pastures, the promised land.

For these covid crusaders, the non-believers, the heathens, must equally — or, preferably, to a greater extent — suffer. In fact, it's those who question the gospel who are the problem. They must be brought into line.

"Recklessly" going against the doctrine puts us all in jeopardy. So, à la Novak Djokovic in authoritarian Australia, an example must be made of these apostates.

The Catholic Church — together with other such institutions — has done a great job at convincing folk through the ages that having fun in the here and now only leads one to the depths of hell. Not only is living fundamentally a struggle but you must also suffer whilst going through it. (I must say, these days I do move to a more ascetic beat — I'm certainly no party animal anyway — but I don't expect everyone to follow my lead. I'm happy for people to mix, mingle and live as they see fit as long as they don't inconvenience me too much.)

Where religion has lost its (often malignant) influence we have plenty of pernicious pretenders to step into the vacuum.

This coronavirus pandemic has given such fanatical forces a shot in the arm, literally and metaphorically. The fun police have been reinvigorated. The officers won't go away quietly.
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Covid-19, anti-vaxxers & immunity: My chat with Noel D. Walsh on Shannonside Northern Sound

@wwaycorrigan

Noel D. Walsh is in the Joe Finnegan Show hot seat on Shannonside Northern Sound and he chats to me about covid-19, vaccines and plans to return to Ireland for a long-overdue pint!

Listen to the interview via the YouTube video below or click on this link https://youtu.be/4_VaHniwBpw or visit https://anchor.fm/brendan-corrigan/episodes/Covid-19--anti-vaxxers--immunity-My-chat-with-Noel-D--Walsh-on-Shannonside-Northern-Sound-e1ckrjo. (The piece was recorded on Wednesday 05 January and broadcast on Friday 07 January 2022.)

Visit the Shannonside Northern Sound websites at https://www.shannonside.ie/ and https://www.northernsound.ie/.

 

One of Ireland's favourite regional radio stations!

Wrong Way's tops and flops of 2021

@wwaycorrigan

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]

To borrow from John Lennon — and many others besides — another year is almost over and a new one is about to begin.

Peter Hitchens: always a hit (he's on the left, in case you're wondering!)

Hitchens hit

This is always an apt time for reflection, for taking stock of one's affairs, and for looking forward. I won't be alone in being happy to see the end of 2021. While both personally and in the world at large, things could get worse, there's also plenty of scope for them to get better.

The coronavirus pandemic yet again dominated the news agenda. And as much as I've tried to avoid dwelling on it, this has been rather difficult to do when containment measures directly affect one's life, whether one agrees with them or not.

Thus, of the 57 blog posts I have (so far) published here in 2021, 19 of them were related to the pandemic — to be honest, I thought that number would have been higher. The most-read one was The vaccine vexers — you can check out that "gem" at https://wwcorrigan.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-vaccine-vexers.html, if you haven't already done so.

On the other end of the scale, the least-read post was 'Colombia's done OK, but prepare for a half-shut, half-open world for 2021' — Dr Bhattacharya. That was a teaser piece for my podcast/YouTube interview with Dr Jay Bhattacharya, co-author of the controversial Great Barrington Declaration. The YouTube interview itself got much more engagement. You can watch it at https://youtu.be/ZSb8VnG4nPs.

Mentioning my currently on-hold podcast (if anyone wants to sponsor its return, I'm all ears!), my interview with the controversial but always interesting English journalist, Peter Hitchens, has received the most views, https://youtu.be/Nuzm8OkYMyE. 

On the opposite end, my chat with Miami-based Colombian journalist Daniel Coronell didn't quite reach the same Hitchens heights, https://youtu.be/ZsWTBwGXRXY.

Staying on the podcast front, this year did see the launch of Get Inglés (https://caracol.com.co/getingles/) in association with Caracol Radio. Whisper it, but there may be more episodes to come.

'Making life much more difficult for the unvaccinated, some of whom appear to have better defences against covid than many vaccinated individuals, is nothing less than coercion.'

Looking ahead to 2022, while I intend to keep writing in some form or another — one can be rather stubborn in that regard — I'll endeavour to post less content about the pandemic, for my own sanity if nothing else.

Thus, allow me this blowout for now.

Raising's one ire-land

The coming 12 months should see me make a return to my native Ireland at some stage. It's been over three years since I last visited.

However, from the outside looking in — and at a safe distance of over 8000 km — the homeland appears rather lost and not terribly appealing. If the Irish Government told its citizens to lock themselves in a dark closet for a couple of weeks to avoid getting the cold, the majority would most likely do it.

To get the covid-19 vaccine or not to get it? That is the question.

It's almost as if people think that there were no dangerous infections floating around before this novel coronavirus and its various mutations came on the scene. 

It matters little to so many that the risk of death, nay severe infection, is minuscule for the majority of the planet. Any proportionality and rationality that had once existed — I think it did exist to some degree in any case — has been abandoned completely.

It does seem that some actually like this sense of crisis and resultant government control which they follow unquestioningly, 'doing our bit to save lives', when there's no strong evidence that this is actually being achieved.

Indeed, the argument could be made — and has been made — that it's doing the opposite. Prolonging the hardship and leading to more, what in normal times would have been, preventable-for-a-time deaths (shocking as this may be to some, but we weren't immortal before this spiky virus started plaguing us).

I've always said that to get anything close to a true picture of the deadliness or otherwise of Sars-CoV-2, excess deaths over the period of the pandemic and for a few years after need to be looked at.

Also, considering the covid monomania which has seen health services across the globe neglect other life-threatening conditions, all excess deaths cannot be attributed to covid-19.

Some will go in the category of being as a result of the disproportionate coronavirus-containment measures. That's if such analysis is done in a fair, thorough way. It's been easy to document covid-19 as the cause of death when it was but one of a number of conditions that led to one's demise.

Alongside all that, the widespread failure to accept that some people have what appears to be robust T-cell immunity to this particular infection has been extremely frustrating.

Making life much more difficult for the unvaccinated, some of whom appear to have better defences against covid than many vaccinated individuals, is nothing less than coercion. It's also wrong.

One can only hope that by this time next year we will have moved on from all this, that we will have learned to live with covid in a rational way. Right now, that seems like wishful thinking.

Yet, returning to Lennon, we can imagine a brighter future. I may be a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.
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Listen to Wrong Way's Colombia Cast podcast here.

Facebook: Wrong Way Corrigan — The Blog & IQuiz "The Bogotá Pub Quiz".

 

Rocking in the fear world

@wwaycorrigan

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]

Earlier this month, the UK's Daily Telegraph reported that accidents at London Tube stations have increased because some passengers are too afraid to hold onto the escalator handrails.

This is apparently due to fear of picking up the Sars-CoV-2 virus, or coronavirus as many simply call it. For the record, intoxication was also cited as a factor.

Careful now, coronavirus & Big Brother are watching you.

We must assume that those in the former category had no other choice but to use public transport to get to where they were going.

Fear play

Moreover, if they are so frightened of coming into contact with the coronavirus and thus potentially becoming ill with covid-19, it is perplexing how they managed to step outside and mix with the mad, morbid masses in the first instance. Think of all the dangers one encounters before entering the dungeon of disease that must be the London Tube.

Surely there are other, safer commute options? OK, I'm not au fait with the English capital, so perhaps it's not the case that the most efficient form of transport is by pushbike or on foot, as it is in many cities. 

Also, for health or other reasons cycling or walking what may be relatively long distances isn't an option for everybody (we're still waiting for these 15-minute cities).

That aside, congratulations are in order for the UK government, its public health body and malleable media. While they and their counterparts across the globe have got many things wrong during this pandemic — I've highlighted plenty of them previously — one can only applaud their remarkable success in instilling irrational fear about covid amongst the populace.

'No doubt there are many who hope I get my comeuppance for what they view as such an arrogant, indifferent stance.'

Judging by many people's reactions over the last 19 months or so, it's almost as if humanity had found the secret to immortality before our microscopic enemy from the East entered the global stage. Some seem so determined to avoid this virus that they'll actually harm themselves in other ways in the process.

There's no need here to once again repeat that covid-19 is a relatively mild infection for the majority — indeed, for some, it seems to cause no harm whatsoever — and that it is a very discriminate killer. One either knows this by now or simply refuses to accept the facts.

Fatal flaws

There are those who appear to want this to be an existential threat, one where we're all equally at risk. When one points out information to the contrary, he/she is accused of being heartless, of not caring enough, of wanting people to die.

I do find this odd as, in public pronouncements in any case, I usually do gravitate towards the worst-case scenario. I tend to see the problems more easily than the solutions. With covid, when I say, 'Look, all things considered, it's not that bad, it could be much worse', I get shouted down.

No doubt there are many who hope I get my comeuppance for what they view as such an arrogant, indifferent stance. I hasten to add, I'm not indifferent to those who have experienced loss due to covid.

All I'm trying to do is to put it into its proper context alongside all the other deadly threats we face as a species, something that I believe has been damagingly lacking throughout the pandemic. Overly focusing on one problem allows others to foment. Covid monomania can cause as much harm as the infection itself.

Perhaps I am setting myself up for a fatal fall. Wandering about unvaccinated (see The vaccine vexers for my thoughts on that), living my life as normal as I possibly can in these straitened times — save for any long-distance travelling of note — trying not to let fear of death affect my daily interactions.

Maybe coronavirus is just waiting for its moment to pounce on this blasé being. Maybe.

If it is, it is. The alternative is locking myself away indefinitely until it's "safe" to venture out again. I know if I did that, I wouldn't be long bidding adieu to this world.

I want to live life my way, as much as I can, not simply spend my days trying to avoid death.
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The vaccine vexers

@wwaycorrigan

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]

'He dreamt that the whole world was condemned to a terrible new strange plague that had come to Europe from the depths of Asia ... Some new sorts of microbes were attacking the bodies of men, but these microbes were endowed with intelligence and will. Men attacked by them became at once mad and furious. But never had men considered themselves so intellectual and so completely in possession of the truth as these sufferers, never had they considered their decisions, their scientific conclusions, their moral convictions so infallible. Whole villages, whole towns and peoples went mad from the infection ... Each thought that he alone had the truth and was wretched looking at the others, beat himself on the breast, wept, and wrung his hands. They did not know how to judge and could not agree what to consider evil and what good; they did not know whom to blame, whom to justify.'

Thus dreamt Raskolnikov in Fyodor Dostoevsky's classic novel, Crime and Punishment. Published in 1866 and a dream in a work of fiction it may be, yet the passage could be used with some accuracy to describe human behaviour during this covid-19 pandemic.

Lifesaver. Or is it?

Pandemonium

Since the novel coronavirus arrived on the world stage, I've touched on pretty much all of the contentious issues. 

Namely, the collateral damage of wholesale lockdowns together with the certainty of those endorsing them that they actually work and are worth it, and the coercive mass vaccination drive that with each passing day leaves more questions than answers.

As the pandemic becomes endemic, it's that vaccine question that vexes the most. 

When I wrote The case against vaccine passports it was thought likely that getting a jab would mean one would carry less of a viral load if infected, thus helping to reduce contagion, while also becoming less ill. The latter appears to hold true for the elderly and vulnerable yet data are emerging showing that the former is not the case.

So, the vaccine pushers' argument that young, healthy individuals would be 'doing their bit for society' by being jabbed loses its weight. Basically, the vaccine may help to provide protection against severe covid-19 infection, particularly in the elderly, yet one is not protecting others by getting it.

However, judging by social media, many still seem to believe that in getting a jab they've helped save humanity. 

It's become common practice to publicly declare it, normally via updated profile pictures with colourful I-got-the-vaccine graphics. You'd swear they'd just discovered the cure for cancer.

These pietistic pronouncements are nauseating considering there is much we still don't know. They only serve to distance those with genuine questions that have yet to be satisfactorily answered. 

'One must be willing to change tack when new information dictates but even allowing for that our decision-makers have been suspiciously contradictory, within the myopic mindset that covid is practically the only mortal threat we face.'

Even worse is the palpable anger from some of those vaccinated directed at those who are not. It's baffling. You're protected, guys, so why the annoyance?

In fact, maybe all of us 'stupid folk' not pharmaceutically protected will die from covid soon, pruning humanity of much of its current asininity. You should be happy.

I must add, I'd rather see vaccines administered to those who would truly benefit from them, no matter where they are in the world, ahead of some young Sam or Samantha in a high-income country, with the finest medical care at their disposal.

The unaccountables

Just to be clear, I'm not anti-vax as a rule, despite being labelled thus by some people. I've had numerous inoculations throughout my life. It's simply that when it comes to the covid jab, I'm far from convinced of its benefits for somebody like me at this remove.

It also doesn't help that the leaders and public health officials now imploring, nay threatening us to get vaccinated have been anything but consistent throughout the pandemic.

OK, one must be willing to change tack when new information dictates but even allowing for that our decision-makers have been suspiciously contradictory, within the myopic mindset that covid is practically the only mortal threat we face.

That many have now lost any remaining trust they had had in them is not at all surprising.

This returns us nicely to that prescient passage in Crime and Punishment. Raskolnikov's dream concluded:

'The alarm bell was ringing all day long in the towns; men rushed together, but why they were summoned and who was summoning them no one knew ... Men met in groups, agreed on something, swore to keep together, but at once began on something quite different from what they had proposed. They accused one another, fought and killed each other ... The plague spread and moved further and further. Only a few men could be saved in the whole world. They were a pure chosen people, destined to found a new race and a new life, to renew and purify the earth, but no one had seen these men, no one had heard their words and their voices.'

For our 21st-Century, real-life pandemic, there were early hopes that we would come out of it cleaner and greener, renewed and purified, with more shared responsibility.

Alas, it looks like we'll only become more centrally controlled, less independent and with greater inequality.

In the same way that people both believe(d) and fear(ed) a god that we cannot see, Big Tech and its affiliates are now filling this  godless void.

Largely invisible, unaccountable masters, moulding the masses to fit into their utopia. Worryingly, most are marching merrily to the madness.
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My "unopened" open letter to Ireland: Immune to natural immunity

@wwaycorrigan

You can blame — or thank, as the case may be — the Irish Independent for the following.

As a recipient of that paper's twice-daily newsletter, this helps me keep abreast of what's making the headlines back home. The Indo, as the cool people call it, appears to be firmly following the line of official Ireland when it comes to the covid-19 pandemic.

In fairness, pretty much every other media group in Ireland seems to be doing likewise. Dissenting voices are disregarded as cranks and/or conspiracy theorists.

So it came as no surprise that the letter I sent to the Independent and other newspapers on this very topic wasn't published. (It may yet appear this weekend, but that's unlikely.)

For the record — and for a small bit of peace of mind — below is a copy of exactly what I wrote, minus the salutations and with a couple of hyperlinks for additional reading:

People wait for a covid-19 vaccine in Bogotá, Colombia. But what about natural immunity?

'While the evidence suggests that covid-19 vaccines have helped those most vulnerable to the disease avoid severe illness and even death, the lack of attention paid to natural immunity is not only baffling but worrying.

'Many of those displaying a moral superiority for having been jabbed would do better to focus on living a healthier lifestyle rather than pontificating to the rest of us.'

Observing from a safe distance afar, the majority of Irish media seems to be in the vaccine-or-nothing brigade. That nothing amounts to being denied access to anything close to resembling a normal life. Alas, there's a glaring lack of critical thinking from Ireland's feeble Fourth Estate.

Thankfully, amidst all the hysteria, there are respected experts in the field — Jay Bhattacharya, Sunetra Gupta and Martin Kulldorff to name but three — who continue to highlight the role acquired/natural immunity plays in many individuals in keeping this virus at bay.

These defences can be present without actually having had covid-19, so the proof-of-recovery option in order to enter venues, etc. doesn't work in this case.

We've known from very early on in this pandemic that covid-19 is a deadly infection for only a very small percentage of the population. Its death rate is far from that of an indiscriminate killer such as yellow fever, for which proof of inoculation is required in some regions of the world. This is often used as an example by those in  favour of covid-19 vaccine passports. Anyone who thinks it's a like-for-like comparison is clearly suffering from coronavirus monomania.

The idea that one is being altruistic in getting jabbed also doesn't stand up to scrutiny. For one, we've seen plenty of fully vaccinated people get infected.

Secondly, it's not certain that inoculated individuals who come into contact with coronavirus carry less of a viral load than those with naturally acquired immunity.

Our immune systems have been battling coronaviruses for millennia. Many of those displaying a moral superiority for having been jabbed would do better to focus on living a healthier lifestyle rather than pontificating to the rest of us.'

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Wrong Way Corrigan radio interview on pandemic life in Bogotá

@wwaycorrigan

Shannonside Northern Sound's Joe Finnegan Show spoke to me as part of their series on Irish people living abroad during the coronavirus pandemic.

The evergreen Anne Norris — my news editor for the majority of the time I was working at the station — was deputising for JF.

Click on the following link to listen to the interview: https://www.northernsound.ie/podcasts/the-joe-finnegan-show/podcast-irish-abroad-brendan-corrigan-in-colombia-179546.

I must say, it's always nice to return to the Shannonside Northern Sound airwaves, the radio station where I cut my teeth (badly!) as a broadcaster!

One of Ireland's top regional radio stations (Image from Wikipedia.)

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Our freedom isn't being taken away — we never had it in the first place

@wwaycorrigan

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]

Back in those halcyon days in the early years of the last decade, I published a blog post called Phantom freedom. If you're too busy to click on the hyperlink to read it, the basic idea was that despite today's more interconnected world (particularly in terms of travel, pre-pandemic of course), in many ways we are less free and independent now compared to our ancestors.

'Never in the field of human activity was so much damage done to so many by so few.' Indeed. (Graph from www.vox.com.)

Peak freedom

Little did I know that I was living through our time's freest period. Back then, it could be said, was peak freedom for the 21st century. Fair enough, one can excuse the current restrictions imposed on many aspects of our lives, being as they are a result of the damaging coronavirus monomania afflicting many across the globe, especially those in the agenda-setting, high-income nations.

The hope is that they'll recover soon enough and realise that there are other causes of death and destruction out there, that focusing too much on one threat results in the flourishing of others. One must try to be optimistic on this front.

However, for how long we'll be forced to prove in myriad ways that we're not a health risk to society to do just about any activity that involves mixing with others remains to be seen.

Whatever about the above, for better or for worse — and it's not at all clear which it will be — the kind of measures being proposed for the coming years in a bid for cleaner, greener living should finally — and thankfully — put an end to the crazy notion that we live in a free world. I say thankfully simply because it irks me when I hear people, particularly our rule-makers, utter that falsehood.

'It's difficult to be enthusiastic about these green new deals when those who do the most damage pay little more than lip service in terms of changing their ways.'

I must state that I'm all for living in a more efficient and greener way. In fact, I wager that if more people in the comfortable classes lived as minimalist a life as I do there would be much less of a resource drain on the planet.

Whilst it was written somewhat tongue-in-cheek, I already follow to some degree a number of the recommendations in my The Great Reset post from earlier this year.

Thus, the likes of pay-as-you-drive road taxes which countries such as the UK are proposing, that's fine by me. I don't own a car these days and it's unlikely I ever will (again, that is — I did have one for two years in Ireland when I was in my early 20s. Oh the innocence of youth).

When it comes to air travel, with carbon pricing mooted, this mode of transport looks set to become the preserve of the rich once more. Again, I've no major complaints about this. Most people — in the comfortable classes specifically — fly more than they really need to.

Road to ruin

The issue I have with many of these ubiquitous green new deals is that those peddling them, from what I can see, are inflicting greater hardship on the rest of us in a bid to reduce the harmful effects of their very own excesses.

'We all must work collectively on this' is the mantra when they've been the main culprits, the greatest polluters, the biggest producers of waste — and hypocrisy. There must be something in the air they breathe up on that moral high ground.

Somewhat paradoxically, the UK government talks of 'levelling up'. It's about improving the lot for areas of the country that have traditionally been less well-off. Yet globally, if the many forecasts are to be believed, levelling up at current consumption rates is a road to ruin.

OK, levelling up following a green path is the idea. Nonetheless, it's difficult to be enthusiastic about this when those who do the most damage pay little more than lip service in terms of changing their ways.

The cynical view is that it all simply amounts to exerting greater control over the lives of the relatively powerless. And many, sadly, are either blissfully unaware of this or seem to have no problem with it at all. The future looks rather bleak indeed.
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Listen to Wrong Way's Colombia Cast podcast here.

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OK, covid's not the flu. But it's not yellow fever, either

@wwaycorrigan

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]

'Stop comparing covid-19 to the flu. It's much worse than that.' 

So goes the retort from those who view the coronavirus pandemic as a significant threat to much of humanity, responding to those who say it has been over-hyped and disingenuously documented as the chief cause of death in many cases.

To have a covid-19 shot or not, this is the question.

The truth is out there

Depending on which side one lies — that's one's position in this context, not, um, "untruths" — evidence and experts can be sourced to "prove" one's argument.

Basically, if one believes that covid is very serious indeed, then opposing views are dismissed as mere conspiracy theories. 

It doesn't matter if the experts quoted by those crazy conspiracists had previously been respected professionals. That they are now against the mainstream — or at least those dictating policy — means they're pursuing a particular agenda or they're simply wrong.

Conversely, should one think that this pandemic has been blown out of all proportion, then those on the other side are seen as naïve, completely consumed by the irrational fear and panic being promulgated.

The natural position for a journalist or analyst should be scepticism. Just because something comes with the official seal of a government or international body (read the World Health Organisation here), it doesn't automatically mean that it is unquestionable. 

Prepare yourselves for this, but such authorities don't always get things right or tell the truth, whether that's done innocently, ignorantly, insidiously or otherwise.

Alas, as much as one might like to follow the X-Files mantra of 'trust no one', in today's highly interconnected, interdependent world, we can't independently check and verify everything every time.

On a very minor level, I trust the staff at the panaderías I frequent to prepare my perico (coffee with milk) and bake los panes de chicharróna hygienically. When travelling on an aeroplane — remember those days? — we place confidence in the engineers et al. who built the craft and the pilots flying it to get us to our destination safely.

'It's understandable and should be acceptable that some people don't want a covid vaccine. Yet what we're seeing is a global plan to ensure such folk are discriminated against.'

With that in mind, during this pandemic where we have a number of competing narratives doing the rounds and a lack of consensus in the scientific community, about the best one can do is observe one's immediate environment and act accordingly.

  
Personally, I was in close contact with two people who a day or two later got quite sick from covid-19, one older than me, one younger. They weren't hospitalised but it did hit them badly enough. 

That's two people I know who got ill. There's a good chance I've been in contact with others who also came down with the infection of which I'm not aware.

Considering the supposedly highly infectious nature of covid, I've either been quite lucky and just haven't taken in enough of a viral load or I have some sort of immunity already.

A vexed vaccine

This then makes me question why I should be forced to take a vaccine against something that, it seems, doesn't affect me that much.

OK, you might say there's no compulsion to take the vaccine. In theory, yes. But one looks set to be at a distinct disadvantage in many walks of life without having proof of covid inoculation, international travel being the obvious one. Effectively, without being vaccinated I am currently banned from visiting my family in Ireland.

To this end, it irked me enormously to hear the UK Conservative MP, former Secretary of State for International Trade, Dr Liam Fox, whilst calling for restrictions to be eased, argue that those who don't get the vaccine shouldn't expect the same access to travel and other public events as those with the jab.

Speaking on Spectator TV, he said, 'People who don't get their immunisation can't expect, for example, to have the same international travel as people who do get it. That's always been the case. If, for example, you decide you didn't want to get a yellow fever jab you couldn't go to certain countries in Africa. So the principle is no different than before.'

However, Dr Fox, it actually is rather different. Or at least should be viewed differently if people were thinking straight.

Unlike yellow fever, we know that covid-19 is quite a discriminatory infection. Many of us have little to fear from it and some of us, as mentioned above, may already have naturally acquired immunity. Also, yellow fever's death rate is substantially higher than that of covid-19.

Thus, it's understandable and should be acceptable that some people don't want a covid vaccine. Yet, what we're seeing is a global plan to ensure such folk are discriminated against.

Throughout the pandemic we have seen how rather than unite to tackle a common problem, humanity has been deeply divided, be it in relation to lockdowns, mask-wearing or, now, the vaccine.

With such entrenched positions, the covid wars are set to last for some time to come.
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Listen to Wrong Way's Colombia Cast podcast here.

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Scaling down survival mode

@wwaycorrigan

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]

Whether one agrees or not with the coronavirus pandemic response taken by most of the world, the fact is we've all had to live with the constraints for well over a year now.

School's still out in many parts of Bogotá, even if some kids would like to see it back.

Fear mentality

As is well known, and as is the case for so many causes of death, those who have had most to fear from covid-19 are the elderly, followed by people with underlying conditions.

For the rest of us, the majority, the risk the infection represents is minimal. 

However, the extraordinary measures introduced across the globe to reduce contagion resulted in irrational reactions by some folk who in reality face greater threats to their lives than this virus. (Some will say, altruistically, they've done it to save the lives of others. All they may have done, though, is caused more harm to themselves and others.)

The lifting of this fear mentality is not something that will come easily. This is particularly so when we have overly cautious leaders who continue to suffer from covid monomania and a majority in the media who submissively follow the official line. It has been as if no other cause of hardship and death really exists.  

This myopia appears most acute in high-income countries, places where many enjoy a comfortable existence, relatively speaking, with restrictions less impactful. While Colombia has had its lockdowns and the like, the approach of late has largely been 'carry on regardless'.

Except, that is, for arguably the most pressing area where a return to "normality" is needed: primary and secondary education. Most schools are continuing with sub-standard virtual learning. 

OK, we have seen some in-person classes with reduced capacity and alternate days, but it's the private schools that have been more proactive on this front. The public institutes, as they tend to do, lag behind. Thus, the divide between the privileged and the rest deepens.

'The monster is the irrational fear that continues to dominate public discourse and policy.'

The thing is, because of health concerns amongst teachers and other staff — misplaced as they are for many — plus the general state of covid fear being promulgated, no one is in a major panic to go back to pre-pandemic ways.

Monster mash

In the same way that people mistakenly call Frankenstein the monster — Frankenstein was, of course, the monster's creator — coronavirus is not monster-in-chief, it created the conditions for a scarier one to emerge.

That monster is the irrational fear that continues to dominate public discourse and policy. Even those of us who have questioned the pandemic response can't avoid being caught up in this.

I, for one, went into survival mode, financially speaking in any case. 

So even though one has been free to travel around Colombia largely unrestricted for months now — the national strike disturbances notwithstanding — nonchalantly moving around the country, eating into one's steadily diminishing savings just hasn't seemed prudent. (OK, my own future would have been uncertain pandemic or not, but the overall atmosphere doesn't help whatsoever.)

As is the case for millions of others across the world, the lack of a steady income muddies the waters further. When one isn't sure where the next significant payment is coming from, it makes it more difficult to ease off the financial brakes.  

A more liberal approach would be to not get bogged down in cash concerns (for those who have the luxury to do so, that is. Most of my Colombian friends live, at best, from week to week). Bet on things improving both personally and on a grander scale in the not-too-distant future. Calmer waters are on the horizon.

While there may be truth to that, my conservative side dominates my thinking here. Or based on last week's post, some of you might say my doomsday, glass-is-half-empty view darkens the landscape.

Whatever the case, there are certain things beyond our control. The best we can do is to have mechanisms in place to ensure those uncontrollables have less of an impact on us than they might otherwise have if left unthought of.

That is to say, survival mode is somewhat permanent. It's just that certain events see us scale up this modus operandi more so than others. They also tend to make us more risk-averse in numerous ways, damaging as that may be over the medium to long term.
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Listen to Wrong Way's Colombia Cast podcast here.

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Hold tight, the worst is yet to come

@wwaycorrigan

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]

If you've ever listened to and/or read the work of Canadian cognitive psychologist, linguist, and popular-science author, Steven Pinker, you'll know that he's been at pains to tell us, replete with facts and figures, that as a species we've never had it so good.

In countries such as Colombia, a post-pandemic boom is hard to envisage.

Wild West

Life expectancy is up across the globe, child mortality levels have never been lower, there are fewer devastating wars, the list of positive indicators, when looked at over time, is practically endless.

Indeed, even the millions, nay billions, who have been spooked into believing that covid-19 — that is to say the infection caused by the coronavirus, not the highly questionable, damaging measures introduced to curtail contagion — is an 'unprecedented threat' need only look back at history to realise that as pandemics go, we've got off lightly.

In fact, as many high-income nations marvel at the rapid rollout of their vaccination programmes and with it a decline in hospitalisations/deaths linked to covid-19 — cause-and-effect questions aside — talk is shifting in some quarters to a roaring twenties for the 21st century, akin to what some countries experienced in the 1920s after World War One ended and the Spanish flu petered out.

Yes, it is true that practically everyone has been disrupted in some form due to lockdowns and a halting of what was once called "normal life". 

However, it would appear many in the comfortable classes who have been able to continue working and earning throughout the pandemic largely as before — a prolonged home office being the main change — have boosted their cash reserves. And now, green light pending, they're ready to splurge.

It is also true that most countries have increased their debt burden in order to keep their economies ticking over after having shut down a host of finance-generating activities. (That debt does have to be paid back, doesn't it? Or is it just numbers on a page? Or a stick to continuously beat the masses with? 'Time to tighten your belts again, guys.')

Whatever the case, hope exists that with post-pandemic elation, we'll spend our way into a boom.

That's the optimistic take. Yet, as hard as Steven Pinker et al. try to convince us otherwise, the age-old human tendency to believe that the current epoch is the worst, that the apocalypse is nigh, is unlikely to lessen in intensity.

On the contrary, the indicators are that the opposite will happen.

I say this because of a vociferous, activist and, importantly, influential group of largely affluent people from the global West that sees virtually everything associated with Western values and its way of life as the root of all our problems. 

The fact that their own comfortable existence, nay their existence at all, is thanks to the West's achievements doesn't seem to register.

Now, I must state that I'm all for correcting what we recognise as bad practices. Materialism and its disposable, waste-heavy living tend to bring out the worst in human behaviour. Finding truly sustainable, reliable energy sources to continue to drive positive advancements is not just worthwhile, it's essential.

However, those West-is-evil virtue signallers tend to be spectacular hypocrites. 'Everything must change, except us.' 

They thrive off an alarmist agenda, convince themselves that they're doing their bit to save humanity/the planet, safe in the knowledge that they'll never have to face the real consequences of finding that delicate balance between progress and sustainability, between life and death.

'It very much feels like a rather open, liberal period is giving way to one that is quite the opposite.'

That the worst is yet to come is due to what I see as the pursuing of a regressive agenda, one that if implemented would actually deepen the divide between the haves and have nots. A case of, 'everything's been built on false premises, tear it all down and start again.'

To give such an approach its due, the argument can be made that there would indeed be a temporary decline while we readjust to new ways but we'd soon power on again, cleaner, greener and leaner.

Changing times

Staying largely positive, take the following observation from the epilogue of J.M. Roberts' mammoth The Penguin History of the World, 1997 reprint:

'There are still no reasons to believe that the ways of discovering techniques to meet problems in the past cannot again be brought to bear successfully. We have no grounds either logical or empirical for thinking that the steady accretion of control over nature which has marked all history until now will not continue. All that is different is that change is quite simply more sweeping and faster than ever before. But this applies to the search for solutions as well as to the emergence of problems.

We know of nothing in the nature of the problems now facing the human race which in principle renders them incapable of solution. They may be more urgent and potentially more damaging, but this is only to say that their solution may require more urgent and radical methods, more drastic political and social change, not that they are insoluble.

We may have to decide to live in a different way, but we need not assume mankind will be extinguished ... We have plenty of evidence of human adaptability in the past. The only clear warning which does stand out is that, whatever we do, we are likely to be gravely misled about the future if we simply extrapolate present trends. We must prepare for discontinuity as well as continuity.'

How continuity and discontinuity manifest themselves will be the key to success. Or failure. For me, the signs are not good.

It very much feels like a rather open, liberal period is giving way to one that is quite the opposite.

This brings to mind the remarks of Steppenwolf in Herman Hesse's classic novel of the same name, worthy of being reprinted in full here:

'Every age, every culture, every custom and tradition has its own character, its own weakness and its own strength, its beauties and ugliness; accepts certain sufferings as matters of course, puts up patiently with certain evils. Human life is reduced to real suffering, to hell, only when two ages, two cultures and religions overlap. A man of the Classical Age who had to live in medieval times would suffocate miserably just as a savage does in the midst of our civilisation.

Now there are times when a whole generation is caught in this way between two ages, two modes of life, with the consequence that it loses all power to understand itself and has no standard, no security, no simple acquiescence. Naturally, everyone does not feel this equally strongly. A nature such as Nietzsche's had to suffer our present ills more than a generation in advance. What he had to go through alone and misunderstood, thousands suffer today.'

It certainly appears that some people seem intent on ensuring that suffering is a widespread constant. In an Orwellian sense, suffering is joy. Indeed.
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Listen to Wrong Way's Colombia Cast podcast here.

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Along came a virus

@wwaycorrigan

The following is perhaps a sign that coronavirus has finally got the better of me, mentally that is (although some will say I've been having issues in my head that predate this pandemic). Covid-19 gets you one way or another, I guess.

Whatever the case, I've tentatively dipped into the world of poetry — if the three short verses penned below can be classed as a poem.

You can decide that. For an audio version of Along came a virus, click here.

Along came a virus

Ignored it could no longer be.
An alluring carefree independence,
Now filled my air with resplendence.
'Mind those ill winds, those pastures new,
That aren't quite so green in hue.'
It mattered nought, counsel I'd not sought.
'Twas all wrought
Before there came a virus.

Of my life, I'll take control.
No more the system's slave, on my terms I shall engage,
This is working for our age.
Suffering, it can't be defeated,
But best to toil alone than to be mistreated.
The time's right, no fool I'll delight.
I had the fight,
Till along came a virus.

Measures now must be obeyed.
Submit ourselves, it won't last long,
Yet as time goes on, hope seems all but gone.
'It's for the best, we'll come out stronger,
We just have to stay in it a bit longer.'
Empty words, follow the herd.
The future spurned
When along came that virus.

Sign of the times.

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Listen to Wrong Way's Colombia Cast podcast here.

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'Medellín's sex tourism is a cancer' — Tourism Vice Minister

@wwaycorrigan

Colombia's Vice Minister for Tourism has spoken out about the 'huge problem' of prostitution in Medellín.

In an interview with Wrong Way's Colombia Cast podcast, Julián Guerrero Orozco described sex tourism in Colombia's second city as a 'cancer that we need to fight more strongly'.

Julián Guerrero Orozco: Colombia's Vice Minister for Tourism.

Unwelcome visitors

In reference to those who visit the country to engage in such activities he said, 'they are not welcome in Colombia. There is nothing that we dislike more than that type of tourism.'

While highlighting the various measures introduced by the government to deal with the prostitution problem, Vice Minister Guerrero admitted that so far the 'effort is not enough because more people want to come for this reason.'

On the specific issue of illegal underage sex workers, the Vice Minister referred to a new law introduced in December 2020 that allows for the prosecution and closure of hotels and other such establishments caught facilitating the practice.

'What we included in the law, there will now be a consequence for that [for hotels that allow underage
prostitution].'

'We are trying our best to combat sex tourism.'

Mr Guerrero also spoke of strengthening the cooperation between various regional and state bodies 'to try to reduce [sex tourism] as much as possible ... We are trying our best to combat this crime.'

In relation to the many problems facing the tourism industry in these pandemic times, the Vice Minister referenced the more than 40 specific measures already introduced by the government to help the sector.

'Probably no other economic sector in Colombia has received more benefits than the tourism sector.'

Although he didn't rule out further supports, he did warn: 'There has to be a limit at some point because it cannot go on endlessly. Already very significant measures [have been introduced], I would dare say that probably no other economic sector in Colombia has received more benefits than the tourism sector.'

Asked about prioritising domestic tourism in light of the major slowdown in international travel, the tourism chief said that 'it would be an error, not only for Colombia but for different countries, just to focus on domestic travellers. One needs to recognise that international travellers are good travellers, they have good incomes, they spend quite a bit.'

On the requirement for a negative PCR test for covid-19 when flying into the country, Mr Guerrero suggested that Colombia has been more flexible than others, particularly thanks to the availability of a test on arrival.

Finally, Vice Minister Guerrero, who previously worked as Vice President for Tourism at the state body ProColombia, ruled out further roles in the public sector once his current position ends next year.

'I will stay working in tourism, in sustainable tourism, maybe through consultancy or my own business ... But I've worked in the public sector for 20 or 25 years, so I think that's about enough.'

Watch the YouTube interview in full at https://youtu.be/bAJYSF6iEVg or listen to an audio-only podcast version at https://anchor.fm/brendan-corrigan/episodes/Colombias-Tourism-Minister-on-covid-supports--foreign-visitors--Medellns-prostitution-cancer-eqtufl.
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