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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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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The Great Resignation

@wwaycorrigan

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

Much has been written about various "new normals" in our lives in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic. The enforced pause on people's modus operandi has led many to re-evaluate their situation.

An honest day's work. It's nice to do it every now and again.

Getting "Brexit" done

In high-income nations and those in the comfortable classes elsewhere — in a Colombian context, I'm probably still classified as comfortable, the low bar that it is — this moment of reflection has been particularly felt in the employment sphere, resulting in what has been termed the Great Resignation.

Those with any sort of financial wriggle room and who were heretofore merely going through the motions at their less-than-fulfilling jobs decided to take action as they dealt with stay-at-home orders and other radical restrictions.

'If I can't implement change during a large-scale disruptor event such as this, then I never will.' That, no doubt, has been the thinking.

Now,  it would be stretching it to call me a trailblazer, but I did take that leap of faith — leaving behind a relatively well-paid but unfulfilling job — before the coronavirus catalyst got to work on the rest of the restless.

In advance of finally deciding on the nuclear option, I had been trying to plot a more financially secure exit strategy, keeping in mind the adage 'It's easier to find a job when you're in a job.' But the few alternative full-time positions that presented themselves didn't set the heart racing.

'One may have no other choice but to rejoin the dreaded rat race, sooner rather than later.'

Nonetheless, rather than hold tight, I simply said I had to get my own "Brexit" done, that being Brendan's leaving of the marketing agency DDB.

Perhaps akin to the UK's Brexit, my thinking was — and remains (no, not that "remain") — that things will work out. 'Our fundamentals are solid, we'll find a way.'

However, as the former United States Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, once said of Great Britain, that it 'has lost an empire and not yet found a role', this could apply in my case here. Not, I hasten to add, that my professional career can in any way be equated to the power of the British Empire at its height.

There is no shortage of jobs. They're just not the right ones ...

Resigned to the rat race

The idea, however, of the world being my oyster as one might think it should be for a Western-born, single, childless individual, is certainly weaker today than it was ten years ago.

There are reasons somewhat outside of my control for that, chief amongst them these new normals, particularly the illogical, punitive measures against unvaccinated folk.

Then there's the fact that after a decade of having Colombia as my base and earning the weakening local currency, my global purchasing power is less today than it was in 2011.

Yet, putting a more positive spin on it, the post-pandemic world should present as many opportunities as it does challenges.

That's the hope in any case. (I can't say, though, and shocking as this may be to regular readers, that I'm entirely optimistic about the short- to medium-term future).

In line with the spirit of the Great Resignation — or at least my interpretation of it, sticking to the reasons why I resigned ahead of the pack, so to put it — my ideal is to work with people, not for them.

The "fiscal space", however, in which the Republic of Wrong Way has to realise those ambitions is disappearing rather rapidly. One may have no other choice but to rejoin the dreaded rat race, sooner rather than later. 'Back into line, you rascal of a rodent.'

That may actually be the true essence of the Great Resignation: resigned to one's insipid fate.
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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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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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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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Swimming against the Big Tech tide

@wwaycorrigan
[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]
I recently wrote about how Big Nanny State has facilitated a tendency amongst some in society to forego growing up and taking responsibility. 'Leave everything up to me, little ones. Simply submit, follow the rules, however arbitrary many may seem, and off with you to enjoy your highly regulated lives.'

The QR-code revolution: Wrong Way is not a fan.

Virtual reality

Cosily tucked up with Big Nanny State in her warm global bed is Big Tech, monitoring everything from our sleeping patterns and what we eat for breakfast to our favourite pastimes and guilty pleasures. While this might appear a rather clandestine undertaking, the reality is, it isn't.

The virtual world that practically all in higher-income countries plus the middle classes elsewhere have signed up to with countless usernames and passwords means we have voluntarily — or at least it was voluntarily initially — invited Big Tech and its associates into our lives. And while some folk seem fairly blasé about this, there does appear to be pushback fomenting in other quarters.

The question is, shy of a system overthrow or a complete retreat from society, how does one go about living in the 21st Century whilst endorsing minimalist technological use?

Unless you're already a "made" man, woman or whatever you wish to call yourself these days, not having the likes of WhatsApp and/or an email account together with being connected to the internet 24/7, leaves you at a distinct disadvantage. And even if you are comfortably settled on Easy Street, this doesn't mean you can effortlessly free yourself from Big Tech's dominance.

Many services, from the world of finance to dining and everything else in between, now expect the user to be equipped with a smartphone — a device that tends to sap any modicum of intelligence from said user.

'In the pandemic pandemonium where each fellow human being is seen as a Grim Reaper, QR-code menus take away one potential area of contagion.'

All of this is supposedly being done in the name of convenience. Fair enough, if you can do everything from the comfort of your own home or wherever, there's something to be said for that. However, when it's done to the detriment of being able to actually sit down and talk to somebody face to face should the need arise, while I'm all against it.

A mine of information

Just one manifestation of this — something that, thankfully, rarely affects me in my modest existence in Colombia — is the switch to QR-code menus and suchlike in restaurants. Some people think this is a wonderful development.

For one, in the pandemic pandemonium where each fellow human being is seen as a Grim Reaper, it takes away one potential area of contagion: the handling of reused menus. It also cuts down on paper by reducing the need for said menus, therefore, so it goes, it's good for the environment.

Both of those "plus points" are true, but one's smartphone doesn't exactly run on fresh air, does it? Plus, outside of its component parts — including those lithium batteries, mined in ethically questionable ways, to say the least — it has to be recharged regularly.

Speaking of mining, in places where you actually order electronically, how much personal information is hammered out of us in the process? Another aspect to Big Tech's perpetual profiling.

In the realm of finance, so far my bank in Colombia, Banco Caja Social, hasn't forced me to go fully mobile. Indeed, in some regards, this particular institution is too archaic and overly bureaucratic. Nonetheless, when it comes to money, you can't be too careful all the same.

In contrast, the only bank I currently do business with in Ireland, Bank of Ireland UK in Belfast, more or less forced me recently to download its app in order to continue having access to my account. Come on guys, there are only so many apps a bog-standard smartphone can hold!

The net result of this 'move to mobile' is that it leaves us at the mercy of a faceless Big Tech. Technology is the master. To borrow, in a way, from Winston Churchill, 'Never has so much power been in the hands of so few, controlling so many.'

Call me, if you will, a contrarian conservative fearful of what amounts to nothing more than innocent and innovative change.

However, in a world where we are ceding more and more of whatever independence we had to faceless forces, I will do what I can to resist, at least for a little while longer. It will, most likely, be a futile exercise.
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Facebook: Wrong Way Corrigan — The Blog & IQuiz "The Bogotá Pub Quiz".

Home is where the barrio is

@wwaycorrigan

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

Before my adult days, I remember being rather puzzled about my father's strong desire to get back to his local haunt(s) whenever we'd be out and about.

Calm after the storm: The at times action-packed Barrio Santandercito.

In fact, even when I started my own beer-accompanied socialising and on the rare occasions I'd be with my Dad in an unfamiliar setting, this itchy-feet tendency to return to his stomping ground bemused me.

Where everybody knows your name

'Just relax and enjoy the new surroundings', I'd think to myself. 'What's the panic?'

Now, however, and perhaps with the pandemic serving as a catalyst, I better understand this fondness for "home" comforts. Similar to my father, this isn't an eagerness to be back where I sleep — I've never been able to truly call home any place I've rented. It's a case of being in the environment where I socialise the most, with my Bogotá buddies.

This is at odds with many an adage. Take your pick from, to name but three, variety is the spice of life, familiarity breeds contempt, a change is as good as a rest. I'm sure there are more.

Yet, forced for months on end to not really being allowed to venture outside my part of Bogotá, now that one can officially travel unrestrictedly around Colombia, my enthusiasm to do so is somewhat lacking.

'Thrifty tendencies do also have their mental rewards.'

In fact, it's at a stage where visiting the first barrio popular that I called "home", La Perseverancia, 18 kilometres south of my current abode, now seems like a holiday. I haven't brought the overnight bag there yet, but it might be an option next time after the hassle I had trying to get home on the previous occasion I visited. One can never rely on public transport in Bogotá.

Break free

What's more, the few times that I haven't been able to call into my panadería "office" throughout this pandemic, I've been left a little ill at ease. The panadería owners, acting in good faith, of course, play their part in this, chastising me for my sporadic absences, accusing me of being a traitor. 'If Brendan's not here this morning, where the heck is he?'

What all this basically amounts to is that I've become comfortable in my routine. Comfortable in mediocrity, in the unspectacular one could say.

Linked to this is a feeling, to a certain extent, that I'm undeserving of a holiday because I haven't had steady work — or at least work that puts pesos in my pocket — throughout the pandemic. You know, one shouldn't be spending money recklessly when one isn't sure from where the next meaningful payday is going to come.

That whole live-each-day-like-it's-your-last mentality is wonderful in theory. However, if I were to let the handbrake off and truly live as I wish, well then I'd want to be in my last few days on this planet — it would be financially unsustainable as things stand at present. Thrifty tendencies do also have their mental rewards.

Nonetheless, a break from the Bogotá barrio is coming. It must.

Experience lets me know that I can find as much joy — if not more, for a time at least — in a more tranquil setting. Every town has its panaderías, tiendas and streets to wander after all. Same, same but different.
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The Great Reset

@wwaycorrigan

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

There's been much talk of the pandemic ushering in a Great Reset. Depending on your viewpoint, it's either a positive opportunity to change how we live or it's an attempt by the controlling elite to exert even more influence over us, to ensure our subservience to the overlords.

The use of mechanically propelled transport will be severely curtailed.

Whatever the case, on the individual level, many of us have been reappraising our lives throughout these hokey-cokey times (by hokey-cokey, I refer to the 'one foot in, one foot out, shake it all about' lockdowns and other such restrictive measures we've experienced of late).

With both a desire by some to live a more virtuous life and a potentially enforced Great Reset in mind — heavy on grand rhetoric but light on specifics as the latter appears to be — here I suggest changes to a few key areas that, if implemented, will surely have us within touching distance of salvation. Until the rules of engagement change again, that is.

Travel and general movement

Good news first. There will be absolutely no restrictions on moving around for those on foot or push-bike (we're not sure about rollerblading and skateboarding — they seem a bit too radical). In other words, self-propelled movement, as in using your own energy to get around, is limitless. No interfering state here (but it will be tracking you, all the same).

For those who feel the need to use transport whose motion is propelled by means other than one's own energy, there will be a daily limit of 20 kilometres. While this may seem quite tight, you will be allowed to accumulate unused kilometres. So, for example, if you didn't use mechanically powered transport for two years straight, in the third year you'd have built up 14,600 kilometres to use. What more could you want?

Needless to say, billionaires and world leaders are excluded from this — and all the following measures — due to the fact that civilisation would end should their ability to operate be curtailed in any way.

Food and drink

Similar to travel, there will be no restrictions on what you can consume provided it is sourced within a — give us a number — OK, 50-kilometre radius of where you live.

To be clear, by sourced I mean grown or reared within that catchment area.

'As we're nearing the end of history, references to the past will be removed from the internet. It's time to look forward guys, not back.'

All other foodstuffs will be subject to very punitive taxes, the exact details of which have yet to be finalised.

Clothing

In line with the previous — can you guess what's coming? — there will be no limit on the purchase of clothing whose raw materials come from inside a 50-kilometre radius and whose fabrication also occurs within that area.

Outside of that, the restrictions are as follows:
- No more than five units of each officially recognised undergarment per person per year, i.e. five pairs of socks, five boxers, five vests, five knickers, five pairs of tights, five bras.
- No more than two upper-body items of clothing per person per year.
- One lower-body item of clothing per person per year.
- One suit per person per year.
- No more than two footwear items per person per year (there will be an associated campaign to get people to walk barefoot more often — think of it as bottom-up toughening up).

Technology

All citizens of the world will be provided with a smartphone that must be kept switched on during one's active hours.

What's more, everyone must have a Facebook account and spend at least two hours per day on it — no problem for many, that.

People can publish whatever material they wish, provided it meets the approval of the moderators. In addition, material can be removed with no prior warning and no reason needs to be given. 

Moreover, users can be banned from posting material should these faceless, answerable-to-nobody moderators see fit to do so. (Please note, the identity of moderators is not revealed in order to protect all of humankind.)

Finally, as we're nearing the end of history, references to the past will be removed from the internet. It's time to look forward guys, not back.

That's enough to take in for now. I'll be back with more later. In any case, it's an impressive blueprint for a better future, isn't it?
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Listen to Wrong Way's Colombia Cast podcast here.

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

Western leaders' crimes against humanity

@wwaycorrigan

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

Each year throws up its surprises that catch us off guard, leave us badly exposed. From a global perspective, this year has, um, trumped them all since, arguably, the end of World War II.

Guilty of crimes against humanity? (Photo from Facebook.)

Covid contradictions

Along came a relatively mild, easily transmitted virus from the east that overwhelmed much of the world, save for a few savvy Asia-Pacific countries.

It's not like those who are meant to be calling the shots weren't warned, however. Larry Brilliant, for one, had been sounding the alarm bells well over a decade ago — if only we'd listened and taken heed.

We didn't. Leaders and public health officials in heretofore respected developed nations showed their complete lack of preparedness for something that, despite what they like to tell us, is not 'unprecedented'. Pandemics are nothing new.

Of course, the unprecedented nature of this coronavirus has been how those nations reacted to what is, mercifully, not a terribly lethal killer for the vast majority of the population. Initial inaction was and continues to be followed by overreaction.

What's more, the best comedy writers in the world couldn't have come up with some of the contradictory, unfathomable measures that have been imposed on the masses in order to curb the spread of the virus.

'Instead of continuing to play fast and loose with the lives of so many whilst enjoying six-figure sums in their own comfortable bubbles, our leaders should be in the Hague for crimes against humanity.'

In Ireland, for example, they've had restrictions on the number of households that can mix contrasted with children going to school where they mingle with an untold number of others.

Then there's the fact that you can have an alcoholic beverage in a public establishment as long as you're eating something with it. A pint of beer in a pub without a meal that costs over nine euros is a big no-no.

As most epidemiologists will tell you, coronavirus doesn't like those flashy types who dine out — "he" is a more modest character. Those having nothing more than a liquid lunch, though, prime targets. It would seem our microscopic visitor is more intelligent than most of our leaders.

Making a killing

It's a tad amusing listening to and reading about all this from a relatively relaxed Colombia. The powers that be here seem to have come to the conclusion that while deaths attributed to covid-19 will continue there are so many other life-or-death issues to contend with that we just have to get on with things.

The coronavirus monomania that had afflicted Colombia's leaders in the early days of the pandemic appears to have subsided somewhat.

You see, death comes to us in a variety of ways. When our governments and health officials overly focus on one aspect, the result is that other life-taking conditions prosper.

So, while we can chuckle from afar at the incompetents imposing absurd, harmful restrictions in my home country and elsewhere, there are very serious elements to it.

The mortgaging away of the futures of our young and active ages, the countless — as opposed to the very much "counted" deaths attributed to covid-19 — life years lost, the deepening of the divide between the haves and have-nots.

Instead of continuing to play fast and loose with the lives of so many whilst enjoying six-figure sums in their own comfortable bubbles these leaders, Messrs Johnson, Macron, Martin, Varadkar et al., should be in The Hague for crimes against humanity.

Maybe that's one pleasant surprise 2021 can bring us. One can only hope.

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Broadening the horizons, both mentally and physically

@wwaycorrigan

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

'Choose where you want to live and then find ways to make your life sustainable there.'

Does the answer lie to the north? Perhaps ...

In those pre-coronavirus days that now seem like a lifetime ago, for many open-minded people with internationally transferable skills or in jobs that required no fixed abode, and with nothing too emotional tying them to one particular place, that epigraph made a lot of sense. The world was, to all intents and purposes, their oyster.

Wealth is health

With the pandemic, while the (relatively) free movement of people hasn't completely ground to a halt, it is much more restricted than it was just nine months ago. 

In addition, there is the moral element at play in relation to the risks associated with unnecessary travel and mixing with strangers.

This can be even more of a burden considering the direction of travel in a live-anywhere-because-I-can context is heavily weighted towards emerging market countries and away from more developed nations. The latter — in theory, although this current pandemic hasn't exactly borne this out — is much better equipped to handle a health emergency.

'Many will have to reinvent themselves to survive in the new landscape.'

So, using that as a guide, it's quite understandable that a country such as Colombia appears to be making it more difficult for digital nomad types to pitch their virtual tents in its territory. 

Unless it can clearly be demonstrated you're of benefit to the state and its people, away with you. (For the record, I can't really call myself a digital nomad, if this is classed in terms of making money doing online work.)

Of course, the pandemic will pass and restrictions on movement — for tourism and some wishing to be economic migrants in any case — are likely to ease. What will take longer to get over is the fallout from it.

Work the location

For some, in terms of living standards anyway, little has changed. Indeed, in certain aspects, their lives may have even improved.

For others — and for the large part, those who were already struggling before this coronavirus — things are much more difficult. Many will have to practically reinvent themselves to survive in the new landscape.

I can't really blame the pandemic for my current imbroglio. OK, the virus ("Alan", you owe me money!) certainly hasn't helped my situation, but I took a decision to try to 'go it alone' before our enemy from the East arrived. The results thus far are nothing to write home about.

Coming back to our opening quote, if I continue to choose Colombia as the country in which I live — a decision that I have less control over today than previously — then it looks like I need to reappraise how I can "make it" here. 

Certain things that I've said no more to, specifically English teaching and marketing agency work, may have to come back into play.

Yet, if the strategy is all about finding gainful employment that I consider more meaningful and suited to my skills, then perhaps I need to reconsider the location.

There is no ideal — even Colombia purely as a location has its negatives — yet my current approach isn't exactly paying dividends.
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Listen to Wrong Way's Colombia Cast podcast here.

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Forget the novel coronavirus, a novel First World war is a-brewing

An audio version of this blog is available here.
'Your grandparents and great-grandparents had to live through devastating wars, with a bloody end a very real possibility. Today, all you have to do to play your part is stay at home.'

Conventional warfare may be surplus to requirements for the next global conflict.

This has been one of the typical messages levelled at those who have been struggling or unwilling (there's no place for conscientious objectors) to comply with lockdown measures. A case of, 'cop yourselves on lads and stop complaining.'

Uncomfortable home truths

On the face of it, it makes sense. We're not being sent to the battlefields in our millions or asked to work around the clock to do our bit for the war effort. No. To stop the spread of this coronavirus, it's simply a case of adhering to an even more sedentary lifestyle than many had been living heretofore — sedentary in terms of work anyway.

In addition, in the more economically advanced nations, some are getting paid for their efforts i.e. getting money to do nothing.

The problem is, this just-stay-at-home thinking assumes people have no issue in doing so. Yet even the most misanthropic individual can suffer from cabin fever. 

A change of scenery every now and again, however unremarkable, is needed for one's mental health. Or at least the reassurance that you can move relatively freely about without fear of retribution. Simply knowing you are allowed to do something can be good enough in itself, you don't actually have to do it.

What's more, while there's been a cautious return of sporting events that have long served as catharses for many, seeing games played at empty venues has rendered them as exciting and emotionally useful as President Iván Duque's daily coronavirus updates. Indeed, both tend to leave us just more depressed.

'In the past, we could "rely on" a wide-scale war or two to give a raison d'être to the restless, fighting-fit, sexually frustrated (read incel here) men.'

Added to this is the increase in already existing worries amongst our younger generations about a financially insecure future, especially for those who have been struggling to find a meaning to their lives. 

To repeat myself for the umpteenth time — the pandemic appears to have inhibited foresight in some folk, if they ever had the faculty at all that is — the collateral damage from the stop-coronavirus-at-all-costs approach could be very high and long-lasting.

While some academics, though not all, say that previous pandemics played a part in reducing inequality, today's viral enemy will most likely do the opposite. 

For one, covid-19 is not a fatal infection for the working-age population, bar a very small number of exceptions. So it won't be the case that it will be an employees' market when we get through this. Job insecurity and lack of opportunities will most likely be worse, not better.

Such an environment is a perfect breeding ground for discontent.

In the past, to counteract this, we could rely on a wide-scale war or two to give a raison d'être to the restless, fighting-fit, sexually frustrated (read incel here) men, with most of the women providing backing support on the home front or tending to the wounded in field hospitals.

Of course, we can never rule out another conflict where our First World nations get involved en masse — it is, after all, in the so-called developed regions where we tend to have more discontented young men.

However, today's modern warfare requires fewer infantry soldiers than previously. (In emerging-market countries such as Colombia, to highlight but one difference, it could be argued that criminality absorbs at an early age those who otherwise might have become lost, thus giving them a purpose with more pressing concerns to worry about than the meaning of life.)

'Our best "hope" might be for Mother Nature to strike first with her own deadly attack, by whatever means she deems necessary.'

So as much as there may be sufficient numbers of willing young men ready to take up arms for a cause, our next global conflict involving the advanced nations is likely to be less in-your-face than those that humanity suffered in the 20th century.

Nonetheless, by that very fact, it could prove to be much more pernicious. As we're seeing with coronavirus, when you're fighting a microscopic enemy it's rather difficult to pinpoint exactly where to strike a telling blow.

So imagine a more lethal, indiscriminate killer than covid-19 at large amongst the populace. We're talking 21st-century biological warfare. 

In such a scenario, mobilising our frustrated young men — those who managed to avoid death from the initial wave of disease that is — would be of little use, save for sending them in as foot soldiers to tidy up and, perhaps, repopulate enemy territory if and when the belligerents have been defeated.

Bet on Beijing

It might sound far-fetched, but with a belief amongst a number of shrewd analysts that the US and its allies are already in a cold war with China, heating this up doesn't require an actual military battle.

If this current pandemic happens to be an unplanned test for something far uglier to come, China's leaders must surely be confident that having tight control over their people gives them a distinct advantage over the West, with its disenchanted, disunited, undisciplined youths. 

In fact, Beijing mightn't be far off the mark if it feels the West has hit the self-destruct button. In a zeitgeist of cancel culture and wokeness, a slight nudge is all that's needed to send it over the edge.

Our best hope might be for Mother Nature to strike first with her own deadly attack, by whatever means she deems necessary. The problem with this is that it most likely wouldn't sufficiently deal with the issue at hand in the way conventional warfare would i.e. disproportionately take out those disenchanted young men. 

It would, or at least should, however, make us all, wherever we're from and whatever we believe, appreciate our precious, privileged time on this planet. It's certainly going to take something more threatening than this novel coronavirus to achieve that in any case.

Having said that, it is an insult to all those who died in the world wars, not to mention the Spanish flu, to compare them to this current pandemic. Mercifully, covid-19 is a discriminate killer and at that, not a terribly lethal one.

Nonetheless, for those of you who feel coronavirus is our defining war moment right now, you might want to start building that bunker while you still can. To borrow from the 1970s rock hit, 'You ain't seen nothing yet.'

Total war, 21st-century style, might be the only way to give a dose of much-needed reality to incel and virtue signaller alike.
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Click here to listen to an audio version of this blog entry.

Listen to Wrong Way's Colombia Cast podcast here.

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

Coronavirus conspiracies

Very few things in life are simple black-and-white affairs, not even Black Lives Matter. And certainly not this coronavirus pandemic.

Coronavirus, it's lurking everywhere.

Little wonder, then, there's confusion amongst the general public when we don't exactly have one clear voice from the experts as to the best way to take on this 'challenge of our time'.  

Divisive virus

On the to-wear-or-not-to-wear-facemasks debate, it appears the weight of opinion is coming down on the side that they do play some role in reducing contagion. Nonetheless, there are still dissenting voices in the scientific community putting forward thought-provoking arguments against wearing them.

As for the efficacy of widespread lockdowns when weighed up against the collateral damage they cause in a whole host of areas — not just economically but in terms of lives lost, too — there is an amount of divergence.

In terms of the lethality of covid-19, well it's a bit early to be definitive on this one. However, there appears to be convergence across a range of disciplines that, compared to the likes of the Spanish flu, it won't turn out to be too deadly. Today's microscopic enemy is quite particular when it comes to its victims.

Indeed, the finest brains in the business are trying to figure out why it picks on some folk more so than others.

(It is important to note that those who contracted the virus and survived may suffer from complications down the line. This remains an unknown. On the other hand, medical procedures that otherwise would have been carried out have been postponed the world over in the coronavirus "war", a factor not to be ignored when speaking of the aforementioned collateral damage.)

For some context — badly missing in most commentaries these days — in terms of overall deaths and adjusting for population growth, this pandemic may come to match that of 1957/58.

Called Asian flu (we wouldn't get away with that now), it passed through society without much ado by all accounts. We can only surmise people were more aware of their mortality back then. 

There was also, of course, a fair number of other lethal infections doing the rounds at the time. It wasn't worth getting all hysterical about one in particular.

'One would have thought that our leaders would do their best to placate a panicked public. On the contrary, state bodies across the globe are feeding the coronavirus frenzy, giving fuel to conspiracy theories.'

However, as you may have noticed, our reaction to coronavirus has been anything but 'qué será, será'. 

This could be seen, somewhat positively, as our distancing from death over the last few generations. Most of us expect to die on our own terms, so to put it. Thus, the arrival of a viral infection that's taking the lives of a certain sector of the population a little earlier than expected has caused panic.

It's also shown how health services in many countries were completely unprepared for even just a modest spike in patient admissions. "Developed" nations, in particular, must be held to account for this fatal shortcoming considering the ageing populations they've been (badly) dealing with for years now. The warnings weren't heeded.

Some countries, admittedly, at least in this early stage, appear to have done well in dealing with the pandemic. In other places, the opposite is the case: the virus is the one in control.

In such an environment, one would have thought that our leaders would be doing their best to placate the public. On the contrary, state bodies across the globe are feeding the frenzy, adding fuel to conspiracy theories.

A covid operation

Take mortality figures. In our simple life BC (before coronavirus, just in case you're not following), I don't think I'm incorrect to assume most of us thought that recording a cause of death was a rather straightforward affair. How wrong we were it seems.

In the last week, we've seen how Public Health England has been, if you excuse the phrase, trigger-happy in naming covid-19 as the "killer" when it wasn't actually so. A public health official in Ireland spoke on the national airwaves about the same issue there.

On top of that, I've heard of incidents back home where doctors asked family of the deceased if it was OK to attribute the death to the virus when it actually had nothing to do with it. We can extrapolate that similar obfuscation is at play here in Colombia and elsewhere.

Why this is being done, I don't know. It might be quite innocent, maybe something positive is to be gained by beefing up the covid-19 death numbers. However, it's easy to understand how others see a sinister side to it all.

Considering the consensus on whatever measures those in charge and their health experts advise, dissenting voices are left to the likes of Hoover Institution YouTube interviews and a number of side-stream media outlets. These voices aren't, as some like to view them, crackpots. They are highly qualified professionals. Yet, by virtue of the fact they're not heard on mainstream media, their views are discarded.

We should all know the dangers of silencing others because what they're saying doesn't fit the accepted narrative. What's more, our modern world has never gone through such times as these. Nobody knows the 'correct path', it's a case of trial and error.  

Focusing only on one side does us all a disservice. It also ensures conspiracy theories gain more traction.

Simply wishing away that which makes us uncomfortable isn't the solution, in the same way as we can't wish away this coronavirus. We have to learn to deal with it whilst trying to continue to live our lives. 

In other words, it's a case of aiming to live healthily rather than hiding away in a bid to avoid illnesses. To opt for the latter is not living. (Although, for some maybe it is. Recall the old joke, 'he died aged 80 but he stopped living at 30.')

This narrow-minded, black-versus-white approach we're witnessing is only increasing division, making a bad situation worse.

You'd almost be forgiven for thinking the powers that be want it that way.

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Listen to Wrong Way's Colombia Cast podcast here.

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

Zika-dee-doo-dah

A quick glance through the Colombian newspapers (Bogotá-centred ones, anyway) or sitting down to watch the main TV news here and it's unlikely you'll read or hear much, if anything, about Zika. 

Indeed, most Bogotá residents have probably forgotten what it is. (In case you need reminding, it's that mosquito-spread virus which can be particularly dangerous, it is believed, if contracted by pregnant women as it can lead to severe brain malformations in the foetus and other birth defects. Such complications, though, may not be as bad as first feared, going by the findings of a recent study.)

Sure it could be worse ... (Image from Facebook.)

After being in the headlines constantly at the end of December last year and early this year, it pretty much seems to have gone off the radar for Colombian media — save for that new, slightly more positive report, linked above, questioning Zika's adverse effects on the foetuses of late-term pregnancies.

From a personal (and male) point of view, the furore it had created, and seemingly still creates in many Western countries, had been and is a little over the top. 

For most relatively healthy human beings, those who aren't pregnant anyway, being struck down with Zika isn't a major deal. The symptoms are pretty mild by all accounts. There would appear to exist far worse infections for us to be concerned about.

Of course, that it hasn't been a topic of conversation or cause for worry in Bogotá isn't at all surprising. This is because the mosquitoes that transmit the disease aren't found in these parts due to the city's lofty altitude. 

Granted, you only need to travel a short distance outside Bogotá or go to most of Colombia's other major cities and towns to come into 'Zika range', something that a good number of the capital's residents do on a regular basis. (Alas, that hasn't been my case this year, but that has nothing to do with Zika fears; a trip outside the metropolis is badly needed.) 

Nonetheless, the pandemic isn't causing consternation among the masses. (For the record, as of April this year, there were 65,726 cases of Zika reported in Colombia.)

In fact, were it not for a phone call from a concerned older cousin in Europe who is considering visiting Colombia, Zika wouldn't have entered my mind. Apparently, all the advice he's getting is to be very careful if he visits here due to the disease. 

Again, it's fair to say there are greater worries — be they from man, beast or insect — than Zika for anybody coming to Central or South America.

Now, maybe there's a bit of that renowned laid-back Latino attitude at play in all of this. Perhaps all of us living here should be a little more concerned about Zika, especially so those planning to have children due to that fetal abnormality issue.

Yet, from the safe heights of Bogotá it's a case of, 'out of sight, out of mind'. No point worrying about something that can't get to you, really. Now as for Colombia's dragged-out peace process, that's another story.
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