China using COVID-19 to increase its soft-power

 By: Kyle Fletcher

    

    In politics soft-power is the ability to attract and co-opt. Soft power involves attraction the more a country has what you need the more powerful they are. China is assisting countries and giving them resources to aid them with the struggle of covid-19. Some people see this as a good thing with countries with few resources getting helped. Others however see this as China taking advantage of a situation they created to gain more soft-power. People in the west see this more as a problem as there is now a competition between the U.S and China on who will be the bigger help to countries. This is a problem because to a lot of people what China is doing is covering their mishaps from the early days of the disease and whitewashing everything by showing that they are a country that is handling covid so well that they can afford to help other countries. 

Source: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201802/23/WS5a8f59a9a3106e7dcc13d7b8.html

 Discussion questions:

1. Do you think what China is doing should be recognized and brought out into the light?

2. How will the balance of power change if China continues to gain soft-power?

Source: https://asiafoundation.org/2020/04/29/covid-19-and-chinas-soft-power-ambitions/

Environmental Benefits of COVID-19

All around the world, the environment is changing, no matter the time of year and the quality of our lives. The current mandatory shelter in place has left the environment to its own accords. Climate change has been an issue that increases every year, even when there are officials who don’t believe it and those that are obsessed with finding a solution. There are multiple sources providing information about a temperature increase that is above average over multiple decades. Scientists accept the greenhouse effect as the cause of rising temperatures. Humans are producing gases that trap heat in the atmosphere and respond physically or chemically when they burn trash to dispose of it. 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fvenngage.com%2Fblog%2Fcoronavirus-impact-on-environment-infographic%2F&psig=AOvVaw2xDz0HAeg6pDJNPIHcAvfW&ust=1590702209860000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCMCs19OB1ekCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

Right now the environment has been improving. With people required to stay at home, experts have seen dramatic reductions in greenhouse gases and overall air pollution. It is no surprise that there are fewer factory and road traffic emissions of CO2 when people are staying at home to work. There are new changes to habitats for wildlife, as they have previously been restricted due to human activity. Lions in South Africa are able to roam on land that was used as roads for safari-goers. Bears and coyotes are finding new places of residence in Yosemite national park.  

Discussion Questions

1. In what ways will this impact the climate as the governments reopen society?
2. What other world issues are being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic?

2020 Census

By: Schuyler Ng and Taj Gadiraju

Every decade, the United States holds an event that gathers data about everyone living in the country. This is regarded as the Census. The Census helps with how much money and resources are given out to each state and city government. These resources include Medicaid, Public Education, and Housing Vouchers. On top of this, it decides how many people from each state can go to the House of Representatives. The Census application is a quick and easy form that doesn’t disclose if someone is of United States citizenship. More is discussed in the background briefing.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/article/census-2020.html 

During this COVID19 pandemic, the Census Bureau is trying to get the data on nearly 330 million people. This proves to be a huge challenge because of all the obstacles COVID19 presents. A method that they are using is having people respond through the website, mail, or phone. This has worked very well, however, many people are yet to respond, and the Bureau isn’t able to reach them. Without an in-person confrontation, the amount of people that still need to respond is staying at a stand-still. “Billions of federal dollars and fair political representation are riding on the result”. 

The Census started on April 1 and on May 27, Census takers usually track down people that have not turned in their Census application. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, the trackers are not able to have an in-person confrontation. This leads to all sorts of implications, such as people not being fined for not turning in the Census. This year, only 38% of households have actually responded, leaving the Bureau with a staggering 62% to still receive. Apart from the households, a nationwide count of nearly half-a-million homeless people has been put off. Because of the hindrance that the COVID19 plays on the Census, the Bureau decided to push back the deadline to finish the count by 2 weeks, which is in mid-August.

Discussion Questions:

1. Because COVID19 is messing up the results, do you think that moving the Census would be a good idea? What are some of the implications of this?

2. Is the Census Bureau handling this properly? What else can they do to help bring in the Census applications?

Sources: 

https://www.nytimes.com/article/census-2020.html

https://2020census.gov/?cid=23746:census:sem.ga:p:dm:en:&utm_source=sem.ga&utm_medium=p&utm_campaign=dm:en&utm_content=23746&utm_term=census

https://thearc.org/census/?gclid=CjwKCAjw8J32BRBCEiwApQEKgddz6GM01qB4ndfNwpihyklgD_dTRsZYDV9OarCycbx7qtj-kbYFyxoCPKgQAvD_BwE

Air pollution in China is Already Going Back Up

By: Schuyler Ng

With the lockdown lifted in China, air pollution has already begun to rebound even exceeding the levels from the same time last year. According to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), “Air pollutant levels plummeted during the national lockdown in February, bottomed out in early March and have now overshot their pre-crisis levels” (CREA Study). 

Source: CREA 

This means that tiny particles called PM2.5, which are extremely dangerous to humans, are now up. In a report from China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE), they have said that those particles were up about 3.1% in April. Most of the particles seem to be from industrial emissions as those industries have begun to open back up. A similar event has happened after the 2008 recession where industry collapsed but reopened and grew bigger than before which led to the “airpocalypse in 2012” where PM2.5 levels were 28 times the recommended safe daily level. Experts predict that the worst is yet to come especially for more urban cities like Beijing. They recommended that people continue working from home. Being the first country to go through the process, China’s recovery and reopening serves as a warning to other countries going through the same process. Experts predict that the rebound of emissions will become a trend and begin happening to countries all over the world. 

Discussion Questions:

Should China focus on the health of their people or the health of their economy?

Do you think that other countries will follow in China’s path or make attempts at lowering the impacts of reopening?

Sources:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-china-lockdown-over-air-pollution-already-spiking-industry-dirty-economic-rebound/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=88954382

https://energyandcleanair.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/China-air-pollution-rebound-final.pdf 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/beijing-air-pollution-off-the-charts/ 

Devastating Cyclone in Kolkata

By: Taj Gadiraju

In the midst of the dangerous COVID19 pandemic, India is in its monsoon season. Because of this, there have been even more catastrophic events that take place there. Kolkata is a tragic example of this. A powerful cyclone, Cyclone Amphan, in Kolkata killed 84 Indians and Bangladeshis. This was the first time an event like this happened to Kolkata since 1999, where another cyclone formed in the Bay of Bengal. Because the cyclone destroyed cell towers and electricity lines, many 14 million people ended up losing power. Even worse, because of the COVID19 pandemic, emergency and relief efforts have been halted from helping them.

The cyclone ventured North from Bangladesh to Kolkata in less than 12 hours. The winds reached crazy speeds of up to 185 km/h leaving the citizens of Bangladesh and India helpless. On top of the mass destruction to power lines, there was also destruction of a temple. This reminded the citizens that god nor prayers could actually stop this cyclone, and it would destroy everything in its path. A resident who lived in Kolkata could only say, “Thank God, we are safe,” because their home was completely demolished.

The Indian government predicted storm surges up to 10-16 feet because of Cyclone Amphan. Even in a small city in Bangladesh called Khulna, 83 thousand homes were destroyed. The Indian government expects there to be 1.5 billion dollars worth of damages because of Cyclone Amphan.

Discussion Question: 

Should safety from the pandemic be put over the safety of other major natural disasters? Is there anything that can be done to prevent the spread of the pandemic while helping those that are affected by such disasters?

Sources: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52749935

Animal Crossing While In Quarantine; An Island Escape

Privacy After The Pandemic

By: Colin Trizuto

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected people all over the world in many different ways, and has uprooted the normal life we all became accustomed to. While many people see this as temporary, and while much of it is, there is no doubt that some parts of our lives will be changed permanently. One of these things might be privacy. Throughout the world, our lives are starting to be more and more public through innovations in technology. For example, social media has taken over our lives, with billions of people actively using it every day. However, because of this current pandemic, governments and companies are trying to develop technologies to help tract infections across the globe. This has many people worrying about how private their lives are going to be after the current pandemic.

The first time our privacy was in question was in the early 2000s. At the time, portable cameras and private surveillance systems first started to be available to the public. Of course, with this, came lots of fear. It wasn’t till after 9/11 that people started to accept this in fear of public safety. At the time, those implementations were thought of as temporary, but now they are our normal. With the coronavirus being very infectious, governments are starting to make apps that track people's whereabouts and infections. It is thought of as a good way of letting the people know where to avoid, in order to help flatten the curve. And while people are accepting this now, people are worried that governments are going to keep this technology after the pandemic. Even though it’s thought of as temporary, the same was thought of during 9/11 and is now permanent.

The fact of the matter is, currently our country is very divided. There are (unfortunately) many people who don’t trust the scientists and people telling us how to combat this. And because of this, it’s creating a divide on what some people want. Some people want these tracking devices, saying that it will be beneficial in stopping this disease, while others don’t want their privacy invaded and want nothing to do with these implementations. Compare that to 9/11, and at that current exact time, most of the country was united. Everyone was against terrorism, and wanted to do anything at all to stop it, which made it easier for things to be done at the time. But because we are so divided, it makes some people worry. It all comes down to if people are willing to get rid of some freedoms in order for their safety.

Discussion Questions:

1. Would you sacrifice your freedom in order for safety?
2. Are you okay with these tracking devices in order to combat the virus?

Sources:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/16/tech/surveillance-privacy-coronavirus-npw-intl/index.html

images

Royal Canadian Air Force

By: Lucas Yoo

On Sunday, May 17 2020, a jet crashed into a British Columbia home leaving a Canadian air force pilot dead, and another seriously injured. The crash took place in Kamloops in British Columbia, northeast of Vancouver. Witnesses spotted the plane smoking and losing altitude at a rapid speed and shortly after, seeing one piolet eject right before the plane crashes. He landed on the roof of a residential home but was still injured. However, one pilot was unable to escape the plane before it crashed and went down with it. 

According to an article from NBC News titled “Canadian air force pilot dies after jet crashes during coronavirus tribute,” they explain what the flight was meant for. “The flight was part of Operation Inspiration, a nationwide mission aimed at saluting first responders and other essential workers. The Snowbirds are a military aerobatics squadron based in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.” 

Many witnesses saw the plane moments before the crash. According to an article from NBC News titled “Canadian air force pilot dies after jet crashes during coronavirus tribute,” they interview people who witnessed the crash. “Kerri Turatus, 30, who lives in the neighborhood where the plane went down, said the aircraft hit a house, engulfing it in flames. It ‘sounded like a gunshot outside my window,’ Turatus said.” 

Another article from Daily Mail titled “One crew member dead and another injured after Canadian Snowbirds plane performing flypast to celebrate front-line workers crashes in residential neighborhood” interviews witnesses as well. A man talked about how he witnessed one of the piolets ejecting from the plane right before the crash and where he landed. “Kenny Hinds, who lives in a house seven doors down from the crash site, said it looked like the living room of the house where the crash occurred was on fire.

'I just started running down the street. And I got there maybe a minute after it crashed and there was a couple of residents that had their hoses out and they were trying to put the flames out because it hit a house,' he said. 'It looked like most of it landed in the front yard, but maybe a wing or something went through the roof perhaps.'So there was a bunch of people running around trying to see if we could get into the house to see if everybody's OK.'”

Discussion Question: What could our military do to further protect our soldiers and what are some ways we can protect them from accidents like this?

Sources:

canadian-air-force-jet-celebrating-coronavirus-workers-crashes-home-n1208961

Canadian-air-force-jet-celebrating-coronavirus-workers-crashes-home-n1208961

Jet-Canadian-air-force-team-crashes-residential-neighborhood-witnesses.html

The Corona Virus’s Impact on the Coal Industry

By: Lucas Yoo and Colin Trizuto

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Corona Virus has made a huge impact on the world today and will be remembered throughout history. Human distancing and quarantine were enforced to the entire world and many were unable to continue working their jobs. As of today, there are 5,085,504 confirmed cases and 329,731 deaths from COVID-19. The whole world is shut down and it's caused numerous problems.

With Covid-19 interfering with the Coal industry, some say that things will never be the same. Before the pandemic began, heightened climate activism, divestment campaigns and cheap alternatives were pressuring the industry. Once the pandemic began, it wiped millions from the market. And now, scientists are saying that coal has reached its peak, 200 years later.

As of right now, countries all over the world are in low demand for coal. Many of these countries because of the pandemic are closing their plants and mines because of it. This is because (obviously) people are staying home across the globe, and because of this, less energy is being used. While recently, coal has been the largest source of energy across the globe, in the coming years, it is expected to drop drastically. Many countries are vowing to switch to all renewable energy by a certain year, and many have started now by switching over to solar, wind, and other forms of renewables.

In America, it is expected that 2020 will be the first year that America’s electricity will be a majority renewable energy. And many analysts are saying that in just five years, coal consumption could drop to just ten percent. That would be a 40 percent drop in 15 years. Along with America, other countries that have made strides toward dropping coal consumption are Sweden and Austria, who have closed their last coal powered power plants in their countries. India has prioritized renewables and has a lessened demand for coal, and the Netherlands wants to reduce its thermal power plants by 75%.

Along with countries and nations, companies are starting to switch over to renewables as well. Over the last ten years, solar energy has dropped by over 75%, and public backlash of these companies has been rather negative as climate change continues to become a bigger problem within our world. Some banks aren’t accepting financing surrounding coal powered projects, and in Australia, getting funding for these projects has been increasingly difficult.

Why is relevant today? It’ll help climate change get better over time and it’ll help the future of the industries.

Discussion questions: When faced with public backlash, how could this both benefit or hurt companies? How could it benefit the world in the long run?

May 19, 2020

Corona Virus Devastated Moscow and Rest of Russia

By: Amrit Sharma and Nandish Ishat

Covid-19, or Coronavirus, is a highly contagious respiratory disease that has taken the world by storm. With millions of cases worldwide, it has driven people into lockdown to try to prevent catching the deadly virus. Originating from Wuhan, China, the coronavirus is said to have originated from bats that were eaten, then transferring the virus to the human and so on. 

This virus is slowly causing more and more deaths everyday and a cure has yet to be found. The confirmed Coronavirus cases are rapidly increasing and the number is being updated daily. Sitting at number one with most confirmed cases is the United States and according to John Hopkins University just recently Russia hit second place.. Russia is sitting at around 281,752 as of yesterday May 17. About more than half of the confirmed cases belong to Moscow sitting at around 140,000 cases and are starting to spread across 11 different time zones in Russia. 

This global crisis is affecting so many things starting from sporting events to big public gatherings and more. This has required the world to go on global lockdown, but Russia’s current president Vladmir Putin has other ideas about loosening the rules of lockdown in Russia. 

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyayin has been for the most part the face of Russia’s battle against Covid-19, as Putin has been safely in his residence Novo Ogaryovo not taking much action at all. Currently, Russia is facing a great issue within the Coronavirus as it makes way towards 11 different time zones which most face a harsh and impoverished lifestyle. While Moscow is receiving all the support it needs, the medical officials of the smaller regions complain about the lack of support they are receiving as people are starting to die quicker.

As people are dying from lack of support, the Russian Coronavirus headquarters are not acknowledging the real amount of deaths as they are undermining the situation. These places are starting to report the real amount of their deaths. Places like Kaliningrad, Chelyabinsk, and many more are reporting their deaths and then the Coronavirus headquarters goes and confirms a lower number to the public which caused the morality of the local citizens to decrease. According to the Russian Vice-Premier Tatiana Golikova explained to Russian News sources that they are not manipulating the statistics but are just adding what they’re told. Russian health officials are claiming the opposite, “it was underreporting Covid-19 fatalities, saying its data was absolutely open.” 

The Moscow Mayor, Sobyanin, is doing all in his power to keep the morale of the Moscow people high. Despite the virus Sobyanin has people turning the city into a “Instagram friendly” landscape including parks, restaurants, high end real estate and more. While all this is happening in Moscow, videos surface on the news about the horrible conditions in the poor regions of Russia. The video receiving millions of views has people worried and angered about the conditions and how the treatment is being handled. In the video you can see, “ the peeling paint and poorly lit interior of the facility, and underscores the shocking condition of Russia's provincial healthcare system. It seems that in this sprawling country, time is not the only thing that differs between the capital and the regions.” As we can see very limited help is being provided for the helpless regions while the city of Moscow is thriving.

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=8&v=eJPeMeN5tpA

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/17/europe/russia-coronavirus-time-zones-intl/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/14/europe/russia-coronavirus-deaths-intl/index.html

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/10974724-181/coronavirus-cases-rising-in-russia

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/05/19/moscow-coronavirus-vladimir-putin-265227

Discussion Questions:

Why do you think the Coronavirus headquarters falsely reported the amount of deaths?

Are the other regions of Russia being ignored and should they receive more support?

How can Russia come together to stop the spread of Corona?

Fate of the Summer Olympics

The Olympics are a multi million-dollar quadrennial worldwide sporting event, the largest in the world. The last Olympics,2018 were held in Pyeongchang, South Korea while the last summer Olympics were in 2016 in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. For the first time in recorded history the 2020 Olympics has been postponed. The date will be moved from the original July 24th through August 9th of 2020 to the 23rd of July to August 8th of 2021. Through the history of the Olympics the games have been canceled three times the 1916 Summer Olympics were cancelled due to the outbreak of World War 1, 1940 Olympic Games were forfeited by Japan do to their war with China part of World War II, and the 1944 Summer Olympics in London were canceled due to the Nazi invasion of Poland again World War  II. 

Japan is losing quite a bit of money but in postponing the games they may not fall into worse economic issues. Compared to if the games were canceled completely for Tokyo. Originally the organizers estimated the cost to be roughly 12.6 billion while other experts are now estimating that it's closer to 25 billion.  This shows our situation is almost to the level of a World War as postponement is the halfway mark to cancellation. To think that the games have only been canceled for World War and now without World War occurring we are almost to that level of fear and chaos in our society. Meaning that the world is in a dire situation and this cannot be taken lightly.

Postponement of the games will impact the billions of dollars spent by sponsors and broadcasters that would be working during this time. We also have to consider all the people that would normally be working at the game and all the athletes. Normally they would be finishing up the training at this point, getting ready and finalizing everything for the games. But as they are not, they have to stay fit and stay prepared until the summer of next year. We forget that these people are humans just like the rest of us and have lives, jobs and families to consider. Being athletes for most of them is not their entire lives they have other responsibilities that will be put on the back burner to say because they have to keep trying. So the question is should new athletes be chosen this winter in preparation for the new games of Summer 2021 or should the Olympics have just pushed back the dates meaning that the Summer Olympics this year would be pushed back to the next date As in the year 2024 and has the Tokyo Olympics then. It would be simpler if we moved it to 2024 and then had Paris who is in charge of the Olympics for the year 2024 to move back a year and continuing on just so that everyone would have it planned out easily there could be repercussions for all of the Olympics and everyone would have time to get back on their feet and the economics of the world could be balanced while everyone struggles or doesn't struggle to get everything back to normal. 

 If the Summer Olympics were to be held in the year 2020 meaning that the next Winter Olympics will be held in 2022 supposedly in Beijing China what would that mean for us moving on. Is it fair for the 2020 Olympic dates to be pushed back while there is traditionally a gap year between the winter and summer Olympics but with this new date set that won't be happening. Is it fair to Beijing that there is no Gap year for people to prepare. What about that pandemic will people actually still buy tickets and go to the summer games when they happen in 2021 what kind of safety precautions will the game's directors put in place? Sadly we don't know any of this yet we're still in a major crisis and we don't know when it will be over when we'll have a vaccine or any kind of fix to this issue. 304 k people have died worldwide, can we really just stand back up after this crisis is averted” and just go back to normal life like we believe? I don't believe that the average citizen realizes how different the world will have to be when we leave our homes again. School won't be the same, work won't be the same, we'll have the stress of disease in the back of a mine for a long time. This is a worldwide pandemic flu season that comes and goes. We can't just brush it off and go back to mass sporting events, concerts and festivals. We cannot ignore the fact that the only other reason three Olympic games were cancelled were because of world one and World War II. The fact that the games are postponed shows how bad of a situation we are but we still crave normality and promises that we will leave our homes and go back to our normal routines. It simply is. Our normal routines are no longer normal. As we leave quarantine and attempt to go back to festivals sporting events and regular life will have changed. masks and gloves and social distancing will be a thing for a significant amount of time so the question is will it  yet be safe for us to attend such event as the Summer Olympics in Tokyo without causing some new outbreak of Covid-19 or a spread of that specifically in Japan that would then be spread worldwide as athletes and attendance of the games and returned home. The question is should the games be cancelled and moved 20/24 or should they be postponed simply to 20 21. 

The postponement of the 2020 Olympics shows the course theme of fear can cause and prevent conflict. The fear of masses congregating for such an event such as the summer games causes the directors to reconsider the current date. and as such the date was moved to the year 2021 as to not cause people to leave their homes and leave Corinth. as the death rate Covid-19 is so high quarantine is still necessary. Also the fear of catching Covid-19 and becoming ill causes people to stay home making it impossible for the Olympics to continue as originally planned. Many people do not want to leave their homes as they are concerned and fearful. So in this people staying in their homes self quarantine we are preventing conflict from happening and anyone from attending the games and causing any more spread of the virus. But as some people do not agree and are not taking Covid-19 as seriously as others there are some that this fear is causing more conflict as they do not agree with the decision to move the date of the games. They believe that they should still be held as normally. 

Vocab :

-Postponed: arrange for (something) to take place at a time later than scheduled 

-Olympics: a series of international athletic contests held as separate winter and summer events in a different country every four years

-Quadrennial: occurring every four years

-Covid-19: a respiratory illness that is caused by a corona virus called SARS-CoV-2

-Quarantine: a period of time when there is a restriction of movement due to the exposure of a infectious or contagious disease

Questions:

1. Do you agree that the Olympics should be postponed with the same athletes participating? Or should others have the opportunity to represent their country?

2.What about the people who bought tickets, should they get their money for airfare back? Or should the companies give “free” airfare to the Olympics when they actually happen?

3.How do (you the people) feel about the Olympics still being called Tokyo 2020 even though it will be held in spring/summer of 2021?

LINKS:

https://www.loc.gov/rr/main/olympics/dates.html

https://miro.medium.com/max/4240/0*Z1LrSvDH-rvrEgRF.jpg

https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/28946033/tokyo-olympics-officially-postponed-2021

https://time.com/5808216/olympics-canceled-history/

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/30/823780370/tokyo-2020-olympics-have-a-new-start-date-july-of-2021

The Coronavirus and the Postponement of the Olympics, Explained

https://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/story/2020-03-25/how-the-ioc-and-japan-agreed-to-postpone-the-2020-olympics

https://www.merriam-webster.com/