Covid on the Margins

Pic courtesy The Conversation

For nearly thirty years I worked in the principalship of a range of specials schools, in locations up and down the Queensland coast.

For the most part, these were wonderful years, and I found them both challenging and enjoyable, particularly when I had the privilege, on two separate occasions, of opening schools.

With that in mind, I must admit frankly that I am very glad not to be in a the position of leading a special school community in the teeth of the current pandemic.  I was reminded of this when I saw this article.

For students with disabilities, a whole range of factors complicate the situation for both parents and schools. In the first place, there is a requirement for additional physical care for most students in special schools, and close physical contact with staff is always a component of this care.

In addition, for students with difficult behaviours, especially those on the Autism spectrum, management against the background of social distancing is extremely difficult.

Then there is the reality that many of these children have compromised health, either because it is part of their impairment, or because they are inactive or have limited mobility. If you're stuck in a wheelchair a lot of the time, it is difficult to maintain good health simply because you were designed to move.

In most of the special schools I managed, we ran transdisciplinary programmes, involving physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech language pathology and special care often incorporating gastrostomy feeding. All of these therapies require special protocols that pay no attention to social distancing.

Setting them up so they are safe and practicable must be concentrating the minds of teachers, parents and therapists all over the country. 

There has been a silence in the media about this issue. 

That's nothing new, of course. Marginalised individuals (whether the marginalisation is a product of race, disability, or socio-economic status) rarely get a mention unless their situation effects mainstream populations.

So give a thought to these children, their schools and their families.

Right now, they probably need as much help as they can get.

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Unforgiving

It's time for another book review.

This one looks at "Unforgiving" by Carmel Beresford, a self-published account of the life and tragic death of the author's son, and her struggle with the aftermath.

Not many books have left me with such a profound understanding of the human condition.

The reasons for that, apart from the depth of the tragedy described by the author, are the insights provided by her narrative. Carmel was the principal of a small bush school at the time of Sam's death, but it is apparent that she is also a talented writer.

She was also a very effective school principal, something I learned when I worked briefly a few years ago as a consultant in her school. Although I worked through many schools out west in my stint as a part-time visiting teacher, I remember her school much more clearly than others because of the remarkable community that she had developed around it.

The school reflected the values of the local community, and the needs and interests of the families whose children attended. The vege garden and the chooks were unusual, but reflected the reality of bush life, and the children took great care of them.

Sam was badly injured in an accident with a gyrocopter on 9th March 2011 and died eight days later. Carmel's narrative describes in confronting detail, his accident, the immediate aftermath, and her struggle with the trauma and grief that ensued.

The prose flows easily and honestly, and it is this flensing honesty that makes the book so powerful.

The author's love for her son shines through the pages, as does her love for the remote countryside in which it is set. Her strong family provides the human backdrop to the story, and her vivid descriptions of the physical landscape complement that.

Much of the book describes the author's attempts to get to the bottom of the tragedy, and her dawning understanding that her son was exposed to a very dangerous situation by the person who sold him the gyrocopter.

It concludes with a description of the legal consequences of Sam's death, and the author's arrival at the truth.

I strongly recommend this work as an account of a searingly honest journey through grief and trauma. The work itself is a fitting tribute to both Carmel Beresford's skill as a writer, and her undying love for her son.

Make sure you get hold of it.


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Fascism in 2020

Fascism as a political movement exhibits four basic criteria.

First, fascism it is not an ideology, but an activity.

Secondly, it has its own national characteristics.

Thirdly, it promotes its leadership to personality cult status in a very easily recognisable and consistent manner.

And finally, it identifies a group or race which is isolated and vilified as a threat to national security and progress.

Fascism is clearly not an ideology because there is no universal and thoughtfully developed set of principles embedded in its structure. In this, it differs strongly from contemporary political ideologies such as capitalism and socialism. One notable feature of fascism is its capacity to absorb elements of these ideologies into its practice, embracing them when it is convenient, and rejecting them when its power is compromised.

One definition is worth consideration - 

"a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry and commerce, and emphasising an aggressive nationalism and racism"..

This definition is comprehensive enough to be useful and emphasises the fact that its practice is all about power.

An examination of Spanish fascism under Franco, Italian fascism under Mussolini and German fascism under Hitler reinforces that notion. All three regimes were aggressively power based, ruthlessly suppressed criticism, and emphasized nationalism.  

The third characteristic of adulation of leadership is easily recognised in the history of the three examples listed above. This adulation is associated with slogans, images and mass gatherings. There is always a unifying concept, usually expressed as a slogan, or a simple idea. Hitler had his Third Reich, Mussolini had “Ill Duce ha sempre ragione” and Franco used "Una, Grande y Libre".

The groups identified as threats in Hitler's Germany, were the Jews and the Communists. In Franco's Spain and Mussolini's Italy, they were intellectuals, separatists, communists and socialists.

Applying these four tests to the current American political situation is useful. 

Donald Trump has no coherent ideology, unless it be the acquisition and maintenance of power. In that, his activity meets the first criterion.

The American political scene has its distinctive characteristics, and they provide a flavour to Trump's activity which, whilst distinctly nativist, echoes elements of the imagery, propaganda and stage management that was a feature of both the Mussolini and Hitler eras. 

Trump, of course, is bound by the limits of the US constitution, and is not as free as Mussolini and Hitler were to exploit the respective weaknesses of the Italian kingdom and Weimar republic at the time.  Nor does he have the power to regiment all industry and commerce.

There is a great deal of reference made in commentary to Trump's "base", the core of the slightly more than 25% of Americans who voted for him in 2016. It is obvious to anyone observing his rallies that a very strong personality cult exists within this minority, redolent of the almost hysterical responses that were a feature of rallies featuring Hitler on the one hand and Mussolini on the other in the thirties.

What is especially ominous is the likelihood that Trump's narcissism is fed by this reaction.

The final, and most frightening criterion met by Trump's activity is his demonising of sections of the population. He identifies immigrants and Muslims as his targets. The "build the wall" meme is the clearest expression of this characterisation of Mexicans, and his vilification of Muslims is also a prominent part of his activity.

Whether Trump can be described as a fascist or not is largely irrelevant. What is critical is an examination of fascism in all its forms during the last century, an analysis of the current division evident in US politics, and an understanding of how that kind of division helped create the disaster that was World War Two.

“Make America Great Again” has an uncanny similarity to “Ill Duce ha sempre ragione” and "Una, Grande y Libre".

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Truth Telling

         

An anonymous commenter on Catallaxy insists that I'm a liar, probably because my comments on that site don't conform to the orthodoxy.

I have challenged him to debate the issue here.

Over to the bod who uses the tag 'Mater".

Australian Exceptionalism

Dawn at Tambo

Australians are watching events across the Pacific with a mixture of boredom and incredulity.

Boredom, because what is happening has all the features of a B grade movie set on rerun, and incredulity because from time to time, what goes on in the USA is almost unbelievable.

After all, if we had been told that the incumbent President had called out the military to clear the streets so he could have a photo opportunity, we would probably not have believed it.

But this is America in 2020.

This is the America, where a representative of the law knelt on the neck of a black man for 8 minutes and 48 seconds until he died.

There is a long list of names of African Americans who have died this way in the land of the free.

It is difficult, on the face of it, for Australians to understand why this conduct by the forces of law and order in what is supposed to be a beacon of democracy, is a feature of contemporary American culture.

God knows, we have a similar problem in this country.

But what we don't have is the frequency of these events that is routine in the USA, the degree of outrage that they create, and the violence and disorder they generate.

There are clear and specific reasons for this exceptionalism of violence, some of which I've noted first hand.

Back in Vietnam 50 years ago, I was in a country where American culture was swamping the gentle collective enterprise of Vietnam. The contrast between the loud aggressive demeanour of the Americans, and the reserve of the Vietnamese was almost comical. The daily contrast of values and behaviour was stark.

Then there was the tangible tension between African American soldiers and their white counterparts. Australians were frequently surprised how positively African Americans soldiers reacted to them, without really understanding why. I can recall off-duty occasions in the company of black GIs when I simply did not have to buy a beer. I can remember being invited to an all black soul bar in Bangkok, where, as the only white face in the venue, I was treated like some kind of prince.

Looking back on it, it was clear that the black GIs felt much more comfortable with Australians than their own white countrymen, perhaps because we didn't come with the baggage of centuries of ingrained race based assumptions.

My father (ex-RAAF) used to tell stories about his encounters with Americans in World War Two, which had a similar underlying narrative. Australians objecting to the treatment of black Americans by their military police was one of the ingredients that led to the notorious Battle of Brisbane in 1942. 

This better treatment of black soldiers in Australia compared with what they were used to back stateside was not understood by Australians because they had no reference point. It was noted and appreciated by the African American GIs.

Now we have our own problems with racial intolerance in this country, but the outcomes are more subtle, generally less overt and our nation doesn't descend into paroxysms of violence when it becomes an issue.

The cliche holds. Violence is as American as apple pie.

And we should treasure and preserve our laid back generous culture.

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The Virus is an Asteroid

When I first posted about the shutdown about a month ago, very little was clear and understood.

Not much has changed, but we are coming out of it slowly, and inevitably.

An asteroid struck the earth back sixty-six million years ago, which put paid to the dinosaurs. Perhaps a few dinosaurs have been laid to rest by Covid-19. They include the notion that individuality (whatever that is) rules, and that we can do our own thing without reference to, or consideration for, our fellow man. I wonder what Ayn Rand would make of it.

That ideology seems to be having consequences across the Pacific, in both North and South America.

It's obvious that the virus continues to hold secrets. We don't really know how it originated, how it spreads, and how it should be treated. Maybe we should revisit 1918 to seek some of the answers.

The pandemic could be considered as a reset.

Temporary resets have occurred in this country in relation to welfare payments and subsidising business. There's an opportunity to extend them to foreign relations, sovereignty, and immigration, and to make all extensions permanent.

The spread of the virus is obviously an international tragedy.

If we're smart, we can turn this crisis into a national opportunity.

As the cliche reminds us, the Chinese character for "crisis" has elements which signify "danger" and opportunity"

 
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More Reflections on the Bug

This is doing the rounds of my parish men's group -

Let’s think about this. 

China is a world superpower and has been in past history. In World War 2 it was on its knees under the Japanese heel, having been weakened by the British for more than a century of economic exploitation and opium. Back then everybody used it.  

Now people can’t cope with the thought of an independent China. The facts of COVID have been warped by Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump – old mates from the 2016 election as we know. Disinformation and lies are their stock in trade – one only has to listen to a Trump speech to know he is not telling the truth because in one sentence he says one thing and then in the next – the opposite. Both can’t be true. 

Turning to China and COVID-19 it is clear that local party operatives were too scared to let Beijing know of possible trouble in the hope that it would go away. When the government found out what was entailed it rang the alarm bells. It was not a case of Chinese government conspiracy but of autocratic power leading to the hiding of bad news for fear of rebuke. 

When the disaster was obvious, they then set a regimen of management in place which was quite severe but effective. Also sent medical helpers and equipment to the next worst epicentre – Italy.  The Australian Deputy Health Director, I have just heard say on TV, that without Chinese scientific and medical advice regarding the virus, Australia would be in the US situation. (again – see Trump tweet below).

This is purely because health officials listened and considered what to do and they were listened to by Scott Morrison and his crew – much to their credit. Contrast this with the US where Trump continued to bluster and deny and Americans went out and emptied the gun shops rather than buying masks and staying at home. Now we have a phenomenon called “orphan armaments” where the US is full of ownerless firepower which sits lonely and unloved. Their recently new, now past owners found that they were no use against a virus and died disappointed in the myth that guns protect. The moral of this story is always listen to advice, consider it, and then if you don’t or won’t believe it that is your choice – in this case a matter of life and death.

Whether it is the Chinese, the Americans or an old drunk that pulls you up as you are going to cross the road – the message is the same – a Mac truck with 3 dogs on is coming down the road at you at 100kph – you want to know and step back off the road before you consider whether they are right or wrong. Everybody stay safe and well.

 PS: Coronavirus has been isolated from a Chinese anteater (Pangolin) with 99% correspondence in DNA with COVID-19. It occurred in bats 96% correspondence to COVID-19 and was transferred to the pangolins which were the way they entered the human population. Therefore Coronavirus occurred naturally and was not manufactured in a laboratory.

 Hope this is of some help and may we all build bridges with each other.

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