Racism and the Coronavirus

[Tropic]

You have answered your own question, you just don't realise it.

Never ask a rhetorical question to which you don't already know the answer Moody...

 

[Moody]

Never ask a rhetorical question to which you don't already know the answer Moody...

My only question is .... where is the white flag emoji? Or are you a clone of another well-known AFF contributor?

 

[Tropic]

I'm not up with all the woke semiotics sorry. Just happy chasing ... and a random here and there. Hang on, just looked up what a unicorn emoji means...

 

[drron]

I categorically deny that I have ever been cloned.

 

[Tropic]

deny that I have ever been cloned

They broke the mould DrRon..

 

[juddles]

I have been watching this thread but loathe to participate - as most people have set ideas that a few scant lines will never change.

But, falling into temptation, I must say something as I do not want to remain silent on a topic that is important to me.

I am very sensitive to racism, (hence my early postings about my experiences directly related to the coronavirus) as I hate such a WRONG way of living, a wrong way of treating fellow human beings. I have hated many specific people of diverse colour, country, region, ethnicity. But each due to what that individual person was like. I have been exposed to situations where certain ethnic types had a predominance of characteristics or behaviours that could easily lead one into becoming "racist". But I beat all that.

I have enjoyed a varied past - everything from going to school with aboriginal kids to working with ethnic minorities in far away countries. I have seen true racism in many of those places, as racism is an entrenched part of human life.

But to anyone who dares suggest that "Australia is a racist country", I call you out as someone without a clue. We are very big on racism, but in the sense that we are so very sensitive to it. Not because "we" are racist. But because we have the affluence and decency to hone in on and try to stamp out this. As has been posted, we are a nation of multitudes of racial backgrounds.

If you want to actually see and experience real racism, then travel. Not for a holiday. Go and do what I and many others have and actually try to become part of a foreign society. The most intense racism I have ever seen was while working amongst the Negro communities in the jungle on the Pacific coast of Colombia. They hate every single person, instantly, who is not of their creed. be it a slightly-white Colombian or someone like me who was a foreigner. Their most intense hatred is of the native indians that also still exist there. Real racism. To the point of sporadic "ethnic cleansing".

Australia the most racist society? Complete and unfair and unhelpful trash thinking....

Did i reveal some emotion here?

 

[drron]

I have not experienced the Colombia you have @juddles but I have experienced the Pacific Coast of Colombia and many other places and agree Australia is no where near the most racist society.
That said I know that our indigenous peoples do experience racism but I try and do my bit to lessen that.

In Medical circles it is often thought that indigenous people will not do things that they are told to do to help their health.That is absolute Bs.Simply by sitting down and engaging in conversation that you would do with any one else they will take notice.I spent 12 years as a Heart Failure Physician.The person who most completely followed my advice was a Tasmanian indigenous elder from Cape Barren Island-he wasn't recognised as such because he wasn't born on the island of Tasmania.He is still alive 12 years after I first met him.

Even in my last job I was able to impress this on my junior colleagues by just talking to an indigenous person get him from an angry ,homeless Ice addict to recognising he needed to change his ways.

Not trying to sing my praises but to all of those who cry racist-just what are you doing in a practical sense to reduce this scourge.Just calling out racist is not enough..

 

[amaroo]

I have been watching this thread but loathe to participate - as most people have set ideas that a few scant lines will never change.

But, falling into temptation, I must say something as I do not want to remain silent on a topic that is important to me.

I am very sensitive to racism, (hence my early postings about my experiences directly related to the coronavirus) as I hate such a WRONG way of living, a wrong way of treating fellow human beings. I have hated many specific people of diverse colour, country, region, ethnicity. But each due to what that individual person was like. I have been exposed to situations where certain ethnic types had a predominance of characteristics or behaviours that could easily lead one into becoming "racist". But I beat all that.

I have enjoyed a varied past - everything from going to school with aboriginal kids to working with ethnic minorities in far away countries. I have seen true racism in many of those places, as racism is an entrenched part of human life.

But to anyone who dares suggest that "Australia is a racist country", I call you out as someone without a clue. We are very big on racism, but in the sense that we are so very sensitive to it. Not because "we" are racist. But because we have the affluence and decency to hone in on and try to stamp out this. As has been posted, we are a nation of multitudes of racial backgrounds.

If you want to actually see and experience real racism, then travel. Not for a holiday. Go and do what I and many others have and actually try to become part of a foreign society. The most intense racism I have ever seen was while working amongst the Negro communities in the jungle on the Pacific coast of Colombia. They hate every single person, instantly, who is not of their creed. be it a slightly-white Colombian or someone like me who was a foreigner. Their most intense hatred is of the native indians that also still exist there. Real racism. To the point of sporadic "ethnic cleansing".

Australia the most racist society? Complete and unfair and unhelpful trash thinking....

Did i reveal some emotion here?

AFF is fast becoming a troll feeding ground.... not aimed at you BTW. Let's hope the owner is alert and aware.

 

[Tropic]

It's a shame really as it just erodes the community spirit.

 

[Renato1]

This thread should be called "Selfish stupidity and Covid-19"

This thread was about people in media and Government implying Australians were racist for avoiding Chinese restaurants, where I pointed out that the vast majority of the people doing the avoiding appeared to be the Chinese people themselves, and where it subsequently transpired that Chinese language newspapers were telling Chinese people to avoid restaurants.

And. watching The Dan Bongino Show on YouTube yesterday (the daily one, not his excellent interview one with a Doctor going through all aspects of Coronavirus) it appears that the issue of Americans-must-be-racist for not going to Chinese restaurants has been brought up big time over there as well.
Regards,
Renato

 

[Renato1]

The current situation is that Italy is a disaster zone, and that 50 or so countries were infected by people travelling to them from Italy.

From the following CNN article
"Dr. Giorgio Palù, the former president of the European and Italian Society for Virology and a professor of virology and microbiology of the University of Padova, told CNN "......................

"He says the Italian government lagged at first. It was "lazy in the beginning... too much politics in Italy."

"There was a proposal to isolate people coming from the epicenter, coming from China," he said. "Then it became seen as racist, but they were people coming from the outbreak." That, he said, led to the current devastating situation."

Italian doctors hope for a sign the coronavirus lockdown is working, because there's no plan B | CNN

Italy is entering its fourth week of the worst national crisis since World War II with no end in sight.

edition.cnn.com

So, according to this Professor, the fear of appearing racist is what led to the current human and economic disaster.
Regards,
Renato

 

[drron]

Though there could be something else going on in Italy.In the 2016/17 and 2017/18 flu seasons which were bad in Europe Italy had a far higher mortality than other European countries.In part probably due to an older population than most other European nation but really troubling.

 

[Renato1]

Though there could be something else going on in Italy.In the 2016/17 and 2017/18 flu seasons which were bad in Europe Italy had a far higher mortality than other European countries.In part probably due to an older population than most other European nation but really troubling.

Something else could be going on. There are a few oddities about northern Italy which stand out in my mind and which may have the effect of increasing virus spread.
1. They were always kissing each other twice when they meet each other.

2. Most of the food items in there stores are preservative free - "sensa conservanti" (they don't say "sensa preservativi" because that means without condoms).
As a result of which,
a..... They don't have anywhere near the preservatives in their bodies that Aussies and Americans have, and
b..... Everyday they go out and buy bread and meet their friends at the bakeries (since their bread goes stale by the end of the day (no preservative)) and
c.....Everyday they go out and buy a tiny bit of ham, prociutto, mortadella or salami and the like from supermarkets and delis, and meet their friends (because if you don't eat the expensive ham in a day to a day and a half, it goes off (no preservative))

The other big problem they have is political polarisation, and that Matteo Salvini isn't Prime Minister. Everything he recommended be done, was automatically rejected by the government because he said it first, but subsequently turned out to be the correct course of action.

From the following article,

"The government’s first misstep was to underestimate the threat when, in January, many called for severe measures to quarantine every single passenger arriving from China. Making difficult decisions in moments of uncertainty is hard, but the actual reason why those appeals weren’t considered was politics.

The hard-line position was mostly pushed by the League’s Matteo Salvini, the archenemy of the cabinet, and by some League governors in the country’s northern regions. Salvini was widely attacked for using the medical emergency as a fig leaf to push his trademark anti-immigration and xenophobic rhetoric—but for once he actually had a point, albeit for the wrong reasons.

When the virologist and media personality Roberto Burioni suggested those draconian measures were actually necessary to contain the spread, he himself was accused of being a “fascist” and a League supporter."

Italy’s Politicians Are Making the Coronavirus Crisis Worse

Squabbling leaders, publicity-seeking scientists, and late containment efforts show that authoritarian regimes aren’t the only ones mismanaging public health crises.

foreignpolicy.com

Regards,
Renato

 

[Isochronous]

What really annoys me is people getting upset about terms like Wuhan flu or Chinese coronavirus. Evidently they don't recall German measles, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Japanese encephalitis, or Spanish flu...!

 

[drron]

And the Washington Post who accuses Trump of racism forgot this in January.
.

 

[dajop]

It's funny, countries like Australia and Singapore were rightly, very quick to start quarantining passengers from China. But they dragged their feet on Italy and Iran. And took even longer to dare upsetting the US or UK. Nothing to do with racism, but more to do with prevalent power structures.

Probably didn't care so much about upsetting China by locking it out, because by the time China realeased the information to the world, it was locking down itself.

 

[burmans]

And the Washington Post who accuses Trump of racism forgot this in January.
View attachment 210569.

The difference that you are conveniently ignoring is that the Washington Post is just reporting the facts. There is nothing inherently racist in noting that this disease appears to have originated in China and has killed many people there.

But the US President has gone beyond that, ... he could just refer to it as COVID-19 like 99.99% of the world does.

 

[Isochronous]

The difference that you are conveniently ignoring is that the Washington Post is just reporting the facts. There is nothing inherently racist in noting that this disease appears to have originated in China and has killed many people there.

But the US President has gone well beyond that, ... he could just refer to it as COVID-19 like 99.99% of the world does.

Covid-19 was made up by the WHO because the WHO is controlled by China. Trump is using the original name in line with the historic convention for referring to viruses based on their geographical origin. Those complaining about offense are just doing the bidding of the CCP regime.

 

[dajop]

At the end of the day, whatever the motivation, WHO calling it the "Chinese virus" might not have been the best way to get people outside of China take it seriously. "Oh, that's not going to happen here, it's the Chinese virus". COVID-19 has more gravity.

 

[Tropic]

Think everyone knows where this pandemic started and likely reasons why. But frankly, ...really think we have more important things to get fussed about than US politics atm.