[Xmca-l] Re: General check-in?
Andy Blunden
andyb@marxists.org
Tue Apr 7 17:25:01 PDT 2020
Thanks for summing up the situation here in Oz, John. I
think you are more connected than me. But it remains the
case that we have had 50 deaths from COVID-19 in a country
of 25 million, overwhelmingly from virus acquired overseas
or directly traceable to overseas cases.
This outcome corresponds to a transformation of the
political landscape is which unbelievable, but everything
depends on how we respond to these changes. So I call this
not an "existential crisis", but a world-/perezhivanie/.
China may well return to almost-normal but that is unlikely
in the neo-liberal world. It is impossible to predict what
the outcome will be, but it will be a self-transformation of
the world activity.
Andy
------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
Hegel for Social Movements <https://brill.com/view/title/54574>
Home Page <https://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm>
On 8/04/2020 8:34 am, John Cripps Clark wrote:
>
> Dear Helena and David
>
> Here in Australia we have (after a shaky start with
> returning travellers not taking self-isolation seriously
> <https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/throw-the-book-at-them-health-minister-addresses-aspen-controversy-20200331-p54frd.html>
> and not quarantining cruise ship passengers) we seem to be
> following South Korea in containing the virus. The outcry
> over cruise ships has been revealing. There is a police
> investigation
> <https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-05/ruby-princess-cruise-coronavirus-deaths-investigated-nsw-police/12123212>
> into one of them (it did lead to over 600 new cases and a
> few deaths). The hysteria recalls Australia’s experience
> in the nineteenth century of epidemics
> <https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/epidemics> and
> isolating ourselves from plague ships
> <https://shop.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/products/hellshipthetruestoryoftheplagueshipticonderoga>.
>
>
> As always it is the poor and disadvantaged that are
> suffering. We have tried to isolate the most vulnerable
> such as remote aboriginal communities
> <https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-03/coronavirus-concerns-as-remote-indigenous-testing-for-covid19/12115974>
> and it remains to see whether we will provide the
> resources necessary for these communities. Past experience
> is not encouraging since these communities would not be in
> the present state if we were serious about combatting
> disadvantage and poverty
> <https://theconversation.com/fly-in-fly-out-heath-care-fails-remote-aboriginal-communities-7948>.
>
> On a more parochial level, with extended shutdown and the
> universities under financial stress (partly this is our
> own fault by becoming dependent on overseas student fees
> <https://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/the-unis-with-30-per-cent-plus-international-students/>
> to supplement the steady erosion of government funding) we
> also need to support families with children who are cooped
> up together trying to juggle work, with childcare, with
> online education over the next two to ten months.
>
> I think there are three ways in which we as, a relatively
> privileged, community of scholars can contribute:
>
> 1. Supporting our colleagues – we have unprecedently
> powerful communication technologies at our disposal –
> use them for good rather than evil. This is especially
> important in Africa and South America where the tidal
> wave (and I use this term advisedly recalling the 2004
> Indian Ocean tsunami
> <https://journals.openedition.org/cybergeo/24607>) is
> about to hit.
> 2. Considering the influence of culture (it is in our
> title) on the worldwide response to Covid-19. David
> has already flagged the work unit as a unit of social
> organisation in China.
> 3. We need to prepare for the post-Covid-19 bounceback
> once we have a vaccine. The existential crisis (and
> again I use the word with trepidation after the
> disastrous record of a former Prime Minister’s use of
> the adjective
> <https://journals.openedition.org/cybergeo/24607>) we
> have is climate change and we can use the present
> crisis to delay or accelerate action. I have heard a
> frequent cry of “It will be different from now on” and
> history tells us that this is will not be true unless
> we make it so. There are powerful conservative forces
> (in Australia, U.S.A., Brazil etc.) who will try and
> use this crisis to increase the mining and use of
> hydrocarbons. As Martin said we are living in the
> Anthropocene and our success in rapidly reducing the
> production and sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide
> that will determine our future far more than our
> confused response to Covid-19 (and future communicable
> diseases).
>
> John
>
> *From: *<xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of
> David Kellogg <dkellogg60@gmail.com>
> *Reply-To: *"eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity"
> <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> *Date: *Wednesday, 8 April 2020 at 7:09 am
> *To: *"eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity"
> <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> *Subject: *[Xmca-l] Re: General check-in?
>
> Helena--
>
> Situation in China, courtesy my sister-in-law: life in
> Beijing is pretty much back to normal at least on the face
> of it. People are going out to their work units (but there
> is more work from home than before the crisis). Classes
> still largely taught from ZOOM. My nephew is in
> Shanghai, where the situation is somewhat tighter
> (proximity to Wuhan). Wuhan opened up for real
> yesterday--people can leave (I lived there for two years
> in the mid-eighties, but I can barely recognize what I see
> on the news now....) I have students in Chengdu (who
> attend my class via ZOOM). People are mostly shopping on
> line with delivery to the gate of the housing unit rather
> than to their flat (as we do here in Korea). Air quality
> better than it's been in decades.
>
> Situation here in South Korea: We just extended our
> lockdown for another two weeks. This is in response to a
> few days of new infections over a hundred, but the
> infections are mostly (80%) Koreans from the US and Europe
> who want to live in a place where the medical system has
> not broken down or is not in the process of breaking down.
> There are still some "hotspots" of community transmission,
> but these are almost all connected with churches or PC
> cafes. Schools reopen on the 16th, but only online. We
> have elections in a week, and there is a lot of
> campaigning going on, including the usual street based
> campaigning (the right wing opposition campaigns around
> the curious notion that the government has done absolutely
> nothing, and the government ignores everybody who is not
> an actual virus). People shop in stores, and there is no
> panic buying or disruption of supply chains. The main
> changes in economic life seem to have to do with
> transport, and it seems like this too will be permanent
> (electric scooters are everywhere now). Bowing instead of
> shaking hands is really not a bad idea, and
> coffee-shops always were over-rated and over-priced....
>
> But what about you, Helena? (One of the things I have
> learned on this list is that you get more or less what you
> give--people tend to use what you write as a model for
> writing back!) Are you still in Vietnam? Your address says
> Berkeley and your email says Illinois--those are three
> very different venues for the virus and the economy. Can
> you give us a brief account of the situation in each?
>
> Stay safe, wherever you are!
>
>
> David Kellogg
>
> Sangmyung University
>
> Book Review: 'Fees, Beets, and Music: A critical perusal
> of /Critical Pedagogy and Marx, Vygotsky and Freire:
> Phenomenal forms and educational action research /
>
> in /Mind Culture and Activity/
>
> /https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10749039.2020.1745847/
>
> Some free e-prints available at:
>
> https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/QBBGIZNKAHPMM4ZVCWVX/full?target=10.1080/10749039.2020.1745847
>
> New Translation with Nikolai Veresov: "L.S. Vygotsky's
> Pedological Works Volume One: Foundations of Pedology"
>
> https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811505270
>
> On Wed, Apr 8, 2020 at 4:30 AM Martin Packer
> <mpacker@cantab.net <mailto:mpacker@cantab.net>> wrote:
>
> Hi Helena,
>
> I share your concerns. And, despite its challenges,
> this situation seems a great opportunity to apply our
> distributed expertise(s). I tried to get some
> discussion going in a group concerned with the
> Anthropocene, but people seemed disinclined.
>
> Martin
>
> Here’s the first message that I sent…
>
> The current situation is producing important evidence
> about the probable consequences of the strategies
> proposed to mitigate climate change. Satellites are
> showing significant reductions in pollution:
>
> https://www.space.com/italy-coronavirus-outbreak-response-reduces-emissions-satellite-images.html
>
> Experts are suggesting that as a result the
> coronavirus may save more lives than it takes:
>
> https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2020/03/11/coronavirus-lockdown-may-save-more-lives-from-pollution-and-climate-than-from-virus/#4a39bb3c5764
>
> So when skeptics ask “How can you know that reducing
> air travel will help with climate change?” there is
> now clear evidence with which to answer them.
>
> Also in China:
>
> https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/03/04/811019032/why-chinas-air-has-been-cleaner-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak
>
> At the same time, I am starting to wonder whether the
> current health guidelines regarding coronvirus are
> culturally biased. Can they work in ‘collectivist’
> cultures (to use the shorthand)? The CDC guidelines,
> for example, include the recommendations to “Stay home
> when you are sick,” but also that other members of the
> household should “Avoid close contact with people who
> are sick” and should “Choose a room in your home that
> can be used to separate sick household members from
> those who are healthy. Identify a separate bathroom
> for the sick person to use, if possible.”
>
> This advice is simply not practicable for many
> households in Colombia. There are not enough rooms;
> there is no second bathroom. In addition, many infants
> and young children here are cared for by grandparents,
> or even great-grandparents (many women here have a
> baby when young, so an infant may have a grandmother
> who is in her late 30s and a great-grandmother in her
> late 50s). The evidence shows that children don’t
> become very ill, but they do get infected and they can
> infect other people, among whom elderly caregivers
> will be the most at risk.
>
> So I don’t think social distance and auto-quarantine
> will work in Colombia. Consider what the Chinese did:
> they went door-to-door to identify infected family
> members and removed them to massive collective
> quarantine setttings. People in the West considered
> this to be draconian, even cruel. But it made sense:
> much more cross-infection occurred in Chinese homes
> than in places like restaurants.
>
> Unless the authorities can come up with strategies
> that are more appropriate to local circumstances and
> practices, there is likely to be a rapid and elevated
> peak of infections in Latin American countries.
>
> And I see there is a related point here, on ageism:
>
> https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200313155256.htm
>
>
>
> On Apr 7, 2020, at 1:56 PM, Helena Worthen
> <helenaworthen@gmail.com
> <mailto:helenaworthen@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Hello, XMCA-ers -
>
> I don’t remember ever having read that this list
> was going to shut down or even be allowed to fade
> away. So now I’m writing, as if in the dark, to
> the whole list. We’ve now got a major — maybe
> “the” major crisis of the anthropocene on our
> hands and the distant but connected network
> represented by the conversations on this list seem
> to me to be a treasure more precious than gold -
> and I’m not speaking metaphorically.
>
> I am concerned about some of the people who have
> been pillars and resources on his list, people
> whom I have reached out to over the years and
> heard back from with information and perspectives
> that I would never have been able to access on my
> own. Where are you now? What are you doing? Are
> you safe and healthy? Do you have information
> about friends who are unable to read or respond to
> this request?
>
> I hope to hear some responses to this message.
>
> Take care of yourselves, please —
>
> Helena
>
> Helena Worthen
>
> hworthen@illinois.edu <mailto:hworthen@illinois.edu>
>
> 21 San Mateo Road, Berkeley, CA 94707
>
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