[Xmca-l] Re: General check-in

Sat Apr 11 15:57:48 PDT 2020

(I do not think there’s been an e-mail from Beth in xmca recently. We’ve been referring to exchanges with her in other fora here, about her experiences in Brooklyn during the pandemic, but has there been an e-mail by her to this list? If yes, I’ve missed it too, but I doubt it.)
Alfredo

From: <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>
Reply to: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
Date: Sunday, 12 April 2020 at 00:51
To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: General check-in

Two more notes, one on the list-serve and a question for Liz Fein:
1. I frequently will get responses to a thread that will not be included with the thread (Liz' response was one such response). Also, I did not get Beth Ferholt's initial email either.

2. Liz! You said that your students are increasingly feeling a pull toward the question: "how we can change psychotherapies to be social and revolutionary so that patients can insist that people in their worlds change with them?" That sounds to me like a fantastic question. Even without the political import (which I applaud), this goes right to the heart of what I like to think is a central episteme of CHAT - the inseparability of figure/ground (of form/content, substance/style, etc.) - esp. with regard to the sacrosanct and inviolate ("hypostatized" as some anthros like to say) individual psychological subject. And so I'd love to hear more about your on-the-ground-experiences of this. Assuming that there are some common threads among your students, can you say what kinds of revolutions your students feel pulled toward? In other words, HOW do they imagine the world changing "with" their patients? What kinds of changes do they see as necessary? I'm a pessimist about these kinds of things, so what you describe gives me a glimmer of hope!

-greg

On Sat, Apr 11, 2020 at 11:58 AM Dr. Elizabeth Fein <feine@duq.edu<mailto:feine@duq.edu>> wrote:
Hello Annalie - I am thinking about this question a lot also: "how we can change psychotherapies to be social and revolutionary so that patients can insist that people in their worlds change with them?" Many of the graduate students that I supervise on their psychotherapy cases feel an ongoing pull in this direction, and we talk and write about it often, but it often feels hard to get traction around instantiating it in our work, even as the in-house clinic within our department is very flexible and open to many different explorations.
I am listening with you.
Elizabeth

On Sat, Apr 11, 2020 at 10:01 AM Annalie Pistorius <annalie.pistorius@smu.ac.za<mailto:annalie.pistorius@smu.ac.za>> wrote:

Hi im still here with you. Sitting together is something to do. Our university had shut down before the lockdown here in South Africa – our students and SRC being medical students have taken charge the way they usually do. I must say they always impress me, how they can manoeuvre all staff when there is a leadership crisis. However now with the Corona world crisis, I am impressed how everyone here including our leaders stand firm and together, herding us and being giving to poor communities.

I watch BBC world news almost every day, and was impressed to see that even in Cape Town our gang members have started using their leadership to organise and direct the handing out of food parcels to their community members. Of cause, not everyone is seeing all of this as positive as I am painting it here.

I am reminded of the bitter sweetness of the situation, by my patient (with whom I am doing psychotherapy sessions on my cell phone at a very high cost, don’t ask me why not on internet), that his problem of stress, headaches and severe depression is dissolving because he is not at work. No-one shouting into his ears, the voices of critique fading…Now what should be done so that when he goes back his problem continues to dissolve?

Is this our moment to build onto? – how we can change psychotherapies to be social and revolutionary so that patients can insist that people in their worlds change with them?

That’s why I am here listening.

Greetings

Annalie

From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>> On Behalf Of Alfredo Jornet Gil
Sent: Saturday, 11 April 2020 10:58 AM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>>
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: General check-in?

The list of xmca members is indeed long! Here is a link to the list: http://lchc-resources.org/xmca/subscriber_list.php

Alfredo

From: <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>> on behalf of Helena Worthen <helenaworthen@gmail.com<mailto:helenaworthen@gmail.com>>
Reply to: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>>
Date: Friday, 10 April 2020 at 22:11
To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>>
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: General check-in?

This is a gracefully written New Yorker-worthy piece of dark dystopian fiction.  I would like to start up the whole Utopia discussion again, which I never felt clamped its teeth down hard enough.Thanks, David.

I am seeing responses from David Kellogg, Peg Griffin,  Mike Cole, Greg Thompson, Rein Raud in Estonia, David Kirshner, Ed Wall, Henry Shoner, Andy Blunden, Martin Packer in Bogota, Richard Beach — who did I miss?  There are more of us out there. I worry about Haydi in Iran.

I am swamped with Zoom, telephone and email.  Rather than clog up this list I’ll re-visit my blog (below) just in case anyone reads it — this is with regards to the price of vegetables, David Kellogg.

Other than that: the book about contingency goes back through 4 past transitions in higher education: standardization (Carnegie, SATs etc); expansion (the GI bill); the Movement era (civil rights, 1968, etc) and then the neoliberal contraction, for which the explosion of contingency (no job security/no academic freedom, crap wages) was a solution to a set of interlocking administrative problems. WE then go into a lot of detail about what organizing unions for faculty and campus workers in higher education is like. Thanks for asking, David.

I’m doing Zoom piano lessons for grandchildren, in hopes that they will come out of this with at least one skill that is useful to humanity. Also working with DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) to lead reading groups about the recent wave of teacher strikes. Still owe Andy a review of his Hegel book; thanks for uploading the difference between Hegel and Marx paper, Andy.

There are still some more xmca-ers out there that haven't checked in.

Helena Worthen

21 San MAteo Road, Berkeley 94707

510-828-2745

helenaworthen.wordpress.com<http://helenaworthen.wordpress.com>

On Apr 10, 2020, at 12:39 PM, mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu<mailto:mcole@ucsd.edu>> wrote:

The new samizdat, David?

mike

On Fri, Apr 10, 2020 at 10:31 AM David H Kirshner <dkirsh@lsu.edu<mailto:dkirsh@lsu.edu>> wrote:

Here’s a fictional reminder of what more may be at stake in the current political era.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/06/love-letter

David

From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>> On Behalf Of Peg Griffin, Ph.D.
Sent: Friday, April 10, 2020 11:55 AM
To: 'eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity' <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>>
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: General check-in?

Henry,

Only thing I know for sure about any bill is this: If it doesn’t serve well the top 1%, then McConnell won’t have it come to the floor for a vote in the Senate, so many reasonably good bills are never enacted and no Senator or President need be held accountable about their opposition.

But, what I know about intersectional groups in the past few years is that we have to reach out in any and all ways possible to be sure we do not step on each other’s messages, actions, and needs, and to be sure we have ways of getting and giving timely support as allies.

It sounds wimpy for a bumper sticker, but I wish I had one that said “Protect Fragile Solidarity!”

I think we may be inching in that awkward direction though: SPLC has normalized the bumper sticker, “Restore the Vote.”

Peg

From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of HENRY SHONERD
Sent: Friday, April 10, 2020 12:05 AM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>>
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: General check-in?

Peg,

I really don’t know anymore about life on the Rez now than what I read on line, what I have heard on Native America Calling on our local public radio station KUNM and what I hear from my Navajo Family near Shiprock. So far, no one in my family there is sick. I have no insider information that might help pull the right strings in DC. Deb Haaland sends out regular bulletins describing what she is doing to benefit all New Mexicans, no specific mention of what’s happening on the Navajo. You know more about the bills than I do!

Henry

On Apr 9, 2020, at 2:36 PM, Peg Griffin, Ph.D. <Peg.Griffin@att.net<mailto:Peg.Griffin@att.net>> wrote:

Henry, may I ask you to discuss Co-Vid 19 in the Navajo Nation? From news reports the Nation seems to be proactive, trying new and old ways of proceeding. But, in comparison to nearby states, more and deeper problems faced with fewer and less stable resources?  DC got robbed in the second bailout bill – way underfunded.  Plans are getting formed and deformed about pushing for fixes in the next bill (now in messes in both House and Senate). Do you know if there are any Navajo plans that DC folk  can support,  maybe learn from (or at least stop from inadvertently stepping on?)  Is staff in Deb Haaland’s office in the HOB a good place to try to find out or …?

A good fantasy about November, Henry.  Somehow, it reminds me of the early days in the Fifth Dimension. The children engaged in transformational journeys, taking their avatars through rooms in a table top maze, choosing which of several openings they would use as entry and eventual exit, choosing which of different tasks in the room to do (harder tasks coupled with more choice over which exits from room they could use), collaborating with peers and lovely Big Sisters and Brothers, and there was always the Wizard –guardian or trickster or sometimes asleep at the wheel.  At an exit, avatars transformed and children went to the creature store to pick the token of the transformation to travel with if they chose to enter the 5th D again.

But there was also a different world with university and public school calendars and rites of passage. At times for seams important to that world, the children got shirts screen-printed with words ranging from “I conquered the 5thdimension” “I barely survived the 5th Dimension” “I almost survived the 5th Dimension” and so on “I’m in the middle… “I’m just starting…” A child reviewed the prior period of time, negotiating which words would be on their shirt.  (Of all the weird things in the 5th D, Mike laughs best about the carefully differentiated shirts.)

So, how about you and I in the here(s) and now(s)? We make choice after choice after choice and work hard at enough to transform the current elected officials to try to choose better creatures as we exit this iteration of a government and enter again for choices and tasks in the next iteration.  Concurrently, we have to keep our eye on the prize of the CoVid 19  pandemic world and survival in it.

BTW, I do live inside the Beltway – 12 blocks north and east of Union Station. The museums, the food, and the HOBs (House Office Buildings) – as well as the SOBs across the capitol park – all nearby, familiar sites of camaraderie for efforts, some successful and some not so much.

Peg

From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of HENRY SHONERD
Sent: Wednesday, April 8, 2020 7:52 PM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>>
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: General check-in?

I was born at Mercy Hospital in Washington DC. Do you actually live inside the Beltway? Great museums there and food. Scads of family from both Judy’s and my side. One of the last times I visited there, I went to Michelle’s office: She was our representative at the time. She gets around.

I have this fantasy brought on by the pandemic and New Mexico’s Blue (Democratic) sweep in 2018 that brought us three kick-ass women: Governor Michelle...Representative Deborah Halland for Albuquerque and surrounds where we live (I canvassed for her in the primary!)…and Representative Xochi Small to the south. All Democrats. The fantasy is that these historic times, this perizhvanie, this Lev budding, will bear fruit in November that gets us through another narrow place. And we will celebrate. Fitting that Passover is tonight, a celebration of liberation from slavery, and a time when we recognize that we are all really strangers, wherever we live.

Yikes! Talk about Biblical dialect! It’s as catching as that Corona bug!

Must stay well

Henry

On Apr 8, 2020, at 4:27 PM, Peg Griffin, Ph.D. <Peg.Griffin@att.net<mailto:Peg.Griffin@att.net>> wrote:

I live in Washington, DC, Henry, but my roots here are by way of LCHC in San Diego which begot xlchc which begot xmca.  Don’t know why I switched into a biblical dialect, but not hallucinations, just whimsy. And a little tired this evening.

Did you notice how my motif in my last post turned unto motive when I sent it?  I think it was Leonti’ev sneaking in.

The description of your mask seems dashing! Could Judy have alternative (or ulterior) motive (or motif)?

Hmmm, just recognized the 5th Dimension wanting into the lineage recital.  Still no hallucination just a few sips  of a nice Tuscan blend…

Peg

From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of HENRY SHONERD
Sent: Wednesday, April 8, 2020 5:14 PM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>>
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: General check-in?

Hey Peg!

Yes, I will tell Governor Michelle you’re rooting for her from where you and yours are at! Please forgive my senior moment, but where do YOU live?

My wife Judy figured out how to make a mask from a bandana and two hair ties. Like I’m ready to rob the stage coach, full of ppe (personal protective equipment).:) I saw a cartoon of Trump and his underlings at one of his you-can’t-make-it-up briefings. They are wearing masks that cover nose and mouth. Trump has a Lone Ranger mask. Here’s a link for those short on Americana:

https://www.pinterest.com/robertharmon311/lone-ranger-mask-patterns-for-save-ranger-challeng/<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Frobertharmon311%2Flone-ranger-mask-patterns-for-save-ranger-challeng%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cdkirsh%40lsu.edu%7Ca1af4d5a01a84f5cb4ef08d7dd705206%7C2d4dad3f50ae47d983a09ae2b1f466f8%7C0%7C0%7C637221346793667569&sdata=0ws8LB1vDFkDW9C5jjQPq6dE2Y%2BeT%2Fh8lyQ5gvs06TU%3D&reserved=0>

Stay safe and well!

Henry

On Apr 8, 2020, at 11:27 AM, Peg Griffin, Ph.D. <Peg.Griffin@att.net<mailto:Peg.Griffin@att.net>> wrote:

Henry, please tell your governor/friend, Michelle Lujan Grisham, “We see her, we hear her, we love her, and we know we need her.”

Groups here that made good use of allies before the pandemic are making good, well-planned use of us now, especially for those in the shadows, by necessity or oversight, to address basic food and medical insecurity.

And thank you, too, Henry and others on xmca.

Relatively healthy (AKA no Co-vid19 that we know of and well masked – my favorite right now is an easily washed and bleached homemade one with a blue lamb motive – anyone need a pdf for making adult or child masks, with or without hepa-filters?) and safe,

Peg

From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of HENRY SHONERD
Sent: Wednesday, April 8, 2020 12:48 PM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>>
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: General check-in?

Hi All,

Like Greg, I was struck by Andy’s sense that China may go back to “normal” but the neo-liberal “first" world is and will be experiencing a profound perizhvanie. You’d hope it will be for the good.

In the U.S,, generally, rates of infection are positively correlated with density of population. For example, I live in New Mexico, the fifth largest state in the U.S. with a population of a little over a one million and the lowest rate of infection…so far. However, our Navajo live spread out to the west and north of us, but have very high rates of infection. Little Zia Pueblo, just an our by car to the north and west of us, only has about a thousand people, with eleven confirmed cases. Poverty. In the country as a whole people of color have relatively higher rates of infection. Poverty.

Our governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham (who I am proud to say is a good friend), has been successful in pushing baci against Trump’s efforts to punish states that did not vote for him by being less than cooperative in providing resources against the pandemic. She has been using her bully pulpit against Trump's bloviating. His hot air has got to be an infectious agent. Most of us are using masks in public, evidence indicating that it protects OTHERS by wearing them. Trump prefers NOT to wear a mask. Consistent with his politics. You can’t make this up.

Be well,

Henry

On Apr 8, 2020, at 9:00 AM, Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com<mailto:greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>> wrote:

David,

I wonder if you could say more about your experience of the state-based "surveillance" in SK. There are lots of different groups in the U.S., both on the left and the right, who are up in arms about the "tracking" of citizens via credit card and cell phone usage.

And it sounds like this is a global concern as Mary's report from SA suggests.

Also how interesting how similar the conspiracy theories are around the globe (globalization and the spread of viral ideas?). That's world perezhivanie indeed!

-greg

On Tue, Apr 7, 2020 at 3:08 PM David Kellogg <dkellogg60@gmail.com<mailto:dkellogg60@gmail.com>> wrote:

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<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tandfonline.com%2Fdoi%2Ffull%2F10.1080%2F10749039.2020.1745847&data=02%7C01%7Cdkirsh%40lsu.edu%7Ca1af4d5a01a84f5cb4ef08d7dd705206%7C2d4dad3f50ae47d983a09ae2b1f466f8%7C0%7C0%7C637221346793672570&sdata=gGTUDzeQcuNFPPUA0IpMYXk2TQ366lgfb2rJA06lgWY%3D&reserved=0>

Some free e-prints available at:

https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/QBBGIZNKAHPMM4ZVCWVX/full?target=10.1080/10749039.2020.1745847<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tandfonline.com%2Feprint%2FQBBGIZNKAHPMM4ZVCWVX%2Ffull%3Ftarget%3D10.1080%2F10749039.2020.1745847&data=02%7C01%7Cdkirsh%40lsu.edu%7Ca1af4d5a01a84f5cb4ef08d7dd705206%7C2d4dad3f50ae47d983a09ae2b1f466f8%7C0%7C0%7C637221346793677565&sdata=sP4JFzXCza%2Fl3zq6vR3a0Ni7v6GK0FDXBDp6O%2BK5YuU%3D&reserved=0>

New Translation with Nikolai Veresov: "L.S. Vygotsky's Pedological Works Volume One: Foundations of Pedology"

 https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811505270<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.springer.com%2Fgp%2Fbook%2F9789811505270&data=02%7C01%7Cdkirsh%40lsu.edu%7Ca1af4d5a01a84f5cb4ef08d7dd705206%7C2d4dad3f50ae47d983a09ae2b1f466f8%7C0%7C0%7C637221346793687557&sdata=UWCVnQMwvYyh%2Bm0oJusCm64Pv8v3JnElAvCYlmVsX1U%3D&reserved=0>

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<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.space.com%2Fitaly-coronavirus-outbreak-response-reduces-emissions-satellite-images.html&data=02%7C01%7Cdkirsh%40lsu.edu%7Ca1af4d5a01a84f5cb4ef08d7dd705206%7C2d4dad3f50ae47d983a09ae2b1f466f8%7C0%7C0%7C637221346793692564&sdata=sWHcoPiY%2FqVN%2F5hrvay2GdKApM3b4XE3w1f9pK8Xdyo%3D&reserved=0>

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<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com%2Fsites%2Fjeffmcmahon%2F2020%2F03%2F11%2Fcoronavirus-lockdown-may-save-more-lives-from-pollution-and-climate-than-from-virus%2F%234a39bb3c5764&data=02%7C01%7Cdkirsh%40lsu.edu%7Ca1af4d5a01a84f5cb4ef08d7dd705206%7C2d4dad3f50ae47d983a09ae2b1f466f8%7C0%7C0%7C637221346793697555&sdata=swdtdsRGx2X6Gi%2FLLipNE8fRTpbNkrwyeM25TVE%2BMVk%3D&reserved=0>

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<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2Fsections%2Fgoatsandsoda%2F2020%2F03%2F04%2F811019032%2Fwhy-chinas-air-has-been-cleaner-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak&data=02%7C01%7Cdkirsh%40lsu.edu%7Ca1af4d5a01a84f5cb4ef08d7dd705206%7C2d4dad3f50ae47d983a09ae2b1f466f8%7C0%7C0%7C637221346793702562&sdata=6yvEjMIA8fnvDubC8Zp%2BLQEjS1%2Ffpm4HK07oROmddkY%3D&reserved=0>

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<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencedaily.com%2Freleases%2F2020%2F03%2F200313155256.htm&data=02%7C01%7Cdkirsh%40lsu.edu%7Ca1af4d5a01a84f5cb4ef08d7dd705206%7C2d4dad3f50ae47d983a09ae2b1f466f8%7C0%7C0%7C637221346793707550&sdata=qtwz3YxsiyXdHqVI9q33uZSSDZuYru8864G6p0yW54M%3D&reserved=0>

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

--

Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Department of Anthropology

880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower

Brigham Young University

Provo, UT 84602

WEBSITE: https://anthropology.byu.edu/greg-thompson<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fanthropology.byu.edu%2Fgreg-thompson&data=02%7C01%7Cdkirsh%40lsu.edu%7Ca1af4d5a01a84f5cb4ef08d7dd705206%7C2d4dad3f50ae47d983a09ae2b1f466f8%7C0%7C0%7C637221346793717544&sdata=D7lrF4VGLFnHxZnai5QJ8%2FZEH5zBI3PMMI52Bm26XJw%3D&reserved=0>
http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fbyu.academia.edu%2FGregoryThompson&data=02%7C01%7Cdkirsh%40lsu.edu%7Ca1af4d5a01a84f5cb4ef08d7dd705206%7C2d4dad3f50ae47d983a09ae2b1f466f8%7C0%7C0%7C637221346793722545&sdata=cBho%2FGA%2FbVazuwqP6n%2FMusDNaKQ514IhbhU3UQdKsyE%3D&reserved=0>

--

Being a social scientist is like being a geologist who studies rocks in a landslide. Roy D'Andrade

---------------------------------------------------

For archival resources relevant to the research of myself and other members of LCHC, visit

lchc.ucsd.edu<http://lchc.ucsd.edu/>.  For archival materials and a narrative history of the research of LCHC, visit lchcautobio.ucsd.edu<http://lchcautobio.ucsd.edu/>.

--
Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
WEBSITE: https://anthropology.byu.edu/greg-thompson
http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
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