Goodbye Turkey, Hello Türkiye!

Goodbye Turkey, hello Türkiye! 

Yes, the country is rebranding itself. 

According to its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left), the new name “represents and expresses the culture, civilisation and values of the Turkish nation in the best way”. 

And in the process, it distances itself from the common turkey (Scientific name: Meleagris gallopavo), a native game bird of North America that has been widely domesticated for the table and which is synonymous with Thanksgiving. 

[According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, “Turkeys Raised”, US Department of Agriculture, September 24, 2021, about 214 million turkeys are raised for food every year in the US and approximately 87 million of them are slaughtered and eaten for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter].

Liverpool took a huge step towards the Champions League quarter-finals after scoring two late goals against an impressive Inter Milan in the San Siro yesterday. 

The Reds didn’t have it easy. They looked set for a goalless draw in the first leg in Italy until the seventy-fifth minute when sub Roberto Firmino got on the end of Andrew Robertson's corner to glance a perfect header home and gave his side the lead. 

Barely eight minutes later, Mohamed Salah struck to add a second. A cross from Trent Alexander-Arnold fell loose in the box and he pounced to sweep into the net, although he needed a deflection to help it past the goalkeeper. 

There were just two shots on target registered in the match, both of which resulted in Liverpool goals. 

Certainly, this wasn’t Liverpool's best performance – but thankfully, they stayed in the game and they toughed it out. And Jürgen Klopp's side take a sizeable advantage into the second leg at Anfield on March 08. 

Good teams always find a way to win and Liverpool did just that.

400M Covid Cases and the Johor State Election

Yesterday, the world reached 400 million cases. Like it or not, Covid has become firmly entrenched in so many countries and there's no escaping from it!

Malaysia’s Election Commission have set March 12 as polling day for the 15th Johor state election. Nomination day is February 26 and early polling will be held on March 08. 

The Johor government were previously reported to have a razor thin majority with only having 28 seats compared to the Opposition’s 27 seats, following the death of their Kempas assemblyperson Osman Sapian on December 21. 

A premature state election was triggered in Johor more than two weeks ago after caretaker Menteri Besar Hasni Mohammad from UMNO sought the dissolution of the state assembly despite holding a one-seat majority. 

This will be the third time that the country has seen state elections in the past five months after the Melaka and Sarawak elections in November and December last year.

FYI, this is the first time that 18-year-olds will be able to cast their ballots, after the Undi18 Bills were gazetted.

300 Million Covid Cases Worldwide and No Time to Die Laughing

Today, the world witnessed 300 million Covid cases. 

Sixty-eight countries have accumulated more than half a million infections todate – and they don’t seem to want to slow down.

 

It would appear that Covid intends to stay with us, even in 2022! 

China’s Xinhua posted a James Bond spoof that mocked the western intelligence community’s growing focus on threats posed by Beijing. Titled "No Time to Die Laughing" – it featured a pair of Chinese actors playing fictional British spies called James Pond (codenamed Agent 0.07) and Black Window (Agent 0.06). 

In a tongue-in-cheek tweet on Tuesday, the state news agency said they had uncovered leaked video of a secret meeting between British and American spies after Richard Moore (left), the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service bumped Beijing higher up MI6’s agenda. 

Xinhua also attached a four-and-a-half-minute clip containing what they called “rib-tickling moments”!

 

In a rare response, MI6's head honcho had tweeted: “Thank you for your interest (and the unexpected free publicity!)” 

Moore – codenamed C within the agency – previously said adapting to China’s rise was the spy service’s “single greatest priority” and warned of Chinese “debt traps, data exposure and vulnerability to political coercion”. 

Whatever lah. At least, both countries can have a wee laugh over this skit!

250 Million Covid Cases Worldwide and Life Begins

The global Covid tally has now surpassed 250 million cases. And more than 5 million deaths.

Malaysia is ranked No. 20 in the world for infections todate. We’ve gone past 2.5 million cases and will soon reach 30,000 deaths. 

In fact, our daily numbers are still clinging stubbornly to four digits. This is despite 95.7% of the adult population has already been fully vaccinated. 

Covid doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon. Not that the world cares anyway because we're already normalizing ourselves to Covid. Life is almost back to normal.

Suria Arul shared this yesterday and I'm resharing it today:

240 Million Cases and Covid Slows Down

Worldwide, Covid-19 is slowing down. At least, it looks like it. Its total caseload todate only just reached 240 million today. 

I guess this is an indication that Covid now appears to be endemic among many of the affected countries. 

And after holding fast to a Covid-zero strategy for the past 18 months, New Zealand too has surrendered! One New Zealander said it feels like capitulation at a time when the country has plenty of vaccinating left to do. 

But one has to recognize that the Kiwis have been “rewarded with some of the world’s best outcomes through the pandemic: extremely low hospitalizations and deaths, little in the way of day-to-day restrictions, low unemployment and robust economic survival”. 

Anyway, whether Covid still remains a threat or not – the world is tired of lockdowns and it is opening up, no matter what. 

China is the exception.

The country is holding steadfast to its Covid elimination strategy. 

The country deserves our applause for showing the rest of the world that Covid can be beaten.

Well done, China!

And for those who still follow Covid numbers, these are the countries that are in the C500K club:

 

230 Million Cases and Israel Continues to See Infections Increase

The world has now reached 230 million Covid infections. 

And there are 56 countries that are in the C500K grouping:

The US of A broke a new record on September 08 – it registered 675,671 fatalities. 

If the clock was turned back to 20 months ago when the epidemic had just broken out in that country, no one would believe that so many ordinary people would die from the deadly virus. Covid-19 has now killed more Americans than the Spanish flu pandemic – the death toll back then in 1918-19 was 675,000, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

And in Israel, Covid cases are on the rise again. 

The country has been the world’s laboratory during much of the Covid era. It was the first country to achieve mass inoculations, first to add a booster to the two-shot regimen of the Pfizer vaccine, and first to broaden inoculation to children who are 12 and over. By the start of the summer, it appeared to be on the way to becoming the first country to achieve herd immunity. 

And yet Israel now has the world’s highest rolling weekly average of new Covid cases. That’s been something of a shock and raises the question of whether the country’s pandemic plan has worked. 

Three Saturdays ago, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz (right) assured the country that everything was under control. “Stop with the panic!” he enjoined the public. 

The government had explained that Covid case numbers have risen because of the increased testing as the school year begins. And there are those who attribute it to the infectiousness of the Delta variant. Whatever the case may be, the rates of serious illness and mortality remain low. 

While the vaccines have been successful for Israel, it seems that that protection they offer diminishes faster than originally hoped. But the booster is said to be doubling the immunity of those who previously got the two-jab regimen. 

Now the bet is that the booster will keep the number of delta-related deaths and life-threatening illnesses stable, that vaccinating young people will pay off, and that no vaccine-resistant variants will enter the equation. And the “new cases” statistic will no longer be a headline grabber. Or at least, that is their hope.

Point to note: Even model countries like China and New Zealand with their zero Covid tolerance policy are seeing sporadic cases – but the numbers are thankfully low.

Two Malaysian Cities Win Jean Paul L’allier Heritage Prize Award

Melaka and Georgetown, Penang have won the ‘Jean Paul L’allier Prize For Heritage’ award organized by the Organisation of World Heritage Cities. 

The award given out every two years is aimed at recognizing and appreciating cities that had distinguished themselves by their achievements in the conservation, enhancement or management of property inscribed on the World Heritage List.

This proves that the two Malaysian cities are still sitting pretty at the top of the list in terms of heritage cities. 

Other cities that have won the ‘Jean Paul L’allier Prize For Heritage’ are Cidade Velha (Cape Verde), Cuenca (Ecuador), Hue (Vietnam), Krakow (Poland), Kutna Hora (Czech Republic), Luxembourg (Luxembourg), Mexico City (Mexico), Queretaro (Mexico) and Safranbolu (Turkey). 

Celtic had needed loads of perseverance before they could secure a hard-fought Scottish Premiership win against a stubborn Ross County in yesterday’s game. 

They had to wait until the 64th minute, when debutant centerback Cameron Carter-Vickers' long-range strike deflected over the helpless Staggies’ goalie and into the net. This was followed six minutes later when Albian Ajeti headed in to kill the game, before nodding in a third in the eighty-fifth minute. 

The brace certainly put some gloss on the scoreline – but the fact is Celtic had nearly 80 percent possession and just one shot on target. Still the 3-0 triumph earned them a very precious 3 points to move them up to fifth place. 

196 Million Cases and Douglas Lim’s “Air Siam vs Covid” Skit

The Covid pandemic continues to take a heavy toll on the world – and already the global caseload has gone up to 196 million and not to mention, 4.2 million people have dead. 

And Zimbabwe and Cyprus are countries #104 and #105 to have joined C100K:

I’ve been diligently reporting on Covid and I’m getting really tired of how Malaysia in particular is tackling the pandemic. Thanks to a bungling government, it is an EPIC FAIL!

#KerajaanBodoh #KerajaanGagal 

In order to keep my sanity, methinks I deserve a laugh or two – and I have Malaysian comedian, Douglas Lim on “Air Siam vs Covid” to thank for this skit:

195 Million Cases and Covid is Again on the Rise in the US

We mustn't look down on Malaysia. We really did play our part to contribute to the overall Covid caseload. Global infections have now reached 195 million cases.

That’s why we have been steadily climbing one rung at a time – and we’re now at #30 among countries with the most number of cases. It’s no small feat for a small nation like Malaysia to have accumulated 1,027,954 cases as at today. FYI, we are the thirty-first country to have passed the one million mark.

And the Covid champion, the US of A is determined to stay #1! 

Covid cases are on the rise in all 50 states and the District of Columbia as the Delta variant rapidly spreads across the US and the virus once again tightens its grip. 

The US is reporting an average of about 43,700 new cases per day over the past week – far below pandemic highs but up 65% over the previous seven days and nearly three times as high as the level two weeks ago, data compiled by Johns Hopkins University shows. And yesterday, according to Worldometer, it was still above 30,000 cases. 

BTW, Vietnam and Botswana have joined the C100K grouping, making it countries #102 and #103: