George Floyd's murder had ignited protests that have spread to 140 US cities and at least 9,300 people have been arrested. As if on cue, former US presidents took turns to speak to their fellow citizens on the said issue.
Former US President Barack Obama (left) on May 29 had put it eloquently: “…It falls on all of us, regardless of our race or station – including the majority of men and women in law enforcement who take pride in doing their tough job the right way, every day – to work together to create a ‘new normal’ in which the legacy of bigotry and unequal treatment no longer infects our institutions or our hearts”.
The following day, President No. 42 Bill Clinton (right) issued a 417-word statement. Well-written words too: “…No one deserves to die the way George Floyd did. And the truth is, if you’re white in America, the chances are you won’t…We need to see each other as equally deserving of life, liberty, respect, dignity, and the presumption of innocence”.
President No. 43 George W Bush (right) on Tuesday conveyed to the nation that he was anguished by the brutal suffocation of George Floyd and disturbed by the injustice and fear that suffocate our country. He emphasized: "It is time for America to examine our tragic failures".
President No. 39 Jimmy Carter (left) yesterday said: “…People of power, privilege, and moral conscience must stand up and say ‘no more’ to a racially discriminatory police and justice system, immoral economic disparities between whites and blacks, and government actions that undermine our unified democracy”. And for good measure, he added: “Violence, whether spontaneous or consciously incited, is not a solution”.
These are well-expressed utterances and you can even say they are stirring and rousing. But let me ask point-blank, what did THEY do for black rights when they were in office, besides dishing out the usual platitudes at regular and rehearsed intervals?
To me, the above words are devoid of meaning! Unless you do something, unless you make something – they’re nothing more than alphabets strung together to lull Americans into a false sense of appeasement and delusive hope.
Five days after the world notched up 6 million coronavirus cases, it reached another peak at 6.5 with deaths in excess of 380,00.
And for sure, seven million cases are just over the horizon. Most probably, in 4 days time.
It is interesting to note that the news are all about the #GeorgeFloyd protests these days and column inches dedicated to the coronavirus pandemic have shrunk accordingly.
Anyway, there are some notable national ‘achievements’ to highlight because Covid-19 is not about to go away just yet.
On Monday, Chile passed 100,000 cases; and a day later, Bangladesh arrived at the halfway mark at 50,000 cases.
Further down the rungs, Nigeria posted 10,000 cases on Sunday and Bolivia and Armenia arrived at this particular milestone two days later.
And Mexico, already No. 14 in terms of total infections, became the seventh country to register more than 10,000 coronavirus deaths on Tuesday.
And Colombia reported 1,000 fatalities on Tuesday too.
I've not reported on ASEAN countries for quite some time – anyway, here's the latest update as at yesterday:
One hundred and five writers from across Africa and the diaspora have put their signatures down to support #BlackLivesMatter – in the face of growing protests in the US following the March 25, 2020 death of an unarmed Black, George Floyd, at the hands of police officers.
Speak out the names of those who have died:
George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, Amadou Diallo, Ahmaud Arbery, Aiyana Mo'Nay Stanly-Jones, Tony McDade, Pamela Turner, Matthew Ajibade, Rekia Boyd, Eric Garner, John Crawford III, Michael Brown, Shelly Frey, Ezelll Ford, Dante Parker, Michelle Casseaux, Yvette Smith, Darnesha Harris, Laquan Mcdonald, Atatiana Jefferson, George Mann, Tanisha Anderson, Akai Gurley, Tamir Rice, Rumain Brisbon, Jerame Reid, Frank Smart, Natasha Mckenna, Tony Robinson, Anthony Hill, William Chapman II, Alberta Spruill, Walter Scott, Shantell Davis, Eric Harris, Philip White, Mya Hall, Alexia Christian, Brendon Glenn, Victor Manuel Larosa, Jonathan Sanders, Salvado Ellswood, Joseph Mann, Freddie Blue, Albert Joseph Davis, Darrius Stewart, Billy Ray Davis, Samuel Dubose, Troy Robinson, Christian Taylor, Sean Bell, Brian Keith Day, Michael Sabbie, Asshams Pharoah Manley, Felix Kumi, Keith Harrison McLeod, Junior Prosper, Anthony Ashford, Dominic Hutchinson, Paterson Brown, Lamontez Jones, Bettie Jones, Alonzo Smith, Tyree Crawford India Kager, Janet Wilson, Sylville Smith, Benni Lee Tignor, Yvonne Smallwood, Kayla Moore and all other names, known and unknown.
Every one of them was somebody’s father or mother, somebody’s son or daughter, somebody’s brother or sister, somebody’s loved one whose life had been extinguished for no reason other than the color of their skin.
What Malcolm X (right) said in Ghana in 1964 that "for the twenty millions of us in America who are of African descent, it's not an American dream; it's an American nightmare" remains true for 37 million in 2020 is a sad truism that tells the world that not only has the US failed to treat its black population with dignity and respect – but that black politicians of all political stripes have also been found sorely lacking.
Fighting the racism that murdered George Floyd requires more than good intentions, more than nice-sounding words and more than hashtags.
It’s time to know that enough is enough!
It’s time for blacks to renounce tolerance, relinquish patience and repudiate sufferance.
Or forever stay enslaved.
It’s worth quoting social activist Assata Shakur (left), who said, "Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them".
I reckon India is getting desperate. It showed when it gave its full backing for hydroxychloroquine. And then it also approves remdesivir.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research Director-General Balram Bhargava, observational and case control studies have demonstrated “no major side effects” of taking hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic. Only minor discomforts such as nausea, vomiting and heart palpitations – nothing to get alarmed about!
And under India’s clinical guidelines for coronavirus treatment, the drug can be administered – but only to patients “with severe disease and requiring ICU management”.
I guess that doesn't apply anymore. Can I presume that health authorities are going to prescribe hydroxychloroquine to just about everybody because it not only treats but it also prevents? If that's the case, that would explain their endorsement given on May 26, 2020.
After all, the country accounts for 70% of global production of hydroxychloroquine. In fact, the country ramped up output of the drug amid increased demand, especially after US President Donald Trump pushed for hydroxychloroquine as a potential prevention/treatment for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
As I had mentioned in my blog post "Dicing with Death with Hydroxychloroquine" published Tuesday, even Malaysia is rushing to buy bulk quantities of the malaria drug.
Still, a day after India’s announcement, some European governments moved to halt the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus patients. Also, a second global trial has been suspended.
The response by France, Italy and Belgium followed a World Health Organization decision on May 25, 2020 to pause a large trial of hydroxychloroquine due to safety concerns.
The speed at which authorities of the three countries hit hardest by the pandemic arrived at the said decision highlighted the challenge for governments scrambling to find ways to treat patients and control Covid-19.
I’m thinking out loud that if India (as well as Brazil)really believe in hydroxychloroquine’s efficacy and therefore, they are dispensing the drug here, there and everywhere – and going by the Trumpian logic, shouldn't we be expecting rapidly declining infection and fatality rates? I know it's not as simple as how I put it; I shouldn't even be attempting to draw conclusions. I'm only saying lah. Besides, if the drug really works, they'd be shouting to tell the whole world, wouldn't they? Like I said, I'm only saying. And on Tuesday, India's government approved Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral drug remdesivir for emergency use in treating Covid-19 patients. I guess the health authorities now want to try everything because infections and fatalities are still rising. I can understand why because patients are sick and dying from Covid-19 now – and there’s tremendous pressure to try out drugs that just might help them. Anyway, yesterday, India reached 200,000 cases and more than 5,000 deaths:
Among countries, India is No. 7 in terms of the most number of confirmed cases and No. 13 for deaths:
The US may be bedevilled by protests sweeping through more than 75 cities – but Donald Trump (left), being the showman that he is, can be expected to deliver us sideshows.
Washington DC has not been spared from the unrest that has rocked the rest of the country. Over at Lafayette Park which is located directly north of the White House, noisy protesters have converged there to make their point. I wouldn't discount the fact that they could've created such a raucous racket that it could have possibly rattled Trump.
I guess things came to a head on Friday because Secret Service agents bundled their Commander-in-Chief into the bunker – designed for use in emergencies like terrorist attacks – where for nearly an hour, he was in hiding!
The outcome of that must have made him realize that there was a threat. That would have made him shit scared about his personal safety so much so that security at the White House was beefed up by the National Guard and additional personnel from the Secret Service and the US Park Police.
Still, he wasn’t sufficiently placated and more reinforcements were summoned on Sunday. The Justice Department deployed members of the US Marshals Service and agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration to supplement the phalanx of muscles that ringed the White House.
On Monday, he managed to retrieve a wee bit of courage – and he staged a televised walk to St. John's Episcopal Church in nearby Lafayette Square. I suppose, the intention was to demonstrate that he wasn’t, in the least, afraid. But just to be sure that he wasn’t in any danger, his minders discharged a heavy barrage of teargas, rubber bullets and flash-bangs to not only clear the area of protesters – but to accord Trump the total freedom to cross the street from the White House.
At the house of worship, Trump held aloft a Bible and posed for cameras.
A sham, that was what it is. He was being a first-class phony – he wasn’t there to worship. The church and the bible were merely props for a highly choreographed caper that provided him with a presidential photo opportunity. It was a purely political stunt to appeal to his Christian base, to show his affiliation. FYI, in 2016, Trump won 81% of white evangelical votes – and he knows that category of voters is critical to his re-election. The photo-op was nothing more than a Trumpian charade.
The Episcopal bishop of Washington DC, Mariann Budde (left), was predictably outraged.
She wasn’t shy to express her indignation and ire: “Let me be clear, the President just used a Bible, the most sacred text of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and one of the churches of my diocese, without permission, as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus”.
And she added: “We align ourselves with those seeking justice for the death of George Floyd and countless others”.
That may be so but it is not as if Trump cares two hoots.
Who would dare deny him his liberty to take a photo if that is what he wants? Even if force is to be applied, so be it. Besides, HE IS THE PRESIDENT OF THE US OF A.
After all, isn’t America the land of the free? Trump is merely exercising his freedom, LOL!
President No. 39 Jimmy Carter (left) yesterday said: “…People of power, privilege, and moral conscience must stand up and say ‘no more’ to a racially discriminatory police and justice system, immoral economic disparities between whites and blacks, and government actions that undermine our unified democracy”. 
