Young men dying for a conspiracy of disbelief

Wise men in their conceits

Lately, I have been reading of people dying from CoVID-19 who from the reports associated with their deaths suggest they need not have died.

A search for Caleb Wallace, 30, of Texas reveals unfortunate notoriety of Coronavirus conspiracy theories and trenchant activism against pandemic safety measures the possible flouting of which might have led to his contracting the virus, his hospitalisation, and consequent unnecessary death. [Insider]

Here in the UK, we read of Marcus Birks, 40, of Leek, Staffordshire, who did not get vaccinated because he was sceptical about the Coronavirus. When he contracted the virus, he fell so ill, was hospitalised and he died, on Friday. [BBC News]

Sift acquired knowledge

In none of these cases do I read that these young men who have young families, the latter is survived by a pregnant wife; are public health experts, epidemiologists, virologists, or have qualifications in any medical field. At best, they were dilettantes who seemed to be convinced of whatever informal knowledge they had acquired and staked their lives on it.

Obviously, we must allow everyone the courage of their convictions even if out of folly. To the individual, whatever decisions they make are purely ones of personal responsibility. However, if you are a family man, whatever personal convictions you have must be taken in the context of the broader consequence of acting on that determination.

Choose the avoidable given the choice

I do not believe a man of 30 or 40, for that matter, planned to die and leave behind a family on the principle of disbelieving the science and the evidence that can keep them alive. Even where that matter of principle exists, accounting for the risk of possible death, there must be some reconsideration of the options to err on the side of caution rather than reckless bravado.

You have to wonder if taking the vaccines might have saved the lives of these young men, if wearing masks and social distancing might have given them a chance to live. If curbing the enthusiasm for notoriety out of purveying conspiracy theories, withdrawing to reassess the situation and recant ones stand before it is too late might have resulted in a different story.

It gives one no comfort to learn of these evidently avoidable deaths out of reckless self-endangerment informed by conspiracy against the facts that suggest the slightest chance of survival in the time of a pandemic. We must avoid the tendency to Schadenfreude as we sadly grief what to all intents could have been a different story. If options present the avoidable where responsibility extends beyond us, then the avoidable must be the choice against the regrettable.

The UK: Funny if you believed today was COVID-19 Freedom Day

A promise they couldn’t keep

Lest we forget, today, the 21^st of June 2021 was supposed to be our Freedom Day, the day when all lockdown restrictions would be fully eased, and we can return to a new normalcy according to Prime Minister Boris Johnson. This was announced as part of a roadmap published on the 22^nd of February and I had no confidence in the expectation that this government could pull it off.

Blog: A roadmap of potholes

This was two days before I took my first Pfizer / BioNTech jab and whilst we were ahead of Europe by a long mile in the vaccination stakes, the idea that the vaccine would be a talisman or a panacea to the rampaging effects of the pandemic in the UK was a farfetched as it could ever be. The greater pandemic afflicting us is government hubris, policy inertia, prime ministerial indecision and executive incompetence.

Everyone but the one

The breakdown of order that is redolent of this government ably and valiantly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory started from the end of March when a variant first discovered in India, now referred to as the Delta variant was one of concern. By the 2^nd of April, it was concerning enough for the UK Government to immediately put the neighbouring countries to India of Pakistan and Bangladesh on the red list of countries requiring a mandatory 10-day assigned hotel quarantine, but leave India off where the virus was festering at rates higher than the red list countries.

With pernicious Brexit thinking in the fray, Boris Johnson was planning to visit India to negotiate a trade deal and hoping not to annoy Narendra Modi, the Indian leader, our government inadvertently, if not deliberately and carelessly, allowed traffic from the Indian subcontinent whilst he vacillated for weeks on whether the trip was possible whilst affirming there was nothing that indicated Freedom Day should shift.

Come on in with variants

It was not until the 19^th of April, after the impending trip to India was cancelled that India was put on the red list of countries with a 4-day notice before the enforcement of the assigned hotel quarantine requirement. In which time, there were 20,000 arrivals from India with no scrutiny of their status or conditions, some of whom might have contracted the Delta variant prior to arrival and seeded community transmission that it ranks as the most prevalent infection in the UK today.

Obviously, as this government is wont to do, they will accept no responsibility for this debacle, but it is not oblivious to neighbouring countries that this matter has been badly handled that the UK is on the red list of some countries and Scotland has banned travel from Manchester or Salford which apparently now boasts one of the highest Delta variant infection rates in the country. [BBC News: Covid: Manchester-Scotland travel ban comes into force]

Well done for 4 weeks more

Anyway, this is what informed the government to shift Freedom Day back another 4 weeks to the 19^th of July and going by this government’s record, I will believe it when it happens, because their penchant for bungling with bombast for excuses can never desert them. They have credit and accolades for that ability to lie barefaced with no sense of embarrassment and utter lack of shame. They are reprobate to the core and their maleficence has cost many lives.

In the numbers game, whist we have moved down to 7^th in the death rate from the pandemic, and apart from Russia that straddles Europe and Asia, we are still ahead of our erstwhile EU partners even though they caught the waves first and are still behind in the vaccination stakes. It should be obvious to anyone by now that the excuse for this situation being unprecedented is weak, all countries faced the same pandemic, some just handled it better especially in saving human lives. [Worldometers.info: Coronavirus]

Abandon hope with this lot

We instead trying to save the NHS and lose people in the devastating spread of the virus in care homes, and whilst we needed to save or store up NHS capacity to handle infections, the focus should always, always have been on people and not institutions with vacuous slogans deployed to distract us from pertinent matters.

For how much longer we can endure this murderous cabal in government, I cannot tell, but let history note that at the time of our greatest existential crisis this century, we are cursed with the most incompetent hands to ever hold power in the UK. I dare say, we are in the unconscionable grip of a mendacious kakistocracy. It is scary if it were not damningly so true.

Blog: The UK: On easing the lockdown, we're being taken for fools again

A roadmap of potholes

Impressed, I am not

When I was asked if I was looking forward to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s roadmap on the eve of its announcement, I did not hesitate with saying I had no expectations and that meant I would neither be disappointed nor frustrated.

When the announcement eventually came, what I saw was the fact that what we are going through that might eventually ease completely by June the 21^st could have been dealt with more conclusively this time last year, but for the hubris and arrogance of the UK Government who were ready to sacrifice lives for the economy and have now sacrificed both lives and the economy in the end. [BBC News: Lockdown: Boris Johnson unveils plan to end England restrictions by 21 June]

The numbers matter

At 120,757 deaths, many quite needless, this remains the biggest failure in the handling of the pandemic. One must however commend the vaccination effort as 17,723,840 (26.01%) have received their first dose, but only 624,325 (0.9165%) people are fully inoculated having received their second dose of the vaccine. The percentages based on the projected population of the UK being 68,116,498 today. [GOV.UK: Vaccinations in the UK] [Worldometer: UK Population Live] [FT.com: Covid-19 vaccine tracker]

We are nowhere near out of the woods, there is a whole long way to go before we can have the freedoms to do as we like and live as we desire away from restrictions. Boris Johnson could not help himself without finding some bombastic bluster to fulminate over us, it called his roadmap, the ‘One-way road to freedom’, all I could say was you are sure to bungle it. Without doubt, I have no trust in the competence, candour, integrity, or truthfulness of this government.

Blog - Opinion: Of our PM, cometh the hour, cometh no man

A leader with a heart

Over in America, we read a different story, with now over 500,000 COVID-19-related deaths, it called for a time of reflection just as the day before his inauguration President Joe Biden commemorated the loss of 400,000 lives. In leadership, in times like this, we need people who can carry the feelings and the sentiments in such as way as to lead us towards a future of hope.

This is what the president had to say, “As a nation, we can't accept such a cruel fate. We have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow.” That is something I find missing at home. Compassion and empathy are attributes and virtues that are absent from the heart of persons that people the government of the UK, not to think of considering any sense of humility.

I long for a time to be with my lover at the time of my choosing with the freedom to travel at will to fulfil the pursuit of happiness and the joy of living. Hope reigns supreme, we would see this through, with or without the help of those who think they have a handle on this thing.

Four years on ...

Times of our lives

I have a mind for dates, times and seasons, a smell can take me back decades, some music relives the past, my mind carried away to a place as if I have turned back time.

Each year, these days come and go as I wonder how things have changed from that event and today the 9^th of October takes me back to 4 years ago.

It was the end of hospital stay that I thought I might leave after four days, but ended up spending 18 days; this however, did not compare to the 4 months that the man in the next bed had spent in hospital.

Memories and thanks

Four years on, I am still recovering and rebuilding, a long journey of hope for radical change as the home and security I longed to return to has long gone and what is left is memories.

I have much to be thankful for, I have done new things, seen new places, embarked on new ventures and made new friends, I am forever grateful to friends, relations, acquaintances and strangers who have blessed me and given me succour in times of need.

The memories that will follow the next few days and months will be tough because October now harbours the births and the deaths of many loved ones. I remember too that as I was admitted to hospital, my condition was such that I was not expected to see the end of October either – I am still standing.

Life is just life

The paragraph below captures how I felt; the day I returned home, the longer story can be found here.

"Before I left, I had one last look at the bed that had been my unexpected, uninvited, sudden world of 18 days. I cried about how my freedom could so easily be taken away; how my vulnerability could be so exposed, how one could be at the mercy of strangers in a positions that demand lots of kindness, compassion and care."

Life happens; live it, enjoy it and make a story.

Editorial: Eleventh of May 2011

No jumping to conclusions with closed doors

One may never understand what informs irrational behaviour by some that their actions endanger themselves and the lives of others.

It goes without saying that the complexity of the mind whilst allowing for moderation of behaviour by societal mores still has some just appearing to go off tangentially and it is only providence that prevents a catastrophic mishap.

We can be irked and piqued by circumstances beyond our control that make us lose patience and or even cause lateness that the people responsible do not do enough to placate the situation.

Air travel is generally safe but it has lost most of its allure of pleasure, there are others that do not fly well, they take to the bottle and other agents to help them through the journey.

The case of a man caught between different episodic issues trying to open the door to an airplane which was halfway between Orlando and Boston implies the airplane did not have steps set to the door for disembarkation.

Whilst the man would see a face of the law scowling and breathing fire, it is incumbent on us to keep an open mind and since the door was still closed there should be no danger of us jumping to conclusions either.

No invective enough to lambast this cretin

The sad death of 11 National Youth Service Corps members during the recently concluded Nigerian elections tugs at the heartstrings with sorrow and anger. This situation was in every way avoidable if all those responsible for their safety had not shirked their responsibilities.

Passing the buck is bad enough but the governor of the host state whose remit it was to ensure security and peace plumbed the depths of calumny and issued utterances that made many think he lacked both a heart and a mind.

Having first averred that the deaths of the people were a course of destiny they could not avoid, he contemned their memory by comparing their loss of life to the loss of replaceable property.

The backlash that followed his insensitive, intemperate, irresponsible and atrociously stupid comments had him trying to redeem himself by saying he would, given the opportunity personally shoot the killers of those people.

It leaves reasonable people completely lost for words as it belies a cretinous crop of nonentities that Nigeria has been cursed to have elected for public office.

There will be life insurance pay-outs, compensation for loss of life, help for their families, the memorialisation of martyrdom and much more, none of which can attempt to make amends for these tragedies.

The greater worry is what the smell of money might do to others who scenting a largess would be more preoccupied with how they can deprive those families of that blood-money for their selfish ends.

It goes without saying, the deaths were avoidable, the mobs should have been corralled and no government official should have been caught unawares by the eruption of violence and how it developed into carnage.

Nigeria: Journalism, law deaths and swimming

Poor journalism

One should tire about Nigerian journalistic practices that have a tendency to plumb the depths of the unschooled, badly edited and thoroughly lacking in quality and finesse.

The headline in this case announces [1] the unfortunate assassination of an ex-chairman of a state bar association close to his home, that in itself is a story that can be developed into details of the event, the on-going investigation, the possible suspects and tributes from peers and other notable people.

However, interspersed in this news story is that of the unfortunate death by drowning of another female lawyer who happened to be a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) meeting her demise when attempting the rescue of her aide who got into trouble in the waters of the Bar Beach.

The tenuous connection between the assassination and the sad deaths is they were lawyers, besides that, there are sketchy details about the murder and advanced preparations for the internment of the SAN, then tributes to her and the story concludes having completely digressed from the headline bordering on the peddling of false information.

This is a report filed by two reporters or correspondents and what could have been two distinct stories has been conflated into one running thread of barely and tenuous related issues that share the sparse commonality of death and law – appalling.

Beaches, swimming and lifejackets

However, the main reason for this blog touches on another serious issue; tributes were paid to the SAN and prominent amongst those eulogies was one from the human-rights lawyer Femi Falana, it is important that I quote him verbatim, “The deceased was a brilliant lawyer. It is a big shame that on a yearly basis people get drowned on Lagos beaches due to failure of government to provide lifesaving jackets. I hope that the NBA will take advantage of this unfortunate incident to demand that all the beaches in the country are equipped with lifesaving jackets.”

This raises a whole range of issues that I must take this opportunity to address before the situation cools down in readiness for another unfortunate tragedy.

This SAN’s firm chose a beach for their end-of-year party, the presence of water means people might well go skinny-dipping or swimming. Nigerians in general are not natural swimmers, [References below explore that topic of Black African Americans not being able to swim.] we generally exhibit a fear of water except for those who have lived near rivers, lakes or beaches from childhood and have the fishing trade or something related in their family.

The aeration of the water baby

Rationally, irrationally or superstitiously, water either deep or raging is best observed from afar, I could have learnt to swim just before I was a teenager when we broke out of boarding school to play in the river not too far away until one day an animist priestess dressed in white wraps came to the banks of the river and appeared to walk on water, that was the last time we went there.

In fact, at Easter in 1976, I was thrown into the waters of Bar Beach by my uncles and I somehow came back to dry land a little worse for wear.

Years ago, my partner was able to persuade me to take swimming classes but at the first class, I was the big baby with floats and there never was a second lesson, the desire remains, the will is weak and it remains a fantasy but I would not use my fantasy and dreaming of swimming to exact a false reality on myself.

In any case, nothing is said about the swimming ability of the aide who got into difficulty and if the SAN was a swimmer at all, it is doubtful she was a strong swimmer at best and her judgment of her abilities might have been beclouded by the sight of the aide in distress.

Evidently, other members of the party probably knew that they could not swim and hence maybe were not involved in the rescue attempt of either ladies.

Lifeguards are what we need

That brings us back to Femi Falana’s statement, I doubt the issue is about life jackets because you will only be compelled to wear life jackets for safety reasons if you were on a boat and could not swim. Whilst there might be life buoys and tyres to throw out to people from the beach or boats, I doubt that in itself would have saved the day.

What the beaches require are life guards, people who are strong and able swimmers who are either paid or volunteers to oversee beaches and react immediately when people get into trouble.

Obviously, these lifeguards should be able to get the distressed to shore and perform first aid before the victims are transferred to hospital for treatment and/or observation.

Most importantly, people have no business going into the water if they cannot swim, fascinating as the Man from Atlantis might be, we are not fish. If anything should be learnt from this tragedy, it should be that we seek out swimming classes and restrict our water dunking to pools until such a time that we have built up strength to save ourselves in strong currents and hopefully save others who are weaker than we are in the water.

Source

[1] The Punch: Ex-NBA boss assassinated in Ogun

Other references

Images of Bar Beach, Lagos

BBC News - Why don't black Americans swim?

Swimming history: 'Blacks Don't Swim' | openwaterswimming.eu

DNA separates the blanks from the bullets

DNA daddy

The unending saga of the life and death of Anna Nicole Smith continues with interest as the twists and turns of that turbulent life produces more fodder for the press.

Her 6-month old daughter was born in the Bahamas with her lawyer Howard K. Stern listed as father of the child in the birth documents.

This billion dollar baby, at least potentially, depending on how the estate of her mother resolves is the key to a life-changing experience for whoever ends up the guardian and father of this diamond.

At least 4 men came forward claiming paternity of the child, but the lawyer who happens to have the death touch of witnessing the death of both his "step-son" and lover seems to have been shooting blanks.

The real bullets belong to Larry Birkhead an entertainment photojournalist who claimed all along that "The girl is mine".

So Dannielynn (Named after big brother) Hope (For anyone who becomes my daddy) Marshall (Where my fortune is) Stern (Messed up my mummy's life) is going to become a Birkhead (My real daddy) once custody is sorted out in the courts - come on - DNA says he is the father, what can be the problem?

Meanwhile, we need the National Guard protecting that child just in case Mr. Stern has the additional misfortune of witnessing another death.