baby, it's cold inside; echoes from a (social) distance #11

Them: Psychology experts share their tips for safeguarding your mental health during quarantine

Us:

baby, it's cold inside; echoes from a (social) distance #10

The word is now a virus and language has turned into a serial killer…

breaking News! Trump tweets that New York is now a “hot spot”.

Whether I like it or not my mind travels back exactly three years ago. I think of the East Aegean and its European handled conflict zones - they called them “hot spots”.

March 2020, I read about “First Response” medical teams fighting worldwide an invisible enemy.

I instinctively remember the days I had to witness non-medical around that time  “First Response” teams fighting another “enemy” which took the form of men and women – they called them “migrant flows”.

The sun is out today, it is the beginning of spring and we ‘re all waiting for Easter (of the coming year). I see people crossing hectically the street when they see strangers approaching from afar.

Three years ago it wasn’t bellum omnium contra omnes; the hygienic war was rather held between “us” and “them,” employees of various nationalities vs refugees of various failed states -  that was a social distance sponsored by seminars provided by the United Nations: “no handshakes, no touching please between employees and beneficiaries!”

From my balcony I gaze at passers-by fearful of being viciously attacked by virus infected outdoors surfaces.

Back once more, hoping it’s going to be the last time, only to recall the vivid memory of the disgusted disapproving looks of my colleagues every time I touched with my bare hands the 2.4 meter high metal fence of the camp decorated with two layers of razor barbed wire.

 

Do not enquire, you ‘ll find no causality here, only the bitter taste of the twisted plots of history. 

The words is now a virus and makes me realize that… baby, it might be cold inside, but out there right now is burning hot!

As David Runciman recently put it, 

“for now the war is all there is, and the peace will have to take care of itself.”

baby, it's cold inside; echoes from a (social) distance #9

We have barely started inhabiting this still unknown territory, and largely non regulated yet, post-Corona world and I already feel nostalgic for the era of “real fukuyamism.” 

Back then, everything felt simple. 

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“No two countries that both have a McDonald's have ever fought a war against each other.

The McDonald's folks confirmed it for me. I feared the exception would be the Falklands war, but Argentina didn't get its first McDonald's until 1986, four years after that war with Britain. Civil wars don't count: McDonald's in Moscow delivered burgers to both sides in the fight between pro-and anti-Yeltsin forces in 1993.

Since Israel now has a kosher McDonald's, since Saudi Arabia's McDonald's closes five times a day for Muslim prayer, since Egypt has 18 McDonald's and Jordan is getting its first, the chances of a war between them are minimal. But watch out for that Syrian front. 

There are no Big Macs served in Damascus.”