Fwd: COVID-19

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: James Donald <tiare.taporo3@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Mar 29, 2020, 16:46
Subject: Fwd: COVID-19
To: Alec Donald <adonald@abdonaldltd.co.nz>
Cc: Amanda Donald <amandadonaldrm@gmail.com>, Charlotte Donald <chillitdonald@yahoo.com>, <Rozanne.Donald@mrgs.school.nz>, Linda Luxford <lindaluxford9@gmail.com>, Hamish Mead <bluedogstainless@xtra.co.nz>, IA GODFREY <iagodfrey@aol.com>, Astrid Meléndez <astridmelendez@une.net.co>, Clara Restrepo Velez <claramemo@hotmail.com>, Darren MacGillivray <dmacgillivray71@gmail.com>, Heather Lal <heatherlal53@gmail.com>, Jiveen MacGillivray <jiveen@gmail.com>, Monica Correa <monica.m.correa@icloud.com>, Andrew Miller <andrew@bushroad.co.nz>, Cath Pioletti <cpioletti@yahoo.com>, Angela Patricia Sanchez <apsanchez@alianza.com.co>, Graham <graham@tennisauckland.co.nz>, <dianden@icloud.com>, John Bassili <jajbassili@gmail.com>, <norsand@xtra.co.nz>, Pritika Lal <pritika.lal@gmail.com>, litara barrott <yachtsina@hotmail.com>, Miguel Homsey <MDH229@aol.com>

Hi to all,

We are forwarding a draft letter to President Trump which we then tried to send but the email address which we obtained off the internet would not work, so we have sent a greatly truncated version just in the last few minutes on the White House website. We are sure that he will be able to read between the lines!

As we said in the letter, we are looking at an ideal world and have paid no attention to the possible economic and military fallouts from our suggestions, but that's his job. We are just promulgating ideas. We would appreciate your comments!!!!

Jean's health is a bit better, but it's very up and down. Yesterday, thanks to Clara, we went to the Clinica Campestre and had a consultation with a very pleasant young lady doctor who said, after hearing and reading about Jean's medical history that she was extremely worried. She has given us orders for various tests which we will take to Sura tomorrow morning  - today is Sunday. Hopefully these can be carried out during this coming week, but the problem will be getting specialist appointments as all the specialist doctors seem to have decamped from town and left the front-line Coronavirus fight to the junior doctors and nurses. Don't know what would happen if emergency surgery was required. And it looks likely, and indeed it was the opinion of the Campestre doctor that the lockdown is likely to be extended. So, we just have to stay reasonably well. But Jean is experiencing some digestive issues as well as the respitatory ones and that is our main worry, although she does seem to be much better over the last 2 days. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, not much to report being here in lockdown. Envigado has instituted a system of using the last number of ID's (cedulas) to denote which 2 days that you can go to a supermarket. But since our 2 cedulas have different numbers we actually have 4 days!! But that's in Envigado and as we are right on the border of Medellin and Envigado, we can go any day because Medellin has not so far instituted any such system. But the rules change all the time. We have one supermarket in Medellin and the other in Envigado - both within 10 minutes walking from home. 

Interesting to watch developments, but we feel very much for those who have lost their businesses and/or their jobs. 

This will be the biggest conundrum of this whole ghastly business and it will become more acute as time passes. How many countries have the resources to fund their whole populations while jobs and business income dries up?

More reason than ever to hold the evil CCP to account, but no amount of money can ever compensate for the scourge that they have unleashed on the world. It's quite easy to see the endgame - bankrupt the world and then take it all over for a song. These bastards have to be STOPPED!!!

America cannot do it on their own; it also depends on all independent nations who espouse similar ideals.

We must all pull together to defeat the evil Communist Party of China.

Lotsaluv from us in Medellin

Jim and Jean

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: James Donald <tiare.taporo3@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2020 at 19:22
Subject: COVID-19
To: <comments@whitehouse.com>

Dear Mr. President,

We have written to you before; we are big fans of yours. We are NZ nationals living permanently in Medellin, Colombia.

We are sure that you are aware of all the issues concerning what we are about to discuss, but we nevertheless felt that it was important to share our opinions.

We have no facts or scientific evidence, but we have made some intelligent assumptions - we hope!

We refer to the start of the C-Virus infection in China. We have never subscribed to the theory that it started as a transfer of infection from some type of wild animal to humans, despite all the false theories and claims. We believe that it was deliberately manufactured and then released into the general population of Wuhan to try and give credibility to this crackpot theory of wild animal transfer. Perhaps it was partly experimental to see how quickly it could spread within a close population. And the other part of the experiment was to see how long it would take to be transmitted to other countries - along with deliberate lies and misinformation. Following on from that we have just read on Newsmax that of a consignment of C-virus test kits sent by China to Czechoslovakia just recently, a large proportion was faulty. We wonder whether this was deliberate in an effort to slow any recovery in that country, and possibly some others. 

Apart from the scientific interest in the above, we also believe that the whole rotten business is aimed at destabilising all countries' economies, but particularly that of the USA in an effort to prevent your re-election in November. But due to your prescience and acumen, you recognised the danger early on and banned all flights from China to the US. This action, while no doubt saving untold numbers of American lives, also earned you serious criticism at the time of being racist and xenophobic! All lies of course and mostly from the usual suspects - the Democrats. That disgusting narrative has now all but disappeared.

And as regards the Democrats, their absolutely treasonous attempt to blackmail you and the Administration into inserting their socialist agenda into your 2 trillion USD rescue package for the American people is unforgivable. They have no scruples whatsoever and in this case they are prepared to delay the receipt of much needed aid to the American people in order to advance their nefarious and destructive agenda. Recent examples of similar deceitful and illegal behaviour include the Kavanaugh Hearings and of course the attempt to impeach you. They must never be let anywhere near the White House, the Congress or the Senate after November. They may reincarnate in the future into a credible opposition, but right now they are extremely dangerous. 

And we remind you of the very recent disgusting and outright hostile comments from the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party - Xinhua News Agency. They stated that "they would see America in a deep Coronavirus sea". Maybe not the exact wording, but near enough. The meaning is unmistakable and constitutes war. China of course is reacting in this way with outrageous actions and propaganda because they see your re-election as a great danger to them as you are the only US President to have seriously resisted China's blatant attempts to destroy the US and dominate the world. 

We also refer to the Chinese assurances in late December that they had the outbreak under control and that there was no community transfer of infection between humans. Lies again of course. As a result the World Health Organisation, which is largely in the pocket of China, on January 14th. issued a tweet with no attempt at any independent verification re-affirming these lies - a move they now bitterly regret apparently. Too late because of course it lulled the world into a false sense of security, with all the predictable results we are now seeing.

In view of all this, we believe that China has been guilty of a monstrous assault on humanity and the economies that support that humanity. To those who would say - "they would never perpetrate anything like this on their own population" - we say absolute rubbish. The Chinese Communist Party has never been concerned in the slightest about the welfare of their own people, except maybe as a labour force for their exports in order to take over the world economy by stealth. We cite the massive loss of life of the Chinese people that occurred during the brutal regime of Mao Tse-tung who directly and indirectly caused 70 million Chinese people to lose their lives. He starved much of the population to death because he exported as much food as he possibly could to the then Soviet Union in return for nuclear weapon technology. During the Korean War, in an effort to look better equipped militarily than he actually was, he forcibly recruited thousands of young Chinese and sent them into battle with absolutely no arms at all. Of course they were massacred, but possibly he achieved his aim of appearing to be stronger militarily than he was - no doubt with the specious aim of appearing stronger at any future peace negotiations.  

In view of the above we consider that it is imperative that you at least consider some of the following recommendations as regards future action. We fully understand that some of these will be either politically or financially unacceptable, but we urge you to at least give them serious consideration - having regard to the massive damage directly caused by China to all of our countries. At best this is Chinese intransigence and misinformation and at worst a deliberate attempt to fundamentally attack countries such as the USA, who espouse democracy and freedom - both anathema to the Communist philosophy.

1) Maintain the current ban on flights from China indefinitely and a total ban on ALL Chinese nationals from entering the US - also indefinitely.

2) Require all US registered companies to forthwith repatriate their commercial activities from China to the US, or such other countries as may be approved from time to time. Any US companies currently operating outside the US would not be entitled to any US Federal aid as is currently proposed.

3) Chinese owned US debt - as at December 2019 this stood at 1.07 trillion USD. This debt should be immediately 100% repudiated and all other countries who may also owe Communist China monies in respect of loans should be encouraged to also repudiate that debt.

4) All Chinese assets in the US either owned by the Chinese Government or individual Chinese companies or individuals, including shares in listed US companies, should immediately be seized and nationalised. This would in all probability produce far more than 3 above. And all possible future sales of US assets to Chinese or their surrogates should be prohibited indefinitely.

5) Chinese sourced goods should either be 100% banned from import into the US or else be subjected to a punitive tariff of at least 500%.

These moves would cripple China which, considering the economic damage and loss of life that they will have caused, are entirely justified and still do not come close to a just reparation of the losses they have caused. The danger of course is that whenever a country is pushed hard against the wall, they could react in violent ways. Japan in the early 1940's which was denied access to  raw materials, is a case in point. They invaded Manchuria for coal and Indonesia for oil. And of course there was much collateral damage caused in the process.

Such actions would also cause economic hardship for a time for the US and indeed the rest of the world, including our own country, NZ. But in time these consequences would be alleviated by new trading relationships - excluding China.

These risks can be managed and are worth taking in order to stop China from its malign intentions, which it has no intention of stopping.

Finally, we admire everything you have achieved - in many cases far more than the 3-4 presidents who have preceded you. We wish you all the very best for November 2020 and also for your fight against Covid-19 and the economic recovery to come.

With very best regards,

Jim Donald and Jean Tallentire

Medellin
Colombia 

Fwd: COVID-19

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: James Donald <tiare.taporo3@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Mar 26, 2020, 19:22
Subject: COVID-19
To: <comments@whitehouse.com>

Dear Mr. President,

We have written to you before; we are big fans of yours. We are NZ nationals living permanently in Medellin, Colombia.

We are sure that you are aware of all the issues concerning what we are about to discuss, but we nevertheless felt that it was important to share our opinions.

We have no facts or scientific evidence, but we have made some intelligent assumptions - we hope!

We refer to the start of the C-Virus infection in China. We have never subscribed to the theory that it started as a transfer of infection from some type of wild animal to humans, despite all the false theories and claims. We believe that it was deliberately manufactured and then released into the general population of Wuhan to try and give credibility to this crackpot theory of wild animal transfer. Perhaps it was partly experimental to see how quickly it could spread within a close population. And the other part of the experiment was to see how long it would take to be transmitted to other countries - along with deliberate lies and misinformation. Following on from that we have just read on Newsmax that of a consignment of C-virus test kits sent by China to Czechoslovakia just recently, a large proportion was faulty. We wonder whether this was deliberate in an effort to slow any recovery in that country, and possibly some others. 

Apart from the scientific interest in the above, we also believe that the whole rotten business is aimed at destabilising all countries' economies, but particularly that of the USA in an effort to prevent your re-election in November. But due to your prescience and acumen, you recognised the danger early on and banned all flights from China to the US. This action, while no doubt saving untold numbers of American lives, also earned you serious criticism at the time of being racist and xenophobic! All lies of course and mostly from the usual suspects - the Democrats. That disgusting narrative has now all but disappeared.

And as regards the Democrats, their absolutely treasonous attempt to blackmail you and the Administration into inserting their socialist agenda into your 2 trillion USD rescue package for the American people is unforgivable. They have no scruples whatsoever and in this case they are prepared to delay the receipt of much needed aid to the American people in order to advance their nefarious and destructive agenda. Recent examples of similar deceitful and illegal behaviour include the Kavanaugh Hearings and of course the attempt to impeach you. They must never be let anywhere near the White House, the Congress or the Senate after November. They may reincarnate in the future into a credible opposition, but right now they are extremely dangerous. 

And we remind you of the very recent disgusting and outright hostile comments from the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party - Xinhua News Agency. They stated that "they would see America in a deep Coronavirus sea". Maybe not the exact wording, but near enough. The meaning is unmistakable and constitutes war. China of course is reacting in this way with outrageous actions and propaganda because they see your re-election as a great danger to them as you are the only US President to have seriously resisted China's blatant attempts to destroy the US and dominate the world. 

We also refer to the Chinese assurances in late December that they had the outbreak under control and that there was no community transfer of infection between humans. Lies again of course. As a result the World Health Organisation, which is largely in the pocket of China, on January 14th. issued a tweet with no attempt at any independent verification re-affirming these lies - a move they now bitterly regret apparently. Too late because of course it lulled the world into a false sense of security, with all the predictable results we are now seeing.

In view of all this, we believe that China has been guilty of a monstrous assault on humanity and the economies that support that humanity. To those who would say - "they would never perpetrate anything like this on their own population" - we say absolute rubbish. The Chinese Communist Party has never been concerned in the slightest about the welfare of their own people, except maybe as a labour force for their exports in order to take over the world economy by stealth. We cite the massive loss of life of the Chinese people that occurred during the brutal regime of Mao Tse-tung who directly and indirectly caused 70 million Chinese people to lose their lives. He starved much of the population to death because he exported as much food as he possibly could to the then Soviet Union in return for nuclear weapon technology. During the Korean War, in an effort to look better equipped militarily than he actually was, he forcibly recruited thousands of young Chinese and sent them into battle with absolutely no arms at all. Of course they were massacred, but possibly he achieved his aim of appearing to be stronger militarily than he was - no doubt with the specious aim of appearing stronger at any future peace negotiations.  

In view of the above we consider that it is imperative that you at least consider some of the following recommendations as regards future action. We fully understand that some of these will be either politically or financially unacceptable, but we urge you to at least give them serious consideration - having regard to the massive damage directly caused by China to all of our countries. At best this is Chinese intransigence and misinformation and at worst a deliberate attempt to fundamentally attack countries such as the USA, who espouse democracy and freedom - both anathema to the Communist philosophy.

1) Maintain the current ban on flights from China indefinitely and a total ban on ALL Chinese nationals from entering the US - also indefinitely.

2) Require all US registered companies to forthwith repatriate their commercial activities from China to the US, or such other countries as may be approved from time to time. Any US companies currently operating outside the US would not be entitled to any US Federal aid as is currently proposed.

3) Chinese owned US debt - as at December 2019 this stood at 1.07 trillion USD. This debt should be immediately 100% repudiated and all other countries who may also owe Communist China monies in respect of loans should be encouraged to also repudiate that debt.

4) All Chinese assets in the US either owned by the Chinese Government or individual Chinese companies or individuals, including shares in listed US companies, should immediately be seized and nationalised. This would in all probability produce far more than 3 above. And all possible future sales of US assets to Chinese or their surrogates should be prohibited indefinitely.

5) Chinese sourced goods should either be 100% banned from import into the US or else be subjected to a punitive tariff of at least 500%.

These moves would cripple China which, considering the economic damage and loss of life that they will have caused, are entirely justified and still do not come close to a just reparation of the losses they have caused. The danger of course is that whenever a country is pushed hard against the wall, they could react in violent ways. Japan in the early 1940's which was denied access to  raw materials, is a case in point. They invaded Manchuria for coal and Indonesia for oil. And of course there was much collateral damage caused in the process.

Such actions would also cause economic hardship for a time for the US and indeed the rest of the world, including our own country, NZ. But in time these consequences would be alleviated by new trading relationships - excluding China.

These risks can be managed and are worth taking in order to stop China from its malign intentions, which it has no intention of stopping.

Finally, we admire everything you have achieved - in many cases far more than the 3-4 presidents who have preceded you. We wish you all the very best for November 2020 and also for your fight against Covid-19 and the economic recovery to come.

With very best regards,

Jim Donald and Jean Tallentire

Medellin
Colombia 

This crazy world

Hola a todos. Espero una vez mas que todos esten de rosa, y que el sentimiento nunca haya sido mas relevante.

Of course the one thing that is on everyone's mind right now is the dreaded Coronavirus. So much has changed in a few days. Countries around the world are in lockdown, including Colombia. Although at the time of writing, we have been locked down since 1900 on Friday the 20th. and will be until 0300 on Tuesday the 24th. Monday is a public holiday (one of about 21 every year!!) here in any case - St. Joseph's Day. In addition from Monday no-one, including Colombian nationals and permanent residents, can leave or enter the country and all international flights are suspended. All teaching institutions have been totally closed now for some days. And many are providing teaching resources to be used at home. The internet of course helps in that regard, but domestic internet systems are likely to collapse or at least be very slow as a result of everyone being at home and accessing it. We have subsequently learnt as of last night that after this Monday, it has now actually been confirmed that the lockdown is continuing until early April at least. We are not clear whether the special hours for seniors at supermarkets from 0700 - 0830 will still apply, but only one person can go on their own from each household. Being over 70, we are otherwise confined to barracks. We will go stir crazy if we cannot go out at all, but if you are found by the police out when you shouldn't be, either walking or perhaps driving, you will be fined one million Pesos - almost 500 NZD. So we have to be careful. Up to now we've had the ludicrous situation of individual municipalities and provinces largely in lockstep with each other as regards lockdowns, whereas the President (Duque) and senior ministers were initially telling everyone that none of this is necessary. He has now drastically and very quickly changed his tune. He has just reinforced the public perception of him as completely tone deaf and inept.

We read with disbelief that NZ is doing just the opposite. They have introduced 4 levels of Coronavirus alertness but, despite a petition to Government from senior health workers, Godzone still insists that Level 2 is sufficient. "This is NZ - can't happen here" is the dangerous and ludicrous mantra. Level 4 might be a bit "over the top", but better safe than sorry and save more lives than continue to put them at risk.  

We are OK in our apartment with plenty of food for now. The car is full of fuel but won't be going anywhere for a while! Local supermarkets are offering a service to those over 65, whereby they can go to the supermarkets from 0700 to 0830 to buy essential items. These hours are reserved for seniors so that they can be isolated from the possibility of infection as much as possible. Before the lockdown came into effect we went to a supermarket (Exito at Viva Mall) and before Jim could grab a trolley, someone rushed up with a cloth and sanitiser and cleaned the handle before Jim could touch it. Very impressive and as we've said so many times, Colombia is such a clean country bordering on obsessiveness. But Jean approves!! Floors in public spaces are always being mopped and even stainless steel bus stops are constantly being cleaned and polished. Toilets everywhere are spotless. Such a contrast after Asia.

So, we are in for the long haul. Almost prisoners in our own apartment. Our exercise is walking up the stairs - we are on the 8th. floor. 

One can argue the pros and cons for ever, but it comes down to protection for the population at large versus the economic and social costs, especially as regards unemployment and the serious possibility of resultant crime. If you have no money and no food what do you do? And Colombia is in no position to pay its total population to stay at home as is being started in the US. Even they cannot afford it either, but they'll just massively increase an already well out of control deficit north of 23 trillion USD (40 trillion NZD) so far and of course resort to counterfeiting money - of which they are past masters. The result almost certainly down the track will be massive hikes in interest rates and inflation such as we have not seen since the 1980's. Colombia, like almost every other country, is also in no position to come close to dealing with a massive surge in infection rates, so taking everything into account, it seems that the lockdown is by far the lesser of the 2 evils. Do you sacrifice the health and no doubt lives of the population, or do you sacrifice at least some of the economy. Economies can recover in time; peoples' lives cannot. 

Then there is the effect on the US presidential election coming up in only 227 days from now. It has been said that no US president has ever been re-elected on the back of a recession which we are certainly entering right now. Except George W. Bush after 9/11. That was a terrorist attack and he just scraped home - no doubt as he was perceived as being a safer pair of hands at such a time than any of his challengers. This time is no different. We are witnessing a deliberate attempt BY CHINA to destroy America's economy and President Trump's chances of re-election along with it. And they will come to the brink of succeeding. In late December/early January they flat out lied about the outbreak of Coronavirus in China. They said it was not being transmitted among humans, and at the same time they prevented any outsiders from verifying this false claim. As a result the World Health Organisation (WHO) tweeted this false information to the rest of the world on January 14th.. The WHO is in China's pocket. The WHO apparently now bitterly regrets doing this as it lulled everyone into a false sense of security - all except Donald Trump!! That is when he first imposed border controls on China and everyone at the time accused him of being racist and xenophobic. His prescience and acumen has no doubt greatly slowed the spread of the virus in the US and saved countless American lives. Just imagine if Joe Biden had been president. America would be totally ravaged by now and China would have achieved its aim of totally destroying the American economy and the American people. And Biden is a blackmail target, having corruptly profited along with his son, Hunter Biden, from their association with the Chinese dictatorship when he was VP under Obama. 

China owes the USA and the rest of the world an untold sum as a result of the deaths they have caused and the economic disruption and loss world-wide to countries, businesses and individuals. 

As a first step in only partially redressing this massive assault on world democracy, the US should repudiate ALL of the debt they currently owe to China which as at December 2019 stood at 1.07 trillion US dollars. And ALL other countries that may owe any debt to China should also repudiate that debt. This 1.07 trillion US dollars represents 16% of all US debt held by other countries. The balance of the 23 trillion US dollars (15.24 trillion) of total US Government debt is held by Americans and by the US Government.

The second step should be the nationalisation of all Chinese owned assets in the US. No idea what that's worth, but it is probably far more than the US debt to China.

A third step should be that the USA and all countries who currently import goods from China either put a blanket 100% ban on those imports, or maybe a 500% tariff. This would cripple the Chinese economy and wouldn't be so good for the rest of the world either, until manufacturing started up again, but it would be a price worth paying to stop Chinese hegemony and military expansion everywhere. And it would bolster individual countries' economies all over the world, including Colombia, if only this corrupt government would get off its backside and start organising manufacturing in the country. After all, there are 4 million Venezuelans here who are for the most part, unemployed. If these steps are not taken, we and our children and grand children will in the not too distant future become subjects of the Chinese Empire and the 21st. century will be the Chinese century.

And Donald Trump is the only leader in the world capable of taking such drastic steps before it's all too late.  

Jean's health is for the most part slowly improving. She was supposed to have had an appointment with a Pneumologist/specialist on Tuesday the 24th., but now, thanks to the Chinese Virus, the appointment will be over the phone with our friend Clara's help in translation. Certainly not the same as face to face, but no doubt will be satisfactory. She still has oxygen at night and we monitor her blood oxygen levels throughout the day. The worry is that she does lose oxygen over a few hours and could not do without the oxygen generator.

How the world has changed in less than a week. It was only last weekend that we went up to Llanogrande (where there is much less pollution than in Medellin) to stay in a hotel that is part of a residential development about 6 years old where we were to look at 2 apartments that were for sale. We were very impressed with the whole setup, but only belatedly became aware that a different developer was selling a new development on the same property. Work is scheduled to start in June, but now - not so sure. It turned out that there are 4 ground floor corner apartments which each have 45 sq. metres of private terrace. Their interior floor spaces are smaller than our existing apartment, but the large terrace, which will be partly covered, will largely make up for that. And there's a 36 km bicycle track being built along the banks of the Rio Negro which would be a wonderful asset. The property also has a pool and gym and the Body Corporate (HOA) fee includes cleaning services (daily if you want it) which means that it would be cheaper to live up there than where we are. This pesky virus couldn't have come at a worse time, but we can only hope that the apartment remains available (3 out of the 4 have already been sold). We have registered our interest and paid a very small "holding" deposit, but have not signed a contract. We do not feel that we can do so until there is more clarity and we can feel confident that we would sell our existing apartment in a reasonable time frame. 

Finally we hope that all our friends and family come safely through this whole rotten Chinese Virus business unscathed - although there may well be financial and health costs. In particular we think of Jean's son Perry, his partner Tracie and the 2 nietos - Carter and Nash in Miami, Florida. And Jim's 3 daughters and their partners and children in Auckland and Christchurch. Amanda and Dave in Auckland, Rozanne and Chris and their 2 nietos, Harry and Callum in Auckland and Charlotte and Jon and the 2 nietas, Lucia and Elsie in Christchurch. And Jim's brother, Alec, in Auckland and Jean's brothers and sisters - mainly in Northland, NZ and all their families scattered to the winds!

Our thoughts are with you all.

Lotsaluv from us in Medellin....................

Jim and Jean xoxoxoxoxoxo - oops - should be giving you all the elbow instead!!

   

Jean's health and other happenings

Hola a todos. Espero que esto los encuentre a todos en el rosa como siempre..............

Well, for those of you who we have not emailed previously about Jean's brush with a serious health issue, we apologise, but the gory details are all on the website - www.tiaretaporo3.blogspot.com - should you be so inclined!

Suffice it to say that after our arrival at the Sura A&E at Clinica Las Vegas on the 13/02 when her blood oxygen level was down to 49%SpO2 (normal level is near 100%), she has bounced back and is almost back to her old self, thanks to the staff at Sura and the home visits from nurses and doctors and the provision of oxygen in our apartment which she now only uses when asleep. She still has a pain/discomfort in her lower chest which she has had for the last 30 years or so and she has an appointment for a CT Scan on March 9th. and then an appointment with a Pneumologist specialist on the 24th. We are hopeful that at long last we may finally discover the cause of the pain and hopefully can do something about it. But it's all on an upward path at the moment. This situation was a result of the Pneumonia which we discovered in Miami in November last year, but that may have been a development of a  long-standing infection from some time before that. At least it's not Novel Coronavirus - touch wood!! Perry suggested that Jean has been the world-wide carrier and promulgator of the virus - probably for the last 20 years!!

Apart from that, life has been fairly quiet!! 

However, we have been becoming concerned of late at the level of vehicle pollution here in the city. This is a seasonal thing but the last 3 months or so has been particularly bad with fairly dry weather. And with Jean's susceptibility to respiratory complications, we feel the time has come to do something about it. Accordingly we are getting serious about investigating living at a higher altitude on the eastern outskirts of the city. Admittedly it's a trade-off because of the lower oxygen at a higher altitude, but the doctor has said that there really is no material difference between 5,000 feet (where we are now) and another 1,000 feet somewhere within 20 kms or so of the international airport. There are a number of beautiful locations up there - El Retiro, La Ceja, Llanogrande, and Rio Negro to name just a few. It rains more ( the country is lush and green) and of course the pollution is noticeably less. And it's cooler. The air always feels fresher by far. But another trade-off could be the occasional necessity for some heating, although we are using a fan at night now, and we would not need to continue with that. So, we are putting our apartment in Envigado on the market which will be a bit of a wrench as we have always enjoyed living here with the friends we have made and the surroundings generally. Still, it is a long-term decision which may take months to implement, but we are looking at the rest of our lives and of course any time we need a city fix, we can drive the hour or so into town. And there are all facilities up the hill - great hospital, supermarkets, etc. etc. And friends survive the separation. 

The city authorities are well aware of the pollution issues in Medellin, situated as it is in a deep valley, and to that end they have a system of "Pico y Placa" which means that for 2 days a week you cannot use a motor vehicle between the hours of 0700 to 0830 and 1700 to 1930. It depends on the final digit of your number plate. Ours is 8 so that means Monday and Wednesday are our restrictive days at present. This measure is however, only of very limited effect, but we suppose it is better than nothing. However, the hours have just recently been extended which creates further inconvenience - up the hill is starting to sound better and better.

We are still looking forward to the rainy season which is supposed to start about now, but not much rain of any note so far. The rain does suppress the pollution.

The other issue which we are grappling with is the fact that the steering rack in the car either needs replacing or re-building. The car is quite safe and driveable in the meantime.  At only 74,000 kms this is an unwelcome surprise, but many of the roads around Medellin are sub standard inasmuch as there are many potholes and manhole covers which are for the most part 10-20 mm below the road surface and all these produce some jarring bumps. One tries to avoid them but with the traffic that's not always possible. One of the motor garages we have spoken to said that steering rack issues are not uncommon due to the road conditions - and not just with Mercedes Benz! The MB agents here quoted us a price of 12 million Pesos which is about one third of the price of the car (!), which is ridiculous, so we investigated a MB parts supplier in Miami who quoted us USD665 which is COP 2.4 miilion and much more reasonable. However, before we could verify the part number beyond doubt, it had sold and there are no others from that source. That was disappointing. However, we have 2 repair shops in Medellin which have been recommended to us and we are looking at re-building the original at somewhere less than 2 million pesos.. Problem is that nothing these days is designed to be dismantled and re-conditioned as was the case in days of yore. The whole part connects both front wheels and is 1.5 metres long and most of it is all ok, but they just want you to throw the whole thing away and pay through the nose. Not us with our Scottish ancestry!!!

POLITICS!!! -

Nigel Farage deserves a knighthood because entirely due to his efforts over years, the UK is finally out of the clutches of the EU - almost. However, the final implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement looks like being bogged down indefinitely by the determined and bureaucratic machinations of the EU hierarchy who will do their utmost to cause unreasonable delays and ultimately try to scupper the UK's withdrawal. Same tactics they employed before with Theresa May. There are 10 more months to go before the withdrawal deadline of the end of 2020, but we feel sure that with the intractable and obstructive negotiating positions of the EU, the more determined (and majority) Johnson Government will in the end realise that nothing will happen and they will just leave with No Deal on WTO terms. Exactly what should have happened nearly 4 years ago. An example of the EU's intractability is their insistence that nothing should change as far as fishing in UK waters is concerned. It's obvious that that would constitute a serious breach of UK sovereignty and the Royal Navy would find itself busy with stop and seize operations. One way to build up the UK fishing fleet again after its virtual destruction from years of unfettered foreign fishing!! The EU will finish up shooting itself in the foot. Couldn't happen to nicer people!!!

In the US the primaries for various states are underway and we have the spectre of the rabid Socialist, Bernie Sanders, doing relatively well in the earlier contests. However, the Democrat Party must realise that he is unelectable against President Trump and they will be pulling out all the stops to prevent him (again) from becoming the Democrat Presidential Nominee. Still, the hopeful Democrat would-be nominees are so uninspiring with their unintelligent outlandish policies, that President Trump looks like a shoe-in, but we cannot be complacent. Forget about whether you like the man or not; he is doing an excellent job and keeps his promises. If he is not re-elected it would be an absolute disaster for  America and the free world.

Coronavirus - it is impossible at this stage to know just how serious a threat to the world it is. American markets have jumped today (02/03) by 3.5% to 4.0% which is a healthy recovery, but there's still about 8% to go to get back to pre virus levels. There have been a number of deaths but the vast majority in China. President Trump has acted decisively in closing US borders to travellers from Iran and Italy - the 2 worst affected countries apart from China itself.

In fact he started taking action back in January when all the Democrats could do was continue their disgraceful impeachment efforts. Even now when the President takes further action, he is criticised. Instead of that, the Democrats should be joining together to fight this serious external threat in a non partisan cooperative manner, but it's obvious that they have no concern for America or its people's welfare short or long term, and are only interested in bringing down President Trump by whatever means - fair or foul. Trump Derangement Syndrome. Perry, Jean's son, reckons that she has been spreading Coronavirus around for years - and now all the chickens are coming home to roost!!

Officially there is no Coronavirus in Colombia - only one case in Brazil. And certainly no empty supermarket shelves anywhere. But we'll see as time progresses. As far as Colombian politics goes - the country bumbles along as usual. The UN officially declared that Colombia was corrupt - surprise, surprise - and had not followed the UN brokered peace process. The President (Duque) said it was an "unwarranted invasion of Colombia's sovereignty"!! His popularity continues to slide and is now in the low 30% area. In the meantime all the economic indicators are reasonable - 3% inflation but stagnant or declining exports. So sad, this country has so many opportunities now that China has lost favour everywhere, but it seems to be in the grip of paralysis. Still, at least the investment climate seems stable and returns are way better than one can get in most "western" countries. And the COP/NZD cross rate is stable. Both country's exchange rates are in decline in tandem!!  

This leads us to our final observation. We strongly believe that the Chinese have deliberately released this virus - probably as early as December last year - in order to firstly mortally damage Trump's administration and secondly in the hope that it will bring America to her knees. They cannot accept or stomach another 4 years of a Trump Administration due to the hard-line America First policies undertaken against the Chinese to stop them from stealing US intellectual property and undermining the whole US economy. 

But we can hear the protests - "they would never allow a number of their own people to die". RUBBISH!! Mao Tse-tung is credited (if that's the right word) with causing directly and indirectly the deaths of 70 MILLION of his own people during his brutal regime. Good luck to the Socialists/Communists!! And the Chinese are at it again with the Moslem Uighur people. Companies such as Nike are using Uighur slave labour in China right now. And they aren't the only ones.

The Chinese Communist Party has absolutely no scruples or concern for anyone's welfare except their own and the inexorable advance of the Party's interests. NZ and Australia would do very well to remember this in their on-going trade relationships with China.

One good thing that will probably come out of this debacle is that US and European companies, facing sudden unacceptable and protracted delays to their supply chains, which in most cases originate in China, will be re-thinking the risk profile in being so reliant on China and will be bringing even more jobs and operations back to the US and to a lesser extent, Europe. Even with the certain consequence of increased costs. At least, thanks again to Trump, the US is now self-sufficient in oil. 

Make no mistake - we are AT WAR WITH CHINA and that war has just become more vicious and protracted with the release of this latest Coronavirus. New Zealand and other countries need to realise this and actively pursue alternative FTA's with the USA, the U.K. and Europe. NZ is in for a rough ride. It may not be a shooting war - yet - but a war nonetheless. The only concern following from that is if China is pushed too far a shooting war will result a la Japan in the 1930's when they were starved of raw materials. There is nothing new under the sun, but none of this is any reason to soft-pedal on China.

When we were living in Malaysia/Thailand on "Tiare Taporo III" for 4 years, we often wondered why China seemed to get away scot-free with building their military bases in the South China Sea on islands which they had stolen at the point of a gun from Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Cambodia.. Now it is obvious. The office of the totally corrupt US Vice President under Barack Obama - Joe Biden -  was allowing this in return for the billions paid to his son and himself in their corrupt business relationships with China. The VP's office was bought lock, stock and barrel by China and so allowed the military expansion with no questions asked. The Democrats are traitorous lying crooks and for anyone to contemplate voting for them is beyond our comprehension.  

With that last broadside, we trust that all is well in your necks of the woods and we look forward to your wise words in reply and with your latest news.

With lotsaluv from us in Medellin........................

Jim and Jean xoxoxoxooxoxoxx