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!!