Feed aggregator

Dans le cadre de la riposte à la pandémie du Coronavirus au Bénin, le gouvernement a acquis un nombre important de matériels. L'acquisition de ces équipements et matériel ont accru les capacités de diagnostic du pays. Ainsi, à la date de ce lundi 20 avril 2020, le Bénin a la capacité de procéder au diagnostic de 16.000 cas en une journée. Le ministre de la santé, Benjamin Hounkpatin l'a fait savoir à la faveur d'un point de presse ce lundi 20 avril.

Dans le cadre de la riposte à la pandémie du Coronavirus au Bénin, le gouvernement a acquis un nombre important de matériels. L'acquisition de ces équipements et matériel ont accru les capacités de diagnostic du pays. Ainsi, à la date de ce lundi 20 avril 2020, le Bénin a la capacité de procéder au diagnostic de 16.000 cas en une journée. Le ministre de la santé, Benjamin Hounkpatin l'a fait savoir à la faveur d'un point de presse ce lundi 20 avril.
A en croire le ministre de la santé, plusieurs équipements permettant de rendre opérationnels de nombreux laboratoires de dépistage ont été réceptionnés. Il s'agit selon lui, de postes de sécurité microbiologique de classe III, de centrifugeuses réfrigérées, de chaines d'electrophorèse, surtout de 40 thermocycleurs pour la lecture finale des résultats. A cela s'ajoute divers autres matériels de laboratoire nécessaire pour les manipulations, a fait savoir Benjamin Hounkpatin soulignant qu'avec l'acquisition de ces équipements, la capacité de diagnostic du Bénin s'étend désormais jusqu'à « 16 000 tests par jour ».
Selon le ministre de la santé, « c'est la combinaison de toutes ces mesures qui permet de faire face à la pandémie et d'espérer, si chacun apporte sa contribution, de la maîtriser de façon à pouvoir continuer à exister le temps qu'elle s'éteigne ».
L'autorité ministérielle a par ailleurs rassuré les populations que le gouvernement a pris les mesures qu'il faut, remplit son devoir, et il est donc nécessaire que chaque citoyen où qu'il se trouve, respecte lesdites mesures et les fasse respecter autour de lui.
Le Bénin selon les derniers chiffres du gouvernement compte 54 cas confirmés dont 27 guéris, 26 sous traitement et un décès.

F. A. A.

Der Circus Knie wird bis 3. Juli pausieren und sagt deshalb weitere Vorstellungen ab: Zürich, Wettingen, Basel, Delsberg und Neuenburg sind betroffen, teilte der National-Circus am Dienstag mit.

Face à la cascade d'annulation des réservations en raison de la pandémie de Covid-19, le directeur d'un hôtel trois étoiles à Genève a décidé d'accueillir des sans-abri.

The need for innovation and building new skills is paramount for the media sector to respond to the coronavirus crisis. The Stars4Media Lab went virtual with its training and policy event, bridging promising media professionals and media experts to develop...

Farblich auffallende Kostüme, ein stets souveränes Auftreten und hin und wieder ein Ritt auf einem Pferd: Königin Elizabeth II. sieht man weder ihr Alter noch ihren Gemütszustand an.

Warsaw/Copenhagen, 21 April 2020 – A strong role for parliaments is crucial to the transparency and accountability of government measures as the COVID-19 pandemic puts our democracies to the test, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) said in a statement today.  

“The role of parliaments in formulating new legislation to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as overseeing the emergency measures introduced by governments make their work more vital than ever,” said ODIHR Director Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir. “Parliaments across the OSCE region therefore need to take decisive steps to ensure they can continue their work during this period of lockdowns and social distancing – and we see that many of them are doing just that.”

Despite the disruptions to their agendas and the difficulties in holding regular plenary and committee sessions, which slows down the regular law-making process, numerous parliaments across the OSCE region are demonstrating flexibility and commitment in adapting to the current circumstances.

Some took rapid action to amend their rules of procedure or pass legislation that allows them to continue their activities via new technology platforms and remote working. In other countries, online meetings of parliamentary committees are being broadcast live online and on television for the first time, turning an emergency situation into an opportunity to increase transparency and accountability, and bring parliamentary work closer to citizens at a time when many are feeling under-informed and isolated.

“Working closely with international organizations like the OSCE, parliaments are demonstrating that with co-ordinated decision-making, we are all better off,” said OSCE PA Secretary General Roberto Montella. “Individual parliaments are finding novel ways to continue their important work, learning from each other, and incorporating international best practices into their national coronavirus strategies. Neither social distancing nor emergency executive powers should inhibit their activity.”

In time of crisis, there is a danger that the need to react swiftly can tilt the democratic balance of power towards governments, Gísladóttir and Montella warned. But now more than ever, the key responsibilities of parliaments to represent, legislate, and oversee must be maintained and even strengthened for them to effectively guarantee the rights and freedoms of all citizens. Their role in guaranteeing the democratic representation of each individual is particularly important to ensure the voice of those communities disproportionately affected by the current crisis is heard and acted on.

In close co-operation with the OSCE PA and the OSCE field operations, ODIHR is systematically monitoring the ways in which national parliaments across the OSCE region are adapting their work to the challenging circumstances in which they find themselves. By highlighting good practices as well as the action of countries that are seeking to limit the role of parliament, ODIHR and the OSCE PA are helping countries to make parliaments stronger and more effective during this emergency period and beyond.

All countries across the OSCE region have committed to ensuring that “a state of public emergency may not be used to subvert the democratic constitutional order, nor aim at the destruction of internationally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms.” In addition, they will “ensure that the normal functioning of the legislative bodies will be guaranteed to the highest possible extent during a state of public emergency” (Moscow 1991). 

Le Figaro - Quelque 50 millions de personnes sont menacées par la faim en Afrique de l'Ouest en raison de l'impact de l'épidémie de Covid-19...

A Nemzeti Bűnüldözési Ügynökség (NAKA) kedd reggeltől razziát tart Közép-Szlovákiában. A Denník N információi szerint a NAKA Kajetán Kičura, az Állami Tartalékalap volt vezetője otthonában végez házkutatást.

Az Európai Labdarúgó Szövetség (UEFA) kedden ad tájékoztatást tagszövetségeinek arról, hogyan tervezi folytatni a szezont.

Le 17 avril 2020, l’artiste et influenceuse ivoirienne Emma Lohoues soufflait sa 34ème bougie. Une occasion symbolique que la jeune femme, connue pour son goût accru pour le luxe et la belle vie, n’a pas voulu laisser passer. Une gigantesque fête a alors été organisée dans sa résidence réunissant famille, amis, plusieurs grandes figures du […]

L’article L’actrice ivoirienne Emma Lohoues organise une gigantesque fête d’anniversaire en plein confinement : elle le paie cash est apparu en premier sur Afrik.com.

Credit: Human Rights Center, University of Dayton, Ohio

By Sam Ben-Meir
NEW YORK, Apr 21 2020 (IPS)

Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 film The Seventh Seal is set in medieval Sweden, as the bubonic plague ravages the countryside. In one famous scene, a procession of zombie-like flagellants enters a village and interrupts a comic stage-show.

The townspeople are present to hear the procession’s leader, a bombastic preacher who proclaims that death is coming for them all: they are full of sin – lustful and gluttonous – and the plague is God’s punishment for their wicked ways.

That scene is not without historical merit: the flagellants were indeed a very real phenomenon, and with the plague, the movement grew and spread throughout Europe.

For most of us, public self-mutilation and penance is a particularly extreme and repulsive form of religious fanaticism. But in the West, we still have ways of lashing ourselves, and each other, in the face of plague, pestilence and the terror they sow; and pandemics still invariably prompt a religious explanation.

During the AIDS epidemic, we were told that God was punishing homosexuals and illicit drug users. In 1992, 36 percent of Americans admitted that AIDS might be God’s punishment for sexual immorality.

The interesting question is: What is the temptation to view a catastrophe like the plague as divine punishment as opposed to a brute fact of nature?

Surely at least one reason we are tempted to do so is because, if it is heavenly retribution, then the hardship still has some meaning; we still live in a world with an underlying moral structure.

Indeed, to many, the idea that such a great calamity is nothing more than a brute act of nature is far more painful to contemplate than an account by which God cares enough about us to punish us.

In case you think the coronavirus is any different, it is not. On March 8, 2020, the Times of Israel reported that Rabbi Meir Mazuz “claimed the spread of the deadly coronavirus in Israel and around the world is divine retribution for gay pride parades.”

By some ironic twist, the rabbi is basically in agreement with Rick Wiles, a Florida pastor who said the spread of coronavirus in synagogues is a punishment of the Jewish people.

The Jerusalem Post quotes Wiles as saying, “It’s spreading in Israel through the synagogues. God is spreading it in your synagogues! You are under judgment because you oppose his son, Jesus Christ. That is why you have a plague in your synagogues. Repent and believe on the name of Jesus Christ, and the plague will stop.”

The temptation to view catastrophes as divine punishment is nothing to scoff or smirk at: it is entirely legitimate to want to construct a narrative out of what has occurred – to find a pattern, to derive some meaning that redeems the suffering, hardship and death.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres appeals for a global ceasefire in a virtual press conference broadcast on UN Web TV last month. Credit: UN News/Daniel Dickinson

What is unfortunate is the tendency to point to some perceived wickedness of which others are purportedly guilty as the justification for God’s wrath.

Both the rabbi and the pastor are the same: both talk like Job’s notorious companions, those so-called friends of the unfortunate and innocent Job, who insist that he must be guilty, that he must have sinned for God to assail him with such fury.

Of course, at the end of the poem, God tells the companions that they were wrong: Job was right – his suffering was not punishment for any sin he had committed. Indeed, the Bible teaches that God often sees fit to test precisely those that are good and righteous. Sadly, the pastor and rabbi entirely disregard that biblical lesson.

If a pandemic is divine punishment, then in a sense we can be at peace – inasmuch as we have provided the scourge with a theodicy, that is, a justification of God’s ways to man.

Whenever we are faced with human tragedy, we cannot but question how an omnibenevolent and omnipotent deity would permit so much suffering to occur. A plague sharpens the concerns that lie at the heart of the theological problem of evil – the problem of reconciling a loving God with the reality and ubiquity of human and animal suffering.

Thankfully, most religious leaders are unwilling to cast the burden of guilt on any particular group of which they may disapprove. Instead, they take a page from Job and underscore the impenetrable mystery of suffering – taking their inspiration perhaps from God’s speech to Job from out of the whirlwind, where He begins with one of the famous queries of the Bible: “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?”

And He continues with withering sarcasm, “Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!” In short, do not attempt to sound the depths of God’s inscrutable purpose.

For every pandemic there is a theology; by their nature, they call forth notions of guilt, sin and responsibility. It is almost as if we cannot but view them through theological categories.

Each pandemic begins with a kind of “fall,” or original sin, which we attempt to retrace with our search for “patient zero,” the individual representing the source of the calamity, the one who kicked us out of paradise as it were.

The writers of the 2011 film “Contagion” clearly had as much in mind when they decided that their story’s patient zero (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) should also be an adulteress.

A pandemic also highlights an inescapable function of all significant human action – namely, that our actions always outrun our intentions. Everything we do has consequences that we never anticipated, wanted or even imagined.

We like to think that we are not responsible for everything our actions may cause – but the reality is that we cannot dodge or entirely relinquish our responsibility even for those things we never intended.

Perhaps like nothing else, a pandemic reveals the burden of human action, our infinite liability; indeed, our indeclinable responsibility.

There is a theology accompanying every plague because there is a very human need to make sense of such colossal suffering. That theology may take the form of a conspiracy theory, but it is a theology all the same.

One example is the persistent speculation that the coronavirus originated in some kind of bio-weapons laboratory in Wuhan, China. This explanation, regardless of its lack of evidentiary merit, is a temptation because it offers us a story, which is but a secularized version of the fall.

The essential features are there: to say that human beings deliberately created the virus is to say that this pandemic is the result of human transgression; that human hubris introduced this uncontrollable element that upset the order of things.

The current pandemic has left fear and death, loneliness and stagnation in its wake. We must start asking ourselves what it has all been for.

Eventually, this great tide of suffering will ebb, life will resume, the economy will reopen and pick up steam, and the coronavirus will slowly fade from our immediate view – at that point, when we think of all those many tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands who died, alone, what will we be able to point to as their legacy? What did they die for?
Undoubtedly many will say only that their deaths were unfortunate – all we can do to honor their sacrifice is return to life as it was, prosper and grow the economy at two percent annually. If we allow that to happen, then we will have failed, completely and utterly.

If we do not seize this crisis as a moment for transformation, then we will have lost the war. If doing so requires reviving notions of collective guilt and responsibility – including the admittedly uncomfortable view that every one of us is infinitely responsible, then so be it; as long we do not morally cop out by blaming some group as the true bearers of sin, guilt, and God’s heavy judgment.

A pandemic clarifies the nature of action: that with our every act we answer to each other. In that light, we have a duty to seize this public crisis as an opportunity to reframe our mutual responsibility to one another and the world.

The post The Theology of Pandemics appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Sam Ben-Meir is a professor of philosophy and world religions at Mercy College in New York City.

The post The Theology of Pandemics appeared first on Inter Press Service.

A koronakrízis jelentős befolyással lesz a város költségvetésére. Az önkormányzat a bevételeiben több mint egymillió eurós kieséssel számol. Határozott intézkedéseket foganatosított - derült ki a sajtóközleményből, amelyet Mikuš Kovácsová Klaudia, Fülek város szóvivője juttatott el portálunkhoz.

27 ministres européens de l’Agriculture enjoignent la Commission à déclencher le mécanisme d’aide au stockage privé pour soutenir les secteurs agroalimentaires durement touchés par la crise sanitaire.

Először csökkent az azonosított koronavírus-fertőzöttek száma Olaszországban a járvány terjedésének február 20-i kezdete óta - közölte a polgári védelmi hatóság hétfőn, hozzátéve, hogy 24 óra alatt 454 koronavírusos halálesetet jegyeztek fel, és ezzel 24 114-re nőtt az áldozatok száma.

France24 - L'Organisation mondiale de la santé assure, lundi, n'avoir "rien caché aux États-Unis" sur la pandémie de Covid-19. La...

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 21 2020 (IPS)

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro appointed medical entrepreneur Nelson Teich his new health minister on 17 April. The businessman quickly echoed his boss’ desire to resume business as usual regardless of its potentially lethal consequences.

Bolsonaro had fired his previous health minister, displeased by Luiz Henrique Mandetta’s public remarks on the need for lockdowns and physical distancing. Mandetta’s firing was met with outrage across Brazil. Locked-down citizens banged pots and pans, shouting “Bolsonaro Murder”.

Anis Chowdhury

In his final briefing as minister, Mandetta urged staff to challenge “denialism” and mount an “unyielding defence of life and science”. “Don’t be afraid”, he said, “Science is light … and it is through science that we will find a way out of this.”

Covid-19 apocalypse
Meanwhile, Brazil has begun digging large graveyards ahead of an anticipated peak of the national Covid-19 epidemic. In Sao Paulo’s Vila Formosa cemetery, the largest in Latin America, about 20 excavators are digging graves around the clock.

In an impassioned interview, popular former President Lula da Silva accused Bolsonaro of leading Brazilians “to the slaughterhouse” with his irresponsible handling of the crisis. Officially confirmed cases have soared to over 38,000, with close to 2,500 deaths as of April 19.

But these figures likely understate the gravity of the situation as Brazil’s states have no standardized testing method, and mainly test those hospitalized. A Brazilian research group estimates actual infections at 15 times the official number. Lula’s successor, Dilma Rousseff has asked: “Why is there no testing? What are they trying to conceal?”

Another study projects that without any action to stem the pandemic, Brazil could face more than 1.15 million deaths, and 529779 with only ‘enhanced social distancing’ for the elderly over 70. Even with extreme lockdown measures and widespread testing, the death toll would still be 44,200 due to late action.

Bolsonaro vs state governors
Despite the life-threatening risks, Bolsonaro has compared the C-19 threat to a “little flu” or “cold”, dismissing it as a media-hyped “fantasy”. He has dismissed preventive measures as “hysterical” and has repeatedly demanded that state governors withdraw their social distancing orders.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

On March 24, Bolsonaro emulated US President Donald Trump, claiming “those under 40 rarely die of coronavirus and that even he, at 65, shouldn’t be worried because he was ‘an athlete’ in the past”. On April 8, Bolsonaro passed the buck, “Each family has to protect its elderly people, not to throw that responsibility to the state.”

Bolsonaro has disregarded social distancing recommendations, urging others to also defy them. At a pro-government rally he called on March 15, he shook hands with the crowd while supposed to be in quarantine after 24 people who had travelled with him to the United States had tested positive for the virus!

The Brazilian president has also lashed out at Brazil’s state governors, who have ordered shops and schools closed to slow the spread of the pandemic that threatens to overwhelm the health system in Latin America’s largest nation. Nevertheless, Brazil’s 27 state governors have defiantly maintained restrictions.

Sao Paulo has been the epicentre of the outbreak in Brazil. Without offering a shred of evidence, Bolsonaro accused the state of exaggerating its Covid-19 deaths. Its governor Joao Doria has accused Bolsonaro of unleashing an “uncontrolled attack” against him for his strict measures in the economically crucial industrial state.

Bolsonaro vs courts, congress
The President’s March 20 executive order, stripping states of authority to restrict people’s movements, was revoked by Brazil’s Supreme Court four days later.

On March 23, Bolsonaro issued a presidential order suspending deadlines for government agencies to respond to public information requests, including his policies to address the health emergency. Brazil’s Congress rejected the decree.

On March 27, a federal court suspended Bolsonaro’s presidential decree the previous day exempting churches and lottery houses from state and municipal health regulations by classifying them as essential services, also barring the federal government from over-ruling social distancing measures enacted by states.

On March 28, a federal judge ordered the federal government to stop a publicity campaign urging Brazilians to flout social distancing recommendations, initiated by the president’s own communications office and his son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro.

On April 1, Bolsonaro posted a video claiming shortages of food and other essential products because of Minas Gerais state government measures, which his own agriculture minister later admitted was false.

Military is back
Meanwhile, the Brazilian elite is losing faith in Bolsonaro as his handling of the crisis threatens to call into question the entire status quo. In response, Bolsonaro has appointed his Chief of Staff Gen. Walter Braga Netto to head a new crisis committee.

Braga Netto was praised by Vice President Gen. Hamilton Mourão for “doing what we (the military) know, putting the house in order”, less than a week after Mourão celebrated the 1964 US-backed military coup that led to a 21-year military dictatorship, tweeting “56 years ago, the Armed Forces intervened to face the disorder, subversion and corruption that ravaged institutions and scared the population”.

Meanwhile, Army Commander Gen. Edson Leal Pujol issued a March 24 statement, warning: “The Strong Arm will act if necessary, and the Friendly Hand will be more extended than ever to our Brazilian brothers”, concluding “WE WILL FIGHT WITHOUT FEAR!”

It has been suggested that Braga Netto is now “operational president”, with Army support, at least for the duration of the Covid-19 crisis. On April 19, Bolsonaro joined demonstrations in Brasilia protesting coronavirus-related lockdowns, calling for a military coup outside Army headquarters!

The main objective of enhancing federal executive powers is expected to be preventing, and, if necessary, repressing an increasingly likely social explosion.

The post Covid-19: Brazil’s Bolsonaro trumps Trump appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Renewable energy could power an economic recovery from COVID-19 by spurring global GDP gains of almost $100tn (€92tn) between now and 2050, according to a report. EURACTIV's media partner, The Guardian, reports.

Miközben világszerte megközelítette a 2,5 milliót az új koronavírusos fertőzöttek száma, a haláleseteké meghaladta a 167 ezret, a gyógyultaké pedig a 639 ezret, Európa több országában lassul a járvány.

Bulgaria has the lowest standards of press freedom in Europe and is ranked 111th globally in terms of press freedom for a third consecutive year in the Reporters Without Borders annual edition of the World Press Freedom index, which called the country "the black sheep of the EU".

Coronavirus en Grèce : deux camps de réfugiés en quarantaine
Grèce : l'enfer du camp de Moria face à la menace du coronavirus
Le coronavirus, double peine pour les réfugiés dans les Balkans
Les dernières infos • Réfugiés Balkans : Bosnie-Herzégovine, un nouveau camp d'urgence près de la frontière croate

/ Courrier des Balkans, Migrants Balkans, Grèce, Populations, minorités et migrations