Tag: COVID-19

Royal-doors-should-be-closed

Closing The Doors

In every Orthodox Liturgy there comes a moment when the deacon cries out, “The doors!  The doors!”  This is not (as one parishioner once informed me) the directive to open the Royal Doors of the iconostas, but to make sure that the main doors into the church (the original “royal doors”) […]

Time For USA To Prioritize Its Own Interests?

Somehow unnoticed by everyone, and above all by the citizens of the United States themselves, America has approached a very important point, beyond which it faces a long-term strategic deterioration in relations with Russia. At the end of March of this year, a group of Russian parliament deputies sent an […]

Monkeypox

The Fuss About Monkeypox

The World Health Organization has been one of the easier bodies to abuse.  For parochial types, populist moaners and critics of international institutions, the WHO bore the brunt of criticisms from Donald Trump to Jair Bolsonaro.  Being a key institution in identifying public health risks, it took time assessing the […]

shinzo-abe

Shinzo Abe: A Controversial Visionary

When politicians die, especially an untimely death in tragic circumstances, obituaries tend to go overboard. A sense of perspectives is lost when obituaries become eulogies. But you can’t falsify history. And in the final analysis, it is the forces of history that write the course of politics rather than individuals, […]

Boris Johnson resigns

Abandoning The Sinking Rat: Boris Johnson Resigns

Like the political equivalent of a cockroach, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson survived and endured one strike after another.  His credibility was shot, his mendacity second to none.  He lost the confidence of a party that delighted in his buffoonish performances and appeal.  Fearing electoral punishment, senior ministers and aides […]

Morbid Matters: Estimating COVID-19 Mortality

Morbid Matters: Estimating COVID-19 Mortality

It has dominated news cycles, debates and policies since 2020, but COVID-19 continues to exercise the interest of number crunchers and talliers. While the ghoulish daily press announcements about infections and deaths across many a country have diminished and, in some cases, disappeared altogether, publications abound about how many were […]

Albatross

Migratory Birds Of Mass Destruction

The UN Security Council held an extraordinary event on April 6 under the rubric Arria Formula Meeting on Biological Security regarding the biological activities in countries including Ukraine. Predictably, the US and UK representatives didn’t show up at the event and the western media also blacked out the proceedings. But […]