Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Category: Society

  • Accidents Will Happen…

    Following on from my last post, it would seem that people are beginning to at least consider all the options concerning the origins of Covid-19. A good thing too, however uncomfortable it may be to consider the possibility that it was an accident arising out of virus research being carried out in labs that were only at BSL2 level.

    There are four degrees of safety, designated BSL1 to BSL4, with BSL4 being the most restrictive and designed for deadly pathogens like the Ebola virus. From Nicholas Wade’s article:

    Before 2020, the rules followed by virologists in China and elsewhere required that experiments with the SARS1 and MERS viruses be conducted in BSL3 conditions. But all other bat coronaviruses could be studied in BSL2, the next level down. BSL2 requires taking fairly minimal safety precautions, such as wearing lab coats and gloves, not sucking up liquids in a pipette, and putting up biohazard warning signs. Yet a gain-of-function experiment conducted in BSL2 might produce an agent more infectious than either SARS1 or MERS. And if it did, then lab workers would stand a high chance of infection, especially if unvaccinated.

    Much of Shi’s work on gain-of-function in coronaviruses was performed at the BSL2 safety level, as is stated in her publications and other documents. She has said in an interview with Science magazine that ‘[t]he coronavirus research in our laboratory is conducted in BSL-2 or BSL-3 laboratories.’

    The origin of COVID: Did people or nature open Pandora’s box at Wuhan? – Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (thebulletin.org)

    And so, questions are beginning to be asked…

    And so, like many other times over the past year, we’re stuck without a clear answer. The point has been made that, epidemiologically, none of this really matters. Lab or not, the pandemic happened and is still going. But finding its origin would be hugely consequential. A natural origin would absolve any one person, but further confirm that our nature-encircling world is incubating pandemic disease at an unprecedented rate. A lab-leak would tarnish the job of scientific research for a lifetime and prove some of the worst people in the culture war – partially – right. I think I’d prefer the first case, but even more than that, I’d like to know the truth.

    Why the ‘lab-leak’ theory of Covid’s origins has gained prominence again | Stephen Buranyi | The Guardian

    Absolutely.

  • It’s A Sin

    That’s the title of a five-part TV series written by Russell T. Davies. Spanning the years 1981 to 1991, and set in London, it charts the impact of the AIDS crisis on a group of friends.

    It is, quite simply, a stunning piece of work, a masterpiece. A strong cast, inspired directing, and RTD’s writing combine to give explosions of joy, horror, and homophobia.

    Watching it together with Martin brought all those times back to us. The friendships we made, the friends we lost, the callousness of Thatcher’s government, and the homophobia in British society, fanned by the tabloid press.

    RTD’s writing draws upon all of this – there are references to the infamous Section 28 legislation, and he puts the word “cesspit” into the mouth of a policeman in one scene that directly references the utterance by the then Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, James Anderton, who said that homosexuals, drug addicts and prostitutes who had HIV/AIDS were “swirling in a human cesspit of their own making”.

    As well as the wider references, RTD has drawn upon his own memories of the friends he knew to create his central characters. The character of Jill Baxter is modelled on his actress friend Jill Nalder, who herself plays the role of Jill Baxter’s mother in the series.

    As I say, watching the events unfold brought all the best and the worst of those times flooding back. These days, while HIV/AIDS is not the automatic death sentence that it once was, it is still not something that should be treated casually. I hope that the series will be watched by the younger gay generations to learn something of what we went through and the awakening of our political action.

    It struck me that RTD and his team have produced a work that completely fulfils Lord Reith’s directive to the BBC that its programming should “inform, educate and entertain”. The irony is that it ended up, not on the BBC, but on its commercial rival, Channel 4…

  • Putin’s Shell Game and Navalny’s Gamble

    This is quite an extraordinary video. Alexei Navalny documents Putin’s elaborate arrangement of shell companies and what the money is being spent on.

    Navalny must be a very brave man, deliberately walking into the lion’s den by returning to Russia, and then releasing this video.

  • America’s Kristallnacht

    I have to say, I am rather impressed by this video of Arnold Schwarzenegger, California’s Governor, addressing recent events in the USA. I didn’t think he had it in him, but I am happy to stand corrected.

    Perhaps the events in the Capitol on the 6th January will prove to be a turning-point, and bring about a return to building democracy instead of tearing it down.

    However, I share the fears of Francine Prose when she writes that anyone shocked by the events has ignored a lot of warning signs. As she says:

    Throughout the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, as journalists and politicians expressed their stunned astonishment, one couldn’t help wondering: hadn’t they heard about the hundreds of people, some of them armed, who stormed the Michigan state capitol building in April, objecting to Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home order? Had they forgotten that a young woman was killed during the August 2017 Unite the Right march in Charlottesville, Virginia – a neo-Nazi event that Donald Trump declined to unequivocally condemn? Had their interns not been keeping up with – and informing their bosses about – the popular Twitter feeds and Facebook pages of far-right hate groups and extremist conspiracy theorists? Had no one explained that the Proud Boys’ T-shirt insignia – 6MWE – means “Six Million [Jews] Weren’t Enough”?

    Turning a blind eye to the transgressions of Trump and his supporters during the past four years made the events of the 6th January inevitable. That particular horse bolted the stable a long time ago.

  • Taking Back Control?

    So the Brexit deal has now been approved by both the UK Parliament and Brussels. True to form, Boris Johnson is claiming it as a great deal: “Having your cake and eating it“. This is, of course, a shameless lie – but when did we ever expect anything else from Mr. Johnson?

    Far from “taking back control” as the Brexiteers have long espoused as their goal, what we appear to have got in its place is the EU-UK Partnership Council and its raft of committees.

    credit: Anton Spisak

    So far from being “free from the yoke of unelected bureaucrats and the tyranny of red tape”, it would seem that even the post-Brexit world requires proper management of the EU-UK relations and trade. What a surprise. Oh well, it will give the Brexiteers the opportunity to continue to moan endlessly about the vicissitudes of Brussels.

    The draft agreement requires careful analysis, which I am certainly not competent to do. For that, I point you towards Chris Grey’s excellent blog as a starting point on what will be a long and frustrating journey. And those frustrations will not be felt in trade alone, but affect politics and society in both the UK and EU. This is not a cause for celebration.

    Addendum: from where we stand, it seems to us far from “taking back control”, Britain has been taken over by gamblers, liars, clowns, and their cheerleaders.

  • Held To Account? No More, It Seems.

    Nick Cohen writes of his despair that UK politicians are no longer held to account for their actions.

    I wonder whether the UK (or the US) will ever be able to claw itself back out of the cesspit into which it has fallen?

    Things have not come to the same pass here in the Netherlands as in the UK – thank heavens.

    We do have to be watchful though.

    The shameful episode over Childcare Benefits (where 26,000 parents have been falsely accused of benefit fraud) still rumbles on, with politicians now at last agreeing that it was wrong, but still apparently without full repayment to all those falsely accused.

  • A Small Sigh of Relief

    So Trump has been defeated. A good day for democracy.

    However, I fear that, with 70 million people having voted for him, the US remains deeply divided, and the next four years are not going to be easy. At least we will be spared the torrent of rancid tweets and lies that have been flowing from the White House these last four horrendous years.

    Many Americans will be breathing a huge sigh of relief, and will be feeling the same emotions as this CNN commentator:

    As Carol Anderson writes, in the end, millions of Americans were not prepared to let democracy die on their watch.

  • Vote!

    Dear US citizens, for all our sakes make the change happen on November 3rd.

  • RIP Chris Killip

    Chris Killip has died. He probably made his name as a photographer with his photos documenting the industrial decline in the north-east of England. But for me, as a fellow Manxman, it is his photos of the people and places of the Isle of Man that resonate the most with me, because I grew up with them.

    My parents had a hotel, which like many hotels on the island was open only during the Summer season, which ran from June to September. When I was very young – up until I think my eighth year – I would be sent to stay with a family in the country during the season, because my parents had their hands full with running the hotel. This was no hardship for me, because I was living in the countryside, but farming was not an easy life as Killip’s photos show. This photo of the interior of a Manx cottage could have been taken in the cottage where I lived for at least two of the seasons:

    It was still common to see horse-drawn ploughs, and look at this photo of Mr. Corkhill, the blacksmith, and his son – the size of the horseshoe gives you an idea of how large the Shire horses were. To a small boy, they were gigantic, mysterious beasts, whose eyes held hidden secrets.

    I remember also seeing Mr. Kinnish’s threshing and milling machine in action:

    I’m talking about the 1950s. Chris Killip took his photos between 1970 and 1973. It is clear that even 20 years after I lived amongst the farming community, that things had hardly moved on at all. The Farmers Mart at St. Johns, just a few miles from where I stayed in Greeba, looks much the same as when I was around 20 years earlier.

    The Manx Museum has a good collection of his Manx photos which can be seen online here.

  • A Dutiful Boy

    The title of Mohsin Zaidi’s memoir of his journey to self-acceptance. There were times when I was growing up when I thought being gay and different was hard, but, believe me, it was as nothing as compared to Mohsin’s experience. That he’s made it, and that his family have made it, is wonderful.

    As Russell Tovey says:

    This memoir is so heartfelt, emotional and really funny. I picked it up because I wanted to know about different cultural experiences of what it is to be queer, especially when religion is involved. If you’re Muslim and you’re gay, I can’t fathom what that entails – how you corroborate that in your head, how you approach your family, friends and community for acceptance. This book is very candid and it really educated and entertained me.

  • There Are No Adults In The Room

    The room in this case being in Number 10, Downing Street. With the threat to break International Law, the UK Government seems intent on making the UK an international pariah. Chris Grey, over at his Brexit Blog has some choice words on the whole debacle. It’s a must-read.

    And now Boris Johnson is seeking to blame Brussels for an issue of his own making. The man is incompetent, and has no shame whatsoever.

    Addendum: and all praise to Marina Hyde for her satirical evisceration of this bunch of clowns. Thanks for making me laugh, otherwise I would be weeping at what the UK has come to.

  • Adding Insult To Injury

    The news that Tony Abbott has been appointed as a UK Trade Advisor would seem to confirm my suspicion that the UK government is resolutely determined to achieve a no-deal situation with the EU by the end of the year.

    I feel that the phrase “UK Government” is rapidly achieving oxymoronic status. If you want to laugh about this latest turn of events, then I can recommend First Dog on the Moon. If, like me, you feel like crying about the whole Brexit clusterfuck, then I can recommend Chris Grey’s Brexit Blog for a forensic flensing of the whole sorry saga.

  • Who Is Civilisation For?

    Another thought-provoking talk given by Jaron Lanier. It’s a recording of the talk he gave as the Willy Brandt Lecture in 2018, followed by a Q+A session with Ulrich Kelber, German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information.

  • Darkening the World

    “we live in a world that has been darkening recently” – and yet… I do like Jaron Lanier and his polemics and dissertations on where we are and where we are going…

    Worth listening to.

  • What I’m Thinking About

    It amazes me that the US has people like this, yet they still manage to pick Trump for President…

  • "He has acted responsibly, legally and with integrity."

    Boris Johnson’s defence of his political adviser Dominic Cummings is, in a word, unfuckingbelievable.

    As John Crace so rightly observes, it is now clear who is running the UK – and it isn’t Boris Johnson.

    One law for the little people, and another law for your boss, eh, Boris?

    Addendum 27 May 2020: the ever-dependable Marina Hyde eviscerates both Cummings and Johnson; whilst Chris Grey, over at his Brexit Blog, makes similar points about the paradox of populism – in less caustic tones, but none the less salient for all that.

  • Living in Interesting Times

    The emergence of the Coronavirus Covid-19 has given us all something else to worry about besides climate change, Brexit and Trump. 

    For months now I’ve been leading a workgroup planning two events in our village to celebrate the 75 years since the liberation of the Netherlands.

    We were going to have two events in our village hall. On the 3rd April – an evening of drama, song and stories (Freedom Then & Now), with an exhibition of photos, documents, objects, and clothing from 1945 plus drawings, poems, essays from the children in the village school about what Freedom means to them now. On the 4th April: a “Liberation Brunch” with an exhibition of wartime vehicles, and all the children would get a kite and be challenged to draw their symbol of Freedom on it before flying it from the field next to the hall.

    Last week, the Dutch government ruled that all events of more than 100 people were forbidden in the Netherlands until at least 31 March – and the Village Hall committee decided to shut the Hall until further notice.

    Then yesterday, the government strengthened the rules further. They announced that all schools, children’s day-care, restaurants, pubs, sports clubs, saunas, sexclubs and coffeeshops (this is the Netherlands, after all!) are to shut until the 6th April. Everybody is being asked to keep 1.5m distance from each other – including while shopping. Only children with parents who work in Healthcare, Police, Public Transport or Fire Services are being allowed to go to school or day-care.

    Buggeration. So everything has had to be cancelled, and I have no idea when or even if we can resurrect the events… Still, if it helps to stem the spread of the virus, it will be worth it in the end.

    As the apocryphal Chinese Curse has it: may you live in interesting times.

  • Messages of Farewell

    It’s the day after Brexit, and I’m still feeling depressed, and angry, about the whole sorry situation. I’ve been reading messages of farewell published in today’s Guardian from my fellow Europeans, and they have put into words the emotions I am experiencing. Two writers in particular capture my feelings, as these extracts may illustrate:

    Carlo Rovelli (theoretical physicist)

    What breaks my heart in Britain leaving the European project is the dark message that Brexit delivers to the entire planet: every nation for itself, instead of collaborating for the common good; everybody making its own rules, instead of searching for common ground; every group competing with the others, instead of solving the common problems together.

    Agnieszka Holland (film director)

    Do you really believe that turning your backs on the continent will hold off ecological catastrophe, the waves of migrants, artificial intelligence, the internet revolution or women’s aspirations? Do you believe that globalisation and unfettered capitalism as conducted by China or Trump’s America will give you more affluence and sovereignty than belonging to a community of Europeans, who can achieve any kind of success only by working together, and who are at least trying their best to maintain the values of freedom, equality, fraternity, solidarity, justice and human rights; the rights of all living creatures; and responsibility for the future of the planet?

    Adhering to these values is the only thing that can save humanity from sliding into an abyss of evil; we became familiar with this in the terrible 20th century, and the European Union was meant to inoculate us against the temptation to return to dark times. And for many years, together, it worked.

    Aren’t you ashamed to be the first to back away from hope? Can you see an alternative? Do you really think that once we’ve broken our voluntary ties things will be just as they were before? No, they will not. So I cannot wish you all the best. I won’t say “Goodbye and good luck.” Because I’m furious with you. I really do like you – your people, landscape, gardens and moorlands; your history, culture and art; your unique British manner, even in its debased form; your humour, eccentricity and bravery. But I am sure you are making a mistake that we’re all going to pay for – you are sure to, but so are we. I am afraid everyone’s going to pay equally for the lies, cowardice and arrogance of the few.

    Also in today’s Guardian is Ian McEwan’s withering summary of Brexit. Well worth reading and reflecting on.

    I sincerely hope that my fellow countrymen reflect on what they have done, and that this ignominious decision will come, in time, to be reversed. It will probably take at least a generation, and I am very likely to be long dead, but we Europeans will be waiting.

  • Brexit Is Not A Cause For Celebration

    For me, today is a day of sadness. Britain has turned its back on Europe and is determined to retreat to being an insular nation once more. As an act of self-harm, this takes some beating.

    And whilst Johnson and his government may crow that they’ve got Brexit done, the reality is that the hard work now starts, with the hammering out of new treaties and legal frameworks – with just 11 months to go until the end of the transition period. It is also clear from recent statements from the likes of Sajid Javid that the British government either hasn’t got a clue, or is being economical with the verité (as depressingly usual).

    Like Chris Grey, I mourn the country I have lost, and fear for the one to come.

  • Is It Downhill From Now On?

    Today’s Guardian has a sobering article on what the environment could be like in 2050. The most worrying aspect is not the environment itself, but the impact it will have on human society. It’s perhaps not such a stretch to say, as the article does, that civilisation itself will be at risk.

    The author suggests that the risk may be reduced:

    When it comes to the science, the dangers can be substantially reduced if humanity shifts decisively away from business-as-usual behaviour over the next decade. When it comes to the psychology and politics, we can make our situation better immediately if we focus on hope in shared solutions, rather than fears of what we will lose as individuals.

    I know I’m old and cynical, but I see little chance of that shift happening. Fasten your seatbelts, we’re in for a bumpy ride.