READERS WRITE

SHOULDN’T

TAIWAN BE A MEMBER OF THE

W.H.O.?

In 2016, Taiwan was expelled from the World Health Organisation due to pressure from China. Nevertheless, Taiwan has been able to have very few cases of Covid-19 due to the measures it has taken. Isnt’t it time that Taiwan is reincorporated to the WHO so we can learn from its experience?

Best regards,

Luis Spallarossa Via email

FALSE NEWS

Wednesday night, while zapping through the “news” channels in Buenos Aires, I heard a “newsman” on Channel C5N say that the American pharmaceutical industry had created the coronacaca virus to increase sales and profits. I could not believe that there was a news media so corrupt, poor or biased – not even Fox News would go so far. I was shocked. Now I see that other media have reacted to the allegations made on C5N.

Henry Whitney Olvios

FAKE NEWS AND ALL THAT

On Wednesday afternoon I received, via Whatsapp, a PDF with a 30-page list of institutions which offered food for people in need. Promptly I sent the link to the nearly 400 contacts who regularly receive comments of mine. Minutes later a very prominent lawyer informed me that the information was fake, and shortly afterwards someone else sent me a communiqué from the Social Development Ministry confirming this. It was the first time that I have retransmitted fake news, and obviously I was terribly annoyed. Who would have thought that somebody could think up such a cruel ploy as this?

“A scrambled river is a fisherman’s gain.” There are people out there set to use the lowest of means to create confusion, looking for economic or political profit, or both. This is occurring all over the world, and includes crazy theories which spread panic among those who believe every word they get to read. Therefore it is extremely important that we don’t rapidly swallow everything that reaches us. Because, to make things worse, we have “experts” all over the place who, wishing to be important, bring up the craziest ideas, usually under sensationalist headlines.

So, dear reader, to prevent being duped, anxious or even getting to suffer a bout of diarrhoea, filter, filter and filter. Ask the opinion of friends or specialists you might know, before digesting information. Because nervousness and uneasiness will not make it easier for you to keep going throughout the quarantine and, to boot, unwillingly you will transmit these feelings to the people with whom you are in contact.

Most important of all, live day by day. We are going through very foggy times, when it is very hard to see further than a very limited time span. Enjoy whichever small or big blessings sustain you throughout every 24 hours, and remember Roosevelt’s famous 1933 words: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

Harry Ingham City

YEARS FROM NOW

In spite of all the awful and tragic things this pandemic has caused and is still causing worldwide, I believe it must be – at the same time – an unbelievable source of inspiration for artists, in the widest sense of the word. Writers, playwrights, cinematographers, painters, poets could all draw ideas and stuff from this unique moment to spark their creativity. Actually, I dare say we’ve never experienced before, as a planet, such vulnerability, such fear, such fragility, such interdependence. I do hope we can – years from now – tell our grandchildren and great-grandchildren what happened way back in 2020, a leap year, and how it somehow made humankind turn over a new leaf. As if it were a tale, a fairytale, with a happy ending.

Irene Bianchi Ringuelet, La Plata

BATTLE OF THE BULGE: PART LXXXVIII Dear Sirs,

Oh!

Bust wishes,

David Parsons Via email