Global Security Studies in Times of the Great Pandemic 2020

Germany drafts Romanian Farm Labor for Coronavirus Pandemic Harvest Romania is allowing citizens to leave for seasonal harvesting work despite restrictions on travel during the coronavirus pandemic. That is good news for German farmers, but what does it mean for the workers themselves? German farmers say they need about 300,000 seasonal workers for the 2020 harvest. But, in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus, Germany's government had until recently banned foreign harvesters — like most other foreigners — from entering the country. Farmers tried to fill the labor shortage by employing people already in Germany. The BMR association of machinery rings and the Food and Agriculture Ministry joined forces to create an online platform for farmers to quickly advertise jobs. READ MORE HERE Photo Credits:Wikimedia Commons Romanian fruit pickers flown to UK amid crisis in farming sector Charter flights organised after appeal fails to recruit enough Briti

Racial Disparities In The Coronavirus Pandemic A Pew Research Center survey conducted this month among 4,917 U.S. adults found that 27% of black people personally knew someone who was hospitalized with or died from COVID-19, compared to just 1 in 10 white and Hispanic people. The results highlight how coronavirus is disproportionately affecting lower-income people of color. The survey asked people how concerned they were about contracting coronavirus; of those polled 24% say they are very concerned about getting the virus. Of that group, one-third had lower incomes, versus just 17% classified as upper-income. Of that very concerned population, 43% were Hispanic, 31% black and 18% white. READ MORE HERE In New York: Black residents in New York City are dying from the novel coronavirus more than any other racial group, according to data released Friday April 17, 2020 by the city's Health Department. There have been 1,999 deaths known to be of COVID-19 among black or Afri

The Between Art and Quarantine Challenge - Making Art during a Pandemic Inspired by the Instagram account of the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam, the Getty's Museum in L.A. took the Quarantine Challenge to yet another level. Enjoy!

Protests erupt along Mexican border after Honeywell, Lear worker deaths CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - A spate of suspected coronavirus deaths among workers for U.S. companies operating along the border in Mexico has triggered multiple protests in recent days, highlighting friction over which factories should remain open in the pandemic. Read More HERE.

The Post-Great Pandemic 2020 Surveillance State? Will we see the rise of the post-Great Pandemic 2020 surveillance state? Contact Tracing is increasingly understood in Europe, the U.S. and Asia as a critical tool to prevent future pandemics. What would this mean? Human Security or Big Brother 2.0? Or: what is the new in-between? According to the NYTimes April 10, 2020, "Apple and Google said they were building software into smartphones that would tell people if they were in recent contact with someone who was infected with the virus." Apple and Google Team Up to ‘Contact Trace’ the Coronavirus "The technology giants said they were teaming up to release the tool within several months, building it into the operating systems of the billions of iPhones and Android devices around the world. That would enable the smartphones to constantly log other devices they get close to, enabling “contact tracing” of the disease. With the tool, infected people would notify a pub

The Many Tales of Wuhan After the Pandemic: Courtesy of the China Global Television Network A YouTube video posted April 8, 2020 by the CGTN (China Global Television Network). With a light show at midnight April 8, 2020, the Chinese government celebrated Wuhan's entering its first day post-lockdown. Wuhan, the Chinese city hardest hit by the 2020 coronavirus outbreak, started lifting outbound travel restrictions from Wednesday April 8, after almost 11 weeks of lockdown to stem the spread of COVID-19.

Syrian Refugees in Lebanon amid the Coronavirus Pandemic AMMAN, JORDAN - Advocacy groups say Lebanon has put into place restrictions that discriminate against Syrian refugees as it battles the coronavirus. Human rights groups say the restrictions do not apply to Lebanese citizens and could both undermine the country’s public health response and endanger the refugees’ health. Lebanon is under a daily 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew to fight the spread of the coronavirus. The infection has sickened 541 people to date and left nearly 20 others dead there, according to the latest figures from the health ministry. The government is allowing residents to take trips outside the home, but only for medical emergencies, food and medicine. For more, read HERE. (Picture WikimediaCommons)

Hungarian President Victor Orban's Power Grab to Fight the Virus.Some Fear Other Motives. (Picture Wikimedia Commons) Prime Minister Viktor Orban can now rule by decree. Doctors worry he won’t use that power to improve the country’s coronavirus response. "New restrictions on journalism that the government deems fake and harmful to the coronavirus response have made it harder to research the scale of the pandemic in Hungary. Many doctors are now reluctant to speak out publicly about specific problems, individual hospitals have been barred from releasing information, and journalists are warier of publishing it.But beneath the veil of silence, there are indications that the situation may be graver than records show. The coronavirus may have begun to spread through the Hungarian population nearly a month ago, in a process technically known as community transmission, according to a secret readout written by a foreign diplomat who had been briefed in early March by the country

The Yellow Peril and the 'Fear of the Other:" We've been Here Before (Photo WikiCommons) "As the coronavirus upends American life, Chinese-Americans face a double threat. Not only are they grappling like everyone else with how to avoid the virus itself, they are also contending with growing racism in the form of verbal and physical attacks. Other Asian-Americans — with families from Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Myanmar and other places — are facing threats, too, lumped together with Chinese-Americans by a bigotry that does not know the difference. In interviews over the past week, nearly two dozen Asian-Americans across the country said they were afraid — to go grocery shopping, to travel alone on subways or buses, to let their children go outside. Many described being yelled at in public — a sudden spasm of hate that is reminiscent of the kind faced by American Muslims, Arabs and South Asians in the United States after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001

(Photo WikiCommons) The Wuhan I know by Laura Gao Since the coronavirus outbreak began, Laura Gao has been troubled by the disgust and pity directed at her hometown. Media about Laura Gao 'The Wuhan I Know': A Comic About The City Behind The Coronavirus Headlines