The Koonzt/Camus Thread (for writerly solidarity during a time of plague)

[HayleyG]

This song is my current earworm - it's a new one and the dystopian vibe is now extremely relevant

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Don't get me started, Rich...who knows what dodgy territory we'll enter!

Rubber gloves optional.

 

[Rich.]

But... looking on the bright side...

Don't Worry Be Happy, Bobby McFerrin

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Indeed! Yet, Bruce is still on fire...he must be infected.

 

[Andy D]

Did a story on the Brighton Festival yesterday being cancelled because of corona and used footage of kids at the front of the parade playing this. Feels even more apt after watching Eva’s video:

 

[Andy D]

Although the song that’s been trapped in my head the last few days is this:

 

[Paul Whybrow]

One good thing about the crisis, is that flat-dwellers are communicating with one another from their windows and balconies.

Balcony spirit: hope in face of coronavirus – in pictures

 

[Steve C]

At a time lot's of people are stuck missing each other and many are forced to live in their own cage this song comes to mind.

 

[E G Logan]

I saw that this afternoon and couldn't quite believe it. I wish we understood more about why this is hitting Italians so hard. I understand the population is older but younger people are also perishing. There's so much about this whole thing that's frustratingly difficult to understand.

I question the UK PM’s too slavishly following what’s been happening here, assuming it will also play out like that in the UK, because the demographics are so different. Many families in Italy have live-in grandparents, and when the schools closed, right at the start of the lock-down, many older people were infected. Also when the 'red ring' closed around the cluster-hit areas of Milan, Venice, etc, big numbers of people, often young (like students), bailed and headed straight back to the family in the South or wherever. That can only have spread it.

And because historically Italy was made up of individual states/administrative areas till after Napoleon (1871), the administration locally -- and probably also provincially and regionally -- still varies hugely from place to place. Both in kind and in how strictly regulations are applied.

Our town has belonged to Pisa, to the Medici, and then to Genoa. But right on the edges, never with much supervision, so there is a strong element of ‘make it up as you go along’ about the local admin. Plus Italians collectively can be a fairly bolshie/anarchic bunch, and will not tamely accept rules and regulations that they don't like.

 

[Andy D]

It seems like every night for the last few nights the Government here are ramping up their edicts massively - don’t go to pubs, stay indoors for months if you’re old, here’s an extraordinary amount of money to (perhaps) prop up businesses (which you should close btw) and now close all schools. Meanwhile medical staff are saying they don’t have adequate PPE to deal with the corona cases that reach their door - and I’m wondering whether it’s safe to go to the gym tonight.

It’s like we’re waiting for this massive wave to hit us while wondering how big it’ll be (and in true British style whether it’s all a bit of a fuss).

Still no bog roll though.

 

[KateESal]

Love the song recommendations!!

 

[Steve C]

Our town has belonged to Pisa, to the Medici, and then to Genoa. But right on the edges, never with much supervision, so there is a strong element of ‘make it up as you go along’ about the local admin. Plus Italians collectively can be a fairly bolshie/anarchic bunch, and will not tamely accept rules and regulations that they don't like.

It's similar here in northern Thailand. People speak Lao not Thai, although they are similar, and don't give a fig for what happens in the capital. With the rule of law spread pretty thin, people tend to make up their own rules which at the moment is not such a great idea but is normally something I like about the place. In any case, the national Gov is pretty useless suggesting group aerobics and contributing to the local temple as ways of avoiding infection.

 

[Malaika]

It seems like every night for the last few nights the Government here are ramping up their edicts massively - don’t go to pubs, stay indoors for months if you’re old, here’s an extraordinary amount of money to (perhaps) prop up businesses (which you should close btw) and now close all schools. Meanwhile medical staff are saying they don’t have adequate PPE to deal with the corona cases that reach their door - and I’m wondering whether it’s safe to go to the gym tonight.

It’s like we’re waiting for this massive wave to hit us while wondering how big it’ll be (and in true British style whether it’s all a bit of a fuss).

Still no bog roll though.

Last week I said when I went out it felt like a tsunami was coming and everyone was headed to the beach to see the waves.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Panic buying has finally reached mid-Cornwall. In the only food store in Saint Columb Major, the Co-Op supermarket, there were empty spaces on the shelves where baked beans, toilet rolls and disposable nappies/diapers normally sit. I feel a scatological short story coming on!

The library is still open, for the moment, but some branches may close, as they're now run by town councils after Cornwall County Council offloaded them. No deliveries of requested books will be made from other branches, as delivery drivers are considered to be high risk employees. The library assistants were waiting for delivery of disinfectant to spray the entrance door handle and push plate and the keyboards of the two computers. I don't think they'll be spraying readers.

Unclean, unclean!

 

[Rachel Caldecott]

So, life in my part of France.
We are no longer allowed to go to the beach or to our local lake. I was in ER yesterday because of my back and heard that many local cases of covid-19 have been coming through it. Now they are sending cases directly to Montpellier. We have forms to print out (or handwrite if we don't have access to a printer) with five options to be ticked. Only these five options are valid reasons for leaving the house.
1. Work (at one of the approved jobs), 2. food shopping, 3. medical appointments, 4. delivering food to a vulnerable person, 5. walking the dog.
If you get caught without the completed form it is an immediate fine of 135-375€
It is very quiet. Yesterday I heard a few kids playing, but since the gendarmes have got a bit tougher, it is now very, very quiet. No sound of traffic. The local supermarket only lets 100 people in at a time. At certain times of the day, the queue to get in is ridiculously long. As always, going shopping at lunchtime is best, as for the French lunch is a near-sacred activity. So you almost only find ex-pats in the supermarket between 12 and 2 pm.
University students in the halls of residence were told to leave. The French to go back to their parents, the foreigners back to their countries of origin, which is tricky because most flights are cancelled. My concern is for a young Iraqi friend. He is studying at Uni in Montpellier and living in halls. He has had to ask permission to stay because he cannot go back to Iraq. I can't check if he has enough food etc, because I can't go out. He has only a tiny amount of money to live on. Less than 100€ a month. So I fear for him.

Which leads me to my big fear. I don't know how many of you know that since 2015 I have been involved in helping refugees (mainly in Ventimiglia) and sometimes in Paris. They have little/no access to clean water, soap, proper toilets, etc... Most of them (like my Iraqi friend) have terrible pre-existing medical conditions. Their diets are poor. The gendarmes regularly destroy their tents and sleeping bags. It wouldn't take much for a secondary infection/pandemic to start on the streets. Yet nothing is being done to help them by the state, although I have contacts who are doing their best (but with the new restrictions they can't do very much). Governments talk endlessly about the need to protect our elderly and vulnerable, but this doesn't include rough sleepers or refugees. So I am very worried about all of this. And on that happy note, I shall take my leave.

 

[Barbara]

Muse have a song called Hysteria (it's as if they wrote it to describe my shopping outing today).

And they cover this song for when it's all over:

 

[E G Logan]

I just switched on the news on RAI-1 then had to switch it almost straight back off again because I burst into tears. (Unexpected. I would have said I was calm.)

How is this possible? In a country of around 64 million people?
According to RA-1, and my translation of it, THERE ARE NOW MORE COVID 19 CASUALTIES IN ITALY THAN IN CHINA. Deaths rise to 3,405.
RAI 1 said a total of over 41,000 people have now contracted the disease. (That includes those who have recovered and the who have died.)

I'm going to stop now and go and read something stupid and soothing.

 

[Leonora]

Apparently you can't go outside in Prague without a face mask now. Son and girlfriend have scrounged one to share. No joint outings!

 

[Barbara]

Sorry, couldn't resisit this one

 

[Leonora]

I just switched on the news on RAI-1 then had to switch it almost straight back off again because I burst into tears. (Unexpected. I would have said I was calm.)

How is this possible? In a country of around 64 million people?
According to RA-1, and my translation of it, THERE ARE NOW MORE COVID 19 CASUALTIES IN ITALY THAN IN CHINA. Deaths rise to 3,405.
RAI 1 said a total of over 41,000 people have now contracted the disease. (That includes those who have recovered and the who have died.)

I'm going to stop now and go and read something stupid and soothing.

I saw this too. Chin up. Best foot forward. Hugs.

 

[Leonora]

I just switched on the news on RAI-1 then had to switch it almost straight back off again because I burst into tears. (Unexpected. I would have said I was calm.)

How is this possible? In a country of around 64 million people?
According to RA-1, and my translation of it, THERE ARE NOW MORE COVID 19 CASUALTIES IN ITALY THAN IN CHINA. Deaths rise to 3,405.
RAI 1 said a total of over 41,000 people have now contracted the disease. (That includes those who have recovered and the who have died.)

I'm going to stop now and go and read something stupid and soothing.

Why have so many coronavirus patients died in Italy?

The country's high death toll is due to an ageing population, overstretched health system and the way fatalities are reported

www.telegraph.co.uk

This might be of some comfort - at least the bit about how they assign cause of death

 

[HayleyG]

One good thing about the crisis, is that flat-dwellers are communicating with one another from their windows and balconies.

Balcony spirit: hope in face of coronavirus – in pictures

Uh Oh! Neighbor is Out on His Balcony With a Microphone

First, it was Italy, but now it’s happening here: Your weird neighbor with the cargo shorts has gotten out onto his balcony with a microphone. It’s unclear whether he plans to sing or speak into the mic, but according to sources, he was fiddling with what looked like an amp or a karaoke mach

reductress.com

 

[Ann B.]

This is me at home with the kids

 

[Eva Ulian]

I went food shopping this morning... it was weird. Streets like a haunted town, everyone with gloves and masks. People hurriedly filled their trolleys as if the place was on fire, it seemed they couldn't wait to get out. I felt the same. And like @E G Logan i heard the same news, more victims in Italy than in China... considering that half the world's population is in China and a mere speck of 64 m in Italy- it makes you think and it pulls you down.

 

[Hannah F]

Positives: I will save about £20 a week on fuel (outstripped by lack of earnings, but let's stay positive). The earth will have temporary relief from transport related carbon emissions.
Staying at home means less use of clinical strength hand sanitiser which has been literally eating my sensitive skin.
Family pets will see more of their families (hopefully a good thing) unless said families are stuck in river-sized supermarket queues.
I managed to dry clothes on the washing line today - it didn't rain! It was springtime sunny!

Book titles: "Girl the only one on the train".

Films: "Mask"

 

[RK Wallis]

What I hate about this virus is how everyone's death is reduced to a statistic; these people have lives and families and we don't have time to remember that because there are just so many deaths

Update here: As of today only Australians and their immediate family can enter Australia. Our grocery stores are opening at 7am for the elderly and disabled and the general public at 8am.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Our border slammed shut to all but New Zealanders yesterday. So far we've only had 39 cases, all imported--no local transmission yet. That will certainly change. The restrictions on allowable group size get smaller practically by the day, but people are still being stupid about having parties, etc. Universities are finally starting to cancel lectures and move to online teaching, but the Ministry of Education still says we can cram as many primary and secondary school aged kids into a room as we want ... My microbiologist husband is apoplectic, especially since I work in a primary school.

 

[Rich.]

Yes, states and regions seem to be reacting a lot, and whether that's over, under or something in between seems pretty variable. The EU has closed its borders to non-citizens/residents, but that was largely a political reaction to individual member states closing theirs (many of those internal borders have now reopened). Brussels is keen for the EU to present a united front.

My better half (flight attendant) is now in San Francisco, which has just locked itself down. She seems to be hopping from quarantine to quarantine at the moment, and of course it's tricky to "keep your distance" in the aisle of a plane.

As for the kids and I, our world has become very small, defined by the walls of our apartment. It's hardest on them (they're 3 and 5). They need to run, and we're gonna need new beds for all the jumping on them.

Having said that, the personal bit, it all sounds a bit trivial really, our "hardships". They're not hardships at all, just an inconvenience. My world is full of laughter.

Keep safe everyone.

 

[Rich.]

Morning silliness...

This one needs a bit of context. Spain's king, Felipe VI, has renounced his inheritance from his scandal hit father. Swiss bank accounts and dirty money are alleged to be involved. You can read more about it in this BBC News article.

So anyway... the silliness (translation below)!



I wash my hands Do you?

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Love the song recommendations!!

Another song about touching came to mind, The Doors Touch Me. Something tells me, that if Jim Morrison ever wore a face mask, it would be made of black leather with silver conchos, like his belt.

What a performance. Live music at its best.