Fair Dinkum in Email Memo
Scott Morrison’s handling of the crisis is causing terrible confusion in Australia. He is telling Australians to stay at home, but people are free to go out, but stay at home. Many of his statements are in that spirit…. The man of democracy making the health crisis a matter of personal choice rather that what is best for the country. This shows alarming signs of an inability to act decisively and so the virus can continue to spread easily causing many more infections.
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Naaman Zhou, in The Guardian, 23 March 2020,
More than 300 people on board the Ruby Princess cruise ship could have already contracted coronavirus by the time it docked in Sydney, according to an expert in epidemiology. As of Tuesday, 133 people (107 in New South Wales and 26 interstate) have been diagnosed with Covid-19 after leaving the ship, which docked in Sydney’s Circular Quay on Thursday 19 March. All 2,700 passengers were allowed to disembark and return home and told to self-isolate.
Royston Ellis, in Sunday Times UK in March 2020 where the title of his review reads “For anyone interested in Sri Lanka, its politics and human nature”
Lord Naseby (right) with Royston Ellis outside the House of Lords
This book by Lord Naseby, who lived in Sri Lanka from 1963 to 1964 when he was Michael Morris and an eager South Asian Marketing Manager for Reckitt & Colman, has a cover with an eye-catching red spine proclaiming “Sri Lanka in large type. It is clearly designed to attract bookshop browsers and to ensure that it becomes a prominent addition to an enthusiast’s collection of contemporary literature about Sri Lanka. Continue reading
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Hi Guys, This modelling by Unis Sydney shows why we need to exercise our social distancing now. This sort of modelling is a powerful tool in the fight against the virus and modelling becomes more powerful when supported by observation. Wuhan and China in general have provided that supporting observation.
And what does the orange fwit in America want to do....the exact bloody opposite.
If we’re to keep Saturday tennis, I’ll bring some hand sanitiser for use between sets.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-25/coronavirus-covid-19-modelling-stay-home-chart/12084144
Continue reading
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A Note from Fabian D. K. Schokman of Moratuwa, 22 March 2020
Dear Michael, Thank you for this. I believe, as with most of the “lesser minorities,” the Bharatha community did not have its own classification until the 2001 census, when there was a breakthrough mostly on account of the Chetties and their successful fight to be classed as a distinct ethnicity. Throughout census history, one can see the Chetties demanding to be classed as distinct from the Tamils. The term “race” in SL, must always be seen as a synonym for “ethnicity” and not with the same connotation it derives in the West.
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David Blacker, Ex-SL Army infantryman: “I think so.”
Sunday March 15, 2020, 2.15pm will be marked in the diaries of Australian airline executives as a pivotal moment. It was the moment when the Australian government dropped the bombshell that all international travellers landing on our shores would be subject to a 14-day quarantine. It was the moment the music stopped and brought our travel industry to its knees.
The music has stopped for Australia’s big airlines – and for the rest of the international aviation industry…Pix by Wolter PeetersThe major airlines’ chief executives, Qantas’ Alan Joyce and Virgin Australia’s Paul Scurrah, had been tipped off by Transport Minister Michael McCormack that something big was coming. On Saturday night, their respective management teams worked furiously to formulate plans to get customers and their own crews back from international destinations.
From a very large glass room in Qantas’ Mascot headquarters, the carrier’s crisis management team, composed of representatives from each of the airline’s critical divisions, was in overdrive.
Elmo Jayawardena, whose original title runs thus “First Time in the African Sky”
The year was 1986, the month, September to be precise. The Non-Aligned conference was being held in Harare under the leadership of Prime Minister Robert Mugabe. 120 countries sent their leaders or their representatives to take part in the conference of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). All the details of NAM can be found in Google and I shall not waste your time as to who started it and where and when. The story I have for you is about flying the African Sky and the background is the conference in Harare.
Harare, Zimbabwe. Sheraton hotel, where the 8th Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement is held. TASS …. Photo by TASS via Getty Images
This article, entitled “Two State Hypocrites—The Indo-Pacific Humbugs” – written by one “Pettibandige” in Asian Tribune annoyed me greatly when I glanced at it first: in part because it is a slashing hack job steeped in bile and excess; and in part because of its glossing over of the Japanese imperial expansionist programme in the first half of the 20th century via its assertion “Possibly Pearl Harbour was a result.”
However, the stream of stridency adopted in the essay seems to be a literary device that is (A) in step with its play on the Sinhala ge name “Patabändige” – modified here to “Petti” as in box; and (B) in line with its continuous mockery of the two leading actors, namely Trump and Modi. I have therefore inserted my own imprint by marking those points I question in black and those jibes that have some foundation in red ….. Michael Roberts
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Herman Tiu Laurel, in Phillipine News Agency, 4 March 2020,where the title runs “Covid-19 should unify the world”
AS the Covid-19 virus jumps vast distances and oceans to other continents, we see how other countries are adopting lessons from China’s responses, including mass “lockdowns” and other preemptive moves. The effectiveness of China’s response has resulted in a reduction of the Covid-19 crisis after just three short months, unlike past epidemics that took almost a year before subsiding.
thuppahi
