Dear all,

What covid-19 tells us about America?

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/11/health/nurse-last-words-coronavirus-patient-trnd/index.html

“Who’s going to pay for it?”

Last words I’ll never forget // the response my patient gasped out (between labored breaths) to me and my team, after we explained that he needed to be intubated and placed on a ventilator. We then called his wife to have him speak to her for what was likely his last opportunity, as many patients do not recover once tubed.

This situation is by far the worst thing I’ve witnessed in my collective 12 years of critical care & anesthesia. Next-level heartbreak = having to hear a dying patient use his last words to worry about healthcare finances.

This country is truly a failed state, and it’s so sickening to witness firsthand, more blatantly than ever.

In low-income immigrant communities, American dreams are being crushed by this global scourge.

Many rich New Yorkers, the city's one per cent, have simply left town, and headed for their country getaways in the Hudson Valley or coastal retreats in the Hamptons. That is not an option for the poor, many of whom live in multi-generational family dwellings, sometimes in one-bedroom apartments shared by 10 people.

So the coronavirus has been a tale of two cities, with Hispanics and African Americans being killed at twice the rate of white New Yorkers. Poverty has been a propagator of the pandemic. Hardship has been a super-spreader.

We're living through another time of "Buddy can you spare me a dime". Let's hope it doesn't become an era.

When Covid hit, the United States was also among the vulnerable, and the virus has exposed so many of its long-term ailments - its income disparities, racial inequality, democratic sickliness, inoperative government, toxic polarisation, decline of reason, the downgrading of science, the lessening of its global influence, the absence of its global leadership.

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2020/05/01/najib-disagrees-with-sudden-easing-of-businesses/

PETALING JAYA: Former prime minister Najib Razak has voiced his disagreement with the sudden easing of the movement control order (MCO) from Monday.

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2020/04/30/hold-full-parliament-sitting-as-mco-is-being-relaxed-urges-ph/

PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Harapan (PH) has urged Putrajaya to hold a full meeting of Parliament when it convenes on May 18 since several economic sectors have already been allowed to fully operate during the movement control order (MCO) period.

*The Irony Of Life!*

...So suddenly:

*New York*

_’the city that never sleeps'_

is now asleep...all quiet.

*Paris* 

_'center of romance'_

lives in echos.

*Rome*

_'the eternal city'_

is deserted.

*Disney* 

_is out of magic._

*London*

_is caged in silence,_

the Queen speaks to her people from a hidden room.

*Mecca*

_is empty!_

Nobody to

'stone the devil'.

*The Chinese wall*

_is no longer a fortress._

*The G8 Nations*

_are speechless._

*The Developed World* 

_suddenly on its knees._

*Churches,*

*Mosques,*

*Great Parks,*

*Monuments,*

*Stadiums* 

_are filled with unfilled spaces._

_The busiest places at present were hitherto the most dreaded:_

*Hospitals and Cemeteries.*

*The famous Football Leagues,*

*Fashion Shows,*

*Exotic Weddings,*

*Festivals*

_all lost to memory._

*Celebrities*

_have run out of celebrations._

*Our titles,*

*Status and Privileged Positions*

_are stale._

_With all our boastful_

*'citizenships'*

_we cannot step out of our houses._

*With all our savings in gold and cash,*

_we can only buy food to eat and toilet papers to take care of the waste._ 

_We usually went to watch animals in cages,_

*Now animals roam our empty streets,*

*watching us in our 'cages'*

_With our expensive clothes and shoes,_

*Our house clothes and pyjamas are the latest fashion.*

_Despite, all these 'oddities'..._

*the World still goes on;*

*the sun still shines;*

*the birds still sing.*

_When this long night finally gets over and a new day sets in..._

_It is vital, that we do not forget the lessons of the long night_

*That the only essential... is LIFE,*

_ ...everything else is dispensable prefixes and suffixes._

...busy emptiness!.

*Only God!* remains consistent...