When reading and discussing about climate change in the past, we used to hear that we live in an oligarchy, and that there was little we could do about it because they were the ones who supported politicians financially and so the politicians could not go against them politically. This meant that a president or political system could never make changes that went against the oil industry or against large manufacturing that used oil like the car manufacturing industry because he would lose his financial support. Dad would often joke that the world would be a much better place if Google was in charge. So, did COVID-19 change that? and was the change sudden?
We've seen older and older people in charge. The leading candidates competing for the US presidency were in their 70s. Most are old and some are ill. President Trump suffers from dementia. Bernie Sanders had a stroke before becoming front-runner with Joe Biden. Apparently the stroke increased his rating. Even Vladimir Putin is only two years younger than my grandfather -- and while he has ambitions to be a dictator for life, he's already well past the retirement age of 65, which in Russia is even lower. Past the retirement age, in Europe, doctors are kicked out of hospitals because they are too old and too likely to make mistakes (exceptions were made during the COVID-19 crisis). However, people deemed unfit to work because of their age can be presidents and maintain leadership and make mistakes that affect the whole world not just one or two patients. I blamed this on the influence of the oil industry and the need of the oligarchy to stay in charge -- I thought they would select older people who did not understand how the internet works and would continue to support the old ways.
Most people -- including me -- less so Edward because he does not have a phone are terribly addicted to their screen. Did COVID-19 facilitate the taking over of power from the oligarchy? Is this a good thing? I used to think it would be good to have younger people in charge who understand how a computer works and how to use it to benefit mankind. But is that what's happening?
Half of Lugoj is full of beautiful mansions that are said to be built from the trafficking of people -- women, girls, boys -- they are trafficked mostly to Western Europe: Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, etc. The path to take everything they've got is to 1) attract them (either by pretending to love them, posing as a form of legal employment or simply abducting them) 2) get them addicted to some drug like opium 3) threaten to kill them, maim them, and destroy their families if they try to escape, 4) censure their every move while they get used to their position, and 5) make them feel indebted to their captors for the little that is provided -- housing, living expenses to keep them alive. After these steps, and perhaps after a few abortive attempts at escape, most stay and 'work' for the monsters who abuse them of their own 'free will'. The rest of the population thinks it's ok and does not interfere because they believe the path was 'freely' chosen and because it's easier to do nothing. I've never seen a person who was trafficked because it's done out of sight. I only seen the mansions. Our next door neighbor -- one of the owners of the mansions -- was in prison for human trafficking. He came out last year, bought another house, and now he and his family are abroad again. People in countries with buyers, who are driving an industry that produces so much money (without buyers the traffic would not exist), don't believe it's happening in their country. So, everybody is happy -- minus the people trafficked -- who are replaceable.
So, is what's happening with the help of measures imposed to save us from COVID-19 an extremely successful attempt at taking money from one group of people (the oligarchy and most of us) and giving it to another? are some people wanting to take everything from the oligarchy and from everyone else? Have they already succeeded, in part? After all, we are all attracted and addicted to the screen. Now, we are also afraid for our lives and the lives of our loved ones, and free speech about COVID-19 is already openly being censured by Amazon and by facebook. They say it's about not spreading fake information and allowing only professionals to speak, but no topic was off limits before. Are phones going to turn into censured objects that light green when we are allowed to go out of prison and will the prisons be our own homes? It's cheaper this way -- after all -- until there is nothing left to take.
I know the virus is real. I also believe it went through our family in February, but there are no antibody tests available in Lugoj as of yet who could tell us if I am correct. Both Edward and I were pretty sick. I coughed for many weeks -- worse than ever before. They would send me home from school because I could not stop coughing, but then I would go back because I am in my final year of middle school and since I have exams at the end of the year, it was not an option to miss too much. Most of my colleagues were in similar situations -- many had been very, very sick. I developed a range of new allergies after this awful cough, but all of us are mostly fine otherwise. I have not heard of deaths in the families of my colleagues or friends due to the very bad respiratory infections either.
What worries me is not temporary measures -- as long as they'll be over. But will they be over? If I look back at the history of my own family: my great-great-grandfather was in prison on ship, his fight for freedom was successful and his children (my great-grandfather and his brothers) were free to travel and study abroad. My grandparents were trapped, and lived through communist. They could not leave the country. The cities were closed to and you had to have an ID from a certain city to be able to work there. Freedom of speech was non-existent and they could have been arrested, tortured, and murdered any time. My parents were free to meet (my mom is originally from China, my dad is Romanian), travel and study abroad. Is it my turn now to be in prison? and that of my generation? I was taking about this with Ruxandra last night and asked why they had children if they knew family history and world history. After all, a world war with guns is overdue and the past keeps repeating itself. She said she was not sure that the current prison-like-time will extend to death and destruction, but that there was no way of telling beforehand and she did not think of this when she had children. She also said that there is always a form of fight between good and evil like in stories and that it's her hope that Edward, James and I will be a force of good in the world no matter what happens next.
I don't want to be good. I want a new phone. I want to be on the beach in a nice place. I don't like school. I don't like writing or reading much. I avoided homework as much as possible, and I am trying to do a lot of it at once now that school will restart -- just for the kids in their final year like me. It's easier to procrastinate even by writing on the blog than to do the grammar, writing, and the math I have to do -- even though Ruxandra and/or grandma can and do help me when I ask.
I want to be free and I want to live in a world like the one before COVID-19. I don't want it to change, and I don't see why it should change. In Romania, the number of deaths were a minor perturbation to the regular daily deaths. On average, about 800 people die daily. Due to COVID-19 we've had 20-30 deaths a day at the peak of the pandemic -- most with serious pre-existent conditions -- and today there are fewer. Some of western Europe had a larger number of deaths, which is expected for a new virus, but the numbers are no nearly large enough to justify dictatorships. They seem manageable now that they've even increased hospital capacity, and the new hospitals had to close because of lack of patients.
If I look back at my title: car sales are down, planes are grounded, oil prices are down to often below the extraction price, manufacturing is down, etc. Sales of phone, mobile devices, computers, etc and the market value of various companies that manufacture them are up. Is there a shift of power? If so, how many will lose their life and freedom because of it? Grandma used to tell me that she learned to count in the beginning of communism by counting the black flags. Every street had ever so many. They would be put up when somebody died. People did not give their livelihood away easily and some even died of grief -- without being physically hurt by the system. Will James learn to count the same way?
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