I dedicate this post to them and hope that they will soon be free. What they suffered is the all-time world record for the largest and longest nationwide mass incarceration of children. In the madness of Corona-times, other countries, including Europe were not that far behind.
During the year of the Coronavirus, in the interest of public health, the government of the Philippines has decided to incarcerate children. The Philipino children were not allowed to go out and play, leave home for school or see the sea for one whole year.
Children under 15 -- all 32 million of them -- are “required to remain in their residences at all times” as part of the government’s efforts to curb the spread of covid-19.
That's 32 million young life-years lost -- or about 500 000 full lives could have been lived in these years.
With 12 000 deaths in 110 million people, this archipelago is doing rather well compared to the US and Europe. They have 110 deaths per million people. That's 11 times fewer than Sweden and 14 times less than the US.
Had they been the worst hit country in the world, they could have lost 20 times more or 250 000. Most would have been grandparents, and would, on average, have lost 1 year of life expectancy each. Much of the lost lifetime would have been end of life care. Thus, for every year of end-of-life saved, 2 full lives would have been lived under house arrest.
And we believe the military government of the Philippines cares so much about the old people to go to such lent and sacrifice the children. It's all about saving lives.
While their freedom to go to school was taken away, their right to meet friends and visit the beach was sacrificed in the interest of safety and security, these children have one important right left: they can have sex. The age of consent, in the Philippines is 12.
Imagine you're 12, you haven't been out of your small room or house for one year and one adult asks something they should know better not to ask. Perhaps he offers hope or an illusion of freedom. What do you do? Would you consent?
Unfortunately, the relatively low mortality is not linked to the draconian quarantine measures. The following factors dramatically reduce deaths
-- having a young population. The Philippines have relatively few old people, compared to the West.
-- low obesity
-- being a tropical island. The state of Hawaii, despite being under American control and having all the American problems, has the lowest Corona mortality in the US -- 307/million, or 8 times less than NY.
Among the countries inhabited by East Asian people, the Philippines, at 110 deaths per million, have the highest mortality rate. They are followed by
Japan -- 60
Myanmar -- 59
Malaysia -- 33
South Korea -- 31
Hong Kong -- 26
Singapore - 5
China - 3
Thailand - 1
Vietnam - 0
Taiwan - 0
Cambodia - 0
Macao - 0
Laos - 0
Timor Leste - 0
As usual, the people who work the hardest, obey the most and lose the most are not the most rewarded.
It is just hard, not to say impossible, to beliebe this extreme commitment of the political class in the Philippines to save the old people who might have been in danger of dying of Corona. He was the first to give a "Shoot to Kill" order in order to stop the virus.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/04/philippines-president-duterte-shoot-to-kill-order-pandemic/ Of course, when you shoot for the virus, you may hit the occasional journalist. who just happened to say rather controversial things before ... being accidentally shot. Of course, this man is truly afraid that the old people may die...The Philippines used to be part of the US. These former Americans now have a rather different lifestyle. Philippines is one of the countries where COVID-19 lookalike pneumonia is remarkably common and deadly among children of political prisoners born in jail.
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