| |
Monday 08th of March 2021
|
The Leopard (Il Gattopardo) is one of the greatest Italian literary works of the 20th century. Misc. |
Everyday activities foreground the novel: daily recital of the Rosary, evening readings around the fire, faded grandeur of meals where “monumental dishes of macaroni” are served among massive silver and splendid glass, a walk and hunting expedition in the sunburnt Sicilian countryside, a magnificent ball.
Although The Leopard is a representation of 19th century Sicilian aristocracy, it is also a contemplative and ironic distancing from this same world.
It is, above all, a novel that provides a profound meditation on transition and historical causality.
|
| read more |
|
The Sanctuary of Imam 'Ali (Arabic: حَرَم ٱلْإِمَام عَلِيّ,) located in Najaf, Iraq, is a mosque housing the tomb of 'Alī ibn Abī Tālib Misc. |
The Sanctuary of Imam 'Ali (Arabic: حَرَم ٱلْإِمَام عَلِيّ, romanized: Ḥaram al-ʾImām ʿAlī), also known as the Mosque of 'Ali (Arabic: مَسْجِد عَلِيّ, romanized: Masjid ʿAlī), located in Najaf, Iraq, is a mosque housing the tomb of 'Alī ibn Abī Tālib, the cousin of Muhammad and the first Imam after him, and the fourth Sunni Rashid Caliph.
According to Shi'ite belief,[1] buried next to Ali within this mosque are the remains of Adam and Nuh (Noah).[1][2] Each year millions of pilgrims visit the Shrine and pay tribute to Imam Ali.
|
| read more |
|
Model-based evaluation of transmissibility and reinfection for the P.1 variant of the SARS-CoV-2 Misc. |
Transmissibility and reinfection of P.1 were estimated using an epidemiological model-based fitting and public health data.
The transmissibility is 2.5 times greater than the wild variant and reinfection probability is 6.4% on average.
The variant of concern (VOC) P.1 emerged in the Amazonas state (Brazil) and was sequenced for the first time on 6-Jan-2021 by the Japanese National Institute of Infectious Diseases.
It contains a constellation of mutations, ten of them in the spike protein.
The P.1 variant shares mutations such as E484K, K417T, and N501Y and a deletion in the orf1b protein (del11288-11296 (3675-3677 SGF)) with other VOCs previously detected in the United Kingdom and South Africa (B.1.1.7 and the B.1.351, respectively).
Prevalence of P.1 increased sharply from 0% in November 2020 to 73% in January 2021 and in less than 2 months replaced previous lineages (4).
The estimated relative transmissibility of P.1 is 2.5 (95% CI: 2.3-2.8) times higher than the infection rate of the wild variant, while the reinfection probability due to the new variant is 6.4% (95% CI: 5.7 - 7.1%).
|
| read more |
|
They fancied themselves free, wrote Camus, ―and no one will ever be free so long as there are pestilences. Misc. |
In this respect, our townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves; in other words, they were humanists: they disbelieved in pestilences.
A pestilence isn't a thing made to man's measure; therefore we tell ourselves that pestilence is a mere bogy of the mind, a bad dream that will pass away.
But it doesn't always pass away and, from one bad dream to another, it is men who pass away, and the humanists first of all, because they have taken no precautions
|
| read more |
|
Brazil In Crisis: 'It Feels Like You Are In Stalingrad, in World War II' @NPR Misc. |
And on Wednesday, Brazil – second only to the U.S. in the number of people who have died – hit their highest death toll number recorded in a single day: more than 1,900.
The health-care system is about to collapse – even in Sao Paulo, Brazil's most populous city with the largest medical infrastructure in the country, Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, a Brazilian-born Duke University neuroscientist, told NPR's Mary Louise Kelly.
He describes a "horrible" situation with hospitals at full capacity, turning people away, with some left to die in ambulances or on the street.
"They [hospitals] are refusing to take patients because they cannot find a bed in the ICU. So, let's say you have a heart attack or you have a stroke or you had a car accident ... people are actually dying, waiting for ICU bed."
Nicolelis says Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is to blame, calling him "public enemy number one in the world related to the comeback to the fight of the coronavirus."
"It feels like you are in Stalingrad, in World War II. You're surrounded by the enemy. Food is ending. There is no calling for help because nobody can get out to get help. And you just see your comrades dying, your friends, your parents, your relatives, your childhood friends."
|
| read more |
|
@PMEthiopia has launched an unwinnable War on Tigray Province. Africa |
Ethiopia which was once the Poster child of the African Renaissance now has a Nobel Prize Winner whom I am reliably informed
PM Abiy His inner war cabinet includes Evangelicals who are counseling him he is "doing Christ's work"; that his faith is being "tested". @RAbdiAnalyst
@PMEthiopia has launched an unwinnable War on Tigray Province.
|
| read more |
|
Turning to Africa the Spinning Top Africa |
Democracy from Tanzania to Zimbabwe to Cameroon has been shredded.
We are getting closer and closer to the Virilian Tipping Point
“The revolutionary contingent attains its ideal form not in the place of production, but in the street''
Political leadership in most cases completely gerontocratic will use violence to cling onto Power but any Early Warning System would be warning a Tsunami is coming
|
| read more |
|
Sonko arrest sets opposition and police on collision course @mailandguardian @thecontinent_ Africa |
The case has transfixed the nation: Ousmane Sonko, the Senegalese opposition leader who finished third in the 2019 presidential election, stands accused of rape by an employee at a massage salon that he frequented.
The 46-year-old politician denies the charges, saying they are politically motivated, and his supporters agree.
On Wednesday, as Sonko’s motorcade made its way to court in Dakar, he was surrounded by hundreds of people singing and hooting horns in solidarity. But he never made it to the court.
Some of his supporters threw stones at security forces, who responded with tear gas; shortly afterwards, Sonko was arrested again, for “disturbing public order and participating in an unauthorised demonstration”.
His arrest sparked further clashes – some of the most serious unrest seen in the capital in years, and on Friday authorities began restricting access to internet and social media, leaving Senegal looking increasingly fragile for a country known for its political stability.
|
| read more |
|
Nigeria Introduces Incentives in Bid to Boost Remittance Inflows @markets Africa |
The Nigerian central bank will pay recipients who use formal channels to get U.S. dollars from abroad, in the latest move by authorities to increase the flow of remittances amid a shortage of hard currency.
Recipients will get 5 naira for every $1 they remit through licensed international money transfer operators and commercial banks, the central bank said in a circular published late on Friday.
The program will run from March 8 till May 8.
The West African nation’s currency has been devalued twice since March last year after a sharp drop in oil sales and remittances from workers abroad led to a shortage of dollars.
Measures by the central bank to bolster inflows and a rebound in oil prices could reduce pressure on the currency, which last traded at 411 per dollar at the exchange platform for investors and exporters known as Nafex.
|
| read more |
|
Mohadi’s magic hanky no match for hanky panky @mailandguardian @thecontinent_ Africa |
In November 2016, Kembo Mohadi visited the self-proclaimed prophet Shepherd Bushiri, at Bushiri’s church in South Africa.
At the time, Mohadi was Zimbabwe’s state security minister, but his prospects looked bleak: he appeared to be on the wrong side of the bitter race to succeed then-president Robert Mugabe.
But Bushiri had a reassuring message. The religious leader told Mohadi that he would be promoted, and would shortly be wearing a “crown”.
He gave Mohadi a white handkerchief, and assured him that the piece of cloth would open new avenues, and provide protection.
The prophecy was soon fulfilled. Mugabe was toppled by a coup in November 2017.
The new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, appointed Mohadi as one of two vice-presidents.
Unlike the other vice-president, Constantine Chiwenga, Mohadi had no political base of his own; what he offered instead was unconditional loyalty to Mnangagwa, along with his record as a liberation war hero.
But the white handkerchief appears to have lost its powers in the intervening years.
Not only has Bushiri himself fallen from grace, after being charged with multiple counts of corruption; but this week Vice-President Mohadi was forced to resign in disgrace following the allegation that he was conducting not one but two extramarital affairs while in office.
The allegations were published by online media house ZimLive, and were supported by leaked voice recordings between the vice-president and one of his alleged lovers.
In his resignation letter, Mohadi maintained his innocence. “I am a victim of information distortion, voice cloning and sponsored spooking and political sabotage. Digital media, in their hybridity, have been abused by my enemies to blackmail me, but my spirit will never die,” he wrote
ZimLive editor Mduduzi Mathuthu stands by his story, and the authenticity of the recordings.
“It will become clear that his claims of a political conspiracy by his enemies are just that – hot air,” he told The Continent.
President Mnangagwa has yet to appoint a replacement.
|
| read more |
|
Bulawayo, “koNtuthu Ziyathunqa” (where smoke bellows) @mailandguardian @thecontinent_ Africa |
Zimbabwe’s second largest city that has its roots in the Ndebele kingdom set up by King Mzilikazi in the mid- 19th century.
Traditional African cuisine is my favourite and Sis Bee’s Kitchen prepares their bream in a mouthwatering way that delights the palate; boiled or fried, it will leave you licking your fingers.
It costs between $4 and $6 and it goes down well with isitshwala samabele (sorghum or millet pap).
For an additional $2 you can choose an extra side dish of vegetables such as ibhobola (pumpkin leaves) or ulude (Spider-wisp).
But, as they say, variety is the spice of life and on Sis Bee’s menu you can find other delicious dishes such as oxtail, meaty bones, offal, goat meat, biltong in peanut butter, nkukhu makhaya (free range chicken) and amasi (sour milk).
When injiva are at home, every day is a party. In December merrymaking is the order of the day.
Majaivana speaks of being away from his homeland and his spirit longing for a return: umoya wami bo awusekho lapha khangela wena ukhatshana kontuthu ziyathunqa (my spirit is not here, it is very far in Bulawayo).
|
| read more |
|
|
|
|
