Got TIPS or BREAKING NEWS? Please call 1-284-442-8000 direct/can also WhatsApp same number or Email ALL news to:newsvino@outlook.com;                               ads call 1-284-440-6666

Corona: The joker in the pack

February 29th, 2020 | Tags: UK EU Virgin Islands Dickson C. Igwe coronavirus
Dickson C. Igwe. Photo: VINO/File
By Dickson C. Igwe

The Coronavirus appeared at a very volatile moment in world history. In a new post, the great financial recession of 2008 world, ruled by authoritarian types in Russia, China, India, Brazil, and even the supposedly freedom-loving USA, rising intolerance and racism, and a retreating global liberal democratic order, the politics of the Coronavirus, threatens massive economic, social, and political disruption.

The world could be a very different place politically after Corona.

And Corona will require the cooperation of regions and countries at all levels of society, in order to beat what threatens to become a horrible pandemic. That global cohesion is missing today, as the west diverges, with the USA, and a ‘wobbly’ European Union, increasingly going separate ways and looking inwards, and running on separate paths.

And the thing about the Coronavirus is that it seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Talk of the virus emanating from bats, and entering the human food chain in China - where bat soup is a delicacy - appears to be the present explanation for an illness that has infected thousands, killed hundreds, and is spreading rapidly across the globe from East Asia.

On February 27, 2020, a suspected case of Coronavirus was observed in the British Virgin Islands of a traveler who had been to China. Thankfully that was not ‘’the real deal.’’ But the incident showed just how easily the Coronavirus matter can spread panic and mayhem. 

Part of the reason this virus appears to have ‘’exploded’’ on the scene is that there were efforts by China to understate the threat of the virus to people, at the very beginning. This is a feature of authoritarian rule: The need for cover up to protect the myth of the invincibility of the regime. However, this virus has no respect for dictators and cover ups. Tragically, the despot in North Korea revealed the cold-blooded nature of his regime by executing the first North Korean Coronavirus victim.

President Donald Trump appears to be following the Chinese script. The US leader is on the defensive in placing the Corona Virus on a back burner. Trump believes that understating the hugely negative impact of the Coronavirus is politically expedient. This approach- like what happened in China- could also backfire.

In China, key medical officers have been infected, and some have died. Iran’s vice president has contracted the virus. Even the Pope started to cough and splutter very suspiciously last Wednesday.

In the USA President Donald Trump appears to have been caught flat-footed. He has appointed his Vice President Mike Pence- a man who allegedly does not believe in science- as the Virus Tsar. Trump has done this after cutting funds and resources over his first term as President, to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention- the CDC.

But a US President who is betting on an economy that is ‘’good to great’’ for his reelection, cannot ignore the fact that the Coronavirus has tanked US stocks. The DOW opened down more than 500 points on Thursday and 2500 points on the week. US stocks have fallen into a correction that is the worst fall in stock prices since the financial crisis of 2008. As of Friday, February 28 $5 trillion has been wiped off US stocks.

The world’s stock and commodity markets have also taken a hit, and Corona may unleash a global recession as bad as the 2008 recession.

What is even more ludicrous is that Trump’s angry base see a ‘’Coronavirus Conspiracy’’ driven by Trump’s enemies to take him down.

In any event, the world is waking up to the threat of this virus.

Here in the Caribbean governments have been banning cruise ships from docking that are suspected of harbouring the Coronavirus. This is a further pointer to a hit against Caribbean tourism. The cruise industry is a critical component of the Caribbean tourism industry.

Elsewhere, cargo ships from Asia have been stopped from entering a number of western ports. In Japan and elsewhere schools have been closed.

In a highly interconnected world, the Coronavirus is a joker in the global pack of cards that has the power to unleash economic and social mayhem, as never seen before.

Connect with Dickson Igwe on Facebook and Twitter.

3 Responses to “Corona: The joker in the pack ”

  • watcher (01/03/2020, 10:47) Like (0) Dislike (1) Reply
    An interesting read
  • Questioning in SCB (01/03/2020, 13:58) Like (3) Dislike (0) Reply
    Mr. Igwe states that the person who had recently returned to the Island from China with a suspected case of coronavirus (Covid-19) was “not the real deal”. Which sounds to me like he’s saying that the test sample that was sent off island for testing in T&T had a negative result. If this is so, why have we not seen this very important information released in the form of a communication to the public from the Government of the VI?
    Is Mr. Igwe correct on this point, or incorrect?
  • Risen (03/03/2020, 06:05) Like (2) Dislike (0) Reply
    Eumelanated people cannot contract these diseases. Only pheomelanated people can. I wish the fear mongering would stop. “Black” people love to sit and ponder on these things and attract this low vibrational energy into their lives when we’re the ones least likely to be affected by these diseases.


Create a comment


Create a comment

Disclaimer: Virgin Islands News Online (VINO) welcomes your thoughts, feedback, views, bloggs and opinions. However, by posting a blogg you are agreeing to post comments or bloggs that are relevant to the topic, and that are not defamatory, liable, obscene, racist, abusive, sexist, anti-Semitic, threatening, hateful or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be excluded permanently from making contributions. Please view our declaimer above this article. We thank you in advance for complying with VINO's policy.

Follow Us On

Disclaimer: All comments posted on Virgin Islands News Online (VINO) are the sole views and opinions of the commentators and or bloggers and do not in anyway represent the views and opinions of the Board of Directors, Management and Staff of Virgin Islands News Online and its parent company.