The pandemic has hit Palestinians harder because of the health apartheid
by Rashmee
Posted on January 25, 2021
On Sunday, January 24, Israel’s health minister Yuli Edelstein went on British television and disavowed any and all legal obligation to vaccinate Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. It was really a rather shameful performance by Mr Edelstein, who until then, had answered all the other questions put to him by Andrew … Continue reading “The pandemic has hit Palestinians harder because of the health apartheid”
Read MoreNew year, new concepts: Digital vaccine passports. Vaxxies
by Rashmee
Posted on January 1, 2021
Digital vaccine passports. Vaxxies. The first term signifies antibody protection – those who completed the Covid-19 vaccine course. The second allows entry into the same exclusive new club – the vaccinated person who takes a selfie while engaged in the act. Happy new year. It’s all change in a global pandemic. Expect to see the … Continue reading “New year, new concepts: Digital vaccine passports. Vaxxies”
Read MoreTo tackle vaccine hesitancy, choose your words wisely
by Rashmee
Posted on December 9, 2020 / The National
As the global vaccination effort prepares to get under way, there is an urgent need for a parallel inoculation process that deploys words. The right words can help fight outbreaks of vaccine hesitancy and scepticism, outright disbelief in science and distrust of government intentions and recommendations. This matters. Consider the situation in Britain, the western … Continue reading “To tackle vaccine hesitancy, choose your words wisely”
Read MoreHow to party like it’s 2020
by Rashmee
Posted on December 8, 2020 / The Economist
The holiday season may be here, but the traditional office party? Not so much. The holiday season may be here, but the traditional office party? Not so much. Social distancing and other pandemic-related restrictions have ruled out the usual end-of-year work celebrations. Gone are the staff lunch, after-hours drinks and team dinner. Remote workers won’t … Continue reading “How to party like it’s 2020”
Read MoreA counterlife without the pandemic? Try the fictional take
by Rashmee
Posted on November 28, 2020
In Emily St John Mandel’s ‘The Glass Hotel’, a young female protagonist, Vincent Smith, imagines multiple counterfactual histories, including one in which the swine flu “hadn’t been swiftly contained.” The omniscient narrator then notes: “She [Vincent] could only play this game for so long before she was overcome by a kind of vertigo and had … Continue reading “A counterlife without the pandemic? Try the fictional take”
Read MoreWe shouldn’t be grading ‘mass casualty events’ such as pandemics and world wars together
by Rashmee
Posted on October 14, 2020
I was very struck by the following rundown on so-called mass casualty events in the past hundred years. That’s a euphemism if there ever was one. A mass casualty event aka something that caused hundreds of thousands to die. Anyway, Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent of The New York Times, tweeted the toll. It … Continue reading “We shouldn’t be grading ‘mass casualty events’ such as pandemics and world wars together”
Read MoreThere’s Senegal and then there’s Donald Trump’s America
by Rashmee
Posted on October 5, 2020
It is a stark , a startling and unsettling contrast. On the western edge of the mighty African continent, there is small Senegal, just under 200,000 sq km, with a GDP per capita of $2,700 and healthcare expenditure of less than 5 per cent of GDP. Oh, and nearly half its population of 14.7 million … Continue reading “There’s Senegal and then there’s Donald Trump’s America”
Read MoreMargaret Ferrier, the Typhoid Mary of the 21st century?
by Rashmee
Posted on October 3, 2020
Is Margaret Ferrier the Typhoid Mary of the 21st century? At first glance the question sounds ludicrous. The two women could not be more dissimilar. Ms Ferrier is a Scottish member of the British parliament. Mary Mallon, aka Typhoid Mary, was an Irish cook who immigrated to the United States. The two women are separated … Continue reading “Margaret Ferrier, the Typhoid Mary of the 21st century?”
Read MoreBack to school vs back to gym: England’s interrupted rhythms of life
by Rashmee
Posted on August 27, 2020
Those making their way back to the gym for the first time since March 11, when the WHO declared a pandemic, may probably feel more sanguine than parents looking to soon despatch their children to school in England. Gyms, by all account, have done a pretty good job of making themselves Covid-19 safe. They’ve introduced … Continue reading “Back to school vs back to gym: England’s interrupted rhythms of life”
Read MoreDoes the centre-left have the ideological flexibility to take power?
by Rashmee
Posted on July 18, 2020
In the days before the coronavirus epidemic struck, there was a growing sense that the centre-left in the US and UK was no longer ready for change, that it was too broad-minded, as poet Robert Frost once said, to take its own side in an argument. The pandemic is changing things. Ideas normally considered socialist … Continue reading “Does the centre-left have the ideological flexibility to take power?”
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Rashmee has lived and worked in several countries in the past decade, including Afghanistan, India, Haiti, Tunisia, the UAE, US and UK