Back 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?”
Read MoreFrom America first to America last, or perhaps to America not at all
by Rashmee
Posted on July 7, 2020 / The Focus
It was Donald Trump’s main political rival Joe Biden who identified the main problem now faced by the United States. It’s gone from America first to America last. Or perhaps to America not at all. Biden told Washington Post columnist Greg Sargeant, in reference to the European Union’s ban on American visitors as a pandemic-era … Continue reading “From America first to America last, or perhaps to America not at all”
Read MoreThe moral case for the world to have access to covid-19 drug
by Rashmee
Posted on July 4, 2020 / The Focus
As someone with a vested interest in Gilead Sciences, the company that makes the covid-19 drug remdesivir, I’m looking for a return on investment that’s not encashable. Remdesivir is not a cure for covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. But it is one of only two drugs proven to help people recover … Continue reading “The moral case for the world to have access to covid-19 drug”
Read MoreWhy the Leicester coronavirus flare-up matters
by Rashmee
Posted on June 28, 2020 / The Focus
Pay attention to the Leicester flare-up in coronavirus cases. Both the reasons for the surge in infections and the response. Three reasons are under consideration in order to explain the 658 coronavirus cases in the Leicester area in the fortnight to 16 June. First, the city’s food production industry. The East Midlands’ largest city has … Continue reading “Why the Leicester coronavirus flare-up matters”
Read MoreThe strange case of Europe’s early coronavirus sightings
by Rashmee
Posted on June 20, 2020 / The Focus
Did SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes the covid-19 disease, really start to make its deadly way around the world from Wuhan, China? That’s what much of the world says but China, quite naturally, has cast doubt on the sequence of events. There has, however, but been considerable pushback to Chinese attempts to deny responsibility. … Continue reading “The strange case of Europe’s early coronavirus sightings”
Read MoreCorona-alliances, travel corridors and air bridges: taking a flight is no longer business as usual
by Rashmee
Posted on June 17, 2020 / The National
While there is neither vaccine for cure for Covid-19, international travel is tentatively resuming in a strange new world of bubbles large and small, air bridges, green lanes, negotiated corridors and colour-coded zones. The cartographical features of the new travel order are not yet set but it is safe to say they will be unique. … Continue reading “Corona-alliances, travel corridors and air bridges: taking a flight is no longer business as usual”
Read MoreBeijing virus cases sound a warning: normal may be a fantasy for now
by Rashmee
Posted on June 16, 2020 / The Focus
China is racing to control a coronavirus outbreak of 106 new infections in Beijing less than a month after the country recorded no new confirmed cases. New Zealand, which reported its last active case of covid-19 on 22 May, now has two new infections. South Korea, which successfully countered one of the worst early covid-19 … Continue reading “Beijing virus cases sound a warning: normal may be a fantasy for now”
Read MoreBubbles, air bridges, green lanes: Travel in a post-pandemic world
by Rashmee
Posted on June 6, 2020 / The Focus
It is a truism that the pandemic will change travel. How we travel, of course, but also where. Until there is a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes the covid-19 disease, international travel is set to resume in a strange new world of “bubbles”, “air bridges” and “green lanes”. What might the cartographical … Continue reading “Bubbles, air bridges, green lanes: Travel in a post-pandemic world”
Read MoreIt’s too early for US museums to be recording the pandemic
by Rashmee
Posted on June 3, 2020 / The National
In late April, as the coronavirus outbreak continued its inexorable spread, a museum in Los Angeles put out a remarkable call. It asked communities in the western United States — the Great Plains, Rocky Mountains and the west coast — to help “identify and preserve items of historical and cultural significance during the Covid-19 pandemic”. The Autry Museum explained … Continue reading “It’s too early for US museums to be recording the pandemic”
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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