Global Cases: 1,453,247; Global Deaths: 83,585
Up and up go the numbers of cases and deaths. The stock markets remain in positive territory for the week as investors are buoyed by the stabilisation of numbers in black spots Italy, Spain and France. On the other hand there are nauseating reports of bodies being dumped on the streets in a city in Ecuador, a news story that signals the next phase of this global catastrophe, shocking images and stories from the less wealthy regions of the world, those places with crappy housing, public health and unresponsive governments. Such a drag!
The stock markets may feel that the initial storm has been weathered but I believe that they are failing to comprehend the nature of this storm. This is a storm where the initial devastation of high winds and heavy rainfall is replaced by a longer period of extensive rain. The drama of the high winds will have passed but the exhaustion of reservoirs and flood plains as the rain keeps falling will cause deeper and more traumatic damage. The recovery of the global economy at the same time as the virus is still circulating, still infecting people, will be slow and uneven.
On April 7th, a couple of days ago, the moon was full. And it claimed our attention more than a super moon normally does. And people who normally are oblivious to celestial landmarks were looking for a big, pink moon, as that is how it was presented online…a super pink moon. And people were wondering why it was not pink and if they had actually read one of those online articles instead of just the headline they would have learned that the ‘pink’ name comes from a flower which blooms pink in early North American spring.
That I see as an example of a phenomenon that occurs quite a bit in the global information age, the one where something local, in this case a name for a seasonal moon, quite suddenly becomes global due to it dominating online commentary. And things which for decades have had a local reach do not seamlessly transition to a global roll. Confusion and misinterpretation often ensue due to a lack of cultural context. With the c-19 making the world a giant petri dish, countries are looking over their perimeter at neighbouring countries to see how they are faring, and due to to a lack of cultural context, are misinterpreting what they see. This ‘glocalisation’ of the world, where social, economic and other systems are subject to simultaneously globalising and hyper localising tendencies is a feature of the modern world. However, I need a word for the confusion that results.
We climbed our local hill on the 7th to enjoy the super, pink moon. It was a super moon because it was bigger and it was bigger because it was at perigee, its closest point to earth. We had headlamps but for the most part made our way up the rocky path by the light of a rising moon. The town-village we live in looked so tranquil as we gazed down at the huddle of lights on a Tuesday evening. C-19 has of yet put human civilisation into hibernation rather than destroying it. Human civilisation stripped of its manic movement can appear very charming indeed. Some towns are better looking than their population.
Here’s a couple of pics to tell the story
smart 
smart 
smart
At the top of Brandon hill there is both a rusting cross and a cairn of stones. The metal cross dates from the 80ties the last spasm of hard core Catholicism in Ireland. Rage, rage against they dying of the light, and that’s what those soul soldiers of Rome did. That’s how I see the new right with its nationalism and raging against globalisation – a spasm made more intense by a realisation that the time of nationalism and countries and all that Victorian shit is coming to an end. The whole world is using Facebook for chrissakes. The path towards globalisation of this planet in economic, technological and political terms can be stymied but never stopped. It is human nature. C-19 will lead to more global collaboration on a political and health level, because the magnitude of the failings as countries compete for face masks, is just too overwhelming.
I have always thought on that hilltop cairns were built up by climbers carrying a stone up from the bottom of the hill. And Wikopedia agrees with me. But not too long ago I had the ‘awakening’ that people might just have gathered stones from around the top of the hill. Maybe they wanted a marker and just grabbed the nearest stones. I wonder why it took me nigh on 54 years to think that thought.
Well, the cairn is doing better than the rusting cross. It is more in harmony with its surroundings and does not give the impression, as the cross does, that it is insecure about its relevance and incapable of longevity. Irish people, I sense, are drifting back to a pagan like celebration of nature and an appreciation of how it can alter our physical, emotional and mental wellbeing. The rites of the church are too bound up with the institution in Rome. Who loves an organisation made of sanctimonious bureaucrats? Only those who find comfort in the rituals of bureaucracy, that’s who.