COVID-19 Lockdown, Day 38


It seems that everyone needs a scapegoat. Whenever there is a tragedy in this world, we quickly point fingers at the most vulnerable parties. During the Bubonic Plague, Europeans attacked Jews because they felt that they wanted to kill Christians by poisoning wells. These days in America, people are staying away from Chinatowns across the country and even Chinese restaurants simply because the COVID-19 outbreak started in China. There are some who even believe that this virus was artificially created in China as a weapon of mass destruction. 

Now it seems that in China, in the Guangdong province, where this all began, Chinese politicians and civilians are pointing the finger at foreigners from Africa or who are just Black. When 11 African in Guangzhou tested positive for COVID-19, city officials put all of the city's Black residents under mandatory quarantine, forcing them to stay in their homes. Landlords have responded by evicting Black tenants, and business owners have banned Blacks from their establishments--even a McDonald's!  Recently, a Ugandan woman was turned away from a hospital when she went for prenatal care, and local officials bribed her and her husband on camera to say that China does not have a race problem. 

Those who know me best know that, among other things, I am a Sinophile. I love Chinese culture, food, music, dance, traditions, and language. Beijing was on my list of places to visit one day. After all, there is much to love in a culture that is thousands of years old that flourished when Europe was still primeval. Even in the rise of Mao Tse-tung and the politicians thereafter, there is still much beauty in Chinese heritage. Unfortunately, there is a downside and an imperfection to every group. While I am pleased to learn different cultures and their customs, I am often disappointed to learn that there are some in each culture that are less tolerant of my heritage. That intolerance often comes in the form of a word. Mayate, kaffer, mulignan, crncuga, czarnuch, shvartser, abid, kallu, and, yes, hagwei. Such ignorant, if not hateful, words surely casts a pall on whatever beauty one's heritage may be--just like slinging mud on the Mona Lisa. 

It would be interesting to learn why Chinese officials are blaming Africans for the pandemic. Maybe they just need someone to blame for the pandemic to appear innocent to the world. Maybe scapegoating Africans and Blacks is the Chinese way of saying that "hagwei" have outgrown their stay in China. While China is more diverse than Japan and the Koreas, it is still a homogeneous country, and just like much of East Asia, there is a deep distrust against foreigners. (I can imagine that is how Tibet feels...just saying!) 

Regardless, I am glad that America and African countries are defending their oppressed citizens. I am especially pleased how countries like Tanzania are starting to undo China's economic colonialism by closing down Chinese corporations and cancelling loans with China. Alas, if Africans are not good enough to be comfortable in China, Chinese corporations are too good to be in Africa! Perhaps African nations have finally learned the lesson the British, French, Dutch, Belgians, and Germans have taught them. 

Now, it is time for Americans to learn. With all of our resources, why must we depend on China for household goods and electronics? It is time to stop letting the Chinese state get rich off of us. Take note of when Mahatma Gandhi and his followers burned all clothing made in England and only wore clothing made in India. I would suggest the same for Americans, but frontal nudity is illegal in public areas. It is time to reopen factories and plants in America and make our own products. After all, if a person knows that the products made from their hands would go to their homes eventually, they would work harder and with more dignity. 

Now that Beijing is off my list for a while, I wonder what Spring is like in Manila or Singapore...

--Signing off. 



https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/african-nations-us-say-blacks-mistreated-in-chinese-city/2020/04/11/b697ca3e-7beb-11ea-a311-adb1344719a9_story.html

https://abcnews.go.com/International/foreigners-black-people-unwelcome-parts-china-amid-covid/story?id=70182204

https://atlantablackstar.com/2020/04/29/chinese-officials-tried-to-get-couple-to-deny-discrimination-and-record-video-declaring-chinese-government-has-been-good-to-them/

https://hwnews.in/international/drunkard-accept-terms-tanzania-president-rejects-chinas-10-bln-loan/134707

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-52274326

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

COVID-19 Lockdown, Day 343

I am glad that more and more people are getting the vaccine. A senior client of mine had just gotten his second shot this week, and he will be fully immune by the middle of March. I have heard that my senior friends and my mother are starting to at least get appointments. On top of this, today's news is that FDA approved a third vaccine--from Johnson & Johnson. This vaccine is a one shot deal; yes, there are no booster shots. Before you celebrate, please keep in mind that this vaccine is only  up to   85% effective. I don't know how this was considered good enough (still better than Astra Zeneca), but I think they should only give this vaccine to young adults in good health. The other two, especially Pfizer, should be given to the older and/or frail populations.  It was announced that the COVID-19 death toll reached 500,000 this week. Is it me, or did the death toll increase by 100,000 people since Biden took office? You tell me. Anyway, I see that only 2 of you ...
Read more

COVID-19 Lockdown, Day 146

Image
  Another rough week. My paternal grandmother, Grandma Margie, has been diagnosed with, you guess it, COVID-19. She is non-symptomatic, and she is in isolation. Guess how I found out about it? From my brother on my father's side--in my Facebook newsfeed. Of course, I started to worry because no one called or texted me to tell me. I sent a message to him, my younger paternal brother, and my paternal sister. I asked them when they heard about Grandma. I also included my old man in the text, wanting to know what her condition was and why no one called me to tell me. As it was late at night, I did not get a response for either of them, but I managed to enhance my calm well enough to go to sleep. When I didn't get a return call in the morning, I called my old man again. (Sidebar, my apologies if the moniker for my father offends you; that's just how I refer to him.) I got ahold of him, and he was very nonchalant about my concern, He said that she was fine, and he said that I wou...
Read more

COVID-19 Lockdown, Day 365

 A whole year; a whole year has passed since I started writing this blog. It has been three days since the one year anniversary of the pandemic. This pandemic caused suffering all around the world, but not as much as it has affected Americans. As of today, 29,920,435 have been diagnosed with COVID-19. That is almost 10% of the population. That means, of ten people with whom you will interact this day, one will have had it or are suffering from it now. Also, the latest death toll is 544,424. Hence, if you have not lost a relative or friend from COVID-19, you know someone who has suffered such loss.  Let us look back a year ago and compare it to last week. First, there were still hate crimes and acts of intolerance against ethno-racial minorities, only the last weeks have seen an increase in racism towards Asians--since they are being accused of bringing the virus to America (even if they were born here and never left).  There was an incidence of our President sli...
Read more