Corona the vaccine, we the virus.

Swans in Venetian Canal
 Credit @filterjm

Probably for the first time since Man started giving salutations to the feared forces around him, he has been asked to stop all kinds of religious congregations in big groups. For aeons, Man believed that maladies take place because the Divine forces have been angered. In their simple understanding, the only avenue left for them to correct the tragedy is to appease the Divinity by glorifying it to high heavens; hoping that He would throw us His Grace.

Hence, despite appeals by the authorities, practitioners of various faiths continue to put their trusts in the forces above, not in rational thinking and the sciences. They feel that people have been misled for far too long. The way the human race appears to be heading does not assure them of a happy ending. Too many have placed self-interest above salvation to expect altruism to prevail.

There are groups of people who are hellbent in finding scapegoats. In their minds, many if not most germs came from the East. In recent memory, we have heard of SARS, H1N1 and Nipah Virus and their fixation with exotic animals like civet cats and bats. In the 14th century, Bubonic Plague and Black Death arose from the Far East via the Silk Road.

Scrolling through the annals of history, one discovers that pretty much every human pathogen originated from our exploitation of animals. Humanity's dominion over animals has unleashed a veritable Pandora's ark of infectious diseases. Most modern human infectious diseases were unknown before domestication led to a mass spillover of animal disease into human populations. For example, tuberculosis appears to have been acquired initially through the domestications of goats but now infects one-third of humanity. Meanwhile, measles and smallpox may have arisen from mutant cattle viruses. We domesticated pigs and got whooping cough, chickens and typhoid fever, ducks and influenza, water buffalos and leprosy as well as horses and cold virus (Michael Greger, How Not to Die).


Or is our decision to self-isolate against each other is Nature's conniving power play to avenge decades of rape of its sovereignty? Look at the countries which were teeming with excessive human activities and see what lockdown has achieved? China's citizens can finally get fresh air and see the blue sky without being enveloped with smog. One week of an absence of gondolas and visitors, dolphins and swans come out to play. It looks like Corona is the vaccine, and we are the virus of Nature.

Since prayers in large enough groups will not see any daylight in the near future, cries for help from the divine forces cannot happen. I guess we have to depend on our God-given intellects to save us from extinction.

Dolphins have appeared at the Italian coastline after the
shipping lines were locked down due to coronavirus (REUTERS)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

A logical explanation?

I come from an era when travelling from Penang Island to Province Wellesley meant taking a ferry or a sampan if you are going to Prai. My generation in Penang also saw the Penang Bridge materialise piece by piece. The presence of a mammoth monolith in the middle of the straits must have created many eddie-currents and turbulence in the waters which in turn must have caused deposition of sands a little distance from the shore. Over time, more soil deposits eventually created a small islet. Birds must have rested on it to break their journey, sowing seed through its droppings.

Over the years, during my regular visits back home, I noticed that the islet was literally growing under my nose. From a barren piece of pebbled sand, I saw patchy vegetation. Then came scrubs. And what do you know? In 30 years' time, it became a self-sustained island with trees and a weekend spot for adventurous sun-seeker. Boats can be seen strapped by the beach. Yes, it now has a fairly dense mini-jungle over its centre and sandy beach to accompany. 

Miracle or the forces of nature? Or the miracle of the force of Nature? Does it happen ad hoc or is it orchestrated by the master puppeteer? Is it divine mirth, jocularity or effects of dice-throwing?

Blame, shame, name game

The question is whether an occurrence can solely be put on one event is questionable. It appears that our national pastime is playing the blame game and to shame the alleged perpetrator(s) in the hope that if someone can be pinpointed to have caused the gaffe, we can put closure to a catastrophe. And they hope to prevent the shortcomings in future.

It all sounds noble but unfortunately life is not so simple.

Not every bad incident has a simple etiology. Most often than not it is multi factorial. Like in Murphy's Law, when something is doomed to go wrong, it will go wrong. Airline industry have considered a 'no blame' policy but to identify the precipitating events and to take a collective approach to improve safety.
On the other hand, is a leader culpable to take the brickbats if his subordinates faltered? Should he be made to answer or just take the easy way of saying, "it wasn't me. It is not easy to control so many people's actions, you know!"?

That reminds me of a small civil court case where a minor road accident had occurred. A driver coming from the opposite side had hit him at a traffic light. The aggrieved driver insisted that he was right as the traffic light on his side was green. The learned judge decreed that he also had to take 20% of the blame as it was his duty too to ensure that his lane was clear before he started moving!

Overpopulation, Overconsumption - in pictures

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/gallery/2015/apr/01/over-population-over-consumption-in-pictures

Waves of humanity Sprawling Mexico City rolls across the landscape, displacing every scrap of natural habitat

‘If our species had started with just two people at the time of the earliest agricultural practices some 10,000 years ago, and increased by one percent per year, today humanity would be a solid ball of flesh many thousand light years in diameter, and expanding with a radial velocity that, neglecting relativity, would be many times faster than the speed of light.’ Gabor Zovanyi Photograph: Pablo Lopez Luz

Oil spill fire Aerial view of an oil fire following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico‘We must realise that not only does every area have a limited carrying capacity, but also that this carrying capacity is shrinking and the demand growing. Until this understanding becomes an intrinsic part of our thinking and wields a powerful influence on our formation of national and international policies we are scarcely likely to see in what direction our destiny lies.’ William Vogt Photograph: Daniel Beltra

Rectangular fields No room for nature, the entire landscape is devoted to crop production in China

‘Globalisation, which attempts to amalgamate every local, regional, and national economy into a single world system, requires homogenising locally adapted forms of agriculture, replacing them with an industrial system – centrally managed, pesticide-intensive, one-crop production for export – designed to deliver a narrow range of transportable foods to the world market.’ Helena Norberg-Hodge Photograph: Google Earth/2014 Digital Globe

Feedlot Industrial livestock production in Brazil

‘Despite the industry’s spin, concentrated animal feeding operations are not the only way to raise livestock and poultry. Thousands of farmers and ranchers integrate crop production, pastures, or forages with livestock and poultry to balance nutrients within their operations and minimise off-farm pollution through conservation practices and land management. Yet these sustainable producers, who must compete with factory farms for market share, receive comparatively little or no public funding for their sound management practices.’ Martha Noble Photograph: Peter Beltra

Clear-cut Industrial forestry degrading public lands, Willamette National Forest in Oregon

‘What an irony it is that these living beings whose shade we sit in, whose fruit we eat, whose limbs we climb, whose roots we water, to whom most of us rarely give a second thought, are so poorly understood. We need to come, as soon as possible, to a profound understanding and appreciation for trees and forests and the vital role they play, for they are among our best allies in the uncertain future that is unfolding.’ Jim Robbins Photograph: Daniel Dancer 

Greenhouse grow greenhouse As far as the eye can see, greenhouses cover the landscape in Almeria, Spain

‘We are slaves in the sense that we depend for our daily survival upon an expand-or-expire agro-industrial empire – a crackpot machine – that the specialists cannot comprehend and the managers cannot manage. Which is, furthermore, devouring world resources at an exponential rate.’ Edward Abbey Photograph: Yann Arthus Bertrand


Hill-side slum: Slum-dwelling residents of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, face bleak living conditions in the western hemisphere’s poorest country
‘Squatters trade physical safety and public health for a few square meters of land and some security against eviction. They are the pioneer settlers of swamps, floodplains, volcano slopes, unstable hillsides, rubbish mountains, chemical dumps, railroad sidings, and desert fringes ... such sites are poverty’s niche in the ecology of the city, and very poor people have little choice but to live with disaster.’ Mike Davis Photograph: Google Earth/2014 Digital Globe


Cows and smoke Ground zero in the war on nature – cattle graze among the burning Amazon jungle in Brazil

‘Throughout history human exploitation of the earth has produced this progression: colonise-destroy-move on.’ Garrett Hardin Photograph: Daniel Beltra
South City Mall in Kolkata, India
Consumer culture spreads to the global south 

‘In the developing world, the problem of population is seen less as a matter of human numbers than of western over-consumption. Yet within the development community, the only solution to the problems of the developing world is to export the same unsustainable economic model fuelling the overconsumption of the West.’ Kavita Ramdas Photograph: Brett Cole

Trash wave Indonesian surfer Dede Surinaya catches a wave in a remote but garbage-covered bay on Java, Indonesia, the world’s most populated island
‘Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.’ Jacques-Yves Cousteau Photograph: Zak Noyle

Oil wells Depleting oil fields are yet another symptom of ecological overshoot as seen at the Kern River Oil Field in California

‘I don’t understand why when we destroy something created by man we call it vandalism, but when we destroy something created by nature we call it progress.’ Ed Begley, Jr. Photograph: Mark Gamba/Corbis

Dead bird On Midway Atoll, far from the centres of world commerce, an albatross, dead from ingesting too much plastic, decays on the beach – it is a common sight on the remote island

‘Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals – the same fate awaits them both; as one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath.’ Ecclesiastes 3:19 Photograph: Chris Jordan

British Columbia clear-cut Sometimes called the Brazil of the North, Canada has not been kind to its native forests as seen by clear-cut logging on Vancouver Island

‘Human domination over nature is quite simply an illusion, a passing dream by a naive species. It is an illusion that has cost us much, ensnared us in our own designs, given us a few boasts to make about our courage and genius, but all the same it is an illusion.’ Donald Worster Photograph: Garth Lentz

The halo could be just your fat ego!

So you think you are just. You have done enough suffering in this lifetime and now you want a reprieve. You think you deserve a break. You seek your outlet through divine path. You feel it is your duty to serve Him after being tortured all these while. You realise your days on Earth are numbered and you want to cajole Him to catapult you up the ladder of rebirth. This is the impression I get after hearing about all the prayers in which you are right in front to conduct, the special sacred functions that you wriggle to be present to collect your brownie points for the after-life. You sing hymns over hymns of devotional chants to be blessed. And you feel that you are exemplary to how a human should live. You feel that you are kind and follow the path of righteousness.

Unfortunately, all your actions do not translate to zen in real life. The perception that people around you have is one that is so negative. You paint a picture of someone who is conceited and self-centred. You are interested in your leisurely chores which all relate to divinity.

What is the point when the needy ones around you wrestle with themselves to fulfil their basic functions of life. True, they may have wronged you in the past but you sure chose a fine time for vengeance. Was it Mother Theresa who said that she saw God in the face of the poor and downtrodden?

Are you sure you are doing the right thing by hurting all the people around you? Do you expect special privilege when you finally have the audience with your Maker or his proxies? What if, just what if you are wrong? That divinity is synonymous with humanity, charity and empathy... I hope not to be around to tell you, "I told you so...!"

1year = 410days?

Heard on WYNC Radiolab the other day on something revolutionary.

Somebody researched on the inside of exoskeleton of the coral. Understandably,  the inside of the coral had about 365 grooves depicting the days in the year and the change in the tides. Some smart professor decided to go one step further and looked into prehistoric corals. To his astonishment, he consistently found 400 to 410 grooves in them. The great minds started wondering...
Is it possible that the year was longer in the prehistoric days when the Earth was in its 'infancy'? It turned out that there is a plausible explanation to this end.
The Earth, just after the Big Bang was devoid of a moon. In its place when just meteorites, hence the mass that was rotating the sun was following a different orbit (longer). When the meteorites coalesce to form the Moon, the gravitational force of the Moon slowed Earth, hence shortening the number of days in a year!
The things that you learn.... limitless!