LINES OF THE DAY

". . . But the past does not exist independently from the present. Indeed, the past is only past because there is a present, just as I can point to something over there only because I am here. But nothing is inherently over there or here. In that sense, the past has no content. The past -- or more accurately, pastness -- is a position. Thus, in no way can we identify the past as past." p. 15

". . . But we may want to keep in mind that deeds and words are not as distinguishable as often we presume. History does not belong only to its narrators, professional or amateur. While some of us debate what history is or was, others take it into their own hands." p. 153

Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (1995) by Michel-Rolph Trouillot

Saturday, May 2, 2020

As They Say in New Orleans: Time to Play Indian, You All!

      . . . . Due to several interviews concerning New Orleans's music, Jazz Fest and the future of live music performance, history, culture, The World That Made New Orleans, Cuba and Its Music, The American Slave Coast & etc.: radio, television, podcast in the last couple-three days, el V has taken to getting ready to out of the apartment, whether just to the downstairs mailbox or for a walk as, "I'mma play Indian now."


It's 71° today so it was a good afternoon to play Indian -- go out, really go out, go OUTSIDE -- glasses didn't steam up from the mask.

I'd never seen so many masked faces since this began!  Almost everyone was wearing a mask. Never before have I seen that outside.  Multitudes are out and about too.  Lots of very high quality masks, whether purchased or home made.  Most interestingly were the masks I saw on young African American males -- their masks matched their outfits in color and ornamentation and design.  Some of them downright magnificent.

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    . . . . Here is what we don't know about the spread of c19 infections and death, and tend to be modeling incorrectly because we don't know.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/05/what-the-coronavirus-models-cant-see.html

This is what I too, who am nothing of any kind of scientist or medical researcher, been thinking for quite some weeks now:


QUOTE[....]Over the past few months, this possibility has often been described as a “second wave.” But such a wave would not be the result of disease mutation or a seasonality effect — the virus dying out in the summer, only to come roaring back during the fall and flu season. It would be because of human choices to gradually ease our way out of our bunkers and back into something more closely resembling “normal” life, though perhaps 95 percent of us have yet to even be exposed. It would be less like a second wave, in other words, than the breaking of a dam. All those people vulnerable to potential infection, and protected by quarantine measures, exposed by human choice. “That’s the risk we face here,” former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said this week, “that this doesn’t really go away because we don’t get rid of this round. That the mitigation steps weren’t quite robust enough, as painful as they were, and we continue to have spread right into the fall. 
[....]“This thing’s not going to stop until it infects 60 to 70 percent of people,” one of the lead authors told CNN. “The idea that this is going to be done soon defies microbiology.” On April 30, NBC News reported the federal government, even while signaling optimism about the course of the disease, had ordered 100,000 new body bags.

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I've never thought otherwise concerning the above. I deliberately compartmentalize deliberately that knowledge, and am / have been mostly successful with that. Then, yesterday, with the start of yet another whole month ahead -- the understanding broke through as it will every 7 - 10 days now. I crash profoundly into depression and hopelessness then, knowing there is no more Life for me, as in terms of living a life with short and long term goals, doing things that aren't cooking and washing dishes and other domestic tasks, even down to just scheduling them and drawing attention to the need to do them, even if someone else is doing them -- and working out. There's no space literally to think about anything else 

I cannot stand any more of this! breaks out of the cell into which I've incarcerated the understanding. And I get really depressed for a while until able to re-imprison the awareness of the only future that is realistic.

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We may be able to acquire more knowledge about how the infection spreads though. This research and testing is less expensive, less invasive, providing fundamental information about the presence of the coronavirus breakout areas much faster and more easily, than swab testing. It's better for viewing an entire population's rate of infection, as opposed to the discrete individual (which I haste to emphasize is at least equally important).

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/05/01/coronavirus-sewage-wastewater/

Quote:An early warning system for coronavirus infections could be found in your toilet.From the U.S. to Europe to Australia, scientists have detected the virus in wastewater ahead of spikes in local cases.

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Due to playing Indian I feel a lot better -- Besos y abrazos to New Orleans, NYC's sister city in tragedy -- and the greatest music.

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