Author Archives: ABUBAKR KAHOROV

Coronavirus has caused a global pandemic since its appearance back late 2019. Since its start by spreading from one region to another with its first known cases in mainland China, this virus quickly expanded with its neighboring countries before being internationally transmitted to different overseas countries. This virus’s first major strike was in Europe, Italy in particular. Within a couple of weeks, Italian officials have confirmed more than a couple of tens of thousands of people being infected, and more than a thousand have died from it. From Europe to America has been the most dangerous leap ever since it infected people in major cities in the United States of America.  Ever since its strike in America, it has been difficult for the United States government to keep this virus under control, from New York City to other major cities in the USA, governors have warned the general public to stay home and save lives but this has been an ongoing issue since not everyone has been following the rules. I have chosen this image because this says a lot about our current situation not only in  New York but states around the United States. The message in this image reflects what we should be doing as residents, by staying home we are minimizing the risk of being infected and possibly getting extremely sick. What I find a little funny and sort of ironic in this picture is that the words “I heart NY” are usually displayed on shirts, hats and other types of clothing that are usually outside and for the tourists to see and buy, but since they are inside the building it says that we should stay home and minimize getting infected by the virus as we are in the epicenter of the virus, sorta like an eye of the storm. I think that the creator has made a creative image that makes the general public to see and understand what’s really important during this type of global pandemic. I give huge credit for the creator for sharing this image with us and for everyone to see and realize what we should be doing as humans during this unfortunate pandemic. I think that these types of drawings and political cartoons are the way to go to influence others to see what’s important, these drawings portray what’s important and display it in a humorous fashion.

What Will the Summer Be Like? – with “Staff writer Ed Yong braces Jim and Katherine for a very different summer than most of us are used to.”

They (podcasters) are being told by the researcher of the team that oversees the future of the coronavirus pandemic would be a lingering problem until the summer has come and maybe even further than that. During the summer if the pandemic starts to decrease, small businesses and restaurants with fewer customers can reopen but can be problematic but they will implement stricter hand washing policy.  We should keep in mind the health care workers and their needs before our own if we do anything resulting in us being outside, for example, we should be wary of the supplies that are available for the general public after health care workers (like the N95 masks). They are also saying that we don’t know what the patterns of coronavirus would be around the world when other countries might get their next or last peak, the level of danger and the patterns of peaks around the world are unsystematic. They discuss the idea of wearing a mask to be looked at as a communal good as everybody should wear them and keep them on at all times rather than looking at protecting one’s self from other people and sometimes not wearing them at all. Because when summer rolls in people might not want to be protected and stop wearing masks which can only cause more trouble if the level of a pandemic is at higher risk. We see that some people want to have a good time in the upcoming nice weather of summer, they want to enjoy themselves under the sun and be outside. But as the government makes us keep in mind that this is very random and we should stay safe. The podcasters want to know if it is going to be safe enough for the general public to start going outside and live their normal lives if the pandemic waves slow down. One thing that was interesting was when a lady podcaster asked the researcher that has been doing research about the future of coronavirus her dream birthday which was around late June and will she be able to do the things she wanted to do during that time after/during coronavirus slowing down. This was interesting because she gives an example of what she wants to do and the researcher is replying to her actions that she would take during her birthday in summer to minimize the risk of getting infected, whether it would be dangerous or normal like before the pandemic.  I have learned that the virus can be spread by you to someone else without you being symptomatic and feeling totally fine while wearing a mask. To minimize the risk of infecting others and yourself in the future, you should take immunity check to see the level of antibodies that are currently in your system and how your body (immune system) is responding to that level of threat, by the time of the immunity exam you might be immune to it and stay safe. This podcast influenced me in way that even the nicer days are on its way, we should not forget where we are at as we are in a global pandemic to the coronavirus and by the level of patterns each country are having, it is very random and we should take precautions to stay safe and protect our community. I would recommend this to my classmates as it is very easy to understand and it just gives a nice conversation about staying safe knowing that the good times of summer are on their way. Summer might be intriguing for all of us to go outside and enjoy ourselves, we should stay safe and take precautions as this global pandemic is very random and can be easily contracted within people. This is so much better than reading it in a newspaper because we have people conversing and coming up with ways that we can deal with it, and give you an idea of where the future might look like with science and community involvement. This summer may not be the same as we had but with the things that are going on, we should not risk getting sick and have this going for longer than it has to.

https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/socialdistance/

I may have similar ideas to other people but here is mine:

1. President Trump and the Coronavirus
   1. what could have been prevented and what we have to deal with now
2. After Coronavirus (after quarantine, psychical and psychological effects of staying home and minimal outside contact)
   1. schools and jobs
3. Un-official quarantine in America compared to other countries
   1. how its a problem and a burden to the health department

While it’s going to take a while for the coronavirus to be under control in this country, there are people around that are unemployed and require financial support to help them with their daily lives. At the moment we have our economy in a bit a harsh environment, with stock markets plummeting, businesses closing down and people increasingly losing their jobs some people are taking advantage of this pandemic to make a nice amount of profit. For example, this Jewish male that I read about recently when I was scrolling through my social media page. Baruch Feldheim, 43, from Brooklyn was charged with assault charges, with combined 6 years in prison charge, and a $350,000 fine. Before I get into why he is in a place he is now, you have to understand that the majority of Jewish people and their community not just in Brooklyn but around the world don’t believe that the Coronavirus is a real thing. On top of that, Coronavirus is spreading violently in the Jewish community (Borough Park, a center of Religious Group of Jewish People which makes up a hefty percentage of all Jewish people in New York, and maybe the whole USA) as Passover (Religious Holiday) is in the midst of it all resulting people to gather in large groups rather than staying home. Back to Baruch Feldheim, he was arrested after an FBI raid for “allegedly sold N95 respirators “and other assorted materials” for $12,000, a 700% markup from their normal prices.” Officials say he had made an unofficial deal over a WhatsApp with a doctor in New Jersey to sell individuals masks and other medical materials for more than 700% the amount of the original price. He was arrested for coughing on an FBI agent while claimed to be infected with the virus. His sentence and the financial charges were also an indirect result of hoarding large amounts of medical-grade materials that violated an executive order made by the Health Department.

An in-depth article about the rest of the story is available here:

https://www.jpost.com/international/brooklyn-man-arrested-after-coughing-on-fbi-agents-623286

I choose this text because I am a huge fan of the game and the game developer Rockstar Games. Though this game is the second one of the previous versions that came out a long time ago on different gaming platforms, this game historically speaking (and timeline of the game series) is the one that came first. Open world game set in the late years of the 1890s to early 20th century. Story of the game advances from ordinary groups of people (sort of gang type) consisting of old and young, man and woman escaping a town (Blackwater) after a massive massacre shootout with the national police shortly after robbing town bank. We have our main character Arthur, a loyal member of the family/gang that survived the shootout along with others, following orders of the slightly older man named Dutch. Being the one that’s leading the whole gang with him, throughout the game he is in constant need of money to get his family/gang out of the current situation that they are in. Displacement is a key thing that the family has to go through throughout this game that keeps them safe for a short amount of time in a way that they are not safe forever. After escaping blackwater, the gang find themselves escaped to the snowy mountains with a shortage of food and supplies, it is up to Dutch and the man to find a suitable place for them to camp until they are on their feet. Wherever they are following the story, they find themselves in constant threat where it’s from the rural gangs, the police, the people that they worked for (temporarily), or robbed. There are chapter within this game that tells us where we are in the story, and in each chapter, they are forced to move camps/temporary living situations because of some horrible things they had to do to, forcefully to get out of a situation, or the ones that they choose to because doing so would solve their problem which is to get enough money to travel overseas and leave bad things behind. People that are within the family/gang aren’t immediate family members that started out together but rather picked along throughout each chapter, whether they had to save them or the ones that helped prevent them from getting into a bigger mess they are in. Throughout the story, we see Dutch, our big decision-maker for the family ends up in a situation that gets him to lose most of the money that they saved from (robberies, helping rival gangs, gamblings, etc.) to new consequences that the gets himself into, but isn’t going to stop him from getting more. After seeing/experiencing these reoccurring situations, his family starts to disobey him and start to part from the rest of the gang, Arthur being the one to know, he suggests its best for them without letting Dutch know. Eventually, after these reoccurring events nearly half of the family members either part themselves from the gang or get killed in situations that Dutch and his man get themselves into, and at this near finale we find out that Arthur is diagnosed with Tuberculosis that starts to rot his lungs over time. In the finale, after gathering enough money by Dutch and his remaining loyal crew, we see that one of Dutch’s suspicious man Micah (the antagonist) snitched on them to the Pinkertons (national police that he was involved with). Shootout breaks out, Arthur with his last few days left fights of the Pinkertons along with the rival gang to keep few of the remaining/innocent people like the women and Jonh’s family escape  (the main character and the one that is going to be played as in the first Red Dead game). In the final scene Arthur dies, Micah is left alone and Dutch fleeing the scene all by himself later to reunite with Micah once again. Prologue continues after a couple of years of the Finale, we play as John and his future with his family and the old member of the family.

The reason why the father brings his sons to his mistress’ house is because its a power thing that he knows that the kids wouldn’t tell on him to his mother because they’re too loyal to their mother and don’t want them being separated. “I don’t remember being out out of sorts after I met the Puerto Rican woman, but I must have been because Mami only asked me question when she thought something was wrong in my life”(Diaz 42).There is no communication in his family and a message he (the father) is sending to his sons’ is rather hurtful in their future and their mindset, that it is okay to have an affair, to lie and be dishonest with one another especially in their family as he portrays himself as.

I choose an article “Displaced people: Why are more fleeing home than ever before?” by The Visual and Data Journalism Team of BBC News because according to the statistics, more than 13 million people have been forcibly displaced in 2018. According to the article and statistics provided by UNHCR, there has been more fleeing of one’s country than ever before, reasons ranging from devastating wars, political tensions, and natural disasters that have contributed to the rise. Places around the world that hurt/suffered the most during this time were the ones that we constantly hear in the news, at least some, which are: Syria, Afghanistan, countries in Africa, South America, and more. More than half of all 70.8 million displaced people remained in their own countries. In These nations, places hit by conflict and violence are the ones most affected. By the end of 2018, Syrians were the highest forcibly displaced population.”Adding up IDP’s (Internally displaced people), refugees, and asylum seekers, there were 13 million Syrians driven fro their home” followed by Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and many others with huge volume of displaced people. 70.8 million people in the year 2018, which was the highest recorded data, and has doubled in the last 20 years. According to article and UNHCR, internal conflicts such as wars or other political inequalities, result in more people who are forcible displaced. With that in mind, refugees are leaving their country and seeking assist in foreign countries while many others are just staying in their countries, forcibly displaced and no where to go, and that according to statistics are the people who are in most danger.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-49638793