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News & Views by Terry Bell
Covid-19: who is responsible?
Where were the rich and powerful — and their funding — as epidemics continued to ravage poorer communities? Now funds to combat epidemics such as TB are suffering as resources are poured into Covid-19.
Posted in: Inside Labour Column
Conspiracy theories & Covid-19
May 1, 2020
First published in Daily Maverick There is more than a whiff of hypocrisy, let alone irony, in the ongoing allegations by President Donald Trump and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo that the origin of the Covid-19 Coronavirus could have been a laboratory in China. It is an allegation that plays into widespread conspiracy theories […]
Posted in: Uncategorized
Memories of nicotine deprivation
May 1, 2020
In Tanzania in 1981, the country's only cigarette factory ran out of paper — and the country ran out of cigarettes. The result revealed clearly just how addictive is nicotine: packs of cigarettes had buyers at 230 times to normal price and "puffs" on a single cigarette were sold on street corners.
Posted in: Commentary
Hiding behind a Covid-19 scapegoat
May 1, 2020
Governments around the world were informed years ago of the danger of a pandemic of the kind we are now experiencing. The warnings came from the World Health Organisation and from a high level scientific panel the WHO established, but governments thought protective measures too expensive.
Posted in: Inside Labour Column
Tax, war & the Covid-19 future
April 22, 2020
If, as governments and international in stitutions aroun d the world say, we are at war that is costing all economies dear, why is the historic means of funding such conflict — and financing the subsequent peace — not used? It seems to have been forgotten that wars and subsequent reconstruction were financed by taxing corporates and the rich.
Posted in: Commentary
‘Worst crisis’ is poverty, not Covid-19
April 19, 2020
The "worst crisis since World War 2" is not the latest Corona virus. It is poverty and the attendant hunger and ill health in often crowded and squalid living conditions. These are the breeding grounds of diseases and epidemics that are all too often ignored by governments that serve the interests of the corporate world over the wellbeing of people. United action — solidarity — by the majority of citizens can — and should — change this appalling state of affairs.
Posted in: Inside Labour Column
A post Covid-19 future worth striving for
April 17, 2020
Poverty is the biggest danger facing not just South Africa, but the world today. So it is perfectly understandable that poor people, oprdered to stay at home and socially distance, may see this as an invitation to starve, perhaps to death.
Posted in: Inside Labour Column
May 3, 2020
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