Monkey business will kill us, not Monkeypox

 

“Think of the earth as a living organism that is being attacked by billions of bacteria whose numbers double every forty years. Either the host dies, or the virus dies, or both die.”

—Gore Vidal

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

IF health authorities will require us all to have a vaccine for Monkeypox, time to suspect it’s a monkey business.

They have been spreading fear and panic; and although there has been no immediate major knee-jerk reaction from the public, it’s another story if we will be mandated to have a vaccine for monkeypox.

It is the monkey business of some unscrupulous “health experts” that will kill us, not this rare disease caused by infection with the monkeypox virus.

Strike while the iron is hot? While people are still smarting from the terror of coronavirus pandemic that have not been totally eradicated?

Monkeypox virus is part of the same family of viruses as variola virus, the virus that causes smallpox. It’s not as deadly as Covid-19.

With symptoms similar to smallpox symptoms, but milder, according to health experts, Monkeypox is rarely fatal and isn’t related to chickenpox. No need to panic like a house on fire.

We have always been at the mercy of health experts. Giant corporations that produced the vaccines for the coronavirus have made billions of dollars while most of us have lost our livelihood and became poorer.

They stand to earn more if they can trick us into getting the vaccine for the Monkeypox.

Governments around the world will again scramble for funds to purchase vaccines. No way. No more. Not again.

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A large body of research currently points out that the viral outbreak known as Monkeypox is an STD that is more likely to infect homosexual men.

If this is the case, granting it is true, not all people are engaging in homosexual activities. For sure, not all those who have been infected with Monkeypox were homosexuals.

In the past month, it was reported that three new studies concluded monkeypox primarily spreads through sexual intercourse between men, as opposed to prior data suggesting that it is due to skin contact occurring during sex.

Published in the prestigious British medical journal the Lancet, the newly emerging studies debunk a core belief about how Monkeypox spreads.

Experts and health institutions had previously said that monkeypox spread mostly through skin-to-skin contact that could take place without sexual contact.

The World Health Organization classified the escalating outbreak of the once-rare disease as an international emergency in July; the U.S. declared it a national emergency earlier this month, just after Illinois declared a public health emergency over the virus.

A total of 14,115 cases have been reported across the U.S., with 888 of them in Illinois, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said most cases “are coming from much more intimate skin-to-skin contact or kissing.”

Person-to-person transmission is possible through “close physical contact with monkeypox sores, items that have been contaminated with fluids or sores (clothing, bedding, etc.), or through respiratory droplets following prolonged face-to-face contact,” according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.

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What are the symptoms? Monkeypox often begins with flu-like symptoms and swelling of the lymph nodes, and progresses to a rash on the face and body, according to health authorities.

Virus symptoms range from fever, aches and rashes all over the body.

“Suspected cases may present with early flu-like symptoms and progress to lesions that may begin on one site on the body and spread to other parts,” Chicago Department of Public Health previously stated, according to NBCChicago.

Dr. Irfan Hafiz, an infectious disease specialist with Northwestern Medicine’s McHenry and Huntley hospitals, said the virus causes symptoms that are similar to several maladies, including chickenpox or smallpox, as reported by NBCChicago.

“It can, to the layperson, look like chickenpox or warts,” he previously said. “But these (sores) tend to be in exposed areas.”

Health experts also stated the illness can be confused with a sexually transmitted infection like syphilis or herpes, or with varicella zoster virus.

In the U.S., some experts have speculated whether monkeypox might be on the verge of becoming an entrenched sexually transmitted disease in the country, like gonorrhea, herpes and HIV.

“The bottom line is we’ve seen a shift in the epidemiology of monkeypox where there’s now widespread, unexpected transmission,” said Dr. Albert Ko, a professor of public health and epidemiology at Yale University. “There are some genetic mutations in the virus that suggest why that may be happening, but we do need a globally-coordinated response to get it under control.”

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)

 

Ping-pong diplomacy in peril anew

 

“In the world of diplomacy, some things are better left unsaid.”

—Lincoln Chafee

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

THERE we go again. Hardly had the tension brought by U.S. Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s controversial visit in Taiwan two weeks ago simmered down, a five-member U.S. congressional delegation arrived in Taiwan on August 14, or less than two weeks after Pelosi’s contentious visit that infuriated China and drew intense Chinese military drills off the island’s coast.

Led by Democrat Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, the bipartisan delegation was welcomed by Taiwanese officials who said they appreciated the show of solidarity during the escalating tensions with Beijing.

Analysts said the presence of the five American lawmakers so quickly after Pelosi’s visit was likely to provoke a sharp reaction, possibly of more military exercises, although there was no immediate response from Beijing as of this writing.

Now that tension has again escalated between China and the USA, all the efforts put forward in the past to improve diplomatic relations between the two countries through sports, are in danger of being put to waste once more.

When the war was raging in Vietnam and the Cold War was entering its 26th year in April 1971 or 51 years ago, a Pan Am 707 landed in Detroit, Michigan, carrying the People’s Republic of China’s world champion table tennis team for a series of matches and tours in 10 cities around the United States.

 

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The era of Ping-pong diplomacy had begun 12 months earlier when the American team– in Nagoya, Japan, for the World Table Tennis Championship–got a surprise invitation from their Chinese colleagues to visit the People’s Republic.

Time magazine called it “The ping heard round the world.” And with good reason: no group of Americans had been invited to China since the Communist takeover in 1949.

Why had they been invited? Smithsonian’s David A. DeVoss said the Chinese felt that by opening a door to the United States, they could put their mostly hostile neighbors on notice about a possible shift in alliances.

The United States welcomed the opportunity; President Richard M. Nixon had written: “We simply cannot afford to leave China outside the family of nations.”

Soon after the U.S. team’s trip, Nixon, not wanting to lose momentum, secretly sent Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to Peking to arrange a Presidential visit to China.

Nixon’s journey seven months later, in February 1972, became one of the most important events in U.S. postwar history. “Never before in history has a sport been used so effectively as a tool of international diplomacy,” said Chinese Premier Chou En-lai.

For Nixon, it was “the week that changed the world.”

In February 2002, President George W. Bush, in his second trip to China, recalled the meeting that came out of Ping-Pong diplomacy, telling President Jiang Zemin: “Thirty years ago this week, President Richard Nixon showed the world that two vastly different governments could meet on the grounds of common interest and in a spirit of mutual respect.”

Despite its critical diplomatic relationship with Iran, the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs sent a delegation of 12 Americans, including eight female athletes, coaches, and managers representing USA Badminton, to Tehran, Iran, from February 3-9, 2009.

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The team competed in the Fajr International Badminton Tournament at the invitation of the Iranian Badminton Federation.

From pingpong, U.S. had embarked on another peaceful mission through badminton in the hostile territory in a bid to improve its relationship with the Islamic country which has blamed the West for its various problems.

The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and USA Badminton also hosted the Iranian Badminton Federation for the U.S. Open in July 2009.

The visit was reportedly part of the US’s “people-to-people” exchanges with Iran.

Since 2006, the US has included Iranians in a range of educational, professional, and cultural exchange programs.

In the past two years, over 250 Iranians, including artists, athletes, and medical professionals, have participated in exchange programs in the United States.

Through its Sports United program, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has brought the Iranian National Teams for Basketball, Water Polo, Weightlifting, and members of the men’s and women’s National Table Tennis teams to the United States.

The US also sent 20 members of USA Wrestling to Iran to compete in the prestigious Takhti Cup in January 2007.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)

 

Diay did in India what Owens did in Germany

 

“For a time, at least, I was the most famous person in the entire world.”

—Jesse Owens

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

I WAS high school student when I started to seriously fall in love with three sports—chess, boxing, running (marathon and track and field); I did not just fancy these disciplines, I played them all, modesty aside.

The major world sports events I could still vividly remember then were: the United States’ boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics (the Soviet Union retaliated by boycotting the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics), Andrei Sokolov’s crowning as world junior chess king in Copenhagen in 1982, Rolando Navarette’s upset 5^th round KO win against Uganda’s Cornelius Boza Edwards to pocket the WBC junior lightweight championship in Italy in 1981, and Lydia “Diay” de Vega-Mercado’s gold in the 100-meter dash in the 1982 New Delhi Asian Games.

Let’s skip the USA-USSR Olympics tit for tat, Sokolov (I remember him only because Baguio City hosted the 1987 edition won by India’s Viswanathan Anand and, mea culpa, I thought he would show up. I realized Sokolov was not anymore qualified because he was already more than 21), and Navarette.

Let’s focus on Lydia de Vega-Mercado, who died of breast cancer at 57 on August 10.

There was one particular moment where I became interested on Diay and this was when she really made headlines literally in the 1982 New Delhi Asian Games.

Like many Filipinos who monitored and chronicled the Games at that time, I was awestruck.

 

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P.T. Usha, older by one year to Lydia, 17, was India’s national heroine.

Of the 4,595 athletes from 33 Asian countries, Usha, 18, known as the “Golden Girl” and stood five feet and seven inches, was so popular she was picked to administer the 1982 Asian Games’ Athlete’s Oath. She became instant celebrity.

Everywhere she went, Usha attracted the fans’ attention, according to the journals I read and collected at that time.

Usha was the fastest woman in India and penciled to dominate the 100-meter and 200-meter in the distaff side of the track and field competition, having won multiple medals at the 1979 National Games and 1980 National inter-state meet setting many meet records.

Usha was also the star of the show at the senior inter-state meet in Bangalore in 1981, where she clocked 11.8 seconds in the 100-m and 24.6 seconds in the 200-m setting national records in both.

What made the story so interesting was Usha was touted as the equivalent of the highly regarded long jumper Luz Long, Adolf Hitler’s most prized athlete in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.

When the talented American Jesse Owens repulsed Long, Hitler was very angry and devastated. He was reportedly fuming mad when he left the stadium as Germany failed to prove the Aryan race’s supremacy as he had boasted.

 

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Usha was Indian President Zail Singh’s best bet and the Games’ poster girl. As hosts, the Indians pinned their hopes on Usha and were confident she would bring home the coveted gold in the two major events (100-m and 200-m).

To make the long story short, the sprinter from Meycauayan, Bulacan, coached by her father known to many of us then only as “Tatang”, dashed to pieces the hopes of President Singh, who didn’t react like Hitler, and the Indians when she upset Usha in the 100-meter dash, clocking 11.76 to Usha’s 11.95. South Korea’s Mo Myung-hee finished third at 11.99 for the bronze.

Lydia’s thumping of Usha grabbed headlines in most newspapers in Asia the following morning, as it heralded the emergence of the new “fastest woman in Asia” from the Philippines.

It was one of the only two golds won by the Philippines in the Games. Swimmer William Wilson secured the other gold in the men’s 200-meter freestyle. Boxing, swimming, and sailing pumped three silver medals even as the Philippines got another 9 bronze medals in cycling, equestrian, athletics, and shooting for a total of 14 medals, good for 10^th place behind China (61-51-41 gold, silver, bronze), Japan (57-52-44), South Korea (28-28-37), North Korean (17-19-20), India (13-19-25), Indonesia (4-4-7), Iran (4-4-4), Pakistan (3-3-5), and Mongolia (3-3-1).

Although Lydia didn’t fare well when she qualified for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics (her very best was “good only” in Asia), she became an icon and role model for the young Filipino athletes who wanted to follow what she had reached and achieved in the world of sports. Paalam, Diay.

For a time, at least, to paraphrase Jesse Owens, you were the most famous person in the Asian Games.

Thank you for making the Filipinos proud and for your great contributions in the Philippine sports.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are hopelessly devoted and honestly love you, Sandy

 

“A million lights are dancing and there you are, a shooting star

An everlasting world and you’re here with me, eternally.”

—Olivia Newton-John in her song, Xanadu

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

SOMETIME in 2005 in Iloilo City, Philippines, then 12-year-old Sharmane and I sent by air mail our photo together holding a VCD of the blockbuster 1977 musical film, Grease, to Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John) in her Hollywood, California address.

We wrote a brief note in the back.

We had been watching the film together like crazy multiple times—morning, noon, and night time.

Like Snow White caterwauling when she saw her favorite dimwitted Dopey dwarf, Sharmane would scream on top of her voice each time she saw Sandy Olsson gyrate in the film together with Danny Zuko (John Travolta), a matinee idol and dance virtuoso nonpareil.

While Sharmane was enamored with Sandy’s film, I was hooked on her love songs (I Honestly Love You, Hopelessly Devoted To You, Sam, Suspended In Time, Xanadu).

“Will she be able to receive it?” Sharmane asked with raised eyebrows and tight lips, casting some veneer of doubts to our project.

“Of course, yes. Look, we have here her complete mailing address,” I boasted with holistic confidence.

“After receiving it, will she answer us?” dyed-in-the-wool Sharmane inquired anew, this time in a firm face and wary eyes.

“Yes, of course. Our note was unique; I’m sure she would be able to spot the difference compared to the hundreds of letters from the fans she regularly receives from all over the world,” I boldly assured her,  avoiding a direct contact with her pair of skeptical eyes.

“Basta ha. I will wait (for Sandy’s answer),” Sharmane vowed.

 

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Weeks of wait turned into months. And even years.

But back before 2006 came, just when I thought Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo) had forgotten waiting for Godot, Sharmane dug something down the memory lane.

“It’s been a long time. The photo we sent probably didn’t reach Sandy. Or, if she received it, she must have thought we weren’t that important to warrant a reply,” she theorized, her voice cluttered in sordid incredulity.

“Or she received it but was only too busy to reply; and if she forgets today, she will probably remember (to reply) later. Let’s not lose hopes,” I assured the now getting cynical young lady.

When I visited Hollywood in 2008, I was tempted to play tricks on Sharmane by telling her, “I will visit Sandy personally and if I have a chance to cone face to face with her, I will ask why she didn’t reply to our communication.”

Sharmane, now 15 and wiser, didn’t take my antics seriously.

Without saying a word, she smirked like Jane who found Tarzan too enfeebled mentally to introduce himself while uttering T-A-R-Z-A-N.     

If the slim prospect of it-might-still-be-possible-to-get-a-reply anytime didn’t anymore titillate Sharmane, it’s her virtual resignation to the growing odds that have stacked after years of grappling with the elements of surprise. And her adolescence has upped her ante on  contemporary Hollywood stars like Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, and Jessica Alba, to name only a few.   

Of course, I traveled to Hollywood several times without even trying to find out Sandy’s whereabouts.

 

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Years have passed—I mean, long years. Sharmane, now a Registered Nurse, no longer fancy herself into believing Sandy will eventually take time to give the ill-fated photo we sent years ago an iota of chance to be even “shortlisted” for a reply.

It’s been buried in the past, we both have accepted it; but the nostalgia and thrill—the immortality of Grease and her lovely and unforgettable songs—are still imbedded in our memory.

As a matter of fact, Sharmane still kept a copy of that VCD until now, while I secured the album containing Sandy’s nerve-tingling songs and play it from time to time.

Sandy or Olivia Newton-John, English-born and grew up in Australia, sang some of the biggest hits of the 1970s and ’80s while recasting her image as the virginal girl next door into a spandex-clad vixen—a transformation reflected in miniature by her starring role in Grease, one of the most popular movie musicals of its era.

She died on August 8, 2022 at her ranch in Southern California. She was 73.

Sandy’s real life husband, John Easterling, announced her death. She had lived with a breast cancer diagnosis since 1992 and in 2017 announced that the cancer had returned and spread.

According to The New York Times, she was a prominent advocate for cancer research, starting a foundation in her name to support it and opening a research and wellness center in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia for years.

Rest in peace, Sandy. We are hopelessly devoted and honestly love you.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)

 

 

 

Weapons of war

 

“At any given moment, public opinion is a chaos of superstition, misinformation and prejudice.”

—Gore Vidal

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

THERE is a need for all of us to continue the fight against misinformation and disinformation.

Everyone should be involved, especially those with easy access to the Internet and other communication technology.

They could be used as weapons of war. In fact, they are now being utilized to wreck diplomatic relationships, the economy, political alliances, in the climate change debate, the pandemic, and even family relationships.

When our leaders—those in power—make a mistake of sending false stories or half truths in their social media platforms, the damage will be catastrophic.

The people believe what their leaders are saying or Twitting; they swallow hook, line, and sinker what they read in the social media posts of their leaders.

Thus there is a need for the public to be vigilant and to act as sentinels in order to cushion the impact if not totally stop the spread of misinformation and disinformation.

 

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Not only is misinformation incorrect or misleading information. It is differentiated from disinformation, which is deliberately deceptive. Rumors are information not attributed to any particular source, and so are unreliable and often unverified, but can turn out to be either true or false.

“Misinformation & disinformation are increasingly used as weapons of war. Access to information is a human right. Credible, accurate, and human-centered communication is one of our best instruments to counter these threats,” Twitted United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Meanwhile, Guterres recently told the U.N. Security Council that the world in which peacekeepers operate “is more hazardous today than any time in recent memory,” with geopolitical tensions reverberating locally and conflicts “more complex and multi-layered.”

“Peacekeepers are facing terrorists, criminals, armed groups and their allies — many with access to powerful modern weapons, and many with a vested interest in perpetuating the chaos in which they thrive,” the U.N. chief said.

 

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The Ilonggo community in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental has commemorated the 121st birthday of the great ring immortal Francisco Guilledo popularly known as “Pancho Villa.”

Born August 1, 1901 in Sitio Ilog, Kabankalan, Guilledo won the world flyweight crown on June 18, 1921 with a seventh round knockout over defending champion, Welshman Jimmy Wilde, at the Polo Grounds in New York.

He died 10 days after losing a non-title duel versus welterweight champion Jimmy McLarnin on July 4, 1923.

Villa was a former stevedore in the Muelly Loney port here. He was married to Gliceria Concepcion.

Iloilo boxing patron Frank Atas, Jr. said Villa’s son once managed a small boxing gym somewhere in Jaro district here.

“He resembled his father and he also loved boxing only that the press did not recognize him,” said Atas, who also once owned a boxing gym.

Touted as the greatest flyweight of the century by the Associated Press, Villa was also the first world champion from Asia.

He was one of only four Asians enshrined into the New York-based International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1994. He was also inducted to the World Boxing Hall of Fame.

He began his boxing career by adopting the name Pancho Villa after a famous Mexican revolutionary. After his successful bids in the Philippines, he went to New York in pursuit of international bouts.

Among his most memorable fights were his losses to former Olympic champion Frankie Genaro, who beat him on points two times in as many confrontations.

They were penciled to meet for the third time but his untimely death dashed that dream match to pieces.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)

 

From Russia with hate

 

“The judicial system is the most expensive machine ever invented for finding out what happened and what to do about it.”

—Irving R. Kaufman

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

IF we stand on a neutral ground, either we will view the conviction of WNBA star Brittney Griner in a Russian court as “wrongful” or “correct.”

But if we are Americans and sports buffs at the same time, we will definitely condemn it.

My heart goes out to the six feet and nine inches tall Olympic gold medalist who has been in jail since February this year, but I can’t question the way Russia implements its own laws.

If a Russian lawbreaker will be convicted in our own land for violating our laws, the Russians might protest it, but they also have no right to question our own judicial system.

If the nation is burning, it is fair to say that criminal justice systems everywhere in the world are a raging dumpster fire of injustice and those who implement them are the ones who lit the fuse.

Meanwhile, unable to secure an acquittal for the jailed basketball bird, some fellow Americans have developed hatred toward Russia’s judicial system after the 31-year-old basketball heartthrob, a lesbian, was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison, on charges of smuggling drugs into the country.

 

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In the final pre-Beatlemania months of 1963, Matt Monro was hired to sing the From Russia With Love title theme of a James Bond 007 film:

From Russia with love I fly to you

Much wiser since my goodbye to you

I’ve travelled the world to learn

I must return from Russia with love…

Now that Griner has been sentenced to nine years in prison, some fans hurt by the verdict might change the title of that song to From Russia With Hate.

Griner’s lawyers described the verdict, just below the maximum sentence of 10 years, as “absolutely unreasonable” and said they will “certainly file an appeal.”

A Russian judge read Griner, 31, her verdict August 4 about an hour after her lawyers and the prosecution presented their closing arguments, reported the PEOPLE.

The Phoenix Mercury star had given an emotional speech, reiterating her stance that though she pled guilty to bringing less than 1 gram of cannabis oil into Russia, she did so “inadvertently” and asked the court for leniency.

 

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According to CNN, Griner sobbed: “That’s why I pled guilty to my charges. I understand everything that’s been said against me, the charges that are against me and that is why I pled guilty but I had no intents to break any Russian laws.”

President Joe Biden has called the ruling as “unacceptable.”

The President said: “Today, American citizen Brittney Griner received a prison sentence that is one more reminder of what the world already knew: Russia is wrongfully detaining Brittney.”

He added: “It’s unacceptable, and I call on Russia to release her immediately so she can be with her wife, loved ones, friends, and teammates. My administration will continue to work tirelessly and pursue every possible avenue to bring Brittney and Paul Whelan home safely as soon as possible.”

Russian prosecutors had asked the judge during closing arguments to sentence Griner to nine years and six months in prison, just below the maximum allowed sentence of 10 years.

The prosecution also asked that Griner was fined 1 million rubles, roughly equivalent to $16,600, according to The New York Times.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)