Monday, November 28: Chinese Demonstrations
Zero tolerance policies are generally a bad idea, tolerance is a positive attribute
There’s been growing frustration in China with the Zero-Covid policy that’s been in place for years now, leading to a wave of protests across the country this weekend. The frustration has been palpable for some time, as the majority of the rest of the world completely gave up on trying to contain the virus and tried to return to something resembling normal life.
Meanwhile, China’s population is still being subjected to sudden harsh lockdowns of areas ranging from individual shops to entire counties, often over just a handful of cases. As someone who’s been a vocal critic of the US’s continuously botched handling of the pandemic, I think surely there’s a middle ground between what we’re doing and a zero-tolerance policy. The zero-tolerance apparently extends to the entertainment made available, as reports indicate that China has been censoring broadcasts of the World Cup to avoid crowd shots of people without masks.
Last week at least 10 people were killed in a building fire in Urumqi, Xinjiang, which had been under lockdown for ~100 days. This sparked a wave of protests that have spread to neighboring cities and captured the attention of millions of people.
“All those people have been sharing the same situations – lockdowns, anxieties about jobs and businesses, and various forms of frustrations with medical care, and deaths.”
-Professor Dali Yang, political scientist at the University of Chicago
Side Items
Waterless Houston: Millions of people in Houston, TX are on a boil water notice after a power outage at a water purification plant caused water pressure to drop. The order led officials in the largest city in Texas to close public schools for at least one day. The real winners here are the kids who got an extra day of Thanksgiving break
Plane Crash Power Outage: A small plane carrying a pilot and a passenger crashed into power lines in Maryland, knocking out power for over 100,000 people. Rescue crews were on the scene for hours trying to extricate the two men, which they eventually managed to do
World Cup Recap
Morocco showed out for the African continent by winning their first World Cup game in 24 years, securing a 2-0 victory against Belgium, a team currently failing the fraud test. The Atlas Lions have a great opportunity to advance to the knockout stages, while the Belgians are clearly paying for the sins of King Leopold II
Canada managed to score their first World Cup goal in history (the Canadian men’s team that is, their women’s team kinda kicks ass), but their defense had more holes than the finest Swiss cheese as they lost 4-1 against Croatia
Spain and Germany met in a highly-anticipated matchup where the Germans desperately needed a result. The final score was 1-1, giving Spain a solid chance of progressing while Germany still have work to do if they hope to survive
This morning Cameroon and Serbia played to a thrilling 3-3 draw, the perfect kind of match for a neutral fan, just goals and vibes
South Korea is currently losing 2-0 to Ghana at the half. Unless Son Heung Min can find some of Michael Jordan’s ‘secret stuff’, it’s looking like a letdown for our South Korean brethren and sisthren
Brazil take on Switzerland later today without their star Neymar, who’s been sidelined with an ankle injury. The absurd amount of Brazilian firepower should more than make up for his absence, but don’t expect the Swiss to give them many opportunities
Portugal and Uruguay wrap up today’s action, as Cristiano Ronaldo looks to add to his complicated legacy. Winning the World Cup is really the only option for an aging star with no club team and no prospects for getting picked up