As virus lockdown fuels food shortages, Africa turns to the Internet for groceries

In between her shifts, Zimbabwean nurse Sinothando Mpofu used to go to Bulawayo’s open-air markets to buy tomatoes and cabbages for her family of nine — until the country’s COVID-19 lockdown closed all stalls. Mpofu worried about where she would get fresh food, until she saw a message in her local church WhatsApp group about Fresh in a Box — one of a rising number of African tech companies delivering fresh food to people under lockdown. Now she places an order online and receives a box of produce delivered to her home every week. The fruit and vegetables are better quality than the food she used to buy at the supermarket, she said, at about one-third of the cost. “Buying vegetables at a local supermarket is very expensive, but now I get a variety of vegetables and I eat balanced meals all the time,” Mpofu, 37, said, adding that she would keep using the site even after lockdown ends. In many African countries, measures put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19 have made it harder for people to access affordable, nutritious food, sparking warnings from aid groups that the pandemic would worsen malnutrition rates. An estimated 73 million people in Africa are already acutely food insecure, Matshidiso Moeti, regional director for the WHO’s Regional Office for Africa, said in a news release last month. “COVID-19 is exacerbating food shortages, as food imports, transportation and agricultural production have all been hampered by a combination of lockdowns, travel restrictions and physical distancing measures,” she said. A possible global GDP loss of 5 percent this year could push another 147 million people into extreme poverty — more than half of them in sub-Saharan Africa, the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute has said. CLICK TO EAT Mobile tech start-ups are helping people get hold of fresh food during the pandemic

Women bring Bedouin embroidery to coronavirus fight

In El-Arish, the provincial capital of Egypt’s North Sinai, a group of women sew colorful Bedouin designs on masks to protect against the COVID-19 pandemic, as an insurgency simmers in their restive region. Egypt’s toll from the disease has reached more than 31,000 cases, including more than 1,100 deaths, while North Sinai itself remains the bloody scene of a long-running Islamist insurgency. “I learned how to embroider when I was a young girl watching my mother,” homemaker Naglaa Mohammed, 36, said on a landline from El-Arish, as mobile phone links are often disrupted. A versatile embroiderer, she also beads garments and crafts rings and bracelets. Now with the pandemic, she has been designing masks showcasing her Bedouin heritage. Bedouins are nomadic tribes who traditionally inhabit desert areas throughout the Arab world, from North Africa to Iraq. Many have now integrated into a more urban lifestyle. Egypt’s Bedouin textile tradition of tatriz — weaving and beading rich geometric and abstract designs on garments, cushions and purses — has been passed down from generation to generation for centuries. It has survived in the Sinai Peninsula, whose north has been plagued by years of militant activity and terror attacks spearheaded by a local affiliate of the Islamic State group. Security forces have been locked in a battle to quell an insurgency in Sinai that intensified after the military’s 2013 ouster of Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi. In February 2018, authorities launched a nationwide operation against militants, focusing on North Sinai. About 970 suspected militants have since been killed in the region along with dozens of security personnel, official figures showed. Local and international media are banned from entering heavily militarized North Sinai. Yet for Amany Gharib, who founded the El Fayrouz For Environmental and Social and Economic Services Association in El-Arish in 2010, the violence has not dissuaded her from keeping Bedouin heritage alive while

Wall Street rallies on US jobs report

‘HUGE SURPRISE’: Evidence of an earlier-than-expected recovery sent shares in airlines and Boeing Co soaring, while small-caps and transportation stocks also outperformed Wall Street on Friday surged after a strikingly upbeat jobs report for last month unexpectedly provided the clearest evidence yet that the US economy is headed for a quicker-than-anticipated recovery. The NASDAQ breached its all-time closing high reached in February, but pared its gains to end the session a hair’s breadth below it. All three major US stock indices advanced 2 percent or more. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average are now 5.7 percent and 8.3 percent below their respective closing records. The benchmark S&P 500 is now 1.1 percent below its year-to-date break-even level. The US economy added a remarkable 2.5 million jobs last month, rebounding from April’s record 20.7 million drop, and pushing the unemployment rate down to 13.3 percent. Analysts saw unemployment soaring to a historic 19.8 percent. “The numbers are a huge surprise to the upside,” said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors in Boston. “It would suggest a further confirmation the economy is coming back online,” Arone said. “This is a strong signal that the effects are temporary and that the economy is improving.” “Long may it last,” he added. US Treasury yields rose on the jobs data, giving a boost to interest rate-sensitive banks and sending the S&P 500 Banks index up 4.9 percent. Airlines, among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis, soared, with the ARCA Airline Index jumping 5.7 percent. However, the WHO warned that the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought the global economy to its knees in the wake of mandated shutdowns, is far from over and new cases are on the rise. Market participants now turn their focus to the US Federal Reserve, which holds a monetary policy meeting next week where the latest jobs data is almost certain to be discussed. The Dow on Friday rose 829.16 points, or 3.15 percent, to 27,110.98, the S&P

EDITORIAL: Exploitation stains nation’s image

The Ministry of Education (MOE) is reportedly drafting a four-year, NT$500 million (US$16.8 million) plan to recruit African undergraduate and graduate students, to help train the kind of professionals needed to work in priority industries in which Taiwan plays a leading role. Reports of the plan, which surfaced a week ago, cited sources who talked about establishing dual-degree programs between Taiwanese and African universities, saying that some local schools had already started recruiting in Africa. It sounded like another admirable effort to expand Taiwan’s soft power, harnessing one of the nation’s strengths — its tertiary institutions — with one of its weaknesses, a shortage of students. However, another story was published just a few days earlier about the alleged exploitation of foreign students through work-study “internships.” It involved Swazi students enrolled at Mingdao University and questions about donations paid to the school by companies employing the student interns. It turned out that the ministry had been forced to intervene in late November 2018 after it learned of media reports in Eswatini about how the business administration students at Mingdao were working 40 hours per week skinning chickens at a Changhua County factory in return for tuition and accommodation. The ministry ordered the school to cancel the work contracts and help the students return to a full-time class schedule. The ministry was already well aware that the recruitment of foreign students from New Southbound Policy nations and others was open to abuse, as earlier that November it had reprimanded the University of Kang Ning over its recruitment of Sri Lankan high-school graduates who ended up working illegally at underground factories and slaughterhouses in Taipei and Tainan. At the time, the ministry said the Kang Ning case was an isolated incident, which it clearly was not, as more complaints have been raised since then about internship programs at

US must stand up for democracy

The COVID-19 outbreak that originated in central China has spread around the world and claimed over 300,000 lives. Infectious diseases are part of life, and it is critical that global defenses against pandemics hold. China was the world’s first line of defense, and that defense failed. Beijing cannot be held solely responsible for the impact of the pandemic, and, to be sure, the Chinese are justified in celebrating victories and acts of heroism in China’s struggle to contain COVID-19. However, Beijing cannot be let off the hook for its role in the crisis. Beijing’s response to the outbreak, rooted in the secrecy and paranoia inherent in its authoritarian system, robbed the world of precious time to prepare. Its lack of transparency has continued to frustrate global efforts to study and understand the virus. The experience reminds us that Beijing’s style of authoritarianism is not compatible with the transparent and effective governance needed to address modern global challenges. As the US has struggled to find its footing against the virus, it is not surprising to see emotion-driven American responses aimed at China, ranging from efforts by state attorneys general to exact punishment through lawsuits against the Chinese Communist Party to abhorrent attacks against people of Asian descent. Such responses serve no one’s interests. Americans must rise to this occasion by separating frustrations and emotions from legitimate concerns and focus on responses that reflect American values and strategic interests. The current situation reminds us of the US’ special role as champion of liberal democracy. It presents the US with a fresh opportunity to stand by its values and its democratic partners in Asia, and in particular Taiwan, which finds itself on the front line of defending democracy in Asia. Taiwan is among the few countries in the world to succeed in containing COVID-19. Taiwan not only

Station hall is cultural heritage

In times of crisis, our convictions matter. They even matter when a crisis is over, as they show how committed we are to our beliefs. While the nation moves toward a more open and free democratic society, the Taiwan Railways Administration’s (TRA) ban on sitting in Taipei Railway Station’s main hall is puzzling and, more likely, not useful, if not counterproductive. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, restrictions on gatherings in public spaces have been put in place to slow the spread of the virus. The station’s main hall was one of the affected spaces. Now, as the pandemic shows signs of ebbing, the TRA is taking advantage of the restrictions, as it announced on May 18 that it plans to make permanent a ban on sitting on the station’s main hall floor. Unsurprisingly, the policy has sparked controversy and protest. In response, the TRA explained that it had never intended to provide such a “service” to tourists and travelers, but merely acquiesced to what happened. Now, to avoid confrontations, the TRA proposed inviting experts to discuss how the hall should be designed to benefit users and would put forward a proposal this month. Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) took a middle-of-the-road position, saying “the TRA can continue its dialogue with the public and find ways to satisfy both sides.” Lin should instead take charge and put the genie back in the bottle. In its history, the hall has been part of many people’s lives. During Lunar New Year holidays in the 1990s, long queues were seen inside the station, as hundreds of young workers waited for their trains to return home to their villages for family reunions, and given the limited waiting space, they brought sleeping bags and quilts to make beds on the floor, and stayed inside the station

Virus Outbreak: Americans misusing bleach, poll finds

‘SHARP INCREASE’: About 39 percent of people reported engaging in high-risk practices, including using bleach to clean food, as well as drinking or gargling it More than one-third of Americans misused cleaners and disinfectants to try to prevent infection by the novel coronavirus, according to a survey taken shortly after US President Donald Trump publicly asked whether injecting such products could treat COVID-19. Washing food with bleach, using household cleaning or disinfectant products on bare skin, and intentionally inhaling or ingesting these products were some of the most commonly reported “high-risk” practices in a May 4 online survey of 502 US adults, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Friday. The survey’s lead author said it was undertaken following a “sharp increase” in calls to poison control centers for exposure to cleaners and disinfectants during the pandemic. In late April, Trump asked scientists during one of his coronavirus task force briefings whether inserting disinfectant into the bodies of people infected with the virus might help clear the disease, horrifying health experts. Makers of household cleaners were compelled to urge people not to drink or inject their products. About 39 percent of people surveyed reported intentionally engaging in at least one high-risk practice not recommended by the CDC to prevent coronavirus infection, including using bleach to clean food or misting the body with a disinfectant spray. DRANK OR GARGLED Four percent drank or gargled with diluted bleach solutions, soapy water or disinfectants. One-quarter of those surveyed reported having at least one adverse health effect during the previous month that they believed resulted from using these products. The CDC suggested that official COVID-19 prevention messages that focus on hand hygiene and frequent cleaning should also include instructions on proper usage of cleaners and disinfectants, and storing chemicals out of reach of children. Limitations to the survey included that it was for a single point in time and was opt-in rather than a random sampling, the agency said.

Virus Outbreak: India overtakes Italy in sixth spot for infections

India reported a record 9,887 new COVID-19 cases in one day yesterday and overtook Italy as the world’s sixth-biggest outbreak, two days before the relaxing of a lockdown with the reopening of malls, restaurants and places of worship. With its total number of cases rising to more than 236,000, India has fewer infections than only the US, Brazil, Russia, the UK and Spain, according to a Reuters tally. However, India’s toll of deaths from COVID-19 is 6,642, small compared with those other countries. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, anxious to jump-start an economy crippled by the epidemic and put millions of people back to work, is easing its lockdown of the 1.3 billion population imposed in March, which the government said helped avoid an exponential rise in cases. Restrictions would be loosened from tomorrow, but some experts were worried it is too soon. Giridhar R. Babu, epidemiologist at the Public Health Foundation of India, in particular questioned the reopening of religious places. “We can survive and sustain the gains without ... opening up religious places for sometime,” Babu said on Twitter. The WHO on Friday said that India’s lockdown had helped it dampen down transmission of the disease, but there was a risk the cases could rise again. “As India and in other large countries open up and people begin to move there is always a risk of the disease bouncing back up,” WHO Health Emergencies Program executive director Mike Ryan told a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland. People visiting places of worship would be asked to wash their hands and feet, and there will be no distribution of food offerings, sprinkling of holy water or touching of idols and holy books. The pandemic has killed at least 395,000 people worldwide since it surfaced in China late last year, according to Johns Hopkins University’s global pandemic monitoring Web

Virus Outbreak: D-Day remembrances in Normandy hit by virus

At daybreak yesterday, Charles Shay stood lonesome without any fellow veteran on the very same beach where he waded ashore 76 years ago, part of one of the most epic battles in military history that came to be known as D-Day and turned the tide of World War II. Compared with last year, when many tens of thousands came to the northern French beaches of Normandy to cheer the dwindling number of veterans and celebrate three-quarters of a century of liberation from Nazi oppression, the COVID-19 lockdown turned this year’s remembrance into one of the eeriest ever. “I am very sad now,” said Shay, who was a 19-year-old US Army medic when he landed on Omaha Beach under horrific machine-gun fire and shells. “Because of the virus, nobody can be here. I would like to see more of us here,” he told reporters. Normally, 95-year-old Shay would be meeting other survivors of the 1944 battle and celebrating with locals and dignitaries alike, all not far from his home close to the beaches that defined his life. “This year, I am one of the very few that is probably here,” he said, adding that other US veterans could not fly in because of the pandemic. When a full moon disappeared over land and the sun rose the other side over the English Channel, there was no customary rumble of columns of vintage jeep and trucks to be heard, roads still so deserted hare sat alongside them. Still, the French would not let the day slip by unnoticed, such is their attachment to about 160,000 soldiers from the US, the UK, Canada and others who spilled their blood to free foreign beaches and fight on to finally defeat Nazism almost one year later. “It’s a June 6th unlike any other,” said Philippe Laillier, the mayor of Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer, where he

Taiwan in Time: Colonial masters of time

June 8 to june 14 Every June 10 starting from 1921, students across Taiwan formed marching bands and paraded the streets, handing out flyers that reminded people to be punctual and adhere to the standard time. It was “Time Memorial Day” (時的紀念日), where schools and civic groups put on all sorts of activities to promote the habit. A mostly agrarian society when the Japanese arrived, there was little need for the average Taiwanese to know exactly what time it was. They followed the traditional Chinese system of dividing the day into 12 periods, and organized their lives around the lunar calendar and the 24 solar terms. Even after the colonizers implemented Greenwich Mean Time in Taiwan on Jan. 1, 1896, few people followed it unless they had government business, attended school or had a train to catch. An undated Time Memorial Day flyer features several Chinese proverbs about the importance of time and includes the following instructions: “1. Use time wisely. 2. Wake up early. 3. Establish routines for your tasks. 4. Be on time for appointments. 5. Refrain from excessive greetings and send-offs. 6. Take assembly times seriously.” The Japanese took punctuality so seriously that it was among their first priorities when they captured Taipei on June 7, 1895. On June 27, with local resistance still raging across Taiwan, they began firing a daily “noon cannon” (午炮) at 11:30am from the walled city’s west gate. The practice spread to other cities over the years. In 1913, the citizens of Tainan set up a “noon-cannon collective” where businesses shared the gunpowder and labor costs. In addition to Time Memorial Day activities, the introduction of radio to Taiwan in 1925 and the rise of factory work also contributed to the sense of time among the people. Finally, all citizens

In COVID-19 darkness, gift of a ‘Moment of Light’ to museum

If not for the pandemic, Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum would have missed out on a classic Dutch 16th century painting it so badly craved. Instead, the work now graces a central hall of one of the world’s most famous cultural institutions — all because a wealthy dealer in old masters elected to pay a very unusual tribute to COVID-19 victims. When the museum reopened Monday after the Dutch lockdown was eased, General Director Taco Dibbits stood beaming before Bartholomeus Spranger’s Body of Christ Supported by Angels. “This gift came and it was a moment of light,” he said. His joy contrasted sharply with the disappointment he felt at the early March TEFAF art fair — an annual jamboree in the southern Netherlands where culture meets capital. He thought the oil-on-copper painting was his to buy. “We were standing there with our curators around the painting and saying how wonderful it was,” he said. What they didn’t know was that the picture had been sold almost on arrival at the fair. Dibbits went back to Amsterdam, and was forced to deal with the impact of the coronavirus on his institution. With the public shut out, he said, “we were losing 1 million (euros) a week... That’s really a very substantial part of what we need to make the museum function.” So imagine Dibbits’ surprise when he got a call from international dealer and collector Bob Haboldt, who owned the painting and had earlier said he sold it. It turned out that as soon as the pandemic broke, the sale was canceled. The globe-trotting Dutchman, who lives in France and Italy and has offices in Amsterdam, Paris and New York, was tied down, just like everybody else. “In isolation, I took the step that I would not think about its financial value,” he said in a phone interview from Italy. “Only its

Death of reality TV show star in Japan spotlights cyberbullying

The recent death of Hana Kimura, a bubbly, pink-haired 22-year-old wrestler and reality TV show star, has spotlighted a rise in cyberbullying in Japan and prompted swift official pledges to do more to protect victims. Kimura, a cast member on the popular program Terrace House, was found dead at her home on May 23 from an apparent suicide after being deluged with negative comments on her social media feeds. Acutely aware of the public debate spurred by her death, Japan’s ruling party is holding hearings from this week to consider legal changes that will help cyberbullying victims seek justice. “People must understand where the line between constructive criticism and abuse lies,” said Junko Mihara, a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party who is leading the party’s team on online harassment. Kimura’s death has been a lightning bolt as many Japanese spend more time online because of coronavirus lockdown measures. Celebrities, politicians and companies have all weighed into the debate. In a 2018 Ipsos poll, Japan ranked the highest among 28 countries saying cyberbullying prevention measures were insufficient, but among the lowest for public awareness about online abuse. Government data showed the number of reported cyberbullying cases at schools more than doubled in the four years to 2018. Yet the legal recourse for victims — a lengthy court process to impel Internet service providers to identify anonymous posters before those posters can be sued — has not changed since a law was established in 2001, before Twitter or Facebook were created. Experts and victims have welcomed the political momentum to update the law. “On the Internet, the balance between freedom of speech and dignity is completely skewed, with no protection in place for personal dignity,” said Daisuke Tsuda, an author of several books about online media. But Tsuda cautioned against knee-jerk regulation that could allow authorities to regulate content

Hides that reveal: DNA helps scholars divine Dead Sea Scrolls DNA鑑定 探索死海古卷的秘密

Genetic sampling of the Dead Sea Scrolls has tested understandings that the 2,000-year-old artefacts were the work of a fringe Jewish sect, and shed light on the drafting of scripture around the time of Christianity’s birth. The research — which indicated some of the parchments’ provenances by identifying animal hides used — may also help safeguard against forgeries of the prized biblical relics. The Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of hundreds of manuscripts and thousands of fragments of ancient Jewish religious texts, were discovered in 1947 by local Bedouin in the cave-riddled desert crags of Qumran, about 20km east of Jerusalem. Many scholars believed the scrolls originated with the reclusive Essenes, who had broken away from the Jewish mainstream. But some academics argue the Qumran trove had various authors and may have been brought from Jerusalem for safekeeping. DNA sequencing conducted by Tel Aviv University and the Israel Antiquities Authority has allowed for finer matching or differentiation among the scrolls. While the sheepskin of some of the scrolls could be produced in the desert, cowskin — found in at least two samples — was more typical of cities like Jerusalem, where Jews, at the time, had their second temple and were under Roman rule. “The very material, the biological material of which the scrolls are made, is as telling and as informative as the content of the text,” Noam Mizrahi, Bible studies professor at Tel Aviv University, told Reuters. The Israeli researchers, assisted by a Swedish DNA lab, determined that two textually different copies of the Book of Jeremiah were brought to Qumran from the outside. Such findings, the researchers say, indicate that the wording of Jewish texts was subject to variation and interpretation — contrary to later views of holy writ as fixed. The lesson, Mizrahi said, is that “Second Temple Jewish society

EVERYDAY ENGLISH

A: Thank goodness we finally got rid of the cockroaches and ants. It was starting to affect my sleep. B: Yep. Remember when I woke up in a cold sweat one night after I dreamt of giant cockroaches? A: How could I forget? You screamed like a baby. B: Before the infestation, cockroaches didn’t bother me. I think I’m suffering from post-traumatic stress... A: 謝天謝地我們終於擺脫蟑螂和螞蟻，這問題都開始要影響我的睡眠了。 B : 是啊。你記得嗎？有一天晚上我全身冒冷汗被嚇醒，因為我夢到好多巨大蟑螂。 A : 我怎麼可能忘記？你喊得跟小孩一樣。 B : 在這次蟑螂大批出沒之前，這種害蟲並不曾困擾我。但是現在我覺得好像開始出現創傷後症候群了。 English 英文: Chinese 中文:

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