Right in the centre - I wonder why?
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- Published on Friday, March 13, 2020
By Ken Waddell
Neepawa Banner & Press
I have often said that the world is going mad and I am not alone in the opinion.
Time may prove me wrong, but the whole reaction to the coronavirus is way out of proportion. I believe that many, many more people die every day from more common flu bugs than have died from the coronavirus. Cancelling sporting events and major gatherings is simply too strong a reaction in my judgement. Guess we will see what happens.
If the coronavirus came out of China and if some of the pictures of their public markets are accurate, it’s not much wonder that a disease would break out. In the video, animal slaughter of all kinds (including dogs and cats) is regularly carried out by merchants at the market. Considering the lack of sanitation, the overcrowding and the totally improper storage of food, it makes one very suspicious.
Contrast that with the way food regulations are applied in Canada and we enjoy another level of craziness. Theoretically, a local community or church group can’t have a fall supper if the food is prepared in a home kitchen. The food police in Manitoba are just doing their job, I guess, but whoever wrote the rules needs to go in for an intelligence test.
The United States is heading for a potential comedy of errors with their presidential election. Just picture the Republicans with President Trump, an old man seeking re-election. That’s funny enough, but not as funny as the Democrats, with 77 and 78 year old candidates. Oh, yes, there is a young woman of colour still in the race. I figure if she makes it through to the convention, it will be really funny watching two old white men telling the world they are more modern and better stand for change than the younger candidate. It could be a hilarious scene.
I saw this on the internet and whether it is totally accurate doesn’t really matter. It said, “Every (U.S.) election year has a virus, 2004-SARS, 2008-Avian Flu, 2010-Swine Flu, 2012-MERS, 2014-Ebola, 2016-Zika, 2018-Ebola, 2020-Corona.” It went on to say, “Coronavirus has a contagion factor of 2, SARS was 4, measles is 18. Coronavirus has a cure rate of 99.7 per cent for those under 50. The coronavirus is tapering off. This is a viral pneumonia being hyped as the Black Plague before an election.”
For any family that loses a loved one to coronavirus or to any other disease, it’s a tragedy and the alarmists could be right, maybe it will be a very severe worldwide epidemic.
Then, this week, Saudi Arabia opened the taps on the oil market, in retaliation to Russia refusing to cut production, and oil prices fell to $30 a barrel. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the price at the pumps to come down. This will be another blow to Alberta, and Canada, but we can be assured that our famous prime minister will find a way to make things worse. It will also make it a lot tougher to find investors to invest in alternate energy. Never mind worrying about that, the government will throw more money at various projects and subsidize electric cars.
Here’s a funny story. A man was driving an electric car to Winnipeg from Western Manitoba. The gauge said he had 350 kilometres of power left. It was -20 and that little electric car sucked back power so fast that he barely made it back to Winnipeg.
Here’s another crazy thing. In the 1980s, you could buy a Chevy Sprint and on a bad day, you got 55 miles per gallon out of it. On a good day, you might get 64 miles per gallon. I doubt there is a gas powered car made today that can do that, although I hear reports of 47 miles per gallon.
Ya gotta love progress!
Disclaimer: The writer serves as a volunteer chair of the Manitoba Community Newspaper Association. The views expressed in this column are the writer’s personal views and are not to be taken as being the view of the MCNA board or Banner & Press staff.
