Why do Australia and New Zealand perform much better than other Western countries in the Coronavirus pandemic?

Is it because these two countries are essentially islands which are far away from continent in the north?

No. It is just down to good common sense governance, something that eludes this current Liberal government. Let me show you a recent example.

Some time ago, it was announced that a security guard who was patrolling a quarantine hotel has been diagnosed with COVID. The highly contagious UK variant. He was the first person in 10 months in Western Australia to contract the virus.

Based on this news, the premier immediately locked down the majority of the state. EVERY THING was shut down, a mask mandate was instructed, and testing facilities heavily staffed with increased opening hours. Record numbers of people turned up to testing stations, and everybody was wearing a mask in public. Hours were spent tracking, tracing, and isolating close contacts - some of which are put in hotel quarantine as a precaution. Hundreds of close contacts were found and tested. This was possible due to the mandatory “check in" register that has been in place (via the Covid19 app). Close contacts can be traced very quickly.

After a 5 day hard lockdown, there were no new cases. Brilliant management and now the state is out of lockdown again. No more restrictions, everything fully open.

So from this extract, we can deduce the following as to WHY Australia and New Zealand do very well with the corona virus management:

• All incoming travellers are quarantined in guarded hotels and tested twice before release. This has been the policy since April 2020. The Liberal government of Canada started this in Feburary 2020, and that too in a rather haphazard and inefficient manner.
• Testing is available to all, at any time. Again, the policy since April 2020. In Canada, the provinces were left on their own. Ontario, for example, only tested if you have severe symptoms, early on during the epidemic, allowing it to spread.
• Contact registers are in place to be able to contact trace, isolate and test very quickly and efficiently. In Canada, it depends again from city to city. Toronto has essentially given up on contact tracing.
• Both Australia and New Zealand have very proactive leaders who will take very firm and sharp action with no notice. In Canada, we have Justin Trudeau, who relies on Dr Tam. Nothing more to be said.
• Both Australia and New Zealand have a very compliant population who will follow advice and instruction for their own benefit. In Canada, we HAD that. From March 2020 to July 2020, we had a very compliant population, but the politicians wasted that goodwill.
• Their leaders are willing to spend whatever amount of money it needs to contain this virus. They know that it will be repaid many fold as businesses etc. can remain open if the virus is eliminated. In Canada, we are also prepared to spend money. But most of it is wasted since we are not planning to eliminate the virus, just "manage" it.

What Canada doesn't understand, and what New Zealand and Australia understand very well, is that there is no difference between 1 case and 1000 cases. 1 can lead to 1000 in hours. This is something Canada never accepted. We are happy with being mediocre.

Why East Pakistan Became Bangladesh: The Final Part (Part 4) - Military and Politics

Why East Pakistan Became Bangladesh (Part 4)

Part 1- Economic Exploitation of the East

Part 2: Language and Culture

Part 3: Cyclone Bhola

The Final Part (Part 4): Military and Politics

In this series of posts, I will highlight just a few of the many reasons why East Pakistan seceded from Pakistan and became Bangladesh. 

The Final Part (Part 4): Military and Politics

When Pakistan came into being in 1947, it inherited 6 infantry divisions and 1 armored brigade from the British Indian army, ALL of which was based in West Pakistan. East Pakistan was later allocated a few battalions. Over time, as the Pakistan army exponentially grew, West Pakistan continued to receive over 90% of the armed forces. There was little to no air force or navy present to defend East Pakistan.

The defense of the East lies in the West .

This mantra, that the Pakistan army does NOT NEED TO DEFEND East Pakistan, formed the core of Pakistan army's strategy. Broadly speaking, this translated into Pakistan defeating India in the west, regardless of what transpired in the east (including Indian occupation of East Pakistan) because the presumed West Pakistani success would force India to negotiate a favourable settlement.

So Bengali Pakistanis became increasingly frustrated. They were asked to lay down their lives in defending West Pakistan, yet the Pakistani army wasn't prepared to defend them. The Pakistan army was also composed of 90% West Pakistanis, despite Bengalis making up 56% of the population of Pakistan.

During the two wars with India, East Pakistan was left virtually defenseless. Bengalis died preventing India from taking Lahore, while their own homes in East Pakistan were left open to attack, had India wanted to. This ultimately led to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of the Awami League proposing the famous "6 point formula" in 1966 in Lahore. It, amongst others, demanded almost full autonomy for East Pakistan in most matters.

Political Subjugation

From 1947 through to 1971, the political suppression of Bengali Pakistanis continued on a systematic scale.

• Whenever a Bengali Pakistan was elected as Prime Minister of Pakistan, such as Khawaja Nazimuddin, Mohammad Ali Bogra, or Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, the West Pakistani establishment would quickly depose of that person.
• As most Pakistanis were Bengalis, a system of direct representation would favour them, thus the leadership of West Pakistan came up with the idea of "One Unit". West Pakistan was "one unit", as was East Pakistan. Pakistani scholars and researchers maintain that the One Unit programme was viewed as a counterbalance against the political and population domination of the ethnic Bengali population of East Pakistan.
• We have already talked about the economic, cultural and language oppression policies of West Pakistan towards their brothers in the East in previous segments.
• Finally, in 1970 General Elections, the Bangladesh Awami League, the largest East Pakistani political party, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won a landslide victory in the national elections. The party won 167 of the 169 seats allotted to East Pakistan, and thus a majority of the 313 seats in the National Assembly. This gave the Awami League the constitutional right to form a government. However, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (a former Foreign Minister), the leader of the Pakistan People's Party, refused to allow Rahman to become the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Instead, he proposed the idea of having two Prime Ministers, one for each wing.
• This was the final straw. Bengalis now knew that EVEN IF THEY played by all the rules, and legitimately won, their aspirations would be crushed and their dreams squashed. Thus Pakistan could no longer remain united.

Events Leading to the Declaration of Independence

Events then began to move fast.

• On 7th March, Sheikh Mujubur Rahman gave his famous speech at the Racecourse.
• The Pakistan army began to fly soldiers into East Pakistan, disguised as civilians.
• General Tikka Khan, known as the "Butcher of Baluchistan", was flown into Dhaka to become Governor of East Bengal. East Pakistani judges, including Justice Siddique, refused to swear him in.
• "Operation Searchlight" began on March 25, 1971. Before the beginning of the operation, all foreign journalists were systematically deported from East Pakistan.
• The violence unleashed by the Pakistani forces on 25 March 1971 proved the last straw to the efforts to negotiate a settlement. Following these incidents, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman signed an official declaration of Independence:
  
  "Today Bangladesh is a sovereign and independent country. On Thursday night, West Pakistani armed forces suddenly attacked the police barracks at Razarbagh and the EPR headquarters at Pilkhana in Dacca. Many innocent and unarmed have been killed in Dhaka city and other places of Bangladesh. Violent clashes between E.P.R. and Police on the one hand and the armed forces of Pakistan on the other, are going on. The Bengalis are fighting the enemy with great courage for an independent Bangladesh. May Allah aid us in our fight for freedom. Joy Bangla."

Thus was born Bangladesh.

Sources:

1. Major Nasir Uddin, Juddhey Juddhey Swadhinata, pp47
2. Ali, Maj. Gen. Rao Farman, How Pakistan Got Divided, pp114
3. A Tale of Millions, Rafiqul Islam
4. Sayeed, Khalid B. (1967). The Political System of Pakistan. Houghton Mifflin. p. 61.
5. Talbot 1989, p. 86.

Why East Pakistan Became Bangladesh: Part 3 - Cyclone Bhola

Why East Pakistan Became Bangladesh (Part 3)

Part 1- Economic Exploitation of the East

Part 2: Language and Culture

Part 3: Cyclone Bhola

The Final Part (Part 4): Military and Politics

In this series of posts, I will highlight just a few of the many reasons why East Pakistan seceded from Pakistan and became Bangladesh. 

Part 3: Cyclone Bhola

Is it possible for a hurricane to physically split apart a nation? 

In this segment I want to highlight the effect of Cyclone Bhola on East Pakistan and the subsequent events. Before that, let's set the context.

Ever since 1947, East and West Pakistan has been uneasy bedfellows. Initially the fear of Muslims being dominated by a Hindu India kept the two wings together. By 1970, the military had been ruling Pakistan with an iron fist for 12 years. Strikes, riots and civil unrest was a daily fact of life. Elections were promised but delayed due to floods. And then came Tropical Cyclone Bhola.

Bhola remains the deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded, and one of the deadliest natural disasters.

Bhola is often compared to the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami in its devastation:

- More than half a million people in East Pakistan lost their lives.

- Over 3.6 million people directly affected by the cyclone.

- Total damage is over $86.4 million (1970 USD, $450 Million 2006 USD).

- 65% of the fishing capacity of the coastal region was destroyed

- Survivors were at risk of cholera, typhoid and small pox for upto three months.

- People ate tree roots and drank water from ponds in which corpses were rotting because they had no other choice.

The Response of the Pakistan Government

Faced with such a catastrophic natural disaster, the government of Pakistan had a moral duty, and a golden opportunity, to demonstrate to the citizens of East Pakistan that Pakistan cared about them and their well being. Instead, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. 

Whether by a genuine lack of concern from West Pakistan, or just genuine incompetency, or likely some combination of both, the response of the government to the disaster was a disaster in itself:

- About 3 weeks before the Bhola Cyclone there was a much smaller cyclone that had hit on October 23rd. The Pakistan government sent out evacuation orders, however, the storm dissipated. Because of this previous cyclone, government officials decided to not send out evacuation orders for Bhola.

- The government issued a warning of the approaching hurricane ... AFTER the hurricane had already made landfall, leading to people caught unaware.

- Only one military transport aircraft and three crop-dusting aircraft were assigned to relief work by the Pakistani government. They blamed India for not allowing flights across Indian air space, a charge the Indian government denied.

- A pesticide company had to wait two days before it received permission for two of its crop dusters, which were already in the country, to carry out supply drops in the affected regions.

- The Pakistani government only deployed a single helicopter to relief operations.

- Pakistan and India, due to their rivalry, did not share weather data which prevent warnings from given to East Pakistan coastal areas.

- The hurricane struck land on Nov 12, but the leader of Pakistan, Yahya Khan, only visited the areas on Nov 16. Despite criticism of efforts, he only took charge of relief operations on Nov 24.

- A reporter for the Pakistan Observer spent a week in the worst hit areas in early January and saw none of the tents supplied by relief agencies being used to house survivors.

- West Pakistani newspapers constantly downplayed the affects. Despite receiving reports of 500,000 dead, the Pakistan Observer on Nov 13 had the headline: "50 feared lost".

As the magnitude of the disaster became more and more clear, as did the inadequate response by the government, anger and unrest spread among the survivors. All political parties of East Pakistan issued a united statement harshly criticizing the government of Pakistan. Each politician wasted no time in telling the people how the Centre had bungled the efforts.

The entire political atmosphere had now changed dramatically.

No longer were East Pakistanis content with a return to democracy. With the disregard shown by the Yahya government towards the victims of the cyclone, not only did East Pakistani politicians demand the leader's resignation, but people openly called for what had hitherto been left unsaid: the breakup of East and West Pakistan. It was now only a matter of when.

To Be Continued ...

Sources:

1. 1970 cyclone changes the course of history. (2010, November 06) Retrieved November 11, 2017, from https://thisinnocentcorner.wordpress.com/.../1970.../

2. 1970 - The Great Bhola Cyclone. (N.D.). Retrieved November 1, 2017, from http://www.hurricanescience.org/.../storms/1970s/greatbhola/

3. Remembering Bhola https://www.dhakatribune.com/.../remembering-the-great...

4. Zeitlin, Arnold (January 13, 1971). "Pakistan Cyclone Relief Still Jumbled and Inadequate". Long Beach Press-Telegram. Associated Press. p. P-11. Retrieved April 15, 2007 – via Newspapers.com

5. Durdin, Tillman (March 11, 1971). "Pakistanis Crisis Virtually Halts Rehabilitation Work in Cyclone Region". The New York Times. p. 2.

Why East Pakistan Became Bangladesh: Part 2 - Language and Culture

Why East Pakistan Became Bangladesh (Part 2)

Part 1- Economic Exploitation of the East

Part 2: Language and Culture

Part 3: Cyclone Bhola

The Final Part (Part 4): Military and Politics

In this series of posts, I will highlight just a few of the many reasons why East Pakistan seceded from Pakistan and became Bangladesh. 

Part 2: Language and Culture

Pakistan was an anomaly when the nation was created. Two wings, East and West, divided by 1000 miles of Indian territory. Yet, it wasn't just the vast land that separated the two wings.

West Pakistan had 5 primary languages: Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, Balochi, Urdu. Yet none of them could be used by a West Pakistani to converse with a man from East Pakistan who spoke Bengali. West Pakistani culture was influenced by Arabic and Persian, while East Pakistan's Bengali culture had influences from Sanskrit and Hindi. Food, music, culture - everything was different. Yet, even modern India has sizable populations speaking over 150 languages, 22 of which are official. So what went wrong for Pakistan?

As a side note: In modern day Pakistan, Urdu is officially understood and spoken throughout Pakistan, despite being the mother tongue of only 8% of the population.

Islam and Religion

At the creation of Pakistan, the religion of Islam was used as a glue to hold such a diverse nation together. In fact, one of the architects of Pakistan was a Bengali man called A.K. Fazlul Hoque (also called Sher-e-Bangla, the Lion of Bengal). It was he who presented the Lahore Resolution in 1940 that ultimate resulted in the creation of Pakistan based on religious lines. Being Muslim, and Islam the religion, was to be the unifying factor of Pakistan.

Yet, even Islam was different in between the two wings. In 1947 the Bengali Muslims had identified themselves with Pakistan's Islamic project. Yet by the 1970s the people of East Pakistan had given priority to their Bengali ethnicity over their religious identity. Many Bengali Muslims strongly objected to the Islamist paradigm imposed by the Pakistani state in the interim years. The history of Islam in Bengal has been strongly influenced with Sufism - a much less extreme, more tolerant variety of Islam, which allowed for a strong connection with cultural heritage, language and ethnicity.

Cultural discrimination also prevailed, causing the eastern wing to forge a distinct political identity. There was a bias against Bengali culture in state media, such as a ban on broadcasts of the works of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. And then there was the Language Movement.

The Language Movement and the birth of Ekushey

In 1947, almost immediately after the birth of the nation, the government of Pakistan declared that "Urdu should be the sole state language".

At that time, only 7.2% of Pakistanis spoke Urdu, while 55.4% of Pakistanis spoke Bengali.

Immediate protests erupted in East Pakistan. At the height of civic unrest, Governor-General of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah arrived in Dhaka on 19 March 1948. On 21 March, at a civic reception at Racecourse Ground, he declared that "Urdu, and only Urdu" embodied the spirit of Muslim nations and would remain as the state language. West Pakistani politicians even suggested Bengali be written in the Arabic script.

The culmination of the protests led to the famous killing of students on Feb 21, 1952. Today that date is marked worldwide as International Mother Language Day. Finally in 1954 the government of Pakistan relented and declared that Bengali will also be a state official language of Pakistan, which finally came into place in 1956.

The Effect of the Divide

The almost ten year struggle by Bengali Pakistanis to have the right to speak, converse, teach, and obtain government services in their own language, in their OWN country, further highlighted the differences between the two Wings.

It heightened the sense of alienation and 'otherness'. It was not the final straw that broke the camel's back, but it was one of the many in a series of unfortunate events that ultimately led to civil war.

PS. Interesting trivia: the famous Pakistani patriotic songs Sohni Dharti Allah Rakhay, as well as Jeevay Jeevay Pakistan are composed and originally sung by Shahnaz Rahmatullah, a Bengali artist.

To be continued ...

Why East Pakistan Became Bangladesh: Part 1- Economic Exploitation of the East

Why East Pakistan Became Bangladesh (Part 1)

Part 1- Economic Exploitation of the East

Part 2: Language and Culture

Part 3: Cyclone Bhola

The Final Part (Part 4): Military and Politics

In this series of posts, I will highlight just a few of the many reasons why East Pakistan seceded from Pakistan and became Bangladesh. Today, I want to focus on the economic disparity between the two wings before Liberation.

Part 1- Economic Exploitation of the East

Take a look at the chart. In almost every year since the creation of Pakistan in 1947, spending was more on West Pakistan than East Pakistan. 

This, despite the fact that the majority of Pakistanis were Bengalis and lived in East Pakistan.

Here are some highlights amongst the stats:

• During the period of 1947-55 only 10% of total expenditure of the central government was spent in East Pakistan.
• In 1948 there were 11 textile mills in the East and only 9 in the West.
• In 1971 there were 26 in the East as opposed to 150 in the West.
• Presence of the country's capital city and more immigrant businessmen in the Western wing directed greater government allocations there.
• Much lower foreign investment in Eastern wing as opposed to West.
• The Pakistani state's economic outlook was geared towards urban industry, which was not compatible with East Pakistan's mainly agrarian economy.
• In 1947 and 1966, East Pakistan had a trade surplus of Rs. 4924.1 million where West Pakistan ran into a deficit of Rs. 16,634.6 million. Naturally, East Pakistan’s surplus was used to meet up West Pakistan’s deficit.
• Three capital cities - Karachi, Rawalpindi and Islamabad were built in phases in West Pakistan. An amount of Rs. 5700 million was spent till 1956 for Karachi alone to build it up but Dhaka got only Rs. 250 million.

As can be seen, despite more Pakistanis being Bengalis, and living in the East, money, resources and man power was always directed at the Western wing, despite Ayub Khan's brief investments in East Pakistan.

Thus it isn't hard to see why the people of Bengal felt exploited. The British had left, but the Bengalis had remained a colony. This time in their "own" country.

To be continued ...

Sources:

1. Economic Exploitation of East Pakistan, by Shanawaz Ahamed

2. Reports of the Advisory Panels for the Fourth Five Year Plan 1970–75, Vol. I, published by the planning commission of Pakistan.

Lego 21325 || Medieval Village || One of the best Lego sets of ALL time!

 I recently purchased the Lego 21325: Medieval Blacksmith set. I honestly did not realize just how much fun this set would be!

When the set was released in February, I put a video out that I was NOT going to buy this set ... immediately. When I finally did purchase it in March, it was because they had included the Amelia Earhart promo.

The real joy of new adult-aimed sets like this compared to my childhood sets is all the interior details. Sure, they're not that visible once it's finished, but they add so much to the build experience. 

I spaced out the build over several days so I could enjoy it more. If you followed me on Instagram you would have seen the build develop over time in my stories.

This set instantly reminded me of the classic Lego Kingdoms sets and the Castle sets. A blast from the past and when I was constructing this beautiful building, I wanted more. More medieval buildings to construct a town. Please, LEGO!

Adding the light brick, and the way it is positioned under some translucent bricks, is truly genius and must be experienced first hand. It really does look like the forge is hot and ready to melt iron!

Every bag had different colours and pieces, interesting building techniques and something interesting to explore. It felt like a real trip down memory lane and was filled with nostalgia, yet when compared to the previous Blacksmith sets, it was actually far more sophisticated. What was even better was that each bag was actually LESS building than the bag before, leading to a race to the finish!

Here's the finished product. I put it on a baseplate with some additional tiles so it becomes easy to lift and maneuver. I also added one extra blacksmith (perhaps an apprentice?) minifig that I had in my inventory.

The two Black Falcons minifigures are a throwback to an earlier Lego Medieval/Castle era, one which I hope they bring back!

The only negative thing I could say about the Blacksmith set is the tree. It took some time to build, had lots of little pieces, and LOT of repeat steps, but in the end, the final look is only somewhat worth it.

Much like the Ideas Old Fishing Store, this set is packed full of detail and interesting building techniques. Each building floor is removable, as well as the roof for playability. This makes a great display piece as well. 

Lots of extra shield, knight headgear and ingots, as well as other stuff in the forge.

Details! Details! Details! The light-up forge, the upstairs fireplace, the writing desk with quill and ink pot, the bed with colorful quilt, and the kitchen range complete with stewpot are just delightful! 

I loved the roof detailing with the Nexo knight shields. They were so much fun to place! The roof gives the appearance of an old building, with some moss, and some missing shingles. 

And again, in true modular style, you can take off even the roof to display the interiors. I was surprised Lego went all out - we even have a bearskin rug!

Overall this is an extremely fun to build set, and fun to play set, and fun to display set. Worth every dollar, and highly recommended!