Any good news in the coronavirus hit world?

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Linhares said:
I was just wondering is there any positive / good news there in the world right now? Is there any hope left? Will God come to our rescue? I know he always has everything in control. But right now its so hard to see it.
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A good detailed update on the supply chain status with a variety of products.

theconservativetreehouse.com

Phase Four - Supply Chain Prioritizes - Proteins Return, Manufactured Processed Grain Products Still Lag... - The Last Refuge

• Phase One was retail. • Phase two was distribution. • Phase three was the space between manufacturing and distribution. • Phase four is raw material supply to manufacturing. U.S. food processing, and manufacturing is now operating at full capacity. By now the majority of protein manufacturing...
theconservativetreehouse.com theconservativetreehouse.com
 
Peeps said:
My husband has a way of explaining high salaries that might interest you. These people influence millions of people at the same time, and if you divide up their salary among all these millions of people, they are actually being paid less than someone like me, who influences approximately 200 people a day (I interpret cultures and set up susceptibility tests for patients with infecitons). If you divide up my salary among these 200 people, I am being paid more PER PERSON than the celebs!
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Influencing millions of people is not necessarily a valuable contribution. The way that celebrities and athletes “influence” the culture is very often in adopting the most recent progressive cause and the promotion of behaviour that is frequently irresponsible if imitated by those most influenced.

By the way I wasn’t arguing that there are NO positive contributions by actors and athletes. I was arguing that their remuneration for what they do is far far outsized compared to many other more valuable occupations.

The numbers influenced actually mean nothing unless you can definitively make the case that the influence is overwhelmingly positive to society as a whole. Judging by the way many celebrities and athletes have completely lost any sense of decency in their “commentaries” and their advocacy principles, I suggest you have a steep uphill climb to establish the value of their influence.

I could relate a personal anecdote about my advocacy for higher salaries years ago for the teaching profession on the principle that higher salaries would attraction better qualified teachers. That assumption, I am afraid, is not necessarily true. People drawn by salaries don’t always have the best reasons for entry into the teaching profession. So after a number of years I realized I wouldn’t advocate for higher salaries for teachers, but I would promote the positive aspects of teaching as a profession, minimizing the importance of higher wages. A decent living is important, but teaching is a vocation rather than an occupation.
 
Maybe not in your circle, but there are still a lot of people working from home in various industries. Where I am, essentially anyone who had a “office job” is now working from home as much as possible.
 
Everybody from my company, and all my other friends with corporate or professional office jobs, are working from home. I usually work from home anyway even when there’s not a virus going around.

However, “in my circle” I have a lot of friends who work service or retail jobs. Retail store that’s “non-essential”, small business, salon, bartender, restaurant etc. Their places of employment are closed and have been for days. Not everybody has a professional office job or career, a lot of people are in the service industry working paycheck to paycheck. I think the office job crowd often tends to forget those folks unless they have a wide social circle. It’s a very significant number of people.
 
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HarryStotle said:
I could relate a personal anecdote about my advocacy for higher salaries years ago for the teaching profession on the principle that higher salaries would attraction better qualified teachers. That assumption, I am afraid, is not necessarily true. People drawn by salaries don’t always have the best reasons for entry into the teaching profession. So after a number of years I realized I wouldn’t advocate for higher salaries for teachers, but I would promote the positive aspects of teaching as a profession, minimizing the importance of higher wages. A decent living is important, but teaching is a vocation rather than an occupation.
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I certainly agree with this.
 
Poverty.
Poverty of material goods.
Poverty of safety.
Poverty of peace.

From poverty comes the need; the desire to plead with one’s Maker. Our poverty reveals the Lord’s wealth.

The worse the world provides, the better the Lord provides - if we ask. Insecurity leads the soul to seek security.

As much tragedy as we are witnessing, from it comes faith - which is not perceptible to the senses.

Less of this world. More of the next.

Faith.
 
HarryStotle said:
The numbers influenced actually mean nothing unless you can definitively make the case that the influence is overwhelmingly positive to society as a whole. Judging by the way many celebrities and athletes have completely lost any sense of decency in their “commentaries” and their advocacy principles, I suggest you have a steep uphill climb to establish the value of their influence.
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I do think their contribution to society is very positive. E.g., I think many school kids stay in high school only because of sports. Oh, of course it would be great if they were interested in school because of reading, writing, and arithmetic, but that’s not reality. A lot of kids get college scholarships because of their athletic prowess, and the vast majority of college athletes do NOT go into professional sports, but graduate and get a regular ol’ job–which they probably would NOT have gotten without sports.

I think that many elderly people and invalids get much joy out of both sports and entertainment on television–oh, I realize that it would be nice if able-bodied people and loving family members would spend lots of time with their elderly relatives and friends who are incapacitated–but again–real life! My parents in law are elderly, disabled, and homebound, and my husband and I bring them supper and eat with them 3-4 nights a week–it’s hard. We both work all day, and these visits to our parents make it impossible for us to pursue our hobbies, work on improving our home, make it necessary for us to say “no” to various community and church activities, make it harder for us to try to find some time to exercise, and create a lot of extra work in cooking, packing up the meal, bringing it into their home and setting it up, and cleaning it all up afterwards. I wish that my parents-in-law DID like sports or popular TV show instead of the old Westerns that they watched endlessly every day! We are their only visitors, BTW–sad.

And I think that sporting events (e.g., Olympics, Super Bowl, Stanley Cup, etc.) give the community at large something fun to focus on that brings us all together in fellowship. One of our local men was drafted into the NBA and last year his team won it all–there was a viewing party downtown for the Final Game, and over 6000 people showed up and had fun together during the game (which he and his team won to win the championship!).

Same for a good television show–think of the massive viewing of shows like MASH Final Episode, or “Luke and Laura” (General Hospital)—this list could go on and on. One of the things I HATE about “streaming” is that we no longer have the camaraderie of watching the same shows and talking about them–everyone is watching their own personal preference. But television and movies still have a lot of power to bring people together and get them talking.

And then there are books–e.g., the Harry Potter series–it’s one of the last children’s literature pieces that children and adults actually READ out of real books, not from a phone screen.
 
Not good but fantastic news!

Jesus still is alive! In heaven, in our hearts and every tabernacle across the world!

God is in control!

May we increase in love and hunger for the Mass, perhaps this crises will help heal another crises of the unbelief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

Lord Jesus for all the times I took for granted the privilege of being able to go to Mass, please forgive me.
 
"The crime drop has been experienced in other major U.S. cities as well, including in New York City, hit the hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic. From March 9 through March 15, New York saw a 9% overall jump in its seven major crimes over the same week in 2019, official NYPD statistics show.
But the following week, the city saw about a 17% drop, including double-digit percentage drops of reports of grand larceny and rape, and recorded only one homicide.

In Los Angeles, another city hit hard by COVID-19, its Police Department also reported big drops in crime over the last month. From Feb. 23 to March 21, the city saw a 25% drop in the total number of people shot compared with the previous month, according to official LAPD statistics."
 
Solidarity behind the the medical staff in Tunisia:

www.bbc.com

Coronavirus: 150 Tunisians self-isolate in factory to make masks

They are churning out 50,000 a day, plus other gear to keep doctors protected from coronavirus.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com

In my own community, seamstresses are asking for donations of cloth and making masks at home, and responding to nursing home requests for large long sleeved shirts which might be repurposed as gowns. collections of sanitizer and gloves have been accumulated in local communities and then transported to nearby hospitals. Dentists, who are staying home, are sending masks and gloves to our hospitals. Bakers are making treats and sending them on to our local hospitals to support their staff. And, of course, prayers are ascending to heaven!
 
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Today - known cases

Recovered: 139,555​

481,059 Currently Infected Patients

455,833 ( 95 %) in Mild Condition
 
Peeps said:
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HarryStotle:
The numbers influenced actually mean nothing unless you can definitively make the case that the influence is overwhelmingly positive to society as a whole. Judging by the way many celebrities and athletes have completely lost any sense of decency in their “commentaries” and their advocacy principles, I suggest you have a steep uphill climb to establish the value of their influence.
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I do think their contribution to society is very positive. E.g., I think many school kids stay in high school only because of sports…
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Except, again, you are only looking at one side of the “contributions.” To truly assess the value to society of sports figures and celebrities it is proper to weigh, in balance, the relative benefit against the relative harm.

Even in your example you state "E.g., I think many school kids stay in high school only because of sports. Oh, of course it would be great if they were interested in school because of reading, writing, and arithmetic, but that’s not reality.

Perhaps the reason that “that’s not reality” is because of the outsized influence of celebrities and sports figures on our culture. Education and wisdom are devalued precisely BECAUSE celebrity status is so over-valued.
 
HarryStotle said:
Even in your example you state "E.g., I think many school kids stay in high school only because of sports. Oh, of course it would be great if they were interested in school because of reading, writing, and arithmetic, but that’s not reality.

Perhaps the reason that “that’s not reality” is because of the outsized influence of celebrities and sports figures on our culture. Education and wisdom are devalued precisely BECAUSE celebrity status is so over-valued.
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Maybe, but I tend to think that the main reason they’re not interested in school is because of inadequate or faulty parenting; e.g., a one-parent home where the one parent is working two or three jobs and is never home, or e.g., a parent who suffers from addiction (drugs, alcohol, porn, etc.)

When parents have had poor experiences with school, perhaps due to a substandard segregated school, they may not have the skills and knowledge to adequately prepare their babies/toddlers for school and/or to help their older children understand and complete their homework. E.g., when a parent does not read, they probably aren’t likely to be reading to their young children, or helping an older child analyze a history or science assignment.
 
Peeps said:
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HarryStotle:
Even in your example you state "E.g., I think many school kids stay in high school only because of sports. Oh, of course it would be great if they were interested in school because of reading, writing, and arithmetic, but that’s not reality.

Perhaps the reason that “that’s not reality” is because of the outsized influence of celebrities and sports figures on our culture. Education and wisdom are devalued precisely BECAUSE celebrity status is so over-valued.
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Maybe, but I tend to think that the main reason they’re not interested in school is because of inadequate or faulty parenting; e.g., a one-parent home where the one parent is working two or three jobs and is never home, or e.g., a parent who suffers from addiction (drugs, alcohol, porn, etc.)
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Right, so when we make athletes and celebrities our social heroes and completely ignore those one or two parents working multiple jobs each day at drudge labour to eke out a daily living what is the message being sent? The successful ones are the pro-athletes and the celebrities; those left to forge out a living in great difficulty are less than successful.

The underlying messages, rather than the obvious ones might be more powerful than you are allowing in your calculus. What we obviously value might say something about the relative lack of value we place in things we don’t obviously value.

Do adolescents value, for example, the opinions of their hardworking but less successful parents (in the eyes of society) or do they value the opinions of the lauded and famous? Yet, what are the values being promoted by the majority of the famous? Abortion on demand? The value of material things? The denigration of religious beliefs? The latest progressivist causes? The most recent fashionable or societal trends, i.e., being trendy or “with it”?
 
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There were recoveries, but generally, positive cases are rising in counts 😦
 
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