Yesterday’s Coronavirus figures from the lying corrupt lying corrupt rotten untrustworthy Chinese were as follows:
Confirmed cases – 45,206
Suspected cases – 16,067
Severe cases – 8,204
Deaths – 1,118
Recovered – 5,123
From the little I understand, we’re being told that the death rate for this virus (which was probably manufactured in Dr Peng Zhou’s laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology based on bio-engineering a virus sample that originally came from a Canadian research facility) is around 2.5% – that’s 1,1118 deaths from 45,206 I think (or it may be 1,1118 deaths divided by the total confirmed and suspected cases which comes out at around 1.8%).
But that doesn’t make any sense to me as we don’t know how many more of the 45,206 confirmed and 16,067 suspected cases will die. Plus we have the 8,204 severe cases – presumably a few of them will pop their chopsticks in the very near future as many will be interned to rot under armed guard in China’s new isolation gulags (which our mainstream media optimistically call “hospitals”) with little to no medical care.
Surely, the most relevant statistic is to look at the numbers who have been through infection and either survived or died? If you do this you have 6,241 (1,118 died + 5,123 survived) who have either died or survived. If you then calculate the percentage who have been through the illness and died, this comes to about 17.9% (1,118 deaths divided by 6,241 completed cases).
I’m no mathematical genius, but it seems to me that this death rate of around 17.9% is slightly higher than the official death rate usually quoted by the ‘experts’ of somewhere around 2%. Though I would expect the death rate in China to be much higher than in any other country as:
the Chinese healthcare system is totally overwhelmed
many suspected cases are just being sent home with no medical treatment
other suspected cases are being thrown into newly-built isolation gulags to rot and die
Time for a holiday in Europe?
Now, just imagine for a moment what you would do if you were a reasonably affluent corrupt, rotten Chinaman:
Would you stay in filthy, dirty, disease-ridden, corrupt Communist China and risk yourself, a member of your family or your ‘second wife’ getting the virus and thus a possible death sentence? Or would you decide now was an excellent time to take an extended couple of months ‘holiday’ in Europe or Australia or New Zealand because:
you’d be much less likely to get the virus
if you did get the virus, you’d get much better medical care (free of charge) outside corrupt, rotten China – you wouldn’t be thrown into an isolation gulag and left to rot and die
I rather suspect many corrupt, rotten Chinese have worked this out and are packing their bags and heading for the airport and safety.
Meanwhile, if you check flight arrivals at Heathrow today, you’ll see there are still plenty coming from China – I think there are around 19 scheduled arrivals from China this week. I rather suspect that flights out of dirty, corrupt, pestilential China are extremely full at the moment while flights back to China are rather empty.
With thousands of Chinese (some of whom may be carrying the virus) rushing out of their filthy sh-t-hole country to avoid the new plague, that they have inflicted on the world, and with Western governments allowing their planes to land, what could possibly go wrong?
Oh, I almost forgot, happy Valentines Day
(By the way, there are some great comments on my last blog featuring the Tony Heller debunking the latest climate alarmism. You can read the comments by clicking on the headline)
“[This] is not a figure you would normally associate with Antarctica, even in the summertime,” WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis told reporters in Geneva.
Temperatures on the Antarctic continent have risen by almost 3C over the past 50 years, the organisation said, and about 87% of the glaciers along its west coast have “retreated” in that time.
The glaciers have shown an “accelerated retreat” in the past 12 years, the WMO added, due to global warming.
But before you get out your bathing gear and your suntan lotion and start looking to book your next summer holiday in Antarctica, here’s the inimitable Tony Heller explaining why this latest ‘shock, horror’ supposed story is just yet another ecofascist scam.
Given that our useless, Greta-worshipping government is about to ban petrol and diesel cars and gas central heating, it’s sort of important to know that the whole ‘save the planet from Climate Breakdown’ is just a massive pack of lies cobbled together by capitalism-loathing, anarchist, lefty-scumbags.
I’ve got some really neat news for you if you’re a multi-cultural enricher either living in or intending to move to the Izlumic Republic of Swedistan. It seems that rape is no longer a serious criminal offence in Swedistan – but only if you’re a multi-cultural enricher. Even rape of under-age girls seems to now be ok in Swedistan. In fact, the more brutal the rape and the more you hit, kick and strangle the girl you’re raping, the less likely it is that you’ll be punished. I guess the ever so progressive, ever so liberal Swedes have realised that violent rape of underage girls is part of the culture of many migrants and therefore in ever so liberal, ever so progressive multi-cultural Swedistan, they’re not punishing anyone who is acting according to their culture.
Hussein from Somalia
Let me tell you about Hussein who travelled all the way from his home in Somalia to enrich Swedistan:
A 19-year-old Somali Muslim migrant in Sweden was sentenced to just 75 hours of community service for brutally raping a 13 year old girl several times, both vaginally and anally, that caused her so much pain, she wasn’t able to sit down for two days and has recurring nightmares.
The prosecutor was looking to get him convicted of rape against a minor, but the Swedish court decided to only convict him of “taking advantage” of the young girl reports Swedish news site Samnytt.
The age of consent in Sweden is 15. Despite this, the court did not convict 19 year old Hussein of rape against the 13 year old girl, but instead he was convicted of “sexually taking advantage” of her.
The Somali Muslim man received residence permit in Sweden by the migration authorities on the 13th of April 2016. On the 9th of March 2019 he was arrested by police. On the 6th of May 2019 Mora District court sentenced the man to a suspended sentence, 75 hours community service and ordered to pay SEK 15 000 ($1 579) damages to the girl.
Mikael Shaba and the 12-year-old Swedish girl
A 12-year-old girl who was so brutally raped she bled from her ‘abdomen’ after being groomed on Snapchat has seen her rapist avoid jail. Mikael Shaba, 17, groomed his victim on the picture sharing social media site.
On June 21st, 2018, Shaba lured his victim to his basement where he carried out the vicious attack. The victim is said to have bled from her “abdomen” and suffered several bruises around her body.
When talking with the police, the 12-year-old victim stated that Shaba came “from another country” but she couldn’t recall his nationality. Initially, the girl didn’t report the sexual attack. The victim’s older brother overhead Shaba boasting and joking about the rape to his friends. After this, he told his mother who later called the police.
Shaba denies the rape, claiming that the victim and her friend–who was present–are fabricating their claim in order to sully his reputation. Since the rape, the victim has begun to lose her hair due to psychological problems which have arisen out of the incident.
“The court finds that the crime has a penalty value of two years in prison, which is the minimum penalty for rape against children where the sentence scale runs from 2 to 6 years in prison. However, because of Mikael Shaba’s young age, the court considers that he should not be sentenced to prison at all, nor to closed youth care.”
The court also reasoned that Mikael Shaba should be given a 50 percent discount on the number of hours of youth service he is to be sentenced and therefore decide on 50 hours instead of 100. The reason for the reduction is that it should be considered part of the penalty that Mikael Shaba must participate in a call program according to an established “youth contract”. Specifically, according to the annex to the judgment, this consists in his having to talk to a social assistant for 45 minutes about violence on 15 occasions.
The rapist was handed a light sentence of fifty hours “youth service”. Shaba and his friends are also accused of verbally harassing the victim after the rape, in some instances calling her a ‘whore.’
Muhamed from Somalia
And let’s not forget Muhamed from Somalia:
(This one is a bit difficult to read, but by now you must be getting the picture of Swedistan’s descent into a progressive, liberal, multi-cultural hell)
For most of my life I’ve lived in detached houses, in the UK and abroad. However, for a few years while I was travelling a lot, I moved into a penthouse flat as it was much more secure than a house when left empty for months at a time. I also have a small condo in an exotic country often referred to as the Land of Smells (LoS) or something like that.
So what?
The ‘so what’ is that I was rather amused to see the property management companies in the UK and 6,000 miles away in the LoS using the same tricks to fleece flat-owners.
Here are just four tricks that I’ve come across. Readers can add some more by clicking on the headline.
Money, money, money
Trick 1 – The overcharge
Whenever commissioning work – painting, carpet replacement, new security system, roof replacement etc – the management companies in the UK would get three quotes for the work and choose the one that supposedly offered the best value. But strangely, when I privately got quotes for the work (without telling the management company) the prices I got were around 30% cheaper than the ones the supposedly ‘professional’ management company received.
Basically, the management companies in the UK and the LoS were allowing suppliers to massively overcharge for any work and then were taking a cut from the money fleeced from flat-owners.
Perhaps amusingly, I decided to play the same game. Some work needed to be done in my flat to prevent rain-water leaking in under some large sliding patio doors which led out to my roof terrace. As usual, the management company got their three prices. I contacted a company which came with a price around 30% cheaper than the management company. So, I did a deal with that building company – if they submitted a quote just 10% below the management company’s prices and threw in new patio door/windows free of charge for me, I’d get the management company to use their services.
These are the kind of patio window/doors I mean:
Often those who make a killing by cheating others are so arrogant and so convinced of their own superiority that they never expect their own tricks will be used against them.
Trick 2 – Unnecessary or premature work
As far as I understand, most property management companies get a fixed payment each year depending on how many flats there are in the building. However, the management company also gets extra money if any building or repair work is needed as this clearly entails extra work for them. So it is hugely in the management company’s interest to get as much work commissioned as possible. Thus you will often find things like carpets being renewed when the existing ones are still in good condition, lots of painting work and, the biggest earners of all, flat roofs or lifts being replaced as soon as the initial guarantee runs out even if the roof or lift is still in an acceptable condition.
Trick 3 – The insurance con
Typically the management company will organise insurance for the building. It appears to be accepted practice that the insurance companies pay the management company a kick-back every time the insurance is renewed. From what I understand, the professional trade body ARMA (Association of Residential Managing Agents) approve of this practice of kick-backs from insurance companies. ARMA claims to be the leading trade association for residential leasehold management in England and Wales – “Setting the standards inproperty management”. ARMA has members across the UK and claims that to be a member management companies have to “adhere to a strict set of standards”.
Trick 4 – Building their own property empires
Given that owners and employees of property management companies work in the property business, they will know which blocks of flats are the most lucrative for anyone owning a rental flat and they will know when flats are for sale. This allows some owners and employees of the property management company to start building their own portfolios of rental properties. Then when a couple of thousand pounds of electrical or plumbing or other maintenance work is needed on their rental properties, they commission the work and just charge it to the building’s general maintenance or sinking fund. Thus they get the other flat-owners to pay for maintenance of their private property portfolios. After all, what flat-owner ever goes through the financial accounts for their building and identifies exactly what work was done by examining every single invoice submitted each year? None. And certainly not the building’s usually useless Board members.
What about the Board?
Most blocks of flats choose a Board whose job it is to liaise with the management company and ensure the flat-owners are getting good value from the management company. But this usually doesn’t work because the kind of people elected to the Board are often those least well-equipped to be effective in defending flat-owners’ interests.
If a flat-owner has a challenging and/or responsible job, or a hectic family life, or a busy social life, they’ll often be reluctant to take on the extra work of being a Board member. So, those who do put themselves forward are often those with rather uninspiring jobs and/or lives and who see becoming a Board member as boosting their own sense of self-importance and giving them the position – a Board member – they haven’t managed to achieve in their lives.
In life, people’s awareness of their limitations is usually inversely proportional to their intelligence. So such people are often unaware of their own weaknesses and are easily manipulated by the property management company. A ‘successful’ management company can even manipulate weak-minded Board members to take the management company’s side in any disputes with flat-owners.
A licence to steal?
I suspect some of the most corrupt companies in Britain are property management companies managing blocks of flats.
Starting a property management company can look like just being a licence to steal.
Something strange is happening. Much of the UK mainstream media seem to have fallen in love with the lying, corrupt, lying Chinese. Here are a few examples:
The Chinese authorities have been praised for how open they have been about the Coronavirus compared to how they tried to cover up the SARS outbreak. What bollox. The Chinese haven’t been open at all. They tried to cover up the Coronavirus outbreak; the opthamologist who first noticed the infections was arrested, beaten up and made to sign a statement that he had lied; and the Chinese have been lying and lying and lying about the real number of infections and deaths
The Chinese have been praised for supposedly building a new hospital in just 10 days. What bollox. It wasn’t a hospital they built – it was a quarantine prison with armed guards to prevent people escaping and where those suspected of being infected will be left to rot and die with minimal, if any, medical care
I have now contacted about 6 UK journalists with the story of how the Coronavirus outbreak actually came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and not the Wuhan ‘wet market’. Not a single of these journalists showed any interest in the story.
Our mainstream media’s love affair with China wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that the lying, corrupt, lying Chinese are building our next nuclear power station, our 5G phone network and our new high-speed trains plus we desperately need a post-Brexit trade deal with the lying, corrupt, lying Chinese.
Was it medical research or bio-weapon research?
A story is doing the rounds on the Internet that the Coronavirus was originally stolen from a Canadian research lab by Chinese researchers and then smuggled to China to be used to develop bio-weapons. Here’s a link to that story:
The damning evidence against Dr Peng Zhou and the Wuhan Institute of Virology?
And just to prove I’m not a crazy conspiracy theorist, here’s a recent job ad from the Wuhan Institute of Virology giving a pretty good idea of what Dr Peng Zhou’s work covered and making it very very clear that carelessness at the Institute, rather than the Wuhan ‘wet market’, was the probable source of the current outbreak which has probably killed more than 5,000 Chinese.
The ad is first in English and then follows the Chinese version from the official Wuhan Institute of Virology website
Post-doctoral Recruitment Notice of Zhou Peng’s Discipline Group, Wuhan Institute of Virology
Source: Published: 2019-11-18 【Font Size: Tai Zhong small ]
Recruiting positions:1-2 postdoctoral fellows ( research direction: unique mechanism of bat innate immunity )
Second, job requirements:
(1) Have obtained or are about to obtain a PhD in life science / biomedical related fields;
(2) Reliable and rigorous work style, with strong independent scientific research ability and teamwork spirit;
(C) has a strong English communication and writing skills, published in the international mainstream academic journals over research papers;
(Iv) has a cell biology, immunology, genomics and other relevant background experience is preferred;
Third, salary and benefits:
(A) annual salary postdoctoral 18-25 Wan (pre-tax); while a provident fund and social security accounts.
(2) According to the performance of postdoctoral staff during the station, enjoy the scientific research awards of the research team and the institute. Those who have obtained support from relevant levels of funds, ” Boxin Program ” and ” Joint Funding ” may be implemented in accordance with regulations.
(C) the personnel employed persons, wages, insurance, welfare and other national, relevant provisions of the institutions of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as well as the rules and regulations formulated my execution.
Career development:
Wuhan Virus Research Institute attaches great importance to the career development of postdoctoral talents. Post-doctoral staff can apply for professional title recognition while in the station (specifically refer to the relevant provisions of the personnel department), and outstanding post-doctoral staff can directly apply for research associate researchers and other scientific research positions. The discipline group and research institute / State Key Laboratory will provide sufficient post-doctoral academic exchanges and training opportunities, support the application of various funds and talent projects, support career development, and help grow into outstanding young research talents.
Material requirements:
Eligible applicants are required to send their resumes, electronic texts of representative papers, research / work assumptions and academic credentials to:
Teacher Zhou of the subject group, peng.zhou @ wh.iov.cn; Teacher Gao of the Organization and Personnel Department, gaodan@wh.iov.cn . In the subject line of the email, please indicate ” Applicant Zhou Peng Group XXX ” . From the date of this job posting, anyone who meets the requirements of the post can sign up and recruit until the candidate is suitable.
PI Introduction:
Peng Zhou, Ph.D., Researcher, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Leader of Bat Virus Infection and Immunization. He received his PhD in Wuhan Virus Research Institute in 2010 and has worked on bat virus and immunology in Australia and Singapore. In 2009 , he took the lead in starting the research on the immune mechanism of bat long-term carrying and transmitting virus in the world. So far, he has published more than 30 SCI articles, including the first and corresponding author’s Nature , Cell Host Microbe and PNAS . At present, research on bat virus and immunology is continuing, and it has received support from the National Excellent Youth Fund, the Pilot Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Major Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology.
The main research directions of the research group:
Taking bats as the research object, I will answer the molecular mechanism that can coexist with Ebola and SARS- associated coronavirus for a long time without causing disease, and its relationship with flight and longevity. Virology, immunology, cell biology, and multiple omics are used to compare the differences between humans and other mammals.
I’ll leave this up for a couple of days as it’s sort of important.
I wanted to write about something else today. But the evidence is mounting up that the current Coronavirus epidemic started in a Wuhan Institite of Virology where a certain Dr Peng Zhou had been conducting research into how bats can carry viruses like the Coronavirus without getting sick.
This is a job posting for the lab of Dr. Peng Zhou (周鹏), Ph.D., a researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and Leader of the Bat Virus Infection and Immunization Group:
He received his PhD in Wuhan Virus Research Institute in 2010 and has worked on bat virus and immunology in Australia and Singapore. In 2009 , he took the lead in starting the research on the immune mechanism of bat long-term carrying and transmitting virus in the world. So far, he has published more than 30 SCI articles, including the first and corresponding author’s Nature , Cell Host Microbe and PNAS . At present, research on bat virus and immunology is continuing, and it has received support from the National “You Qing” Fund, the pilot project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the major project of the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Below is a list of several recent papers published by Dr. Zhou. The last one on the list is particularly damning. It comes from the Journal of General Virology, Volume 93, Issue 2, 1 February 2012:
Here is a press release from Dr. Zhou’s lab titled “How bats carry viruses without getting sick
Bats are known to harbor highly pathogenic viruses like Ebola, Marburg, Hendra, Nipah, and SARS-CoV, and yet they do not show clinical signs of disease. In a paper published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe on February 22, scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China find that in bats, an antiviral immune pathway called the STING-interferon pathway is dampened, and bats can maintain just enough defense against illness without triggering a heightened immune reaction.
“We believe there is a balance between bats and the pathogens they carry,”says senior author Peng Zhou. “This work demonstrated that in order to maintain a balance with viruses, bats may have evolved to dampen certain pathways.”
In humans and other mammals, an immune-based over-response to one of these and other pathogenic viruses can trigger severe illness. For example, in humans, an activated STING pathway is linked with severe autoimmune diseases.
“In human history, we have been chasing infectious diseases one after another,” says Zhou, “but bats appear to be a ‘super-mammal’ to these deadly viruses.” By identifying a weakened but not defunct STING pathway, researchers have some new insight into how bats fine-tune antiviral defenses to balance an effective, but not an overt, response against viruses.
The authors hypothesize that this defense strategy evolved as part of three interconnected features of bat biology: they are flying mammals, have a long lifespan, and host a large viral reservoir.
“Adaptation to flight likely caused positive selection of multiple bat innate immune and DNA damage repair genes,” Zhou says. “These adaptations may have shaped certain antiviral pathways (STING, interferon, and others) to make them good viral reservoir hosts and achieve a tolerable balance.”
Here is a job advert posted on November 18, 2019, according to which the Wuhan Institute of Virology is seeking to hire one or two post-doc fellows, who will use “bats to research the molecular mechanism that allows Ebola and SARS-associated coronaviruses to lie dormant for a long time without causing diseases.”
(The job posted is in Chinese. But just just click on Google Translate to get it in English. At the time of writing, the job ad was still live. Though I suspect the Chinese Government will soon do a bit of ‘spring-cleaning’ and start deleting any evidence of the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s research into bats and the Coronavirus)
Ladies and gentlemen, I know this is just circumstantial evidence. But given that we know the current Coronavirus passed from bats to humans and given the research activities of Dr Zhou, I am increasingly convinced that the Coronvirus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and specifically the lab of Dr Peng Zhou where research was being carried out into how bats can carry viruses like the Coronavirus without getting sick.
I don’t believe it came from the Wuhan meat and fish market at all.
An American politician has just gone on record to claim the Wuhan Institute of Virology is the real source of the epidemic.
I wonder if any of the mainstream media will dare investigate this story or if they’ll avoid it like the plague as the UK is desperate to do trade deals with the Chinese.
I wanted to write about something else today. But then thought it was worth bringing this story to readers’ attention.
In case you weren’t aware, there’s a conspiracy theory doing the rounds on the Internet about the real origin of the Coronavirus epidemic. Apparently there is a Chinese Institute of Virology in Wuhan, about 20 miles from the market where the virus is supposed to have originated:
Some conspiracy theorists are calling this institute a ‘chemical weapons research establishment’. I suspect they’re probably exaggerating. But one thing seems likely is that the Wuhan Institute of Virology would have been involved in testing existing viruses and probably designing new viruses to test those as well.
The main reason this conspiracy theory has developed is that there are claims scientists in India have identified parts of the HIV virus in the current Coronavirus which suggests that the Coronavirus may have been engineered rather than jumping naturally from other species (bats and snakes) to humans.
OK, I realise the words “Indian scientists” are a bit of an oxymoron. The education system in India (and Pakistan and Bangladesh) is so corrupt, that the degree or Phd you get often depends more on your ability to give your professors brown envelopes full of cash or to offer sexual services (if you are an attractive female student) than your academic abilities. But let’s assume there really are some ‘Indian scientists’ and they really have analysed the Coronavirus and found parts of the HIV virus in it.
One thing is certain – if the Coronavirus is engineered and leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology through carelessness, the Chinese would never admit the truth. Moreover, our governments would never tell us the truth as this would cause public outrage and demands for all such research institutes to be closed:
Anyway, for what it’s worth, here’s an article from the Internet explaining the conspiracy theory.
The article calls the virus a “bio-weapon”. As I’ve explained above, I think this is an exaggeration. I’m more tempted to believe that it was just something developed as part of scientific research into viruses.
Oh no, here we go again. At the time of writing, it looks like our useless politicians are going to approve the hugely-costly and totally unnecessary HS2 project.
Ask the wrong questions – you get the wrong answer
Let me bore you with why I think the idiots in Westminster have blundered into yet another horrifically expensive disaster.
There are two questions our politicians should have asked:
Question 1: Do we need more rail capacity between the South and North of England?
The answer is probably yes, although new communication options may mean that in the 20 to 30 years it takes to build the HS2 disaster, people will be doing less physical travelling and more on-line communication. But let’s for a moment accept that there is a need for more rail capacity from South to North. Then there’s a second question:
Question 2: What is the best, fastest and most economical way of delivering that extra capacity?
There are various answers to this. For example, modernising signalling on the existing line may allow more trains to run. Additionally, building a new conventional line, allowing trains to travel at 125 mph, alongside the existing line might also be a possibility. And then there’s the £100bn+ HS2. HS2 will be (I believe) much more expensive than a new traditional line because high-speed lines have totally different engineering requirements and high-speed trains are much more expensive than traditional Intercity 125s.
But our worthless politicians didn’t ask these two simple questions. Our politicians got the two questions mixed up together and so got the wrong answer.
Fast trains in a tiny country?
Now let me explain why it is totally ludicrous to use a high-speed train in a tiny country like England
I’ll make this part of my blog today simple so, were any politicians to be reading it, even they might understand.
France is a big country – about 640,000 km2. The UK is a small country – about 242,000 km2. England is an even smaller country – 130,000 km2. France has an extensive high-speed rail network – the TGV. It makes sense to have high-speed trains in a large country. It doesn’t make sense to have high-speed trains in a small country.
Now let’s go a bit deeper. The French train route from Paris to Lyon to Marseilles can probably be seen as comparable to the UK train route from London to Birmingham to Manchester in terms of how it connects major cities. But the differences in distances are huge. Paris to Lyon is 292 miles, whereas London to Birmingham is only 128 miles. And Lyon to Marseilles is 488 miles, whereas Birmingham to Manchester is just 86 miles.
The much greater distances in France justify a high-speed rail network. But squandering over £100bn on cutting just a few minutes off the train time from London to Birmingham and then even fewer minutes off the train journey from Birmingham to Manchester is utterly ludicrous.
Moreover, as far as I understand, the new HS2 won’t start at Euston. Instead it will start at a new station to be built at Old Oak Common in West London. This means it might be quicker for business travellers from or to Central London to use the old conventional line to Euston rather than the new HS2 line to Old Oak Common station. Good grief!!!!! Plus, once the stupid thing got past Birmingham, the distances between stops would be so small that the train would have to start slowing down almost as soon as it got up to speed. Oooppss!!!
There are many better things the Government could do with £100bn+ than the ridiculously unnecessary HS2 project. They could, for example, have just built another conventional line and maybe saved £20bn or more.
But that would have been sensible and therefore not something our dumb-arse stupid politicians would have considered.
I’ve got some great news. There are no poor countries in the world. There are no countries which do not have sufficient natural resources and agricultural land to feed and house their people and to build schools, universities, hospitals, power plants, roads and all the other stuff a country needs to give its people a decent standard of living.
This means we can stop all foreign aid immediately. There isn’t a single country which needs it. That will save Britain over £13bn a year – £433 a year for every taxpayer. That’s got to be good news.
Though there is one smallish problem. Although every country has the resources to give its people a decent standard of living, unfortunately in over 100 countries most of those resources are being looted by a tiny elite leaving over 90% of the people living in excrement-covered poverty.
There are many ways these elites are looting their countries. But here let’s look at three of the most commonly-used and most lucrative.
“The Africa Special”
I’ve called this one “The Africa Special” as it’s probably most commonly used in Africa, though a few of the ‘Stans also seem to like it.
It’s pretty simple. The president’s son or one of the president’s cronies decides he would like to buy a few more luxury properties in London, Florida or New York or perhaps buy a couple of sports teams or a luxury yacht that’s for sale. He rings up the governor of the country’s central bank and asks if there’s any money.
“I’m afraid not,” the bank governor replies, “the president took all we had – over $500m – last week.”
“That’s not the answer I wanted,” warns the president’s son or close crony.
“But it’s ok,” the bank governor says in fear, “tomorrow we have around $300m in foreign aid arriving to build a hospital, 6 clinics and 4 schools.”
“That’s better,” says the president’s son or close crony, “when it comes, move it to my Cayman Islands bank account.”
The money gets moved, there’s nothing left to build the hospital or clinics or schools and the aid donors keep very quiet indeed about what has happened as they wouldn’t want ordinary Western taxpayers to find out how the billions they pay to help poorer countries are looted. And anyway, it would be waaaccciiisssttt to expose this form of theft.
“The Oligarch”
I’ve named this one “The Oligarch”. It’s found throughout Africa but also in Russia and all the former countries of the Soviet Union, especially the thoroughly rotten Ukraine.
The classic situation is that when the country was socialist, all its main resources – mines, oil fields, agricultural land, power plants, etc etc – belonged to the state (supposedly the people). When the country breaks away from socialism, somehow all these resources mysteriously become owned by a very small group of oligarchs usually using obscure offshore companies to hide their ownership. The oligarchs rapidly become immensely wealthy – billionaires or multi-billionaires.
Moreover, some oligarchs are granted monopolies on things like imported medicines, imported food, imported raw materials. They then use their monopolistic control to push up prices and, yippee, they become billionaires too.
The vast amounts of money these oligarchs strip from their countries is quickly shifted into offshore bank accounts just in case there’s a change in regime and any attempt to recover the stolen tens or hundreds of billions.
“The Bob the Builder”
I’ve called this little trick “The Bob the Builder”. Here, instead of our money being looted directly, some attempt is made to build whatever the money was intended for. This is usually because so much of our aid money has been looted in the past that the donor countries are demanding some visible and tangible results.
A country gets a few hundred million to build a hospital, some clinics, some schools, a power plant and access roads. The recipient government puts the work out to tender and invites three companies to put in bids. Three bids are received – one for say $95m, one for say $110m and one for $200m. The committee reviewing the three bids diligently assesses which provides the best value for the donors’ money and naturally chooses the bid for $200m as the company which put in this bid is owned by a Cayman Islands company which is owned by a Liechtenstein Company which is owned by a Panamanian Company which is owned by the president’s son.
The winning company gets to work demanding a first payment of $50m to buy materials and equipment. Around $30m of that is immediately transferred to one one the president’s son’s many offshore bank accounts. Nevertheless, the work starts and the foundations for the buildings are laid. But as the winning company has no incentive to do proper work, the foundations are made with cheap sub-standard concrete, old rusted iron reinforcements and, to save money, are not deep and solid enough.
Next walls and a couple of floors are installed. But as the foundations are not strong enough, the walls start cracking and work has to stop as the walls would be unable to support a roof. The winning company then demands another $50m to continue the work. Another $30m is sent off to the president’s son’s bank accounts. But the rainy season has arrived and the heavy rains wash away much of the soil under the inadequate foundations.
As for the access roads – instead of being properly constructed, some tarmac is laid onto the dirt tracks that were originally there, the rains come, the soil under the tarmac is washed away and the roads collapse.
Let’s not forget the power plant. This is actually built, the generators are installed and are soon working. But nobody thinks about maintenance. So, within a few months the generators have all broken down and nobody can work out how to repair them. A few months later some enterprising locals break into the building and start dismantling everything there to sell for scrap metal.
Conclusion
You do not cure an alcoholic by giving them ever more alcohol to drink.
Likewise you do not stop a kleptocracy by giving it ever more money to steal.
It’s time to stop all foreign aid, stop all donations to any charities working in Third-World countries and it’s time to deal with the real issue – the mass looting of more than 100 countries by the thieves and robbers who have seized power.
Here we go again – yet another ghastly new virus Made in China and exported to the world
Only 50 dead? Pull the other one my little yellow friend
I haven’t been following the situation too closely as I’ve been travelling – not to China fortunately. But there are a few aspects of the story coming out of the glorious People’s Democratic Republic of China which slightly trouble me.
In 2008, China had a contaminated milk scandal. The scandal involved milk and infant formula along with other food materials and components being adulterated with melamine. The chemical gives the appearance of higher protein content when added to milk, leading to protein deficiency in the formula. Only after over 7,500 babies had fallen ill did the Chinese government admit there might be a small problem. In total, over 300,000 babies were affected with 56,000 hospitalised. Some died, but we’ll never know the real number – it could have been in the tens or the hundreds or maybe even a couple of thousand. Our Chinese friends never allow such information to become public otherwise people might lose confidence in the Chinese Communist Party’s ability to govern.
Then there was the SARS saga. On 16 November 2002 the first cases were detected. But it wasn’t till almost 3 months later, on 10 February 2003, that the Chinese government notified the World Health Organisation (WHO) about this outbreak, reporting 305 cases including 105 health-care workers and five deaths. (I think we can assume this was a massive under-estimate) By the time SARS was controlled we’re told there were 8,098 cases, resulting in 774 deaths reported in 17 countries – that’s what we were told, so it must be true, mustn’t it? Why would you doubt any figures issued by the lying, corrupt Chinese?
And now we have the Coronavirus. The Chinese claim that only about 50 people have died and that most of these already had serious medical problems. Yet these 50 or so deaths have led the Chinese government to impose travel restrictions on over 50 million people. Does anyone really believe there have only been around 50 deaths? Does anyone really believe the Chinese government would quarantine over 50 million people just over about 50 deaths of people who were already seriously ill?
I think it would be reasonable to assume the following:
Chinese doctors have been under huge pressure to downplay the number dead
given that most who died already had medical conditions, their death certificates probably cited the existing medical conditions and omitted to mention the Coronavirus thus seriously under-reporting the real fatality levels
that the real number of deaths is much nearer 500 than the mere 50 the Chinese are admitting
seeing how cities with Coronavirus victims are being quarantined, other Chinese cities will be more than keen to avoid the same fate and will therefore hugely under-report the number of cases they detect
given that China is utterly corrupt, anyone in the lock-down cities with influence or money will easily be able to get out and possibly further spread the disease
Here’s one of many reasonably reliable articles explaining how the lying, corrupt Chinese are hiding the true extent of infections and deaths
Our mainstream media have been gushing with praise about how open and helpful the Chinese government has been with the latest deadly disease they have created and exported. In particular, the media have orgasmed about how the Chinese are supposedly building a 1,000-bed ‘hospital’ in Wuhan in just 10 days using prefabricated units. If you honestly believe this is a ‘hospital’ being built. please go and bang your head against a brick wall for 15 minutes as that might knock some common sense into your head.
I believe what the Chinese are really building is a quarantine prison into which they’re going to throw anyone with suspected Coronavirus symptoms. The ‘hospital’ will be patrolled by armed guards to prevent anyone escaping and will have about as much medical equipment as an abattoir, which is what it will resemble rather than a hospital. Plenty of those incarcerated in this ‘hospital’ will die and be quickly cremated. Others will survive and eventually be freed – maybe – provided they don’t tell anyone about the real conditions inside the hospital/gulag,
However, seeing how those suspected of having the Coronavirus are being ‘treated’, new cases will be reluctant to report themselves to the authorities. So the effect of building this quarantine gulag, sorry I meant ‘well-equipped hospital’, will be to dissuade new sufferers from seeking help and thus may even worsen the spread of the disease.
But hey, I may be wrong. Maybe we can really trust the lying, corrupt Chinese?
Coronavirus – the cure?
The good news is that a partial cure for the Coronavirus has been found:
Just take three of these after every meal and then again before going to bed. This may not cure you. You may still die.
David Craig, on February 14th, 2020
