I sat in the examination room of the doctor’s office for what I assumed was to be a routine visit when the nurse said she’d be right back, mumbling something that sounded like the word “skull.” When she returned she did not have a skull in her hand and so I asked what she had said and she mouthed the word, no longer mumbling but still very quietly yet distinctly, “probe.” Out of eye shot she set down something long and large and then left again telling me the doctor would be in shortly.
And the doctor did open the door soon after, telling me after some initial niceties that she would be inserting a probe up my nose into my sinuses. She picked up what the nurse had set down, a rather large tube, which looked like the kind of a tool I’d used to unclog a drain in our house. I said, “wait, what?” She explained again, patiently, that she would be snaking this probe up into my sinuses. Now I have to admit my initial thought upon hearing this news was that I should sprint out of the room Forrest Gump-like, knees up in the air, back straight as a board, out into the hallway through the reception lobby down the stairs out into the parking lot past my car and run as fast as I could until I reached an international border or a cave in the mountains or a sturdy raft on the coast that I could paddle out to sea on. But the tiny shreds of dignity I am clothed with dissuaded me and so I sat there as the doctor snaked the probe up into my sinuses, somewhat gently taking corners, examining nooks deep inside our head.
We are gratified, of course, that nothing serious was found and the whole sordid affair impelled us to probe some neglected areas and issues of our world in this our “Don’t Forget” issue of International Need to Know, including the six percent who died in the Central African Republic, the increasingly neglected Ukrainian democracy and the origins of Covid. It’s this week’s International Need to Know, like Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, a loving match of international information and data.
Without further ado, here’s what you need to know.
6% of Central Africa Republic Died In One Year
As the world continues to fixate on Gaza, we could point to a number of other places that also deserve the world’s attention, including Yemen and Sudan, but as it turns out the Central African Republic is the site of perhaps the most horrific amount of death in the last two years. An ongoing civil war involving among others the Muslim Seleka, the Christian anti-Balaka and believe it or not the Russian Wagner Group, known for committing atrocities wherever they go. According to a report published last year, “the world’s deadliest humanitarian crisis in 2022 was not in Afghanistan, Ukraine, or other places featured regularly in the news — but in CAR (Central African Republic.” And yet the world, including your own INTN, have basically ignored it. The report found that nearly 6 percent of the population died in 2022, a stunningly large figure.
An excellent but depressing article in Undark, notes, “More than a decade of violence has killed and injured droves of civilians and driven more than 1.4 million people from their homes — a quarter of the country of roughly 6 million. Without stability, hospitals and schools can hardly function, crops can’t be harvested, and roads fall apart.” Things became worse when the Russian Wagner Group, of failed Putin coup attempt fame became involved. A recent podcast of Plain English noted how often Russia is involved in problems throughout history. Now it should be noted that the United Nations disputes the report’s figures, but other experts say the methodology of the report is sound. We await young protestors in the streets of New York and Europe advocating for a ceasefire in CAR and the sending of humanitarian relief.
Ukraine Is Still Essential
As attention in the world shifts to other issues, many forget Ukraine and its heroic defense against the much larger and certainly more malevolent Russia. The stakes of the war could not be higher, certainly for Ukrainians for whom if Russia succeeds there is abundant evidence massive violence will occur: more children kidnapped, more torture committed, more slaughter of civilians. And yet, the U.S. may not be providing more aid to Ukraine thanks to the Republican Party and its insurrectionist, narcissistic head. Meanwhile, Europe is not doing nearly enough to help its neighbor. Without more weapons, without more aid, Ukraine cannot win, and may not be able to fend off Russia. This is a catastrophe for Ukraine but also sends exactly the wrong message to other potential invaders and invadees. Taiwanese must be thinking, yeesh, we can’t count on the United States. The 2024 stakes could not be higher. But at the same time, we need to think of how to maintain an anti-authoritarian, pro-liberalization coalition around the world that is not driven by the U.S.
Addendum 1: A friend pointed me to a recent Soundside podcast episode about his neighbor, Why this Seattle man and his dog have spent the last 2 years in Ukraine. An amazing guy and a sobering reminder of the horrors of Russia’s war against the Ukrainian people.
Addendum 2: On our drive back from Portland yesterday the crazy extremist right winger who posts cracked views on a billboard next to I-5 had this humdinger, “How many Americans will be left behind in Ukraine?” Somewhere Ronald Reagan does a trip axel in his grave.
China Corner: Wild Is Worse Than Lab
People continue to raise the lab leak theory for Covid. It’s possible Covid-19 originated from a lab leak though the evidence currently points to spillover from a live animal market. We can understand reasonable people disagreeing over the origin. What confuses us is that lab leak proponents seem to think a lab leak is a bigger indictment than a live animal market being the origin for Covid-19. Certainly a lab leak would illustrate China needs to do a better job operating and regulating its labs (as do other countries—lab leaks are more common than realized). But in some ways a live animal market being the origin of Covid-19 makes China’s government look worse. Remember that SARS, which erupted in 2003, came from a live animal market. So for twenty years China was unable or unwilling to fix an obvious problem—its badly regulated live animal markets. After 2003, when SARS caused serious illness and loss of life, China clamed it would fix the problem. It didn’t. That is highly irresponsible and if indeed, as current evidence points to, Covid came from a wild market, than the worst pandemic in 100 years is because China, which loves to trumpet its pandemic response, was unable to change its ways over two decades. Preventing a pandemic is far better than responding to one.*
*And don’t forget that countries such as South Korea and Taiwan, both democracies, did as well or better than China in responding to the pandemic, especially when you consider the lives lost at the end of the pandemic when Xi finally ended the Zero Covid policy.
as bad or worse than
