A collection of 127 posts
I went out on Tuesday morning wondering what a country on lockdown looks like. I live in the un-touristy Garbatella neighbourhood of Rome, where it was sunny and 15 degrees. It wasn’t as quiet as I expected. Oblivious to government directives, the parrots were squawking in the eucalyptus trees
There is another world out there. There is another world, with another President Donald J. Trump. There is another world in which President Trump saw coronavirus sweeping through China and grasped how powerfully and elegantly his claims about the authoritarian and deceptive nature of the Chinese state had been illustrated.
By way of aspirational example, consider the 12th-century case of Hildegard von Bingen‚ whose epic transformation during her own lengthy isolation paved the way to sainthood.
The offenders include rich countries like the United States and Japan, vast countries like Indonesia and India, communist countries like China and Vietnam, theocracies like Iran and Saudi Arabia, oligarchies like Russia and Nigeria, social democracies like Germany and France.
Measures implemented too early are deemed “alarmist,” if implemented too late, “negligent.”
Xi’s hope is that he can present himself as the strong man—the decisive leader—who saved China and the world from the virus.