Corona Daily 149: A Bahraini Prince in Kathmandu

This week, on 15 March, a Bahraini prince and Royal guard of sixteen landed at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan international airport. Their luggage contained oversized and overweight metal boxes that drew everybody’s attention. The royal delegation, in fact, posed with the blue containers, taking a few pictures.

The Nepali customs officials politely asked the prince, Sheikh Mohamed Hamad Mohamed al-Khalifa, about the contents. He proudly said it was a gift for the residents of a Nepali village. The boxes contained 2000 vaccine doses, a goodwill gesture from the Bahraini royal family.

This caused a confusion too massive for the Kathmandu airport. Nepal strictly bans imports of drugs or vaccines without prior approval. An exporter must submit in advance detailed documents, explain the cold chain, and mention expiry dates. Only on verification and approval of the documents can the exporter send the shipment. In this case, the airport had no information.

A drug inspection team was appointed to investigate. This entire week, Nepal’s drug authorities have been investigating the affair of the royal gift.

*****

Earlier I wrote about the closure of Mount Everest treks during the pandemic. Nepal made an exception for a Chinese delegation in May 2020. Another exception was made in Sept/Oct 2020. Bahrain’s royal mountaineering delegation, which included a prince, was given special permission. That group climbed Mount Manaslu (8163 meters) and Mount Lobuche (6119 meters). Bahrain’s flag was raised on both summits. The world has only fourteen mountains taller than 8,000 meters. Manaslu is one of them. Pleased by the royal prince conquering it, Nepal renamed the mountain as “Royal Bahrain Peak”.  (With 25,000 Nepalese working in Bahrain and remitting money back regularly, it is an important relationship).

That expedition was a dress rehearsal for climbing Everest. This week’s mountaineering group has arrived for eighty days. While climbing, they will pass Samagaun, a village with 1000 residents close to the Royal Bahrain Peak. The 2000 doses are meant to vaccinate the 1000 villagers.

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The Bahrain group had sought permission from the Nepali Ambassador in Bahrain, and he had given it (without having any authority to do so). He had then forwarded the information to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But that was the wrong ministry. Ministry of Health is the approving authority. The Ministry of foreign affairs sent it to the Ministry of Health – by post. The post hasn’t arrived yet.

Local newspapers said the vaccines were Sinovac, the Chinese make. Only Oxford-AstraZeneca is approved in Nepal. The Nepali ambassador’s letter confirmed this was AstraZeneca. This letter, it is learnt, was based on oral (incorrect) information given to him in Bahrain. It is now suspected the vaccines are Sinopharm, another Chinese make.

Investigation also revealed that the Bahrain delegation expected to be received by the health ministry representatives at the airport, who would then take charge of the vaccines. That didn’t happen. Hurriedly, the vaccines were taken by an ambulance to a local Kathmandu hospital. Shocked at the sight of 2,000 doses, the hospital sent it back to the airport. The Tribhuvan international airport has no refrigerators to store the vaccines. Investigators are, therefore, concerned as to the state of the vaccines.

*****

The Bahrain delegation contains seventeen strong males. None of them is a doctor or a nurse. They couldn’t answer who would administer the vaccines to the villagers. In any case, Nepal currently allows only 65+ to be vaccinated. The Nepali media is debating the ethics of vaccinating an entire village with different age groups. This would certainly set a bad precedent.

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Meanwhile, basic research by diligent reporters (including myself) reveals the King of Bahrain has four wives and twelve children, including seven sons. There is no prince by the name of Sheikh Mohamed Hamad Mohamed al-Khalifa. Reputed newspapers, in their electronic versions, are hurriedly replacing the headlines, changing “Prince” for “Sheikh”, which is less exciting.

The investigation team has sent its report today to the Ministry of Health. Further directions are awaited from the ministry. The Bahrain Sheikh and other sixteen members are in a Kathmandu hotel for a weeklong quarantine as is required under the Nepalese law.

Ravi 

Corona Daily 150: Dinosaur Bones

Niger, the largest country in West Africa, has two thirds area in the Sahara desert. Niger gained independence in 1958, after decades of French rule.

In the 1960s, a French atomic energy team carried out digging in Niger, to find Uranium. Instead, they stumbled upon something huge, bluish and stony; identified later as the vertebral columns of a dinosaur.  This fortuitous find was only a beginning. It inspired several paleontologists to visit Niger and look for fossils from the Mesozoic era.

Professor Paul Sereno, a paleontologist from the University of Chicago, has been digging in Niger for the past thirty years. He calls Niger the best exposed but the least explored. Sereno has been credited with discovering nine species of dinosaurs previously unknown.

The Europeans and the Americans have found diverse fossils: flying reptiles, armored dogs, eleven species with long necks not yet identified. They roamed the desert nearly 200 million years ago. Excavations that can take months have found dinosaurs, mammals, even a Neolithic woman wearing an ivory bangle. Niger is so rich with fossils, an archeologist accompanying Sereno went behind the bushes for a comfort break, and spotted a 10,000-year-old human skull. In 2019, a man on a moped led the scientists to a hulking Spinosaurus (spine lizard).

In prehistoric times, the climate of the Sahara desert was wet, fertile and habitation-friendly, a phenomenon archeologists call the ‘Green Sahara’. It provided favourable conditions for hunting, agriculture and livestock breeding. (This example, by the way, shows what climate change can do to the places we inhabit today).

*****

Until the late 1980s, anyone could take the loot back to their own country and did. This also had practical reasons. The bones require preservation under controlled temperature to avoid their crumbling. Niger’s top museum is infested with termites. Many Niger bones are located in private collections in the USA, France and Italy. The British museum in London and Sereno’s Chicago lab hold a few specimens.

It was acknowledged by all parties that the dinosaur bones from Niger should return to Niger. A joint venture was conceived. Two new museums, one in the capital city of Niamey and another in the desert region of Agadez were planned. Niger earmarked the land. The project was called “the Niger Heritage”. It was estimated to cost tens of millions of dollars. The World bank and some other donors had expressed interest.

Archeologists, paleontologists, historians, architects and urban planners from America and Europe along with Niger leaders would develop the design concepts for the two sites. The Niamey museum would house dinosaur fossils, human burials and artifacts from pre-dynastic cultures. Agadez museum would preserve the language, art, music and customs of the nomadic people.

*****

In April last year, everything froze. Worse, some 20 tons of bones now sit in the middle of the Sahara.  Sereno’s team had crafted temporary coverings for many skeletons out of plaster. Sand was brushed over to hide them. Passersby would mistake anything protruding up for rocks. It is common for paleontologists to rebury dig sites before returning with movers. Sereno meant to come back to relocate the bones, but hasn’t managed to visit Niger for a year now.

*****            

Niger is a dangerous place. Only this week, Islamic State militants killed 58 civilians including teenagers. In January, they had killed more than 100. Sereno and his team always move with armed bodyguards.

The Niger government has sent soldiers to guard the expanse from looters. Bandits roam these areas. Nomads have been recruited to keep an eye on the dinosaur bones and send regular text updates to Sereno. Coronavirus is spreading as well. Niger’s current museum made about $370 a day from visitors. Now it struggles to make $20 even on a weekend.

Professor Sereno is waiting for the end of the pandemic. He can then revive the Niger Heritage project. The dinosaur bones can return to Niger. Tourism can boost Niger’s economy. Until then, he also hopes bandits and terrorists won’t come anywhere near the twenty tons of bones in the desert.

Ravi 

Corona Daily 151: The Case of the Vanishing e-books

Most of us are familiar with e-books, which we read on Kindle. Fewer people know or use e-books from public libraries. USA has the best system to borrow e-books. An American can simply feed the (physical) library card number into an app called Libby, and instantly gain access to millions of titles. Overdrive, which runs that app, is the leading digital platform for public libraries and schools.

The good news is that the pandemic turned 2020 into a record year for digital lending in public libraries. Readers worldwide borrowed 430 million e-books, audiobooks and digital magazines in 2020, an impressive 33% increase over 2019. Children and Young Adult genre checkouts rose by 80%. Audiobooks, which were growing dramatically before, declined. Not surprising since commuting stopped during the lockdowns.

*****

The arrangements for e-book lending are very different. For an e-book we may buy for $5 on Kindle, libraries usually pay between $40 and $60. A popular audiobook will cost $100 when a library buys it. Unlike print books, which libraries can lend to the same person repeatedly, e-books usually come with digital locks. After a certain number of loans or after a predefined period of time, the e-book expires by itself.

*****

Amazon, our favourite lockdown bookseller, has been killing bookshops. This is well known. Last year, bookstore sales in the USA fell by 30%. Every week, at least one bookstore closed down for good.

Amazon is also a big publisher. It publishes books and audiobooks under three brands: Lake Union (fiction), Thomas & Mercer (crime thrillers) and Audible (audiobooks). Amazon has almost completed its vertical integration. It is the largest bookstore in the world, it owns the reading device Kindle, and it publishes books. You can easily buy the e-books or audiobooks published by Amazon in seconds. But you can’t borrow them.

Amazon doesn’t allow its published books to be borrowed. Libby App or any public library has no access to any of the Amazon published e-books and audiobooks. From your local library you may borrow Obama’s A Promised Land, because it is not published by Amazon. But you can’t borrow an audiobook for Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime.

As one journalist said, Amazon doesn’t accept a library card, only a credit card.

*****

Living in Mumbai, I don’t have access to e-borrowing from Overdrive or another platform. True, Amazon offers its own library Kindle Unlimited. I subscribed to it for a few years, before realizing it specialized in not offering a single book I wanted to read. One may also subscribe to Audible to listen to Amazon audiobook exclusives.

What Amazon has succeeded in doing is creating two parallel literary universes. The public and the Amazon private. Don’t be fooled by Amazon’s bestseller list for 2020. It is entirely different from Overdrive’s most borrowed list for 2020, that includes titles such as Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, Becoming by Michelle Obama and Educated by Tara Westover. Amazon’s Kindle list of ten books includes six books published by Amazon itself.

*****  

Reading is gradually shifting from paper to e-reading. I haven’t read a single newspaper or magazine in paper format for the last fifteen years. During research on a particular subject, a researcher wants to borrow hundreds of books, read what is important and return them. Surely, no researcher would think of buying all the books. Or restrict the research to books by certain publishers.  

Libraries are critical for students, who can’t be expected to buy hundreds of textbooks. The public libraries in London or New York are magnificent and well-stocked. In a place like Mumbai, with the library culture disappearing, my dream is getting an e-library card that allows me to borrow any book in the world. I am willing to pay a high membership fee for that virtual library, as long as every publisher, including Amazon, is compelled by law to make its books available for lending.

Ravi 

Corona Daily 152: Pandora’s Box

In 1990, I was working and living in Moscow. A Japanese executive working in the same office had requested me to mediate in a delicate assignment. The Japanese government knew or believed hundreds of Japanese paintings were lying in the basement of St Petersburg’s Hermitage, Russia’s greatest museum. They probably made their way to Russia during the war. The Japanese wished to explore the possibility of repatriation of the paintings. Of course, the Japanese government would pay the right price for this invaluable treasure.

The Japanese gentleman and I conducted two informal meetings with a Russian curator from the Hermitage. The paintings were lying in the basement for years, they were more valuable to the Japanese, and in 1990 a Russian museum should have been delighted to get foreign currency.

“No.” the Russian curator said. “You have no idea what it is like to sell a museum’s paintings. To sell to Japan, the bureaucracy will take fifty years, but I will lose my job immediately when I suggest it.”

*****

I remembered that incident when I read a news report last week. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially known as the Met, is America’s largest museum. More than 150 years old, it is among the top museums in the world. Last week, it approved a policy that allows selling of its art works to pay salaries and overhead costs.

Deaccessioning is the term used when a museum sells its painting or art work. It is generally taboo. Under certain conditions, paintings can be sold to acquire other paintings, but not to pay salaries. Even in financial distress, if a museum sells a Monet or Picasso, or the Louvre were to sell the Mona Lisa, we intuitively feel it can’t be right.

The pandemic shattered the financial well-being of art museums. Most museums were shut for six months; fund-raising galas, other events, and ticket sales stopped. A closed zoo must still retain staff and spend on maintenance to keep the animals alive and well. Similarly, a closed museum must continue to take care of the paintings and other art works. The fixed expenses remain high.

AAMD (Association of Art Museum Directors), a regulatory body in America issued a statement last April. Considering the historic nature of the crisis, it allowed museums to sell art to take care of the “cost of direct care”. This concession is offered for two years, till April 2022.

Museums across America responded by announcing deaccessioning plans. But in October, the Baltimore Museum of Art invited public ire by announcing it will sell three major paintings to raise $65 million. It is an accepted convention that museums should never sell masterpieces or works by living artists. Baltimore’s plan had proposed both.

Community members and former trustees signed letters of protest, board members resigned, and donors cancelled their planned donations. After a month of non-stop pressure, Baltimore cancelled the auction at the last hour.

*****

The Metropolitan Museum is short by $150 million. It has reduced its staff by 20% in the wake of the pandemic. Still, operational costs are high. Curators and conservators need to be paid. Money is needed to care for the more than two million items in the museum’s collection. The admission fees, exhibition rental fees, shop sales are gone. Grants and gifts have disappeared.

Some of the museum trustees are super rich. In the pandemic, the wealth of most billionaires has grown by 40%. Why can’t they use the windfall to sponsor the distressed museum, ask some art lovers. (If they wished, they could have done that. Instead, they have approved the new policy allowing the sale of paintings).

*****

It is difficult to give a verdict in this debate. An irony that these institutions with financial survival at stake are the custodians of paintings and artifacts that are valued in millions.

The Art world is more worried this two-year window allowing museums flexibility to sell art to pay their bills may continue post-pandemic. The Pandora’s Box is already open.

Ravi 

Corona Daily 153: Yo-Yo Ma and ENO Breathe

Day before yesterday, at a Massachusetts vaccination site, the vaccinated crowd was sat socially distanced. Post the jab, one must wait for fifteen minutes or more for observation. A fairly unremarkable looking man wearing glasses, mask and a cap sat on a chair near the wall. From his case, he took out a cello and began playing the divine Ave Maria. He followed that with Bach’s Prelude in G Major. At the end of his mini-concert, everyone applauded and the man bowed to acknowledge.

*****

Yo-Yo Ma himself was sent to the observation center after his second shot.  One of the world’s greatest cellists, he has won 18 Grammy Awards and recorded nearly 100 albums. In 2020, he was included among the world’s 100 most influential people.

Last spring, when the pandemic began, he started streaming “Songs of Comfort” on YouTube and Social Media. The series allowed locked-down professional musicians to perform online with others. Virtual orchestras and occasional ballets in the kitchens were free for the locked-down viewers.

Last summer, Yo-Yo Ma broadcast a performance of Bach’s Cello Suites in honour of those lost to Covid-19.

At August end, along with Emanuel Ax, an equally renowned Piano player, Yo-Yo Ma began travelling in a flatbed truck. The travelling stage carried a unique wooden structure on which the two musicians sat and performed live on the streets. These pop-up concerts were for essential workers. This was an initiative of Yo-Yo Ma, and utmost secrecy was maintained. The surprise performances were given for UPS employees, public school bus operators, school teachers, food distribution center volunteers, farm employees, firefighters, health department employees and medical workers.

In December, Yo-Yo Ma released an album “Songs of Comfort and Hope” recorded with the pianist Kathryn Stott.

“People need each other for support beyond the immediate staples of life” said Ma, “They need music’’.

*****

On the other side of the Atlantic, Suzi Zumpe, a British Opera singer, has been training Wayne Cameron over Zoom. She first told him how to straighten the spine, broaden the chest, and start a series of breath exercises, exhaling short and sharp bursts of air. She showed him how to move the voice up and down, in cycles. Then she asked him to stick his tongue out, as much as he could, an essential workout for the facial muscles.

Suzi, a British Opera singer, usually trains young singers at the Royal Academy of Music or the Garsington Opera.

But Cameron, 56, is neither young nor a singer. He is a warehouse logistics manager. He has had a bad covid, known as “long covid”. The session with Suzi was prescribed by doctors as part of his recovery plan.

*****

English National Opera, the leading British Opera, like most cultural organisations, shut its doors since March. It decided to redirect its energies. Its wardrobe department started producing protective gear for hospitals. In summer, the opera management learnt people who suffered from “long covid” complained of chest pain, fatigue, brain fog and breathlessness. Breathlessness was chronic.

A new idea emerged. Opera is rooted in breath; breath is its expertise. The English National Opera in collaboration with a London hospital developed a six-week programme called ENO Breathe. It started with twelve patients. Online, the training began with posture, breath control, short bursts of humming and singing, and encouraging practice at home. The programme aimed to improve the lung capacity damaged by the virus, but also to teach the patients to breathe calmly and handle anxiety better. Popular lullabies are chosen to make singing easier and create an emotional bond.

Patients mentioned that before covid they had taken breathing for granted. The ENO Breathe has taught them how to breathe. At the end of January, the project that combines musical and medical expertise has been extended to 1000 patients. The programme is absolutely free-of-cost.

*****

Music becomes more powerful when accompanied by compassion.

Ravi 

Corona Daily 154: Unattended Retail

Vending machines have been around since the 1880s. In London, you could drop a coin to get a postcard. American machines started by selling gum. The coronavirus pandemic has triggered a revolution in the vending machine industry. You not only avoid contact with humans; you may buy by touching only your smartphone.

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In this $25 billion industry, worldwide there are 15 million machines, including 5 million in the USA. With 4 million machines, Japan tops the per capita. India, with more than two billion working hands, is the most reluctant nation to have vending machines.

Traditionally, in North America and Europe, machines can sell anything from food and drinks to engagement rings, morning-after pills and contraceptives, even live earthworms for fishing. However, the standard, known as “full-line” machines, have at least 75% space allocated to food and beverages.

Over the last twelve months, this assortment is expanding rapidly.

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Now you have bread-baking machines, customize-your-yogurt machines. Pizza machines that allow you to choose from three pizzas. Once you choose and swipe your credit card, it takes three minutes to cook the 10-inch frozen pizza. The cooking happens inside the machine, and the hot pizza ($8.50) is delivered to you in a box. This machine is considered ideal for college dorms once they open.

The vending machine hot meal has several advantages over ordering online. The vending machine serves you 24/7. When you are desperately hungry, online orders can take the maximum amount of time. Also, online may have a minimum order requirement.

*****  

People who have lost their jobs or incomes are looking at this business. If you find the right location to install your machine ($2000+), you may recover the costs and start making profits within six months.

Barry and Lori Strickland, a married couple from San Diego, run The Vending Mentors, an educational resource that offers both courses and consulting. Since the pandemic started, their business boomed, 200 new vendors signed up. Most of them are blue-collar workers who lost their jobs, or had hours cut, and are turning to vending as a part-time or full-time business.

*****

Technology has made management of the machines easier. Only a few years ago, the vending machine owner or operator needed to physically visit the machine, take stocks, replace the sold items. Now all machines are connected to the owner’s computer or smartphone. He gets alerts on which stocks need replenishment.

The hot meal revolution is getting streamlined as well. One vending machine that sells a Caribbean jerk chicken with corn salsa and dairy-free butter chicken, have the items refrigerated, not frozen. Each meal tends to last three or four days. If unsold, it is immediately sent to the nearest food bank.

Worldwide, hotels are getting buy-and-cook vending machines installed. Many hotels with customers have their restaurants and kitchens shut. Instead, a machine simply needs six feet along a wall with a plug and a reliable local vendor.

*****

Vending machines in Japan have masks, antibacterial wipes and rapid-testing kits. Japanese buyers then mail off a saliva sample for processing.

Singapore vending machines now offer salmon, crab, cacti, Wagyu beef, curry puffs, fresh pizza, fresh orange juice and “free masks”. One man and two women were arrested for stealing free masks, by punching in bogus names. Even in a strict State like Singapore, older citizens think stealing at an unmanned machine is safe.

In France, for 16 Euros a dozen, you can buy a meal of frogs. It can either be ready-to-cook or prepared with cream and wine as a cassolette. Snails are planned, but the progress is slow.

On a couple of English farms, cheese vending machines offer fresh cheddar, smoked and chili cheeses 24/7.

In Washington, after the 6 January riots, Congress staff is now relying on vending machines for meals. Earlier they ordered using Uber Eats or Grubhub, but now the delivery boys are not allowed anywhere near Capitol Hill.

India, as far as I know, has done nothing in terms of vending machines. However, Vendekin Technologies, an Indian platform, offers to turn existing vending machines into smart ones.  

Ravi 

Corona Daily 155: The Court Hearing that was Viewed a Million Times

What I am writing here is not a play-script. This took place in a court hearing in Michigan on 2 March. There are four key characters.

Mary Lindsey is a waitress who often works night shifts. She is the complainant. Coby Harris is, or rather was, her boyfriend. He is the accused. Jeffrey Middleton is the judge. Deborah Davis is the prosecutor.

Traditionally, in the name of openness and transparency, court proceedings are open to public. In lockdown times, most courts now allow trials to be conducted online. Proceedings such as this one are streamed live for the public to see. The Zoom recording is available for general public to view on the judge’s YouTube channel.

On 9 February, Coby Harris and his girlfriend Mary Lindsey argued. Not known what the argument was about. Harris assaulted her with the intent to “commit great bodily harm less than the crime of murder”. (In plain language, he beat her violently, without meaning to kill her). Lindsey called the police. Harris was taken to jail, and released on a bond that prevented him from coming anywhere close to Lindsey. On 2 March, the complainant, accused and the lawyers appeared before the judge on Zoom.

*****

The Zoom hearing begins with routine questions. Prosecutor Deborah Davis questions Lindsey about what took place during the February argument. Only seven minutes into the proceedings, Davis feels something is not right. Because Lindsey keeps looking to her left, her answers are evasive. She is not focusing on the proceedings.

Davis turns to the judge and says, “Your Honor, I have reason to believe the defendant (accused) is in the same apartment as the complainant right now, and I am scared for her safety. I want some confirmation she is safe before we continue.”

Judge Middleton asks Harris where he is. He gives an address. The Judge then orders him to walk outside and show the number of the home from which he is Zooming.

Harris doesn’t move. “I don’t think this phone has the charge for that. I’m at like 2% right now. I’m hooked up to this wall charger right here.” He says.

(The Zoom call also has a police officer. While the conversation is on, he manages to call and send a real police officer to Lindsey’s house. That policeman promptly rings her doorbell.)

The police are at Miss Lindsey’s door, says the prosecutor. “Take your phone with you, so that I know you’re okay”, she tells Lindsey.

Lindsey walks to the door, but her connection to the call drops. Harris also vanishes from the call.

The judge. police and prosecutors are seen sitting silently for several moments on the Zoom screen. (In a real court, the complainant and accused can’t suddenly vanish).

When Lindsey’s livestream returns, they see a handcuffed Harris. He has a cigarette in his mouth. The judge cancels his bond, and sends him back to jail.

This is an issue we didn’t have when we had live court, says the judge. It’s the first time he ever had an accused sitting in the next room, potentially intimidating the victim.

*****

The YouTube post of this dramatic hearing had 1.2 million viewers. The judge removed the YouTube post, and asked the complainant’s face and name to be blurred. Despite that, the recording is freely available.

In a real court, perhaps five people would have attended the hearing, not a million. It raises an important issue. Virtual calls are not a simple substitute for reality. Miss Lindsey’s address and other details are there for anyone to see. Viewers who don’t understand the different forms of domestic violence are blaming Lindsey for allowing Harris in her apartment (as if she had a choice). Openness and transparency are important, but they can’t come at the cost of someone’s privacy. When a constitution mentioned “open courts”, broadcasting a hearing to a million people was not expected.

Judge Middleton should think long and hard before posting the next Zoom hearing.

Ravi 

Corona Daily 156: BFF

Ilse Kohn and Anne Marie Wahrenburg were born in 1929, in Germany. After their first meeting in the school courtyard, they were inseparable. They shared a bench in the classroom, went to ballet class and synagogue together. Jewish girls were banned by the German government from playing in the parks, bicycling, visiting theatres or swimming pools. While their Aryan schoolmates went about freely, the two girls spent time in each other’s houses. The Nazi regime in a strange way bonded Ilse and Anne Marie closer.

In November 1938 the infamous Kristallnacht (night of broken glass) happened. Jewish homes, hospitals, schools were attacked, looted and demolished. In total 267 synagogues were destroyed. More than one hundred Jews were killed, 30,000 arrested and sent to concentration camps. Historians consider Kristallnacht as the starting point of the holocaust that murdered six million Jews.

Anne Marie’s father was arrested and sent to a concentration camp. Both girls were told it was too dangerous to live in Germany, and escape plans were hatched. In the spring of 1939, the girls met for the last time. Ilse’s family managed to buy tickets on a ferry to Shanghai. China took in Jews without visas. Ilse and Anne’s last meeting was traumatic. They promised to keep in touch, and meet again.

Ilse’s family fled to China. Except her parents and Ilse, everyone in the extended family was killed by the Nazis. In China, life was difficult, with not enough food, no medicines. Ilse got married and became Betty Grebenschikoff. Soon after, China had a communist revolution. Eight months pregnant, Betty had to flee again, along with her husband. The family finally settled in the USA.

*****

After that fateful day when they parted in Berlin, Betty never learnt anything about her friend Anne Marie. Whenever databases appeared, she looked for her friend. As a holocaust survivor, Betty gave speeches about her experiences and life in Nazi Germany.

In 1993, at the age of 63, Betty published a memoir (Once my name was Sara). It had an entire chapter devoted to Anne Marie and their friendship.

Steven Spielberg has founded the USC Shoah foundation which collects audiovisual testimony of holocaust survivors. Its archives have more than 55,000 video testimonies. In 1996, Betty recorded her testimony for four hours. In that interview she says: “I had one particular girlfriend whose name I always mention. Her name was Annemarie Wahrenberg. I never knew what happened to her…She probably died in the war but I’m not sure.”

*****

Ita Gordon is an indexer in this foundation. Organizing and cataloguing testimonies is her job. Last November, she was invited to attend a webinar hosted by the Latin American network for the teaching of the Shoah (Hebrew for holocaust). In normal times, the speeches happened in person, and there was no question of Ita attending a speech in Chile. But the pandemic had converted all lectures to webinars allowing anyone in the world to join. A 91-year-old survivor was telling the story of how her family fled Berlin for South America after the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom. The Spanish speaker’s name was Ana Maria Wahrenberg. She mentioned her childhood friend Ilse Kohn.

*****

Ita, a professional indexer, with a phenomenal memory, sensed she knew a similar story, but didn’t know where or when. When she tried different searches with a variety of spellings, Wahrenberg appeared in a single four-hour interview from 1996. Ita sat listening to the interview, and heard: “I had one particular girlfriend whose name I always mention. Her name was Annemarie Wahrenberg.”

*****

Betty nee Ilse, 91, lives in Florida. Anne Marie, 91, lives in Santiago. On 19 November, they spoke on Zoom after a gap of 82 years. Ignoring the gap, they straightaway began talking in German, reminiscing. They spoke for over two hours.

Betty has five children, seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Anne Marie has two children, six grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren. Most of them were mute spectators on that zoom call with eyes wet. Then they raised champagne glasses on their respective screens.

Betty and Anne Marie now connect on phone and zoom regularly. Anne Marie plans to visit Miami for Rosh Hashanah (in September).

“I just want to hug her again.” Says Betty. “It would be a culmination of a lifelong journey.”

Ravi 

Corona Daily 157: The Emergent Story: Part Final

In 2017, just a year after threatening to go bankrupt if the government didn’t bail it out, Emergent spent $200 million acquiring Sanofi’s smallpox vaccine, and GlaxoSmithKline’s anthrax treatment, two products with established pipelines to the stockpile. Eyebrows were raised and questions were asked as to how a poor and nearly bankrupt company could spend $200 million.

The company’s financial disclosures show it has received since 2017 a half-billion dollars in federal research and development funding. “We know ahead of time when funding opportunities are going to come out. When we talk to the government, we know how to speak the government’s language around contracting.” Said Emergent’s VP in 2017.

*****

Dr Nicole Lurie from the Obama administration had tried to reduce the BioThrax purchases. Trump replaced her with Dr Robert Kadlec, a biodefence expert obsessed with biological and chemical weapon threats. He repeatedly said Mother Nature was not a thinking enemy capable of inflicting harm to the USA. It was the man-made threats the stockpile should focus on.

Under the guise of removing bureaucracy, Dr Kadlec concentrated all decision-making in his own hands. He dismissed warnings from scientists that a natural pandemic could also be devastating. Citing limited budgets, Kadlec cancelled an Obama-era $35 million initiative to build a machine to produce 1.5 million N95 masks every day.   

It must be mentioned here that in summer 2012, Kadlec and El-Hibri had formed a biodefence company together. El-Hibri is the founder and managing director of Emergent. Later, Kadlec worked as a biosecurity consultant for Emergent. In July 2017, when Trump nominated him, he was required to fill the questionnaire for the Senate interview. He was asked to mention any work with companies that would create a potential conflict of interest. Kadlec wrote: none. He reported all jobs since the 1980s, but forgot his consultancy work with Emergent.

As soon as the Senate confirmed him, the stockpile focus began to shift further from infectious diseases to man-made threats. Large transparent gatherings were replaced by secret meetings for decision-making. “There has been foreign penetration by hostile governments stealing our national security information. So, we don’t hold it in the open anymore.” Said Kadlec.

*****

In July 2017, four days after Kadlec’s nomination, Emergent acquired the rights to a smallpox vaccine from the government’s previous supplier. Sanofi, the supplier, was charging $4.27 per dose.

The CDC in August 2018 said it intended to sign a five-year contract with Emergent for the smallpox vaccine. A month later, Kadlec declared the contract with Emergent was for ten years, and Emergent would be paid $9.44 per dose in the first year, a figure that would rise in succeeding years. Smallpox remains a potential threat to security, he said.

CDC mentioned on its website USA had enough smallpox vaccine for every American. In effect, every year the oldest stocks expired, were destroyed, and replenished by new stocks.

Kadlec also awarded Emergent a contract for $535 million to supply a product to take care of the side effects of smallpox vaccination. Another $67 million were paid to Emergent for a drug to treat cyanide exposure.

In March 2020, when testifying before Congress, Kadlec said he had not fully accounted for a scenario like the covid-19 crisis. “We thought about vaccines. We never thought about respirators being our first and only line of defence for health-care workers.” He said.

*****

In the last twelve months, Emergent has signed collaboration agreements with Novavax, J&J, and AstraZeneca for Emergent to manufacture their covid-19 vaccines at the Baltimore plant. Emergent petitioned and was approved to manufacture those vaccines. For the 2020 elections, Emergent handsomely contributed to both Republicans and Democrats.

*****

If you live in a country outside the USA, and are ashamed of the level of corruption in your country, you don’t need to be. Developed countries have more developed and sophisticated ways of corruption. Through checks and balances, independent judiciary, media scrutiny; corruption finds its way and prospers year after year. That is another issue the pandemic has succeeded in highlighting.

Ravi   

Corona Daily 158: The Emergent Story: Part Two

In 2007, an expert firm was invited to analyse the benefits of anthrax vaccines. Its analysis showed antibiotics were important in an anthrax attack, vaccines didn’t add any real additional value. Over the next ten years, analysts wrote the same conclusion: anthrax vaccine benefits were marginal.

The Emergent spokeswoman, while dismissing the analysis, said the government considered “many different factors” before making the purchase.

The stockpile always had a goal of maintaining a minimum of 75 million doses of the anthrax vaccine, which considering anthrax was not infectious, was a very high figure. What was the science behind this figure? NYT’s interview with Dr Kenneth Bernard, a biodefence advisor to George Bush, revealed it. He recalled a casual meeting after the 2001 attacks. One person at the meeting said he couldn’t imagine the terrorists attacking more than three cities simultaneously. So, they took the population of a large city (say, New York: 8+ million) and multiplied it by three to get 25 million. Since the anthrax vaccine needed three doses, the figure became 75 million. This informal talk from 2001 led to a contractual commitment to Emergent.

*****

To the media, and the stock markets, Emergent kept hammering the message: If you ask the head of the House intelligence committee what worried him most, he would say: Number one – anthrax. Number two-anthrax. Number three-anthrax. (Parallelly, work was carried out to influence the intelligence committee so they should really start believing in it).

Emergent’s board openly said they had no marketing expense, only lobbying expense. Since 2010, Emergent spent $3 million a year on lobbying, an enormous budget considering the size of the company.

In 2015, in view of the tight budgets, the stockpile managers recommended reducing anthrax vaccine purchases and using the money for other needs. That year, Emergent spent $4 million on lobbying. Lamar Alexander, a Republican senator, was an influential member of two committees overseeing the stockpile. His private firm was appointed to lobby against the proposals. Alexander received campaign contributions. In the USA, lobbying and campaign contributions legitimize and purify corruption.

The Emergent spokeswoman said the lobbying was necessary because government investment in biodefence had not been as strongly prioritized as it should be.

Chris Frech, who worked for George Bush, was appointed Emergent’s chief-in-house lobbyist. That year, Emergent contributed to the campaigns of all Democrats and Republicans on key committees that mattered.

When the Obama administration tried to reduce the purchases of anthrax vaccine, the Republican Congress accused them of going soft on terrorism.

The 2015 lobbying proved effective. Senate overseers opposed the reduction, and bought $300 million worth of BioTherax vaccine that nobody really needed.

*****  

In 2016, CDC announced the new contract would be for six rather than nine million doses. Emergent stock price plummeted. Emergent lobbyists promptly swung into action. They reached out to Senator Roy Blunt, the head of the committee controlling the stockpile budget. The same week, Emergent donated $10,000 to Blunt’s re-election campaign. Through the media, Emergent warned of job losses and ruin for the company if contract volume was reduced. Michigan, where Emergent was situated, was a swing state, and job losses there would hamper Hillary Clinton’s chances in the state. The US government gave in, and offered a $100 million bailout to Emergent, and retained the volumes.

*****

In the same year, 2016, one company had pitched a reusable mask for the stockpile. Federal officials were interested, but had no money. In April last year, the US government placed an order for 10 million masks with the same company. Faced with manufacturing challenges, it was unable to supply and the deal was cancelled. The current goal of the stockpile is to have 300 million respirators. When coronavirus emerged last year, the stockpile had 12 million.

*****

(Third and final part tomorrow).

Ravi