Ju Flet Pandemia nga Andrew Nikiforuk
Shqiperoi Dr. Besi per DBMI 02. Dhjetor, 2021 Londer, Britani e Madhe
All rights reserved. No part of this almanac may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For more information contact the author and the Canadian online magazine The Tyee. Cover design by DBMI, London, UK, 02, 12, 2021
Copyright ©2021 by ANDREW NIKIFORUK si autor dhe revista Kanadeze onine The Tyee, nga ku DBMI ka marre leje me shkrim per pershtatjen ne gjuhen Shqipe. Artikulli u botua me 21 Maj 2021, klik per The Pandemic Speaks Editori i revistes mund te kontaktohet ketu: editor@thetyee.ca Copyright ©DBMI_2021 per artikullin e pershtatur ne Shqip
Parathenie "Audi, Vide, Tace, Si Vis Vivere In Pace*" Gjate kerkimeve rreth pandemise COVID_19, situate dinamike me shume te panjohura e te papritura, qelloi te lexoj esene nga Andrew Nikiforuk ne The Tye - reviste Kandeze online. Me beri pershtypje per kendin e pazakonte dhe i terhequr nga ironia e nje autori erudit, vendosa ta sjell ne shqip per lexuesit e DBMI.
Si studjues i zellshem ne origjinen e semundjeve dhe zhvillimet ne mjekesi, nga 2014 qe krijova DBMI dhe publikoj per lexuesit e mi, kam theksuar rendesine e tyre ne historine e njerezimit. Ne kete efekt, te libri Historiku I Mjekesise kam sjell shembuj te ndryshem qe ilustrojne rolin e semundjeve dhe te mjekesise ne progresin & regresin e historise njerezove. Ne artikullin qe sjell ketu, autori nuk sherben si zedhendes ne veten e 3-te por guxon ti vere goje dhe ti jape ze Pandemise. Konkluzioni eshte i qarte: sa te nxituar, te paditur dhe te vegjel jemi te gjithe Ne. * Degjo, shiko, hesht, nese do te jetosh gjate * Historiku i Mjekesise (310 fq.) eshte publikuar nga Dr. Besi te DBMI_ISSUU me 21, Korrik, 2015
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Sa lexova esene, me 27.10. 2021 nxorra link te DBMI_TWITTER i vetmi vend ne rrjete sociale ku DBMI pulson pak krahasuar me periudhen 2014-18 me postime ditore e 50 e-books botuar ne DBMI_ISSUU, DBMI_Google_Blog, DBMI_Facebook & DBMI_Twitter.
Me 1 Dhjetor 2021, vendosa ti shkruaj editorit te The Tyee nese do jepnin leje per perkthimin ne Shqip. Pergjigja nga Kanadaja erdhi ne Londer brenda pak oresh ne email, e sjell me print-screen: Patjeter. Faleminderit, Dr. Besi dhe lexuesve tuaj per interesimin. Gjithe te mirat, Robyn Smith [editori]
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Ju Flet Pandemia Audi, vide, tace. Jam munduar t’ju terheq ne bisede per me shume se nje vit, por ju nuk me keni degjuar. Ndoshta ju nuk doni ti kapni te vertetat qe kam per t’ju ofruar. Ne realitet ato jane dhurata, por une e di qe ju kurre nuk do e shihni bujarine time nga ky kendveshtrim. Cfare frike. Cfare injorance. AD ALTORIA TENDO* Por jam kushtezuar nga betimet antike e me duhet t’ju jap keto mesime te thjeshta sic kam bere me besnikeri per mijera vite A menduat se une do flisja me terbimin e Moisiut, indinjaten e Isait? Ose ju menduat se do ju shfaqem me kapelen e Marvel ne nje video te Tik-Tok? Mos prisnit ju qe une te luaj shah me egon tuaj te blinduar si Vdekja ne The SEVENTH SEAL*? S’ka gje. Me lejoni ti filloj udhezimet e mia duke ju kujtuar CVne time (curriculum vitae) E kam fituar ne universitetin me fin: variacionet e jetes pergjate historise se kohes. Per mijevjecare, une kam punuar me boten e natyres, duke vene kufizime dhe kufinj ne vende qe ju kerkoni ti globalizoni me teknologjite dhe ekonomite tuaja. Mos vertete menduat se bota to jete me e sigurte nese copezat plastike do ishin me te shumta ne numer se peshqit? * Kam gjera me te mira per te bere ose Tentoj per qellime me te larta ose Mundohu te behesh me i mire. * The Seventh Seal (1957) film klasik Suedez nga Ingmar Bergman, tregon per nje kalores te kthyer nga Kryqezatat qe i kerkon Vdekjes te luajne nje loje shah, duke besuar se sa kohe loja vazhdon ai do te jetoje.
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Une kam vecse nje mision jo-linear, dhe ai eshte te festoj dhe te restauroj variacionet. Qyteterimet tuaje ne rritje dhe renie kultivojne dobesine, dhe kjo eshte thjeshte ne natyren e gjerave. Kur ju kerkoni te ngrini muret e larta te stabilitetit une sjell paqendrueshmerine. Ky tension shpjegon pse ne goditemi si dy desh ne malin e historise. Ndryshe nga ju, natyra respekton qellimin e ekzistences time Ju duhet ta dini se une frikesova rruget e Athines me fruthin. Une pashe Perikliun te vdese. Une destabilizova Romen dhe dinastine Sung. Une bera te perunjen Faraonet, dhe vrava fshataret e shekullit 14-te si bie bresheri mbi grurin. Une qajta nga kenaqesia ne rrethimin e Tenoshtitlan-it kur lija tejkaloi cdo parashikim. Une sakatova me tifon armaten e Bonapartit. Une dhunova klasen puntore Angleze me vdekjen blu, koleren. Une vrave punetoret ne Kanalin e Panamase me ethet e verdha. Une vizitova transhete ne L1B me gripin. Une vazhdova me ambicjet e juaja komplekse dhe te medha, dhe une i ula ato. Ka nevoje te vazhdoj me rrefimet nga Ebola, HIV dhe SARS? Une jam nje force e perjetshme e historise, dhe, te jemi te sinqerte tani, ju nuk jeni. MOMENTO MORI. [Vdekja eshte e pashmangshme ose mendo se duhet te vdesesh.]
Engjelli i vdekjes duke qelluar nje dere gjata epidemise se murtajes ne Romen antike. Gdhendja nga J.G. Levasseur pas J. Delaunay.(kredit per foton: Wellcome Collection, Creative Commons)
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I. KUFIRIN TE THANA Tani, une e kuptoj se vemendja juaj eshte e kufizuar, demtuar nga ekrane dhe aparatura dhe budalleqe te tjera. Soji juaj mund ti kuptoje gjerat nese jane reduktuar ne lista dhe meme dhe tweets (sic) Dhe kjo me sjell mua ne piken time te pare. Qe realisht eshte e thjeshte. Ju jetoni ne kohen time, kohe tranzitore, koha mes nje udhekryqi dhe e gjendjes pezull, koha qe kalon permes fatit dhe rrezikut, koha mes nje katastrofe dhe rimekembjes. Fillimeve dhe fundeve. Jetes dhe vdekjes. Ju akoma se keni vleresuar mire kuptimin e kesaj vetmie. Eshte dita qe ju dilni jashte shtepise se rehatshme te zakoneve mekanike dhe rrotulloheni ne nje cirkus te paqendrueshmerise ne nje rruge ku kaloresit * e mi presin me durim Eshte kohe e cmendur. Kohe e ngrire. Kohe deluzionesh. Disa e quajne koha e gjykimit. Gjithsesi te jete eshte koha ime, dhe une ju kam rrembyer. Ju mund te flini ne ankthin tuaj ose te reflektoni ne rremujen e jetes tuaj. Ju mund te deshironi normalen ose te doni te ndryshoni cfare eshte normale. Kjo ngelet zgjidhja juaj, dhe vetem e juaja, se cfare te beni me nje kohe mortaje. Sa per vete, une se caj koken fare. Megjithese shume nga ju i kane ulur maskat mbani mend kete kercenim. Koha ime akoma nuk ka mbaruar. * 4 kaloresit e Apokalipsit, jane me kuaj me ngjyre te bardhe, te kuqe, te zeze dhe ngjyre hiri, qe per here te pare pershkruhen ne Biblen e Vjeter dhe me pas ka shume interpretime per ta, ata jane simboli i kercenimit me dramatik dhe final per fundit e botes. Keta kalores perkatesisht perfaqesojne pushtimin, dhunen e luftes, urine dhe vdekjet massive.
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II. KRASITJA E verteta ime e dyte lidhet me rendesine e viruseve, nje nder grupet me te perhapura te sherbetoreve te mi besnike. E vogla eshte e bukur, apo jo? Kjo mbreteri magjike gjindet kudo dhe qeveris popullata te pafundme mikrobiale ne oqean. Pa pompozitet mbreteror viruset e mia mirembajne shendetin e planetit. Ju as mund ti numeroni, le me ti emertoni. Cdo dite, miliona viruse bien nga atmosfera si yje te padukshem ne cdo meter katror te Tokes qe keni inxhinieruar ju. Merr nje luge, fute ne oqean, dhe ju do mbani ne doren tuaj te parendesishme miliona viruse te afta te ndryshojne esencen e botes tuaj. Dhe cfare punesh te medha ata bejne. E dinit ju se viruset d mia ndihmojne te levizin dioksidin e karbonit nga siperfaqja ne thellesi te ujrave? Jo. Cfare dini ju per boten time? Ju akoma nuk dini se 8% e ADN-se tuaj eshte me origjine virale dhe ne abdomenin juaj jetojne viruse qe kontrollojne bakteriet te cilat ushqejne trurin tuaj. Por ky eshte konkluzioni im. Viruset vrasin fituesit. Ata perhapen me shpejtesi neper popullata te dendura viktimash qofshin ato bakterie oqeanike, lepujt te eger ose popullsi urbane. Evolucioni dhe konkurrenca sigurisht qe luajne nje rol. Ne pergjithesi viruset e mia ne menyre te dedikuar clirojne burimet qe te restaurohet ndryshimi. Pa perjashtim ata turperojne civilizimet qe kane humbur kujdesin me monokulturat e tyre te perqendruara dhe migracionet e pafund. Ju jeni pjese ne virome po aq sa dhe COVID, megjithese arroganca juaj ju ka verbuar ta pranoni kete. Por ky eshte qellim im. Une krasis popullata qe jane te tej-rritura njesoj si mollet e pjekura ne nje peme te pavjelur.
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Une shkruaj historine. Une tkurr qytetet. Une reduktoj tregetine. Une varferoj regjistrat e taksave. Une jua zhgjenjej ambicjet. Nganjehere, une e fshij cdo gje, nganjehere thjeshte shpupuris grupin e viktimave, njesoj si nje mace luan me minjte. III. TE SHFRYTEZUARIT Kjo gjeja tjeter me ben te qesh dhe te rrotulloj syte e mi. Forcat e mia nuk jane demokratike. Kurre nuk kane qene dhe kurre nuk do te jene. Une mund te jem aq kaotik sa ferri por kurre demokratik. EGO TE PROVOCO. [Une ju ftoj ne ‘duel’] Me tregoni nje pandemi qe ka ndikuar ne forme te njejte te pasurit dhe te varferit. E di, nuk kam bere asnje te tille. Soji juaj nen-vlereson natyren time jo-progresive, qe mban para jush nje pasqyre te te metave ne difektet e marredhenieve tuaja shoqerore. Koronavirusi im ka rrezuar viktimat e zakonshme. Te varferit. Emigrantet qe duhet te punojne per te jetuar. Njerezit me ngjyre te kerrusur nga semundja pasi kane pak akces ne sherbimet e kujdesit mjekesor.
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Njerezit e mbyllur neper godina (burgje) si lopet neper stalla. Kurre nuk deshtoj te cuditem sesi ju krijoni perqendrime te larta njerezish dhe kafshesh nen justifikimin e rendimentit, duke injoruar cmimin e pa-evitueshem biologjik qe duhet te paguani. Realiteti eshte ky. Pandemite si une nuk krijojne pabarazite. Ne thjeshte i shfrytezojme ato dhe luajme me mundesite qe na jepen. .
IV. TEJKALIMI Ju kurre nuk do ta besoni mesimin tjeter, por vertete ma keni forcuar doren. Emigrimet tuaja massive nga deshperimi, tre miliarde nga ju ne udhetime ajrore te vete-rendesishme, shkaterrimi pa-pushim i pyjeve tuaja; prekupacioni juaj i pafund me zgjerimin urban; zgjatja e jetes tuaj nga 30 ne 80 vite (ju pyes direkt, dhe per cfare?) 8 miliarde nga specia juaj; dhuna juaj pa kufi ndaj cdo gjallese… sjellje si keto me bejne te mundshem mua, nese jo te domosdoshem. A mendoni se soji juaj do vazhdoje rritjen pergjithmone? Qofte dhe bakteria nuk mund te jetoje nje fantazi te tille. Ndoshta duhet te kishit degjuar ekonomistin gjerman* i cili ka thene: “Njeriu mund te beje historine e tij por jo gjithmone si deshiron’ [* Karl Marks, te 18 Brumaire (sic) te Luis Bonapartit] Tejkalimi juaj eshte i nje natyre tjeter. Tashme e ardhmja juaj nuk po reflekton me te shkuaren tuaj, sepse ju nuk kuptoni me dinamiken e kompleksitetit qofte ne network-un (sic) e universit tuaj, le me timin. Nga koha e vizites time te fundit qe ja vlen te mbahet mend, ne 1918 me Gripin Spanjoll, (dhe s’ka qene fare Spanjoll, por s’ka gje) e keni bere boten me te lidhur dhe me shume te komplikuar me makinerite e sistemet tuaja.
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Ju kurre nuk u shqetesuat te kalkuloni se si avulloret mund te transmetojne influenzen/gripin nga nje kenaqesi rajonale ne nje terror global, apo jo? Me lejoni t’ju falenderoj serish per kete zbulim te mahnitshem. Cdo dite ju e shtoni kete rrezik. Cdo here ju shtoni nje linje ajrore ne nje planet me kapacitet te fundem duke shtuar shpejtesine e sherbetoreve te mi virale. Gjithshka duket e stabilizuar deri kur kompleksiteti juaj shkaterron shtepine me nje transmetim te mire-lidhur transporti ne cdo prag dere. Ju nuk keni me teper aftesi per te menduar rreth sistemeve komplekse dhe dinamikat e rrezikut se sa i gjori Montezuma kur Cortez rastisi ne Meksike me nje oreks te cmendur per floririn. Ju keni projektuar nje bote ku shume gjera mund te shkojne gabim, duke nisur nje ortek pas orteku, dhe sjelle nje efekt koncentrik pasojash te pa-parashikueshme. Tashme shkaterrimi nuk bie me mbi nje perandori te vetme por ne nje specie te tere. Ndoshta ju nuk frikesoheni nga zhdukja?
V. CIKLI Jeni duke me degjuar akoma? E hoqet telefonin cellular nga dora? Ne rregull. Kam te tjera per te ndare me ju.Mesimi tjeter nga une eshte ky. Une kurre se marr parasysh kultin tuaj te arritjeve drejtvizore, tullat qe vini mbi njera-tjetren lart e me lart, progresin ne grafike qe gjithmone shkon ne rritje siperore. Historia ecen ne vije te drejte aq sa nje grup marinaresh te dehur qe kane arritur portin e ngrohte te Aleksandrise. Zyrtaret ne Rome dhe ne dinastine Han harruan natyren ciklike te jetes. Ata, gjithashtu, nuk e pane fundin qe u erdhi.
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Kur une shfaqem, e zgjedh kohen me kujdes. Une futem ne skene kur elitat tuaja humbin konsensusin, perandorite madheshtore arrijne ne kufirin fundor, institucionet humbin praktikalitetin, refugjatet bllokojne rruget dhe klima ndryshon. Ju mund te mbani mend COVID-in tim si fillim te ca eksperiencave urgjente. Ose ndryshe ju mund te shikoni Netflix
Nje ilustrim ne1625 ku jepen qytetaret e Londres duke u munduar ti ikin murtajes (credit New York Public Library)
VI. FATURA Dobesia juaj eshte produkt I arrogances tuaj. Mendoni per mua, ne kete pandemi te lezetshme, si kavaleria Mongole qe teston muret mbrojtese te nje qyteti Kinez me besim te tepruar. Qofte dhe pas SARS dhe Ebola (ju s’mund te thoni qe nuk ju kam cuar lajmerim korrekt) jam mahnitur nga poroziteti i sistemit tuaj mbrojtes. Kudo rreth kembeve te mia une gjeta nje tabllo te mos-besimit, mos-pranimit dhe te dobesise.
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Gati kudo qe kam shetitur, une i kam gjetur te plotfuqishmit te papergatitur dhe te pavemendshem. Une kam kaluar neper kufinj te hapur dhe shfrytezova nje system te mbitendosur te furnizimit. Une kam gjetur politikane qe me kane nenvleresuar mua si nje ‘grip’ tjeter. Udheheqesit tuaj tashme besojne se ata mund t’ja hedhin paq ne nje ngjarje ekstreme pa dhene llogari askund. Kudo qe kam testuar, une kam zbuluar dobesite e zakonshme. Une kam gjetur nje rezistence kokeforte per te mos vepruar shpejt dhe mohim te funksionit eksponencial. Une gjeta parimin e para-kujdesise si nje jetim ne Rrugen e Mendafshit. Une gjeta nje klase ekspertesh jo te gatshem te vene maskat ose te konsiderojne rendesine primare te transmetimit ajror [permes aerozolesh] Une gjeta demokracite qe me budallek vendosen te luftojne nje zjarr viral neper spitale, ne vend se ta benin kete ne komunitete dhe kufinjte e vendeve te tyre. Ne total, une gjeta bureokraci te pa-afta per manaxhim rreziku katastrofik te udhehequr nga nje elite zemergur qe me teper vlereson parane se punonjesit. Cfare pritje e mahnitshme dhe krejtesisht e parashikueshme! Dhe Organizata Boterore e Shendetesise tuaj, qe veproi me shpejtesine e nje breshke dhe shtoi suksesin tim, tani shkruan raporte qe kullojne ne vete-rendesi: “COVID-19: Make It the Last Pandemic.” [COVID_19; Le ta bejme Pandemine e Fundit] Sa here e kam degjuar nje sentiment te tille pergjate epokave, dhe pas cdo pandemie?
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VII. RREMUJA Eshte e pamundur te kesh nje pandemi pa rremujen. Kudo qe zbarkoj si nje cipe akulli mbi rrushin e pjekur, teorite konspirative, racizmi dhe frika do jene te vjelat. Pershumimi i njerezve kunder-maskave dhe kunder-vaksinave duket sikur ju ka kapur gafil. Tundeni koken: paqartesia mbars nje armate frikerash me te madhe sa dikur karrocat luftarake pergjate fushave te Kines. Me lejoni t’ju tregoj nje ndodhi. Gjate Vdekjes se Zeze, thashethemet tuaja identifikuan Cifutet si shkaku i Murtajes, dhe i akuzoi ata per helmim te puseve. [Imagjinoni cfare kokolepsje do kishte sjelle Interneti juaj?] Shumica e autoriteteve tuaja perfshire dhe Papen i denoncuan keto pergojime si genjeshtra. Por a i ndaloi kjo njerezit ti digjnin Cifutet ne sinagoga ose ti forconin ata te emigronin ne Europen Lindore ku nje tjeter Holokaust do i priste 7 shekuj me pas? Jo, nuk i ndaloi. Pandemite nuk sjellin arsye me teper sa materializmi juaj vulgar sjell disiplinen. Rrini dhe pak me shume. Listes time po i vjen fundi. Jua kam prishur vetmine? A ndiheni mire?
VIII. POLITIKANET Politika e ben pandemine te madhe ose te vogel. Cdo shperthim infektiv eshte politik, dhe gjithmone ka qene keshtu. Mos prisnit ju qe udheheqesit politike te ushtronin parimin e kujdesit te avancuar perballe nje stuhie biologjike? Kjo ka ndodhur rralle ne eksperiencen time.
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Udheheqesit tuaj injoruan ate cfare ishte nevoja te benin, sepse e konsiderun nje pergjigje te tille ekstreme. Ata nuk mund ta imagjinojne se si rreziqet e vogla individuale rriten me shpejtesi drejt tragjedive kolektive. Dhe keshtu ata levizen me vizkozitetin e tyre tradicional per te kufizuar levizjet, dhe vepruan me shpejtesine e bores se shkrire ne pranvere per ti hapur gjerat serish, duke me dhene mua serish avantazhin kohe pas kohe. Ata te gjithe kujtuan qe mund te fiknin mua si nje fare loje ne kompjuter. Mirenjohja ime per keto pa-aftesi vertete nuk njeh kufinj. Ku do isha une pa ndihmesa si Trump, Modi e Bolsanaro? Ata kthyen nje pandemi minore ne nje bishe me bisht shume te shendetshem. Dhe ju menduat se pandemite jane apolitike? Kurre.
IX. Krijuesit Origjina ime ka qene subjekt i shume spekullimeve, dhe shumica e klases tuaj te eksperteve kane dyshuar nje lidhje me lakuriqet e nates (Sa per record, une gjithmone kam qene justifikim per ju qe kur metodat tuaja agrare dhe rurale sollen murtajen.) Por a keni konsideruar nje leshim aksidental nga ato laboratoret e krijuara per te kontrolluar sherbetoret e mi besnike, bakteriale ose virale? Kjo ka ndodhur me pare, dhe do te ndodhe serish. Soji juaj me dashje apo pa dashje ka mesuar te krijoje murtajat e veta. Ne dekadat e fundit, shkenctaret tuaj kane tentuar te guxojne te me nxjerrin mua nga konkurrenca duke inxhinieruar viruse dhe bakterie per qellime luftarake, ose, si thoni ju, per te mbrojtur sa me mire shendetin publik.
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Me qellimet me te mira, ju keni bere qe disa nga sherbetoret e mi me besnike te jene akoma me virulente dhe vdekjeprures sepse donit te dinit si mund te sillen ato ne hapesirat tuaja laboratorike. Ju keni krijuar disa organizma qe dhe une vete nuk do i mendoja ne naten me te erret. Degjoni: ndodhite tuaja me patogjene te arratisur jane pa fund, dhe une, i pari, nuk mund ti rregistroj te gjitha. Ne 1970, variola ime, qe pati vrare miliarda, rrodhi nga dy laboratore te akredituar ne tre arratisje te vecanta. Antraksi rrodhi nga tubacione e ujrave te zeza dhe tubat e ajrit te kondicionuar ne laboratoret biologjike ne Rusi duke sjellur qindra te vdekur. Vaksinat jo-aktive per encefalitin ekuin, per dekada me rradhe, sollen perhapje semundjesh te cilat ishin supozuar te parandalonin. Ne 2003, SARS arratiset jo nje here por gjashte here nga laboratore ne Singapur, Tajvan dhe Pekin. Kur ju heren tjeter, serish, te fluturoni shume afer diellit, a do sillni zjarr shkatrrimtar per te gjithe ne planetin tuaj?
X. MUNDESIA Me ne fund. DECEM NUMERO (numri dhjete) Pandemite nuk jane nje problem, as qe jam une, te flasim drejte tani, si pune zgjidhje madhore. Une nuk qetesoj plaget. Une nuk pergjigjem para Zotit. Une nuk ju pergatis per ‘rilindje e ringjitje ne qiell’ Une nuk ju denoj, dhe une nuk ju shperblej. Aq me pak do mbyll pabarazite tuaja. Une nuk thyej shoqerite; une vecse bej me te dukshme ate qe eshte thyer me kohe. Por une do tund gishtin tim ne mesimet tuaja shoqerore e ne te papranueshmet. Une do te ndricoj dobesite tuaja dhe do te pershpejtoj proceset qe jane ne levizje e siper.
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Dhe kjo shpjegon pse te pasurit tuaj jane pasuruar akoma me shume, dhe pse teknologjite tuaja tashme ushtrojne me shume kontroll ndaj shoqerive tuaja se sa koronavirusi tim do arrinte ndonjehere. (Ja pra, ju protestuat kunder maskave duke tundur telefonat celulrare ne emrin e lirive te humbura me kohe) Dhe prape. Une nje here ju thashe Fjorentineve qe trauma eshte njekohesisht dhurate dhe mundesi. Nese veshtiresia eshte nje drite, nje veshtiresi e pakalueshme mund te jete nje djell. Vdekja e Zeze shkaterroi boten e Fjorentineve dhe reduktoi numrat e tyre ne menyre drastike. Dhe si u pergjigjen Fjorentinet ndaj vdekjeve masive dhe mungesave te krahut te punes? Me kreativitet te madh dhe vizionet te reja. Ata hapen shoqerine ndaj ndryshimit dhe mbushen rradhet e tyre me ftyra te reja. Ju e keni quajtur ate Rilindja. COVID-19 i imi, ne anen tjeter, eshte nje pandemi e vogel, nje percarje e vogel. Carje sigurisht, por asgje krahasuar me Vdekjen e Zeze. Por a mendoni ju se une kam ndaluar boten tuaj qe ju te ankoheni cdo dite rreth mbylljeve dhe mungesave per letrat e banjos dhe procesoreve te kompjuterave? Jo, une jam ketu, i pranishem dhe i gjalle, qe ju te llogarisni, te rregulloheni, dhe ti jepni vemendje asaj qe ka vlera. Nese do te kete nje rilindje ne te ardhmen tuaj nuk varet ne sa njohuri ka prodhuar shoqeria juaj. Me shume, varet ne sa urtesi keni kultivuar ju. A e keni te pakten urtesine e Fjorentineve? A me dallohet skepticizmi im? Deri kur te takohemi serish - dhe kjo eshte e garantuar INVICTUS MANEO. [Une Ngelem i Pamposhtur] Me poshte artikulli ne Anglish, formati original i botimit ne The Tyee
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The Pandemic Speaks Audi, vide, tace. I have been trying to engage you in conversation for more than a year, but you have not listened. Perhaps you don’t want to grasp the truths I have to offer. They are gifts really, but I know you will never see my generosity in that light. Such fear. Such ignorance. Ad altiora tendo. But I am bound by ancient oaths and I must deliver these few plain lessons as I have faithfully done for thousands of years. I read confusion on your face. Did you think that I would speak with the rage of Moses, the indignation of Isaiah? Or did you think I would appear in Marvel cape on a TikTok video? Did you expect me to play chess with your armoured ego like Death in The Seventh Seal? No matter. Let me start my instruction by reminding you of my curriculum vitae. I earned it at the finest university: the diversity of life over the history of time. For millennia, I have laboured in the natural world, imposing limits and borders in places you seek to globalize with your technologies and economies. Do you really think the world will be more secure when bits of plastic outnumber fish? I have but one non-linear mission, and that is to celebrate and restore diversity.
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Your rising and falling civilizations cultivate fragility, and that is simply the way of things. While you seek to build great walls of stability, I bring volatility. This tension explains why we collide like two rams on the mountain of history. Unlike you, nature respects my purpose-driven existence. You should know that I haunted the streets of Athens with measles. I watched Pericles die. I destabilized Rome and the Song dynasty. I humbled the Pharaohs, and killed peasants in the 14th century like hail on wheat. I wept with satisfaction during the siege of Tenochtitlan as my smallpox outdid itself. I dogged Napolean’s shivering armies with typhus. I violated England’s working classes with the blue death, cholera. I killed essential workers on the Panama Canal with yellow fever. I visited the trenches of the First World War with influenza. You’ve carried on with your great and complex ambitions, and I have laid them low. Need I go on with tales of Ebola, HIV and SARS? I am an eternal force of history, and, let’s be honest, you are not. Memento mori. I. The Interruption Now, I understand that your attention span is limited, impaired by screens and gadgets and other silliness. Your kind can only comprehend things if they are reduced to lists and memes and tweets. And that brings me to my first point. It is simple really. You are living in my time, luminal [tranxitore] time, the time betwixt [udhekryq] and between;
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the time passing between fate and hazard; the time between catastrophe and renewal. Beginnings and endings. Life and death. You haven’t yet appreciated the meaning of this solitude. It is the day you walk out of your convenient house of mechanical habits and tumble into a circus of uncertainty on a road where my horsemen patiently wait. It is crazy time. Frozen time. Delusional time. Some call it judgement time. In any case it is my time, and I have snared you. You can steep in your anxiety or reflect on the disorder in your life. You can yearn for normal or want to change what is normal. It is your choice, and your choice only, what to do with plague time. I for one care not. Just know this. Though many of you have already let your masks down, heed my warning. My time is not yet done. II. The Pruning My second truth concerns the importance of viruses, one of my most abundant and faithful servants. Small is beautiful, is it not? This magnificent kingdom dwells everywhere and governs vast microbial populations in the ocean. With no regal fanfare my viruses maintain the health of this planet. You cannot even count, let alone name them. Every day, millions of viruses fall from the atmosphere like invisible stars on each square foot of your engineered Earth. Take a spoon and dip it in the ocean, and you will hold in your insignificant hand millions of viruses capable of changing your world to the core.
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And what great works they provide. Did you know that my viruses help to move carbon dioxide from shallow waters into the depths? No. What do you know of my world? You don’t even know that eight per cent of your DNA is viral in origin or that your gut is alive with viruses that police the bacteria that nourish your brain. But here’s my point. Viruses kill the winners. They spread rapidly among dense populations of prey whether they be ocean bacteria, feral rabbits or urban people. Evolution and competition of course play a role. All in all, my viruses diligently liberate resources so diversity can be restored. They invariably shame civilizations that have grown careless with their concentrated monocultures and endless migrations. You belong to the virome as much as my COVID does, though your arrogance blinds you from such acknowledgement. For that is my purpose. I prune populations that have grown heavy like overripe apples on unpicked trees. I write history. I shrink cities. I reduce trade. I impoverish tax rolls. I humble aspiration. Sometimes, I wipe the slate clean; sometimes I just winnow concentrations of prey, like a cat toying with mice. III. The Exploited This next item makes me laugh and roll my eyes. My forces are not democratic. Never have been and never will be. I can be as indiscriminate as hell, but never democratic. Ego te provoco. Show me a pandemic that equally afflicted the rich and the poor. I know. I have not made one. Your kind underestimates my unprogressive nature, which holds but a mirror to the flaws of your social relations.
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My coronavirus has struck down the usual victims: The poor. Immigrants who must work for a living. People of colour burdened with disease because they have scant access to health care. People incarcerated in buildings like cattle in feedlots. It never ceases to amaze me how you concentrate people and animals in the name of efficiency, heedless of the inevitable biological price to pay. The reality is this. Pandemics like myself don’t create inequalities. We merely exploit them and play with the opportunities. IV. The Overshoot You will never believe this next lesson, but you truly command me. Your desperation-fuelled mass migrations, your selfimportant three billion air travellers, your relentless destruction of forests; your ceaseless preoccupation with urban expansion; your extension of life from 30 to 80 years (and for what I boldly ask?); your eight billion denizens; your persistent violence against all living things… such behaviour just makes me possible if not necessary. Do you think your kind can just keep growing forever? Not even bacteria live such a fiction. Maybe you should have listened to that German economist who said, “Man makes his own history but not always as he pleases.” Well, that’s me, a cultivator of displeasure. Your overshoot is of another dangerous nature. Your future is no longer a reflection of your past, because you do not understand the dynamics of complexity in your own networked universe, let alone mine.
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Since my last truly memorable visit in 1918 with my Spanish Flu (and it wasn’t Spanish, but no matter), you have made the world more connected and more complex with your machines and systems. You never bothered to calculate how steam ships could transform influenza from a regional delight to a global scourge, did you? Let me thank you again for that splendid innovation. Every day you multiply this hazard. Every time you add another airplane route to a finite planet you accelerate the speed of my viral servants. All seems stable until your complexity brings down the house with a well-transported contagion on every doorstep. You no more have the ability to think about complex systems and the dynamics of risk than poor Montezuma did when Cortez stumbled into Mexico with a crazy appetite for gold. You have designed a world where multiple things can go wrong setting off one avalanche after another, delivering a cascade of unpredictable consequences. Disaster no longer falls on a single empire but an entire species. Perhaps you do not fear extinction? V. The Cycle Are you still listening? Have you put away your cell phone? Good. I have more to share.My next lesson is this. I pay no heed to your cult of linear achievement, the bricks laid upon each other higher and higher, the graphed progress edging upwards always. History can no more walk a straight line than a group of drunken sailors on leave in the sunny port of Alexandria. Officials in Rome and the Han dynasty forgot the cyclical nature of life. They, too, never saw the end coming.
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‘While you seek to build great walls of stability, I bring volatility.’ A 1625 illustration of Londoners fleeing the plague. Source: New York Public Library.
When I appear, I pick my time carefully. I enter the picture when your elites lose their consensus, grand empires reach a border too far, institutions lose their practicality, refugees clog the byways and the climate changes. You may remember my COVID as the beginning of several long emergencies. Or you may watch Netflix instead. VI. The Reckoning Your vulnerability is a product of your hubris. Think of me, this fine pandemic, as a Mongolian cavalry probing the defenses of an overconfident Chinese city. Even after SARS and Ebola (you can’t say I didn’t provide a fair warning), I marvelled at your porous defenses. All about my feet I found a global tableau of disbelief, denial and timidity. Almost everywhere I ventured, I found the powerful unprepared and inattentive. I moved through open borders and took advantage of overextended supply chains.
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I found politicians who minimized me as another “flu.” Your leaders actually believed that they could muddle through an extreme event with impunity. Everywhere I probed, I discovered familiar vulnerabilities. I found a stubborn resistance to act quickly and a denial of the exponential function. I found the precautionary principle abandoned like an orphan on the Silk Road. I found an expert class reluctant to don masks or to consider the dominance of aerosol transmission. I found democracies who stupidly elected to fight a viral fire in their hospitals instead of in their communities or at their borders. In sum, I found inept bureaucracies incapable of managing catastrophic risk led by a callous political elite that prized money more than workers. What a marvelous and entirely predictable reception! And your World Health Organization, which acted with the speed of a tortoise and abetted my success, now writes reports dripping with self-importance: “COVID-19: Make It the Last Pandemic.” How often have I heard this sentiment over the ages, after every pandemic? VII. The Pandemonium It is not possible to have a pandemic without pandemonium. Whenever I descend like frost on a ripe crop of grapes, conspiracies, racism and fear will be the harvest. The proliferation of anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers has seemingly caught you by surprise. Shake your head: uncertainty breeds an army of fears greater than the war chariots once drawn across the plains of China.
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Let me tell you a story. During the Black Death, your rumour mills identified Jews as the cause of the plague and accused them of poisoning water wells. (Imagine what mischief your internet would have done?) Many of your authorities including the Pope denounced these rumours as lies. But did that stop people from burning Jews in synagogues or forcing them to migrate to Eastern Europe where another Holocaust awaited them seven centuries later? No, it did not. Pandemics do not breed reason any more than your crude materialism nourishes prudence. Stay a bit longer. My list now grows short. Have I disturbed your solitude? Are you feeling well? VIII. The Politicians Politics makes a pandemic big or small. Every outbreak is political, and it has always been thus. Did you really expect your political leaders to exercise the precautionary principle in the face of a biological storm? That has rarely been my experience. Your leaders scoffed at what needed to be done, because they deemed such responses extreme. They could not imagine how small individual risks could rapidly amplify into collective tragedies. And so they moved like molasses to limit mobility, and then acted like a spring melt to open things up again, providing me with the advantage time and time again. They all thought they could turn me off like some computer game. My gratitude for such ineptness is truly boundless. Where would I be without enablers like Trump, Modi and Bolsonaro?
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They turned a minor pandemic into a beast with a very fat tail. And you thought pandemics were apolitical? Never. IX. The Producers My origins have been the subject of much speculation, and most of your expert classes suspect a natural spillover from bats. (For the record, I have always been your scapegoat since your agrarian and urban ways unleashed pestilence.) But have you considered an accidental release from the very laboratories designed to control my loyal servants, bacterial or viral? It has happened before, and will happen again. Your kind has learned to manufacture your own plagues whether by design or accident. In recent decades, your scientists have tried to boldly outcompete me by engineering viruses and bacteria for warfare or, so you say, to better protect the public health. With the best of intentions, you have made some of my notable servants more virulent and deadly to anticipate how they might behave in your engineered spaces. You have made chimeras that even I could not contemplate in the darkest night. Listen: the narratives of escaped pathogens are legion, and I, for one, can’t keep track of them all. In the 1970s, my smallpox, which had killed billions, spilled from two accredited labs in three separate escapes. Anthrax leaked from the sewers and air ducts of biological labs in Russia killing hundreds. Inactivated vaccines for Venezuelan equine encephalitis caused outbreaks they were supposed to prevent, and for decades. In 2003, SARS escaped not once but six times from labs in Singapore, Taiwan and Beijing. When you next, again, fly too close to the sun, will you bring a devastating fire to all of your planet?
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X. The Opportunity Finally, decem numero. Pandemics are not a problem; nor am I, strictly speaking, some kind of grand solution. I do not salve wounds. I do not answer to God. I will not prepare you for the Rapture. I do not punish, and I do not reward. Nor will I end your rampant inequalities. I do not break societies; I only make visible what is already broken. But I will rub my wandering finger in your societal lesions and improprieties. I will illuminate fragility and accelerate trends long in motion. And this explains why your rich have gotten richer, and why your technologies now exercise greater control over your societies than my coronavirus ever will. (Yet, you rallied against masks while waving cell phones in the name of liberties long lost.) And yet. I once told the Florentines that trauma is both a gift and opportunity. If difficulty is a light, an insurmountable difficulty can be a sun.The Black Death upended the world of the Florentines and mightily reduced their numbers. And how did the Florentines respond to mass death and a shortage of hands? With great creativity and new visions. They opened their society to change and filled the ranks of the dead with new faces. You called it the Renaissance. My COVID-19, on the other hand, is a minor pandemic, a small disrupter. A rupture to be sure, but nothing like my Black Death. But do you think that I have stopped your world so you can daily complain about lockdowns and shortages of toilet paper and computer chips? No. I am here, present and alive, so you can take stock, make amends, and pay attention to what matters.
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Whether there will be a renaissance in your future depends not on how much knowledge your society has manufactured. Rather, it rests on how much wisdom you have cultivated. Do you have even the wisdom of the Florentines? Does my skepticism show? Until we meet again — and that event is assured — invictus maneo.
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Rreth Autorit - Andrew Nikiforuk publikoi artikullin me 21.05.2021 ne TheTyee.ca, ku ai eshte editor kontribues and gazetar qe ka fituar disa cmime. Artikujt dhe librat e tij jane rreth epidemive, industrise energjitike, natyres dhe ne fusha te tjera.
Rreth Botuesit - The Tyee eshte nje reviste kanadeze online e krijuar ne 2003, qe raporton lajmet, informon publikun e boton artikuj cilesore ne problematika te ndryshme. Jane botues jo-fitim prures [free online] dhe kane marre cmime te ndryshme ne gazetari.