Author Archives: globalwindow

At last  – a chance to hope during this depressing Covid-19 outbreak. Of course there is still a long way to go before the promising Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine hopefully brings the pandemic under control. But this welcome rush of optimism has inspired me to revive this blog.  And boy did we need this good news. SinceContinue reading “SIGNS OF HOPE”

In different parts of the world today there are many changes in the air as various lockdown measures continue to be eased. Thailand has lifted its curfew of more than two months; local trains in the Mumbai area are starting to run again; several land borders across parts of Europe are reopening; and restaurants inContinue reading “Moving On?”

As noted a couple of weeks ago, many African countries are straining every sinew to try to contain the coronavirus. Up to this point their efforts appear to have had some success. After all, the pandemic on the African continent has so far not been as catastrophic as many international observers originally predicted. Some AfricanContinue reading “Africa matters”

When I began this blog I said I wanted to go behind the headlines and present first-hand, informed global insights into the pandemic. Many perceptive primary sources have indeed been referred to on this site. But I think today’s eye-witness contribution is one of the most moving and authoritative yet. I want to highlight thisContinue reading “Dear Life”

Fears that Africa was going to be cataclysmically overrun by the virus have so far not materialised. A WHO Africa briefing says that the pandemic, which has struck with such devastating force in much of the world, appears to be taking a different pathway in Africa. The briefing was released as the number of Covid-19Continue reading “Africa responds”

New York. New York. One of my favourite cities. Badly hit by the virus but now slowly recovering. Many other cities across the world have also been severely affected, including London, Tehran, Wuhan, Milan, Sao Paulo and Madrid. How have these experiences changed our cities and their inhabitants? What lessons for the future will beContinue reading “Tales of our cities”

Just wanted to share this rigorous detailed analysis from the Financial Times, which shows that the number of global deaths from the virus is slowly decreasing. You can read all the data here. Despite the overall downward trend, there are still many serious problems across the world, including some new hotspots such as Brazil andContinue reading “Global pandemic update”

It’s something of a surprise to see an image like this in the Daily Telegraph, criticising Britain’s handling of the pandemic. After all, the right-wing newspaper is normally a strong supporter of the UK government – and, of course, is also a former employer of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Look carefully though and the imageContinue reading “The eyes of the world”

As countries in Europe move warily to lift some of their lockdown measures, Taiwan’s handling of the pandemic continues to stand out. The Taiwanese government has reported only 440 cases of Covid-19 in total with just seven deaths. I have been puzzled for some time by these dramatically low figures and why we have notContinue reading “The Taiwan Model”

A very straightforward post today. I simply want to share an amazing audio interview on the New York Times daily podcast with Achut Deng, a refugee from South Sudan. She’s a 35-year-old single mother and now lives in South Dakota in the United States after surviving civil war and malaria in Africa. Achut’s story isContinue reading “A refugee’s story”