What a lot has changed in just a couple of weeks.

Plans have changed, lives have changed. We’d best gear up quickly, the dress rehearsal is over. Hic Rhodus, Hic Salta, indeed.

The following COVID-19 resources may be useful to many of you; if you know of similar resources not on this list, send me an email and let me know.

i will be sending out regular newsletters updating this list and containing links to new information and perspectives that i find useful. When and if things calm down and i return to my activities as humble bookseller, this list will go back to being about that. Don’t hold your breath. To subscribe:

(Select “Kersplebedeb Newsletter” for news of interest to everyone everywhere, and “Montreal List”, “Halifax” or “Ottawa” if you want to also receive news about events happening in those cities.)

Basic Advice

• Coronavirus solidarity and health advice from IJV’s Jewish disaster nurse, March 17, 2020 IJV Canada, https://www.ijvcanada.org/coronavirus-solidarity-and-health-advice-from-ijvs-jewish-disaster-nurse/
• Humanity in times of COVID-19: How to help each other properly, Ben F. Maier, https://medium.com/@benmaier/humanity-in-times-of-covid-19-how-to-help-each-other-properly-848475dee7a5
• How to Protect Yourself and Prepare for the Coronavirus, New York times, by Amelia Nierenberg, https://www.nytimes.com/article/prepare-for-coronavirus.html
• What To Do If You Live With Someone Who May Have Coronavirus, by Brittany Wong, Huffpost, https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/what-to-do-living-with-someone-coronavirus_l_5e729252c5b6f5b7c53d9a6d
• Food Safety and Coronavirus: A Comprehensive Guide, by J. Kenji López-Alt, Serious Eats, https://www.seriouseats.com/2020/03/food-safety-and-coronavirus-a-comprehensive-guide.html

Should You Wear Masks? (yes, but you shouldn’t hoard them, and only if there are enough for medical and high risk people, and keep in mind they only offer very limited protection)

• Why Telling People They Don’t Need Masks Backfired; New York Times, by Zeynep Tufekci, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/opinion/coronavirus-face-masks.html
• Rational use of face masks in the COVID-19 pandemic; by Shuo Feng, Chen Shen, Nan Xia, Wei Song, Mengzhen Fan, Benjamin J Cowling, The Lancet, https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(20)30134-X/fulltext

 

 

Montreal Resources and Projects

• COVID-19 Mutual Aid Resources in Montreal:https://docs.google.com/…/1DxQGtUzzJTpl00VQNf8o…/mobilebasic
• Montreal Rent Strike – Beginning April 1, 2020: https://mtlcounterinfo.org/montreal-rent-strike-beginning-april-1-2020/
• MTL COVID-19 Mutual Aid Mobilisation d’entraide (Facebook group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/1005041203222884/

 

Head & Hands need community support, in order to be able to keep on supporting the community – this is a master list of requests Head and Hands have for donations and tasks. Could people in Montreal who have some energy and ability to do things take a look? H&H can reimburse you for costs.

These kinds of services are so essential and H&H is one of the few staying open – plus they are actively supporting in important ways other groups who need it as much as they do.

Click on the link for all the info and list – and here is a summary of the asks.

Harm Reduction:

? If you are shopping and see disinfectants, could you buy some and drop them off?
? Do you know any chemists or biologists at universities who would stock rubbing alcohol that is unused right now, due to the university closures?
? Would you be available to take kits of small travel sized bottles apart and reorganize them for us? This would require 2-3 hours of work, which would be done from your home (we can drop off and pick up, depending on where you are). We would need you to be a person who has not been exposed to the virus (e.g. are social distancing, but not in quarantine or isolation).
? Do you have a water cooler you could purchase or donate to us for mobile hand washing stations?

Food:

? Would you be willing to purchase key grocery items and drop them off at Head and Hands?
? If you are able to buy us rice, oats, or cereal in bulk, would you also be able to pre-package them in medium Ziplocs (3 cups per bag?).
? If your food bank has closed, can the food you would have received be rerouted to us?

 

Full document here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dMChDnPonNI-C5fDLh9eiq-0pYAqdBNHymYRqbWbHMw

 

Ottawa Resources

Check out the Punch Up Collective’s page of Links and Resources Useful During COVID-19: http://www.punchupcollective.org/links-and-resources-useful-during-covid-19/

 

DIY Interventions

• Lifehacker: Tarek Loubani on 3D-Printing in Gaza, Logic August 3, 2019 (a good introduction to the Glia project), https://logicmag.io/bodies/tarek-loubani-on-3d-printing-in-gaza/
• Canadian doctor who works in Gaza makes 3D-printed face shields for COVID-19, CBC Radio · Posted: Mar 19, 2020, https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.5502954/canadian-doctor-who-works-in-gaza-makes-3d-printed-face-shields-for-covid-19-1.5502964
• Want to make your own face shields? Here is the first complete release of Glia Project’s repository (for 3d printers): https://github.com/gliax/faceshield; want to order face shields or stethoscopes for your medical centre in Canada? Here is a link to Glia’s page where they are taking orders: https://store.glia.org . In Canada, have 5+ printers and want to help Glia produce? email info@glia.org
• Ultimate Medical Hackathon: How Fast Can We Design And Deploy An Open Source Ventilator?, Gerrit Coetzee, Hackaday March 12, 2020, https://hackaday.com/2020/03/12/ultimate-medical-hackathon-how-fast-can-we-design-and-deploy-an-open-source-ventilator
• Face Mask Sewing Pattern from Craftpassion, https://www.craftpassion.com/face-mask-sewing-pattern
• ¿Cómo hacer un nasobuco en casa? Video from Cuban government about how to make your own mask (in Spanish) https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=emb_logo&time_continue=2&v=cw0zLTyU53o&fbclid=IwAR1BQu3l1_q27BbpSNALjZ_ex_REfg11ckRi8axi2KSznv5x1UKC70dGCxo

 

 

 

What’s Going On

• The dark side of Canada’s coronavirus response – When it comes to protecting some of the most vulnerable—prisoners and asylum seekers—Canada is not taking any extraordinary measures – Macleans, Justin Ling, March 20, 2020: https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/the-dark-side-of-canadas-coronavirus-response/
• Under the Virus’s Cloak, Trump Pursues Long-Sought Policies, by Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Annie Karni, March 20, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/20/us/politics/trump-virus-conservative-policies.html
• ‘Literally Weaponizing Coronavirus’: Despite One of World’s Worst Outbreaks of Deadly Virus, US Hits Iran With ‘Brutal’ New Sanctions, Common Dreams March 28, 2020, by Julia Conley, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/18/literally-weaponizing-coronavirus-despite-one-worlds-worst-outbreaks-deadly-virus-us
• Iran pleads for medicine as it fights epidemic under sanctions, Al-Monitor, March 12, 2020, https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/03/iran-request-medicine-fight-coronavirus-covid19-sanctions.html
• Coronavirus Prep Is Not an Option for First Nations Without Clean Water, by Anya Zoledziowski, Mar 13 2020, https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/wxebzb/coronavirus-prep-is-not-an-option-for-first-nations-without-clean-water

Environmental and Societal Origins of Pandemic

• The Man Who Saw the Pandemic Coming – Will the world now wake up to the global threat of zoonotic diseases? – BY KEVIN BERGER, MARCH 12, 2020: http://nautil.us/issue/83/intelligence/the-man-who-saw-the-pandemic-coming
• Mike Davis on COVID-19: The monster is finally at the door – By Mike Davis, March 12, 2020 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal: http://links.org.au/mike-davis-covid-19-monster-finally-at-the-door
• ‘Tip of the iceberg’: is our destruction of nature responsible for Covid-19? by John Vidal, Wed 18 Mar 2020 The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/18/tip-of-the-iceberg-is-our-destruction-of-nature-responsible-for-covid-19-aoe

 

 

Some Political Analysis

(these are posts to read and evaluate by your own standards, sharing does not mean 100% agreement)

• Surviving the Virus: An Anarchist Guide, by Crimethinc, https://crimethinc.com/2020/03/18/surviving-the-virus-an-anarchist-guide-capitalism-in-crisis-rising-totalitarianism-strategies-of-resistance
• The Bigger Plague is Capitalism, MLM Mayhem, http://moufawad-paul.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-bigger-plague-is-capitalism.html
• COVID-19 COMMUNIQUE: Full Citizenship Now! Temporary Suspension of Deportations Not Enough, Solidarity Across Borders, March 18, 2020, https://www.solidarityacrossborders.org/en/covid-19-communique-full-citizenship-now-temporary-suspension-of-deportations-not-enough
• Some Notes On Learning From AIDS Activism For Our Responses To The Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic, March 18, 2020, by Gary Kinsman, http://radicalnoise.ca/2020/03/18/some-notes-on-learning-from-aids-activism-for-our-responses-to-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic
• Coronavirus comments expose underbelly of ageism, ableism, by Dorothy Ellen Palmer, March 13, 2020, https://broadview.org/coronavirus-ageism-ableism/
• Some thoughts on COVID-19, by Torkil Lauesen, https://kersplebedeb.com/posts/some-thoughts-on-covid-19-by-torkil-lauesen/

 

 

 

And debunking the biowar conspiracy theory:

• COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic has a natural origin, Science Daily, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200317175442.htm

 

 

 

Confined in a Time of COVID-19

• COVID-19 pandemic plan needed for Canada’s jails and prisons, March 23, 2020 by APTN National News, https://aptnnews.ca/2020/03/23/covid-19-pandemic-plan-needed-for-canadas-jails-and-prisons/
• No Soap, Little Water, and No Way Out: Refugee Camps Brace for Coronavirus, by Tim Hume, Vice, Mar 13 2020, https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/v74q3b/no-soap-little-water-and-no-way-out-refugee-camps-brace-for-coronavirus
• COVID-19 enters the Canadian prison system, by Terry Haig, Radio Canada International March 20, 2020, https://www.rcinet.ca/en/2020/03/20/covid-19-enters-the-canadian-prison-system/
• Help Us to Build a National Resource for How to Support Prisoners During the Covid-19 Crisis: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11JxlYGDTE0aYAMVyL7BV-S1YlZa7Ucbg/view
• Inside Prison Amid Coronavirus Pandemic: Incarcerated Journalist Says Millions Behind Bars at Risk, Democracy Now, March 17, 2020, https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/17/coronavirus_prisons_san_quentin