Coronavirus, the worst global crisis since WW II – UN chief
The coronavirus pandemic is the worst global crisis since World War II, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said yesterday (March 31), expressing concern that it could trigger conflicts around the world.
Guterres said that the scale of the crisis was due to “a disease that represents a threat to everybody in the world and… an economic impact that will bring a recession that probably has no parallel in the recent past.”
“The combination of the two facts and the risk that it contributes to enhanced instability, enhanced unrest, and enhanced conflict are things that make us believe that this is the most challenging crisis we have faced since the Second World War,” he told reporters.
The New York-based United Nations was founded at the end of the war in 1945 and has 193 member states.
“A stronger and more effective response… is only possible in solidarity if everybody comes together and if we forget political games and understand that it is humankind that is at stake,” Guterres added.
More than 42,000 people have been killed so far as the disease spreads across the world, and causes economic devastation.
“We are far from having a global package to help the developing world to create the conditions both to suppress the disease and to address the dramatic consequences,” Guterres warned, pointing to unemployment, the collapse of small firms and vulnerable people in the informal economy.
“We are slowly moving in the right direction, but we need to speed up, and we need to do much more if we want to defeat the virus.”
The UN yesterday created a new fund to help developing countries after last week appealing for donations for poor and conflict-hit nations.
Beyond traditional aid from rich countries “we need to have innovative financial instruments,” so that developing nations are able to respond to the crisis, Guterres said.
He warned that the coronavirus outbreak could return from poorer countries, especially in Africa, to hit wealthy countries again, and that millions could die.
Guterres’ comments came after it was confirmed the number of deaths in the United States from coronavirus has surpassed those reported by China, where the pandemic began in December, according to a toll published by Johns Hopkins University.
There have been 3,889 deaths in the US from the virus, the Baltimore-based university said, more than the 3,309 reported officially in China.
Italy has suffered the most virus deaths – 12,428 – followed by Spain with 8,269 and then the United States.
There are 188,530 confirmed coronavirus cases in the US, the university said, the most of any country in the world.
Italy is next with 105,792 cases, followed by Spain with 94,417 and China with an official tally of 82,278.
Germany has 68,180 cases and 682 deaths followed by France and its overseas territories with 45,232 cases and 3,032 deaths, Johns Hopkins said.
(Source: AFP)
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This guy is dumb.
The humanitarain crisis in May 2009 in Nanthikadal had worse consequces than WW2.
40,000 innocent civilans slaughterd in 24 hours.
Wrong on many fronts!
1) Killing heinous, mass-murderer, armed to the teeth with sophisticated weapons, LTTE terrorists cannot be called a “slaughter”
2) Even so, SL armed forces did not kill 40,000 of such LTTE terrorists as over 20,000 just surrendered and except for a handful, most have now been rehabilitated (read: re-indoctrinated back from LTTE brainwashed racist theories, including the central dictum that “thou shalt hate all Sinhalese and all Sinhalese deserve death) and released back into the society
3) Saving over 300,000 Tamil civilians who had been taken hostage as “human shield” (a grave war crime) by the LTTE (and were being starved to death) and in the process SL armed forces also sacrificing over 8,000 dead (in that final liberation push alone) and thousands more of them being wounded (many, gravely, for life) cannot be termed as a “slaughter.”
4) Of course, Tamil civilians too died (some due to cross fire and some being shot by the LTTE when they tried to break out of the ‘human shield’) in that last liberation push, just as you might expect in any hostage-freeing exercise by commandos/special forces, but that cannot be termed a ‘slaughter.’
Simon, fully agree.
There are these LTTE MF undercover agents still circulating in all forums and still vomiting LTTE propaganda and I thinks these MF’s are narcissistic (and as perversely seen, sadistic to the point of being suicidal too!) – because they just love the “remote controlled violence” that they hope will lead to another Nanthikadaal. What’s sad is most of these undercover LTTE MF’s live abroad and precisely, they operate “remote controlling” and it is only the innocent Tamils who actually live in SL (i.e. those who have no idea of their designs and even if they did, would have scant interest in them as they are just trying to make ends meet and survive in SL just like the majority of Sri Lankans) who suffer. This is exactly what happened during the last bloody chapters too – the Tamils who fled abroad, especially their so called “Tamil community leaders” (i.e. just fronts for LTTE propaganda machies) had scant interest in the innocent Tamil civilians in SL who were suffering immense hardships due to the war, but these selfish MFs abroad just kept pumping money for one “eelam war” after another – of course knowing that their own children were in the safety of western world, attending some of the best of the best schools/universities pursuing enriched academic studies – who incidentally today are now practicing in the west as doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountant/controllers/actuaries, etc. etc. – while the poor Tamil mothers/fathers’ children who were taken away by the LTTE for the “liberation struggle” are today no more – except for a fraction of that which (fortunately) surrendered to Sri Lankan armed forces and survived to lead a “lost youth forever,” a struggling life (i.e. due to no academic education, no marketable skills) in Sri Lanka. What a sad scenario!
This is ample reason why any attempt to revive this type of vile racist sentiments driven separatism in Sri Lanka must be nipped in the bud immediately!