Hong Kong : Declaration of the High Representative on behalf of the EU on the postponement of the Legislative Council elections
As set out in the Council conclusions of 24 July, the EU is following closely the political situation in Hong Kong and reiterates that it is essential that the Legislative Council elections take place in an environment which is conducive to the exercise of democratic rights and freedoms as enshrined in the Hong Kong’s Basic Law.
The proposed postponement by one year of the elections to the Legislative Council through recourse to emergency powers, would delay the renewal of its democratic mandate and call into question the exercise of the democratic rights and freedoms guaranteed under Hong Kong’s Basic Law.
The recent disqualification of pro-democracy candidates, including sitting lawmakers previously democratically elected by the people of Hong Kong, also weakens Hong Kong’s international reputation as a free and open society. The protection of civil and political rights in Hong Kong is a fundamental part of the “One Country, Two Systems” principle, which the EU supports.
The EU calls on the Hong Kong authorities to reconsider these decisions.
Washington, DC – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today mourns the death of Tahir Ahmad Naseem, a U.S. citizen who was shot in a courtroom in Peshawar, Pakistan on July 29, 2020. The assailant claimed to have shot Naseem because he had belonged to the Ahmadiyya faith.
“Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are indefensible to begin with but it is outrageous beyond belief that the Pakistani government was incapable of keeping an individual from being murdered within a court of law for his faith, and a U.S. citizen, nonetheless,” USCIRF Commissioner Johnnie Moore stated. “Pakistan must protect religious minorities, including individuals accused of blasphemy, in order to prevent such unimaginable tragedies. The authorities must take immediate action to bring Mr. Nassem’s killer to justice.”
Tahir Ahmad Naseem was arrested two years ago and charged with blasphemy under the Pakistan Penal Code. Blasphemy cases in Pakistan are extremely controversial and have led to riots and vigilante justice. As highlighted in a USCIRF policy update about Pakistan’s blasphemy law, USCIRF is aware of nearly 80 individuals imprisoned on blasphemy charges, half of whom face life imprisonment or the death penalty.
“As USCIRF has noted countless times, Pakistan’s blasphemy law inflames interreligious tensions and too often leads to violence,” noted USCIRF Vice Chair Anurima Bhargava. “We urge the State Department to enter into a binding agreement with the Pakistani government that includes the repeal of blasphemy provisions in the Pakistan Penal Code.”
In its 2020 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended the State Department redesignate Pakistan as a “Country of Particular Concern,” or CPC, in part because of the “systematic enforcement of blasphemy and anti-Ahmadiyya laws,” which often target religious minority communities. In a recent policy update, USCIRF provided an overview of key issues that should be included in any binding agreement between the governments of the United States and Pakistan.
The European Union welcomes the release of members of the Baha’i community by the movement Ansar Allah after their prolonged detention. One of those detained had been imprisoned since 2013 and was sentenced to death. The EU and its Member States have consistently advocated for the immediate release of all detained individuals.
The spread of coronavirus in Yemen and appalling conditions in detention facilities throughout the country made their release even more urgent. This gesture is a step in the right direction, contributing to building confidence and bringing the resumption of the peace process in Yemen closer. We commend the efforts of the UN, notably the UN Special Envoy to Yemen, in securing the release of the members of the Baha’i community, as well as the generous facilitation of the Ethiopian government.
Nobody should be persecuted on the basis of their belief or political affiliations. The EU recalls that freedom of thought, conscience and religion, are fundamental rights which must be guaranteed under all circumstances according to article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which Yemen has signed up to and ratified.
The EU calls on all parties to replicate such gestures throughout the whole country and put an end to the conflict by engaging with the efforts of the UN Special Envoy.
Team Europe: The EIB`s lends EUR 10 million to Credo Bank under its Georgia Outreach Initiative to support MSMEs
The EIB will lend EUR 10 million in synthetic local currency to Credo Bank, the leading actor on microfinance market in Georgia predominantly servicing enterprises in rural areas and agricultural sector;
This is the second loan under the EIBs Georgia Outreach Initiative launched to improve access to finance for the countrys MSMEs.
Loans will be available under flexible terms to help maintain liquidity of MSMEs to continue operating and preserve jobs;
The loan comes as a part of the immediate response to Covid-19 pandemic launched by the EU and its Team Europe and is facilitated by an EU grant.
The European Investment Bank will lend EUR 10 million to Credo Bank, the leading actor on microfinance market in Georgia, and provide more affordable loans to countrys micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), predominantly from the agriculture sector. This is the second loan granted under the EIBs Georgia Outreach Initiative. Launched in December 2019 the Initiative improves financial inclusion and access to finance for underserved MSMEs in Georgia by supporting smaller banks in the country to improve their service offers.
The loan from the EU bank will be available to MSMEs in synthetic local currency to shield them from risks related to the depreciation of the currency. A grant from the European Union will complement the EIB loan to promote the local currency financing and cover part of the foreign exchange risk related costs.
The EIB loan will support MSMEs to overcome problems induced by the Covid-19 pandemic by supporting MSMEs with much-needed working capital and additional liquidity by creating additional sources of finances, available under flexible terms, to preserve jobs and vital agricultural production in the country.
The investment is a part of the European Union`s Team Europe immediate response to Covid-19 pandemic, launched in over 100 partner countries around the world, to which the EIB alone pledged EUR 6.3 billion.
Lilyana Pavlova, Vice President of the EIB, responsible for the bank’s activities in Georgia said: “With this loan the European Investment Bank and Team Europe are delivering on their pledge to support Georgia overcome the challenges brought by Covid-19 pandemic. Through our partnership with Credo Bank we will provide liquidity in local currency in order to keep businesses running during the crisis, and support their early and speedy recovery, thus, contributing towards a more resilient economy and strengthening the national financial sector. This will all be crucial for any future sustainable development of Georgia.”
Carl Hartzell, the EU Ambassador to Georgia, said: Improving living conditions in rural areas is an important priority of EU-Georgia cooperation. This loan will have a strong focus on the local agricultural sector, which is key from a local food production and employment perspective.
Zaza Pirtshkhelava CEO of Credo Bank said: I would like to sincerely thank the European Investment Bank for years of successful cooperation to improve financial inclusion in Georgia, for standing by the bank and its customers during the most volatile times and the European Union for the complementary grant to the transaction. This long-term local currency finance will be directed to assist farmers survive current constraints induced by Covid-19 pandemic and will highly contribute to uninterrupted agriculture production and food security in the country.
The project, involving the construction and operation of a new biomass boiler at the Figueira da Foz pulp and paper plant, is a major step in the company’s recent decarbonisation strategy Funds are provided under the Investment Plan for Europe.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) will support The Navigator Company, a major Portuguese industrial group and Europe’s leading pulp and paper manufacturer, with a €27.5 million loan for the construction and operation of a new biomass boiler at their integrated mill facility located in Figueira da Foz, a cohesion region in Portugal.
This project is the first major step of The Navigator’s decarbonisation strategy, launched recently with the aim of making the company carbon neutral by 2035 (15 years ahead of the EU target of 2050) in line with the Paris Agreement, the EU Green Deal and Portugal’s Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality.
Replacing the existing equipment with a new biomass boiler is part of the company’s investments for offsetting carbon emissions and is seen as crucial for preserving and improving its competitiveness and market presence in a cyclical business sector, especially now amid the far-reaching economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This EU bank financing is provided under the Investment Plan for Europe. The Figueira mill only uses feedstock from forests that are either certified by internationally accredited forest certification systems or considered to be controlled wood. This project will also contribute positively to supporting rural economies and employment in Portugal through the further development of a forest and bioeconomy value chain.
“We are very pleased to support the Navigator Company’s ambitious decarbonisation strategy and their efforts in modernizing production to make it more sustainable and to strengthen their competitiveness. While boosting economic recovery from COVID-19, this project will promote circular economy and help the EU reach its objective of climate neutrality by 2050” said EIB Vice-President Emma Navarro, responsible for the operations in Portugal as well as for the Bank’s climate action. “Climate action and cohesion, along with sustainable growth, continue to be key priorities for the EIB, even amid this pandemic. We are glad to support a project that is strongly contributing to these goals in Portugal and in Europe”.
This is the eighth transaction between the EIB and The Navigator Company with the last operation signed in 2018. In that project, the EIB Group supported The Navigator Company’s investments in innovation and climate action, such as the financing of the modernisation of the Figueira da Foz mill and the upgrade of their production technologies. As a result, energy consumption and the amount of chemicals used were reduced, as were greenhouse gas emissions thanks to fossil fuels being replaced with the greater use of renewable biomass energy.
The EIB is the world’s largest multilateral provider of climate finance. Its goal is to be a leader in mobilising the finance needed to limit the average global temperature increase to 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels to meet the Paris Agreement’s objectives. On 14 November 2019, the EIB Board of Directors approved its new climate objectives and the new energy lending policy. The Bank will gradually increase its financing for climate and environmental objectives by up to 50% by 2025, with the goal of ensuring that the EIB Group mobilises at least €1 trillion in the critical decade between 2021 and 2030 to promote investments helping to meet these objectives. It also announced its intention to align all EIB Group activities with the Paris Agreement. To this end, the EIB will cease financing fossil fuel-based projects from late 2021.
One of the things that has really struck me in today’s peculiar times is the rhetoric of war used by many political leaders to talk about the COVID-19 situation. Such rhetoric seems at best misplaced during a public health crisis – and it could turn out to be extremely dangerous, by excusing violence. A military response is not what we need. On the contrary, the solidarity we can witness at various levels could be the beginning of a post-COVID-19 shift that I believe politicians across the world should be facilitating and promoting.
The war rhetoric is being used to highlight the gravity of the situation but also to gather people and create a sense of unity. As a French citizen it was particularly striking when Emmanuel Macron, in his 16 March speech, said “We are at war” at least seven times. Each time with greater emphasis and drama. But this rhetoric is also being used elsewhere: in the US, Donald Trump called himself a “wartime president”; and in Italy the government asked for a “wartime economy” to solve the situation.
I find this rhetoric insensitive coming from countries considered ‘at peace’ given the conditions that populations in conflict zones must endure. Thinking that we are ‘at war’ risks making us forget how privileged we are in reality, compared to populations who continue to suffer from bombing raids – which will not necessarily stop because of COVID-19. It is even more shocking when we know that countries like Syria are being hit by the virus, and people there cannot be isolated like us. As the spokesperson for the International Red Cross in Iraq said, “Social distancing is a privilege”.
Moreover, this military narrative could end up being quite dangerous for us all as it fuels an anxiety-led atmosphere. By referring to an ‘invisible foe’, we only increase our distrust of the other. This discourse can lead to increased fear and even violence. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, many violent, racist and xenophobic attacks and crimes have taken place. ‘Reducing the fear of others’ is a key objective of the Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA). Through its human rights programme, QCEA aims at building positive narratives and reducing hate speech – and in a time like this, this work has never been more essential.
Furthermore, references to war during a public health crisis seem inappropriate since military equipment is useless to resolve this situation. I do not question the contribution of the army in this time of crisis, which is of great help. But in 2019 world military spending experienced its highest increase in ten years (about 4%), and when I see the chronic shortage of masks and ventilators I cannot help but question the relevance of such spending. If you compare what you can buy with the money spent on military equipment it puts things into perspective: for the price of an F-35 nuclear bomber plane you can have around 2,200 ventilators. Our societies are ever more militarised and security-focused, and successive governments have prioritised military budgets over preparing for other threats such as global pandemics or climate change. This crisis should provoke a shift in spending priorities – rethinking the way security is perceived and defined by moving away from ‘hard’ security to human security. There is no unique definition of human security, it goes further than traditional understandings of security focusing on states, proposing a human-focused approach. Prevention, addressing the root causes of conflicts, human development, human rights and public health are among the many elements included in the concept of human security, promoted by QCEA.
That’s why it’s the solidarity and cooperation we’ve seen at the local and community level worldwide which inspires and gives hope. This is peacebuilding at its most basic level, through enhancing social cohesion. Whether through offers to do shopping for vulnerable people, exclusive restaurants cooking for the homeless, neighbours supporting medical and care staff by cooking for them or babysitting their children. These are just some examples of solidarity which are helping us to redefine our relationships to people around us – to strengthen society – let’s hope that this will be COIVD-19’s legacy.
Many commentators are keen to address what comes next. Calling for a redefinition of our entire system is challenging, since trying to imagine a new world is not easy, especially because in times of crisis we tend to wish for a return to ‘normal’ or a utopia version of normal. Some post-COVID-19 scenarios re-imagine the world and such radical change can scare. Nevertheless, this global ‘brainstorming’ is refreshing. A global reflection on how people and organisations can better protect the environment and tackle climate change after this, and live more peacefully has started – I hope governments will follow this wave of self-reflection and not return to ‘business as usual’. This would be a real sign of human resilience and our species’ capacity to learn and evolve.
The first time I met Roma people in the Western Balkan region was in 1999, while I was working in Montenegro. I had just come out of a few hard years in South Sudan and Rwanda, and I was looking forward to coming closer to home.
I was working for an NGO and spent my days in the Roma camp outside of the town of Podgorica, where thousands of people were struggling to make a living. Despite the tensions, past and recent, and the lack of many things, the camp was not a sad place, somehow.
I remember being amazed by the incredible diversity of facial features in that community, feeling sometimes like I was in an international airport with people coming from around the world. I remember thinking the history of these people is on their face. Many families had similar stories and ancestry, but others recalled different paths, India, the Middle East, northern Africa.
I could see the camp as a lake, where different rivers had converged, over the centuries; and the lake was tempted between remaining a lake or turning back into a river.
We used to sit with Roma women, and share stories. After a while, they read my future in the coffee grounds, and of course, it involved love.
We probably were working on needs assessment or something like that, but I just remember the two things that all women kept mentioning to me: they wanted better teeth (their teeth were damaged quickly due to poor nutrition and hygiene conditions), and they wanted nail polish. They were 15, 35, 50-year-old, and in the midst of chaos and despair, they wanted beauty, and love.
This was one of these moments that captured the reality of inequalities: not just a sophisticated macro-economic concept, but something people experience as individuals, something which prevents them from fulfilling their potential and their dreams, in whatever shape and scope.
A year later, I met them again. In Gujarat, India, in the wake of the 2001 devastating earthquake. There, they are called Kuchis, the nomadic tribes of India and Afghanistan. Same faces, same stories, same music. Same extraordinary resilience within different chaos. The first migrants.
Addressing the needs of the most vulnerable Roma communities in Serbia
OSCE/Milan Obradovic
Roma children in Serbia (file)
I meet Roma families now again, in Serbia, in my position of the UN Resident Coordinator in Serbia, in the peak of the COVID-19 crisis. According to the official data, there are at least 150,000 Roma people living in Serbia, though unofficial figures point this number may be significantly higher.
During the first three months of the UN response to COVID-19, our teams, along with government counterparts, identified that tens of thousands of Roma lacked basic access to safe water and electricity, which is a serious health risk in the time of a pandemic, besides being a threat to life and human dignity.
We assessed humanitarian needs in 500 substandard Roma settlements (out of over 760 estimated settlements) and quickly started acting. In close cooperation with the Serbian Red Cross at the local level and many other local stakeholders, the UN has provided assistance packages and tailor-made health messages to thousands of Roma families at risk.
The UN also put in place assistance so that Roma children could attend some form of remote education, in communities where access to the internet and to computer is extremely limited.
Eighty-two Roma health mediators in 70 municipalities switched to telephone consultations. In just a few weeks’ they reached 9,260 Roma families, advised over 4,500 persons on preventive measures, and referred over 100 persons to COVID-19 testing centres.
For a long period of time, Roma people in Serbia have been structurally neglected, which resulted in inadequate housing, unequal access to education for Roma children and unequal position in the open labour market.
Dalai Lama, Sikyong condole the demise of Taiwan’s former President Lee Teng-hui x
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Dalai Lama with then Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui during his first visit to Taiwan in March of 1997 (Photo- OHHDL)
By Shyamal Sinha
Lee Teng-hui, who as president of Taiwan led its transformation from an island in the grip of authoritarian rule to one of Asia’s most vibrant and prosperous democracies, died on Thursday in Taipei, the capital. He was 97.
The condolences from the Tibetan leadership as exiled Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama expressed his sadness by recalling his first visit to Taiwan in 1997. The octogenarian leader praised Mr. Lee’s contributions to Taiwan’s democratic reforms and noted that the best way to remember him would be to “emulate his dedication to democracy.”
The Dalai Lama regarded Mr. Lee as a personal friend and conveyed his condolences to his wife Mrs. Tseng Wen-hui and his family, “I had the honour of meeting your husband during my first visit to Taiwan in 1997 when he was the first popularly elected President. Subsequently, we met again in Taiwan and at Peace Forums elsewhere and I regard him as a personal friend.” He concluded his message by stating that former president Lee was an ally of the Tibetan people and did what he could to support them.
The President of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), also known as the exile Tibetan government, Dr. Lobsang Sangay offered his condolences by noting his exceptional leadership on the island, “Mr. Lee steadfastly championed the cause of Taiwan nation and steered Taiwan through the historic transition from martial law to a full-fledged democracy.” He also highlighted the Dalai Lama’s first visit to Taiwan where the Middle-Way approach was first introduced to the Taiwanese people.
The Speaker Pema Jungney of the 16th Tibetan Parliament in Exile (TPiE) recalled President Lee as the Father of Democracy and said that he regarded His Holiness with the deepest respect. “Former President Lee regards His Holiness the Dalai Lama as a unique leader of the time and keeps him in high regard. With his support, CTA was able to form an Office of Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Taipei for the Tibetans,” he further remarked.
The first democratically elected President of Taiwan, Lee Ten-hui won in a landslide victory and was at the forefront of Taiwan’s democratisation during his tenure from 1996-2000. World leaders including Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe and US State Secretary Mike Pompeo also offered their condolences for his demise.
President Tsai’s office praised Mr. Lee’s achievements, saying in a statement, “The president believes that former President Lee’s contribution to Taiwan’s democratic journey is irreplaceable and his death is a great loss to the country.”
Taiwan became a separate political entity in 1949 after the civil war in China brought Mao’s Communists to power, forcing Chiang’s defeated government to flee to the island, some 100 miles from the mainland.
Aldous Huxley is among the most important thinkers of the 20th century. He was a key figure among a network of intellectuals and writers interested in transcendence and transformation, and he enormously influenced the Human Potential Movement, the 1960s psychedelic counterculture, the New Age Movement, and deep ecology.
In Aldous Huxley and Alternative Spirituality, Jake Poller reviews Huxley’s investigations and experiments in sociology and mysticism in comparison to the differing perspectives on similar themes in his fiction, including Brave New World (Chatto & Windus, 1932) and Island (Chatto & Windus,1962). Poller skillfully shows the modern literary influence of H.G. Wells and D.H. Lawrence on Huxley’s early aesthetic and also defines a cultic milieu for the Perennial Philosophy, which is contrasted to historical antecedents and similar variations. The author draws heavily from the literary criticism of David Bradshaw and cites Wouter J. Hanegraaff and Jeffrey J. Kripal in positing a Western esoteric tradition. Finally, Poller situates Huxley in a sequence of mind-altering drug champions that include P.D. Ouspensky and Aliester Crowley as predecessors, scientific researchers Humphrey Osmond and Albert Hoffman, and popularizers such as Timothy Leary and Terence McKenna.
Huxley critiqued the aims of Gerald Heard’s Open Conspiracy Club, which envisioned a collective eschatology in Western psychology when an elite group of scientists and industrialists displace nationalist states with a rational, technocratic planetary government. During the first phase, the vague beginnings of organization sought to define the aims with proposals and propaganda, intimate contact with educational reformers, and actual development of the Earth’s resources in a global economy and world banking system. Huxley, who was a member of Heard’s Peace Pledge Union, worried about the dangers of machines intended to elevate humanity instead enslaving people, and he also warned about the possibility of exploitation when humans are trained (and drugged) to be obedient workers and predictable consumers. Huxley believed that peace is not possible without a religious philosophy agreeable to all nations. He rejected behavioralism in favor of Immanuel Kant’s transcendental idealism and proposed a Minimum Working Hypothesis and FourFundamental Tenets of the Perennial Philosophy, which is not universal (found in all religions at all times) but recurs in several traditions. Huxley was intrigued by examples of socially and spiritually mandated forms of sexual promiscuity, and his ideal politics would make the world safe for mystical experience.
Poller traces the varieties of perennialism starting with definitions: “spiritual” is neither secular nor is it institutional religion; “alternative” is not mainstream culture. Mysticism (as defined by William James and Rudolf Otto) is not esotericism (a Renaissance synthesis and polemic Other to Enlightenment discourse) which is not occultism (like Theosophy and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn).
Moreover, Huxley’s Perennial Philosophy is historically distinct from both De Perennis Philosophia (the Vatican librarian’s response to Luther’s protest) and also Marsilia Ficino’s Prisca Theologia (a Platonic worldview derived from the wisdom mythologized in legends of Moses, Hermes Trismegistus, Zoroaster, Orpheus, etc). The late 19th-century and early 20th-century cultic milieu was strongly determined by three inspirations: The Secret Doctrine by Madame Helena P. Blavatsky (Theosophical Publishing Society, 1875), which proposed hidden masters attempting to reconcile all sects and nations under a common system of ethics (later interpretations by Annie Besant and Alice Bailey expanded this concept into administrative offices of a planetary government); Traditionalism (represented by Rene Guenon, Julius Evola, Ananda Coomaraswamy, and Frithjof Schuon) which claimed to transmit a superior but partially corrupted and incomplete ancient knowledge which is inaccessible except through initiation rites similar to the Sufis and Freemasons; and, Neo-Vedanta which emerged from the cross-pollination of Unitarian Christianity and American Transcendentalism and produced a “New Dispensation” that claimed right guidance and practice will enable correct perception of the truth which has been concealed or distorted.
Huxley drafted the prospectus for Heard’s Trabuco College of Prayer, an intentional community imitating the charity and compassion of religious orders. It was imagined as an undogmatic, nonhierarchical, nondenominational club for mystics and rest center for social workers. It was open to maladjusted youth seeking to regain control of themselves and return to an integrated life in the world. Heard was interested in the regeneration of the individual (168), but he also believed the only hope for our derelict civilization is in the emergence of Neo-Brahmins who have attained the next stage of evolution and assumed leadership of humanity (158). Heard practiced an idiosyncratic discipline seeking a telepathic connection to an impersonal psychic field which had no resemblance to Patanjali’s yoga or Swami Vivekananda’s program (151). Huxley visited six times, once with Jiddu Krishnamurti who was disturbed and declined to return. Heard judged his attempt to be a failure and donated the compound to Swami Prabhavananda. Huxley’s interest pivoted toward tantra, which Poller compares to descriptions by Heinrich Zimmer, John Woodroofe, and Hugh Urban.
Huxley believed human progress results not from an evolutionary leap or paranormal training, but through cultivating existing potential aided by pharmacology. Heard also promoted LSD as an educational tool to right-wing Libertarian groups and introduced the drug to the engineers at the Sequoia Seminars who were in pursuit of a man-machine symbiosis through computer-augmented and artificial intelligence. Huxley regarded LSD as “moksha-medicine” (liberation) and the cure-all for modern problems. He took psilocybin at MIT with Leary, who dosed members of the Vedanta Center in Boston using Ganges water in a chalice. Huxley advised Leary to “turn on the elites” and advocated appropriate set-and-setting, but Allen Ginsburg persuaded Leary to reach out to the public instead. The movement that emerged was chaotic and dangerous.
There was a time when perennialism flourished in the counterculture (through Alan Watts) and in the academy (through Mircea Eliade). However, this important branch of intellectual history and associated figures (including Carl J. Jung, Joseph Campbell, and Huston Smith as exemplars in their respective fields) was stigmatized and rejected in the postmodernist demolition project. Poller rescues Huxley from the disdain heaped on his “synthetic Yoga-Buddhic-Christian religion” and shows the connection between Huxley’s experiments in lived ideology as reflected in his creative literary achievements. Poller’s compelling book enhances appreciation and deepens respect for Huxley’s fiction and visionary mysticism. About the Reviewer(s):
Patrick Horn is a Public Scholar and the Membership Committee Chairman for the Religion Communicators Council Board of Governors. Date of Review: July 30, 2020 About the Author(s)/Editor(s)/Translator(s):
Jake Poller, Ph.D. (2010), Queen Mary University of London, is the editor of Altered Consciousness in the Twentieth Century (Routledge, 2019).
The first COVID-19 case in India was detected on January 30, the same day that WHO declared it a public health emergency of international concern. India went into lockdown almost two months later.
With 1,327 cases and six fatalities in four months, the trajectory of COVID-19 in the cold desert region of Ladakh validates the view that people living at altitudes of 3,000 metres and above are less likely to get infected compared to those in lowland areas, say experts here.
On June 15, the average testing rate in India was 4,972 per million. Ladakh had the highest testing rate at 38,170 per million, followed by Goa (27,568 per million), Jammu and Kashmir (20,400 per million), and Delhi (14,693 per million).
The recovery rate of the disease in the union territory is 82 per cent, substantially higher than the national average of 64.24 per cent. While 1,067 have recovered, there are 254 active cases, according to the Directorate of Health Services on Tuesday. All are under medical supervision in hospitals, corona care centres or in home isolation and none are on ventilator.
“The good news and the most surprising finding was the timely recovery of all infected patients despite the fact that majority of the patients belong to an area where environmental silicosis is prevalent which impairs lung defence mechanism,” said Tsering Norboo, retired physician and MD of the Ladakh Institute of Prevention. This, he said, led researchers to look at the epidemiology of COVID-19 in other high altitude regions such as Lhasa in Tibet and Wuhan in China.
A recent study, “Does the pathogenesis of SAR-CoV-2 virus decrease at high-altitude?’, by researchers at the University Institute of Cardiology and Respirology of Quebec, Canada, backed the finding. “The finding of COVID-19 pandemic appears to indicate a decrease of prevalence and impact of SARS-Cov -2 infection in populations living at high altitude over 3000m. The result possibly could relate to both physiological and environmental factors,” it said.
High altitude environment, it added, is characterised by dry climate, drastic change in temperature between day and night, and high ultraviolet radiation at heights may act as a sanitiser. UV rays are capable of producing alterations in the molecular bonds of the DNA and RNA (the genetic material of the viruses). “All together, these factors may dramatically reduce ‘survival’ capacity of the virus at high altitude and its virulence. Furthermore, due to lower density of the air and the greater distance between molecules at high altitude, the size of the airborne virus inoculum must be smaller than at sea level,” the study said.
Norboo added that the findings vindicated the belief that studies of high altitude natives, its environment and high altitude adaptation process can give clues to understanding the disease and therefore its treatment. “The recovery rate in Ladakh is very good. The patients we receive have mild symptoms and are not serious ones. Also, we do not have any patient who is on a ventilator,” said Tashi Thinlas, consultant physician at Leh’s SNM Hospital.
Of the recovery rate of 82 per cent, Leh district counts for 64 per cent and Kargil district 94 per cent. Of the six deaths, three have taken place in Kargil and three in Leh. The total number of samples tested till July 28 is 17,976. Since January 31, 73,016 people were screened at airport, intra district and inter district check points.
According to Phuntsog Angchuk, director, Health, Ladakh, the first confirmed positive case of COVID-19 in was reported on February 28 in Chushot Gongma village. It was also the first containment zone in the country. “In the initial stages, the patients were all pilgrims returning from Iran. Up to mid- May, only 45 positive cases were reported out of the total sampling of about 3,700. The surge occurred due to the heavy influx of local residents, students and labourers from different parts of the country,” he said.
Though the incidence of the disease is less compared to many other states and union territories in the country – India’s virus tally has mounted to 14,83,156 with 33,425 deaths — there are challenges aplenty. Thinlas said there is a shortage of manpower and quarantine facilities in his hospital.
“We never thought that this virus will hit Ladakh but it came so quickly. There are many administrative lapses,” he said. There is one testing lab in Chushot Gongma. A second one in DIHAR, Leh, is yet to start functioning fully.
“At present, the DIHAR laboratory is not fully functional. Analysis and trials are going on. It’s almost set up and will be functional within a week,” said Sonam Angmo, in-charge of the Chushot lab. Ladakh has also been sending samples to NCDC, Delhi, and PGI Chandigarh to ease the load.
Discussing the challenges ahead, she said winters will be tough. Laboratories need heating facilities as temperatures drop down to below freezing point and machines are very sensitive. According to Norboo, this is the most opportune time for Ladakh to establish a state of the art Molecular Biology Laboratory with the support of the Indian Council of Medical Research and links with institutes such as Pune’s National Institute of Virology and Delhi’s Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology.
In the longer term, what is required are investments in health infrastructure, ensuring continuity of regular health services, and improving health emergency preparedness. India will have to cautiously adjust spending, attract industrial investments to spur growth, and address rising unemployment. But over the next year, India can expect to remain in crisis mode
