Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772-1834

The World

seems to be so disgusted, outraged, and surprised at this Coronavirus, however, diseases, epidemics, pandemics, and plaques have been around for centuries, and shall keep sneaking up all over the world for centuries to come.

Below is a list of plaques that occurred over the last 6-7 Centuries, and besides these outbreaks listed below, between 1996 and 2019 many more different outbreaks occurred allover the world, too many to list here;  among them Cholera, Ebola, Typhoid Fever, Yellow Fever, Malaria.

The list below goes as far back as I was able to verify,

China 1333 Devasting Plaque

1347-1351 Great Plaque – Black Death -1/3 of Europe dead, millions of Middle East, Asia

Europe 1361Plaque

Europe 1369 Plaque

Europe 1374-1375 Plaque

Europe 1390 Plaque

Europe 1563 Plaque – London alone 20,000 dead

Canada 1646 Smallpox

England 1665 Black death – Bubonic Plaque

England 1800s Cholrea – 4 x during the century

Russia 1908 Cholera

World 1918 Spanish Flu

England 1926 Influenza

Canada 1953 Polio Epidemic

England 2001 Foot-and-Mouth disease

USA 2001 Anthrax

Canada-USA 2002 West Nile Virus

China 2004 Sars

Europe 2009-2010 Pandemic H1N1

South America 2015 Zirka Virus

World 2020 Coronavirus

Here is a link to the WHO website, to see all

outbreaks since 1996.

Sitting back watching and observing

as the whole world is on lockdown, and trying to make sense of this situation, I then realized that this must be a wake-up call to all of us because it does not matter how powerful, rich, poor, or influential you are, this one hits everyone!

Over the last 100 years, we have seen diseases such as Influenza, killing an estimated 50 – 100 million, Sars, killing about 800, HIV killing an estimated 30 million, Malaria, killing an estimated 660,000, and Tuberculosis, which killing 1.3 million Worldwide.

I guess this is God’s way of keeping the population under control and reminding us that we are simply just allowed to exist on this planet and should, therefore, act like a civilized race and cherish it. ⁉️😡

Then there are the self-inflicted human disasters

caused by war, nuclear disasters, and the destruction of nature. The greed, destruction, and corruption caused by governments and heads of states all over the world, add to the misery, death, and poverty of the world’s population. The amount of greed and corruption infested countries and corporations in many countries is in magnitudes and too long to mention here, but some of the latest scandals in the world, just to mention a few, are the Wells Fargo fiasco and the Malaysian ex-Premier Minister Najib Razak and Goldman-Sachs 1MDB scandal, it goes even as far as the Catholic Church with corruption concerning the sexual abuses.

Reaching my 70th

at the end of the year, and with an abundance of free time on my hands, I am reminiscing back to my childhood, how I used to go to the forest, above my hometown of Aarau, with my friends, building treehouses, create dams, and blockages in the streams flowing down the mountains, or just playing cowboys,  sometimes right up to sundown, when I heard my mother’s loud whistle across the neighborhood, signaling that it was time to come home. It’s funny how I remember how free, innocent, and carefree those times were so long ago, and everything in between from then until now, that I have experienced, events that occurred, people, I loved and love, people I knew, people I meet and lost over the years. 

Father Koepf serving on the Swiss Border

 I remember having discussions with my Dad when I was a teen, about the past, like the world war, asking him how and why that came about, and that is what still intrigues me today, how a human being such as Hitler was able to have an entire nation following him into committing such heinous crimes. I remember my father mentioning to me that he never understood how such crimes could have been committed that close to the border from Switzerland, while he was in the Swiss Army protecting the Swiss border on the shores of the Rhein River.

I wonder if the Coronavirus spreading over the whole world at this time is another warning by the hand of god!

Here is a course of events that started in the ’40s and changed the world order.

The World process in a big context

A closer look at the past events of the 1940s shows almost a temporal symmetry: in the first five years, from 1940 to May 1945 (in Asia until the beginning of September), there was war, while the second half of the decade was dominated by peace, more precisely, remained: full of attempts to keep the world at peace. That is the unusual symmetry: five years of war, five years of peace.

The limitation that the “second” five years had been filled with attempts to keep the world at peace is necessary because the years from 1945 to 1950 entered the memory of contemporaries less than the early years of peace than the years of the so-called Cold War, the years of severe tensions in relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. In the area of ​​the economy, it is the years of the beginning of an unprecedented boom.One could also call them the years of the beginning of the triumphal march of the engine with all its revolutionary influences, or the years of the beginning of new dimensions in the world in which the continents quickly came closer, and also in the cultural field the limitation of the national standards and Conditions were partially suppressed.

This general, global upturn in the second half of the 1940s was not only a blatant contrast to the terrible conflict during the war years; it already indicated a contradiction. By this allusion, I mean the contradiction between the results of technical and natural economic progress, which have broken all previous dimensions and transformed the world into one, as well as the ongoing political turmoil of the world, and it’s a threat to all possible manifestations of violence.

From Europe to World War 

Let us first follow the abrupt events in the five war years of the decade in a European and worldwide aspect. Hitler’s Armies flooded into Denmark and Norway and occupied both countries. A few weeks later, on the 10th, they attacked France, which was sitting behind a fortress wall, which was named after its builder and was considered to be the insurmountable Maginot Line, in the meantime the Germans attacked and raided Holland, Belgian and Luxembourg. The immobility of the “drôle de Guerre” had turned into the stormy force of the motorized war of aggression on land and in the air. Within a few weeks, France surrendered and then, under Marshal Pétain, the legendary former defender of Verdun Fortress in the First World War, formed a new government, after an armistice with Hitler was signed on June 22.

French General de Gaulle,

meanwhile, escaped to England, where Winston Churchill had become Prime Minister. And he didn’t think of making peace with Hitler. Mussolini, the dictator of fascist Italy, panicked that he might be late in the redistribution of the world, therefore quickly declared war on collapsing France and annexed areas around Nizza. Except for the neutral states of Switzerland, Greece, Turkey, and Spain (which were heavily depressed after the civil war), Hitler now controlled the European continent, all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. The resistance was embodied by Britain, on its own, in Great Britain. Hitler, whose navy was inferior to the British, tried to seize England with all of his strong air force in September. But the Brits, equipped with all of the most modern radar equipment, were able to withstand the Germans from the air and repel them. They won the Battle of Britain. On their side standing, the states of the British commonwealth and, in terms of support with money and war material, the United States of America.

The next chapter followed

which is conditioned by the principle that successful, violent folding of powers stimulates the hunger for more power. The war spreads rapidly, first in Europe, then beyond Europe. When Italy entered the war, it also spread to Africa. The Britons drove the Italians out of their possession in the Libyan Cyrenaica, in spring 1941 from Eritrea and afterward from Abyssinia.

The losses in Libya forced Mussolini

to ask Hitler for help in fighting the English in Africa. But soon, in October, the Italians brought the war into southern Europe: they attacked Greece, but soon got stuck there as well, so German troops once again had to come to their aid. In April 1941 Hitler’s troops attacked Yugoslavia and occupied it. There, the war was then called the “Kleinkrieg” (small war).

Benito Mussolini

Then, on the night of June 21-22, 1941 Hitler gave the order to attack the Soviet Union. This marked the German Reich, being in a two-front war, which Hitler himself described in his book “Mein Kampf” as the worst strategic mistake of imperial Germany since the First World War.

By late autumn 1941

the German armies managed to advance in a stormy, aggressive way, right up to Moscow. But they didn’t get any further.

That success prompted the officer-ruling Camilla in Japan, who had already embroiled the country in a war with China and had also sealed a three-power pack with Hitler and Mussolini in 1940, in the early morning of December 7, 1941, to attack and destroy the American naval base in the port of Pearl Harbor on the island Hawaii with submarines, and from the air, inflicting massive destruction and loss of lives.

Overnight the United States was drawn into the war. Hitler, Mussolini, and the Japanese campaigners stood now at the peak of their power. The Allies, i.e. Great Britain and the states of its Commonwealth, the United States of America, the  General de Gaulle entrusted, free French and colonial associations, and the other European states at war with Germany were the challenging ones and were on the defensive front. The situation lasted until the summer of 1942. Then the turn began with the penultimate section of the Second World War.

The Turn

The turn came thanks to the British’s inner resilience and determined resistance and the brutal challenge of the Americans. Until the Pearl Harbor attack, the idea of ​​America entering the war had by no means been very popular. The nefarious blow of the Japanese changed the mood quickly and thoroughly. America unfolded its huge potential for wartimes. It mobilized people, materials, and skills. The war economy pounded out of the ground was sufficient to equip armies within a few months, to build up the air force and the fleet according to the latest achievements, and also to a large extent to supply weapons and ammunition to the Allies, to the Britons, the French and above the Persian Gulf, to the Soviet Union.

Then, however,

the counter-strikes began in all locations. In the summer of 1942, the Americans won the naval and air battles in the Coral Sea and Midway Islands, causing heavy losses to the Japanese. At the end of November, the Russians were able to encircle several army units near Stalingrad. The terrible Winterschlacht )Winterbattle) ended in early February 1943 with the death of 146,000 and the capture of 91,000 German soldiers – an event that triggered a shock in Germany and publicly hung, together with his girlfriend.

Executed Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, hanging by their feet. Milan, Italy, May 1945. World War 2.

In May 1943 the German-Italian army group capitulated at El-Alamein. Over 200,000 men were captured here. The transition from Africa to Sicily stood now open for the Brits and Americans.

The situation

had now turned into its opposite, and the Americans were gradually recovering areas in the Pacific Ocean that the Japanese had occupied. In the European theater of war, the Germans retreated. In the south, the Allies seized Italy. Fascism collapsed on July 25, 1943, Mussolini was arrested, executed, and hung up together with his girlfriend Clara.

The new government declared Italy to have left the war on September 8, and from autumn onwards the Russians slowly but surely pushed the Germans back to the borders of the Reich. The Western Allies landed on June 6, 1944, on the French Channel coast. At the same time, the devastating air raids on the German cities, and the centers of their war productions, began. An assassination attempt against Hitler on July 20, 1944, attempted by conspiratorial officers and underground opposition politicians, failed and was cruelly avenged by Hitler afterward.

From the winter of 1944, the end of the war in Europe was only a matter of time. The war was now at the borders of Germany and had already exceeded some of them.

The Collapse

The last chapter followed in Europe, characterized by the state of the agony of the Third Reich. Hitler committed suicide in Berlin on April 30, 1945, while the final battles with the invaded Russians took place in the city. On May 8, 1945, Grand Admiral Dönitz, who had been appointed by Hitler as his successor, signed the unconditional surrender. The fighting in Asia continued until the Americans dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in early August. The terrible effects of these bombs led to the unconditional surrender of all Japanese troops on September 2, 1945 – after the European war, the world war had finally come to an end.

Hiroshima, Nagasaki Atomic B.

The Calamity of Power

The Second World War was a major political and economic disaster. Do catastrophes such as war make sense? Today we hardly ask this question anymore when it comes to natural disasters: natural disasters are caused by forces that are beyond human influence.

In such disasters as water shortages, fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, or tornadoes, people see the punishing hand of God and they accept it as a warning.

Could you imagine what this world be like if the combined forces of the Allies hadn’t removed Hitler from power?!

As it may be, I believe this Virus is definitely a punishing gesture by the hand of God! maybe the last one!?

Stay safe and healthy, your blogging friend Ulrich Koepf

Read my previous blog about the same subject below:

The World-Changing Events of The 1940s – Part 2

Im Laufe der vergangenen Jahre,

denke ich immer mehr darüber nach, was ich in den sieben Ländern, in denen ich das privileg hatte, zu arbeiten und zu leben, die Sprachen und Kulturen dieser Länder erlebt und gesehen zu  haben. Die Schlussfolgerung die ich davon nehme ist, dass wir alle dieselben Ziel im Leben haben, egal wo man lebt, welche Sprache man spricht, welche hautfarbe, wir haben alle die gleichen Probleme, Kummer, Sorgen und Krankheiten. Das einzige, was uns voneinander trennt und unterscheidet, sind die Sprachen, die Entfernung zwischen uns, und Regierungen, die unser Wohbefinden bestimmen, (oder nicht!)

Es geht hier, in diesem schreiben, um die Vereinigten Staaten die schon jahrelang mehrere Länder finanziell unterstützten, zuhause jedoch Armut und eine zerfallene Infrastrukture hat. In 2020 waren 37.2 millionen menschen in Amerika in Armut!

Vorschläge zur Budgetkürzung wurden von der Trump-Administration im Mai 2018 vorgelegt. Ich bin nicht sicher, ob sie bis heute umgesetzt wurden.

Der Antrag für das Geschäftsjahr 2018 umfasste 460 Millionen US-Dollar für die Fortführung der US-amerikanischen Strategie für Engagement in Zentralamerika. Dies wäre im Vergleich zu 2017 ein Rückgang um 240 Millionen US-Dollar (34%) gewesen. Die Strategie soll den Rahmenbedingungen für irreguläre Migration aus Zentralamerika entgegenwirken, indem sie Good Governance, wirtschaftlichen Wohlstand und verbesserte Sicherheit fördert. Der Antrag umfasste 46,3 Mio. USD für El Salvador (eine Verringerung um 36%), 80,7 Mio. USD für Guatemala (eine Reduzierung um 43%), 67,9 Mio. USD für Honduras (eine Reduzierung um 29%) und 2 Mio. USD für Belize, Costa Rica, Nicaragua und Panama (eine Reduktion von 90%). Außerdem wurden 263,2 Millionen US-Dollar für die Regionale Sicherheitsinitiative für Zentralamerika (CARSI) bereitgestellt (eine Verringerung um 20%). Das Ersuchen hätte das Gleichgewicht der Hilfe für Zentralamerika zu Sicherheitsanstrengungen und weg von Regierungs- und Wirtschaftsprogrammen verlagert. ????  Kolumbien wäre nach wie vor der größte Empfänger von US-Hilfen in Lateinamerika und der Karibik im Rahmen des Antrags der Administration für das Haushaltsjahr 2014; Die Beihilfen wären jedoch auf 251,4 Millionen US-Dollar gefallen – eine Verringerung um 135 Millionen US-Dollar (35%) im Vergleich zu GJ 2017. Kolumbien hat seit dem Jahr 2000 beträchtliche Summen US-Unterstützung erhalten, um die Bekämpfung von Drogen- und Terrorismusbekämpfung zu unterstützen. Die Forderung aus dem Haushaltsjahr 2018 beinhaltete Mittel zur Unterstützung der Umsetzung der neuen Strategie für Rauschgiftsubstanzen in Kolumbien, einschließlich Maßnahmen zur Tilgung und Verbot von Verboten. Das Ersuchen umfasste auch Mittel zur Unterstützung der Umsetzung des Friedensabkommens der kolumbianischen Regierung mit den Revolutionären Streitkräften von Kolumbien (FARC) durch die Förderung der Aussöhnung innerhalb der kolumbianischen Gesellschaft, die Ausweitung der staatlichen Präsenz auf Regionen, die historisch unter der Kontrolle der FARC standen, und die ländliche Wirtschaftsentwicklung in marginalisierten Gemeinden .

Haiti,

das aufgrund seiner erheblichen Entwicklungsherausforderungen seit vielen Jahren hohe Beihilfen erhalten hat, wäre auf Antrag der Verwaltung der zweitgrößte Empfänger von US-Hilfen in der Region im Geschäftsjahr 2008 gewesen. Die US-Hilfe stieg deutlich an, nachdem Haiti 2010 von einem schweren Erdbeben heimgesucht worden war, von diesen erhöhten Niveaus jedoch allmählich abnahm. Die Forderung der Verwaltung für das Haushaltsjahr 2014 hätte Haiti 157,5 Millionen US-Dollar zur Verfügung gestellt, um die Ernährungssicherheit zu verbessern, wirtschaftliche und Bildungschancen zu fördern, die Rechtsstaatlichkeit zu entwickeln und gesundheitliche Probleme – insbesondere HIV / AIDS – anzugehen. Dies wäre eine Senkung um 27 Mio. USD (15%) im Vergleich zu GJ 2017 gewesen.

Mexiko,

hätte im Rahmen des Antrags für das Haushaltsjahr 2018 Unterstützung in Höhe von 87,7 Millionen US-Dollar erhalten, was gegenüber dem Haushaltsjahr 2017 eine Verringerung um 51 Millionen US-Dollar (37%) gewesen wäre. Mexiko war aufgrund seines Status mit mittlerem Einkommen traditionell kein bedeutender Empfänger von US-Hilfsgütern, erhielt jedoch im Geschäftsjahr 2008 umfangreichere Unterstützung durch die Mérida-Initiative.

Nachdem ich diese Fakten gelesen habe, frage ich mich nun: “Was ist dann mit dem ganzen Geld passiert?”

Wie Sie der obigen Liste entnehmen können, unterstützen die Vereinigten Staaten die meisten Länder, aus denen diese Menschen ausreisen, um in die Vereinigten Staaten zu gelangen.  Nicht nur sind diese Länder finanziell unterstützt, aus denen sie auswandern, aber dann erwarten Sie dazu auch noch die gratis, soziale unterstütztung, die normalerweise ein legal zugelassener Einwanderer oder Flüchtling nach monatelangem, manchmal jahrelangem Warten erhalten würde ?!

Diese Menschen verlassen ihr Land nicht wegen Krieg, Aufruhr oder sozialen Unruhen, sie verlassen das Land, weil ihre Regierung keine Arbeitsplätze, Sicherheit und soziale Vorteile bieten kann, weil die Regierung nicht im stand ist ,und korrupt ist, die Kriminalitätskartelle, Drogenmafia und die politisch-radikale Extremisten auszurotten.

Es ist eine Schande,

dass die Menschheit nicht in der Lage ist, die Wunder, die Schöpfung des Lebens und die Schönheit dieses Planeten, von einem Kontinent zum anderen, zu erkennen und zu schätzen, die Wunder unserer eigenen Schöpfungen und wie der Planet uns, den Menschen, mit Wasser und Nahrung zum Überleben darbietet. Aber leider vernichtet die menschliche Rasse  alles nur wegen Macht, Gier und Hass.

Ich habe keine Lösung,

und offensichtlich hat auch sonst niemand  eine, und selbst wenn es eine Lösung gäbe, würde dies nichts daran ändern, wie diese menschliche Rasse auf unserem Planeten lebt und sich verhält. Nachdem ich nur ein Bruchteil der Probleme der Welt gesehen und erlebt hatte, entschied ich mich dazu, meine bescheidene Meinung dazu abzugeben, zu der einige von Ihnen wahrscheinlich nicht zustimmen, oder haben vielleicht einen anderen Standpunkt? von dem ich gerne hören würde.

Ich liebe Nordamerika, wo ich über 40 Jahre meines Lebens verbracht habe und ich liebe auch mein Heimatland Schweiz, wo die meisten meiner Familienmitglieder leben. Ich habe auch erkannt,  je weiter Sie sind von wo Sie begonnen haben, desto näher kommen Sie an, wo Sie hingehören!

Deswegen bin ich zurück an dem Ort, an dem ich hier in der Schweiz angefangen habe, und beobachte nun alles von hier für die verbleibenden Jahre meines Lebens. Mein Beitrag zu diesem Planeten ist natürlich nur ein winziger Teil, wie zum beispiel die Reinigung des Seeufers von verunreinigenden, schädlichen Stoffen in der Nähe meines Wohnorts, meinem Enkel beibringen, seine Umwelt mit Respekt zu behandeln, und das Schreiben von Artikeln und Blogs, die ein zahlreiches Publikum erreichen, um vieleicht Bewusstsein zu schaffen, und hoffentlich einige Menschen dazu bringen, sich an etwas zu beteiligen, um unser Planet ein besserer Ort für die zukunft, und unseren Kinder zu machen.

Euer Blog Freund, Ueli Köpf

As the years go by,

I find myself reflecting more and more on what I have experienced and seen over the years living and working in the 7 countries I was fortunate enough to have experienced, with the languages, cultures, and food of those countries. The conclusion I came to, is that we are all the same, and have the same objectives in life, no matter where we live, what language we speak, or what skin color, we all have the same problems, issues, worries, and illnesses. The only thing that separates us from one another is the language we speak, the distance between us, and the governments that decide our well-being!

The U.S. disbursed $33.2 billion—$19 billion in economic assistance to 184 countries and $14.2 billion in military assistance to 142 countries, in the past years. Out of the top six U.S. foreign aid recipients, five of them were from Muslim countries. And yet it seems the U.S. can’t buy good press in the Middle East no matter what!

These budget cuts proposals were submitted by the Trump administration in May 2018, but I am not certain that they have been implemented as of today. 

The  Administration’s FY2018 foreign assistance request would have reduced funding for every country and regional program in Latin America and the Caribbean.  

The FY2018 request included $460 million to continue the U.S. Strategy for Engagement in Central America, which would have been a $240 million (34%) cut compared to FY2017. The strategy is designed to address the underlying conditions driving irregular migration from Central America by promoting good governance, economic prosperity, and improved security. The request included $46.3 million for El Salvador (a 36% reduction), $80.7 million for Guatemala (a 43% reduction), $67.9 million for Honduras (a 29% reduction), and $2 million combined for Belize, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama (a 90% reduction). It also included $263.2 million for the Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI; a 20% reduction). The request would have shifted the balance of aid for Central America toward security efforts and away from governance and economic growth programs. ????

Colombia,

would remain the single largest recipient of U.S. assistance in Latin America and the Caribbean under the Administration’s FY2018 request; however, aid would have fallen to $251.4 million—a $135 million (35%) reduction compared to FY2017. Colombia has received significant amounts of U.S. assistance to support counternarcotics and counterterrorism efforts since FY 2000. The FY2018 request included funds to support the implementation of Colombia’s new counternarcotics strategy, including eradication and interdiction efforts. The request also included funds to support the implementation of the Colombian government’s peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) by fostering reconciliation within Colombian society, expanding state presence to regions historically under FARC control, and supporting rural economic development in marginalized communities. 

Haiti,

which has received high levels of aid for many years as a result of its significant development challenges, would have remained the second-largest recipient of U.S. assistance in the region in FY2018 under the Administration’s request. U.S. assistance increased significantly after Haiti was struck by a massive earthquake in 2010 but has gradually declined from those elevated levels. The Administration’s FY2018 request would have provided $157.5 million to Haiti to improve food security, foster economic and educational opportunities, develop the rule of law, and address health challenges—particularly HIV/AIDS. This would have been a $27 million (15%) cut compared to FY2017. 

Mexico,

would have received $87.7 million of assistance under the FY2018 request, which would have been a $51 million (37%) cut compared to FY2017. Mexico traditionally had not been a major U.S. aid recipient due to its middle-income status, but it began receiving larger amounts of assistance through the Mérida Initiative in 2008. 

After reading these facts I ask myself?

“What happened to all that money?”

As you can see from the list above, the United States supports most of the countries where these people are leaving to gain entrance to the United States, besides supporting and subsidizing the countries they come from they now expect to enter the  US and take advantage of all the social benefits that a legally admitted immigrant or refugee, after waiting for months, sometimes for years, would receive?!

These people are not leaving their country because of war, turmoil, or social unrest, they are leaving because their government is unable to provide them with jobs, security, and social benefits, because the government can’t control, root out, and abolish the drug lords and gangs causing these people to leave in the first place, and because the governments are corrupt.

It is a shame the human race is unable to recognize and appreciate the miracles, the creation of life, and all the beauty of this planet, from one continent to another, the miracles of our creations and how the planet provides us, the human race, with water and food to survive. Only for the human race to screw it all up because of hate, greed, and power.

I don’t have the solution,

no one else has one, and even if there was a solution, it wouldn’t change the way this human race is living and behaving on this planet of ours.

After seeing and experiencing just some of the world’s issues, I decided to give my humble opinion about it, which some of you probably don’t agree with, or you may have another point of view, that I would love to hear 0f.

I love North America,

where I spent 40 years of my life and I love my native country Switzerland as well, where most of my family members live, but I realized that the further you are from where you started the closer you get to where you belong!

That is why I am back to where I started, here in Switzerland, watching it all unfold for the remaining time of my life. 

My contribution to this planet can only be a tiny part, such as cleaning the lakeside in my home state of contaminating, harmful stuff, teaching my grandson to treat his environment with respect, and writing articles and blogs that may reach an audience to create awareness, and hopefully make a few people take part and contributing, making the planet a better place for future and our kids.

Yours truly Ulrich Koepf