EthicalDative

Having been involved with languages, both natural and programming, for a time, I always experience a moment of pleasurable surprise when I meet a word I feel I should have met before.

Today’s new friend is “precariat.” It comes to me from Viet Thanh Nguyen, a writer who teaches English at the University of Southern California; author, most recently, of “The Refugees” and editor of “The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives.”

A precariat is a person from a class that lives in a state of precarity, whose employment and income are insecure, whose existence lacks predictability as well as security.

The word has the added attraction of (a) being British, and (b) being a portmanteau word built from “precarious” and “proletariat.” What’s not to like? — as it says on the wall of my favorite Jewish deli.

Here’s how Mr. Nguyen uses “precariat”:

If the illusion of invincibility is shredded for any patient who survives a near-fatal experience, then what might die after Covid-19 is the myth that we are the best country on earth, a belief common even among the poor, the marginal, the precariat, who must believe in their own Americanness if in nothing else.

His essay points to the root of our precarity:

What this crisis has revealed is that, while almost all of us can become vulnerable — even corporations and the wealthy — our government prioritizes the protection of the least vulnerable.

(Viet Thanh Nguyen, “The Ideas That Won’t Survive the Coronavirus,” NYTimes, 4-10-20)

(c) 2020 JMN

“And that man’s a doctor!” as the endearing old refrain of the vouching Jewish mother goes.

A recurring thread in recent news is how in a decapitated republic certain U.S. governors are stepping up to provide badly needed leadership in responding to the pandemic.

While discussing the desperate need for supplies at a recent news conference, [Virginia governor Ralph Northam] methodically listed all the resources a single coronovirus patient in the ICU would use in terms of staff — nurses, an attending physician, a cardiologist, a pulmonologist, an infectious disease specialist, a respirator therapist, a pharmacist and technicians to administer IVs and X-rays. The same patient would also require about about 240 items of protective equipment.

(Alan Suderman, “Nation’s only doctor governor offers sober voice on virus,” AP, abcnews.com, 4-9-20)

(c) 2020 JMN

With the United States now leading the world in Covid-19 cases, the health care system fraying and the economy faltering, some American citizens — especially those living abroad — are starting to see their country in a new, unsettling light. As a result, some Americans have decided to stay in Africa, which was among the places that President Trump notably described with a disparaging and vulgar epithet.

“Africa just felt better,” said John Shaw, who has lived for two years in Nairobi, Kenya, with his wife and two sons. “There are a lot of unknowns in terms of how Americans will deal with this crisis. It didn’t feel obvious to us at all that it will go well there.”

(“For some American expats, ‘Africa just felt better’ amid the pandemic,” NYTimes, 4-8-20)

(c) 2020 JMN

As news filtered from the Joaquín Rosillo nursing home on the outskirts of Seville that a few residents had tested positive for coronavirus, worried families scrambled for information.

But amid a nationwide lockdown, with their movements limited, there were no clear answers. Manuel Borrego, whose mother lives in the home, heard through contacts that people were dying. But the nursing home’s management told him that it was “fake news.” [my bolding]

On April 6, 2020, 24 people were reported to have died at the facility.

(“Families fight for answers from Spanish nursing home where dozens died,” NYTimes, 4-8-20)

(c) 2020 JMN