Culture

As at the time of writing this, there are 22,333 confirmed coronavirus cases in Africa and 1,125 coronavirus deaths.

When compared to cases in other countries, these figures show that the health crisis does not so severely hit Africa nations, yet, the implications on its economy are grave and catastrophic. 

For the first time in 25 years, sub-Saharan Africa is about to go into recession, according to World Bank estimates. Following 2.4 percent growth last year, the forecast for 2020 is between -2.1 and -5.1 percent as the economy contracts.  

We face not one, but two pandemics, both of which have proven themselves to be deadly.

A week ago I painted my first work in times of Coronavirus, the piece shows the “Madonna near del Sacro Monte di Viggiano”, who is the patroness of the region of Basilicata, where I have lived for years and where my Italian grandparents from my mother’s side migrated to Venezuela in times of crisis,

A lot of people have asked me how a Free Private City would handle the Corona crisis. Let me try to give you an answer, but keep in mind that different city operators might come to different conclusions.

Crises are times in which the voice of liberty, our voice, is tested. Right now, we have to curtail some of our freedoms in order to avoid spreading a virus that moves as quickly as we are. We cannot forget that liberty has to come with responsibility if we want to make it viable and attractive. 

Therefore, I am proud to see that our community and the liberty movement, in general, has stepped up and taken steps to start working remotely, to limit their interactions with people, and to implement best practices during these trying times. 

The last couple of weeks were probably some of the strangest times in most of our lives. Only few of us have seen such a massive restriction of travel and social life prior to the coronavirus.

The recent

We live in an era where great things have happened thanks to innovation. Everybody loves innovation and recognizes that is a force for progress. With the exception of maybe North Korea, no government in the world has an official policy to prohibit innovation or harass innovative people.