“Lab leak most likely origin of Covid-19 pandemic,
Energy Department now says” (The Wall Street Journal)
“Hate crimes vs. Asian-Americans ‘soaring national
crisis’ in US” (Philippine News Agency)
The first headline is about a classified intelligence
report provided to the White House and key members of Congress regarding the
U.S. Energy Department’s conclusion that the Covid pandemic most likely arose
from a laboratory leak.
As the first public confirmation of the FBI’s
classified judgment on the Covid-19 origin, FBI chief Christopher Wray told Fox
News, “The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the
pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident.”
Mr. Wray said China “has been doing its best to try to
thwart and obfuscate” efforts to identify the source of the global pandemic
according to BBC News. In response, Beijing accused Washington of “political
manipulation.”
As a backgrounder, the origin of Covid-19 has been a
contentious issue since its emergence in late 2019. While the majority of
scientists believe that the virus originated from an animal, there is still
debate about whether the virus was leaked from a laboratory in China or from
the live animal market in Wuhan.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has been
investigating the origins of Covid-19 since early 2020. In their initial
report, the WHO concluded that it was “extremely unlikely” that the virus
originated from a laboratory leak. However, this conclusion was met with
skepticism by some scientists and politicians who believe that there is
evidence that suggests the virus may have leaked from the Wuhan Institute of
Virology located near the live animal market where the first cases of Covid-19
were reported.
The criticisms pressed down the WHO investigation so
deep that its director-general has since called for a new inquiry: “All
hypotheses remain open and require further study.”
The second headline is about hate crimes against Asian
Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) in the US which continue to plague
communities across the country.
Philippine News Agency (PNA) reported a high-profile
hate crime that took place in Indiana about “an 18-year-old Indiana University
student of Asian descent stabbed repeatedly in the head on a city bus because
of her race.”
The suspect, Billie Davis, 56, who is white, PNA
recounted, “started stabbing the victim in the head with a folding knife as she
exited the bus. Davis allegedly told investigators that she stabbed the victim
because she was Chinese, saying ‘it would be one less person to blow up our
country’.”
“There is fear. Because that could be any of us,” said
Rogene Gee Calvert with the nonprofit advocacy group OCA-Greater Houston. He
told the PNA:
“I could be sitting in a bus or sitting anywhere and
somebody could come up and do something violent to me because they’re angry. It
doesn’t matter where we are, who we are, or what we’re doing, but if people
have been indoctrinated to believe that we are here to do something wrong, then
they will equate whoever they see as Asian as being those people they hate,
whether it’s an authoritarian government or country. Their mentality is that we
hate those people because we hate those governments.
“I fear the ‘normalization’ of this racial hate and
how it has manifested itself through violence. This has become so prevalent in
the last five or six years because of the political climate created by the
former president (Donald Trump) in which he encouraged and allowed this
contempt and hatred to be voiced and accepted.”
As a writer with an engineering background, I’ll put
to use some engineering terms by calling the two headlines above “variables” coming
into play in our geopolitical world. The “Lab leak” is the
“independent variable” – it is the cause. It is “the variable you manipulate
(no pun intended) in an experimental study” to explore its effects. Conversely,
the “Hate crime” is the “dependent variable” – it is the effect.
(There are other effects; I’ll zero in on the “Hate crime.”) Its value depends
on changes in the independent variable, “Lab leak.”
To illustrate the relationship: as the “Lab leak” theory
of its being true increases, the rate of hate crimes in the US rises, in direct
proportion. To weigh up based on how things stack up presently: as the “Lab
leak” theory remains in a state of uncertainty, the possibility you’ll be
stabbed while sitting in a bus remains chancy. The following headline and its
synopsis that seems to jibe with our illustration could give AAPIs the
heebie-jeebies:
“The Lab Leak Will Haunt Us Forever” (The Atlantic)
“Each new revelation is a reminder of how little is
actually known. The lab-leak theory lives! Or better put: It never dies.”
To those of us, here and now in PH, perhaps, eating
our hearts out in joining our loved ones in the land of milk and honey – the
USA – the land of the free and the home of the brave, the revealing statements of
the Roque family members are a wake-up call, if not words of warning.
In May 2022, the Roque family was waiting in the
drive-through line of a McDonald’s when they were verbally and physically
assaulted by Nicholas Weber (32, white). Nerissa and Gabriel Roque sustained
multiple injuries from the incident, including a broken rib. Weber was charged
with felony battery causing serious bodily injury. The following statements
were transcribed from Filipino Family Assaulted by White Man at McDonald’s/Sala
Talks Unfiltered in YouTube:
GABRIEL: This racism stuff, I knew it was not dead
in America, but I didn’t know it was still that very much inherent, but only
hidden. I mean, it changed a lot of my perception of what America is actually.
NERISSA: I’m a healthcare worker. I provide care. I
give life, I help people. I’m not hurting anyone. And the way I look at America
before, I look at them like they’re at the top of the sky. And after this
incident, it’s not the way I look at it before.
PATRICIA: Considering how they view America as a
whole and how I view things differently from them, I think they did have faith
in the legal system, but now they started to see how it actually is for people
like us. It does not come as a surprise, but it does give us an experience of
what it feels like to be the ones on the receiving end of that system and want
the justice and help that we need from them.
PATRICK: The organization that I’m actually
volunteering with [that] has helped me the most was the Filipino Migrant Center,
as well as the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON). We’re actually
able to get pro bono lawyers who were glad to represent us in court free of
charge. I encourage you to join these organizations volunteer for the Filipino
Migrant Center. It’s not just anti-Asian hate, but the pandemic too. A lot of
Filipino workers are actually suffering from poor working conditions, exploitation,
and wage theft. The more we raise about it, the more we can bring light to it,
and actually do something about it.
Three months ago, I wrote in my ATABAY article “Fresh
Perspectives On Twilight Years” the following:
“When will you leave for the US?” My daughter Dionne
PMed her Mom.
“Many times before, she raised such a question, bathed
with anticipation, right after my wife and I had gotten our visas. We kept on
holding off our travel plan due to the hassles of getting ready particularly
putting in order what we would leave behind – house, car, and pets, among
others – until, double-quick, our plan was shut off by the pandemic.”
Now, that the pandemic seems more manageable, if not
over, there and then, pop up the anti-Asian hate crimes. Uh-oh.
Head collage photos courtesy of Chinatopix via AP & Jason Leung on Unsplash
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