MY COVID-19 DIARY,PART 2

Written in weekly instalments, Michelle Munyikwa's Covid-19 diary reflects upon the experience of an unfolding pandemic from her dual role as a medical trainee and anthropologist living in the United States. In this second instalment of her diary Covid-19 dairy, the author reflects upon ethics, risk, pandemic futures and the murder of George Floyd as the crisis continues in the United States.     

Lessons from COVID-19 can prepare global tourism for the economic transformation needed to combat climate change

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the cessation of almost all international travel in the first half of 2020. A return to pre-pandemic growth patterns will take time and depend on the depth and extent of the recession sparked by COVID-19. The recovery phase will overlap with global efforts to deal with the evolving climate crisis. For the tourism industry to thrive in a future world it must look beyond the temptation of adopting strategies based on a return to the pre-COVID-19 normal of the past and instead seek to understand how it should respond to the emerging transformation of the global economy to carbon neutrality. Many of the lessons that emerged from the pandemic can be applied to strategies to deal with climate change. Of most interest is the success of strategies such as “flattening the curve”. Application of similar strategies plus adoption of the circular economy model to wind back Green House Gas emissions will help avert the global environmental disaster that will occur if global temperatures continue to increase. These strategies point to what a future carbon-neutral economic production system might look like, the path to which could offer the tourism industry numerous opportunities to transform from the current model that favours a high resource consumption model to one that is environmentally friendly and resource neutral.     

Bahamian hutia (Geocapromys ingrahami) in the Lucayan Realm: Pre-Columbian Exploitation and Translocation

ABSTRACT

Bahamian hutia (Geocapromys ingrahami) are endemic to The Bahamas. The skeletal remains of this species have been recovered from multiple Lucayan-associated archaeological sites in the region, suggesting that it was an important source of human food. This study explores the role of pre-Columbian indigenous peoples in the geographic distribution of Bahamian hutias, and the possibility of intentional management of the animal. We provide an overview of archaeological occurrences of Bahamian hutia and present new skeletal morphometric data comparing modern museum-curated Bahamian hutia specimens with archaeological specimens from the Palmetto Junction site on Providenciales located in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Bahamian hutia do not exist in the fossil record in the Turks and Caicos, indicating their translocation to the islands by humans. Our data show that individual hutia at Palmetto Junction were larger than modern specimens. This size variation may be due to anthropogenic influence; however, there is limited information regarding either natural size variation within the species or environmental factors possibly influencing size. Continued research on anthropogenic influences related to Bahamian hutia populations, coupled with isotopic studies of the Bahamian hutia diet, may further elucidate the practice of pre-Columbian management of the species.     

“Genocide is Fascism in Action”: Aron Trainin and Soviet Portrayals of Genocide

ABSTRACT

This article examines the Soviet legal scholar Aron Trainin’s evolving writings on international law. Initially, Trainin formulated aspects of his concept of “crimes against peace” as a sort of Soviet alternative to Raphael Lemkin’s crimes of barbarity and vandalism. Crimes against peace both converged with the larger international movement to outlaw aggressive war, provided a Soviet alternative to proposed international crimes that they believed would threaten Soviet sovereignty, and provided a Soviet response to Lemkin’s proposals to outlaw mass killings. During World War II, Trainin articulated the Nazi extermination of the Jews as “crimes against peaceful civilians,” linking the Nazi atrocities to his concept of crimes against peace. Trainin’s concept of “crimes against peaceful civilians” encompassed the atrocities of the Holocaust while also asserting that the Soviet experience of the war – most notably Soviet sacrifice and suffering – meant that the Soviets should determine how international criminal law punished the war’s perpetrators. After World War II, when it became clear that genocide, rather than “crimes against peace” or “crimes against peaceful civilians,” was becoming the primary concept in international law to understand mass killings, Trainin portrayed the concept of genocide according to the perspective of Soviet propaganda, opposing an international criminal court for genocide, supporting the concept of cultural genocide, and portraying genocide as an inevitable outcome of capitalism. At the same time, Trainin and the Soviets never abandoned his concept of “crimes against peace,” portraying capitalism as inherently bound up with war and genocide. Trainin was the most significant genocide scholar in the Soviet Union, and his work exemplifies both the ways in which Soviet approaches to international law converged with other approaches, and the ways in which the Soviet Union diverged from non-Soviet international law.     

MY COVID-19 DIARY

Written in weekly instalments, Michelle Munyikwa's Covid-19 diary reflects upon the experience of an unfolding pandemic from her dual role as a medical trainee and anthropologist living in the United States. Her observations centre on everyday encounters with scenes or objects that reflect the growing crisis, from the absence of masks outside patient rooms to emergent forms of care through telemedicine. The diary follows the author as she experiences grief, ambivalence and disorientation in the first weeks of the pandemic.