Chapter Six, There Are No Accidents

When we tell a “human error” story — when we blame the jaywalker, the accident-prone worker, the nut behind the wheel, or the criminal addict — we are being duped into distraction from the ways that we can prevent accidents. And this allows the same accidents to happen again.

— There Are No Accidents, Chapter Six: Racism

There Are No Accidents, pp. 125 – 126: Drug Use and Stigma

It may give dear blog readers whiplash, the way self moves from book to book. She was immersed in Stephen King’s Fairy Tale (second half is the creepiest fairy tale she has ever read), and now she’s in There Are No Accidents, by Jesse Singer, which she began reading yesterday. Singer’s book is a definite eye-opener. (It was one of The Economist’s Books of 2022).

From the chapter on Stigma:

Drug use is generally equally prevalent across race and ethnicity. But for decades prior to the modern opioid epidemic, accidental drug overdose in the United States disproportionately affected Black people. This is a measure not of drug use but of stigma — Black drug use was more often considered criminal and less likely to come with a doctor’s prescription, so use came with a higher risk. Proof of this arrived when the most popular opioids in America again came with a prescription and were prescribed in record numbers to white people. For at least twenty years, from 1979 to 2000, Black people died from accidental opioid overdoses at a higher rate than white people. When Purdue Pharma released Oxycontin and aggressively marketed it to doctors as a nonaddictive opioid pain medication, the rate of accidental opioid overdose in America skyrocketed among white people. Black people were protected in part because Oxycontin was made for and marketed to the doctor-visiting class.

— There Are No Accidents: The Deadly Rise of Injury and Disaster, pp. 125 – 126

HIV Outbreak, Indiana 2015

Government officials can also stigmatize drug use in a way that causes accidents, as in 2015, when the state of Indiana had an HIV outbreak. There is no reason that any place in the United States should be having an HIV outbreak in 2015 — we know what causes HIV and how to prevent it. But in Indiana, it was illegal to have a syringe. Thus syringes were in short supply, so people who used drugs were reusing and sharing syringes, leading to accidental HIV transmission.

— There Are No Accidents, pp. 121 – 122

#flashbackthursday: Biden Inaugural Address, 20 January 2021

“We have learned again that democracy is precious. Democracy is fragile. And at this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed . . . America has been tested and we have come out stronger for it. We will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again.”

#neverforget #quoteoftheday

Hubris

When the invasion began, most people thought Ukraine would be crushed by its much larger neighbour. Many would have understood if Ukraine’s defenders had run away. Mr. Putin clearly expected the Ukrainian army to fold: his troops arrived with their dress uniforms ready for a victory parade but without nearly enough food.

— The Economist Holiday Double Issue 2022

The Economist Country of the Year: “It has to be Ukraine.”

Drowsy, Then Wide Awake

Self has been suffering from lack of sleep lately, not sure why.

This afternoon, she dozed off (finally), with the television on. Suddenly, she sat upright, wide awake. Did she imagine it, or did she really hear Erin Burnett saying that a Russian general was overheard on the army channel saying, “There is no way we can win the war through conventional means. We have no choice, we have to use the nuclear option.”

Every cell in her body was lit. She looked at the screen.

There was Erin Burnett saying, “Tonight, air raid sirens are going off, all across Ukraine. And troops are on the move in Belarus.”

AARGH! NOW SELF REALLY REALLY CAN’T SLEEP!

Fortress Kherson: The Economist, 29 October 2022

• Kyiv – Even the statues are leaving. For decades, the stone and bronze busts of Fyodor Ushakov and Alexander Suvorov, a pair of 18th-century Russian commanders, looked over the centre of Kherson, a city in Ukraine’s south. In late October, under the cover of darkness, they disappeared, presumably carried off by the Russian troops who have occupied the city since March. The living are on the move, too. The puppet authorities installed by the Russians are evacuating thousands of the city’s remaining residents across the Dnieper river, deeper into Russian-controlled territory. Some Russian officers are following in their footsteps. They are not packing light. Ukrainian officials say cash has been removed from the vaults of Promsvyazbank, the biggest Russian bank in the city. Looting has become common.

#amreading: wsj front page, 13 October 2022

The Ukrainian advances in the east and the south of the country looked like separate operations but in retrospect they appear to be part of a coordinated plan.

“ukrainian strategy is running circles around russian forces” by stephen fidler, james marson and thomas grove, wall street journal, thursday, oct. 13, 2022, p. a1

The Economist, 8 October 2022: Kherson

Mr. Putin has reportedly insisted that his generals hold Kherson city at all costs. Ukraine has been exploiting this stubbornness by destroying bridges and so pinning Russian troops down in what appear to be indefensible positions with their backs against the Dnieper river. The Russian forces there are now in danger of encirclement with no obvious way to retreat. Surrender may be their only option.

wsj Thursday, 25 August 2022: Quote of the Day

On Wednesday, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report downgraded its outlook for the size of a GOP majority after the midterm elections and said it couldn’t rule out the possibility that Democrats maintain their majority, citing elevated Democratic turnout.

— Wall Street journal, p. A4, “democrats’ house win lifts midterm hopes” by joshua jamerson