Contributing Writers: Azad Ali, Tangerine Clarke,
George Alleyne, Nelson King,
Vinette K. Pryce, Bert Wilkinson
GENERAL INFORMATION (718) 260-2500
Caribbean L 10 ife, July 10-16, 2020
By Rich Bluni, RN
Across the U.S., coronavirus
infection rates are surging,
with no end in sight. If
you’re a nurse, you may feel
like you’re sinking. Sure,
you soldier on, working long
shifts, comforting desperately
ill patients, grieving
losses, and protecting yourself
as best you can. But all
the PPE in the world can’t
protect a nurse’s spirit.
It’s that sense of purpose
and meaning, of calling,
that keeps nurses going in
incredibly traumatic times.
If they lose touch with that,
they can quickly find themselves
in deep trouble.
There are no easy solutions
to what nurses are
facing right now. But reconnecting
to the sense of mission
that has always driven
nurses on a heart-and-soul
level can give them the
strength to keep going.
That doesn’t “just happen”
even in good times;
it’s a choice we must make
every day. If we don’t, we will
quickly get overwhelmed by
pain, fear, and negativity.
Hard times can deeply
inspire us if we make
a point of staying open to
them (click here to see some
short video segments that
share some of my own stories
and tactics). But we
have to get intentional
about doing so. Here are a
few tips for reconnecting
with your inspiration when
you’re struggling:
Take 10 minutes to relive
a moment when you made
a real difference. At any
moment when you’re feeling
crushed and exhausted,
close your eyes and be right
back there when you did
something incredible. Relive
your greatest moment. Your
mind doesn’t know the difference
between it really
happening and the memory.
Write down your gratitude…
Even in a pandemic,
there are things to be grateful
for. Maybe a patient you
thought was going to die
actually recovered. Maybe
a coworker paid for your
lunch. Maybe the cafeteria
had that carrot cake you
love. Charting moments of
gratitude (however big or
small) helps you remember
why you chose this deeply
meaningful line of work.
Write down three things
about your work that you
are thankful for. Each day,
look it over and add to your
list. You almost cannot be
in a state of gratitude and
negativity at the same time,
but you can choose.
…then, share it with
others. Chances are, some
of the “things” you find
yourself writing on your
gratitude list are actually
people. Maybe it’s the coworker
who always jumps in
to help, the unit secretary
who runs your labs for you
when you’re swamped, or
the food service employee
who always remembers your
lunch order.
Extend your gratitude
to someone every day. Give
them a thank-you note or
tell them face-to-face—
even if it has to be from 6
feet away while wearing full
PPE. Not only will you feel
better, you’ll help others feel
better at a time when most
likely they really need it.
Make a self-care plan.
Get out a journal and write
the following labels on five
separate pages: Mind, Body,
Spirit, Love, and Prosperity.
Under each title, come up
with just two things that
you can do every day that
would impact that part of
your being. In the “Body”
category, you may write,
“walk a mile,” “eat more
green veggies,” and “drink
eight glasses of water.” It
may feel strange to focus on
improving your life when
the world seems to be falling
apart, but now is when
we need to be at our best.
By Anis Chowdhury & Jomo
Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA
LUMPUR, July 7, 2020 (IPS) –
In his early February annual
State of the Union address, US
President Donald Trump typically
hailed his own policies for
increasing wages and jobs to
achieve record low US unemployment.
Directly appealing to
labor for a second term, Trump
claimed exclusive credit for the
US “blue-collar boom.”
‘Blue-collar boom’
During his previous two
State of the Union speeches,
Trump also directly appealed
to blue-collar Americans who
put him in the White House
in November 2016. As Trump
claims manufacturing workers
have been the main beneficiaries
of his economic policies,
including his trade and other
policies, this seemed likely to
dominate his re-election campaign.
In fact, US manufacturing
growth had slowed to its lowest
level in August 2019 when the
purchasing managers’ index fell
for the first time since September
2009. Despite his bombast,
Trump has failed to reverse the
continuing decline in manufacturing’s
share of GDP.
Nominal wages have risen by
an average of 2.2% since Trump
took office, but real wages fell
3.9% after adjusting for inflation.
Real labour compensation,
including fringe benefits,
has declined 4.3%! Meanwhile,
more than 53 million Americans,
or 44% of all workers
aged 18-64, earn low hourly
wages, getting barely enough
to survive.
US unemployment fell to
3.5% in December 2019, its
lowest level since 1969, before
rising again. However, the story
behind the headline unemployment
figure is less impressive.
For example, in January
2020, 1.3 million individuals
who wanted work, were
not counted as unemployed
because they had not actively
sought work in the preceding
four weeks. This figure shot
up to 9.4 million in May 2020,
declining to over 8.6 million
in June.
Of these, ‘discouraged’
unemployed, who believed
that no jobs were available for
them, more than doubled from
337,000 in January 2020 to
681,000 in June.
Trump himself had ridiculed
official unemployment data
in 2015, describing them as
“phony,” lambasting the practice
of excluding people who
have given up looking for a job
from unemployment statistics.
The headline unemployment
figure also does not include
those working part-time who
want to work full-time.
The high US incarceration
rate lowers its jobless rate by
about 1%. The US has the
world’s highest incarceration
rate, with more than two million
in prisons. Many are discouraged
African-American and
Hispanic unemployed workers,
jailed for minor crimes, often
petty drug offences.
US workers better off?
OP-EDS
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Continued on Page 18
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As COVID-19 cases spike,
nurses need more than PPE
Donald Trump,
Working Class Hero?
Nurses and other healthcare workers demonstrate
against unsafe working conditions and inadequate
personal protective equipment (PPE) outside the Rikers
Island Correctional facility during the outbreak
of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Queens
borough of New York City, U.S., May 7, 2020.
REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
/schnepsmedia.com