Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro says the coronavirus is a hoax – nothing more than a little flu. He says only people over 60 get it…so why close schools? He continues to greet crowds, when the world is practicing social distancing. Medical officials believe Brazil is headed for calamity.
ASSIGNMENT
- Every student reads all of the content below to get started– as with all the other assignments. Everyone does this, as with all other assignments. You all discuss the content.
- As a group, you need to writ Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, urging him to join the international community in the fight to combat the spread of Covid-10.
- Focus on ONE issue to defend your point of view. This could be the effect of contagion in Brazil on South Florida, the effect on the indigenous, or some other issue you identify through reading the materials.
- As always, each student needs to contribute one article to the discussion to inform your letter writing. Each student reads all of the other articles.
- You can refer to op-ed columns in The New York Times to guide you on how to write a persuasive piece. Indeed, many columnists in the Times are expressing their opinions in relation to President Trump’s statements and decisions.
- You can also write this like a petition following change.org‘s style: https://www.change.org/
p/federal-communications- commission-we-demand-free- internet-for-all-low-income- families-during-covid-19?cs_ tk= AtMD48KpVPBKFj26mF4AAXicyyvNyQ EABF8BvEfa8qLC1Qj_H6LxuF9huYc% 3D&pt= AVBldGl0aW9uAIUrRAEAAAAAXpTFpI cu%252BqtkNzQ0ODFmNQ%253D% 253D&source_location=petition_ update&utm_campaign= bb64ef4ec6244821bbebf0ca0474a7 2c&utm_content=initial_v0_4_0& utm_medium=email&utm_source= petition_update&utm_term=cs - Your letter needs to have a clear focus and purpose. You are addressing one issue – not two or five.
- For example, you could say: “We urge you to develop public policies to fight the coronavirus because failure to do so…”
- You address the letter like this: Dear President Bolsonaro
- Find the address of the presidential headquarters and put it at the top of the letter.
- You need to state clearly what he should do, based on the guidance of the medical community and what other countries are doing.
- Use statistics about the number of Brazilians with the virus and deaths – check before you submit so you have the latest figures.
- You express your concern by citing the materials I’m providing and/or the four articles your team has researched. Or three articles if you have a three-person team.
- As with the last assignment put the student’s name and reference in parentheses when citing a fact so I can refer to that particular publication to fact-check your work
Letter-Writing Tips
- What do you want him to know? Why is it important for him to know this information?
- Be professional, direct and honest.
- Be respectful as you would be to anyone, even though you disagree with his policies
- Don’t let his powerful position keep you from expressing your fact-based concern
- Ddon’t use jokes.
- You can quote him; you can say “You have stated that…” and then you disagree with him
- Use personal pronouns: “We” urge you…
- Avoid the passive voice
- Avoid technical language
- Get to the point. You have 300 words; use each one effectively. Don’t repeat the same idea over and over again.
- Break the content into five-six paragraphs of around 50-60 words each. Paragraphs help you to organize your thoughts and thus help you to fine-tune your writing.
- Get your facts straight.
- Write, edit and rewrite. If someone in your group is a born editor – or has taken Writing Fundamentals or another journalism class – then this person can serve as editor in chief.
- Make this letter sing!
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- Each student provides name of article, source and hyperlink
- Each student states his/her main role
- Each student states he/she has agreed to the group’s submission
- AGAIN: you are all responsible for the final product. Don’t let anyone hit submit unless you bless this content!
DEMONSTRATE
- ability to understand and synthesize existing material so that you can perform independent research
- ability to form a clear opinion as a group
- ability to express this idea clearly, so that any reader would know what you are proposing
- ability to form fact-based opinion and fact-based solution
- See the rubric for more information
REQUIRED READING MATERIALS
Letter from Mark Rosenberg
April 5, 2020
Dear members of the university community,
“I ate 11 times and took 5 naps and it’s still today.” So goes the meme about getting through these very long days. How do we get out of today?
We are clearly in uncharted waters. The coronavirus has turned the entire world upside down. The death and sickness tolls still mount. Fear and uncertainty intensify. Students are confined to learning from home, businesses are shuttered — many will never reopen, and people are losing their livelihoods.
Indeed, I have named this period we are in Day 1. As the struggle to survive Day 1 intensifies, and the news moves from grim to grimmer, we wonder for how long? Who will endure? And how do we eventually get back to a saner and less deadly new normal, a more benign new normal, or what I call Day 2?
Day 2 will dawn as a new era for all of us. This will be an era that reflects the damages, scars and lessons of this pandemic. We hopefully will have figured out a way to control the virus and keep people healthy. This is an experience that will structure an entirely new mindset about how we live and what we value. A new generation — already dubbed Generation C — will emerge. Presumably we will be stronger and better — at least that is the hackneyed trope that we find ourselves uttering.
While it is hard to predict when we might formally enter into Day 2, the major pre-conditions would likely be a flattening of the curve, a formal end to social distancing, and the resumption of group events (classes, concerts, sporting events, celebratory events like weddings, convocations, graduations). We would likely see a burst in social and economic activity, the opening of closed parks, new and old businesses popping up, an expansion of the gig economy, and a movement out of the recession that we are now in. There will also be a dramatic expansion in tele-x, be it health or education.
But when this recovery begins is anybody’s guess. That it begins as soon as possible is everybody’s preoccupation. Much will depend on the resilience of the community in question and its specific demographic and geographic assets.
Here in South Florida, we pride ourselves on both our demography and our geography. We value our multiculturalism, our global edginess, and our deep and intimate connections to the peoples and countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. You’ve heard the question: why are there so many people of Hispanic origin in Miami? Because it’s the closest Latin American city to the United States.
The unique interdependence between us and our Latin American and Caribbean neighbors has traditionally been a source of social, cultural and financial dynamism. Hemispheric trade, commerce, and tourism anchor South Florida’s airports and seaports. Thousands of jobs in South Florida depend upon the vibrancy of the market in the countries of the region. Undeniably, there is an intimacy and absence of boundaries in our inter-American relations that has normally been catalyzing and dynamic. Intensified migration, which we can predict, will only tighten our connections.
Which brings us to Day 2. Can we get to Day 2 here in South Florida if most, if not all, of Latin American and Caribbean countries are still in Day 1?
Day 1 is just dawning in Latin America and the Caribbean. By the middle part of this past week, nearly 200,000 confirmed cases were reported for the region, a doubling from just five days before. Brazil leads the region in deaths and there have been alarming reports coming out of Ecuador and southern Mexico. Only Colombia, El Salvador, Panama, and Argentina seem to have taken some measures to slow down the spread.
FIU’s senior researcher on public health in Latin America — Carlos Espinal — has identified a litany of challenges related to the region’s management of COVID-19: tardy responses in most countries, insufficient efforts to track, isolate and communicate, low testing and high costs for diagnostic kits, the closing of all borders, and an insufficient health care infrastructure.
The result? Most countries are now slowly moving to community transmission. Their Day 1 is just beginning. Given inherent infrastructural weaknesses and high morbidity in many countries of the region, it is likely that Latin America and the Caribbean will have a prolonged Day 1.
A prolonged Day 1? In other words, the lack of testing, the inadequacy of supplies and hospitals (and ventilators), the minimalist public education, and the rampant poverty will likely keep our hemispheric neighbors subject to the ravages of the disease for months to come, long after we are, at least temporarily, preparing to transition to Day 2 here in South Florida.
Short of barring Latin American and Caribbean travelers to Florida (no South Beach, no Disney, no shopping), it will be difficult to effect a successful transition in Miami from Day 1 to Day 2 given our close familial ties with our neighbors to the south. Stated another way: we can’t get into Day 2 unless Latin America and the Caribbean get out of Day 1.
That means we have got to assist international agencies working on the region (USAID, Southcom, PAHO) in their efforts to help lower the curve and end social distancing in Latin America and the Caribbean. Unless we make significant progress, we and the region are going to have even longer days than the meme described in the opening paragraph depicts.
“Endless Day 1s ahead? A scenario no one wants, for sure … the world of Day 2 will require a form of empathetic and data informed leadership and community mindedness. Day 2 is a place that we will have to navigate the deployment of exponential technologies with big heartedness. We must use hope to drive out fear and uncertainty, but let’s inform our hope with realistic understanding about what our challenges are, then let’s get on them. That’s who we are — let’s go!”
In the Panther Spirit,
Mark B. Rosenberg
President
Additional resources to get you started.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/
