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Home » World News » Fear as Colombia closes border with Venezuela over coronavirus
Move will push vulnerable Venezuelans to use informal border crossings, making coronavirus fight harder, experts say.
Bogota, Colombia – Cesar Castillo and his partner begged for help on the street of a wealthy Bogota, Colombia, neighbourhood with their eight-month-old son.
Castillo, 26, left Venezuela three months ago, in search of opportunities as his economically crippled homeland continues to suffer a lack of medical and food supplies.
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The last time he saw a doctor was in 2018, when he injured his leg in a motorbike accident in his hometown of Maracay, a 40-minute drive from the Venezuelan capital Caracas. His injury became infected in hospital, and the necessary antibiotics were not available. His leg was amputated.
"If it (coronavirus) arrives in Venezuela, it's going to be horrible. So many will die," he said while balancing on his crutches in the middle of the busy shopping street, recalling his hospital trauma. "There's no medicine, people literally die."
Castillo's fears deepened this week when officials announced two people inside Venezuela had tested positive for the disease. The cases sparked concern not just in Venezuela, but also in Colombia where millions of Venezuelans have fled to in recent years.
Colombia has 22 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, which has now been labelled by the World Health Organization as a pandemic. The government of President Ivan Duque announced late Friday that non-nationals will be barred from entering the country from March 16 if they have been in Europe or Asia over the past two weeks. The government also announced the closure of the border with Venezuela, prompting fears of what such measures may mean for those who rely on medicine, medical supplies and other goods from Colombia. Venezuela also slammed the decision as "an act of gross irresponsibility".
'Completely overwhelmed'
Venezuela's public health system has been crippled for years owing to the country's failing economy. Basic medicine is hard to come by, and treatment for serious illnesses like cancer, diabetes and HIV is even more scant.
More than 4.8 million people have fled Venezuela since 2015 and over 1.7 million now reside in Colombia, according to the United Nation's most recent figures. Most Venezuelan migrants arriving in Colombia are from poor, working-class backgrounds and, like Castillo, arrive with little to no resources and serious medical conditions.
Even before the announcement of the closure, those who work along the border feared for what the situation would look like in both Venezuela and Colombia.
"If coronavirus arrives on a large scale, the Colombian health system would be severely affected. Venezuelan migrants, especially those who are not registered in the Colombian social system, will be most vulnerable," said Dr Atilio Rivera-Vasquez from Cucuta, a city whose healthcare services are already collapsed by the high number of migrants there.
"They (migrants) have little economic access to buy disinfectant gels and soap to wash their hands, as well as a lack of money to buy non-perishable foods to self-isolate themselves. There are also many migrants who live on the streets, meaning they won't be able to self isolate if they have coronavirus," Rivera-Vasquez, who specialises in epidemics, said.
Jaime Castellanos, a Bogota-based professor of virology, said the number would continue to increase in Colombia as it is worldwide, but that Colombia's technical capabilities to quickly diagnose the disease are not as sophisticated as other countries, like South Korea.
"The installations, staff and medical supplies are not enough for what would be needed to deal with these kinds of cases. Our health system would be completely overwhelmed" Castellanos said.
Colombia's Ministry of Health said they were unable to give a comment to Al Jazeera at the time of publication.
Venezuelans will continue to cross
Analysts say that the border closure will only push Venezuelans to cross via "trochas", or informal border crossings.
"I think it is a completely wrong decision made by the [Colombian] government," said Ronald Rodriguez, the director of Rosario University's Observatory on Venezuela.
"Colombia has a huge responsibility being the country that has most Venezuelan migrants and whose role should be to lead a response on behalf of all the other countries in the region who share the issue of Venezuelan migration," he said.
He added that because of the weak healthcare system most Venezuelans who contract the virus would probably end up coming to Colombia for healthcare.
"Colombia needs to prepare itself for what could come. Not only to care for people locally, but also in the event that more Venezuelans move towards the border area in search of medical assistance there and remembering that many Venezuelans are suffering with serious health issues that haven't been treated by the Venezuelan health service like cancer, diabetes and HIV, and makes them more vulnerable in the face of a possible epidemic of COVID-19," Rodriguez said.
"Another critical thing to point out about this population is that in Venezuelan tropical diseases are rife and anyone living with one of these diseases and gets infected with COVID-19 could face huge complications," he added. "Venezuelans are going to try to get into Colombia in search of help to protect themselves from these diseases. The only thing the Colombian government has done is made the situation more difficult for Venezuelans."
The government has not yet outlined exactly how it will manage the closure of the porous, 2,219km (1,379-mile) border with Venezuela. Colombian governors and mayors from around the country will meet Duque on Saturday to discuss how to work collaboratively tackle the virus around the country.
Jozef Merkx, head of UNHCR – the UN's refugee agency – in Colombia, said the agency was "monitoring the situation and will work in close contact with Colombia's Ministry of Health."
Sergio Guzman, a political analyst, said that cooperation between the Colombian and Venezuelan government "would be desirable under this scenario, but politically unrealistic going forward".
He said that the Colombian government's "containment strategy must quickly move to become a strategy to prepare for social isolation, economic malaise, and a severe strain on healthcare services and provisions."
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Star Cross'd Destiny Community » Entertainment » Gaming » Topic: Tales of Symphonia II: So bad I want to kill myself.
Author Topic: Tales of Symphonia II: So bad I want to kill myself. (Read 392 times)
sjw8800
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Tales of Symphonia II: So bad I want to kill myself.
This was more of a letdown than Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
The game is basically, you get two new players, and as the story progresses, they will throw in characters from the first game, one or two at a time.
This bugs the fuck out of me, especially because the 2 characters are BOTH stupid as hell. Emil, a total pussy, and the other Marta, an annoying bitch. Next to that, the characters of the first game cannot level up or gain new titles, weapons or armor, Techs and skills. It's fucking ridiculous.
To fill up your severely lacking party, you get a monster system. It would almost be worth it, but you can't control the monsters manually, and the AI is so horrible any commands given to the monsters goes on deaf ears and they go off doing their own thing until they die from stupidity.
The stun (dizzyness) effect is also so ridiculous in this instance. Any heavy-hitters will guard all attacks, hit Emil once and he will get dizzy. And unlike in The origional Tales of Symphonia, you can't mash the buttons and spin the control stick to quicken the recovery time. This leaves you vulnerable for up to 5 full seconds (from what I've seen). This might not mean too much, unless you get hit again and more fucking stars show up, increasing your time. Unlike in the first game when the dizzyness went away after getting hit once.
This happens very often after getting surrounded by 6 monsters, while Marta, the new healer, sits in the back healing everyone but you.
Guarding takes almost a full second to activate giving monsters plenty of time to whup your ass while recovering from getting owned.
Oh, did I mention you pretty much *have* to play as Emil? The AI is so horrid if you leave the only frontline character up to them, Emil drops like an epileptic. Oh poo. And with him gone, guess who is next? The HEALER! And the monsters can't use items to revive the fallen so you're pretty much fucked. Even if they have revival spells. Gee, thanks assholes.
Talk about being fucked, let's talk about the bosses. In the original Tales of Symphonia, bosses weren't OverPowered, and actually played like every other monster. They flinched when getting hit and had to recover, after getting knocked down, etc.
In this game, they don't even have to block to reduce your damage to double digits. While walking around and fighting they have immunity to flinching which hinders normal damage you'll deal. And they don't flinch so *while* you're swinging away they'll just punch you in the face and Stun your ass pronto, leaving you crossing your fingers, hoping that you don't get raped until you get a chance to run away.
It's possible to break this immunity after about 5-6 constant hits, still it's hard to keep up a combo above 30. Depending on the boss my combo's end after around 20 after breaking the "shield".
Leveling up is also a thing of the past. The only way to level up is within dungeons, because there is no longer walking between towns. I've noticed the Tales Team has been slacking on this. Tales of the Abyss had horrid World map graphics. Now they've removed it entirely and you just select which town you want to go to on a map.
Because of that instead of leveling up while walking to the next town. You have to beat down the monsters in a dungeon over and over again until you can bring them down in one stroke. That you might actually have a chance against the ridiculous bosses that await.
The *only* improvements I've seen so far since the first game are the graphics (not saying too much) and the music. Still listening to the same fantastic tunes with some twists, and some new songs that are also quite the addition.
And the voices /facepalm
The voice acting is fair, but what truly bugs me is the fact that they are pronouncing words differently than they did in the first game.
Pal-mah-coh-sta is now Pal-mah cost-a.
Mana is now Mo-na
Just to name a few. The director needs to be shot for his lack of research. Who the fuck could possibly make that kind of mistake while making a sequel? Just watch the first game to learn the pronunciations. What the fuck?!
Some of the voice actors/actresses have changed, but nothing that can't be overlooked, as the replacements still fit fairly well.
I wouldn't have too much of a problem with the story if they would have just kept the original Tales of Symphonia characters in the party, rather than aimlessly making them leave the party.
"O-K, it was fun guys. I'm going to go on ahead to find Lloyd. You stay here and wait for the next Character to help you progress. I'll see you at the climax of the game. Bye!"
"Okay, by Collete!"
"Hi, I'm Regal, I'll take you past the next two levels until you meet with Sheena, but that's as far as I go."
And just me, but the game started pokes at my pet peeve. Romances in a video game. Romances in a video game are fine as long as they don't beat around the bush. But games where the main character and the love intrest just dick around and blush the whole fucking game!!! GRRRRRRRRRR.
This game is FULL of ...
"Oh, Emil! I missed you!"
"Um... yea. *blush*"
And the next cut scene.
"Oh! Marta! Are you okay?"
That's my own personal pet peeve, though.
I'm an avid Tales fan. And this has been SOOO many steps back from almost all of the previous games. The exception being Tales of Destiny. Tales of Destiny had such wonderful characters, a fucking shame that YOU CAN'T PLAY AS ANY OF THEM!!! (except Stahn, whoop de doo)
But Tales of Phantasia definitely tops this game. I mean, what the fuck. I can't even revisit old towns in this game? GTFO!!!!!!
But the all time worst, possible spoilers or whatever....
But you actually HAVE to throw the boss fight. I mean, yea you can win all of the boss fights, but it won't let you save afterwards so it forces you to go back and actually DELIBERATLY blow the fight.
Who was the FUCKING MORON that said "Oh! We should make it so that he HAS to blow the boss fights! LOL, funny rite?"
I don't know if it's because I've gotten used to the game, but playing through Mania mode is WAAAAAY easier than when I played through hard mode the first time.
I'm just glad there is an unknown difficulty to unlock because this is ridiculously easy.
Also and finally,
It's short. The first game takes around 40 hours rushing, and my timer was at 27 when I finished, and I wasn't even rushing through. I was attempting to enjoy the game..... Just, Jesus... how could such a FANTASTIC game has such a HORRID sequel?
« Last Edit: December 02, 2008, 11:18:24 PM by sjw8800 » Logged
Twhit
underpaid hobo
Fight da powah?
Re: Tales of Symphonia II: So bad I want to kill myself.
I loved the first one. I was planning to buy the second one, until I started seeing all the reviews that showed it as, well, this. I then got so fed up with the Wii for not having a single damn playable RPG on it that I went out and bought a 360 along with Tales of Vesperia. Currently, I am enjoying that game a lot more than I think I would have enjoyed the one you describe here. Thank you for validating my decision.
I've been wanting to play Vesperia, but I had just bought a PS3 for Valkyria Chronicles (best game in the universe =P) And I'm not about to do the same thing for Vesperia.
I have to say, it's been pissing me off how Namco has been jumping consoles when producing the Tales series.
Seconded. I got the 360 mainly because I couldn't afford a PS3, buying a used copy of Vesperia because that's all I could find. I'm enjoying it thoroughly, though the controls keep throwing me off (never owned anything XBox-y before, taking some getting used to).
You know, on the subject of controls, I think they really impact my memories of a game. I mean, in the basics, the Tales games all share more or less the same system in battle. Well, Legendia went back to 2d, which was annoying, but barring that. I've played Symphonia (cube), Abyss (PS2), and now Vesperia (360). Each time the slightly different controller changes how the whole game feels. My PS2 controller was kind of old and beat up, the R1 stuck occasionally, so Abyss didn't feel as tight. Vesperia's fine, brand new controller though still makes it feel a little alien. I absolutely love the Gamecube controller, something's just really satisfyingly solid about the big plastic buttons that makes it feel like the control is more tight. Thinking of it, I'd imagine the Wiimote wouldn't be too good for a game like Tales (or most button-based fighting games, really), as it's so . . . loose. Floaty. It has its place, but I prefer the classic controllers for things like this or Brawling or what-have-you.
Well, a bit off-topic there.
I think one of the most annoying things about TOS2, for me (besides not being able to play with the old cast again for any extended period of time), would have to be just putting up with the characters. Emil sounds so annoying from what you've said. Vesperia has a really good cast overall, and balanced too - even your spellcasters and healers have a variety of melee-based techs to get them out of harm's way, and any of them is actually tolerable to control. Personality-wise, they're fine - a bit archetype-y overall, but better than annoying whiny kids. Yuri, the main character, may look a little more feminine than is strictly necessary, but he straight-up murders a villain in the middle of the night and dumps the body in a river to hide it from the "good guy" royal knights. So he's pretty agreeable to play as.
Sorry, bet this sounds more like bragging than anything. Thank you for your noble sacrifice in playing a bad game so the rest of us don't have to.
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Three Christian men, sentenced to death for inciting fighting with Muslims in eastern Indonesia six years ago, are to be executed, prosecutors have told the men's families.
Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus da Silva and Marinus Riwu were found guilty in 2001 following months of violence on Sulawesi Island between Muslim and Christian mobs that left dead around 1,000 people from both faiths.
Tibo's son, Robertus, said prosecutors had informed him by letter that his father and the two others would be killed in the early hours of Saturday morning by firing squad.
"I was very shocked to read the letter saying that my father and his friends are scheduled to be executed this weekend," Robertus said in the Sulawesi town of Tentena.
"My father is convinced that he is innocent."
All three have said they are not guilty, but their final appeal was turned down by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Indonesian president, last year.
A lawyer for the men was quoted in the Koran Tempo daily newspaper as saying that he was trying to win them a stay of execution based on new evidence.
Several hardline Muslim leaders in Sulawesi have called on the men to be executed.
Amnesty International, which opposes death sentences, said it was concerned by reports the trial of the three men did not meet international standards of fairness.


Although HP's investment in Palm went down in glorious flames with the TouchPad, they clearly haven't given up in the tablet market yet.
At the end of July, HP posted the "Make it Matter" commercial on YouTube. While the video is an entire minute of inspirational crud, at the 35 second mark there is a whitecoat clad chap sporting a tablet. So HP still wants to make tablets? That's inspirational. A closer shot of the device can be seen right at the end of the video.
Given the style of the commercial, and some more recently seen advertisements that include the same device, Hewlett-Packard is very clearly going after both the small enterprising business owner, and large corporate crowd.
HP hasn't officially talked about the tablet, so no specification are available. Looking at the pictures we can clearly see the 3.5mm auxiliary jack, a power button, and silent switch on the right portion, and what might be a lanyard or lock spot on the left side of the device. It's a bit thick, looks to be around 10″ and largely uncomfortable to hold. The upper black portion is likely where the WiFi and/or cellular antenna would be housed.
Rumour is that the Slate will be running Windows 8. Well, what are the other options? Let's see, use their open sourced webOS platform? Nope. License Android? Highly unlikely. They'll probably ship with Windows 8, which recently hit RTM status. Wait, yes, of course they will ship with Windows 8. Meg Whitman specifically said so. So did these slides.
So there we go. HP Slate 8. Windows 8. Coming soon.