ENTRY 7: NEW IDEAS
I spent all afternoon trying out the solar panels. The power they generate is amazing. However, if I connected a lot of appliances at one time, energy consumption would soar and drain the batteries in a couple of hours. Using them with only a couple of freezers and the computer, for example, increases battery life to around fifteen hours. After that there’s a lapse of about eight hours when the batteries can’t be used because the voltage is very low and appliances could be damaged due to the difference in voltage. According to the manufacturer, in sunny climates you could use them for twenty-four hours, but it’s winter in Galicia, so I can’t complain. I won’t have to put up with an outage of more than a couple of hours, not even during the worst winter storms. Overall it’s a very smart investment.
Lucullus is kind of surprised by the strange hat his house is wearing. (I’m sure he thinks this is
I listened to the radio all day—in the morning, on the way home from the office, and as I fixed dinner. The Spanish contingent took off from the Torrejon Air Base near Madrid, headed for a Dagestani town named Buynaksk, where they’ll set up a field hospital. The Russians are dividing the international health groups among several locations. The region is very backward, and Russian health care seems to be on the verge of collapse.
In some refugee camps in neighboring republics, they’re reporting new cases of what they insist is an especially virulent strain of the West Nile virus. But media sources are calling it Ebola. If that’s true, the Russians are really screwed. Nobody seems to have organized camps for the refugees who were scattered to the four winds when the army expelled the healthy from their homes, along with the sick.
To make matters worse, many refugees have fled the country in little boats across the Caspian Sea to Iran, fueling fears that the disease will reach the Middle East.
I did more shopping, picked up some flu remedies, and went by my mother’s house. I got her to write me a prescription for antibiotics. I’m a fanatic when it comes to colds.
ENTRY 8: MORE NEWS
Reuters reports that three of the WHO doctors evacuated to Ramstein have died. According to the medical report, this is a highly virulent hemorrhagic fever that causes disorientation, delusions, and acute aggression. The Ebola theory carries some weight.
ENTRY 9: TIPPING POINT
I write this during a break between meetings. I’m sitting on a park bench under my office window. With the new ban on smoking in the workplace, if I want to have a smoke, I have to go into exile, out in the cold. I can’t even smoke in my own office! One good thing, I can pick up Wi-Fi out here so I can surf the net.
The news on several sites is very confusing. Almost all of it is disturbing. The situation in Russia appears to be completely out of control, just a couple of weeks after the Chechen assault. Martial law hasn’t done any good. Chaos is spreading throughout the country. As you’d expect, the Internet blackout Putin ordered has been useless. Many Russian servers are located in countries outside the EU, so information is still getting out over the Internet. That’s the only information besides official reports. Many bloggers report Russian military patrolling the streets, curfews, and indiscriminate shootings. Even cannibalism. With all the chaos this situation has triggered, many areas are totally cut off. In statement after statement, the Russian government has denied everything. The Russian minister of defense insisted that the riots were the work of Muslim extremists trying to destabilize the government. The truth is, the Russian government’s credibility has plummeted, and the international press is highly skeptical of anything it says.
All we know for sure is that security around nuclear power plants and Russian missile bases has been strengthened, according to the US secretary of defense citing the CIA and images from its satellites. The US government has ordered the repatriation of all its citizens living in Russia. Apparently there are several dead and wounded among the US citizens working for NGOs in Dagestan, who arrived back in the United States this morning. CNN showed some of them being lowered out of the aircraft on a stretcher. They looked really bad.
North American troops are being withdrawn from Afghanistan back to the United States. There’s a rumor they’ll raise the terror alert to red. Most of those troops will have a layover at the base in Ramstein.
News flash: Cases of Russian West Nile, as they’re calling it, have been reported in northern Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan. Internet forums are in full swing. Doomsday prophets are making a killing on blogs. This can’t go on much longer. I’m sure it’ll all turn out to be like the bird flu…
ENTRY 10: TIPPING POINT, PART II
About the bird flu. The United Kingdom just announced that it’s suspending the Treaty of Schengen, which allows free movement around the EU. It’s also going to set up health checkpoints at its borders. Countries on Russia’s border—Denmark, Sweden, and Finland—plan to do the same. Our prime minister announced a press conference at noon to discuss measures Spain plans to take.
Radio stations are on fire. I’m surprised the pundits know so much about medicine. My sister called from Barcelona to tell me that the Catalan government is considering a mass vaccination. Vaccinate against what? Nobody has a clue, and everyone’s trying to profit from someone else’s misfortune. So what’s new?
ENTRY 11: TIPPING POINT, PART III
The base at Ramstein has been quarantined, according to Google News. WHO members evacuated there out of Russia must have spread the disease to medical personnel. All US military flights are being diverted through non-EU countries.
Our minister of defense said on TV that the Spanish government has authorized North American aircraft to fly over our country. That may include using Rota as a support base.
Someone posted an image of Ramstein online. You can hardly see anything. Just two people dressed in what appear to be contamination suits talking at the door of a hut. There’s something really disturbing about all this…
ENTRY 12: BREAKING POINT
