Tens of thousands of people have been marching in the Belgian capital, Brussels, to protest against anti-Covid measures. Some protesters threw fireworks at police officers, who intervened with tear gas and water cannon," BBC. "In the Netherlands, a second night of riots broke out on Saturday in several towns and cities." "Officials announced an emergency order in the city, and at least seven people have been arrested." "Three people were being treated in hospital in Rotterdam on Saturday after they were seriously injured when Dutch police fired shots during a violent protest against COVID-19 measures, authorities said," Reuters. Pro and anti vaccine protests have been taking place across Australia, euronews. "Demonstrations against virus restrictions took place in Switzerland, Croatia, Italy, Northern Ireland and the Netherlands," PBS. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US, "Covid-19 vaccines are effective and can reduce the risk of getting and spreading the virus that causes Covid-19, help children and adults from getting seriously ill even if they do get Covid-19, and can help protect families and communities." An explainer article from the World Health Organization (WHO) said, "Covid-19 vaccines have proven to be safe, effective and life-saving." Even if there are 'breakthrough infections' "It is very rare for someone vaccinated to experience severe infection or die." If vaccines are so safe, effective and logical, why is there such resistance that police have to resort to firing live rounds? Maybe because people have lost trust in governments and do not want to be controlled. Yet people happily share personal details on social media sites which hackers are able to scrape together and then sell to whoever is willing to pay, BBC. "In 2021, Facebook re-modelled itself to Meta, in a bid to represent and extend the fantastical idea of a Metaverse" "where you can have different, innumerable, life-like characters and identities", "while you sip your tea on your desk, working a day-job, sitting in some part of India, or even the world, trading in bitcoin or any of your favorite crypto on popular platforms like CoinSwitch Kuber", ET. Cryptocurrencies are notoriously volatile. In February 2018, the price of "Bitcoin fell below $8,000 for the third time in four days" and cryptocurrencies lost over $60 billion in value in 24 hours, CNBC. Today 1 Bitcoin is worth $56,533, Insider, which converts to 4.219 million Indian rupees, Google. And yet, shockingly, "The total number of crypto owners in India now stands at 10.07 crore (100.7 million), which puts it ahead of every country in the world," India Today. "What happens if, over time, cryptos evolve from speculative assets to become viable mediums of exchange?" asked Sajjid Z Chinoy. If large numbers of people start conducting cross-border transactions using cryptocurrencies there will enormous currency flows across borders, which will lead to central banks losing control of monetary policy, there will be loss of seigniorage and governments will lose out on taxes. Indians are investing in risky cryptos because of severe financial repression by the RBI which has stuck to negative interest rate since May 2020, HT. "Democratic nations should work together on cryptocurrency to ensure it does not end up in the wrong hands, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said. Which means citizens.
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