CAN YOU STILL ...

... ROAR WITH LAUGHTER?

"If I only knew how!" A friend of mine contacted me yesterday after watching the news and read his daily paper.

Another said, "This is hardly the time to do so." Understandable, if I consider his very personal situation. Anyway, it seems we have no more time and no reason for laughter. That can wait until tomorrow, or better until the day after tomorrow. Anticipation is better... .

Sure, the today's new really don't allow us even to smile... .

But keep in mind: our enemies laugh up their sleeves, and most of the time we miss to recognize the fortune still smiling at us. But hold on: he who laughs last laughs longest. Remember?

American neurologist Henri Rubenstein says, laughter lowers high blood pressure while aiding digestion and fostering sleep. Well, give me even a simple smile and believe in what  experts say: "Good humor can help the gravely or terminally ill to hear their ordeal".

Of course, if we look around us these days, we might really don't roar with laughter or split our sides laughing. Or even more then this! Have you heard about the incident at the Danish Imperial Theater in Copenhagen/Denmark sometime during the 1980's, when a spectator dropped dead of heart attack while watching the movie "A Fish Called Wanda" starring John Cheese of my favorite Great Britain's Monty Python Comedy Team? Sure, a heart attack is indeed not funny, and honestly, I still love to watch this movie on VHS.

Well, even if we think we don't have reasons to laugh,we should try to express mirth spontaneously, and we should try to be merry or gay. We still have reasons to start with the softest form of audible laughter - the vocalized smile. This is what I learned and experienced from the first moment on while travelling in Asia since 1978, and being an expat living in the Philippines since 1999 for good. Keep smiling - even you are overloaded with huge problems.

Experts also say,  good humor works because it helps people feel easier in mind. The French psychotherapist Sylvie Tenenbaum stressed, that, in her patients, laughter often signals the dawning of a wholesome awakening to reality. Gallow humor might be dubious in the eyes of others. But try to sing out loud, try to cry, but try to laugh!

As a devote Christian,  I do love reading the bible. Ecclessiastes 3:1-4 say: "There is a time for everything ... a time to be born and a time to die ,,, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh!"

Worth to think about it - even in times like now!

Coronavirus: Could it damage the global economy?

By Andrew Walker

BBC World Service economics correspondent

• 26 January 2020

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• Coronavirus outbreak

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China is struggling with a new virus that has already killed more than 20 people.

It is a serious health issue. The World Health Organization has called it an emergency for China, though not for the world, not so far at least.

Inevitably, it will have economic consequences. But how severe and how far will they spread?

Economists are very wary about putting any figures on it at this early stage.

But it is possible to identify what form the impact will take and to look at the economic damage done by previous similar episodes, notably the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome - better known as Sars - in 2002-3, which also began in China.

It is within China that there already is some economic damage. Travel restrictions have been imposed in parts of the country at a time [the Chinese New Year] when many people travel. So the tourism business is already being hit.

Transport hub

Consumer spending on entertainment and gifts will also be affected. For entertainment, many will be reluctant to take part in activities outside the home that could lead to exposure to the virus. Many people are sure to have cancelled plans of their own volition to avoid risks of exposure to the disease.

The impact is magnified by the fact that Wuhan, the city where it began, is an important transport hub.

Travel restrictions are also a problem for any business that needs to move goods or people around. Industrial supply chains will be affected. Some deliveries may be disrupted and some will become more expensive.

There will be lost economic activity as a result of people not being able or willing to travel to work.

Recovery rate

There will also be a direct financial cost from treating patients borne by health insurers (public and private) and by patients.

Outside China, much will depend on the spread of the disease. If there are outbreaks elsewhere some of the same effects may be apparent, although almost certainly on a much smaller scale.

The extent of these effects will depend to a large degree on how easily transmissible the virus proves to be and the death rate among those infected. Encouragingly many people so far have made full recoveries, though there have been tragic exceptions.

It is often the case that economic problems are quickly reflected by financial markets, where traders' views about what assets are worth are affected by their expectations about future developments.

Vaccine chance

On this occasion that have been some negative consequences for stock markets, particular in China. But they have not been large. Even the Shanghai Composite Index is higher than it was six months ago.

There are some businesses who could gain, such as drugs makers. What is immediately available is symptom relief. In the longer term there might be profitable opportunity in developing a vaccine against the virus.

Paul Stoffels, chief scientific officer at Johnson & Johnson told the BBC that his teams had already done the "basic work" on a vaccine. He thought it could be available in about a year.

There has also been a surge in demand for surgical masks and gloves to protect against becoming infected. Shares in Chinese companies that make these items - drugs and protective equipment - have seen some sharp price rises.

Quick recovery?

The best historical example to give guidance is probably the Sars outbreak.

One estimate suggested a cost to the global economy of $40bn (£30.5bn).

Jennifer McKeown of Capital Economics, a London based consultancy, suggests that global growth was a full percentage point weaker in the second quarter of 2003 than it would have been without Sars. That is quite a substantial hit, but she also says it made up the ground quite quickly afterwards.

She says the picture is complicated by other factors that affected global growth at the time but she concludes "it is very hard to pick out any lasting damage to global GDP (economic activity) from Sars, which was an unusually severe and widespread virus".