Prince Arthur Herald

News & Lifestyle

Dr. Matt Boente – Common Medical Myths Debunked

I have been friends with the good Dr. Matt Boente for many years now and throughout that time I have also had the great pleasure of making friends with some of his colleagues. I never had what it took to become a doctor, neither the desire or the intelligence, but I have always had an enormous amount of respect for the job that they do. In fact I potentially have more respect than most given the stories which I have heard and the things that I have seen as a result of being very good friends with someone in the profession.

There are a number of myths which surround being a doctor and I want to do my best today to dispel those myths.

Doctors Are All Loaded

One of the most common myths which I hear is that all doctors are incredibly wealthy, this just isn’t true. In fact although being a doctor is one of the highest paid jobs in the country, it is important to remember why that figure is slightly skewed. Within the practice of being a doctor, especially a specialist, there is great scope to earn very good money, but that generally comes after 25 years have blood, sweat and tears, those high salaries alter the average figure and bring it up far higher than the real average amongst junior doctors, they have the chance to earn a lot, but not for a while.

Jack of All Trades

It is true that a doctor is excellent at understanding the human body and whilst they are able to spot certain signs and activities within the body which may be causing problems, they are not able to address every aspect of the body with maximum knowledge or professionalism. An oncologist will have a pretty hard time performing brain surgery and a pediatrician is going to probably have some issues repairing someone’s face with plastic surgery. General knowledge?Yes, experts in everything? No.

Off The Clock

We know that doctors do work extraordinarily long hours, that is most certainly not a myth, but the idea that a doctor ever clocks off just isn’t true, after all, they have taken an oath. I can tell you from first hand experience that if someone has a problem and there is a doctor in the near vicinity then it doesn’t matter if they are drunk, in the middle of a meal or trying to bag themselves a date, a doctor is going to respond and immediately they are on the clock, incidentally this probably can help to get dates. It is not just this but doctors must also suffer every friend and family member asking them to review a certain ailment, mark, lump or abnormality on their body, which is why the idea that they ever stop working is nonsense, and I haven’t even began to discuss how much time they invest in studying.

Three myths, successfully debunked.

 

The Mystery of the Bagel Hole, and Other Fun Food Stories

Food seems to be one of the most trivial, everyday things that we meet day after day. Under the surface, in turn, the traditional foods of pretty much every geographical area have some interesting stories attached to them. Like the one about the Hawaii pizza being invented by a Canadian cook (which, by the way, is true), and the Caesar salad being invented in Rome (which, by the way, is false). Sometimes, in turn, the stories attached to them are fun, too, even if not all of them are fact-based.

Why does a bagel have a hole?

Officially, the bagel has a hole in the middle for it to bake faster and more evenly. The legend attached to it is, in turn, a much more entertaining explanation for the mystery of the bagel hole. Allegedly, a small Jewish village in Russia was exploited by a greedy tzar – the royalty even demanded a tenth of all bread baked in the village. And to make things worse, the royal portion had to come from the middle of the bread. The wise men of the village found a way to stop the tzar from ruining all the village’s bread by baking bagels – small loaves with holes in the middle, holes that made up exactly a tenth of each one. And when the soldiers came to collect the royal portion, they had no choice but to leave empty-handed.

The potato chips of vengeance

Officially, the first one to publish a recipe for potato chips was English inventor, musician, and cook William Kitchiner. But as you might expect, there is a legend claiming the invention belongs to someone else – and that’s way more fun to tell.

Apparently, a cook called George Crum at the Moon Lakehouse in Saratoga grew tired of a squeamish patron that kept sending back the house speciality – Moon’s Fried Potatoes – to the kitchen, saying they were too thick and soggy. George remade the dish several times, to the same result, until he decided to get back at the patron: he sliced the potatoes thin, fried them until they became crispy, and served them with loads of salt.

As you might expect, the patron was very happy with the result.

The not-so-humble origin of the humble sandwich

Finally, let’s not forget the most convenient dish that was born out of passion. For cards, that is.

John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich was a passionate gambler who wouldn’t even leave the table to eat. Instead, he ordered his servants to bring him a piece of meat between two pieces of bread so he could eat while playing without messing up the cards. The idea caught with his opponents – they, too, were asking for the same “sandwich”, and the name stuck.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that John Edward Hollister Montagu, 11th Earl of Sandwich – yes, he is a descendant of the 4th – licensed his title to a chain of sandwich shops. One of them is in Disney World.

 

Javier Burillo – The Key Components of a Genuine Mexican Taco

When you hear the word Mexico there are a number of things which come to mind, at first you may think tequila, perhaps sun, beaches and sombreros, but somewhere along that thought process that magic word will pop into your mind, tacos. That’s right, tacos are the most incredible and one of the most famous Mexican exports and they are loved around the world. Much like many foods however the Mexican taco has been somewhat warped as it has been exported and that has resulted in some very different variations of this tasty snack.

Today then I want to take a look into what is the makeup of a traditional Mexican taco, as found throughout the country, lets take a look.

Small and Soft

As my good friend and fellow taco lover Javier Burillo will often tell me, the worst thing that ever happened to the taco shell was it being made hard. Now you may or may not agree with this but as someone who has grown up with authentic Mexican tacos I can completely understand where he is coming from with this. In the main a great taco should be small enough to fit into the palm of your hand, and soft enough to easily wrap around all of that juicy and delicious filling.

Filling

In terms of the main event in terms of the filling there is so much that you can do here which will give your taco some amazing flavor. Naturally the most common filling south of the border is meat or fish, but if you head to cities like Mexico City or even somewhere like Monterrey you are going to find veggie and vegan fillings like seitan or tofu, equally as delicious and of course ideal for those with certain dietary requirements. We like to do a slow cooked pork in our tacos but the real beauty of this snack is that you can fill it up with just about anything.

Condiments

Through the years I have seen all kinds of absurd things placed on tacos, some of which have even made me cringe. Whilst a taco shell with a meaty or fishy filing may lend itself to a variety of condiments, the truth is that to go traditional you just have to keep it simple. For me there is nothing better to adorn the taco than some chopped raw onions, a handful of cilantro and some spicy salsa, not to mention the lime juice which will be squirted on at the end. The truth is that a taco is a very simple dish to put together and the real difference between one and the other is about the quality of the ingredients. Very often people try to overthink a taco, or they aim to reinvent the wheel, none of that in reality is necessary, keep it simple and ensure that the ingredients are of a very high quality.

 

Tips on Writing a Story like Roger Wolfson

When it comes to writing there isn’t much that Roger Wolfson doesn’t know, a mastermind how has forged an incredible career in writing. Roger’s career spans the law sector, the television space and he has even got a regular column online. Roger is the ultimate story teller and he has been sharing some tips with us recently about what exactly a story should look like and some tips on how people can write better stories.

More to the point Roger wanted to share some tips on how best to write stories and that is what we are going to bring you today.

Everything But The End

Whilst you should of course have a good idea as to what story you wish to tell, it is important that you realize that the end of the story doesn’t have to be decided when you first start. In fact very often you’ll find that if you have already decided the end, that by the time you actually get there you will have changed your mind or the story will have gone in a different direction.

Characters

The characters will always be more important than the story and this is absolutely crucial to remember. It is the characters which drive the story and they can only really go where their personalities and their decisions tell them to. This is why character development is so vital and why you should invest a great deal of time in the beginning to decide who they are, what they are motivated by and what their story and background is. The key to any great story is characters, and there are absolutely no exceptions to that rule, even if there is only one character in the story.

Stay Strong

When you are writing something like a story there are going to be days when you are absolutely on fire, where words coming flying out of you and where you will be filling up the page at an alarming speed with high quality penmanship. Unfortunately however there are also going to be days where you just can’t string two words together, where you become utterly lost and where you simply have no idea what on earth you are doing sat at the desk. It is during these days where you must stay strong, you must make sure that the next day you get back to it and try again, the words will come back, you just need to stay calm.

Finally you have to really envelope yourself in this project, it isn’t one which you can just pick up and put down as and when you feel. If you do this then your mind will be in different places every time you get to work, and that will come across in the story and the way in which it flows, or not in this case.

Go after this story, you have it in you, stay strong, stay creative and don’t forget about those characters.

 

Exploring Top Seven Influential Factors For Your Business Growth

Conducting business is one of the most basic needs of a human. The primitive man did business quite differently from what we do now. Barter was the most prevalent system of trade in the absence of a currency. As humans evolved, they found better and convenient ways to make profits, a process that also involved hiring more people. Fast forward to the 21st century; now we have technologies that we couldn’t even imagine a few decades back. The point to ponder, however, is, do the methods of conducting businesses change as drastically as the evolution of technology? Whatever the case, technological made things a lot easier than before. Getting in touch with your client, business partners, or anyone has never been easier. So much so, that now businesses can be set up sitting at home, which becomes even more crucial in the presence of a pandemic dictating us to stay at home.

Startup, Whiteboard, Room, Indoors, Adult, Office

You might think that you do not own a business as you have a 9 to 5 job but think again. Almost everyone has some connections to industry one way or the other, whether directly or through some employer. So, knowing a thing or two about their conduct is sometimes crucial. You might even decide to quit your job and embark upon the adventure of venturing your own company someday so that you could use some knowledge. Every business, no matter what the circumstances have one common goal every time of the year; expand. The urge to climb up the social ladder inspires the business owners to grow and increase their profits, manifolds no matter the circumstances. Expansion is also beneficial to the employees since they get raises, or even more, people get employed, helping the businesses grow. Many people are lucky enough to get an education in something they want to do with their life, like a business. Though the doors of knowledge acquisition never close, you can always opt for an online business degree if you want to learn more about the ways to excel in it. Nevertheless, here are a few tips to get you started, and you can always build upon them.

  • CREATE A SALES FUNNEL

If you are not aware of a sales funnel, don’t worry, we will explain. Imagine a real-life funnel used to create a way for a large quantity of the substance to pass through a streamlined path. Though unlike that, in the case of the sales funnel, not everyone entering the funnel might necessarily give through. It is, in fact, a step by step process through which a potential customer gets the awareness of the product, develops an interest, makes a decision, and takes action. The idea is to facilitate the customer in every step of the process, so their decision-making is more favorable to the company. Every business owner should know that the potential client passes through a buyer’s psychological process, and tapping into that process by easing it, is the best thing a marketer can do. Workable and dynamic sales funnel the expansion of your business much more manageable.

  • IMPROVE CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT

At the start of the business, you might not have enough clients, so you manage your customers manually, which is a good start. However, as the business grows, this task becomes cumbersome. The problem with something becoming a burden is, you want to get it done with as soon as possible, which consequently affects performance. Giving an excellent experience to the customer and listening to their complaints and feedback is crucial for any company to thrive better. To scale your business, you must get a customer management system to automate the process and even make it better. Depending on your line of work, there are several options available, though we recommend that you look for cloud-based software. A study concludes that better customer management enhances customer satisfaction resulting in increased profitability.

  • RESEARCH YOUR COMPETITORS

You can never scale your business without knowing what you are up against in the game. You will have several business competitors in the markets doing much better than you, and there are reasons for that. They provide more services, or better services, probably for a better price. The best way to get better is by keeping an eye on the competition and try to understand why more people go for them instead of you? They might have a better marketing strategy or better customer service. So, you should collect the necessary information about them and get to your drawing board to see what you can do to outperform them and win clients. You think you might be providing the best possible services to the customers, but you can never be sure without doing your homework about the competitors.

  • CUSTOMER LOYALTY PROGRAM

If you are in business, you must already know that finding new customers is difficult. It is up to three times costlier to find a new customer than retaining the old ones. So, you must focus more on keeping customers once they have already conducted some business with you. Since they already know what you offer and the quality of your service, you will find it easier to persuade them for future business. You should also provide them with incentives for spending more with you, so conducting business with you looks more feasible to them. Such a program will also attract more clients who plan on doing long-term deals to leverage the benefits.

  • DEVELOP STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS

Scout the market for potential partners that might be interested in having a long-term partnership. Build a mailing list to offer your news services to several people at a time. Doing so will not only improve your relationship with potential clients but also aid in bringing swaths of customers your way. Though it is easier said than done, when you are looking for potential partners, look for companies that complement yours.

  • DIVERSIFY

Your offers might be useful, but to reach a broader range of clients, you must diversify your offers. Not every client has similar needs, and you must try to find new ways to woo them by offering something different. The best way to start is to identify the novel options that your business niche can offer, or what are the add-ons that you can add to the existing services you provide.

  • LEVERAGE TECHNOLOGY

Yeah, you must already be taking help from technology for conducting your business, but there are several ways to reach more clients. Social media ads help a great deal with the options of appearing to your potential clients filtered by age, location, or occupation. There are other platforms like Upwork, Amazon, and Airbnb, depending on your business niche to help you.

CONCLUSION

Running and expanding a business requires endeavor, and you can never really predict what happens next. Business is a risky adventure, but the gains are much more fruitful than a tedious and enervating nine to five job. Most of the successful business follows similar working principles through which they pursue the customers, make profits, and expand into new avenues. We gave you a synopsis of some of these principles, which, if implemented, will surely help you a great deal.

 

How to make peace with someone?

Peace isn’t pretty much not having any conflict with others, it’s additionally approximately the inner calmness we sense when god fills us together with his peace. Prem Rawat any time explain that matters we can do to be at peace earlier than god and inside ourselves in addition to the way to live in peace with each person.Relationships are elaborate. It’s essentially humans with very awesome and complex personalities looking to coexist with one another. It’s assured to continually be a rollercoaster of emotions and emotions whilst you get into a loving dating with someone. Yes, you like one another. You share a few laughs right here and there. You push one another to be higher. You mission each other. You strive your high-quality to have every other’s backs. And once in a while, you fight every different. It happens. Arguments take place. Conflicts are inevitable and it’s k if you have a few fights here and there. No couples are going to be proof against the occasional disagreement or misunderstanding. It doesn’t how obsessed you are with loving every other. You’ll fight each every now and then.

Initiate a meaningful and deep talk

Now and again, simply talking matters out can remedy any trouble in a courting. It’s only a remember of swallowing your pride and in fact taking the initiative to have that verbal exchange.Whilst you are in a wholesome and loving relationship with someone, you’ll usually be secure with expressing yourself sincerely and brazenly. You will constantly experience like you will by no means shy away from letting your associate recognize what’s on your mind no matter how controversial it is able to be. That is a vital factor of constructing a courting

Carry up an antique and amusing memory which you both percentage.

To get lower back to an area of peace, any other effective technique is simply reminding yourselves of the happy reminiscences and the quality moments which you’ve shared collectively. Simply considering these moments can be enough to rebuild your affection for each other.

Purchase your partner a meaningful sorry gift.

Move in advance and treat your accomplice to something. Swallow your pride and deliver your associate a peace providing. Buy them something significant that you realize might cause them to genuinely satisfied. It doesn’t ought to be steeply-priced, however it must be meaningful.

Use Wisdom

Every now and then we’ve got a hurtful relationship with someone and that they want to maintain having it in order that they could continue hurting us. This isn’t always smart. You need to recognize when to say whilst. Be clever about your selections regarding a person you’ve got a hurtful dating with. Considerits miles your job to take care of yourself; no person else is aware of what you want higher than you do.Making peace with a hurtful dating for your life is difficult, no matter whom it’s miles. What have you ever completed to reach peace with hurtful relationships for your life? We are able to all assist each other here.

Papa John’s Responding to Coronavirus

No matter which part of the world you’re from, it’s likely that you’re currently practicing social distancing and in quarantine at home caused by the outbreak of Covid-19 across the globe. You’re also having groceries, food items and other essentials delivered to you to avoid contact with other people.

In a new article published in The New England Journal of Medicine, it’s stated that the Coronavirus can live on surfaces anywhere from hours to several days. This leaves us wondering whether ordering takeout food is safe for you and your loved ones. The answer is yes! According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and FDA, there is currently no evidence to support transmission of COVID-19 through food. There hasn’t been a documented case of a person getting infected from a surface contaminated with the Coronavirus, according to the CDC. Isn’t this a cause to celebrate and search for a pizza delivery near me to treat yourself and your loved ones to some good pizzas?

With many businesses closed indefinitely until the Virus War is over (which seems like a dystopian future), many restaurants have transitioned to delivery only. To help these local eateries stay afloat, we should support them by ordering takeout. With statement from the CDC and FDA that food borne exposure to Coronavirus is not known to be a route of transmission, we can eat in peace knowing that eating your favorite meals in the comfort of your own home shouldn’t put you at risk of being infected.

During this troubled time, food delivery service companies are offering “no contact” options by leaving meals on porches or doorsteps. Papa John’s pizza is proudly having a contactless delivery option in the light of the current pandemic so that their valued customers can eat in peace at the comfort of their homes.

How Papa John’s Is Handling Your Pizza to Ensure Safety 

Papa John’s has SOP on food handling in their kitchens to safeguard their companies and customers. All app and online orders at Papa John’s use No Contact Delivery. A Quality Seal is applied to the lid of the box, so you know it hasn’t been opened or tampered with. Papa John’s has implemented a contactless delivery option that relies on electronic pre-payment, to ensure a hands-free delivery experience.

Rules Employees Are Taking When Delivering Your Pizza

The driver leaves your order outside your door, eliminating the need for direct contact. When the driver is at your door, he knocks or rings your doorbell, then steps back 6 feet so you can collect your order. There is zero contact in Papa John’s delivery as the pizzas are pre-paid and pre-tipped and there’s nothing to sign as well.

Don’t get stuck in the rut being stuck at home. Cheer yourself up with a little treat once every few days during your quarantine stay. Papa John’s pizza deals are hands down delicious and best of all, you can be rest assured that their pizzas are never touched by anyone except you once they come out of the oven and placed in the box.

 

5 Must-Have Features Of An Excellent Teacher

The profession of teaching is imparting knowledge to people. It is a skill; you might know but lack the skill to pass on the knowledge to others. A good teacher should be excellent in content delivery with an excellent approach. Students expect a lot from the teacher. 123 term papers prepped a list of 5 Excellent Features of a Super Teacher

Everybody cannot be a teacher. Brilliance in a subject is different from the ability to express the knowledge clearly to the students. Do you want to know the attributes of an excellent teacher? Five of such are presented below.

1. The Objectives Of The Course

In every course, there is an objective and the teacher has to make such objectives very clear right from the start of the course. When you clear the coast, the students will be able to find the right focus during the duration of the course. This will give the student and the teacher a clear sense of direction.

Setting the objectives will make the measurement of progress pretty easy. It makes learning more clear because both teachers and students know what to expect at the end of the day.

2. There Should Be Passion

One cannot leave out this attribute because it will determine how far a teacher will o in the profession. Passion must be shown and exhibited during teaching. The spirit; soul and body should be involved and the students should see that in the body language of the teacher.

The ideal teacher should leave no stone unturned in the desire to pass across knowledge to his students. Assignments should be taken seriously; this passion will get the students excited and they end up putting up outstanding performances in their exams.

3. Class Participation

A good teacher should know how to carry the class along during the class. Teaching should be two-way traffic that involves both the students as well as the teacher. The atmosphere should come alive and the students should be able to contribute during teaching if knowledge is to be truly passed on to the students.

There should be an excellent student-teacher relationship. If the teacher does all the talking by himself; the class will be silent and teaching will be boring. There is the likelihood of distraction setting in and the students will end up not learning anything.  

4. Enough Knowledge

A teacher that wants to be in full control of the class should get adequately prepared ahead of the lesson hour. The confidence level of such teachers will drop while in class and the students will easily read this from the teacher’s body language in class.

There are smart students in the class and the teacher is expected to be above the smartest student as far as knowledge in the course is concerned. The teacher is expected to get advanced knowledge about the course.

5.   Management Of The Class 

You are going to have a collection of diverse sorts in terms of behavioral patterns among the students. The teacher should be in a pole position to ensuring orderliness in the class. All forms of distractions will stand in the way of dissemination of knowledge and should be disallowed by the teacher.

Appropriate punishment to bring erring students back on track should be employed and the teacher should be a good time manager.

Final Take

The teacher has the responsibility of molding the life of the student. The student should be handled with extra caution if results that mattered are to be achieved.

 

HOW TO HOT SMOKE SALMON STEP BY STEP

I smoke a lot of salmon, and I am proud of this recipe, although it would be the height of arrogance to say that what I do is the end-all, be-all of salmon smoking recipes. Lots of people smoke their salmon in lots of ways, and many of them are good. But I’ve been smoking fish for many years, and I’ve developed a system that works well

Keep in mind this is a hot-smoking recipe. Cold smoking, which is the kind of slice-able smoked fish you get in fancy boxes from Scotland is an entirely different thing

Almost everyone in Salmon Country hot smokes their fish. If you’re unfamiliar with hot-smoked fish, think about those golden smoked whitefish you see in delicatessens; those are hot smoked

How do you eat it? Well, you can just eat it plain, or you can flake it and make it into a hot smoked salmon salad, you can pound it with butter and make salmon rillettes, serve it in deviled eggs, tossed with pasta… you get the point

A smoker.

I’ve used a Traeger and a Bradley. Both are good. No matter what smoker you use, you will need to be able to a) know your smoking chamber’s temperature, and b) control the heat, at least in a rough sense

Wood.

The only downside to a Traeger smoker is that you need to use their wood pellets. As a guy who used a Brinkmann wood-fired BBQ for years, fueling it with scraps of almond and other fruit woods, buying wood can be annoying, but you get better precision with this method. I prefer to use alder wood for my salmon, but apple, cherry, oak or maple work fine

Salt.

Buy a box of kosher salt from the supermarket. Do not use regular table salt, as it contains iodide and anti-caking agents that will give your salmon an “off” flavor. I use Diamond Crystal, which is cut finer than Morton’s

Something sweet

— salmon loves sweets. I prefer to sweeten my smoked salmon with birch syrup; It’s just like maple syrup, only tapped from birch trees instead. Super cool stuff. But maple syrup is just as good. Just use real maple syrup, OK? Not the imitation crap. Honey works, too

A large plastic container

Buy the big, flat ones from the supermarket. They stack easily in a normal fridge, so you can have two different brines going. And they clean easily and are pretty cheap

A wire rack. You need to rest your brined fish on a rack with plenty of air circulation to form the all-important pellicle (more on that in a bit), and you will use it to rest the smoked fish before storing it

A basting brush. You probably already have this in your kitchen, but if not, pick one up. Get the flat kind, like you use to paint detail on window trim.

When you are ready to start, you will need smallish pieces of salmon about 1/4 to 1/2 pound each. Any salmonid fish will work with this recipe. I’ve done it with king salmon, sockeye, coho, and pink salmon, dolly varden, plus kokanee, steelhead and Lahontan trout

There is no reason it would not work with chum salmon or any other char or trout species. And yes, it works with farmed Atlantic salmon, but I never eat the stuff

 

What Daily Life is Like for Iranians During the COVID-19 Pandemic

In the final week of April 2020, thousands of American families were preparing to return to work, visit relatives, attend religious services, go shopping, and even spend some time in the outdoors after a month-long period of home confinement. At that point, the United States reported the highest numbers of coronavirus deaths and infections, but the governors of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee were eager to resume economic activity as part of an effort to mitigate the impending financial collapse. Around the same time this tentative economic reopening was taking place in the U.S., similar measures were being considered in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

On April 19, officials in the populous city of Tehran, the capital of Iran and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the Middle East, resolved to reopen some bazaars and shopping malls. Traffic restrictions were eased, and traffic jams were spotted at many of the busy highways of this city. Public health officials assigned to the task force dealing with the pandemic in the Islamic Republic were not pleased with the government’s decision to ease social distancing restrictions; however, they also knew that the ailing economy of their country did not allow for extended quarantine periods.

Iranians were cautious as they returned to shop at bazaars; many wore face masks and kept their distance as much as possible while others lamented that they could not gather for evening prayers at mosques and shrines. Like in other Middle East nations, Iranians had to deal with not being able to gather for evening prayers during the holy month of Ramadan, but this was not the only religious hardship they were forced to contend with. The Nowruz celebration of the Persian New Year, which culminated on March 20, was spent indoors at a time when families travel across the country to visit each other and enjoy delicious home-cooked meals.

To say that the daily life of Iranians has been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic would be an understatement. When the first coronavirus infections and deaths were reported in late February, the mortality ratio was quite high not just in the Middle East but across Asia as well. With the death toll rising by the dozen on a daily basis, Iranians became highly suspicious of the statistics released by the government; after all, these events unfolded just one month following the accidental missile strike that brought down Ukrainian International Airlines flight 752, killing 176 passengers and aircrew.

The anxiety of daily life in Iran during the coronavirus pandemic was compounded by the ongoing trade sanctions that the U.S. has been imposing since 2018. Even before the pandemic, procuring food and medicines was a difficult task because Iran is highly dependent on imported goods; adding insult to injury, this is a nation where rampant unemployment and inflation have become facts of life. On paper, the trade sanctions should not affect food, medical supplies, or humanitarian aid, but as Middle East expert Amir Handjani has previously explained, this is not really the case.

Ever since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in 2017, trade sanctions have become complex instruments that effectively preclude humanitarian trade. While this should be a violation of United Nations guidelines, it happens more often than people realize. A Brazilian pharmaceutical company, for example, may evaluate a deal to export antibiotics to Iran and decide that it is not worth the risk; this decision is usually made after law firms that specialize on international trade matters review the hundreds of pages that make up primary and secondary sanctions. What is often found in these sanctions is buried in the legalese: go ahead and trade with the Islamic Republic now, but suffer the consequences later.

As of April 23, the number of coronavirus deaths in Iran stood at 5,481, but many people believe that this number is actually higher. This overall distrust of the regime spreads to average Iranian families who are not connected with the military, the oil production industry, or the government. As they struggle to put food on the table and stay healthy, Iranians are forced to deal with censorship, propaganda, and news reports about the Revolutionary Guards Corps spending millions of dollars to launch a military satellite into orbit. We are talking about millions of dollars that could have been used to put together emergency meals and care packages for millions of Iranians who live in poverty. In the end, it is safe to assume that daily life in Iran has been difficult since before the coronavirus pandemic, and it only became more challenging afterwards.

 

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