What's new: the republican convention moved to Jacksonville

Text by: Marie Normand Follow

Publicity

It's confirmed: most of the Republican party convention will no longer be held in Charlotte, North Carolina, but in Jacksonville, Florida. The Democratic Governor of North Carolina said he could not promise that the chosen location could accommodate as many spectators as expected, due to the rules of social distancing linked to Covid-19. Donald Trump has therefore followed through on his threats: he moves the convention which must officially invest him as a Republican presidential candidate.

In Charlotte, there is dismay. Tens of thousands of people were to converge in this city in August, for four days, and inject into the local economy more than 150 million dollars, notes the Charlotte Observer . Finally Charlotte will welcome only 300 Republican delegates for a day, before being abandoned for Jacksonville, where these delegates will join 2,000 others, for three days of speeches and celebrations around the inauguration of Donald Trump. The newspaper notes that it will be "  the first convention since 1860 to be held in two  different cities ".

Who will pay the bill?

Republican representatives from North Carolina deplore the economic losses for the city and for the region. They wonder who will pay the bill, how the contracts between the city and the Republican party will be honored. According to the Charlotte Business Journal , the city had already received "  a federal subsidy of 50 million dollars  " to anticipate all the questions related to the security of the convention, and the municipality itself had already "  spent 14 million dollars  ". According to the committee in charge of the organization, this change is especially a blow for "the hotel trade, tourism, small businesses and tradesmen" who counted well to compensate, thanks to this great event, the losses due to containment measures .

For Jacksonville, on the contrary, it is the jackpot. "  Prepare Florida, the convention is coming,  " is the title of the Tampa Bay Times . Jacksonville is not a trivial choice: it is one of the counties of Florida that can switch to the Democratic or Republican side with a few votes, recalls the Miami Herald . Donald Trump won it with only 6,000 votes in advance in 2016, but two years later, the same county had overturned Democrat in the mid-term elections.

August 27: a dark day in the history of Jacksonville

The newspaper also notes that "  gives more weight to this decision to come to Jacksonville, is that the last day of the convention -the 27 August- coincides with the 60th anniversary of Ax Handle Saturday  " translation "  night ax handles  ”. A dark day for the city, the daily explains: in 1960, black activists fighting for the recognition of their civil rights had been violently attacked by white men, some linked to the Ku Klux Klan.

A historian interviewed by the Miami Herald thinks that the date of the president's visit is no coincidence, he who "  intends to resume major political rallies from June 19 - the day that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States  ”. In addition, he will organize a meeting that day in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the theater of another violent attack perpetrated by white residents against black residents and the businesses they owned almost 100 years ago. 

Brazil : Covid-19 mourns many families in the Amazon

Among the Mundukuru, for example, the virus killed nine elderly people, nine elders in just a few days. And these losses are destabilizing for this community, can be read on the Latin America News Dispatch site . A professor of archeology explains that "  in addition to being the repositories of knowledge about the environment, history, medicinal herbs, these elders provide political and spiritual advice to the youngest, fundamental advice in the struggle for these communities for their land  . "

In short, this professor sums up: "  the sudden death of several elders from the same community can be compared to the simultaneous burning of museums, libraries and parliaments  ". “  Officially, 218 indigenous people died from Covid-19 in Brazil. But experts believe the real numbers are at least three times higher,  "added the news site. The reason: the poor maintenance of government records and the remoteness of these Amazon communities.

Montreal : he saves a life, without thinking of the Covid-19

His name is Alexis Achindebya Deuzoumbé, he is 33 years old, he is Chadian and asylum seeker in Canada. The young man appears smiling at the top of this article in the Journal de Montréal . Last Thursday, he is at his post: security guard of a school. Next door is a queue for Covid-19 testing. Suddenly, a man collapses in this queue.

Neither one nor two, the young Chadian rushes and begins a long heart massage until help arrives. And this, despite the risks of contracting the disease, underlines the daily. When the city paid tribute to him, by giving him a certificate of excellence, Alexis Achindebya Deuzoumbé only thought of apologizing to the Canadian government "  for not having respected the recommendations for physical distance  ".

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