Robert_Hart
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Quo vadis?
🕑 Added 2020-03-22 00:42:25 +0000 UTC
There is a curse: “May you live in interesting times!” which is usually linked to China, even though there is no evidence to support this. Wherever it is from, we are certainly all living in interesting times – far too interesting, I fear.
It seems that every country either is already or will shortly be affected by Covid-19. The extent of the disaster each country experiences is going to be determined in part by the decisions our leaders make or do not make and in part by how we, as humans in a cooperative society, order our lives in this new and very different reality. Unfortunately, it would seem that many of us are having a great deal of difficulty understanding the changes we need to make to keep ourselves, our loved ones and our society from the abyss.
The Angel of Death is abroad in many countries, reaping a surging harvest and he is poised to start his bitter work in many others.
My teenage years were spent in Europe with the ever present possibility of a nuclear apocalypse. Indeed, that experience is part of the background to Through my Eyes. Again. My coping method then was designing a nuclear survival bunker and assembling lists of equipment and stores to stock it. We now find ourselves in a very different crisis and one we were given plenty of warning of with SARS in 2003 and MERS in 2012. Some countries learned those lessons and made preparations and are bloodied but not bowed by Covid-19. But many countries did nothing – or worse.
In my country, we not only did not read the tea leaves when SARS and MERS appeared, but we also defunded critical areas of science and societal preparation. When Covid-19 came knocking, beyond travel restriction, we did nothing to prepare ourselves for the pandemic we are now suffering and we will pay a heinous price for this inattention.
Perhaps we will learn from this experience; I am certain that we will be living in a very different world in 2021 when, hopefully, a vaccine for Covid-19 will become widely available. But we have to get there and that requires … something. Perhaps not hope, for I have precious little hope. The words of the great cellist, Pablo Casals come to mind: “The situation is hopeless. We must take the next step.” I may have no hope, but I can still move forward, one step at a time – and so must we all.
All we can do for the moment is hunker down, practise excellent hygiene and take the gentlest care of one another - from an appropriate distance.
Time enough to pick up the pieces when we get to the other side.
