Amid thisdeepening darkness of all-round doom and gloom, there is a ray of hope at last.The raging global pandemic of Coronavirus has killed all chances of USPresident Donald Trump being re-elected, exults Swaminathan A Aiyer. No matterhow well he handles the virus, no matter how brilliantly doctors and civilsociety respond to the challenge, millions are still going to get infected andthousands are going to die. But even in this best-case scenario, the Presidentwill not be able to escape blame, argues the veteran analyst. Well, that is oneless thing to worry about in this hour of truly unprecedented crisis!
On a seriousnote though, it is not just the ‘leader of the free world’ who has to worryabout his future. This tiny and invisible “Chinese” virus, as Trump insists oncalling it, is set to demand an unimaginably heavy toll from the whole of humanityand change us in ways we never thought possible. It already has, in extraordinary,unfathomable ways.
We havelearnt to dread the presence and intimacy of our loved ones. We now fear ourown shadow. The much-valued human touch itself is cursed and invokes cripplingfear and terror.
It’sincredible how a little, obscure organism has humbled humankind itself,bringing it to its knees and mocking all the technological and scientificadvancements it has accumulated over the past many centuries.
Nature orthe one who created it, whatever you may choose to call Him, has once againdemonstrated how utterly insignificant and powerless we are in the face of achallenge like this and in the whole divine scheme of things.
In a way,Nature is fighting back and returning all the toxic abuse and corruption thatwe have inflicted on it all these years. The human race is reaping what it has sown over the past many centuries,especially during the past 100 years and more.
We haveravaged the earth, polluted its environment, oceans and rivers, and depleted itof its forests and all its riches. We have not just made our world inhospitablefor ourselves but unliveable for all of God’s creation.
We who lovedstrutting around the world, flying from one corner of the world to the other inno time have been brought to the ground. We have been grounded. Literally! Our cities and towns aredevastated and deserted. Invincible borders and walls have come up overnight,not just between countries but between cities and towns.
Hospitalsare bursting at their seams. More than20,000 lives have already been lost to the invisible killer. Tens of thousandshave been hospitalised or quarantined — another fancy, fearsome word that hasbecome familiar to even our children.
For thefirst time in history more than 3 billion people have been forced indoors, intoa lockdown, living like prisoners in their own homes. Life is more terrifyingthan those dystopian Hollywood films based on science fiction.
Who wouldhave thought we would see those end-of-the-world, apocalyptic scenarios becomea reality in our own lifetime!
A growingconcern for the powerless multitudes around the world, indeed more than theirhealth and physical wellbeing — is their economic future and survival. Millionsand millions are bound to be laid off in almost every country affected by thiscrisis, which is just about every nation of the world. Hundreds of millions have already been in onefell swoop divested of their cushy jobs and livelihoods.
National economieshave been in free fall, mirroring the meltdown of Wall Street and hopelesslyinterconnected world economy, a gift of globalisation and the laissez-fairecapitalism. China, where it all began, which has been the factory floor of theworld for many years, driving the world economy, has been the hardest hit.
The MiddleEast has also been badly hit. This is doubtless going to get worse in weeks andmonths ahead considering the oil, the chief source of the region’s revenue, haslost its glisten and is now as cheap as water. The Gulf economies had already been battling the havoc wreaked by longyears of low oil prices after the last global meltdown.
In a way,this crisis has been a great global leveller, unleashing chaos on virtuallyevery country and economy. No nation is an island. And this economic pain issomething that is bound to be experienced and felt by the high and mighty aswell as the hoi polloi. However, as inevery crisis and challenge, it is the poorest of the poor and the most disadvantagedamongst us who would be the hardest hit. Even those who are relatively better off face an uncertain, if notfrightening, future.
Mostdeveloped and developing countries have unveiled massive economic stimuluspackages with the US announcing a whopping $2 trillion-dollar relief programme.India has announced a package of Rs 1.7 trillion.
India is notplaced any better notwithstanding the delusions of grandeur of some of itsleaders and ruling class. As some conscientious sections of the media have beenreporting, this crisis has hit the poor the hardest, with tens of millions ofmigrant labourers and daily wagers literally struggling for one square meal aday.
Can allthese packages and economic doles really deliver help to those who need it the mostthough? Given the insidious nature of red tape and corruption in our countries,the question is only natural. One canonly hope governments would do everything in their power to rise to theoccasion and help and protect their most vulnerable sections. Also, the best relief is still the good oldcash, although it may be frowned upon by our prudish babus and the indifferentKafkaesque system that drives them.
Butgovernments alone cannot be expected to help the needy and vulnerable. All ofus have to do our bit for the people around us. If we cannot make a difference in economic terms, we could try to helpthe sick and the elderly in our midst by delivering their food and medicinesetc while observing the mandatory social distancing of course.
Finally,while we protect ourselves and our loved ones by keeping indoors in the comfortand safety of our homes, let’s spare a thought for millions of refugees andeconomic migrants, from Syria to Turkey and from Greece to Burma.
Having fledwars and genocide, they have been battling the elements living in open or intheir inadequate tents. Hungry and homeless, they are even more vulnerable thanthe strongest amongst us to this deadly disease. In this fast unfolding healthcrisis, they face a clear and present danger and a health hazard like neverbefore.
Sittingthousands of miles away, not many of us can perhaps reach out to make adifference. But we can certainly say a quick prayer for all those people outthere. And yes, we will survive this once in a lifetime crisis and emergestronger from it. Insha Allah. We cannotallow an invisible, little germ to defeat and define us.
Aijaz ZakaSyed is an award-winning journalist and former editor. Email:Aijaz.syed@hotmail.com. Twitter: @AijazZaka