The western world is in a terrific grip ofthe pandemic that travelled from the Wuhan, China to the distant lands on theglobe. Initially, the worst affected zone on the earth was situated on or nearLatitude 40° of the earth and included countries like Japan, Korea, China,Iran, Italy and Spain. It was within a period of one month that the wholeEurope was caught napping and the Chinese novel Virus ‘Coronavirus’ relateddisease, nicknamed as COVID19, took complete control of all major countries ofthe continent from Switzerland to England and from Norway to Germany andFrance.
There are half a million human infectedcases in Europe while US has crossed 4,00,000 figure in this regard and mayrest at a million figure within the month of April 2020. Thousands of peoplehave been laid to rest in all these countries in Asia, Europe and America. Itseems as if the world has, and in particular US and Europe, surrendered beforethe disease. Successes have many fathers while failures are always an orphan.The failures in the present debate are stark and visible. They don’t need anyevidence since the writing is on the wall, bold, visible and legible.
The scion of the Royal family in UK (called Great Britain), Prince Charles, continues to be in quarantine over thelast three weeks while the Prime Minister of UK, Borris Johnson was forced totake refuge in the Intensive Care Unit and has been put on a ventilator. TheirHealth Minister is also not well along with thousands of people in thehistorically recognised world power which has one of the best medicalfacilities available in the world.
Over a period of time during this month, a video clip of a speech of the former US President, George Bush is ondisplay on the digital and social media prominently. The clip comprises thewritten speech of President Bush delivered in the year 2005 warning of apandemic in the near future. He is candid in his speech delivered on theoccasion of a ceremony from the podium of National Institutes of Health, US,making it very clear that the pandemic was round the corner.
The President said, “it is vital thatour nation discuss and address the threat of pandemic flu now. There is nopandemic flu in our country or the world at this time, but if we wait for apendemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare. But most agree at somepoint of time, we are likely to face another pandemic. If caught early, itmight be extinguished with limited damage. If allowed to smoulder undetected, itcan grow to a forest inferno that spreads quickly beyond our ability to controlit”.
Bush further said, “Our strategy isdesigned to meet the critical goals. First, we must detect outbreaks that occuranywhere in the world. Second, we must protect American people by stockpilingvaccines and antiviral drugs and improve our ability to rapidly produce newvaccines against a pandemic strain at the federal, state and local level in theevent that a pandemic reaches our shores”.
He also talked about combined efforts ofthe government officials in public health, medical, veterinary, and the lawenforcing communities and the private sector as well in this regard. As amatter of fact, Dr. Anthony Fanci, Director of the National Institute ofAllergy & Infectious Diseases and currently the leader of the campaignagainst COVID19 in US was present on the occasion. President Bush also proposeda $7 Billion allocation for the combined efforts in this context.
It is quite clear and understandable thatthe speech was taken due note of by the US authorities, rather a future agendafor the US scientists and doctors was set by the former US President in hisaddress. It is an irony that the US failed miserably on the agenda that was setby none other than its own President only fifteen years back. That is whatactually happens when top leaders at top levels make their addresses from the”prepared or cooked speeches” for the occasion.
The statesmen-politicians need to speakfrom their heart so that they get emotionally and intellectually committed towhat they say. In case of the US, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and John FKennedy set examples possibly because they were not mere politicians but wereproven statesmen of their time. Winston Churchill, the UK legend Prime Ministerwho led the Alliance forces to victory in the second world war can be clubbedtogether in this class of great world statesmen along with Nelson Mandela andMahatma Gandhi. In the current situation and the international scenario, IndianPM Modi is a classic example in this regard. It is he who took the mostdifficult decision in the minimum possible time at a crucial junctureprioritising human cause and humanity to business interests and economy. And itis this that the West failed to visualise and decide that led it to its biggestdisaster after the World War II.
History will note the failure in US &Europe regarding the community spread as the criminal negligence of allconcerned and China will be recognised as the main culprit responsiblefor “crimes against humanity”. Unfortunately, US has made up its mindto touch the million mark of infected in its territory and it should be not asurprise if 10% of that figure is consumed by the Chinese virus. The world maysurpass previous records and might record three million infections till theauthentic medication is approved.
Human civilisations need to learn frommistakes and blunders of the predecessors and the contemporaries. Those whovalue human life and human values ultimately cross the dark channels to thedestinations of safety, hope for future and renewed prosperity. It is an ironyand also not the right example that China, Europe & US chose their”economy” over the issues related to the “humanity”.Consequently, the result is right before all of us. While the human race hasseen a ray of hope in India and is ready to follow its example and also wantsIndia to play a larger role as the saviour of the race, India has shown abetter response and will to constitute as the idealist society in the presentworld crisis.
The human race will remember, for all timesto come, the magnificent role India played and is playing in an hour ofterrible crisis thereby lowering the possibility of an epidemic out-of-gearoutbreak. It is a historical attempt to stop bringing a virtual hell on theearth keeping in view the community spread with the deep density in India andthe geographies around India. People in India have generally behaved well andare cooperating with the administration to achieve the desired results with thehelp of measures as tough as quarantine, prevention, isolation, socialdistancing and strict stay-home doctrine.
The wealth, prosperity, arsenals,resources, scientific advancement and technology, knowledge and informationseem to have come to their knees to learn new lessons of wisdom from ancientusages and practices. ‘Resolution in war’ is the peerless doctrine that has aninbuilt capacity to change the destiny of the humanity while self-disciplineand sincere cooperation with the administration are key to success in thistedious war against the invisible foe. After this war of wits, West will berebuilt brick by brick while East will guide the morale reconstruction.