Trump is even on record as stating that
if a hundred thousand Americans died of
corona virus he would have done a great job.
He is actually hedging his bet on the lives of
Americans and hoping he wins the bet even
at a colossal cost to human life.
We are puzzled as to why the US is not
taking its cues from its arch ally Israel who
locked their country from international
travel which at the time seemed like an
extreme measure but which now looks like
a well thought out preventive measure.
For Israel, every Israeli counts and they
are trying to minimize human cost as they
battle to find a cure and a way where the
new cases will not overwhelm the system
and lead to unnecessary deaths. Israelis and
Arabs are united against the virus.
This all happened even though the country
had no government and a seemingly
unbreakable stalemate in the formation
of a government was playing out. But the
system works and it was possible to override
politics and have safety measures in place.
The United Kingdom seems to have been
playing a wait and see game given that its
key ally the US was dilly dallying with the
virus and failing to take a definitive stand
but the UK had its own peculiar problems
to deal with and was hoping the virus would
pass over.
They are still embroiled in an untidy Brexit
which has had a larger than expected toll
on the country and before they could take
Wuhan
will
be
etched in infamy
as the source of
the first real glob-
al crisis where the
dreaded corona vi-
rus surfaced from
and created such
an amazing social
upheaval of a scale
never witnessed be-
fore and it was like
a bad movie playing
on a far off screen.
96 MAL35/20 ISSUE
Never before has the world been in so
great a need of concerted effort to de-
feat a common foe yet all we are seeing is
a resurgence of insular thinking and ex-
clusion. Never in our existence have we
been in such a dire need of a visionary
leader!
further steps in their self-inflicted tragedy
the corona was upon them exacting a
harsher penalty, a rare reminder that we
are all connected.
Unfortunately for them the prime minister
has tested positive to the virus bringing
home the undeniable fact all are vulnerable
and you can still catch the virus even when
one is being prudent and vigilant and
hence the need for social distancing.
No need here to even talk about Italy and
Spain which are experiencing the brunt
of the virus mainly due to the fact that
their cultures encourage close contact and
group activities that have militated against
efforts to put the virus under control.
In Africa we have a multiplicity of
approaches all meant to eliminate this
same threat. Noteworthy is South Africa
which had to lock down after corona
parties became the rave not unlike the
chaos caused by spring breakers in Florida
including corona challenges.
In East Africa with our claim to attempting
to rebuild the East African Community,
we still do not have a common approach
to handling a common problem despite
our proximity. Sense would dictate
that pooling our knowledge and scarce
resources would mitigate the effects of the
virus.
In Kenya you would imagine that the kind
of fervor that was kindled by the BBI
initiative would easily translate into action
against a real threat, the virus, instead of
wasting resources and time to achieve the
ephemeral outcome of the BBI.
Ochieng comes back to the question that
he raised earlier, why are we reinventing
the wheel when there is a game plan in
Wuhan that worked and brought the
pandemic under control. Why is the world
shying away from a Chinese solution?
Could it be that the world does not
trust the Chinese and the way they
have comported themselves in the
crisis suggests that they have not been
open enough and did not share crucial
information that would have stemmed
the spread of the disease?
Is the world uncomfortable with the fact
that the Chinese seem poised to make
a killing out of this crisis while the rest
of the world is on a meltdown? Why are
we not seeing a replay of the amazing
feat of building a full-fledged hospital in
a record ten days anywhere else in the
world?
Are political considerations and
positioning and of course the ego factor
that goes with it of more importance
than the saving of lives? Is the fear of
a Chinese dominance large enough to
make us fear the solution more than the
problem?
The last word is that a world exam
on cooperation was set in Wuhan
and we are all sitting the exam and
unfortunately the marking scheme will
be written in human cost whatever the
numbers eventually tally up to and the
final verdict will be posted in history.
Never before has the world been in so
great a need of concerted effort to defeat
a common foe yet all we are seeing is
a resurgence of insular thinking and
exclusion. Never in our existence have
we been in such a dire need of a visionary
leader!