its many ills but even democracy with all
its imperfections foresaw that at times the
will of the people can be overridden to
confer emergency powers to a leader in a
crisis otherwise the state can be paralyzed
by debate.
So let us check out how the world has
handled the crisis given that the world
knew about the virus that devastated
Wuhan as early as November last year and
it is common knowledge that the world
had intelligence reports on the outbreak
in good time.
What is undeniable at the moment is that
the world is in a grip of a struggle trying
to bring what the WHO has already
declared a pandemic in control. People
are not only losing their livelihood and
jobs but people are dying and they are
afraid.
This is the time that decisive leadership is
needed to quell the fear and give hope and
inspiration in a world that has become
suddenly hostile. There is plenty of fear,
anxiety and uncertainty and people are
looking to their leaders for direction.
This is an election year in the USA and
the most important issue at the polls
will be the performance of the economy
and the electorate will punish or reward
dependent on how they believe their next
leader will handle the economy.
We have seen what appears to be indecisive
leadership from Trump that has allowed
the virus spread to become a crisis without
giving direction. This is a leader who
actually understands his electorate and is
playing to what they understand.
It has not yet dawned on most Americans
exactly how much in peril they are from
this pandemic and in the typical American
‘we can beat anything’ attitude they are not
even sensible enough to start panicking
as there is always an American fix to
everything.
Trump in his rhetoric is telling the
Americans that this virus is not a big deal
and that’s exactly what they want to hear
and to psychologically drive the message
home he had even called it the Chinese
virus mentally distancing it from the
American psyche.
Trump even took the time to exchange
barbs with the Chinese who had suggested
that the virus was an American creation
and taken to China by the military which
rubbed Trump the wrong way and he
went into his best xenophobic retaliation
placing the blame squarely in the Chinese
sphere.
His sycophants have picked the chorus and
shown disdain to the flu by christening it
‘Kung-flu’ while others have stated that it
is a Chinese fueled hoax and incredulously
some have even said that this is just
another attempt to impeach the president
and it will fail.
And as unbelievable as it might be it is
working as the approval rating of the
president are rising and many approve of
his handling of the pandemic even while
the onlookers feel that Trump is playing
roulette with American lives.
Trump is obviously taking a huge gamble
on American lives that the pandemic is
controlled within his timelines because he
has no choice really. If the economy tanks
he is cooked and if a miracle happens in
between then he wins big. Just sorry for
those infected under his watch.
In a seriously polarized political
environment all decisions are made on
party lines and it is already apparent how
dysfunctional the model democracy can be
which reminds us of our own ‘siasa mbaya
maisha mbaya’ refrain of the Moi era.