PROPERTY & INVESTMENT
Sadly , the evidence points to that happening .
In 2008 , we were a nation of switchers-off of lights , we learned to read by the dim flicker of a 4-watt fluorescent bulb , and to find furniture in the dark with our shins ; in 2017 we all bathed in teacups , and started sniffing our clothes when we took them off to see if they could be worn again before they needed washing . But , as soon as the dams started filling , we started showering for longer , and when it looked as if there was no load shedding on the horizon , we left the hot water geyser on all day , and stopped turning off the lights when we leave a room . We forget so easily .
from the horror of war determined to build a ‘ better ’ world , and they could only imagine one with more stuff , more labour-saving devices , and more energy consumption . Never mind – to quote a well-worn US election campaign slogan – a chicken in every pot ; that pot was on a brand-new electric stove in a newly built house with a fridge to store the extra chickens , and a garage to house the car to fetch the chickens from the supermarket .
In the USA , the Boomer generation that was born out of that prosperity rebelled against the materialism of it , but most of them are now very comfortably retiring from a life in the corporate world . Closer to home , the Struggle Generation , many of whom missed out on an education , a childhood , or even seeing their 20th birthday , laid the foundation for the freedom we enjoy today – but it ’ s not the ‘ better ’ they had hoped for .
It is better , it ’ s just not the best ‘ better ’.
So , will we learn our lesson ?
When the virus has run its course , and is beaten into submission by herd immunity , or even – unlikely but possible – is completely annihilated by our superior technology , will we go back to business as usual ? Crowded trains , traffic-snarled streets , and intensive factory farming with its associated regular ( but rarely reported on ) outbreaks of novel pathogens ?
But the big difference is that – unlike the ongoing Eskom fiasco , and the 2017 water crisis – COVID-19 is not confined to one country or one city . It is a global issue and , while it will be played out in different ways in different places , how it plays out will affect us all – regardless of race , creed or social status – and we know it . This is where it differs from climate change ; there are people , governments and pseudo-scientists who have been , and are still , gambling on the fact that climate change ( if it exists ) may well affect subsistence farmers , and even some commercial farmers , and will probably be the end of some small , not-particularly-well-developed nations , but it will not affect them , because they have the resources to survive it .
Unlike global climate change , however , our present crisis has a face . Okay , maybe ‘ face ’ is too strong a word , but it is something to blame , something outside of ourselves , something we can fight , and even something we can kill , or try to kill – a convenient ‘ other ’. So , as we ’ ve done throughout history , we humans are working together to collectively combat the threat facing us – the ‘ other ’. But – and here is where it gets exciting – we are starting to realise that , as long as some of us are at risk , none of us is safe . Princes and paupers , actors and athletes , soccer moms and celebrity criminals – and even politicians and prime ministers – have all fallen victim .
So , the big question is : Will we learn from this , and find a better ‘ better ’ – a ‘ better ’ that is better for all of us , and an ‘ us ’ that does not exclude ‘ them ’? Because , as we are starting to realise , there is no ‘ them ’ – it ’ s just us !
Jennifer Stern
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