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.
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!
07 C O V I D - 1 9
Jennifer Stern