Why has the coronavirus made the world wake up?
Tags: Compassion, Coronavirus, Poverty, Hunger, Covid 19

On the 11th December 2020, whilst taking my daily stroll (a habit I’ve had for many years, but exasperated by the Prime Minister’s generous allowance of one form of exercise per day), I couldn’t help thinking the damage the coronavirus had committed globally. The majority of the world doesn’t comprehend the impact to the dynamism of the financial centres around the world, or even economies of the world. People relate to numbers dead as a headline figure of the catastrophe.

Most people will forget the Chancellor shuffling the same deck of tarot cards and producing positive events. Perhaps he has removed the ‘death’ card(s). Once they are in, the world will be back to the ‘old normal’ and we will continue to pay higher tax and complain as usual. It’s the way it has always been. We see it, we complain, yet we forget because we feel there is nothing we can do.

The stock market experienced a severe impact (correction). What changed? The fundamentals didn’t change. It’s just a way for individuals and moreso banks to make their annual profits and bonus’. They did a fine job. Every time someone coughs, the stock market makes someone a millionaire!….seems more successful than the National Lottery. We see it, we complain, yet we forget because we feel there is nothing we can do.

When I got home, I started to look at the numbers of people that have died; globally it stands at 1.6 million deaths. That is an extraordinary number, and I indeed pray for the families of those impacted. Losing a loved one cannot be described. It’s time that was cut short for those people…unfairly. But how long before we humans can move on? April 2021 seems to be the ‘global re-boot’; I do hope the date set by the Prime Minister is not 1st April.

What struck me more was that it was 1.6 million death. Now, the grammar school I went to in Walsall had 600 pupils, so let me create some context; that’s 2,666 schools. I started to get the picture. That’s a plethora of lost souls, who didn’t deserve to go.

I realised there was a common theme; history repeats itself, but humans cannot remember history. Perhaps we have been overfed information about the antics of Henry VIII, that we cannot absorb any of the current affairs. We have got lost in the myriad of shops closing down; Debenhams, Arcadia, Pink Shirtmakers, and hundreds of small business’ that we made the same mistake again…we forgot to get the answer to….how did the coronavirus start? No-one knows and now the race to buy the annual Waitrose Christmas turkey is far more important. We will find out the former another time! We see it, we complain, yet we forget because we feel there is nothing we can do.

1.6 million. That made us hide in our homes, wear these ghastly (potentially ineffective) masks, which are not needed in a crowded coffee shop because you need to eat/drink. How clever! Shops closed down. Bezos is raking it in. Everyone is looking for a career change to a DPD/DHL/UPS/Amazon driver. Might be better to collect everyones’ empty cartons and create county-wide recycle centres. We have complained, people have suffered depression (and more grief and disbelief when they couldn’t access the Debenhams website for the fire-sale), not been able to see the elderly, home-schooled and watched teachers complain so that they too can work from home. I miss plane food and still enjoy packing and unpacking a suitcase. I was astonished when I read Singapore airlines was offering people to sit in a stationary plane and be served food as thought they were on a flight. I’m lost for words. Then I read an airline circled the skies and came back, just to bring a smile on the faces of frequent flyers. How absurd. Marketing folk have done a stellar job!

We all have our own stories and our own experiences. Since March, the world has seen humans demonstrate no end of ingenuity when we are put into a corner; baking, singing, exercising, sewing face masks from socks, building sheds, painting, learning maths to teach the children. There are those of us who make themselves depressed by sitting infront of mind-numbing skits from Tik Tok and Instagram. The lost souls trying to be heard.

Now, let me again put the 1.6millon deaths into context. There are c.7 billion people on this planet. The number that died is equivalent to 0.0023% of the world population. When I did that simple calculation (in my head I hasten to add), I realised the number was very small indeed. And how did that make it a worldwide phenomenon?

The number of people that die EACH YEAR from hunger is 9 million! That’s almost 6 times more…and that happens EVERY YEAR. So, why don’t we talk about that all year round? Why don’t the world race to find a solution for that? Why doesn’t the company that helps those hungry souls soar in stock value? Why don’t we want to help those people rather than become Amazon van drivers?

Why…because it doesn’t impact us personally. The coronavirus is something we don’t understand. We don’t know where it came from. We are all made to be scared. I see ignorant neighbours walking 6 metres from other people. We wear masks all day long. But, the world wants that. They make money from that. Stocks soar. Sales soar. Media is having a frenzy, because the world wants more information…and we will follow instructions like robots.

We are selfish. We only worry because we don’t want to die or suffer. There is no compassion. There is no parity. Something we cannot see is ruling our lives and we do what we are told. However, I can see world hunger. I can see hungry children dying, starving, crying. But why doesn’t the world create a media frenzy and resolve that issue? Aid concerts, donations, cake sales….how much money really gets to the people that need it? I saw herds and herds of foreign helpers in Iraq, staying in 5 star hotel and ‘eating like pigs’ yet their role was to provide food for the refugees. How ironic.

9 million per year. Over the last 10 years, its c100 milllion people. More than the entire population of the UK. That’s serious. If in 10 years, the UK didn’t exist, what impact would that have? If hunger set in the UK, will Pfizer find a vaccine in 6 months?

Humans are all equal. Compassion is all we have, and it doesn’t cost a cent; we don’t need a vaccine for it. We don’t need to work from home for it. We don’t need to bake cakes for it. 9 million EACH YEAR. But I remember what I thought on my morning walk; “We see it, we complain, yet we forget because we feel there is nothing we can do”.

We are scared that if a vaccine for coronavirus is not found, we will lose income, we cannot pay bills. We won’t have food. We will starve. We will die. Our children will die…….