Ephrem Endale Contributer
Only a few days remaining to Christmas, the holiday spirit is already catching up to us fast. The city is bursting with holiday eve activities with the streets and buildings glittering with decorations. Yes; this supposed to be time for the broadest smiles, softest hearts and the liveliest social gatherings. It is supposed to be a time when friends and families oceans apart come together.
How we wish things were ‘business as usual’ this time around too! They aren’t. Well, the reality on the ground prevents us from being too comfortable for our own good. After all, holidays come and go: lives go, and go forever.
The surge in the infection rates of COVID-19 is disturbing. This isn’t an overnight curse or something. This is not something that crept under our feet unnoticed and suddenly sprung up to surprise the daylight out of us. Who’s to blame for this dire state of things! Of course, mostly ourselves.
For once finger pointing and the search for scapegoats right and left wouldn’t work. (We’re fond of hunting for scapegoats over almost everything.”
The health professionals having shouting their throats dry cautioning us our irresponsible acts when it comes to preventive methods would result in us paying heavy prices; prices too heavy for our shoulders which already are burdened with other problems.
The daily numbers having been rising under our very noses and we can’t claim of being uniformed. Daily reports of new infections and deaths should have served as the red lines, which if crossed would send us farther down the cliffs.
Over the past several months and weeks many of us have been acting with so much dangerous and unpardonable indifference we seem to have thrown the preventive methods out the window. No face masks, no social distancing, no hand washing or the use of sanitizers…the list goes on.
Bizarre, that must be the one only word to describe our actions. Look, no one wants to spoil the holiday mood. We need it, and need it badly. After all we have been through; a few days of relaxed nerves and normal lung work come as blessings.
We wouldn’t want to be deprived off those blessings. But then the fact is when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic the world has changed. There are more grim faces than smiling ones; social life in most places is being disturbed.
The virus seems to running amok with vengeance. And back here many of us act as if we are in some secluded island untouchable, and unreachable by any virus.
It’s indeed a real mystery how our minds are operating. How is that we fail to grasp the real threat while so much evidence flooding us daily. The shocking numbers are there; the heartbreaking stories are there, the global panic is there.
We have the latest information locally and from around the world where even nations with superb health facilities and who rolled out repeated strict lockdowns are finding it hard to put the spread in check. This should have been enough to warn
us of the enormity of the problem. But alas, while many are acting responsibly others are splashing cold waters on the preventive efforts.
The health professionals have been cautioning us at the top of their voices. The statistics are shouting louder than anything. Already hospital capacities are being stretched.
The treatment of patients with ailments other than COVID-19 is being compromised. Sad to say it; but that’s a fact. If it was just another day on the calendar we would have talked about the expenses, the perils overspending and the like; but the rules of the game have changed in ways we wouldn’t have preferred.
Look around you; people seemingly responsible and well-polished are acting in the most irresponsible manner. This is disturbing. The last time we sent the virus into overdrive was irresponsible and highly selfish holiday shopping.
We’re still paying the price for that outrage. We can’t afford to repeat that. We can’t afford being criticized for not learning from history. Already the streets are teeming with holiday shoppers, and others who just seem to be enjoying being part of the crowd. Yes, despite the worries the holyday mood is catching up with us, so is the pandemic.
A friend phones from across the Atlantic. Once again they are under strict lockdown. Even when those places have begun inoculating their citizens, the virus is showing no sign of throwing in the towel.
In fact, as we have been hearing it’s changing tactics and strategies with new strains popping up here and there. We have no right or any justifiable reason to act with such disregard for our own lives and the wellbeing of the society.
This friend says our brethren in that part of the world were more worried about us, than for themselves. “From the footages and pictures we see it looks like COVID-19 hasn’t yet arrived in Ethiopia!” An observation most of us would agree with, and then he asked “What’s wrong with you guys!” Of course I don’t have the answer. Because many of us are asking just that “What is wrong with us?”
No one is playing Mr. Nice Guy. This is about saving ourselves and the society from going over the cliff if the pandemic gets out of hand. Security personnel guarding institutions and buildings used to remind us…
“Sir; you can’t go in without face mask.”
“Madam, please wash your hands or use sanitizer; otherwise we can’t let you in.”
Sadly, in many places those guys seem to have given up. Even the water jars and the like setup in the entrances are either not working properly or they have been removed altogether. Why? Because, we have become one hell of an irresponsible lot! That’s why.
Once again…
Wash your hands.
Avoid crowds,
Stay at home if you can. Should I say go further!
Let’s face the future with ‘optimism’ shall we! One sure way of doing that is adhering to the COVID-19 preventive measures to the letter.
What, really, is wrong with us!
The Ethiopian herald January 3/2021