New Year Blues
It is now a commonly known fact that the Chinese New Year holidays, during which possibly tens of millions or more Chinese people travel to their homes, accelerated the spread of the coronavirus in that country and the wider world. Although Sri Lanka's population does not run into the billions as in China and India, we all know that tens of thousands of our own countrymen and women go their home villages to celebrate the Sinhala and Hindu New Year which is fast approaching. The holiday which falls on April 12 and 13 is almost upon us and what the government is going to do in the context of this situation has not yet been publicized. However unpopular, safety first must prevail.
Obviously the curfew which has covered the whole Island time and again since the first Chinese woman tourist was discovered some weeks ago with the disease, quarantined and treated, will not allow people to make the annual trek to their villages at this time. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the only elected official in office today has been compelled to take many hard decisions in the face of a challenge that has not confronted mankind during living memory or, as a matter of fact, during the recorded history of many centuries. Over-reaction to the current situation is immeasurable superior to under-reaction which will extract a terrible price. That is a mistake we cannot afford to make.
Wisdom ex- post facto tells us that some wrong decisions may have been taken – for example the lifting of the curfew in the early days of its imposition which led to large crowds flocking to supermarkets, grocery stores and many more that resulted in exactly what we are being constantly exhorted not to do, happening. But people need essential food and drink, the sick need their medicines, and when a window enabling such purchases to be made is opened, crowding such outlets is inevitable. There will probably be no foolproof method of avoiding such situations. Perhaps China with an entirely different system to ours did so at least to some extent. We have to learn not only by our own experience but also by the experiences of other countries.
With the hope that springs eternal in the human breast, nearly all us believe that there will be a world after coronavirus. But it will be certainly a world totally different to what we have known. Yuval Noah Harari, historian, phlosopher and best selling author of Sapiens and Homo Deus has in a recently published think piece made the point that “This storm will pass. But the choices we make now could change our lives for years to come.” He says that quick and decisive action is essential taking into account the long-term consequences of our actions. When choosing between alternatives we should ask ourselves not only how to overcome the immediate threat, but what kind of world we will inhabit once the storm passes.
Unlike his forefathers mankind today is blessed with new technology that makes laborious tasks of the past possible within the blink of an eyelid. This has massively helped suveillance and identification of carriers in China. Harari says many short term emergency measures will become a fixture of life in the future for that is the nature of emergencies. They fast forward historical processes. We in Sri Lanka have seen some of our people trying to duck quarantine in spite of disease symptoms. Other congregations of large numbers of people have been held despite their dangers and prior warnings; these have no doubt hastened the spread of the disease. The first priority has been to deal with the consequences of such irresponsibility – tracing people who had come in contact with possible carriers and placing them under quarantine while treating those who have been infected. This has already been done but total cover is well nigh impossible. The guilty would have been summarily dealt with in a totalitarian situation. But our society is different and there are more urgent priorities than imposing punishment.
The government is well aware of the plight of the hundreds of thousands of daily wage earners in the country who live by day to day. Some measures have been taken to alleviate their plight like making special payments to Samurdhi beneficiaries. But due to the unfortunate politicization of even poor relief welfare schemes by successive governments, it is widely accepted that Samurdhi has not been properly targeted with many unqualified for the benefit receiving it while large numbers of those in acute distress are left out in the cold.
Well done CBK
Readers of yesterday's online edition of The Island would have been pleased with an article published under the byline of Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. In her well researched contribution, the former president offered information on the origin of the coronavirus carried by bats and other fauna probably from 'wet markets' in China selling the flesh of wild animals for human consumption. The result has been the pandemic now threatening the world. Undoubtedly much of this information is available on the Internet but we are happy that a former leader of the country now in retirement has taken the trouble to browse the net and put together a great deal of information that most people would not have had access to. Remember the mad cow disease of the not so distant past?
The Sri Lanka taxpayer spends a lot in supporting former presidents and their spouses in retirement. Even some of the wealthier developed countries do not spend as much in per capita terms. In this context we can be happy that CBK is taking an interest in doing her mite in the current emergency. Her conclusion is inescapable: the process of man attacking nature as he has done over a very long period can only result in catastrophe.
It is now a commonly known fact that the Chinese New Year holidays, during which possibly tens of millions or more Chinese people travel to their homes, accelerated the spread of the coronavirus in that country and the wider world. Although Sri Lanka's population does not run into the billions as in China and India, we all know that tens of thousands of our own countrymen and women go their home villages to celebrate the Sinhala and Hindu New Year which is fast approaching. The holiday which falls on April 12 and 13 is almost upon us and what the government is going to do in the context of this situation has not yet been publicized. However unpopular, safety first must prevail.
Obviously the curfew which has covered the whole Island time and again since the first Chinese woman tourist was discovered some weeks ago with the disease, quarantined and treated, will not allow people to make the annual trek to their villages at this time. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the only elected official in office today has been compelled to take many hard decisions in the face of a challenge that has not confronted mankind during living memory or, as a matter of fact, during the recorded history of many centuries. Over-reaction to the current situation is immeasurable superior to under-reaction which will extract a terrible price. That is a mistake we cannot afford to make.
Wisdom ex- post facto tells us that some wrong decisions may have been taken – for example the lifting of the curfew in the early days of its imposition which led to large crowds flocking to supermarkets, grocery stores and many more that resulted in exactly what we are being constantly exhorted not to do, happening. But people need essential food and drink, the sick need their medicines, and when a window enabling such purchases to be made is opened, crowding such outlets is inevitable. There will probably be no foolproof method of avoiding such situations. Perhaps China with an entirely different system to ours did so at least to some extent. We have to learn not only by our own experience but also by the experiences of other countries.
With the hope that springs eternal in the human breast, nearly all us believe that there will be a world after coronavirus. But it will be certainly a world totally different to what we have known. Yuval Noah Harari, historian, phlosopher and best selling author of Sapiens and Homo Deus has in a recently published think piece made the point that “This storm will pass. But the choices we make now could change our lives for years to come.” He says that quick and decisive action is essential taking into account the long-term consequences of our actions. When choosing between alternatives we should ask ourselves not only how to overcome the immediate threat, but what kind of world we will inhabit once the storm passes.
Unlike his forefathers mankind today is blessed with new technology that makes laborious tasks of the past possible within the blink of an eyelid. This has massively helped suveillance and identification of carriers in China. Harari says many short term emergency measures will become a fixture of life in the future for that is the nature of emergencies. They fast forward historical processes. We in Sri Lanka have seen some of our people trying to duck quarantine in spite of disease symptoms. Other congregations of large numbers of people have been held despite their dangers and prior warnings; these have no doubt hastened the spread of the disease. The first priority has been to deal with the consequences of such irresponsibility – tracing people who had come in contact with possible carriers and placing them under quarantine while treating those who have been infected. This has already been done but total cover is well nigh impossible. The guilty would have been summarily dealt with in a totalitarian situation. But our society is different and there are more urgent priorities than imposing punishment.
The government is well aware of the plight of the hundreds of thousands of daily wage earners in the country who live by day to day. Some measures have been taken to alleviate their plight like making special payments to Samurdhi beneficiaries. But due to the unfortunate politicization of even poor relief welfare schemes by successive governments, it is widely accepted that Samurdhi has not been properly targeted with many unqualified for the benefit receiving it while large numbers of those in acute distress are left out in the cold.
Well done CBK
Readers of yesterday's online edition of The Island would have been pleased with an article published under the byline of Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. In her well researched contribution, the former president offered information on the origin of the coronavirus carried by bats and other fauna probably from 'wet markets' in China selling the flesh of wild animals for human consumption. The result has been the pandemic now threatening the world. Undoubtedly much of this information is available on the Internet but we are happy that a former leader of the country now in retirement has taken the trouble to browse the net and put together a great deal of information that most people would not have had access to. Remember the mad cow disease of the not so distant past?
The Sri Lanka taxpayer spends a lot in supporting former presidents and their spouses in retirement. Even some of the wealthier developed countries do not spend as much in per capita terms. In this context we can be happy that CBK is taking an interest in doing her mite in the current emergency. Her conclusion is inescapable: the process of man attacking nature as he has done over a very long period can only result in catastrophe.
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