FLY ON THE WALL: Joint approach needed to fight coronavirus pandemic

The future of mankind is in our own hands, literally. What is amazing is that we do not seem to have internalized this fact.

I jumped to this conclusion seeing how, from the United States to China, name calling and finger pointing has replaced awareness creation as it ought to be, and the search for vaccines and a cure for the deadly corona virus.

Yet for all we care, the pandemic that is the coronavirus has opened our eyes to many things that we seem to have taken for granted.

Life as we always knew it was always going on. It did not matter to us that amongst us some people were on their deathbeds. It mattered little that Iraq, Yemen or Afghanistan was always war ridden. The numerous boats carrying thousands of people running away to seek refuge in Europe over the unbearable conditions in Libya, Niger or even our own East African backyards.

This pandemic has come as a wake-up call we all needed to realize so many things of which a few are here.

Humanity needs health for all not military hardware for the few. From Dar es Salaam to Moscow, nothing seems to give humanity false pride than display of military arsenal during nationally celebrated days.

The hungry, unhealthy poor not to be left behind, every year our nation’s elite lead us all in staring in awe and pride at “our mighty” in display. Battle tanks, SMGs and all the things that cost an arm and a leg.

Beneficiaries of these shows are always those who have power whether by choice, hook or crook. They have created opaqueness on purchase and an every growing spend on military hardware.

No one knew that when all is said and done, it would be a slow creeping virus, one that stealthily moves from one to another that would bring everything including tanks and fighter aircrafts to a standstill.

This virus has reminded us that universal health for all is priority number one and that the governments of the world must spend much more on it than we ever have.

Businesses in the aviation industry, international trade and global supply chains have all but come to a standstill. The world is literally grounded so to speak.

For all our know- how, we seem to have ignored the little things that matter, health and humanity. Yes that today in the scramble for all things money we seem to have lost our humanity.

The rich continue to grow richer while the poor continue to be poorer. The top 10,000 people on world wealth list own more than 97 per cent of the world’s wealth. It has taken the coronavirus defying barriers of wealth political power and positions to remind us that we are all human beings with same basic needs of foods, health and well-being.

When this is over, as it sure shall come to be, the world needs to rethink its relationships with itself. There are jobs which are being obliterated at the fastest pace ever.

Our relations as nations have been questioned. You see the Coronavirus is no respecter of borders as we know them. It moves surreptitiously with no respect to wealth, political or even religious persuasion.

It is the sure conviction that we need to have a joint strategy to confront it. For example if country A does not take measures as advised by the World Health Organization , all the tough measures by countries B ,C, D may be made to be useless.

Are we reading from the same script? Certainly not in East Africa. Each country is going its own way and while this is no criticism of the approach by any country, it defeats the goal which is to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic while the rod is hot.

The columnist is a researcher & Communications specialist with the firm Midas Touché East Africa Email [email protected]