Age of Irony

 

Twenty twenty-two was a year and a half. Now, thankfully, we have seen its back with that of one of the existential issues of our times. I speak of Covid-19, of course, which, during its peak, had confined most of us to barracks. Happily, the majority of us survived it, and are now returning to something like normalcy. We are still not yet back to the relaxed ways of pre-pandemic days, though. Whatever satisfaction we may feel at this point, it is well to remember that the pandemic has taken nearly 7 million lives. These dead are not just numbers. They left behind deeply scarred families who watched their loved ones sicken and die. The worst is now over. Probably. We must spare a thought though, for those among us who avoided Covid’s worst outcome, yet survive to contend with the debilitating symptoms of “Long Covid”.

The virus’s other legacy, the economic one, endures too. The pandemic disrupted industrial production and dislocated supply chains everywhere, contributing to the anxiety that haunts many of us, especially among those who could not quarantine because they had to earn a living at-site. By contrast, those who could work off-site and earn from home, did so with smug satisfaction. Thus arose another divide between the haves and the have-nots that intensified appetites for false narratives about Covid, its nature and origins and, indeed, whether it is a real thing, undermining what governments and their public health experts were trying to do to keep us all safe. From that place, it was only a short hop for dissenters to jump on to the bandwagon that was headed for Ottawa, the Canadian capital, where they tried to ransom the city and the rest of the country. On their way, the agitators collected an assortment of antivaxxers and anti-maskers, racists and fascists, putschists and would-be assassins avowing, bizarrely, to kill the Prime Minister, topple the Federal Government and install an alternative that was more to their taste. Canada was headed for its January 6 moment.

The government was prepared. Using special powers, it eventually put an end to what was becoming a national embarrassment, and which had been seeding similar outbreaks elsewhere in the country. Social media had, once again, shown its power to spread false information and stoke up emotions.

The medium remains massively disruptive with that ability to disseminate false anti-science narratives about the pandemic (and other matters) that could have resulted in much worse clinical outcomes while, at the same time during 2022, enabling dissenters to collect and amass a substantial war chest. It is an irony that, quite possibly, escaped the convoy organizers and their followers: The weaponizing of the internet (and diesel-powered trucks) for the war against the very science that devised them.

Meanwhile, Covid’s economic fallout continues into the new year, taking the world to the brink amid forecasts that grow darker by the day.

The year twenty twenty-two also fuelled a couple of exotica, NFTs and cryptocurrency, to illustrate how easy it is for a fool and his money to be parted. As if to emphasize the point, the world’s richest man dropped $44bn lusting after a dysfunctional chat box.

“Loss and Damage” was the 2022 mantra that resounded from Sharm El Shaikh to all corners, as activists call on rich countries to foot the bill for the harm they continue inflict on the environment that threatens to take lives and destroy livelihoods everywhere, especially in poor countries. Yes, the survival of the world itself is at stake, with record high temperatures in many regions including in Europe and North America. The UK’s Met Office recently announced that 2022 was the hottest on record. In the Horn of Africa, drought was relentless, creating and sustaining a famished landscape throughout the region. On the other side, Pakistan and Nigeria drowned in unprecedented floods that displaced millions and killed thousands. The think tank, The Copernicus Climate Change Service, predicts that unless we change our ways, the world will warm up by 1.5 degrees by 2034, and the end will be nigh.

Unless Putin’s special operations does us in earlier.

Tell Fren Tru

Days of Covid-19

When I last wrote, Covid-19 was not yet a pandemic. And it had just only been definitively named. But, since then, the plague has descended nearly everywhere. Now, people are dying from it in droves, and ordinary life has been disrupted in ways that are reminiscent of wartime. Most countries in which the infection has taken hold have entered into a phase of lockdown, with anyone having the merest suspicion of Covid-19 exposure being required to go into a form of purdah for a period of not less than 14 days. And, as would be predictable, new words and expressions, such as “social distancing”, have entered the common language, a phrase that commands you to keep your distance. No less than six feet of separation. Ominous enough. ‘Home quarantine’ is another expression that Public Health authorities invoke to help contain the virus’ spread. Thankfully, the full meaning of ‘quarantine’ does not apply to this infectious agent. In the word’s original use, it meant being confined for a minimum period of forty days, usually on board a ship on which an infectious disease had broken out, and forty days being the usual length of time required for such outbreaks to run their course. In today’s world, of course, our mode of long-distance travel is much more intrusive, practically resulting in the direct injection of potentially infective individuals into the very heart of our cities, the airports. One may note, however, the irony (without schadenfreude, one hopes. After all, we're all in this together) of cruise ships being denied berthing at ports around the world because of outbreaks of Covid-19 on board. So, all in all, fourteen days is not bad.

         So, Tell Fren Tru is prepared. 'Lockdown', another word frequently used, has been clamped down on all but essential workers, among whom TFT is no longer counted. But, although far from home, he is prepared, and sees an opportunity in potential adversity, reading the books that he otherwise might not have found the time for. But alas, there is a problem. My usual access to books was severely restricted due to the loss, in transit, of my kindle reader. It took me quite some time to find an alternate source for books in Kingston, Jamaica where, after trolling around the town by taxi, I finally came upon a place, tucked away in a shopping mall, where you can buy and exchange books. It turned out to be a gem.

         So, I have made full use of the opportunity and stocked up for the duration. No binge buying, though:  In the same way that you cannot eat or wipe your way out of quarantine, a similar limitation applies to reading. I should say though, that Jamaicans are sanguine about how much extra buying they should do in these times when in other countries around the world, TV images of adults misbehaving themselves at supermarkets and big-box stores abound. The last time I looked, the local supermarket here was fully stacked.

This is the kind of balance that should prevail all around but, unfortunately, man is mostly driven by irrational impulses.

         And talking about irrational tendencies, what a harvest we have had: of rumours, half-truths and downright lies. And, it would seem, that in times like this, everyone becomes an authority and is ready to dispense advice. We won’t consider what the President of the United States says about the epidemic or how to treat Covid-19. But you can be sure that whenever an opportunity arises for making a fool of himself, he takes it.

         My quarantine regime would have to start all over again as we have to cut short our holiday and start wending our way homeward where, once again, I would be confined to barracks as the regulations require. But I am ready, and even eager, to make my own contribution towards ‘flattening the curve’. Every input counts, however small.

Tell Fren Tru