APOCALYPSE? HOW?

 

A nice picture of humanity

In the annals of bad years this has been right up there, I’m sure many of us have had bad years for personal reasons; death, break ups, mental health crisis, tragedies and so forth, but 2020 has been a shit show for the globe, an apocalypse, now.

But how did we get here, and how do we change things?

Maybe eating Bats, Pangolins and such like, kept and sold in horrific conditions wasn’t a good idea. Anyone with a moral compass, sense of compassion or basic common sense could see that this was a ticking time bomb. How a nation treats animals its citizens and the planet is an issue of culture and responsibility and in this regard the country where Wuhan, the birthplace of the globe spanning virus is located, needs to look at it’s part in this world event.

Now before anyone starts throwing around phrases like “its not China’s fault” I am not saying blame lays at the door of the Chinese people, I’m saying that a nation emboldened by the fact that they supply the world with cheaply made products has a government that appears to not really give too much of a damn about a number of things.

The West, needing to consume products at an ever-increasing rate, turns a blind eye to human rights and other matters that should cause concern. Yes every nation (pretty much) has its issues of personal interest and the way in which the virus has been dealt with in some countries emphasises this, but the reality is that if lessons aren’t learned from the Wuhan Wet Market catastrophe we face a repetition. 

Aside from the terrible number of deaths, economic disasters and mental health issues across the globe the knock on effect of the Covid-19 pandemic is and will be far reaching. 

Things will never be the same. 

We have seen the best of us and a worst of us. We have seen kindness, self-sacrifice, love, triumph over adversity and a togetherness rarely seen, but we have also seen selfish panic buying, disregard for mask wearing and social distancing alongside an alarming ignorance of the basics of epidemic control.

Our government have shown an incompetence that is in sharp contrasts to the amazing competence of the NHS under such hard conditions; both ends of the spectrum come into focus at these times. 

Is 2020 the year that was waiting in the wings for the planet, a planet full of nations run by governments who put there own interests before their citizens, their wildlife and the very land on which they stand?

Who knows?  But what should be a top priority for governments around the world is looking at how this pandemic can be controlled, minimised and ultimately eradicated and, vitally, how something similar can be prevented from ever happening again. However, self interest may be a barrier that will never be hurdled in achieving this.

A bit of a ramble today dear reader but that reflects my confusion as to the how, what and why of the situation. Roll on 2021. It may only be a symbolic change but let's invest in the idea that the turn of the year makes us all feel that there is a hope on the horizon.