Around this time last year, no one in his or her right mind would have ever imagined what 2020 would turn out to be. Partying and merry making were in full swing with zero indication of what was to come. Now a full 365 days later, the world is still trying to come to terms with the health and economic carnage that has been wrought upon it by a raging pandemic that has made 2020 a year from hell.
About this time last year, we had not heard of a virus by the name Covid-19. It was only China that had reported a few cases but no deaths had been reported. It was only in January 2020, the 11th to be exact, that China officially reported the very first death due to the Covid-19 virus. Today, nearly 80 million people have contracted the virus globally and 1.73 million have died from it.
Interestingly however, while the rest of the world grapples with the Chinese origin virus, the only news we seem to be hearing from China these days is of an economic revival and how life there has more or less returned to normal. No cases reported, no deaths reported, all seems hunky dory where it all began in Wuhan, China. Is there something that China knows about the virus that the rest of the world does not know?
Going back to January, all it took were a couple of months for all hell to break loose. China had by then run up a death toll in excess of 3,000 and Europe was beginning to see red with Italy being the hardest hit. A month later it was America’s turn to face the brunt of the virus and that battle continues to date with an even greater intensity.
It was in March that Sri Lanka reported its first case and the Government acted swiftly to impose a nationwide lockdown that was eased only in late May. The lockdown ensured that the spread of the virus was halted in its tracks and that paved the way for life to return to near normalcy by June, which then enabled the delayed general election to be held in August.
With the incumbent Government securing a near two-thirds victory, it was only natural that post-election complacency set in and by end September, warning signals began to appear of a potentially dangerous second wave. The second wave soon became a tidal wave with case numbers rocketing in October. Up until end September, Sri Lanka had less than 15 deaths and 3,000-something cases. However, in the three months since then, the number of deaths has shot up to 185 and the number of cases to nearly 40,000. For all intents and purposes, the health authorities are struggling to contain this second wave while insisting that there is no community transmission and pinning all known cases to three identified clusters.
With another new year within striking distance, the public health inspectors are now talking of a third wave if adequate precautions are not taken during the peak festive period. Be that as it may, the Government has resisted the temptation of imposing a lockdown and only time will tell how effective this strategy will be.
The reason to resist a lockdown is not due to the fact that it is safe to do so, but due to sheer economic compulsions, with the struggling economy unable to sustain itself any longer should economic activity come to another halt. The extent of the crisis is exemplified by the Government seeking a loan of Rs. 10 billion from the World Bank for the purpose of purchasing Covid-19 vaccines. To put this in context, it is about the same amount of funds the State is alleged to have lost owing to a corrupt sugar import deal spanning the last few weeks, according to JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
The main reason for the embarrassment of Sri Lanka having to go before the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Union, etc., seeking funds in order to provide vaccines for its citizens, is the economic mismanagement of the country over an extended period of time by various elected governments. Consecutive governments from the post-independence era have to take the blame for the country’s lack of wealth even though those who have ruled this country in more recent times show no lack of it.
It is nothing but political opportunism, short sightedness, and a tendency to play to the gallery that have combined to create a toxic formula that has ruined the economic prospects of a nation blessed with an abundance of natural resources. Rather than prioritising sustainable exploitation of these resources towards national accumulation of wealth, the top of the agenda has been exploitation of a self-destructive formula which in turn has led to periodic riots, civil commotion, dissention, etc., culminating in a three-decade war that virtually bled the country to its own grave.
Besides the economic crisis that has been brought about by the pandemic, it has also led to another subset of crises among which is the issue of arbitrarily cremating the bodies of Covid-19 fatalities. Muslims in accordance with their faith do not cremate the dead similar to their Christian and Catholic brethren. For reasons best known to the latter, they have chosen to keep mum while the Muslims continue to assert their fundamental right to practice their faith in death. A visit to any burial ground will show that even Buddhists and Hindus have chosen to be buried and not cremated. Now they too have been deprived of this choice. To make matters worse, the World Health Organisation is on record that burial of victims does not pose any danger of spreading the virus, as alluded to by the local authorities in denying this fundamental right.
Unfortunately, memories are short in this land and history tends to repeat with embarrassing regularity. Today, the same toxic formula that gave birth to so much bloodshed and ethnic division in the recent past is turning out to be the foundation for religious division this time around. Whatever belief one may hold, Sri Lanka has been a melting pot of religious and ethnic diversity for millennia, going back to the famed expeditions of Rama as depicted in the epic saga of the Ramayana. The people by and large have grown accustomed to celebrate and cherish this diversity that has formed the bedrock of modern Sri Lankan society.
Bankrupt politicians across the political spectrum with little to offer on the intellectual front have over the years exploited this diversity to carve out their own support bases which has inevitably led to the alienation of people based on ethnic and now religious lines. The Muslim burial issue is a serious case in point. The straw that broke the camel’s back was the forced cremation of a 20-day-old toddler born to Muslim parents and the issue has now attracted international attention.
Besides the unwanted negative international publicity which has resulted from Muslim diaspora groups organising protests in various countries, much the same way that Tamil groups did not so long ago, Sri Lanka is being dragged down the gutter once again, purely due to political reasons. As a new year dawns, we can only hope that saner counsel will prevail and that every effort will be taken by those in power to prevent history from repeating. Covid-19 has created a monster of a problem and there is no need to produce offspring from it.
About this time last year, we had not heard of a virus by the name Covid-19. It was only China that had reported a few cases but no deaths had been reported. It was only in January 2020, the 11th to be exact, that China officially reported the very first death due to the Covid-19 virus. Today, nearly 80 million people have contracted the virus globally and 1.73 million have died from it.
Interestingly however, while the rest of the world grapples with the Chinese origin virus, the only news we seem to be hearing from China these days is of an economic revival and how life there has more or less returned to normal. No cases reported, no deaths reported, all seems hunky dory where it all began in Wuhan, China. Is there something that China knows about the virus that the rest of the world does not know?
Going back to January, all it took were a couple of months for all hell to break loose. China had by then run up a death toll in excess of 3,000 and Europe was beginning to see red with Italy being the hardest hit. A month later it was America’s turn to face the brunt of the virus and that battle continues to date with an even greater intensity.
It was in March that Sri Lanka reported its first case and the Government acted swiftly to impose a nationwide lockdown that was eased only in late May. The lockdown ensured that the spread of the virus was halted in its tracks and that paved the way for life to return to near normalcy by June, which then enabled the delayed general election to be held in August.
With the incumbent Government securing a near two-thirds victory, it was only natural that post-election complacency set in and by end September, warning signals began to appear of a potentially dangerous second wave. The second wave soon became a tidal wave with case numbers rocketing in October. Up until end September, Sri Lanka had less than 15 deaths and 3,000-something cases. However, in the three months since then, the number of deaths has shot up to 185 and the number of cases to nearly 40,000. For all intents and purposes, the health authorities are struggling to contain this second wave while insisting that there is no community transmission and pinning all known cases to three identified clusters.
With another new year within striking distance, the public health inspectors are now talking of a third wave if adequate precautions are not taken during the peak festive period. Be that as it may, the Government has resisted the temptation of imposing a lockdown and only time will tell how effective this strategy will be.
The reason to resist a lockdown is not due to the fact that it is safe to do so, but due to sheer economic compulsions, with the struggling economy unable to sustain itself any longer should economic activity come to another halt. The extent of the crisis is exemplified by the Government seeking a loan of Rs. 10 billion from the World Bank for the purpose of purchasing Covid-19 vaccines. To put this in context, it is about the same amount of funds the State is alleged to have lost owing to a corrupt sugar import deal spanning the last few weeks, according to JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
The main reason for the embarrassment of Sri Lanka having to go before the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Union, etc., seeking funds in order to provide vaccines for its citizens, is the economic mismanagement of the country over an extended period of time by various elected governments. Consecutive governments from the post-independence era have to take the blame for the country’s lack of wealth even though those who have ruled this country in more recent times show no lack of it.
It is nothing but political opportunism, short sightedness, and a tendency to play to the gallery that have combined to create a toxic formula that has ruined the economic prospects of a nation blessed with an abundance of natural resources. Rather than prioritising sustainable exploitation of these resources towards national accumulation of wealth, the top of the agenda has been exploitation of a self-destructive formula which in turn has led to periodic riots, civil commotion, dissention, etc., culminating in a three-decade war that virtually bled the country to its own grave.
Besides the economic crisis that has been brought about by the pandemic, it has also led to another subset of crises among which is the issue of arbitrarily cremating the bodies of Covid-19 fatalities. Muslims in accordance with their faith do not cremate the dead similar to their Christian and Catholic brethren. For reasons best known to the latter, they have chosen to keep mum while the Muslims continue to assert their fundamental right to practice their faith in death. A visit to any burial ground will show that even Buddhists and Hindus have chosen to be buried and not cremated. Now they too have been deprived of this choice. To make matters worse, the World Health Organisation is on record that burial of victims does not pose any danger of spreading the virus, as alluded to by the local authorities in denying this fundamental right.
Unfortunately, memories are short in this land and history tends to repeat with embarrassing regularity. Today, the same toxic formula that gave birth to so much bloodshed and ethnic division in the recent past is turning out to be the foundation for religious division this time around. Whatever belief one may hold, Sri Lanka has been a melting pot of religious and ethnic diversity for millennia, going back to the famed expeditions of Rama as depicted in the epic saga of the Ramayana. The people by and large have grown accustomed to celebrate and cherish this diversity that has formed the bedrock of modern Sri Lankan society.
Bankrupt politicians across the political spectrum with little to offer on the intellectual front have over the years exploited this diversity to carve out their own support bases which has inevitably led to the alienation of people based on ethnic and now religious lines. The Muslim burial issue is a serious case in point. The straw that broke the camel’s back was the forced cremation of a 20-day-old toddler born to Muslim parents and the issue has now attracted international attention.
Besides the unwanted negative international publicity which has resulted from Muslim diaspora groups organising protests in various countries, much the same way that Tamil groups did not so long ago, Sri Lanka is being dragged down the gutter once again, purely due to political reasons. As a new year dawns, we can only hope that saner counsel will prevail and that every effort will be taken by those in power to prevent history from repeating. Covid-19 has created a monster of a problem and there is no need to produce offspring from it.