CoVID-19 and Us
By Zohran Ali
I grew up listening to stories about various legendary achievements of our ancestors, their tales of bravery and sagas about their untiring efforts showing great examples of unity and brotherhood during times of sheer hurdle and adversity. Meanwhile I would like to comment on the situation that we descendants are in right now.
Its 2020 and the whole world has been succumbed to a novel viral disease that has up till now infected 7.5 million human population resulting in almost half a million deaths globally and as a result bamboozled many of the most strong economies. India, USA, China, Italy, Spain ,Brazil even in likes of Germany and Russia they all have faced and are still facing one of the most difficult and challenging obstacles after Spanish Flu back in 1918-1920. This doesn’t curtail the fact that human race hasn’t seen any other major disease during this millennia: Ebola, MERS and HIV are a few to be mentioned. However, Covid 19 has put all of us in a real bad position and that cannot be denied. Causing lockdowns lasting for two to three months and putting a halt on our normal routine life , people losing jobs and lives too. Every other country and nation has a distinct action plan to face this pandemic. And a few of them are actually been able to take a hold on the spread of the virus.
Unfortunately, our country Pakistan is under a very crucial situation now. Government has undoubtedly disappointed us of not been able to handle the situation with an appropriate lay out. No doubt our economy is weak and we were already running on deficit way before the pandemic. This just added more perturbation to the already unstable economy of the country. The government is clearly confused of whether to save lives or economy and the saddest part is they don’t have any other choice now. And you could have seen how bad is the situation getting each passing day. Now, the most crucial part is of “ours” the public which I want to emphasize upon.
It was on the news that the first case has been reported in Pakistan, everyone was so chill and calm. Most of us even took it as a joke saying “ sirf ak hi case hay” (its just a single case) the following day Islamabad reported the second case and the graph has been climbing exponentially from that day onwards but what has not changed is the sheer ignorance that our very own people even the good ones have been showing towards the situation. My father is a front line worker and he comes home late night and when I ask how is the situation Papa? He with a weight on his chest expresses the tales of our “ legendary” behavior. It sickens me when young people say “ Death rate kam hay or khuch b nae hota sab fraud hay, pesu k khayl hay “ ( The death rate is low and its nothing but a fraud to earn money and funds). I would wish myself to be wrong but we couldn’t make a greater fool of ourselves now with showing such a behavior more than ever. Going for shopping on Eid , even some of my friends uploaded statuses of Enjoying “ Eid Trip with – others”. Many holding ceremonies with all the perks and privileges others who aren’t ready to accept the situation.
Honestly, We always expect things to get better by themselves without even putting in our slightest of efforts, the public always expecting the government to do all the things for them. And them expecting from us .Who amongst us are actually following the Sop’s? …NONE!. It is always very easy to point others for our very own wrong doings, blaming the person in front of you and making things easier for ourselves, that is what we have been doing till now. Expecting others to clean the dirt that we spread. I don’t recall a Revolution which was brought up only by an individual. Collective efforts of a nation adhering to each other in bad situations, helping others in times of need and lending hands when required are what needed for bringing a change. You expecting from the person sitting next to you and him doing the same won’t ever bring or carry us out from such a bad time. It all depends upon our attitude towards the situation now that is going to decide what is to become of us tomorrow.
Many of us were comparing New Zealand and its governance to Pakistan, I just want to point out do we know how strict of a lockdown was applied in the country and how the public responded to it ? Now look onto your own actions for past two months, what have you done? You would realize, every single action of ours matter to increase the ever increasing entropy of the universe. I would like to end this long article with a plead , please stop blaming and bashing others for the situations, governments are actually the projection of the citizens that are living in the country. We need to realize this “ Change will not be given to you, Untill you bring it for yourselves”. Let’s be a little more considerate about the situation at hand and let us hope we act in the best of our benefits. Remember it’s just a tip of an iceberg.Stay safe!
The contributor is a student at NUST, Islamabad.
