COVID-19 fight: We are more divided than united

Apr 21, 2020

COVID-19 is dividing more than is uniting. China has gone through its episode alone so is Italy, Spain, and the US, etc., and African countries notwithstanding.

By Abubaker Basajjabaka

As new milestones of infections and deaths for the novel coronavirus continue to rise every day, and case series exceed the 2,000,000 mark, global response to COVID-19 is showing a different image, and so to speak a despicable one.

COVID-19 is dividing more than is uniting. China has gone through its episode alone so is Italy, Spain, and the US, etc., and African countries notwithstanding.

Calamities of some scale in the past encouraged unity and always followed certain and almost similar protocols. Even countries that had freedom to fight for at home, would still combat those of their neighbours. If your kin—brother or sister—were in trouble, so were you.

In the wisdom of Chinua Achebe, Nigerian and one of Africa's finest authors: a kinsman in trouble was saved rather than blamed. From Kampala to Kimberley, words for humanity or unity exist—Obuntu or Ubuntu; ubunye in isiZulu or Obumu in Luganda in Uganda—but have been in short supply in the face of the coronavirus.

Problems confronted in the past united more than they divided. Supranational or regional bodies to mention the UN, EU, AU or to narrow it down to our context in Africa, EAC, ECOWAS and SADC to name but a few, stood in unity or if they proclaimed to do so, in response to global or regional problems and challenges. Need we mention that in many such formations, the mantra was always the same: attack on one of us is an attack on all of us? Spirit of unity echoed!

COVID-19 is redefining a new world order of ambivalence—accusation and counter-accusations, with conspiracy theories propagated by fake news consuming most of our ambient media—WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter et cetera.

Director-General, WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, currently under attack by the Trump administration puts it mildly, "We're not just fighting an epidemic; we're fighting an infodemic!"

As world leaders wake up to a novel reality, invectives have become the new gunshots fired at one another. Truth like in a typical state of war has become the culprit in the fight against COVID-19.

African leaders usually outspoken in unity are recoiling in their niches as if they won't need each other when the storm withers. Some governments have singularly sent planes to Wuhan, China, to evacuate their nationals, without caring whether other African citizens require Caesar to the rescue. Instead, African leaders only invest in their personal companies pervading the continent to take the little from their poor citizens.

Today, many of their citizenry are trapped, as some Chinese rear ugly faces towards people of African descent in Guangzhou and many other cities, while our leaders fail to show courage.

Truth is, China is forging economic relations with many developing countries, African inclusive. Bilateral treaties ring-fencing resources for the communist state have been signed. You can't ‘chinamander' Africa, build first-class roads, high-speed railway systems; malls, hospitals, recreation centres, and other infrastructure, and expect African leaders to protect their citizenry! Common sense purports that they're following the money rather than their citizens.

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah must be disappointed and turning in his grave, when his proclamation—seek ye first the political kingdom and all else shall be added onto you—is not being heeded.

COVID-19 is showing another dimension. Resilience, as countries—developed or non-developed—endure through its scourge. China is containing the situation swiftly. Historically, they've done so in other circumstances such as SARS or H1N1 (swine flu) that have stalked them in the past. They are a communist state, whose political culture doesn't allow for the romanticism of procrastination under the guise of democracy. Their path to development, typical of command economies, shows that orders from above, as only they can testify, can transform a country into a fast emerging economic powerhouse like China is today.

But with all frills of freedom and democracy, and resources notwithstanding, the US is creaking under the weight of COVID-19. At the time of writing, the country continues to be the epicentre, with 610,774 cases and topping any other country in deaths at 26,119. These landmarks are being reached for reason that the US is more divided and managing a crisis than they're united against the pandemic. Daily press conferences are showing spectacle of a rare kind we've never seen before. Political leaders continue to tear themselves apart as infections and deaths multiply.

The US, usually a provider of leadership in crises of monumental proportions hasn't measured up to this task. After all, President Trump didn't prepare enough as he assured Americans before reality begun to strike. He is blaming WHO for not being insistent on China, and China for lacking transparency. Today, a total of about $1 billion the US contributes to the global health organisations has been frozen, pointing more to a global public health crisis than it is being solved.

America has always been known for pursuing enemies to their last hideouts, returning with their heads rather than their brides. But the coronavirus is proving elusive. When global leaders start apportioning blame, you know they're failing us and themselves. United we stand divided we fall.

The writer is a blogger; a social, political and economic critic. Pursuing his Master's in Management of Technology and Innovation in South Africa, but facing the lockdown in Kimberley.
bakintu@yahoo.com

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