The Pandemic and Putin – Our Precarious Reality

We started to hear about the virus in January 2020 or so, while the bushfires in Australia were still foremost in our minds and hearts.  While we were still coming to grips with the ferociousness of the fires that wiped out so much of our country and hoping this was the worst 2020 had to offer, this virus crept up on the whole world. The rapidity with which it spread left us all dumbfounded, many leaders unprepared and some leaders turning a blind eye, thinking it would go away.  Go away it didn’t.  For the first time in probably the lifetime of anyone alive today, we were dealing with something big, something unavoidable and something that you can’t get away from, because there was nowhere to go that you could escape the Pandemic.

There were all sorts of behaviours that baffled many of us, such as the run on toilet paper (pun intended). The naysayers, the conspiration theorists, the anti-vaxxers. The rhetoric, the rallies and protests, sometimes rioting.

So many forms of grieving experienced by humans, individually and collectively.  We grieved our inability to avoid something this big.  Frontline healthcare workers grieved and continue to grieve the loss of so many people whom they’ve cared for and then watched them die. They also contracted the virus and then they grieved the death of their colleagues and friends. Many people grieved the loss of loved ones, who often died alone because their loved ones were not allowed to visit.

We found ourselves in a war like world, where the focus was on trying to arrest the spread of the virus. Living in Australia we felt we were lucky because Australia and New Zealand imposed strict quarantine and isolation rules as soon as it became apparent that strong measures had to be taken.  Some leaders in Australia such as the Victorian Premier Dan Andrews, were game to not go along with whatever the Prime Minister said, and they made their own rules and were guided by their state Chief Health Officers. We found ourselves working from home on March 25, indefinitely.

Then came the second wave in Victoria and suddenly we were once again in lockdown.  At first restrictions were focused on ‘hotspot’ suburbs. Then several public housing towers were closed down altogether, which created a huge outcry about the lack of services and supports to the vulnerable and disadvantaged members of the community who lived in those towers. Then the numbers continued to go up and each day Dan Andrews fronted up at a news conference and gave the bleak report about the number of new cases in the previous 24 hours and the number of deaths.  In spite of Stage 3 restrictions, the numbers continued to rise until they peaked at 700+ and we went into Stage 4. For many weeks we were confined to our homes. A state of emergency was declared and a curfew from 8pm to 5am in Melbourne. No travelling further than 5km away from your home, unless you are a permitted worker. Wearing masks became mandatory if you lived in Melbourne.

The second time around, lockdown didn’t seem as exciting and different as it was at the start, when people embraced working from home and there were many Zoom videos on social media of choirs singing, orchestras playing and people doing fun stuff.  It was novel and different.  For some people the novelty wore off but they continued to stay home and do the right thing.  Others didn’t want to be restricted so they went out and did whatever they wanted to.

In November 2020 a ray of hope in the form of an election win by Joe Biden in the US gave people around the world something to smile about.  But then we watched in horror as Donald Trump and his supporters set about trying to cause an insurrection. We gravely nodded our heads when we heard the comment, repeatedly, that the world has gone mad.

Overall, 2021 dawned with hope for a better year.  Very soon, though, the Delta variant gripped the world and we were once again in lockdown with all the accompanying restrictions. At the end of the year when we thought we were recovering, along came Omicron and new daily cases numbering in the thousands.  We went from not knowing anyone who had COVID, to family members, friends and relatives being infected.  This time, because of the high vaccination rates, restrictions were not as harsh, there were no lockdowns.  Just the rush to try and buy RATs (Rapid Antigen Tests) which were not available anywhere.

It will be a while before the aftermath of the Pandemic is analysed and discussed.  The ABC in Australia is telling the stories of people who died during the Pandemic, as told by their loved ones, to humanise the tragic loss.  Just as we mourned all the wild life lost during the bushfires, we now mourn the many, many human lives lost during the Pandemic.

But we were not given any time to start thinking about life after the Pandemic because of Putin and his madness.  Now we are in the throes of a Putin-made crisis.  Let’s hope sanctions are enough and that Russia will see the disadvantage to them of continuing the war, even if they cannot see the horror of murdering their brothers as being utterly abhorrent.  Many Russians actually do think it is, and are protesting and being thrown in jail.  Let’s hope Ukrainians know how the hearts of the world are aching for them.  There is a solidarity with Ukraine and its amazing people that is almost palpable.

As the East Coast of Australia grappled with torrential rain and flooding some weeks ago, climate change once again reared its head.  As the world once again seems to be in chaos, lurching from one crisis to another, let our thoughts turn to peace.  Let us each carry peace in our hearts, because hatred and fear have no place in us.

And please, let us not say “There but for the grace of God go I” because this means that I have somehow been lucky or qualified for God’s grace because I am a good person, and that person over there, for example all the people currently in crisis in Ukraine, are not worthy of God’s grace.