What Have You Taken From The Pandemic? Only children and fools tell the truth-Part I

Except for the so-called covid millionaires, the pandemic has taken its toll on everyone else.  To varying degrees each one of us lost something or worse, someone. For me 2020-2021 felt like one long year. How about you? Many thought that 2020 was bad and hoped that 2021 would bring relief but alas! Perhaps we can take a lesson or two from Winston Churchill who, at a particularly difficult time in British history said;  “Never let a crisis go to waste!”

What did he mean? The rather obvious answer is that in every crisis there will be either opportunities to be exploited or lessons to be learnt. Of course, it could also  mean that as far as it depends on you, do not be found on the receiving end of opportunists.

It seems to me that even though the covid crisis seems to be petering out, the world will continue to face major challenges. Therefore, I advice three things:

 1. Only children and fools tell the truth

2. Adversity comes with instruction in its hand

3. Keep hope alive

 Only children and fools tell the truth

During World War II, the Luftwaffe (German Airforce) often attacked British cities under the cover of darkness. In response the British government enforced night-time blackouts in a bid to reduce the enemy’s effectiveness. However, when the British army developed night-vision radar their defences improved dramatically and all of a sudden they had new problem on their hands-keeping their new weapon secret. Soon enough some clever chaps in government came up with a ruse. The Defence Ministry 'leaked' information that attributed their night-time successes to of all things-carrots! British media unquestioningly picked up the line and soon there were all manner of advertisements and campaigns urging people to eat more carrots to improve among other things, night driving. Meanwhile in Germany, carrots-for-good-eyes became a firmly ingrained belief. As to whether they fed their pilots more carrots is anybody’s guess!

How does this story relate to our times? It is said that in any war, the first casualty is always the Truth. During the pandemic many nations have been on what can only be described as war footing.  In many places, something very close to martial law has been in place. It is unfortunate that several African countries, including mine, have unquestioningly copied the west. Meanwhile, the stress that comes with curbs to long-cherished personal freedoms has pushed people into a cauldron of fiercely opposed ideas. And as with any battleground of strongly held ideas, the truth has taken quite a beating.

The world has been divided into-the vaccinated versus the unvaccinated, the affected versus the covid deniers. I have no wish to reduce my thoughts to these narrow paradigms but rather hope to touch on some of the broader, lingering questions. I hope to argue on the side of truth (if that is at all possible!) but first let me first say this; there is a global lying enterprise primarily motivated by;

1.        Greed

2.       Quest for political power or control 

Now don’t get me wrong. I do not claim that there is a single global cabal churning out lies to the masses. Neither am I saying that this necessarily started with the pandemic. What I mean is that from 2020, I have observed an ever-increasing stream of untruths being sold to the public. This has been fuelled by a seemingly cultivated climate of fear and has led to a spike in propaganda-like messaging taking many forms. I’d say that it is all tied to an incredible level of greed and insatiable quest for power by big pharma, well-connected opportunists, and some government officials. If this is true, then it is vital that you see through the games. In other words, keep your head.

Allow me to clarify this point with a little history from the Bible.

The ancient Ephesians were a proud lot. They took great pride in worshipping their goddess Artemis. However, when a Christian evangelist visited Ephesus, he won over a sizable number of converts in a relatively short period of time. On the surface nothing seemed out of the ordinary but what the idol-worshipping adherents did know, is that behind the veneration of their precious idols, was a cabal of hard-core businessmen driven by little else other than greed and desire for control. It is unfortunate that some of the churches we attend are really like this; but that's a story for another day. This is how the story in Ephesus played out.

A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in no little business for the craftsmen. He called them together, along with the workmen in related trades, and said:

"Men, you know we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all. There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited, and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty." Acts 19:24-29

Now one would hope that people would be able to see through the self-serving machinations of the greedy men but no. The story goes that; 

When they heard this, they were furious and began shouting: "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" Soon the whole city was in an uproar. 

Any politician, astute businessman or preacher for that matter will tell you that Demetrius did not have a hard time convincing his close associates and then the public. When the conditions are right, it is fairly easy to lie to the masses and turn them against minority dissenters.

Consider the circumstances of the past two years. Any person who has held contrarian views regarding the manner of pandemic-control measures has been publicly maligned and cast aside as a conspiracy theorist. Some countries have gone as far as criminalizing contrarian views. YouTube will pull down any video that goes against ‘acceptable science’ around Covid-19. Twitter has even suspended some accounts. This I say, is a dress-rehearsal for stranger days ahead.

At the risk of being lumped together with the dissenting lot, I want to pose a few questions. They are by no means exhaustive.

1. Why has Pfizer (and I suspect other big pharma) compelled their customers (governments) into grossly unfair and straight-jacketed contracts. If you like you can read some examples Here or Watch. Is it because of the monies involved or is there more to it?
2. Why did more people die in America from (or with) Covid in 2021 than in 2020? Remember in 2020 there were no vaccines and much less knowledge about the virus, so we’d expect more fatalities in 2020. See report Here
3. Why has there been very little funding directed towards post-covid infection natural immunity?
4. Somewhat related to no. 3, why has there been little research into why there were no mass deaths in poor urban settlements in Africa where pandemic control measures were all but absent?