Ineptitude in times of crisis
As your anarchist in captured Azania (aka South Africa) I have been observing this country for the months that COVID-19 has been making its trip around the world. It's funny, because others in the country, most notably the Economic Freedom Fighters, have been exceedingly vocal since bright and early. But they were slighted just because they're an opposing party. The strange thing is that parliament isn't a political party. The way Naledi Chirwa and others were treated for speaking out was just damn horrific. Considering that this is a flu epidemic, it is not kosher to shun any good criticism or advice. The ruling party of SA, has been all but useless in dealing with any major or minor health issue in the country. From terrible maternity wards to dysfunctional mental health facilities all the way up to HIV treatment for the poor, it's ugly. So watching the African National Congress trying to rally a nation into sensible preventative and mitigation measures for COVID-19 has been a fright show.
The president is pretty much as effective as anyone would expect, not very. Border security was not discussed for months. Only until we had our first reported case a few weeks ago did we actually start seeing some kind of sensible response. For a country that can rally hundreds of thousands of police against student riots or against people in Khayelitsha or Diepsloot, it's amazing how our police have not been utilised effectively to help build a dyke against this unyielding tide. The police could be grabbing a state doctor and throwing them in a van, going around vaccinating the nation. 1 dontor a van isn't too much, 2 per van would be perfect. Or perhaps all the soldiers they were sending to Cape Town to fight gangsterism could be used for voluntary or (jackboot willing) compulsory testing for viral pneumonia. Easy isn't it, to erect thousands of tents during an election so people can be incentivised to vote? Is it not equally easy to set up tents all around for people to get free masks, gloves, shots and sanitiser? What exactly is a government's priority if not its people? Consider that they did not call a travel ban on the day we all heard about a viral strain of pneumonia originating in Wuhan, China. Consider that private and government companies did not publicly block all travel to and from China. It's terrible to think that they were waiting for an infection before they treated the problem as serious. I'm calling out SAA and all the other flight companies.
I'm calling out our Chinese ambassador for being lioly-livered and not stepping up when the country needed high support. The South African populous is terrible at dealing with disaster. Floods and drought have proven this. The Eastern Cape has been in an apparent "state of emergency" but one wouldn't know if one went there. There is hardly any help. The budget for drought relief has not come through. So farmers are committing suicide, selling what little they have left or just dying from hunger and poverty as any African is expected to. The floods in Kwa Mashu, KwaZulu were nothing but news fodder and the people who lost homes were not helped, financially or with temporary homes. If a government can't do it, the people must do it for them selves. Alas, the populous respond to the news. They prefer being told what to do, when to act, when to panic. So as we suffer curfews and our public gatherings have been culled and gutted by a new bill, it seems we might have to look for alternative help. And for this we must look within. There is a lot to say, but I am girding my loins to see what I can do. Because many think this virus a fiction. Others treat it as a boogie minster that is far away. Others are in full panic mode, forgetting that basic and sanitation measures are all it takes to steel oneself against flu. But I see no major moves being made, and in a country as slow to act as this one, it's not far-fetched to expect Health Department money to go missing, to be badly invested or to just not come to the poorest at all.
The president is pretty much as effective as anyone would expect, not very. Border security was not discussed for months. Only until we had our first reported case a few weeks ago did we actually start seeing some kind of sensible response. For a country that can rally hundreds of thousands of police against student riots or against people in Khayelitsha or Diepsloot, it's amazing how our police have not been utilised effectively to help build a dyke against this unyielding tide. The police could be grabbing a state doctor and throwing them in a van, going around vaccinating the nation. 1 dontor a van isn't too much, 2 per van would be perfect. Or perhaps all the soldiers they were sending to Cape Town to fight gangsterism could be used for voluntary or (jackboot willing) compulsory testing for viral pneumonia. Easy isn't it, to erect thousands of tents during an election so people can be incentivised to vote? Is it not equally easy to set up tents all around for people to get free masks, gloves, shots and sanitiser? What exactly is a government's priority if not its people? Consider that they did not call a travel ban on the day we all heard about a viral strain of pneumonia originating in Wuhan, China. Consider that private and government companies did not publicly block all travel to and from China. It's terrible to think that they were waiting for an infection before they treated the problem as serious. I'm calling out SAA and all the other flight companies.
I'm calling out our Chinese ambassador for being lioly-livered and not stepping up when the country needed high support. The South African populous is terrible at dealing with disaster. Floods and drought have proven this. The Eastern Cape has been in an apparent "state of emergency" but one wouldn't know if one went there. There is hardly any help. The budget for drought relief has not come through. So farmers are committing suicide, selling what little they have left or just dying from hunger and poverty as any African is expected to. The floods in Kwa Mashu, KwaZulu were nothing but news fodder and the people who lost homes were not helped, financially or with temporary homes. If a government can't do it, the people must do it for them selves. Alas, the populous respond to the news. They prefer being told what to do, when to act, when to panic. So as we suffer curfews and our public gatherings have been culled and gutted by a new bill, it seems we might have to look for alternative help. And for this we must look within. There is a lot to say, but I am girding my loins to see what I can do. Because many think this virus a fiction. Others treat it as a boogie minster that is far away. Others are in full panic mode, forgetting that basic and sanitation measures are all it takes to steel oneself against flu. But I see no major moves being made, and in a country as slow to act as this one, it's not far-fetched to expect Health Department money to go missing, to be badly invested or to just not come to the poorest at all.
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