ALONG CAME THE BATS: Personal Musings of a Man at home during the Days of the COVID-19 PANDEMIC.
It's a beautiful Saturday morning, I have not gone out, but from my curtain covered window, it seems the sun is shining, well, it's not like I am in a hurry to go anywhere, ordinarily, I would have been up and getting ready to go church, but not today, I cannot remember what day it is in my series of the sit at home order, I guess I have lost count for possibly two reasons, either that I have become numb from the loss of routine ( which is usually to get up, get ready and go to work on weekdays and then church on Saturdays) or I have become numb from hoping that the sit at home directive issued by government authorities at all level will end tomorrow which I don't know when and if it will ever come. Either way, I have lost count, and I don't think I am interested in counting anymore.
As I sit here, ruminating, I begin to smile, so the basic story has it that somebody or some people somewhere ate bats (I am hoping it was for Breakfast) and boom, they got a virus, and well this was in the last quarter of the year 2019, as at that time, these people enjoyed their common or exotic meal of bats, well I am beginning to imagine, did they fry them? Boil them? Season them before enjoying their meal of bats? (Well, my basic knowledge of Micro-organisms says that they can't survive at certain temperature ranges, but that's a story for another day) Who knows? Will we ever even know? As at the time they ate these bats, it was no body's business, infact, it was a harmless act, but just less than 6 months in the future, the basic story is," there is a highly infectious virus that spreads via human to human contact, it originated from an animal market in the Wuhan province of The People's Republic of China".
As at today, April, the 4th 2020, the reported death toll from the viral infection is over 50,000. Over 150 countries of the world are in a lock down, that means, people are asked to sit at home except they are providing essential services. Schools are closed down, places of worship and all forms of public gathering are closed down and prohibited. What a time to be alive!
At this point in my life, I am unfortunate to be straddling two countries, I reside in one and my heart and soul lives in another, where I reside is considered one of the MOST ADVANCED nations of the world, where my heart lives is considered a giant that has refused to quit acting like a toddler ( imagine a man 7ft tall,with his huge testicles dangling all over, yet swaddled in a baby's blanket, drooling all over himself and still crying for his mother's breast and attention when he is in any kind of discomfort), so everyday I wake up and through the news and social media, I monitor the response and progress of these two nations in battling the global pandemic, and one thing you cannot deny is this: THEY ARE BOTH STRUGGLING, although as expected, the world at Large looks up to my resident nation as one of the nations that remains a beacon of hope that we will overcome, and the reason is simple, their government leaders at all levels has made it a point of duty to issue daily briefings on the challenges and progress they are making to beat the virus, thus, you can conclude that my resident nation is doing better at the struggle. On the other hand, the home where my heart resides looks like a confused 5 year old at a crowded market, in my nation of heart residence, it seemed like the leaders have unleashed the military and security agents on the citizenry and then proceeded to a well deserved sabbatical leave. I feel like as always, that the nation is just one chaos away from crumbling like a pack of badly stacked glasswares (of course, such a crumble will be loud, and you can imagine the glassware splinters, a thousand and one pieces, anyone around that area of the crash is likely to be Seriously injured), but then, it's a feeling, for I know that even with my comparison of a pack of badly stacked glasswares, it has to take some action for the crash to occur. My home nation seems to be docile, inert, that's what I think. And that docility has served us well, and just for the avoidance of doubt, that docility is an integral part of governance in the land where my heart resides. But then again as always, I must forge on, for my Homeland and it's milieu of challenges are not the main subject of attention in this personal musings of of mine.
And so I wonder, for how long will the whole world remain on a halt? 3 months, 6 months? Will the whole world grinding to a halt stop the spread of the deadly virus? So many thoughts and questions with little or no respite nor answers. I am old enough to understand that nothing is really as it is at face value, you have to take a closer look, however most of the theories in the social media space are nothing short of laughable, one of those interesting theories that has gained traction in the last few days, is the theory that: an attempt to upgrade our existing internet and mobile phone network was a Science experiment gone wrong, and boom! the result is a deadly infectious virus, and you wonder why people propagating these theories are still using their high speed internet data,and sleek communications gadgets to spread their theory, (that's likeable to a group that has unleashed terror and mayhem on the citizens of my Homeland because, they consider western education a sin and a heinous crime punishable by death, however when it suits them, they send out their threats and victory through videos, they use AK-47 guns and an array of sophisticated military grade weapons, ride on automobiles, all products of western education), it's high time such individuals consider employing other means such as using metal gongs, wooden drums and employing the services of a town crier to disseminate their theories.
Another interesting angle is the Religion angle. The both nations I straddle at the moment are similar in their religious fervor, even though it may seem to the casual observer that my nation of residence is more secular in outlook, but on a closer look, you will find out that my nation of residence is just as religious as my Homeland, the nation where my heart resides. But as it is right now, both nations have their places of worship shut down, and for me being a Seventh-Day Adventist Christian, I have learnt that to understand the Bible, you have to desist from the blanket habit of interpreting the Bible verse-wise instead of in context (which means if you must get a proper understanding of a single verse of interest, you do need to read the verses preceding your verse of interest and the verses after it, by so doing, you have a better understanding of the event(s) that led to the writing of the verse you have picked out). Thus from the religious aisle, a lot of messages are flying around, some of them make inferences or specific references to some Bible passages and verses. Of a particular interest is one of the verse from Isaiah 20, where a lot of Christian faithfuls in the two nations have used to justify the fact that the principle of sitting down at home as a quarantine measure is godly and biblical. And I thought: who can really stand the Lord's anger? So, is this Virus the Lord angry at Humanity.? Well I like to think that God has been angry with humanity since the Serpent deceived our first parents, however the day He decides to express His anger, no Living soul not insured by the Blood of Jesus Christ shed at the cross of Calvary will live to tell the story. I like to believe that there are other suitable biblical basis for making reference to the principle of separation as it involves safety and public health. Examples includes the Lepers colony and the Public health laws God gave the children of Israel as the journeyed from Egypt to Cannan. And then there is the other angle of What Jesus would have done, but that angle is even more complicated. Thus I ask, what happened to miracle working? Or are the real miracles the God- given Scientific knowledge and resources? Is there any Christian out there who feels like religion has been a big disappointment in this war against a deadly and highly infectious virus, do we have Elijahs in this generation? Or like someone rightly said, are the religious leaders waiting for this scourge to be over so that they can return to their business of miracle working? Are all God's people dead? or has God's people refused to seek His face and turn from their wicked ways? Did God not say in His word that "If my People who are called by name……… I will hear from heaven and heal their land" (2 Chron. 7:14)
Well, I read an article in a Science journal dated 2007, where a group of researchers who worked on similar classes of Virus such as SARS, MERS, predicted a possible evolvement of the Novel Corona Virus as we now know it due to a high possibility of a rearrangement of it's genetic material in an animal host. So what do I think solution wise:
My Homeland needs to look inward and stop waiting and looking up to nations such as my resident nation to come up with a more globally acceptable cure. We can look at the herbs, and even the much touted antimalarial drug Chloroquine and it's variant, Hydroxychloroquine. Because one of the funny paradoxes of life is that big deals are undone by tiny factors that are most times overlooked, unaccounted for and are not even half ernomous in size. This is also, not ruling out the possibilities from herbal mixtures obtainable from qualified individuals in that field, since my basic knowledge of plant Biochemistry and Organic chemistry says that the average plant contains thousands of alkaloids (alkaloids are chemicals compounds found in plants with a variety of potency if properly researched and harnessed) .
My resident nation has been fairly able to effect the sit at home directive, but here every thing boils down to partisan politics, but my guess is that they keep extending these directives hoping to get a cure soon or even better still a vaccine, only God knows how soon that will happen, there are also projections that there may be a possible resurgence in the fall months, but I am of the opinion that as long as you have essential service providers interacting with individuals who are infected, there will be no flattening of the epidemiological curve (Note: FLATTENING THE CURVE: has become one of those catch phrases used by experts and the mainstream media to suggest that, if people stayed at home and away from crowded places, the geometric rise being witnessed in the number of individuals who are being infected with the virus will begin to decline), rather we will have the curve remain on the rise abut in an arithmetic progression instead. This, is even a more dangerous projection, as it means that in the long or medium run, their will be an outbreak in a geometric proportion that will be even much more difficult to deal with. Thus, as time drags on, people in both nations will be fed up with being confined to their homes, there is no telling what will happen in such a scenario. This scenario is even more likely to play out faster in my Homeland (but without the much anticipated political upheavals as some people would have rightly expected), than it will play out in my Country of residence (and you can be sure that it will have far reaching political consequences if it ever gets to that point).
However, it's not all sad and gloom, there have been significant success and progress in the fight against this invisible enemy. As at yesterday, it was announced during the presidential briefings in my resident nation that testing kits which can give results as fast as 15 minutes has been successfully developed and is currently being mass-produced, that's wonderful news! These kits can be deployed at vantage points, while the global leaders consider parameters to gradually return the world to it's regular hustle and bustle while expedited research efforts continue in search of a cure and a potent Vaccine. Until then, someone who understands the language of the animals or the bats should tell them that while we are still reeling from the effects of the terror they allegedly unleashed on us, by and Large, WE SHALL OVERCOME!!!
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Joy Bayawa Hananiya is graduate of English. Her interest include studies on ecocrticism, political literature, sociolinguistics.
Ogbonna Eleweke holds a Masters degree in Bioengineering.
He enjoys reading, writing and listening to good Music. Ogbonna writes from Dallas, Texas.
As I sit here, ruminating, I begin to smile, so the basic story has it that somebody or some people somewhere ate bats (I am hoping it was for Breakfast) and boom, they got a virus, and well this was in the last quarter of the year 2019, as at that time, these people enjoyed their common or exotic meal of bats, well I am beginning to imagine, did they fry them? Boil them? Season them before enjoying their meal of bats? (Well, my basic knowledge of Micro-organisms says that they can't survive at certain temperature ranges, but that's a story for another day) Who knows? Will we ever even know? As at the time they ate these bats, it was no body's business, infact, it was a harmless act, but just less than 6 months in the future, the basic story is," there is a highly infectious virus that spreads via human to human contact, it originated from an animal market in the Wuhan province of The People's Republic of China".
As at today, April, the 4th 2020, the reported death toll from the viral infection is over 50,000. Over 150 countries of the world are in a lock down, that means, people are asked to sit at home except they are providing essential services. Schools are closed down, places of worship and all forms of public gathering are closed down and prohibited. What a time to be alive!
At this point in my life, I am unfortunate to be straddling two countries, I reside in one and my heart and soul lives in another, where I reside is considered one of the MOST ADVANCED nations of the world, where my heart lives is considered a giant that has refused to quit acting like a toddler ( imagine a man 7ft tall,with his huge testicles dangling all over, yet swaddled in a baby's blanket, drooling all over himself and still crying for his mother's breast and attention when he is in any kind of discomfort), so everyday I wake up and through the news and social media, I monitor the response and progress of these two nations in battling the global pandemic, and one thing you cannot deny is this: THEY ARE BOTH STRUGGLING, although as expected, the world at Large looks up to my resident nation as one of the nations that remains a beacon of hope that we will overcome, and the reason is simple, their government leaders at all levels has made it a point of duty to issue daily briefings on the challenges and progress they are making to beat the virus, thus, you can conclude that my resident nation is doing better at the struggle. On the other hand, the home where my heart resides looks like a confused 5 year old at a crowded market, in my nation of heart residence, it seemed like the leaders have unleashed the military and security agents on the citizenry and then proceeded to a well deserved sabbatical leave. I feel like as always, that the nation is just one chaos away from crumbling like a pack of badly stacked glasswares (of course, such a crumble will be loud, and you can imagine the glassware splinters, a thousand and one pieces, anyone around that area of the crash is likely to be Seriously injured), but then, it's a feeling, for I know that even with my comparison of a pack of badly stacked glasswares, it has to take some action for the crash to occur. My home nation seems to be docile, inert, that's what I think. And that docility has served us well, and just for the avoidance of doubt, that docility is an integral part of governance in the land where my heart resides. But then again as always, I must forge on, for my Homeland and it's milieu of challenges are not the main subject of attention in this personal musings of of mine.
And so I wonder, for how long will the whole world remain on a halt? 3 months, 6 months? Will the whole world grinding to a halt stop the spread of the deadly virus? So many thoughts and questions with little or no respite nor answers. I am old enough to understand that nothing is really as it is at face value, you have to take a closer look, however most of the theories in the social media space are nothing short of laughable, one of those interesting theories that has gained traction in the last few days, is the theory that: an attempt to upgrade our existing internet and mobile phone network was a Science experiment gone wrong, and boom! the result is a deadly infectious virus, and you wonder why people propagating these theories are still using their high speed internet data,and sleek communications gadgets to spread their theory, (that's likeable to a group that has unleashed terror and mayhem on the citizens of my Homeland because, they consider western education a sin and a heinous crime punishable by death, however when it suits them, they send out their threats and victory through videos, they use AK-47 guns and an array of sophisticated military grade weapons, ride on automobiles, all products of western education), it's high time such individuals consider employing other means such as using metal gongs, wooden drums and employing the services of a town crier to disseminate their theories.
Another interesting angle is the Religion angle. The both nations I straddle at the moment are similar in their religious fervor, even though it may seem to the casual observer that my nation of residence is more secular in outlook, but on a closer look, you will find out that my nation of residence is just as religious as my Homeland, the nation where my heart resides. But as it is right now, both nations have their places of worship shut down, and for me being a Seventh-Day Adventist Christian, I have learnt that to understand the Bible, you have to desist from the blanket habit of interpreting the Bible verse-wise instead of in context (which means if you must get a proper understanding of a single verse of interest, you do need to read the verses preceding your verse of interest and the verses after it, by so doing, you have a better understanding of the event(s) that led to the writing of the verse you have picked out). Thus from the religious aisle, a lot of messages are flying around, some of them make inferences or specific references to some Bible passages and verses. Of a particular interest is one of the verse from Isaiah 20, where a lot of Christian faithfuls in the two nations have used to justify the fact that the principle of sitting down at home as a quarantine measure is godly and biblical. And I thought: who can really stand the Lord's anger? So, is this Virus the Lord angry at Humanity.? Well I like to think that God has been angry with humanity since the Serpent deceived our first parents, however the day He decides to express His anger, no Living soul not insured by the Blood of Jesus Christ shed at the cross of Calvary will live to tell the story. I like to believe that there are other suitable biblical basis for making reference to the principle of separation as it involves safety and public health. Examples includes the Lepers colony and the Public health laws God gave the children of Israel as the journeyed from Egypt to Cannan. And then there is the other angle of What Jesus would have done, but that angle is even more complicated. Thus I ask, what happened to miracle working? Or are the real miracles the God- given Scientific knowledge and resources? Is there any Christian out there who feels like religion has been a big disappointment in this war against a deadly and highly infectious virus, do we have Elijahs in this generation? Or like someone rightly said, are the religious leaders waiting for this scourge to be over so that they can return to their business of miracle working? Are all God's people dead? or has God's people refused to seek His face and turn from their wicked ways? Did God not say in His word that "If my People who are called by name……… I will hear from heaven and heal their land" (2 Chron. 7:14)
Well, I read an article in a Science journal dated 2007, where a group of researchers who worked on similar classes of Virus such as SARS, MERS, predicted a possible evolvement of the Novel Corona Virus as we now know it due to a high possibility of a rearrangement of it's genetic material in an animal host. So what do I think solution wise:
My Homeland needs to look inward and stop waiting and looking up to nations such as my resident nation to come up with a more globally acceptable cure. We can look at the herbs, and even the much touted antimalarial drug Chloroquine and it's variant, Hydroxychloroquine. Because one of the funny paradoxes of life is that big deals are undone by tiny factors that are most times overlooked, unaccounted for and are not even half ernomous in size. This is also, not ruling out the possibilities from herbal mixtures obtainable from qualified individuals in that field, since my basic knowledge of plant Biochemistry and Organic chemistry says that the average plant contains thousands of alkaloids (alkaloids are chemicals compounds found in plants with a variety of potency if properly researched and harnessed) .
My resident nation has been fairly able to effect the sit at home directive, but here every thing boils down to partisan politics, but my guess is that they keep extending these directives hoping to get a cure soon or even better still a vaccine, only God knows how soon that will happen, there are also projections that there may be a possible resurgence in the fall months, but I am of the opinion that as long as you have essential service providers interacting with individuals who are infected, there will be no flattening of the epidemiological curve (Note: FLATTENING THE CURVE: has become one of those catch phrases used by experts and the mainstream media to suggest that, if people stayed at home and away from crowded places, the geometric rise being witnessed in the number of individuals who are being infected with the virus will begin to decline), rather we will have the curve remain on the rise abut in an arithmetic progression instead. This, is even a more dangerous projection, as it means that in the long or medium run, their will be an outbreak in a geometric proportion that will be even much more difficult to deal with. Thus, as time drags on, people in both nations will be fed up with being confined to their homes, there is no telling what will happen in such a scenario. This scenario is even more likely to play out faster in my Homeland (but without the much anticipated political upheavals as some people would have rightly expected), than it will play out in my Country of residence (and you can be sure that it will have far reaching political consequences if it ever gets to that point).
However, it's not all sad and gloom, there have been significant success and progress in the fight against this invisible enemy. As at yesterday, it was announced during the presidential briefings in my resident nation that testing kits which can give results as fast as 15 minutes has been successfully developed and is currently being mass-produced, that's wonderful news! These kits can be deployed at vantage points, while the global leaders consider parameters to gradually return the world to it's regular hustle and bustle while expedited research efforts continue in search of a cure and a potent Vaccine. Until then, someone who understands the language of the animals or the bats should tell them that while we are still reeling from the effects of the terror they allegedly unleashed on us, by and Large, WE SHALL OVERCOME!!!
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Joy Bayawa Hananiya is graduate of English. Her interest include studies on ecocrticism, political literature, sociolinguistics.
Ogbonna Eleweke holds a Masters degree in Bioengineering.
He enjoys reading, writing and listening to good Music. Ogbonna writes from Dallas, Texas.
Such an inspiring and beautiful masterpiece. I commend d authors for this excellent piece.
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