A 2020, which found us as it had not happened for a long time, with a global crisis. But this time it is not for economic reasons, it is not the crisis of the 30s, but it is a crisis caused by a disease, a virus, COVID-19. Where countries have reacted very quickly, following WHO recommendations, in order to reduce the death toll. Despite this reaction, the virus arrived in record time, in the vast majority of places in the world, on the five continents; facilitated by the global culture of traveling from one point to another, in a matter of hours.
With a little memory, the world’s largest pandemics did not last for months, but for years, and some today coexist with us. One of them is HIV, commonly called AIDS, which has existed since 1981, and has taken the lives of more than 25 million people. 40 years have passed, and this disease still persists among us. In 2018, malaria cases were estimated at 228 million worldwide. The estimated number of deaths from this disease was 405,000 for that year. As we see, in today’s world we live with diseases, which generally attack the most vulnerable part of society. Many of these deaths occur in countries like Africa, where poverty breaks out in large numbers. And here is the difference with CONVID-19, which has not only attacked the most vulnerable sectors, but cities and rich and developed countries, such as the US, with an uncertain future due to its containment policy, or Spain and Italy, with thousands of deaths. everyday. Cities such as New York and Milan, where wealth abounds, were paralyzed by this virus that advances with an unprecedented speed of contagion, overwhelming any sanitary capacity.
The current strategy against this pandemic, until now, was the paralysis of our economic and social activities, as has never been seen, in most of the countries of the world, during the last decades. Planet Earth, and nature, showed us, again, how weak we are, and that our actions once again generate their consequences. Let us remember that many of the diseases that circulate in the world today are consequences of deforestation and industrial livestock farming. Let us hope that these new times serve to reorder our thoughts, and value those people who pass by invisible, those heroes without capes like doctors and nurses; and that they not only have greater recognition, but that we also help them to make their task easier.
In contrast, due to less human activity, we find a healthier planet, cleaner air, less noise pollution, more crystalline waters, the reappearance of native fauna in the streets; We deserve to reflect that we are doing wrong, and how much we have to improve. That using a car was not so necessary, that we can work in many cases, from our homes, that it was not necessary to take so many flights, and that the «invasion» of those places in nature for tourist purposes was not so necessary. Perhaps this is the positive part of this pandemic, that we have a moment to reflect on nature and its place, and that we have stolen so much space from it.
We are many, and for the planet and its non-human inhabitants, we had better be home. That is part of the message I read between the lines; that we have to stop the game, change our customs, actions, and that not everything must revolve around our desires for consumption and freedoms, which border on debauchery. Where we do not measure that our freedom damages the freedom of others. We are part of a system that only serves us, and not everyone, but a few. It is not a question of capitalism vs. communism, that is a debate for people with significant spiritual and intellectual poverty, it is a debate to meditate, to live in freedom, respecting the freedom of others and future generations. It is time for greater solidarity and reflection, on how we will return, the day after the pandemic. Are we going to be ourselves, devouring the world, in a selfish way, or are we going to understand that we should change our actions? The question is on the table …