Seeing all the good things we’ve lost to Covid-19, including jobs, investments and lives, got me thinking about what I wish it would take out instead, particularly challenges the world has grappled with for years, like corruption. You’d think that all that time we had for self-reflection during lockdown inspired us to change for the better, and it did for some but clearly, greed hasn’t gone away and you see it in the many reports of relief and recovery funds being siphoned, not by people struggling to make ends meet as many are, but by those already blessed with more than they need. Someone raised an important point about some patients who can’t afford to pay for respirators and ventilators to aid their breathing, and many have died because of that, and yet there are vendors out there being greedy with them and in all this, none of us has ever paid God a single coin for the free oxygen we’ve breathed our entire lives. And how about terrorism? While there’s been a lull of sorts as militants aren’t immune either, attacks haven’t stopped completely. Imagine what the world would be like without terrorists. Reports of the Taliban’s 3-day ceasefire so Afghans could celebrate Eid probably had everyone wondering why they just don’t stop fighting altogether since they signed a peace deal not too long ago to end the conflict for good — even though they continue to target innocent civilians, most recently at a maternity hospital where they killed at least 24 nurses, new moms and new-borns. My guess is that they’ll pick up right where they left off after the truce which is so ridiculous. Then there’s racism. Will we ever see the end of it? That poor black jogger shot by two white men as a third filmed it all is just sad. That someone would calmly watch the murder of another human being, not to document the injustice but likely for fun, is beyond despicable and I read somewhere that the sister of the killer shared photos of Ahmed Aubrey’s dead body on social media because apparently, she’s into that kind of crime. And before that case had even been closed, another black man died earlier this week after a white police officer knelt on his neck for over five minutes. Black lives clearly don’t matter to these kinds of people who’re never going to see past colour and believe they are the superior race and we have to live with that. Last but not least, these swarms of locusts that don’t require visas and permission to go outside! They’ve done a good job reaping what they didn’t sow and continue to give farmers across East Africa and now India sleepless nights. I hope they don’t consume all our food!
