By Takura Zhangazha*
There have been a number of telling developments around the
tragic global spread of the Corona virus (Covid-19).
In one of the hardest hit European countries,
Italy, the mayors of some of its cities went viral on social media telling people
to stay at home and stop taking walks or jogs with their dogs. One mayor went so far as to tell/remind
residents something about how all of this is not the equivalent of American actor
Will Smith and a dog starring in the dystopian movie, ‘I am legend’.
In Australia, residents and tourists had to be physically prevented from going to their poplar Bondi beach in defiance of a legal
ban.
Closer to home, there were reports of defiance around the closure of entertainment spaces inclusive of bars in South Africa.
In Tanzania, President Magufuli, insisted that church
services would go ahead and insisted that Covid-19 cannot survive in churches. A move which obviously pandered to a religious
electoral base and reflected popular understanding of malady.
Or in Zimbabwe where some African Pentecostal churches keep
insisting on meeting despite the advice of the World Health Organisation. Or the fact of commodity shortages makes many
still flock to city centres and markets. Add to this, political blame games on social media
about which political party or leader is handling the situation better and you
have a recipe for what I call ‘main-actorism’. A point I will return to later.
The key questions that emerge for me is the motivation at
defiance of what are clearly policy positions meant to limit the spread of Covid-19. And the reality that governments quite
literally have to issue final edicts and warnings together with the threat of
imprisonment and monetary fines.
Which
means there is either a mistrust of governments’ directives at a time of a
global health crisis. Or there is a dangerous nonchalance that betrays how for many
survival may be viewed in more individualistic terms that thought of the collective
good or public health interest.
So this means that in part, our collective understanding of
the seriousness of the situation is subject to assumptions of
exceptionalism. Based on geographical
location, class and regrettably in some cases even race (check American
President Trump’s labeling of Covid-19 as ‘Chinese’. He has since retracted the statement. Sort of.)
If you add to the mix social media platforms, hungry as they
are for ‘apocalyptic’ content, by way of audiences, from one geographical location to the next and
you have the equivalent of various people sadly assuming it could never happen
to ‘them’. They are only there for the
comments. Not to analyze the underlying causes of the rapid spread of Covid-19
let alone the tragic inability of our global public health services to provide
treatment to those in need of it.
This is what I referred to earlier as the main actor
syndrome. A naïve assumption that it
cannot happen to you. Only others. This is where people fight over toilet paper,
insist on living ‘normal’ consumerist lives, insist on going to beaches or bars or crosscheck their personal
relations with medical personnel in tandem with their bank accounts.
What is even more interesting is the seeming universality of
this latter approach. High levels of individualism
together with assumptions of being able to best look after oneself
(particularly how to ‘enjoy’ life) is increasingly making it difficult for
government emergency directives to be adhered to.
Except of course in China where, as noted by many columnists/opinion
leaders now, the direct control the state has on individual lives as well as
consumption (yes its called state capitalism) means that as the pandemic occurred, the state acted with characteristic demonstration of the threat of
violence for defiance. (Hobbes anyone?)
What is very important in our African contexts is how we are
viewing the whole picture as we try and prevent Covid-19 from spreading further. While all donations are
welcome, we have to have a more organic approach in the short and long term about
our public health infrastructure.
Especially how to urgently renovate and improve it to help the many and
not the few.
The question is where do we learn a new public health approach
from? It is easy to follow the lead of developed countries when in fact we
should be looking at it from a more organic approach. Everyone needs access to
public health and treatment regardless of class, ethnicity or race. But similarly we need to remember that the
sole guarantor of this fundamental right to public health is the state. Not the private health companies. Not that
they should not exist.
But the priority
is that the state must always be able to provide public health services at all
times. In pandemics and in normal
times. (Crosscheck Cuba's example)
This may sound repetitive or abstract but it is what the situation
ostensibly requires. A lot of forward
thinking even as we try and solve the current crisis. African governments must show greater
determination than they are currently doing.
Things are not going to be the same. They cannot be the same. And the global north may become even more
circumspect about interacting with the global south even while donating medical
equipment.
All keeping in mind that, as the Italian mayor cited above
says, this is not a movie. There are no
main actors that supposedly survive to tell the tale. In this, we are all
equal. But in its aftermath there are many who would wish for an unjust public
health system. And that is something we must all work to prevent.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity
(takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)
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