All unquiet on the western front

Deserted. Quiet. Forlorn. From London to New York Christmas and new year were painfully silent. These two occasions were symbolized by the biggest festive atmosphere that led the human celebrations. Christmas signaled holidays, back to home, shop till you drop, eat and feast time of the year. Roads lit with lights, shops displaying windows of colour and goodies, and streets were thronged with people singing and dancing. The whole year was planned for this culmination. Travel, buying, spending and eating were scheduled with joyous expectation. Instead these vibrant cities were ghost towns with shutter-down on shops and public places. Even at home, gatherings were limited as the fear of the new virus strain forced governments to force people to stay home and stay isolated.

With the vaccine rolled out before the end of the year the expectation was that the year would end on a high hole. Instead, it ended on a chaotic note for the UK and on a confused note for the US. Boris Johnson and Donald Trump were equally incapable of understanding the gravity of the situation. In the UK, zones were categorized in ‘Tier 1’ to ‘Tier 4’ based on prevalence of infection. ‘Tier 4’ being the harshest and ‘Tier 1’ the most relaxed form of lockdown. December was a month where most zones should have been in ‘Tier 1’ or Two. London the main town was in ‘Tier Two’ at the time when infections started soaring. It was transferred to ‘Tier 3’ and then relaxed again after a short period. As Christmas came nearer London infections hit the roof and it went from ‘Tier 3’ to ‘Tier 4’ to a complete National Lockdown. An example of poor judgement and policy making.

On the other hand, in the USA, the new year started the new year violence. Scenes of mobs marching towards Capitol Hill were almost unreal. Violent Americans attacking the parliament by breaking windows, damaging the furniture was almost unbelievable. Spiderman-like climbing of the walls of the Congress to attack congressmen was almost indigestible. But real they were. National Guards had to take over the building and curfew had to be imposed.

The West has been a model of development for decades. Democracy, civilization, rule of law, accountability, human rights have become generic to the UK and the USA. Affluence, equality and peace highlighted the rise of Western Europe and North America. Everybody had a chance of making it in these countries. The UK became the center of multicultural development and the USA became the pivot of opportunity equality. Wealth and health indicators led them to rule the world. All major innovations and inventions in our lifetime originated from these lands of gold rush. They were the first world and the Asians were mostly the third world.

As they say crisis brings the best and worst out of nations. The unprecedented Corona Crisis has uncovered thin masks of civility at the individual and country level in the West. We have witnessed scenes that are lifetime novelties. Some factors that have been responsible for this unique history creation are:

1. Affluence is Addictive- Post-World War-II Europe decided to stop fighting within and become one in the form of the European Union and the USA decided to divide the Middle East to earn petro dollars and boost its defence industry. An economy of abundance and affluence rose to levels never before. Under the guise of globalization they played the trade is a zero-sum game and used cheap resources of Asia to boost consumerism and capitalism back home. It is only when China became a threat to their wealth monopoly that US started to realize the flaws of live to spend culture. Coronavirus magnified the growing inequalities and unrest in a society used to easy living based on credit and mortgage. Jobs and food scarcity were unheard off. This brought the worst out of many people giving rise to the violence in “BlackLivesMatter” movement and the horrible violence on Capitol Hill.

2. Self Restraint- Coronavirus also highlighted

the cultural DNA of Western Vs Asian countries. Generally, Coronavirus was better managed by Asian countries. One reason was the habit of restraint Vs Freedom. China maybe an extreme example of enforced discipline but countries like South Korea, Singapore and Japan were able to manage the corona better. Having previous incident of SARS was one factor but the ability to adhere to SOPs by wearing masks and restricting socializing were key factors. On the other hand in Europe and USA people are not used to restraints and the understanding or misunderstanding of the word “freedom” led to people rebelling against staying at home, wearing masks etc. This is the price of over-indulging in imbalance of a consumeristic society.

1. Over protected immunity- the basic theory behind a vaccine is that a safe low dose of the virus like medicine will induce immunity through anti-bodies and help fight the actual virus if it attacks. One reason why countries like the UK, France, Italy and the USA have seen all record breaking infections in the first and second wave is also speculated as being under-exposed and unprepared immunity systems. Countries in the under-developed world like Pakistan have managed really well. Aside from good strategies like smart lockdown the fact that viruses is part of our daily breathing may be another factor why our bodies are more resistant to fighting viruses. A crude example of this is the way any western foreigner has an upset stomach when they eat in Pakistan or India.

At the end of the day crisis is an exposé of the mettle of the character of the people and its leaders. The top two countries that have had the highest virus damage – the USA and India – have leaders who are obsessed with dividing their nations on race and religious extremism. What can be a bigger evidence of this tragedy of errors that the US government is now thinking of replacing Trump with Vice President Mike Pence for 15 days till the new government takes oath. After 1500 days of Trump they finally realize that he is a bigger threat than coronavirus. While they say it is never too late, in this case it is 1500 days too late.

(The writer can be reached at [email protected])

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021