We’re Not Invincible
This might seem like a really obvious thing to say, but I feel like this is a mindset that a lot of people had before COVID19 hit – and I’m also guilty of this! Especially over here in the West – where we’re lucky enough to not have to worry about not being able to eat or not having a roof over our heads or a limited access to education or healthcare – it’s easy to then think that all those problems we hear about in the news are too far away for anything similar to ever disrupt our busy lives.
Like remember when Ebola was such a big thing on the news? Not going to lie, I kind of thought something similar was going to happen with the coronavirus – that it would happen on one side of the globe and the news would keep on talking about it, but it would remain contained and not affect the rest of the world and they’d find a cure and that would be the end of it (sidenote: Ebola became a thing in February 2014, and they still don’t actually have a specific treatment/cure for it… which is simultaneously mind-blowing and terrifying).
Reading the News is Important
I don’t know about you, but since COVID19 hit I have never read so much news in all my life. I’m not even kidding.
I remember when the coronavirus was becoming a really big thing in China back in January (oh, the good days when the world wasn’t in self-isolation and normal life was normal…) and my sister and I were absolutely intrigued and we had both independently gone and done so much research about it and then had been quizzing each other about it at the dinner table.
When the first case of coronavirus had been confirmed I was in Biology class and the second it went on BBC, one girl got a notification and started screaming about it and then we were all just freaking out… it’s actually crazy how obsessed I have seen myself, my friends and so many other people with keeping up to date with the news and reading articles, watching videos and interviews, etc.
I think this just highlights how important keeping up with global affairs is – even if it’s about something that doesn’t directly affect you – because you can still learn a LOT from it and just generally be a more knowledgable and educated person. Wouldn’t you want to be that annoying smart kid that always goes “WRONG!” whenever someone circulates some stupid rumour? I would, because I was always the kid that was repeating the stupid rumour… whoops (sidenote: when we were back in school, I had loads of fun redeeming myself and cancelling all the weird coronavirus rumours that were going around because like I said before, I read so much about the virus before we even thought it would become a global pandemic).
The Struggle
It’s interesting that the rest of the world now seems to be suffering from something slightly similar to what nearly 36% of the population (1.85 billion people who live in extreme poverty, according to a study in November 2018) have to deal with everyday.
Because if you think about it, the reason the coronavirus is such a big deal is because it’s dangerous and there is no cure. If anything, people living in poverty have it worst – imagine dying from an illness knowing there’s a cure but having no access to it – knowing that you can be saved but you aren’t!
Staying Humble
In conclusion, I think the main takeaway from COVID19 and the way it has become a global pandemic and struck fear into the hearts of millions if not billions of people so fast – is that as a people, we should be more humble.
And you might be thinking – what does being humble have anything to do with this??? Well, I think COVID19 is a powerful reminder of how we don’t actually have that much power over our lives, or any power at all… sure, we have nuclear weapons and can go to the moon… but a virus with a diameter of 120nm can essentially shut down all the world’s most powerful nations and (this is what the news has been saying) send our economy into a recession this world has never seen?
So if you’re a person of faith (I’m a Muslim), we can talk about the power of God… and that’s what I want to talk about in my next post (which will be about Islam so will be aimed at Muslims).
Thank you for reading this post, I hope you found it insightful! Let me know your thoughts in the comments and what you might want me to discuss/reflect upon next or any other post ideas. Stay safe!
many things bookish 