Mohd Siddiqur Rahman.
May I have your few minutes out of your valuable day to have glimpse over what is going on in my mind and emotion around COVID -19 pandemic that already affected 198 countries, and as of now of 26 march 20, killing over 21,191 and infecting over 368,644 and recovering about 109000 people.With no respite it has been in a forward march attacking the countries one after another; countries are having too much hurdles and stress to cope with the pace of its growing character.
After China, Italy and Spain, New York and California seem to be third epicenter of the COVID -19 pandemic in the U S.A. Doctors said children and elderly people are more vulnerable to this virus due to poor immune power in their bodies. Being on the verge of 80, I am living out these awful circumstances with great fear, panic and tension. Is there anybody who can think that this misfortune would not happen to him at all when it is soaring every moment and everyday by leaps and bounds? At this point, it is doubtlessly a great threat and scary to all ages of persons.
Based on the experience of moribund viruses like Ebola, Mars, SARS and Swine Flu, Mr. Bill Gates, one of the richest and biggest donors of the world predicted a few years ago, that the whole world would be facing 111 World War not against any nations, rather it would be against invisible enemies: pandemic. Further in 2018, he spelled out, The World needs to prepare for pandemics like war, furthermore, and he announced in a big assembly that the World would need to prepare for pandemics in the same serious way as it prepares for war. Despite his warning, all nations were seemingly not overly disturbed and played down its potential and expected emergence to the earth. What is reality now, we are practically faced with it in many countries–in response to its appearance, all countries, cities and towns, all most all academic and economic activities except for a few emergency services have been shut down to fight and contain the virus. All are now out to go to any length to fight over coved -19 pandemic, laid out all possible measures in place to defeat the further outbreak at any cost and as early as possible.
Let me look back at 1918 when Spanish Flu broke out, spread all most all over the world like pandemic infecting 500 million people and killing around 100 million people at that time. Science and technology was not as developed as it is now. Great economic depression shattered and devastated whole development infra structure, grim and dire situation prevailed, many habitations were devastated, and civilization was on the brink of ruin. World War 1 began in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and lasted until 1918. During the conflict, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire (the central powers) fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy Romania, Japan and the United States (The allied powers). World war 1 and Spanish Flue of 1918 both seriously impacted global economy and social fabrication.
What is being experienced on earth– Imperialism, violent nationalism, fascism, racism, fanaticism, materialism etc have provoked the people to be engaged in inhuman activities, rulers in power applied all its strength to stay in power after having detained, persecuted and prosecuted millions of people in different countries. Torture, extortion, arson, rape, detention, homicide, disappearance, exploitation and so forth are today’s common phenomena over our region and other countries as well. Whole world is not overly disturbed at this, watching like silent spectators over the inhuman beastly acts being performed by the powerful nations on the minorities and the poor and vulnerable classes. We can easily figure out this looking at the displaced people in refugee camps and the floating migrants on the run. All these are opposed to the philosophy of life, God created human being on purpose, i.e. mainly to serve the humanity, if humanity is undermined and inhuman activities are allowed to be continued, then existence and protection of modern civilization would be facing a great risk, the whole planet might be transformed into a place of serious chaos and confusion in the years to come. No crime could be concealed from the creator; He is all knowing and all powerful. His wrath is sure to befall us like pandemic as it occurred before, many times in different ages in the wake of misdeeds and cruel misuse of power perpetrated by the mighty king and persons on the weak… God has put us in test and trials to realize, that atom bomb, missiles, latest jets and drones, lethal weapons, chemical weapons, biological weapons, none of them is of no avail now, absolutely failed to battle the corona-virus. In view of the text, whole world should be focused on rendering humanitarian services to the needy people and rethink how to establish justice to all people of the world irrespective of race, color, class, nation, and cast and creed. We would like to see humanity and justice reigns supreme all over the world.
Nevertheless, President Donald Trump said this is Chinese virus since it came from China. In a reply to a question he said, I would like to be accurate. It is in our knowledge that coved -19 has originated from Wuhan Chinese city, their research laboratory also announced that this virus stemmed from Wuhan market and related to wild trade and sourced to more than 500 species of the world .Medical experts suspected Snakes and Bats could be the source of corona virus-19 pandemic. Anyway, Chinese authority had undertaken all string measures to battle over the virus and achieved great success in containing it by this time, if not completely at all. With regards to Europe, situation is so critical that a few words cannot detail them, all most all activities have been shut down, hundreds and thousands of people died including doctors and nurses, infected peoples are in no accounts, having suspended air transportation and many other communications, people have placed them in home quarantine to bring a halt to the virus. Likewise, other countries in Africa, Australia and Asia have laid out all possible programs in place over the virus to bounce it back at any cost.
Developing countries like Bangladesh is not prepared with enough establishments and required equipment, its huge population with infection would likely to be exceeding its existing capacities and capabilities. Number of doctors and nurses are not enough or well equipped to handle these huge and abnormal situations. Thankful to the Bangladesh got for having laid out such plans like deploying Army, closing academic institutions, cleaning the cities, setting up quarantine areas, cancelling gathering and get together in different celebrations, collecting the names of the fresh incoming immigrants and keeping them in quarantine ,banning gathering in mashed and manful and shutting down the unnecessary shops, hotels and restaurants, in a bid to contain the virus. It is absolutely praiseworthy. It is better to be late than never. It is good sign that mockery over the intensity of virus by some people is over now. Expected all of us discharge our own responsibilities and extend all out cooperation to the administrations at this time of critical situation as conscious citizens of the country.
In conclusion, In order to create awareness among the public, it is suggested that doctors and experts would be coming up frequently on news media with their recommendations on mutual/social distancing, using mask and hand globes, taking sufficient C Vitamin and hygienic food, taking physical exercise, using sanitizers while coughing and sneezing. Advice on how to get to the right place, right doctors and nurses should be precisely advised to the public so that they can immediately contact them in case of need. The World health organisation, in view of the dire situation, declared global emergency, so there is no scope to play down the steps under taken by the concerned administrations and experts to contain the outbreak of coved -19. Hopefully newspapers would be coming up with objective news over the crises to create awareness among the public.
Lastly, In Saa Allah, we would survive this universal catastrophes, we are not despaired of mercy, blessings and bounties of Allah. Let us love our Creator-Allah, fear Him so that He may perfect His favor to us and we may be rightly guided, seek help with patience and prayer, surely Allah is with the steadfast.
(Writer Mohd Siddiqur Rahman, Ex Country Manager of Biman, Bangladesh Airlines in Frankfurt, Germany )
