I
grew up in Uganda during the tumultuous 1980s where you didn’t have to be at fault to be hit
by a stray bullet coming
from any fracas started by anyone at any
time. One time whilst in my primary 3 class, we heard gun shots outside a
bit far off from the school. A few seconds afterward, Stephen my neighbor to
the right, on the same desk, was hit by something swift; he fell. its only when we saw blood that we knew something had gone terribly wrong! He survived by
a whisker as the bullet only glanced his skull and took off a chuck of flesh on
his head. So, I totally understand the meaning of the phrase "stray bullet".
In
those times basic military safety
protocol was tutored
into us; if you hear gun shots take cover, do not peer through windows at
night, avoid scenarios of chaos wherever you see them, etc. All this became second nature to us to date.
I
recall one day (I
was 10 years
old at the time) as I
walked back from school, a pickup truck loaded with Special Forces troops just pulled up swiftly beside me at the road, the soldiers jumped off and made a
quick formation and then started
offloading their AK47 rifles into the horizon, apparently "in
pursuit" of an errant colleague. Nothing like the sound of ten AK47s going
off in automatic fire at a go! that was some explosion. I cannot tell you how I
ended up in a very safe place behind a big tree, but I can attest to the fact
that I dived, hit the deck and
rolled. When I came to, I was safely tucked away behind this huge tree 15 meters away.
In
those days you could not behave like life was normal. No one convinced you of curfew, told you to to be indoors early and lock up your house or reminded
you to follow safety protocols. As a
child I saw so many corpses on the streets almost on a daily basis I became immune to
them. However, you ignored those SOPs to your own peril. In fact, you were considered a mad
man if you started running towards the direction of Gun shots instead of
further away from them.
The
world is at war right now. There is a World War raging
right now. This world war is more subtle but possibly more dangerous than the
other two before it. People have died by the thousands daily and continue to
die across the globe. What I notice about this war is that it puts you so much
at ease even when danger is looming right around your own corner; and that is how many have taken the hit! Many
have died and many more will die until the world adjusts to basic protocols for
safety. I notice my dear country Uganda is in serious trouble too from this war too.
From
piecing up numerous versions of its origins, Covid19 is a
weaponised virus. Only evil minds come up with such stuff and evil intent must
be presumed on how Covid19 was "accidentally " released
into humanity; no one though ever comes up to a firm
conclusion on how this "accident" happened. There are some constants in the Covid19 story
though; a bunch of American scientists, a city called Wuhan in
far East China, and an "accident" at a Chinese lab
in Wuhan.
There
has been lots of conspiracy theories around Covid19 that it would be unwise to think that all is well; the smoke is simply too much for one to ignore. So, following my simple logic, if we
presume that this is a weapon that was "accidentally" deployed, why
do we keep behaving like all around us
concerning this disease is normal? Why do we not exercise
precaution? It is high time we behaved like this is the war that it is. No
one in war time goes about hanging out whilst bombs fly over head and keep indiscriminately
landing on civilian targets.
Some
key things though to take note of even in war time: The Economy must continue
to grow else other gory stuff
kicks in; health
services must continue as these are the very lifeline of society during the
war, and life must go on but definitely cannot remain the same as it was in the beginning. My concern is that people in
Uganda keep behaving as though Covid19 is a common cold. A lot has been
said about the SOPs but it is alarming how these are breached even by those
that are educated enough to read and follow the international news reports;
those that can see the carnage of Covid19 almost first hand. Until we
begin to treat the Covid19 situation as the war that it is, a lot of our loved ones as
a people shall leave us before their time.
I
have interacted with lots of people who somehow think it is an act of valiance
to defy Covid19 by not following the SOPs; those who think it is an act
of weakness. Fine, it is your right to die before your time but do not take others with you who are innocent.
If you must defy SOPs, do it in your own private space, but for the sake of
those others around you align to the recommended guidelines. Strangely, this
disease can be transmitted by asymptomatic persons who then carry it to
unsuspecting innocent people that get badly hit. A number of people have been
affected this way. Also, as a society we must accept that certain rituals
around the dead belong to the past where in respect to what this sneaky enemy Covid19
can do, we must ensure to bury our dead without much fanfare. I have heard a
few stories of infections that
have happened around funeral vigils leading to further deaths that were not warranted.
I
have also heard some folks
from a religious perspective who
think exercising precautions against Covid19 is a lack of faith in God and His
salvation. As a pastor I notice so much troubling presumption among parishioners around this disease even when we sound warnings tirelessly at the pulpit about it. Until similar precautions were followed in the days of pandemics in
the past, many men and women of faith were lost to these merciless diseases.
Others think exercising precautions is expensive; to those I will say try
catching the disease and we compare notes and see which weighs you down more.
We
can make this disease get down on its knees and finally knock it out, but it is
going to take everyone believing that we are at war, and our enemy is merciless
and indiscriminate on
whom they knock out. Our enemy Covid19
has nothing to lose, and the sooner we figure this out, the better for us all.
We
are at war!!! Wake up
and exercise due precautions.
