Sundaymail Editor
Whenever human beings are confronted by mortal fear and existential threats, the primal instincts of self-preservation, where the self becomes important than everything and anyone else, naturally kick in and take over.
Fear and trepidation often result in intemperate and irrational reactions triumphing over modesty and common sense.
Some time back, Bishop Lazarus told you of one fine starry-skied evening around a fire that unexpectedly ended after the gathering was literally hounded by a clan of predators.
You should have been there to witness the festival of confusion that followed soon after the first eerie laughing sound from the pack broke the young night.
Both men and dogs, young and old, healthy and infirm instinctively scampered and scurried for the nearest kitchen hut to use as a convenient bunker.
The most crucial and cruel lesson that one learns in such circumstances is that dogs, which are regarded as man’s best friend and protector, do not bark at animals that present real danger to them; when confronted by the jungle’s meanest creatures, their flight — not fight — instincts get the better of them.
It was no different on this day, as the whimpering mutts were the first to bolt to safety, followed by a succession of hurriedly thudding feet.
A doddering infirm uncle, who was the laggard among the nimble-footed group, barely made it, as he had to squeeze through a door that was being forcefully slammed shut.
What followed after the door had been securely bolted was a discordant choir of chaps who were heaving from the just-ended breath-taking exertion.
The overpowering stench from adrenaline-drenched sweaty armpits told a story of overwhelming fear.
However, we only learnt after this mortal episode that the migration of these hyenas, just like other predators, was a once-in-a-generation occurrence, which usually happened when these creatures moved to other hunting grounds.
But, Bishop Lazi learnt from that incident that in times of great peril, the maxim “each man for himself and God for us all” always holds true.
Primitive
The ongoing mad scramble for coronavirus vaccines, particularly from rich countries seeking relief from the scourge, is a painful and alarming — but not unexpected — reminder of the true hypocritical nature of those who usually feign concern for poor souls in this part of the world.
The “haves” have already muscled their way to the front of the queue, while the “have nots” can only watch in consternation.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that about 95 percent of vaccines produced so far have gone to only 10 wealthy countries.
It corroborates a report by Kenya-based Oxfam International — a confederation of 20 independent charitable organisations — that claims only 14 percent of the global population has hoarded 53 percent of currently available vaccines.
By January 29, Canada, for example, which has a population of about 37,5 million, had bought 362 million vaccine doses, which translates to about 9,6 doses per individual.
It has to be remembered that only two doses per individual are being recommended for most vaccines.
Yet Africa — a continent brimming with more than 1,2 billion people, including the Bishop — had only purchased 260 million doses, or 0,2 doses per individual, in the same period. If this is not primitive accumulation, nothing else is.
And unsurprisingly, Africa, together with other developing countries around the world, has been relegated to the back of the queue.
Maitreya Bhakal, an Indian commentator who focuses on China, India, US and other global issues, was so incensed that he likened the current vaccine hoarding frenzy to the industrial-scale exploitation and wealth hoarding during colonisation.
He fell short of accusing these nations of flaunting fabulous ill-gotten riches to get their way.
“The Industrial Revolution occurred in Britain in large part due to its colonisation of India, which led directly to Britain’s superpower status. Hoarding India’s wealth (US$45 trillion in today’s value according to one study; 17 times Britain’s current GDP) is what helped make Britain rich.
“So rich that even the devastation of two world wars couldn’t make it poor again,” claimed Bhakal in his insightful article “Developing and developed countries must hang together”, which was published by the China Global Television Network (CGTN) on January 19.
“Yes — the West is proud of its wealth, whether due to hard work or mass murder. Yet, human lives matter. Covid-19 has already killed more than two million people globally, many of them in rich western democracies. It seems the ostensible superiority of western political systems doesn’t extend to saving lives. Just one county in the US for example — Bronx in New York City — has more Covid-19 deaths than the whole of China . . .
“While the West once hoarded wealth, today it hoards vaccines. Western nations did little to save their populations when there was no vaccine. Now that they are finally available, they are busy hoarding as many as they can.”
But even in wealthy countries such as the US that have hoarded the vaccine and currently ramping up inoculations, minorities such as blacks and Hispanics are receiving vaccines at significantly lower rates than white people.
However, the untold story is that some black communities are reluctant to receive the life-saving jabs as they are still haunted by the Tuskegee Study in Alabama, which dragged from 1932 to 1972 (40 years), where whites — working under the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) and later the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) — pretended to help blacks that were afflicted by syphilis.
In fact, they deliberately withheld treatments in order to “observe the natural history of untreated syphilis in black populations”.
It was only after The New York Times exposed the inhumane experiments on November 16, 1972 that they were finally discontinued.
This is not an old story, as you might want to believe, as the last of the unfortunate victims to be used as a guinea pig in this heinous study died in 2009, which is about 12 years ago.
Up to this day, no one — surprise! surprise! — has ever been prosecuted for these human experiments.
Valuable lesson
Surely, this has to be a lesson for those naïve to believe that those in faraway lands give a hoot about people in this part of the world, which was previously labelled the “Dark Continent”.
But the Lord will surely come through for us.
In Ezekiel 34:1-6, God sounds a warning to those who pretend to care for us.
“The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock.
“You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.”
The good thing is that there are more countries that are now producing coronavirus vaccines.
After our scientists make their considered decision — which is imminent — we will then begin digging ourselves out of this historically dark and grim epoch and continue with our determined march to a prosperous future.
Bishop out!
Online Reporter