The story is a prism
The fields, parks,
streets were alive with the crowds of people who had been unlocked from the
throes of a pandemic that by inference conferred unprecedented powers on our government
to restrict freedoms and liberties in the quest for saving lives by preventing
the National Health Service from being overwhelmed by admissions of people
infected with the Coronavirus.
The focus was never
on the people, it was on the protection of institutions and organisations, the
people becoming pawns in the macabre dance of misused power and rank incompetence
leading to the unmitigated loss of lives numbering 126,615 people with the UK
being the 5th globally yet by population less than half the number
of people in the lowest populated country of the 4 with more deaths than The UK. That is the measure of the carnage in our country which by global
population is the 21st. [WorldMeters: Coronavirus]
A failure by
comparison
The success in the
vaccination programme which must be commended cannot however obviate the other
realities of the failings in the management of this pandemic and we must be
able to hold all those thoughts together. A basic analogy is in a certificated course
of study that consists of 5 subjects, getting an A-grade in one does not constitute
a pass if the other 4 subjects are failed. You acknowledge the grading in each
subject and reach a conclusion that a certificate of completion and meeting the
requirements for the meeting the award of a certificate have not been
fulfilled.
That is what pertains
to the UK in terms of acting purposefully and with alacrity in initiating an
early lockdown, the provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), the
instituting of an effective testing programme and the essential need for a contact
tracing system to contain the spread of the Coronavirus on which £37 billion
has been expended.
When reviewed in that
context, we have been grossly failed even as we have tried under the pain of
sanction and prohibitive fines rather than persuasion of my better selves and
common good to follow the diktat of a government speedily becoming redolent of
an autocratic junta with little scope for accountability or assuming
responsibility.
A future for reckoning
Yet, there is
something to celebrate, with the easing of the lockdown, and the weather providing
a warm spring, we all came out, met friends, played music and in my little
neighbourly bubble, we met in our village garden for some Backsberg
Pinotage Rosé 2019, Belgian curls
and Nigerian chin-chin,
catching up on things we had left unshared since the first weekend of December.
There is an air of
defiance and hope that we are all on the up, I just hope that in our enjoyment
of the moment we are not forgetful of the few successes and the many tragedies
for which we must find the forum to review the issues and properly learn the lessons
to ensure we are never again caught in the unconscionable grip of a
kakistocracy as we endure today. Cheers to the unlocking.
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