Do Remember

A friend in Delhi, a retired army officer once said to me: ‘Democracy is community, Lucy.’
I had thought this so apt a comment that I quoted him in my book Outgrowing the Big.

Now I am not at all sure if this is true.

In the UK, we are able to breathe a little easier because of the rollout of the vaccines and the drop in Covid-19 cases; eased lockdown restrictions have allowed us to meet friends and family and luxuriate in the spring sunshine. The laughter of children in school playgrounds is once again a familiar sound.

But all this against a backdrop of some appalling decisions made by our government in its handling of the pandemic which reek of Double Standards.
The one that still grates on me most is the punch in the gut to the NHS nurses who were refused a decent pay rise whilst £21billion was wasted on contracts allotted to private companies for a practically useless Track and Trace system.
As for the 400,000 hospital gowns ordered from a Turkish T-shirt manufacturer, only a fraction of which arrived in the UK courtesy of the Royal Air Force and which were then found to be unusable, while nurses I know were making PPE out of bin-liners…

Where is the shame? Or is shamelessness now next to godliness?
If this is democracy, it is not serving the community well.

Meanwhile in the world’s largest democracy - India - these are indeed dire times.
Even our beloved rural Bihar, which had escaped the first COVID-19 wave practically unscathed, is suffering.
Just a week ago, one doctor with whom we work was looking forward to the opening of his new eye hospital in north eastern Bihar to better serve the increased numbers of patients he is seeing; now he is recovering from the virus along with his family.
So too is a brilliant paediatric eye surgeon in Patna city to whom we refer many children for urgent cataract surgery.

Very sadly, we have lost the dear mother of a third eye surgeon. For a week we remained on tenterhooks as a young eye hospital manager lay in ICU. I have just heard that he has been transferred to a ward and is able to breathe without oxygen.

Once again, this turmoil and human tragedy is taking place against a backdrop of almost breathtaking shamelessness. Behaving as if the country had comprehensively seen off the Covid-19 virus, the Indian Government promoted a huge Hindu festival (laying on extra trains so that people could attend it) which saw several million people gathering on the banks of the River Ganges. And, oh yes, because politics is much more important that people’s health, large political rallies were allowed to take place with politicians setting the standard by wearing no face masks.

Once again, Democracy is failing the people.

And yet, in both countries, as always, hope in humanity is coming from the unbelievable action of concerned citizens. The community - people who care about each other and have relationships with each other.

In the UK I know of hardly anyone who was not involved in some way in helping care for others more vulnerable than themselves during our extended lockdown. Small local charities and community groups, already run on shoestring budgets, stepped up their vital services sometimes even endangering their long-term viability by spending their small reserves to do so. Humanity trounced self-preservation.

The same happened in India. The first lockdown in early 2020 was draconian and came with little warning. Thousands of migrant workers from Bihar, who were thrown out of their jobs in Mumbai and Delhi, fled back to their villages. There was little transport so they walked. Many died on the road.

Social worker Jestin Anthony and an alliance of small local Indian NGOs came together to provide food and water for the migrant workers remaining in Delhi. On some days they simply ran out of supplies. He told me: ‘They waited patiently in line. And when there was nothing left, they just turned and walked away. They still had hope. I wondered where they got this from.’

By the 4th week of the Indian lockdown Justin’s group – The Noble Citizen Foundation - conducted a survey to find out what more they could do to help. ‘We were shocked by what we uncovered. So many were struggling with emotional issues and simply wanted to talk to someone who would listen. So we got counsellors, psychologists and psychiatrists and organised camps on the roadside. We were sceptical as in India talking about mental health is seen as taboo. But they didn’t just come in large numbers, they really opened up in front of the counsellors. This was a big learning for us. During a time of calamity, disaster or pandemic we look to provide physical help but mental health is totally neglected.’

Sadly, in April 2021, even providing physical health is now a challenge. Doctors weep over their patients when oxygen supplies run out. Meanwhile Jestin and his team will have their work cut out when they restart their mental health counselling. The entire nation is traumatised.

Probably few people in the UK wish to be reminded that it was only 3 months ago when we experienced a peak in Covid deaths – almost 2000 daily.
Or how domestic violence rocketed during lockdown.
Or how children from the poorest families fell behind their studies because of the lack of laptops to enable them to keep up with online teaching.
Or how it took a professional footballer to force the government to accept that they had a duty to feed hungry children.
We are looking to the brighter future.

But perhaps we should remember these things. Because, aside from the direct impact of the Covid-19 virus on our health, the other problems all existed before the pandemic and still exist now. And that includes the climate emergency. (I recommend reading The Lancet edition of January 9, 2021 – Climate and Covid-19 : converging Crises).

When the pandemic was petering out in China but picking up pace in the UK, I found the words of  those who had lived through the Chinese experience the most valuable. They had been where we were heading and had some helpful hints as to how to cope. The opposite can also be true to. We can still learn from those who are now in the midst of the worst of the pandemic in their country. Like my friends in India.

A WhatsApp message is circulating amongst doctors in Bihar. It was forwarded to me by one of them, an eye surgeon now working in a Covid-dedicated Government hospital in Patna.
It is a powerful clarion call to Never Forget what the Covid Crisis laid bare all over the world and that getting ‘back to normal’ is unforgivable if we really care about Humanity.
I fear that we are at a stage in the UK when we might drift back to the abnormal normal, riding high on the euphoria of having escaped, by the skin of our teeth, the current fate of millions of distraught Indians.

Here is the message:

‘Do remember that the Corona did not make the system fail. The system was already failing. Corona exposed it and accelerated the pace of failure.
Do remember we are going to come through this Corona Crisis. But this time hoping and eagerly waiting for some spark of revolution in our age old rusted system. Some radical life changes from people. Some reprioritisation of our goals and objectives for life.
Do remember that our next generation is watching us. They will ask for an explanation for everything that we are doing today. So be prepared for it.
In this crisis situation what helps all humanity is basic human values.
So I wish and hope this Covid pandemic will bring some good changes in human beings for a better future for the next generation.’

Lucy Mathen

#doremember  #basichumanvalues  #nodoublestandards  #communityishumanity