Humanitarian Disaster

First post intro:

I have been in the emergency services for 10 years in one capacity or another (dispatch, frontline ambulance worker, trauma hospital volunteer). I've also been pursuing studies in psychology relating to mental health and productivity. Aside from that I'm a practical, nature-loving woman who has basically just had enough of the nonsense that comes with whatever this existence is today. I'm generally a happy person, but I don't mind ranting and raving when depression rears it's head. I try to speak about my feelings rather than let the pressure cooker build. My posts on here will be anything from medical, to philosophical, to random ghostly rambles about spirits, and what or who God is, why wine tastes better out of a glass-glass opposed to a plastic-glass, or even what happened in my day. I'm passionate, I'm full of crazy thoughts and I am so excited to have found this platform. Why? Because where I come from a place like this is frowned on and "people shouldn't discuss such things". Everything turns into a "they hurt my feelings" conversation and blah blah blah. Did I mention my third language is Sarcasm?

Let's talk about COVID-19 and LOCKDOWN

I have some thoughts on COVID-19 in a third world country which has zero ability to sustain itself.

Let's get one thing straight from the start of this post, I am not saying people are not getting sick, people are dying as well. I am not minimizing what a tragedy this disease has been, and will be for years to come...I am saying, come take a walk with me through my life, my third world country where you cannot imagine the devastation caused by the word everyone has come to love: LOCKDOWN.

Let's discuss lockdown in a first world country where there is (minor) mismanagement of funds vs. my land of rotten milk and stolen honey.

• Governments pay your wages (or a portion thereof - look at the UK)

Nobody pays you anything here (that's worth calling a subsidy of any type), a large portion of the funding that was made available was stolen by those untouchables in government (I mean, take a look at our previous president). However, the corrupt party still continues to be voted into power (I believe all politicians are liars and thieves though, it's just picking the party that does it least - cynical me.). Over here, you were offered a "grant" which is not able to sustain a person with an appetite of a bird for 5 days due to inflation. That's your lot for the month though - if that money runs out, SORRY, you can just starve. Making your problem the government's problem won't work, because you cannot get hold of anyone at the government offices - and when you do, you realize all you did was waste your time and effort because they won't help you anyway.

• People are allowed to exercise during lockdown in sane countries

You know, for HEALTH, because it's good to keep fit?

Not here, not in this country. Here's something from our news, "The lockdown that followed is among the strictest in the world, banning the sale of alcohol and cigarettes, prohibiting exercise in public spaces and confining the population to their homes."

Let's talk about what goes on in this country and how domestic abuse is not being effectively dealt with...over here (go read for yourself) a woman was basically told to "go away" when she reported to a police station that she was raped. Multiple women are turned away because people don't believe the woman. Some are made to feel so inadequate and disgusting (despite being the victim) that they don't even bother to report the crime.

Our military enforced the lockdown - I'll get to the "alleged" murder of a gentleman further down. Whilst the rest of the world could take a walk to clear their heads (whether it be set times of day, or ID numbers, or 1 hour a day or whatever), not here. Over here our government thought it would be wise to enforce 10 to 20 people staying put in a shack together - without access to proper food, water or ablution facilities. Our domestic violence cases went through the roof, but our crime statistics went down. Hmmm...I wonder why. The curfew, maybe? By being too afraid that military will beat you (possibly to death) if they find you out of your home?

Women and children were not able to get away from the violence in their homes, they were forced to be within a tiny set of 4 walls with their abusers - with nobody caring about their devastation (physical and mental).

• HEALTH is a large focus in other countries

In terms of HEALTH nobody wants to address the big fat elephant in the room of why during lockdown (and still today) it is so hard to find zero-drinks? Coke Zero, Fanta Zero, canderel etc. You could still buy all the ones with full sugar, but not the low calorie stuff.

What about the fact that you couldn't buy a set of underpants, and if your shoes broke you would just have to walk barefoot. You could buy chocolate though. In the middle of our winter we were told we were not allowed to buy shorts / T-shirts (they gave shops a prescribed list of what the government deemed to be clothing us idiots would be permitted to purchase), toasters etc. were no longer essential items. If yours died - sucks to be you according to this super smart government.

Women's health? The aisle I went to at one shop where the tampons were cordoned off was when I became REALLY loud (that was quite rapidly fixed due to the utter shame on the male managers face as I explained quite graphically that I would stay in the shop and bleed all over his floor). I'm a really easy going person, but when someone stands there denying me my womanly right to shove a cork where the sun doesn't shine, I get a little annoyed.

• People are permitted to buy cigarettes and alcohol in "normal" countries

Ever seen an alcoholic who is unable to drink and is forced to stop cold turkey? I have been unfortunate enough through my work in the emergency services to be called to more than one patient in such a situation. They have seizures, they hallucinate, some end up killing themselves intentionally or accidentally. Have you ever met a rehabilitated drug addict who relies on nicotine if he wants a "hit" of something? I'm not advocating for smoking, I look at the general overview. That drug addict (in my country) could find any illegal drug on the street cheaper than what he could find a pack of cigs for during our lockdown. Trust me, I know because I was offered cocaine on the street for less than what an illegal box of cigs was going for (and no, I didn't buy it). Plus a large number of our rehab facilities shut for one reason or another - primarily because they had no more donations coming in because nobody had any money to give because they were not allowed to work.

A gentleman called Collins Khosa died during Easter weekend of 2020 due to (what an eyewitnesses stated) was soldiers beating him. Our local news reported the following, "Collins Khosa was eating dinner when two uniformed members of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) walked into his yard in Alexandra carrying sjamboks. Seeing an unattended camping chair and an unfinished drink, the soldiers apparently accused him and his friend Thabiso Muvhango of violating the lockdown imposed on March 27 to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

"In documents filed in the Constitutional Court last week, Khosa’s life partner, Nomsa Montsha, paints a harrowing picture of the hours before his death. On Montsha’s version, Khosa told the SANDF members that, even if he had been drinking, it did not amount to an offence because he was in his own yard. In response, she says, the soldiers raided the house, confiscating one beer from Khosa’s fridge and one from Muvhango’s. They then ordered the two men outside, so they could "prove a point".

"There, the situation escalated — Montsha claims the soldiers vandalised Khosa’s car, and forced the two men to stand outside the yard with the beers on the ground as the soldiers waited for backup. Three more SANDF members and officers of the Joburg metro police arrived.

"According to Montsha’s affidavit, the soldiers then poured beer over Khosa; one allegedly held his hands behind his back, while another choked him. She alleges he was slammed against a cement wall, hit with the butt of a gun, and kicked, slapped and punched in the face, stomach and ribs before being slammed into a steel gate."

Here's the REALLY great thing about this country (I do hope my dripping sarcasm and disgust is clear in those words), when charges were initially brought against those "protectors" for their violence and his "alleged" murder, the main witness states they were never questioned. The charges were dropped and that was that. Then things heated up again (and minus the legal jargon) 4 soldiers were implicated but were put on leave with full pay pending the outcome of the criminal investigation. Now things look like the family is going to get a pay-out of some type, but really? Money? How many millions or billions would it take for me to be OK with one of my family / friends being beaten to death? Between zero and you-know-what-all.

Everyone is quick to shout about other things, but when a Black man in Africa is beaten to death by the authorities, who cares? Pretty much just his family and those people like me who are beyond sick of living in this hell-hole.

• Let's talk about clinic / routine medical visits to medical establishments

You see in my country we have these horrific diseases called HIV and TB - diseases which require people to attend clinics in order for them to get their ARV's, or be diagnosed with TB which would allow them to get onto the meds which will be able to sort the issues out (I'm not even going to get into drug resistant TB over here because I'm sure you get my drift). The number of people going to hospitals dropped so significantly because of the fear of COVID-19 that their treatment plans all went down the drain. Some people who had made such progress with the ARV's got extremely sick and died. Nobody reported those deaths. Others went back to hospitals in time to get their treatment when our lockdown levels were eased. They are alive today.

Let's look at the problem with this for the future - HIV and TB, you've LOCKED people down (15 to 20 human beings in a tiny shack) and they are spreading the TB to each other without meds. You are LOCKING people down who are married with HIV and now more than likely progressed to AIDS. Guess what? More infections.

• Let's talk about dignity in life and death

In foreign first world countries, there is a certain amount of dignity people have managed to maintain. Having to humble oneself to asking publicly for food or donations or a handout - your pride disappears, but your home is still there, so is your car, and whilst you may be forced to take a pay cut, you will likely still have your job by the end of lockdown.

Let's talk about dignity in Africa. You have been told you may not work, and you're entitled to R350 a month (that's £17.12 / $23.45). Try paying your bills and feeding your family on that. How's that for dignity? You work your entire life to build up to where you are and the government says "that's your lot". You are not allowed to be out of your house, so when you stand at the traffic light begging for food you had better hope and pray you're a fast runner - before the same type of people who got hold of Collins Khosa get hold of you.

Here's some more dignity in my country: disabled people in line for days (sleeping on the floor / in their wheelchairs) waiting for their disability grant at the government offices - only to be blasted with water cannons. Seriously, I'm not making this up, go and google: watch saps water cannons sassa disability grants video. How much more disrespect could possibly bestowed on our vulnerable people? How about our police minister "condemning" it according to our media? His words? "The approach that we used was an approach for people that are rioting. Yes, we didn't use stun grenade but we used water cannons. Those are for people who are rioting. So, we should have not really done that."  Those words do not really "condemn" anything in mind, but yeah, who am I? A nobody and a nothing, other than a tax payer slaving away for the riches the government takes from my wage.

I won't go into the abuse of the elderly at "care homes" right now, I'll leave that one for another day. Again though, dignity in lockdown, this country doesn't know what that means.

The Humanitarian Crisis

So where does the title for this post come from? Lockdown can work in places where citizen's tax money is well managed, they can work in places like Norway where the people are (mostly) wealthy. In Africa? Where people sleep on top of each other, rely on day to day income for their food that night? It doesn't work, it will never work. What has happened is the citizens have a distinct hatred for the police now, for enforcing these pathetic requirements. The citizens have had enough and are fighting back. One wrong step by one trigger happy cop and I guarantee you the communities are going to rise up. God save me from seeing that day - it will be a bloodbath.

In 5 years time when all the children didn't get their routine vaccines, HIV is out of control, treatable TB has been replaced by drug resistant TB, and the farms have turned into arid waste lands, someone will look back and wonder why. The answer will be lockdown.

The farmers couldn't produce their crops properly to feed the nation because the farm workers couldn't get to work safely. The children were stopped from going to school and therefore malnutrition set in (because of all the good Samaritans that fund(ed) school children's lunches). The children were not educated so cannot contribute to the economy as they could have if they had finished up to (at least) 14 years old. What jobs will they get? What universities will they attend? What universities will even be left after people continue to set them of fire.

But wait, there's more...

The knock on effect from the complete prohibition of alcohol (one example) has destroyed the tourist industry, the wine farms, the bottle companies, all those workers who once upon a time were providing for their families - unemployed. Nobody is hiring now, so the crime goes up because people turn to theft to feed their families.

The facts? The news reported: Close to 165,000 people in the alcohol industry supply chain had lost their jobs during the previous two alcohol bans, with a further 100,000 moving into poverty.

If you hate mathematics, I apologise, but here goes...165 000 x 3 (3 is the rough estimate of how many people are affected by the job loss, the person plus two others). 495 000 people have been affected in the SUPPLY chain. That's just one industry. With all the growth and expansion I'm certain they will find a job soon and be able to continue their normal lives again (yeah, right).

The result of lockdown?

• Starvation

• Lack of education

• Lack of jobs

• Poverty

• Crime

• Abuse

• Alcoholism

• Drug addiction

• Depression

• Suicide

The Solution

Give people a choice, a real choice about their own future.

You want to wear a mask? Wear one, the government will provide you with a PROPER mask, one that is effective against spreading COVID-19 - not the face nappy the world is currently wearing. Teach people how to wear the mask correctly, not these stupid things that are contaminated throughout the day.

You want to stay at home because you don't feel safe, do it. Stay at home. The government will provide you with all you need and give those people a much larger grant to stay at home. The rest of the population? The ones who are prepared / want to go out there and keep the economy going so that we can make sure the country doesn't crumble (further) into a heap of dust, do it. Go for it. Go work, and if you die from COVID-19, that was your choice.

Give the health workers a damn pay rise. I'm not saying that because I am a health worker (currently not practicing because I'm planning to emigrate as soon as I can get a ticket out of here). I'm saying it because these people work their fingers to the bone every single second and they deserve recognition. Side note - our SA health workers were TOTALLY ignored by our president for the nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. Seriously, you can't make this up - the Cuban doctors (who nobody even knows where the hell they were / are) were nominated. Thousands of workers who have given their heart and soul to saving those in need, but no, our president recommends the Cubans.

STOP STEALING.

That's the ultimate solution to the problem. We were given "500 billion rand ($26bn; £19bn) which is equivalent to 10% of the country's gross domestic product" and guess what? Guess how many hospitals we built? Schools? A big fat ZERO. Instead we bought these (amongst other nonsense and irregular tenders - which is the code word for we stole it and gave it to our friends):

https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/r10m-eastern-cape-medical-scooter-project-is-a-fail-reveals-health-minister-50707971

If someone with a little less desire to line their own pockets had dealt with lockdown in a more logical manner, our country wouldn't be destroyed. Collins Khosa wouldn't be dead. The elderly and disabled wouldn't have been water cannoned like criminals. People wouldn't be starving and suicides wouldn't be increasing daily.

Parting thoughts...

They say you need darkness to find the light. I wish those philosophical people could come to the townships here, the townships I visit at least once a week to give what I can to the friends I have who (before this) had built their lives up - who are now hardly managing to feed their families. See what the lockdown has done to this country, not COVID-19. The lockdown.