COVID-19 Pandemic: unmasking the “fallacy” of global leadership Part 1

BY ERROL A. GIBBS

Condolences to the bereaved families of the “martyrs” who have lost their lives to the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, likewise, grace to the “saints” on the frontlines who are making incredible sacrifices to confront the global challenges that it presents. They are (not all-inclusive) clinicians, researchers, emergency management personnel (EMS) personnel, pharmacists, public service workers (PSWs), food processors, grocery store workers, restaurateurs, and transit drivers.

Praise to some of the major governments around the world for their rapid response in providing economic relief and setting up “medical firewalls” to protect citizens. Likewise, the many citizens that have acted responsibly to preserve the lives of others in the private and public spaces. An incredible difficult proposition for a world that has become a “global village” manifestly unprepared for the likes of COVID-19 ―though, global disasters and pandemics are familiar to world leaders.

The first insightful observation is that preparedness for an impending emergency is primarily about leadership (national and international) ―more so than the crisis itself. Interestingly, peoples and nations inconsequentially may not consider crises that seem physically distant and out of sight ―as bona fide emergencies. Perhaps it is in the human Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) to forestall actions until the physical and often deadly reality confronts humankind.

The world (ancient and premodern) has existed under a dark cloud of uncertainty regarding disasters, whether by “acts of god,” “man,” or “nature.” During such times, the Mayan, Toltec, Aztec, and Natchez civilization entrusted their faith and destiny to the hands of their god(s) and made sacrifices for appeasement. Religion, mythology, and a Pantheon of gods and goddesses guided ancient Greek civilizations. Soothsayers came on the scene in pre-modernity as people lived with a sense of foreboding as their capable guide.

In stark contrast, modern and postmodern humans benefit from the exponential growth of religious enlightenment, education, academia, scientific research, history, philosophy, and prophecy. More importantly, every human being has sub-conscious foretelling. Extrasensory perception or ESP (the term originated by Duke University psychologist J. B.) also called sixth sense, which includes claimed reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses but sensed with the mind.

Modern humans so equipped, begs the question, “Why are human beings living in a state of perpetual unpreparedness at significant risks to human life?” People, reflecting on COVID-19 brings to mind Hurricane Katrina, one of the most catastrophic hurricanes on record in postmodern times. A tropical cyclone on record, tied with Hurricane Harvey in 2017, causing $125 billion in damage, particularly in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas, with the loss of some 1,200 lives.

The second incisive observation is, there are no disasters that signify an “an act of God” (a force majeure”) a great force.” It is disputable that calamities visit the Earth without foreknowledge and forewarning, including the COVID-19 ―pandemic. Mournfully, the human problem is denial, complacency, complicity, and lack of accountability for the reverence for human life. Likewise, leaders often fail to comprehend the superiority of “spiritual intelligence” to undergird “human intelligence” (IQ) and “artificial intelligence” (AI) as their capable guide.

What can global leaders say to their God (a Western Christian belief), or their “god(s)? Are the least among us, not the “elders?” They are the “salt of the Earth?” How do anxiety, fear, depression, and poverty benefit the human family? Examine the division by race, religion, colour, culture, class, caste, education, wealth, gender, and age. Why do human beings have to live in a vast competitive battlefield? Who has engineered these battlefields in every nation where brother fights against brother? Who benefits from the chaos?

The third perceptive observation is the coronavirus has unearthed the “fallacy” of global leadership, the “fissures” of structured inequities, and leaders who have wrought injustices upon the Earth. It has exposed to the world, the “pandemic of silence and betrayal” of the citizens of nations. Humankind lives in an “ecosystem” to a greater or lesser extent, undergirds “survival of the fittest.” Arguable, engineered to benefit the 1, 10, and 20 percent of humanity ―the wealthy and powerful of the Earth.

Global leadership is an enigma. When disaster strikes, leaders “falsely” cry out for international cooperation among countries. They hold high-level international meetings and conferences to proclaim world solidarity. Paradoxically, many of these nations are independently or in an alliance of preparedness for war, equipped with Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), deficit-financed in the trillions of dollars that stagger the imagination.

COVID-19 gives us pause to contemplate our fragile and temporary “mortality” that rests upon the antibodies of the survivors to save the rest of humanity. Can any race of people or nation wrestle the grand prize of “immortality” from the hand of God, or their “god(s)?” The time has come for leaders of nations, especially Western professing Christian countries to call upon their God, as a promised mandated in the Biblical narratives. Reference: 2 Chronicle 7:13-14 and Jonah 3: 1-10.

Part 2 of 2 will present observations about a post-COVID-19 world.