You don’t pour away the water in your pot just because a cloud is forming. — Fulani/Fulbe proverb, Nigeria

The sun is peering out from behind the cloud of the prevailing 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. South Korea, which had a deluge of coronavirus infections in recent weeks, is reporting a noticeable reduction in cases. Spain, and Italy, recent epicentres of the disease, say their overall rates of infection are decreasing. Britain reported a levelling off of new infections last Monday. Here at home nine Jamaicans have recovered from COVID-19.

On Tuesday, the UK Guardian newspaper had this headline: ‘China reports zero daily deaths from coronavirus for the first time since January’.

Wednesday, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) said, among other things: “The months-long lockdown in the city of Wuhan in China’s Hubei province, where the coronavirus pandemic started, has been lifted.”

Worldwide, coronavirus recoveries rose just above 322,000 last Thursday. These are signs of real hope in the midst of a generally gloomy situation.

If COVID-19 conforms to the playbook of previous pandemics, with respect to lifespan, I suspect very soon folks will have many reasons to sing:

“Happy days are here again,

The skies above are clear again,

Let us sing a song of cheer again

Happy days are here again,”

— Annette Hanshaw’s Happy Days Are Here Again! was the anthem which telegraphed to Americans that the period of the Great Depression, which started in 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s, had ended.

COVID-19 kindness

In recent days, many of us would have seen some really heart-warming stories in the media, which hopefully reminded us that “the milk of human kindness” ( Macbeth) has not totally disappeared from the breast of humans. Altruism is still alive.

These recent news items serve as evidence. Headline: ‘Private sector commits $150 million to COVID-19 response’. The story said, among other things: “Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) members across various industries have now joined forces and committed to contributing a total of $150 million to purchase ventilators for hospitals that have been selected by the Ministry of Health and Wellness (MOHW) to handle people infected with the virus.” ( Jamaica Observer, March 23, 2020)

Headline: ‘J Wray & Nephew to donate alcohol to aid COVID-19 fight’. ( Jamaica Observer, March 17, 2020) The item said, inter alia: “J Wray & Nephew will forego approximately $250 million in potential revenue in order to assist the Government and people of Jamaica to fight the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.”

Headline: ‘Guardian Life Ltd donates multimillion-dollar ventilator’. ( The Gleaner, March 25, 2020) These are snippets of the news item: “Guardian Life Limited and the Guardian Group Foundation have made a much-needed contribution to the Jamaican health sector with the donation of a ventilator valued at $4.3 million to the Victoria Jubilee Neo-Natal Ward and, by extension, the Kingston Public Hospital, this as the nation grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The dozens of church members, youth groups, civic organisations, non-government organisations, political affiliates, and individual Good Samaritans who are visiting the poor and vulnerable, and bringing parcels of food and rendering various kinds of assistance also deserve plaudits. The widow’s two mites are always critical.

Nature takes a deep breath

Recall that before COVID-19 commandeered the global headlines climate change dominated. Some noted environmentalists have posited that COVID-19 is, in many respects, nature repairing itself. They argue that the natural environment is literally fighting back because we have severely mismanaged, abused, and terrorised her.

Renowned broadcaster and natural historian Sir David Attenborough, in a recent programme , warned that “nature was anxious to breathe again”.

Check this! “Air pollution in London has fallen so dramatically since the capital’s COVID-19 lockdown, [and] monitors used to measure toxicity are alerting the data collectors to possible faults with the readings.

“As a result of the coronavirus restrictions on movement, average air pollution levels have fallen to their lowest since recordings began in 2000, according to the London Air Quality Network.

“The monitors record levels of nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, particulates and ozone levels.” ( BBC, ‘Coronavirus: Pollution levels fall ‘dramatically’ ‘, April 1, 2020)

The UK Guardian, in an article entitled ‘Emboldened wild animals venture into locked-down cities worldwide’ on March 22, 2020 noted, among other things: “But as the coronavirus crisis changes the rhythms of urban life, there are some early signs that animals — especially the creatures that lurk in the periphery of big cities and suburbs — are feeling emboldened to explore.

“In Nara, Japan, sika deer wandered through city streets and subway stations. Raccoons were spotted on the beach in an emptied San Felipe, Panama. And turkeys have made a strong showing in Oakland, California, home of one Guardian editor.”

The Daily Mail ( Mail Online) of March 30, 2020 reported this glimmer of hope: “Air pollution in India has plummeted to its lowest levels amid the coronavirus lockdown, in stark contrast to record high levels last year.

“People in Delhi, the country’s capital, awoke to clear blue skies at the weekend, a matter of days into the nationwide lockdown owing to COVID-19.

“The Air Quality Index (AQI) indicated levels below 50, or ‘good’, prompting calls for authorities to ensure pollution levels stay down in future.

“More than 90 cities in India recorded minimal levels of air pollution during the same period.”

Nature is indeed taking a deep breath. Sadly, we will soon restart our predictable and insane suffocation of her again.

This excerpt from Forbes magazine is an unpleasant reveille: “The European Space Agency released new video this weekend that shows air pollution vanishing over China as the country goes into COVID-19 coronavirus lockdown, then returning as business resumes.” ( Forbes, March 22, 2020)

Humans seem to have a formulaic love affair with an anti-self-preservation trigger. As, midst this contradiction, if nothing else we must recognised, at least one important lesson from this COVID-19 pandemic: We are not all that.

These snippets penned by an anonymous author and read on a social media platform recently by Michael K Williams, who played Omar Little in the hit HBO drama series The Wire, brilliantly summarises that powerful reality: “The air, earth, water, and sky without us are just fine. When we come back, remember that we are guests and not its masters.”

Will we heed the warnings? I hope so!

Would-be hope crashers

There are some among us who evidently believe that our laws do not apply to them. Among other things, I believe this is the result of years of dwarf implementation of ‘blyisms’, differentiation in the administration of the law predicated upon geographical and social differences, and the prevalence of a significant subculture which reinforces a reality that honestly observing the rules of law and order places one at a decided disadvantage.

Approximately 7,000 people entered Jamaica between March 18 and 23, 2020. We were told that 1,500 of that number left the Island, leaving 5,500. Up to April 1, 2020, only about 400 of the 5,500 had reported to the Ministry of Health and Wellness. The authorities said individuals who came into Jamaica on or after March 18, 2020 posed a public health risk. Then an order was issued for all individuals who came into the island between March 18 and 23 to report using the website www.jamcovid19.moj.gov.jm or call 888 ONE-LOVE. Note, these people were not asked to climb the Blue Mountain Peak with a 100lb cement bag on their backs. After repeated warnings and pleadings in various media were ignored, last Friday Prime Minister Holness informed the country that: “Persons who are required to be in quarantine and have not done so will be taken into State quarantine and will also be charged.” He also told us that, “Persons who failed to comply with quarantine orders will be charged under section 52 of the Disaster Risk Management Act.”

I don’t think enunciation of fines and the threat of “wukhouse” were the stimuli that woke the obstinately defiant bunch from their state of voluntary ignorance and deliberate showing of the middle finger to our authorities. The clincher was when they were told they would not be allowed to leave Jamaica. “Quick ah clock”, as rural folks say, compliance shot up and a majority suddenly knew which number to call. Some 4,507 people have now made contact with the authorities since last Friday. This sad episode tells a whole story.

“Stiff-necked fool, you think you are cool,” famous lines from Reggae legend Bob Marley, sums up for me the dismissive and disrespectful attitude which the recalcitrant bunch adopted towards our legislators and legislations.

Those who at the time of writing are yet to report, and those who harbour them, must face the full extent of the law. The flouting of the law cannot continue.

There are those who feel that ‘bandoolooism’, ‘blyism’, and skulduggery are as Jamaican as dukunoo. They have adopted the self-deprecating thought process of “a suh di ting set”. The ultimate objective of some of these fringe elements is to turn Jamaica into a pigsty, where life exists in a state of nature that English philosopher Thomas Hobbes described as “nasty, brutish and short”.

The foul-mouthed tirade of Dayne Mitchell, who disrespected our security forces and the prime minister, is symptomatic of a much wider societal disregard for the rule of law in Jamaica. Recall, in relation to the 8:00 pm to 6:00 am, seven-day curfew, announced last two Wednesdays ago, Mitchell declared on social media on April 1, 2020: “Wi out ya, wi nah go eeen; wi out yahhh! Yuh cyaan control man… wi nah go in a b…”

The police said intelligence led them to a location where they found Mitchell hiding under a bed. He was arrested and charged. He has since apologised via social media for his reckless actions.

Mail alert!

A few readers have argued that my highlighting/criticisms of the weaknesses of neo-liberalism and related economic policies and thinking has come about only since the COVID-19 pandemic. They are wrong.

On December 31, 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that there was a “mysterious pneumonia sickening dozens in China”.

As an example, here is what I wrote in my The Agenda piece on October 20, 2019: “I suggest we need a new ambition of the State. Instead of redistribution, we need to focus on regeneration.

“On February 27, 2016, I wrote in this newspaper that the incoming JLP [Jamaica Labour Party] Administration should set up a Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Rural Development. I have not changed from that view.”

Regeneration of rural agriculture, with modern technological inputs, for example, is critical to our food security.

I also said among other things:

“The jury is in: Trickle-down economics, also called trickle-down theory, does not work. Status quo strategies of economics have been a miserable failure globally. Credible scholarship is replete with evidence of that fact.

“The so-called ‘invisible hand of the market’, left to certain interests, will forever clap in one direction.

“Market economics is not going to enable us to achieve inclusive growth. Antiquated methods of redistributive (the social democratic models), leftist politics, which is the prescription of Dr [Peter] Phillips and the PNP [People’s National Party] will not achieve that objective either.

“As I have pointed out in a previous article, you cannot redistribute that which you have not produced. This is common sense.

“Far too many Jamaicans believe they do not have a stake in this country. This is not a unique phenomenon. For example, when Lee Kuan Yew started to refashion Singapore in the very early 1960s he and his team recognised that the absence of stakehood (my coinage) was one of their major challenges. They launched several programmes to foster social mobility and opportunities for all Singaporeans, primarily through rapid improvements in education, innovations, and creating an environment, which became a magnet for investments from foreign conglomerates. I have written about the impact of education, innovations and external investments on Singapore’s meteoric growth in previous articles.”

Were it not for limitations of space I could cite snippets from articles stretching back several years which put forward similar ideas/suggestions. As the Americans say, “Do the math.”

Garfield Higgins is an educator and journalist. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com.