first covid 19 then comes Famine

The world's response to Corona was to do the unthinkable. We locked down every country and every city, and billions of us stayed home. 

We who had the means were able to live in the luxury of our palaces and while being lavished by home delivery and plenty.  

Much of the continent who went into this crisis, already on the brink of famine and even those who were from the well-nourished lived from month to month with little or no reserves.  

This applied not just to individuals and communities but to the countries themselves.  None had the reserves to weather the storm. 

This is sad but hardly newsworthy as its an inequality that's baked into this continent.  We have all come to accept that the economy would be in tatters at the end of this, but we believe it would recover in a time. 

What we didn't give much thought to was the fact that many of these countries will not survive the virus-induced depression, and they too, would slip into famine. 

The thought of many countries in Africa falling into this death spiral is terrifying as it conjures images, that those of us are old enough to remember saw in our youth, of emaciated humans, walking skeletons, with distended stomachs.  

This virus is truly a diabolical game changer. 

The world as we knew it would truly be gone. 

M Parak

May 2020.