JEEWAN RAMLUGUN, FRSA
London
It has been a déjà-vu year in several respects. The shape-shifting and enduring Covid 19 virus, on constant lookout for a human host anywhere and everywhere, has exacted untold tolls in morbidity and mortality. And there is no telling when the nightmare will end.
Certain lessons come to mind. For one, expert opinions have never so much both converged and diverged on the one phenomenon, such as its emanation, its scale and pervasiveness and even its existence, beyond an innocuous and passing common cold, the pandemic being called into doubt by certain leaders of supposedly advanced and evolved nations. Ignorance is not always bliss.
On the other hand, if science is the consensus of rational thought to the widest possible extent, assuming paradigmatic status, then the cracks of discrepancy could not be more evident as when scientific standpoints are so divided. It would appear the virus has even infiltrated the tower of reason. Besides, sections of the intelligentsia, whether in the ‘hard’ or ‘soft ‘science domains, in music or in the arts, have always aligned themselves with the powers that be, for self-gratification, self-survival or self-aggrandisement. Truths can be turned into commodities, serving as opportunistic chips.
This brings us to another perplexity of the age of reason, or rather of unreason, and enlightenment, or rather its dark shadows, when the citadel of democracy is under attack by a polity that stands on its very pillar. This amounts to an assault on uncomfortable or distressing realities, and this onslaught has seen an ascendancy and a ubiquity, with the denial and even subversion of due process, whether it be certain axiomatic givens or political outcomes. And the volte-face reversal of values and pragmatic trade-offs go on apace. It all amounts to a perverse development, when the baby of the ideal state is ditched with the bathwater of expedience. The holding on to the reins power can take precedence over the touchstones of accountability, transparency and sound, irreproachable statecraft, with the veritable and sacrosanct separation of powers ending on shaky grounds.
Lord Hailsham, former UK Lord Chancellor, could not have been far wrong, when he typified the tendency for executive dominance within parliamentary democracies, as elective dictatorship. All stops are pulled out, and stratagems are shored up, when legitimacy crises are presented by alien forces, or foes on the doorstep. Even when the ship heads for the rocks, the captain remains in control, no mutinous indignation tolerated.
The prevailing pandemic has thrown into disquietingly sharp relief, the deep fault lines in the social fabric. Social inequality and the confounding insecure aspects of labour market segmentation, with a revaluation of the roles and contribution of frontline ordinary, humble workforce. The health statistics in the context of the pandemic have pointed to a disproportionately skewed prevalence of the covid 19 infections, resulting in severe complications and casualties among the certain sections of the population, struggling to survive existentially and those overly exposed.
And so certain problematics have surfaced: controlling, if not eradicating the virus, and controlling the state apparatus, the media in some cases, serving as unswerving allies of the status quo, or offering timid, token tirades.
2022 is just round the corner, but we can expect more of the same. Meanwhile, the environmental crisis threatens to be the mother of all miseries. Parts of the world devastated by inordinate floods and raging wildfires have proved the disturbingly compelling evidence of extreme climate change. Would there ever really be a wakeup call, and a will to concertedly and sustainably act, for memories are short and ordinary life concerns predominate amid those in safe spots. The human ostrich finds it easier to bury the troubled head into the sand of oblivion.
However, having painted some not so pleasing pictures, many acts of human kindness can be recalled, such as providing voluntary philanthropic help to the vulnerable, to the destitute, the hungry and the homeless, also those afflicted by the pandemic and suffering from isolation and loneliness, not forgetting the valiant efforts of the state and benevolent businesses.
Public spiritedness and the wellsprings of altruism constitute mankind’s saving graces.
Yet we wish for a happier new year. And why not?
