ENDY JAY
It is with mixed feelings that every one, notwithstanding political allegiance, must be watching the dire straits our political masters are through, especially the Honourable Minister of Health and the Quality of Life with his back to the wall hardly capable to parry the blows of the Opposition, in any significant manner, reaping, as it were, the arrogance of last year, as Covid-19 continues on its rampage, even showing signs of a dreadful build-up when it comes to the fateful October 1 ‘grand opening’. And no amount of diversion tactics may possibly help in the prevailing circumstances, still less these lame rebuttals.
While there should be no justification, for right-minded persons at least, to take sides in the ongoing bickering between Government and Opposition over the handling of the pandemic, the common man stands aloof completely lost and dumbfounded in this war of words that cannot be of any help to find a way out of a situation that clearly shows no signs of abating, but clearly going from bad to worse, beyond health considerations, barring a miracle. And in spite of all the bragging and talking tall, we cannot imagine our rulers capable of miracles.
If we can understand the present stand of the Opposition, firing at Government with full heart content and taking sweet revenge for the repeated humiliation they recently suffered in the ‘restrictive’ National Assembly every time ‘Zorro’ went wild – the rule rather than the exception -, and to scornfully remind the chest-thumping ‘Covid-safe country’ of last year, there is need to remind what the fallouts of the pandemic will mean in the months, even years, ahead. And the ongoing political tussles can only cause distraction and exacerbate that feeling of fear and insecurity that pervades the whole country, a situation, there is need to remind, we share with the entire planet, when even the rulers of the most affluent societies, with means we cannot even dream of, hesitate as to what the next step should be, acknowledging no one can be sure of the efficacy of measures already taken, and prepared to go back to restrictions, even lockdown, as an option, that betrays they are advancing by trial and error, yet condemned to advance even as a calculated risk. It appears the virus is out for the malicious pleasure to outfox the top virologists by mutating, often forcing into panic decisions like vaccinating everybody, including toddlers, even a booster to double-jabbed persons…! And to be repeated at regular intervals to make the entire world population liable to continuous medical attention. Can there be any hope to convince the political class we are deep into a situation that transcends politics?
And while we are as at now mostly focused on the pandemic, understandably so, we seem to be overlooking or at least to have relegated what only recently, before the virus struck to become a pandemic, were considered the most dangerous threats to human survival. Last year we were lucky in warding off the virus with relative success, but at the expense of economic activity, the slowing down of which caused some human tragedies and put the economy under tremendous strains. So right now the main policy target is to get back the economy to function again, hopefully back to normal in a near future, a process likely, not to say inevitably, to backfire while the virus is still around and possibly to strike more dreadfully. And that is the conundrum facing our deciders, at the helm at the wrong time, but condemned to prove their mettle to address situations for which they are ill-equipped, in more than one respect at that. Hardly any need to specify the main deficiency.
The regular reader will remember that in one of my previous notes I invited attention, based on Bible prophecies, that what we are presently through, however frightening and damaging, were only forerunner signs to calamities beyond human capabilities to parry – calamities unprecedented in human history and about to make ‘landfall’, still according to Bible chronology. While no one on earth may possibly give even an inkling of what these will exactly turn out to be, or the exact date for these to start happening, I believe that for the enlightenment of the reader, I must let the Holy Bible speak.
While he was in the company of his disciples during his very last days on earth, Jesus was approached by them who asked: ‘Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things’. (Gospel of Matthew chapter 24, verse 3). After listing a series of events present generations have witnessed, from global wars to pandemics through famine and earthquakes etc, Jesus added: ‘For then there will be great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now, no, nor will occur again.’ (Matthew 24:21). To underscore the gravity of that tribulation, Jesus immediately added: ‘In fact, unless those days were cut short, no flesh would be saved; but on account of the chosen ones* those days will be cut short’ (verse 22).
While we keep our fingers crossed and pray for the Almighty’s mercy, we realize how a common planetary situation lays bare human limitations, hypocrisy, how hollow such slogans as integrity and transparency, solidarity, how rife selfishness, how rampant grinding poverty, and what have we! Enough to warrant the Almighty’s intervention.
However hard it may be to convince the sceptics, I’ll conclude by borrowing a term common in horse racing: We are in the ‘final straight’ towards that Great Tribulation!
(*Regretfully, the identity of these ones cannot be explained in few words, save to say that it would be blasphemy if I were to pretend to be one of them, yet with the possibility to earn salvation through close association with them, along with millions of others, worldwide, who have heeded the warning and sought refuge under the powerful wings of the Almighty, sensing and having faith that genuine salvation is now at hand).
P.S. Coming back on the warning about the Great Tribulation at regular intervals responds to a Bible command repeated several times in the only Bible Book of Ezekiel: ‘Whether they listen or refuse to listen, keep warning them‘. And with that downright reminder: ‘And when it comes true – and it will come true – they will have to know that a prophet has been among them’. (Ezekiel 33:33).