Thoughts out of season

We are living in strange times. Countries are effecting curfews in peace time. Flights have been grounded without a shot fired. There is no Bush to tell us you are either with us or with the terrorist ( an ultimatum that is no different from the terrorist).

The US economy, the largest in the world, has a 2.2T cheque to save its economy & as they are won’t to do, bail the rich in this trying times. I am not sure poorer countries have such deep pockets and their poor and homeless will fend for themselves. For example the tax reliefs announced by Uhuru only help those in formal employment. The lowering of VAT by 2% has such a limited range on most perishable goods and all.

In 2009/2010 the world suffered a flu pandemic (H1N1) and I don’t remember such shut downs. So far as I can remember, only meat products from severely affected countries were banned. And in the year starting June 2009 to August 2010 when the pandemic was declared over, about 60mn people had caught it and deaths, depending on who you ask were in the range of 200-575k world wide and I don’t think this novel coronavirus will get there.

I have been to the airport in the last two weeks and every time it looks like a ghost town. Passenger lounges that are usually bustling with activity are deserted. Restaurants are open only for take outs. It’s a bad way to live.

Gaddafi before he was killed said ‘they’ will make a virus, infect you with it and then sell you an expensive cure. Maybe 100 years from now when the lid will be lifted on secret documents, our descendants, if they will be still alive will find that this was a bad experiment. Question is, who benefits from a global meltdown? Is it a nation? A group of individuals?

Can’t we just go back to work? If we die we die. This must be one of those occasions people should say give me freedom or give me death!

And with that I go to ride. Damn coronavirus.

Postscript: if you live in a country that has used nerve gas, or some other chemical or biological weapon against her citizens or adversary, why do you think it would be beneath them to try it on a global scale to stimulate a response? Besides war has changed from boots on the ground to drones and all.

My barber has closed until further notice, don’t question my unkempt hair.

And while still on this, our police are shit. I think police use their heads as helmets or vessels to hold their ears in place. If anyone needs new brains, it is the police and those who lead them. How do you go about brutalizing people in the name of effecting a curfew when these people are just trying to get home?

And finally some dark story.

Appointment in Samarra by W S Maugham

There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me.  She looked at me and made a threatening gesture,  now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate.  I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me.  The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went.  Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threating getsture to my servant when you saw him this morning?  That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise.  I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.