Dear Comrades in the Trenches: 01
My open letter to the President, has resulted in a lengthy response, on the WhatsApp group, it is a mindset challenge that I need to answer, not necessarily, just as a courtesy to the contributor, but to every one of my friends and family, who feel that I am giving the economy, preference over life.
The following contribution fits into pamphlet 01, and the screenshot below is the important part, that I need to answer satisfactorily;
We have been shown the Italian Coronavirus Curve, that is frightening, ours not, we do have escalation, the one example is the East London prison, that is climbing.
South Africa’s infections, can’t be compared with the Italian Coronavirus Curve, firstly, Italy was in their seasonal flu season, but as the Coronavirus Curve, reportedly attacks the elders, we look at how far apart we are, my assessment questions whether the experts have any medical or scientific theory to make a decision on the Western European curves;
The Italian population density is 4,20 times greater than in South Africa, and the percentage of the population over the age of 65 years 3,70 times greater than South Africa.
We are shutting down our economy, when the Countries life expectancy does not allow many to get to 65, if the economy shuts down, the life expectancy will dip.
As a community, we need to be aware of those elderly who have medical conditions, because when our flu season arrives in May, the Coronavirus will be back.
If we look at Stats SA 2016 survey, 100 000 elderly people dies, and 80 000 of them died from causes that could be attributed to compromised immune system / underlying causes, do we attribute these normal deaths to Coronavirus, or can we expect 80 000 on top of these deaths.
I consider myself a ‘racist in recovery’, and often I have great difficult in expressing my thoughts, however, my white mindset, feared that this would happen, long before I discovered the history on the Spanish Flu, and this mindset, would be entrenched in every white European.
South Africa, having received the first 250 infected international travellers from March 01, 2020, has one of the lowest death rates, per 100 000 population in the world.
Africa is unexpectedly low, parts of Eastern Europe not far behind in the ‘low stakes’.
The African and Eastern European communities, for the past two hundred years, have needed to protect themselves from the pressures that they faced, in order to just to feed and educate themselves, and with a very limited medical service, these communities have needed to survive, by avoiding the medical obstacles.
These communities may not know what the Coronavirus is, but when there is a threat to their lives, they know how to protect themselves from the threat, they know how to survive.
On the other extreme, the Westerner needs to have any perceived threat in lockdown, for fifty years, they have not exposed themselves to any danger.
From a young child, they leave their home in mom’s car, and never get exposed to the danger outside the gate, high fences and the black security guard, protects them from the perceived threat.
The African children, throughout Africa, are street-wise from a very young age, the African children without ever becoming aware that they are being skilled, develop all their parents skills, and the most important skill developed, is the ‘survival skill’.
No medical or scientifically proven theory, has yet shown me that the ‘black people are going to die like flies’.
If I for one minute, believed that the blacks would die like flies, I would not concern myself about what is left of the economy when the storm has passed, there would be fewer people to feed, and those who survived the storm, would be grateful for what they could get.
I know the conditions that my black brothers and sisters live in, and when I saw news reports on Day 1 of the lockdown, my white mindset feared the projected 5 000 infections by April 01, 2020, my indigenous experienced mindset, had confidence that my black brothers and sisters would survive, and thus, with the economy destroyed, I feared for them.
I watched the statistics, and by April 05, I was surprised that the graph had not started moving exponentially.
When the system talks about restoring the Economy, this does not include he informal economy, in no text-book, in no curriculum, will you find the informal economy as part of the Capitalists thinking.
80% of the Africa population, live a life in the informal economy, this economy has fed and educated the masses in Africa, the Global World Brains Trust, know and understand the concept of load-shedding, our Electricity Supply Commission, our most experienced participant.
Very simply, once a network totally shuts down, getting it started is impossible, thus, load-shedding is aimed a keeping the system flow, even though at a reduced level, this keeps the entire system prepared to supply, when the ‘technicality’ is repaired.
The local taxi industry, the informal traders, the shebeens, the spaza shops, are the basis of the ‘black economy’, businesses that the black has developed, through the inconvenience of the white capitalist to get too close to the black population, has been shut down.
These industries are worth billions to the Global Market, who are preparing to move into the Townships and Rural Villages, as the informal and SMMEs are waiting for the promised funding that keeps them quiet while in the trenches.
Now back to the whether the ‘blacks will die like flies’?
Before I opened my mouth about the possibility that South Africa does not have an exponential virus curve because of the season, I scrutinised Europe, and found great discrepancies in certain areas, and the flu season was not the main contributor.
Nigeria, where the flu season ran from October to April, much like Italy, for the population has an extremely low Coronavirus death rate expressed as a percentage of the population, some 14 times less than South Africa.
Africa at this stage only has 835 deaths, at the percentage of population, 0,0000687%.
Eastern Europe, in the seasonal flu zone?
I accept that the Coronavirus is contagious, the African and parts of the Eastern European communities, unexpectedly, do not follow the Western European exponential infection curve.
Anyone following the Coronavirus news, will be aware of the Belarus President who rejected the Lockdown, kept his borders open, the Football league continued with spectators, the Ice Hockey league continued with spectators, and the world watch his country.
Belarus President, Alexander Lukashenko, does not Lockdown, and claims that none of his people will die from Coronavirus, not unless they have underlying medical conditions.
Having assessed his statistics, I looked at his neighbours, and one of which is Russia, this group completely different, still 5 times worse than South Africa, but hundreds of times better than Western Europe;
The next page compares the very vastly different Coronavirus deaths expressed as percentage of the population, expressed as a ratio to 1 death in South Africa, and 1 death in Africa Total:
The percentage death ratio on population,
to 1 South African death, to 1 Africa Total death
Japan 2,16 1,41
Russia + 4,95 3,24
China 5,31 3,48
USA 132,92 87,07
United Kingdom 376,32 246,50
France 496,42 325,16
Italy 732,60 479,87
The Westerner fears the Coronavirus, Japan does not go into total lockdown, keeping their economy stable, if it was not for the Western teams withdrawing from the Olympics, Japan would have gone ahead.
China is back in business, Russia is issuing permission to travel.
My wife and I are both 70 >, we will be one of the elderly death statistics if not in 2020, but soon, I can’t ask anyone to sacrifice their economy, while I need to survive another season under lockdown.
The Global Market Brains Trust, will decide when the war to save lives is over, the death statistics will be forgotten. The majority of the population, suffering human rights abuses, will celebrate the aggressor, the victor, no matter what shape, what form, what colour they are, with welcome waves, as the drink, clothing, and food supply trucks move in.
Cedric de la Harpe