It’s real but for some it always has been

Much of my writing I feel is from a position of privilege. I’ve said it before and in debates with friends they usually know I’m coming from that perspective a lot of the time and challenge the hypocrite in us.

I searched for coronavirus on Google just because I like stats a bit and returned 4 billion results. Malaria returned 57 million. Why the comparison? I don’t need to highlight the impact Malaria has had on humankind but for some-people this war we are in has been going on for sometime.

“In 2015, 736 million people lived on less than $1.90 a day, down from 1.85 billion in 1990" ref: Worldbank

“More than half of the extreme poor live in Sub-Saharan Africa.” ref: Worldbank

What is extreme poverty?

Malaria, TB, AIDS, Childhood diseases, Diarrhoeal diseases and…Respiratory infections amongst others plus lack of opportunity, optimism and working to survive the day.

Coronavirus is not to be ignored by any means at all and it may become part of a list that is already long for a large part of the worlds population but it’s not about them right? It’s about us? If you are reading this are you sitting pretty? In your study, house, couch? Do you have hot water and heating? Are you thinking about what you will eat tomorrow? Are you surrounded with fatality? Now, the last point has hit home to some of us recently, especially those fighting on the frontline against Coronavirus but we sincerely hope it does not continue.

Perspective

The 3-month factor has become a timeline many are looking to. When it warms up a bit and summer comes the “flu like virus gets weaker” has been mentioned but not proven. But what we want is to have our coffee, go to a bar, theatre, a long drive and our holidays. Oh, we love our holidays for sure.

We want this to blow-over so we can go back to how it used to be. That life that was real. As I said, for some people what is real has been for sometime.