Normal Can Be Dangerous
Van Persie, not the footballer, is the guy whom I buy peanuts off. The fist like packet cost fifty bob, half a dollar. Selling njugu karanga is his main source of bread and butter. He is tall, with a wiry frame and kind but well-worn face with huge eyes. I can’t help but buy njugu from him. Van Persie is one of the many Kenyans who make a living from the country’s informal sector. He, like many others, can’t afford to not go out every day and try and make a living. For him, home is safe if there is food. Van Persie and many others are faced with the dilemma, virus or starve? In his daily struggle, he is ‘social distancing’ himself from destitution.
They are the losers, but there are also winners in this COVID-19 lockdown. Bodas and taxis are ferrying more goods than passengers. Retail of sports gear in both the formal and mitumba (second hand) sector is seeing an upsurge in the demand for products. Yet, the Kenyan economy like many others across the globe is taking a severe beating. What about the social impact of the crisis, on you- the individual?
Just over a week ago, after many days of the same days, this lockdown got to me. The desire to be around people and to have human contact engulfed me. I wanted to shake hands, hug and feel skin but also to see smiles crack faces and not have them barricaded behind masks -but sadly, we are in the time of shielding ourselves right now. I accepted my situation, sulked and had to accept that there was nothing I could to deal with my yearning. I put a guard on my own mouth and nose (like a good WHO student) and went for a walk. At least my feet got to feel the earth that day. I was Zoomed out and didn’t feel like reaching out. Though commonsense prevailed and I let the other half know I was struggling-this mental strain was real.
I live alone and on most days I’m my own best company. With the current situation, I’m spending a lot of time on the phone having humorous and intense conversations. On that day though, I felt the deep need for company.
I’m having long conversations with friends about this season. I mull over the facts, data and various government responses. I find myself in a loop of ever questioning this utterly surreal time in global history. I’m also taking stock of the season and wondering what are the takeaways from this.
After all, that we’ve seen, learnt and experienced, is the normal that we left behind worth going back to? Don’t get me wrong, I want this to end, and believe there will be very many ways this will end, but that normal that is behind us isn’t worth going back to.
This pandemic has exposed us to a vast number of inequalities within our society- the huge gap between our public and private sectors more so, in health and education. This virus has shown us how blind we had become to the polluted skies that we live in thanks to limited movements. There are old skylines reappearing that are in clear sight to us- which had never been before. There’s a lot more concern for our frontline workers. There’s a lot more kindness being shown because of the limited human interaction that is taking place. I don’t think the eight-hour day will be the norm and working from home will no longer be seen as a skiving technique. Personal safety when it comes to passenger travel will now involve hygiene and health elements. Hopefully, and really hope, this will cause us the citizenry to demand more from our elected leaders and governments.
Do you want to go back to the scenario where your partner and kids were strangers to yourself and possibly to one another? Do you foresee yourself spending hours of your day in a commute to and from work? Have you seen friendships that you struggled with fizzle out or revived? Have you reignited dreams that had been put to the back burner? Is the impossible now possible? Are you still a stranger to yourself?
I honestly believe that we are being given an opportunity to reset our clocks. I’ll let you decide what your clock is. We need to do this for ourselves and to honour those thousands who lost their lives due to this invisible enemy.
Pope Francis in one of his recent mediations states, ‘In this storm, the façade of those stereotypes with which we camouflaged our egos, always worrying about our image, has fallen away, uncovering once more that (blessed) common belonging, of which we cannot be deprived: our belonging as brothers and sisters…You are calling on us to seize this time of trial as a time of choosing. It is not the time of your judgement, but of our judgement: a time to choose what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not. It is a time to get our lives back on track with regard to you, Lord, and to others.’
I’ve said this before that we have been here already. Remember, when the AIDS pandemic broke out? We were scared into condoms and that period has forever changed the way we have sex. Thanks to that we now have PEP and PREP and more robust view of sexual and reproductive health. The terrorist attacks of September 9–11 in the US have changed the way we travel and made the skies a lot safer. Pandemics birth viruses, and despite the tears, fears and uncertainty in getting there. This virus has stripped us bare and made us all untouchables.
Once this is over, what kind of life and world do you want to go back to? I know for sure, I want a better life for myself, and the environment within which I live in and share. But more so, I want to go to a world where the likes of van Persie, matter to all of us. Going back to normal, at least for now seems a lot more frightening. This pandemic is a new blueprint to a life that needs reworking, rebuilding and reshaping.
