There is no better example of how the coronavirus (COVID-19) has exposed our misguided senses of security and our mistaken way of life that has given way to endless military spending and wars, tax breaks for the wealthy, disinvestment in our well-being through growing inequality.
Sometimes our fears and lust for power cause us to commit genocide as we saw during the colonial period and in Nazi Germany during the Holocaust.
Is there a connection between COVID-19 and modern genocide? Who are the most vulnerable people and countries facing this pandemic and what will happen to them?
Let’s take Africa, for example, ravaged by postcolonialism and white European domination. Irrespective of such a disgraceful history, two French medics stated that Africans should be guinea pigs for the COVID-19 cure.
Sometimes our fears turn into genocide as we saw during the colonial period and in Nazi Germany with the horrors of the Holocaust.
Is there a connection between COVID-19 and modern genocide? Who are the most vulnerable people and countries facing this pandemic? What fate awaits them?
Writes EyeGambia: “In a viral video clip shared on social media on Thursday, the two were filmed on set suggesting that a newly discovered possible COVID-19 vaccine should be tested in Africa the same way experimental treatment for aids was done on prostitutes. According to the journalist interviewing the doctors, the vaccine should be first tested on vulnerable Africans who have no mask, no treatment before using it to treat European citizens.”
If some medics are talking about using Africans as guinea pigs, US President Donald Trump downplayed the coronavirus threat initially and promised a vaccine for COVID-19 would be ready in a few months.
Trump’s promise and statements show the same disregard for human life that white colonists unleashed on Africans and other vulnerable groups.
A documentary below on the Holocaust offers some sobering advice during these trying times. States Noa Mkayton of the International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem, about the problem with labeling Nazis evil monsters.
“[We wash our hand and conveniently state] they were Nazis, but I am not. And from here, it is only a small step, to conclude, that there is very little to learn from the phenomenon. It is fundamentally essential to recall that the Holocaust is a historical event, carried out by humans and suffered by humans.”
The COVID-19 pandemic, which exposes our false sense of security, racism and our propensity to commit genocide, is also a historical event caused by humans and suffered by humans.
Any person familiar with the Holocaust will ask “How civilized people could support and even carry out genocide?”
How did we end up in this pandemic? How did we end up creating a world where a minority controls almost all the wealth? Why are we fighting wars and investing so much on weapons and building walls and not investing on our well-being? How have we learned to shut our eyes and deafen our ears to so much injustice and barbarity?
The coronavirus offers us a good and serious opportunity to confront these questions and find answers and, subsequently, a plan of action to set the world on a different course.
