Author: Bardhyl Zaimi
The world is shocked. Nothing can be like it used to be. The corona virus, in spite of the development of technology, in spite of all other human developments, has let us know how fragile human life is. It made us realize that a human life is the co-existence of life generally across the globe. It made us realize that no one can live apart from the universal idea that remains the supreme essence of our existence.
When fear strikes, the human being fades away. It sinks into its own smallness, into the initial uncertainty that has always followed life from its earliest performances to this day, in days filled with virtual perfection, filled with thrilling comforts, filled with the idea of inviolability from the looming shadows of probabilities from mini-universes, other habitats that come as an invisible enemy, but that has always been in our midst.
And, whenever mankind is threatened by an invisible enemy that appears frightening as a threat, we strive to find explanations in human wisdom, in that magnificent experience gathered in endless studies and analysis. It is the fear of the unknown that creates terror. In one of his essays, the philosopher Nikolai Bergjaev says that terror is different from fear. Fear, he says, is about a concrete threat, while horror-terror comes from the unknown. And as we watched the sights of the first outbreak in Wuhan, China, so significant and terribly warning were the verses of Brecht: “They laughed until the bad news had not yet arrived.”
At the same frequencies of elaboration of this human reality, of the threat and the manifestation of supreme loneliness comes the “Plague” of Albert Kamysa, which in these days of threatening by the corona virus it became known that it was the most read book. Writers in the partitura of their creations capture the deepest tones of human existence, all the fragility of life in the face of the unknown, and therefore the power of their speech remains permanent and universal. Such are the novels that embody precisely this human destiny that is attacked by the innumerable backwardness of life “Love in the Cholera Times” and “One Hundred Years of Solitude” that come into the focus of these days’ readings.
But, without any doubt, in this global gloom, in this threatened present that paves many questions and receives so few answers, somewhere on their instruments across the globe, scientists stand bent on trying to explain “the invisible enemy”, this well-known but highly intelligent “enemy” who is harvesting human lives. A grand battle to give mankind the hope of salvation, the hope of overcoming even this invisible shadow that pervades human life.
In this situation of self-preservation, recommended by the most prominent scientists, repeatedly posted by the World Health Organization, is let to people to be careful, to be responsible to isolate this “invisible enemy” as much as possible which doesn’t want to give up. At the first line of this front are doctors, journalists and anyone who tries to maintain normal functioning in a situation aggravated by the coronavirus. And all our gratitude goes to them, for their work, for their commitment in these difficult days for all the people of the globe.
Of course, governments of all countries have already taken the appropriate measures recommended by the WHO, while the test of civic responsibility remains for the moment the best medicine. Of course, in less developed countries self-isolation is a problem in itself. Stronger and more organized states, in addition to isolation, have also taken financial intervention measures to protect economic collapse.
In our circumstances, staying home is definitely a must to prevent the spread. This implies another isolation. Isolation of household’s economy. A large number of households live on a minimal income and on a day-to-day basis of work and survival, without a two-week or more self-financing condition. It may sound absurd, but this problem will also appear. The government should think about this too. Without question price control and social life in a very specific circumstance of necessary social restraint!
We do not already know how many families face daily existence, while the government, besides self-isolation appeals, has not given any indication of how it will manage this dimension of social life. In Germany, in addition of giving billions of euros as a financial injection for this situation, there is also a civic action to assist the oldest generation with essentials and services that are in line with measures proclaimed by the government itself.
An extraordinary human dimension. There is no situation so hopeless that man can exclude the human dimension within oneself. No threat can be more powerful than the love of human being. It remains so important to think and act in this situation with rationality and complete humanity.
The greediness of here and there, of enormous food purchases is a selfishness of its kind. Not everyone has the opportunity for this temporary “security” that is more psychological. This situation, above all, requires rationality, requires a common spirit, not a cynical survival egocentrism. We are not only us, but also the other who is similar to us. The other one is us, the human being, seeking a spirit of solidarity, seeking humanity in this eclipse of fear and horror that has gripped the world.
The corona virus has shocked human ontology and remains a challenge for the human community to overcome. Self-isolated with the idea of universal humanity. The sun will rise again …!