Tomorrow is Christmas Day. It is a sacred, religious holiday meant to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, but in reality, it is a huge commercial event, a time of the year when businesses make their largest sales. Whether people are religious or not, Christmas tends to include sending greeting cards, decorating trees, giving and receiving gifts, attending church, visiting family and friends and sharing meals with them. These are customs that have endured for more than a lifetime and will continue to survive even if they are not practiced once for the sake of maintaining good health.
The arrival of the coronavirus pandemic earlier this year and its deathly lingering effects are seeing a marked change in how some people celebrate Christmas. People who behave responsibly in general know that the parties and gatherings can wait until a safer time. It is not easy, of course not, but it is very necessary. Unfortunately, this logic is still eluding others who clearly need to take a step away from instant gratification and self-aggrandisement in order to see the bigger picture.
It also does not help that our leaders are irresponsible. This was more than obvious in the lead-up to tomorrow’s main event when it appeared to be business as usual and to hell with the consequences. Last Saturday, PNCR Chairperson Volda Lawrence led a toy distribution exercise in East and West Ruimveldt. There were at least three other people involved in the distribution and on the receiving end scores of children and their parents. The photograph accompanying the press release that informed the media showed the PNCR gift-givers and some of the children with masks on, and although the exercise was at an open-air venue, there was unacceptable mingling.
Perhaps Ms Lawrence was seeking to outdo Speaker of the National Assembly Manzoor Nadir, who began his targeted 7,000 toys distribution on December 6 in Region Five. Mr Nadir, who contracted COVID-19 some months ago, did not go himself on this mission. Three envoys from his office were his gift-bearers. One hopes they were not among the 14 Parliament Office staff who tested positive for the virus mere days after the Speaker did. The photograph accompanying the Speaker’s press release showed at least one adult with no mask on and again an open-air venue, but unacceptable mingling. Let us be clear here that we are by no means suggesting that anyone was spreading coronavirus and one assumes that both Mr Nadir and his staff are hale and hearty at this point. However, this is a virus with too many unknown properties to take chances. And if masks were the ultimate prevention, health workers would not have contracted and died of COVID-19, nor would physical distancing be one of the measures heavily underlined by the World Health Organisation.
The First Lady also made her splash on December 18, joining Minister of Education Priya Manickchand and Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce Oneidge Walrond to hand out toys and at six Indigenous communities in Region 9, after receiving the keys to Lethem where she first visited. At least one of those community events was held indoors as seen in a photograph sent to the press by the Office of First Lady Arya Ali. Masks were in evidence but the clustering was very much in pre-coronavirus mode.
Then there was President Irfaan Ali serving lunch to soldiers at Kaikan in Region Seven on December 11, where they were joined by members of the community including school-age and younger children. The photo distributed by the Office of the President showed President Ali serving masked soldiers their meals in what appeared to be (but hopefully were not) Styrofoam containers. Since it was an indoor sit-down lunch, we can assume everyone removed their masks to eat. The President followed this with a photo-op outdoors with the soldiers and others, all masked to the hilt.
Five days later, he was at the Top Cop’s breakfast on December 16, another indoor event, but this time the top brass had crockery, cutlery and napkins and were all chowing down when the photo was taken. Good times, right? Not exactly.
All of the people referred to above, and those not mentioned but who have been doing the same thing want to be seen as good and caring. There they are spreading Christmas cheer, giving the children and the people what they expect at this time of the year. That cannot be a bad thing, right? Except it is. As iterated ad nauseam in this column, Guyana is in a very shaky position where COVID-19 is concerned. Figures are continuing to rise: 6,125 confirmed cases and 162 deaths as of yesterday, averaging between 2 and 6 people dying every week. So, how is it okay to spread Christmas cheer in person? Are we to believe that there was no other way for children to receive those must-have plastic toys? Or for the soldiers to have a special meal? How is it not sinking in that it cannot be Christmas as usual?
Of course, obtusely, we are missing the whole point of those events. They are not so much for the children and the soldiers as they are for the optics of the hosts and the givers, who even in the midst of a pandemic must score political points. The visuals of their giving, their caring are of utmost importance even if the message is interpreted in part, and it is, that if they can do it then so can we.
On December 10, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony spoke about personal responsibility and its role in containing the spread of COVID-19, but he must have been spitting in the wind, because clearly some of his Cabinet colleagues were not listening. Or maybe these directives are more of a do-as-I-say-and-not-as-I-do nature.
As much as we do not want it to be the case, COVID-19 is now bigger than Christmas. It cannot be surpassed as the event of 2020. Vaccines have been developed and immunisations have begun and in the midst of some breathing sighs of relief, a different, more infectious strain of coronavirus has surfaced in the UK. It is unfortunate, disappointing, and definitely scary that some of us seem to need to see something worse happen before doing the right thing.
