I’m sure all of us have either
witnessed or saw few images encapsulate more succinctly or poignantly the
situation facing us all at this very critical time
Pictures of supermarket shoppers
filling their shopping carts to overflowing with large packets of toilet paper
is labelled ‘panic buying’. Brought on by the apparently imminent spread of
COVID-19, these rabid consumers seem to be concerned that the greatest risk
from the demise of civilization as we know it, is not being able to wipe their
bottoms with their luxury brand. But why is this called ‘panic’?
I’ve observed the elderly (seniors)
stand in the middle of a supermarket aisle surrounded by empty shelves, their
gaze focused on the scrap of paper — presumably their shopping list — in their hands.
This is not Venezuela, not Russia
during the Cold War, not a corruption-ravaged Zimbabwe not any third world
country.
This is Canada, arguably the most
stable place on Earth.
And the bare shelves are not the
result of food shortages or some sort of catastrophic failure in supply chains;
they are the result of the cruel selfishness of those who, in times of crisis,
have no regard for the needs of the vulnerable or elderly but care only about
themselves.
Over the past few days, scenes
like this — and worse — have been repeated up and down this country and many
other so called “civilized” first world countries i.e. the UK, France,
Australia, the U.S., Canada, Germany etc.
People queuing around the block
at Costco and footage of crowds fighting and falling over each other to get
into a supermarket or grocery store, while other scenes show people slapping
and hitting each other over rolls of toilet paper.
All of them shocking, all deeply
distasteful, all liable to make one question the very nature and sanity — of
the human race.
But there was something about the
quiet desolation of those elderly people gazing at their shopping list that
brings into stark relief the way coronavirus is ripping through not just our
immune systems, our National Health System and our economy, but also our social
fabric.
It shows how, somewhere along the
line, we ceased to be humans beings and a country that cares about the old, the
sick and the vulnerable, and became a nation of sharp-elbowed, nasty and
thoroughly inconsiderate “I’m Alright Jack”.
Of course, there are also many
stories of individuals stepping up to help others, of communities coming
together to weather this storm.
Indeed, I have every confidence
that once the acute phase of this crisis has passed, once the reality of the
situation has been processed, people will calm down and rally to each other’s
sides.
But that does not change the fact
that the viciousness of the panic buying, the sheer greed that people have
displayed in taking far, far more than they need without giving a second
thought to those less nimble, less speedy, less well-off, has been striking.
I’ve seen shops and stores full
of elderly people looking for groceries even though the shelves were empty —
ransacked by the so-called ‘shellfish and inconsiderate’. Already far more vulnerable to the effects of
the virus than younger people, the older generation are also much more likely
to be living on their own and surviving on their pensions.
They don’t tend to have a freezer
full of stuff, and they can’t always afford to buy in bulk. But even if they
could, it’s not really in their nature to take what they don’t need.
And this, I think, is really the
crux of the matter. What we are seeing here is a really deep generational
divide.
Between those who grew up in the
shadow of two World Wars and those like myself who are survivors of the 1971
genocide and of deadly diseases such as typhoid, malaria, cholera, measles,
small pox, chicken pox and plague, and who know true hardship and personal
sacrifice; and those who have never known anything else but relative
prosperity, people for whom the prospect of having to do without simply does
not compute, whose sense of entitlement blinds them to all but their own needs.
Between those who, like my
parents and individuals from my immediate generation never waste a single
morsel of food or buy more than we know we’re going to need; and those who are
so spoilt for choice that they’ll chuck out stuff that’s half a day
out-of-date, or reject a tin with a dent in it.
They want it all, and they want
it now — because they’ve never known anything else.
They’re that child at a kid’s
party who grabs all the sweets at once, even though they can’t possibly eat all
of them, and if they did it would make them horribly sick.
Spoilt, selfish, ill-mannered and
probably deserving of a good smack (were such things still allowed these days).
It is often wondered of today’s
younger generation whether, if asked to make a similar sacrifice to the one
made by their predecessors in defence of the country from Nazi Germany, they
would be equal to the task.
I have always felt that the
answer to that question would be yes; that when push came to shove, they would
set aside their “me-first” mentality and step up to the plate.
But what has been so depressing
about the recent stockpiling, for me at least, is how that does not seem to be
the case.
Scenes of the healthy and
able-bodied riding roughshod over the old and frail make me question whether we
have what it takes to face this crisis.
The irony is that a lot of the
surplus food bought by selfish panic buying will probably be dumped when this
serious crisis is all over!
