Fight the virus, not the Chinese
The
covonavirus (nCOV-2019) is fast spreading, now to over 20 countries. The fear
coronavirus spreads is far bigger than the deaths and infections put together.
But
a worse viral load is also somewhere in some other dimension working worse
damage to humanity – that is the racism, profiling, hate and alienation of the
Chinese person.
The
social media in most parts of the world have hundreds of thousands of such hate
harvest, most of all from societies that boast they are civilized and know
better about what a virus should be and different from a citizen of a country
from where a killer virus emanated.
For
the coronavirus, China is the epicenter, the birthplace from where the world
picks the vibes.
For
the hate of it – hatovirus, the human and cultural offshoot of the coronavirus,
the outer world is the epicenter. The vector is the media, especially the new
media.
While
in Europe and the Americas the Asian is the fall guy and ‘demon’ that
deliberately created the virus, in Asia, the Chinese is singled out. So
pathetic!
It’s
quite worrisome that most of the reports about coronavirus induced hate –
hatovirus, come from Asian countries close to China. Such news simmers in
Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam etc.
The
worst of the reported cases was that of Indonesia on Friday, January 31, 2020
that “China flew overseas Hubei residents back to the centre of the outbreak in
Wuhan on chartered planes from Thailand and Malaysia, citing “practical
difficulties” the passengers had encountered overseas.”. That doesn’t sound
cheery or humane.
In
Australia, after two media organisations had screamed headlines that were
heavily loaded with negativity against the Chinese person, Global Times, a
Beijing based media reported angst by 46,000 Chinese citizens who signed a
protest against the reports and demanding a recant.
The
Global Times report said: “More than 46,000 people have signed a petition demanding
the Australian media to apologize publicly for racism against the Chinese
community after two media outlets carried headlines and highlighted characters
on their front pages which labeled the novel coronavirus-related pneumonia as a
“Chinese virus” and hyped sentiments that would require Chinese children to
stay at home.
The
Australian daily tabloid newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, published on its
Wednesday’s paper a report titled “China Kids Stay Home,” according to a photo
of the paper circulating online.
The
report indicated that the New South Wales government warned “parents not to
send their children to school or daycare if they have recently been in China”
due to “fears over the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak.”
In
reaction to this odd trend, Bloomberg, a US platform captured it aptly that:
“Airlines halt flights from China. Schools in Europe uninvite exchange
students. Restaurants in South Korea turn away Chinese customers.
“As
a deadly virus spreads beyond China, governments, businesses and educational
institutions are struggling to find the right response. Safeguarding public
health is a priority. How to do that without stigmatizing the entire population
of the country where the outbreak began — and where nearly a fifth of all
humans reside — is the challenge.”
In
the US, a Chinese American celebrity, Michelle Phan said she’s been targeted
with barrage of racism on twitter amid Wuhan coronavirus scare. And in one of
the instances, she replied: ‘Why are some of you telling me to go back to eating
bats? I’m American you ignorant f—s.”
There
have been many other reported cases of such hate attacks in Canada where the
government of Ontario and the school board had to issue warning that no Chinese
citizen should be maltreated or stigmatized because of the coronavirus
outbreak.
In
an interesting contrast, governments of many countries and intergovernmental
bodies including the World Health Organisation (WHO), the EU, India, Pakistan,
the Vatican through Pope Francis have praised the Chinese authorities for
concerted efforts against the scourge and even offered to assist.
Dropping
aside the usual antagonism, a US media organization published reports praising
China’s openness in managing and reporting the incident and also allowing the
outer world to see what it’s doing to curtail the spread especially the WHO
that has visited Beijing and interacted with President Xi Jinping. The report
noted that this open and transparent approach is a deviation from the way China
handled the management of the SARS outbreak in 2003, applauding the positive
dimension.
So
how do we reconcile a situation where governments praise China and pledge
support in this challenging time while the citizens walk in contrary direction,
compounding the problem with stigmatization? That becomes a task for the
governments to senitise the uninformed citizens to act properly.
However,
it’s many thanks to scientists in Australia and Ghana that have assisted with
researches that created vaccines against the virus. After Australia announced
the breakthrough, Ghana told the world that two students of pharmacy who
trained in China when the first minor coronavirus outbreak occurred cloned the
virus with samples they obtained in China then and also volunteered to fly to
China and assist in fighting this death agent.
Sincerely,
if I have the scientific weapon and know-how, I would target to obliterate this
virus. Yes, I would rather fight the virus that has traversed continents and
nations.
But
now, I haven’t the equipment to stop coronavirus from spreading and killing the
Chinese mostly, I would readily deploy the little weapon in my hands and within
my reach – love, to love the Chinese and not mistake him or her for the virus.
Since
the Chinese is NOT the virus, I rather fight the virus by loving and embracing
the Chinese. I won’t be fair to him/her and humanity to alienate or profile or
castigate the Chinese spared by the virus at a time I should be consoling them
for the loss of lives, peace and livelihood.
That
is what humanity rightly demands of us.
Source: africachinapresscentre.org
Fight the virus, not the Chinese
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