Rephrased extract of an e-mail sent to my children’s school…
I had a philosophical thought based on the recent pandemic due to covid-19 outbreak and with a bit of ramble, I’ll try to connect various dots together. If you are religious and you regularly attend the brokered institutions (Temple / Church / Mosque etc), you should certainly read. Praying to God would not protect you from catching the infection. Well probably may be, if you are praying to God, playing games and isolating yourself totally from the rest of the immediate community and slurping your smoothie while periodically watching the paranoia amplified and propagated by the mainstream media.
All these religious places which could have offered to provide make-shift camps for treating affected patients have probably shut their doors and the religious figureheads or brokers to God have probably advised their communities to stick with the Government line on social distancing. While closing their doors, our medical and para-medical workers have kept their scientific doors wide open admitting and treating what they can with what they have.
Has the NSW State Government caved in to the social pressure of vested (or rather powerful) interests? That is a different story! What seemed like “all is well and children should be attending schools” messages have now slowly made a U-turn with messages thanking Parents for cooperating with social distancing. I hate that term to the core as it goes against fundamental human instincts. I wonder if Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister of Australia, abstains from sexual relationship with his spouse but then that is his personal life.
In this paranoia, communication brokerage between Department of Education and Parents, what exactly is the School’s stance? I understand the school isn’t receiving much support from the immediate community that is services and has to take a side. I would say the Covid-19 virus is such a precious gem that it has brought out the worst in human beings (or so we can call it).
Panic buying, shameless hoarding, irrational price rise of essential commodities etc. are just a few to mention. Basically we are clueless and don’t know how long this plays out. I can say this virus is totally non-discriminate in nature. It does not discriminate against a particular religion, caste or income level.
I understand Prince Charles is the latest high profile victim and shows the rich or the royals aren’t teflon coated. In fact, no matter, the layers of tax payer funded security systems can stop this naughty little invisible rascals from spreading their love.
In spite of many known earlier cases of viruses jumping from animals to humans, we wouldn’t stop our love for animal consumption or domestication. The icing on the cake is, covid-19 has challenged the extremely intricate clout held by the free-markets on our society and challenged it heads on. Had it been a terrorist with a face, media organizations would be busy compiling a religion or ideology behind it as a motive.
What we are doing right now is to reduce the unprecedented work load the outbreak might cause to public healthcare system but I am not sure how long such extreme measures are sustainable.
Now, you might all know this and why I bring this up? What does it have to do with the School? I think, it is important to stand for the core values the School is built upon. You service the community but don’t succumb to the pressures of the community if it seems unreasonable. I asked my son — how many kids turned up? He said, 74 odd kids out of 700+ enrolled ones turned up during the optional attendance days. So, 1 in 10 parents think their child is less precious than the rest and I am probably one of them? He finds it good to attend school. I know why — probably the home environment isn’t that great!
I want the teachers to take up the fight against what I see as a systematic moral decay in the society for basic human values. Sydney’s man made rat race fuels such behaviour. It is time to step back and probably think — what values we tend to bring our children up in a society that is in a state of flux? What is deemed NOT OK a few weeks ago suddenly shifts to being OK now and probably not sometime in future.
I dread of the fact that I cannot expect my children to be honest in a society that is extremely self-centered and dishonest to its convenience. If Parents cannot be trusted only the School can guide in shaping the upbringing of the children. Somewhere along we lost it and the covid-19 is bringing back to remind us to find it.
Soul searchingly…
