COVID19, Thank you. (Part 1)

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience"

- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

*Disclaimer:

This article unintentionally turned into my viewpoint on Coronavirus. I found there was a lot to talk about surrounding Covid19 that I needed to show before I could introduce my topic. I did not intend for this to be the case hence the part 2. I just want to make note, I am not a professional on any of the matters discussed including environmental policies, rules and regulations. This whole article was purely based on my opinion and my experience. You might not agree with what I say and that is ok, although please remember this article wasn't intended to be my opinion. You might prefer to skip straight to part 2, where I discuss my actual theme. Thank you for understanding.

Coronavirus shook the world, there is no two ways about it.

People lost money, career's, family member's, holidays, weddings, final goodbyes, birthday parties and retirement celebrations just to name a few. It was truly devastating.

I would say, I was lucky during the Corona outbreak as the only losses I suffered were mainly to to my 2020 travel plans.

Although unfortunately, I did receive the deeply saddening news a relative of mine had passed away during the lockdown. Not to COVID19 , but it was very unlikely that we would be able to attend the funeral which was difficult to hear.

As COVID19 began to spread, there was an initial increase of racism towards people from Asia. UK citizens who were of Asian descent spoke out on how they'd lost business as people no longer wanted to be associated with them, from Uber drivers to Take-away restaurants.

At some point, We (as a country, as a world) have to realise that we can't hold a whole race accountable for the actions of their country, whether past or present.

For example, I'm going to make some bold statements;

We can't hold German's accountable for the actions of Hitler

We can't hold the Portuguese accountable for their role in the slave trade

We can't hold the English accountable for the treatment of the Irish

and

We can't hold American's accountable for the election of Trump.

For every one vote, there's someone who disagree's. But eventually, we have to move on.

Those who were immediately involved were hopefully punished or at least, realised the damaging consequences of their actions. If not, I'm sure their actions weren't celebrated later on in life when people reflect.

Those who perhaps agreed at the time, may or may not think differently now.

Overall, we can't change the past but we can learn from it.

I'm not saying we have to ignore it, or pretend it didn't happen, but we do need to understand that today;

This is a different set of people, a different generation with different thoughts and opinions, education and understanding, rules and regulations all which were built and formed on lessons from their past mistakes.

From mistakes we learn.

What I'm trying to say is, people who immigrated to the UK from China clearly did so for a reason.

Whatever that reason may be they chose to leave China behind. I'm not saying they've disregarded their culture, or even that they need to, but they're not responsible for what goes on in their country. They are no longer there and they probably no longer vote. And even if they were there, we don't know they're thoughts and opinions.

I once met a woman from China. She had immigrated to New Zealand for a better life for her children. She told me about the oppression, which was difficult for her. I also heard a similar story from a woman who left South Korea.

When I was away from the UK and heard the UK had voted to leave the EU, I thought, "Great, what a bunch of f***ing idiots". Most people I met when I said I was British were saying "F****g British, so arrogant", "Brits are so dumb". But those who truly understood, asked me first what my stance was before making an assumption.

The actions of 52% of the UK had tarnished the way people thought about me even though it had nothing to do with me personally. I didn't even vote. I wasn't there to vote. Yet somehow, "all brits" had set a stereotype.

Yes, the MAJORITY had voted to leave but there was still 48% of the country who didn't want to. I didn't want to.

It was annoying to hear someone else's opinions being projected onto me.

This is what was happening with the Asian community in the UK and it was wrong. Of course, people were angry and they had every right to be angry but they were targeting the wrong people.

(Note: For the record, I will refer to the Asian community as well as China, throughout the post because I believe this was an issue which could have happened anywhere in Asia, not just China. Moreover, I believe this is a bigger issue that could have happened in many other continents not just Asia, but seeing as Asia is at the end of the pointing finger, I will focus on Asia.)

People were taking it out on others who had nothing really to do with the issue at hand. These were people who didn't even live in Asia anymore. So why are they suddenly to blame?

Let's say, What if x person of Asian descent, didn't agree with the wet markets either and chose to immigrate to the UK for that reason? Is it still ok to withhold/destroy their livelihood? I imagine, you'd be all up for supporting them them, knowing they were on the same page as you.

For the sake of this article, I am going to take the information COVID19 came from a Wet Market in Wuhan. From what I found and in my general opinion, a Wet Market is a less hygienic version of your local butcher's or supermarket's meat and fish isle.

Admittedly, Food hygiene standards at the wet market's probably aren't up to Westernised standard's however, the principle of having local and fresh produce hanging or on counter tops isn't all that strange.

I vaguely visited a meat market in Asia once and I've seen the odd one in Africa. As a vegetarian, it wasn't all that pleasant but I wanted to see, for experience and for knowledge.

Yes, there was a lot of questionable things I saw and if I was a meat-eater, I wouldn't have felt safe eating meat from the markets I saw. However, different standards (and perhaps expectation's?), I was bought up in the UK and that's where my food standards were set. I believe after the outbreak of Avian Flu, some (if not all) Asian markets banned the sale of live poultry in Wet Markets.

The issue I believe, is with the fact Wuhan Wet Market did have a "Wildlife" section where animals such as; Snakes, Cat's, Dog's, Lizards, Badger's etc, etc were being sold. I believe there is still debate in Asia over whether Wildlife Market's should be allowed or not, hence the reason Wuhan Market came under further scrutiny. I'm assuming the so-called Bat of COV19 was located in this part of the Market. A part which was questionable.

Should this culture be eating wild animals?

Some animal's aren't wild, they're just found in the wild but they are actually bred at farms. Does this make it ok?

Now I'm not here to preach that China (and Asian as a whole I guess) should ditch meat for vegetarian diets. We eat meat here in the UK. So, who are we to tell anybody else?

The problem lies in, how can China improve their hygiene standards and be aware of the potential risks of eating such animals if any?

I believe we found recently, how eating red meat can increase the risk of cancer.

Does that mean we have stopped eating red meat? No.

But people are expected to use that knowledge to form their own decisions on how much, if any, they're going to consume within their regular diet.

I don't think there has been a reduction in red meat production either. So it's solely a consumer's choice.

Are they any health issues with eating snakes? I don't know.

Peacock's? Again, I don't know.

Dog's? Genuinely, no idea.

But, we do know that certain animals can carry or even pose more risk of carrying certain diseases than others. I suspect it's impossible to know every disease carried by every animal in a world where everything is constantly evolving, but the knowledge we have so far is pretty useful.

Eating expensive exotic foods have been a way of life for many generations for hundreds of years.

I mean let's face it, the only reason Boar isn't on our menu's anymore is because we hunted them nearly extinct. If we had it consistently, readily available, we'd eat it.

Take a look at what we know to be expensive or unusual foods today; Octopus, Caviar, Venison, Reindeer, Bear, Squid, Goat.

Research showed me exotic foods in China are a way of displaying wealth, once again, comes down to ego. I'm not too up-to-date with Chinese history or Asian history in general, but I believe this continent may struggle to accept the loss of ego.

OK, I know this is the home of Buddhism, Hinduism, Daoism and many others, but with a look at their history of oppression, I'm gonna bet ego means a lot. There is so much under-cover stuff with China, I mean look at the pressure on both young men and women from education and career to providing and creating a family. They bear a lot of weight on their shoulders.

This has been passed down from generation to generation. Sources say, changing that mindset is not going to happen easily.

In my opinion, forget about the environment for a moment, and its food chains and forget about animal rights and breeding, if a select group of people want to eat a certain type of food because it makes them feel better, let them. If they know the consequences of what they're eating and they still choose to do it. Let them.

Now bringing back the issues I mentioned of, the environment and animal rights.

That's a huge goal. I'm not saying it's unachievable but I mean common sense shows as of today, we're not turning Asia vegan. Don't be stupid.

The idea of removing Wet Market's isn't the end goal, in my belief. Removing markets which capture and sell animal's directly from the wild, of course 100% needs to go. That is incredibly dangerous.

Imagining hunting in the wild, shooting a deer and consuming it. Who know's what diseases that Deer may have carried? It's literally luck, without any tests.

Now, the idea of breeding exotic animal's within farm's, at this current moment in time, I see no harm with (forgetting animal rights, yes I'm vegetarian and yes animal rights means a lot to me, but let's not wipe out the entire human race first).

It is no different than us breeding cows or rabbit's, but like the UK, health checks and regulations on animal's are crucial, before they even enter the market space.

Wet Market's, just like our supermarkets, are a social space for elderly people and a communication hub within their neighbours as well as, a way for farmers to make money.

To cancel Wet Markets in general, is to taking away something that's at the centre of people's lives.

In my opinion,

• China, and Asian in general, need to improve their hygiene standard's and health regulations need to be taken seriously to stop COVID19 from happening again. (This should also be an area of note for other countries to step up or review their hygiene standard's).

• The sale and consumption of wild animals also needs to be banned, and that ban needs to be taken seriously.

• If the consumption of exotic animals is in such high demand by the people of the country, then the obvious outcome is for breeding farms. It is the extremely safer option considered too consuming wild exotic animals.

As I mentioned previously, from mistakes we learn and this is going to be (hopefully), a huge turning for humanity.

Nature has struck back; a reminder that actually nature isn't living with us, but we are living with nature and it's quite easy for our own stupidity to be our downfall. A lot easier, than it is for Nature to destroy itself.

Until part 2, Peace and Love xx

Articles of Interest:

What is a Wet Market? - The Guardian

Why Shutting down "Wet Market's" could be a terrible mistake?- The Conversation