A time of chaos
There is at least a thing, or two, to be learned from the chaos that has ensued over the past few weeks following the outbreak of the Media's favourite virus to report about, the Coronavirus (COVID-19). One of them is that being overly comfortable in any position, in any situation, or any circumstance can pose a major problem in the future. A problem much like the one being observed in different societies at the moment, where things are so bad that people are spending their precious time fighting over daily essentials, like 'toilet paper', in the aisles of supermarkets/shops.
A lot of selfishness is being brought to the surface as we face a "unique" epidemic that is rapidly sweeping across countries and that, up until this point, I cared very little about. Some people are going as far as to hoard items for themselves (..and family, if they even have time to think about anyone else apart from themselves) so that there is nothing left for the next person or their families, and such behaviour is a terrible shame.
If we consider these days to be the beginning phases of a global crisis, and people are already in full panic mode, then we are very unlikely to survive if things were to become much worse.
I read a post by a man who had gone into a few supermarkets in his town in Norway to buy some groceries for his elderly mother and, to his great dismay, had been met with almost empty shelves. My best friend gave me almost the same report, as she had observed that most products had been completely wiped off shelves in various stores in Oslo.
There really should be no need for this type of behaviour as we have not come to a point where there is food-shortage and, even if there was, hoarding would not be the answer. I definitely understand that there are large families out there, but if everyone continued to shop as normal, there would be enough to go around.
This week I have spent most of my time indoors and practically on bed-rest, so I have not been able to observe the chaos I've been hearing about with my own two eyes. But I really do hope people soon realise that panicking isn't going to make any situation better and that it would be of greater help if we all considered our neighbours at this point in time. I believe that if everyone collectively focused on taking care of their neighbours, rather than just themselves (a lot of teachings do encourage people to be selfish but, even though it is good to be selfish at times, it does not serve us well in situations like this one), nobody would be left wanting.
We need to remember that there will be good times and there will be bad times, and not to get too caught up in good times so that we are unable to prepare for bad times. In the same way, we should not get too caught up in the bad times because they, too, shall pass.
A lot of selfishness is being brought to the surface as we face a "unique" epidemic that is rapidly sweeping across countries and that, up until this point, I cared very little about. Some people are going as far as to hoard items for themselves (..and family, if they even have time to think about anyone else apart from themselves) so that there is nothing left for the next person or their families, and such behaviour is a terrible shame.
If we consider these days to be the beginning phases of a global crisis, and people are already in full panic mode, then we are very unlikely to survive if things were to become much worse.
I read a post by a man who had gone into a few supermarkets in his town in Norway to buy some groceries for his elderly mother and, to his great dismay, had been met with almost empty shelves. My best friend gave me almost the same report, as she had observed that most products had been completely wiped off shelves in various stores in Oslo.
There really should be no need for this type of behaviour as we have not come to a point where there is food-shortage and, even if there was, hoarding would not be the answer. I definitely understand that there are large families out there, but if everyone continued to shop as normal, there would be enough to go around.
This week I have spent most of my time indoors and practically on bed-rest, so I have not been able to observe the chaos I've been hearing about with my own two eyes. But I really do hope people soon realise that panicking isn't going to make any situation better and that it would be of greater help if we all considered our neighbours at this point in time. I believe that if everyone collectively focused on taking care of their neighbours, rather than just themselves (a lot of teachings do encourage people to be selfish but, even though it is good to be selfish at times, it does not serve us well in situations like this one), nobody would be left wanting.
We need to remember that there will be good times and there will be bad times, and not to get too caught up in good times so that we are unable to prepare for bad times. In the same way, we should not get too caught up in the bad times because they, too, shall pass.
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