What a sigh of relief, the incidents of the deadly Covid-19 are slowly but surely going down. In their midst a good lesson was learnt that inequality is the biggest global threat to wipe out humanity.
Now is the time to deal decisively with it. The resources, time, effort and urgency thrown into the pandemic was amazing. And the reason was due to the fact that it started from and largely affected the rich countries in a big way.
Climate Change is next to be tackled with the same vigour and enthusiasm if we were to survive. It is estimated that three-quarter of global carbon emissions are from industrialised rich nations such as G20 countries.
However, the most affected countries in the world by climate disasters are the poor ones. Stark evidence is extreme floods displacing millions in South Sudan and drought devastating Somalians. The COP27 summit in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, in November must pragmatically arrest this adverse situation.
Furthermore, we must not be oblivious of the twin killer diseases, TB and Malaria. According to the non-profit TB Alliance, 4,109 people are killed per day by the disease of the poor – TB. In terms of an efficacy vaccine, the Big Brothers are dragging their feet.
The president of TB Alliance stated that TB could be rooted completely if the same resources were put in place as those that were used to fight Covid-19. It’s sad, and the World Health Organisation is mute. This confirms that if the general populace has money in their pockets, the world would work better. Inequality is a sin.
Thami Zwane, Edenvale, Ekurhuleni
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