By Joel B. Belinan
Most professional sports leagues have opened. Basketball, football, baseball and mixed martial arts are leading the pack. And by the look of things, these sports leagues’ managers or officials seem to be more efficient than most governments in the entire world in safeguarding the health of their stakeholders. Unfortunately most sportsmen detest politics, only few of them ever got elected into government positions.**
The big countries– the United States, Brazil, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa– are now the leaders when it comes to number of Covid-19 infections. Interestingly, the leaders of the US and Brazil share of the same characteristics. They have the tendency of firing people, their executives, who do not agree to their lunatic tendencies. Both cannot get their facts right, and are very quick to blame their political rivals for their failures. Another interesting observation, China, the source of the Covid-19, has a low number (83,000+) of infections, despite its 1.3 billion population. Most people, however, do not believe the Chinese government’s report. **
The Philippines is now the leading country in South East Asia. Not in terms of economic progress or something we should be proud of though, but as to Covid-19 infections. The government spokespersons and its trolls are 24/7 busy trying to make things look good in social media. The trolls always blame the yellowtards, and their idol is allegedly the best president in the entire universe. This country also recorded the longest lockdown in the entire world.**
Suddenly so many became experts on the pandemic and health issues. Just open your social media accounts and you will see what I mean. If you are curious, do some research on their backgrounds and you will be surprised. Some of them don’t even know the meaning of flu. As if they are not also aware that everyone has something to say as to the impact of the pandemic regardless of age, gender, color of skin, nationality, religious faith, ideology and status in life.**
Apart from health experts, conspiracy theorists mushroomed overnight. First theory is that China created the COVID-19 virus in their biological warfare labs in Wuhan China but some accident happened and it leaked to the outside world. Second theory is that the CIA created the virus in their own labs and smuggled it to Wuhan, China. Of course there are so many versions of the theories. One thing is sure, Hollywood and Chinese film makers will be in a race to make movies of this sort. By the way as early as 2003 there was a movie whose script was almost like the Covid-19 pandemic. And yes conspiracy theorists are quick to associate this to the current crisis. **
Our government particularly in the national level might be the slowest one in South East Asia in acting relative to this crisis, say critics. Of course the government mouthpieces say otherwise. According to international observers we are one of those countries that used most of our police and military officers to impose regulatory measures in this crisis. Not a bad move though but considering the tendency of Filipinos, a lot of people resented this. While there might have been some reports of police lapses in other parts of the country, the Cordillera police and military seemed to be doing very good. The “inayan” part of the culture of Igorots must have been in the works here, cultural analysts say. **
Looking at some silver linings of this pandemic, it showed how in-efficient most of our leaders were but also brought out the best in some. While we were being bombarded with bad news everyday there was news of exemplary leadership. In the international scene, women leaders were showing the way. The Taiwanese lady president showed that despite her country’s having been discriminated against by the World Health Organization (WHO), Taiwan had beaten giant China in managing the virus. New Zealand and Germany are also doing very good in responding to the pandemic and both have lady prime ministers. Women are more health conscious than men, they say.
As to forms of government, Vietnam, a socialist country, has one of the least number of Covid-19 infections. So its not true that socialist states are that bad to their people. **
On the contrary, world leaders with macho image like those of giant countries like the US, Brazil and Russia, their kingdoms have the highest number of Covid-19 infections.
In the local scene, many elected local officials are under investigations or were already charged due to corruption relative to this crisis. Unfortunately one mayor in the Cordillera was one of them for overpriced purchases of health gadgets used for the pandemic. Fortunately, many new and young leaders showed their mettle in handling the crisis. Isko Moreno, Vito Sotto and, yes, our very own Mayor Magalong were some of them. Come election time in 2022, let us see if Filipinos will suddenly have their memories intact.**
Barangay officials indeed are now playing a crucial role in the fight against this invisible enemy. Without them it would be very difficult to contain the “tigas ulong Pilipino.” Unfortunately many barangay officials and even their volunteers are just power mongers. They cannot even follow the simple guidelines on lockdowns as promulgated by the city mayor. And in many instances, they make funny, impractical and cumbersome rules that add up to the people’s woes. **
Unlike in the land of the brave and the crazy most of our religious groups in this country seem to be law abiding. And based on social media posts, many learned to pray because of the hardships they experienced. But one thing is sure, prayers alone won’t help if our discipline remains low as before. And, yes, the so called Christian countries like the US are the worst affected by the virus. Catholic Brazil, Italy, Mexico and Pinas are also ln the lead. But some non-Christian countries like India are also on the march to join those in the leader board. **
