It’s funny how easily things fall away in a crisis to reveal the essential. You might have spent years going clothes shopping every few days and then, suddenly, your principal occupation is no longer which dress will flatter your figure more but, rather, if you will have enough food to survive. Priorities and requirements change. That’s why hard times need good, strong leaders and not flip-floppers.
Perhaps the most famous flip-flopper and appeaser in modern Western history is Neville Chamberlain. He did not only sign over the Sudetenland region of what was Czechoslovakia to Germany with minimum fuss but his inability to prepare his country for war has made him notorious. When he was replaced by the strong-willed, no-nonsense, relentless bulldog that was Winston Churchill, the entire empire gave a collective sigh of relief. At the end of the day, what are you meant to elect someone for if not their ability to lead?
Troubled waters call for skilled sailors and set courses, and this past week has called into question what exactly some members of the Cabinet are playing at with their half messages and more U-turns than the driving instructors they are allowing to continue working. It would beggar belief if there were any belief left.
Every day, Charmaine Gauci sits down in front of thousands of people and calmly gives the day’s numbers; she then proceeds to answer some of the most inane questions that any of us have ever heard. Throughout her daily conferences, she urges people to stay inside and tells us that our mortality rates depend squarely on whether or not we are able to make the most of our gilded cages.
A person dead is still a vote lost
Her words have become like a mantra, a prayer to be said every day. And then, come evening, most of her good work is undone by politicians who last week appeared to care more about votes than they do about our health.
You see, while all of us have been asked to stay at home unless there is something essential that we need to leave the house for, many of our hunters and driving instructors have decided that they are above this call to duty and want their activities to go on as if half the world’s population isn’t at a risk of being wiped out. The incredible pettiness of it all would be comical if it weren’t so tragic.
The best part of this ridiculous display is the wives coming out in their droves to defend their apparently uncontrollable husbands. I mean, I know some of us have been inside for weeks now, but how fed up do you need to be of your significant other floating about at home to want to sentence him and yourself to possible death?
As for those people who want to continue driving lessons, pray tell, where exactly will you be driving to? I don’t know much about the afterlife but having a driving licence is not a prerequisite for St Peter to let you through the pearly gates.
I beseech the Cabinet to take heed of our doctors and continue to earn the honourable mention which the WHO gave us just last week. Stop the flip-flopping, which only leads to more frustration and confusion, and give strong, resolute answers that you are able to stick to.
We are all in this together, we are all sacrificing our time, hobbies and livelihoods for the greater good. And if I can’t appeal to your better natures, let me leave with you this: a person dead is still a vote lost.