Did the COVID-19 virus appear suddenly? Was it man-made or something that nature thrust on us or both? Who can be held responsible? Is there a way out? What are the responsibilities of peoples’ movements and conscientious individuals? In this first part of a 3-part series exclusive to WSN, K. Venkataraman, general secretary of the Tamil National Movement lays bare the role of political systems, its cohort -the crony capitalists and pure human greed in heaping this crisis on humankind.

TODAY WE ARE THE CROSSROADS OF LIFE AND DEATH. The crises of health, economics and ecology which have emerged simultaneously are not separate problems. They are inter-dependent and one has come because of the other.

Ahead of the Corona crisis, India and western countries were already facing economic stagnation. The slowdown of industrial production and loss of employment had already been troubling these countries.

In this same period, the crisis of ecology, ‘global warming’ had clearly emerged before the world community. From November to December 2019, climate struggles with the slogan “Save the Planet” shook the world.  Youth activist -Greta Thunberg’s roar questioning the world, “Humans! Your home is burning, what are you doing?” stunned the whole world! The people of all countries demanded their respective governments to declare ‘Climate Emergency.’ Apart from admonishing her in a whataboutery manner, political leaders had no answers to her questions.

“Humans! Your home is burning, what are you doing?”

Environmental Activist Greta Thunberg

If we try to find an answer to these inter-related issues separately, the world will suffer big devastation, redemption from which will be extremely difficult. Finding a solution to all these inter-related issues is linked with the solution to political rights. In other words, a solution to the crises of health, economy, and ecology is directly related to finding a solution to political issues of a country.

The ruling elites pour fuel on the burning planet on one side and the peoples’ movements resist and contest this attitude and role of the government.  The rulers are racists and under the trap of crony multinational corporations bent upon snatching peoples’ democratic rights.

US President Donald Trump advances white racism in the name of ‘American-ness’ and the Indian Prime Minister, Modi intensively advances Aryan racism and Sanskrit supremacy in the name ‘Indian-ness’. In both countries, crony capitalism overpowers politics.

Historically speaking, increased large scale production after the industrial revolution led to large-scale marketing. During the same period, there were large scale epidemics.

During the period 1918-1920, when the First World War was on, the epidemic ‘Spanish Flu’ killed 20 million people. Mass production, global trading, open economy, global liberalization and global market hunt led to epidemics -Avian Flu’ (1979), ‘SARS’ (2003), ‘Swine Flu’ (2009) and ‘Ebola’ (2014), killing thousands of people across the world.

Corona is the virus that caused SARS, Avian Flu and Swine Flu. However, when they are treated with medicines, they mutate in the human body and depending on the ecology in which the human body lives, they evolve into a new type of virus with additional immunities to survive the old medicines.

World Health Organisation says every year 5 million people die due to lung diseases. Thousands die like this from other non-contagious diseases caused by air pollution.

These contagious viruses are transferred to humans from birds and animals.  Nowadays, the fruit bats of the family -pteropodidae -certain kinds of reptile commonly called ant-eaters and wild cats are encroaching human habitat. This is because of the large-scale destruction of forests -the home and hearth of these reptiles. Further, exploitation of forests and water bodies, industrialization, and development of gigantic infrastructures by corporates have fully threatened the environment.

Numerous viruses are living in the body of a fruit-eating bat without harming it. But, when it is transferred to the human body, they multiply and do harm to the lungs, heart and intestines.

For instance, Corona is the virus that caused SARS, Avian Flu and Swine Flu. However, when they are treated with medicines, they mutate in the human body and depending on the ecology in which the human body lives, they evolve into a new type of virus with additional immunities to survive the old medicines.

In the poultry industry, for large scale trading, chickens and partridges are produced on a large scale in unhealthy conditions and feeding them with artificial chemical foods to induce growth. So, they succumb to diseases. To manage this, poultry owners regularly administer antibiotic drugs to the flocks. In due course of time, the birds become anti-bacterial resistant. When transferred to humans, the viruses already accustomed to the drugs survive them in the body of human beings and multiply, thereby causing the disease.

Large-scale manufacturing and large-scale drug production are inter-related. Large scale production of medicines targets the international market. Therefore, the medicines have to be generalised for the people of all nations, ignoring the traditional medical systems of a particular country and ignoring medicines which may be specifically suitable for the people living in specific ecological and climatic conditions.

To this end, ideological hegemony has been established over the people arguing that all indigenous knowledge is redundant and only western knowledge is superior, ushering in the introduction and growth of allopathy. This is how the dominance of corporate companies on human bodies is made to happen. Human bodies accustomed to generalised medicines, subsequently lose immunity.

Will mankind redeem itself from this dangerous situation? How will it do this? No easy answers. No short cuts. No one solution. It has to be a holistic solution. Any attempt at a piecemeal solution will push us into another irretrievable abyss.

Forcing traditional foods out of consumption, neatly packaged food products were introduced at the time of wars and gradually they are here to stay. The glut of food items in the markets is changing food habits and resultantly weakening human immune systems. Now, we are enduring the worst consequences.

Large scale industrialisation and suppression of the tradition and language of various ethnic nationalities have gone hand in hand -with one supporting the other. Large scale industrialisation also resulted in large scale contamination of the air, water, and soil. Air pollution has accelerated global warming rendering the planet uninhabitable.

Large scale industrialisation is for the largescale profiteering of a large majority of the global billionaire companies and individuals. The governments of various countries acted in the first instance as agents of these multinational billionaire companies and in due course of time, have blended with them.

As we have seen, the health issues, economic collapse, and ecological disaster are inter-dependent issues, which in tandem with the crony network of the multinational corporates has resulted in the COVID-19 virus and crisis.

Will mankind redeem itself from this dangerous situation? How will it do this? No easy answers. No short cuts. No one solution. It has to be a holistic solution. Any attempt at a piecemeal solution will push us into another irretrievable abyss.