CONFUCIUS SAYS: Don’t fly in the face of green list

THERE’S a lot of talk of confusion about the green list for travel abroad that seems intent on creating even more confusion. The Government guidelines for travel are quite straightforward. The green list is for countries you can travel to and from, without having to follow restrictions on arrival in Ireland. The bottom line for all travel is that it must be essential travel only.

Where the Government has fallen short is in the art of communication – a failure which left the Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney having to deny, on Morning Ireland, that the Government has made a ‘hames’ of the advice.

In many respects, the Government has been hoist by its own petard. Some bright spark must have thought the ‘green list’ sounded like a great marketing tag for the guidelines. Unfortunately, they forgot about the difference between marketing and communication.

Green, as everyone understands, means Go, whereas the underlying advice is Don’t Go, unless you really have to. So for those that need advice to be writ large: holidays abroad are not essential.

Former taoiseach, taoiseach-inwaiting and alternative taoiseach Leo Varadkar realised this before the green list was published and warned it was probably not a good idea to have a green list at all.

THIS was something of a Damascene conversion, given that the original proposal for the list came from the previous government, not the current one.

However, better late than never, although what appeared to many to be a solo run by the Tánaiste was also perceived as deliberately causing some internal mischief within the Coalition, in what has been a very bumpy start for the new Government.

Green puts the idea of going into everyone’s head. I have no intention of heading abroad but it didn’t stop me checking, out of curiosity, the cost of Ryanair flights from Dublin to Chania in Crete. And yes they are very reasonable in September, and yes it would be wonderful to go, and yes the aparthotel outside Rethymnon, run by the wonderful

Angela and her family, urgently needs our custom, and yes we will go at the first opportunity that it’s safe. But the problem is it isn’t 100% safe because we have to travel through two airports and sit on a plane, something we would be delighted to do, and did, last year. But that’s just my assessment of how safe it is, and the real challenge is that others are entitled to a different view and will decide that the risk for them is acceptable.

And maybe they’ll be fine. Then again, maybe they won’t.

And this is the reason why the green message was wrong-headed. A fellow journalist and communications expert rightly suggested that an amber list would have been more appropriate because it would have had a clear connotation of warning attached to it.

This type of travel advice is given on an ongoing basis by the Department of Foreign Affairs, for Irish people travelling to areas where issues such as health and security are a potential hazard.

Sometimes the advice may be confined to areas within a country rather than the country itself. For example, I have worked in Nigeria where sensible precautions apply in Lagos, as they would in most cities around the world, but in certain cities in northern Nigeria where Boko Haram is operating, the risk would be identified as significantly greater.

Essentially, the decision to travel in these cases is one of individual discretion.

BUT in a pandemic, where the health of nations is at stake, individual choice is necessarily much less of an option.

The ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius is acknowledged as one of the greatest thinkers and humanists of all time.

One of his tenets was that although self-interest was not necessarily bad, there was a better path to righteousness by considering and acting for the greater good. In this case, we should consider what is in the best overall interest of our nation.

It is clearly vital for everyone’s health and wellbeing that we return to our normal activities as quickly as possible. Our health experts understand this as much as anyone and their whole focus is to facilitate this and our health by eradicating Covid-19 as much as possible and keeping it on hold until a vaccine is found.

So when the experts say it is safe for me to enjoy the fantastic Cretan sunshine and the superb hospitality of the Cretan people, then, and only then, will I go.

Oh and just to avoid any confusion. Confucius is nothing to do with confusion. His thoughts and teachings have endured thanks to their clarity, not their obfuscation.

No one is to blame for the 1,000 deaths in our nursing homes? Typical, I’m afraid. Read Ger Colleran’s column in tomorrow’s