Will to survive

Put a face on the statistic. Should we do that, I think we could be more compassionate, understanding and generous. We could start empathizing when our heart beats faster alongside the person threatened with unemployment.

Covid-19 is real. The status of a person inflicted with Covid — the husband, the relative, the friend or officemate — makes us more grounded with the realization that if we are not mindful of the health protocols laid out by the government, we will end up in the morgue.

A prelate in his homily said: “The seriousness of the problem revealed the seriousness of the solution required.” When will those who violate health protocols start getting serious?

Do we have to experience for ourselves what happened in Brazil when residents there had to bury their loved ones in mass graves since cemeteries ran out of land space? How about that report about a Brazilian health worker who reportedly removed the oxygen of an elderly so that she can plug it to a much younger patient who, according to her discretion, had a better chance of surviving from the dreaded virus.

Technology has redefined our tradition and culture. We have become insensitive like the two doormen at an American establishment who not only watched an elderly woman being brutally hurt by a man, but also closed the doors as if saying we want no part of the incidence. Some people would even capitalize on the misfortune of others while taking videos of the incidence instead of making an effort to help the victim. People get paid for actual videos of crimes being committed.

The travel and tourism industries have suffered so much that a cabin crew took her chances at a game show hoping that if she’d win, she could possibly solve her problem of unpaid monthly amortization for a housing loan.

Although seriously hurt financially, the airline industry continues to help governments around the world by transporting medical equipment and vaccines for free. At the start of the pandemic, some hotels offered some of their rooms for isolation and quarantine purposes for free. There was so much kindness surpassing generosity during calamities. Will this civic-mindedness continue and for how long?

There is so much uncertainty but the only certainty during this pandemic is our will to survive. With God’s mercy and grace, we will surpass all the challenges and difficulties. A Christian minister during his television ministry said: “Human misery could never overwhelm God’s mercy.”