‽istis reclaims ‘excess deaths’ (weekending January 30th
2021)
So, in the week it is reported to the World Health
Organization that:
·
Globally, as of 4:35pm CET, 27 January 2021, there have been 99,864,391
confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 2,149,700 deaths[i]
·
Americas: 1,015,534 deaths including 417,889 deaths in the USA
·
Europe: 722,746 deaths including 100,162 deaths in the UK
·
South East Asia: 195,762 deaths
·
China: 4,816 deaths
·
Eastern Mediterranean: 132,166 deaths
·
Africa: 59,677 deaths
·
Western Pacific: 23,808 deaths
…‽istis takes another look at population,
births and deaths figures clocking up[ii] - to find that at 11:12 GMT
on 29.1.2021 (the time and date of typing) the total deaths across the world already
today are calculated to be 75,276 with the top ten causes[iii] apparently: ischaemic
heart disease; stroke; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; lower respiratory
infection; neonatal conditions; trachea, bronchial and lung cancer; Alzheimer
and other dementias; diarrhoeal disease and kidney disease.
And ‽istis finds that the two leading
causes of death in low-income countries are neonatal conditions and lower respiratory
infections; that in upper-middle-income countries the two leading causes are
ischaemic heart disease and stroke – and hints are perhaps given to the way
that health outcomes may link to inequalities…
And
when Holocaust Memorial Day[iv] falls in this week, ‽istis is
brought up short and overwhelmingly shocked again at the reminder: six million Jews murdered
in the Holocaust, and millions of people killed under Nazi persecution: ‘Roma and Sinti people (sometimes
referred to as ‘Gypsies’) and black people. Slavic people, such as those from
Poland and Russia, were considered inferior and were targeted because they
lived in areas needed for German expansion. The Nazis wanted to ‘improve’ the
genetic make-up of the population and so persecuted people they deemed to be
disabled, either mentally or physically, as well as gay people. Political
opponents, primarily communists, trade unionists and social democrats, as well
as those whose religious beliefs conflicted with Nazi ideology…’ [v]
And
‽istis reads this paragraph again, slowly, thoughtfully and considers the
scope and the scale and the horror. And ‽istis thinks also about
the people who continue to live with the shadow ever-present. And ‽istis is
silent…
And
so ‽istis ponders deaths: ‘excess’; inflicted,
deliberate, systematized, apparently somehow supported by some belief or
ideology; transmitted; preventable; accidental; because doing all that we could
was just not good enough; before one’s time; ‘natural’… Lives lived on larger
or smaller stages; with greater or lesser impact for good or ill; lived more or
less to the full; lived as part of families, communities and networks…
So,
‽istis turns from death to wonder about different foundations
for living and what might be their impact:
·
perhaps
simply living in the ‘here and now’?
·
possibly
living with a hope and belief in a future ‘then and there’ (and even maybe with
the manner of this current living determining the where and the what-like)?
Or perhaps, possibly, maybe there are firmer foundations to be imagined or re-imagined; to be claimed or reclaimed; to be laid or re-laid – to provide the basis for anyone’s and everyone’s here-after…
‽istis ponders on‽
©
Pistis
NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme and
past blog
entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily
indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’:
@Pistis_wonders
[i] https://covid19.who.int/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkLeno7a-7gIVIu_tCh1h8g7HEAAYAiAAEgJwRvD_BwE
(accessed 28012021 10:45 GMT 00:00)
[ii] https://www.worldometers.info/
[v] Ibid
