How To Use The Corona Pandemic To Develop A Better World 

By Lasantha Pethiyagoda –MAY 23, 2020

Prof. Lasantha Pethiyagoda

Those evil empires that wrested control of the resources in poor countries with sheer might and military technologies have been trumped by the SARS Cov-2 virus, even as biological weapons and indeed chemical weapons are being perfected to kill off the poor in poor countries in their insatiable greed for power and wealth. With relative calm, poor countries with far less health resources have been spared much of Nature’s wrath, in comparison to Western Europe and North America.

The self-proclaimed beacons of democracy that pontificate to the rest of humanity of their exceptionalism have been hit hardest. To them, it would seem like a war, stealthily foisted on them by a lesser people. They know full well that covid-19 is a unique opportunity for the world to awake from its induced stupor where instigated wars of choice returned great bounty to war-mongers and kept the military-industrial-complex running while killing off poor people.

There is now a great danger that people will again yearn for peace. Peace does not pay any dividends to the ruling elites. It merely has an elusively tempting meaning for ordinary people whose taxes are expropriated by the rich. Covid-19 has put a dent in this grand scheme of exploitation.

The very nations that have wrought havoc on poor countries over the last few centuries have by far, decimated more than three quarters of the planet’s wild fauna and flora. Whereas farmed poultry account for more than two-thirds of all bird-life on the planet, nearly two-thirds of mammalian life are livestock and a minute fraction roam the forests and plains. This represents a gross imbalance purely for the benefit of humans, a vast majority of them living in countries now severely affected by covid-19.

For a world that is dominated by economics and finance, this virus has perhaps vainly attempted to teach the keepers of the planet where their priorities should be. The virus compels us to examine Nature with far more respect and gratitude than has been accorded it ever since market capitalism took over. In the weeks of almost total lockdown, air quality has improved, the birds are singing again, wild animals are more prominent and not beleaguered by constant human engagement. What regular international climate conferences could not achieve, Nature has returned to the natural environment in all its glory.

The once beautiful blue planet, with much of the land area in green is no more. Industrial demand has destroyed vast swathes of pristine forest, with billions of tons of non-renewable fossil resources extracted every year, to drive a modern economy that consumes for the sake of a wholly decadent lifestyle that treats with utter contempt, notions of austerity or social responsibility.

Factory developed fertilisers, pesticides and weedicides are churned out by the billions of tons, using chemicals that destroy the soil’s vital micro-organisms, making it infertile for centuries to come while enabling bumper crops that are loaded with cancer-causing residual chemicals. While the farming communities in developed countries become millionaires, poor subsistence farmers in third-world countries poison their citizens hoping to earn a livable income. Entire ecosystems are permanently destroyed by making these environments dangerously toxic for humans, animals and plants. Covid-19 is making these people more desperate as the yoke of poverty foisted on them by the ruthless mercenaries and their political sponsors seek their pounds of flesh.

Livestock and poultry are fed antibiotics and growth hormones that result in exponential growth in flesh mass and a reduction in bone growth, rendering them cripple until they are slaughtered for the highest productivity possible. When ingested, they promote new growths in humans, usually of cancers. Organic farming using natural methods is deemed too costly and time-consuming to satisfy their urgent need for profits.

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