Amit Sharma
It’s a promise that article won’t bore you guys with routine stuff about Novel Corona Virus which I am sure you must have gone through, from multiple sources of information by now, and about which, you don’t want to read or listen anymore. I also appreciate your patience for having fed yourself with so much of knowledge about this Novel Corona or COVID-19 or nCoV (to be precise) in the past so many days of ongoing 21-daysNationalLockdown, which is actually the need of the hour. Actually, as the name suggests, this article of mine, talks all about self-introspection to equate this nCoV Pandemic with World War -III and I finally leave upon you after its conclusion to agree or not to agree with my ideas about it.
Look friends, I want to give a little more backgrounder before moving further. As we all are aware that a World War is such a grim situation wherein most of the nations of the world lock horns with one another and get engaged into fighting based out of various issues, be it economic, demographic, cultural or otherwise. This is deduced exactly as per the historical facts related to two major World Wards held in the last century. Infact, there was a very strong apprehension when I was also growing as a toddler in 1980s and later as a youth in 1990s that the Third World War may occur anytime before the closing of 20th Century. Even lot of movies and predictions were also made relating to it. But somehow fortunately, it did not happen negating all such theories and predictions. However, in the beginning of 21st Century, other grave global issues erupted in the form of oil crisis, economic crisis, global warming and worst amongst all, religious radicalism, in the form of 9/11attacks on US or multiple other similar global terrorist attacks like 26/11 in Mumbai or 7/7 in London orin Colombo, Madrid, Sydney, Rome, Bali, so on and so forth. Apart from this, 21st Century also witnessed economies of some prominent nations crumbling even after declaration of European Union and Euro Common Currency like Greece, Hungary and all. But inspite of all this, these nations of the world kept fighting against all odds relentlessly so as to evade complete systems collapse and rather they could overcome such situations.
Now without any further elaborations, let me come straight to the point about nCoV. Today, the situation is complete different and out of reach of any or all nations of the World. Here, we have reached a stage wherein most of the nations have undergone Complete Lockdown situation and almost, all the nations of the World are fighting this so-called Biological War wherein every nation is trying hardest possible to win over this World War over this highly contagious Virus, scientifically known as COVID-19. The lethal impact of nCoV is such that it doesn’t leave any person unaffected who comes under its contagious infection, whether directly or indirectly and it has infact changed the overall perspective about Viruses which have been discovered in the World till date. The most worrisome and threatening aspect of this nCoV named War or Attack over the World is that it has completely shifted its epicenter from China (Wuhan Province, place of origin) to Italy, Spain and other European nations wherein the number of Corona affected and deathshas been swelling day-by-day with more signs of exponential growth in the near future and it has rather taken the shape of a Global Pandemic covering every nook and corner of the Planet Earth.
Now, the question is how to draw a similarity between nCoV and a WW ? The answer is that during a World War, a fear of people dying looms in all those nations which are being targeted by the invading nations. Here also, nCoV Pandemic is an attack on various nations with a target to vanish the people there but the glaring difference is that it is not a war with weapons but a pure biological war against the entire human race and it does not even differ between an ally or an enemy nation thereby attacking every person which gets infected with this deadly and highly contagious virus. Therefore, itwon’t be out of place to call it as a”World War-III” which many amongst our and even past generations have not witnessed and hopefully, should never witness in our lifetimes again. Another major similarity to compare nCoV pandemic attack with a World War like situation is that every nation is Completely Locked Down due to it and making best possible efforts for saving lives of its citizens, through Public Appeals and Announcements, Public Camps, Public Donations, Public Advisories, Civil Curfews and Daily Assessment of the situation by the respective Governments and World Health Organization to win over this long-drawn War at the earliest. Also, another peculiar commonality everywhere is the stoppage and halting of Air, Water, Rail and Road Transportation, apart from keeping all Medical and Emergency Services engaged 24×7 into fighting nCoV War being a pure Biological War against all the nations of the World. It has never happened in the History of World that Olympic Games would have got postponed, Religious Places of Worship would have got shut down for an indefinite period, International and National Travel would have got banned, All Economic Activities would have got shut down and all World activities would have come to a Complete Closure. Such is the impact of this deadly Virus, nCoV Pandemic which is even one-step ahead of a World War like situation without any signs of its receding down or vanishing in the immediate future.
World Wars, as per historical facts, have been fought and won by the strong nations over weak nations by defeating them, thereby leaving strong imprints behind although the consequences of same include irreparable losses to the property and human lives but in nCoV Pandemic case, it’s a unique kind of World War situation wherein it is not amongst the nations but this seems to be the reply of Mother Nature over nefarious acts of few humans who have fiddled with it somewhere in the Wuhan province of People’s Republic of China but as a consequence, the humans of entire world are bearing its brunt. As per some researches, little misadventures by few individual shave led to loss of numerous precious lives all across the globe cutting across nationalities and the worst part is that its victims are the mostly the innocent lot i.e., the oldest and the youngest, who are arguably paying for the worst sins committed by few unknown and unrelated mischievous humans of the world.
All said and done, this is the highest time when we, the humans, need to actually realize the fall-outs of playing with Mother Nature and little wrongdoings or misadventures which can lead towards disastrous effects upon whole humanity, as has happened in the instant nCoV Pandemic case. Truly, this situation has taken the shape of a World War and this term is totally justified in present nCoV attack which somehow missed its date with the history in the last century (WW-III) but came to destroy the World in another more worst form. Today, every nation is really bleeding and struggling hard to win over this biggest ever battle which is threatening the very existence of human race and engulfed some of the oldest cities like Rome, Paris and Madrid, which are otherwise considered to be the best and traditionally-rich tourism hubs of the world and which have had never suffered such colossal damages in the form of loss of human lives in the past. This clearly indicates that Mother Nature, as it is said, can never be taken for granted. Several major jolts of the Mother Nature are being felt in the form of Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Floods, Droughts, Global Warming, etc from time to time but this nCoV Pandemic in the form of World War – III is the biggest and most devastating ever, which is still posing peak of threat to almost every nation of the globe.
My conclusion here is very simple that if and whenever in future, we happen to conquer or win over this nCoV-based deadly World War – III which has brought almost every nation of the world to a complete halt and due to which all economies of the world have been shattered and the public is badly struggling and fighting for its survival, the so-called superpowers of the World need to sit across, contemplate and introspect, under the aegis of United Nations and its Agencies, and find out what has gone wrong where in the past which has led to such devastating nCoV-based havoc in entire world and what major actions and precautions should be taken in the near future so that such draconian Attacks on Humanity can be evaded, lest another nature-based Pandemic in the form of last World War – IV can erupt from nowhere in the future and attack the human race which, I bet, shall be irreversible, uncontrollable and leave no chance, whatsoever, to recover back from its deadly impact towards vanishing the very existence of Human Race from the Planet Earth !!!
(The writer is a Senior JKAS Officer and presently working as Administrator, Associated Hospitals, Jammu. He can be reached at amit1kas@gmail.com)
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