Guess what? This year the Federal Government of Nigeria 🇳🇬 decided to declare a public holiday on my Birthday, Monday June 14, to commemorate June 12 – Democracy Day. If this were a few years ago pre-pandemic the celebration would have commenced on Friday June 11 @ 16:00 hours.
It would have been one long weekend of grills, drinks, chicks and club hopping from city to city. I would have shown up for work on Tuesday hungover and rueful. Suffering from post-bacchanal depression due to my die-hard, bare-knuckle encounter with a long sultry blurry weekend. Usually I am left to fit together and make sense of the bits and pieces of past events from my snapchat posts and WhatsApp status updates. Weird Wild Stuff.
This year is different. I had dinner with family on Sunday. Watched a nice movie. Went to bed and woke up to a battery of messages that would probably take me about a week to respond to each one.
The outpouring of love was overwhelming and heart warming. This was like a snapshot of what would happen upon my passing.
I meditated for a while contemplating and thankful for my place in this real Universe. I had a robust veggie based breakfast and proceeded to read and reply a few messages on the Gram, FB and WhatsApp.
Last year, 2020, was heavily impacted by COVID 19. But Humanity was able to come together and fight back. The Vaccines; Coordinated responses to address weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the economy, healthcare services; aviation and tourism industry; and Stimulus packages … All these provided pockets of relief here and there with a view to putting us all on the road to recovery.
Last year, 2020, I asked for a Vaccine(s) to arrest the spread of the disease. I was tired of the masks, hand sanitizers, social distancing and COVID deaths. This year, 2021, my Birthday Wish is that we expand the relief package(s) and vaccine(s) programs to low income and Middle Income Countries. This is not an act of charity but a step towards self-preservation. COVID 19 has shown us how interconnected the world is and how fragile the systems and institutions we rely upon are. Their weaknesses and Vulnerabilities were made self-evident by the disruptions that came with the pandemic. Ditto our reactions to the pandemic and the impact thereto.
We cannot turn a blind eye to the situation in Brazil and India or the nascent variants of the virus. Our timely and coordinated intervention is an act of collective self-defence. This is a global imperative. Otherwise the vaccination successes recorded in the West will be meaningless if new variants and diseases are left to fester in our backyards.
My wish goes out to all the world leaders and global platforms and initiatives (UN, WHO, EU, WEF, G7…). Let’s finish this fight against the pandemic. Summer comes with fresh calls for the world to open up again at all levels and sectors. COVID 19 has arrested our private and public life long enough. It is time to take our lives back. The recess is over. And I know we can do it. We did it with the Vaccines (project warp speed) and we can do it again with coordinated and collaborative efforts.
Happy Birthday to Me and Happy Father’s Day… Tick tock! Tick tock!
DrAlexanderGrey 