Okay, tell me a time when we listened before things slipped out of hand. Even so, do you think we ever even listened?

Because if we did, then we would have been in a better situation to avoid the damaging effects of Corona-viruses / Covid-19, or our climate won’t be changing so much, or people wouldn’t have died at Chernobyl.

When China didn’t listen to Dr. Li

In November 2019, the first case of Covid-19 came out and the cases increased from 1 to 180 in just a few weeks. Dr. Li Wenliang who was the whistle blower informed his family, friends, and journalists via text messages and online videos, but he was suppressed by the local authorities and Wuhan’s Health Bureau rubbished the claims, saying that Dr. Li was creating unnecessary ruckus and there’s no contamination of the virus in humans.

If the Chinese Government would have listened, thousands of lives could have been saved, but their arrogance was bigger than the research of a doctor. The Chinese government responded so late that the virus was already dispersed across the world. The government thought that the scientists are as usual just pressing on finding the truth when nobody cares about that truth.

Sadly, Dr. Li died treating an infected patient later.

When Boris was laughing, and Bolsonaro said, “So what?”

In the UK, the scientists and doctors claimed that this virus can be very dangerous, but Boris Johnson laughed and said, “Economy should be prioritized over lock down!” Later, he was the one with the last laugh as he was tested positive with Covid-19. Perhaps, now he appreciates the efforts of the doctors, and people who helped him recover, but his laughter had already skyrocketed the cases in the UK.

In Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro didn’t consider Corona virus as the biggest threat and even after the death toll surpassed 5000 with the highest record of 474 deaths in a day, he said, “I’m sorry. What do you want me to do?”

When Donald Trump wanted to fill oil to the top

In the meantime, Donald Trump announced a National Emergency in the United States. And that was the day when I realized that human lives are not that important in the US because a country where even the life of a cat stranded on a tall tree was important, the President of that country dared to mention, “We are going to fill the oil to the top!” during the announcement of National Health Emergency. Even then he wasn’t acknowledging the risk of the virus and kept the nation away from an enforced lock down like India or China. Not forgetting to mention that he even shook hands with Doug McMillan, the CEO of Walmart, during the press conference because he thought social distancing is just for the commons and not for the President.

We all know that a large population in the US is living off the medics and dialysis every day, yet the American government gave statements that they are estimating deaths within the range of 100,000 to 240,000 people because they couldn’t enforce a complete lock down. President Trump said, if he enforced a lock down then more people will be dead due to hunger! This could be true, but keeping the bars and restaurants open until last month wasn’t really a sign of hunger, or was it?

When America didn’t let the scientists speak

Dr. Fauci was blocked from testifying in front of a House Committee as the White House said, “It will be counterproductive to allow Fauci to testify in front of Congress amid the government’s efforts to fight corona virus!” So, the person who knows the most didn’t testify, and later, Dr. Birx barely reacted when Donald Trump irresponsibly said, “Injecting and drinking disinfectants will help!” Later after attaining a lot of criticism, Donald Trump clarified, “I was being sarcastic about it!”

I believe, it will not be an exaggeration to say that Donald Trump has quite a lot more power to handle than he is capable of. Not forgetting to mention:

So, who is NOT listening?

So, it’s not just the government, it is Humans, us, who don’t listen!

And why can’t we blame just the governments? Because if they don’t put an implication and open the bars, you would still want to go and get a drink, right? Well, that’s exactly what people in India did. After the somewhat success in flattening the curve in India with the biggest lock down ever in the history, the government opened liquor shops and people swamped the streets forgetting about the social distancing guidelines to quench their thirst with a chilled beer.

And it is NOT just about Corona Virus

We didn’t hear even Greta Thunberg, a 17 years old kid who stood in the United Nations (UN) and talked about Global Warming. We didn’t hear the trees who were crying and burning in Amazon. We also didn’t hear scientists when they said, “Glaciers are melting. Antarctica’s weather is rising to the levels that we can now live there.” Sounds exciting, eh? It isn’t!

The problem is that we gave the command in the hands of the people who don’t know even an iota of the issues going around.

But WHY don’t we listen?

There can be a lot of reasons, most important being that we are ignorant and lazy, and the second most important is fear. Warnings about bad omens make us feel weak and the fear evoked in our brain resists us to give up to those warnings, and we tend to ignore these warnings to make ourselves feel powerful and ready. But we must understand that reacting to early signs and warnings from the experts doesn’t make us weak, it makes us prepared and intelligent to dodge the disastrous effects.

WHAT if we would have listened?

Well, let’s say we would have been able to contain the Covid-19 virus in the early stages and not let it travel like a free bird. If we would have listened to the right people like Dr. Li, then we might have saved thousands of lives and those crushing economies. And we might have already been in the list of countries like New Zealand with no new cases, Canada with the negative trend of new Covid-19 cases, and South Korea with the lowest per-capita deaths in the world due to Covid-19.

Or we might have saved millions of trees burning in Amazon or preventing the glaciers from flowing into the sea or we might have repaired the climate change or prevented the death of thousands at Chernobyl.

WHO should we listen?

The doctors and scientists are one of the most educated people in the world who are in the constant quest of truth, but we don’t bother ourselves, because we don’t want to worry about something which is not devastating yet.

We have done enough damage, not to the entire mankind, but ourselves, individually. It is high time to start listening, to avoid making another city of Chernobyl, to avoid another pandemic to tip, to avoid another glacier to melt, or to avoid another Amazon to burn.

So, for once can we think about listening before we speak? If we can listen to the cops when there is crime around us, listen to the lawyers when we are under litigation, or listen to our bankers when we need money, then what’s the problem in listening to doctors and environmentalists or the subject matter experts who know about the issues?

We have been listening too much to the so-called world leaders who are so incompetent and uninformed that they don’t even have the slightest idea about the science behind these events and if at all they would have been any more concerned about filling more oil or changing the names of their cities to glorify religion. And although these scientists who take risks to guide us and warn us, yet they are way too less paid than the unqualified world leaders.

Greta Thunberg said,“I want people to unite behind the science… And that is what we have to realize, that that is what we have to do right now.. I’m not the one who’s saying these things. I’m not the one who we should be listening to. And I say that all the time. I say we need to listen to the scientists.”

It is about listening, listening to the experts!

So listen, and listen to the right people and then.. ACT!

Still listening,

The Shameless Indian