COVID-19 and 'The Wretched of the Earth'

This photo shows a small part of a four kilometre long queue for food parcels in a township outside Pretoria, South Africa! (and see video). Lockdown looks very different depending on where one stands.  

Is this the experience of most of the world's population?   

Is this an inevitable outcome of treating COVID-19 mainly as a health problem rather than a whole-of-society problem?

Will we be surprised if the Wretched of the Earth bite back?

People line up to receive food handouts in the Olievenhoutbos township of Midrand

Is the lockdown in Melbourne evaporating?

Is it just my imagination or is the lockdown in Melbourne evaporating even before it has been officially lifted?

There's a notable increase of people on the streets and a number of small shops are re-opening.  The local Coles supermarket is getting visibly busier.  And there are many more cars on the road than a week ago.  Some homeless people are back on the streets begging.  Parks are much fuller than they were two weeks ago.

I needed a haircut after making a total mess of cutting my own hair, and found a salon around the corner that had re-opened!  There is no law against them doing so but a few weeks back every hairdresser shut their doors.  This one was using the JobKeeper subsidy to keep their Australian staff at home and on the payroll, but getting the non-Australian staff, ineligible for assistance, to do the work.

Certainly, in all these instances, people were making some effort not to congregate and some distancing measures are in place going into shops, although in practice 1.5 meter gaps are really not practicable - the supermarket aisles aren't that wide and so people inevitably pass more closely than is recommended.

What are the implications of de facto lifting the lockdown before government advises it?  Does it undermine state authority?  Or is the state government turning a blind eye because the current infection rate and death rate is pretty low?

The state of Victoria has a population of 6.28 million, two-thirds of whom live in Melbourne.  According to the state government, as of 24 April 2020, the total number of coronavirus cases in Victoria was 1,343, including 6 new cases yesterday.  These are mainly people who have returned from abroad.  27 people are in hospital, including 11 people in intensive care. 16 people have died.

Together Apart

'Social distancing' is one of the most perplexing additions to the English language.  It is meant to encapsulate the range of measures being taken to slow the spread of the coronavirus.  Understandably, we are being asked (ordered) to keep a physical distance from others at this time - not to shake hands, to avoid meetings, gatherings and travel, and not to leave our homes except when essential.

And yet this is precisely the time when we need to come together as communities and share the burden of these lockdowns, as many communities have done.  In my own street we hold a party on Friday nights, each household on their own balcony, sharing shouted conversation and music, and all organised through our street 'Helping Hand' WhatsApp group.  The need to assist those in the community (the elderly for example) who may struggle with the social isolation and the many restrictions on daily life, is widely recognised too.

So let's call it 'physical distancing', as the World Health Organisation (WHO) now does, and stress that physical distancing needs social solidarity not social distancing.  In the Indian state of Kerala (population 35 million) they have adopted the slogan 'Physical Distance, Social Unity' which sounds like a good place to start.  In this crisis we need to be Together Apart.