The Ten Plagues In Our World That Coronavirus Has Brought To Our Attention

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By Gabriel -- From ALL THAT’S LEFT: Anti Occupation Collective 2020 HAGGADAH https://www.facebook.com/AllThatsLeftCollective/

As we list the ten plagues that fell upon Egypt. The Rabbis teach us (in Shmot Rabba) that each plague reflected in some way an evil that already existed in Egyptian society. This year there is one plague taking up most of our thoughts, but on a deep level it has only served to make tens of existing scourges in our world more deadly.

The pandemic has taken hold so quickly and so dangerously in some of the richest countries in the world because of a plague of rampant, murderous capitalism, a system which prioritises profit over people’s lives, which has allowed owners and bosses to force workers to continue in unsafe conditions, undermining quarantining and social distancing efforts to contain the virus.

Those efforts themselves were implemented slowly because of government hubris; elected and unelected leaders alike ignored the warnings of medical professionals and instead chose to experiment with untried methods of pandemic control in search of an ego trip.

When authorities have finally chosen to intervene, they have done so not through well-planned, democratic, community-focused policies to make social distancing understandable, easy and fair, but through their usual mechanisms of police brutality and state surveillance. Meanwhile, the risk it poses to public health has not stopped governments from continuing to cling on to their precious prison-industrial complex.

And as we have entered periods of social distancing, we have realised how severe the plague of loneliness is in our world. Our communities have let down elderly people, young singles and people without families for many years, and now we are hearing and witnessing their suffering and finally understanding the gravity of our transgression.

As the numbers of sick people have climbed, doctors and healthcare workers have been unable to treat them effectively and keep them safe because of woefully and criminally neglected public healthcare. In Europe and Israel public healthcare systems have been underfunded for decades in favour of tax breaks for corporations and expensive, illegal military campaigns. In the US, failing to see good health as a right and a public good, and instead understanding it as a luxury that can be sold to workers at unaffordable prices, has created a culture in which sick people choose not to be hospitalized and instead stay sick for longer, get other people sick and sometimes die.

Similarly, efforts to control the virus and protect the vulnerable have been hampered by mass homelessness. This includes millions of refugees who have been driven from their homes by wars, as well as domestic homelessness which has grown terrifyingly in various countries in the last decade. Many of us are happy to spout advice on social media about “staying home”, but we have built societies that overlook those who need homes. We won’t be able to control infectious disease for as long as we willfully leave some of our fellow human beings on the streets and in crowded refugee camps.

Refugees have been particularly vulnerable because the pandemic has led to a surfacing of racism, originally against Asians and now against anyone who isn’t white. A lot of this hatred already existed and has only been brought into the open by recent events, fueled by xenophobic governments and right-wing media.

Even absent the powerful force of racism in creating hatred of others, we are still witnessing the effects of individualism and selfishness as millions of people have used their financial and health privilege to buy up medical, sanitary and food supplies and leave old and poor people to get sick or starve. Hospitals have been burgled for medical supplies and supermarkets have favoured price gouging and quickly selling stock over controlling their sales and making sure that they can provide for their most vulnerable customers.

Finally, in Israel and Palestine the coronavirus has exposed and deepened the decades old plague of occupation. Israelis have been prioritized over Palestinians in dealing with the virus and its economic and social consequences. The siege of Gaza has never been more deadly. The long-term policies of the Civil Administration designed to make life unlivable for Palestinians in the West Bank - preventing them from accessing water, working on their ancestral farmlands and building adequate housing - mean that many Palestinians face this virus with food and water scarcity and cramped and unsanitary living conditions.

As we combat this pandemic, we will do well to remember that the plagues we are really experiencing run much deeper than a virus and will not be beaten by social distancing, testing, ventilators or washing hands, but by a global war against racism, individualism, militarism and capitalism.

haggadah Section: -- Ten Plagues