{"id":21569,"date":"2020-02-04T11:46:35","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T19:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=21569"},"modified":"2020-02-04T11:46:35","modified_gmt":"2020-02-04T19:46:35","slug":"fight-the-virus-not-the-chinese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=21569","title":{"rendered":"Fight the virus, not the Chinese"},"content":{"rendered":"

By \u00a0IKENNA\u00a0EMEWU (People’s Daily Online<\/strong><\/a>)<\/p>\n

The covonavirus (nCOV-2019) is fast spreading, now to over 20 countries. The fear coronavirus spreads is far bigger than the deaths and infections put together.<\/p>\n

But a worse viral load is also somewhere in some other dimension working worse damage to humanity \u2013 that is the racism, profiling, hate and alienation of the Chinese person.<\/p>\n

The social media in most parts of the world have hundreds of thousands of such hate harvest, most of all from societies that boast they are civilized and know better about what a virus should be and different from a citizen of a country from where a killer virus emanated.<\/p>\n

For the coronavirus, China is the epicenter, the birthplace from where the world picks the vibes.<\/p>\n

For the hate of it \u2013 hatovirus, the human and cultural offshoot of the coronavirus, the outer world is the epicenter. The vector is the media, especially the new media.<\/p>\n

While in Europe and the Americas the Asian is the fall guy and \u2018demon\u2019 that deliberately created the virus, in Asia, the Chinese is singled out. So pathetic!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s quite worrisome that most of the reports about coronavirus induced hate \u2013 hatovirus, come from Asian countries close to China. Such news simmers in Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam etc.<\/p>\n

The worst of the reported cases was that of Indonesia on Friday, January 31, 2020 that \u201cChina flew overseas Hubei residents back to the centre of the outbreak in Wuhan on chartered planes from Thailand and Malaysia, citing \u201cpractical difficulties\u201d the passengers had encountered overseas.\u201d. That doesn\u2019t sound cheery or humane.<\/p>\n

In Australia, after two media organisations had screamed headlines that were heavily loaded with negativity against the Chinese person, Global Times, a Beijing based media reported angst by 46,000 Chinese citizens who signed a protest against the reports and demanding a recant.<\/p>\n

The Global Times report said: \u201cMore than 46,000 people have signed a petition demanding the Australian media to apologize publicly for racism against the Chinese community after two media outlets carried headlines and highlighted characters on their front pages which labeled the novel coronavirus-related pneumonia as a \u201cChinese virus\u201d and hyped sentiments that would require Chinese children to stay at home.<\/p>\n

The Australian daily tabloid newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, published on its Wednesday\u2019s paper a report titled \u201cChina Kids Stay Home,\u201d according to a photo of the paper circulating online.<\/p>\n

The report indicated that the New South Wales government warned \u201cparents not to send their children to school or daycare if they have recently been in China\u201d due to \u201cfears over the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak.\u201d<\/p>\n

In reaction to this odd trend, Bloomberg, a US platform captured it aptly that: \u201cAirlines halt flights from China. Schools in Europe uninvite exchange students. Restaurants in South Korea turn away Chinese customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a deadly virus spreads beyond China, governments, businesses and educational institutions are struggling to find the right response. Safeguarding public health is a priority. How to do that without stigmatizing the entire population of the country where the outbreak began \u2014 and where nearly a fifth of all humans reside \u2014 is the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the US, a Chinese American celebrity, Michelle Phan said she\u2019s been targeted with barrage of racism on twitter amid Wuhan coronavirus scare. And in one of the instances, she replied: \u2018Why are some of you telling me to go back to eating bats? I\u2019m American you ignorant f\u2014s.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been many other reported cases of such hate attacks in Canada where the government of Ontario and the school board had to issue warning that no Chinese citizen should be maltreated or stigmatized because of the coronavirus outbreak.<\/p>\n

In an interesting contrast, governments of many countries and intergovernmental bodies including the World Health Organisation (WHO), the EU, India, Pakistan, the Vatican through Pope Francis have praised the Chinese authorities for concerted efforts against the scourge and even offered to assist.<\/p>\n

Dropping aside the usual antagonism, a US media organization published reports praising China\u2019s openness in managing and reporting the incident and also allowing the outer world to see what it\u2019s doing to curtail the spread especially the WHO that has visited Beijing and interacted with President Xi Jinping. The report noted that this open and transparent approach is a deviation from the way China handled the management of the SARS outbreak in 2003, applauding the positive dimension.<\/p>\n

So how do we reconcile a situation where governments praise China and pledge support in this challenging time while the citizens walk in contrary direction, compounding the problem with stigmatization? That becomes a task for the governments to senitise the uninformed citizens to act properly.<\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s many thanks to scientists in Australia and Ghana that have assisted with researches that created vaccines against the virus. After Australia announced the breakthrough, Ghana told the world that two students of pharmacy who trained in China when the first minor coronavirus outbreak occurred cloned the virus with samples they obtained in China then and also volunteered to fly to China and assist in fighting this death agent.<\/p>\n

Sincerely, if I have the scientific weapon and know-how, I would target to obliterate this virus. Yes, I would rather fight the virus that has traversed continents and nations.<\/p>\n

But now, I haven\u2019t the equipment to stop coronavirus from spreading and killing the Chinese mostly, I would readily deploy the little weapon in my hands and within my reach \u2013 love, to love the Chinese and not mistake him or her for the virus.<\/p>\n

Since the Chinese is NOT the virus, I rather fight the virus by loving and embracing the Chinese. I won\u2019t be fair to him\/her and humanity to alienate or profile or castigate the Chinese spared by the virus at a time I should be consoling them for the loss of lives, peace and livelihood.<\/p>\n

That is what humanity rightly demands of us.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: africachinapresscentre.org<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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