Beside terrifying plenty of the world’s inhabitants, and reaping lives of + 50,000 human souls until this hour (3/ April/ 2020) and still counting. The new Corona virus COVID-19 has caused some fundamental changes in our lives, due to the precautionary measurements, some of these changes are suck and many are good, as I will demonstrate in this article. Let’s have a look at the positive side of the situation or as we say in Arab world, let’s have a look at the glass half-full, and acknowledge the benefits of COVID-19 which I have recorded so far.
COVID-19’s Social Benefits
Elimination of the Phenomenon of Dawdling
In the recent past, the dawdling habit in commercial malls without any purpose have spread between our youth, and even become the original and staying at home is the exception. Even the young man looks to those who ask him to stay at home with astonishment and confidently argues with them, saying: “God forbidden! Am I sick, do you think I’m puerperal?!
The goal-free dawdling is a waste of time, a temptation for oblivious, complacent, productivity shortage, and permissive to face unexpected dangers and situations. All that before we reach to its negative effects on morality and society as we see nowadays.
Staying at Home
The asset is that human stays at home and doesn’t go out unless only because of a need, such as work, trade, necessary visits, but recently, our society have introduced extraneous habits on the instinct. Even housewives and mothers become more likely to be out of the house rather than inside, there are many banquets in restaurants, Cafés, and outdoor venues, and one of COVID-19’s benefits that it has reinstated people back to their instinct.
Leverage Communications
We didn’t participate in the invention of this technology and we did not make the best use of it either. They have become means of entertainment, tampering, spreading follies, rumors, and seeking fame at all costs.
It’s also a benefit of COVID-19 that it made us with certain benefit reutilize these means, so we have implemented distance learning, remote work, and teleconference mechanism. Thus, we have saved much effort, time, and money that we have been wasting in vain for the past years on the personal and official level. We discovered that attendance and dismissal is not a sacred principle in some fields, as some of the administrative officials try to convince us of it.
Traffic Jam Mitigation
When I see the traffic light open and close three times before I reach to the frontline, I used to check the overcrowded street and I wonder with a resentment: How many of these crowed culprits, have no target worth coming out?
Some are going to the Mall to buy Air freshener, and some to return the hair dye back because the brown color is not exactly as required, some are to inquire about something trivial, and some are to visit their friend whom they left five hours ago, and some of them just got bored of sitting on the couch at home, and so on…
Some are even going to the workplace, sitting like every day wasting 7 hours of his life daily in the office then returns back home.
Also, people filtration is one of the COVID-19’s benefits, it has distinguished those who have a great need and those who have nothing else but participating in the crowds and causing them to increase.
COVID-19’s Health Benefits
Pay Attention to What We Eat
Before COVID-19, we used to eat green and crusty, and may be only the crusty if we consider green to be healthy vegetable food. In lots of houses, lunch was prepared daily as usual at home, but lately every member of the family order his desired meal from a different restaurant, “Talabat” and “Carriage” delivery bicycles and cars were standing in magnificent queue.
Nowadays, the family has returned back to home-made food, and the majority are concerned with how healthy is the food, and to add food items that strengthen the immune system.
Hygiene Consideration
Some may have been underestimating hygiene, personal hygiene and place cleanliness. Now, those are forced to return to the common-sense, desperate times call for desperate measures.
People who were emerging into hospitals full of different types of viruses and germs, public places frequently used, and now they are used to utilize hand sanitizers queued on the walls.
Even in populations who were fighting water in bathrooms and toilets, they have worked out their personal problems with water and returned their friendship.
Allow The Planet to Breathe a Little Bit
Before COVID-19, our planet was suffocated with gases, toxic emissions, fumes, and global warming. The scientific observatories recorded the decline of these harmful gases and emissions after COVID-19, such as Carbon monoxide and Carbon dioxide, because of the decrease in energy production, and transportation amid the slow economic activity worldwide as a result of the epidemic outbreak.
COVID-19 Cultural Benefits
Western Culture Reconsideration
The western culture is a capitalist culture with distinction, only praises the money, but the period of prosperity and flourishing has been hiding the flawed of this materialistic approach. And one of the benefits of COVID-19 is that it exposed this monstered, dry and greed at the first test.
This appeared in the way western decision makers handled the COVID-19 pandemic and their perplexity in preponderant between human losses and financial losses. Like the attempt we saw of a Congresswoman to persuade the head of the disease control panel to make the examination of COVID-19’s infection free of charge to the citizen.
Or the British government confusion for several days in balancing between the expected human losses if the precautionary measures from COVID-19 are not applied to the people, and the expected economic losses if these procedures are applied.
Or the reluctance of the western governments in general, to take firm preventive decisions to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Due to their knowledge of the economic losses that will follow for the major corporations that needs continuous consumption for their subsistence.
Our Industrial Underdevelopment Exposure
Also, among the benefits of COVID-19, is that it made us Arabs meet our scientific weakness and our industrial backwardness face to face, our vitro, hospitals, laboratories, and scientific research centers unveiled an infertile inability. We are now waiting for others to seek a cure for this pandemic.
(And now, while I was writing the previous line, I received voice recordings on WhatsApp. One is about a woman in Turkey, who had a vision of a ship, a mountain, poison ivy (Sumac), and the prophet Mohammad – All Prayers and Blessings of Allah be upon him- and I didn’t complete the voice recording. I opened the second voice recording, there were one of the dream interpretation old men, interpreting this previous vision, I didn’t finish this voice recording too, and I think he will preach us the discovery of COVID-19’s treatment with Sumac.
Woe to you! COVID-19!! We are coming, we will fight you with dreams, herbs, and spices. (The Author is making a mockery)
Some before COVID-19 challenge realized our inability, and scientific backwardness. But a lot of people were totally oblivious of that; or circumvent the situation with our purchasing capacity to obtain all what we need from the world with the power of money.
Those who intentionally bounce away from our real development needs, I have written about them an article entitled: Dancers on the development stage.
Exposure of Our Human Vulnerability
The modern industrial and scientific revolution gave man a feeling of absolute power and excessive self-esteem, a feeling has infiltrated into him of his ability to completely separate from the world of the unseen, and that he has the keys of every locked secret or at least in process to that. Then came COVID-19 – the invisible to the naked eye microscopic organism – and nocked human over his head, to tell him that no matter how much science and capability he may reach, he is still crawling in a small dark part of the vast unknown universe.
Be humble!! You, weak human!! There is a mighty great Creator of the universe. If you don’t believe in this, then at least there is someone who is much stronger than you, and you can call it whatever you want, but beware that the small gods you hide within you have to be smashed and destroyed.
COVID-19’s General Benefits
In addition to the benefits I have mentioned, and what I have forgotten to mention. However, in all, COVID-19 forced us to get rid of many luxuries, trivia, negative habits, and redundancies.
Before we had to relinquish these supererogatory, we thought they were necessities of life that we couldn’t live without. And when we tried to live without them, we found that they were worthless. However, we used to overburden ourselves, waste our time, and disperse our efforts with them.
Things that were produced by the soft life, and the consumer culture, so that we became sated with nothing.
COVID-19’s Major Benefits
For a very long time, the world was not on its nature; humanity has been divided into two parts only: effective (Influential) and non-effective (subjects).
The Influential, are the owners of the major multinational, intercontinental corporations, exorbitant financiers, the manufacturers of weapons, medicines and media, the owners of international transport companies, international relations and logistic support.
As for the rest of the humanity of the world, they are an hourly wage-earners (hirelings), exhausted all day long, to return to their homes at the end of the day deadbeat, hungry, thirsty, and diseased with addictively consuming all what’s produced by the companies, and factories of the first part “Influential”, all types of food, drink, media, entertainment, and life style.
COVID-19 came and paralyzed the international transport and trade movement, and blasted the prices of stocks, oil, and the world economy. These terminologies, which their essence are only known to emperors of the international market and the titans of the Authoritarian rules, with exception of some certain rulers who haven’t been significantly affected by the paralysis of the world economy, because their wealth is based on the natural resources. Those, may have been a little bit happy for the advent of this treasured guest, the tyrannical COVID-19 virus same as they are.
The planet is endangered, so, the whole world rose apace, governments, organizations, institutions, corporations, and of course the whales of the Global market.
As for the vast majority of human beings, they haven’t felt anything about these concerns so far, as it hadn’t paralyzed, or blasted them yet, except depriving them of their dawdling and visits.
As if Covid-19 came to heal tired simpletons and spill their rancor, to see their arrogant lords, slapping their faces and wailing dreadfully of the obsession of their thrown downfallen. You, yuppies: like us, try to experience the concern about losing money; or its deficiency to grant our wishes and hopes, give us a chance to share the bounties of the Earth, slightly reduce your Trillion wealth to get close to us.
One benefit of COVID-19 is that it has returned the world a little bit to its early nature, people are equal, even if this equality is in fear; possibility to be infected; prevented from traveling; or even quarantine.
