Lockdown and its impact on society

One of the weapons most world governments used in their fight against the Covid-19 pandemic was the infamous lockdown. To understand the dilemma of world leaders in reaching out to such an extreme measure, one has to understand one basic fact about the invisible enemy that is Covid-19. It has neither leg nor wings, nor any organ of mobility.Hence to move from one person to another in different places, it has to rely on the vector’s organs of movements. The effect of lockdown on the transmissibility of the virus is to halt or slow down the progression of the virus from person to person. Hence other measures like social distancing and wearing of face masks to contain the virus in the person harbouring it. Government took this extreme and unpopular measure after considering its devastating impact on the livelihood (economy) versus a loss of life (of the individual). This measure was very uncomfortable, and we saw how its implementation/enforcement became very problematic in several places, eg the United States, where the wearing of masks became highly politicised and eventually degenerated into a chaotic execution of an effective policy and subsequently led to an appalling loss of life and hence the collapse of Donald Trump’s government.Similar disintegration was seen in Brazil, although the government has survived so far.In Nigeria, a disgruntled citizen wondered loudly whether “abi na hunger virus go first kill us or na corona virus” (will hunger kill them first, or will Covid-19), hence they challenged the authority and broke out of lockdown regulations. Nation after nation pulled out the big gun, i.e. lockdown. Even nations as large as India. Even a country as fragile as Namibia where many people are already on the fringes also pulled out the big gun.They worsened the suffrages by imposing a punitive restriction on their own inferred logic that inebriated folks are more likely to be disinhibited and hence exhibit risky behaviours that would propagate the spread of the virus. A theory that went unchallenged. They were lucky to have a complacent populace who religiously adhere to the dictates of their God father government who had religiously talked about the “Namibian life”. Whether we like it or not, these draconian measures were undoubtedly contributory to their enviable record in combatting the pandemic coupled by the fact that they had doled out an amount of N$750 to every citizen in the poor income brackets and unemployed members who were certainly the most affected by these restrictive measures. They trusted the government, which demonstrated paternalistic concerns to the welfare of her citizens and who had previously shown genuine concern to the “Namibian life”, which they are prepared to safeguard at all costs!Ghost villagesHowever, the proponents of these measures live and reside in the big cities with varying amenities that will assist them to ameliorate the draconian measures which the residents of the impoverished rural communities were not privileged to enjoy. As these people are living on the fringes of the society with very little social security nets, N$750 then was a huge relief to them. However, the drain that could have readily gulped up the meagre relief amount, ie liquor, had been clamped down on!I took a trip between Ruacana and Kamanjab on the famous C35 national road and saw first-hand the impact of the lockdown on the dotting villages and farm settlements was as devastating as a hurricane disaster could be. Most of these usually vibrant and bustling settlements were deserted and cold as ghost villages since the spice of life - their alcohol outlet - was clamped down on. You could pass through the length and breadth of a community without encountering someone with a single dollar. They were visibly suffering grossly from hunger and like the proverbial Nigerian folk would be killed first by the hunger virus before the onslaught of the coronavirus. Even if the authorities were aware of this catastrophe, they had managed to hold their society together and not even the tragic, dramatic racial killing of a black man (George Floyd) in the United States - that sparked worldwide outrage and outbursts of anti-governmental demonstrations - could stir a previously racially divided nation into any demonstration. Like the African proverb says: At times it is good for the wind to blow so as to expose the ugly backside of the fowl. Now the wind has blown and the ugliness of racism that had marred that great nation’s glamour on democracy has been exposed.Glory days are overIt has revealed the ugliness that they’d rather wish to remain in-house matters where the whites have had their knees on the blacks’ jugulars for 400 years and the exposed inequality in society and the injustice of the justice department against blacks and people with colour is demonstrated by the demography of the skewed mortality against these people! True, America has been and is still great and has done great things, but their days of glory are gone and her hegemonic control of global politics and policy is fast fading away as Anglo-Saxon civilisation of might slowly ebbs away to the emerging dragon from the East.They are too arrogant and not eager to humble themselves to understudy the soft belly of the emerging dragon and that arrogance is embedded in their destructive military hegemony as this is the only nation known to have dropped atomic bombs and is prepared even to use the nuke if you should dare them!Might is right! However, the Covid-19 pandemic exposed the inherent weakness in such a philosophy while the emerging dragon is busy building roads and bridges amongst nations and winning hearts and minds - not bombs and war propaganda! The ultimate victor of this cold war shall dominate the world in the next millennium without a shadow of a doubt. Just compare and contrast the fatherly poise of the reassuring Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the erratic Twitter-in-Chief who was glamorising the nuclear button. Blessed be the world that he only snuffed out Iranian General Suleiman. Only God knows how close we had come to an accidental discharge of a nuclear button from an erratic and unstable anencephalic White House occupant. The truth is that Americans have decided to do the most honourable thing and get that caricature out of the White House, but it’s too little too late, for America has to grapple with 400 years of institutionalised injustice and racial discrimination. Whether they could handle it and return to global leadership to bully other folks is a matter of great debate.*Dr Matthew Mojekwu is the national director of the Diabetes Association of Namibia.

Lockdown and its impact on society

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Namibian Sun 2026-08-18

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Lockdown and its impact on society

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Namibian Sun 2026-08-18

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