How will the pandemic and the government's actions impact our livelihoods in 2021?

Viruses are nothing new.

Even though governments were warned that animal or human-made epidemics were possible, nobody seemed to be prepared or willing to face the facts when it did happen. I believe that politicians have defiled democratic processes, with the silent majority's tacit complicity and not so silent right-wing media.

Not only does greed appear to become "good," but lie after lie piled on top of rhetoric and bureaucratic claptrap has overwhelmed common sense and clarity. In order to become a commercial success in an overheated market place, it seems that it takes not just the niche market but hard-headed ruthlessness to exploit and take advantage of an opportunity, consumers, customers, and workforces. With that, Brexit fatigue and compassion fatigue for those outside the European Union and the United States became evident since the pandemic.

Inevitably the vulnerable elements of society, especially overcrowded multi-generational homes, poorly paid ethnic minorities, family carers, and domestic workers in care homes, all faced challenges and dangers that well-off folk won't encounter. The saccharin hype about the NHS and tales of nurses going to food banks while geriatrics were bundled back to unprepared care homes without being well enough or even tested to know if they were positive or not is unsettling. How easy is it to wring your hands of this after infection was transmitted and spread?

A recent case that sheds light on this is in the US . Dr Susan Moore recorded herself after a doctor at a university hospital refused to give her "any more drugs" and told her to go home. She went to another hospital, but within three weeks, she passed away. Dr Moore was not the only medic to be denied the same care that white patients had. The same entrenched, insidious, and institutionalised prejudice, bigotry, and race hatred for non-whites are still prevalent.

READ: How countries can prepare for pandemics with essential supplies

How countries can prepare for pandemics with essential suppliesconversations.indy100.com

It's time to re-think how we stock essential supplies for the future.

At the beginning of the Jim Crow era, Jack (John) Johnson, the Black heavyweight champion, faced prejudice in his time due to the alleged violation of the Mann Act. Johnson's experience was portrayed in a play that Mohammed Ali went to see years later. Ali identified with Johnson, who was vilified and stigmatised after he lost his title.

The lies peddled to the public start to wear thin when critical thinking kicks in. It was the beginning of the end of financial integrity, free school milk, the adulteration of our food and farming, double standards, cronyism, nepotism, and the network of not what you know but who you know.

The alleged readiness of the lower orders to jump on the bandwagon, betray their fellow citizens, and elect cheats, frauds, and liars had become the perfect storm for politicians to lead people astray. Those who collect public funds then abandoned their responsibilities and duties to charities and arms-length allies with predictable disastrous chaos that I feel is criminal negligence. Ergot lessons never learned by the indifferent and complacent, busy dodging accountability and scrutiny. Charities ought never to have been made responsible for whatever politicians and local government could shrug off.

Moreover, I believe that we are not safe or secure without self-sufficiency, without limits to self-indulge and obedience to authoritarian, self-important, disorganised renegades who make laws that they do not obey.

How many of us will remain unscathed when the bubble bursts and the economy crashes?

I think those that support and fall into the category of power will be safe from what befalls them. For someone like me who is considered the "others," the road ahead for 2021 could be rocky.

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