Source: Jonathan Bartlett's Illustration for Foreign Policy, October 2019
When Doom is Imminent
There is a saying in Hindi that is very widely used in the northern regions of India - "Vinashkaale Vipareet Buddhi", which roughly translates to when one's doom is imminent, wisdom and intellect begin to work against one's best interests.
This thought has been articulated down the ages by many writers and philosophers hailing from ancient Greece and Sparta to 18th century Britain.
"When falls on man the anger of the gods, first from his mind they banish understanding."
- Lycurgus
"For those whom God to ruin has design'd,
He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind."
- John Dryden
Of late, this adage has been playing out for one nation very prominently on the global stage - China. This article is the first in a series that I will be releasing whereby, I shall try to chronicle the events that in my mind will most likely be responsible for triggering the end of the Chinese empire under the dynasty of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The Bowl of Soup that Started it All
It all started with a bowl of bat soup procured from a wet market in Wuhan, China, or so the story goes. This bowl of bat soup unleashed a genie called the coronavirus, which spread with alarming speed amongst the human population in Wuhan. I am not corroborating that theory, in fact I do not subscribe to it as an explanation of the origins of the virus, but let's go with it for now.
Lab results conducted on the initial patients were confiscated by the local health authorities in Wuhan under the instructions of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Doctors in China who raised the alarm on this new never-before-seen strain of the virus, were arrested and silenced while some simply disappeared or died of the infection. The CCP denies any involvement.
Around the Chinese New Year in late January 2020, millions of COVID-19 infected Chinese origin travelers poured out of China and travelled all over the globe bringing with them, the one new Chinese product that no one had ordered and the CCP conveniently chose to remain silent about - the Coronavirus.
Source: Billingsgazette.com
Apocalypse Now
A few weeks down the line the world began to wake up to an apocalyptic scenario that seemed to be a year 2020 remake of Hollywood productions such as Outbreak, Contagion, World War Z… you name it. Populations across the globe began to embrace this one thought that we all dread to even imagine or articulate in real life - "this can't be happening!". The World Health Organization (WHO) took its own sweet time to think through all the data and events unfolding around the world. The WHO then had an epiphany and arrived at the prophecy that the Coronavirus was now a global pandemic, when it was almost too late and the prophecy was already playing out to full houses in European nations to begin with.
Any nation with even a single gene of compassion or humility encoded into its national DNA would have opened itself up to the scrutiny of the world's medical community with all the data it had gathered so far, in the hope of making some recompense for the damage it had caused. But, China under the CCP would demonstrate itself as being constituted of a DNA that has mutated so far from the principles that bind humanity together, that it had become genetically wired to do just the opposite. Under the leadership of the CCP, China would double down the path of aggressive posturing, finger pointing, deceit and duplicity and surprise the world in more ways than one, with its actions and reactions.
How China Tried but the World Wasn't Listening... or so they say
This is a You Tube video posted by Xinhua, the state run news agency of the People's Republic of China.
…to be continued in "Part 2" of this series
About the Author
As an American, lived in South Asia and love South Asia as one of the most politically and culturally active sections of the globe. My dad's tenure in New Delhi as a journalist from the Washington Post, has provided me the opportunity to travel extensively throughout the Indian subcontinent and get to know its people and the nations it is made up of.
Unlike most American kids of my generation, I did not spend my teenage years in the US. Instead I backpacked with my journalist dad travelling the length and breadth of the South Asian subcontinent, as he covered the region for his daily and weekly dispatches to the Washington Post.
As a result, I came to know this melting pot of cultures, ethnicities and people like few in my generation back home can even dream to acquaint themselves of even if they joined the most prestigious of the think tanks in Washington DC.
What do I do for a living? Having worked with the Big 5 corporations, I currently do free lance technology consulting for corporations struggling to transform their technology of today into where they need it to be tomorrow.
I can be reached at carla.stewart019@gmail.com