August 6, 2021
Just recently the Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines was struck with a rock in his head as he made his way through protestors in the capitol of Kingstown on Thursday.
The protestors were upset about the government’s attempt to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations, a controversial matter to say the very least. But never would we have thought that Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves was in any danger in a relatively peaceful country like the SVG.
This is just coming weeks after the president of Haiti was shot and killed by alleged Colombian mercenaries in the wee hours of one July morning. His wife was also shot and injured in the process.
So this is where we are now, people? Violence? Let’s not forget the protests against the Diaz-Canel leadership in Cuba, while no government official was killed or seriously injured, the anti-government anger is boiling over.
I guess we can say the COVID-19 ravages are hurting people. People are fed up. They are fed up with the lockdowns, fed up with the restrictions, fed up with being broke and helpless and don’t want to hear about mandatory vaccinations.
While we are recording history we must be cognizant of how this is all playing out. Pandemics can lead to instability. It is not just the sickness we have to be concerned about but the oncoming issues mid and post pandemic.
What historians must do is go back to previous pandemics and analyse what happened and add that to the conversation today. Trade had stopped as a result of the bubonic plague, many persons of course died leaving a void in many families causing slippage in the social fabric as more people fell through the gaps. However, coming out of it, human being were stronger physically and biologically and when trade resumed, there was robust growth. So let us not forget how bad things can happen, but remember there is always a silver lining.
We just have to keep our eyes open to the trends.