Among many good books Colombian Nobel prize winning author Gabriel García Márquez wrote one is “Love in the Time of Cholera”. The book was first published in Spanish in 1985 and then in many other languages. Based on the novel, a movie was released in 2007. Márquez was the master of story telling yet had little regards for Spanish Grammar. He has created a wealth of work of literature that any reader can truly and emotionally relate to. I am still thinking of Santiago Naser. Santiago Nasar is the protagonist of Chronicle of a Death Foretold, the victim of a brutal murder for having a love relation with a local girl. He is the child of a “marriage of convenience” between Plácida Linero, a local woman, and Ibrahim Nasar, an Arab immigrant who later in life became a rancher. I still think what if the mother had not closed the door. What if?
Cholera of course is a bacterium, first originated in India around the Ganges River where the rice fields are growing. Cholera has probably been attacking humans for centuries. Stories of cholera-like disease have been found in India as early as 1000 AD. Cholera is a term derived from Greek khole (illness from bile) and later in the 14th century to colere (French) and choler (English). In the 17th century, cholera was a term used to describe a severe gastrointestinal disorder involving diarrhea and vomiting. Then dehydration and if not treated, death. The fact is Cholera is still with us and now and then show itself in one corner of the world.
There were many outbreaks of cholera, and by the 16th century, some were being noted in historical writings. England had several in the 19th century, the most notable being in 1854, when Dr. John Snow did a classic study in London that showed a main source of the disease (resulting in about 500 deaths in 10 days) came from at least one of the major water sources for London residents termed the “Broad Street pump.” The pump handle was removed, and the cholera deaths slowed and stopped. The pump is still present as a landmark in London. Corona is different, it is a virus. The name of corona is coming from its microscopic picture showing a crown on top of its beautiful shape. It seems that whoever wear a crown tends to kill others such as the kings in their bloody history. This is a fact; that in general kings / dictators kill more than bacteria and viruses combined. The notoriety of religious killing is so infamous that religion is synonym with blood.
It is a mystry of sort that the moment you put a thrown on someone’s stupid head, he / she will start elimination first the closest to the thrown. Then the killing field will expand to the city, to the province and then it will engulfed the country. When the swords rest to dry their blood and when there are not enough subjects to kill at home, the one with the thrown on the head, will look at the boarders. This virus is doing the same thing. Only a concentrated and coordinated efforts will stop the growth of the deadly attack.
Someone who in his life went through hell with the government of Iran recently scrummed to corona. Fariborz Raisdana. Admired by a full generation for his writing on the state of the economy of the Islamic regime, for his years of imprisonments and above all for his resiliency.
Gabriel García Márquez is of course the author of One Hundred Years of Solitude, the book that is known in the most parts of the world; sometimes more famous than its author.
Now, we are battling coronavirus in many countries. As of today March 17, 2020, over 200 000 cases have been reported, many more not reported and many have died as a result. Since Márquez is not around any more, died in April 17, 2014, one or many, have to record the stories of love under coronavirus. It is a simplification to say love and love alone will defeat the state of terror caused by the novel coronavirus.
Fermina Daza, and Florentino Ariza, are around us in 2020, in any city stricken by the novel coronavirus. I was recently looking for them but things has changed drastically from Cholera to Corona. Lovers have the luxury of become fake with the help of digital communications. Writing letters were the most advanced way of communication between Fermina and Florentino.
It would be a good project for anyone who can write and write about sickness, panic, and love to start recording love stories of our time under the ambarella of fear. There must be something. Something heart-warming, elating. Is it really all about corona, price gouging, fear, distancing from each other? Socializing as we knew it is being abandoned. To some extent we have been haunted.
one good thing this virus brought us is closing of the shrines of all kinds. People who lived under the spell of religion and places of worships are gradually finding out the truth that these places are nothing but buildings. The business of religion – at least for now – is shutdown. Charlatans were the first to flee the infested shrines that could not defend themselves. The killing power of this virus has been somehow exaggerated. The Islamic regime in Iran has announced that around a thousand had died as a result of the outbreak. Such number of deaths for the regime was only a breakfast in 1980s and 90s when they started killing the communists. In comparison, corona virus is totally exonerated.
These days, walking in the usually busy streets of my city, I see deserted roads, coffee shops, shopping centres and restaurants. Today, a restaurant manger mentioned to one of my friends that she scares to eat in her own restaurant in the fear of one of the workers in the kitchen area be a carrier. Fear is infesting our flesh before the virus ever get to us. I just came back from visiting one of my neighborhood grocery stores. Most of the merchandises are gone. Less people were working.
I know a beggar who ask for change at a red-light. Yesterday he told me his income is reduced by 50 percent as a result of the outbreak, he said he thinks it is a panic for no reason.
Today I was at the Provigo, our grocery store nearby. A young man attempted to steal a few articles of food in a large bag. They stopped him outside the store and emptied his pockets as well. He had a car and his girlfriend was waiting for him in it. While South is flat, accumulation of wealth in the North has made homages mountain of gold stolen from the South. One may argue that the gentleman who was attempting to take some food was in fact taking the food that was displaced in the first place. The food was supposed to be in his shelves at home by taken away from him by a corporation. The questions now is that the man who stopped him at the door, whom was he serving? His fellow hungry man or the corporation that has hired him to the job. Then we need to look at the question of honesty. Which of the two men were more honest?
Closure started with primary and high-schools. Colleges and universities were followed. Self-isolation and curfew are becoming a way of life.
They found one case of positive coronavirus in the green line of our city underground metro. The line was shut down and with it, the moral of the people. I noticed people have shorter necks and narrower shoulders. I guess in the time of fear, people shrink and become chicken-hearted.
Hand sanitizers are nowhere to be found. Drug stores are not coping with the demand for face masks. Disinfecting sprays are missing from the shelves of every store. Non-perishable food like rice and beans are in high demand. Friends are keeping their hands in their pockets and pass by at least 3 meters from each others. if you cough, even a small one, people will surely ran away from you.
The negative effects of states of fear is already obvious. If last long, this virus will change our way of life at least for some time. Will we become asocial, eat less out, gather less. Maybe. But one thing that it might bring is the taste for vegetarianism, veganism. It is a wish that one day human leaves other animal alone and don’t slaughter and eat them anymore. I think it should be like this: Get a signed consent form the animal first before getting the knife to the throat.
Images coming from Iran are drastic. People are dying in the streets yet the official death count has just reached a thousand.
I encourage people to look for love, wherever they are and write about it. Love in the Time of Corona is the human resiliency in the face of fear.
Cyrus Mahan, March 17, 2020. info@cyrusmahan.com
RSS - پست ها
پاسخی بگذارید