Hope During a Corona Invasion?

Hope During a Corona Invasion?

Last week I predicted that my next column may be full of hope. I truly want it to be, but I am now a suspicious person and not without good reasons. I have been cheated so many times. I watched the news this morning. It was an American station. I saw the President who just two weeks ago said repeatedly that there is nothing to worry about, now saying that he knew for a long time that the pandemic was coming. Did he? Well, four senators are being accused of selling their stocks just before the market crashed. They knew.  Also, we don’t know how many in the US are infected since they don’t have enough test kits to check. Back to Canada.

Here the Prime Minister is in isolation, leading by “good example.” He is announcing some very helpful measures to keep the population alive and the economy going. I agree with pumping money into the economy. Preventing chaos and ensuring that everyone will have some money to keep commerce going is necessary. I don’t think he has another choice.

I do question when governments give billions in grants or even tax cuts to industries or corporations that are failing. This is too much socialism for me. Why Mr. Prime-minister, don’t you prepay our gas and oil bills for six months instead of giving 15 billion of our tax money to the oil and gas companies who will soon lay off a quarter of Albertans? Give the money to the oil workers, I would say. I have a good friend who believes that solutions to problems always come from big business. Now we have a major crisis and I don’t see people begging big business for solutions. I see people turning to governments demanding action. If I was the government, I would help small businesses who employ most Canadians. Instead, they are taxing small businesses and their employees and giving money to the big ones.

I watched a CBC special “Market Place Coronavirus (COVID-19)”. It’s a good show which compared our readiness for the pandemic with that of Taiwan. On that Island kids still go to school, families eat in restaurants functioning normally with a few exceptions. Per capita, they have fewer COVID 19 cases than us, and we are much better than most. How come? The Taiwan government has done its job.

Onwards, I go to review our Premier’s address from yesterday. He outlined several new measures that would make any lefty politician elated. Daycares for essential workers, expanding homeless shelters, 113 million dollars to clean orphan oil wells, paying people for self-isolation, relaxing restrictions on Unemployment Insurance, paying people’s utilities, you name it.

In his address, the Premier said that there will be more measures outlined in the days to come. This is also happening on the Federal level. There is help for small businesses, freezing taxes, injecting funds into the health care system which has been starved for years and much more.

People my age all remember the horrible first and second world wars. Humankind has never seen such a devastating horror, and tens of millions died. The suffering was too horrible for today’s people to believe possible.  The last who have seen it are quickly now joining their friends “who gave up their lives.”

Out of the ashes of those horrible wars dawned a new world. Women received equality, non-white folks had a road for success and a new middle class was born. Countries were built up enhanced by new science, technology, and billions of people were educated. Monarchies all but disappeared and religious institutions declined.

The Alberta premier gathered a group of business leaders, and a token union person,  to be an Economic Recovery Council and get us back on our feet after the worst has passed. They will be inclined to save corporations and banks, but will have to keep the labour force and consumers alive.

 We are facing a tiny invisible alien human killer that multiplies fast. Until we discover a way to combat it, we will have to keep going with the existing economy impossible to sustain. We will use money for reasons other than hoarding riches away from the taxman. Now will be the time in which people will realize that the theory of austerity is faulty. The money that governments are injecting into the lower end of the economy, where it is immediately used, will create a robust economy and save us from the predicted recession. Soon the governments will begin to issue that money in exchange for public infrastructure, free education, and other socially beneficial projects.

People took part in some experiments of guaranteed income in parts of the world. Unexpectedly, the results showed that folks found ways to be useful and productive.  The money created jobs and started small businesses. Yes, this is a message of hope.

From my isolated vantage point, I see God collecting all the cards from the table, shuffling the deck and redistributing it. I see humankind realizing that it doesn’t take much to cause devastating panic and by acting irrationally upset the apple cart. I see society doing exactly what it did after the great wars; rebuilding the social safety nets, investing in essential services, and building badly needed projects.

By the time our bodies adjust to the new virus, some of us will be gone but the rest may be ahead. Some of the old corporations will diminish and there will be a new appreciation for the workers who keep society going. The Wall-Street and other Markets who produce nothing but wealth for a few will reconfigure to be more useful for most people.

Trudeau stated that we trust in science. I trust in God, and science is a part of it.

After churches will be closed for a while, people may discover the truth as stated in John 4, 22. The brave new world after COVID 19 may be all different and we will be around to see it. 

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.