Lesson from Covid-19 pandemic and increase in suffering, hatred and violence in the world is that despite advance in science and technology mankind is not humble and living God’s Way. Prolonged abandonment of living God’s way by proud, selfish and greedy rulers who are controlled by rich business class and hypocritical religious leaders, has led to mis-use of the advancement in science and technology to achieve their selfish goals. This laid a breeding ground for the emergence of deadly disease like Coronavirus and suffering of the majority on degraded planet earth.
Costs of Abandonment of Living God’s Way
Over stressing natural and human eco-systems beyond their limit by selfish people to maximize profit in their pursuance of excessive accumulation of money, wealth, power and wasteful life-style to dominate others is at the root of myriad of human problems today because they abandoned humility and optimization set by Natural Law put in place by God to govern balanced co-existence. They forgot that throughout human history the abandonment of living God’s Way had repeatedly led to human suffering and collapse of civilization.
Already, their callous attitude and actions driven by pride/arrogance have led to society ideological disorientation and loss of strict adherence to the Natural Law for guiding human existence on planet earth. The resulting unsustainable human transformation and modus operandi of building prosperity have undermined the development of balanced eco-system civilization (i.e. a state of human society that is very developed and organized with strong adherence to civil liberty).
The trend of amassing money, wealth, power and influence to dominate others through maximization (i.e. getting the most out of something/somebody in dis-regard of environmental cost and feelings of others) led to the development of bottom-up V-shape type of cyclical economic growth and recession (Fig.1) with dare consequences for the majority poor and on environmental protection.
This unsustainable way of living has encouraged the growth of corruption, environmental degradation, eating of junk foods, high pollution of air in overcrowded cities and towns, increase in poverty, malnutrition, breakdown of social cohesion, loss of unity of purpose, hatred intensification and violence as well as emergence of more deadly disease like Covid-19.
Worst of all, pride, racism, consumerism and mindset for domination of others have led the rich and powerful to believe that money “speak” and make the world go round; not God the one in-charge. That mindset for selfish maximization of profits is already raising its ugly head in the cut-throat competition in the research, development and production of vaccine for controlling Covid-19 among others.
Living God’s Way
“God created planet earth to meet the needs of every human being to lead a healthy and productive life for His glory but not for the greed of every human being. To this end, He put in place Natural Law to guide human life on earth.”
Living God’s way therefore, demand adherence to Natural Law and strong application of civil liberty (i.e. the right of people to be free to say and do what they want while respecting the rights of others and obeying God’s natural law of liberty and sensible Law put in place by human authority). Living God’s Way promotes humility based on belief that God, the Creator is the one in-charge of the earth and living things on it including humans whose finite lives follow a balanced sigmoid (bell-shaped) growth, development and decline curve shown in fig. 2.
The notable characteristic of the bell-shape curve is the smooth and balanced growth and development phase followed by a plateau and a smooth decline of economy and life to pave way for renewal. In a nutshell it encourages optimization (i.e. getting the best out of something/somebody as well as appreciation of the gift of life). The smooth cycle of rise and decline back to the base ensures continuity and sustenance of balanced eco-system for the betterment of present and future generations.
The two pathways of life and driven by the selfish aspect of human nature and the other driven by living God’s way have been experienced by mankind. It is clear that a lasting solution to the current ills in society is to return to living God’s Way. Reactionary preventive and curative responses to the deadly Coronavirus that has hit the world are temporary measures. The real and lasting answer is for current generation to humble itself and return to living God’s Way.
Covid-19 is God’s wake-up call to human beings to return to living with strong adherence to the Natural Law He has given them or else He will unleash more deadly forms of punishment that will bring humans to their knees. God, the Supreme Spirit and Creator of mankind is reminding the misled worldly rulers together with their associates selfish rich business people and hypocritical religious leaders that they are not in control of His creation.
Africa struggling to free itself economically, spiritually and socially from the shackles of colonialism and post-colonial copy-cat mentality of educated ruling class and the emergence of ethnic/tribal politics, growth of corruption, pride in ignorance by those in the corridor of power and mushrooming of Christendom all of which have contributed in creating a society in a state of flux and poverty should seize the opportunity provided by the silver lining in the wake-up call of Covid-19 and change their politics and way of life to pave way for restoring living God’s Way.
The coronavirus pandemic wake-up call should humble African political, religious, cultural and rich business class that have influence in a country to quickly make a paradigm shift away from the current trend of unchecked appetite for excessive accumulation of money, wealth and power at the expense of environmental protection and peaceful co-existence in diversity. Acquired power which creates superiority complex, arrogance in ignorance and mindset to dominate others using the influence of ill-gotten money and wealth has been the driver of environmental pollution, loss of patriotism, increase in corruption, reckless killings, increase of poverty and inability of African governments to provide effective services to citizen.
The silver lining in the wake-up call should therefore, make Africa political, private sector, religious, cultural and grass-root community leaders to invest in living God’s Way. They should make smart investment in scientific innovation and technology development in order to build capacity to provide inclusive transformation of society to respond effectively to deadly disease like Covid-19 and other problems like using poison chemicals and drugs for growing crops, birds, fish, poultry, pigs and cattle taken to market, over drinking alcohol, smoking, drug addiction, marijuana, immoral way of life etc.
They should realize that the current fire brigade approach to preventive and curative measures of Covid-19 is short-term measure. Putting in place carefully developed lasting best practices for prevention and curative solutions guided by living God’s Way are the long-term sustainable solutions for healthy and productive life in diversity as well as effective environmental management to keep eco-system balance.
Black Africans who have suffered greatly from slave trade and colonization should wake-up and get rid of copy-cat and reactionary mentality. The change in mindset will enable them rebuild self-confidence, value diversity, become international and be smart designers that blend their culture with the best they learn from others. They should restore the art of reciprocity to promote peaceful co-existence in diversity.
Author: Prof. John Joseph Otim is a contributor to The Kalongo Times. He served as a senior presidential advisor in the Government of Uganda and as the president of the Agricultural Council of Uganda. Previously, he served as a member of Parliament and Minister of Animal Industry and Fisheries. He lectured in the faculties of Makerere and Nairobi Universities. He worked as a principal research officer and deputy in-Charge of Research and Outreach Programmes in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. He earned a B.Sc. in Agriculture, M.Sc. in Animal Production from Makerere University and a PhD in Animal Nutrition and Veterinary Physiology from Saskatchewan University, in Canada.