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A Tale of Two Continental Tyrannies
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It will soon be 5 years since the initial Covid 2020 Lockdowns. This article builds on what was written by Dr Ramesh Thakur’s article “Pandemic in Africa: Lessons and Strategies” and Jeffrey Tucker’s article “The Mass Betrayal of Trust” by giving an on-the-ground-perspective comparison of the social interactions and costs that happened in response to all the Covid mandates in Europe and Africa.
When the lockdowns hit in 2020, I was in Europe having built a life there as an immigrant engineer with minimal knowledge of geopolitics and Public Health (My little knowledge of Public Health revolved around the free exercise classes and stress ball some public health officials came to give in my Church – I thought they were just harmless doves—common, who doesn’t love a free stress ball?). Imagine my shock in 2020, when this same group of “nice guys” suddenly began to yell at us to sit at home, else you are a selfish grandma killer. My second shock was the next-to-nothing pushback from Institutions that were supposed to/designed to push back against Government tyranny. Jeffrey Tucker details it all in his article “The Mass Betrayal of Trust”:
I assure you that whatever you felt was betrayal in the US happened exactly the same way in Europe – only far worse!
In Africa, it was slightly different. The initial prediction for Africa was that there may be up to 3.3 million deaths. Based on the 3% global death rate used in a 2022 Stanford Health Policy article, the total deaths from Covid in Africa ended up being less than 10% of the prediction – way off! However, Africa had two main issues that prevented full blown tyranny like in Europe – lack of enough resources/infrastructure to enforce tyranny and the poverty level (you cannot socially distance in a continent where most transport and building infrastructure cannot accommodate it; you cannot enforce mask mandates where most people cannot afford to buy a mask daily.). Dr Thakurputs it this way:
What ended up happening in Africa was a beauty to behold – a class system response to the pandemic. Among the poor and lower middle class, they couldn’t really care about Covid tyranny. The rules imposed were simply seen as another government roadblock (among several others) to them earning their daily wages. They mostly didn’t comply because they could not afford the finances, time, or mental capital to follow up with the lockdown rules.
Among the elite, wealthy, and “educated” middle class, it was a different story. It was seen as a thing of pride to wear a mask – I kid you not. The more virtuous you were, the more you kept your mask on. The elite would not let anyone near them who was not masked. Given that many of them had white-collar jobs, they celebrated the lockdowns because they didn’t have to bear the brunt of it. Most of the Western media mantras such as “Stay Safe” became the greeting words used in that circle.
Their financial ability to access Western media cable channels fueled them with rage and indignation at the lower class who did not religiously follow the lockdown, masking, and vaccine rules as they did. None of them who would have trusted in time of need spoke up for the lower middle class and poor – rather it was either they became feared oppressors or engaged in what Frederic Bastiat calls “False Philanthropy” using terms such as “We are all in this together” or giving donations (many of which the elite still plundered) when speaking up and working to cancel the mandates would have done much more good.
While many in the US, such as Brownstone Institute folks, are still calling for vengeance and following up with the latest admissions from those in charge at the time, such as Dr Deborah Birx, most people in Africa have moved on. There are bigger fish to fry – the Covid lockdowns gave African governments the excuse (they saw their Western peers doing it) to print massive amounts of money. The resulting inflation has been devastating. The chart below shows the inflation rates (Government data rates- it’s much worse on the ground) among some African countries.
Statistics such as the one above do not do enough justice to the economic devastation of Covid in Africa – it has permeated the culture and behaviors in society. Many of these problems were started or exacerbated by the Covid lockdown policies, but very few (or no) government has the time or technology to make the connection – so many Africans continue to languish. If there is one final point to mention, it is to remind Western countries and citizens that their actions, voting, and courage affects not just themselves but people in the other parts of the world who do not have a voice. We can only pray that the events that have so negatively shaped the last 4 years do not repeat themselves again.
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