The ‘Blessings’ in Covid-19 Shouldn’t be Underestimated.
It is almost three months now since we started dancing to the music of COVID-19 here in Uganda. Elsewhere in the world, the rhythm is high, higher, and devastatingly highest in other countries. We say sorry for those who have lost their loved ones to this pandemic and encourage both the sick and their families to stay strong and hopeful.
In Uganda, the music is blended with the ordinary kadongokamu songs of ‘help’ us government, poverty, disease, grey-haired corruption, domestic violence, police brutality, the ignorance of some of our population, big-headedness of the middle class, the self-satisfaction of the elites and the myths surrounding Covid-19. As a country, we salute the leadership for being able to adjust the tune, rhythm, and volume of the Covid-19 music.
The unique advantages of this crisis are that families have the opportunity to bond, love, share, and learn more about each other’s lives. Creativity and better resource management skills are emerging in families, companies, and organizations throughout the whole world. Government, Political leaders, businesses, charities, social organizations, and individuals are all out giving alms within their means. We salute you for your Love and generosity. Much as it’s a government responsibility to care and protect her people, to other stakeholders, it’s as a result of empathy. Empathy is igniting care to reward lives in this difficult time.
We should not forget the fact that this crisis is helping all humanity to evolve socially and economically. Companies and organizations are not exceptional. We are likely not to need more office space, physical meetings, transport and feeding costs or retreats, for those who will keep their jobs. If companies go digital in their operations, they will absolutely cut a significant amount of costs. This is also true to the Government departments.
Employees who had gotten comfortable with their pay, only looking forward to their pension and gratuity might have been shaken out of the slumber right now to ponder about the next actions. Perhaps they will call Dr. Naluyima or the Pakasa leaders for tips on how to productively use their small plots in town or the large chunks of land upcountry for commercial Agriculture.
We are likely to increase Agricultural output if all the masses locked down in rural areas are attending to their shambas working together as families. Some men who had given up on the agricultural practices in favour of hand to mouth jobs could think twice about this decision or choose to fully engage in agriculture as a full-time job. Besides, it’s going to be easier for that mum or dad who had become scarce in the house like the money resource to raise the children with the values and discipline she/he wants while she works from home.
In short, more new enterprises and businesses are going to sprout as a result of Covid-19 lessons.
However, for some less fortunate, life is going to be very difficult. Many businesses and enterprises are going to collapse and individuals will lose employment. Employees on probation, investigations, or those served with several warnings in regard to their work are going to be affected. Some workers and labourers are going to fall sick or die during and after this time due to shock of retrenchment, stress, domestic violence or inability to repay a loan from the lending institutions-this is how sad the situation is going to be.
Nonprofit organizations are really going to be hit hard. They will financially limp for some time before they pick up again, change orientation, or even collapse. On the other hand, it could be a good experience to go domestic and creative enough to resource within the country or Africa.
The teachers in private schools are at a high risk of losing jobs and income either because their employers are unscrupulously refuging in coronavirus effects or because they had diverted the school resources with the hope that they will gather slowly from the parents as usual and pay them.
Pupils across the country, the majority of whom are in the rural areas are going to degenerate in their academics. Unlike their urban counterparts who are leveraging on technological devices held by their teachers and parents to continue studying using digital platforms. The rural children will be subjected to labour in gardens and sugarcane shambas where they will get exposed to promiscuous behaviour leading to teenage pregnancies, STDs, HIV infections, child marriages and eventual drop out due to unmet needs in their families-violence will grow.
Covid-19 has ‘blessings’ we shouldn’t underestimate. Let’s harness them to improve our education based on our goal of developing more science-oriented human resources to innovate and create massive employment. The government and her educational partners could choose to network every school by providing basic computers and solar as well as encouraging parents to acquire basic internet-enabled cellphones. This effort could lead to improved parental and child engagement with other stakeholders in the education sector in order to increase the academic outcomes of our learners.
It’s quite easy to remind a parent to remind a child to revise, tune in to an educational program on a radio station through a phone. The economic sense is that if the government reduces taxes on the imported cellphones so as to enable every parent and teacher to have basic smartphones it may as well increase on its tax collections from subsidized internet and OTT to enable all parents to be connected.
Technology will increase efficiency in supervision monitoring and sharing accurate important government information with the masses at a minimal cost.
The government through its local structures should mobilize all people in rural areas to invest their time now and in the future in commercial agriculture. Let’s tap into the youthful population which is itching to loiter on urban streets in a quest for Hand to mouth opportunities and guide and support them to work in their gardens for food and cash. The revenue collecting bodies need to educate the new entrepreneurs and businesses about finance, business management, taxes, and support them to grow their enterprises instead of stifling them in the name of collecting revenue.
Because Covid-19 has come with both negative and positive consequences, it’s crucial that the leadership parades service providers such as counselors to support and comfort both the recovering Covid-19 patients and the population quarantined in their homes for the purposes of controlling and monitoring the spread of the disease or else we will die, get mad, depressed or lawless-emotional treatment will address these cases but we must get over Coronavirus… #mask, wash, sanitize.
