Letter of the Day | Dreams, nightmares and vision

THE EDITOR, Madam:

One person’s dream is often a nightmare for others. As we live our dream, we have a duty not to make the lives of others a living hell. These thoughts have been haunting me since Thursday of last week with the new and expanded COVID restrictions. It became clear to me that the Dream Weekend and other ‘la-la land’ events have morphed into a nightmare of worrisome days and sleepless nights for the majority of the population.

While it is true that the continuing spread of COVID preceded the decision to allow these mass-party gatherings, there was pre-existing evidence of the spike that the flying of the party gate, be it political party or social partying, would have caused.

We know the free-spiritedness of our people. The lessons from the mid-COVID general election last year should have alerted us to what is likely to happen when we have mass gatherings with our people intoxicated by excitement and high on other substances.

With the permission granted to promoters to host parties, including the one dubbed Dream Weekend, one didn’t need to be a conceptualiser, or to visit a psychic or an obeah woman, in order to foresee what was likely to happen. Those who had eyes to see and whose vision was not blurred by other considerations, would have envisioned its aggravating impact on the COVID pandemic.

The obvious consequences of mass gatherings were bypassed, as some were given a free pass to amass earnings, only for this to be followed by a seven-day total lockdown, during which persons like the Gleaner vendor, the construction worker, the contractual domestic day worker, and many others in similar positions, will not earn a cent. Also, the owners of small businesses will have to close their doors for those seven days, during which time earnings and profits will be non-existent or greatly reduced, while some expenses, including wages, continue.

The partygoers may have regarded the time out for revelling as a well-needed break, and no doubt there is validity in that. But what about the psychological and economic welfare of those who live from hand to mouth and are now experiencing the nightmare of being locked in at home?

Heavy is the head that wears the crown and, no doubt, when difficult decisions have to be made, there are pressures from several directions and Internet groups. But we expect our leaders to be visionaries who can foresee and take reasonable steps to avoid policies favouring some, but with disastrous consequences for the population as a whole. Without this, we are left with trying to catch the horse that has already gone through the gate that was prematurely opened.

Prevention is better than cure. Hopefully, a lesson has been learnt.

JACQUELINE SAMUELS-BROWN