Was that good news? The latest we heard was that the “Perseverance”, the space ship sent off to the planet Mars, has successfully landed. Alas, we who now rely only on TV (or the DAILY STAR) for news, have no idea yet what the explorers have to say about what they have discovered there. Are there beings like us, and vegetation like ours? Are there oceans and rivers, birds and bees, mountains and hills? When the COVID invasion is over, can we book a trip there?
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That is just wishful thinking, of course, but who knows? Nobody knew that the world was round until Columbus dared to sail around it. Now that Mars has been invaded, which next? The earth and Mars are not the only planets as our schoolbooks taught us. The time may come when students, teachers and office workers, but especially moneyed people, will think nothing of announcing before summer, “Ah, my family and I have already gone to Mars, we are now deciding whether it will be Pluto or Mercury this time!”
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There used to be a song titled “I can dream, can’t I?” And that is what we are doing now. The spirit of adventure has always been in human beings, so this isn’t farfetched at all. What if there had been no Columbus who sailed and sailed until he came upon the vast and rich land, so big and wide, and solid that it could be broken up into several sections later called “states”. These later formed themselves into a group that they called the “United” States of America, but whose residents now mockingly refer to it as the “Divided”, instead of “United”.
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And why “America”? Unless some other discovery had been made, what I learned from high school history was that it was a man named Americus Vespucci who “founded” it and gave it his name. Something like the way the Spaniards called our islands the “Philippine Islands” because their king at the time was Phillip, or Felipe, and they called the string of islands “Las Islas Filipinas”. This much I remember from high school history classes where I had very good teachers at La Consolacion College – my alma mater from kindergarten to college.
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But the most shocking news of the week was the death of the Italian Ambassador to Ruwanda, who was killed in an ambush by rebels. That is something that could cause international trouble, and let us hope it does not escalate to one. The Italians must resent it like a slap on the face since the ambassador is the representative of their country there. One can only wonder why some people still have time to create trouble. Has their country not been invaded by COVID?
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On the subject of COVID, some people think it is waning a bit now, but others believe it has merged with the previous epidemic called SARS, or Severe Acquired Respiratory Syndrome that we thought had been vanquished already. This time it is not just a new “variant”, it is a different union, Will it be cured by a mixture of the medicine for COVID and that for SARS? Sometimes we get crazy ideas, pondering on the problems of our generation! I’m sure, though, that I am not the only one thinking that.
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They say that senior citizens are less susceptible to COVID. Apparently not the juniors, or even the youngest ones, as a four-month-old baby was found positive of the virus! This was in Pasay City, and we have had no follow-up reports on the child’s treatment, but even if I do not know him or his parents, I find myself praying for the poor little guy who may not have a chance to grow up and join our community of people, no matter how chaotic our lives now may be.
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By the way, what were the finding of the World Health Organization team that went to China to make a study in Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus had sprung? Were they allowed to go nit-picking freely there? Seems we have not heard anything about the results of their study. I won’t be surprised if another study is made from there and the virus is determined to come from the sky, or even the see and the air.*
