The invincible enemy burst like a sparking Artificial Intelligence device adorned with pearl and garland. His advent comes with novel time and unwarranted dictatorship. On that starry night of Sunday, April 5, the president of Ghana spoke with a heavy heart saying, “We are not in ordinary times”.
For meteorologists, physicists, medics, and politicians, it strikes the cord of their hearts and ordinary people all the world. The melodies produced by their hearts initiate the season or time globally- “the bleak time”- it is a time which is not hopeful or encouraging for varied activities in the vicissitudes of life.
The Bleak Time, hitherto, has an immense effect on several spheres of our lives, namely, social, economic, religious, cultural and traditional. Needless to say, it has relegated traditions upheld as gold coins hidden in enchanted cubicles of fairy tales.
In the blink of an eye, our bleak time has several mutations that require certain praxis such as stay home, self quarantine, wash your hands under running water with soap for twenty seconds, social distance, among others. The bleak time has cast eerie flames similar to various seasons. That is globally; spring, winter, summer and autumn, dry and rainy seasons.
The Bleak Time has greatly hit our social life. Human beings are inherently social animals. Upon entering the world, social life becomes the first antidote suckled at the nipples of one’s mother. Socialization becomes more paramount in a parochial form and later passes developmental stages to a larger group and by communities and towns or cities. However, the Bleak Time of the invincible enemy dictates otherwise.
It robs that social life that helps to converge at vital points to chat, relax, give “hi five”, pool parties, hiking among others. Though, his dictatorship is cruel; you must comply in order to be safe. Tut-tut, the bleak time has its own countdown on our social life.
Surprisingly, the invincible enemy’s bleak time has propounded a new law of economics. It is a simple law that indicates red ignition indicating fire alert in the global economy. Economists cannot explain the novel law. It is so disheartening to lose a giant in economics (the German finance minister, Thomas Schäfer). Billions, millions, thousands, hundreds are lost every second all over the globe.
The labourers and employees who worked to boost various economies have to be laid off due to the bleak time. The vulnerable and dregs who work daily to boost the economy are being curtailed due to lockdowns, whether partial or total. Great world economics are in red ink. The bleak time, thus, is a time of much duress and musing for great world economists.
Religiously, it is not an opinion but compliance to the bleak time of the invincible enemy. The religion of worship and celebration has been transformed in varied innovative ways of proclamations. It becomes a conviction for some to take the right track they had abandoned. Again, congregational means of worshipping has to be curtailed for some time. In contrast, the bleak time of the invincible enemy has only a minute countdown on religious life. For some, it is a big blow to their denominations or churches. But, the bleak time encourages us to intensify our religious life via all ways.
The conviction of religion or religious life unites us as one people. Although there are demarcations and geographical separations, cultural lives are not redundant. We celebrate our cultural heritages and successes. In a woeful way, our cultural lives have been disorganized by the bleak time of the invincible enemy.
Globally, cultural ways of greetings have been truncated by the dictator of the bleak time. Cultural lives built on love had been crumbled by the invincible enemy. Each individual has become a potential carrier so that the chains of cultural greetings are disengaged by the invincible enemy – COVID-19
To draw the curtains on this discussion, the bleak time of the invincible enemy is not one of ordinary times but extraordinary times which are not encouraging or hopeful. A bleak time that is not destructive by the self quarantine or stay home dictum.
Self quarantine and stay home have become a dreary prison of the bleak time in Ghana and the world at large. It is only adhering to the bleak time clarion call in order to revitalize our social, economic, religious, and cultural lives. There is much greater hope at the end of the tunnel. Let us keep on keeping on in the face of the bleak time!
Source: Rev. Fr. Wisdom-Bakhita Anane (A Catholic Priest of Keta-Akatsi Diocese)
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