You would never have seen this coming in a million years, what am I talking about perhaps?

Empty highways, parking lots, pubs, clubs, restaurants, offices, streets, churches, mosques, brothels and on and on…

The enemy is silent, discreet, deadly, invisible and alarming. The casualties are too many; they are dropping left and right like sardines. The war cry is loud and clear: STAY HOME, WASH YOUR HANDS AND MAINTAIN SOCIAL DISTANCING.

I don’t see armies of men, I don’t hear live bullets, ammunition; teary goodbyes from sons going to war not knowing if they will ever see their loved ones again. Mayday, the year is 2020 and we are experiencing World War III! This war is physical, mental and economic; requiring the courage of men long since gone even the likes of Sir Winston Churchill.

This war will change our cultural norms. In Italy, for example it was common to hug, kiss and greet people days before Corona hit them; now the world over we all great, speak and communicate from a distance. Our cultures will have to align accordingly or we will face more casualties.

Mental Warfare

This war is mental in comparison to the famous game of Russian roulette or chess. You have to think quickly on your feet. It even had the most powerful president of the world exclaim: “This is just flu and it will go away.” Yes it is going away by and by, but, it is also bringing in more damage in the form of extra masks, ventilators, and gloves. It is also sending the elderly permanently away to an early grave.

It eats at the mind; one minute there is life and the next there is death. It doubles, multiplies, mutates and becomes stronger and stronger. If you’re a weak world leader or thinker, I am sorry for your country men because they will perish. I challenge all the world leaders to rise to the task at hand and to be Men: brave, courageous, bold and strong!

Economic Warfare

This war has become the great economic equalizer: for there are no rich or poor only human beings! Every economic activity has been brought to its toes. For those that valued work because of STATUS; that is now no more. We are now on one level and literally depending on the same oxygen to breathe. The rich countries of this world are now competing to reduce their casualties and to develop a vaccine. The Olympics as we know it has been cancelled; reggae as Bob Marley beautifully sang has been stopped’ and the new Corona Olympics emerge onto our television screens. Attentive and with fear we follow these live proceeding on an hourly basis to know the new casualties.

Human resource managers are having sleepless nights because they are grappling with very difficult questions: to fire employees or not to fire? To send employees on paid leave or unpaid leave? To move company operations fully or part remotely? To reduce employee salaries or to maintain them? To recruit new employees in the next quarter or to wait things out?

The damage on this to businesses is tangible and palpable. The son of a peasant and the daughter of a president can now see eye to eye; how is this so my brother? Because of the one common enemy: it’s now a matter of life and death.

Physical Warfare

MAYDAY, MAYDAY…plug the patient on some more oxygen please,…should we save this patient or just allow death to take its toll? The battle wounds are deadly; even the medics are now out of solutions on how to reduce the rates of death. It is torture to the core, many a sleepless night. Medical school has never prepared folks for such a war, never, never. Out of words, out of breath, out of sleep, utter confusion and total breakdown of what it means to be HUMAN!

The great psalmist of old in holy writ beautifully penned these immortal words: “I returned, and saw that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”

This war will eventually come to an end as the others have come to pass. This war will uniquely unite countries even at war with each other. This war will create new technologies; stronger human capital, new careers, new research frontiers and the evolution of the human species!

Alas, when all this war is over will you and I appreciate a simple hug or kiss more? Will you and I appreciate our next door neighbour a little more? Will you and I advocate for the increase of wages for teachers? Will you and I also advocate for the increase of wages for our medics? Will you and I value family time more over office time?

Remember if you’re reading this then it means you’re alive but at what cost? Someone else has become a mere casualty; a mere statistic for BBC or CNN America for their news bulletin…