The dangerous virus that knows no borders

Ciuri Ciuri flashmob Agrigento

If you have not yet guessed, the dangerous virus is the Coronavirus (COVID-19). It has already claimed thousands of lives globally since it began in Wuhan, China, in January, rapidly spreading to Europe, declared by WHO as its epicentre.  It is now in the US, where it has been nicknamed the 'foreign virus' - I did not know the COVID-19 had a nationality!

When not killing people, the Coronavirus has turned them into racists eg Christian Jessen on British TV claiming that Italy's lockdown is just an excuse for a prolonged siesta since Italians are lazy by nature (it seems Prince William has also made coronavirus jokes in Ireland), or the French showing a mock ad for  'corona pizza',  another joke at the expense of Italians as if to say that Italian pizzaioli are so unclean, it's no wonder Italians got  the virus.  Now, however, the French death toll from the virus has risen rapidly and forced Macron to take action, so the French have no reason, if they ever had one,  to make corona pizza jokes.

The catalogue of ugliness does not end here. Coronavirus has triggered aggression and violence directed at people of Chinese origin or who could be mistaken for Chinese, and whereas earlier the Coronavirus was being dismissed by both  Boris Johnson in the UK  and Trump in the US,  it is now giving them an opportunity to implement their authoritarian, anti-immigration policies.  

 I am very worried by the proposals to be approved by the British cabinet this coming week which will give the police special powers to detain anyone suspected to have coronavirus. According to the Times,  "ministers believe that the virus will infect the majority of the population, and the laws will stay in place for two years. The government will be given the power to halt “any vehicle, train, vessel or aircraft”. Ministers will be able to close ports if there are “insufficient resources” to retain border security through customs and immigration officers falling sick".  Quite an undertaking.

Guardian compilation

My intention when I began this post, was not to talk about all this ugliness, it came about incidentally. I wanted instead to highlight something I found quite moving. I hear from my sister in Turin all the time about the difficulty of living more or less as if under house arrest, not being able to go out, with access to supermarkets restricted and so on. Yet people are complying and everywhere on social media you will find the hashtag #iorestoacasa #iostoacasa (I am staying home).  People are working from home (working Dr Jenssen, not having a siesta!).  They cannot socialise and Italians find it hard, being very gregarious. So they have found new ways of entertaining themselves and of being together, even though physically distanced,  building up community spirit: they sing from their balconies. On Friday 13th they all came out at 6 pm to sing together, everywhere. The flashmob had been organized through social media. Another flashmob was on Saturday 14th.

This morning (Sat 14th) a rendering of the Sicilian  'Ciuri Ciuri' was trending, a video clip of a singalong in an apartment block in Agrigento.  A friend sent me a clip of another singalong in Rome, this time the sixties hit by Adriano Celentano 'Azzurro' and other such events can be found, you just have to search youtube and Twitter and they will pop up. The songs are always well known by all and range from the national anthem (Mameli's hymn) to traditional regional songs - many from Naples and Sicily. There have also been impromptu concerts, musicians playing their violin or flute or any other instrument.  

I have listened to some of the recordings and retweeted them.

More videoclips

It's just a small thing,  but it's nice to see people coming together, united by the power of music.  

The Coronavirus kills, it is not just a cough or a cold. Only this morning it was reported that a UK newborn has the virus and we are not sure whether the baby got it while still in his mother's womb or at birth when the baby took the very first breath.
We still have so much to learn about how this virus works, its long term effects, will it come back, will it become endemic, can a vaccine be found? 

But we must not lose hope. If we work together, we will manage to defeat its pernicious effects. Only let us not allow it to bring out the worst in us.