By: Rommel
K Manwong
Opinion | For The Moment
April
14, 2020
I think,
this time, COVID-19 is not “Made in China”. It’s nothing but some kind of a Japanese
made thing, known as Kuro-Kuro, also known as Haka-Haka.
The
fact is, we know nothing! And knowing nothing, we are vulnerable to exploitation.
The only antidote for ignorance is knowledge. We need to be educated. For
education remains to be the most powerful cure of ignorance. In this digital age,
man continues to be ignorant and vulnerably gullible. Human ignorance brought man
to believe about anything viral online.
COVID-19
online viral exploitation is brought high by the left- and right-wing social
media, drawing the whole current scenario to be scarier than the pandemic
itself as it takes just about some kind of madness that has perpetrated across communities
and around the globe. Media played well in triggering mass hysteria and Sinophobia.
The
Comical Corona
When
the World Health Organization elevated the health problem level from an outbreak
to a pandemic, many people began to raise the alarm. The state of panic and fear
blinded people not to consider official information and advisories. There was propagation
of comical theories such as the following: that the coronavirus is a
pharmaceutical promotion if not, it was just Netflix thing; that holding your breath
for 10 seconds means you don’t have the virus; that a bottle of vodka was a better
hand sanitizer than regular alcohol sanitizer; that eating banana or taking garlic
can kill the virus; that drinking cow’s urine can cure COVID-19; that being
under the sun or in hot/warm place is being far from virus infection; that a
Russian lion is out the public for people to keep social distancing; that chewing
Ifugao betel nut or “momma” could kill the virus; and so many memes and so
on.
Military
Espionage/ Biochemical Weaponry
Many
lured about coronavirus as a military project for biochemical weaponry. That it
was a product of espionage by some Chinese couple virologist and biologist, working
with the Canadian government, who stole the deadly virus from the National Microbiology
Laboratory in Winnipeg. Allegedly, the pathogen was later leaked at a Wuhan
facility even prior to the outbreak. There were speculations that the Chinese military
was behind this bio-weapon project. By the time news about the virus went high by
global media, China was into covering up the outbreak as it tried to hide the
official figures about deadly impact of the pandemic. And the fact that the
Chinese Government repressed some Chinese whistle blowers who tried to warn the
public about the pandemic, created further assumptions of a military operation.
Population
Control Theories
Population
control has been an order of business since the Ancient Greeks. Aristotle was a
firm proponent of population control. The same course of thoughts comes from
the Chinese as seen from the writings of Confucius about effective population
control policies. By modern day, Bill Gates openly admitted the need to curb
the population as it is necessary for the world’s stability. He pushed for
human vaccination.
At
the onset of the outbreak, some people began to think that it was part of the
United Nations Agenda on world’s population control, taking into accounts the
provisions of Agenda 21 (Chapter 5) vi's-à-vis Agenda 2030. Agenda 21 was a
product of the Earth Summit held in Brazil in 1992 which provided an action
plan with regard to sustainable development. It enumerates actions that would
contribute to curbing the ever growing billion populations and to make the
world under a balance state with its existing resources. Agenda 2030 is a road map that set sustainable future for everyone, set by the United Nations General
Assembly in 2015, and to be achieved by year 2030.
The
5G Claim
In
the midst of the pandemic comes arrogance, boasting and self-aggrandizing behaviors.
A few geeks and tech-savvy gained some footing and momentum when they took the
claim that 5G technology is linked to COVID-19. United Kingdom and Europe was immediately
hit by this disinformation campaign. Including celebrities promoting the idea,
the geeks penetrated even the top tier of government. It seemed to be some kind
of strategy modeled from Russia's Internet Research Agency, which was behind the
disinformation campaign during the U.S. presidential campaign in 2016. Such
misinformation opens the mind of the gullible to think that the pandemic is not
as dangerous as a worldwide health crisis, thus people continue not to conform
to government advisories. As far as the 5G claim is concerned, infodemics – a new
kind of pandemic, gained unprecedented speed and velocity.
Eyes
of Darkness and the Predictions
Disciples
of Nostradamus claimed that the prophet has actually predicted the coronavirus
situation. They based this from one of his writings which states that: “The
great plague of the maritime city. Will not cease until there be avenged the
death. Of the just blood, condemned for a price without crime.” (Century
2:53).
A scarier
theory is that one written by Dean Koontz in 1981 in his book ‘The Eyes of
Darkness’, which he mentioned a prediction about a Wuhan virus. In fact, a
picture of the book went viral and true enough, netizens could not help but
freak out. The story tells an outbreak in Wuhan known as ‘Wuhan 400’. The
author elaborated details about how the virus can affect the human body, which with
accuracy, predicted the outbreak and the resemblance between ‘Wuhan-400’ and
the coronavirus – COVID-19.
Even
the popular television show “The Simpsons” did not escape being taken out and
flooded into the mainstream media for predicting several major cases around the
world before they occurred. Shortly after the outbreak, allegations of the show
predicting the pandemic surfaced.
The
Blame Game
Now, finger pointing has once again into the hike. China and the United
States economic power competition have shifted into the blame game over the
pandemic issue. As the number of COVID-19 cases in the United States getting
into uphill records and China has reportedly declined in numbers, the two world
powers are kept into teething each over the bunk.
Then
comes information warfare. China, Iran, and Russia are using the old ‘Cold War’
format of disinformation tactics by falsely promoting that the United States is
to blame for the current COVID-19 pandemic. Top of the line propaganda
campaigns between these countries are so evident from their respective horse's
mouth. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have waged a disinformation campaign
against the United States in an effort to distract from Beijing’s mishandling of
the crisis. This includes a baseless claim that US brought the corona virus to
Wuhan. United States on the other hand released strategic communication
materials propagating that China is responsible for the pandemic and even haunting
European communities. Iran aggressively promoting conspiracy theories that
COVID-19 is a U.S. manufactured biological weapon, and Iran is a target. At the
same time Iran pointed out that the US is weaponizing the crisis to benefit its
pharmaceutical industry. Russia entered the same level of involvement when it leveraged
itself from social media bots and troll farms to strengthen the Iranian
allegations against the US.
Considering
that people rarely verify information before they share it in social media, the
upshot would be a devastating spread of fear and hopelessness. The people, not
the government, suffers the most.
Think
about it. If COVID-19 is not “Made in China”, then, what do you believe?
Stay
safe and vigilant.
No comments:
Post a Comment