{"id":101445,"date":"2020-04-22T16:20:52","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T23:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=101445"},"modified":"2020-04-22T16:20:52","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T23:20:52","slug":"corona-the-plague-of-21st-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/04\/22\/corona-the-plague-of-21st-century\/","title":{"rendered":"CORONA-THE PLAGUE OF 21st CENTURY"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALI SUKHANVER<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Natural\ncalamities and disasters have ever been hostile to the peace and serenity of\nall human societies. Today it is the Corona, somewhere in the 14th<\/sup>\ncentury it was the Plague commonly known as the Black Plague and Black Death. That\ndevastating epidemic resulted in the deaths of more than 200 million people in\nEurasia and its climax was observed during the period of 1347 to 1351 in\nEurope. Reports say that \u2018the plague created a number of religious, social and\neconomic upheavals, with profound effects on the course of European history\u2019.\nAnother report on the consequences of the Black Death says, Half of Paris’s\npopulation of 100,000 people died. In Italy, the population of Florence was\nreduced from 110,000\u2013120,000 inhabitants in 1338 down to 50,000 in 1351. At\nleast 60% of the population of Hamburg and Bremen perished and a similar\npercentage of Londoners may have died from the disease as well. In London\napproximately 62,000 people died between 1346 and 1353.\u201d The story does not\nstop here; this scourge gave birth to so many economic and social problems. The\nmost important problem was that of the lack of lobourers. With such a large\npopulation decline wages soared in response to a labor shortage.  According to the Decameron Web, The plague\nhad large scale social and economic effects. People abandoned their friends and\nfamily, fled cities, and shut themselves off from the world. Funeral rites\nbecame perfunctory or stopped altogether, and work ceased being done.\u201d Today\nthe Corona virus is dragging the world to the same direction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nworld was not a global village in the days of the Black Death; there were\ntime-taking distances but now those long distances have been shortened to hours\nand days. Even for the viruses, journey from one place to the other place is as\neasy as it is for human beings. We see that this Corona Virus has spread\nthroughout the world in just a few weeks. From US to Afghanistan, no country is\nsafe from this virus. The severity of its consequences could be more severe\nthan that of the Black Death. Another important fact is that fighting with\nCorona needs a lot of financial resources and certainly countries like Pakistan\ndon\u2019t have such resources. In case this disease spreads here in Pakistan, it\nwon\u2019t be possible for the government, which is already under the burden of\nbillions and trillions of dollars debts, to control it vehemently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nprime minister of Pakistan Mr. Imran Khan, in a recent interview with the\nAssociated Press of Pakistan, has expressed his concerns over the possible upsetting\nimpacts the corona-virus might have on the countries facing economic\ninstability and unsteadiness. He said, My worry is poverty and hunger. The\nworld community has to think of some sort of a debt write-off for countries\nlike us, which are very vulnerable, at least that will help us in coping with the\ncorona virus.\u201d Whatever said the Prime Minister is really worth-consideration.\nThe scenario towards which he has tried to draw the attention of the world had\nonce destroyed the whole social and economic fiber of the world somewhere in\nthe 14th<\/sup> century. Imran Khan is very right in saying that exports\nwould fall off, unemployment would soar and an onerous national debt would\nbecome an impossible burden. The consequences of this scourge would not remain\nlimited to Pakistan only, India and many of the African countries would also be\nfacing the horrible consequences of this scourge. He further said, If a\nserious outbreak happens in the country, the government\u2019s efforts to lift the\neconomy out of near-collapse would begin an unstoppable slide backward.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To\nstop this pandemic from spreading further, the government of Pakistan is doing\nall best possible. Learning a lesson from Italy, the government of Pakistan has\nput a ban on public gatherings in public parks, schools, colleges,\nuniversities, shopping malls and even in the mosques. With the help of radio,\nTV, newspapers and social media, the government is trying to make the public\naware of the precautionary measures with reference to the Corona virus. In some\ncities of Pakistan even the caf\u00e9s and restaurants have been stopped from\nworking till next orders. Italy\ncurrently has the highest number of Corona virus cases in Europe. Reports say\nthat the corona virus cases in Italy surged from hundreds to thousands within\ntwo weeks, from a few hundred in the third week of February to more than 3,000\nin the first week of March and crossed 10,000 on 10 March. On 15th<\/sup>\nMarch 2020, it was 24747. The only reason behind this so rapid increase in the\nnumber of Corona Virus affected patients is that the public in Italy did not\ntake the precautionary measures imposed by the government serious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Certainly, the people of Pakistan have\nrealized the severity and gravity of the matter and they are doing all possible\ncooperation with the government in fighting against the Corona Virus. Situation\nwould soon get better and the cruel Corona virus will have to get out of\nPakistani borders. Pakistanis are a brave nation; they know very well how to defeat\ndisasters and how to counter the calamities. Moreover we pray for the complete\nsafety and protection of the whole world from the cruel clutches of the Corona\ndisaster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ALI SUKHANVER Natural calamities and disasters have ever been hostile to the peace and serenity of all human societies. Today it is the Corona, somewhere in the 14th century it was the Plague commonly known as the Black Plague and Black Death. That devastating epidemic resulted in the deaths of more than 200 million people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ali-sukhanver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}