Pfizer booster jab can make you sick

One would've thought two jabs of the Sinopharm vaccine would be sufficient for protection against Covid. But no, now we're told that booster jabs are required. So we had no option but to go for the Pfizer booster, as the government didn't have the Chinese one in stock. Even though I've suspected that the Pfizer one is not so effective as many U.S. nationals have received it and are still being hospitalized, I ignored my gut instinct and opted for Pfizer. And within minutes I was shaking uncontrollably and had fever for the next twenty four hours. And the same thing happened to my wife. So I'm wondering if it isn't a scam, forcing people to get vaccinated, knowing that it will not provide full protection, and one will have to go on taking jabs every few months to avoid getting hospitalized.

I remember how worried I was with the thought of contracting Hepatitis-C in Saudi Arabia. When I gave a plastic bottle of Dettol to the Punjabi barber shaving my head, he threw away the bottle, saying, "You'll get infected if it's in your stars". This is what most Pakistanis believe, which is why I strongly doubt the official Covid deaths reported daily in the country. For all we know, instead of 2 or 3 people dying of Covid, the actual number could well be much higher, seeing that most people are hesitant to get themselves tested (the test costs up to Rs. 8,000, which is much higher than a common Pakistani can afford). But then, there are so many things the government tells us that are not true, so I'm afraid we'll have to live with it.

Covid in my family

I always knew that Covid would one day affect my family members. Since March 2020, I have seen it infecting some distant relatives. Last year my nephew was infected, but his wife, parents and children didn't get it. That was the earliest variant. Last month my brother and his wife and children got it. Right now, my sister and my son are both going through it. I tested negative, fortunately, but I don't see how I can escape being infected. Suppose one fine day my driver or someone in the office is infected without knowing it. I can't have my mask on all the time. So perhaps it's in my stars to get sick and even die of this disease.

I forgot to say that my wife also had Covid symptoms last year but strenuously objected to getting tested. She lost weight, was very sick for a whole week and suffered from hair loss. The diabetes specialist told her that she probably had been infected by the dreaded virus. And there is my manager who had to be admitted in a hospital run by my friend Haji Abdul Wahid Seth (formerly one of the owners of Abro Salt works). Wahid Seth is now bed-ridden, having fallen a few times and broken his arms. My manager was lucky to have survived, as practically all hospitals refused to treat him. It was only after I called Wahid Seth that his charity hospital took my manager in. Since my manager had already suffered a mild heart attack many years back, Covid gave him another one, and he had to have stents inserted (as I had to, in  2010).

As for myself, I haven't used the office elevator since March 2020, but occasionally I do use the elevator in my apartment complex. I also try as much as possible to stay away from crowds, perhaps that is why I've managed to escape being infected. But, as I said, it's going to be very difficult to go through the rest of my life without contracting this or any other serious disease.

RIP (Abid Shaikh)

Another death, this time of someone very close and dear to me. My friend of college days, Abid Shaikh, expired on July 31. He was just a year older than I am, and would have been 78 years old in September. The poor chap suffered for two years, spending much money on hospitals and doctors, but no one was able to find out why he used to have fever most of the time. 

Left: Me, Mateen, Abid Sheikh

He tested negative for Covid at least twice, but when they took him to hospital a day before his death, they said he was infected by the dreaded corona virus. He must have consulted at least thirty specialists in and out of the country over the past forty years, when he first contracted psoriasis, the disease for which there is no cure. It was only the last specialist that he went to, a lady, who told him he was suffering from psoriasis. His face was covered with bleeding spores, and I had not been able to meet him after February 2020, after the virus became rampant. Last week, I told him I'd like to visit him during the Eid holidays, but he declined, due to his recurrent fever.

A few months back, when my friend Wahid Seth fell down and broke his hands and legs a couple of times, I told Abid he should engage a man servant to be with him day and night, but he didn't agree. And just as I feared, when he didn't open the door and it was forced open (along with his bedroom door), he was found lying on the ground, bleeding profusely after apparently suffering a heart attack. He kept requesting his nephew not to take him to hospital, saying that he would be okay. He apparently didn't realize he had only a day or so before dying. And the only hospital that would admit him was OMI, and that too because his brother knew someone in charge there. And that was when they found he'd been infected, probably by the Delta virus, even though he'd received both doses of the Chinese vaccine at the Aga Khan hospital.

So now I have one less friend and I'll miss my weekly phone calls to him every Sunday, when he would tell me many things that I didn't know. I wanted to tell him about the Netflix series "Versailles" that I'm seeing nowadays, as he had studied French, but due before I could do so, he had gone.

Rest in peace, my friend.

 

Politics over Covid

Besides being known for being the head of the most corrupt and inefficient government, Imran Khan and his party will never be forgotten for being the most vindictive. Their use of state organs like the FIA and NAB is well-known, as only opposition parties are targeted for corruption, while Imran Khan's corruption and that of his cronies goes unchallenged. Ultimately this is very harmful to the country, and it will take years before the country recovers from the damage.

But at least they should not be so childish when it comes to handling Covid. When the pandemic was rampant in Punjab and KP, Imran Khan had no hesitation in clamping a complete lockdown in the two provinces, and also claiming credit for it. But now that the Sindh government wants a lockdown in Karachi, the moron is actually opposing it. He should realize that if Karachi is irretrievably damaged, the country as a whole will suffer. But of course the country doesn't matter to him at all. He only wants to score points, and if conditions in Sindh deteriorate, he will put the province under President's rule, and of course that will enable him and his cronies to become richer.

I'm sure Imran Khan will go down as another Bhutto and will probably meet a similar end, unless he puts the country's interests above his own. But knowing him, that appears extremely unlikely. May Allah save Pakistan!

Deaths during Eid-al-Azha holidays (Yousuf Uruswalla)

Ever since I remember, I have observed that corpulent Memons and other rich men die after consuming excess meat in the Eid-al-Azha holidays. Such people already suffer from heart problems and they should be careful not to stuff themselves with high cholesterol stuff, particularly as they sincerely believe that walking is something to be avoided at all costs. 

This year among the dead was a reputed journalist of Lahore (Arif Nizami) who died suddenly at the age of 74. Since I never met him, I can't say if he already had a weak heart, but his death may have been due to eating the meat of freshly killed sacrificial animals on Eid day. 

Yousuf Uruswalla was diagnosed with Covid when they took him to hospital. He had heart disease, and it's certain that he never thought he would have a heart attack. So Covid almost certainly caused his heart to fail. I wasn't surprised when his son proudly proclaimed that neither he nor any member of his family had been vaccinated. In fact, the son himself had fever on the day they buried Yousuf. So you can be sure that the son infected others attending the burial.

 I last met Yousuf on the first of July this year (24 days ago) at the funeral of my mother-in-law (he was unmasked). I saw him after a long time, as the Covid pandemic has restricted my movements for more than a year and a half. I always knew he was a ripe candidate for heart disease, even when I first met him in 1973-74. He was highly illiterate, I doubt if he'd even passed Matric, the basic requirement for entry into college. One day in 1981, I saw him with his two sons and asked him why they were with him and not in school at 9 o'clock in the morning. He said breezily that he'd got them admitted in a madressah because they didn't appear to be interested in modern education. I knew of course that school fees even in those days were rather high and that was the reason he put them in a madressah (where the education doesn't cost much). 

About twelve years back, he had to undergo heart bypass surgery, and had to sell his club membership for half a million to pay for the operation. Like most stupid people, he apparently thought that after the surgery there was no need to continue with the prescribed medication or to be physically active. So he had to pay the ultimate penalty. If he'd been educated, he might have been more careful, but spending his spare time in the Binoria mosque meant he came in contact with illiterate men who told him it was useless to take the pills he needed to keep him healthy. 

Another Memon (a member of the club whom I didn't know) also popped off during these holidays. And many people in Lahore had to be hospitalized after eating sacrificial meat (I don't know how many died). My two brothers and I cancelled our bi-annual Eid dinner, the fourth Eid that we have done so. As for myself, I ate only vegetables and a couple of chicken meat pieces, in fact I made my wife's nephew very angry by refusing to go to his house for dinner on the third day of Eid. The main reason of course was that among the guests were the kind of people who flout the government directives to wear masks and not get too close to others. This, despite the fact that among their relatives was a 55 year old woman who died of Covid not long ago. She was the wife of Wahab, the head of the Tableeghi Jamaat in Karachi. But, as I said, illiteracy and fundamentalism among Memons is very high, so no one can talk logic with them.

Difficult days ahead

Last year, when the virus wasn't as vicious as it is today, the government advised people not to go to mosques. Later, they said it was okay to pray six feet apart. But Imran Khan himself said that there is no evidence that praying in mosques can spread the virus. This year, they haven't said anything about not praying in mosques, so all devout Muslims gather in mosques and pray for two or three hours without knowing that they can be stricken. And it's happening. Hospitals in Pakistan are running out of oxygen and all beds are occupied, with a long line of patients outside hospitals, waiting for someone to die so they can get treatment. And as if this wasn't bad enough, there is a bye-election next week, with hundreds of people likely to get infected. 

They have not been able to get the Cambridge exams postponed. Last year, there were no O-level and A-level exams, students were graded according to their performance in schools. This year, some people went to the courts, which declared that they had no jurisdiction in the matter. So now we can expect children to get infected as well. 

It almost makes you believe that this virus is man-made. When  the Aids virus first appeared, it was widely believed to have been created by a homophobic scientist in a laboratory to kill homosexuals. Well, that theory has been disproved, but this corona virus could well have been created in a laboratory.

Even though I have been vaccinated (both doses), the government says I have to take the second dose, because the highly efficient Sindh government staff has not uploaded the data. So now I have to go in this unbearably hot weather to Khaliqdina Hall and get the details uploaded. I should tell everyone I know to refrain from getting vaccinated in Khaliqdina Hall. 

Another lockdown?

Last year, I had to stay at home for at least three months due to the lockdown imposed by our inefficient government. At that time, they didn't know that the virus would mutate and become more dangerous. Fortunately not many were affected, so the PTI youthias claimed it was due to their government's efficiency. Actually the woman who runs the country (Imran Khan's wife) should have claimed the credit. But this time her mantras didn't work, and the number of people dying everyday is more than a hundred (sometimes 150). So now they're thinking of imposing lockdown in major cities. It's going to be very difficult, as we're in the month of fasting. No one in his right mind will ask the people to stay away from praying in mosques or going to shrines. 

The problem is that no one believes this U-turn government, so many times has its leader been caught lying. Ramazan is the month in which they earn more than ten times they do in other months, so asking shopkeepers to stay at home is bound to make Imran Khan even more unpopular (if such a thing is possible). Already many Pakistanis believe that he's responsible for the virus, and that Covid will miraculously disappear when he's removed from power. 

Last year, there was much less pollution due to the absence of vehicles on roads. I used to take long walks with my wife, and we would see many dogs, lizards and other creatures that are normally invisible. Sometimes we would go to the creek near my house and walk near the sea water, breathing the pure sea air. That's one thing Karachi's got that other cities don't. Although I know another lockdown is bad for the country, I do think it's necessary for people like me.

Side effects of Covid vaccine

I and my wife finally got vaccinated two days back. I had read about many side effects which had made me reluctant to register for the first dose. In fact, I didn't trust the Chinese vaccine (Sino pharm), as it had been provided free of charge to the government. Then the price of Russian vaccine was announced, and there was a huge outcry as it was too high. Almost immediately after registering I and my wife were told to go to Khaliqdina Hall on March 25. I was astounded to see so many people there and I thought it would take hours before they would vaccinate me and my wife. Fortunately, most of the people there were health workers and others who had come with their parents.

The young lady who wrote down our details did not wear a mask. Since she recognized all the medications we take, she may have been a doctor. After recording all our details, she told us to go to the man on the other side of the hall. The whole procedure was over in twenty minutes and there have been no side effects so far.

I was deeply impressed, as the Sindh government is known for its inefficiency. Most of the health workers there were Sindhi-speaking and highly professional. It was a novel and unforgettable experience.

Imran Khan testing positive for Covid-19: fake or genuine?

Imran Khan seldom wore a mask in public, despite his own health minister asking everyone to do so. People strongly suspected that he had secretly imported vaccines and got himself and his wife vaccinated. But then, he was seen on TV being vaccinated. Just two days later it was announced that he had tested positive for Covid. And this of course caused people to wonder how it could happen. His wife too is reported to have tested positive. 

And because no one believes this U-turn guy and his ministers, people started saying that the whole thing is a fake, that he's been quarantined for three weeks because the Election Commission was getting impatient and wanted to conclude the Foreign Funding and money laundering case against him. In fact, Imran Khan had been asked to appear today and explain his position. So it's natural to conclude that this whole thing has been concocted by his doctor so he cannot be called before the court. 

I'm inclined to believe that it's fake, mainly because the doctor said that the symptoms are mild and he had probably been infected before being vaccinated. And what's more, none of his cronies (like Murad Saeed) have shown signs of infection. Just a day before the Khan was reported being infected, he was seen without a mask and in close proximity to his ministers and advisors. 

So I won't be surprised if some mole informs the media that Imran Khan is in good health and the news of him being infected is fake. Let's wait and see.

Why I'm reluctant to get vaccinated against Covid

I've never been afraid to take vaccines against the diseases that appear in the country from time to time. Even as an adult, I took polio drops when visiting the UK in 2018. In 2016, I was vaccinated against pneumonia. Before that, in my childhood, I was vaccinated against measles, smallpox and cholera. So why am I scared of the coronavirus vaccine? I've not yet registered with the government to get a free vaccine for protection against Covid.

Maybe I'm scared because the vaccine is of Chinese origin and it is being given by the government free to every one. The corruption in government departments is such that I'm sure most vaccines will be sold by the staff and sold to pharmacies. Even in China and the U.S., people were vaccinated with water. Then there is the fact that some people do get side effects, as has happened recently in Norway and Holland. I rang up the most trusted hospital in the country to ask them if they have the vaccine. They said they have been given vaccines by the government for their own staff. 

So I've not yet decided to get vaccinated with the Chinese or Indian vaccine until I'm sure it's absolutely safe to do so or until a reputable vaccine is imported by the private sector.

Vaccine dilemma

I wanted to get vaccinated as soon as possible, but suddenly I don't think it's a good idea. First, there was that woman health minister of Punjab (Yasmin Rashid) who cautioned people to weigh the options first, as some people had suffered side effects and had even died after being vaccinated. And I read about a fifty year old perfectly healthy American popping off a couple of days after receiving the vaccine. 

But the biggest irony is that the Chinese vaccine in Pakistan is not meant for the people most at risk: those over 60, those under 18 and those having diabetes, asthma or other diseases. This virtually rules out everyone in the country, where most people are addicted to gutka and other narcotics.

Finally, the vaccine will be rejected by Pakistanis due to the wide-spread suspicion that it will reduce the population. I have a video clip showing two analysts of whom one (Zaid Hamid) firmly says that it will make women infertile. This is the main reason why polio has so far not been eradicated in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where most men think they will be the butt of jokes if their wives stop bearing children. As one of them once said to me, "My wife has had only five children and now she doesn't get pregnant, my friends think I'm impotent, so I'll take another wife to prove I'm still active". 

Why so many Covid cases in UAE?

The UAE population is only 10 million (less than half of Karachi's), yet there has been an alarming rise in the number of Covid cases and even the US government has advised its nationals not to travel to that country. 

I believe there are many reasons for the spike. The first of course is the heavy use of air conditioners in the country. Most UAE nationals cannot survive without air conditioning. The few times they go to the beaches they breathe polluted and dusty air. Their main activity is going to shopping malls where the corona virus thrives due to the cold air circulating twenty four hours daily.

Another reason may be the lack of immunity of the people, who do not indulge in much physical activity (except when they walk towards their cars and get out of them). 

But perhaps the biggest reason is that the government has allowed foreigners to visit, ignoring the fact that airplanes are filled to capacity and the virus multiplies very easily. Even if the entire population of the country is vaccinated, Covid will continue to disrupt their lives.

It is ironical that the UAE has not been giving visas to nationals of underdeveloped countries like Pakistan, ostensibly because of concern that such people could bring the virus with them. The actual reason of course is that visitors from poor countries don't do much shopping and don't spend as much as those from richer countries. Let's hope the virus is conquered soon and the economy recovers.

Covid getting nearer every day

In the beginning, they would ask, "Do you know anyone who's had Covid?", and the reply invariably was, "No". A couple of months later, the question would be, "Has anyone in your family contracted Covid?". The answer would be, 'No, not in my family, but a couple of my friends have had it". And then, "Has anyone related to you died of Covid?". Again, the answer would be, "No, but some acquaintances of mine have died of it". Now, Covid has killed someone in almost every family I know, including mine (although the victim was distantly related to me).

A doctor who last treated me expired yesterday. He was the last person you'd expect to be a victim. He used to get up early (he was an ex-army captain) and jog in the park, he was always optimistic about the future, and he was perhaps the healthiest man I knew.When I last visited him, he said I was very healthy for a Pakistani aged 75. Of course, I wouldn't have been so healthy if I hadn't been taking the 14 pills daily for hypertension and asthma-related symptoms. Not yet 70, the poor man got the virus probably from one of his patients, suffered for a month, then died. 

Now that there are many vaccines to prevent the spread of the disease, I wonder if the virus will mutate and become stronger. We've had the flu vaccine for years now, yet many people die of flu every year in the U.S. Probably this corona virus will be resistant to the vaccines and will go on killing in the years to come.

Goodbye, 2020

On the last day of 2020, let's see what happened during the year and how it affected us.

The year will forever be known as the year of the virus. Pakistanis learnt a new word (SOP's) without knowing what the three letters denote. Not that it matters, most of them didn't wear masks or maintain a distance from others. They washed the bodies of those who died of Covid, they embraced those who had just returned from attending the huge Tableeghi Jamaat gathering, they attended wedding dinners, shaking hands and kissing their relatives. The result is that thousands got contaminated, and anyone can see that the figures given out by the government aren't true. Like the fudged census results, the virus casualties are also concealed, just to make Imran Khan bask in the praise meted out by foreign media.

Talking of Imran Khan, he was one of the few who didn't get affected by the virus. Many of his ministers and advisors had to go under quarantine, but he was lucky, considering that his better half loves to go to shrines and pray to the dead saints buried there. 

One thing we learnt is that nothing changed for the better in the country. Inflation continued unabated, with an egg costing twenty five rupees and the price of practically every edible item doubling over the past year. 

There was no accountability of those who support Imran Khan, while those opposed to him were jailed without charges. Pakistan is perhaps the only country in the world where a media mogul was incarcerated for eight months without trial. 

The aviation minister continues to be free, despite getting PIA banned from going to Europe. He still maintains that he did nothing wrong, even though the apex court and even government functionaries have said he was at fault. Faisal Vawda continues to bluster and brag, knowing that our "independent" judiciary will continue postponing hearings.

Even though Imran Khan knows who became rich in the sugar, wheat and other scandals, no one has been charged, probably because the guilty ones are his supporters. And if he stays in power, you can be sure prices of edibles will double again, turning another twenty million into beggars.

Of course, Trump played an important part. We should be grateful to him for letting us see the other side of America. We had no idea of how corrupt American politicians are. And the way he has refused to concede defeat proves that he's worse than Pakistani leaders. 

Let's hope that we are able to escape being "bitten by the virus" (as Punjab's CM Buzdar would say) before getting the vaccine.

A successful Memon in the U.S. succumbs to Covid

I had been thinking about Usman Vakil yesterday for no particular reason. And today I received a call from a mutual friend who told me that Usman had succumbed to the virus. In 1996 I had a similar experience. I had been thinking of another man, someone much older than me, and before the day was over, I heard that he had died suddenly. Perhaps it's one of those supernatural incidents one reads about. The one I'll never forget is the sudden and overwhelming feeling I got that Indira Gandhi was dead. After a few minutes I switched on the car radio and heard that she had been shot. I was so shocked that I had stopped the car for a few minutes, wondering if I'd really heard it. 

Usman had been with me in college for six years, and the one thing that made him stand out from others was his ambition. Of course, in a way all engineering students were ambitious but he somehow knew that he would reach the top. He went to the U.S. and worked for a time in a menial job (filling petrol in cars) until a rich man gave him a managerial job in his firm. After that, Usman took over the firm and became very rich. He persuaded all his brothers and relatives to settle in the U.S., employing most of them in his factory. He married the daughter of a rich industrialist whose son was married to my cousin. That marriage ended in tragedy when my cousin died of burns sustained while she was pouring petrol into the tank of a running generator.

So Covid has struck again, and will continue to do so until everyone is vaccinated, which could take many years.

What we learned from the virus

As the year draws to a close, let's see what the Year of the Virus taught us. 

The first thing we found was that Trump is even more illiterate than he appeared. He dismissed the pandemic as not worth worrying about, saying that it was just like the flu. He refused to wear masks in public, so it was poetic justice that he also caught it. Of course, if he hadn't been a VIP, he would have found it difficult to survive. He had the best doctors and medical care, so he recovered. But he still thinks that he cannot get it again, or transmit it to others, so he too is not getting himself vaccinated.

Two other world leaders (UK's Boris Johnson and Brazilian president Bolsonaro) had the same flippant attitude and both fell victim to it. In fact, Bolsonaro is still at it, claiming that the vaccine could turn people into crocodiles or make women grow beards and mustaches.

In Pakistan, I'm surprised that Imran Khan didn't get Covid 19, although some of his closest aides did. Asad Umar and the Punjab Chief Minister Buzdar have isolated themselves after testing positive. Some have died, including a lady senator and other senior citizens. Many doctors have also succumbed. But there is widespread skepticism about the numbers of cases and deaths in Pakistan, as this government is well-known for spreading misinformation. 

Some close relatives of mine did get infected and recovered, but a few others died without confirmation that it was Covid which killed them. One woman died after three weeks in hospital, she was only 54 and belonged to the Tableeghi Jamaat.

Now that a new, vicious strain of the virus has been discovered in the UK, it seems very unlikely that the vaccine will offer adequate protection. Maybe the virus is nature's way to save the world from global warming caused by humans. 

Strong evidence linking Tableeghi Jamat members with Covid-19

It has been evident that Tableeghi Jamaat members are particularly prone to get infected by the Corona virus. In March, a couple of Palestinians were infected after attending a gathering at Raiwind and spread the virus among their country men. Last month too the annual gathering at Raiwind must have seen thousands of devotees and it looks like some members of my extended family either got the virus there or from those who had returned from Raiwind.

About a couple of weeks back my wife's nephew and his wife got sick, but both have fortunately recovered. Now the wife of a distant relative named Wahab (who joined the Jamaat when very few people had heard of it) got the virus and the poor woman couldn't survive. I'm sure she was infected by someone who had returned from last month's gathering. Her husband has it too but apparently it hasn't affected him so much. He had made sure that I would have a comfortable stay during Hajj in 2005 (it was his sixteenth pilgrimage). On the last day we had been stranded in Mina and he had ordered us to stay in our tents due to the heavy rains. I advised him to call the local radio or TV station and ask them for a weather forecast, but he didn't respond. After my third attempt, a fellow pilgrim from UK told me it would have no effect on him because (like other fundamentalists) he believed that only God knows whether it'll rain or not. 

Sometimes I envy such people. They don't need to get a higher education, they don't have to read newspapers or watch TV, all they are concerned with is to convert as many people as they can to their version of religion. Which is why I can bet that he will not prevent visitors coming to his house to condole with him, and unfortunately more people will be infected. So, as my relatives say, if it is written that you will die of Covid-19, nothing you do will stop it. 

Covid strikes a scantily-clad women and a religious scholar

A few months back, religious scholar Tariq Jamil blamed "bay-parda" women in Pakistan for the havoc created by the Corona virus. According to his twisted logic, which he expounded in the presence of "born-again" Muslim Imran Khan, if women had not shown too much skin, the Corona virus would never have entered Pakistan. The same reasoning is given when earthquakes strike the country or any other mishap occurs (like the air crash in Karachi in May).

So yesterday both Mahira Khan (the actress who shows the most skin) and so-called "Maulana" Tariq Jameel were reported to have tested positive for Covid-19. Naturally, Imran Khan didn't ask his followers to pray for Mahira, but he did issue an urgent appeal for prayers for the religious scholar (who allegedly charged a million to attend a grand wedding in Gujranwalla recently).

And yesterday was the day on which Imran Khan spent with his dogs. I thought he'd gotten rid of them after marrying her holiness, but apparently she too hasn't heard that angels don't go to houses where dogs are kept. Or maybe Imran has got his dogs kept far away from his pious wife on his hundred and fifty thousand square yard estate (which he reportedly bought with money gifted to him by his first wife).

Corona getting closer and closer

If there's one thing we know about Covid-19, it's that if anyone over 65 gets it, he or she will most certainly die. But how can old people avoid getting it, unless they're locked up twenty four hours everyday?

A near relative, about forty, finally got it even though I expected him to get it much earlier. He's one of those useless persons who don't have to worry about earning a living, so he spends most of his days trying to make good Muslims out of those who are not. He regularly attends the annual gathering of such people at Raiwind, near Lahore. So it was only a matter of time before he got sick. His wife (whom I've never seen because she's always covered from head to toe in a black burqa) contracted it first, probably due to the sermons she gave in closed rooms to women who have too many servants and so have a lot of free time on their hands. I'm surprised no one else in the house has been affected, particularly his parents (who are over 70). In fact, his grandmother (my mother-in-law) is 90 and she's the one who is in the greatest danger.

Now I'm in a dilemma. How can I prevent my wife from visiting her ailing mother, knowing that the house may be teeming with the virus? But then, there is nothing that can be done to stop the virus from spreading and infecting others. 

  

The future is bleak

We've always known that like many species that once existed and disappeared, humans too would become extinct one day. What we didn't know was that it would happen so soon and it would be due to man's greed. Things are so bad that the grandchildren of my grandchildren could well see the end of the world. 

The way Trump is refusing to leave the White House despite a thumping defeat, and his attempts to create chaos, like getting the U.S. troops out of Afghanistan before Christmas, knowing that that country will see another civil war and take-over by the Taliban, plus his anticipated steps to foment war against Iran by Israel, purely to retain power, makes you wonder why such people are not strangled at birth. The United States, which the world regarded as a bastion of democracy, has become just another third world state, and we have to thank Trump for this.

In Pakistan, another rigged election in the disputed territory of Gilgit Baltistan reminds one of similar attempts by the establishment to subvert democracy in the country. Those who do so have forgotten that the country has been dismembered once.

So there's nothing to be optimistic about. I have quoted only the U.S. and Pakistan, but I'm sure in most countries there is an ongoing fight between humans to extract the maximum they can, forgetting that the earth's resources are finite. In fact, we need a more powerful virus than Covid 19, one that will kill half the population of the planet in a few days. Perhaps that could save mankind from extinction.