Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Numbers

For the first time in quite a while Noi and I were looking today at the numbers of those infected with the coronavirus and the numbers of those who have died internationally. It's a strange list. I don't think anyone would have predicted such numbers back in January when the news first came out of Wuhan of people dying of a new version of the flu.

In some ways the list reflects success stories, and not just the obvious ones, like Taiwan, New Zealand and our own Far Place, but nations in Africa that at one time I feared for. But then there are the unexpected disaster areas - and the weird sense of a lack of caring that sometimes seems to accompany these.

Surely no one would have guessed at the nations topping the tables in simple, stark terms of loss of life. And none of us can grasp the enormity of suffering that accompanies those numbers.

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