Events across the globe these two weeks (July, 2021) are worrying indeed. If you have been following the news, you would understand. From wildfires to floods, rains to riots, shootings and COVID-19 resurgence, the earth is indeed in turmoil.
The COVID-19 Delta variant has put the world on lockdown again, killing thousands in Southeast Asia (India, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Japan, and Australia), Russia, Europe, and North America daily. Particularly, Indonesia is now the hotspot of this variant, with 49,071 new infections and 1566 deaths today. Malaysia and Tokyo (Japan) had 15,573 and 1359 new cases respectively whilst India reported 41,383 new cases and 507 deaths yesterday. Nepal can not find space to even cremate their dead.
This variant is now the most dominant in North America, the UK (800,000 new cases last week alone), Europe, and Africa (14,858 new cases and 433 deaths in South Africa alone today). More than half of Australia is on lockdown whilst Russia is struggling to contain fast-spreading outbreaks (795 deaths and 23,811 new cases). Japan is in its 4th wave, marring the success of the Olympic games there as 106 athletes have already turned positive.
Indeed, more people have died from COVID-19 this year than all of last year combined, and we are just half into 2021! With more than 4.1M deaths and 192M infections, COVID-19 is expected to spread into 2022. Sadly, the gamma and lambda variants, discovered in Brazil and Peru respectively, are also spreading across the US and Europe and are also resistant to the vaccines.
This week, Israel, which has vaccinated almost all her citizens, confessed that the mRNA vaccines were not as strong against the Delta variant as initially thought and has reinstated mask-wearing and other social distancing and hygiene regulations. Interestingly, Israel is now giving 3rd booster vaccine shots to provide further protection to its citizens after it was realised that the vaccines waned after 6-8 months.
Meanwhile, the lambda and gamma variants are lacing their boots in the shadows, alongside other emerging variants that will make nonsense of available vaccines.
Sadly, torrential rains, landslides, and storms ravaged North-Eastern USA, Western Europe, and South East Asia (India and China), causing unprecedented flooding, destruction, and deaths: 196 deaths occurred in Germany and Belgium, 12 deaths occurred in China, and 110 deaths occurred in India (Maharashtra region). Train subways, roads, and buildings were either inundated or swept away by the floods, turning cities into dirty rivers!
Simultaneously, wildfires are ravaging through Western USA and Canada, sending volumes of smoke into the air whilst Scandinavia and Siberia are reeling under intense heat waves! Well, people are blaming climate change, but no one is planting trees to reverse it. Instead of only focusing on reducing carbon emissions, why not grow more forests to reduce the carbon in the atmosphere?
In Africa, the discovery of gold in the Sahel region (Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Mauritania) have increased terrorist activities there to finance their terrorism. Hundreds are killed, kidnapped, or displaced by these Islamic terrorists who patrol these areas, as well as Northern Nigeria and Congo. Currently, large parts of these areas are in the hands of rebels and government forces have lost control. In the US, sporadic shooting by gunmen kills hundreds weekly, sending fear and panic into citizens.
Riots and free looting in South Africa sent shock waves throughout the world as a lame-duck government and impotent security looked on helplessly for businesses, shops, warehouses, malls, and haulage trucks to be plundered, owing to the arrest of a former president who is unwilling to obey court directions. The Taliban are also advancing speedily against the Afghanistan government, winning over large swathes of land and putting the Middle East at risk of another war… as the US pulls its soldiers from the region.
Certainly, the world is in turmoil, and I wonder when it will end! Are these due to climate change, or are they part of the signs of the last days prophesied by Christ? One thing stands out clearly: we are as helpless as ants and the earlier we accepted our vulnerability and sought divine help the better!
