Amid COVID-19, remember to keep perspective

Hon. Sergio Marchi served as a member of Parliament from 1984 to 1999, a cabinet minister in Jean Chretien’s government, and as Canada’s ambassador to the World Trade Organization.

The novel coronavirus has spread across the globe, sparing no country. The COVID-19 pandemic has been painful and deadly, altering life as we know it while trashing economies around the world. And now, COVID-19 is surging again, promising to deliver an even worse psychological blow after a summer of cautious reopening.

People now fear the virus will haunt them for years. And so it would be easy to conclude, as many have, that this is one of the worst afflictions to hit humanity.

But with all this anxiety, we are in dire need of hope to lift our spirits and strengthen our resolve. One way is to do so is to look to history – to draw inspiration from how previous generations marched on despite profound pain, and to remember when possible the scale of the crises we have already endured, against all odds.

Imagine that you were born in 1900. Your life journey would have been well-documented, and many of the mileposts were brutally harsh, to say the least.

Consider that the First World War would’ve started when you were 14. Imagine reaching 18, and knowing that about 22 million people had lost their lives. Later in the same year, the Spanish Flu epidemic killed another 50 million people.

Then, just before you enter your 30s, the Great Depression begins. The economic drought lasts until you are 33, bringing national economies and livelihoods to their knees.

If you were living in the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin began his vicious purge before you entered your 40s. Two years later, between 700,000 and 1.2 million people died. Thousands more would perish during the remainder of the Soviet reign.

And then you have to endure another World War. By your 45th birthday, 75 million people will have lost their lives in the conflict, including the millions murdered in the Holocaust.

In South Africa, you would be introduced to decades of crushing apartheid at the age of 48, a system that wrought untold suffering, death, and repression.

In Korea, by the time you’re 52, five million more human beings would pay the ultimate price in wartime.

In China, your life already full of tumult would be upbraided again at the age of 58, when Mao Zedong initiated his Great Leap Forward and then his Cultural Revolution – an incredibly dark chapter that claimed as many as 45 million lives.

At 61, if you were in Germany, you’d watch the Berlin Wall go up; it stands for 30 long years, separating millions from their family, friends, and work.

At 62, you’d watch as the Cuban Missile Crisis comes close to unleashing nuclear death on an unthinkable scale. After 24 months, the U.S. got involved in the Vietnam War, which resulted in the death of more than four million people.

A Ugandan person born in 1900 would, by 71, witness the start of Idi Amin’s sadistic dictatorship, eight agonizing years that causes the loss of 500,000 lives – and as if that wasn’t enough, another half a million people would suffer the same fate under his successor.

A Congolese person born in 1900 would, by 88, see the beginning of the brutal Congo wars, which claim 5 million victims.

And just when you think you’ve seen more than enough for many lifetimes, a Rwandan elder in their 90s would have to endure the horrific slaughtering of 800,000 of your fellow citizens in just 100 days – most of them at the hands of fanatical machete-wielding crowds.

Each of these realities were horrifying in their own right – and moreover, the list is far from exhaustive. How did people survive all that anguish and loss? How did they muster the courage to rebuild their shattered lives and homelands?

As a young person growing up in the relative luxury of Canada, I was unable to make sense of the hardships my Italian-born parents and grandparents told me that they’d experienced. Their stories seemed unreal. Plus, what did they have to do with my life anyway?

I know much better now. I value history, and the lessons of human struggles, beyond the immediacy of my reality.

Perspective can be a powerful teacher. It can also be a source of strength and hope.

During this crisis, let us be buoyed by perspective. Let us understand that our forefathers have been through worse evils, and survived. Let us hold fast to the human spirit’s unshakeable ability to find a way to go on. And let us work together so that this moment, however ugly, shall also pass.

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