We are different – but all the same

Churchill said a good crisis is a terrible thing to waste. If we didn’t learn anything from the Covid-19 pandemic, 2020 would have been a total waste.

Luckily there are a few lessons. We have learned the value of technology in connecting people. Employers have learned that people can be productive when they work from home. We have gained a newfound respect for our fragile healthcare system. And some say corrupt politicians may never have had their day in court if it wasn’t for the pandemic.

But for me, the big lesson of Covid-19 is that people are the same. We are members of different races, we hail from different cultures… but under the surface, we are copies of one another.

In terms of the coronavirus, we all face the same challenges. No matter what our nationality, our bank balance or our gender, we all have been struggling with the same challenges.

From America to China, from Peru to Vietnam, people had to deal with their fear of the virus and with adapting to the economic effects of lockdown. And in extreme cases, with the loss of jobs or loved ones.

This solidarity in the fight against Covid-19 is of particular value to us in South Africa, given our history of xenophobia.

I have mentioned before that several of the people in my little world are recent immigrants.

I often support a group of young Bangladeshi shopkeepers and love to play cricket with them in the parking lot of their supermarket. I visit my Algerian barber – sometimes even if I don’t need a haircut. And I spend a lot of hours in the motorcycle workshop of Elias, a Rastafarian from Bulawayo, where we discuss politics, Vespas and the art of manliness.

No matter how exotic their roots, we all have the same dreams and ambitions for a post-corona South Africa. We all fear the virus, we are all wondering if we have contracted it somewhere without realising it and we all hope for the speedy recovery of the economy.

“People are weird,” said the lovely Snapdragon, someone who can, at times, have extremely outlandish ideas about me and my intelligence. “If you read the news, you can’t believe we all belong to the same species.”

“Yes,” I said. “We are different. But thanks to Covid, we’re all so the same.”

Dirk Lotriet.

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