We live in a very sick world, without a sick note

It has always been ill, but lately our world has been moved from the universe’s sickbay to ICU. And, unlike former president Jacob Zuma, it doesn’t have a sick note.

Just look at the facts: Zuma is accused of corruption – which in itself is a disease. His legal team submitted an allegedly ambiguous sick note stating a “medical condition”.

Of course Judge Dhaya Pillay promptly issued a warrant of arrest, as the law prescribes.

Parts of the ANC criticised Pillay for this decision, which indicates an unhealthy disrespect for the judiciary system. But to balance it out, the opposition, known for a not-so-healthy affinity for lawfare, reacted with joy.

At least we can now relax until Zuma has to appear in court in May to set any misunderstandings straight.

Which gives us time to worry about the coronavirus and to study the sick stream of disinformation about the best defence against the threat.

So far I have been advised to drink bicarbonate of soda, eat garlic and sleep next to onions. Instead, I sleep next to the lovely Snapdragon, who, like onions, is known to cause tears, but I still feel quite exposed.

The very same Snapdragon showed me a YouTube clip this week where the South African YouTube celebrity Josh Pieters humiliated the British professional troll Katie Hopkins.

She has made a career of hate-mongering in the British media, who have given her an unhealthy platform for her despicable ideas.

Pieters’ prank is a cruel joke aimed at bullying the bully and I have no sympathy for Hopkins, apart from one little detail – she lives with severe cerebral challenges, which includes having had part of her brain removed as treatment for her severe epilepsy.

She has never hesitated to take a jab at disabled people, but a nagging voice tells me this prank fails to show compassion for society’s neurological diversity.

An eye for an eye leaves us all blind.

Of course we need Pieters. But gosh, Josh, humiliating someone with a neurological condition reduces you to her level. We have an abundance of cerebrally healthy bigots who need a dose of your brutal, if crude, humour.

Please be the medical aid of society – not part of the disease.

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