Lockdown Day 27: Empathy and Mercy - The Biggest Threats to an Unjust Society

Have you noticed how fault lines show up during times of stress?

Christmas is a great example. Within a couple of days, adults regress to teenagers with their parents, old sibling rivalries surface and before you can say: "Father Christmas" family battles take on the proportion of mini civil wars.  

Societies function like big families.

When under strain, fault lines that are hidden and "negotiated" during the normal demands of daily life, become uncomfortably visible and demand attention.  

As we entered week four of lockdown I started to get (what felt like) a tsunami of texts from fairly well-off people.

The number one complaint related to the ban on alcohol and cigarette sales (I pretended to be sympathetic). 

They also complained about not being able to exercise (I suggested a few possibilities indoors).

They complained about not being able to walk their dogs (I was genuinely sympathetic).

Then things got nasty.

"WHY CAN’T I BUY HOT FOOD AT WOOLLIES??" shouted a number of texts.

"What are these idiots thinking?"

"If they keep on treating us in the suburbs like children - we will take our assets off-shore!"

It went on and on.  

Then in the midst of it all, there was a text from a grandmother in a township outside of Cape Town: "I’m so sorry to bother you, but I’m desperate. We have no money left and the food is finished. I have nothing for the children."   

I stared at my phone screen, her desperation and anxiety radiating through my body.

For a moment I imagined her situation, crying children… hungry herself. I imagined myself in her position, my children weeping from hunger.  

While I transferred some money to her, I wept, knowing that many parents and grandparents must be going through the same thing.  

Over the next few days more and more desperate pleas for help followed. Hungry, hungry, hungry they pleaded,  whilst the angry Woollies-hot-food-debates continued.  

Every evening as I looked at my phone, I tried to make sense of these two worlds visiting my WhatsApp.

It was as if the deepest fault lines in our society (and the world) were laid bare: