A Good Moment Again!

     

Farewell to the Praia do Norte for another while!

In Nazaré, we were concentrating on that relatively still point in my turning world which is the Anna M and the long, tortuous process of restoring her to seaworthiness. Our limited mission was accomplished,- we have the steel floors that Stevie made last autumn bedded down in epoxy and bolted in, so that at least the hull is now securely attached to the keel. She will hopefully get back into the water in the coming winter.

     We took a bit of a detour on the way back to Bilbao, by way of glorious Asturias and the Picos de Europa, and a fleeting visit to the little mountain village of Garabandal, one of those places where country children had visions of Our Lady, who was trying to tell us that we urgently need to change our ways. 

We also had time for a swim in a sweet bay, the other side of all that water which we look out to from Horseshoe Cottage!

     Back in Ireland, the mood had changed. 'The pandemic is over' seems to be the general idea; the sun is shining, and the square in Baltimore crowded with drinkers again. 'The vaccines are sorting it out' was the fond verdict. A week later, the scene is in danger of changing again. The covid cases at the moment are worse than they were this time last year. On the HSE's covidtracker, the latest date for which they provide a 7day average of persons hospitalized and in intensive care is 12/6/21, and the respective figures are 69 and 25. For 12/6/20 on the other hand, they are 25 and 12. 

      Across the water in Blighty they are apparently still anticipating going back to normal lives, enjoying 'football, beer and burgers',- though what's this? Johnson says they will have to wait another little while before letting their hair down and really getting back to 'normality'. The sad fact is, that for all their 'vaccine success story', whereas the 7day average of new cases was 939 on 20/6/20, this 20/6/21 it stands at 10,075, and is going up fast, though admittedly they are getting by with a much lower rate of hospitalization.

     Meanwhile people such as myself, who consider that we would be better off thinking in terms of maintaining our own immune systems and adapting our way of life, are being put under increasing pressure to take the vaccination. Compulsory PCR tests when you travel, costing around €100 a go, are the start. Will we be shut out from the whole medical system if we persist in our 'vaccine hesitancy'?

     My reservations about vaccines are considerably exacerbated by the fact that those who question the line that commonly headlines any discussion of adverse reactions, namely that their benefits outweigh their risks, are usually dismissed as cranks and conspiracy theorists, while responsibility for investigating adverse reactions seems to lie predominantly with the manufacturers. One suspects that commercial and short-term political interests dominate the narrative, while they should be rigorously discounted.

     A just appraisal should take into account a long-term and holistic perspective. The pandemic is but a symptom of the deeper, systemic crisis which is afflicting the world! It may be that while vaccines have a certain short-term utility in preventing health services from being overwhelmed, it is a huge mistake to think of them as 'the solution'. 

     Personally I have long resisted taking the 'flu vaccines. 'Don't come to me when you get pneumonia!' was my doctor's last comment, a couple of years ago. I have not had pneumonia yet, nor have I any reason to believe that I could not cope with a 'flu by means of a couple of days in bed and some homeopathic remedies. Now why should I change my ways because of covid? Am I to take 'flu vaccines and covid vaccines, new ones for every strange variant, year after year? Who is going to be assessing the long-term effects of such an escalating dependence on vaccines? The people making shed-loads of money from them?

     Talking to someone recently returned from Africa, he was saying how the people there were laughing at us for being in such a state about covid. They are used to living with more dire risks, and had concluded that our fuss is more about money and control than anything else. Certainly the morbid fear of death in our modern culture contributes greatly to our neurosis. Whatever about that, assuming that in a few thousand years' time archeologists are trying to understand the global collapse of the 21st century, it seems probable that they will point to the escalation of vaccine dependency as a key reason. It was long after the event that people realised, for instance, that it was a bad idea to use lead to pipe or channel water, and it contributed to the collapse of Ancient Rome.

     On the other hand, it is just possible that the pandemic will stimulate us to make the changes necessary to achieve sustainability. Things that have seemed desirable, but impossible, for years, may now be feasible,- for instance the deconstruction of our bloated cities, and the reconstruction of rural living, featuring  sustainable communities that largely look after the nuts and bolts of life themselves, mostly providing their own food, shelter, clothes, even energy and health care. 

     The trauma of the pandemic yields a sharp reminder of our interdependence; it is time to realise that if we do not combine effectively at the personal and family level, we will fall victims to one form of horrendous depersonalized totalitarianism or another. The myth of personal autonomy and independence so beloved of Western culture needs to be radically overhauled, if it is to survive at all!

     Well, sadly, we are putting Horseshoe Cottage on the market, intending to 'blow back' to County Clare and live out our days close to family there. We might even live to see some of these fine ideas become more of a reality!