Student-Expo

The best analogy I've heard for lockdown:
The wildebeest in Africa migrate every year, as we know, in search of food to survive. When they reach the Mara river, the crocodiles are waiting. They know this and they know they will lose a few when they cross but for the sake of the survival of the herd, they cross anyway. They have done this successfully for hundreds of years and survived.
Implementing lockdown is like putting up a fence to prevent the wildebeest from crossing the Mara river to save those that would be eaten by the crocodiles, and as a result, the whole heard dies of starvation!

TODAY I WANT TO CRY

We have seen a lot of jokes about the Coronavirus

We have heard a lot of ‘make the best out of the situation'

Or ‘see the positive sides of the crisis, the new opportunities’

But today, I don’t want to swallow hard and see the good

I don’t want to force myself to think positive,
to stick a smile onto my face.

TODAY, I WANT TO CRY.

I want to cry for the man in his shack, that has lost his job

Who doesn’t know how to feed his family.

I want to cry for the owner of the small business around the corner

Who doesn’t know whether this pride of his will survive the crisis.

I want to cry for the kids that cannot go to school and are uncertain when they will again,

Those that cannot afford private education and virtual learning

And those kids, that dearly miss their friends, their family, their grandma’s hug.

I want to cry for the lodge owners that have to look at their empty lodges every day

And had to send home their dear and loyal staff.

I want to shed my tears for the builder and the gardener that are already retrenched,

For the cleaner that hopes and prays that she will still be paid by the end of the month

For the manager that only receives 50% of his pay and will need to sell his house

Which he just got for his little, growing family.

I want to cry for the grandmothers that are alone, and miss their family,

Their grandchildren’s noise.

My face is wet, and yet I want to cry, for travel agents, shop owners, hairdressers,

Tour guides, workers, all the people that suffer so much.

Not from illness, but from lockdown and travel bans.

I want to cry for our economy that is already shattered

and is now being swept down the drain

together with all the tears.

I want to cry for the farmer, who was so happy about some rain,

and is now facing another trouble.

I want to cry for all the poor, who have nothing to live from, who are hungry,

And who have to contemplate whether becoming a criminal will let them survive.

I want to cry for the little girls, for the women, who have to endure the physical pain

Of their husbands, uncles, stepfathers, that are home and bored.

I want to cry for the kids that used to get their only meal a day at a soup kitchen,

which is now closed.

Let me wipe away that fake smile, that forced positivity, and let me cry

Just once, just today.

Cry and cry and cry.

And then from tomorrow I will be smiling again. I will see the good things,

I will grab the opportunities.

Just today, please let me cry.

There should not be a reason for a lockdown extention as it has a massive economic impact and allot of business will go bust and workers will have no more work!

Thank you to each one of you for being part of the SABC Education at the Rosebank Mall