The COVID Of Our Hope

The virus will take the Belarusian dictatorship away with it.

Did you know that today the whole world has a common sad anniversary? Yes, all eight billion people. It seems that we have a little in common, but there is something. Exactly two years ago, the name 'COVID-19' appeared in the world. Until February 11, 2020, a much bulkier definition, 2019-nCoV, was used for the novel coronavirus. It's hard to pronounce that. But “COVID” is now the same familiar word for any earthling as “mom” or “iPhone”. We are two years old - humanity with COVID.

This new virus has changed, of course, the life of the entire planet. But the life of Belarusians in particular. Recall our country two years ago. It was with the new coronavirus, and not at all with the presidential campaign, that the Belarusian revolution began with its super-solidarity and super-protests.

All over the world, the beginning of the pandemic seemed like the onset of something apocalyptic. Flights were canceled, borders were closed, trains were stopped, lockdowns were introduced. In one day, without anyone's evil will, families were separated around the world, streets were empty, airports and railway stations were closed. The once ordinary life of earthlings with walks, going to the movies, weekend trips suddenly became a wonderful memory from the past. This is what happens when there is a war.

Humanity was desperately looking for salvation, and in Minsk at that time a bunch of scoundrels were driving Belarusians to Golgotha, denying the danger of the virus, denying pandemic, and refusing quarantine. And Belarusians, who steadfastly endured any humiliation from the authorities for a quarter of a century, finally could not stand it. Coronavirus has caused the very butterfly effect that brought unexpected, unpredictable and completely hurricane-like consequences.

Remember what happened to us two years ago. From nothing, without any prerequisites, in the middle of the usual slushy winter, which did not want to finally move into spring, the Belarusians suddenly began to create a system of assistance to doctors with surprising ease. Restaurants prepared meals for the doctors of the infectious diseases hospital, and then for other hospitals where COVID departments were created. Taxi drivers delivered these meals. McDonald's fed the ambulance crews for free. Announcements appeared in the entrances in which young neighbors offered their help to the elderly: “We will go to the store for you, take out the garbage, walk your dog - just stay at home.” Masks were in short supply, and people sewed them themselves, and sometimes they sewed masks for all acquaintances and strangers. Fashion designer Anya Strotseva took orders for sewing masks right on Facebook - of course, for free, and even offered fabrics to choose from. I still have a striped mask from Anya Strotseva in my pocket, and I keep it as the first symbol of the Belarusian solidarity. And then all of us chipped in to buy personal protective equipment for doctors and nurses, because they were not provided with these equipment at work.

In just a couple of months, despite the bureaucratic efforts, the Belarusian people became such a highly organized, ideal, flawless system, in which not a single link failed, that it was not difficult to transfer their skills from supporting doctors to organizing assistance to the repressed. And the realization by each of their own responsibility not only for their own life, but also for the life of a neighbor, colleague, passer-by, pushed hundreds of thousands onto the streets that summer. Yes, the Belarusian revolution began with COVID.

Now this virus, like a war, has affected every Belarusian family. It killed some, wounded others, frightened the third, sent the fourth to the front. People are used to living with COVID, just as during the war they got used to falling asleep to the roar of bombers. But Belarusians could no longer get used to living under a dictatorship, as in the “pre-COVID” times. The virus of freedom turned out to be more insidious than the coronavirus: no one can cure it. And this is forever, unlike COVID. Experts say that right now, with the advent of the Omicron, we can say that the pandemic is coming to an end. Well, all perfect plots end up in a closed circle.

With the onset of the pandemic, the Belarusian revolution began, and with its finale, the Belarusian dictatorship will also end. And we, albeit with losses, will get out of the bunker into the light and live. And most importantly, breathe. Freely and easily. Without artificial lung ventilation or fear.

Iryna Khalip, exclusively for Charter97.org

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