Thank you, Mr Al-Rawi

THE EDITOR: The folk tale The Emperor's New Clothes was written in 1837 by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. The emperor was very fond of new clothes and spent more time in his dressing room than attending to matters of state.

One day, two swindlers, pretending to be weavers, came to town and convinced the emperor they could make clothes so exquisite that only those who were "worthy" could see them. Those who couldn't were "unfit for office or unusually stupid."

They went through weaving motions and, after some time, "dressed" the emperor with absolutely nothing. Of course, not wanting to appear unfit or stupid, no one said anything even as the emperor went about his day stark naked. In fact, they praised the emperor's magnificent clothes.

It was only during a big parade when a little child blurted, "But he hasn't got anything on!" that everyone admitted they couldn't see anything because there wasn't anything to see.

This tale has been translated into over 100 languages and endures forever because its lesson is always timely, no more so than in the current covid19 “pandemic.”

I was reminded of this tale due to the furore over AG Faris Al-Rawi being photographed not wearing a mask and mingling with others in a private space. Just to be clear, Al-Rawi is not my favourite politician. He is arrogant, pompous and bombastic but, unwittingly, he has shown, as have the throngs of children at MovieTowne and many others, that there is no pandemic, there is nothing to be overly concerned about. For that I thank him.

Once again, I marvel at our inability to see the obvious. In our haste to keep the covid19 narrative going, we condemn him instead of admitting the truth – that we can go back to living our lives normally without fear of any virus. As with any other illness, if you get sick, there are institutions to deal with you. We don't ban driving on the roads because 100-150 people die in road accidents every year (about the same number they say die from the virus). Why should we ban normal living?

In reaction to Al-Rawi, some have scathingly suggested that we might as well go back to normal. I say that's exactly what we should do. It is a gross fallacy to believe that wearing masks and physical distancing have had any effect on the virus and it's time we stop the narrative that they have.

Look at the evidence, people. There's more than enough to show that mass gatherings without masks or distancing haven't caused the deaths of anyone. It's dishonest to harp on cases when almost everyone recovers without any problems. But I suppose that's all they have to keep the pandemic narrative alive.

It's incredible that we accept that we can go back to normal if we take a vaccine (that confers no immunity, so nothing really changes) but cannot accept that we can go back to normal because we don't have a covid19 problem. Like the little boy, it's time we call out those who say we do.

To paraphrase a famous local politician, "Bring the evidence to show we have a pandemic."

One question: If we are all safe within our personal bubbles, where is the virus going to come from if we join bubbles? Nowhere, as Al-Rawi and MovieTowne have shown.

To use another fairy tale analogy, it's time we stop acting like Chicken-Licken and understand the sky isn't falling. But if we persist in letting others convince us we have a problem, we will get devoured by the fox in the guise of big pharma with promises of a solution to a non-existent problem.

CK KELLY

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