Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

24 May  2020

Was Coronavirus Act of God?

Someone I had helped at his time of deep need called me to thank me again and also share more of his challenges with me – to replenish his self-confidence. The first time he called – we did not know about each other very much. But the need was deep and we had common faith in Sri Sathya Sai Baba. On merit basis – the guy could have called so many instead of calling me. Through the effects I believe that it was due to our common belief that he rang me. When our need is deep and we do not know what to do, we tend to access our belief at depth. To me these are Acts of God that are beyond our immediate control.

Wikipedia presents Act of God as follows:

[In legal usage throughout the English-speaking world, an act of God  is a natural hazard outside human control, such as an earthquake or tsunami, for which no person can be held responsible. ]

Also :

[Parties in the United States have used the COVID-19 pandemic as a force majeure in an attempt to escape contractual liability by applying the elements of an (1) unforeseeable event, (2) outside of the parties’ control, that (3) renders performance impossible or impractical.]

In democracy, laws are required to be based on belief. Such laws are also directions to manifest outcomes of  Acts of belief/god. Hence as I highlighted in my article ‘Has the Lankan Parliament been buried or cremated? – Democratic laws are limited to the level of majority believers. Where an elected member has higher knowledge of the law than the common citizen of her/his electorate, such law would work to with the support of Natural powers to the extent of her/his belief in the electorate. The rest is purely for the purpose of intellectual exercise. They do not belong in the People’s Assembly.

On that basis if Covid 19 was an act of god to Australia – meaning majority Australians, then we have no right to bring action against China or anyone else for our suffering – anymore than we took action against god for Tsunami. If the labs were the reason – then we do have such rights.

Sri Lanka seems to show a connection between the Chinese ‘Gift’ and the infections. It was reported that ‘On 31 March, 21 more patients confirmed COVID-19, which is currently the highest single-day increase. Most of them were relatives of previously confirmed Corona patients. The total patients rises to 142.’

On 01 April, according to Xinhuanet -  ‘Navy Commander Vice Admiral Piyal De Silva expressed thanks to China for this donation as it would help Navy personnel in carrying out anti-COVID-19 tasks such as quarantining individuals and disinfecting public spaces.’

And ‘On April 1, charge d'Affaires of the Chinese Embassy Hu Wei handed over the first shipment of aid from China, including 50,000 medical masks and 1,008 COVID-19 test kits, to Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.’

As of  22 April Sri Lankan Navy was reported to have been infected. On 24 April, the camp was declared an isolated area.

To my mind, where there is exponential change – the spirit of the issue is active. Hence governments were looking to flatten the curve – which confirmed that we could control it through human endeavour.

A belief based vote for a leader would confirm exponential positive outcome. A belief based vote against a leader would likewise confirm exponential negative outcome for that leader. Such was the case by minorities in the last Presidential elections. They effectively voted against the Armed Forces.

The high level of Navy infections strongly indicate the value of these minority votes on the basis of genuine pain. No government that ignores the pain of minorities – would successfully govern through democracy. That is the real value of democracy. Hence all that minorities have to do is to keep voting against those they believe caused them pain – pain that has become their virtual reality.