Profiteers have already started taking advantage of the millions of people who are sick worldwide
KARACHI: We must be acquainted with certain facts and figures associated with hoarding and selling of sanitary items at inflated prices. This shouldn’t be the season to gear up and kick-start your business. It shows the dark side of the business sector where businesses are only concerned to gain a profit and exploit others by soaring up prices around the globe in the wake of a deadly epidemic. We should be more sympathetic, ever-giving and caring in such times of distress.
Being a writer it is my utmost responsibility to point out this social evil. Similarly others should point out the ill practices of their profession and think about humanity in a holistic and collective sense. What if we are infected and don’t get any mask or sanitisers, either because they are quite expensive or because they have been hoarded by people.
A business man is also a human and humanity should be kept at the uppermost, regardless of the situation. Justin Trudeau’s message that the Canadians shouldn’t think about their rent payment is a big step towards understanding the scale of the problem. Another exemplary figure is Cristiano Ronald’s initiative towards the treatment of coronavirus patients with his own finances is a big thing.
Profiteers have already started taking advantage of the millions of people who are sick worldwide. Prices of facemasks and sanitisers have sky-rocketed and healthcare services are charging a high rate for testing. World markets have become unstable because cities have turned into ghost cities and people have put themselves in self-isolation. In such a time it is important to ponder over the destructive system as a whole and come up with something that is more sustainable in the future to better cope with such pandemics.
We should as a nation pay heed to these issues and pick and choose our destiny with spreading positivity.
Irraj Mahmood
Published in The Express Tribune, March 17th, 2020.
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