REMOTE COMMUNITY II02/10/21
I think survival of the fittest is the ability to endure struggles and challenges that come one's way. But knowing how to use the tools of time to advantage preserves quality of being.
The virus was already spread a week or more before Delta variant showed its true colours. Week 1 after identification follows one person was infected and spread to three others and to 10 more.
Delta variant bolted to 148 cases but it hit a brick wall on week three when it peaked on a plateau of 611 cases. That's when lockdown effects kicked in. Week four and five follow a drag but caution observation just in case Delta variant's tail kicked back.
Without lockdown measures in place, we would have undergone an infection crisis in a breakout that would have stretched resources to the max!
Remote Communities is looking more closer to the future. According to the ADHB modelling on border reopening, we are looking at tens of thousands of community cases and hundreds of deaths. This projection is echoed by expert's advice that lowering Auckland's lockdown level is a risk.
It poses a major challenge to Pasefika and Maori way of life. Since groups are linked on whanau and kingship, socialising is like an inborn behaviour, a behaviour likely to facilitate infection and death.
Socialising is not just visiting when bored, but also hospitality, health visits, helping out and a good feeling of being together. Polynesian people share common habits and shared culture in groups. I don't think the spread of infection is due to low income, but rather of social behaviour. Then again if folks were well off, they might do more shopping and frequent visiting.
If so, then I think it's time to be stuck-up and be safe. To avoid physical contacts, folks would have to use digital devices for communication and virtual gatherings including church, meetings and school to avoid physical contact. It demands a big ask to radically change inborn social behaviour to boost health and safety.
The virus becomes a super spreader in crowd sports and concerts or party environments. So, can desire for sports glory or concerts and parties succeed awareness of safety from infection? It looks like this ambitious pleasure is heightened by political pressure on lockdown easing.
Depended on needs, wishes and desires, social behaviour is naturally an economic stimulant. Consumer behaviour is a social behaviour and it's absolutely necessary for business growth. But social and consumer behaviour under coronavirus environment, is mutually exclusive. That means you can't expect to contain the infectious transmission and save lives on easing lockdowns where individuals are free to roam.
Humans are social beings. Socialisation is a fundamental tool for practical learning. Economic growth is developed and stabilised by socialisation. To think the economy can be maintained without social behaviour is probably misread. But the economy can still be sustained by remote community and halfway lockdowns.
To have the environment purified free of coronavirus could also lack some elements necessary for life. And that means, coronavirus doesn't have to dominate life.
To have an environment lacking of social aspects is impossible. If human social behaviour is the culprit for transmission of infection, then without social aspects is not only wiping out Polynesia but also the stability of the economy. To destroy the social aspect is to destroy the gene and hence the people.
In order for the people to survive therefore, they have to learn new behaviour. And we already have the tools of avoiding physical contact by the use of digital device to continue with social behaviour. And this is where remote community makes sense that while individuals are not physically present, they are in fact represented by digital and electronic devices.
The new norm embraces electronic and digital devices as part of survival. It is in fact a transition from word of mouth to digital data. The integration of digital with social is the ultimate human development that advances life.
So basically, the survival of the fittest is the ability to adapt and change according to the environment. The radical change is a DNA operation to remove the old behaviour and replace it with the new. And big changes begin with small steps.
Should Polynesia fail to adapt, the downward spiral strips humanity of unique social aspects but it continues to purify a linear material entity. Pure capitalism of a linear material development is anti-social anti-diversity and anti-human.
Survivors however are witnessed by those who know how to make vaccines and have the money to buy. In the absence of religion, human civilisation survival is not exactly based on a pure principle. Rather depends on money and having money may involve a system where some are advantageous and others deprived. And capitalism is a linear material system deviated from holistic being.