Thursday, March 28, 2024

MAVIS BECKLES: Ebola now bigger than AIDS

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Well, I gine tell you something: the things dat happening nowadays and the way duh happening, if I didn’t know God, I would swear like some people dat He dead but I, like a lot o’ people, know dat he is very much alive and dat He still in control.

Look, the lot o’ sicknesses and diseases ain’t making nuh kinda sport at all and duh got people frighten, frighten. The diseases got all kinds o’ people running scared and praying hard day and night dat they would make haste and guh ’long where they come from or dat the medical people would find some kinda cure quick.

I grow up and hear ’bout and experience the flu or influenza. Evahbody knew about the flu and it like it would come around a certain time every year, lick up people and then turn and go ’long ’bout it business till the next year. But dat was normal and it ain’t had nothing tuh do wid nuh mosquito. Not now. All of a sudden the mosquitoes up in the sickness business serious.

Mosquitoes was always around and one time when a mosquito bite ya, all dat used tuh happen was dat it would burn real bad and a big red mark would come up but ya would rub it wid a li’l alcohol or something so and eventually in a couple o’ days it would go away and evahthing would be back tuh normal. But nowadays from the time you glimpse a mosquito, ya does be running and dodging, trying tuh kill it dead either wid ya hands or spray.

Now when a mosquito bite ya, he does give ya dengue fever and dengue fever does feel like the flu, which is now mild tuh the dengue which does bring along wid it, stiff joints, rash and pain at the back o’ ya eye. And as if dat ain’t bad enough, the mosquito like he get more powerful and introduce chikungunya which is even worse than the dengue fever or the flu; it brekking up people enough.

One time people used tuh dread the thought of contracting AIDS. The thought of having AIDS used tuh frighten the daylights outta some people and the medical people used tuh have all kinds o’ programmes trying tuh educate people about the AIDS virus and how ya couldn’t catch it just by socializing wid, talking tuh, shaking the hands with or even drinking from the same cup of anybody wid the virus. Duh even had all kinds o’ programmes appealing tuh people tuh change their promiscuous lifestyles. But AIDS like it ain’t got the same sting as it had before and people living longer and gone ’long back doing and living as duh please.

But now, seemingly outta the blue, here comes another one, even more deadly than the AIDS and it licking up and taking out people just so. It name Ebola!

But where this Ebola thing come from, though? A fellow make me laugh the other day. He said dat he had a dream and in the dream he was running fast, fast, fast from something name Ebola and before it catch him he jump up wash in sweat and frighten.

Then he gine turn and ask me where I think it come from. He say it got AIDS looking real cool. He went on tuh say dat wid AIDS duh got medication and things tuh prolong ya life, help tuh make it more bearable and most o’ the time nuhbody doan even know ya got the virus. But the Ebola like it is a hundred times more deadly than AIDS.

Then before he went ’long he ask me, “Suppose we get the Ebola ’bout here, wha’ we gine do? We ain’t got nuh kinda facilities nor nutten so, even fuh ordinary sicknesses. How we gine handle it?” He say evahbody living up in one another, so half o’ we gine dead. Well, boy, I ain’t know.

• Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.

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