With Italy devastated by the Covid-19 novel coronavirus as one of the worst-hit countries, some Italians made a must-see video for themselves of 10 days ago – but actually the rest of the world – to share what they wish people should know.
The video, made by the Milanese filmmaking group, A Thing By, asked ordinary Italians of every gender and age, to share a message now, to the version of themselves of 10 days ago.
Then, Italian society made the grave mistake of not taking the threat seriously and was slow to act and to respond to limit the spread of the dangerous and contagious virus.
Their responses are haunting and cautionary but also end with a ray of hope and optimism that this crisis too will be overcome.
In contrast, on Tuesday morning the Expresso presenters on SABC3 were still seen on television sitting close together, drinking alcohol and laughing, mirroring South African society where South Africans have been slot to heed president Cyril Ramaphosa’s request to practice things like social distancing and to be conscious of trying to limit the spread of the virus.
A massive problem in South Africa is that the local TV industry is largely in denial and has been extremely slow to react and respond to mirror and demonstrate the appropriate actions of social distancing as requested by president @CyrilRamaphosa due to the coronavirus pandemic. https://t.co/uzEvuaXz85— TVwithThinus (@TVwithThinus) March 17, 2020
With a national state of disaster that was declared it appears as if South African popular culture, similar to Italy, has been slow to react to adapt to the requested new social conventions to limit social interaction to try and curb the spread of the virus.
Within just 10 days Italian society has crashed to a halt with close to 2 000 dead and more than 25 000 cases as the country and Western Europe is on lockdown.
