Coronavirus and Chinese reaction

Prevention is always better than cure. Though China is currently addressing the Coronavirus on a war footing basis, it certainly mishandled it in the initial stages when the dreaded disease was in its infancy.

A doctor who took the disease seriously when it initially appeared towards last year end, revealed the same on a WeChat group about the virus ( WeChat is a popular microblogging site in China where Facebook, Twitter etc are banned). He was summarily disciplined by the Communist Party, quickly accused of rumor mongering.

The solution to any problem starts at admitting of its existence and owning it, followed by decisive actions taken. The secretive, insecure and image conscious Chinese authorities disowned it by "pooh poohing" the initial scare, allowing the disease to progress into a stage which can be very well described using the Odia phrase - NEDI GUDA KAHUNI KU BOHI JIBA (Allowing Jaggery from the palm to flow into the elbow). It simply means, knowlingly allowing a problem to persist, until it reaches an unrecoverable. Chinese authorities exactly did that, reacted only when the epidemic had spread its tentacles far and wide enough to disclose about it to the rest of the world.

This is a typical characteristic of authoritarian regimes - refuse to acknowledge the existence of an issue at first and then procrastinate any attempt at resolution. When confronted, deny it and act later. We see similar trends in India, though not in Chinese scale. Now we have a government at center who refuses to admit that there exists a problem in its economy whose health right now can be described as sick & struggling at best. 

Rather than tackling the prevailing weak economy, the inept authorities are working round the clock in Pushing GALLUs defending it (transliteration of Odia term GALU PELIBA, which means Stubborn and shameless self denial. Will appreciate if someone can provide me the most appropriate word for GALUAMI). They are still in a sleep mode, frugally applying cosmetic bandaid after bandaid to a wound which needs surgery. 

A la YATHA RAJA, TATHA PRAJA (Like the Ruler, like the Ruled) their equally GALUA devotees, a diehard bunch of closed minded faddists, many of whom are government servants, retirees and those with a secured income who don't feel the pinch of a bad economy continue to defend their government at the helm. 

Akin to China's initial reaction to Coronavirus, we are still in a denial mode regarding our economy which is in bad shape and in dire need of urgent steps of resuscitation. 

But alas, CHEIN SOUTHIBA JIE, TAKU UTHEIBA KIE (Who will wake up the one who is awake pretends to be sleeping). Though late, the Chinese authorities have woken up and on target to built two huge makeshift hospitals in a week as their machinery is hurrying round the clock 24X7 to reach their target. They may well achieve that and contain the disease. Can we smell the coffee and replicate the same to our economy ? Your guess is as good as mine.