Covid-19: So much for peacocks at the traffic lights

The earth is shaking less because we are not moving. I get it. We do need to wake up and be a lot friendlier to this incredible planet.

Get over it. I do not normally comment on other writers, but this latest piece by Arundhati Roy makes me want to laugh with profound sadness. While bemoaning the arrival of Covid-19 she then says there is a silver lining to it all. Now, we can see peacocks dancing and frolicking at traffic lights. So that is the bonus -- dancing peacocks. Then, as if this is not enough, she expresses delight over the birds singing. "And even while the virus proliferates, who could not be thrilled by the swell of birdsong in cities, peacocks dancing at traffic crossings and the silence in the skies?"

Me, I am not thrilled. I can do without the peacocks.

Come here, lady. Look at the stats. 1.2 million are affected. There have been 64,750 deaths, like that is it, done and dusted. Over 6 billion people are running scared and half of them are hunkered in a lockdown. We don't know what the future brings or the legacy for the next generation, and as we try to come to grips with this scourge visited upon us I find no comfort in peacocks dancing at the traffic lights. They could get run over. Frankly, I do not give a hoot if 30 swans joined them or the whole animal farm. As for birdsong, stop making it so awesome. You really want the urban part of the world to listen to birds and this is as a blessing of Covid 19. Then we go to the silence in the skies. Took me a moment to figure it out. "Oh, ah, wo she is thrilled there are no flights, no carbon footprints, the silence in the skies." I ask you, when was the last time a plane flying overhead caused you much grief? Enough to say bring on the virus, guilty milord of great indiscretions, we deserve the plague. How do you travel Ms Roy, by boat?

She is not the only one with this apology for nature. I received a forward of people in India's city of Jalandhar being able to see the Dhaulagiri mountain range some 200km away. Hooray. If you had driven an hour you could see them anyway.

I am truly tired of these holier than thou folks who think death is a fair payment to see a mountain on a clear day.

The earth is shaking less because we are not moving. I get it. We do need to wake up and be a lot friendlier to this incredible planet. But let's stop with the romantic nonsense. And this need to self flagellate.