NEXUS: WELCOME...HOME?
of the past OLIVER DUNN No one really wants to write an article about Coronavirus. The last twelve months has seen various media buttlickers band together to overexpose us good and proper, a side effect of eating the pandemic pie. They pump endless statistics across the bottom of our screens in ‘Oh Fuck Off Red’ (a new Resene colour I’m workshopping). The virus is bad, so we go into lockdown, but oops wait, lockdown is bad too. The economy stinks, our mental health stinks and even better, people on the radio argue over the survival of fish and chip shops VS the survival of your nan. Oh baby, it’s bleak. For the most part however, we have been supremely fortunate. Being a small, often overlooked green speck at the bottom of the world has never been so trendy and to date we’re doing pretty good. Kiwis have been free all Summer to travel about and take pictures of pink clouds, marry their mates, shit themselves at music festivals and have a good go at it. So why on earth would I ruin all the fun with another episode of Covid blues? Well maybe because despite this beautiful bubble we find ourselves in, the world outside us is burning. And right next to that dumpster fire is the fact that there’s no guarantees our sexy bubble will last. Sure, vaccines are poised for a roll out and there are government precautions round every corner, but either way Covid is sticking around in some capacity for a decent chunk longer. Here’s what I’m thinking, let’s stop looking at raw numbers and lockdown dates and instead look to the past. Let us dust off the history books, you know the ones with penises drawn in sharpie on the back pages, and try to learn something about pandemics from back in the day. Maybe we can begin to understand what kind of impact all of this is having on us and our behaviour. So let’s take it back, way back. For this field trip down memory lane we’ll need a tour guide and I can’t think of anyone better than Angelos Chaniotis. Chaniotis is a Greek historian and one smart Greek butter cookie. He knows a bit 10
about the social, cultural, religious and economic history of heaps of old stuff. For historical context we’ll refer to an interview he had with fellow but vastly superior journalist Joanne Lipman in April last year for all things ancient and pandemic. Ebola Back in the Day The first ever detailed account of a major pandemic dates back to around 430 B.C.E. by Thucydides. Thucydides was an Athenian historian who earned his Greek statue by recounting the beef between Sparta and Athens at that time. During all this hoopla he caught a nasty disease that came from Egypt to Athens and although it was limited to a relatively small area, it had a devastating impact on the locals. By recording his symptoms, modern doctors guess it may have been typhoid fever or possibly a viral disease similar to Ebola. What’s most fascinating about Thucydides’ account is how it details the impact on human behaviour at the time, in particular every day behaviour. At the peak of the plague people stopped paying attention to burial practices. In the place of a once sacred ritual was now just the disposal of corpses. In his interview our tour guide Chaniotis remarked on the similarities between this and what happened in Italy and Spain last year. Images of transport convoys taking away the dead without a chance for loved ones to say a real goodbye and no sign of a real funeral. A New Death Already a parallel between one of the oldest recorded pandemics and our very own Covid. This forced disregard of such a sacred ceremony could have potential lasting effects on our relationship with death and has already begun to create some rather strange behaviours in the United States.
