This Sky has a Sour Taste
An essay on the inevitability of chaos and how order deems a far-fetched entity — from Oluwafunmilayo Obasa
“Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man”— Henry Adams
I wake to chaos…
The world rapidly lurches into an abyss. Unsurprisingly, religionists approve of chaotic events by referencing Holy books as a tool for foreshadowing the unavoidable. And we erroneously think that the only thing we can do is watch the premeditated consequence of sin unfold. We can only watch the order of nature metamorphose into chaos. Indeed, we can only observe the passage through which our dreams crumble and this sky — once a source of joy — becomes sordid.
“I wake to chaos” does not take the literal form of plain disaster. It doesn’t even connote the chaos that goes on within me. I speak of the overpowering chaos that exploits the globe. I get off my bed to read articles on news sites — because watching is hard — and all I see is dishevelment. Nothing good comes therein. It is always about chaos and how order is believed a probable solution.
I define each day that glides by the headlines I see affixed comfortably on the screen of my phone. The ones that sit elegantly at the bottom of the television screen while my father formulates concrete percepts on pressing issues. He is yet always so vocal about them, engaging in his views, and confident.
Sometimes, he calls me to enact my writing prowess on his responses, before he taps on the icon that will send the message to his recipient. I fancy how he shares them with his friends on social media platforms, eagerly waiting for a response. His laugh, when the responses appear jocular and lack a precise analysis of laid down facts.
“Qasem Soleimani: Trump says the US killed a monster.”
When I woke up to this report, it wasn’t any different from the usual blast of opinions here and there. I only concluded, within, that Trump was foolish for using such a volatile stunt to seek re-election. It is nothing beyond the usual propaganda of the somewhat, deteriorating United States of America at attaining dominance in the international sphere.
On that morning, World War Three (WW3) trended on twitter. Amidst analyses, I found highly amusing the jokes on potential draftees. I regarded as obtuse the jokes about feminists joining the war, considering that various parastatals of the military in different countries house women combatants. Regardless, Trump once again stomped on the foot of Iranians knowing fully that their retaliation would be minimal.
It made me ruminate on how chaos is easy to come by. A man wakes up and decides to kill an individual — perhaps, a memento for others — or even a country. This action will construe hate and enrage a senseless war. It reminds me of how close the earth is to shattering into a flotilla of wars. How it may only take one weapon of nuclear descent to wipe the remnants of her bruised face.
Further, on that day, I remember my father in one of his opined talks predicting how a third world war will not happen. “International relations are complex. It deals with understanding facts and its pretexts,” he always said this while listening to analysts on BBC or CNN. But, one thing I have come to grasp with great understanding is that many times, if not otherwise candid, the clamour for world peace and the philosophy of liberalism is spurious and most times, superficially intertwined with complexity as a facade. Since it is counterfeit, our definition of order cannot be met.
. . .
“Australian ‘catastrophe’ bush fires.”
A concrete scenario of the effect of climate change. The fires ravaged the trees, the most suitable habitat for the country’s voluminous reserves of wildlife and a seemingly large contributor of oxygen. Late 2019, the fires rapidly transmuted into a global emergency. What looked like another season of wildfires in Australia turned out to be more disastrous than its predecessors. The offensive fires spanned into the new year, deflagrating everything that crossed its path.
People evacuated their homes — already existing buildings were converted into temporary shelters for both animals and humans, while firefighters looked for ways to descend the infuriating flames to the barest minimum.
What culled my rapt attention to the disaster was a woman interviewed by the BBC. I watched how distraught she was, how the emotions overwhelmed her stance. Amidst the tragedy, she looked for ways to shelter Kangaroos that had been displaced. Her love for these animals was cogent, almost as if she could communicate in their language. As she cradled one in her arms, she talked through tears. Narrating her ordeals and how she struggled to keep the animals safe. At this point, Australians were pleading for rainfall with the firemen working vigorously to ensure that the fires embarked on the much-needed journey of dissension.
Likewise Australia, the Amazon Rain Forest situated in South America has also been a receiver of wildfires, entertained with the stench of burnt leaves and animals. When the Amazon faced the fury of wildfires mid-2019, lots of news channels, tabloids, newspapers, etcetera, insisted that the colossal expanse of green constituted 20% of earth’s oxygen — a bit exaggerated but necessary to establish the fact that “climate change is real” and if not earnestly deliberated on, civilization might as well be on a train to extinction.
Nonetheless, the above occurrences are not the only consequences of the changes our climate has been undeniably exposed to. With current happenings, the heat may thaw the earth to its core by 2050 (personal discretion). Many do not know what transformation the climate is traveling through nor do they know the critical threats it chucks at our faces.
First, temperatures keep rising. Second, oceans, rivers, and lakes are drying up. Third, the ozone layer for so long has accommodated large doses of not-so-friendly ozone chemicals. These chemicals deplete the layer and give more access to the sun rays. Do I also need to mention that the ice is melting? Oh, and locusts now rummage the geographies of East Africa and the Middle East. No one seems to care, except Greta Thunberg together with a bandwagon of climate activists who have taken it upon themselves to murmur against the inactivity of world governments towards the progression of climate change.
In this fight, we recognize that emissions let into the atmosphere need to pass through an upscale process of reduction. However, Winkler insists that the emission gap — the gap that measures how much gases or chemicals have gone up the atmosphere — is so “huge that governments, the private sector, and communities need to switch into crisis mode.” This reckons the status quo a multifarious fate that hovers dangerously. Unfortunately, climate change is only taken laxly.
In addition to the calamitous outcomes climate experts have cited, they also posit that climate change may exacerbate the actualization of novel diseases. Before and after the birth of Baby boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Gen Zs, the earth witnessed a series of system-wrecking diseases that have not only shaped her outcomes but also killed manifold. It seems as though — existence is incomplete without the advent of novel diseases. Some infections have been eradicated permanently while some spring out from several roots. Smallpox, the Bubonic plague, Spanish Influenza, Cholera, HIV/AIDS, SARS, MERS, Ebola, Zika, Dengue fever, and the novel COVID-19 are all occurrences posterity will come to highlight as fatal, thus, illuminating the substantial effects of epidemics and pandemics — a chapter of economic depression and numerous deaths.
. . .
“Novel virus COVID-19 tolls to 218,815 cases and 8,810 deaths while 84,114 have recovered.”
As an innate of Wuhan, it would have remained endemic if the information on this incredibly communicable virus was not made to be clandestine. The global rhetoric has now shifted into the realm of “self-isolation”, “quarantine”, “social distancing”, “wash your hands with soap and water”, “make use of a hand sanitizer”, “if you notice any symptoms, call these lines.” Interestingly, it is during periods of pandemics that the body begins to exhibit symptoms of the said disease and forces people to think they are infected, or they suddenly feel a surge to try things they haven’t tried before. This is the time people remember there is something like running or taking a walk. In this macabre period, people remember that crowded religious houses, markets, and clubs are the most important places on earth. Also, it is during these times of social distancing that people remember that they have an ex-lover that needs to be held closely. Isn’t that lovely?
But this is not one of those apocalyptic silver screen motion pictures that excite us. It raises so many questions, so many postulations, and a critical time in the history of humankind. Survivors of this pandemic will be glad to have outlived this crucial part of history. Hitherto, we have always hoped for the best. As different conspiracy theories find its way into the intuition of people, let us hope the normality we desire will not be extinguished by the big cheese of international politics, and the fellows that ascribe to the absurdity of novel conjectures.
COVID-19 is spreading faster than light. Everything has stopped. This virus has a remote and it has pressed the pause button on our lives, the economy is plunging, streets are empty, and the most important people right now are the doctors risking everything to cure infected patients. It is now evident that after this pandemic, a paradigm shift will occur — one that involves the internet establishing a seat at the forefront of all necessities with minimal human contact, the other will accelerate the position of doctors to the summit they deserve to occupy.
. . .
What is order? The compromising conducts of world leaders and lucrative multi-national companies on humanity for mere wants that are far from altruistic. The ostensible ordeals of chameleons placed on pedestals of power. There is no order, in reality. If the dream of man is order, what then happens when this dream becomes selfish?
My present definition of each day is chaos. We seem to hop from one dilemma to the other barely managing to scurry out of a problem each time. The earth is a party of chaos — from disease outbreaks to climate change, a potential World War Three steadily and gradually gaining momentum, bush fires, locust attacks, worldwide economic depression, [I do not have to mention the ideological complexities we adhere to as humans]. Yet, I live in a country that is akin to pandemonium. Isn’t this worthy of expressing the incessant joy that strives to break free? I can only give a weary smile to this realization. A realization that looks beyond universal peace as a pretext for living, the inevitability that reshapes order to entropy.
Chang, C. (March 2020) The devasting toll of Australia’s bushfires revealed. Retrieved from http://url.ie/16ok8
Morton, A. (December 2019). Yes, Australia has always had bushfires: but 2019 is like nothing we’ve seen before. Retrieved from http://url.ie/16oka
Winkler, H. (March 2020). Global Emissions are way off target: what needs to happen. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/global-emissions-are-way-off-target-what-needs-to-happen-133251
Oluwafunmilayo Obasa is a Nigerian non-fiction writer, poet, and photography enthusiast searching for ways to speak with her images and metaphors. Writing from Kwara, Abuja, or whichever place she finds herself, her words tend to paint her imaginative sentiment of humanity & equality [for all], emotions, attractions, fears, denials in abstract ways, establishing the relationship between society and existence. You can see more of her work here on Medium Funmilayo Obasa. And follow her on Twitter @funmi796.
