I AM BECAUSE YOU ARE.

I AM BECAUSE YOU ARE
The fundamental of human being is interdependence. We might think we have not done much for
ourselves as humans, but we have, and we can, with one love, do something much more; and
together, we can continue to do wonders for our fellow humans.
The modern day interdependence is a clone of the Southern African philosophy, Ubuntu, which
simply asserts that the collectivity of human beings, and not the sole individual power, gives
humans their humanity. Michael Onyebuchi Eze, a lecturer at the department of political science,
Amsterdam, described Ubuntu in relation to the saying, 'A person is a person through other
people,' which depicts that a human is only fit to be addressed as a human only if he recognizes
the presence and value of others irrespective of their race, colour, religion, etc. He further
widened the horizon by illustrating that Ubuntu is an interaction between separate minds capable
of working together to achieve common goals and for these goals to be achieved, all hands must
be on deck.
The excerpt above portrays the original meaning of humanity. Considering how great the United
States have grown over the years, it can be traced back that there was a Declaration of
Independence in America, but their history, advancements, global strength all point to an
American Declaration of Interdependence. Indeed, there is no iota of falsity in the Nigerian
Yoruba adage that, 'rubbing the palm together, makes them cleaner'.

Of what significance is the philosophy during this pandemic?

Coincidentally, both the proliferation of the Corona-Virus pandemic and its management are 

significance of the word, 'I am because you are'.

The illustration is given here: recalling how the pandemic arose, it can be deduced that any 

occurrence in 'Country A' can affect 'Country B' and others. At inception, few deaths were 

recorded in Wuhan, China with earliest reported cases on November 17, 2019. The cases were 

first reported by the Chinese authorities to the World Health Organization (WHO), on the 31st of 

December, 2019, by the time which it has already become a full-blown outbreak. Within 

different countries, the virus spread through the population at varying speeds depending on a 

range of factors, such as cultural and behavioural responses of the community, population 

density, among others. Ubuntu had come to play a role in this as it is evident that we have effects 

on each other, assuming the outbreak was curbed in its early stage in Wuhan, it might not affect 

humanity as it is at the moment. This also reveals that improvising in a country is effectual on 

another country.

Apparently, there is no loss in the potency of the American during this pandemic as the 

solidarity between the US people and the government remains unscathed. Months into fighting 

this pandemic, both home and abroad, the US continues to lead global responses building on 

decades of leadership in life-saving health and humanitarian assistance.

The United States mobilized as a nation to make an impressive global effort. Working with 

private sectors, they fulfilled President Trump's commitment to provide ventilators to their 

partners and allies in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. The American empathy evinces 

that 'alone we can do little; together we can do so much'.

 The spirit of Ubuntu was further manifested in South Korea. According to a plausible source, 

almost 92% confirmed cases dropped within weeks and few weeks into the pandemic, more than 1% of the population has been tested, various media were employed to ease the testing program 

and extensive efforts were made to isolate infected persons.

All success can be attributed to the intersubjectivity between the South Korean government and 

citizens.

Taking the African continent into consideration, Madagascar, for instance, spent so much in 

strengthening laboratory capacity for diagnostics; improving regional and district surveillances, 

including data systems and training of community health volunteers which led to the production 

of the 'COVID-19 Organics', a local herbal remedy claimed to prevent and cure the novel Corona 

virus. In no time, a consignment of the cure was donated to the Economic Community of West 

African States (ECOWAS) which was further distributed to a number of countries.

Indeed, there is interdependence between those who have and those who do not have and the act the poor and humbles the rich and exalts the poor.

Similarly, in Nigeria, Ubuntu is adequately utilized during this period of the pandemic; the 

Nigerian government employed various preventive measures to halt the aggravation of the 

pandemic. Such methods devised include close down of schools, markets and places of worship, 

building of isolation centres for infected persons, ban on interstate movement, social distancing 

and a host of others. The citizens in return did their best to abide by the rules to support the 

government.

Hence, it can be inferred that the sole functionality of the government or citizens cannot yield as 

much effects as when the two bodies join hands.

In conclusion, we all should embrace interconnectivity and perceive it as a stepping stone to 

the betterment of humanity.

WE ARE WHO WE ARE BECAUSE OTHERS ARE WHAT THAT THEY ARE.

Thanks for reading

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