First World Issues

The start of this saga in my life was the sound of someone banging on my door at two in the morning. My friend was waking me up to inform me that Trump announced that as of midnight the next day, we would be barred from entry into the United States. I immediately called my parents, who were in the process of boarding a flight from Atlanta to Brussels. After a short, tearful phone call, I learned that my parents would not be visiting me, and my return flight to Atlanta had been booked for the next day.

The ironic thing about the whole situation was less than an hour later Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad F. Wolf announced that Trump made an error in his address to the nation and that the ban did not apply to "legal permanent citizens." At that point, it was too late; I was going home.

In a matter of ten minutes, my life was changed. A trip I had been planning for 3 years over with. The worst part of it all was I never even got to say goodbye to my internships. At the time of us getting sent home, the John Hopkins map tracking the spread of the virus reported around 350 cases in Belgium. I had left work that day confident that the spread would not disrupt my life, especially since even the European Parliament had no inkling of taking such measures.

The week where "everything hit the fan," I was supposed to be in Strasbourg for the monthly plenary sessions. After a month of anticipation and planning for what would be the most significant experience of my political career, it was announced by the parliament that it would be moved to Brussels. That made sense to me, and it seemed proactive, yet I was incredibly disappointed. My workload was suddenly cleared. All of the committee meetings, speeches, and briefings I had been preparing for my MEP were meaningless. I did my best to keep myself busy by watching the online footage of plenary sessions and reading up on democratic primaries in the US. Already my time at the parliament was disrupted, but I never thought I would have to abandon it. My supervisor had been on vacation for the last two weeks, and sick for another. I never thought that I would never see him again after a simple goodbye before his vacation.

The saddest thing about the whole situation is I don't think any of these precautionary measures will do anything to ease the pandemic. As of right now, John Hopkins reports 6,235 cases in Belgium and 220 deaths. The cases are accelerating in Europe and all across the world as more people are tested, and regulations are ignored. Time magazine writes that the outbreak has caused EU member states to "turn on each other" and report the inconsistency between the member states. The outbreak has made it visible what the priorities of the EU are, and the disparities between the infrastructure of various countries. I think the biggest blunder of not only Europe but the whole world is assuming that the virus spreading is the only problem. The coronavirus has shown that every nation falls victim to corporate greed, price gouging, lack of resources, and manipulation of the media. Western countries did nothing to prepare for the inevitable spread of the virus. A virus as contagious as COVID-19 was bound to make it to Europe and the states. The most disappointing thing is that no one cared or took the illness seriously when it was in China. Something only becomes a problem when it affects the ‘Western world”.

Kendall Gilcrease