Opinion - Aesop was a slave who lived in ancient Greece about 500 to 600 years before the time Christians believe Jesus Christ was born. He was a great storyteller. And each of his stories had a moral.
The Ant and the Grasshopper was one of his most well-known fables. It tells the story of a hungry grasshopper who comes to a colony of ants, begging for food.
The ants question the grasshopper about why he had not stored any food in summer for winter. The grasshopper responded that he was so busy making music he didn’t realise how quickly time had passed.
The moral of the story was that there is a time for work and a time for play.
In other versions, the moral of the story is that one has to work hard and plan for the future in order to survive.
Today, our species finds itself in a winter of a different kind, one brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. With more than 100 countries in a partial or full lockdown, the world economy is grinding to a halt.
Like the ants, the rich countries, companies and individuals who have enough saved will survive. Those, like the grasshopper, who didn’t are in grave danger.
However, the reality of our world means that most people do not choose whether they want to be an ant or a grasshopper. More often than not, their place of birth determines this.
We know that inequality in South Africa is a result of apartheid and our inability to address it since democracy.
As our President pointed out in his weekly address to the nation this week: “There can be no greater injustice than a society where some live in comfort and plenty, while others struggle at the margins to survive with little or nothing at all.
“Yes, these are the residual effects of a fractured and unequal past. But they are also a symptom of a fundamental failing in our post-apartheid society.”
It is likely that, in the coming days, the lockdown will be eased to some extent. But, by no means will life go back to what it was.
Many will continue working from home. Some sectors, like the entertainment industry, will probably remain closed for some time.
For other sectors, like tourism and hospitality, the wait will be even longer.
Many workers have been forced to take lower salaries. Others have lost their jobs. The only certainty amid the uncertainty is that the worst is yet to come, especially for South Africa and Africa.
In Aesop’s original version of The Ant and the Grasshopper, the ants do not help and the grasshopper dies. But hundreds of years have passed and, in that time, great leaders have taught us a higher level of morality. In this winter we expect much more of the ants.