Opinion The human factor
Covid-19 raises moral questions, and nations like Cuba and Cambodia are giving the humane answer
The government has rightly handed over the case to central agencies, and suspended Sivasankar, pending investigation. 
After Covid-19 has run its course — and it will, one day in the foreseeable future — there will be a reckoning of such incidents, when the kindness of strangers triumphed over the fear of contagion.
In the absence of either cure or vaccine, the coronavirus pandemic has forced governments to ruthlessly batten down all hatches. Millions of people have had their freedoms reduced or annulled, from China to Italy. Every day, hospitals stretched to the limit are facing the impossible choice of diverting scarce resources from the terminally ill to more viable patients. But while global attention remains obsessed with containment strategies, the coronavirus has raised moral questions. Some nations are responding humanely, and not blindly restraining the few in order to protect the many.
Cruise ships, which have been transmuted into prison ships by the virus outbreak, raise such questions. Should infected ships be cursed to sail the high seas forever like the Flying Dutchman, or should governments allow them to make landfall, despite local sentiment against the virus? Cuba has become the second nation to act for humanity’s sake, allowing the MS Braemar, which has been hithering and thithering in the Caribbean since February, to dock after being turned away by other nations in the region. Citing the right to life, the Cuban foreign ministry will arrange to repatriate sick passengers and crew to their home country, the UK.
In mid-February, Cambodia had also relied upon the human factor in taking a very difficult decision. It had allowed the cruise ship MS Westerdam to dock in Sihanoukville, after it was turned away by five ports in Thailand, Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines. The nation’s prime minister had pointedly gone to the pier to welcome disembarking passengers with flowers. After Covid-19 has run its course — and it will, one day in the foreseeable future — there will be a reckoning of such incidents, when the kindness of strangers triumphed over the fear of contagion.
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