Everyone in the world has been impacted by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. It’s an unprecedented shift that has forced us all to adapt and react to changing circumstances.
While most people have been taking necessary common sense precautions, others are “panic buying,” rushing to stores and bulking up on supplies like toilet paper.
The resulting mayhem in stores has led to a shortage of vital products many families and elderly can’t live without. Unfortunately, many are thinking only of themselves, but we’re not in this alone and we must not forget those who are more vulnerable than we are.
Maybe that’s why I got so upset when I saw this picture, which is currently being circulated in social media.
It shows an elderly woman staring at the empty shelves of a Coles supermarket in Melbourne, Australia, as shoppers continue to hoard groceries.
According to the Daily Mail, the heartbreaking photograph was taken in the canned food aisle on Thursday.
Local journalist Seb Costello posted the image on Twitter and told his followers that the elderly woman was ‘in tears’.
‘This captures who is suffering from the me-first, unnecessary, trend of panic buying,’ he wrote.
”It’s ridiculous”
Panicked shoppers at Coles have stripped shop shelves of everything from flour to disinfectant and brawled over toilet paper during the last weeks.
The hoarding has made the country’s prime minister furious.
“It’s been one of the most disappointing things I’ve seen in Australian behavior in response to this crisis,” Morrison said at a press conference Wednesday. “It’s ridiculous, it’s un-Australian and it must stop. I can’t be more blunt about it. Stop hoarding.”
This emergency has really exposed some of the worst behaviour in humanity and I hope that this picture can be spread all over the world, so that everybody understands that this is not who we are.
We are strong, generous, caring and united. We need to help others not take for ourselves – share this article on Facebook if you agree with me!