For several weeks we have had the first news of a highly contagious and deadly virus from East Asia. Weeks since we began to witness an international health alarm in the media day and night. This disease has already caused more than 1,000 deaths in China, and outside China there are also two deaths due to the same disease. Dozens of countries around the world have confirmed the contagion, and it seems that we are facing the greatest health catastrophe suffered by humanity in recent years, along with Ebola.

No one doubts the seriousness of the situation, because the numbers are there and the contamination of the disease is undeniable. However, we should not turn our eyes solely towards these facts. They bring us closer, and because in our peoples we have situations as deadly and serious as the virus. Since the beginning of this year 2020, eleven people have lost their lives in their jobs; the last, on 4 February, fell the crane that a 60-year-old man in Santurtzi was driving and died on the spot. The haemorrhage left so far by “accidents” at work does not seem to be interrupted if things do not change. Although some trade unions and social partners denounce that precariousness is primarily responsible for these accidents, nobody seems to be doing anything to put an end to what, unfortunately, has become a day to day.

We should not forget, on the other hand, the ten women who have been murdered in the state by gender-based violence so far this month and a half. The so-called coronavirus makes us turn our heads away, forgetting women killed by stabbing, hanging or throwing in our homes and streets. In the last five years, the number of cases of women who have suffered gender-based violence has increased, and it is not surprising given the current educational system. Instead of being the axis of feminist education, “we are at the forefront” of the Basque Government funding Opus Dei and similar educational spaces. However, the usual media have not paid much attention to this issue, and Chinese President Xi Jinping will present us in his headboards images of how he was wearing a white mask on the streets of Beijing.

All of this shows how easily this society can be governed so that we only talk about what is in the interests of some people and do not take into account the evils we have around us. I insist that the coronavirus should continue to appear in the sections of the news, but it would be most appropriate to control its excessive presence, so that it does not stop at such unfortunate and serious situations, and so that people, in addition to being informed of what is happening thousands of kilometres, are also aware of the events surrounding it. All this allows the individual to develop his/her critical thinking and become involved in demands that guide him/her towards better living conditions. I should like to use the last words to cast a cry and a cry to stop the massacre of workers and women.

Don't be silenced. Let's keep filling the streets.

University student