There is a new epidemic in town, the mask-on-chin syndrome

Washing your hands when the soap and water has been provided should not be hard, yes? No. Not if you are a certain type of Ugandan. You will view the very act of being asked to wash your hands as a big inconvenience. If you don’t believe me, stand outside a busy mall or shopping centre and watch people being herded towards the washing points as if it is someone else who will catch coronavirus on their behalf.

We have reached that point where people will refuse to do everything the authorities ask them to do, even when it is for their own good. Such is the mistrust and tendency to disobey lawful orders that we refuse to follow the rules even when common sense says otherwise. You would hope that all drivers know why their cars were made with seatbelts but some people will wait until there is a traffic officer in sight before they scramble for the forgotten, dirty, disused seatbelt.

Now I could talk from sunup to sundown about wearing masks and it would not make the slightest difference to some. If you sit at a vantage point and watch a busy street in Kampala, you would be shocked at how many people pass by with masks draped across their ears and chins. There is a new epidemic in town and it is called mask-on-chin syndrome.

Interesting how you almost never see anyone walking around totally unmasked but there is this rather large part of the population that wants to show the President, the minister of Health and all the authorities, that they have ticked the right boxes. These people feel that by walking around with a mask in their handbag or hanging about their ears, they have done their part in fighting Covid-19.

Well, the government said we should have masks and now we have them. Why should we be expected to wear them? After all, the masks make us too hot, they are uncomfortable, they ruin our makeup, and we can’t talk from behind them….yadayadayada.

So if these things are so hard to wear, why not simply leave them at home and disobey the rules properly. Why the cat and mouse games?
What seemed like an easy intervention to stop the spread of Covid-19 is proving one of the hardest to enforce. When we see the police coming, when the boss says so, we will have no choice.

We will wear the masks when KCCA is arresting those not wearing masks. Then, we will start running and complaining. The same goes for partying and drinking in bars. Some of the same people tweeting Covid-19 statistics in the morning will be plotting how to throw a mega party in the evening or at the weekend. Breaking the rules is our thing. It is the cool thing to do.

Staying safe from Covid-19 is our thing too. We discuss the statistics; we brew lemon, ginger, garlic and all those concoctions while denying the very existence of the virus we are trying to prevent. We like to be bad but we also like to have a good, healthy life. We want to have the loaf of bread and eat chunks of it too.

While Covid-19 is a problem, it has exposed the real disease that is eating up the fabric of our society—the simple inability to accept what is right on its own merit, not because the government said so. A mask on the chin does nothing to prevent Covid-19, except perhaps to increase the number of weird-looking people walking around on the streets.

Ms Nampewo is a writer, editor and communications consultant
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