COVID-19 is a frightening viral pandemic, primarily affecting the respiratory system, at times, involving other body organs. Indeed, it has brought havoc all over the world, irrespective of who we are, where we live, and what we do for living. The rapid spread of the disease and fatalities in an ever-increasing number is generating fear as well as anxiety in the world at-large, and for the right reasons. Social media has been continuously bombarding us with Corona! Corona and Corona! In fact, so much information is being provided every moment of the day, that there seems to be no space left in the brain to absorb any more. Consequently, some of us have tried to keep away from the information overload about this disease.
However, one of the aspects of human behavior that has shown its ugly head in the beginning of this pandemic with its negative and dangerous tentacles, is that of
‘Hoarding’. The hoarding as per Wikipedia is “the practice of obtaining and holding resources to create artificial scarcity thus reducing the supply, to increase the price, so that they can be sold to customers for profit”. ‘Make hay while the Sun shines’, is what the hoarders, i.e. less than honest individuals start to practice when they find the ground fertile for their nefarious activities. Though not consistent with good moral values, it sure enough brings a lot of gains to the hoarders but at the expense of causing tremendous pain and difficulties for the general public.
This phenomenon, by no means, is new; In fact, mankind, ever since the beginning of civilization, has always exhibited its tendency whenever there is a natural calamity, civil unrest, threat of a spreading disaster, or impending war. The people are overcome with a belief that in the coming times, there would be shortage of certain food items and other essentials, such as cooking gas, gasoline, other kitchen stuff as well as toiletries needed for subsistence. Hence a necessity is felt to collect and store those items; sometimes more, rather way more, than their actual need.
Tracing the history of hoarding during the last century, one learns that the definition provided above did, indeed, hold true during various calamities befallen upon this country and elsewhere. One American tragedy related to the era of World War II immediately comes to mind when the item mostly hoarded was all-woolen clothing. The other materials targeted were food-items such as sugar, meat, cheese, canned fish, and canned milk. Shortage of these important food items resulted in bigger profits for the hoarders. At least one fifth of all-American businesses were legally warned of Black-market activity.
The present pandemic of COVID-19 brought forth exactly the same past behavior, that had been evident in several past disasters. As soon as people realized that social distancing, self-isolation or forced lock-down, as happened in certain countries, is upon the horizon and possibly for a longer period of time, some individuals began to grab and hoard ‘essentials’ or what they felt were ‘essentials. Mega-stores like Costco and Walmart, as well as other major grocery stores ran out of the toilet papers, paper towels, sanitizers and other articles of personal protection such as glove and masks. The impression was being projected, as if there would be no tomorrow?
The oft-taught moral concept by various faiths that ‘we all happen to be the sons and daughters of the same Power and hence brothers and sisters’, was thrown out of the window in no time. ‘I, me and my family came first, and hell with the rest’ became the only objective. Toilet paper turned out to be the highly sought-after piece of commodity. In fact, people started to hoard it in cartloads, equal to what they might need for several months. On March 13, when the pandemic was in relative early stages, Megan Schmidt reported in ‘Discover’ that a coffee shop in Australia initiated to accept toilet paper as Currency. In another situation, one Hong Kong store was robbed of 600 rolls of toilet paper-a heist of merely 130 dollars. An article in ‘Your Military’ on March 24th by Claire Barreett reported, one person hoarded over 17,700 bottles of sanitizer for selling it later at a profit.
As is obvious, the hoarding is not only seen or limited to US, by any stretch of imagination, rather, it is a universal phenomenon affecting all groups of people. It does not only manifest in the people at the bottom of the pole, rather, higher-ups in the society tend to dive in it equally, albeit in a sophisticated way so as not to get caught. Hoarding makes no distinction between sexes and it does not believe in color discrimination. Men vs. women, black vs. white as well as everyone in between, would exhibit this kind of attitude based on what they perceive their needs would likely be.
Of course, the economically weaker countries of the world, such as my native country and the so-called other Third World Countries (though I personally hate this label) have been infested with it since ages. Not hidden from most of us, the diaspora members, the shortage of various articles of food etc. as a result of hoarding during conflicts of any sort, be it a communal riot or others, has been often noted in our birth country. Even in the recent past, we have witnessed a shortage of onions or tomatoes, the articles of daily use leading people to get into hoarding mode. Of course, not everyone adopts that attitude with exceptions here and there.
Behavior of hoarding may also be displayed by some people due to personal attachment to their possessions. Reflecting a significant sentimental value, way more than functional use, it gets incorporated in their psyche to an extent that a mere thought of discarding them may cause severe anxiety with a worry as to what might happen should they need them in future. ‘An overwhelming desire to collect begins to supervene with their inability to discard even those items for which they may not have any use in future’. Many among us have garages, full of these items that have not been used ever since we bought our houses. Ironically, the individuals affected with this thought seem to know about their behavior, more or less.
Hoarding in itself is not a good practice no matter which way one looks at it, but more so, if practiced with the intent of making money and not staying sensitive to the needs of general public. Many of us must have learnt about it in the hard way during the present crisis brought upon us by the COVID-19 and hopefully it will stick with us, much after this monster is washed out of our lives. Let us hope it happens sooner than later!
author of five books related to diaspora issues
