WeekWatch for 30th March 2020
Balina Rai (Dhesi)
Wealth Management Consultant at Lawrence Neil Wealth Management Limited
Fiesole, in the hills above Florence, felt very empty in 1348. As Boccaccio described in The Decameron, this was because the locals had gone into self-isolation to avoid catching and passing on the plague. But his work, in which a group of ten young Fiesole women and men isolate themselves together on a country estate, and tell each other stories, was one of the starting points for the Renaissance.
The current lockdown reflects the grim realities of our own times. The global virus has now claimed more than 35,000 lives and is causing enormous social upheaval, in terms of lost jobs, isolation and uncertainty over the future. But amid these horrors, it is perhaps all the more important to recognise the few chinks of light; not least the fresh appreciation shown to NHS workers in the UK, and to healthcare professionals more generally around the world.