Christmas is upon us, so exciting! And digging through my old posts from this time last year (so I don’t repeat my favourite Christmas topics: shopping locally, connecting with loved ones and walking the middle path) I realised that on the 17/12/21, Australia was forced into a two-tiered society. Those of pro-choice status had many of their civil rights removed: barred from restaurants, places of employment and from hospitals. Overnight they became the pariahs of society, denied basic human rights as a taxpayer and as a world citizen under the Nuremberg code. Wow, what a horrible revisit of very recent history. The unreality of that time just 12 months ago all came back and made me realise how easy it is to be distracted, never learning from history and encouraged in recent months to kiss and make up and forget how we treated this group of people who did not agree with the mass rhetoric.

This societal ruling went against many Institutions of democracy like the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966 (ICCPR) that states that: Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference. Obviously that UN ruling was ignored, but history proves that we as societies dislike and ostracise people who conflict with our strong held beliefs. The world was steeped in fear, held hostage by the coronavirus. We feared catching it, we feared for our loved ones and that fear was fuelled by a nonstop mass media rhetoric. And no matter what your belief was and what stance you took, the majority caught this virus anyway. Morally, economically and socially we are now experiencing the fallout of many of those policies.

And maybe those naysayers were onto something. Did you know that according to Oxfam, from 2021 to 2022 the wealth of the world’s billionaires’ has risen more since COVID-19 began than it has in the last 14 years? At $5 trillion dollars, this is the biggest surge in billionaire wealth since records began, and this is the biggest transfer of wealth from the common man to the world’s richest people. In 2022, Moderna and Pfizer are expected to make $64bn (USD) from COVID vaccines alone which we, the world taxpayer, will pay for. Considering the 2022 GDP in Burundi is expected to reach $3bn (USD), do you notice the disparity in wealth distribution? 

In the world of yoga we are encouraged to embrace tolerance and uncertainty. We attempt to confront the apartheid of our beliefs. As we get to know our dark and light sides, we learn to accept the differences of others. Taking inspiration from one of the greatest prophets ever, Jesus, who never went along with popular rhetoric as he lived and preached freedom and truth: "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32).

The Yoga studio is closed from 18/12/22 and reopens 16/1/23. Wishing my students and readers a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

Margot Wagner
Yoga Under the Bodhi Tree


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