BY MARIETTE TUNN
In the first week of March there was a lot more attention given to a local drama than the coronavirus. When the drama ended that week, all of a sudden on the Friday afternoon, toilet tissues started rolling off the shelves, and triggered an avalanche of all makes of tissue paper, hand santitisers, disinfectants, disposable gloves and surgical masks, not into hospital trolleys, but supermarket trolleys.
The new world order
Have you lately been waking up in the morning wondering what day of the week it was? The many recent sudden changes that all happened at the same time have probably bewildered you and put you out of sync with your daily routine.Then you go to the bathroom to make your day’s first call. You walk past the mirror, and there, a mountain goat looks back at you. Ah! Don’t you miss your hairdresser!
Wait, is the compass still pointing north? Does it feel as though you are bent double forward and looking back at the world from between your legs? As the blood shoot to your head, the view is dizzying. Did not your friends tell you that you were being anti-social when you did not join their crowd? What is that now they are saying the new norm is, social distancing? Did not your family tell you that you should go out more to get more fresh air? Now they are telling you to stay at home.
How you wish someone could wake you up from this bad dream of contradictions! When you come in with the essential items from the few shops allowed to open, you still have the cleansing rituals to perform before you could get on with anything else in the house. What a chore! Three months ago, they would say you were over-reacting. If you wore a mask in January, people would have thought you were the one with either a medical or a mental condition. You could smile at this, though. If you have been suffering in silence because you thought you had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), worry no more! Now the reminder is everywhere telling people to do exactly what you have been doing all the time: Wash your hands!
In the first week of March there was a lot more attention given to a local drama than the corona. When the drama ended that week, all of a sudden on the Friday afternoon, toilet tissues started rolling off the shelves, and triggered an avalanche of all makes of tissue paper, hand santitisers, disinfectants, disposable gloves and surgical masks, not into hospital trolleys, but supermarket trolleys, to be wheeled out by the cartful to private cars. Why and how toilet tissue should make an issue is still a mystery.
That weekend the graveness began to unfold as numbers and statistics rolled out. The new government stepped to the front, to announce and execute the Wuhan tried and tested method of “Flatten the curve. Break the Chain.”
Overnight and with amazing learning speed, everyone was able to pick up concepts in mathematics and statistics to read and understand what the numbers and graphs mean, something that schools would have taken a good few class periods to even get students interested. The sudden quest for knowledge also forked into medical sciences, infectious diseases, virology and anything to do with coronavirus. Like a complex domino display to thrill, it spilled and released yet another frenzy.
Armed with their newly acquired, but sketchy knowledge of mathematics and microbiology, they began bombarding your smart phones with all sorts of advice and suggestions to prevent or cure symptoms of the coronavirus.
It ranged from putting a paste of garlic, onions and turmeric mix at your doorway to blowing hot air up your nostrils with a hair dryer! One elderly man even went so far as to make a video of himself demonstrating how inhaling the vapour from a freshly cut onion could cure the disease. They might be well intended, but in practice, these texts, photos, audios and videos only served to flood and jam phone lines.
The shootout from the overwhelming volume could potentially torpedo some serious calls and texts that were trying to get through. It would not be a surprise if Mark Zuckerberg was exasperated. Whatsapp quickly reduced the number of people a message could be forwarded to at a time. That significantly cut down the messaging frenzy by seventy percent.
Now, you can do cool things when you are the owner of Facebook and Whatsapp. The spread of the disease and the death tolls due to it around the world repeated the grim scenes from the world wars in the last century, of how the many unknown dead were given mass burial. Only this time the whole world is fighting a common and unseen enemy. The present enemy is elusive and has changed its guises 35 times already. By the looks of it, it is not any-minute monster that is easy to defeat. It will not happen that soon anyway because it takes time for scientists to find a cure for the symptoms and a vaccine to prevent the disease.
So after 48 days of self isolation, we are now gradually let out. However, it does not mean we are let loose. It is not the time yet to charge out in force. Not until such time when both a cure and a vaccine are found, we cannot let our hair down. Even if the movement control order (MCO) is lifted, we cannot expect to go back to our old ways which many would like to call the norm.
What is normal? Normal is when we are all alive and well. That haircut can wait. If not, learn to DIY. Yes, you value freedom. Accepting the order of the authorities to self-isolate is the only way to ensure you get real freedom back and get it back sooner. The authorities are the ones who compile the numbers to make well informed decisions on the best measures to take for the common good. It would be wise not to press for the total release of the movement control order too early. The curve is flattening but the chain is not yet broken. The bug must not be left half dead for it could get back up, morph and launch another attack which we might not be able to fend off because we are already economically weakened by the first one.
There is not a lot of reserves to sustain a long MCO. The risk of a second wave of infection is high if the MCO is lifted prematurely. As the government this week cautiously lifts the MCO to save the country from economic ruin, each and everyone of us must play our part as good citizens to ensure that this fragile and risky operation of lifting the lid is done correctly and smoothly. Should there be any sign of danger, the lid must be quickly put back on. This is because the already weakened economy simply cannot afford a second wave.
The “Stay At Home” orders are executed to save lives, your life included. Did you not look forward to the weekend, the public holidays or your annual leave so that you could just stay at home and chill? What’s the difference now? Appreciate that you can stay at home. Think of the frontliners who have to leave their families and put their lives on the line so that others may live.
It all happened very quickly. We have seen so many changes in a matter of just a few weeks. In this short time the pandemic has already changed our lives in many ways. It has significantly changed the way we work, the way we socialise, and the way we learn and educate our young. Many of these whirlwind changes will remain even after this storm blows over. We will get our freedom back, but it will not be in the way it used to be. Those were the days already.
May the 4th is only the beginning. Whether it will be the beginning of freedom or the beginning of doom, depends on you. Be prepared to put the lid back should it be necessary.
Unless it is necessary for you to go out, do stay at home. If you have to go out, keep your social distance. When you come home, wash your hands.
All these is the force for good. It is the new world order.
Keep safe. May the Force be with you. The new morn has dawned; embrace the new norm.
