Corona - "Silence is Golden"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n03g8nsaBro

The 1960's - I was in my 20's, newly married & an unexpected mother. Well not unexpected after 9 months obviously! It was a good decade for pop music - The Beatles, Cilla Black, The Animals, Manfred Man....

I have never been able to work to the sound of background music, but music has always been very important to me. I'm very eclectic, I like classical, choral, opera, jazz, blues, pop. The pop songs of the 60's to the 90's are the ones I still know the words to.

My point is that music is really important to human beings. Worldwide we have had different musical styles since the earliest times. Good music reaches the parts other things can't reach & often sums up how we feel. There is a close emotional involvement with music of all types. We really need it to be happy.

So the song "Silence is Golden" resonates with me at the moment. Because of memories & also because silence is a new phenomenon living in a city in the time of Covid. (Apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez).

Yes there are people out & yes there are solitary cars on my street. But nothing like how it was 3 short weeks ago. Life has changed, the cities have changed. The threat of Covid 19 looms everywhere. The sun is shining, the birds sing, the trees are clothed in leaf & & blossom. Our spectacular world continues it's seasons, oblivious to the silent threat to all of us humans.

Maybe it is only fair. We humans have threatened the natural world for decades. We humans created the circumstances for this new silent threat to exist. One theory is that the virus mutated & moved from a bat to a Pangolin to a human via a live animal market in Wuhan.

However this virus arrived it is threatening us in ways we were ill prepared for. Maybe the silence will give us the time to think.

Corona - Questions, Questions

Everyone wants answers. On a global level what we all have to adjust to is that there often aren't any. Even if there are, they are frequently just speculation & for every answer there is a counter opinion. Then there are all the conspiracy theories & the fake news.

On a personal level, if you are in the least introspective, you have to question a lot of your preconceived ideas & habits, especially if you are unable to go out at all. We all have to be able to learn the lessons this virus is showing us.

I am wondering what the main purpose of my life is, and whether it is what I thought it was. I, like all of us, am driven by nature, nurture, personality, habit, routine, learned experience.....All of that makes me behave in the way I do. This pandemic should maybe make me try to alter some of the patterns of behaviour & thought that I have taken for granted for years. We all have the opportunity to be better human beings.

Returning to the question of questioning - When this all ends I want to know what effect the shut down of society as we know it has had on our world:-

Human Rights - Homeless people, workers on zero-hour contracts and women who face
domestic abuse….How are we caring for them? Emergency legislation, how do we control it?

Animal Rights – Endangered Species – Are they better off / worse off / more secure, during
the crisis?

Biodiversity – Impact on deforestation, mining….? Should we be actively involved
in supporting the search for natural remedies for controlling disease?

Climate Change – Who is monitoring the impact of Covid e.g. reductions in emissions
worldwide.

Peaceful Co-operation – This pandemic is highlighting the resourcefulness & caring of populations. Amazing ideas are happening worldwide - Are we keeping a record of initiatives for future development & use, e.g the use of social media & technology.

Systems & Infrastructure – Are broken. Too much power rests with hugely wealthy individuals & multinational corporations. What have they contributed to this battle with the pandemic? What should we expect them to do in the future?  

Who is collating the all the evidence which emerges during this pandemic - Charities? We need answers & evidence to devise a "Charter for the Future" after Covid. I hope we get one, otherwise what is the point?

 

Corona - 12 days & counting

It's been 12 days in my house on my own. I did cross the road to have a social distancing conversation with 2 friends a few days ago, which was lovely. My wonderful daughter comes regularly & brings me bits of shopping & tasty treats she has made for her family. We have a conversation with me in the doorway & her half way across the road - no traffic of course.

I've also had to have my plumbers in the house, but kept a reasonable distance away from them. I was so grateful that they came. My underfloor central heating packed up at the beginning of this week. They came on Wednesday & it's an electrical problem, not a water leak thank goodness. The electrician was supposed to come yesterday to tell me which one of 2 different parts to order, (all the suppliers have closed down because of Covid so I have to order & hope they will deliver). Now he's not coming till Monday. Also my ensuite shower stopped producing hot water last week. The plumbers couldn't get a replacement part, (it was only 6 months old, so was under guarantee), because of suppliers being closed. Now my computer has got serious issues & Steve, who is my techie Guru, says I should back everything up while I still can & buy a new one ASAP. It's all extremely frustrating & time consuming. As if being incarcerated wasn't bad enough!

But, on the bright side, I don't have Covid 19. All the family are fine too thank goodness. It's important to keep a sense of perspective in light of the horrifying stories coming from around the world. What have I got to complain about?

To be honest its fine really. I keep in contact with a lot of people - by WhatsApp, text, email, phone, Zoom videoconferencing. The days are always busy, but I'm too sedentary. I spend far too much time on the computer. I need to have a list of jobs to be done & a timetable for the day with time to exercise, relax, do something creative & meditate in there, so I don't just keep working all day.

I'm too task oriented. It will be a battle with myself.

Corona - Restrictions & Liberation

As with most things in life people can look at this Pandemic positively or negatively. It can be an opportunity or a limitation. It all depends on your mindset & your circumstances.

I'm not ignoring the traumatic & heart rending suffering that Covid 19 has caused. People are suffering serious illness, hugely difficult working conditions & feelings of hopelessness & fear.

I am trying to see a little light in the darkness. The majority of people are  experiencing a way of life that few anticipated. We have to adapt & cope with that, helping eachother where we can. But we have the chance, given the limitations we are experiencing, to grasp things we had lost -

• Time - to think, to be,to do things we never had time for before.
• Opportunity - to get rid of things we thought were important, but we now realise aren't. To simplify our lives back to the things which really matter.
• Possibilities - we didn't have time to recognise or act on previously.
• People - we had lost touch with.
• Ourselves - lost in the daily routine of home, family, work, social life...
• Perspective - of our world, our place in it & what we are doing to it.

I could go on, but I'm sure you see the pattern of my thinking. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to re-assess so much. To change things that really need to be changed. To work collaboratively with others wherever they are. To make better decisions for people & the planet. To share resources & information. To make peoples lives fairer & more equitable.

This is a real chance, which if we ignore it, will send us continuing along the old path leading to loss. Loss of human dignity, species loss, habitat loss, resources loss & ultimately possibly the loss of life as we knew it.

We can triumph over a Pandemic. But more than that we can triumph over ourselves & our destructive behaviours. It might be the existential tipping point of actual survival.

Corona - Who keeps the lights on?

I wonder if Covid 19 will permanently change the "pecking order" of society?

Suddenly we realise how important many workers on euphemistic "contracts" are - Zero Hours, Fixed Term, Agency Staff, the Self Employed. Also people on the "National Living Wage" (£8.72 for 25's & over). All of these people provide important services to society. All of them live on the knife edge of no work. All of them are counted as employed. Unemployment was supposedly running at 3.6% in May 2019.

Now all of these people are potentially devastated by Covid 19. Their rights are not the same as people in full time employment. They will be the "collateral damage", another euphemism, of this Pandemic.

Brexit & Covid 19 have tested everyone to the limit. Ironically the first divided us into armed camps & now the latter is bringing us together again. Sadly it has taken a Pandemic plague to do that.

Some good has to come out of all this. If that benefit is that we finally understand that everyone, workers & volunteers, is important to the running of our very complex society, then I for one will be delighted.

The wealthy, the capitalists, the entrepreneurs & even the aristocracy cannot function without us. Hopefully now they actually realise that. Those with inestimable wealth achieved that through the work of others, or an accident of birth. We need everyone to realise that huge wealth, salaries, bonuses & perks are going to be seen in a new light post Covid 19. The workers, those on the "front lines" understand, in a way that others didn't, that they are what keeps consumerism & capitalism going.

Covid 19 kills indiscriminaltely. It will seriously affect the lives of many people - rich & poor. But probably mostly poor. However the rich will know, too late, that they can't take their wealth with them. It would have been better to share it more equitably as Bill & Miranda Gates have been doing for years.

https://www.biopharma-reporter.com/Article/2020/03/26/Gates-Foundation-partners-with-industry-on-coronavirus

Corona - Dying to Live

Italy now has more than double the total deaths notified than China. 6077 as opposed to 3270 - That is supposing that the figures are accurate, which of course they probably aren't. The UK has moved up to 7th position in the daily death chart.

 

We are at a stage when, if we do what we have been instructed, we can possibly change the course of the disease in the UK. But we aren't doing what we have been told - yet. 

Italy, which has been devastated by this disease, does not seem to have had the same huge problems with non compliance by their population. That despite the fact they have a Maditerranian, very social culture. They have not been food stockpiling in the way self serving people in the UK have. They shop differently - mostly daily & local. I have friends in Lake Como & they haven't had any problems at all, but they don't go into the city to big supermarkets. However the Italians have a much bigger police force than we do. Italy has 456 police per 100,000 people, England & Wales have 208.

Compliance may come down to whether the new measures are enforcable by our police & maybe armed forces. The Army are already in place on the outskirts of London and across the country. We are used to policing by consent. This will be a completely different ball game - Fines of £30 to £1,000 if you don't comply with the emergency measures. We may be asked for identification.

This is not life as we know it. But we don't want people to die unnecessarily. We need to be individually responsible for our actions. If we allow fear & greed to win people will die so that selfish people can live.

 

Corona - Society Unravelling

My lovely husband was a "glass half empty" person. He insisted we had a conversation about what we would do if society as we knew it, fell apart, over 11 years ago. None of the scenarios he considered likely related to a Pandemic. Currently I truly miss the support he would have given me more than ever, but I'm glad he isn't here to see this.

People are not just selfishly stockpiling & panic buying, apparently they are forcing their way into supermarkets & queue jumping at times designated for the elderly , the infirm & key workers.

Supermarket websites are going down because of the volume of traffic. I'm unable to get onto Sainsburys website to register for home delivery despite being "at risk". In fact we are in danger of the internet going down completely as servers can't cope.

People are ignoring safety precautions, not keeping to safe distances.

One by one everything is closing down - pubs, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, the National Trust... Public transport is operating on emergency timetables & rail networks have been taken over by the state. The Government is likely to impliment Emergency Legislation very soon, including imposing fines on non compliance & changes to death & funeral arrangements. The army is on standby.

We have new words in our vocabulary - social distancing, self isolating
https://www.dictionary.com/e/coronavirus-words/

We have new behaviours - handwashing singing "Happy Birthday to you twice"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51914645

We have become information junkies
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-51235105

This is life changing for everyone & even life ending for many. It seems to me that the important thing is how we each deal with this. What lessons we learn individually & collectively. Do we succumb to greed, self interest & panic? Or do we discover our innate social & personal humanity?

"To be (good) or not to be, that is the question"