Friday, May 15, 2020

The New Covid World


I recently helped someone in the family set up a blog and I was telling him about my experience writing this blog. I can’t believe I started this over 16 years ago. The world sure has changed over these years.

I was looking back at the earlier posts and it puts a smile on my face. Things seem so innocent back then. The posts were light, a few drunken posts and a few rants here and there. As the years went on, there seemed to be more rants, less light and fun posts. I don’t think the drunkenness stopped, but staying up to write about it certainly did.

I’m not sad about the changes. I have been lucky and live an amazing life today. It’s been quite a journey to get here.

So 2020 came and with it a pandemic. Not sure 2004 me would’ve guess that. Although to be fair, I was all about a zombie apocalypse and this is probably the closest it’s going to get (let’s see how well that sentence ages). It was interesting to see how different countries reacted to this crisis. I think there are 3 general groups. Countries that are sensible and listened to health advisors to shut down to stop the spread. Countries that would like to be sensible, but doesn’t have the resources to actually shut down. Finally, there are the countries that are led by incompetent conman who doesn’t lift a finger while the disease destroy its citizens.

The world is about 5 months into this crisis, and the results are starting to show. Viruses doesn’t care about your politics. Viruses certainly doesn’t care if you believe it exists or not. As I type this post, there are 4.4 Million confirm cases with 300k deaths around the world. These figures are probably 30-50% lower than actual numbers with the US leading the way (by a long shot) in both categories.
I might have a separate post dedicated to Covid-19, but for now, I’m expecting a 2nd wave that should be worst than the first wave as countries are opening up. Just as the infection rates are increasing. People are going to die. A lot of people, but hey, the economy is more important right?

I switch between sad and angry during this period. There is a class of people who have never experienced any type of inconvenience feels as they’re being oppressed. Those who work to comfort this class are being force to go to work, and doing so, endangering their family and their own lives through infections. There’s this spin out there that they are essential workers. They’re not. They’re hostages. You get to work from the comfort of your own home. They have to go out there to work or their family will starve. Face the virus or face starvation. Your choice. Isn’t having freedom in a capitalistic society great?

While we’re in lockdown, I hope to get back into these posts. Maybe I’ll even get a few drunk ones on here.