A stitch in time.

Victoria is right now in its 4^th week of its stage 4 restrictions, which was enforced starting August 2^nd. This is more of a curfew than a simple restriction and is far stricter and fine grained than the earlier restrictions. And it seems to be working. Take a look at the graph of new cases being reported in the state of Victoria.

The 2^nd of August is right in the middle of this graph, when the number of cases being reported was at its peak. And then the counts go down gradually, as soon as the curfew hits the city, and later the state completely. It is a familiar pattern, the number of infections decrease as soon as the primary vector, humans ,are immobilised. Everyone is staying locked in , until 13^th September, the date these restrictions are scheduled to end.

Simply put, a stitch in time saves nine.

It is not , and was never, that easy to ask Victorians to stay in. Aussies are an outdoorsy folk, the live outside, under the sun and in the rain. They could maybe stay in a few weeks, but definitely not in months. All through this period, there have been conspiracy theorists and plain idiots calling for a boycott of the curfews, asserting falsely, that it violates their ‘freedom of movement’, whatever that means. There were also calls from small business owners to re-open in a controlled way, in order to bring back much needed business. Add to this the bunch the virus deniers and anti-vaxxers, you have a gathering of monsters to control. Having never experience a war first hand, and not used to being ruled under a regime, people here take their own personal freedom for granted, and not  a privilege. The only thing the country had going for it was the small population. At 25 million people, there are more people in the state of Kerala in India than the total population of Australia and New Zealand combined ! So some police presence on the road, and the new of Australian Defence Forces patrolling the streets was enough to herd in the dissenters. And of course, the heavy fines 😊.

So verdict ? It seems to be working. One can only hope the course will hold steady until the counts come down to 0. And hopefully, this will the last time this lesson need to be learnt. This is our second time doing this, remember ?

Can’t go back. There can not be a third wave.

Optimistically nostalgic

Quarantine makes you do funny things. Lately, I have been feeling nostalgic , more  than usual. I think it is a collective phenomenon, I have been seen more posts on Twitter and facebook about others also on a nostalgic memory trip. It is clear now that we live in a much more complicated world today, and we all yearn to live in a little more simpler times.

There is no denying it, the 90s was the best decade to live in India. Especially late 90s, and early 2000s, the transition to the new century and new millennium. We made such a big hype and hoopla about it, the move into the new millennium. Year 2000 was supposed to usher in the futuristic years, it had a certain ring to it, and it promised changes, and a better life. As kids, we loved all of this, a phenomenon that only occurs once in a thousand years. We are gen-x, and we would grow up and shape the coming decades. There was so much optimism in the air back then.

Not that it did not happen, it did. Changes did come, and life did get better, for most of us. But it also became faster. Without realizing it, we ushered in a new decade of being late, of getting busier. Despite all the technological advancements, people are always in a hurry, to get to places, to get more work done in the same 24 hour period. And that , for me is the big irony of the internet age.

Reminds me of that poem , Leisure , by W H Davies.

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

 

And these are precisely the kind of things I used to do as a child. Walk and run in wide open spaces, looking at sheep and cows, climb trees, smell the flowers. Enjoying the stars at night, listening to sounds of owls, crickets and frogs. I had a cycle, literally grew up on one, which I used to pedal everywhere. And had a bunch of friends to meet and hangout with almost everyday. By mid 90s, new channels started appearing on the TVs, and internet arrived by the late 90s. But these were all so expensive, and out of the budget of kids like ourselves. So we would go out to a café and send and email, but also meet the recipient later in the day, and tell them we had emailed them. So the next day, they would visit the café and read that email.

Waste of time ? Sure. Waste of money ? 100 %!! But it was fun. And we did all this knowing we needn’t worry too much about the future. A bright, and optimistic future where there would be no problems, and everyone was happy, and had time for each other. Something told us we could still enjoy the outdoors, and each other’s company well into our thirties. In fact, we all wanted to grow up so fast. Thirties was the age to be in !!

Nothing could be farther from the truth. The thirties suck. Unless you have a few good things to look forward to. Small pockets of joy to nurture yourself on, and small challenges to overcome. Watching movies about contagions is one thing, living through that hell is something far worse. The only thing one can have in these difficult time is hope.

If you can’t hope to go back, you can always hope for a better future.

 

 

 

Its worse the second time.

The last few weeks have been really weird living in Melbourne . The city is usually crowded with people walking in long winter jackets. It sometimes rains suddenly without warning , and people run to the nearest shelter. The days are very short , and people lap up multiple cups of coffee and run in the parks. Pubss, restaurants, hotels are always full, no matter what time of the day it is .

But you would be hard pressed to realise that this is the same city we're living in right now. There is nobody outside, absolutely nobody. Melbourne is now in a stage four locked on restriction. State of Victoria is in stage three locked on restriction. until a few years ago, Melbourne was known as the best city to live in the whole world. The irony of it. Despite being a properly planned city , with excellent infrastructure and better than average governance, the city has gone to the dogs. If you people, mind you are very few small number of people, never thought of staying in during the restrictions imposed in the first wave lockdown. And now the larger city and the entire state is paying its price for it .

It's always tougher the second time around. During the first wave lockdowns, the people were largely confident that we will be able to easily beat the coronavirus . After all we are the Australia ,the country which survived the last recession. Even when the lockdowns were announced, there was sheer optimism on the walls and on the internet . Those storeys of optimism going around , people were donating money to the poor, the needy, the sick . people for donating things like toilet paper dried foods to those in need. Many were keeping teddy bears on the windowsills so children could count them . But the second time around stop that optimism is gone for the better. the number of positive cases is now more than three times the big count from the first wave . More people have died . There is nothing to be optimistic about.

Countries like Australia have a problem, they have never seen Days of restriction. The citizens often strike and shut down the streets, but they have never seen a day when the government shuts down the streets and forced people to stay home. such things are only heard of from developing nations like India, or a failed state like the current USA. People here have always been free, as a country and as individuals. So when a law is passed requiring them to give up those freedoms, they don't know how to react. For the average Australian, giving up a full few days of freedom is OK, but anything more than a week and the people will start to revolt. They don't understand staying in . These are people who spend more time outdoors than inside their homes anyway.

But there's always a first time , specially days like this pandemic. There's a lot riding on this latest stage for restriction. It's not only the entire country, but the entire world watching us right now. It is essential for everybody in the country to follow the government imposed restrictions this next couple of weeks in order to ensure we come out clean on the other side. As I've said before, we are at war . We are fighting an invisible enemy. But the good thing is we don't have to go out and fight listen to me.

All we have to do is shut up and stay home.

Internet is a weak substitute

This is a great interview with Jia Tolentino in Interview magazine. Take for instance her answer to the question “What has this pandemic confirmed or reinforced about your view of society?”:

That capitalist individualism has turned into a death cult; that the internet is a weak substitute for physical presence; that this country criminally undervalues its most important people and its most important forms of labor; that we’re incentivized through online mechanisms to value the representation of something (like justice) over the thing itself; that most of us hold more unknown potential, more negative capability, than we’re accustomed to accessing; that the material conditions of life in America are constructed and maintained by those best set up to exploit them; and that the way we live is not inevitable at all.

From later in the interview:

I think the American obsession with symbolic freedom has to be traded for a desire for actual freedom: the freedom to get sick without knowing it could bankrupt you, the freedom for your peers to live life without fearing they’ll be killed by police. The dream of collective well-being has to outweigh, day-to-day, the dream of individual success.

 

Doing the right thing is always tough.

The great state of Victoria is right now the laughing stock and the black sheep in Australia. With rising counts of COVID-19 cases, clearly pointing to large scale community transmission leading to a second peak, and the inability of the government to prioritize resident health over revitalising the economy has clearly shown the lack of strong leadership in the state. And the relative outstanding performance of other states, even neighbouring states, paints a bleak picture for Vic. If these other states can efficiently manage these numbers, why can’t us ?

This is the same failing leadership which was on display during last year’s bush fires. Yes, that was just last year. This ‘wait and watch’ approach to emergency situations is something typically seen in developing nations. It does not sit well in such a developed country.

The truth is, the people in power know what the right thing to do is. But can’t. It takes courage, and commitment, to do the right thing.

The kids in the government need to grow up.