DAY 25: ECQ

This morning somebody posted a video of an early market scene in one of the cities of Metro Manila.

A day or two before, somebody also posted a photograph of a group of men staging an informal cockfight on the middle of a narrow street to wile their time away.

From what I gathered, despite all the warnings and instructions given by the government there are still people, our fellow countrymen, who prefer to ignore these procedures of social distancing.  They actually think that the Enhanced Community Quarantine now dreadfully known as ECQ is just a euphemism for One Big Summer Holiday.

Scenes and reports like these makes one sigh with utmost frustration knowing that as long as these violations take place the degree of exposure and infection will not taper.  There is no way you can flatten the curve unless everybody behaves as a community and sees the importance of keeping away from each other.  

But the situation does not come across some people that way: they think that by maliciously, intentionally and deliberately going against the rules they are proving to others that they are oh-so-astig and that they could not give a damn about demands for conformity.

O di sige. When these same people are gasping for breath, clawing for air with their loved ones weeping in what Eugene Domingo called TV patrol hysterical crying, then they will scream for our help because they are the most pinakakawawa. 

In reality, they are.  

They are kawawa because they have been pre-conditioned to think that way. 

One time in a class, we were discussing about what media has done to literally misshapen the mindset of the Pinoys into thinking in a specific pa-victim mentality.  Oh, we can trace it all the way back to our misinterpretation of romantic agony brought about by Catholicism.  Nothing new here: the same ideas Dr. Rizal was talking about in his two best selling novels which are still as relevant today as it was more than a century ago.  As long as you condition people to think small, they will remain passive, reactive and never introspective.

We should really stop making poverty as an excuse either.  

Economic deprivation indeed incapacitates people from greater opportunities and therefore a far better future and life.  The more we should not foster a culture of mendicancy but that of empowerment.

We have our share of success stories ... and I am not referring to the telenovela martyr heroine who will be saved not by her own ingenuity and determination but because fate will play an important role and give her a prince ( who is rich, La Salle or Ateneo bred, will fight for her against all odds and bring her to that Neverland called Ever After).  The real life success stories involve struggle, hard work and the ability to transcend that embedded mindset that mahirap ako kaya hanggang dito lang ako.  The real success stories are those who worked hard and were therefore rewarded for their effort and their vision.

The true success stories came from those empowered not despite but because of poverty.  They were given an opportunity to regain their dignity by proving (not only to others) but to themselves that they were no different --- that they were capable of thinking and affecting the lives of others not only of themselves.

What irks me about scenes like the men staging a cockfight at midday when they have been told to stay home ... or women hanging around wearing masks but gossiping outside their homes while holding their walis tingtings or carrying their kids ... or people going to the wet market with a devil may care attitude about the pandemic in progress ... is that this is ignorance mixed with a tinge of entitlement.  Eh, mahirap ako, ano?  Kailangan ko ito ... hindi katulad nyong may kaya.

It has got nothing to do with poverty.  It has got everything to do with how one looks at oneself relative to his significance in society.

It is ignorance because these people were never really told about how dangerous it is not only for themselves but also for their loved ones to be out in the streets when it is unnecessary to do so.  It is ignorance because they think that the COVID19 is just another thing you see on TV and does not exist in real life because they have diminished everything they see on the tube as entertainment and not as a narration of facts and situation.

In so many ways we have fostered this kind of thinking.  We have perpetuated this delineation through the way we either romanticize poverty or miscalculate its true social significance.

Those who deliberately violate the rules do so because they are astig.  There is a certain perk to being pasaway because you rebel like some overgrown, over aged juvenile because you want to show to the world that despite your station in life, you've got the guts and the balls.  OK, fine. There must be a demented kind of honor in being the most feared thug in your baranggay --- and some air of brotherhood in collective machismo.  If it can happen in a golf course, then it can also happen in a callejon.

The thing of it is we have also accepted if not encouraged the idea that mas magaling yung mautak kaysa sa matalino ( The resourceful is better than the mere intelligent.).  Better yet we have somehow nurtured the idea that mas masarap makaisa kaysa maisahan ( It is better to get one over another than to be in the losing end).  Any nationality would shun the very idea of being outwitted --- but a Filipino will take it all too personally if he is naisahan or nalamangan.  

( Funny but once in a discussion among friends about the Filipinos' preoccupation for lamangan, we correlated this with the unsavory practice of takaw mata.  Of course, we know that that is not an exclusive Filipino trait --- as evidenced by another race that seemed to have superseded us in creating utmost sacrilege during buffets.  Yet we cannot help watch the behavior of our kababayans in any fiesta or gathering where a lechon is being chopped and an entire squad is on the sidelines ready to attack.

Once we actually saw takaw mata  and lamangan in action when a whole platoon literally assaulted a freshly mutilated roasted big and started grabbing skin, flesh and even bone while there was a wild scramble as to who was going to get the head and the tail.  We watched mesmerized and stupefied realizing that this was evident social doctrine in action.)

So there is something about being pasaway to enable you to feel mautak and nakaisa.  While the rest of civilized mankind has opted to stay in the safety of their homes, the pabidas will prove their Alpha status by flaunting their presence out on the streets --- some even boozing despite the alcohol ban. (We can all give a collective sigh here.)  Why? Because they want to prove to the world that they can do it.

I do understand why there is a need for the wet market to remain open.  There is an imperative to provide food and the necessities of the larger number of our citizenry.  But this time it should be the responsibility of the city elders to insure that discipline is followed and that certain protocols are met.  That was why it thrilled me greatly to see those men who were mounting cockfights in jail because they were apprehended for their brazen disobedience of the law.

It amused me to see a video of young men all paraded on a road at night because they were caught drinking and turning the entire quarantine procedure into a mockery.

Yes, we need to crack the whip at times if only to make sure people realize that we mean business without violating rights and understanding the needs of others.  OK, sure ... at the start of the quarantine, there was much kaguluhan because people were not prepared for the lockdown ... no, let me correct that: even the government was not ready to meet the chaos of transportation, check points etcetera because this was a totally new experience.

But now that we are more than three weeks into the exercise, let's set things straight.  Regardless of class or social station, everybody stays at home.

That is non-negotiable.  We want this quarantine to end and that can only happen if we all behave.

DAY 24: ECQ

Yesterday I wrote that my greater fear is not the virus ... but what comes after.  What remains of the world after this purge?  After being locked up for God knows how many months are we going to go back to real time and claim business as usual?  I think not.

When I was doing my Twitter survey about how people felt regarding the quarantine extension, somebody comment that I should not ask an economist  The reasons were valid: we have lost lives ... so many lives these past few months, falling prey to the deadly virus.  But unless we are able to draw concrete plans on how we are going to pick ourselves up from the financial debacle that is taking place, then maybe we would be more of the pathetic victims to be survivors rather than those who were stolen by the virus.

The urgency cannot be put aside.  When all this is over, we will be confronted by a reality which I hope is not as painful as I suspect.  

I do not want to be a pessimist ... nor do I want to be blinded by sunshine songs and hymns of all's well that ends well unless I can figure out a credible, feasible and realistic solution to what I see as problems.  Together with this is the hope that the Greater Powers-that-Be (and I am not referring to God) have plans on how to deal with the economic debris that has become the carbon footprint of the virus.  How many people will lose jobs after this because business may close. Why?  The answer is obvious.

Businesses froze. Literally.  Except for the retail of food and medicine, everything else stopped.  Where I stay ...  only the supermarket and the drugstore are open.  Way down the far side of the service road is a single panaderiya that (thank the good Lord) still provides us with bread. 

Suddenly few of the bank branches are open to deal with your petty cash needs. 

 I have come to realize that I am connected with a bank who does not have an accessible branch so much so that if I need to withdraw I have to travel a far distance.  People my age (oh, yes, the most vulnerable Boomers) are not too enthusiastic to go out of the house to mingle while wearing masks as thick as comforters.  I am only too glad that I have another bank with a branch open nearby.

Forget the ATM machines: by 11:00 AM they are empty.  People may not be going around malls shopping for stuff that they will regret buying thirty minutes later BUT they still need cash for their everyday existence. I realize that some banks do not really give a s--t about their clients in need of money that was deposited or entrusted to their company. So much for customer service.

The problems brought about by the virus and the necessity of the quarantine stripped bare other obstacles we need to face because we were never ready for something with such a large impact such as this.  We never speculated that something like this can really happen because we only saw them in movies like Contagion or Outbreak.

With our bahala na si Batman mindset and that we will cross the bridge when we get there attitude, we were all caught flatfooted and completely discombobulated.  We thought (as we were told by some of our leaders) that this was just a fleeting thing.  Whereas the rest of the world was panicking, we were picnicking.  

What makes matters worse is that the show is not over and we are just about to enter various phases emphasizing the degree of difficulties we have to confront. 

(1) Since businesses froze, no income came into the company coffers but the operational expenses still continue.  

We still have to pay for our office rent for the months we are closed.  And, of course, we have to give our people their salaries (with the option to advance their thirteenth month if they are in tightrope situations) which are all taken from the savings of the company.  Just how much this we could sustain depends on how much we have tucked into our chests, expecting seasons of drought but not necessarily catastrophes of such proportions.

This makes the aftermath the more dreadful scenario: unless there are plans in place for the government and even the private sector to get together and help resuscitate the small to medium size businesses after months of zero income and transactions, then we will go through a period worse than the scourge of the virus.  

It will not be a simple recession but an economic meltdown --- and the first to suffer are the small-time entrepreneurs who depend on their daily incomes to keep their businesses going or the middle level businesses which depend on daily earnings as well to keep them afloat and provide capital.

We shall find this out after the various levels of quarantines are finally lifted in the National Capitol Region and the nearby provinces: we will see the economic damage done to the country, how much money has been lost and which industries will have a much more difficult time to revitalize their operations.  

For instance, no one calculate the financial calamity that hit the airline ... and most of the businesses associated with travel and tourism.  Even as prices for plane tickets are practically giveaways, nobody is still travelling.  This is because of various laws implemented by various countries to contain the COVID19 or because people are not in the mood to take risks to go on out of town or out of the country vacations.

The backlash will last FAR LONGER than a few weeks after the lifting of the quarantine.  Even as we speak among friends, no one is interested in traveling out of the country (for leisure) until next year.  "Mabuti na yung nakakasiguro,"is a common phrase to suggest the underlying fear of getting sick while on vacation in a foreign land. "Hintayin na lang nating mawala ang bee-rus."

(2) The mess that is our mass public transport system now explodes right on our faces --- as well as those responsible for planning, implementing and remedying this major problem.

Even the recent good old normal days, we knew that our public transport system is a glaring problem as to why MetroManila has earned the reputation of having one of the most universally constipated roads on the planet today.  We make a life-changing issue out of traffic but corollary to that is an inevitable fact that we look away from admitting: there are not enough buses, trains, jeepneys, for hire motorbikes, taxis and Grab cars to fulfill the needs of the people of the Metro.

There are the long lines that snake up and down the sidewalks of the MRT.  There is a shortage for cars for rent  vis a vis the plucky taxis that traverse the stretch of EDSA.  And we cannot depend on motorbikes to snake its way through the layers and layers of traffic that clog up our city's thoroughfares and side streets.

Now over and above this glaring, painful and yet unattended shortage, add the need to wean ourselves from social distancing.

It does not mean that if quarantine is loosened that the first thing we do is to dash into each other's arms and give a bear hug to suffocate a grisly.   There is still a need to maintain a certain distance from people until everyone is secure enough to know that the virus has run short of its hosts.

Now as to how social distancing can be practiced in the MRT, LRT, FX vehicles, jeepneys and buses ... your suggestions as to how this can be done with be so greatly appreciated.  So therefore one possible scenario is that even when ECQ commences, public transport will still be limited, insuring that social distancing is practiced.  

Puwede ba let us stop fooling  ourselves that half-occupied buses and jeepneys will actually ply their routes?  The original plan to have only x number of passengers per bus or FX only showed how completely out of touch they who have something to say with those who they are talking about.  Buses, jeepneys, cabs ... they all have what you call boundaries or the minimum amount of money required by the operator from the driver to deliver as earnings for the day. With this revised rule you are actually expecting drivers to ply the same roads and yet earn approximately a little over half of what they should earn daily.  This does not simply make sense.  There is a possibility that they may not even earn enough for their boundaries.

Expect pandemonium in the roads again as there will be a major shortage of mass transport alternatives for the workers who have to go back to the streets to earn their daily wages.

(3) There is going to be a new normal after all this --- and it has got everything to do with human interaction and socialization.

It will take some time before we finally give up using our face masks whenever we go out in public.

As a matter of fact, I will not be surprised if this become a staple of everyday wear for quite some time ... or until the paranoia is over.

That also means we will be selective with our handshakes after which will follow at least twenty seconds of vicious handwashing with soap allowing the lather to disinfect ( sing "Happy Birthday to You" twice, which is the standard measure of the time you kill the germs in your hand) or rigorously bathe your hand with a generous dab of Alcogel.

We shall refrain from the beso-besos as much as possible not unless the other party can be assured that the other party has had his or her test ... or your love for that person is so great that you don't mind sharing his or her ailment as well as being placed in an adjacent hospital bed.  We will be very very conscious of our physical space not to mention the degree of panic we will feel each time somebody sneezes or goes into a coughing fit.

Whether it is allergic rhinitis or a simple cold, anybody who sprays droplets around the periphery of your existence shall be considered the Spawn of Satan.

There will be fear of crowds.  And strangers.  Well, at least for those who would have developed a trauma or a neurosis because of things that have transpired for the past few weeks.  With our country on its way to be the leading Southeast Asian nation with the greatest number of afflicted and hopefully not the fatalities, there is reason to feel queasy and uneasy and to ask ourselves why we are not fairing as well as our neighbors like Thailand or Vietnam.  What is it that we are doing not necessarily wrong ... but not right?  And to that I say, Ask pa ba?

In the meantime, just as we thought that we are near the finish line, hindi pa pala. Understandably so (again).  If we lift the quarantine in ten days, finished talaga tayo.  So what happens between now and the end of the month will define the state of the nation that will be available to us when this is finally but finally over.

No, I am not ending this with a prayer.  I have been praying since last January when they said that it's just the flu.

DAY 23: ECQ

It is somewhat inevitable ... and logical.  The Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) will most likely be extended.  And it should.  Better yet, most of the people agree.  We are not yet safe.

How authentic are the numbers of people infected by COVID19?  

Are these mere estimates because of the simplicity of the sampling of those tested?  Considering the number of people who have tested and the sheer density of the population of the metropolis, how accurate are we in providing a true profile of the extent of infection?

Besides the number of recoveries vis a vis the number of infected may not be that encouraging.  Yes, there is always the advantage of youth over old age for someone to survive the virus ... but that does not mean that younger victims do not succumb of the deadliness of corona.  For instance, in New York City, the greater number of victims (and casualties) are not necessarily seniors but people in their prime who thought they were too young to die of this pandemic.

In our country as well, there are younger people who fall ill and perish with the virus because of weak immune systems or pre-disposed illnesses.  

The bottom line is that nobody is still safe ... and unless we are assured or made secure that the chances of infection have diminished ( called flattening the curve ) then that is the only time we can consider lifting the quarantine or moving into a modified version wherein certain areas may be given more freedom of movement, certain business reopened and mass testing can be finally implemented.

The problem of COVID19 was and will never be that simple.  Why?  Because people of responsibility as well as those responsible either belittled its potency and extent of danger --- or they were never up front, downright honest in sharing the facts about the virus with the public.  

If ever it got to this point, then it is because some people of responsibility really underestimated the situation  or put other interests ahead of that of the safety of the general public.   We all hope that it was simply a case of carelessness or even stupidity --- and not because leaders were serving other interests that were self-protective of their power and not the health of their constituents.

Here are some points we learned about this virus --- which is quite unique and indeed novel so that common knowledge does not carry a vaccine to neutralize it.

(1) The virus can cause great physical danger but more so provoke fear. Half the danger of this virus is the proliferation of theories, assumptions and fake news about its nature.

Right from the very start, social media fanned panic in the virus not because certain important information was not disseminated but because of the bloated fear sparked from the start.

When it was all about this mutant virus from a bat and a pangolin from a wet market in China, the danger was not imminent.  Wuhan was too far away.

We do not even remember the history of SARS more than a decade ago because we did not feel that epidemic hit our country.  But this case was different since the information being released was that the virus was already controlled, not transferable from human to human and restricted only to a certain city in the mainland.

Sad enough, it is this miscalculation that the virus will not spread that created greater havoc.  

When leaders sputter that "this is just another kind of flu"or "drink your vitamin C and boost your immunity and you will be ok ", then you know you are either going to glide through it or end up right in the bottom of the pit.  Ladies and gentleman, welcome to the pits. 

We were told that it was OK not to wear masks as long as you are not sick. 

We were assured that it was not airborne and you can only get it if some infected baboon coughs or sneezes right at your face (it's the droplets, Honey ... just the droplets!) or when you touch surface where the viruses land upon someone's nasal spraying.  

Then later on we were terrified to find out that it can live on paper and cardboard for 24 hours --- and on plastic and steel for even longer.  

We were told DO NOT TOUCH YOUR FACE so much so that each time you find yourself scratching your nose or rubbing your eyes, you scream "PARANOIA!" because you are sure you have allowed those hideous little monsters into your system.

Some wise men insist: STOP WATCHING THE NEWS, KEEP AWAY FROM SOCIAL MEDIA. Yes, it has reached the level of the harmful as this did not increase your AWARENESS but somehow instigated NEUROSIS.  As much as you wanted to keep away from information platforms, you could not help but look.  It felt like the bottleneck of traffic in a highway where everybody is curious to see how an accident looks.

Just recently news came out that seventeen people have been confirmed infected from a posh village in the south.  The common denominator was not travel or exposure to somebody sick or symptomatic but ... of all things: A SUPERMARKET.

Naturally, the knee jerk reaction was for the information to spread like wildfire among the suburbanites. Suddenly all the Suburban Mommies were rushing to their gallons of alcohol and rubbing their hands like Lady Macbeth.

There was even a rumor that a circular to residents have been passed around warning about the said grocery as a possible source of the viral infection.  This was never confirmed --- that such a circular existed or that the said establishment was the source of alleged affliction. 

But it is the panic --- it is the adrenaline brought by fear that turns speculations into truth.

Of course all that jibberish was so damaging to the supermarket. But in critical moments like these, it is fear that is as dangerous as the virus. We frighten ourselves to death out of the guise of playing safe.  And maybe we should be terrified in order to keep safe.

Yes, we can be cautious and careful but when we let fear supersede reason, we have chaos.  In the absence of plans and directions, chaos seems to be so ... tenable.

(2) If we want this to be over, then we have to work on it to be over. 
It has been three weeks since the implementation of the Enhanced Community Quarantine and still there are some of our countrymen who think this is a joke ... and never follow the rules as if to prove to the world that they come from the Planet Krypton.

Look, without resorting to that famous line that shall be a benchmark of 2020's social history ("Stay home ... you mother---rs!") , it is a need to remind others about the value of social distancing. 

Keeping away from each other so as not to multiply the infection is the only way we can beat a virus without a vaccine.  And, yes, by law of human beings --- culling is not an option either.

Sige. We opened this really badly which was why the daily wage earners and the thousands of commuters had to literally squeeze themselves into every available space to get to work and then get home.  

Shall we cut the excuses and admit that we just threw everybody into the barbecue pit by announcing the quarantine without giving them time to prepare or even options (such as alternative modes of transportation, sources of daily income or even a systematic way of government assistance)?  If ever there was hysteria at the start of the quarantine, then it was because we were not prepared. And yet they all decided, "O, sige na nga ... 'Tara let's!"

That was three weeks ago and we should have settled.

We should have gotten into the groove of quarantined life.  

Even if some of us are brave enough to go out there into the world of asymptomatics, we still have to be aware and practice the rules of social distancing.  It is different for a grocery check-out girl to sit behind the cashier and meet people with her face mask every day because she has to earn her living from somebody who is gallivanting around the streets because she wants to commune with the urban universe.

It is different when you stay in line and wait for hours outside a grocery because only so many are allowed inside from people behaving as if nothing has changed except for the fact that everybody is wearing a face mask.  

A friend of mine posted a scene from a wet market and I could not believe the amount of violation taking place.  Somebody even pointed out, "Tingnan mo .... tatawa-tawa pa yung isa at nananadiyang makipagsiksikan sa mga tao para patunayan na hindi siya takot sa corona virus!"    Wait a minute. Iba ito. This is not even called defiance. It is called stupidity.

As long as there are some of us who equate being pasaway with pagpapaka-astig ... as long as we keep equating defiance of rules of decorum as a sign of strength, then we will never win this battle.  

Thin is that line between courage and foolishness.  We have a tendency to mistake one with the other.

(3) An extension of the quarantine requires more credible planning to point to solutions.
In Twitter I posted a survey if people think that the ECQ should be extended.

Thankfully I was flooded with a lot of answers.  They all agreed that there should be an extension of the quarantine.  But all of the replies were equally unanimous in pointing out the following:

- It would be useless to extend the quarantine if there is no mass testing.  Come to think of it, why is there still no blueprint or plan for mass testing?  

This leads to an even more vital point.

- Ano ba talaga ang plano, Tatay?

Ok, so we know we need to stay at home for maybe another two more weeks --- but what happens while we are at home and more so, what are you guys in the government doing about it?

A sidebar: Utang na loob! This is not The Battle of the Mayors. This is not a reality show where mayors are given challenges, eliminated and humiliated while others are applauded and practically deified.  

If Vico Sotto and some mayors are doing good jobs, it is because they are doing their jobs.  More important, they are doing their jobs well and for their constituents at hindi para umepal.  There is a substantial difference between a dedicated worker and a practitioner of self-promotion. This leads us back to a very vital point: while people are locked into their homes, unable to earn their daily wages, who is going to take care of them?

The extension of the quarantine will be useless unless there is a definitive plan as to how help will be distributed, how much help will be given and how this help can trickle down to the people who really need it.

Yes, we all want to live but livelihood is an equal pre-requisite to human survival.  It is not enough that you are breathing: you must be able to sustain your life and for those who depend on you for their daily sustenance.

Lastly, there is ...

(4) The solution comes after the quarantine and the pandemic.  What are we going to do with what remains after?
This will be over.  We do not know when but it will be over.

But have people really given some thought as to what kind of world we will be finding the moment we step out of our homes and back to reality?

If people think we are going back to the usual programming when the quarantines are eased out, then they are in for a surprise.

I do not want to elaborate the bleak scenario that awaits many of us.  I can more or less imagine how it will be for my work --- in the entertainment industry and school.

I foresee that we cannot go into production immediately after quarantine because it will take time for the government to allow an assembly of more than twenty people to be working on location or in a studio.  I also anticipate the even poorer attendance of people watching movies in cinemas since this would again require the gathering of too many people for social distancing.  Besides, cinemas are not priority venues to resume business.

Entertainment shall be centered on what we have all been doing while locked up in our houses: Netflix, IFlix, Amazon Prime, IWant.  We are stuck on YouTube watching podcasts or even Facebook Live.  Entertainment has been restructured not only in consumption but also in production.

The same goes with schools: we do not know when schools can possibly reopen. We cannot risk the lives of the kids to go back into that concrete jungle to wiggle their way into the coaches of the MRT or wait in line for their jeepneys to bring them to their destinations.  Major adjustments must be made to enable schools to be operational again.

We just realized that long distance learning or alternative classes via online lectures cannot function effectively in a Third World Country with one of the worst internet services available.  Not all kids have access to good internet --- and boy, were we not knocked off our feet when somebody pointed out that Zoom is being considered a malaware by some companies?  How many of us were in Zoom meetings just to be able sustain during the start of the quarantine only to find out that it was palpak.

The point is that the end of the quarantine is not the solution: it will open an entirely different box of problems.  And these are problems that need to be addressed today even before they confront us with such viciousness.

Are we going to be caught flatfooted again with the economic backlash that months of business paralysis has caused not only the nation but also the world?

Unless we are all in this together, we may survive the virus but there is no assurance we are coming out alive.

DAY 21: ECQ

I spent quite some time last night trying to find out one of the mysteries offered by the Universe:

"What has big teeth got to do with the present state of the pandemic affecting our country?"

Until I fell asleep I never figured out this dental enigma.  But I guess in time, when we look back at the events happening today as part of an interesting historical past, someone may be able to explain why.  Why amidst all this chaos, all these insecurities, all these threats (both real and imagined) we spent a certain amount of time judging people by the size of their incisors.

Anyway, onto more important and intelligent discourse:  for the past two days I have been dissecting the points raised by an upload on my wall.  The title of the piece is THE THINGS THAT COVID-19 MADE CLEAR.

As I pointed out in my two earlier entries, there were so many incisive issue that were raised.  Now as we are in the twenty-first day of our lockdown, these concerns have never been more evident and true ... and therefore worthy of discussion, rumination or just plain brain ping-ponging.

I realized that I will discuss the more serious entries to conclude this series of writings --- just for the sake of dramatic impact.

(11) Human beings are opportunistic and desperate no matter their socioeconomic position when raising prices.

This all boils down to the lessons of learned from my freshman year in the course Introduction to Economics.  Let us make one thing clear here: it has got nothing to do with being human.  The concern is a simple case of being --- being in a situation ruled by supply and demand, market forces and, of course, the worst of human vulnerabilities --- fear and panic.

A businessman is a businessman: if he is to remain a capitalist, then let us set aside all attempts to soften the heart or shed light to the pathway in order to convince him or her that the true rewards wait in the afterlife.  

You can gather a spectrum of homosapiens of various shapes and colors and make them sing We are the World and still it will be dictates of market forces that will irk them to raise prices.

( A classic example is a bag of calamansi that I regularly buy from the supermarket.  During the peak season  --- when the summer months like now --- a bag containing twenty to twenty-five calamansis would cost about twenty pesos at most. When I was in the supermarket right before the ECQ, a bag of about thirty calamansis was already priced over a hundred pesos.

I do not believe that a plague of locusts or other insects actually attacked all the calamansi trees north of Manila to create such a shortage.)

Unfortunately it would be fruits and vegetables to suffer most in this sudden price spike. If not for government intervention, it could have been far much worse.  But since there are eyes monitoring such market moves, the consequences are not yet that drastic.

But ... and here lies the rub: if and when things do not go as close to normal as possible as far as transporting fruits and vegetables from places outside the National Capitol Region, the implications in the law of supply and demand will yield more drastic effects.  This would be something immediately felt by those who are already the first to suffer because of the paralysis of work, the closure of mass transport system and the lack of clear direction as to how their damaged livelihood can be compensated/aided by the government.

Some big businesses are generous because they can afford to be generous.  It is the mid-to-small business enterprises which are also bound to feel the brunt of the pandemic and the quarantine.  But it is as if we really have a choice.  

Is it a choice between life or livelihood? Do we dare risk a loosening up of the quarantine and face the possibility of a second wave much like what has been happening to Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam?

This bleak argument leads us to another point mentioned.

(16) There are those who earn millions and do not serve humanity. Not idolatrous.

Well, yes.  But there are also those who earn as much and even more who are doing something to help put together the mess that is happening and the bigger debris the pandemic will leave behind.

There are the philanthropists who have the resources to actually become ... uhm, philanthropists ... as there are others who pitch in whatever amount they can afford, meager but still indispensable in the collective effort.

The choice to help is still a choice.

Nobody (regardless of size and weight of purse) can ever be obligated to be charitable.  As I said, it will always be a choice that will reflect the depth of character and width of vision of an individual. Besides, if there is one thing that this pandemic has taught us is that even the richest and most powerful are not spared of the potency of the pandemic.  

What matters most this time is not the act of giving alone but the motives behind such gestures.

A very personal note: since I come from the world of people whose very lives are defined by how much camera exposure they get ... or how they continuously tickle the curiosity of the audience and the fancy of the masses, I have grown very critical about "people helping others" especially when the insist on having a camera aimed at them while they are doing this act of rehearsed love.


Charity, in any form, most especially in critical times such as these should and must be appreciated.  What is important (I guess) is that there is an act of altruism taking place.  But the underlying motive behind the gesture is something to consider outside what is being given or who are the recipients.

Put bluntly, it is not easy to trust acts of generosity recorded by cameras to create heartbreaking or heartwarming moments of "goodness" that could go viral in the net.  There is a substantial difference between something caught by the camera --- from something staged --- or even rendered for the camera because of other purposes aside from doing goodness.  I will leave it at that.

This observation goes hand in hand with another point raised.

(25) Politicians take the opportunity to pull the rival's rug.

The problem becomes an even greater problem when the entire scenario is politicized.  Yes, we can beat that drum and start singing songs that insist that we should be in this together.  But it cannot be helped.

One thing that the pandemic taught us is that we, as a country, cannot exist on our own without acknowledging, assessing and analyzing the moves of other nations both big and small.  Everything that happens around the globe affects us --- and what we are going through is not a problem just of the republic but of the rest of the world.

We are not alone in going crazy because we still cannot decipher any source of light at the end of this tunnel.  Social distancing is an alternative ... but not a solution.  The more we think of this as the most effective means of flattening the curve, the more we realize that we need direction.  We need to be guided, to be made aware of plans, of possible solutions most especially after we emerge from all this to find a world so completely different from the way we left it before the 14th of March.

At this point, we do not need politicians. We need leaders.  As long as those who are meant to shepherd us act as politicians, then we are doomed.  This is not about power or its perpetuation. 

Sirs, it is about the survival of the people.

Finally, let me consider two points together for discussion.

(22) Humans are the real viruses of the planet.
and
(23) The planet regenerates quickly without humans.

Not much elaboration is needed here.

Step out of the house in the morning.  The air smells different.  Look up in the sky ... and discover a shade of blue that you have never before seen in your life.

Then, at night, step out and stay on the same spot as you did in the morning.

I used to see these skies before when I would stay in the province.  Or sometimes along the shorelines of White Beach in Boracay.  Now, in my front yard in Muntinlupa, I can decipher constellations.

And here's another thing: I live in an enclave which serves as a bird sanctuary.  This means precarious little boys and young men cannot go around with their airguns to shoot down flying creatures around the periphery.  

I have a number of trees in my garden and the birds usually gather there especially at night to roost ... but never have so many gathered since the lock down was in place.

Netizens post photographs of views from their condo balconies, showing how Manila has been cleansed of smog so that you can actually see the hills of Antipolo and far beyond.  Some post photos of that beautiful cerulean waters of Boracay or the turquoise waters of Manila Bay.  We have never seen this before.  So why now? Of course we know ... because the humans were kept away.

These weeks ... no, even months of self-imposed isolation has given the earth the time to breathe.  Yes, it is rejuvenation, regenerating ... because we were kept out of the way.  Now we realize how it is supposed to be and it got all screwed up because we, as a species, emerged to be so arrogant, entitled and all-knowing.  And now what?

There is another entry which I find too sensitive saying that a powerful country won the Third World War without firing a single nuclear missile.  I am not about to accuse any nation of instigating or maliciously planning this for reasons of economic sabotage or power grabbing.

Rather I would like to think that indeed --- we are in the midst of the Third World War --- and like all major catastrophes brought about by man, the folly and carelessness here is OUR fault and OURS alone.  We abused nature ... we challenged our limits but this time she fought back.

The Third World War is being fought not with nuclear weapons, military strategies and the likes.  It is a battle against an invisible enemy which we instigated and propagated because of our arrogance.

We are all praying that this be over.

In a span of three weeks, there have been too many losses and heartbreaks.

There are too many disillusionment of people we hoped to be there for us only to find out that they are nothing than asinine circus performers who swindled us into having faith in them.

I wrote it once and I will write it again.  When we step back and attempt at the life that we had before 2020, we will be surprised.  This pandemic has shaken the world right to its roots.  We think we got it bad ... there are more challenges that lie ahead.

Our challenge is to cope and adjust.  And hopefully learn the lessons where so many deaths paid the price and so much sadness became the investment to acquire a deeper wisdom.

Now let me figure out again this whole issue about big teeth.
As a friend of mine pointed out today: be wary of those with unusually big bicuspids.  Remember what the little girl wearing a red riding hood found out. You don't mess around with them big biters.

DAY 20: ECQ

Day 20 - And there are already talks that the Enhanced Community Quarantine (a beautiful euphemism for the more hardcore LOCK DOWN ) is bound to be extended for a number of weeks.

I am not surprised not am I against it.  It is not that I am presently doing cartwheels as expressions of uncontrollable joy (imagine that ... more weeks of doing more of the same inside the house ) but because it is the most logical thing to do.  If we want this virus to lose its potency, then we must stop going around offering our throats to serve as hosts for their excited procreation.

After three weeks of literally not going any farther than the front yard, there are indeed a lot of lessons learned and a lot of things made very, very clear.

I mentioned this posting on my wall entitled THE THINGS THAT COVID-19 MADE CLEAR which I tackled yesterday.  Why?  Because what was enumerated did not only make a lot of sense but shook me into a new level of reality, knowing that this is not an coincidence. There are lessons meant to be learned from being confined in the walls of your home --- so much so that your life, the entire planet --- will never be the same again when they finally set us free.

So let me continue.

(8) Children hold a privileged place in nature. 

Even while the virus was slowly making itself known in Wuhan, one this was made very clear. It was most dangerous for the older stratum of the population.  The older you are, the more you are vulnerable.  Those who are sixty and above are susceptible but those seventy and over are greatly endangered.

Weakness in the immune system facilitates the exponential multiplication of the virus ... in the same manner that it spreads with the same vigorous force and number, asymptomatic at the start so that you have what they call "shedders" going around, not knowing they are positive and spreading the COVID-19.

The younger you are the stronger is your resistance for the virus.  But that does not mean that children are exempted all together but they have much stronger chances of surviving compared to their grandparents.

In other words, the virus is in its own way testing the survival of the fittest  This is not a free lottery based on luck but measured by one's preparedness for health crises.

This all leads us to realize that children are seemingly exempted because they have an immune system geared to protect them for a whole life ahead.  And we should treasure these children because nature has selectively protected them from this plague.

Yet there is something about this pandemic that (until this very moment) still baffles me.  This can be summarized by the next point.

(12) Toilet paper is more important than food.

Somebody should really explain this to me.

Maybe decades from now when sociologists look back and analyze the human response to the threat and then eventually the epidemic, they can explain why humans actually scrambled down the aisles of supermarkets and wholesale stores grabbing as many rolls of toilet paper that can last a supply of two reincarnations.

Could it be very threat of not being able to properly handle the situation at a latrine having nothing to finalize an act of important cleansing?  If there is one thing that has been proven by these unusual (to surreal) turn of events, then it is the fact that a number of people have not discovered the joys of the bidet.

Videos of housewives having life-or-death brawls to claim about two dozen rolls of toilet paper is something which requires a dissertation, perhaps pointing to the validity of the Darwinian theory of evolution.

Now for something more serious.

(13) Partner networks bring us closer together but it is also the means to creating panic.

I am mentally calculating the number of hours I am plugged into the worldwide web ... and social media.

In most critical times such as these, social media has become an imperative and even made to look and sound indispensable.

How could we have survived --- nay, how could have our work continued if it were not for the joys of Facebook Messenger video chats or Zoom or whatever application there is out there in the universe to bring us together without physically threatening infection?

How could we have kept our sanity if it were not for the linkages created in Facebook, Twitter or Instagram?  And yet these same instruments meant to make the world smaller, more defined and accessible has also become the instrument of fear mongering and panic.

Have you ever tried imagining this pandemic without social media?  Apparently not.  About forty years ago, it would have been impossible to imagine making calls outside the power of the landline --- or sending electronic messages beyond pagers.  But all of that has been literally extinct and primitive with the access to social media.

And look where it has brought us?  Look at how, instead of bringing the people to work as a common force, social media has yielded such divisiveness, such contempt, such intolerance.  Such prejudice. And so many lies.

In the age of "alternative truth" (thank you, Kellyanne Conway), there is no such thing as lying.  There is just "relative facts" and, boy, these past few years we have made icons out of pigs and banshees who brandish lies and make them sound like words carved in stone.

This leads me to another point.  At the height of the insanity of this pandemic, what has become more dangerous? The virus or the fear mongering that has created such paranoia and platforms for neuroses. Never in my life have I imagined myself spraying a mixture of 10% Chlorox and 90% water on canned goods brought in from the grocery ... or literally bathing the slippers used outside in disinfectants. 

We are not only going to end up suffering from agoraphobia when this is over ... we will also be so O-C and damaged to be germophobes.  (PS: it will take me about six months to be able to ride an elevator again with confidence.  I work in a building where our office is on the twelfth floor and that will replace a session of the gym each day when work is finally allowed.)

(21) We started to appreciate the great gesture of trust that means shaking hands.

We have always taken this very simple and somewhat everyday gesture for what it is worth. We never gave much importance to a pat, a hug or a handshake.

But now the sheer act of physical contact means so much.  

We realize how it is to interact with one another through the coldness of the windows of zoom or video chats or Skype.  We have taken physical contact for granted ... until it has become taboo. With latest research, even talking to each other can possibly create an exchange of the virus in microdroplets floating in the space between two in conversation.

The things that a contaminated individual touches or may have provided droplets in acts of sneezing or coughing can be potentially dangerous.  And we can never know who is positive because this bug can be in you for days without you knowing or feeling anything.

So we have decided to have social distancing to protect ourselves from each other.  And that is perhaps the most painful consequence that this virus has brought to us aside from stealing loved ones who die alone in great pain.

It is the mere thought that we have become walking time bombs that a mere handshake can be lethal ... that makes these times all too distressing and beyond sad.

( The conclusion of analyzing these talking points will be provided tomorrow. ) 

DAY 19: ECQ

Somebody added an interesting attachment which I found in my Facebook wall this morning.

It was entitled THE THINGS THAT COVID-19 MADE CLEAR.

The entry was more of an enumeration of various lessons we surely gathered ever since we heard about this virus starting from a wet market in Wuhan ... until it became a pandemic, the most terrible medical emergency that has happened to the world since the Spanish Flu in 1918.

There were twenty-six entries in the list.  Some were controversial statements --- others  we have finally learned to accept through the course of this ordeal.  There were statements like:

(1) The United States is no longer the world's leading country.
or
(3) Vladimir Putin is a visionary. 

(This refers to the immediate strategies Putin implemented to lock out the possible outbreak of the Coronavirus from a country that shared borders. His precautionary measures were rendered with urgency and finality ... so much so that this has made clear another entry that goes ...)

(4) Prevention saves more lives than acting at the last moment.

(And that somehow reverberates oh-so-very-true especially when we assess how we handled this situation,where it got us and what we are doing now.)

I spent some time going through each and everyone of these points and decided that I wanted to assess the value and validity of some.  Whereas others are self-explanatory, there are a few that reckon more moments of pondering.

For instance, there is an entry that goes:

(5) Health professionals are worth more than any politicians, basketball players, actors and actresses, etc.

Never has it been proven more than true.  Whereas all of us --- whether pretending to be kings or flaunting the entitlement of our power and popularity, we are all brought down to our knees by the potency of these microbes --- these fomites that fester our bronchial system and bring us death.

No amount of good looks or cheering crowds can affirm our value in this world than the men of science, the medical professionals who have risked their own lives and personal interests to take care of our sick and make sure we are safe.

They may never make magazine covers, ride floats down busy boulevards to draw crowds.  They may not even be known by face or name ... but that nurse who tended somebody sick or held the hand of someone dying has done more for humanity than the decibels generated by popular applause.  Why?  Because you do not hear the clapping of angels nor can you see the smile of Someone Almighty who knows the nobility of that profession.

So when that Senator poo-poohs the role of the nurse ... or any medical worker in this country ... just please remind her of March 2020 and ask her where she was when these belittled men and women were spending sleepless hours tending the needy in overcrowded hospitals.  Ask anyone who looks down on these people whether they were terrified to even go out of their houses while these doctors and nurses were out there in the front lines.  Enough said.

This also leads to two other important points mentioned in the article.

(7) We are not mistaken when we ask for more hospitals and less wars.
and
(10) Death does not distinguish race, color and social status.

In the great pandemic of 2020, the playing field was leveled.  

Regardless of the number of digits your bank account totals ... or what claim to fame you may have ... or from what part of the planet you are from --- the Grim Reaper does his job.

We did not learn more than a century ago when the Spanish flu harvested more lives than the sum total of all the wars declared by men against each other in the name of nation or faith.

We never took the saying Health is wealth unless the risk to perish becomes so strong and evident because people around us, people we know are dying by the day.

Only then do we realize that whether he or she is from some posh village with tall gates and 24/7 security ... or even royalty from some European country ... or some Everyman who lives by the day and whose name will never reach the papers nor ever recalled --- all are pawns, all are potential casualties.

And just because we opted to give more premium to a mall ... or a multi-storey parking lot ... rather than to invest time and money for medical services, research and hospitals.

We only realize our folly and stupidity when we are making a headcount of casualties.

Oh, another entry that really got me was:

(11) Oil is worthless in a society without consumption.

That really hit the nail right on the head.

Suddenly the price of diesel and premium gasoline plummeted because nobody was going around driving or flying.  In a world that has gone completely still, oil becomes ... well, dispensable.  After nearly three weeks of being locked up in the house, the car only goes to the grocery and the drugstore and back.

When I see videos of the streets outside, especially the early recordings of EDSA that first Sunday after the lockdown, I realized just how drastic and dramatic this self-isolation has become. And this is worldwide.  

How can the world ever be the same after this?  After realizing that this is possible, how can we ever go back and be the same people as we were a month ago?   

This also leads to another important point that made me shake my head and clench my fists.

(14) Now we know how animals feel in zoos.

I need not go into a detailed elaboration of this.

How much of our freedom have we taken for granted?  I have always run that in my mind ever since the quarantine started.

Why has it become such a big production number to put on your mask, wear your face shield, wear a baseball cap, put on goggles, wear disposable gloves ... just to go to an ATM machine about five minutes away from my house?

So that is why I prefer to stay within the periphery of my home. 

After three weeks, I have memorized every nook and cranny of the house. I never spent more than five minutes in my garden before ... and now most of my mornings I loll around the area, do my exercise, check on the plants and even discover that my housekeeper's cat is the sweetest feline every created (although I am a dog person).

I realize that I have found another definition of happiness in my confined space because I have no other choice but to do so.

And I am never ever going to take my freedom for granted again.  Ever.

( TO BE CONTINUED.  There are a couple more points that I would love to talk about ... but let us leave that for tomorrow.)