Stages of Bloom

 

A Series of Operatic Acts

 The parade of comical obsessions continues.

First it was with hotel quarantines.

Then they moved on to no singing and no dancing.

Next was a fixation with toilet paper purchases.

Ah, they then were addicted to QR code scanning.

Contact tracing became a competitive sport, with boasts of even a gold standard 

Lockdown fever was not imagined......

Not satisfied, they penalised those who were detected 5km lingering away from home.

Soon disclosure of exposure spots was deemphasised and then disappeared.

Soon, it was to have proof of being "fully vaccinated" and the drive for individuals to have booster shots as soon as possible.

Then the fad came to let go and be totally free.

They emphasised case numbers are not important as dehumanisation continued. 

Hospitals, medical staff, small businesses and frontliners were left to deal with the reality and the mess. 

With opening up, it is the opera with testing proofs, validity of test results and how timely we receive them.

Now if we do not have symptoms, we are asked to not add to the testing queues.

We shudder when they change definitions of close contacts and lower standards and periods of self-isolation for infectees, frontliners and travellers.

The Sydney NYE gala and fireworks are back again in grander fashion.

Are we missing something here?

And so this is Christmas Again

 

For two years, we have complied.

We took it on the chin, limiting ourselves to the kilometre distance pronounced by authorities.  We got used to face mask, even when we instinctively knew we did not breathe normally when wearing them.

We made our hands dehydrated so often when we were asked to daily use hand sanitiser.

People who went on the ship cruise of their life time came home to die of infections caught aboard the high seas.  Elderly people in commercially run aged care facilities -  and crowded economically challenged households - were sitting ducks as well.

So many lost their livelihoods and incomes, while those who imposed public policy on the masses continued to have their pay packages protected.

Small businesses and retail had to close, earning pittance in suburbs all over, like through takeaways.  The big commercial players in town prospered as discretionary monies were over spent on groceries, homewares and online purchases, to name a few.

Taxpayer monies are said to subsidise more of multinational companies than the battler and struggling families in this Great Southern Land.

Family members and friends were separated, at times inhumanely, when celebrities and those with political connections were given exemptions in travel bans, compulsory quarantines and not touching each other.  It was becoming clear there was one rule for the privileged - and another for the rest.

We were told repeatedly that the advice of the science was always taken, but told to us so often, it was increasingly obvious it was not.  Medical people seemed to revolt but they were then managed.

Commercial hotels are not fit purposed as medivac venues in the centre of large cities.  Alpha and Delta breached whatever protocol that was practised in reality.

Christmas 2020 was a dog's breakfast of border controls, cancelled bookings, emerging red zone hotspots, arbitrary and egoistic decision making by the powers that are - plus lots of reactive ineffective measures after the enemy came in and was allowed to romp through the ripe greenfields for infection.

Frontliners became exhausted, discouraged, uninspired and/ or infected.  Protestors were manhandled and criticised.

Most of us were not allowed to go overseas, unless you got approval from travel exemption permits made at the discretion of Canberra.

Delta arrived in mid 2021 and struck cruelly across western Sydney - and Walgett in western NSW, with its large indigenous Australian community - when given ten days of permission to roam from Bondi.

Most of us hunkered down for lockdown till early October 2021, when we were told the saviour of vaccinations would sufficiently protect us.

Delta escaped from the gold standard contact tracing city of Sydney to Melbourne and Adelaide during the winter of our discontent in the Antipodes.

It was then early December 2021.  Omicron had invaded for a few weeks now - and now most of the movement restrictions, which we complied with faithfully for such a long time, were gone.  It is claimed most of the population has been double jabbed and can rest easy and feel protected on this achievement.

Yet in the days leading to Christmas this year, there has been a significant spike of infections, especially in the very state with the most movement freedoms.  We are next asked to take booster shots of vaccinations whose viability cannot be questioned.

Then someone blinks - and we are asked to face mask, observe two metre rules at public indoor hospitality venues and QR code again - and reminded to take the onus of self responsibility going forward.  

We were told long ago now about the gold standard of contact tracing.  When that collapsed mid year 2021, exposure sites were no longer publicly listed but we were still encouraged to test and test.

When Omicron arrived, we are no longer told clearly if new daily cases are Delta or Omicron.

We are now reprimanded to not go for PCR testing if we do not have symptoms, contrary to the encouragement to do so a few months ago.  It is emerging that resources and personnel are not sufficient to handle the demands on particular days.

We are now urged to live with that thing, reminded that everyone will eventually be infected and we are to just go out to spend money for the economy.  Why were we not told this earlier, especially having been put through the wringer of severe lockdowns, negative mental health and forced physical restrictions?

Somehow there is a trail of things seemingly made up along the way, or a strong gut feel that someone somewhere every time does not have any solid idea about this matter.  Or maybe it is all playing out to a predetermined script in some playbook only held and known by a few.

My jabbed arm is so sore.   I do not know what or whom to believe anymore.  I am going to deeply kiss in public after the NYE fireworks at Sydney Harbour - then line up for a test, feel compassion for our overworked frontline workers and do not trust the texted message of my test results, which can be incorrect (refer to the news of how SydPath pathology at St Vincents Hospital, Darlinghurst, east Sydney, first provided incorrect negative results to 400 persons when they are really Covid positive).

I am going to take self responsibility.  I make my own health risk assessment in being mindful or careless about the whole matter.  I will relish fresh ventilation and see politics behind every public health pronouncement.  I will self manage by using my own intelligence.  I will not be a plaything of Big Pharma, control freaks and snake oil salesmen.

#yongkevthoughts

And the Earth Moves On

 Wild boars are seen more on the streets of Hong Kong, so long dominated by densely populated humans.  We are asked to share the road, but it reminds me of we also being required to share the environment with fauna. It is also their space. The Earth moves on. 

The smallest island nations are crying out for help as sea levels rise, truly threatening their essentially flat and coastal community existence.   Others find their primary assets, the bounty of the oceans, have been depleted not from their fishing activities, but by the swooping harvests of large efficient trawlers coming  from beyond their shores.  The Earth rotates on. 

For public health reasons, more  disposable face masks and plastic containers have significantly risen in use since 2019.  The problem may not be in their manufacture and usage, but more in how they are disposed, choking our waterways and sealife.  The Oceans continue to move. 

Disposability can be the underlying reason for creating the mountains of trash in human society.  Commercialism and global market forces have created an over the top mentality that there is always a better model and design for the same useful product we use at home, at work, at sports and in our regime of daily life.    Technology can make wholesome and still working  systems, devices and goods seem defunct.   We are brainwashed perhaps to buy more and more, escalated by the likes of Black Friday sales, festive occasions that can lose their true meaning and software that does not allow upgrades on old devices.   The Earth moves on. 

The art of civillised debate has been hijacked by the quickness of electronic information, polarisation of beliefs and the hyping of divisive noise preferred over the sharing of common values.  The clouds and wind still blow on. 

The world has enough resources, supplies and resilience in bouncing back.  The issues that separate societies and economies arise from uneven and miscontrolled distribution.   They can be knowledge, food or technology.  The Earth moves on. 

The inability to change mindsets, whether personally or in groups, can be the most challenging risk, an impediment to potential growth.   Nations cling on to the modus operandi of what made them great in the past.  Other nations which continue to develop threaten the status quo on the international stage.  Dynamic tensions occur and cause the noise of politics and relationships between key nations.  The Earth keeps on rotating. 

What is meaningful freedom, truthfulness and ability to counter their manipulation, continues to haunt the day to day lives of citizens and the way they are governed.  There can be layers of hidden forces sponsoring and pulling the strings behind governments.  What the powers that rule say in public and actually do behind doors can be so different.  The Earth continues to evolve. 

The integrity and professionalism of several things, each of us truly

respected in awe, when we were growing up, have changed in character.  Everyone of us can sense that some sectors have abandoned the focus on the customer and shifted their loyalties to someone or some where else.  The masses continue to grow. 

The deciduous flora still shed their leaves in winter.   We still hunger for a thing that is repeatedly reminded to us, appealing to our base desires.  I still enjoy the fresh air outdoors, gasping away from the cloud of distractions and delusions being fed to and increasingly recognised by me in a declared pandemic.  Our sensibilities can naturally shut off when we are subject to an endless parody of incredulous displays of wool being pulled over our eyes.  The Earth still moves on. 

The night is still at home.  It can be a pleasure bumping unexpectedly into lovely friends we have missed.  It can be invigorating when strangers pick up a smile or hello in the local village.  We feel the healthy flow of adrenalin after doing our favourite sport.   I have my nose twitching from the welcome earthy aromas from the bark of a sturdy tree up the slope in the neighbourhood.   We get inspiration from the people we love.  And the Earth still moves on. 

#yongkevthoughts

I Choose to Be Happy

Letting ourselves choose to be happy..... I can hear the pitter patter of an increasingly heavy rain downpour. Now, in the hour after sunset, nestled between the hills to the west and the ocean to the east. I choose to smell the refreshing moisture in the air. I choose to slowly unfurl at this hour to close the day. Soaking in water reinvigorates the body. I choose to anticipate the toast I am having for breakfast, uhm, tomorrow. I choose what uplifts me. I relish in getting my body break in sweat running up that hill - or soaking in the salty winds along the beach. I put my fingers to run over the bark of stately trees that stand like a sentinel of a friend looking over me - or breathe in the oxygen exuded by leaves as they make their chlorophyll. Tucked in bed, in a totally darkened space, my eyes look at the emerging stars across our Great Southern Sky. There is a lack of reflected artificial light, so the Universe up there becomes so much easier to discern and enjoy a view of. I choose to make more sense of all the episodes and incidents paraded in society, to find a more meaningful thread to explain such things. I choose to recognise causes rather than symptoms. I choose to ride on beneficial outcomes out from roadblocks and irritations, no matter how big or small they are. For example, looking for a safety pin made me more organised as to where to easily find a stand by first aid pack. Movement restrictions imposed by authorities made me more focused and less distracted. Misinformation led me to realise the truth. What looked like deprivation, disrespect and dissolution initially can lead to true personal liberation. I choose to see what can be, rather than what cannot. I choose to laugh, even if I may hurt. I choose to understand, even if there is nothing to start with. I choose to try. I choose to continue, towards where I want to go. I choose to go forward. I choose to continue heading to where I am meant for.

The Arrival of Omicron

With the arrival of another C19 mutation, Omicron, it looks like an increasing case of deja vu. Flight arrivals from the first hotspot nations are banned. There is a dearth of knowledge amongst experts, bureaucrats and politicians on how a new mutation will play out. Infections are confirmed amongst individuals who arrived from hotspot nations, but they arrived before any arrival bans. Such individuals had total freedom of movement when they visited what are now called exposure spots in the local community, before feeling unwell and testing positive. Will there be breaches at the control points of disembarkation and quarantine accommodation? Citizens and PRs of destination countries, coming from hotspot nations, are isolated for 14 days after arrival, but we are no longer told where exactly they are quarantined. The word "hotels" is no longer mentioned. The playbook in response by authorities looks amazingly familiar. After two years, there are seemingly no new ideas, except perhaps to take comfort in a high population percentage who have offered to be jabbed seemingly three times within 12 months. The first reaction upon hearing the arrival of Omicron is to promote booster shots. The difference this time, is significantly, that most nations tell their denizens that they have to live with the Coronavirus, so that the economy can bounce back. Even when air travel is opened up more than ever, the range of process just to get on a commercial aircraft to a foreign destination and return to the home country - testing, insurance and more - can be a most inconvenient one. The biggest challenge to us as individuals is the potential growth in uncertainty, just when our mindsets and expectations have moved to more certainty. Not again! is my first thought. Once the proverbial cockroach breaches our international border sentries, authorities have to decide whether the old regime of mass testing, varying levels of lockdowns, scanning QR codes, face masking, ensuring social distancing, hospitalisations and the lot - are back in force, or do they have to come up with more innovative approaches? Unsavoury authorities can still continue to hide behind the excuse of Omicron to implement more of their dark agendas - hopefully not. Are we facing a scenario of accepting more infections, downplaying specific risks, allowing more personal freedoms and deemphasising the collateral damage to society and individuals? The arrival of Omicron and the intent of many governments to want us to learn to live with Delta and any future mutations, now dovetails to a critical stage. Not enough is known about Omicron today, so will it fizzle out to nothing or will it step up the complexity for us and our rulers? #yongkevthoughts

October 2021 - Singapore Embraces Covid

 

In transition between different and significant approaches in managing Covid, Singapore is at the cross roads. The journey so far for Europe is swinging from lockdowns to freedom and now back to lockdowns. No economy can endure lockdowns on and off, especially for one like Singapore, but the question is "at what price?". Here are key quotes from a televised address by the Singapore Prime Minister, Lee Hsien-loong, to his nation on 3 October 2021. "Singapore cannot stay locked down indefinitely." "We are shifting to home recovery" "No more complicated flow charts." "Knowing what to do makes Covid not a scary disease." "Sooner or later, everyone of us will meet the virus." "Keeping connected to supply chains will help ensure Singapore's hub status." "We must ensure for Singapore's health systen and health workers, which is our last line of defence." "We must be our nation's first line of defence, to help protect our health system." "We may yet have to tap on the brakes, in order not to free up too fast." "How will we know when we have arrived at the New Normal?"