Took Me So Long

 

Lol, it took me so long....

to see through breakfast tv as an electronic interface of the junk in the postbox, ads with Apps and the clutter they send me with free things.

to realise the same word script and playbook of "news" delivered in different modes from the same media owner.

to realise how much artificial processing is in the nature of things on our supermarket shelves, fast food offers and addictive buys.

to fall into the addictive throes of interacting on screen time is no different from gamers getting into endless nights of playing.

to not be a loyal customer of any commercial service, but to keep churning our custom of different services.

to value routine and regime as also adding to fulfilment.

to realise that services and products not easily accessible during pandemic lockdowns can really after all be not essential.

to support the local neighbourhood can be more meaningful than following hype all over the city.

#yongkevthoughts

Pause for Thought

 

Oh, the habits of the past and what was a comforting routine is no more.

Many years ago, it was a casual relaxing pleasure to do something easy and different from weekdays, on a Saturday morning.  Simple regimes like going through the newspapers. Or catching up with people in a cafe. And driving like crazy just to try eating some hyped up dish, even before Instagrammable culinary.

On a small island, it was doable, until the escalating traffic jams made me think twice.

The pleasure and reward were to catch up with fellow human beings. The underlying pace was that it was unstructured, flexible and had delightful changes in store - surprise me!

Across the plains of Greater Sydney, I had to plan arrival and appointment times, for distances were greater to transverse and traffic jams even more congested at particular hours.

Now the newsagent is a sad shade of its past activity and future possibilities.  The dominance and ease of online publications have decimated the presence of print in magazines and newspapers.

I recall the high pleasure of reading subscribed weekly columns in print, to make sense of an ever changing world and events beyond my control.  Now, that is only but a distant memory. The advent of round the clock news and hijacked agendas in communication these days has made me turn off much of the media in whatever form.

I love visiting various suburbs, for many have a distinct character of their own in various layers of impression and experience.

I reckon each of us have cut down roaming the suburbs - and the big world - due to movement restrictions over the past two years.  We have inadvertently turned to nearby localities in our footprint - and this may not necessarily be a negative change.

Still there is the inherent instinct of the wanderer in each of us.  However, we no longer assume the right and convenience of greater mobility.  Our mindsets have inevitably transformed in rhe process.

Our eating habits may also have changed.  First there was a shift to more cook-ins and takeaways, when dining-in had or still have density limits and mindful physical distancing. 

The constant barage of almost daily telecast addresses by the powers that be has made me watch such institutionalised sessions to almost zilch.

We are increasingly told to comply and not question many important things.  The liberating joy of opening my mindset in reading books and magazines many years ago is no more. 

We cannot sneak out in the middle of the night to experience a secret pleasure.  Each of us are becoming more traceable through online devices and communication.

Yes, we still have the opportunity to embrace Nature in our own free time - and to physically sustain and manage our health with the wind blowing in our faces.  However, we must be ever conscious to build our mental resilience, more than ever in a changing world.

#yongkevthoughts

It Has Been Too Long

 

We are coming to the second anniversary of the arrival of C19 in late January 2020.

Amazingly, the number of infections in most states of Australia have skyrocketed beyond modelling, imagination and expectation.

Cases of the latest mutated strain are also spiking in at least tens of thousands across nations which have governments embracing Omicron.

So it does all fall logically like the snow in a severe northern hemisphere winter.

Back in greater Sydney, the reporting of infections have become muddled in this new year - are they from self test kits, public testing facilities, from Omicron or from false online data input? Who knows, we are not told of useful breakdown in information anymore.

What we experience instead are more alerts about we having visited venues at the same time as confirmed infectees (through use of the QR code scanning) and that more of people we directly know are down with infections.

For about two years, we knew confidently how to get help if we got infected.  Now we are discouraged from going to the gp system or hospital network - we are strongly told by authorities to basically self manage.

It is so ironic that the main reason, for the fast opening up  to embrace the Coronavirus, is for reasons of economic continuity, political strategy and undisclosed agendas. 

Supply and human resource shortages have since in a few weeks undermined the micro economy.  Politicians are becoming more naked in their lack of ideas apart from pushing the populace for more vaccination shots. 

The lack of effective leadership has sent a multiplier effect to increase uncertainty, doubt, confusion and desperation amongst the public.  It has been reported that the public across Greater Sydney has made a voluntary lockdown upon themselves, as opposed to mandated lockdowns of the past.

It may be safer even a year or two ago compared to conditions prevailing now.

Continuing emphasis on underplanning, reacting with ever changing micro rules and not bothering with implementation roadblocks can be the ruse of  several governments today.  The public may want to be ever so compliant - but finding it increasingly difficult to do as told - and more are questioning the ridiculousness and inefficacy of it all.

I know of more friends of mine letting it loose and travelling more.  Is such mobility transient, saddled with inconvenience and only offering temporary relief?

Information and data are dished out in even more obvious selective ways.
Various significant same parties are never blamed, while the onus of responsibility is put on the shoulders of the public.  Many more so called leaders continue to spell out doom and gloom, without offering an iota of workable solution.

The same phrases and lingo are uttered by those in charge, like on cue, seemingly so well coordinated in double speak that does nothing to stop the spread of this problem.

Governments at different levels are swirling in dealing with undesired developments following the decision to embrace the disease and not bother with anything else.

Each of us are now allowed - except in Western Australia, China and certain parts of the EU - to do exactly the things we were forbidden from in 2020 and most of 2021.  There is a huge shift to dropping prevention and cuddling reaction in the mindset of people empowered to take care of us.

The Coronavirus itself never listens to the daily political briefings held in its name - and only gung ho looks for another human host to propogate, according to the science oft quoted.

It has been too long in testing our patience.

#yongkevthoughts