Hello, I blog!
I share all my sporadic and toilet thoughts in here, because I am random like that.
Just saying
I hate how almost all of my recent posts are about the pandemic, and I especially hate how this pandemic has turned me into a judgmental old fart.
But I just had to put this unpopular opinion out here.
Even though there are VTLs (Vaccinated Travel Lanes) open, I do not personally think it’s right to travel overseas for non-essential purposes when we are still in a raging pandemic.
There are just too way many unknowns, with new variants springing up (Omicron and “stealth Omicron”, anyone?). And air travel is just too efficient a method of transmission since it connects two cities that can be thousands of kilometres apart in mere hours.
In rich developed countries, people be like “ooh look at me, I am vaccinated, I can finally travel again for leisure!”
Being vaccinated does not mean you are no longer a vector of transmission. It prevents severe illness but you can still transmit the virus. As long as there is human movement across vast distances, you may end up being the one bringing a new variant into the country you’re visiting, or transmit a new variant back to your home country.
Meanwhile, while the vaccinated from rich countries traipse around the world on VTLs, vaccine inequity continues and the countries with lower vaccine coverage struggle to even reopen their economies.
And we also have our foreign healthcare workers still stuck here fighting on the frontlines for nearly 2 years on end and unable to visit their own families back home. My helper too, has not flown home to be with her loved ones for four years. VTLs have not opened for most of their home countries because the vaccination rates are just too low.
It just… doesn’t sit right with me.
Meanwhile, I’ll just do my part by staying put until this pandemic is over. Because as long as human movement continues over countries and continents, this virus will never stop spreading and mutating, and we’ll never see the end of it.
Of course I crave travelling again. So very much. But I wouldn’t put my personal desire for leisure travel over public health. At least, not this point.
P/S: If you are reading this and are intending to travel for family reunions, I am not referring to you. Reuniting with family IS essential.
Irresponsible people, irresponsible people everywhere
I’m angry.
We’re in a fucking pandemic, but people don’t seem to be taking it seriously.
I just saw several videos on social media from friends who have attended weddings this weekend. The attendees – all in an air-conditioned enclosed space – none of them (or only one or two) were wearing masks even though they were not eating or drinking.
People in offices who refuse to mask up because “it is uncomfortable”. Bitch, I have freaking asthma and I am still wearing a mask. What’s your bloody excuse? Besides, I have to wear a mask for the rest of my life. You only have to do this temporarily during a pandemic. Stop fucking whining.
And temperature screening is not even taken seriously in Singapore. Scan your palm? What the heck? What’s the scientific basis to that?
I registered 34.6 degrees at a café in Paragon Mall.
Wow, I am walking around with hypothermia, guys. I was practically dead at that point in time.
Temperature screening, not.
Either do it properly, or not at all.
And people gathering in groups of more than 8, then boasting about it on social media as if it’s some badge of honour. Oh look, I’m flouting the rules. Aren’t I cool. No, asshole. It’s irresponsible people like you that are raising the community case counts in Singapore.
People still going to work and mingling with others after developing symptoms like fever and loss of taste/smell – and spawning 2 new workplace-based clusters. Slowclap. After 1 year of this shit, you would have thought that people would have developed some common sense. Nooooope.
In most recent news, with Chinese New Year around the corner, the government is limiting the number of visitors per household per day to 8. And each person is not allowed to visit more than 2 other households in a given day. But how is this rule even regulated? The onus is on the people to be responsible, thinking adults.
But I don’t trust people to be responsible and self-regulate, seriously. They will find every single possible loophole and exploit it.
“They can’t patrol every single house and catch us anyway.”
This is the third pandemic – selfish ignorance. (The second is the pandemic of fake news and disinformation. As for the first, I doubt Covid-19 needs introduction anymore.)
I’m honestly very thankful that both sides of my extended family are heeding these new regulations.
I sound like I’m on my moral high horse here and being absolutely judgy. I’m just really incredulous at this blatant show of selfishness when we have a pandemic ripping through mankind and people are dying by the millions.
/Grumble.
Power is a scary thing
When placed in the hands of the wrong person, power can wreak utter and irreversible havoc.
“He only wants to stay there for the title. He only wants to stay there for his ego. He needs to get out. He needs to do the good thing, but I don’t think he’s capable of doing a good thing.” – Murkowski
It scares me to no end how someone like Donald Trump could become president. Or how he could have even become a presidential candidate to begin with. Surely, the person who can wield absolute power over the United States of America (and indirectly, the world – heck, he can order a nuclear strike unchallenged, if he wants to) should be thoroughly screened before he takes office, doesn’t he?
So, where did all this go wrong? Apart from Donald Trump being utterly deranged, something is wrong with the process. Because there are other deranged people out there beyond Donald Trump but they are not sitting in the White House throwing tantrums and manipulating people.
Astronauts are required to go through intense psychiatric assessments – to evaluate if they have any personality disorders, their abilities to cope under pressure and work in a team, their decision making thought processes and more – before they commence their space training. I do wonder if there’s something similar in place for presidential candidates.
The damage is already done. Unfortunately, he has too much charisma (used for the wrong reasons) and has amassed a manic following. So Trumpism will remain long after he is kicked out of the White House. The damage is almost irreversible, if at all.
Ah well, these are the things where I can only sit here and ponder about the world.
I’ve been trying to consume less news because it’s been a really trying time, and it’s better for my mental health. (In fact – limiting your exposure to news is highly recommended as one way to preserve your sanity in this highly unstable world.)
But part of me is also feeling uneasy about sticking my head in the sand and pretending that everything is okay when so much shit is happening in the world – like the blatant challenge to democracy by a sitting president, the unchecked proliferation of lies and how he enabled the storming of Congress (which brings me to another question – is their security THAT bad?!).
Thank you, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for finally shutting him up. You guys have finally come to your senses, although I cannot believe it took you this long.
Another random thought – I’m so glad to be born in 1986 where I’ve had the privilege of growing up in a relatively stable and quiet era. Today’s kids must be thinking – wow, adults are so screwed up.
Today’s world is a terrifying place to be.
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