So this morning while having my breakfast and gazing out the window, I started thinking about consequences. How a word said in anger can linger, how a moment of kindness during a time of darkness can have a major impact and how a guy eating a bat in China can shut down the planet. And let's face it, we all feel the consequences of that guy's actions! Businesses have had to close, people have lost jobs, we all have to walk around looking like we are about to perform surgery or rob a bank, rubbing our hands together in nefarious fashion because we are constantly sanitizing everything. The world has been turned upside down! Governments have all had to deal with the fallout of that one guy's unusual lunch (I mean, I have eaten some strange things but bats have never been on my To Eat list) and some governments are handling it better than others.
Measures have been put in place to prevent the spread of this dreaded virus. We have to practice social distancing, because being in close proximity to each other can spread the virus. That is why all beaches, whether it be next to the sea, next to a river or next to a dam, have had to close. But minibus taxis can still operate at 100% carrying capacity. And, because we all know how minibus taxi drivers think, that usually means the taxi is overfilled with people sitting on top of other people. Last year the sale of cigarettes was banned because.......um........well.......because........I actually have no idea. Smoking is bad for you and thus cigarettes are bad for you and there's this virus and it is transmitted by smoking, no wait. It is transmitted by being in close proximity to others. So cigarettes were banned just because. Which even to a non-smoker like me, made no sense. The country lost out on a major form of revenue because of the ban on cigarettes.
Which brings me to my next point. The ban on the sale of alcohol. And not a gradual ban in order to give store owners time to prepare. Nope! The president speaks and bam! All alcohol banned! With immediate effect. Workers who work in liquor stores basically being told not to report for work, with no time to prepare. Because alcohol spreads the virus. No, wait. It causes people to act stupid and thus cause accidents, which cause them to have to be taken to hospital, but the hospitals are now exclusively reserved for Covid patients. No other illness really matters. And I do understand the reasoning behind this, even if it is very grade 1 reasoning. But again, it is costing restaurant owners money, it is costing liquor store owners money and the country is again losing out on a major revenue stream. While I do acknowledge that alcohol, when abused, can cause great damage and suffering, shutting down the industry seems like a desperate move, one that was not well thought out. I would suggest rather strictly monitoring the use of alcohol and coming down like an anvil on anyone caught driving while under the influence. But instead the police are so busy cracking down on the sale of illegal alcohol, monitoring the beaches and enforcing the curfew that other crimes seem to slip under the radar.
In conclusion, I have to admit that we are living in crazy times that make no sense. And as someone who works in IT I am very disappointed that, when the new strain of the virus was discovered, it wasn't called Covid 19.1. But hey, while it is true that the world is going nuts, you woke up this morning. You took a breath when someone else was blowing out their last. You are alive and hopefully well. In these uncertain times, just remember to count your blessings, great and small. Things could be a lot worse.....
