We Trudge On

NEA's reminder to us via their fb page on 23 April 2020.

We begin another month in lockdown Tightened Circuit Breaker mode. It would have been naive to have assumed that it would have lifted come May 4th. Given how overwhelmed the medical services are right now dealing with migrant workers, they need everyone else to be staying home to lower the cases of community infections. Fighting the pandemic on two fronts is just impossible. Apparently we can't be trusted to go out quickly and return. We can't be trusted to not gather or linger. We're not to drive out to parks for walks. We're expected to stay within our neighborhoods to help the emergency response teams identify and contain potential clusters when people get infected. We're encouraged to take photos and tattle on one another, and overzealous assholes are just douchebags.

This little containment experiment only goes to show how low social consciousness is on a whole in Singapore. We can't have nice things. So we're talked to and treated as cretins and people who don't know any better. First it was coined as a ‘Circuit Breaker’ (all of civil and public service read too much Nicholas Nassim Taleb lah), then it became 'Tightened Circuit Breaker'. Dafug. How do I not associate it with the imagery ‘tightening of the noose’? Everything that can be done in a lockdown has been mostly done, except for a general curfew and roadblocks. We're just three steps short of calling it a 'lockdown'. New rules are announced every other day. One has to double check one's identity card numbers before visiting popular markets (it might extend to supermarkets) since access/entry is permitted based on odd and even days matching odd and even ending numbers, Bear in mind that such a rule could eventually be used to restrict and govern us anytime we step out of the house.

BCA Singapore's
fb clarification
on 28 April 2020.

There have been so many illogical rulings trotted out every week that I can’t even begin to make sense of it. Home bakers may operate, but delivery is an issue. They set so many restrictions that short of waving a wand over their baked-and-ready-to-go goods to say 'Disapparate' and 'Apparate', I don't know how they're going to run a business. Then they did a U-turn on the ban of motor vehicle workshops as an essential service because they forgot cars can break down within these few weeks. Like, duhhh. When BCA Singapore had to clarify that although dog walking isn't permitted in private estates, dog owners needn't carry their dogs out of the compounds, I lost it. I couldn’t stop laughing for a day.

If the point is to lower human interaction and the percentage of the workforce out and about (from the current 15% to 10%), then they should have imposed a total lockdown + a curfew and a full suspension of all courier, postal, delivery and food services. Why stop at at a ban of cakes, chocolates and confectionery? Just stop the import of flour. And outright do food rationing. UGH. If we protest, we’re called irresponsible and are roundly accused of inciting unrest and further dissent. Excuse me, stop behaving like fascists. Anyway. There’s a miniscule sliver of hope these measures will ease off in June. But life isn’t going to return to any normal that we know before March 2020.

Only acquaintances and work associates (和無謂與不相干人士）tend to ask 'How are you?' There're about a million ways to phrase that question out of concern so that it doesn't come out as run-of-the-mill 'how-are-you'. My standard reply nowadays is, 'I'm doing wonderful, thank you. Wishes to you too.' I don't even ask if the other party is okay. I am doing wonderful. I'm an introvert, remember? I'm not even trying to be snarky when I say I'm loving this period of quiet. Besides sorting out work stuff, there's plenty to do at home. I don't enjoy the cooking and cleaning, and the weekly changing of bedsheets. But these are #FirstWorldProblems, so I will shut up about it. I'm just trying to get used to having the husband home all day, and having to pick up after him (because he can never remember to switch off the lights or close the fridge doors), and running away from the dog who has taken to following me around when she's not napping. GOOD GAAWD.