The virus
I know, it’s been a minute since I posted on here. A lot, needless to say, has been going on. My sister came out to Taiwan from Oklahoma for a month-long visit encompassing the month of January, my birthday gift to her. We also took a trip to Tokyo in early January for about a week, and I took her around northern Taiwan to see the sights, etc. The Muddy Basin Ramblers even gave her a private show, as we weren’t playing any gigs during that time.
The timing of the trip was a close thing, in retrospect. Even a week later and things would have been different. The day before she left, we went out to Jiufen for the day, spending the cold afternoon sipping tea and eating cakes at an old tea house overlooking the sea. The very next day, after I took her to the airport for an early morning flight, hundreds of passengers from the Diamond Princess (yes, that Diamond Princess) flowed out of the ship docked in Keelung and, yes, some of them visited Jiufen.
You know what has happened in the time since: The world has basically shut down, especially after the virus hit the U.S. and people started to belatedly take it seriously. Having been through SARS, and not being privy to the WHO’s prevarications, Taiwan knew what was up early on, closing down flights from China, which, ironically, had already helped out by limiting tourists from coming here in order to “punish” us for daring to have free and open elections. Most people began to wear masks on subways and buses as well as in crowded environments, and many mass gatherings were cancelled. Schools delayed their opening for a month or more.
Many countries have recently closed their borders; Taiwan did so a couple of days ago when it became blindingly obvious that most of the cases we were seeing were travelers from infected countries all around the world rather than just a few countries. All arrivals now go straight to quarantine…at least that’s what they’re supposed to do; there’s always those selfish, exceptionally unaware individuals who think they know better and effectively ruin it for everyone else. We saw it with SARS, and we’re seeing it now, even though the government has been issuing fines up to a NT1 million to people breaking quarantine.
Hopefully Taiwan will continue its stellar record fighting the virus; international media have mostly been ignoring this fact, instead pointing to other countries like South Korea, but that’s to be expected as most media don’t want to piss off China. In a way it’s somewhat comforting; at least people won’t be seeing Taiwan as a safe haven and trying to escape here. In fact, the border closings are causing a furor among expats who aren’t residents and have been living here on visitor visas, as they’re not allowed to go out and come back in again on a new visa as they’ve been doing, some for many years.
Watching as the virus ravages other countries, however, has been painful, countries such as Italy and Iran, and now even parts of the U.S., which delayed its virus response while Trump pretended it wasn’t a thing, and then just a small thing, easily dealt with. U.S. government officials, we’ve now found, knew about the threat but hid it from people while they sold their stocks, an act that is both illegal and unconscionable. Gun stores are being cleaned out, which is alarming. Jobs are being lost and/or suspended, yet landlords are still demanding rent. People who can’t work from home are bearing the brunt of the impact. Some states are at least trying to take up the slack for the federal government, acting to protect their citizens. I still see people, mostly Americans, pooh-poohing the virus, calling it “just a bad flu” or even a “plot by the democrats to make Trump look bad”, etc. There was one at the Altspace campfire just last night (VR seems to be taking off as more people around the world are on lockdown). Notably, everyone else blocked him, and he disappeared. The looming election looks like it will be a choice between two very old, very white men, both with cognitive problems and questionable records, and has thus been lost in the noise. If this is akin to a “wartime” situation, a narrative Trump seems to pushing now with his insistence on calling Covid19 “the Chinese virus,” his reelection is virtually assured.
For now, things here in Taiwan aren’t bad, relatively speaking. Cases here just passed the 100 mark yesterday, and we have one death so far; community spread has thus far been limited. Most schools and businesses are still open, if sparsely populated. Masks and rubbing alcohol are being rationed, and masks can even be ordered online. Legislation has been passed to deal with the economic and social impacts of the situation. I live on the outskirts of town, and I haven’t been hoarding; indeed my fridge isn’t big enough for more than maybe a week of supplies, but I’ve been buying a little more than I need every time I go shopping. I spend a lot of time at home anyway, more lately as I work on some books I’m in the process of making. I am in a way fortunate that I live alone; Chenbl lives with his elderly parents, and we all need to be especially careful.
When this is over, if it is over, I suspect the world will be changed, at least in view of the fact that the curtains have been torn down from many realities people were hitherto unwilling to face. Whether we go back to our previous state of ignorance remains to be seen.