By A.C.C Delen
It‘s been 5 months, 1week, and 6 days since I got here after yet another prolonged absence. Since then, I’ve seen a slew of reactions to the virus that has turned the world upside down in a matter of months even as its name also evolved from Wuhan Virus to Corona Virus to what we now officially call COVID-19 or as some people say, KUBED which in the dialect means dumb, dumber, dumbest. Take your pick.
Excited at the prospect of being able to spend a bit of time with family, my colleagues and myself were of the mind that this was going to be a two week vacation and that we would be back in our own little worlds in Shanghai by February 17 in time for the reopenning of school. Little did we know that five months in, we will be still here waiting to be allowed back into the country where we’ve cobbled a life for the past 10-20 years. Ironically enough, as more and more of Overseas Filipino Workers are being repatriated back to the Philippines, there are hundreds of us who are raring to leave for China while we still have jobs to go back to. After all, we’d rather be a figure on a graph that shows the number of contributors to the Philippine economy than be one on the unemployment list a few months down the road. Yup, thats one thing that is going to rise and believe you me, it will be an actual increase in unemployment unlike the case of inflated numbers we’re seeing these days and unless you’ve been living under a rock the past few months then youd know what I mean. But that’s a different story for another time.
At the beginning of the year, the virus that would eventually harvest and continue to reap thousands of lives all over the world began its career as the Wuhan virus. For many people outside China who have never even heard of this beautiful city a few hours away from Shanghai started hearing of the place more and more. News of Wuhans lockdown and it being the origin of a novel virus became the content of news in some way or form on an almost daily basis. This being so and with the advance of technology and connectivity in the present time, one would expect people to be more aware and better prepared. That wasnt so. Heres why I say this.
Arriving at NAIA on a Cathay Pacific flight from Shanghai, we walked into the airport wearing masks. In the wake of the news of the mysterious virus that had the Middle Kingdom pulling all the stops to contain it, we were expecting more stringent measures before being allowed into the country. First, the Philippines is in close proximity to the source of the virus. Second, the influx of foreign tourists was unhampered. The latter being quite important because there was no telling who could be a carrier. Could have been me or my colleagues for all we knew.
So there I was, like an idiot, still looking for the thermal scanner or any designated place for check up when my friend laughingly told me that we were already in and only needed to go collect our luggage. To say that I was disappointed at the lack of health measures is an understatement. Then disappointment morphed into dismay when I saw what was outside the airport; we were met with the sight of people walking around, unmindful of other peoples personal space, with no masks on! So much so that we felt a tad silly at being the exception in the face of overwhelming complacency. Its more fun in the Philippines!
Fast forward several months later, we’re still here and as it usually happens when one is stuck in a place too long, we begin to notice more become weaved into the daily ongoings of life on a micro level. Foremost is the fact that being here is like watching a combination of a telenovela and a Bollywood movie.
Telenovelas are long winding and are of course peppered with villains that can’t seem to go wrong. They just keep perpetrating one injustice after another yet still continue to have charmed lives. Then there are the sycophants who support the character actor/s, pander to every whim, do the dirty work, and eventually get blamed or eliminated first. There too are the characters who end up as collateral damage whose suffering is meant to propel the protagonist/s to action. The worst are the static characters that don’t change at all. Morons at the beginning, middle, and end of the movie. The Bollywood part is the ever present song and dance which is a staple of movies from that part of the world. The Philippine version however is a figurative song and dance that we are treated to whenever a public figure (government connected or otherwise) make an HONEST MISTAKE. I now suddenly wonder what a DIShonest mistake looks like. But I digress.
The telenovela is of course still ongoing with plot twists and turns that can put Kennon Road to shame. There too are more characters being added that, if this were a real movie we are in, it would already be over budget several times over much like certain political units we hear about. No longer is life imitating art but the other way around. After all, the story we are all a part of at the moment could have only come from the fertile imagination of a stoned writer suffering from hallucinations. How else can one explain the hundreds of thousands (hopefully not millions) of extras who get fed a fare of bu*@#$&t on almost a daily basis and not only do they accept it without question but actually encourage it? Ignorance is indeed bliss until it isn’t.
NO, this piece is not another diatribe against or in praise of an individual or an institution, I assure you. There are more than enough of us who can deliver either or even both. Its a prelude to stories that I intend to tell; stories that do not see the light of day because they are not controversial enough or the characters not famous enough. Every person has one and I hope to have the honor of sharing it for them. As one stranger asked another on a freezing Nanjing Lunar New Year several years ago, Whats your story? Let me tell you…**
