Post 56: #Coronavirus and a global perspective.

Today we’re free-form writing!

We’re sharing our experiences, thoughts, and uncensored opinions during lockdown, quarantine, and self-isolation. For some of us, it’s DAY 56. 

RANT ALERT

Rest in Peace

RafifJ, #Malaga, #Spain

To Ahmaud Maubry, I hope you rest in peace. You are not the first, and sadly, you will not be the last. But you are the one who made me break down.

Ahmaud Maubry. Retrieved from the New York Post.

To the other countless #African-American men and boys who were killed out of hatred last year, and the year before that, and for generations upon generations before that, I hope you rest in peace. Let’s hope that one day, the efforts of many millions of people who protest injustice and defend human rights will bear fruit and #justice will be served.

For the million+ #Syrians who were killed by Assad’s barrel bombs and chemicals, Iran’s starvation sieges, and Russia’s Air Force, I hope you rest in peace. Please know there are millions of other Syrians who are still fighting the good fight to ensure #freedom, #dignity, #equality, and #democracy for future generations.

To the millions of #Palestinians whose occupiers wiped them off the face of the earth, I hope you rest in peace. As with Syrians, millions of Palestinians continue to seek #freedom and their rightful homeland. May #justice be served.

To all victims of #genocide, I hope you rest in peace. Maybe one day the world will replace hate with #love. Or at least acceptance.

Millions of people have spent their lifetimes defending democracy and human rights, seeking justice, and searching for freedom. To no avail.

Rest in peace.

For now, I have no other words.

De plane…de plane

RJD, #Beirut, #Lebanon

In the opening scene of an old TV series, Fantasy Island, Tattoo rings the tower bell and yells “de plane, de plane” as an airplane begins its descent on the island.

Now that we are living on an island called #Lebanon (Syrian border is supposedly closed, southern border is not an option, that leaves us with the sea to the west, so we are essentially an island!), where the airport has been closed for over two months, seeing a plane makes me feel Tattoo’s excitement!

Planes arrive every other day – with repatriated Lebanese citizens from all over the world. With them, also, comes #COVID-19 cases. And with them, too, comes a lot of political favors. Nothing like the joy of Tattoo.

A week ago, a friend of mine and I saw a boat coming to dock full of containers and we got so excited! Did our imported food supplies finally arrive? Quaker Oats? Bob’s Red Mill?

Two days ago, a plane was descending on the old runway course and flew over our heads. It was a military plane. No questions asked, keep in mind that we don’t really have military planes or a real Air Force!

Yesterday, the notorious #London plane arrived. On it were passengers from London (who had to have had a PCR test done 3 days prior to boarding) and a contingent of students returning home from the US and Canada (who didn’t have PCR tests done). The plane was packed. The passengers went haywire not only because of the number of people on board, but also because they were made to pay exorbitant fares due to social distancing. There was no social distancing.

But pardon me for asking: how is that fair in the fight of COVID-19 in Lebanon (that has more or less contained the spread under very extenuating economic and political circumstances)?

And lastly but repetitively, who is responsible for this mess? Foreign ministry? Health ministry? The airline? As is the case in Lebanon, most likely it will be buried in the blaming game that everyone plays (government blaming banks and banks blaming politicians and politicians blaming one another…here we go ’round the Mulberry Bush).

Our Fantasy Island is sad but true.

Video taken anonymously on the London-Beirut flight yesterday

Ranting

Charlie, Metro #Washington, DC

I seem to be doing nothing but ranting these days. I can’t bear the lack of common sense or the unwillingness of people to do their jobs right. Especially at a time when there are lots of folks who do have more than two synapses in their brains together and are looking for work. Why do we have to endure the unbearable heaviness of people’s laziness?

First, I would like to see a new definition of the politically incorrect word “moron” in Oxford’s esteemed dictionary. It should read: MORON—someone God gave a hefty IQ to who refuses to use it, especially when it comes to acting with a modicum of common sense.

There are a lot of morons in charge of stuff during this pandemic, and their incompetence is furled in full display in the state where I live in Metro Washington, DC.

  1. Wearing of masks: A few goings on that seemed to have been missed by the morons in charge.
  2. In our esteemed state you must wear a mask and stay at least 6 feet from another person. Fair enough. Then explain to me why not a half a block from my home, construction workers are working a mere 3 inches apart and no one’s wearing a mask. And then, at the end of the workday, those folks run amongst the general population like potentially infected free-range chickens.
  3. Let’s move on to the state’s road construction crews. Same scenario as above. Can’t tell you how many of these state road workers, still in full construction regalia, are ambling through Costco after working all day with no mask on and snuggling up close and personal with their cohorts.
  4. Homemade, reusable masks: My state demanded ten cents to use a plastic bag for your groceries. They wanted everyone to use their soiled, never-washed reusable bags from home. I asked a local supermarket chain manager about the health risks involved with this. I believe my question went like this, “What are you guys gonna do when some pandemic rolls through our area and everyone’s trotting in their virus infected bags from home?” He, of course, accused me of rolling off my nut with that comment. Well, now my state’s banned these reusable bags from all stores. BUT HAVE THEY BANNED SOILED HOMEMADE RESUABLE MASKS? NO. So all those homemade masks and scarves people are sporting that they never likely wash are probably spreading more of the virus that preventing it.
  5. CARES/PUA: My state is flush with affluence., and we pay taxes out of every orifice in our bodies. As it happens, my little sole proprietor/LLC requires I meet with people face-to-face. No teleworking possible. So, I apply for the $600 CARES stipend I’m eligible for. My state has yet to able to figure out how to implement such payments to its eligible citizenry. Apparently, it has the worst record in the nation for getting these mandated payments to people. There are my tax dollars at work.

My first boss in television said to me on my first day, “If you make a mistake, don’t make me have to fire you. Gather up your things, leave the building, and I’ll have HR send you your final check.”

Guess what, I never screwed up. I think my old boss’s policy should be put into action in my state. The Secretary of Labor should gather up her things, leave the building, wait for her check (which she’d likely get before I ever get mine), and give her job someone who isn’t a moron.

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