Worried

Tags

depression, disasters, no future, the end, uncertainty

So far 2020 has been one long disaster and everything is so strange that it is difficult to just go on since nothing is normal and the future is very uncertain.

There is a lot of fear in the air, people do not think in a rational manner, the irrational is the norm, nothing is logical nor reasonable.

While it appears that in Canada and in the Maritimes we have past the worst of this pandemic and it is now behind us, this is not so for the rest of the world. However here in Charlottetown and elsewhere with no tourist season, for us in PEI this means grave consequences come the Fall and Winter, there is going to be real poverty and want.

Coupled with this pandemic, weird events happen, this morning at 06:30 am a man ran through the gate of Rideau Hall with his truck. This is the Official Residence of the Governor General and in another house on the Estate the Prime Minister has his residence.  This guy was armed to the teeth and it turns out he is a member of the Armed Forces. Luckily neither the Governor General nor the Prime Minister where present. This guy was upset and wanted to talk to the PM.

Last week we had the BLM march and the Native Live matter march, everyone wants change and want it now. Many strange statements have been made, opinion pieces appear in the media. Not much is articulated properly, it is just a grab bag of agendas and demands, most come from various groups who present themselves as victims. One demand is to get rid of Canadian history as a whole and come up with a new politically correct history that would force the dead to confess to wrong doing committed 100 plus years ago. There is no point in stating that the past is gone and dead and you cannot change it, no one is listening.

For those people, Canada is the worst place on Earth to live. I wonder where would they be happy. There have been other events since January to disturb the normal course of life and coupled with this Pandemic it all becomes surreal and difficult to cope.

The bridge is re-opening in just about 45 minutes to allow us to cross to the mainland and vice-versa, however the procedure to do so is similar to that of going across an International border and requires prior registration online. I can see long lines of cars and several hour of delays simply to enter or exit the Island.

We were also warned today by the Chief Medical Officer of PEI that in all likelyhood we will see new cases of Covid19 on the Island in the coming weeks and months. At the moment no one is paying attention because it is Summer.

The future if we can call it that, is very uncertain and it is difficult to live with so much uncertainty. Maybe there is no future, maybe the world as we knew it ended in 2019.

 

 

Thinking…

Tags

2020, climate change, covid19, disasters, New Year, thinking, virus

Late last night I was thinking,  as Will would say to me; what have I told you about thinking. This is our little inside joke we share. I was thinking that this Covid19 Pandemic has change fundamentally the way we live and it is unlikely we will return to the way things were before March 2020.

It has been 10 long weeks of staying at home and only going out for essentials. The word essential has become the key word in our life. Someone is essential or not, shopping is essential or not, businesses are essential or not. All Government directives are based on what is essential or not in terms of services etc.

These 10 weeks which upset our lives are lost forever, we followed the rules because this is what was required in order to stay healthy and not infect anyone if we happened to be Asymtomatic. I believe in Civic Duty and responsibility in such cases so we did it.

However this pandemic also revealed the ugly side of many people, the selfish, self-centred attitude, ME first is their mantra. That is very disturbing to see and hear. People who place the economy first and foremost and do not care how many will get sick and die. The economy is more important, really? Obviously such people do not know that you can’t take the money with you when you die. We have them here on PEI, and such people are a sad spectacle.

But my thinking was more about how our lives had changed, we went in just 24 hours on 11 March from having lots of social activities with friends to nothing, zero, zilch to do. Could not meet anyone, ok will do zoom instead, well it’s not the same. Also having nothing to do plays on your mind. We did try to keep busy and that lasted all of one week. I started to forget what day of the week it was and had to look at the calendar and my iPhone for confirmation. It all looked the same, nothing had any order, time became irrelevant. Streets around us were deserted, no one anywhere, we took the dogs out for walks but it was eerie, no one anywhere, the silence. We have two large parks by the house and the Hillsborough river in front but seeing the snow melt and then the grass grow, the City employees were not coming, garbage collection was cut back, all businesses closed including the bank branch. All of it was very strange and unsettling. The only distraction was going to the gas station to fill up and going to the grocery stores but we were told only once every 2 weeks. Lucky us, we never really had any shortages, though on 13 March we had the great toilet paper caper, that was silly and we all laughed at it, within two weeks that was resolved.

Now since 1 June we are in phase 3 and businesses have re-open and so has restaurants, but we are not going. We will do take out but that is it. Our Club is also re-opening but no we are not going there either. Because of the frustration of being limited in what we could do, far to many people are now behaving thoughtlessly, not observing social distancing, no masks or gloves.

I miss seeing our friends, good conversation, cocktails, birthdays or having dinner parties. I joked in March that this would last 8 months, looks like I was right about that one, it may be longer. What we have now is fear, the fear of getting sick. The fear that something may go terribly wrong. Fear for the future, fear for the economy, though so far nothing major has happened. Yes there is a lot of unemployed, in PEI it’s 20% but it is not apparent so far. Our tourism Season will not happen and fishers are complaining of no markets. People are fearful but what can we do. Everyone is hoping that life will return to some kind of normality, even if this means a new normal. I can see it with the Dentists and Doctors, procedures for patients is very different now. Wearing a mask is not mandatory but strongly recommended. Everything is done through a plexiglass window and there is lots of cleaning going on. It really feels like a twilight zone, a bad dream.

Climate change has not gone away and we see signs of it with strange weather no one remembers ever happening before. We have to reconcile ourselves to the fact that we may have this pandemic for a long time, it may not go away and coupled with worsening effect of Climate change, quite the combination.

So on New Year’s Eve I thought to myself what will 2020 bring, I thought well for sure there will be some disaster or incident, something to make us pay attention. Well we had our load of disasters for the year in the first 3 months, from the downing of a commercial airliner over Tehran by the Iranian guards with all those Canadians on board, the month long railway blockades by native groups across Canada over a pipeline in British Columbia, the price of Oil in Alberta dropping to almost zero, the crisis with China over Meng of Huawei and her possible extradition to the USA and then Covid 19.  Now our border was closed with the USA in March and will remain so for the time being and all our seaports are also closed until 31 October. Maybe it is a good thing we cannot see what the future holds. I do hope to see our friends this Summer, I miss them and I hope that we will remain safe and healthy.