Unfinished lockdown blog posts - May 2020

The 1st of May: Day 1 of COVID-19 Lockdown Level 4                                      1 May 2020

Day 36 of our national lockdown, and I’m still struggling to wrap my head around this global pandemic. Most people started out thinking 21 days of lockdown was a big sacrifice, and promised ourselves we’d get through it, because we understood the enormity of the situation. Or so we thought. Even though we anticipated the extension, by the time it was confirmed, we had learnt so much about the virus, that we knew that this lockdown would last not for weeks, but months.

Knowing that, intellectually, is very different from finding your peace with it.   Today is Day 1 of Lockdown Level 4, where the restrictions have been relaxed, allowing people more freedom of movement. As much as one feels like celebrating the end of Level 5 (the most severe level), there is a very real possibility that should the numbers of positive cases spike, we will be right back at 5.

                     Social distancing enforced in a lift at Cavendish Square, a shopping mall. 

Lockdown Day 44                                                                                                 9 May 2020

Like so many people around the world, I’m working my way through life in lockdown. Despite having been told we were going into a 21-day lockdown, today is Day 44. And most of us understand why.

As I’ve written in previous blog posts, I’ve become acutely aware that my situation, relative to the majority of South Africans, is, in fact, privileged. This is not to say that I am anywhere near the top 1% (or even 10%) of the earners in our country. The awful, undeniable truth is that the majority of South Africans live in abject poverty, crippled by the myriad of related realities. I know I’ve written about this before, but to me it’s the most profound, unavoidable truth that has not only emerged, during this lockdown, but has put everything else into perspective.   

You know how you can think that something is a big deal (an unsatisfactory haircut), and then something that’s really a big, serious deal happens (someone you know dies) that makes you realise the first thing was in fact nonsense? This is what lockdown is doing. It’s showing us what really matters and what’s not worth bothering about. At all.

Something that occurred to me recently, especially after being exposed to some bizarre right-wing stuff on social media, was that this global pandemic has become a magnifying glass – everything seems to have become an exaggerated version of itself. Closed-minded people seem more so. Historically-privileged people who’ve been blind to the suffering of others seem to be even more concerned with preserving their privilege and more oblivious to the dire needs of the poor.

One of the radio stations I listen to is a talk radio station, called Cape Talk Radio. Every now and then, however, and more so during lockdown, I can’t bear to listen to the kinds of things people phone in about and I just switch off. Literally. I switch off the radio. Judging by the calls and messages, it seems a large percentage of Cape Talk listeners are older, white, privileged people.  While closed-mindedness and intolerance are by no means peculiar to that demographic, there seems to be a fairly significant proportion of the listenership that articulate those kinds of views that are.  

        When coffee shops were not actually allowed to be open, but deliveries were possible. :-)