So for a solid 35 days I have written each day about my lockdown experiences, life as we now know it.
ALSO READ: LOCKDOWN BLOG: All dressed up with nowhere to go – Day 34
It’s been a heck of an experience this lockdown business, I won’t lie!
From tomorrow we enter level 4… well level 5 lite (hahaha).
The news of cigarettes not being sold, even during level 4, has caused the nicotine addicts to have a meltdown!
Perhaps now is the time to kick the expensive habit? Just putting it out there!
But my question to you as I write my final blog – what would you have done in president Cyril Ramaphosa’s shoes?
The man is in a Catch-22 situation – damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t.
Yes, we are all experiencing the stress of a crashing economy – companies are shutting, unemployment levels are rising, the number of families needing food parcels is climbing, and crime and domestic violence has increased. Let’s not forget the cases of police brutality.
The situation is bleak, even with the now-legal five kilometre run/walk radius.
Some conspiracy theorists say we are heading towards new world order.
However, there are some important lessons that can be learnt from the Spanish flu epidemic, which arrived in the country 102 years ago in 1918.
The pandemic raged through the country, during which about 60 percent of the South African population contracted the virus, and within six weeks, it had killed between 300 000 and 350 000 South Africans.
There are obviously key differences between 1918 and the Covid-19 pandemic, but what stands out is that the most effective immediate response back then was ‘crowd control’ or, as we know it today, ‘social distancing’.
Pandemics are not a first for mankind, but rather, a first for our generation.
I really don’t have the answers and I don’t think any of us do, just yet.
All we can do is ride out the storm and hope for the best!
Signing off for the last time. Take care and be nice! – Shona x
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