The Surge

The Covid 2 pandemic continues to surge nationwide, and health experts are concerned about its damaging effects on our country and people economically, psychosocially and mentally. It would seem that the administration’s leadership has been wanting innovative ideas to control the disease, the only response being to lockdown areas affected and to ask the citizenry to stay home. Observers, however, note that for those in the upper stratum of society staying at home is a non-issue. They can stay home for as long as they want and they will still live their grandiose lives. For the poor and ordinary citizens who have to work in order to live, such as bus and jeepney drivers and tricycle drivers, and others similarly situated, stay-home and lockdown is an ordeal they have to face daily as they seek to have food on their tables to sustain their families. Our health authorities expect that after four weeks of lockdown the surge will settle down and we will get back to normal. Thus, they are calling for everyone’s cooperation in the observance of the usual protocols, such as the wearing of face masks and face shields when in public places and the observance of the required distance. In the face of all these, observers also note that the present leadership of the Duterte administration should look for innovative solutions to counter the surge other than the usual lockdown. The pandemic should not be taken for granted. To us all these observations are valid and reasonable which the leadership of the administration ought to heed.

The lessons learned collectively in this pandemic must be something that ought to guide us in many years to come. It has shaped us as a people in ways we had never expected, and for some, it has even changed the way we live our lives. Both its benefits and its drawbacks have made us all more keenly aware that we need one another, and that “to each his own” is a philosophy that can never work in societal life.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK :

“THIS PANDEMIC HAS MAGNIFIED EVERY EXISTING INEQUALITY IN OUR SOCIETY”

MELINDA GATES

FOR OUR WORD OF LIFE:

“ONE MAN HELPS ANOTHER, ONE SAYS TO THE OTHER, “KEEP ON”.

ISAIAH 40:41