Since Monday this week, life has undergone needed adjustments, all because of an unseen enemy lurking in our midst. A Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine has been put into effect, practically unleashing the might of government power in full force on every place, locality, community, province and region throughout the country’s main island. The imposition, just a few days after placing the entire country under a national health emergency, raises several notches the breadth and depth of national response, in far greater sweep and scope.
The long and short of it is that we’re all now locked down, and locked in, prohibited in so many ways, except for truly vital needs, restrained from travelling to and fro, prohibited from doing things the normal way, and simply told to stay at home, lest we run the risk of getting infected by the dreaded disease. Day in and day out, we did, generally in acceptance of the imposed restraint. All of a sudden, streets were unclogged of vehicular movement, simply because public transport and private mobility have been disallowed, except for those pressed upon to secure foodstuff, medication, and other vital needs.
The latest Covid-19 updates are hardly reassuring, even to the optimistic-minded. Italy has outnumbered China in the number of stricken cases, as the global count lists up nearly 10,000 all over the world. Hereabout, the number of PUIs and PUMs continue to rise, even as recovery indicates an exponentially upward curve. Fatalities have yet to spike up, decidedly good news indeed, telling us that health protection efforts have been effectively and efficiently marked. This development bodes well for everyone, where it really matters: our own safety and welfare.
What is remarkable so far — something that borders on amazement, something that we’ve not experienced in years past when difficulties held dominance over solutions ineligible at the time — is the popular acceptance that has greeted government pronouncements on the Do’s and Don’ts during this period of anxiety, edging enough to express fright. By and large, everyone seems to be obeying the public restrictions applied by the government in setting up the human walls against infection from person to person. There may have been confusion at the start, no doubt, fed by misinformation and often enough, conflicting enforcement measures, but these have considerably waned as the days progressed.
To our people’s approbation, they have recognized the worth of listening and obeying government authorities. Mayor Benjie Magalong has considerably shown decisiveness in taking the proper steps to enforce government-imposed restrictions. In a video-chat aired online, his profile projected a leader in complete control of things, a man no doubt toughened enough to act quickly in times of crisis, such as now. He admits that errors in execution as well as policy judgments on the ground may have taken place, resulting in scant incidences of disappointment. Each time though, he listened, re-evaluated, and taken decisive steps to swiftly address a given issue. Indeed, tough times deserve tough measures, and Hizzoner comes across as a leader who gets tougher when the going gets tough.
Public confidence grows huge, when obedience to self-restraint results in empty streets, less vehicles on the road, with hardly any social activity taking place, proof positive that lifestyles have considerably adapted to the harshness of what life has become. In the ensuing days, it should do well for everyone to heed the continuous alerts and warnings issued by health authorities. Compliance, more than the questions asked continuously, will sustain current and future efforts to keep us all out of risk. One thing that appears to have been mentally instilled is a common fear of being infected, thus endangering loved ones, and in a matter of days, imperiling others. Fright breeds obedience as a matter of survival.
Yet, amid the frightening backdrop we face from a faceless foe, there is greater need to adapt ourselves way better than we’ve ever been. How we rose up, as one community of calamity-hardened victims in past disasters (remember the killer quake of 1990?) should inspire us anew of being able to get through this menace that grows by the minute. How we will rise anew will hugely depend on how we get to change the way we do things under normal circumstances.
There are blessings that we must be grateful in these difficult, challenging times. Locked down and locked in, decidedly in the comfort of loved ones, we discover the value of the very singular reason that unfortunately have been lost or overlooked and taken for granted amid the pressures of work and of living the way we’ve been doing. It’s called father and mother in love with you. Bonded together, tied up together, these simply rolls out as FAMILY.
There is too the added fortune of discovering what can be done at home, things that we’ve largely ignored all through our life. There must be a thousand and one task awaiting our personal heed — a broken pipe, a leaking faucet, the drying plants, some untightened screws, a bit of this and that here and there. Doing it ourselves, rather than relying on handy men and women on call, saves us much needed money for very essential needs.
Finally, there is the bonding time that families anywhere can have with their children, something that has been absent in this day and age of mobile phones, ipads, desktops, and other modern gadgets operating on the information highway. Let us take time to get the kids invaluably detached from these contraptions and keep them engaged in meaningful conversations face-to-face, upclose and personal. Family experiences, when made together, are longer lasting, for family values to get instilled deep enough to become our self-defense mechanism against unwanted onslaughts such as now.
Let’s get it going, at home, with loved ones. After all, under any circumstance, good or dire, family means happiness.