It will get better - hopefully in a few years we will be normal and all these horrible memories will fade! We are getting there!
I have kept in touch with guides and waitresses from my Safari trips in a number of Africa countries and honestly however bad we feel here, it is so much worse there. One of my guides is in Tanzania - he hasn’t worked for 15 months, his Government until a few months ago, refused to admit Covid was real, didn’t keep any stats and refused to consider vaccination. Fortunately the President died (probably from Covid) and there is a more sensible woman in charge now. There is no economic support and if you don’t have savings or someone to help you, you starve…
Rant warning
Yes, I know things are bad elsewhere, but I’m not really talking about COVID as such, more about the ugly things it has revealed in our society. For example, the loss of any meaningful Australia and the reversion to pre-Federation states with borders and police powers that I would never ever ever have thought possible here. And yes I know quite a bit about federation and the law, but it always previously seemed more theoretical than real.
Who has ever heard before now of ”Queensland hospitals are for Queenslanders“ or of residents of various states (at least WA and Vic, and maybe more) being refused the right to go to their homes, jobs, families, lives if they had the audacity to be caught on the wrong side of a no-notice border slam. And not even permitted the opportunity to hotel quarantine - no, just totally locked out.
who would ever have thought that people would be denied the chance to farewell loved ones on their deathbeds, refused permission to hold a funeral for their 8 year old child, refused permission to attend or even hold a wedding, have their IVF cancelled and maybe miss the fertility window forever, be denied very necessary but elective surgery. FFS this is not Ebola that we are talking about here. And who would have thought that this egalitarian and larrikin country I used to love so much would just accept all that and slam millions of people into lockdowns for a single case of COVID or sometimes when there are zero cases, but you know, just in case. All whilst allowing elites to do pretty much whatever they want - travel overseas, visit pubs, follow their family history, play sports, go to the olympics, quarantine at home - the list goes on and on.
Who would have believed that we would become so compassionless as to ban a fully vaccinated mother who gave birth early whilst in quarantine and repeatedly tested negative for COVID from seeing her child?
Who would have believed the farce of the Qld CHO and premier with their ”don’t do as I do, do as I say“ attitude to getting the Pfizer vaccine, late, when they should have had AZ, as soon as they were eligible. Or the hypocrisy of AP criticising hotel quarantine and travel exemptions for business travellers whilst herself expecting a pork barrel jolly to the Olympics.
Who would have thought that Australians would be threatened with jail for the heinous act of trying to enter their country, or that a sizeable portion of Australians clearly think that Australians living overseas are somehow less Australian and that there should be very restrictive caps on their ability to return to their country. I ask in all seriousness, what is the value of an Australian passport if it does not even grant you entry to Australia?
there are many more ugly characteristics that this vaccine has revealed, but I’m on the verge of needing a full on rant warning, so I will just say that if I had another citizenship right now, I would feel better than I do at the moment. I have had it slammed into me very hard that I was living in lala land, and the Australia I thought I knew was actually a very delicate illusion that has now well and truly showed its true and ugly, selfish, fearful, stupid, unkind nature.
Rant over, but I doubt that normal transmission can ever resume for me - I can never unknow what I now know.
edited for iPad typos
www.news.com.au
