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Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

Pandemic Diaries 12

London, New York
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Nora Dreher is spending her coronavirus confinement baking from scratch

From London:

Hi, I am writing as a university undergraduate studying in London. Students, local or international, have left the campus in the last two weeks. What I saw very often in last week is that vans and trucks are moving student’s belongings out. I live in a flat inside the campus and all my flatmates have been gone. There are also a few cases being recorded in the campus (so far, no one I know has been tested positive)I will be departing tomorrow (I live outside the UK), which is one week earlier than what I have initially planned. Flights have become rare so I am grateful to get on one of them. Who knows whether all flights will be cancelled? Who knows when the lockdown will be over?
This morning, PM Johnson and Health Minister Hannock have been tested positive for COVID-19. I think that the virus is pretty much like the Spanish flu (however the casualties are less catastrophic), which infects indiscriminately: Rich, poor, famous, unknown, young, old, healthy, unhealthy, etc. This makes me more alarmed about my protection. I have two boxes of facial masks and have stayed in my room most of the time. While my family (outside the UK) is very worried, I am still quite confident that I will be safe with my precautions. However, it is easy to panic after watching the news and I struggle to calm myself down.
On Monday I was in a van with the van driver. I told him that I used to believe that it is just flu before things get out of control. The driver replied that people were having usual lives until last week, and they have never seen anything like that in their lifetime. I told him that the West is being too complacent in the past and explained that why Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea are doing relatively better is that they have experienced similar pandemics 20 years ago so they have fresh memories on how to prepare. Politicians and leaders on the right must act now to curb the pandemic or else the right will be in exile for a generation or two since they will be punished for the fiasco they failed to handle.
University teaching has shifted online and it is an appealing experience. I am quite adapted to face-to-face teaching as I am more serious when I am in front of a teacher. This also has something to do with the attitude. People tend to be laxer when learning at home and I found myself more distracted when having online classes. The church is probably the same — an online church service cannot give what a real church service can. I probably need more time to adapt to the changes. Hope not that these changes will be longlasting.
A silver lining of this pandemic brought to the UK is that people have put Brexit debates aside and contribute themselves to the anti-pandemic effort. Last night, millions of Britons cheered for the NHS workers. However, there are still some malicious people who cheered when Johnson announced that he has been tested positive for COVID-19. Some people have lost their sympathy and are unlikely to regain them again.
One thing that makes me particularly concerned is the economic devastations that the pandemic can bring. Studying in university does not mean that I am unaffected by the pandemic. I initially plan to get an internship this summer, but no one will be hiring in the foreseeable future. The longer the pandemic lasts, the longer the economy will recover. Even though the pandemic ends in Europe and North America within months, the economy is globally integrated. Until we are certain that the virus can no longer harm humanity, the economy will still be affected. The prospect of me unable to find a job after graduation become very real (I still have two years of study to go).
Another thing that makes me worried is that the effect of the pandemic to society. The prediction that there will a 30% unemployment rate in the USA is becoming a reality. Imagine the chaos that would bring. I believe that there will be unrests in the future that will make 1968 looks like a child’s play. Both the left and the right will be radically changed in the following years. The world in a few years will be unrecognisable, things unimaginable today may happen in the future. In 1928, Hitler was a nobody in politics and his party only receives a few prevents of the votes, but after a 30% unemployment rate induced by the Great Depression (which is coincidentally the same with the predictions made by economists now), he was the leader of the country. As a person who favours stability, I want to avoid chaotic outcomes, but for me, and probably you, can only accept the fate and seize the time to prepare whatever will happen in the future. I am a Gen Z Christian (from Asia) and this pandemic can be a disaster or a blessing for the church. If we can repent our sins, change our lifestyles to the way that our Lord desires and help the poor and the sick, then we may have changed a lot of people’s mind. As various studies have told young people are not Christians mostly because of that the church has become irrelevant to them. This is the time to make the church relevant again. However, the possibility that Christianity in the world would be dramatically weakened also exist. I agree that the entertainment-based churches in the US will be gone after pandemic hardship that is prolonged for years by economic devastations. I have heard that Bolsonaro, the president supported by many evangelicals in Brazil, is blasted for inadequate action against the pandemic. I think that Brazilain Christians will also be discriminated after the fiasco is over for their support over the president. Churches in South Korea was blamed for spreading the virus (to be fair, the church that spread the virus is heretical). South Korans maintain a very strong shame culture so Christians there will be targeted by the public outrage and shame campaign after all is over. The Benedict Option is needed beyond the West after this crisis.
Just some random thoughts from an ordinary young man. I may write again when I return to my homeland.
From New York:
I’m an American student who just yesterday returned from studying overseas. Travelling right now is like going through ghost towns. Coming into major international airports with nobody at the immigration halls, seeing essentially nobody in baggage claim halls; for someone who travels quite a bit, its like walking through mausoleums to the globalized life. It was really chilling to see so many of the stores in airports closed down, really only leaving the restaurants open, and even then only the ones that prioritized takeout food. Planes were almost entirely empty, the plane from London to Atlanta was almost totally bare, and the one that took me back home to NY was even barer. When we landed in Atlanta, we got a brief visit on the plane from CDC people in PPE and thermometers, but I don’t know if that’s because we were in their backyard or if its now standard procedure anywhere international flights are coming in. In any case, it feels good to be home, even if it’s during a crisis.
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