WYSIWYG

What You See Is What You Get. This is a journal blog, an explore-blog, a bit of this and that blog. Sharing where the mood takes me. Perhaps it will take you too.

MenoAZinkulling: P

This month here at the Wild YAMster's bloggy, you are going to be regaled with words related to feelings and happenings of the last twelve months. Oh yes, you know of what I talk.  This is to be the ALPHABET OF AAARRGFIZZZ... We've all had to deal with it. This will be a reflection purely from my point of view. You don't necessarily have to agree with what I say; just appreciate where it's coming from. Normal service will resume on May Day. (By which time I may be yelling that down the ether phone loud and repetitively!)
☀♉☀

Pandemic!

Phew, got that one out of the way. Moving on...

There was an element of Panic, in the beginning, was there not? Panic-buying, panic-travelling. What? Yes, all the folk in the cities tried to move out to the country. Like that would Prevent infection. All they did was carry it with them. Prevention became the key factor in the guidelines that governments laid out for their citizens. Not always that clear. Indeed, for many, the Westministerial offerings were about as clear as cracked glass. Lots of loopholes. Lots of contradictions. Mainly, one suspects because there was no Planning - apparently a total lack. One must be fair and acknowledge that nobody living now has ever been through anything like this before. Including the chaps in charge in the Big Hoose. Except for the fact that it was expected to happen at some point. After all, nature's early warning system had been working; 

SOURCE

Was it a case of 'cry wolf' in that before 2020, outbreaks had been contained or proven not to be the threat expected of them? Did it mean that complacency set in? Whatever -  this one has flown in and ensured that we pay attention.

In cold, hard, statistical terms, the death numbers directly attributable to COVID are still only at 0.05% of the world population at the time of writing. Yes, the number may grow a little yet, but this is the context. The trouble is, some of the worst-hit countries (that is to say, those with the largest death tolls) are those countries where it is thought to be unlikely—western, 'healthy' places like these wee islands off the north coast of Europe. At the end of March, we tipped over the 150k total for 'excess deaths'. There is no way to be flippant about such numbers. Of those, 130+k are in England, 7.5k in Scotland, 5.5k in Wales and 2.2k in N.I. 

Sorry to lay that out, but it would be nonsense to have a theme about Coviditionitis, and a post with the subheading it does, without covering that territory. Or mentioning another big pee-word that we have all had to think about ... Personal Protective Equipment. It was all very haphazard, wasn't it? Even sorting out the most effective mask strength proved an elusive task - in the end, any face covering will be better than none, combined with good surface and hand hygiene and avoiding contact with anyone else.

All this kinda-sorta passed the father and me by. We would anyway have been a bit restricted due to the deterioration in his Parkinson's. Oh yes, that was the other big-pee that dominated my 2020. And his, of course. I do think, though, that the deterioration was sped up by the fact that we could not have the weekly coffee morning with our dear Neighbour M, or dad his fortnightly meet and greet with his excellent pal Ron or even his monthly outing for lunch with old buddy Tom. He had me, the telly, Mac1, the telly, brief turns with Macs 2 and 3, the telly.... and sleep, sleep, sleep. As each month, each week, went by, he seemed to shrink just that bit more, physically and mentally.  Despite taking all steps that we could to attend to his comfort, it became increasingly clear this was his final year.

We cannot leave the letter pee without mentioning (as has been done in most of these posts!) the matter of Politics. Globally, the political scene has been showing a significant trend to 'the right'. Ultra-conservatism based on neo-liberal principles. That is the ebb and flow of things, too, is it not? The "greed is good" mentality alive and well for a spell, then an upturning of that for more civil and social-mindedness and egalitarianism. You may have surmised that I lean more to the latter. 

Sadly, most politics these days appears to be based upon social-media-style celebrity 'cultism' - personality-driven rather than policy-driven. Then, when it is found that cronyism is alive and well in the Parliament and the Primo Mouthster peddles the capitalist anthem, one despairs.

See tomorrow for the ongoing saga. Please be aware that there is more I amAZing over at 





22 comments:

  1. PPE--I didn't think of that one!

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  2. You are producing a covidlopedia, a covidary.

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  3. Pandemic need not or should of gotten to this point. Yes it had to do with all might dollar or what every currancy want to use.
    I like the way you been doing the alphabet.
    Coffee is on and stay safe

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  4. Thanks for the post.
    Hope all well soon_()_

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  5. Bertie says surely P is for Pets. So important for so many of us always, but especially over the last year.

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    1. Hari OM
      Bertie, this is true - but I had dealt with the pets aspect under the letter E and as this series is from my personal perspective, well, I lack a pet! This by no means reflects on their value - it could be said I am the Poorer for it &*> H&W, Y-a xxx

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  6. we think taht pandemic has the letters for panic inside, happened for a reason...

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  7. Hi Yam - yes it's interesting to see what's happening ... just desperate times for many. You managed to come through ... though not the easiest for your Dad's long journey at the end. I'm just glad you were there for him. Thanks for highlighting the Pandemic in a succinct way ... stay safe - Hilary

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  8. Oh yes indeed YAM as I think back on 2020 it was a pit fall of year full of P words. You surely did a fine job of documenting the year full of Ps
    Hugs Cecilia

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  9. you have pretty much touched on all the PEES and the one I dislike the most of every P in the world is POLITICS... and with all the opinions of talking heads on every resource available, i dislike it more each day. You have Properly covered all the P's... good job

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  10. Well, at least there is no more PPI adverts to make you mad!
    As for protection, oh wow, where to start. The other day I had a lady on the bus who had worn the same face mask since the first day she had to and it was disgustingly dirty. I wear a washable one at work, which will be chucked in the laundry after one day and when I go out to the shops I might wear a disposable one, which goes in the bin (loops broken to save any birds or animals, just in case) after use. My hands are raw with eczema and I clean my driver's area on the bus like nobody's business. I do so not want to infect myself, let alone others.

    Klem

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  11. So many Ps for this theme. I tried not to panic in early days, just use proper precautions. But as the death toll climbed, it seemed prudent to just stay home. My husband picked up groceries as needed, and I practiced extreme social distancing. Now that we have been received our two Pfizer vaccines, I'm stepping out a bit. So many needless deaths.

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  12. I had pandemic too, in my 'P'. The panic buying was strange too watch, especially the toilet roll buying. I'll never understand some people!

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  13. The days of panic buying seem so distant now with the far more important issues of prevention and economics holding the spotlight. You have succinctly summarized the pandemic's toll on the world, along with your personal sorrows, during these trying times.
    https://gail-baugniet.blogspot.com

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  14. In the end I think it's important to remember 3 million people worldwide have died in this pandemic, and everyone of those lives was precious.

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  15. Too many precious lives have been lost and sometimes, I wonder if the pandemic will ever end.

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  16. You raise so many good points. The government did have extensive plans for a pandemic - none of which included lockdowns in the way they have been applied - but in the event they threw them out; some would say they blinked. Which says a lot about abstract plans and their limited in use in a political world - and a lot too about our attitudes to mortality and what we have come to consider tolerable. That we close down our society to save a level of life at home that we expect many other countries to simply take in their stride, sheds light on the self interested way we see the world. Historically, the level of covid mortality in the UK would not - and will not - be seen as significant; it's not a perfect comparison, but almost as many British men died in the first two days of the Somme. How attitudes have changed!
    In many ways that's for the better - but let's not kid ourselves that there are consequences. So far lockdown has cost around 600 billion pounds - that six hundred thousand million pounds - it's four times the annual budget of the NHS - enough to replace every single hospital in the UK many time over... how many lives would we have saved if we had spent that money differently... These are real moral issues, but we are not capable of that debate for like rabbits in the headlights we can think of nothing but the immediacy of our situation.
    None of this should be taken to mean I am anti-lockdown or disrespectful of the loss and its real tragedy - but it is to assert that our PANIC (there's a P word) has cost us dearly and especially so in our ability to objectively reason and see beyond our noses.

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    1. It would be interesting to know how 600 billion is calculated - if it is like GDP and leaves out anything that isn't done for money (like unpaid care work, and volunteer work), then it takes no account of any compensating (or offsetting) rise in other values.

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  17. What a year 2020 was. So much heartache due to isolation for people who really need social time. I think that it's been hardest for the elderly, my father and your father included.

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  18. The other 2 Ps that contributed are Prosperity - where the rich got richer because of Covid and Poverty - where the poor got poorer. Oh Yes! 3rd is Physicians!

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  19. The Pre-planning Award goes to my husband, he actually had a plan in place(for his workplace and on the homefront) in case of Pandemic. I never saw or expected that anything like this could ever happen, but he knew it was only a matter of time when he started putting a plan in place 5 years ago.

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  20. There had been a group for the purpose of rapid response to an outbreak in place in the US government. The group was formed following the ebola threat. That group was dismantled as the Orange Buffoon noted he "did not like watching people sit around doing nothing". There have been a few in my family and circle of friends that have had covid. Months later brain fog seems to be present on and off for our 20 year old granddaughter. Smell and taste are still missing for our 17 year old grandson. Others have energy levels reduced to varying degrees. For youngsters of school age who were accustomed to attending schools the isolation was a difficult challenge. Our oldest grandson was being pursued by smaller colleges for lacrosse scholarship. Those opportunities disappeared as colleges were forced to cut programs. There will be unseen scars from this pandemic that will last into the next generation. namaste, janice xx

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