‘Batten down the hatches’!

By Rajitha Ratwatte

fromoutsidethepearl@gmail.com

OK, so we have an officially acknowledged wave of the virus sweeping though the Pearl! We in Aotearoa went through this albeit under slightly different circumstances. We have much less people, we live in much less crowded conditions, our controls and tracing apps etc. are better but the basic rules for overcoming this are much the same.

Listen only to the medical professionals. Do not listen to politicians and their lackeys and others with agendas trying to capitalize on the situation. Make sure you have access to a qualified, credible epidemiologist who is independent of the Government. In fact, I know some in the Pearl and should anyone need to establish contact, I can arrange if you ask me via E mail, with their agreement of course.

In Aotearoa we had Dr. Bloomfield who is now treated as a national hero, because he stood on the podium next to the Prime Minister and expressed his views fearlessly and answered questions directed at him by journalists at the daily press conferences. Dr. Bloomfield kept us focussed and kept us doing the right thing. If the answers and directives came only from a politician, they may not have been followed with the diligence shown by the people of Aotearoa. The politicians of Aotearoa don’t think of themselves akin to the Gods’, in fact the opposite is the established opinion! And the same goes for our Doctors.

Do what you are advised to do in the airline safety messages when it comes to deploying the safety masks. YOU first and then those around you! Secure your supply lines. Make sure only one person from your family goes shopping, make them wear a mask and disinfect thoroughly when they come back. Fortunately, all it takes is hand sanitizer and water in this case. If there is no contact tracing app available in the Pearl, keep a clear record with dates and times of the places you visited and any people you met.

Stay at home and do not encourage visitors. Stick to the rules, in fact follow them to the letter. Now these are things that we Lankans are not used to doing! All rules are flexible noh and machang, anything can be fixed noh?! How to wait without a drink with so and so? PEOPLE get out of this mode! This is a life and death situation both literarily and metaphorically. You could actually die and if you handle this wrong the Pearl could plunge into economic depths that have never been imagined.

Above all else if you are sick, stay at home and get tested! There is no stigma attached to the disease but if you are the perpetrator of the crime of spreading an epidemic, you will have to live with that record for the rest of your life.

Not to mention how and all powerful, dictatoresque (another new word?!) ruler will react in such circumstances. This could actually be a blessing in disguise. Here is the chance to bring discipline and respect for the rule of law, back into society. Tell them that they will literarily die in droves if they do not stick to the rules! Fill the airwaves (and you have SO many of them controlled by the Government) with facts and figures of what Corona does and the way people die. Use terror in another form to ensure a positive reaction and save the nation.

We will not starve, not in the Pearl. Most of us have a jack fruit tree, a bread fruit tree or some sort of edible foliage in our gardens. Eating some of this rather than the processed food that we love so much, for an extended period of time, will do no harm at all. In fact, tend to that foliage while you are at it! You probably haven’t looked at it or fertilized it since the days of the Srimavo Bandaranaike government, if you have lived that long! Eating rice and a fresh mallung (plenty of recipes available on the internet) for a meal is very healthy, especially if the leaves for the mallung comes from your garden. Imagine organic and FREE besides, it is time our younger generation of males (and females?) learnt to scrape a coconut!

Above all do not panic. Do not listen to rumours or pass them on. Just look after your own situation and make sure you don’t break any rules. If everyone does this the situation remains under control. This is how we did it in Aotearoa. Of course, we did have the idiots, but they got no publicity and they really felt the full weight of the law!

This is a game of patience, self-discipline and showing the virus that we humans are really the most superior life form on this earth. We will not succumb to a miniscule germ. YES, livelihoods, income streams and businesses may go under. All those can be recovered. Ask any major billionaire how many times he was declared bankrupt on the road to his billions.

Nothing matters more now, than your health and decimation of this virus. Things will get worse before they get better but do something about what you can do and don’t worry about things beyond your control. Look after your own patch, obey the rules and above all be KIND to each other, O people of the pearl.

The Land of Lanka is a thrice blessed land and may the blessings of the triple gem, all the devas and the God’s you believe in be with you!