A YEAR of the Covid-19 pandemic seems to be an eternity for most of us. Imagine being told for a year to “stay home, stay safe, wear masks, wash hands, keep distance.”
It’s Year 2.0, and as other countries have rolled out vaccines to their people, here tarpaulins are rolled out. Not the election-hype thing, but tarpaulins with the same message. But here in Davao, the tarpaulins had added a line: “Repeat.”
But repeat is not the message the people we want now. Not when officials tasked to procure vaccines and ensure health measures and well-being repeat the same message that we have been doing since the start.
Those calls for self-regulation, restrictions in doing business, warnings of fines have numbed most of us. We become exasperated as influential people are themselves breaching these protocols, or are distracted with 2022 or focused on containing critics with trumped-up charges rather than containing the pandemic.
People want resolutions. Like when are vaccines going to be rolled out in volumes for the frontliners and working class? When will officials finally figure out sound plans beyond forming bubbles and stay-at-home warnings to help people and businesses back on their feet? When can schools re-open as online school has been stressful?
What people want now is inspiration, solutions, a way forward. It’s a sign that people are tired of the Monday episode where everything, every rant is in a loop.
We have seen more inspiring actions in the past year from somewhere else. From local governments who have enabled their constituents to survive the pandemic. From small acts of citizens and some celebrities providing food and support to communities and frontliners.
Somehow, this seems to lead us to 2022. Crisis make or unmake leaders, and this pandemic has made and unmade our minds on some things. Like seeing how one year has been wasted, in terms of work, lives, and economy. And make us that we need leadership that gives people hope, alternatives, and action.