From Jenna Orkin New York City The other day, a doctor wrote a riveting account on Facebook of work in the emergency room at his hospital; the chaos of doctors from every specialty being roped in to deal with this one clear and present danger . After the doctor finally gets to sleep, he is awakened by a sudden clanging. He starts in terror. Is there a fire? A code blue? But it is only the seven o'clock tribute of the city — the country, the world— to its medical professionals. Thank you! thank you! the banging pots and pans proclaim. The doctor is relieved. He was having an attack of PTSD. Once more, he lies down. But the subtext of his post is, "Thank you... but please let us sleep." And it lays bare the true message of the nightly ritual. "We've lived through another day!" cry the dissonant pots and pans. "We may not be able to go out but we will be heard!"
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Jenna Orkin New York City Five Pluses to Covid-19 (Besides the One About Keeping Us From Further Effing Up the Planet) 1. There aren't so many robocalls. Maybe the person or device deploying them went out of business. (Not sure what this is but it looks celebratory.) 2. If you don't want to go out, you have an excuse! You can even feel virtuous. 3. Ditto for not wanting to attend a particular meeting or talk to a particular person, or a thousand other things devoutly to be avoided. 4. A whole new genre of video has been born in which people show how they stay in shape within the confines of a throw-rug. 5. Videos like this one: Maskmaker, maskmaker, make me a mask. There are times when in spite of everything, you have to love the human race.
Nina New York I'm lucky (knock on the wood!) enough to be able to work from home for now.. Not sure how long it will be possible to maintain, but hopeful it will last at least a little bit more .. There are so many people who could not keep their positions - it is so excruciatingly sad, unexpected and, frankly speaking, not sure what could be done in their position.. But the situation is the same in Moscow and some other countries. My family is in my grandmother's house, dacha. They are together and that warms my heart! One of my friends who is now in Helsinki says there is no lock down, she and the kids are able to go to the playground and even nursery. A friend in Zurich is working from home with his family. Friends in London are working from home too, but they are experiencing some food delivery problems. However still manageable to get the food and make some walks with their toddler to secluded areas.
Jenna Orkin New York City In the era known as BC (Before Corona) it used to be a nuisance to have to stay home and wait for the plumber. You would chafe about how they'd given you a window of four hours during which you couldn't get anything done outside the apartment. What chutzpah! Who does business like that?! "I'll be there between one and five?" Answer: Pretty much all the utilities. Now it wouldn't matter. "Come any time," you could say. One hour is like the next, as is a day or a week or... But now it wouldn't help; no workman will come. Barring emergencies, you're on your own. What's an emergency? In my friend's building, they spell it out: Fire or flood. Stopped up toilet? Mouse? Rat? Meh. I love my dentist. Is he still my dentist? BC, I worried he might retire, even though his is the kind of vocation that doesn't fade. Now I have the feeling that if life ever goes back to "norm
Mark Robinowitz Eugene, Oregon Three months before 9/11 the feds did a wargame called Dark Winter that anticipated a pandemic, although with smallpox (much worse than coronavirus). Their scenario modeling predicted the country would fall apart quickly. It was part of the motive for creating "Homeland." Coronavirus has had more impact on energy use and carbon pollution than climate activism. In 2008, David Holmgren, co-originator of permaculture, said recession did more to lower emissions than anything else. www.futurescenarios.org The best case coronavirus pandemic scenario is not just keeping the piles of corpses as small as possible, but that the aftermath will stimulate a societal immune response for real resilience, sincere sustainabillity, compassionate civilization. The pandemic is a global exercise highlighting the wonderful and the hideous: international scientific cooperation and petty politics, asperations of resilience and lack there