The great equalizer

How many times have I heard and read that COVID-19 is THE great equalizer.  I’ve repeatedly heard this not just from politicians but also from, of all people, news readers and anchors of radio and TV programs.  I expected the latter to know much better than the former — except one famous news reader who adroitly dabbled in politics, captured the second highest post of the land, came out soiled all over but is so nauseatingly self-righteous and still has the gall to project himself immaculate.

ctto: Queuing for relief goods after Ondoy

This is not the first time though that a hazard has been called great equalizer.  I heard it first in 1991 when it was associated with Mount Pinatubo eruption and the resultant more destructive yearly onslaught of lahar.  Then, it was almost in everyone’s mouth in September 2009 when Typhoon Ondoy (Tropical Cyclone Ketsana) combined with enhanced southwest monsoon to inundate Metro Manila and 23 provinces in record-breaking floods.  In November 2013, it was again the buzzword when Typhoon Yolanda (Tropical Cyclone Haiyan) hit Tacloban and surrounding nearby provinces.   It was one of the most, if not the most, powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded and the deadliest in the country, killing more than 6,000.

I will not fault anyone if they will fall for this fallacy the first time they’ve heard it.  But, I will not be as pardoning if they will repeatedly take this hook, line and sinker without having second thoughts after seeing contrary observable evidences.  The recently captured long queues of daily wage earners in the various quarantine check points in the Metro should have made everyone doubt the veracity of this claim; these are irrefutable evidence against this erroneous belief.

ctto: Resourcefulness to escape

 For people, like this old man, who are assured of their salaries and wages, no convincing is needed to make them stay at home.  A number, in fact, were just too happy to submit as this will give them respite from the daily grind and anxiety of their works.  But not all can acquiesce to the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ). 

Those who are unsure where to get their next food on their tables will certainly insist in going out to eke out a living.  Even if they want to, they cannot just stay at home. This is a no-win situation for them — they face either the devil or the deep blue sea — so to speak.  They simply have to be out to scour for food for their families. 

It should be noted too that even in ordinary times, these people can hardly put decent and healthy meals on their tables. 

ctto: A year after Yolanda

So, is COVID-19 THE great equalizer?  Obviously, it is not.  This situation, like previous emergencies, hazards and disasters, only further highlighted the great divide between the rich and the poor.  While the middle class and the elite can stay at home and can still indulge in some luxuries, the poor cannot. 

In fact, as events now unfold, the poor have been further disadvantaged as they become the favourite whipping boys, the escape goats, in the current efforts to control the spread of the virus.  Over and above previous class-based biases, they now come to personify disobedience and hard-headedness in our government’s war against COVID-19.    

Unwittingly, the government contributed a lot to the development of this perception.  When the Duterte administration targeted the poorest of the poor as the beneficiaries of its Social Amelioration Program (SAP), it did not only put a wedge between poorest and the other poor but also with the middle class, especially ones who were deprived of their sources of income after the imposition of the ECQ.   In times of crisis, the poor and a bigger section of the middle class are normally natural allies.

ctto:  A scene you'll never see in Forbes Park

and nearby Dasmarinas Village

The initial antagonism among the middle class towards the poor was reinforced further as initial recipients of the government amelioration program were caught gambling, drinking and even buying drugs not long after receiving their money.    These however are just a minority and were not the norm.   It was blown out of proportion by the “jealous” and “selfish” section of the middle class, who were disqualified to receive the first wave of amelioration assistance, through their social media posts.  The “unthinking” section of established media, in turn, took them as slant to sell their news stories.

 Although it was not by designed, may be, the bickering among the poor and the not-so-poor middle class has enabled the government to shift public focus away from its sloppy implementation of the ECQ.  It can always point to the poor who insist in going out as the culprit for the continued rise in the number of Filipinos getting infected.

ctto: Different story if these are Ducatis,

Harleys, BMWs and the like.

Many, however, failed to realize that in COVID-19, as in other emergency and disaster situations, the response actions are highly dependent on the preparedness and prevention and mitigation interventions that have to be undertaken before it was declared a pandemic.  True, the government did not have the luxury of time to prepare.  But this is government’s own creation as it failed to read correctly the situation.  This was the reason for the lost of much needed time to undertake even just the most basic preparedness and prevention and mitigation measures.  These, in turn, are the take-offs and building blocks of better response actions.

ctto:  Life goes on.

Early and correct reading of the situation could have accorded the government the much needed time to plan the ECQ as one of the prevention and mitigation measures.  It could have done so with other prevention and mitigation measures, like identification and equipping hospitals and isolation areas to be used, the procurement of PPEs, face masks and testing kits, etc.  The government could have also used this to undertake preparedness measures like systematic and massive information dissemination, training and capacitating not only health care professionals but, more importantly, the real front liners at the grassroots, the barangay governments that will implement equally important response actions outside from those to be undertaken by the health professionals.     

          Given this backdrop, COVID-19 will never be THE great equalizer. There will never be equalizers, much less great, in highly stratified societies, like the Philippines.  The poor will always be the whipping and weeping boys. (30)

Old man rider

It was some kind of a death wish.  “Passing on at sixty” (https://raulgalangsarmiento.blogspot.com/2014/04/passing-on-at-sixty.html) was written not long after my father died.  After nearly seven (7) years of looking after my parents — their full-time caregiver — I came to realize that living too long isn’t at all that lovely; it’s mawkishly worthless.  In fact, at that time, I think you’re a masochist to entertain such an idea.

ctto: No one can doubt KTM Adventure

off-road capability.

In those years, my mom was suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease and in her last two years was bed-ridden after she broke her pelvis when she accidentally slipped while vacationing in my sister’s house.  Imagine, aside from being her son, I was sometimes her father, Rufo; older brother, Rustico; and, in rare instances, her former municipal councilor younger brother, Roberto.  Aside from Alzheimer’s, she was also diabetic.

          My father though was lucid until the day he died; seven months after my mother’s death and a two-week battle against stroke-induced mild ruptured brain aneurysm.  But in those seven years, he was practically shackled by arthritis.  He sometimes can’t almost rise from his bed for simple basic natural functions, like going to the toilet to pee.  I’d seen how he agonized just to get out of his bed to sit at his favorite spot in their house’s veranda whenever his infirmity strikes.

This was the backdrop that prompted that blog.  I was, at the same time, at a crossroad, too.  My wife and the elder of my two daughters wanted me to retire instead re-entering the workforce at 54 years old.  This thought bothered me no end:  What if I live the ripe age of 91 years old, as my parents did, afflicted and burdened by the same infirmities and disorders and, most importantly, financially dependent on my wife and daughters.  How can I then enjoy and live my life to the fullest?

ctto: RE Himalayan: British brute 

made in India

A couple of months back, I just turned sixty.  No, I am not retired and still very much alive.  I’m earning my own keeps as a government employee.  My take home pay is less than half of what my wife and daughters each received but this accorded me to indulge in simple luxuries.  I can even pick the tab whenever my wife and I go out for our favorite hot brews during our off-days.   

Enter this life in the midst of COVID-19.  (I am suddenly reminded that I have yet to read in full Colombian Nobel prize winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel “Love in the Time of Cholera”.)  And there's the posts of millennials in social media that said “life is short”.

This led me to another blog I wrote, “Bucket list” (https://raulgalangsarmiento.blogspot.com/2016/10/bucket-list.html).   Life is now indeed short for this old man.  And rightfully, I should make the most out of it, i.e., if ever I’ll come out victorious from COVID-19.

That blog reminded me how can I make the most out of this life.  I certainly don’t entertain retirement, yet.  In fact, if I can pursue one of my bucket lists, I can be more productive in my job and the government will be more assured that it won’t be shortchanged because of my age.  Not only that, I can, at the same time, simultaneously pursue other late-life interests that will further sweeten my life. 

ctto:  Yamaha Serow 250 has all the 

specs I need. 

Coming up second in my hastily prepared lists is a 250-cc enduro motorcycle — also known, if I am correct, as dual sport or adventure bike.  My preference then is either a Kawasaki or a Yamaha.  That still stays.  The egoist in me, though, would love to have a 450-cc KTM enduro or even settle for a 500-cc Royal Enfield Classic Chrome.  I would today opt for a KTM 390 Adventure or Royal Enfield Himalayan.  Any of the two will perfectly fit in my plans, albeit prevent me from using some of my meager financial resources to pursue other interests.

An enduro bike would fit to a Tee the job I now have at the education department.  This bike would be handy in monitoring schools struck by hazards as the designated Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Coordinator.  I can easily visit flooded schools by taking alternative routes which my current ride, a compact SUV, cannot.  Or, effortlessly trek winding roads to be at the schools of our Ayta brothers and sisters, which were hit hardest by a recent tremblor.

 Moreover, an enduro bike would be my ideal La Poderosa — the 500-cc Norton motorcycle that medical student, Ernesto “Che” Guevara and his biochemist buddy, Alberto Granado, used for their (hedonist) continental trek that unintentionally exposed them to the injustices perpetrated against indigenous peasants and to the pervasive poverty in rural South America — to photo-document the socio-economic changes in rural Pampanga.  Unlike Che, this old man will never be radicalized by the things he’ll see but this though will either validate or quash his notions when he was a radical young social activist.

ctto:  Kawasaki KLX 230 has the specs
               and within my budget

        Given this perspective, KTM 390 Adventure or a Royal Enfield Himalayan, or, even a BMW G 310 GS, will therefore never fit my purpose.  A European adventure bike will certainly feed my ego but it can never outperform the more reliable and better adapted Japanese enduro.  The former would also cost at least  a hundred grand more that can be used to buy a decent DSLR camera for my photo-documentation.

The COVID-19 menace has certainly steeled my resolve to pursue these late-life wishes.   Wishes that would not only sweeten my few remaining years on earth but would certainly make life more exciting. A well-spent life it would be indeed!

So, watch out for the Old Man Rider with a camera out there in rural Pampanga after we successfully stabilized the COVID-19 situation.  The Old Man Rider will certainly be in the midst of preparedness and prevention and mitigation initiatives of Capampangan schools to completely tame the virus.  (30)