Going home.
It was at 5 am precisely that I was jolted out of a beautiful slumber by a large crash. The noise, made louder by the quietness of the night, came from somebody dumping a large amount of glass bottles in a nearby trash container. And the first thought in my sleep groggy mind was “we’re back to normal”.To many, it seems that Covid19 is over, even as to many others it seems like it was just a bad dream. Facemasks are now in fashion only if you’re in a shop, or queueing at the pharmacy.
Most people, going about their post Covid19 restrictive period business seem to be oblivious to the fact that the corona virus is still at large, even ravaging countries as WHO declare the Americas as the hotspot of the outbreak with Brazil registering its highest death rate in the last days.
Apart from war torn countries like the Yemen, where the UN Refugee Agency has declared that the situation has been pushed beyond breaking point even as they only received 15% of the needed relief funding.
Presumably, every country is rather stretched and so looking after itself first and foremost. We all know the adage “charity begins at home”.
Except that home is not just Balluta in my case. Or Malta for that matter. Covid19 showed us that our home is Earth. When ET stated “ET go home”, about this time 38 years ago, the adorable alien meant leaving Earth to go to his planet.
So as we prepare for ‘normal life’ to return, and the EU opens up its skies and borders in the coming weeks, it is well to remember that our home, Earth, is not yet out of the Covid19 woods, that a jab to fight this virus is still thought to be eighteen months away, and that however our lives are being impacted, there are so many other millions far worse off than us, who need help, not only by remembering them in our prayers, but by remembering to share a little from our good fortune.
As we still need to remain cognisant of the virus, continue to practice social distancing and good hygiene and not letting off relief fireworks yet.
Let us hope Malta continues to register nil new Covid19 cases. As we also hope that the frustration release of many at beaches or bars will not spike again these figures.
And the crashing of glass bottle disposal from said bars ‘returning to normal’ business would ideally also move their noisy crash activity to a more ‘normal’ hour … shall we say 8 am?